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Background: Elevated serum uric acid is crucial in the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory diseases. However, its impact on chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) recurrence risk is unknown. This study investigates the association between elevated serum uric acid and the risk of CRS recurrence. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 1004 CRS patients (including 638 males and 366 females) who received functional endoscopic sinus surgery. All patients were followed up for more than 2 years, and categorized into subgroups based on phenotype, gender, and postoperative recurrence. Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the associations between serum uric acid and the risk of CRS recurrence. Results: After categorization, 104 males had hyperuricemia, and 54 females presented hyperuricemia. The rate of recurrent CRS in the hyperuricemia group was significantly higher compared to the non-hyperuricemia group in both males and females (P< 0.05). In both male and female patients, the rate of hyperuricemia and uric acid levels were elevated in the recurrent CRS group in comparison with the non-recurrent CRS group (P< 0.05). Unadjusted and adjusted Cox regression analysis demonstrated that serum uric acid was an independent risk factor for CRS recurrence (P< 0.05). The receiver operator characteristic curve showed that serum uric acid was a potential biomarker for predicting the recurrence of CRS and its phenotypes in both genders (P< 0.05). Conclusion: There is a close relationship between elevated serum uric acid and the recurrence risk of CRS and its phenotypes, suggesting that serum uric acid may be a novel biomarker for predicting recurrent CRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene/silicon (Si) heterojunction photodetectors are widely studied in detecting of optical signals from near-infrared to visible light. However, the performance of graphene/Si photodetectors is limited by defects created in the growth process and surface recombination at the interface. Herein, a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is introduced to directly grow graphene nanowalls (GNWs) at a low power of 300 W, which can effectively improve the growth rate and reduce defects. Moreover, hafnium oxide (HfO2) with thicknesses ranging from 1 to 5 nm grown by atomic layer deposition has been employed as an interfacial layer for the GNWs/Si heterojunction photodetector. It is shown that the high-k dielectric layer of HfO2 acts as an electron-blocking and hole transport layer, which minimizes the recombination and reduces the dark current. At an optimized thickness of 3 nm HfO2, a low dark current of 3.85 × 10−10, with a responsivity of 0.19 AW−1, a specific detectivity of 1.38 × 1012 as well as an external quantum efficiency of 47.1% at zero bias, can be obtained for the fabricated GNWs/HfO2/Si photodetector. This work demonstrates a universal strategy to fabricate high-performance graphene/Si photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the utilization rate of herbicides and reduce their environmental residues, it is urgent to develop a simple and low‐cost method to prepare slow‐release pesticides. In this study, a biochar (280CPFe) with a high surface area and rich oxygen‐containing functional groups was synthesized by low temperature (280°C) boiling strategy, which was used as a carrier to prepare pH‐responsive slow‐release herbicide. The obtained biochar has a high adsorption capacity of 153.59 mg·g−1 for quinclorac (QNC). The release rates of QNC‐280CPFe are 21%, 56%, and 90% at the initial pH of 3, 5, and 11, respectively. The controlled release behavior of QNC‐280CPFe is related to its adsorption mechanism, in which the pore filling and functional group adsorption are mainly responsible for the adsorption of QNC on 280CPFe. Compared with QNC alone, QNC‐280CPFe slow‐release herbicide has a good control effect on Barnyard grass but does not affect the normal growth of rice. Therefore, this study provides a simple, low‐cost cost, and environmentally friendly biochar carrier for preparing slow‐release herbicide, improving its utilization rate and reducing its environmental pollution risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last decades have witnessed the rapid development of ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors in diversity of applications. The III-nitride semiconductor and metal halide perovskite have both performed promising UV-sensing optoelectronic properties. However, they are still suffering from either the high temperature epitaxial-growth or low photocurrent generated in UV range. In this work, we demonstrate an innovative MAPbCl 3 /GaN particle hybrid device with all-solution-processed deposition methods. Comparing to the control MAPbCl 3 photoconductors, the photo-sensing ability of the hybrid device with the optimal concentration of GaN particles is more than one order of magnitude enhanced, and report a responsivity of 86 mA W -1 , a detectivity of 3.1 × 10 11 Jones and a rise/fall time of 1.1/10.7 ms at 360 nm. The photocurrent increment could be attributed to the enhanced UV absorption of GaN particles and facilitated charge separation and photoconductive gain at MAPbCl 3 /GaN heterojunction. This work paves a pathway towards the large-scale low-cost UV photodetectors in versatile applications., (© 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.)