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Summary: Immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) is a rare and life‐threatening haematological condition. Initial treatment involves plasma exchange (PLEX), corticosteroids, caplacizumab and rituximab. In relapsed and refractory cases despite initial treatments, further immune‐modulating therapy includes the proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib. Evidence for bortezomib in this setting is limited to case reports and case series. We report our experience and perform a systematic review of the literature. We identified 21 publications with 28 unique patients in addition to our cohort of eight patients treated with bortezomib. The median age of patients was 44 years (IQR: 27–53) and 69% female. They were usually in an initial, refractory presentation of iTTP where they had received PLEX, corticosteroids, rituximab and another line of therapy. After bortezomib administration, 72% of patients had a complete response, with 85% maintaining a durable response without relapse at the last follow‐up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The detection sensitivity, stability, and linear range of Au using flame atomic fluorescence spectrometry (FAFS) is comparable to the method of inductivity coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). When Au concentration is below 0.5ng/g, it is difficult to accurately determine Au if the interference elements in FAFS are not separated and eliminated. OBJECTIVES To optimize the conditions during determination of trace Au by FAFS method. METHODS The optimized conditions for trace Au detection using FAFS were provided based on the conventional Au separation and enrichment method of polyurethane foam plastics (PUFP). Using the thiourea (3.0g/L) and HCl (1%) as desorption solution can effectively eliminate the Au memory effect after separation by PUFP with low Au background value (≤ 0.25ng/g), and 5μg/mL of Fe3+ solution added into Au standard solutions was used to eliminate the interference during Au detection using FAFS. RESULTS The method was used to analyze national standard materials GBW07805, GBW07242, GBW07244a, GBW07245a and GBW07247, which yielded the relative error (RE) and relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 4.7% and 23.2%, respectively. The Au contents for 90 primary halo samples and 4 monitor samples were analyzed simultaneously using FAFS and ICP-MS. Results showed that no significant differences existed between the two methods with F=1.23 and the correlation coefficient of 1.01, which further proved the accuracy and reliability of FAFS. CONCLUSIONS FAFS is simple, convenient, fast and practical. Method detection limit of Au is as low as 0.08ng/g, and the linear range (0.08-500ng/g) is three orders of magnitude.

This study utilized a conventional solid-state reaction method to prepare ZnO–Bi2O3–Sb2O3–Co3O4–Mn3O4–Nb2O5 varistors sintered at low temperatures of 860 °C–880 °C. The effects of the different amounts of SiO2 and SiO2-B2O3 co-doping on the microstructure and varistor properties were investigated. The nonlinearity coefficient (α) increased from 51 for the sample without adding SiO2 to 66 for the sample with 1.0wt% SiO2, and the breakdown voltage increased from 834 to 1260 V/mm. However, with excess SiO2 addition, the α value gradually decreased from 66 for the sample with 1 wt% SiO2 to 52 for the sample with 2.0 wt% SiO2, while the breakdown voltage continued to increase. Co-doping SiO2–B2O3 improves liquid phase sintering due to the relatively low melting point of SiO2–B2O3–Bi2O3 additives. The α value increased from 66 for the sample without adding B2O3 to 83 for the sample with 2.0 wt% B2O3, while the breakdown voltage decreased from 1260 to 1120 V/mm. In comparison to higher temperature alternatives, the lower sintering temperatures (860 °C–880 °C) used in this study result in lower energy consumption during the manufacturing process. Because of their favorable cost-energy efficiency ratio, the SiO2–B2O3 co-doped ZnO–Bi2O3 varistors emerge as promising candidates for large-scale production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilized a conventional solid-state reaction method to sinter Bi2O3-Sb2O3-Co3O4-Mn3O4-Nb2O5 zinc oxide varistors at low temperatures of 860–880 °C. The pyrochlore phase occurs at temperatures ranging from 700 to 900 °C, influencing densification kinetics. The liquid-phase former, Bi2O3, is consumed and reacts to form the pyrochlore secondary phase Zn2Bi3Sb3O14, which inhibits the densification at low temperatures. Bi2O3 and Sb2O3 were pre-calcined at 550 °C to reduce secondary phase Zn 2 Bi 3 Sb 3 O 14 formation and Bi2O3 consumption in this study. It was observed that pre-calcination of Bi2O3 and Sb2O3 at 550 °C successfully reduced the formation of the secondary phase Zn2Bi3Sb3O14, lowered the densification temperature of the ZnO-Bi2O3 varistor and improved its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater from mining enterprises contains a variety of heavy metals, and therefore requires treatment before discharge to render it non-toxic. After treatment by chemical precipitation, the content of metal is extremely low but has a large amount of salt introduced, which increases the difficulty of metal analysis in wastewater. A method for enrichment of trace elements from high salinity wastewater is described in this paper. Pb, Cd, Cu and Ag were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) after separating and enriching with sulfhydryl cotton. Optimization experiment results showed that sulthydryl cotton could effectively separate a large number of sulfate ions and sodium ions, and could obviously enrich trace elements in the actual samples. The recovery rates of sulfate ion and sodium ion were all less than 0.05%, and the recovery rates of test target elements were at the rate of 88.7%-113.0%. Moreover, the effect of pH, flow rate of solution and the concentration of hydrochloric acid were investigated. Under optimal instrument conditions, the recoveries of these elements were 95.0%-102.0% and RSDs were 3.1%-9.4%, respectively. The method is rapid and convenient, with high accuracy and good precision, and should satisfy the analysis of metallurgical wastewater.

The effects of Na+ ions addition on the crystalline phases, microstructures, and varistor characteristics of ZnO–Co3O4–Pr6O11 ceramics were investigated using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the electron probe microanalysis method (EPMA). The results indicate that the oxygen vacancies existing in Pr6O11 due to the substitution of Na+ for Pr ion could enhance the phase stability of Pr6O11, decrease the evaporation of Pr and promote the oxygen migration along the grain boundaries and oxygen ions chemisorbed at the grain boundaries. Therefore, the addition of sodium ions can effectively enhance the varistor properties of ZnO–Co3O4–Pr6O11 ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]