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Wei-Yi Ye,1,2 Jia Li,2 Xiang Li,2 Xue-Zhi Yang,2 Yi-Yun Weng,2 Wei-Wei Xiang,3 Ou Zhang,2 Bo-Xi Ke,4,* Xu Zhang2,* 1Shaoxing People’s Hospital (Shaoxing Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine), Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Taizhou Central Hospital (Taizhou University Hospital), Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xu ZhangDepartment of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 577 5557 9372Fax +86 577 5557 9318Email 1102805261@qq.comBo-Xi KeTaizhou Central Hospital (Taizhou University Hospital), Zhejiang 318000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 139 5769 8220Email keboxi@163.comPurpose: Red blood cell (RBC) distribution width (RDW) is known to reflect the heterogeneity of RBC volume, which may be associated with cardiovascular events or mortality after myocardial infarction. However, the association between RDW and stroke, especially regarding endpoints such as death, remains ambiguous. This study aimed to explore the prognostic value of RDW and its effect on mortality among patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) undergoing intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) after one year.Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients with AIS treated with IVT between January 2016 and March 2018. We grouped the patients according to modified ranking scale (MRS) scores as follows:0– 2, favorable functional outcome group; and 3– 6, unfavorable functional outcome. Predictors were determined using multivariate logistic regression (MVLR). The area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the predictive capability of variables. Furthermore, the Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess the contribution of risk factors to the outcome of death at one year later.Results: MVLR analysis showed that RDW (odds ratio [OR], 1.179; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.900– 1.545; p = 0.232) was not an independent predictor of unfavorable functional outcome, but it (OR 1.371; 95% CI 1.109– 1.696; p = 0.004) was an independent biomarker for all-cause mortality. The optimal RDW cut-off value to predict mortality was 14.65% (sensitivity: 42%, specificity: 88.3%, AUC: 0.649, p < 0.001). Furthermore, higher RDW (hazard ratio, 2.860; 95% CI, 1.724– 4.745; p < 0.001) indicated a greater risk of death.Conclusion: The baseline RDW is a potential predictor of mortality in patients with AIS undergoing IVT, but RDW might not be associated with worse survival function among stroke survivors, which will help us to improve treatments and the management of patients with AIS.Keywords: red blood cells, death, inflammatory, cerebrovascular accident, fibrinolytic therapy, predictor

Mechanical damage or infection to the endometrium can lead to the formation of adhesions in the uterine cavity, which may result in reduced reproductive outcome and/or pregnancy complications. The prognosis of this disease is poor due to few effective treatments and the complex environment of endometrium. Heparin-Poloxamer Hydrogel (HP hydrogel) is a nontoxic and biodegradable biomaterial, which has been commonly used as a sustained-release delivery system. In this study, we applied a mini-endometrial curette to scrape the endometrium of rats to mimic the process of curettage in patients. After the establishment of IUA model in rats, we injected the thermo-sensitive hydrogel(E2-HP hydrogel) into the injured uterine cavity and evaluated the therapeutic effect of E2-HP hydrogel on the recovery of IUA. Our results showed that E2-HP hydrogel can significantly facilitate the regeneration of injured endometrium along with inhibiting the cell apoptosis in IUA model. Furthermore, we revealed that E2-HP hydrogel on the recovery of IUA was closely associated with the upregulation of kisspeptin through activating the ERK1/2 and MAPKs p38 pathways. In conclusion, E2-HP hydrogel can effectively transfer E2 into the injured endometrium and it can be considered as a promising therapeutic method for the women with intrauterine adhesions.

In parallel microplasma etching system, microplasmas are generated in the hollow pyramidal tips array and extracted through the nano-apertures at the tips for maskless locally etching. In this paper, SiO2 hollow pyramidal tips array and nano-apertures of 50~200nm diameters at the tips are successfully fabricated using a low temperature nonuniform thermal oxidation and selective wet etching on a silicon wafer with high efficiency and low cost. Key issues such as the factors influencing the tip shape and quality, nonuniform oxidation phenomenon, releasing of hollow tips array with high width-thickness ratio (hollow pyramidal tip base width/sidewall thickness) and nano-aperture etching are presented and analyzed in detail. The results of this paper may lay a good foundation for ongoing experiments of parallel microplasma maskless etching.

For the application of parallel microplasma etching, cantilever arrays with nano-aperture hollow pyramid tips have been successfully fabricated. The SiO"2 cantilever arrays and hollow tips are formed by thermal oxidation on a Si (100) wafer with pyramid cavities. Due to the stress-dependent nonuniform oxidation, the oxide thickness is about 400nm at the tip apexes which is much thinner than the [email protected] thick sidewalls. Based on these nonuniform oxide hollow tips, nano-apertures of 50-200nm in diameter are obtained at the apexes after the following 1:10 water-diluted HF isotropic etching. The base widths of the hollow tips are designed to be 50 and [email protected] with the final sidewall thickness of only 600nm. Consequently, the width-thickness ratio (hollow pyramid tip base width/sidewall thickness) is up to 150:1. Some improvements are made in the fabrication process and these fragile tips are obtained with a product yield of more than 90%. Then, cantilever arrays with hollow tips are released consistently and the bending behavior is discussed. In addition, preliminary experiments and simulations of microplasma generation and extraction confirm the application feasibility of this structure in parallel microplasma etching.