OBJECTIVE:We aimed to assess risk reclassification and cost-effectiveness of echocardiography for cardiovascular primary prevention in hypertension. METHODS AND RESULTS:Community hypertensive patients without cardiovascular disease (CVD) were included from the 2016-2020 China PEACE Project (n = 3243). Discriminative performance of adding echocardiographic measures to conventional clinical model was assessed. Based on mean incidence rate of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), participants were classified into low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk categories. Number needed to test (NNT) and cost of echocardiography for screening one intermediate-risk and one high-risk individual were calculated. After a median follow-up of 4.5-year, 368 participants (11.3% of the cohort) had MACE. Adding subclinical cardiac changes on echocardiography improved discriminative performance of conventional clinical model, with C-statistic increased by 0.028 (P-value = 0.003). Presence of subclinical cardiac changes led to reclassification of 18% of low-risk individuals into intermediate-risk and 4% into high-risk categories. Based on the differences in the rate of MACE between low-risk and intermediate-risk and high-risk groups, 77 (USD 3080) and 11 (USD 440) echocardiographic examinations were needed to identify one intermediate-risk and one high-risk individual respectively at the first-year follow-up. These numbers decreased to 27 (USD 1080) and 7 (USD 280) at the second-year follow-up; and further declined to 20 (USD 800) and 6 (USD 240) at the third-year follow-up. Echocardiography is cost-effective based on the monetary value of a quality-adjusted life year (USD 14 952). CONCLUSION:The results demonstrate the potential of echocardiography for risk reclassification and cost-effectiveness in the context of cardiovascular primary prevention among hypertensive individuals in China.

Pyrolysis could be one of the promising ways for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste-based char production, while the adherence environmental persistent free radicals (EPFRs) brought the risks for the wide application. Co-pyrolysis was employed as the potential way to reduce the EPFRs and improve the char quality simultaneously with the introduction of sewage sludge (SS), and the optimization reaction conditions and the relative mechanisms were proposed in this work. EPFRs in PET-based char were found to decrease from 1.07 x 10(18) - 4.84 x 10(18) spins.g(-1) to 2.17 x 10(17) - 4.90 x 10(17) spins.g(-1) , with 38.86 - 48.55% reduction at the mass ratio of 1:1 (PET:SS). The corresponding activation energy decreased by 78.83% with 30.93% higher biochar yield rate due to the synergistic effects. Co-pyrolysis facilitated the decomposition of benzoic acid and its derivatives by enhancing the cleavage of oxygen-containing functional groups and led to the binding of nitrogen with more pyrolysis intermediates, resulting in a reduction of precursors for oxygen/oxygenated-carbon centered radicals. More phenyl radicals were polymerized into carbon-centered radicals through hydride transfer and crosslinking in the mixed system. The additive of SS promoted the aromatization degree, enhanced the defect and pore structure of the biochar, and led to a 43.62-fold increase in the surface area of PET-based char at 400 degrees C. This work provides a potential approach to reduce EPFRs from the pyrolysis of plastic waste and to deal with multiple waste streams in venous industry park under the implementation of zero waste cities construction.

AbstractThe best available technology (BAT) for waste plastics relies on their components and the right technology employed, while the quality of waste plastics depends on the original plastics and the source separation processes simultaneously. In this study, the quality of waste plastics and the potential recycling processes, including recycling granulation, pyrolysis to oil, Green-RDF and incineration technology, were co-related from the economic and technical perspective. A database was established for waste plastic components, considering factors such as plastic fraction, waste composition, moisture content, and impurity rate. The corresponding environmental impacts for the typical resource processes were assessed by life cycle analysis (LCA) and cost–benefit analysis combined. It was found that around 23% ± 1% of waste plastics in residual waste had the resource potential if the stricter classification criteria of plastic wastes were adopted, such as the components, moisture content less than 5% or 8% and impurity rate less than 8%. Pyrolysis to oil had the best environmental benefits in GWP100, reaching -1,683.51 kg CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq), determined as the best method for high-value plastics, and incineration depicted poor environmental benefits for low-value plastics. The net income of recycling granulation for middle-value waste plastics would achieve 1383 ± 35 yuan/ton through cost–benefit analysis, which represented the optimal economic benefits. CO2 emissions for waste plastics could be mitigated around 29.74% by matching BATs compared to the current management system, which would provide policymakers with proper recommendations in terms of the adaptability of waste plastic sources and technologies.

With the aggravation of environmental problems, countries are more and more aware of the importance of protecting the environment. In 2020, China proposed the goal of “double carbon”. As the main carbon emission industry, the energy industry will become the main battlefield. Therefore, whether the power industry can achieve low-carbon electricity and promote the accommodation of new energy will be the key to achieving carbon neutrality. Under the new background, power grid dispatching should not only consider a single economic benefit, which will lead to a large number of wind and solar curtailments, but also take into account environmental benefits and reduce CO 2 emissions. In this paper, an optimal dispatching model of an Integrated Energy System(IES) is established, and CCS is added to CHP units to capture CO 2 produced by CHP and send it to P2G. Aiming at the total cost optimization, carbon trading mechanism, wind curtailment cost, and solar curtailment cost are added in the model to ensure the environmental benefits in operation.

A physics-based model for the tunneling current of vertical tunneling field transistors (TFET) is proposed. In part I, the expression of $\varphi _{\text {1D}}{(}\textit {x}{)}$ is derived from the multi-branch general solutions of Poisson’s equation. The model’s results are verified with TCAD simulation for transistors with different materials, device geometries, and biases. In this article, a surface potential model is validated at different device regions which include channel and drain. Based on the above two electric potential models, Kane’s tunneling formula is utilized for the calculation of band-to-band tunneling current. The proposed current model is valid for all transistors’ operating regions. The quantum effect on the band-structure parameters is taken into account in the modeling of InAs vertical TFET. It is shown that the channel thickness needs to be optimized to achieve the highest drive current.

A physics-based model for the electric potential of vertical TFET is presented in this article. The electric potential formula is derived for the first time from the multi-branch general solutions of Poisson’s equation for TFET. The effect of electron inversion charge in the channel is taken into account. A novel approach incorporating the effect of hole mobile charge in the source depletion region is proposed. The model’s accuracy is significantly improved compared with the previous source’s fully depleted approximation. The model is proven to be accurate in all operating regions. The model’s results are verified with TCAD simulation for different structural and material parameters.

Background: Neurofilaments in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in blood are considered promising biomarkers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) because their levels can be significantly increased in patients with ALS. However, the roles of neurofilaments, especially blood neurofilaments, in the prognosis of ALS are inconsistent. We performed a meta-analysis to explore the prognostic roles of blood neurofilaments in ALS patients. Methods: We searched all relevant studies on the relationship between blood neurofilament levels and the prognosis of ALS patients in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science before February 2, 2021. The quality of the included articles was assessed using the Quality in Prognosis Studies (QUIPS) scale, and R (version 4.02) was used for statistical analysis. Results: Fourteen articles were selected, covering 1,619 ALS patients. The results showed that higher blood neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in ALS patients were associated with a higher risk of death [medium vs. low NfL level: HR = 2.43, 95% CI (1.34-4.39), p < 0.01; high vs. low NfL level: HR = 4.51, 95% CI (2.45-8.32), p < 0.01]. There was a positive correlation between blood phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNfH) levels and risk of death in ALS patients [HR = 1.87, 95% CI (1.35-2.59), p < 0.01]. The levels of NfL and pNfH in blood positively correlated with disease progression rate (DPR) of ALS patients [NfL: summary r = 0.53, 95% CI (0.45-0.60), p < 0.01; pNfH: summary r = 0.51, 95% CI (0.24-0.71), p < 0.01]. Conclusion: The blood neurofilament levels can predict the prognosis of ALS patients; specifically, higher levels of blood neurofilaments are associated with a greater risk of death.

Under the goal of “double carbon”, the installed capacity of renewable energy except hydraulic will show a higher growth trend. In the future, new energy will become the main power source of power system, and it is particularly important to evaluate the accommodation capability of power grid for renewable energy. An evaluation method of new energy accommodation capability based on renewable energy power prediction is proposed. Based on the renewable energy output value predicted by the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) for the next day, considering factors such as load characteristics, tie-line power and carbon emissions, the start-stop status of conventional units is optimized, the carbon emissions of thermoelectric units are limited, and the accommodation of renewable energy and carbon emissions are calculated. The practicability of the proposed evaluation method is verified by an example analysis of the new energy accommodation capability in a certain area of China.

The induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer an unprecedented opportunity to model and study Alzheimer's disease (AD) under patient-specific genetic background. The lower expression of transient receptor potential canonical 6 (TRPC6) was associated with AD patients, which might be involved in AD pathogenesis. However, the role of TRPC6 that played in AD process still needs more investigation in patient-relevant neurons. In this study, the iPSCs were generated from peripheral blood cells of sporadic AD patients and efficiently differentiated into mature cortical neurons. These sporadic AD-bearing neurons displayed higher levels of AD pathological markers Aβ and phospho-tau, but lower levels of TRPC6, than those of control neurons. Treatment of AD neurons with TRPC6 protein fragment or agonist inhibited the elevation of Aβ and phospho-tau. Our results in live AD neurons manifest that the compromised expression of TRPC6 substantially contributed to Aβ pathology of sporadic AD, suggesting that targeting TRPC6 could help to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatments of AD.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a slowly progressive geriatric disease, which can be one of the leading causes of serious socioeconomic burden in the aging society. Clinical trials suggest that prompt treatment of early-stage Parkinson’s disease (EPD) may slow down the disease progress and have a better response. Therefore, conducting proteomics study to identify biomarkers for the diagnosis and disease-modifying therapies of EPD is vital. We aimed at identifying distinct protein autoantibody biomarkers of EPD by using the database of GSE62283 based on the platform GPL13669 downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between the EPD group (n = 103) and the normal control (NC) group (n = 111) were identified by protein-specific t test. Cluster analysis of DEPs was conducted by protein–protein interaction network to detect hub proteins. The hub proteins were then evaluated to determine the distinct biomarkers by principal component analysis, as well as functional and pathway enrichment analysis. Their biological functions were confirmed by gene ontology functional (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway enrichment (KEGG). Two biomarkers, mitochondrial ribosome recycling factor (MRRF) and ribosomal protein S18 (RPS18), distinguished the EPD samples from the NC samples, and they were regarded as high-confidence distinct protein autoantibody biomarkers of EPD. The most significant GO function was protein serine/threonine kinase activity (GO: 0004674) and most of DEPs were enriched in ATP binding in molecular function category (GO: 0005524). These results may help in establishing the prompt and accurate diagnosis of EPD and may also contribute to develop mechanism-based treatments.

AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) based pH sensors have the advantages of fast response and high stability, and can be used in harsh environments. This paper presents a pH sensor based on a planar dual-gate AlGaN/GaN HEMT cascode amplifier, which can increase the pH sensitivity for about 45 times from 45 mV/pH to 2.06 V/pH with linearity of 1.27%. The results indicate that it is possible to improve the pH sensitivity at the origin of detecting instead of the subsequent complex amplifier circuits. The proposed device has also shown the capacity to adjust the sensor’s sensitivity by changing the gate voltage and the resistance values for various pH ranges of different measuring requirements.

This paper demonstrates the design strategy in the self-aligned quantum-well InAs MOSFETs with T-shape S/D. A 2-D TCAD simulation is performed based on the experimental data. The effect of air gap between the T-shape metal contacts is taken into account. It is found that the fringing effects induced by the air gap has significant impacts on both DC and RF performances. Further study is carried out based on this TCAD simulation platform. The channel extension region, which is simply considered as part of series resistances, needs to be properly designed to maximize f(T )and f(M)(AX). RF performances can't be further improved even if the gate length is aggressively scaled down. However, the reduction of contact resistance can improve f(T) and f(MAX) without any limitations. This contact resistance reduction can be realized by incorporating the additional annealing process in the self-aligned gate-last T-S/D process.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder without effective treatment so far. As clinical trials show that early-stage patients are more likely to respond to potential interventions, various technologies have been used to search blood biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AD. Phage display could be used to select specific peptides against desired target and here, we established a peptide binding assay based on phage display peptide library to detect early-stage AD patients. We first selected peptides from phage display library against plasmas from AD patients (n = 10) and normal healthy controls (n = 10), respectively, in the discovery set. Then, we further characterized one AD-specific peptide (AD#1 peptide) and one control-specific peptide (Con#1 peptide), and evaluated their diagnostic performance in independent validation set (35 AD patients, 45 MCI, 45 controls and 20 PD patients). Our results show that both AD#1 peptide and Con#1 peptide could distinguish AD/MCI patients from controls and combination of these two peptides could greatly improve the diagnostic performance (AUC is above 0.80 in ROC curve analysis). In addition, we found that AD#1 peptide stained A beta-treated primary astrocyte and bound to recombinant human YKL-40 protein in in-vitro assay. It supports that AD#1 peptide detects AD inflammation related cytokine. Thus, the detection assay based on phage-derived peptides may offer a novel blood biomarker test for the early diagnosis of AD.

Recent studies have provided overwhelming evidence of the involvement of microglia-related molecular networks in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's diseases (AD). The potential involvement of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-18, IL-23 and IL-17 on amyloid (Aβ) clearance is still unclear. In this study, we addressed that there might be a net relationship among IL-18, IL-23, and IL-17 and they can affect Aβ clearance in cultured macrophage/microglia cells. In human macrophage cell line THP-1, Aβ42 incubation could increase the expression of IL-18, IL-23 and IL-17 in a concentration dependent manner. THP-1 cell could clear Aβ42 in the culture medium time-dependently, but its capacity of Aβ clearance was impaired by IL-18, IL-23 or IL-17 treatment. Similarly, the capacity of the microglia cell line BV2 to clear Aβ42 was impaired by IL-18, IL-23 or IL-17 treatment. In co-cultures of BV2 with APP/PS1 neuron, Aβ was efficiently cleared by BV2 cell, but Aβ clearance was impaired by IL-18, IL-23 or IL-17 treatment. The effects of IL-18, IL-23 and IL-17 could be blocked by their corresponding neutralizing antibodies. In addition, the inhibitory effects of IL-18 were blocked by IL-23 or IL-17 neutralizing antibodies while the inhibitory effects of IL-23 were blocked by IL-17 neutralizing antibodies. Our study provides evidences showing that amyloid induced IL-18/IL-23/IL-17 axis could impair macrophage and microglia-mediated Aβ clearance. Thus, IL-18/IL-23/IL-17 axis might be a therapeutic target in AD.

Background: Transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) 6 inhibits A beta in Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse brain and improves the behavioral performance. Aims: To evaluate the association of TRPC6 expression in peripheral leucocytes from AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients and to explore its potential value in early diagnosis of AD. Methods: TRPC6 mRNA levels in peripheral leucocytes were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. The Spearman correlation test was used to ascertain the associations between TRPC6 and the scores of MMSE, ADL, CSDD, CDR. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic potential of TRPC6 for AD and MCI. Results: There were 108 CE, 136 MCI, 164 Con and 60 PD in the study. The expression of TRPC6 mRNA level in peripheral leucocytes was significantly lower: 1) in patients with AD and MCI compared to Con; 2) in AD compared to MCI; 3) in hospitalized AD compared to AD from communities. There was a significantly positive correlation between TRPC6 mRNA and MMSE score (p = .001, R = 0.327). Significantly inverse correlations were found between TRPC6 and CDR score (p < 0.001, R = -0.303) as well as between TRPC6 and ADL score (p = .001, R = -0.342) for all AD. The area under curve of ROC was 0.881 for the classification of AD, and 0.706 for the classification of MCI, respectively. Conclusion: TRPC6 expression is inversely correlated with cognitive performance of AD. TRPC6 in peripheral leucocytes may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of AD.

In this work, an integrated miniature conductivity and temperature sensor chip with open-cell annular electrodes is presented, which can improve the system's ability of anti-jamming by eliminating the proximity effects with four annular electrodes. The open-cell design is proved to have higher performance in micron and nanometer scale without channel blockage. The whole system shows that the accuracy of conductivity measurement can achieve 0.04 mS/cm with 0.001 mS/cm resolution; the accuracy of temperature sensor is better than 0.01 °C in the range of 0 °C to 50 °C with 0.0004 °C resolution. The miniature sensor and compact system have many potential applications with tiny volumes, such as blood test and microfluidics.

Background: Urine samples, which capture an individual's metabolic profile, are ideal for the exploration of non-invasive biomarkers to confirm the amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) status of patients vs. unimpaired ones. Objective: We aimed to detect differentially metabolized amino acids, which are important objectives in metabolomics, garnering particular attention in biomedical pathogenesis from the urine of aMCI patients, which may give clinicians the possibility to intervene with early treatments that curb Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: The study included 208 subjects, 98 of whom were aMCI patients, and 110 who were control subjects without dementia. Urine samples were taken from each participant and supernatant was obtained for analysis. The concentrations of amino acids were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results: Urinary arginine levels in aMCI patients are obviously lower than in normal controls (q < 0.2 and p < 0.05). Meanwhile, aMCI patients had significant reduced urinary global arginine bioavailability ratio (GABR), and GABR in urine displayed a positive correlation with the score of CMMSE. Conclusion: Urinary dysregulated arginine metabolism that may serve as a helpful clinical diagnostic biomarker for aMCI in older adults.

In this paper, a post superacid (SA) treatment was proposed to enhance the performance of InAs FinFETs on SiO2/Si substrates. Typically, the subthreshold swing (SS) has reduced from 217 to 170 mV/decade and the transconductance ( ${g}_{m}$ ) has increased from 6.44 to 26.5 $\mu \text{S}/\mu \text{m}$ after SA treatment. It was found that the interfacial In2O3 at the InAs/ZrO2 interface was effectively reduced after SA treatment due to the strong protonating nature of the SA solution. As a result, the interface trap density was reduced leading to a pronounced reduction of sheet resistance after SA treatment. The modeling of transfer characteristics indicates that the carrier mobility is enhanced by 5.8~7.1 folds after SA treatment due to interfacial traps reduction. The results suggest that SA treatment can be potentially extended to other III–V MOSFETs to enhance the device performances.

A major hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, and the causative mechanism is thought to be the activation of programmed neuronal death. Necroptosis is a regulated process of cell death triggered by RIPK1. Although the pathophysiology of PD has been studied extensively, the cellular mechanism underlying dopaminergic neuron death remains unclear. In this study, we detected a specific miRNA, miR-425, in response to MPTP toxicity and dopaminergic degeneration. In MPTP-treated mice, we observed necroptosis activation and miR-425 deficiency in the substantia nigra, which is correlated with dopaminergic neuron loss. This miRNA targeted RIPK1 transcripts and promoted the phosphorylation of MLKL and necroptosis. Similarly, in the brains of PD patients, miR-425 deficiency and necroptosis activation were also confirmed in dopaminergic neuron. Furthermore, we found that genetic knockdown of miR-425 aggravated MPTP-induced motor deficits and dopaminergic neurodegeneration via early upregulation of necroptotic genes. Intracerebral miR-425 mimics (AgomiR-425) treatment attenuated necroptosis activation and dopaminergic neuron loss, and improved locomotor behaviors. In conclusion, our study suggests that miR-425 deficiency triggers necroptosis of dopaminergic neurons, and targeting miR-425 in MPTP-treated mice restored dysfunctional dopaminergic neurodegeneration and ameliorated behavioral deficits. These findings identify brain delivery of miR-425 as a potential therapeutic approach for the treatment of PD.

This paper presents a benchmarking comparison between InAs FinFET and gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET by a 3-D TCAD simulation. The complete FinFET fabrication process is demonstrated followed by a TCAD simulation platform based on the experimental data. Both DC and RF simulation results are shown here. Further optimizations are explored for InAs FinFET/GAA MOSFET through TCAD simulations. It is found that with optimizations in materials, device geometry and fabrication, significant enhancement in DC/RF performances is possible with these devices. In addition, GAA MOSFET shows a better potential for future RF application.