The LESS TEP technique is associated with a longer operative time but offers the minor benefit of a reduction in immediate postoperative pain.

In experimental studies of the Plasma Wake-field Accelerator performed to date at the Argonne Advanced Accelerator Test Facilit,y, significant nonlinearities in both plasma and beam behavior have been observed. The plasma wares driven in the make of the intense driving beam in these experiments exhibit three-dimensional nonlinear behavior which has as yet no quantitative theoretical explanation. This nonlinearity is due in part to the self-pinching of the driving beam in the plasma, as the the denser self-focused beam can excite larger amplitude plasma waves. Th e se lf-pinching is a process with interesting nonlinear aspects: the initial evolution of the beam envelope and the subsequent approach to Bennett equilibrium through phase mixing.

A plasma-polymerized acrylonitrile (PP-AN)/ZnO nanobelt (NB) nanosensor reveals a better oxygen-sensing response than a bare ZnO NB nanosensor due to the sorption nature of the polymer. With the aid of UV light, significant response enhancements of PP-AN/ZnO NB nanosensors at low temperature have been observed since the effects of oxygen desorption/adsorption in PP-AN on the electron depletion region in the ZnO are significant. The minimum sensitivity at 150 degrees C is 16.6 ppm. This work permits its feasibility in areas where it is impossible to work at higher temperatures since lowering the working temperature of the sensor can avoid the structural deterioration, causing instability in the response.

Purpose – As blogs have become an important information communication medium, selecting blog types that are appropriate and effective for the products they are to promote is now an important issue in corporate advertising. However, the impact of different blog types on consumers and their advertising effectiveness are issues seldom addressed in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to view product information that consumers post on blogs as advertisements and compares advertising effectiveness between different blog types to help enterprises properly employ blogs in their marketing campaigns. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design was adopted, and 12 experimental contexts were designed. A valid sample of over 2,000 responses was collected to study between-group differences in advertising effectiveness. Findings – The analytical results showed between-group difference in advertising effectiveness, which indicated that blog advertising effectiveness varies with different combinations of product constructs and blog types. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study related to the price factor was not incorporated into the experimental model, and shopping channels were not limited. There might be a gap between the prices of the experimental products and the average expense of online shoppers. Originality/value – The study proposed a framework which can help enterprises to evaluate the type and brand awareness of a product to be promoted and to select the blog type that maximizes advertising effectiveness (perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention) in diffusing product information.

We experimentally and theoretically demonstrated the hierarchical structure of SiO(2) nanorod arrays/p-GaN microdomes as a light harvesting scheme for InGaN-based multiple quantum well solar cells. The combination of nano- and micro-structures leads to increased internal multiple reflection and provides an intermediate refractive index between air and GaN. Cells with the hierarchical structure exhibit improved short-circuit current densities and fill factors, rendering a 1.47 fold efficiency enhancement as compared to planar cells.

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Introduction While the epidemiology of testosterone deficiency has been well described in men with previously known type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), it was less reported in those with untreated, newly diagnosed T2DM. Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and the risk factors of testosterone deficiency of men with newly diagnosed T2DM. Methods The cross-sectional study included 105 men (mean age: 61.2 ± 6.8 years) with previously known T2DM and another 81 (57.8 ± 8.8 years) with newly diagnosed T2DM. All received health checkup and sex hormone measurement at our institute in 2009. Main Outcome Measures We calculated the prevalence and explored the risk factors of low total (<300 ng/dL) and free (<6 ng/dL) testosterone in men with newly diagnosed and previously known T2DM. Results Men with previously known T2DM were older and had higher diastolic pressure and greater fasting glucose. There was no significant difference in total (358.0 [155.0] ng/dL vs. 363.0 [154.0] ng/dL, P = 0.68) and free (7.2 [2.5] ng/dL vs. 7.4 [2.4] ng/dL, P = 0.84) testosterone and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) (27.3 [22.3] nmol/L vs. 28.7 [14.9] nmol/L, P = 0.46). The prevalence of low total and free testosterone was 28.4% and 21.0%, respectively, in men with newly diagnosed T2DM, and was 26.7% and 19.0% in those with previously known T2DM. In men with previously known T2DM, better glycemic control (HbA1c <7%) was associated with a higher level of total testosterone and a lower risk of low total testosterone. Men with newly diagnosed and previously known T2DM shared similar risk factors of low total testosterone, including high HbA1c (≥7%), low SHBG (<20 nmol/L), obesity, hyperuricemia, hypertriglycemia, and metabolic syndrome. Elevated prostate-specific antigen was a protective factor of low total testosterone. However, none of these factors was associated with low free testosterone. Conclusions The prevalence and the risk factors of testosterone deficiency are similar between newly diagnosed and previously known type 2 diabetic men.

The electrical performances of the heterojunction of n-ZnO nanowires with p-Si substrate at the nanometer scale have been characterized using an ultrahigh-vacuum conducting atomic force microscopy. Compared with the expected values of 1.0–2.0 reported in p-n junction in the previous studies, the abnormally high diode ideality factor (⪢2) was obtained. It elucidates that a ZnO–Si p-n junction can be modeled by a series of diodes, the actual ZnO–Si junction diode and two Schottky diodes at the metal/ZnO and metal/Si junctions. The tunneling across p-n junction would also play a role in the externally measured high ideality factor.