Background: Increased immunoglobulin E (IgE) is associated with lower respiratory tract infections. The study aimed to evaluate the association between IgE and the rate of bronchopneumonia-related readmission within 12 months in children. Methods: A total of 1099 children aged over 1 year with bronchopneumonia, from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016, were enrolled. Unplanned readmissions within 12 months after discharge were observed. Multivariate regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for rehospitalization. Results: The rate of rehospitalization was 11.4% (125/1099). Compared to the nonreadmission children, IgE levels, the proportion of children with asthma and hospitalization duration were significantly higher in the readmission children ( p < 0.05). Compared to the children with normal IgE (≤ 165 IU/ml) levels, the risk of rehospitalization was significantly higher in children with abnormal IgE [odds ratio (OR) 1.781, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.209–2.624, p = 0.004]. Children with IgE level more than three times the upper limit had even higher risks of readmission (OR 2.037, 95%CI 1.172–3.540, p = 0.012). Meanwhile, the risk of readmission in children with abnormal IgE combined with or without bronchial asthma was significantly higher (OR 2.548 and 1.918, 95% CI 1.490–4.358 and 1.218–3.020, p = 0.001 and 0.005, respectively). Conclusions: Children aged over 1 year with bronchopneumonia who had higher IgE levels are at increased risk for rehospitalization within the first 12 months of the index hospitalization and IgE level may be used as a predictor of rehospitalization in children with bronchopneumonia.
Transition metal borides (TMBs) are promising catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). While the commercially available TMBs indicate poor HER performance due to powder electrode and low activity sites density, optimizing commercial TMBs for better HER performance is urgent. To break through the challenge, a new strategy is proposed to compose integral bulk electrodes with needle surfaces in TMBs. The integral bulk electrodes in TiB2, ZrB2, and HfB2 are formed under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT), and the nanoneedle morphology is constructed by chemical etching. In the three materials, the smallest overpotential is 346 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in the HCl etched bulk TiB2 electrode, which is about 61.9% higher than commercial TiB2 powder. Better performance arises from better conductivity of the integral bulk electrode, and the nano morphology exposes the edge sides of the structure which have high activity site density. This work is significant for developing new kinds of bulk TMBs catalysts.
Regulating electron structure and electron–phonon coupling by means of pressure and temperature is an effective way to optimize thermoelectric properties. However, in situ testing of thermoelectric transport performance under pressure and temperature is hindered by technical constraints that obscure the intrinsic effects of pressure and temperature on thermoelectric properties. In the present study, a new reliable assembly was developed for testing the in situ thermoelectric transport performance of materials at high pressure and high temperature (HPHT). This reduces the influence of thermal effects on the test results and improves the success rate of in situ experiments at HPHT. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity of α-Cu2Se were measured under HPHT, and the former was found to increase with increasing pressure and temperature; for the latter, although an increase in the pressure acted to lower the electrical resistivity, an increase in the temperature acted to increase it. On increasing pressure from 0.8 to 3 GPa at 333 K, the optimal power factor of α-Cu2Se was increased by ∼76% from 2.36 × 10−4–4.15 × 10−4 W m−1 K−2, and the higher pressure meant that α-Cu2Se had its maximum power factor at lower temperature. The present work is particularly important for understanding the thermoelectric mechanism under HPHT.
Inorganic fast ionic thermoelectric (TE) materials (IFITEMs) exhibit excellent TE capabilities due to the special carrier of delocalized ions. Optimization of the TE performance of an IFITEM, however, is limited by a conflict between its electrical conductivity (σ) and its Seebeck coefficient (S). It remains challenging to regulate σ and S in IFITEMs because they are mainly only stable under high temperature. In this work, σ and S of α-Ag2S (semiconductor) and β-Ag2S (fast ionic conductor) are modulated by the in situ measurement under high pressure and high temperature. It uncovered that pressure increases the electrical conductivity with improving the carrier concentration in α-Ag2S, but increased pressure hinders ion transfer and thus reduces conductivity in β-Ag2S. These results show that the pressure responses of σ and S in α-Ag2S and β-Ag2S are distinctly opposite. Nevertheless, pressure can optimize the power factor (PF) and estimated thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) in both α-Ag2S and β-Ag2S, with optimum values of 1.97 × 10−4 W/m K2 and 0.122 (3.3 GPa, 447 K), and 2.93 × 10−4 W/m K2 and 0.18 (2.2 GPa, 574 K), respectively. The pressure effect has improved about 4.5 and 3.6 times in PF and ZT of β-Ag2S comparing with α-Ag2S at 0.8 GPa 436 K. This work provides a way to optimize TE performance in fast ionic conductors by altering the pressure, which will help in the production of high-powered TE materials.
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