As lung ultrasound (LUS) is a noninvasive, radiation-free, repeatable and portable imaging tool suitable for a point-of-care use, several recent literature reports have emphasized its role as the ideal screening tool for SARS-CoV2 pneumonia. To evaluate the actual diagnostic accuracy of LUS for this purpose, we performed a systematic comparative study between LUS and CT scan ndings in a population of 82 patients hospitalized because of COVID-19. LUS and Chest CT have been performed in all patients within 6-12 hours from the admission. The sensitivity of LUS in assessing typical CT ndings was 60%. Despite LUS detected consolidations adherent to pleural surface in all cases, it was not able to detect all the consolidations assessed at CT scan (p=0.002), showing a risk to underestimate the actual disease's extent. Moreover, only 70% of pleural surface is visible by LUS. Considering that the speci city and the positive predictive value of the same LUS signs may be lowered in a normal setting of non epidemic COVID-19 and in case of pre-existing cardio-pulmonary diseases, LUS use should not be indicated for diagnosis of COVID-19. However, it may be very useful for the assessment of pleural effusion and to guide safer uid drainage.
The glymphatic pathway expedites clearance of waste, including soluble amyloid  (A) from the brain. Transport through this pathway is controlled by the brain's arousal level because, during sleep or anesthesia, the brain's interstitial space volume expands (compared with wakefulness), resulting in faster waste removal. Humans, as well as animals, exhibit different body postures during sleep, which may also affect waste removal. Therefore, not only the level of consciousness, but also body posture, might affect CSF-interstitial fluid (ISF) exchange efficiency. We used dynamic-contrast-enhanced MRI and kinetic modeling to quantify CSF-ISF exchange rates in anesthetized rodents' brains in supine, prone, or lateral positions. To validate the MRI data and to assess specifically the influence of body posture on clearance of A, we used fluorescence microscopy and radioactive tracers, respectively. The analysis showed that glymphatic transport was most efficient in the lateral position compared with the supine or prone positions. In the prone position, in which the rat's head was in the most upright position (mimicking posture during the awake state), transport was characterized by "retention" of the tracer, slower clearance, and more CSF efflux along larger caliber cervical vessels. The optical imaging and radiotracer studies confirmed that glymphatic transport and A clearance were superior in the lateral and supine positions. We propose that the most popular sleep posture (lateral) has evolved to optimize waste removal during sleep and that posture must be considered in diagnostic imaging procedures developed in the future to assess CSF-ISF transport in humans.
Perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have recently attracted great research interest for their narrow emissions and solution processability. Remarkable progress has been achieved in green perovskite LEDs in recent years, but not blue or red ones. Here, highly efficient and spectrally stable red perovskite LEDs with quasi-2D perovskite/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) composite thin films as the light-emitting layer are reported. By controlling the molar ratios of organic salt (benzylammonium iodide) to inorganic salts (cesium iodide and lead iodide), luminescent quasi-2D perovskite thin films are obtained with tunable emission colors from red to deep red. The perovskite/polymer composite approach enables quasi-2D perovskite/PEO composite thin films to possess much higher photoluminescence quantum efficiencies and smoothness than their neat quasi-2D perovskite counterparts. Electrically driven LEDs with emissions peaked at 638, 664, 680, and 690 nm have been fabricated to exhibit high brightness and external quantum efficiencies (EQEs). For instance, the perovskite LED with an emission peaked at 680 nm exhibits a brightness of 1392 cd m and an EQE of 6.23%. Moreover, exceptional electroluminescence spectral stability under continuous device operation has been achieved for these red perovskite LEDs.
In the original version of the above article, a recent publication and its findings had not been acknowledged. The online and print versions have now been corrected, and the corrected sentence reads ''. but the importance of loss of H3K9me2 is not clear (Walter et al., 2016).'' The full citation to the reference has been added to the reference list: Walter, M., Teissandier, A., Pé rez-Palacios, R., Bourc'his, D. (2016). An epigenetic switch ensures transposon repression upon dynamic loss of DNA methylation in embryonic stem cells. Elife 5.
Poly(ethylene phthalate) (PET)/nano-TiO 2 composites prepared via in situ polymerization were spun into fiber by the melt-spinning process. The dispersion of nanosized rutile TiO 2 in the PET was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques. The mechanical properties and the properties of ultraviolet (UV) protection were investigated. The results showed that rutile TiO 2 can be dispersed uniformly by the in situ polycondensation process. The mechanical properties of PET/TiO 2 fiber were slightly affected by adding nano-TiO 2 . The UV-ray transmittance of PET/ nano-TiO 2 fabrics was below 10% in the UV-A band and below 1% in the UV-B band. And the ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of PET/nano-TiO 2 fabrics was greater than 50. All these PET/TiO 2 nanocomposite fabrics exhibited excellent UV-blocking properties.
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