The aim of this study was to examine the performance of T-SPOT.TB on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood (PB) in diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) in China. Of 100 patients with presumed TBM prospectively enrolled from Sep 2012 to Oct 2014, 53 were TBM (21 definite and 32 probable TBM cases) and 37 were non-TBM cases; the other 10 patients were excluded from analysis due to inconclusive diagnosis, no sufficient CSF samples, or incomplete follow-up. T-SPOT.TB on CSF and PB and routine laboratory tests of CSF were performed simultaneously. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and cut-off value of CSF T-SPOT.TB and routine CSF parameters were established between TBM and non-TBM group. The area under ROC curve (AUC) of the T-SPOT.TB on CSF and PB was 0.81 and 0.89, which was higher than that of the routine CSF parameters (AUC 0.67–0.77). Although the sensitivity of CSF T-SPOT.TB was lower than that of PB T-SPOT.TB (60.8% versus 90.6%, P < 0.001), the specificity of CSF T-SPOT.TB was significantly higher than that of PB T-SPOT.TB (97.2% versus 75.7%, P = 0.007). These results indicated that the diagnostic accuracies of PB and CSF T-SPOT.TB are higher than routine laboratory tests. Furthermore, the higher specificity of CSF T-SPOT.TB makes it a useful rule-in test in rapid diagnosis of TBM.

Nano-treating is a novel concept wherein a low percentage of nanoparticles is used for microstructural control and property tuning in metals and alloys. The nano-treating of AA7075 was investigated to control its microstructure and improve its structural stability for high performance. After treatment with TiC nanoparticles, the grains were significantly refined from coarse dendrites of hundreds of micrometers to fine equiaxial ones smaller than 20 μm. After T6 heat treatment, the grains, with an average size of 18.5 μm, remained almost unchanged, demonstrating an excellent thermal stability. It was found that besides of growth restriction factor by pinning behavior on grain boundries, TiC nanoparticles served as both an effective nucleation agent for primary grains and an effective secondary phase modifier in AA7075. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of nano-treated AA7075 were improved over those of the pure alloy. Thus, nano-treating provides a new method to enhance the performance of aluminum alloys for numerous applications.

Lithium metal has been an attractive candidate as a next-generation anode material. Despite its popularity, stability issues of lithium in the liquid electrolyte and the formation of lithium whiskers have kept it from practical use. Three-dimensional (3D) current collectors have been proposed as an effective method to mitigate whisker growth. Although extensive research has been done, the effects of three key parameters of the 3D current collectors, namely, the surface area, the tortuosity factor, and the surface chemistry, on the performance of lithium metal batteries remain elusive. Herein, we quantitatively studied the role of these three parameters by synthesizing four types of porous copper networks with different sizes of well-structured microchannels. X-ray microscale computed tomography (micro-CT) allowed us to assess the surface area, the pore size, and the tortuosity factor of the porous copper materials. A metallic Zn coating was also applied to study the influence of surface chemistry on the performance of the 3D current collectors. The effects of these parameters on the performance were studied in detail through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and titration gas chromatography (TGC). Stochastic simulations further allowed us to interpret the role of the tortuosity factor in lithiation. The optimal range of the key parameters is thereby found for the porous coppers and their performance is predicted. Using these parameters to inform the design of porous copper anodes for Li deposition, Coulombic efficiencies (CEs) of up to 99.63% are achieved, thus paving the way for the design of effective 3D current collector systems.

Despite advances in antihypertensive therapeutics, at least 15-20% of hypertensive patients have resistant hypertension through mechanisms that remain poorly understood. In this study, we provide a new mechanism for the regulation of blood pressure (BP) in the central nervous system (CNS) by the (pro)renin receptor (PRR), a recently identified component of the renin-angiotensin system that mediates ANG II formation in the CNS. Although PRR also mediates ANG II-independent signaling, the importance of these pathways in BP regulation is unknown. Here, we developed a unique transgenic mouse model overexpressing human PRR (hPRR) specifically in neurons (Syn-hPRR). Intracerebroventricular infusion of human prorenin caused increased BP in Syn-hPRR mice. This BP response was attenuated by a NADPH oxidase (NOX) inhibitor but not by antihypertensive agents that target the renin-angiotensin system. Using a brain-targeted genetic knockdown approach, we found that NOX4 was the key isoform responsible for the prorenin-induced elevation of BP in Syn-hPRR mice. Moreover, inhibition of ERK significantly attenuated the increase in NOX activity and BP induced by human prorenin. Collectively, our findings indicate that an ANG II-independent, PRR-mediated signaling pathway regulates BP in the CNS by a PRR-ERK-NOX4 mechanism. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study characterizes a new transgenic mouse model with overexpression of the human (pro)renin receptor in neurons and demonstrated a novel angiotensin II-independent mechanism mediated by human prorenin and the (pro)renin receptor in the central regulation of blood pressure.

We report spin–orbit torques (SOT) in a L10-ordered perpendicularly magnetized FePt single layer, which is significantly influenced by disorder. Recently, self-induced SOT in the L10-FePt single layer has been investigated, which is ascribed to the composition gradient along the normal direction of the film. However, the determined mechanisms for magnetization switching have not been fully studied. With varying growth temperatures, we have prepared FePt single layers with the same thickness (3 nm) but with different disordering. We have found that nearly full magnetization switching only happens in more disordered films, and the magnetization switching ratio becomes smaller with increasing L10 ordering. The method for deriving effective spin torque fields in the previous studies cannot fully explain the spin current generation and self-induced SOT in the L10-FePt single layer. Combined with the magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy and anomalous Hall effect measurements, we concluded that the disorder should determine the formation of domain walls, as well as the spin current generation.

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Antimony selenide ( Sb 2 Se 3 ) is an emerging material with potential applications in photovoltaics, while magnetron sputtering is an important method in material growth. In this study, Sb 2 Se 3 thin films, prepared by the magnetron sputtering technique with varied working pressures and sputtering powers, were fabricated into solar cells with a structure of glass / ITO / CdS / Sb 2 Se 3 / Au . The current density versus voltage measurements and x-ray diffraction were introduced to compare the photovoltaic and structural properties of the cell samples. Characterization and identification of the defects in Sb 2 Se 3 thin films were investigated by admittance measurements. The Sb 2 Se 3 cell samples prepared with appropriate sputtering power (about 60 W) or working pressure (about 0.4 Pa) were found to own better crystal qualities and lower defect densities, which may be the reason for better efficiency.

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