All inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit great potential for nanolasers, light-emitting diodes, and solar cells, because of their unique properties including low threshold, high quantum efficiency and low cost. However, the high material refractive index of perovskite semiconductors hinders light extraction efficiency for photonic and illumination applications. In this paper, we demonstrate high light extraction efficiency achieved in CsPbBr 2.75 I 0.25 two-dimensional photonic crystals. The perovskite photonic crystals exhibit both emission rate inhibition and light energy redistribution simultaneously. We observed a 7.9-fold reduction of spontaneous emission rate with a slower decay in CsPbBr 2.75 I 0.25 photonic crystals, because of the photonic bandgap effect (PBG). We also observed a 23.5-fold PL emission enhancement, as a result of light energy redistribution from 2D guided modes to vertical direction in perovskite photonic crystals thin films, indicating a high intrinsic light extraction efficiency. Such a combination of inhibiting undesirable emission with redistributing light energy into useful modes offers a new promising approach in various applications for perovskite, including solar cell, displays, and photovoltaics.
<b><i>Aims:</i></b> Early evaluation of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) in postpartum women is important for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Digital vaginal palpation and electromyography (EMG) evaluation based on Glazer protocol are widely used for the assessment of PFM. However, the correlation among digital palpation, EMG, and morbidity of postpartum SUI is still unclear. This study aims to investigate the relationship between postpartum SUI and PFM examinations. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This hospital-based cross-sectional study included 1,380 parturients during September 2016 to January 2018. We collected the clinical characteristics, PFM strength, and EMG variables of parturients 6–8 weeks after birth. Then the correlation among the results of EMG, digital palpation, and the occurrence of SUI was analyzed. <b><i>Results:</i></b> There is no significant difference in digital palpation scores of PFM strength between SUI and non-SUI parturients. The EMG values were closely related to SUI: the multivariate logistic regression revealed that the most reliable evaluation indicators of postpartum SUI were pelvic floor contractile amplitude of endurance contraction (B = 0.021, <i>p</i> = 0.019) and pretest resting baseline (B = 0.056, <i>p</i> = 0.019). Correlation analysis demonstrated that the contraction variables of EMG had a significant correlation with the digital palpation PFM strength in postpartum women (<i>r</i> = 0.467–0.545, <i>p</i> < 0.001). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The EMG proved to be reliable in assessing the PFM function in postpartum women. The decreased PFM activity, according to EMG, was correlated with postpartum SUI. Although digital palpation scores were positively correlated with EMG results, no correlation was observed with SUI incidence.
Early-stage screening and diagnosis of ovarian cancer represent an urgent need in medicine. Usual ultrasound imaging and cancer antigen CA-125 test when prescribed to a suspicious population still require reconfirmations. Spectroscopic analyses of blood, at the molecular and atomic levels, provide useful supplementary tests when coupled with effective information extraction methods. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was employed in this work to record the elemental fingerprint of human blood plasma. A machine learning data treatment process was developed combining feature selection and regression with a back-propagation neural network, resulting in classification models for cancer detection among 176 blood plasma samples collected from patients, including also ovarian cyst and normal cases. Cancer diagnosis sensitivity and specificity of respectively 71.4% and 86.5% were obtained for randomly selected validation samples.
BackgroundCommunity-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide among children. The growing number of guidelines have been accompanied with a growing concern about variance and conflicts among guideline recommendations. There is a need to critically appraise clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in order to ensure safe and effective practices.MethodsA literature search was systematically conducted in English and Chinese major academic databases (from January 2000 to March 2015). CPGs related to CAP in children were evaluated by four independent assessors, according to AGREE II instruments. Standardized domain scores were calculated for each guideline. Inter-rater reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient. The software used for analysis was SPSS 17.0.ResultsA total of 10 guidelines met the inclusion criteria and were appraised. Scope and purpose (69.03 %) and clarity of presentation (83.33 %) achieved relative high scores, while the scores of the other four domains were low: stakeholder involvement (42.78 %), rigour of development (44.95 %), applicability (37.60 %), and editorial independence (23.74 %). 3 guidelines were strongly recommended as a result of the overall scores were greater than 60 %.ConclusionThe qualities of CPGs for CAP in children were generally acceptable with several flaws. Stakeholder involvement, rigour of development, applicability and editorial independence should be considered and well described in the future development of CPGs.
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