An observational study on salivary conductivity for fluid status assessment and clinical relevance in acute ischemic stroke during intravenous fluid hydration.

The body fluid status in acute stroke is a crucial determinant in early stroke recovery but a real-time method to monitor body fluid status is not available. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between salivary conductivity and body fluid status during the period of intravenous fluid hydration. Between June 2020 to August 2022, patients presenting with clinical signs of stroke at the emergency department were enrolled. Salivary conductivities were measured before and 3 h after intravenous hydration. Patients were considered responsive if their salivary conductivities at 3 h decreased by more than 20% compared to their baseline values. Stroke severity was assessed using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and early neurological improvement was defined as a decrease of ≥ 2 points within 72 h of admission. Among 108 recruited patients, there were 35 of stroke mimics, 6 of transient ischemic attack and 67 of acute ischemic stroke. Salivary conductivity was significantly decreased after hydration in all patients (9008 versus 8118 µs/cm, p = 0.030). Among patients with acute ischemic stroke, the responsive group, showed a higher rate of early neurological improvement within 3 days compared to the non-responsive group (37% versus 10%, p = 0.009). In a multivariate logistic regression model, a decrease in salivary conductivity of 20% or more was found to be an independent factor associated with early neurological improvement (odds ratio 5.42, 95% confidence interval 1.31-22.5, p = 0.020). Real-time salivary conductivity might be a potential indicator of hydration status of the patient with acute ischemic stroke.

Difficulty in articulation following left progressive blurred vision.

PURPOSE: To report a case of Paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM) caused by severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and discuss the correlation between PAMM and ICA stenosis. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 67-year-old male patient presented with left acute blurred vision for 1 week. The best-corrected visual acuity of the left eye was 0.01. Funduscopic examination showed multiple grayish patches around the left macula. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) demonstrated train-track hyperreflective lesions over the inner nuclear layer of the left eye. Afterwards, he experienced sudden slurred speech with fair comprehension. Magnetic resonance imaging and angiography of the brain demonstrated left lacunar infarction with severe left ICA stenosis. After anticoagulant therapy, his dysarthria and left visual acuity were improved significantly. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, PAMM in coincidence with lacunar infarction induced by ICA stenosis is firstly described in the literature. PAMM could be a critical warning of ICA stenosis, and this case can alert ophthalmologists to survey ICA stenosis in patients with PAMM.

Current Rectification and Photo-Responsive Current Achieved through Interfacial Facet Control of Cu2O-Si Wafer Heterojunctions.

Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) was employed to perform conductivity measurements on a facet-specific Cu2O cube, octahedron, and rhombic dodecahedron and intrinsic Si {100}, {111}, and {110} wafers. Similar I-V curves to those recorded previously using a nanomanipulator were obtained with the exception of high conductivity for the Si {110} wafer. Next, I-V curves of different Cu2O-Si heterostructures were evaluated. Among the nine possible arrangements, Cu2O octahedron/Si {100} wafer and Cu2O octahedron/Si {110} wafer combinations show good current rectification behaviors. Under white light illumination, Cu2O cube/Si {110} wafer and Cu2O rhombic dodecahedron/Si {111} wafer combinations exhibit the largest degrees of photocurrent, so such interfacial plane-controlled semiconductor heterojunctions with light sensitivity can be applied to make photodetectors. Adjusted band diagrams are presented highlighting different interfacial band bending situations to facilitate or inhibit current flow for different Cu2O-Si junctions. More importantly, the observation of clear current-rectifying effects produced at the semiconductor heterojunctions with properly selected contacting faces or planes implies that novel field-effect transistors (FETs) can be fabricated using this design strategy, which should integrate well with current chip manufacturing processes.

A Portable Biodevice to Monitor Salivary Conductivity for the Rapid Assessment of Fluid Status.

The evaluation of fluid status can save adults from life-threatening conditions, but the current methods are invasive or time-consuming. Therefore, we developed a portable device for measuring salivary conductivity. This prospective observational study enrolled 20 volunteers with no history of systemic diseases. Participants were observed for 13 h, including water restriction for 12 h followed by rehydration with 1000 mL water within 1 h. Serum and urine biomarkers for fluid status, thirst scales, and salivary conductivity were collected during dehydration and rehydration. No significant differences in age, body mass index, glycohemoglobin, and estimated glomerular filtration rate were noted between sexes. Salivary conductivity increased after water restriction and decreased after rehydration. Similarly, urine osmolality, urine specific gravity, thirst intensity scales, and body weight followed the same trend and were statistically significant. The angiotensin-converting enzyme and aldosterone levels showed the same trend, without reaching statistical significance. The red blood cell count and hemoglobin concentration also followed the same trend. Analyzing the receiver operating characteristic curves, the area under the curve was 0.707 (95% confidence interval 0.542-0.873, p = 0.025). Using the Youden index, the optimal cutoff determined as 2678.09 µs/cm (sensitivity: 90%, specificity: 55%). This biodevice effectively screened dehydration among healthy adults.

Aqueous-Phase Synthesis of Size-Tunable PbSe Nanocubes at Room Temperature for Optical Property Characterization.

A simple aqueous-phase synthesis of PbSe nanocubes with tunable sizes has been developed by first preparing a Na2 SeSO3 stock solution through dissolution of selenium powder in a solution of Na2 SO3 at 90-100 °C for 30 min, and adding part of this solution to a mixture of lead acetate and acetic acid at room temperature with stirring for only 5-8 min to complete the nanocrystal growth. Adjusting the volume of acetic acid and Na2 SeSO3 solution added enabled the size of the nanocrystals to be tuned, with average edge lengths of 13 to 121 nm attained. Changes in solution color revealed very different crystal growth rates for the 13 and 121 nm nanocubes. The PbSe cubes exhibit size-dependent absorption bands in the ultraviolet and visible-light region; the band positions show progressive redshifts with increasing particle size. Slight photocatalytic activity upon 532 nm laser irradiation of the nanocubes suggests the presence of higher energy levels in the band structure of PbSe. The synthetic conditions can be easily scaled up to obtain a large quantity of PbSe nanocubes for applications.

Facet-Dependent Photocatalytic Behaviors of ZnS-Decorated Cu2O Polyhedra Arising from Tunable Interfacial Band Alignment.

ZnS particles were grown over Cu2O cubes, octahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra for examination of their facet-dependent photocatalytic behaviors. After ZnS growth, Cu2O cubes stay photocatalytically inactive. ZnS-decorated Cu2O octahedra show enhanced photocatalytic activity, resulting from better charge carrier separation upon photoexcitation. Surprisingly, Cu2O rhombic dodecahedra give greatly suppressed photocatalytic activity after ZnS deposition. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectra agree with these experimental observations. Time-resolved photoluminescence profiles provide charge-transfer insights. The decrease in the photocatalytic activity is attributed to an unfavorable band alignment caused by significant band bending within the Cu2O(110)/ZnS(200) plane interface. A modified Cu2O-ZnS band diagram is presented. Density functional theory calculations generating plane-specific band energy diagrams of Cu2O and ZnS match well with the experimental results, showing that charge transfer across the Cu2O(110)/ZnS(200) plane interface would not happen. This example further illustrates that the actual photocatalysis outcome for semiconductor heterojunctions cannot be assumed because interfacial charge transfer is strongly facet-dependent.

Germanium Wafers Possessing Facet-Dependent Electrical Conductivity Properties.

Electrical conductivity properties of Ge {100}, {110}, {111}, and {211} facets have been measured by breaking Ge (100) and (111) wafers to expose {110} and {211} surfaces and contacting the different facets with tungsten probes. Ge {111} and {211} faces are far more conductive than the already conductive Ge {100} and {110} faces, matching with recent density functional theory (DFT) predictions. Asymmetric I-V curves resembling those of p-n junctions have been collected for the {110}/{111} and {110}/{211} facet combinations. The current-rectifying effects stem from different degrees of surface band bending for the highly and less conductive faces and the direction of current flow. This work demonstrates that germanium wafers also possess facet-dependent electrical conductivity responses that can be utilized in the fabrication of novel fin field-effect transistors (finFET).

Transport and trapping in two-dimensional nanoscale plasmonic optical lattice.

We report the transport and trapping behavior of 100 and 500 nm diameter nanospheres in a plasmon-enhanced two-dimensional optical lattice. An optical potential is created by a two-dimensional square lattice of gold nanostructures, illuminated by a Gaussian beam to excite plasmon resonance. The nanoparticles can be guided, trapped, and arranged using this optical potential. Stacking of 500 nm nanospheres into a predominantly hexagonal closed pack crystalline structure under such a potential is also reported.