Post-procedural right ventricular pseudoaneurysm is a rare but life-threatening complication of interventional catheterisation. We describe a 3-day-old newborn who underwent transcatheter intervention for pulmonary atresia with a complication of right ventricular pseudoaneurysms, and transcatheter embolisation of the pseudoaneurysms was performed at 3-week-old. It is the first described case that receives transcatheter closure of right ventricular pseudoaneurysms in a newborn with a favourable outcome.

Sexual offenses cause harm to the victims’ physical and psychological functions. This study was conducted to evaluate the risk of incident psychiatric disorders in sexual assault victims. Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database was used to conduct a nationwide population-based cohort study to assess the risk of incident psychiatric disorders in sexual assault victims and to further evaluate the respective risk estimates on the basis of diagnostic patterns. A total of 81 sexual assault victims and 324 controls matched by sex, age and residential area were included. The mean age of the sexual assault victims was 18.39 (sd 10.23) years, and 93.83% (76/81) of the sample were females. Sexual assault victims had a higher incidence density of psychiatric disorders than did the control group (9.2% per year, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–33.2% per year v. 1.1% per year, 95% CI .4–15.7% per year; p=.037). Sexual assault was an independent risk factor for incident psychiatric disorders, with an incidence rate ratio of 3.40 (95% CI 1.04–26.41) after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Assessment of psychiatric disorders should be implemented in the integrative care of sexual assault victims. Physicians providing clinical care to the sexual assault victims should receive more all-round training to understand and manage this type of violence.

Effects of annealing temperature on stress corrosion susceptibility of AA5083–H15 alloys were studied by annealing specimens at 150, 200, 250, 300, and 350 °C before sensitization. Nitric acid mass loss testing and slow strain rate testing were conducted to investigate intergranular corrosion (IGC) and stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Results indicate that H15 alloy was less susceptible to IGC, but this alloy had the highest susceptibility to IGC and SCC after sensitization. Due to the continuous precipitation of β phase, the sensitized 150 and 200 °C alloys were highly susceptible to IGC and SCC. The 250 °C alloy was less susceptible to IGC because of the absence of the precipitation of β phase. After sensitization, this alloy was also less susceptible to IGC and SCC on account of the discontinuous precipitation of β phase. The sensitized 300 and 350 °C alloys were susceptible to IGC but less susceptible to SCC because of their lower strength and higher elongation.

We report that the high crystalline and high efficiency green emission semipolar {101̅1} InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown on the {101̅1} facets of GaN nanopyramid arrays by selective area epitaxy. Clear and sharp interfaces of the semipolar {101̅1} InGaN/GaN MQWs was observed by transmission electron microscopy images. As comparing with (0001) MQWs, the internal electric field of {101̅1} MQWs was remarkably reduced from 1.7 MV/cm to 0.5 MV/cm, and the room temperature (RT) internal quantum efficiency (IQE) at green emission was enhanced by about 80%. This greatly enhancement of IQE is due to suppress the polarization effect in the {101̅1} MQWs which shorten the radiative recombination to compete with nonradiative recombination at RT. These results evince that the {101̅1} planes are promising for solving the efficiency green gap of III-nitride light emitters.

The product and direct role of the rssC gene of Serratia marcescens is unknown. For unraveling the role of the rssC gene, atomic force microscopy has been used to identify the surfaces of intact S. marcescens wild-type CH-1 cells and rssC mutant CH-1ΔC cells. The detailed surface topographies were directly visualized, and quantitative measurements of the physical properties of the membrane structures were provided. CH-1 and CH-1ΔC cells were observed before and after treatment with lysozyme, and their topography-related parameters, e.g., a valley-to-peak distance, mean height, surface roughness, and surface root-mean-square values, were defined and compared. The data obtained suggest that the cellular surface topography of mutant CH-1ΔC becomes rougher and more precipitous than that of wild-type CH-1 cells. Moreover, it was found that, compared with native wild-type CH-1, the cellular surface topography of lysozyme-treated CH-1 was not changed profoundly. The product of the rssC gene is thus predicted to be mainly responsible for fatty-acid biosynthesis of the S. marcescens outer membrane. This study represents the first direct observation of the structural changes in membranes of bacterial mutant cells and offers a new prospect for predicting gene expression in bacterial cells.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, August 3 – August 7, 2008

The optimized N2O fluence is demonstrated for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of Si-rich substoichiometric silicon oxide (SiOx) films with buried Si nanocrystals. Strong room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) at 550-870 nm has been observed in SiOx films grown by PECVD under a constant SiH4 fluence of 20 sccm with an N2O fluence varying from 105 sccm to 130 sccm. A 22-nm-redshift in the central PL wavelength has been detected after annealing from 15 min to 180 min. The maximum PL irradiance is observed from the SiOx film grown at the optimal N2O fluence of 120 sccm after annealing for 30 minutes. Larger N2O fluence or longer annealing time leads to a PL band that is blue-shifted by 65 nm and 20 nm, respectively. Such a blue shift is attributed to shrinkage in the size of the Si nanocrystals with the participation of oxygen atoms from N2O incorporated within the SiOx matrix. The (220)-oriented Si nanocrystals exhibit radii ranging from 4.4 nm to 5.0 nm as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The luminescent lifetime lengthens to 52 μs as the nc-Si size increase to > 4 nm. Optimal annealing times for SiOx films prepared at different N2O fluences are also reported. A longer annealing process results in a stronger oxidation effect in SiOx films prepared at higher N2O fluences, yielding a lower PL irradiance at shorter wavelengths. In contrast, larger Si nanocrystals can be precipitated when the N2O fluence becomes lower; however, such a SiOx film usually exhibits weaker PL at longer wavelength due to a lower nc-Si density. These results indicate that a N2O/SiH4 fluence ratio of 6:1 is the optimized PECVD growth condition for the Si-rich SiO2 wherein dense Si nanocrystals are obtained after annealing.