Adequate facepiece fit of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) is crucial for optimal protection against airborne pathogens. The quantitative fit test (QNFT) pass rates of the 4 N95 FFR models commonly used in Korea were below 50%. Male sex was identified as a single independent predictive factor for QNFT pass.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:104–107

A life-threatening cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)-related injury can cause recurrent arrest after return of circulation. Such injuries are difficult to identify during resuscitation, and their contribution to failed resuscitation can be missed given the limitations of conventional CPR. Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR), increasingly being considered for selected patients with potentially reversible etiology of arrest, may identify previously occult CPR-related injuries by restoring arterial pressure and flow. Herein, we describe two cases of severe CPR-related injuries contributing to recurrent arrest. Each case had ECPR implemented within 60 minutes of the start of CPR. After the presumed cardiac etiology had been addressed with percutaneous coronary intervention, life-threatening cardiovascular injuries with recurrent arrest were noted, and resuscitative thoracotomy was performed under ECPR. One patient survived to hospital discharge.

ECPR may provide an opportunity to identify and correct severe resuscitation-related injuries causing recurrent arrest. Chest compression depth >6 cm, especially in older women, may contribute to these injuries.

The in vitro corrosion mechanism of the biodegradable cast Mg–10% Ca binary alloy in Hanks' solution was evaluated through transmission electron microscopy observations. The corrosion behavior depends strongly on the microstructural peculiarity of Mg2Ca phase surrounding the island-like primary Mg phase and the fast corrosion induced by the interdiffusion of O and Ca via the Mg2Ca phase of lamellar structure. At the corrosion front, we found that a nanosized crack-like pathway was formed along the interface between the Mg2Ca phase and the primary Mg phase. Through the crack-like pathway, O and Ca are atomically exchanged each other and then the corroded Mg2Ca phase was transformed to Mg oxides. The in vitro corrosion by the exchange of Ca and O at the nanosized pathway led to the rapid bulk corrosion in the Mg–Ca alloys.

Hypermucoviscous (HV) isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae have been linked to virulence potential in experimental infections. We examined 33 isolates of K. pneumoniae from patients with bacteraemia for the HV phenotype on agar culture, and determined their virulence potential by screening for capsular (K) serotype by polymerase chain reaction and the presence of seven virulence factor genes. Fourteen (42·4%) isolates expressed the HV phenotype and 11 of these were serotype K1 or K2; these serotypes were not identified in HV-negative isolates. The genes rmpA, rmpA2, aerobactin, wabG and allS were significantly more frequent in HV than non-HV isolates. Multilocus sequence typing identified 21 sequence types (ST), eight of which were found in HV-positive isolates and the clonal relatedness of isolates of the most frequent types (ST23 and ST11) from different hospitals was confirmed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The HV phenotype was more associated with community-acquired infection with a lower frequency of fatal underlying illness, but with significantly more focal infections, notably liver abscesses. Clinicians should be aware of such clinical impacts of the HV phenotype.

An organic/inorganic hybrid-type nonvolatile memory TFT was proposed as a core device for the future flexible electronics. The structural feature of this memory TFT was that a ferroelectric copolymer and an oxide semiconductor layers were employed as a gate insulator and an active channel, respectively. The memory TFT with the structure of Au/poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)/Al2O3/ZnO/Ti/Au/Ti/poly(ethylene naphthalate) could be successfully fabricated at the process temperature of below 150°C. It was confirmed that the TFT well operated as a memory device even under the bending situations.

Damage response of brittle curved structures subject to cyclic Hertzian indentation was investigated. Specimens were fabricated by bisecting cylindrical quartz glass hollow tubes. The resulting hemicylindrical glass shells were bonded internally and at the edges to polymeric supporting structures and loaded axially in water on the outer circumference with a spherical tungsten carbide indenter. Critical loads and number of cycles to initiate and propagate near-contact cone cracks and far-field flexure radial cracks to failure were recorded. Flat quartz glass plates on polymer substrates were tested as a control group. Our findings showed that cone cracks form at lower loads, and can propagate through the quartz layer to the quartz/polymer interface at lower number of cycles, in the curved specimens relative to their flat counterparts. Flexural radial cracks require a higher load to initiate in the curved specimens relative to flat structures. These radial cracks can propagate rapidly to the margins, the flat edges of the bisecting plane, under cyclic loading at relatively low loads, owing to mechanical fatigue and a greater spatial range of tensile stresses in curved structures.

In this study, we have investigated the structure of nickel-cobalt silicide to understand its behavior at high temperature. Nickel-cobalt silicide was formed after two-step RTP at 500°C and 700°C respectively. We could observe by TEM that nickel-cobalt silicide consists of a structure which seems to be a Ni-Co-Si ternary phase. No nickel silicide phases and cobalt silicide phases were detected in nickel-cobalt silicide by XRD. From XPS depth profile, we could confirm that there is a cobalt composition gradient along the silicide.

Epoxy-based copolymers were synthesized with N,N-diglycidyl aniline (DGA) and aniline (An), called poly(DGA-co-An), where azo coupling reactions were performed using amino benzonitrile (ABN) and nitro aniline (NA). Two azopolymers were dissolved with both tetrahydrofuran (THF)/dioxane complex solvent and THF to compare the diffraction efficiencies according to solvent. The thin films spin-cast with THF/dioxane showed the better diffractive efficiency than with THF due to the high boil point of the residual dioxane. The azopolymers of two azo bonds were spin-coated at 800 and 1300 rpm where the thicker film showed the better diffractive efficiency. The epoxy-based copolymers synthesized with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and aniline (An) or 3-hydroxyl aniline (HAn) were coupled with hydroxyl nitro amino benzene (HNAB). Hydroxyl groups in chromophores helped to form hydrogen bonding with the nitrogen atoms in the azo bonds and prevented photoisomerization, showing no surface relief gratings under a normal laser intensity of 100 mW/cm2. Polyurethane-based azopolymers were synthesized with disperse orange 17 (DO17) and toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI), which were no hydroxide groups in the main chains, and showed the better diffractive efficiency than the epoxy-based azopolymers with nitro substituents.

Aging processes are time-dependent, deteriorative functional changes. These functional changes lead to a progressive loss of the organism’s ability to withstand both internal and environmental stresses, causing the failure of cellular homeostasis. Among the modern hypotheses, the ‘Oxidative Stress Hypothesis’ offers the best mechanistic elucidation of aging phenomena. Based on the ‘Free Radical Theory of Aging’, this hypothesis has gained popularity among researchers in the field of gerontology as well as other biomedical fields. Its primary premise proposes that aging and its related disease processes are the net result of free radical-induced damage, asserting further that an organism’s inability to produce counterbalancing antioxidative defences, i.e. defences that offset disturbances in the redox state, underlies its cause.

The active sites and substrate bindings of Rhizobium trifolii molonyl-CoA synthetase (MCS) catalyzing the malonyl-CoA formation from malonate and CoA have been determined based on NMR spectroscopy, site-directed mutagenesis, and comparative modeling methods. The MCS-bound conformation of malonyl-CoA was determined from two-dimensional–transferred nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy data. MCS protein folds into two structural domains and consists of 16 α-helices, 24 β-strands, and several long loops. The core active site was determined as a wide cleft close to the end of the small C-terminal domain. The catalytic substrate malonate is placed between ATP and His206 in the MCS enzyme, supporting His206 in its catalytic role as it generates reaction intermediate, malonyl-AMP. These findings are strongly supported by previous biochemical data, as well as by the site-directed mutagenesis data reported here. This structure reveals the biochemical role as well as the substrate specificity that conservative residues of adenylate-forming enzymes have.

Diamond films were deposited on the p-type Si substrate with the hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD). Residual stresses in the films were measured in air by the laser curvature, the x-ray diffraction (XRD) dϕψ − sin2ψ, and the Raman peak shift methods. All of the measuring methods showed similar behaviors of residual stress that changed from a compressive to a tensile stress with increasing the film thickness. However, values of residual stresses obtained through the Raman and XRD methods were 3–4 times higher than those of the curvature method. These discrepancies involved the setting of materials constants of CVD diamond film, and determination of a peak shifting on the XRD and Raman method. In order to elucidate the disparity, we measured a Young's moduli of diamond films by using the sonic resonance method. In doing so, the Raman and XRD peak shift were calibrated by bending diamond/Si beams with diamond films by a known amount, with stress levels known a priori from the beam theory, and by monitoring the peak shifts simultaneously. Results of each measuring method showed well coincidental behaviors of residual stresses which have the stress range from −0.5 GPa to +0.7 GPa, and an intrinsic stress was caused about +0.7 GPa with tensile stress.

High quality ZnS epilayers were grown on GaAs and GaP substrates by hot wall epitaxy. The optimum temperature conditions for high quality ZnS epilayer were found. The photoluminescence(PL) spectrum of high quality ZnS epilayers showed sharp and narrow exciton peaks and no self-activated peaks. The room temperature energy gap of ZnS/GaAs was found to be 3.729 eV from the experimentally observed free exciton PL peaks. The temperature dependence of the PL intensity showed a two step quenching process and the temperature dependence of the PL linewidth broadening was tried to analyze in terms of exciton scattering process. From the splitting of the heavy hole and the light hole exciton peaks, the strain was identified.