Changes in T lymphocyte subsets after severe traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND： Besides local changes of cranial parenchymal cells, hemorrhage, etc., severe traumatic brain injuries also cause the changes of total body fluid and various functions, and the changes of lymphocytes and T lymphocyte subsets should be paid more attention to. OBJECTIVE： To reveal the changing laws of T lymphocyte subsets after severe traumatic brain injury, and compare with mild to moderate brain injury. DESIGN： A comparative observation. SETTINGS： Department of Neurosurgery, Longgang District Buji People＇s Hospital of Shenzhen City; Central Laboratory of Shenzhen Hospital of Prevention and Cure for Chronic Disease. PARTICIPANTS： All the subjects were selected from the Department of Neurosurgery, Longgang District Buji People＇s Hospital of Shenzhen City from August 2002 to August 2005. Thirty patients with severe brain injury, whose Glasgow coma score （GCS） was ≤ 8 points, were taken as the experimental group, including 21 males and 9 females, aging 16 - 62 years. Meanwhile, 30 patients with mild traumatic brain injury were taken as the control group （GCS ranged 14- 15 points）, including 18 males and 12 females, aging 15 -58 years. All the subjects were in admission at 6 hours after injury, without disease of major organs before injury Informed consents were obtained from all the patients or their relatives. METHODS： （1） The T lymphocytes and the subsets in peripheral blood were detected with immunofluorescent tricolor flow cytometry at l, 3, 7 and 14 days after injury in both groups. （2） The conditions of pulmonary infections were observed at 4 days after injury. The differences of measurement data were compared with the t test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Changes of T lymphocytes subsets at 1 - 14 days after severe and mild or moderate traumatic injury. RESULTS： Finally, 28 and 25 patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, whereas 25 and 21 patients with severe traumatic brain injury were analyzed at 7 and 14 days respectively, and the missed ones died due to the development of disease. （1） Changes of T lymphocyte subsets： At 1 and 3 days after injury, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8 began to decrease, whereas CD8 increased in the experimental group, which were very significantly different from those in the control group （t =2.77 - 3.26, P 〈 0.01）, and began to recover at 7 days, which were significantly different from those in the control group （t = 2.06 - 2.24, P 〈 0.05）, and generally recovered to the normal levels at 14 days （P 〉 0.05）. （2） Conditions of pulmonary infections： At 4 days after injury, the rate of pulmonary infection was significantly different between the experimental group and control group [73% （22/30）, 0, x2=37.29, P 〈 0.01]. CONCLUSION： Patients with severe traumatic brain injury suffer from damages of cellular immune function at early period （within 7 days）, and they are easily to be accompanied by pulmonary infections.

High-entropy(Sm_(0.2)Eu_(0.2)Gd_(0.2)Dy_(0.2)Er_(0.2))_(2)Hf_(2)O_(7) ceramic with superb resistance to radiation-induced amorphization

Nuclear engineering materials are required to possess outstanding extreme environmental tolerance and irradiation resistance.A promising novel pyrochlore-type of(Sm_(0.2)Eu_(0.2)Gd_(0.2)Dy_(0.2)Er_(0.2))2 Hf_(2)O_(7)high-entropy ceramic(HE-RE2 Hf_(2)O_(7))for control rod was prepared by solid-state reaction method.The ion irradiation of HE-RE_(2) Hf_(2)O_(7)with 400 keV Kr+at 400℃was investigated using a 400 kV ion implanter and compared with single-component pyrochlore Gd2 Hf_(2)O_(7)to evaluate the irradiation resistance.For HE-RE2 Hf_(2)O_(7),the phase transition from pyrochlore to defective fluorite is revealed after irradiation at 60 dpa.After irradiation at 120 dpa,it maintained crystalline,which is comparable to Gd2 Hf_(2)O_(7)but superior to the titanate pyrochlores previously studied.Moreover,the lattice expansion of HE-RE2 Hf_(2)O_(7)(_(0.2)2%)is much lower than that of Gd2 Hf_(2)O_(7)(0.62%),indicating excellent irradiation damage resistance.Nanoindentation tests displayed an irradiation-induced increase in hardness and a decrease in elastic modulus by about 2.6%.Irradiation-induced segregation of elements is observed on the surface of irradiated samples.In addition,HE-RE2 Hf_(2)O_(7)demonstrates a more sluggish grain growth rate than Gd2 Hf_(2)O_(7)at 1200℃,suggesting better high-temperature stability.The linear thermal expansion coefficient of HE-RE2 Hf_(2)O_(7)is 10.7×10-6 K-1 at 298–1273 K.In general,it provides a new strategy for the design of the next advanced nuclear engineering materials.

Neodymium and samarium codoped PLZT ferroelectric ceramics for potential betavoltaic nuclear batteries

In this work,neodymium(Nd)and samarium(Sm)codoped lead lanthanum zirconate titanate(PLZT)ceramics were prepared by a high-temperature solid-state method.The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy and ferroelectric analysis.Rare earth-doped PLZT ceramics show good phase formation.An appropriate rare earth element doping amount increases the densities of PLZT ceramics and reduces their resistivities,which is due to the role of rare earth elements in grain refinement.However,the increase in the amount of grain boundaries caused by grain refinement also affects domain inversion.Therefore,with increasing doping concentration,the remnant polarization of PLZT gradually decreases,and the doping of rare earth elements also slightly reduces the band gap of PLZT.Under irradiation with an X-ray simulated beta source with a particle energy of 10 keV(between the average energies of the beta particles of^3H and^(63)Ni),the ceramic sheets in this work produce current densities of up to 1.38 nA/cm^2.This indicates that Nd and Sm codoped PLZT ceramics have a certain potential for application in betavoltaic batteries.

Novel Sc-doped Bi_(3)TiNbO_(9) ferroelectric nanofibers prepared by electrospinning for visible-light photocatalysis

In this work,a novel Sc-doped Bi_(3)TiNbO_(9) ferroelectric nanofiber was first prepared by electrospinning.The nanofibers are approximately 100 nm level in diameter.The photocatalytic activity analysis reveals that the Bi_(3)TiNbO_(9) nanofibers synthesized by electrospinning are superior to powders prepared by the solid-state method,which is mainly attributed to the high specific surface area and high surface activity of the nanofibers.In addition,doping Sc can reduce the band gap of Bi_(3)TiNbO_(9) and further improve the photocatalytic efficiency.Bi_(3)TiNbO_(9) nanofibers containing 5 mol%Sc have the highest photocatalytic activity,which can degrade 98.55%of RhB under 405 nm light irradiation for 120 min.In addition,the catalytic mechanism of the catalyst was obtained by scavenger tests,active species capture tests and band structure analyses.After three cycles of photocatalytic experiment,the degradation rate is decreased by only 2.42%,proving that the nanofibers catalyst has excellent stability.This work provides good prospects for the practical application of electrospinning technology in the field of photocatalysis.