The effects of early thiamine use on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) are unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between early thiamine administration and clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with AKI. The data of critically ill patients with AKI within 48 h after ICU admission were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC III) database. PSM was used to match patients early receiving thiamine treatment to those not early receiving thiamine treatment. The association between early thiamine use and in-hospital mortality due to AKI was determined using a logistic regression model. A total of 15 066 AKI patients were eligible for study inclusion. After propensity score matching (PSM), 734 pairs of patients who did and did not receive thiamine treatment in the early stage were established. Early thiamine use was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (OR 0·65; 95 % CI 0·49, 0·87; P < 0·001) and 90-d mortality (OR 0·58; 95 % CI 0·45, 0·74; P < 0·001), and it was also associated with the recovery of renal function (OR 1·26; 95 % CI 1·17, 1·36; P < 0·001). In the subgroup analysis, early thiamine administration was associated with lower in-hospital mortality in patients with stages 1 to 2 AKI. Early thiamine use was associated with improved short-term survival in critically ill patients with AKI. It was possible beneficial role in patients with stages 1 to 2 AKI according to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria.

Engineered biomaterials provide unique functions to overcome the bottlenecks seen in biomedicine. Hence, a technique for rapid and routine tests of collagen is required, in which the test items commonly include molecular weight, crosslinking degree, purity, and sterilization induced structural change. Among them, the crosslinking degree mainly influences collagen properties. In this study, second harmonic generation (SHG) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy are used in combination to explore the collagen structure at molecular and macromolecular scales. These measured parameters are applied for the classification and quantification among the different collagen scaffolds, which were verified by other conventional methods. It is demonstrated that the crosslinking status can be analyzed from SHG images and presented as the coherency of collagen organization that is correlated with the mechanical properties. Also, the comparative analyses of SHG signal and relative CARS signal of amide III band at 1,240 cm−1 to δCH2 band at 1,450 cm−1 of these samples provide information regarding the variation of the molecular structure during a crosslinking process, thus serving as nonlinear optical signatures to indicate a successful crosslinking.

Interfacial reactions at 100 and 150 °C in the Sn–20.48 at.% In–3.05 at.% Ag (Sn–20.0 wt% In–2.8 wt% Ag)/Ni couples are studied. Three unusual phenomena are observed. First, liquation is found in Sn–20.48 at.% In–3.05 at.% Ag (Sn–In–Ag)/Ni couples that are reacted at 150 °C, which is lower than the melting points of both the solder and the Ni substrate. In addition to the Ni3Sn4 phase, liquid phase is formed in the reaction layer. Second, the liquid phase disappears and isothermal solidification occurs when there is prolonged isothermal heat treatment at 150 °C. The results are similar to those for transient liquid phase bonding. Third, the thickness of the reaction layer in Sn–In–Ag/Ni couples that are reacted for 1440 h at 150 °C is 40 times thicker than that of those reacted at 100 °C. The reaction mechanisms for these three unusual phenomena: liquation, isothermal solidification, and an extraordinary increase in the reaction rate for only 50 °C difference in temperature are elaborated and are related to each other.

Depth penetration per cycle and its retardation exhibited in specimens of 6061 Al were studied. By holding the maximum load reached during loading prior to cyclic oscillating, the creep could be effectively attenuated from the cyclic indentation. Constant depth penetration of sub-nanometers per cycle was found. The interrupt segments with different amplitudes (over- and underloading) or frequencies (frequency increasing and decreasing), but with same mean load, induced immediate retardations of cyclic indentation. As the interrupt segments have more than 10 cycles, the retardation is enhanced with the increase of cycle number. Accumulation of strain hardening due to stress concentration under the indenter tip is proposed to be the mechanism by which interrupt oscillation retards subsequent cyclic indentation.