The reduction of Cu(II) oxide species in siliceous matrixes of different porosity (MFI, FAU, MCM-48) and in alumosilicate MFI was studied by temperature-programmed reduction in hydrogen (TPR), by X-ray absorption fine structure (after stationary hydrogen treatments), and by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the reduction may proceed in one or in two reduction steps. The two-st...

AIM We hypothesized that microcirculatory dysfunction, similar to that seen in sepsis, occurs in post-cardiac arrest patients and that better microcirculatory flow will be associated with improved outcome. We also assessed the association between microcirculatory dysfunction and inflammatory markers in the post-cardiac arrest state. METHODS We prospectively evaluated the sublingual microcircu...

BACKGROUND Apheresis-based desensitization allows for successful transplantation across major immunological barriers. For donor-specific antibody (DSA)- and/or crossmatch-positive transplantation, however, it has been shown that even intense immunomodulation may not completely prevent antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR). METHODS In this study, we evaluated transplant outcomes in 101 DSA+ decea...

BACKGROUND The clinical relevance of the detection of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies in sera of renal transplant recipients by highly sensitive methods such as Luminex alone is uncertain and a matter of debate. The choice of output thresholds affects antibody detection and thus organ allocation, yet there are no internationally agreed threshold levels. This study aims at evaluating ou...

Microfinance sector has witnessed a burgeoning outreach under microfinance institutions model which poses a question on the sustainability of the programme. Even if repayment rate for the major MFIs are greater than 95 %, it may neither be an appropriate indicator of institutional sustainability nor on impact. In this paper an examination on the outreach and sustainability of microfinance insti...

Multi-frequency interferometry (MFI) is well known as an accurate phase-based measurement scheme. The paper reveals the inherent relationship of the unambiguous measurement range (UMR), the outlier probability, the MSE performance with the frequency pattern in MFI system, and then provides the corresponding criterion for choosing the frequency pattern. We point out that the theoretical rigorous...

Isotactic polypropylenes (iPP) with different melt flow indexes (MFI) were used to fabricate nanocomposites (NCs) with 10 wt % loadings of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using ultrasound-assisted extrusion methods to determine their effect on the morphology, melt flow, and electrical properties of the NCs. Three different types of iPPs were used with MFIs of 2.5, 34 and 1200 g/10 min. Fou...

OBJECTIVE To compare sperm characteristics among: patients undergoing infertility evaluation, patients with male factor infertility (MFI), healthy sperm donors, and men with proven fertility; to examine the overlap of sperm characteristics in all four of these groups; and to identify good discriminators of fertility versus infertility among sperm characteristics. DESIGN Retrospective study. ...

OBJECTIVE The diagnosis of hereditary red blood cell (RBC) membrane disorders, and in particular hereditary spherocytosis (HS) and Southeast Asian ovalocytosis (SAO), is based on clinical history, RBC morphology, and other conventional tests such as osmotic fragility. However, there are some milder cases of these disorders that are difficult to diagnose. The application of eosin-5'-maleimide (E...

Prolonged isolated thrombocytopenia (PT) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) has a great impact on transplant outcome. In this study, we performed a retrospective analysis to investigate the association of donor-specific anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies (DSAs) with PT in 394 patients who underwent unmanipulated haploidentical blood and marrow transplantation (HBMT...