Microstructure of the coating obtained by magnetron sputtering of a Ni-Cr-B4C composite target

This paper presents data on obtaining a composite coating by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering of a Ni-Cr-B4C composite target in an inert gas (argon) environment. To make the target, Ni-Cr-B4C composite powder was applied to the copper base of the target by detonation gas-thermal spraying. The obtained targets served as a source of coating material during high-frequency magnetron sputtering. This method of coating production ensures the reproducibility of their properties, as well as the uniformity of coating thickness and good adhesion to various target backings. The data of the study of the structure and morphology of the composite coating are presented. The resulting composite coating Ni-B/Cr7C3 with a thickness of 2 microns has a dense homogeneous structure with expressed textured polycrystallinity. The surface of the resulting coating is represented by nanoscale and homogeneous grains. There is no columnar crystal growth in the coating, which has a positive effect, as the columnar structure reduces the mechanical characteristics of the coatings due to faster oxygen diffusion along the grain boundaries. It is established that the combined use of the Ni-B and Cr7C3 binary phases in composite coatings leads to an increase in operational properties.

Exploring the Mechanism of Action of Herbal Medicine (Gan-Mai-Da-Zao Decoction) for Poststroke Depression Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Background. Poststroke depression (PSD) is the most common and serious neuropsychiatric complication occurring after cerebrovascular accidents, seriously endangering human health while also imposing a heavy burden on society. Nevertheless, it is difficult to control disease progression. Gan-Mai-Da-Zao Decoction (GMDZD) is effective for PSD, but its mechanism of action in PSD is unknown. In this study, we explored the mechanism of action of GMDZD in PSD treatment using network pharmacology and molecular docking. Material and methods. We obtained the active components of all drugs and their targets from the public database TCMSP and published articles. Then, we collected PSD-related targets from the GeneCards and OMIM databases. Cytoscape 3.8.2 was applied to construct PPI and composite target disease networks. In parallel, the DAVID database was used to perform GO and KEGG enrichment analyses to determine the biological processes enriched in the treatment-related drugs in vivo. Finally, molecular docking was used to verify the association between the main active ingredients and their targets. Results. The network pharmacological analysis of GMDZD in PSD revealed 107 active ingredients with important biological effects, including quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, naringenin, and isorhamnetin. In total, 203 potential targets for the treatment of this disease were screened, including STAT3, JUN, TNF, TPT53, AKT1, and EGFR. These drugs are widely enriched in a series of signaling pathways, such as TNF, HIF-1, and toll-like receptor. Moreover, molecular docking analysis showed that the core active components were tightly bound to their core targets, further confirming their anti-PSD effects. Conclusion. This prospective study was based on the integrated analysis of large data using network pharmacology technology to explore the feasibility of GMDZD for PSD treatment that was successfully validated by molecular docking. It reflects the multicomponent and multitarget characteristics of Chinese medicine and, more importantly, brings hope for the clinical treatment of PSD.

NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CERAMIC/STEEL COMPOSITE FOR STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

The Terminal ballistics is the study of science that deals with the interaction involved in two impacting bodies. This research focused on the high-impact resistance of layered composite comprising of alumina ceramic and armour steel. The composite was designed to have ceramic as the facial plate with armour steel as its backing plate. For the numerical study, the ceramic thickness was varied (6, 8, 10, 12 mm) while keeping the thickness of backing steel constant (7 mm). The projectile, 7.62 mm armour-piercing (AP), was set with a velocity of 838 m/s and made to impact the different ceramic–steel composite target configurations at zero obliquity. The study captured fracture processes of the ceramic, the deformation of projectile, and backing steel. An effective optimum thickness ratio of 1.4 (ceramic:steel; 10/7) for the ceramic/steel components with less deformation of the backing steel is found. Thereafter, the result of the numerical study was validated by experimental ballistic investigation of the determined optimum ceramic/steel ratio. The experiment corroborated the simulation results as the alumina ceramic provided efficient protection to armour steel component after a severe interaction with the impacting projectile.

Exploring The Mechanism of Action of Herbal Medicine (Gan-Mai-Da-Zao Decoction) For Post-Stroke Depression Based On Network Pharmacology And Molecular Docking

Backgrounds: Post-stroke depression is the most common and serious neuropsychiatric complication occurring after cerebrovascular accidents, seriously endangering human health while also imposing a heavy burden on society. Even so, it is difficult to have drugs to contain the progression of the disease. It’s reported that Gan-Mai-Da-Zao decoction was effective to PSD, but it is unknown on its mechanism of action for PSD. In this study, we aimed to explore the possible mechanisms of action of Gan-Mai-Da-Zao decoction in the treatment of PSD using network pharmacology and molecular docking.Material and methods: We obtained the active components and their targets of all drugs from the public database TCMSP and published articles. Then, we collected the PSD-related targets from GeneCards and OMIM databases. Cytoscape 3.8.2 was applied to construct PPI and composite target disease networks. In parallel, the DAVID database was used to perform GO and KEGG enrichment analysis to obtain the biological processes involved in drug treatment diseases in vivo. Finally, molecular docking was used to verify the association between the main active ingredients and the targets.Results: The network pharmacological analysis of Gan-Mai-Da-Zao decoction for PSD identified 107 active ingredients with important biological effects, including quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, naringenin, isorhamnetin, etc. A total of 203 potential targets for drug treatment of diseases were screened, including STAT3, JUN, TNF, TPT53, AKT1, EGFR, etc. They were found to be widely enriched in a series of signaling pathways such as TNF, HIF-1, and the Toll-Like receptor. Meanwhile, molecular docking analysis showed that the core active components were tightly bound to the core targets, further confirming their anti-PSD effects.Conclusion: This is a prospective study based on the integration and analysis of large data, using the technology of network pharmacology to explore the feasibility of Gan-Mai-Da-Zao decoction for the treatment of PSD, and successfully validated by molecular docking. It reflects the multi-component and multi-target characteristics of Chinese medicine, and more importantly, it also brings hope to the clinical treatment of PSD.

Pharmacist Impact on Physician Practices Related to Diabetes Management

To examine the impact of a pharmacist’s physical presence on (1) the achievement of individual and combined targets for hemoglobin A1c (A1C), blood pressure (BP), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (composite target), and (2) physician practices in relation to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) standards of medical care. Methods A retrospective, comparative study of randomly selected diabetic patients seen within an underserved primary care setting at least twice annually between June 1, 2018- December 31, 2019. Patients were allocated by whether they had received care in one of the physician-pharmacist clinics (Group A) or the physician-only clinic (Group B). Study outcomes included the proportion of patients achieving the composite and individual treatment targets for A1C, BP, and LDL-C. Results A total of 394 patients were included; Majority were underserved African Americans. The composite target was attained by 20% of participants in Group A and 13% in Group B (p=0.09). There were no statistically significant differences in achievement of individual targets between groups. A significantly higher proportion of participants in Group A achieved better control of diastolic blood pressure control (85% vs. 74%), had microalbuminuria tested (50% vs. 12%), were prescribed aspirin (43% vs. 32%), and had lower utilization of non-insulin glucose-lowering agents relative to those in Group B. Conclusion The impact of a pharmacist’s physical presence on physician practice demonstrated a general trend towards improvement in clinical outcomes related to diabetes management. Future studies are needed to further characterize the impact provided by the physician-pharmacist relationship.

A Fast, Hybrid, Time-Domain Discontinuous Galerkin-Physical Optics Method for Composite Electromagnetic Scattering Analysis

To accelerate the solution of transient electromagnetic scattering from composite scatters, a novel hybrid discontinuous Galerkin time domain (DGTD) and time-domain physical optics (TDPO) method is proposed. The DGTD method is used to solve the accurate scattering field of the multi-scale objects region, and a hybrid explicit-implicit time integration method is also used to improve the efficiency of multi-scale problems in the time domain. Meanwhile, the TDPO method is used to accelerate the speed of surface current integration in an electrically large region. In addition, the DGTDPO method considers the mutual coupling between two regions, and effectively reduces the number of numerical calculations for the other space of the composite target, thereby significantly reducing the computer memory consumption. Numerical results certified the high efficiency and accuracy of the hybrid DGTDPO. According to the results, in comparison with the DGTD algorithm in the entire computational domain, the DGTDPO method can reduce computing time and memory by 90% and 70% respectively. Meanwhile, the normalized root mean square deviation (NRMSD) of the time-domain, high-frequency approximation method is over 0.2, and that of the DGTDPO method is only 0.0971. That is, compared with the approximation methods, the hybrid method improves the accuracy by more than 64%.

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering of In2O3/Sn Cold Sprayed Composite Target

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) was used for deposition of indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent thin films at low substrate temperature. A hybrid-type composite target was self-prepared by low-pressure cold spraying process. Prior to spraying In2O3 and oxidized Sn powders were mixed in a volume ratio of 3:1. Composite In2O3/Sn coating had a mean thickness of 900 µm. HiPIMS process was performed in various mixtures of Ar:O2: (i) 100:0 vol.%, (ii) 90:10 vol.%, (iii) 75:25 vol.%, (iv) 50:50 vol.%, and (v) 0:100 vol.%. Oxygen rich atmosphere was necessary to oxidize tin atoms. Self-design, simple high voltage power switch capable of charging the 20 µF capacitor bank from external high voltage power supply worked as a power supply for an unbalanced magnetron source. ITO thin films with thickness in the range of 30–40 nm were obtained after 300 deposition pulses of 900 V and deposition time of 900 s. The highest transmission of 88% at λ = 550 nm provided 0:100 vol. % Ar:O2 mixture, together with the lowest resistivity of 0.03 Ω·cm.

Composite cardiovascular risk and BMI affected comparative profiles of BIAsp 30 + metformin vs BIAsp 30 monotherapy: a MERIT post-hoc analysis

We assessed whether comparative efficacy and safety of biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) plus metformin versus BIAsp 30 monotherapy differed for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) inadequately controlled with oral antidiabetic drugs with different cardiovascular risk scores and different body mass indexes (BMI) by performing a post hoc analysis of the randomized controlled MERIT study. In the MERIT study, eligible patients were randomized 1:1 to receive BIAsp 30 plus metformin or BIAsp 30 for 16 weeks. Patients in the 2 treatment groups were classified into “low” and “high” risk subgroups based on their GloboRisk scores and into “BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2”and “BMI > 26 kg/m2” subgroups. Primary efficacy endpoint was between-treatments comparison of HbA1c changes from baseline for these 2 sets of subgroups. Between-treatments comparisons of secondary efficacy and safety endpoints were also performed. We found that BIAsp 30 plus metformin led to significantly higher percentage of high-risk patients achieving HbA1c target < 7% than BIAsp 30 monotherapy, with an overall comparable safety profile for high-risk patients. Meanwhile, for patients with BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2, compared with BIAsp 30 monotherapy, BIAsp 30 plus metformin led to significantly higher percentages of patients achieving HbA1c target (47.83% vs 28.17%, P = 0.0165) and composite target of HbA1c < 7% without hypoglycemia or weight gain (20.29% vs 6.85%, P = 0.0187) and have a slightly better safety profile. In conclusion, for T2DM patients at high CV risk or with BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2, BIAsp 30 plus metformin was preferable to BIAsp 30 monotherapy.