Albert C. Hergenroeder¹, Douglas S. Moodie², Daniel J. Penny², Constance M. Wiemann¹, Blanca Sanchez-Fournier¹, Lauren K. Moore², Jane Head³

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.4, pp. 548-553, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12604

Abstract Objective: To describe changes in functional status between the last pediatric and first adult congenital heart disease (CHD) clinic visits in patients with moderate to severe CHD after implementing a healthcare transition (HCT) planning program.
Design: Quasi-experimental design. Patients were followed prospectively following the implementation of the intervention; Control patients transitioned from the Pediatric CHD Clinic into Adult CHD Clinic before the intervention.
Setting: Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH).
Patients: Sixteen to 25-year-olds, cognitively normal, English speaking patients with moderate to severe CHD who transitioned from the Pediatric to the Adult CHD clinic.
Interventions: An EMR-based transition planning tool (TPT) was… More >

Justin Georgekutty¹, Amir Kazerouninia², YunFei Wang³, Peter R. Ermis⁴, Dhaval R. Parekh⁴, Wayne J. Franklin⁴, Wilson W. Lam⁴

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.4, pp. 541-547, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12603

Abstract Objective: Adult Fontan patients are at increased risk for thrombosis and thromboembolic complications leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Most are prescribed antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy for thromboprophylaxis; novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are uncommonly used given lack of data on their use in this population and generalized concerns regarding Fontan patients’ abnormal coagulation. We report the largest single-center experience with the use of NOACs for treatment and prophylaxis of thrombosis and thromboembolism in adult Fontan patients.
Results: A retrospective chart review identified 21 patients (11 female, 10 male), median age 33 years (18-50) at first initiation, who were prescribed a… More >

Natasha L. Lopez, Charitha Gowda, Carl H. Backes, Deipanjan Nandi, Holly Miller-Tate, Samantha Fichtner, Robin Allen, Jamie Stewart, Clifford L. Cua

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.4, pp. 512-518, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12602

Abstract Introduction: Neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) are at increased risk for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Initial hospital outcomes are well described, but minimal midterm data exist. Goal of this study was to compare outcomes of HLHS infants with NEC (HLHS-NEC) to HLHS without NEC (HLHS-nNEC) during the interstage period.
Methods: Data were reviewed from 55 centers using the NPC-QIC database. Case-control study with one HLHS-NEC matched to HLHS-nNEC neonates in a 1:3 ratio based on institutional site, type of surgical repair, and gestational age ±1 week was performed. Baseline demographics as well as outcome data were recorded. The t… More >

Shahnawaz M. Amdani¹, Muhammad Umair M. Mian², Ron L. Thomas³, Robert D. Ross⁴

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.4, pp. 499-505, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12601

Abstract Aim: To evaluate predictors of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH), laboratory and echocardiographic measures of PH were analyzed.
Methods: A retrospective review of all infants and children< 2 years of age with PH from January 2011 to August 2016 was conducted. Correlations were determined using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Differences in characteristics between survivors and nonsurvivors were analyzed and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated.
Results: Of 56 patients, the majority were extremely premature; of African American ethnicity; and had bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Patients who died were more likely to have underlying congenital heart disease; have a… More >

Lixia Gao¹, Sheng Shi^1,2,*, Wensheng Hou¹, Shuhua Wang¹, Zhifeng Yan¹, Chao Ge¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 703-713, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09055

Abstract In this study, waste cotton fabric was used as cellulose raw material and pretreated in aqueous NaOH/urea solution system to investigate the effect of NaOH/urea pretreatment solution on the hydrolysis of cotton fiber. The cotton fiber was pretreated with different conditions of aqueous NaOH/urea solution, and the pretreated cotton fiber was hydrolyzed under the same conditions as the original cotton fiber. The results of characterization analysis showed that water retention value of pretreated cotton fiber was higher than that of unpretreated sample. Moreover, the cotton fiber presented both a convoluted structure and a coarser surface, XRD results suggested that the… More >

Jialiang Zhang¹, Zhenwen Zhang², Keting Tong¹, Jianmin Wang², Yushun Li^3,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 687-702, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09513

Abstract The steel-bamboo composite structure is a newly developed structure, combining phyllostachys pubescens (also called Moso bamboo) plywood and cold-formed thin-walled steel with structural adhesive. The reliability of steelbamboo interface is the premise of composite effect. 13 specimens were prepared to investigate the failure modes and mechanism of the steel-bamboo interface on the basis of push-out test, and the strain difference analysis method was proposed to study the distribution of shear stress. The results show that the main failure modes of steel-bamboo interface are adhesion failure and splitting of bamboo plywood. The shear stress is not evenly distributed along the longitudinal… More >

Dragomir Vassilev^1,*, Nadezhda Petkova², Yulian Tumbarski³, Milena Koleva¹, Panteley Denev²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 675-686, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09279

Abstract Undenicylic acid (10:1) is known as an antifungal agent and an active ingredient of many topical medicines [1–6]. The present research investigates the preparation of aliphatic esters of 10-undecylic acid with butanol and i-amyl alcohol by the conventional and ultrasound-assisted syntheses as well as the structural elucidation of the resulting compounds, by FTIR and NMR spectroscopy. The antimicrobial properties of the obtained 10-undecylenic esters were tested against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus; Enterococcus faecalis; Listeria monocytogenes), Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli; Salmonella sp.) and filamentous fungi (Penicillium sp.; Aspergillus niger; Fusarium moniliforme) using the conventional agar-well diffusion assay. The results demonstrated that… More >

Nikolajs Vedernikovs^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 661-674, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09274

Abstract The main principles of the technological realisation of the furfural obtaining process have been formulated by Ricard [1]. Based on his recommendations, all investigators proceeded from the assumption that the depolymerisation of pentosans and the dehydration of pentoses in the one-step production of furfural from raw plant material must be accelerated with diluted catalyst solutions. According to this theory, uniform impregnation of the raw material with a catalyst solution is considered necessary. The reduction in the amount of the catalyst solution down to 30–40% of the mass of the dry raw material, suggested by Miner et al. [2], made the… More >

N. S. B. Yusof^1,2, S. M. Sapuan^1,3,*, M. T. H. Sultan^1,4, M. Jawaid¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 647-660, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.08309

Abstract In this study, the best manufacturing process will be selected to build an automotive crash box using green oil palm natural fibre-reinforced polyurethane composite materials. This paper introduces an approach consist of technical aspects (T), the economic point of view (E) and availability (A), and it’s also called as TEA requirement. This approach was developed with the goal of assisting the design engineer in the selection of the best manufacturing process during the design phase at the criteria selection stage. In this study, the TEA requirement will integrate with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to assist decision makers or manufacturing… More >

Xing Zhou^1,*, Xin Zhang¹, Dong Wang¹, Changqing Fang^1,*, Wanqing Lei¹, Zhigang Huang², Yonghua Song¹, Xinyu He¹, Yingwei Huang¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 631-645, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.010176

Abstract Cellulose plays a key role in abundant organic natural materials meeting the increasing demand for green and biocompatible products. The highly crystalline nanoscale component of cellulose nanocrystals has recently attracted great attention due to the versatile performance as filler or matrix in producing functional materials. In this work, we prepared the waterborne polyurethane via a prepolymer process, and obtained cellulose and cellulose nanocrystals from waste paper via a facile acid hydrolysis process. After that, the cellulose nanocrystals were assembled into film and mixed with polyurethane to prepare flexible polyurethane/cellulose nanocrystals composite membrane with different soaking time. The correlation between the… More >