The synthesis, isomeric separation, and identification of β-sulphonic phthalocyanine zinc complexes were reported. While the sulphonic phthalocyanines have been studied extensively, the development of separation technology may enable deeper insights into their isomeric constitution. An ion-pair reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (IP-RP-HPLC) method was developed to separate the sulphonic phthalocyanine isomers. The results showed that the product of the condensation reaction is a mixture of all possible isomers with statistical distribution. Several isomers were obtained and structural determination was undertaken by NMR. Based on the IP-RP-HPLC elution sequence of these well-identified isomers, a relationship between the structure and efficiency was deduced: closely spaced intervals of sulphonic groups lead to higher hydrophobicity and shorter retention times on HPLC. Based on this relationship, each HPLC peak was assigned to the corresponding isomeric structure.

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Background Atopy may be associated with disease severity and a poor prognosis of human adenovirus (HAdV) pneumonia in children. Our aim was to observe the clinical characteristics and pulmonary radiological changes in children with atopy and HAdV pneumonia in China. Methods Children hospitalised with HAdV pneumonia from June 2018 to December 2019 were analysed. All children were divided into atopic with HAdV, non-atopic with HAdV, and atopic without HAdV infection group. Each group was further divided into the mild and severe pneumonia groups according to disease severity. Standard treatment was initiated after admission, and regular follow-up evaluations were conducted at 1 month after discharge. Baseline and clinical characteristics and pulmonary radiological changes in children with and without atopy were evaluated. Risk factors associated with small airway lesions in patients with HAdV pneumonia were analysed. Results The eosinophil count in the atopic group was significantly higher than that in the non-atopic group (P < 0.05). Severe coughing, wheezing, and small airway lesions on chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) upon admission, after discharge and 1 month after discharge were significantly higher in the atopic group (with or without HAdV infection) than in the non-atopic group (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in the number of patients with wheezing and small airway lesions during hospitalisation and after discharge among the three groups (P < 0.05). The risks of small airway lesions in children with a family or personal history of asthma, severe infection, atopy, and HAdV infection were 2.1-, 2.7-, 1.9-, 2.1-, and 1.4-times higher than those in children without these characteristics, respectively. Conclusions Children with atopy and HAdV pneumonia may experience severe coughing in mild cases and wheezing in mild and severe cases. Children with atopy are more susceptible to the development of small airway lesions, recurrent wheezing after discharge and slower recovery of small airway lesions as observed on pulmonary imaging than non-atopic children after HAdV infection. A family or personal history of asthma, atopy, severe infection, and HAdV infection are independent risk factors associated with the development of small airway lesion as observed on chest HRCT.

Radial velocity estimation used in wide-band radar systems is investigated. By analyzing the signal of cross-correlation output of adjacent echoes, it is found that the frequency and phase of the cross-correlation output are related to the target's radial velocity. Since the precision of the phase estimation is higher than that of the frequency, a phase-based velocity estimator is proposed. However, the ambiguity problem exists in the phase estimators, and thus the estimation of the cross-correlation of adjacent echoes (CCAE) is used to calculate the ambiguity number. The root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of the proposed estimator is derived. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than that of the frequency-based estimator.