Sepsis is commonly associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), particularly in those requiring dialysis (AKI-D). To date, Sepsis-3 criteria have not been applied to AKI-D patients. We investigated sepsis prevalence defined by Sepsis-3 criteria and evaluated the outcomes of septic-associated AKI-D among critically ill patients. Using the data collected from a prospective multi-center observational study, we applied the Sepsis-3 criteria to critically ill AKI-D patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs) in 30 hospitals between September 2014 and December 2015. We described the prevalence, outcomes, and characteristics of sepsis as defined by the screening Sepsis-3 criteria among AKI-D patients, and compared the outcomes of AKI-D patients with or without sepsis using the Sepsis-3 criteria. A total of 1078 patients (median 70 years; 673 (62.4%) men) with AKI-D were analyzed. The main etiology of AKI was sepsis (71.43%) and the most frequent indication for acute dialysis was oliguria (64.4%). A total of 577 (53.3% of 1078 patients) met the Sepsis-3 criteria, and 206 among the 577 patients (19.1%) had septic shock. Having sepsis and septic shock were independently associated with 90-day mortality among these ICU AKI-D patients (hazard ratio (HR) 1.23 (p = 0.027) and 1.39 (p = 0.004), respectively). Taking mortality as a competing risk factor, AKI-D patients with septic shock had a significantly reduced chance of weaning from dialysis at 90 days than those without sepsis (HR 0.65, p = 0.026). The combination of the Sepsis-3 criteria with the AKI risk score led to better performance in forecasting 90-day mortality. Sepsis affects more than 50% of ICU AKI patients requiring dialysis, and one-fifth of these patients had septic shock. In AKI-D patients, coexistent with or induced by sepsis (as screened by the Sepsis-3 criteria), there is a significantly higher mortality and reduced chance of recovering sufficient renal function, when compared to those without sepsis.

Abstract-A novel 16-31 GHz quadruple subharmonic monolithic passive mixer with a chip dimension of 0.82 × 0.7 mm 2 is designed and fabricated using the 0.15 µm GaAs pHEMT process. The novel configuration of the quadruple subharmonic mixer consists of a lumped frequency diplexer and a low-pass filter utilizing a pair of anti-parallel Schottky barrier diode to achieve quadruple subharmonic mixing mechanism. The lumped frequency diplexer formed with a low-pass network and a high-pass network is used to reduce the chip dimension while operating at low frequency band and to improve the isolation between the RF and LO ports with a broadband operation. The lowpass filter supports an IF frequency range from DC to 2.5 GHz. From the measured results, the mixer exhibits a 12.5-16.5 dB conversion loss, a LO-to-RF isolation better than 15 dB, a 50-59 dB high 4LO-to-RF isolation over 16-31 GHz RF bandwidth, and an input 1 dB compression power of 2 dBm.

Ammonia borane (AB, NH 3 BH 3 ) is considered a promising hydrogen storage material due to its high hydrogen capacity of 19.6 wt %. However, AB thermolysis for complete dehydrogenation requires high temperature. Moreover, AB regeneration is challenging because of the strong B−N bonding in the spent fuel, which causes low regeneration yield. It has been reported that combined effects of size control and basic functionality effectively facilitate AB dehydrogenation and regeneration. In this study, we focused on nanoconfined AB in porous zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8). The ligands of 2methylimidazole (2-mlm) in ZIF-8 were partially replaced with 3amino-1,2,4-triazole (ATZ) in order to introduce amino functionalities. The AB@ZIF composites successfully showed 50 and 20 °C lower onset and apex dehydrogenation temperatures, respectively, than the neat AB case. Since the AB dehydrogenation temperature can be controlled by nanoconfinement size, the interaction between primary amines on ATZ and AB may forcibly limit AB molecules from aggregating near the ZIF aperture, forming small particles. For AB regeneration, the spent AB confined in ZIFs can be regenerated by reacting with only liquid ammonia but not N 2 H 4 . It is expected that nanoconfined AB results in a low degree of polymerization in the spent fuel rich in B−H species.

Protein-energy wasting is prevalent in peritoneal dialysis patients, which causes a heavy burden for individuals and healthcare systems. We aimed to investigate the effect of nutritional education, and/or protein supplementation on nutritional biomarkers in hypoalbuminemic peritoneal dialysis patients. A quasi-experimental study was conducted in two dialysis centers at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital. Patients were allocated in three groups including control (n = 12), milk protein (n = 21) and soy protein (n = 20). All patients received dietary guidelines from dietitians and completed 3-day dietary records during monthly visits for consecutive three months. Nutrients were analyzed using Nutritionist Professional software. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, albumin, total protein, hemoglobin, serum calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium were assessed monthly. Total cholesterol and triglycerides were measured every three months. After three-month intervention, protein intake (percent of total calories), and serum albumin were significantly increased in three groups. Protein, phosphorus intake, and BUN were increased in two intervention groups. Total serum protein increased in control and milk protein groups, and creatinine increased the control group. Serum phosphorus was not significantly changed. Nutritional education alone, or combined with protein supplementation, significantly improve protein intake, and nutritional status by increasing serum albumin, but not serum phosphorus in hypoalbuminemic peritoneal dialysis patients.