A novel calcium silicate filler can be made from fly ash. This new filler, known as fly ash based calcium silicate (FACS), has a highly porous surface structure, high brightness (91% ISO), low bulk density (0.31 g/cm 3), and high specific surface area (121 m 2 /g). In this paper, its potential application as a paper filler was studied and its effect on drainage, retention, and paper properties was investigated. The results from dynamic drainage tests showed that FACS had similar drainage and retention behaviors to the conventional precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC). Physical tests indicated that FACS-filled paper had higher tensile, burst, and tear indices, but lower brightness and opacity than those loaded with PCC. A more important finding was that the bulk of paper can be increased by 56.4% with 20% FACS content in paper relative to the control (no filler addition).

Background: This study evaluated whether changes in homocysteine concentrations in pregnant women with preeclampsia might be useful for predicting pregnancy-related outcomes.Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 2,745 pregnant Chinese women (1,368 women with preeclampsia and 1377 healthy pregnant controls) at two Chinese centres. Medical records were reviewed to collect data regarding maternal age, homocysteine concentrations, gestational weight gain, body mass index (BMI), neonatal weight, Apgar score, previous abortions, previous deliveries, adverse pregnancy history, and pregnancy-related outcomes.Results: Maternal serum homocysteine concentrations were significantly higher in the preeclampsia group (vs. the control group) during the second trimester (P<0.0001) and the third trimester (P<0.0001). Foetal death was also significantly more common in the preeclampsia group. Significant differences (P<0.05) were also observed between the preeclampsia and control groups in terms of maternal age, gestational weight gain, BMI, neonatal weight, Apgar score, previous abortions, previous deliveries, gestation length, adverse pregnancy history, and pregnancy outcomes. Women with preeclampsia had elevated homocysteine concentrations that increased from the first trimester until the third trimester. Among women with preeclampsia, the risk of foetal death was significantly associated with maternal age, BMI, neonatal weight, Apgar score, and serum homocysteine concentrations during the second trimester (P=0.022) and the third trimester (P=0.034). Conclusion: Our results indicate that foetal death in women with preeclampsia was associated with maternal age, BMI, neonatal weight, and Apgar score. Furthermore, foetal death was associated with high maternal homocysteine concentrations during the second and third trimesters.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of maternal serum creatinine, cystatin C, and uric acid levels in relation to fetal death in pregnant women with preeclampsia. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 708 women with preeclampsia, and 738 healthy pregnant women were selected as control. Medical records were reviewed to collect obstetric, neonatal, and biochemical data, including creatinine, cystatin C, and uric acid concentrations. Results: Maternal serum creatinine, cystatin C, and uric acid concentrations were significantly higher in the preeclamptic group than in the control (p < 0.05). Preeclamptic women in the fetal death group had significantly higher creatinine levels during their second and third trimesters, and higher uric acid concentrations throughout the pregnancy compared to the fetal survival group. Preeclamptic patients were divided into four groups based on quartiles of uric acid levels. The overall fetal survival rate in patients with upper-quartile uric acid concentrations was significantly lower than those with low uric acid levels during pregnancy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that uric acid concentration was a significant risk factor for fetal death in the first and second trimesters in the preeclamptic group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In pregnant women with preeclampsia, fetal death was associated with upper-quartile uric acid concentrations in the first and second trimesters. Uric acid levels can be an indicator of fetal death in the early and middle stage of pregnancy.

Aiming at density peaks clustering needs to manually select cluster centers, this paper proposes a fast new clustering method with auto-select cluster centers. Firstly, our method groups the data and marks each group as core or boundary groups according to its density. Secondly, it determines clusters by iteratively merging two core groups whose distance is less than the threshold and selects the cluster centers at the densest position in each cluster. Finally, it assigns boundary groups to the cluster corresponding to the nearest cluster center. Our method eliminates the need for the manual selection of cluster centers and improves clustering efficiency with the experimental results.

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