OBJECTIVE:To investigate the efficacy of fenofibrate combination therapy in Chinese patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) who had a partial response to standard dose of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) for at least one year. METHODS:PBC patients were treated with UDCA (13-15 mg/kg/day) for more than one year. The biochemical response to UDCA treatment was evaluated after treatment. Fenofibrate (200 mg/day) was added to 22 patients with partial response to UDCA. RESULTS:In patients with partial response to UDCA, serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and g-glutamyl transpeptidase levels significantly decreased after 3-month combination therapy of UDCA and fenofibrate, 68% of these patients even reached normal ALP level. Serum triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol levels were improved, and alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) were also decreased during the combination therapy. However, fenofibrate had no significant effect on serum bilirubin levels. The improvement of liver biochemical tests was maintained in some patients with long-term therapy (at least 6 months). No obvious adverse effects were observed in patients taking fenofibrate. CONCLUSIONS:Fenofibrate is effective for improving liver biochemical tests in patients who have partial response to UDCA monotherapy. It is worth exploring the efficacy of fenofibrate on histological changes in PBC patients.

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Symmetric sodium-ion batteries possess promising features such as low cost, easy manufacturing process, and facile recycling post-process, which are suitable for the application of large-scale stationary energy storage. Herein, we proposed a symmetric sodium-ion battery based on dual-electron reactions of a NASICON-structured Na3MnTi­(PO4)3 material. The Na3MnTi­(PO4)3 electrode can deliver a stable capacity of up to 160 mAh g–1 with a Coulombic efficiency of 97% at 0.1 C by utilizing the redox reactions of Ti3+/4+, Mn2+/3+, and Mn3+/4+. This is the first time to investigate the symmetric sodium-ion full cell using Na3MnTi­(PO4)3 as both cathode and anode in the organic electrolyte, demonstrating excellent reversibility and cycling performance with voltage plateaus of about 1.4 and 1.9 V. The full cell exhibits a reversible capacity of 75 mAh g–1 at 0.1 C and an energy density of 52 Wh kg–1. In addition, both ex situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and first-principles calculations are employed to investigate the sodiation mechanism and structural evolution. The current research provides a feasible strategy for the symmetric sodium-ion batteries to achieve high energy density.

A compact triple-band coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed antenna for WLAN/WiMAX applications is proposed. The radiation patch is fed by capacitive coupling of the top transmission line. By only using one metallic strip etched on the bottom of the substrate, tri-band resonances of the antenna are generated. The proposed antenna has a compact size of 30 × 27 mm 2 , which can provide stable omnidirectional radiation patterns in three bands. The measured − 10 dB impedance bandwidths are 150 MHz (2.39-2.54 GHz), 360 MHz (3.37-3.73 GHz) and 1170 MHz (5.02-6.19 GHz), which is suitable for WLAN/WiMAX applications.Introduction: The prodigious rate of development of wireless communication technology as a viable and cost-effective high-speed data connectivity solution demands high-performance multi-band antennas with good radiation characteristics. In view of the practical needs, many promising antennas have been proposed to cover the WLAN (2.4-2.484, 5.1-5.35 and 5.725-5.85 GHz) operation and WiMAX (3.4-3.69 and 5.25-5.85 GHz) standards. These include monopole antennas with several branches to generate low band and two upper bands [1, 2], a slot monopole antenna for dual-band [3], a monopole antenna with a split-ring [4] and a slot-monopole antenna with embedded rectangular parasitic elements [5]. However, these antennas either need large size or the shapes are too complex. In [6], dual-band was achieved by adding L-and E-elements together with a total area of only 8 × 11.3 mm 2 . However, it just covers the WLAN bands.In this Letter, a compact coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed antenna for WLAN/WiMAX application is proposed. The patch on the bottom of the substrate could generate three resonant modes with an inverted L-shaped strip to further improve the impedance matching performance at 5.5 GHz. The measured impedance bandwidths can cover the 2.4/5.2/ 5.8 GHz WLAN bands and 3.5/5.5 GHz WiMAX bands. In addition, the proposed antenna has the advantages of small size, low profile, a simple structure and cheap production. Details of the antenna design and simulated and measured results are presented and discussed.