Our objective was to determine whether serum urate predicts ALS progression. A study population comprised adult participants of EMPOWER (n = 942), a phase III clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of dexpramipexole to treat ALS. Urate was measured in blood samples collected during enrollment as part of the routine block chemistry. We measured outcomes by combined assessment of function and survival rank (CAFs), and time to death, by 12 months. Results showed that in females there was not a significant relation between urate and outcomes. In males, outcomes improved with increasing urate (comparing highest to lowest urate quartile: CAFS was 53 points better with p for trend = 0.04; and hazard ratio for death was 0.60 with p for trend = 0.07), but with adjustment for body mass index (BMI) at baseline, a predictor of both urate levels and prognosis, associations were attenuated and no longer statistically significant. Overall, participants with urate levels equal to or above the median (5.1 mg/dl) appeared to have a survival advantage compared to those below (hazard ratio adjusted for BMI: 0.67; 95% confidence interval 0.47–0.95). In conclusion, these findings suggest that while the association between urate at baseline and ALS progression is partially explained by BMI, there may be an independent beneficial effect of urate.

Magnetorheological–chemical-polishing tests are carried out on single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) to study the influence of the process parameters on the polishing effect, predict the polishing results via a back propagation (BP) neural network, and construct a model of the processing parameters to predict the material removal rate (MRR) and surface quality. Magnetorheological–chemical polishing employs mechanical removal coupled with chemical action, and the synergistic effect of both actions can achieve an improved polishing effect. The results show that with increasing abrasive particle size, hydrogen peroxide concentration, workpiece rotational speed, and polishing disc rotational speed, the MRR first increases and then decreases. With an increasing abrasive concentration and carbonyl iron powder concentration, the MRR continues to increase. With an increasing machining gap, the MRR shows a continuous decrease, and the corresponding changes in surface roughness tend to decrease first and then increase. The prediction models of the MRR and surface quality are constructed via a BP neural network, and their average absolute percentage errors are less than 2%, which is important for the online monitoring of processing and process optimisation.

Due to its low cost, natural abundance, non-toxicity, and high theoretical capacitance, cobalt oxide (CoO) stands as a promising candidate electrode material for supercapacitors. In this study, binder-less molybdenum doped CoO (Mo@CoO) integrated electrodes were one-step fabricated using a simple electric discharge corrosion (EDC) method. This EDC method enables the direct synthesis of Mo@CoO active materials with oxygen vacancy on cobalt substrates, without any pre-made templates, conductive additives, or chemicals. Most importantly, the EDC method enables precise control over the discharge processing parameter of pulse width, which facilitates tailoring the surface morphologies of the as-prepared Mo@CoO active materials. It was found that the fabricated Mo@CoO based symmetric supercapacitor prepared by a pulse width of 24 μs (Mo@CoO-SCs24) achieved a maximum areal capacitance 36.0 mF cm⁻² (0.15 mA cm⁻²), which is 1.83 and 1.97 times higher than that of Mo@CoO-SCs12 and Mo@CoO-SCs36. Moreover, the Mo@CoO-SCs24 devices could be worked at 10 V s⁻¹, which demonstrates their fast charge/discharge characteristic. These results demonstrated the significant potential of the EDC strategy for efficiency fabricating various metal oxide binder-less integrated electrodes for various applications, like supercapacitors, batteries and sensors.

Gallium nitride (GaN), as the core material of third-generation semiconductors, has important applications in high-temperature, high-frequency, and high-power devices, but its polishing process faces many challenges. In this work, a multifield synergistic material removal model is established to study the material removal behaviour by ultrasonic magnetorheological chemical compound polishing (UMCP) of gallium nitride wafers, and the polishing processing under different polishing solution compositions and processing conditions is used to examine the effects of the ultrasonic, chemical, and mechanical effects on the material removal rate. The results show that mechanical removal dominates during UMCP, the chemical enhancement is slightly greater than the ultrasonic action, and the synergistic interaction between the range of factors promotes better removal of the GaN materials. The percentage of mechanical removal by abrasives is about 25% to 44.63%, the mechanical removal by magnetorheological effect polishing pads is about 14.66% to 23.94%, the removal due to chemical action is about 15.52% to 23.41%, the removal due to ultrasonic action is about 11.73% to 14.66%, and the percentage of interactive removal is 6.47% to 14.36%. The abrasive composition significantly enhances the mechanical removal effect, and a higher abrasive concentration correlates to a stronger mechanical removal effect. The concentration of hydrogen peroxide has a superior effect on the chemical reaction, and too high or too low a concentration of hydrogen peroxide weakens the chemical action effect. The results of the study can provide a basis for further research on the material removal mechanism of the GaN UMCP process.

Cobalt–copper bimetallic oxides (CoCuO_x) show great potential for constructing high-performance micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) for micro-electronic applications. However, their poor conductivity and complex preparation procedures significantly hinder their broad applications. To address these challenges, oxygen-vacancy-modified CoCuO_x-based binder-free electrodes were fabricated using a one-step computer numerical control wire electrical discharge machining (CNCWEDM) strategy. This approach enabled the fabrication of CoCuO_x-based maze-like MSCs (CoCuMMSCs) with designable electrochemical performance, which could be simply controlled by their geometric shape and machining voltage. Subsequently, theoretical simulations were conducted for studying the effect of MSCs geometric shape on their capacitive behavior. Remarkably, the CoCuMMSCs fabricated by a machining voltage of 100 V achieved the maximum capacitance of 32.8 mF cm⁻² at 0.15 mA cm⁻². Furthermore, the CoCuMMSCs demonstrated outstanding performance at ultrahigh scan rates of up to 50,000 mV s⁻¹, exceeding by more than two orders of magnitude the values previously reported in the literature. The obtained results proved that the development of the CNCWEDM technique facilitated manufacturing CoCuMMSCs devices with excellent performance by the comprehensive utilization of oxygen-vacancy incorporation, synergistic effect of cobalt and copper oxides, binder-free electrode design, proper device construction and controllable machining voltage. The advanced CNCWEDM strategy creates a new pathway for the high-efficiency fabrication of high-performance bimetallic-oxide-based micro-electronic devices, such as MSCs, intelligent micro-sensors and micro-batteries.