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Biodegradable electrospun bone repair materials are effective means to treat bone defects. However, because the electrospun substrates are mostly organic polymer materials, there is a lack of real-time and intuitive monitoring methods for their degradation in vivo. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop in vivo traced electrospun bone repair materials for postoperative observation of their degradation. In this research, polycaprolactone/up-conversion nanoparticles/magnesium oxide (PCL/UCNPs/MgO) composite scaffolds were prepared by electrospun based on the luminescence characteristics of up-conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) under near infrared excitation and the osteogenic ability of MgO. The in vivo and in vitro degradation results showed that with the increase of time, the electrospun scaffolds gradually degraded and its luminescence intensity decreased. The addition of UCNPs can effectively monitor the degradation of the scaffolds. In addition, the prepared electrospun scaffolds had great biocompatibility, among which PCL-1%UCNPs-1%MgO (P1U1M) electrospun scaffolds had obvious effect on promoting osteogenic differentiation of mouse embryonic osteoblasts cells (MC3T3-E1) in vitro. In conclusion, P1U1M electrospun scaffolds have the potential to induce bone regeneration at bone defect sites, and can monitor the degradation of electrospun scaffolds. It may be a potential candidate material for bone regeneration in defect area., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Wang Chengyue reports financial support was provided by Applied basic Research Program of Liaoning Province. Wang Chengyue reports financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Acute cerebral infarction (ACI), being the predominant form of stroke, presents challenges in terms of the limited effectiveness of various treatments in improving the neurological function. Although acupuncture shows promise in addressing ACI, the availability of high-quality evidence regarding its efficacy, safety, and underlying mechanism remains insufficient. In this study, we design a multicenter, prospective, single-blind, randomized controlled trial with the aim of evaluating the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for ACI, making an attempt to unveil the molecular mechanisms by proteomic., Methods: A total of 132 patients involving four hospitals will be randomized at a 1:1:1 ratio in the acupuncture group, control group, and sham acupuncture group. All the patients will receive basic treatment, and the patients in the acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups will also receive either acupuncture or sham acupuncture treatment, respectively, at six sessions each week for a 2 weeks period, followed by 3 months of follow-up. The primary outcome will be the change in the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores after treatment. The secondary outcomes will include the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) scale scores and the Barthel Index (BI). Adverse events that occur during the trial will be documented. To discover differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) and their roles between the ACI subjects and healthy controls, we will also perform 4D-DIA quantitative proteomics analysis, and the DEPs will be confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This study was approved by the institutional review board of the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TYLL2023043). Written informed consent from patients is required. This trial is registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2300079204). Trial results will be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal., Discussion: The results of this study will determine the preliminary efficacy and safety of acupuncture in ACI patients and whether the mechanism of this form of non-pharmacologic stimulation is mediated by a novel therapeutic target for neurorehabilitation through our proteomic analysis., Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2300079204., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Cao, Du, Yin, Zheng, Han, Chen and Jia.)

The development of phosphors with color-tunable luminescence including white emission is at the forefront of lighting and display technologies. Herein, Dy 3+ ,Tm 3+ single-doped or co-doped K 3 Y(PO 4 ) 2 phosphors are synthesized through the solid-state reaction method. By properly adjusting the ratio of Dy 3+ ,Tm 3+ co-doping concentrations, color-tunable luminescence from blue to yellow, including white luminescence, is realized under 359 nm excitation. The mechanism of energy transfer between Tm 3+ and Dy 3+ is further investigated via measuring the luminescence decay curve. Based on efficient energy transfer from Tm 3+ to Dy 3+ , the emission of Dy 3+ exhibits an abnormal thermal enhancement phenomenon as the temperature increases. The optical thermometry behaviors of various emission combinations for the Dy 3+ ,Tm 3+ co-doped system are analyzed. The maximum sensitivity can be obtained as a constant of 4.8 × 10 -3 K -1 , which is conducive to improve the measurement accuracy of optical temperature sensing at high temperatures. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the applicability of K 3 Y(PO 4 ) 2 :Tm 3+ ,Dy 3+ phosphors in white LEDs, providing proof-of-concept for the lighting and display fields.

In order to reveal the community characteristics and trophic structure of oribatid mites in different moss habitats in karst caves, the oribatid mites in the moss habitats of ground (GD), understory (US), cave wall (CW), surface shrub (SB) and farmland (FL) outside the cave were collected in October 2021. Through the identification and data analysis of oribatid mites, 2352 oribatid mites were found, belonging to 45 families and 72 genera, most of which were Gymnonota. The family number, genus number, individual number, individual density, dominant genus composition, community diversity, community similarity, MGP (Analysis methods for ecological groups of oribatid mites) ecological group of oribatid mites and trophic structure of oribatid mites in different moss were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The number of families, genera, individuals, and individual density of SB and FL are higher than those of the other three habitats; (2) Platyliodes, Oppiella, Tectocepheus, Scutovertex, Scheloribates and Trichogalumna are the dominant genera of the oribatid mites in the cave moss habitat, among them, Tectocepheus and Trichogaluna have the most obvious advantages; (3) The diversity index of shrub (SB) was higher than that of other four habitats; Similarity between ground and cave wall, shrub and farmland is high; (4) The MGP ecological group of oribatid mites in different habitats is dominated by O type (Overall type belongs to MGP analysis results, 20%≤M,G,P≤50%), and a total of 42 genera of oribatid mites preliminarily constitute the trophic structure of oribatid mites in the cave moss habitat. Based on the above results, it can be concluded that there are differences in the community structure of oribatid mites in different moss habitats in the study area, and the use of dominant genera of mites can preliminarily indicate the environmental conditions of different moss habitats. This study enriches the study of mites in karst cave mosses, and can provide theoretical significance for the protection of cave biodiversity in karst areas., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Gong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

A series of Yb 3+ , Er 3+ , Tm 3+ co-doped K 3 Gd(PO 4 ) 2 are prepared via the solid-state reaction method. Upon 980 nm excitation, the synthesized samples present color-tunable upconversion luminescence ranging from yellow to blue with the increment of Tm 3+ doping contents. The upconversion mechanisms of Yb 3+ , Er 3+ , Tm 3+ co-doped system are systematically investigated in detail. Varying contents of Tm 3+ can appropriately alter the upconversion emissions of blue, green and red via possible energy transfer processes. Furthermore, the thermometric performances of phosphors associated with upconversion luminescence are analyzed in the temperature region of 300-675 K. By employing non-thermally coupled energy levels ( 2 H 11/2 / 4 F 9/2 of Er 3+ ), the maximum relative and absolute sensitivity reaches 0.78 % K -1 and 0.168 K -1 . Combining the sensitivity characteristic and repeatability of thermometer, the luminescence intensity ratio technology based on non-thermally coupled energy levels may be a more effective choice for optical thermometry. These excellent results will pave an avenue to K 3 Gd(PO 4 ) 2 :Yb 3+ ,Er 3+ ,Tm 3+ phosphors for the fields of color-tunable luminescence and non-contact temperature sensing., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Na 3 Y(VO 4 ) 2 :Nd 3+ ,Yb 3+ ,Ho 3+ ,Tm 3+ phosphors present significantly improved sensitivity of optical temperature sensing based on thermal-enhanced upconversion luminescence and non-thermally coupled energy levels. Under 808 nm excitation, white upconversion luminescence is successfully achieved in Nd 3+ -sensitized system. In addition, the emissions intensities originated from 4 G 5/2 → 4 I 9/2 transition of Nd 3+ and 3 F 2,3 → 3 H 6 transition of Tm 3+ gradually increase with elevating temperature owning to the thermal population effects, as opposed to the blue ( 1 G 4 → 3 H 6 transition of Tm 3+ ), green ( 5 S 2 , 5 F 4 → 5 I 8 transition of Ho 3+ ) and red ( 5 F 5 → 5 I 8 transition of Ho 3+ ) emissions intensities show continuous decreasing trend. The temperature sensing behaviors are investigated by employing multiple non-thermally coupled energy levels. Based on non-thermally coupled energy levels of 4 G 5/2 (Nd 3+ )/ 1 G 4 (Tm 3+ ), the absolute and relative sensitivities are obtained to be 0.433 K -1 and 2.81 % K -1 . These results demonstrate that the Na 3 Y(VO 4 ) 2 :Nd 3+ ,Yb 3+ ,Ho 3+ ,Tm 3+ phosphors with superior optical thermometry performance and white luminescence within a relatively wide temperature range can achieve optical applications in many fields., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The second near-infrared (NIR II) response photon up-conversion (UC) materials show great application prospects in the fields of biology and optical communication. However, it is still an enormous challenge to obtain efficient NIR II response materials. Herein, we develop a series of Er 3+ doped ternary sulfides phosphors with highly efficient UC emissions under 1532 nm irradiation. β-NaYS 2 :Er 3+ achieves a visible UC efficiency as high as 2.6%, along with high brightness, spectral stability of lights illumination and temperature. Such efficient UC is dominated by excited state absorption, accompanied by the advantage of long lifetimes ( 4 I 9/2 , 9.24 ms; 4 I 13/2 , 30.27 ms) of excited state levels of Er 3+ , instead of the well-recognized energy transfer UC between sensitizer and activator. NaYS 2 :Er 3+ phosphors are further developed for high-performance underwater communication and narrowband NIR photodetectors. Our findings suggest a novel approach for developing NIR II response UC materials, and simulate new applications, eg., simultaneous NIR and visible optical communication., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Red up-conversion luminescence with both emission and excitation peaks within the "tissue transparency window" makes for ideal fluorescent labels for deep tissue penetration and low-background biological imaging. In this work, an efficient strategy is proposed to realize bright red up-conversion luminescence based on interfacial energy transfer (IET), and the luminescence centers (Er 3+ and Tm 3+ ) and sensitizers (Yb 3+ ) are doped in separate layers to avoid deleterious cross-relaxation. The IET process between Yb 3+ and Er 3+ can enable bright red photon up-conversion under 980 nm excitation via fine control and manipulation of the lanthanide ion concentration and shell thickness. By appropriately employing the fluorescence intensity ratio technique, an optical thermometer based on non-thermally coupled energy levels demonstrates a superior relative sensitivity of 2.02% K -1 across the whole temperature region. NaYF 4 :Er 3+ ,Tm 3+ @NaYF 4 :Yb 3+ with strong red UC luminescence and highly sensitive performance exhibits potential for application in the field of non-contact temperature sensing.

Near-infrared (NIR) emitting BiVO 4 :Yb 3+ ,Tm 3+ nanoparticles are synthesized by a new solvothermal strategy using solvents of oleic acid and methanol. The obtained BiVO 4 :Yb 3+ ,Tm 3+ samples show an average particle size of ≈164 nm and exhibit an asymmetry monoclinic crystal structure of BiVO 4 . At NIR excitation of 980 nm, the BiVO 4 :Yb 3+ ,Tm 3+ sample exhibits a nearly single NIR emission at ≈796 nm with extremely weak blue emissions from Tm 3+ ions. These high-energy visible emissions are absorbed by the semiconducting host of BiVO 4 that possesses a bandgap of ≈2.2 eV. Therefore, the NIR excitation to a single intense NIR emission fluorescent BiVO 4 materials could be a potential ideal probe for deep-tissue high-resolution bioimaging. To validate the ability of BiVO 4 materials for bio-applications, we conduct the cytotoxicity experiments. The results show that the cytotoxicity of HeLa cells is negligible at a concentration of 0.2 mg/ml of BiVO 4 :Yb 3+ ,Tm 3+ , and the cell viability approaches 90% at a high dosage of 0.5 mg/ml. The Daphnia magna and Zebrafish treated with nanoparticles (0.5 mg/ml) display bright NIR emission without any background, indicating the excellent in vivo fluorescent imaging capacity of BiVO 4 :Yb 3+ ,Tm 3+ nanoparticles. Our findings offer an environment-friendly strategy to synthesize BiVO 4 UCL nanophosphors and provide a promising new class of fluorescent probes for biological applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: Dopamine agonists targeting D 2 receptor have been used for decades in treating pituitary adenomas. There has been little clear evidence implicating the canonical G protein signalling as the mechanism by which D 2 receptor suppresses the growth of pituitary tumours. We hypothesize that β-arrestin2-dependent signalling is the molecular mechanism dictating D 2 receptor inhibitory effects on pituitary tumour growth., Experimental Approach: The involvement of G protein and β-arrestin2 in bromocriptine-mediated growth suppression in rat MMQ and GH3 tumour cells was assessed. The anti-growth effect of a β-arrestin2-biased agonist, UNC9994, was tested in cultured cells, tumour-bearing nude mice and primary cultured human pituitary adenomas. The effect of G protein signalling on tumour growth was also analysed by using a G protein-biased agonist, MLS1547, and a Gβγ inhibitor, gallein, in vitro., Key Results: β-arrestin2 signalling but not G protein pathways mediated the suppressive effect of bromocriptine on pituitary tumour growth. UNC9994 inhibited pituitary tumour cell growth in vitro and in vivo. The suppressive function of UNC9994 was obtained by inducing intracellular reactive oxygen species generation through downregulating mitochondrial complex I subunit NDUFA1. The effects of Gαi/o signalling and Gβγ signalling via D 2 receptor on pituitary tumour growth were cell-type-dependent., Conclusion and Implications: Given the very low expression of Gαi/o proteins in pituitary tumours and the complexity of the responses of pituitary tumours to G protein signalling pathways, our study reveals D 2 receptor β-arrestin2-biased ligand may be a more promising choice to treat pituitary tumours with improved therapeutic selectivity., (© 2021 The British Pharmacological Society.)

The achievement of three-primary-color luminescence in a single material will lead to revolutionary developments of many advanced applications such as dynamic display with ultra-high resolution, and complex anti-counterfeiting. Here we report the realization of steady-state three-primary-color emission in single multilayered NaYF4 upconversion (UC) nanoparticles. In this core-shell structure, a novel design of a tri-sensitizer, i.e., Nd3+, Yb3+ and Er3+ ions, is utilized, which effectively absorbs the excitation photons of 808, 980 and 1550 nm, and then exhibits blue, red and green emissions, respectively. By simply combining the three primary color emissions, tunable full-color luminescence was achieved in this single material. These nanoparticles have demonstrated promising potential applications in dynamic display and multiple anti-counterfeiting.

Lanthanide ions have abundant excited-state channels which result in a radiation relaxation process generally accompanied by a non-radiation relaxation process. However, non-radiation relaxation processes will consume the activation energy and reduce the luminescence efficiency of the phosphor. Two lasers with an excitation energy which matched the ground state absorption and excited state absorption of ions were used to excite the phosphors to avoid the non-radiation relaxation process. This approach can achieve the purpose of populating specific states of the lanthanide ions, and furthermore effectively tunes the luminescence intensity and color output of the sample. Results show that the red emission intensity of the sample is significantly improved and this is caused by populating the 4 F 9/2 level under simultaneous 1510 nm and 980 nm excitation. Then when the 1510 nm and 808 nm co-operate to excite the sample, the green emission obtained increased sharply because the 2 H 11/2 / 4 S 3/2 states were efficiently populated. As a proof-of-concept experiment, this new approach has potential in the applications of solar cells., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The thermal effects of NaYF 4 :Er microcrystals under 1550 nm laser diode irradiation were investigated using an infrared thermal imaging method. The results revealed that the temperature of the LD irradiation beam area was non-uniform. The NaYF 4 :Er sample exhibits a rapid temperature increase within 5-10 s, and the heating process reaches its steady state after 60 s of irradiation when exposed to 1550 nm LD. The response time, temperature increase, and emission intensity of the samples depend on the excitation power density and concentration of doped Er 3+ ions. Low excitation power density is required to avoid the influence of thermal effects on the up-conversion emission spectra measurement. Rapid scanning in up-conversion emission spectra measurement is not effective in preventing the heating effect under high excitation power pumping. In addition, a relative deviation of temperature, existing in fluorescence intensity ratio technique, decreased with the increasing irradiation time.

We hypothesized that postoperative sedation with dexmedetomidine/fentanyl would be effective in infants and neonates with congenital heart disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Children who were <36 months of age, had congenital heart disease with PAH, and had been treated at our hospital between October 2011 and April 2013 (n = 187) were included in this retrospective study. Either dexmedetomidine/fentanyl (Group Dex) or midazolam/fentanyl (Group Mid) was used for postoperative sedation. The main outcome variables included delirium scores, supplemental sedative/analgesic drugs, ventilator use, and sedation time. Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics were similar between the two groups. The Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium scale (5.2 ± 5.3 vs. 7.1 ± 5.2 in the Dex and Mid groups, respectively; P = 0.016) and the incidence of delirium (18.2 vs. 32.0 % in the Dex and Mid groups, respectively; P = 0.039) were significantly lower in the Dex group than in the Mid group. Total sufentanil, midazolam, and propofol doses given during the operation did not differ between the two groups. Group Dex patients required significantly lower doses of adjunctive sedative/analgesic drugs than group Mid patients in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU; midazolam, P = 0.007; morphine, P < 0.001). In conclusion, we found no differences between dexmedetomidine/fentanyl and midazolam/fentanyl in terms of the duration of sedation, mechanical ventilator use, and CICU stay in children with PAH. However, patients in the Dex group required a lower additional sedative/analgesic drugs and had a lower incidence of delirium than patients in the Mid group.