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Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have excellent optical and optoelectronic properties, but their intrinsic instability hampers their practical applications. Herein, stable CsPbBr

The intramolecular styryl Diels–Alder reaction with conjugated diynes under thermally stable triazole-gold (TA–Au) catalytic conditions and the sequential transformation through alkyne activation to access various PAHs with high efficiency was reported for the first time.

Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) façades are a promising technique for improving building energy performance. This study develops energy simulation models of different photovoltaic-integrated shading devices (PVSDs) in single-story and multi-story office buildings. A cross-region study in China is carried out to explore the energy performance of PVSDs in five climate zones. The shading effect of the upper PVSDs is taken into account. The results show that (1) PVSDs can be applicable in hot and cold climates; shading effects lead to a notable difference in the optimal PVSDs style. The average comprehensive energy saving ratios of different PVSDs ranged from 16.12% (fixed PV louvres in the vertical plane) to 51.95% (lower single panel). The most rewarding PVSDs are for single-story buildings in Kunming and the least suitable are for multi-story buildings in Guangzhou. (2) In climate zones with little air-conditioning energy consumption, avoiding considerably increased lighting consumption by PVSDs is vital. (3) To reduce shading effects, solar panels with smaller widths or vertical placements can be adopted. In addition, the distance of the PV modules from the top edge of the windows is also critical. Building performance evaluation in the early design stage enables maximum benefits for the same input (total area of PV panels). The research methodology and data analysis presented can guide parameters design and the geographical applicability of PVSDs, providing a reference for optimal building energy performance.

Grain crops are easily contaminated by fungi due to the existence of various microorganisms in the storage process, especially in humid and warm storage conditions. Compared with conventional methods, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has paved the way for the detection of fungi in grain crops as it is a rapid, nondestructive, and sensitive analytical method. In this work, Aspergillus niger, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Fusarium moniliforme and Trichoderma viride in grain crops were detected using colloidal Au nanoparticles and SERS. The results indicated that different fungi showed different Raman phenotypes, which could be easily characterized by SERS. Combined with multivariate statistical analysis, identification of a variety of fungi could be accomplished rapidly and accurately. This research can be applied for the rapid detection of fungi in the food and biomedical industries.

Sox10 is a well-known factor to control oligodendrocyte (OL) differentiation and its expression is regulated by Olig2. As an important protein kinase, Akt has been implicated in diseases with white matter (WM) abnormalities. To study whether and how Akt may regulate OL development, we generated OL lineage cells-specific Akt1/Akt2/Akt3 triple conditional knockout (Akt cTKO) mice. Both male and female mice were used. These mutants exhibit complete loss of mature OLs and unchanged apoptotic cell death in the central nervous system. We show that deletion of Akt three isoforms causes down-regulation of Sox10 and decreased levels of phosphorylated FoxO1 (pFoxO1) in the brain. In vitro analysis reveals that expression of FoxO1 with mutations on phosphorylation sites for Akt significantly represses the Sox10 promoter activity, suggesting that phosphorylation of FoxO1 by Akt is important for Sox10 expression. We further demonstrate that mutant FoxO1 without Akt phosphorylation epitopes is enriched in the Sox10 promoter. Together, this study identifies a novel FoxO1 phosphorylation-dependent mechanism for Sox10 expression and OL differentiation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dysfunction of Akt is associated with white matter diseases including the agenesis of the corpus callosum. However, it remains unknown whether Akt plays an important role in oligodendrocyte differentiation. To address this question, we generated oligodendrocyte lineage cells-specific Akt1/Akt2/Akt3 triple conditional knockout mice. Akt mutants exhibit deficient white matter development, loss of mature oligodendrocytes, absence of myelination and unchanged apoptotic cell death in the central nervous system. We demonstrate that deletion of Akt three isoforms leads to down-regulation of Sox10, and that phosphorylation of FoxO1 by Akt is critical for Sox10 expression. Together, these findings reveal a novel mechanism to regulate Sox10 expression. This study may provide insights on molecular mechanisms for neurodevelopmental diseases caused by dysfunctions of protein kinases.

T cell-mediated immunity plays an important role in controlling flavivirus infection, either after vaccination or after natural infection. The "quality" of a T cell needs to be assessed by function, and higher function is associated with more powerful immune protection. T cells that can simultaneously produce two or more cytokines or chemokines at the single-cell level are called polyfunctional T cells (TPFs), which mediate immune responses through a variety of molecular mechanisms to express degranulation markers (CD107a) and secrete interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-2, or macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α. There is increasing evidence that TPFs are closely related to the maintenance of long-term immune memory and protection and that their increased proportion is an important marker of protective immunity and is important in the effective control of viral infection and reactivation. This evaluation applies not only to specific immune responses but also to the assessment of cross-reactive immune responses. Here, taking the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) as an example, the detection method and flow cytometry color scheme of JEV-specific TPFs produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells of children vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis were tested to provide a reference for similar studies.

Viral central nervous system (CNS) infections seriously threaten the life and health of children, with a high mortality and severe sequelae in China and globally. Surveillance of viral CNS infections in children is important, especially in hospitalized children, to facilitate disease evaluation.In this study, we collected the data on the discharged Face Sheet of Medical Records from database from 2016 to 2020 and analyzed the epidemiologic characteristics and disease burden of hospitalized children (≤18 years old) with viral CNS infections in China. We classified the discharge diagnosis of viral CNS infection as viral encephalitis (VE), viral meningitis (VM), viral meningoencephalitis (VME), viral encephalomyelitis (VEM), and viral meningomyelitis (VMM).A total of 42,641 cases of viral CNS infections were included in the database, consisting of 39,279 cases with VE (92.47%), 2011 cases with VM (4.73%), 1189 cases with VME (2.80%), 118 cases with VEM (0.28%), and 44 cases with VMM (0.10%). The number of hospitalized patients with viral CNS infections accounted for 0.74% (42,641 of 5,790,910) of all hospitalized cases. The onset of viral CNS infections presented seasonal characteristic, with peaks in June to July and December to January. Seizures are the most frequent complication of this disorder. Median length of stay and inpatient expenditures for patients with viral CNS infections were 9 days and 1144.36 USD. Causative viruses were identified in 4.33% (1848 of 42,641) of patients.This study will help understand the clinical epidemiology and disease burden of hospitalized children with viral CNS infections in China.

Infectious mononucleosis (IM) is an acute syndrome mostly associated with primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. The main clinical symptoms include irregular fever, lymphadenopathy, and significantly increased lymphocytes in peripheral blood. The pathogenic mechanism of IM is still unclear; there is no effective treatment method for it, with mainly symptomatic therapies being available. The main question in EBV immunobiology is why only a small subset of infected individuals shows severe clinical symptoms and even develop EBV-associated malignancies, whilemost individuals are asymptomatic for life with the virus. B cells are first involved in IM because EBV receptors are presented on their surface. Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic innate lymphocytes that are important for killing EBV-infected cells. The proportion of CD4

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the main cause of visual impairment in diabetic patients. Early detection of DME will significantly reduce the risk of vision loss for the patients. According to the clinical DME grading standard, the positional relationship between Hard Exudates (HEs) and macular center is an important basis for DME grading. Accurate DME grading is thus predicated on properly locating the macular center and segmenting HEs. HEI-MED and E-ophtha EX data sets were tested by the proposed DME grading method, reaching an average accuracy of 94.4% and 87%, respectively. The proposed method was also tested by comparison against other commonly used methods as per its potential to assist doctors in initially screening DME; it was found to not only improve the efficiency of DME detection, but also to save Optical Coherence Tomography medical resources over the other methods tested.

The stability of luminescent materials is a key factor for the practical application in white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Poor chemical stability of narrow-band green-emitting RbLi(Li3 SiO4 )2 :Eu2+ (RLSO:Eu2+ ) phosphor hinders their further commercialization even if they have excellent stability against thermal quenching. Herein, we propose an efficient protection scheme by combining the surface coating of amorphous Al2 O3 and hydrophobic modification by octadecyltrimethoxysilane (ODTMS) to construct the moisture-resistant dual-shelled RLSO:Eu2+ @Al2 O3 @ODTMS composite. The growth mechanisms of both the Al2 O3 inorganic layer and the silane organic layer on the phosphor surface are investigated. The results remarkably improve the water-stability of this narrow-band green emitter. The evaluation of the white LED by employing this composite as the green component demonstrates that RLSO:Eu2+ @Al2 O3 @ODTMS is a promising candidate for the high-performance display backlights, and this dual-shelled strategy provides an alternative method to improve the moisture-resistant property of humidity-sensitive phosphors.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is an inflammatory disease. It is believed that infection and immune dysfunction play a key role in its pathogenesis, but the specific mechanism of action remains unclear. The 16s rRNA high-throughput sequencing technique was used to analyze the microbial flora structure in the saliva of OLP patients and healthy controls. The relative abundance of Derxia, Haemophilus, and Pseudomonas in the saliva of the OLP group was lower than that of the healthy control group, but there was no significant difference in the overall structure of the microbial population. In addition, we measured the protein expression levels of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and nuclear factor-kappab p65 (NF-κB p65) in the tissues of OLP patients, and found that there was a significant increase and positive correlation between them (r = 0.907, P = 0.034). The expression levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in the OLP group were consistent with those of NF-κB p65. Therefore, we believe that changes in the composition ratio of microbialflora break the original balance state of flora, promote the occurrence of immune inflammatory reaction, and then lead to the generation or aggravation of OLP disease. This discovery provides new ideas for further research on OLP initiation and immune regulation mechanism.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is very common, with the infection rate in adults over 90% worldwide. Infectious mononucleosis (IM) is caused by primary infection with EBV. Most IM patients are generally considered to have a favorable prognosis, but a few patients will also develop complications. Children with severe symptoms will require hospitalization. However, the disease burden of children hospitalized with IM in China has been rarely described. In this study, we included the Face sheets of discharge medical records from 27 member children's hospitals of Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development from Jan 1st, 2016 to Dec 31st, 2020, and medical information such as gender, age, region, time of admission, length of stay and expenditure were extracted. There were 24,120 IM cases, which accounted for 0.42% (24,120/5,693,262) of all hospitalized cases during this period. The ratio of male to female was 1.48:1. Hospitalization for IM in the 4-6 ​years age group was the highest among inpatients of all age groups. Case numbers increased year by year between 2016 and 2020, and the monthly hospitalization was generally high from Jul to Sep but reduced from Jan to Feb per year. Bronchitis/pneumonia and hepatic dysfunction were two common complications in hospitalized IM patients. The median length of stay was 8 days, and the median cost of hospitalization was 970.59 US dollars. This study will help understand the epidemiological characteristics and disease burden of hospitalized children with IM in China.

Background Viruses of the family Flaviviridae, including Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), are widely distributed worldwide. JEV, DENV and YFV belong to the genus Flavivirus, whereas HCV belongs to the genus Hepacivirus. Children’s symptoms are usually severe. As a result, rates of hospitalization due to infection with these viruses are high. The epidemiology and disease burden of hospitalized children have rarely been described in detail to date. The objective of this study was to report the general epidemiological characteristics, clinical phenotype, length of stay (LOS), burden of disease, and potential risk factors for hospitalized children infected with JEV, DENV, YFV, or HCV in Chinese pediatric hospitals. Methodology A cross-sectional study of epidemiology and disease burden of children hospitalized for Flaviviridae virus infections between December 2015 and December 2020 in China was performed. Face sheets of discharge medical records (FSMRs) were collected from 27 tertiary children’s hospitals in the Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development and aggregated into FUTang Update medical REcords (FUTURE). Information on sociodemographic variables, clinical phenotype, and LOS as well as economic burden was included in FSMRs and compared using appropriate statistical tests. Findings The study described 490 children aged 0–15 years hospitalized for infections with Flaviviridae viruses. Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases are the highest, accounting for 92.65% of the total hospitalization cases caused by Flaviviridae virus infection. The incidence of JE peaked from July to October with a profile of a high proportion of severe cases (68.06%) and low mortality (0.44%). Rural children had a significantly higher incidence than urban children (91.63%). Most hospitalized dengue cases were reported in 2019 when dengue outbreaks occurred in many provinces of China, although only 14 dengue cases were collected during the study period. Yellow fever (YF) is still an imported disease in China. The hospitalizations for children with hepatitis C (HC) were not high, and mild chronic HC was the main clinical phenotype of patients. Among the four viral infections, JE had the highest disease burden (LOS and expenditure) for hospitalized children. Conclusion First, the present study reveals that JE remains the most serious disease due to Flaviviridae virus infection and threatens children’s health in China. Many pediatric patients have severe illnesses, but their mortality rate is lower, suggesting that existing treatment is effective. Both JEV vaccination and infection control of rural children should represent a focus of study. Second, although the dual risks of indigenous epidemics and imports of DENV still exist, the prevalence of DENV in children is generally manageable. Third, YFV currently shows no evidence of an epidemic in China. Finally, the proportion of children with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is relatively large among hospitalized children diagnosed with HCV. Thus, early and effective intervention should be offered to children infected with HCV to ease the burden of CHC on public health.

Objective. Zika virus (ZIKV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) are mosquito-borne flaviviruses with sequence homology. ZIKV circulates in some regions where JEV also circulates, or where JE vaccination is used. Cross-immunity between flaviviruses exists, but the precise mechanisms remain unclear. We previously demonstrated that T cell immunity induced by the live-attenuated Japanese encephalitis (JE) SA14-14-2 vaccine conferred protective immunity against ZIKV infection in mice, which could even bypass antibody-dependent enhancement. However, the role of T cell immune, especially memory T cell subsets, in cross-reactive immune responses between JE vaccine and ZIKV in humans has not been reported. Methods. We examined central and effector memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cell (TCM and TEM) responses (including degranulation, cytokines, and chemokines) in the presence of JEV and ZIKV, respectively, by using qualified peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from 18 children who had recently received a two-dose course of JE vaccine SA14-14-2 as well as seven children without JE vaccination. Results. Cross-reactive CD8+ TCM in response to ZIKV was characterized by secretion of IFN-γ, whereas CD8+ TEM did not show significant upregulation of functional factors. In the presence of ZIKV, IFN-γ and TNF-α expression was upregulated by CD4+ TEM, and the expression signature of CD4+ TCM is more cytotoxic potential. Conclusions. We profiled the cross-reactive memory T cell responses to ZIKV in JE vaccine recipients. These data will provide evidence for the mechanism of cross-reactive memory T cell immune responses between JEV and ZIKV and a more refined view of bivalent vaccine design strategy.

Quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates for the next-generation optical and electronic devices due to the out-standing photoluminance efficiency, tunable bandgap and facile solution synthesis. Nevertheless, the limited optoelectronic performance and poor lifetime of QDs devices hinder their further applications. As a gas-phase surface treatment method, atomic layer deposition (ALD) has shown the potential in QDs surface modification and device construction owing to the atomic-level control and excellent uniformity/conformality. In this perspective, the attempts to utilize ALD techniques in QDs modification to improve the photoluminance efficiency, stability, carrier mobility, as well as interfacial carrier utilization are introduced. ALD proves to be successful in the photoluminance quantum yield (PLQY) enhancement due to the elimination of QDs surface dangling bonds and defects. The QDs stability and devices lifetime are improved greatly through the introduction of ALD barrier layers. Furthermore, the carrier transport is ameliorated efficiently by infilling interstitial spaces during ALD process. Attributed to the ultra-thin and dense coating on the interface, the improvement on optoelectronic performance is achieved. Finally, the challenges of ALD applications in QDs at present and several prospects including ALD process optimization, in-situ characterization and computational simulations are proposed.

Canine distemper virus (CDV) causes a highly contagious disease in a wide range of carnivores. The hemagglutinin (H) protein of viruses shows the highest variability and plays an important role in modulation of viral antigenicity, virulence, and receptor recognition. Since 2012, canine distemper (CD) outbreaks in fur-bearing animals (minks, foxes, raccoon dogs) caused by CDV variants with I542N and Y549H substitutions in the H protein have been frequently reported in China. To characterize the molecular evolutionary dynamics and epidemiological dynamics of CDV, 235 H gene sequences of CDV wild-type strains collected from 22 countries between 1975 and 2015, including 44 strains predominant in fur-bearing animals in China, were analyzed. The phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary rates of the CDV strains were determined by Bayesian phylogenetics. The CDV strains clustered into distinct geographic genotypes, irrespective of the species of isolation. All the variant strains formed a distinct monophyletic cluster and belonged to the F sub-genotype within the Asia-1 genotype-currently the predominant sub-genotype in fur-bearing animals in China. Evolutionary analysis suggested that the variant strains originated in 2006. Furthermore, the selection pressure analysis revealed that the Y549H substitution was under positive selection pressure for adaptation toward the fur-bearing animals. The residue at position 549 also showed structural interaction with the V domain of the mink signaling lymphocyte-activation molecule (SLAM) receptor based on the homology modeling of the H-SLAM complex. Our results suggested that the Y549H substitution contributed to the molecular adaptation of CDV variants in the fur-bearing animals during the viral evolutionary phase in China.

The good bond between rebar and concrete is an essential prerequisite for the bearing force of reinforced concrete structures. In the simulation method, the concrete heterogeneity and rebar characteristics were taken into account. Considering frictional resistance and the mechanical interlocking between reinforcement and concrete, the paper established meso-scale separate interaction model which researches the nonlinear bonding damage behavior ribbed bar and concrete. Based on the good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental results, the advantages of the mesoscopic mechanical analysis method were discussed first, and the bond slip behavior and failure mechanism of the reinforced concrete interface were studied. Finally, the distribution characteristics of the bond stress of the bar was analyzed. Furthermore, based on the mesoscopic numerical analysis, the influences of the aggregate distribution, thickness of concrete cover, strength of concrete, steel bar diameter and height of rib on the bond failure behavior of reinforced concrete interface are discussed, and some regular knowledge is obtained.

Hemorrhage is one of the early symptoms of diabetic retinopathy, so accurate detection of hemorrhage has important significance in building automatic screening system of diabetic retinopathy. In this paper, a method based on two dimensional (2D) Gaussian fitting and human visual characteristics is proposed. Firstly, brightness correction and contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization are used to preprocess original color fundus image. Secondly, candidate hemorrhages are extracted based on background estimation and watershed segmentation. Thirdly, 2D Gaussian fitting and human visual characteristics are used to extract visual features of candidate hemorrhages. Finally, hemorrhages are obtained from candidate hemorrhages based on visual features. The proposed method is evaluated on 219 fundus images of DIARETDB database. Experimental results show that overall average sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for hemorrhage in image level are 100%, 82% and 95.42% respectively, and overall average sensitivity and positive predictive value for hemorrhage in lesion level are 94.01% and 90.30% respectively. The results show that this method can realize automatic detection of hemorrhages in fundus image with high accuracy.

Background Congenital TORCH (Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), rubella virus (RV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes simplex virus (HSV)) infections are associated with a variety of adverse prenatal and neonatal events, including miscarriage, malformations and developmental abnormalities, and they remain an issue that cannot be neglected in China. However, the current research focuses more on the general screening of TORCH in women of childbearing age, and the medical information of children hospitalized due to congenital and perinatal TORCH infections has not been described in detail. This study summarized and analyzed the epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, length of stay (LOS), and the disease burden of hospitalized children diagnosed with congenital TORCH infections in 27 children’s hospitals in China. Methodology Based on the face sheet of discharge medical records (FSMRs) of hospitalized children in 27 tertiary children’s hospitals collected in the Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development and aggregated into FUTang Update medical REcords (FUTURE), we summarized and analyzed the epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, LOS, the disease burden (in US dollars, USD) and potential risk factors for hospitalized children diagnosed with congenital toxoplasmosis, congenital rubella syndrome, congenital cytomegalovirus infection, and congenital HSV in 27 children’s hospitals in China from 2015 to 2020. Results One hundred seventy-three patients aged 0– Conclusion In the present study, the hospitalization proportion due to congenital TORCH infection was extremely low (17.56 per 100,000 neonates), indicating that China’s congenital TORCH infection prevention and control policies remain effective. The lowest proportion of patients was hospitalized with congenital toxoplasmosis, while the LOS was the longest. The economic burden of CRS was heavy, and infants are recommended be vaccinated against RV in a timely manner. Congenital CMV infections accounted for the largest proportion of patients, suggesting that the disease burden of congenital CMV infection cannot be ignored, and the prevention of congenital CMV infection during pregnancy is still an important issue that needs to pay attention. The expense of hospitalization for congenital HSV infection was relatively low, while the disease burden increases significantly when patients develop complications. These data illustrate the importance of improving screening for congenital TORCH infections in the early diagnosis and treatment of neonatal patients.

Aspergillus flavus and Aflatoxins in grain crops give rise to a serious threat to food security and cause huge economic losses. In particular, aflatoxin B1 has been identified as a Class I carcinogen to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Compared with conventional methods, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) has paved the way for the detection of Aspergillus flavus and Aflatoxins in grain crops as it is a rapid, nondestructive, and sensitive analytical method. In this work, the rapid detection of Aspergillus flavus and quantification of Aflatoxin B1 in grain crops were performed by using a portable Raman spectrometer combined with colloidal Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). With the increase of the concentration of Aspergillus flavus spore suspension in the range of 102–108 CFU/mL, the better the combination of Aspergillus flavus spores and AuNPs, the better the enhancement effect of AuNPs solution on the Aspergillus flavus. A series of different concentrations of aflatoxin B1 methanol solution combined with AuNPs were determined based on SERS and their spectra were similar to that of solid powder. Moreover, the characteristic peak increased gradually with the increase of concentration in the range of 0.0005–0.01 mg/L and the determination limit was 0.0005 mg/L, which was verified by HPLC in ppM concentration. This rapid detection method can greatly shorten the detection time from several hours or even tens of hours to a few minutes, which can help to take effective measures to avoid causing large economic losses.

Summary Extending the structural hierarchy and complexity through small-molecular self-assembly is a powerful way to obtain large discrete, functional molecular architecture. A hydrogen-bonded supramolecular organic framework (HSOF) with nanometer-size pores is constructed in a solid state with simple guanosine-monomer self-assembly. To extend the hierarchy of the G-quartet self-assembly to a higher order than that of the traditional G-quadruplex, H-bond acceptors on the C-8 position of guanosine are introduced to establish inter-quadruplex linkage via H bonding to N(2)-HB from the neighboring G-quartet. After screening different C-8 substitution groups and various synthesis conditions, HSOF-G1a’ is obtained by solvent evaporation under diluted condition. Single-crystal X-ray structure reveals that cubic repeating units formed by G8 are the supermolecule secondary building block (SBU) with large pores (d = 34 A). To our knowledge, this is the first G-quartet self-assembly with an organized structure beyond cylindrical G-quadruplexes.

Systematic investigations were performed with various substituted groups at C8 purine and ribose. A series of isoG analogs, C8-phenyl substituted isoG were synthesized and applied for Cs+ coordination. The structural proximity between purine and ribose limited pentaplex formation for C8-phenyl substituted isoG derivatives. Based on this observation, deoxy isoG derivative with modification on ribose (tert-butyldimethylsilyl ether) was applied to assemble with the Cs+ cation. Critical solvent (CDCl3 and CD3CN) and anion (BPh4−, BARF−, and PF6−) effects were revealed, leading to the controllable formation of various stable isoG pentaplexes, including singly charged decamer, doubly charged decamer, and 15-mer, etc. Finally, the X-ray crystal structure of [isoG20Cs3]3+(BARF−)3 was successfully obtained, which is the first example of multiple-layer deoxy isoG binding with the Cs+ cation, providing solid evidence of this new isoG ionophore beyond two-layer sandwich self-assembly., The first example of multiple-layer deoxy isoG self-assembly was characterized by X-ray crystal structure. Critical solvent and anion effects were revealed, leading to the controllable formation of various stable isoG assemblies.

This study aims to develop a simple, sensitive, low-cost, environmentally friendly and flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform, combined with a portable Raman spectrometer, for the rapid and on-site SERS detection of bacteria. Commercial tobacco packaging paper (TPP) with little background interference was used as a loading medium that effectively adsorbed Au nanoparticles and provided sufficient “hot spots”. This Au-tobacco packaging paper (Au-TPP) substrate used as a flexible SERS platform can maximize sample collection by wiping irregular surfaces, and was successfully applied to the on-site and rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria. Raman fingerprints of pathogenic bacteria can be obtained by SERS detection of spiked pork using wipeable Au-TPP, which verifies its value in practical applications. The results collected by SERS were further verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results. It showed several advantages in on-site SERS detection, including accurate discrimination, simple preparation, easy operation, good sensitivity, accuracy and reproducibility. This study indicates that the established flexible SERS platform has good practical applications in pathogenic bacterial identification and other rapid detections.

Rapid and quantitative detection of bacterial antibiotic resistance is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of infections and understanding drug-resistant mechanism. In this study, label-free surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology was applied to dynamically explore oxacillin/cefazolin-derived resistance in Staphylococcus aureus using a portable Raman spectrometer. The results showed that S. aureus rapidly responded to oxacillin/cefazolin stimulation and gradually developed different degrees of drug resistance during the 21 days of exposure. The molecular changes that accumulated in the drug-resistant strains were sensitively recorded by SERS in a whole-cell manner. Principal components-linear discriminant analysis correctly distinguished various degrees of drug-resistant strains. The typical Raman peak intensities of I

In this study, MoS2-graphene-tourmaline (MoS2-GR-T) composite photocatalyst was successful synthesized via one-step hydrothermal method. Raman spectra revealed that graphene oxide was reduced to graphene. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that MoS2 was dispersed well on graphene. Transmission electron microscope images showed that MoS2 and tourmaline contacted well with graphene. Analysis of UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra implied that the bandgap energies of MoS2, MoS2-T and MoS2-GR-T samples were 2.01 eV, 1.91 eV and 1.79 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic performances are evidenced under Xenon lamp irradiation utilizing Rhodamine B dye as the model compound. Compared with MoS2 and MoS2-GR, the MoS2-graphene-tourmaline (MoS2-GR-T) composites exhibited the excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation about irradiating for 60 min were 93.9% under visible-light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of MoS2-GR-T composite could be attributed to the exposed adsorption-photocatalytic active sties, the improved light adsorption ability and the promoted charge separation efficiency. The introduction of tourmaline reduced the band gap explored by analysis of UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra. This work demonstrated that the charge efficiency of photocatalysts could be promoted by coupling both metal-free co-catalyst and polar mineral.

The fat sand rats (Psammomys obesus) can easily induce obesity and acquire type 2 diabetes mellitus when they are fed with high-carbohydrate diets. P. obesus is often used as an animal model for studies on diabetes and obesity. We described 16,592 bp of P. obesus mtDNA that contains 13 protein-coding genes (PGCs), two rRNA genes (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and one control region (D-loop). The complete mitochondrial genome sequence provided here would be useful for further understanding the evolution of ratite and conservation genetics of P. obesus.

The Signal lymphatic activation molecule (SLAM, also known as CD150) as the cellular receptor of canine distemper virus (CDV) plays an important role in the virus-host interaction. However, it is still unknown whether amino acid differences in the SLAM variable (V) region affect the formation of syncytia. Here, using raccoon dog SLAM (rSLAM) and mink SLAM (mSLAM), we performed SLAM-V homologous modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, and surface expression analysis, as well as a cell fusion assay, to study the interaction between SLAM and CDV. More specifically, our investigation focused on two amino acid residues (74 and 129) of SLAM, previously predicted to play a relevant role in receptor-ligand interaction. Our results indicated that only residues at position 60, 74, and 129 were different between rSLAM and mSLAM among the 29 amino acids that might interact with CDV H, and residues 74 and 129 were located in the interface region interacting with CDV H. The amino acid substitution at the positions of 74 have a significant effect on the expression of mSLAM. The SLAM-V74I mutation in mink significantly improved the cell fusion efficiency of CDV. In contrast, the SLAM-I74V mutation in the raccoon dog significantly decreased cell fusion efficiency. We conclude that residue 74 of SLAM plays an important role during the the formation of syncytia. Only when implementing CDV infection analysis, the rSLAM-Q129R can significantly decreased the mean number of syncytia, but the mSLAM-R129Q can't. Additionally, residue 60 show variability between rSLAM and mSLAM. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because we provide molecular data, partially accounting for the differences in host membrane and virus interaction laying the foundation for further molecular work.

PDK1 (3-Phosphoinositide dependent protein kinase-1) is a member in the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase) pathway and is implicated in neurodevelopmental disease with microcephaly. Although the role of PDK1 in neurogenesis has been broadly studied, it remains unknown how PDK1 may regulate oligogenesis in the central nervous system (CNS). To address this question, we generated oligodendrocyte (OL) lineage cells specific PDK1 conditional knockout (cKO) mice. We find that PDK1 cKOs display abnormal white matter (WM), massive loss of mature OLs and severe defect in myelination in the CNS. In contrast, these mutants exhibit normal neuronal development and unchanged apoptosis in the CNS. We demonstrate that deletion of PDK1 severely impairs OL differentiation. We show that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of PDK1 causes deficit in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTor) signaling and down-regulation of Sox10. Together, these results highlight a critical role of PDK1 in OL differentiation during postnatal CNS development.

Pudendal nerve block (PNB) is one of the common anesthesia methods, which has been widely applied in postoperative analgesia of hemorrhoids in recent years. To analyze the effectiveness and safety of PNB on postoperative analgesia of hemorrhoids, we conducted a systematic review of 7 randomized controlled trials (RCT) searched from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the China Network Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the Wan Fang Database and Chinese Biomedicine (CBM), which were published before 7th September, 2020, and involved a total of 560 participants. We evaluated the function of PNB in improving outcomes of postoperative analgesia of hemorrhoids. Visual analogue scale (VAS) scores on postoperative 6, 12, 24, 48 h and the first time of defecation were enhanced by the application of PNB. The incidence of urinary retention, the need for analgesics [odds ratio (OR), 0.11; 95% CI, 0.04-0.37; P=0.0003] and the incidence of side effects (OR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.04-0.39; P=0.004) in patients receiving PNB were lower than those of controls. In addition, there was no significant difference in the incidence of bleeding between groups. PNB could effectively relieve postoperative pain of hemorrhoids and reduce complications without increasing the incidence of side effects. Our results still need to be confirmed by high-quality, multi-center clinical studies.

The stability of luminescent materials is a key factor for the practical application in white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Poor chemical stability of narrow-band green-emitting RbLi(Li

This study focused on the behavior of heavy metals (HMs) in sewage sludge after conditioning based on total HMs concentration, fractionation and leaching tests. Fe2+-sodium persulfate (SPS) oxidation was applied as chemical conditioner and rice husk (RH) was added as a physical conditioner to improve the dewaterability of sewage sludge. Combined the response surface methodology analysis and our previous research, the capillary suction time (CST) and the water content of sludge cake reduced by 93.8% and 25%, respectively, after conditioned by 125 mg g−1 dry solid (DS) SPS, 33 mg g−1 DS Fe2+, 333 mg g−1 DS RH at original pH of sludge. The HMs analysis indicated that the concentrations of Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn and Cr were increased in liquid phase after conditioning process. And after conditioned by Fe2+/SPS with RH, the leaching toxicity reduction are 79%, 100%, 93%, 80% and 68% for Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn and Cr, respectively. Results showed that RH combined with Fe2+/SPS oxidation has a synergistic effect on risk reduction and immobilization of HMs. The chemical species of HMs were redistributed and the risk of Pb was reduced from medium risk to no risk after sludge conditioning process according to the risk assessment.

Creating ordered metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) membranes with a scalable fabrication for continuous and homogeneous nanoarchitecture represents a category of tunable and functionalizable heterogeneous catalysts. In this work, we demonstrate a facile synthetic strategy for controlling Cu-MOF (1) to fabricate highly oriented MOF membranes (1a) with good controllability in membranes thickness on the macroporous Ni foam as the supporting scaffold, which can promote the growth of the uniform and high-quality MOF-based membranes with the benefit of readily accessible active sites. Nanoscale crystals of 1b also can be acquired by using surfactants as templates without Ni foam as surface-supported. Furthermore, MOFs-based 1–1b have indicated to be efficient heterogeneous catalysts to promote cascade indole acylation–Nazarov cyclization for producing cyclopentenone[b]indoles skeletons. In particular, their unique membrane structure of 1a, containing ordered structure and molecular tunability, affords a well-defi...