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Unsaturated ketones are typical oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) with high reactivity, and are important precursors in air pollution. The sources of OVOCs are complex and include direct emissions and secondary oxidation formation of VOCs in the atmosphere. 2-Cyclohexen-1-one is a widespread substance, and is derived from the industrial catalytic oxidation of cyclohexene. In this paper, we investigated the rate constants of the chemical reactions of 2-cyclohexen-1-one with NO3radicals, which is (7.25±0.29)×10−15cm3·molecule−1·s−1at 298 K and under 1 atm (1 atm=101325Pa). It supplemented the kinetics of NO3radicals database, and revealed its effects in the nighttime atmosphere. In addition, the reaction products of 2-cyclohexen-1-one with NO3radicals were detected by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), which revealed a series of nitrate esters in the composition of the secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which may reduce atmospheric visibility. Finally, the possible pathways for the generation of the products were developed.

IMPORTANCE: Retinal diseases are the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and timely detection contributes to prevention of permanent vision loss, especially for patients in rural areas with limited medical resources. Deep learning systems (DLSs) based on fundus images with a 45° field of view have been extensively applied in population screening, while the feasibility of using ultra-widefield (UWF) fundus image–based DLSs to detect retinal lesions in patients in rural areas warrants exploration. OBJECTIVE: To explore the performance of a DLS for multiple retinal lesion screening using UWF fundus images from patients in rural areas. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this diagnostic study, a previously developed DLS based on UWF fundus images was used to screen for 5 retinal lesions (retinal exudates or drusen, glaucomatous optic neuropathy, retinal hemorrhage, lattice degeneration or retinal breaks, and retinal detachment) in 24 villages of Yangxi County, China, between November 17, 2020, and March 30, 2021. INTERVENTIONS: The captured images were analyzed by the DLS and ophthalmologists. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The performance of the DLS in rural screening was compared with that of the internal validation in the previous model development stage. The image quality, lesion proportion, and complexity of lesion composition were compared between the model development stage and the rural screening stage. RESULTS: A total of 6222 eyes in 3149 participants (1685 women [53.5%]; mean [SD] age, 70.9 [9.1] years) were screened. The DLS achieved a mean (SD) area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.918 (0.021) (95% CI, 0.892-0.944) for detecting 5 retinal lesions in the entire data set when applied for patients in rural areas, which was lower than that reported at the model development stage (AUC, 0.998 [0.002] [95% CI, 0.995-1.000]; P < .001). Compared with the fundus images in the model development stage, the fundus images in this rural screening study had an increased frequency of poor quality (13.8% [860 of 6222] vs 0%), increased variation in lesion proportions (0.1% [6 of 6222]-36.5% [2271 of 6222] vs 14.0% [2793 of 19 891]-21.3% [3433 of 16 138]), and an increased complexity of lesion composition. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This diagnostic study suggests that the DLS exhibited excellent performance using UWF fundus images as a screening tool for 5 retinal lesions in patients in a rural setting. However, poor image quality, diverse lesion proportions, and a complex set of lesions may have reduced the performance of the DLS; these factors in targeted screening scenarios should be taken into consideration in the model development stage to ensure good performance.

Precise spatiotemporal control of gene expression patterns is critical for normal development. Pluripotent stem cells, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), with the ability of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation into any cell type, provide a unique tool for understanding the underlying mechanism of development and disease in a dish. N6-methyl-adenosine (m6A) modification is the most extensive internal mRNA modification, which regulates almost all aspects of mRNA metabolism and thus extensively participates in gene expression regulation. However, the role of m6A during cardiogenesis still needs to be fully elucidated. Here, we found that core components of m6A methyltransferase decreased during cardiomyocyte differentiation. Impeding m6A deposition, by either deleting the m6A methyltransferase Mettl3 or overexpressing m6A demethylase alkB homolog 5 (Alkbh5), at early stages of cardiac differentiation of mouse pluripotent stem cells, led to inhibition of cardiac gene activation and retardation of the outgrowth of embryoid bodies, whereas interfering m6A modification at later stages of differentiation had minimal effects. Consistently, stage-specific inhibition of METTL3 with METTL3 inhibitor STM2457 during human ESCs (hESCs) cardiac differentiation demonstrated a similarly pivotal role of METTL3 for the induction of mesodermal cells while dispensable function for later stages. In summary, our study reveals a stage-specific requirement of m6A on the cardiac differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and demonstrates that precise tuning of m6A level is critical for cardiac differentiation.

Purpose: To study the posterior segment complications (PSC) and the risk factors in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Methods: This cross-sectional, case-control study enroled 143 patients who received allogeneic HSCT. Comprehensive ocular examinations were performed to evaluate PSC and ocular Graft-versus-Host Disease (oGVHD). PSC was diagnosed based on the characteristic fundus findings and auxiliary examinations. Visual-evoked potential was examined in patients with unexplained visual loss and suspected visual pathway pathology (VPP). Ocular surface disease index, corneal fluorescein staining, conjunctival injection and Schirmer’s test were scored to diagnose oGVHD. Results: PSC was detected in 36 (25.2%) patients, while 107 (74.8%) patients were not. Among them, 102 (71.3%) patients were diagnosed with oGVHD. The most common PSC included cytomegalovirus retinitis (13/143, 9.1%) and VPP (7/143, 4.9%). Central nervous system relapse of leukaemia was detected in four out of seven cases of VPP. Patients with PSC had worse visual acuity, lower prevalence and milder severity of oGVHD, and more donors from unrelated and human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatch (all P< 0.05). PSC was associated with transplant from unrelated (OR = 6.494, 95% CI: 1.635–25.794, P= 0.008) and HLA-mismatched (OR = 7.193, 95% CI: 2.829–18.291, P< 0.001) donor but not with the occurrence of systemic GVHD or oGVHD. Conclusions: PSC in post-HSCT patients was more common than previously noted, deserving the concern of ophthalmologists, especially in patients with unrelated or HLA-mismatched donors.

With the continuous improvement of oil and gas exploration in the middle and shallow layers, the deep Paleogene in Raoyang sag has become an important exploration field of “increasing reserves and production” in North China. The recognition and control factors of deep effective reservoirs are unclear, which restricts the recognition effect of oil and gas exploration. The key to identify effective reservoirs is to determine the lower limit standard of reservoir physical properties. The single method for calculating the lower limit of physical properties has limitations. The lower limit of the effective reservoir physical properties of the Shahejie Formation in the Dawangzhuang area was obtained by comprehensively using physical property, well logging and oil test data. The data were analysed by oil testing method, metre oil production index test method and frequency curve intersection method. On this basis, combined with the cast thin-section observations, scanning electron microscopy and other test results, the comprehensive control of effective reservoir development of the Shahejie Formation in the Dawangzhuang area of the Raoyang sag was studied from various factors, such as formation pressure, sand body thickness and diagenesis. The results show that the lower limit of porosity was 9.73, 9.44 and 8.85% at depths of Es1, Es2 and Es3, respectively. The lower limit of permeability was 1.21 × 10–3, 1.18 × 10–3and 0.59 × 10–3μm2, respectively. Effective reservoirs are easier to form in areas with formation pressure coefficient greater than 1.2. Formation overpressure inhibits compaction and promotes dissolution. The proportion of effective reservoirs of sand bodies with thicknesses greater than 2 m can reach more than 75%. The influence of diagenesis on the reservoir is mainly manifested in compaction and cementation making the reservoir compact. The porosity reduction rate caused by compaction can reach 20–75%, while dissolution makes the reservoir form secondary pores. The average pore throat radius of secondary pores can reach 4 ~ 6.3 µm. This study makes use of the applicability of different methods, which is more instructive for predicting the effective reservoir of the Shahejie Formation in the study area. In addition, the research results provide a reference for the development mechanism of medium-deep clastic reservoirs.

A highly chemoselective and enantioselective fluorescent probe has been discovered for the recognition of prolinol among various primary and secondary amine-based amino alcohols. The mechanistic studies including 1D and 2D 1H/13C NMR and mass spectroscopic analyses and DFT calculations have shown that the aldehyde group of the probe can react with prolinol to generate a bicyclic oxazolidine unit which, through a possible intramolecular hydrogen bond interaction, will lead to highly selective fluorescence enhancement.

In this paper, a novel technology, which is the thermal power generation (TEG)-organic Rankine cycle (ORC) combined cycle system, is proposed to recycle cascade utilisation of main engine waste heat. Evaporation pressure of working fluid (P) is an important parameter affecting the combined cycle, but its performance in the TEG-ORC combined cycle is unknown. Therefore, the TEG-ORC experimental device is built in this paper, and the environmentally friendly R245fa is employed to study the variation of the main parameters such as the system net power output (Wnet), system thermal efficiency (ηs), power-production cost (Cg), and waste heat utilisation of main engine flue gas (fg) under different evaporation pressure (P). When the Pis 0.75 Mpa, the output performance of the system parameters is optimal. The Wnet, ηs, waste heat utilisation power (Wp), Cg, and rate of fg, is 483.25 W, 8.34%, 5796.72 W, 0.3464 $ /kWh, and 69.05 %, respectively.

PurposeTo report the 6-year incidence, causes and risk factors for vision loss (visual impairment (VI) and blindness), among elderly adults in rural southern China.MethodsPopulation-based, cohort study. Initiated in 2014, the study recruited participants aged 50 and older using random cluster sampling from Yangxi County. All eligible participants were invited to attend interviews and comprehensive eye examinations at the 6-year follow-up between November 2020 and March 2021. The WHO categories of vision loss were used to define incident cases of VI (3/60≤VA <6/12), moderate-to-severe VI (MSVI) (3/60≤VA<6/18) and blindness (VA <3/60) in the better-seeing eye.ResultsAmong the 5825 baseline participants, 3187 (64.4%) of 4946 surviving subjects participated in the 6-year follow-up. Based on presenting and best-corrected VA, respectively, the crude incidence rate of blindness was 0.8% (95% CI 0.5% to 1.1%) vs 0.3% (95% CI 0.1% to 0.5%), for MSVI 6.7% (95% CI 5.7% to 7.6%) vs 4.6% (95% CI 3.8% to 5.4%) and for any VI 16.1% (95% CI 14.5% to 17.6%) vs 12.9% (95% CI 11.6% to 14.1%). Cataract (48.3%) and refractive errors (44.4%) were the most common causes of vision loss. Factors significantly associated with greater incident vision loss were older age, female sex, less education, living alone and longer axial length (all p<0.05).ConclusionsSubstantial work is still required to reduce avoidable vision loss in rural China. Screening outreach and efforts to improve awareness which target the poorer and less educated are urgently needed to reduce the growing unmet need for eye care due to ageing.

A novel fluorinated chiral dialdehyde (S,S)-1, prepared from (S,S)- or (R,R)-2,6-bis(1-hydroxyethyl)pyridine and 2-naphthol containing a highly fluorinated alkyl group, is found to show enantioselective and chemoselective fluorescent recognition of lysine in the fluorous phase. We discovered that the fluorous phase greatly enhances the fluorescent sensitivity and selectivity of the probe. Thus, the fluorous phase not only can allow the fluorescence measurement to be conducted away from common organic and aqueous media to minimize undesirable interference but also can provide a unique environment to greatly improve the selective fluorescent response.

Activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is a central driver of liver fibrosis. Previous investigations have identified various altered epigenetic landscapes during the cellular progression of HSC activation. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal RNA modification in eukaryotic cells and is dynamically regulated under various physiological and pathophysiological conditions. However, the functional role of Mettl3-mediated m6A in liver fibrosis remains elusive. Here, we found that the HSC-specific knockout of m6A methyltransferase Mettl3 suppressed HSC activation and significantly alleviated liver fibrosis. Multi-omics analysis of HSCs showed that Mettl3 depletion reduced m6A deposition on mRNA transcripts of Lats2(a central player of the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway) and slowed down their degradation. Elevated Lats2 increased phosphorylation of the downstream transcription factor YAP, suppressed YAP nuclear translocation, and decreased pro-fibrotic gene expression. Overexpressing YAP mutant resistant to phosphorylation by Lats2 partially rescued the activation and pro-fibrotic gene expression of Mettl3-deficient HSCs. Our study revealed that disruption of Mettl3 in HSCs mitigated liver fibrosis by controlling the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway, providing potential therapeutic strategies to alleviate liver fibrosis by targeting epitranscriptomic machinery.

Fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) examinations are widely used in the evaluation of fundus disease conditions to facilitate further treatment suggestions. Here, we present a protocol for performing deep learning-based FFA image analytics with classification and segmentation tasks. We describe steps for data preparation, model implementation, statistical analysis, and heatmap visualization. The protocol is applicable in Python using customized data and can achieve the whole process from diagnosis to treatment suggestion of ischemic retinal diseases.

This study aims to develop an effective tool by integrating traditional analysis methods with advanced sensor array technology and multiple algorithms, to achieve rapid characterization, qualitative identification, and flavor quality evaluation of fermented bean products. Firstly, the flavor compounds and flavor profiles of fermented bean curd from different manufacturers were identified using headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS) and quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA). A total of 63 volatile compounds were identified, of which 13 volatile compounds were identified as the key differential compounds in selected samples. Eight descriptors were selected to represent the aroma characteristics of fermented bean curd. Based on the key differential compounds, a low-cost colorimetric sensor array (CSA) was designed and constructed. Furthermore, the feasibility of CSA combined with multiple algorithms was investigated for brand discrimination and flavor quality assessment. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) exhibited a better performance in distinguishing different flavor quality samples, and the recognition accuracy of its prediction set was 97.22%. The study suggests that CSA combined with multiple algorithms can be an effective tool for flavor characterization and qualitative discrimination of fermented bean curd, and can provide a new multi-dimensional analysis method for food analysis.

(S)-2-Aminobutane, d-alanine, and d-homoalanine are important intermediates for the production of various active pharmaceutical ingredients and food additives. The preparation of these small chiral amine or amino acids with high water solubility still demands searching for efficient methods. In this work, we identified an ω-transaminase (ω-TA) from Sinirhodobacter hungdaonensis(ShdTA) that catalyzed the kinetic resolution of racemic 2-aminobutane at a concentration of 800 mM using pyruvate as the amino acceptor, leading to the simultaneous isolation of enantiopure (S)-2-aminobutane and d-alanine in 46% and 90% yield, respectively. In addition, (S)-2-aminobutane (98% ee) and d-homoalanine (99% ee) were isolated in 45% and 93% yield, respectively, in the kinetic resolution of racemic 2-aminobutane at a concentration of 400 mM coupled with deamination of l-threonine by threonine deaminase. We thus developed a biocatalytic process for the practical synthesis of these valuable small chiral amine and d-amino acids.

Atherosclerosis, a chronic disease associated with metabolism, poses a significant risk to human well‐being. Currently, existing treatments for atherosclerosis lack sufficient efficiency, while the utilization of surface‐modified nanoparticles holds the potential to deliver highly effective therapeutic outcomes. These nanoparticles can target and bind to specific receptors that are abnormally over‐expressed in atherosclerotic conditions. This paper reviews recent research (2018–present) advances in various ligand‐modified nanoparticle systems targeting atherosclerosis by specifically targeting signature molecules in the hope of precise treatment at the molecular level and concludes with a discussion of the challenges and prospects in this field. The intention of this review is to inspire novel concepts for the design and advancement of targeted nanomedicines tailored specifically for the treatment of atherosclerosis. Overview diagram of targeted ligand‐modified nanomedicines for the treatment of atherosclerosis. Ligand‐modified nanoparticles targeting specific atherosclerosis receptors at each pathological stage from monocyte recruitment, macrophage polarisation and foam cell formation, vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic transformation, and vulnerable plaque formation, opening up ideas for the design of atherosclerosis‐targeted nanomedicines.

The cover depicts the potential of surface‐modified nanoparticles in treating atherosclerosis by targeting over‐expressed receptors. It highlights advances in ligand‐modified nanoparticle systems for precise molecular‐level treatment and explores the challenges and future prospects, aiming to inspire novel designs of targeted nanomedicines for atherosclerosis treatment.

Aptasensors with high specificity have emerged as powerful tools for understanding various biological processes, thus providing tremendous opportunities for clinical diagnosis and prognosis. However, their applications in intracellular molecular imaging are largely impeded due to the low anti-interference capacity in biological environments and the moderate sensitivity to targets. Herein, a robust enzyme-free autocatalysis-driven feedback DNA circuit is devised for amplified aptasensing, for example, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and thrombin, with a significantly improved sensitivity in living cells. This initiator-replicated hybridization chain reaction (ID-HCR) circuit was acquired by integrating the HCR circuit with the DNAzyme biocatalysis. Also, the autocatalysis-driven aptasensor consists of a recognition element and an amplification element. The recognition unit can specifically identify ATP or thrombin via a versatile conformational transformation, resulting in the exposure of the initiator to the autocatalysis-driven circuit. The ID-HCR element integrates the charming self-assembly characteristics of the HCR and the remarkable catalytic cleavage capacity of DNAzyme for realizing the continuously self-sustained regeneration or replication of trigger strands and for achieving an exponential signal gain. The autocatalysis-driven aptasensor has been validated for quantitative analysis of ATP and thrombin in vitro and for monitoring the corresponding aptamer substrates with various expressions in live cells. More importantly, the autocatalysis-driven aptasensor, as a versatile amplification strategy, holds enormous potential for analysis of other less abundant biomarkers by changing only the recognition element of the system.

ABSTRACTLapatinib (LAP) is an important anti-cancer drug and is frequently alongside doxorubicin (DOX) as a combination therapy for better anti-cancer efficacy. However, many studies have reported that LAP in combination with DOX may induce highly cardiotoxicity. Accordingly, we aimed to explore the potential mechanism involved in the synergistic effect of LAP in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. Here, cell counting kit-8 was used to detect cell viability and lactate dehydrogenase measurement was performed to assess cell injury. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL assay and western blot assay. Mitochondrial dysfunction was identified by JC-1 assay, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and Cytochrome C. Moreover, the activity of ROS, SOD, CAT and GSH were measured to elucidate oxidative stress level. Ferroptosis was examined by levels of Fe2+, GPX4 and ASCL4. Expressions of PI3K/AKT signaling were identified by western blot assay. The results revealed that LAP inhibited the cell viability and exacerbated cell injury induced by Dox, as well as increased cell apoptosis. LAP aggravated DOX-induced mitochondria damage by changed mitochondrial membrane potential, decreased ATP and increased level of Cytochrome C. In addition, the combination of LAP and DOX induced oxidative stress and ferroptosis in H9c2 cells. The activation of PI3K/AKT signaling reversed the detrimental effects of LAP on DOX-induced H9c2 cells. The data in this study showed for the first time that LAP aggravated Dox-induced cardiotoxicity by promoting oxidative stress and ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes via PI3K/AKT-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction, suggesting that PI3K/AKT activation is a promising cardioprotective strategy for DOX /LAX combination therapies.

Point of interest (POI) recommendation can help people explore new regions. Existing methods tend to exploit different information to improve recommendation performance. However, there are still challenges in how to integrate different information flexibly and effectively. Therefore, we propose a multi-task embedding based personalized POI recommendation method (MTEPR). On one hand, multi-information (sequential, social, temporal, geographical, semantic, gender, and preference information) are exploited to embed users and POIs. On the other hand, MTEPR incorporates sequence and graph embedding methods to model user location history, as well as to preserve the relationships between users, POIs, and different information. Specifically, sequential information is captured by applying a sequence embedding method on users’ check-in sequences, and other information are captured by applying graph embedding methods on User–User, User-Time Slot, POI-Time Slot, POI-Region Hierarchy, POI-Category Hierarchy, User-Gender, and User-POI graphs. The scores of candidate POIs are calculated based on the embeddings to make recommendations. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of MTEPR on two real-world datasets, and the results show its superiority over baselines. We also study the impact of different information, and the results reveal that temporal and semantic information contribute most to improving recommendation performance.

Medical artificial intelligence (AI) has entered the clinical implementation phase, although real-world performance of deep-learning systems (DLSs) for screening fundus disease remains unsatisfactory. Our study aimed to train a clinically applicable DLS for fundus diseases using data derived from the real world, and externally test the model using fundus photographs collected prospectively from the settings in which the model would most likely be adopted.

DNAzyme amplifiers show great potential in bioanalysis but their operation in living cells still remains a challenge because of the intrinsic low-abundance analytes and the undesired background interference. Herein, we constructed a simple yet versatile exonuclease III (Exo-III)-powered cascade DNAzyme amplifier with an ultralow background for highly sensitive and selective microRNA assay in vitroand even in living cells. The present DNAzyme amplifier relies on only one DNAzyme-functionalized hairpin (HP-Dz) probe that is grafted with two exposed subunits of an analyte recognition strand, through which false enzymatic digestion and DNAzyme leakage could be substantially expelled. These protruding ssDNA strands could cooperatively recognize and efficiently bind with the miR-21 analyte, releasing the blunt 3′-terminus for Exo-III digestion and then regenerating miR-21 for a new round of HP-Dz activation. This leads to the production of numerous DNAzyme units for catalyzing the cleavage of the fluorophore/quencher-tethered substrate and yielding an enormously amplified fluorescence readout. The successive Exo-III-mediated analyte regeneration and DNAzyme-involved signal amplification facilitate their ultrasensitive miR-21 assay in vitroand intracellular miR-21 imaging. Note that the present DNAzyme module could be facilely substituted with another versatile HRP-mimicking DNAzyme, thus enabling the colorimetric assay of miR-21 with naked eye observation. Overall, this robust Exo-III-propelled cascaded DNAzyme amplifier provides more general and versatile approaches for understanding miRNA functions of related biological events.

Electrocatalytic reduction of water via hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is considered one of the most ideal avenues to produce high-purity hydrogen (H2) in large quantities, which always requires active electrocatalysts to overcome the high energy barrier. It is of significance yet challenging to design and construct effective HER electrocatalysts of an acceptable cost. In this study, a highly efficient metal–organic framework (MOF)-based electrochemical HER system based on NiRu-based binary MOF (Ru-doped Ni2(BDC)2TED MOF, BDC = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid; TED = triethylenediamine) nanosheets grown on conductive substrates (e.g., Ni foam, carbon cloth) is fabricated by a facile solvothermal method. The resultant NiRu-MOF-based composites possess enhanced electron transport ability and water stability, accompanied by increased electrochemically active areas and hydrophilic/aerophobic properties. With these advantages, the optimized NiRu-MOF nanosheet arrays on Ni foam substrate (NiRu-MOF/NF) with a Ru/Ni molar ratio of 6/94 in the MOF structure could exhibit efficient catalytic performance for HER in alkaline conditions, requiring a small overpotential of 51 mV at −10 mA cm–2. This study could provide a feasible way for the design and synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) MOF-based materials with controllable interface properties for energy catalysis and beyond.

A novel BINOL-based near-IR fluorescent probe was designed and synthesized by incorporating a rhodamine-like dye. In the presence of Zn(II), this compound was found to exhibit highly enantioselective fluorescence enhancement at λemi> 730 nm and λexc= 690 nm when treated with 14 common amino acids in aqueous solution. An enantioselective fluorescence enhancement ratio up to 163 was observed. The mechanism of the fluorescence response of this probe was investigated by various spectroscopic methods.

Background Hirschsprung’s disease (HD) is a congenital disorder affecting neonates that presents with distal intestinal obstruction. It is the most common type of anorectal malformation. Treatment of HD consists of surgical removal of the distal colon including the most distal aganglionic segment, the transitional zone, and a prudent length of proximal colon that is determined during the surgical procedure to be normally ganglionated by intraoperative demonstration of normal ganglion cells up to and including the surgical resection margin.Methods In a retrospective study of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded colon tissue from the proximal resection margin (PRM) of 209 HD patients, we made morphometric measures and detected immature ganglion cells defined as dysmorphic by immunohistochemical demonstration of cytoplasmic neurofilament (NF).Results The majority of NF-positive ganglion cells in HD patients appeared immature, with less cytoplasm. Occasional positive ganglion cells in the same patients appeared mature with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, Nissl bodies, prominent nucleoli, and adjacent glial cells. Patients with NF-positive ganglion cells in the myenteric plexuses at the PRM may have poor postoperative recovery.Conclusion We propose that NF expression in dysmorphic ganglion cells at the PRM may predict poor outcome after pull-through surgery for HD.

A recyclable and high-efficiency nanoscale adsorbent is prepared from sustainable resources in this study. Inspired by the amino acid and phenolic hydroxyl group in reed root acting as active sites for adsorption, a chemically modified method is employed, where lignin is improved with glycine to prepare a biomimic adsorbent with a synergistic effect of amino acid and phenolic hydroxyl. By blending with nano-Fe3O4, the modified lignin is applied to synthesize lignin derivate magnetic nanogels that adsorb inorganic ions and organic dyes. The maximum capacities of the adsorption are highly improved, whereas unmodified lignin-based adsorbents reveal a low adsorption capacity under the same conditions. The used nanogels are recycled by magnetic separation and regenerated in hydrochloric acid, and the tests are repeated three times. All the regeneration ratios are over 90%, thus ensuring reusability. Finally, the as-prepared nanogels are applied to treat pulp bleaching effluents, revealing one potential application in industry. The designing concept of the recyclable nanogel in this study provides a biomimic strategy of using sustainable resources to treat contamination.

The addition of Mg2+is found to turn on the fluorescence response of a molecular probe, 3,3′-diformyl-1,1′-bi-2-naphthol, toward chiral amino acids with high enantioselectivity. It is further found that the enantioselective fluorescence responses of the molecular probe in the presence of Mg2+toward certain amino acids are the opposite of those in the presence of Zn2+, that is, using Mg2+with an l-amino acid generates much greater fluorescence enhancement than with the corresponding d-amino acid, but using Zn2+with the d-amino acid gives much greater fluorescence than with the l-enantiomer. Thus, simply changing the metal cation additive allows the chirality sense of the fluorescence-based molecular recognition to be easily regulated.