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ABSTRACTScientific research needs to get the most results with the lowest cost, hence how to modify the low-cost material to elevate its value is a valuable subject with both distinct scientific significance and extensive potential commercial application. This mini-review reports many achievements on this subject, in which amorphous silica is the starting material. Amorphous silica is a common porous oxide with a relatively low cost, but it can be modified to act as various new functional materials as long as the adopted strategy is smart and accurate. As these achievements are revealed in this review, silica can exert its versatility in environment protection as the efficient trapper of volatile nitrosamines, phenol and organophosphorus pesticide. Besides, silica plays the significant role of a solid strong base and thermal releaser of menthol, providing a clue on how to update the low-cost material into a specific new functional material.

Characterization of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from microbial genomes has been proven to be a powerful approach to the discovery of new natural products. However, such a genome mining approach to the discovery of bioactive plant metabolites has been muted. The plant BGCs characterized to date encode pathways for antibiotics important in plant defense against microbial pathogens, providing a means to discover such phytoalexins by mining plant genomes. Here is reported the discovery and characterization of a minimal BGC from the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus, consisting of an adjacent pair of genes encoding a terpene synthase (CrTPS18) and cytochrome P450 (CYP71D349). These two enzymes act sequentially, with CrTPS18 acting as a sesquiterpene synthase, producing 5-epi-jinkoheremol (1), which CYP71D349 further hydroxylates to debneyol (2). Infection studies with maize revealed that 1and 2exhibit more potent fungicidal activity than validamycin. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that characterization of such cryptic plant BGCs is a promising strategy for the discovery of potential agrochemical leads. Moreover, despite the observed absence of 1and 2in C. roseus, the observed transcriptional regulation is consistent with their differential fungicidal activity, suggesting that such conditional coexpression may be sufficient to drive BGC assembly in plants.

1, 3-butadiene and benzene are the representing harmful volatile hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke. A variety of commercial porous materials need to be evaluated and selected in laboratory for the sake of seeking the optimal additive in cigarette filter to remove 1, 3-butadiene and benzene. It is necessary to explore a suitable method which could reflect accurately the additives’ actual performance in smoke. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and instantaneous adsorption (IA) are used to estimate the removal capacity of 1, 3-butadiene and benzene by porous sorbents to select the suitable technique. Zeolites, mesoporous silica, activated carbon (AC), porous alumina and silica were chosen and evaluated with these two methods. In TPD tests, NaY zeolite showed the best removal capacity to 1, 3-butadiene (1.80 mmol g-1) and benzene (1.07 mmol g-1), superior to AC (1.54 mmol g-1for 1, 3-butdiene and 0.90 mmol g-1for benzene). However, their adsorption of two targets in cigarette smoke was decreased and challenged by the harsh condition including the short contacting time plus the existence and competition of numerous other compounds in smoke. Fortunately, IA test can reflect the true performance of sorbents in cigarette smoke because it is performed in a similar high-speed air flow, in which AC captured more 1, 3-butadiene (1.46 mmol g-1) than NaY zeolites did (1.06 mmol g-1). Acidic zeolites adsorbed 1, 3-butadiene through the chemical interaction of acid center while other adsorbents trapped it by physical adsorption.

To meet the requirement of capturing tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) for environment protection, a unique microenvironment was carefully created inside the channels of mesoporous silica MCM-41. In situ carbonization of template micelles at 923 K, combined with the excess aluminum used in one-pot synthesis of MCM-41, is adopted to tailor the tortuosity of mecsoporous channels, while loaded metal oxides (5 wt %) and the Al component in the framework are employed to exert the necessary electrostatic interaction toward the target carcinogens TSNA in solution. The elaborated microenvironment created in mesoporous sorbents was characterized with XRD, N2adsorption–desorption, TEM, XPS, and TG-DSC methods. Various solutions of Burley- and Virginia-type tobaccos were used to assess the adsorption performance of new mesoporous sorbents, and the influence of the solid-to-liquid ratio, adsorption time, and loading amount of CuO on the adsorption was carefully examined. The representative sample 5%Cu/AM-10c could capture 27.2% of TSNA in Burley tobacco solution, and its capacity reached 0.3 mg g–1in Snus tobacco extract solution, offering a promising candidate for the protection of the environment and public health.

Acetaldehyde has been assigned as Group 2B carcinogen and it accounts for 70 % in aldehydes chemicals in the mainstream smoke that caused a serious environment pollution. To fabricate new effective capturer of acetaldehyde through physical rather than chemical modification, zeolites and other porous sorbents were assessed at first in the gaseous adsorption of acetaldehyde to select suitable carriers. Then MCM-22 zeolite, SBA-15 and activated carbon (AC), representing the sorbent with ordered microporous, mesoporous and gross porosity, were chosen for liquid film modification with glycerol to improve their adsorption capability through extending the contact between sorbent and adsorbate. MCM-22 among zeolites showed the best adsorptive quantity of acetaldehyde (1.3 mmol g−1), close to that of AC (1.4 mmol g−1) in gaseous phase, and the value increased about 60 % after the liquid film modification meanwhile a negative impact appeared on modified AC with the removal quantity of 1.0 mmol g−1. Similarly, the liquid film on the mesoporous sorbent SBA-15 made the adsorption capacity enhanced by 66 % (0.5 mmol g−1) than parent SBA-15 (0.3 mmol g−1), though this value is still inferior to that of AC and zeolite. Liquid film modified is proven to be efficient for zeolite to trap gaseous acetaldehyde, which offers an economic and eco-friendly strategy to control air pollution. Finally, these sorbents were tried to adsorb the acetaldehyde in cigarette smoke and among them SBA-15 showed a better performance than MCM-22 and AC, demonstrating the superior of mesopores in the face of hundreds of harmful substances.

Objective To explore the protective effects and mechanisms of salidroside on myocardial injury induced by heat stroke (HS) in mice.Methods We pretreated mice with salidroside for 1 week and then established an HS model by exposure to 41.2°C for 1 hour. We then examined the effects of salidroside on survival. We also assessed the severity of cardiac injury by pathology, and analyzed changes in levels of myocardial injury markers, inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress.Results Salidroside pretreatment significantly reduced HS-induced mortality and improved thermoregulatory function. Salidroside also provided significant protection against HS-induced myocardial damage, and decreased the expression levels of cardiac troponin I, creatine kinase-MB, and lactate dehydrogenase. Moreover, salidroside attenuated HS-induced changes in the inflammation markers tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-10, and down-regulated the oxidative stress response indicated by thiobarbituric acid reactant substances, malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione, and superoxide dismutase.Conclusions Salidroside pretreatment protected against HS-induced myocardial damage, potentially via a mechanism involving anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects.

Objective To investigate the relationship between health insurance status and outcomes of septic acute kidney injury (AKI) related hospitalizations in an intensive care unit (ICU) in Ningbo, China.Methods For this retrospective study, information was extracted from patients notes and billing records for patients >18 years of age with a diagnosis of AKI admitted to the ICU department, Ningbo First Hospital from April 2013 to March 2018.Results Of the 368 patients with sepsis admitted to ICU, 167 (45%) developed AKI; 95 patients were insured and 72 were uninsured. Compared with insured patients, uninsured patients were younger, had higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores, but had less catheter interventions and received less renal replacement therapy (RRT). Results from a multivariate analysis showed that independent predictors of ICU mortality were age, APACHE II scores, MODS scores, use of RRT and lack of insurance.Conclusions Uninsured patients with septic AKI were younger, stayed a shorter time in ICU, had higher illness severity scores and a higher ICU mortality than insured patients. Importantly a major risk factor for ICU mortality in this group was lack of insurance.

Background: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays a very important role in the occurrence and development of various tumors, and is a potential biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expression of lncRNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) and the prognostic significance in patients with colorectal cancer.Methods: The expression of PVT1 was measured by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in cancerous and adjacent tissues of 210 colorectal cancer patients. The disease-free survival and overall survival of colorectal cancer patients were evaluated by Kaplan–Meier analysis, and univariate and multivariate analysis were performed by Cox proportional-hazards model.Results: Our results revealed that PVT1 expression in cancer tissues of colorectal cancer was significantly higher than that of adjacent tissues (P<0.001). High PVT1 expression was increased by 51.4% (108/210), which was significantly correlated with the tumor differentiation, the depth of invasion, the stage of tumor, node, metastasis (TNM), and lymphatic metastasis. The Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that high PVT1 expression resulted in a shorter disease-free survival (Log-rank test P<0.001) and overall survival (Log-rank test P<0.001) compared with the low PVT1 expression group in colorectal cancer patients, whether at TNM I/II stage or at TNM III/IV stage. A multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that high PVT1 expression was an independent predictor of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer patients.Conclusions: Our results suggest that high PVT1 expression might be a potential biomarker for assessing tumor recurrence and prognosis in colorectal cancer patients.

Diets containing partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) expose the human body to trans fatty acids, thus endangering cardiovascular health. Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) is a promising alternative of PHOs. This work attempted to construct stable Pickering HIPEs by engineering interface architecture through manipulating the interfacial, self-assembly, and packing behavior of zein particles using the interaction between protein and pectin. Partially wettable zein/pectin hybrid particles (ZPHPs) with three-phase contact angles ranging from 84° to 87° were developed successfully. ZPHPs were irreversibly anchored at the oil–water interface, resulting in robust and ordered interfacial structure, evidenced by the combination of LB-SEM and CLSM. This situation helped to hold a percolating 3D oil droplet network, which facilitated the formation of Pickering HIPEs with viscoelasticity, excellent thixotropy (>91.0%), and storage stability. Curcumin in HIPEs was well protected from UV-induced degradation and endowed HIPEs with ideal oxidant stability. Fabricated Pickering HIPEs possess a charming application prospect in foods and the pharmaceutical industry.

A new synthetic strategy, named “carbonization in limited space” and based on the specific interaction between eutectic salt and dual-ionic liquids (dual-ILs), is reported in this article. N-Containing dual-ILs (1,4-diethyl-1,4-diazaniabicyclo[2,2,2]octane imidazolide-4,5-dicyanoiazolide, [2C2DABCO]2+[Im]−[CN-Im]−) were synthesized as new carbon–nitrogen precursors, while eutectic salt was chosen as a reuseable template in order to facilely fabricate the N-doped porous carbon with sheetlike morphology. Nitrogen can be directly and efficiently incorporated into the porous carbon, resulting in the materials with suitable N content, tunable pore structure, and controllable thickness of sheet as well as high surface area. They exhibited good performance as electrodes for supercapacitors, photocatalysts in degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light, and the sorbent to capture tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNAs) in solution, offering a new simplified but effective method to prepare versatile carbon material.

Following the development of regional economy, especially the construction of Tianjin Binhai new district, environmental pollution and ecological hazards has been resulted from the pollutant discharge and reclamation etc. The environmental air quality is very important for the health of human being, so it is very important for analyzing and evaluating the environmental air quality for guiding the environmental management and control. In this paper, the environmental air quality of recent fourteen years in Tianjin is analyzed. Multiple scales method is applied to obtain the environmental air current situation. The results of analysis and assessment show the environmental air quality is becoming worse in recent years.

Butterfly Lake provides an important function of ecological environment and campus service for Guangdong Ocean University. Based on the data which were collected in March,May, September and December in 2013, the water environment quality of Butterfly Lake was assessed. The results show that the key pollutant of Butterfly Lake is total phosphorus (TP). The average concentration of TP is worse than the national quality standards for Class V. The water quality appears an obvious difference in different monitoring time. In September the water quality is the best. The average of single parameter pollution index (Sj) is 0.75 and the water quality belongs to good environment area. The average of integrated parameter pollution index (WQI) is 1.76 and the water quality belongs to light pollution area. In December the water quality is the worst. Sj and WQI is 1.14 and 3.14. The water quality belongs to light pollution area and moderate pollution area, respectively. The comprehensive trophic state index is 70.38 in December. The eutrophication level is hyper eutropher. The other monitoring time belongs to middle eutropher. In order to improve the water quality of Butterfly Lake,the valid measure is to strengthen the management of wastewater discharge from the laboratory and the dormitory.

Two new basic ionic liquids (ILs) are designed and synthesized in order to conquer the challenge arising from the capture of CO2in flue gas whose temperature is over 373 K, and they possess a suitable basic strength to adsorb CO2at 393 K with the capacity of 22–49 mg g–1. After these ILs are immobilized on mesoporous alumina or silica, equimolar CO2capture is realized at 393 K for the first time. Besides, these adsorbents can be regenerated at 443 K to form a feasible cycle for controlling CO2emission in flue gas. Theoretical calculations indicated the key role played by the mesoporous support in promoting CO2adsorption via electrostatic interactions between support and ILs. An unwonted promotion of the support’s ζ-potential on the performance of ILs is revealed, which induces the immobilized ILs to be oriented in a favorable dispersion, enhancing the efficiency of ILs in the CO2adsorption at elevated temperature. This study proposes a new strategy for the sustainable development of novel adsorbent.

Based on the theory of Projection Pursuit Model, a comprehensive benefits assessment model for environmental protection investments was built. According to values of the projection vector components, contributions of evaluation index to the comprehensive benefits were analyzed. On the basis of the model, overall benefits of provincial environmental protection investments were assessed. Results showed that, comprehensive benefits of environmental protection investments in annual 2010 had a strong regional property, descending from the east coast to the northwest inland, environmental protection benefits in provinces such as Shandong、Zhejiang and Jiangsu were higher, while in northwest inland, it was relatively low.

We report a facile method for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) porous materials via the interaction between graphene oxide (GO) sheets and polyethylenimine (PEI) with high amine density at room temperature under atmospheric pressure without stirring. The structural and physical properties of GO–PEI porous materials (GEPMs) are investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurement and their chemical properties are analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. GEPMs possess low density and hierarchical morphology with large specific surface area, and big pore volume. Furthermore, the as-prepared 3D porous materials show an excellent adsorption capacity for acidic dyes on the basis of the pore-rich and amine-rich graphene structure. GEPMs exhibit an extremely high adsorption capacity for amaranth (800 mg g–1), which are superior to other carbon materials. In addition, GEPMs also exhibit good adsorption capacity for carbon dioxide (11.2 wt % at 1.0 bar and 273 K).

Based on the decomposition analysis method of pollution change, the article extended connotation of decomposition model, and applied it to the analysis of pollution removal factors. It quantitatively decomposed effects of increased environmental protection investments upon the change of COD removal into scale effect, structure effect and technology effect. Results show that the scale effect makes the largest contribution to the removal of COD, the structure change of environmental protection investments and technical effect perform negative effects. The environmental pollution control appeared as a rude mode, and the efficiency of pollution control is relatively low. Therefore, we should increase investment in industrial pollution treatments, promoting the application of friendly-sound and advanced technology, intensifying the construction of pollution treatment infrastructures and supervision on the whole operation so as to raise the environment benefits of environmental protection investments.

Definition of network security is stated first. Network security threats; roughly including network connection threat, physical environment threat, authentication treat, malicious programs and system vulnerabilities, which can be further divided into more detailed categories. 8 prevention technology and strategies consisting of physical security means, firewall technology, intrusion detection, information encryption technology, vulnerability scanning, antivirus software, disaster recovery technology, and honeypots and honeynet technology are elaborated to try to form a general discussion of the security prevention structure. In the end, we propose that all of these technology and strategies should be organically combined and enterprises should pay more attention to network security rather than expanding production uncontrolled.

Mesoporous silica MCM-41 and SBA-15 were chosen to study the adsorption and release of bulky biomolecule heparin, in order to develop new heparin controlled delivery system and expand the application of mesoporous materials in life science. To explore how the structure of support such as pore size and surface state affects the accommodation and release of heparin, we used decane as swelling agent to enlarge pores of MCM-41, introduced amino groups for improving the biocompatibility of support, and controllably retained templates in the as-synthesized sample. The influence of modification on the structure of samples was investigated by XRD and N2adsorption–desorption, whereas their performance of adsorbing and releasing heparin was assessed with that of toluidine blue method. Both enlarged pore and organic modification significantly promoted the adsorption and prolonged the release of heparin in MCM-41, and the release was characterized with a three-stage release model. The mechanism of heparin release from mesoporous material was studied by fitting the release profiles to the theoretical equation. As expected, some mesoporous composites could release heparin in the long term with tuned dosage.

ObjectiveLittle is known about the a ssociation between plasma homocysteine (Hcy) and e ndothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in coronary artery disease (CAD).MethodsBlood mononuclear cells were isolated from CAD (n = 30) patients and non-CAD controls (n = 30). Flow cytometric analysis and an in vitroc ulture system was used to evaluate the number and function of the EPC. Plasma homocysteine (Hcy) concentration was measured by an automated fl uorescence polarization immunoassay.ResultsHcy level was higher in CAD than in non-CAD (13.69 ± 4.48 vs9.34 ± 2.31 μmol/L, P< 0.01). The number of circulating EPCs from CAD was decreased compared with non-CAD (58.7 ± 10.6 vs. 94.3 ± 15.1 cells/ml, P< 0.01). This decrease of EPCs in CAD was also detected (33.5 ± 6.9 vs. 55.9 ± 9.7 EPCs/×200 fi eld; P< 0.01) in an in vitroculture system. The numbers of circulating and diff erentiated EPCs were both inversely correlated with Hcy. EPCs from CAD were signifi cantly impaired in their migratory capacity and ability to adhere to fi bronectin.ConclusionsWe observed the correlation between Hcy level and EPC number, and also found an increased Hcy level in CAD patients. It will be interesting to reveal the underlying mechanisms contributing to the correlation and examine the possible causal relationship between Hcy levels and CAD.

The effect of ι-carrageenan (ι-C) and soybean soluble polysaccharide (SSPS), on quality characteristics of tofu was evaluated. The addition of 0.05-0.2% (w/v) polysaccharide increased the yield of tofu. However, higher polysaccharide concentration could not sustain the observed increase. At temperature rise ramp, dG'/dt of tofu with SSPS was increased slightly than the samples with ι-C, due to difference in charge density and thermodynamic incompatibility between polysaccharide and soybean globulin. The addition of SSPS exhibited more increase in hardness and springiness of tofu as compared to ι-C. Microstructure of tofu with SSPS was more homogeneous. The addition of properly selected polysaccharide could improve the properties of tofu, which may be beneficial for food process

This resistance by tests to simulate the sputtering thickness distribution and the relative value, we try to reduce the degree of uneven thickness by designing baffle shape for the coating equipment. In view of the structural characteristics of the device and the deposition of complex principles, theory and practice there are still some gaps, according to the measured data (resistance value) to be constantly revised to optimize and baffle design to achieve greater uniformity of product thickness. For example, to meet the resistivity greater than or equal 9.6 Ω and the average transmittance above 80%, TiO2/Ag/TiO2 film fully met the requirements of practical applications by applying improved baffle. Concluding remarks are stated at the end of the abstract text. Based on the use of a simple baffle design and improvement, we had achieved good results in mastering the sputtering parameters.

In this paper, TiO2/Ag/TiO2 and TiO2/Ag/ZnS films were prepared by evaporation coating (EC) and magnetron sputtering (MS). To test the resistance and light transmission rate to characterize the coating effect, both the size of indirect resistance that the relative thickness of the situation. By comparing the single magnetron sputtering and evaporation coating fabricated by the two transparent conductive oxide films (TCO) material conductivity and light transmission properties, determine a reasonable process. Firstly, the first layer is TiO2 film by magnetron sputtering, and then coating Ag film and ZnS film plated by evaporation, the final form of TiO2/Ag/ZnS film, which haSubscript textd much higher transmittance than TiO2/Ag/TiO2 at the same resistancSubscript texte.

The microcellular foaming PP/GF composites was made under the condition of twice-open mold by using chemical foaming injection method, according to glass fiber reinforced mechanism, the effect rule of GF on mechanics properties was studied in microcellular foam PP composites. The results showed that tensile and impact strength of Micro-foam PP/GF composites by one-step method were higher than that of micro-foam PP/GF composites by two-step method, when the content of GF is 30%, the tensile and impact strength of micro-foam PP/GF composites by one-step method can reach 55.72MPa and 7.5kJ/m2 respectively，one-step method can get higher strength and higher toughness micro-foam PP/GF composites.

A new strategy of preparing the efficient CO2 adsorbent without further molding is reported in this article. This novel shaped CO2 capturer is obtained by coating amine on the SBA-15 monolith with a specific 3D net-linked morphology that favors the accessibility of amine guest in the channel. The resulting composites are characterized with XRD, N2 adsorption, SEM and TEM techniques, and their adsorptive ability is assessed with CO2-TPD test, offering a high adsorption capacity of 144 mg g-1and stable cyclic adsorption-desorption performance for potential application.

In this paper an innovative miniaturized spectrometer has been presented. The structure is similar to a grating spectrometer, but its optical modulator is composed of a grating and a tunable Fabry-Perot (FP). The collimated light is diffracted by the grating and filtered by the FP, and interference fringes distribute separately on the focal plane. The position of fringes moves when the FP is tuned, this helps in the scanning and detecting of the peak wavelength of fringes. The principle and characteristics of the spectrometer are discussed in detail.

800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} The modified inorganic powder material (one-dimensional MgSO4 whisker, two-dimensional Mica, zero-dimensional SiO2 ) was added into polypropylene with 5% wt. The microcellular foam PP composite was prepared under the condition of twice-open mold. According to the principle of interfacial adhesion，Liquid-solid interface free energy of PP composite system was calculated by means of the contact angle. Based on heterogeneous nucleation theory, foaming behavior of microcellular foam material was characterized quantitatively by interfacial behavior. The effects of different inorganic powder material on foaming behavior were analyzed in microcellular foam polypropylene. The results indicated that the minimum nucleation energy barrier of PP/Mica composite system is 46.94N.mwith the nucleation rate in 5.53×1011. After foaming, the cell diameter of the composite is 22.1μm and the cell density is 6.92×108 months/cm3.

A convenient method to synthesize starch/lactic acid copolymer was studied in this work. Copolymer of starch graft with lactic acid (LA) was directly prepared by reaction of cornstarch with lactic acid in sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aqueous solution as a catalyst. The product was characterized by IR and WAXD, and the good adhesion between the two components has been observed by SEM. The results showed that the highest grafting degree could reach 33.60% when the graft copolymerization was carried in 0.40 mol·L-1 NaOH aqueous for 9 h at 90°C with the 1: 5~6 ratio of starch and lactic acid.

An analytical methodology for the analysis of methamidophos in water and soil samples incoporating a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction process using methamidophos-imprinted polymer was developed. Binding study demonstrated that the polymer exhibited excellent affinity and high selectivity to the methamidophos. Evidence was also found by FT-IR analysis that hydrogen bonding between the CO2H in the polymer cavities and the NH2and P=O of the template was the origin of methamidophos recognition. The use of molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction improved the accuracy and precision of the GC method and lowered the limit of detection. The recovery of methamidophos extracted from a 10.0 g soil sample at the 100 ng/g spike level was 95.4%. The limit of detection was 3.8 ng/g. The recovery of methamidophos extracted from 100 mL tap and river water at 1 ng/mL spike level was 96.1% and 95.8%, and the limits of detection were 10 and 13 ng/L respectively. These molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction procedures enabled selective extraction of polar methamidophos successfully from water and soil samples, demonstrating the potential of molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction for rapid, selective, and cost-effective sample pretreatment.

Background Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a cytokine involved in different physiologic and pathophysiologic processes, and circulating levels of IL-6 differ greatly between individuals, but the results have not always been concordant among diverse populations. The aim of present study was to determine the prevalence of the 3 polymorphisms (−174G/C, −597G/A, and −634C/G) in the IL-6 gene promoter region and their effects on inflammatory markers in normal Han Chinese population.Methods A total of 232 subjects (143 men and 89 women; mean age, 51.37 ± 17.63 years; range, 22-88 years) of unrelated healthy Han Chinese in Jinangsu area (south of China) were enrolled. Genotyping of the 3 polymorphisms were performed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism combined with gel electrophoresis and then confirmed by direct sequencing.Results Among the 232 individuals studied, 231 carried the GG wild type of -174G/C; only 1 carried the GC genotype. For -597G/A polymorphism, individuals all carried the GG wild type; the GA or AA genotypes were not detected. The frequencies of -634C/G genotypes CC, CG, and GG were found to be 59.48%, 37.07%, and 3.45%, respectively, the derived allele frequencies for the C and G alleles were 78.02% and 21.98%. There were no significant differences in age, sex, body mass index, or lipids parameters between the -634 CC and CG+GG genotypes. However, individuals with CC genotype showed lower levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and IL-6 than those with CG+GG genotype.Conclusions IL-6 -174G/C and -597G/A are rare, but -634C/G is common in Han Chinese population, and the -634G allele is associated with circulating levels of IL-6 and C-reactive protein.

This short paper reports the direct observation of the structure variation of mesoporous silica at temperatures higher than 600 oC by use of an in situ XRD technique. The mesostructure of SBA-15 or other mesoporous materials such as MCM-41 became almost invisible when the temperature rose to above 600 oC, but recovered or partially recovered once the temperature decreased. Contrarily, the characteristic XRD patterns of zeolites such as ZSM-5 kept unchangeable under the same conditions. On the basis of comparative experiments performed on various mesoporous samples, it is inferred that the reversible variation of XRD patterns probably originates from the thermal shock of the pore wall, not from the permanent collapse of the mesoscopic structure in these samples. This observation indicates the special features of SBA-15 at high temperature.

Background: Previous studies have suggested that geldanamycin (GA) inhibits the replication of several viruses in vitro.Here, we aimed to synthesize and evaluate the antiviral activity of 17-amino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin derivatives.Methods: A series of 17-substituted and 17-,19-disubstituted GA derivatives were screened for antiviral activities against eight different viral strains, including herpesvirus, hepatitis virus, retrovirus and picornavirus.Results: Most of the tested compounds showed inhibitory activity against the viruses and showed reduced cytotoxicity in vitroas compared with the parent compound GA. In vivoefficacy evaluation results showed that compound 6 noticeably inhibited duckling hepatitis B virus DNA replication in duckling serum after oral administration. Viral rebound did not occur after termination of the treatment. The modified GA derivatives also showed median lethal dose values that were higher than that of the parent GA in mice intraperitoneally treated with the study compounds.Conclusions: Targeting heat-shock protein 90 could be a new antiviral approach that is not prone to the development of drug resistance. The 17-amino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin derivatives could be novel agents with potential antiviral activity.

The activity of zeolite MCM-22 in trapping nitrosamines, a class of well-known carcinogenic environmental pollutants, is reported in this article for the first time. MCM-22 possesses a set of unique porous structures and morphologies, making it possible to trap both volatile nitrosamines and bulky tobacco specific nitrosamines. Liquid adsorption and instantaneous gaseous adsorption methods have been employed to study the impact of morphology on MCM-22’s ability in adsorbing nitrosamines in both gaseous and liquid media. As-synthesized MCM-22 was subjected to different treatments to induce morphological changes. SEM revealed a special rose-like appearance. The effects of these morphological modifications on MCM-22’s adsorption capacities was studied and compared to NaY and NaZSM-5. The results obtained seem to suggest that enhanced collision probability between adsorbate and adsorbent may have an important role to play for MCM-22. Furthermore, the treatments created mesopores in MCM-22 that enhance mass transport within its hierarchical structure.

To overcome the inefficiency of mesoporous materials in the adsorption of small molecules, this article reports the effort how to create hierarchical channel wall in Al-MCM-41 and more important, how to distinguish the contribution of the newly formed micropores in adsorption by the mesoporous materials. Fabrication of hierarchical channel wall is realized through extracting framework aluminum of sample by acid leach to create micropores and defects, providing the fine geometric confinement toward tiny targets. The influence of original Al content of Al-MCM-41 on the controlled dealumination was studied, and X-ray diffraction, N2adsorption−desorption, 27Al and 29Si MAS NMR, Fourier transform IR techniques were employed to characterize the resulting samples. Besides, volatile nitrosamine N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) was chosen as a probe to assess the adsorption of the resulting samples. Hierarchical channel wall in Al-MCM-41 significantly increased its ability to trap NPYR, and for the first time the adsorptive contribution of newly formed micropores and defects in the mesoporous silica was distinguished by the instantaneous adsorption under the carrier gas with different flow rate, which is beneficial for developing new functional materials to protect environment.

A new series of carbamothioic acid‐containing periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials has been synthesized by a direct cocondensation method, in which an organosilica precursor N,S‐bis[3‐(triethoxysilyl)propyl]carbamothioic acid (MI) is treated with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and the nonionic surfactant Pluronic 123 (P123) is used as a template under acidic conditions in the presence of inorganic additives. Moreover, the synthesis of the PMO material consisting of the MI precursor without TEOS has been realized. These novel PMO materials have large surface areas, well‐ordered mesoporous structures, hollow fiberlike morphologies, and thick walls. They are also structurally well‐ordered with a high organosilica precursor content, and the carbamothioic acid groups are thermally stable up to 250 °C. Furthermore, the organosilica materials exhibit hydrothermal stability in basic solution.

Caught in the net: Zirconia‐modified SBA‐15 mesoporous silica with a specific 3D net‐linked morphology (see picture) is prepared by using a facile method. This new functional material can trap particles in tobacco smoke and so can be applied towards environmental protection.

Bringing order: A new class of periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) with a urea‐bridged organosilica precursor under acid‐catalyzed and inorganic‐salt‐assisted conditions was obtained. The large‐pore hybrid materials have ordered mesostructure with uniform pore size distributions, which can be seen from the TEM images.

A new strategy to synthesize a highly efficient CO2capturer by incorporating tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) into as‐synthesized MCM‐41 (AM) is reported. The amine guest can be distributed in the micelle of the support, forming a web within the mesopore to trap CO2molecules and resulting in a high adsorption capacity for CO2up to 237 mg g−1. Four samples of the as‐synthesized MCM‐41 with a different amount or type of surfactant are employed as supports to investigate the influence of micelles on the CO2adsorption, and the spokelike structure of the micelle in the channel of the support is proven to be essential to the distribution of guest amine. Among these supports, the AM sample is the most competitive due to the advantages of energy and time saving in preparation of the support along with the resulting higher CO2adsorption capacity. At the optimal loading of 50 wt % TEPA, the AM‐50 sample exhibits a high adsorption capacity of 183 mg g−1in the sixth adsorption cycle at 5 % CO2concentration.

Hirulog-like peptide (HLP), a new thrombin peptide inhibitor, effectively reduces neointimal formation or restenosis in rat and rabbit vascular injury models. The present study investigated the pharmacokinetics and pharmacology of HLP in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The input response of HLP in rats was studied using radioisotopic tracing method. Male SD rats were intravenously injected with a single dose of 125I-HLP (3.2, 6.4, or 12.8 mg/kg) for pharmacokinetic analysis. The concentration-time curve of 125I-HLP following bolus injection fitted a 3-compartment model. The half-life of HLP in rats was between 25 and 31 min following 3.2 to 12.8 mg/kg of bolus injection. Radioactivity of 125I-HLP was detected in all tested tissues and was most abundant in kidneys or stomachs. Blood pressure, respiratory frequency, and heart rates were not significantly altered during continuous intravenous infusion with saline or 1.6 to 3.2 mg/kg/h of HLP for 4 h. Bleeding time and activated partial thromboplastin time were significantly prolonged in rats infused with HLP compared to vehicle. ADP-induced platelet aggregation was significantly reduced in the HLP-treated groups compared with controls. The results suggest that HLP possesses first-order kinetic characteristics. HLP is secreted mainly through kidneys. Beside its anticoagulant activity, no other adverse effect was detected in SD rats receiving HLP.