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Green technology innovation (GTI) is commonly seen as an essential way to decrease carbon emissions (CE). However, its advancement may result in the so-called carbon rebound effect which may offset its emission-reducing efficacy. This study examines the overall effect of GTI on CE using a fixed-effect model and a large panel dataset comprising China's 276 cities from 2007-2017. The main research findings include: 1) there exist inverted U-shaped relationships between GTI and per capita as well as total CE for the entire data sample; 2) regional heterogeneity exists regarding the relationships between GTI and CE (CE per capita). The empirical results have important policy implications on GTI to contain CE.

Background: We aimed to examine the relationship of 2 dietary scores [dietary inflammatory index (DII) and composite dietary antioxidant index (CDAI)] with frailty in elderly adults with diabetes. Methods: Data were gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2007 and 2018. The frailty index was calculated using 49 deficits across various systems to define frailty. To examine the relationship of 2 dietary scores (DII and CDAI) with frailty in elderly adults with diabetes, multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. In logistic regression model, DII and CDAI were calculated as both continuous and tertiles. Subgroup analyses were performed to demonstrate stability of results. Restricted cubic splines were utilized to examine the non-linear correlations. Results: A total of 2,795 elderly adults with diabetes were included in this study. In the multivariate logistic regression model, the odds ratio (OR) of DII for risk of frailty was 1.08 (95% CI 1.02–1.15) and the OR of CDAI for risk of frailty was 0.96 (95% CI 0.93–0.99). The ORs of DII for risk of frailty were 1.36 (95% CI 1.09–1.70) and 1.33 (95% CI 1.04–1.70) for tertiles 2 and 3, respectively (pfor trend 0.027). The ORs of CDAI for risk of frailty were 0.94 (95% CI 0.75–1.17) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.58–0.98) for tertiles 2 and 3, respectively (pfor trend 0.036). The subgroup analysis demonstrated reliable and enduring connections between 2 dietary scores and frailty (all p for interaction > 0.05). In the restricted cubic spline analyses, we discovered the non-linear relationship between DII and frailty (P for nonlinearity = 0.045) and linear relationship between CDAI and frailty (Pfor nonlinearity = 0.769). Conclusion: The research showed connections between 2 dietary scores (DII and CDAI) and frailty as measured by frailty index in elderly adults with diabetes.

With respect to the intriguing biocompatibility and the stealthy functions of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), PEGylated nanoparticulates have been intensively engineered for utilities as drug delivery vehicles. To advocate the targeted drug transportation, targeting ligands were strategically installed onto the surface of PEGylated nanoparticulates. The previous in vitroinvestigations revealed that the ligand-specified cell endocytosis of nanoparticulates was pronounced for the nanoparticulates with adequately high PEG crowdedness. The present study aims to explore insight into the impact of PEGylation degree on in vivotumor-targeted accumulation activities of cRGD-installed nanoparticulates. The subsequent investigations verified the importance of the PEGylation crowdedness in pursuit of prolonged retention in the blood circulation post intravenous administration. Unprecedentedly, the PEGylation crowdedness was also identified as a crucial important parameter to pursue the tumor-targeted accumulation. A plausible reason is the elevated PEGylation crowdedness eliciting the restricted involvement in nonspecific protein adsorption of nanoparticulates in the biological milieu and consequently pronouncing the ligand-receptor-mediated binding for the nanoparticulates. Noteworthy was the distinctive performance of the class of the proposed systems once utilized for transportation of the mRNA payload to the tumors. The protein expression in the targeted tumors appeared to follow a clear PEGylation crowdedness dependence manner, where merely 2-fold PEGylation crowdedness led to remarkably 10-fold augmentation in protein expression in tumors. Hence, the results provided important information and implications for design of active-targeting PEGylated nanomaterials to fulfill the targeting strategies in systemic applications.

A facile poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) detachment scheme was utilized to control the PEGylation degree of the polymeric micelles. The performance of cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp (cRGD) as a targeted moiety was studied on a class of polymeric micelles with various PEGylation degrees, revealing that the specific cRGD-mediated cell affinity, thus the cellular uptake and implicated privileges including the ligand-specified favorable intracellular trafficking and consequent favorable biofunctions, was prominent for the polymeric micelles with high PEGylation degree. These results endow important information and implications for the design and development of targeted nanomedicine, particularly the delivery of vulnerable biological compounds.

The high vulnerability of mRNA necessitates the manufacture of delivery vehicles to afford adequate protection in the biological milieu. Here, mRNA was complexed with a mixture of cRGD-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-polylysine (PLys) (thiol) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-PLys(thiol). The ionic complex core consisting of opposite-charged PLys and mRNA was crosslinked though redox-responsive disulfide linkage, thereby avoiding structural disassembly for exposure of mRNA to harsh biological environments. Furthermore, PNIPAM contributed to prolonged survival in systemic circulation by presenting a spatial barrier in impeding accessibility of nucleases, e.g., RNase, due to the thermo-responsive hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition behavior upon incubation at physiological temperature enabling translocation of PNIPAM from shell to intermediate barrier. Ultimately, the cRGD ligand attached to the formulation demonstrated improved tumor accumulation and potent gene expression, as manifested by virtue of facilitated cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking. These results indicate promise for the utility of mRNA as a therapeutic tool for disease treatment.

Nucleic acid-based therapy has emerged as a revolutionary methodology for treatment of the diseases related to protein dysfunction; however, lack of systemically applicable synthetic delivery systems limits its current usage in local applications, particularly for DNA-based therapy with regard to the poor bioavailability in the systemic administrations. To overcome this obstacle, we compiled multiple chemistry-based strategies into the manufacture of the gene delivery formulations to pursue improved tolerability of DNA to the enzymatic degradation in the biological milieu and prolonged retention in the systemic circulation. Here, we constructed a distinctive multilayered functional architecture: plasmid DNA (pDNA) was electrostatically complexed with cationic poly(lysine) (polyplex) as the interior pDNA reservoir, which was further cross-linked by redox-responsive disulfide cross-linking to minimize the occurrence of polyplex disassembly through exchange reaction with the biological charged components. Still, the pDNA reservoir was spatially protected by a sequential thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) palisade as the intermediate barrier and a biocompatible hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) shell with the aim of preventing the accessibility of the biological species, particularly the nuclease degradation to the pDNA payload. Subsequent investigations validated the utilities of these strategies in accomplishing prolonged blood retention. In an attempt to apply this method for tumor therapy, ligand cyclic (Arg-Gly-Asp) peptide was attached at the distal end of PEG, validating prompted tumor-targeted delivery and gene expression of the loaded antiangiogenic gene at the targeted tumor cells and accordingly exerting antiangiogenesis of the tumors for abrogation of tumor growth. Together with its excellent safe profile, the proposed formulation suggests potential utility as a practical gene delivery system for treatment of intractable diseases.

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy has emerged as a powerful modality for imaging fibrillar collagen in a diverse range of tissues. Because of its underlying physical origin, it is highly sensitive to the collagen fibril/fiber structure, and, importantly, to changes that occur in diseases such as cancer, fibrosis and connective tissue disorders. We discuss how SHG can be used to obtain more structural information on the assembly of collagen in tissues than is possible by other microscopy techniques. We first provide an overview of the state of the art and the physical background of SHG microscopy, and then describe the optical modifications that need to be made to a laser-scanning microscope to enable the measurements. Crucial aspects for biomedical applications are the capabilities and limitations of the different experimental configurations. We estimate that the setup and calibration of the SHG instrument from its component parts will require 2–4 weeks, depending on the level of the user′s experience.

We report the use of second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy in conjunction with circular dichroism (CD) to differentiate normal skin from that in the connective tissue disorder osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Osteogenesis imperfecta results from mutations in the collagen triple helix, where the individual chains are defective, leading to abnormal folding, and ultimately, abnormal fibril/fiber organization. Second-harmonic-generation circular dichroism successfully differentiated normal human and OI skin tissues, whereas other SHG polarization schemes did not provide discrimination, suggesting this approach has high sensitivity for studying the difference in chirality in the mutated collagen. We further suggest that the method has clinical diagnostic value, as it could be performed with minimal invasion.