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After the introduction of the glycoconjugate vaccine based upon the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b in the mid 1980s there was a remarkable decrease in the number of invasive cases reported for this organism. Since the 1990s several groups have observed the emergence of Haemophilus influenzae type a (Hia), especially in indigenous communities in the northern regions of Canada and Alaska, to a stage where a solution is warranted to prevent further unnecessary deaths due to this pathogen. A glycoconjugate vaccine solution based upon the type a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) was investigated pre-clinically in an effort to illustrate the proof of concept for this approach. In this study we describe the growth of Hia and the isolation, purification and conjugation of the CPS to several carrier proteins. The resulting glycoconjugates were immunised in mice and rabbits provoking sera that facilitated bactericidal killing against all type a strains that we tested. This study has illustrated the pre-clinical proof of concept of a glycoconjugate vaccine based on the CPS of Hia as a solution to this emerging disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The inhibitory effect of SNG162 on GBM cells growth was not related to ER-α36 expression. • SNG162 prevented from ER-α36-mediated rapid E 2 signaling and U87 cells growth. • SNG162 inhibited glioblastoma cells invasion by targeting the expression of ER-α36 in the nucleus. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common central nervous system tumor and is associated with poor outcomes. There have been no significant improvements in GBM mortality in recent decades. ER-α36 is a variant of ER-α66 that may be involved in carcinoma growth and proliferation via genomic and nongenomic mechanisms. This variant might play an essential role in tamoxifen resistance of several tumors. Previously, our laboratory found that ER-α36 is expressed in GBM and participates in proliferation; nevertheless, the role of ER-α36 in GBM invasion remains unknown. This study aimed to determine the effects of the ER-α36 modulator SNG162 on GBM growth and invasion. U251 cells, U87cells, and U87-36KD cells with knockdown of ER-α36 expression were cultured under the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional (3D) environments. GBM cells growth was examined by cell counting, flow cytometry, western blot, and MTT assays. Invasiveness was measured using confocal microscopy in the 3D environment. Growth of U87 cells with downregulated EGFR and ER-α36 expression was significantly reduced after treatment with 1 µM, 3 µM, and 5 µM of SNG162; growth inhibition in U251 cells was more potent than in U87 cells, although the expression level of ER-α36 in U251 cells was lower than in U87 cells. We found that 1 μM SNG162 suppressed E 2 -induced MAPK/ERK pathway activation in U87 cells. We also showed that SNG162 inhibited U87 cells invasion; however, it did not significantly affect U251 and U87-36KD cells invasion using the 3D culture method. Finally, we determined that ER-α36 was expressed in the nucleus of invading GBM cells, and SNG162 significantly inhibited the expression of ER-α36 in these cells. SNG162 inhibited the expression of EGFR on cell membranes of non-invasive GBM cells. These results suggest that SNG162 could be a therapeutic agent for GBM by targeting ER-α36. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formaldehyde (FA) has neurotoxic characteristics and causes neurodegenerative disease. Our previous study demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) on FA-induced neurotoxicity in HT22 cells. Emerging evidence have supported that ferroptosis is involved in FA-induced neurotoxicity. To understand the mechanism of the protection of H 2 S against FA-induced neurotoxicity, this study explored the regulatory effect of H 2 S on FA-induced ferroptosis and the underlying mechanisms. The researcher found that H 2 S (100, 200, and 400 μM, 30 min) reverses the ferroptosis induced by FA (100 μM, 24 h) in HT22 cells (a cell line of mouse hippocampal neurons), including decreases in free iron, reactive oxygen species (ROS), 4-hydroxy-2-trans-nominal (4-HNE), and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, as well as an increase in glutathione (GSH) content. H 2 S (100, 200, and 400 μM, 30 min) also inhibited ferritinaphagy in FA-exposed HT22 cells, as evidenced by the downregulation of the ferritinophagy receptor nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain-3B (LC3B) as well as the upregulation of the main iron storage protein ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH1) and p62. H 2 S (100, 200, and 400 μM, 30 min) also up-regulated the expression of growth differentiation factor-11 (GDF11) in FA-exposed HT22 cells. Furthermore, knockdown of GDF11 in HT22 cells cancelled the beneficial effects of H 2 S in FA-induced ferroptosis and ferritinaphagy. These data indicated that the protective mechanism underlying H 2 S-prevented neurotoxicity of FA is involved in alleviating FA-induced ferroptosis via inhibiting ferritinaphagy by upregulation of GDF11. [Display omitted] • Hydrogen sulfide upregulates GDF11 protein expression in formaldehyde-treated HT22 cells. • Hydrogen sulfide antagonizes formaldehyde-induced ferritinophagy and ferroptosis. • Silencing GDF11 reversed the protective effect of hydrogen sulfide on formaldehyde-induced ferritinophagy. • Silencing GDF11 reversed the protective effect of hydrogen sulfide on formaldehyde-induced ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Portable, sensitive, repeatable method developed for screening in fish, water, electrical appliances. • It integrates solid-phase microextraction and SPME-SERS probe. • Good linear relationship established between SERS intensity and log concentrations. • It can be used for monitoring occurrence, formation, and migration of PBDEs. The monitoring of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) is of great significance owing to their high persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity to humans and animals. In this study, a sensitive and reproducible probe that integrates solid-phase microextraction and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SPME-SERS) was developed for screening PBDEs in multiphase specimens, including live fish, water, and electrical products. A roughed Cu fiber with an Ag layer was fabricated with dual functions. BDE-15 was readily extracted and detected on the SPME-SERS probe consisting of propanethiol-modified Ag nanoplates on a Cu wire. A clear linear relationship (R2 = 0.988) was established between the SERS intensity at 782 cm−1 and the logarithmic concentrations (from 100 ppb to 100 ppm), with a detection limit of 15 ppb. This proposed method enables continuous in vivo monitoring in fish without complicated pretreatments. The results obtained by this SPME-SERS approach were validated by high-performance liquid chromatography and showed good agreement. This "extracting and detecting" SPME-SERS method provides a potential tool to monitor the occurrence, formation, and migration of PBDEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poisoning with diquat (DQ) and paraquat (PQ) herbicides has been a public health problem. Unfortunately, rapid detection in biofluids remains challenging. Herein, a hyphenated approach of electro-enhanced adsorption, solid-phase microextraction, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (EE−SPME−SERS) was exploited for rapid and sensitive in situ analysis of DQ and PQ in human urine and plasma. A porous Ag fiber with an Au layer (p-Ag/Au fiber) was fabricated with multi-functions (SERS substrate, SPME sorbent, and working electrode). Clear trends could be observed between signal intensity and concentration of DQ or PQ with high reproducibility. The method detection limits (MDLs) calculated from the characteristic peak of DQ were 0.064 ppb and 0.65 ppb in urine and plasma, respectively. Corresponding MDLs for DQ and PQ in urine and plasma were 0.036 ppb and 0.35 ppb, respectively. The whole process of "extracting and detecting" was completed within 4 min with satisfactory recoveries. Notably, the EE−SPME−SERS technique could easily realize in situ analysis of DQ and PQ in biofluids with good selectivity, which is practical in clinical diagnosis. This EE−SPME−SERS method provides a potential avenue for efficient pretreatment and in situ poison detection in biological samples. [Display omitted] • Ultrafast EE-SPME-SERS method for in situ analyzing diquat and paraquat in biofluids. • Low detection limits ranging from 0.034 ppb to 0.65 ppb. • Good selectivity based on electrochemical adsorption. • p-Ag/Au fiber to realize hyphenation of enrichment, extraction, and SERS detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The utility of the Trophic State Index (TSI) in lakes and reservoirs on a regional scale was evaluated. • The feasibility of TSI in indicating algal biomass is closely related to the water depth. • TSI score is not a robust indicator of the risk of algal blooms in shallow lakes and reservoirs. The Trophic State Index (TSI), based on chlorophyll a [TSI(Chl a)], Secchi depth [TSI(SD)], total nitrogen [TSI(TN)], and total phosphorus [TSI(TP)], is a popular tool for lake eutrophication assessment worldwide, higher TSI scores implicitly indicate increased intensity of algal blooms. However, the application of TSI across diverse lakes may be questionable since the precondition of SD, TN, and TP as indicators of algal blooms lies in the fact that SD is dominated by algal turbidity; Chl a in all lakes respond the same (or very similarly) to changes in TN (or TP) concentrations. Herein, 120 natural lakes and artificial reservoirs with a wide range of morphological, physicochemical, and Chl a variables in the Chinese Eastern Plains ecoregion were collected via data mining to elaborate the utility of TSI on a regional scale. Moreover, we analyzed the source of uncertainties of TSI(SD), TSI(TN), and TSI(TP) in indicating algal biomass. Our results demonstrated that the TSI(SD), TSI(TN), and TSI(TP) scores were different with those of the TSI(Chl a) (approximately 10 scores deviations). Considering 10 scores represent a doubling in algal biomass, the direct use of TSI may cause the misestimation of algal blooms intensity and under- or over-protection of the lakes and reservoirs. Furthermore, our results revealed water depth (WD, m) is the key inner-regional factor affecting the accuracy of TSI(SD), TSI(TN), and TSI(TP) in indicating algal biomass. For one, WD was closely related to mass ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) and non-algal light attenuation (NALA, m−1) in our study lakes and reservoirs (lnNALA = -0.70*lnWD + 1.02, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.59; lnN:P = 0.61*lnWD + 1.88, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.50). For another, Linear relationships of [TSI(Chl a)-TSI(SD)] vs NALA (negative, P < 0.001), [TSI(Chl a)-TSI(TN)] vs lnN:P (negative, P < 0.001), and [TSI(Chl a)-TSI(TP)] vs lnN:P (positive, P < 0.001) were also found. Based on the above equations and results of algal limiting factors, we recommended that TSI(SD) and TSI(TP) should not be used in very shallow lakes (WD < 2 m), and TSI(TN) should be excluded from the eutrophication assessment if WD > 5 m in our study area. On a broader scale, empirical TN (or TP), Chl a , and SD relationships of lakes in other ecoregions may also be affected by WD and other unmeasured factors (e.g., zooplankton grazing), the direct use of TSI may be problematical. Thus, this study provides essential information for developing accurate lake eutrophication assessments in both ours and other ecoregions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• PAN nanofibers enhance mechanical performance of PEO-succinonitrile electrolyte. • Composite electrolyte shows enhanced electrochemical performance. • Li-Sn alloy layer coted on Li anode can offer a passivated surface. • Electrolyte/anode interface is optimized by the synergistic effect. • Room-temperature solid-state battery can cycle 2400 h in symmetric configuration. Poly(ethylene oxide) polymer electrolyte composited with high content of succinonitrile organic plasticizer has excellent ionic conductivity at room temperature. Unfortunately, the poor interface stability between this novel solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) and Li metal anode leads to limited cycling performance, which seriously hinders its commercial applications. Herein, the electrospun nanofibers framework of polyacrynitrile (PAN) is introduced as a three-dimensional polymer filler, which can not only provide a robust skeleton for improved mechanical stability, but also inhibit the growth of Li dendrites with increased Li ion transference number from 0.28 to 0.41. Meanwhile, the Li anode is modified via constructing a dense Li-Sn alloy layer, offering a perfectly passivated anode surface and eliminating the side reaction between metallic Li and SPE efficiently. Hence, the interface compatibility and structure stability between the anode and the polymer electrolyte are greatly improved in the prolongated cyclic testing due to the synergistic effect of PAN reinforced SPE and Li-Sn alloy layer coated Li. As a result, the symmetrical battery can cycle stably for 2400 h at 25 °C under 0.1 mA cm−2 and 0.1 mAh cm−2, while the LiFePO 4 based full battery can keep a good capacity retention of 85 % even after 500 cycles at 0.5 C. This work demonstrates that the combination of modifying SPE and building advanced interface layer on the Li anode is an effective measure to optimize the room temperature cycling performance of polymer solid-state Li battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Binding characteristics of nanocolloids onto hematite at the molecular level in an aqueous environment. • Natural nanocolloids promoted the colloidal stability of hematite particles in BG-11 medium. • Natural nanocolloids mitigated the phytotoxicity of nanosized and submicrosized hematite particles to Chlorella vulgaris. • Metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis revealed that nanocolloids mitigated the algal toxicity of hematite particles. Hematite (the most abundant iron oxide polymorph) is widely detected in the water environment and has attracted considerable attention. Natural nanocolloids (Ncs) exist ubiquitously in surface waters and play critical roles in biogeochemical processes. However, the influences of Ncs on the fate and phytotoxicity of hematite remain unknown. In this study, the infrared absorption spectra coupled with two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy analysis reveal that the specific binding interactions between Ncs and hematite primarily occur via hydrophilic effects and π−π interactions with an increase in the Ncs contact time. Moreover, binding with Ncs slightly promoted the aggregation rates of hematite particles in the BG-11 medium. Interestingly, Ncs remarkably mitigate the phytotoxicity (e.g., growth inhibition, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial toxicity) of nanosized and submicrosized hematite particles to Chlorella vulgaris after a 96 h exposure. The integrating metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis reveals that the regulated urea cycle, amino acids, and fatty acid-related metabolites (e.g., urea, serine, glutamate, and hexadecenoic acid) and genes (e.g., ACY1, CysC, and GLA) contribute to persistent phytotoxicity. This study provides new insights into the roles and mechanisms of natural Ncs in regulating the environmental risk of iron oxide minerals in aqueous media. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel two-branch DCNN is constructed to perform instance segmentation under the localization supervision. The centerness branch is to extract high-level semantic information which can present the spatial distribution of object instances. The segmentation branch accomplishes the task of instance segmentation. The entire DCNN is efficiently trained end-to-end even with imprecise localization supervision. • Based on the output of centerNess branch, an adaptive strategy is utilized to the proposal generation method, MCG, to improve the computational efficiency. Meanwhile, a rank-based algorithm is proposed to sort the boundary proposals to substitute the ground truth mask. • Experiments demonstrate that, satisfied accuracy are achieved by the proposed approach compared with other SOTA approaches. Especially, the approach could be well trained under the supervision of imprecise bounding box or scribble while previous methods could not. This is helpful to further reduce human workload of image labelling. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) trained with pixel-level segmentation masks achieve high performance in the task of instance segmentation. The difficulty of acquiring such annotation limits the application and popularization of the DCNN-based approaches. To address the issue, a weakly supervised approach is proposed in the paper which performs instance segmentation only with the supervision of bounding box or coarse localization annotation. A novel DCNN model is constructed which consists of two branches: the centerness branch and the segmentation branch. The former branch is to learn the semantically spatial importance over the areas of object instances under the localization supervision. Object proposals with exact boundaries are automatically generated and are then ranked under the guidance of the output of the centerness branch. The most matched instance proposal is assigned to each object, which is then used to supervise the segmentation branch. The losses are calculated by both the outputs of the two branches and the entire DCNN model is trained end-to-end. Experiments are extensively conducted to verify the effectiveness. With the supervision of precise bounding box annotation, our approach achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) accuracy in the comparison with recent related works. And in the case of coarse localization annotation, our approach only deduces a slight reduction in accuracy, which significantly outperforms other approaches. The excellent performance demonstrates that our approach would be helpful to further alleviate the workload of image annotation while maintaining competitive accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid detection of diquat (DQ) is essential in clinical diagnosis and rescue. Here, we developed a fast, simple-yet-practical detection strategy for the reliable identification and quantification of DQ in biological fluids. Based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), point-of-care detection was realized under the acidic condition with gold nanoparticles as the substrate. Under optimal experimental conditions, the detection limits of the strategy were 17.5 ppb and 1.99 ppm in human urine and gastric juice, respectively. High specificity and selectivity of the SERS strategy were demonstrated using common pesticides and coexisting biological substances. The method was also used to detect biofluids from 5 patients and urine samples from 10 healthy volunteers. The results were in high agreement with spectrophotometric and clinical liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry methods. The volume of urine samples required for this technique is merely 20 μL, and no preparation of the samples is required. Compared to traditional methods used in clinical settings, SERS-based methods are capable of real-time measurements that accurately provide rapid detection and response in non-laboratory settings, with great potential for on-site and point-of-care testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work concerns how the multi-scale supramolecular structure of starch relates to its digestion rate from a view of structural heterogeneity. The untreated granule starch displayed a dual-phase digestion pattern, ascribed to two digestible fractions within the heterogeneous multi-scale structure of starch, which had prominently different digestion rates. Not only amorphous starch but also part of molecular orders (crystallites with flaws) were digested at a same rate k 1 at the first phase; densely-assembled starch including orders with fewer flaws was digested at a rather slow rate k 2 ( ca . 2/5 of k 1 ) at the second phase. When alkali altered the heterogeneous supramolecular structure of starch, the digestion behaviors were also changed. The 0.1% (w/v) alkali solution slightly disrupted the starch multi-scale structure, which reduced the molecular orders, disrupted the lamellae, weakened the molecular organization within growth rings, and enlarged the granule pores. Then, part of resistant starch was transformed into slowly-digestible fraction with a digestion rate close to k 2 . In contrast, when stronger (0.5% w/v) alkali was used, the starch multi-scale structure was more apparently disrupted, causing even granule swelling. This structural change resulted in a triple-phase digestion with three different digestion rates. Moreover, especially with stronger alkali, along with the structural disruption, some orders with a higher thermal stability emerged and reduced the accessibility of starch molecules to the enzyme. In this case, the digestion rate decreased with the treatment time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel strategy for synthesizing a quantum dot (QD)-sensitized silver nanowire (AgNW) nanocomposite has been reported. 4-aminothiophenol (PATP) functionalized quantum dots (QDs-PATP) were prepared using the thiol ( SH) end of PATP molecules strongly bound to the surface of QDs via a ligand exchange technique. AgNWs could bind to the remaining amino group ( NH 2 ) of PATP via self-assembly techniques, and quantum dot-sensitized silver nanowires were then formed. The nanocomposite is denoted as QDs-PATP@AgNWs. The photovoltaic properties of a quantum dot-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) based on QDs-PATP@AgNWs were investigated. Under AM 1.5 illumination, the QDSSC reached a peak conversion efficiency of 3.34%. This finding suggests that QDs-PATP@AgNWs had potential applications as a photoanode for QDSSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns of Acinetobacter baumannii infection have increased due to the emergence of multi-drug resistance. In the present study, we determined the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) structure of A. baumannii SK44, a clinical isolate from Taiwan, to consist of pentasaccharide repeats. We found that CPS-induced antibody provided 55% protection against challenge in an animal model. The CPS-specific antibody reacted with the surface components of about 62% clinical isolates (342/554 strains) from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies by dot-immunoassay. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of positive strains showed the antibody covered different clonalites of A. baumannii clinical isolates. Meanwhile, using the CPS antibody as a probe, we found a number of outer membrane proteins bound to the antibody, including OmpA/motB, TonB-dependent receptor, and Omp38, indicating their association with CPS. These results might lead to the use of the capsular polysaccharide as a vaccine to prevent A. baumannii infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile approach for fabricating antistatic polystyrene (PS) microspheres used in 3D print had been carried out by introducing polystyrene onto the MWCNTs (MWCNTs@PS) surface. Firstly, poly (styrene-co-acryloyl chloride) (PS-co-APCl) was synthesized via free radical polymerization. Then azide-poly (styrene-co-acrylic acid) (PS-co-APAA) were prepared through the reaction between the acylchloride groups of PACl with the sodium azide. Subsequently, the azide groups of PS-co-APAA hich produced nitrene under high temperature, reacting with the sp 2 carbon in MWCNTs. MWCNTs@PS thus obtained were characterized using FTIR, EDS, Raman, TAG and TEM, and used as antistatic agent in PS in-situ suspension polymerization. MWCNTs@PS/PS composite microspheres were characterized using TAG, SEM and TEM. Results revealed that PS was covalently bonded onto the surface of MWCNTs, which improved the compatibility with matrix. Thus, the antistatic performances were enhanced by a well-constructed electrostatic discharge channel in the polystyrene matrix. As a result, the surface resistance of the percolation threshold was 3.54 × 10 8 Ω when the loading of MWCNTs@PS was at 0.5 wt%.The average diameter of MWCNTs@PS/PS microspheres was about 54 μm and the morphology was also very smooth, which could be used in 3D print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flexible film is widely applied in the modern electronic industry, whilst it is still challenging to use biopolymer substrates (e.g., starch) to prepare flexible film well-performed in conductivity and fluorescence. In the study, a novel conductive, fluorescent, and flexible biopolymer film was prepared via a cost-effective method by fabricating the nitrogen-doped oxide-reduced graphene quantum dots (N-rGO-QDs) into the thermoplastic starch (TPS) substrate. TPS/N-rGO-QDs film with 10 wt% N-rGO-QDs showed the desirable lowest resistivity (0.082 Ω·m), acceptable light transmittance (60–80 %), and durable fluorescence intensity (9000 CPS). The results reveal a novel starch-based multifunctional film with satisfactory electrical and fluorescent performances, which is hypothesized potential to be applied in some frontier domains, like human wearable devices. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SGII-UP laser facility is currently undergoing an upgrade from early 2022 to increase the energy output and support direct-driver double-cone ignition fusion experiments. This upgrade requires broad changes to the existing control system. Since the first beam, the SGII-UP laser facility has been driven by a control system built by a few decentralised computers, and with the growing scale of the facility and the need for a physics experiment operation, the existing control system no longer meets the requirements of the operation. The novel control system is built around the Tango Controls, and it is a great challenge to apply Tango Controls to this high-power laser facility, which includes eight kilojoule-class nanosecond laser beams and one picosecond petawatt laser beam. The system employs a hierarchical structure that comprises device, service and GUI layers, and these implement communication via a unified Tango communication protocol interface. Physical devices of subsystems are encapsulated into virtual device services, which are processes implementing a set of device classes. This encapsulation allows easy access to data, while hiding the complex set of instructions for physical devices. The service layer collects data from the device services, processes them, and sends commands to physical devices. Based on Tango's interface, client GUIs are developed under QT. The flexibility of communication using the Tango protocol allows multiple access to the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A spindle-shaped Ag/AgCl modified MIL-53(Fe) (AM) heterojunction was synthesized. • Highly sunlight-driven photocatalytic performance for Cu-EDTA was gotten by AM. • The special Z-scheme configuration might contribute to the greatly improvement. • Metal Ag acted as charge transmission bridge to promote the charges separation. • Surface plasmon resonance effect widened its spectral response to visible-light. Heavy metal complexes exhibit strong toxicities to aquatic ecosystems, and quite resistant to traditional treatments. Bare MIL-53(Fe) could effectively decomplex Cu-EDTA under UV-light irradiation but not visible-light. How to realize its highly sunlight-driven decomplexation has attracted great attention. In this study, Ag-based modification strategy was selected, and Ag/AgCl nanoparticles were prepared synchronously to improve the sunlight-driven photocatalytic activity of MIL-53(Fe) for Cu-EDTA decomplexation. The Ag/AgCl modified MIL-53(Fe) (AM) heterojunction composites displayed greater photocatalytic decomplexation for Cu-EDTA than bare MIL-53(Fe). 93 % of Cu-EDTA elimination and nearly 60 % mineralization were achieved within 120 min simulated sunlight irradiation by the AM with Ag/Fe molar ratio of 1:2. The special Z-scheme configuration contributed to the significant improvement, in which metal Ag nanoparticles played the role of charge transmission in favor of promoting the generated electron-hole pair separation under UV-light irradiation, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect was conducive to broadening its spectral response to visible-light region. Meanwhile, strong oxidizing species, including h+, ·O 2 –, ·OH, and 1O 2 , especially for h+, dominated the Cu-EDTA decomplexation, and some small organic acids and alcohols were the main products after 120 min irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • • SERS-based method for rapid detection of AAI in Chinese Medicinal herbal preparations. • • MA acted as adjusting the morphology and mediating the adsorption of AAI. • • Quantitative detection of AAI concentrations in the range from 0.2 to 120.0 μM. • • Low detection limit of 0.06 μM. • • Good recovery in Chinese Medicinal herbal preparations. The use of Chinese herbs containing aristolochic acid can induce the exchange of adenine and thymine in gene mutations and even cause liver cancer. To eliminate the harm of aristolochic acids (AAs) to humans, a rapid and robust method of AAs screening is a prerequisite. In this work, a facile and robust Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method was used for the qualitative and quantitative detection of AAs in Chinese medicinal herbal preparations based on the mandelic acid modified Ag nanoparticles SERS substrate. Qualitative and quantitative SERS detection of Aristolochic acid I (AAI) was achieved with a good linear relationship ranging from 0.2 − 120.0 μM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.06 μM. The proposed method demonstrates a refined strategy for sensitivity analysis of AAs with the advantages of easy operation, time-saving, high sensitivity, and molecular specificity, making it a preferred platform for the screening of AAI in regular inspections of herbal products and regulatory supervision of the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bromadiolone is the most frequently detected anticoagulant rodenticide in human biofluids, resulting in increased cases of poisoning. Here, we present a portable kit that could realize rapid fingerprint detection of DQ in human biofluids. This strategy was based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and salt-induced liquid-liquid phase separation (SILLPS) using a gold/silver core-shell nanoparticle (Au@Ag NPs) substrate. The kit included a portable Raman spectrometer and five tubes that contained Au@Ag NPs colloid, KI solution, saturated NaCl solution, acetonitrile, and Mg(NO 3) 2 solution. This strategy did not require pretreatment for urine samples. For blood samples, a 2-min SILLPS method was proposed with satisfactory recovery, providing unique insights into efficient pretreatment of complex biomatrix. The detection limits for urine and blood were calculated to be 3.21 ppb and 6.86 ppb, respectively. A clear trend could be observed between signal intensity and logarithmic concentration of bromadiolone ranging from 0 to 2 ppm with high reproducibility. Such a portable kit based on SILLPS-SERS can rapidly provide fingerprint information of poison. This simple-yet-practical "Pretreat & Detect" SERS kit may open up new opportunities for point-of-care detection of poisons and has great potential as a tool in field applications. [Display omitted] • Simple-yet-practical "Pretreat & Detect" SERS kit for rapid detection of bromadiolone in urine and blood. • Portable, easy to operate kit suitable for point-of-care testing. • Salt-induced liquid-liquid separation enables rapid pretreatment of blood. • Quantitative detection of bromadiolone concentrations in the range, 10 ppb to 2 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starch-based foods frequently contain different starch digestible fractions, with distinct digestion rates and locations in human upper gastrointestinal tract. Understanding the physical basis for these starch components is critical for developing foods with low glycemic index (GI) values. Conducting first-order kinetics analysis has been able to extract information on starch digestion properties, with solid physical basis. However, there is currently no clear procedure in terms of defining different starch fractions by first-order kinetics analysis. This review proposes that starch-based foods can be categorized as structurally homogenous or heterogenous starch systems by fitting their starch digestograms to the first-order kinetics model, which are characterized by a single set or multiple sets of digestion rate constants and the fractions remaining undigested at long times during in vitro digestion. In line with starch hierarchical structures, it helps understand the structural origins for different starch components in foods, which can ultimately help the development of functional foods with low GI. Procedure to identify the starch fractions in starch-based foods to better understand their physical basis. SF is single fraction. RDF represents rapidly digestible starch fraction, while SDF represents slowly digestible starch fraction. [Display omitted] • Starch-based foods often contain multiple starch fractions. • These foods can be defined as structurally homogeneous or heterogenous foods. • This definition helps the understanding of physical basis for starch digestibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The inconsistencies of classification and quality estimation are analyzed. Dynamic smooth label assignment is proposed to address the problems. • Interval relaxation strategy is proposed and combined with the improved centerness score. The assigned label is smoothed to a continuous value. • IoU score is dynamically calculated and coupled with the smooth label, resulting in dynamic smooth label. • DSLA is applied to popular anchor-free detectors. Comprehensive experiments are carried out on MS COCO to demonstrate the effectiveness. Anchor-free detectors basically formulate object detection as dense classification and regression. For popular anchor-free detectors, it is common to introduce an individual prediction branch to estimate the quality of localization. The following inconsistencies are observed when we delve into the practices of classification and quality estimation. Firstly, for some adjacent samples which are assigned completely different labels, the trained model would produce similar classification scores. This violates the training objective and leads to performance degradation. Secondly, it is found that detected bounding boxes with higher confidences contrarily have smaller overlaps with the corresponding ground-truth. Accurately localized bounding boxes would be suppressed by less accurate ones in the Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) procedure. To address the inconsistency problems, the Dynamic Smooth Label Assignment (DSLA) method is proposed. Based on the concept of centerness originally developed in FCOS, a smooth assignment strategy is proposed. The label is smoothed to a continuous value in [ 0 , 1 ] to make a steady transition between positive and negative samples. Intersection-of-Union (IoU) is predicted dynamically during training and is coupled with the smoothed label. The dynamic smooth label is assigned to supervise the classification branch. Under such supervision, quality estimation branch is naturally merged into the classification branch, which simplifies the architecture of anchor-free detector. Comprehensive experiments are conducted on the MS COCO benchmark. It is demonstrated that, DSLA can significantly boost the detection accuracy by alleviating the above inconsistencies for anchor-free detectors. Our codes are released at https://github.com/YonghaoHe/DSLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the Schottky barrier to improve the electrical transport behavior of heterostructure remains a significant challenge in field-effect transistor. To address this issue, the electronic structures of a novel C 6 BN/graphene heterostructure under different interlayer spacings and external electric fields are investigated by the first-principles calculations. It is found that the monolayer C 6 BN and graphene can form a stable van der Waals heterostructure. The Schottky barrier height and contact types of the C 6 BN/graphene heterostructure can be efficiently modulated by varying interlayer spacing and applying electric field. Especially, the band alignment is more sensitive to the external electric field than the interlayer spacing. When the electric field varies from −1.0 to 0.8 V·Å−1, the Schottky barrier height apparently changes about 0.1 to 0.2 eV with a 0.1 V·Å−1 increase of the external electric field. In addition, the calculated work function show that the heterostructure contact has zero van der Waals tunneling potential barrier, hence when tuned into Ohmic regime, the contact is promising in achieving highly-efficient charge injection. Lastly, the plane-averaged charge density differences reveal that the interfacial charge transfer leads to a transformation in Fermi energy level, thus determining the height and type of Schottky barrier in the C 6 BN/graphene heterostructure. This work will provide promising approaches for the future design and development of C 6 BN/graphene-based field-effect transistors. [Display omitted] • C 6 BN/graphene heterostructure is firstly constructed and the electronic properties are calculated by first principles; • The SBH and contact type of C 6 BN/graphene heterostructure are efficiently modulated by interlayer spacing and electric field; • By strengthening electric field to -1 V·Å−1, the Schottky contact is transported into an Ohmic contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although accumulating evidence has confirmed that adjuvant Tamoxifen (TAM) treatment is able to sensitize glioblastoma cells to radiotherapy and inhibit their proliferation, TAM is not a suitable treatment for all types of glioblastoma cells; furthermore, long-term TAM usage may lead to TAM resistance. Therefore, understanding the underlying molecular mechanism of TAM resistance is necessary in order to improve TAM clinical therapy and the quality of life of patients suffering from glioblastomas. In this study, the significance of ER-α36 to TAM resistance in glioblastoma cells was examined. First, an analysis of ER-α36 expression in two glioblastoma cell lines U87-MG and U251, showed that ER-α36 was anchored to the cytoplasmic membrane of these cells via Caveolin-1. Subsequent experiments investigating the mechanism of TAM-induced inhibition of U87-MG cell growth showed that TAM exerts its effect by inducing apoptosis via a down-regulation of Survivin expression and an up-regulation of Caspase-3 expression. Furthermore, TAM also arrested the cell cycle at S-phase. However, when U87-MG cells were preconditioned with an ER-α36-specific agonist, IC162, this neutralized TAM-induced inhibition of cell growth. This contrasted with the effect of ER-α36 depletion by RNAi, which enhanced TAM-induced inhibition of cell growth. These findings suggest that resistance to TAM involves ER-α36, which probably acts as a negative regulator of TAM-induced inhibition of glioblastoma cell growth. These findings provide a novel insight into the basis of TAM resistance during glioblastoma therapy and a further study is underway to reveal more about the specific molecular mechanisms associated with ER-α36-mediated TAM resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combined analytical techniques were used to explore the effects of alkali treatment on the multi-scale structure and digestion behavior of starches with different amylose/amylopectin ratios. Alkali treatment disrupted the amorphous matrix, and partial lamellae and crystallites, which weakened starch molecular packing and eventually enhanced the susceptibility of starch to alkali. Stronger alkali treatment (0.5% w/w) made this effect more prominent and even transformed the dual-phase digestion of starch into a triple-phase pattern. Compared with high-amylose starch, regular maize starch, which possesses some unique structure characteristics typically as pores and crystallite weak points, showed evident changes of hierarchical structure and in digestion rate. Thus, alkali treatment has been demonstrated as a simple method to modulate starch hierarchical structure and thus to realize the rational development of starch-based food products with desired digestibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine the relationships between radiation doses to the thoracic bone marrow and declines in blood cell counts in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with chemoradiation therapy (CRT).Methods and Materials: We included 52 patients with NSCLC treated with definitive concurrent carboplatin-paclitaxel and RT. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) parameters for the thoracic vertebrae (TV), sternum, scapulae, clavicles, and ribs were assessed for associations with changes in blood counts during the course of CRT. Linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify associations between hematologic nadirs and DVH parameters. A DVH parameter of Vx was the percentage of the total organ volume exceeding x radiation dose.Results: Grade ≥ 3 hematologic toxicity including neutropenia developed in 21% (n=11), leukopenia in 42% (n=22), anemia in 6% (n=3), and throbocytopenia in 2% (n=1) of patients. Greater RT dose to the TV was associated with higher risk of grade ≥ 3 leukopenia across multiple DVH parameters, including TV V20 (TVV) (odds ratio [OR] 1.06; P=.025), TVV30 (OR 1.07; P=.013), and mean vertebral dose (MVD) (OR 1.13; P=.026). On multiple regression analysis, TVV30 (β = -0.004; P=.018) and TVV20 (β = -0.003; P=.048) were associated with white blood cell nadir. Additional bone marrow sites (scapulae, clavicles, and ribs) did not affect hematologic toxicity. A 20% chance of grade ≥ 3 leukopenia was associated with a MVD of 13.5 Gy and a TTV30 of 28%. Cutoff values to avoid grade ≥ 3 leukopenia were MVD ≤ 23.9 Gy, TVV20 ≤ 56.0%, and TVV30 ≤ 52.1%.Conclusions: Hematologic toxicity is associated with greater RT doses to the TV during CRT for NSCLC. Sparing of the TV using advanced radiation techniques may improve tolerance of CRT and result in improved tolerance of concurrent chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the structure and properties of biodegradable plastic blends from soy protein isolate (SPI) and poly(butylene adipate- co -terephthalate) (PBAT) was studied. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical test, and biodegradation test, the compatibility and phase behavior of the components were investigated. In the blends, SPI acted as a filler in the PBAT matrix, which exhibited a reinforcing effect on the PBAT matrix. With increasing SPI content, the tensile strength and elongation at break of SPI/PBAT blends reduced; the thermal stability decreased at 200–400 °C and increased at higher temperatures. However, the blends with as high as 28.6 wt% SPI still possessed a good ductility. Soy protein was easily degraded in the soil and thus made the blends biodegradable as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron–carbon (Fe–C) microelectrolysis has attracted considerable attention in wastewater treatment due to its excellent ability to remove contaminants. Herein, novel Fe–C granules were synthesized by simple calcination method for removing organic contaminations, and a cost–effective and environmentally friendly method, namely pre–magnetization, was used to improve the micro–electrolysis performance of Fe–C. Batch experiments proved that premagnetized iron–carbon (pre-Fe–C) could significantly improve the removal of methyl orange (MO) at different Fe–C mass ratios (1:2–2:1), material dosages (1.0–2.5 g/L), initial pH values (3.0–5.0), and MO concentrations (10.0–50.0 mg/L). Electrochemical analysis showed that premagnetization could increase the current density and reduce the charge transfer resistance of the microelectrolysis system, making Fe–C more susceptible to electrochemical corrosion. Characterizations confirmed that the corrosion products of the materials included FeO, Fe 2 O 3 , and Fe 3 O 4 , and more corrosion products were formed in the pre-Fe–C system. Radical quenching experiments and electron spin resonance spectroscopy verified that •OH, 1O 2 , and O 2 −• were all involved in pollutant removal, and premagnetization could promote the generation of more reactive oxygen species. Overall, the pre-Fe–C process could effectively remove various organic pollutants, exhibit good adaptability to complex water environments, and hold potential for industrial applications. [Display omitted] • Novel Fe–C granules were synthesized via simple calcination for pollutant removal. • The microelectrolysis performance of the granules was improved by premagnetization. • Premagnetization could accelerate electron and mass transfer on the Fe–C surface. • Premagnetization could promote the generation of more.•OH, 1O 2 , and O 2 −•. • The approach exhibited strong adaptability to the removal of various contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the role of microplastics (MPs) in the biological fate and toxicity of organic pollutants in food webs is vital for its risk assessment. However, contradictory results and the neglect of MP aging as a factor have led to a research gap, which needs to be filled. Our study discovered that polyamide (PA, a ubiquitous MP in water) MPs clearly facilitated bioaccumulation of tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP) in the F0 zebrafish gonads and parental transfer of TDCIPP to the F1 offspring. Rapid TDCIPP desorption in the gut and intestine barrier dysfunction triggered by MPs were the causes for the phenomenon. In contrast to the pristine forms, aged PA with higher hydrophilcity exhibited stronger binding and polar interactions with TDCIPP, and the intestine damage was neglectable, resulting in increased intestinal immobilization and prevented parental transfer of TDCIPP. Additionally, the aggravated body weight loss and decreased length of TDCIPP offspring were relieved after PA aging. The recovery of subintestinal venous plexus angiogenesis, yolk lipid utilization, and ATP synthesis were responsible for the mitigated transgenerational toxicity. Our results highlight the significance of aging on the role of MPs with respect to coexisting pollutants and have great implications for understanding MP-associated risks. [Display omitted] • Aging relieved PA-mediated parental transfer of TDCIPP to F1 zebrafish larvae. • TDCIPP desorption and gut injury of F0 fish driven by PA was lowered after aging. • Aging reduced the promotion effects of PA on transgenerational toxicity of TDCIPP. • Parental co-exposure-induced SIVP angiogenesis inhibition in larvae was relieved. • Yolk lipid inhibition and ATP shortage in F1 offspring were attenuated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignin, despite being able to slow starch digestion, needs to be heated at over 300 °C. To make the benefit achievable at a food-grade temperature, alkali-washing is studied as an additional procedure to facilitate the thermally processed lignin to slow the starch digestion in vitro. Lignin was firstly washed using Na 2 CO 3 /NaHCO 3 mixture of various pH 7–10 followed by the thermal process at 150, 200, 250, and 300 °C respectively. The mild alkali-washing (pH 10) was found to allow the lignin heated at only 200 °C to achieve a significant inhibition on the hydrolysis of pancreatic α-amylase (α-AA) in starch-rich pasta. After the structural-characterization using atomic force microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy, the mechanism hypothesis is confirmed due to a modification of insoluble-lignin surface morphology which might immobilize the α-AA content in solution. The findings highlight the potential of alkali-washing for facilitating thermally processed lignin in slowing the digestion of starchy foods. [Display omitted] • Alkali-prewashing facilitates thermally processed lignin at a food-grade achievable temperature. • Alkali-prewashing reduces the solubility of the thermally processed lignin. • Low solubility favors the immobilization of pancreatic α-AA onto insoluble lignin. • The starchy food digestion is slowed due to less pancreatic α-AA in aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] β 2 -microglobulin (B 2 M) has been established to impair cognitive function. However, no treatment is currently available for B 2 M-induced cognitive dysfunction. Itaconate is a tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediate that exerts neuroprotective effects in several neurological diseases. The amino-β-carboxymuconate-semialdehyde-decarboxylase (ACMSD)/picolinic acid (PIC) pathway is a crucial neuroprotective branch in the kynurenine pathway (KP). The present study sought to investigate whether Itaconate attenuates B 2 M-induced cognitive impairment and examine the mediatory role of the hippocampal ACMSD/PIC pathway. We demonstrated that 4-Octyl Itaconate (OI, an itaconate derivative) significantly alleviated B 2 M-induced cognitive dysfunction and hippocampal neurogenesis impairment. OI treatment also increased the expression of ACMSD, elevated the concentration of PIC, and decreased the level of 3-HAA in the hippocampus of B 2 M-exposed rats. Furthermore, inhibition of ACMSD by TES-991 significantly abolished the protections of Itaconate against B 2 M-induced cognitive impairment and neurogenesis deficits. Exogenous PIC supplementation in hippocampus also improved cognitive performance and hippocampal neurogenesis in B 2 M-exposed rats. These findings demonstrated that Itaconate alleviates B 2 M-induced cognitive impairment by upregulation of the hippocampal ACMSD/PIC pathway. This is the first study to document Itaconate as a promising therapeutic agent to ameliorate cognitive impairment. Moreover, the mechanistic insights into the ACMSD/PIC pathway improve our understanding of it as a potential therapeutic target for neurological diseases beyond B 2 M-associated neurocognitive disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new strain estimator using extrema tracking based on Fourier Series expansion (ETBFS) is proposed for ultrasonic elastography. In this method, the extremum is determined by solving an equation constructed by obtaining the first order derivative of the Fourier Series expansion and setting it to zero. Unlike other tracking algorithms, the ETBFS method can locate the extrema of radio frequency (RF) signals exactly between two adjacent sampling points and achieve a sub-sample accuracy without additional explicit interpolation. The correspondence between the located extrema in the pre- and post-compressed RF signal segments are constructed with a fine matching technique, with which the displacements and strains are estimated. Experimental results on a finite-element-modeling (FEM) simulation phantom show that the new proposed method can provide a more accurate displacement estimation than the standard cross-correlation (CC)-based method and the scale-invariant keypoints tracking (SIKT) algorithm. Moreover, performance analysis in terms of elastographic signal-to-noise ratio ( SNR e ), elastographic contrast-to-noise ratio ( CNR e ) and the real-versus-estimated strain error (RESE) also indicate that the dynamic range of the strain filter and its sensitivity can be improved with this new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose We sought to evaluate whether tumor response using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) performed as part of the routine care during chemoradiation therapy (CRT) could forecast the outcome of unresectable, locally advanced, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods and Materials We manually delineated primary tumor volumes (TV) of patients with NSCLC who were treated with radical CRT on days 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, and 43 on CBCTs obtained as part of the standard radiation treatment course. Percentage reductions in TV were calculated and then correlated to survival and pattern of recurrence using Cox proportional hazard models. Clinical information including histologic subtype was also considered in the study of such associations. Results We evaluated 38 patients with a median follow-up time of 23.4 months. The median TV reduction was 39.3% (range, 7.3%-69.3%) from day 1 (D1) to day 43 (D43) CBCTs. Overall survival was associated with TV reduction from D1 to D43 (hazard ratio [HR] 0.557, 95% CI 0.39-0.79, P =.0009). For every 10% decrease in TV from D1 to D43, the risk of death decreased by 44.3%. For patients whose TV decreased ≥39.3 or <39.3%, log-rank test demonstrated a separation in survival ( P =.02), with median survivals of 31 months versus 10 months, respectively. Neither local recurrence (HR 0.791, 95% CI 0.51-1.23, P =.29), nor distant recurrence (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.57-1.08, P =.137) correlated with TV decrease from D1 to D43. Histologic subtype showed no impact on our findings. Conclusions TV reduction as determined by CBCT during CRT as part of routine care predicts post-CRT survival. Such knowledge may justify intensification of RT or application of additional therapies. Assessment of genomic characteristics of these tumors may permit a better understanding of behavior or prediction of therapeutic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) functionalized polystyrene porous monolith was prepared by the following procedure: First, β-CD was modified with allyl bromide leading to allyl-β-cyclodextrin (allyl-β-CD); then a concentrated emulsion was prepared using a mixture of allyl-β-CD, styrene, and divinyl benzene as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase. In the third step, a β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) functionalized polystyrene porous monolith was obtained by copolymerization of allyl-β-CD and styrene followed by removal of the water phase. Since the allyl-β-CD contained both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups, it tended to move towards the water/oil interface. As a result, the internal surfaces of the porous monolith were enriched with β-CD. This enrichment was indicated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization. The high content of β-CD and the high specific surface area of the porous monolith both contributed to a high adsorption capacity. For example, the maximum adsorption of phenol was 5.74 mg/g. Importantly, the porous monolith could be easily regenerated and recycled through desorption with ethanol and it was found that the adsorption properties remained stable for at least five adsorption/desorption cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the extent of tumor motion between 4-dimensional CT (4DCT) and cine-MRI in patients with hepatic tumors treated with radiation therapy. Methods and Materials: Patients with liver tumors who underwent 4DCT and 2-dimensional biplanar cine-MRI scans during simulation were retrospectively reviewed to determine the extent of target motion in the superior-inferior, anterior-posterior, and lateral directions. Cine-MRI was performed over 5 minutes. Tumor motion from MRI was determined by tracking the centroid of the gross tumor volume using deformable image registration. Motion estimates from 4DCT were performed by evaluation of the fiducial, residual contrast (or liver contour) positions in each CT phase. Results: Sixteen patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (n=11), cholangiocarcinoma (n=3), and liver metastasis (n=2) were reviewed. Cine-MRI motion was larger than 4DCT for the superior-inferior direction in 50% of patients by a median of 3.0 mm (range, 1.5-7 mm), the anterior-posterior direction in 44% of patients by a median of 2.5 mm (range, 1-5.5 mm), and laterally in 63% of patients by a median of 1.1 mm (range, 0.2-4.5 mm). Conclusions: Cine-MRI frequently detects larger differences in hepatic intrafraction tumor motion when compared with 4DCT most notably in the superior-inferior direction, and may be useful when assessing the need for or treating without respiratory management, particularly in patients with unreliable 4DCT imaging. Margins wider than the internal target volume as defined by 4DCT were required to encompass nearly all the motion detected by cine-MRI for some of the patients in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete in bridge structures is constantly subjected to CO 2 ingression as well as fatigue damage caused by repeated vehicle loads. This paper presents a general modeling process for carbonation in fatigue-damaged concrete beams. The key point of considering effects of fatigue damage on concrete carbonation is determining diffusivity of CO 2 in fatigue-damaged concrete. To do so, residual strain was chosen as an indicator to evaluate fatigue damage states and a Fictitious Distributed Crack Mode of fatigue-damaged concrete beams was proposed to incorporate residual strain into diffusivity of CO 2 . Subsequently, the partial differential carbonation equation for fatigue-damaged concrete beams was established and a Keller Box Scheme was implemented to solve it. The numerical solutions were verified by accelerated carbonation tests for concrete beams damaged by cyclic loading. Finally, through parametric study for usual ranges of various influencing factors, a simplified carbonation model for fatigue-damaged concrete beams was proposed. Model predictions of carbonation depths were in acceptable agreement with test results as well as numerical solutions. The simplified model could be used to design concrete cover and help accurately predict or estimate initiation time of corrosion of steel bars in concrete structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Exposure of rats to homocysteine (Hcy) leads to learning and memory dysfunctions. [•] Hcy decreases the generation of endogenous H2S in the hippocampus of rats. [•] Hcy up-regulates the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the hippocampus of rats. [•] Disturbed H2S formation and ER stress involve in Hcy-caused memory disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Increased LIF and NGF were detected in lung, DRG, and brain stems of asthmatic rat. [•] De novo synthesis of LIF/NGF only increased in lung, but not in DRG and brain stem. [•] Pretreatment with LIF antibody decreased the level of LIF and NGF in asthmatic rat. [•] LIF seems to be required for airway inflammation and central sensitization in asthma. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] The fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is applied for shipping route risk assessment. [•] Shipping routes in the South China Sea (SCS) are extracted for safety evaluation. [•] The safety environment in the north SCS is more dangerous than that in the south. [•] The most dangerous areas of SCS move southwards from summer to winter. [•] The risk of routes in the SCS decreases from autumn, summer, winter, and spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A facile approach for synthesizing transparent and luminescent nanocomposites had been carried out by introducing epoxy group functionalized oleic acid (C18-epoxy) at the interface. The C18-epoxy could self-assemble with carbon chain of ligand and formed epoxy group functionalized QDs (QDs@epoxy). Therefore, QDs@epoxy had similar polar with epoxy matrix, and could homogenously disperse in nanocomposites. Compared with original ones, QDs@epoxy/epoxy nanocomposites exhibited almost four times transparence and twice luminescence. Furthermore, color rendering index, correlated color temperature and (x, y) of white LED, which was fabricated by nanocomposites (yellow light emitting) encapsulated InGaN chip, were 65, 5260K and (x=0.3381, y=0.3459), respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Silver nanoparticles was decorated onto PSA functionalized MWCNTs. [•] Percolation threshold of composite was at MWCNTs@PSA@Ag loading 0.75wt%. [•] Percolation threshold was decreased to 0.5wt% after humidity absorption balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• LiF headspace affixed Li composite accommodates Li deposition perfectly. • LiF array as the framework on the surface provides fast Li+ diffusion paths. • The LZLF anode renders a prolongated cyclic lifetime. Lithium (Li) metal composite with three-dimensional (3D) skeleton is regarded as the promising anode material for next generation rechargeable high energy batteries. Currently, most of the commercial cathodes are compounds rich of Li elements. In the initial operation of the as-assembled full cell, Li atoms are released from the cathode and directly deposited on the anode surface. The absence of the storage space in the conventional Li composite anode makes Li growth in an uncontrolled way and serious volume fluctuation of the electrode. Herein, LiF headspace affixed Li composite anode is prepared for the first time via a facile one-step thermal fusion method. The storage space constructed by LiF particles is formed on the top surface of 3D Li-LiZn-LiF (LZLF) composite anode, which can accommodate Li deposition from the cathode maintaining structural stability of the anode. Additionally, the LiF particles array on the surface can benefit for fast Li+ diffusion, suppressing Li dendrites growth and inducing uniform Li deposition. In a consequence, the LiF headspace affixed LZLF composite anode shows significantly improved electrochemical performance, i.e., more than 1000 h in symmetrical cell at 1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2, or capacity retention of 88.9% after 800 cycles for the full cell at 1C with 2.45 mAh cm−2 in carbonate ester-based electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of temperature and moisture histories in terms of freeze-thaw (FT), wetting-drying (WD), and wetting-drying-freeze-thaw (WDFT) cycles on the hydrostructural characteristics of a clay that demonstrates aggregated and dispersed structures, during desiccation. Investigated hydrostructural characteristics include the soil structure, soil-shrinkage characteristic curve (SSCC, relationships between the void ratio, e and the moisture ratio, ϑ), and soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC, relationships between the ϑ and the suction, s). Experimental observations show that compaction-induced structural pores are rigid in the aggregated structure but not rigid in the dispersed structure during desiccation. They collapse during FT, WD, and WDFT cycles and are replaced by micro and visible cracks induced during WD and FT cycles. The amount and distribution of textural pores are similar in specimens with aggregated and dispersed structures. Textural pores shrink after FT, WD, and WDFT cycles. Structural changes due to temperature and moisture histories result in a significant reduction in the clay's water-retention capacity in the low suction range and the global shrinkage. However, they have little impact on the shrinkage limit and plastic limit. SWCCs in the high suction range, which are determined by textural pores, are semblable after cyclic treatments regardless of the different initial structures, indicating that FT, WD, and WDFT cycles result in similar textural pore systems. The slope of the SSCCs in the basic shrinkage stage reduces after FT cycles due to the development of FT-induced microcracks but is less affected by WD and WDFT cycles. The ϑ - s - e relationships of the clay with different temperature and moisture histories and initial structures are found to distribute on a unique surface, which is modeled using a modified SWCC equation and limited experimental measurements in this study. • FT, WD, WDFT cycles lead to varying structural pores but similar textural pores. • Water-retention and shrinkage capacity reduces during three cyclic treatments. • SWCCs related to textural pores become similar after three types of treatments. • A unique surface is established to describe all ϑ - s - e measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous works demonstrated that β2-microglobulin (β2m), a systemic pro-aging factor, induce depressive-like behaviors. Hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) is identified as a potential target for treatment of depression. The aim of the present work is to explore whether H 2 S antagonizes β2m-induced depressive-like behaviors and the underlying mechanisms. The depressive-like behaviors were detected using the novelty suppressed feeding test (NSFT), tail suspension test (TST), forced swimming test (FST) and open field test (OFT). The expressions of Warburg-related proteins, including hexokinase II (HK II), pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1(PDK1), and synaptic plasticity-related proteins, including postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) and synaptophysin1 (SYN1), were determined by western blotting. we found that NaHS (the donor of H 2 S) attenuated the depressive-like behaviors in the β2m-exposed rats, as judged by NSFT, TST, FST, and OFT. We also demonstrated that NaHS enhanced the synaptic plasticity, as evidenced by the upregulations of PSD95 and SYN1 expressions in the hippocampus of β2m-exposed rats. Furthermore, NaHS improved the Warburg effect in the hippocampus of β2m-exposed rats, as evidenced by the upregulations of HK II, PKM2, LDHA and PDK1 expressions, and the downregulation of PDH expression. H 2 S prevents β2m-induced depressive-like behaviors, which is involved in improvement of hippocampal synaptic plasticity as a result of enhancement of hippocampal Warburg effect. • H 2 S attenuates β2m-induced depressive-like behaviour. • H 2 S improves synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of β2m-exposed rat. • H 2 S enhances Warburg effect in the hippocampus of β2m-exposed rat. • H 2 S prevents β2m-induced depression via Warburg effect- synaptic plasticity axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Natural organic matter promoted the photoaging of PA MPs in water. • Aged MPs had higher bioaccumulation and oxidative stress in fish than virgin MPs. • Aged MPs exhibit higher growth inhibition and intestinal injury in developing fish. • Lipid metabolism disorder in zebrafish induced by PA was aggravated after aging. • Aged PA exposure disturbed genes related to lipid digestion, transfer and absorption. The safety of microplastics (MPs) and associated health effects has been one of the major concerns worldwide. However, the role of photoaging toward the risk of MPs in water ecosystems remains inconclusive yet. In this study, the size of polyamide (PA, ∼32.50 μm) MPs was obviously decreased after photoaging in water containing fulvic acid (FA) and humic acid (HA) (∼19.75 and ∼24.30 μm, respectively). Nanoplastics were formed (4.65% and 2.03%, respectively) and hydrophilia and colloidal stability was improved due to the formation of oxygen-containing functional groups. FA-aged PA exhibited higher inhibition on body length and weight of developing zebrafish than HA-aged and pristine PA. Photoaged MPs in intestine were more difficult to be depurated by zebrafish, leading to the disappearance of intestinal folding, shedding of more enterocytes, and emaciation of intestinal microvilli. Dietary lipid digestion in larvae was inhibited by aged PA due to oxidative stress-triggered lipid peroxidation and inhibition of lipase activities and bile acids secretion. Exposure of photoaged MPs down-regulated genes (cd36 , dgat1a , dgat2 , mttp, etc.) associated with triglyceride resynthesis and transportation, resulting in lipid maladsorption and growth inhibition. Our findings highlight the potential negative effects of environmentally aged MPs on diet digestion and nutrient assimilation in fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In order to evaluate the importance of molecular shape of inhibitor molecules and the charge/H-bond and hydrophobic interactions, we synthesized three types of molecules and tested them against a sialyltransferase. The first type of compounds were designed as substrate mimics in which the phosphate in CMP-Neu5NAc was replaced by a non-hydrolysable, uncharged 1,2,3-triazole moiety. The second type of compound contained a 2-deoxy-2,3-dehydro-acetylneuraminic moiety which was linked to cytidine through its carboxylic acid and amide linkers. In the third type of compound the sialyl phosphate was substituted by an aryl sulfonamide which was then linked to cytidine. Inhibition study of these cytidine conjugates against Campylobacter jejuni sialyltransferase Cst 06 showed that the first type of molecules are competitive inhibitors, whereas the other two could only inhibit the enzyme non-competitively. The results indicate that although the binding specificity may be guided by molecular shape and H-bond interaction, the charge and hydrophobic interactions contributed most to the binding affinity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Here a new electrochemical immunoassay platform has been developed for the trace amounts of myelocytomatosis (c-Myc) oncoprotein detection to solve the urgent need for improved early diagnostic tools of cancer. To our knowledge, this is the first electrochemical immunosensor for c-Myc oncoprotein determination by employing gold nanoparticles as labels in a signal enhancement strategy. It is based on a sandwich immunoassay where the target c-Myc oncoprotein (CAg) is captured by the primary c-Myc antibody (CAb) modified on gold substrate, followed by adding another CAb conjugated to gold nanoparticle tags. The proposed sensor shows a linear range between 4.3pmolL−1 and 43nmolL−1, with an estimated detection limit of 1.5pmolL−1. The recovery was achieved between 96.2% and 109% in 1% serum samples. This sensitive immunosensor holds great promise for the early diagnostic application of cancer at a curable stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Shenqi Fuzheng Injection (SFI) a well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, has been extensively used as an adjuvant to chemotherapy for cancer treatment in clinic. However, the chemical constituents in SFI, especially water-soluble ingredients, had not been investigated so far. In this study, an ultra-fast liquid chromatography (UFLC) coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS) method was established for rapid separation and structural identification of the constituents in SFI. Separation was performed on a C18 reversed-phase column (2.1mm×100mm, 1.8μm) by gradient elution mode, using methanol–water containing 0.1% formic acid as mobile phase at the flow-rate of 0.2mL/min. Accurate mass measurement for molecular ions and characteristic fragment ions could represent reliable identification criteria for these compounds. As a result, eighty-one major constituents including organic acids, amino acids, oligosaccharides, alkaloids, nucleosides, phenylpropanoids, polyacetylenes, flavonoids, isoflavonoids and saponins were identified or tentatively characterized by comparing their retention times and MS spectra with those of authentic standards or literature data. All compounds were further assigned in the individual raw material. In conclusion, the UFLC–Q-TOF-MS/MS is a highly efficient technique to separate and identify constituents in complex matrices of traditional Chinese medicines. These results obtained in this research will provide a basis for quality control and further study in vivo of SFI. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The octahydropyrano[3,2-b]pyrrole derivatives are synthesized by a double reductive amination from pyranose derivatives of nono-2,5-diuloses and octos-4-uloses and various amines. The cyclization proceeded smoothly in the presence of sodium triacetoxyborohydride to produce a series of novel fused N-heterobicyclic compounds with high stereoselectivity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A kind of polymer with antistatic property, poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEAAm), was grafted onto the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and then such PDEAAm-g-MWCNTs was introduced into polyetherimide (PEI). The successful grafting was tested by FT-IR, XPS and TEM results, and the weight fraction of PDEAAm on the PDEAAm-g-MWCNTs was calculated according to the XPS and TGA. The PDEAAm-g-MWCNTs/PEI nanocomposites films were prepared by conventional solution processed method. The conductivity of nanocomposites increased by four orders of magnitude after absorbing moisture. The nanocomposites achieved the percolation threshold with the PDEAAm-g-MWCNTs loading of 0.25wt.% and the volume conductivity reached 10−7 S/cm. Dynamic response and long-term stability test indicated good response sensitivity and stability property of this material. Thereby, such PDEAAm-g-MWCNTs/PEI nanocomposites had potential applications as passive humidity sensors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]