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To ensure the long-term sustainable development of nuclear energy as well as the prevention and control of uranium pollution, new materials that can simultaneously detect and separate uranium are still urgently needed. Herein, a new fluorescent covalent organic polymer (COP), namely HT-COP-AO, was synthesized andemployed as both the fluorescent probe and absorbent for simultaneous uranium detection and separationconsidering its excellent fluorescence property and strong uranium coordination ability. The results showed that the fluorescence of HT-COP-AO was quickly quenched by uranium within 2 min, and the limit of detection was 0.23 µM (3σ/K). Further studies implied that uranium was coordinated with the amidoxime groups of HT-COP-AO through U-N and O = U = O bonds, which resulted in electron transfer from uranium to HT-COP-AO and quenching the fluorescence of HT-COP-AO consequently. Meanwhile, HT-COP-AO exhibited excellent absorption ability towards uranium, and the maximum absorption capacity (q

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a model organism with three sequenced genomes capable of genetic transformation. C. reinhardtii has the advantages of being low cost, non-toxic, and having a post-translational modification system that ensures the recombinant proteins have the same activity as natural proteins, thus making it a great platform for application in molecular biology and other fields. In this review, we summarize the existing methods for nuclear transformation of C. reinhardtii, genes for selection, examples of foreign protein expression, and factors affecting transformation efficiency, to provide insights into effective strategies for the nuclear transformation of C. reinhardtii.

Context Hospice care focuses on improving the quality of end-of-life care and respecting patients’ preferences regarding end-of-life treatment. The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the utilization of hospice services is unknown. Objectives To investigate the utilization of hospice care services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods All patients (n = 19,900) cared for at Taipei City Hospital from January 2019 to April 2020 were divided into three time points: January–April 2019 (before COVID-19), May–December 2019 (interim), and January–April 2020 (during COVID-19). This cohort study compared the monthly utilization of hospice services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results There was no significant difference in hospice home visits (194 vs. 184; P = 0.686) and new enrollments (15 vs. 14; P = 0.743) to hospice home care before and during the pandemic. However, the bed occupancy rate in hospice units in the hospital was significantly reduced from 66.2% before the pandemic to 37.4% during the pandemic (P = 0.029), whereas that in nonhospice units had a nonsignificant decrease from 81.6% before the pandemic to 71.8% during the pandemic (P = 0.086). During the pandemic, the number of inpatient days was affected more severely in hospice units than in nonhospice units (−42.4% vs. −10.9%; P = 0.029). Conclusions This study suggests that hospice home care services were maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the utilization of hospice inpatient care services reduced. Home care for hospice patients is an essential component of palliative care during a pandemic.

Tropical forests are responsible for the evaporation and transpiration of large quantities of water into the atmosphere annually. Surface conductance (gs) is a poorly understood phenomenon that plays a central role in regulating this evapotranspiration. We studied the calculations, variations, and environmental factors controlling gs based on eddy flux measurements from 10 tropical forest sites that covered a wide range of water gradients across continents. We found that boundary layer conductance (gb) is comparable with aerodynamic conductance for momentum (gaM) and thus, it should not be ignored in estimations of total aerodynamic conductance for water vapor (gaV). Based on the findings, we have made some recommendations for gaM estimation both with and without measurements of turbulence. The seasonal variation of gs is low in humid sites but large in sites with a dry season. A value of 24.8 ± 13.8 mm s−1 was suggested for maximum surface conductance (gsmax) for tropical forests. Both water vapor deficit (D) and radiation (Q) play an important role in controlling gs. The model driven by both D and Q could capture the diurnal variations of gs well and could be implemented in large-scale models in future. We believe the findings of this study could contribute substantially to our understanding of tropical forest gs.

Soy protein isolate (SPI, 1–4 wt%) was heated by conventional heat treatment (90 °C) and subcritical water treatment (SW, 120 °C). The aggregation degree, surface hydrophobicity, interfacial adsorption behaviors, foaming and emulsifying properties were characterized to evaluate the effects of aggregation degree on the foaming and emulsifying properties of proteins. SW treatment induced the formation of larger soluble aggregates dominated by intermolecular hydrophobic interactions. Compared to native SPI and SPI heated at 90 °C (SPI90), SW-treated SPI showed a higher surface activity at the air-water and oil-water interface due to lower aggregation degree and more flexible conformation. Obvious improvements of foam capacity and stability may be attributed to the formation of an interfacial layer with higher macromolecule interactions. Moreover, SW treatment effectively improved storage and freeze-thaw stability against emulsion coalescence due to the formation of a thicker multilayer, although higher flocculation degree was observed. These results suggest that SW treatment could be an effective technique to modify structural and functional properties of soy protein for stable foam and emulsion foods.

Cancer persists as a worldwide disease that contributes to high morbidity and mortality rates. As a class of non-coding RNA, microRNAs (miRNAs) are one kind of important regulators in cancer and frequently implicated in tumor development and progression. Emerging experiments have suggested that miRNA-195-5p (miR-195-5p) can regulate neoplastic processes in many pathways. For instance, miR-195-5p can not only regulate proliferation, migration and invasion of tumor cells but also promote tumor cell apoptosis. Furthermore, low expression of miR-195-5p could induce drug resistance. Our review focuses on the expression of miR-195-5p in various tumors and elucidates the related mechanisms of which miR-195-5p participates in tumor biology, as well as summarizes the roles of miR-195-5p in tumor progression. We believe that miR-195-5p might have potential utility as a novel diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for cancer.

Vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) plays an important role in the immune modulation and pathogenesis of hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection by influencing serum vitamin D levels. The present study aims to evaluate the association of VDBP genetic polymorphisms with susceptibility to and chronicity of HCV infection in a high-risk Chinese population. Seven genetic variants in the VDBP gene were genotyped in a case-control study of 886 patients with HCV persistent infection, 539 subjects with spontaneous clearance, and 1081 uninfected controls. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effects of these variants on HCV infection outcomes. The results showed that two variants rs7041-G and rs3733359-T alleles were significantly associated with increased susceptibility of HCV infection, and the combined effect of the two unfavorable alleles was related to an elevated risk of HCV infection in a locus-dosage manner (Ptrend = 8.16 × 10−4). Interaction analysis manifested that rs7041-GT/GG and rs3733359-CT/TT jointly increased risk of HCV infection. Moreover, haplotype analysis suggested that compared with the most frequent TC haplotype, the haplotype carrying GT indicated a risk effect of HCV infection [odds ratio (OR) = 1.464]. However, no significant associations were observed for the other five variants. These findings implied that VDBP rs7041-G and rs3733359-T variants may contribute to increased susceptibility to HCV infection in a high-risk Chinese population.

To investigate the feasibility of contrast agent and injection rate reduction for dual-layer spectral detector computed tomography (SDCT) imaging of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) using virtual monochromatic image (VMI).A total of 102 patients who underwent abdominal arterial phase-enhanced SDCT examination due to suspected abdominal diseases were prospectively selected and divided into control group, low concentration/dose groups (groups 370-0.7, 300-1.0, and 300-0.9) and low injection rate groups (groups 2-370 and 2-350). Compared with the control group, low concentration/dose groups and low injection rate groups lowered the concentration/dose or injection rate of the contrast agent to varying degrees. The raw data obtained in each group were reconstructed using hybrid-iterative reconstruction and projection spatial-spectral reconstruction algorithm. The image quality of the SMA in conventional images (CI) and in VMIsVMIs of the SMA in each group had the best image quality at 60 keV, and VMIVMI

The ability to precisely pair cells without damaging them has been critical in generating high cell-fusion yields. We present here an insulator-based dielectrophoretic (iDEP) microfluidic lab-chip capable of manipulating ~ 6000 single cells or cell pairs per experimental operation, even with a large variance among the cell population. An ITO glass with a thin PDMS membrane patterned by a lift-off process consisting of a vast array of 6000 holes acts as microwells for pairing and fusion operations. We demonstrate the application of our chip by showing electrofusion between CT26 and bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDC) with fusion efficiencies up to 70% (3000–3500 cells) among paired cells. We extend our study to show that our microfluidic chip is biocompatible and safe from electrical fields by observing properties of fused cells like cell viability of 60% (1800–2200 cells), fluorescence-labeled intracellular materials from CT26 and BMDC, mixed cell morphology over 4 days of culture.