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CO2 separation performance of polymer membranes can be significantly enhanced by selecting porous fillers with high CO2 affinity. Ionic liquids incorporation has been recognized as an effective strategy for improving the separation ability of pristine porous fillers. However, the influence of the specific functional groups of ILs in IL@MOF composites on separation performance of MMMs still remains unclear. Herein, we designed three microenvironment-tuned IL@ZIF-8 composites in which the three ILs contain different functional groups (-CH3, –SO3H, and –NH2). Molecular simulation results showed that the NH2-IL@ZIF-8 has a commendable CO2 adsorption capacity and CO2/CH4 adsorptive selectivity, and the results were well confirmed by the following experimental data. More importantly, the prepared NH2-IL@ZIF-8 based MMMs also exhibit superior CO2 separation performance among the three IL@ZIF-8 based MMMs owning to its high CO2 affinity. Thus, this work can provide guidance for designing IL@MOF composites for MMMs fabrication towards gas separation, and the research mode combining molecular simulation prediction and experimental verification can afford valuable reference for material development in membrane separation field.

Metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes exhibit enormous potential for molecular mixtures’ sieving with high permeance, as well as high selectivity. Current MOF composite membranes suffer from unduly thick MOF layer and poor adhesion to the porous support. By a simple multiple seeded growth method, the ultrathin (less than 200 nm) and defect-free MOF layer is prepared on a ZIF-8 in-situ embedded PSf substrate. On the one hand, the nano-sized ZIF-8 crystals embedded on substrate surface act as anchors linking the ZIF-8 layer with the substrate. On the other hand, these ZIF-8 crystals also act as seeds to promote the formation of the ZIF-8 layer and reduce the crystallization time, leading to a thin and continuous ZIF-8 layer. The obtained ultrathin ZIF-8 membrane shows superior gas molecular sieving performance, with a high gas permeance of 24.5 × 10−7 mol/m2/s/Pa for H2 and selectivity of 4.5, 23.2, and 31.5 for H2/CO2, H2/N2, and H2/CH4, respectively. In addition, neither the permeance or the selectivity shows a noticeable change after 3% elongation, which indicates high mechanical integrity of the MOF layer on the ZIF-8 in-situ embedded PSf substrate. We believe that the utilization of MOF in-situ embedded polymer substrate offers a universal and simple strategy strengthening and thinning the MOF layer of its composite membranes.

The selective adsorption of ethane (C2H6) in the separation process of C2H6 and ethylene (C2H4) is of great importance for obtaining polymer-grade C2H4 in industry, yet it is still challenging task to develop suitable adsorbents with large adsorption capacity, high selectivity and excellent stability for efficient separation of C2H6/C2H4. Herein, carbazole-based covalent trazine frameworks (CTFs) prepared by ionothermal strategy are proposed for C2H6/C2H4 for the first time. By changing the preparation conditions, the obtained CTF-DCTC-500 shows defective ultramicropore structure while CTF-DCTC-400 does not. Compared with CTF-DCTC-400, the introduction of defective ultramicropore in CTF-DCTC-500 not only increases the adsorption capacity of C2H6, but also exhibits obviously C2H6/C2H4 separation behavior. Surprisingly, the adsorption selectivity of C2H6/C2H4 in CTF-DCTC-500 at 298 K and 1 bar is up to 2.08, exceeding all reported COF materials. To the best of our knowledge, this is first reported CTF material with preferential C2H6 adsorption over C2H4. Breakthrough experiments on CTF-DCTC-500 reveal that the polymer-grade C2H4 with 99.95 % purity can be directly obtained from the C2H6/C2H4 mixture in the practical application. Furthermore, CTF-DCTC-500 possesses the high chemical stability and excellent cycling stability and regeneration for C2H6/C2H4 separation, indicating it is a promising material for C2H6/C2H4 separation. This work not only provides a highly stable carbazole-based CTF with high C2H6/C2H4 separation selectivity, but also emphasizes the important role of defective ultramicropore structure on C2H6/C2H4 separation.

SAPHO syndrome is an inflammatory disease invading the skin and bones, whose diagnosis has been difficult due to its low incidence and diversified manifestation. We investigated the serum proteomic profile of SAPHO patients to identify key proteins associated with SAPHO syndrome, trying to find clinical biomarkers or functional molecules for this rare disease. Blood samples from 8 SAPHO patients and 8 healthy controls were detected and analyzed using data independent acquisition (DIA) method to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) specific to SAPHO. A total of 57 differentially expressed proteins were identified (p 0.05, fold change1.2), in which 27 proteins were upregulated and 30 downregulated. DEPs may participate in GO terms such as "lipid particle" and "Notch signaling pathway", as well as KEGG pathways including "complement and coagulation cascades" and "mTOR signaling pathway". The overexpression of inhibitors of the complement system (CFH and C4BP), were verified in a larger cohort (16 SAPHO patients, 8 AS patients and 24 healthy controls) with ELISA, and the combined diagnostic ability of CFH and C4BP was predicted by ROC curve with an AUC of 0.91, which may be molecular candidates for further study on diagnosis and pathology of this rare disease. SIGNIFICANCE: Our research provided the first insight into plasma proteomic profile for SAPHO patients，offering potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis. We found that inhibitors of complement system such as CFH and C4BP were up-regulated in SAPHO syndrome, which may play important roles in the pathogenesis of SAPHO syndrome.

Pore constructing in polyamide thin film composite (TFC) membranes through the mixed matrix strategy is of great interest to the production of nanofiltration membranes with high liquid permeance, however still facing challenges in fine control of filler distribution and filler-polymer interfacial microstructure. Herein, ZrT-1-NH2, one kind of water stable metal-organic polyhedron (MOP) molecular cages with intrinsic porosity, was exploited to construct porous MOP membranes through interfacial polymerization assembly for the first time. Continuous and defect-free separating layer can be facilely assembled on polymer ultrafiltration support by crosslinking ZrT-1-NH2 with trimesoyl chloride (TMC). The permanent pores inherited from ZrT-1-NH2 and the network pores originated from the mismatch in molecular volume of ZrT-1-NH2 and TMC offer the MOP membrane great water permeance (82.0 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1), as well as attractive dye rejection (99.7% for congo red) and dye/salt separation performance. Moreover, the ZrT-1-NH2/TMC composite membrane also exhibited good antifouling and antibacterial properties. The MOP membrane can well combine the developed porous structure of thin film nanocomposite membranes with the advantages of polyamide membranes in simplicity and scalability of membrane fabrication, showing good potential for application in practical molecular separations.

Based on extensive accumulated evidence and using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system, we have developed clinical practice guidelines for the use of acupuncture to treat low back pain (LBP). In the guidelines, we considered the objective and scope of this guide, the diagnostic criteria and syndrome differentiation standards of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine for LBP, the treatment principles of acupuncture, intervention opportunities for acupuncture, and recommendations for use of different acupuncture therapies for acute/subacute and chronic LBP.

MOF/polymer interface in mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) has been considered as a crucial issue for achieving highly efficient gas separation performance. In this research, aluminum fumarate framework (A520) based mixed matrix hydrogel self-supported membranes (A520-MMHMs) were prepared by a facile UV photopolymerization. The hydrophilic A520 incorporated into hydrogel polymer effectively avoided the formation of interfacial defects and improved the compatibility between MOF and hydrogel matrix. As a result, the A520-MMHM possessed enhanced CO2 permeability (∼432.87 Barrer) and CO2/CH4 selectivity (∼51.05) in comparison with pure hydrogel membrane. This performance data is very close to the updated McKeown 2019 upper bound, far exceeding the 2008 Robeson upper bound. Therefore, the design of hydrogel membrane incorporated with water-stable MOF may open up a new way for optimizing self-supported hydrogel membrane performance in gas separation.

Amino acids are important fermentation products that are used in the food, animal feed, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. Development of a better quantitation assay to measure amino acid levels will facilitate research and application in medical and industrial fields. Here we report the development of an assay that allows the rapid measurement of threonine concentration. l -threonine aldolase (LTA) catalyzes the cleavage of threonine to glycine and acetaldehyde. The resulting acetaldehyde is further converted into ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase accompanying NADH reduction. Therefore, monitoring the changes in NADH concentration can serve as a readout for the amount of threonine present within certain range. This LTA assay can distinguish a 0.5 mM difference in threonine concentration in some certain mediums. We successfully utilized this assay to measure l -threonine levels in industrial fermentation samples. Moreover, we were able to scale up this assay to 96-well format and use it in high-throughput screening of threonine-overproducing strains. We show this assay is simple, accurate, specific and suitable for determination of threonine concentration in large numbers of samples.

Objective To investigate the effects of Sini San and fluoxetine on the levels of central and peripheral 5-HT in a rat model of depression, and provide new insight into the treatment of depression with integrated Chinese-Western Medicine. Methods A rat model of depression was established by chronic mild stress (CMS). Model rats received either Sini San, fluoxetine, a combination of the two drugs, or no drug treatment. Healthy naive rats were used as controls. Open field and sucrose preference tests were used to assess depression-like behavior. ELISA and immunohistochemistry were used to determine central and peripheral levelsof 5-HT. Results In the group with no drug treatment, central 5-HT expression decreased while peripheral 5-HT concentrations increased as CMS continued. Four weeks after CMS, Sini San alone was less effective in reducing depression-like behavior than fluoxetine alone or in combination with Sini San, but combined use was more effective than fluoxetine alone. Eight weeks after CMS, Sini San alone or in combination with fluoxetine was more effective in reducing depression-like behavior than fluoxetine alone. Furthermore Sini San and fluoxetine used alone or in combination notably increased central 5-HT expression and decreased peripheral 5-HT levels in the rat model. Conclusion The results of the present study indicate that there is a synergistic action between the two medicines in the treatment of depression. Sini San exhibited a relatively long lag before its effects were observed; however, by eight weeks the Traditional Chinese Medicine appeared at least as effective as fluoxetine. We suggest that Sini San can replace fluoxetine in the later stages of depression treatment to minimize side effects observed with long-term fluoxetine administration.

In this study, luminescent Eu 3+ -doped fluorapatite (Eu 3+ :FA) was successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal process by using Na 2 EDTA/citric acid (CA) as the chelating agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence spectra (PL) were utilized to characterize the obtained nanoparticles. The results showed that Eu 3+ ions entered the FA lattice and occupied Ca 2+ sites, which resulted in a decrease in the values of the lattice parameters. The as-prepared luminescent samples exhibit sphere-like aggregates that are constructed of small nanospheres and that are well dispersed with a good size distribution. Upon excitation by UV radiation, the Eu 3+ :FA samples demonstrate the characteristic 5 D 0 – 7 F 1–2 emission lines of Eu 3+ . Finally, the influence of Na 2 EDTA/CA on the morphology of Eu 3+ :FA nanopowder was also discussed.

Luminescent lanthanide-doped hydroxyapatites (Eu:HA and Eu–La:HA) were successfully fabricated via the (cyclohexane/polyxyethylene (TX-100)/ n -butanol/water solution) microemulsion mediated hydrothermal process. The structure, morphology, and optical properties were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, respectively. The XRD results reveal that the obtained Eu:HA and Eu–La:HA nanoparticles also show the characteristic peaks of hydroxyapatite in a hexagonal lattice structure. It is observed that the as-prepared luminescent samples exhibit sphere-like morphology with well dispersed and non-aggregated size distribution. Upon excitation by UV radiation, the Eu:HA samples demonstrate the characteristic 5 D 0 – 7 F 1–4 emission lines of Eu 3+ . Moreover, the PL emission intensity of Eu 3+ can be tuned by importing La 3+ ions into the structure of europium-doped hydroxyapatite nanocrystals within some Eu 3+ :La 3+ doping contents, and altering the doping concentration of Eu 3+ .

Morphology controllable hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles were synthesized using reverse microemulsion (aqueous solution/TX-100/ n -butanol/cyclohexane) systems under hydrothermal conditions. The concentration of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) contained in the aqueous solution and pH value had significant effect on the morphology and crystal phases of the final products. All the as-synthesized HA nanoparticles had a larger a value but smaller c value compared with the standard values of the JCPDs card. The existence of CTAB could be attributed to the growth of HA along an axis, but inhibit the growth along the c -axis to some extent. A proposed model was established to explain the change of the lattice parameters.

Single-crystal hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanorods have been successfully synthesized by the reverse microemulsion method, and characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), infrared spectra (IR), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). In this work, the feasibility of using quaternary reverse microemulsion (TX-100 + CTAB/ n -butanol + n -hexanol/cyclohexane/water) to prepare hydroxyapatite nanorods with diameter 8–15 nm and length 25–50 nm, is described. The homogeneity in size and shape of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles observed by TEM is probably attributed to the different stabilization functions of different kinds of surfactant on the interfacial film.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by reverse microemulsion (aqueous solution/mixed TX-100 and Tween 80/mixed n-butanol and n-hexanol/cyclohexane) at room temperature. In comparison with HAP particles, prepared by conventional direct precipitation method, the reverse microemulsion route led to a significant improvement in the particle size and the degree of particle agglomeration. The effect of different hydrophile–lipophile balance (HLB) values on the particle size was also discussed.