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Exploring sensors based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) systems enables the continuous development of biological sensing technologies. Herein, we report the construction of a FRET sensor with dual-emissive quantum dots (QDs) and meso-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl) porphine (TSPP). The sensor is composed of mesial green-emissive QDs with a thick silica shell (gQD@SiO

Patients with acute liver injury (ALI) can develop cognitive dysfunction (CD). The study investigated the role of gut microbiota and cerebral metabolism in ALI mice with and without CD.Male C57BL/6 mice that received thioacetamide were classified into ALI mice with (susceptible) or without (unsusceptible) CD-like phenotypes by hierarchical cluster analysis of behavior. The role of gut microbiota was investigated by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and feces microbiota transplantation (FMT).Apromixlay 55% (11/20) of mice developed CD and FMT from the susceptible group transmitted CD to gut microbiota-depleted mice. Alloprevotella was enriched in the susceptible group. GABA production was decreased in the frontal cortex, while hippocampal glutamine was increased in the susceptible group. Altered Escherichia. Shigella and Alloprevotella were correlated with behaviors and cerebral metabolic kinetics and identified as good predictors of ALI-induced CD. The frequencies of both miniature inhibitory and excitatory postsynaptic currents in hippocampal CA1 and prefrontal cortex were decreased in the susceptible group.Altered transmitter metabolism and synaptic transmission in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex and gut microbiota disturbance may lead to ALI-induced CD.

To explore the influence of the laser repetition rate on the characteristics of laser-induced plasma, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the plasma generated from a copper alloy sample were compared when the laser repetition rate was varied from 1 to 20 Hz. The intensity and signal-to-back ratio (SBR) of atomic lines gradually increased with increasing laser repetition rate, reached the maximum at 10 Hz, and then decreased, whereas the intensity and SBR of ionic lines continually increased as the laser repetition rate increased. The morphology of the two-dimensional spatial distribution of the spectral line intensity changed from flat to elongate as the laser repetition rate increased. The plasma emission extended over a longer distance. The changes in the temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma temperature with the laser repetition rate were consistent with those of the ionic line intensity. The results indicate that a greater ablation amount of the sample material and a larger high-temperature region in the plasma were formed when the sample was ablated at a higher laser repetition rate. At this time, the heat accumulation in the sample and the confinement effect of the ablation crater on the plasma intensified the collision of particles inside the plasma, forming plasma with a higher degree of ionisation.

In this work, a versatile cellulose nanocrystal‑carbon dots (CNC-CDs) architecture is prepared and applied in environmental remediation and biological sensing. The citric acid (CA) is employed to extract CNCs and in-situ synthesize blue-emissive CDs. The carboxyl-rich surface of CNC-CDs enables the chelation of Hg

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional bowel disorder. Many systematic reviews/meta-analyses indicate that acupuncture and related therapies are effective for IBS. However, the robustness of the results in the systematic reviews and meta-analyses has not been evaluated. This scoping review aims to ascertain the credibility of current evidence of acupuncture therapy for IBS, to provide clinical research investigators with reliable information.Searches of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), and Wanfang Database since the establishment of the database to February 2022. Study selection and data extraction will be conducted by 2 reviewers, and the quality will be assessed by 2 trained reviewers. We will use Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR2) for methodological quality assessment, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for report quality assessment, Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation for the quality of evidence assessment, and the Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews for the bias assessment.The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.INPLASY202210117.This scoping review will provide comprehensive evidence of acupuncture for patients with irritable bowel syndrome.This scoping review does not require ethical approval as it is a secondary assessment of available literature.

In this study, a polyol ester from levulinic acid (LA) and trimethylolpropane (TMP) was synthesized by enzymatic catalysis in a solvent-free system. The total conversion of TMP reached up to 84% on average after lipase recycling for five times. The produced ester showed excellent lubrication properties, such as high viscosities at 40 &deg, C (86.53 mm2/s) and 100 &deg, C (8.91 mm2/s), a good viscosity index (49), a low pour point (&minus, 27 &deg, C), and a high flash point (223 &deg, C). The frictional wear behavior was evaluated on a four-ball test machine (FTM) by adding the ester into a reference mineral oil. The blend with 10% ester showed a smaller wear scar diameter (WSD) (0.62 mm) when compared with that of pure mineral oil (0.78 mm). The results demonstrated that the obtained ester has huge potential as biolubricant basestock.

Demand on the quick screening of gastric cancer (GC) has significantly stimulated the development of biomarker sensing techniques. Herein, we report the novel fluorescent paper-based analytical devices (PADs) for detections of GC-related microRNA-21 (miRNA-21) and circular RNA from Hippocampus Abundant Transcript 1 gene (circRNA-HIAT1) with prominent reliability and sensitivity. The PADs, constructed by in-situ synthesis of blue-emissive carbon dots (CDs) and conjugations of probe DNAs, exhibit the superior uniformity and stability. In the presence of targets, rolling circle amplifications (RCA) are triggered to generate long DNA strands for the assemblies of green-/red-emissive labels. Consequently, remarkable blue-to-green and blue-to-red emission color transitions of the PADs are achieved, implementing the color-analysis of miRNA-21 and circRNA-HIAT1, respectively. Benefited from the efficient RCA, coupled with the drastic ratiometric fluorescent changes, the limit of detections (LODs) of PADs are found to be several fM with the upper limit of the linear detection range at 1 nM. More importantly, the fluorescent PADs possess excellent specificity, as well as anti-interference capability in biological settings, enabling their applications in accurate GC screening with plasma samples. Overall, the proposed fluorescent PADs are featured with robust sensing platform, facile signal readout, and exceptional dual-type RNA sensing performance, holding high potential in point-of-care testing (POCT).

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) is an effective and prevailing tool for conserving wetlands globally, however, strong evidence indicates that not all PAs can deliver adequate conservation to wetland ecosystems due to the impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors. Many studies have used multiple indices to assess the conservation effectiveness of PAs, but those complicated indices are usually difficult to be employed at large-scale. Therefore, this study aims to develop a rapid assessment methodology for conservation effectiveness of wetland PAs across the Chinese mainland. We combined the area and pattern-based landscape indices (i.e., Landuse Dynamic Index and Fragmentation Dynamic Index) to measure wetland landscape changes between 1990 and 2008, based on which we constructed the Area-Pattern Quadrant Analysis (APQA) system to facilitate the conservation assessment of wetland national nature reserves. Four typical modes of landscape changes were generalized to reveal and compare the conservation effectiveness associated with their cause-effect drivers among 92 wetland national nature reserves within ten major river basins across the Chinese mainland. In addition, 210 subcatchments containing the reserves were also used as baselines to assess and discriminate the natural and human-induced effects on the performance of those reserves. The areal percentages among the four modes indicated that the wetland landscape changes were dominated by spatially heterogeneous drivers, and reserves showed relatively low conservation effectiveness, particularly in those densely populated and socioeconomically developed regions such as the Yangtze River Basin, the Yellow River Basin and the Pearl River Basin. Only 16 reserves were excellently rated in conservation effectiveness, in comparison with 31 reserves poorly rated due to greater anthropogenic encroachment. Our research demonstrated that APQA-based landscape assessment can be used as an easily-used early warning indicator to capture wetland landscape changes in relation to their underlying natural and anthropogenic drivers, and to provide knowledge-based management guidance by using standardized and rapid assessment techniques.

ICCD was one of the main instruments in the experimental system of Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). It was used to realize photoelectric conversion. Gain was the key parameter of ICCD, and the gain had a great influence on the acquisition of spectra. In this paper, the effect of ICCD gain on the intensity and Signal-to-Background Ratio (SBR) of the laser-induced alloy steel spectra has been investigated. Furthermore, the influence of ICCD gain on the detection sensitivity and detection of limit (LOD) of the trace elements (Mn, Cr)in alloy steel has also been studied. It is found that when the ICCD gain varies from 0 to 4000, both the spectral intensity and background increase with the gain, and the SBR of the spectra first shows a rapid growth trend with the increase of the gain. Then the curve of the SBR with the gain has a tendency of saturation. The internal standard method is used to quantitatively analyze the trace elements (Mn, Cr) in the alloy steel. The results have shown that the ICCD gain affects the detection sensitivity of the elements. With the increase of the gain, the LOD of the two elements is decreasing gradually. When the gain is greater than 2000, the LOD is stable at a certain value. Considering the results of spectral signal and quantitative analysis of the trace elements, the optimal ICCD gain can be set to 2000. The results of this paper will help to further optimize the parameters of the experimental system and improve the analysis performance of LIBS.

The composting of chicken manure and sawdust has been investigated in forced-aeration composting systems at aeration rates of 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 l min(-1)kg(-1) organic matter (OM), corresponding to pile A, pile B, and pile C. The temperature exceeding 55 degrees C in pile A and pile B remained more than three consecutive days, but only 2 days were above 55 degrees C in pile C. The final electrical conductivity (EC) did not exceed the limit content of 3000 micros cm(-1) in the three piles, and the cation exchange capacity (CEC) met the requirement maturity degree of over 60 c mol kg(-1). The OM loss contents in pile A, pile B, and pile C were 14%, 15.4%, and 12.8%, respectively, corresponding to the final C/N ratio of 17.1, 16.2, and 18.3. The final NH(4)(+)-N content in pile A did not meet the limit value of 400 mg kg(-1), respectively, and the NO(3)(-)-N was 1942, 2190, and 1638 mg kg(-1) in pile A, pile B, and pile C. The final germination index (GI) for pile A, pile B, and pile C was 90.2%, 95.2%, and 79.4%.

We examined physicochemical and biological parameters in order to assess their effectiveness as stability and maturity indicators during the forced-aeration composting process of chicken manure mixed with different amounts of sawdust, yielding initial C/N ratios of 12, 18 and 28. The composting mixture with initial C/N ratio of 28 maintained the temperature exceeding 55 °C for more than 3 d, but the period with temperature above 55 °C in the bottom layer of the composting mixtures with initial C/N ratios of 12 and 18 did not meet the requirement of pathogen destruction. The final electrical conductivity in three composting mixtures did not exceed the limit value of 3000 μS cm−1 for stable composts. Only the final NH 4 + - N of composting mixture with an initial C/N ratio of 28 did not exceed the limit value of 400 mg kg−1 to be considered a stable compost. The NO 3 - content in the three composting mixtures increased with the composting time, and a more pronounced increase was found in the composting mixture with an initial C/N ratio of 28. The final specific oxygen uptake rate was 2.38, 2.35, 0.70 mg h−1 g−1 organic matter for composting mixtures of initial C/N ratio of 12, 18 and 28, respectively, which suggested a higher stability in composting mixture of initial C/N ratio of 28. The final germination index in composting mixture of initial C/N ratio of 28 was 94%; however, the germination indices in the composting mixtures of initial C/N ratio of 12, 18 were never over 80%.