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Chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity is a common adverse effect of cancer treatment. No medication has been shown to be effective in the prevention or treatment of chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity. Using minoxidil as an initial template for structural modifications in conjunction with an in vitro neurite outgrowth assay, an image-based high-content screening platform, and mouse behavior models, an effective neuroprotective agent CN016 was discovered. Our results showed that CN016 could inhibit paclitaxel-induced inflammatory responses and infiltration of immune cells into sensory neurons significantly. Thus, the suppression of proinflammatory factors elucidates, in part, the mechanism of action of CN016 on alleviating paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy. Based on excellent efficacy in improving behavioral functions, high safety profiles (MTD500 mg/kg), and a large therapeutic window (MTD/MED50) in mice, CN016 might have great potential to become a peripherally neuroprotective agent to prevent neurotoxicity caused by chemotherapeutics as typified by paclitaxel.

A new high dimensional two-place Alice-Bob-Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (AB-KP) equation is proposed by applying the AB-BA and shifted-parity, delayed time reversal, charge conjugation (PsTdC) principle to the usual KP equation. Based on the dependent variable transformation, the bilinear form of the AB-KP system is constructed. Explicit trigonometric-hyperbolic, rational and rationalhyperbolic solutions are presented by taking advantage of the Hirota bilinear method. The obtained breather, lump and interaction solutions enrich the solution structure of nonlocal nonlinear systems. The three-dimensional graphs of these nonlinear wave solutions are demonstrated by choosing the specific parameters.

Plant growth promoting fungi are receiving increased attention as valuable beneficial microorganisms in crop cultivation due to their capacity to produce bioactive substances, promote plant growth and enhance immune defense functions. In this study, a novel Trichoderma isolate, designated as TM2-4, was screened from healthy tomato rhizosphere soil and identified as Trichoderma afroharzianum. Culture filtrate of the isolate TM2-4 displayed obvious bioactive substance production and an evident effect in promoting tomato seed germination, with hypocotyl length, radical length and vigor index increased by 28.7, 19.4 and 62.1%, respectively, after a 100-fold dilution treatment. To assess the promotion effect and related mechanism of isolate TM2-4, the plant biological indexes and gene expression profiles of tomato plants treated with or without T. afroharzianum TM2-4 microbial agent were investigated by greenhouse pot experiment and RNA sequencing. The results demonstrated that T. afroharzianum TM2-4 significantly promoted tomato plant growth in terms of plant height, dry weight, number of leaves per plant and root activity, through efficient colonization in the rhizosphere and root system of the plants. Transcriptome analyses identified a total of 984 differentially expressed genes in T. afroharzianum microbial agent inoculated tomato roots, which were mainly engaged in the biological process of phytohormone homeostasis, antioxidant activity, as well as metabolic pathways including phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and glutathione metabolism. These findings provide useful information for understanding the mechanism of isolate TM2-4 for tomato plant growth promotion, which would facilitate further development of T. afroharzianum TM2-4 microbial agent for use in vegetable crop production.

Diazinon (DAZ) is an organophosphorus pesticide (OP), which is commonly used to prevent and control harmful pests that endanger agricultural products. In this study, we developed a novel heterology coating strategy for the immunoassay of DAZ. The DAZ coating hapten can be directly conjugated to the carrier protein without requiring a spacer arm. This proposed hapten coating strategy is time-saving and significantly improves the sensitivity of the immunoassay due to the lack of a spacer arm. The as-synthesized coating antigen was used to screen the monoclonal antibody (mAb). Finally, the developed indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunoassay (icELISA) showed IC50 and limit of detection (LOD) values of 0.58 ng mL−1 and 8 pg mL−1, respectively. This method exhibited negligible cross-reactivity towards other analogues, and the recoveries of samples (cucumber, cabbage, and lettuce) ranged from 92.6% to 125.4%, with coefficients of variance (CV) below 12%. Good correlation between icELISA and high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was obtained. The proposed icELISA was an ideal tool for monitoring DAZ residues in food samples.

Considering that the kidneys segmentation challenge for image processing because of the gray level from abdominal computer tomography (CT) scans is a great similarity of adjacent organs, partial volume effects and so on, a novel multi-feature sparse constraints strategy is proposed to diagnose the benign and malignant renal tumors, which can improve the accuracy and reliability of segmentation. The weighted sparse measure is defined by introducing weights in the l1-norm of vectors. The weight is inversely proportional to the similarity between data, therefore the weighted l1-norm penalty on the linear representation coefficients tends to force similar data be involved while dissimilar data uninvolved in the linear representation of a datum. The resulted representation can overcome the drawbacks of l1-norm penalty that the presentation coefficients are usually over sparse and not robust for highly correlated data. Experimental results and objective assessment indexes show that the proposed method can effectively segment CT images with good visual consistency. In addition, the dice coefficients of renal and renal tumors were 0.933 and 0.854, respectively. In addition, our method can also be used for the diagnosis of renal tumors, and has also achieved good performance.

The excessive use of carbaryl has resulted in the risk of its exposure. In this study, we isolated six nanobodies (Nbs) from a camelid phage display library against the biomarker of carbaryl, 1-naphthol (1-NAP). Owing to its characteristics of easy genetic modifications, we produced a nanobody-alkaline phosphatase (Nb-CC4-ALP) fusion protein with good stability. A dual-emission system based ratiometric fluoroimmunoassay (RFIA) for quick and highly sensitive determination of 1-NAP was developed. Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) was used as an internal reference and for aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), while AuNCs could be quenched by MnO2 via oxidation. In the presence of ALP, ascorbic acid phosphate (AAP) can be transformed into ascorbic acid (AA), the later can etch MnO2 to recover the fluorescence of the AuNCs. Based on optimal conditions, the proposed assay showed 220-fold sensitivity improvement in comparison with conventional monoclonal antibody-based ELISA. The recovery test of urine samples and the validation by standard HPLC-FLD demonstrated the proposed assay was an ideal tool for screening 1-NAP and provided technical support for the monitoring of carbaryl exposure.

Carbamate pesticides (CPs) are the most used pesticides in agricultural production and pest control. In this study, carbofuran, isoprocarb and carbaryl were employed as models, and a general hapten strategy based on carbamate moiety recognition was proposed. Molecular modeling of the three-dimensional (3D) structure and surface electrostatic potential of the CPs indicated that the amide group formed by conjugation significantly influenced recognition by antibodies. The proposed strategy was used to obtain three sensitive and specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with IC50 values of 1.4 ng/mL, 8.4 ng/mL and 13.8 ng/mL for carbofuran, isoprocarb and carbaryl, respectively. Negligible cross-reactivity (%) with analogs was observed, except for fenobucarb (84.6%) for isoprocarb. The obtained antibodies were used to develop an immunochromatographic assay (ICA) to simultaneously and quantitatively detect the three CPs. A strip reader was used to determine the limits of quantitation (LOQs) as 0.05 ng/mL (carbofuran), 31.3 ng/mL (isoprocarb) and 31.3 ng/mL (carbaryl). The recoveries of cucumber and Chinese cabbage samples ranged from 76% to 111%, with CVs from 1.3% to 10.6%, indicating good potential for the rapid simultaneous detection of multiple pesticide residues in a large batch of samples.

To evaluate aesthetic outcomes in patients with bilateral trapezius hypertrophy treated by botulinum toxin type A (BTxA) injection for aesthetic reconstruction of the upper trapezius. From May 2015 to May 2016, 30 women with a short neck shape resulting from bilateral trapezius hypertrophy were treated with botulinum toxin type A (BTxA) injection at the most affected area of the upper trapezius. Pre- and postoperative values of SACDF (irregularly shaped area of the four points A, C, D, and F) and SACDE (irregularly shaped area of the four points A, C, D, and E), responses to patients’ and doctors’ Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS) questionnaires for neck aesthetic assessment, as well as reported adverse events, were recorded and analyzed. Duration of follow-up ranged from 4 to 12 months. Subjects experienced non-severe adverse events and complete recovery after a single BTxA injection. In patients’ GAIS questionnaires, “very much improved” accounted for 53%, “much improved” accounted for 13%, and “improved” accounted for 27%. In doctors’ GAIS questionnaires, “very much improved” accounted for 27%, “much improved” accounted for 33%, “improved” accounted for 33%, and “no change” accounted for 7%. The overall degree of improvement was high. Statistically significant differences were observed with respect to the “very much improved” response to GAIS questionnaires between patients and doctors (P = 0.035). A single injection of BTxA for aesthetic reconstruction of the upper trapezius is safe and effective in patients with bilateral trapezius hypertrophy. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Four kinds of antifungal compounds from an extract of Paenibacillus polymyxa A21 with molecular masses of 883.56, 897.59, 947.55, and 961.58 Da were characterized as the members of fusaricidin-type of antibiotics according to LC-MS analysis. Fusaricidins isolated from culture filtrate displayed high antagonistic activity against several plant fungal pathogens, especially Botrytis cinerea, the causal agent of gray mold. The fusaricidins biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) from A21 was cloned by PCR and comparative cluster analysis revealed that gene fusTE, the 3′ boundary of the fusaricidin BGC in strain PKB1, was not present in fusaricidin BGC of A21, indicating that fusTE is not necessary for fusaricidin synthesis. Fusaricidin extract from A21 significantly reduced gray mold disease incidence and severity on tomato. The mRNA levels for three patho-genesis-related proteins (PRs) revealed that treatment of tomato leaves with fusaricidin extract induced the expression of PR genes to different levels, suggesting that one reason for the reduction of gray mold infection by fusaricidin is induction of PR proteins, which lead to increased resistance to pathogens. This is the first report of the application of fusaricidins to control tomato gray mold and the comparative cluster analysis provides important molecular basis for research on fusaricidin biosynthesis.

Chromosome aberration is associated with infertility and isochromosome is a rare chromosomal abnormality potentially associated with infertility or multiple miscarriages. Here we report a man of 29-yr-old diagnosed of infertility from China with rare isochromosome. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were obtained for chromosome G banding karyotyping. Hormones and other tests were performed. The semen analysis revealed Azoospermia. Complementary isochromosome of 46, XY, i(5)(p10),i(5)(q10) was identified. This is the first report of Complementary isochromosome of 46, XY, i(5)(p10),i(5)(q10).

We developed neutral iridium catalysts with chiral spiro phosphine-carboxy ligands (SpiroCAP) for asymmetric hydrogenation of unsaturated carboxylic acids. Different from the cationic Crabtree-type catalysts, the iridium catalysts with chiral spiro phosphine-carboxy ligands are neutral and do not require the use of a tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate (BArF-) counterion, which is necessary for stabilizing cationic Crabtree-type catalysts. Another advantage of the neutral iridium catalysts is that they have high stability and have a long lifetime in air. The new iridium catalysts with chiral spiro phosphine-carboxy ligands exhibit unprecedented high enantioselectivity (up to 99.4% ee) in the asymmetric hydrogenations of various unsaturated carboxylic acids, particularly for 3-alkyl-3-methylenepropionic acids, which are challenging substrates for other chiral catalysts.

This study aimed to analyze the clinical manifestations of patients with pyogenic liver abscess and characteristics of pathogenic that caused their infections, in order to provide guidance for the identification of the pathogens that cause liver abscess and selection of antibiotics for treatment of this disease. In the present study, the clinical characteristics, laboratory results, as well as the species and drug resistance of pathogens in patients with bacterial liver abscesses admitted to our hospital from January 2013 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were treated by ultrasound or CT-guided percutaneous portal vein catheterization and drainage combined with intravenous infusion of antibiotics (the third-generation cephalosporins, the coformulation of carbapenem and dehydropeptidase-I inhibitors, or the coformulation of tazobactam and piperacillin). A total of 178 patients were diagnosed with liver abscess by B ultrasound or CT. The abscesses mostly occurred in elderly male patients and patients with diabetes mellitus. The major clinical and hematological features were fever (163/178, 91.2%), single focal abscess (146/178, 82.0%), elevated white blood cell count, and percentage of neutrophils (136/178, 76.4%). A total of 102 nonrepetitive strains of bacteria were isolated, including Klebsiella pneumoniae (82 strains, 80.3%), Escherichia coli (8 strains), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2 strains), Acinetobacter baumannii (1 strain), and Gram-positive cocci (9 strains). Susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs was determined by analyzing the minimum inhibitory concentration, and among the 8 cultured E coli strains, 5 strains that could produce extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBLs) were among the most commonly seen nosocomial infections. In the present study, bacterial liver abscesses were mostly community-acquired, and K pneumoniae was highly susceptive to the commonly used antibiotics. Five patients had poor outcomes due to infectious shock or the accompanying liver cancer. In other patients, after treatment, the body temperature and the inflammatory indices, such as the total white blood cell count and C-reactive protein, returned to normal levels, and the area of abscess decreased. Most of the bacterial liver abscesses were caused by K pneumoniae, in which only a few strains exhibited resistance to the commonly used antibiotics. The use of ultrasound- or CT-guided percutaneous drainage combined with antibiotics was an appropriate way to treat the liver abscesses of these patients.

The chiral tridentate spiro P-N-S ligands (SpiroSAP) were developed, and their iridium complexes were prepared. Introduction of a 1,3-dithiane moiety into the ligand resulted in a highly efficient chiral iridium catalyst for asymmetric hydrogenation of β-alkyl-β-ketoesters, producing chiral β-alkyl-β-hydroxyesters with excellent enantioselectivities (95-99.9% ee) and turnover numbers of up to 355,000.

Axillary osmidrosis results in social and psychological problems. Liposuction-assisted techniques used as treatments have been reported to have high recurrence rates. This study aims at introducing the aggressive suction–curettage technique in comparison to the open excision procedure. From February 2009 to February 2014, 130 patients were randomly divided into two groups (experimental and control groups). The experimental group was treated with aggressive suction–curettage, while the control group was treated with an open excision. Postoperative assessment (skin necrosis, hematoma, scars and malodour recurrence) and patient satisfaction were surveyed and analyzed. A lower necrosis rate was observed in patients who received aggressive suction–curettage (1.88 %, p

The present study aimed to investigate the role of microRNA-96 (miR-96) in the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of bladder cancer cell lines, and the associated mechanisms. The expression of miR-96 and human ether-à-go-go-related (HERG1) potassium channel in the normal uroepithelium SV-HUC-1 cell line, and bladder cancer T24 and 5637 cell lines were examined using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or/and western blotting. Transfection with miR-96 inhibitor or scrambled control (SC) was used to study the biological activities of miR-96 in bladder cancer cell lines. MTT, flow cytometric and Transwell assays were applied to detect cell viability, apoptosis and invasion, respectively. A dual-luciferase reporter assay was applied to determine the association between miR-96 and HERG1 expression. As demonstrated, miR-96 was highly expressed in the two bladder cancer cell lines, particularly in T24 cells. Following transfection with miR-96 inhibitor, miR-96 expression was significantly reduced in the T24 cell line, compared with SC. The miR-96 inhibitor suppressed cell proliferation and invasion, promoted apoptosis and arrested the cell cycle at the G1 phase. Consistently, HERG1 was also highly expressed in the two bladder cancer cell lines at the mRNA and protein level, but not in the normal uroepithelium cell line. The miR-96 inhibitor also significantly decreased HERG1 expression compared with SC. The results of the dual-luciferase reporter assay indicated that miR-96 directly targeted wild-type HERG1. In conclusion, miR-96 inhibitor exhibited anticancer effects on bladder cancer cells by inhibiting proliferation and invasion of cells, and promoting their apoptosis. HERG1 was an important target of miR-96. These results provided experimental evidence supporting miR-96 as a therapeutic target for patients with bladder cancer.

This paper, after excluding the impact of structural factors, studes the relationship between macroeconomic variables and bank credit risk by using the concept of cointegration time series. It finds that the co-integration between time of loans issuance and economic cycle does not exist. The economic cycle has a significant impact to the level of non-performing loans in point, and the co-integration relationship between the two is obvious. Credit scale has a significant long-run equilibrium relationship with economic cycle.

How to build a data warehouse and data mining is constantly worth exploring and optimization, not only technically, in commercial applications as well. This article discusses the introduction of new technologies and concepts, the traditional method of data warehouse technology has changed dramatically, based on data warehouse applications are a new development. Each enterprise data warehouse based on the characteristics of different companies, you can use a very flexible method of selection and design selection, implementation. According to some relatively new technical features, talk about data warehousing and data mining architecture.

In this paper, the research based on decision tree-based methods can be customized to achieve a common data analysis system for animal husbandry intelligent decision support, conducted the following study: First, detail the current data mining techniques and animal husbandry areas where the decision tree method for various applications, purpose, content and methods. Secondly, the theoretical basis of the data mining system, basic theory and the theory of decision tree methods of animal husbandry intelligent decision system, which constitute the theoretical basis of the study. Third, given the detailed design of common animal husbandry intelligent decision system based decision tree method. Detailed descript of the specific work processes and systems function modules of the system on the line division. To complete the design of the database based on the completion of the system design.

in this paper, a typical freight business as the demand for logistics management platform prototype platform for logistics management platform designed and constructed is discussed. The logistics industry, according to the characteristics of the wholesale business model design, describes the order of picking the railway transport program characteristics of the optimal solution, combining the best features of the program picking order processing algorithm design. By systematic analysis determine system development program, and the development of logistics management platform, the combination of theory and practice.

Stress is the primary cause of strain and health problems for occupational drivers whose jobs directly relate to public safety. Although several stress theories and scales have been proposed, the method of adequately measuring the stress of occupational drivers remains unclear. We investigated the reliability and validity of the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model and the generic 23-item ERI scale and its association to strain and health problems in occupational drivers. A total of 927 Taiwanese public transport drivers were recruited. Parallel confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were applied to evaluate the validity of the ERI components. Their association with burnout levels, cardiovascular disease (CVD) symptoms, and self-rated health was examined using regression methods. The CFA results showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the ERI components. Physical demands, overtime, and stress-induced sleep problems were the primary stressors in occupational drivers. The regression results showed that an imbalance between effort and reward and overcommitment levels were strong and independent predictors of strain and health outcomes. We extend the application of the ERI model to measure the stress of Taiwanese public transport drivers; its correlation with strain and health outcomes shows that the ERI scale is a reliable tool for identifying strained or unhealthy drivers.

Managing the health and wellness of occupational drivers requires the recognition of burnout as an occupational hazard. However, the literature is dominated by studies of stress rather than burnout. The manner in which burnout may affect accident involvement is investigated in occupational drivers. The proposed causal structure is based on the stressor–strain model, in which burnout mediates between occupational stress and accident involvement. The study recruited 915 public transport drivers. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory and an effort–reward imbalance scale were adopted to measure burnout and occupational stress, respectively. Results of the analysis indicated that burnout exerted a direct effect on accident involvement beyond the effect of occupational stress. Enhancing the perception of a safety culture does not significantly reduce the effect of occupational stress on burnout; however, it does significantly reduce the effect of burnout on accident involvement and thus indirectly alleviates the effect of occupational stress on accident involvement. In summary, as a comprehensive measure of the adverse effect of various types of chronic stressors, burnout provides a strong indicator for the identification of drivers who pose a risk to the organization and to road safety. Burnout management should be incorporated into overall stress management. Occupational drivers normally experience a low level of empowerment and long work hours; thus, a safety culture is crucial to this occupational category to reduce burnout and ensure workplace safety.

The Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins is widely used for production of value-added bulk and fine chemicals. The iridium catalysts with chiral spiro phosphine-oxazoline ligands developed in our group show high activity and high enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of olefins bearing a coordinative carboxyl group, such as α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids, β,γ-unsaturated carboxylic acids, and γ,δ-unsaturated carboxylic acids. Here we conducted detailed mechanistic studies on these Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation reactions by using (E)-2-methyl-3-phenylacrylic acid as a model substrate. We isolated and characterized several key intermediates having Ir-H bonds under the real hydrogenation conditions. Particularly, an Ir(III) migratory insertion intermediate was first isolated in an asymmetric hydrogenation reaction promoted by chiral Ir catalysts. That this intermediate cannot undergo reductive elimination in the absence of hydrogen strongly supports the involvement of an Ir(III)/Ir(V) cycle in the hydrogenation. On the basis of the structure of the Ir(III) intermediate, variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations, we elucidated the mechanistic details of the Ir-catalyzed hydrogenation of unsaturated carboxylic acids and explained the enantioselectivity of the reactions. These findings experimentally and computationally elucidate the mechanism of Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins with a strong coordinative carboxyl group and will likely inspire further catalyst design.

Objective To explore the myoblast formation around the urethra and increase in urethral resistance of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells or muscle-like cells/calcium alginate composite gel injection therapy and effect on LPP in SUI rat model. Methods Isolation, cultivation, and identification of SD rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell were performed. 5-Azacytidine was introduced to induce muscle-like cells. SUI was produced in 72 6-week-old female Sprague–Dawley rats, which were divided into four groups: stem cell-gel group, muscle-like cell-gel group, Gel group, and mock control group. One, 4, and 8 weeks after injection, the leak point pressure (LPP) was measured. HE staining of Desmin and α-skeletal muscle actin (α-SMA) were performed. Results At 4 and 8 weeks after injection in stem cell-gel group and muscle-like cell-gel group, growth of blood vessels gradually increased at gel edge, BMSC, and muscle-like cells gathered around the new blood vessels observed by fluorescence tracer, muscle-like cells grew into elongated spindle-like cells, Desmin, and α-SMA staining were obviously positive expression. LPP determinations of the mock control group compared with the Gel groups were significantly different. Conclusions Compound of BMSC, muscle-like cells, and calcium alginate composite gel has the potential to differentiate into muscle cells in the microenvironment of SUI rat model. It is found by LPP measurement that the correlation between the increase in urethral resistance and the volume effect of calcium alginate gel is high. Neurourol. Urodynam. 32: 281–286, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The interaction of pinacyanol chloride (PC) with nucleic acids has been investigated by a series of experiments. Extensive hypochromism, appreciable peak shifts, isosbestic points and new peaks of the product of binding to nucleic acids in the spectra were observed. They showed that the interaction between PC and nucleic adds occurred. The results from absorption spectra of DNA, DNA melting, electrophoresis and fluorescence polarization studies have indicated that PC binds to DNA in nonintercalative way. Consistent with the nonintercalation, the studies of fluorescence titration and absorption titration specified that the binding of PC to nucleic acids occurred by an outside stacking binding, in which nucleic acids served for acting templates. The fact that the new absorption peaks of bound PC at ca. 485 nm are just close to the absorption bands of H-aggregate of PC at high concentrations without DNA further supports the outside stacking binding mode. In addition, other evidence indicated that the interaction between PC and nucleic acids is not purely electrostatic.

The chiral tridentate spiro P-N-S ligands (SpiroSAP) were developed, and their iridium complexes were prepared. Introduction of a 1,3-dithiane moiety into the ligand resulted in a highly efficient chiral iridium catalyst for asymmetric hydrogenation of β-alkyl-β-ketoesters, producing chiral β-alkyl-β-hydroxyesters with excellent enantioselectivities (95-99.9% ee) and turnover numbers of up to 355,000.

The silica-based poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic enzymatic reactor was reported along with its analytical features in coupling with MALDI TOF and ESI MS. Microfluidic chip was fabricated using PDMS casting and O2-plasma techniques, and used for the preparation of enzymatic reactor. Plasma oxidation for PDMS enabled the channel wall of microfluidics to present a layer of silanol (SiOH) groups. These SiOH groups as anchors onto the microchannel wall were linked covalently with the hydroxy groups of trypsin-encapsulated sol matrix. As a result, the leakage of sol-gel matrix from the microchannel was effectively prevented. On-line protein analysis was performed with the microfluidic enzymatic reactor by attachment of stainless steel tubing electrode and replaceable tip. The success of trypsin encapsulation was investigated by capillary electrophoresis (CE) detection, and MALDI TOF and ESI MS analysis. The lab-made device provided excellent extent of digestion even at the fast flow rate of 7.0 (L/min with very short residence time of ca. 2 s. In addition, the encapsulated trypsin exhibits increased stability even after continuous use. These features are the most requisite for high-throughput protein identification.

The reaction between quinaldine red (QR) and nucleic acids was studied. The free QR alone has no fluorescence in solution. However, it becomes fluorescent after binding to nucleic acids, giving maximum emission at 607 nm with maximum excitation at 557 nm. Maximum fluorescence intensity is produced in the pH range of 3.2–3.6. Based on the fluorescent reactions, a novel fluorometric method was developed for rapid determination of nucleic acids using QR as the fluorescent probe. Under optimal conditions, the calibration graphs were linear in the range of 0–30.0 µg mL−1 for CT DNA and 0–20.0 µg mL−1 for yeast RNA. The limits of detection were 38 ng mL−1 for CT DNA and 142 ng mL−1 for yeast RNA. Four synthetic samples were determined with satisfaction.

The non-covalent binding of the cationic reagent lucigenin to DNA has been investigated by spectroscopic methods. Results from absorption, circular dichroism, and fluorescence studies revealed that lucigenin could intercalate into the helix of DNA. Polarization and melting studies provided further evidence of the intercalation binding of lucigenin with DNA. The binding constant was obtained by varying the DNA concentration while keeping the concentration of lucigenin constant. It was of the order of 10(4) mol(-1) L in DNA base pairs. The experiment also showed that electrostatic interaction played a significant role in the intercalation of lucigenin with DNA. It is suggested that lucigenin can be intercalated into the interior of the DNA double helix because it is initially attracted by the anionic DNA. This research offers a new intercalation functional group for DNA-targeted drug design.

In this paper, the noncovalent binding of the cationic reagent lucigenin (LC) to DNA was investigated using spectroscopic methods. The results from absorption, circular dichroism and fluorescence studies demonstrated that LC could intercalate into the helix of DNA. Polarization and melting studies further supported the intercalation binding of LC with DNA. The binding constant was obtained by varying the DNA concentration, while keeping the concentration of LC constant. It was of the order of 104 mol−1 L in DNA base pairs. The experiment also showed that electrostatic interaction played a significant role in the intercalation of LC with DNA. It is supposed to be because of being attracted first by anionic DNA that LC can be intercalated into the interior of the DNA double helix. This research offers a new intercalation functional group to DNA-targeted drug design.

This study examined the effects of online procedural scaffolds (in the form of generic question-stems with context-specific examples) and the timing of scaffolding provision (immediate versus delayed) on supporting the online student question-generation learning process in a science class. A total of 78 fifth-grade Taiwanese students participated in eight online question-generation sessions. An online learning system equipped with a customizable scaffolding design in terms of content and timing of access was used. The results of ANOVAs on the students' week-by-week question-generation performance showed the immediate positive effects of immediate procedural scaffolding. However, the delayed procedural scaffolds group did not statistically distinguish themselves from the no-scaffolds group in any of the eight question-generation performances, nor did the delayed approach engender productive failure, as postulated by some researchers. The significance of this study is discussed, along with suggestions for related instructional implementations, online systems and future research.

We obtain the Lipschitz boundedness for a class of fractional multilinear operators with rough kernels on variable exponent Lebesgue spaces. Our results generalize the related conclusions on Lebesgue spaces with constant exponent.

To explore the myoblast formation around the urethra and increase in urethral resistance of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells or muscle-like cells/calcium alginate composite gel injection therapy and effect on LPP in SUI rat model.Isolation, cultivation, and identification of SD rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell were performed. 5-Azacytidine was introduced to induce muscle-like cells. SUI was produced in 72 6-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats, which were divided into four groups: stem cell-gel group, muscle-like cell-gel group, Gel group, and mock control group. One, 4, and 8 weeks after injection, the leak point pressure (LPP) was measured. HE staining of Desmin and α-skeletal muscle actin (α-SMA) were performed.At 4 and 8 weeks after injection in stem cell-gel group and muscle-like cell-gel group, growth of blood vessels gradually increased at gel edge, BMSC, and muscle-like cells gathered around the new blood vessels observed by fluorescence tracer, muscle-like cells grew into elongated spindle-like cells, Desmin, and α-SMA staining were obviously positive expression. LPP determinations of the mock control group compared with the Gel groups were significantly different.Compound of BMSC, muscle-like cells, and calcium alginate composite gel has the potential to differentiate into muscle cells in the microenvironment of SUI rat model. It is found by LPP measurement that the correlation between the increase in urethral resistance and the volume effect of calcium alginate gel is high.