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Objective: To explore experiences of Chinese nurses who study for Master of Science in Professional Practice (health care) in the United Kingdom. Methods: A qualitative approach was applied, consisting of semi-structured telephone interviews (n = 8). The Colaizzi seven-step framework analysis method was used to extract themes. Results: The themes that emerged are as follows: (1) gains from studying overseas, (2) difficulties during studying, and (3) impacts of learning experience on work. The gains for nurses studying overseas include the improvement of scientific research capabilities, reconstruction of critical thinking, and development of reflection ability. Difficulties while studying mainly include language barrier, strict assessment, and boring life. Conclusions: The education of nursing postgraduate attaches importance to the cultivation of thinking. Nurses are very interested in nursing research including qualitative and quantitative methods. Nurses encountered language barriers in their study and life even though they knew a certain level of English.

Apple bud sports offer a rich resource for clonal selection of numerous elite cultivars. The accumulation of somatic mutations as plants develop may potentially impact the emergence of bud sports. Previous studies focused on somatic mutation in the essential genes associated with bud sports. However, the rate and function of genome-wide somatic mutations that accumulate when a bud sport arises remain unclear. In this study, we identified a branch from a 10-year-old tree of the apple cultivar 'Oregon Spur II' as a bud sport. The mutant branch showed reduced red coloration on fruit skin. Using this plant material, we assembled a high-quality haplotype reference genome consisting of 649.61 Mb sequences with a contig N50 value of 2.04 Mb. We then estimated the somatic mutation rate of the apple tree to be 4.56 × 10

The number of elderly individuals with diabetes is dramatically increasing. Diabetes is a long-term condition and a noncommunicable disease and requires intensive daily self-management. Understanding of self-management from the patients' perspectives is important to nurses, healthcare providers, and researchers and benefits people by improving their self-management skills.To examine and synthesize qualitative studies that explore the experiences of elderly people in self-managing diabetes.Electronic databases were searched, including MEDLINE, CINAH, PsycINFO, PubMed, CNKI, and WANFADATA. Relevant research was identified by manually searching reference lists and gray literature. Only English and Chinese publications were included. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program was used to assess the quality of the research. The Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research approach was used to assess the confidence of the findings.A total of 10 qualitative studies were included, and content analysis was performed. Five themes were identified: The need for knowledge about diabetes care, support systems, functional decline, attitudes toward diabetes, and healthy lifestyle challenges.This present review provides a deep and broad understanding of the experiences in the self-management of diabetes and can be valuable to nursing practice and provide recommendations for future research.

Acylation has become one of the most widely used methods to improve the lipid solubility and bioavailability of flavonoids. In this study, puerarin acid esters (PAES) with different chain lengths were synthesized via biocatalytic acylation. This was the first study to evaluate the digestion and transport profiles and immunocompetence of PAES. The relationship between the digestion and transport profiles and potential immunocompetence of the acylated derivatives in Caco-2 cell monolayers was also explored. Puerarin and PAES remained stable in gastric phases, whereas different degrees of hydrolysis of PAES were found in the intestine. PAES with less than 12 carbon chains were positively correlated with the degree of hydrolysis, while those with more than 12 carbon chains showed higher resistance to hydrolysis by the artificial human digestive juice. The apparent permeability coefficients of puerarin, puerarin acetate, puerarin propanoate, puerarin butyrate, puerarin hexanoate, puerarin octanate and puerarin laurate were 1.62 ± 0.09, 1.70 ± 0.15, 1.89 ± 0.19, 1.86 ± 0.18, 2.29 ± 0.12, 4.06 ± 1.01 and 2.32 ± 0.88 × 10-6 cm s-1, respectively, in Caco-2 cell monolayers. The results of the immune factor assays indicated that puerarin propanoate, puerarin hexanoate and puerarin myristate could significantly promote the secretion of IL-6, TNF-α and IL-10. These findings suggested that a better absorption could be predicted after oral intake using PAES. Meanwhile, the concentration of esters and their metabolites (puerarin) found in the digestion and transport profiles directly affected their potential immunocompetence.

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is on the rise worldwide. Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) have enabled many critically ill newborns to survive. When a premature baby is admitted to the NICU, the mother–infant relationship may be interrupted, affecting the mother's mental health. AIM To examine the maternal emotions associated with having a child in the NICU and provide suggestions for clinical practice. METHODS MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychARTICLES, and PsychINFO were searched for relevant articles between 2005 to 2019, and six qualitative articles were chosen that explored the experiences of mothers who had a preterm infant in the NICU. The thematic analysis method was used to identify the most common themes. RESULTS Four main themes of the experience of mothers who had a preterm infant in the NICU were identified: Negative emotional impacts on the mother, support, barriers to parenting, and establishment of a loving relationship. CONCLUSION NICU environment is not conducive to mother-child bonding, but we stipulate steps that health care professionals can take to reduce the negative emotional toll on mothers of NICU babies.

Protein-based Pickering emulsions have received considerable attention as nutraceutical vehicles. However, the oral bioavailability of nutraceuticals encapsulated in Pickering emulsions was not well established. In this work, a simulated gastrointestinal tract/Caco-2 cell culture model was applied to investigate the oral bioavailability of quercetin encapsulated in zein-based Pickering emulsions with quercetin in zein particles as the control. Pickering emulsions with shell (ZCP-QE) and core quercetin (ZCPE-Q) were constructed, and quercetin bioaccessibility, cell uptake and secretion, and the overall bioavailability were evaluated and compared. The overall oral bioavailability of quercetin was increased from 2.71% (bulk oil) to 38.18% (ZCPs-Q) and 18.97% (ZCPE-Q), particularly reached 41.22% for ZCP-QE. This work took new insights into the contributions of bioaccessibility and absorption (cell uptake plus secretion) to the overall oral bioavailability of quercetin. A schematic representation is proposed to relate the types of colloidal nanostructures in the digesta to the uptake, cell absorption, and overall oral bioavailability of quercetin. This study provided an attractive basis for identifying effective strategies to improve the oral bioavailability of hydrophobic nutraceuticals.

Glycine receptor is one of the chloride-permeable ion channels composed of combinations of four α subunits and one β subunit. In adult spinal cord, the glycine receptor α1 subunit is crucial for the generation of inhibitory neurotransmission. The reduced glycinergic inhibition is regarded as one of the key spinal mechanisms underlying pathological pain symptoms. However, the expression and function of glycine receptors in the peripheral system are largely unknown as yet. Here we found that glycine receptor α1 subunit was prevalent in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons as well as in the sciatic nerves of adult mice. Intraganglionar or intraplantar injection of glycine receptor antagonist strychnine caused the hypersensitivity to mechanical, thermal and cold stimuli, suggesting the functional importance of peripheral glycine receptors in the control of nociceptive signal transmission. Our data showed that peripheral inflammation induced by formalin decreased the expression of glycine receptor α1 subunit on the plasma membrane of DRG neurons, which was attributed to the activation of protein kinase C signaling. Intraplantar application of glycine receptor agonist glycine or positive modulator divalent zinc ion alleviated the first-phase painful behaviors induced by formalin. These data suggested that peripheral glycine receptor might serve as an effective target for pain therapy.

N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors (NMDARs) containing GluN2B subunits are prevalent early after birth in most brain regions in rodents. Upon synapse maturation, GluN2B is progressively removed from synapses, which affects NMDAR function and synaptic plasticity. Aberrant recruitment of GluN2B into mature synapses has been implicated in several neuropathologies that afflict adults. We found that the E3 ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b was enriched in the spinal cord dorsal horn neurons of mice and rats and suppressed GluN2B abundance during development and inflammatory pain. Cbl-b abundance increased from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P14, a critical time period for synapse maturation. Through its N-terminal tyrosine kinase binding domain, Cbl-b interacted with GluN2B. Ubiquitination of GluN2B by Cbl-b decreased the synaptic transmission mediated by GluN2B-containing NMDARs. Knocking down Cbl-b in vivo during P1 to P14 led to sustained retention of GluN2B at dorsal horn synapses, suggesting that Cbl-b limits the synaptic abundance of GluN2B in adult mice. However, peripheral inflammation induced by intraplantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant resulted in the dephosphorylation of Cbl-b at Tyr363, which impaired its binding to and ubiquitylation of GluN2B, enabling the reappearance of GluN2B-containing NMDARs at synapses. Expression of a phosphomimic Cbl-b mutant in the dorsal horn suppressed both GluN2B-mediated synaptic currents and manifestations of pain induced by inflammation. The findings indicate a ubiquitin-mediated developmental switch in NMDAR subunit composition that is dysregulated by inflammation, which can enhance nociception.

Glycine receptor α1

The K+-Cl- co-transporter 2 (KCC2) is a neuron-specific Cl- extruder in the dorsal horn of spinal cord. The low intracellular Cl- concentration established by KCC2 is critical for GABAergic and glycinergic systems to generate synaptic inhibition. Peripheral nerve lesions have been shown to cause KCC2 dysfunction in adult spinal cord through brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling, which switches the hyperpolarizing inhibitory transmission to be depolarizing and excitatory. However, the mechanisms by which BDNF impairs KCC2 function remain to be elucidated. Here we found that BDNF treatment enhanced KCC2 ubiquitination in the dorsal horn of adult mice, a post-translational modification that leads to KCC2 degradation. Our data showed that spinal BDNF application promoted KCC2 interaction with Casitas B-lineage lymphoma b (Cbl-b), one of the E3 ubiquitin ligases that are involved in the spinal processing of nociceptive information. Knockdown of Cbl-b expression decreased KCC2 ubiquitination level and attenuated the pain hypersensitivity induced by BDNF. Spared nerve injury significantly increased KCC2 ubiquitination, which could be reversed by inhibition of TrkB receptor. Our data implicated that KCC2 was one of the important pain-related substrates of Cbl-b and that ubiquitin modification contributed to BDNF-induced KCC2 hypofunction in the spinal cord.

Objectives: This study examined the efficacy of the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition–Chinese version (GPCOG-C) in screening dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among older Chinese. Methods: Survey questionnaires were administered to 293 participants aged 80 or above from a university hospital in mainland China. Alzheimer disease and MCI were diagnosed in light of the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association (NIA/AA) criteria. The sensitivity and specificity of GPCOG-C and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in screening dementia and MCI were compared to the NIA/AA criteria. Results: The GPCOG-C had the sensitivity of 62.3% and specificity of 84.6% in screening MCI, which had comparable efficacy as the NIA/AA criteria. In screening dementia, GPCOG-C had a lower sensitivity (63.7%) than the MMSE and a higher specificity (82.6%) higher than the MMSE. Conclusions: The GPCOG-C is a useful and efficient tool to identify dementia and MCI in older Chinese in outpatient clinical settings.

In this paper, we report a facile method to successfully fabricate MnO2 nanoflowers loaded onto 3D RGO@nickel foam, showing enhanced biosensing activity due to the improved structural integration of different electrode materials components. When the as-prepared 3D hybrid electrodes were investigated as a binder-free biosensor, two well-defined and separate differential pulse voltammetric peaks for ractopamine (RAC) and salbutamol (SAL) were observed, indicating the simultaneous selective detection of both β-agonists possible. The MnO2/RGO@NF sensor also demonstrated a linear relationship over a wide concentration range of 17 nM to 962 nM (R=0.9997) for RAC and 42 nM to 1463 nM (R=0.9996) for SAL, with the detection limits of 11.6 nM for RAC and 23.0 nM for SAL. In addition, the developed MnO2/RGO@NF sensor was further investigated to detect RAC and SAL in pork samples, showing satisfied comparable results in comparison with analytic results from HPLC.

Crop root system plays an important role in the water cycle of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. In this study, combined isotope techniques, root length density and root cell activity analysis were used to investigate the root water uptake mechanisms of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under different irrigation depths in the North China Plain. Both direct inference approach and multisource linear mixing model were applied to estimate the distribution of water uptake with depth in six growing stages. Results showed that winter wheat under land surface irrigation treatment (Ts) mainly absorbed water from 10–20 cm soil layers in the wintering and green stages (66.9 and 72.0%, respectively); 0–20 cm (57.0%) in the jointing stage; 0–40 (15.3%) and 80–180 cm (58.1%) in the heading stage; 60–80 (13.2%) and 180–220 cm (35.5%) in the filling stage; and 0–40 (46.8%) and 80–100 cm (31.0%) in the ripening stage. Winter wheat under whole soil layers irrigation treatment (Tw) absorbed more water from deep soil layer than Ts in heading, filling and ripening stages. Moreover, root cell activity and root length density of winter wheat under Tw were significantly greater than that of Ts in the three stages. We concluded that distribution of water uptake with depth was affected by the availability of water sources, the root length density and root cell activity. Implementation of the whole soil layers irrigation method can affect root system distribution and thereby increase water use from deeper soil and enhance water use efficiency.

To explore the possible way of detecting the poisonous gas SO2, we have investigated the interactions between SO2 molecule and modified (8,0) single-walled carbon nanotubes by using the density functional theory (DFT) method. The adsorption energies, interaction distances, changes of geometric and electronic structures were all analyzed to investigate the sensitivity of variety of models of CNTs with Ni doping, vacancies, and a combination of them toward SO2 molecule. From our investigations, we found that SO2 molecule was more likely to be absorbed on vacancy-defected CNTs with relatively higher adsorption energy and shorter binding distance compared with the perfect CNTs. In addition, after doping Ni atom on the vacancies, the modified CNTs which were not very much sensitivity to SO2 molecule could become much sensitivity to it. In other words, the number of sensitive adsorption sites increased. The partial density of states (PDOS) and the electron concentration of the adsorption systems suggested the strong electrons interaction between SO2 molecule and defected or Ni-doped defected CNTs. Therefore the vacancies and Ni-doped vacancies CNTs had the potential capacities to make the sensors for SO2 molecule detecting.

Glycine receptor α1ins subunit is located at inhibitory synapses in the superficial dorsal horn of adult spinal cord and is engaged in the glycinergic inhibition of nociceptive neuronal excitability and transmission. The α1ins phosphorylation at Ser380 by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) has been shown to decrease glycinergic synaptic currents and contribute to spinal disinhibition. Here we found that peripheral inflammation induced by Complete Freund's Adjuvant increased Ser380 phosphorylation in spinal cord dorsal horn of mice, which was repressed by specific activation of adenosine A1 receptor (A1R). Protein phosphatase-1 (PP1), a ubiquitously-distributed serine/threonine phosphatase, was required for A1R to reduce Ser380 phosphorylation. Our data showed that Gβγ dimer, when released after activation of Gi protein-coupled A1R, interacted with PP1 and directed this phosphatase to α1ins, allowing for the full dephosphorylation of Ser380 residue. Sequestration of Gβγ dimer by viral expression of the C-terminal tail of β-adrenergic receptor kinase (βARKct) dissociated PP1 from α1ins complex, leading to robust Ser380 phosphorylation. Meanwhile, Gβγ inhibition compromised the ability of A1R to alleviate inflammatory pain. The inhibitory effect of A1R on Ser380 phosphorylation was also attributed to the inactivation of ERK in CFA mice. Our data thus identified glycine receptor α1ins subunit as an important target for adenosinergic suppression of inflammatory pain.

In this work, zein/chitosan nanoparticles (ZCPs-Q) were developed for encapsulating quercetin to overcome its lower water solubility and instability, and to concomitantly enhance its cellular uptake and intracellular antioxidant activity. This strategy enhanced quercetin solubility 753.6 and 9.95 times in water and PBS (7.4), respectively, and quercetin encapsulated in ZCPs remained stable after UV irradiation and heat treatment. ZCPs-Q could significantly attenuate AAPH induced erythrocyte hemolysis through the inhibition of ROS generation. It restored intracellular antioxidant enzyme (SOD and GSH-Px) activities to normal levels and inhibited intracellular malondialdehyde (MDA) formation. Simultaneously, ZCPs-Q showed a strong antioxidant activity in HepG2 cells with an EC50 value of 31.18 μg/mL, which was lower than free quercetin's 41.02 μg/mL. ZCPs enhanced the uptake efficiency of quercetin in Caco-2 cells, which contributed to the improvement of cellular antioxidant activities (CAA) evaluated with the CAA assay and AAPH-induced erythrocyte hemolysis assay. The designed route is particularly suitable for the encapsulation of water-insoluble nutraceuticals and for enhancing cell uptake and CAA.

A strain of Aspergillus niger (A. niger), capable of releasing bound phenolic acids from wheat bran, was isolated. This strain was identified by gene sequence identification. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity of ferulic acid released from wheat bran by this A. niger strain (FA-WB) were evaluated.Molecular identification techniques based on PCR analysis of specific genomic sequences were conducted; antioxidant ability was examined using oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assays, and erythrocyte hemolysis assays. RAW264.7 cells were used as a model to detect anti-inflammatory activity.The filamentous fungal isolate was identified to be A. niger. ORAC and CAA assay showed that FA-WB had better antioxidant activity than that of the ferulic acid standard. The erythrocyte hemolysis assay results suggested that FA-WB could attenuate AAPH-induced oxidative stress through inhibition of reactive oxy gen species (ROS) generation. FA-WB could significantly restore the AAPH-induced increase in intracellular antioxidant enzyme activities to normal levels as well as inhibit the intracellular malondialdehyde formation. TNF-a, IL-6, and NO levels indicated that FA-WB can inhibit the inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Ferulic acid released from wheat bran by a new strain of A. niger had good anti-inflammatory activity and better antioxidant ability than standard ferulic acid.

Co3O4 multilayered structures were successfully synthesized by a facile poly (ethylene glycol 20000) (PEG-20000) assisted hydrothermal technique in combination with calcination method. The final Co3O4 multilayered structures inherited perfectly the morphology of the preliminarily hydrothermal products. Experimental results obtained from the different growth stages demonstrate that the as-prepared precursor exhibit an interesting time-dependent evolution of building blocks, from urchin to multilayer. The possible formation mechanism for the hierarchical structures with various architectures is presented on account of the self-assembled growth induced by Ostwald ripening. Because of the unique structured composed of slices, the photocatalytic activity of the products was examined by measuring the photodecolourisation of methyl violet solution with ultraviolet radiation. The result shows that our products have a good photocatalytic activity.

The adsorption of SO 2 molecules on the surfaces of Ni-doped single-walled zigzag ( n ,0)CNTs ( n = 4,5,6, Ni-SWCNTs) has been investigated using density functional theory. The adsorption energies and changes in geometric and electronic structures after the adsorption were analyzed to characterize the sensitivity of Ni-SWCNTs toward SO 2 molecules. Our calculated results showed that Ni-SWCNTs had much higher adsorption energy, larger net charge transfer values and shorter binding distances than pure SWCNTs owning to chemisorption of the SO 2 molecule. The obtained density of states and frontier orbitals demonstrated that the orbital hybridization was obvious between the SO 2 molecule and Ni-SWCNTs, while there was no evidence for hybridization between SO 2 molecule and pure SWCNTs because of weak physisorption according to the total electron density maps. After doping of Ni atom, the primary symmetry of SWCNTs decreased, which enhanced the chemical activity of SWCNTs toward SO 2 molecules consequently. Furthermore, the adsorption capability of Ni-SWCNTs was improved gradually with the increase of tube diameter in the small range. The above results have profound meaning for the design and fabrication of SO 2 sensing devices.

Hydrological phenomena in nature are always complex processes. Among the studies of hydrology, prediction of runoff from rainfall is a major issue. This is caused by highly nonlinear relationship, variability of spatial and temporal factors (DIMITRI & KHADA, 2003). Additionally, the data for rainfall in long periods tend to be more available than the record of flow (Sajikumar & Thandaveswara, 1999). Therefore, in order to get precise estimates of runoff, rainfall-runoff models are required. This paper describes three types of rainfall-runoff model and the main calibration methods .

in the paper, the effect of aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) on the extraction of flavonoids from hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida Bge.) leaves was investigated. Based on the yield of flavonoids and partition coefficient (K), PEG 11.5% and (NH4)2SO4 14% was selected as the optimum solvent for extracting flavonoids. When the ratio of material to solvent was 1:35, the yield of flavonoids was 2.79%.The present study demonstrated that the aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) was an efficient method to extract flavonoids from hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida Bge.) leaves.

Zeolite X/activated carbon composite material (X/AC) was prepared from elutrilithe, by a process consisting of carbonization, activation, and subsequent hydrothermal transformation of aluminosilicate in alkaline solution, which was used for the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from aqueous solutions. Adsorption kinetics, equilibrium, and thermodynamic were studied and fitted by various models. The adsorption kinetics is best depicted by pseudosecond-order model, and the adsorption isotherm fits the Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson model. This explains the ammoniacal nitrogen adsorption onto X/AC which was chemical adsorption in nature. Thermodynamic properties such as ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS were determined for the ammoniacal nitrogen adsorption, and the positive enthalpy confirmed that the adsorption process was endothermic. It can be inferred that ammoniacal nitrogen removal by X/AC composite is attributed to the ion exchange ability of zeolite X. Further, as a novel sorbent, this material has the potential application in removing ammoniacal nitrogen coexisting with other organic compounds from industrial wastewater.

To investigate the effects of different hemapheresis procedures on the components of hematopoietic stem cells(HSCs) collected from helathy donors.twelve donors were underwent stem cell collection from January 2015 to August 2016, and the stem cells were randomly colleted by AutoPBSC procedure of COBE spectra and MNC procedure of the Spectra Optia blood cell separator, the mononuclear cells, CD34The circulating blood volume, the acquisition time and dosage of anticoagulants were not significantly different between two procedures. The volume and the mononuclear cell count collected by AutoPBSC procedure were lower than those by the MNC procedure, while the CD34Compared with MNC procedure of the Spectra Optia blood cell separator, the number of collected stem cells, lymphocytes and platelets are higher by using AutoPBSC procedure of the COBE spectra blood cell separator.

To diminish the effect of photovoltaic (PV) randomization on the power system, combining attribute reduction of rough set with support vector machine (SVM) regression theory, this paper applies SVM regression to directly forecast the output of the PV array, and is based on setting rough set as front-end processor and attribute reduction of historical data. According to the type of forecasting day, this paper selects multiple reasonable similar days (SD) from historical data and uses RS-SVR model to make predication. After repeated accuracy verification, the text used radial basis function as kernel function, and use parametric search and cross-validation method to determine the parameters. Finally, this paper compared average relative error of the RS-SVR forecasting model and SVR forecasting model, and verified that the RS-SVR forecasting model can effectively solve the problem of PV power output forecasting and obtain satisfactory results.

Knowledge is not a simple accumulation of data or information. It is a kind of information guiding people to solve problems, which is a combination of knowing and experience getting from practicing aiming to change the world. Knowledge should be a dynamic collection which consists of structured experience, values, associated information, views of experts, etc. Expressing the information in forms of visual and language at the same time can largely enhance memory and recognition ability, the effect of which is far better than the single form in visual or language. So the aim of knowledge visualization is to improve the readability and transmissibility of knowledge. Meanwhile, accurate description of the application scenario of knowledge is in great need of enhancing its usability. How to make the best combination of application scene description and visual is the subject in this paper.

The B subfamily of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins (ABCB) plays a vital role in auxin efflux. However, no systematic study has been done in apple. In this study, we performed genomewide identification and expression analyses of the ABCB family in Malus domestica for the first time. We identified a total of 25 apple ABCBs that were divided into three clusters based on the phylogenetic analysis. Most ABCBs within the same cluster demonstrated a similar exon-intron organization. Additionally, the digital expression profiles of ABCB genes shed light on their functional divergence. ABCB1 and ABCB19 are two well-studied auxin efflux carrier genes, and we found that their expression levels are higher in young shoots of M106 than in young shoots ofM9. Since young shoots are the main source of auxin synthesis and auxin efflux involves in tree height control. This suggests that ABCB1 and ABCB19 may also take a part in the auxin efflux and tree height control in apple.

Novel feather-like CeO2 microstructures were achieved by a thermal decomposition approach of Ce(OH)CO3 precursor. The Ce(OH)CO3 was obtained from a solvothermal method employing Ce(NO3)3.6H2O with C6H[Formula: see text]N4 and C[Formula: see text]H[Formula: see text](CH3)3NBr (CTAB) at 190[Formula: see text]C in a water–PEG-200 mixed solution. The feather-like CeO2 dendrite was obtained by thermal conversion of the feather-like Ce(OH)CO3 at 650[Formula: see text]C in air. A reasonable growth mechanism was proposed with the soft-template effect of PEG-200. The electrochemical behavior and enzyme activity of myoglobin (Mb) immobilized on CeO2–Nafion modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) are demonstrated by cyclic voltammetric measurements. The results indicate that CeO2 can obviously promote the direct electron transfer between the Mb redox centers and the electrode. The Mb on CeO2–Nafion behaves as an elegant performance on the electrochemical reduction of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) from 0.32[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M to 2.28[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M. The detection limit is estimated to be 0.08[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M.

Heavy metal (Cr, Fe, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb) concentrations were measured in 17 moss samples which were collected at Qiyi Glacier Region in July, August and September, 2009 in a preliminary investigation of heavy metal pollution situation in this area. The results indicated that heavy metal concentrations in mosses were relatively high and concentrations of Fe were at the highest level (varied between 15 160.00 and 34 960.00 microg x g(-1)), followed by Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, As, with average concentrations of 169.56, 134.81, 34.52, 26.16, 9.15 microg x g(-1). Enrichment factor analysis and correlation analysis indicated that Fe and Cr in mosses mainly stemmed from crustal dust, and concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd were influenced by human activities; As was moderately enriched which means As in mosses was mainly originated from anthropogenic pollution. According to the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) meteorological data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of 2009 and the simulation of the HYSPLIT v4.9 Model on 3-dimension back trajectories of air mass at Qiyi glacier district, several trajectories reflecting the main characteristics of air flow were obtained based on the classification of cluster analysis on the hundreds of back trajectories. The back trajectories revealed that atmospheric transport characteristics in the study area changed obviously by season. Compared to Spring and Autumn, atmospheric transmission sources were relatively more in Winter and Summer. The main sources of atmospheric pollutants in Qiyi Glacier region were transported from Jiuquan and Jiayuguan regions.

An ultrasensitive nanosensor based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between biocompatible graphene quantum dots and carbon nanotubes for DNA detection was reported. We take advantage of good biocompatibility and strong fluorescence of graphene quantum dots, base pairing specificity of DNA and unique fluorescence resonance energy transfer between graphene quantum dots and carbon nanotubes to achieve the analysis of low concentrations of DNA. Graphene quantum dots with high quantum yield up to 0.20 were prepared and served as the fluorophore of DNA probe. FRET process between graphene quantum dots-labeled probe and oxidized carbon nanotubes is easily achieved due to their efficient self-assembly through specific π-π interaction. This nanosensor can distinguish complementary and mismatched nucleic acid sequences with high sensitivity and good reproducibility. The detection method based on this nanosensor possesses a broad linear span of up to 133.0 nM and ultralow detection limit of 0.4 nM. The constructed nanosensor is expected to be highly biocompatible because of all its components with excellent biocompatibility.

We report a simple synthesis of C -doped ZnO composite nanoparticles by a solvothermal treatment of Zn ( OAc )2 ⋅ 2 H 2 O that provides a source of both zinc and carbon. The photocatalytic activities of the composites were evaluated by the degree of degradation rhodamine B in aqueous solutions at room temperature with near UV light irradiation. These nanocomposites exhibit higher photocatalytic activity compared with pure ZnO nanoparticles. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity of C -doped ZnO nanoparticles is mainly attributed to their absorbed more photons and reduced electron hole pair recombination.