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This study aimed to investigate the effects of Elephantopus scaber extract on the GIFT (genetic improvement of farmed tilapia) strain of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. A total of 800 tilapia with an initial body weight of 1.34 ± 0.09 g each were randomly divided into five groups. The tilapia in the control group (E0 group) were fed on a basal diet only. Meanwhile, tilapia in the four experimental groups were fed on a basal diet supplemented with 1 g/kg (E1 group), 3 g/kg (E2 group), 5 g/kg (E3 group), and 7 g/kg (E4 group) of E. scaber extract for 10 weeks. Results showed that the survival rate was higher in the experimental groups than in the control group. Compared with the control group, some growth parameters (FW, WGR, SGR, VSI, and HSI) were significantly improved in the E1 group and E2 group. The crude lipid content in the dorsal muscle and liver was lower in the E1 group than in the control group. After E. scaber extract supplementation, activities of immunity-related enzymes (ACP, AKP, T-AOC, SOD, CAT, GSH-Px and LZM) in plasma, liver, spleen and head kidney, and expressions of immunity-related genes (IL-1β, IFN-γ, TNF-α, and CCL-3) in liver, spleen and head kidney showed various degrees of improvement, while MDA content and Hsp70 expression level were decreased. The survival rate of tilapia increased in all the supplementation groups after Streptococcus agalactiae treatment. E. scaber extract addition changed the species composition, abundance, and diversity of intestinal microbiota in tilapia. These results demonstrate that E. scaber extract supplementation in diet can improve the growth, immunity, and disease resistance of GIFT against S. agalactiae. E. scaber extract supplementation can also change intestinal microbiota and reduce crude lipid content in dorsal muscle and liver. The above indicators show that the optimal dose of E. scaber extract for GIFT is 1 g/kg.

This study was performed to investigate the effects of dietary trehalose on growth, muscle composition, non-specific immune responses, gene expression and desiccation resistance of juvenile red claw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus). A total of 540 (body weight of 0.41 ± 0.05) crayfish were randomly divided into six groups for a feeding experiment. Six diets with trehalose levels at 0 (Diet 1), 1 (Diet 2), 2 (Diet 3), 5 (Diet 4), 10 (Diet 5) and 15 (Diet 6) g kg−1 were prepared to feed juvenile red claw crayfish for 8 weeks. The results showed that the weight gain rate (WGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) of crayfish in Diet 4, Diet 5 and Diet 6 groups were significantly improved compared with the control group (Diet 1). Muscle crude protein contents of crayfish fed Diet 4, Diet 5 and Diet 6 were significantly higher than those of the control group. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and alkaline phosphatase (AKP) in hepatopancreas and hemolymph of crayfish for Diet 4, Diet 5, and Diet 6 groups were significantly increased while malondialdehyde (MDA) content was significantly reduced when compared with the control. The total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities in the hepatopancreas and hemolymph of crayfish fed Diet 5 and Diet 6 were significantly higher than those in the control group. However, acid phosphatase (ACP) activity was not significantly different among all experimental groups. The hepatopancreas and intestine trehalose contents of crayfish showed an upward trend with the increase of dietary trehalose levels. Compared with the control group, supplementation of 5–15 g kg−1 trehalose in the feed up-regulated the expression levels of GPx, C-type lysozyme (C-LZM), antilipolysacchride factor (ALF), facilitated trehalose transporter homolog isoform X2 (Tret1-2) and facilitated trehalose transporter isoform X4 (Tret1-4) mRNA. In addition, supplementation of 5–15 g kg−1 trehalose in the feed could improve the survival rate of red claw crayfish under desiccation stress. These results suggested that supplementation of 5–15 g kg−1 trehalose in feed could significantly improve the growth performance, muscle protein, non-specific immunity and desiccation resistance of juvenile red claw crayfish.

Red claw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) is an important freshwater shrimp species worldwide with enormous economic value. Waterless transportation is an inherent feature of red claw crayfish transportation. However, the high mortality of red claw crayfish is a severe problem in the aquaculture of crayfish after waterless transportation. In this study, we investigated the responses of the hepatopancreas from the red claw crayfish undergoing air exposure stress and normal conditions on transcriptome levels. We used Illumina-based RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to perform a transcriptome analysis from the hepatopancreas of red claw crayfish challenged by air exposure. An average of 57,148,800 clean reads per library was obtained, and 33,567 unigenes could be predicted and classified according to their homology with matches in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) non-redundant protein sequences (Nr), Gene Ontology (GO), a manually annotated and reviewed protein sequence database (Swiss-Prot), protein families (Pfam), Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) of proteins, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. 690 and 3407 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the two stress stages of the red claw crayfish. More DEGs were identified in 12 h, indicating that gene expressions were largely changed at 12 h. Some immune-related pathways and genes were identified according to KEGG and GO enrichment analysis. A total of 12 DEGs involved in immune response and trehalose mechanism were verified by quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The results indicated that the red claw crayfish might counteract the stress of air exposure at the transcriptomic level by increasing expression levels of antioxidant-, immune-, and trehalose metabolism-related genes. These transcriptome results from the hepatopancreas provide significant insights into the influence mechanism of air exposure to the trehalose mechanism and immune response in the red claw crayfish.

We established 340-year chronologies of total ring width, early wood width, and late wood width with tree-ring samples of利用浙江北部西天目山高海拔黄山松树轮样品,建立了340年的整轮、早材和晚材宽度年表,根据子样本信号强度大于0.8的标准,确定年表的可靠时段为1810—2019年,通过对年表与气候要素进行相关分析,研究了树轮生长对气候的响应。结果表明: 黄山松径向生长对气温的响应远高于对降水的响应。综合考虑原始序列和一阶差序列相关分析结果,发现早材宽度与上年生长季前期平均气温、平均最高气温显著相关,晚材宽度与上年5月和当年9月平均气温、平均最高气温显著相关。整轮响应时段与早材较为一致,但相关性较低。最优相关组合为早材宽度与上年4—7月平均气温。基于这一关系,重建了华东天目山地区1809—2018年4—7月平均气温,方差解释量达61.5%,原始序列和一阶差序列均通过分段检验。重建气温序列中的偏冷时段为1834—1964年,偏暖时段为1809—1833和1965—2018年。20世纪60年代以来,气温进入快速上升阶段,从低频趋势上看,20世纪80年代之后气温达到过去210年来的最高水平。空间相关分析表明,重建序列较好地代表了华东地区气温的变化情况,与华东地区的区域重建序列对比也具有较好的一致性。黄山松在华东地区古气候重建方面具有较大潜力。.

Natural exosomes can express specific proteins and carbohydrate molecules on the surface and hence have demonstrated the great potentials for gene therapy of cancer. However, the use of natural exosomes is restricted by their low transfection efficiency. Here, we report a novel targeting tLyp-1 exosome by gene recombinant engineering for delivery of siRNA to cancer and cancer stem cells. To reach such a purpose, the engineered tLyp-1-lamp2b plasmids were constructed and amplified in Escherichia coli. The tLyp-1-lamp2b plasmids were further used to transfect HEK293T tool cells and the targeting tLyp-1 exosomes were isolated from secretion of the transfected HEK293T cells. Afterwards, the artificially synthesized siRNA was encapsulated into targeting tLyp-1 exosomes by electroporation technology. Finally, the targeting siRNA tLyp-1 exosomes were used to transfect cancer or cancer stem cells. Results showed that the engineered targeting tLyp-1 exosomes had a nanosized structure (approximately 100 nm) and high transfection efficiency into lung cancer and cancer stem cells. The function verifications demonstrated that the targeting siRNA tLyp-1 exosomes were able to knock-down the target gene of cancer cells and to reduce the stemness of cancer stem cells. In conclusion, the targeting tLyp-1 exosomes are successfully engineered, and can be used for gene therapy with a high transfection efficiency. Therefore, the engineered targeting tLyp-1 exosomes offer a promising gene delivery platform for future cancer therapy., Graphical abstract The tLyp-1-lamp2b plasmid transfected HEK293T cells can secreted tumor targeting tLyp-1 exosomes. By electroporation technology, targeting tLyp-1 exosomes were loaded with siRNA. When targeting tLyp-1 exosome ruptured in cytoplasm, siRNA was loaded into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). The sense (passenger) strand was degraded while the antisense (guide) strand directs RISC to mRNA that has a complementary sequence, thereby resulting in the silence of target gene.Image, graphical abstract

Background: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is an effective strategy for improving treatment of breast cancers. However, the efficacy of this treatment strategy is limited for treatment of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Gene therapy may be a more effective strategy for improving the prognosis of TNBC. Methods: A novel 25 nucleotide sense strand of miRNA was designed to treat TNBC by silencing the Slug gene, and encapsulated into DSPE-PEG2000-tLyp-1 peptide-modified functional liposomes. The efficacy of miRNA liposomes was evaluated on invasive TNBC cells and TNBC cancer-bearing nude mice. Furthermore, functional vinorelbine liposomes were constructed to investigate the anticancer effects of combined treatment. Results: The functional miRNA liposomes had a round shape and were nanosized (120 nm). Functional miRNA liposomes were effectively captured by TNBC cells in vitro and were target to mitochondria. Treatment with functional liposomes silenced the expression of Slug and Slug protein, inhibited the TGF-β1/Smad pathway, and inhibited invasiveness and growth of TNBC cells. In TNBC cancer-bearing mice, functional miRNA liposomes exerted a stronger anticancer effect than functional vinorelbine liposomes, and combination therapy with these two formulations resulted in nearly complete inhibition of tumor growth. Preliminary safety evaluations indicated that the functional miRNA liposomes did not affect body weight or cause damage to any major organs. Furthermore, the functional liposomes significantly increased the half-life of the drug in the blood of cancer-bearing nude mice, and increased drug accumulation in breast cancer tissues. Conclusion: In this study, we constructed novel functional miRNA liposomes. These liposomes silenced Slug expression and inhibited the TGF-β1/Smad pathway in TNBC cells, and enhanced anticancer efficacy in mice using combined chemotherapy. Hence, the present study demonstrated a promising strategy for gene therapy of invasive breast cancer.

Regular chemotherapy cannot eliminate leukemic cells, due to the sparse distribution of cancer cells in leukemia patients. Here, we report a precise nanostructure of folate-overhung mitoxantrone DNA tetrahedron that enables the treatment of leukemic cells by targeted action. Folate is used as a targeting molecule and synthesized with DNA strand in forming the folate-overhang DNA complement, and the complement is then separately base-paired onto six sides of the fabricated DNA tetrahedron. Mitoxantrone is used as an anticancer agent and intercalated into the double strands of the folate-overhung DNA tetrahedron for drug loading. The evaluation studies are performed on leukemia BALL-1 and K562 cells. The results demonstrate that the folate-overhung mitoxantrone DNA tetrahedra (approximately 25nm) are able to target leukemic cells, transport across the nuclei membrane, induce the apoptosis, and enhance the overall efficacy of treating leukemic cells in vitro and in leukemia-bearing mice. This study provides a potential drug-containing DNA nanostructure, to clean the sparsely distributed leukemic cells in patients.

The decline of male fertility and its consequences on human populations are important public-health issues. However, there are limited choices for treatment of male infertility. In an attempt to identify a compound that could promote male fertility, we identified and characterized a library of small molecules from an ancient formulation Wuzi Yanzong-Pill, which was used as a folk medicine since the Tang dynasty of China. We found that SB enabled evident repairs in oligoasthenospermia-associated testicular tissue abnormality and in spermatogenesis disruption, resulting in significant improvements of sperm count, mobility, and reproductive ability in oligoasthenospermia mice. Furthermore, SB could alter substantial testicular genes (2033), among which, upregulation of Fst while downregulation of Inhba involved in reproductive signaling pathway could explain its role in enhancing spermatogenesis. The encouraging preclinical data with pharmacokinetics warranted a rapid development of this new class of therapeutic agent. Our finding provides a strong potent drug for treatment of male infertility.

The aim of the study is to investigate the feasibility of fabricating FDM 3D-printed gastric floating tablets with low infill percentages and the effect of infill percentage on the properties of gastric floating tablets in vitro. Propranolol hydrochloride was selected as a model drug, and drug-loaded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) filaments were produced by hot melt extrusion (HME). Ellipsoid-shaped gastric floating tablets with low infill percentage of 15% and 25% (namely E-15 and E-25) were then prepared respectively by feeding the extruded filaments to FDM 3D printer. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to characterize the filaments and 3D-printed tablets, and a series of evaluations were performed to the 3D-printed tablets, including the weight variation, drug content, hardness, in vitro floating behavior, and drug release of the tablets. The SEM results showed that the drug-loaded filaments and 3D-printed tablets appeared intact without defects, and the printed tablets were composed of filaments deposited uniformly layer by layer. The model drug and the excipients were thermally stable under the process temperature of extruding and printing, with a small amount of drug crystals dispersing in the drug-loaded filaments and 3D-printed tablets. Both E-15 and E-25 could float on artificial gastric fluids without any lag time and released in a sustained manner. Compared with E-15, the E-25 presented less weight variation, higher tablet hardness, shorter floating time, and longer drug release time.

A bidirectional DC-DC converter with a wide- range voltage conversion ratio is proposed in this paper. The characteristic of wide-range voltage conversion ratio can be utilized in the energy conversion of retired batteries, such as electric scooters, electric vehicles, electrical buses, electric trucks etc. with different voltage levels. The proposed converter is composed of cascading a two-phase interleaved half-bridge circuit and a voltage-doubler circuit. The two-phase interleaved half-bridge circuit and the voltage-doubler circuit are defined as terminals A and B, respectively to investigate the operational stages of the proposed converter and analyze the voltage conversion ratios under different voltage-level schemes. Due to the variable structure design and control of the proposed converter, a wide-range voltage converter ratio and bidirectional step-up/step-down function can be achieved. A prototype for the proposed bidirectional DC-DC converter with a rated voltage of 150V at terminal A, a rated voltage between 25V and 1050V at terminal B and a rated power of 1100W is designed and implemented in this paper. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed bidirectional DC-DC converter can be operated in the different modes with respect to different voltage levels. Meanwhile, the maximum conversion efficiency of above 98% can be achieved.

Antigen peptides and adjuvants have been extensively investigated for cancer immunotherapy, and they are expected to elicit specific immune responses for cancer treatment. However, the anti-cancer efficacy of antigen peptide and adjuvant-based cancer vaccines has been limited due to the inefficient delivery to draining lymph nodes after administration. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a suitable delivery system to transport antigen peptides and adjuvants. Here, we report a novel type of nanostructured lipovaccines for the treatment of melanoma by delivering antigen peptide (SL9) and oligodeoxynucleotide adjuvant (CpG) to the lymphatic vessels and to the draining lymph node. The SL9-CpG lipovaccines were characterized using dynamic laser scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The lymph uptake, immune response elicitation and treatment effects were evaluated on melanoma-bearing C57BL/6 mice using flow cytometry (FCM), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and tumor inhibitory efficacy. The SL9-CpG lipovaccines were uniform with a nanoscale size (~70 nm), had high encapsulation efficiency, and exhibited effective lymph uptake, resulting in activation of specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, and release of IFN-&gamma, and a robust inhibition of tumor growth. Therefore, the nanostructured SL9-CpG lipovaccines offer a promising strategy for melanoma treatment.

Background: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is an effective strategy for improving treatment of breast cancers. However, the efficacy of this treatment strategy is limited for treatment of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Gene therapy may be a more effective strategy for improving the prognosis of TNBC. Methods: A novel 25 nucleotide sense strand of miRNA was designed to treat TNBC by silencing the Slug gene, and encapsulated into DSPE-PEG2000-tLyp-1 peptide-modified functional liposomes. The efficacy of miRNA liposomes was evaluated on invasive TNBC cells and TNBC cancer-bearing nude mice. Furthermore, functional vinorelbine liposomes were constructed to investigate the anticancer effects of combined treatment. Results: The functional miRNA liposomes had a round shape and were nanosized (120 nm). Functional miRNA liposomes were effectively captured by TNBC cells in vitro and were target to mitochondria. Treatment with functional liposomes silenced the expression of Slug and Slug protein, inhibited the TGF-β1/Smad pathway, and inhibited invasiveness and growth of TNBC cells. In TNBC cancer-bearing mice, functional miRNA liposomes exerted a stronger anticancer effect than functional vinorelbine liposomes, and combination therapy with these two formulations resulted in nearly complete inhibition of tumor growth. Preliminary safety evaluations indicated that the functional miRNA liposomes did not affect body weight or cause damage to any major organs. Furthermore, the functional liposomes significantly increased the half-life of the drug in the blood of cancer-bearing nude mice, and increased drug accumulation in breast cancer tissues. Conclusion: In this study, we constructed novel functional miRNA liposomes. These liposomes silenced Slug expression and inhibited the TGF-β1/Smad pathway in TNBC cells, and enhanced anticancer efficacy in mice using combined chemotherapy. Hence, the present study demonstrated a promising strategy for gene therapy of invasive breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease in women all over the world and its chemotherapy outcome is restricted by multidrug resistance. Here, a nanostructure by functional larotaxel liposomes decorated with guanine-rich quadruplex nucleotide-lipid derivative for treatment of resistant breast cancer is developed. The studies are performed on the resistant breast cancer cells and the cancer-bearing mice. The nucleotide-lipid derivative (DSPE-PEG2000 -C6 -GT28nt) is synthesized by introducing a hydrophobic hexyl linkage between GT-28nt (containing 17 guanines and 11 thymidines) and DSPE-PEG2000 -NHS, and is incorporated on the functional larotaxel liposomes for specific binding with nucleolin receptor on the resistant cancer cells. The studies demonstrate that the liposomes had long circulatory effect, targeted capability, and significant anticancer efficacy in resistant cancer-bearing mice. The studies further reveal their action mechanism, consisting of blocking depolymerization of microtubules, arresting cell cycle, blocking JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and inhibiting activity of antiapoptotic proteins. In conclusion, the functional larotaxel liposomes can be used for effective treatment of drug-resistant breast cancer, and this study also offers a novel targeted nanomedicine based on nucleotide-lipid derivative.

The heterogeneity of breast cancer and the development of drug resistance are the relapse reasons of disease after chemotherapy. To address this issue, a combined therapeutic strategy was developed by building the nanostructured dihydroartemisinin plus epirubicin liposomes. Investigations were performed on human breast cancer cells in vitro and xenografts in nude mice. The results indicated that dihydroartemisinin could significantly enhance the efficacy of epirubicin in killing different breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We found that the combined use of dihydroartemisinin with epirubicin could efficiently inhibit the activity of Bcl-2, facilitate release of Beclin 1, and further activate Bax. Besides, Bax activated apoptosis which led to the type I programmed death of breast cancer cells while Beclin 1 initiated the excessive autophagy that resulted in the type II programmed death of breast cancer cells. In addition, the nanostructured dihydroartemisinin plus epirubicin liposomes prolonged circulation of drugs, and were beneficial for simultaneously delivering drugs into breast cancer tissues. Hence, the nanostructured dihydroartemisinin plus epirubicin liposomes could provide a new therapeutic strategy for treatment of breast cancer.

The ship-borne satellite earth station was studied to establish a hardware-in-loop simulation system for employee training. Preliminary demand analysis for staff of all levels shows the complexity of this system. Based on the distributed simulation theory of HLA, system framework and implementation approach was proposed. Key technologies for modeling and simulation of ship-borne satellite earth station were discussed in this article. Subsequently the block diagrams of device simulator and simulation agent were clearly described. Finally the specific steps of operation were created to show the details of actual running process, which prove the feasibility of this system.

Goal-directed hemodynamic therapy (GDT) is used to prevent hypoperfusion resulting from surgery. The objective of this study was to analyze the efficacy and importance of perioperative GDT.PUBMED, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, and Google Scholar databases were searched until 17 June 2016 using the search terms: cardiac output, cardiac surgical procedures, hemodynamics, goal-directed therapy, and intraoperative. Randomized-controlled trials with pre-emptive hemodynamic intervention for cardiac surgical population versus standard hemodynamic therapy were included.Nine studies were included with a total of 1148 patients. The overall analysis revealed no significant difference in the all-cause mortality (pooled peto OR =0.58, 95%CI =0.27-1.525, p = 0.164), duration of mechanical ventilation (pooled difference in mean= -1.48, 95%CI= -3.24 to 0.28, p = 0.099), or length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay (pooled difference in mean= -9.10, 95%CI= -20.14 to 1.93, p = 0.106) between patients in the GDT and control groups. Patients in the GDP group were associated with shorter hospital stay than those in the control group (pooled difference in mean= -1.52, 95%CI= -2.31 to -0.73, p 0.001).GDT reduces the length of hospital stay compared with the standard of care. Further studies are necessary to continually assess the benefit of GDT following major surgery. Key Messages The results of this analysis revealed no significant difference between cardiac surgery patients receiving goal-directed hemodynamic therapy (GDT) or conventional fluid therapy in terms of the all-cause mortality, duration of mechanical intervention, and length of ICU-stay. The length of hospital stay was significantly reduced in patients treated with GDT compare to conventional fluid therapy. GDT may have limited benefit in reducing mortality; however, the association to shorter length of hospital stay may suggest that better hemodynamic balance can facilitate postoperative recovery.

The aim of the study was to evaluate risk factors for long-term mortality and progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD) after cardiac surgery in patients with normal preoperative renal function and postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). From April 2009 to December 2012, we prospectively enrolled 3245 cardiac surgery patients of our hospital. The primary endpoints included survival rates and the secondary endpoint was the incidence of progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a follow-up period of 2 years. Acute kidney injury was staged by KDIGO classification. Progressive CKD was defined as GFR ≤ 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 or end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (starting renal replacement therapy or renal transplantation). The AKI incidence was 39.9% (n = 1295). The 1 and 2 year overall survival (OS) rates of AKI patients were significantly lower than that for non-AKI patients (85.9% and 82.3% vs 98.1% and 93.7%, P

The authors of this paper synthesized a series of amphiphilic triblock copolymers of polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polystyrene (PS-PEG-PS) having different PEG/PS ratios with nearly identical molecular weights of the entire copolymers. The interfacial interactions in the composites consisting of carbon black and the copolymers can thus be tailored. When these conducting composites are exposed to certain solvent vapors, their electrical resistances greatly increase, showing the gas sensitivity. The present work indicated that this switching behavior is controlled by the structural relaxation of the composites because matrix swelling acts as the main mechanism. The response time has been correlated with absolute temperature by Arrhenius equation, and the estimated activation energy reflects mobility of the fillers involved in the solvent induced expansion of the surrounding polymer. Therefore, by using the gas sensibility of the conductive composites, the structure evolution of the composite materials in solid state and the effect of filler/matrix interfacial interaction on the relaxation property of the matrix polymer has been inspected. It was found that lower activation energy represents stronger interfacial interaction in case good solvent of the matrix was used for the test.

To reveal the role of crystalline phase in the matrix polymer of gas sensing conductive polymer composite materials, a series of triblock copolymer polystyrene- b -poly(ethylene glycol)- b -polystyrene (PS–PEG–PS) was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The copolymers have similar molecular weights but different fractions of the crystalline PEG segments. As a result, the ratio of the crystalline phase to the amorphous one can be tuned regardless of the molecular weight of the entire copolymer. The composites consisting of the copolymer and carbon black exhibit gas sensing ability as characterized by the drastic increase in the electrical resistance when meeting organic solvent vapors. It is found that matrix swelling, which provides the composites with gas sensitivity, results from the contribution of the amorphous phase. The crystalline portions prove to be unchanged in the vapors with respect to their microstructure within the time of interests. The appearance of the crystalline phase in the matrix polymer helps to push the conductive fillers into the amorphous regions, which increases the effective filler content and leads to higher responsivity to solvent vapors at lower filler loading.

In recent years, conductive polymer composites have found applications as gas sensors because of their sudden change in electric resistance of magnitude when the materials are exposed to certain solvent vapors. However, the composites having this function reported so far are mostly based on crystalline polimeric matrice, which factually sets a limit to materials section. The present work prepares polystyrene/carbon black composite through polymerization filling and proves that the amorphous polymer composites can also serve as gas sensing materials. The composite'percolation threshold is much lower than that of the composite produced by dispersive mixing. In addition, high responsivity to some organic vapors coupled with sufficient reproducibility is acquired. The experimental data show that molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of the matrix polymer and conducting filler content exert great influence on the electrical response behavior of the composite. As the result, composites performance can be purposely tailored accordingly. Compared with the approaches of melt-blending and solution-blending, the current technique is characterized by many advantages, such as simplicity, low cost, and easy to be controlled.

Amorphous polymer-based composites consisting of polystyrene and carbon black were developed in the current work as candidates for gas sensing materials. With the help of polymerization filling, i.e., in-situ polymerization of styrene in the presence of carbon black, the composites were provided with low percolation threshold. The experimental results indicated that the composites have selective sensitivity as characterized by high electrical responsivity to the vapors of non-polar and low polar solvents, and low responsivity to high polar solvent vapors as well. Besides conductivity of the composites, absorption characteristics of both the matrix and the fillers exert importance influence on the gas sensitivity of the composites. Therefore, composites’ performance can be tailored by changing filler concentration, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of matrix polymer, etc. In regard to the fact that most conducting polymer composites as vapor sensing materials are based on crystalline polymer matrices, the approach reported by this paper provides another feasible way to develop new candidates.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of high-dose versus low-dose haemofiltration on the survival of critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). We hypothesised that high-dose treatments are not associated with a higher risk of mortality.DesignMeta-analysis.SettingRandomised controlled trials and two-arm prospective and retrospective studies were included.ParticipantsCritically ill patients with AKI.InterventionsContinuous renal replacement therapy.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary outcomes: 90-day mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) mortality, hospital mortality; secondary outcomes: length of ICU and hospital stay.ResultEight studies including 2970 patients were included in the analysis. Pooled results showed no significant difference in the 90-mortality rate between patients treated with high-dose or low-dose haemofiltration (pooled OR=0.90, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.11, p=0.32). Findings were similar for ICU (pooled OR=1.12, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.34, p=0.21) and hospital mortality (pooled OR=1.03, 95% CI 0.81 to 1.30, p=0.84). Length of ICU and hospital stay were similar between high-dose and low-dose groups. Pooled results are not overly influenced by any one study, different cut-off points of prescribed dose or different cut-off points of delivered dose. Meta-regression analysis indicated that the results were not affected by the percentage of patients with sepsis or septic shock.ConclusionHigh-dose and low-dose haemofiltration produce similar outcomes with respect to mortality and length of ICU and hospital stay in critically ill patients with AKI.This study was not registered at the time the data were collected and analysed. It has since been registered on 17 February 2017 athttp://www.researchregistry.com/, registration number: reviewregistry211.

Effectiveness of arsenite adsorption by ferric and alum water treatment residuals (FARs) with different grain sizes was studied. The results indicated that the content of active Fe and Al, the specific surface area and pore volume in FARs with different grain sizes were in the range of 523.72-1 861.72 mmol x kg(-1), 28.15-265.59 m2 x g(-1) and 0.03-0.09 cm3 x g(-1), respectively. The contents of organic matter, fulvic acid, humic acid and humin were in the range of 46.97-91.58 mg x kg(-1), 0.02-32.27 mg x kg(-1), 22.27-34.09 mg x kg(-1) and 10.76-34.22 mg x kg(-1), respectively. Results of SEM and XRD analysis further demonstrated that FARs with different grain sizes were amorphousness. Batch experiments suggested that both the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order equations could well describe the kinetics adsorption processes of arsenite by FARs. Moreover, the contents of arsenite absorbed by FARs increased with the increase of arsenite concentrations. The theoretical saturated adsorption capacities calculated from Langmuir isotherm model were in the range of 6.72-21.79 mg x g(-1). Interestingly, pH showed little effect on the arsenite adsorption capability of FARs. The capability of FARs had a close relationship with their physicochemical properties. Correlation analysis showed that the active Fe and Al contents and pore volume had major effects on the arsenite adsorption capability of FARs.

To investigate the risk factors and prognosis influential factors of acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery.The clinical data of patients who were hospitalized and underwent cardiac surgery from April 2009 to May 2011 were collected prospectively. Demographic characteristics, types of surgeries, preoperative renal function, pre- and intra-operative conditions and clinical outcomes, etc were recorded.A total of 4007 patients underwent cardiac surgery were recruited. The overall incidence of AKI was 31.2% (1250/4007). The incidence of AKI requiring renal replacement treatment (AKI-RRT) was 2.6% (104/4007). The overall hospital mortality was 1.9% (77/4007), and was significantly higher in AKI group than in non-AKI group (5.4% vs 0.3%, P0.01). The hospital mortality of AKI-RRT group was 36.5% (38/104). Grouped by type of surgery, cardiac transplantation had the highest AKI incidence (73.0%) and highest in-hospital mortality (18.9%), followed by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) combined with valve surgery (AKI incidence 57.8%, in-hospital mortality 6.1%) and aneurysm surgery (AKI incidence 52.0%, in-hospital mortality 5.5%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that man, age, BMI, hypertension, chronic heart failure, pre-operative serum creatinine (SCr)106.0 µmol/L, intra-operative cardiopulmonary bypass time, intra-operative hypotension and aneurysm surgery were the risk factors of AKI after cardiac surgery. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that pre-operative SCr106.0 µmol/L and intra-operative hypotension were independent risk factors of renal recovery after cardiac surgery while recovery of urine output was the favorable factor.Cardiac surgery usually induces high AKI incidence and poor prognosis, which closely associated with many risk factors in peri-operative stage. The incidence of AKI is related to a number of perioperative risk factors. Heart transplantation, aneurysm surgery, CABG combined valve surgery are high risk surgeries.

It has been known for quite a long time that polymers filled with electrically conductive particles, foils or fibres exhibit a distinctive dependence of conductivity on filler volume fraction. With a rise in filler content, there is always a drastic increase in composite conductivity by the order of ten magnitudes at a certain threshold, namely, the critical volume fraction. Such a transition-like change in conductivity is usually interpreted as percolation. Many models have been proposed for explaining the conduction mechanism involved, but often they possess evident drawbacks mainly due to the negligence of relative filler arrangements or the Euclidean geometric description of the arrays. The present work focused on the prediction of the critical volume fraction by a new electrical conductive model, based on the fractal technique and the generalized unit-cell method proposed by Pitchumani and Yao for modelling the thermal conductivity of fibrous composites. It was found that the electrical conduction behaviour of a polymer composite is governed by both a filler geometry factor and a material factor of the components. The critical volume fractions estimated by the model are in good agreement with experimental results taken from the literature. In addition, possible improvements of the present approach are discussed.

The surface composition and structure of solid organic polymers influence many of their properties and applications. Oligomers such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) poly(butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) and their graft copolymers of polybutadiene and polypropylene were used as the macromolecular surface modifiers of polypropylene. The compositions on surface and in bulk of the polypropylene (PP) blends were determined quantitatively using attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopic (ATR-FTIR) technique with a variable-angle multiple-reflection ATR accessory and FTIR measurements, respectively. By validating by Lambert-Beer law, 1103 and 1733 cm(-1) can be used to represent modifiers characteristic absorbance band to determine quantitatively the surface composition of modifiers including poly(ethylene glycol) and carbonyl segment in PP blends, respectively. The determination error can be effectively eliminated by calibrating wavelength and using absorption peak area ratio as the calibrating basis for the quantitative analysis. To minimize the effect of contact between the polymer film and the internal reflection element on the results of absolute absorbance, the technique of "band ratioing" was developed, and it was testified that the error of the peak area ratios of interest can be reduced to 5% or below, which was suitable for ATR-FTIR used as a determining quantitative tool for surface composition. The working curves were then established and used to calculate the composition of the responding functional groups in the film surface of the PP blends. The depth distribution of modifiers on the surface of blend films also can be determined by changing the incident angle of interest on the basis of the equation of the depth of penetration of the excursion wave in ATR spectra. The results indicated that ATR-FTIR can be used to determine quantitatively the surface composition and distribution of modifiers with reproducible and reliable measurement results.

Structure des formes α et β. Influence de la masse moleculaire, de la temperature de cristallisation et du recuit

Intrinsic drug resistance has been demonstrated in different types of breast cancer cells, leading to the recurrence of disease after treatment. Here, we report a functional drug liposome that enables electric charge conversion in the weak acidic milieu of cancer to enhance the treatment efficacy of different breast cancers. The functional drug liposomes were developed by encapsulating daunorubicin and rofecoxib, and modified with a new functional material, D-alpha tocopherol acid succinate-polyethylene glycol-glutarate (TPGS1000-glutarate). The results demonstrated that the liposomes evidently promoted the effects of cellular uptake and lysosomal escape, followed by targeting the mitochondria. Consequently, the electric charge conversable drug liposomes significantly enhanced the treatment efficacy by initiating a cascade of reactions through inducing autophagy and apoptosis in different breast cancer cells. In conclusion, the electric charge conversable drug liposomes enable to enhance treatment efficacy of different breast cancers, and hence the study could offer broadly applicable strategy to enhance efficacy against heterogeneous and refractory cancer cells.