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A heavy-atom-free photosensitizer (CI) showed strong singlet oxygen generation, efficient photodynamic therapy and fluorescence bioimaging under two-photon excitation.

The effective detecting ONOO− variations in vivo is of great importance to well understand the complex pathophysiological processes. We reported here a photoacoustic (PA) probe AZB-1 for imaging ONOO− in vivo. AZB-1 showed an originally strong photoacoustic signal at 660 nm. And its PA signal can be turned off by shutting the ICT effect caused by the conjugated electron withdrawing group at 2-position of the aza-BODIPY core. Moreover, the probe was successfully employed to imaging ONOO− variations in inflammatory mice models. Wisely utilized this strategy may serve as powerful platforms for the preparation of novel PA chemosensors.

This review presents a robust strategy to design photosensitizers (PSs) for various species. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a photochemical-based treatment approach that involves the use of light combined with a light-activated chemical, referred to as a PS. Attractively, PDT is one of the alternatives to conventional cancer treatment due to its noninvasive nature, high cure rates, and low side effects. PSs play an important factor in photoinduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Although the concept of photosensitizer-based photodynamic therapy has been widely adopted for clinical trials and bioimaging, until now, to our surprise, there has been no relevant review article on rational designs of organic PSs for PDT. Furthermore, most of published review articles in PDT focused on nanomaterials and nanotechnology based on traditional PSs. Therefore, this review aimed at reporting recent strategies to develop innovative organic photosensitizers for enhanced photodynamic therapy, with each example described in detail instead of providing only a general overview, as is typically done in previous reviews of PDT, to provide intuitive, vivid, and specific insights to the readers.

In this article, we designed and synthesized the thionated NpImidazole derivatives BS and NS, new heavy-atom-free photosensitizers, which efficiently generate a triplet excited state with high singlet oxygen quantum yield. The introduction of the C═S bond to the NpImidazole core is essential for increasing spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The fluorescence emission of BS and NS was quenched at standard ambient temperature, accompanied with the increase in the ISC process from the singlet states to triplet excited states via thionation. BS and NS showed negligible dark cytotoxicity against HeLa cells in working concentration. In contrast, BS and NS rapidly induced cell death under blue light irradiation both under normoxia and hypoxia conditions. Our current study demonstrates that the C═S group can play an important role in type I ROS generation of PSs, which are unprecedented in the previous reports. Finally, the photophysical changes were assigned to the oxidative desulfurization of the C═S group of BS and NS to the C═O group of the corresponding BO and NO via hypochlorite. The combined results demonstrated the dual function of BS and NS as a fluorescent imaging agent for ClO- and an anti-cancer therapeutic by PDT that showed the potential strategy for "one-for-all" and multifunctional agents.

Substituted vinyl ethers constitute some of the important substructures of bioactive compounds and a synthetically useful class of alkene functionalities because they are more electron-rich as comp...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Computer-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CCBT) and identify the characteristics of depressed adolescents that participated in the CCBT program.Screening tests for depression and help-seeking variables were conducted in school-aged Korean adolescents (n= 376, mean age=15.71 years, 53.7% female). The number of adolescents that scored above the threshold for mild depression (PHQ-9, CES-D) was 139. Fifty adolescents agreed to participate in the randomized controlled trial (RCT) of CCBT program. Twenty-five adolescents were randomly assigned to the treatment group, and the other 25 to the waitlist control group. The treatment group engaged in CCBT with therapeutic support. To identify variables affecting the outcomes, the quality of their homework compliance also was assessed.Participants (n=50) who agreed to participate in the CCBT program demonstrated different help-seeking attitudes - a greater recognition of the need for help and lower interpersonal openness - compared to the adolescents (n=87) who did not participate (t = -2.93, p.01; t = 3.50, p.001). The treatment group showed significant improvements in depression, self-esteem, and quality of life compared to the waitlist group. Adolescents with high homework compliance showed a significant decrease in the depression scores compared to adolescents with low homework compliance.Small sample size, no follow-up assessments.CCBT could be an effective alternative for depressed adolescents, especially those who tend to have low interpersonal openness. To improve the effects of CCBT, therapeutic support needs to be provided.

Cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH) are essential biothiols for cellular growth, metabolism, and maintenance of a biological system. Thus, the detection of biothiols is highly important for early diagnosis and evaluation of disease progression. In this article, a series of sulfonyl aza-BODIPYs was synthesized, characterized, and examined by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, crystallization, photophysical properties and DFT calculation. Among these structures, a fluorescent probe, BDP-1, exhibited selective detection of Cys among various biothiols via nucleophilic aromatic substitution and typical size of Cys molecules. BDP-1 showed color change and near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence enhancement after reaction with Cys to generate BDP-OH, confirmed by HRMS. The red shift of absorption wavelength showed a similar tendency resulting in time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). Furthermore, the calculated detection limit of BDP-1 toward Cys was 5.23 μM. This probe facilitates the colorimetric and fluorescent detection of Cys over other biothiols.

We prepared the monomer PCDA-HP composed of 5-hydroxy-N 1,N 3-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)isophthalamide (HP) as a cadmium ion tweezer and then polymerized them to form a polydiacetylene (PDA)-based sensor (PDA-HP), which displayed selective and sensitive colorimetric and fluorometric change upon addition of a cadmium ion (Cd2+) at both pH 7.4 and 6.8. The PDA-HP polymer was highly selective for Cd2+ over other metal ions with colorimetric change. In addition, the PDA-HP chemosensor also showed a red fluorescence change in the presence of Cd2+ at both pH 7.4 and 6.8. Naked-eye detection of Cd2+ was accomplished in an aqueous solution through a PDA-based sensor system. Finally, the lowest energy structure of an HP chelator was obtained by the crystal structure and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Communication about crime and the places it occurs has been an important area of study for criminology, sociology, public policy, and media scholars. Where incidents used to be communicated through word of mouth, physical evidence, and news outlets, recent advances in crime tracking, mapping, and mobile media have dramatically changed how individuals are informed about crime. Many organizations have adopted mobile text alerts, and recent advances in augmented reality (AR) technologies have made it possible to overlay visuals about crime on top of users’ physical surroundings. How people make sense of this visual, individualized, and location-specific crime information, however, is largely unknown and complicated by the fact that mobile technologies are challenging to study in situ, as people move through and experience urban place. Within the AR literature, while existing research has started to look at the ways that AR can affect people’s experience of place, the precise ways that people perceive and integrate AR displays into their understanding of place are still largely unexplored. This empirical study reports findings from a project utilizing AR as an urban probe, where we took participants ( N = 57) around to places in a large metropolitan area in the United States and showed them visual AR crime information overlaid on the physical place where they were moving through. After seeing these urban probes, participants were asked what they noticed, remembered, and thought occurred in that place when shown AR crime information. The analysis draws on Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial triad to explain how people read places through the lens of AR, and also how they extrapolate, speculate, and make associations from AR information. Based on these findings, this study discusses the implications for mobile media scholars and their understanding of visual place-based communication, as well as for designers and policymakers considering the use of AR to communicate crime information.

In this study, we report the fabrication of a highly sensitive colorimetric and fluorometric sensor comprising self-assembled polydiacetylene (PDA) liposomes for the measurement of cysteamine concentration. The N-maleimidomethanol (HM) moiety was used as the Michael addition acceptor, which reacts with the thiol groups in cysteamine to generate maleimide–thiol conjugation resulting in the conformational transition of the conjugated backbone. Furthermore, this chemosensor system displays a clear blue-to-red colorimetric transition in the presence of cysteamine among various biothiols with high selectivity and sensitivity owing to the structural specificity of cysteamine. The resulting PDA solutions were analyzed via FE-SEM, UV-vis, fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, and chromoisomerism for naked-eye visualization. This chemosensor provides a convenient method for the detection of cysteamine in aqueous solution and in real samples.

BackgroundOncolytic virus immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer immunotherapy by efficiently inducing both oncolysis and systemic immune activation. Locoregional administration has been used for oncolytic virus therapy, but its applications to deep-seated cancers have been limited. Although systemic delivery of the oncolytic virus would maximize viral immunotherapy’s potential, this remains a hurdle due to the rapid removal of the administered virus by the complement and innate immune system. Infected cells produce some vaccinia viruses as extracellular enveloped virions, which evade complement attack and achieve longer survival by expressing host complement regulatory proteins (CRPs) on the host-derived envelope. Here, we generated SJ-600 series oncolytic vaccinia viruses that can mimic complement-resistant extracellular enveloped virions by incorporating human CRP CD55 on the intracellular mature virion (IMV) membrane.MethodsThe N-terminus of the human CD55 protein was fused to the transmembrane domains of the six type I membrane proteins of the IMV; the resulting recombinant viruses were named SJ-600 series viruses. The SJ-600 series viruses also expressed human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to activate dendritic cells. The viral thymidine kinase (J2R) gene was replaced by genes encoding the CD55 fusion proteins and GM-CSF.ResultsSJ-600 series viruses expressing human CD55 on the IMV membrane showed resistance to serum virus neutralization. SJ-607 virus, which showed the highest CD55 expression and the highest resistance to serum complement-mediated lysis, exhibited superior anticancer activity in three human cancer xenograft models, compared with the control Pexa-Vec (JX-594) virus, after single-dose intravenous administration. The SJ-607 virus administration elicited neutralizing antibody formation in two immunocompetent mouse strains like the control JX-594 virus. Remarkably, we found that the SJ-607 virus evades neutralization by vaccinia virus-specific antibodies.ConclusionOur new oncolytic vaccinia virus platform, which expresses human CD55 protein on its membrane, prolonged viral survival by protecting against complement-mediated lysis and by evading neutralization by vaccinia virus-specific antibodies; this may provide a continuous antitumor efficacy until a complete remission has been achieved. Such a platform may expand the target cancer profile to include deep-seated cancers and widespread metastatic cancers.

This study is the first to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the effects of physical exercise on South Korean women with disabilities using the data of previous studies. This study performed a meta-analysis of the effect sizes of exercise programs for women with disabilities using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0 and a total of 16 papers with 154 participants. The largest effect sizes were found for changes in muscle strength (d = 2.407) for treatment effects, horseback riding (d = 3.080) for exercise type, 45–50 min (d = 3.080) for duration of a single exercise session, three times (d = 0.963) for frequency of exercise per week, 15 weeks (d = 1.974) for period of exercise and 45 times (d = 1.974) for total number of sessions. The results of this meta-analysis showed that exercise programs suitable for the individual-level characteristics of disabled individuals can and should be developed and implemented.

This study examined the occurrence of emotion types and the contents and meanings of individual emotion types to improve the quality of life of South Korean senior patients in convalescent hospitals. This research is a sequential mixed study in which we conducted emotion frequency and content analyses with 20 elderly resident patients in a convalescent hospital. In the emotion frequency analysis, we performed emotion occurrence frequency analysis and clustering to create groups of subjects that showed similar distributions of emotions. The study results found that South Korean senior patients displayed six major emotions: joy, sorrow, anger, surprise, fear, and tranquility, including mixed emotional states. In the emotion content analysis, we used NVivo to categorize and analyze the interview contents based on emotion types. The study results show the characteristics of emotions according to patients’ treatment and recovery, life within narrow boundaries, relationships with new people and family, and the appearances of themselves that they could not easily but must accept. In addition, these characteristics appeared in health, environment, relationships, and psychological structures. Ultimately, the study results suggest that improving the quality of life of South Korean senior patients requires understanding of their emotions and examining diverse emotions in multiple dimensions.

Few studies have continuously examined the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy variables and career-related variables in South Korea’s specific cultural context. Accordingly, this study aims to analyse (using Pearson’s correlations and structural equation modelling) the relationships between South Korean college students’ career decision-making self-efficacy, career preparation behaviour, and career decision difficulties. There were positive and negative relationships between career decision-making self-efficacy and career preparation behaviour career decision difficulties, respectively. In addition, we found a positive effect between career preparation behaviour and career decision-making self-efficacy, while career decision difficulties negatively affected career decision-making self-efficacy. Considering the standardised coefficient of the specific direct effect, the effect on career decision-making self-efficacy of career preparation behaviour was larger than that of career decision difficulties. It is recommended that career programmes are developed that help college students to independently set their career goals, actively search for career information, and promote career preparation behaviour while considering their majors. It is also recommended career counselling programmes be designed that can help them establish their self-concept and identity. These findings could provide the necessary basic data for the construction of an effective college career guidance system and inform strategies for improving college students’ career decision-making self-efficacy.

A study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary selenium (Se) concentration and source for broiler chickens on performance, nutrient digestibility, plasma Se, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). A total of 700 1-day-old broiler chicks were assigned to 7 diets with 20 birds per cage and 5 replicates per treatment. The experimental diets were fed for 32 days in 2 phases (phase 1, day 0 to 14 and phase 2, day 15 to 32). Treatments were as follows: control (without Se supplementation), sodium selenite (SeS; 0.15, 0.30, or 0.45 ppm), and hot-melt extruded sodium selenite (SeHME; 0.15, 0.30, or 0.45 ppm). There were significant linear responses (P

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of hot melt extrusion (HME) nano-iron as an alternative for the common ferrous sulfate on iron (Fe) bioavailability, growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, and intestinal microbiota of weanling pigs. A total of 200 piglets (Landrace × Yorkshire × Duroc) were randomly allotted to seven treatments on the basis of initial body weight (BW) and sex. Treatments were the INO100 (100 ppm Fe as FeSO4), HME-Fe levels (50, 75, and 100 ppm nano-Fe as FeSO4). ORG100 (100 ppm Fe as iron methionine). In phase 1, the HME50 pigs showed the lowest Fe content in feed and feces. Plasma Fe concentration was increased in HME100 and ORG100 pigs. In phase 2, there were significantly lower concentration of Fe in feed and feces of HME50 pigs (p < 0.01). A lower Fe concentration in the plasma and liver were observed in HME50 pigs compared with HME100 pigs. Concentration of red blood cell (RBC) was the lowest (p < 0.01) for HME50 pigs. During phase 2, the HME100, HME75, and ORG100 pigs showed a higher RBC and hemoglobin values compared with HME50 pigs. Digestibility of gross energy (GE) and crude protein (CP) were significantly higher in HME100 pigs compared with HME50 pigs. There was an increased (p < 0.01) villus height in the duodenum and jejunum of HME100 pigs compared with HME50 pigs. It is concluded that dietary Fe does not improve growth performance of weanling pigs; however, increasing the dietary iron concentration in weanling piglets increased the RBC and hemoglobin. In addition, the potential ability of HME to be used at a lower level (HME75) was observed.

The effects of dietary supplementation of zinc (Zn) sources and concentrations were investigated on growth performance, absorption into tissues, fecal excretion, nutrient retention, and intestinal morphology in broilers fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet. A total of 525 one-day-old chicks (Ross 308) were assigned based on body weight to seven dietary treatments. There were five replicate pens for each treatment and 15 broilers per replicate pen. The dietary treatments included a basal diet (control, without supplementing Zn), and basal diet supplemented with Zn, as inorganic zinc sulfate (ZnS; 110 mg/kg); organic Zn-methionine (ZnM; 110 mg/kg); hot-melt extruded (HME) 25 zinc sulfate (27.5 mg/kg); HME50 zinc sulfate (55 mg/kg); HME75 zinc sulfate (82.5 mg/kg); or HME100 zinc sulfate (110 mg/kg) for 35 days in two phases (d 1-21, phase I and d 22-35, phase II). Bodyweight and feed efficiency of broiler chicks fed diets supplemented with increasing dietary concentrations of HME-Zn improved linearly during the study period (P

Encapsulating CdS quantum dots (QDs) into zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) can offer several advantages for photocatalysis. Various types of capping agents have been used to encapsulate QDs into ZIF-8 nanopores. An effective method for encapsulating CdS QDs into ZIF-8 is to use 2-mercaptoimidazole as the capping agent. This is because 2-mercaptoimidazole is similar to the imidazolate ligands of ZIFs and can used for capping active species with simultaneous encapsulation during the crystal growth of ZIF-8. Compared to other widely used capping agents such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), using 2-mercaptoimidazole for encapsulating CdS QDs into ZIF-8 revealed photocatalytic effects along with the molecular sieving effect when using differently sized molecular redox mediators such as methyl viologen (MV2+) and diquat (DQ2+).

As augmented reality (AR) technologies have become increasingly accessible, there are a range of industries that are interested in adopting and implementing AR. One field in particular that is actively interested in AR is for health and medicine. While there have been several studies about AR and health, the ways in which these studies conceptualize AR and the contexts in which they apply AR vary greatly. This chapter reviews the different areas of literature that have utilized AR, to see where there are commonalities and differences. Furthermore, this chapter illuminates how AR in particular could influence health outcomes based on its unique technical features and affordances. Based on this review, this chapter discusses several promising areas for AR and health and medicine, as well as important gaps and directions for future research.

Sensing and monitoring of pH changes in live cells are of great importance for understanding of cellular signaling responses. In this study, we developed a highly sensitive and selective pH sensor, rhodamine-based fluorescence dye 1. The fluorescent emission of 1 at 588 nm increased with the pH decreasing (from pH 7.0–4.0) due to the ring-opening of spirolactam by H+. 1 exhibited good water solubility, high quantum yield, and fast response to pH changes. Moreover, 1 can stain lysosomes in living cells with high photostability and low cytotoxicity. Importantly, 1 was used for monitoring pH changes in lysosomes induced by chloroquine, artesunate and dexamethasone. Therefore, our work provides the potential of probe 1 for visualizing the intracellular changes of pH in clinical and medical applications.