Dual-plasmonic Au@Cu7S4 yolk@shell nanocrystals for photocatalytic hydrogen production across visible to near infrared spectral region.

Near infrared energy remains untapped toward the maneuvering of entire solar spectrum harvesting for fulfilling the nuts and bolts of solar hydrogen production. We report the use of Au@Cu7S4 yolk@shell nanocrystals as dual-plasmonic photocatalysts to achieve remarkable hydrogen production under visible and near infrared illumination. Ultrafast spectroscopic data reveal the prevalence of long-lived charge separation states for Au@Cu7S4 under both visible and near infrared excitation. Combined with the advantageous features of yolk@shell nanostructures, Au@Cu7S4 achieves a peak quantum yield of 9.4% at 500 nm and a record-breaking quantum yield of 7.3% at 2200 nm for hydrogen production in the absence of additional co-catalysts. The design of a sustainable visible- and near infrared-responsive photocatalytic system is expected to inspire further widespread applications in solar fuel generation. In this work, the feasibility of exploiting the localized surface plasmon resonance property of self-doped, nonstoichiometric semiconductor nanocrystals for the realization of wide-spectrum-driven photocatalysis is highlighted.

Development and usability of a Mobile Interactive Application (VCPW) for Vascular Crisis Prewarning after Skin Flap Transplantation.

Background: In microsurgical tissue transfer, skin flap transplantation is frequently used to heal the surface of a wound. Effective microcirculation surveillance of the skin flap is crucial. However, with traditional monitoring methods-that is, clinical observation-vascular crisis can still occur, thereby impairing postoperative recovery. A smartphone application is required to assist health care professionals in the standardized collection of flap perfusion parameters for flap management. Methods: The Vascular Crisis Prewarning Application was created using a design science research methodology that prioritizes users and problems. The system usability scale was used to assess the application's usability among medical practitioners. The application was used at the clinic from December 2020 to September 2022. The unplanned return to the operating room, time to diagnose vascular crisis, and flap survival rate were compared with and without the application. Results: The application consisted of 5 modules: patient addition and basic information entry, flap labeling, flap observation, crisis warning, and case archiving. The average rating for the application's usability among medical practitioners was 97.95 score (SD 2.36). With the application, the time to detect vascular crisis reduced from 26.71 to 16.26 h (P < 0.001), the unplanned return to the operation room increased from 8.18% to 10.24% (P = 0.587), and the flap survival rate went from 94.55% to 99.21% (P = 0.083). Conclusions: An easy-to-use flap perfusion monitoring and prewarning application for medical practitioners was produced using a user-centered development method. The application provided a more standardized and accurate platform for data collection in flap management and reduced the time to detect vascular crisis. Larger cohort studies are required in the future to better assess the full potential of the application.

High-speed scanless entire bandwidth mid-infrared chemical imaging.

Mid-infrared spectroscopy probes molecular vibrations to identify chemical species and functional groups. Therefore, mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging is one of the most powerful and promising candidates for chemical imaging using optical methods. Yet high-speed and entire bandwidth mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging has not been realized. Here we report a mid-infrared hyperspectral chemical imaging technique that uses chirped pulse upconversion of sub-cycle pulses at the image plane. This technique offers a lateral resolution of 15 µm, and the field of view is adjustable between 800 µm × 600 µm to 12 mm × 9 mm. The hyperspectral imaging produces a 640 × 480 pixel image in 8 s, which covers a spectral range of 640-3015 cm-1, comprising 1069 wavelength points and offering a wavenumber resolution of 2.6-3.7 cm-1. For discrete frequency mid-infrared imaging, the measurement speed reaches a frame rate of 5 kHz, the repetition rate of the laser. As a demonstration, we effectively identified and mapped different components in a microfluidic device, plant cell, and mouse embryo section. The great capacity and latent force of this technique in chemical imaging promise to be applied to many fields such as chemical analysis, biology, and medicine.

Few-cycle THz wave manipulation with a high degree of freedom via f-t modulation.

THz waves have been intensively applied in many fields, e.g., spectroscopy, imaging, and communications. However, owing to the rarity of available techniques for manipulating circularly polarized few-cycle THz waves on picosecond time scales, most of the current studies are conducted with linearly polarized THz waves. Here we demonstrate circularly polarized (CP) THz (dual) pulses generated by a polarization-twisting pulse/dual pulse (PTP/PTDP). The polarization-twisting optical dual pulses can be generated via a modified Michelson interferometer (MI) system, which provides the ability to control the frequency, helicity, and time interval of the dual pulses arbitrarily and individually. Such a novel, to the best of our knowledge, modulation technique shows huge potential for applications, not only in imaging and spectroscopy but also in next-generation communications.

Energy-Resolved Ultrafast Spectroscopic Investigation on the Spin-Coupled Electronic States in Multiferroic Hexagonal HoMnO3.

A complete temperature-dependent scheme of the Mn3+ on-site d-d transitions in multiferroic hexagonal HoMnO3 (h-HoMnO3) thin films was unveiled by energy-resolved ultrafast spectroscopy. The results unambiguously revealed that the ultrafast responses of the e1g and e2g states differed significantly in the hexagonal HoMnO3. We demonstrated that the short-range antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric orderings are more relevant to the e2g state, whereas the long-range antiferromagnetic ordering is intimately coupled to both the e2g and e1g states. Moreover, the primary thermalization times of the e2g and e1g states were 0.34 ± 0.08 ps and 0.38 ± 0.08 ps, respectively.

High Intensity Interval Training: A Potential Method for Treating Sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia, an age-related disease characterized by loss of muscle strength and muscle mass, has attracted the attention of medical experts due to its severe morbidity, low living quality, high expenditure of health care, and mortality. Traditionally, persistent aerobic exercise (PAE) is considered as a valid way to attenuate muscular atrophy. However, nowadays, high intensity interval training (HIIT) has emerged as a more effective and time-efficient method to replace traditional exercise modes. HIIT displays comprehensive effects on exercise capacity and skeletal muscle metabolism, and it provides a time-out for the recovery of cardiopulmonary and muscular functions without causing severe adverse effects. Studies demonstrated that compared with PAE, HIIT showed similar or even higher effects in improving muscle strength, enhancing physical performances and increasing muscle mass of elder people. Therefore, HIIT might become a promising way to cope with the age-related loss of muscle mass and muscle function. However, it is worth mentioning that no study of HIIT was conducted directly on sarcopenia patients, which is attributed to the suspicious of safety and validity. In this review, we will assess the effects of different training parameters on muscle and sarcopenia, summarize previous papers which compared the effects of HIIT and PAE in improving muscle quality and function, and evaluate the potential of HIIT to replace the status of PAE in treating old people with muscle atrophy and low modality; and point out drawbacks of temporary experiments. Our aim is to discuss the feasibility of HIIT to treat sarcopenia and provide a reference for clinical scientists who want to utilize HIIT as a new way to cope with sarcopenia.

Generation of sub-half-cycle 10 µm pulses through filamentation at kilohertz repetition rates.

We have experimentally demonstrated the generation of sub-half-cycle phase-stable pulses with the carrier wavelength of 10.2 µm through two-color filamentation in nitrogen. The carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the MIR pulse is passively stabilized and controlled by the attosecond time delay between the two-color input pulses. The duration of the MIR pulse is 13.7 fs, which corresponds to 0.402 cycles. The absolute value of the CEP of the generated sub-half-cycle pulse is consistent with a simple four-wave difference frequency generation model. We have also found that the 10 kHz repetition rate of the light source causes the fluctuation of the pulse energy on a few hundred millisecond time scale.

The Application of Deep Learning in the Risk Grading of Skin Tumors for Patients Using Clinical Images.

According to diagnostic criteria, skin tumors can be divided into three categories: benign, low degree and high degree malignancy. For high degree malignant skin tumors, if not detected in time, they can do serious harm to patients' health. However, in clinical practice, identifying malignant degree requires biopsy and pathological examination which is time costly. Furthermore, in many areas, due to the severe shortage of dermatologists, it's inconvenient for patients to go to hospital for examination. Therefore, an easy to access screening method of malignant skin tumors is needed urgently. Firstly, we spend 5 years to build a dataset which includes 4,500 images of 10 kinds of skin tumors. All instances are verified pathologically thus trustworthy; Secondly, we label each instance to be either low-risk, high-risk or dangerous in which Junctional nevus, Intradermal nevus, Dermatofibroma, Lipoma and Seborrheic keratosis are low-risk, Basal cell carcinoma, Bowen's disease and Actinic keratosis are high-risk, Squamous cell carcinoma and Malignant melanoma are dangerous; Thirdly, we apply the Xception architecture to build the risk degree classifier. The area under the curve (AUC) for three risk degrees reach 0.959, 0.919 and 0.947 respectively. To further evaluate the validity of the proposed risk degree classifier, we conduct a competition with 20 professional dermatologists. The results showed the proposed classifier outperforms dermatologists. Our system is helpful to patients in preliminary screening. It can identify the patients who are at risk and alert them to go to hospital for further examination.

In the human sperm nucleus, nucleosomes form spatially restricted domains consistent with programmed nucleosome positioning.

In human sperm, a fraction of its chromatin retains nucleosomes that are positioned on specific sequences containing genes and regulatory units essential for embryonic development. This nucleosome positioning (NP) feature provides an inherited epigenetic mark for sperm. However, it is not known whether there is a structural constraint for these nucleosomes and, if so, how they are localized in a three-dimensional (3D) context of the sperm nucleus. In this study, we examine the 3D organization of sperm chromatin and specifically determine its 3D localization of nucleosomes using structured illumination microscopy. A fraction of the sperm chromatin form nucleosome domains (NDs), visible as microscopic puncta ranging from 40 µm to 700 µm in diameter, and these NDs are precisely localized in the post acrosome region (PAR), outside the sperm's core chromatin. Further, NDs exist mainly in sperm from fertile men in a pilot survey with a small sample size. Together, this study uncovers a new spatially-restricted sub-nuclear structure containing NDs that are consistent with NPs of the sperm, which might represent a novel mark for healthy sperm in human.

Role of Different Blood Purification Nursing Models in Uremic Patients: A Preliminary Report.

BACKGROUND Accumulation of uremic toxins is closely associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related complications such as cerebrovascular accidents and cardiovascular diseases. Clinical nursing is accepted as a critical clinical prognosis factor for hospitalized patients. The present study was designed to compare the effects of different blood purification nursing models on clinical outcomes in patients with uremia. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 68 patients with uremia were selected and divided to control and intervention groups. The patients in the control group received traditional nursing model care, while the patients in intervention group received comprehensive high-quality nursing care for 6 months. RESULTS After 6 months of treatment, the quality of life, anxiety, and depression were obviously ameliorated in both groups. The levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), parathyroid hormone (PTH), creatinine, ß2-microglobulin (ß2-MG), total cholesterol (TC), albumin (ALB), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), 8-isoprostane, and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were all significantly improved in both groups of patients, but the intervention group exhibited better results than the control group. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrated that comprehensive high-quality nursing care rectified the metabolic disorders and inhibited systematic inflammatory factors, and oxidative stress, which may be responsible for better amelioration of quality of life in patients with uremia.

Gene repressive activity of RIP140 through direct interaction with CDK8.

Receptor interacting protein 140 (RIP140) is a coregulator for numerous nuclear receptors and transcription factors and primarily exerts gene-repressive activities on various target genes. We previously identified a spectrum of posttranslational modifications on RIP140 that augment its property and biological activity. In T(3)-triggered biphasic regulation of cellular retinoic acid binding protein 1 (Crabp1) gene along the course of fibroblast-adipocyte differentiation, we found TRAP220(MED1) critical for T(3)-activated chromatin remodeling whereas RIP140 essential for T(3)-repressive chromatin remodeling of this gene promoter. In this current study, we aim to examine whether and how RIP140 replaces TRAP220(MED1) on the CrabpI promoter in differentiating adipocyte cultures. We find increasing recruitment of RIP140 to this promoter, with corresponding reduction in TRAP220(MED1) recruitment during the T(3)-repressive phase. We also uncover direct interaction of RIP140 with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)8 through the amino terminus of RIP140, which is stimulated by lysine acetylation on RIP140. We further validate the biological activity of lysine acetylation-mimetic RIP140, which elicits a stronger repressive effect and more efficiently recruits CDK8 and confirm CDK8's function in recruiting repressive components, such as G9a, to the RIP140 complex on this promoter. This underlies the T(3)-triggered repression of CrabpI gene. This study illustrates a new gene-repressive mechanism of RIP140 that can affect the transcription machinery by directly interacting with CDK8.

Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer by surface imprinting technique and its performance for adsorption of dibenzothiophene.

The novel surface imprinted polymer composites (MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9)) were prepared using dibenzothiophene (DBT) as the template, 4-vinylpyridine as the functional monomer and potassium tetratitanate whisker (K(2)Ti(4)O(9)) as the carrier. The synthetic product was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Parameters influencing DBT adsorption such as contact time, temperature and DBT initial concentration were investigated. The adsorption kinetics were evaluated with the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models, and the adsorption isotherms were fitted by Langmuir and Freundlich models. Selectivity experiments showed that MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9) exhibited excellent recognition capacity and binding affinity to DBT compared with the comparative substrates. MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9) could also be easily regenerated and reused ten times with only about 20% loss of adsorption capacity.

Promyelocytic leukemia protein in retinoic acid-induced chromatin remodeling of Oct4 gene promoter.

Promyelocytic leukemia (Pml) protein is required for Oct4 gene expression and the maintenance of its open chromatin conformation in stem cells. In proliferating stem cells, Pml-nuclear body, along with transcription factors TR2, steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1) and Sp1, and Brg1-dependent chromatin remodeling complex (BRGC), associates with conserved region 1 (CR1) of this promoter to maintain a nucleosome-free region for gene activity. Retinoic acid (RA) rapidly downregulates Pml, resulting in the replacement of BRGC with Brm-containing remodeling complex, disassociation of SF1 and Sp1, retaining of TR2, recruitment of receptor-interaction protein 140, G9a and HP1γ, and sequential insertion of two nucleosomes on CR1 that progressively displays repressive heterochromatin marks. This study demonstrates a functional role for Pml in maintaining a specific open chromatin conformation of the Oct4 promoter region for its constant expression in stem cells; and illustrates the mechanism underlying RA-induced chromatin remodeling of Oct4 gene in differentiating cells, in which Pml plays a critical role. The study also demonstrates a novel mode of chromatin remodeling, which occurs by repositioning and sequentially inserting nucleosomes into a specific region of the gene promoter to compact the chromatin in differentiating cells.

Modified agarose gel for high-performance Southern blotting of short DNA fragments.

Southern blotting is a common method used for the study of gene organization. Current methods of DNA transfer for Southern blotting, however, can be inefficient for high concentration agarose gels. Here, we report a method for high-performance Southern blotting of short DNA fragments such as nucleosomal DNAs by using a discontinuous agarose zone gel. The results show that sharp and well-resolved fractionation of short DNA fragments comparable to that from a high-concentration agarose gel could be obtained using a low-concentration agarose gel with a small zone of high-concentration agarose, and that the resulting DNA transfer is highly efficient and rapid.

RIP140 in thyroid hormone-repression and chromatin remodeling of Crabp1 gene during adipocyte differentiation.

Cellular retinoic acid binding protein 1 (Crabp1) gene is biphasically (proliferation versus differentiation) regulated by thyroid hormone (T3) in 3T3-L1 cells. This study examines T3-repression of Crabp1 gene during adipocyte differentiation. T3 repression of Crabp1 requires receptor interacting protein 140 (RIP140). During differentiation, the juxtaposed chromatin configuration of Crabp1 promoter with its upstream region is maintained, but the 6-nucleosomes spanning thyroid hormone response element to transcription initiation site slide bi-directionally, with the third nucleosome remaining at the same position throughout differentiation. On the basal promoter, RIP140 replaces coactivators GRIP1 and PCAF and forms a repressive complex with CtBP1, HDAC3 and G9a. Initially active chromatin marks on this promoter, histone modifications H3-Ac and H3K4-me3, are weakened whereas repressive chromatin marks, H3K9-me3 and H3K27-me3 modification and recruitment of G9a, HP1alpha, HP1gamma and H1, are intensified. This is the first study to examine chromatin remodeling, during the phase of hormone repression, of a bi-directionally regulated hormone target gene, and provides evidence for a functional role of RIP140 in chromatin remodeling to repress hormone target gene expression.

[Cloning and functional analysis of cysI gene involved in siderophores biosynthesis in Pseudomonas mosselii E1].

A siderophores-producing strain E1 was isolated from the rhizosphere of cotton. Its 16S rDNA is identical to that of Pseudomonas mosselii sp. nov. at 100% level. The suicide plasmid pRL1063a carrying Tn5-1063 was introduced into E1 by triparental mating and 1000 transposon insertion mutants were subsequently screened using CAS assay. One mutant deficiency in siderophores production was obtained, namely, E1-185. DNA sequences flanking Tn5-1063 of E1-185 was amplified by TAIL-PCR. According to the DNA sequencing results, it is found that Tn5-1063 was inserted into cysI gene. The cysI of E1 is identical to that of Pseudomonas entomophila. L48 at 96% level, and similarity of amino acid sequences of their CysI is 97% . The cysI gene is required for the synthesis of cysteine. However, The ability in siderophores production of E1-185 on the plate of CAS with cysteine was recovered. It is indicated that cysI play an important role during the synthesis of siderophores. It was supposed that cysI is involved in the synthesis of acyl-S-PCPs, which is the key protein in the synthesis pathway of siderophores.

Two types of new ferritin cDNA sequences from Xenopus laevis germinal vesicle oocytes.

Some of Xenopus ferritin cDNA family genes have already been sequenced. In this study, we report that two ferritin cDNA genes have been cloned from the Xenopus laevis germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes. The deduced proteins have different lengths with varied sequences when compared with the published Xenopus ferritins. One of them is the ferritin light chain homologous (LCH), which is reported for the first time in Xenopus and the other is the ferritin heavy chain homologous (HCH) that is first reported in Xenopus GV oocyte.