Hydrogels for Chemical Sensing and Biosensing.

The development and synthesis of hydrogels for chemical and biosensing are of great value. Hydrogels can be tailored to its own physical structure, chemical properties, biocompatibility, and sensitivity to external stimuli when being used in a specific environment. Herein, hydrogels and their applications in chemical and biosensing are mainly covered. In particular, it is focused on the manner in which hydrogels serve as sensing materials to a specific analyte. Different types of responsive hydrogels are hence introduced and summarized. Researchers can modify different chemical groups on the skeleton of the hydrogels, which make them as good chemical and biosensing materials. Hydrogels have great application potential for chemical and biosensing in the biomedical field and some emerging fields, such as wearable devices.

[Impact of deep slow-wave sleep deprivation on oxidative stress response of the testis tissue in rats].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of deep slow-wave sleep deprivation on the oxidative stress of testicular tissue in rats. METHODS: Thirty-six 5-week-old male Wistar rats were equally randomized into deep slow-wave sleep deprivation group (SD1), deep slow-wave sleep and duration sleep deprivation group ( SD2), and a cage control group (CC). The rat model of deep slow-wave sleep deprivation was established using the flowerpot technique. The rats in the SD1 group were interfered every 24 minutes and deprived of 12 hours of sleep at night, those in the SD2 group deprived of 8 minutes of sleep at an interval of 24 minutes and 12 hours of sleep at night, and those in the CC group exposed to 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. After 28 days, all the rats were executed for measurement of the testis volume and protein content, determination of the methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA) level and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and observation of the pathological changes in the testicular tissue under the microscope. RESULTS: Compared with the CC group, the rats in the SD1 and SD2 groups showed significantly reduced body weight (ï¼»268.5 ± 1.6ï¼½ vs ï¼»248.1 ± 25.1ï¼½andï¼»232.9 ± 10.1ï¼½g, P<0.05) and increased relative testis mass (ï¼»50.0 ± 1.3ï¼½ vs ï¼»57.9 ± 6.1ï¼½ and ï¼»54.9 ± 3.5ï¼½ ×10⁻², P<0.05). Statistically significant differences were found between the CC and SD2 groups in the contents of protein (ï¼»6.3 ± 1.4ï¼½ vs ï¼»4.5 ± 0.9ï¼½ gpro/L, P<0.05) and MDA (ï¼»1.1 ± 0.1ï¼½ vs ï¼»1.3 ± 0.3ï¼½ nmol/mgpro, P<0.05) and the activities of SOD (ï¼»104.3 ± 33.1ï¼½ vs ï¼»135.2 ± 26.9ï¼½ U/mgpro, P<0.05) and GSH-Px (ï¼»15.6 ± 4.0ï¼½ vs ï¼»21.7 ± 4.3ï¼½ U/mgpro, P<0.05), but not between the CC and SD1 groups (P>0.05). The lumens in the testis were narrowed, with obvious hyperplasia, hyperemia and edema in the peripheral interstitial tissue, but no significant pathologic changes were observed in the testis tissue of the SD1 group. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term deprivation of deep slow-wave sleep impairs the structure of the testis tissue and induces oxidative stress response in rats.

How the COVID-19 pandemic affects job sentiments of rural teachers.

This study investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected teachers' job-specific stresses and their enthusiasm for the teaching occupation. We use unique data from China that cover the periods before and after the start of the pandemic and apply various estimation methods. We find that, among rural young teachers, the pandemic has caused higher teaching stress and career development stress and has reduced passion toward the teaching occupation. We investigate the working channels of the pandemic, including changes in job-related activities and social network. After controlling for possible working channels, the COVID-19 pandemic still shows a strong direct impact on job sentiments.

PSMP Is Discriminative for Chronic Active Antibody-Mediated Rejection and Associate With Intimal Arteritis in Kidney Transplantation.

Chronic active antibody-mediated rejection (CAAMR) is an intermediate process that occurs during the development of chronic antibody-mediated rejection (CAMR), which is a key problem associated with the long-term kidney grafts survival. This study investigated the role played by PC3-secreted microprotein (PSMP) in the progression of CAAMR and CAMR. We showed that CAAMR and CAMR patients' allografts dysfunction with declined survival rate, which suggested that earlier diagnosis and treatment of CAAMR might be important to prevent irreversible chronic injury of CAMR progression. We found PSMP was an important factor in the development of chronic antibody-mediated rejection. The PSMP expression increased significantly in CAAMR biopsy samples but not in CAMR and control patients, which distinguished CAAMR patients from CAMR and non-rejection patients. Moreover, our results showed that infiltration of CD68+ macrophages in CAAMR increased, and the correlation between CD68+ macrophages and PSMP expression in CAAMR patients was significant. Additionally, our data also revealed that intimal arteritis (v-lesion) accompanied by increased macrophage infiltration might have contributed to more graft loss in CAAMR, and PSMP expression was significantly associated with the v-lesion score. These results indicated that PSMP played an important role in the recruitment of macrophages and promote intimal arteritis inducing allograft lost in CAAMR progression. In future study PSMP could be a potential histopathological diagnostic biomarker and treatment target for CAAMR in kidney transplantation.

Competitive adsorption desulfurization performance over K - Doped NiY zeolite.

NiY and KNiY were successfully prepared by impregnation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 sorption (BET), scanning electron microscope (SEM), infrared spectrum (IR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The competitive adsorption mechanisms of adsorbents were studied by in situ FTIR to explain different desulfurization performance which was evaluated in a miniature fixed-bed flow by gasoline model compounds with 1-hexene or toluene. NiY and KNiY adsorbents showed better desulfurization performance than HY zeolite due to the high selectivity of loaded active metals. Especially, KNiY adsorbent showed its advantages in desulfurization performance with 5vol% olefins or 5vol% aromatics involvement. It could be assigned that introduced K cation enhanced dispersion and content of active Ni species on the surface which made Ni species reduce easily. On the other hand, adsorption mechanisms showed that the protonation reactions of thiophene and 1-hexene occurred on the Brönsted acid sites of NiY, which resulted in pore blockage and the coverage of adsorption active centers. By doping K cation on NiY, the amount of the Brönsted acid sites of NiY was decreased and protonation reactions were weaken. Therefore, the negative effects of Brönsted acid sites were reduced.