The regulating effect of boron doping and its concentration on the photocatalytic overall water splitting of a polarized g-C3N5 material.

Photocatalytic overall water splitting with two-dimensional materials is a promising strategy to solve the problems of environmental pollution and energy shortage. However, conventional photocatalysts are often limited to a narrow visible photo-absorption range, low catalytic activity, and poor charge separation. Herein, given the intrinsic polarization facilitating the improvement of photogenerated carrier separation, we adopt a polarized g-C3N5 material combining the doping strategy to alleviate the abovementioned problems. Boron (B), as a Lewis acid, has a great chance to improve the capture and catalytic activity of water. By doping B into g-C3N5, the overpotential for the complicated four-electron process of the oxygen reduction reaction is only 0.50 V. Simultaneously, the B doping-induced impurity state effectively reduces the band gap and broadens the photo-absorption range. Moreover, with the increase of B doping concentration, the photo-absorption range and catalytic activity can be gradually improved. Whereas when the concentration exceeds 33.3%, the reduction potential of the conduction band edge will not meet the demand for hydrogen evolution. Therefore, excessive doping is not recommended in experiments. Our work affords not only a promising photocatalyst but also a practical design scheme by combining polarizing materials and the doping strategy for overall water splitting.

Biochanin A as an α-hemolysin inhibitor for combating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a multidrug-resistant pathogen that poses a significant risk to global health today. In S. aureus, α-hemolysin is an important virulence factor as it contributes to the capacity of the bacteria to infect the host. Here, we showed that biochanin A (bioA), an isoflavone present in red clover, cabbage and alfalfa, effectively inhibited hemolytic activity at a dose as low as 32 µg/mL. Further, western blot and RT-qPCR data showed that bioA reduced the production and expression of MRSA hemolysin in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, when different concentrations of bioA were added to a coculture system of A549 cells and S. aureus, it could significantly decrease cell injury. Importantly, the in vivo study showed that bioA could protect mice from pneumonia caused by a lethal dose of MRSA, as evidenced by improving their survival and reducing the number of bacterial colonies in lung tissues, the secretion of hemolysin into alveolar lavage fluid and the degree of pulmonary edema. In conclusion, biochanin A protected the host from MRSA infection by inhibiting the expression of the hemolysin of MRSA, which may provide experimental evidence for its development to a potential anti-MRSA drug.

Polysubstituted 5-Phenylazopyrimidines: Extremely Fast Non-ionic Photochromic Oscillators.

Photochromic systems with an ultrahigh rate of thermal relaxation are highly desirable for the development of new efficient photochromic oscillators. Based on DFT calculations, we designed a series of 5-phenylazopyrimidines with strong push-pull character in silico and observed very low energy barriers for the thermal (Z)-to-(E) isomerization. The structure of the (Z)-isomer of the slowest isomerizing derivative in the series was confirmed by NMR analysis with in situ irradiation at low temperature. The substituents can tune the lifetime of thermal back isomerization from hundreds of microseconds to several nanoseconds (8 orders of magnitude). The photoswitching parameters were extracted from transient absorption techniques and a dominant rotation mechanism of the (Z)-to-(E) thermal fading was proposed based on DFT calculations.

ß-asarone induces viability and angiogenesis and suppresses apoptosis of human vascular endothelial cells after ischemic stroke by upregulating vascular endothelial growth factor A.

Ischemic stroke (IS) is a disease with a high mortality and disability rate worldwide, and its incidence is increasing per year. Angiogenesis after IS improves blood supply to ischemic areas, accelerating neurological recovery. ß-asarone has been reported to exhibit a significant protective effect against hypoxia injury. The ability of ß-asarone to improve IS injury by inducing angiogenesis has not been distinctly clarified. The experimental rats were induced with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) model cells were constructed using human microvascular endothelial cell line (HMEC-1) cells. Cerebral infarction and pathological damage were first determined via triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Then, cell viability, apoptosis, and angiogenesis were assessed by utilizing cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), flow cytometry, spheroid-based angiogenesis, and tube formation assays in OGD HMEC-1 cells. Besides, angiogenesis and other related proteins were identified with western blot. The study confirms that ß-asarone, like nimodipine, can ameliorate cerebral infarction and pathological damage. ß-asarone can also upregulate vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and induce phosphorylation of p38. Besides, the study proves that ß-asarone can protect against IS injury by increasing the expression of VEGFA. In vitro experiments affirmed that ß-asarone can induce viability and suppress apoptosis in OGD-mediated HMEC-1 cells and promote angiogenesis of OGD HMEC-1 cells by upregulating VEGFA. This establishes the potential for ß-asarone to be a latent drug for IS therapy.

Metal-Free Carbon Nitride Nanosheet Supported the Pentacoordinated Silicon Intermediates for Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting.

Photocatalytic overall water splitting is a promising approach to overcome the environmental and energy crisis. However, developing effective photocatalysts with well activity, light absorption, and photogenerated carrier lifetime is still a challenge. Herein, combining extensive first-principles and nonadiabatic molecular dynamics calculations, we find that microporous carbon-nitride nanosheets with a pyridinic nitrogen, such as C2N and C6N6, possess the pentacoordinated silicon intermediates' bonding environment. The pentacoordinated silicon as intermediates exhibits good photocatalytic performance for the difficult four-electronic oxygen evolution reaction. The overpotential is only 0.55 V for C2N, which is significantly lower than that of the tetracoordinated silicon intermediates (2.00 V). Simultaneously, the decoration of the silicon group not only widens the absorption range of visible light but also maintains the lifetime of photogenerated carriers on the nanosecond scale, which enhances the application efficiency of solar energy. Our work paves a new route for advancing photocatalytic overall water splitting.

Establishment and Analysis of a Combined Diagnostic Model of Alzheimer's Disease With Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition that causes cognitive decline over time. Because existing diagnostic approaches for AD are limited, improving upon previously established diagnostic models based on genetic biomarkers is necessary. Firstly, four AD gene expression datasets were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Two datasets were used to establish diagnostic models, and the other two datasets were used to verify the model effect. We merged GSE5281 with GSE44771 as the training dataset and found 120 DEGs. Then, we used random forest (RF) to screen 6 key genes (KLF15, MAFF, ITPKB, SST, DDIT4, and NRXN3) as being critical for separating AD and normal samples. The weights of these key genes were measured, and a diagnostic model was created using an artificial neural network (ANN). The area under the curve (AUC) of the model is 0.953, while the accuracy is 0.914. In the final step, two validation datasets were utilized to assess AUC performance. In GSE109887, our model had an AUC of 0.854, and in GSE132903, it had an AUC of 0.810. To summarize, we successfully identified key gene biomarkers and developed a new AD diagnostic model.

Sandwich-Polarized Heterojunction: Efficient Charge Separation and Redox Capability Protection for Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting.

Photocatalytic overall water splitting is a potential strategy to address energy crisis and environmental issues. However, it remains a great challenge to design an efficient photocatalyst, which not only possesses large spatial separation of photogenerated electrons and holes (PEH) to suppress recombination, but also can preserve the redox capability to drive the reaction. Herein, we design a new type of sandwich-polarized heterojunction by inserting a polarized semiconductor into the interlayer of the conventional photocatalyst. The inserted sublayer with out-of-plane polarization can induce a large electrostatic potential difference between the top and bottom photocatalytic sublayers. Then, the band edges of the top and bottom sublayers can be shifted to form the type II band alignment. Also, the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum will be located on different photocatalytic sublayers to facilitate the spatial separation of PEH. Simultaneously, different from the conventional type II heterojunction that reduces the redox capability, the electrostatic potential difference also acts as an auxiliary booster to offset the reduced redox potential of PEH. Taking the C2N/In2Se3/C2N heterojunction as an example, the polarized In2Se3 effectively promotes the interface transfer of PEH in 1-5 ps and extends the lifetime of PEH to ∼186 ns, which is about six times that of bilayer C2N. Simultaneously, the redox power of C2N is well preserved. Our work offers a promising scheme to advance the photocatalytic overall water splitting.

Bavachin Suppresses Alpha-Hemolysin Expression and Protects Mice from Pneumonia Infection by Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection causes dramatic harm to human health as well as to livestock development. As an important virulence factor, alpha-hemolysin (hla) is critical in the process of S. aureus infection. In this report, we found that bavachin, a natural flavonoid, not only efficiently inhibited the hemolytic activity of hla, but was also capable of inhibiting it on transcriptional and translational levels. Moreover, further data revealed that bavachin had no neutralizing activity on hla, which did not affect the formation of hla heptamers and exhibited no effects on the hla thermal stability. In vitro assays showed that bavachin was able to reduce the S. aureus-induced damage of A549 cells. Thus, bavachin repressed the lethality of pneumonia infection, lung bacterial load and lung tissue inflammation in mice, providing potent protection to mice models in vivo. Our results indicated that bavachin has the potential for development as a candidate hla inhibitor against S. aureus.

Direct formation of interlayer exciton in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures.

In atomically thin two-dimensional van der Waals (2D vdW) heterostructures, spatially separated interlayer excitons play an important role in the optoelectronic performance and show great potential for the exploration of many-body quantum phenomena. A commonly accepted formation mode for interlayer excitons is via a two-step intralayer exciton transfer mechanism, namely, photo-excited intralayer excitons are initially generated in individual sublayers, and photogenerated electrons and holes are then separated into opposite sublayers based on the type-II band alignment. Herein, we expand the concept of interlayer exciton formation and reveal that bright interlayer excitons can be generated in one step by direct interlayer photoexcitation in 2D vdW heterostructures that have strong interlayer coupling and a short photoexcitation channel. First-principles and many-body perturbation theory calculations demonstrate that indium selenide/antimonene and indium selenide/black phosphorus heterostructures are two promising systems that show an exceptionally large interlayer transition probability (>500 Debye2). This study enriches the understanding of interlayer exciton formation and provides a new avenue to acquiring strong interlayer excitons in artificial 2D vdW heterostructures.

Shen fu injection for patients with septic shock: Protocol for an updated systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Septic shock is a serious disease with high morbidity, which will lead to organ dysfunction. Shen fu injection (SFI) has been widely used for septic shock as a treatment in China. Many clinical trials have been reported that it could assess the efficacy and safety of SFI to cure septic shock and accelerate resuscitation. Reassessing the efficacy and safety of SFI as a treatment of patients with septic shock is the objective of this updated systematic review. METHODS: The following electronic databases major in English and Chinese will be conducted a systematic search until September 2018: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, Chinese BioMedical Literature Database, and Wan-fang Database. Randomized controlled trials of SFI will be included. Review Manager 5.2 software will be used for assessment of risk of bias, data synthesis, and subgroup analysis. We will conduct the GRADE system to assess the quality of evidence, if possible. RESULTS: This study will provide a rational synthesis of current evidences for SFI on septic shock. CONCLUSION: We hope our research results will provide an objective and reliable evidence to patients, clinicians and healthcare policymakers who are concerning the treatment options of SFI in septic shock. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016049332.

A Technique to Perform PCI and Stenting in an Anomalous RCA from the Left Sinus of Valsalva.

This describes a technique for the successful performance of percutaneous coronary intervention in patients whose right coronary artery arises from the left sinus of Valsalva and in whom the standard guiding catheters do not allow coaxial support.

Importance of measuring glycosylated hemoglobin in patients with myocardial infarction and known diabetes mellitus.

Although medical co-morbidities commonly affect clinical outcomes after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), current performance measures of AMI quality focus exclusively on the management of the AMI itself. However, patients with AMIs frequently present with other co-morbidities, such as diabetes mellitus (DM), that also warrant assessment and management. To date, the quality of DM evaluation in patients presenting with AMIs has not been described. From January 2003 to June 2004, the Prospective Registry Evaluating Myocardial Infarction Patients: Events and Recovery-Quality Improvement (PREMIER-QI) enrolled 3,953 patients with AMIs at 19 centers in the United States. The frequency of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) assessment, either during the hospitalization or documented in the chart from the preceding 3 months, was prospectively evaluated. Among 1,168 patients with AMIs with preexisting DM, only 47% had recent HbA(1c) levels available, with marked variability in HbA(1c) assessment among hospitals (range 7% to 81%). Among those with available HbA(1c) levels, 39% had good control (HbA(1c) <7%), 36% had suboptimal control (HbA(1c) 7% to 9%), and 25% had poor control (HbA(1c) >9%). Patients with suboptimal and poor control were more likely to have their DM treatment intensified than those without HbA(1c) assessment (for HbA(1c) 7% to 9%, rate ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 1.85; for HbA(1c) >9%, rate ratio 2.20, 95% confidence interval 1.68 to 2.88). Similarly, patients with DM who had HbA(1c) measured were more likely to receive instructions on DM disease management before discharge. In conclusion, the assessment of chronic glycemic control is highly variable among patients with AMIs and DM. Because much of this variability occurs at the hospital level, the evaluation of DM control could represent an additional quality indicator and an opportunity to advance patient-centered AMI care.