The brother's penalty: Boy preference and girls' health in rural China.

This paper identifies the health penalty experienced by girls due to having a brother from endogenous sibling gender composition. We propose a girls-to-girls comparison strategy and rule out the confounding effect from the sibship size, birth interval, and birth order. Employing an instrumental variable approach and data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies, we find that girls with a brother are demonstrably shorter and report poorer health. This "brother's penalty" manifests even prenatally. Alternative explanations, such as birth order disadvantages, are carefully addressed and ruled out. The results hold even after excluding gender-neutral ethnic minorities. This observed penalty is likely attributed to unequal resource allocation within families and potential parental neglect. This penalty is amplified in families with lower income and maternal education, implying resource constraints contribute to gender discrimination. Our findings highlight the importance of addressing intrafamily gender bias for ensuring equal opportunities and health outcomes. Clinical trial registration: Not applicable.

Near-Full-Spectrum Emission Realized in a Single Lead Halide Perovskite across the Visible-Light Region.

The engineering of tunable photoluminescence (PL) in single materials with a full-spectrum emission represents a highly coveted objective but poses a formidable challenge. In this context, the realization of near-full-spectrum PL emission, spanning the visible light range from 424 to 620 nm, in a single-component two-dimensional (2D) hybrid lead halide perovskite, (ETA)2PbBr4 (ETA+=(HO)(CH2)2NH3 +), is reported, achieved through high-pressure treatment. A pressure-induced phase transition occurs upon compression, transforming the crystal structure from an orthorhombic phase under ambient conditions to a monoclinic structure at high pressure. This phase transition driven by the adaptive and dynamic configuration changes of organic amine cations enables an effective and continuous narrowing of the band gap in this halide crystal. The hydrogen bonding interactions between inorganic layers and organic amine cations (N-H⋅⋅⋅Br and O-H⋅⋅⋅Br hydrogen bonds) efficiently modulate the organic amine cations penetration and the octahedral distortion. Consequently, this phenomenon induces a phase transition and results in red-shifted PL emissions, leading to the near-full-spectrum emission. This work opens a possibility for achieving wide PL emissions with coverage across the visible light spectrum by employing high pressure in single halide perovskites.

Design, synthesis, crystal structure, and in vitro antibacterial activities of sulfonamide derivatives bearing the 4-aminoquinazoline moiety.

A total of 66 sulfonamide derivatives bearing the 4-aminoquinazoline moiety were designed and synthesized, and their structures were fully characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HRMS techniques. Among them, the structures of compounds 5A10 and 5B11 were further confirmed through X-ray single-crystal diffraction analyses. The bioassay results indicated that some of the target compounds displayed higher inhibition activities in vitro against the tested phytopathogenic bacteria. For example, compound 5A26 exhibited a strong anti-Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc) efficacy with an EC50 (half-maximal effective concentration) value of 30.6 µg/mL, over twofold more active than control agent bismerthiazol (BMT). Additionally, compound 5B14 had a good antibacterial effect against the phytopathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citric (Xac) with EC50 = 34.5 µg/mL, significantly better than control agent BMT (71.5 µg/mL). The anti-Xoc mechanistic studies showed that compound 5A26 exerted its antibacterial efficacy by increasing the permeability of bacterial membrane, decreasing the content of extracellular polysaccharides, and triggering morphological changes of bacterial cells.

Engineering Elastic Properties of Isostructural Molecular Perovskite Ferroelectrics via B-Site Substitution.

Managing elastic properties of ABX3 type molecular perovskite ferroelectrics is critical to their future applications since these parameters determine their service durability and reliability in devices. The abundant structural and chemical viability of these compounds offer a convenient way to manipulate their elastic properties through a facile chemical approach. Here, the elastic properties and high-pressure behaviors of two isostructural perovskite ferroelectrics, MDABCO-NH4 I3 and MDABCO-KI3 (MDABCO = N-methyl-N'-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octonium) is systematically investigated, via the first principles calculations and high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. It is show that the simple replacement of NH4 + by K+ on the B-site respectively results in up to 48.1%, 52.4%, and 56.3% higher Young's moduli, shear moduli and bulk moduli, which is attributed to the much stronger KI coordination bonding than NH4 …I hydrogen bonding. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to tune elastic properties of molecular perovskite ferroelectrics via simply varying the framework assembling interactions.

Synthetic and Immunological Studies of Mycobacterial Lipoarabinomannan Oligosaccharides and Their Protein Conjugates.

Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) is one of the major constituents of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall and an attractive molecular scaffold for antituberculosis drug and vaccine development. In this paper, a convergent strategy was developed for the synthesis of LAM oligosaccharides with an α-1,2-linked dimannopyranose cap at the nonreducing end. The strategy was highlighted by efficient coupling of separately prepared nonreducing end and reducing end oligosaccharides. Glycosylations were mainly achieved with thioglycoside donors, which gave excellent yields and stereoselectivity even for reactions between complex oligosaccharides. The strategy was utilized to successfully synthesize tetra-, hepta-, and undecasaccharides of LAM from d-arabinose in 10, 15, and 14 longest linear steps and 7.84, 7.50, and 2.59% overall yields, respectively. The resultant oligosaccharides with a free amino group at their reducing end were effectively conjugated with carrier proteins, including bovine serum albumin and keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), via a bifunctional linker. Preliminary immunological studies on the KLH conjugates revealed that they could elicit robust antibody responses in mice and that the antigen structure had some influence on their immunological property, thus verifying the potential of the oligosaccharides for vaccine development and other immunological studies.

Synthesis and agricultural antimicrobial evaluation of new quinazoline derivatives containing both a piperazine linker and the N-acetyl moiety.

BACKGROUND: To discover more efficient agricultural antimicrobial agents, a series of new quinazoline derivatives containing both a piperazine linker and the N-acetyl moiety were prepared and assessed for their antibacterial and antifungal activities. RESULTS: All the target compounds were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR as well as high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), and the chemical structure of the most potent compound E19 incorporating a 4-trifluoromethoxy substituent was clearly confirmed via single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements. The bioassay results indicated that some compounds possessed notable inhibitory effects in vitro against the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc). For example, compound E19 had an EC50 (effective concentration for 50% activity) value of 7.1 µg/mL towards this pathogen, approximately 15- and 10-fold more effective than the commercial bactericides thiodiazole copper and bismerthiazol (EC50 = 110.2 and 72.4 µg/mL, respectively). Subsequently, the mechanistic studies showed that compound E19 likely exerted its antibacterial efficacies by altering the cell morphology, increasing the permeability of bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, suppressing the production of bacterial extracellular polysaccharides and the extracellular enzyme activities (amylase and cellulase), and blocking the swimming motility of Xoc. Moreover, the proteomic analysis revealed that compound E19 could reduce the bacterial flagellar biosynthesis and decrease the flagellar motility by down-regulating the expression of the related differential proteins. CONCLUSION: Compound E19 exhibited good potential for further development as a bactericide candidate for control of Xoc. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Synthesis, X-ray Crystal Structure, and Antimicrobial Studies of New Quinazolin-4(3H)-one Derivatives Containing the 1,2,4-Triazolo[3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole Moiety and 4-Piperidinyl Linker.

A total of 35 new quinazolinone derivatives bearing the 1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole scaffold and the 4-piperidinyl linker were designed, prepared, and assessed for their antibacterial and antifungal activities. Among these derivatives, the chemical structure of compound F5 was clearly verified via single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The experimental results revealed that some of the compounds displayed good even excellent inhibitory effects toward the tested phytopathogenic bacteria. For instance, compound F33 was capable of strongly inhibiting Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) in vitro with an EC50 (half-maximal effective concentration) value of 4.1 µg/mL, about 16-fold more effective than the commercialized bactericide bismerthiazol. Significantly, this compound also effectively suppressed the proliferation of Xoo in the potted rice plants, showing a good in vivo protection efficacy of 47.6% at 200 µg/mL. Subsequently, the antibacterial mechanisms of compound F33 were explored by means of different biophysical and biochemical methods. Last, some of the compounds were found to possess relatively good antifungal activities in vitro, like compound F19 against Phytophthora nicotianae (with an inhibition rate of 67.2% at 50 µg/mL). In a word, the current experimental results imply that the 4-piperidinyl-bridged quinazolinone-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole derivatives possess potential as lead compounds for developing more efficient anti-Xoo bactericides.

Design, synthesis, and antimicrobial evaluation of 2-aminothiazole derivatives bearing the 4-aminoquinazoline moiety against plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi.

BACKGROUND: To find more effective agricultural antibiotics, a class of new 2-aminothiazole derivatives containing the 4-aminoquinazoline moiety were synthesized and evaluated for their antimicrobial properties against phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi of agricultural importance. RESULTS: All the target compounds were fully characterized by 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The bioassay results showed that compound F29 with a 2-pyridinyl substituent exhibited an outstanding antibacterial effect against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc) in vitro, having an half-maximal effective concentration (EC50 ) value as low as 2.0 µg/mL (over 30-fold more effective than the commercialized agrobactericide bismerthiazol, with an EC50 value of 64.3 µg/mL). In addition, compound F8 with a 2-fluorophenyl group demonstrated a good inhibitory activity toward the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (Xac), around twofold more active than bismerthiazol in terms of their EC50 values (22.8 versus 71.5 µg/mL). Interestingly, this compound also demonstrated a notable fungicidal effect against Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae, with an EC50 value largely comparable with that of the commercialized fungicide carbendazim. Finally, mechanistic studies revealed that compound F29 exerted its antibacterial effects by increasing the permeability of bacterial membranes, reducing the release of extracellular polysaccharides, and triggering morphological changes of bacterial cells. CONCLUSION: Compound F29 has promising potential as a lead compound for developing more efficient bactericides to fight against Xoc. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Design, synthesis, crystal structure, and antimicrobial activities of new quinazoline derivatives containing both the sulfonate ester and piperidinylamide moieties.

BACKGROUND: To discover more efficient antimicrobial agents in agriculture, a series of new quinazoline derivatives bearing both sulfonate ester and piperidine-4-carboxamide moieties were synthesized and assessed for their antimicrobial effects. RESULTS: All of the target compounds were fully characterized by proton (1 H) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), carbon-13 (13 C) NMR, and high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS), and compound III-6 containing a 3-bromophenyl substituent was clearly confirmed via single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The bioassay results indicated that some compounds displayed noticeable inhibitory effects in vitro against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc). Further measurements of median effective concentration (EC50 ) values showed that compound III-17 bearing a 4-methoxyphenyl group had the best anti-Xoc efficacy (EC50 = 12.4 µg mL-1 ), far better than the commercialized bismerthiazol (77.5 µg mL-1 ). Moreover, this compound also demonstrated good protection and curative activities in vivo against rice bacterial leaf streak caused by Xoc. CONCLUSION: Compound III-17 had a good potential for further development as a new bactericide for controlling Xoc. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Discovery of Novel Quinazoline-2-Aminothiazole Hybrids Containing a 4-Piperidinylamide Linker as Potential Fungicides against the Phytopathogenic Fungus Rhizoctonia solani.

A total of 29 novel quinazoline-2-aminothiazole hybrids containing a 4-piperidinylamide linker were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their anti-microbial properties against phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria of agricultural importance. The anti-fungal assays indicated that some of the target compounds exhibited excellent inhibitory effects in vitro against Rhizoctonia solani. For example, 11 compounds within this series (including 4a, 4g, 4h, 4j, 4o, 4s, 4t, 4u, 4v, 4y, and 4b') were found to possess EC50 values (effective concentration for 50% activity) ranging from 0.42 to 2.05 µg/mL against this pathogen. In particular, compound 4y with a 2-chloro-6-fluorophenyl substituent displayed a potent anti-R. solani efficacy with EC50 = 0.42 µg/mL, nearly threefold more effective than the commercialized fungicide Chlorothalonil (EC50 = 1.20 µg/mL) and also slightly superior to the other fungicide Carbendazim (EC50 = 0.53 µg/mL). Moreover, compound 4y could efficiently inhibit the growth of R. solani in vivo on the potted rice plants, displaying an impressive protection efficacy of 82.3% at 200 µg/mL, better than those of the fungicides Carbendazim (69.8%) and Chlorothalonil (48.9%). Finally, the mechanistic studies showed that compound 4y exerted its anti-fungal effects by altering the mycelial morphology, increasing the cell membrane permeability, and destroying the cell membrane integrity. On the other hand, some compounds demonstrated good anti-bacterial effects in vitro against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). Overall, the presented results implied that 4-piperidinylamide-bridged quinazoline-2-aminothiazole hybrids held the promise of acting as lead compounds for developing more efficient fungicides to control R. solani.

Plastic bending in a semiconducting coordination polymer crystal enabled by delamination.

Coordination polymers (CPs) are a class of crystalline solids that are considered brittle, due to the dominance of directional coordination bonding, which limits their utility in flexible electronics and wearable devices. Hence, engineering plasticity into functional CPs is of great importance. Here, we report plastic bending of a semiconducting CP crystal, Cu-Trz (Trz = 1,2,3-triazolate), that originates from delamination facilitated by the discrete bonding interactions along different crystallographic directions in the lattice. The coexistence of strong coordination bonds and weak supramolecular interactions, together with the unique molecular packing, are the structural features that enable the mechanical flexibility and anisotropic response. The spatially resolved analysis of short-range molecular forces reveals that the strong coordination bonds, and the adaptive C-H···π and Cu···Cu interactions, synergistically lead to the delamination of the local structures and consequently the associated mechanical bending. The proposed delamination mechanism offers a versatile tool for designing the plasticity of CPs and other molecular crystals.

The effects of subway openings on air quality: evidence from China.

This paper examines a causal relationship between the opening of a city's subway system and its air quality by exploiting daily data on prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2012. Using multi-period difference in differences (DID) method, we find that air quality can be significantly improved following a subway system opening. Robustness tests support the fundamental empirical results. Heterogeneity analysis shows that cities in the eastern and western regions and cities with higher GDP or cities with larger population experience greater and more significant reduction in pollution. We further find that the air pollution continues to decrease with the extension and prolonged operating period of a subway system. Mechanism analysis shows that the resulted air pollution index (API) reduction is due to the substitution effect of taxi.

Study on the host-guest complex of dicyclohexanocucurbit[6]uril and 2-phenylbenzimidazole, and its recognition effect toward Fe3.

This paper has selected dicyclohexanocucurbit[6]uril (CyH2Q[6]) as the host and 2-phenylbenzimidazole (G) as the guest to investigate the host-guest interaction mode between CyH2Q[6] and G. Under acidic conditions, the complex was characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show that the molecular ratio of CyH2Q[6] to G is 2 : 1. The crystals were cultured with ZnCl2 as a structural inducer under acidic conditions and single crystal X-ray diffraction showed that the molecular ratio of CyH2Q[6] to G is 1 : 3. The G@CyH2Q[6] was used as a fluorescent probe to identify metal cations. The probe exhibits a good selective recognition effect toward Fe3+ ions, which involves a reduced fluorescence intensity with a limit of detection of 1.321 × 10-6 mol l-1.

[Evaluation of heart impact in the 100 m extreme intensity sport using near-infrared non-invasive muscle oxygen detecting device and sports heart rate detection technology].

Using continuous two wavelength near-infrared technology to detect the variation in the consistency of oxygen hemoglobin in the muscle and the sports heart rate wireless real time collection technology, we devised the real time muscle tissue oxygenation and instantaneous heart rate experiment scheme and implemented it for the process of the 100 m run with two parameters given simultaneously. The experiment shows that the concentration of the oxygen hemoglobin in the muscle tissue continues decreasing after the end of the 100 m run, and the time interval between the moment when the concentration of the oxygen hemoglobin attains the minimum value and the moment when the athletes finish the 100 m run is (6.65 +/- 1.10) sec; while the heart rate continues increasing after the end of the 100 m run, and the time interval between the moment when the heart rate attains the maximum value and the moment when the athletes finish the 100 m run is (8.00 +/- 1.57) sec. The results show that the two wavelength near-infrared tissue oxygenation detection technology and the sports heart rate real time collection equipment can accurately measure the sports tissue oxygenation and the heart rate in the extreme intensity sport, and reveal the process of muscle oxygen transportation and consumption and its dynamic character with the heart rate in the extreme intensity sport.

Corruption costs lives: evidence from a cross-country study.

This paper investigates the effect of corruption on health outcomes by using cross-country panel data covering about 150 countries for the period of 1995 to 2012. We employ ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed-effects and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation methods, and find that corruption significantly increases mortality rates, and reduces life expectancy and immunization rates. The results are consistent across different regions, gender, and measures of corruption. The findings suggest that reducing corruption can be an effective method to improve health outcomes.

A dual effect of N-acetylcysteine on acute ethanol-induced liver damage in mice.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been associated with acute ethanol-induced liver damage. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a glutathione (GSH) precursor and direct antioxidant. In this study, we investigated the effects of NAC on acute ethanol-induced liver damage. Female ICR mice were administered by gavage with a single dose of ethanol (6g/kg). NAC was administered in two different modes. In mode A, mice were injected with different doses of NAC at 30min before ethanol. In mode B, mice were injected with different doses of NAC at 4h after ethanol. Acute ethanol-induced liver damage was estimated by measuring serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity and histopathological changes. Result showed that a single dose of ethanol (6g/kg) caused a significant increase in serum ALT activity, followed by microvesicular steatosis and necrosis in mouse liver. Pretreatment with NAC significantly protected against acute ethanol-induced liver damage in a dose-independent manner. Correspondingly, pretreatment with NAC significantly attenuated acute ethanol-induced lipid peroxidation and GSH depletion and inhibited hepatic TNF-alpha mRNA expression. By contrast, post-treatment with NAC aggravated ethanol-induced hepatic lipid peroxidation and worsened acute ethanol-induced liver damage in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, NAC has a dual effect on acute ethanol-induced liver damage. Pretreatment with NAC prevent from acute ethanol-induced liver damage via counteracting ethanol-induced oxidative stress. When administered after ethanol, NAC might behave as a pro-oxidant and aggravate acute ethanol-induced liver damage.

Facile ion-exchange synthesis of mesoporous Bi2S3/ZnS nanoplate with high adsorption capability and photocatalytic activity.

Novel Bi2S3/ZnS nanoplates have been successfully prepared by simple reflux and cation exchange reaction between the preformed ZnS spheres and Bi(NO3)3·5H2O. The synthesized Bi2S3/ZnS nanoplates are mesoporous structures, possess a high specific surface area of 101.30m(2)/g and exhibit high adsorption capability and photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) degradation under UV light irradiation. The high adsorption capability and photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to the fact that the formation of Bi2S3/ZnS nanoplates with large specific surface area provides more reactive sites and facilitates the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The possible formation mechanism of Bi2S3/ZnS nanoplates is proposed based on the time-dependent observation. Moreover, a tentative mechanism for degradation of MB over Bi2S3/ZnS has been proposed involving OH radical and photoinduced holes as the active species, which is confirmed by using methanol or ammonium oxalate as scavengers. This work provides a cost-effective method for large-scale synthesis of composite with controlled architectural morphology and highly promising applications in photocatalysis.

[Design of software for fluorescence microscopy system to measure cytosolic free calcium in living cell].

OBJECTIVE: To design software based on the double-wavelength fluorescence microscopy to measure cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]i) in living cell. METHOD: Through analyzing the work principles of monochromator, the function relation between output wavelength and voltage was obtained. Based on the analysis results as the arithmetic of the software, the application was developed in the integration development environment of VC ++ 6.0, by using the framework of Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC) and multithread technology. RESULT: The authors has realized the software and constructed a fluorescence microscopy system using the software, PC, monochromator, fluorescence microscope, MPT and data acquisition to measure the [Ca2+]i in single living beta cell. CONCLUSION: Using this software, the [Ca2+]i in living cell can be detected. It has been proved to be an effective tool for the research in cellular biophysics.

Intergenerational health consequences of the 1959-1961 Great Famine on children in rural China.

Using a difference-in-difference method and data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this paper attempts to quantify the intergenerational health effects on children in rural China of the 1959-1961 Great Famine. By differentiating mother, father, both parents, and none of parents exposed to famine, the analysis puts mother's and father's famine exposure in one unifying framework. Therefore, the methodology achieves identification without concern for multicollinearity and omitted variable bias found in the previous literature. The results imply that children with both parents born in the Great Famine are significantly shorter by 0.37 standard deviations (1.89 cm for boys and 1.78 cm for girls) compared to children with no parents born in the mass starvation. There are also gender and age differences relative to the intergenerational effects of the famine. Girls suffer more than boys, and children between 8 and 12 years of age suffer more than the other age groups.

[Use of three-dimensional fluorescence deconvolution microscopy for study of spatial distribution of secretory vesicles in living cells].

A three-dimensional image of a living cell is helpful for cell secretion study. In this report, the three-dimensional fluorescence deconvolution microscopy for observing living cells was studied, because this technique can obtain a quick three-dimensional imaging with minimal fluorescence quenching and cytotoxicity for living cell observation. The property of three-dimensional point spread function (PSF) of imaging system was analyzed. The relationship between experimental and theoretical PSF was illustrated, and the theoretical PSF was proved that it could reflect the principle of imaging system with NA 1.65 objective in use. Three-dimensional deconvolution algorithm in this report was proved effective by well-defined three-dimensional specimens. Furthermore, the rat pancreatic beta cell secretory vesicles labeled by acridine orange was observed by using this technique. Results showed that the blurring induced by out-of-focus light was removed by the deconvolution algorithm effectively, under current experiment conditions (with NA 1.65 objective) the experimental PSF approximated the theoretical PSF very well, and deconvolved living cell images exhibited the spatial distribution of the secretory vesicles clearly.