Study on the performance and mechanism of cobaltous ion removal from water by a high-efficiency strontium-doped hydroxyapatite adsorbent.

In this study, a high-efficiency strontium-doped hydroxyapatite (Sr-HAP) adsorbent was synthesized by a sol-gel method for removing cobaltous ions (Co(II)) from water. The effects of adsorbent dose, initial solution pH, initial Co(II) concentration and temperature on the removal performance of Co(II) were investigated. Experimental results indicated that the optimum Sr-HAP dose was 0.30 g/50 mL solution, the Sr-HAP adsorbent could effectively remove Co(II) in a wide pH range of 3-8. Increasing temperature was conducive to the adsorption, and the maximum Co(II) adsorption capacity by Sr-HAP reached 48.467 mg/g at 45 °C. The adsorption of Co(II) followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, indicating that the Co(II) adsorption by Sr-HAP was attributed mainly to chemisorption. The isothermal adsorption results showed that at lower Co(II) equilibrium concentration, the Langmuir model fitted the data better than the Freundlich model but opposite at higher Co(II) equilibrium concentration. Therefore, the adsorption of Co(II) was a process from monolayer adsorption to multilayer adsorption with the increase of the Co(II) equilibrium concentration. The diffusion analysis of Co(II) to Sr-HAP indicated that the internal diffusion and surface adsorption were the rate-controlled steps of Co(II) adsorption. Thermodynamic study demonstrated that the Co(II) adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. The mechanism study revealed that in addition to chemisorption, Sr-HAP also removed Co(II) ions from water via ion exchange and surface complexation.

SLAM medical imaging enabled by pre-chirp and gain jointly managed Yb-fiber laser.

We demonstrate a pre-chirp and gain jointly managed Yb-fiber laser that drives simultaneous label-free autofluorescence-multiharmonic (SLAM) medical imaging. We show that a gain managed Yb-fiber amplifier produces high-quality compressed pulses when the seeding pulses exhibit proper negative pre-chirp. The resulting laser source can generate 43-MHz, 34-fs pulses centered at 1110 nm with more than 90-nJ energy. We apply this ultrafast source to SLAM imaging of cellular and extracellular components in various human tissues of intestinal adenocarcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, and liver.

Bioinspired hierarchical colloidal crystal paper with Janus wettability for oil/water separation and heavy metal ion removal.

Increasing attention has been paid recently to superwettability and its prospective potential applications in various fields. A new approach towards the establishment of flexible, self-assembled superhydrophobic surfaces with self-reported wettability on a variety of substrates has been advanced. The approach involves the fabrication of a dense monolayer of photonic crystal films that possess a layered structure with superior adhesion at the liquid-gas-solid interface. Thus, the resulting hierarchical photonic crystal film with a structurally hydrophobic surface offers a promising addition to the creation of durable and flexible superhydrophobic surfaces across a variety of substrates that exhibit the self-reported wettability. Furthermore, a bifunctional membrane that can effectively remove oil and adsorb heavy metal ions contained in wastewater has been developed for potential use in large-scale industrial wastewater treatment. This research sheds fresh light on the application of bionics and the lotus and mussel functions in oil/water separation.

Bioinspired conductive structural color hydrogels as a robotic knuckle rehabilitation electrical skin.

Electronic skins have attracted significant research interest in the biomedical engineering field including wearable devices, artificial prostheses, software robots, and so on. However, the integration of electronic skin for use in rehabilitation exercise remains unexplored. Here, we propose a novel, conductive structurally colored composite hydrogel for use as a robotic knuckle rehabilitation skin. It was found that the composite structure has an obvious color variation and electromechanical properties during the bending process. Therefore, this film could be used as a multi-signal response electronic skin to achieve real-time color sensing and electrical response, as well as for the human knuckle rehabilitation robot. These results indicated that the structurally colored composite hydrogels are valuable for use in many practical biomedical rehabilitation exercises where they are used as an electronic skin to give real-time color sensing and electrical response, and as well can be used in a human knuckle rehabilitation robot.

Characteristics of non-stenotic carotid plaque in embolic stroke of undetermined source compared with cardiogenic embolism: a retrospective cross-sectional observational study.

BACKGROUND: Non-stenotic carotid plaque is considered an important etiology of embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). However, only a few previous studies included a negative control group, and the characteristics of non-stenotic carotid plaque in ESUS have yet to be investigated. The objective of this study is to explore the clinical characteristics of ESUS and the correlation between non-stenotic carotid plaque and ESUS. METHODS: This is a single-center, retrospective cross-sectional observational study conducted to compare differences in clinical information among ESUS, CE, and large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA), as well as the prevalence of non-stenotic carotid plaque and non-stenotic carotid plaque with low echo between patients with ESUS and CE in Changzhou No.2 People's Hospital from January 2020 to January 2022. Ultrasound was used to evaluate the characteristics of non-stenotic carotid plaque and vulnerable carotid plaque was defined as plaque with low echo. The binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of non-stenotic carotid plaque and ESUS. The receiver-operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the characteristics of non-stenotic carotid plaque for ESUS. RESULTS: We had a final studying population of 280 patients including 81 with ESUS, 37 with CE, and 162 with LAA. There were no differences in clinical features between ESUS and LAA, but in the comparison of CE and ESUS, there were differences in age, smoking, hypertension, levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol. In ESUS, the prevalence of non-stenotic carotid plaque was more common on the ipsilateral side of stroke than in CE [55 (67.90%) vs. 18 (48.65%), p = 0.046], so was the prevalence of non-stenotic carotid plaque with low echo [38 (46.91%) vs. 5 (13.51%), p < 0.001]. Logistic regression analysis showed that the prevalence of non-stenotic carotid plaque (OR: 4.19; 95% CI: 1.45-12.11; p = 0.008) and the prevalence of non-stenotic carotid plaque with low echo (OR: 5.12; 95% CI: 1.55-16.93; p = 0.007) were, respectively, the independent predictors of ESUS. The results receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the combination of age, hypertension, and ipsilateral non-stenotic carotid plaque with low echo had the best diagnostic efficiency for ESUS (0.811; 95%CI: 0.727-0.896; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that ipsilateral vulnerable non-stenotic carotid plaque is associated with ESUS in anterior circulation infarction.

Smoking Status and Cognitive Function in a National Sample of Older Adults.

Aims: To examine the correlation between smoking status and different domains of cognitive function in elderly Americans. Methods: We used data from the 2011 to 2014 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants over 60 years with available smoking history and cognitive function data were enrolled in our analysis. The NHANES study included the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) assessment, the Animal Fluency Test (AFT), and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) to assess cognition. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the association between cigarette smoking and cognitive function. Results: A total of 2,932 participants were enrolled in the analysis, including 372 (12.7%) current smokers, 1,115 (38%) former smokers, and 1,445 (49.3%) never smokers. Never smokers had in average 3.82 (95% CI, 2.21 to 5.43) points more than current smokers in the DSST, whereas former smokers had 3.12 (95% CI, 1.51 to 4.73) points more than current smokers. Besides, smoking was not associated with the results of the AFT or the CERAD test. Conclusions: This study suggests that cigarette smoking is associated with processing speed among the American elderly.

Effective Remediation of Arsenic-Contaminated Soils by EK-PRB of Fe/Mn/C-LDH: Performance, Characteristics, and Mechanism.

Arsenic is highly toxic and carcinogenic. The aim of the present work is to develop a good remediation technique for arsenic-contaminated soils. Here, a novel remediation technique by coupling electrokinetics (EK) with the permeable reactive barriers (PRB) of Fe/Mn/C-LDH composite was applied for the remediation of arsenic-contaminated soils. The influences of electric field strength, PRB position, moisture content and PRB filler type on the removal rate of arsenic from the contaminated soils were studied. The Fe/Mn/C-LDH filler synthesized by using bamboo as a template retained the porous characteristics of the original bamboo, and the mass percentage of Fe and Mn elements was 37.85%. The setting of PRB of Fe/Mn/C-LDH placed in the middle was a feasible option, with the maximum and average soil leaching toxicity removal rates of 95.71% and 88.03%, respectively. When the electric field strength was 2 V/cm, both the arsenic removal rate and economic aspects were optimal. The maximum and average soil leaching toxicity removal rates were similar to 98.40% and 84.49% of 3 V/cm, respectively. Besides, the soil moisture content had negligible effect on the removal of arsenic but slight effect on leaching toxicity. The best leaching toxicity removal rate was achieved when the soil moisture content was 35%, neither higher nor lower moisture content in the range of 25-45% was conducive to the improvement of leaching toxicity removal rate. The results showed that the EK-PRB technique could effectively remove arsenic from the contaminated soils. Characterizations of Fe/Mn/C-LDH indicated that the electrostatic adsorption, ion exchange, and surface functional group complexation were the primary ways to remove arsenic.

Raman spectroscopy and machine learning for the classification of breast cancers.

Breast cancer is a major health threat for women. The drug responses associated with different breast cancer subtypes have obvious effects on therapeutic outcomes; therefore, the accurate classification of breast cancer subtypes is critical. Breast cancer subtype classification has recently been examined using various methods, and Raman spectroscopy has emerged as an effective technique that can be used for noninvasive breast cancer analysis. However, the accurate and rapid classification of breast cancer subtypes currently requires a great deal of effort and experience with the processing and analysis of Raman spectra data. Here, we adopted Raman spectroscopy and machine learning techniques to simplify and accelerate the process used to distinguish normal from breast cancer cells and classify breast cancer subtypes. Raman spectra were obtained from cultured breast cancer cell lines, and the data were analyzed by two machine learning algorithms: principal component analysis (PCA)-discriminant function analysis (DFA) and PCA-support vector machine (SVM). The accuracies with which these two algorithms were able to distinguish normal breast cells from breast cancer cells were both greater than 97%, and the accuracies of breast cancer subtype classification for both algorithms were both greater than 92%. Moreover, our results showed evidence to support the use of characteristic Raman spectral features as cancer cell biomarkers, such as the intensity of intrinsic Raman bands, which increased in cancer cells. Raman spectroscopy combined with machine learning techniques provides a rapid method for breast cancer analysis able to reveal differences in intracellular compositions and molecular structures among subtypes.

Mn-Fe Layered Double Hydroxide Intercalated with Ethylene-Diaminetetraacetate Anion: Synthesis and Removal of As(III) from Aqueous Solution around pH 2-11.

A novel adsorbent Mn-Fe layered double hydroxides intercalated with ethylenediaminete-traacetic (EDTA@MF-LDHs) was synthesized by a low saturation coprecipitation method. The behavior and mechanism of As(III) removed by EDTA@MF-LDHs were investigated in detail in comparison with the carbonate intercalated Mn-Fe layered double hydroxides (CO3@MF-LDHs). The results showed that EDTA@MF-LDHs had a higher removal efficiency for As(III) than As(V) with a broader pH range than CO3@MF-LDH. The large adsorption capacity of EDTA@MF-LDHs is related to its large interlayer spacing and the high affinity of its surface hydroxyl groups. The maximum adsorption capacity for As(III) is 66.76 mg/g at pH 7. The FT-IR and XPS characterization indicated that the removal mechanism of the As(III) on EDTA@MF-LDHs include surface complexation, redox, and ion exchange.

Novel Photosensitizer ß-Mannose-Conjugated Chlorin e6 as a Potent Anticancer Agent for Human Glioblastoma U251 Cells.

A photosensitizer is a molecular drug for photodynamic diagnosis and photodynamic therapy (PDT) against cancer. Many studies have developed photosensitizers, but improvements in their cost, efficacy, and side effects are needed for better PDT of patients. In the present study, we developed a novel photosensitizer ß-mannose-conjugated chlorin e6 (ß-M-Ce6) and investigated its PDT effects in human glioblastoma U251 cells. U251 cells were incubated with ß-M-Ce6, followed by laser irradiation. Cell viability was determined using the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The PDT effects of ß-M-Ce6 were compared with those of talaporfin sodium (TS) and our previously reported photosensitizer ß-glucose-conjugated chlorin e6 (ß-G-Ce6). Cellular uptake of each photosensitizer and subcellular distribution were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. ß-M-Ce6 showed 1000× more potent PDT effects than those of TS, and these were similar to those of ß-G-Ce6. ß-M-Ce6 accumulation in U251 cells was much faster than TS accumulation and distributed to several organelles such as the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and lysosomes. This rapid cellular uptake was inhibited by low temperature, which suggested that ß-M-Ce6 uptake uses biological machinery. ß-M-Ce6 showed potent PDT anti-cancer effects compared with clinically approved TS, which is a possible candidate as a next generation photosensitizer in cancer therapy.

A switch in the poly(dC)/RmlB complex regulates bacterial persister formation.

Bacterial persisters are phenotypic variants that tolerate exposure to lethal antibiotics. These dormant cells are responsible for chronic and recurrent infections. Multiple mechanisms have been linked to persister formation. Here, we report that a complex, consisting of an extracellular poly(dC) and its membrane-associated binding protein RmlB, appears to be associated with persistence of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Environmental stimuli triggers a switch in the complex physiological state (from poly(dC)/RmlB to P-poly(dC)/RmlB or RmlB). In response to the switch, bacteria decrease proton motive force and intracellular ATP levels, forming dormant cells. This alteration in complex status is linked to a (p)ppGpp-controlled signaling pathway that includes inorganic polyphosphate, Lon protease, exonuclease VII (XseA/XseB), and the type III secretion system. The persistence might be also an adaptive response to the lethal action of the dTDP-L-rhamnose pathway shutdown, which occurs due to switching of poly(dC)/RmlB.

Benzo(a)pyrene inhibits the accumulation and toxicity of cadmium in subcellular fractions of Eisenia fetida.

Cadmium (Cd) and benzo [a]pyrene (BaP) often co-occur in the environment, and the critical body residue of organisms is used as an indicator of the toxic effects of contaminants. However, little is known about their distributions and toxicities when pollution of Cd and BaP are combined. Semi-static solution culture experiment was used to study the impacts of BaP on the subcellular distribution of the toxic metal Cd in the earthworm Eisenia fetida. We explored the mechanisms by which this organism responds to combined exposure to these pollutants by measuring the protein content of each of three subcellular fractions, as well as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. The subcellular partitioning of Cd was heterogeneous and Cd mainly accumulated in the cytosolic fraction (Fraction C), which was previously reported to be involved in metal immobilization. In Fraction C, Cd accumulation was correlated with the external concentration to which the earthworm had been exposed; however, in the presence of BaP, Cd accumulation was inhibited and plateaued at high external Cd concentrations. A principal component analysis revealed that this decreased Cd accumulation might be caused by increases in GST activity, which likely increased the excretion of Cd. BaP was also found to stimulate protein biosynthesis and upregulate AChE and GST activities in the debris fraction (Fraction E), indicating other potential detoxification mechanisms in this fraction. Granule fraction (Fraction D) had a lower protein content, AChE and GST activities than the other subcellular fractions, supporting previous findings that Fraction D is largely inert.

Chemoprevention of colorectal cancer by black raspberry anthocyanins involved the modulation of gut microbiota and SFRP2 demethylation.

Freeze-dried black raspberry (BRB) powder is considered as a potential cancer chemopreventive agent. In this study, we fed azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-treated C57BL/6J mice with a diet containing BRB anthocyanins for 12 weeks, and this led to a reduction in colon carcinogenesis. These animals had consistently lower tumor multiplicity compared with AOM/DSS-treated mice not receiving BRB anthocyanins. In AOM/DSS-treated mice, the number of pathogenic bacteria, including Desulfovibrio sp. and Enterococcus spp., was increased significantly, whereas probiotics such as Eubacterium rectale, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Lactobacillus were dramatically decreased, but BRB anthocyanins supplement could reverse this imbalance in gut microbiota. BRB anthocyanins also caused the demethylation of the SFRP2 gene promoter, resulting in increased expression of SFRP2, both at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, the expression levels of DNMT31 and DNMT3B, as well as of p-STAT3 were downregulated by BRB anthocyanins in these animals. Taken together, these results suggested that BRB anthocyanins could modulate the composition of gut commensal microbiota, and changes in inflammation and the methylation status of the SFRP2 gene may play a central role in the chemoprevention of CRC.

An Investigation and Comparison of the Blending of LDPE and PP with Different Intrinsic Viscosities of PET.

The blending of aliphatic polyolefins and aromatic poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) based on different intrinsic viscosities (IV) was conducted in a torque rheometer. The comparison of blend components in terms of low density polythene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) in blending with PET was investigated, and the effects of the IV and proportion of PET on polymer blends are discussed in detail. Polymer blends with or without compatibilizer were examined by using a differential scanning calorimeter, thermogravimetric analyzer, rotary rheometer, field-emission scanning electron microscopy and a universal testing machine. It was found that the blending led to an increase in processability and a decrease in thermal stability for blends. The morphological analysis revealed that the incompatibility of blends was aggravated by a higher IV of PET, while this situation could be improved by the addition of compatibilizer. Results showed that there was an opposite effect for the tensile strength and the elongation at break of the polymer blend in the presence of a compatibilizer, wherein the influence of IV of PET was complicated.

Exposure to lethal levels of benzo[a]pyrene or cadmium trigger distinct protein expression patterns in earthworms (Eisenia fetida).

Different pollutants induce distinct toxic responses in earthworms (Eisenia fetida). Here, we used proteomics techniques to compare the responses of E. fetida to exposure to the 10% lethal concentration (14d-LC10) of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) or cadmium (Cd) in natural red soil (China). BaP exposure markedly induced the expression of oxidation-reduction proteins, whereas Cd exposure mainly induced the expression of proteins involved in transcription- and translation-related processes. Furthermore, calmodulin-binding proteins were differentially expressed upon exposure to different pollutants. The calcium (Ca2+)-binding cytoskeletal element myosin was down-regulated upon BaP treatment, whereas the Ca2+-binding cytoskeletal element tropomyosin-1 was up-regulated upon Cd treatment. Some proteins exhibited opposite responses to the two pollutants. For instance, catalase (CAT) and heat shock protein 70 were up-regulated upon BaP treatment and down-regulated upon Cd treatment. A significant (p<0.05, one-way ANOVA with least-significant difference (LSD) test) increase in the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and CAT activity further showed that BaP mainly induces oxidative stress. Real-time PCR analysis showed that mRNA expression often did not correlate well with protein expression in earthworms subjected to Cd or BaP treatment. In addition, the expression of the gene encoding the protein metallothionein, which was not detected in the protein analysis, was induced upon Cd treatment, but slightly reduced upon BaP treatment. Therefore, BaP and Cd have distinct effects on the protein profile of E. Fetida with BaP markedly inducing ROS activity, and Cd mainly triggering genotoxicity. CAPSULE SUMMARY: Distinct patterns of protein expression are induced in earthworms upon exposure to different pollutants; BaP markedly induces high levels of ROS, while Cd resultes in genotoxicity.