An Effective Approach to Improve the Thermal Conductivity, Strength, and Stress Relaxation of Carbon Nanotubes/Epoxy Composites Based on Vitrimer Chemistry.

An effective method was developed to improve the interfacial interaction between Mutiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and epoxy matrix. The performance of thermal conductivity and strength of the epoxy vitrimer were enhanced by polydopamine (PDA) coating. Polydopamine is a commonly used photothermal agent, which of course, was effective in modifying MWCNTs used in photoresponsive epoxy resin. The surface temperature of the epoxy composite with 3% MWCNTs@PDA fillers added increased from room temperature to 215 °C in 48 s. The metal-catechol coordination interactions formed between the catechol groups of PDA and Zn2+ accelerated the stress relaxation of epoxy vitrimer. Moreover, the shape memory, repairing, and recycling of epoxy vitrimer were investigated. Therefore, dopamine coating is a multifunctional approach to enhance the performance of epoxy vitrimer.

p-Toluenesulfonic acid enhanced neutral deep eutectic solvent pretreatment of soybean straw for efficient lignin removal and enzymatic hydrolysis.

Deep eutectic solvent (DES) is a newly-emerged green solvent for efficient pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock. To improve the component fractionation performance of neutral DES, p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) was employed as catalyst to form a novel ternary DES with benzyltriethylammonium chloride (TEBAC) and glycerol (Gly) for pretreatment of soybean straw. Under the optimum reaction conditions (TEBAC:Gly = 1:12, 1.6 wt% p-TsOH and reacted at 90 °C for 160 min), the lignin and hemicellulose removal from soybean straw were amounted to 92.0 % and 88.2 %, respectively. The pretreated substrate showed satisfactory enzymatic hydrolysis performance, as the glucose and reducing sugar concentrations reached 37.3 g/L and 42.3 g/L, respectively, after 72 h saccharification under the action of cellulase with a relatively low enzyme loading of 10 FPU/g cellulose.This method provides an efficient and mild route for utilization of agricultural waste and production of platform monosaccharides.

Local administration of mRNA encoding cytokine cocktail confers potent anti-tumor immunity.

Immunotherapy using inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-α, has been clinically validated in treating various cancers. However, systemic immunocytokine-based therapies are limited by the short half-life of recombinant proteins and severe dose-limiting toxicities. In this study, we exploited local immunotherapy by intratumoral administration of lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated mRNA cocktail encoding cytokines IL-12, IL-7, and IFN-α. The cytokine mRNA cocktail induced tumor regression in multiple syngeneic mouse models and anti-tumor immune memory in one syngeneic mouse model. Additionally, immune checkpoint blockade further enhanced the anti-tumor efficacy of the cytokine mRNAs. Furthermore, human cytokine mRNAs exhibited robust anti-tumor efficacy in humanized mouse tumor models. Mechanistically, cytokine mRNAs induced tumor microenvironment inflammation, characterized by robust T cell infiltration and significant inflammatory cytokine and chemokine production.

Different plastics ingestion preferences and efficiencies of superworm (Zophobas atratus Fab.) and yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor Linn.) associated with distinct gut microbiome changes.

Larvae of superworms (Zophobas atratus Fab.) and yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor Linn.) can survive on sole plastic diets. However, no side-by-side comparison of plastics degradation by both species is available yet. Here, superworms and yellow mealworms were fed with polystyrene (PS) or polyurethane (PU) foam plastics as sole diets for 35 days with bran as control. Superworms survived 100% on all diets but decreased weights were observed after 20 days with sole plastic diets. In contrast, yellow mealworms survived 84.67% or 62.67% with PS or PU diet, respectively, both plastics diet groups showed increased weights. Cumulative consumption of plastics by superworms were 49.24 mg-PS/larva and 26.23 mg-PU/larva, which were 18 and 11 folds of that of yellow mealworms, respectively. When converted into mg/g-larvae, superworms had a higher PS consumption rate but both species had similar PU consumption rates. Similar changes of the plastic chemical functional groups in frass indicated occurrences of oxidation and biodegradation of plastics in the guts of both species. Changes of gut microbial communities were found associated with plastics feedstocks and larvae species. The increased relative abundances of unclassified Enterobacteriaceae, Klebsiella, Enterococcus, Dysgonomonas and Sphingobacterium were strongly associated with PS diet in superworms, while Hafnia was strongly associated with PS diet in yellow mealworms. Enterococcus and Mangrovibacter were dominant in PU-fed superworm guts, while unclassified Enterobacteriaceae and Hafnia were strongly associated with PU feeding in yellow mealworms. The results demonstrated that different plastics ingestion preferences and efficiencies of both species were associated with distinct dominant microbiomes although similar changes of chemical groups in plastics were observed.

Biodegradation of foam plastics by Zophobas atratus larvae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) associated with changes of gut digestive enzymes activities and microbiome.

In order to uncover the plastic types that superworm Zophobas atratus can degrade and the underlying changes associated with plastics consumption, three types of plastics including polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE) and polyurethane (PU) foam were used as sole feedstock to feed the superworm larvae for 35 days with bran as control. Compared to the control, PS- or PU-fed larvae showed 100% survival rates, the PE-fed and starvation larvae had decreased survival rates of 81.67% and 65%, respectively. Both plastics-fed and starvation groups showed decreased larvae weight. The consumption rates of PS, PE, and PU were 1.41, 0.30, and 0.74 mg/d/larva, respectively. The attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and differential scanning calorimeter and thermogravimetric (DSC-TGA) analyses demonstrated the changes of functional groups and thermostability in frass compared to plastic feedstocks, indicating the partial oxidation and degradation of plastics. Among the gut digestive enzymes tested, protease showed increased activities in all plastics-fed groups. Gut microbial communities displayed significant relative abundance changes such as increased abundances of Enterococcus in all plastic-fed groups, Citrobacter in PE-fed group, Dysgonomonas and Sphingobacterium in PS-fed group, and Mangrovibacter in PU-fed group. The latter 3 genera were reported for the first time. In summary, the results demonstrated that Z. atratus could efficiently degrade both PS and PU foam plastics, and the plastic degradation was associated with changes of gut microbial communities and digestive enzyme activities.

Home environment and diseases in early life are associated with allergic rhinitis.

OBJECTIVE: Risk factors in relation to allergic rhinitis (AR) remain unclear despite considerable interest. This study aimed to analysis the relationship between home environment and diseases in early life and AR. METHODS: In a case-control survey, 242 AR patients and 258 healthy persons responded to questionnaires designed to capture pre-pregnancy/pregnancy diseases, maternal medication usage, diseases in early life of participants, family allergic history and home environmental factors. Forty risk factors potentially connected with AR were investigated and analyzed with chi-square test and logistic regression. RESULTS: There was no correlation between mother's disorders such as periodontitis, chronic rhinitis, diabetes etc. and AR (p > 0.05). A logistic regression analysis showed that neonatal jaundice (p < 0.001), respiratory system infection (p < 0.001), diarrhea (p < 0.01), eczema (p < 0.01) in the early life and home environmental factors such as house decoration (p < 0.01), mold environment (p < 0.001), keeping flowers and plants (p < 0.001), passive smoking (p < 0.01) were associated with AR. CONCLUSION: Diseases in early life and home environment are closely associated with AR.

[Evaluation of the clinical effect of fluoride coating combined with pit and fissure sealing or preventive resin filling on prevention of first permanent molars caries].

PURPOSE: To explore the clinical effect of fluoride coating combined with pit and fissure sealing or preventive resin filling on prevention of young first permanent molars caries. METHODS: Three hundred suspicious first permanent molars caries in 90 children (6-8 years old) who received oral health examination in our hospital from February 2015 to January 2016 were included as the study subject, and randomly divided into group A, B, C, D and E. Group A received pit and fissure sealing, group B received preventive resin filling, group C received 0.5% fluoride coating combined with pit and fissure sealing, group D received 0.5% fluoride combined with preventive resin filling, group E as control group with nursing daily brushing. 6, 12 and 18 months after treatment, caries rate in each group was evaluated and preservation of pit and fissure sealing or resin filling in group A, B, C, D was examined. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 software package. RESULTS: Six and 12 months after treatment, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the preservation rate of pit and fissure sealing or resin filling and caries rate in group A, B, C, D. Eighteen months after treatment, caries rate in group E was significantly higher than that of group A, B, C, D; there was significant difference between group A and group C, group B and group D (P<0.01); caries rate of group A, B was relatively high, the preservation rate was lower than that of group C and D, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For suspected young permanent molars caries, fluoride coating combined with pit and fissure sealing or separate pit and fissure sealing has a certain effect on prevent dental caries, but the fluoride coating combined with preventive resin filling is better.