Co-Assembly of Soft and Hard Nanoparticles into Macroscopic Colloidal Composites with Tailored Mechanical Property and Processability.

Colloidal composites, translating the great potential of nanoscale building bricks into macroscopic dimensions, have emerged as an appealing candidate for new materials with applications in optics, energy storage, and biomedicines. However, it remains a key challenge to bridge the size regimes from nanoscopic colloidal particles to macroscale composites possessing mechanical robustness. Herein, a bottom-up approach is demonstrated to manufacture colloidal composites with customized macroscopic forms by virtue of the co-assembly of nanosized soft polymeric micelles and hard inorganic nanoparticles. Upon association, the hairy micellar corona can bind with the hard nanoparticles, linking individual hard constituents together in a soft-hard alternating manner to form a collective entity. This permits the integration of block copolymer micelles with controlled amounts of hard nanoparticles into macroscopic colloidal composites featuring diverse internal microstructures. The resultant composites showed tunable microscale mechanical strength in a range of 90-270 MPa and macroscale mechanical strength in a range of 7-42 MPa for compression and 2-24 MPa for bending. Notably, the incorporation of soft polymeric micelles also imparts time- and temperature-dependent dynamic deformability and versatile capacity to the resulting composites, allowing their application in the low-temperature plastic processing for functional fused silica glass.

Combination of betulinic acid and EGFR-TKIs exerts synergistic anti-tumor effects against wild-type EGFR NSCLC by inducing autophagy-related cell death via EGFR signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have revolutionized the treatment of lung cancer patients with mutated EGFR. However, the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs in wild-type EGFR tumors has been shown to be marginal. Methods that can sensitize EGFR-TKIs to EGFR wild-type NSCLC remain rare. Hence, we determined whether combination treatment can maximize the therapeutic efficacy of EGFR-TKIs. METHODS: We established a focused drug screening system to investigate candidates for overcoming the intrinsic resistance of wild-type EGFR NSCLC to EGFR-TKIs. Molecular docking assays and western blotting were used to identify the binding mode and blocking effect of the candidate compounds. Proliferation assays, analyses of drug interactions, colony formation assays, flow cytometry and nude mice xenograft models were used to determine the effects and investigate the molecular mechanism of the combination treatment. RESULTS: Betulinic acid (BA) is effective at targeting EGFR and synergizes with EGFR-TKIs (gefitinib and osimertinib) preferentially against wild-type EGFR. BA showed inhibitory activity due to its interaction with the ATP-binding pocket of EGFR and dramatically enhanced the suppressive effects of EGFR-TKIs by blocking EGFR and modulating the EGFR-ATK-mTOR axis. Mechanistic studies revealed that the combination strategy activated EGFR-induced autophagic cell death and that the EGFR-AKT-mTOR signaling pathway was essential for completing autophagy and cell cycle arrest. Activation of the mTOR pathway or blockade of autophagy by specific chemical agents markedly attenuated the effect of cell cycle arrest. In vivo administration of the combination treatment caused marked tumor regression in the A549 xenografts. CONCLUSIONS: BA is a potential wild-type EGFR inhibitor that plays a critical role in sensitizing EGFR-TKI activity. BA combined with an EGFR-TKI effectively suppressed the proliferation and survival of intrinsically resistant lung cancer cells via the inhibition of EGFR as well as the induction of autophagy-related cell death, indicating that BA combined with an EGFR-TKI may be a potential therapeutic strategy for overcoming the primary resistance of wild-type EGFR-positive lung cancers.

TOPIQ: A Top-Down Approach From Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessment.

Image Quality Assessment (IQA) is a fundamental task in computer vision that has witnessed remarkable progress with deep neural networks. Inspired by the characteristics of the human visual system, existing methods typically use a combination of global and local representations (i.e., multi-scale features) to achieve superior performance. However, most of them adopt simple linear fusion of multi-scale features, and neglect their possibly complex relationship and interaction. In contrast, humans typically first form a global impression to locate important regions and then focus on local details in those regions. We therefore propose a top-down approach that uses high-level semantics to guide the IQA network to focus on semantically important local distortion regions, named as TOPIQ. Our approach to IQA involves the design of a heuristic coarse-to-fine network (CFANet) that leverages multi-scale features and progressively propagates multi-level semantic information to low-level representations in a top-down manner. A key component of our approach is the proposed cross-scale attention mechanism, which calculates attention maps for lower level features guided by higher level features. This mechanism emphasizes active semantic regions for low-level distortions, thereby improving performance. TOPIQ can be used for both Full-Reference (FR) and No-Reference (NR) IQA. We use ResNet50 as its backbone and demonstrate that TOPIQ achieves better or competitive performance on most public FR and NR benchmarks compared with state-of-the-art methods based on vision transformers, while being much more efficient (with only  âˆ¼ 13% FLOPS of the current best FR method). Codes are released at https://github.com/chaofengc/IQA-PyTorch.

A new species of Svistella Gorochov, 1987 from Xizang, China (Orthoptera, Trigonidiidae, Trigonidiinae).

The genus Svistella Gorochov, 1987 includes 10 species from Asia, with nine documented in China. In this study, a new species, Svistellayayun He, sp. nov., is described from Xizang, China. Morphologically, it resembles S.rufonotata (Chopard, 1932) but can be distinguished by a smaller inner tympanum, dark-brown setae on the 5th segment of the maxillary palp, and a rounded apex on the ectoparamere. To validate our morphological inferences and support the description of S.yayunsp. nov. as a new species, we performed a PCA based on bioacoustics parameters and molecular analysis. All Svistella species documented in China are distinguished by integrating their songs and DNA barcoding.

Towards Transparent Deep Image Aesthetics Assessment with Tag-based Content Descriptors.

Deep learning approaches for Image Aesthetics Assessment (IAA) have shown promising results in recent years, but the internal mechanisms of these models remain unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated that image aesthetics can be predicted using semantic features, such as pre-trained object classification features. However, these semantic features are learned implicitly, and therefore, previous works have not elucidated what the semantic features are representing. In this work, we aim to create a more transparent deep learning framework for IAA by introducing explainable semantic features. To achieve this, we propose Tag-based Content Descriptors (TCDs), where each value in a TCD describes the relevance of an image to a human-readable tag that refers to a specific type of image content. This allows us to build IAA models from explicit descriptions of image contents. We first propose the explicit matching process to produce TCDs that adopt predefined tags to describe image contents. We show that a simple MLP-based IAA model with TCDs only based on predefined tags can achieve an SRCC of 0.767, which is comparable to most state-of-the-art methods. However, predefined tags may not be sufficient to describe all possible image contents that the model may encounter. Therefore, we further propose the implicit matching process to describe image contents that cannot be described by predefined tags. By integrating components obtained from the implicit matching process into TCDs, the IAA model further achieves an SRCC of 0.817, which significantly outperforms existing IAA methods. Both the explicit matching process and the implicit matching process are realized by the proposed TCD generator. To evaluate the performance of the proposed TCD generator in matching images with predefined tags, we also labeled 5101 images with photography-related tags to form a validation set. And experimental results show that the proposed TCD generator can meaningfully assign photography-related tags to images.

Benchmarking Polyp Segmentation Methods in Narrow-Band Imaging Colonoscopy Images.

In recent years, there has been significant progress in polyp segmentation in white-light imaging (WLI) colonoscopy images, particularly with methods based on deep learning (DL). However, little attention has been paid to the reliability of these methods in narrow-band imaging (NBI) data. NBI improves visibility of blood vessels and helps physicians observe complex polyps more easily than WLI, but NBI images often include polyps with small/flat appearances, background interference, and camouflage properties, making polyp segmentation a challenging task. This paper proposes a new polyp segmentation dataset (PS-NBI2K) consisting of 2,000 NBI colonoscopy images with pixel-wise annotations, and presents benchmarking results and analyses for 24 recently reported DL-based polyp segmentation methods on PS-NBI2K. The results show that existing methods struggle to locate polyps with smaller sizes and stronger interference, and that extracting both local and global features improves performance. There is also a trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency, and most methods cannot achieve the best results in both areas simultaneously. This work highlights potential directions for designing DL-based polyp segmentation methods in NBI colonoscopy images, and the release of PS-NBI2K aims to drive further development in this field.

Dual-axis control of magnetic anisotropy in a single crystal Co2MnSi thin film through piezo-voltage-induced strain.

Voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) has been considered as an effective method in traditional magnetic devices with lower power consumption. In this article, we have investigated the dual-axis control of magnetic anisotropy in Co2MnSi/GaAs/PZT hybrid heterostructures through piezo-voltage-induced strain using longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect (LMOKE) microscopy. The major modification of in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the Co2MnSi thin film is controlled obviously by the piezo-voltages of the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezotransducer, accompanied by the coercivity field and magnetocrystalline anisotropy significantly manipulated. Because in-plane cubic magnetic anisotropy and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy coexist in the Co2MnSi thin film, the initial double easy axes of cubic split to an easiest axis (square loop) and an easier axis (two-step loop). While the stress direction is parallel to the [1-10] easiest axis (sample I), the square loop of the [1-10] direction could transform to a two-step loop under the negative piezo-voltages (compressed state). At the same time, the initial two-step loop of the [110] axis simultaneously changes to a square loop (the easiest axis). Otherwise, we designed and fabricated the sample II in which the PZT stress is parallel to the [110] two-step axis. The phenomenon of VCMA was also obtained along the [110] and [1-10] directions. However, the manipulated results of sample II were in contrast to those of the sample I under the piezo-voltages. Thus, an effective dual-axis regulation of the in-plane magnetization rotation was demonstrated in this work. Such a finding proposes a more optimized method for the magnetic logic gates and memories based on voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in the future.

The gelling behavior of gellan in the presence of different sodium salts.

It is well known that metal ions have great effects on gelling behaviors of gellan aqueous systems, however, the effects of their co-ions - anions have rarely been studied. Herein, we investigated the effects of four kinds of sodium salts with different anions (NaCl, CH3COONa, Na2C2O4 and Na3C6H5O7) on gelling behaviors of gellan aqueous systems in terms of gelling temperature and gel hardness. It was found that, when [Na+] was low (20 mM), the salt with Cl- or CH3COO- favored the gelling of gellan aqueous systems, while the salt with C2O42- or C6H5O73- took adverse effects probably because C2O42- or C6H5O73- could react with divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) in gellan to form precipitates or chelates and break their interactions with gellan (salt bridges). When [Na+] was high (50 or 80 mM), all the four kinds of salts facilitated gelling due to the shielding effects of high concentrations of Na+ on the negative charges along the gellan chains, and followed the order of: Cl- > CH3COO- > C2O42- > C6H5O73-. This study demonstrates the effects of anion kind of salts on gelling behaviors of gellan aqueous systems and provides references for the application of gellan.

Albiflorin alleviates cognitive dysfunction in STZ-induced rats.

BACKGROUND: To explore the effect of albiflorin (AL) on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced Alzheimer's disease (AD) in rats. METHODS: A mouse model of diabetic encephalopathy was established by intraperitoneal injection of 1%STZ. Step down test and water maze test were used to test the cognitive function of rats. Congo Red Staining was used to detect the distribution of Aß plaques in the hippocampus of rats. Cytokine levels in serum and hippocampus were measured using ELISA. Serum insulin, oral glucose tolerance (OGTT), serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were measured by commercial kits. And the content of Nrf-2/HO-1/HMGB1/NF-kB in the hippocampus of diabetic rats were detected by western blot. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with the STZ model group, the average escape latency of rats in the AL group in the Morris water maze test was significantly shortened, and the average number of platform crossings and the ratio of distance/total swimming distance in the target quadrant were increased significantly. Staining of tissue sections and ELISA showed a decrease in Aß plaque density in the hippocampus of rats in the AL group. And serum insulin levels of rats in the ALgroup were significantly reduced and OGTT was improved. In addition, AL could also regulate the Nrf-2/HO-1/HMGB1/NF-kB signal pathway in the hippocampus. Therefore, AL may ameliorate STZ-induced cognitive impairment in rats by regulating oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain.

An engineered CRISPR-Cas12a variant and DNA-RNA hybrid guides enable robust and rapid COVID-19 testing.

Extensive testing is essential to break the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we present a CRISPR-based diagnostic assay that is robust to viral genome mutations and temperature, produces results fast, can be applied directly on nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens without RNA purification, and incorporates a human internal control within the same reaction. Specifically, we show that the use of an engineered AsCas12a enzyme enables detection of wildtype and mutated SARS-CoV-2 and allows us to perform the detection step with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) at 60-65 °C. We also find that the use of hybrid DNA-RNA guides increases the rate of reaction, enabling our test to be completed within 30 minutes. Utilizing clinical samples from 72 patients with COVID-19 infection and 57 healthy individuals, we demonstrate that our test exhibits a specificity and positive predictive value of 100% with a sensitivity of 50 and 1000 copies per reaction (or 2 and 40 copies per microliter) for purified RNA samples and unpurified NP specimens respectively.

Silver-hydroxyapatite nanocomposites prepared by three sequential reaction steps in one pot and their bioactivities in vitro.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) combined with antimicrobial agents for biomedical application can effectively avoid the bacteria infection, while HA have the good performance. In this study, we prepared silver-hydroxyapatite (Ag-HA) nanocomposites using a one-pot method consisting of three sequential steps of wet chemical precipitation, ion exchange, and a silver mirror reaction. The HA nanoparticles used as the precursor for Ag ion doping were first synthesised by wet chemical precipitation. Next, Ag+ absorbed on HA surface through ion exchange reaction. Glucose was then added to initiate the silver mirror reaction, which made the Ag+ ions reduce to Ag0 and Ag nanoparticles in situ formed on HA nanoparticles. Subsequently, Ag-HA nanocomposites with different Ag content were prepared. X-ray diffraction, SEM, EDX mapping and TEM imaging confirmed that spherical Ag nanoparticles ~20-40 nm in diameter were adhered to the surface of HA nano-rods (0.4-0.8 µm in length and 15-40 nm in diameter). The Ag content (1.9-15.2 wt%) in the Ag-HA nanocomposites was adjusted by varying the feeding Ag/Ca molar ratio (2.0-20%). The cell viability evaluation in vitro proved that Ag-HA nanocomposites had low cytotoxicity to L929 normal cells. Meanwhile, the antibacterial examinations in vitro demonstrated that Ag-HA nanocomposites had obvious antibacterial effects on Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, and fungus. The antibacterial results were dose-dependent on the accumulation of silver content. The Ag-HA nanocomposites loaded PMMA resins also demonstrated a potential antibacterial activity against S. mutans. This paper presents a convenient and bio-friendly approach for preparing Ag-HA nanocomposites with adjustable Ag content, which are a promising material for biomedical applications.

ERCC1 expression and platinum chemosensitivity in patients with ovarian cancer: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the correlation of ERCC1 expression and chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer. METHODS: The literature on the relationship between the excision repair cross complementary gene 1 (ERCC1) and the chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer published in PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, CNKI, and the China Wanfang database from the establishment of the databases to June 2020 were searched. Chemosensitivity is evaluated by clinical effective rate (complete remission plus partial remission). Statistical analysis was carried out by using Stata 15.1 software. RESULTS: A total of 11 articles met the inclusion criteria, consisting of 758 patients with ovarian cancer. The results showed a significant difference in chemosensitivity between the low expression group and the high expression group of ERCC1 (odds ratio 4.23; 95% confidence interval 2.96, 6.06; P < 0. 01). The same result was shown in the ethnicity subgroup. CONCLUSION: The chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer patients with a low expression of ERCC1 is better than that of patients with a high expression.

[Investigating Adsorption of Naphthalene to Organo-Modified Montmorillonites and Influencing Factors].

There are many sites contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or combined PAHs-heavy metal in China, which pose serious health-risks to local people and environments. Dissipative quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) was applied to investigate the adsorption of naphthalene to two organic-modified smectite clays (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide modified montmorillonite, CTAB-SMF, and 3-mercapto propyl trimethoxy silane modified montmorillonite, TMSP-SMF) and original SMF, together with batch adsorption experiments. The results, based on in-situ online QCM-D experiments, showed that the adsorption sites of CTAB-SMF on naphthalene were mainly CTAB grouped between the interlayers of clay particles, while TMSP-SMF's were TMSP grouped on the surfaces of clay particles. The isotherms of naphthalene adsorption to CTAB-SMF fitted well (R2>0.92) with the Freundlich model, while the adsorption isotherms to TMSP-SMF and SMF fitted well with the Langmuir model (R2>0.96). The parameters of CTAB-SMF (n>1) indicated that the adsorption sites of naphthalene to CTAB-SMF were heterogeneous and the adsorption increases at higher equilibrium concentration. The adsorption capacity qmax of TMSP-SMF is significantly greater than that of SMF (P<0.05). Based on the calculation, the value of ΔHobs for these three clays (CTAB-SMF, TMSP-SMF, and SMF) were within the range of -30 to -10 kJ·mol-1, which indicated that it was a spontaneous exothermic physical process. The solution ionic strength could decrease the adsorption of naphthalene to SMF, but had limited effects on naphthalene adsorption to the two organo-modified clay particles. The existence of Cu2+ in the solution could enhance naphthalene adsorption to the three particles, and naphthalene could improve Cu2+ adsorption to these two modified clays. The results of this study show that QCM-D is a useful technique to indicate the changes of clay film during the process of adsorption, and the two organo-modified clay particles have the potential to be remediation materials to remediate PAHs or PAHs-heavy metal-contaminated sites.

Moisture sorption and desorption properties of gelatin, HPMC and pullulan hard capsules.

The moisture sorption and desorption properties of hard capsules have a great influence on the quality of capsule products. However, studies on them have rarely been reported. Herein, we studied the moisture sorption and desorption properties of three kinds of hard capsules (gelatin, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and pullulan capsules) in terms of hygroscopicity, crystallinity, thermal behaviors and so on. It is found that HPMC capsules have weaker moisture sorption ability and moisture keeping ability than pullulan or gelatin capsules with lower moisture sorption rates, equilibrium moisture contents, moisture keeping rates and higher critical relative humidity. In comparison with gelatin capsules, pullulan capsules have weaker moisture sorption ability and comparable moisture keeping ability. HPMC or pullulan capsules can more effectively protect high, moderate and low hygroscopic capsule contents (chitosan, potato starch or ethyl cellulose) from outside moisture absorption. The diffraction peaks of the moisture equilibrated gelatin, HPMC and pullulan capsules are much smaller than those of their dried ones. The dried and the moisture equilibrated gelatin, HPMC or pullulan capsules all have smooth surface morphology. HPMC or pullulan capsules can be an attractive alternative to animal gelatin capsules due to their appropriate moisture sorption and desorption properties.

Effects of κ-carrageenan on pullulan's rheological and texture properties as well as pullulan hard capsule performances.

κ-Carrageenan (κ-Ca) is often used to facilitate gelling of aqueous solutions of polysaccharides. However, studies on its effects on pullulan's rheological and texture properties and pullulan (PUL) hard capsule performances have rarely been reported. Herein, effects of κ-Ca on PUL solutions, hydrogels, films and hard capsules were investigated. It was found that the gelling temperature of 15 % (w/w) PUL solutions with 0.07 % KCl increased from 34 ℃ to 42 ℃ as the concentration of κ-Ca increased from 0.6 % to 1.2 %, and the gelling temperature rose from 25 ℃ to 37 ℃ by adding a small amount of KCl (0.07 %) for 15 % PUL solutions with 0.9 % κ-Ca. As the κ-Ca concentration increased, hardness, fracturability and adhesiveness rose for PUL gels and tensile stress increased for PUL films. PUL capsules could be easily prepared by the aid of κ-Ca, and performances of capsules could be adjusted by changing the amount of κ-Ca.

Construction of ß-Cyclodextrin Covalent Organic Framework-Modified Chiral Stationary Phase for Chiral Separation.

Chiral covalent organic frameworks (CCOFs), built by the condensation reactions of organic building blocks with enantiomeric purity and linking subunits, have emerged as a marvelous category of porous crystalline material. In addition to stability and good porosity, CCOFs possess remarkable enantioselectivity, which would be exploited for asymmetric catalysis and chiral separation. ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) and its derivatives, a group of supramolecules with a hydrophobic cavity, have been widely applied to molecular specific recognitions. In this work, the ß-CD covalent organic framework (COF) was exploited to construct chiral stationary phase (CSP) for chiral drugs analysis for the first time. We fabricated ß-CD COF via the condensation reaction of heptakis(6-amino-6-deoxy)-ß-CD and terephthalaldehyde at room temperature. ß-CD COF-modified capillary columns were subsequently prepared by a photopolymerization method with shortened time and applied for separation of chiral drugs on capillary electrochromatography with good resolution and repeatability. Baseline separation for six enantiomers was achieved and the precisions (relative standard deviations) for intraday, interday, and column-to-column were <2.1%, 4.5%, and 7.3%, respectively. The results reveal that CCOFs-coated capillary columns show great prospect for chromatographic separation of chiral drugs.

[Application value of thromboelastography in patients with multiple trauma in emergency department].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of thromboelastography (TEG) in patients with multiple trauma in emergency department. METHODS: The clinical data of 302 patients with multiple trauma hospitalized in the emergency department of Gansu Provincial People's Hospital from August 2015 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The general clinical data of the patients were collected. The patients were divided into three groups according to injury severity score (ISS): mild injury group (ISS ≤ 16), serious injury group (ISS 17-25), and severe injury group (ISS > 25). The results of vital signs, routine coagulation test, blood routine, blood biochemistry, and arterial blood gas analysis were recorded, and the National early warning score (NEWS) was calculated. TEG parameters were analyzed. Pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the correlation between TEG indicators and NEWS score. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of TEG indicators for disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in patients with severe injury. RESULTS: 299 patients were enrolled in the final analysis, including 92 patients in the mild injury group, 109 in the serious injury group and 98 in the severe injury group. With the increase in trauma severity, the NEWS score and TEG indicators including coagulation reaction time (R value) and blood clot generation time (K value) were gradually increased [NEWS score in mild, serious, and severe injury group was 3.46±0.89, 5.85±0.62, 9.75±1.76, R value (minutes) was 5.8±2.8, 7.8±2.6, 11.7±3.0, and K value (minutes) was 2.4±1.0, 4.2±1.4, 5.5±2.9, respectively], and blood clot generation rate (α angle), maximum width value (MA value) and coagulation index (CI) were gradually decreased [α angle (degree angle) in mild, serious, and severe injury group was 66.9±13.5, 55.7±22.9, 46.8±26.3, MA value (mm) was 51.8±9.7, 48.1±17.0, 38.5±15.2, and CI was 2.0±3.6, -2.8±3.5, -6.7±2.9, respectively], the differences were statistically significant among the groups (all P < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the NEWS score was positively correlated with R and K values (r value was 0.463,0.588, respectively, both P < 0.01), and it was negatively correlated with α angle, MA value and CI (r value was -0.622, -0.689, -0.902, respectively, all P < 0.01). Linear correlation analysis showed that for every 1 minute increase in R value, NEWS score increased by 0.882 [95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 0.691 to 1.073]; for every 1 minute increase in K value, NEWS score increased by 0.484 (95%CI = 0.408 to 0.559); for every 1degree angleincrease in α angle, NEWS score decreased by 2.910 (95%CI = -3.325 to -2.494); for every 1 mm increase in MA value, NEWS score decreased by 2.223 (95%CI = -2.488 to -1.958); for every 1 increase in CI, NEWS score decreased by 1.292 (95%CI = -1.362 to -1.221). The R and K values in DIC patients (n = 37) of the severe injury group were significantly higher than those in non-DIC patients [n = 61; R value (minutes): 15.8±5.6 vs. 9.8±2.6, K value (minutes): 7.6±3.1 vs. 4.3±2.2], and α angle, MA value and CI were significantly lowered [α angle (degree angle): 48.7±19.8 vs. 59.6±26.2, MA value (mm): 37.5±19.2 vs. 49.2±18.6, CI: -8.5±3.4 vs. -5.2±3.1], the differences were statistically significant between the two groups (all P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under ROC curve (AUC) of the R and K values for predicting DIC was 0.999 and 0.958, respectively. When the optimal cut-off value of R value was 12.3 minutes, the sensitivity and specificity were 97.5% and 100%; when the optimal cut-off value of K value was 5.7 minutes, the sensitivity and specificity were 92.5% and 82.0%. The AUC of α angle, MA value and CI were 0.084, 0.060 and 0.114, which had no predictive value. CONCLUSIONS: TEG indicators have clinical value on predicting the severity of illness in patients with multiple trauma. The changes in R and K values are effective indicators to judge the risk of DIC in patients with severe multiple trauma.

Characteristics and source apportionment of PM2.5 in Jiaxing, China.

Herein we investigated the morphology, chemical characteristics, and source apportionment of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) samples collected from five sites in Jiaxing. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that soot aggregates and coal-fired fly ash were generally the most abundant components in the samples. All the samples were analyzed gravimetrically for mass concentrations and their various compositions were determined. Our results revealed that the PM2.5 concentrations in the samples were in the following order: winter > spring > autumn > summer. The PM2.5 concentrations in winter and spring were higher than those in autumn and summer, except for inorganic elements. Carbonaceous species and water-soluble inorganic ions were the most abundant components in the samples, accounting for 26.17-50.44% and 34.27-49.6%, respectively. The high secondary organic carbon/organic carbon ratio indicated that secondary organic pollution in Jiaxing was severe. The average ratios of NO3-/SO42-, ranging from 1.01 to 1.25 at the five sites, indicated that mobile pollution sources contributed more to the formation of PM2.5 than stationary sources. The BeP/(BeP + BaP) ratio (0.52-0.71) in samples reflected the influence of transportation from outside of Jiaxing. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model identified eight main pollution sources: secondary nitrates (26.95%), secondary sulfates (15.49%), secondary organic aerosol (SOA) (19.64%), vehicle exhaust (15.67%), coal combustion (8.6%), fugitive dust (7.7%), ships and heavy oil (5.23%), biomass burning, and other sources (0.91%). Therefore, PM2.5 pollution in Jiaxing during the winter and spring seasons was more severe than that in the summer and autumn. Secondary aerosols were the most important source of PM2.5 pollution; therefore, focus should be placed on controlling gaseous precursors.

Insight on the changes of cassava and potato starch granules during gelatinization.

Gelatinization is an important property of starch for biomedical applications. However, studies on the changes in starch granules in terms of morphology, swelling, amylose leaching and so on during gelatinization, which are key to uncovering the starch gelatinization process, have rarely been reported. Herein, changes of cassava and potato starch granules during gelatinization were investigated. It was found that there is a substantial difference in the granule changes during gelatinization between cassava and potato starch. Cassava starch granules remain intact with slight swelling, with approximately 8.5% amylose leaching in water for 30 min at 60 °C. In sharp contrast, potato starch granules swell very well and rapidly, losing much integrity with 51.05% amylose leaching. The gelatinization time and temperature have much greater effects on the changes of potato starch granules than cassava starch granules.