Association of Normal-Range Hemoglobin A1c Value During Midpregnancy with Adverse Birth Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The midpregnancy normal-range HbA1c value and adverse birth outcomes were controversial. To address this lack of data, we examined the associations between midpregnancy normal-range HbA1c value and adverse birth outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether an association exists between the midpregnancy normal-range HbA1c value and adverse birth outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 8389 women in their midpregnancy with normal gestational HbA1c value from the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University in China participated in this study from January to December 2019. Subjects were stratified on the basis of their midpregnancy HbA1c value, and multivariate logistic regression was implemented to investigate the association between different HbA1c values and adverse birth outcomes. RESULTS: Incidence of preterm birth, macrosomia, and large for gestational age (LGA) for 8389 subjects were 4.8%, 6.3% and 16.5%, respectively. The multivariate logistic regression model demonstrated that the risk of preterm birth (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.71 and 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.25-2.34), macrosomia (OR: 1.68 and 95% CI: 1.26-2.22), and LGA (OR: 1.53 and 95% CI: 1.28-1.83) increase for every increase of 1% maternal HbA1c. Women with a prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) of < 25 kg/m2 have a stronger correlation with HbA1c values and adverse birth outcomes than women with a prepregnancy BMI of ≥25 kg/m2. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that the midpregnancy normal-range HbA1c level within the normal range is associated with adverse birth outcomes. Monitoring and controlling HbA1c may reduce the risk of adverse birth outcomes.

Tuning Emission Wavelength of Polymorphous Crystal via Controllable Alkyl Chain Stacking and Its Vapor- and Thermo-Responsive Fluorescence.

Tuning fluorescence colour of solid-state materials has become a topic of increasing interest for both fundamental mechanism study and practical applications such as sensors, optical recording and security printing. In this work, a fluorescent colour tuneable molecule BA-C16 is rationally designed and facilely synthesized by attaching flexible long alkyl chains to 2-hydroxybenzophenone azine (BA), which shows both aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) characteristics. Compared to BA, the simple introduction of long alkyl chains in BA-C16 leads to an emission wavelength redshift from 542 to 558 nm. This strategy of extending emission wavelength is rarely reported, and is ascribed to the enlarged through-space π-conjugation between interplanar molecules in the aggregate of BA-C16. Three crystals of BA-C16 are obtained with green, yellowish green and yellow emission. According to characterization by X-ray crystallography, X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry, alkyl chains play an important role in inducing different stacking modes of the three crystals, which further leads to polymorph-dependent fluorescence colour. BA-C16 exhibits tuneable solid-state fluorescence upon vapor fumigation, or annealing based on a transition between a "near-monomer" crystalline state and a "dimer" crystalline state. BA-C16 is further applied for rewritable fluorescence printing tuned by vapor- and thermal-treatment.

Improving the property of calcium ferrite using a sonochemical method.

Power ultrasonic vibration was applied to the solidification of calcium ferrite (CF) melt in this study. The results indicated that power ultrasound can promote the formation of CF by accelerating the solidification process. Ultrasonic vibration greatly refined the CF grains, resulting the grain size decreased from 1893 to 437 µm. Meanwhile, ultrasonic vibration significantly enhanced the compressive strength, reduced the reduction time and improved the reducibility of CF slags. With ultrasonic treatment, the ultimate compressive strength of samples increased from 37.5 to 67.8 MPa, and the reduction time decreased from 225 to 136 min.

Effect of ultrasonic vibration treatment on solid-state reactions between Fe2O3 and CaO.

In the present study, ultrasonic vibration was applied to the solid-state reaction between Fe2O3 and CaO. The effect of the ultrasonic vibration treatment on the formation of CaFe2O4 (CF) from the solid-state reaction was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Rietveld structure refinement method. The results indicated that the solid-state reaction between Fe2O3 and CaO was accelerated by ultrasonic treatment (UT), which efficiently lowered the formation temperature of the solid-state CF and increased the quantity formed by enhancing the mass transfer process of the reactions. Without the UT, CF and Ca2Fe2O5 (C2F) were produced at 750°C and the mass fractions of CF and C2F increased with the experiment temperature, with approximately 47.76% CF and 40.66% C2F produced at 850°C. With the UT, mass fractions of 5.67% CF and 18.20% C2F were formed at 700°C, and increasing the experiment temperature enhanced the formation of CF and C2F. Moreover, a significantly greater amount of CF than C2F was formed when the temperature exceeded 700°C. A CF mass fraction of approximately 98.73% was obtained by UT at 850°C, much higher than the 47.76% obtained without UT. In addition, increasing the ultrasonic power influenced the formation of the CF phase. The CF content increased from 19% to 77.34% with increasing ultrasonic power from 0 to 89%×2kW. Furthermore, a prolonged UT time also promoted the formation of solid phase CF. The mass fraction of CF ranged from 19% to 77.34% when the UT time was varied from 0 to 150min.

A ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor for Al³âº in aqueous solution based on aggregation-induced emission and its application in live-cell imaging.

A ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor 1 was developed for the detection of Al(3+) in aqueous solution based on aggregation-induced emmision (AIE). The chemosensor showed the fluorescence of its aggregated state and Al(3+)-chelated soluble state in the absence and in the presence of Al(3+), respectively, and resulted in a fluorescence ratio (I461/I537) response to Al(3+) in neutral aqueous solution at a detection limit as low as 0.29 µmol L(-1). The method was also highly selective to Al(3+) over other physiological relevant metal ions investigated in this study. Taking advantage of its AIE characteristics, the chemosensor was successfully applied on test papers for simple and rapid detection of Al(3+). Moreover, the application of 1 for the imaging of Al(3+) in living cells by ratiometric fluorescence changes was also achieved.

A facile, sensitive and selective fluorescent probe for heparin based on aggregation-induced emission.

A facile, rapidly responsive fluorescence turn-on probe for heparin with high selectivity and sensitivity was reported in this paper. The probe could aggregate on the negatively charged heparin template through electrostatic interactions and then display intense fluorescence due to its aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. Under optimal condition, the probe showed high selectivity to heparin over chondroitin sulfate(ChS), hyaluronic acid (HA), dextran (DeX) and other substances, with a linear range of 0.2-14 µg/mL, and a detection limit of 57.6 ng/mL. In diluted serum, it also showed good performance.

A ratiometric fluorescent probe for hydrophobic proteins in aqueous solution based on aggregation-induced emission.

A novel fluorescent probe 1 is reported here with ratiometric response to hydrophobic proteins (casein) or proteins with hydrophobic pockets (BSA, HSA) through hydrophobic interaction. Probe 1 underwent deprotonation in aqueous solution at pH 7.4 and emitted blue fluorescence at 436 nm. Upon the addition of BSA, HSA or casein, the aggregation-induced emission fluorescence of 1 at 518 nm was turned on. The fluorescence intensity ratio, I518/I436 was linearly related to the concentrations of these proteins. The detection limits for BSA, HSA and casein based on IUPAC (CDL = 3Sb m(-1)) were 16.2 µg mL(-1), 10.5 µg mL(-1) and 5.7 µg mL(-1), respectively.

Tandem extraction strategy for separation of metallic and semiconducting SWCNTs using condensed benzenoid molecules: effects of molecular morphology and solvent.

Separation of metallic and semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is of great importance for SWCNT-based nano-electronics. We propose a tandem extraction strategy for efficient separation of different types of SWCNTs. This strategy is based on chiral angle discriminated adsorption of soluble condensed benzenoid aromatic molecules on SWCNTs, which induce different dispersibility of SWCNTs in various organic solvents. The proposed tandem extraction strategy involves two extraction steps, in which the first step extracts metallic SWCNTs with large chiral angles and the subsequent step enriches large chiral angle semiconducting SWCNTs. This separation strategy is tested on a series of condensed benzenoid aromatic molecules. Both experimental and theoretical results show that the separation efficiency is strongly dependent on the molecular morphology, i.e. higher aspect ratio gives better separation results. The separation efficiency is also dependent on the SWCNT diameter and the solvent properties. This tandem extraction strategy may also be applied to other available noncovalent separation reagents to improve their separation efficiency.

Dye assisted separation of single wall carbon nanotubes.

In this work, we demonstrate a simple and reliable method for selectively separating single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). This method is based on a preferable adsorption of linear polynuclear aromatic dyes on metallic SWNTs. With different adsorption amount of soluble dyes, the metallic and semconducting SWNTs show different solubility in solvents, hence can be separated. The types of the obtained SWNTs and the separative efficiency using different dyes have been studied using Raman spectroscopy. It was found that the polynuclear molecules with more benzene rings show higher selectivity. Meanwhile, the separative efficiency is also sensitive to the choice of solvents.