[Value of serum miR-21-3p in predicting acute kidney injury in children with sepsis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the value of serum miR-21-3p combined with serum creatinine (Scr), cystatin C (Cys-C), and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) in predicting acute kidney injury (AKI) in children with sepsis. METHODS: A total of 142 children who were diagnosed with sepsis from January 2016 to March 2019 were enrolled. According to the presence or absence of AKI, they were divided into AKI group with 49 children and non-AKI group with 93 children. The serum levels of miR-21-3p, Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 were measured for the two groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the value of serum miR-21-3p, Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 in predicting AKI. A Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation of serum miR-21-3p with Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1. RESULTS: The AKI group had significantly higher serum levels of miR-21-3p, Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 than the non-AKI group (P<0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that the combination of serum miR-21-3p, Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 had an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.962 (95%CI: 0.906-0.998), which was significantly larger than the AUC of each index alone (P<0.05), with a sensitivity of 97.0% and a specificity of 91.4%. The correlation analysis showed that the serum level of miR-21-3p was positively correlated with Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 in the AKI group (r=0.704, 0.812, and 0.863 respectively, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant increase in the serum level of miR-21-3p in children with sepsis and AKI, and its combination with Scr, Cys-C, and KIM-1 has a high value in predicting AKI.

Role of External Field in Polymerization: Mechanism and Kinetics.

The past decades have witnessed an increasing interest in developing advanced polymerization techniques subjected to external fields. Various physical modulations, such as temperature, light, electricity, magnetic field, ultrasound, and microwave irradiation, are noninvasive means, having superb but distinct abilities to regulate polymerizations in terms of process intensification and spatial and temporal controls. Gas as an emerging regulator plays a distinctive role in controlling polymerization and resembles a physical regulator in some cases. This review provides a systematic overview of seven types of external-field-regulated polymerizations, ranging from chain-growth to step-growth polymerization. A detailed account of the relevant mechanism and kinetics is provided to better understand the role of each external field in polymerization. In addition, given the crucial role of modeling and simulation in mechanisms and kinetics investigation, an overview of model construction and typical numerical methods used in this field as well as highlights of the interaction between experiment and simulation toward kinetics in the existing systems are given. At the end, limitations and future perspectives for this field are critically discussed. This state-of-the-art research progress not only provides the fundamental principles underlying external-field-regulated polymerizations but also stimulates new development of advanced polymerization methods.

Mediation of Electron Transfer by Quadrupolar Interactions: The Constitutional, Electronic, and Energetic Complementarities in Supramolecular Chemistry.

Studies of intermolecular interactions enhance our knowledge of chemistry across molecular and supramolecular levels. Here, we show that host-guest quadrupolar interaction has a profound influence on the molecular system. With covalently bonded dimolybdenum complex units as the electron donor (D) and acceptor (A) and a thienylene group (C4H2S) as the bridge (B), the mixed-valence D-B-A complexes are shaped with clefts in the middle of the molecule. Interestingly, in aromatic solvents, the D-A electronic coupling constants (Hab) and electron transfer rates (ket) are dramatically reduced. Theoretical computations indicate that an aromatic molecule is encapsulated in the cleft of the D-B-A array; quadrupole-quadrupole interaction between the guest molecule and the C4H2S bridge evokes a charge redistribution, which increases the HOMO-LUMO energy gap, intervening in the through-bond electron transfer. These results demonstrate that a supramolecular system is unified underlying the characteristics of the assembled molecules through constitutional, electronic, and energetic complementarities.

Author Correction: Efficient electron transfer across hydrogen bond interfaces by proton-coupled and -uncoupled pathways.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Author Correction: Efficient electron transfer across hydrogen bond interfaces by proton-coupled and -uncoupled pathways.

The original version of this Article contained errors in the symbols displayed in the eighteenth sentence of the third paragraph of the 'Determination of Hab and kET data for the Mo2 dimers' section of the Results, and the third sentence of the Discussion. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Efficient electron transfer across hydrogen bond interfaces by proton-coupled and -uncoupled pathways.

Thermal electron transfer through hydrogen bonds remains largely unexplored. Here we report the study of electron transfer through amide-amide hydrogen bonded interfaces in mixed-valence complexes with covalently bonded Mo2 units as the electron donor and acceptor. The rate constants for electron transfer through the dual hydrogen bonds across a distance of 12.5 Å are on the order of ∼ 1010 s-1, as determined by optical analysis based on Marcus-Hush theory and simulation of ν(NH) vibrational band broadening, with the electron transfer efficiencies comparable to that of π conjugated bridges. This work demonstrates that electron transfer across a hydrogen bond may proceed via the known proton-coupled pathway, as well as an overlooked proton-uncoupled pathway that does not involve proton transfer. A mechanistic switch between the two pathways can be achieved by manipulation of the strengths of electronic coupling and hydrogen bonding. The knowledge of the non-proton coupled pathway has shed light on charge and energy transport in biological systems.

Optically probing the localized to delocalized transition in Mo2-Mo2 mixed-valence systems.

Four thienylene (C4H2S) bridged Mo2 dimers, [Mo2(DAniF)3]2(µ-OOCC4H2SCOO) (DAniF = N,N'-di(p-anisyl)formamidinate), [Mo2(DAniF)3]2(µ-N(H)SCC4H2SCN(H)S), [Mo2(DAniF)3]2(µ-OSCC4H2SCSO) and [Mo2(DAniF)3]2(µ-SSCC4H2SCSS), have been synthesized and studied in terms of electronic coupling. The subtle structural differences between these compounds vary largely the extent of electron delocalization; consequently, a systematic transition from Class II to Class III via Class II-III is achieved, which is probed using spectral parameters of intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) absorption (band energy, intensity and shape) for the mixed-valence complexes. Significantly, the species in Class II-III displays a low energy, half cut-off and solvent-dependent IVCT band, while a high energy, less asymmetrical IVCT band is observed for the complex in Class III. These results give fresh and detailed understanding of the system transition.

A bifunctional solid oxide electrolysis cell for simultaneous CO2 utilization and synthesis gas production.

We hereby report on a pioneering and inspiring solid oxide cell which, assisted by natural gas, utilizes a bifunctional electrolysis cell configuration to effectively consume CO2 to produce CO at the cathode side and simultaneously synthesize highly valuable syngas (mixture of CO and H2) at the anode side via a one-step green process.

[MicroRNAs and cancer-associated signal transduction pathways].

Signal transduction pathways play extremely important roles in various processes of cell life including metabolism, growth, proliferation, stress, development and apoptosis. Disruption of these pathways may affect normal cell growth and development, and even gives rise to tumors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a newly discovered class of non-coding small RNAs (approximately 22 nucleotides in length) in eukaryotes that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. With a wide range of target genes, they play essential and pervasive roles in diverse biological processes. Aberrant miRNA expression has recently been discovered in tumor development, indicating that miRNAs may be connected with tumorigenesis, possibly through regulating the expression of oncogenes and tumor-suppressing genes. It has also been noticed that many target genes of miRNA can influence tumor associated signal transduction pathways. The significant roles of miRNAs in tumorigenesis indicate that they may become a powerful tool for diagnosis and treatment of human cancers in the future.

[Study on trace elements in wuji baifeng wan and its preparation].

We studied the amount of trace elements in the traditional Chinese medicine Wuji Baifeng Wan by cluster analysis, and found that the clustering results of the trace elements in Twelve Wuji Baifeng Wan (the southern preparation) and Wuji Baifeng Wan (the northern preparation) were not in the same group. In this paper, AAS was used for the determination of trace elements in Wuji Baifeng Wan and its preparation. The results showed that there were great differences between Twelve Wuji Baifeng Wan and Wuji Baifeng Wan , while the difference between Chinese Taihe Chicken and Native Chicken was slight. So we drew a conclusion that the great differences between Twelve Wuji Baifeng Wan and Wuji Baifeng Wan were caused by other medicine, not in its preparation.