UV-Catalyzed TiO2-Based Optofluidic SERS Chip for Three Online Strategies: Fabrication, Detection, and Self-Cleaning.

We developed an optofluidic surface-enhanced Raman scattering chip capable of online fabrication, online molecular detection, and online self-cleaning. In this chip, we harnessed UV light to successfully reduce an AgNO3 solution, resulting in the formation of Ag nanoparticles on carbon fiber cloth coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2). This innovative approach enabled the online fabrication of AgNPs@TiO2-CFC SERS structures. By introducing target molecules into our optofluidic SERS chip, we achieved online molecular Raman detection. Furthermore, by leveraging the UV light-induced self-cleaning properties of TiO2, we achieved continuous online self-cleaning of the molecules. To verify the feasibility and stability of our method, we conducted multiple experiments for online detection and self-cleaning. Experimental results demonstrated impressively low detection limits of 10-8 mol/L for crystal violet and 10-9 mol/L for rhodamine 6G, with an enhancement factor as high as 1.4 × 106. Additionally, we successfully applied our method to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons like pyrene.

Potential pathological mechanisms and pharmacological interventions for cadmium-induced miscarriage.

The prevalence of cadmium (Cd) contamination has emerged as a significant global concern. Exposure to Cd during pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage. However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive summaries on Cd-induced miscarriage. Therefore, it is imperative to further strengthen research into in vivo studies, clinical status, pathological mechanisms, and pharmacological interventions for Cd-induced miscarriage. This study systematically presents the current knowledge on animal models and clinical trials investigating Cd exposure-induced miscarriage. The underlying mechanisms involving oxidative stress, inflammation, endocrine disruption, and placental dysfunction caused by Cd-induced miscarriage are also extensively discussed. Additionally, potential drug interventions such as melatonin, vitamin C, and vitamin E are highlighted for their pharmacological role in mitigating adverse pregnancy outcomes induced by Cd.

Long Non-Coding RNA lncWOX11a Suppresses Adventitious Root Formation of Poplar by Regulating the Expression of PeWOX11a.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a class of poorly conserved transcripts without protein-encoding ability, are widely involved in plant organogenesis and stress responses by mediating the transmission and expression of genetic information at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and epigenetic levels. Here, we cloned and characterized a novel lncRNA molecule through sequence alignment, Sanger sequencing, transient expression in protoplasts, and genetic transformation in poplar. lncWOX11a is a 215 bp transcript located on poplar chromosome 13, ~50 kbp upstream of PeWOX11a on the reverse strand, and the lncRNA may fold into a series of complex stem-loop structures. Despite the small open reading frame (sORF) of 51 bp within lncWOX11a, bioinformatics analysis and protoplast transfection revealed that lncWOX11a has no protein-coding ability. The overexpression of lncWOX11a led to a decrease in the quantity of adventitious roots on the cuttings of transgenic poplars. Further, cis-regulatory module prediction and CRISPR/Cas9 knockout experiments with poplar protoplasts demonstrated that lncWOX11a acts as a negative regulator of adventitious rooting by downregulating the WUSCHEL-related homeobox gene WOX11, which is supposed to activate adventitious root development in plants. Collectively, our findings imply that lncWOX11a is essential for modulating the formation and development of adventitious roots.

Study of impacts of education, open-access medical publishing, and internet on women's health in China.

The researchers' aim to quantitatively study the impacts of education, health expenditure, Internet, mobile phone, and open-access articles in medical science on women's health in China. We found that there are very strong significant negative correlations between the data of women's mortality rates and female school enrollment (p≪0.01), whereas there are strong significant negative correlations for open-access papers in eight disciplines of medical science, individuals using the Internet, and mobile cellular subscriptions (p≪0.01). The first principal component explains 96.8%, 96.6%, and 99.6% of the variation in the mortality rate of female infants (p = 0.002 < 0.01), females under-5 (p = 0.003 < 0.01), and female adults (p = 0.002 < 0.01), respectively. There is a similar relationship between open-access medical papers and women's health. The above results could be helpful to interdisciplinary audiences (patients, practitioners, and policymakers) to develop strategies for the effective implementation of knowledge on women's health (how to disseminate knowledge more effectively in the whole society).

Integrated Degradome and Srna Sequencing Revealed miRNA-mRNA Regulatory Networks between the Phloem and Developing Xylem of Poplar.

Lignin and cellulose are the most abundant natural organic polymers in nature. MiRNAs are a class of regulatory RNAs discovered in mammals, plants, viruses, and bacteria. Studies have shown that miRNAs play a role in lignin and cellulose biosynthesis by targeting key enzymes. However, the specific miRNAs functioning in the phloem and developing xylem of Populus deltoides are still unknown. In this study, a total of 134 miRNAs were identified via high-throughput small RNA sequencing, including 132 known and two novel miRNAs, six of which were only expressed in the phloem. A total of 58 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) were identified between the developing xylem and the phloem. Among these miRNAs, 21 were significantly upregulated in the developing xylem in contrast to the phloem and 37 were significantly downregulated. A total of 2431 target genes of 134 miRNAs were obtained via high-throughput degradome sequencing. Most target genes of these miRNAs were transcription factors, including AP2, ARF, bHLH, bZIP, GRAS, GRF, MYB, NAC, TCP, and WRKY genes. Furthermore, 13 and nine miRNAs were involved in lignin and cellulose biosynthesis, respectively, and we validated the miRNAs via qRT-PCR. Our study explores these miRNAs and their regulatory networks in the phloem and developing xylem of P.deltoides and provides new insight into wood formation.

Assessment of pulmonary toxicity of potential antioxidant drug PEGylated nanoceria after intratracheal instillation in rats.

Cerium oxide (CeO2 ) nanoparticles have unique redox properties and exert excellent antioxidant effects in the biological environment. In recent years, many researchers have focused on the CeO2 nanoparticles as an effective antioxidant drug in the prevention and treatment of various diseases. However, the toxicity of CeO2 nanoparticles in vivo remains controversial and still needs intensive research. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the pulmonary and systemic toxicity in rats after 14 days of exposure to the PEGylated CeO2 nanoparticles (abbreviated as CNPs; exposure dose of 2, 10, or 20 mg/kg) through a single intratracheal instillation (IT). We assessed the indicators of lung injury and the pathological damage degree of lung tissue. The bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) analysis and lung histopathology revealed the occurrence of slight pulmonary inflammation in the 20-mg/kg experimental group rats. However, the inflammation factors in the lung tissue of every group rats did not significantly increase, and the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) in lung tissue homogenate rose considerably in the experimental groups. Collectively, these results indicated that pulmonary exposure by the high dose of CNPs could induce mild pulmonary inflammation but did not cause severe systemic toxicity. Moreover, we speculate that the mechanism of pulmonary toxicity of CNPs in rats was due to the autophagic death of healthy lung epithelial cells mediated by endoplasmic reticulum stress. Our results implicate that CNPs can be safely used as an antioxidant drug for the oxidative stress pulmonary diseases.

Finding the priority and cluster of inflammatory biomarkers for infectious preterm birth: a systematic review.

Infectious preterm birth (PTB) is one of the most important causes of perinatal death. It is difficult to find reliable biomarkers accurate to gestational weeks for infectious PTB prediction clinically. Infectious PTB is found usually accompanied with immune imbalance. Thus, the systematic study to find the priority of inflammatory biomarkers and innovative inflammatory clusters for infectious PTB prediction is urgently needed.This systematic study that focused on the inflammatory clusters and infectious PTB in the PubMed database was analyzed by using the criteria of the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study design (PICOS) framework according to the recommendations of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA).The network meta-analyzed results showed that the prioritization of the inflammatory factors for infectious PTB prediction is soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (sTNFR2) > tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) > interleukin-10 (IL-10) > interleukin-6 (IL-6) > C-reactive protein (CRP) > interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß). Furthermore, the results also indicated that global consideration of multiple inflammatory factors, such as CRP/IL-1ß/IL-6 biomarker cluster in gestational 27-34 weeks, and the tumor necrosis factor/nerve growth factor (TNF/NGF) family during gestational 25-33 weeks, were potential biomarker clusters that specific for infectious PTB prediction.This study systematically pointed out prioritization of the inflammatory factors for infectious PTB prediction. The results also provided evidence that maternal inflammatory clusters can predict infectious PTB occurrence at accurate gestational week. The global consideration of multiple inflammatory factors at accurate gestational age is highlighted.

SMRT and Illumina sequencing provide insights into mechanisms of lignin and terpenoids biosynthesis in Pinus massoniana Lamb.

Wood and oleoresin are important industrial raw materials with high economic value; however, their molecular formation and biosynthesis mechanisms in different tissues of Pinus massoniana remain unexplored. Therefore, we used single-molecule real-time sequencing technology (SMRT) and Illumina RNA sequencing to establish a transcriptome dataset and explore the expression pattern of genes related to secondary metabolites involved in wood formation and oleoresin biosynthesis in six different P. massoniana tissues. In total, 63.58 Gb of polymerase reads were obtained, including 41,407 isoforms with an average length of 1822 bp. We identified 3939 and 8785 isoforms and 161 and 481 transcription factors with tissue expression specificity and in the reproductive and vegetative organs, respectively. Eighty isoforms were annotated as cellulose synthases and 224 isoforms involved in lignin biosynthesis were enriched. Additionally, we identified 217 isoforms involved in the terpenoid biosynthesis pathway, with needles having the most tissue-specific genes for terpenoid biosynthesis. Some isoforms related to lignin biosynthesis were highly expressed in the xylem, according to the results of transcriptome sequencing and real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Our research confirmed the advantages of SMRT sequencing and provided valuable information for the transcriptional annotation of P. massoniana, which will be beneficial for producing better raw wood and oleoresin materials.

Poplar coma morphogenesis and miRNA regulatory networks by combining ovary tissue sectioning and deep sequencing.

Poplar coma, commonly referred to as "seed hairs", is a tuft of trichomes attached to the seed coat that helps seed dispersal. However, they can also trigger health impacts for humans, including sneezing, shortness of breath, and skin irritation. Despite efforts to study the regulatory mechanism of herbaceous trichome formation, poplar coma remains poorly understood. In this study, we showed that the epidermal cells of the funiculus and placenta are the origin of poplar coma based on observations of paraffin sections. Small RNA (sRNA) and degradome libraries were also constructed at three stages of poplar coma development, including initiation and elongation stages. Based on 7,904 miRNA-target pairs identified by small RNA and degradome sequencing, we constructed a miRNA-transcript factor and a stage-specific miRNA regulatory network. By combining paraffin section observation and deep sequencing, our research will provide greater insight into the molecular mechanisms of poplar coma development.

Association Between Immediacy of Citations and Altmetrics in COVID-19 Research by Artificial Neural Networks.

OBJECTIVES: Both citations and Altmetrics are indexes of influence of a publication, potentially useful, but to what extent that the professional-academic citation and media-dominated Altmetrics are consistent with each other is a topic worthy of being investigated. The objective is to show their correlation. METHODS: DOI and citation information of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) researches were obtained from the Web of Science, its Altmetric indicators were collected from the Altmetrics. Correlation between the immediacy of citation and Altmetrics of COVID-19 research was studied by artificial neural networks. RESULTS: Pearson coefficients are 0.962, 0.254, 0.222, 0.239, 0.363, 0.218, 0.136, 0.134, and 0.505 (P < 0.01) for dimensions citation, attention score, journal impact factor, news, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, video, and Mendeley correlated with the SCI citation, respectively. The citations from the Web of Science and that from the Altmetrics have deviance large enough in the current. Altmetric score is not precise to describe the immediacy of citations of academic publication in COVID-19 research. CONCLUSIONS: The effects of news, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, video, and Mendeley on SCI citations are similar to that of the journal impact factor. This paper performs a pioneer study for investigating the role of academic topics across Altmetric sources on the dissemination of scholarly publications.

Acute hepatotoxicity of multimodal targeted imaging contrast agent NaLuF4:Gd,Yb,Er-PEG/PEI-FA in mice.

In the past few decades, upconversion nanoparticles (abbreviated as UCNPs) have been more widely applied in the biomedical fields, such as in vitro and in vivo upconversion fluorescent bioimaging, photodynamic therapy, biological macromolecular detection, imaging mediated drug delivery and so on. But meanwhile, there is still not much research on the acute toxicity of upconversion nanoparticles in vivo, such as acute hepatotoxicity. In this work, we studied the in vivo biodistribution and acute hepatotoxicity of multimodal targeted contrast agent NaLuF4:Gd,Yb,Er-PEG/PEI-FA nanoprobe, which were synthesized by the solvothermal method and modified with Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Polyetherimide (PEI), folic acid (FA) on the surface. The acute hepatotoxicity in mice was systematically assessed after tail vein injection of different concentration of UCNPs. The results showed that NaLuF4:Gd,Yb,Er-PEG/PEI-FA nanoparticles with an average diameter of 44.5 ± 10.4 nm, and three typical upconversion fluorescence emission bands at 520 nm, 540 nm and 660 nm under the excitation of 980 nm laser. In vivo distribution experiments results demonstrated that approximately 87% of UCNPs injected through the tail vein accumulate in the liver. In the acute hepatotoxicity test, the intravenously injection dose of UCNPs was 10, 40, 70 and 100 mg/kg, respectively. The body weight, blood routine, serum biochemistry, histomorphology and liver oxidative stress were detected and observed no significant acute hepatotoxicity damage under the injection dose of 100 mg/kg. In conclusion, NaLuF4:Gd,Yb,Er-PEG/PEI-FA nanoprobes are safe and reliable, and have potential applications in the field of tumor targeted multimodal imaging.