Rapid electrochemical detection of domoic acid based on polydopamine/reduced graphene oxide coupled with in-situ imprinted polyacrylamide

Domoic acid, namely amnesic shellfish toxin, is a highly neurotoxic substance to marine animals and humankind. To reduce the incidence of poisoning accidents, the exploitation of specific and rapid detection method for domoic acid monitoring is highly required. Herein, an electrochemical molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) sensor based on polydopamine-reduced graphene oxide/polyacrylamide composite (PDA-rGO/PAM) was constructed successfully to detect domoic acid. The domoic acid molecule could be recognized in imprinted cavities of PAM reversibly through hydrogen bonding. PDA-rGO promoted the loading capacity of PAM and improved the charge transfer rate, which amplified the electrical signal response of the MIP sensor. The screen-printed electrode (SPE) modified with PDA-rGO/PAM displayed satisfactory response toward toxin contaminated sample at a linear range from 1 to 600 nM and a low detection limit of 0.31 nM, demonstrating the prospective application of the transducer as a portable sensing platform for the on-site detection of hazardous marine biotoxin. Moreover, benefiting from the superior specificity and stability of MIP, the fabricated sensor could be utilized to detect the domoic acid content in mussel extracts directly without complex pretreatment operation.

Adsorption Behavior of Magnetic Carbon-Supported Metal Nickel for the Efficient Dye Removal from Water

Magnetic carbon-supported metal nickel has been successfully synthesized by solvothermal method and heat treatment for highly effective adsorption of various reactive dyes. Structure characterization and composition analysis demonstrated that the metal nickel nanoparticles with the size of 1-2 nm were embedded into the pore of carbon spheres. It is helpful to prevent the agglomeration and falling off of metal nickel nanoparticles on the surface of carbon spheres. The adsorption performance of the carbon-supported metal nickel nanospheres for reactive brilliant yellow R-4GLN was studied by changing the pH value and initial concentration of the solution, adsorption time, adsorption temperature, and the amount of adsorbent. The carbon-supported metal nickel showed fast and efficient adsorption activity. After 5 min of adsorption, the removal efficiency of 10 mL 25 mg·mL-1 reactive brilliant yellow R-4GLN was close to 100%. The carbon-supported metal nickel composite was reused 20 times, and the removal efficiency of dye remained above 98%. It also showed good adsorption performance on various reactive dyes with wide universality, which has a certain adsorption effect on most dyes with a high utilization value in wastewater treatment.

Efficient preparation of L-cysteic acid and its esters

L-Cysteic acid and its esters were prepared in good yields from the oxidation of L-cystine by chlorine in water and in alcohols. When the reaction was carried out in alcohols the corresponding esters were produced.

New biomarker for lung cancer - focus on circSETD3

In order to explore the mechanism of gefitinib-acquired resistance in lung cancer, a new biomarker has been developed for early clinical diagnosis and intervention; human NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) cell lines H292 (denoted as H292S) and PC9 (denoted as PC9S) were used to establish gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cell lines H292 and PC9 models. CCK-8 (Cell Counting Kit-8) method was used to test the drug resistance of the cells. circRNAs (circular RNAs) that were differentially expressed before and after resistance were screened by RNA sequencing technology. The effects of circSETD3 overexpression and interference on the sensitivity of gefitinib was observed to analyze the nuclear localization of circSETD3 and verify the interaction between circSETD3-miR-520h-ABCG2. The results showed that the most significant change in differential expression of human NSCLC cell lines before and after drug resistance was hsa_circ_0000567, that is, circSETD3, which is mainly present in the cytoplasm. In H292S and PC9S, compared with the negative control group, the cell proliferation ability of the overexpression group was significantly increased, and the apoptosis ability was significantly decreased. In H292R and PC9R, compared with the negative control group, the proliferation ability of the interference group was significantly decreased, and the apoptosis ability was significantly increased. Overexpression of circSETD3 to H292S and PC9S, the expression of ABCG2 increased significantly. Also, the expression of ABCG2 decreased significantly after transfection with miR-520h mimics. H292R and PC9R interfered with circSETD3, the expression of ABCG2 decreased significantly. Moreover, the expression of ABCG2 increased significantly after transfection with miR-520h inhibitor. In conclusion, circSETD3 can be used as a novel biomarker for lung cancer. It relieves miR-520h degradation of the transporter ABCG2 by down-regulating the miR-520h expression, causing gefitinib to be pumped out of the cell.

Effect of greenbugs (Homoptera: Aphididae) on yield loss of winter wheat

The effect of greenbug, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), feeding on the yield of four winter wheat cultivars commonly grown in Oklahoma was studied. Cultivars tested were 'Karl', a recent derivative 'Karl-92', and '2163', all greenbug-susceptible cultivars; and 'TAM-110', a cultivar with resistance to biotype E greenbugs. The objectives were to determine the effect of different greenbug densities during fall and spring on yield of winter wheat, and to develop mathematical models to quantify the effect of greenbugs on yield loss. The intensity of greenbug infestations achieved in plots by artificial infestation varied among years and growing seasons within a year, but was generally sufficient to cause a reduction in yield. Among yield components, the number of heads per square meter and the number of seeds per head were frequently negatively correlated with the accumulated number of greenbug-days per tiller. Seed weight was rarely affected by greenbug infestation. A regression model estimated yield loss for greenbug-susceptible cultivars at 0.51 kg/ha loss of yield per greenbug-day in years with near normal precipitation, and a loss of 1.17 kg/ha under severe drought conditions. The susceptible winter wheat cultivars exhibited similar yield loss in relation to the intensity of greenbug infestation, as indicated by a common slope parameter in the regression model. Results suggest that the model is robust for predicting yield loss for susceptible cultivars.

Mutations in ATP1A1 Cause Dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2

Although mutations in more than 90 genes are known to cause CMT, the underlying genetic cause of CMT remains unknown in more than 50% of affected individuals. The discovery of additional genes that harbor CMT2-causing mutations increasingly depends on sharing sequence data on a global level. In this way-by combining data from seven countries on four continents-we were able to define mutations in ATP1A1, which encodes the alpha1 subunit of the Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase, as a cause of autosomal-dominant CMT2. Seven missense changes were identified that segregated within individual pedigrees: c.143T>G (p.Leu48Arg), c.1775T>C (p.Ile592Thr), c.1789G>A (p.Ala597Thr), c.1801_1802delinsTT (p.Asp601Phe), c.1798C>G (p.Pro600Ala), c.1798C>A (p.Pro600Thr), and c.2432A>C (p.Asp811Ala). Immunostaining peripheral nerve axons localized ATP1A1 to the axolemma of myelinated sensory and motor axons and to Schmidt-Lanterman incisures of myelin sheaths. Two-electrode voltage clamp measurements on Xenopus oocytes demonstrated significant reduction in Na⁺ current activity in some, but not all, ouabain-insensitive ATP1A1 mutants, suggesting a loss-of-function defect of the Na⁺,K⁺ pump. Five mutants fall into a remarkably narrow motif within the helical linker region that couples the nucleotide-binding and phosphorylation domains. These findings identify a CMT pathway and a potential target for therapy development in degenerative diseases of peripheral nerve axons.

Rainstorm Disaster Risk Assessment and Influence Factors Analysis in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Rainstorm disasters have had a serious impact on the sustainable development of society and the economy. However, due to the complexity of rainstorm disasters, it is difficult to measure the importance of each indicator. In this paper, the rainstorm disaster risk assessment framework was systematically proposed based on the disaster system theory and a system of corresponding indicators was established. Furthermore, the genetic algorithm optimized projection pursuit and XGBoost were coupled to assess the rainstorm disaster risk and to measure the relative importance of each indicator. Finally, the Yangtze River Delta was taken as the case study area. The results show that: the rainstorm disaster risk in the eastern and southeast is higher than those in the central and northwest of the Yangtze River Delta; the total precipitation from June to September and the top ten indicators contribute 9.34% and 74.20% to the rainstorm disaster risk assessment results, respectively. The results can provide references for decision makers and are helpful for the formulation of rainstorm adaptation strategies.

A multilevel cooperative attention network of precise quantitative analysis for predicting ractopamine concentration via adaptive weighted feature selection and multichannel feature fusion

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) holds great potential due to its rapid detection and high sensitivity. However, issues such as signal noise, fluctuations, and spectral shifts can negatively impact its performance in detecting ractopamine in pork. Hierarchical Gradient Aware Spectral Network (HGASNet) was proposed to address these issues. The key innovations are the Spectral Gradient Weighted Attention (SGWA) and Multi-Channel Peak Attention Mechanism (MCPAM) modules within HGASNet. The SGWA module dynamically adjusts feature weights, enhancing sensitivity to critical Raman spectral shifts. Meanwhile, MCPAM leverages multi-channel attention to better capture long range dependencies and fuse global and local information. Additionally, HGASNet's hierarchical structure incrementally extracts and integrates features at various levels, enabling the model to focus on global features in the higher layers while preserving fine-grained local details in the lower layers. Experimental results show HGASNet outperforming existing approaches, achieving R2 of 0.9972, RMSRE of 0.0413, RMSLE of 0.0548, sMAPE of 6.47 %, and MAPE of 6.72 %.

[Analysis of the acetylcholine action on the electrical activities of pancreatic islet B-cells in mice]

Intracellular potential recording and extracellular microiontophoretic techniques were used to study the acetylcholine (ACh) action on the electrical activities of pancreatic islet B-cells in mice. The B cell membrane potential was decreased (5-10 mV) and the spikes were increased (11-17/30 s) by the ACh microinotophoresis. These effects were dependent on glucose and completely blocked by atropine. However, pirenzepine could attenuate the electrical activity by approximately 70%. The ACh-induced membrane depolarization was Ca(2+)-independent and blocked by TTX. But the effect of ACh on spikes was Ca(2+)-dependent and not blocked by verapamil. The results showed that ACh action in the enhancement of glucose-dependent electrical activities of B-cell were mediated by muscarinic receptor, mainly by subtype M1. Then TTX-sensitive Na channel and verapamil-insensitive Ca channel were activated by M1 receptors. Na+ influx resulted in membrane depolarization and Ca2+ influx enhanced spike discharges.

[Surface charged liposomes as drug carriers and in vivo tests of mice infected with toxoplasma]

The surface charge is one of the most important properties of liposomes. In this paper surface potential of liposomes was measured by fluorimetry using 1.8-ANS as a probe and by microelectrophoresis. The encapsulation efficiency and leakage rate of ionic drugs were influenced by the surface charge of liposomes. Higher encapsulation efficiency and lower leakage rate were resulted if the surface charge of liposomes was opposite to the ionic charge of encapsulated drug. Mice infected with toxoplasma were used as a model. In in vivo test, liposome-drug was compared with the free drug. The average survival days of groups of liposome-drugs were much longer than that of the group of free drugs. Mouse infected with toxoplasma is a simple, convenient and accurate model for measuring the biological activation of liposome-drugs.

Physical activity, body mass index and mental health in Chinese adolescents: a population based study

AIM

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between physical activity, BMI level and mental health among Chinese adolescents.

METHODS

Three thousand ninety-six adolescents aged 11 to 13 were analyzed from 6 middle schools of Xuzhou. Physical activity level was measured using self-designed questionnaires. BMI was calculated according to the results of these students' physical examinations. Anxiety symptoms were assessed by using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorder, depression via the Children's Depression Inventory. Data were analyzed using chi-square test and logistic regression.

RESULTS

Adolescents' self-reported rate of insufficient physical activity was 58.1%. The overweight and obesity rates were 18.4%, 16.0%. The point prevalence rates on anxiety and depression were 15.2%, 11.5%. Insufficient physical activity was positively associated with anxiety and depression (OR [95%CI]: 1.31 [1.06-1.63]; 1.33 [1.04-1.70]). Obesity was positively associated with depression (OR [95%CI]: 1.48 [1.10-2.00]). IS-OB was positively associated with anxiety and depressive (OR [95%CI]: 1.71 [1.19-2.45]; 1.99 [1.33-2.97]).

CONCLUSION

Physical inactivity and overweight/obesity were negatively association with mental health of adolescents, respectively. Meanwhile, to explore the combined effects of physical inactivity and obesity would increase the risk of anxiety and depression in adolescents.

Kilogram-scale fabrication of TiO2 nanoparticles modified with carbon dots with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Incorrect discharge of dye wastewater will cause environment pollution and be very harmful to human health. Visible-light photocatalysis over large-scale synthesized semiconductor materials can become one of the feasible solutions for the practical application of purifying dye wastewater. As a new candidate, carbon dots (CDs) with unique fluorescence were fabricated on a tens of grams scale and then further applied to the kilogram-scale synthesis of a CDs/TiO₂ composite by one-step heat treatment. Compared with single TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs), the CDs/TiO₂ composite with a large specific surface area exhibits enhanced photo-degradation performance for methyl orange (MO). This phenomenon can be attributed to the loading of CDs in the TiO₂ NPs, which is conducive to broadening the light absorption spectrum and improving absorption intensity, narrowing the band gap, charge carrier trapping, up-converting properties, and charge separation. The kilogram-scale synthesis of the CDs/TiO₂ photocatalyst does not affect the morphology, structure, optical properties and photocatalytic performance of the composite, which opens up a new avenue to construct elaborate heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic performance using visible light as the light source.

Hypoxia-ischemia altered expression of glutamate transporter EAAT1 in neonatal rat brain

AIM

To observe altered expression of glutamate transporter EAAT1 after hypoxia-ischemia (H-I) in newborn rat brain.

METHODS

Expression levels of EAAT1 were detected with immunohistochemistry method.

RESULTS

EAAT1 was a little expressed in cerebral cortex at sham-operated group [(36 +/- 10) cells/slice]. Its expression in cerebral cortex increased at 24 h and 48 h following H-I [(314 +/- 162) cells/slice and (431 +/- 149) cells/slice, respectively], and recovered to control level at 72 h following H-I [(52 +/- 8) cells/slice]. The expression of EAAT1 in the ipsilateral cortex to common carotid artery (CCA) ligation was higher than that in the contralateral cortex.

CONCLUSION

After H-I, the expression of EAAT1 had a temporal change in cerebral cortex of newborn rat, and was mainly located in the ipsilateral cortex to CCA ligation.

[Clinical analysis on the impact of pretransplant iron overload on allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with acquired severe aplastic anemia in pediatric]

This study aimed to investigate the effect of iron overload on the transplant outcomes of pediatric patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 74 children with SAA who received allo-HSCT at the Hematology Department of Wuhan Children's Hospital between January 2018 and August 2022. Children with iron overload (serum ferritin >1 000 μg/L) before transplantation had a longer disease course, received more red blood cell transfusions, and had a higher number of CD34(+) cells infused. Moreover, iron overload significantly delayed the reconstitution of regulatory T cells after transplantation, increasing the incidence of hemorrhagic cystitis and grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ acute graft-versus-host disease after transplantation. However, iron overload did not significantly affect the overall survival and failure-free survival rates of the children.

Safety and efficacy evaluation of laparoscopy in colorectal cancer with liver metastasis

OBJECTIVE

To study the safety and efficacy of simultaneous completion of colorectal cancer resection and liver metastasis resection by total laparoscopy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In the observation group, 40 patients with colorectal cancer combined with liver metastasis (CRCLM) were selected to receive total laparoscopic surgery. At the same time, 40 cases were selected for laparoscopic resection of colorectal cancer and hepatic resection as control group.

RESULTS

The outcomes of the two methods in the treatment of CRCLM were compared. The results showed that the difference in surgery time between the two groups was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The blood loss, drainage tube retention time and anal exhaust recovery time in the observation group were significantly less than those in control group (p<0.05). No significant difference in completion rate was found between the two groups (p>0.05); the prevalence rate of complications in the observation group was significantly lower than that in control group (p<0.05). No significant differences in the median survival period and the survival rate at 1 year, 2 years and 3 years after surgery were found between the two groups (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The outcomes of total laparoscopy in the treatment of CRCLM are not inferior to open surgery.

[Transportation trends after rat renal intracapsular injection of Salvia miltiorrhizae]

The concentration of Salvia miltiorrhizae (SM) was detected at different time after renal intracapsular injection in S.D rats. It showed that SM concentration was higher in kidney than in plasma (P < 0.05). SM concentration in kidney increased gradually, it reached the peak at 24 hour and still remained in higher level at 48 hour. The SM injected in renal capsule could be passively transported to renal tissue and maintained at a high level. This result demonstrated that renal intracapsular injection could be applied as an important therapeutical method for different renal disease.

NiO/g-C3N4 composite for enhanced photocatalytic properties in the wastewater treatment

The massive discharge of colored wastewater has seriously harmed the environment and people's health. Photocatalysis technology is an effective method to purify colored wastewater and has been widely concerned in colored wastewater treatment. In this study, based on the obtained nickel oxide (NiO) nanospheres by solvothermal method and graphite phase carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheets by thermal polymerization method, the p-n heterojunction composed of NiO nanospheres and g-C₃N₄ nanosheets was successfully constructed by heat treatment for the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The morphology, crystallinity, surface features, and optical properties of the NiO/g-C₃N₄ composites were investigated by various characterization methods such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis spectrophotometer, and fluorescence spectrometer (PL), which provided the evidence for the formation of the heterojunction between NiO and g-C₃N₄. Compared with the g-C₃N₄ nanosheets and NiO nanospheres, the NiO/g-C₃N₄ composites showed the improved photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MO under visible light irradiation. And the NiO/g-C₃N₄ composite with the mole ratio of NiO and g-C₃N₄ of 2:8 displayed the best photocatalytic activity of MO, and more than 90% of MO can be degraded under the illumination of 100 min. The high photocatalytic properties over the NiO/g-C₃N₄ composite may be due to high specific surface area, the perfect band matching, and the formation of the p-n heterojunction, which helps to promote interfacial charge transfer and hinder the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes. Moreover, the NiO/g-C₃N₄ composite exhibits the universality and cyclic stability, which is expected to have broad application prospects in the treatment of colored wastewater.

Reduced binding activity of vaccine serum to omicron receptor-binding domain

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination regimens contribute to limiting the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, the emergence and rapid transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron raise a concern about the efficacy of the current vaccination strategy. Here, we expressed monomeric and dimeric receptor-binding domains (RBDs) of the spike protein of prototype SARS-CoV-2 and Omicron variant in E. coli and investigated the reactivity of anti-sera from Chinese subjects immunized with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to these recombinant RBDs. In 106 human blood samples collected from 91 participants from Jiangxi, China, 26 sera were identified to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies by lateral flow dipstick (LFD) assays, which were enriched in the ones collected from day 7 to 1 month post-boost (87.0%) compared to those harvested within 1 week post-boost (23.8%) (P &lt; 0.0001). A higher positive ratio was observed in the child group (40.8%) than adults (13.6%) (P = 0.0073). ELISA results showed that the binding activity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positive sera to Omicron RBDs dropped by 1.48- to 2.07-fold compared to its homogeneous recombinant RBDs. Thus, our data indicate that current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines provide restricted humoral protection against the Omicron variant.