Structural determinants of ion selectivity in brain calcium channel

Glutamic acid residues in the SS2 segment of the internal repeats III and IV of the brain calcium channel BI were subjected to single point mutations. The mutant channels were tested for macroscopic current properties and sensitivities to inorganic blockers. The mutation that replaces glutamic acid 1,469 with glutamine altered ion-selection properties and strongly reduced the sensitivity to Cd2+, whereas the analogous mutation of glutamic acid 1,765 exerted smaller effects on ion-selection properties. Our results indicate that these glutamic acid residues, equivalently positioned in the aligned sequences, play different roles in the selective permeability of the calcium channel.

Human papillomavirus infection in Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China: a population-based study

To investigate the prevalence of, and risk factors for, cervical infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) in the rural province of Shanxi, People's Republic of China, which has relatively high cervical cancer mortality rates, we interviewed and obtained cervical cell samples from 662 women aged 15–59 years. A total of 24 different HPV types were identified using a GP5+/6+-based PCR assay able to detect 44 different HPV types. Human papillomavirus prevalence was 14.8% overall and 9.6% among women without cervical abnormalities (14.2 and 8.9%, respectively, age standardised to the world standard population). Multiple-type infections accounted for 30.6% of all infections. By far the most commonly found type was HPV16 (5.7% of all women and 38.8% of HPV-positive women), followed by HPV 58, 52, 33 and 18. Unlike most previous studies published, HPV prevalence was lower among women younger than 35 years (8.7%) than those older than 35 years (17.8%). High-risk HPV types predominated in all age groups. Although low-risk HPV types were rare in young women, they became more common with increasing age. 92.3% of women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 were infected with high-risk HPV types, but none with low-risk types only. No significant difference in HPV positivity was observed by educational level, sexual habits, reproductive history or use of contraceptive methods in this rural low-income Chinese population.

Biosensor based on polyaniline–Prussian Blue/multi-walled carbon nanotubes hybrid composites

In this work, a novel route for fabrication polyaniline (PANI)-Prussian Blue (PB) hybrid composites is proposed by the spontaneous redox reaction in the FeCl(3)-K(3)[Fe(CN)(6)] and the aniline solution. With the introduction of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), the PANI-PB/MWNTs system shows synergy between the PANI-PB and MWNTs which amplified the H(2)O(2) sensitivity greatly. A linear range from 8 x1 0(-8) to 1 x 10(-5)M and a high sensitivity 508.1 8 microA microM cm(2) for H(2)O(2) detection are obtained. The composites also show good stability in neutral solution. A glucose biosensor was further constructed by immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOD) with Nafion and glutaraldehyde on the electrode surface. The performance factors influencing the resulted biosensor were studied in detail. The biosensor exhibits excellent response performance to glucose with the linear range from 1 to 11 mM and a detection limit of 0.01 mM. Furthermore, the biosensor shows rapid response, high sensitivity, good reproducibility, long-term stability and freedom of interference from other co-existing electroactive species.

[Comparison of clinical and pathological features between severe acute respiratory syndrome and coronavirus disease 2019]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shared similar pathogenetic, clinical and pathological features. Fever and cough were the most common symptoms of both diseases, while myalgia and diarrhea were less common in patients with COVID-19. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was the most severe pulmonary complication that caused high mortality rate. Histologically, diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) was the most characteristic finding in non-survivors with either SARS or COVID-19. Cases of patients died less than 10-14 days of disease duration demonstrated acute-phase DAD, while cases beyond 10-14 days of disease duration exhibited organizing-phase DAD in SARS. Meanwhile, organization and fibrosis were usually accompanied by exudation. Coronavirus was mostly detected in pneumocytes, but less in macrophages and bronchiolar epithelial cells. Hemorrhagic necrosis and lymphocyte depletion were found in lymph nodes and spleen in both SARS and COVID-19, indicating a pathological basis of lymphocytopenia. Thrombosis was commonly observed in small vessels and microvasculaturr in lungs accompanying DAD. Microthrombosis was also found in extrapulmonary organs in COVID-19, that was less reported in SARS. Damages in multiple extrapulmonary organs were observed, but coronavirus was not detected in some of those organs, indicating an alternative mechanism beyond viral infection, such as hypoxemia, ischemia and cytokine storm induced immunological injury. DAD due to viral infection and immunological injury, as well as multi-organ dysfunction and extensive microthrombus formation, brought huge challenge to the management of patients with severe SARS or COVID-19.

Stable Lanthanide-Organic Framework Materials Constructed by a Triazolyl Carboxylate Ligand: Multifunction Detection and White Luminescence Tuning

Under hydrothermal conditions, we have successfully synthesized six isostructural lanthanide coordination polymers, [LnL_1.5(H₂O)₂]·1.75H₂O (1-6; Ln = Eu, La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd), by the reaction of 5-methyl-1-(4-carboxylphenyl)-1 H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxylic acid (H₂L) and Ln(NO₃)₃·6H₂O. Structural analysis shows that polymers 1-6 show novel three-dimensional supramolecular network structures. The luminescent properties for polymer 1 have been investigated at room temperature. The results have shown that polymer 1 can be used as a chemical sensor for multifunctional testing such as UO₂²⁺, Fe³⁺ ion detection, and small organic molecule detection because of its strong fluorescence properties. In particular, polymer 1 exhibits extremely high selectivity and sensitivity for the detection of Fe³⁺ ions. In addition, white-light emission is achieved through a reasonable tuning proportion by mixing Gd³⁺ and Eu³⁺.

Microcalorimetric study on the growth and metabolism of microencapsulated microbial cell culture

The rate of heat output is one of the suitable measurements of metabolic activity of the organism or its parts, down to the cellular or even the sub-cellular levels. In this paper, microcalorimetry was first applied to study the metabolic activity of microbial in both alginate-polylysine-alginate and alginate-chitosan-alginate microencapsulated cultures as well as in free non-encapsulated culture. The organisms used for the measurements were Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As a result of this work, it was found that, despite E. coli cell in free non-encapsulated culture has the highest metabolic rate due to the highest value of heat output, the proliferation of the cells terminates quickly with a lowest biomass formed. And we found also an obviously longer stationary phase in microencapsulated culture. As far as S. cerevisiae was concerned, it was found that there was also the highest value of heat output in free non-encapsulated culture, but the cell density was lower than that in microencapsulated culture. On account of the microcalorimetric and metabolic measurements, it can be concluded that more substrate can be used to convert to biomass in microencapsulated culture which means a higher biomass yield existed.

UO22+-amino hybrid materials: structural variation and photocatalysis properties

We have synthesized four new uranyl complexes. Their photoluminescence was characterized and their photocatalytic properties were studied in detail.

A novel sensor based on electrochemical polymerization of diglycolic acid for determination of acetaminophen

Diglycolic acid (DA) polymer was coated on glassy carbon (GC) electrode by cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique for the first time. The electrochemical performances of the modified electrode were investigated by CV and electrochemical impedance (EIS). The obtained electrode showed an excellent electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of acetaminophen (ACOP). A couple of well-defined reversible electrochemical redox peaks were observed on the ploy(DA)/GC electrode in ACOP solution. Compared with bare GC electrode, the oxidation peak potential of ACOP on ploy(DA)/GC electrode moved from 0.289 V to 0.220 V. Meanwhile, the oxidation peak current was much higher on the modified electrode than that on the bare GC electrode, indicating DA polymer modified electrode possessed excellent performance for the oxidation of ACOP. This kind of capability of the modified electrode can be enlisted for the highly sensitive and selective determination of ACOP. Under the optimized conditions, a wide linear range from 2 × 10(-8) to 5.0 × 10(-4)M with a correlation coefficient 0.9995 was obtained. The detection limit was 6.7 × 10(-9)M (at the ratio of signal to noise, S/N=3:1). The modified electrode also exhibited very good stability and reproducibility for the detection of ACOP. The established method was applied to the determination of ACOP in samples. An average recovery of 100.1% was achieved. These results indicated that this method was reliable for determining ACOP.

Crown ether-based anion exchange membranes with highly efficient dual ion conducting pathways

Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are a crucial constituent for alkaline fuel cells. As the core component of fuel cells, the low performance AEMs restrict the development and application of the fuel cells. Herein, the trade-off between the OH^- conductivity and dimensional stability was solved by constructing AEMs with adequate OH^- conductivity and satisfactory alkali resistance using Tröger's base (TB) poly (crown ether)s (PCEs) as the main chain, the embedded quaternary ammonium (QA) and Na⁺-functionalized crown ether units as the cationic group. Crown ether is an electron donator, and can capture Na⁺ to form Na⁺-functionalized crown ether units to conveniently transfer OH^- and significantly promote the alkaline stability of the AEMs. The influence of the Na⁺-functionalized crown ether units on the performance of AEMs was studied in detail. The PCEs based AEMs show an obvious hydrophobic-hydrophilic microphase separation. These features make them ideal platforms for the OH^- conduction applications. As expected, the as-prepared PCEs-QA-100% (100% is the degree of cross-linking) AEM with an ionic exchange capacity (IEC) of 2.07 meq g^-1 has a high OH^- conductivity of 159 mS cm^-1 at 80 °C. Furthermore, the membrane electrode assemblies fabricated using the PCEs-QA-100% AEM possess a maximum power density of 291 mW cm^-2 under the current density of 500 mA cm^-2.

Synthesis, crystal structure, photoluminescence property of a series of 3d-4f coordination supramolecular complexes

A series of 3d-4f heterobinuclear complexes were constructed by employing the 2,2'-bipy (2,2'-bipy=2,2'-bipyridine) ligand and corresponding metal ions (M(II)/Ln(III), M=Co(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II); Ln(III)=Nd(III), Sm(III), Eu(III) and Tb(III)). Elemental analyses, IR, UV-vis-NIR spectra, PXRD and single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveal that complexes 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12 are isomorphous, respectively. The zero-dimensional structures are further connected to 2D or 3D supramolecular network structures via extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Luminescence studies for the heterobinuclear complexes containing Sm(III), Eu(III) and Tb(III) reveal that the chromophoric composed of Zn(II)/L may efficiently sensitize the luminescence of the rare earth cations which acts as an antenna, whereas the existence of Cu(II) leads to the quenching of the luminescence of Ln(III) ions.

Transition Metal Oxodiperoxo Complex Modified Metal-Organic Frameworks as Catalysts for the Selective Oxidation of Cyclohexane

In this work, a series of modified metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been prepared by pre- and post-treatment with transition metal oxodiperoxo complexes (MoO(O₂)₂, WO(O₂)₂, and KVO(O₂)₂). The obtained materials are characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), as well as by N₂ adsorption/desorption measurement. The characterization results show that transition metal oxodiperoxo complexes are uniformly incorporated into the MOF materials without changing the basic structures. The performance of cyclohexane oxidation on metal oxodiperoxo complex modified MOFs are evaluated. UiO-67-KVO(O₂)₂ shows the best performance for cyclohexane oxidation, with 78% selectivity to KA oil (KA oil refers to a cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone mixture) at 9.4% conversion. The KA selectivity is found to depend on reaction time, while hot-filtration experiments indicates that the catalytic process is heterogeneous with no leaching of metal species.

Stimuli-Responsive Naphthalenediimide Cd-MOFs Tuned by Different Aliphatic Dicarboxylic Acids with Extended Spacers

A series of novel Cd metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) (1-9) with different extended spacers with seven kinds of the aliphatic dicarboxylic acids as secondary building linkers based on N,N'-di(4-pyridylacylamino)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide (NDI-A) have been designed and synthesized by changing the volume ratio of solvents under solvothermal conditions. In addition, the secondary building linkers of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids have different spacer lengths, resulting in different structures of complexes 1-9. So, their packing structures are affected by the degree of distortion of the NDI-A ligand, the different aliphatic dicarboxylic acids ligands, and the hydrogen-bonding patterns. Complexes 1-9 showed stimuli-responsive emission tuned by different aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with extended length spacers under UV light irradiation, accompanied by the color change from light orange to dark brown, and achieved reversible photochromic under heating, which indicates that they could serve as secret erasable inks. Moreover, complexes 1-9 exhibited selective vaporchromic behavior to methylamine (MA), and the vaporchromic sample could be recovered after washing with MeOH. It is worth noting that the preparation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-NDI-MOF films enables the photochromic and vaporchromic properties of complexes 1-9 to apply in practice. In addition, complexes 1-9 exhibited good fluorescence properties as sensing probes toward 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) with lower limits of detection. In short, this work provides a broad field to explore the creative NDI-MOF materials with photoactive and luminescent properties.