Versatile GO/ANFs Aerogel for Highly Efficient Solar-Powered Water Purification in Wide Environments.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is a very promising choice for producing clean water. Despite the considerable investigation of pure NaCl brine purification, solar-driven complex water purification, such as real-world seawater desalination as well as domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, has rarely been investigated, mainly due to its compositions being much more complicated than NaCl brine. Herein, we developed a graphene oxide/aramid nanofiber (GO/ANFs) aerogel by a freeze-drying process. The GO/ANFs aerogel combined opened porous microchannels, superhydrophilicity, anti-oil-fouling capacity, enhanced broad-spectrum light absorption (more than 92%), and good solar/heat management. These integrated properties enabled the GO/ANFs aerogel to be an advanced solar interfacial evaporator for efficient freshwater production with the characteristics of localized heat conversion, quick water transport, and salt crystallization inhibition, and the rate of steam production rate was as high as 2.25 kg m-2 h-1 upon exposure to 1 solar irradiation. Importantly, the high-water-vapor generation rate was maintained even under complicated conditions, including real-world seawater, dye water, emulsions, and corrosive liquid environments. Considering its promising adaptability to a wide range of environments, this work hopes to inspire the development of brine desalination, wastewater purification, clean water production, and solar energy utilization.

Mechanical Robust GO/PVA Hydrogel for Strong and Recyclable Adhesion in Air, Underwater, and Underoil Environments.

Adhesive hydrogels are considered to be promising interfacial adhesive materials for various applications; however, their adhesive strength is significantly reduced when immersed in liquid environments (water and oil) due to obstruction of the liquid layer or swelling in liquid, and they could not always be reused when the failure of the adhesive performance occurred. Herein, a graphite oxide/poly(vinyl alcohol) (GO/PVA) hydrogel with strong adhesion in air and under liquid environments was developed by rationally regulating the interactions of water and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in the binary liquid system. The strong interaction between water and DMSO allowed the water layer of the GO/PVA hydrogel on the hydrogel surface to act as a shield to repel oil in air, under water, and even when immersed in oil, and it also endowed the obtained hydrogel with antiswelling property when immersed in water and oil. Importantly, the GO/PVA hydrogel could serve as an advanced adhesive to firmly bond different substrates in air, under water, and under oil, and interestingly, its dry and wet adhesive performance was repeatable and recyclable. This work is expected to be an important addition to the field of adhesive soft materials.

Airborne magnetite nanoparticles induced early vascular pathologies by disrupting lipid metabolism under high-fat dietary patterns.

Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) have been extensively detected in the atmospheric environment and implicated as a prominent threat to atherosclerosis, a chronic vascular inflammatory disease. Due to globalization and economic development, the dramatic shift in diet from traditional to high-fat dietary patterns aggravated atherosclerosis progression induced by environmental factors. However, limited knowledge is available regarding vascular risks and underlying mechanisms of airborne MNPs in high-risk populations with high-fat dietary habits. Herein, we demonstrated that MNPs exerted a proatherogenic effect under high-fat dietary patterns, leading to aortic wall thickening, elastic fiber disorganization, macrophage infiltration, and local inflammation. Based on the correlation analysis between MNPs and PM group, we identified that MNPs might be a key PM component in atherogenic toxicity. MNPs exposure disturbed the dynamic process of lipid metabolism, manifested as aortic lipid accumulation, dyslipidemia, and hepatic lipid metabolism disorder, which was modulated by the JAK-STAT pathway. Overall, these findings provide new insight into understanding the cardiovascular risks and mechanisms of MNPs among high-risk populations.

Multi-omics analysis reveals hepatic lipid metabolism profiles and serum lipid biomarkers upon indoor relevant VOC exposure.

As a widespread indoor air pollutant, volatile organic compound (VOC) caused various adverse health effects, especial the damage to liver, which has become a growing public concern. However, the current toxic data are intrinsically restricted in the single or major VOC species. Limited knowledge is available regarding toxic effects, biomarkers and underlying mechanisms of real indoor VOC-caused liver damage. Herein, an indoor relevant VOC exposure model was established to evaluate the hepatic adverse outcomes. Machine learning and multi-omics approaches, including liver lipidomic, serum lipidomic and liver transcriptomic, were utilized to uncover the characteristics of liver damage, serum lipid biomarkers, and involved mechanism stimulated by VOC exposure. The result showed that indoor relevant VOC led to the abnormal hepatic lipid metabolism, mainly manifested as a decrease in triacylglycerol (TG) and its precursor substance diacylglycerol (DG), which could be contributed to the occurrence of hepatic adverse outcomes. In terms of serum lipid biomarkers, five lipid biomarkers in serum were uncovered using machine learning to reflect the hepatic lipid disorders induced by VOC. Multi-omics approaches revealed that the upregulated Dgkq disturbed the interconversion of DG and phosphatidic acid (PA), leading to a TG downregulation. The in-depth analysis revealed that VOC down-regulated FoxO transcription factor, contributing to the upregulation of Dgkq. Hence, this study can provide valuable insights into the understanding of liver damage caused by indoor relevant VOC exposure model VOC exposure, from the perspective of multi-omics analysis.

Simple and Rapid Way to a Multifunctionally Conductive Hydrogel for Wearable Strain Sensors.

Conductive hydrogels have gained increasing attention in the field of wearable smart devices. However, it remains a big challenge to develop a multifunctionally conductive hydrogel in a rapid and facile way. Herein, a conductive tannic acid-iron/poly (acrylic acid) hydrogel was synthesized within 30 s at ambient temperature by the tannic acid-iron (TA@Fe3+)-mediated dynamic catalytic system. The TA@Fe3+ dynamic redox autocatalytic pair could efficiently activate the ammonium persulfate to initiate the free-radical polymerization, allowing the gelation to occur easily and rapidly. The resulting hydrogel exhibited enhanced stretchability (3560%), conductivity (33.58 S/m), and strain sensitivity (gauge factor = 2.11). When damaged, it could be self-healed through the dynamic and reversible coordination bonds between the Fe3+ and COO- groups in the hydrogel network. Interestingly, the resulting hydrogel could act as a strain sensor to monitor various human motions including the huge movement of deformations (knuckle, wrist) and subtle motions (smiling, breathing) in real time due to its enhanced self-adhesion, good conductivity, and improved strain sensitivity. Also, the obtained hydrogel exhibited efficient electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance with an EMI shielding effectiveness value of 24.5 dB in the X-band (8.2-12.4 GHz). Additionally, it displayed antibacterial properties, with the help of the activity of TA.

Tree-Inspired Aerogel with a Radial and Centrosymmetric Structure for Efficient Solar-Powered Water Purification.

Solar-powered water purification is one of the promising choices for clean water production. However, it remains challenging to develop aerogel solar evaporators that simultaneously possess enhanced light-to-heat conversion, optimal thermal management, and salt crystal deposition inhibition. Herein, to address this challenge, we have developed a 3D chitosan-reduced graphene oxide/polypyrrole (CS-RGO/PPy) aerogel vaporizer with a vertical and radially aligned structure through a directional freezing process, inspired by the featured structure of conifers. The radially porous walls and vertically arranged channels within the 3D aerogel were able to facilitate high light absorption, localizing converted heat, rapid water transport, and self-salt discharge. Under 1 sun irradiation, the aerogel vaporizer displayed an improved light absorption characteristic of 95% and a high-rate evaporation (∼3.19 kg m-2 h-1) that achieved continuous freshwater from the saturated brine production without solid salt crystallization. Besides achieving seawater desalination, the obtained aerogel could purify organic wastewater and emulsions through solar distillation with high-rate continuous water production.

The adverse inflammatory response of tobacco smoking in COVID-19 patients: biomarkers from proteomics and metabolomics.

Whether tobacco smoking affects the occurrence and development of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still a controversial issue, and potential biomarkers to predict the adverse outcomes of smoking in the progression of COVID-19 patients have not yet been elucidated. To further uncover their linkage and explore the effective biomarkers, three proteomics and metabolomics databases (i.e. smoking status, COVID-19 status, and basic information of population) from human serum proteomic and metabolomic levels were established by literature search. Bioinformatics analysis was then performed to analyze the interactions of proteins or metabolites among the above three databases and their biological effects. Potential confounding factors (age, body mass index (BMI), and gender) were controlled to improve the reliability. The obtained data indicated that smoking may increase the relative risk of conversion from non-severe to severe COVID-19 patients by inducing the dysfunctional immune response. Seven interacting proteins (C8A, LBP, FCN2, CRP, SAA1, SAA2, and VTN) were found to promote the deterioration of COVID-19 by stimulating the complement pathway and macrophage phagocytosis as well as inhibiting the associated negative regulatory pathways, which can be biomarkers to reflect and predict adverse outcomes in smoking COVID-19 patients. Three crucial pathways related to immunity and inflammation, including tryptophan, arginine, and glycerophospholipid metabolism, were considered to affect the effect of smoking on the adverse outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Our study provides novel evidence and corresponding biomarkers as potential predictors of severe disease progression in smoking COVID-19 patients, which is of great significance for preventing further deterioration in these patients.

Ag/polydopamine-coated textile for enhanced liquid/liquid mixtures separation and dye removal.

Engineering a versatile platform that enables to separate both oil/water and oil/oil mixtures and remove dye from water is not easy. To address this challenge, we have developed an Ag/polydopamine-coated textile (Ag/PDA@textile) by chemically depositing Ag particles on the textile surface using polydopamine as the binder layer. The obtained Ag/PDA@textile attracts water but repels oil in the air, underwater, and when immersed into the oil. Exploiting its water-attracting and oil resistance, the Ag/PDA@textile is acted as a separation membrane to separate oil/water mixtures with enhanced separation efficiency. The Ag/PDA@textile also possesses opposite wetting behavior to oils with different polarities, allowing it to separate oil/oil mixtures efficiently. Thanks to the catalytic performance of the Ag particle, organic dyes can be decomposed effectively by our Ag/PDA@textile under UV illustration or in the presence of NaBH4. Our Ag/PDA@textile may be valuable for applications in water purification and oil sewage treatment.

Analysis of the Risk Factors of In-hospital Death in Adult Trauma Patients at the Emergency Department / 中国医科大学学报

Objective To accurately assess the condition of trauma patients at the emergency department (ED),the risk factors of in-hospital death were explored. Methods A total of 86 emergency trauma patients were retrospectively investigated. They were divided into survival and non-survival groups,in the First Hospital of China Medical University,from August 2016 to February 2017. Clinical parameters,such as sex,age,heart rate,oxygen saturation,mean arterial pressure,white blood cell count,serum creatinine,urea nitrogen, prothrombin time,activated partial thromboplastin time,hemoglobin,platelet count,serum albumin,fibrinogen,glutamic-pyruvic,total bilirubin,Glasgow coma scale (GCS),sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score,and injury severity score were evaluated and recorded. The parameters which were significantly different (P < 0. 1) between the two groups were analyzed using the logistic regression analysis to determine the independent risk factors of death at the ED. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were drawn to evaluate their prognostic abilities. Results GCS and SOFA score were the independent risk factors of in-hospital death in trauma patients (P < 0. 05). Conclusion Organ function,especially that of the brain,is closely related to the prognosis of adult trauma patients.

HBV-induced metabolic changes in HepG2 human hepatoma cells revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

Objective · To investigate the impacts of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on the metabolomic phenotype of HepG2 human hepatoma cells.Methods · With gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), metabolite composition of HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells (derived from HepG2 cells transfected with a plasmid containing HBV) were analysed. Results · GC-MS analysis mainly found 34 metabolites in both HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells,including glycine (Gly), alanine (Ala), valine (Val), leucine (Leu), isoleucine (Ile), proline (Pro), serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), methionine (Met), cysteine (Cys), cystine, aspartic acid (Asp), glutamic acid (Glu), pyroglutamic acid, phenylalanine (Phe), tyrosine (Tyr), tryptophan (Trp), hypoxanthine, uracil,myo-inositol, lactic acid, succinic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, urea, cholesterol, etc. These metabolites were involved in multiple metabolic pathways including glycolysis and metabolism of fatty acids, amino acids, purines and pyrimidines. Compared with HepG2 cells,HepG2.2.15 cells had significantly higher levels in lactic acid, linolenic acid, Ala and Cys, but lower levels in Leu, Ile, Val, Phe, Met, Trp, Pro, Tyr, myoinositol and uracil. Conclusion · HBV infection dysregulates the metabolism of amino acids and fatty acids in hepatocytes. GC-MS analysis provides complimentary information about HBV-induced metabolic changes of host cells.

HBV-induced metabolic changes in HepG2 human hepatoma cells revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

Objective · To investigate the impacts of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on the metabolomic phenotype of HepG2 human hepatoma cells.Methods · With gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), metabolite composition of HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells (derived from HepG2 cells transfected with a plasmid containing HBV) were analysed. Results · GC-MS analysis mainly found 34 metabolites in both HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cells,including glycine (Gly), alanine (Ala), valine (Val), leucine (Leu), isoleucine (Ile), proline (Pro), serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), methionine (Met), cysteine (Cys), cystine, aspartic acid (Asp), glutamic acid (Glu), pyroglutamic acid, phenylalanine (Phe), tyrosine (Tyr), tryptophan (Trp), hypoxanthine, uracil,myo-inositol, lactic acid, succinic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, urea, cholesterol, etc. These metabolites were involved in multiple metabolic pathways including glycolysis and metabolism of fatty acids, amino acids, purines and pyrimidines. Compared with HepG2 cells,HepG2.2.15 cells had significantly higher levels in lactic acid, linolenic acid, Ala and Cys, but lower levels in Leu, Ile, Val, Phe, Met, Trp, Pro, Tyr, myoinositol and uracil. Conclusion · HBV infection dysregulates the metabolism of amino acids and fatty acids in hepatocytes. GC-MS analysis provides complimentary information about HBV-induced metabolic changes of host cells.