Multifunctional chitosan-based lanthanide luminescent hydrogel with stretchability, adhesion, self-healing, color tunability and antibacterial ability.

Lanthanide luminescent hydrogels have broad application prospects in various fields. However, most of lanthanide hydrogels possess relatively simple functions, which is not conducive to practical applications. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly urgent to develop multifunctional hydrogels. Herein, a multifunctional chitosan-based lanthanide luminescent hydrogel with ultra-stretchability, multi-adhesion, excellent self-healing, emission color tunability, and good antibacterial ability was prepared by a simple one-step free radical polymerization. In this work, our designed lanthanide complexes [Ln(4-VDPA)3] contain three reaction sites, which can be copolymerized with N-[tris(hydroxymethyl) methyl] acrylamide (THMA), acrylamide (AM), and diacryloyl poly(ethylene glycol) (DPEG) to form the first chemical crosslinking network, while hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HACC) interacts with the hydroxyl and amino groups derived from the chemical crosslinking network through hydrogen bonds to form the second physical crosslinking network. The structure of the double network as well as the dynamic hydrogen bond and lanthanide coordination endow the hydrogel with excellent stretchability, adhesion and self-healing properties. Moreover, the introduction of lanthanide complexes and chitosan makes the hydrogel exhibit outstanding luminescence and antibacterial performances. This research not only realizes the simple synthesis of multifunctional luminescent hydrogels, but also provides a new idea for the fabrication of biomass-based hydrogels as intelligent and sustainable materials.

Effect of yeast extract on microbiologically influenced corrosion of X70 pipeline steel by Desulfovibrio bizertensis SY-1.

Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) is a complicated process that happens ubiquitously and quietly in many fields. As a useful nutritional ingredient in microbial culture media, yeast extract (YE) is a routinely added in the MIC field. However, how the YE participated in MIC is not fully clarified. In the present work, the effect of YE on the growth of sulfate reducing prokaryotes (SRP) Desulfovibrio bizertensis SY-1 and corrosion behavior of X70 pipeline steel were studied. It was found that the weight loss of steel coupons in sterile media was doubled when YE was removed from culture media. However, in the SRP assays without YE the number of planktonic cells decreased, but the attachment of bacteria on steel surfaces was enhanced significantly. Besides, the corrosion rate of steel in SRP assays increased fourfold after removing YE from culture media. MIC was not determined for assays with planktonic SRP but only for biofilm assays. The results confirm the effect of YE on D. bizertensis SY-1 growth and also the inhibitory role of YE on MIC.

Accelerated deterioration corrosion of X70 steel by oxidation acid-producing process catalyzed by Acinetobacter soli in oil-water environment.

Deterioration corrosion occurs between the external surface of oil pipelines and aerobic oil-degrading microorganisms in oil fields. Microorganisms with aerobic oil pollution remediation capabilities may catalyze more serious anaerobic microbial corrosion due to the carbon source supply. In this study, Acinetobacter soli strains were isolated from oil-contaminated environments, and their role in the deterioration corrosion behavior of X70 steel in an oil-water environment was investigated using the EDS multipoint scanning method. The presence of oil controls the deposition of carbon and phosphorus and diffusion of oxygen, leading to significant adhesion attraction and initial growth inhibition of biofilm on the metal surface. A. soli facilitates oxygen transfer and iron ion dissolution, thereby accelerating the pitting corrosion of X70 steel. This corrosion of the X70 steel, in turn, further accelerates the microbial degradation of oil, inhibiting the appearance of calcareous scale in the later stage of corrosion. The corrosion of X70 steel is influenced by microbial degradation, and the specific corrosion behaviors are related to the activity of A. soli in the petroleum environment. This study sheds light on the corrosion mechanisms of X70 steel by A. soli at different stages, providing insights into the interactions between microorganisms, oil pollution, and metal corrosion in oil fields.

Distribution of corrosive microbial communities in rust layers of steel immersed in seawater.

In this paper, high-throughput sequencing technology was adopted to visualize the microbial communities on the surfaces of two types of carbon steel immersed in Sea Area Ⅰ. The results showed that different microbial communities were formed on different carbon steel surfaces, in which the genus with the highest abundance on the surface of Q235 was Escherichia-Shigella, while anaerobic Desulfovibrio on the surface of 921a was the most abundant, and the dominant genus varied with the depth of the rust layer. In addition, the distribution of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) on the surface of Q235 submerged in Sea Area Ⅱ was compared with the sulfate-reducing bacteria's distribution in Sea Area Ⅰ, using the environmental factors correlation analysis. The results showed that the concentrations of Ca2+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Al3+ were positively correlated with the distribution of SRB, while the concentrations of Cu2+, Zn2+, SO4 2-, Cl-, NO3 -, and organic carbon were negatively correlated with it. Furthermore, there was a highly significant correlation between each geochemical factor and Desulfotomaculum (p < 0.01).

Multicolor, injectable BSA-based lanthanide luminescent hydrogels with biodegradability.

Protein hydrogels have attracted increasing attention because of their excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, but frequently suffer from the single structures and functions. As a combination of luminescent materials and biomaterials, multifunctional protein luminescent hydrogels can exhibit wider applications in various fields. Herein, we report a novel, multicolor tunable, injectable, and biodegradable protein-based lanthanide luminescent hydrogel. In this work, urea was utilized to denature BSA to expose disulfide bonds, and tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) was employed to break the disulfide bonds in BSA to generate free thiols. A part of free thiols in BSA rearranged into disulfide bonds to form a crosslinked network. In addition, lanthanide complexes (Ln(4-VDPA)3), containing multiple active reaction sites, could react with the remaining thiols in BSA to form the second crosslinked network. The whole process avoids the use of nonenvironmentally friendly photoinitiators and free radical initiators. The rheological properties and structure of hydrogels were investigated, and the luminescent performances of hydrogels were studied in detail. Finally, the injectability and biodegradability of hydrogels were verified. This work will provide a feasible strategy for the design and fabrication of multifunctional protein luminescent hydrogels, which may have further applications in biomedicine, optoelectronics, and information technology.

The effects of materialism and ego depletion on intertemporal choice: An event-related potential study.

Objective: The study aims to promote human beings to make scientific and reasonable decisions for the long-term and beautiful future. Methods: We designed two experiments to explore the influence of materialism and ego depletion from the perspective of behavioral decision-making and neural mechanism. Results: In Experiment 1, there was asymmetry in intertemporal choice between gain and loss situations. In the gain situation, high materialism were more likely to choose the later and larger option (LL). However, in a loss situation, we found a reverse sign effect, and the proportion of subjects choosing sooner and smaller options (SS) increased. In Experiment 2, in the gain situation, after adding the low ego depletion task, there was a marginal significant difference between high and low materialism in the percentage of choosing LL options, F(1, 40) = 3.37, P = 0.07, η2 = 0.08; After adding the high ego depletion task, the percentage of choosing LL options was no difference, F(1, 40) = 1.42, P > 0.05. In the loss situation, whether in the high ego depletion task [F(1, 40) = 2.25, P > 0.05) or in the low ego depletion task [F(1, 40) = 1.44, P > 0.05), there was no difference between high and low materialism in the percentage of choosing LL options, and they both tended to choose SS options. The EEG study showed that in high materialism, there was a significant difference between the high and low ego depletion conditions, and the N1 amplitude induced under the low ego depletion condition was larger than that under the high ego depletion condition. However, there was no significant difference in N1 amplitude between the high and low ego depletion conditions in the low materialism. The amplitude of P2 evoked in the loss situation was larger than that in the gain situation. Conclusion: In conclusion, Materialism dominated people's intertemporal choices, and ego depletion affected the intertemporal choice to a certain extent by influencing the subjects' thinking activities. The COVID-19 epidemic maybe affected intertemporal choice indirectly by acting on materialistic values and subjects' emotions.

The diagnostic and prognostic value of plasma circulating circNUP98 for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Our preliminary sequencing analysis revealed increased expression levels of circNUP98 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This study was therefore carried out to explore the role of circNUP98 in NPC. METHODS: The present study enrolled 56 patients with NPC, 44 patients with cervical lymphadenitis (CL), 50 patients with nose bleeding (NB), 50 patients with chronic sinusitis (CS), 50 patients with lymph node tuberculosis (LNT), and 50 healthy controls (Control). Plasma samples were obtained from all patients and the controls. In addition, NPC and paired non-tumor tissue samples were collected from the 56 NPC patients. Expression of circNUP98 in both tissue and plasma samples was determined by RT-qPCR. The 56 NPC patients were followed up for 5 years to analyze the associations between plasma expression of circNUP98 and the survival of patients. The diagnostic value of circNUP98 for NPC was analyzed through ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: The plasma expression levels of circNUP98 were only increased in NPC, but not in CL, NB, CS and LNT groups compared to that in the Control group. In addition, increased expression levels of circNUP98 was observed in NPC tissues compared to that in non-tumor tissues. Plasma circNUP98 was closely correlated with circNUP98 in NPC tissues, but not circNUP98 in non-tumor tissues. With plasma circNUP98 as a biomarker, NPC patients were separated from CL, NB, CS, LNT and the Control groups. Plasma expression of circNUP98 was found to be positively correlated with the poor survival of patients. Moreover, plasma circNUP98 was only closely associated with tumor metastasis, but not tumor size. CONCLUSION: The expression of circNUP98 in plasma may be used to diagnose NPC and predict patients' survival.

The Prevalence of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Among Children in Beijing Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is an important pathogen of community acquired pneumonia. With the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the prevalence of some infectious respiratory diseases has varied. Epidemiological features of M. pneumoniae in children from Beijing (China) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated. Methods: Between June 2016 and May 2021, a total of 569,887 children with respiratory infections from Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics (Beijing, China) were included in this study. M. pneumoniae specific-IgM antibody in serum specimens of these patients was tested by a rapid immunochromatographic assay kit. The relevant clinical data of M. pneumoniae-positive cases were also collected, and analyzed by RStudio software. Results: The results showed that 13.08% of collected samples were positive for M. pneumoniae specific-IgM antibody. The highest annual positive rate was 17.59% in 2019, followed by 12.48% in 2018, 12.31% in 2017, and 11.73% in 2016, while the rate dropped to 8.9% in 2020 and 4.95% in 2021, with significant difference. Among the six years, the positive rates in summer and winter seasons were significantly higher than those in spring and autumn seasons (p < 0.001). The positive rate was the highest in school-age children (22.20%), and lowest in the infant group (8.76%, p < 0.001). The positive rate in boys (11.69%) was lower than that in girls (14.80%, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in different seasons, age groups, or genders before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that an M. pneumoniae outbreak started from the summer of 2019 in Beijing. After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in the end of 2019, the M. pneumoniae positive rates dropped dramatically. This may be due to the restrictive measures of the COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively controlled the transmission of M. pneumoniae. The relationships between M. pneumoniae positive rates and season, age, and gender were not statistically significant before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Color-tunable, self-healing albumin-based lanthanide luminescent hydrogels fabricated by reductant-triggered gelation.

Luminescent hydrogels show extensive applications in many fields because of their excellent optical properties. Although there are many matrixes used to prepare luminescent hydrogels, the synthesis of protein-based luminescent hydrogels is still urgently needed to explore due to their good biodegradability and biocompatibility. In this work, a color-tunable, self-healing protein-based luminescent hydrogel consisting of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lanthanide complexes is prepared via reductant-triggered gelation. Firstly, a bifunctional organic ligand named 4-(phenylsulfonyl)-pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (4-PSDPA) is synthesized, which can react with thiol groups and effectively sensitize the luminescence of Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions. Then, the BSA is treated with a reducing agent tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) to produce thiol groups. And the newly formed thiol groups can re-match to form disulfide bonds between two BSA molecules or react with Ln(4-PSDPA)3 complexes, resulting in the formation of an albumin-based luminescent hydrogel. Furthermore, the self-healing, biodegradability and biocompatibility of albumin-based hydrogels have also been demonstrated. We expect that the newly developed multifunctional protein-based hydrogels will find potential applications in the fields of biomedical engineering and optical devices.

Meso-level hotspot identification for suburban arterials.

Accurate identification of crash hotspots forms the foundation of roadway safety improvement. The Highway Safety Manual micro-level approach uses individual intersections and road segments as analysis units, and correspondingly identifies some isolated road entities as hotspots. However, because traffic police and administrative agencies routinely conduct safety improvement based on multiple continuous segments and intersections, the identification of hotspots at the micro-level is inefficient for field application. To better meet this need, this study proposes a new meso-level approach to identify hotspots, specifically on suburban arterials. Meso-level analysis units of three different configurations (201, 150, and 100 units) were obtained by combining a set number of intersections and their adjacent segments according to crash distribution and homogeneity. Their influence areas were determined according to the proportion of urbanized land in areas perpendicularly adjacent to the arterials. Three Bayesian Poisson-lognormal conditional autoregressive models (PLN-CAR) considering spatial correlations were developed for each unit configuration, using the full Bayesian (FB) method to ameliorate random fluctuation in crash counts. Potential for safety improvement (PSI) values were calculated based on the modeling results and were used to identify hotspots. Two measures, i.e., the concentrated degree of hotspots (CDH) and the hotspot identification accuracy (HIA), were proposed to make a quantitative and comparative evaluation. Results showed that 1) arterials with more parallel roads suffer lower crash risk, and 2) considering both the hotspot distribution and the identification accuracy, the 150 meso-level unit configuration was the best. The proposed meso-level hotspot identification method promises to be adaptive to safety improvement practices on suburban arterials.

[Pollution Characteristics and Risk Assessment of Typical Organophosphate Esters in Beijing Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Receiving Water].

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are ubiquitous in the environment and pose a potential threat to ecosystems and human health. A method for the determination of eight OPEs by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS/MS) was established. The recovery rates of eight target compounds with different solid-phase extraction columns, different eluents, and different eluent volumes were compared. The results showed that using ENVI-18 column enrichment, OPEs were eluted with 8 mL acetonitrile containing 25% (volume fraction) dichloromethane, and the labeled recovery rate of the target compound was 92.5%-102.2%. The recoveries of different matrix samples were 88.5%-116.1% and relative standard deviation was 1.7%-9.9%. The concentration range of 8 different detectable organophosphate esters in the effluent of sewage treatment plant is 85.9-235.4 ng·L-1 during the six-day sampling process, permissive river downstream of the six-day ΣOPEs average total concentration was 130.3 ng·L-1, higher than the 119.4 ng·L-1 upstream water concentration, but lower than the sewage treatment plant effluent concentration of total 162.5ng·L-1. The study shows that the sewage treatment plant cannot completely remove OPEs; for triethyl phosphate (TEP) and 3 (2-ethyl hexyl) phosphate ester (TEHP) there exists a negative removal phenomenon, whereas for other OPEs the removal rate was between 14.1% and 84.9%, and the total ΣOPEs removal rate by the sewage plant was 50.0%. The TPhP in the effluent of the sewage treatment plant has medium environmental risk (RQ>0.1), and other organophosphates have low environmental risk (RQ<0.1); however, the long-term mixing effects of organophosphate esters on the ecosystem of the receiving river should not be ignored.

Two 8-hydroxyquinoline-based fluorescent chemosensors for ultra-fast and sensitive detection of water content in strong polar organic solvents with large Stokes shifts.

It is of great significance to detect the moisture in organic solvents before used in water-sensitive reactions. Herein, two Schiff base quinoline derivatives, 8-hydroxyquinoline-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone (HQCT) and 8-hydroxyquinoline-2-carboxaldehyde (pyridine-2-carbonyl)-hydrazine (HQPH), were designed and synthesized by a simple one-step reaction, and used as fluorescent chemosensors for ultra-fast and sensitive detection of water content in strong polar organic solvents. Based on excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process, HQCT and HQPH exhibited strong fluorescence emissions with large Stokes shifts in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvents compared to other various organic solvents, and their fluorescence quenching and fluorescent color changes were obviously observed with increasing water content. The experimental results revealed that the hydroxyl groups substituted at the 8-position of HQCT and HQPH played a key role in the fluorescence emission processes. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and 1H NMR titration indicated that the sensing mechanism for the detection of water was based on inhibition of the ESIPT by H2O via forming hydrogen bonds. In the range of 0.0-1.8 wt%, the fluorescence intensity of chemosensors changed as a linear function of water content. The detection limits of water in DMSO by HQCT and HQPH were as low as 0.0220 wt% and 0.0274 wt%, respectively. Moreover, HQCT and HQPH are successfully applied for the detection of moisture content in real commercial organic solvents.

Efficient green light-excited switches based on dithienylethenes with BF2-doped π-conjugated systems.

A series of dithienylethenes 1a-1d with BF2-doped π-conjugation have been successfully developed. Upon alternating irradiation with green light and red/NIR light, they show efficient photochromism and fluorescence switching behaviors in toluene and PMMA film. Moreover, the fluorescence of 1a can be switched effectively in living cells.

Blue-/NIR Light-Excited Fluorescence Switch Based on a Carbazole-Dithienylethene-BF2bdk Triad.

The development of novel solid-state fluorescence switches, particularly triggered by visible light, is of increasing interest for the potential application in optical data storage and super-resolution fluorescence microscopies. In this study, two carbazole-dithienylethene-BF2bdk triads CDB1 and CDB2, suspending carbazole and BF2bdk moieties on both sides of dithienylethene unit, have been developed. They exhibit blue-/NIR light-controlled photochromism with solvent-dependent characteristics. Moreover, CDB1 (o) reveals blue-/NIR light-induced reversible fluorescent switching behaviors in toluene, chloroform, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film, and powder state, while its analogue CDB2 (o) in the powder state exhibits no fluorescence due to a strong intermolecular π-π stacking interaction, and the fluorescent switching performance is observed only in toluene and PMMA film. The density functional theory calculations further validate the differences in their optical properties in the solution and powder states.

Holy local system: religious treatment of mental sickness in rural China.

Kleinman pioneered the use of intensive case studies in China and elsewhere. Drawing on this approach, this paper shows how two rural Chinese converts to Christianity recovered from prolonged mental sickness incurred during the Cultural Revolution many years earlier. The apparent 'cure' is part of local narrative in which rural Chinese Christians' first contact with Christianity has the pragmatic aim of seeking treatment to relieve physical pain, but leads to conversion and believed divine deliverance from psychological as well as physical suffering. In acquiring what they regard as new moral life and becoming dignified 'divine selves', they adopt new language and behavior and subtly change their relationships with family and the local power structure, thereby establishing a 'holy local system' that is regarded as able to withstand external crises and temporary setbacks. Setting up the holy local system highlights the inadequacy of rural bio-medical assistance, provides treatment for sickness and pain often blamed on Chinese society's relentless pursuit of economic development, and so introduces some compensatory if illusory rural stability.

Albumin dialysis in artificial liver support systems: open-loop or closed-loop dialysis mode?

In artificial liver support systems, the open-loop albumin dialysis mode (OLM) is usually used to remove protein-bound toxins from the blood of patients with liver failure. However, there is still interest in the closed-loop albumin dialysis mode (CLM) because this mode may enable not only the regeneration and reuse of albumin but also the miniaturization of artificial liver systems. In this article, we compared the two modes under a fixed amount of albumin in dialysate experimentally and theoretically. The results show that according to the detoxification efficiency in the 3 hour dialysis for removing albumin-bound bilirubin, CLM is better than OLM. The usage efficiency of albumin in CLM is also higher. Moreover, the advantage of CLM is more significant when the concentration of bilirubin in blood is lower. Under a given amount of albumin in dialysate, if the concentration of bilirubin in blood is high, one may further increase the performance of CLM by means of increasing the flow rate of the albumin dialysate or using the highly concentrated albumin dialysate.

Site-specific tagging proteins via a rigid, stable and short thiolether tether for paramagnetic spectroscopic analysis.

Increasing the stability of protein bioconjugates and improving the resolution of protein complexes is important for spectroscopic analysis in structural biology. The reaction of phenylsulfonated pyridine derivatives and protein thiols generates a stable, rigid and short thiolether tether, which is valuable in high-resolution spectroscopic measurements.

Bioconjugation of proteins with a paramagnetic NMR and fluorescent tag.

Site-specific labeling of proteins with lanthanide ions offers great opportunities for investigating the structure, function, and dynamics of proteins by virtue of the unique properties of lanthanides. Lanthanide-tagged proteins can be studied by NMR, X-ray, fluorescence, and EPR spectroscopy. However, the rigidity of a lanthanide tag in labeling of proteins plays a key role in the determination of protein structures and interactions. Pseudocontact shift (PCS) and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) are valuable long-range structure restraints in structural-biology NMR spectroscopy. Generation of these paramagnetic restraints generally relies on site-specific tagging of the target proteins with paramagnetic species. To avoid nonspecific interaction between the target protein and paramagnetic tag and achieve reliable paramagnetic effects, the rigidity, stability, and size of lanthanide tag is highly important in paramagnetic labeling of proteins. Here 4'-mercapto-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine-6,6''-dicarboxylic acid (4MTDA) is introduced as a a rigid paramagnetic and fluorescent tag which can be site-specifically attached to a protein by formation of a disulfide bond. 4MTDA can be readily immobilized by coordination of the protein side chain to the lanthanide ion. Large PCSs and RDCs were observed for 4MTDA-tagged proteins in complexes with paramagnetic lanthanide ions. At an excitation wavelength of 340 nm, the complex formed by protein-4MTDA and Tb(3+) produces high fluorescence with the main emission at 545 nm. These interesting features of 4MTDA make it a very promising tag that can be exploited in NMR, fluorescence, and EPR spectroscopic studies on protein structure, interaction, and dynamics.