Microbiome-metabolome analysis reveals cervical lesion alterations.

Cervical cancer (CC) continues to be one of the most common cancers among females worldwide. It takes a few years or even decades for CC to arise in a minority of women with cervical precancers. An increasing corpus of studies today indicates that local microecology and carcinogenesis are intimately related. To investigate the changes in cericovaginal microecology with the development of cervical cancer, we performed 16S rDNA sequencing and metabolomic analysis in cericovaginal fluid from 10 LSIL patients, 10 HSIL patients, 10 CC patients and 10 healthy controls to reveal the differential flora and metabolites during cervical carcinogenesis. Carcinogenesis is associated with alterations in microbiome diversity, individual taxa, and functions with notable changes in Lactobacillus, Prevotella and Aquabacterium, as well as in cervicovaginal metabolites that correlate with cervicovaginal microbial patterns. Increased bacterial diversity and a decline in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, the dominant species in the cericovaginal flora, are observed when cervical lesions advance. According to KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, lipids and organic acids change as cervical cancer progresses, and the phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis pathway is essential for the development of cervical cancer. Our results reveal that microbic and metabolomic profiling is capable of distinguishing CC from precancer and highlights potential biomarkers for the early detection of cervical dysplasia. These differential microorganisms and metabolites are expected to become a potential tool to assist in the diagnosis of cervical cancer.

Catalytic exchange of hydrogen isotopes intensified by two-phase stratified flow in wettability designable microchannels.

This work develops a reliable method to achieve stratified flow in squared cross-section microchannels by endowing the four channel walls with very different wettabilities. The gas-liquid flows are studied experimentally in six kinds of microchannels with different wetting partitions on the channel walls, where occurrence of the stratified flow is found to strongly depend on the wetting partition and the individual flow rate of gas or liquid. Among them, the microchannel possessing three hydrophobic and one hydrophilic walls (3S1H) shows great potential in facilitating liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) of hydrogen isotopes. Subsequently, a 3S1H microchannel reactor coated with hydrophobic Pt/activated carbon/polydimethylsiloxane (Pt/AC/PDMS) is fabricated to perform the LPCE at 30-80 °C and in a wide range of flow rates of hydrogen and water. The experimental outcomes not only unveil the relationship of the isotopic exchange performance with the temperature and flow pattern but also exhibit an outstanding isotopic exchange performance under the stratified flow.

Uniform cobalt nanoparticles embedded in hexagonal mesoporous nanoplates as a magnetically separable, recyclable adsorbent.

Novel hexagonal nanoplates (NPLs) comprised of mesoporous carbon containing imbedded magnetic Co nanoparticles (CoAl2O4 phase) are prepared through direct carbonization of polydopamine (PDA)-coated CoAl layered double hydroxide (LDH). A uniform PDA coating initially covers the surface of LDH by dopamine self-polymerization under mild conditions. Well-dispersed Co nanoparticles are formed in the NPLs by the partial reduction of cobalt from Co2+ to Co0 with surface carbon during the heat treatment process. The surface morphology and specific surface area of the as-prepared NPLs can be tailored by adjusting the initial dopamine concentration and carbonization temperature. The mesoporous NPLs exhibit excellent sorption of rhodamine B (RhB) dye and fast magnetic separation in aqueous solution. Over 95% of RhB can be adsorbed within 2 min and the adsorption reaches equilibrium after about 30 min. The maximum adsorption capacity approaches 172.41 mg/g. After regeneration, this adsorbent can be recycled easily by magnetic separation and still possess good adsorption capacity for RhB removal, even after five cycles.

Block Copolymer as a Surface Modifier to Monodisperse Patchy Silica Nanoparticles for Superhydrophobic Surfaces.

Monodisperse patchy silica nanoparticles (PSNPs) less than 100 nm are prepared based on the seed-regrowth method using a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-poly(propylene oxide) (PPO)-PEO-type block copolymer as a surface modifier. Well-defined patches are controllably synthesized through area-selective deposition of silica onto the surface of seeds. After colloidal PSNPs are further modified with trimethylchlorosilane, the advancing and receding contact angles of water for PSNPs are 168 ± 2° and 167 ± 2°, respectively. The superhydrophobic and transparent coatings on the various types of substrates are obtained by a simple drop-casting procedure. Additionally, almost the same superhydrophobicity can be achieved by using colloidal PSNPs via redispersing the powder of superhydrophobic PSNPs in ethanol.

Block copolymer-assisted synthesis of monodisperse colloidal patchy nanoparticles.

Amphiphilic block copolymers are able to assemble into spherical micelles in an aqueous solution. Spherical micelles are expected to adsorb on the surface of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) through hydrogen-bonding interaction. Hence, it should be possible to guide the area-selective deposition of precursors onto the exposed surface of colloidal seeds, where no micelles are adsorbed. Using colloidal silica and polydopamine nanospheres as seeds, block copolymer F127 and P123 are used as surface modifiers to guide the controlled solution-phase deposition of precursors on a selectively exposed surface of seed NPs, leading to the formation of patchy NPs. Effects of the addition amount of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), types of block copolymers, and the volume fraction of miscible organic solvents on the size and morphology of patchy silica NPs are investigated systematically through electron microscopic imaging. Block copolymer micelles adsorption model for the formation of colloidal patchy NPs is first proposed. Our study suggests that the shape and size of patchy silica NPs are determined by the amount of TEOS and dielectric constant of solution.

Fabrication of nano copper oxide evenly patched on cubic sodium tantalate for oriented photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide.

A synthetic process was exploited to fabricate patchy CuO evenly planted on cubic NaTaO3 for photocatalytically reducing CO2 in isopropanol. The nano patches of CuO with about 15 nm in size were uniformly distributed on the surface of NaTaO3 via a phase-transfer protocol and solvothermal synthesis. The crystal phase, morphology, composition, optical absorption and charge separation of as-prepared CuO-NaTaO3 were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS, UV-Vis and PL. The results of photocatalytic reduction of CO2 confirmed that the CuO patched NaTaO3 possessed better ability to separate charge carriers and selectively reduce CO2 to methanol than CuO directly loaded NaTaO3 using the traditional liquid phase reduction procedure after comparing the methanol yields. Furthermore, 5 wt% CuO patched NaTaO3 led to the highest methanol yield of 1302.22 µmol g-1 h-1. A redox mechanism was proposed and illustrated in a schematic diagram.