Reusable, Green, Portable Ionogels Based on Terpyridine-Imidazole Salt for Visual Monitoring of Pork Spoilage.

Ionogels have emerged as a promising approach because they combine the advantageous properties of ionic liquids and gels. Herein, a novel gelator bearing terpyridine and imidazolium salt units was designed and synthesized, which assembled into ionogels in three ionic liquids by a heating-cooling procedure. The properties of ionogels were characterized by FT-IR, UV-vis spectroscopy, POM, XRD, and rheology, and resonance light scattering and opacity measurements were conducted to investigate the gelation kinetics. Furthermore, the ionogels incorporating pH-sensitive dyes (BTB and MR) were exploited as colorimetric sensor to monitor total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) of meat at -4 °C, which can easily and reliably estimate the quality of meat by naked eye recognition, and the results demonstrated a positive correlation between the color variation and TVB-N levels. Notably, the hydrophobic ionogel indicators are more suitable for potential application at high humidity thanks to their antiswelling advantage, which could prevent the inaccurate information produced by hydrogel indicators. In addition, the ionogels could be reused up to three times as colorimetric indicators, suggesting potential applications and competitiveness. Our research sheds new light on the novel application of ionogels in the food industry.

Renting vs. Owning: Public Stereotypes of Housing Consumption Decision From the Perspective of Confucian Culture: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials.

The ideas of face consciousness, group conformity, extended family concept, and crisis consciousness in Confucian culture have a subtle and far-reaching impact on housing consumption decision among the Chinese public, forming a housing consumption model of "preferring to own a house rather than rent one." The poor interaction between the housing rental market and the sales market caused by the shortage of rental demand and irrational purchasing behaviors has led to soaring house prices and imbalance between supply and demand that prevail in major cities in China. To gain a deeper understanding of public cognitive attitude toward decisions on owning and renting a house, this study divided the subjects into high and low impact groups based on the overall Confucian culture and four subdimensions. It attempts to take a cognitive neuroscience approach for assessing public stereotypes of housing consumption decision with different types based on the analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). The results are as follows. First, overall, there is an obvious implicit stereotype of renting a house and explicit stereotype of owning a house among the public. Second, ERPs data show that descriptions of renting a house with positive adjectives could evoke more significant N400 responses. In other words, in the heuristic system, the public perceive that renting a house is restrictive, stressful, unhappy, and crisis. Data from subjective reports show that, after processing information in the analytic system, the public tend to think that owning a house is self-contained, restful, warm, and comfortable. Third, a more negative stereotype of renting a house exists in the high Confucian culture influence group (HIC) Group than in the low Confucian culture influence group (LIC) Group, and is more inclined to own a home. Fourth, under the Confucian culture sub-dimension, there are differences in housing consumption stereotypes between high and low groups in terms of extended family concept, group conformity, and crisis consciousness. Fifth, the moderating effect analysis found that perceived usefulness, trust in the rental market, and policy perception can be important factors in guiding public housing consumption stereotypes.

Morphology luminescence and photovoltaic performance of lanthanide-doped CaWO4 nanocrystals.

Multifunctional materials have attracted recent attention due to their various applications in many fields. In this work, CaWO4 nanocrystals were prepared by a hydrothermal method. Nanoparticles, nanowires, and micro-sized structures were obtained by controlling the reaction temperature, Ca2+-to-WO42- ratio and type of dopant. The influence of rare earth ions on the morphology and luminescence properties was investigated. Upconversion and downconversion luminescence behaviors showed CaWO4 to be an excellent host for rare earth doping. CaWO4:Er3+ nanowires were also used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to improve device performance. Increased light harvesting caused by improved dye loading capacity and enhanced light scattering led to improved cell efficiency. Moreover, reduced charge recombination due to the additional energy levels of CaWO4:Er3+ was another reason for the improved cell efficiency. Therefore, in this work, we demonstrated the synthesis of CaWO4 nanocrystals and the control of their morphology and luminescence by rare earth doping, which has significant future applications in lighting and display. The applications in DSSCs provide a new strategy to achieve high-performance solar cells by using nanocrystals via increased light harvesting and reduced charge recombination.

In situ synthesis, enhanced luminescence and application in dye sensitized solar cells of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites by reduction of Y2O3:Eu3.

Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites were successfully prepared by reducing Y2O3:Eu3+ nanocrystals. The obtained Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites not only can emit enhanced red luminescence excited at 338 nm, but also can be used to improve the efficiency of the dye sensitized solar cells, resulting an efficiency of 8.38%, which is a noticeable enhancement of 12% compared to the cell without Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites. The results of the incident photon to current, dynamic light scattering, and diffuse reflectance spectra indicated that the enhancement of the cell efficiency was mainly related to the light scattering effect of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanocomposites. As a phosphor powder, the emission at ~615 nm of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ was split into two sub-bands. Compared with Y2O3:Eu3+, the 5D0 → 7F0 and 5D0 → 7F1 emissions of Y2O3/Y2O2S:Eu3+ showed a little red-shift.

Iodine-131 induces apoptosis in HTori-3 human thyrocyte cell line and G2/M phase arrest in a p53-independent pathway.

Iodine­131 is known to destroy residual thyroid tissue following surgical resection of differentiated thyroid carcinoma and is widely used to treat hyperthyroidism. However, the mechanism by which iodine­131 induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in the human thyrocyte cell line, Htori­3, remains to be elucidated. In the present study, the cytotoxic effect of iodine­131 on the HTori­3 cell line and the underlying mechanism of iodine­131­induced cell apoptosis were investigated. Cell viability was analyzed using an MTT assay, while cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were determined using flow cytometry. Reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT­qPCR) and western blot analyses were performed to determine the changes in the expression levels of p53, B­cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl­2), Fas and growth arrest and DNA damage­inducible 45 (GADD45), following iodine­131 treatment. The results demonstrated that iodine­131 may inhibit HTori­3 cell growth via cell apoptosis and G2/M phase arrest in a time­ and dose­dependent manner. The iodine­131 dose required for 50% growth inhibition of HTori­3 cell viability 48 h after treatment was 27.75±2.22 MBq/ml. Upregulation of Fas and downregulation of Bcl­2 expression levels were observed following iodine­131 treatment. The results of RT­qPCR revealed an increase in the GADD45 mRNA expression following HTori­3 cell exposure to iodine­131. Notably, the mRNA and protein expression levels of p53 were not altered following iodine­131 treatment. In conclusion, iodine­131 may induce apoptosis in HTori­3 cells by downregulating the expression of Bcl­2 and upregulating the expression of Fas. In addition, iodine­131 may upregulate GADD45 mRNA expression in HTori­3 cells, resulting in G2/M phase arrest in a p53­independent pathway.

[A study on the relationship between insulin-like growth factor, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 and fetal growth retardation].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) on the fetal growth. METHODS: Samples of maternal blood and matched umbilical cord blood were collected at time of delivery from twenty pairs of mothers and newborns with normal birth weight (control group) twenty pairs with fetal growth restriction (FGR group) and ten pairs with macrosomia (macrosomia group). Serum IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 were measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and immunoradiometric analysis (IRMA). RESULTS: (1) Levels of maternal serum IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 in GFR group were (130.5 +/- 26.0) microgram/L, (2.40 +/- 0.42) microgram/L, (5 579 +/- 848) microgram/L respectively; IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 levels of fetal serum in this group were (6.6 +/- 1.7) microgram/L, (1.54 +/- 0.31) microgram/L, (869 +/- 183) microgram/L respectively. (2) In macrosomia group the levels of maternal serum IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 were (309.7 +/- 44.6) microgram/L, (2.43 +/- 0.25) microgram/L, (5 562 +/- 742) microgram/L respectively. In fetal serum that were (69.6 +/- 23.9) microgram/L, (2.19 +/- 0.29) microgram/L, (1 682 +/- 130) microgram/L respectively. (3) In control group the levels of maternal serum IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 were (307.9 +/- 70.7) microgram/L, (2.41 +/- 0.36) microgram/L, (5 586 +/- 678) microgram/L respectively;That were (68.9 +/- 32.9) microgram/L, (1.95 +/- 0.26) microgram/L, (1 624 +/- 296) microgram/L in fetal serum respectively. (4) In three group the levels of maternal IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 were significantly higher than that of fetal levels (P < 0.01). The fetal IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 levels in FGR group were significantly lower than those in control group (P < 0.01). (5) The levels of fetal IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-3 were positively correlated with birth weight (r = 0.61, r = 0.51 and 0.63, P < 0.01) and placental weight (r = 0.47, r = 0.56 and 0.48, P < 0.01). The levels of fetal IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 were no different between macrosomia group and control group. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggest that (1) IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 cannot pass through the placenta. (2) The betal IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 may have the close relationship with the fetal growth. The decrease of IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3 may be one of the causes of FGR.