Polymer-Based Long-Lived Phosphorescence Materials over a Broad Temperature Based on Coumarin Derivatives as Information Anti-Counterfeiting.

The development of new polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence materials is of great significance. By a special molecule design and a set of feasible property-enhancing strategies, coumarin derivatives (CMDs, Ma-Mf) were doped into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyacrylamide (PAM), corn starch, and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as information anti-counterfeiting. CMDs-doped PVA and CMDs-doped corn starch films showed long-lived phosphorescence emissions up to 1246 ms (Ma-PVA) and 697 ms (Ma-corn starch), reaching over 10 s afterglow under naked eye observation under ambient conditions. Significantly, CMDs-doped PAM films can display long-lived phosphorescence emissions in a wide temperature range (100-430 K). For example, the Me-PAM film has a phosphorescence lifetime of 16 ms at 430 K. The use of PAM with the strong polarity and rigidity has expanded the temperature range of long-life polymer-based phosphorescent materials. The present long-lived phosphorescent systems provide the possibility for developing new polymer-based organic afterglow materials with robust phosphorescence.

Preparation and Properties of Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/thermoplastic Hydroxypropyl Starch Composite Films Reinforced with Nano-Silica.

The use of biodegradable plastics is gradually increasing, but its expensive cost limits promotion. In this study, poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/thermoplastic hydroxypropyl starch reinforced with nano-silica (PBAT/TPHSg-SiO2) composite films with high hydroxypropyl starch content were prepared in a two-step process. The effect of reinforced thermoplastic hydroxypropyl starch on the mechanical, thermal, processing properties, and micromorphology of the composite films was investigated. The results showed that the tensile strength of the composite films was significantly improved by the addition of nano-silica, with 35% increase in horizontal tensile strength and 21% increase in vertical tensile strength after the addition of 4 phr of nano-silica. When the content of thermoplastic hydroxypropyl starch reinforced with nano-silica (TPHSg-4SiO2) is 40%, the horizontal and vertical tensile strengths of the films are 9.82 and 12.09 MPa, respectively, and the elongation at break of the films is over 500%. Electron micrographs show that TPHSg-4SiO2 is better homogeneously dispersed in the PBAT and exhibits a bi-continuous phase structure at a TPHSg-4SiO2 content of 40%. In this study, the blowing PBAT/TPHSg-4SiO2 composite films effectively reduce the cost and still show better mechanical properties, which are suitable for packaging applications.

Precise diagnosis and typing of early-stage renal immunoglobulin-derived amyloidosis by label-free quantification of parallel reaction monitoring-based targeted proteomics.

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis and typing are crucial for improving the prognosis of patients with renal amyloidosis. Currently, Untargeted proteomics based precise diagnosis and typing of amyloid deposits are crucial for guiding patient management. Although untargeted proteomics achieve ultra-high-throughput by selecting the most abundant eluting cationic peptide precursors in series for tandem MS events, it lacks in sensitivity and reproducibility, which may not be suitable for early-stage renal amyloidosis with minor damages. Here, we aimed to develop parallel reaction monitoring (PRM)-based targeted proteomics to achieve high sensitivity and specificity by determining absolute abundances and codetecting all transitions of highly repeatable peptides of preselected amyloid signature and typing proteins in identifying early-stage renal immunoglobulin-derived amyloidosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: In 10 discovery cohort cases, Congo red-stained FFPE slices were micro-dissected and analyzed by data-dependent acquisition-based untargeted proteomics for preselection of typing specific proteins and peptides. Further, a list of proteolytic peptides from amyloidogenic proteins and internal standard proteins were quantified by PRM-based targeted proteomics to validate performance for diagnosis and typing in 26 validation cohort cases. The diagnosis and typing effectiveness of PRM-based targeted proteomics in 10 early-stage renal amyloid cases was assessed via a comparison with untargeted proteomics. A peptide panel of amyloid signature proteins, immunoglobulin light chain and heave chain in PRM-based targeted proteomics showed significantly distinguishing ability and amyloid typing performance in patients. The diagnostic algorithm of targeted proteomics with a low amount of amyloid deposits in early-stage renal immunoglobulin-derived amyloidosis showed better performance than untargeted proteomics in amyloidosis typing. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the utility of these prioritized peptides in PRM-based targeted proteomics ensure high sensitivity and reliability for identifying early-stage renal amyloidosis. Owing to the development and clinical application of this method, rapid acceleration of the early diagnosis, and typing of renal amyloidosis is expected.

Exploring development and evolutionary trends in carbon offset research: a bibliometric perspective.

This study proposes a bibliometric measure to visualize and analyze the research status and development trend of carbon offset based on 1,581 articles over the period 1900-2019. The main findings include (1) carbon offset research turned into a rapid growth after 2009; (2) environmental studies, environmental science, economics, and energy fuels are the top four research domains in publication; (3) Energy Policy, Ecological Economics and Science are the top three journals in terms of citation impact; (4) climate change, impact, emission, CO2 emission, and policy are shown to be the most frequently used keywords; (5) the top 10 cited articles cover the following five essential aspects: individual carbon offset behavior; forest and land carbon offset; transportation carbon offset; international trade carbon offset; and eco-system service-related carbon offset; (6) eight research hotspots were identified including forest carbon sequestration program, understanding carbon and uncertainty market, policy design, biomass development, Chinese province, increasing adoption, and ecosystem service commodification. These findings suggest that the carbon offset research has been evolved from the theoretical exploration at the early stage to a more diversified conversion of research outputs at the practical level in recent years. Interdisciplinary research towards individual and organizational carbon offset behaviors in a broader context of socio-economic development and cooperation among various agents is the emphasis and direction for future study.

Novel cascade reaction-based fluorescent cyanine chemosensor for cysteine detection and bioimaging in living system.

Precise detection of intracellular Cys will be helpful to accurately assess the physiological functions in the physiological and pathological processes. Herein, a new probe Meoeth-Cy-OBz-oCl capable of Cys sensing with high selectivity over other mercaptoamino-acid molecules including Hcy and GSH was developed. The studies on sensing mechanism supported thiols-induced SNAr substitution-rearrangement cascade reaction which allowed discriminating Cys from Hcy/GSH. And its preferential fluorescence response of Meoeth-Cy-OBz-oCl to intracellular Cys was also achieved by means of fluorescence imaging in HeLa cells. Besides, Meoeth-Cy-OBz-oCl was confirmed possessing mitochondria-targeting ability in living cells. In addition, fluorescence imaging in BALB/c mice revealed that Meoeth-Cy-OBz-oCl could visually monitor the variation of Cys in vivo.

HMGB1 promoted P-glycoprotein at the blood-brain barrier in MCAO rats via TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is located on the luminal surface of brain vascular endothelium and its status may determine the delivery of the agents into the brain tissues. Previous study showed that upregulation of P-gp at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) after ischemic stroke were mediated by nuclear factor-B (NF-kB) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Based on middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats and oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in co-culture of rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (rBMECs) and astrocytes system, the present data indicated that potentiated P-gp expression and activity in brain microvessels or rBMECs were associated with the increase in high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and activation of NF-kB and that HMGB1 can release from nucleus to the cytoplasm in activated astrocytes, then into the medium. Moreover, changes in TLR4, TIR domain-containing adaptor protein (TIRAP), NF-kB and P-gp in rBMECs were attenuated by addition of 1 mM ethyl pyruvate (EP), 10 µM TAK-242 and 10 µM pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), respectively. These results demonstrated that HMGB1 promoted P-gp at the BBB after cerebral ischemia via TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.