The diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection by quantitative PCR with reverse transcription (RT-qPCR) typically involves bulky instrumentation in centralized ...laboratories and an assay time of 1-2 h. Here, we show that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be detected in 17 min via a portable device integrating reverse transcription, fast thermocycling (via plasmonic heating through magneto-plasmonic nanoparticles) and in situ fluorescence detection following magnetic clearance of the nanoparticles. The device correctly classified all nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal and sputum samples from 75 patients with COVID-19 and 75 healthy controls, with good concordance in fluorescence intensity with standard RT-qPCR (Pearson coefficients > 0.7 for the N1, N2 and RPP30 genes). Fast, portable and automated nucleic acid detection should facilitate testing at the point of care.
To meet the requirements for indoor organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications, it is imperative to minimize charge recombination loss and enhance photovoltaic performance toward commercially compelling ...levels. Here, morphological modification in non‐fullerene blends is demonstrated to boost the efficiency and stability of indoor OPVs. For morphological modification, a ternary blend is devised by utilizing two well‐miscible non‐fullerene acceptors, which improve morphological features in the photoactive layer and suppress charge recombination loss. Morphological modification enhances OPV performance, particularly under low‐intensity indoor irradiation conditions, at which trap‐assisted recombination mainly governs the photovoltaic performance. The optimum ternary OPV shows a new record power conversion efficiency of 30.11% at a 500 lux light‐emitting diode, accompanied by excellent morphological durability under thermal stress, despite the use of “existing” photovoltaic materials designed for AM 1.5 G operation. This study elucidates the effects of morphology on OPV performance under low‐light conditions and suggests an ideal morphology for non‐fullerene OPVs with enhanced performance for indoor applications.
Morphological modification is demonstrated to overcome the efficiency and lifetime limitations in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) for low‐light applications. Ternary OPVs employing two well‐miscible non‐fullerene acceptors benefit from morphological optimization, which leads to suppressed charge recombination, and show exceptionally high efficiencies under low‐intensity indoor light irradiation, offering guidance for indoor OPVs to surpass the currently dominant photovoltaic technologies.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified, the world has vehemently worked to develop treatments and vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome ...coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at an unprecedented speed. Few of the repositioned drugs for COVID-19 have shown that they were efficacious and safe. In contrast, a couple of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 will be ready for mass rollout early next year. Despite successful vaccine development for COVID-19, the world will face a whole new set of challenges including scale-up manufacturing, cold-chain logistics, long-term safety, and low vaccine acceptance. We highlighted the importance of knowledge sharing and collaboration to find innovative answers to these challenges and to prepare for newly emerging viruses.
Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the canine urinary tract and tends to have a poor prognosis due to its invasive potential. Recent studies have reported that up ...to 80% of canine urothelial carcinoma has the BRAF V595E mutation, which is homologous to the human V600E mutation. Activating the BRAF mutation is an actionable target for developing effective therapeutic agents inhibiting the BRAF/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in canine cancer as well as human cancer. We established novel canine TCC cell lines from two tumor tissues and one metastatic lymph node of canine TCC patients harboring the BRAF V595E mutation. Tumor tissues highly expressed the BRAF mutant and phosphorylated extracellular signal-related kinases (ERK)1/2 proteins. The derived cell lines demonstrated activated MAPK pathways. We also evaluated the cell lines for sensitivity to BRAF inhibitors. Sorafenib, a multiple kinase inhibitor targeting RAF/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), successfully inhibited the BRAF/MAPK pathway and induced apoptosis. The established canine TCC cell lines responded with greater sensitivity to sorafenib than to vemurafenib, which is known as a specific BRAF inhibitor in human cancer. Our results demonstrated that canine TCC cells showed different responses compared to human cancer with the BRAF V600E mutation. These cell lines would be valuable research materials to develop therapeutic strategies for canine TCC patients.
This study investigated bioaccumulation and toxicity derived from heavy metals in laying hens. The 160 52-week old laying hens were divided into 5 treatments with 8 replicates of 4 birds per pen. The ...treatments consisted of the control diet (without heavy metals), control diet with half the available dosage (AD, 5 ppm lead and 0.2 ppm mercury), AD (10 ppm lead and 0.4 ppm mercury), 2-fold AD (20 ppm lead and 0.8 ppm mercury), and 3-fold AD (30 ppm lead and 1.2 ppm mercury), and were provided to the laying hens for 8 weeks. Food and water were provided on an ad libitum basis at all times. Body weight and food intake were recorded once every two weeks, and eggs were collected and recorded daily. Two birds from each pen were euthanized to collect blood and organ samples on week 4 and 8. The 3-fold AD diet reduced food intake compared to that of the control and AD diets (P<0.05). Hens fed the half AD diet had darker yolk compared to those fed the control and AD diet on week 4 (P<0.05). Hens fed the 2- and 3-fold AD diets had increased relative liver weight, blood glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase levels (P<0.05), while F1 follicle weights decreased on week 4 and 8. No difference was found in egg production rate, egg quality, ovarian follicle, blood metabolites including protein, globulin, albumin, and urea nitrogen throughout the study (P>0.05). Heavy metal concentrations in the liver, eggs, and feathers were not detected at both week 4 and 8. Our results indicate that in-feed heavy metals for layer diets up to 30 ppm of lead and 1.2 ppm of mercury brought on hepatic dysfunction increasing blood metabolites that are associated with liver inflammation.
Tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), consisting mainly of primary and secondary amines, exhibits a high CO2 sorption capacity; however, its poor thermal stability hampers practical utilization in the ...temperature swing adsorption process for CO2 capture. Here, a facile functionalization of TEPA with 1,2-epoxybutane (EB) substantially enhanced its thermal stability as well as the CO2 adsorption kinetics. Our careful analysis on the liquid-state 13C NMR disclosed the amine state distribution of EB-functionalized TEPA (EB-TEPA). Although the increase in tertiary amine portion induced by EB-functionalization reduced CO2 sorption capacity, the 0.64EB-TEPA (i.e., TEPA functionalized with EB with a TEPA/EB molar ratio of 1:3)/SiO2 showed an excellent long-term stability over the 10 consecutive cycles of adsorption/desorption processes with a CO2 swing capacity of 2.0 mmol CO2 g–1 under dry CO2/N2 (15/85 mol/mol) feed conditions. Also, the first-principles calculation identified the configuration of modified TEPA molecules with XRD measurements, supporting an easy access of CO2 into amine moieties of our modified TEPA molecules.
Biofouling is a pervasive problem for any materials that are exposed to aquatic environments. Especially, it is a dire problem for the desalination membranes used to sustainably supply clean water, ...necessitating development of the methods to mitigate membrane biofouling. We present a topological modification approach to achieve ultralow fouling of water desalination membranes by realizing the sharkskin-mimetic (Sharklet) surface patterns and identify their unique antifouling mechanism based on computational fluid dynamics simulation. Our approach relies on a newly developed layered interfacial polymerization that can produce a conformal selective layer on patterned porous supports prepared by phase separation micromolding. The Sharklet-patterned membrane exhibited remarkably low biofouling compared to the conventional membranes with irregular roughness and topologically modulated membranes with simple patterns. Its superior biofouling resistance is attributed to the unique Sharklet geometry that can significantly inhibit biofilm growth. Furthermore, under dynamic flow conditions, the intricate Sharklet geometry induces a complex surface flow by symmetrically generating a secondary flow perpendicular to the primary flow, forming a periodic inflow and outflow along the pattern. The reinforced primary and secondary flows of the Sharklet pattern may further contribute to its excellent biofouling resistance.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer‐related deaths. LIM domain kinase (LIMK) 1 is a member of serine/threonine kinase family and highly expressed in various cancers. Luteolin, a polyphenolic ...plant flavonoid, has been reported to suppress tumour proliferation through inducing apoptosis and autophagy via MAPK activation in glioma. However, the mechanism of luteolin on suppressing lung cancer growth is still unclear. We found that luteolin targeted LIMK1 from the in silico screening and significantly inhibited the LIMK1 kinase activity, which was confirmed with pull‐down binding assay and computational docking models. Treatment with luteolin inhibited lung cancer cells anchorage‐independent colony growth and induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Luteolin also decreased the expression of cyclin D1 and increased the levels of cleaved caspase‐3 by down‐regulating LIMK1 signalling related targets, including p‐LIMK and p‐cofilin. Furthermore, luteolin suppressed the lung cancer patient‐derived xenograft tumour growth by decreasing Ki‐67, p‐LIMK and p‐cofilin expression in vivo. Taken together, these results provide insight into the mechanism that underlies the anticancer effects of luteolin on lung cancer, which involved in down‐regulation of LIMK1 and its interaction with cofilin. It also provides valuable evidence for translation towards lung cancer clinical trials with luteolin.
Membrane‐based separation technologies have attracted significant interest from various industries owing to their high process efficiency. However, the wider applications of conventional polyamide ...(PA) thin‐film composite (TFC) membranes are limited by their poor pH stability and low cation selectivity, necessitating the development of membranes with advanced chemistries. Herein, an extreme pH‐resistant, highly cation‐selective TFC membrane is fabricated by synthesizing a crosslinked poly(quaternary ammonium) (PQA) selective layer on a polyethylene support via Menshutkin reaction‐based interfacial polymerization (Men‐IP). The Men‐IP process produces a thin, densely crosslinked, and positively charged PQA permselective layer without hydrolysis‐prone functional groups. The fabricated PQA membrane features a highly selective molecular density that significantly exceeds those of previously reported membranes with non‐PA chemistries. Moreover, the PQA membrane exhibits remarkably high rejection (>90%) and selectivity for divalent cations owing to the exceptionally strong positive charge imparted by its abundant cationic QA groups. More importantly, the PQA membrane displays ultrahigh pH stability under both extremely acidic (1.5 m H2SO4) and alkaline (5 m NaOH) conditions for 28 days. No other membrane reported in the literature demonstrates such excellent pH stability. This strategy opens a new route for fabricating highly selective membranes that can be used in harsh pH environments.
A poly(quaternary ammonium) (PQA)‐based nanofiltration membrane with ultrahigh pH stability and excellent cation selectivity is fabricated via Menshutkin reaction‐based interfacial polymerization. A densely crosslinked, highly positively charged PQA layer leads to remarkably high cation selectivity for divalent cations. Furthermore, the designed PQA chemistry with no hydrolysis‐prone functional groups displays unprecedentedly high stability in extreme pH environments.
Previous studies have identified microplastics (MPs) in commercial table salts but could not exactly address the origin of the MPs because of several limitations. The present study is based on the ...hypothesis that commercial sea salts can act as an indicator of MP pollution in the surrounding environment unless the MPs are filtered out during the manufacturing process. A total of 39 different salt brands produced at geospatially different sites, including 28 sea salt brands from 16 countries/regions on six continents, were investigated. A wide range of MP content (in number of MPs per kg of salt; n/kg) was found: 0–1674 n/kg (excluding one outlier of 13 629 n/kg) in sea salts, 0–148 n/kg in rock salt, and 28–462 n/kg in lake salt. Relatively high MP content was identified in sea salts produced in Asian countries/regions. The abundance of MPs in unrefined sea salts (n = 25) exhibited significant linear correlations with plastic emissions from worldwide rivers (r 2= 0.33; p = 0.003) and with the MP pollution levels in surrounding seawater (r 2= 0.46; p = 0.021) in the published literature. The results indicate that not only is Asia a hot spot of global plastic pollution, as previous studies have suggested, but also that sea salt can be a good indicator of the magnitude of MP pollution in the surrounding marine environment.
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