As a newly emerging class of porous materials, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have attracted much attention due to their intriguing structural merits (
e.g.
, total organic backbone, tunable ...porosity and predictable structure). However, the insoluble and unprocessable features of bulk COF powder limit their applications. To overcome these limitations, considerable efforts have been devoted to exploring the fabrication of COF thin films with controllable architectures, which open the door for their novel applications. In this critical review, we aim to provide the recent advances in the fabrication of COF thin films not only supported on substrates but also as free-standing nanosheets
via
both bottom-up and top-down strategies. The bottom-up strategy involves solvothermal synthesis, interfacial polymerization, room temperature vapor-assisted conversion, and synthesis under continuous flow conditions; whereas, the top-down strategy involves solvent-assisted exfoliation, self-exfoliation, mechanical delamination, and chemical exfoliation. In addition, the applications of COF thin films including energy storage, semiconductor devices, membrane-separation, sensors, and drug delivery are summarized. Finally, to accelerate further research, a personal perspective covering their synthetic strategies, mechanisms and applications is presented.
This review presents a comprehensive summary of the synthesis and applications of covalent organic framework thin films.
Micro(nano)plastics, as emerging contaminants, have attracted worldwide attention. Nowadays, the environmental distribution, sources, and analysis methods and technologies of micro(nano)plastics have ...been well studied and recognized. Nevertheless, the role of micro(nano)plastic particles as vectors for attaching organisms is not fully understood. In this paper, the role of micro(nano)plastics as vectors, and their potential effects on the ecology are introduced. Micro(nano)plastics could 1) accelerate the diffusion of organisms in the environment, which may result in biological invasion; 2) increase the gene exchange between attached biofilm communities, causing the transfer of pathogenic and antibiotic resistance genes; 3) enhance the rate of energy, material and information flow in the environment. Accordingly, the role of microplastics as vectors for organisms should be further evaluated in the future research.
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•Questions of micro(nano)plastics as organism vectors have been raised.•Ecological effects of micro(nano)plastics as organism vectors are discussed.•Role of micro(nano)plastics as organism vectors need to be studied in future.
We investigated the abundance of microplastics in freshwater, treated water, and household tap water from the drinking water supply chain in Changsha, China. The abundance was 2173–3998 (mean = ...2753), 338–400 (mean = 351.9), and 267–404 (mean = 343.5) particles L
−1
in freshwater, treated water, and tap water, respectively. Fibrous and fragments made up the majority (> 70%) in all water samples, and most polymers were composed of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Microplastics in tap water were related to materials of transportation pipelines in drinking-water supply chain. Although plastics are corrosion-resistant, the slight fragmentation and abrasion may occur during drinking water treatment transportation. This study provided a proof for the occurrence of microplastics in drinking water, which may offer a reference for microplastic removal during drinking water treatment, and the formulation of standards for microplastic content in drinking water.
Compound contamination in soil, caused by unreasonable waste disposal, has attracted increasing attention on a global scale, particularly since multiple heavy metals and/or organic pollutants are ...entering natural ecosystem through human activities, causing an enormous threat. The remediation of co-contaminated soil is more complicated and difficult than that of single contamination, due to the disparate remediation pathways utilized for different types of pollutants. Several modern remediation technologies have been developed for the treatment of co-contaminated soil. Biological remediation technologies, as the eco-friendly methods, have received widespread concern due to soil improvement besides remediation. This review summarizes the application of biological technologies, which contains microbial technologies (function microbial remediation and composting or compost addition), biochar, phytoremediation technologies, genetic engineering technologies and biochemical technologies, for the remediation of co-contaminated soil with heavy metals and organic pollutants. Mechanisms of these technologies and their remediation efficiencies are also reviewed. Based on this study, this review also identifies the future research required in this field.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Quantum-sized cerium dioxide (CeO2) show high catalytic capability as well as strong light absorption ability owing to its redox couple Ce4+/Ce3+ and abundant oxygen vacancies, which making it a ...potential material for designing superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensors. However, it has scarcely been applied in the field of PEC sensing, because its wide band gap and aggregation effect can restrict the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Herein, we address these two obstacles by coupling CeO2 quantum dots (QDs) with graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) and Au nanoparticles (NPs). The electron transfer path in this proposed heterojunction was proved by density functional theory (DFT) calculation for the first time, which provided theoretical support for the detection of MC-LR. The as-obtained PEC aptasensor exhibited excellent analytical performance with a wide liner response of 0.05–105 pM, and the detection limit was 0.01 pM. By designing appropriate sensing system and specific recognition mechanism, this work may pave a unique avenue for constructing ultrasensitive and selective analysis of MC-LR in complex environment without any external electric source.
•CeO2 was first applied in PEC sensing by designing an ACG heterostructure.•The electron transfer process in ACG heterostructure was proved by DFT calculation.•The specific recognition mechanism of aptamers makes this sensor more selective.•The accurate measurement of MC-LR in water samples by this sensor was obtained.
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, with high incidence and mortality rates and low survival rates. However, the detailed molecular mechanism of ...ESCC progression remains unclear. Here, we first showed significantly higher WNT5A and SNAIL expression in ESCC samples than in corresponding paracancerous samples. High WNT5A and SNAIL expression levels correlated positively with lymphatic metastasis and poor prognosis for patients with ESCC based on immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of 145 paired ESCC samples. Spearman's correlation analyses confirmed the strong positive correlation between WNT5A and SNAIL expression, and patients with ESCC presenting coexpression of WNT5A and SNAIL had the worst prognosis. Then, we verified that the upregulation of WNT5A promoted ESCC cell metastasis in vivo and in vitro, suggesting that WNT5A might be a promising therapeutic target for the prevention of ESCC. Furthermore, WNT5A overexpression induced the epithelial-mesenchymal transition via histone deacetylase 7 (HDAC7) upregulation, and HDAC7 silencing significantly reversed WNT5A-induced SNAIL upregulation and ESCC cell metastasis. In addition, we used HDAC7 inhibitors (SAHA and TMP269) to further confirm that HDAC7 participates in WNT5A-mediated carcinogenesis. Based on these results, HDAC7 is involved in WNT5A-mediated ESCC progression, and approaches targeting WNT5A and HDAC7 might be potential therapeutic strategies for ESCC.
An increasing number of studies have found that SOX2 mutations can cause variable extraocular symptoms, including growth retardation, sensorineural hearing loss, mental retardation, no pubertal ...signs, and male genitourinary tract malformations (micropenis, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias). The LHRH stimulation test was performed in our hospital when the patient was 3.5 years old, and the results were as follows: basic luteinizing hormone (LH) 1.89 IU/L, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) 5.48 IU/L, T <20 ng/dl, and peak LH/FSH = 3.47/5.48 = 0.63>0.60, suggesting a normal pituitary response. The basic hormone levels of patient 3 at 5 months were as follows: LH 1.40 IU/L, FSH 7.90 IU/L, T < 20 ng/dL, T 116 ng/dL after hCG stimulation test, AMH > 23.00 ng/mL, INHB 74.50 pg/mL, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) 50.9 ng/mL, and peak LH/FSH = 2.59/7.90 = 0.33<0.60 after the LHRH stimulation test, which suggested the pituitary gland could have a response. Patients 1 and 2 carry the same reported heterozygous pathogenic site mutation (p.T232N) in the SOX2 gene, which is located in the carboxy terminal transcription activation region, and patient 3 carries a de novo nonsense heterozygous mutation (p.Y110X) that has not been reported in the literature, but a missense mutation (p.Y110C) at the same site has been reported to cause non-syndromic HH in a male patient.
Purpose/significance This paper aims at getting a comprehensive understanding for the quantity and OA ratio of OA papers, and making a preliminary evaluation of these papers. Method/process In this ...paper, we utilized Web of Science Core Collection as the data source and took the four dimensions: publication years, research areas, countries/territories and organizations. We investigated papers published in high-quality academic journals that recorded in WoS from 2002 to 2016. Then, we analyzed and interpreted the changes and trends of OA papers. Finally, we took Nature as an example and analyzed the quality of OA papers from the perspective of citation per paper and highly-cited papers proportion. Result/conclusion The number of OA papers in the world have been increasing year by year, especially in China. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is the institution which has the largest number of papers recorded in WoS, the number of OA papers took the first place in 2016, but the OA ratio still lagged behind m
Antley-Bixler syndrome (ABS) caused by P450 oxidoreductase deficiency (PORD) is a congenital adrenal hyperplasia with skeletal malformations and disordered sex development in both sexes. There have ...been no reports of ABS caused by PORD in Chinese children.
We described the clinical and genetic characteristics of eight Chinese children with ABS caused by PORD and compared them with those of subjects in previous studies.
Eight patients, aged 6 months-17.8 years, showed strikingly similar craniofacial malformations. We first described four unreported features: lower eyelid fat pads (4/8), prominent lower eyelid-zygoma transverse line (4/8), underdeveloped or absent antihelix (5/8) and single earlobe crease (5/8). Five 46, XY patients presented various degrees of undervirilization, while three 46, XX cases showed masculinization. Basal endocrine measurements revealed the following consistent results: normal cortisol; elevated adrenocorticotropic hormone, progesterone, pregnenolone, 17-hydroxypropgesterone, and corticosterone; and decreased or normal testosterone/oestradiol. We identified three previously reported variants and four novel variants (c.51719_51710delGGCCCCTGTGinsC, p.D210G, p.Y248X and p.R554X) of POR. The most prevalent variant was p.R457H (8/16). The hydrocortisone dosages of patients differed because of variable degrees of adrenal insufficiency.
We described novel phenotypes and genotypes of ABS caused by PORD. The variant p.R457H was the most prevalent in this cohort. All subjects had combined characteristics of 17-hydroxylase and 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Steroid replacement therapy for patients with PORD requires individually tailored dosing.
...research on the detailed patterns of physical development during puberty and the cut-off values and changes of hormones at the initiation of puberty and developmental maturation is rare. ......increased testosterone (T) level is usually concordant with changes in secondary sexual characteristics in boys. After 12 weeks of pump therapy, patients reported testicle and penis growth, especially testicle volume, which increased more significantly and earlier than penis size. ...beard or pubic hair appeared in 38.9% (7/18), and three patients reported initial seminal emission after 39 weeks. In Grinspon's study,5 there were no specific time points for children with pump treatment, whereas we performed LHRH stimulation tests in patients receiving pump therapy to determine the cut-off values of hormone levels at specific follow-up time points. ...this prospective study was able to determine more relevant LH ranges to determine the initiation and maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis.
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