Polypyrrole (PPy)-coated Ag composites were synthesized through an immiscible organic/inorganic biphasic system in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Highly dispersed PPy/Ag was obtained by ...using interface polymerization and controlling the reactive conditions. The presence of PVP could realize the effective coating of PPy on the surface of Ag. The core−shell structure was directly confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and also characterized by techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, three-layered Au-modified PPy-coated Ag nanocomposite was prepared through the reaction of Au colloidal solution and PPy/Ag. Moreover, Au/PPy/Ag nanocomposite was immobilized on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode and applied to construct a dopamine (DA) biosensor. The biosensor exhibited a fast amperometric response to DA with the linear range from 1 × 10-4 to 5 × 10-3 mol/L.
Ye, Q.Q., 2020. Quality evaluation of ecological restoration of urban water pollution based on analytic hierarchy process. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water ...Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 10–13. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In view of the problem that the traditional methods cannot comprehensively select the indicators of urban water pollution ecological restoration, which leads to the inaccurate evaluation results of urban water pollution ecological restoration quality, this paper proposes the quality evaluation of urban water pollution ecological restoration based on AHP. Based on the analysis of the current situation of urban water pollution, the comprehensive evaluation index system of urban water pollution ecological restoration effect is constructed based on the multi quantitative method of AHP, and different types of urban water pollution ecological restoration indicators are obtained. The comprehensive evaluation model of AHP is given, the judgment matrix is constructed, and the weight of evaluation index is determined by single ranking of different levels. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation standard of urban water pollution ecological restoration quality is designed to complete the evaluation of urban water pollution ecological restoration quality. Taking the water pollution ecological restoration of a city as an example, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to evaluate the quality of water pollution ecological restoration. The weight of different indicators on the ecological restoration of water pollution can be accurately obtained, and the accurate evaluation results of urban water pollution ecological restoration quality can be obtained.
Local differential privacy (LDP) is an emerging technique for privacy-preserving data collection without a trusted collector. Despite its strong privacy guarantee, LDP cannot be easily applied to ...real-world graph analysis tasks such as community detection and centrality analysis due to its high implementation complexity and low data utility. In this paper, we address these two issues by presenting LF-GDPR, the first LDP-enabled graph metric estimation framework for graph analysis. It collects two atomic graph metrics - the adjacency bit vector and node degree - from each node locally. LF-GDPR simplifies the job of implementing LDP-related steps (e.g., local perturbation, aggregation and calibration) for a graph metric estimation task by providing either a complete or a parameterized algorithm for each step.
The existing tollbooth systems with multi-type vehicles in transportation literature typically assume the servers are either dedicated for each vehicle type or generic for all vehicle types. ...Conversely, in this paper, we focus on studying two similar systems both with skill-based servers, i.e., each tollbooth can handle a given subset of vehicle types. Meanwhile, we assume that vehicles queue together in a single lane, thus they get served by global First-Come-First-Served discipline. The slight difference between these two systems is the number of exits: one with a single exit (model 1) and the other with two exits (model 2). Nevertheless, it creates large difference in the resolving process. By spectral expansion technique, we obtain a closed-form solution for the system’s steady-state probabilities in the former model and the explicit solution without closed-form expressions in the latter model. By numerical results, we demonstrate how the parameters selection influences system’s performance, along with some intriguing managerial insights. We also use the system of the same structure but with dedicated servers as the baseline for comparisons to show the benefits of skill-based servers.
Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatment plays a major role in the management of acute lung injury (ALI), and neutrophils are the initial line of defense against ALI. However, the effect of MSCs on ...neutrophils in ALI remains mostly unknown.
We investigated the characteristics of neutrophils in lung tissue of ALI mice induced by lipopolysaccharide after treatment with MSCs using single-cell RNA sequencing. Neutrophils separated from lung tissue in ALI were co-cultured with MSCs, and then samples were collected for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometry.
During inflammation, six clusters of neutrophils were identified, annotated as activated, aged, and circulatory neutrophils. Activated neutrophils had higher chemotaxis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase scores than aged neutrophils. Circulatory neutrophils occurred mainly in healthy tissue and were characterized by higher expression of Cxcr2 and Sell. Activated neutrophils tended to exhibit higher expression of Cxcl10 and Cd47, and lower expression of Cd24a, while aged neutrophils expressed a lower level of Cd47 and higher level of Cd24a. MSC treatment shifted activated neutrophils toward an aged neutrophil phenotype by upregulating the expression of CD24, thereby inhibiting inflammation by reducing chemotaxis, ROS production, and NADPH oxidase.
We identified the immunosuppressive effects of MSCs on the subtype distribution of neutrophils and provided new insight into the therapeutic mechanism of MSC treatment in ALI.
Superplasticizers (SPs), namely sulfonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) and polycarboxylate (PC), were independently admixed with α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate based plaster to improve the material's ...performance. SMF and PC gave, respectively, 38% and 25% increases in the 2
h bending strength at the optimum dosages of 0.5
wt.% and 0.3
wt.%, which are determined essentially by the maximum water-reducing efficiency. The peak shift of binding energy of Ca2p
3/2 detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggests that SPs are chemically adsorbed on gypsum surface. A careful examination of the strength development of set plaster allowed the hydration and hardening process to be divided roughly into five stages. SMF accelerates early hydration, while PC decelerates it. Both SPs allowed similar maximum water reductions, giving a more compact structure and a decrease in total pore volume and average pore diameter, and thus leading to higher strengths in the hardened plasters with SPs.
Multidrug resistance in bacteria is a serious problem in organ transplantations. This study aimed to identify risk factors and establish a predictive model for screening deceased organ donors for ...multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria.
A retrospective cohort study was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine from July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent risk factors associated with MDR bacteria in organ donors. A nomogram was established based on these risk factors. A calibration plot, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to estimated the model.
In 164 organ donors, the incidence of MDR bacteria in culture was 29.9%. The duration of antibiotic use ≥3 days (odds ratio OR 3.78, 95% confidence interval CI 1.62-8.81, p=0.002), length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay per day(OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.11, p=0.005) and neurosurgery (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.44-7.58, p=0.005) were significant independent predictive factors for MDR bacteria. The nomogram constructed using these three predictors displayed good predictive ability, with an area under the ROC curve value of 0.79. The calibration curve showed a high consistency between the probabilities and observed values. DCA also revealed the potential clinical usefulness of this nomogram.
The duration of antibiotic use ≥3 days, length of ICU stay and neurosurgery are independent risk factors for MDR bacteria in organ donors. The nomogram can be used to monitor MDR bacteria acquisition risk in organ donors.
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in the world, and finding novel agents for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer is of urgent need. Diphenyl difluoroketone ...(EF24), a molecule having structural similarity to curcumin, exhibits potent anti-tumor activities by arresting cell cycle and inducing apoptosis. Although EF24 demonstrates potent anticancer effïcacy in numerous types of human cancer cells, the cellular targets of EF24 have not been fully deï¬ned. We report here that EF24 may interact with the thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1), an important selenocysteine (Sec)-containing antioxidant enzyme, to induce reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells. By inhibiting TrxR1 activity and increasing intracellular ROS levels, EF24 induces a lethal endoplasmic reticulum stress in human gastric cancer cells. Importantly, knockdown of TrxR1 sensitizes cells to EF24 treatment. In vivo, EF24 treatment markedly reduces the TrxR1 activity and tumor cell burden, and displays synergistic lethality with 5-FU against gastric cancer cells. Targeting TrxR1 with EF24 thus discloses a previously unrecognized mechanism underlying the biological activity of EF24, and reveals that TrxR1 is a good target for gastric cancer therapy.
This study aimed to investigate the expression of P90 Ribosomal Protein S6 kinase 4 (RSK4) in colorectal cancer cells and its biological function.
We selected early SW480 and HCT116 colorectal cancer ...cell lines, using Lipofectamine™ 2000 transfection reagent carrying RSK4 gene transfected into cells to establish the colorectal cancer cell lines with high expression of RSK4. RT-PCR and western blot (WB) analysis confirmed RSK4 expression in SW480 and HCT116 cancer cell lines. We used methylthiazoltetrazolium (MTT) assay and flow cytometry to detect the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells. After transfection of RSK4, the effect of RSK4 on the RNA levels associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of colorectal cancer cells was analyzed by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and the expression of EMT-related protein was detected by WB analysis.
After transfection of RSK4 overexpression, the MTT assay detected that RSK4 could significantly inhibit the growth of colorectal cancer cells in vitro; flow cytometry detected that S-phase cells decreased significantly, and G0/1 cells increased significantly (P < 0.05). The invasion ability of SW480 and HCT116 cells transfected with RSK4 was markedly lower than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Fluorescent quantitative PCR and WB analysis showed that the expression of EMT-associated molecular E-cadherin was remarkably increased and the expression of Snail was significantly decreased (P < 0.01).
RSK4 gene in colorectal cancer cell lines with low expression of RSK4 after transfection can inhibit the growth and invasion of tumor cells. RSK4 gene may inhibit EMT and inhibit metastasis of colorectal cancer cells, may be a potential tumor suppressor gene and inhibit tumor distant metastasis, and may provide the biological basis for new therapeutic targets.
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