Rational design and fabrication of Z-scheme visible-light-driven photoactive materials have drawn much attention owing to their great potential in handling environment and energy crisis. In this ...work, Z-scheme Bi2S3/nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) with superior photoelectric conversion efficiency were designed and fabricated, which demonstrated enhanced photoactivity compared with Bi2S3 owing to the improved separation efficiency of photogenerated electron and hole pairs. The emphasis was put on designing Z-scheme Bi2S3/NGQDs, and then the mechanism of Z-scheme charge transfer mode was verified by the electron spin resonance (ESR) technique. On this basis, the proposed sensor exhibited a wide linear range of 0.1–120 nM and a detection limit of 0.03 nM (S/N = 3) for SDM, with high sensitivity (0.075 μA nM –1), good selectivity and stability. Moreover, the proposed PEC aptasensor using Bi2S3/NGQDs as the photoelectrode achieved sensitive and selective determination of sulfadimethoxine in milk samples. This work could provide some ideas for designing other Z-scheme photoactive species and insights into the charge transfer mechanism of Z-scheme. Furthermore, the promising applicability of PEC aptasensor using photoactive species could be extended to other accurate monitoring for contaminants.
•A Z-scheme type Bi2S3/NGQDs heterojiunction was designed and construced.•The resulted Bi2S3/NGQDs showed superior photo-electric conversion efficiency.•ESR technique was used to verify the Z-scheme charge transfer mode of Bi2S3/NGQDs.•A PEC sulfadimethoxine aptasensor was fabricated based on photoactive Bi2S3/NGQDs.•The proposed PEC aptasensor exhibited a wider linear range and lower detection limit.
The task of recovering a low-rank matrix from its noisy linear measurements plays a central role in computational science. Smooth formulations of the problem often exhibit an undesirable phenomenon: ...the condition number, classically defined, scales poorly with the dimension of the ambient space. In contrast, we here show that in a variety of concrete circumstances, nonsmooth penalty formulations do not suffer from the same type of ill-conditioning. Consequently, standard algorithms for nonsmooth optimization, such as subgradient and prox-linear methods, converge at a rapid dimension-independent rate when initialized within constant relative error of the solution. Moreover, nonsmooth formulations are naturally robust against outliers. Our framework subsumes such important computational tasks as phase retrieval, blind deconvolution, quadratic sensing, matrix completion, and robust PCA. Numerical experiments on these problems illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach.
This study aims to explore the prevalence and associated risk factors for potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) in prescriptions among outpatients with depression, and report the widespread ...relevant drug interactions.
The cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted on outpatients in a psychiatric hospital. We included prescriptions of outpatients with a principal diagnosis of depression from April 1st to June 30th in 2021. The patients were ≥ 18 years old and treated with two or more drugs including at least one psychotropic drug. pDDIs were detected and identified mainly using Medscape’s drug interactions checker. Gender, the number of concomitant drugs, age and diagnosis were analysed as potential risk factors for the occurrence of pDDIs by logistic regression.
A total of 13,617 prescriptions were included in the present analysis, and 4222 prescriptions (31.0%) were at risk of 8557 pDDIs. The risk of pDDIs in patients who were prescribed 4–6 drugs (OR: 3.49, 95% CI: 3.11–3.91, p < 0.001) or 7 or more drugs simultaneously (OR: 7.86, 95% CI: 1.58–39.04, p < 0.05) increased compared with patients prescribed 2–3 drugs. Patients with recurrent depressive disorders (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.02–1.36, p < 0.05) had an increased risk of pDDIs compared with patients with depressive episodes. In terms of severity of pDDIs identified by Medscape’s drug interactions checker, 0.7%, 16.4%, 77.5% and 5.4% of pDDIs were classified as contraindicated, serious, monitor closely and minor, respectively. The most common pDDI was escitalopram + quetiapine (374 prescriptions), which was classified as serious and monitor closely due to different mechanisms of interaction. Increased central nervous system (CNS)-depressant effect was the most frequent potential clinical adverse outcome of the identified pDDIs.
pDDIs in outpatients with depression were prevalent in this retrospective study. The number of concomitant drugs and severity of the disease were important risk factors for pDDIs. The pDDIs of the category monitor closely were the most common, and the CNS-depressant effect was the most frequent potential clinical adverse outcome.
Abstract
Objective
The objective of this study was to compare the long-term results of extended middle meatal antrostomy (MMA) and MMA combined with inferior meatal antrostomy (IMA, combined ...approach) for the treatment of fungal maxillary sinusitis (FMS).
Methods and materials
A retrospective analysis including 90 patients with non-invasive FMS was treated with endoscopic extended MMA via antidromic extended medial wall (extended MMA group), or with both MMA and IMA (combined approach group). The recurrence rate, operation time, and complications were evaluated at postoperative 12 and 36 months.
Results
Of the 90 patients, 52 patients were in the extended MMA group and 38 patients in the combined approach group. CT revealed the thin medial wall or bone defect in 63.33% (57/90) patients. The mean operation time in the extended MMA group was significantly shorter than that of combined approach group (42.5 ± 6.5 vs 57.4 ± 4.9, P < 0.01). At postoperative 12 months postoperatively, the recurrence rate was 3.85% (2/52) in the extended MMA group and 0.0% (0/38) in the combined approach group, the difference wasn’t significant (
X
2
= 0.618, P > 0.05). The recurrence rate wasn’t increased during the follow-up period over time in both groups.13.5% (7/52) patients complained of cheek numbness in the extended MMA group, 60.5% (23/38) patients complained of cheek numbness and epiphora in 5.3% (2/38) patients in the combined approach group, the difference was significant (
X
2
test
, P < 0.01). However, no major complications were observed in both groups. In addition, IMA closure was observed in 4 (10.5%) in the combined approach group at 12 months postoperatively and in 9 (23.6%) at 36 months postoperatively.
Conclusions
Extended MMA via antidromic extended medial wall may effectively prevent the recurrence and reduce the complications of FMS, IMA wasn’t necessary for the treatment of FMS in most cases.
Yeasts are cheap, attractive and easily available residual sources of valuable bio-active compounds. Extraction of these compounds requires to break the yeast cells. So efficient damage of cell wall ...has become an important issue to be resolved. The aim of this paper is to review the potential of some emerging cell disruption techniques for recovery of intracellular bio-active compounds from Baker's yeast including mechanical (bead mill, high pressure homogenization, ultrasonication), and non-mechanical (electrical, physical, chemical and enzymatic) techniques, as well as some newly developed methods. The advantages and drawbacks of different cell disruption methods were summarized by considering the energy consumption, the interaction of the disruption methods with downstream operations and the process economics of alternative strategies. Finally, some future directions for research areas are proposed.
Wine making process entails the generation of significant amount of waste yeast, which represents an attractive source of valuable compounds that has been relatively unexploited to date. To retain the valuable cell content, effective cell disruption strategies are needed to break the rigid yeast cell walls. This review summarizes the state of the art of some emerging cell disruption techniques for recovery of intracellular bio-active compounds from yeasts including mechanical (bead mill, high pressure homogenizer, ultrasonication), and non-mechanical (electrical, physical, chemical and enzymatic) techniques. Thereby, it identifies the process economics of alternative strategies by considering the interaction of the disruption methods with downstream operations as well as the current situations and future research needs.
•Alternative methods for bio-active's extraction from yeast cell•Mechanical techniques acquired a high recovery but a poor selectivity.•Non-mechanical techniques were more gentle and selective.•Recovery, selective and energy consumption influenced the choice of method.•Effectiveness of cell rupture techniques affected process economics.
Porcupine (PORCN) is a membrane bound O-acyltransferase that is required for Wnt palmitoylation, secretion, and biologic activity. All evaluable human Wnts require PORCN for their activity, ...suggesting that inhibition of PORCN could be an effective treatment for cancers dependent on excess Wnt activity. In this study, we evaluated the PORCN inhibitor Wnt-C59 (C59), to determine its activity and toxicity in cultured cells and mice. C59 inhibits PORCN activity in vitro at nanomolar concentrations, as assessed by inhibition of Wnt palmitoylation, Wnt interaction with the carrier protein Wntless/WLS, Wnt secretion, and Wnt activation of β-catenin reporter activity. In mice, C59 displayed good bioavailability, as once daily oral administration was sufficient to maintain blood concentrations well above the IC(50). C59 blocked progression of mammary tumors in MMTV-WNT1 transgenic mice while downregulating Wnt/β-catenin target genes. Surprisingly, mice exhibit no apparent toxicity, such that at a therapeutically effective dose there were no pathologic changes in the gut or other tissues. These results offer preclinical proof-of-concept that inhibiting mammalian Wnts can be achieved by targeting PORCN with small-molecule inhibitors such as C59, and that this is a safe and feasible strategy in vivo.
Chronic endometritis (CE) is an unusual inflammatory condition characterized by endometrial plasmacyte infiltration. It has a high prevalence in women with reproductive failure. Because of its ...characteristic localization patterns and molecular functions, syndecan‐1 has been identified as a biomarker of plasmacyte, and syndecan‐1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) becomes the most dependable diagnostic method for CE. In this review, we discuss the association between CE and reproductive failure, the clinicopathological characterization of CE, the function and expression of syndecan‐1, the progress of syndecan‐1 IHC in the diagnosis of CE, and the prediction of reproductive outcome.
Abstract Serious injuries of endometrium in women of reproductive age are often followed by uterine scar formation and a lack of functional endometrium predisposing to infertility or miscarriage. ...Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have shown great promise in clinical applications. In the present study, BM-MSCs loaded onto degradable collagen membranes were constructed. Collagen membranes provided 3-dimmensional architecture for the attachment, growth and migration of rat BM-MSCs and did not impair the expression of the stemness genes. We then investigated the effect of collagen/BM-MSCs constructs in the healing of severe uterine injury in rats (partial full thickness uterine excision). At four weeks after the transplantation of collagen/BM-MSCs constructs, BM-MSCs were mainly located to the basal membrane of regenerative endometrium. The wounded tissue adjacent to collagen/BM-MSCs constructs expressed higher level of bFGF, IGF-1, TGFβ1 and VEGF than the corresponding tissue in rats receiving collagen construct alone or in spontaneous regeneration group. Moreover, the collagen/BM-MSCs system increased proliferative abilities of uterine endometrial and muscular cells, facilitated microvasculature regeneration, and restored the ability of endometrium to receive the embryo and support its development to a viable stage. Our findings indicate that BM-MSCs may support uterine tissue regeneration.
Ovarian steroid-regulated cyclical regeneration of the endometrium is crucial for endometrial receptivity and embryo implantation, and it is dependent on the dynamic remodeling of the endometrial ...vasculature. Perivascular cells, including pericytes surrounding capillaries and microvessels and adventitial cells located in the outermost layer of large vessels, show properties of mesenchymal stem cells, and they are thus promising candidates for uterine regeneration. In this review, we discuss the structure and functions of the endometrial blood vasculature and their roles in endometrial regeneration, the main biomarkers and characteristics of perivascular cells in the endometrium, and stem cell-based angiogenetic therapy for Asherman’s syndrome.
Oxidative stress impairs follicular development by inducing granulosa cell (GC) apoptosis, which involves enhancement of the transcriptional activity of the pro-apoptotic factor Forkhead box O1 ...(FoxO1). However, the mechanism by which oxidative stress promotes FoxO1 activity is still unclear. Here, we found that miR-181a was upregulated in hydrogen peroxide (H
O
)-treated GCs and a 3-nitropropionic acid (NP)-induced in vivo model of ovarian oxidative stress. miR-181a overexpression promoted GC apoptosis, whereas knockdown of endogenous miR-181a blocked H
O
-induced cell apoptosis. Moreover, we identified that Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a deacetylase that suppresses FoxO1 acetylation in GCs, was downregulated by miR-181a and reversed the promoting effects of H
O
and miR-181a on FoxO1 acetylation and GC apoptosis. Importantly, decreased miR-181a expression in the in vivo ovarian oxidative stress model inhibited apoptosis by upregulating SIRT1 expression and FoxO1 deacetylation. Together, our results suggest that miR-181a mediates oxidative stress-induced FoxO1 acetylation and GC apoptosis by targeting SIRT1 both in vitro and in vivo.
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