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A new approach on usage of S‐1‐dodecyl‐S′‐(α,α′‐dimethyl‐α″‐acetic acid)trithiocarbonate (DDAT)‐covalently functionalized graphene oxide (GO) as reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agent for growing of poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) (PVK) directly from the surface of GO was described. The PVK polymer covalently grafted onto GO has Mn of 8.05 × 103, and a polydispersity of 1.43. The resulting material PVK‐GO shows a good solubility in organic solvents when compared to GO, and a significant energy bandgap of ∼2.49 eV. Bistable electrical switching and nonvolatile rewritable memory effect, with a turn‐on voltage of about −1.7 V and an ON/OFF state current ratio in excess of 103, are demonstrated in the Al/PVK‐GO/ITO structure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011

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For patients with obstructive jaundice associated with HCCA, current evidence indicate no superiority of PTBD over EBD regarding clinical feasibility and success rate, but data suggest a better clinical safety of PTBD compared with EBD in short-term postoperation. In long-term evaluation, the differences in clinical outcomes are not statistically significant between PTBD and EBD.

The biological function of long non-coding RNA00261 (Linc00261) has been widely investigated in various types of cancer. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of Linc00261 in pancreatic cancer (PC). The expression of Linc00261 in patients with PC and PC cell lines was assessed using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and the association of Linc00261 expression with survival was analyzed in the online database, GEPIA. The effects of Linc00261 on PC cell metastasis in vitro and in vivo were determined using a wound healing assay, Transwell invasion assays and a nude mouse model of liver metastasis. The relationship between Linc00261, the miR-552-5p/forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) axis and the Wnt signaling pathway were determined using bioinformatics analysis, dual luciferase assay and western blotting. Linc00261 expression was significantly decreased in PC tissues and cell lines, and reduced expression was associated with less favorable outcomes in patients with PC. Linc00261 overexpression inhibited migration and invasion of PC cells in vitro, whereas knockdown of Linc00261 increased migration and invasion. Linc00261 overexpression also decreased metastasis of PC cells in vivo. Linc00261 was revealed to directly bind to microRNA (miR)-552-5p and to decrease the expression of miR-552-5p. In addition, Linc00261 overexpression increased the expression of FOXO3, a target gene of miR-552-5p, as well as inhibited the Wnt signaling pathway. Overexpression of miR-552-5p in Linc00261-overexpressing PC cells increased migration and invasion, as well as decreased the expression of FOXO3 and members of the Wnt signaling pathway. Collectively, the present study demonstrated that Linc00261 inhibited metastasis and the Wnt signaling pathway of PC by regulating the miR-552-5p/FOXO3 axis. Linc00261 may suppress the development of PC, and serve as a potential biomarker and effective target for the diagnosis and treatment of PC.

A soluble graphite oxide (GO) axially substituted gallium phthalocyanine (PcGa) hybrid material (GO-PcGa) was for the first time synthesized by the reaction of tBu 4 PcGaCl with GO in anhydrous DMSO at 110• C in the presence of K 2 CO 3 . The formation of a Ga-O bond between PcGa and GO has been confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In contrast to GO, the D and G bands of GO-PcGa in the Raman spectrum are shifted to the lower wavenumbers by ν = 11 and 18 cm −1 , respectively. At the same level of concentration of 0.1 g l −1 , GO-PcGa exhibit much larger nonlinear optical extinction coefficients and strong optical limiting performance than GO, tBu 4 PcGaCl and C 60 at both 532 and 1064 nm, implying a remarkable accumulation effect as a result of the covalent link between GO and PcGa. GO-PcGa possesses three main mechanisms for the nonlinear optical response-nonlinear light scattering, two-photon absorption and reverse saturable absorption for the 532 nm pulses and nonlinear light scattering for the 1064 nm pulses. tBu 4 PcGaCl does not make any significant contribution to the optical limiting at 1064 nm, while GO-PcGa has a much greater optical limiting response than GO at this wavelength, this suggesting that the PcGa moiety could certainly play an unknown but important role in the GO-PcGa material system.

In this paper, the effects of shape coexistence on the resulting mixed configuration of the ground state are investigated by elastic electron scattering. The shape configurations of ground states are searched by the constraint relativistic mean-field (RMF) model. For nuclei with shape coexistence, the density distributions of the coexistence states are obtained from the mixing of different configurations. With the charge distributions, the Coulomb form factors of the coexistence states are calculated by the distorted wave Born approximation method. By comparing the of coexistence states with the of certain shape configurations, the phenomena of the shape coexistence can be analyzed by electron scattering.

Objective Recently, blueberry has been identified as a candidate for the treatment of liver fibrosis. Given the role of gut-liver axis in liver fibrosis and the importance of the gut microbiota homeostasis to the maintenance of the intestinal epithelial barrier, this study aimed to investigate whether blueberry could attenuate liver fibrosis and protect the intestinal epithelial barrier by maintaining the homeostasis of the gut microbiota. Method A CCl4-induced rat liver fibrosis model was used to detect the roles of blueberry in liver fibrosis and intestinal epithelial barrier. The liver weight and body weight were measured, the liver function was monitored by ALT and AST activity, protein and mRNA were determined by western blot and RT-qPCR, and the gut microbiome was detected by Miseq. Results The results showed that blueberry could reduce the rate of liver weight/body weight gain (p < 0.05), ALT (p < 0.01) and AST (p < 0.05) activity, and the expression of collagen I (p < 0.01), collagen IV (p < 0.01), and α-SMA (p < 0.01) expression in CCl4-induced rat liver. CCl4 impaired the intestinal epithelial barrier and decreased the expression of the tight junction protein. Blueberry restored the intestinal epithelial barrier and increased the expression of the tight junction protein. The gut microbiota homeostasis was impaired by CCl4, but after treatment with blueberry, the intestinal flora returned to normal. Conclusion Blueberry attenuated liver fibrosis, protected intestinal epithelial barrier, and maintained the homeostasis of the gut microbiota in a CCl4-induced injury rat model.