Molecularly imprinted microspheres (MIMs) for the drug diazepam and its main metabolite (nordiazepam) were prepared and used to separate the two species from urine and serum samples via molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction. The specific binding capacity for diazepam was determined to be 1.97 mg/g, resulting in an imprinting factor of 5.8. The MIMs exhibit highly selective binding affinity for tricyclic benzodiazepines. Water-acetonitrile-acetone mixtures were used as the washing solvent and resulted in complete baseline separation, with a recovery of >87% for diazepam and of 88% for nordiazepam. The limits of detection are 21.5 and 24.5 ng/mL, respectively.

Clinical management of cyclophosphamide (CYP) results in numerous side effects including hemorrhagic cystitis (HC), which is characterized by inflammation and oxidative stress damage. Intravesical hyaluronic acid (HA) supplementation, a therapeutic method to restore barrier function of bladder, avoid the stimulation of metabolic toxicants on bladder and reduce inflammatory response, has shown good results in acute or chronic bladder diseases. However, there are unmet medical needs for the treatment of HC to temporarily restore bladder barrier and reduce inflammation. Herein, sulfhydryl functionalized HA (HA-SH) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were used to prepared a hydrogel system for optimizing the treatment of HC. We systematically evaluated the physicochemical of hydrogels and their roles in a rat model of CYP-induced HC. The prepared hydrogels exhibited outstanding gel forming properties, injectability, and biosafety. Swelling and retention studies showed that hydrogels were stable and could prolong the residence time of HA in the bladder. Histopathology and vascular permeability studies indicated that the hydrogels significantly attenuated bladder injury caused by CYP administration. Moreover, the hydrogels also showed excellent anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation properties. In conclusion, these data suggest that intravesical instillation of HA-SH/DMSO hydrogels reduces CYP-induced bladder toxicity and this work provides a new strategy for the prevention and early treatment of HC.

To extract aconitine from body fluid samples, aconitine-molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres with the optimum molar ratios of template/monomer/cross-linker (1:8:40) as selective sorbents were synthesized by precipitation polymerization. Excellent retention of aconitine on the molecularly imprinted microspheres (MIMs) cartridge was achieved by optimizing the MISPE process, and the binding capacity reached 0.802mg/g, yielding an imprinting factor of 4.76. The MIMs also showed high selectivity for aconitum alkaloids, but not for other kinds of poisonous alkaloids. High recoveries (>89%) for aconitine, hypaconitine, and mesaconitine were got in spiked serum samples. The working curves show linear dependence on aconitine concentration in the range of 2.0-0.1 mg/mL, and the detection limits of aconitine, hypaconitine, and mesaconitine were 16.7, 18.3, 10.2 ng mL -1 , respectively.

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Tremella fuciformis-derived polysaccharide (TFP) is a natural macromolecular compound that is well known for whitening skin, as well as for its ability to regulate lipids and immunity. However, its mechanism of action is not clear. In the present study, B16 cells treated with TFP were inoculated subcutaneously in the right flank of C57BL/6 mice to explore the effect of TFP on melanoma in vivo. Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence staining and transcription analysis of tumors were utilized to assess the expression of key molecules in production of melanin, lipid metabolism and immunity. It was found that TFP promoted B16 cell apoptosis and induced G 2 /M cell cycle arrest, which was associated with activation of cell cycle-related pathways. TFP induced the expression of glucose transporter type 4 and CD36, thus resulting in an increase in the uptake of lipids, which markedly suppressed sterol regulatory element-binding transcription factor 1 and phosphorylated-AMP-activated protein kinase expression; increased the number of lipids in the cell membrane, endoplasmic reticulum and nucleus; and induced the RNA expression of molecules related to lipid metabolism, as revealed by RNA-sequencing in vivo. Increased lipid binding, upregulated lipid storage, and elevated triglyceride and lipid catabolism resulted in disruption of cell volume homeostasis and activated innate immune response, thus inhibiting melanoma development and progression. These data revealed a novel molecular mechanism involved in the antitumor effect of TFP via lipid metabolism.

With the concentration of urban population and the development of construction technology, more and more high-rise buildings with irregular shapes and different heights have been built. These buildings have a greater impact on the surrounding wind field.[1] And the turbulent strong wind field between urban high-rise buildings also brings many inconveniences to the life of the surrounding residents. The purpose of this study is to discuss the utilization value of wind energy in turbulent strong wind field by analyzing the wind field between simulated urban high-rise buildings and to explore the possibility of installing wind energy collectors in appropriate locations and to turn waste into treasure. This study also discusses the possibility of wind energy utilization and value. At the same time, through the grid division of the wind field area, the wind field situation is simulated and other factors are considered comprehensively, it is possible to find a proper position of wind energy utilization. The results show that the wind speed distribution of high-rise buildings has a higher wind speed in the corridor between buildings. And for a single building, the wind speed at the middle is higher than that on the ground and the top. This provides the possibility of collecting and utilizing wind energy among buildings.

This study tests the effect of unbalanced power distance (PD) (i.e., Hofstede’s cultural dimensions PD index) and individual stock price crash risk. We examine the stock price behavior of listed firms in 37 countries from 2004 to 2016 and use multivariate analyses to document that societal PD is important in explaining firms’ propensity to release accounting information. This propensity suggests a psychological tendency regarding timing management, particularly for bad news. As countries with large PD prefer to keep things under control, the result is fewer unexpected stock price crashes during the long windows between election events. However, because large-PD countries focus their markets on maintaining temporary peace before and during periods of political events (i.e., national elections), crash risk increases after the political event window. Consistent with these predictions, we find that in large-PD countries, companies generally have less incentive to hide negative information and thus generate stock price crashes. This situation is substantially changed during the postpolitical windows, when firms and ways of spreading information are more controlled by the government. Our findings suggest that formal mechanisms alone are insufficient to explain the behaviors of corporate disclosure that are entangled with informal instruments.