A novel mitochondrion-specific photo-activatable fluorescence turn-on bioprobe, named as o-TPE-ON+, is designed and readily prepared, operating through a new photoactivatable mechanism of photocyclodehydrogenation. This bioprobe exhibits unique photoactivation behavior in cells, and is applied to super-resolution imaging of mitochondrion and its dynamic investigation in both fixed and live cells under physiological conditions without any external additives.

Several common variants in the intron 1 of FTO (fat mass and associated obesity) gene have been reliably associated with BMI and obesity in European populations. We analyzed two variants (rs9939609 and rs8050136) in 4,189 Chinese Han individuals and conducted a meta‐analysis of published studies in Asian population to investigate whether these variants are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity in Asian population. In this study, both the minor allele A of rs9939609 and the minor allele A of rs805136 were associated with increased risk of T2D, independent of measures of BMI; the odds ratios (ORs) per copy of the risk allele were 1.19 for rs9939609 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–1.37; P = 0.01) and 1.22 for rs8050136 (95% CI, 1.07–1.40; P = 0.004) after adjusting for age, sex, and BMI. Our results also showed association with risk of obesity (rs9939609: OR = 1.39 (95% CI 1.04–1.85), P = 0.02; rs8050136: OR = 1.45 (95% CI 1.09–1.93), P = 0.01) but no association with overweight. These results were consistent with the pooled results from our meta‐analysis study (for diabetes, rs8050136, P = 1.3 × 10−3; rs9939609, P = 9.8 × 10−4; for obesity, rs8050136, P = 2.2 × 10−7; rs9939609, P = 9.0 × 10−9). Our findings indicate that the two variants (rs9939609 and rs8050136) in the FTO gene contribute to obesity and T2D in the Asian populations.

Aims/hypothesis Two recent genome-wide association studies have identified several novel type 2 diabetes susceptibility variants in intron 15 of the KCNQ1 gene. We aimed to evaluate the effects of the variants in KCNQ1 on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits in the population of mainland China. Methods Three candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped in 1,912 individuals with type 2 diabetes and 2,041 normal controls using the ligase detection reaction method.Results We confirmed the association of KCNQ1 with type 2 diabetes in the population of mainland China. Allele frequency ORs of the three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were: rs2237892 (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.08-1.31, p = 3.0 × 10 −4 ); rs2237895 (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.09-1.32, p=1.9×10 −4 ); and rs2237897 (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.13-1.36, p= 3.9×10 −5 ). We also found a significant difference in the distribution of the global haplotypes between the type 2 diabetes group and the normal control group (p= 2.6×10 −5 ). In addition, in the control group SNP rs2237892 was marginally associated with increasing fasting plasma glucose and SNPs rs2237892 and rs2237897 were associated with HbA 1c . Furthermore, for all three variants, homozygous carriers of the diabetes-associated allele had significantly decreased BMI and waist circumferences. Conclusions/interpretation Our investigation confirmed the effects of KCNQ1 variants on type 2 diabetes risk in the Chinese population.

Understanding the charging kinetics of electric double layers is of fundamental importance for the design and development of novel electrochemical devices such as supercapacitors and field-effect transistors. In this work, we study the dynamic behavior of room-temperature ionic liquids using a classical time-dependent density functional theory that accounts for the molecular excluded volume effects, the electrostatic correlations, and the dispersion forces. While the conventional models predict a monotonic increase of the surface charge with time upon application of an electrode voltage, our results show that dispersion between ions results in a non-monotonic increase of the surface charge with the duration of charging. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of van der Waals attraction between electrode/ionic-liquid interactions on the charging processes.

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The genes (ABCC8 and KCNJ11) have a key role in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and thus have always been considered as excellent susceptibility candidates for involvement in type 2 diabetes. Common polymorphisms (KCNJ11 E23K and ABCC8 exon16-3t/c) in these genes have been reported to be associated with type 2 diabetes in various European-descent populations. However, there were inconsistent results in previous studies in East Asian populations and no large case-control studies have been carried out in the Chinese Han population. In this study, these two variants were genotyped in about 4000 Chinese by using TaqMan technology on an ABI7900 system. A meta-analysis was also used to assess the results of association between the two variants and type 2 diabetes in East Asian populations. Our investigation confirmed the association between the KCNJ11 E23K variant and type 2 diabetes under a recessive model (KK vs EK+EE) in the Chinese Han population (odds ratio (OR)¼1.25, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.04-1.50, P¼0.017). The meta-analysis of East Asian populations also showed a strong significant association of the K allele with diabetes (OR¼1.15, P¼3Â10 À9 ), whereas the exon16-3t/c variant (rs1799854) in ABCC8 showed no significant association. Thus, the common E23K variant is considered as a strong candidate for type 2 diabetes susceptibility across different ethnicities. Keywords: association study; Chinese population; KCNJ11; meta-analysis; type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes is a polygenic disorder characterized by defects in insulin secretion and peripheral insulin resistance. The pancreatic b-cell adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive potassium channel (KATP), which is composed of Kir6.2 subunits (the KCNJ11 gene) and Sur1 subunits (the ABCC8 gene), has a central role in the regulation of glucose-induced insulin secretion by linking signals derived from glucose metabolism to cell membrane depolarization and insulin exocytosis. 1 Mutations in both genes can cause familial persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in infancy and permanent neonatal diabetes. The KCNJ11 and ABCC8 genes are located at the same chromosome locus, 11p15.1, and are only 4.5 kb apart. Moreover, the strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) across the KCNJ11 gene also extends into the ABCC8 gene. Two representative common variants (KCNJ11 E23K and ABCC8 exon16-3t/c), which were in different LD blocks, have also been reported to be associated with type 2 diabetes in various ethnic populations, with fairly consistent results for the KCNJ11 E23K variant and conflicting results for the ABCC8 exon16-3t/c variant. [1][2][3][4] However, a large-scale association study of these genes has not been carried out in the Chinese Han population; and there was much inconsistency in results in East Asian studies before. [5][6][7][8][9]

Bimetallic phosphides have been identified as promising alternative electrode materials owing to their admirable conductivity and electrochemical activity.

Thermoresponsive microgels with a hollow capsule architecture have been widely used in drug delivery and molecular encapsulation, and their efficacy is contingent on the internal structure in the deswelling dynamics process. Despite a large number of experimental studies on microgels, proper theoretical methods based on an individual microgel capsule are still a few because of the complexity of the microgels. Herein, we first propose a novel methodology to investigate the structural properties and deswelling dynamics of microgel capsules by integrating a temperature-dependent Morse potential with Langevin dynamics simulation. Different properties, including volume phase transition temperature, temperature-dependent diameter, and structural morphologies of individual microgels, are assessed to rationalize our simulation method, and a good agreement between simulation predictions and experimental observations has been obtained. Depending on the system temperature, the morphological transition of three regimes in the shell structure is identified: scattered nanogels, progressively porous sponge gels, and dense ribbonlike gels. The temperature-switchable sensors composed of microgel capsules on the substrates are devised, which exhibit tunable reflectivity or thickness by simply varying the system temperature. Our mesoscale results provide helpful insights into the transient structure within the networked microgels and the design of smart polymeric nanomaterials, such as biosensors, drug delivery systems, and actuators.