The efficient removal of radioactive iodine (I 2 ) has drawn worldwide attention because of the severe effects of radiotoxicity on the environment and human health. As a result, efficient porous materials for the capture and safe storage of radioactive iodine are required. In this work, nanoscale zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and its amino-functionalized ZIF-8 derivatives with 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (Atz), denoted as ZIF8-A, were prepared via postsynthetic modification, and their performance for I 2 removal from n-hexane was investigated. The abundant amine functionalities in the ZIF8-A structure including the primary and secondary amine groups (−NH 2 and −NH) and triazole-ring (−CN−NH−) not only serve as effective adsorption sites but also form strong interactions with I 2 via electron transfer from the nitrogen atom of the ligand to I 2 . The adsorption isotherms and the kinetics were well fitted by the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively, suggesting a monolayer chemisorption process. ZIF8-A61 achieved an adsorption capacity of more than 870% compared to the pristine ZIF-8. Based on the experimental and computational results, a plausible mechanism for the adsorption of I 2 on ZIF8-A nanocrystals is proposed by considering the host−guest interactions, specifically, those between the amine functional groups and I 2 . In addition, the reusability and structural stability of the adsorbents were investigated.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are novel nonmolecular solvents. Their unique properties, such as high thermal stability, tunable viscosity, negligible vapor pressure, nonflammability, and good solubility for inorganic and organic compounds, make them excellent candidates as extraction media for a range of microextraction techniques. Many physical properties of ILs can be varied, and the structural design can be tuned to impart the desired functionality and enhance the analyte extraction selectivity, efficiency, and sensitivity. This paper provides an overview of the applications of ILs in liquid phase microextraction technology, such as single-drop microextraction, hollow fiber based liquid phase microextraction, and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. The sensitivity, linear calibration range, and detection limits for a range of target analytes in the methods were analyzed to determine the advantages of ILs in liquid phase microextraction.

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DNA methylation is an epigenetic event that involves adding a methyl group to the cytosine (C) site, especially the one that pairs with a guanine (G) site (ie, CG or CpG site), in a human genome. This event plays an important role in both cancerous and normal cell development. Previous studies often assume symmetric methylation on both DNA strands. However, asymmetric methylation, or hemimethylation (methylation that occurs only on 1 DNA strand), does exist and has been reported in several studies. Due to the limitation of previous DNA methylation sequencing technologies, researchers could only study hemimethylation on specific genes, but the overall genomic hemimethylation landscape remains relatively unexplored. With the development of advanced next-generation sequencing techniques, it is now possible to measure methylation levels on both forward and reverse strands at all CpG sites in an entire genome. Analyzing hemimethylation patterns may potentially reveal regions related to undergoing tumor growth. For our research, we first identify hemimethylated CpG sites in breast cancer cell lines using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. We then identify hemimethylation patterns by grouping consecutive hemimethylated CpG sites based on their methylation states, methylation “M” or unmethylation “U.” These patterns include regular (or consecutive) hemimethylation clusters (eg, “MMM” on one strand and “UUU” on another strand) and polarity (or reverse) clusters (eg, “MU” on one strand and “UM” on another strand). Our results reveal that most hemimethylation clusters are the polarity type, and hemimethylation does occur across the entire genome with notably higher numbers in the breast cancer cell lines. The lengths or sizes of most hemimethylation clusters are very short, often less than 50 base pairs. After mapping hemimethylation clusters and sites to corresponding genes, we study the functions of these genes and find that several of the highly hemimethylated genes may influence tumor growth or suppression. These genes may also indicate a progressing transition to a new tumor stage.

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Findings indicate that ginger essential oil inhalation has implications for alleviating postoperative nausea and vomiting in abdominal surgery patients.

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