A series of highly efficient deep red to near-infrared (NIR) emissive organic crystals 1-3 based on the structurally simple 2'-hydroxychalcone derivatives were synthesized through a simple one-step condensation reaction. Crystal 1 displays the highest quantum yield (Φf) of 0.32 among the reported organic single crystals with an emission maximum (λem) over 710 nm. Comparison between the bright emissive crystals 1-3 and the nearly nonluminous compounds 4-7 clearly gives evidence that a subtle structure modification can arouse great property changes, which is instructive in designing new high-efficiency organic luminescent materials. Notably, crystals 1-3 exhibit amplified spontaneous emissions (ASE) with extremely low thresholds. Thus, organic deep red to NIR emissive crystals with very high Φf have been obtained and are found to display the first example of NIR fluorescent crystal ASE.

This work explores the use of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) as the active layer within a laser sensor to detect nitroaromatic-based explosive vapors. We show successful detection of dinitrobenzene (DNB) by monitoring the real-time photoluminescence. We also show that PIM-1 has an inherent memory, so that it accumulates the analyte during exposure. In addition, the optical gain and refractive index of the polymer were studied by amplified spontaneous emission and variable-angle ellipsometry, respectively. A second-order distributed feedback PIM-1 laser sensor was fabricated and found to show an increase in laser threshold of 2.5 times and a reduction of the laser slope efficiency by 4.4 times after a 5-min exposure to the DNB vapor. For pumping at 2 times threshold, the lasing action was stopped within 30 s indicating that PIM-1 has a very fast responsivity and as such has a potential sensing ability for ultra-low-concentration explosives.

The hydrochloric acid–acetone-ultrasonication method provides a much faster and more accurate measurement of epoxide values than the corresponding standing method.

Neutral fluorescent markers containing nitrogen heterocycles as targeting groups were designed and prepared to screen out structural units for targeting mitochondria.

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Background Colorectal cancer is an important death‐related disease in the worldwide. However, specific colon cancer tumor markers currently used for diagnosis and treatment are few. The purpose of this study is to screen the potential colon cancer markers by bioinformatics and verify the results with experiments. Methods Gene expression data were downloaded from two different databases: TCGA database and GEO datasets, which were then analyzed by two different methods (difference analysis and WGCNA method). Venn and PPI analysis obtained the potential core genes, which were then performed the GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis. Expressions levels of NKD1 in colon carcinoma tissues were further confirmed by immunohistochemical staining and western blot assays. Moreover, the function was measured by MTT, clone formation, and tumor transplantation experiments. Importantly, co‐immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, and protein stability assays were further performed to explore the underlying mechanism of NKD1 promoting cell proliferation. Results Nine potential core genes highly expressed in colon cancer samples were screened out by bioinformatics analysis. NKD1, one of the hub genes, highly expressed in the colon carcinoma tissues could enhance the proliferation of colon cancer cells. Mechanism research demonstrated that NKD1 was essential for the combination between Wnt signalosome (DVL) and β‐catenin, and that NKD1 knockout remarkably decreased the β‐catenin expression. Immunofluorescence assays further implied that NKD1 knockout significantly inhibited β‐catenin nuclear accumulation. Importantly, the stability of β‐catenin proteins was maintained by NKD1 in the colon cancer cells. Conclusion We believe that NKD1 well expressed in the colorectal carcinoma tissues can enhance the proliferation of colon cancer cells. Furthermore, the functions that NKD1 may have in colon cancer cells should be different from that NKD1 has played in the zebrafish. Thus, NKD1 could be a specific colorectal cancer marker.

Shiraia mycelial culture is a promising biotechnological alternative for the production of hypocrellin A (HA), a new photosensitizer for anticancer photodynamic therapy (PDT). The extractive fermentation of intracellular HA in the nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX100) aqueous solution was studied in the present work. The addition of 25 g/L TX100 at 36 h of the fermentation not only enhanced HA exudation to the broth by 15.6-fold, but stimulated HA content in mycelia by 5.1-fold, leading to the higher production 206.2 mg/L, a 5.4-fold of the control on day 9. After the induced cell membrane permeabilization by TX100 addition, a rapid generation of nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was observed. The increase of NO level was suppressed by the scavenger vitamin C (VC) of reactive oxygen species (ROS), whereas the induced H2O2 production could not be prevented by the NO scavenger 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide (PTIO), suggesting that NO production may occur downstream of ROS in the extractive fermentation. Both NO and H2O2 were proved to be involved in the expressions of HA biosynthetic genes (Mono, PKS and Omef) and HA production. NO was found to be able to up-regulate the expression of transporter genes (MFS and ABC) for HA exudation. Our results indicated the integrated role of NO and ROS in the extractive fermentation and provided a practical biotechnological process for HA production.

Even after the Heydemann correction, residual nonlinear errors, ranging from hundreds of picometers to several nanometers, are still found in heterodyne laser interferometers. This is a crucial factor impeding the realization of picometer level metrology, but its source and mechanism have barely been investigated. To study this problem, a novel nonlinear model based on optical mixing and coupling with ghost reflection is proposed and then verified by experiments. After intense investigation of this new model’s influence, results indicate that new additional high-order and negative-order nonlinear harmonics, arising from ghost reflection and its coupling with optical mixing, have only a negligible contribution to the overall nonlinear error. In real applications, any effect on the Lissajous trajectory might be invisible due to the small ghost reflectance. However, even a tiny ghost reflection can significantly worsen the effectiveness of the Heydemann correction, or even make this correction completely ineffective, i.e., compensation makes the error larger rather than smaller. Moreover, the residual nonlinear error after correction is dominated only by ghost reflectance.