Exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of respiratory disease. Although previous mitochondrial research has provided new information about PM toxicity in the lung, the exact mechanism of PM2.5-mediated structural and functional damage of lung mitochondria remains unclear. In this study, changes in lung mitochondrial morphology, expression of mitochondrial fission/fusion markers, lipid peroxidation, and transport ATPase activity in SD rats exposed to ambient PM2.5 at different dosages were investigated. Also, the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via the respiratory burst in rat alveolar macrophages (AMs) exposed to PM2.5 was examined by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (CL). The results showed that (1) PM2.5 deposited in the lung and induced pathological damage, particularly causing abnormal alterations of mitochondrial structure, including mitochondrial swelling and cristae disorder or even fragmentation in the presence of higher doses of PM2.5; (2) PM2.5 significantly affected the expression of specific mitochondrial fission/fusion markers (OPA1, Mfn1, Mfn2, Fis1, and Drp1) in rat lung; (3) PM2.5 inhibited Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), Na(+)K(+)-ATPase, and Ca(2+)-ATPase activities and elevated malondialdehyde (MDA) content in rat lung mitochondria; and (4) PM2.5 induced rat AMs to produce ROS, which was inhibited by about 84.1% by diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI), an important ROS generation inhibitor. It is suggested that the pathological injury observed in rat lung exposed to PM2.5 is associated with mitochondrial fusion-fission dysfunction, ROS generation, mitochondrial lipid peroxidation, and cellular homeostasis imbalance. Damage to lung mitochondria may be one of the important mechanisms by which PM2.5 induces lung injury, contributing to respiratory diseases.

a b s t r a c tThe detection and quantification of disease-related proteins play critical roles in clinical practice and diagnostic assays. We present an affinity probe capillary electrophoresis/laser-induced fluorescence polarization (APCE/LIFP) assay for detection of human thrombin using a specific aptamer as probe. In the APCE/LIFP assay, the mobility and fluorescence polarization of complex are measured simultaneously during CE analysis. The affinity complex of human thrombin can be well separated from unbound aptamer on CE and clearly identified on the basis of its fluorescence polarization and migration. Because of the binding favorable G-quartet conformation potentially involved in the specific aptamer, it was assumed that monovalent and bivalent cations promoting the formation of a stable G quadruplex conformation in the aptamer may enhance the binding of the aptamer and thrombin. Therefore, we investigated the effects of various metal cations on the binding of human thrombin and the aptamer. Our results show that cations like K + and Mg 2+ could not stabilize the affinity complex. Without the use of typical cations, a highly sensitive assay of human thrombin was developed with the corresponding detection limits of 4.38 × 10 −19 and 2.94 × 10 −19 mol in mass for standard solution and human serum, respectively.

An accurate one-centre method is here applied to the calculation of the equilibrium distances and the energies for the hydrogen molecular ion in magnetic fields ranging from 109G to 4.414 × 1013 G. Both the radial and angular wavefunctions were expanded in terms of optimization B-splines. The slow convergence problem in the general one-centre method and singularities at the nuclear positions of the H+2 were solved well. The accuracy of the one-centre method has been improved in this way. We compared our results with those generated by high-precision methods from published studies. Equilibrium distances of the 1σg, u, 1πg, u, 1δg, u and 2σg states of the H+2 in strong magnetic fields were found to be accurate to three to four significant digits at least up to 2.35 × 1012 G, even for the antibonding states 1σu, 1πg and 1δu, whose equilibrium distances Req are very large.

Aim. To evaluate the eradication rate, safety, and compliance of minocycline-containing bismuth quadruple regimens in patients with an untreated Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. Methods. A total of 360 patients with an untreated H. pylori infection were enrolled in this study between June 2017 and October 2018. Patients were randomly divided into a minocycline/amoxicillin (RMAB) group, a minocycline/metronidazole (RMMB) group, or an amoxicillin/clarithromycin (RACB) group, and all groups received a combined treatment approach with rabeprazole and bismuth to create a quadruple regimen for 14 days. A 3 to 5-day follow-up was adopted to evaluate the safety and compliance of medications after medicine administration. 13C-urea breath test was performed to confirm the eradication of H. pylori 4-12 weeks after therapy. Results. No significant differences were observed at baseline data among the three groups (p>0.05). Based on the intent-to-treat analysis, the eradication rates of the RMAB group, RMMB group, and RACB control group were 85.7% (102/119), 77.1% (91/118), and 71.7% (86/120), respectively, with significant difference (χ2=7.015, p=0.030). According to per protocol analysis, the eradication rates of RMAB group, RMMB group, and RACB group were 89.5% (102/114), 84.3% (91/108), and 76.8% (86/112), respectively, with statistically significant differences (χ2=6.673, p=0.036). The eradication rates of the RMAB group and RACB group were significantly different (p<0.05). The overall incidences of adverse events in the three groups were 30.0%, 37.5%, and 40.0%, respectively (p>0.05). Nausea, epigastric discomfort, and dizziness were more obvious in patients in the RMMB group compared to the other two groups (p<0.05). Moreover, two patients discontinued due to severe dizziness and nausea in the RMMB group. A taste disorder was more prominent in patients in the RACB group compared to patients in the other two groups (p<0.05), and one patient discontinued because of the bitterness in the mouth. Soon after discontinuation of the medicine, all adverse events disappeared. Conclusion. The bismuth quadruple regimen using minocycline/amoxicillin showed a better eradication effect with fewer side effects in patients with untreated H. pylori infections. The bismuth quadruple regimen with minocycline/metronidazole had a good eradication effect with more obvious side effects and might be recommended to patients with penicillin allergy.

An ingenious method for large-scale fabrication of water-soluble photoluminescent carbon dots (CDs) by a one-step microwave pyrolysis of oxalic acid (OA) and urea is developed. The structure and optical properties of CDs are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern, elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, 10 Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The mechanism for the formation of CDs is also discussed. In contrast to other CDs-based nanomaterials, the as-prepared CDs exhibit highly fluorescent quantum yield and excellent stability in both organic and inorganic phases. After simple post-treatments, CDs are applied as fluorescent powder, showing their promising potential for further wide usage. In addition, the CDs can be utilized as a modification-free 15 biosensor reagent capable of detecting Fe 3+ and Ag + in complex environments. The linear range for Fe 3+ and Ag + were 1.0-130 and 0.50-200 µM with the corresponding detection limits of 4.8 and 2.4 nM, respectively. More significantly, the CDs are superior fluorescent bioimaging agent in plants and cells based on their excellent water-solubility and ultra-low toxicity. Finally, the as-synthesized CDs are successfully applied for detecting Fe 3+ and Ag + in biosystem.

With the booming development of green lighting technology, visible light-based indoor localization has attracted a lot of attention. Visible light-based indoor positioning technology leverages a light propagation model to pinpoint target location. Compared with the radio localization technology, visible light-based indoor positioning not only can achieve higher location accuracy, but also no electromagnetic interference. In this article, we propose LIPOS, a three-dimensional indoor positioning system based on attitude identification and visible light propagation model. The LIPOS system takes advantage of the existing lighting infrastructures to localize mobile devices that have light-sensing capabilities (e.g. a smartphone) using light emitting diode lamps as anchors. The system can accurately identify the attitude of a smartphone using its integrated sensors, distinguish different light emitting diode beacons using the fast Fourier transform algorithm, construct a position cost-function based on a visible light radiative decay model, and apply a nonlinear optimizing method to acquire the optimal estimation of final location. We have implemented the LIPOS system and evaluated it with a small-scale hardware testbed, as well as moderate-sized simulations. Extensive experiments are performed in three representative indoor environments-open-plan office, cubicle, and corridor, which not only demonstrate that the LIPOS can effectively avoid the negative effects of dynamic change of a smartphone's attitude angle, but also show better locating accuracy and robustness, and obtain sub-meter level positioning accuracy.

No abstract

An enantioselective β-carbon amination for enals is disclosed. The nitrogen atom from a protected hydrazine with suitable electronic properties readily behaves as a nucleophile. Addition of the nitrogen nucleophile to a catalytically generated N-heterocyclic-carbene-bound α,β-unsaturated acyl azolium intermediate constructs a new carbon-nitrogen bond asymmetrically. The pyrazolidinone products from our catalytic reactions are common scaffolds in bioactive molecules, and can be easily transformed into useful compounds such as β(3) -amino-acid derivatives.