Search

Inorganic perovskite nanocrystals exhibit tremendous prospects in optoelectronics. Although the stability of perovskite nanocrystals is considerably improved after being embedded in a glass matrix, subtle difference in the glass composition is still an important factor affecting the glass matrix and perovskite precipitation behavior. In this study, a series of CsPbCl 2 Br 1 nanocrystal glasses with excellent optical properties were prepared by optimizing the composition. Further, we introduced Sm3+ into CsPbCl 2 Br 1 perovskite nanocrystal glass (PNG) to enhance photoluminescence (PL) emissions and improve the ultraviolet response and device stability of silicon photodetectors (Si PDs). After integrating the as-prepared Sm3+-doped CsPbCl 2 Br 1 PNG with Si PDs, the UV response of the Si PDs at 200–400 nm was significantly enhanced. In particular, the responsivity of Sm3+-doped CsPbCl 2 Br 1 PNG-coated Si PDs at 320 nm reaches 7.5 times that of bare Si PDs. Furthermore, Sm3+-doped CsPbCl 2 Br 1 PNG-coated Si PDs displayed good photocurrent stability, with a decrease of only 1.5% after 60 days of operation. Additionally, after integrating 10% Sm3+-doped CsPbCl 2 Br 1 PNG with InGaAs PDs, a broadband response in the ultraviolet to the infrared region is successfully achieved. This study attempts to fabricate perovskite nanocrystal glasses and provides a new perspective for next-generation high-performance UV PDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microvascular invasion (MVI) is a risk factor for early recurrence and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Preoperative assessment of MVI status is beneficial for clinical therapy and prognosis evaluation. A total of 305 surgically resected patients were included retrospectively. All recruited patients underwent plain and contrast-enhanced abdominal CT. They were then randomly divided into training and validation sets in a ratio of 8:2. Self-attention-based ViT-B/16 and ResNet-50 analyzed CT images to predict MVI status preoperatively. Then, Grad-CAM was used to generate an attention map showing the high-risk MVI patches. Using five-fold cross validation, the performance of each model was evaluated. Among 305 HCC patients, 99 patients were pathologically MVI-positive and 206 were MVI-negative. ViT-B/16 with fusion phase predicted the MVI status with an AUC of 0.882 and an accuracy of 86.8% in the validation set, which is similar to ResNet-50 with an AUC of 0.875 and an accuracy of 87.2%. The fusion phase improved performance a bit as compared to the single phase used for MVI prediction. The influence of peritumoral tissue on predictive ability was limited. A color visualization of the suspicious patches where microvascular has invaded was presented by attention maps. ViT-B/16 model can predict preoperative MVI status in CT images of HCC patients. Assisted by attention maps, it can assist patients in making tailored treatment decisions. Lay Summary: Vision Transformer (ViT) based pure self-attention can predict preoperative microvascular invasion status inputting CT images of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with an AUC of 0.882 and an accuracy of 86.8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pim-3 was highly expressed in ESCC and played an oncogenic role. • Pim-3 enhanced cell proliferation and tumor development by phosphorylating MAPK1 at T185 and Y187. • The deletion of Pim-3 induced apoptosis with upregulated cleaved caspase-9 and lower p-BADS112 levels. • Corynoline directly bound with Pim-3, inhibiting its activity, and surpressed ESCC growth. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is an aggressive and deadly malignancy characterized by late-stage diagnosis, therapy resistance, and a poor 5-year survival rate. Finding novel therapeutic targets and their inhibitors for ESCC prevention and therapy is urgently needed. We investigated the proviral integration site for maloney murine leukemia virus 3 (Pim-3) protein levels using immunohistochemistry. Using Methyl Thiazolyl Tetrazolium and clone formation assay, we verified the function of Pim-3 in cell proliferation. The binding and inhibition of Pim-3 by corynoline were verified by computer docking, pull-down assay, cellular thermal shift assay, and kinase assay. Cell proliferation, Western blot, and a patient-derived xenograft tumor model were performed to elucidate the mechanism of corynoline inhibiting ESCC growth. Pim-3 was highly expressed in ESCC and played an oncogenic role. The augmentation of Pim-3 enhanced cell proliferation and tumor development by phosphorylating mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1) at T185 and Y187. The deletion of Pim-3 induced apoptosis with upregulated cleaved caspase-9 and lower Bcl2 associated agonist of cell death (BAD) phosphorylation at S112. Additionally, binding assays demonstrated corynoline directly bound with Pim-3, inhibiting its activity, and suppressing ESCC growth. Our findings suggest that Pim-3 promotes ESCC progression. Corynoline inhibits ESCC progression through targeting Pim-3. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ktrans as a priori information is beneficial for the segmentation of NPC in DCE-MRI. • A network model MBRU-Net for multi-branch feature extraction is proposed. • Multi-branch networks outperform single-branch networks. Accurate segmentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) lesion areas from dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) facilitates subsequent diagnostic and prognostic workups. However, in previous studies, little consideration has been given to incorporating the pharmacokinetic feature Ktrans as auxiliary information for segmenting NPC in DCE-MRI. Therefore, this paper proposes the use of a pharmacokinetic extended Tofts and Kermode (ETK) model to obtain the Ktrans feature from DCE-MRI and combine it with MRI images for nasopharyngeal tumor segmentation. Additionally, this paper proposes a multi-input branch residual U-Net (MBRU-Net) model that effectively fuses DCE-MRI features and Ktrans features. The effectiveness of the multibranch network is validated by comparing MBRU-Net with ResU-Net with DCE-MRI + Ktrans data. Additionally, different models are trained with DCE-MRI and DCE-MRI + Ktrans data separately and compared to validate the effectiveness of multimodal data using the Dice coefficient. Our proposed MBRU-Net achieves the best Dice in this study (67.39 ± 15.79%), higher than ResU-Net's Dice (65.57 ± 17.52) based on DCE-MRI and Ktrans data. U-Net, SegNet, R2U-Net, and ResU-Net achieve better results in terms of segmenting tumor regions with DCE-MRI + Ktrans data than those of the corresponding models with DCE-MRI data alone, where U-Net has the best performance (DCE-MRI + Ktrans: DCE-MRI = 66.31 ± 17.80%: 61.10 ± 24.14%). The results show that it is beneficial to add a pharmacokinetic parametric (Ktrans) map as prior information to the conventional anatomical MRI-based segmentation task, and multibranch network structures perform better than single-branch network structures in terms of NPC segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The long-term forecast of energy demand has assumed significant importance in the energy planning of energy-imported cities. However, the required data are usually limited or unavailable. In this paper, we developed a combined model based on Long-range Energy Alternate Planning and econometric models to forecast the energy demand of Hunan province from 2012 to 2030. Based on historical data, population was predicted by Leslie matrix, the industrial structure, traffic turnover and productions of high energy-consuming industries were forecasted by Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average and Vector Autoregressive models. Three scenarios were designed with different energy-saving polices and population growths. The uncertainties of forecasting results were analysed by Monte Carlo method. Results showed the total energy demand increased but the growth rate gradually slowed down under each scenario. In 2030, compared with business as usual scenario, the energy demand in second child scenario only increased 29 thousand tons coal equivalent (tce), showing a slight population growth effect; while the energy demand in energy saving scenario significantly decreased 450 thousand tce, showing a significant potential of energy conservation and efficiency improvement. Although the uncertainty of forecasted results increased over time, the uncertainty was still less than 15 %, showing a good accuracy of this combined model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Effect of turbidity on the removal of organic micropollutant (carbamazepine, CBZ) through magnetic ion exchange (MIEX) resin combined with ultrafiltration (UF) was investigated in this study. The purification behaviors of the MIEX/UF processes were studied through scanning electron microscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, zeta potential and particle size distribution analyses. The experimental results show that 64–74% of CBZ in different turbidities could be removed by MIEX resin under the optimum dose and contact time, while water sample with turbidity of 20 ± 1.1 NTU present minimum CBZ removal rate of 64% and turbidity of 60 ± 1.0 NTU led to maximum removal efficiency of 74%. The results of UF experiments showed that UF could not efficiently remove CBZ. Alternatively, UF was more suitable for removing turbidity than MIEX resin. In a separate UF system, the turbidity (20 ± 1.1 NTU) led to a flux reduction of 60% at the first filtration cycle, while the reduction for 1.0 ± 0.1 NTU, 40 ± 1.0 NTU and 60 ± 1.0 NTU were 48%, 52% and 45%, respectively. For the water samples with different turbidities, obvious decrease in membrane fouling was observed after MIEX pretreatment, meanwhile the CBZ/turbidity removal could be improved. The UF membrane was used four times after backwashing to research the reusability of membrane. The integrated processes combining MIEX resin with UF could significantly improve membrane recycling effect and prevent secondary pollution caused by resin. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • The hybrid system removed CBZ (by 35-7 9%) more efficiently than UF alone (<15%). • MIEX exhibited higher affinity toward CBZ than toward suspended particles. • Different turbidities can present two opposite effects on the membrane resistance. • R a and R c were chiefly affected by cake layer compact degree instead of particle size. • The fluxes were sensitive to the turbidity or pretreatment of MIEX resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This work was designed to compare the effectiveness of in-situ coagulation and MIEX as pre-treatments prior to ultrafiltration (UF) to improve organic matter (OM) removal and mitigate membrane fouling. Three kinds of OMs, i.e. salicylic acid (SA), humic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were employed. The experimental results show that coagulation-UF led to most effective removal of HA (almost 90%), while the SA was uncoagulated and least removable, with the rejection rate of about 55%. Conversely, MIEX present superior ability for removing SA, contributing to additional efficiency of 71.95–77.21% than UF alone. Proper dosage of Al-based coagulants could alleviate flux loss, especially in the cases of HA and BSA. Increasing coagulant dose resulted in continuous decrement of irreversible resistance (R ir), which dominated the membrane fouling development by the SA water. For HA and BSA waters, alternatively, variations of R r determined the flux declines. Floc compact degree was the decisive factor for R r for coagulated SA; while for HA and BSA, R r was most related to the floc size and foulant-foulant interaction. MIEX was most effective for alleviating flux loss when treating the hydrophilic SA with small molecules and for all the cases, MIEX exerted little influence on the R r values. Graphical abstract Schematic diagram of the coagulation/MIEX-ultrafiltration hybrid test setup. Image 1 Highlights • Coagulation improved removal rate and UF flux more significantly for HA and BSA. • MIEX is preferable to coagulation combined with UF when treating hydrophilic SA. • R r and R ir determined UF fluxes by coagulated HA/BSA and SA, respectively. • Coagulation reduced R ir by promoting floc growth and restraining pore blockage. • MIEX imposed slighter effect on particle size and fouling resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Natural organic matter (NOM) in aquatic environments have a significant impact on NOM-organic compound interactions, which could strongly affect the distribution and transformation of organic compounds during water treatment. This study focused on the removals of NOM (humic acid, HA) and synthetic organic matter (ibuprofen, IBP) through enhanced coagulation and magnetic ion exchange (MIEX) resin adsorption in single and bi-component systems. Two coagulants, traditional aluminum sulfate (AS) and lab-prepared polyaluminum chloride (PACl), were employed. The charge properties, particle size distribution, and fractal dimension (D f) during organic matter removal were studied in both the single and bi-component systems to explore the purification behaviors and mechanistic effects of interactions between coagulants, MIEX, and organic matters. The experimental results indicated that the Al-based coagulants could remove over 80% of HA in both the single and IBP-HA combined systems, while the presence of HA could considerably improve the IBP removal rate. The aggregates formed during single-component coagulation were larger, but weaker and more loosely structured than those formed in the bi-component system under the same coagulation conditions. In the single-component system, the maximum removal efficiencies of IBP and HA by MIEX adsorption were 65% and 72%, respectively, at a resin dosage of 20.0 mL/L and mixing time of 60 min. Under the same conditions, the removals of these components in the bi-component system were improved to 68% and 98%, respectively. The reaction rate between IBP and MIEX resin was found faster than that between HA and MIEX resin. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Although AS and PACl can efficiently remove HA, they could not efficiently remove IBP. • Co-existence of IBP and HA created a synergetic removal effect in individual coagulation/MIEX resin treatment. • In bi-component systems, AS could remove IBP better due to adsorption or coprecipitation of the compound with hydrolyzate. • IBP and MIEX resin reaction rate was faster than that of HA and MIEX resin. • Larger flocs but lower D f were noted in the single-component system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gegen Qinlian decoction (GQ), a Chinese medicinal herb decoction, has been widely used as efficient medicine for the treatment of acute colitis in clinics, but underlying molecular mechanisms have not been fully clarified.Hypothesis/purpose: Inflammation and oxidative stress have been reported to constitute a crucial part in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC). Hence, this study was designed to investigate the antiinflammatory activity and antioxidative effect of GQ.Study Design: Mice induced by 5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and macrophage RAW264.7 cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were used in this study.Methods: Ethanol extracts of GQ were orally administered for 1 week on the dosage of 0.3, 1.5, or 7.5g/kg/day and berberine (BBR, 100mg/kg/d) was selected as a positive group in the animal experiments. In vitro, GQ (25, 50, 100µg/ml) or BBR (20µM) co-cultured with RAW264.7 for 2h prior to LPS stimulation.Results: The results showed that GQ oral administration alleviated the severity of colitis notably. It reduced toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression and NF-κB activation in mucosa, which was accompanied with down regulation of several inflammatory cytokines in the colon, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β and IL-4. Furthermore, GQ oral administration attenuated the oxidative stress in the colon of UC mice, evidenced by the decrease of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and the elevation of glutathione (GSH) content. In parallel with the vivo experiment results, cell research indicated GQ dramatically reduced the production of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and nitric oxide (NO), as well as that of reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon stimulation of LPS.Conclusion: Together, our present study indicates that inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB signaling and enhancement of antioxidant effect might be the potential mechanisms for the therapeutic effect of GQ against UC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embryonic exposure to environmental chemicals may result in specific chronic diseases in adulthood. Parabens, a type of environmental endocrine disruptors widely used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, have been shown to cause a decline in women's reproductive function. However, whether exposure to parabens during pregnancy also negatively affect the ovarian function of the female offspring in adulthood remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the effects of prenatal propylparaben (PrP) exposure on the ovarian function of adult mice aged 46 weeks, which is equivalent to the age of 40 years in women. Pregnant ICR mice were intraperitoneally injected with human-relevant doses of PrP (i.e., 0, 7.5, 90, and 450 mg/kg/day) during the fetal sex determination period—from embryonic day E7.5 to E13.5. Our results revealed that ovarian aging was accelerated in PrP-exposed mice at 46 weeks, with altered regularity of the estrous cycle, decreased serum estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) levels, reduced size of the primordial follicle pool, and increased number of atretic follicles. It was found that prenatal exposure to human-relevant doses of PrP exacerbated ovarian oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis, which promoted follicular atresia by activating the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. To compensate, the depletion of primordial follicles was also accelerated by activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in PrP-exposed mice. Moreover, PrP induced hypermethylation of CpG sites in the promoter region of Cyp11a1 (a 17.16–64.28% increase) partly led to the disrupted steroidogenesis, and the altered methylation levels of imprinted genes H19 and Peg3 may also contribute to the phenotypes observed. These remarkable findings highlight the embryonic origin of ovarian aging and suggest that a reduced use of PrP during pregnancy should be advocated. [Display omitted] •Prenatal PrP exposure decreased steroidogenesis and the ovarian reserve of adult mice. •Oxidative stress-induced inflammation and fibrosis promoted follicle atresia. •The hypermethylation of Cyp11a1 decreased its expression level in PrP-exposed mice. •Changed methylation level of H19 and Peg3 contributed to PrP-induced ovarian aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited by suboptimal efficacy.Methods: From January 30, 2020 to March 23, 2020, we conducted a non-randomised controlled trial, in which all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were assigned to three groups non-randomly and given supportive treatments: Group A, Lopinavir-Ritonavir; Group B, Huashi Baidu Formula (a Chinese medicineformula made by the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to treat COVID-19, which is now in the clinical trial period) and Lopinavir-Ritonavir; and Group C, Huashi Baidu Formula. The use of antibiotics, antiviruses, and corticosteroids was permitted in Group A and B. Traditional Chinese medicine injections were permitted in Group C. The primary outcomes were clinical remission time (interval from admission to the first time the patient tested negatively for novel coronavirus or an obvious improvement was observed from chest CT) and clinical remission rate (number of patients whose clinical time was within 16 days/total number of patients).Results: A total of 60 adult patients with COVID-19 were enrolled at sites in Wuhan, China, and the sample size of each group was 20. In Groups A, B and C, the clinical remission rates were 95.0%%(19/20), 100.0%%(20/20) and 100.0%%(20/20), respectively. Compared with Groups A and B, the clinical remission time of Group C was significantly shorter (5.9 days vs. 10.8 days, p < 0.05; 5.9 days vs. 9.7 days, p < 0.05). There was no significant difference among Groups A, B, and C in terms of the time taken to be released from quarantine. The clinical biochemical indicators and safety indexes showed no significant differences among the three groups.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that Lopinavir-Ritonavir has some efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19, and the Huashi Baidu Formula might enhance this effect to an extent. In addition, superiority was displayed in the treatment of COVID-19 through a combination of the Huashi Baidu Formula and traditional Chinese medicine injection. In future, well-designed prospective double-blinded randomised control trials are required to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dexmedetomidine Ameliorates Renal Ischemia Reperfusion-Mediated Activation of Alveolar Macrophages. • Dexmedetomidine Ameliorates rI/R-induced ALI by inhibiting the Activation of NLRP3 Inflammasome. • Dexmedetomidine Ameliorates rI/R-induced ALI by amelioration of the HMGB1/AMPK signaling. Renal ischemia-reperfusion (rI/R) is a risk factor for acute lung injury (ALI). Alveolar macrophages (AMs) activation mediated by rI/R-induced ALI is one of the pathogeneses associated with the development of ALI. In rI/R, α 2 -adrenergic receptor agonists have been indicated to be effective in decreasing urea nitrogen concentrations. In this study, we explored the underlying pathogenesis of the clinically obtainable α 2 -adrenergic receptor agonist dexmedetomidine (DEX) in protecting against rI/R -mediated AMs activation. We incubated AMs with the serum of sham and rI/R rats in the presence or absence of various concentrations of DEX. We used an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect the secretion levels of GSH, LDH, IL-18, IL-1β, and HMGB1 in the culture supernatant. We employed real-time polymerase chain reaction to assess the expression of NOX-4 mRNA, and western blotting to observe the protein levels of NOX-4, the NLRP3 inflammasome, AMPK, and eNOS. In addition, we used immunofluorescence to analyze ROS and MMP activity. Incubation of AMs with DEX suppressed rI/R-mediated cellular LDH production and ROS release. DEX also abolished the rI/R-mediated decrease in the activity of GSH and increased the levels of the rI/R-related NADPH oxidase protein NOX-4. Furthermore, DEX reduced the amelioration of the mitochondrial potential induced by rI/R. Our study showed that DEX inhibits rI/R-mediated levels of the NLRP3 inflammasome proteins ASC, NLRP3, HMGB1 and p20, and ameliorates rI/R-mediated AMPK signaling inactivation. Therefore, DEX reduces the levels of two mediators that are activated by the NLRP3 inflammasome: IL-18 and IL-1β. Finally, our study established that DEX mitigates the rI/R-mediated decrease in eNOS, demonstrating its protective functions against AMs activation. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the protective action of DEX in AMs is induced through amelioration of HMGB1-NLRP3 inflammasome-AMPK signaling. Our results suggest that the anesthetic reagent DEX exerts beneficial effects to ameliorate rI/R-induced ALI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diisononyl phthalate (DIDP) is commonly used as a plasticizer in industrial and consumer products, however, its toxicity remains unclear. This study investigated the possible involvement of oxidative stress in DIDP-induced liver and kidney toxicity. Liver function and kidney function, tissue lesions, oxidative stress biomarkers, inflammatory mediators and apoptosis factors were investigated in this study. The results showed that oral exposure to DIDP induced a marked increase in lever of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), urinary nitrogen (UREA) and creatinine (CREA), decrease in albumin (ALB) level, as well as causing hepatic and renal histopathological change. Investigation of the role of oxidative stress pathways showed that DBP exposure could lead to a significant increase in levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), while a decrease in glutathione (GSH) levels were observed. Administration of vitamin E to DIDP-treated mice restored these biochemical parameters to within normal levels, and resulted in less damage to livers and kidneys. Overall, these results suggest that the oxidative stress pathway is involved in DIDP-induced toxicity. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Ti,Nb) 3 SiC 2 /60 vol%-Al 2 O 3 composite ceramic samples with different Ti/Nb atomic ratios were prepared by hot-pressing sintering using Ti/Si/Al/TiC/NbC/Al 2 O 3 powders as starting materials. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the solid solubility of Nb is approximately 7.5 at%. Excessive NbC powder addition can lead to the generation of an impurity phase. Scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy images reveal that most of the Nb-doped atoms aggregate at 2a -sites, as this configuration exhibits the lowest system energy. The optimized hardness, flexural strength and fracture toughness of (Ti,Nb) 3 SiC 2 /Al 2 O 3 were determined to be 16.0 GPa, 672 MPa and 6.9 MPa m1/2, which corresponds to an increase of 15.9%, 18.7% and 25.4% respectively, compared with Ti 3 SiC 2 /Al 2 O 3 composite ceramics. By means of first-principle calculations, the strengthening mechanism is derived from both intragranular improvement in (Ti,Nb) 3 SiC 2 solid solutions and intergranular enhancement of (Ti,Nb) 3 SiC 2 /Al 2 O 3 grains interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G = ( V , E ) be a simple graph with vertex set V ( G ) = { v 1 , v 2 , … , v n } and edge set E ( G ) . Let D ( G ) be the distance matrix of G . For a given nonnegative integer k , when n is sufficiently large with respect to k , we show that λ n − k ( D ) ≤ − 1 , thereby solving a problem proposed by Lin et al. (2014) [8] . The distance Laplacian spectral radius of a connected graph G is the spectral radius of the distance Laplacian matrix of G , defined as D L ( G ) = Tr ( G ) − D ( G ) , where Tr ( G ) is the diagonal matrix of vertex transmissions of G . Aouchiche and Hansen (2014) [3] conjectured that m ( λ 1 ( D L ) ) ≤ n − 2 when G ≇ K n , and the equality holds if and only if either G ≅ K 1 , n − 1 or G ≅ K n 2 , n 2 . In this paper, we confirm the conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A facile microfluidic approach for controllable encapsulation of phase change material is presented. • High monodisperse PCM capsules with various reliable structures are prepared by adjusting flow rates. • Multilayer graphene is introduced into the pure PCM (RT25) modify the thermo-regulation ability. • Current PCM capsules provide new options for the real thermo-regulation and energy conservation. In this work, a facile microfluidic approach for controllable encapsulation of phase change material is presented to fabricate robust PCM capsules. The multilayer graphene is also introduced into the pure PCM (RT25) for improving the thermal conductivity of the PCM, so as to modify the thermo-regulation ability of the PCM capsules. Systematical experimental tests indicate that, via the current approach, PCM can be controllably encapsulated into every capsule with high monodispersity (coefficient of variation (C.V.) ≤ 2%) and reliable core-shell structure. The size and the core/shell proportion of the PCM capsules (i.e., the thermo-regulation ability) can be controlled precisely by adjusting the flow rates of the inner and outer phases. Especially, the thermal conductivity of PCM capsules can be improved by adding the multilayer graphene (≤ 2 wt%) with negligible degeneration of energy storage capacity less than 5%, which makes the PCM capsules response faster to the change of ambient thermal environment. The prepared PCM capsules provide new options for the real thermo-regulation and energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) is a new type of phthalate used in the coating of pharmaceutical pills and in plastic food wrappers. This research was conducted to investigate whether DIDP could cause learning and memory impairment in mice, using formaldehyde (FA) to construct a positive control. Behavioral analysis showed that oral administration of 15 mg kg−1·d−1 DIDP combined with inhalation of 1 mg m−3 FA led to learning and memory impairment in mice. Histopathological observations of the brain showed that the pathological alterations in the hippocampi. Detection of testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) levels in the brain and serum showed that E2 levels were associated with learning and memory disorders. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) revealed the increased oxidative stress levels. Detection of caspase-3, NF-κB, the phosphorylated cAMP response-element binding protein (p-CREB) and the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) showed that the protective effect mediated by BDNF, is reduced. However, some of these effects were blocked by the administration of Vitmin E (VitE, 100 mg kg−1·d−1) or 17β-estradiol (17β-E2, 100 μg kg−1). These data suggest that DIDP may aggravate the FA-exposure-induced learning and memory impairment in mice, and that 17β-E2 could be utilized to avoid these adverse effects. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • DIDP aggravates the FA-exposure-impaired learning and memory via oxidative stress. • DIDP causes learning and memory disabilities in mice by abnormal estradiol levels. • 17β-E2 could be utilized to avoid DIDP-induced learning and memory impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]