Search

Solution Gated Graphene Field-Effect Transistors (SGGT) are eagerly anticipated as an amplification platform for fabricating advanced ultra-sensitive sensors, allowing significant modulation of the drain current with minimal gate voltage. However, few studies have focused on light-matter interplay gating control for SGGT. Herein, this challenge is addressed by creating an innovative photoelectrochemical solution-gated graphene field-effect transistor (PEC-SGGT) functionalized with enzyme cascade reactions (ECR) for Organophosphorus (OPs) detection. The ECR system, consisting of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and CuBTC nanomimetic enzymes, selectively recognizes OPs and forms o-phenylenediamine (oPD) oligomers sediment on the PEC electrode, with layer thickness related to the OPs concentration, demonstrating time-integrated amplification. Under light stimulation, the additional photovoltage generated on the PEC gate electrode is influenced by the oPD oligomers sediment layer, creating a differentiated voltage distribution along the gate path. PEC-SGGT, inherently equipped with built-in amplification circuits, sensitively captures gate voltage changes and delivers output with an impressive thousandfold current gain. The seamless integration of these three amplification modes in this advanced sensor allows a good linear range and highly sensitive detection of OPs, with a detection limit as low as 0.05 pm. This work provides a proof-of-concept for the feasibility of light-assisted functionalized gate-controlled PEC-SGGT for small molecule detection., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

A new Gekko (subgenus Japonigekko) species, Gekkoalpinus sp. nov. , is described from the Jinsha River Basin in southwestern China, between the border of Mangkang County, Xizang Autonomous Region and Batang County, Sichuan Province, according to the integrative taxonomic results combining molecular data and morphological characters obtained from the type series comprising 11 specimens. Our molecular phylogeny inferred from the mitochondrial 16S and ND2 gene fragments indicated that this new species is most closely related to Gekkojinjiangensis , but a considerable amount of genetic divergence exists between them ( p -distance: 3.6%-4.1% ( 16S ) and 7.1%-9.1% ( ND2 )). The new species can be distinguished from its congeners via a combination of series morphological characters. The discovery of this new species marks the highest altitudinal range (2400 to 2542 m a.s.l.) recorded for the subgenus Japonigekko and also represents a new provincial record for the genus in Xizang Autonomous Region., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Shun Ma, Sheng-Chao Shi, Cheng Shen, Li-Ming Chang, Jian-Ping Jiang.)

Soft-matter-based photonic crystals like blue-phase liquid crystals (BPLC) have potential applications in wide-ranging photonic and bio-chemical systems. To date, however, there are limitations in the fabrication of large monocrystalline BPLCs. Traditional crystal-growth process involves the transition from a high-temperature disordered phase to an ordered (blue) phase and is generally slow (takes hours) with limited achievable lattice structures, and efforts to improve molecular alignment through post-crystallization field application typically prove ineffective. Here we report a systematic study on the molecular self-assembly dynamics of BPLC starting from a highly ordered phase in which all molecules are unidirectionally aligned by a strong electric field. We have discovered that, near the high-temperature end of the blue phase, if the applied field strength is then switched to an intermediate level or simply turned off, large-area monocrystalline BPLCs of various symmetries (tetragonal, orthorhombic, cubic) can be formed in minutes. Subsequent temperature tuning of the single crystal at a fixed applied field allows access to different lattice parameters and the formation of never-before-seen monoclinic structures. The formed crystals remain stable upon field removal. The diversity of stable monocrystalline BPLCs with widely tunable crystalline symmetries, band structures, and optical dispersions will significantly improve and expand their application potentials., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Photo-responsive synergetic therapeutics achieved significant attraction in cancer theranostic due to the versatile characteristics of nanomaterials. There have been substantial efforts in developing the simplest nano-design with exceptional synergistic properties and multifunctionalities. In this work, biocompatible Ti 2 C MXene nano bipyramids (MNBPs) were synthesized by hydrothermal method with dual functionalities of photothermal and photodynamic therapies. The MNBPs shape was obtained from two-dimensional (2D) Ti 2 C nanosheets by controlling the temperature of the reaction mixture. The structure of these Ti 2 C MNBPs was characterized by a high-resolution transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The Ti 2 C NBPs have shown exceptional photothermal properties with increased temperature to 72.3 °C under 808 nm laser irradiation. The designed nano bipyramids demonstrated excellent cellular uptake and biocompatibility. The Ti 2 C NBP has established a remarkable photothermal therapy (PTT) effect against 4T1 breast cancer cells. Moreover, Ti2C NBPs showed a profound response to UV light (6 mW/cm 2 ) and produced reactive oxygen species, making them useful for photodynamic therapy (PDT). These in-vitro studies pave a new path to tune the properties of photo-responsive MXene nanosheets, indicating a potential use in biomedical applications., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The use of light-assisted cathode is regarded as an effective approach to reduce the overpotential of lithium carbon dioxide (Li - CO 2 ) batteries. However, the inefficient electron-hole separation and the complex discharge-charge reactions hamper the efficiency of CO 2 photocatalytic reaction in battery. Herein, a highly reversible force-assisted Li - CO 2 battery has been established for the first time by employing a Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 TiO 3 nanorods piezoelectric cathode. The high-energy electron and holes generated by the piezoelectric cathode with ultrasonic force can effectively enhance the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CDRR) and carbon dioxide evolution reaction (CDER) kinetics, thereby reducing the overpotentials during the discharge-charge processes. Moreover, the morphology of the discharge product (Li 2 CO 3 ) can be modified via the dense surface electrons of the piezoelectric cathode, resulting in the promoted decomposition kinetics of Li 2 CO 3 in charging progress. Thus, the force-assisted Li - CO 2 battery with the unique piezoelectric cathode can adjust the output and input energy by ultrasonic wave, and provides an ultra-low charging platform of 3.52 V, and exhibits excellent cycle stability (a charging platform of 3.42 V after 100 h cycles). The investigation of the force-assisted process described herein provides significant insights to solve overpotential in the Li - CO 2 batteries system., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The process by which infants learn verbs through daily social interactions is not well-understood. This study investigated caregivers' use of verbs, which have highly abstract meanings, during unscripted toy-play. We examined how verbs co-occurred with distributional and embodied factors including pronouns, caregivers' manual actions, and infants' locomotion, gaze, and object-touching. Object-action verbs were used significantly more often during caregiver-infant joint attention interactions. Movement and cognition verbs showed distinct co-occurrences with different contexts. Cognition and volition verbs were differentiated by pronouns. These findings provide evidence for how verb acquisition may be supported by the distributional and embodied contexts in caregiver-infant interactions.

Tryptophan metabolism through the kynurenine pathway influences molecular processes critical to healthy aging including immune signaling, redox homeostasis, and energy production. Aberrant kynurenine metabolism occurs during normal aging and is implicated in many age-associated pathologies including chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, and cancer. We and others previously identified three kynurenine pathway genes-tdo-2, kynu-1, and acsd-1-for which decreasing expression extends lifespan in invertebrates. Here we report that knockdown of haao-1, a fourth gene encoding the enzyme 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3HAA) dioxygenase (HAAO), extends lifespan by ~30% and delays age-associated health decline in Caenorhabditis elegans. Lifespan extension is mediated by increased physiological levels of the HAAO substrate 3HAA. 3HAA increases oxidative stress resistance and activates the Nrf2/SKN-1 oxidative stress response. In pilot studies, female Haao knockout mice or aging wild type male mice fed 3HAA supplemented diet were also long-lived. HAAO and 3HAA represent potential therapeutic targets for aging and age-associated disease., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

There is a contemporary trend in many major research institutions to de-emphasize the importance of natural history education in favor of theoretical, laboratory, or simulation-based research programs. This may take the form of removing biodiversity and field courses from the curriculum and the sometimes subtle maligning of natural history research as a "lesser" branch of science. Additional threats include massive funding cuts to natural history museums and the maintenance of their collections, the extirpation of taxonomists across disciplines, and a critical under-appreciation of the role that natural history data (and other forms of observational data, including Indigenous knowledge) play in the scientific process. In this paper, we demonstrate that natural history knowledge is integral to any competitive science program through a comprehensive review of the ways in which they continue to shape modern theory and the public perception of science. We do so by reviewing how natural history research has guided the disciplines of ecology, evolution, and conservation and how natural history data are crucial for effective education programs and public policy. We underscore these insights with contemporary case studies, including: how understanding the dynamics of evolutionary radiation relies on natural history data; methods for extracting novel data from museum specimens; insights provided by multi-decade natural history programs; and how natural history is the most logical venue for creating an informed and scientifically literate society. We conclude with recommendations aimed at students, university faculty, and administrators for integrating and supporting natural history in their mandates. Fundamentally, we are all interested in understanding the natural world, but we can often fall into the habit of abstracting our research away from its natural contexts and complexities. Doing so risks losing sight of entire vistas of new questions and insights in favor of an over-emphasis on simulated or overly controlled studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Rationale: With a high failure rate and multiple postoperative complications, the resection for tumors in the elbow and reconstruction present a formidable challenge to orthopedic surgeons. The maturation of 3-dimension (3D) printing technology has facilitated the preoperative design, intraoperative navigation, and reconstruction of bone defects in patients with complex malignant tumors of the elbow joint. In order to improve prognosis, we explored a method of tumor resection and elbow reconstruction aided by 3D printing technology in this research., Patient Concerns: The patient underwent nephrectomy for clear cell carcinoma of the left kidney 3 years ago. Six months ago, the patient presented with limited movement and lateral tenderness in the right elbow joint. The tumor puncture biopsy demonstrated renal clear cell carcinoma metastasis., Diagnoses: Renal clear cell carcinoma with distal humerus bone metastasis., Interventions: Thin-layer CT scan data of the patient was acquired, and a 3D reconstruction of both upper limb bones and joints was conducted, followed by a simulation of diseased tissue excision. According to the model, individualized osteotomy guidelines and elbow prostheses were designed and manufactured. Then, prior to the completion of the actual operation, a simulation of the preoperative phase was performed., Outcomes: The operation was completed without incident. At the 1-, 3-, and 6-month postoperative examinations, both the position and mobility of the prosthesis were found to be satisfactory, and no complications were observed. The hospital for special surgery score and mayo elbow performance score scores increased in comparison to the preoperative period., Lessons: For patients with complex tumors in the elbow joint, 3D printing technology may assist in the precise excision of the tumor and provide an individualized elbow joint prosthesis that is more precise and effective than traditional surgery. It can accomplish a satisfactory treatment effect for patients when combined with early postoperative scientific rehabilitation training, so it is a method worth promoting., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

The potential of chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for circularly polarized (CP) optics has been largely unexplored. Herein, we have successfully deposited monolithic and highly oriented chiral MOF thin films prepared by a layer-by-layer method (referred to as surface-coordinated MOF thin films, SURMOF) to fabricate CP photodetection devices and distinguish enantiomers. The helicity-sensitive absorption induced by a pair of enantiopure oriented SURMOF was found to be excellent, with an anisotropy factor reaching 0.41. Moreover, the chiral SURMOFs exhibited a pronounced difference in the uptake of the l- and d-tryptophan enantiomers. To demonstrate the potential of these novel MOF thin films for chirality analysis, we fabricated a portable sensor device that allows for chiral recognition by monitoring the photocurrent signals. Our findings not only introduce a new concept of using chiral building blocks for realizing direct CP photodetectors but also provide a blueprint for novel devices in chiral optics.

Heavy metal pollution poses a serious threat to ecosystems. Currently, there is a lack of field data that would enable us to gain a systematic understanding of the influences of heavy metals on aquatic ecosystems, especially the interactions between environments and animals. We studied the relationships between the variations in heavy metal concentrations (10 species including Pb in sediments and surface water), the community structure of environmental and symbiotic microbiota, and the gut traits of Bufo gargarizans tadpoles across 16 sampling sites on the Chengdu Plain through rigorous statistical analysis and laboratory validation. The results show that heavy metal concentrations, especially the Pb concentration of the sediment, are linked to the variations in sediment and tadpoles' gut microbiomes but not to water microbiota. For the sediment microbiota, Pb causes a trade-off between the proportions of Burkholderiales and Verrucomicrobiae and affects the methane, sulfide, and nitrate metabolisms. For tadpoles, a high sediment Pb content leads to a low abundance of gut aerobic bacteria and a large relative gut weight under both field and laboratory conditions. In addition, Pb promotes the growth of B. gargarizans tadpoles under laboratory conditions. These effects seem to be beneficial to tadpoles. However, a high Pb content leads to a low abundance of probiotic bacteria (e.g., Verrucomicrobiae, Eubacteriaceae, and Cetobacterium) and a high abundance of pathogenic bacteria in the gut and environment, suggesting potential health risks posed by Pb. Interestingly, there is a causal relationship between Pb-induced variations in sediment and symbiotic microbiotas, and the latter is further linked to the variation in relative gut weight of tadpoles. This suggests a cascading effect of Pb on the ecosystem. In conclusion, our results indicate that among the heavy metals, the Pb in sediment is a critical factor affecting the aquatic ecosystem through an environment-gut-physiology pathway mediated by microbiota., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Caenorhabditis elegans are widely used to study aging biology. The standard practice in C. elegans aging studies is to culture groups of worms on solid nematode growth media (NGM), allowing the efficient collection of population-level data for survival and other physiological phenotypes, and periodic sampling of subpopulations for fluorescent biomarker quantification. Limitations to this approach are the inability to (1) follow individual worms over time to develop age trajectories for phenotypes of interest and (2) monitor fluorescent biomarkers directly in the context of the culture environment. Alternative culture approaches use liquid culture or microfluidics to monitor individual animals over time, in some cases including fluorescence quantification, with the tradeoff that the culture environment is contextually distinct from solid NGM. The WorMotel is a previously described microfabricated multi-well device for culturing isolated worms on solid NGM. Each worm is maintained in a well containing solid NGM surrounded by a moat filled with copper sulfate, a contact repellent for C. elegans, allowing longitudinal monitoring of individual animals. We find copper sulfate insufficient to prevent worms from fleeing when subjected to aversive interventions common in aging research, including dietary restriction, pathogenic bacteria, and chemical agents that induce cellular stress. The multi-well devices are also molded from polydimethylsiloxane, which produces high background artifacts in fluorescence imaging. This protocol describes a new approach for culturing isolated roundworms on solid NGM using commercially available polystyrene microtrays, originally designed for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing, allowing the measurement of survival, physiological phenotypes, and fluorescence across the lifespan. A palmitic acid barrier prevents worms from fleeing, even in the presence of aversive conditions. Each plate can culture up to 96 animals and easily adapts to a variety of conditions, including dietary restriction, RNAi, and chemical additives, and is compatible with automated systems for collecting lifespan and activity data.

Water pollution from lead/Pb 2+ poses a significant threat to aquatic ecosystems, and its repercussions on aquatic animals have received considerable attention. Although Pb 2+ has been found to affect numerous aspects of animals, including individual fitness, metabolic status, and symbiotic microbiota, few studies have focused on the associations between Pb 2+ -induced variations in fitness, metabolome, symbiotic microbiome, and environmental parameters in the same system, limiting a comprehensive understanding of ecotoxicological mechanisms from a holistic perspective. Moreover, most ecotoxicological studies neglected the potential contributions of anions to the consequences generated by inorganic lead compounds. We investigated the effects of Pb(NO 3 ) 2 at environmentally relevant concentrations on the Rana omeimontis tadpoles and the water quality around them, using blank and NaNO 3 -treated groups as control. Results showed that Pb(NO 3 ) 2 not only induced a rise in water nitrite level, but exposure to this chemical also impaired tadpole fitness-related traits (e.g., growth and development). The impacts on tadpoles were most likely a combination of Pb 2+ and NO 3 - . Tissue metabolomics revealed that Pb(NO 3 ) 2 exposure influenced animal substrate (i.e., carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid) and prostaglandin metabolism. Pb(NO 3 ) 2 produced profound shifts in gut microbiota, with increased Proteobacteria impairing Firmicutes, resulting in higher aerobic and possibly pathogenic bacteria. NaNO 3 also influenced tadpole metabolome and gut microbiome, in a manner different to that of Pb(NO 3 ) 2 . The presence of NO 3 - seemed to counteract some changes caused by Pb 2+ , particularly on the microbiota. Piecewise structural equation model and correlation analyses demonstrated connections between tissue metabolome and gut microbiome, and the variations in tadpole phenotypic traits and water quality were linked to changes in tissue metabolome and gut microbiome. These findings emphasized the important roles of gut microbiome in mediating the effects of toxin on aquatic ecosystem. Moreover, it is suggested to consider the influences of anions in the risk assessment of heavy metal pollutions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Electromagnetic interference is a serious and increasing form of environmental pollution, creating many issues in the areas of health care and industrial manufacturing. The performance of high-precision measurement equipment used in health care and the manufacturing industry is sensitive to electromagnetic interference. However, extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELFMF), with a frequency range from 3 to 30 Hz, generated by high-power lines have become the main interference source in high-tech foundries. This paper presents a magnetic cancelling system that works by combining active cancelling technology and passive cancelling technology to reduce the ELFMF around high-precision measurement equipment. The simulation and experimental results show the validity and feasibility of the proposed system.

Photoassisted electrochemical reaction is regarded as an effective approach to reduce the overpotential of lithium-oxygen (Li-O 2 ) batteries. However, the achievement of both broadband absorption and long term battery cycling stability are still a formidable challenge. Herein, an oxygen vacancy-mediated fast kinetics for a photoassisted Li-O 2 system is developed with a silver/bismuth molybdate (Ag/Bi 2 MoO 6 ) hybrid cathode. The cathode can offer both double advantages for light absorption covering UV to visible region and excellent electrochemical activity for O 2 . Upon discharging, the photoexcited electrons from Ag nanoplate based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) are injected into the oxygen vacancy in Bi 2 MoO 6 . The fast oxygen reaction kinetics generate the amorphous Li 2 O 2 , and the discharge plateau is improved to 3.05 V. Upon charging, the photoexcited holes are capable to decompose amorphous Li 2 O 2 promptly, yielding a very low charge plateau of 3.25 V. A first cycle round-trip efficiency is 93.8% and retention of 70% over 500 h, which is the longest cycle life ever reported in photoassisted Li-O 2 batteries. This work offers a general and reliable strategy for boosting the electrochemical kinetics by tailoring the crystalline of Li 2 O 2 with wide-band light., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The Chinese giant salamander ( Andrias davidianus ), one of the largest extant amphibian species, has dramatically declined in the wild. As an ectotherm, it may be further threatened by climate change. Therefore, understanding the thermal physiology of this species should be the priority to formulate related conservation strategies. In this study, the plasticity in metabolic rate and thermal tolerance limits of A. davidianus larvae were studied. Specifically, the larvae were acclimated to three temperature levels (7 °C, cold stress; 15 °C, optimum; and 25 °C, heat stress) and two diet items (red worm or fish fray) for 20 days. Our results indicated that cold-acclimated larvae showed increased metabolic capacity, while warm-acclimated larvae showed a decrease in metabolic capacity. These results suggested the existence of thermal compensation. Moreover, the thermal tolerance windows of cold-acclimated and warm-acclimated larvae shifted to cooler and hotter ranges, respectively. Metabolic capacity is not affected by diet but fish-fed larvae showed superiority in both cold and heat tolerance, potentially due to the input of greater nutrient loads. Overall, our results suggested a plastic thermal tolerance of A. davidianus in response to temperature and diet variations. These results are meaningful in guiding the conservation of this species.

Linear polarization rotators have been widely used in optical systems. Commonly used polarization rotators are still beset by strong dispersion and thus restricted spectral bandwidth of operation. This leads to the development of achromatic or broadband alternatives, but most of them incorporate multiple waveplates for retardation compensation, which comes at the cost of increased complexity and reduced flexibility in operation and system design. Here, we demonstrate a single-element achromatic polarization rotator based on a thin film of dual-frequency chiral liquid crystal. The angle of polarization rotation is electrically tunable from 0° to 180° with low dispersion (±3°) in the entire visible spectrum, and a high degree of linear polarization (>95%) at the output.

In this study, a twisted nematic mode polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (TN mode PSLC) integrated with a crossed polarizer was used to create a transparent waveguide display. When a voltage was applied, the PSLC scattered the waveguide light with a high polarization selectivity such that no substantial loss of the outgoing light intensity was observed after integrating the polarizer. However, with a crossed polarizer, in the ON state, the background light was not only scattered but also absorbed by the analyzer. Using this device configuration, with a 12 µm cell gap and 7% monomer concentration, we successfully realized a normally transparent waveguide display. The contrast ratio of the waveguide outgoing light was 26 and that of the undesired background reached 90. This device can display images due to waveguide edge-lit light scattering and simultaneously block the background information to improve the image quality.

This work develops a tunable chirped guided-mode resonant (GMR) filter that has a hybrid splay-twist (HST) liquid crystal as a cladding layer. The GMR filter is a color reflector that strongly reflects light at the resonance wavelength, and its chirped grating structure supports tuning of the resonance peak over a wavelength range of over 50 nm. The HST-LC configuration serves as an achromatic polarization rotator that can rotate the axis of polarization of linearly polarized light by providing effective twist angles in the LC layer under an applied voltage. The HST-LC is used to change the direction of the polarization axis of the light that is reflected by the GMR filter; continuous angles of rotation of ∼90 ∘ are achieved and the linear polarization is retained under applied voltages. The proposed filter enables an ultrabroadband polarization rotation and still maintains a high degree of linear polarization, which allows more degrees of freedom in spectral and polarization controls.

Herein we report a 2D surface-coordinated porphyrinic metal-organic framework film (SURMOF) CuTCPP prepared by a layer by layer method as an optical limiting layer in a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) device. The results show that the CuTCPP SURMOF/PDLC device has excellent switchable transparency and optical limiting performance, providing a new route to achieve mutilfunctional electro-optical applications.

This study proposes an analysis of the physics-based TCAD (Technology Computer-Aided Design) simulation procedure for GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) device structures grown on Si (111) substrate which is calibrated against measurement data. The presence of traps and activation energies in the device structure will impact the performance of a device, the source of traps and position of traps in the device remains as a complex exercise until today. The key parameters for the precise tuning of threshold voltage ( V th ) in GaN transistors are the control of the positive fixed charges -5 × 10 12 cm -2 , donor-like traps -3 × 10 13 cm -2 at the nitride/GaN interfaces, the energy of the donor-like traps 1.42 eV below the conduction band and the acceptor traps activation energy in the AlGaN layer and buffer regions with 0.59 eV below the conduction band. Hence in this paper, the sensitivity of the trap mechanisms in GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMT transistors, understanding the absolute vertical electric field distribution, electron density and the physical characteristics of the device has been investigated and the results are in good agreement with GaN experimental data.

Advance care planning (ACP) provides access to complete advance decisions (ADs). Despite the legalization of ACP in Taiwan, it is underutilized in community settings. The objective of this study is to describe the service at a community hospital in Southern Taiwan. We retrospectively analyzed participants who were engaged in ACP consultations from January 2019 to January 2020. The characteristics, motivations, content, and satisfaction of participants are reported. Factors associated with refusing life-sustaining treatments (LST) or artificial nutrition/hydration (ANH) were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Of the 178 participants, 123 completed the ACP. The majority were female (64.2%), aged 61 on average and more than 80% had never signed a do-not-resuscitate order. In the ADs, most participants declined LST (97.2%) and ANH (96.6%). Family-related issues (48.9%) were the most prevalent motivations. Rural residence (OR 8.6, p = 0.005), increased age (OR 7.2, p = 0.025), and reluctance to consent to organ donation (OR 5.2, p = 0.042) correlated with refusing LST or ANH. Participants provided a positive feedback regarding overall satisfaction (good, 83%) compared to service charge (fair/poor, 53%). The study demonstrated high AD completion when refusing LST or ANH. These findings may facilitate the development of ACP as a community-based service.

A superhydrophobic surface that has controllable adhesion and is characterized by the lotus and petal effects is a powerful tool for the manipulation of liquid droplets. Such a surface has considerable potential in many domains, such as biomedicine, enhanced Raman scattering, and smart surfaces. There have been many attempts to fabricate superhydrophobic films; however, most of the fabricated films had uniform adhesion over their area. A patterned superhydrophobic surface with spatially controllable adhesion allows for increased functions in the context of droplet manipulation. In this study, we proposed a method based on liquid-crystal/polymer phase separation and local photopolymerization to realize a superhydrophobic surface with spatially varying adhesion. Materials and topographic structures were analyzed to understand their adhesion mechanisms. Two patterned surfaces with varying adhesion were fabricated from a superhydrophobic material to function as droplet guides and droplet collectors. Due to their easy fabrication and high functionality, superhydrophobic surfaces have high potential for being used in the fabrication of smart liquid-droplet-controlling surfaces for practical applications.

In this paper, a detail design procedure of the real-time trajectory tracking for the nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot (NWMR) is proposed. A 9-axis micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor is used to measure the posture of the NWMR, the position information of NWMR and the hand-held device are acquired by global positioning system (GPS) and then transmit via radio frequency (RF) module. In addition, in order to avoid the gimbal lock produced by the posture computation from Euler angles, the quaternion is utilized to compute the posture of the NWMR. Furthermore, the Kalman filter is used to filter out the readout noise of the GPS and calculate the position of NWMR and then track the object. The simulation results show the posture error between the NWMR and the hand-held device can converge to zero after 3.928 seconds for the dynamic tracking. Lastly, the experimental results show the validation and feasibility of the proposed results.

Children show a remarkable degree of consistency in learning some words earlier than others. What patterns of word usage predict variations among words in age of acquisition? We use distributional analysis of a naturalistic corpus of child-directed speech to create quantitative features representing natural variability in word contexts. We evaluate two sets of features: One set is generated from the distribution of words into frames defined by the two adjacent words. These features primarily encode syntactic aspects of word usage. The other set is generated from non-adjacent co-occurrences between words. These features encode complementary thematic aspects of word usage. Regression models using these distributional features to predict age of acquisition of 656 early-acquired English words indicate that both types of features improve predictions over simpler models based on frequency and appearance in salient or simple utterance contexts. Syntactic features were stronger predictors of children's production than comprehension, whereas thematic features were stronger predictors of comprehension. Overall, earlier acquisition was predicted by features representing frames that select for nouns and verbs, and by thematic content related to food and face-to-face play topics; later acquisition was predicted by features representing frames that select for pronouns and question words, and by content related to narratives and object play., (© 2020 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.)

Dimming and scattering control are two of the major features of smart windows, which provide adjustable sunlight intensity and protect the privacy of people in a building. A hybrid photo- and electrical-controllable smart window that exploits salt and photochromic dichroic dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal was developed. The photochromic dichroic dye causes a change in transmittance from high to low upon exposure to sunlight. When the light source is removed, the smart window returns from colored to colorless. The salt-doped cholesteric liquid crystal can be bi-stably switched from transparent into the scattering state by a low-frequency voltage pulse and switched back to its transparent state by a high-frequency voltage pulse. In its operating mode, an LC smart window can be passively dimmed by sunlight and the haze can be actively controlled by applying an electrical field to it; it therefore exhibits four optical states-transparent, scattering, dark clear, and dark opaque. Each state is stable in the absence of an applied voltage. This smart window can automatically dim when the sunlight gets stronger, and according to user needs, actively adjust the haze to achieve privacy protection.

N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have attracted increasing attention on surface assembly due to their strong metal binding property, but an NHC-modified metal surface as a new growth platform to assemble other functional materials is still a challenge. Here, we report the preparation and chiral sensing properties of homochiral metal-organic framework thin films on carboxyl-containing NHC self-assembled monolayer-modified gold (Au(NHC)) substrates. By using a liquid-phase epitaxial layer-by-layer method, enantiopure [Cu 2 (cam) 2 dabco] n thin films with preferred [110] crystal orientation have been successfully grown on Au(NHC) surfaces. The results of electrochemical cyclic voltammetry and quartz crystal microbalance uptakes of ( R )- and ( S )-1-phenylethanol show that the chiral porous thin film on the robust Au(NHC) surface has good enantiomeric electrochemical recognition and enantioselective adsorption. The present work is a new step to develop metal-NHCs as surface platforms for the preparation of multifunctional thin films for sensing applications.

Dementia frequently occurs in Down syndrome (DS) patients, and early intervention is important in its management. We have previously demonstrated a positive correlation of plasma β-amyloid Aβ42 levels and negative correlations of Aβ40 and tau levels with dementia in DS. In this study, we examined more cases and constructed composite scores with both tau and amyloids to correlate with dementia in DS. Plasma Aβ42, Aβ40, and tau proteins were measured by an immunomagnetic reduction assay in DS patients. Data were randomly and repeatedly split into training and validating sets, and logistic regression was applied to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) for each biomarker. A total of 73 DS patients (among them, 23 had neurodegeneration) and 77 controls were recruited. In DS patients without dementia, plasma Aβ40 and tau levels were highly elevated, but Aβ42 levels were lower than those of the healthy controls. DS patients with dementia, compared with DS patients with no dementia, had a large decline in Aβ40 and tau but a rise in Aβ42. For biomarker scores correlating with dementia, Aβ40 revealed an AUC of 0.912; the composite score of Aβ40 × tau revealed an AUC of 0.953; and a combined composite score of 0.1 for Aβ40 × Tau +0.9 Tau × Aβ40/Aβ42 achieved the highest AUC of 0.965. Therefore, composite biomarker scores including both plasma tau and β-amyloid levels correlate with dementia in DS better than using individual biomarker scores. The pattern of tau decline and Aβ42 rise in DS patients with dementia are also different from previous findings in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The prevalence rate of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the community Down syndrome (DS) children is not clear. Moreover, the impact of OSA and sleep structure on the cognitive function is inconclusive. The present study aimed to investigate 1) the prevalence rate of OSA in the community DS children and 2) the impact of OSA and sleep structure on cognitive performance., Methods: Thirty DS children aged 6-18 years were recruited and evaluated with the performance of the language domain and sensorimotor domain, combining neuropsychological tests and parent-rated behavior. The outcomes were the age-adjusted scores, of which the lower the score was, the better was the patient's ability. The association of score with OSA and sleep structures was determined by linear regression. To diminish the age-related difference, all analyses were conducted separately for all subjects and 6-12-year-old subjects., Results: The median age was 11.3 years and median Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) was 44. The prevalence of OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 1/h) was 80% and 62.5% in all subjects and 6-12-year-old subjects, respectively. For 6-12-year-old subjects, after adjustment for age and FSIQ, both %REM and OSA were associated with lower score of the subtest of language domain, WPPSI-R Vocabulary, while %REM was also associated with lower score of VABS-II Communication - Expressive. In contrary, % slow wave sleep was not associated with any subtest., Conclusion: This study identified that OSA may be highly prevalent in community DS children. Among 6-12-year-old DS children, OSA and % REM were associated with their language function., (Copyright © 2019 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Development of chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is a challenging but important task. In this work, we report a first example of azapyrene-based chiral MOF thin films [Zn 2 Cam 2 DAP] n grown on functionalized substrates (named SURchirMOF-4) for CPL property. By using a liquid-phase epitaxial layer-by-layer method, the resulted SURchirMOF-4 was constructed from chiral camphoric acid and 2,7-diazapyrene ligand, which has high orientation and homogeneity. The circular dichroism, CPL, and enantioselective adsorption results show that SURchirMOF-4 has strong chirality and CPL property as well as good enantioselective adsorption toward enantiomers of methyl-lactate. The synthesis of azapyrene-based chiral MOF thin films not only represents an ideal model for studying the enantioselective adsorption, but also will be a valuable approach for development of the chiral thin film exhibiting CPL property.

Infant language learning depends on the distribution of co-occurrences within language-between words and other words-and between language content and events in the world. Yet infant-directed speech is not limited to words that refer to perceivable objects and actions. Rather, caregivers' utterances contain a range of syntactic forms and expressions with diverse attentional, regulatory, social, and referential functions. We conducted a distributional analysis of linguistic content types at the utterance level, and demonstrated that a wide range of content types in maternal speech can be distinguished by their distribution in sequences of utterances and by their patterns of co-occurrence with infants' actions. We observed free-play sessions of 38 12-month-old infants and their mothers, annotated maternal utterances for 10 content types, and coded infants' gaze target and object handling. Results show that all content types tended to repeat in consecutive utterances, whereas preferred transitions between different content types reflected sequences from attention-capturing to directing and then descriptive utterances. Specific content types were associated with infants' engagement with objects (declaratives, descriptions, object names), with disengagement from objects (talk about attention, infant's name), and with infants' gaze at the mother (affirmations). We discuss how structured discourse might facilitate language acquisition by making speech input more predictable and/or by providing clues about high-level form-function mappings., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

A large amount of calcium fluoride sludge is generated by the semiconductor industry every year. It also requires a high amount of fuel consumption using rotor concentrators and thermal oxidizers to treat VOCs. The mesoporous adsorbent prepared by calcium fluoride sludge was used for VOCs treatment. The semiconductor industry employs HMDS to promote the adhesion of photo-resistant material to oxide(s) due to the formation of silicon dioxide, which blocks porous adsorbents. The adsorption of HMDS (Hexamethyldisiloxane) was tested with mesoporous silica materials synthesized from calcium fluoride (CF-MCM). The resulting samples were characterized by XRD, XRF, FTIR, N2-adsorption-desorption techniques. The prepared samples possessed high specific surface area, large pore volume and large pore diameter. The crystal patterns of CF-MCM were similar with Mobil composite matter (MCM-41) from TEM image. The adsorption capacity of HMDS with CF-MCM was 40 and 80 mg g-1, respectively, under 100 and 500 ppm HMDS. The effects of operation parameters, such as contact time and mixture concentration, on the performance of CF-MCM were also discussed in this study.

Despite increasing ability to store and analyze large amounts of data for organismal and ecological studies, the process of collecting distance and count measurements from images has largely remained time consuming and error-prone, particularly for tasks for which automation is difficult or impossible. Improving the efficiency of these tasks, which allows for more high quality data to be collected in a shorter amount of time, is therefore a high priority. The open-source web application, webpic, implements common web languages and widely available libraries and productivity apps to streamline the process of collecting distance and count measurements from images. In this paper, I introduce the framework of webpic and demonstrate one readily available feature of this application, linear measurements, using fossil leaf specimens. This application fills the gap between workflows accomplishable by individuals through existing software and those accomplishable by large, unmoderated crowds. It demonstrates that flexible web languages can be used to streamline time-intensive research tasks without the use of specialized equipment or proprietary software and highlights the potential for web resources to facilitate data collection in research tasks and outreach activities with improved efficiency.

The polarization dependence of a directional coupler (DC) based on asymmetric cross-slot waveguides is investigated. Due to structural birefringence, the coupling behaviors of the quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes in the DC vary with the waveguide geometry. A polarization-independent directional coupler (PIDC) and polarization beam splitter (PBS) are proposed by tailoring the ratio of the coupling length for quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes. The simulated results show that the coupling lengths of the designed PIDC and PBS are 8 and 28.25 μm, respectively. Both the PIDC and PBS show an insertion loss (IL) <0.7  dB on a bandwidth over 100 nm. The extinction ratios are ∼20  dB for PIDC and ∼14  dB for PBS. The fabrication-error tolerance of the practical devices is also discussed. In this study, we employ a commercial software tool for finite difference eigenmode and three-dimensional finite difference time domain methods to perform the numerical simulations.

Background : Changes in β-amyloids (Aβ) and tau proteins have been noted in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and patients with both Down syndrome (DS) and AD. However, reports of changes in the early stage of regression, such as behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), in DS are sparse. Methods : Seventy-eight controls, 62 patients with AD, 35 with DS and 16 with DS with degeneration (DS&#95;D), including 9 with BPSD and 7 with dementia, were enrolled. The levels of β-amyloids 40 and 42 (Aβ-40, Aβ-42) and tau protein in the blood were analyzed using immunomagnetic reduction (IMR). The Adaptive Behavior Dementia Questionnaire (ABDQ) was used to evaluate the clinical status of the degeneration. Results : The Aβ-40 and tau levels were higher and the Aβ-42 level and Aβ-42/Aβ-40 ratio were lower in DS than in the controls (all p < 0.001). Decreased Aβ-40 and increased Aβ-42 levels and Aβ-42/40 ratios were observed in DS&#95;D compared with DS without degeneration (all p < 0.001). The ABDQ score was negatively correlated with the Aβ-40 level ( ρ = -0.556) and the tau protein level ( ρ = -0.410) and positively associated with the Aβ-42 level ( ρ = 0.621) and the Aβ-42/40 ratio ( ρ = 0.544; all p < 0.05). Conclusions : The Aβ-40 and Aβ-42 levels and the Aβ-42/Aβ-40 ratio are considered possible biomarkers for the early detection of degeneration in DS. The elevated Aβ-40 and tau levels in DS may indicate early neurodegeneration. The increased Aβ-42 in DS&#95;D may reflect the neurotoxicity of Aβ-42. The paradox of the tau decreases in DS&#95;D could be explained by a burnout phenomenon during long-term neurodegeneration. The different patterns of the plasma beta amyloids and tau protein may imply a different pathogenesis between DS with degeneration and AD in the general population, in spite of their common key pathological features.

Paclitaxel, a taxane, is a cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agent that targets microtubules. It has become a front-line therapy for a broad range of malignancies, including lung, breast, gastric, esophageal, and bladder carcinomas. Although paclitaxel can inhibit tumor development and improve survival, poor solubility, myelotoxicity, allergic reactions, and drug resistance have restricted its clinical application. Paclitaxel is frequently combined with other chemotherapeutics to enhance the antitumor effects and reduce side effects. We synthesized geridonin, a derivative of oridonin, and demonstrate that geridonin and paclitaxel act synergistically to inhibit the growth of gastric cancer cells. Importantly, geridonin enhanced the antitumor effects of paclitaxel without increasing toxicity in vivo. Mechanistic analysis revealed that administration of geridonin in combination with paclitaxel up-regulated the tumor suppressor PTEN and inhibited phosphorylation of Akt and MDM2. This led to the accumulation of p53 and induced apoptosis though the mitochondrial pathway. Thus, geridonin in combination with paclitaxel is a new treatment strategy for gastric cancer.

Background: DC-SIGN (dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing nonintegrin) is a C-type lectin receptor expressed on macrophages and dendritic cells. DC-SIGN has high affinity for fucosylated glycans in several plant glycoproteins and pathogens. DC-SIGN is thought to be crucial for the development of allergic sensitization. However, the precise role of DC-SIGN in food allergy pathogenesis is not yet understood., Objective: We sought to characterize DC-SIGN-binding glycoproteins in a panel of allergenic and non-allergenic foods., Methods: Fluorescent-labeled peanut and soy extracts were used to test protein binding to human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) by flow cytometry. DC-SIGN-blocking assays were performed by incubating DCs with food extracts followed by staining with anti-DC-SIGN antibody. Using a DC-SIGN-Fc chimera, food extracts were tested for binding by ELISA and autoradiography. IgE immunoblotting was performed with pooled sera from food-allergic subjects. DC activation and maturation were assessed by flow cytometry., Results and Conclusions: We demonstrate that peanut agglutinin, a minor peanut allergen, is a novel ligand for DC-SIGN. Peanut agglutinin activates DCs to induce the expression of costimulatory molecules in vitro. We present a comprehensive report on the characterization of DC-SIGN-binding proteins in common allergenic foods such as peanut, soy, tree nuts, egg, and milk. Foods that rarely induce allergy, such as pine nuts, chickpea, and corn, showed no binding to DC-SIGN. Several DC-SIGN-binding proteins show reactivity in serum IgE immunoblots. We have also identified novel non-IgE-binding proteins that interact with DC-SIGN; these proteins may be important for regulating immune responses to these foods., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Food allergy research is hampered by a lack of animal models that consistently mimic human food allergic responses. Laboratory mice are generally fed grain-based chow made with large amounts of soybeans rich in immunomodulatory isoflavones. We tested the role of dietary soy components in the induction of food allergic responses in the BALB/c mouse strain, which is known to be resistant to anaphylaxis when orally challenged by food allergens., Methods: Mice were fed a soy-free diet for 2 generations. After weaning, mice were maintained on the same diet or fed a diet containing soy isoflavones, i.e. genistein and daidzein, followed by weekly oral sensitizations with crude peanut extract plus cholera toxin and finally challenged at week 7. The anaphylactic symptoms, body temperature, peanut-specific antibodies and mast cell degranulation were assessed., Results: Soy-free diet mice showed significantly higher anaphylactic symptom scores and mast cell degranulation after challenge and higher peanut-specific antibody levels than mice fed regular chow. Introduction of a regular soy diet or an isoflavone diet to soy-free diet mice significantly suppressed the allergic reactions compared to the soy-free diet., Conclusion: Rodent diet is an important variable and needs to be taken into consideration when designing experiments involving animal models. Our results indicate that elimination of soy components from the diet enhances peanut sensitization in BALB/c mice. In addition to serving as a valuable tool to mimic human food allergy, the dietary influence on the immune response could have far-reaching consequences in research involving animal models.

Harlequin ichthyosis is a rare congenital ichthyosis classified under the category of Autosomal Recessive Congenital Ichthyoses, which also include lamellar ichthyosis and congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma. It is caused by functional null mutations in the ABCA12 gene, a keratinocyte lipid transporter associated with lamellar granule formation. Patients have a classic clinical presentation at delivery and need neonatal intensive care treatment to maximize their chances of survival. Early oral retinoid therapy has been shown to increase survival in patients with harlequin ichthyosis, and we present a case of a 9-month-old male with this condition who has been treated with isotretinoin since day 7 of life.

Background. Significant decreases in p16 expression have been shown to occur in melanoma compared to Spitz tumors, and loss of p16 staining has been found to correlate with melanoma tumor progression. However, comparison of p16 between atypical cellular blue nevi (CBN) and melanoma has not been reported previously. Methods. p16 immunohistochemical staining was evaluated in 14 atypical CBN, 8 conventional and atypical melanocytic nevi, and 16 melanomas, including 4 malignant CBN. p16 staining intensity was graded on a scale of 0-3 and the percentage of melanocytes stained with p16 was determined. Results. p16 staining was significantly higher in all CBN as a group when compared to melanomas (P = 0.001) and malignant CBN (P = 0.00008). Higher p16 expression was also seen in mildly (P = 0.0002) and moderately atypical (P = 0.02), but not severely atypical, CBN compared to melanomas. Conclusions. p16 immunohistochemical expression is higher in mildly and moderately atypical CBN compared to severely atypical CBN and melanomas. In conjunction with additional markers and histology, p16 staining may be useful in confirming the benign nature of these tumors, but is not useful in distinguishing severely atypical CBN from malignant cases, consistent with the overlapping histologic features between these tumors.

Purpose: To compare tumor size by mammography and sonography and align with pathological results in primary breast cancer cases., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 95 primary breast cancer patients who underwent mammography and sonography from January 2011 to June 2012. The largest tumor diameter was chosen as sizing reference for each imaging modality. The measurements of mammography and sonography were considered concordant if they were within the measurement of pathological results±0.5 cm. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated for imaging results., Results: The range of the maximum diameter was 0.6 cm-10.5 cm and mean value was 3.81±2.04 cm by pathological results, 0.7 cm-12.4 cm and 3.99±2.19 cm by mammography, and 0.9 cm-11.0 cm and 3.63±2.01 cm by sonography, respectively. Sonography (R: 0.754), underestimated tumor size, but had a better correlation with pathological tumor size compared to mammography (R: 0.676), which overestimated tumor size., Conclusions: Sonography is superior to mammography in assessment of primary breast cancer.

The removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at ppb level is one of the most critical challenges in clean rooms for the semiconductor industry. Photocatalytic oxidation is an innovative and promising technology for ppb-level VOCs degradation. We have designed a fiber-illuminated honeycomb reactor (FIHR) in which the removal efficiency of m-xylene is significantly enhanced to 96.5% as compared to 22.0% for UV irradiation only. The results indicate that photocatalysts not only play the role to substantially oxidize m-xylene, but also alter the chemical properties of xylene under UV illumination. Using the FIHR with Mn-TiO2 photocatalyst not only increased the m-xylene removal efficiency, but also increased the CO2 selectivity. Interestingly, Mn-TiO2 in FIHR also showed a very good reusability, 93% removal efficiency was still achieved in 72-h in reaction. Thus, the FIHR gave very high removal efficiency for xylene at ppb level under room temperature. The FIHR has great potential application in the clean room for the air purification system in the future., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Glutaric aciduria type I (GA-I) is an inborn error of lysine and tryptophan metabolism. Clinical manifestations of GA-I include dystonic or dyskinetic cerebral palsy, but when the symptoms occur, treatment is not effective. In Taiwan, newborn screening for GA-I started in 2001; we wish to evaluate the outcomes of patients detected through newborn screening. Newborns diagnosed with GA-I by abnormal dried blood spot glutarylcarnitine (C5DC) levels followed in our hospital were included in this study. They were treated with special diets, carnitine supplements, and immediate stress avoidance. Six patients were included in this study. All patients were treated prior to reaching 1 month of age. They were followed up with for 4 to 9 years. One patient had encephalopathic crisis episodes prior to turning 1 year old that caused pallidal lesions. Another patient had a chronic progressive disease during infancy that caused bilateral putamen lesions. These two patients had delayed development, but their brain lesions were resolved. The other four patients ran uneventful courses. They had normal intelligenece, ranged between average to low average level and their brain magnetic resonance imaging showed only high intensity over deep white matter. Patients with GA-I diagnosed by newborn screening have promising outcomes, though the risks of disease progression prior to 1 year of age remain significant.

A capillary wave was created on a surface by vibrating from the bottom of a container. When the amplitude of the container vibration approached the critical point, called the onset state, the surface broke up and bursted into very small drops on the air. The numerical analysis was used to determine the amplitude of the onset. The onset point was found to be 0.349μm at f=500kHz. The critical amplitude h(cr) was determined by using a multi-Fourier horn nozzle (MFHN) device. The onset point was measured to be 0.37μm using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) with the MFHN at f=486kHz. These drops indicate that particle size distributions of 10.8μm and 7.0μm were produced by the MFHN at f=289kHz and f=486kHz, respectively. These results agreed with those obtained using Kelvin's equation, which predicted D=0.34λ., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of gram-negative bacterial cell walls, has been shown to have a strong adjuvant effect towards inhaled antigens contributing to airway inflammation. Isoflavones are anti-inflammatory molecules present in abundant quantities in soybeans. We investigated the effect of isoflavones on human dendritic cell (DC) activation via LPS stimulation and subsequent DC-mediated effector cell function both in vitro and in a mouse model of upper airway inflammation. Human monocyte-derived DCs (MDDC) were matured with LPS (or TNF-α) +/- isoflavones (genistein or daidzein). The surface expression levels of DC activation markers were analyzed by flow cytometry. Mature DCs +/- isoflavones were washed and cultured with freshly-isolated allogenic naïve CD4⁺ T cells for 5 days or with autologous natural killer (NK) cells for 2 hours. The percentages of proliferating IFN-γ⁺ CD4⁺ T cells and cytokine levels in culture supernatants were assessed. NK cell degranulation and DC cytotoxicity were measured by flow cytometry. Isoflavones significantly suppressed the activation-induced expression of DC maturation markers (CD83, CD80, CD86) and MHC class I but not MHC class II molecules in vitro. Isoflavone treatment inhibited the ability of LPS-DCs to induce IFN-γ in CD4⁺ T cells. NK cell degranulation and the percentage of dead DCs were significantly increased in isoflavone-treated DC-NK co-culture experiments. Dietary isoflavones suppressed the mucosal immune response to intra-nasal sensitization of mice to ovalbumin. Similar results were obtained when isoflavones were co-administered during sensitization. These results demonstrate that soybean isoflavones suppress immune sensitization by suppressing DC-maturation and its subsequent DC-mediated effector cell functions.

The electrochemical oxidation of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) in aqueous solution was studied by electrochemical oxidation using modified PbO(2) electrode as anode. The influence of several operating parameters, such as initial 4-CP concentration, applied current density, and supporting electrolyte (Na(2)SO(4)) concentration was investigated. Ultraviolet spectroscopy and total organic carbon (TOC) measurements were conducted to study the kinetics of 4-CP electrochemical reaction and the mineralization efficiency of 4-CP. The experimental results showed that the 4-CP degradation always followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics. The higher mineralization of 4-CP and the lower current efficiency (CE) were obtained by the lower initial 4-CP concentration. The applied current density showed a positive influence on the degradation of 4-CP and the removal of TOC, but a higher applied current density led to a lower CE. Although Na(2)SO(4) concentration of 0.05 M resulted in a higher 4-CP and TOC removal, the result of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that Na(2)SO(4) concentration is not the significant parameter for 4-CP removal in electrochemical oxidation.

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), also known histologically as dermal mucin, accumulate in several inflammatory skin conditions. Because different GAG species have distinct immunologic effects, the authors examined two GAGs, hyaluronan (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS), using specific stains in cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) and dermatomyositis (DM). In the dermis of one CLE subtype, tumid LE (TLE), they found only increased HA, but both HA and CS were significantly elevated in another CLE subtype, discoid LE (DLE). DM lesional dermis accumulated mainly CS but not HA. The authors then used glycomic gene expression microarrays to assess the expression of HA- and CS-related genes in CLE skin. Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed significantly increased expression of HAS2, CHSY1, and C4ST1 in the combined groups of CLE lesions (n = 8) compared to healthy controls (n = 4). Thus, the increase in HA in CLE presumably results from upregulation of HAS2, whereas CHSY1 and C4ST1 appear to contribute to increased CS. Based on their known immunomodulatory effects in other systems, HA and CS may thus participate in the pathophysiology of these inflammatory skin conditions.