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INTRODUCTION The blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption contributes to postoperative delirium, but cost-effective and non-invasive assessment of its permeability is not practicable in the clinical settings. Urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), reflecting systemic vascular endothelial dysfunction, may be a prognostic and predictive factor associated with postoperative delirium. The aim was to analyze the relationship between UACR and postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing elective non-cardiac surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS Through stratified random sampling, a cohort of 408 individuals aged 60 years and older scheduled for elective non-cardiac surgery were included between February and August 2019 in the single-center, prospective, observational study. The presence of delirium was assessed using the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) or Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) on the day of surgery, at 2 h after the surgery ending time and on the first 3 consecutive days with repeated twice-daily, with at least 6-h intervals between assessments. Urine samples were collected on one day before surgery, and 1st day and 3rd day after surgery. The primary outcome was the presence of postoperative delirium, and association of the level of UACR with postoperative delirium was evaluated with unadjusted/adjusted analyses and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS Postoperative delirium was observed in 26.75% (107 of 400) of patients within 3 days post-surgery. UACR-Pre (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.14-1.49, p

Parasitism by the endoparasitic wasp Pteromalus puparum (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) by using only its associated venom, can suppress the immunal responses of Pieris rapae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). However, up to now, current knowledge of the mechanisms has been limited. The response of host hemocytes to parasitism was investigated using a combination of light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Five hemocyte types, prohemocytes (PRs), granulocytes (GRs), plasmatocytes (PLs), oenocytoids (OEs) and coagulocytes (COs), were observed and characterized from both unparasitized and parasitized Pieris rapae pupae. Light microscopy showed that both GRs and PLs became more round and spread abnormally after parasitism, whereas the shape of other types of hemocytes remained unaffected. In addition, the size of PRs and PLs became larger while OEs became smaller. The proportion of PRs significantly increased after parasitism and that of PLs decreased by 43.9%, but there was no significant increase of GRs and OEs. TEM showed that all types of hemocytes except COs were damaged to various degrees after parasitism, especially resulting in electron opaque cytoplasm and nucleus, fewer cell organelles of rough endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and vesicles. Our results indicate that parasitism by P. puparum affects differential hemocyte counts and structures of host hemocytes, particularly for GRs and PLs, which may be the main cause of the parasitoid suppressing host cellular immune responses.

The iridium complexes of chiral spiro aminophophine ligands, es- pecially the ligand with 3,5-di-tert-bu- tylphenyl groups on the P atom ( 1c ) were demonstrated to be highly effi- cient catalysts for the asymmetric hy- drogenation of alkyl aryl ketones. In the presence of KOtBu as a base and under mild reaction conditions, a series of chiral alcohols were synthesized in up to 97 % ee with high turnover number (TON up to 10 000) and high turnover frequency (TOF up to 3.7 � 10 4 h � 1 ). Investigation on the structures of the iridium complexes of ligands (R)- 1a and 1c by X-ray analyses dis- closed that the 3,5-di-tert-butyl groups on the P-phenyl rings of the ligand are the key factor for achieving high activi- ty and enantioselectivity of the catalyst. Study of the catalysts generated from the Ir-(R)- 1c complex and H2 by means of ESI-MS and NMR spectros- copy indicated that the early formed iridium dihydride complex with one (R)- 1c ligand was the active species, which was slowly transformed into an inactive iridium dihydride complex with two (R)- 1c ligands. A plausible mechanism for the reaction was also suggested to explain the observations of the hydrogenation reactions.

Magnetite nanoparticles were applied to remove Ni(II) from aqueous solutions as a function of pH, contact time, supporting electrolyte concentration, and analytical initial Ni(II) concentration. The highly crystalline nature of the magnetite structure with diameter of around 10 nm was characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The surface area was determined to be 115.3 m 2 /g. Surface chemical properties of magnetite at 25°C in aqueous suspensions were investigated. The point of zero charge (pHzpc) was found to be 7.33 and the intrinsic acidity constants (pK s a1 and pK s a2 ) were found to be 9.3 and 5.9, respectively. The surface functional groups were investigated with Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as well. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the adsorption kinetics and mechanism of Ni(II) by these magnetite nanoparticles. The adsorption process was found to be pH dependent. In NaCl solutions, Ni(II) adsorption increased with increasing ionic strength while in NaClO 4 solutions, Ni(II) adsorption exhibited little dependence on the ionic strength of the solution. The adsorption process better followed the pseudo-second order equation and Freundlich isotherm.

Solution-processable small molecules (SMs) have attracted intense attention due to their definite molecular structures, less batch-to-batch variation, and easier structure control. Herein, two new SM donors based on substituted isatin unit (DI3T, DI3T-2F) are synthesized and applied as electron donors with the mixture of PC71 BM to construct organic photovoltaics. As a result, 5,6-difluoro isatin derivative (DI3T-2F) obtains a power conversion efficiency of 7.80% by a simple solution spin-coating fabrication process without any additives, solvent, or thermal annealing process. More intuitively, due to stronger intermolecular interaction and higher hole mobility after the incorporation of fluorine atoms in end units, the devices present good tolerance to active layer thickness. The results indicate that DI3T-2F shows promising potential for large-scale printing processes and flexible application of efficient small molecule organic solar cells.

Two CuII complexes [Cu3(2,2′-bipy)2(pdc)2)(H2O)2]·2H2O (1) and [Cu4(2,2′-bipy)2(pdc)2(OH)2]n·2nH2O (2) (2,2′-bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine; H3pdc = 3,5-pyrazoledicarboxylic acid) were synthesized under hydrothermal reaction conditions. Because of different experimental conditions, the structure of complex 1 is built up of a trinuclear CuII unit and solvate water molecules, whereas complex 2 has an novel one-dimensional coordination polymeric structure linked by three kinds of bridging groups in an alternating manner. Magnetic susceptibility measurements of the compounds were performed and indicated antiferromagnetic interactions in 1 and ferromagnetic interactions in 2.

The spiro pyridine-aminophosphine catalyst ligands (I) are successfully applied in the title reaction to afford the alcohol products with excellent enantioselectivity.

The asymmetric O—H insertion of α-diazo phosphonates with alcohols in the presence of a catalyst, generated in situ from a Cu(I) precursor, a chiral spiro bisoxazoline ligand and a sodium borate, provides good yields of α-alkoxy phosphonates with high enantioselectivities.

The title iridium complexes allow the asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones with up to 97% e.e.