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Objective To evaluate the morphology of the upper airway of children with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) combined with polysomnography (PSG) and provide references for clinical practice. Methods CBCT data of 45 OSAHS children and 45 normal children and PSG data of the OSAHS group were retrospectively collected. Three-dimensional reconstructions were performed using NNT 9.0 software. The total upper airway volume, nasopharyngeal volume, palatopharyngeal volume, glossopharyngeal volume, laryngopharyngeal volume, minimum cross-sectional area, anterior-posterior diameter of the minimum cross-section, and lateral diameter of the minimum cross-section were measured and recorded. According to PSG monitoring results, patients with an obstructive apnea hypopnea index (OAHI) and lowest oxygen saturation (LSaO2) were assessed. Body mass index (BMI) was recorded. The correlation between airway volume parameters, BMI and PSG test results was analyzed. Results The total upper airway volume, nasopharyngeal volume, palatopharyngeal volume, glossopharyngeal volume, laryngopharyngeal volume, minimum cross-sectional area, anterior-posterior diameter of the minimum cross-section, and lateral diameter of the minimum cross-section of the OSAHS group were significantly reduced compared with those of the control group (P0.05). No significant correlation was noted between BMI and PSG in the OSAHS group (P>0.05). Conclusion The morphology of the upper airway of children with OSAHS was significantly smaller than that of normal children. CBCT three-dimensional technology for analyzing the upper airway has a certain value in evaluating the morphology and degree of obstruction of the upper airway in children with OSAHS.

In this work, fabrication of Cu2O@Cu1.75S core‐shell octahedrons was achieved through a facile water bath stirring process. Compared with pure Cu2O, the composite showed enhanced sensing performance for NO2. The response value of Cu2O@Cu1.75S to 5 ppm NO2 at 40 °C is seven times that of Cu2O to 5 ppm NO2 at 75 °C. Moreover, Cu2O@Cu1.75S has the ability to detect 100 ppb NO2 and has good NO2 sensing selectivity and long‐term stability. This study shows that Cu2O@Cu1.75S hybrid is a type of outstanding NO2 gas sensing material on account of its low working temperature and high sensing sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic modification of industrial yeast strains often faces more difficulties than that of laboratory strains. Thus, new approaches are still required. In this research, the Angel Yeast‐derived haploid strain Kα was genetically modified by multiple rounds of δ‐integration, which was achieved via URA3 recycling. Three δ‐integrative plasmids, pGδRU, pGδRU‐BGL, and pGδRU‐EG, were first constructed with two 167 bp δ sequences and a repeat‐URA3‐repeat fragment. Then, the δ‐integrative strains containing the bgl1 or egl2 gene were successfully obtained by one‐time transformation of the linearized pGδRU‐BGL or pGδRU‐EG fragment, respectively. Their counterparts in which the URA3 gene was looped out were also easily isolated by selection for growth on 5´‐fluoroorotic acid plates, although the ratio of colonies lacking URA3 to the total number of colonies decreased with increasing copy number of the corresponding integrated cellulase‐encoding gene. Similar results were observed during the second round of δ‐integration, in which the δ‐integration strain Kα(δ::bgl1‐repeat) obtained from the first round was transformed with a linearized pGδRU‐EG fragment. After 10 rounds of cell growth and transfer to fresh medium, the doubling times and enzyme activities of Kα(δ::bgl1‐repeat), Kα(δ::egl2‐repeat), and Kα(δ::bgl1‐repeat)(δ::egl2‐repeat) showed no significant change and were stable. Further, their maximum ethanol concentrations during simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of pretreated corncob over a 7‐day period were 46.35, 33.13, and 51.77 g/L, respectively, which were all substantially higher than the parent Kα strain. Thus, repetitive δ‐integration with URA3 recycling can be a feasible and valuable method for genetic engineering of Angel Yeast. These results also provide clues about some important issues related to δ‐integration, such as the structural stability of δ‐integrated genes and the effects of individual integration‐site locations on gene expression. Further be elucidation of these issues should help to fully realize the potential of δ‐integration‐based methods in industrial yeast breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a multifactorial syndrome caused by many risk factors, such as craniofacial anomalies, adenotonsillar hypertrophy, obesity, and airway inflammation. Although new treatment patterns have recently been proposed, treatment methods for children remain particularly challenging and controversial. This randomized controlled trial was designed to investigate the efficacy of adenotonsillectomy and/or orthodontic treatment for children who have mild OSAHS with mandibular retrognathia.Methods: A sample of 352 children with mild OSAHS and mandibular retrognathia, who are aged between 7 and 10 years, will be enrolled in the study. They will be randomized into four groups: the drug treatment group, the surgical treatment group, the orthodontic treatment group, or the surgery and postoperative orthodontic group. After randomization the children will receive treatments within 4 weeks. Outcome assessment will take place at the following points: (1) baseline, (2) 7 months after the treatment starting point, (3) 12 months after the treatment starting point, and (4) 24 months after the treatment starting point. The primary endpoint of the trial is the mean change in obstructive apnea/hypopnea index. Other endpoints will consist of the lowest oxygen saturation, apnea index, and hypopnea index assessed by polysomnography, subjective symptoms (assessed by the OSA-20 questionnaire), cephalometric measurements, and morphologic analysis of the upper airway.Discussion: The results of this study will provide valuable evidence for the merits and long-term efficacy of different treatment approaches and contribute to facilitating the multidisciplinary treatment of pediatric OSAHS.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT03451318. Registered on 2 March 2018 (last update posted 19 April 2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present work depicted a novel electrochemical sensor fabricated with magnetic carbon dots (M-CDs) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for selective measurement of 3,3′,5,5′-tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) in beverages. The M-CDs composite material revealed good electrocatalytic activity, and CTAB has strong hydrophobic interaction which enable it have good enrichment capacity of hydrophobic compounds, and combination of them further enhances the electrochemical signal. Hence CTAB decoration can markedly improve the detection performance of TBBPA. Electrochemical properties of the fabricated sensor was investigated through performing cyclic voltammetry (CV). The morphology and functional groups of the modified materials were examined with transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results indicated that the synthesized material had a spherical-like structure, good dispersion properties and plenty of functional groups on the surface. The effects of incubation potential, incubation time, pH of electrolyte, and scanning rate on oxidation peak current were investigated. Under optimal conditions, the designed sensor had good linear range of 1 nM–1000 nM, and the detection of limit of the constructed sensor was 0.75 nM. The constructed sensor was utilized to detect TBBPA in vitamin water, scream drink and genki forest, and satisfactory detection performance had been achieved. • Magnetic carbon dots (M-CDs) were facile prepared with simple method. • M-CDs composite material revealed good electrocatalytic activity. • Novel electrochemical sensor was developed with M-CDs and CTAB. • Developed sensor provided good sensitivity of 0.75 nM for tetrabromobisphenol A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have received much attention due to their toxicity. Reliable methods to monitor their residues in the environment are needed. Here, magnetic polyamidoamine dendrimers were prepared by co-precipitation, Michael addition, and amidation. The magnetic polyamidoamine dendrimers demonstrated good adsorption ability for OCPs—this feature was utilized to construct a sensitive tool for monitoring OCPs in water samples. The proposed method provided remarkable linearity from 0.1 to 500 μg/L and satisfactory limits of detection from 0.012 to 0.029 μg/L. The spiked recoveries of the four target analytes were 91.8%−103.5% with relative standard deviations less than 4.5%. The magnetic materials had good reusability. The results indicated that the resulting method was an efficient, easy, rapid, economical, and eco-friendly tool for monitoring OCPs in aqueous samples. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a kind of hazardous persistent organic contaminants and widely present in nature due to large consumption in the past. Although PCBs have been banned in many countries of the world, they are still present at trace level in food and water samples. It is of significant value to establish reliable enrichment and detection method. Based on the conversion of the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity from heptanoic acid under alkali and acid, increasing the contact area between heptanoic acid and PCBs, a new switchable solvent micro-extraction method for PCBs from beverages was developed with good extraction efficiency using heptanoic acid as the extractant prior to gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The key parameters that had impact on enrichment of PCBs were investigated in detail. Under the optimal conditions, a good linearity can be achieved in a concentration range of 0.01–20 μg L−1 with the correlation coefficients of 0.9978–0.9994. Limits of detection for PCB28, PCB53, PCB206 were 3 ng L−1 and PCB118 was 5 ng L−1 while other target PCBs were 2 ng L−1. Intra-day and inter-day precisions were in the range of 1.9–4.2% and 2.1–4.2％(relative standard deviation, RSD, n = 6), respectively. The real sample spiked recoveries of the targets were in the range of 93.2–114.3％ (n = 3). The enrichment factors were in the range of 16.2–17.9. The results proved that this method was reliable for monitoring trace PCBs in beverage samples and will help for future assessments of impacts on human and animal health. • A switchable solvent microextraction method was established for enrichment of PCBs. • Enrichment is due to conversion between hydrophobic and hydrophilic forms of heptanoic acid. • The method was reliable, sensitive, simple and effective for measurement of PCBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ordered g–C 3 N 4 – and polyaniline-modified titanium oxide nanotube array (g–C 3 N 4 – and PANI-co-modified TiO 2 NTAs) was successfully synthesized and used as a photocatalyst. Polyaniline (PANI) was coated onto TiO 2 NTAs by electrochemical polycondensation, and g-C 3 N 4 was deposited via the soaking adsorption method. The photocatalysts were examined by several technologies. The experiments demonstrated that the amount of g-C 3 N 4 and PANI, as well as the initial pH value, had significant effects on the photocatalytic efficiency. The resulting photocatalysts exhibited high visible light photocatalytic ability for tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) for two reasons. First, PANI expanded the light absorption into the visible region. Second, rapid and efficient separation of photoinduced charges from the photogenerated potential difference were produced at the contact interface of g-C 3 N 4 and PANI-co-modified TiO 2 NTAs. The •OH, • O 2 − and h+ were dominant components for the photocatalytic degradation of TBBPA. In addition, the g-C 3 N 4 and PANI-co-modified TiO 2 NTAs have excellent long-term stability. • g–C 3 N 4 – and PANI-co-modified TiO 2 NTAs was synthesized by a facile method. • g–C 3 N 4 – and PANI-co-modified TiO 2 NTAs markedly enhanced photocatalytic activity. • g-C 3 N 4 and PANI co-modification generated strongly synergistic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2,4,6-Trinitrophenol (TNP) has absorbed much concerns because of its toxic effect and threat on the environment, which results from the fact that it is an important and universal reagent widely utilized for manufacturing many products. It is of great necessity to explore facile and efficient methods for monitoring TNP. In present study, carbon dots (CDs), a new carbonaceous nanomaterial with strong fluorescence, was applied to build a novel sensor for highly sensitive and selective detection of TNP. In the sensing procedure, the fluorescence intensity of as-prepared CDs was diminished with the presence of TNP due to inner filter effect (IFE) quenching mechanism. The sensitivity of the fluorescent sensor was very high with limit of detection down to 5.37 ng mL−1. This fluorescent sensor was evaluated and excellent spiked recoveries were gained, which demonstrated that the developed sensor would be a robust tool for environmental applications. Unlabelled Image • Fluorescent CDs were prepared by a facile and reliable method. • Sensitive sensor was developed with carbon dots based on inner filter effect. • This sensor earned high sensitivity with LOD of 5.37 ng mL−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]