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An efficient copper-catalyzed oxidative cyclization of diynes is described. A range of functionalized γ-lactams can be readily constructed by using this protocol. This copper-catalyzed oxidative process proceeds through an alkyne oxidation, carbene/alkyne metathesis, and donor–donor carbene oxidation sequence. The use of readily available substrates, high flexibility, a simple procedure, and mild reaction conditions render the procedure a viable alternative for the preparation of functionalized γ-lactams.

Finding more metal complexes with outstanding water stability and high proton conductivity still has important research significance for the energy field. Herein, two highly proton-conductive complexes, one hydrogen-bonded supramolecular framework (HSF) [Cd(CBIA)

Phosphoribosyl-pyrophosphate synthetase 2 (PRPS2) is a rate-limiting enzyme and plays an important role in purine and pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis. Recent studies report that PRPS2 is involved in male infertility. However, the role of PRPS2 in hypospermatogenesis is unknown. In this study, the relationship of PRPS2 with hypospermatogenesis and spermatogenic cell apoptosis was investigated. The results showed that PRPS2 depletion increased the number of apoptotic spermatogenic cells in vitro. PRPS2 was downregulated in a mouse model of hypospermatogenesis. When PRPS2 expression was knocked down in mouse testes, hypospermatogenesis and accelerated apoptosis of spermatogenic cells were noted. E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) was confirmed as the target gene of PRPS2 and played a key role in cell apoptosis by regulating the P53/Bcl-xl/Bcl-2/Caspase 6/Caspase 9 apoptosis pathway. Therefore, these data indicate that PRPS2 depletion contributes to the apoptosis of spermatogenic cells and is associated with hypospermatogenesis, which may be helpful for the diagnosis of male infertility.

Objectives Minocycline is increasingly used clinically for treating infections due to multidrug resistant bacteria. We previously reported that the serum protein binding of minocycline atypically correlated with total concentration using microdialysis, but the therapeutic implications of this finding remained unclear. The objective of this study was to ascertain the functional impact of serum protein binding on bacterial killing. Methods Time-kill experiments using 4 strains of Acinetobacter baumannii were conducted comparing the activity of minocycline in mouse serum (50 mg/L) and 50% cation-adjusted Mueller-Hinton broth (CA-MHB) (4 mg/L). As a control, similar experiments were also conducted for a clinically achievable levofloxacin concentration (4 mg/L) in serum and 50% CA-MHB (2 mg/L). Serial samples were collected in duplicate over 6 hours, and bacterial burden was determined by quantitative culture. Results Minocycline exhibited concentration-dependent bactericidal activity against the reference strain in mouse and human serum. Despite using approximately 10× the peak concentration associated with clinical dosing, only moderate bacterial killing was observed. All the minocycline killing profiles in serum were inferior to those observed in CA-MHB. In contrast, the reduction in bactericidal activity seen with levofloxacin was less dramatic. Conclusion Antimicrobial activity of minocycline was dramatically reduced in the presence of serum, which corroborated with our atypical serum protein binding findings. If validated, these results implied dose escalation might not the best approach to improve the clinical efficacy of minocycline for bacteremia. Future investigations will focus on the specificity and mechanism(s) of minocycline protein binding.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of intraoperative administration of flurbiprofen on postoperative levels of programmed death 1 (PD-1) in patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery. Materials and Methods: In this prospective double-blind trial, patients were randomized to receive intralipid (control group, n = 34, 0.1 mL/kg, i.v.) or flurbiprofen axetil (flurbiprofen group, n = 34, 50 mg, i.v.) before induction of anesthesia. PD-1 levels on T cell subsets, inflammation, and immune markers in peripheral blood were examined before the induction of anesthesia (T0) and 24 h (T1), 72 h (T2), and 1 week (T3) after surgery. A linear mixed model was used to determine whether the changes from baseline values (T0) between groups were significantly different. Results: The increases in the percentage of PD-1(+)CD8(+) T cells observed at T1 and T2 in the control group were higher than those in the flurbiprofen group (T1: 12.91 ± 1.65 vs. 7.86 ± 5.71%, p = 0.031; T2: 11.54 ± 1.54 vs. 8.75 ± 1.73%, p = 0.004), whereas no differences were observed in the changes in the percentage of PD-1(+)CD4(+) T cells at T1 and T2 between the groups. Moreover, extensive changes in the percentage of lymphocyte subsets and inflammatory marker concentrations were observed at T1 and T2 after surgery and flurbiprofen attenuated most of these changes. Conclusions: Perioperative administration of flurbiprofen attenuated the postoperative increase in PD-1 levels on CD8(+) T cells up to 72 h after surgery, but not after this duration. The clinical relevance of changes in PD-1 levels to long-term surgical outcome remains unknown.

Recently, there has been growing interest in the decomposition of multilinear component models in the field of multi-way calibration. In this work, a novel quadrilinear decomposition method, i.e. four-way algorithm combination method (FACM), is proposed for four-way calibration. The FACM skillfully integrates the alternating quadrilinear decomposition (AQLD) algorithm with the four-way parallel factor analysis (FPARAFAC) algorithm and gives full play to their advantages. The performance of the FACM and the existing five algorithms are compared by using two simulated data sets. Moreover, a published four-way data array and a new four-way data array, which record a series of fluorescence spectra information of biomarkers in biological samples, are investigated by the proposed method respectively. The results demonstrate that the novel method can accurately and effectively extract the qualitative and quantitative information of analytes of interest even in the presence of unknown interferents and varying background. Besides, the FACM has attractive properties, such as very fast convergence, insensitive to initial values and excess number of components, and suitable for high noise level as well as severely collinear data. In addition, the proposed method can also be extended to combine other iterative algorithms, providing a feasible idea for the exploration and development of new algorithms.

Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) are seen as an effective tool to control urban sprawl and promote sustainable urban development. Existing methodologies related to urban boundary delineation focus mainly on increasing land intensification and compact urban development. However, it is not sufficient to focus on optimal urban development, especially in China. The delineation of UGBs should not only take into account the heterogeneity of regional natural resources but also further reconcile urban–ecological conflict. Therefore, this paper proposes a new framework for delineating UGBs in an ecologically sustainable manner. This study first uses the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and ecological sensitivity as a basis for ecological constraints (EC). Both the background state of the regional ecology and ecological stress from human activities are considered to be constraints on urban sprawl. These ecological constraints are then combined with a CA-Markov model to simulate future urban development. The framework is applied to the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, an ecologically fragile region in China, where UGB delineation can be used not only to reconcile ecological and land-use planning conflict but also to ensure sustainable resource development in individual zoning districts. The results suggest that a plan that only considers urban development may have a negative impact on the conservation of natural resources and ecological sustainability. The delineation of UGBs based on the proposed EC-CA-Markov model will thus help guide sustainable urban development. The conceptual and methodological advances in this study are applicable to other ecologically fragile cities and can help in the delineation of UGBs.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has infected millions of individuals in the world. However, the long-term effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the organs of recovered patients remains unclear. This study is to evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the spleen and T lymphocytes. Seventy-six patients recovered from COVID-19, including 66 cases of moderate pneumonia and 10 cases of severe pneumonia were enrolled in the observation group. The control group consisted of 55 age-matched healthy subjects. The thickness and length of spleen were measured by using B-ultrasound and the levels of T lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry. Results showed that the mean length of spleen in the observation group was 89.57 ± 11.49 mm, which was significantly reduced compared with that in the control group (103.82 ± 11.29 mm

To investigate the expression of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthase 2 (PRPS2) in the human testis and its clinical significance.Using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry, we detected the expression of PRPS2 mRNA in the testis tissue of the men with normal spermatogenesis or mile, moderate or severe hypospermatogenesis (HS) and that of the PRPS2 protein in the testicular biopsy tissue of 67 adult males. Then, we analyzed the relationship of the PRPS2 expressions with the testicular histological types and clinical parameters of the subjects.The expression of PRPS2 mRNA in the testis tissue was significantly higher in the normal spermatogenesis group than in the moderate and severe HS groups (P0.01). The positive expression of the PRPS2 protein was 70.0% in the normal spermatogenesis group, 66.7% in the mild HS group, 50.0% in the moderate HS group and 23.8% in the severe HS group, significantly higher in the normal spermatogenesis and mild HS groups than in the moderate and severe HS groups (P0.01). No significant correlation, however, was observed between the PRPS2 expression and clinical parameters of the subjects (P0.05).PRPS2 is lowly expressed in the testis tissue of the men with hypospermatogenesis and its expression level may help the diagnosis of male infertility and the prediction of the spermatogenic function of the testis.

The pathological mechanism of corneal injuries mediated by alkali burns are associated with Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor (NLR) family pyrin domain containing 3 protein (NLRP3)-related corneal sterile inflammation. Whether the executive protein gasdermin D (GSDMD) of pyroptosis mediated by the NLRP3 inflammasome is present in alkali-induced corneal lesions remains unclear. Dexamethasone (Dex) is a commonly used drug for ocular surface diseases that can maintain corneal transparency and anti-inflammatory effects by topical administration. Here, we presented evidence that the effect of Dex on the pyroptosis-related caspase-1/GSDMD pathway in corneal alkali burns (CABs). We assessed the clinical manifestations and histological characteristics of the placebo group (PBS), 0.05% Dex group, 0.1% Dex group on day 3 or day 7 postburn and the control group (healthy corneas). The expression of factors (including NLRP3, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, GSDMD, GSDMD-N termini, pro-interleukin-1β, interleukin-1β, pro-interleukin-18 and interleukin-18) involved in the pyroptosis related caspase-1/GSDMD signaling pathway was demonstrated by molecular experiments in CAB. Alkali burns can upregulate the originally relatively dim expression of NLRP3, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, GSDMD, GSDMD-N, interleukin-(IL)1β, pro-IL-1β, pro-IL-18 and IL-18 and IL-18 in the healthy corneal epithelium and stroma. However, Dex can reverse the enhanced expression at the two timepoints. Corneal sterile inflammation can activate the NLRP3 inflammasome through the innate immune response mechanism and then activate the pyroptosis-related caspase-1/GSDMD signaling pathway. In addition, Dex can inhibit pyroptosis through this pathway.

A smart chemometrics-assisted strategy that combines the full scan mode of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry with second-order calibration method based on alternating trilinear decomposition algorithm was developed for the rapid determination of 15 glucocorticoids including the epimers betamethasone and dexamethasone illegally added into face masks. Fifteen glucocorticoids were rapidly eluted (11 min) under a simple elution program. By means of the second-order calibration method, 15 target analytes were successfully quantified in the presence of peak overlaps, unknown interferences and baseline drifts. Notably, the epimers, namely, betamethasone and dexamethasone, were simultaneously quantified by the proposed method under a simple elution program. The average spiked recoveries for all target analytes ranged from 87.3 ± 2.2 to 119.4 ± 5.8%. The validation parameters including sensitivity, selectivity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and precision were calculated to validate the accuracy of the proposed method, and the quantitative analysis results were further confirmed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. All results proved that the proposed chemometrics-assisted liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry strategy was an accurate and fast method to determine epimers and multiple glucocorticoids in complex face mask samples.

This paper proposes a flexible and novel strategy that alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) method combines with two-dimensional linear discriminant analysis (2D-LDA). The developed strategy was applied to three-way chemical data for the characterization and classification of samples. In order to confirm the methodology performances of characterization and classification, a series of simulated three-way data arrays and a real-life EEMs data set involving the characterization and classification of tea samples according to the tea varieties were subjected to ATLD-2DLDA analysis. Further, the obtained results were compared with those obtained by using LDA based on relative concentrations of ATLD (ATLD-LDA), discriminant analysis by N-way partial least square (N-PLS-DA) and 2D-LDA method. For the simulated data sets with respect to different levels of noise and class overlap as well as number of groups, the ATLD-2DLDA always obtains superior classification performances than the ATLD-LDA, 2D-LDA and N-PLS-DA methods. Regarding the real EEMs data set of tea samples, the proposed methodology not only could provide a chemically meaningful model of the data for characterizing the different tea varieties, but also achieved the best correct classification rate (100%) for the test samples, compared with the results of ATLD-LDA (83.9%), 2D-LDA (90.3%) and N-PLS-DA (90.3%). These results demonstrated that the proposed methodology was indeed a feasible and reliable tool for characterization and classification of three-way chemical data arrays in a flexible and accurate manner.

The aim of the present work was to develop a rapid and interference-free method based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for the simultaneous determination of nine B-group vitamins in various energy drinks. A smart and green strategy that modeled the three-way data array of LC-MS with second-order calibration methods based on alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) and alternating penalty trilinear decomposition (APTLD) algorithms was developed. By virtue of "mathematical separation" and "second-order advantage", the proposed strategy successfully solved the co-eluted peaks and unknown interferents in LC-MS analysis with the elution time less than 4.5min and simple sample preparation. Satisfactory quantitative results were obtained by the ATLD-LC-MS and APTLD-LC-MS methods for the spiked recovery assays, with the average spiked recoveries ranging from 87.2-113.9% to 92.0-111.7%, respectively. These results acquired from the proposed methods were confirmed by the LC-MS/MS method, which shows a quite good consistency with each other. All these results demonstrated that the developed chemometrics-assisted LC-MS strategy had advantages of being rapid, green, accurate and low-cost, and it could be an attractive alternative for the determination of multiple vitamins in complex food matrices, which required no laborious sample preparation, tedious condition optimization or more sophisticated instrumentations.

In this work, a smart strategy that combines three-way high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) data with second-order calibration method based on alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm was proposed for simultaneous determination of eleven non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) illegally added into Chinese patent drugs and health products. All target analytes were rapidly eluted out within 14.5 min under a simple gradient elution. With the aid of the prominent “second-order advantage” of the ATLD algorithm, three HPLC problems, i.e. peak overlaps, unknown interferences and baseline drift, could be mathematically calibrated, and pure signals of target analytes could be extracted out from heavy-interference but information-rich HPLC-DAD data. The average spiked recoveries for all target analytes were in the range of 95.9%–106.4% with standard deviations lower than 7.5%. Validation parameters including sensitivity (SEN), selectivity (SEL), limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantitation (LOQ) and precisions of intra-day and inter-day were calculated to validate the accuracy of the proposed method, quantitative results were further confirmed by the classic HPLC method, which proved that chemometrics-assisted HPLC-DAD analytical strategy was highly efficient, accurate and green for drug-abuse monitoring of NSAIDs in Chinese patent drugs and health products.

In the present study, a smart analytical strategy that combines liquid chromatography-full scan mass spectrometry with the second-order calibration method based on the alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven estrogens in infant milk powders. The seven estrogens were rapidly eluted out within 7.0 min under a simple gradient condition and then, they were detected by mass spectrometry operated in the full scan mode. With the aid of the prominent “second-order advantage” of the algorithm, specific qualitative and quantitative information about the target analytes could be extracted from the complex system even in the presence of considerable peak overlaps, baseline drifts and unknown interferences. The proposed strategy avoided time-consuming and laborious sample pretreatment procedures, resulting in minimal loss of analytes, which improved the analytical accuracy. Average recoveries of the seven estrogens in two spiked infant milk powder samples were in the range of 91.2–104.2% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 5.0% (with the exception for 17α-estradiol), and the limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.07 to 2.49 ng mL−1. Besides, to further confirm the feasibility and reliability of the proposed method, the same batch of samples was analyzed using the LC-MS/MS method, and the statistical tests showed that no significant difference existed between the two methods, which fully indicated that the proposed strategy could provide satisfactory prediction results in real infant milk powder samples as well as other actual chemical systems.

A three-way data array in the trilinear component model can be described into sliced matrices and then decomposed into three underlying matrices by iterative procedure. In this paper, we make an in-depth study of the quadrilinear component model, generalize the “slice” to the four-way scenario, and develop a novel quadrilinear decomposition algorithm for third-order calibration, i.e., slicing alternating quadrilinear decomposition (SAQLD). The presently developed algorithm can be considered as a generalization of ATLD to four-way case. In the algorithm, updates of four underlying matrices are alternately iterated until convergence is reached. Operation of extracting diagonal elements is adopted, which makes SAQLD focus on extracting the quadrilinear part in data, leading to a significant decrease in the loss function and finally a high-performance computing strategy for SAQLD, i.e., fast convergence. Owing to its specific optimization approach, the proposed SAQLD algorithm recovers parameter matrices faster when compared with the existing quadrilinear decomposition algorithms. Both numerical simulations and experimental measurements demonstrate that third-order calibration based on the SAQLD algorithm allows one to obtain quantitative information regarding known constituents present in samples without worrying about other interferents. Moreover, quantitative results supplied by the SAQLD algorithm are still satisfying when the number of components used in calculation is excessive. Such a feature is very useful in quantitative chemical analysis since it is not easy to accurately determine the appropriate number of components due to the complex of chemical substrates.

Well-dispersed graphene oxide sheets were successfully incorporated into a superabsorbent resin through in situ graft polymerization of acrylic acid on carboxymethyl cellulose backbone in the presence of graphene oxide as filler. The structure and properties of the resultant superabsorbent resin were studied in detail by means of a variety of characterization methods. The influence of the feed ratio of starting materials (such as GO, initiator, cross-linker, the ratio of CMC to AA and the neutralized degree of AA) and pH values on water absorbency and retention ability was extensively determined and discussed. The obtained results showed that the introduction of graphene oxide had no obvious influence on the inherent structure of the superabsorbent resin but changed the surface morphology significantly. Importantly, the hybrid superabsorbent resin showed an enhanced thermal stability and remarkably improved swelling ratio as well as water-retention ability comparing with that of the pure superabsorbent resin.

In the present work, a novel chemometrics-assisted analytical strategy that combines three-way high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) data with a second-order calibration method based on the alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm was developed for direct, accurate and simultaneous determination of thirteen phenolic compounds in complex red wine samples without an intricate clean-up step. All analytes were rapidly eluted out (7.5 min) under a simple gradient LC-separation and then detected in a multi-channel UV window. With the aid of the prominent “second-order advantage” of the ATLD algorithm, four common HPLC problems, i.e. solvent peaks, peak overlaps, unknown interferents and baseline drifts, could be mathematically calibrated, enabling “pure signals” of analytes to be extracted out from interference-heavy but information-rich HPLC-DAD profiles. The new strategy could avoid the loss of analytes of interest to significantly improve the analytical accuracy. Validation parameters, i.e. recovery (97.7–104%), precision (RSD < 7.1%), matrix effect, limits of detection (LODs, 0.02–0.27 μg mL−1) and limits of quantitation (LOQs, 0.06–0.82 μg mL−1) of thirteen analytes, were surveyed and further confirmed by the LC-MS/MS method. Based on the indexes of phenolic compositions in wines, pattern recognition methods, i.e. principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA), were applied for distinguishing wines of different storage years, and the discriminant accuracies were higher than 90%, which proved that this chemometrics-assisted HPLC-DAD strategy was an excellent method for direct and accurate determination of phenolic compositions in complex wine samples as well as the authentication of vintage year.

Mycotoxins are a class of highly carcinogenic substances often naturally occurring in the moldy foods especially cereals. In the present work, a smart chemometrics-assisted analytical strategy that combines liquid chromatography-full scan-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) detection with second-order calibration method based on alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm is developed for direct, fast and interference-free determination of multi-class regulated mycotoxins in complex cereal samples with one-step ultrasound-assisted extraction. Ten mycotoxins with different property are fast eluted out (9.0 min) under a simple gradient LC-separation and detected by full scanning MS with a segmented fragment program. With the aid of prominent "second-order advantage" of the algorithm, the problems of co-eluted peaks, unknown interferences and baseline drifts occurring in the LC-MS profiles are mathematically resolved, making "pure signals" of targeted analytes can be extracted out from heavily interferential information. The new strategy avoids intricate physical/chemical clean-up steps to significantly improve the accuracy of the trace analysis of mycotoxins, average recoveries of ten analytes in both complex cereal samples (maize and rice) range from 93.8 to 109% with standard deviations (SD) lower than 9.8%, and the limits of detection (LOD) range from 0.01 to 1.17 μg kg −1 . In order to further confirm the reliability of the method, the same batch of samples is analyzed using LC-MS 2 method with complicated immunoaffinity column (IAC) purification step, the elliptical joint confidence region (EJCR) tests of quantitative results of ten mycotoxins show that higher precision is obtained using the proposed method. Therefore, this new strategy can be as an attractive alternative for simple, fast and accurate determination of multi-class mycotoxins in complex cereal samples.

Ubiquitin conjugating enzyme (E2) is crucial for mediating N-terminal ubiquitination. Recent study reports that UBE2W is involved in male infertility. However, the correlation between UBE2W expression and hypospermatogenesis is unclear. The present study is to explore the biological role of UBE2W and its association with hypospermatogenesis. Results showed that the sexpression levels of UBE2W in mouse testes were gradually elevated from 2 to 10 weeks, while were significantly deceased in the testes with hypospermatogenesis. When UBE2W expression was successfully down-regulated in spermatogenic cells, the rate of apoptosis was significantly increased and the P53/Bcl-2/caspase 6/caspase 9 signal pathways were activated. Thus, these data indicate that UBE2W down-regulation promotes cell apoptosis and correlates with hypospermatogenesis, which may be helpful for the diagnosis of male infertility.

The 2,2′-biphenyl-4,4′-dicarboxylate (H2bpy-4,4′-dc) and 2,2′-Bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)-biphenyl (bipb) have been selected as the bridging ligands. One zinc(II) MOF, [Zn(bpy-4,4′-dc)(bipb)]n has been successfully obtained by hydrothermal reaction and synthesis. The molecular structure has been elucidated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex possesses of 1D block chain [(bpy-4,4′-dc)2(bibp)2Zn4]. Taking advantage of the tetrahedral coordination preference of the Zn metal centers, the connected chains adopt a folding conformation to form a two-dimensional architecture. The complex was further characterized by IR spectroscopy, PXRD pattern, fluorescent spectra, and thermal stability measurements.

A fast analytical method that combines second-order calibration based on alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm with excitation–emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence technique is proposed to mathematically separate the overlapped spectra and simultaneously quantify arbutin (AR) and hydroquinone (HQ) in cosmetic products. This method inherits the merit of high sensitivity of traditional fluorescence and fully realizes the “second-order advantage”. For AR and HQ, the calibration ranges are 40.00–400.00 and 20.00–200.00 ng mL−1, respectively. The limits of detection for both analytes are in the range of 1.51–4.01 ng mL−1. The proposed method could be applied to diluted samples of different cosmetic products with satisfactory results. The actual concentrations of AR in the tested cosmetic products are found to be in the allowable concentration range (7%); while, the prohibited skin whitening agent HQ is detected in lotion. The contents of AR and HQ in the tested cosmetic products obtained by the proposed method are also in accordance with those of the validated high-performance liquid chromatographic method. These satisfactory results indicate that the proposed method has the potential to accurately quantify AR and HQ in complex matrices containing uncalibrated interferents, and shows promise as a reliable tool for quality monitoring of cosmetic products.

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a group of significant and ubiquitous enzymes plays a critical function in plant growth and development. Previously this gene family has been investigated inArabidopsisand rice; it has not yet been characterized in cotton. In our study, it was the first time for us to perform a genome-wide analysis of SOD gene family in cotton. Our results showed that 10 genes of SOD gene family were identified inGossypium arboreumandGossypium raimondii, including 6 Cu-Zn-SODs, 2 Fe-SODs, and 2 Mn-SODs. The chromosomal distribution analysis revealed that SOD genes are distributed across 7 chromosomes inGossypium arboreumand 8 chromosomes inGossypium raimondii. Segmental duplication is predominant duplication event and major contributor for expansion of SOD gene family. Gene structure and protein structure analysis showed that SOD genes have conserved exon/intron arrangement and motif composition. Microarray-based expression analysis revealed that SOD genes have important function in abiotic stress. Moreover, the tissue-specific expression profile reveals the functional divergence of SOD genes in different organs development of cotton. Taken together, this study has imparted new insights into the putative functions of SOD gene family in cotton. Findings of the present investigation could help in understanding the role of SOD gene family in various aspects of the life cycle of cotton.

A novel ‘dilute-and-shoot’ analytical strategy coupling a self-weighted alternating normalized residue fitting (SWANRF) algorithm with two-dimensional fluorescence detection enhanced through photochemical derivatization (PD) was proposed in the present work for rapid, simultaneous and accurate quantitative analysis of aflatoxin B1 and G1 in various foodstuffs (including cereals, honey, and edible oil). By coupling the predominant second-order advantage of the SWANRF algorithm with the ultra-sensitivity of fluorescence detection enhanced through off-line photochemical derivatization, the specific quantitative information of both analytes could be successfully extracted from heavily interferential matrices without complicated multi-step purification and chromatographic separation procedures. Consequently, the whole analytical time and expense were significantly decreased, accurate recoveries (with relative standard deviations, RSDs) (93.5 ± 6.6–102.8 ± 4.0% for AFB1, and 96.4 ± 3.6–107.2 ± 6.0% for AFG1) and extremely low limits of detection (LODs) (0.12–0.21 ng mL−1 for AFB1, and 0.27–0.75 ng mL−1 for AFG1) were obtained for analytical foodstuff matrices. In addition, all quantitative results of this proposed strategy were carefully compared with the standard IAC-LC-ESI+-MS method for further confirmation, which proved that SWANRF-EEMs are promising as an alternative analytical strategy for the routine analysis of multiplex aflatoxins, and a theoretical basis for developing portable detecting devices.

Acquired resistance to chemotherapy is a major limitation for the successful treatment of lung cancer. Previously, we and others showed that formation of tumor spheres is associated with chemotherapy resistance in lung cancer cells, but the underlying mechanisms remained largely unknown. In the current study, we show that mitochondrial activity is significantly higher in A549 tumor spheres versus monolayer cells, establishing mitochondria as a putative target for antitumor therapy. To this end, we designed a peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) coupled with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) to target the displacement loop (D-loop) regulatory region of mitochondrial DNA (PNA-mito). Treatment with PNA-mito significantly disrupted mitochondrial gene expression, inhibited membrane potential and mitochondria fusion, resulting in proliferation inhibition and cell death. Consistently, in mouse xenograft models, PNA-mito could efficiently inhibit mitochondrial gene expression and block tumor growth. Treatment with a low dose of PNA-mito could significantly enhance the chemotoxicity of cisplatin (CDDP) in drug-resistant A549 tumor spheres. These results establish mitochondria-targeting PNAs as a novel strategy to enhance the accumulative therapeutic outcome of lung cancer.

Yes-associated protein (YAP) serves a critical role in the initiation and progression of a variety of types of cancer via modulating the expression of genes involved in cell proliferation and the downregulation of apoptosis. Recent studies have suggested that YAP is responsible for the development of drug resistance and cancer metastasis and recurrence. However, the association between YAP and chemoresistance in lung cancer, particularly in lung cancer stem cells (LCSCs) remains largely unknown. In the current study, lung cancer cell spheres were established using the A549 cell line, which demonstrated stem cell properties. It was revealed that YAP was overexpressed in lung cancer spheres compared with normal A549 adherent cells and was associated with enhanced cisplatin (CDDP) resistance. Knockdown of YAP effectively sensitized the adherent A549 and tumor spheres to CDDP treatment and resulted in enhanced cell death. These results suggest that YAP serves a critical role in LCSCs drug resistance and YAP targeting could become a promising adjuvant to current the chemotherapy for lung cancer.

The presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is the source of occurrence, aggravation, and recurrence of lung cancer. Accordingly, targeting killing the lung CSCs has been suggested to be an effective approach for lung cancer treatment. In this study, we showed that rapamycin inhibited the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signal transduction in A549 cells and improved the sensitivity to cisplatin (DDP). The mechanisms involve inhibition of the SOX2 expression, cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype, and sphere formation. Interestingly, knocked down SOX2 was a similar effect with rapamycin in A549 sphere. Furthermore, we showed that ectopic expression of Sox2 in A549 cells was sufficient to render them more resistant to rapamycin treatment in vitro. These data suggested that rapamycin inhibited the function of lung CSCs via SOX2. It will be of great interest to further explore the therapeutic strategies of lung cancer.

Coordination complexes [Cd(bpy-3,3′-dc)(bibp)(H2O)3]n (1), [Zn(bpy-3,3′-dc)(bibp)(H2O)2.5]n (2), [Cd2(bpy-3,3′-dc)(ptd)2(H2O)6](ClO4)2(H2O)5 (3) and [Zn2(bpy-3,3′-dc)(ptd)2(H2O)6](ClO4)2(H2O)6(CH3CN) (4) have been synthesized by the reaction of 2,2′-bipyridine-3,3′-dicarboxylic acid (H2bpy-3,3′-dc) and bipb or ptd with the Zn(II) or Cd(II) salts using different methods, where the bipb and ptd are 2,2′-bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)-biphenyl and 1,10-Phenanthroline-5,6-dione, respectively. Compound 1 featured a 1D chain, in which the metal centers bridged by bpy-3,3′-dc was chiral. Two chiral chains linked by bibp ligands were formed in a centro-symmetric fashion. Complex 2 was a two-dimensional network arising from two kinds of 21 helical chains. Being linked by a bpy-3,3′-dc ligand, the two metal centers in 3 and 4 exhibited the same absolute configuration. These binuclear units acted as chiral origins and were interconnected by directional hydrogen-bond interactions to form a 3D homochiral network. Significant CD signals exhibited that chiral solids were crystallized through the spontaneous resolution.

A novel intrinsic fluorescence method for the direct determination of l-phenylalanine, l-tyrosine, and l-tryptophan in human plasma is presented. By using fluorescence excitation-emission-pH-sample data array in combination with four-way calibration method based on the quadrilinear component model, the proposed approach successfully achieved quantitative analysis of the aromatic amino acids in human plasma, even in the presence of an unknown, uncalibrated serious interferent. It needs little preparation, uses the "mathematical separation" instead of "analytical separation", what makes it fast and environmentally friendly. Satisfactory results have been achieved for calibration set, validation set, and prediction set. The ranges for phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan are 2.0 × 10(3)-20.0 × 10(3), 50.0-500.0, and 20.0-200.0 ng mL(-1) respectively. Average spike recoveries (mean ± standard deviation) are 93.3 ± 7.7%, 104.3 ± 6.6%, and 99.5 ± 9.0% respectively. The real concentrations in human plasma are 10.2 ± 0.3, 6.6 ± 0.1, and 5.3 ± 0.1 μg mL(-1) respectively, which are consistent with the results obtained by LC-MS/MS method and reference values. In addition, we explored the third-order advantages through the real four-way array; it has shown that higher resolving power is one of the main advantages of higher-order tensor calibration method. These results demonstrated that the proposed method is sensitive, accurate, and efficient for direct quantitative analysis of aromatic amino acids in human plasma.

A practical analytical method based on intrinsic fluorescence is proposed for simultaneous determination of L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine, and L-tryptophan in cell culture and human plasma. By using a three-way calibration method coupled with excitation–emission matrix fluorescence, the proposed method successfully achieved quantitative analysis of the three aromatic amino acids in the two different complex systems simultaneously, even in the presence of three unknown, uncalibrated serious interferents. The method needs little preparation by using “mathematical separation” instead of chemical or physical separation, which makes it efficient and environmentally friendly. Satisfactory results have been achieved for calibration, validation, and prediction sets. For phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, the calibration ranges are 6.00 to 60.00, 0.40 to 4.00, and 0.10 to 1.00 μg mL−1 respectively. The average spike recoveries (mean ± standard deviation) are 98.5 ± 7.8%, 103.7 ± 6.9%, and 102.3 ± 7.9% respectively. The relative errors are −4.2%, 6.3%, and −0.8% for predicting real contents of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan in cell culture respectively. Additionally, we discussed the potential of the three-way calibration method for determining analytes of interest in different systems simultaneously, to further explore the second-order advantages. The paired t-test results indicate that the predicted results between prediction in two systems simultaneously and prediction in a single system individually have no significant difference. The satisfactory results obtained in this work indicate that the use of the three-way calibration method coupled with the EEM array is a promising tool for multi-component simultaneous determination in multiple complex systems containing uncalibrated spectral interferents.

In this work, a smart chemometrics-enhanced strategy, high-performance liquid chromatography and diode array detection coupled with second-order calibration method based on alternating trilinear decomposition algorithm was proposed to simultaneously quantify 12 polyphenols in different kinds of apple peel and pulp samples. The proposed strategy proved to be a powerful tool to solve the problems of co-elution, unknown interferences and chromatographic shifts in the process of high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, making it possible for the determination of 12 polyphenols in complex apple matrices within 10 min under simple conditions of elution. The average recoveries with standard deviations, and figures of merit including sensitivity, selectivity, limit of detection and limit of quantitation were calculated to validate the accuracy of the proposed method. Compared to the quantitative analysis results from the classic high-performance liquid chromatography method, the statistical and graphical analysis showed that our proposed strategy obtained more reliable results. All results indicated that our proposed method used in the quantitative analysis of apple polyphenols was an accurate, fast, universal, simple and green one, and it was expected to be developed as an attractive alternative method for simultaneous determination of multi-targeted analytes in complex matrices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

To establish a scientific method for identitication and evaluation of the Tibetan prescription Jia Ga Song Tang.Volatile oil was extracted by water steam distillation and analyzed by GC-MS. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were applied to the samples for chemical fingerprint pattern recognition research.16 samples according to hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were divided into two classes, and results from two recognition analysis methods had good consistency.GC-MS-pattern recognition method was a kind of scientific, accurate and effective method for the quality evaluation of Jia Ga Song Tang.

In this study, the species identifications of seven Ephedra plants, including three medicinal plants from the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, were conducted using phylogenetic analyses, and the method’s validity was verified. The phylogenetic trees constructed from the maturase-coding gene (matK) and internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) sequences showed that the former could be used for identifying five Ephedra plants, Ephedra intermedia, E. equisetina, E. antisyphilitica, E. major, and E. aphylla, but it had less power to discriminate E. sinica and E. przewalskii, while the latter could distinguish five Ephedra plants, E. przewalskii, E. equisetina, E. antisyphilitica, E. major, and E. aphylla, but it had less power to discriminate E. sinica and E. intermedia. However, when the two genes were combined, the seven species could be completely distinguished from each other, especially the medicinal plants from the others, which is significant in developing their pharmaceutical uses and in performing quality control assessments of herbal medicines. The method presented here could be applied to the analysis of processed Ephedra plants and to the identification of the botanical origins of crude drugs. Additionally, we discovered that E. equisetina and E. major were probably closely related to each other, and that E. sinica, E. intermedia, and E. przewalskii also had a close genetic relationship.

Molecule clips, di(2-quinoline-carboxaldehyde)-2,2′-bibenzoyl-hydrazone(H2L), with potential atropisomeric chirality was used as helicand for construction of dinuclear helicates. Reaction of the ligand with Co(NO3)2 and Cu(BF4)2 afforded dinuclear double helical complexes with the metal centers exhibiting the same absolute configurations. Thus the atropisomeric chiral bridging mode is main factor for the ligand to translate chirality of metal centers from one center to another.