Search

Background: Agar-like zona pellucida (ZP) is the most common type of abnormal ZP, and is one of the causes of low fertility or infertility. However, the molecular mechanism of agar-like ZP is unclear. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis was used to assess the cellular and molecular landscape of oocytes with agar-like ZP. Methods: Human metaphase I (MI) oocytes were collected from four patients with agar-like ZP and four healthy donors. Total RNA was isolated, cDNA was synthesized, and libraries were generated and subsequently sequenced on a HiSeq 2500 instrument. The scRNA-seq data were analyzed with R software. Results: We identified 1320 genes that were differentially expressed between agar-like ZP oocytes and healthy donor oocytes. Gene Ontology term enrichment results showed that the genes downregulated in agar-like ZP oocytes were significantly related to extracellular matrix organization, while the genes upregulated in agar-like ZP oocytes were significantly related to the regulation of response to DNA damage stimulus. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment results showed that genes were enriched in the ECM-receptor interaction pathway and focal adhesion pathway. Other signaling pathways important in oocyte development were also enriched, such as PI3K-Akt. Differential expression analysis identified UBC, TLR4, RELA, ANXA5, CAV1, KPNA2, CCNA2, ACTA2, FYN and ITGB3 as genetic markers of oocytes with agar-like ZP. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that agar-like ZP oocytes exhibit significant downregulation of genes involved in the ECM-receptor interaction signaling pathway and focal adhesion pathway, which could lead to aberrant ZP formation, while the upregulated genes were significantly related to regulation of the response to DNA damage stimulus. Agar-like ZP formation may interfere with the normal exchange of signals between oocytes and perivitelline granulosa cells, thereby preventing cumulus cells from participating in oocyte DNA damage repair and causing MI arrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abuse and irrational use of tetracyclines (TCs) in human medicine and animal husbandry has become a serious concern, affecting the ecological environment and human health. The aim of this study was to develop a sensitive and selective method using fully automatic solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of twelve TCs in water. Four isotope-labeled internal standards for TCs were used to correct matrix effects. Several parameters affecting extraction efficiency were systematically optimized, and the optimum experimental conditions found were 1.0 L water sample with 0.5 g/L Na2EDTA (pH 3.0) extracted and enriched by CNW HLB cartridge and eluted by 4 mL of acetone:methanol (v/v, 1:1). The enrichment factors were up to 798−1059 but only requiring about 60 min per six samples. Under the optimized conditions, the linearity of the method ranged from 0.2 to 100 μg/L for 12 TCs, the detection limits were as low as 0.01−0.15 ng/L, and the recoveries were in the range of 70%–118%, with relative standard deviations less than 15%. The developed method can be successfully utilized for the determination of 12 TCs in pure water, tap water, river water, and mariculture seawater. In summary, three and six TCs were detected in river water and mariculture seawater, respectively, with total concentrations of 0.074–0.520 ng/L (mean 0.248 ng/L) and 0.792–58.369 ng/L (12.629 ng/L), respectively. Tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) were the dominant TCs in river water, while doxytetracycline (DXC) and OTC were dominant in mariculture seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several research efforts have found that older schizophrenia patients are at higher risk for suicide. Related risk factors for suicide attempts in the elderly with schizophrenia are poorly understood. This study sought to assess the prevalence of suicide attempts and related risk variables in schizophrenia patients over the age of 50. Methods: We recruited 591 elderly patients over the age of 50. Demographic, clinical and blood parameters of all patients were collected. Patients with schizophrenia were evaluated for psychopathological symptoms using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results: The rate of suicide attempts among elderly Chinese schizophrenia patients was 15.2%. In these elderly schizophrenia patients, those who with suicide attempts had significantly higher scores for insomnia, depression and smoking addiction, and higher levels of red blood cells, Hc1 glycosylated hemoglobin and free T3, but significantly lower levels of hypersensitive C‐reactive protein and ‐globulin. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that higher depression scores and smoking addiction were risk factors for suicide attempts in these patients. Additionally, multiple regression analyses showed that higher BMI and insomnia scores were associated with suicide risk scores in elderly schizophrenia patients. Conclusions: Our research shows that there is a high incidence of suicide attempts in people over 50 years of age with schizophrenia. A number of clinically relevant factors and metabolic markers are associated with suicide attempts among elderly patients with schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living organisms fabricate biomacromolecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins by the self-assembly process. The research on the mechanism of biomacromolecule formation also inspires the exploration of in vivo synthesized biomaterials. By elaborate design, artificial building blocks or precursors can self-assemble or polymerize into functional biomaterials within living organisms. In recent decades, these so-called in vivo synthesized biomaterials have achieved extensive applications in cell-fate manipulation, disease theranostics, bioanalysis, cellular surface engineering, and tissue regeneration. In this review, we classify strategies for in vivo synthesis into non-covalent, covalent, and genetic types. The development of these approaches is based on the chemical principles of supramolecular chemistry and synthetic chemistry, biological cues such as enzymes and microenvironments, and the means of synthetic biology. By summarizing the design principles in detail, some insights into the challenges and opportunities in this field are provided to enlighten further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shadows are a special distortion in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. They often hamper proper image understanding and target recognition but also offer useful information, and therefore, the statistical modeling of SAR image shadows is imperative. In this endeavor, we systematically deduced the statistical models of shadows in multimodal SAR images, including single-look intensity and amplitude images and multilook intensity and amplitude images in a real domain and complex domain, respectively. In particular, for the filtered SAR image shadow, we introduced the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution to characterize its statistics. We carried out an experiment on shadows in a real SAR image and conducted chi-square goodness-of-fit tests on the deduced models. Furthermore, we compared the deduced statistical models of shadows with state-of-the-art statistical models of SAR imagery. Finally, suggestions are given for selecting the optimal statistical model of shadows in multimodal SAR images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to study the Belluce-semilattice associated with a monadic residuated lattice. Some characterizations of ∩ -prime monadic filters and maximal monadic filters are derived, respectively. The ∩ -prime monadic filter theorem is also established. The relationships among strong monadic filters, ∩ -prime monadic filters, prime monadic filters and maximal monadic filters are discussed. It is proven that there are monadic residuated lattices having no prime monadic filters and that ∩ -prime monadic filters and prime monadic filters coincide in strong monadic residuated lattices. We consider the Belluce-semilattice associated with a monadic residuated lattice and demonstrate that the Belluce-semilattice associated with a monadic residuated lattice (a strong monadic residuated lattice) is a bounded distributive meet-semilattice (lattice). The homeomorphism between ∩ -prime monadic filter space of a monadic residuated lattice and ∩ -prime filter space of its Belluce-semilattice is obtained. In addition, we derive that there is a meet-semilattice isomorphism between the Belluce-semilattices associated with a monadic residuated lattice and its underlying m-relatively complete subalgebra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biometric recognition technology has been widely used in various fields of society. Iris recognition technology, as a stable and convenient biometric recognition technology, has been widely used in security applications. However, the iris images collected in the actual non-cooperative environment have various noises. Although mainstream iris recognition methods based on deep learning have achieved good recognition accuracy, the intention is to increase the complexity of the model. On the other hand, what the actual optical system collects is the original iris image that is not normalized. The mainstream iris recognition scheme based on deep learning does not consider the iris localization stage. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes an effective iris recognition scheme consisting of the iris localization and iris verification stages. For the iris localization stage, we used the parallel Hough circle to extract the inner circle of the iris and the Daugman algorithm to extract the outer circle of the iris, and for the iris verification stage, we developed a new lightweight convolutional neural network. The architecture consists of a deep residual network module and a residual pooling layer which is introduced to effectively improve the accuracy of iris verification. Iris localization experiments were conducted on 400 iris images collected under a non-cooperative environment. Compared with its processing time on a graphics processing unit with a central processing unit architecture, the experimental results revealed that the speed was increased by 26, 32, 36, and 21 times at 4 different iris datasets, respectively, and the effective iris localization accuracy is achieved. Furthermore, we chose four representative iris datasets collected under a non-cooperative environment for the iris verification experiments. The experimental results demonstrated that the network structure could achieve high-precision iris verification with fewer parameters, and the equal error rates are 1.08%, 1.01%, 1.71%, and 1.11% on 4 test databases, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water eutrophication caused by nitrogen pollution is an urgent global issue that requires attention. The Qingyi River is a typical micro-polluted river in China. In this study, we took this river as the research object to investigate the nitrogen pollution purification capacity of a herbaceous plant, Rumex japonicus Houtt. (RJH). Compared to nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 −-N) and nitrite nitrogen (NO 2 −-N), RJH showed better purification performance on total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 +-N), with a highest removal rate of 37.22%, 52.13%, and 100%, respectively. RJH could completely remove ammonia nitrogen and exhibit excellent resistance to pollutant interference when the initial concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the cultivation devices increased from 1 mg/L to 10 mg/L or in the actual river. This indicated the great application potential of RJH in ammonia nitrogen removal from natural micro-polluted rivers. In addition, combined effects of nitrification of roots, absorption of self-growth, stripping, and others contributed to nitrogen removal by RJH. Particularly, the nitrification of roots played a dominant role, accounting for 73.85% ± 8.79%. High-throughput sequencing results indicate that nitrifying bacteria accounted for over 75% of all bacterial species in RJH. Furthermore, RJH showed good growth status and strong adaptability. The correlation coefficients of its relative growth rate with chlorophyll A and the degradation rate of absorption were 0.9677 and 0.9594, respectively. Our research demonstrates that RJH is one of the excellent varieties for ammonia removal. This provides a very promising and sustainable method for purifying micro-polluted rivers. [Display omitted] • A Rumex japonicus Houtt.(RJH)-based phytoremediation technology was proposed. • Nitrification, absorption, stripping and other effects influenced ammonia removal. • Nitrification of roots accounted for 73.85% ± 8.79% of the total degradation rate. • The good growth status and strong purification ability of RJH were verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A dual-site lysosome-targeted fluorescent sensor based on benzothiazole derivative was synthesized. • It exhibited distinct fluorescence signals for detection of HClO and ONOO− with high sensitivity, good selectivity and fast response. • It could utilize to track HClO and ONOO− in living cell and zebrafish. As two of important highly reactive species / nitrogen species, hypochloric acid (HClO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO−) are involved in various pathological and physiological processes, which are important factors that affect and reflect the functional state of lysosome. Nevertheless, many of their roles are still indefinite because of lack of suitable analytical methods for HClO and ONOO− detection in lysosome. Herein, we designed a lysosome-targeted probe to monitor HClO and ONOO−, which was a hydrid of the benzothiazole derivative, methyl thioether (HClO recognition site) and morpholino hydrazone (ONOO− recognition and lysosome target site). The probe exhibited high sensitivity, good selectivity and fast response toward HClO and ONOO− without spectral crosstalk, and can be employed for quantitative monitoring HClO and ONOO− with LOD of 63 and 83 nM, respectively. In addition, the dual-site probe was lysosome targetable and could be used for detection of HClO and ONOO− in living cells. Furthermore, the excellent behavior made it was suitable for imaging of HClO and ONOO− in zebrafish. Thus, the present probe provides a potent tool for distinguishing monitoring HClO and ONOO− and exploring the role of HClO and ONOO− in biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Facilitating the primary health care (PHC) system and maintaining people's reasonable healthcare-seeking behavior are key to establishing a sustainable healthcare system. China has employed a multitiered copayment system/medical insurance differentiated payment policies to incentivize the public to utilize PHC services through its hierarchical medical care system; however, most people still prefer visiting tertiary care hospitals. We question whether the quality gap in healthcare services reduces the effect of the multitiered copayment system, which is considered an important factor in the lack of reform in the Chinese healthcare system. Thus, we explore the effect and influencing factors of the multitiered copayment system that drives primary healthcare-seeking behavior under the current situation with a large quality gap. We also consider the hypothetical situation of a reduced gap in the future.Methods: This study used the hypothetical quality improvement scenario to elicit people's hypothetical behaviors, and a multistage stratified cluster random sampling method. This preliminary study was conducted in 2016 using 1829 individuals from four regions of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province: Ouhai, Ruian, Yongjia, and Taishun. A descriptive statistical analysis, chi-square analysis, Fisher's exact test, and multinomial logistic regression model were performed to introduce the effect of the multitiered copayment system, and to explore the factors affecting the selection of PHC institutions at pre- and post-change phases.Result: The results show that compared with the large quality gap phase, the number of respondents who believed the multitiered copayment system had an effect on their selection of PHC institutions after the equalization of healthcare services quality increased threefold (from 14.0% to 50.8%). Moreover, the main determinants in people's selection of PHC institutions changed from age and needs variables (self-rated health status) to age, needs variables (self-rated health status) and enabling variables (distance to a medical care facility).Conclusion: The results indicate limited initial effects of the multitiered copayment system. However, they become more pronounced after the equalization of healthcare services quality. This study confirms that changes in the quality gap in healthcare services influence the effect of the multitiered copayment system. Hence, reducing this gap can help achieve the intended outcome of the tiered healthcare insurance schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of multidrug resistance (MDR) during cancer chemotherapy is a major challenge in current cancer treatment strategies. Numerous molecular mechanisms, including increased drug efflux, evasion of drug-induced apoptosis, and activation of DNA repair mechanisms, can drive chemotherapy resistance. Here we have identified the major vault protein (MVP) and the B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL2) gene as two potential factors driving MDR in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We have designed a novel and versatile self-assembling nanoparticle (NP) platform on a multifunctional carboxymethyl chitosan base to simultaneously deliver Adriamycin, and siRNAs targeting MVP and BCL2 (CEAMB NPs), thus reducing drug efflux and promoting apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells. To achieve effective delivery to tumor tissues and inhibit tumor growth in vivo, carboxymethyl chitosan was engineered to contain multiple histidines for enhanced cytosol delivery, cholesterol for improved self-assembly, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies to target cancer cells. Our results indicate that these nanoparticles are efficiently synthesized with the desired chemical composition to self-assemble into cargo-containing NPs. Furthermore, we have shown that the synthesized NPs will successfully inhibit cancer cells growth and tumor development when delivered to cultured ESCC cells or to in vivo mouse xenograft models. Our engineered NPs offer a potential novel platform in treating various types of chemotherapy-resistant tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The semantic neural routes in contemporary models of visual word recognition are mainly constructed based on lexical-semantic processing. However, the neural bases of processing semantic cues embodied in sub-lexical units are less clear. The current fMRI study takes the ideographic property of Chinese characters (The semantic radical can provide a semantic cue for the character's meaning) to explore the brain mechanisms of sub-lexical semantic processing and its interaction with lexical-semantic processing in a lexical decision task. The GLM results and further ROI analysis revealed that the lexical-semantic processing relied on the left posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus (pMTG) and Angular Gyrus (AG); the sub-lexical semantic processing relied on the left middle MTG (mMTG) and AG; their integration relied on the left Anterior Temporal Lobe (ATL). It sheds light on investigating the neural circuit of the semantic processing in visual word reading. • A fMRI study distinguished brain regions for the lexical and sub-lexical semantic processing in Chinese character reading. • The lexical-semantic processing relied on left pMTG and AG; the sub-lexical semantic processing relied on left mMTG and AG. • The left ATL played an important role in integrating the lexical and sub-lexical semantic meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping across the world. Previous studies have shown that gut microbiota is associated with COVID-19, and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) composed of Blautia genus, Lactobacillus genus, and Ruminococcus genus of Firmicutes is correlated with the severity of COVID-19. Gut microbiota imbalance in colorectal cancer patients may lead to the variation of OTU. Results: Based on the GMrepo database, the gut microbiota of 1374 patients with colorectal neoplasms and 27,329 healthy people was analyzed to investigate the differences in the abundance of microbes between colorectal neoplasms patients and healthy people. Furthermore, We collected feces samples from 12 patients with colorectal cancer and 8 healthy people in Xiangya hospital for metabolomic analysis to investigate the potential mechanisms. Our study showed that the abundance of Blautia and Ruminococcus was significantly increased in colorectal neoplasms, which may increase the severity of COVID-19. The gender and age of patients may affect the severity of COVID-19 by shaping the gut microbiota, but the BMI of patients does not. Conclusions: Our work draws an initial point that gut microbiota imbalance is a risk factor of COVID-19 mortality and gut microbiota may provide a new therapeutic avenue for colorectal cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported a large-scale Internet-based experiment to investigate the impact of emotion information on Chinese word segmentation, in which participants completed an overlapping ambiguous string (OAS) segmentation task and the Chinese version of Beck Depression Inventory-II in a counterbalanced order. OAS is a three-character string (ABC) in which the middle character can form a distinct word with both the character on its left side (word AB) and the character on its right side (word BC). Participants were presented with isolated OASs and were asked to report the word they identified first. Emotional OAS was constructed by a combination of a neutral word and an emotional word, with the neutral and emotional words sharing character B. We orthogonally manipulated the valence of the emotional words (positive vs. negative) and their position in the OAS (left-side vs. right-side). The results showed that compared with neutral words, both positive and negative words were more likely to be segmented, and this segmentation outcome was not affected by readers with different depression tendencies. These findings suggest that emotion information can influence word segmentation, and that both positive and negative words take precedence over neutral words in the word segmentation process. This study provides a new perspective and evidence to understand the impact of emotion information on word processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by the transmission path, it is very difficult to diagnose the vibration signal of the rolling bearing on the aircraft engine casing. A fault diagnosis method based on convolutional neural network is proposed for the weak vibration signal of the casing under the excitation of rolling bearing fault. Firstly, the processing method of vibration signal is studied. Through comparison and analysis, it is found that the fault characteristics of rolling bearing are more easily expressed by continuous wavelet scale spectrum, and a better recognition rate is obtained. Finally, the experiment was carried out with an aero-engine rotor tester with a casing, and the method based on wavelet scale spectrum and convolutional neural network was used for diagnosis. The results were compared with the support vector machine method. The results show that the method has a high recognition rate for the weak fault signals of different fault types collected on the aero engine case, and its fault recognition rate reaches 95.82 %, which verifies the superiority and potential of the method for rolling bearing fault diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Approximately 80% of adolescent scoliosis cases are idiopathic, and some non-idiopathic scoliosis cases caused by spinal cord abnormalities are misdiagnosed as idiopathic scoliosis. This study examined the risk factors for non-idiopathic scoliosis with intramedullary abnormalities, explored the feasibility of whole-spine MRI, and provided a theoretical basis for the routine diagnosis and treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.Method: The clinical data of adolescent scoliosis patients who were admitted to Shanghai Tongren Hospital and Shanghai Changhai Hospital between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2018, were reviewed. According to the whole-spine MRI results, the patients were divided into either the idiopathic group or the intramedullary abnormality group. Sex, age, main curvature angle, main curvature direction, kyphosis angle, scoliosis type, coronal plane balance, sagittal plane balance, abdominal wall reflex, sensory abnormality, ankle clonus and tendon reflexes were compared between the two groups. Student's t test was used to evaluate the differences in the continuous variables, and the chi-square test was used to evaluate the differences in the categorical variables. Fisher's exact test was applied to detect the difference in the rate of intraspinal anomalies between the groups. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the correlation between the multivariate risk factors and intramedullary abnormalities.Result: A total of 714 adolescent scoliosis patients with a mean age of 13.5 (10-18 years) were included in the study, and intramedullary abnormalities were found in 68 (9.5%) patients. There were statistically significant differences in the incidence rates of intramedullary abnormalities between males and females, left and right thoracic curvatures, angular scoliosis and smooth scoliosis, and abnormal abdominal wall reflex and ankle clonus (P < 0.01). Logistic regression showed that the ratios for sex, scoliosis direction, scoliosis type, abdominal wall reflex and ankle clonus were 2.987, 3.493, 4.823, 3.94 and 8.083, respectively. The ROC curve showed a sensitivity of 66.18% and a specificity of 89.01%, and the Youden index corresponding to the optimal critical point was 0.5519.Conclusion: Risk factors associated with adolescent scoliosis caused by abnormal intramedullary abnormalities included male sex, thoracic scoliosis on the left side, sharp curvature of the spine, abnormal abdominal wall reflex and ankle clonus. In adolescent scoliosis patients, the incidence of scoliosis caused by intramedullary abnormalities was approximately 9.5%. These clinical indicators suggest that there is a high-risk adolescent scoliosis population who should undergo whole-spinal MRI preoperatively to rule out intramedullary abnormalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrode architecture design is vitally important for achieving high-power and long-life vanadium redox flow batteries. This work starts with a rationale for the polarization losses of current flow battery electrodes on a basis of the well-developed design of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. With a gained understanding from the electrode design of a fuel cell, an attempt is made to engineer the architecture of carbon felt by creating a nano-catalytic layer on carbon fiber surfaces via a facile and powerful copper oxide etching method. By engraving nano-holes on fiber surfaces, the carbon felt can deliver attributes of expanded reaction surface area, abundant defective sites and excellent structural stability under swift-flowing electrolyte without sacrificing mass transport properties. With the nano-holed and defective carbon felt, the battery demonstrates a remarkably improved performance with 85.1% energy efficiency at 320 mA cm−2, 21.8% larger than that of the pristine carbon felt. In addition, the flow battery with this new electrode shows excellent long-term stability up to 2000 cycles. It is envisioned that such an electrode design strategy would inspire the future development of advanced fibrous electrodes for flow cell applications. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the main raw material for producing graphene is graphite ore. However, researchers actively seek alternative resources due to their high cost and environmental problems. Biomass waste has attracted much attention due to its carbon-rich structure and renewability, emerging as a potential raw material for graphene production to be used in sports equipment. However, further progress is required on the quality of graphene produced from waste biomass. This paper, therefore, summarizes the properties, structures, and production processes of graphene and its derivatives, as well as the inherent advantages of biomass waste-derived graphene. Finally, this paper reviews graphene's importance and application prospects in sports since this wonder material has made sports equipment available with high-strength and lightweight quality. Moreover, its outstanding thermal and electrical conductivity is exploited to prepare wearable sensors to collect more accurate sports data, thus helping to improve athletes' training levels and competitive performance. Although the large-scale production of biomass waste-derived graphene has yet to be realized, it is expected that its application will expand to various other fields due to the associated low cost and environmental friendliness of the preparation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A novel lysosome-targetable phthalimide fluorescent probe was designed for detecting palladium based on ESIPT for signal transduction. The fluorescent probe conjugating with allylcarbamate displayed weak fluorescent due to the ESIPT process hinder by allylcarbamate. But with the addition of palladium, the ESIPT emission was recovery though the palladium-catalyzed deallylation reaction and the fluorescence intensity exhibited 40-fold enhancement at 511 nm. In addition, the probe showed excellent selectivity, high sensitivity, fast responds and low limit detection for palladium with a larger Stoke-shift. Moreover, the targetable probe was also successfully applied for detecting palladium in lysosomes of living cells. Hence, the probe though ESIPT modulation is a promising for monitoring palladium in practical samples. Graphical Abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • A novel lysosome-targetable ESIPT phthalimide fluorescent probe for palladium(0) was synthesized. • The probe exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity detection of palladium(0) with a larger Stoke-shift. • The sensing mechanism was investigated by NMR spectra, HRMS spectrometry and theoretical calculations. • The probe could be used to monitor lysosome palladium(0) in living cells by fluorescence imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Systematic characterizations of the physical properties of urea-barbituric acid co-crystals were conducted. • Solubility of urea-barbituric acid co-crystals in water and methanol was first measured. • The influence of process variables on crystal structure and crystal size distribution has been discussed. Abstract Polymorphism in co-crystals is known to have a dramatic effect on physiochemical properties. The current contribution covers the characterization, thermodynamic analysis, and cooling seeded crystallization investigation of the urea-barbituric acid (UBA) polymorphic co-crystal system including urea (UA), barbituric acid (BA), and two polymorphic UBA (Forms I and III). Supramolecular synthesis of UBA Forms I and III have been conducted by cooling crystallization in methanol and then systematically characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), thermal analysis (DSC and TGA), Raman and IR spectroscopy. Compared to the TGA results, the exothermic and endothermic peaks shown in DSC curves represent the decomposition of UBA and the melting of BA, respectively. Using the measured solubility data, the UBA polymorphs were found to be an enantiotropic polymorphic system, and the transition points in the water and methanol were determined at 35 °C and 33 °C, respectively. Subsequently, the modified Apelblat equation and van't Hoff model were used to correlate the experimental data and to calculate the dissolution enthalpy and entropy of the different system. Moreover, cooling seeded crystallization of two polymorphic co-crystals in methanol was carried out to investigate the influence of process variables, such as seed amount, cooling rate, and stirring rate, on the crystal structure and crystal size distribution of final co-crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple structured reaction-based probe for peroxynitrite (ONOO − ) was developed by using benzothiazole hydrazone base of the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) dye. It was constructed from 2-hydrazinylpyridine and 3-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-2-hydroxy-5-methylbenzaldehyde which possesses itself weak fluorescence and displayed prominent fluorescence response towards ONOO − by oxidizes the C=N bond to an aldehyde in aqueous solution. The probe exhibited excellent selectivity and high sensivity towards ONOO − with a low dectection limit of 5.8 × 10 −8  M in physiological condition. Moreover, the probe could realize fast recognition to ONOO − in as short as 60 s. In addition, the probe was also successfully used for living cell imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent fluoride ion detecting system was been constructed base on ICT-modulated characteristic of the latent fluorophore, 7-(diethylamino)-3-(2-(pyridin-4-yl)vinyl)-coumarin and triisopropylsilane ether. The probe exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity detection of fluoride ion over other anion with a large emission wavelength shift (100 nm), and it also showed a low detection limit of 12 nM ( S / N = 3). The sensing mechanism was investigated by NMR spectra, HRMS spectrometry and theoretical calculations. The results indicated the colorimetric and ratiometric response of the probe to fluoride ion was ascribed to the cleavage reaction of Si-O bond between triisopropylsilyl group and phenyl group by fluoride ion and induced the intermolecular charger transfer (ICT) process. By using the strategy, the probe has been successfully applied to detect mitochondrial fluoride ion in live cells by ratiometric fluorescence imaging, which demonstrated that the colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence probe has promising applications for investigation of fluoride ion in biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple benzothiazole fluorescent chemosensor was developed for the fast sequential detection of Cu 2 + and biothiols through modulating the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process. The compound 1 exhibits highly selective and sensitive fluorescence “ on - off ” recognition to Cu 2 + with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry by ESIPT hinder. The in situ generated 1 -Cu 2 + complex can serve as an “ on - off ” fluorescent probe for high selectivity toward biothiols via Cu 2 + displacement approach, which exerts ESIPT recovery. It is worth pointing out that the 1 -Cu 2 + complex shows faster for cysteins (within 1 min) than other biothiols such as homocysteine (25 min) and glutathione (25 min). Moreover, the compound 1 displays 160 nm Stoke-shift for reversibly monitoring Cu 2 + and biothiols. In addition, the probe is successfully used for fluorescent cellular imaging. This strategy via modulation the ESIPT state has been used for determination of Cu 2 + and Cys with satisfactory results, which further demonstrates its value of practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel mitochondria-targeted fluorescent probe compound 1 for H 2 O 2 has constructed based on a coumarin as the fluorophore and a boronate moiety as the reaction site, which showed colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence dual response to H 2 O 2 . This probe displayed a large blue-shifted in emission wavelength (105 nm) with two well-resolved emission bands toward hydrogen peroxide. The compound 1 can be quantitative, good selective and sensitive recognition to H 2 O 2 with low detection limit (10 nM). The sensing mechanism was confirmed by H NMR and HRMS spectroscopy. The mechanism regarding the optical responses of the compound 1 toward H 2 O 2 was also determined by density function theory (DFT) calculations. Moreover, the probe could be used for determining H 2 O 2 in living cells by ratiometric fluorescence imaging with excellent mitochondrial targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skin/stiffener interface debonding has been a longstanding problem for composite stiffened panels. Proper crack- arresting reinforcements become a necessity for the wide application on large-scale framed structures. Z-pinning was employed to strengthen composite skin/stiffener bond in this study. Herein, static and fatigue tensile tests were conducted on a generic configuration to characterize the improvement of Z-pinning on skin/stiffener debonding resistance to skin stretching. Results show that the improvements on ultimate debonding strength and fatigue life are significant, even though the effect on crack onset is marginal under either monotonic or cyclic loading. Z-pinning changes the unstable continuous crack growth into a propagation-suspension-propagation evolution pattern. The crack growth rate is decreased by up to three orders of magnitude due to Z-pinning. Effects of pin distribution were experimentally studied. A locally densified distribution is found to be more effective than the traditional uniform distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of institutional and policy interventions on reducing the rate of cesarean delivery on maternal request (CDMR) in Wenzhou, China. Institutional interventions included health education, painless delivery introduction, and doula care. Additionally, a series of health policies were developed by the Chinese central and local governments to control cesarean section rates, mostly through controlling CDMR rates. We conducted a pre-/post-intervention study using 131,312 deliveries between 2006 and 2014 in three tertiary-level public hospitals in Wenzhou, China. Chi-square tests and predictive models were used to examine changes in the CDMR rate before and after institutional and policy interventions. After institutional interventions were introduced, the overall CDMR rate increased from 15.76% to 16.34% (p = 0.053), but the average annual growth rate (AAGR) of the overall CDMR rate quickly declined from 20.11% to -4.30%. After policy interventions were introduced, the overall CDMR rate, the AAGR of the overall CDMR rate, and the probability of performing CDMR declined. Further, the overall probability of a woman undergoing CDMR decreased in all three age groups (group one: <24; group two: 24–34; group three: >34) after institutional and policy interventions. These results show that institutional and policy interventions can reduce the CDMR rate. Additionally, the CDMR rate should be included in hospitals’ performance assessment matrix to reduce the CDMR rate further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a sliding mode flight controller is formulated in order to enhance the lateral maneuverability for a tailless telescopic wing morphing aircraft by using additional asymmetric wing telescoping. Based on the nonlinear time-varying equations of motion and the approximate aerodynamic model obtained by wind tunnel tests, a nonlinear time-varying model with coupling between aerodynamic parameters and control inputs is established and the open-loop dynamic response characteristics are analyzed. According to the difficulty of precise aerodynamic modeling during both sides of wing telescoping, the sliding mode control approach is used to design the control law to track maneuver reference command, which has a low requirement for modeling precision and is suitable for the nonlinear time-varying system. In addition, the control inputs are allocated to asymmetric wing telescoping and aerodynamic control surfaces based on the minimum energy method. The closed-loop simulation results of a roll agility maneuvering called “T 90 maneuvering” are presented. The results show that a larger roll angular velocity is produced and the control surfaces in the maneuvering flight can maintain a large control margin, which means the maneuverability is significantly improved and the control burden of the aerodynamic control surfaces has been reduced compared with the aircraft without use of telescopic wings; moreover, the robustness of the sliding mode controller is verified by simulation of aerodynamic perturbations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new turn-on phthalimide fluorescent probe has designed and synthesized for sensing cysteine (Cys) based on excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process. It is consisted of a 3-hydroxyphthalimide derivative moiety as the fluorophore and an acrylic ester group as a recognition receptor. The acrylic ester acts as an ESIPT blocking agent. Upon addition of cystein, intermolecular nucleophilic attack of cysteine on acrylic ester releases the fluorescent 3-hydroxyphthalimide derivative, thereby enabling the ESIPT process and leading to enhancement of fluorescence. The probe displays high sensitivity, excellent selectivity and with large Stokes shift toward cysteine. The linear interval range of the fluorescence titration ranged from 0 to 1.0 × 10 − 5 M and detection limit is low (6 × 10 − 8 M). In addition, the probe could be used for bio-imaging in living cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of ice accreted has posed a serious threat to industry and life. In recent years, it has received extensive attention, and a large number of anti-icing and de-icing technologies have been developed. However, even the best-performed anti-icing surface would face ice-forming issue under continuously extreme conditions, which increase the importance of easily ice removal. Although passive methods represented by icephobic surfaces have show great advantages, a more applicable method is the spontaneous peeling of ice under disturbance. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop efficient and reliable de-icing methods. In this paper, a spontaneous de-icing unit based on phase transition time lag is designed by utilizing the expansion force of the water freezing process. The effects of ambient temperature on expansion force, adhesion force, and phase transition lag time are explored, the factors of pit shape and ethanol concentration are introduced. Finally, without relying on energy input, spontaneous peeling of ice was achieved under disturbance and remained effective after 100 icing-deicing cycles. • An expansion force de-icing unit based on phase change lag is proposed. • The spontaneous peeling of ice under gravity disturbance is realized. • The de-icing unit is still effective after 100 icing-de-icing cycles. • Better de-icing effect achieved by reducing phase change lag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influence of malic acid, which acts as an impurity, on the crystallization kinetics of zinc lactate has been investigated in this work. Crystallization of zinc lactate with a linear cooling profile was carried out in a batch crystallizer and a population balance model was used to estimate the crystallization kinetics for each studied system by using the nonlinear optimization method. The predicted results related to the concentration profile of zinc lactate are in good agreement with the experimental data. The influence of malic acid on the crystallization of zinc lactate is discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is the most common and toxic hepatotoxin and it could induce human hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) via the route of drinking water. The aim of the present study was to determine the expressions of oncogenes c - fos , c - jun , c - myc , c - met , and N - ras and tumor suppressor gene PTEN in HepG2 cells following MC-LR-exposure to understand the possible mechanism of MC-LR-related human primary liver cancer. The results of qPCR and Western blotting showed that MC-LR-exposure at non- or sub-cytotoxic concentrations promoted the expressions of oncogenes c - fos , c - jun , c - myc , c - met , and N - ras while suppressed tumor-suppressor gene PTEN in HepG2 cells at both transcription and protein levels. This result suggests that HCC-related genes may be involved in human hepatitis and primary liver cancer caused by MC-LR. The work might be useful for evaluating the human health risk resulted from the long-term of MC-LR-exposure at low dose via drinking water route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel and convenient strategy for synthesis of a well-defined polymer containing both aldehyde and ferrocene functional groups by grafting 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde and ferrocenecarboxylhydrazide onto linear poly (vinylbenzyl chloride) was developed. The designed polymer film (polymer CAF) could be used as a new support matrix for fabrication of a label-free electrochemical immunosensor with high sensitivity, good stability and repeatability. With human IgG as an analyte model, the proposed electrochemical immunosensor showed a linear concentration range from 0.1 to 20 ng mL −1 with a detection limit of 0.07 ng mL −1 (S/N=3). Moreover, interfering proteins including HSA, IgM, and IgE were added into the analyte, the developed immnnosensor can detect human IgG with high specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • An ESIPT-based reversible ratiometric fluorescent probe was first prepared. • It showed reversible ratiometric response for HOCl/H 2 S with large emission shift (110 nm). • It can quickly, selectively, and sensitively monitor HOCl/H 2 S redox cycle. • It can be utilized for ratiometric imaging HClO/H 2 S redox cycle in living cell. HClO and H 2 S, as two kinds of crucial small biomolecules, are endowed various roles in biological organisms. The redox balance between HClO and H 2 S is closely related to the physiological and pathological processes. Thus, it is significant to monitor the redox process between HClO and H 2 S. Inspired by the advantages of ratiometric fluorescent probes, we firstly developed a reversible ratiometric fluorescent probe (BT-Se) for HClO and H 2 S via combination of phenyl selenide as the response group and 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole dye as the fluorophore. The proposed probe BT-Se could detect HClO with well-separated dual emission (110 nm), fast response, good selectivity and sensitivity owing to the oxidation reaction of the Se atom induced by HClO. Moreover, only H 2 S could effectively recover the fluorescence of the detection system to the original state via H 2 S induced-reduction of selenoxide. Cell imaging studies demonstrated that the probe BT-Se was capable of ratiometric monitoring the changes of intracellular HClO/H 2 S, which suggested that it has great potential for researching the biological functions of HClO and H 2 S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-SiAI0N (z=3) bonded SiC composites were prepared by in-situ catalytic nitridation using SiC particles, Si powder, Al powder and active α-AI203 powder as starting materials, and Fe as the catalyst. The effects of the nitriding temperature (1 350,1 400 and 1 450 °C) and the Fe addition (1 %,2% and 3% of the mass of Si powder) on the phase composition, the microstructure, the apparent porosity, the bulk density and the hot modulus of rupture of the composites were studied. The results show that the optimal nitridation temperature is 1 400 °C and the optimal Fe content is 1 mass% of the mass of Si powder;the sample prepared at 1 400 °C for 3 h has uniform ß-SiAI0N whisker diameter, higher nitriding degree, density and hot modulus of rupture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A label-free electrochemical immunosensor based on Nafion/carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/charged pyridinecarboxaldehyde composite film was developed for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen. Nafion/CNTs/charged pyridinecarboxaldehyde nanocomposites were prepared by dispersing charged pyridinecarboxaldehyde and CNTs in Nafion solution. The nanocomposites were cast on the electrode surface to form aldehyde-terminated composite film that can covalently bind antibody on the film without using other reagent. The immunosensor response was linearly changed with hepatitis B surface antigen concentration in the range from 0.1 to 25 ng ml −1 with a detection limit (signal/noise ratio = 3) of 0.04 ng ml −1 . Some important advantages such as simple preparation, good stability, reproducibility, and selectivity of the immunosensor were achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using poly-(epichlorohydrin) and 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde, we synthesized a new aldehyde-functionalized polymer, which was applied to simplify antibody immobilization on the electrode surface, in which no additional chemical cross-linking is required. Combined with the advantages of graphene, a label-free electrochemical immunosensor based on graphene/aldehyde-containing polymer film for α-fetoprotein detection was fabricated. α-Fetoprotein was detected within the range from 0.05 to 35 ng mL − 1 with a detection limit of 0.02 ng mL − 1 obtained by 3 S/N. The proposed immunosensor is easy, label-free, specific and thus provides a good diagnostic tool for detection of α-fetoprotein and other cancer markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new polymer bearing aldehyde groups was designed and synthesized by grafting 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde onto poly(epichlorohydrin). Antibodies can be directly immobilized on the surface of the polymer film through the covalent bonding of aldehyde groups of the film with amino groups of antibodies. In this study, human immunoglobulin G (IgG) was used as a model analyte for the fabrication of an electrochemical impedance immunosensor. Using the proposed immunosensor, IgG in the range from 0.1 to 80 ng ml −1 was detected with a detection limit of 0.07 ng ml −1 (signal/noise [S/N] = 3). In addition, the electrochemical impedance immunosensor displays good stability and reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooling crystallization of lovastatin in methanol, ethanol and acetone was carried out and the metastable zone widths in those solutions were determined experimentally by the polythermal method using a Turbidity Monitoring Technique. Two theoretical approaches, the self-consistent approach and classical 3D nucleation theory approach, were then employed to estimate the nucleation kinetics from the measured metastable zone width. The results suggested that nucleation in ethanol and acetone is instantaneous and follows polynuclear (PN) mechanism, while in methanol the nucleation is progressive with a high nucleation order. Because of the high solubility of lovastatin in these solvents, strong solute–solvent interactions exist, which make the activation energy for crystal formation different from that for self-diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) approaches by encumbering mitochondrial functions provide great promise for the treatment of malignant tumors, but these kinds of ICD strategies are still in their infancy. Here, one multifunctional drug‐loaded, cascade‐targeted, and enzyme‐instructed self‐assembling peptide nanomedicine (Comp. 4) for ICD‐based cancer therapy is constructed. Comp. 4 consists of 1) lonidamine (LND) that specifically interferes with mitochondrial functions; 2) a programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) binding peptide sequence (NTYYEDQG) and a mitochondria‐specific motif (triphenylphosphonium, TPP) that can sequentially control the cell membrane and mitochondria targeting capacities, respectively; and 3) a ‐GDFDFpDY‐ assembly core to in situ organize peptide assemblies responsive to alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Comp. 4 demonstrates noticeable structural and morphological transformations in the presence of ALP and produces peptide assemblies in mouse colon cancer cells (CT26) with high expressions of both ALP and PD‐L1. Moreover, the presence of PD‐L1‐ and mitochondria‐specific motifs can assist Comp. 4 for effective endocytosis and endosomal escape, forming peptide assemblies and delivering LND into mitochondria. Consequently, Comp. 4 shows superior capacities to in vivo induce abundant mitochondrial oxidative stress, provoke robust ICD responses, and produce an immunogenic tumor microenvironment, successfully inhibiting CT26 tumor growth by eliciting a systemic ICD‐based antitumor immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical porous NiCo 2 O 4 films composed of nanowalls on nickel foam are synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. Besides the mesoporous walls, the NiCo 2 O 4 nanowalls are interconnected with each other to form hierarchical porous structure. These unique porous structured films possess a high specific surface area. The supercapacitor performance of the hierarchical porous NiCo 2 O 4 film is fully characterized. A high capacity of 130 mA h g −1 is achieved at 2 A g −1 with 97% capacity maintained after 2,000 cycles. Importantly, 75.6% of capacity is retained when the current density changes from 3 A g −1 to 36 A g −1 . The superior electrochemical performance is mainly due to the unique hierarchical porous structure with large surface area as well as shorter diffusion length for ion and charge transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of 3D model recognition generally depends on the feature representations and classification methods. Previous algorithms have not shown good capacities to detect 3D model׳s feature, thus, they seem not to be competent to recognize 3D model. Meanwhile, recent efforts have illustrated that Deep Boltzmann Machines (DBM) have great power to approximate the distributions of input data, and can archive state-of-the-arts results. In this paper, we propose a novel 3D model recognition mechanism based on DBM, which can be divided into two parts: one is feature detecting based on DBM, and the other is classification based on semi-supervised learning method. During the first part, the high-level abstraction representation can be obtained from a well-trained DBM, and the feature is used in semi-supervised classification method in the second part. The experiments are conducted on publicly available 3D model data sets: Princeton Shape Benchmark (PSB), SHREC׳09 and National Taiwan University (NTU). The proposed method is compared with several state-of-the-art methods in terms of several popular evaluation criteria, and the experimental results show better performance of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-supported NiCo 2 O 4 nanoflake arrays on nickel foam are prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. The obtained NiCo 2 O 4 nanoflakes with thicknesses of ∼25 nm grow vertically to the nickel foam substrate and form an interconnected porous network with pore diameters of 50–500 nm. As anode material of LIBs, the NiCo 2 O 4 nanoflake arrays show a high initial coulombic efficiency of 76%, as well as good cycling stability with a capacity of 880 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 , and 523 mAh g −1 at 1.5 A g −1 after 50 cycles. As the cathode of alkaline batteries, a high capacity of 95 mAh g −1 is achieved at 2 A g −1 and 94% retention is maintained after 10,000 cycles. The superior electrochemical performance is mainly due to the unique nanoflake arrays structure with large surface area and shorter diffusion length for mass and charge transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize the rapid solvent screening and further crystallization process optimization, experimental determination of accurate solubility data of target solute in potential solvents is necessary. Using a gravimetric method, solubilities of guanidine nitrate in water, methanol, ethanol, n -propanol and acetone at temperature ranging from 278.05 K to 332.85 K at pressure p = 0.1 MPa were experimentally measured. Melting temperature, T m , and fusion enthalpy, Δ H f , of guanidine nitrate were determined using differential scanning calorimetry. Subsequently, Apelblat equation, van’t Hoff equation, λh equation, and Wilson model were used to correlate the measured solubility data, respectively. Dissolution of guanidine nitrate in all examined solvents was found to be endothermic and entropically favorable. Moreover, the measured solubility data were combined with calculated ideal solubility data to calculate activity coefficients at infinite dilution based on the assumption of Δ C p = 0, which were then fitted to a van’t Hoff like regular solution equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel immunosensor for α-1-fetoprotein based on dialdehyde cellulose/ionic liquid composite film as a matrix has been developed. Microcrystalline cellulose was activated by sodium metaperiodate to produce dialdehyde cellulose. Antibodies can be immobilized on the electrode by a one-step method through covalent bonding of the aldehyde groups of dialdehyde cellulose with the amino groups of antibodies, in which no additional chemical cross-linking step is required. Moreover, ionic liquid added can improve the conductivity of the sensing interface and, therefore, can enhance the electrochemical signal. In this work, α-1-fetoprotein was detected within the range from 0.1 to 60 ng ml −1 with a detection limit of 0.07 ng ml −1 (signal/noise = 3). The proposed immunosensor had good specificity and reproducibility. It was used to determine real samples with satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Antibodies can be directly immobilized on the surface of dialdehyde cellulose film through the covalent bonding of the aldehyde groups of the dialdehyde cellulose with amino groups of antibodies. In this work, human IgG was used as a model analyte to fabricate an electrochemical immunosensor. Using the proposed immunosensor, we detected IgG within the range from 0.5 to 45ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.3ng/mL (S/N=3). The electrochemical immunosensor had a good specificity, stability and reproducibility. This strategy may pave a simple way to fabricate an electrochemical immunosensor in other applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Solubility of lasalocid sodium in five organic solvents was first measured. [•] Three novel polymorphic forms of lasalocid sodium were reported. [•] van’t Hoff equation was used to correlate the solubility data and dissolution enthalpy and entropy. [•] The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] We examined changes in the levels of serum BDNF during opiate withdrawal. [•] Serum BDNF levels increased during opiate early withdrawal. [•] Serum BDNF levels remained higher even after one month of abstinence. [•] BDNF may play a critical role in the course of opiate addiction and withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EQ-algebras were introduced by Novák and De Baets with the intent to develop an algebraic structure of truth values for fuzzy type theory. In this paper, the notions of implicative prefilters and positive implicative prefilters in EQ-algebras are introduced and several characterizations of them are obtained. The relationship between implicative prefilters and positive implicative prefilters is considered. It is proved that implicative prefilters and positive implicative prefilters are equivalent on good IEQ-algebras. The extension theorems of implicative prefilters and positive implicative prefilters are obtained. Furthermore, the quotient algebras induced by positive implicative filters are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]