Unique allosteric effect driven rapid adsorption of carbon dioxide on a new ionogel [P4444][2-Op]@MCM-41 with excellent cyclic stability and loading-dependent capacity

Allosteric effect-driven rapid stepwise CO2 adsorption of pyridine-containing anion functionalized ionic liquid [P4444][2-Op] confined into mesoporous silica MCM-41.</p

Electrochemical activity and stability of core–shell Fe2O3/Pt nanoparticles for methanol oxidation

AbstractCore–shell Fe2O3/Pt nanoparticles with amorphous iron oxide cores are successfully synthesized by a two-step chemical reduction strategy. The Pt loading can be adjusted using this preparation technique to obtain a series of chemical compositions with varying amounts of Pt precursors. The morphology, structure, and composition of the as-prepared nanoparticles are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrocatalytic characteristics are systematically investigated by electrochemical techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Compared with the E-TEK 40 wt% Pt/C catalyst, the as-made Fe2O3/Pt nanoparticles exhibit superior catalytic activity with lower peak potential and enhanced CO2 selectivity toward methanol electrooxidation in acidic medium. The highest activity is achieved by core–shell Fe2O3/Pt nanoparticles with a Fe/Pt atomic ratio of 2:1 (A g−1 of Pt) or 3:1 (mA cm−2). These nanomaterials also show much higher structural stability and tolerance to the intermediates of methanol oxidation. Methanol electrooxidation reactions with higher performance can be achieved using core–shell nanoparticles with an amorphous iron oxide core and minimum Pt loading

Exosomes derived from differentiated human ADMSC with the Schwann cell phenotype modulate peripheral nerve-related cellular functions

Peripheral nerve regeneration remains a significant clinical challenge due to the unsatisfactory functional recovery and public health burden. Exosomes, especially those derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), are promising as potential cell-free therapeutics and gene therapy vehicles for promoting neural regeneration. In this study, we reported the differentiation of human adipose derived MSCs (hADMSCs) towards the Schwann cell (SC) phenotype (hADMSC-SCs) and then isolated exosomes from hADMSCs with and without differentiation (i.e., dExo vs uExo). We assessed and compared the effects of uExo and dExo on antioxidative, angiogenic, antiinflammatory, and axon growth promoting properties by using various peripheral nerve-related cells. Our results demonstrated that hADMSC-SCs secreted more neurotrophic factors and other growth factors, compared to hADMSCs without differentiation. The dExo isolated from hADMSC-SCs protected rat SCs from oxidative stress and enhanced HUVEC migration and angiogenesis. Compared to uExo, dExo also had improved performances in downregulating pro-inflammatory gene expressions and cytokine secretions and promoting axonal growth of sensory neurons differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Furthermore, microRNA (miRNA) sequencing analysis revealed that exosomes and their parent cells shared some similarities in their miRNA profiles and exosomes displayed a distinct miRNA signature. Many more miRNAs were identified in dExo than in uExo. Several upregulated miRNAs, like miRNA-132-3p and miRNA-199b-5p, were highly related to neuroprotection, anti-inflammation, and angiogenesis. The dExo can effectively modulate various peripheral nerverelated cellular functions and is promising for cell-free biological therapeutics to enhance neural regeneration

A case-control study on risk factors of breast cancer in China

Introduction: To screen the risk factors associated with breast cancer among Chinese women in order to evaluate the individual risk of developing breast cancer among women in China. Material and methods: A case-control study on 416 breast cancer patients and 1156 matched controls was conducted in 14 hospitals in 8 provinces of China in 2008. Controls were age- and region-matched to the cases. Clinicians conducted in-person interviews with the subjects to collect information on demographics and suspected risk factors for breast cancer that are known worldwide. Conditional logistic regression was used to derive odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the associations between risk factors and breast cancer. Results: Compared with matched controls, women with breast cancer were significantly more likely to have higher body mass index (BMI, OR = 4.07, 95% CI; 2.98-5.55), history of benign breast disease (BBD) biopsy (OR = 1.68, 95% CI; 1.19-2.38), older age of menarche (AOM) (OR = 1.41, 95% CI: 107-187), stress anticipation (SA), for grade 1-4, OR = 2.15, 95% CI; 1.26-3.66; for grade 5-9, OR = 3.48, 95% CI; 2.03-5.95) and menopause (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.50-3.282) at the level of p &lt; 0.05. Family history of breast cancer (FHBC) in first-degree relatives (OR = 1.66, 95% CI; 0.77-3.59) and use of oral contraceptives (OC) (OR = 1.59, 95% CI; 0.83-3.05) were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer at the level of p &lt; 0.20. Conclusions: Our results showed that BMI, history of BBD biopsy, older AOM, SA and menopause were associated with increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese women. The findings derived from the study provided some suggestions for population-based prevention and control of breast cancer in China.Medicine, General &amp; InternalSCI(E)15ARTICLE2303-309

2,2′-Dichloro-1,1′-[(propane-1,3-diyldi­oxy)bis­(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]dibenzene

The title compound, C17H16Cl2N2O2, assumes a V-shape configuration with a dihedral angle between the two halves of the mol­ecule of 79.60 (4)°. The asymmetric unit comprises one half-mol­ecule with a crystallographic twofold rotation axis passing through the central C atom. There are weak inter­molecular π–π stacking inter­actions between neighbouring benzene rings with inter­molecular plane-to-plane distances of 3.277 (6) and 3.465 (5) Å along the a and c axes, respectively. In the crystal structure, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O bonds link each mol­ecule to four others to form an infinite three-dimensional network

SERS spectroscopy with machine learning to analyze human plasma derived sEVs for coronary artery disease diagnosis and prognosis

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major cardiovascular diseases and represents the leading causes of global mortality. Developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for CAD treatment are critically needed, especially for an early accurate CAD detection and further timely intervention. In this study, we successfully isolated human plasma small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from four stages of CAD patients, that is, healthy control, stable plaque, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement in conjunction with five machine learning approaches, including Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor, Artificial Neural network, were then applied for the classification and prediction of the sEV samples. Among these five approaches, the overall accuracy of SVM shows the best predication results on both early CAD detection (86.4%) and overall prediction (92.3%). SVM also possesses the highest sensitivity (97.69%) and specificity (95.7%). Thus, our study demonstrates a promising strategy for noninvasive, safe, and high accurate diagnosis for CAD early detection