Near-Infrared (NIR) Luminescent Homoleptic Lanthanide Salen Complexes Ln(4)(Salen)(4) (Ln = Nd, Yb Or Er)

The series of homoleptic tetranuclear [Ln(4)(L)(2)(HL)(2)(NO3)(2)(OH)(2)]center dot 2(NO3) (Ln = Nd, 1; Ln = Yb, 2; Ln = Er, 3; Ln = Gd, 4) have been self-assembled from the reaction of the Salen-type Schiff-base ligand H2L with Ln(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O (Ln = Nd, Yb, Er or Gd), respectively (H2L: N, N'-bis(salicylidene) cyclohexane-1,2-diamine). The result of their photophysical properties shows that the strong and characteristic NIR luminescence for complexes 1 and 2 with emissive lifetimes in microsecond ranges are observed and the sensitization arises from the excited state (both (LC)-L-1 and (LC)-L-3) of the Salen-type Schiff-base ligand with the flexible linker.National Natural Science Foundation 21173165, 20871098Ministry of Education of China NCET-10-0936Higher Education of China 20116101110003State Key Laboratory of Structure Chemistry 20100014Education Committee Foundation of Shaanxi Province 11JK0588Hong Kong Research Grants Council, P. R. of China HKBU 202407, FRG/06-07/II-16)Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Robert A. Welch Foundation F-816Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board ARP 003658-0010-2006Petroleum Research Fund 47014-AC5Chemistr

A prospective self-controlled study on shortening the time before taking delayed radiographs with iodized oil hysterosalpingography

Objectives: To verify the feasibility of walking to shorten the time before obtaining delayed radiographs after iodized oil hysterosalpingography (HSG). Material and methods: One hundred women with infertility were selected for HSG from June 2018 to December 2018 at the Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; the subjects were randomly divided into walking and control groups. The walking group was required to walk more than 12,000 steps within 6 hours after HSG, while the control group was prohibited from performing high-intensity exercise. The degree of pelvic adhesion was diagnosed with delayed radiographs acquired at 6 and 24 hours, and the diagnostic consistency of the radiographs at the two time points was evaluated. Results: No significant difference was observed in the baseline data between groups (p > 0.05). The delayed radiograph results in the walking group showed good agreement (p = 0.255 > 0.05, Kappa value 0.781 > 0.75), while those in the control group showed general agreement (p = 0.002 < 0.05, Kappa value 0.493 > 0.40 < 0.75). Conclusions: The time for acquiring delayed radiographs can be shortened by instructing patients to walk after HSG. This method improves the diagnostic efficiency of Iodized oil, saves time and costs, and may contribute to the popularization of HSG for female infertility screening, while offering good clinical application prospects

Nrf2, a Potential Therapeutic Target against Oxidative Stress in Corneal Diseases

Corneal diseases are one of the major causes of blindness worldwide. Conservative medical agents, which may prevent sight-threatening corneal disease progression, are urgently desired. Numerous evidences have revealed the involvement of oxidative stress in various corneal diseases, such as corneal wound healing and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD). Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2)/Kelch-like erythroid-cell-derived protein with CNC homology- (ECH-) associated protein 1 (Keap1)/antioxidant response element (ARE) signaling is well known as one of the main antioxidative defense systems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review to elucidate the different expression profiles of Nrf2 signaling as well as the underlying mechanisms in corneal diseases, implicating that Nrf2 may serve as a potentially promising therapeutic target for corneal diseases

Y-STR Haplotypic Polymorphisms for the Hakka Population in West China and Its Phylogenic Comparison with Other Chinese Populations

The Hakkas, undergone a series of great migrations, are usually identified with people who speak the Hakka language or share at least same Hakka ancestry. As the largest Hakka dialect island in West China, the Dongshan region was closely linked with the great migration wave of Hakka. However, the paternal genetic profiles of Dongshan Hakka have never been revealed. In the present study, 41 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) loci included in the SureID® PathFinder Plus Kit were analyzed in 353 unrelated male individuals (171 Hakka and 182 Han) of Sichuan Province, China. By analyzing 166 different haplotypes among Dongshan Hakkas and 176 different haplotypes among Sichuan Han males, haplotype diversity (HD) of the Hakka population was calculated as 0.9997 with a discrimination capacity (DC) of 0.9708. HD and DC were 0.9996 and 0.9670 for the Sichuan Han population, respectively. Most of the Y-STR loci were highly informative in both populations except DYS645. The genetic relationships were evaluated by comparing the Hakka population with 11 other groups that are relevant to the migration routes of Hakkas. The results of the MDS plot and phylogenetic tree indicate that the Dongshan Hakka population was closely related to Han nationalities from Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian Provinces

Influence of lunar semidiurnal tides on groundwater dynamics in estuarine aquifers

The influence of lunar semidiurnal tides on coastal groundwater aquifers has been conceptualized for decades. However, a thorough understanding of the impact of tides on groundwater dynamics due to the widely distributed waterways and heterogeneous sediments in estuarine aquifers, is still needed. This study shows the tidal impact on groundwater dynamics in the Pearl River estuary in southeast China through wavelet and time series analysis. The groundwater level and electrical conductivity (EC), as well as tidal levels, were monitored in several observation wells and tidal stations to determine how the estuarine groundwater levels respond to tidal forcing. The results show that the groundwater fluctuations have short periodicities of 0.51 and 1 day corresponding to major tidal constituents of M2 (semidiurnal) and K1 and O1 (diurnal) signals, respectively. The significant impacts decrease with increasing distance inland of the locations of the wells. Additionally, the coherence analysis displays a higher correlation between tides and groundwater levels for the spring tide than for the neap tide. The tidal influences on groundwater EC are weak compared to those on groundwater levels. In addition, when the tidal level increases, the EC decreases in wells located in the estuarine entrance. This is related to the high salinity of retained paleo-seawater in the strata lenses. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate the complex groundwater flow dynamics. The model may provide useful insights into the understanding of similar systems located in geographically different coastal regions.© 2020 Springer. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Hydrogeology Journal. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10040-020-02136-8fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Analysis on Steady-State Operation and Heat Loss of Chinese Integrated Pressurized Water Reactor

Chinese integrated pressurized water reactor (CIPWR) has compact configuration and high inherent safety, which is appropriate for nuclear power plants of small and medium scale. Heat balance model has been adopted widely in thermal power calibration of PWRs because of its advantage of accuracy. In this paper, a package based on FORTRAN language is developed and added into RELAP5 to calculate the heat loss value needed in heat balance analysis. The steady-state operation of CIPWR is modelled correctly by RELAP5. The heat loss of CIPWR is calculated by the package, and the comparison of the main values of parameters needed in the heat loss calculation between RELAP5 and the package has been done. It shows that the package has high calculation accuracy and can be applied in reactor design and monitoring

PCDHGB7 hypermethylation-based Cervical cancer Methylation (CerMe) detection for the triage of high-risk human papillomavirus-positive women:a prospective cohort study

BackgroundImplementation of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) screening has greatly reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. However, a triage strategy that is effective, noninvasive, and independent from the subjective interpretation of pathologists is urgently required to decrease unnecessary colposcopy referrals in hrHPV-positive women.MethodsA total of 3251 hrHPV-positive women aged 30–82 years (median = 41 years) from International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital were included in the training set (n = 2116) and the validation set (n = 1135) to establish Cervical cancer Methylation (CerMe) detection. The performance of CerMe as a triage for hrHPV-positive women was evaluated.ResultsCerMe detection efficiently distinguished cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2 +) from cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 or normal (CIN1 −) women with excellent sensitivity of 82.4% (95% CI = 72.6 ~ 89.8%) and specificity of 91.1% (95% CI = 89.2 ~ 92.7%). Importantly, CerMe showed improved specificity (92.1% vs. 74.9%) in other 12 hrHPV type-positive women as well as superior sensitivity (80.8% vs. 61.5%) and specificity (88.9% vs. 75.3%) in HPV16/18 type-positive women compared with cytology testing. CerMe performed well in the triage of hrHPV-positive women with ASC-US (sensitivity = 74.4%, specificity = 87.5%) or LSIL cytology (sensitivity = 84.4%, specificity = 83.9%).ConclusionsPCDHGB7 hypermethylation-based CerMe detection can be used as a triage strategy for hrHPV-positive women to reduce unnecessary over-referrals.Trial registrationChiCTR2100048972. Registered on 19 July 2021.<br/