Controlling nutritional status score is associated with renal progression, cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality in biopsy-proved diabetic kidney disease

Background: The Controlled Nutritional Status (CONUT) score, calculated from albumin, total cholesterol, and lymphocyte count, is a useful indicator for immune-nutritional assessment and is associated with the prognosis of various diseases. However, its relationship with renal outcomes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and all-cause mortality in patients with diabetic kidney disease is unclear.Methods: This retrospective single-center study enrolled 336 patients with biopsy-confirmed diabetic kidney disease from August 2009 to December 2018. The outcomes were progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), CVD events, and death. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to estimate the association between confounding factors and outcomes. The Kaplan-Meier curve was used to compare the outcomes of the patients according to the median CONUT score. The area under the curve (AUC) evaluated with time-dependent receiver operating characteristics was used to test discriminative power of COUNT score.Results: During a median follow-up period of 5.1 years. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients in the high CONUT group (CONUT score > 3) had a significantly higher incidence of ESRD, CVD events, and all-cause mortality than those in the low CONUT group (CONUT score ≤ 3). The multivariate COX regression analysis indicated that, The CONUT score was an independent predictor of ESRD (hazards ration [HR] = 1.129, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.037-1.228, p = 0.005), CVD events (HR = 1.159, 95% CI 1.057-1.271, p = 0.002), and all-cause mortality (HR = 1.299, 95% CI 1.143-1.478, p < 0.001).Conclusion: The CONUT score is an independent risk factor for ESRD, CVD events, and overall death in patients with diabetic kidney disease

A Secure and Scalable Data Communication Scheme in Smart Grids

The concept of smart grid gained tremendous attention among researchers and utility providers in recent years. How to establish a secure communication among smart meters, utility companies, and the service providers is a challenging issue. In this paper, we present a communication architecture for smart grids and propose a scheme to guarantee the security and privacy of data communications among smart meters, utility companies, and data repositories by employing decentralized attribute based encryption. The architecture is highly scalable, which employs an access control Linear Secret Sharing Scheme (LSSS) matrix to achieve a role-based access control. The security analysis demonstrated that the scheme ensures security and privacy. The performance analysis shows that the scheme is efficient in terms of computational cost

MOF-directed templating synthesis of a porous multicomponent dodecahedron with hollow interiors for enhanced lithium-ion battery anodes

The high performance of lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrodes relies largely on the meticulous design of hierarchical nanostructures with optimal balance between superior electrochemical properties and conductivity. Herein, we present a facile and cost-effective solvothermal method to fabricate a porous NiCo2O4/NiO hollow dodecahedron using zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) as both a precursor and a self-sacrificing template. Accurate control between the template etching and the precipitation of the shells is crucial to the preparation of the perfect nanocages. Serving as LIB anode materials, such metal–organic framework derived multiple transition metal oxides demonstrate a high reversible capacity of 1535 mA h g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 and a good cycling stability (97.2% retention after 100 cycles). The presented strategy represents a general route to synthesize various hierarchically interconnected and porous nanostructures of mixed transition metal oxides which are promising for a range of applications.ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore)Accepted versio

In situ formation of new organic ligands to construct two novel self-charge-transfer Pb(ii)-based frameworks

Employing in situ-formed new organic ligands, two Pb(II)-based metal–organic frameworks were synthesized. Compound 1 possesses a 3D framework while compound 2 has a layered structure. Solid state UV-visible absorptions indicate that the two compounds are semiconductors with band gaps of 1.70 and 1.78 eV. Magnetic properties reveal that they are temperature-independent diamagnetic

Au and Pt Nanoparticles Grown on Flexible Carbon Fiber Cloth Supports Decorated with Cerium Metal Organic Frameworks for the Real-Time Detection of H₂O₂ in Live Cancer Tissue

Flexible electrochemical biosensors have ignited great interest because they possess the potential to provide continuous and real-time physiological information via dynamic and noninvasive measurements of biochemical markers in biofluids. In this work, a cerium metal–organic framework (Ce-UiO-66- 4,4-biphenyl dicarboxylic acid (BPDC)) was first grown in situ on flexible carbon fiber cloth (CFC) by a one-step hydrothermal method. To further shorten the response time of the biosensor, we used the controllable growth of gold nanoparticles (NPs) and the peroxidase activity of platinum NPs to simultaneously deposit Au and Pt NPs on the surface of Ce-UiO-66-BPDC/CFC, and constructed a supersensitive sensing interface with good electrocatalytic activity. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the detection limit of the enzyme-free H2O2 electrochemical sensor was as low as 89 nM (S/N = 3). Moreover, due to the excellent biocompatibility and flexibility of the Au–Pt/Ce-UiO-66-BPDC/CFC (APCC) bioplatform, lung cancer cells (A549) can be directly cultured on the electrodes to achieve real-time monitoring of the H2O2 released by living cells (2.43 × 10–14 mol cell–1). More importantly, the practical application of APCC fiber microelectrodes explored the real-time monitoring of the release of H2O2 from fresh tissues surgically excised from breast, breast cancer, and lung cancer, which provided an advanced tool for further research on reactive oxygen species biology, such as oxidative stress and subsequent pathology

<i>N</i>‑Deoxycholic acid‑<i>N</i>,<i>O</i>‑hydroxyethyl Chitosan with a Sulfhydryl Modification To Enhance the Oral Absorptive Efficiency of Paclitaxel

Currently, the most prominent barrier to the success of orally delivered paclitaxel (PTX) is the extremely limited bioavailability of delivered therapeutic. In light of this issue, an amphiphilic sulfhydrylated <i>N</i>-deoxycholic acid-<i>N</i>,<i>O</i>-hydroxyethyl chitosan (TGA-DHC) was synthesized to improve the oral bioavailability of PTX. First, TGA-DHC demonstrated substantial loading of PTX into the inner hydrophobic core. A desirable enhancement in the bioavailability of PTX by TGA-DHC was verified by pharmacokinetic studies on rats against Taxol and non-sulfhydrylated DHC micelles. Moreover, cellular uptake studies revealed significant accumulation of TGA-DHC micelles encapsulating PTX or rhodamine-123 into Caco-2 cells via clathrin/caveolae-mediated endocytosis and inhibition of P-gp efflux of substrates. The results of the Caco-2 transport study further confirmed the mechanistic basis of TGA-DHC efficacy; which was attributed to permeabilized tight junctions, clathrin-mediated transcytosis across the endothelium, and inhibition of P-gp. Finally, <i>in vitro</i> mucoadhesion investigations on freshly excised rat intestine intuitively confirmed increased intestinal retention of drug-loaded TGA-DHC through thiol-mediated mucoadhesion. TGA-DHC has demonstrated the capability to overcome what is perhaps the most prominent barrier to oral PTX efficacy, low bioavailability, and serves as a prominent platform for oral delivery of P-gp substrates

Sn Nanoparticles Encapsulated in 3D Nanoporous Carbon Derived from a Metal–Organic Framework for Anode Material in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Three-dimensional nanoporous carbon frameworks encapsulated Sn nanoparticles (Sn@3D-NPC) are developed by a facile method as an improved lithium ion battery anode. The Sn@3D-NPC delivers a reversible capacity of 740 mAh g^–1 after 200 cycles at a current density of 200 mA g^–1, corresponding to a capacity retention of 85% (against the second capacity) and high rate capability (300 mAh g^–1 at 5 A g^–1). Compared to the Sn nanoparticles (SnNPs), such improvements are attributed to the 3D porous and conductive framework. The whole structure can provide not only the high electrical conductivity that facilities the electron transfer but also the elasticity that will suppress the volume expansion and aggregation of SnNPs during the charge and discharge process. This work opens a new application of metal–organic frameworks in energy storage