Chronic inflammation in polycystic ovary syndrome: A case–control study using multiple markers

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with insulin resistance and elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Chronic inflammation has been observed in PCOS in several studies but there is also opposing evidence and a dearth of research in Indians. Objective: To estimate chronic inflammation in PCOS and find its relationship with appropriate anthropometric and biochemical parameters. Materials and Methods: Chronic inflammation was assessed in 30 women with PCOS (Group A) and 30 healthy controls (Group B) with highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), and platelet microparticles (PMP). In group A, the relationship of chronic inflammation with insulin resistance, waist hip ratio (WHR) serum testosterone, and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) were examined. Results: In group A, the hsCRP, TNFα, and PMP were significantly elevated compared to group B. However, IL-6 level was similar between the groups. In group A, PMP showed a significant positive correlation with waist-hip ratio and serum testosterone. IL-6 showed a significant positive correlation with insulin sensitivity and significant negative correlation with insulin resistance and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase. Conclusion: PCOS is associated with chronic inflammation and PMP correlates positively with central adiposity and biochemical hyperandrogenism in women with PCOS. Key words: Polycystic ovary syndrome, Inflammation, C-reactive protein, Interleukin-6, Tumor necrosis factor, Microparticles

Computer-aided discovery of a metal-organic framework with superior oxygen uptake.

Current advances in materials science have resulted in the rapid emergence of thousands of functional adsorbent materials in recent years. This clearly creates multiple opportunities for their potential application, but it also creates the following challenge: how does one identify the most promising structures, among the thousands of possibilities, for a particular application? Here, we present a case of computer-aided material discovery, in which we complete the full cycle from computational screening of metal-organic framework materials for oxygen storage, to identification, synthesis and measurement of oxygen adsorption in the top-ranked structure. We introduce an interactive visualization concept to analyze over 1000 unique structure-property plots in five dimensions and delimit the relationships between structural properties and oxygen adsorption performance at different pressures for 2932 already-synthesized structures. We also report a world-record holding material for oxygen storage, UMCM-152, which delivers 22.5% more oxygen than the best known material to date, to the best of our knowledge

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Nitrogen-enriched flexible metal–organic framework for CO2 adsorption†

<jats:p>A novel MOF [Zn<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>(L)(DMF)] was synthesized showing high crystallinity and stability up to 250 °C. Its nitrogen-rich pyrazole linkers enable good CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> adsorption with a low isosteric enthalpy. Adsorption results were validated by DFT calculations.</jats:p&gt

Photophysics and Nonlinear Absorption of Gold(I) and Platinum(II) Donor–Acceptor–Donor Chromophores

A series of Au­(I) and Pt­(II) acetylide complexes of a π-conjugated donor–acceptor–donor (D-A-D) chromophore were studied to develop quantitative structure–property relationships for their photophysical and nonlinear optical properties. The D-A-D chromophore consists of a “TBT” unit, where T = 3-hexyl-2,5-thienylene and BTD = 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole, capped with ethynylene groups. The D-A-D chromophore is functionalized with Au­(I)­PR₃ (R = −Me and −Ph) and <i>trans</i>-Pt­(II)­(PR₃)₂-CCPh (R = −Me and −Bu) “auxochromes”. All of the metal complexes were characterized by ground-state absorption, photoluminescence, nanosecond transient absorption, and two-photon absorption (2PA) spectroscopy. The experiments provided quantitative values of the photophysical parameters, including rates for radiative decay and intersystem crossing (ISC), triplet yields, and two-photon absorption cross sections. Pronounced solvatochromism in the fluorescence spectra suggests an enhanced dipole moment in the excited state of the complexes compared to the unmetalated TBT chromophore. The gold complexes feature larger fluorescence quantum yields and longer emission lifetimes compared to platinum. The Pt­(II) complexes exhibit enhanced triplet–triplet absorption, reduced triplet-state lifetimes, and larger singlet oxygen quantum yields, consistent with more efficient ISC compared to the Au­(I) complexes. When excited by 100 fs pulses, all of the D-A-D chromophores exhibit moderate two-photon absorption in the near-infrared between 700 and 900 nm. The 2PA cross section for the Au­(I) complexes is almost the same as the unmetalated D-A-D chromophore (∼100 GM). The Pt­(II) complexes exhibit significantly enhanced 2PA compared to the other chromophores, reaching 1000 GM at 750 nm. Taken together, the results indicate that the Pt­(II) center is considerably more effective in inducing singlet–triplet ISC and in enhancing the 2PA cross section. This result reveals the greater promise for Pt­(II) acetylides in chromophores for temporal and frequency agile nonlinear absorption

Multiferroic Reinforced Bioactive Glass Composites for Bone Tissue Engineering Applications

Nowadays controlling cellular responses and function of biological molecules is becoming one of the prime areas of focus in biomedical field. In this investigation, an attempt is made to generate in situ charge in bioactive glass (BAG) by incorporating BiFeO3 (BF, a multiferroic material). It is hypothesized that BF in BAG can accelerate cellular activities for rapid tissue healing with externally applied magnetic field due to in situ polarization. BAG composites with different amounts of BF (2 to 15 wt%) are prepared using ball milling followed by pressing and sintering. The composites are characterized in terms of microstructures, constituent phases, magnetic, and electrical properties. Further, in vitro cytotoxicity studies are performed to evaluate the influence of in situ polarization by culturing mouse preosteoblast cells (MC3T3) on BAG-BF composites under different external magnetic field treatments. These in vitro cell-materials interaction studies demonstrate that magnetic field strengths of 200 or 350 mT exposed for 30 min/day can enhance cell viability and proliferation on these composites up to three times. Hence, the authors expect that this investigation will enable further developments to extend the application of multiferroics in bone tissue engineering

Construction of Pillar-Layer Metal–Organic Frameworks for CO₂ Adsorption under Humid Climate: High Selectivity and Sensitive Detection of Picric Acid in Water

Adsorption of CO₂ under humid conditions is important, as flue gases contain some degree of moisture, while aqueous-phase sensing of nitro-aromatic compounds is critical for environmental protection and anti-terrorism activities. However, implementing both of these aspects in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is rare and challenging due to their moisture instability. To this end, we prepared three isostructural, pillar-layer Zn­(II) MOFs where <i>criss-cross</i> pillaring by the linkers tunes the pore opening and pore electronic environment that in turn modulate thermal and/or moisture stabilities. While activated <b>2</b> (<b>2′</b>), incorporating an azo group in the linker, exhibits excellent CO₂/N₂ selectivity (>200), <b>1′</b>, containing a 4,4′-bipyridine linker displays superior hydrolytic stability with minimum loss in CO₂ adsorption–desorption cycles up to 10 days of water vapor exposure. However, framework <b>3</b>, with a bis­(4-pyridyl)­ethylene linker, is unstable. Importantly, aqueous-phase sensitive detection of picric acid (PA) has been achieved through fluorescence quenching, where the quenching constant for <b>2′</b> (3.11 × 10⁴ M^–1) is found to be almost double that for <b>1′</b> (1.53 × 10⁴ M^–1). A combination of experimental and mechanistic studies reveals that the concurrent presence of dynamic and static quenching as well as resonance energy transfer are responsible for such a high fluorescence quenching in <b>2′</b>. Moreover, strong non-covalent interactions, as observed in the co-crystal of PA and 4-azopyridine linker, provide direct evidence. Together, CO₂ adsorption under humid conditions, high selectivity, and very low limit of PA detection in the aqueous phase manifest the present MOFs as potential materials for sustainability

Post-Synthetic Cyano-Ferrate(II) Functionalization of the Metal–Organic Framework, NU-1000

Starting with ferrocyanide ions in acidic aqueous solution, cyano-ferrate(II) species are post-synthetically grafted to the nodes of a mesoporous zirconium-based MOF, NU-1000. As indicated by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, grafting occurs by substitution of cyanide ligands by node-based hydroxo and oxo ligands, rather than by substitution of node aqua ligands by cyanide ligands as bridges between Fe(II) and Zr(IV). The installed moieties yield a broad absorption band that is tentatively ascribed to iron-to-zirconium charge-transfer. Consistent with Fe(III/II) redox activity, a modest fraction of the installed iron complexes are directly electrochemically addressable

Pore Wall-Functionalized Luminescent Cd(II) Framework for Selective CO₂ Adsorption, Highly Specific 2,4,6-Trinitrophenol Detection, and Colorimetric Sensing of Cu²⁺ Ions

Astute combination of basic functionality and luminescence property can pursue multifunctional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with assorted applications such as selective CO₂ adsorption, specific detection of explosive nitro compounds, and toxic metal ion sensing. The bifunctional ligand 4-(4-carboxyphenyl)-1,2,4-triazole (H<b>L</b>) is used to build the framework [Cd­(<b><i>L</i></b>)₂]·(DMF)_0.92 (<b>1</b>) (<b><i>L</i></b> = <b>L</b>^<b>–1</b>, DMF = <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′-dimethylformamide), having a free N atom decorated porous channel. The solvothermal synthesis is extended to produce three isoskeletal frameworks in diverse solvents, where pore size maximizes in <b>2</b> by employing <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′-diethylformamide solvent. The activated framework [Cd­(<b><i>L</i></b>)₂] exhibits strong CO₂ affinity with good CO₂/N₂ selectivity, and shows minimum CO₂ loss during five adsorption–desorption cycles. Sensing studies for nitro-aromatic compounds in DMF reveal highly specific detection of 2,4,6-trinitophenol (TNP) with remarkable quenching (<i>K</i>_SV = 9.3 × 10⁴ M^–1) and low limit of detection (LOD: 0.3 ppm). The quenching mechanism is ascribed to the combined existence of static and dynamic quenching plus resonance energy transfer. The activated framework further shows highly selective luminescent detection of Cu²⁺ ions with a quenching constant of 4.4 × 10³ M^–1 and very low LOD of 3.9 ppm. The detection of Cu²⁺ ions accompanies a visible color change in solution and solid phase, which validates the present system as a potential colorimetric Cu²⁺ sensor. Of note is that bifunctional sensor shows excellent reusability toward TNP and Cu²⁺ detection. Overall, selective and multicycle CO₂ adsorption, together with efficient sensing of both TNP and Cu²⁺ ion, manifest this pore-functionalized MOF as a versatile material for sustainability