Formation of PbSe/CdSe Core/Shell Nanocrystals for Stable Near-Infrared High Photoluminescence Emission

PbSe/CdSe core/shell nanocrystals with quantum yield of 70% were obtained by the “successive ion layer adsorption and reaction” technology in solution. The thickness of the CdSe shell was exactly controlled. A series of spectral red shifts with the CdSe shell growth were observed, which was attributed to the combined effect of the surface polarization and the expansion of carriers’ wavefunctions. The stability of PbSe nanocrystals was tremendously improved with CdSe shells

Regulatory de novo mutations underlying intellectual disability

The genetic aetiology of a major fraction of patients with intellectual disability (ID) remains unknown. De novo mutations (DNMs) in protein-coding genes explain up to 40% of cases, but the potential role of regulatory DNMs is still poorly understood. We sequenced 63 whole genomes from 21 ID probands and their unaffected parents. In addition, we analysed 30 previously sequenced genomes from exome-negative ID probands. We found that regulatory DNMs were selectively enriched in fetal brain-specific enhancers as compared with adult brain enhancers. DNM-containing enhancers were associated with genes that show preferential expression in the prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, we identified recurrently mutated enhancer clusters that regulate genes involved in nervous system development (CSMD1, OLFM1, and POU3F3). Most of the DNMs from ID probands showed allele-specific enhancer activity when tested using luciferase assay. Using CRISPR-mediated mutation and editing of epigenomic marks, we show that DNMs at regulatory elements affect the expression of putative target genes. Our results, therefore, provide new evidence to indicate that DNMs in fetal brain-specific enhancers play an essential role in the aetiology of ID

Biocompatibility of Graphene Oxide

Herein, we report the effects of graphene oxides on human fibroblast cells and mice with the aim of investigating graphene oxides' biocompatibility. The graphene oxides were prepared by the modified Hummers method and characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscope and atomic force microscopy. The human fibroblast cells were cultured with different doses of graphene oxides for day 1 to day 5. Thirty mice divided into three test groups (low, middle, high dose) and one control group were injected with 0.1, 0.25, and 0.4 mg graphene oxides, respectively, and were raised for 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days, respectively. Results showed that the water-soluble graphene oxides were successfully prepared; graphene oxides with dose less than 20 μg/mL did not exhibit toxicity to human fibroblast cells, and the dose of more than 50 μg/mL exhibits obvious cytotoxicity such as decreasing cell adhesion, inducing cell apoptosis, entering into lysosomes, mitochondrion, endoplasm, and cell nucleus. Graphene oxides under low dose (0.1 mg) and middle dose (0.25 mg) did not exhibit obvious toxicity to mice and under high dose (0.4 mg) exhibited chronic toxicity, such as 4/9 mice death and lung granuloma formation, mainly located in lung, liver, spleen, and kidney, almost could not be cleaned by kidney. In conclusion, graphene oxides exhibit dose-dependent toxicity to cells and animals, such as inducing cell apoptosis and lung granuloma formation, and cannot be cleaned by kidney. When graphene oxides are explored for in vivo applications in animal or human body, its biocompatibility must be considered

Comparative analysis of long-haul system based on SSB modulation utilising dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulators

In this paper, we have proposed a long-haul optical transmission system, based on a single sideband (SSB) modulation scheme. Analytical and simulation models have been developed, optimised and demonstrated for the proposed SSB system configurations. The SSB modulation scheme was proposed to overcome dispersion in the fibre. We have shown that the related link losses can be minimized by increasing the quality of the optical signal at the modulation. We have optimised the radio over fibre configuration scheme based on dual parallel dual drive Mach–Zehnder Modulator, thereby increasing transmission length of the fibre. With the proposed SSB, by suppressing some of the harmonics and cancelling one of the sidebands, we have halved the RF power fading and interference. The developed analytical (theoretical/mathematical) model agrees very well with the simulation results using two (both) different commercial simulation tools. The optical signal is boosted while minimizing the number of repeaters. We report a SSB configuration, compensation and amplification with individual spans of 150 km, by extending the length of the link up to 3250 km. The proposed system configuration exhibits high performance with less complexity and lower cost

Assessment and Implication of Prognostic Imbalance in Randomized Controlled Trials with a Binary Outcome – A Simulation Study

Chance imbalance in baseline prognosis of a randomized controlled trial can lead to over or underestimation of treatment effects, particularly in trials with small sample sizes. Our study aimed to (1) evaluate the probability of imbalance in a binary prognostic factor (PF) between two treatment arms, (2) investigate the impact of prognostic imbalance on the estimation of a treatment effect, and (3) examine the effect of sample size (n) in relation to the first two objectives.We simulated data from parallel-group trials evaluating a binary outcome by varying the risk of the outcome, effect of the treatment, power and prevalence of the PF, and n. Logistic regression models with and without adjustment for the PF were compared in terms of bias, standard error, coverage of confidence interval and statistical power.For a PF with a prevalence of 0.5, the probability of a difference in the frequency of the PF≥5% reaches 0.42 with 125/arm. Ignoring a strong PF (relative risk = 5) leads to underestimating the strength of a moderate treatment effect, and the underestimate is independent of n when n is >50/arm. Adjusting for such PF increases statistical power. If the PF is weak (RR = 2), adjustment makes little difference in statistical inference. Conditional on a 5% imbalance of a powerful PF, adjustment reduces the likelihood of large bias. If an absolute measure of imbalance ≥5% is deemed important, including 1000 patients/arm provides sufficient protection against such an imbalance. Two thousand patients/arm may provide an adequate control against large random deviations in treatment effect estimation in the presence of a powerful PF.The probability of prognostic imbalance in small trials can be substantial. Covariate adjustment improves estimation accuracy and statistical power, and hence should be performed when strong PFs are observed

Silica-Encapsulated Efficient and Stable Si Quantum Dots with High Biocompatibility

A facile fabrication method to produce biocompatible semiconductor Quantum Dots encapsulated in high quality and thick thermal oxide is presented. The process employs sonication of porous Si/SiO2 structures to produce flakes with dimension in the 50–200 nm range. These flakes show a coral-like SiO2 skeleton with Si nanocrystals embedded in and are suitable for functionalization with other diagnostic or therapeutic agents. Silicon is a biocompatible material, efficiently cleared from the human body. The Photoluminescence emission falls in the transparency window for living tissues and is found to be bright and stable for hours in the aggressive biological environment

Identification of Autotoxic Compounds in Fibrous Roots of Rehmannia (Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch.)

Rehmannia is a medicinal plant in China. Autotoxicity has been reported to be one of the major problems hindering the consecutive monoculture of Rehmannia. However, potential autotoxins produced by the fibrous roots are less known. In this study, the autotoxicity of these fibrous roots was investigated. Four groups of autotoxic compounds from the aqueous extracts of the fibrous roots were isolated and characterized. The ethyl acetate extracts of these water-soluble compounds were further analyzed and separated into five fractions. Among them, the most autotoxic fraction (Fr 3) was subjected to GC/MS analysis, resulting in 32 identified compounds. Based on literature, nine compounds were selected for testing their autotoxic effects on radicle growth. Seven out of the nine compounds were phenolic, which significantly reduced radicle growth in a concentration-dependent manner. The other two were aliphatic compounds that showed a moderate inhibition effect at three concentrations. Concentration of these compounds in soil samples was determined by HPLC. Furthermore, the autotoxic compounds were also found in the top soil of the commercially cultivated Rehmannia fields. It appears that a close link exists between the autotoxic effects on the seedlings and the compounds extracted from fibrous roots of Rehmannia

Combining active learning and semi-supervised learning techniques to extract protein interaction sentences

Background: Protein-protein interaction (PPI) extraction has been a focal point of many biomedical research and database curation tools. Both Active Learning and Semi-supervised SVMs have recently been applied to extract PPI automatically. In this paper, we explore combining the AL with the SSL to improve the performance of the PPI task. Methods: We propose a novel PPI extraction technique called PPISpotter by combining Deterministic Annealing-based SSL and an AL technique to extract protein-protein interaction. In addition, we extract a comprehensive set of features from MEDLINE records by Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, which further improve the SVM classifiers. In our feature selection technique, syntactic, semantic, and lexical properties of text are incorporated into feature selection that boosts the system performance significantly. Results: By conducting experiments with three different PPI corpuses, we show that PPISpotter is superior to the other techniques incorporated into semi-supervised SVMs such as Random Sampling, Clustering, and Transductive SVMs by precision, recall, and F-measure. Conclusions: Our system is a novel, state-of-the-art technique for efficiently extracting protein-protein interaction pairs.X116sciescopu

Arsenic trioxide, a potent inhibitor of NF-κB, abrogates allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation

BACKGROUND: Overactivation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) orchestrates airway eosinophilia, but does not dampen airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma. NF-κB repression by arsenic trioxide (As(2)O(3)) contributes to apoptosis of eosinophils (EOS) in airways. Here we provide evidence that As(2)O(3 )abrogates allergen (OVA)-induced airway eosinophilia by modulating the expression of IκBα, an NF-κB inhibitory protein, and decreases the airway hyperresponsiveness. METHODS: Using a murine model of asthma, the airway hyperresponsiveness was conducted by barometric whole-body plethysmography. Airway eosinophilia, OVA-specific IgE in serum, and chemokine eotaxin and RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were measured by lung histology, Diff-Quick staining, and ELISA. Chemokine-induced EOS chemotactic activity was evaluated using EOS chemotaxis assay. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and Western blot analysis were performed to assess pulmonary NF-κB activation and IκBα expression, respectively. RESULTS: As(2)O(3 )attenuated the allergen-induced serum IgE, chemokine expression of eotaxin and RANTES, and the EOS recruitment in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, which is associated with an increased IκBα expression as well as a decreased NF-κB activation. Also, As(2)O(3 )suppressed the chemotaxis of EOS dose-dependently in vitro. Additionally, As(2)O(3 )significantly ameliorated the allergen-driven airway hyperresponsiveness, the cardinal feature underlying asthma. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate an essential role of NF-κB in airway eosinophilia, and illustrate a potential dissociation between airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness. As(2)O(3 )likely exerts its broad anti-inflammatory effects by suppression of NF-κB activation through augmentation of IκBα expression in asthma