Direct Extraction Spray Analysis of Lipid Biomarkers in Injury Rat Spinal Cord

Lipids are crucial components of our bodies, not only as the building component of the cell membrane, but also as signaling molecules and an energy storing unit. The study of lipids may bring great improvement for life science. Moreover, lipids may also be a key factor in many diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and neural diseases.1 Qualitative and quantitative lipid analysis of infected tissue is very important when uncovering the cause and mechanism of disease, and can therefore bring great success for the development of diagnosis and treatment of disease. In this research, we used a photochemical reaction to help determine the double bond location in unsaturated lipids. And by tracking the changes of unsaturated lipid biomarkers in rat spinal cord, we were able to diagnose and monitor the trend of the disease. Mass spectrometry is one of the most powerful analytical instruments for lipid analysis, due to its great sensitivity and specificity. The development of ambient mass spectrometry provides a much more efficient way for chemistry analysis: by optimizing the preparation time and work in sample pre-separation. By coupling Paternò-Büchi reaction with ambient direct extraction spray mass spectrometry, a fast and effective method has been developed to identify and study the biomarkers for spinal cord injury. A couple of fatty acid and phospholipid biomarkers have been determined from the research by comparing the change of lipids between healthy and injured spinal cord rat samples, and the trend of the change of the injury has been monitored and studied. This study provides one possible method for the diagnosis of spinal cord disease, which may inspire future study in pathology

Access to medicines for acute illness and antibiotic use in residents: A medicines household survey in Sichuan Province, western China.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate medicine accessibility and antibiotic use in households in western China using World Health Organization (WHO) methodology as well as to identify the influencing factor of care-seeking outside the home and primary determinant factors that influence the use of antibiotics in Chinese residents. METHODS:A cross-sectional household survey was conducted from March to July 2015, and 1200 households from six cities in Sichuan China were selected for a questionnaire survey using stratified multistage random cluster sampling. We used logistic regression models to identify the determinants of care-seeking outside the home and subsequent antibiotic use among the surveyed residents. RESULTS:Overall, 1103 valid questionnaires were collected, and 458 households reported that they had had experienced at least one acute illness in the previous 2 weeks. Of these households, 97.2% of individuals with acute conditions sought care outside their homes and 40.1% of individuals who took medicine received antibiotics. Only 15.9% of the individuals with acute conditions reported that the medical insurance reimbursement covered at least one medicine. According to the multivariate analyses, women were less likely to seek care outside the home compared to men. Among those who sought outside care, fever and upper respiratory symptoms increased the odds of taking antibiotics, and visiting a private hospital also increased antibiotic use. Low-income households were less likely to receive antibiotics. Symptoms were strong determinants of antibiotic use when patients sought outside care. CONCLUSION:The accessibility of medicine for acute illness among households in western China was favorable; however, medical insurance reimbursement must be improved. The nature of the symptoms and patterns of care-seeking had the greatest influence on the decision to take antibiotics among residents with acute conditions. The percentage of antibiotic use in patients with acute illness has declined, but the indications for using antibiotics must be standardized

An experimental investigation on air-side performances of finned tube heat exchangers for indirect air-cooling tower

A tremendous quantity of water can be saved if the air cooling system is used, comparing with the ordinary water-cooling technology. In this study, two kinds of finned tube heat exchangers in an indirect air-cooling tower are experimentally studied, which are a plain finned oval-tube heat exchanger and a wavy-finned flat-tube heat exchanger in a cross flow of air. Four different air inlet angles (90°, 60 °, 45°, and 30°) are tested separately to obtain the heat transfer and resistance performance. Then the air-side experimental correlations of the Nusselt number and friction factor are acquired. The comprehensive heat transfer performances for two finned tube heat exchangers under four air inlet angles are compared. For the plain finned oval-tube heat exchanger, the vertical angle (90°) has the worst performance while 45° and 30° has the best performance at small ReDc and at large ReDc, respectively. For the wavy-finned flat-tube heat exchanger, the worst performance occurred at 60°, while the best performance occurred at 45° and 90° at small ReDc and at large ReDc, respectively. From the comparative results, it can be found that the air inlet angle has completely different effects on the comprehensive heat transfer performance for the heat exchangers with different structures

Magnetic Hydrogels from Alkyne/Cobalt Carbonyl-Functionalized ABA Triblock Copolymers

A series of alkyne-functionalized poly­(4-(phenylethynyl)­styrene)-<i>block</i>-poly­(ethylene oxide)-<i>block</i>-poly­(4-(phenylethynyl)­styrene) (PPES-<i>b</i>-PEO-<i>b-</i>PPES) ABA triblock copolymers was synthesized by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. PES_<i>n</i>[Co₂(CO)₆]_<i>x</i>-EO₈₀₀-PES_<i>n</i>[Co₂(CO)₆]_<i>x</i> ABA triblock copolymer/cobalt adducts (10–67 wt % PEO) were subsequently prepared by reaction of the alkyne-functionalized PPES block with Co₂(CO)₈ and their phase behavior was studied by TEM. Heating triblock copolymer/cobalt carbonyl adducts at 120 °C led to cross-linking of the PPES/Co domains and the formation of magnetic cobalt nanoparticles within the PPES/Co domains. Magnetic hydrogels could be prepared by swelling the PEO domains of the cross-linked materials with water. Swelling tests, rheological studies and actuation tests demonstrated that the water capacity and modulus of the hydrogels were dependent upon the composition of the block copolymer precursors