Blood Eosinophils and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of Real-World Data in China

Background and Objective: Elevated eosinophils in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are recognized as a biomarker to guide inhaled corticosteroids use, but the value of blood eosinophils in hospitalized exacerbations of COPD remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of eosinophils in predicting clinical outcomes in acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).Methods: We analyzed data from the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease inpatient registry (ACURE) study, which is an ongoing nationwide multicenter, observational real-world study in patients admitted for AECOPD. Data collected between January 2018 and December 2019 in 163 centers were first reviewed. The eligible patients were divided into eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic groups, according to blood eosinophil with 2% of the total leukocyte count as the threshold. Propensity score (PS) matching was performed to adjust for confounders.Results: A total of 1,566 patients (median age: 69 years; 80.3% male) were included and 42.7% had an eosinophilic AECOPD. Eosinophil count <2% was associated with the development of respiratory failure and pneumonia. After PS matching, 650 pairs in overall patients, 468 pairs in patients with smoking history and 177 pairs in patients without smoking were selected, respectively. Only in patients with smoking history, the non-eosinophilic AECOPD was associated with longer median hospital stays (9 vs. 8 days, P = 0.034), higher dosage of corticosteroid use, higher economic burden of hospitalization, and poorer response to corticosteroid therapy compared to the eosinophilic AECOPD. No significant difference was found in patients without smoking. Eosinophil levels had no relationship with the change of COPD Assessment Test scores and readmissions or death after 30 days.Conclusion: Elevated eosinophils were associated with better short-term outcomes only in patients with a smoking history. Eosinophil levels cannot be confidently used as a predictor alone for estimating prognosis

Aggregation-induced emission materials based on restriction of intramolecular vibration

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is a photophysical phenomenon wherein luminescent materials exhibit weak emission in solution but strong emission after aggregation. This phenomenon has garnered significant attention in the realm of multifunctional luminescent materials. Specifically, AIE molecules, which operate through the restriction of intramolecular vibration (RIV) mechanism, have emerged as a pivotal constituent of AIE materials, captivating the interest of both academia and industry. This review aims to present a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in the domain of RIV-type AIE and its associated areas. It encompasses a survey of the classifications, molecular design strategies, and mechanisms underlying RIV-type AIE molecules. Furthermore, the review delves into the prospects and challenges encountered in the realm. We hope this review can provide novel insights into the theory, materials, and applications in the field of biochemistry and organic photoelectric

Plasmon-Enhanced C–C Bond Cleavage toward Efficient Ethanol Electrooxidation

Ethanol, as a sustainable biomass fuel, is endowed with the merits of theoretically high energy density and environmental friendliness yet suffers from sluggish kinetics and low selectivity toward the desired complete electrooxidation (C1 pathway). Here, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect is explored as a manipulating knob to boost electrocatalytic ethanol oxidation reaction in alkaline media under ambient conditions by appropriate visible light. Under illumination, Au@Pt nanoparticles with plasmonic core and active shell exhibit concurrently higher activity (from 2.30 to 4.05 A mgPt–1 at 0.8 V vs RHE) and C1 selectivity (from 9 to 38% at 0.8 V). In situ attenuated total reflection–surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) provides a molecular level insight into the LSPR promoted C–C bond cleavage and the subsequent CO oxidation. This work not only extends the methodology hyphenating plasmonic electrocatalysis and in situ surface IR spectroscopy but also presents a promising approach for tuning complex reaction pathways

Highly Efficient Circularly Polarized Near-infrared Phosphorescence in Both Solution and Aggregate

Circularly polarized phosphorescence (CPP) is a spin-forbidden radiative process with chiroptical activity. The CPP mechanism is far from comprehensively understood, mainly due to the limited examples of efficient triplet emission from small chiral organic molecules with well-defined structures. Herein, a pair of chiral enantiomers R/S-BBTI is reported, featuring the highly distorted spiral ring-locked heteroaromatics with heavy iodine atoms. These chiral molecules emit NIR phosphorescence and exhibit considerable high dissymmetry factors up to 0.013 with an efficiency of 4.2% and a lifetime of 119 μs in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution after ultraviolet irradiation. Their crystals show efficient CPP with 7.0% quantum efficiency and a lifetime of 166 μs. Extensive experimental chiroptical investigations combined with theoretical calculations reveal an efficient spin-flip process that modulates the electron and magnetic transition dipole moments to enhance CPP performance. Moreover, the phosphorescence of R/S-BBTI is oxygen-sensitive and photoactivated in DMSO. Therefore, R/S-BBTI can be applied for hypoxia imaging in cells and tumors, expanding the scope of CPP applications