An experimental study of the measurement of low concentration hydrogen sulfide in an aqueous solution

Endogenously generated H2S has been found not just a toxic substance but may play positive roles, such as the neuromodulator and vasorelaxant in the physiological system since 1990s. Then the precise control of the amount of Hydrogen Sulfide in the animal body raises great interests recently. However, the traditional methods for the Hydrogen Sulfide measurement need a large amount of tissue samples and take a complex procedure; it is impossible to develop any in-vivo real-time approach to measure H2S along the avenue of these methods. There is a great significance to develop new methods toward the measurement of Hydrogen Sulfide in in-vivo, real time, non- or less invasive manner with high resolution. One general idea to make the measurement less invasive is to take blood as sample – i.e., to measure Hydrogen Sulfide in blood. The study presented in this thesis aimed to conceive of new measurement methods for Hydrogen Sulfide in an aqueous solution along with their experimental verification. Though the blood sample will eventually be taken, the present study focused on an aqueous solution, which is a first step towards the final goal to measure Hydrogen Sulfide in blood. The study conducted a thorough literature review, resulting in the proposal of five methods, including: (i) the Hydrogen Sulfide measurement by Atomic Force Microscopy, (ii) the H2S measurement by Raman spectroscopy directly, (iii) the Hydrogen Sulfide measurement by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy directly (with the static headspace technique), (iv) the Hydrogen Sulfide measurement by Mass Spectroscopy with Carbon Nanotubes, and (v) the Hydrogen Sulfide measurement by Raman spectroscopy with Carbon Nanotubes. The experiments for each of these methods were carried out, and the results were analyzed. Consequently, this study shows that method (v) is very promising to measure low concentration Hydrogen Sulfide in an aqueous solution, especially with the concentration level down to 10 μM and the presence of a linear relationship between the Hydrogen Sulfide concentration and its luminescent intensity

MicroRNA-939 amplifies Staphylococcus aureus-induced matrix metalloproteinase expression in atopic dermatitis

BackgroundAtopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin diseases that seriously affects life quality of the patients. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonization on the skin plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD; however, the mechanism of how it modulates skin immunity to exacerbate AD remains unclear. MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that act as post-transcriptional regulators of genes. They are involved in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory skin diseases.MethodsIn this study, we established miRNA expression profiles for keratinocytes stimulated with heat-killed S. aureus (HKSA). The expression of miR-939 in atopic dermatitis patients was analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). miR-939 mimic was transfected to human primary keratinocyte to investigate its impact on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase genes (MMPs) in vitro. Subsequently, miR-939, along with Polyplus transfection reagent, was administered to MC903-induced atopic dermatitis skin to assess its function in vivo.ResultsMiR-939 was highly upregulated in HKSA-stimulated keratinocytes and AD lesions. In vitro studies revealed that miR-939 increased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase genes, including MMP1, MMP3, and MMP9, as well as the cell adhesion molecule ICAM1 in human primary keratinocytes. In vivo studies indicated that miR-939 increased the expression of matrix metalloproteinases to promote the colonization of S. aureus and exacerbated S. aureus-induced AD-like skin inflammation.ConclusionsOur work reveals miR-939 is an important regulator of skin inflammation in AD that could be used as a potential therapeutic target for AD

Graphene-directed two-dimensional porous carbon frameworks for high-performance lithium–sulfur battery cathodes

Graphene-directed two-dimensional (2D) nitrogen-doped porous carbon frameworks (GPF) as the hosts for sulfur were constructed via the ionothermal polymerization of 1,4-dicyanobenzene directed by the polyacrylonitrile functionalized graphene nanosheets. As cathodes for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, the prepared GPF/sulfur nanocomposites exhibited a high capacity up to 962 mA h g⁻¹ after 120 cycles at 2 A g⁻¹. A high reversible capacity of 591 mA h g⁻¹ was still retained even at an extremely large current density of 20 A g⁻¹. Such impressive electrochemical performance of GPF should benefit from the 2D hierarchical porous architecture with an extremely high specific surface area, which could facilitate the efficient entrapment of sulfur and polysulfides and afford rapid charge transfer, fast electronic conduction as well as intimate contact between active materials and the electrolyte during cycling

A two-dimensional hybrid with molybdenum disulfide nanocrystals strongly coupled on nitrogen-enriched graphene via mild temperature pyrolysis for high performance lithium storage

A novel 2D hybrid with MoS₂ nanocrystals strongly coupled on nitrogen-enriched graphene (MoS₂/NGg-C₃N₄) is realized by mild temperature pyrolysis (550 °C) of a self-assembled precursor (MoS₃/g-C₃N₄–H⁺/GO). With rich active sites, the boosted electronic conductivity and the coupled structure, MoS₂/NGg₋C₃N₄ achieves superior lithium storage performance

Nitrogen-enriched hierarchically porous carbon materials fabricated by graphene aerogel templated Schiff-base chemistry for high performance electrochemical capacitors

This article presents a facile and effective approach for synthesizing three-dimensional (3D) graphenecoupled Schiff-base hierarchically porous polymers (GS-HPPs). The method involves the polymerization of melamine and 1,4-phthalaldehyde, yielding Schiff-base porous polymers on the interconnected macroporous frameworks of 3D graphene aerogels. The as-synthesized GS-HPPs possess hierarchically porous structures containing macro-/meso-/micropores, along with large specific surface areas up to 776 m² g⁻¹ and high nitrogen contents up to 36.8 wt%. Consequently, 3D nitrogen-enriched hierarchically porous carbon (N-HPC) materials with macro-/meso-/micropores were obtained by the pyrolysis of the GS-HPPs at a high temperature of 800 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere. With a hierarchically porous structure, good thermal stability and a high nitrogen-doping content up to 7.2 wt%, the N-HPC samples show a high specific capacitance of 335 F g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹ in 6 M KOH, a good capacitance retention with increasing current density, and an outstanding cycling stability. The superior electrochemical performance means that the N-HPC materials have great potential as electrode materials for supercapacitors

Convex optimization method for quantifying image quality induced saliency variation

Visual saliency plays a significant role in image quality assessment. Image distortions cause shift of saliency from its original places. Being able to measure such distortion-included saliency variation (DSV) contributes towards the optimal use of saliency in automated image quality assessment. In our previous study a benchmark for the measurement of DSV through subjective testing was built. However, exiting saliency similarity measures are unhelpful for the quantification of DSV due to the fact that DSV highly depends on the dispersion degree of a saliency map. In this paper, we propose a novel similarity metric for the measurement of DSV, namely MDSV, based on convex optimization method. The proposed MDSV metric integrates the local saliency similarity measure and the global saliency similarity measure using the function of saliency dispersion as a modulator. We detail the parameter selection of the proposed metric and the interactions of sub-models for the convex optimization strategy. Statistical analyses show that our proposed MDSV outperforms the existing metrics in quantifying the image quality induced saliency variation

Urinary complement profile in IgA nephropathy and its correlation with the clinical and pathological characteristics

Background and objectivesThe activated complement profile in IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is still unclear. Our study investigated the profile of urinary complements in IgAN patients and its correlations with clinical and pathological characteristics.MethodsUrinary protein abundance was detected by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) in 50 IgAN, 50 membranous nephropathy (MN), and 68 healthy controls (HC). Then, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to identify differentially expressed proteins in IgAN patients. The differentially expressed complement proteins were screened in IgAN patients, and their correlations with laboratory or pathological parameters were analyzed. Thereafter, 7 complement components were validated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the urine samples of 45 IgAN patients.ResultsThere were 786 differentially expressed proteins between IgAN and HC. KEGG analysis showed that differentially expressed urinary proteins in IgAN were enriched with complement. Of these, 67% of urinary complement protein abundance was associated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate. The urinary complement-related protein collectin12 (colec12), complement H factor (CFH), complement H factor-related protein 2 (CFHR2), and complement B factor (CFB) were positively correlated with serum creatinine; colec12, CFHR2, CFB, and C8g were positively correlated with glomerulosclerosis; CFH, CFHR2, C8g, and C9 were positively correlated with tubular atrophy/interstitial fibrosis.ConclusionAbnormally increased components of complement pathways significantly correlate with reduced renal function, proteinuria, and renal histological damage in IgAN. It could provide a potential biomarker panel for monitoring IgAN and provide clues for therapeutic choice targeting complement system of IgAN patients

Gadolinium‐Doped Iron Oxide Nanoprobe as Multifunctional Bioimaging Agent and Drug Delivery System

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116012/1/adfm201502868.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116012/2/adfm201502868-sup-0001-S1.pd

Mineralization of pH-Sensitive Doxorubicin Prodrug in ZIF-8 to Enable Targeted Delivery to Solid Tumors

The zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8), composed of zinc ion and dimethylimidazole, is widely used in drug delivery because of the easy fabrication process and the good biosafety. However, ZIF-8 suffers from low affinity to nonelectric-rich drugs and does not have surface functional groups. Here, to deliver doxorubicin (DOX) with ZIF-8 to specific target sites, DOX was first modified with a pH-sensitive linker containing two carboxyl groups to form the inactive prodrug CAD and subsequently seeded inside ZIF-8 by a 5 min mineralization process. CAD has high affinity to ZIF-8 because of the carboxyl groups and can anchor to the ZIF-8 surface to enable the surface modification with folic acid for tumor targeting. Moreover, the DOX release is precisely controlled by three steps of acidic pH response, with the dissociation of the FA layer, the breakdown of the ZIF-8 structure, and the cleavage of the pH-sensitive linker in prodrug. This novel "prodrug-ZIF-8" strategy has opened a new horizon in drug delivery