Uptake and Cytotoxicity of Ce(IV) Doped TiO 2

Ce(IV) doped anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (CDTs) were prepared and the underlying mechanism by which CDT nanoparticle enters into cell and its cytotoxicity were investigated in a human hepatocellular line L02 cell. The results showed that CDTs can enter into cytoplasm of L02 cell via endocytosis and nonendocytic ways. Large aggregation of CDTs went into cell by endocytosis and finally formed an endocytic vesicle with membrane boundary. Tiny aggregation of CDTs entered into cell cytoplasm via channels similar to that for lung-blood substance exchange in the alveolar-airway barrier. In addition, tiny aggregation of CDTs was observed in nucleus, and maybe CDTs could pass through the nucleus envelope via the channels provided by nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Results from MTT assay, fluorescence microscope, and TEM observations showed that the cell viability, cell morphology, cell growth, and cell division periods could not be obviously impaired when cells were exposed to CDTs of different concentration from 30 to 150 μg mL−1 without UV irradiation. However, large vacuoles containing CDTs were found in cytoplasm, some structure changes were observed in mitochondria, and smooth envelope around the nucleus was shrank and deformed

Fluoxetine Protects against Big Endothelin-1 Induced Anti-Apoptosis by Rescuing Kv1.5 Channels in Human Pulmonary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells

∙ The authors have no financial conflicts of interest. © Copyright: Yonsei University College of Medicine 2012 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licens

BiSyn-GAT+: Bi-Syntax Aware Graph Attention Network for Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis

Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) is a fine-grained sentiment analysis task that aims to align aspects and corresponding sentiments for aspect-specific sentiment polarity inference. It is challenging because a sentence may contain multiple aspects or complicated (e.g., conditional, coordinating, or adversative) relations. Recently, exploiting dependency syntax information with graph neural networks has been the most popular trend. Despite its success, methods that heavily rely on the dependency tree pose challenges in accurately modeling the alignment of the aspects and their words indicative of sentiment, since the dependency tree may provide noisy signals of unrelated associations (e.g., the "conj" relation between "great" and "dreadful" in Figure 2). In this paper, to alleviate this problem, we propose a Bi-Syntax aware Graph Attention Network (BiSyn-GAT+). Specifically, BiSyn-GAT+ fully exploits the syntax information (e.g., phrase segmentation and hierarchical structure) of the constituent tree of a sentence to model the sentiment-aware context of every single aspect (called intra-context) and the sentiment relations across aspects (called inter-context) for learning. Experiments on four benchmark datasets demonstrate that BiSyn-GAT+ outperforms the state-of-the-art methods consistently

Loss to Follow-Up from HIV Screening to ART Initiation in Rural China.

BackgroundPatients who are newly screened HIV positive by EIA are lost to follow-up due to complicated HIV testing procedures. Because this is the first step in care, it affects the entire continuum of care. This is a particular concern in rural China.Objective(s)To assess the routine HIV testing completeness and treatment initiation rates at 18 county-level general hospitals in rural Guangxi.MethodsWe reviewed original hospital HIV screening records. Investigators also engaged with hospital leaders and key personnel involved in HIV prevention activities to characterize in detail the routine care practices in place at each county.Results699 newly screened HIV-positive patients between January 1 and June 30, 2013 across the 18 hospitals were included in the study. The proportion of confirmatory testing across the 18 hospitals ranged from 14% to 87% (mean of 43%), and the proportion of newly diagnosed individuals successfully initiated antiretroviral treatment across the hospitals ranged from 3% to 67% (mean of 23%). The average interval within hospitals for individuals to receive the Western Blot (WB) and CD4 test results from HIV positive screening (i.e. achieving testing completion) ranged from 14-116 days (mean of 41.7 days) across the hospitals. The shortest interval from receiving a positive EIA screening test result to receiving WB and CD4 testing and counseling was 0 day and the longest was 260 days.ConclusionThe proportion of patients newly screened HIV positive that completed the necessary testing procedures for HIV confirmation and received ART was very low. Interventions are urgently needed to remove barriers so that HIV patients can have timely access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care in rural China

Changes in the Expression of miR-381 and miR-495 Are Inversely Associated with the Expression of the MDR1 Gene and Development of Multi-Drug Resistance

Multidrug resistance (MDR) frequently develops in cancer patients exposed to chemotherapeutic agents and is usually brought about by over-expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) which acts as a drug efflux pump to reduce the intracellular concentration of the drug(s). Thus, inhibiting P-gp expression might assist in overcoming MDR in cancer chemotherapy. MiRNAome profiling using next-generation sequencing identified differentially expressed microRNAs (miRs) between parental K562 cells and MDR K562 cells (K562/ADM) induced by adriamycin treatment. Two miRs, miR-381 and miR-495, that were strongly down-regulated in K562/ADM cells, are validated to target the 3'-UTR of the MDR1 gene. These miRs are located within a miR cluster located at chromosome region 14q32.31, and all miRs in this cluster appear to be down-regulated in K562/ADM cells. Functional analysis indicated that restoring expression of miR-381 or miR-495 in K562/ADM cells was correlated with reduced expression of the MDR1 gene and its protein product, P-gp, and increased drug uptake by the cells. Thus, we have demonstrated that changing the levels of certain miR species modulates the MDR phenotype in leukemia cells, and propose further exploration of the use of miR-based therapies to overcome MDR.The authors would like to declare that we received funding from a commercial source, i.e. Bioplatforms Australia. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials

Interfacial Synthesis of Layer-Oriented 2D Conjugated Metal-Organic Framework Films towards Directional Charge Transport

The development of layer-oriented two-dimensional conjugated metal-organic frameworks (2D c-MOFs) enables an access to direct charge transport, dial-in lateral/vertical electronic devices and unveil transport mechanisms, but remains a significant synthetic challenge. Here we report the novel synthesis of metal-phthalocyanine-based p-type semiconducting 2D c-MOF films (Cu2[PcM-O8], M=Cu or Fe) with an unprecedented edge-on layer-orientation at the air/water interface. The edge-on structure for-mation is guided by the pre-organization of metal-phthalocyanine ligands, whose basal plane is perpendicular to the water surface due to their π-π interaction and hydrophobicity. Benefiting from the unique layer orientation, we are able to investigate the lateral and vertical conductivities by DC methods, and thus demonstrate an anisotropic charge transport in the resulting Cu2[PcCu-O8] film. The directional conductivity studies combined with theoretical calculation identify that the intrinsic conductivity is dominated by charge transfer along the interlayer pathway. Moreover, a macroscopic (cm2-size) Hall-effect measurement reveals a Hall mobility of ~4.4 cm2 V-1 s-1 for the obtained Cu2[PcCu-O8] film. The orientation control in semiconducting 2D c-MOFs will enable the develop-ment of various optoelectronic applications and the exploration of unique transport properties