Enzymatic Biodegradability of Pristine and Functionalized Transition Metal Dichalcogenide MoS2 Nanosheets

2D transition metal dichalcogenide MoS₂ nanosheets are increasingly attracting interests due to their promising applications in materials science and biomedicine. However, their biocompatibility and their biodegradability have not been thoroughly studied yet. Here, the biodegradability of exfoliated pristine and covalently functionalized MoS₂ (f ‐MoS₂) is investigated. First, biodegradability of these nanomaterials is evaluated using plant horseradish peroxidase and human myeloperoxidase. The results reveal that the enzymatic degradability rate of MoS₂ and f ‐MoS₂ is slower than in the case of the simple treatment with H₂O₂ alone. In parallel, high biocompatibility of both pristine and f ‐MoS₂ nanosheets is found up to 100 µg mL^?1 in both cell lines (HeLa and Raw264.7) and primary immune cells. In addition, no immune cell activation and minimal pro‐inflammatory cytokine release are observed in RAW264.7 and human monocyte‐derived macrophages, suggesting a negligible cellular impact of such materials. Furthermore, the effects of degraded MoS₂ and partially degraded f‐ MoS₂ products on cell viability and activation are studied in cancer and immune cells. A certain cytotoxicity is measured at the highest concentrations. Finally, to prove that the cellular impact is due to cell uptake, the internalization of both pristine and functionalized MoS₂ in cancer and primary immune cells is assessed.     

血清样品中胆固醇的携带式测定仪的开发

利用色谱原理开发荧光芯片,并测定了血清中的总胆固醇含量。分析系统由荧光色谱芯片和荧光阅读器组成,荧光色谱芯片包括塑料盒和纸条,显色剂(AEC),胆固醇氧化酶(CO),胆固醇酯酶(CE),过氧化氢酶(HRP)混合溶液喷在纸条上。在1—4mg/mL浓度范围内,胆固醇标准溶液和荧光强度的变化有线性关系(r=0．979),其回收率为106．5％-94％。该法测定的结果和Hitachi 747全自动生化分析仪有良好的相关性(r=0．895)。本研究所开发的总胆固醇测定方法有操作简单,快速(8min),取样量少(5μL)的特点,适合于携带式测定仪的开发。     

Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Do Not Cause Radioprotection of Head-and-Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Radiotherapy of head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) can cause considerable normal tissue injuries, and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been shown to aid regeneration of irradiation-damaged normal tissues. However, utilization of MSC-based treatments for HNSCC patients undergoing radiotherapy is hampered by concerns regarding potential radioprotective effects. We therefore investigated the influence of MSCs on the radiosensitivity of HNSCCs. Several human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative and HPV-positive HNSCCs were co-cultured with human bone marrow-derived MSCs using two-dimensional and three-dimensional assays. Clonogenic survival, proliferation, and viability of HNSCCs after radiotherapy were assessed depending on MSC co-culture. Flow cytometry analyses were conducted to examine the influence of MSCs on irradiation-induced cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction in HNSCCs. Immunofluorescence stainings of γH2AX were conducted to determine the levels of residual irradiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks. Levels of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a multifunctional pro-tumorigenic cytokine, were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Neither direct MSC co-culture nor MSC-conditioned medium exerted radioprotective effects on HNSCCs as determined by clonogenic survival, proliferation, and viability assays. Consistently, three-dimensional microwell arrays revealed no radioprotective effects of MSCs. Irradiation resulted in a G2/M arrest of HNSCCs at 96 h independently of MSC co-culture. HNSCCs’ apoptosis rates were increased by irradiation irrespective of MSCs. Numbers of residual γH2AX foci after irradiation with 2 or 8 Gy were comparable between mono- and co-cultures. MSC mono-cultures and HNSCC-MSC co-cultures exhibited comparable CTGF levels. We did not detect radioprotective effects of human MSCs on HNSCCs. Our results suggest that the usage of MSC-based therapies for radiotherapy-related toxicities in HNSCC patients may be safe in the context of absent radioprotection.     

典型工业区周围土壤重金属污染评价及空间分布

以沈阳冶炼厂厂区及其周围土壤为对象,研究土壤重金属污染状况及其空间分布特征.结果表明,调查区域表层土壤(0-20 cm)中,Cd、Pb、Cu和Zn浓度范围分别在7.25-81.20,562.92-1014.10,289.70-527.93,673.36-1021.60 mg/kg,其平均含量分别为国家土壤质量二级标准(GB15618-1995)的74.92,2.27,4.07和3.15倍,污染程度呈现出Cd>Cu>Zn>Pb的特征.在空间分布方面,受人为与环境气象因子的共同影响,原沈阳冶炼厂厂区周围土壤中Cd、Pb、Cu、Zn 4种重金属污染带的空间分布特征呈西北至东南方向分布,西北方向土壤污染最为严重,东北至西南方向和正东至正西方向较轻.4种重金属中,Zn的污染范围最大,Cd污染在空间分布上主要集中于污染点源附近,Pb和Cu的空间分布介于Cd和Zn之间.     

Odor and taste aversions conditioned in anesthetized rats.

Conditioned flavor aversions (CFA) are acquired by anesthetized rats but effects of various anesthetics on acquisition of aversions for separate odor and taste components are unknown. In Experiment 1, rats drank tomato juice and then were tranquilized with "Innovar-Vet" or "Rompun" before receiving injections of lithium chloride. Neither drug interfered with acquisition of aversions. Innovar-Vet alone produced no aversions; Rompun alone produced mild aversions but did not enhance aversions when combined with lithium. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats received a compound odor/taste cue as they drank and then were anesthetized with pentobarbital before lithium injections. Anesthesia alone produced negligible aversions but facilitated taste-lithium aversions. During odor tests, odor aversions were weaker than taste aversions. These data extend previous work and suggest that CFA does not result from ordinary classical conditioning. A tripartite notation that unites CFA and classical conditioning is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of the dynamics and influence of the research work of Prof. Liu Zeyuan in China featuring a new hybrid approach combining community detection with topic tracking

Scientometrics - The influence of authors is mostly based on their capacity to form specific self-contained and/or active research communities or topics while also inspiring fruitful spin-off...     

Colour appearance in immersive three‐dimensional virtual environments

Technology is constantly evolving and, consequently, all the technological advances taking place are regularly integrated into the daily life of society. During recent years, there has been a trend towards virtual resources such as teleworking, telemedicine and e‐commerce. In many countries, this virtualisation process has been accelerated by the changing circumstances caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic. In any case, there is a growing demand for virtual systems, and virtual reality is a suitable field for the application of a multitude of solutions. However, advances in virtual reality occur without any regard to colour science, and there are several challenges to be overcome to improve the visual appearance and fidelity of colour reproduction in all types of related devices. This paper discusses three open issues related to the visual appearance and visual fidelity of virtual reality systems. We believe it is necessary to direct future research efforts in each of these directions to secure improvements in the visual fidelity of virtual reality systems.     

Thermomechanical characterization of thermoplastic polyimide–polyurea to improve the chain interaction via internal hydrogen bonds

Recently, we have studied polyimides (PIs) synthesized by incorporating an aromatic diamine monomer with a methylene linker, 4,4′‐methylenebis(2,6‐dimethylaniline), to make a robust main chain along with aliphatic polyetherdiamine backbone linkers to reduce rigidity. In this report, we incorporate a urea linkage into these materials in order to observe the effect of additional hydrogen bonding. The polymers are designed to exhibit thermal properties in between those of conventional aromatic PIs and polymers with wholly aliphatic ether diamine links. Herein, we demonstrate that the addition of 1,6 hexamethylene diisocyanate and the increase of hydrogen bonds at the urea linkage can be used to improve the thermal and mechanical properties of the PI. Furthermore, the imide ring is an important component to maintain the thermal stability characteristics in polyimide–polyurea hybrids. The polymers were characterized by FTIR, thermomechanical and calorimetric analysis, microhardness, and tensile testing. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:1948–1959, 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Performance improvements of a sweet pepper harvesting robot in protected cropping environments

Using robots to harvest sweet peppers in protected cropping environments has remained unsolved despite considerable effort by the research community over several decades. In this paper, we present the robotic harvester, Harvey, designed for sweet peppers in protected cropping environments that achieved a 76.5% success rate on 68 fruit (within a modified scenario) which improves upon our prior work which achieved 58% on 24 fruit and related sweet pepper harvesting work which achieved 33% on 39 fruit (for their best tool in a modified scenario). This improvement was primarily achieved through the introduction of a novel peduncle segmentation system using an efficient deep convolutional neural network, in conjunction with three‐dimensional postfiltering to detect the critical cutting location. We benchmark the peduncle segmentation against prior art demonstrating an improvement in performance with a $F_1$ score of 0.564 compared to 0.302. The robotic harvester uses a perception pipeline to detect a target sweet pepper and an appropriate grasp and cutting pose used to determine the trajectory of a multimodal harvesting tool to grasp the sweet pepper and cut it from the plant. A novel decoupling mechanism enables the gripping and cutting operations to be performed independently. We perform an in‐depth analysis of the full robotic harvesting system to highlight bottlenecks and failure points that future work could address.