Oral aminolevulinic acid induces protoporphyrin IX fluorescence in psoriatic plaques and peripheral blood cells

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical aminolevulinic acid (ALA) has been shown in previous studies to improve psoriasis. However, topical ALA-PDT may not be practical for the treatment of extensive disease. In order to overcome this limitation we have explored the potential use of oral ALA administration in psoriatic patients. Twelve patients with plaque psoriasis received a single oral ALA dose of 10, 20 or 30 mg/kg followed by measurement of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence in the skin and circulating blood cells. Skin PpIX levels were determined over time after ALA administration by the quantification of the 635 nm PpIX emission peak with in vivo fluorescence spectroscopy under 442 nm laser excitation. Administration of ALA at 20 and 30 mg/kg induced preferential accumulation of PpIX in psoriatic as opposed to adjacent normal skin. Peak fluorescence intensity in psoriatic and normal skin occurred between 3 and 5 h after the administration of 20 and 30 mg/kg, respectively. Ratios of up to 10 for PpIX fluorescence between psoriatic versus normal skin were obtained at the 30 mg/kg dose of ALA. Visible PpIX fluorescence was also observed on normal facial skin, and nonspecific skin photosensitivity occurred only in patients who received the 20 or 30 mg/kg doses. PpIX fluorescence intensity was measured in circulating blood cells by flow cytometry. PpIX fluorescence was higher in monocytes and neutrophils as compared to CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. PpIX levels in these cells were higher in patients who received higher ALA doses and peaked between 4 and 8 h after administration of ALA. There was only a modest increase in PpIX levels in circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In conclusion oral administration of ALA induced preferential accumulation of PpIX in psoriatic plaques as compared to adjacent normal skin suggesting that PDT with oral ALA should be further explored for the treatment of psoriasis.     

Raman spectroscopy in combination with background near-infrared autofluorescence enhances the in vivo assessment of malignant tissues

The diagnostic ability of optical spectroscopy techniques, including near-infrared (NIR) Raman spectroscopy, NIR autofluorescence spectroscopy and the composite Raman and NIR autofluorescence spectroscopy, for in vivo detection of malignant tumors was evaluated in this study. A murine tumor model, in which BALB/c mice were implanted with Meth-A fibrosarcoma cells into the subcutaneous region of the lower back, was used for this purpose. A rapid-acquisition dispersive-type NIR Raman system was employed for tissue Raman and NIR autofluorescence spectroscopic measurements at 785-nm laser excitation. High-quality in vivo NIR Raman spectra associated with an autofluorescence background from mouse skin and tumor tissue were acquired in 5 s. Multivariate statistical techniques, including principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), were used to develop diagnostic algorithms for differentiating tumors from normal tissue based on their spectral features. Spectral classification of tumor tissue was tested using a leave-one-out, cross-validation method, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to further evaluate the performance of diagnostic algorithms derived. Thirty-two in vivo Raman, NIR fluorescence and composite Raman and NIR fluorescence spectra were analyzed (16 normal, 16 tumors). Classification results obtained from cross-validation of the LDA model based on the three spectral data sets showed diagnostic sensitivities of 81.3%, 93.8% and 93.8%; specificities of 100%, 87.5% and 100%; and overall diagnostic accuracies of 90.6%, 90.6% and 96.9% respectively, for tumor identification. ROC curves showed that the most effective diagnostic algorithms were from the composite Raman and NIR autofluorescence techniques.     

Crystal-to-crystal transformations of a microporous metal-organic laminated framework triggered by guest exchange, dehydration and readsorption

Single crystals of a neutral, microporous, laminated metal-organic framework (MOF)[Fe(pydc)(4,4'-bipy)]xH(2)O (1xH(2)O)(H(2)pydc = 2,5-dicarboxypyridine, 4,4'-bipy = 4,4'-bipyridine) were generated by hydrothermal synthesis, and its crystal structure was determined. 1xH(2)O retains the framework robustness to ca. 370 degrees C and is insoluble in common organic solvents. By soaking in MeOH and EtOH solutions, 1xH(2)O was transformed directly from the parent single crystals into single crystals of 1xMeOH or 1xEtOH, respectively. Meanwhile, 1xH(2)O shrank to the guest-free framework (h) or (v), respectively, under appropriate heating (up to 160 degrees C in N(2)) or vacuum treatment (10 mmHg) at room temperature. Compared to that of 1xH(2)O, the unit-cell volume of 1xEtOH slightly increases by 2.9%, whereas those of (h) or (v) are reduced by 8.2 and 6.6%, respectively. The anhydrous (v) was found to be highly chemically reactive, taking up ethanol vapor to furnish the solvated crystal structure of an 'expanded' framework 1xEtOH. In a mixture of ethanol-DMF or ethanol-benzene, a selective exchange process was observed, with only ethanol molecules exchanged into the structure due to the limited free size of the channels in the framework of. All the transformed crystals have also been characterized by X-ray single-crystal diffraction to understand the crystal-to-crystal transformation, which have different free volumes (6.5-20.4%).     

光催化研究与发展的文献计量分析

对ＣＡ１９６１－１９９６年期间卷双期号期刊中收录的与光催化有关的各种文献进行了详细的统计,结果表明,光催化研究正处于快速的发展期,以消除环境污染为目的应用研究是该快速发展期中的主题,日本,美国,俄罗斯和中国发表文献量居世界前４位。     

Fluorescence observations on complex formation between linear and hyperbranched polyelectrolytes in dilute aqueous solutions

The complexation between poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) and poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) (PAMPS) or AMPS copolymers was investigated with the relative excimer emission intensity I_E/I_M of a cationic probe 1-pyrenemethylamine hydrochloride (PyMeA · HCl), fluorescence nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) I_Py/I_Np of naphthalene to pyrene labels, the fluorescence anisotropy r and I_E/I_M of pyrene labels. PEI was a hyperbranched weak polycation in acid solution, which formed complex with anionic polyelectrolytes due to the electrostatic attraction. The I_E/I_M of PyMeA · HCl probe decreased to zero, the intra-, intermolecular NRET I_Py/I_Np and I_E/I_M of pyrene labels on the AMPS copolymers reached their maxima when χ was increased from 0 to 2.4, which was defined as the mole ratio of the amino group in PEI to the AMPS group in the polyanion. These facts indicated the formation of nonstoichiometric complex of the oppositely charged polyelectrolytes when χ = 2.4 at the concentration much lower than their overlap concentrations. The intermolecular aggregate appeared as indicated by an increase in the intermolecular I_Py/I_Np and r with χ up to 2.4 due to neutralizing and hydrophobizing the polyelectrolytes and the bridging effect of the PEI chain bound on different polyanion chains. At high pH, PEI became a neutral polymer and did not bind with the AMPS anion to form the complex as illustrated by the constant value of r for the pyrene labels attached to the AMPS polyanion as that without addition of PEI. The amino group in PEI quenched pyrene and naphthalene emission, resulting a decrease in both I_Np and I_Py.     

Fluorination suppresses thermal quenching in perovskite QLEDs

正Perovskite nanocrystals and quantum dots(QDs) have attracted great attention due to their potential in optical and optoelectronic applications, especially in ultra-high definition displays because of their high purity of photo/electroluminescence(PL/EL) [1,2]. Although the external quantum efficiency(EQE) of light-emitting diodes(LEDs) based on perovskite quantum dots(PeQDs) has been over 20% [3,4],another key problem, the PL/EL stability, still remains open.The thermal PL/EL quenching phenomenon, which is ubiquitously observed, has not aroused enough attention in this     

贝叶斯优化卷积神经网络公共场所异常声识别

针对公共场所异常声的感知和识别问题,提出一种基于贝叶斯优化卷积神经网络的识别方法。提取声信号的Gammatone倒谱系数、倍频程功率谱、短时能量和谱质心,组合成声信号的特征图。构建卷积神经网络作为分类器,利用递增的卷积核设置和池化操作处理不同尺度的特征。基于贝叶斯优化算法优化卷积神经网络的模型参数,对包括火苗噼啪声、婴儿啼哭声、烟花燃放声、玻璃破碎声和警报声的5种公共场所异常声进行识别。该方法的识别结果与基于不同的特征提取和分类器方案得到的识别结果进行比较,结果表明该方法的识别效果优于其他特征提取和分类器方案的识别效果。最后分析了该方法在不同信噪比噪声干扰下的识别结果,验证了该方法的有效性。     

Functionalized Ultrasmall Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for T1-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Tumor Hypoxia

Hypoxia is a common biological condition in many malignant solid tumors that plays an imperative role in regulating tumor growth and impacting the treatment’s therapeutic effect. Therefore, the hypoxia assessment is of great significance in predicting tumor development and evaluating its prognosis. Among the plenty of existing tumor diagnosis techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers certain distinctive features, such as being free of ionizing radiation and providing images with a high spatial resolution. In this study, we develop a fluorescent traceable and hypoxia-sensitive T₁-weighted MRI probe (Fe₃O₄-Met-Cy5.5) via conjugating notable hypoxia-sensitive metronidazole moiety and Cy5.5 dye with ultrasmall iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles. The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments show that Fe₃O₄-Met-Cy5.5 has excellent performance in relaxivity, biocompatibility, and hypoxia specificity. More importantly, the obvious signal enhancement in hypoxic areas indicates that the probe has great feasibility for sensing tumor hypoxia via T₁-weighted MRI. These promising results may unlock the potential of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles as T₁-weighted contrast agents for the development of clinical hypoxia probes.     

New Insight into CO2 Reduction to Formate by In Situ Hydrogen Produced from Hydrothermal Reactions with Iron

To reveal the nature of CO₂ reduction to formate with high efficiency by in situ hydrogen produced from hydrothermal reactions with iron, DFT calculations were used. A reaction pathway was proposed in which the formate was produced through the key intermediate species, namely iron hydride, produced in situ in the process of hydrogen gas production. In the in situ hydrogenation of CO₂, the charge of H in the iron hydride was −0.135, and the Fe–H bond distance was approximately 1.537 Å. A C-H bond was formed as a transition state during the attack of H^δ− on C^δ+. Finally, a HCOO species was formed. The distance of the C-H bond was 1.107 Å. The calculated free energy barrier was 16.43 kcal/mol. This study may provide new insight into CO₂ reduction to formate in hydrothermal reactions with metal.