电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法测定钒铁中8个杂质元素含量和方法精密度的验证

提出了电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法(ICP-AES)测定钒铁中硅、磷、铝、锰、镍、铬、铜、钛共8个杂质元素含量的方法。钒铁样品(0.5000g),先后加入50%(体积分数)硝酸溶液20mL及50%(体积分数)盐酸溶液10mL,在100℃左右加热溶解,溶解过程中应注意保持溶液体积在25mL左右。将溶液过滤并置于200mL容量瓶中作为母液留用。将滤纸及不溶物一并移入铂坩埚中,置于马弗炉中,先于250℃灰化20min,稍冷后加入无水碳酸钠和硼酸(质量比2∶1)组成的混合熔剂0.3g,升温至950℃融熔15min。冷却,用体积比1∶10的盐酸溶液10mL浸出熔块,将此溶液与上述母液合并并加水定容至200mL。此溶液供ICP-AES在仪器工作条件下进行分析。绘制校准曲线时,加入纯铁和五氧化二钒作为基体,以消除基体干扰,然后加入上述8种元素的标准溶液,并按上述溶液最终稀释体积条件和仪器工作条件制作曲线(R大于0.999)。为验证所提出的分析方法的测定数据的精密度,约请了10个实验室对8个不同含量水平的钒铁样品对方法作协同试验,按GB/T 6379.2-2004所规定的方法求算了重复性标准偏差Sr和重复性限r,以及再现性标准偏差SR和再现性限R,并求得所测定的8种元素在各自的测定范围内的r与w之间和R与w之间的函数关系,说明该方法有较好的稳定性和准确性,而且证明此方法是可行的。     

基于极课大数据的初中化学组卷及试卷评价

为了提高组卷质量,基于极课大数据建立初中化学校本题库,根据双向细目表,利用该系统的出卷功能进行组卷。采用SPSS软件对试卷难度、区分度、信度和效度进行综合分析和评价,可知基于极课所出试卷各项评价指标较优秀,符合考试要求,试卷质量高。     

浙江新高考化学加试题难度研究*

在对已有试题难度量化工具进行改进的基础上,建构了化学加试题难度评估工具。对2015年至2019年国家新高考实验区浙江省的8次化学选考加试题的难度进行了量化评价。结果表明,8次化学加试题整卷难度变化较大,但同一学年、有相同学生可能参与的2次化学选考的整体难度相近;加试题能力特征和难度差异明显,“有机化学基础”加试题(第32题)难度相对稳定,而第30题(化学反应原理)与第31题(实验化学)加试题难度却表现出一定的波动性。在对8次化学加试题的难度及相关因素进行分析的基础之上,也对如何提高加试题的编制质量,提出了可行性建议。     

医学专业大学化学实验SPOC式翻转课堂教学实践

为了提升医学专业的大学化学实验课翻转课堂的教学效果,将SPOC在线学习活动与翻转课堂的过程设计结合,从课程目标与内容设计、教学策略设计、学习活动设计与教学评价设计等4个部分搭建了教学模式结构框架。在具体教学实验项目中,细化了知识传授、内化、拓展3个阶段的教学活动程序。该模式打破了实验课时间空间的壁垒,教学设计上突出了化学与医药学关联的情境创设,学习活动丰富有序,可操作性强。结果表明,采用SPOC式翻转课堂教学有利于激发学生的参与热情,促进思维能力的发展、动手操作能力的提高,对教学效果的提升作用显著。     

Real‐Time NMR Spectroscopy for Studying Metabolism

Current metabolomics approaches utilize cellular metabolite extracts, are destructive, and require high cell numbers. We introduce here an approach that enables the monitoring of cellular metabolism at lower cell numbers by observing the consumption/production of different metabolites over several kinetic data points of up to 48 hours. Our approach does not influence cellular viability, as we optimized the cellular matrix in comparison to other materials used in a variety of in‐cell NMR spectroscopy experiments. We are able to monitor real‐time metabolism of primary patient cells, which are extremely sensitive to external stress. Measurements are set up in an interleaved manner with short acquisition times (approximately 7 minutes per sample), which allows the monitoring of up to 15 patient samples simultaneously. Further, we implemented our approach for performing tracer‐based assays. Our approach will be important not only in the metabolomics fields, but also in individualized diagnostics.     

Wound healing improvement by curcumin‐loaded electrospun nanofibers and BFP‐MSCs as a bioactive dressing

Wound healing, one of the most complex processes of the body involving the cooperation of several important biomolecules and pathways, is one of the major therapeutic and economic issues in regenerative medicine. The present study aimed to introduce a novel electrospun curcumin (Cur)‐incorporated chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol/carbopol/polycaprolactone nanofibrous composite for concurrent delivery of the buccal fat pad‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BFP‐MSCs) and Cur to a full‐thickness wound on the mouse model. Scaffolds were characterized structurally using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence microscopy imaging and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, and toxicity of the scaffolds was also evaluated after BFP‐MSC seeding by SEM imaging and 3‐(4,5 dimethyiazol‐2‐1)‐2‐5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Then, its influence on the wound‐healing process was investigated as a wound dressing for a full‐thickness skin defect in mouse model. Results demonstrated that the designed composite scaffolds have the capability for cell seeding and support their growth and proliferation. Macroscopic and histopathological characteristics were evaluated at the end of the 7 and 14 days after surgery, and their results showed that our designed scaffold groups accelerated the wound‐healing process compared with the control group. Among those, scaffold/Cur, scaffold/Cur/BFP‐MSC and scaffold/BFP‐MSC groups demonstrated more wound repair efficacy. These results indicated that the combined grafts can be used to improve the wound‐healing process, and therefore, the electrospun nanofibers presented in this study, Cur and BFP‐MSC together, were demonstrated to have promising potential for wound‐dressing applications.     

Evaluation,Pitfalls and Recommendations for the “Water Layer Test” for Solid Contact Ion‐selective Electrodes

The “water layer test” is a crucial validation step of solid‐contact ion‐selective electrodes. It can confirm or contest the claim that the tested electrode is indeed a genuine solid contact electrode without an aqueous film between the ion‐selective membrane and its solid contact. Information about the presence of a water layer is essential for the interpretation of drifts in the electrode potentials commonly experienced with solid contact electrodes. Since its publication, the water layer test has been ubiquitously used, but without a standardized protocol the interpretation (or misinterpretation) of the test results led to uncertainties in the conclusions. Through both experiments and simulations based on theoretical models we have investigated the experimental parameters that can influence the results of the water layer test. We propose guidelines to minimize the possibility of misinterpretation of the results of the water layer test by considering the key factors that affect the shape of transients recorded during the water layer test. Most importantly, we emphasize the importance of allowing sufficient time for conditioning the tested electrode before the water layer test and providing adequate time for equilibration during the experiment. Using a thin ion‐selective membrane and thin solid‐contact layer for the tests is also recommended.     

Effects of Grape Polyphenols on the Life Span and Neuroinflammatory Alterations Related to Neurodegenerative Parkinson Disease-Like Disturbances in Mice

Functional nutrition is a valuable supplementation to dietary therapy. Functional foods are enriched with biologically active substances. Plant polyphenols attract particular attention due to multiple beneficial properties attributed to their high antioxidant and other biological activities. We assessed the effect of grape polyphenols on the life span of C57BL/6 mice and on behavioral and neuroinflammatory alterations in a transgenic mouse model of Parkinson disease (PD) with overexpression of the A53T-mutant human α-synuclein. C57BL/6 mice were given a dietary supplement containing grape polyphenol concentrate (GPC—1.5 mL/kg/day) with drinking water from the age of 6–8 weeks for life. Transgenic PD mice received GPC beginning at the age of 10 weeks for four months. GPC significantly influenced the cumulative proportion of surviving and substantially augmented the average life span in mice. In the transgenic PD model, the grape polyphenol (GP) diet enhanced memory reconsolidation and diminished memory extinction in a passive avoidance test. Behavioral effects of GP treatment were accompanied by a decrease in α-synuclein accumulation in the frontal cortex and a reduction in the expression of neuroinflammatory markers (IBA1 and CD54) in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Thus, a GP-rich diet is recommended as promising functional nutrition for aging people and patients with neurodegenerative disorders.     

From a Medicinal Mushroom Blend a Direct Anticancer Effect on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Preclinical Study on Lung Metastases

Bioactive metabolites isolated from medicinal mushrooms (MM) used as supportive treatment in conventional oncology have recently gained interest. Acting as anticancer agents, they interfere with tumor cells and microenvironment (TME), disturbing cancer development/progression. Nonetheless, their action mechanisms still need to be elucidated. Recently, using a 4T1 triple-negative mouse BC model, we demonstrated that supplementation with Micotherapy U-Care, a MM blend, produced a striking reduction of lung metastases density/number, paralleled by decreased inflammation and oxidative stress both in TME and metastases, together with QoL amelioration. We hypothesized that these effects could be due to either a direct anticancer effect and/or to a secondary/indirect impact of Micotherapy U-Care on systemic inflammation/immunomodulation. To address this question, we presently focused on apoptosis/proliferation, investigating specific molecules, i.e., PARP1, p53, BAX, Bcl2, and PCNA, whose critical role in BC is well recognized. We revealed that Micotherapy U-Care is effective to influence balance between cell death and proliferation, which appeared strictly interconnected and inversely related (p53/Bax vs. Bcl2/PARP1/PCNA expression trends). MM blend displayed a direct effect, with different efficacy extent on cancer cells and TME, forcing tumor cells to apoptosis. Yet again, this study supports the potential of MM extracts, as adjuvant supplement in the TNBC management.     

A graph-based multi-sample test for identifying pathways associated with cancer progression

Cancer is in general not a result of an abnormality of a single gene but a consequence of changes in many genes, it is therefore of great importance to understand the roles of different oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways in tumorigenesis. In recent years, there have been many computational models developed to study the genetic alterations of different pathways in the evolutionary process of cancer. However, most of the methods are knowledge-based enrichment analyses and inflexible to analyze user-defined pathways or gene sets. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric and data-driven approach to testing for the dynamic changes of pathways over the cancer progression. Our method is based on an expansion and refinement of the pathway being studied, followed by a graph-based multivariate test, which is very easy to implement in practice. The new test is applied to the rich Cancer Genome Atlas data to study the (epi)genetic alterations of 186 KEGG pathways in the development of serous ovarian cancer. To make use of the comprehensive data, we incorporate three data types in the analysis representing gene expression level, copy number and DNA methylation level. Our analysis suggests a list of nine pathways that are closely associated with serous ovarian cancer progression, including cell cycle, ERBB, JAK-STAT signaling and p53 signaling pathways. By pairwise tests, we found that most of the identified pathways contribute only to a particular transition step. For instance, the cell cycle and ERBB pathways play key roles in the early-stage transition, while the ECM receptor and apoptosis pathways contribute to the progression from stage III to stage IV. The proposed computational pipeline is powerful in detecting important pathways and gene sets that drive cancers at certain stage(s). It offers new insights into the understanding of molecular mechanism of cancer initiation and progression.