Activity

Although several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been banned and classified as substances of very high concern by the European Chemicals Agency, similar chemicals remain widely used compounds to date. Even though more than 4700 PFASs may occur in the environment, only 40-50 compounds are routinely determined in targeted analysis by ESI-MS using isotopically labeled standards. Nontargeted analysis using high resolution (HR) molecular mass spectrometry suffers from a lack of data mining algorithms for identification and often low ionization efficiency of the compounds. An additional problem for quantification is the potential lack of suitable species specific standards. Akt inhibitor Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of a hard ionization source (ICP-MS/MS) as a fluorine-specific detector in combination with ESI-MS for the identification of fluorine containing compounds. Simultaneous hyphenation of HPLC-ICP-MS/MS with HR-ESI-MS is applied to evaluate biodegradation products of organofluorine compounds by sewage sludge. The data are analyzed in a nontarget approach using MZmine. Due to the fluorine-specific detection by ICP-MS/MS, more than 5000 peaks (features) of the ESI-MS were reduced to 15 features. Of these, one was identified as a PFAS degradation compound of fluorotelomer alcohol (82 FTOH) without using targeted analysis. The feasibility of the detection of organofluorine metabolites using a fluorine-specific detection was demonstrated using a model compound and can thus be applied to new experiments and unknown organofluorine containing samples in the future.Adhesives based on fibrillar surface microstructures have shown great potential for handling applications requiring strong, reversible, and switchable adhesion. Recently, the importance of the statistical distribution of adhesive strength of individual fibrils in controlling the overall performance was revealed. Strength variations physically correspond to different interfacial defect sizes, which, among other factors, are related to surface roughness. For analysis of the strength distribution, Weibull’s statistical theory of fracture was introduced. In this study, the importance of the statistical properties in controlling the stability of attachment is explored. Considering the compliance of the loading system, we develop a stability criterion based on the Weibull statistical parameters. It is shown that when the distribution in fibril adhesive strength is narrow, the global strength is higher but unstable detachment is more likely. Experimental variation of the loading system compliance for a specimen of differing statistical properties shows a transition to unstable detachment at low system stiffness, in good agreement with the theoretical stability map. This map serves to inform the design of gripper compliance, when coupled with statistical analysis of strength on the target surface of interest. Such a treatment could prevent catastrophic failure by spontaneous detachment of an object from an adhesive gripper.Study of nonlinear laser-matter interactions in 2D materials has promoted development of photonics applications. As a typical MXene material, molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) has attracted much attention because of its graphene-like structure. Here, a type of D-shaped fiber (DF)-buried Mo2C saturable absorber (SA) fabricated by magnetron-sputtering deposition (MSD) and sol-gel technique is reported. The Mo2C material was buried between the bottom DF and the upper amorphous silica fabricated by sol-gel technology. Therefore, the DF-based SA effectively solves the problem of material shedding and aging, thus improving the stability and damage threshold of the fiber laser. Application of the SA in erbium-doped fiber laser and stable passive Q-switched operation with a maximum pulse energy of 430.47 nJ is realized. By adjusting the polarization state and pump power, high-power mode-locked pulses are generated with a pulse duration and output power of 199 fs and 54.13 mW, respectively. Further, bound-state soliton pulses are obtained with a pulse width of 312 fs and soliton interval of 1.26 ps for the first time based on MXene materials. Moreover, by application of the SA in ytterbium-doped fiber lasers, a stable dissipative soliton mode-locked pulse is obtained with a pulse width of 23 ps. These results indicate that the DF-based buried Mo2C as a novel SA provides a reliable method for all-fiber and multifunctional high-power ultrafast laser.The expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is upregulated in hypoxic environments at the lesions of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which promoted the polarization of proinflammatory M1 macrophages and inhibited the differentiation of anti-inflammatory M2 to deteriorate synovial inflammation. Since oxygen scarcity at the joints causes an imbalance of macrophages M1 and M2, herein, we designed a cyanobacteria micro-nanodevice that can be spatiotemporally controlled in vivo to continuously producing oxygen in the RA joints for the downregulation of the expression of HIF-1α, thereby reducing the amounts of M1 macrophages and inducing the polarization of M2 macrophages for chemically sensitized RA treatment. The forthputting of temperature-sensitive hydrogel guaranteed the safety of cyanobacteria micro-nanodevice in vivo. Furthermore, the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria micro-nanodevice in a sustained manner enhanced the therapeutic effect of the antirheumatic drug methotrexate (MTX) and discouraged inflammation and bone erosion at RA. This study provided a new approach for the RA treatment of spatiotemporal-controlled release of oxygen in vitro.The overexpression of HIF-1α in solid tumors due to hypoxia is closely related to drug resistance and consequent treatment failure. Herein, we constructed a hypoxia-activated prodrug named as YC-Dox. This prodrug could be activated under hypoxic conditions and undergo self-immolation to release doxorubicin (Dox) and YC-1 hemisuccinate (YCH-1), which could execute chemotherapy and result in HIF-1α downregulation, respectively. This prodrug is capable of specifically releasing Dox and YCH-1 in response to hypoxia, leading to a substantial synergistic potency and a remarkable cytotoxic selectivity (>8-fold) for hypoxic cancer cells over normoxic healthy cells. The in vivo experiments reveal that this prodrug can selectively aim at hypoxic cancer cells and avoid undesired targeting of normal cells, leading to elevated therapeutic efficacy for tumor treatment and minimized adverse effects on normal tissues.