For the first time, ultrafiltration (UF) green membranes were prepared through a sustainable route by using PLA as a biopolymer and dihydrolevoclucosenone, whose trade name is Cyrene™ (Cyr), dimethyl isosorbide (DMI), and ethyl lactate (EL) as biobased solvents. The influence of physical-chemical properties of the solvent on the final membrane morphology and performance was evaluated. The variation of polymer concentration in the casting solution, as well as the presence of Pluronic® (Plu) as a pore former agent, were assessed as well. The obtained results highlighted that the final morphology of a membrane was strictly connected with the interplaying of thermodynamic factors as well as kinetic ones, primarily dope solution viscosity. The pore size of the resulting PLA membranes ranged from 0.02 to 0.09 μm. Membrane thickness and porosity varied in the range of 0.090-0.133 mm of 75-87%, respectively, and DMI led to the most porous membranes. The addition of Plu to the casting solution showed a beneficial effect on the membrane contact angle, allowing the formation of hydrophilic membranes (contact angle < 90°), and promoted the increase of pore size as well as the reduction of membrane crystallinity. PLA membranes were tested for pure water permeability (10-390 L/m2 h bar).

Contamination of ground water and soil with toxic metalloids like arsenic (As) poses a serious hazard to the global agricultural food production. One of the best ways to restrict entry of As into the food chain is selection of germplasms which accrue extremely low level of As in grains. Here, we screened diverse maize genotypes under high arsenite (100 μM AsIII) stress and identified PMI-PV-9 and PMI-PV-3 as AsIII-tolerant and -sensitive maize genotype respectively. Expression of genes associated with As uptake, vacuolar sequestration, biosynthesis of phytochelatins, root-to-shoot translocation, in vivo ROS generation, fine tuning of antioxidant defense system, DNA and membrane damage, H2O2 and superoxide anion (O2•-) levels were compared among the selected genotypes. PMI-PV-9 plants performed much better than PMI-PV-3 in terms of plant growth with no visible symptom of As toxicity. Susceptibility of PMI-PV-3 to AsIII stress may be attributed to comparatively low expression of genes involved in phytochelatins (PCs) biosynthesis. Concomitant decrease in ABCC1 expression might be another key factor for futile sequestration of AsIII into root vacuoles. Moreover, up-regulation of ZmNIP3;1 might contribute in high root-to-leaf As translocation. Substantial spike in H2O2, O2•- and MDA levels indicates that PMI-PV-3 plants have experienced more oxidative stress than PMI-PV-9 plants. Appearance of prominent deep brown and dark blue spots/stripes on leaves as revealed after DAB and NBT staining respectively suggest severe oxidative burst in PMI-PV-3 plants. Marked reduction in DHAR and MDAR activity rendered PMI-PV-3 cells to recycle ascorbate pool ineffectively, which might have exacerbated their susceptibility to AsIII stress. In a nutshell, incompetent PCs mediated detoxification system and disruption of cellular redox homeostasis owing to feeble antioxidant defence system resulting oxidative burst might be the prime reasons behind reduced performance of PMI-PV-3 plants under AsIII stress.

Solving the problem of oil and water pollution is an important topic in environmental protection. The separation of oil-water emulsion with high efficiency and low consumption has been the direction of social efforts. Membrane separation technology combined with surface wettability and pore size screening is considered to be one of the most promising ways to separate oil-water emulsions. In this paper, the polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane is prepared by combining the two methods of blending and coating modification as a double barrier. The prepared PVDF membrane can completely wet water, achieve superhydrophilic in air, and superoleophobic underwater. The separation efficiency and flux are 99.57% and 678 L h-1 m-2 bar-1, respectively, for toluene emulsions containing surfactants with an average particle size of 1.7 µm. At the same time, it can also effectively separate different kinds of light/heavy oils. After three cycles of testing still maintain high efficiency of separation. The results show that the prepared PVDF membrane can effectively separate the emulsion containing surfactant with smaller particle size distribution of oil droplets. This method provides a new strategy for the separation of oil-water emulsions and has broad application prospects.

Peritoneal metastasis is a common finding in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Beyond systemic chemotherapy, additive local treatments such as cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy are considered an inherent part of different multimodal treatment concepts for selected patients with peritoneal metastatic gastric cancer. This review article discusses the role of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and intraperitoneal chemotherapy, including HIPEC, NIPS, and PIPAC, as additive therapeutic options with curative and palliative intent.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is one of the most widely cultivated forage crops in the world. However, alfalfa yield and quality are adversely affected by salinity stress. Nodulin 26-like intrinsic proteins (NIPs) play essential roles in water and small molecules transport and response to salt stress. Here, we isolated a salt stress responsive MsNIP2 gene and demonstrated its functions by overexpression in alfalfa. The open reading frame of MsNIP2 is 816 bp in length, and it encodes 272 amino acids. It has six transmembrane domains and two NPA motifs. MsNIP2 showed high identity to other known NIP proteins, and its tertiary model was similar to the crystal structure of OsNIP2-1 (7cjs) tetramer. Subcellular localization analysis showed that MsNIP2 protein fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) was localized to the plasma membrane. Transgenic alfalfa lines overexpressing MsNIP2 showed significantly higher height and branch number compared with the non-transgenic control. The POD and CAT activity of the transgenic alfalfa lines was significantly increased and their MDA content was notably reduced compared with the control group under the treatment of NaCl. The transgenic lines showed higher capability in scavenging oxygen radicals with lighter NBT staining than the control under salt stress. The transgenic lines showed relative lower water loss rate and electrolyte leakage, but relatively higher Na+ content than the control line under salt stress. The relative expression levels of abiotic-stress-related genes (MsHSP23, MsCOR47, MsATPase, and MsRD2) in three transgenic lines were compared with the control, among them, only the expression of MsCOR47 was up-regulated. Consequently, this study offers a novel perspective for exploring the function of MsNIP2 in improving salt tolerance of alfalfa.

Pathogens commonly enter mucosal barrier tissues and tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) are essential for preventing mucosal lesions. However, the immunological properties of TRM cells in nasal mucosa are poorly known. In comparison with control tissues, decreasing CD103+ TRM cells were observed in Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNPs) and sinonasal inverted papilloma (SNIP), which presented high capability to produce effector cytokines. In CRSwNPs, we found that CD103+ TRM cells with higher cytokine and Granzyme B coexpressed high PD-1, CD103- TRM cells expressed higher IL-10. Homogenates isolated from CRSwNPs induced CD103 expression on peripheral T cells which could be inhibited by blocking TGF-β. The frequencies of CD103+ TRM cells in CRSwNPs were extremely negatively correlated with neutrophil infiltration. CD103+ TRM cells from Staphylococcus aureus positive CRSwNPs had a stronger response to SEB. Taken together, two phenotypically and functionally distinct subsets of TRM cells exist in nasal tissues and play critical roles in the progress of CRSwNPs and SNIPs.

Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a pioneering technique that has consistently advanced the field of prenatal testing to detect genetic abnormalities and conditions with the aim of decreasing the incidence and prevalence of inherited conditions. NIPT remains a method of choice for common autosomal aneuploidies, mostly trisomy 21, and several monogenic disorders. The advancements in gene sequencing techniques have expanded the panel of conditions where NIPT could be offered. However, basic research on the impact of several genetic conditions lags behind the methods of detection of these sequence aberrations, and the impact of the expansion of NIPT should be carefully considered based on its utility. With interest from commercial diagnostics and a lack of regulatory oversight, there remains a need for careful validation of the predictive values of different tests offered. NIPT comes with many challenges, including ethical and economic issues. The scientific evidence, technical feasibility, and clinical benefit of NIPT need to be carefully investigated before new tests and developments are translated into clinical practice. Moreover, the implementation of panel expansion of NIPT should accompany expert genetic counseling pre- and post-testing.

Highly porous membranes based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with the addition of nanoscale particles of non-magnetic and magnetic iron oxides were synthesized using a combined method of non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) and thermo-induced phase separation (TIPS) based on the technique developed by Dr. Blade. The obtained membranes were characterized using SEM, EDS, XRD, IR, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and fluorescent microscopy. It was shown that the membranes possessed a high fraction of electroactive phase, which increased up to a maximum of 96% with the addition of 2 wt% of α-Fe2O3 and α/γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. It was demonstrated that doping PVDF with nanoparticles contributed to the reduction of pore size in the membrane. All membranes exhibited piezocatalytic activity in the degradation of Rhodamine B. The degree of degradation increased from 69% when using pure PVDF membrane to 90% when using the composite membrane. The nature of the additive did not affect the piezocatalytic activity. It was determined that the main reactive species responsible for the degradation of Rhodamine B were •OH and •O2-. It was also shown that under piezocatalytic conditions, composite membranes generated a piezopotential of approximately 2.5 V.

OBJECTIVE: The performance of non-invasive prenatal screening using cell-free DNA testing of maternal blood in twin pregnancy is underevaluated, while serum marker-based strategies yield poor results. This study aimed to assess the performance of non-invasive prenatal screening for trisomy 21 in twin pregnancy as a first-tier test. Secondary objectives were to assess its failure rate and factors associated with failure.
METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included twin pregnancies in which non-invasive prenatal screening using cell-free DNA was performed as the primary screening strategy between May 2017 and October 2019. We used the NIPT VeriSeq® test for in-vitro diagnosis and set a fetal fraction cut-off of 4% for monochorionic pregnancies and 8% for dichorionic ones. Clinical data and pregnancy outcome were collected from physicians or midwives via a questionnaire or were retrieved directly on-site. We calculated the performance of non-invasive cell-free DNA screening for trisomy 21, analyzed its failure rate and assessed potentially associated factors.
RESULTS: Among 1885 twin pregnancies with follow-up, there were six (0.32%) confirmed cases of trisomy 21. The sensitivity of non-invasive prenatal screening for trisomy 21 was 100% (95% CI, 54.1-100%) and the false-positive rate was 0.23% (95% CI, 0.06-0.59%). The primary failure rate was 4.6%, with 4.0% being due to insufficient fetal fraction. A successful result was obtained for 65.4% of women who underwent a new blood draw, reducing the overall failure rate to 2.8%. Maternal body mass index, gestational age at screening as well as chorionicity were significantly associated with the risk of failure.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence of the high performance, at an extremely low false-positive rate, of non-invasive prenatal screening in twins as part of a primary screening strategy for trisomy 21. © 2023 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The ultimate structure of the membrane is determined using two important effects: (i) thermodynamic effect and (ii) kinetic effect. Controlling the mechanism of kinetic and thermodynamic processes in phase separation is essential for enhancing membrane performance. However, the relationship between system parameters and the ultimate membrane morphology is still largely empirical. This review focuses on the fundamental ideas behind thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) methods, including both kinetic and thermodynamic elements. The thermodynamic approach to understanding phase separation and the effect of different interaction parameters on membrane morphology has been discussed in detail. Furthermore, this review explores the capabilities and limitations of different macroscopic transport models used for the last four decades to explore the phase inversion process. The application of molecular simulations and phase field to understand phase separation has also been briefly examined. Finally, it discusses the thermodynamic approach to understanding phase separation and the consequence of different interaction parameters on membrane morphology, as well as possible directions for artificial intelligence to fill the gaps in the literature. This review aims to provide comprehensive knowledge and motivation for future modeling work for membrane fabrication via new techniques such as nonsolvent-TIPS, complex-TIPS, non-solvent assisted TIPS, combined NIPS-TIPS method, and mixed solvent phase separation.