An investigation into the correlation between visual performance in simulated complex environments and academic attainment among primary school students.

Traditional vision screenings in schools are limited to simple visual tasks, yet students in their daily learning face more complex visual environments. Binocular rivalry tasks can partially simulate the visual challenges of real visual environments and activate advanced visual processing mechanisms that simple visual tasks cannot. Therefore, by superimposing binocular rivalry-state tasks onto simple visual tasks, we have developed an innovative vision screening program to rapidly and extensively assess students' visual performance in complex environments.

Cooperative complexation of amino acid derivatives to platinum acetylide-based bolaamphiphile.

A platinum(II) acetylide-based bolaamphiphile equipped with two peripheral B18C6 moieties has been successfully prepared, which demonstrates cooperative recognition behavior toward l-alanine ester salt in chloroform. In a polar methanol/chloroform (3/1, v/v) medium, the amino acid additives influence the aggregation of the bolaamphiphile significantly, leading to the morphological transition from nanospherical to disordered structures. The adaptive properties of the current host-guest binary system will benefit the development of stimuli-responsive supramolecular materials.

Cooperative self-assembly of platinum(II) acetylide complexes.

Rod-like platinum(II) acetylide complexes have been demonstrated to form one-dimensional helical supramolecular polymers by the cooperative growth mechanism, leading to supramolecular gels by bundling single fibrils into entangled networks.

Formation of stimuli-responsive supramolecular polymeric assemblies via orthogonal metal-ligand and host-guest interactions.

Linear supramolecular polymers, assembled via the combination of orthogonal terpyridine-Zn(2+) and benzo-21-crown-7/secondary ammonium salt recognition motifs, exhibit dynamic properties responsive to various external stimuli.

Comparative characterization of chitinases from silkworm (Bombyx mori) and bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera).

Chitinases play an important role in the degradation of the cuticular chitin during the process of ecdysis. In this study, we compared the chitinases of two insect species, Bombyx mori (silkworm) and Helicoverpa armigera (bollworm), to assess the relation between characteristics and chitinase patterns. Differences between two chitinases were observed after purification using ammonium sulfate precipitation, affinity chromatography, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) assay.

[Epidemiologic study of dry eye in populations equal or over 20 years old in Jiangning District of Shanghai].

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of dry eye in populations equal or over 20 years old in Jiangning District, Shanghai, China.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. From September 2008 to January 2009, 6 small districts including 21,102 people of Jiangning District were randomly selected as survey venues by Department of Ophthalmology in First People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University.

[Cloning, expression of fibrinolytic enzyme gene Efp-I from Eisenia fetida in Escherichia coli and activity analysis].

Earthworm fibrinolytic enzyme (EFE) is a group of protease having fibrinolytic and plasminogen-activator activities isolated from earthworm. Molecular biology research showed that there were 21 EFE coding sequences, in which only one sequence, AY438624, whose translated protein had similar N-terminal amino-acid sequence to EfP-I purified from Eisenia fetida. To obtain coding sequence of EfP-I , we designed specific primers according to 5' and 3' sequences of AY438624.

[A component of earthworm fibrinolytic enzyme having higher thrombolytic activity than total components in vivo].

Aim: To select higher thrombolytic and lower toxic single component of earthworm fibrinolytic enzymes (EFE).

Methods: EFE containing total components were obtained by affinity chromatography from Eisenia fetida. Using ion-exchange chromatography to separate three main components EfP-0-2, EfP-I-1 and EfP-I-2 from EFE, their thrombolytic activity and toxicity were compared with EFE.