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Objective: Increasing studies have indicated that senescence was associated with tumorigenesis and progression. Lower-grade glioma (LGG) presented a less invasive nature, however, its treatment efficacy and prognosis prediction remained challenging due to the intrinsic heterogeneity. Therefore, we established a senescence-related signature and investigated its prognostic role in LGGs. Methods: The gene expression data and clinicopathologic features were from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The experimentally validated senescence genes (SnGs) from the CellAge database were obtained. Then LASSO regression has been performed to build a prognostic model. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were performed to investigate the prognostic value of the SnG-risk score. A nomogram model has been constructed for outcome prediction. Immunological analyses were further performed. Data from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), Repository of Molecular Brain Neoplasia Data (REMBRANDT), and GSE16011 were used for validation. Results: The 6-SnG signature has been established. The results showed SnGrisk score could be considered as an independent predictor for LGG patients (HR=2.763, 95%CI=1.660-4.599, P<0.001). The high SnG-risk score indicated a worse outcome in LGG (P<0.001). Immune analysis showed a positive correlation between the SnG-risk score and immune infiltration level, and the expression of immune checkpoints. The CGGA datasets confirmed the prognostic role of the SnG-risk score. And Kaplan-Meier analyses in the additional datasets (CGGA, REMBRANDT, and GSE16011) validated the prognostic role of the SnG-signature (P<0.001 for all).Conclusion: The SnG-related prognostic model could predict the survival of LGG accurately. This study proposed a novel indicator for predicting the prognosis of LGG and provided potential therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) protein senses microbial-secreted metabolites to trigger the host's innate immune system. The Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) metabolite phthiocol (Pht) are both ligands of AhR with similar chemical structures. As PQS is an essential quorum-sensing molecule that regulates a wide range of virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we hypothesized that Pht and its analogs are potential P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing inhibitors (QSIs) with immune-modulating functions. In this study, we demonstrated that Pht was able to inhibit the P. aeruginosa pqs QS system and reduce both biofilmformation and the production of pyocyanin. Molecular docking analysis suggested that Pht competes with PQS at the binding site of its receptor, PqsR. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay confirmed the Pht-PqsR interaction and showed that Pht attenuated PqsR from binding to the pqsA promoter. Proteomic analysis showed that synthesis of the key pqsQS proteins decreased upon the addition of Pht to the bacterial cultures. Furthermore, Pht analogs vitamins K1 (Phylloquinone), K2 (Menaquinones), and K3 (Menadione) were also showed to inhibit the P. aeruginosa pqs QS system while able to activate the AhR signaling pathways. Our study suggests that the AhR ligands Pht and its vitamin K analogs are promising QSIs for the alternative treatment of P. aeruginosa infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ...-conjugated graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has gained increasing attention due to its unique electronic property, accessible nanoporous framework, chemical and thermal stability. The nanopore structure of g-C3N4 is believed to be favorable for adsorption process owing to the improved mass transfer process. Here, a honeycomb-like mesoporous g-C3N4 is synthesized by direct thermal polymerization of the mixture of urea and ammonium carbonate. It displays an excellent affinity with elemental mercury at reaction temperatures of 50--200°C. The optimal mass ratio of ammonium carbonate/urea is 2 with the highest Hg0 removal efficiency of 87.5% at 120°C. NO has a negative effect on Hg0 removal, whereas SO2 slightly reinforces Hg0 adsorption in the presence of oxygen. The Hg0 is probably captured on the carbon atoms of g-C3N4 by producing a covalent carbon-mercury (C--Hg) bond via Lewis acid-base interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new three-dimensional structure that the graphene connected with SWCNTs (G-CNTs, Graphene Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes) can solve graphene and CNTs′ problems. A comprehensive study of the mechanical and electrical performance of the junctions was performed by first-principles theory. There were eight types of junctions that were constituted by armchair and zigzag graphene and (3,3), (4,0), (4,4), and (6,0) CNTs. First, the junction strength was investigated. Generally, the binding energy of armchair G-CNTs was stronger than that of zigzag G-CNTs, and it was the biggest in the armchair G-CNTs (6,0). Likewise, the electrical performance of armchair G-CNTs was better than that of zigzag G-CNTs. Charge density distribution of G-CNTs (6,0) was the most homogeneous. Next, the impact factors of the electronic properties of armchair G-CNTs were investigated. We suggest that the band gap is increased with the length of CNTs, and its value should be dependent on the combined effect of both the graphene's width and the CNTs' length. Last, the relationship between voltage and current (U/I) were studied. The U/I curve of armchair G-CNTs (6,0) possessed a good linearity and symmetry. These discoveries will contribute to the design and production of G-CNT-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First, a methodology was proposed for predicting the remaining life of buried gas pipelines subject to corrosion and cyclic loads. Variation in corrosion-defect depth was considered an exponential function of pipeline elapsed time, and the cumulative damage rate was employed to compute pipeline cyclic damage. Because of the presence of nonlinearity in the formulas, an iterative method was used for calculating remaining life and total damage of pipelines with field data. Next, a limit-state function based on remaining-life mode was adopted for estimating pipeline failure probability, and the associated random variables were represented by normal probabilistic distributions. Then the acceptable failure probability and risk interval were combined for assessing pipeline reliability, which was validated with field data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]