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Background: Diabetes-induced cardiac fibrosis is one of the main mechanisms of diabetic cardiomyopathy. As a common histone methyltransferase, enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been implicated in fibrosis progression in multiple organs. However, the mechanism of EZH2 in diabetic myocardial fibrosis has not been clarified. Methods: In the current study, rat and mouse diabetic model were established, the left ventricular function of rat and mouse were evaluated by echocardiography and the fibrosis of rat ventricle was evaluated by Masson staining. Primary rat ventricular fibroblasts were cultured and stimulated with high glucose (HG) in vitro. The expression of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27) trimethylation, EZH2, and myocardial fibrosis proteins were assayed. Results: In STZ-induced diabetic ventricular tissues and HG-induced primary ventricular fibroblasts in vitro, H3K27 trimethylation was increased and the phosphorylation of EZH2 was reduced. Inhibition of EZH2 with GSK126 suppressed the activation, differentiation, and migration of cardiac fibroblasts as well as the overexpression of the fibrotic proteins induced by HG. Mechanical study demonstrated that HG reduced phosphorylation of EZH2 on Thr311 by inactivating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which transcriptionally inhibited peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ) expression to promote the fibroblasts activation and differentiation. Conclusion: Our data revealed an AMPK/EZH2/PPAR-γ signal pathway is involved in HG-induced cardiac fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a type-II Weyl fermion was theoretically predicted to appear at the contact of electron and hole Fermi surface pockets. A distinguishing feature of the surfaces of type-II Weyl semimetals is the existence of topological surface states, so-called Fermi arcs. Although WTe2 was the first material suggested as a type-II Weyl semimetal, the direct observation of its tilting Weyl cone and Fermi arc has not yet been successful. Here, we show strong evidence that WTe2 is a type-II Weyl semimetal by observing two unique transport properties simultaneously in one WTe2 nanoribbon. The negative magnetoresistance induced by a chiral anomaly is quite anisotropic in WTe2 nanoribbons, which is present in b-axis ribbon, but is absent in a-axis ribbon. An extra-quantum oscillation, arising from a Weyl orbit formed by the Fermi arc and bulk Landau levels, displays a two dimensional feature and decays as the thickness increases in WTe2 nanoribbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonsymmorphic symmetries, which involve fractional lattice translations, can generate exotic types of fermionic excitations in crystalline materials. Here we propose a topological phase arising from nonsymmorphic symmetries—the hourglass Dirac chain metal, and predict its realization in the rhenium dioxide. We show that ReO2 features hourglass-type dispersion in the bulk electronic structure dictated by its nonsymmorphic space group. Due to time reversal and inversion symmetries, each band has an additional two-fold degeneracy, making the neck crossing-point of the hourglass four-fold degenerate. Remarkably, close to the Fermi level, the neck crossing-point traces out a Dirac chain—a chain of connected four-fold-degenerate Dirac loops—in the momentum space. The symmetry protection, the transformation under symmetry-breaking, and the associated topological surface states of the Dirac chain are revealed. Our results open the door to an unknown class of topological matters, and provide a platform to explore their intriguing physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been widely applied to treat various inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory cytokines can induce both apoptosis and autophagy in MSCs. However, whether autophagy plays a pro- or con-apoptosis effect on MSCs in an inflammatory microenvironment has not been clarified. Methods: We inhibited autophagy by constructing MSCs with lentivirus containing small hairpin RNA to knockdown Beclin-1 and applied these MSCs to a model of sepsis to evaluate therapeutic effect of MSCs. Results: Here we show that inhibition of autophagy in MSCs increases the survival rate of septic mice more than control MSCs, and autophagy promotes apoptosis of MSCs during application to septic mice. Further study demonstrated that autophagy aggravated tumor necrosis factor alpha plus interferon gamma-induced apoptosis of MSCs. Mechanically, autophagy inhibits the expression of the pro-survival gene Bcl-2 via suppressing reactive oxygen species/mitogen-activated protein kinase 1/3 pathway. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that an inflammatory microenvironment-induced autophagy promotes apoptosis of MSCs. Therefore, modulation of autophagy in MSCs would provide a novel approach to improve MSC survival during immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase field, which originates from the electronic interaction, plays an important role in describing a strongly correlated system in one dimension. However, in higher dimensions the effect of phase field cannot be obviously understood. With the eigenfunctional theory, we calculate the pair distribution function of the three-dimensional electron gas to study the relationship between the phase field and the electronic correlation effect and show that at zero temperature the correlation effect of the electrons is mainly dominated by the phase fluctuation, which is produced by the electronic interaction. We also discuss the failure of random phase approximation in studying the correlation function when the correlation effect is strong in the view of the phase field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a study based on method to deal with three-dimensional electron gas with a strong correlation effect. It also says that due to recent experimental developments in ultra cold atomic gases the investigation of the interaction quench has evolved as an active subject. It also mentions of the inability of bosonization method to investigate the interaction quench in three dimensions.

Colloidal silica‐fixed and propionylated dual‐treated wood (CSPW) composites were prepared and their dimensional stability evaluated. The results indicated that: (1) colloidal silica only–treated wood composites had minimal dimensional stability improvement, and they could be propionylated similarly to untreated wood specimens and (2) CSPW composites had a high antiswelling efficiency (ASE) during liquid water or moisture vapor absorption relative to propionylated only–treated wood, and a lower moisture excluding efficiency (MEE) during the moisture vapor absorption than propionylated wood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flame resistance, color change, strength, and decay resistance of colloidal silica‐fixed (CSW), propionylated only, and propionylated dual‐treated wood (CSPW) composites were evaluated. The oxygen indexes of the CSPW composites were similar to the CSW composites but much higher than those of untreated woods and the propionylated woods. The oxygen indexes increased with an increase in the weight percent gain of the colloidal silica (WPG csi ) in the composites, showing an effective reduction in the flammability by the fixation of colloidal silica. The CSPW composites showed little or no difference in the modulus of elasticity and modulus of rupture compared with the untreated woods, indicating little or no significant reduction in strength properties of the wood specimens. The color difference of the wood specimens before and after treatment changed slightly. Minimal weight losses of the CSPW composites occurred upon fungal attack by T. versicolor and F. palustris , showing good decay resistance by propionylation of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that in the condition of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond process, molybdenum is capable of forming carbide known as the "glue" which promotes growth of the CVD diamond, and aids its adhesion by (partial) relief of stresses at the interface. Furthermore, the WC grains are reaction bonded to the Mo2C phase. Therefore, molybdenum is a good candidate material for the intermediate layer between WC–Co substrates and diamond coatings. A molybdenum intermediate layer of 1–3 μm thickness was magnetron sputter-deposited on WC/Co alloy prior to the deposition of diamond coatings. Diamond films were deposited by hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD). The chemical quality, morphology, and crystal structure of the molybdenum intermediate layer and the diamond coatings were characterized by means of SEM, EDX, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that the continuous Mo intermediate layer emerged in spherical shapes and had grain sizes of 0.5–1.5 μm after 30 min sputter deposition. The diamond grain growth rate was slightly slower as compared with that of uncoated Mo layer on the WC–Co substrate. The morphologies of the diamond films on the WC–Co substrate varied with the amount of Mo and Co on the substrate. The Mo intermediate layer was effective to act as a buffer layer for both Co diffusion and diamond growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]