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Exosomes are extracellular vesicles naturally released from cells. Exosomes from different sources play different roles in cellular component exchange, signal transduction, and pathological development. Exosomes have distinct biological characteristics such as low immunogenicity, easy uptake by cells, crossing the blood-brain barrier, natural targeting, and easy modification. Many studies show that exosomes as drug carriers have a great application prospect in cancer therapy. In this review, we review the biogenesis, origin, biological characteristics of exosomes, and the exosome drug delivery system and its application for cancer therapy are summarized to provide a reference for the study of exosomes.

The thermal shock protection of SiC/SiC composites have become pivotal challenges in promoting their application in a heat field environment. This study presents a borosilicate glass (BSG) coating was fabricated successively by slurry brushing-sintering for SiC/SiC composites. The results show that the coated SiC/SiC composites exhibit excellent thermal protective resistance with a rather light mass change (

ObjectivesTo explore the impact of diabetes itself and glycemic control status on tuberculosis (TB).MethodsA total of 3393 patients with TB and diabetes mellitus (DM) who were hospitalized in the Public Health Clinical Center of Chengdu from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2021, were retrospectively included and divided into three groups according to baseline glycemic control status: two groups according to glycemic status at discharge, two groups according to cavity occurrence, three groups according to sputum results, and three groups according to lesion location. The influencing factors and the differences in cavity occurrence, sputum positivity and lesion location among different glycemic control groups or between different glycemic status groups were analyzed.ResultsIn this TB with DM cohort, most of the subjects were male, with a male to female ratio of 4.54:1, most of them were 45-59 years old, with an average age of 57.44 ± 13.22 years old. Among them, 16.8% (569/3393) had cavities, 52.2% (1770/3393) were sputum positive, 30.4% (1030/3393) had simple intrapulmonary lesions, 68.1% (2311/3393) had both intra and extrapulmonary lesions, only 15.8% (537/3393) had good glycemic control,16.0% (542/3393) and 68.2% (2314/3393) had fair and poor glycemic control, respectively. Compared with the non-cavity group, the sputum-negative group and the extrapulmonary lesion group, the cavity group, sputum-positive group, intrapulmonary lesion group and the intra and extrapulmonary lesion group all had higher fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated hemoglobin A 1c (HbA1c) and lower good glycemic control rates at admission (all P

BackgroundPrevious infections and vaccinations have produced preexisting immunity, which differs from primary infection in the organism immune response and may lead to different disease severities and prognoses when reinfected.ObjectivesThe purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the impact of immune breakthroughs on disease progression and prognosis in patients with COVID-19.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted on 1513 COVID-19 patients in Chengdu Public Health Clinical Medical Center from January 2020 to November 2022. All patients were divided into the no immunity group (primary infection and unvaccinated, n=1102) and the immune breakthrough group (previous infection or vaccination, n=411). The immune breakthrough group was further divided into the natural immunity subgroup (n=73), the acquired immunity subgroup (n=322) and the mixed immunity subgroup (n=16). The differences in clinical and outcome data and T lymphocyte subsets and antibody levels between two groups or between three subgroups were compared by ANOVA, t test and chi-square test, and the relationship between T lymphocyte subsets and antibody levels and the disease progression and prognosis of COVID-19 patients was assessed by univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe total critical rate and the total mortality rate were 2.11% and 0.53%, respectively. The immune breakthrough rate was 27.16%. In the no immunity group, the critical rate and the mortality rate were all higher, and the coronavirus negative conversion time was longer than those in the immune breakthrough group. The differences in the critical rate and the coronavirus negative conversion time between the two groups were all statistically significant (3.72% vs. 0.24%, 14.17 vs. 11.90 days, all p

In recent years, with the widespread popularity of the Internet, social media has become an indispensable part of people’s lives. People regard online social media as an essential tool for interaction and communication. Due to the convenience of data acquisition from social media, mental health research on social media has received a lot of attention. The early detection of psychological disorder based on social media can help prevent further deterioration in at-risk people. In this paper, depression detection is performed based on non-verbal (acoustics and visual) behaviors of vlog. We propose a time-aware attention-based multimodal fusion depression detection network (TAMFN) to mine and fuse the multimodal features fully. The TAMFN model is constructed by a temporal convolutional network with the global information (GTCN), an intermodal feature extraction (IFE) module, and a time-aware attention multimodal fusion (TAMF) module. The GTCN model captures more temporal behavior information by combining local and global temporal information. The IFE module extracts the early interaction information between modalities to enrich the feature representation. The TAMF module guides the multimodal feature fusion by mining the temporal importance between different modalities. Our experiments are carried out on D-Vlog dataset, and the comparative experimental results report that our proposed TAMFN outperforms all benchmark models, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed TAMFN model.

Abstract Preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic are especially critical to the protection of individuals whose family members or acquaintances have been infected. However, limited research has explored the influence of infection cues on preventive behaviors. This study proposed an interaction model of environment-cognitive/affective-behavior to elucidate the mechanism by which infection cues influence preventive behaviors and the roles of risk perception, negative emotions, and perceived efficacy in that influence. To explore the relationships among these factors, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey in 34 provinces in China during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 26,511 participants responded to the survey, and 20,205 valid responses (76.2%) were obtained for further analysis. The moderated mediation results show that infection cues positively predicted preventive behaviors in a manner mediated by risk perception and negative emotions. Moreover, perceived efficacy moderated the influence of infection cues not only on preventive behaviors but also on risk perception and negative emotions. The higher the perceived efficacy, the stronger these influences were. These findings validated our model, which elucidates the mechanisms underlying the promoting effect of infection cues on preventive behaviors during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of these results for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond are discussed.

Abstract Background The comparison of the two Willems dental age estimation methods (gender-specific (Willems I) and non-gender-specific (Willems II)) has not been fully investigated. Here we aimed to explore the applicability of the Willems dental age estimation in an Eastern Chinese population, which may cast light on the field of dental age estimation. Methods A total of 1211 oral panoramic radiographs (582 boys and 629 girls) of the Chinese Han population aged 11–16 years old were collected. Dental ages (DAs) were calculated using the Willems method. Statistical significance was set at a p-value

IntroductionDeep-learn methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated impressive performance in depression analysis. Nevertheless, some critical challenges need to be resolved in these methods: (1) It is still difficult for CNNs to learn long-range inductive biases in the low-level feature extraction of different facial regions because of the spatial locality. (2) It is difficult for a model with only a single attention head to concentrate on various parts of the face simultaneously, leading to less sensitivity to other important facial regions associated with depression. In the case of facial depression recognition, many of the clues come from a few areas of the face simultaneously, e.g., the mouth and eyes.MethodsTo address these issues, we present an end-to-end integrated framework called Hybrid Multi-head Cross Attention Network (HMHN), which includes two stages. The first stage consists of the Grid-Wise Attention block (GWA) and Deep Feature Fusion block (DFF) for the low-level visual depression feature learning. In the second stage, we obtain the global representation by encoding high-order interactions among local features with Multi-head Cross Attention block (MAB) and Attention Fusion block (AFB).ResultsWe experimented on AVEC2013 and AVEC2014 depression datasets. The results of AVEC 2013 (RMSE = 7.38, MAE = 6.05) and AVEC 2014 (RMSE = 7.60, MAE = 6.01) demonstrated the efficacy of our method and outperformed most of the state-of-the-art video-based depression recognition approaches.DiscussionWe proposed a deep learning hybrid model for depression recognition by capturing the higher-order interactions between the depression features of multiple facial regions, which can effectively reduce the error in depression recognition and gives great potential for clinical experiments.

BackgroundOrganism can lead to excessive nutrient consumption in the infected state and increase nutritional risk, which is detrimental to the control of the infection and can further aggravate the disease.ObjectivesTo investigate the impact of nutritional risk and the NRS2002 score on disease progression and prognosis in patients with COVID-19.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study including 1,228 COVID-19 patients, who were divided into a with-nutritional risk group (patients with NRS2002 score ≥ 3) and a without-nutritional risk group (patients with NRS2002 score 0.5, early intervention of malnutrition is needed to reduce the occurrence of critical disease. Additionally, for patients with NRS2002 score > 5.5, continuous nutritional support therapy is needs to reduce mortality and improve prognosis.Clinical Trial registration: [https://www.chictr.org.cn/historyversionpub.aspx?regno=ChiCTR2000034563], identifier [Chinese Clinical Trial Register ChiCTR2000034563].

There has been a growing interest in studying the communication of gut microbial metabolites between the gut and the liver as liver fibrosis progresses. Although 3-Indolepropionic acid (IPA) is regarded as a clinically valuable gut metabolite for the treatment of certain chronic diseases, the effects of oral administration of IPA on hepatic fibrosis in different animal models have been conflicting. While some mechanisms have been proposed to explain these contradictory effects, the direct impact of IPA on hepatic fibrosis remains unclear. In this study, we found that IPA could directly activate LX-2 human hepatic stellate cells in vitro. IPA upregulated the expression of fibrogenic marker genes and promoted the features associated with HSCs activation, including proliferation and contractility. IPA also increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondria and the expression of inflammation-related genes in LX-2 cells. However, when a ROS-blocking agent was used, these effects were reduced. p38 and JNK, the downstream signaling cascades of ROS, were found to be required for the activation of LX-2 induced by IPA. These findings suggest that IPA can directly activate hepatic stellate cells through ROS-induced JNK and p38 signaling pathways.

BackgroundMachine learning (ML) algorithms play a key role in estimating dental age. In this study, three ML models were used for dental age estimation, based on different preprocessing methods.AimThe seven mandibular teeth on the digital panorama were measured and evaluated according to the Cameriere and the Demirjian method, respectively. Correlation data were used for decision tree (DT), Bayesian ridge regression (BRR), k-nearest neighbors (KNN) models for dental age estimation. An accuracy comparison was made among different methods.Subjects and methodsWe analyzed 748 orthopantomographs (392 males and 356 females) from eastern China between the age of 5 and 13 years in this retrospective study. Three models, DT, BRR, and KNN, were used to estimate the dental age. The data in ML is obtained according to the Cameriere method and the Demirjian method. Coefficient of determination (R2), mean error (ME), root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE) and mean absolute error (MAE), the above five metrics were used to evaluate the accuracy of age estimation.ResultsOur experimental results showed that the prediction accuracy of dental age was affected by ML algorithms. MD, MAD, MSE, RMSE of the dental age predicted by ML were significantly decreased. Among all the methods, the KNN model based on the Cameriere method had the highest accuracy (ME = 0.015, MAE = 0.473, MSE = 0.340, RMSE = 0.583, R2 = 0.94).ConclusionThe results show that the prediction accuracy of dental age is influenced by ML algorithms and preprocessing method. The KNN model based on the Cameriere method was able to infer dental age more accurately in a clinical setting.

Females have higher inflammatory tolerance because they have some special sex-related anti-inflammatory pathways. Andrographolide, a diterpene lactone compound from Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees, has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. But whether andrographolide regulates sex-related anti-inflammatory pathways in females has yet to be reported. A non-targeted metabonomics method was employed to investigate the metabolic pathways of andrographolide in LPS-induced inflammatory female rats. Substances and genes were then selected out of gender-related pathways discovered by metabonomics experiments and their quantities or expressions were evaluated. Furthermore, the effects of andrographolide on these chemicals or genes in non-inflammatory female rats were also examined in order to investigate the cascade interaction between anti-inflammatory mechanisms and metabolites. The biomarkers of 24 metabolites in plasma were identified. Following pathway enrichment analysis, these metabolic markers were clustered into glycerophosphate, glycerolipids, inositol phosphate and steroid hormone synthesis pathways. Validation experiments confirmed that andrographolide lowered post-inflammatory female sex hormones such as progesterone, estradiol, corticosterone, and testosterone rather than increasing them. Andrographolide may have these effects via inhibiting the overexpression of CYP11a1 and StAR. However, andrographolide had no effect on the expression of these two genes or the four types of hormones in non-inflamed female rats. Similarly, andrographolide decreased TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β production in inflammatory rats but showed no effect on these inflammatory markers in non-inflammatory rats. LPS and other inflammatory cytokines promote hormone production, which in turn will prevent increased inflammation. Therefore, it may be hypothesized that andrographolide’s reduction of inflammatory cytokine is what generates its inhibitory action on sex hormones during inflammation. By blocking the activation of inflammatory pathways, andrographolide prevented the stimulation of inflammatory factors on the production of sex hormones. It does not, however, directly inhibit or enhance the synthesis of sex hormones.

Abstract Background Autophagy is required for oogenesis and plays a critical role in response to aging caused by oxidative stress. However, there have been no reports on regulation of cytoprotective autophagy in female germline stem cells (FGSCs) in response to aging caused by oxidative stress. Results We found that Spermidine (SPD) significantly increased protein expression of autophagy markers microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta-II (MAP1LC3B-II/LC3B-II) and sequestosome-1/p62 (SQSTM1/p62), and evoked autophagic flux in FGSCs. Moreover, SPD increased the number and viability of FGSCs in vitro. Further, we found that SPD significantly reduced basal or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced up-regulated protein expression of the aging markers, cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (p16/CDKN2A) and tumor protein 53 (p53). After knockdown of p62 in FGSCs, p16 protein levels were significant higher compared with controls. However, protein p16 levels were not significantly changed in p62 knockdown FGSCs with SPD treatment compared with without SPD. Moreover, SPD significantly changed the expression of autophagy-related genes and pathways in FGSCs, as shown by bioinformatics analysis of RNA sequencing data. Additionally, SPD significantly inhibited AKT/mTOR phosphorylation. Conclusions SPD induces cytoprotective autophagy in FGSCs in vitro and ameliorates cellular senescence of FGSCs induced by H2O2. Furthermore, SPD can ameliorate cellular senescence of FGSCs through p62. SPD might induce autophagy in FGSCs via the PI3K/Akt pathway. Our findings could be helpful for delaying aging of female germ cells due to oxidative stress and preserving female fertility.

BackgroundCellular immunodeficiency and comorbidities are common in COVID-19 patients.AimThe purpose of this study was to investigate comorbidities impacting on the cellular immunity in COVID-19 patients.MethodsThe research objects included 55 healthy controls and 718 COVID-19 patients who divided into the control group and the COVID-19 group, respectively. Those in the COVID-19 group were divided into subgroups on the basis of the number and types of comorbidities present. Lymphocyte itself and its subsets were compared between the control group and the COVID-19 group, the groups with comorbidities based on the different number and types of comorbidities, and the relationship between the lymphocyte counts and subsets with the number and types of comorbidities was investigated.ResultsCompared with the control group, the lymphocyte counts and T cell subsets were significantly increased in the groups with comorbidities, but both B and NK cell subsets were significantly decreased in the no comorbidity group and in most of the groups with comorbidities (all P

Brassica juncea has adapted to diverse climate zones and latitudes, especially in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau with the complexity and diversity of the ecological types of western China. However, the genetic variations underlying the diversity of these ecotypes are poorly known. In this study, we resequenced the genome of 193 indigenous B. juncea accessions and obtained 1.04 million high-quality SNPs and 3.23 million InDels by mapping reads to the reference genomes of B. juncea var. timuda. Phenotype, population genetic, phylogenetic and principal component analyses showed considerable genetic variation including four distinct genetic groups. Selective sweep analysis and a genome-wide association study revealed the candidate genes for seed color and fatty acid biosynthesis. The results provide a comprehensive insight into the spread and improvement of B. juncea and laya foundation for accelerating rapeseed breeding by facilitating screenings of molecular markers.

The coexistence of multiple stable equilibria in recurrent neural networks is an important dynamic characteristic for associative memory and other applications. In this paper, the existence and local Mittag-Leffler stability of multiple equilibria are investigated for a class of fractional-order recurrent neural networks with discontinuous and nonmonotonic activation functions. By using Brouwer's fixed point theory, several conditions are established to ensure the existence of 5n equilibria, in which all the coεmponents of 4n equilibria are located in the continuous intervals of the activation functions. and some of the components of 5n - 4n equilibria are located at some discontinuous points of the activation functions. The introduction of discontinuous activation functions makes the neural networks have more equilibria than those with continuous activation functions. Furthermore, some criteria are proposed to ensure local Mittag-Leffler stability of 3n equilibria. The introduction of nonmonotonic activation functions makes the neural networks have more stable equilibria than those with monotonic activation functions. Two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.

Two-dimensional structural transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs) have the advantages of superb thermal and chemical stability, distinctive layered structures, and ultrathin thicknesses, which make them potential candidates in the microwave absorption field. The recent progress in 2D TMDs and their composite nanomaterials with enhanced microwave absorption performance are reviewed here. The synthesis methods, and the microwave absorption properties, including the maximum reflection loss value and effective absorption bandwidth of various 2D TMD nanocomposites, are described in detail. Furthermore, the current challenges and future prospects for the development of 2D TMDs are raised.

Carbendazim (CAR) and enrofloxacin (ENF) are frequently detected in fruits and meat products, respectively. Since most people consume fruits, vegetables, and meat products, combined exposure is possible, necessitating further evaluation of toxic interactions. In this study, the developmental toxicity of separate and combined exposure was examined in zebrafish embryos. Carbendazim exposure at 0.79 mg/L and above significantly affected developmental parameters, while enrofloxacin alone had no substantial effects on these developmental parameters within the selected concentration range (0.10–0.40 mg/L). Surprisingly, ENF antagonized the CAR-evoked reduction in the 48 hpf (hours post-fertilization) hatching rate and the increases in the 96 hpf malformation and lethality rates. The results revealed that the antagonism might be associated with reciprocal effects of these compounds on metabolism-related genes, such as cyp7a1 and apoa1a. These results reveal a complex interaction between ENF and CAR on metabolic regulation during development and highlight the importance of combined assessment for agents with the potential for simultaneous exposure.

Difenoconazole (DIF) and dimethomorph (DIM) are widely used pesticides frequently detected together in environmental samples, so the deleterious effects of combined exposure warrant detailed examination. In this study, the individual and combined effects of DIM and DIF on conventional developmental parameters (hatching rate, deformity rate, lethality) and gene expression were measured in embryonic zebrafish. Both DIF and DIM interfered with normal zebrafish embryo development, and the most sensitive toxicity index for both was 96 h post-fertilization (hpf) deformity rate (BMDL10 values of 0.30 and 1.10 mg/L, respectively). The combination of DIF and DIM had mainly synergistic deleterious effects on 96 hpf deformity and mortality rates. Transcriptome analysis showed that these compounds markedly downregulated expression of mcm family genes, cdk1, and cdc20, thereby potentially disrupting DNA replication and cell cycle progression. Enhanced surveillance for this pesticide combination is recommended as simultaneous environmental exposure may be substantially more harmful than exposure to either compound alone.

Most of approaches to salient object detection focused on two‐dimensional images, while rare attention was attached to the light field which can provide exclusive visual information for salient object detection and other computer vision applications. An effective algorithm of salient object detection is proposed for light field data. First, boundary connectivity is calculated on all‐focus image. Then, background probability based on boundary connectivity is achieved by computing geodesic distance. Second, the authors rank the similarity of the superpixels of both all‐focus image and depth map via graph‐based manifold ranking to carry out two initial saliency maps. Third, weighted by background probability, the two initial saliency maps are fused to produce final saliency results, integrated by objectness cue. The authors also exploit how to integrate effectively objectness with other visual features, and compare two fusion strategies: linear fusion and Bayesian integration. Experiments show that light field features are helpful for saliency detection, and Bayesian integration framework is the better choice than linear fusion method. Meanwhile, the way how to combine multiple features is crucial. The proposed algorithm handles challenging natural scenarios such as cluttered background, similar foreground and background, and so on, and produces visual favourable results in comparison with the eight state‐of‐the‐art methods.

Isoniazid (INH), a widely used first-line antitubercular drug, has been noted to be associated with hepatotoxicity. In spite of extensive researches over many decades, the mechanism of INH-induced hepatotoxicity still remains poorly understood. Recently, mitochondrial toxicity has been emerging as a new paradigm for INH-induced hepatotoxicity. In this study, we showed that INH impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics in human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells. INH reduced mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and induced mitochondria swelling. INH also inhibited the protein expressions of three major mitochondrial biogenesis regulators, SIRT1, PGC1α and NRF1, along with increased acetylation of PGC1α. Meanwhile, INH decreased the number of mitochondria, accompanied by decreased expression of mitochondrial protein COX IV. INH caused mitochondrial fragmentation involving decreased levels of the fusion protein MFN2 as well as the fission protein DRP1. INH-reduced DRP1 expression was associated with the increase of apoptosis, suggesting the existence of pro-survival fission and its involvement in mitochondrial quality control. INH activated p38 MAPK, whereas inhibition of p38 MAPK aggravated INH-induced decreases of SIRT1, PGC1α, NRF1, COX IV and DRP1 expressions. P38 MAPK inhibition also further up-regulated the acetylation of PGC1α and exacerbated INH-induced MMP loss, mitochondrial swelling and apoptosis. Taken together, INH-activated p38 MAPK induced mitochondrial biogenesis to alleviate apoptosis through partly recovering SIRT1-PGC1α pathway activation. In the meantime, p38 MAPK activation by INH promoted protective mitochondrial fission to alleviate apoptosis by partial recovery of DRP1 expression.

In this paper, we propose a single image dehazing method aiming at addressing the inherent limitations of the extensively employed dark channel prior (DCP). More concretely, we introduce the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to segment the input hazy image into scenes based on the haze density feature map. With the segmentation results, combined with the proposed sky region detection method, we can effectively recognize the sky region where the DCP cannot well handle this. On the basis of sky region detection, we then present an improved global atmospheric light estimation method to increase the estimation accuracy of the atmospheric light. Further, we present a multi-scale fusion-based strategy to obtain the transmission map based on DCP, which can significantly reduce the blocking artifacts of the transmission map. To further rectify the error-prone transmission within the sky region, an adaptive sky region transmission correction method is also presented. Finally, due to the segmentation-blindness of GMM, we adopt the guided total variation (GTV) to tackle this problem while eliminating the extensive texture details contained in the transmission map. Experimental results verify the power of our method and show its superiority over several state-of-the-art methods.

Previous studies have found that common genetic variants on chromosome 8q24 are associated with the risk of developing colorectal neoplasia. We conducted a hospital-based case-control study, including 435 cases and 788 unrelated controls to investigate the associations between common variants on 8q24 and the risk of colorectal cancer in a Chinese population. We also evaluated the association of rs6983267 with colorectal neoplasia in the published literature via a meta-analysis study. We found that rs6983267 was significantly associated with the risk of colorectal cancer in the Chinese population, with an adjusted odds-ratio (OR) for the GT heterozygotes and GG homozygotes of 1.30 (95% CI= 0.98-1.71, P = 0.069) and 1.66 (95% CI = 1.18-2.34, P = 0.004), respectively, compared to the TT homozygotes, with a P-trend value of 0.003. No association was found for the other three loci (rs16901979, rs1447295 and rs7837688). In the meta-analysis of the published genetic association studies, the rs6983267 variant was found to be associated with an increased risk of colorectal neoplasia. The heterozygous GT carriers showed a 20% increased risk of colorectal neoplasia (OR= 1.20, 95% CI= 1.16-1.25; random effects model) with a summary OR for homozygous GG carriers of 1.39 (95% CI= 1.32-1.48; random effects model) compared to the TT genotype carriers. We found no significant differences between the association of rs6983267 and colorectal cancer and colorectal adenomas. In summary, our study confirms that the variant rs6983267 is a risk factor for colorectal neoplasia in various populations, including the Chinese population.

Transportation of acidic fluids containing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by flexible reinforced thermoplastic pipes can cause safety problems due to diffusion of H2S in the pipe. Herein, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites are prepared with a large amount of zinc oxide (ZnO) particles as absorbent fillers by melt-mixing via introducing maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene (PE-g-MAH) and maleic anhydride-grafted poly(ethylene-co-octene) (POE-g-MAH) as dual-compatibilizer. By controlling the mass ratio of the two compatibilizers, ZnO particles can be encapsulated by PE-g-MAH and POE-g-MAH so that mechanical properties of the prepared HDPE/ZnO composites are improved owing to enhanced compatibility between the filler and the resin. By adding PE-g-MAH and POE-g-MAH with total 10 wt% in a mass ratio of 1/3, the HDPE/ZnO composite containing 50 wt% ZnO exhibits 37.3 ± 3.8 MPa of yield strength, 576 ± 16 MPa of flexural modulus, and 84.4 ± 1.4 kJ m-2 of notched Izod impact strength corrected to 311 ± 24.9 kJ m-2. After exposure in H2S at 0.1 MPa for 7 days, the diffusion distance of H2S in the composite is 659 ± 17 μm, demonstrating a high barrier ability on H2S via absorption. This study provides a feasible method for preparation of polymer composites with suitable mechanical properties for inhibiting H2S permeation in reinforced thermoplastic pipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: To determine the protective role of mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) in regulating sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (S-AKI). METHODS: A total of 96 mice were randomly divided into the control group, control+MANF group, S-AKI group, and S-AKI+MANF group. The S-AKI model was established by injecting lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at 10 mg/kg intraperitoneally. MANF (200 µg/kg) was administered to the control+MANF and S-AKI+MANF groups. An equal dose of normal saline was administered daily intraperitoneally in the control and S-AKI groups. Serum and kidney tissue samples were obtained for biochemical analysis. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression of MANF in the kidney, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine expression of MANF in the serum, pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-a [TNF-a] and interleukin-6 [IL-6]). Serum creatinine (SCr), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were examined using an automatic biochemical analyzer. In addition, the kidney tissue was observed for pathological changes by hematoxylin-eosin staining. The comparison between two groups was performed by unpaired Student's t-test, and statistics among multiple groups were carried out using Tukey's post hoc test following one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: At the early stage of S-AKI, MANF in the kidney tissue was up-regulated, but with the development of the disease, it was down-regulated. Renal function was worsened in the S-AKI group, and TNF-a and IL-6 were elevated. The administration of MANF significantly alleviated the elevated levels of SCr and BUN and inhibited the expression of TNF-a and IL-6 in the kidney. The pathological changes were more extensive in the S-AKI group than in the S-AKI+MANF group. CONCLUSION: MANF treatment may significantly alleviate renal injury, reduce the inflammatory response, and alleviate or reverse kidney tissue damage. MANF may have a protective effect on S-AKI, suggesting a potential treatment for S-AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorpyrifos and cyfluthrin are insecticides commonly used in agriculture. The mixed residues of chlorpyrifos and cyfluthrin in the aquatic environment may have combined effects on nontarget species. Therefore, studying the combined toxic effects and mechanisms of pesticide mixtures is of great significance to environmental risk assessment. To evaluate the risk of combined exposure, we examined the effects of both compounds, separately and together, on motor activity, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, and neurotransmitter levels in larval zebrafish. Chlorpyrifos exposure significantly reduced functional motor capacity (swim distance and velocity) and enhanced meandering, while cyfluthrin exposure alone had no significant effects on swim parameters. However, combined exposure significantly reduced total swimming distance and mean velocity and increased meandering. Both compounds alone and the combination significantly reduced AChE activity, and the combined effect was antagonistic. Combined exposure also significantly altered the concentrations of serotonin, serotonin precursors, and dopamine precursors, as well as concentrations of the amino acid neurotransmitters glycine, alanine, and aspartic acid. Combined exposure to chlorpyrifos and cyfluthrin exhibited distinct joint action modes in terms of neurobehavior, AChE activity, and neurotransmitter levels, thereby providing an experimental basis for assessing the combined exposure to chlorpyrifos and cyfluthrin's environmental risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effects of hydralazine combined with nitrate on serum levels of Adropin and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), left ventricular remodeling and prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). 126 CHF patients were divided into control group (n=13, sodium nitroprusside) and combined treatment group (n=63, sodium nitroprusside + hydralazine). Serum Adropin and BNP levels and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) of patients before treatment and 10 days after treatment were recorded, so did patient's end-point events. It was found that compared with those before treatment, the serum levels of Adropin, BNP, and LVMI in combined group and control group after 10 days of treatment were lower (P<0.05). The end-point event rate in the combined group was 19.05% (12/63). The serum levels of Adropin, BNP, and LVMI in the combined group with end-point events were higher than those of patients without end-point events (P<0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that serum levels of Adropin and BNP were positively correlated with LVMI and the end-point events rate (P<0.05). To sum up, hydralazine combined with sodium nitroprusside treatment can effectively reduce serum Adropin and BNP levels, and the risk of left ventricular remodeling and poor prognosis in patients with CHF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured manganese dioxide (MnO2)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composite is fabricated via a simple hydrothermal process. The MnO2/RGO composite is used to construct supercapacitors as electrodes with high loading mass of active materials. The electrochemical properties of constructed supercapacitors are tested by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that MnO2/RGO electrode exhibits a high specific capacity of 316 F·g-1 at a current density of 200 mA·g-1 and good long-term cycling stability with capacitance retention of 93% at 500 mA·g-1 after 1000 cycles. The superior electrochemical performance of as-prepared composite could be mainly attributed to its unique structure, which is composed of MnO2 nanoflakes well-integrated on the surfaces of RGO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yield is one of the most important yet complex crop traits. To improve our understanding of the genetic basis of yield establishment, and to identify candidate genes responsible for yield improvement in Brassica napus, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for seven yield-determining traits [main inflorescence pod number (MIPN), branch pod number (BPN), pod number per plant (PNP), seed number per pod (SPP), thousand seed weight, main inflorescence yield (MIY), and branch yield], using data from 520 diverse B. napus accessions from two different yield environments. In total, we detected 128 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 93 of which were revealed as novel by integrative analysis. A combination of GWAS and transcriptome sequencing on 21 haplotype blocks from samples pooled by four extremely high-yielding or low-yielding accessions revealed the differential expression of 14 crucial candiate genes (such as Bna.MYB83, Bna.SPL5, and Bna.ROP3) associated with multiple traits or containing multiple SNPs associated with the same trait. Functional annotation and expression pattern analyses further demonstrated that these 14 candiate genes might be important in developmental processes and biomass accumulation, thus affecting the yield establishment of B. napus. These results provide valuable information for understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying the establishment of high yield in B. napus, and lay the foundation for developing high-yielding B. napus varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) with different morphology has been synthesised by a facile hydrothermal method combining calcination procedure at different temperatures. The effect of calcination temperature on the morphology and electrochemical properties of assynthesised ZnO is investigated. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were applied to characterise the phase composition and microstructure of the synthesised samples. The electrochemical tests of as-synthesised ZnO as an anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) reveal that ZnO nanoparticles prepared at 700°C deliver the largest capacity of 1815.8 mAh g-1, while cabbage-like ZnO nanosheets prepared at lower temperatures display better cycling stability. It is believed that the diverse morphologies of nanostructured ZnO crucially affect their electrochemical properties as an anode material for LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Nesfatin-1 is an anorexigenic hormone suggested to regulate obesity. Objective To investigate the relationship between nesfatin-1 level and anthropometric and metabolic parameters in obese patients, and examine the change in plasma nesfatin-1 level after acupuncture treatment. Methods 64 obese adult patients without diabetes and 58 normal weight control subjects were enrolled in this study. The obese patients were randomly divided into an acupuncture plus diet group (n=32) and a diet only group (n=32). Measurements were repeated after 45 days. Results Body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, serum insulin, lipoprotein and insulin resistance measures were significantly higher, and plasma nesfatin-1 level was significantly lower, in obese patients than in normal weight controls. In addition, negative correlations were found between plasma nesfatin-1 level and BMI, waist and hip circumferences. Weight reduction in participants after acupuncture and diet restriction was 7.0% and 4.3%, respectively. Plasma nesfatin-1 level increased from 2.75±1.16 to 3.44±1.28 ng/mL and from 2.86±1.07 to 3.23±1.06 ng/mL in acupuncture and diet groups, respectively; the difference was significant, p<0.05. Conclusions Plasma nesfatin-1 level is reduced in obese adults, and is increased after acupuncture. The beneficial effect of acupuncture on obesity is associated with increased plasma nesfatin-1 level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional gradient scaffolds play an important role in interface-tissue engineering, because of the gradual transition of both physical and chemical properties in interface tissues such as bone-cartilage, bone-ligament, and bone-tendon. In this study, a poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) fibre-micro sphere membrane with continuous-gradient bone morphogenic protein-2 (BMP-2) distribution was developed by a combined technique of electrospinning and electrospraying. The fibre-microsphere membrane had a 'sandwich' structure, in which the electrosprayed poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres loaded with BMP-2 showed a gradient distribution in amount between two pieces of electrospun fibrous membranes. Proliferation of preosteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on the fibre-micro sphere membrane for 21 days demonstrated a bioactivity response to the released amount of BMP-2 in a gradient mode. The study suggested that the technique of electrospinning combined with electrospraying is an effective way to prepare functional gradient membranes with potential applications in bone-interface tissue regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structured RNAs traverse complex energy landscapes that include valleys representing misfolded intermediates. In Neurospora crassa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, efficient splicing of mitochondrial group I and II introns requires the DEAD box proteins CYT-19 and Mss116p, respectively, which promote folding transitions and function as general RNA chaperones. To test the generality of RNA misfolding and the activities of DEAD box proteins in vitro, here we measure native folding of a small group I intron ribozyme from the bacterium Azoarcus by monitoring its catalytic activity. To develop this assay, we first measure cleavage of an oligonucleotide substrate by the prefolded ribozyme. Substrate cleavage is rate-limited by binding and is readily reversible, with an internal equilibrium near unity, such that the amount of product observed is less than the amount of native ribozyme. We use this assay to show that approximately half of the ribozyme folds readily to the native state, whereas the other half forms an intermediate that transitions slowly to the native state. This folding transition is accelerated by urea and increased temperature and slowed by increased Mg2+ concentration, suggesting that the intermediate is misfolded and must undergo transient unfolding during refolding to the native state. CYT-19 and Mss116p accelerate refolding in an ATP-dependent manner, presumably by disrupting structure in the intermediate. These results highlight the tendency of RNAs to misfold, underscore the roles of CYT-19 and Mss116p as general RNA chaperones, and identify a refolding transition for further dissection of the roles of DEAD box proteins in RNA folding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nanocomposite of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) embedded in chitosan (Cts) matrix was successfully synthesized by crosslinking technology. Colloidal AgNPs formed in situ by chemical reduction of silver ions in presence of Cts showed a good stability. Transmission electron micrographs, X-ray diffraction patterns, and UV-visible spectra of Ag-Cts composite particles confirmed the formation of silver nanocrystals. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy verified the presence of Cts as a stabilizing agent surrounded AgNPs. Thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimeter analysis revealed Ag-Cts nanocomposite had a higher thermal stability than Cts. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy suggested that the Ag-O bond in the nanocomposite coule lead to the tight combination between silver and Cts. Microbial experiments showed the nanocomposite had excellent and wide spectrum antibacterial properties, and were more efficient than either AgNPs or Cts alone for inactivating bacteria. Therefore, the resultant nanocomposite could be used as antimicrobial materials for medical and biological applications. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibrous gelatin scaffolds fabricated via electrospinning followed by crosslinking were used as substrates for apatite mineralization. Gelatin macromolecules were confined by their fibers and further restricted by the crosslinked structure while proper flexibility could be attained upon hydration. After 4 or 5 days of mineralization, partially carbonated hydroxyapatite was proved to deposit uniformly on the surface of the fibers. The property of the substrate, such as stiffness of the scaffolds and flexibility of macromolecules chain, was changed by different crosslinking ways. The influences of these properties on the formation of apatite were also investigated. Results showed that a relatively less rigid interface and more flexible chain acquired by glutaraldehyde solution crosslinking seemed to favor the nucleation of minerals and to reduce the size of the inorganic products. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study were to encapsulate water-soluble bioactive agents into biodegradable hydrophobic polymers via emulsion electrospinning for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications and propose a simple and facile method to evaluate the bioactivity of the encapsulated protein. Proteinase K was selected as a model protein to be incorporated into poly(ethylene glycol)-poly( l-lactide) (PELA) ultrafine fibers. Core–shell structured fibers with single core or multi-core were observed. In vitro release study showed that after a burst release at the early stage, a sustained release was achieved, indicating that proteinase K was incorporated inside ultrathin fibers successfully. Results of in vitro incubation in Tris–HCl buffer at pH 8.6 and 37 °C revealed that electrospun PELA membranes containing proteinase K (PELA-P) showed obvious morphological changes, large mass loss, and slight decreases in melting temperature, melting enthalpy and relative molecular mass in 7 days. Additionally, a significant drop in pH value of the buffer after incubation of the PELA-P membrane was also observed. These findings clearly showed that encapsulation of water-soluble bioactive agents inside hydrophobic polymers could be achieved by emulsion electrospinning without compromising their bioactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]