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We examined the separate effect of Portuguese oyster Crassostrea angulata and the interactive effects of oyster and red seaweed Gracilaria lemaneiformis on seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) systems and the air-sea CO2 flux (FCO2) in Daya Bay, southern China. Respiration and calcification rates of oysters were measured and the effects of oyster aquaculture on marine DIC systems were evaluated. The interactive effects on seawater DIC and air-sea FCO2 were examined using mesocosms containing oyster and seaweed assemblages. Results showed populations of C. angulata cultured in Daya Bay sequestered ca. 258 g C m-2 yr-1 for shell formation, whereas the CO2 released due to respiration and calcification was 349 and 153 g C m-2 yr-1, respectively. This indicates that oyster cultivation in Daya Bay is a CO2 generator, favoring the escape of CO2 into the atmosphere. DIC, HCO3- and CO2 concentrations and the partial pressure of CO2 in oyster-seaweed co-cultured mesocosms were significantly lower than the oyster monoculture mesocosm. These results indicated that G. lemaneiformis effectively absorbs the CO2 released by oysters. The negative values of air-sea FCO2 in the co-culture groups represent a CO2 sink from the atmosphere to the sea. These results demonstrated that there could be an interspecies mutual benefit for both C. angulata and G. lemaneiformis in the integrated culture system. Considering that photosynthesis of seaweed is carbon limited, we suggest that the 2 species are co-cultured at a ratio of ca. 4:1 (based on fresh weight) for efficient utilization of DIC in seawater by G. lemaneiformis, and further to increase the ocean CO2 sink.

Weixiong Chen,1,2,* Jianqiang Liang,3,* Shuang He,1,4,5 Qingsong Liang,1,4,5 Wenting Tian,6 Aobo Lu,1 Demin Li,1 Zhicheng Huang,1 Guanyi Wu1,4,5 1College of Basic Medicine, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi, 530299, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Dermatology, the First People’s Hospital of Yulin, Yulin, Guangxi, 537000, People’s Republic of China; 4Key Laboratory for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Experimental Animal Models of Guangxi, Nanning, Guangxi, 530299, People’s Republic of China; 5Guangxi Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine for Treating High-Incidence Infectious Diseases with Integrative Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi, 530299, People’s Republic of China; 6College of Pharmacy, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi, 530299, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Guanyi Wu, College of Basic Medicine, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi, 530299, People’s Republic of China, Email wugy@gxtcmu.edu.cnPurpose: Psoriasis is an immune-related disorder characterized by silver scales, epidermis thickness, and itching. She-Chuang-Si-Wu-Tang (SSWT), a traditional Chinese medicine decoction, has been used clinically for 400 years. Although it benefits psoriasis treatment, the mechanism of action is still unclear. This study explores SSWT’s molecular mechanism in treating psoriasis through network pharmacology analysis and experiments.Methods: We identified relevant SSWT and psoriasis targets using network pharmacology and conducted SSWT quality control with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A mouse model of psoriasis was established using imiquimod (IMQ), with the drug administered continuously for seven days, spanning an eight-day period. During the experiment, we observed spontaneous scratching behaviors and assessed the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores. At the conclusion of the experiment, we examined skin tissue pathology under an optical microscope and measured epidermal thickness. Additionally, we used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to measure interleukin (IL)-23, IL-17A, IL-17F, and interferon (IFN)-γ levels in the mice’s serum and their mRNA expression in the skin. Western blot analysis was conducted to assess protein levels related to signaling pathways.Results: Results indicate that SSWT may target IL-17 signaling pathways and T helper (Th) 17 cell differentiation, as predicted by network pharmacology. SSWT significantly improved the PASI and Baker scores, reduced epidermal thickness, and decreased spontaneous scratching in IMQ-induced mice. Additionally, SSWT treatment significantly lowered the concentrations of inflammatory factors in the serum and skin lesions, as well as mRNA expression levels, compared to the IMQ group. Furthermore, SSWT significantly inhibited the phosphorylation of both the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways.Conclusion: In summary, this study unveiled the potential anti-psoriatic mechanism of SSWT, offering new evidence for its clinical application. Keywords: She-Chuang-Si-Wu-Tang, psoriasis, inflammation, itch, STAT3, MAPK

JiuLing Deng,1,* Jing Liu,1,* WanSheng Chen,2,3,* Qing Liang,1 YuQiong He,2,3 GuangChun Sun1 1Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Fifth People’s Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pharmacy, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: GuangChun Sun, Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Fifth People’s Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 21 24289464, Email sunguangchun@5thhospital.com YuQiong He, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 21 81886182, Email yuqionghe1993@163.comAbstract: With ever-increasing intensive studies of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), significant progresses have been made. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)/unfolded protein reaction (UPR) is associated with the development and progression of IPF, and targeting ERS/UPR may be beneficial in the treatment of IPF. Natural product is a tremendous source of new drug discovery, and accumulating studies have reported that many natural products show potential therapeutic effects for IPF via modulating one or more branches of the ERS signaling pathway. Therefore, this review focuses on critical roles of ERS in IPF development, and summarizes herbal preparations and bioactive compounds which protect against IPF through regulating ERS.Keywords: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, endoplasmic reticulum stress, natural products, mechanisms

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is an ozone-depleting substance, accounting for about 10% of the chlorine in the troposphere. Under the terms of the Montreal Protocol, its production for dispersive uses was banned from 2010. In this work we show that, despite the controls on production being introduced, CCl4 emissions from the eastern part of China did not decline between 2009 and 2016. This finding is in contrast to a recent bottom-up estimate, which predicted a significant decrease in emissions after the introduction of production controls. We find eastern Asian emissions of CCl4 to be 16 (9-24) Gg/year on average between 2009 and 2016, with the primary source regions being in eastern China. The spatial distribution of emissions that we derive suggests that the source distribution of CCl4 in China changed during the 8-year study period, indicating a new source or sources of emissions from China's Shandong province after 2012.

We use the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Chemistry Climate Model (GEOSCCM) to quantify the contribution of the two most important brominated very short lived substances (VSLSs), bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2), to stratospheric bromine and its sensitivity to convection strength. Model simulations suggest that the most active transport of VSLSs from the marine boundary layer through the tropopause occurs over the tropical Indian Ocean, the tropical western Pacific, and off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Together, convective lofting of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 and their degradation products supplies ∼8 ppt total bromine to the base of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL, ∼150 hPa), similar to the amount of VSLS organic bromine available in the marine boundary layer (∼7.8-8.4 ppt) in the active convective lofting regions mentioned above. Of the total ∼8 ppt VSLS bromine that enters the base of the TTL at ∼150 hPa, half is in the form of organic source gases and half in the form of inorganic product gases. Only a small portion (

Background: The To measure regulatory T cells (Tregs) expression in driver-genenegative advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as its effect on the therapeutic efficacy and prognosis of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Materials and Methods: Fifty patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer without driving genes who were receiving treatment with a monoclonal antibody targeting the programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) made up the study group. 30 healthy subjects in the same period were chosen into the control group. Flow cytometry was used to identify CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells in peripheral blood of all participants. Relation between CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells and tumor markers were explored, and efficacy and prognosis in patients before and after therapy was analyzed. Results: The fraction of CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells in the study group was higher (P<0.05). Following three rounds of PD-1 monoclonal antibody treatment, patients' CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells proportion was lower than before treatment (P<0.01), and showed a positive correlation with tumor markers (P<0.05). The fraction of CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells in the CR+PR group decreased in both the second and third cycles after treatment compared to the SD+PD group (P<0.01), but no change was found before or during the first cycle (P>0.05). CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells proportion in the death group presented higher relative to the survival group (P<0.05). CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells predicted the area under the ROC curve was 0.8134, with significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusion: CD4highCD25+Foxp3+Treg cells proportion in peripheral blood of NSCLC patients shows increased, and has predictive value for therapeutic efficacy of ICIs and prognosis of driver-gene-negative advanced NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use aircraft observations obtained during the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission to examine the distributions and source attributions of O 3 and NO y in the Arctic and sub-Arctic region. Using a number of marker tracers, we distinguish various air masses from the background troposphere and examine their contributions to NO x, O 3, and O 3 production in the Arctic troposphere. The background Arctic troposphere has a mean O 3 of ∼60 ppbv and NO x of ∼25 pptv throughout spring and summer with CO decreasing from ∼145 ppbv in spring to ∼100 ppbv in summer. These observed mixing ratios are not notably different from the values measured during the 1988 ABLE-3A and the 2002 TOPSE field campaigns despite the significant changes in emissions and stratospheric ozone layer in the past two decades that influence Arctic tropospheric composition. Air masses associated with stratosphere-troposphere exchange are present throughout the mid and upper troposphere during spring and summer. These air masses, with mean O 3 concentrations of 140-160 ppbv, are significant direct sources of O 3 in the Arctic troposphere. In addition, air of stratospheric origin displays net O 3 formation in the Arctic due to its sustainable, high NO x (75 pptv in spring and 110 pptv in summer) and NO y (∼800 pptv in spring and ∼1100 pptv in summer). The air masses influenced by the stratosphere sampled during ARCTAS-B also show conversion of HNO 3 to PAN. This active production of PAN is the result of increased degradation of ethane in the stratosphere-troposphere mixed air mass to form CH 3CHO, followed by subsequent formation of PAN under high NO x conditions. These findings imply that an adequate representation of stratospheric NO y input, in addition to stratospheric O 3 influx, is essential to accurately simulate tropospheric Arctic O 3, NO x and PAN in chemistry transport models. Plumes influenced by recent anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions observed during ARCTAS show highly elevated levels of hydrocarbons and NO y (mostly in the form of NO x and PAN), but do not contain O 3 higher than that in the Arctic tropospheric background except some aged biomass burning plumes sampled during spring. Convection and/or lightning influences are negligible sources of O 3 in the Arctic troposphere but can have significant impacts in the upper troposphere in the continental sub-Arctic during summer. © 2011 Author(s).

Emission of bromine from sea-salt aerosol, frost flowers, ice leads, and snow results in the nearly complete removal of surface ozone during Arctic spring. Regions of enhanced total column BrO observed by satellites have traditionally been associated with these emissions. However, airborne measurements of BrO and O3 within the convective boundary layer (CBL) during the ARCTAS and ARCPAC field campaigns at times bear little relation to enhanced column BrO. We show that the locations of numerous satellite BrO "hotspots" during Arctic spring are consistent with observations of total column ozone and tropopause height, suggesting a stratospheric origin to these regions of elevated BrO. Tropospheric enhancements of BrO large enough to affect the column abundance are also observed, with important contributions originating from above the CBL. Closure of the budget for total column BrO, albeit with significant uncertainty, is achieved by summing observed tropospheric partial columns with calculated stratospheric partial columns provided that natural, short-lived biogenic bromocarbons supply between 5 and 10 ppt of bromine to the Arctic lowermost stratosphere. Proper understanding of bromine and its effects on atmospheric composition requires accurate treatment of geographic variations in column BrO originating from both the stratosphere and troposphere. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.

Recent in situ and satellite measurements suggest a contribution of similar to 5 pptv to stratospheric inorganic bromine from short-lived bromocarbons. We conduct a modeling study of the two most important short-lived bromocarbons, bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2), with the Goddard Earth Observing System Chemistry Climate Model (GEOS CCM) to account for this missing stratospheric bromine. We derive a 'top-down' emission estimate of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 using airborne measurements in the Pacific and North American troposphere and lower stratosphere obtained during previous NASA aircraft campaigns. Our emission estimate suggests that to reproduce the observed concentrations in the free troposphere, a global oceanic emission of 425 Gg Br yr(-1) for CHBr3 and 57 Gg Br yr(-1) for CH2Br2 is needed, with 60% of emissions from open ocean and 40% from coastal regions. Although our simple emission scheme assumes no seasonal variations, the model reproduces the observed seasonal variations of the short-lived bromocarbons with high concentrations in winter and low concentrations in summer. This indicates that the seasonality of short-lived bromocarbons is largely due to seasonality in their chemical loss and transport. The inclusion of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 contributes similar to 5 pptv bromine throughout the stratosphere. Both the source gases and inorganic bromine produced from source gas degradation (Br-y(VSLS)) in the troposphere are transported into the stratosphere, and are equally important. Inorganic bromine accounts for half (2.5 pptv) of the bromine from the inclusion of CHBr3 and CH2Br2 near the tropical tropopause and its contribution rapidly increases to similar to 100% as altitude increases. More than 85% of the wet scavenging of Br-y(VSLS) occurs in large-scale precipitation below 500 hPa. Our sensitivity study with wet scavenging in convective updrafts switched off suggests that Br-y(VSLS) in the stratosphere is not sensitive to convection. Convective scavenging only accounts for similar to 0.2 pptv (4%) difference in inorganic bromine delivered to the stratosphere.

We analyze aircraft observations obtained during INTEX-A (1 July to 14 August 2004) to examine the summertime influence of Asian pollution in the free troposphere over North America. By applying correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) to the observations between 6 and 12 km, we find dominant influences from recent convection and lightning (13% of observations), Asia (7%), the lower stratosphere (7%), and boreal forest fires (2%), with the remaining 71 % assigned to background. Asian air masses are marked by high levels of CO, O3, HCN, PAN, C2H2, C6H6. methanol, and SO42-. The partitioning of NOy species in the Asian plumes is dominated by PAN (∼600 pptv), with varying NOx/HNO3 ratios in individual plumes, consistent with individual transit times of 3-9 days. Export of Asian pollution occurred in warm conveyor belts of midlatitude cyclones, deep convection, and in typhoons. Compared to Asian outflow measurements during spring, INTEX-A observations display lower levels of anthropogenic pollutants (CO, C3H8, C2H6, C6H6) due to shorter summer lifetimes; higher levels of biogenic tracers (methanol and acetone) because of a more active biosphere; and higher levels of PAN, NOx, HNO3, and O3 reflecting active photochemistry, possibly enhanced by efficient NOy export and lightning. The high DO3/ΔCO ratio (0.76 mol/mol) in Asian plumes during INTEX-A is due to strong photochemical production and, in some cases, mixing with stratospheric air along isentropic surfaces. The GEOS-Chem global model captures the timing and location of the Asian plumes. However, it significantly underestimates the magnitude of observed enhancements in CO, O3, PAN and NOx. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

Background Interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs), which are widely used to diagnose tuberculosis (TB), cannot effectively discriminate latent TB infection (LTBI) from active TB (ATB). This study aimed to identify potential antigen-specific biomarkers for differentiating LTBI cases from ATB cases. Methods Ongoing recruitment was conducted of individuals meeting study inclusion criteria at Beijing Chest Hospital from May 2020 to April 2022; 208 participants were enrolled and assigned to three groups: HC (60 healthy controls), LTBI (52 subjects with LTBI) and ATB (96 ATB patients). After participants were assigned to the discovery cohort (20 or 21 subjects/group), all others were assigned to the verification cohort. Discovery cohort blood levels of 40 chemokines were measured using Luminex assays to identify chemokines that could be used to discriminate LTBI cases from ATB cases; candidate biomarkers were verified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based testing of validation cohort samples. Results Luminex results revealed highest ATB group levels of numerous cytokines, growth factors and chemokines. Receiving operating characteristic curve-based analysis of 40 biomarkers revealed CCL8 (AUC = 0.890) and CXCL9 (AUC = 0.883) effectively discriminated between LTBI and TB cases; greatest diagnostic efficiency was obtained using both markers together (AUC = 0.929). Interpretation of CCL8 and CXCL9 levels for validation cohort IGRA-positive subjects (based on a 0.658-ng/ml cutoff) revealed ATB group CCL8-based sensitivity and specificity rates approaching 90.79% and 100.00%, respectively. Conclusion TB-specific chemokines hold promise as ATB diagnostic biomarkers. Additional laboratory confirmation is needed to establish whether CCL8-based assays can differentiate between ATB and LTBI cases, especially for bacteriologically unconfirmed TB cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise control of direct current (dc) magnetic fields is crucial in a wide range of experimental platforms, from ultracold quantum gases and nuclear magnetic resonance to precision measurements. In each of these cases, the Zeeman effect causes quantum states to shift in energy as a function of the magnetic field. The development of low-noise current sources is essential because electromagnets are the preferred tool to dynamically control the magnetic field. Here, we describe an ultra-low noise bipolar current source using pairs of complementary n- and p-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors controlled by zero-drift operational amplifiers. Our source has a 90 kHz inherent bandwidth and provides current from −20 to 20 A with noise (0.1 Hz to 100 kHz) of 140 µA at ±20 A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]