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Background: SPRY1 is associated with the invasiveness and prognosis of various tumors, and TET3 affects aging by regulating gene expression. Aims: We investigated the roles of SPRY1 and TET3 in natural skin aging, replicative aging, and photoaging, along with the effect of UVA on genome‐wide DNA methylation in HaCaT cells. Methods: TET3 and SPRY1 expression were measured in the skin of patients of different age groups, as well as in vitro human skin, HaCaT cell replicative senescence, and HaCaT and HaCaT‐siTET3 cell photoaging models. Senescence was verified using β‐galactosidase staining, and DNA damage was detected using immunofluorescence staining for γ‐H2A.X. 5‐Methyl cytosine (5‐mC) content in the genome was determined using ELISA. Results: SPRY1 expression increased with age, whereas TET3 expression decreased. Similarly, SPRY1 was upregulated and TET3 was downregulated with increasing cell passages. TET3‐siRNA upregulated SPRY1 expression in HaCaT cells. UVA irradiation promoted HaCaT cell senescence and induced cellular DNA damage. SPRY1 was upregulated and TET3 was downregulated upon UVA irradiation. Genome‐wide 5‐mC content increased upon TET3 silencing and UVA irradiation, indicating a surge in overall methylation. Conclusions: SPRY1 and TET3 are natural skin aging‐related genes that counteract to regulate replicative aging and UVA‐induced photoaging in HaCaT cells. The cell photoaging model may limit experimental bias caused by different exposure times of skin model samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: The deepening of the nasolabial fold (NLF) is a common occurrence during the aging process, necessitating the development of an objective method to evaluate changes in NLFs. The objective of our study was to introduce a method of depth deviation based on three‐dimensional (3D) image for evaluating the efficacy of hyaluronic acid (HA) injection in correcting NLFs. Methods: Between May 2019 and November 2019, we recruited 56 Chinese volunteers with moderate to severe NLFs for this study. The participants received HA injections and were followed up for a period of 12 months. Pre and posttreatment, we collected the Wrinkle Severity Rating Scale (WSRS) scores and 3D images. To assess the efficacy of NLF correction, we used the maximum value of depth deviation (MVD) based on 3D images and the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS) score. Additionally, we compared the relationship between MVD and other clinical parameters. Results: Fifty‐four female participants completed the study and were included in the analysis. The HA injection resulted in a significant decrease in NLF severity (p < 0.05). One month after the injection, the average GAIS score was 4.72 ± 0.45, and the average MVD was 2.10 ± 0.56 mm. Both the GAIS score and the average MVD exhibited a decline over time during the follow‐up period, with the average MVD showing a significant correlation with the GAIS score at all time points (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Using 3D technology, we demonstrated that the quantitative data provided by MVD can serve as an objective method for evaluating the correction of NLFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterovirus consists of a variety of viruses that could cause a wide range of illness in human. The pathogenesis of these viruses remains incompletely understood and no specific treatment is available. Better methods to study enterovirus infection in live cells will help us better understand the pathogenesis of these viruses and might contribute to antiviral development. Here in this study, we developed fluorescent cell-based reporter systems that allow sensitive distinction of individual cells infected with enterovirus 71 (EV71). More importantly, these systems could be easily used for live-cell imaging by monitoring viral-induced fluorescence translocation after EV71 infection. We further demonstrated that these reporter systems could be used to study other enterovirus-mediated MAVS cleavage and they are sensitive for antiviral activity testing. Therefore, integration of these reporters with modern image-based analysis has the potential to generate new insights into enterovirus infection and facilitate antiviral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under DFT calculations, a systematic investigation is carried out to explore the structures and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activities of a series of 2D single-atom catalyst (SAC) systems, which are constructed by doping the transition metal (TM) atoms in group VIII into the cavities of rigid phthalocyanine carbide (pc-C3N2). We can find that when Co, Rh, Ir and Ru atoms are doped in the small or large cavities of a pc-C3N2 monolayer, they can be used as high-activity centers of OER. All these four new TM@C3N2 nanostructures can exhibit very low overpotential values in the range of 0.33~0.48 V, even smaller than the state-of-the-art IrO2 (0.56 V), which indicates considerably high OER catalytic activity. In particular, the Rh@C3N2 system can show the best OER performance, given that doped Rh atoms can uniformly serve as high-OER-active centers, regardless of the size of cavity. In addition, a detailed mechanism analysis was carried out. It is found that in these doped pc-C3N2 systems, the number of outer electrons, the periodic number of doped TM atoms and the size of the embedded cavity can be considered the key factors affecting the OER catalytic activity, and excellent OER catalytic performance can be achieved through their effective cooperation. These fascinating findings can be advantageous for realizing low-cost and high-performance SAC catalysts for OER in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural antioxidants, especially those used in edible oil, are safer compared to chemically synthesized antioxidants. Therefore, research on natural antioxidants has become prevelant. Antioxidant peptides derived from food protein can effectively prevent oil oxidation. Protein hydrolyzation is widely applied for the production of antioxidant peptides in industry, and bioinformatics is employed nowadays to generate the desired peptide sequence. Furthermore, the mechanism of antioxidant peptides in the oil system is still controversial, which limits the further development of antioxidant peptides as food antioxidants. This review introduces the preparation method of antioxidant peptides and their mechanisms as well as applications in the oil. It will help to comprehensively understand the function of antioxidant peptides and promote their development in the oil field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the relationship between methylated binding protein 2 (MeCP2) and mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 7 (Smad7) in the pathogenesis and development of pathological scars. Immunohistochemistry, Western blot and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of MeCP2 in different types of human scars and hypertrophic scars at different growth times. The methylation status of Smad7 gene promoter in different scar tissues was determined by methylation-specific PCR. After transfection with MeCP2-siRNA (small interfering RNA) in human keloid fibroblasts, MTT assay was used to assess the proliferation activity of keloid fibroblasts, while RT-PCR and Western blot assays were used to detect the expression levels of MeCP2, transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), phospho-Smad2 (p-Smad2) and Smad7. MeCP2 was mainly expressed in the nucleus of fibroblasts. The mRNA and protein levels of MeCP2 were significantly higher in keloids than in hypertrophic scars, normal scars and normal skin (p<.05). The expression level of MeCP2 in hypertrophic scars during the growth period of <6 months was markedly higher than that of >6 months (p<.05). The methylation level of Smad7 was significantly higher in keloids compared to normal skin. After MeCP2 silencing, the proliferation rate of human keloid fibroblasts was decreased, the mRNA and protein levels of Smad7 were increased, and the expression levels of TGF-β1, α-SMA and p-Smad2 were decreased (p<.05). MeCP2 and Smad7 play an important role in formation of pathological scars. During keloid formation, MeCP2 weakens the inhibitory effect of Smad7 on p-Smad2/3 by downregulating the expression of Smad7, which in turn promotes fibrosis and scar hyperplasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off-flavor is one of the limiting factors in the quality and commercial acceptability of evening primrose oil (EPO). The results of this study demonstrated that ultraviolet light irradiated with titanium dioxide (UV/TiO2) was able to effectively reduce odorous aldehyde concentrations, which would produce undesired flavors. Specifically, reductions in the E-2-Decenal, 1-octen-3-ol and hexanoic acid in EPO reached 50, 75.2 and 61.4% after a UV/TiO2 process of 5 min, respectively. The odor active values (OAV) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) showed that the result of the 5 min group was similar to that of the original oil. In addition, the physicochemical characteristics of EPO after processing did not change significantly. The result of the aroma profile analysis was consistent with the OAV and HCA results. Therefore, it has been concluded that 5 min UV/TiO2 treatment could degrade some volatile compounds and provide a potential deodorization method for industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By screening a series of 3d/4d/5d transition metal (TM) atoms, a total of twelve graphene-based single atom catalysts (SAC) with TMO 3 and TMO 4 units can exhibit the excellent OER performance with extremely low overpotential (0.33 ∼ 0.59 V), in which the V/Nb/Ta atoms in VB group and Ru/Co/Rh/Ir atoms in VIII group can serve as the active sites. The self-optimization process of TM-sites can be responsible for the high OER catalytic activity for most of these SAC systems. [Display omitted] High-throughput DFT calculations are performed to explore the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activity of a series of 2D graphene-based systems with TMO 3 or TMO 4 functional units. By screening the 3d/4d/5d transition metal (TM) atoms, a total of twelve TMO 3 @G or TMO 4 @G systems had extremely low overpotential of 0.33 ∼ 0.59 V, in which the V/Nb/Ta atom in VB group and Ru/Co/Rh/Ir atom in VIII group served as the active sites. The mechanism analysis reveals that the filling of outer electrons of TM atom can play an important role in determining the overpotential value by affecting the ΔG O* value as an effective descriptor. Especially, in addition to the general situation of OER on the clean surface of the systems containing the Rh/Ir metal centers, the self-optimization process of TM-sites was carried out, and it made most of these single-atom catalysts (SAC) systems to have high OER catalytic activity. All these fascinating findings can contribute to an in-depth understanding of the OER catalytic activity and mechanism of the excellent graphene-based SAC systems. This work will facilitate the design and implementation of non-precious and highly efficient OER catalysts in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Methods Results Conclusion To investigate the effect of retaining the vessels around the orbicularis oculi muscle on reducing local swelling after blepharoplasty.A total of 309 patients undergoing blepharoplasty (total incision) were observed and randomly assigned to three groups; (A) conventional operation; (B) preservation of deep vessels; (C) preservation of anterior vessels of orbicularis oculi muscle. The groups were compared based on intraoperative blood loss, operation time, swelling, satisfaction, and complications.Among the 309 patients, 39 were lost to follow‐up. c Additionally, A had the shortest operation time, followed by C with slightly longer duration. On the 7th day, 15th day, and 1 month after surgery, both B and C demonstrated significantly lower levels of swelling compared to A. Moreover, patient satisfaction was higher in B and C than in A.Retaining either superficial or deep veins of the orbicularis oculi muscle can effectively reduce short‐term postoperative swelling. However, when retaining the superficial central group of this muscle during surgery, it is crucial to strictly control the amount of surrounding tissue around vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetable oil phospholipids can be divided into hydratable phospholipids (HP) and non-hydratable phospholipids (NHP). The general process of alkali refining or hydration degumming can remove most of the phospholipids, and the rest is mainly non-hydratable phospholipids. A non-hydratable phospholipid has obvious hydrophobicity, which cannot be completely removed even after 16 times of washing, so the non-hydratable phospholipid is the main research target of vegetable oil degumming. In order to better understand and study the non-hydratable phospholipids, the chemical composition and origin of non-hydratable phospholipids in vegetable oil are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of these various detection and removal methods are analyzed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The milling parameters have an important influence on machining performance and surface quality of metal materials. In this paper, the differences in machining and corrosion resistance properties of ZK61M plates under different processing parameters were analyzed by side milling. The milling process was simulated to explore the change laws of milling temperature and milling force. The hardness of machined surface was examined by Vikers hardness tester. The surface quality and the corrosion performances under different spindle speeds were observed by 3D ultra-depth of field microscope. The results showed that the milling temperature was increased as spindle speed and feed speed increased. The influence of spindle speed and feed speed on milling force along the milling direction and the tool direction was significant different. The milled surface had better quality when the spindle speed increased or the feed speed decreased. The hardness standard deviation of machined surface was decreased as the surface quality became better. Besides, it was summarized how spindle speed played a role in corrosion resistance performance by affecting residual stress and metal oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the risk of cervical cancer. Methods: We conducted a case–control study including 838 cervical cancer cases and 838 benign disease controls matched for age, ethnicity, and place of birth. Venous blood was tested for HBV and HCV serological markers. Multiple odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for cervical cancer were estimated using logistic regression. HBV antigens were examined using immunohistochemical staining. Results: Anti-HCV was positive in 10 cases (1.2%) and 0 controls (0%). Cases had higher percentage of chronic HBV infection (HBsAg-positive/anti-HBc-positive) and prior HBV infection (HBsAg-negative/anti-HBc-positive) than controls (6.3% vs 4.4%; 11.6% vs 7.3%). Both chronic HBV infection (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.0–2.4) and prior HBV infection (OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2–2.4) were associated with cervical cancer in univariate logistic regression analyses. In subgroup analysis among HPV-positive patients, the association between chronic HBV infection and cervical cancer disappeared (OR 1.2; 95% CI 0.4–3.4); while in subgroup among patients younger than 50 years, the association remained significant with adjustment for HPV infection and parity (adjusted OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.0–4.4). HBsAg and HBcAg were detected in 8% and 12% of cervical cancer cases who had seropositive HBsAg, respectively. Compared with the benign controls, individuals with both HBsAg and HPV positive had an increased risk of cervical cancer (adjusted OR 67.1; 95% CI 23.4–192.7). Conclusions: HBV infection was associated with cervical cancer in patients with age younger than 50 years. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysregulation of cardiac transcription programs has been identified in patients and families with heart failure, as well as those with morphological and functional forms of congenital heart defects. Mediator is a multi-subunit complex that plays a central role in transcription initiation by integrating regulatory signals from gene-specific transcriptional activators to RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Recently, Mediator subunit 30 (MED30), a metazoan specific Mediator subunit, has been associated with Langer-Giedion syndrome (LGS) Type II and Cornelia de Lange syndrome-4 (CDLS4), characterized by several abnormalities including congenital heart defects. A point mutation in MED30 has been identified in mouse and is associated with mitochondrial cardiomyopathy. Very recent structural analyses of Mediator revealed that MED30 localizes to the proximal Tail, anchoring Head and Tail modules, thus potentially influencing stability of the Mediator core. However, in vivo cellular and physiological roles of MED30 in maintaining Mediator core integrity remain to be tested. Here, we report that deletion of MED30 in embryonic or adult cardiomyocytes caused rapid development of cardiac defects and lethality. Importantly, cardiomyocyte specific ablation of MED30 destabilized Mediator core subunits, while the kinase module was preserved, demonstrating an essential role of MED30 in stability of the overall Mediator complex. RNAseq analyses of constitutive cardiomyocyte specific Med30 knockout (cKO) embryonic hearts and inducible cardiomyocyte specific Med30 knockout (icKO) adult cardiomyocytes further revealed critical transcription networks in cardiomyocytes controlled by Mediator. Taken together, our results demonstrated that MED30 is essential for Mediator stability and transcriptional networks in both developing and adult cardiomyocytes. Our results affirm the key role of proximal Tail modular subunits in maintaining core Mediator stability in vivo. Author summary: MED30 has been associated with congenital heart defects. A point mutation in MED30 has been identified in mouse and is associated with mitochondrial cardiomyopathy. However, the specific role of MED30 in cardiomyocytes remains largely unknown. We found that loss of MED30 resulted in destabilization of the MED core. Our constitutive (cKO) and inducible (icKO) cardiomyocyte specific Med30 knockout mouse models provided us with a unique opportunity to study the role of the intact MED complex in developing heart and adult heart, respectively. We further demonstrated the essential role of MED30 in maintaining specific components of the cardiac gene regulatory network and normal cardiac development and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an indirect flow pattern recognition method based on time-frequency analysis and neural networks is proposed to investigate the flow patterns in the narrow rectangular channel under heating and non-inertial conditions. Firstly, the adaptive optimal kernel algorithm is utilized to analyze on the typical pressure signal and convert it into time-frequency spectrograms. Then based on the concept of transfer learning strategy, convolutional neural networks are applied as feature extractors to classify flow patterns by the spectrogram images. The proposed method is verified by the visualized flow boiling experiment data. The results show that the adaptive time-frequency algorithm can effectively reflect the characteristics of different flow pattern signals, and several chosen neural network models show high recognition accuracy after training. Among them, VGG-16 network with small convolution kernels and strong transferability has the highest recognition rate. In addition, the network based on data of static conditions remains identifying more than 75% spectrograms of rolling conditions, exhibiting the generalization ability of the method under different flow conditions. • Combining traditional time-frequency signal processing method with latest deep learning strategy. • Flow pattern recognition in the narrow channel under heating and non-inertial conditions. • Verified by the visualized flow boiling experiment data and shows high recognition accuracy. • Network has generalization ability under different flow conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Granulation of PD granular sludge was achieved with the glycerol as carbon source. • The glycerol-fed PDGS showed superior settleability with efficient nitrite yield. • The proteins in T-EPS played key roles in the formation of PDGS. • The PN, PS and living cells distributed uniformly in PDGS to maintain bioactivity. • Saccharibacteria was speculated to be mainly responsible for the granulation. Granular sludge is considered as a promising technology for wastewater treatment owing to the high biomass retention and excellent settleability. In this study, the formation and underlying mechanisms of granular sludge for stable and efficient nitrite accumulation in glycerol-driven partial denitrification (PD) reactors were investigated. The PD granular sludge (PDGS) was successfully formed with developing and mature stages. The mature PDGS exhibited superior settleability (mean particle size: 468.1 μm, and SVI 5 :16.4 mL/g SS), and high microbial activity (VSS/SS: 0.80–0.92). The nitrite was stably and efficiently accumulated with an average nitrate-to nitrite transformation ratio of 87.3%. Morphological analysis showed that the mature granules were dominated by cocci and exhibited compact structure with few inorganic components. The proteins (i.e. tyrosine, tryptophan and aromatic protein-like substances) in tightly-bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were expected to play critical roles in the granulation process in view of their good correlation with particle size variation. The EPS contents (mainly polysaccharides and proteins) and living cells were distributed throughout the granule, suggesting the overall high stability and bioactivity of formed PDGS. Moreover, the glycerol-driven PD reactor caused the evident evolution of microbial structure, and the significant enrichment of Saccharibacteria was expected to be responsible for the granulation process, which was increased to 66.6% in the matured sludge. This study confirmed the feasibility and superior performance of PDGS fed with glycerol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current catalogs of regulatory sequences in the human genome are still incomplete and lack cell type resolution. To profile the activity of gene regulatory elements in diverse cell types and tissues in the human body, we applied single-cell chromatin accessibility assays to 30 adult human tissue types from multiple donors. We integrated these datasets with previous single-cell chromatin accessibility data from 15 fetal tissue types to reveal the status of open chromatin for ∼1.2 million candidate cis- regulatory elements (cCREs) in 222 distinct cell types comprised of >1.3 million nuclei. We used these chromatin accessibility maps to delineate cell-type-specificity of fetal and adult human cCREs and to systematically interpret the noncoding variants associated with complex human traits and diseases. This rich resource provides a foundation for the analysis of gene regulatory programs in human cell types across tissues, life stages, and organ systems. [Display omitted] • Integrating > 1.3 million single-cell chromatin profiles from adult/fetal human tissues • An atlas of ∼1.2 million candidate cis -regulatory elements across 222 cell types • Cell-type specificity of fetal and adult candidate cis -regulatory elements • Interpretation of noncoding variants associated with complex traits and diseases A cell-type-resolved map of human cis -regulatory elements, derived from single cell analysis of diverse tissue types, facilitates functional interpretation of the noncoding variants associated with complex human traits and diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]