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NIMA (never in mitosis, gene A)-related kinase-6 (NEK6) a cell cycle regulatory gene was found to regulate cardiac hypertrophy. However, it’s role in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) have not been fully elucidated. This research was designed to illustrate the effect of NEK6 involved in DCM. Here we used a streptozotocin (STZ) induced mice diabetic cardiomyopathy model and NEK6 knockout mice to explore the role and mechanism of NEK6 on DCM. NEK6 knockout mice and wild type littermates were subjected to STZ injection (50mg/kg/d for five constitute days) to induce DCM model. As a result, 4 months after final STZ injection, DCM mice revealed cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis and systolic and diastolic dysfunction. NEK6 deficiency caused deteriorated cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis as well as cardiac dysfunction. Moreover, we observed serve inflammation and oxidative stress in NEK6 deficiency mice heart under DCM pathology. We used an adenovirus to overexpress NEK6 in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, and found that NEK6 ameliorated high glucose induced inflammation, and oxidative stress. Mechanismly, we found that NEK6 increased phosphorylation of heat shock protein 72 (HSP72) and enhanced the protein level of PGC-1α, NRF2. Co-IP assay experiment confirmed that NEK6 interacted with HSP72. When we silence HSP72 the anti-inflammation and anti-oxidative stress effects of NEK6 were blurred. In summary, NEK6 could protect diabetic induced cardiomyopathy via interacting with HSP72 and promoting the HSP72/PGC-1α/NRF2 signaling.

Fabrics with weaves of low interlacing density and smooth yarns such as continuous cuprammonium filaments are often susceptible to sewing damage of cracks perpendicular to the sewing line, seriously influencing the aesthetics of the finished garment. To understand how the important factors such as yarn modulus, yarn bending stiffness, sewing needle radius, yarn-on yarn-friction, fabric counts and fabric weaves act on the crack length of such a fabric, a micromechanical model is proposed, and the experimental results are compared with the theoretical prediction. Single yarn pull-out tests and single yarn axial compression tests are performed to estimate yarn-on-yarn friction and yarn bending stiffness, respectively. The model indicates that the sewing crack length is positively proportional to the yarn tensile modulus, yarn bending stiffness and the needle radius and is negatively proportional to the fabric count and the inter-yarn friction. The model predicted crack lengths are within the range of the experimental results in warp direction while the predicted value is substantially larger than the observed crack lengths in weft direction due to the high compressibility of the weft yarn, which decreased yarn tension, bending stiffness and increased yarn cover power. For a given fabric, increasing yarn-on-yarn friction and raising yarn compressibility is an effective way to control the crack lengths.

The interfacial structure and binding forces of polytrimethylene terephthalate/polyethylene terephthalate filament were investigated through the methods of Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. When two molten polymers met during the spinning process, an interface layer between the PTT and PET components formed and played an important role in binding the two components together. When the blending time was sufficient, an ester-interchange reaction took place with the generation of the copolymer. The PET recrystallisation was observed in the DSC curve under the influence of entangled PTT molecular chains. The morphology of the cross-section and side view proved that the linear boundary line was short and weaker in binding without a chemical bond and molecular diffusion. Side-by-side bi-component fiber and split-type fiber was able to be controllably spun by adjusting the spinning parameters.

Electroneurophysiology has been more and more widely used to evaluate the tactile comfort of fabrics. In our previous study, it was found that three different types of subjects exist, namely extraordinary, ordinary, and non-sensitive people, corresponding to their electroneurophysiological responses to fabric-skin contact. In the current study, 19 subjects were recruited, including one extraordinary sensitive, eight ordinary sensitive and 10 non-sensitive subjects who were tested with a smooth cotton fabric and a rough polyester fabric in a fabric-skin dynamic contact experiment. Electromyography, electroencephalography, and electrocardiography signals of the human body, paired with subjective evaluation were carried out. The results show that the rough polyester fabric, compared with the smooth cotton fabric, tended to cause higher mean amplitude and larger waveform area of the myoelectric potential, reduced energy percentage of α wave, improved pneumogastric nerve activity and heart rate variability of the ordinary sensitive subjects, indicating more discomfort in fabric-skin dynamic contact. However, for the non-sensitive subjects, no consistent pattern could be observed in all of the above indicators. Therefore, the ordinary sensitive subjects are more suitable in clothing tactile comfort evaluation using electroneurophysiological measurements. In addition, it was found that ordinary sensitive subjects are predominantly females while non-sensitive subjects are most likely males.

Particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of 0.3 µm is inhalable and brings great threats to human health. Traditional meltblown nonwovens used for air filtration need to be treated by high voltage corona charging, which has the problem of electrostatic dissipation and thus reduces the filtration efficiency. In this work, a kind of composite air-filter with high efficiency and low resistance was fabricated by alternating lamination of ultrathin electronspun nano-layer and melt-blown layer without corona charging treatment. The effects of fiber diameter, pore size, porosity, layer number, and weight on filtration performance were investigated. Meanwhile, the surface hydrophobicity, loading capacity, and storage stability of the composite filter were studied. The results indicate that the filters (18.5 gsm) laminated by 10 layers fiber-webs present excellent filtration efficiency (97.94%), low pressure drop (53.2 Pa), high quality factor (QF 0.073 Pa−1), and high dust holding capacity (9.72 g/m2) for NaCl aerosol particles. Increasing the layers and reducing individual layer weight can significantly improve filtration efficiency and reduce pressure drop of the filter. The filtration efficiency decayed slightly from 97.94% to 96.48% after 80 days storage. The alternate arrangement of ultra-thin nano and melt-blown layers constructed a layer-by-layer interception and collaborative filtering effect in the composite filter, realizing the high filtration efficiency and low resistance without high voltage corona charging. These results provided new insights for the application of nonwoven fabrics in air filtration.

Three-dimensional lithium (Li) hosts have been shown to suppress the growth of Li dendrites for next generation Li metal batteries. Here, we report a cost-effective and scalable approach to produce highly stable Li composite anodes from industrial hemp textile waste. The hemp@Li composite anodes demonstrate stable cycling both in half and full cells.

Intramolecular guanine quadruplexes (G4s) are non-canonical nucleic acid structures formed by four guanine (G)-rich tracts that assemble into a core of stacked planar tetrads. G4-forming DNA sequences are enriched in gene promoters and are implicated in the control of gene expression. Most G4-forming DNA contains more G residues than can simultaneously be incorporated into the core resulting in a variety of different possible G4 structures. Although this kind of structural polymorphism is well recognized in the literature, there remain unanswered questions regarding possible connections between G4 polymorphism and biological function. Here we report a detailed bioinformatic survey of G4 polymorphism in human gene promoter regions. Our analysis is based on identifying G4-containing regions (G4CRs), which we define as stretches of DNA in which every residue can form part of a G4. We found that G4CRs with higher degrees of polymorphism are more tightly clustered near transcription sites and tend to contain G4s with shorter loops and bulges. Furthermore, we found that G4CRs with well-characterized biological functions tended to be longer and more polymorphic than genome-wide averages. These results represent new evidence linking G4 polymorphism to biological function and provide new criteria for identifying biologically relevant G4-forming regions from genomic data.