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Previous studies have shown that eukaryotic elongation factor 1A2 (eEF1A2) serves as an essential heart-specific translation elongation element and that its mutation or knockout delays heart development and causes congenital heart disease and death among species. However, the function and regulatory mechanisms of eEF1A2 in mammalian heart development remain largely unknown. Here we identified the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Cpmer (cytoplasmic mesoderm regulator), which interacted with eEF1A2 to co-regulate differentiation of mouse and human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Mechanistically, Cpmer specifically recognized Eomes mRNA by RNA-RNA pairing and facilitated binding of eEF1A2 with Eomes mRNA, guaranteeing Eomes mRNA translation and cardiomyocyte differentiation. Our data reveal a novel functionally conserved lncRNA that can specifically regulate Eomes translation and cardiomyocyte differentiation, which broadens our understanding of the mechanism of lncRNA involvement in the subtle translational regulation of eEF1A2 during mammalian heart development.

Awe is an expected experience in tourism; it influences intention to revisit, satisfaction, and tourists' behavior. This study establishes a framework from which to discuss how awe encourages pro-environmental behavior of religious tourists by integrating awe into the VBN model. We use this model to explore whether the pro-environmental behavior of tourists persists in their daily life. The results indicate that perceived religious ambience is a factor that encourages awe, which potentially influences tourists' pro-environmental behavior through mediators (i.e., NEP, AC, AR, and PN). The study is an empirical exploration of tourism ritual theory from the perspective of tourists’ pro-environmental behavior. Finally, the theoretical contribution and practical implications are discussed.

In this paper, a generalized neural network with a novel auxiliary function is proposed to solve a distributed non-differentiable optimization over a multi-agent network. The constructed auxiliary function can ensure that the state solution of proposed neural network is bounded, and enters the inequality constraint set in finite time. Furthermore, the proposed neural network is demonstrated to reach consensus and ultimately converges to the optimal solution under several mild assumptions. Compared with the existing methods, the neural network proposed in this paper has a simple structure with a low amount of state variables, and does not depend on projection operator method for constrained distributed optimization. Finally, two numerical simulations and an application in power system are delineated to show the characteristics and practicability of the presented neural network.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings were widely used to improve the poor corrosion resistance, the osteoinduction and osseointegration ability of biodegradable magnesium alloys as biodegradable implants. To further improve the performance of the HA coated biodegradable magnesium alloys, strontium (Sr) was introduced in the HA coating through hydrothermal methods to partially replace the calcium ions. The growth mechanism, electrochemical properties, degradation, and cytocompatibility of the Sr-doped HA coated ZK60 magnesium alloys were investigated in details. The results show that with the addition of Sr element, the shape of the fabricated HA turned from nanorods into nanowires and the morphology of the coatings changed from a flower-like structure to a network structure. The electrochemical and immersion tests showed that the Sr doping can enhance the corrosion resistance of the HA coatings. Moreover, BMSCs cell culture results suggested that the addition of the trace element Sr can promote the cell adhesion and proliferation of HA coated biodegradable Mg alloys. This work provides a simple and efficient way to fabricate nanowired HA coating on biodegradable Mg alloys with improved biocompatibility and osteogenity. The Sr-doped HA coatings on biodegradable Mg alloys have shown a great potential for the orthopedic application.

In this paper, K/Al-doped ZnO nanocomposite was prepared by coprecipitation and impregnation method using sodium hydroxide as precipitation agent. The title material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and temperature-programmed desorption of carbon dioxide (CO2-TPD). K/Al-doped ZnO as photocatalyst exhibits highly efficient photocatalytic performance for degradation of four typical dyes (Methylene blue (MB), Congo red (CR), Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methyl orange (MO)) under UV-light irradiation. The photocatalytic decomposition rate in the order of CR (91.40%) > MB (82.47%) > RhB (54.96%) > MO (51.70%). The comparative experiments show that K/Al-doped ZnO composite possesses higher activity relative to ZnO, Al2O3 and Al-doped ZnO. Furthermore, the composite also has unique catalytic behavior for the one-pot synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from methanol (MeOH), epoxy propane (PO) and CO2, which may be an effective and simple material to one-pot synthesize DMC in industry.

Pesticides have been emerged as major organic pollutants in environment, owing to widely spread and intrinsic high toxicity in agricultural productivity. Herein, we designed and synthesized a practicability and portable metal-organic framework (MOF) based composite beads MOF-alginate-Ca

In this paper, Al-ZnO nanocomposite was prepared by coprecipitation method using sodium hydroxide as precipitation agent. The properties of the title material were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Photoluminescence (PL). The title composite as photocatalyst exhibits universal high-efficient catalytic ability for degradation of five typical dyes (methylene blue (MB), eosin red (ER), Congo red (CR), Rhodamine B (RhB), and Methyl orange (HIn)) under UV-light irradiation. The degradation rate is in the order of ER (93%) > CR (83.5%) > MB (82%) > HIn (50.3%) > RB (44.6%). The comparative experiments show that Al-ZnO composite possesses higher catalytic activities in degradation of the dyes than that of pure ZnO and Al2O3. Furthermore, the composite also shows high electrochemical stability and good electrocatalytic behavior for reduction of hydrogen peroxide, which may be a potential hybrid electrode material in electrochemical sensors design.

Summary During gastrulation, the neuroectoderm cells form the neural tube and neural crest. The nervous system contains significantly more microRNAs than other tissues, but the role of microRNAs in controlling the differentiation of neuroectodermal cells into neural tube epithelial (NTE) cells and neural crest cells (NCCs) remains unknown. Using embryonic stem cell (ESC) neural differentiation systems, we found that miR-29b was upregulated in NTE cells and downregulated in NCCs. MiR-29b promoted the differentiation of ESCs into NTE cells and inhibited their differentiation into NCCs. Accordingly, the inhibition of miR-29b significantly inhibited the differentiation of NTE cells. A mechanistic study revealed that miR-29b targets DNA methyltransferase 3a (Dnmt3a) to regulate neural differentiation. Moreover, miR-29b mediated the function of Pou3f1, a critical neural transcription factor. Therefore, our study showed that the Pou3f1-miR-29b-Dnmt3a regulatory axis was active at the initial stage of neural differentiation and regulated the determination of cell fate., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • MiR-29b promoted NTE differentiation and inhibited NCC differentiation from ESCs • MiR-29b targeted Dnmt3a to regulate neural differentiation • MiR-29b mediated the function of Pou3f1 • The Pou3f1-miR-29b-Dnmt3a axis regulated the cell fate determination, In this article, Kang and colleagues demonstrated that miR-29b mediated the function of a critical neural transcription factor Pou3f1 to promote the differentiation of ESCs into NTE cells and inhibit their differentiation into NCCs by targeting Dnmt3a. This study showed that the Pou3f1-miR-29b-Dnmt3a regulatory axis was active at the initial stage of neural differentiation and regulated cell fate determination.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have great potential for treating age-related diseases, but the genome integrity of iPSCs is critically important. Here, we demonstrate that non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), rather than homologous recombination (HR), is less efficient in iPSCs from old mice than young mice. We further find that Sirt6 is downregulated in iPSCs from old mice. Sirt6 directly binds to Ku80 and facilitates the Ku80/DNA-PKcs interaction, thus promoting DNA-PKcs phosphorylation at residue S2056, leading to efficient NHEJ. Rescue experiments show that introducing a combination of Sirt6 and the Yamanaka factors during reprogramming significantly promotes DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair by activating NHEJ in iPSCs derived from old mice. Thus, our study suggests a strategy to improve the quality of iPSCs derived from old donors by activating NHEJ and stabilizing the genome.

The transcription of human telomerase gene hTERT is regulated by transcription factors (TFs), including Sp1 family proteins, and its chromatin environment. To understand its regulation in a relevant chromatin context, we employed bacterial artificial chromosome reporters containing 160 kb of human genomic sequence containing the hTERT gene. Upon chromosomal integration, the bacterial artificial chromosomes recapitulated endogenous hTERT expression, contrary to transient reporters. Sp1/Sp3 expression did not correlate with hTERT promoter activity, and these TFs bound to the hTERT promoters in both telomerase-positive and telomerase-negative cells. Mutation of the proximal GC-box resulted in a dramatic decrease of hTERT promoter activity, and mutations of all five GC-boxes eliminated its transcriptional activity. Neither mutations of GC-boxes nor knockdown of endogenous Sp1 impacted promoter binding by other TFs, including E-box-binding proteins, and histone acetylation and trimethylation of histone H3K9 at the hTERT promoter in telomerase-positive and -negative cells. The result indicated that promoter binding by Sp1/Sp3 was essential, but not a limiting step, for hTERT transcription. hTERT transcription required a permissive chromatin environment. Importantly, our data also revealed different functions of GC-boxes and E-boxes in hTERT regulation; although GC-boxes were essential for promoter activity, factors bound to the E-boxes functioned to de-repress hTERT promoter.

The present study sought to examine for how loneliness and sexual assault are involved in predicting suicidal risk (viz., hopelessness & suicide probability) in a sample of 334 college students. Specifically, we were interested in examining whether sexual assault may play an additive as well as interactive role in the prediction of suicidal risk above and beyond loneliness. RESULTS from regression analyses indicated that both loneliness and sexual assault were important and unique predictors of suicidal risk in students. Moreover, consistent with expectations, we found support for a Loneliness × Sexual Assault interaction in predicting both hopelessness and suicide probability. Inspection of the interactions indicated that the highest levels of suicidal risk were present for lonely students who had experienced some form of sexual assault. Some important implications of the present findings are discussed.

The Fe3O4@PVP nanotubes have been successfully synthesized in large quantities using a hydrothermal synthesis. The fabricated sample shows a relatively high transverse relaxivity of 97.97 mM−1 s−1 for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a high heating efficiency of 5050 W/g for magnetic hyperthermia. The results suggest that the fabricated samples hold a great potential for the MRI-guided magnetic hyperthermia applications in the cancer theranostic fields. In addition, this study also opens the window to explore high efficiency magnetic hyperthermia agents by controlling the shape of the magnetic nanostructures.

A facile synthesis route of non-agglomerated, well-crystallized and low-aspect ratio hydroxyapatite nanocrystals in large quantities was introduced. This synthesis route is a modified co-precipitation process using toxic-free, gelatinized starch matrix without any surfactants. The route has the capacity for scale-up of production and the product is as biocompatible and bioactive as traditional nanohydroxyapatite. It also has a potential for producing other precipitated ceramic nanoparticles with significantly reduced agglomeration and aspect ratio.

Summary Large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) play widespread roles in epigenetic regulation during multiple differentiation processes, but little is known about their mode of action in cardiac differentiation. Here, we identified the key roles of a lincRNA, termed linc1405, in modulating the core network of cardiac differentiation by functionally interacting with Eomes. Chromatin- and RNA-immunoprecipitation assays showed that exon 2 of linc1405 physically mediates a complex consisting of Eomes, trithorax group (TrxG) subunit WDR5, and histone acetyltransferase GCN5 binding at the enhancer region of Mesp1 gene and activates its expression during cardiac mesoderm specification of embryonic stem cells. Importantly, linc1405 co-localizes with Eomes, WDR5, and GCN5 at the primitive streak, and linc1405 depletion impairs heart development and function in vivo. In summary, linc1405 mediates a Eomes/WDR5/GCN5 complex that contributes to cardiogenesis, highlighting the critical roles of lincRNA-based complexes in the epigenetic regulation of cardiogenesis in vitro and in vivo.