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Neuroinflammation following peripheral surgery is a pivotal pathogenic mechanism of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). However, the key site of inflammation-mediated neural damage remains unclear. Impaired mitochondrial function is a vital feature of degenerated neurons. Dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1), a crucial regulator of mitochondrial dynamics, has been shown to play an essential role in synapse formation. Here, we designed experiments to assess whether Drp1-regulated mitochondrial dynamics and function are involved in the pathological processes of POCD and elucidate its relationship with neuroinflammation. Aged mice were subjected to experimental laparotomy under isoflurane anesthesia. Primary neurons and SH-SY5Y cells were exposed to tumor necrosis factor (TNF). We found an increase in Drp1 activation as well as mitochondrial fragmentation both in the hippocampus of mice after surgery and primary neurons after TNF exposure. Pretreatment with Mdivi-1, a Drp1 specific inhibitor, reduced this mitochondrial fragmentation. Drp1 knockdown with small interfering RNA blocked TNF-induced mitochondrial fragmentation in SH-SY5Y cells. However, the application of Mdivi-1 exhibited a negative impact on mitochondrial function and neurite growth in primary neurons. Calcineurin activity was increased in primary neurons after TNF exposure and contributed to the Drp1 activation. The calcineurin inhibitor FK506 exhibited a Drp1-independent function that mitigated mitochondrial dysfunction. Finally, we found that FK506 pretreatment ameliorated the neurite growth in neurons treated with TNF and the learning ability of mice after surgery. Overall, our research indicated a crucial role of mitochondrial function in the pathological processes of POCD, and neuronal metabolic modulation may represent a novel and important target for POCD.

Livestock and poultry skeletal muscle development was regulated by a variety of genetic factors playing an essential role in this process. In our de novo sequencing, a missense mutation in ISPD exon 2 showed a selected signature for well-developed muscles. However, the relationship between this mutation and muscle phenotypes remains unclear.Based on the genotype bias of this missense mutation in gamecock chickens, we compared the cross-section of muscle fibers among the individuals with different genotypes with the results showing a genotype preference of this missense mutation in the chickens with hypertrophic muscle fibers. Comparing TT- and CC-genotype ISPD showed that TT- genotype was associated with heavier skeletal muscle and a better effect on myogenesis and myofiber stability. At cellular level, ISPD was identified to inhibit myoblast proliferation, differentiation and antagonize of muscular atrophy.It can be concluded that the missense mutation of Arg84Lys in ISPD was associated with well-developed muscles and demonstrated to improve chicken muscles' development.

We study how attention allocation affects the composition of market/industry and firm-specific information in stock prices via repeated natural experiments. Using large jackpots of Taiwanese nationwide lotteries as exogenous shocks to investors’ attention, we find: (1) individual stock returns co-move more with the market/industry returns on large jackpot days; (2) large jackpots have stronger effects on stock returns’ co-movement with the market than with the industry; (3) the effect of large jackpots on return co-movement is stronger for stocks preferred by retail investors; (4) the market under-reacts to firms’ earnings announcements on large jackpot days; and (5) large jackpot days are associated with high (low) Google searches for lotteries (firms). Our findings are consistent with the theory that attention-constrained investors rationally allocate more attention to market-level information than to sector-level information, and more attention to sector-level information than to firm-specific information.

Cu(II) doped mesoporous MnO2 (Cu-MnO2) was prepared to establish an intimate functional link between the structure substitution and catalytic peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. Based on the characterization of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption-desorption measurement, scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), Cu-MnO2 had a typical long range ordered mesoporous structure and Cu was successfully introduced in octahedral framework. It exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability for the phenol degradation by PMS. Phenol was always efficiently degraded over Cu-MnO2 at a pH range of 3.5–9.0. For example, the reaction rate constant at pH 7.0 was 0.073 min−1, which was two times higher than that of MnO2 (0.039 min−1). Importantly, 1O2 was identified as the primary reactive species in Cu-MnO2/PMS system. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed that more exposed surface oxygen defects due to Cu doping were responsible to the enhancement of PMS activation for phenol degradation. The results of PMS decomposition and oxygen evolution indicated that surface oxygen defects lower the reaction energy barrier of PMS decomposition by generating 1O2 via the energy trapping by oxygen. Finally, the heterogeneous PMS activation mechanism over Cu-MnO2 was proposed.

Taste signals are uniformly encoded and transmitted to the brain's taste center by taste buds, and the process has not been systematically studied for several decades. The aim of this work was to investigate the distribution of umami receptors on the tongue and its signal coding logic based on the taste bud biosensors. Taste bud biosensors were constructed by immobilizing the taste bud tissues from different tongue regions of the rabbit to the glassy carbon electrode surface; The Shennong information equations were used to analysis the pattern of umami receptors to encode ligands information; The signal amplification capabilities of two types umami receptors (T1R1/T1R3 and mGluRs) were analyzed for the two ligands (L-monosodium glutamate (MSG) and disodium 5′-inosinate (IMP)). The results showed that each taste bud biosensor could sense MSG and IMP with different response currents based on enzyme-substrate kinetics. There was only a small fraction of a great quantity of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) could be activated to encode MSG signal. Importantly, T1R1 was more expressed in the rostral tongue cells whose sensitivity to MSG was nearly 100 times stronger than that of caudal tongue cells. The method we proposed made it possible to reveal the distribution and signals coding logic of umami receptors for ligands, which showed great potential to explain the interaction mechanism of umami substances with their receptors more accurately and to develop of artificial intelligent taste sensory.

Identifying the mechanisms by which gas components influence arsenic deposition over a SCR catalyst is an important issue to protect the catalyst from arsenic poisoning. In this work, the effects of O2, SO2, and NO on arsenic adsorption over a Cu/γ-Al2O3 catalyst were calculated via density functional theory (DFT) method. Results revealed that O2 facilitated the As2O3 retention on Cu/γ-Al2O3 surface due to the formation of adsorbed O atoms. The positive effect of SO2 on As2O3 adsorption was reflected by the formation of SO42− and HSO4−, which changed the potential field of substrate surface. Specifically, HSO4− enhanced the adsorption activities of surface atoms. However, NO3− did not show a significant impact on As2O3 adsorption when NO was introduced. From thermodynamic and adsorption selectivity analysis, the adsorption activities of different surfaces were in the order of O-Cu/γ-Al2O3 > SO42−-Cu/γ-Al2O3 > O2-Cu/γ-Al2O3 > NO3−-Cu/γ-Al2O3 > HSO4−-Cu/γ-Al2O3. However, the adsorption selectivity weakened with increasing temperature. Results from this work can help improve the arsenic resistance of SCR catalysts.

Background: There is no epidemiological study on the trends of the incidence, mortality and survival outcome of adult male and female genital tumors in the US. Methods: The study screened the adult US male and female genital tumors from 1975 to 2016 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. The entire cohort data were used to evaluate the trends of annual age-adjusted incidence, annual mortality and survival outcomes. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival rate of genital tumors patients. Results: From 1975 to 2016, 979,105 patients were diagnosed with genital tumors, of which 680,903 were male (69.54%). The annual age-adjusted incidence (283.4 per 100,000) and annual mortality (60.0 per 100,000) of male genital tumors have peaked in the 1990s. The annual age-adjusted incidence and annual mortality of female genital tumors showed a downward trend. The incidence of testicular cancer in male increased the fastest during 1975 to 2016, with an average annual increase of 1.2% (APC=1.2). While the incidence of cervical cancer in female decreased the fastest, with an average annual decrease of 2.0% (APC=-2.0). Compared with patients aged 20-50, the incidence and mortality of over 50 years old was significantly higher (p

A novel protocol for the construction of carbon–sulfur bonds has been achieved via halogen-free Cs2CO3-promoted cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) of thiophenols with acetonitrile. This transformation provides a straightforward route to the synthesis of sulfenylated acetonitriles in up to 80% yield.

A novel and efficient TBHP/TBAI-mediated oxidation of thiophenols is described. The reactions proceeded smoothly to give tert-butyl arylsulfinates in up to 82% yield with good functional group compatibility under mild conditions.

The effects of general imperfect interphase/interface models on effective and local thermal conductive responses of fiber reinforced-composites are investigated. A physical interphase model is firstly introduced and then extended to the weakly conducting (WC) and highly conducting (HC) interfaces by satisfying the discontinuity conditions of temperature and normal heat flux, respectively. To simulate different geometric arrangements of fibers, hexagonal and square repeating unit cells (RUCs) are used in this paper. Regarding simulation technique, the locally-exact homogenization theory (LEHT) is extended by considering the aforementioned interphase/interface models to re-produce the localized temperature and heat flux distributions in the unit cells and then to predict the macroscopic thermal conductivities. The present method does not require mesh discretization and pre-processing, but directly obtains the accurate analytical expression of internal domains after solving the thermal differential equations. The unknown coefficients are obtained through applying imperfect interphase/interface conditions and weak-form periodic boundary conditions. Finally, the effective Fourier's formula is established to obtain the overall thermal conductivities of composites. The LEHT is advantageous in fast convergence, numerical stability and computational efficiency, thus providing a good numerical tool in studying the influence of interface parameters on composites. The generated numerical results are in good agreement with the analytical or numerical simulations in the literature. On this basis, the effects of interfacial geometric and physical parameters on the macroscopic coefficients and local thermal responses of the composites are tested. Finally, the thickness of a physical interphase is varied to test its applicability in generating equivalent effect with WC interface and HC interface. Generally, the imperfect interfacial effects play important roles in the thermal conductive response of composite materials. In the meantime, the proposed method is of great significance for the study of thermal conductions of composite microstructures.

This paper reports a low phase noise 10 MHz oscillator based on a lateral-extensional mode thin-film piezoelectric-on-silicon (TPoS) resonator. A novel design of interdigital electrodes is introduced to improve both the insertion loss and quality factor of the resonator. The average quality factor gets improved by 43% by this method. The equivalent circuit model of the fundamental lateral-extensional mode is analysed. An oscillator is also designed and manufactured. The whole circuit includes a single common emitter BJT amplifier, LC network filter, a phase shifting unit and a MEMS resonator. Tuning the phase shifter in the feedback circuit, the MEMS resonator works at the best operating point while the phase shifting of the peripheral circuit is 90°. With an operating input power around 0 dBm, the resonator is not driven at its bifurcation point. Little nonlinearity is observed in the output waveform. The phase-noise is measured below −105 dBc/Hz@100 Hz, −135 dBc/Hz@1 kHz offset and the far-from-carrier noise reaches below −150 dBc/Hz.

A micro-electromechanical wine glass modal disk resonator with movable electrodes is presented in this paper. The movable electrodes were driven by electrostatic force for gap reduction to reduce insertion loss. By reducing the gap from 2.5 μm to 0.5 μm, the insertion loss improved from −104 dB to −81 dB at the same bias voltage of 20 V. However, unstable movable electrodes caused the quality factor to decrease from 920,000 to 27,200.

Three sparse representation methods are proposed for estimating the direction-of-arrival (DOA) and polarization parameters of multiple completely polarized wideband signals. The array employed comprises a number of identically oriented vector antennas (VAs). The first two methods are based on spectral segmentation (SSE) and spectral sampling (SSA), both of which require no prior knowledge/estimation of the correlation functions (or power spectral densities) of signals. The third method is based on spectral truncation (STR) which can also be interpreted as the interpolation/reconstruction of signals’ common correlation coefficient. It is computationally simpler than SSE and SSA but requires preliminary estimation of the signals’ common correlation coefficient within a non-zero scalar multiple. Simulation results have validated the efficacy of the three methods.

We propose that the disaggregation quality (DQ) of 10-K reports, which measures the detail of accounting information based on a count of non-missing Compustat line items, is valuable in predicting firms’ future performance. Empirical results show that firms with higher DQ have higher subsequent profitability and valuation. The DQ can also positively predict future stock returns in the cross section. The return predictability is stronger for young firms, firms with higher return volatility, and in periods with high investor sentiment. The findings are robust to the inclusion of variables shown to be correlated with firm operating and stock performance in the literature.

A novel and efficient oxidation of phosphorus(III) compounds with Selectfluor is described. The reactions smoothly led to the formation of tertiary phosphine oxides, phosphinates, and phosphonates in up to 99% yield under mild conditions in minutes.

Piwi proteins as constituent factors of the piRNA pathway are required for germline maintenance, meiosis and gonad development. Previous study showed hCG could regulate the Piwi expression in ovary of teleosts. In this study, we revealed effects of LHRH-A and hCG on Piwi expression in testis of tilapia using Real-time PCR and Western blot. Both in vivo and in vitro study suggest that LHRH-A and hCG significantly down-regulated Piwil-1 and Piwil-2 in mRNA or protein levels compared with controls. Meanwhile, tissue and cell distribution showed that Piwi proteins were mainly expressed in spermatocytes rather than mature sperms. These results indicated that HPG suppresses Piwis which may play a crucial role in testis differentiation and development.

The protective effect of 3 areca inflorescence extracts (boiling water extract, ambient temperature water extract and ethanol extract) on hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative damage to human serum albumin was investigated by comparing with Trolox, the water soluble vitamin E. Protein carbonyl groups, protein hydroperoxides,1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity and total phenolic content were examined. The results showed that boiling water extract had the most protective effect on human serum albumin damage induced by hydrogen peroxide, comparable to Trolox, followed by the room ambient temperature water extract and ethanol extract. The total phenolic content of boiling water extract, ambient temperature water extract, and ethanol extract was 1.949 ± 0.003, 1.842 ± 0.001 and 0.983 ± 0.011 mg gallic acid equivalent/ml extract, respectively, and six phenolic compositions such as gallic acid, coumalic acid, epicatechin, fumalic acid, naringenin and rutin have been found in these areca inflorescence extracts. These data suggest that areca inflorescence is a new source of natural antioxidants.

A detailed study of the chemical structure of mesoporous silica catalysts containing rhodium ligands and nanoparticles (RhP-MSN) was carried out by multi-dimensional solid-state NMR techniques. The degree of functionalization of the rhodium-phosphinosilyl complex to the surface of the RhP-MSN channels was determined by (29)Si NMR experiments. The structural assignments of the rhodium-phosphinosilyl complex were unambiguously determined by employing the novel, indirectly detected heteronuclear correlation ((13)C-(1)H and (31)P-(1)H idHETCOR) techniques, which indicated that oxidation of the attached phosphinosilyl groups and detachment of Rh was enhanced upon syngas conversion.

This paper studies the infinite horizon mixed H"2/H"~ control for discrete-time stochastic systems with state and disturbance dependent noise. We shall first establish a version of stochastic bounded real lemma (SBRL) which by itself has theoretical importance. Based on the SBRL, it is shown that under the condition of exact observability, the existence of a static state feedback H"2/H"~ controller is equivalent to the solvability of four coupled matrix-valued equations. A suboptimal H"2/H"~ controller design is given based on a convex optimization approach and an iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the four coupled matrix-valued equations.

This paper studies robust H"2/H"~ control problem for systems subjected to multiplicative noise and Markovian parameter jumps. A necessary/sufficient condition for the existence of H"2/H"~ control is presented by means of two coupled algebraic Riccati equations, respectively. Finally, a suboptimal H"2/H"~ controller design algorithm is also obtained by solving a convex optimization problem.

A novel continuous homogeneous catalytic system for the long-term testing of hydroformylation in fluorous biphasic systems has been developed. Conversion levels up to 70% were observed, with linear to branched product ratios being around 12, while the fluorous catalyst was successfully recycled to the reactor. Efficient stirring is essential for high conversions for minimising alkene isomerisation. Leaching of the ligand, rhodium and the fluorous solvent into the organic product phase are significant.

A proof of concept study was undertaken for the separation of the fluorous solvent from the organic reactants/products of a fluorous biphasic system, in the absence of fluorous modified Rh catalyst. Fast and efficient separation of the two phases was observed. The more polar products were present in the organic phase—i.e. the higher the simulated conversion level—the less was the leaching of the fluorous solvent in the organic phase.

Identification of proteins previously separated by one-dimensional (1-D) or two-dimensional gel electrophoresis requires significant manipulations to digest the proteins into their respective peptides and to extract them from the gel prior to mass analysis. This article describes the simultaneous transfer and digestion of proteins directly from 1-D gels onto a membrane ready for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometric (MS) analysis. Protein transfer and digestion efficiencies are estimated to be more than 95%. The effectiveness of this procedure is demonstrated by identifying 110 unique proteins derived from a lysate of Escherichia coli and 149 proteins derived from a mouse liver homogenate separated by 1-D sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE). Using crude mouse liver homogenates, four distinct glutathione S -transferase classes, ranging from 23 to 27 kDa, are identified from a separating gel, indicating the discriminating potential for this method. A Visual Basic program allowed visualization of the identified proteins according to their respective positions on the 1-D gels. In many cases, two or more proteins could be identified within a single band of the SDS gel. The “digital” images generated resemble Western blots without the use of antibodies or signal amplification techniques.

During fluorous biphasic hydroformylation 1-octene is transferred from the fluorous into the organic product phase and then from the product layer back to the fluorous layer again, due to the immiscibility of nonanal with PFMCH. The effect of the temperature and the total amount of octene on the above behaviour were also studied.

The enantioselective hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate catalyzed by finely dispersed oxide supported rhodium nanocluster was studied with cinchonidine as chiral modifier. The results indicated that cinchonidine not only exhibited good enantiodifferentiating ability but also could accelerate the reaction by a factor 10. Supports (γ-Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , TiO 2 ) played an important role in promoting the further increase of catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of polyvinylpyrrolidone-stabilized rhodium nanoclusters (Rh/PVP). Under the optimum reaction conditions (298 K, 7.0 MPa of hydrogen pressure and tetrahydrofuran as solvent), TOF and the enantiomeric excess reached 58.6 min −1 and 65.4% e.e., respectively.

The hydroformylation of hexene-1 is carried out in the biphasic system with RhCl(CO)(TPPTS)2 (TPPTS = P(C6H4-m-SO3 Na)3), TPPTS and CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide). The rhodium catalyst concentration in interface has a drastic effect on reaction rate, and additional salts make reaction rate decrease obviously because they influence the distribution of catalyst in the biphasic system. Inorganic salts also have influence on the turnover frequency in the order: TOF (M 3+ )< TOF(M 2+ )< TOF(M + ) (M n+ is a metal cation with a charge of +n). However, additional inorganic salts do not change the regioselectivity obviously in this hydroformylation. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Not only Na 2 SO 4 has positive effect, but also negative effect on the reaction rate of biphasic hydroformylation of hexene-1 catalyzed by the complicated catalytic system – RhCl(CO)(TPPTS) 2 –TPPTS–CTAB. With the suitable concentration of Na 2 SO 4 added to the reaction system, the TOF would reach a maximum value. The corresponding optimal [Na 2 SO 4 ]/[Rh] value for TOF is different with different [Rh]/[TPPTS] ratios in this catalytic system. On the contrary, no marked effect of Na 2 SO 4 on the selectivity has been found in this system.

The enantioselective hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate catalyzed by polyvinylpyrrolidone-stabilized rhodium nanocluster (Rh/PVP) modified by cinchonidine and quinine was studied. The results show that cinchonidine and quinine not only can induce the enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate, but also can greatly accelerate the reaction. Under the optimum conditions, 298 K, 5 MPa of hydrogen pressure and 4.3×10−3 mol/l of cinchonidine in tetrahydrofuran, the enantiomeric excess of R-(+)-ethyl lactate and turnover frequency (TOF) of ethyl pyruvate reach up to 42.2% e.e. and 941 h−1, respectively. The rate of hydrogenation is faster by a factor of about 50 in the presence of cinchonidine than that without it. Quinine exhibits the similar effect.

The nascent product vibrational energy distribution of the reaction O(1D)+H2 has been determined by using the grating selection chemical laser technique. The main experimental results are: N1/N0 = 0.69, N2/N1 = 0.92, N3/N2 = 0.80, N4/N3