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Interfacial design is one of the most promising ways in improving mechanical properties of nanocomposites. In this work, a multifunctional aerogel with excellent mechanical performances, sensing sensitivity, and fire retardancy is fabricated by taking advantage of metal coordination between biopolymer and Fe3+. Montmorillonite (MMT) nanosheets are added to induce a ‘brick and mortar’ structure. The coordination remarkably reduces structural defects, leading to well-formed lamellas that can effectively distribute stress under sever compression without plastic deformation. The structural merits impart the aerogel highly reversible compressibility even at 99 % strain and superior durability. Besides, it demonstrates high sensing performance in wearable health monitoring devices, and shows fire resistance property that can maintain elasticity in a flame. The work offers a facile and effective method to create multifunctional aerogels from various polymers.

Mobile cloud computing has become an important technology for mobile services. It overcomes physical limitations of mobile devices towards flexible and scalable mobile services. When using mobile clouds, people usually upload and store their data in cloud servers, and access the data through mobile devices from anywhere. As the privacy of the sensitive data is the major concern of users, the data is often encrypted before storing in cloud servers. However, the flexibility using the data is thereby affected, such as a Boolean search over the encrypted data, or ranking search results. To address these problems, in this paper we first propose a novel multi-user Boolean keyword search scheme (MBKSS) to achieve a rapid Boolean query outcome, while eliminating query interactions between users and the data owner. To rank search results and protect the privacy of relevance scores between files and keywords, we design a new homomorphic cryptosystem with partial decryption, which could be used as a basis for constructing a fast ranking search protocol (FRSP). A comprehensive security analysis shows that the proposed MBKSS and FRSP can achieve secure Boolean search and ranking. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed MBKSS and FRSP are efficient and suitable for mobile devices.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is becoming an expanding global health concern, closely linked to the islet dysfunction. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide (ASP), derived from the roots of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, on pancreatic islets of T2DM mice. Our research showed that ASP could ameliorate hyperglycemia, restore lipid profile changes and protect against liver injury. ASP increased the Bcl-2/Bax ratio to block caspase-9-caspase-3 cascade in islet β-cells. Simultaneously, the suppression of a caspase-8-driven extrinsic apoptotic pathway further inhibited the activation of subsequent substrate proteins, such as PARP. Results of immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry indicated that ASP could increase cell insulin stores. Additionally, ASP could promote the secretion of insulin to attenuate the glucotoxicity by stimulating the insulin gene expression. Taken together, this study suggested that ASP might be applied as a functional food or additive to treat diabetes.

Dysregulation of the Hippo pathway that promotes cell survival, proliferation and tumorigenesis, relays on the coordinated interactions of YAP with the factors that determine YAP translocation and the related transcriptional programming. Here, we demonstrate that ETV4, a transcriptional factor participating in various protumorigenic processes, enhances YAP-mediated transactivation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. Mechanistically, the enhancement of YAP activities is mediated by the interaction between ETV4 and YAP, which not only increases nuclear YAP accumulation but also directly augments the YAP/TEAD4-mediated transcriptional activation in tumor cells. Functionally, the interplay of ETV4 and YAP promotes growth of liver tumor cells, and activates the genes related to myeloid cell recruitment, including CXCL1 and CXCL5, leading to an enriched presence of myeloid-derived suppressive cells and macrophages but a decreased infiltration of T cells and NK cells in transplanted tumors. More importantly, the correlations between YAP activation, the altered immune cell distribution and ETV4 expression are observed in human HCCs. Therefore, our study reveals a functional interaction between ETV4 and YAP that contributes to HCC progression, and provides mechanistic insights into the regulation of nuclear YAP retention and transactivation.

Although hemicelluloses have demonstrated their promising application as paper strengthening agents, the influences of different hemicellulosic fractions on the mechanical properties of paper are not clear. Revealing the reinforcing effect of hemicellulosic fractions on the mechanical properties of paper is very helpful to better utilize hemicelluloses. For this purpose, four hemicellulosic fractions (HCpH5.5, HC15%, HC30%, and HC75%) were extracted from corncob, and then chemically modified (carboxymethylation) as paper strengthening agents. We demonstrated that the hemicellulosic fraction HC15% obtained from 15% ethanol was difficult to be modified; while HC75% obtained from 75% ethanol was more easily chemically modified. Furthermore, the carboxymethylated hemicellulosic fraction CHC30% with fewer branches and the highest molecular weight had a more significant effect on improving paper strength. Therefore, isolation of desirable hemicellulosic fraction is extremely important to more effectively apply hemicelluloses as paper strengthening agents.

Fog computing as an extension of cloud computing provides computation, storage and application services to end users. Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a well-known cryptographic technology for guaranteeing data confidentiality and fine-grained data access control. It enables data owners to define flexible access policy for data sharing. However, in CP-ABE systems, the problems of the time required to encrypt, decrypt and attribute update are long-standing unsolved in the literature. In this paper, we propose the first access control (CP-ABE) scheme supporting outsourcing capability and attribute update for fog computing. Specifically, the heavy computation operations of encryption and decryption are outsourced to fog nodes, thus the computation operations for data owners to encrypt and users to decrypt are irrelevant to the number of attributes in the access structure and secret keys, respectively. The cost brought by attribute update is efficient in the sense that we only concentrate on the update of the ciphertext associated with the corresponding updated attribute. The security analysis shows that the proposed scheme is secure under the decisional bilinear Diffie–Hellman assumption. The proposed scheme is efficient, and the time of encryption for data owners and decryption for users are small and constant. The computational ability of fog nodes are fully utilizing during the access control, so the tiny computing cost is left to end users with resource-constrained devices.

Producing hierarchical porous N-doped carbon from renewable biomass is an essential and sustainable way for future electrochemical energy storage. Herein we cost-efficiently synthesized N-doped porous carbon from renewable cellulose by using urea as a low-cost N source, without any activation process. The as-prepared N-doped porous carbon (N-doped PC) had a hierarchical porous structure with abundant macropores, mesopores and micropores. The doping N resulted in more disordered structure, and the doping N content in N-doped PC could be easily tunable (0.68-7.64%). The doping N functionalities could significantly improve the supercapacitance of porous carbon, and even a little amount of doping N (e.g. 0.68%) could remarkably improve the supercapacitance. The as-prepared N-doped PC with a specific surface area of 471.7m2g-1 exhibited a high specific capacitance of 193Fg-1 and a better rate capability, as well as an outstanding cycling stability with a capacitance retention of 107% after 5000 cycles. Moreover, the N-doped porous carbon had a high energy density of 17.1Whkg-1 at a power density of 400Wkg-1.

Objectives: In this study, we used skin-derived precursors derived Schwann cells (SKP-SCs) as a treatment to alleviate the erectile dysfunction resulting from bilateral cavernous nerve injury (BCNI) in rat models. And the effect was evaluated 2 weeks after treatment. Materials and Methods: SKP-SCs and primary Schwann cells(SCs) were extracted and incubated from 4-week-old male Sprague Dawley(SD) rats. The cells were used to co-culture with PC12 cells for measurement of neurites growth. Conditional medium of them was used for chemotaxis of M0 macrophages and ELISA assays. 24 male SD rats (10-week old) were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=6). One group was sham group and the other 3 groups underwent BCNI. The groups undergoing BCNI were treated with PBS, SKP-SCs, primary SCs respectively. We evaluated the therapeutic effects on BCNI rats by measuring the erectile function, histologic analysis and western blotting of penis and MPG tissues. Results: Treatment with SKP-SCs significantly restored the erectile function, accelerated the recovery of endothelial and smooth muscle tissues in the penis and promoted the nerve repair process. Expression of p-smad2 and p-smad3 decreased after treatment, indicating fibrosis in the corpus cavernosum was significantly blocked. Conclusion: Implantation of SKP-SCs is an effective and promising therapy for erectile dysfunction induced by BCNI. Funding Statement: Support of research grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81971378) and Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (No. 201903010027). Declaration of Interests: We claim that no support or financial relationships have been received from any organization that may have an interest in the submitted work, and there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. Ethics Approval Statement: The present study has been reviewed and permitted by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Subcommittee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide with rising incidence. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that implicate in multiple physiological or pathological processes. The aberrant expression of miRNA-215 (miR-215) has been illustrated in various types of cancers. However, the expression of miR-215 in human colon cancer and the biological roles of it remain largely unknown. We conducted this study to explore the expression and the function of miR-215 in human colon cancer. The results showed that miR-215 was remarkably downregulated in colon cancer tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-215 by miR-215 mimic significantly inhibited colon cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion while knockdown of miR-215 by miR-215 inhibitor exerted reverse effects. Furthermore, we newly identified Yin-Yang 1(YY1) as a direct target of miR-215 which could rescue the effects of miR-215 on colon cancer cells. In summary, our investigation revealed that miR-215 was downregulated in colon cancer and it suppressed colon cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion by directly targeting YY1.

It has been claimed that Dendrobium officinale applied as a functional food in China for centuries derived from the excellent anti-inflammatory activities. Herein, we aim to investigate the core structure of a Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOP) based on the linear structural features by a specific endo-β-1,4-mannanase which was required for the protective effect against dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. Structure characterization revealed that enzymatic fragment contained the core domain (EDOP) which was composed of glucose and mannose in the molar ratio of 1.00:4.76, and consisted of (1 → 4)-β-D-Glcp and (1 → 4)-β-D-Manp with some attached 2-O-acetylated groups. In colitis mice, both DOP and EDOP could dramatically attenuate the clinical signs via blocking pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and their related mRNA), restoring the levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), activating the G-protein coupled receptors (GPRs) and modulating the gut microbiota. Gut microbiota dysbiosis is currently considered to be an important factor affecting colitis. The treatment of DOP and EDOP could recall the diversity of gut microbiota and modulate the abundance of the gut microbiota, including increasing the abundance of Bacteroides, Lactobacillus and Ruminococcaceae and reducing the abundance of Proteobacteria. Our findings have suggested that EDOP, as a core domain of DOP, retained similar structural features together with anti-inflammatory activity with DOP, and they could be potentially applied as natural candidates in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

In this work, the nanocomposite of N-doped carbon layer wrapped FeS2/Fe3O4 nanoparticles (FeS2/Fe3O4@C) is successfully prepared via a simple method. By combining small grain diameter (about 100 nm), the promotion of N atoms and buffering of carbon layer, when evaluated as anode material for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), the FeS2/Fe3O4@C nanocomposite exhibits superior reversible capacity of 670 mAh g−1 and satisfied cycling stability (98.6% capacity retention) after 250 reversible discharge/charge cycles, also excellent rate capability (330 mAh g−1 at 10 A g−1). Benefiting from the easy synthesis route and excellent electrochemical performance, FeS2/Fe3O4@C shows great potential for SIBs’ large-scale application.

Penile erectile dysfunction (ED) caused by progressive fibrosis of the penis after bilateral cavernous nerve injury (BCNI) is one of the reasons for clinical treatment difficulties. Studies have shown that adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) could secrete abundant bioactive substances, which is an important reason for improving ED in BCNI rats. However, more information is needed to clarify what nutrient factors may play a leading role in preparing for effective clinical treatment in the future. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Lentivirus-mediated ADSCs overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and glial cells derived neurotrophic factors (GDNF) on cavernous nerve (CN) repair and penile erectile dysfunction. Two weeks after BCNI treatment, the CN was electrically stimulated and the erectile function of the rats was measured. Penile tissue and MPG were taken for blind histological analysis or western blotting. Erectile function recovered well in the ADSC-G&V group. ADSC-G&V group significantly increased the content of cavernous endothelial tissue and neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and improved the hypoxia of the corpus cavernosum. MPG from ADSC-G&V group showed morphological changes, including higher expression of NG-F and S100β. Two weeks later, PBS group displayed obviously fibrotic response, while the ADSC-G&V group was significantly inhibited and showed higher penile smooth muscle content and downregulated p-LIMK2/p-Cofilin pathway which was closely related to penile fibrosis after BCNI. Genetically modified ADSCs (GM-ADSCs) of VEGF and GDNF may promote rapid repair of CN and protect the local structure of the penis, thereby recovering erectile function better. Our experiments demonstrated that GM-ADSCs could be used as a means of rapid ameliorate of ED after BCNI, providing new ideas for future clinical treatment. Funding Statement: The study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81971378); the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2019B030316011); Sun Yat-Sen University 5010 Program (2015016). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Subcommittee of the Third Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.