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To evaluate the impact of hypertension on the clinical outcome of COVID-19 patients aged 60 years old and older.This single-center retrospective cohort study enrolled consecutive COVID-19 patients aged 60 years old and older, who were admitted to Liyuan Hospital from January 1, 2020 to April 25, 2020. All included patients were divided into two groups: hypertension and nonhypertension group. The baseline demographic characteristics, laboratory test results, chest computed tomography (CT) images and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed. The prognostic value of hypertension was determined using binary logistic regression.Among the 232 patients included in the analysis, 105 (45.3%) patients had comorbid hypertension. Compared to the nonhypertension group, patients in the hypertension group had higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios, red cell distribution widths, lactate dehydrogenase, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, D-dimer and severity of lung lesion, and lower lymphocyte counts (all P0.05). Furthermore, the hypertension group had a higher proportion of intensive care unit admissions [24 (22.9%) vs. 14 (11.0%), P=0.02) and deaths [16 (15.2%) vs. 3 (2.4%), P0.001] and a significantly lower probability of survival (P0.001) than the nonhypertension group. Hypertension (OR: 4.540, 95% CI: 1.203-17.129, P=0.026) was independently correlated with all-cause in-hospital death in elderly patients with COVID-19.The elderly COVID-19 patients with hypertension tend to have worse conditions at baseline than those without hypertension. Hypertension may be an independent prognostic factor of poor clinical outcome in elderly COVID-19 patients.

Background To examine the levels of exosome-derived connexin 43 (Cx43) in plasma and estimate its forecast value in patients with melanoma. Methods We measured the plasma exosome-derived Cx43 levels in the plasma of 112 melanoma patients and 50 healthy controls. Results The plasma exosome-derived Cx43 levels in patients with melanoma were substantially downregulated as opposed to the levels in healthy controls (P P P Conclusion The overall findings indicated that the levels of plasma exosome-derived Cx43 in patients with melanoma were considerably downregulated. It can therefore be inferred that the levels of plasma exosome-derived Cx43 might be a prospective prognostic indicator for 5 5-year OS and 5-year DFS of patients with melanoma.

OBJECTIVE To investigate a previously uncharacterized function of Sijunzi Decoction (SJZD) in inhibition of gastric cancer stem cells (GCSCs). METHODS MKN74 and MKN45, two CD44 positive gastric cancer cell lines with stem cell properties were used. The cells were divided into 2 groups. Treatment group was treated with SJZD (1-5 mg/mL) for indicated time (48 h-14 days). The control group was treated with equal volume of phosphate buffered saline. Cell Counting Assay Kit-8 were used to measure cell viability. Spheroid colony formation and GCSCs marker expression were performed to determine GCSCs stemness. Cell fractionation and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used to assess the distribution and DNA-binding activity of β-catenin after SJZD treatment, respectively. RESULTS SJZD treatment repressed cell growth and induced apoptosis in MKN74 and MKN45 cell lines (P

Over the last century, abnormal electromagnetic (EM) emissions associated with earthquake (EQ) activities have been widely reported and recorded by ground-based and satellite observations. The mechanism of extremely low-frequency (ELF) EM waves radiating from earthquakes has been gradually established. However, whether EM waves radiated from earthquakes can be detected by low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites remains controversial. In this paper, to address these concerns, a lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere model of ELF wave propagation is constructed. The features of the simulated EM field at LEO satellite altitudes radiated from earthquakes have been studied. The simulated EM field at the altitude of the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) is compared with the sensitivity of electromagnetic (EM) sensors onboard the CSES. The results illustrate that an earthquake with a magnitude over 6.0 can be detected by the EM sensors of the CSES. However, this depends on the focal depth, seismogenic environment and ionospheric parameters.

Elderly patients living in long-term care facilities have been restricted from leaving to comply with social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to a worsening of disorders, such as anxiety and depression. This study aims to understand the health benefits of an immersive garden experience to elderly nursing home residents with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments. Virtual reality devices were used to provide immersive garden experiences for the residents who were unable to go outside. The heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) data of the participants of the participants were collected using biofeedback instruments, and changes in the low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) and the standard deviation of the NN interval (SDNN) values caused by immersive garden experiences were discussed. The results show that the immersive garden experiences were beneficial to these elderly residents. Within 6 min of completing the experiment, we found that the heart rates of participants had dropped slightly, while SDNN and HF values continued to rise. SDNN values before and after the experiment demonstrated a statistically significant improvement. Furthermore, participants expressed their satisfaction with the video intervention program. The results indicated that nursing homes can provide immersive landscape experiences to help increase HRV and SDNN of their elderly residents. This will not only help these residents recall beautiful memories of their past, but will also improve their quality of life. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11355-021-00480-9.

Although root canal therapy is the most common and widely used treatment at clinical presentation, there are still some postoperative complications. As cell biology and tissue engineering techniques advance rapidly, the use of biological therapy to regenerate dental pulp has become a new trend; Relevant literatures in recent five years were searched using key words such as “root canal therapy”, “Dental pulp stem cells”, “Dental pulp regeneration”, and “Cell homing” in PubMed, Web of Science, etc; Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have multi-differentiation potential, self-renewal capability, and high proliferative ability. Stem cell-based dental pulp regeneration has emerged as a new research hot spot in clinical therapy. Recently, dental pulp-like structures have been generated by the transplantation of exogenous DPSCs or the induction of homing of endogenous DPSCs. Studies on DPSCs are important and significant for dental pulp regeneration and dental restoration; In this review, the existing clinical treatment methods, dental pulp regeneration, and DPSC research status are revealed, and their application prospects are discussed. The stem cell-based pulp regeneration exerts promising potential in clinical therapy for pulp regeneration.

Based on the quantile regression, we extend Koenker and Xiao (2004) and Ling and McAleer (2004)’s works from finite-variance innovations to infinite-variance innovations. A robust t-ratio statistic to test for unit-root and a re-sampling method to approximate the critical values of the t-ratio statistic are proposed in this paper. It is shown that the limit distribution of the statistic is a functional of stable processes and a Brownian bridge. The finite sample studies show that the proposed t-ratio test always performs significantly better than the conventional unit-root tests based on least squares procedure, such as the Augmented Dick Fuller (ADF) and Philliphs-Perron (PP) test, in the sense of power and size when infinite-variance disturbances exist. Also, quantile Kolmogorov-Smirnov (QKS) statistic and quantile Cramer-von Mises (QCM) statistic are considered, but the finite sample studies show that they perform poor in power and size, respectively. An application to the Consumer Price Index for nine countries is also presented.

The urgent requirement of materials with superior electromagnetic shielding properties has been aroused for alleviating electromagnetic pollution. Now, some natural materials such as silkworm cocoon, walnut shell, and so on are gradually used to prepare the electromagnetic interference shielding composites. However, loofah sponges with unique and inherent 3D hierarchical porous structure, which could be obtained from food waste and the wilted loofah, are ignored. In this work, loofah sponges were modified by NaOH and H2O2. Then the carbonized modified Loofah/Ni nanoparticles/Graphene composites were prepared by immersion and thermal reduction. Meanwhile, the composites had inherited advantages from natural materials such as low density, porous structure and eco-friendly. As the result of loading of Ni nanoparticles and graphene on the loofah, the outstanding performance was achieved that the shielding effectiveness was raised to 57 dB, and the specific shielding effectiveness was raised to 616.8 dB cm3/g. This result demonstrated that composites materials based on natural loofah sponges show tremendous potential for electromagnetic shielding.

Pulp loss is accompanied by the functional impairment of defense, sensory, and nutrition supply. The approach based on endogenous stem cells is a potential strategy for pulp regeneration. However, endogenous stem cell sources, exogenous regenerative signals, and neovascularization are major difficulties for pulp regeneration based on endogenous stem cells. Therefore, the purpose of our research is to seek an effective cytokines delivery strategy and bioactive materials to reestablish an ideal regenerative microenvironment for pulp regeneration. In in vitro study, we investigated the effects of Wnt3a, transforming growth factor-beta 1, and bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) on human dental pulp stem cells (h-DPSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. 2D and 3D culture systems based on collagen gel, matrigel, and gelatin methacryloyl were fabricated to evaluate the morphology and viability of h-DPSCs. In in vivo study, an ectopic nude mouse model and an in situ beagle dog model were established to investigate the possibility of pulp regeneration by implanting collagen gel loading BMP7. We concluded that BMP7 promoted the migration and odontogenic differentiation of h-DPSCs and vessel formation. Collagen gel maintained the cell adhesion, cell spreading, and cell viability of h-DPSCs in 2D or 3D culture. The transplantation of collagen gel loading BMP7 induced vascularized pulp-like tissue regeneration in vivo. The injectable approach based on collagen gel loading BMP7 might exert promising therapeutic application in endogenous pulp regeneration.

Herein, we report a novel protocol for visible-light-driven alkylative carboxylation of alkenes with CO2 in the absence of external photocatalyst. Under the irradiation of visible light, a variety of 4-alkyl-1,4-dihydropyridines (alkyl-DHPs) serve as not only alkyl radical precursors but also photoexcited reductants probably with the potential to reduce benzyl radicals. Several styrenes and acrylates are applicable in this reaction to give structurally diverse carboxylic acids in good to excellent yields. These reactions feature mild reaction conditions (1 atm of CO2, room temperature, visible light, photocatalyst- and transition metal-free), good functional group tolerance, easy scalability, as well as high regio-, and chemo-selectivity. Mechanistic investigations provide evidence that alkyl radical, benzyl radical and carbanion might be involved in this reaction, providing a novel strategy for CO2 utilization.

Light-driven utilization of CO2 in organic synthesis is highly attractive because it mimics nature. However, such transformations are mainly limited to the incorporation of only a single CO2 molecule into organic compounds, far less than the number of CO2 molecules fixed in the product in photosynthesis. Here we report the visible-light photoredox-catalysed dicarboxylation of alkenes, allenes and (hetero)arenes with the incorporation of two CO2 molecules. This method realizes the formation of multiple C–C bonds with high chemo- and diastereoselectivities under mild conditions, which represents a simple, rapid and sustainable approach to valuable dicarboxylic acids. Moreover, this transition-metal-free protocol exhibits a low catalyst loading, good functional group tolerance, broad substrate scope, facile scalability and easy product derivatizations to give drug and material molecules. Mechanistic studies indicate a pathway by which a visible-light-induced two-electron reduction via sequential single electron transfer generates radical anions of such unsaturated substrates, broadening the repertoire of strategies. Transformations in organic chemistry are mainly limited to the incorporation of only one equivalent of the greenhouse gas CO2 per substrate. Now, a visible-light photoredox-catalysed dicarboxylation of alkenes, allenes and arenes allows the incorporation of two CO2 molecules into organic compounds.

As global aging accelerates, the prevention and treatment of age-related bone diseases are becoming a critical issue. In the process of senescence, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) gradually lose the capability of self-renewal and functional differentiation, resulting in impairment of bone tissue regeneration and disorder of bone tissue homeostasis. Alteration in epigenetic modification is an essential factor of BMSC dysfunction during aging. Its transferability and reversibility provide the possibility to combat BMSC aging by reversing age-related modifications. Emerging evidence demonstrates that epigenetic therapy based on aberrant epigenetic modifications could alleviate the senescence and dysfunction of stem cells. This review summarizes potential therapeutic targets for BMSC aging, introduces some potential approaches to alleviating BMSC aging, and analyzes its prospect in the clinical application of age-related bone diseases.

Background Experiencing internship shapes nursing students’ professional commitment and aggravates its changes. However, few studies have been investigated how this changes empirically. Objectives The aims of this study are to investigate (a) what are the changes of professional commitment of nursing students before and after the internship? (b) Which of multiple independent variables is the strongest predictor? Methods A longitudinal study was conducted with 996 senior undergraduate nursing students (ready to enter clinical practice) in the China universities. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2015 and autumn of 2016. The data were collected by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The instruments used included Professional Commitment Scale and Perceived Stress Scale. Analysis of paired t-test and linear regression analysis were performed on the data. Results Nursing students showed lower professional commitment (2.79 ± 0.36) than they were (2.92 ± 0.36) before internship. Socio-demographic variables, pre-internship professional commitment and stress perceived during internship predicted 40.1% of the variance in the post-internship commitment. Discussion These data summarize the nursing students’ professional commitment changes and the main influential factors that contribute to post-internship professional commitment of undergraduate nursing student. The findings are timely, which indicate that senior nursing students’ professional commitment can be increased by enhancing pre-internship commitment and reducing students’ stress levels during internship.

Deep caries, trauma, and severe periodontitis result in pulpitis, pulp necrosis, and eventually pulp loss. However, no clinical therapy can regenerate lost pulp. A novel pulp regeneration strategy for clinical application is urgently needed. Signaling transduction plays an essential role in regulating the regenerative potentials of dental stem cells. Cytokines or growth factors, such as stromal cell-derived factor (SDF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), WNT, can promote the migration, proliferation, odontogenic differentiation, pro-angiogenesis, and pro-neurogenesis potentials of dental stem cells respectively. Using the methods of signaling modulation including growth factors delivery, genetic modification, and physical stimulation has been applied in multiple preclinical studies of pulp regeneration based on cell transplantation or cell homing. Transplanting dental stem cells and growth factors encapsulated into scaffold regenerated vascularized pulp-like tissue in the root canal. Also, injecting a flowable scaffold only with chemokines recruited endogenous stem/progenitor cells for pulp regeneration. Notably, dental pulp regeneration has gradually developed into the clinical phase. These findings enlightened us on a novel strategy for structural and functional pulp regeneration through elaborate modulation of signaling transduction spatially and temporally via clinically applicable growth factors delivery. But challenges, such as the adverse effects of unphysiological signaling activation, the controlled drug release system, and the safety of gene modulation, are necessary to be tested in future works for promoting the clinical translation of pulp regeneration.

A self-weighted quantile procedure is proposed to study the inference for a spatial unilateral autoregressive model with independent and identically distributed innovations belonging to the domain of attraction of a stable law with index of stability α, α ∈ (0, 2]. It is shown that when the model is stationary, the self-weighted quantile estimate of the parameter has a closed form and converges to a normal limiting distribution, which avoids the difficulty of Roknossadati and Zarepour (2010) in deriving their limiting distribution for an M-estimate. On the contrary, we show that when the model is not stationary, the proposed estimates have the same limiting distributions as those of Roknossadati and Zarepour. Furthermore, a Wald test statistic is proposed to consider the test for a linear restriction on the parameter, and it is shown that under a local alternative, the Wald statistic has a non-central chisquared distribution. Simulations and a real data example are also reported to assess the performance of the proposed method.

RNF40 (OMIM: 607700) is a really interesting new gene (RING) finger E3 ubiquitin ligase containing multiple coiled-coil domains and a C-terminal RING finger motif, which engage in protein–DNA and protein–protein interactions. RNF40 encodes a polypeptide of 1001 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 113,678 Da. RNF40 and its paralog RNF20 form a stable heterodimer complex that can monoubiquitylate histone H2B at lysine 120 as well as other nonhistone proteins. Cancer is a major public health problem and the second leading cause of death. Through its protein ubiquitylation activity, RNF40 acts as a tumor suppressor or oncogene to play major epigenetic roles in cancer development, progression, and metastasis, highlighting the essential function of RNF40 and the importance of studying it. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about RNF40 gene structure and the role of RNF40 in histone H2B monoubiquitylation, DNA damage repair, apoptosis, cancer development, and metastasis. We also underscore challenges in applying this information to cancer prognosis and prevention and highlight the urgent need for additional investigations of RNF40 as a potential target for cancer therapeutics.

Ring finger protein 144A (RNF144A), a poorly characterized member of the RING-in-between-RING family of E3 ubiquitin ligases, is an emerging tumor suppressor, but its underlying mechanism remains largely elusive. To address this issue, we used Affymetrix GeneChip Human Transcriptome Array 2.0 to profile gene expression in MDA-MB-231 cells stably expressing empty vector pCDH and Flag-RNF144A, and found that 128 genes were differentially expressed between pCDH- and RNF144A-expressing cells with fold change over 1.5. We further demonstrated that RNF144A negatively regulated the protein and mRNA levels of glial maturation factor γ (GMFG). Mechanistical investigations revealed that transcription factor YY1 transcriptionally activated GMFG expression, and RNF144A interacted with YY1 and promoted its ubiquitination-dependent degradation, thus blocking YY1-induced GMFG expression. Functional rescue assays showed that ectopic expression of RNF144A suppressed the proliferative, migratory, and invasive potential of breast cancer cells, and the noted effects were partially restored by re-expression of GMFG in RNF144A-overexpressing breast cancer cells. Collectively, these findings reveal that RNF144A negatively regulates GMFG expression by targeting YY1 for proteasomal degradation, thus inhibiting the proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells.

To observe the effects of laurocapram and borneol as transdermal penetration enhancers applied to herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion on liver lipids, hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase in hyperlipidemia rabbits. Forty New-Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into 5 groups using the random number table method, with 8 rats in each group. Rabbits in the blank group were fed routinely with a normal diet; rabbits in the other groups were fed with high-fat diet for 12 weeks to establish the hyperlipidemia model. Rabbits in the blank and the model groups were not given any intervention. After the model was prepared successfully, rabbits in the non-transdermal penetration enhancer group received herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion without transdermal penetration enhancers; rabbits in the laurocapram group and the borneol group received herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion with laurocapram or borneol respectively. After 4 weeks of treatment, the serum was isolated and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was applied for the detection of HSL and HMG-CoA reductase. The liver tissues were isolated, and total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) were measured by enzymatic methods. One-step method was applied for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) detection, and transmission turbidimetry was for apolipoprotein A1 (Apo-A1) and apolipoprotein B (Apo-B) detection. The serum concentrations of the drugs in the laurocapram and the borneol groups were significantly higher than those in the non-transdermal penetration enhancer group (both P

Objective: To observe the lipid-lowering effect of different transdermal absorption enhancers applied to the herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion in hyperlipidemia model rabbits, and to explore the possible mechanism. Methods: Forty New-Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into 5 groups using the random number table method, with 8 rats in each group. Rabbits in the blank group were fed routinely with normal diet; rabbits in the other groups were fed with high-fat diet for 12 weeks to establish the hyperlipidemia model. Rabbits in the blank and the model groups were not treated. After the model was prepared, rabbits in the non-transdermal absorption enhancer group received herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion without transdermal absorption enhancer; rabbits in the laurocapram group and the borneol group received herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion with laurocapram or borneol respectively. After 4 weeks of treatment, serum was collected for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the liver tissues were isolated for immunohistochemistry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western-blotting (WB) detection. Results: Serum ELISA results showed that leptin was significantly decreased in the model group compared with the blank group (P 0.05). The qPCR results of rabbit liver tissues showed that the mRNA expressions of leptin, Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in the model group were significantly lower than those in the blank group (all P

Herein we report a novel visible-light-mediated external reductant-free reductive cross coupling for the construction of C sp2 – C sp3 bonds. A variety of benzylammonium salts underwent selective coupling with (hetero)aryl nitriles to deliver important diarylmethanes under mild reaction conditions. Importantly, photocatalysts can be omitted for many cases, which might involve the electron donor acceptor (EDA) complex. Mechanistic studies indicated benzylic radicals might be involved as the key intermediates. Moreover, the in situ generated NMe3 via cleavage of C–N bond in ammonium salts acts as the electron donor, thus avoiding the use of external-reductant.

Electrochemical catalytic reductive cross couplings are powerful and sustainable methods to construct C−C bonds by using electron as the clean reductant. However, activated substrates are used in most cases. Herein, we report a general and practical electro-reductive Ni-catalytic system, realizing the electrocatalytic carboxylation of unactivated aryl chlorides and alkyl bromides with CO2. A variety of unactivated aryl bromides, iodides and sulfonates can also undergo such a reaction smoothly. Notably, we also realize the catalytic electrochemical carboxylation of aryl (pseudo)halides with CO2 avoiding the use of sacrificial electrodes. Moreover, this sustainable and economic strategy with electron as the clean reductant features mild conditions, inexpensive catalyst, safe and cheap electrodes, good functional group tolerance and broad substrate scope. Mechanistic investigations indicate that the reaction might proceed via oxidative addition of aryl halides to Ni(0) complex, the reduction of aryl-Ni(II) adduct to the Ni(I) species and following carboxylation with CO2.

Background Inference of protein’s membership in metabolic pathways has become an important task in functional annotation of protein. The membership information can provide valuable context to the basic functional annotation and also aid reconstruction of incomplete pathways. Previous works have shown success of inference by using various similarity measures of gene ontology. Results In this work, we set out to explore integrating ontology and sequential information to further improve the accuracy. Specifically, we developed a neural network model with an architecture tailored to facilitate the integration of features from different sources. Furthermore, we built models that are able to perform predictions from pathway-centric or protein-centric perspectives. We tested the classifiers using 5-fold cross validation for all metabolic pathways reported in KEGG database. Conclusions The testing results demonstrate that by integrating ontology and sequential information with a tailored architecture our deep neural network method outperforms the existing methods significantly in the pathway-centric mode, and in the protein-centric mode, our method either outperforms or performs comparably with a suite of existing GO term based semantic similarity methods.

Photoredox-mediated umpolung strategy provides an alternative pattern for functionalization of carbonyl compounds. However, general approaches towards carboxylation of carbonyl compounds with CO2 remain scarce. Herein, we report a strategy for visible-light photoredox-catalyzed umpolung carboxylation of diverse carbonyl compounds with CO2 by using Lewis acidic chlorosilanes as activating/protecting groups. This strategy is general and practical to generate valuable α-hydroxycarboxylic acids. It works well for challenging alkyl aryl ketones and aryl aldehydes, as well as for α-ketoamides and α-ketoesters, the latter two of which have never been successfully applied in umpolung carboxylations with CO2 (to the best of our knowledge). This reaction features high selectivity, broad substrate scope, good functional group tolerance, mild reaction conditions and facile derivations of products to bioactive compounds, including oxypheonium, mepenzolate bromide, benactyzine, and tiotropium. Moreover, the formation of carbon radicals and carbanions as well as the key role of chlorosilanes are supported by control experiments., Compounds bearing a carbonyl group, such as aldehydes and ketones, are important industrial chemicals and widespread in pharmaceuticals and natural products. Here, the authors report a strategy for visible-light photoredox-catalyzed umpolung carboxylation of diverse carbonyl compounds with CO2, to generate valuable α-hydroxycarboxylic acids.

In this study, a porous MOF [Zn2(L)(H2O)2](DMA)2 (1) based on a custom-designed diisophthalate ligand bearing an aromatic-rich backbone were prepared by reaction of zinc(II) nitrate and terphenyl-3,3″,5,5″-tetracarboxylic acid (H4L) in a mixed solvent of DMA, 1,4-dioxane and water with the help of HBF4. Various characterization methods such as single X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and the gas sorption measurements were used to character the as-prepared 1 and the resulting solvent-free 1a. Compared with 1, the resulting activated 1a exhibits highly efficient catalytic activity for cyanosilylation of carbonyl compounds with a low catalyst loading of 1 mol% under solvent-free conditions, which was due to the open Zn2+ sites as catalytically activated sites played a significant role in the heterogeneous catalytic process. CCK-8 assay was performed to detected the viability of SW60 colon cancer cells, and the cells migration and invasion ability was detected by transwell assay. Besides, the Annexin V/PI Apoptosis Kit was used to measure the level of cell apoptosis after compound treatment.

Background TIFY is a plant-specific protein family with a diversity of functions in plant development and responses to stress and hormones, which contains JASMONATE ZIM-domain (JAZ), TIFY, PPD and ZML subfamilies. Despite extensive studies of TIFY family in many other species, TIFY has not yet been characterized in Brassica napus. Results In this study, we identified 77, 36 and 39 TIFY family genes in the genome of B. napus, B. rapa and B. oleracea, respectively. Results of the phylogenetic analysis indicated the 170 TIFY proteins from Arabidopsis, B. napus, B. rapa and B. oleracea could be divided into 11 groups: seven JAZ groups, one PPD group, one TIFY group, and two ZIM/ZML groups. The molecular evolutionary analysis showed that TIFY genes were conserved in Brassicaceae species. Gene expression profiling and qRT-PCR revealed that different groups of BnaTIFY members have distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns in normal conditions or following treatment with different abiotic/biotic stresses and hormones. The BnaJAZ subfamily genes were predominantly expressed in roots and up-regulated by NaCl, PEG, freezing, methyl jasmonate (MeJA), salicylic acid (SA) and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in leaves, suggesting that they have a vital role in hormone signaling to regulate multiple stress tolerance in B. napus. Conclusions The extensive annotation and expression analysis of the BnaTIFY genes contributes to our understanding of the functions of these genes in multiple stress responses and phytohormone crosstalk in B. napus.

API recommendation is a promising approach which is widely used during software development. However, the evaluation of API recommendation is not explored with sufficient rigor. The current evaluation of API recommendation mainly focuses on correctness, the measurement is conducted by matching recommended results with ground-truth results. In most cases, there is only one set of ground-truth APIs for each recommendation attempt, but the object code can be implemented in dozens of ways. The neglect of code diversity results in a possible defect in the evaluation. To address the problem, we invite 15 developers to analyze the unmatched results in a user study. The online evaluation confirms that some unmatched APIs can also benefit to programming due to the functional correlation with ground-truth APIs. Then we measure the API functional correlation based on the relationships extracted from API knowledge graph, API method name, and API documentation. Furthermore, we propose an approach to improve the measurement of correctness based on API functional correlation. Our measurement is evaluated on a dataset of 6141 requirements and historical code fragments from related commits. The results show that 28.2% of unmatched APIs can contribute to correctness in our experiments.

Catalytic reductive coupling of two electrophiles and one unsaturated bond represents an economic and efficient way to construct complex skeletons, which is dominated by transition-metal catalysis via two electron transfer. Herein, we report a strategy of visible-light photoredox-catalyzed successive single electron transfer, realizing dearomative arylcarboxylation of indoles with CO2. This strategy avoids common side reactions in transition-metal catalysis, including ipso-carboxylation of aryl halides and β-hydride elimination. This visible-light photoredox catalysis shows high chemoselectivity, low loading of photocatalyst, mild reaction conditions (room temperature, 1 atm) and good functional group tolerance, providing great potential for the synthesis of valuable but difficultly accessible indoline-3-carboxylic acids. Mechanistic studies indicate that the benzylic radicals and anions might be generated as the key intermediates, thus providing a direction for reductive couplings with other electrophiles, including D2O and aldehyde. Catalytic reductive coupling of two electrophiles and one C = C bond is usually performed by two electron transfer metal catalysis. Herein, the authors show a visible light photoredox-catalyzed successive single electron transfer leading to dearomative arylcarboxylation of indoles with CO2 and generating indoline-3-carboxylic acids.

The Qinling Mountains form the geo-ecological boundary between subtropical and warm-temperate zones in China and represent the northern boundary for the range of native Actinidia chinensis. To protect, explore and make use of natural resources more effectively, factors influencing genetic diversity of species must be determined. Whether the complex demography of the Qinling Mountains significantly influences gene flow of Actinidia species remains unknown. We assessed genetic diversity and structure of A. chinensis populations in the Qinling Mountains using genomic- and EST-SSR markers. We also conducted barrier analysis to detect genetic discontinuity and isolated pools within structured populations. A total of 179 alleles were detected in six natural A. chinensis populations with an average of 14.9 alleles per locus. Overall, genetic differentiation among A. chinensis populations was low but was stronger than that of populations on either the northern or southern slopes. Analysis of molecular variance showed that 25.97% of the total variance occurred among populations, whereas 74.03% of the total variance occurred within populations. The strongest gene flow occurred between the PX population on the southern slope and the LX population on the northern slope. A UPGMA dendrogram revealed that LX and PX populations were clustered together in one group. The other populations were clustered into another group. A Mantel test revealed no significant correlation between genetic and geographical distances. Clear genetic structure was revealed, and four geographic barriers were identified within and among five areas located in the western, central and eastern Qinling Mountains. Gene flow among populations was restricted by the primary ridges of the Qinling Mountains extending west to east, with branches advancing north to south.

Su-tong Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1088 m whose stiffness is small and it is sensitive to wind action. The length of the bridge girder at maximum single cantilever stage can reach up to 540 m, much attention should be paid in the aerodynamic performances of the under construction bridge. Based on wind tunnel tests, the aerodynamic characteristics of the girder, free standing pylon are considered. Also, field measurements of the pressure distribution on girder surface are presented. The experimental results show that only torsional vibration is found in the smooth flow at wind attack angle of 3°. Considering the influence of turbulence, the vortex-induced vibration of the girder is disappeared. The pressure coefficient values on the upper surface obtained from the wind tunnel tests are relatively larger than that obtained from field measurement. The drag coefficients values obtained from the wind tunnel tests are about 20% larger than that from field measurement. The crane can reduce the amplitude values of the free standing pylon at an incident angle of 0°, corresponding to along bridge axis. The turbulent flow can also reduce the amplitude values of vortex-induced vibration.

The Bagley–Torvik equation is generalized by using variable coefficients and the fractional order $$0

Background Primula is a large genus of flowering herbs well known for their heterostyly. Currently few natural hybrids are known and reproductive barriers in this genus in the wild have received little attention. However, there is instance of hybridization between rare and widely-spread species, and conservation implications of such situation is poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated hybridization patterns and reproductive barriers between a wide spread species, Primula poissonii and a rare species P. anisodora, of which only three populations are currently known. Results Pollinator-mediated reproductive isolation was strong between parental species but not significant between hybrids and parental species. Hand pollination experiments showed significant reduction of both fruit- and seed-set for heterospecific pollination as compared with conspecific pollination for both parental species. Furthermore, hybrids had higher fruit- and seed-set when pollinated with P. anisodora pollen as opposed to P. poissonii pollen. Microsatellites identified backcrosses to P. anisodora in two of the three populations of P. anisodora, and additionally more individuals of P. anisodora showed introgression from P. poissonii than vice versa. Conclusions These results provide evidence for potential genetic swamping of the P. anisodora populations, which could pose a serious threat for this locally endemic species. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-019-1881-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Undoped and Cr doped CdS nanoparticles have been successfully prepared via a solvothermal route. X-ray diffraction measurements demonstrated that the undoped and Cr doped CdS nanoparticles had a hexagonal structure. Transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the morphologies of CdS with different amounts of chromium consisted of nanoparticles. The average particle size of Cd1−xCrxS (x = 0.0394) nanoparticles was in the range of 30–60 nm. This product, composed of Cr, Cd, and S, was observed by an energy dispersive spectrometer. UV–Vis absorption spectra was used to investigate the optical properties of Cr-doped CdS nanoparticles. Absorption spectra of Cr doped CdS nanoparticles showed that the absorption edge was slightly shifted towards the short wavelength when compared to undoped CdS. A vibrating sample magnetometer showed that the Cr-doped CdS nanoparticles exhibited increased ferromagnetism at room temperature, while pure CdS nanorods exhibited weak ferromagnetism. The saturation magnetization of the Cr-doped CdS nanoparticles increased with Cr concentration over the range of x = 0.0000–0394. The saturation magnetization of the Cd1−xCrxS (x = 0.0394) nanoparticles was 9.258 (10−3 emu/g). The origin of the ferromagnetism in the Cd1−xCrxS nanoparticles is attributed to be related to the Cr substitution in CdS lattice.

Trastuzumab has shown a survival benefit in cases of Her2-positive gastroesophageal cancer (GEC). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) currently determine eligibility for trastuzumab-based therapy. However, these low-throughput assays often produce discordant or equivocal results. We developed a targeted proteomic assay based on selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (SRM-MS) and quantified levels (amol/μg) of Her2-SRM protein in cell lines (n = 27) and GEC tissues (n = 139). We compared Her2-SRM protein expression with IHC/FISH, seeking to determine optimal SRM protein expression cutoffs in order to identify HER2 gene amplification. After demonstrating assay development, precision, and stability, Her2-SRM protein measurement was observed to be highly concordant with the HER2/CEP17 ratio, particularly in a multivariate regression model adjusted for SRM expression of the covariates Met, Egfr, Her3, and HER2 heterogeneity, as well as their interactions (cell lines r 2 = 0.9842; FFPE r 2 = 0.7643). In GEC tissues, Her2-SRM protein was detected at any level in 71.2 % of cases. ROC curves demonstrated that Her2-SRM protein levels have a high specificity (100 %) at an upper-level cutoff of >750 amol/µg and sensitivity of 75 % at a lower-level cutoff of

Spectral emissivity is one of the important physical properties of materials. Emissivity measurement is critical for accurate temperature measurements and the evaluation of the stealth performance for materials. In this paper, a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and an energy comparison method are used to study material emissivity measurements. Two reference blackbodies are employed for real-time measurement and correction of the spectrometer background function to enhance the emissivity measurement accuracy, to improve the design of a three-parabolic-mirror optical system, and to enlarge the optical field of view to meet the measurement requirements. The linearity of the system is measured using a mercury cadmium telluride detector and a deuterated triglycine sulfate detector. The results indicate that the linear range of the system meets the emissivity measurement requirements for the temperature range from $$50\,^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$$ to $$1000\,^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$$ . The effective radiation surface is introduced as a parameter of the reference blackbodies to reduce the influence of the measurement distance. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer is used to measure the spectral emissivity of a conductive silica film and SiC, respectively, at different temperatures in the wavelength range of $$1\ \upmu \mathrm{m}$$ to $$25\ \upmu \mathrm{m}$$ . The expanded uncertainty is less than 5 %.

Nickel nanowires were synthesized via a template-free method in an aqueous solution system combined with chemical reduction and magnetic field. The suitable concentration of Ni ions and reaction time were controlled in order to obtain nickel wires with uniform sizes. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. The results showed that the Ni nanowires with large aspect ratio up to 200 had uniform size and morphology, about 200 nm. Especially, it is noteworthy that the samples were stable in air when the temperature was lower than 318°C. The study would provide a facile method to prepare nickel nanowires with homogeneous diameter and high thermal stability, which could be used in catalysing CO2 hydrogenation.

Exploration of biological resources from the Arctic and the Antarctic attracts increasing attention worldwide. l-haloacid dehalogenases (l-HADs) are considered to have potential applications in bioremediation and synthetic chemistry. They were reported from terrestrial bacteria in nonpolar regions, but seldom from microorganisms inhabiting the Arctic Ocean or Antarctica. Here, we described a new l-HAD (HADIIBSW) from psychrotrophic Pseudoalteromonas sp. BSW20308, isolated from the Arctic marine environment. HADIIBSW was analyzed in silico, cloned, expressed and biochemically characterized. HADIIBSW was evolutionarily distinct from previously characterized l-HADs, sharing only 34 % identity with l-HAD (DehRhb) from a Rhodobacteraceae family bacterium UDC319 as the closest relative. Although it was from a psychrotrophic bacterium, HADIIBSW had an optimum temperature for activity of 40 °C. However, it retained decent activity at low temperature, which is an advantage over previous l-HADs. It preferred short-chain substrates, with the maximum activity toward monobromoacetic acid (MBAA), followed by S-(-)-2-bromopropionic acid. HADIIBSW had exceptionally low Km (0.15 mM) and high Vmax (13.22 μmol/min/mg) with MBAA. The first investigation of an l-HAD from a psychrotrophic Pseudoalteromonas from the Arctic revealed its potential in industrial applications such as in synthetic chemistry and environmental protection. Hypotheses proposed in this study encouraged further research on its structure and catalytic mechanism, as well as its physiological role in situ.

The development of the rice floral organ directly affects rice yield and quality, and rice spikelet development has always been the hotspot in the field of botanical research. Mutants of the rice floral organ are very important intermediate materials which are used to reveal the genetic mechanism of spikelet development. In the present study, a stable rice mutant named unclosed glumes (ucgl) with a Japonica background, of which the lemma and palea cannot close fully after flowering, was isolated from the population mutagenized by using the ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) in rice. Results from the genetic analysis indicated that the mutant was controlled by a single recessive gene. The UCGL locus was mapped to a 118-kb region between SSR makers R8UM89 and RM23258 on chromosome 8. There was a C to T substitution at the fifth exon of LOC_Os08g0459600 by sequencing analysis. LOC_Os08g0459600 encodes 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductase 7 (OPR7), which is one of the key enzymes in the jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis. RT-PCR analysis showed that the UCGL gene could be expressed in all of the tested tissues including roots, stems, leaves, and panicles. Also, the concentration of endogenous JA in the ucgl mutant was reduced in contrast to the wild-type. The expression levels of JA biosynthetic genes including OsLOX and OsAOS were significantly increased in the ucgl mutant plant. The expression of UCGL (OsOPR7) could regulate JA metabolism and affect the closure of glumes in rice. As far as we know, the UCGL is thus a new gene and has not been reported as controlling the closure of rice glumes, thusthe study of it could provide a new insight into the role of JA in rice floral morphological development.