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Multi-regional input–output (MRIO) models are widely used to analyze the economic interdependencies between regions in the context of global trade and environmental research. MRIO tables enable us to teleconnect the sectors in different regions along the supply chain and track both direct and indirect impacts of global production. Yet emerging economies—despite reshaping international trade patterns and playing an increasingly important role in the world economy—are not adequately represented in existing MRIO databases, which lack key detail on countries and sectors. To bridge this gap, our study presents EMERGING: Up-to-date and full-scale MRIO tables covering 135 sectors in 245 economies over the period from 2015 to 2019. We describe in detail the steps in the development of the database and reconciliation and validation of bilateral trade data and national statistics. The EMERGING database is also designed to incorporate more official and publicly available data from national statistical institutes to ensure a high level of data quality, especially for these economies. We compare both national production-based and consumption-based value added generated from the EMERGING MRIO with the results from four major MRIO databases. Although global value-added accounts are similar across databases, we find significant discrepancies at the level of individual countries and sectors concerning conflicting benchmark data.

Morus alba leaves are a natural product with great antidiabetic potential. However, the therapeutic efficacy of natural products is usually achieved through the interaction of active compounds with specific targets. Among them, active compounds with multi-target therapeutic functions are more effective than single-target enzymes. In this study, a bienzyme system was constructed by co-immobilizing α-amylase and α-glucosidase onto Fe

In order to fight against the climate change, China has set a series of emission reduction policies for super-emitting sectors. The cement industry is the major source of process-related emissions, and more attention should be paid to this industry. This study calculates the process-related, direct fossil fuel–related, and indirect electricity-related emissions from China's cement industry. The study finds that China's cement-related emissions peaked in 2014. The emissions are, for the first time, divided into seven parts based on the cement used in different new building types. The provincial emission analysis finds that developed provinces outsourced their cement capacities to less developed regions. This study then employs index decomposition analysis to explore the drivers of changes in China's cement-related emissions. The results show that economic growth was the primary driver of emission growth, while emission intensity and efficiency were two offsetting factors. The changes in the construction industry's structure and improvement in efficiency were the two major drivers that contributed to the decreased emissions since 2014.

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) has been shown to be an excellent imaging modality for monitoring and study of tumor microvasculature. However, previous studies focused mainly on the normal tissues and did not quantify the tumor microvasculature. In this study, we present an in vivo OR-PAM imaging of the melanomas and hepatoma implanted in the mouse ear. We quantify the vessel growth by extracting the skeletons of both dense and thin branches of the tumor microvasculature obtained by Hessian matrix enhancement followed by improved two-step multistencils fast marching method. Compared with the previous methods of using OR-PAM for normal tissues, our method was more effective in extracting the binary vascular network in the tumor images and in obtaining the complete and continuous microvascular skeleton maps. Our demonstration of using OR-PAM in improving microvasculature of tumors and quantification of tumor growth would push deep this technology for the early diagnosis and treatment of cancers.

Background and Purpose There is emerging evidence that the mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone is associated with arrhythmias in cardiovascular disease. However, the effect of aldosterone on the slowly activated delayed rectifier potassium current (IKs) remains poorly understood. The present study was designed to investigate the modulation of IKs by aldosterone. Experimental Approach Adult guinea pigs were treated with aldosterone for 28 days via osmotic pumps. Standard glass microelectrode recordings and whole-cell patch-clamp techniques were used to record action potentials in papillary muscles and IKs in ventricular cardiomyocytes. Key Results The aldosterone-treated animals exhibited a prolongation of the QT interval and action potential duration with a higher incidence of early afterdepolarizations. Patch-clamp recordings showed a significant down-regulation of IKs density in the ventricular myocytes of these treated animals. These aldosterone-induced electrophysiological changes were fully prevented by a combined treatment with spironolactone, a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist. In addition, in in vitro cultured ventricular cardiomyocytes, treatment with aldosterone (sustained exposure for 24 h) decreased the IKs density in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, a significant corresponding reduction in the mRNA/protein expression of IKs channel pore and auxiliary subunits, KCNQ1 and KCNE1 was detected in ventricular tissue from the aldosterone-treated animals. Conclusions and Implications Aldosterone down-regulates IKs by inhibiting the expression of KCNQ1 and KCNE1, thus delaying the ventricular repolarization. These results provide new insights into the mechanism underlying K+ channel remodelling in heart disease and may explain the highly beneficial effects of MR antagonists in HF. Linked Articles This article is part of a themed section on Chinese Innovation in Cardiovascular Drug Discovery. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2015.172.issue-23

In this study, we investigated the effects of exogenous calcium nitrate on photoinhibition and thylakoid protein level in peanut plants under heat (40°C) and high irradiance (HI) (1,200 µmol/m(2) per s) stress. Compared with control seedlings (cultivated in 0 mmol/L Ca(NO3 )2 medium), the maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) in Ca(2+) -treated plants showed a slight decrease after 5 h stress, accompanied by lower degree of PSII closure (1-qP), higher non-photochemical quenching, and lower level of membrane damage. Ca(2+) inhibitors were used to analyze the varieties of antioxidant enzymes activity and PSII proteins. These results indicated that Ca(2+) could protect the subunits of PSII reaction centers from photoinhibition by reducing the generation of reactive oxygen species. In the presence of both ethyleneglycol-bis(2-aminoethylether)-tetraacetic acid and ascorbic acid (AsA), the net degradation of the damaged D1 protein was faster than that only treated with AsA. Our previous study showed that either the transcriptional or the translational level of calmodulin was obviously higher in Ca(2+) -treated plants. These results suggested that, under heat and HI stress, the Ca(2+) signal transduction pathway can alleviate the photoinhibition through regulating the protein repair process besides an enhanced capacity for scavenging reactive oxygen species.

In this experiment, sensitivity to female facial attractiveness was examined by comparing event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to attractive and unattractive female faces within a study-test paradigm. Fourteen heterosexual participants (age range 18-24 years, mean age 21.67 years) were required to judge 84 attractive and 84 unattractive face images as either "attractive" or "unattractive." They were then asked whether they had previously viewed each face in a recognition task in which 50% of the images were novel. Analyses indicated that attractive faces elicited more enhanced ERP amplitudes than did unattractive faces in judgment (N300 and P350-550 msec) and recognition (P160 and N250-400 msec and P400-700 msec) tasks on anterior locations. Moreover, longer reaction times and higher accuracy rate were observed in identifying attractive faces than unattractive faces. In sum, this research identified neural and behavioral bases related to cognitive preferences for judging and recognizing attractive female faces. Explanations for the results are that attractive female faces arouse more intense positive emotions in participants than do unattractive faces, and they also represent reproductive fitness and mating value from the evolutionary perspective.

The present work comparatively evaluates the efficacy of docosahexaenoic acid - phosphatidylcholine (DHA-PC) forage and liposome on Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mice and illustrates the potential mechanism. The dose of DHA-PC in forage group (1% of total diets) is equal to that of liposome group. The results of Morris maze test show that both DHA-PC forage and liposome obviously alleviated cognitive impairment (P

A known Arabidopsis cDNA clone, the CRT/DRE binding factor 1 (CBF1), was isolated and introduced into tomato plants. CBF1 is a member of the CBF gene family related to low temperature and enhanced low temperature tolerance in plants. In the present work, transcripts of CBF1 could be detected in transgenic tomato leaves, and the photochemical efficiency of PSII (F(v) /F(m)) and oxidisable P700 in the transgenic tomato over-expressing CBF1 were higher than in non-transformed plants under low temperature stress at low irradiance. Similarly, higher activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), higher non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content were also detected in transgenic tomato leaves. These results suggest that CBF1 protein plays an important role in protection of PSII and PSI during low temperature stress at low irradiance.

The T-cell immunoglobulin- and mucin-domain-containing molecules (TIMs) comprise a new family of cell surface molecules expressed on T cells. TIM-3 is expressed on T helper type 1 (Th1) cells and implicated in the pathogenesis of Th1-driven auto- and allo-immune diseases. TIM-1 is suggested to act as a co-stimulatory molecule for all T cells, but with potentially stronger effects on Th2 than Th1 cells and is associated with Th2-related immune diseases. However, the TIM molecules have not been investigated in the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this study, we examined the expression of TIM-1 and TIM-3 on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from SLE patients using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. An increased TIM-1 expression was detected in SLE patients, which correlates with interleukin-10 expression. We also found that there was a significant increase in the expression of TIM-1 in SLE patients with quite active disease (SLE disease activity index > 6), indicating that TIM-1 expression might be related to active clinical phases. In contrast, TIM-3 expression remained normal in SLE patients with low statistical power (34.89%). However, the expression of TIM-3 ligand, galectin-9 increased in SLE patients indicating an enhanced engagement of TIM-3 with its ligand in SLE, which may result in a decreased regulatory T-cell function as shown by the decreased expression of FoxP3 and TGF-beta1 in SLE. These data suggest that TIM-1 and TIM-3/TIM-3L are involved in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Nickel(I) complexes were generated in situ from Ni (PPh3)2Cl2 using activated iron and the complexes combined with N,N′-bis(4-fluorobenzylidene) ethane-1,2-diamine (BFBED) were then used as a catalyst for the 1,4-addition reaction of arylboronic acids to α,β-unsaturated substrates. The reaction proceeded to completion and did not require the addition of a base but the addition of potassium iodide is crucial to this cross-coupling reaction. Moreover, experimental observations suggested a possible Ni(I)–Ni(III) catalytic cycle mechanism.

The silver staining which specifically stains argyrophilic proteins (AgNORs) in interphase nuclei was applied to paraffin sections of 24 testicular specimens with carcinoma in situ (CIS). AgNOR area per nucleus was quantified by a computerized image analyser. Significant quantitative differences were found between CIS, Sertoli cells, and spermatogonia (P = 0.0001), with median values of 10.3, 2.8, and 1.4 microns2 in the three cell types, respectively. A Sertoli cell index (SCI), defined as the ratio between AgNORs in CIS or spermatogonia and Sertoli cells, was shown to be significant in the differential diagnosis of CIS cells from spermatogonia when 1.0 was used as the cut-off value (CIS > 1; spermatogonia < 1). Furthermore, CIS associated with non-seminoma was found to have a significantly higher level of AgNORs than CIS associated with pure seminoma (P < 0.01), indicating that subclonal variation in transformation potential might be present within morphologically identical CIS of the testis. It remains to be seen whether quantification of AgNORs in isolated CIS could be used to predict transformation of CIS into seminoma or non-seminoma.

Under optimized conditions, various arylboronic acids react with aryl/heteroaryl aldehydes to give carboxylic esters.