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ABSTRACT A simple, robust and specific liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to determine the concentration of corticosterone (Cort) which is usually regarded as a stress biomarker in mouse serum. Since Cort is an endogenous hormone, a 'surrogate analyte' strategy was adopted using the stable isotope-deuterated corticosterone as a surrogate of the authentic analyte to generate the calibration curve. With telmisartan as the internal standard, the analytes were extracted with methanol, ethanol and acetone (1:1:1, v/v/v) and separated on a XTerra C18 (2.1 × 50 mm, 3.5 µm) column using a mobile phase consisting of 0.2% formic acid in water-methanol (30:70, v/v). Detection was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode with an electrospray ionization source operated in positive ion mode. The standard curves were linear ( r2 > 0.999) over the dynamic range of 8.60-430 ng/mL, with a lower limit of quantification of 8.60 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were less than 15.0% of the relative standard deviation. This method was further used for analysis of serum samples from C57B/L tumor-bearing mice before and after the treatment of fluoxetine. Validation of the assay and its application to the analysis demonstrated that the method was applicable to determine meaningful changes in Cort concentrations in serum samples of the tumor-bearing mice for the stress status evaluation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor (PBX)-interacting protein (HPIP) has been shown to play a role in cancer development and progression. However, the detailed role of HPIP in cancer cell growth and the exact mechanism by which HPIP regulates cancer cell proliferation remains unclear. Here, we report that HPIP is overexpressed in most of 328 liver cancer patients and regulates hepatoma cell proliferation through G2/M checkpoint activation. HPIP increased anchorage-dependent and -independent growth of human liver cancer cell lines. The amino acid region 531-631 of HPIP was important for its modulation of liver cancer cell growth. The increased effects of HPIP on liver cancer cell proliferation were associated with activation of the G2/M cell-cycle concomitant with a marked increase of cyclin B1 and the inhibition of the negative G2/M phase regulator GADD45α. HPIP knockdown dramatically suppressed the growth of HepG2 liver cancer cells in nude mice. These data highlight the important role of HPIP in liver cancer cell growth and suggest that HPIP may be a good target for liver cancer therapy. © 2013 IUBMB Life, 65(10):873-882, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lot of previous experimental studies on ultramafic rocks (SiO2 unsaturated system) (Ringwood and Major, 1971; Irifune et al., 1986; Gasparik, 1989; Ono and Yasuda, 1996) have demonstrated that characteristics of Si‐rich and Al‐deficient in garnet are resulted from coupled substitution of SiVI+MVI=AlVI+AlVI and SiVI+NaVII=AlVI+MVII (M=Mg, Fe, Ca) at ultrahigh pressures (UHP) (>5 GPa). The degree of substitution will be enhanced by increasing pressure which has a positive correlation with the content of SiVI, but a negative correlation with the content of AlVI in supersilic garnet. These experimental results established a theoretical foundation for further understanding the formation mechanism of the exsolution of pyroxene in garnet observed in deep mantle xenoliths and some ultrahigh pressure rocks, and also for estimating the pressure conditions of the formation of supersilic garnet before exsolution (Haggerty and Sautter, 1990; Sautter et al., 1991; van Roermund et al., 1998; Ye et al., 2000). Although some experimental studies on SiO2 saturated system have been reported (Irifune et al., 1994; Ono., 1998; Dobrazhinetskya and Green., 2007; Wu et al., 2009), the stability conditions of supersilic garnet are still lack of unified understanding. Therefore, HP‐HT experiments were carried out on felsic rocks under conditions of 6–12GPa and 1000°C–1400°C. Combined with previous experimental data, we try to figure out the minimum stable pressure and geological significants of supersilic garnet in SiO2 saturated system. Our experimental results from SiO2 saturated system show the minimum stable pressure of supersilic garnet should be ≥10 GP of stishovite stability field. These results are similar as that from experiments using starting composition similar to average upper continental crust reported by Irifune et al (1994) who yielded that garnet gradually became supersilic and Al‐deficient as pressures increased above 10 GPa, especially in a pressure interval between 13 and 18 GPa. Moreover, experiments with different starting materials (Ono, 1998; Dobrazhinetskya and Green, 2007; Wu et al. 2009) also indicate the stable pressure condition of supersilic garnet is mainly ≥9 –10 GPa in SiO2 saturated system if data of small‐size grains at low temperature are ignored due to measuring errors. Thus, it can be concluded that the minimum stable pressure of supersilic garnet in SiO2 saturated system is distinctly different from that in SiO2 unsaturated ultramafic rock system. The minimum pressure of the former is ≥9–10 GPa of stishovite stability field, while that of the latter is >5 GPa. Therefore, whether independent SiO2 phase exist or rock system is SiO2 saturated must be taken into considered when estimating the peak pressure of exsolutions in supersilic garnet in UHP rocks. Furthermore, pressure of >5 GPa directly estimated by supersilic garnet based on conclusion from SiO2 unsaturation system rather than SiO2 saturation in previous sdudies may have been underestimated and need to be re‐estimated. Supersilic garnets have been recognized by interior exsolutions of clinopyroxene in garnet pyroxene from Yinggelisayi South Altyn (Liu et al., 2005), and exsolutions of rodlike quartz+rutile in felsic gneiss from Songshugou North Qinling (Liu et al., 2003). According to the experimental results from SiO2 unsaturated system, the peak metamorphic pressure of the both SiO2 saturated rocks have been estimated to be >7Gpa and >5Gpa, respectively. However, combined with the new experimental results above, we re‐estimated that the peak metamorphic pressure of these SiO2 saturated rocks should be≥9 –10 GPa at least, implying an ultra‐deep subduction to mantle depth of stishovite stability field. This research, together with previous findings (Liu et al., 2007, 2018), shows that continental subduction to mantle depth (300km) of stishovite stability field and then exhumation to the surface is obviously more common than previously thought, and the rock types are also diverse. At the same time, it provides a new indicator and thought for recognizing the subduction to the mantle depth of stishovite stability field in UHP metamorphic belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on geological topics which include the origin and structure of zircon in metamorphic rocks, the role of fluids during processes involving the continental crust, and geochemical characteristics of granites found in the Dabie Mountains, China.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized through solution polymerization using quercetin as the template molecule, N-vinylpyrrolidone and acrylic acid as functional monomers, N, N′-methylenebiacrylamide as crosslinker and the redox system L-ascorbic acid and hydrogen peroxide as initiator in the porogen of ethanol and water. During the optimization process an interference compound, genistein (5,7,4′-trihydroxy isoflavone), which possesses the same skeleton and functional groups as quercetin, was adopted to optimize the preparation conditions, and the separation degree of the MIP to quercetin and genistein was chosen to optimize each factor. The synthesized MIP under optimal conditions showed a specific recognition of quercetin from a mixture of quercetin and genistein. Thereafter, the structure of the MIP was comparatively characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis using non-imprinted molecular polymers as control. In addition, the kinetics of the adsorption process were also studied, and Scatchard analysis revealed that heterogeneous binding sites were formed in the polymers. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

iNOS plays an important role in mediating inflammation. In this study, we found that iNOS-derived NO was increased 2.4-fold in the serum samples of 101 patients infected with influenza A virus in comparison with samples of 105 healthy individuals. In A549 human lung epithelial cells, infection with influenza A virus or stimulation with poly(I:C)+IFN-γ resulted in increased mRNA and protein levels of both IL-32 and iNOS, with subsequent release of NO. Over-expression of IL-32 resulted in upregulated iNOS expression with subsequent NO production. Knock down of IL-32 by IL-32-specific siRNA resulted in the inhibition of dsRNA-induced expression of iNOS and NO release, indicating that IL-32 is an upstream regulatory factor of dsRNA-triggered iNOS production. Surprisingly, over-expression of iNOS resulted in the reduction of IL-32 expression, and suppression of iNOS by the selective iNOS inhibitor S-methylisothiourea sulfate stimulated IL-32 expression, indicating that a negative feedback mechanism operates between the iNOS/NO and IL-32 systems. These findings suggest that influenza A virus infection activates IL-32 and iNOS expression by a heretofore unrecognized complex mechanism, in which the two pro-inflammatory factors regulate each other, involving positive and negative feedback regulatory loops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial infrared (IR) nonlinear optical (NLO) materials are mainly from chalcopyrite‐type AMQ2 (A = Ag, Zn, M = Ga, Ge, Q = S, Se, P) crystals such as AgGaS2 (AGS), AgGaSe2 (AGSe), and ZnGeP2 (ZGP), in which the basic NLO‐active groups are MQ4 tetrahedral units. However, the small anisotropic character of them critical for small birefringence hinders the practical applications in the available IR wavelength range. In this study, a novel strategy for modulating birefringence is proposed using a cation regulation‐driven compressed hypertetrahedral layer approach and a family of AAg2MS4 (A = Na, K, Rb; M = P, As) IR NLO crystals are successfully obtained. Remarkably, the title compounds increase the birefringence to 0.12–0.15, about three times larger than that of AGS (0.04), while they can maintain large bandgaps and strong NLO effects. In addition, they exhibit congruent‐melting properties, beneficial for bulk single crystal growth. The work offers a firsthand access for designing and fabricating high‐performance IR NLO materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive thermodynamic calculations and high‐temperature experiments are performed to systematically evaluate the effect of calcium and magnesium additions on the modification and control of inclusions in AH36 ship plate steel. The results show that Al2O3 or MgAl2O4 inclusions are formed under the casting temperature conditions. Calcium treatment modifies the inclusions into calcium aluminate, of which components partially fall into the liquidus region, and the aspect ratio and number density of inclusions became smaller, avoiding nozzle clogging, but the inclusions are easy to gather and grow up, which would affect the steel properties. Magnesium treatment modifies the inclusions into dispersed magnesium‐aluminum spinel with small size. However, the number density and aspect ratio of inclusions increase, as well as the melting points of inclusions are high, which would easily cause nozzle clogging. When calcium–magnesium synergistic treatment, with the increase of magnesium proportion, the inclusions types increased, and the liquidus area of inclusions became narrower until it disappeared. Synergistic treatment with more calcium and less magnesium (Ca2Mg1) is optimal since the inclusions were fine and diffuse, and the corresponding liquidus area of inclusions is wider than the calcium treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolving from metamaterials, optical metasurfaces not only inherit their unprecedented flexibility in tailoring light–matter interaction but also the generally fixed response determined by the metaatoms' geometries—an undesirable property that hinders the development of practical metadevices. Consequently, novel optical metasurfaces that can be tuned in an active manner are intensively studied in recent years. Due to their optically thin structures, optical metasurfaces present unique characteristics in the realization of dynamic tuning. In this review, a detailed summary of the recent advances in active optical metasurfaces is provided including discussions reviewing a variety of active materials and approaches that enable faster, stronger, and more accurate tuning. Beyond facilitating practical metadevices, studies of active metasurfaces have, and will continue to deepen the understandings of the interaction between light and nanostructured photonic architectures and to promote the development of nanofabrication techniques involving high‐complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 72-year-old man presented with history of rapidly enlarging, well-demarcated erythema with varicose veins of the chest wall and also presents the history of Hodgkin lymphoma of a left axillary lymph. It mentions the diagnosis of cutaneous flushing that associated with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma.

The long prism/needle‐shaped polycrystalline quartz aggregates and square/parallelogram‐shaped singlephase quartz inclusions in omphacite and garnet of ultrahigh pressure eclogite were first discovered from the Jiangalesayi area, South Altyn UHP belt. Based on their morphology, these quartz inclusions are quartz paramorphs after stishovite. The minimum peak pressure of the eclogite is estimated to be >8–9 GPa at 800– 1000 °C based on the stability field of stishovite. This new evidence, together with previous stishovite exsolution microstructure in the gneiss from the same region, suggests an ultra‐deep subduction and exhumation of the South Altyn continental rocks to/from mantle depths in stishovite stability field. Evidence of ultra‐deep subduction of continental materials might be more common and diverse than previous thought. Exhumation of subducted continental rocks from≥300 km has been considered impossible because they are denser than mantle at these depths. How did the stishovite bearing continental rocks of the South Altyn exhumated? As we all know, the densities of stishovite (4.3 g/cm3) are much higher than coesite (2.9 g/cm3), and stishovite transforms into coesite with temperature increases. Density calculations were performed for subducted continental rocks along phase transition of stishovite to coesite, using the third‐order Birch‐Murnaghan equation of state based on mineral fractions obtained from experiments and Perple_X. The results show that the density of Siliceous rocks decrease remarkably, lower than the surrounding mantle in coesite stability field, whereas the density of Oligosiliceous and Silicon unsaturated rocks is higher than surrounding mantle. Thus, we propose that the thermal induced transformation could provide an initial driven force for the exhumation of ultra‐deep subducted silica‐enriched felsic continental rocks. Temperature increase could be derived from an increased geothermal gradient from convective mantle or mantle plume. Mafic to ultra‐mafic rocks and silica‐deficient rocks may be captured by the upwelling subducted continental rocks and exhumated together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K3Ba3Li2Al4B6 O20F is prepared by solid state reaction of a stoichiometric mixture of K2CO3, BaCO3, Li2CO3, Al2O3, LiF, and H3BO3 (1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Restoring Intrinsic Properties of Electromagnetic Radiators Using Ultralightweight Integrated Metasurface Cloaks" published in a 2015 issue of the journal "Advanced Functional Materials" is presented.

The coupling of various readily available aromatic aldehydes with terminal alkenes leads to 1,2-disubstituted alkenes with good regioselectivity and in most cases a E:Z ratio of <20:1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computer-assisted material design system based on first-principles DFT calculations is employed to predict that NH4Be2BO3F2 possesses nonlinear optical properties, such as deep-UV second harmonic generation capability, very close to those of KBe2BO3F2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diagram is presented which shows the chemical formula for the derivatives of isoquinoline, the coupling of aliphatic aldehydes and azaarenes, and alkylation of heterocycles.

The new title compound is synthesized by solid state reaction from mixtures of KP, Si, and P in the molar ratio of 1:2:2 (750 °C, 4 d). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first alkaline‐earth metal tin(II) phosphate, BaSn2(PO4)2, has been discovered, which consists of layered structures constructed from strictly alternating [SnO3]4− and [PO4]3− moieties. This compound is expected to have a large birefringence with Δn≈0.071 at 1064 nm, owing to the presence of stereochemically active lone pair metal cations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new barium ytterbium indium selenide, Ba2YbInSe5, was obtained by conventional high temperature solid state reaction. The compound crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group Cmc21 of the orthorhombic system. The structure contains infinite one-dimensional anionic chains 1∞[YbInSe5]4-, which are built from YbSe6 octahedra and InSe4 tetrahedra and separated by Ba2+ cation. The magnetic measurement indicates that the compound is paramagnetic. In addition, the calculated bandgap is 0.29 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new title compound is synthesized by solid state reaction of BaSe, In2Se3, Yb, and Se in the molar ratio 4:1:2:3 (1173 K, 72 h). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]