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Abstract Background The “missing” link of complex and multifaceted interplay among endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) transcription, chronic immuno-inflammation, and the development of psychiatric disorders is still far from being completely clarified. The present study was aimed to investigate the mechanism of protective role of inhibiting ERVs on reversing microglial immuno-inflammation in basolateral amygdala (BLA) in chronic stress-induced negative emotional behaviors in mice. Methods Male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) for 6 w. Negative emotional behaviors were comprehensively investigated to identify the susceptible mice. Microglial morphology, ERVs transcription, intrinsic nucleic acids sensing response, and immuno-inflammation in BLA were assessed. Results Mice with chronic stress were presented as obviously depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors, and accompanied with significant microglial morphological activation, murine ERVs genes MuERV-L, MusD, and IAP transcription, cGAS–IFI16–STING pathway activation, NF-κB signaling pathway priming, as well as NLRP3 inflammasome activation in BLA. Antiretroviral therapy, pharmacological inhibition of reverse transcriptases, as well as knocking-down the ERVs transcriptional regulation gene p53 significantly inhibited microglial ERVs transcription and immuno-inflammation in BLA, as well as improved the chronic stress-induced negative emotional behaviors. Conclusions Our results provided an innovative therapeutic approach that targeting ERVs-associated microglial immuno-inflammation may be beneficial to the patients with psychotic disorders.

Abstract The efficient and flexible conversion of electrical energy is increasingly accomplished by megawatt insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules. Their dynamic performance is influenced by the gate driver control, operating points and the switching loop parasitics, which are crucial to their optimized operational behaviours, efficiency and field reliability. This paper investigates the controllability of the transient voltage and current slopes of megawatt IGBT modules during their turn‐off transitions and proposes an efficient assessment method accordingly. Firstly, the causal relationship of transient characteristic variations and controllability is investigated analytically. Then, major factors impacting the controllability are analysed and validated, including the charge carrier profile, the operating points (i.e. the load voltage, the load current, and the junction temperature), and the gate resistance. Finally, an efficient method using the MOS‐channel turn‐off point on calibrated gate voltage waveform is proposed for the controllability evaluation, which can guide the IGBT, gate driver, and converter design.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is the most universal and abundant post-transcriptional modification of eukaryotic RNA and occurs mainly at the consensus motif RR (m6A) CH (R = A or G, H = A, C, or U) in long internal exons, near stop codons, or in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR). “Writers,” “erasers,” and “readers” are responsible for the occurrence, removal, and recognition of m6A modification, respectively. Substantial evidence has shown that m6A RNA modification can exert important functions in physiological and pathological processes. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a wide array of disorders affecting heart or vessels, including atherosclerosis (AS), hypertension (HT), ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure (HF), and so on. Despite the advances in lipid-lowering drugs, antihypertensives, antiplatelet agents, and anticoagulation therapy, CVDs are still the leading cause of death worldwide. Recent studies have suggested that m6A modification of RNA may contribute to the pathogenesis of CVDs, providing a novel research insight for CVDs. Herein, we provide an up-of-date summarization of the molecular mechanism of m6A and the roles of m6A in different types of CVDs. At last, we propose that m6A might be a potiential biomarker or therapeutic target for CVDs.

Two-dimensional graphene is widely used in the nuclear industry, computer simulation of the physical process of graphene irradiation damage can assist the study of microscopic dynamic processes that cannot be directly observed in irradiation experiments. The irradiation-induced microstructural change of 2D graphene sheets was studied using molecular dynamics simulations with a maximum primary knock-on atoms (PKA) energy of 180 keV. The results show that using direct observation, the defects generated during the cascade collision process can be divided into three types according to the generation mechanism: defects by PKA damage (DPD), instantaneous defects by shock wave rippling (DSR), and permanent defects by shock wave overlapping (DSO). The atomic configuration of the final stage consists of various topological polygons; in general, octagons and polygons with fewer than eight sides are bulged, while polygons with more than eight sides are depressed. The largest topological polygon found by the simulation is a 13-sided polygon. In addition to atoms with a coordination number of 3 (originating from the perfect lattice structure of graphene), atoms with coordination numbers of 2 and 4 are produced. Atoms with a coordination number of 4 are generally enclosed by four polygons that have no more than six sides, while atoms with a coordination number of 2 are generally located between two polygons that have at least six sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported a method combining the gas–liquid interface method and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) to fabricate highly-ordered nanowire arrays on a 2 inch GaAs substrate. A large-area and highly-ordered SiO2 nanosphere monolayer was fabricated and the GaAs nanowire array was etched by ICP. The flow rates and ratios of the etching gases were studied. Finally, highly-ordered GaAs nanowire arrays with high quality surface morphology were obtained with the volumetric flow rates at 9 sccm and 21 sccm for BCl3 and N2 gases, respectively. Reflectance of the samples was found to be consistently below 10%, the lowest being 3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]