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Background Skeletal muscle as a metabolic consumer determines systemic energy homeostasis by regulating myofibre type conversion and muscle mass control. Perturbation of the skeletal muscle metabolism elevates the risk of a variety of diseases including metabolic disorders. However, the regulatory pathways and molecules are not completely understood. The discovery of relevant responsible molecules and the associated network could be an attractive strategy to overcome diseases associated with muscle problems. Methods An initial screening using quantitative trait locus analysis enabled us to extract a set of genes including ubiquitin‐specific proteases21 (USP21) (r = 0.738; P = 0.004) as potential targets associated with fasting blood glucose content. Given tight regulation of the ubiquitination status of proteins in muscle, we focused on USP21 and generated whole‐body (KO) and skeletal muscle‐specific USP21 knockout (MKO) mice. Transcriptomics, proteomics, and lipidomics assays in combination with various in vivo and in vitro experiments were performed to understand the functions of USP21 and underlying mechanisms. A high‐fat diet (60%)‐fed mouse model and diabetic patient‐derived samples were utilized to assess the effects of USP21 on energy metabolism in skeletal muscle. Results USP21 was highly expressed in both human and mouse skeletal muscle, and controlled skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and fuel consumption. USP21‐KO or USP21‐MKO significantly promoted oxidative fibre type changes (Δ36.6% or Δ47.2%), muscle mass increase (Δ13.8% to Δ22.8%), and energy expenditure through mitochondrial biogenesis, fatty acid oxidation, and UCP2/3 induction (P

The pathogenesis of psoriasis, an immune-mediated chronic skin barrier disease, is not fully understood yet. Here, we identified lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor 5 (LPA5)-mediated signaling as a novel pathogenic factor in psoriasis using an imiquimod-induced psoriasis mouse model. Amounts of most LPA species were markedly elevated in injured skin of psoriasis mice, along with LPA5 upregulation in injured skin. Suppressing the activity of LPA5 with TCLPA5, a selective LPA5 antagonist, improved psoriasis symptoms, including ear thickening, skin erythema, and skin scaling in imiquimod-challenged mice. TCLPA5 administration attenuated dermal infiltration of macrophages that were found as the major cell type for LPA5 upregulation in psoriasis lesions. Notably, TCLPA5 administration attenuated the upregulation of macrophage NLRP3 in injured skin of mice with imiquimod-induced psoriasis. This critical role of LPA5 in macrophage NLRP3 was further addressed using lipopolysaccharide-primed bone marrow-derived macrophages. LPA exposure activated NLRP3 inflammasome in lipopolysaccharide-primed cells, which was evidenced by NLRP3 upregulation, caspase-1 activation, and IL-1&beta, maturation/secretion. This LPA-driven NLRP3 inflammasome activation in lipopolysaccharide-primed cells was significantly attenuated upon LPA5 knockdown. Overall, our findings establish a pathogenic role of LPA5 in psoriasis along with an underlying mechanism, further suggesting LPA5 antagonism as a potential strategy to treat psoriasis.

Two-dimensional (2D)-layered semiconducting materials with considerable band gaps are emerging as a new class of materials applicable to next-generation devices. Particularly, black phosphorus (BP) is considered to be very promising for next-generation 2D electrical and optical devices because of its high carrier mobility of 200–1000 cm2 V–1 s–1 and large on/off ratio of 104 to 105 in field-effect transistors (FETs). However, its environmental instability in air requires fabrication processes in a glovebox filled with nitrogen or argon gas followed by encapsulation, passivation, and chemical functionalization of BP. Here, we report a new method for reduction of BP-channel devices fabricated without the use of a glovebox by galvanic corrosion of an Al overlayer. The reduction of BP induced by an anodic oxidation of Al overlayer is demonstrated through surface characterization of BP using atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy along with electrical measurement of a...

In free space, unshielded large volume of a low permanent magnetic field (MF) generating system is necessary for use in such areas of magnetic measurements as: calibration of magnetometers, testing of materials, the ecological and medical effects, etc.

We report on the structure and the magnetic properties of Bi1.985Cu0.015Te3 and Sb1.988-Cu0.012Te3 single crystals prepared using the temperature gradient solidification method. The crystals structure was rhombohedral, and the lattice constants decreased with the addition of Cu. The hole carrier conduction was observed in Hall-effect and thermopower measurements. The carrier densities and thermopowers at 300 K were 1.538 × 1020 cm−3/218.5 µV/K and 1.132 × 1021 cm−3/36.8 µV/K for Bi1.985Cu0.015Te3, and Sb1.988Cu0.012Te3, respectively. We could observe a strong diamagnetism with weak ferromagnetic hysteresis, indicating a mixture of non-magnetic and ferromagnetic ordering between Cu-ions in Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3.

We investigated the field-effect transistor (FET) characteristics of 15-μm graphene-covered copper wires (G-wires). Unlike the previously reported graphene FET, carries initially showed p -type like FET characteristics in two-terminal transport measurements. Our results indicate that the electrical transport processes in a G-wire FET occur in both the heavily p -doped contact and the p -doped radial graphene channel, as a p -channel. The interfacial potential barrier between the contact electrode and the radial graphene channel is small, but there is a radial potential barrier that limits electrical transport through the copper core in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown samples. The p -type FET characteristics appeared clearly after the oxidation of the G-wires.

High-performance ultra-thin oxide layers are required for various next-generation electronic and optical devices. In particular, ultra-thin resistive switching (RS) oxide layers are expected to become fundamental building blocks of three-dimensional high-density non-volatile memory devices. Until now, special deposition techniques have been introduced for realization of high-quality ultra-thin oxide layers. Here, we report that ultra-thin oxide layers with reliable RS behavior can be self-assembled by field-induced oxygen migration (FIOM) at the interface of an oxide-conductor/oxide-insulator or oxide-conductor/metal. The formation via FIOM of an ultra-thin oxide layer with a thickness of approximately 2-5 nm and 2.5% excess oxygen content is demonstrated using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy depth profile. The observed RS behavior, such as the polarity dependent forming process, can be attributed to the formation of an ultra-thin oxide layer. In general, as oxygen ions are mobile in many oxide-conductors, FIOM can be used for the formation of ultra-thin oxide layers with desired properties at the interfaces or surfaces of oxide-conductors in high-performance oxide-based devices.

We demonstrate that the controlled distribution of nanoparticles can be achieved by employing the spin-coating method. The Co and Ag nanoparticles were uniformly distributed on the Si and SiO2 substrates with this method. The particle density was controllable by varying the concentration of colloids. The spatial distribution of the nanoparticles within the patterned area was also shown to be uniform with small boundary effect, which is favorable for current microelectronics technology. We propose that the spin-coating method can be utilized in developing mass production processes for future nanodevices.

In the present study, we propose a new methodology to develop the multi-parametric measure of heart rate variability (HRV) diagnosing cardiovascular disease using various linear and nonlinear measures of HRV. We recorded electrocardiogram for three recumbent postures; the supine, left lateral, and right lateral postures. Twenty control subjects, 51 patients with angina pectoris and 13 patients with acute coronary syndrome participated in this study. We used several time- and frequency-domain measures of HRV as linear measures. As nonlinear measures, Poincare plots, the fractal scaling measures and complexity estimations were used. To develop the multi-parametric measure of HRV, we used the multiple discriminant analysis method among statistical techniques. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to discriminate among three groups, i.e. control, angina pectoris and acute coronary syndrome. As a result, the multiple discriminant analysis gave 75.0 % of goodness of fit. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity for angina pectoris group are 72.5 % and 81.8 %, respectively. In the case of acute coronary syndrome group, the sensitivity and specificity are 84.6 % and 91.5 %, respectively. When the linear and nonlinear measures of HRV are individually used as a clinical tool to diagnose cardiac autonomic function, there is quite a possibility that the wrong results will be obtained due to each measure has different characteristics. Although our study is a preliminary one, we suggest that the multi-parametric measure, which takes into consideration the whole possible linear and nonlinear measures of HRV, may be helpful to diagnose the cardiovascular disease as a diagnostic supplementary tool.

A pulsed laser beam applied to a thin metal film is capable of launching an acoustic wave due to thermal expansion. Heat transfer from the thin metal film to adjacent materials can also induce thermal expansion; thus, the properties of these adjacent materials (as well as the thin metal film) should be considered for a complete description of the thermoelastic response. Here, we show that adjacent materials with a small specific heat and large thermal expansion coefficient can generate an enhanced acoustic wave and we demonstrate a three-fold increase in the peak pressure of the generated acoustic wave on substitution of parylene for polydimethylsiloxane.

We have observed unipolar-type resistance switching in an ultrathin niobium oxide film. An analysis of the temperature dependence of the resistance switching transport revealed that low-resistance state showed a type of electrical conduction typically observed in metals. The modification in chemical binding states of the film in different resistance states was studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The analysis of XPS showed that metallic suboxides NbOδ (δ ≪ 2), decomposed from some of Nb2O5 and NbO2 components of the film, were created after electroforming process, suggesting that the metallic suboxides are constituting elements of metallic channels in the low resistance state.