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Template-activating factor Iβ (TAF-Iβ) has been associated with numerous pathophysiological processes and has been reported as an oncogene responsible for the regulation of important signaling pathways in various types of solid tumor; however, few studies have investigated the role of TAF-Iβ in leukemia. The present study reported the upregulated expression of TAF-Iβ in 36 patients with acute leukemia and six leukemic cell lines. In addition, TAF-Iβ-knockdown (KD) cells were generated via RNA interference. TAF-Iβ KD not only inhibited the proliferation of leukemia cells but also induced apoptosis. Furthermore, it was revealed that the mechanism underlying these effects may be associated with the upregulation of protein phosphatase type 2A and inhibition of the protein kinase B/glycogen synthase kinase-3β signaling pathway. Collectively, the findings demonstrated that TAF-Iβ serves an important role in various types of leukemia and may be considered as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of leukemia.

We develop a facile method to fabricate Co nanoparticles-embedded N, B co-doped carbon nanotubes on reduced graphene oxide sheets (Co@BNCNT/rGO). The prepared Co@BNCNT/rGO has high electrical conductivity, a large number of defects, and a three-dimensional structure with multiple interfaces. The experimental results show that the introduction of rGO can adjust the dielectric loss and impedance matching characteristics of the Co@BNCNT/rGO. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the electrons transfer from metallic Co to N,B-doped CNT, leading to interfacial polarization relaxation that favors the improvement of the electromagnetic wave absorption property of the Co@BNCNT/rGO. As a result, the Co@BNCNT/rGO exhibits excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties with a minimum reflection loss exceeding −20 dB even if the matching thickness is lower than 2.0 mm. Moreover, the filler mass load of the Co@BNCNT/rGO is merely 20 wt%. Our results highlight a new method for synthesizing high-performance electromagnetic wave absorbers.

The current study focuses on the protection of daidzein on nerves, as daidzein was demonstrated to have a protective effect on neurons of the central nervous system in a glutamate excitotoxicity and oxygen/glucose deprivation model. However, the effect of daidzein on the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) remains unclear. The angiotensin II-induced AAA mouse model was utilized in the present study to determine the effect of daidzein on AAA. The results demonstrated that daidzein significantly attenuated incidence of AAA, max aortic aneurysm and mortality in the angiotensin II‑induced AAA mice. Daidzein had an anti‑inflammatory effect by inhibiting tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 1β (IL‑1β) and nuclear factor κB (NF‑κB) protein expression. In addition, daidzein strongly suppressed the gene expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)‑2, matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP‑2), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1), transforming growth factor β1 (TGF‑β1), and inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein expression in angiotensin II‑induced AAA mice. It also inhibited phosphorylation of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. These results demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, that the anti‑inflammatory effects and inhibitory mechanism of daidzein attenuates AAA in angiotensin II‑induced mice. Daidzein contains strong anti‑inflammatory activity and affects various mechanism pathways including the NF‑κB, p38MAPK and TGF-β1 pathway.

Due to the limitations of impedance matching and attenuation matching, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) employed alone have a weak capacity to attenuate electromagnetic wave (EMW) energy. In this work, B and N co-doped CNTs with embedded Ni nanoparticles (Ni@BNCNTs) are fabricated via an in situ doping method. Compared with a sample without B doping, Ni@BNCNTs demonstrate a superior EMW absorption performance, with all minimum reflection loss values below −20 dB, even at a matching thickness of 1.5 mm. The experimental and theoretical calculation results demonstrate that B doping increases conduction and polarization relaxation losses, as well as the impedance matching characteristic, which is responsible for the enhanced EMW absorption performance of Ni@BNCNTs.

DM is often accompanied by macrovascular complications. Obtusifolin, which is an anthraquinone‑based compound with antioxidant activity, is obtained from the seeds of Cassia obtusifolia. In this study, the potential effect of obtusifolin was investigated in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The results from flow cytometry analysis revealed that pretreatment with obtusifolin depressed the production of cellular reactive oxygen species that was induced by high glucose content. Moreover, the results showed that pretreatment with obtusifolin reduced the level of malondialdehyde, as well as recovered the activities of mitochondrial complex I/III, catalase and superoxide dismutase. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis also revealed that mitochondrial membrane potential and cell apoptosis were recovered, and inhibited by obtusifolin, respectively. The expression of X chromosome‑linked IAP was upregulated, whereas the expressions of poly ADP‑ribose polymerase and cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase‑3/9 were downregulated by the pretreatment with obtusifolin. Notably, the western blot analyses showed that the release of Omi/HtrA2 into the cytosol was prevented by the pretreatment with obtusifolin. Conclusively, it was suggested that obtusifolin may provide protection against mitochondrial apoptosis largely through inhibition of the release of Omi/HtrA2 from mitochondria into cytosol.

Previous studies have shown that the therapeutic action of tetra-arsenic tetra-sulfide (As4S4) is effective for acute promyelocytic leukemia. However, the molecular mechanism of the action of As4S4 in retinoic acid-resistant acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) therapy remains unclear. In the present study, the signaling of the cytotoxic effects induced by As4S4 on retinoic acid-resistant APL NB4-R1 cells was investigated. A time-dependent increase in cell death and DNA cleavage was observed following As4S4 treatment. Changes in B-cell lymphoma 2 and Bax accompanied by the activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase were observed as actions of As4S4. As4S4 induced an accumulation of NB4-R1 cells in the S and G2/M phases, as detected by flow cytometry. Therefore, the present results suggest that As4S4-mediated apoptosis in NB4-R1 cells involves a mitochondria-dependent pathway.

Sludges resulting from wastewater treatment processes have a characteristically high water content, which complicates thermal-chemistry disposal. In this paper, taking domestic sewage sludge as the object, on the base of analysis on the material characteristics, the material and energy equilibrium calculation was carried out to study the effect of moisture content in sludge on thermal-chemistry disposal. The results showed that as the moisture content increased, incinerator temperature would reduce and the quality of the gasification gas would decrease with lower calorific value. When the moisture content in sludge increased, the amount of air required for gasification increased, wet gas production rate raised and dry gas production rate decreased, gasification efficiency and thermal efficiency were lower. For the sludge studied, it was required to control the moisture content in sludge to 55% or less if the incinerator temperature of 800 °C and above was wanted; if gasification gas calorific value was required to reach 2MJ/m3 and above, the moisture content in sludge must be controlled at 25% or less.

Microstructure of Mg-9Zn-xAl (x=2,4,6) magnesium alloy was prepared by traditional casting, SIM casting and isolated treatment. The effect of Al content addition on microstructure of Mg-9Zn-xAl was investigated. Results show that Compared with traditional casting, grain size is refined by self-inoculation method casting. Grain size of Mg-9Zn-xAl (x=2,4,6) is 88μm,76μm and 69μm respectively at traditional casting, and is 49.5μm,42μm,35.6μm respectively at SIM casting. With Al content increase, the isolated island-like secondary phase change into semi-continuous network and continuous network, and combination between Magnesium and alloy element decrease accumulation of magnesium atom on the primary phase, so that the growth of the primary phase is prevented.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the effective means to reduce the carbon dioxide concentration in atmosphere. Deep saline aquifer is the most potential storage sites because of its wide spread and the huge storage capacity. The storage capacity of deep saline aquifer was determined by hydrogeological parameters of the assessed aquifer. Spatial discretization method based on the geostatistical method takes account of the spatial variability of hydrogeological parameters involved in capacity assessment, which applied by inputting the value of hydrological parameters of every cell and calculating the storage capacity of each cell. The total storage capacity in assessed area was the summation of all cells. In the Central Depression of Songliao Basin, the theoretical carbon dioxide storage capacity of deep saline aquifers was estimated as 81.80Gt with spatial discretization method. Compared with the other methods, this method can reflect the spatial characteristics of the carbon dioxide storage capacities and was more precise.

This study was designed to comparative evaluate the chemical composition of the essential oil from leaf, aerial root, twig, root and bark parts of Ficus microcarpa L.f. (Moraceace). Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses of the oils revealed the presence of 6, 6, 5, 5 and 5 compounds in the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from different parts, respectively. The total yield of the volatile fractions was subsequently 1.89%, 0.87%, 1.27%, 0.97% and 0.71%. Higher amounts of aliphatic acids were found to compose a major chemotype in diverse parts of the plant. n-Hexadecanoic acid, elaidic acid and linoleic acid were the main and common component of all the essential oils totally attaining in average 74%, 87%, 56%, 46% and 88%, independently. In addition, some pharmaceutical components such as elaidic acid, linoleic acid and squalene were discovered. The study offers theoretic basis for utilization of the traditional folk herb F. microcarpa.

Based on the results of single factor experiments on the extraction of total flavonoids content (TFC) in roots of semi-mangrove plant Clerodendrum inerme(L.) Gaertn., operation conditions were optimized with orthogonal methodology. Four factors were applied to evaluate the extraction yield, including the ethanol concentration, extraction time, temperature and solid to liquid ratio. According to the experimental results, the influence order of different factors on the yield of TFC from the roots: ethanol concentration > solid to liquid ratio > extraction temperature > extraction time. The optimum operating parameters were determined as following, ethanol concentration of 70.0 %, extraction time of 90.0 min, temperature of 60.0 °C and solid to liquid ratio of 1:30. Under the optimized conditions, the maximal yield of TFC was enhanced to 1.279%.

The DC plasma chemical vapor deposition (DC-PCVD) method was a promising technique to fabricate CVD diamond coatings in industry, because it has many good properties, such as high grown rate of diamond films, big grown area, high qualities, and cost effective. In the present work, we synthesized diamond films on cemented carbide (YG6) substrates, and studied the different nitric acid aqueous solution treatment durations influence on diamond nucleation stage. The results indicated that well-chosen nitric acid aqueous solution treatment durations should be selected. For too short treatment times, the residual Co will promote the carbon transform from diamond metastable phase into graphite stable phase. On the other side, too long treatment times will consume too much Co, which will lead to the shortage of cohesive body, and finally the crackers in the bulk propagated and peeled off with the diamond films well grown on WC grains.

Synthesis of Ⅱa industrial diamond with high quality at high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) was examined in this paper and Ⅱa industrial diamonds were synthesized successfully. The experimental results show that the lowest synthesis pressure of diamond changed significantly which goes down firstly, and then up with the increasing of Ti content. It is discovered by optical microscopy that the color of synthesizing diamond in nitrogen getter system is lighter than that in raw catalyst power system and most crystals are hexahedrons & octahedrons. The experiment results measured by IR analysis shows that nitrogen content in synthesizing diamond in nitrogen getter system is significantly lower than that in the raw catalyst power system. Surface morphology of diamond synthesized in two different systems is investigated by the aid of SEM.

In the present study, we investigated the effects of increasing salinity on growth, gas exchange, abscisic acid (ABA), calmodulin (CaM), and the relevance to salt tolerance in seedlings of Populus euphratica Oliv. and cuttings of P. “pupularis 35–44” (P. popularis) and P. x euramericana cv. I-214 (P. cv. Italica). The relative growth rates of shoot height (RGRH) for P. cv. Italica and P. popularis were severely reduced by increasing salt stress, whereas the growth reduction was relatively less in P. euphratica. Similarly, P. euphratica maintained higher net photosynthetic rates (Pn) and unit transpiration rates (TRN) than P. cv. Italica and P. popularis under conditions of higher salinity. Salinity caused a significant increase in leaf ABA and CaM in the three genotypes after the onset of stress, but NaCl-induced ABA and CaM accumulation was more pronounced in P. euphratica, suggesting that P. euphratica plants are more sensitive in sensing soil salinity than the other two poplars. Furthermore, P. euphratica maintained relatively higher ABA and CaM concentrations under conditions of high salinity. The higher capacity to synthesize stress signals, namely ABA and CaM, in P. euphratica and the contribution of this to the salt resistance of P. euphratica are discussed. (Managing editor: Ping He)

The gene encoding a putative mature antitumor-analgesic peptide (AGAP) from the venom of the Chinese scorpion Buthus martensii Karsch was obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) according to its cDNA sequence and expressed in Escherichia coli. While most of the recombinant AGAP was expressed in the form of insoluble inclusion body. The recombinant AGAP was purified to homogeneity by metal chelating affinity chromatography. Pharmaceutical tests showed that the recombinant AGAP has both analgesic and antitumor activities on mice.

The Sac10b protein family is regarded as a family of DNA-binding proteins that is highly conserved and widely distributed within the archaea. Sac10b family members are typically small basic dimeric proteins that bind to DNA with cooperativity and no sequence specificity and are capable of constraining DNA negative supercoils, protecting DNA from Dnase I digestion, and do not compact DNA obviously. However, a detailed understanding of the structural basis of the interaction of Sac10b family proteins with DNA is still lacking. Here, we determined the crystal structure of Mth10b, an atypical member of the Sac10b family from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ΔH, at 2.2 Å. Unlike typical Sac10b family proteins, Mth10b is an acidic protein and binds to neither DNA nor RNA. The overall structure of Mth10b displays high similarity to its homologs, but three pairs of conserved positively charged residues located at the presumed DNA-binding surface are substituted by non-charged residues in Mth10b. Through amino acids interchanges, the DNA-binding ability of Mth10b was restored successfully, whereas the DNA-binding ability of Sso10b, a typical Sac10b family member, was weakened greatly. Based on these results, we propose a model describing the molecular mechanism underlying the interactions of typical Sac10b family proteins with DNA that explains all the characteristics of the interactions between typical Sac10b family members and DNA.

Objectives Cold is an important factor contributing to the high incidence of hypertension. Large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK Ca ) channels modulate vascular smooth muscle tone. The objective of this study is to determine whether BK Ca channels in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) play a role in the development of hypertension during chronic exposure to cold. Methods Forty-eight rats were divided into cold-treated group and control group randomly, and then, rats of cold-treated group were exposed to 4 ± 1° (4 h/day) and rats of another group were kept at 25 ± 1°. Results Compared to control group, systolic blood pressure of the rats exposed to cold for 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks were increased by 7.14%, 20.42%, 40.54%, 28.74%, respectively. The BK Ca current and BK Ca peak current density in aortic VSMC increased significantly as the time of exposure to cold went until the 6th week exposure to cold. At the 6 th weeks, the BK Ca peak current density in the cold exposed group compared to the control group were increased 345.21% (n = 6, P Ca channel α-subunit mRNA in the cold-treated rats was higher than control (P Conclusions Our data showed that BK Ca channels have apparent change with the development of hypertension during repeated cold exposure, suggesting that BK Ca channel could be thought as a new target for prevention and treating cold-induced hypertension.