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Choices between immediate smaller reward and long-term larger reward are referred to as intertemporal choice. Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated the neural substrates of intertemporal choice via conventional univariate analytical approaches, revealing dissociable activations of decisions involving immediately available rewards and decisions involving delayed rewards in value network. With the help of multivariate analyses, which is more sensitive for evaluating information encoded in spatially distributed patterns, we showed that fMRI activity patterns represent viable signatures of intertemporal choice, as well as individual differences while controlling for age. Notably, in addition to value network, regions from cognitive control network play prominent roles in differentiating between different intertemporal choices as well as individuals with distinct discount rates. These findings provide clear evidence that substantiates the important role of value and cognitive control networks in the neural representation of one's intertemporal decisions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ye and Wang.)

Chemosensory communication is ubiquitous in human social interaction. Androstadienone is a potential candidate human sex pheromone that is associated with social dominance and competition. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of androstadienone on aggression. We specifically distinguished two types of aggression, namely proactive and reactive aggression. Two hundred and six male and female participants received either androstadienone or a control carrier in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participants design. Participants performed two aggression tasks, one on reactive aggression and the other on proactive aggression, while they were exposed to the olfactory stimuli. The results revealed that for men, smelling androstadienone reduced both reactive and proactive aggression, whereas it increased reactive aggression in women. These effects were present despite the olfactory stimuli not being explicitly discriminable. These findings provide direct evidence that androstadienone modulates human aggression in a sex-dependent manner., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Hybrid integration of van der Waals materials on a photonic platform enables diverse exploration of novel active functions and significant improvement in device performance for next-generation integrated photonic circuits, but developing waveguide-integrated photodetectors based on conventionally investigated transition metal dichalcogenide materials at the full optical telecommunication bands and mid-infrared range is still a challenge. Here, we integrate PdSe 2 with silicon waveguide for on-chip photodetection with a high responsivity from 1260 to 1565 nm, a low noise-equivalent power of 4.0 pW·Hz -0.5 , a 3-dB bandwidth of 1.5 GHz, and a measured data rate of 2.5 Gbit·s -1 . The achieved PdSe 2 photodetectors provide new insights to explore the integration of novel van der Waals materials with integrated photonic platforms and exhibit great potential for diverse applications over a broad infrared range of wavelengths, such as on-chip sensing and spectroscopy.

Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member C3 (AKR1C3) serves as a contributor to numerous kinds of tumors, and its expression is elevated in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the biological function of AKR1C3 in HCC remains unclear. Here we investigated the role of AKR1C3 in liver carcinogenesis using in vitro and in vivo models. We determined that AKR1C3 is frequently increased in HCC tissues with poor prognosis. Genetically manipulated cells with AKR1C3 construction were examined to highlight the pro-tumoral growth of both wild-type AKR1C3 and mutant in vitro and in vivo. We observed promising treatment effects of AKR1C3 shRNA by intratumoral injection in mice. Mechanically, we demonstrated that the transcription factor heterodimer NRF2/MAFG was able to bind directly to AKR1C3 promoter to activate its transcription. Further, AKR1C3 stabilized PARP1 by decreasing its ubiquitination, which resulted in HCC cell proliferation and low sensitivity of Cisplatin. Moreover, we discovered that the tumorigenic role of AKR1C3 was non-catalytic dependent and the NRF2/MAFG-AKR1C3-PARP1 axis might be one of the important proliferation pathways in HCC. In conclusion, blockage of AKR1C3 expression provides potential therapeutic benefits against HCC., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Due to the excellent electrical and optical properties and their integration capability without lattice matching requirements, low-dimensional materials have received increasing attention in silicon photonic circuits. Bi 2 O 2 Se with high carrier mobility, narrow bandgap, and good air stability is very promising for high-performance near-infrared photodetectors. Here, the chemical vapor deposition method is applied to grow Bi 2 O 2 Se onto mica, and our developed polycarbonate/polydimethylsiloxane-assisted transfer method enables the clean and intact transfer of Bi 2 O 2 Se on top of a silicon waveguide. We demonstrated the Bi 2 O 2 Se/Si waveguide integrated photodetector with a small dark current of 72.9 nA, high responsivity of 3.5 A·W -1 , fast rise/decay times of 22/78 ns, and low noise-equivalent power of 15.1 pW·Hz -0.5 at an applied voltage of 2 V in the O-band for transverse electric modes. Additionally, a microring resonator is designed for enhancing light-matter interaction, resulting in a wavelength-sensitive photodetector with reduced dark current (15.3 nA at 2 V) and more than a 3-fold enhancement in responsivity at the resonance wavelength, which is suitable for spectrally resolved applications. These results promote the integration of Bi 2 O 2 Se with a silicon photonic platform and are expected to accelerate the future use of integrated photodetectors in spectroscopy, sensing, and communication applications.

Although mesocrystals with ordered building units have great potential in many fields because of the large amount of organic molecules used as structure-directing agents during their synthesis process, severe matrix interference makes their surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) properties rarely understood. Herein, a rapid (20 s) and green microwave synthetic route is developed for the 100 g scale preparation of plasmonic W 18 O 49 mesocrystals with no additives. The ultrathin (1.5 nm) and oxygen vacancy-rich W 18 O 49 nanowires as a building unit greatly improve the interface charge transfer, while the periodic mesocrystal structure significantly enhances the localized surface plasmon resonance effect and creates high-density electromagnetic hot spots among the nanowires. An outstanding enhancement factor of 1.2 × 10 7 and an ultralow detectable limit of 10 -11 M are achieved, and the single-molecule imaging is also realized on this mesocrystal-based SERS substrate. Moreover, the relative standard deviation of the fabricated large-area (2.2 cm 2 ) SERS substrate is only 6.8%.

Pheromones are chemicals that serve communicational purposes within a species. In most terrestrial mammals, pheromones are detected by either the olfactory epithelium or the vomeronasal organ and processed by various downstream structures including the medial amygdala and the hypothalamus to regulate motivated behaviors and endocrine responses. The search for human pheromones began in the 1970s. Whereas bioactive ligands are yet to be identified, there has been accumulating evidence that human body odors exert a range of pheromone-like effects on the recipients, including triggering innate behavioral responses, modulating endocrine levels, signaling social information, and affecting mood and cognition. In parallel, results from recent brain imaging studies suggest that body odors evoke distinct neural responses from those observed with common nonsocial odors. Two endogenous steroids androsta-4,16,- dien-3-one and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol are considered by some as candidates for human sex pheromones. The two substances produce sexually dimorphic effects on human perception, mood, and physiological arousal. Moreover, they reportedly elicit different hypothalamic response patterns in manners contingent on the recipients' sex and sexual orientation. Neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying the effects of human chemosignals are not yet clear and await future detailed analyses., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Binding of airborne odour molecules to olfactory receptors at the top of the nasal cavity gives rise to our rich olfactory experience. Whether airflow plays a role in human olfactory perception beyond the transportation of odorants is scantly known. Combining psychophysical measures with strict controls of nasal flow parameters, we demonstrate in four experiments that the perceived intensity of a unilaterally presented odour decreases systematically with the amount of contralateral nasal airflow, in manners that are independent of odour flow rate, nasal pressure, perceived sniff vigour or attentional allocation. Moreover, the effect is due to the sensed rather than the factual amount of nasal flow, as applying a local anaesthetic to the contralateral nostril produces the same effect as physically blocking it. Our findings indicate that nasal flow spontaneously engages central olfactory processing and serves as an integral part of the olfactory percept in humans.

Compared with the noble-metal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates activated by the surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-induced electromagnetic mechanism (EM), the relative low sensitivity and stability of the chemical mechanism (CM)-based substrates are the biggest obstacles to their applications. Herein, we report that quasi-metallic VO 2 nanosheet arrays can be used as a sensitive and stable SERS substrate. The lowest detectable limit of analyte adsorbed on the VO 2 nanosheets achieves 10 -10 M and the maximum Raman enhancement factor (EF) reaches 6.7 × 10 7 , which is comparable with that of the noble metals. The experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that the SERS performance of the VO 2 nanosheets comes from the strong interfacial interactions based on charge transfer and the vigorous SPR effects. Our research results demonstrate that quasi-metals are very promising SERS detection platforms and reveal that CM, like EM, contributes significantly to the SERS activity of quasi-metals., (Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The inconsistency of open pharmacogenomics datasets produced by different studies limits the usage of such datasets in many tasks, such as biomarker discovery. Investigation of multiple pharmacogenomics datasets confirmed that the pairwise sensitivity data correlation between drugs, or rows, across different studies (drug-wise) is relatively low, while the pairwise sensitivity data correlation between cell-lines, or columns, across different studies (cell-wise) is considerably strong. This common interesting observation across multiple pharmacogenomics datasets suggests the existence of subtle consistency among the different studies (i.e., strong cell-wise correlation). However, significant noises are also shown (i.e., weak drug-wise correlation) and have prevented researchers from comfortably using the data directly. Motivated by this observation, we propose a novel framework for addressing the inconsistency between large-scale pharmacogenomics data sets. Our method can significantly boost the drug-wise correlation and can be easily applied to re-summarized and normalized datasets proposed by others. We also investigate our algorithm based on many different criteria to demonstrate that the corrected datasets are not only consistent, but also biologically meaningful. Eventually, we propose to extend our main algorithm into a framework, so that in the future when more datasets become publicly available, our framework can hopefully offer a "ground-truth" guidance for references.

Triptolide is known to have a strong anti-proteinuric effect through direct protection of podocytes from injury and is used to treat glomerular diseases. However, the mechanism underlying its protective effect on podocytes remains elusive. MiR-30 family has recently been shown to be essential for structural and functional homeostasis of podocytes but is downregulated by injurious factors, leading to podocyte injury. In the present study, we explore whether Triptolide protects podocytes through preventing miR-30 downregulation. Since TGF-β signaling is a critical mediator in various podocyte injuries and we previously found that TGF-β induces podocyte injury through downregulating miR-30s, we thus used TGF-β-induced podocyte injury model to address the issue. We found that Triptolide is capable of protecting cultured podocytes from TGF-β-induced cytoskeletal injury and apoptosis, as expected. Consistently, Triptolide also prevented TGF-β-induced signaling activation of MAPK p38, NFkB (p65) and calcineurin/NFATC3, which are known to be downstream mediators of podocyte injury. Meanwhile, Triptolide was found to completely prevent TGF-β-induced miR-30 downregulation, indicating that Triptolide protects podocytes by sustaining miR-30 expression. Mechanistically, we found that Triptolide can prevent TGF-β-induced Smad2/3 phosphorylation/activation, which likely underlies miR-30 restoration by Triptolide. We also performed ex vivo study and found that Triptolide prevented TGF-β-induced miR-30 downregulation and Smad2/3 phosphorylation in the isolated glomeruli of mice or rats. Thus, our study has provided novel insights into the mechanism underlying the therapeutic effectiveness of Triptolide on podocytopathies., Competing Interests: None.

Background: Chrysanthemi indici Flos, a traditional herbal medicine is used to clearing heat-toxicity, removing the liver fire, and improving eyesight. In our preliminary work, an active extract of CTC in C. An indici Flos with anti-hepatitis B virus and liver protective activity was found by HepG2.2.1.5 test and experiment of protein synthesis in mice's injured liver. In this work, we aimed to study the active faction CTC further by qualitative and quantitative analysis method., Materials and Methods: High performance liquid chromatography time of flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC TOF ESI-MS) analysis method of the CTC was established. Cumambrin A and angeloylcumambrin B in CTC were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet-evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-UV-ELSD) analysis methods. A binary gradient elution program was conducted for chromatographic separation with acetonitrile (A) and ultrapure water (B) as follows: 0-10 min, 42-46% A; 10-20 min, 46-55% A; 20-25 min, 55-60% A; and 25-35 min, 60-75% A. The column temperature and UV wavelength were set at 30°C and 205 nm., Result: Ten constituents including (3R, 5R, 6S, 7S, 10R)-7-(2-hydroxy-2-propyl)-10-methyl-4-methyleneperhy, dronaphthal-ene-3, 5, 6-triol acetone solvate; (+)-edusmance-4, (14)-ene-11, 13-diol; linarin; luteolin; apigenin; tricin; 5, 3',4'- trimethyl-6,7-dimethoxy flavones; cumambrin A; acacetin; and angeloylcumambrin B in CTC were identified by HPLC TOF ESI-MS. The contents of sesquiterpenes in CTC were decreased by storing years., Conclusions: The results showed that both UV and ELSD methods were feasible, accurate, and the determination results were in good consistency. The contents of two sesquiterpenes decreased with storing years. Two sesquiterpenes could be used as quality control for C. indici flos CTC.

Chronic exposure to coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a potent inducer of toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), in the environment and food can cause liver diseases. It remains unknown whether caffeic acid derivatives (CADs) exerted protective effect on PCB-induced hepatotoxicity. We sought to evaluate the activities of 3 CADs on PCB169-induced oxidative stress and DNA damage in the liver. Male ICR mice were administered with 1 μmol/mL PCB169 at 5 mL/kg body weight for 2 weeks. The mice were given CADs by gastric gavage for 3 weeks. We found that PCB169 decreased the growth rate and reduced the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH) and GSH peroxidase (GPx). It increased the liver weight, malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels and CYP1A1 activity in the liver tissues and plasma of mice (P<0.05). Pretreatment of mice with CADs restored the above parameters to normal levels. There was a synergistic protective effect between CADs in preventing MDA and 8-OHdG formation and inducing CYP1A1 and phase II metabolism enzyme (SOD, GPx) activities (P<0.05). In conclusion, PCB169 induced hepatotoxicity and pretreatment with CADs had synergistic protective effects on liver damage.

Horizontal gene transfer plays an essential role in evolution and ecological adaptation, yet this phenomenon has remained controversial, particularly where it occurs between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. There are a handful of reported examples of horizontal gene transfer occurring between prokaryotes and eukaryotes in the literature, with most of these documented cases pertaining to invertebrates and endosymbionts. However, the vast majority of these horizontally transferred genes were either eventually excluded or rapidly became nonfunctional in the recipient genome. In this study, we report the discovery of a horizontal gene transfer from the endosymbiont Wolbachia in the C6/36 cell line derived from the mosquito Aedes albopictus . Moreover, we report that this horizontally transferred gene displayed high transcription level. This finding and the results of further experimentation strongly suggest this gene is functional and has been expressed and translated into a protein in the mosquito host cells.