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Great progress has been made in the development of bifunctional oxide-zeolite catalysts to tackle the selectivity challenge in syngas chemistry. Here the authors show syngas conversion can be steered along a highly active and selective pathway towards light olefins via ketene acetate (acetyl) intermediates.

Porous carbons were prepared from tea peels, and employed as the catalyst for oxidative coupling of benzylamine. An optimal tea peel carbon (TPC-2-800) shows large specific surface area of 1715 m2 g−1 and excellent catalytic performance for benzylamine oxidation. At 70 °C and ambient air conditions, the yield of imine can get to 99%. Further investigations suggest the outstanding performance can be attributed to the high specific surface area and rich edge defects, which help the adsorption and dissociation of molecular oxygen. This work provides a reference for the application of biomass carbon materials in aerobic oxidation reactions.

Bearings are the core basic components that determine the stable operation of high-end equipment. The traditional processing technology of the raceway surface has been unable to meet the current processing requirements of high precision and high surface quality under the premise of certain efficiency. As one of the ultra-precision grinding technologies, electrochemical grinding (ECG) combines the advantages of electrochemical machining, makes up for the shortcomings of traditional grinding, and provides an effective way to solve this problem. In this paper, the ECG is successfully applied to the internal grinding process of the bearing raceway in combination with the plunge machining. The machining principle of the plunge ECG is described in detail. Based on this, the material removal speed model of the workpiece in the equilibrium state is established. Finally, the effects of main processing parameters such as processing voltage and feed rate on the surface roughness, microhardness, and residual stress of the workpiece after processing are explored through experiments.

Background: At present, only one systematic review has investigated the effect of levothyroxine (LT4) in the treatment of euthyroid pregnant women with thyroid autoimmunity, but some problems [such as merging different types of research for meta-analysis, lacking neonatal outcomes, and so on] exist in this study, satisfactory results can not be provided. So, this systematic review was performed to investigate the effect of LT4 in euthyroid pregnant women with thyroid autoimmunity, in the hope of providing more comprehensive evidence for clinical use.Methods: Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were electronically searched from database inception to March 2022. We included cohort studies and RCTs that evaluated the impact of LT4 therapy on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in euthyroid pregnant women with thyroid autoimmunity. Meta-analyses of different types of studies were performed separately, and meta-analyses were further performed by only including researches with low and moderate risk of bias. We used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach to evaluate the quality of evidence, and used TSA to test the sufficiency of the evidence.Results: Finally, 2,901 euthyroid pregnant women with thyroid autoimmunity in six RCTs and five cohort studies were included. In all outcomes, no statistically significant differences were found between LT4 group and control group, including miscarriage [RR = 0.85, 95%CI (0.69,1.05), p = 0.14, I2 = 1%], preterm birth [RR = 0.80, 95%CI (0.59,1.08), p = 0.14, I2 = 0%], preeclampsia [RR = 0.68, 95%CI (0.12, 3.91), p = 0.66, I2 = 0%], placenta abruption [Peto’ OR = 0.14, 95%CI (0.00, 6.94), p = 0.32, I2 = 0%], birth weight [MD = -36.00, 95%CI (-170.41, 98.41), p = 0.60, I2 = 0%], gestational age at delivery [MD = -0.10, 95%CI (-0.61, 0.41), p = 0.70, I2 = 0%] and neonatal admission [RR = 1.33, 95%CI (0.21, 8.58), p = 0.76, I2 = 0%]. The results for all outcomes were insufficient and inconclusive as demonstrated by TSA. The GRADE assessments showed that the quality of evidence of 4 outcomes (miscarriage, preterm birth, birth weight and gestational age at delivery) were moderate, and 3 outcomes (preeclampsia, placenta abruption and neonatal admission) were low or very low.Conclusion: For pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in euthyroid pregnant women with thyroid autoimmunity, we did not find benefit of LT4 treatment in this study.Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022346745, identifier CRD42022346745.

ObjectivePostoperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is widely used during the perioperative period but is often associated with a high risk of infection and complications. However, prediction models for RBC transfusion in patients with orthopedic surgery have not yet been developed. We aimed to identify predictors and constructed prediction models for RBC transfusion after orthopedic surgery using interpretable machine learning algorithms.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study reviewed a total of 59,605 patients undergoing orthopedic surgery from June 2013 to January 2019 across 7 tertiary hospitals in China. Patients were randomly split into training (80%) and test subsets (20%). The feature selection method of recursive feature elimination (RFE) was used to identify an optimal feature subset from thirty preoperative variables, and six machine learning algorithms were applied to develop prediction models. The Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) value was employed to evaluate the contribution of each predictor towards the prediction of postoperative RBC transfusion. For simplicity of the clinical utility, a risk score system was further established using the top risk factors identified by machine learning models.ResultsOf the 59,605 patients with orthopedic surgery, 19,921 (33.40%) underwent postoperative RBC transfusion. The CatBoost model exhibited an AUC of 0.831 (95% CI: 0.824–0.836) on the test subset, which significantly outperformed five other prediction models. The risk of RBC transfusion was associated with old age (>60 years) and low RBC count (

IntroductionCurrently, the anti-oxidation of active ingredients in mulberry leaves (MLs) and their forage utilization is receiving increasing attention. Here, we propose that MLs supplementation improves oxidative resistance and immunity.MethodsWe conducted a trial including three groups of growing mutton sheep, each receiving fermented mulberry leaves (FMLs) feeding, dried mulberry leaves (DMLs) feeding or normal control feeding without MLs.ResultsTranscriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed that promoting anti-oxidation and enhancing disease resistance of MLs is attributed to improved tryptophan metabolic pathways and reduced peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Furthermore, immunity was markedly increased after FMLs treatment by regulating glycolysis and mannose-6-phosphate pathways. Additionally, there was better average daily gain in the MLs treatment groups.ConclusionThese findings provide new insights for understanding the beneficial effects of MLs in animal husbandry and provide a theoretical support for extensive application of MLs in improving nutrition and health care values.

Clean and low-carbon heating methods are vigorously promoted in China under a carbon peak and carbon neutrality background. The application of air-source heat pump system (ASHP) technology has become a research hotspot as a clean and low-carbon heating method. This paper investigated the performance of an ASHP applied in Hotan, Xinjiang, China, categorized as a warm-temperate extreme-arid-desert climate (WT-EADC) zone. The actual performance of an air-source heat pump heating system with radiant floor heating (ASHP-RF) was tested experimentally using a WT-EADC zone. The system performance of the low-temperature and high-humidity climate (LTHHC), typical climate (TC), and high-temperature and low-humidity climate (HTLHC) was thoroughly examined. Results show that the system performances of the LTHHC, TC, and, HTLHC differ significantly. The average coefficient of performance (COP) values of the system under these conditions were 2.13, 2.24, and 2.46, respectively. The COP of the system increased initially with increasing ambient temperature and decreased with increasing ambient relative humidity. During the operation of the ASHP-RF, there was an ambient relative humidity corresponding to the optimal efficiency. The experimental results demonstrated that the ASHP-RF completely met the heating demand of buildings under a warm-temperate extreme-arid-desert climate, demonstrating the advantages of high efficiency and exhibiting broad-application prospects.

Hexokinase (HXK) proteins catalyze hexose phosphorylation and are important for the sensing and signaling of sugar. In order to determine the roles played by HXKs in soybean growth and stress responsiveness, seventeen HXK genes (GmHXK1-17) were isolated and analyzed. The phylogenic analysis and subcellular location prediction showed that GmHXKs were clearly classified into type A (GmHXK1-4) and type B (GmHXK5-17). There were similar protein structures and conserved regions in GmHXKs to the HXKs of other plants. An expression analysis of the GmHXK genes in soybean organs or tissues demonstrated that GmHXK3 and GmHXK12, 15, and 16 were the dominant HXKs in all the examined tissues. In addition, salt, osmotic, and alkaline stress treatments dramatically increased the activity and transcripts of GmHXKs. There is the possibility that a type-B isoform (GmHXK15) plays a crucial role in soybean adaptation to alkali, as the expression levels of this isoform correlate well with the HXK enzyme activity. Based on an enzyme assay performed on recombinant plant HXK15 proteins expressed in Escherichia coli, we found that GmHXK15 had functional HXK activities. A further analysis indicated that GmHXK15 specifically targeted the mitochondria, and the overexpression of the GmHXK15 gene could significantly enhance the resistance of transgenic soybean to alkali stress. The present findings will serve as a basis for a further analysis of the function of the GmHXK gene family.

Formaldehyde oxidation suffers from insufficient activity at low temperatures due to the lack of efficient silver catalyst. Herein, the authors design a tandem bifunctional zeolites-silver catalyst that achieves a 50 times improvement in activity (100% versus 2%) at 70 °C as compared to monofunctional supported silver catalyst.

Abstract Background Understanding the response of the plant community to increasing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs is helpful for managing and protecting grassland ecosystems in semiarid areas. However, information about different types of steppe responses to N and P availability in semiarid grasslands is limited. In 2017–2018, two field experiments were conducted with six levels of N (from 5 to 30 g N m−2 yr−1) and P (from 2.5 g to 15 g P m−2 yr−1) additions in three different temperate steppes, including meadow steppe (MS), typical steppe (TS), and desert steppe (DS), in northern China to study the effects of these addition rates on community biomass and diversity. Results Our results showed that plant biomass and diversity in the three steppe types in Inner Mongolia responded differently to elevated N and P inputs. Increasing P promoted aboveground and belowground biomass more than increasing N in the three temperate steppes. Short-term N and P additions reduced plant diversity to some extent, with the most pronounced decreases in MS and DS. It is noteworthy that there were response thresholds for plant diversity and biomass in response to N and P inputs in different steppe types (e.g., 10 g P m−2 yr−1). Furthermore, redundancy analysis and stepwise regression analysis revealed that changes in soil properties induced by nutrient addition and climate conditions jointly regulated changes in vegetation biomass and diversity. Conclusions The plant biomass and diversity of three steppe types in Inner Mongolia respond divergently to elevated N and P inputs. Our results indicate that regional differences in climate and soil substrate conditions may jointly contribute to the divergent responses of plant biomass and diversity to short-term N and P addition. Our analyses provide new insights into managing and protecting grassland ecosystems. Considering that the effects of nutrient addition on plant diversity and productivity may have increasing effects over time, studies on long-term in situ nutrient addition are necessary.

Abstract Background Icariin (ICA) can promote the migration and bone formation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. This study explored a potential role of ICA in recruiting stem cell niches (SCNs) within the intervertebral disc region (ISN)-derived stem cells (ISN-SCs) to treat intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). Materials and methods EdU staining, transwell, and wound healing tests were used to analyze the function of ICA on ISN-SCs proliferation and migration ability. Simultaneously, the IVDD rat model was constructed by the acupuncture and divided into Sham, Sham + ICA, IVDD, and IVDD + ICA groups. H&E and PAS staining were performed to detect the pathological changes of IVDD tissues. Immunofluorescence was performed to discover relevant marker expression on the surface of stem cells in the IVDD tissues. Western blot and qPCR were executed to find the protein and mRNA expression of related cytokines in the IVDD tissues. Results ISN-SCs treated with 1 μM ICA obtained the better ability of proliferation and migration. H&E staining showed that the annulus fibrosus in the IVDD group was obviously hyperplasia with cavities and fissures; the nucleus pulposus was reduced. PAS staining showed that the content of polysaccharides was significantly reduced in the nucleus pulposus of IVDD group. However, the ICA treatment alleviated the pathological trends of the IVDD tissues. Simultaneously, ICA treatment increased significantly the expression of stem cells and IGF-1, TGF-β, SDF-1, CCL-5, Collagen I, Collagen II, Aggrecan, and SOX9 in IVDD tissues. Conclusions ICA treatment promoted the migration of stem cell in IVDD by increasing the expression of chemotactic cytokines, including IGF-1, TGF-β, SDF-1, and CCL-5.

BackgroundA national health education program in impoverished counties to promote health literacy among rural populations was released by the Chinese government in 2018. Under this nationwide campaign, an integrated health education program was implemented in Yunnan province, which included additional culturally sensitive educational components for the severely impoverished prefectures.ObjectiveThis study examined the differential effects of the health education program models on health literacy outcomes among residents in poverty-stricken areas.MethodsA quasi-experimental design was applied with two arms that included surveys at baseline (in October 2019) and endline (in June 2021) to collect a range of individual-level health information, including the Chinese Resident Health Literacy Scale. The intervention group received the national health education program with the additional Yunnan specific program; the control group received only the national program. Respondents were recruited via a multi-stage stratified sampling, including 641 participants at baseline (261 from the intervention sites and 380 from the control sites) and 693 participants at endline (288 from the intervention sites and 405 from the control sites). Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between program intervention and health literacy outcomes.ResultsThe overall health literacy levels were low (1.87%) at baseline, and there was no statistically significant difference between two groups (1.92 vs. 1.84%, P = 1.000). A significant increase (from 1.87 to 11.11%, P < 0.001) in the health literacy level was observed at endline in both groups. The magnitude of increase was significantly greater in the intervention group relative to the control group (17.71 vs. 6.42%, P < 0.001). Adjusting for the confounding factors of individual and household characteristics, results from multivariate logistic regression revealed that the odds of having adequate health literacy among participants who received both the National Program and the Yunnan Program were 3.92 times higher than those who only received the National Program (95% CI: 2.10–7.33).ConclusionThe findings highlighted the importance of incorporating non-verbal visual aids and culturally-sensitive media tools in health literacy education to address healthy lifestyle and the living contexts of the populations in poverty-stricken areas.

Background: The role of antihypertensive drugs in inducing hyperuricaemia and gout has been a long-term concern in clinical practice. However, clinical studies regarding this issue are limited in number and have yielded inconsistent results. We comprehensively evaluated the association between various antihypertensive drugs and the occurrences of hyperuricaemia, gout and related adverse events (AEs) using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), aiming to guide the selection of antihypertensive drugs with a goal of minimizing the risk of hyperuricaemia, gout and related AEs.Methods: We used OpenVigil 2.1 to query the FAERS database. Hyperuricaemia, gout and related AEs were defined by 5 Preferred Terms: hyperuricaemia, gout, gouty arthritis, gouty tophus and urate nephropathy. Disproportionality analysis was performed, and a positive signal indicated an association between AEs and antihypertensive drugs.Results: The numbers of antihypertensive drugs with positive signals for hyperuricaemia, gout, gouty arthritis, gouty tophus and urate nephropathy were 46, 66, 27, 8 and 6, respectively. These drugs included diuretics, antihypertensive drugs with central action, α blockers, β blockers, α and β blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, renin inhibitors, vasodilators, and compound preparations. Furthermore, 42 antihypertensive drugs had positive signal for more than one AEs.Conclusion: Our study suggests that some potassium-sparing diuretics, calcium channel blockers and losartan may be associated with increased risk of hyperuricaemia, gout or related AEs, which is inconsistent with most previous studies. Moreover, Our study also suggests that some antihypertensive drugs with central action, α and β blockers, renin inhibitors and vasodilators may be associated with increased risk of hyperuricaemia, gout or related AEs, which has not been reported in previous studies. These findings complement real-world evidence on the potential risks of hyperuricaemia, gout and related AEs associated with antihypertensive drugs.

Objective: This study aimed to identify ROS1 fusion partners in Chinese patients with solid tumors.Methods: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis was used to detect ROS1 rearrangement in 45,438 Chinese patients with solid tumors between 2015 and 2020, and the clinical characteristics and genetic features of gene fusion were evaluated. H&E staining of the excised tumor tissues was conducted. Samples with a tumor cell content ≥ 20% were included for subsequent DNA extraction and sequencing analysis.Results: A total of 92 patients with ROS1 rearrangements were identified using next-generation sequencing, and the most common histological type lung cancer. From the 92 ROS1 fusion cases, 24 ROS1 fusion partners had been identified, including 14 novel partners and 10 reported partners. Of these, CD74, EZR, SDC4, and TPM3 were the four most frequently occurring partners. Fourteen novel ROS1 fusion partners were detected in 16 patients, including DCBLD1-ROS1, FRK-ROS1, and VGLL2-ROS1. In many patients, the ROS1 breakpoint was located between exons 32 and 34.Conclusion: This study describes 14 novel ROS1 fusion partners based on the largest ROS1 fusion cohort, and the ROS1 breakpoint was mostly located between exons 32 and 34. Additionally, next-generation sequencing is an optional method for identifying novel ROS1 fusions.

Previous studies have demonstrated that REBACIN® intervention eliminates persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) infection. The initial establishment and subsequent progression of cervical cancer mainly depends on two major oncogenes, E6/E7, and previous studies have proposed E6/E7 oncogenes as a target for therapeutic drug development. The aim of this study was to investigate in vitro and in vivo whether REBACIN® inhibits E6/E7 oncogenes for elucidating the mechanism of REBACIN® in the clearance of persistent hrHPV infection. In vitro, after REBACIN® treatment, the growth of both Ca Ski and HeLa cervical cancer cells containing the E6/E7 oncogenes was prevented. In line with this finding is that E6/E7 expression was inhibited, which can be counteracted by the co-application of anti-REBACIN® antibody. These studies demonstrated that REBACIN® can effectively inhibit the growth of cervical cancer cells via targeting HPV E6/E7 expression. To further verify this finding in clinic, 108 volunteer patients with persistent hrHPV infections were randomly divided into REBACIN®, recombinant human interferon alpha-2b (Immunological drug control), or no-treatment blank control groups, received intravaginal administration of REBACIN®, interferon or no-treatment every other day for three months, and then followed up for E6/E7 mRNA assay. In REBACIN® group, 68.57% of patients showed complete clearance of HPV E6/E7 mRNA, which was significantly higher compared to 25.00% in the interferon immunological drug control group and 20.00% in blank control group, confirming that REBACIN® is potently efficacious on clearing persistent hrHPV infections via inhibition of HPV E6/E7 oncogenes.Clinical trial registrationhttp://www.chictr.org.cn/historyversionpuben.aspx?regno=ChiCTR2100045911, identifier ChiCTR2100045911.

Malignant tumor is a major killer that seriously endangers human health. At present, the methods of treating tumors include surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. However, the survival rate of patients is still very low due to the complicated mechanism of tumor occurrence and development and high recurrence rate. Individualized treatment will be the main direction of tumor treatment in the future. Because only by understanding the molecular mechanism of tumor development and differentially expressed genes can we carry out accurate treatment and improve the therapeutic effect. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a kind of small non coding RNA, which regulates gene expression at mRNA level and plays a key role in tumor regulation. Ferroptosis is a kind of programmed death caused by iron dependent lipid peroxidation, which is different from apoptosis, necrosis and other cell death modes. Now it has been found that ferroptosis plays an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors and drug resistance. More and more studies have found that miRNAs can regulate tumor development and drug resistance through ferroptosis. Therefore, in this review, the mechanism of ferroptosis is briefly outlined, and the relationship between miRNAs and ferroptosis in tumors is reviewed.

To improve the performance of an ice bucket, the data obtained using a mathematical model of the ice-making process are compared with the experimental data using the system parameters of the tested flake ice producer. Three concepts—the ice-layer drying time ratio (Kdry), deicing time ratio (Kdei), and water-distribution icing ratio (b)—are introduced as theoretical and data support for improving the structure of the water-distribution pan of the ice bucket and setting a reasonable amount of water distribution. Based on the structure of the water-distribution pan, an area model of the ice bucket is developed for improving the ice-bucket area. The results revealed that when the ice-making period of the tested flake ice maker is 20–40 s and the average temperature of the ice layer is regulated to −3°C, the Kdry exceeds 0.02–0.06. When the ice-making period is 20–40 s and the minimum ice-layer thickness is set to 0.5 mm, the Kdry is less than 0.32–0.53. The ice-layer thickness can reach 98%–99% of the maximum ice-layer thickness when the b is 3.8–5.6. The obtained Kdry, Kdei, and b can be used to optimize the structure of the water-distribution pans, amounts of water distribution, and ice-making bucket performances of other flake ice makers.