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Using monthly data on national housing prices from July 1998 to June 2015, we investigate the effect of the 'Tender, Auction and Listing' (hereafter TAL) system on housing prices in land, implemented on 31 August 2004. We apply the additional polynomial regression discontinuity method which effectively eliminates the effects of several confounding factors such as financial crisis, 'New National Ten Provisions' and '9.30 New Regime'. We find that, although the TAL has caused the national average housing prices to go up by 10%, accounting for 11% of total increase in housing prices in the last year, it does not constitute the major driver for housing prices. Furthermore, our results indicate that TAL has exerted a larger impact on commercial and residential properties, especially in the middle and west regions. By examining the transmission mechanisms, we find that the effects of TAL are mainly via government's starvation-style land supply effect and market-reshuffling effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a cheap substitute for PbTe or PbSe, the thermoelectric performance of PbS still remains to be improved. In this report, we selected Bi2S3 as a donor and employed a facile route of hydrothermal synthesis combined with microwave sintering to fabricate Bi2S3 doped PbS. Due to the increased electrical conductivity by Bi2S3 doping and the decreased thermal conductivity from the refined microstructure, the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of microwave sintered Pb0.995Bi0.005S and Pb0.99Bi0.01S reached 0.90 and 0.86 at 800 K, respectively, without sign of saturation. When processed with plasma activated sintering (PAS), the highest ZT value of Pb0.99Bi0.01S only reached 0.3 at 800 K. The obtained results indicate that hydrothermal synthesis and microwave sintering can essentially improve the thermoelectric properties of Pb1−xBixS and easily realize mass production at low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Testosterone promoted the increase in the levels of MIF and LH but inhibited the increase in the level of FSH. • The MIF antibody could alleviate the process of PCOS to a certain extent. • Testosterone propionate promoted the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, iNOS, and TNF-α; the MIF antibody could reverse this effect. • Testosterone promoted the expression of NF-κB protein in the nucleus; this effect also could be reversed by the MIF antibody. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) resulting from abnormal glucose metabolism is a relatively common and complex endocrine disorder among women in their reproductive years, However, the pathogenesis of PCOS is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) involvement of the nuclear factor (NF)-κB in rats with PCOS. Results indicated that testosterone promoted the increase in the levels of MIF and luteinizing hormone (LH) but inhibited the increase in the level of follicular stimulating hormone (FSH). The MIF antibody could alleviate the process of PCOS to a certain extent. Testosterone promoted the expression of interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α); the MIF antibody could reverse this effect. Testosterone could inhibit the expression of NF-κB protein whereas MIF antibody could promote the expression in the ovarian cytoplasm. Testosterone promoted the expression of NF-κB protein in the nucleus, this effect also could be reversed by the MIF antibody. Hyperandrogenism activated the NF-κB pathway. After using the MIF antibody, this effect was reversed. This finding suggested that hyperandrogenism activated the NF-κB pathway through MIF. In short, increased MIF levels activated the NF-κB pathway in ovaries, leading to inflammation and the increase in the levels of relevant inflammatory indicators, which might be one of the important factors in the pathogenesis of PCOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Region-based mathematical formulation of operational flexibility is built. • The quantified calculation method of operational flexibility of ADNs is proposed. • Applications of operational flexibility are elaborated under a unified framework. With a high penetration of intermittent distributed generators (DGs), the uncertainties in active distribution networks (ADNs) are exacerbated and further coupled in the networks. It brings enormous challenges on system operation and puts forward a higher requirement for the operational flexibility of ADNs. However, due to the secure constraints and diverse operational requirements, the controllability of controllable resources (CRs) cannot fully facilitate the flexible operation of ADNs. Operational flexibility is seen as a link between diverse operational requirements and flexible adjustment capabilities of CRs, which also represents the ability of the network to deploy its CRs to respond to the change of operation states. Under the framework of operational flexibility, multiple types of operational optimization problems can be reinterpreted, which provides a new perspective for the operation of ADNs. In this paper, the definition and region-based mathematical formulation of operational flexibility for ADNs are proposed firstly. Then the quantified calculation method of operational flexibility is proposed to represent flexibility provision (FP) and flexibility availability (FA). The application of operational flexibility is analyzed from the perspective of diverse operation and improvement of flexibility. Finally, case studies are performed on the modified IEEE 33-node system to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Craniopharyngioma (CP) is rare histologically benign but clinically challenging tumor because of its intimate relationship with the critical structure in the central brain. CP can be divided into two major histologic subtypes: adamantinomatous-type CP (ACP) and papillary-type CP (PCP). Although some genetic aberrations for both categories have been revealed in previous studies, the complete spectrum of genetic changes of this tumor remains unknown. Methods: In this study, we conducted whole genome sequencing (WGS) on twenty-six CPs including 16 ACPs and 10 PCPs together with their matched blood samples. Somatic variants (SNVs, InDels, SVs and CNVs) were identified and mutational signatures were characterized for each patient. We investigated the impact of a novel CTNNB1 mutant on its protein stability, ubiquitination and Wnt pathway activity. Cell proliferation ability of the CTNNB1 mutant in ACP primary cells was additionally analyzed by CCK8 and colony formation assays. Results: We found that CPs had showed less complexity with fewer somatic mutations compared with malignant tumors. Moreover, mutations in CTNNB1 (68.75% of ACP) and BRAF V600E (70.00% of PCP) are mutually exclusive in ACP and PCP, consolidating that the driving roles of these two genes in ACP and PCP, respectively. A novel mutation in the exon 3 of CTNNB1 which compromised both a transversion and in-frame deletion was identified in ACP. This mutation was experimentally validated to confer β-catenin increased stability by inhibiting its ubiquitination, thus activating Wnt-signaling pathway and promoting cell proliferation. Conclusions: Whole genome landscape for CP was revealed by WGS analysis, and a novel mutation in the exon 3 of CTNNB1 was identified. This novel mutation activates Wnt-signaling pathway through increasing the stability of β-catenin. Our findings provided us with more comprehensive insight into the spectrum of genetic alterations in CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicated that both inflammatory responses and hyperglycemia are involved in the similar pathophysiological mechanisms after onset of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). However the relationship between hyperglycemia and inflammation remains unknown. We aim to evaluate the associations of hyperglycemia with inflammation and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with ICH. Patients with acute ICH were retrospectively enrolled. Clinical characteristics and imaging features were obtained. The associations between outcome and laboratory biomarkers were assessed by multivariable logistic regression analysis. Spearman analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to estimate the association of NLR and serum glucose. 175 patients were enrolled. Poor outcome occurred in 86 patients at 30 days. Elevated blood glucose level (BGL) and NLR were strongly associated with outcome in patients with ICH. Moreover, combined NLR-BGL exhibited a better predictive accuracy compared with the peripheral leukocyte counts. Furthermore, there was a robust association between BGL and NLR. We first demonstrated both of NLR and BGL were independently associated with each other. Our results indicate that inflammatory responses and the pathological process of hyperglycemia may influence each other by several complex pathological mechanisms and have a mutual promoting effect to secondary brain injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • DNA strands could be self-assembled into well-defined 2D or 3D nanostructures. • DNA nanomachines could be designed as drug carriers for targeted cancer therapy. • DNA nanomachine shows great potential in PD-1 mediated immunotherapy and the delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 systems. • Intelligent DNA nanomachines can respond to the changes in the external environment. As an emerging field, DNA nanotechnology has been applied to the fabrication of drug delivery systems. Unprecedented spatial addressability and intrinsic sequence encoding enable DNA strands to self-assemble into well-defined 2D and 3D DNA nanostructures with specifically controlled sizes, shapes and surface charges. Multifunctional DNA nanostructures have been created and applied as promising platforms for drug delivery, imaging, and theranostics. Advantages of chemotherapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy, among others, have been integrated into such functional nanodevices, showing potential in tumor-targeted therapy and diagnosis. In this review, we summarize general methods for the construction of DNA nanodevices and focus on targeting strategies favored by the compatibility of DNA nanotechnology. Additionally, we highlight the outlook and challenges facing the use of DNA nanotechnology in cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy (MNTI) is a rare pigmented craniofacial tumor of infants. This study aimed to analyze the literature on MNTI arising from the skull and brain. A systematic literature review was performed and 91 patients reported in 78 articles were identified from 1918 to 2019. MNTI of the skull and brain was slightly more prevalent among boys. The age at diagnosis of patients with intracranial MNTI was mainly >1 year, and most patients with skull MNTI were diagnosed within the first year of life (P < 0.001). MNTI of the skull mostly presented as a rapidly growing mass, whereas intracranial MNTI presented with increasing intracranial pressure and neurologic dysfunction. Surgical resection was the primary treatment, with an average follow-up of 25.6 months. Overall survival was related to age at diagnosis within 1 year (P = 0.001), tumor location (P < 0.001), tumor size (P = 0.010), treatment (P < 0.001), and metastasis (P < 0.001) and malignancy (P < 0.001), whereas recurrence rate was significantly associated with age (P < 0.001), tumor size (P = 0.010), complete surgical resection (P = 0.011), metastasis (P = 0.003), and malignant behavior (P = 0.001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astragali Radix (AR) is a common Chinese medicine and food. This article aims to reveal the active role of AR in treating Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its renal protective mechanism. The hypoglycemic active fraction was screened by α-glucosidase and identified by UPLC-QE-Orbitrap-MS spectrometry. The targets and KEGG pathway were determined through the application of network pharmacology methodology. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation technology were used for virtual verification. Subsequently, a mouse model of T2DM was established, and the blood glucose and renal function indexes of the mice after administration were analyzed to further prove the pharmacodynamic effect and mechanism of AR in the treatment of T2DM. HA was determined as the best hypoglycemic active fraction by the α-glucosidase method, with a total of 23 compounds identified. The main active components, such as calycoside-7-O-β-D-glucoside, methylnisoline, and formononetin, were revealed by network pharmacology. In addition, the core targets and the pathway have also been determined. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation techniques have verified that components and targets can be well combined. In vivo studies have shown that AR can reduce blood sugar levels in model mice, enhance the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of kidney tissue, and alleviate kidney damage in mice. And it also has regulatory effects on proteins such as RAGE, PI3K, and AKT. AR has a good therapeutic effect on T2DM and can repair disease-induced renal injury by regulating the RAGE/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. This study provides ideas for the development of new drugs or dietary interventions for the treatment of T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benedikt’s syndrome (BS) is caused by the lesion in the midbrain and specifically manifests a series of symptoms, including ipsilateral third nerve palsy, contralateral tremor, hemiataxia, and hyperactive tendon reflexes. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for BS emerges as a new approach and achieves successfully results. We report a successful case report of thalamic ventral intermediate (VIM) nucleus DBS for a patient with BS. During follow-up of 3 years, DBS successfully control the tremor and greatly improve his living and working quality. We consider that VIM DBS may have sustained benefit for refractory BS that mainly presents as tremor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlON ceramics with high transmittance and strength are essential for transparent armor application. However, high-temperature sintering for long time would result in large grain sizes associated with low strength. In this paper, a low + high temperature two-step sintering method with ultrafine AlON powders was reported for the preparation of high-strength and high-transmittance AlON ceramics. Firstly, the high-purity AlON powders with high specific surface area of 29.77 m2/g was synthesized by solution combustion synthesis-nitridation method and subsequently ball-milling process. Thereafter a sample with 97% density and small grain size (less than 4 μm) can be obtained after sintered at 1750 °C for 3 h, in which the difference of kinetics between grain-boundary diffusion and grain-boundary migration was used to suppress the final stage of grain growth. Further increasing sintering temperature to 1850 °C resulted in the elimination of the residual porosity, and realizing transparent AlON ceramics with high optical transmission (85.4%) and high flexural strength (375.1 MPa) could be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inverse coupled dependence of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient presents a big challenge in achieving a high figure of merit. However, the simultaneous enhancement of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient can be realized in practice by electronic band structure engineering. Resonant level doping shows obvious advantages as one of the most important strategies of band engineering. In this work, single orthorhombic phase Bi 2− x Sn x S 3 ( x = 0, 0.005, 0.015, 0.025, 0.05) bulk materials were prepared by combining solvothermal method with microwave sintering. Sn 4+ as a dopant increased the electrical conductivity due to tuning carrier concentration (n) and simultaneously “stabilized” the Seebeck coefficient, which is probably ascribed to the effect of resonant level doping. The maximum dimensionless figure of merit ( ZT ) of Bi 2− x Sn x S 3 ( x = 0.015) is 0.67 at 673 K, which was about 8 times higher than that of undoped Bi 2 S 3 samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an estimation method revealing relationship between residual oxygen content and Y 2 O 3 additive amount used in AlN sintering was presented. It is revealed that AlN sample added with 3 wt% Y 2 O 3 showed better performance than the others while the oxygen content is 0.765 wt% in the initial powders. Nevertheless, short-time sintering does not make AlN to obtain ultra-high performance consistent with the estimation. By two-step sintering regimes, the distribution of second phase in AlN ceramic was changed from continuous distribution to island-like distribution significantly. The bending strength increases first and then decreases, reaching a higher value of 418 MPa after 2-h annealing. The residual oxygen content continues to decrease as more liquid second phase precipitated with long-time annealing. After reaching a state with lower residual oxygen content than the estimation, high-performance AlN is prepared with thermal conductivity of 230 W/m·K and lower bending strength of 358 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The good thermal conductivity of AlN is essential for insulation and high heat dissipation applications. However, the influence of oxygen impurities at various locations (the lattice oxygen and grain edge oxygen) on the thermal resistivity of AlN ceramics is unclear. In this study, AlN ceramics with various oxygen distributions are prepared by different methods, and the oxygen contents of different regions are distinguished. The results indicate that the lattice oxygen is the main factor affecting thermal resistivity. Meanwhile, high-temperature annealing and pre-sintering processes can lower the lattice oxygen content from 0.061 wt% to 0.038 wt% and 0.036 wt%, respectively. Additionally, when grain edge phase volume is less than 4 vol%, it does not contribute significantly to thermal resistivity. The main formation of thermal resistance changes from phonon-defect scattering to phonon-phonon scattering with increasing temperature. These results may be informative for the microstructure design of AlN ceramics with high thermal conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) play essential roles in many biological processes. In protein–protein interaction networks, hubs involve in numbers of PPIs and may constitute an important source of drug targets. The intrinsic disorder proteins (IDPs) with unstable structures can promote the promiscuity of hubs and also involve in many disease pathways, so they also could serve as potential drug targets. Moreover, proteins with similar functions measured by semantic similarity of gene ontology (GO) terms tend to interact with each other. Here, the relationship between hub proteins and drug targets based on GO terms and intrinsic disorder was explored. The semantic similarities of GO terms and genes between two proteins, and the rate of intrinsic disorder residues of each protein were extracted as features to characterize the functional similarity between two interacting proteins. Only using 8 feature variables, prediction models by support vector machine (SVM) were constructed to predict PPIs. The accuracy of the model on the PPI data from human hub proteins is as high as 83.72%, which is very promising compared with other PPI prediction models with hundreds or even thousands of features. Then, 118 of 142 PPIs between hubs are correctly predicted that the two interacting proteins are targets of the same drugs. The results indicate that only 8 functional features are fully efficient for representing PPIs. In order to identify new targets from IDP dataset, the PPIs between hubs and IDPs are predicted by the SVM model and the model yields a prediction accuracy of 75.84%. Further research proves that 3 of 5 PPIs between hubs and IDPs are correctly predicted that the two interacting proteins are targets of the same drugs. All results demonstrate that the model with only 8-dimensional features from GO terms and intrinsic disorder still gives a good performance in predicting PPIs and further identifying drug targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine AION powders (D 50 = 607 nm) with high sintering activities were synthesized by a high-efficiency solution combustion-based method, and a high-transmittance AlON ceramics can be achieved by a subsequent sintering process. Moreover, the influences of various aluminum resources (Al(NO 3) 3 , AlCl 3 and Al 2 (SO 4) 3) on the morphology of precursors and nitride-functionalized products have been studied in detail. Using Al(NO 3) 3 as aluminum source resulted in more active precursors and was beneficial for the preparation of ultrafine AlON powders. Then, single-phase AlON powders were obtained by calcining precursors at 1700 °C for 10 min, while residual Al 2 O 3 was observed in the calcined products synthesized by other two aluminum sources. As a result, transparent AlON ceramics with high in-line transmittance of 85.9% at 2 μm were obtained. This research provides valuable reference for rapid preparation of AlON powders and transparent ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Numerous options for treatment of glioblastoma have been explored; however, single-drug therapies and poor targeting have failed to provide effective drugs. Chemotherapy has significant antitumor effect, but the efficacy of single-drug therapies in the clinic is limited over a long period of time. Thus, novel therapeutic approaches are necessary to address these critical issues. The present study, we investigated a tumor-specific metal-tea polyphenol-based cascade nanoreactor for chemodynamic therapy-enhanced chemotherapy. HA-EGCG was synthesized for the first time by introducing epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) into the skeleton of hyaluronic acid (HA) with reducible disulfide bonds. A rapid and green method was developed to fabricate the metal-tea polyphenol networks (MTP) with an HA-EGCG coating (DOX@MTP/HA-EGCG) based on Fe3+ and EGCG for targeted delivery of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX). GL261 cells were used to evaluate the antitumor efficacy of the DOX@MTP/HA-EGCG nanoreactor in vitro and in vivo. DOX@MTP/HA-EGCG nanoreactors were able to disassemble, resulting in escape of their components from lysosomes and precise release of DOX, Fe3+, and EGCG in the tumor cells. HA-EGCG depleted glutathione to amplify oxidative stress and enhance chemodynamic therapy. The results of in vivo experiments suggested that DOX@MTP/HA-EGCG specifically accumulates at the CD44-overexpressing GL261 tumor sites and that sustained release of DOX and Fe3+ induced a distinct therapeutic outcome. The findings suggested the developed nanoreactor has promising potential as a future GL261 glioblastoma therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycrystalline aluminum oxynitride (AlON) powders have been prepared by the carbothermal reduction nitridation of amorphous precursor obtained by solution combustion synthesis (SCS). Firstly, a mixed precursor of amorphous transition alumina and incompletely combusted organic matter has been combustion synthesized of a mixed solution of aluminum nitrate, urea and glucose. Then the pure phase AlON powders with D 50 = 0.846 μm can be prepared by calcining the SCS precursor at 1700 °C for only 10 min. The influences of different urea/aluminum nitrate nonahydrate ratio, calcining temperature and holding time on the properties of products have been discussed in detail. The research can provide a valuable reference for the efficient synthesis of AlON powders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • High-activity iron nanopowders were prepared by a combustion-based route. • The iron nanopowders achieve higher density at lower sintering temperature. • The sintered iron exhibit excellent mechanical and magnetic properties. • Our route shows the advantages of low-cost and large-scale preparation. High-activity iron nanopowders were prepared through a facile combustion-based route, combining solution combustion synthesis and hydrogen reduction. The as-synthesized iron nanopowders were densified by pressureless sintering. The densification behavior, microstructure, mechanical properties and magnetic properties of the iron bulk sintered at different temperatures were studied in detail. At a low sintering temperature of 700 °C, the relative density of the sintered iron reaches 97.3%, because the iron nanopowders exhibit a low sintering activation energy of 123 KJ/mol. The iron bulk sintered at 700 °C exhibits relatively regular equiaxed grains with an average grain size of 0.45 μm, and has a maximum tensile strength of 510.1 MPa, a high microhardness of 201.9 HV, and a saturation induction of 1.75 T. As the sintering temperature increases, the grain size and magnetic properties of the sintered iron enhance, while the mechanical strength decreases. For the sintered iron prepared at 1300 °C with the average grain size ~ 80.9 μm, the saturation induction value reaches 1.78 T and the tensile strength is 334.9 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]