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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In chronic kidney disease (CKD), patients inevitably reach end-stage renal disease and require renal transplant. Evidence suggests that CKD is associated with metabolite disorders. However, the molecular pathways targeted by metabolites remain enigmatic. Here, we describe roles of 1-hydroxypyrene in mediating renal fibrosis. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH We analysed 5406 urine and serum samples from patients with Stage 1-5 CKD using metabolomics, and 1-hydroxypyrene was identified and validated using longitudinal and drug intervention cohorts as well as 5/6 nephrectomised and adenine-induced rats. KEY RESULTS We identified correlations between the urine and serum levels of 1-hydroxypyrene and the estimated GFR in patients with CKD onset and progression. Moreover, increased 1-hydroxypyrene levels in serum and kidney tissues correlated with decreased renal function in two rat models. Up-regulated mRNA expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor and its target genes, including CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP1B1, were observed in patients and rats with progressive CKD. Further we showed up-regulated mRNA expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor and its three target genes, plus up-regulated nuclear aryl hydrocarbon receptor protein levels in mice and HK-2 cells treated with 1-hydroxypyrene, which caused accumulation of extracellular matrix components. Treatment with aryl hydrocarbon receptor short hairpin RNA or flavonoids inhibited mRNA expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor and its target genes in 1-hydroxypyrene-induced HK-2 cells and mice. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Metabolite 1-hydroxypyrene was demonstrated to mediate renal fibrosis through activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor signalling pathway. Targeting aryl hydrocarbon receptor may be an alternative therapeutic strategy for CKD progression.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results in high morbidity and mortality worldwide causing a huge socioeconomic burden. MicroRNA (miRNA) exert critical regulatory functions by targeting downstream genes and have been associated with many pathophysiologic processes including CKD. In fact, many studies have shown that the expression of various miRNAs was significantly changed in CKD. Current investigations have focused on revealing the relationship between miRNAs and CKD states including diabetic nephropathy, lupus nephritis, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and IgA nephropathy. In this review, we summarize the latest advances elucidating miRNA involvement in the progression of CKD and demonstrate that miRNAs have the potential to be effective biomarkers and therapeutic targets for subsequent treatment.

The GALILEO array is a high-efficiency γ -ray spectrometer, resident at the Legnaro National Laboratory (LNL)in Italy, and it is currently used in combination with the Si-ball EUCLIDES for the detection of charged-particles. The combined setup was used in the 6 Li+89Y experiment with incident energies of 22 MeV and 34 MeV to investigate the influence of breakup and transfer of weakly bound projectile on the fusion process. Using the coincidence by the charged particles and γ -rays, the different reaction channels can be clearly identified and the different reaction mechanisms can be clearly studied. It is shown that this facility can be used well to explore the fusion reaction mechanisms induced by weakly bound nuclei.

Renal fibrosis was a chronic and progressive process affecting kidneys in chronic kidney disease (CKD), regardless of cause. Although no effective targeted therapy yet existed to retard renal fibrosis, a number of important recent advances have highlighted the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the renal fibrosis. The advances including TGF-β/Smad pathway, oxidative stress and inflammation, hypoxia and gut microbiota-derived from uremic solutes were highlighted that could provide therapeutic targets. New therapeutic targets and strategies that are particularly promising for development of new treatments for patients with CKD were also highlighted.

Gamma-ray angular distributions in oriented $$^{92}$$ Mo produced via the $$^{6}$$ Li+ $$^{89}$$ Y reaction were studied in this work. The characteristic $$\gamma $$ rays in $$^{92}$$ Mo were measured by means of the GALILEO array, which is composed of 25 Compton-suppressed HPGe detectors arranged in a nearly 2 $$\pi $$ geometry. A detailed analysis of the spin-alignment attenuation factors ( $$\alpha _2$$ ) for different excited states in $$^{92}$$ Mo was performed, by analyzing the measured angular distribution coefficients of several pure-E2 transitions. The relationship between $$\alpha _2$$ and the spin was established in $$^{92}$$ Mo and the 244-keV transition between the 5 $$^-_1$$ and 4 $$^+_1$$ states resulted to have a E1 + M2 character with a mixing ratio ( $$\delta $$ ) of $$-0.05^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$$ , consistent with shell model calculations.

The tensor parts of Skyrme interactions are constrained from the collective charge-exchange spin–dipole and Gamow–Teller excitation energies in $$^{90}$$Zr and $$^{208}$$Pb, together with the isotopic dependence of energy splitting between proton $$h_{11/2}$$ and $$g_{7/2}$$ single-particle orbits along the $$Z=50$$ isotopes. With the optimized tensor interactions, the binding energies of spherical or weakly deformed nuclei with $$A=54{-}228$$ are studied systematically. The present results show that the global effect of tensor interaction is attractive and systematically increases the binding energies of all these nuclei and makes the nuclei more bound. The root mean squared deviation of the calculated binding energies from the experimental values is significantly improved by the optimized tensor interactions, and the contribution of the tensor interaction to the binding energy is estimated.

Excited states of odd-odd nucleus 92Nb and odd-A nucleus 93Nb were populated in the 6Li+ 89Y reaction with an incident energy of 34 MeV. The processes that produce 92,93Nb and can be measured by a combination of light charged particle and gamma ray measurements are discussed. Twenty new transitions are observed and eight new levels are constructed in 92Nb, and in addition two new transitions are added to the level scheme of 93Nb. Using shell model calculations, the low-lying structure of 92Nb is investigated and compared with the experimental results.

The $\beta$ -delayed particle emission from 21Mg was studied at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou (RIBLL1). Silicon array and high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors were used to detect the charged particles and $\gamma$ -rays emitted from the decay. Half-life time of 21Mg was determined to be 121.9(6) ms. New levels (5.639(26) MeV and 6.644(34) MeV) in the nucleus 21Na were observed. An improved proton spectrum coincident with $\gamma$ -rays at 1.633 MeV was obtained. A new partial decay scheme was constructed based on the present measurement.

Excited states of the odd–odd nucleus 74 As have been investigated via heavy ion fusion evaporation reaction Zn 70 ( Li 7 , 3 n ) As 74 at beam energy of 30 MeV. The properties of the positive- and the negative- parity bands can be interpreted in terms of the Cranked Nilsson–Strutinsky (CNS) model calculations which show that the observed bands are built on the triaxial deformed shape. The inversion of the favored and unfavored signature branches observed in the positive-parity bands presents at high spins rather than normal signature inversion occurs at low spins. This phenomenon may be explained as the origin of unpaired band crossing in a highly rotating triaxial nucleus.

The configuration-interaction shell model with the WBP10 effective interaction has been used to investigate the pygmy and giant dipole resonances in the nitrogen isotopes. Large enhancement of low-lying dipole strength, i.e., pygmy dipole resonances (PDRs), is predicted in the neutron-rich $^{17,18,19,20}\mathrm{N}$. The nature of the PDRs is analyzed via the transition densities and transition matrix elements. It turns out these PDRs involve a larger amount of excitations between the $2s1d$ and loosely bound $1f2p$ shells. Combining with the transition densities, it is concluded that the PDRs in $^{17,18,19,20}\mathrm{N}$ are collective and due to the oscillation between the excess neutrons and the isospin saturated core. The isospin dependence of energy splitting and sum rule of isospin doublets is discussed. The theoretical energy splitting of isospin doublets can significantly deviate from the systematic values when nucleus is far away from the $\ensuremath{\beta}$-stability line. The ratios of ${T}_{l}$ and ${T}_{g}$ energy-weighted sum rule (EWSR) are consistently larger than the systematic values, and it is noticed that the calculated EWSR ratio over the systematic ratio increases with increasing isospin almost linearly. We also calculated the photoabsorption cross sections for the nitrogen isotopes. We proposed the normalization factors for $0--1\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$ and $2--3\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$ calculations. After the normalization, the shell model has well reproduced the experimental photoabsorption cross sections in $^{14,15}\mathrm{N}$, especially the detailed structure of resonances.

Our world is made of matter, but matter has a counterpart called antimatter, in which the subatomic particles (protons and electrons) of antimatter have charges opposite to those of ordinary matter. In an ordinary matter, the protons are positively charged, and the electrons carry negative charges. In antimatter, the antiprotons are negatively charged, while the antielectrons (called positrons) are positively charged. When antimatter and matter ever meet, they annihilate in a flash of light. However, we do not understand why antimatter is as rare as it is actually. The Big Bang should have produced matter just as much as antimatter, but it did not. To solve the mystery, researchers make small amounts of antimatter in the laboratory for finding the difference between antimatter-pair interaction and matter-pair interaction. One recent experiment was performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) where the atoms of pure gold are smashed together, creating abundant particles of antimatter. The research team led by Prof. Yu-Gang Ma, an APS fellow (http:// www.aps.org/units/dnp/fellowship/ index.cfm) from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with Dr. Aihong Tang from Brookhaven National Lab and other STAR collaborators. For the first time they reported themeasurement of interaction between antiproton pairs, which was published in Nature [1]. This recent research achievement is a big progress among a series of antimatter Proton-proton Cinclusive 1+xpp[Cpp-1]

A vast body of fusion data has been analyzed for different projectiles and target nuclei. It is indicated that the sub-barrier fusion depends on the fusion Q-value. In terms of a recently introduced fusion Q-value rule and an energy scaling reduction procedure, the experimental fusion excitation functions are reduced and compared with each other. It is found that the reduced fusion excitations of selected fusion systems show a similar trend. The fusion data for massive nuclei are in agreement with the Q-value rule. In the fusion process, the Q contribution should be considered. Within this approach, the sub-barrier fusion cross sections of most fusion systems can be predicted without involving any structure effects of colliding nuclei. Instances of disagreement are presented in a few fusion systems. The use of the energy scaling as a criterion of possible experimental data inconsistency is discussed. More precise experimental fusion data need to be measured.