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Cyclin‐dependent kinase 9 (CDK9), a catalytic subunit of the positive transcription elongation factor b (P‐TEFb) complex, is a global transcriptional elongation factor associated with cell proliferation. CDK9 activity is regulated by certain histone acetyltransferases, such as p300, GCN5 and P/CAF. However, the impact of males absent on the first (MOF) (also known as KAT8 or MYST1) on CDK9 activity has not been reported. Therefore, the present study aimed to elucidate the regulatory role of MOF on CDK9. We present evidence from systematic biochemical assays and molecular biology approaches arguing that MOF interacts with and acetylates CDK9 at the lysine 35 (i.e. K35) site, and that this acetyl‐group can be removed by histone deacetylase HDAC1. Notably, MOF‐mediated acetylation of CDK9 at K35 promotes the formation of the P‐TEFb complex through stabilizing CDK9 protein and enhancing its association with cyclin T1, which further increases RNA polymerase II serine 2 residues levels and global transcription. Our study reveals for the first time that MOF promotes global transcription by acetylating CDK9, providing a new strategy for exploring the comprehensive mechanism of the MOF–CDK9 axis in cellular processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The use rate of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) among adolescents is continuously rising globally, posing new challenges to public health and negatively impacting adolescent health. This study employs bibliometric methods to systematically present the current state and evolving trends in global research on adolescent e-cigarette use. Methods: This study uses CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of articles related to adolescent e-cigarette use from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. Firstly, performance analysis and collaboration network analysis were utilized to clarify the basic publication status, main knowledge producers, and knowledge collaboration networks in adolescent e-cigarette use research. Secondly, a co-citation network analysis was performed to visually analyze the disciplinary characteristics and 'hot topics' in this field. Finally, keyword burst detection and clustering techniques were employed to further explain the development trends and frontiers of research on adolescent e-cigarette use. Results: A total of 2063 research articles and review articles were included in this study. Research on adolescent e-cigarette use has significantly increased from 2002 to 2024. The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are the main contributors, with their institutions and researchers playing key roles in the international collaborative network. Current research increasingly adopts interdisciplinary approaches. Keyword co-occurrence and burst identified current research 'hotspots' including vaping, substance use, public policy, prevention, advertising, and cessation. Co-citation cluster analysis revealed promising research areas such as attractiveness, environment and health, accessibility and smoking behavior, and mental health. Conclusions: Through data mining and visualization techniques, this study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of published work on e-cigarettes and adolescence. The results of this work offer references for researchers in future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-cholesterol diet (HCD) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are related to stroke. However, little is known about the combined effects of stroke, especially for females. This study investigated the brain injuries in Apolipoprotein E−/− (ApoE−/−) female mice exposed to HCD plus PM2.5 for 6 months. The protein levels of the genes related to stroke and the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in different groups of mice were measured. The molecular regulation mechanisms were explored. The results showed that HCD and PM2.5 co-exposure altered brain–body weight ratio, behavior, brain pathology, and inflammatory markers in mice relative to exposure to HCD or PM2.5 alone. Co-exposure significantly changed the expressions of HIF-1α and the key genes in its signaling pathway in the brains of mice compared to the single exposure. It suggests that the HIF-1α pathway exerts an important regulatory role in brain injury and behavioral abnormality in female mice after 6-month exposure to HCD plus PM2.5, which are potential mechanisms for HCD and PM2.5-triggering stroke in female individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• PM 2.5 triggers mitochondrial morphological and function damage of H9c2 cells. • MiR-421/SIRT3 pathway regulates cardiac mitochondrial dynamics imbalance after PM 2.5 treatment. • MiR-421 inhibitor and resveratrol protect PM 2.5 -induced mitochondrial damage. Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) exposure is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Mitochondria are sensitive targets of PM 2.5 , and mitochondrial dysfunction is closely related to the occurrence of CVD. The epigenetic mechanism of PM 2.5 -triggered mitochondrial injury of cardiomyocytes is unclear. This study focused on the miR-421/SIRT3 signaling pathway to investigate the regulatory mechanism in cardiac mitochondrial dynamics imbalance in rat H9c2 cells induced by PM 2.5. Results illustrated that PM 2.5 impaired mitochondrial function and caused dynamics homeostasis imbalance. Besides, PM 2.5 up-regulated miR-421 and down-regulated SIRT3 gene expression, along with decreasing p-FOXO3a (SIRT3 downstream target gene) and p-Parkin expression and triggering abnormal expression of fusion gene OPA1 and fission gene Drp1. Further, miR-421 inhibitor (miR-421i) and resveratrol significantly elevated the SIRT3 levels in H9c2 cells after PM 2.5 exposure and mediated the expression of SOD2, OPA1 and Drp1, restoring the mitochondrial morphology and function. It suggests that miR-421/SIRT3 pathway plays an epigenetic regulatory role in mitochondrial damage induced by PM 2.5 and that miR-421i and resveratrol exert protective effects against PM 2.5 -incurred cardiotoxicity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus is an element essential to sustaining life, and its compounds are widely involved in the biogeochemical cycles on Earth. Although a handful of phosphorus-bearing species, e.g. PO, have thus far been detected in diatomic form in circumstellar envelopes, their formation processes are still poorly understood. In this study, we examine the structure and spectroscopy of the [Si, O, P] system. Based on high-level ab initio electronic structure calculations with the MRCI + Q and CCSD(T) methods, four isomers could be formed and the most stable form predicted to be bent at all theoretical levels. The doublet and quartet potential energy surfaces (PESs) of P(2D)/P(4S) + SiO(1Σ) reactions are explored, and the spectroscopic parameters of the key isomers involved in the reaction are calculated. The present study highlights the possibility of PO formation via photodissociation of bent-SiOP. The results are expected to aid in the spectroscopic detection of these triatomic phosphorous-bearing species and provide insights into similar reactions of isoelectronic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the physiological period, women have the problem of lateral and posterior leakage, and they expect to have period underwear that can reduce lateral and posterior leakage. This study is combined with menstrual needs, and in the crotch penetration layer, three types of yarns are used, seaweed viscose yarn, apocynum viscose yarn, and viscose yarn, as well as two fabric structures: honeycomb-shaped convex–concave stitching and grid-shaped convex point stitching. In the crotch absorption layer, three types of yarns are used, modal yarn, bamboo yarn, and viscose yarn, as well as two fabric structures: plush stitching and plain stitching. The above two parts establish a sample scheme according to full-factor experimental tests, and 12 knitted fabric samples were knitted. The experimental data were analyzed through SPSS one-way ANOVA. The results indicate that in terms of veil raw materials, the crotch penetration layer with seaweed viscose yarn has better penetration performance, while the crotch absorption layer with bamboo yarn has better absorption performance. In terms of fabric structure, the crotch penetration layer with grid-shaped convex point stitching has better penetration performance, while the crotch absorption layer with plush stitching has better absorption performance. This study provides a theoretical basis for the development of period underwear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permittivity is an important aspect of the design of microwave devices. In order to design microwave devices that are more suitable for the excitation of air plasmas, this paper presents a method for the on-line measurement of the relative permittivity of an atmospheric pressure air plasma with 2.45 GHz microwaves. First, a ridged waveguide is designed and constructed to excite the air. Using the ridged waveguide, the plasma can be excited and measured simultaneously. An artificial neural network trained with simulated data is integrated into the system to invert the dielectric constant of the air plasma being measured. At a power of 786 W and an airflow rate of 1250 L/h, the real and imaginary parts of the permittivity are obtained to be −1244 and 60, respectively. The forecasted errors on the real part and the imaginary part of the relative permittivity are kept at around 5% and 3%. The Drude model is used to construct a relationship between the electronic and dielectric properties. This diagnostic method is simple to operate and has a high degree of generality. It should be useful in the design of microwave plasma devices and can greatly improve the efficiency of microwave plasma equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide a characterisation of the ionosphere from April 2018 to September 2022 for 48 investigated months. We used the data of the China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), which is a sun-synchronous satellite with five days of revisit time and fixed local time of about 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. The unique orbit of CSES-01 permitted us to produce a monthly background of the ionosphere for night- and daytime with median values acquired during geomagnetic quiet time in equatorial and mid-latitude regions (i.e., between 50° S and 50° N of geographical latitude). We compared the obtained CSES-01 monthly median values with the solar activity in terms of sunspot numbers, and we found a high correlation of 0.89 for nighttime and 0.85 for daytime between the mean sunspot number and the maximum of the characterised CSES-01 Ne map values. In addition, we extracted all the anomalous positive increases in CSES-01 electron density and compared them with the Worldwide M5.5+ shallow earthquakes. We tested two different definitions of anomaly based on median and interquartile range or (mild) outliers. We tried two relationships between anomalies inside Dobrovolsky's area before the earthquake and the magnitude of the same seismic events: one which considers distance in space and time and a second which only uses the anticipation time of the anomaly before the earthquake. Using both anomaly definitions, we searched the best coefficients for these two laws for mid-latitude and equational regions. We found that the best coefficients are independent of the anomaly definition, but better accuracy (greater than 80%) is obtained for the outlier definition. Finally, using receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curves, we show that CSES-01 increases seem statistically correlated to the incoming seismic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional tapered waveguide devices are limited by their power efficiency and produce unstable plasmas and small reaction zones. To overcome these drawbacks, a multi-ridge field compressed reactor operating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz is designed in this paper. The finite element method is applied to numerically compute its properties. A coupling model for the multiple physical fields is introduced to simulate the transient processes of a microwave argon plasma. Experiments with different flow rates and power settings are performed. This novel device can both sustain a long-length plasma and increase the power transfer efficiency from microwave to air and to the argon plasma, respectively, to 97.4% and 95.2%. Moreover, both devices are used to process the degradation of ethanol and benzene. The removal efficiencies are increased by 38.8% and 73.8% for ethanol and benzene, respectively, in the novel waveguide compared with the tapered waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mn–Co structured catalyst suitable for microwave heating was prepared on SiC. • Microwave heating is more cost-efficient than conventional thermal heating. • Microwave electric field can promote the adsorption of benzene molecules. • The surface electronic structure was changed under microwave electric field. Compared with traditional heating, microwave heating has unique advantage and can enhance the chemical reaction. It is a promising technology for catalytic degradation of VOCs gas. Here we prepared a structured catalyst (Mn–Co/SiC) suitable for VOCs degradation under microwave. The catalyst shown excellent stability under microwave heating and microwave empowered the catalyst with good water resistance. Microwave heating exhibits high energy efficiency. Density functional theory is employed to investigate the microwave-enhanced catalytic degradation of VOCs. The theoretical calculation results indicate that the adsorption energy is more negative under microwave electric field, suggesting that microwave electric field is conducive to the activation of benzene. The electrons on the adsorption surface of the catalyst are redistributed to different degrees under the action of different microwave electric fields, thus affecting the activation of adsorbed molecules and chemical reaction process. The local density of states further reveals that electric fields may facilitate the electron transport. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral resource exploitation and farming are the main human production activities, which meet the two basic needs of industrial development and food security. However, mining and farming co-occurred in some specific spatial sites across the globe, making significant negative impacts on land and the environment. Here, we presented a remote sensing and spatial gradient model to quantitatively evaluate grain production caused by underground coal mining in eastern China. The results show that more than 80103.15 ha of land has been impacted by coal mining subsidence by 2020, with 28417.86 ha (35.48%) directly turned into water or wetland, and 51685.29 ha (64.52%) indirectly impacted by subsidence basin. The accumulated grain losses reached 537.12 million tons for the past 20 years, and only 14% of the subsided water area was reclaimed. According to the reclamation scenario analysis, a one-time investment of approximate 3.11 billion US dollars (USD) for land reclamation, will recover 60% of the water logging area, and this investment could bring total agricultural profits of 171.25 million USD per year, and the supplemented grain could feed 0.9 million population. Our proposed framework for evaluating the grain loss from mining quantitively will help to weigh the grain and coal conflicts, and is expected to be applied in similar regions globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban waterbodies are one of the most pertinent issues involved in multiple aspects of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, waterbodies in large Chinese cities are highly vulnerable to urban-land expansion, which is mostly due to economic development, population growth, and rural–urban migration. In this work, we selected 159 Chinese cities of over one million in population to investigate the encroachment on waterbodies due to rapid urbanization from 1990 to 2018. Overall, 20.6% of natural waterbody area was lost during this period to urban expansion, and this fraction varied from city to city which was related to waterbody abundance. With the acceleration of urbanization, waterbody occupation is becoming more serious (P < 0.01). However, in all cities, this encroachment has eased since 2010, which justifies the effective implementation of national-scale policies to conserve urban waterbodies. Meanwhile, gains have occurred during urbanization, in addition to the loss of waterbodies. Especially, cities lacking waterbody placed a greater emphasis on ecological factors, whose urban waterbody areas showed an increasing trend. In the future, ecological resources, including waterbody, should be considered in urban planning to provide reasonable protection to waterbodies in the quest for urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Protein-protein interaction (PPI) is very important for many biochemical processes. Therefore, accurate prediction of PPI can help us better understand the role of proteins in biochemical processes. Although there are many methods to predict PPI in biology, they are time-consuming and lack accuracy, so it is necessary to build an efficiently and accurately computational model in the field of PPI prediction. Results: We present a novel sequence-based computational approach called DCSE (Double-Channel-Siamese-Ensemble) to predict potential PPI. In the encoding layer, we treat each amino acid as a word, and map it into an N-dimensional vector. In the feature extraction layer, we extract features from local and global perspectives by Multilayer Convolutional Neural Network (MCN) and Multilayer Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit with Convolutional Neural Networks (MBC). Finally, the output of the feature extraction layer is then fed into the prediction layer to output whether the input protein pair will interact each other. The MCN and MBC are siamese and ensemble based network, which can effectively improve the performance of the model. In order to demonstrate our model's performance, we compare it with four machine learning based and three deep learning based models. The results show that our method outperforms other models in all evaluation criteria. The Accuracy, Precision, F 1 , Recall and MCC of our model are 0.9303, 0.9091, 0.9268, 0.9452, 0.8609. For the other seven models, the highest Accuracy, Precision, F 1 , Recall and MCC are 0.9288, 0.9243, 0.9246, 0.9250, 0.8572. We also test our model in the imbalanced dataset and transfer our model to another species. The results show our model is excellent. Conclusion: Our model achieves the best performance by comparing it with seven other models. NLP-based coding method has a good effect on PPI prediction task. MCN and MBC extract protein sequence features from local and global perspectives and these two feature extraction layers are based on siamese and ensemble network structures. Siamese-based network structure can keep the features consistent and ensemble based network structure can effectively improve the accuracy of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental crises caused by plastic pollution have spurred the development of novel recovery and upcycling methods. In this study, a microwave magnetic field and magnetic catalyst cracking strategy based on a microwave multi-ridge field compressed reactor was proposed to efficiently convert polyethylene into hydrogen and high-quality carbon nanotubes while minimising energy consumption. A series of catalysts with different iron and cobalt contents was prepared and evaluated for hydrogen production from polyethylene cracking. A high hydrogen yield of 61.6 mmol·g−1 plastic was obtained in the magnetic field position with an energy consumption of only 5 W·h g−1 plastic , whereas the hydrogen yield was 45.7 mmol·g−1 plastic under microwave electric field. Under microwave magnetic field activation, the magnetic catalyst CoFeO x exhibited higher selectivity for H 2 than hydrocarbons in waste plastics. In addition, high hydrogen yields were achieved by varying the ratio of the catalyst feedstock in the electric field and intermediate positions of the reactor. This reactor separates the microwave fields in the reactor and places catalysts with different absorption characteristics at different positions, which can significantly improve the efficiency of microwave energy utilisation. [Display omitted] • Microwave magnetic field assisted pyrolysis of plastics with magnetic catalysts. • Magnetic catalyst CoFeO x was prepared by citric acid combustion method. • Hydrogen production from polyethylene up to 61.6 mmol·g−1 plastic. • Effect of magnetic catalysts on plastic cracking in microwave fields was studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The toxicological effects of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the cardiopulmonary and nervous systems have been studied widely, whereas the study of PM2.5 on systemic toxicity is not in-depth enough. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can cause multiple organ damage. The combined effects of co-exposure of PM2.5 plus LPS on the stomach, spleen, intestine, and kidney are still unclear. Purpose: This study was aimed to explore the toxicological effects of co-exposure of PM2.5 and LPS on the different organs of mice. Research Design and Study Sample Using a real-ambient PM2.5 exposure system and an intraperitoneal LPS injection mouse model, we investigated multiple organ damage effects on male BALB/c mice after co-exposure of PM2.5 plus LPS for 23 weeks in Linfen, a city with a high PM2.5 concentration in China. Data Collection: Eosin-hematoxylin staining, ELISA and the biochemical assay analysed the toxicological effects. Results: The pathological tissue injury on the four organs above appeared in mice co-exposed to PM2.5 plus LPS, accompanied by the body weight and stomach organ coefficient abnormality, and significant elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines levels, oxidative stress in the spleen and kidney, and levels of kidney injury molecule (KIM-1) increase in the kidney. There were tissue differences in the pathological damage and toxicological effects on mice after co-exposure, in which the spleen and kidney were more sensitive to pollutants. In the PM2.5 + LPS group, the superoxide dismutase inhibition and catalase (CAT) activity promotion in the kidney or spleen of mice were significant relative to the PM2.5 group; the CAT and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in the spleen were raised considerably compared with the LPS group. Conclusions: These findings suggested the severity and sensitivity of multiple organ injuries in mice in response to PM2.5 plus LPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A device, which is designed based on strip line, is proposed for dual-channel plasma jets. Based on electromagnetic theory and DRUDE model, finite difference time domain algorithm and finite element algorithm are adopted to obtain the dimensions of designed device. An experimental system is established, and microwave power of 70 W can process 30 L of argon per minute, which is extremely efficient compared with traditional microwave plasma jet. Meanwhile, reflected power is measured to be 8% of incident power using a power meter, which is in good agreement with simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease of the central facial skin with unknown origin, significantly impacting quality of patient's life and causing various psychosocial problems. Erythematotelangiectatic rosacea (ETR) is characterized by paroxysmal flushing that occurs repeatedly and is easily resistant to therapeutic drugs. While microinjection of type A botulinum toxin (BTX) can treat ETR, there is no consensus on the injection dose, and strong evidence to verify its efficacy and safety is lacking. This randomized, double‐blind, split‐face clinical study aimed to investigate the efficacy, safety, and optimal dose of two different single‐point injection doses (0.5 U and 1 U) of BTX in the treatment of rosacea. Methods. Twenty‐six patients with ETR were randomly assigned to receive different single‐point injections of BTX (0.5 U and 1 U, respectively) every 1 cm on one half of the face. The Clinical Erythema Score (CEA), VISIA red area absolute value, Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale Score (GAIS), and recurrence at 12‐week follow‐up were evaluated at baseline, 2,4, 8, and 12 weeks after injection. Additionally, the Dermatological Quality of Life Index (DLQI) questionnaire survey and adverse reactions were also recorded. Results. All twenty‐six patients completed the follow‐up visits and were included in the analysis. Compared to the 0.5 UBTX‐treated side, the CEA score showed significantly improvement in erythema and flushing at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after injection on the 1 U BTX‐treated side (P < 0.05). The mean absolute value of the red area of VISIA was ‐19.12 ± 51.91 on 1 U BTX‐treated side and 2.5 ± 42.08, on 0.5 UBTX‐treated side at 4 weeks after treatment, showing significant improvement on the 1 U side (P < 0.05). GAIS and DLQI were also significantly improved from Week 4 to Week 12 and Week 2 to Week 12, respectively (P < 0.05). There was no recurrence of symptoms with either 0.5 U or 1 U injection by 12 weeks. Apart from one patient who experienced facial tightness and three patients who had temporary aggravation of erythema, all of which resolved without treatment, 22 patients did not report any side effects except for injection pain during the procedure. Conclusions. BTX‐A can significantly improves symptoms and quality of life in patients with refractory rosacea with few side effects. A single‐point injection of 1 U was more effective. This trial is registered with NCT06282679. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPhenolic acids are natural compounds with potential therapeutic effects against various diseases. However, their incorporation into food and pharmaceutical products is limited by challenges such as instability, low solubility, and reduced bioavailability. This systematic review summarizes recent advances in phenolic acid encapsulation using food-grade carrier systems, focusing on proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides. Encapsulation efficiency, release behavior, and bioavailability are examined, as well as the potential health benefits of encapsulated phenolic acids in food products. Strategies to address limitations of current encapsulation systems are also proposed. Encapsulation has emerged as a promising method to enhance the stability and bioavailability of phenolic acids in food products, and various encapsulation technologies have been developed for this purpose. The use of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates as carriers in food-grade encapsulation systems remains a common approach, but it is associated with certain limitations. Future research on phenolic acid encapsulation should focus on developing environmentally friendly, organic solvent-free, low-energy, scalable, and stable encapsulation systems, as well as co-encapsulation methods that combine multiple phenolic acids or phenolic acids with other bioactive substances to produce synergistic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pH-driven method is a green and efficient encapsulation technology to incorporate hydrophobic polyphenols, excluding phenolic acids, which were unstable in a strong alkaline solution. In the present study, the pH-driven method was expanded for encapsulating caffeic acid in sodium caseinate (NaCas). Caffeic acid–loaded NaCas nanoparticles were fabricated by increasing the mixture to pH 12.0, followed by acidification to pH 8.0. Subsequently, caffeic acid was dissolved in the NaCas dispersion that was further acidified to pH 5.5 to prepare NaCas-caffeic acid nanoparticles (NCNs). The encapsulation efficiency of caffeic acid in NCN was up to 72.94% with an initial concentration of no more than 1.4 mg/mL and remained stable in 21 days at 21 °C. Based on particle structure and zeta potential assays, reassembly of casein structure was critical to caffeic acid encapsulation during acidification to pH 5.5 with reduced particle size. Moreover, caffeic acid was almost molecularly distributed in NCN based on XRD patterns. Loading caffeic acid in NCN significantly improved the bioaccessibility and Caco-2 cell monolayer uptake. This research provided a novel method for loading phenolic acids in a green and efficient way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modification of 2-amino-6-chloropurine on polyamidoamine was performed to synthesize a derivative, AP-PAMAM, which was then employed as a carrier for p53 gene delivery to achieve anti-tumor efficacy. Using a human prostate tumor cell line PC-3 as a model, enhanced expression level of p53 gene could be detected by RT-PCR, qPCR and western blotting. Based on the successful p53 gene transfection, an obvious anti-proliferative effect could be obtained, which was identified to be associated with the simultaneous induction of cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. The cell apoptosis was elucidated to be triggered by the activation of the mitochondria-dependent apoptotic signaling pathway. In addition, AP-PAMAM/p53 transfection could restrain the migration of tumor cells as demonstrated by wound healing and Transwell migration assays. Notably, AP-PAMAM-mediated p53 delivery exhibited a stronger inhibitory effect on both cell proliferation and migration than the PAMAM/p53 group. In summary, AP-PAMAM/p53 transfection provided a promising route to achieve the p53-based gene therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Microwave enhanced catalytic degradation of VOCs. • High electric field distribution exists on the surface of particles. • VOCs molecule activated on the catalyst surface under microwave E-field. • The surface electronic structure was changed under microwave E-field. Microwave can enhance catalytic reaction and is a promising alternative to convention heating. Herein, microwave-enhanced catalytic degradation of benzene was investigated using Co-Mn metal oxides. Numerical calculation was employed to analyze the microwave-enhanced catalytic degradation. The catalysts were synthesized by conventional citrate sol-gel method. Then, the morphologies, elements distribution and chemical structure were characterized. Compared to conventional heating, the catalysts exhibit better activity and lower apparent activation energy under microwave heating, indicating that microwave enhance catalytic degradation of benzene. Mn1Co2 exhibits good catalytic performance under microwave heating. From the finite element simulation, it is found that the E-field distribution on the spherical particle catalyst is non-uniform, and the E-field intensity is about 1.9 × 104 V/m and 4.27 × 104 V/m at the catalyst particles and the contact position. The DFT calculation results show that the electron density of Mn-O bond decreases and the charge density of Co atom increases under E-field, which is conducive to the molecule activation and electron transfer. The density of states results demonstrate the microwave E-field leads to lower electron energy on the surface, resulting in enhanced catalytic reaction. Combined with the results of finite element calculation, the microwave enhancement effect is more pronounced at the catalyst contact point. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extension of the transferable potentials for phase equilibria united-atom (TraPPE-UA) force field to N -Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is proposed in this work. The extensional force field can accurately predict the saturated liquid densities, vapor pressures, normal boiling point, heats of vaporization and critical properties of NMP. Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) simulations are carried out to calculate the isobaric vapor–liquid equilibria for the binary mixtures of benzene + NMP, thiophene + NMP and their ternary mixture at 101.3 kPa. All of these simulation results are in good accordance with the available experimental data without introducing additional binary interaction parameters. In order to study the mechanism of extracting thiophene from benzene by NMP, NPT Monte Carlo simulations are performed to have obtained the radial distribution functions for the ternary liquid mixture benzene + thiophene + NMP. The results show that the oxygen atom of NMP forms stronger hydrogen bond with the hydrogen atom of thiophene than with that of benzene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liquid phase acylation of 2-methylfuran with acetic anhydride over modified Hβ zeolite was first conducted in a continuous flow reactor. The deactivation of Hβ zeolites was attributed to strong adsorption of reactants or products and was verified by GC-MS and C MAS NMR. Deactivated zeolites can be regenerated to their original state by calcination. The acidic properties was adjusted by surface modification on Hβ, the maximum yield of 89.5 mol% and selectivity of 100 % were obtained over tartaric acid modified by Hβ. The deposition of tetraethoxysilane to silica on Hβ contributed to enhancing the catalytic stability. Combined with the results of NH-TPD and Py-FTIR, the amount of Broensted acids played a major role on catalytic activity. A close relationship between the catalytic stability and the ratio of the amount of strong to weak acids at 1:1 was highlighted here. The solvents' effect on the catalytic performances was examined, and 1,2-dichloroethane with moderate polarity exerted a positive effect on catalytic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel class of analytical chirped soliton solutions of the triple-power law nonlinear Schrödinger equation with perturbations are constructed. This model is used to describe the propagation of light waves in a nonlinear medium with the higher-order nonlinear optical effects including the triple-power law nonlinearity, self-frequency shift and self-steepening. The results shown that exact chirped plane wave, bright and kink solitons can exist in this physical setting when the degree of nonlinearity satisfy 2 m = 3 n. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A novel microwave cavity was applied to degrade volatile organic compounds. • The relative permittivity of catalyst was measured by neural network. • Electric field and temperature distribution validated with experimental data. • High energy efficiency in degrading volatile organic compounds was achieved. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are common organic pollutants that are harmful to human and the environment. Degradation of VOCs has aroused widespread concern. Catalytic oxidation is considered as an effective method to degrade VOCs. Microwave heating is a promising technology for heterogeneous catalytic gas–solid reactions, which is considered as an alternative to conventional conductive heating. Here, microwave enhanced catalytic degradation of VOCs were carried out in a novel double ridge field compressed cavity, in which Cu-Mn/AC catalyst was applied. The relative permittivity of Cu-Mn/AC at different temperatures were obtained by neural network. Further, based on the relative permittivity obtained, numerical simulations for the double ridge field compressed cavity were conducted at 2.45 GHz by a coupled three-dimensional electromagnetic-thermal model using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The simulation results of electric field distribution and temperature distribution in cavity present similar trend to the experimental results. Experimentally, the degradation of ethanol, benzene and acetone were carried out in this reactor for 50 W and 70 W at 2.45 GHz with the concentration and gas flow rate of 1000 ppm and 18 L/min. At 70 W and 2.45 GHz, the degradation efficiency of ethanol, benzene and acetone reached 99%, 70% and 99%, leading higher energy efficiency than other VOCs degradation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to construct a working model for detecting the mitochondrial damage and expression of Mfn2. It furthermore explored the pathogenesis of premature ovarian failure (POF) induced by cisplatin. Method: Forty young female mice were divided randomly into two groups. The first was the treatment group intraperitoneally administered cisplatin (1.5mg/kg). The untreated control group was likewise injected with physiological saline for 10 days. One month later, we observed the ovarian weight and morphological changes, particularly the development of follicles and concentration of sex hormones. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting were used to measure the two groups. We later evaluated ovarian cell apoptosis with TUNEL and analyzed Bcl-2 and Bax levels. We used transmission electron microscopy in order to observe the ultrastructure of ovarian cells. The phosphomolybdic acid colorimetric method was used to measure the ATP content in the ovarian tissue. Finally, the mitochondrial membrane potential of ovarian cells was detected with JC-1 dye. Results: The cisplatin resulted in a decline of body weight, reduced ovarian weight significantly, and resulted in disorders of the extrous cycle. The follicles’ number decreased within the tissue’s stromal hyperplasia. Moreover, E2 levels were reduced, and elevated gonadotropin levels were observed. However, Mfn2 was present in the cell’s cytoplasm in both groups. Nevertheless, the Mfn2 levels and the expression of Bcl-2 were significantly decreased (p<0.05), but the expression of Bax and the apoptosis index (AI) was increased. In addition, the ATP levels (35.2 ±5.7μmol/g) of the control group were significantly higher (13.5 ± 3.8 μmol/g). Lastly, an obvious impairment of mitochondrial function and structure was observed. Conclusion: The intreperitoneal injection of cisplatin, when administered for 10 days, establishes a POF model. Thus, the above results suggest that lower expression of Mfn2 may be involved in the mechanism of premature ovarian failure by affecting both the mitochondria’s energy metabolism and its apoptosis. This decides the termination of the follicles’ development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous liquid phase Friedel–Crafts acylation of toluene (T) by acetic anhydride (AA) over HBEA zeolite was carried out in a fixed bed reactor, with acetic acid (AC) as a solvent. 4-Methylacetophenone (4-MAP) was selectively formed in the initial reaction stage. However, a rapid catalyst deactivation occurred with a sharp decrease of the conversion of acetic anhydride, and this was mainly caused by 4-MAP and heavy compounds (‘coke’) existing in the zeolite pore, which poisoned the active sites of the catalyst. The use of excess toluene and moderate acetic acid enhanced catalyst activity and stability to some extent as it limited both the retention of 4-MAP and the formation of ‘coke’. Moreover, a considerable reduction of Broensted acid sites after deactivation revealed that the toluene acylation is primarily a Broensted acid catalyzed reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several possible lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling mechanisms before earthquake occurrence are presented in the literature. They are described by several models with different interaction channels (e.g., electromagnetic, mechanics, chemical, thermal), sometimes in conflict with each other. In this paper, we search for anomalies six months before the Lushan (China) 2013 earthquake in the three geo-layers looking for a possible view of the couplings and testing if one or another is more reliable to describe the observations. The Lushan earthquake occurred in China's Sichuan province on 20 April 2013, with a magnitude of Mw = 6.7. Despite the moderate magnitude of the event, it caused concern because its source was localized on the southwest side of the same fault that produced the catastrophic Wenchuan event in 2008. This paper applies a geophysical multi-layer approach to search for possible pre-earthquake anomalies in the lithosphere, atmosphere, and ionosphere. In detail, six main increases in the accumulated seismic stress were depicted. Anomalous geomagnetic pulsations were recorded in the Chengdu observatory, sometimes following the increased stress. Atmosphere status and composition were found to be anomalous in several periods before the earthquake, and, spatially, the anomalies seem to appear firstly far from the upcoming earthquakes and later approaching the Longmenshan fault where the Lushan earthquakes nucleated. The Formosat-3 data identified interesting anomalies in the altitude or electron content of the ionospheric F2 peak in correspondence with seismic and atmospheric anomalies 130 days before the earthquake. In addition, the total electron content showed high anomalous values from 12 to 6 days before the earthquake. We compared the anomalies and tried to explain their correspondences in different geo-layers by the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling models. In particular, we identified three possible couplings with different mechanisms: a first, about 130 days before the earthquake, with a fast (order of one day) propagation delay; a second, about 40 days before the earthquake occurrence, with a propagation delay of few days and a third from 2.5 weeks until one week before the event. Such evidence suggests that the geo-layers could interact with different channels (pure electromagnetic or a chain of physical-chemical processes) with specific propagation delays. Such results support the understanding of the preparation for medium and large earthquakes globally, which is necessary (although not sufficient) knowledge in order to mitigate their impact on human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the traditional material for polyester food packaging, is difficult to degrade. Taking PET-like plastics as carbon source, this study fabricates cobalt oxide (Co 3 O 4)/carbon composites with flake structure through carbonization and solvothermal synthesis, which can serve as a useful supercapacitor electrode. Then, the electrochemical properties of samples were investigated under different heating time of solvothermal synthesis. Experiments show that the heating time of solvothermal synthesis had a certain impact on the electrical capacity and charging/discharging performance of the composites. Among the samples, SL-8 stands out with an electrical capacity of 110.8 F g−1, the retention reached 88.82% after 2000 cycles. This composite offers a promising electrode material for supercapacitors, and sheds new lights on solving white pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The framework coupling mining intensity and socioecological resilience was constructed. • The resilience and mining intensity were analyzed for 547 counties in China. • 12 socioecological indicators were used to evaluate resilience in spatial scale. • The zoning results enhanced our understanding of sustainable development in mining areas. Coal is an important global energy resource. However, the negative impacts of mining are important factors restricting the sustainable development of mining areas. Under the superimposed influences of different mining intensities, different natural ground conditions, and social-economic development, there are large differences in the restoration characteristics and response strategies for mining. To guide the development and utilization of coal resources and ecological restoration, the spatial distribution should be appropriately analyzed at the macroscale. Based on the web-crawler technology and multi-source remote sensing data, this paper attempted to estimate the mining intensity and the social-ecological resilience respectively at the county level, to divide the mining areas into nine regions in China. Based on the zoning results, differentiated strategies were proposed for ecological restoration and resource development and utilization in the various coal mining regions. The valuation results suggested that coal mines are widely distributed and abundant in China, mainly concentrated in the central, southwest and northwest regions. However, nearly half of the coal mining regions are with low resilience. Especially, high mining intensity-low resilience areas are concentrated in north China which account for 10.83%. These areas should receive special attention to prevent possible ecological risks and minimize economic effects. Social-ecological resilience measures system adaptation to coal mining disturbances, which can be regarded as the standard of mining intensity adjustment. In the future, local governments can try to combine ecological restoration and resource development strategies to provide support for the sustainable development of coal mining areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) are a major component of the cellular biochemical reaction network. Rich sequence information and machine learning techniques reduce the dependence of exploring PPIs on wet experiments, which are costly and time-consuming. This paper proposes a PPI prediction model, multi-scale architecture residual network for PPIs (MARPPI), based on dual-channel and multi-feature. Multi-feature leverages Res2vec to obtain the association information between residues, and utilizes pseudo amino acid composition, autocorrelation descriptors and multivariate mutual information to achieve the amino acid composition and order information, physicochemical properties and information entropy, respectively. Dual channel utilizes multi-scale architecture improved ResNet network which extracts protein sequence features to reduce protein feature loss. Compared with other advanced methods, MARPPI achieves 96.03%, 99.01% and 91.80% accuracy in the intraspecific datasets of Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Human and Helicobacter pylori , respectively. The accuracy on the two interspecific datasets of Human-Bacillus anthracis and Human-Yersinia pestis is 97.29%, and 95.30%, respectively. In addition, results on specific datasets of disease (neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders) demonstrate the ability to detect hidden interactions. To better illustrate the performance of MARPPI, evaluations on independent datasets and PPIs network suggest that MARPPI can be used to predict cross-species interactions. The above shows that MARPPI can be regarded as a concise, efficient and accurate tool for PPI datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous human circular RNAs (circRNAs/circ) have been functionally characterized. However, the potential role of circ-protein kinase C iota (PRKCI) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. The effects of each transfection and expression levels of circ-PRKCI, microRNA (miR)-1294, miR-186-5p and forkhead box K1 (FOXK1) in HCC cells were analyzed using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis. The interactions between circ-PRKCI and miR-1294 or miR-186-5p, and miR-1294 or miR-186-5p and FOXK1 were validated using dual luciferase reporter assays. The viability, invasion and migration of HCC cells were determined using Cell Counting Kit-8, Transwell and wound healing assays, respectively. The expression levels of FOXK1, hexokinase-2 (HK2), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) in HCC cells were analyzed using western blotting. The levels of glucose and lactic acid in the cultured supernatant were detected using commercially available kits. The results of the present study revealed that miR-1294 and miR-186-5p expression levels were downregulated in the HCC cell line, HCCLM3, and were subsequently downregulated by circ-PRKCI overexpression and upregulated by the knockdown of circ-PRKCI. circ-PRKCI overexpression promoted the viability, invasion and migration of HCCLM3 cells, which was also reversed by the overexpression of miR-1294 and miR-186-5p. In addition, the overexpression of circ-PRKCI upregulated FOXK1 expression levels, while the overexpression of miR-1294 and miR-186-5p downregulated FOXK1 expression levels. Conversely, the knockdown of circ-PRKCI expression downregulated FOXK1 expression levels, while the knockdown of miR-1294 and miR-186-5p upregulated FOXK1 expression levels. Furthermore, circ-PRKCI was identified to target miR-1294 and miR-186-5p, and miR-1294 and miR-186-5p were subsequently found to target FOXK1. The overexpression of circ-PRKCI also increased glucose and lactic acid levels, while the knockdown of FOXK1 decreased glucose and lactic acid levels. The knockdown of circ-PRKCI decreased glucose and lactic acid levels, which were reversed by FOXK1 overexpression. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggested that circ-PRKCI may promote the viability, invasion and migration of HCC cells by sponging miR-1294 and miR-186-5p to upregulate FOXK1 expression levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunoglobulin M (IgM), an important immune effector, plays a crucial role in protecting fish against various pathogens. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is an economically important farmed fish, but the understanding of IgM characteristics and function in largemouth bass is still lacking. In the present study, the largemouth bass IgM heavy chain gene was first cloned. Sequence analysis showed that cDNA of the IgM heavy chain contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 1740 bp. The ORF of the largemouth bass IgM heavy chain encodes a polypeptide of 579 amino acids that consists of a signal peptide, a variable region (VH) and four constant regions (CH1, CH2, CH3 and CH4). Next, largemouth bass IgM was purified from serum, and polyclonal antibodies against IgM were developed using purified IgM as an antigen. Western blotting analysis showed that the polyclonal antibodies reacted with the heavy and light chains of largemouth bass IgM. Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) analysis suggested that the polyclonal antibodies could also react with membrane-bound IgM (mIgM) on the surface of B cells. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the percentages of mIgM+ B lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, spleen and head kidney were higher than those in the gill in largemouth bass. qRT-PCR analysis showed that the gene expression of the IgM heavy chain in the head kidney and spleen was significantly higher than that in the gill, intestine and skin. Moreover, indirect ELISA showed that the IgM contents in serum were higher than those in mucus and that specific serum antibody levels were significantly increased after Aeromonas hydrophila immunization. These results demonstrated that the largemouth bass IgM gene was first cloned and characterized in this study and that IgM may play a more important role in systemic immunity than in mucosal immunity. • Full-length cDNA sequence of largemouth bass IgM heavy chain was firstly cloned and analyzed. • The polyclonal antibodies against largemouth bass IgM were developed and characterized. • The expressions of IgM in spleen and head kidney were significantly higher than those in gill, intestine and skin. • The levels of mIgM+ B lymphocytes in peripheral blood, head kidney and spleen were higher than that in gill. • The level of sIgM in serum was significantly lower than that in mucus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmosphere's fine particulate matter (PM2.5) can enter the liver through the circulatory system, leading to hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. As a non-flavonoid polyphenolic compound, resveratrol (RES) has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective effects, but the molecular mechanisms of liver fibrosis induced by PM2.5 exposure are still limited. In this study, we established an in vitro cell model to investigate the intervention effect of RES with different concentrations (5 and 20 μmol/mL) on mouse hepatic stellate cells (mHSCs) injury induced by PM2.5 (100 μg/mL). We determined the cell viability in mHSCs after treatment with PM2.5 or/and RES for 24 h. We investigated the intracellular oxidative stress by detecting the changes in reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels. We also measured the protein expressions of fibrosis-related genes (α-SMA, Collagen I and Collagen III) and key genes (SIRT1, NF-κB, NLRP3, Cleaved-Caspase1, IL-1β) in the NLRP3 pathway in mHSCs exposed to PM2.5 with or without RES. The results showed that (1) PM2.5 has cytotoxic effects on mHSCs, whereas RES (5 μmol/L and 20 μmol/L) inhibited PM2.5-induced cytotoxicity and LDH leakage; (2) RES effectively reduces ROS and MDA production caused by PM2.5 while concurrently enhancing SOD levels, thereby improving cellular anti-oxidant capacity; (3) the expression of α-SMA, Collagen I and Collagen III were notably downregulated in the PM2.5 plus RES treatment group compared to the PM2.5-exposed group; (4) RES significantly increased SIRT1 expression and decreased the expression of NF-κB, NLRP3, Cleaved-Caspase1 and IL-1β in mHSCs exposure to PM2.5 compared to the PM2.5 group. These results demonstrate that RES can up-regulate SIRT1 and mitigate PM2.5-induced fibrosis by suppressing oxidative stress in mHSCs and the SIRT1/NF–κB/NLRP3 pathway activated by PM2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentiation syndrome (DS) is the second leading cause of death in acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) patients. Few studies have tested predictors of DS events. This study aimed to identify optimized predictors of DS events related to APL. The data of 298 consecutive patients who were newly diagnosed with APL between December 2012 and June 2023 were retrospectively investigated. A systematic review of computer-based patient medical records was conducted to obtain clinical data, including baseline characteristics, routine blood examination findings, biochemical indices and clinical manifestations of DS. Among the 298 patients, 158 were classified into the no-DS group, while 140 had DS. Compared with those of patients without DS, the peripheral blast count, age, and WBC count at each time point were significantly different in patients with DS (P < 0.05 for all time points). Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) revealed that WBC Double (Coeff. 0.442, P = 0.000) and WBCPeak (Coeff. 0.879, P = 0.000) were independent risk factors for DS. The frequencies of clinical manifestations of unexplained fever (P = 0.003), dyspnoea (P = 0.002), weight gain of more than 5 kg (P = 0.006), pleural effusion (P = 0.001), pulmonary infiltrates (P < 0.001), pericardial effusion (P = 0.002) and renal failure (P = 0.006) were considerably lower in moderate DS patients than in severe DS patients. The WBCDouble occurs earlier than the WBCpeak occurrence, so WBC Double might be a new indicator of DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive anthropogenic activities have led to drastic changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and impacted the carbon storage in high-groundwater coal basins. In this paper, we conduct a case study on the Yanzhou Coalfield in Shandong Province of China. We further classify waterbodies by using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) to better investigate the process of LULC transformation and the forces driving it in four periods from 1985 to 2020 (i.e., 1985–1995, 1995–2005, 2005–2015, and 2015–2020). We modeled the spatiotemporal dynamics of carbon storage by using InVEST based on the transformation in LULC and its drivers, including mining (M), reclamation (R), urbanization and village relocation (U), and ecological restoration (E). The results indicate that carbon storage had depleted by 19.69 % (321099.06 Mg) owing to intensive transformations in LULC. The area of cropland shrank with the expansion of built-up land and waterbodies, and 56.31 % of the study area underwent transitions in land use in the study period. U was the primary driver of carbon loss while E was the leading driver of carbon gain. While the direct impact of M on carbon loss accounted for only 5.23 % of the total, it affected urbanization and led to village relocation. R led to the recovery of cropland and the reclamation of water for aquaculture, which in turn improved the efficiency of land use. However, it contributed only 2.09 % to the total increase in carbon storage. Numerous complicated and intertwined processes (211) drove the changes in carbon storage in the study area. The work here provides valuable information for decision-makers as well as people involved in reclamation and ecological restoration to better understand the link between carbon storage and the forces influencing it. The results can be used to integrate the goals of carbon sequestration into measures for land management. [Display omitted] • The carbon storage impacted by LULC driving processes in high groundwater coal basins was investigated. • 56.31 % of the study area has undergone land use transition during 1985–2020. • The carbon storage decreased by19.69 % during the study years. • Urbanization and village relocation was the primary driver of carbon loss, ecological restoration was the leading driver of carbon gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a common pollutant, and its health risk has attracted much attention. Studies have shown that PM2.5 exposure is associated with liver disease. The composition of PM2.5 is complex, and its hepatotoxic effects and lipid metabolism process are not well understood. In this study, we detected the concentrations of PM2.5 and its components (metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs)) in the winter in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China, from 2017 to 2020 and then assessed the health risks. We also investigated the effects of different components (whole particles (WP), water-soluble particles (WSP), organic particles (OP)) of PM2.5 on the cytotoxicity and lipid metabolism in human liver cell line (HepG2) after 24 h of treatment. The changes in cytotoxicity indexes (LDH, IL-6, reactive oxygen species (ROS)) and lipids (triglyceride (TG), free fatty acid (FFA)) were measured after 24 h. The mRNA expression of lipid metabolism-related factors (SREBP1, CD36, MTTP) was determined by real-time quantitative RT-qPCR. Finally, the correlation between metals and PAHs with higher PM2.5 content in 4 years and biomarkers was analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The PM2.5 pollution was severe in Taiyuan during winter in 2017 and the subsequent four years. The calculation results of the metal enrichment factor (EF) value and PAHs characteristic ratio of PM2.5 showed that PM2.5 pollution sources differed in different years. (2) Exposure to metals and PAHs in PM2.5 did not cause a non-carcinogenic risk. Metals had no cancer risk, while PAHs inhaled in PM2.5 in 2017 and 2018 had a potential cancer risk. The atmospheric PM2.5 pollution in Taiyuan has had a downward trend, but the PAHs in the PM2.5 of 2017–18, when the pollution is relatively serious, have a potential carcinogenic risk. (3) WP, OP and WSP inhibited cell survival rate from 2017 to 2020, and OP had higher cytotoxicity at the same concentration. (4) WP, OP and WSP increased the levels of LDH, IL-6, TNF-α, ROS, MDA, TG and FFA, and inhibited SOD activity in a dose-effect relationship. The organic components in PM2.5 are more toxic to HepG2 cells and affect the expression of lipid metabolism-related factors at the transcriptional level. (5) The mRNA expressions of factors related to lipid synthesis, uptake, oxidation and output were up-regulated after treatment with PM2.5 and its components, suggesting a lipid metabolism disorder. (6) The biomarkers were associated with certain metals (Zn, Pb, Cu and Cr) and PAHs in PM2.5. These suggested that PM2.5- and PM2.5-bound organic matter caused HepG2 cytotoxicity and affected lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Histone has been considered to be an effective carrier in non-viral gene delivery due to its unique properties such as efficient DNA binding ability, direct translocation to cytoplasm and favorable nuclear localization ability. Meanwhile, the rapid development of genetic engineering techniques could facilitate the construction of multifunctional fusion proteins based on histone molecules to further improve the transfection efficiency. Remarkably, histone has been demonstrated to achieve gene transfection in a synergistic manner with cationic polymers, affording to a significant improvement of transfection efficiency. In the review, we highlighted the recent developments and future trends in gene delivery mediated by histones or histone-based fusion proteins/peptides. This review also discussed the mechanism of histone-mediated gene transfection and provided an outlook for future therapeutic opportunities in the viewpoint of transfection efficacy and biosafety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury lamps emitting 253.7 nm are well-known UV light devices but cause problems to environment. Here, a mercury-free light source is shown which is enabled by ZnI 2 microwave-driven light-emitting plasma (ZnI 2 MLEP), emitting 213-nm far-UVC. Its condition (pressure, ZnI 2 mass and microwave power) was optimized using a backpropagation artificial neural network (ANN) to obtained the maximum 213-nm intensity (I 213). The ANN was trained with experiment data and constructed the relationship between the condition and I 213 with error less than 5 %. The I 213 over all possible conditions allowed by the experimental accuracy was predicted. And the optimal condition was obtained and tested experimentally with the error of 5.6 %. After optimized by this method, the I 213 of ZnI 2 MLEP increases 53 % compared to conventional method. Based on the optimal condition, the ZnI 2 MLEP was made into a standalone ZnI 2 lamp with a recorded-high 213 nm intensity of 20.74 mW/cm2/nm. The comparison of spectra shows ZnI 2 lamp have shorter wavelengths and higher UV radiant power density than Hg lamp. Coupled with its properties of environmentally friendly and electrodeless, the ZnI 2 lamp have a potential to replace the Hg based UV lamps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 19 September 2021, La Palma volcano (Canarias Archipelagos) started an eruption that persisted until 13 December 2021. Despite the Volcano Explosive Index (VEI) being estimated equal to 3, corresponding to not so powerful eruption, the long eruption activity posed much scientific interest in this natural hazard event. In this paper, we searched for possible effects of this eruption on the atmosphere and ionosphere, investigating the climatological archive and Swarm magnetic satellite data. In particular, we explored Aerosol, Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide concentrations in the atmosphere identifying both the direct emissions from the volcano as well as the plume that drifted toward West-South-West and was reinforced during the eruption period. The vertical profile of temperature from the Saber satellite was analysed to search for the possible presence of acoustic gravity waves induced by volcanic activity. Compared with the year before without eruption in the areas, a lot of Saber profiles present an Energy Potential very much higher than the previous year, proposing the presence of Acoustic Gravity Waves (AGW) induced by volcano eruption activity. We also identified Swarm magnetic disturbances on the day of the eruption and in November. The mechanism of coupling could be different for the latter one, as there is no evidence for AGW. They may be due to a more complex of physical and chemical alterations that propagate from the lower atmosphere to the upper one into the ionosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human INO80 chromatin remodeling complex (INO80 complex) as a transcription cofactor is widely involved in gene transcription regulation and is frequently highly expressed in tumor cells. However, few reports exist on the mutual regulatory mechanism between INO80 complex and non-coding microRNAs. Herein, we showed evidence that the INO80 complex transcriptionally controls microRNA-372 (miR-372) expression through RNA-Seq analysis and a series of biological experiments. Knocking down multiple subunits in the INO80 complex, including the INO80 catalytic subunit, YY1, Ies2, and Arp8, can significantly increase the expression level of miR-372. Interestingly, mimicking miR-372 expression in HCT116 cells, in turn, post-transcriptionally suppressed INO80 and Arp8 expression at both mRNA and protein levels, indicating the existence of a mutual regulatory mechanism between the INO80 complex and miR-372. The target relationship between miR-372 and INO80 complex was verified using luciferase assays in HCT116 colon cancer cells. As expected, miR-372 mimics significantly suppressed the luciferase activity of pMIR-luc/INO80 and pMIR-luc/Arp8 3′-UTR in cells. In contrast, the miR-372 target sites in the 3′-UTRs linked to the luciferase reporter were mutagenized, and both mutant sites lost their response to miR-372. Furthermore, the mutual modulation between the INO80 complex and miR-372 was involved in cell proliferation and the p53/p21 signaling pathway, suggesting the synergistic anti-tumor role of the INO80 complex and miR372. Our results will provide a solid theoretical basis for exploring miR-372 as a biological marker of tumorigenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is a well-known transcription factor that controls the expression of many genes and plays an important role in the occurrence and development of various cancers. We previously found that the human males absent on the first (MOF)-containing histone acetyltransferase (HAT) complex may be involved in regulating YY1 transcriptional activity; however, the precise interaction between MOF-HAT and YY1, as well as whether the acetylation activity of MOF impacts the function of YY1, has not been reported. Here, we present evidence that the MOF-containing male-specific lethal (MSL) HAT complex regulates YY1 stability and transcriptional activity in an acetylation-dependent manner. First, the MOF/MSL HAT complex was bound to and acetylated YY1, and this acetylation further promoted the ubiquitin–proteasome degradation pathway of YY1. The MOF-mediated degradation of YY1 was mainly related to the 146–270 amino acid residues of YY1. Further research clarified that acetylation-mediated ubiquitin degradation of YY1 mainly occurred through lysine 183. A mutation at the YY1K183 site was sufficient to alter the expression level of p53-mediated downstream target genes, such as CDKN1A (encoding p21), and it also suppressed the transactivation of YY1 on CDC6. Furthermore, a YY1K183R mutant and MOF remarkably antagonized the clone-forming ability of HCT116 and SW480 cells facilitated by YY1, suggesting that the acetylation–ubiquitin mode of YY1 plays an important role in tumor cell proliferation. These data may provide new strategies for the development of therapeutic drugs for tumors with high expression of YY1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates possible anomalies on the occasion of the ML = 3.3 earthquake, which occurred on 1st January 2023 close to Guidonia Montecelio (Rome, Italy). This earthquake followed another very close event recorded on 23 December 2022 with a magnitude ML = 3.1 (epicentral distance of less than 1 km). Seismological investigations clearly show an acceleration of seismicity in the preceding six months in a circular area of about a 60 km radius. Two conclusions coming from the time-to-failure power law fitting to the cumulative Benioff strain curve are the most probable: the ML3.3 of 1 January 2023 is the mainshock of the seismic sequence, or an incoming earthquake of a magnitude of about 4.1 provides a slightly better fit (higher determination coefficient) of the seismic data. Further investigations are necessary to assess whether the accumulated stress has been totally released. No atmospheric anomalies related to this seismic activity have been identified, even if some SO2 emissions seem to be induced by the tectonic and volcanic sources in the south Tyrrhenian Sea. Swarm satellite magnetic data show about 20 anomalous tracks six months before the Guidonia earthquake. In particular, on 16 December 2022, anomalous oscillations of the east component of the geomagnetic field are temporally compatible with the seismic acceleration, but other sources are also possible. Other anomalous magnetic signals are more likely to be associated with the ongoing seismic activity offshore of the Marche region in Italy (the strongest event up to now is Mw = 5.5 on 9 November 2022 close to Pesaro Urbino). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen tremendous success in the design of novel drug molecules through deep generative models. Nevertheless, existing methods only generate drug-like molecules, which require additional structural optimization to be developed into actual drugs. In this study, a deep learning method for generating target-specific ligands was proposed. This method is useful when the dataset for target-specific ligands is limited. Deep learning methods can extract and learn features (representations) in a data-driven way with little or no human participation. Generative pretraining (GPT) was used to extract the contextual features of the molecule. Three different protein-encoding methods were used to extract the physicochemical properties and amino acid information of the target protein. Protein-encoding and molecular sequence information are combined to guide molecule generation. Transfer learning was used to fine-tune the pretrained model to generate molecules with better binding ability to the target protein. The model was validated using three different targets. The docking results show that our model is capable of generating new molecules with higher docking scores for the target proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate land cover mapping is challenging in Southeast Asia where cloud coverage is prevalent and landscape is heterogenous. Object-based mapping, multi-temporal images and combined use of optical and microwave data, provide abundant features in spectral, spatial, temporal, geometric and polarimetric dimensions. And random forest is usually employed due to robustness and efficiency in handling high-dimensional and noisy data. This study assesses whether feature selection and ensemble analysis, which are rarely adopted, yield improved result. Recursive feature elimination decreases original 568 features into a subset of 53 features, achieving the optimal combination of features. Ensemble analysis of random forest, support vector machine, and K-nearest neighbors leads to an overall accuracy of 0.816. Comparison experiments demonstrated the merits of the multi-temporal, multi-source approach, feature elimination and ensemble analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeromonas hydrophila is a Gram-negative pathogen that can infect various fish, including largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), which have caused huge economic losses. In present study, largemouth bass anti-A. hydrophila antibodies were produced, then a highly immunogenic outer membrane proteins, AHA_3793, was identified by combined western blotting and mass spectrometry analysis. Moreover, AHA_3793 was expressed, and its immunogenicity was further verified by western blotting. Subsequently, the protective efficacy of AHA_3793 were evaluated in largemouth bass. The results showed that rAHA_3793 could produce a relative percentage survival (RPS) of 61.76% for largemouth bass against A. hydrophila challenge. ELISA analysis showed the specific serum antibodies of largemouth bass against rAHA_3793 and A. hydrophila in vaccinated group in weeks 4 and 5 after immunization were significantly higher than those in control group, which suggested that rAHA_3793 induced production of specific serum antibodies against rAHA_3793 and A. hydrophila. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that expressions of CD4-2 and MHC IIα were also significantly up-regulated after immunization. These results collectively demonstrated that rAHA_3793 could induce a strong humoral immune response of largemouth bass, and then produce high immune protection effects against A. hydrophila infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum manganese complex oxide was prepared and applied to the oxidation of toluene. The influences of various factors on the oxidation were observed and large amounts of benzyl acetate were formed in the reaction. When 30 mL water was added into the feed, the conversion of toluene and the maximum yield of benzaldehyde increased. Graphical Abstract: Benzaldehyde was synthesized by the oxidation of toluene. The influences of various factors on the oxidation were observed and large amounts of benzyl acetate were formed in the reaction. To suppress the formation of benzyl acetate and increase the selectivity of benzaldehyde, water was added into the feed. It indicated that water not only increased the conversion of toluene, but improved the selectivity of benzaldehyde. The redox potential theory was used to explain the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]