Search

Underground hydrogen storage in geological formations has gained interest as a potential solution for the global energy transition. The change of hydrogen solubility in underground confinement is a key challenge for safety and efficiency, yet there is few knowledge on hydrogen solubility under nanoconfinement in clays. Here we used molecular dynamic simulations to study hydrogen solubility in water at realistic storage conditions under the confinement of kaolinite. We find a solubility enhancement of tenfold under nanoscale confinement compared with that in the bulk for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic systems. Mechanisms driving this oversolubility are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence implicates chronic inflammation as the main pathological cause of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Exploration of key targets in the inflammatory pathway may provide new treatment options for DN. We aimed to investigate the role of Src homology 2–containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2) in macrophages and its association with DN. The upregulated phosphorylation of SHP2 was detected in macrophages in both patients with diabetes and in a mouse model. Using macrophage-specific SHP2-knockout (SHP2-MKO) mice and SHP2fl/fl mice injected with streptozotocin (STZ), we showed that SHP2-MKO significantly attenuated renal dysfunction, collagen deposition, fibrosis, and inflammatory response in mice with STZ-induced diabetes. RNA-sequencing analysis using primary mouse peritoneal macrophages (MPMs) showed that SHP2 deletion mainly affected mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathways as well as MAPK/NF-κB–dependent inflammatory cytokine release in MPMs. Further study indicated that SHP2-deficient macrophages failed to release cytokines that induce phenotypic transition and fibrosis in renal cells. Administration with a pharmacological SHP2 inhibitor, SHP099, remarkably protected kidneys in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic mice. In conclusion, these results identify macrophage SHP2 as a new accelerator of DN and suggest that SHP2 inhibition may be a therapeutic option for patients with DN. Article Highlights: Phosphorylated Src homology 2–containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2) levels in macrophages are increased in both patients and mice with diabetic neuropathy (DN). Macrophage SHP2 knockout prevents renal inflammation and DN in diabetic mice. SHP2 deletion suppresses the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase and nuclear factor-κB signaling pathways, thereby inhibiting inflammation in macrophages. Pharmacological inhibition of SHP2 protects against DN in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot brine injection is one of the most effective dissociation methods of natural gas hydrate, and the movement of thermal front is a key parameter to evaluate the production performance by hot brine injection. Based on the principle of energy conservation, a mathematical model for thermal front movement of gas hydrate dissociation by hot brine injection is developed, which is derived through Laplace transform. In addition, an experimental study on the movement of thermal front is conducted with a self-designed 1D natural gas hydrate dissociation apparatus. The thermal front movement of the experiment is compared with that calculated from the mathematical model established in this paper as well as other two models proposed by Selim and Sloan (1990) and Tang et al. (2006), respectively. It turns out that what fits better with the experimental data is the energy conservation model, which includes the effect of heat used to warm the dissociated reservoir, heat absorption by hydrate dissociation and heat loss to the cap and base sediments. Therefore, this energy conservation model is an effective method to analyze the thermal front of gas hydrate dissociation by hot brine injection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ruminal microbiota generates biogenic methane in ruminants. However, the role of host genetics in modifying ruminal microbiota‐mediated methane emissions remains mysterious, which has severely hindered the emission control of this notorious greenhouse gas. Here, we uncover the host genetic basis of rumen microorganisms by genome‐ and transcriptome‐wide association studies with matched genome, rumen transcriptome, and microbiome data from a cohort of 574 Holstein cattle. Heritability estimation revealed that approximately 70% of microbial taxa had significant heritability, but only 43 genetic variants with significant association with 22 microbial taxa were identified through a genome‐wide association study (GWAS). In contrast, the transcriptome‐wide association study (TWAS) of rumen microbiota detected 28,260 significant gene–microbe associations, involving 210 taxa and 4652 unique genes. On average, host genetic factors explained approximately 28% of the microbial abundance variance, while rumen gene expression explained 43%. In addition, we highlighted that TWAS exhibits a strong advantage in detecting gene expression and phenotypic trait associations in direct effector organs. For methanogenic archaea, only one significant signal was detected by GWAS, whereas the TWAS obtained 1703 significant associated host genes. By combining multiple correlation analyses based on these host TWAS genes, rumen microbiota, and volatile fatty acids, we observed that substrate hydrogen metabolism is an essential factor linking host–microbe interactions in methanogenesis. Overall, these findings provide valuable guidelines for mitigating methane emissions through genetic regulation and microbial management strategies in ruminants. Highlights: Using large‐scale matched samples, we reveal the impact of host genetics variants and rumen gene expressions on rumen microbiota in Holstein cattle.Host genetic factors average explained approximately 28% of the microbial abundance variance, whereas rumen gene expression explained 43%.The transcriptome‐wide association study is a promising method for exploring the associations between gene expression and complex phenotypes in direct effector organs.Host–microbial interactions in bovine rumen methanogenesis are possibly involved in substrate hydrogen metabolism and transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

H7N9 subtype avian influenza viruses (AIVs) cause 1567 human infections and have high mortality, posing a significant threat to public health. Previously, we reported that two avian-derived H7N9 isolates (A/chicken/Eastern China/JTC4/2013 and A/chicken/Eastern China/JTC11/2013) exhibit different pathogenicities in mice. To understand the genetic basis for the differences in virulence, we constructed a series of mutant viruses based on reverse genetics. We found that the PB2-E627K mutation alone was not sufficient to increase the virulence of H7N9 in mice, despite its ability to enhance polymerase activity in mammalian cells. However, combinations with PB1-V719M and/or PA-N444D mutations significantly enhanced H7N9 virulence. Additionally, these combined mutations augmented polymerase activity, thereby intensifying virus replication, inflammatory cytokine expression, and lung injury, ultimately increasing pathogenicity in mice. Overall, this study revealed that virulence in H7N9 is a polygenic trait and identified novel virulence-related residues (PB2-627K combined with PB1-719M and/or PA-444D) in viral ribonucleoprotein (vRNP) complexes. These findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying AIV pathogenesis in mammals, with implications for pandemic preparedness and intervention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common urological diseases that easily relapse and have led to an increasing economic and health burdens. The China Antimicrobial Surveillance Network (CHINET) system is one of the most influential antimicrobial resistance surveillance networks in China. This study analyzed antimicrobial resistance and distribution trends of uropathogens from 2015 to 2021 using the CHINET system. A total of 261,893 non-duplicate strains were collected; Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 23.8% while Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 76.2%. Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis were the most common species. The resistance to vancomycin, linezolid, and teicoplanin in E. faecalis and E. faecium was less than 3%. The prevalence of carbapenem-resistant strains of E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii was 1.7%, 18.5%, 16.4%, and 40.3%, respectively. The prevalence of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii increased from 27.6% in 2015 to 43.4% in 2021. The prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus decreased from 40.6% in 2015 to 22.9% in 2021. The resistance rates to most β-lactam antimicrobials, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones in E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii isolated from ICU inpatients were significantly higher than in those isolated from outpatients and non-ICU inpatients. This study indicates that E. coli, Enterococcus, and K. pneumoniae were the most commonly isolated uropathogens in China. The bacterial species isolated and their antimicrobial resistance patterns differed in different patient populations. More attention must be paid uropathogen resistance surveillance to provide data for the rational use of antimicrobial agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to technological limitations and budget constraints, spatiotemporal image fusion uses the complementarity of high temporal–low spatial resolution (HTLS) and high spatial–low temporal resolution (HSLT) data to obtain high temporal and spatial resolution (HTHS) fusion data, which can effectively satisfy the demand for HTHS data. However, some existing spatiotemporal image fusion models ignore the large difference in spatial resolution, which yields worse results for spatial information under the same conditions. Based on the flexible spatiotemporal data fusion (FSDAF) framework, this paper proposes a multilevel single-image super-resolution (SISR) method to solve this issue under the large difference in spatial resolution. The following are the advantages of the proposed method. First, multilevel super-resolution (SR) can effectively avoid the limitation of a single SR method for a large spatial resolution difference. In addition, the issue of noise accumulation caused by multilevel SR can be alleviated by learning-based SR (the cross-scale internal graph neural network (IGNN)) and then interpolation-based SR (the thin plate spline (TPS)). Finally, we add the reference information to the super-resolution, which can effectively control the noise generation. This method has been subjected to comprehensive experimentation using two authentic datasets, affirming that our proposed method surpasses the current state-of-the-art spatiotemporal image fusion methodologies in terms of performance and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Avian influenza viruses have the ability to breach species barriers and infect mammals, posing a significant threat to public health. The H7N9 subtype of avian influenza virus that emerged in China in 2013 resulted in 1568 human infections, with an alarming mortality rate of nearly 40%. While human infections caused by avian influenza viruses typically occur sporadically, the reasons behind the widespread impact of H7N9 remain unclear. During surveillance for avian influenza in live poultry markets in eastern China in 2013, we isolated two H7N9 avian influenza viruses from seemingly healthy chickens. One of these chicken-derived viruses demonstrated the ability to bind to mammalian receptors and naturally harbored the mammalian molecular marker PB2-627K. Furthermore, this virus proved to be highly pathogenic to mice. In summary, our findings suggest that the presence of a mammal-adapted H7N9 virus in poultry in 2013 could be a significant factor explaining the unusually high number of human infections during that period. Avian influenza viruses can cross species barriers and adapt to mammals. The H7N9 subtype AIV that emerged in China in 2013 caused 1568 human infections, with a mortality rate of nearly 40%. We conducted a retrospective analysis of H7N9 viruses that were isolated in live poultry markets in 2013. We found that two avian-origin H7N9 isolates, A/chicken/Eastern China/JTC4/2013 and A/chicken/Eastern China/JTC11/2013, have a similar genetic background but exhibit different pathogenicity in mice. Whole-genome alignment of the two H7N9 viruses was carried out, and only six amino acid differences mapped in five genes, including the well-known virulence molecular marker PB2-E627K. Our retrospective analysis highlighted the importance of monitoring the adaptive mutations in avian influenza viruses with zoonotic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous Zn ion batteries are appealing systems owing to their safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness; however, their practical applicability is impeded by the growth of Zn dendrites and side reactions. Herein, a dual‐functional electrolyte additive, namely acetylacetone (AT) is utilized for the simultaneous regulation of the solventized structure and anode–electrolyte interface (AEI) to achieve a durable, dendrite‐free Zn anode. Theoretical calculations and experimental characterizations reveal that the AT molecule can be adsorbed onto Zn metal surface to reconstruct the AEI and allow for the primordial desolvation of [Zn(H2O)6]2+ at locations away from the surface of the Zn anode during deposition, which is attributed to the strong polarity of the carbonyl functional group. In addition, the two carbonyls of AT can replace two H2O molecules in the primary solventized structure of Zn2+ to reduce the number of active H2O molecules, efficiently suppressing Zn dendrite growth and detrimental reactions. As a proof of concept, a Zn//Cu cell is constructed in ZnSO4 containing 3 vol.% AT electrolyte, delivering stable cycling over 1800 cycles while maintaining a high Coulombic efficiency of 99.74%. This study provides a practical approach for inhibiting dendrite growth and side reactions by harnessing carbonyl chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor occurrence is closely related to the unlimited proliferation and the evasion of the immune surveillance. However, it remains a challenge to kill tumor cells and simultaneously activate antitumor immunity upon spatially localized external stimuli. Herein, a robust tumor synergistic therapeutic nanoplatform is designed in combination with dual photosensitizers‐loaded upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and ferric‐tannic acid (FeTA) nanocomplex. Dual photosensitizers‐loaded UCNPs can induce photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect by generation of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) on demand under near‐infrared (NIR) light irradiation. FeTA can robustly respond to acidic tumor microenvironment to produce Fe2+ and subsequently induce chemodynamic therapy (CDT) by reacting with H2O2 in the tumor microenvironment. More importantly, the CDT/PDT synergy can not only exhibit significant antitumor ability but also induce ROS cascade to evoke immunogenic cell death. It increases tumor immunogenicity and promotes immune cell infiltration at tumor sites allowing further introduction of systemic immunotherapy responsiveness to inhibit the primary and distant tumor growth. This study provides a potential tumor microenvironment‐responsive nanoplatform for imaging‐guided diagnosis and combined CDT/PDT with improved immunotherapy responses and an external NIR‐light control of photoactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenza A virus (IAV) contains a genome with eight single-stranded, negative-sense RNA segments that encode 17 proteins. During its assembly, all eight separate viral RNA (vRNA) segments are incorporated into virions in a selective manner. Evidence suggested that the highly selective genome packaging mechanism relies on RNA-RNA or protein-RNA interactions. The specific structures of each vRNA that contribute to mediating the packaging of the vRNA into virions have been described and identified as packaging signals. Abundant research indicated that sequences required for genome incorporation are not series and are varied among virus genotypes. The packaging signals play important roles in determining the virus replication, genome incorporation and genetic reassortment of influenza A virus. In this review, we discuss recent studies on influenza A virus packaging signals to provide an overview of their characteristics and functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the "lipid nephrotoxicity hypothesis", there is now significant research being conducted in this area. By studying the role of hyperlipidemia in chronic kidney disease in the general Zhejiang population, we aimed to explore the correlation between changes in blood lipid levels and chronic kidney disease.Methods: We collected and analyzed clinical data from ordinary residents who participated in the annual comprehensive physical examination with no overt kidney disease in Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, China from January 2011 to December 2016. According to triglyceride, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels, participants were respectively divided into 4 groups. Statistical methods were used to evaluate the correlation between different blood lipid profiles and chronic kidney disease.Results: Five thousand one hundred eighty-three participants were included in our study. During the six-year follow-up period, 227 participants (4.4%) developed chronic kidney disease. The odds ratio for incident chronic kidney disease was 3.14 (95%CI: 1.53-6.43) in Q3, 3.84 (95%CI: 1.90-7.76) in Q4 according to the total cholesterol group and 1.17 (95%CI: 1.04-1.32) in Q3, 1.40 (95%CI: 1.11-2.48) in Q4 according to the low-density lipoprotein group, respectively, after multivariable-adjusted analyses. According to the triglyceride grouping, the odds ratio for incident chronic kidney disease was 2.88 (95%CI: 1.29-6.43) in Q2, 2.92 (95%CI: 1.44-6.57) in Q3 and 3.08 (95%CI: 1.11-6.69) in Q4, after multivariable-adjusted analyses.Conclusion: Increased triglycerides and high levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein were independently associated with an increased likelihood of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline and development of incident chronic kidney disease in the general Zhejiang population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Tongue carcinoma is one of the most common oral and maxillofacial malignant tumors worldwide, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) in 18 F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been widely used in cancer research; however, there are few systematical reports on the relationship between SUVmax and clinicopathological characteristics in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between them and whether SUV parameters can predict lymph node metastasis.Materials and Methods: PET/CT manifestations and clinicopathological features of 52 patients with TSCC confirmed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. Single-factor and multiple regression analyses were conducted on possible factors influencing TSCC SUVmax, including sex, age, smoking history, tumor location and size, histological differentiation, and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages, T stages, and N stages. Diagnostic performance of SUVmax for lymph node metastasis was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and sensitivity and specificity were determined by Youden's J statistic.Results: SUVmax was correlated with sex, tumor location and size, and TNM stages, T stages, and N stages (P < 0.05) but was not correlated with histological differentiation, smoking history, and age (P > 0.05). Sex, tumor location, tumor size, and N stage were influencing factors independent of TSCC SUVmax (P < 0.05). TSCC SUVmax had predictive value for lymph node metastasis. When the cutoff value was 6.57, the diagnostic efficiency was the highest, with the sensitivity being 79.2% and the specificity being 85.7%.Conclusions: SUVmax was higher among male patients with TSCC with posterior tumor location, larger tumor size, and lymph node metastasis, and TSCC SUVmax was important in predicting lymph node metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordination polymers of REEs with 2-aminoterephthalic acid [Ln(CHNO)(HO)] · 2 nHO (Ln = Eu, Gd, or Tb) and [Y(CHNO)(HO)] · 4 nHO were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis. Studies of the thermal behavior of these coordination polymers have shown that the removal of the solvate and the coordinated water molecules occurs at heating to 250°C and dehydratation products are stable up to 400°C. Detailed studies of the magnetic behavior of Eu, Gd, and Tb polymers were performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Oil Drilling & Production Technology / Shiyou Zuancai Gongyi is the property of Shiyou Zuancai Gongyi Bianjibu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Existing surgical tissue adhesives on the market cannot meet the desired demand for clinical operations due to their limited adhesivity or undesired cytotoxicity. A new bioadhesive is derived from the skin secretion of Andrias davidianus (SSAD). This bioinspired SSAD has significantly stronger tissue adhesion than the fibrin glue and improved elasticity and biocompatibility when compared to the cyanoacrylate glue both ex vivo and in vivo. Additionally, the SSAD‐based adhesive decreases skin wound healing time and promotes wound regeneration and angiogenesis. The SSAD‐based adhesive is completely degradable, strongly adhesive, and easily produced from a renewable source. Based on these favorable properties, the SSAD‐based bioadhesive demonstrates potential as a surgical bioadhesive for a broad range of medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]