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Delivering plasmid DNA (pDNA) to solid tumors remains a significant challenge due to the requirement for multiple transport steps and the need to promote delivery efficiency. Herein, we present a virus-mimicking hybrid lipoplex, composed of an arginine-rich cationic lipid, hyaluronic acid derivatives coated gold nanoparticles, and pDNA. This system induces cytoskeletal rearrangements through "outside-in" mechanical and "inside-out" biochemical signaling, overcoming intra- and intercellular barriers to enhance pDNA delivery. By modulating autophagy, RhoA signaling, and cytoskeletal dynamics, we achieve a 20-fold increase in gene expression with high tissue specificity in solid tumors. Furthermore, the system is applied to co-deliver a p53 plasmid and an MDM2 inhibitor, demonstrating significant synergistic antitumor effects in hepatocellular and lung carcinomas. Delivering plasmid DNA to solid tumors is challenging since it demands more transport steps than other genetic materials. Here this group designs a hybrid lipoplex for co-delivering p53 plasmid along with MDM2 inhibitor sp141 to hepatocellular carcinoma and lung carcinoma for synergistic anti-tumor treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium (Ti) implants have been extensively used after surgical operations. Its surface bioactivity is of importance to facilitate integration with surrounding bone tissue, and ultimately ensure stability and long-term functionality of the implant. The plasmid DNA-activated matrix (DAM) coating on the surface could benefit osseointegration but is still trapped by poor transfection for further application, especially on the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in vivo practical conditions. Herein, we constructed a DAM on the surface of fibrous-grained titanium (FG Ti) composed of phase-transition lysozyme (P) as adhesive, cationic arginine-rich lipid (RLS) as the transfection agent and plasmid DNA (pDNA) for bone morphology protein 2 (BMP2) expression. The cationic lipid RLS improved up to 30-fold higher transfection than that of commercial reagents (Lipofectamine 2000 and polyethyleneimine) on MSC. And importantly, Ti surface topology not only promotes the DAM to achieve high transfection efficiency (∼75.7% positive cells) on MSC due to the favorable combination but also reserves its contact induction effect for osteoblasts. Upon further exploration, the fibrous topology on FG Ti could boost pDNA uptake for gene transfection, and cell migration in MSC through cytoskeleton remodeling and induce contact guidance for enhanced osteointegration. At the same time, the cationic RLS together with adhesive P were both antibacterial, showing up to 90% inhibition rate against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with reduced adherent microorganisms and disrupted bacteria. Finally, the FG Ti-P/pBMP2 implant achieved accelerated bone healing capacities through highly efficient gene delivery, aligned surface topological structure and increased antimicrobial properties in a rat femoral condylar defect model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fetal facial profile could be measured during the early pregnancy. Its abnormalities might be associated with certain congenital malformations. We aimed to study the associations between fetal facial profile measurements with crown-rump length and congenital malformations (cleft lip and palate, micrognathia, and open spina bifida) during early pregnancy. Methods: We performed a prospective cross-sectional study between June 2019 and April 2022. Pregnant women at a gestational age between 11–13+ 6 weeks were enrolled. Two sonographers performed fetal facial profile measurements independently. The associations between these measurements with crown-rump length and congenital malformations were evaluated. Results: There were 406 and 25 fetuses without or with congenital malformations, respectively. Two sonographers showed satisfactory inter- and intra-observer agreements and reproducibility. The maxillary gap was only observed in 7.6% of normal fetuses, whereas all cleft lip and palate fetuses had a maxillary gap ≥ 0.8 mm. The crown-rump length was negatively correlated with frontomaxillary facial angle, inferior facial angle, and profile line distance but positively correlated with maxilla-nasion-mandible angle, facial maxillary angle, frontal space distance, and palatine maxillary diameter. These measurements showed various significant changes with different congenital malformations. Conclusions: Measurements of fetal facial profile in early pregnancy were feasible with satisfactory reproducibility. These measurements correlated with crown-rump length and showed significant differences with certain fetal congenital malformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broadband dual-polarized crossed dipole antenna is proposed in this paper. To achieve a wide impedance bandwidth and low-profile configuration, a novel bow-tie balun is applied to this antenna. Firstly, the working mechanisms of both bow-tie baluns and the antenna are introduced. Then, the parametric study and design guidelines are presented. Finally, the optimized antenna is fabricated, measured, and analyzed. The simulated and measured results show that the antenna has a wide impedance bandwidth from 2.42 GHz to 6.48 GHz. The fractional bandwidth is 91.2%. Moreover, within the whole band, the E-plane and H-plane radiation patterns are stable. The port isolation is greater than 20 dB, and the cross-polarization discrimination ratio is better than 25 dB. The proposed antenna achieves a realized gain of 7.5   d B i   ±   0.5   d B i . It can be a good candidate for sub-6 GHz wireless communications or short-range radar applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the prenatal ultrasound (US) findings, genetic results, and clinical outcomes of fetuses with suspected agenesis of the septum pellucidum (ASP) in the Chinese population. Methods: This retrospective, single‐center study included a cohort of fetuses with ASP diagnosed by prenatal imaging over a 10‐year period. We evaluated US findings, associated anomalies, genetic results, and clinical outcomes. Prenatal and postnatal imaging findings were compared as well as the clinical outcome of delivery. Results: Ninety patients were included, with a median follow‐up time of 36 months (1–96 months). Thirty‐six fetuses (40%) with isolated ASP were diagnosed by prenatal US or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); 39 cases (43.3%) had ASP with central nervous system malformations and 15 cases (16.6%) had ASP with non‐CNS abnormalities. Additional imaging findings were supplemented with prenatal MRI in 13 cases. Genetic tests were performed on 32 patients, of whom six had abnormalities. Prenatal US results of 40 patients (40/70) diagnosed by referral hospitals did not correspond to our findings. Of the 38 patients with postnatal records, 11 had abnormal neurological development. Conclusion(s): The outcome of an isolated ASP is usually favorable; however, neurological developmental delay is commonly observed if it is combined with other malformations. Key points: What is already known about this topic? A detailed antenatal assessment of the brain and optic nerves in fetuses with apparently isolated agenesis of the septum pellucidum (ASP) is strongly recommended to identify the presence of associated anomalies.In children with isolated ASP, the prognosis is generally favorable. What does this study add? Fetuses with ASP and other associated malformations in the Chinese population had an increased likelihood of neurological developmental delay, which has significance for prenatal counseling and postnatal management.Our study includes the analysis of the causes of missed diagnosis and erroneous diagnosis of ASP in referral hospitals, further supplementation regarding abnormalities associated with ASP, and genetic information to improve the ability to diagnose ASP prenatally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 prevention raised global awareness of the importance of nucleic acid drugs. The approved systems for nucleic acid delivery were mainly formulations of different lipids, yielding lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) with complex internal structures. Due to the multiple components, the relationship between the structure of each component and the overall biological activity of LNPs is hard to study. However, ionizable lipids have been extensively explored. In contrast to former studies on the optimization of hydrophilic parts in single-component self-assemblies, we report in this study on structural alterations of the hydrophobic segment. We synthesize a library of amphiphilic cationic lipids by varying the lengths (C = 8–18), numbers (N = 2, 4), and unsaturation degrees (Ω = 0, 1) of hydrophobic tails. Notably, all self-assemblies with nucleic acid have significant differences in particle size, stability in serum, membrane fusion, and fluidity. Moreover, the novel mRNA/pDNA formulations are characterized by overall low cytotoxicity, efficient compaction, protection, and release of nucleic acids. We find that the length of hydrophobic tails dominates the formation and stability of the assembly. And at a certain length, the unsaturated hydrophobic tails enhance the membrane fusion and fluidity of assemblies and thus significantly affect the transgene expression, followed by the number of hydrophobic tails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Unsaturated fatty acids used to form unstable micro‐vesicles, while conjugate linoleic acid (CLA)‐sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) can self‐assembly to stable nano‐conjugate linoleic acid vesicles (nano‐CLAVs). Generally, micro‐capsule could geometrically provide higher loading capacity but also generate concerns in construction convenience, sustained release, bioaccessibility and stability. Hence there is a contradiction between loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency. Therefore, the study of the factors that decide the capsule size falling in nano or micron size with same capsule material would be a benefit to food or drug delivery science. RESULTS: The micron‐ and nano‐CLAVs were constructed for encapsulation and sustained release of ginsenoside Rg3. The formation mechanism of nano or micron capsule,s the effect of vesicle sizes on encapsulation efficiency, drug loading efficiency and stability of the encapsulated Rg3 were investigated. It was found that with the addition of salt (PBS), the size of CLAVs jumped from nano to micron. Furthermore, the salt concentration is the key factor that decides the vesicle size of nano or micron. The pH at fabrication triggers the vesiculation and dramatically affects the vesicle size over the nano and micron scales. CONCLUSION: Compared to the nano‐CLAVs, micron vesicles enhanced the loading capacity to 137.6% and the encapsulation efficiency to 138.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, the micron‐CLAVs performed similar sustained release of Rg3 as the nano‐CLAVs did, and was stable for 120 days at room temperature or sustained 98.9% of capsules after centrifuge at 6090 × g for 20 min. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic selection is an efficient tool for breeding selection, especially for quantitative traits controlled by multiples genes with low heritability. To validate the application of genomic selection in hybrid rice breeding, the yield and grain quality traits of 404 hybrid rice breeding lines were investigated, and the same accessions were genotyped by using a 56 K SNP chip. There were wide variances among the tested accessions for all the measured traits, and most of the traits were correlated. A total of 67 significant loci were identified for the yield-related traits, and 123 significant loci were identified for the grain quality traits by GWAS. Two of these loci associated with increasing grain yield but decreasing grain quality. The GEBVs of all the yield and grain quality traits were calculated by using 15 different prediction algorithms. The plant height, panicle length, thousand grain weight, grain length and width ratio, amylose content, and alkali value have higher predictability than other traits. However, the predictive accuracy of different GS models is different for different traits. This study provided useful information for genomic selection of specific trait using proper markers and prediction models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOn), typically NPEO10, are the second popular nonionic surfactants that have been banned or restricted from use and production by Europe since 1990 due to their poor degradability and high genetic toxicity. The hypothesis of this work is that the nonylcyclohexanol ethoxylates (NCEOn) may possess similar interfacial properties but lower biotoxicity and better biodegradability compared with NPEOn according to their structures. To verify this and to find the optimal alternative of NPEO10, the interfacial properties of NCEOn were compared with the typical commercial ethoxylates nonionic surfactants, such as nonylphenol ethoxylated‐10 (NPEO10), alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (AEO9), secondary alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (SAE9), and isomeric alcohol ethoxylated‐9 (TO9). It is the NCEO7 that shows excellent emulsifying ability similar to that of NPEO10. NCEO11 performed stronger detergency than other assayed commercial nonionic surfactants. Additionally, NCEOn possessed lower biological toxicity to aquatic organisms. Hence, NCEOn could be considered as a green substitute for NPEOn in the assayed application fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the electromagnetic rail gun accelerates the armature, the rail is in a harsh condition of high temperature, high pressure and powerful current which will cause a series of grooving phenomenon. In order to detect the inner bore profile, we developed a measuring device using laser triangulation method and basically realized the measurement of the inner bore profile measurement. However, except for the translation and deflection errors, we found that the actual measurement cross-section would be rotated due to the unsteady movement compared with the ideal section. In addition, the previous calibration needs a high-resolution image sensor to get deflection information, it means high cost. In this paper, we analyzed the 3 kinds of deviations and provide a method to calibrate the rotation error using a calibration block. An improved calibration system was designed in low cost and experiment verified the feasibility of the calibration method. The calibration system can be divided into 3 parts, the outside global laser light provides a constant central position, a distance detecting device with a cone laser generator and an inside calibration block. After experiment, the calibration method was effective and the deviation of the profile can be corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we measured the armature velocity of an experimental electromagnetic launcher by B‐dot method and analyzed the change of the armature's average speed. The electromagnetic gun launching process was also simulated by Ansoft Maxwell simulation software. The launch current is used as the model's excitation which means that the current in the model is the same as the rail current. Ansoft Maxwell's 3D model can accurately simulate the launching process, in theory. We found that there was an unexpected rise during the real launching process. The phenomenon can be discovered in the following several experiments. We analyzed several possible causes such as the inductive gradient change, rail broken and inaccurate measurement of B‐dot probe. The inductive gradient is an important parameter in the launching process and can affect the armature speed. After checking the measurement problem, we also found that the wave form of the output signal from the probe where the unexpected change occurred was normal but the amplitude was very small. The measurement method was proved correct. The rise of average inductance gradient leads to the unexpected increase in average speed and the small signal. Furthermore, the physical reason for the change of inductance gradient should be the change of current distribution. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isosteviol, a prodrug used to be obtained via Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement from steviol with low yield and long reaction time. Herein, an in-situ separation-coupling-reaction is presented to prepare isosteviol from the natural sweetener stevioside. Simply with in-situ water-washing, the product containing 92.98% purity of isosteviol was obtained with a stevioside conversion of 97.23% from a packet bed reactor without further separation. Within the assayed inorganic acid, organic acids and acidic ionic liquids, the acidic ion-exchange resins provided higher product specificity towards isosteviol. Furthermore, comparing to 5-Fluorouracil, the product presented similar and even stronger inhibition on proliferation of the assayed human cancer cells in a time and dose-dependence by causing cell phase arrest. Isosteviol treatment caused G1 arrest on SGC-7901, HCT-8 and HCT-116 cells, S arrest on HepG2, Huh-7 and HepG3B cells, and G2 arrest on MGC-803 cells, respectively. Reaction coupling separation for isosteviol production catalyzed by acidic ion-exchange resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new aromatic bisabolene-type sesquiterpenoid (7S-8S)-8-hydroxysydowic acid (1), together with a pair of new bisabolene derivative (±)-(7R*,10R*)-10-hydroxysydowic acid (2), as well as two known analogues hydroxysydonic acid (3) and sydowic acid (4) were isolated and identified from the endophytic fungal strain Aspergillus sydowii EN-434 that was obtained from the marine red alga Symphyocladia latiuscula. Their structures were elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (HRESIMS), and quantum chemical electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations as well as comparison of the data with literature reports. Compound 1 exhibited potent DPPH free radical scavenging activity with IC50 value of 113.5 µmol/L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of CO-responsive surfactant-based viscoelastic fluids is an area of great endeavor, hitherto achieved mainly through the aid of synthetic surfactant with CO-sensitive group. Here, classic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-sodium salicylate (NaSal) wormlike micellar system is endowed with CO response by simply introducing CO-responsive triethylamine (TEA) without needing specialized organic synthesis. Such a system can be reversibly switched between water-like solution (∼3 mPa s) and viscoelastic fluid (∼40,000 mPa⋅s) with alternately bubbling CO or N, reflecting microstructures evolution from spheres to worms, and this cycle can be repeated more than 15 times without any deterioration. Whereas HCl-induced viscoelastic fluid exhibits obvious weaken after 15 cycles. Combined with pH, conductivity, rheology, UV-Vis, cryo-TEM, and surface activity parameters, it was demonstrated that the CO response of CTAB-NaSal-TEA system originated from the effect of TEA on the binding ability of NaSal to CTAB as species vary, which generally results in a viscosity gap. This simple route to design CO-triggered viscoelastic fluids can be extended to other tertiary amines, even other types of surfactants, and these CO-switchable worms are of great interests for scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-pot synthesis of ethylene glycol phenyl ether acrylate (EGPEA) was achieved by the reaction of phenyl acrylate and ethylene oxide catalyzed by Al/Mg composite oxide. The catalytic activity sensitively relied on the Al-Mg molar ratios. The assayed Lewis acids blended into the catalyst, such as BF3and AlCl3, decreased the catalytic activity; while the assayed inorganic base and potassium halides could promote the direct ethoxylation reaction. EGPEA was obtained in a yield of 54.2% when KI was utilized as a co-catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Describes an approach for using suitable sequence-tagged site (STS) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers as a powerful molecular tool for screening segregating populations involved in backcross schemes for marker-assisted selection, as a preselection step. Application of simultaneous deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification; Reagents; Three key issues on the development of each step of the preselection protocol.

In this study the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of the pink clownfishAmphiprion perideraionwas obtained by using eight consensus primer pairs with a long PCR technique. The circular mtDNA molecule was 16,579 bp in size and the overall nucleotide composition of the H-strand was 29.37% A, 25.50% T, 15.68% G and 29.45% C, with an A + T bias. The complete mitogenome contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and a control region, and the gene order was typical of vertebrate mitogenomes. The complete mitochondrial genome ofA. perideraionis a representative of the subgenusPhalerebusfor mitogenomes database of anemonefishes, which can be used to unveil taxonomic problems and phylogenetic relationships in Amphiprioninae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]