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Background: The etiology of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is complex, and the disease is thus difficult to cure. In this regard, it has been established that SLE patients are characterized by differing levels of vitamin D-hydroxylation; however, the direct effects of vitamin D (VitD) in these patients remain unknown. Objective: Therefore, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of action of VitD in the context of SLE. Methods: The effects of VitD on MRL/LPR mice were studied by synthesizing glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β)-interfering lentiviruses and transfecting with miR-126a-5p mimics. Changes in the body weight of mice were recorded for 6 weeks. Western blotting was performed to determine the levels of T-bet, GATA3, and GSK-3β protein expression, and qRT-PCR was performed to determine the levels of miR-126a-5p and GSK-3β mRNA expression. ELISA was performed to determine the levels of ANA, dsDNA, and snRNP/Sm in mice serum. Results: GSK-3β and miR-126a-5p were expressed at high and low levels, respectively, in MRL/LPR mice. VitD (30 ng/kg) was found to reduce the expression of GSK-3β and increase miR-126a-5p expression, which targets GSK-3β. T-bet and GATA3 were found to be positively regulated by miR-126a-5p and VitD and negatively regulated by GSK-3β. The body weight of mice was not altered by VitD. ANA, dsDNA, and snRNP/Sm were positively regulated by miR- 126a-5p and VitD and negatively regulated by GSK-3β. The effects of GSK-3β were enhanced in response to the inhibition of miR-126a-5p expression. Conclusion: VitD upregulated miR-126a-5p to target GSK-3β expression, thereby alleviating the SLE in MRL/LPR mice.

Summary Although ethanol treatment is widely used to activate oocytes, the underlying mechanisms are largely unclear. Roles of intracellular calcium stores and extracellular calcium in ethanol-induced activation (EIA) of oocytes remain to be verified, and whether calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is involved in EIA is unknown. This study showed that calcium-free ageing (CFA) in vitro significantly decreased intracellular stored calcium (sCa) and CaSR expression, and impaired EIA, spindle/chromosome morphology and developmental potential of mouse oocytes. Although EIA in oocytes with full sCa after ageing with calcium does not require calcium influx, calcium influx is essential for EIA of oocytes with reduced sCa after CFA. Furthermore, the extremely low EIA rate in oocytes with CFA-downregulated CaSR expression and the fact that inhibiting CaSR significantly decreased the EIA of oocytes with a full complement of CaSR suggest that CaSR played a significant role in the EIA of ageing oocytes. In conclusion, CFA impaired EIA and the developmental potential of mouse oocytes by decreasing sCa and downregulating CaSR expression. Because mouse oocytes routinely treated for activation (18 h post hCG) are equipped with a full sCa complement and CaSR, the present results suggest that, while calcium influx is not essential, CaSR is required for the EIA of oocytes.

Stress and strain monitoring is of great significance for wood drying. Using digital image correlation (DIC), this study measured displacement and strain changes during wood drying in real time. The results showed that when wood is dried below the fiber saturation point, the difference of the radial and tangential shrinkage ratio gradually increased. An analysis of tangential and radial shrinkage ratio revealed that in the early stage of drying, the tangential and radial shrinkage ratio was relatively flat; in the middle stage of drying, the shrinkage ratio began to gradually increase; and in the later stage of drying, the tangential shrinkage ratio was approximately twice as large as that in the radial direction. Further, regarding the tangential and radial strain distribution, the radial strain distribution was more scattered than that in the tangential direction. The radial strain distribution exhibited compressive strain on both ends of the specimen, and the tensile strain was in the center. The tangential strain distribution was tensile strain on the left side of the specimen and compression strain on the right. Overall, DIC is stable and reliable, and it can be used to monitor well the stress and strain changes during wood drying.

When the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) is used to solve the robot path planning problem in obstacle environment, the quality of the initial solution is not high, and the algorithm is easy to fall into local optimization. Herein, an improved SFLA named ISFLA combined with genetic algorithm is proposed. By introducing selection, crossover and mutation operators in genetic algorithm, the ISFLA not only improves the solution quality of the SFLA, but also accelerates its convergence speed. Moreover, the ISFLA also proposes a location update strategy based on the central frog, which makes full use of the global information to avoid the algorithm falling into local optimization. By comparing ISFLA with other algorithms including SFLA in the map environment of different obstacles, it is confirmed that ISFLA can effectively improve the minimum path optimization and robustness in the simulation experiments of mobile robots.

The short-term impacts of urban air pollution on the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) remain obscure. In this study, we included 3487 urban adults from the Wuhan-Zhuhai cohort. Individual inhalation exposure to air pollutants was estimated by combining participants' daily breath volume and ambient concentrations of six air pollutants (including fine particulate matter (PM

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative disease, which can cause a series of symptoms including pain and functional limitation, thus severely decreasing quality of life. OA pathogenesis can be categorized into four levels, including risk factors, potential mechanisms, intraarticular degeneration phenotype, and substantive histological changes. Moderate exercise can alleviate OA at all levels of pathogenesis, while excessive exercise may have adverse effects. Based on rat-related original research, the parameters of moderate exercise and the effect of improving osteoarthritis have been comprehensively summarized. Based on the extensive randomized controlled trial studies, results show various moderate exercises can improve the symptom and prognosis of OA in clinical settings. This review gives an overview of the pathogenesis of OA and the mechanisms as well as clinical examples of moderate exercise treatment, aimed at providing rationale and evidence for moderate exercise in the treatment of OA to facilitate the provision of appropriate exercise therapy for OA patients.

SummarySuccessful fracturing operations heavily rely on the performance of fracturing fluids (FFs), which mainly include high sand-carrying capacity (SCC) and significant drag reduction (DR). Herein, a functional copolymer, SRP-6, was synthesized by introducing a zwitterionic surfactant, 4-((3-((3-(docos-10-enamido)propyl)dimethylammonio)-2-hydroxypropyl)amino)benzenesulfonate (SVBS), during polymerization, and its structure was characterized by Fourier transform infrared and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). SRP-6 shows superior solubility, hydrodynamic volume, and microstructure in salinity water, thanks to the hydrophilicity of multiple functional groups in the copolymer structure, and the SVBS-induced pseudointerpenetrated network as well as the uniform distribution of multiple functional monomers. Furthermore, the SVBS, as a physical crosslinker, imparts the SRP-6/SVBS solution with outstanding rheological performance, SCC, and DR. In addition, the contribution of elasticity and viscosity to SCC was calculated. These results collectively suggest that the SRP-6/SVBS solution could be potentially used as a high-performance FF for the development of tight reservoirs.

The development of wearable artificial livers was restricted to device miniaturization and bleeding risk with water-soluble anticoagulants. Herein, a double-deck column filled with solid anticoagulant microspheres and Kevlar porous microspheres (KPMs, bilirubin adsorbents) was connected with the principle machine of wearable artificial liver (approximately 9 kg) to treat hyperbilirubinemia beagles for the first time. With the initial normal dose of heparin, the double-deck column could afford 3 h hemoperfusion in whole blood without thrombus formation. The removal efficiency of the double-deck column for total bilirubin (TBIL) was 31.4%. Interestingly, the excessive amounts of hepatocyte metabolites were also decreased by approximately 25%. The "anticoagulant + column" realized safe and effective whole blood hemoperfusion without the plasma separation system and heparin pump; however, the proposed principle machine of wearable artificial liver and "anticoagulant + column" cannot completely replace the bio-liver now. The intelligence of the device and the versatility of the adsorbent need to be improved; moreover, advanced experimental techniques need to be developed to validate the survival rates in animals. Overall, this study is a meaningful trial for the development of wearable artificial livers in the future.