Search

Very recently, half-hydrogenated germanene has been achieved in an experiment. In this paper, we investigate the effects of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) molecular adsorption and strain on the electronic properties of half-hydrogenated germanene through first-principles. As an electron-acceptor molecule, TCNQ is exploited to non-covalently functionalize the half-hydrogenated germanene. However, this physical adsorption induces a ferromagnetic semiconductor–metal transition in half-hydrogenated germanene due to charge transfer from the substrate to the TCNQ molecule. More importantly, the superstructure of half-hydrogenated germanene/TCNQ is extremely sensitive to biaxial tensile strain. Under the biaxial tensile strain of 0.25%, the ferromagnetic semiconductor–metal transition induced by molecular adsorption can surprisingly be overturned. Meanwhile, a strong p-type doping is exhibited. Remarkably, it would return from a ferromagnetic semiconductor to a metal again when the biaxial tensile strain increases to 1.5%. Our analysis based on the structural and electronic properties of half-hydrogenated germanene/TCNQ indicates that such metal–semiconductor–metal transition in half-hydrogenated germanene/TCNQ under biaxial tensile strain may originate from the strong local deformation, resulting in the energy of the valence band maximum decreasing below or increasing above the Fermi level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rod-like copper manganese mixed oxides (CuMnx-NR) have been synthesized from copper manganese mixed oxide particles by sodium hydroxide hydrothermal treatment, and a higher BET surface area of 221 m2 g−1 is obtained on the nanorod-like sample, which exhibits superior catalytic activity toward toluene combustion at 210 °C due to the increase in its oxygen mobility of the chemisorbed oxygen species as well as the increase in surface concentrations of higher valance cations, Cu2+, Mn3+ and Mn4+, in the samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of lysine deficiency or excess on growth and the expression of lipid metabolism genes in slow-growing birds. A total of 360 one-day-old chicks were randomly divided into 3 groups, with 6 replicates of 20 birds each. The birds fed the basal diet with a total lysine 0.60% (LL), 1.00% (ML), or 1.40% (HL). The amount of lysine (ML) as the control group, LL and HL as the experimental group, the trial period last 3 wk. The results showed that compared with ML, LL significantly decreased average daily gain and average daily feed intake and remarkably increased feed conversion ratio of birds at 21 day old (P < 0.01), while the above indices in HL had no significant effects (P > 0.05). Besides, LL reduced the pectoral muscle rate (P < 0.01) and decreased the percentage of abdominal fat significantly (P < 0.05). In addition, compared with ML, the expression of fatty acid binding protein 1 (FABP1), acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), malic enzyme (ME), and sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1c) mRNA of liver in LL was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and the expression of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) mRNA was significantly increased (P < 0.01), whereas LL had no significant effects on the expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARα) mRNA (P > 0.05). Moreover, compared with ML, HL significantly reduced the expression of FABP1, ACC, ME, SREBP-1c , and PPARα mRNA in the liver (P < 0.05), and had no significant effects on the expression of CETP mRNA (P > 0.05). The results of current research suggest that dietary lysine deficiency could reduce the growth and fat deposition of slow-growing broilers mainly by downregulating the expression of lipid synthesis genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the oncological outcomes of active surveillance (AS) in patients showing thyroid nodules measuring≤1 cm with highly suspicious ultrasound features. Methods: A prospective single-center cohort study. A total of 534 patients with highly suspicious thyroid nodules (2015 American Thyroid Association Nodule Sonographic Patterns and Risk of Malignancy: High Suspicion) were enrolled in this study, the patients received AS at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2017 and November 2022 to assess oncological outcomes (disease progression, recurrence/metastasis rate, etc). The patients were followed up every 6 months for physical examination and neck ultrasound examination. And the value of tumor volume changes in evaluating tumor enlargement was explored too. Results: There were 413 females and 121 males in this cohort, with a mean age of (42.6±11.8) years. During a median follow-up period of 45.6 months (ranged from 3.5 to 176.0 months), disease progression occurred in 26 patients (4.9%) with highly suspicious thyroid nodules, characterized by a minimum 3-mm increase in tumor diameter in 19 patients (3.6%) and lymph node metastases in 7 patients (1.3%). Forty-seven (8.8%) patients opted for delayed surgery, with 29 patients due to a change in preference. There was no significant differences in pathologic and follow-up outcomes between patients with disease progression and preference change. Patients aged≤40 years had a higher cumulative incidence of 5-year disease progression than those aged>40 years (4.9% vs 1.9%, P =0.060). No patients experienced distant metastases or deaths. Among the 595 high-risk thyroid nodules with continuous volume assessment results and an increase in nodule diameter of less than 3 mm (including all high-risk nodules in patients with single or multiple nodules), 184 (30.9%) and 79 (13.3%) nodules exhibited volume increases of more than 50% and 100%, respectively, in multiple measurements. Among the nodules with volume changes exceeding 50% and 100%, the proportion of nodules with a baseline tumor diameter of≤0.5 cm was significantly higher than those with a diameter of>0.5 cm, at 69.0% vs 31.0% ( P <0.001) and 77.2% vs 22.8% ( P <0.001), respectively . Conclusions: Active surveillance in patients with highly suspicious subcentimeter thyroid nodules has good short-term oncological outcomes and can be considered a safe alternative to surgery. Due to the large variability in the measurement results of tumor volume, it is not suitable as an indicator for evaluating tumor enlargement .

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of needle-tract assisted standard percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) for the treatment of complicated upper urinary tract calculi. Methods: The clinical data of 1 562 patients with complicated upper urinary calculi who received standard PCNL from December 2013 to December 2017 at Department of Urology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University were retrospectively analyzed. There were large residual stones in 256 patients through B-ultrasound exploration after standard PCNL, could't be detected with nephoscope in standard PCNL tracts. 16 F mini PCNL tract were established in 120 cases for treatment of residual stones, while needle-tract were established in order to guide nephroscope to find residual stones in 126 cases. Needle-tract were transferred to 16 F mini PCNL tract for treatment of residual stones in 10 patients if these residual stones could't be detected through needle-tract. Operation time, change of hemoglobin level after operation, incidence of postoperative complications, time of hospitalization and rate of stone clearance were measured in two groups. The statistical methods used included t test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, and χ 2 test. Results: There were 1 to 3 mini tracts ( M ( Q R ): 1(1)) established in the mini tracts group and 1 to 7 needle-tracts ( M ( Q R ): 3(2)) established in the needle-tract group ( Z =-10.57, P =0.000). Compared with mini tract group, the operation time ((62.0±18.0) minutes vs . (84.0±15.5) minutes, t =10.242, P =0.000), hospitalization time ((4.40±0.86) days vs . (5.20±0.81) days, t =7.570, P =0.049), hemoglobin dropped ((1.31±0.47) g/L vs . (2.74±0.63) g/L, t =20.12, P =0.000), and incidence of postoperative complications (7.9% (10/126) vs . 19.2% (23/120), χ 2 =6.674, P =0.01) of needle-tract group were lower, while postoperative stone clearance rate was higher (89.7% vs . 76.7%, χ 2 =7.497, P =0.006). No perioperative severe complications such as pleural injury, pneumatothorax, perforation of renal, trauma of abdominal organ occurred in two groups. Conclusion: Needle-tract assisted standard PCNL for the treatment of complicated upper urinary calculi can significantly improve stone clearance rate, reduce operation time, decrease risk of kidney and surrounding organs damage.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have pleiotropic immuno-modulatory effects and pro-angiogenic ability, leading to the presumption that MSCs may be involved in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory or autoimmune disorders, including psoriasis. In a previous study, we reported the specific gene expression profile of dermal MSCs from psoriasis. Inflammation- and angiogenesis-related genes, such as lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha transcription factor (LITAF), dual-specificity protein phosphatase 1 (DUSP1), vascular endothelial growth factor α (VEGFα), and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-5 (IGFBP5), are abnormally expressed in psoriatic dermal MSCs. As a key regulator of gene expression, miRNA are involved in a wide variety of biological processes; in fact, several miRNAs have been implicated in the development and progression of inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. In this study, we compared the miRNA expression profiles of dermal MSCs from patients with psoriasis to those in MSCs from normal individuals by microarray, and found that the pro-inflammatory miRNA miR-155 was significantly overexpressed in psoriatic MSCs (2.44 fold, P < 0.001). Additionally, the expression of miR-155 target gene TAB2 (8.47 ± 1.55 vs 6.38 ± 2.10, P < 0.01,) and the downstream gene iNOS (5.26 ± 2.58 vs 3.73 ± 1.89, P < 0.05) was found to be inhibited in psoriatic dermal MSCs by real-time PCR. Therefore, we speculated that the elevation in miR-155 levels may be an indicator of, or a key regulatory pathway in, the pathogenesis of psoriasis, resulting in functionally impaired dermal MSCs.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by excessive proliferation and abnormal differentiation and apoptosis of keratinocytes (KCs). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from skin lesions of psoriasis patients demonstrate abnormal cytokine secretion, which may affect KC proliferation and apoptosis. Here, we explored how MSCs from skin lesions of psoriasis patients affect HaCaT cell proliferation and apoptosis. First, flow cytometry and multipotent differentiation methods were used to identify skin MSCs, which were then co-cultured with HaCaT cells. HaCaT cell proliferation was analyzed in real-time, and cell cycle progression and apoptosis were assessed by flow cytometry. Cell morphologies and multipotencies of skin MSCs were similar between the psoriasis group and healthy control group, with high levels of CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90, and CD105 and limited expression of CD34, CD45, and HLA-DR. MSCs from skin lesions of psoriasis patients promote KC proliferation more potently and are less capable of inducing KC apoptosis. This may underlie KC proliferation and abnormal apoptosis in psoriasis skin lesions, which results in abnormal thickening of the epidermis.

Psoriasis is a common chronic relapsing inflammatory skin disease, in which mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been hypothesized to play an important role in abnormal localized inflammation and vascular proliferation observed in skin lesions. Previous studies have revealed abnormal gene expression patterns, DNA methylation status, and cytokine secretion of MSCs in psoriatic skin lesions, as well as some gene expression abnormalities related to inflammation and angiogenesis. We further verified the gene and protein expressions of inflammation-related lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha transcription factor (LITAF), dual-specificity protein phosphatase 1 (DUSP1), and angiogenesis-related hematopoietically expressed homeobox (HHEX) in MSCs derived from the skin lesions of psoriasis patients. The gene expression of LITAF, DUSP1, and HHEX in dermal MSCs was measured at the mRNA level using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and the corresponding protein expression levels were analyzed by western blotting analysis. The gene and protein expression levels of LITAF, HHEX, and DUSP1 in dermal MSCs were significantly lower in psoriasis patients compared to controls. Amplification and western blotting results were consistent with our previously reported gene chip data. Our results suggest that dermal MSCs in psoriatic skin lesions may be involved in the development, progression, and regulation of localized inflammatory abnormalities by reducing the expression of LITAF, HHEX, and DUSP1, which are related to inflammation and angiogenesis.

Bacillus pumilus is able to secrete subtilisin-like prote-ases, one of which has been purified and characterized biochemically, demonstrating great potential for use in industrial applications. In the current study, the biosynthesis and transcription of extracellular pro-teases in B. pumilus (BA06) under salt stress were investigated using various methods, including a proteolytic assay, zymogram analysis, and real-time PCR. Our results showed that total extracellular proteolytic activity, both in fermentation broth and on milk-containing agar plates, was considerably repressed by salt in a dosage-dependent manner. As Bacillus species usually secret multiple extracellular proteases, a vari-ety of individual extracellular protease encoding genes were selected for real-time PCR analysis. It was shown that proteases encoded by the aprE and aprX genes were the major proteases in the fermentation broth in terms of their transcripts in B. pumilus. Further, transcription of aprE, aprX, and epr genes was indeed repressed by salt stress. In con-trast, transcription of other genes (e.g., vpr and wprA) was not repressed or significantly affected by the salt. Conclusively, salt stress represses total extracellular proteolytic activity in B. pumilus, which can largely be ascribed to suppression of the major protease-encoding genes (aprE, aprX) at the transcriptional level. In contrast, transcription of other pro-tease-encoding genes (e.g., vpr, wprA) was not repressed by salt stress.

There are significant differences on the biological characteristics of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs), immunological response, and antigen-presenting functions between patients with psoriasis and normal subjects, but there are no significant differences in aborted fetuses. We examined the differences in BMMSCs between aborted fetuses and patients with psoriasis in this study. Bone marrow from normal subjects, aborted fetuses, and patients with psoriasis were obtained using a MidiMACS machine. Density gradient centrifugation method was used to isolate the bone marrow mononuclear cells of patients with psoriasis and aborted fetus and the cells were cultivated. Bone marrow CD34(+) cells from normal subjects were isolated. MTT colorimetric detection was used to test the proliferation activity of bone marrow CD34(+) cells. The purity of bone marrow CD34(+) cells and BMMSCs was determined by flow cytometry. The BMMSC culture supernatant fluid of patients with psoriasis and aborted fetuses showed no statistically significant difference with bone marrow CD34(+) cell proliferation in normal subjects (P > 0.05).