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Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, represented by programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), has shown an obvious benefit for melanoma immunotherapy, but the overall response rate is still low. To find an effective combination therapy strategy, we successfully produced small size silver nanoparticles coated with sucrose (S-AgNPs) as potent adjuvants. The antitumor effects of S-AgNPs were tested in vitro and comparatively investigated in immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice with melanoma. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting and immunofluorescent staining analysis were conducted to identify the tumor microenvironments. The expression of PD-L1 in tumors was tested by multiple methods. The combination therapy and potential toxicity of S-AgNPs and PD-1 mAbs were assessed in melanoma-bearing mice. In our findings, S-AgNPs presented potent antitumor effects, good druggability and low systemic toxicity. Functionally, we found that S-AgNPs exhibited better antitumor effects in immunocompetent mice. Mechanistically, we showed that S-AgNPs suppress tumor cell proliferation by inducing cellular apoptosis and promote cytotoxic CD8

Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease. Lipids play an important role in regulating the inflammatory response. However, the alteration of lipids involved in psoriasis particular in skin lesions remain unclear. Here, we performed the lipidomics to investigate lipid profiling in the skin lesions of the imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis and psoriasis patients. The findings showed that ceramides phosphate (CerP) and ceramides were enriched in psoriatic lesions compared with controls from both psoriasis patients and psoriasis-like mouse model. Psoriasis patients were classified into two subtypes, the CC1 and CC2, by consensus clustering of these lipid signatures. The CC1 was characterized by the higher levels of CerP, uric acid, and more severe psoriasis, compared with CC2 subtype. Interestingly, ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P), dramatically enriched in CC1 subtype, facilitated imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like inflammatory responses. Mechanistically, C1P induced the expression of inflammatory factors and activated DNA replication and cell cycle signaling pathways in the primary keratinocytes. Inhibiting the production of C1P with ceramide kinase inhibitor effectively alleviated the imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like inflammation. Taken together, we described the landscape of lipids alteration and established lipids classification based on pattern of abundance of lipids in psoriatic skin lesions. Suppression of C1P pathway is a novel potential strategy for psoriasis treatment.

Chloroplast development and chlorophyll biosynthesis are affected by temperature. However, the underlying molecular mechanism of this phenomenon remains elusive. Here, we isolated and characterized a thermosensitive yellow-green leaf mutant named tsyl1 (thermosensitive yellow leaf 1) from an ethylmethylsulfone (EMS)-mutagenized pool of rice. The mutant exhibits a yellow-green leaf phenotype and decreased leaf chlorophyll contents throughout development. At the mature stage of the tsyl1 mutant, the plant height, tiller number, number of spikelets per panicle and 1000 seed weight were decreased significantly compared to those of wild-type plants, but the seed setting rate and panicle length were not. The mutant phenotype was controlled by a single recessive nuclear gene on the short arm of rice chromosome 11. Map-based cloning of TSYL1, followed by a complementation experiment, showed a G base deletion at the coding region of LOC_Os11g05552, leading to the yellow-green phenotype. The TSYL1 gene encodes a signal recognition particle 54 kDa (SRP54) protein that is conserved in all organisms. The expression of tsyl1 was induced by high temperature. Furthermore, the expression of chlorophyll biosynthesis- and chloroplast development-related genes was influenced in tsyl1 at different temperatures. These results indicated that the TSYL1 gene plays a key role in chlorophyll biosynthesis and is affected by temperature at the transcriptional level.

Anthraquinone (AQ), as organic cathode material, has provided an excellent opportunity to update the preexisting energy storage technologies owing to its facile and desirable fabrication at molecular level, higher theoretical gravimetric capacities and remarkable sustainability. However, some of its pristine properties like insulation and dissolution into electrolyte of organic active materials during cycling, have been inevitable obstacles to boost its electrochemical performance. Herein, we report a rational strategy to improve lithium ion storage performance of AQ by confining nanosized amorphous AQ into zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8)-derived nitrogen-doped microporous carbon scaffold (AQ@N-ZIF-8). The AQ@N-ZIF-8 cathode delivers a high reversible specific capacity of 240 mAh g−1 at current rate of 0.1 C and retains ~216 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles (remarkably low capacity fading rate of 0.08% per cycle) with coulombic efficiency up to 99%. The exceptional lithium ion storage capacity of AQ@N-ZIF-8 is mainly ascribed to the synergistic effect of high loading capacity of AQ encapsulation and nanopore confinement of AQ dissolution in carbon scaffolds, and the enhanced conductivity of the encapsulated AQ by higher contents of nitrogen dopant. Moreover, the N-ZIF-8 with micropores facilitates the fast diffusion of organic electrolyte ions.

The promising dual laser-beam bilateral synchronous welding (DLBSW) technology was employed in the 2219 aluminum alloy T-joint which consisted of the skin and stringer components. The coherent weld seam (WS) is achieved under the heat affect of dual laser beam. The stripping experiment was carried out to test the stripping strength of DLBSW joint. With the purpose of discussing the relationship between the welding shape and stripping strength, H 1 was measured to evaluate the shape of welded T-joint. The microstructure characteristics of T-joint were observed to discuss the crack location during striping experiment. Besides, the fracture morphology was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The chemical element composition on the impure phase in the fracture was detected by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The highest stripping strength is 317.46 MPa with the laser power of 5500 W and welding speed of 4.2 m/min. The stripping crack locations are mainly divided into three categories. The highest stripping strength is achieved under the second category of crack location which is taken place near the upper fusion line. It is indirectly found that the strength of WS in case 6 with the laser power of 5500 W is highest than the others. The degrading of stripping strength is mainly owing to the reducing of plasticity as well as the formation of internal defects such as pores, bonded structure and nubby impure phases. The nubby impure phase is mainly metal oxides (TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 ) which generally degrade the weld quality. It is notable that a new skin component accompanied with two bosses is firstly designed in the present study to replace the wire filler.

Oxidative stress and blood-retinal barrier (BRB) damage induced by hyperglycemia are the principal processes involved in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR). CXC chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3)-mediated inflammatory infiltration exists in many disease models. The main objective of the present study was to determine whether AMG487, a CXCR3 antagonist, can ameliorate BRB disruption and reactive oxygen species generation in the DR model. The retinal endothelial cell and ganglion cell ultrastructures were observed using a transmission electron microscope. The pericyte marker PDGFR-β, tight junction occludin, and leaking albumin were evaluated. The oxidative stress level, CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP), and p-p38 expression were also investigated in vivo and in vitro. The results indicated that AMG487 application might alleviate PDGFR-β and occludin loss, and decreased the residual content of retinal albumin in the streptozocin-induced DR mouse model via the inhibition of oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress, in which p38 activation was also involved. Thus, CXCR3 inhibition might be a target to prevent the early stage of DR injury.

Though aluminum foils are widely applied as cathode current collectors for lithium ion batteries, they still face many challenges, such as the limited contact area, weak adhesion with electrode materials and localized corrosion by electrolytes during long-term cycling, which will lead to the degradation of electrochemical performances. Here, graphene-modified aluminum foils and carbon black/graphene modified aluminum foils are prepared as the current collectors for lithium iron phosphate lithium ion batteries by a facile solution coating method. We find that the batteries fabricated with carbon black/graphene-modified aluminum foils exhibit largely improved electrochemical performances in rate capability, internal resistance and long-term cycling capacity retention, compared with the bare aluminum and graphene-modified aluminum foils. This work reveals the coatings of graphene nanosheets not only can increase the contact area and enhance the adhesion between electrode materials and current collectors, which is beneficial for their electrical contact and charge transport, but also can suppress the aluminum foil corrosion during long-term cycling. Meanwhile, the excessive coverage of graphene nanosheets will lower the battery performances due to the interlayer contact increment of graphene nanosheets. In addition, carbon black combines graphene to form a co-conductive network effectively compensating the low interlayer electrical conductivity of graphene nanosheets.

Herein, based on mRNA data from TCGA database, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples were subjected to a single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA). Then, HCC samples were finally classified into high-, middle-, and low-immunity groups using K-means consensus clustering (K = 3) according to ssGSEA scores. After the tumor microenvironment of HCC patients was further analyzed using ESTIMATE algorithm, the results indicated high immune score, stromal score, ESTIMATE score and low tumor purity in high-immunity group. HLA family genes and PD-L1(CD274) were remarkably highly expressed in high-immunity group. Immune-related lncRNAs were required by analyzing differentially expressed genes in high- and low-immunity groups. Differential expression analysis was undertaken on HCC samples, with normal samples as the control. After immune-related lncRNAs and differentially expressed lncRNAs were intersected, 321 differentially expressed immune-related lncRNAs were acquired. Later, the prognostic model based on immune-related lncRNAs was obtained following the Cox regression analysis of previous samples. According to the riskScore, the samples in TCGA-LIHC were divided into high- and low-risk groups. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, ROC curve, and independence analysis confirmed that the immune-related lncRNAs prognostic model was an important factor independent from clinical characteristics. We further analyzed the difference in immune microenvironment and mutational landscapes in both risk groups. Prominent differences were shown in multiple immunity-related gene sets and immune cells in both groups. The mutation rate of TP53 in high-risk group was much higher than the low-risk one. All these conclusions offered references to prognostic evaluations and personalized treatments for patients with HCC.

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) are alternatives to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and have recently gained wide acceptance in various materials. For the treatment and prevention of diseases, it is also important to clarify the relationship between OPFRs and tumors, despite the fact that OPFRs are less toxic than BFRs. This research used the TCGA and CTD databases for transcriptome profiling and identifying OPFRs-related genes. GO and KEGG analyses suggested that OPFRs may be closely related to colorectal cancer (CRC), and genes correlated with OPFRs were significantly and differently expressed between tumor and normal group. Further, OPFRs-related genes were associated with a good prognosis in CRC patients. The deeper research demonstrated that one of the OPFRs-triphenyl phosphate could significantly increased the viability and proliferation of CRC cell lines compared with the control group. In addition, Our research also found that melatonin at 50 μM could significantly impact CRC cell proliferation and migration ability induced by TPP.

Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (Ligusticum; Apiaceae) (accepted name, Ligusticum striatum DC, on "The Plant List" for the latest version) is a Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) which mainly distributed in Sichuan Basin, China. Chuanxiong is the dried rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. Ligustrazine, also known as tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), is a main active fraction of chuanxiong. The aim of this study was to clarify the underlying mechanisms by which TMP protect against psoriasis-like inflammation in keratinocytes. Here, we demonstrated that TMP alleviated the severity and PASI scores of IMQ-induced psoriasis-like skin lesion in vivo. For the histopathology level, TMP inhibited the over-proliferation of keratinocytes in the epidermis and the substantial immune cells influx in dermis. For the mechanism of the ability of TMP on regulating inflammation, we confirmed that TMP regulate the TRAF6/c-JUN/NFκB signaling pathway through analyzing the proteomics profiling and verifying the expression of TRAF6, pho-c-Jun, pho-NFκB, so that the downstream psoriasis-relevant genes transcribed by c-JUN or NFκB were down-regulated. Furthermore, we predicted TRAF6 as the potential binding point of TMP. Accordingly, our study demonstrated that TMP regulated psoriasis-like inflammation through inhibiting TRAF6/c-JUN/NFκB signaling pathway in keratinocytes, which potentially provides evidence of the mechanism of TMP in the treatment and prevention of psoriasis.

Organic cathode materials have owned wide range of research interests for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their higher theoretical storage capacities, safety advantage, desirable fabrication at molecular level and significant sustainability. However, the dissolution of active materials into electrolyte results in short cycle life and low rate capacity which are inevitable obstacles to the industrialization. The organic species in carbon materials like active carbon, carbon nanotubes and graphene, cannot be stabilized in electrolytes due to their weak interactions. Here, we report a novel organic cathode design to fabricate long-cycle life LIBs. The organic cathode relies on the ionic interactions between positively charged N,N′-bis(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenebis(dicarboximides) (PDI) and negatively charged graphene oxide (GO). In this design, the carbon matrices can load significant amount of organic molecules and can develop the interactions with electrolytes for a long time. The exclusive design can assemble the organic PDI LIBs with reversible capacity higher than 81 mA h g-1 with excellent cyclability at 25 mA g−1. Moreover, the reversible capacity is sustained up to 28.4 mA h g-1 at a higher current rate 500 mA h g-1. The current investigations confirmed that the proposed strategy can be effective for hundreds of organic materials which have been ignored in past owing to their poor cyclability, and now these can be reinvestigated under the consideration of ionic interactions.

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by epidermal hyperplasia and increased T cell infiltration. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is a key factor that affects T cell function and immune response. However, whether the expression of CTLA-4 affects the severity of psoriasis is still unknown. OBJECTIVE The aim of the project was to investigate the correlation between the expression of CTLA-4 and the severity of psoriasis. METHODS The plasma soluble CTLA-4 levels and membrane CTLA-4 expression were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunohistochemistry analysis in mild, moderate and severe psoriasis patients, respectively. Imiquimod-induced mouse model of psoriasis was treated with CTLA-4 immunoglobulin fusion protein (CTLA-4 Ig) or anti-CTLA-4 antibody. Epidermal thickness and infiltrating CD3+ T cell counts were evaluated. RESULTS The plasma soluble CTLA-4 levels had no significant difference among mild, moderate, and severe patients (p > 0.05). However, the membrane CTLA-4 expression in skin was significantly higher in mild psoriasis patients compared to moderate and severe psoriasis patients (17652.86 ± 18095.66 vs 6901.36 ± 4400.77 vs 3970.24 ± 5509.15, p

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a huge burden in China. The Chinese patients with T2DM have several special clinical characteristics. Metabolomics studies predominantly have identified several distinguishing metabolites associated with T2DM in Western ancestry population. However, few previous metabolomics studies were conducted in Chinese populations.We performed untargeted serum metabolic profiling between 30 T2DM patients and 30 healthy controls based on GC/TOFMS. Multivariate data analyses were applied to identify the distinguishing metabolites.Excellent separation was obtained between the two cases. And overall 54 distinguishing metabolites were identified with VIP1 and P0.05, which were involved in metabolic pathways of amino acid, carbohydrate, lipids, membrane transport and nucleotides. To further analyze the correlation between the identified metabolites and T2DM, 17 metabolites were selected with FC2.0, including gentisic acid, citraconic acid, succinic acid, 2-hydroxybutanoic acid and 3-hydroxy-l-proline, the corresponding FC were respectively 5.44, 2.21, 2.10, 2.21 and -2.04.Our results demonstrated that untargeted GC/TOFMS-based metabolic approach processed well performance to identify serum distinguishing metabolites of T2DM in Chinese adults, which may be as potential biomarkers in diagnose and treatment of diabetes. And the results also provided new insight into understand the underlying molecular mechanism.

Bowen Disease (BD), also known as squamous cell carcinoma in situ, requires treatment to prevent progression to invasive cancer.. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been widely employed to treat BD. However, there are BD patients who undergo PDT but experience poor efficacy and recurrence. We have considered that for some, the reason is the depth of PDT penetrating tissue to be limited. Therefore, we combined simple shaving with PDT to treat 10 patients with a total of 44 advanced BD lesions. After local injection of anesthesia, the lesions were shaved once in situ, then a total of three PDT sessions were applied for each patient. At 12 weeks, all of BD lesions (100%) have shown complete clinical response. After more than 12 months follow-up, the RR was 0, and all lesions showed a good or excellent cosmetic outcome. The patient's symptoms were alleviated with improvement in the quality of life. For those with advanced BD, which are more than 3 cm in diameter, with unclear borders, ulcers, multiple occurrences and those that appear on the face and neck that are not suitable for extended resection by routine surgery, combined simple shaving with PDT is recommended.

In the present paper, a transverse magnetic field was applied to gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) for 2205 DSS in order to regulate the weld microstructure, which has not been investigated so far. The results indicated that the application of magnetic field not only can increase the austenite/ferrite phase ratio of the welds, but also refine the ferrite grains, and a magnetic field with a frequency of 1 Hz worked best. Both of the above can be attributed to the slower cooling rate of the welding pool with arc oscillation. Hardness test showed that the arc oscillation exerted a significant influence on hardness distribution. Under the effect of a low frequency (1 Hz) magnetic field, the hardness level of the weld metal was close to that of the base material. However, when no magnetic field was applied, the hardness level of the weld increased.

With distributed generations (DG) including the wind and photovoltaic power generations continually connected to the distribution network, reasonable allocation of energy storage system is extremely important to active distribution network (ADN). In this paper, a method to optimize the location and capacity of the embedded distributed energy storage system (DESS) is proposed to meet the needs of ADN and DGs. Firstly, the model of DGs is built according to the natural characteristics of wind and solar energy. Secondly, the model of allocating the DESS is established to achieve the best economical investment results with the constraints of ADN, DG and DESS themselves. Finally, a test ADN with wind and photovoltaic power generations is used to verify the efficiency of the method proposed in this paper.

This study examines the effects of different product presentation strategies (i.e., alternative- vs. attribute-based) on consumer responses to diagnostic and serendipitous website experiences. Drawing on the accessibility-diagnosticity framework, we propose that different types of information presentation strategies lead consumers to differently evaluate a website as being diagnostic and serendipitous. The findings from three studies suggest that attribute-based presentations effectively increase consumer perceptions of website diagnosticity and serendipity compared with an alternative-based format. Both perceived diagnosticity and serendipity significantly contribute to consumers’ overall satisfaction with a website. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The wetting test is first used to study the effect of oscillating arc on the melt flow. A novel wetting method, single-sidewall wetting test, is developed to study the wetting behavior of melt on the narrow gap sidewall and its effect on lack-of-fusion defects is also discussed in arc oscillating NG-GTAW (narrow gap gas tungsten arc welding).The results show that the arc oscillation contributes to the improved wetting of melt on the plate and narrow gap sidewall. In the plate wetting test, variation of surface tension caused by heat input is crucial for wettability, while in the narrow gap, the improvement of wettability is attributed to the interaction of arc shear force, arc pressure and surface tension. As the increase of magnetic flux density, the wettability of melt on the sidewall in narrow gap gradually becomes better. However, the monotonic increasing trend of wettability with respect to the magnetic flux density does not always hold. When the best wettability is obtained, the melt surface is also more even, both of which can contribute to good fusion in the narrow gap. The welded joint without lack-of-fusion defect is obtained by using the magnetic field parameter covered with the best wettability of the melt on the sidewall.

There is currently no satisfactory therapy for nitrogen mustard (NM)-caused dermal toxicity, for poor understanding of the exact mechanisms. Autophagy has been found to play important roles in physical or chemical exposure-caused cutaneous injuries. Herein, we initially confirmed that NM dose-dependently caused cell death in keratinocytes. The LC3B2 (light chain 3 beta 2) formation and SQSTM1/p62 (sequestosome 1) degradation and the formation of autophagosomes were also dose-dependently upregulated by NM. And chloroquine treatment resulted in further accumulation of LC3B2 in NM-treated keratinocytes. Suppression of autophagy by 3-methyladenine and chloroquine or ATG5 siRNA attenuated NM-caused cell death in keratinocytes. Furthermore, NM increased TRPV1 (Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1) expression, intracellular Ca2+ content, and the activity of CaMKKβ (Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Kinase Kinase β), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), ULK1 (unc-51-like kinase 1) and mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin). NM-induced autophagy in keratinocytes was abolished in the presence of inhibitors of TRPV1 (capsazepine), CaMKKβ (STO-609), or AMPK (compound C) as well as TRPV1, CaMKKβ, and AMPK siRNA transfection. Additionally, mTOR inhibitor (rapamycin) had no significant effect on NM-stimulated autophagy and cell death in keratinocytes. Finally, the results of in vivo study in NM-treated skin tissues were consistent with the findings of in vitro study. In conclusion, NM caused dermal toxicity by overactivating autophagy through the activation of TRPV1-Ca2+-CaMKKβ-AMPK-ULK1 signaling pathway. These suggest that blocking TRPV1-dependent autophagy could be a potential treatment strategy for NM-caused skin injury. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 1703268), National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20180378) and the Excellent Youth Foundation of the Amy Medical University (2017). Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Ethical Approval: All animal experiments were carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the National Institutes of Health and were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Amy Medical University (Chongqing, China; approval no. SYXC-2016-00115).

Cadmium (Cd), which is considered a carcinogenic metal, promotes breast cancer (BC) progression, but the precise mechanism remains unclear. Herein, MCF-7 and T47-D cells were treated with 0.1, 1, and 10 μM cadmium chloride (CdCl2) for 24, 48 and 72 h. In our study, Cd exposure significantly accelerated the proliferation, migration and invasion of MCF-7 and T47-D cells. Notably, Cd inhibited autophagic flux by suppressing ATG5-dependent autophagosome formation but had no significant effect on autophagosome-lysosome fusion and lysosomal function. The genetic enhancement of autophagy through ATG5 overexpression suppressed the Cd-mediated increases in proliferation, migration and invasion, which indicated a carcinogenic role of autophagy impairment in Cd-exposed BC cells. GSEA and GeneMANIA were utilized to demonstrate that the Cd-induced decrease in ACSS2 expression mechanistically inhibited ATG5-dependent autophagy in BC cells. Importantly, ACSS2 overexpression increased the level of H3K27 acetylation in the promoter region of ATG5, and this result maintained autophagic flux and abolished the Cd-induced increases in proliferation, migration and invasion. We also verified that the expression of ACSS2 in BC tissues was low and positively related to ATG5 expression. These findings indicated that the promoting effect of Cd on BC cell proliferation, migration and invasion through the impairment of ACSS2/ATG5-dependent autophagic flux suggests a new mechanism for BC cell proliferation and metastasis stimulated by Cd.

Since excessive energy was consumed to maintain indoor thermal comfort, it is of great significance to develop infrared thermal regulating materials for personal heat management. Herein, a hybrid membrane with heat dissipation was prepared via layer-by-layer assembly of exfoliated BN nanosheets (BNNS) with layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets covering the surface of the inorganic–organic hybrid cellulose membrane (ICM). Ni-Al LDH-coated ICM (Ni-Al-LDH/ICM) was prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method, and then BNNS was attached to the surface of Ni-Al-LDH/ICM to form a hybrid membrane (BNNS/Ni-Al-LDH/ICM). The Ni-Al-LDH/ICM as the outer layer exhibits a high infrared emissivity (77%), which would contribute to the transmittance of infrared radiation from the human body to the environment for radiation cooling. And the BNNS inner-layer possesses an excellent infrared transmittance, which can more effectively promote the loss of human radiation. In addition, the BNNS layer also exhibits satisfactory fire resistance, air permeability and electric insulation properties, this can provide security and comfort for people's life. Thus, the BNNS/Ni-Al-LDH/ICM with functional integration has promising applications in the fields of civil, firefighting and aerospace.

Biomass derived organic materials have gained a worthy potential for electrode materials of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their high specific capacity, renewability, lower cost, and structural diversity. However, high solubility and poor electronic conductivity are the key obstacles in development of traditional organic electrodes. Herein, the composite material PI@NC is prepared using 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride ethylene diamine and nitrogen-doped carbon matrix through in-situ polymerization. The formation of NC conductive scaffolds establishes the efficient pathways in electrodes for electronic conduction. As per expectations, PI@NC as a cathode material boosts the rate performance of SIBs. Specifically, the as-prepared composites offer outstanding redox behavior with superior rate capacities of 91 mAh g−1 at a higher current density of 10 A g−1 for sodium storage. Moreover, in order to show the potential application values of electrode materials, a full battery is successfully fabricated based on our PI@NC cathode and commercial disodium terephthalate (NaTP) anode.

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic membranes are of particular significance for wastewater treatment due to their mechanical strength, chemical stability, and antifouling ability. Currently, the membranes are prepared by SiC-particle sintering at a high temperature. The production suffers from long production time and high costs. In this paper, we demonstrated a more economical way to produce SiC ultrafiltration membranes based on low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). SiC was deposited in the pores of alumina microfiltration supports using two precursors (SiH2Cl2 and C2H2/H2) at a relatively low temperature of 750 °C. Different deposition times varying from 0 to 150 min were used to tune membrane pore size. The pure water permeance of the membranes only decreased from 350 Lm−2h−1bar−1 to 157 Lm−2h−1bar−1 when the deposition time was increased from 0 to 120 min due to the narrowing of membrane pore size from 71 to 47 nm. Increasing the deposition time from 120 to 150 min mainly resulted in the formation of a thin, dense layer on top of the support instead of in the pores. Oil-in-water emulsion filtration experiments illustrated that both the reversible and irreversible fouling of the SiC-deposited UF membrane was considerably lower as compared to the pristine alumina support. The unique feature that pore sizes decrease linearly as a function of SiC deposition time creates opportunities to produce low-fouling SiC membranes with tuned pore sizes on relatively cheap support.

In the current research, the dual laser beam bilateral synchronous welding (DLBSW) of 2219 Al-Cu alloy T-joint is investigated by finite element (FE) simulation of temperature field and residual stress, which aims at the optimization of the welding process parameters. The FE mesh model of the T-joint is established by simplifying the equal boss of the skin. The combined Gaussian laser heat source is adopted to simulate the laser energy loaded on the Al-Cu alloy during welding process. Furthermore, a test table of process parameters with the laser power and welding speed is designed to investigate the parameters via the simulation results. The simulation with 16 groups of parameters are performed based on the heat source model which is checked by the experimental result. Two cases of parameters are filtered from the simulation results for the hoop tensile test experiment. It is employed to estimate the tensile and yield strength of the T-joints with the filtered parameters. Welding process parameters in case 6, which are the laser power of 4300 W and welding speed of 2.5 m/min, are the optimized parameters in the test table based on the tensile strength (337.28 MPa) and yield strength (243.51 MPa) obtained by the tensile test results.

With abundant bauxite mineral as starting material, a low-cost alumina-mullite composite hollow fiber ceramic membrane (HFCM) was fabricated via phase-inversion method followed by high temperature sintering. Process parameters, including bore fluid flow rate and air-gap distance, which affect structure and properties of the HFCM were systematically explored. A low bore fluid flow rate would lead to the deformation of inner walls of the HFCM as a result of insufficient solidification, while a large air-gap distance would induce the distortion of finger-like voids. Effects of sintering on the microstructure, pore size distribution, nitrogen gas flux and mechanical properties were investigated in details. Acid-base titration was first proposed to quantitatively determine concentration of surface active sites of membrane surface after sintering. An increase in sintering temperature leads to significantly enhancing strength but almost linearly reduces concentration of active surface hydroxyl sites. Compared with its alumina counterpart, this low-cost composite membrane can be sintered at lower sintering temperature, and exhibits higher mechanical strength and active surface hydroxyl site concentration.

Oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion is considered to be difficult to treat. In this work, a low-cost multi-layer-structured mullite-titania composite ceramic hollow fiber microfiltration membrane was fabricated and utilized to efficiently remove fine oil droplets from (O/W) emulsion. In order to reduce membrane cost, coal fly ash was effectively recycled for the first time to fabricate mullite hollow fiber with finger-like and sponge-like structures, on which a much more hydrophilic TiO 2 layer was further deposited. The morphology, crystalline phase, mechanical and surface properties were characterized in details. The filtration capability of the final composite membrane was assessed by the separation of a 200 mg·L −1 synthetic (O/W) emulsion. Even with this microfiltration membrane, a TOC removal efficiency of 97% was achieved. Dilute NaOH solution backwashing was used to effectively accomplish membrane regeneration (∼96% flux recovery efficiency). This study is expected to guide an effective way to recycle waste coal fly ash not only to solve its environmental problems but also to produce a high-valued mullite hollow fiber membrane for highly efficient separation application of O/W emulsion with potential simultaneous functions of pure water production and oil resource recovery.

In order to deal with the increasingly serious situation of electromagnetic interference (EMI), the design and development of efficient EMI shielding materials are highly desirable. This work takes advantages of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derived carbonaceous material and graphene foam (GF) to build an interconnected heterostructure for an ultralight and excellent EMI shielding performance material. Evenly dispersed Fe nanoparticles/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) network is in situ produced by carbonizing Fe(acac)3 decorated Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 (ZIF-8). And the composite is prepared by depositing Fe nanoparticles and CNTs co-decorated carbon matrix (FCC) on the surface of GF. This complex material with three-dimension (3D) network introduces electrical loss and magnetic loss and also results in a strong synergistic effect between FCC and GF to obviously improve the EMI shielding performance. The FCC/GF composite with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) obtains a significantly high total EMI shielding effectiveness (SET) of 48 dB in the X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz). Meanwhile, the density of composite is only 0.138 g/cm3 and thus the specific EMI-SE (SSE) is up to 347.8 dB cm3/g. Therefore, FCC/GF has a wide range of prospects as an ultralight and efficient EMI shielding material.

The blood clam Tegillarca granosa is a member of the most economically important bivalve mollusk species in the Asia-Pacific region. T. granosa entirely depends on innate immunity for pathogen defense. However, there are very few reports on the immune responses of T. granosa to various pathogens. In our study, we cloned and characterized an ERK homolog from T. granosa, which was defined as TgERK. The full-length cDNA sequence of TgERK was 1644 bp in length and encoded a conserved S_TKc domain (residues 21-309) in the N terminus. The TgERK mRNA was universally expressed in all examined tissues, with the highest expression level found in hemocytes. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and Vibrio alginolyticus challenges strongly enhanced the expression of ERK in T. granosa, which was consistent with the results of an in vitro challenge study with cultured T. granosa hemocytes. Pathogen invasion also upregulated the expression of downstream genes in the ERK signaling pathway, such as CREB, c-Fos and SIRT1. Moreover, TgERK knockdown resulted in decreased expression of these downstream genes. Inhibition of ERK by its inhibitor U0126 decreased T. granosa hemocyte viability in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, our results demonstrated that TgERK was a crucial regulator of the immune response to pathogen invasion, which indicated new knowledge of hemocyte immunity in T. granosa and provided a novel key molecule in immune regulation for controlling diseases in T. granosa aquaculture.

The combination of electronic and magnetic shielding materials has been attracted considerable attentions because of the high-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) produced by the synergetic effects between them. Here, the innovative structural Fe3O4/graphene foam (GF) composite is assembled by magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles anchoring onto the highly electronic conductive 3D GF. The electrical conductivity of the flexible Fe3O4/GF/poly dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite reaches up to 2.5 S cm−1. The EMI SE of Fe3O4/GF/PDMS composite (~1.0 mm) increases from ~26.6 dB for GF/PDMS composite to ~32.4 dB in the frequency range of 8.2–12.4 GHz, which is attributed to the synergistic effect between Fe3O4 nanoparticles and GF. Furthermore, after repeatedly bending for 10000 cycles, the EMI SE of the Fe3O4/GF/PDMS composite still reaches up to 29.4 dB.

Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) is the pathogen responsible for herpesviral hematopoietic necrosis disease, which causes huge losses on aquaculture. So far the studies of CyHV-2 mainly focus on the identification and detection of this virus, but little is known about the role of specific CyHV-2 genes in the infection process. Based on the genomic information, CyHV-2 ORF104 encodes a kinase-like protein, which is highly conserved among the three CyHVs. Our study was initiated to investigate the role of kinase-like protein ORF104 during virus infection. Subcellular localization study showed that ORF104 was mainly expressed in the nucleus in both human HEK293T and fish EPC cells. However, deletion of the putative nuclear localization signal of ORF104 (ORF104M) resulted in the cytoplasmic distribution in HEK293T. We then examined whether MAPKs were involved in the ORF104-mediated signaling pathway by overexpressing ORF104 and ORF104M in HEK293T. Overexpression of ORF104 and ORF104M resulted in the up-regulation of p38 phosphorylation, but not JNK or ERK, indicating that ORF104 specifically activates p38 signaling pathway. In vivo study showed that CyHV-2 infection enhanced p38 phosphorylation in gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio). Interestingly, p38 inhibitor SB203580 strongly reduced fish death caused by CyHV-2 infection. Therefore, our study for the first time reveals the function of ORF104 during CyHV-2 infection, indicating that ORF104 is a potential vaccine candidate for CyHV-2.

Since palladium (Pd) is now increasingly used in modern industry, it progressively accumulates in the environment, especially in aquatic ecosystem. The potential toxicity of Pd has therefore caused extensive concern worldwidely. In the present study, we investigated the toxic effect of Pd on zebrafish development. Acute Pd exposure significantly decreased both the survival rate (LC50: 292.6 μg/L, viz. 2.75 μM) and hatching rate (IC50: 181.5 μg/L, viz. 1.71 μM) of zebrafish during embryonic development. The most common developmental defect observed in Pd treated embryos is pericardiac edema, which occurs in a dose-dependent manner. Whole mount immunostaining and histological studies revealed that Pd exposure would produce the elongated, string-like heart. The heartbeat rate of zebrafish embryos was also decreased after Pd exposure. Consistently, mRNA expression levels of several cardiac-related genes were affected by Pd, suggesting a potential molecular mechanism of Pd-induced cardiac malformation of zebrafish embryo. Moreover, similar to other metals, Pd exposure resulted in the elevated expression of general metal-inducible genes. It was also found that the expression of several antioxidant enzymes was significantly down-regulated in the presence of Pd. Taken together, our study investigated the effects of Pd on zebrafish embryonic development and its potential molecular mechanisms, paving the way for the full understanding of Pd toxicity.

Northern mauxia shrimp Acetes chinensis, a major fished shrimp in East Asia, serves as an important marine resource in food industry. Here, we collected wild A. chinensis samples and conducted RNA-Seq experiment using different body parts to obtain the transcriptome profile using Illumina HiSeq technology. After de novo assembly, 63,396 transcripts were obtained, and 41,898 transcripts were functionally annotated in reference databases. We further identified a number of well-known transcription factors that are possibly associated with environmental changes. This transcriptome dataset could be immediately used for gene discovery and functional characterization. Our study will shed light on the investigation of molecular adaption of A. chinensis to the changing marine environment.

CD147 and ABCG2 both have been reported to mediate Multidrug resistance (MDR) in breast cancer. Recent study demonstrates that CD147 could form a complex with ABCG2 on the cell membrane in primary effusion lymphoma. However, whether these two molecules regulate each other in breast cancer and result in MDR is not clear. We established four MCF-7 cell lines transfected with CD147 and/or ABCG2 and found that CD147 could increase the expression and dimerization of ABCG2, affect its cellular localization and regulate its drug transporter function. The findings derived from cells were confirmed subsequently in clinic samples of chemotherapy-sensitive/resistant breast cancer.

A recombinant inbred line (RIL) population bred from a cross between a javanica type (cv. D50) and an indica type (cv. HB277) rice was used to map seven quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for thousand grain weight (TGW). The loci were distributed on chromosomes 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10. The chromosome 3 QTL qTGW3.2 was stably expressed over two years, and contributed 9-10% of the phenotypic variance. A residual heterozygous line (RHL) was selected from the RIL population and its selfed progeny was used to fine map qTGW3.2. In this "F2" population, the QTL explained about 23% of the variance, rising to nearly 33% in the subsequent "F2:3" generation. The physical location of qTGW3.2 was confined to a ~556 kb region flanked by the microsatellite loci RM16162 and RM16194. The region also contains other factors influencing certain yield-related traits, although it is also possible that qTGW3.2 affects these in a pleiotropic fashion.

Fragrance is an important component of end-use quality in rice. A set of 516 fragrant rice accessions were genotyped and over 80% of them carried the badh2.7 allele. A subset of 144 mostly fragrant accessions, including nine of Oryza rufipogon, was then subjected to a detailed diversity and haplotype analysis. The level of linkage disequilibrium in the Badh2 region was higher among the fragrant accessions. Re-sequencing in the Badh2 region showed that badh2.7, badh2.2 and badh2.4–5 all arose in the japonica genepool, and spread later into the indica genepool as a result of deliberate crossing. However, loss-of-function alleles of Badh2 are also found in the indica genepools, and then transferred into japonica. Evidence for three new possible FNPs was obtained from the Badh2 sequence of 62 fragrant accessions. Based on these data, we have elaborated a model for the evolution of Badh2 and its participation in the rice domestication process.

The growth hormone (GH)/prolactin (PRL) family of polypeptide hormones plays important roles in many aspects of vertebrate physiology. In fish, there is an additional member in this family called somatolactin (SL). Specifically, zebrafish contains five ligands (GH, SLα, SLβ, PRL1 and PRL2) and four cognate receptors including two GH receptors (GHR1 and GHR2) and two PRL receptors (PRLR1 and PRLR2). There is much controversy regarding whether one of the two GHRs in teleosts is in fact the receptor of SL. A multitude of different assay methods were employed to study the functional interaction among these ligands and their receptors in zebrafish. These include assessment of the binding between the ligands and the extracellular domains of the receptors using His-tag pulldown assays, activation of receptor-evoked promoter activities by treatment of the receptor-transfected cells with the recombinant hormones, and phosphorylation of post-receptor signaling factors by treatment of receptor-transfected cells with the recombinant hormones. The results showed that the zebrafish GH can only interact with the GHRs and the zebrafish PRLs can only interact with the PRLRs. The zebrafish SLs, found to be biologically active in another assay, were found to be ineffective in interacting with the zebrafish GHRs and PRLRs. Our data argue against the hypothesis that GHR1 is the SL receptor.

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study investigated the neural substrates of the conflicts in counter-conformity choices in purchasing books online. For each trial, a participant decided whether to buy a book according to the title keyword, as well as the numbers of positive and negative reviews on the book. A participant's choice was termed conformity if she/he decided to buy the book under the condition of consistently positive reviews, or not to buy the book under the condition of consistently negative reviews, whereas the case was counter-conformity if a participant did the opposite. In the time window 300-600ms after the stimulus onset, a strong negative deflection of ERP (N500) was recorded when participants made counter-conformity choices. The topographic distribution of the N500 (N400-like) is not typical of the semantic N400. The N500 might be evoked by the cognitive and emotional conflicts faced by participants in counter-conformity choices. The present findings provide evidence that the N400 can be elicited by non-semantic conflicts.

A full structural search of the canonical, zwitterionic, protonated and deprotonated lysine conformers in gas phase is presented. A total of 17,496 canonical, 972 zwitterionic, 11,664 protonated and 1458 trial deprotonated structures were generated by allowing for all combinations of internal single-bond rotamers. All the trial structures were initially optimized at the AM1 level, and the resulting structures were determined at the B3LYP/6-311G ∗ level. A total of 927 canonical, 730 protonated and 193 deprotonated conformers were found, but there were no stable zwitterionic structures in the gas phase. The most stable conformers of the canonical, protonated and deprotonated lysine were further optimized at the B3LYP/6-311++G ∗∗ level. The energies of the most stable structures were determined at the MP2/6-311G(2df,p) level and the vibrational frequencies were calculated at the B3LYP/6-311++G ∗∗ level. The rotational constants, dipole moments, zero-point vibrational energies, harmonic frequencies, vertical ionization energies, enthalpies, Gibbs free energies and conformational distributions of gaseous lysine were presented. Numerous new structures are found and the lowest-energy lysine conformer is more stable than the existing one by 1.1 kcal/mol. Hydrogen bonds are classified and may cause significant red-shifts to the associated vibrational frequencies. The calculated proton affinity/dissociation energy and gas-phase basicity/acidity are in good agreement with the experiments. Calculations are also presented for the canonical lysine–H 2 O and zwitterionic lysine–H 2 O clusters. Interaction between lysine and H 2 O significantly affects the relative conformational stabilities. Only one water molecule is sufficient to produce the stable zwitterionic structures in gas phase. The lowest-energy structure is found to be zwitterions when applying the conductor-like polarized continuum solvent model (CPCM) to the lysine–H 2 O complexes.

We report the deposition of thin zirconium dioxide films on Si(1 0 0) by a technique of ultraviolet-assisted injection liquid source chemical vapor deposition (UVILS-CVD) by using ultraviolet with 222 nm radiation. The alkoxide zirconium(IV) tert-butoxide (Zr[OC(CH3)3]4) was used as precursor while nitrous oxide was driven into the reaction chamber as an oxidizing agent. The ZrO2 films were deposited under various conditions and characterized by ellipsometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The growth rate decreased with the increasing of substrate temperatures from 200 to 400 °C. Deposition rate of 20 nm/min was observed at a substrate temperature of 350 °C. There was a liner relation between the thicknesses of the films and deposition times. As a result the thicknesses can be accurately controlled by changing the number of drops of precursor introduced by the injection liquid source. The growth rate increased with the increasing concentrations of the precursor, nevertheless the trend stopped when the concentration exceeded 8.5%. The growth kinetics were also studied and the results were fit to a three-step kinetic model involving a photo chemical reaction, a reversible precursor absorption process and a following irreversible deposition reaction.

Systematic and extensive conformational search of the gas phase asparagine has been performed for the first time. A total of 972 unique trial structures were generated by allowing for all combinations of internal single-bond rotamers. All the trial structures were optimized at the B3LYP/6-311G* level of the theory and then subjected to further optimization at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level and a total of 62 conformers were found. Single-point energies were also calculated at the MP2/6-311++G** level of theory. The relative energies, rotational constants, dipole moments, zero-point vibrational energies and some harmonic frequencies are listed for the conformers. The conformational distributions of the gas phase asparagine at various temperatures were calculated.