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Background and aims Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is a novel type of immunotherapy. However, the use of CAR-T cells to treat acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has limitations. B7-H3 is expressed in several malignancies, including some types of AML cells. However, its expression in normal tissues is low. Therefore, B7-H3 is ideal for targeted AML therapy. Materials and methods First, we constructed B7-H3 CAR that can target B7-H3, and then constructed B7-H3-CAR-T cells in vitro, which were co-incubated with six AML cell lines expressing different levels of B7-H3, respectively. The toxicity and cytokines were detected by flow cytometry. In vivo, AML model was established in B-NSG mice to study the toxicity of B7-H3-CAR T on AML cells. Results In vitro functional tests showed that B7-H3-CAR-T cells were cytotoxic to B7-H3-positive AML tumor cells and had good scavenging effect on B7-H3-expressing AML cell lines, and the cytokine results were consistent. In vivo, B7-H3-CAR-T cells significantly inhibited tumor cell growth in a mouse model of AML, prolonging mouse survival compared with controls. Conclusion B7-H3-CAR-T cells may serve as a novel therapeutic method for the targeted treatment of AML.

Rhodobacter (Rba.) capsulatus has been a favored model for studies of all aspects of bacterial photosynthesis. This purple phototroph contains PufX, a polypeptide crucial for dimerization of the light-harvesting 1–reaction center (LH1–RC) complex, but lacks protein-U, a U-shaped polypeptide in the LH1–RC of its close relative Rba. sphaeroides. Here we present a cryo-EM structure of the Rba. capsulatus LH1–RC purified by DEAE chromatography. The crescent-shaped LH1–RC exhibits a compact structure containing only 10 LH1 αβ-subunits. Four αβ-subunits corresponding to those adjacent to protein-U in Rba. sphaeroides were absent. PufX in Rba. capsulatus exhibits a unique conformation in its N-terminus that self-associates with amino acids in its own transmembrane domain and interacts with nearby polypeptides, preventing it from interacting with proteins in other complexes and forming dimeric structures. These features are discussed in relation to the minimal requirements for the formation of LH1–RC monomers and dimers, the spectroscopic behavior of both the LH1 and RC, and the bioenergetics of energy transfer from LH1 to the RC.

Cardiac lymphangiogenesis plays an important physiological role in the regulation of interstitial fluid homeostasis, inflammatory, and immune responses. Impaired or excessive cardiac lymphatic remodeling and insufficient lymph drainage have been implicated in several cardiovascular diseases including atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction (MI). Although the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of functional lymphatics are not fully understood, the interplay between lymphangiogenesis and immune regulation has recently been explored in relation to the initiation and development of these diseases. In this field, experimental therapeutic strategies targeting lymphangiogenesis have shown promise by reducing myocardial inflammation, edema and fibrosis, and improving cardiac function. On the other hand, however, whether lymphangiogenesis is beneficial or detrimental to cardiac transplant survival remains controversial. In the light of recent evidence, cardiac lymphangiogenesis, a thriving and challenging field has been summarized and discussed, which may improve our knowledge in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and transplant biology.

To solve the problem of application of the reduction process in the continuous casting of round blooms, double-roll, three-roll and four-roll staggered extrusion schemes were proposed, and three series of three-dimensional thermal-mechanical coupling models were established to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each reduction scheme. It was found that the double-roll scheme transfers the reduction deformation to the center of the round bloom and closes the internal porosity more efficiently. For each squeeze, the double-roll extrusion scheme can easily cause lateral deformation, which may improve the equivalent strain value to the inside of the round bloom more efficiently, and there is a concentration phenomenon in the center after several sets of reductions. The three-roll scheme and the four-roll scheme have difficulty causing lateral extension, and the reduction is basically consumed by the harder shell deformation, which causes much more longitudinal stretching deformation of the round bloom. With an increase in the solid fraction (fs), the round bloom will accept a larger reduction under the limit of the initiation of internal cracks. At positions with the same fs, the tensile strain of the crack risk area caused by the double-roll scheme is larger than that of others, which means that the limitation of the maximum reduction amount of the double-roll scheme is stricter than that of the other two schemes.

The effects of the deformation parameters in the heavy reduction (HR) process on recrystallization kinetics and microstructure evolution were analyzed. Based on the experimental results, metadynamic recrystallization (MDRX) kinetic and austenite grain size models were established for a continuously cast slab during HR. Moreover, the evolution of the quenched microstructure after MDRX was observed using electron backscatter diffraction. The relative frequency of very low-angle grain boundaries decreased from 58.8% to 52.1%, and the relative frequency of high-angle grain boundaries increased from 28.5% to 38.9%. Analyses revealed that the recovery was the main softening mechanism. The decrease in the total grain boundary length indicated that subgrain growth occurred with increasing inter-pass time. The main texture evolved from a {001} texture to a {112} texture, and the texture strength remained unchanged.

This investigation aims to explore the formation mechanism of abnormal martensite in the bainitic rail welding process by combining numerical simulation and physical experiment. For this purpose, the continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagram of bainitic steel was measured to determine the transformation temperature and cooling rate range of bainite and martensite during phase transformation. Besides, the Eulerian multiphase solidification model was also used to accurately design the experimental plan of the thermosimulated test. The higher cooling rate and microsegregation of the welded joint are important factors affecting the formation of abnormal martensite. The effects of cooling rate and microsegregation on the microstructure during the welding process of the bainitic rail were examined against the martensite fraction and bainite fraction. When the cooling rate is greater than or equal to 1 K/s, abnormal martensite will appear in bainite after the thermosimulated test, regardless of whether there is microsegregation in the sample. The cooling rate, not the microsegregation, is the main factor promoting the formation of abnormal martensite. The reasonable postwelding treatment process has excellent potential for improving the mechanical properties of the welded joint of the bainitic rail.

The deformation mechanism and constitutive equation of Ti-Mo steel in the mushy zone were investigated through high-temperature compression deformation. Nonlinear fitting and polynomial fitting were used to build a precise constitutive model. The law of microstructure evolution was also researched. During the deformation of Ti-Mo steel in the mushy zone, the liquid phase was squeezed to the edge, and macro separation between the solid and liquid occurred after deformation. The extent of dynamic crystallization in Ti-Mo steel increased with increasing strain rate, which is quite different from the dynamic recrystallization occurring during deformation in the solid region. The critical condition for dynamic recrystallization decreased and the grain refinement degree increased due to the return temperature effect of the liquid between solid particles. The prediction accuracy of the modified Fields–Backofen (FB) model with a liquid-phase adjustment factor was compared with that of the Arrhenius model with a liquid-phase adjustment factor. The results showed that the modified FB model had low prediction accuracy. The Arrhenius model with a liquid-phase adjustment factor was revised according to different strain rates. The revised model had higher prediction accuracy and was suitable for describing the metal rheology in the mushy zone of Ti-Mo steel, with accuracy of approximately 90 pct.

Chinese cordyceps is a well-known fungus-larva complex with medicinal and economic importance. At present the occurrence of Chinese cordyceps has not been fully illuminated. In this study, the microbial diversities of fertilized Thitarodes eggs from sites A (high occurrence rates of Chinese cordyceps), B (low occurrence rates), and C (no Chinese cordyceps) were analyzed using 16S rRNA and ITS gene-sequencing technique. The previous sequencing data of soil from the same sites were conjointly analyzed. The results showed that bacterial communities among the eggs were significantly different. The bacterial diversity and evenness were much higher on site A. Wolbachia was overwhelmingly predominant in the eggs of sites B and C, while Spiroplasma showed preference on site A. The fungal between-group differences in the eggs were not as significant as that of bacteria. Purpureocillium in Cordyceps-related families showed preference on site A. Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, and Purpureocillium were inferred to be closely related to Chinese cordyceps occurrence. Intra-kingdom and inter-kingdom network analyses suggest that closer correlations of microbial communities (especially closer fungal positive correlations) in fertilized eggs might promote Chinese cordyceps occurrence. Besides, metabolic pathway analysis showed that in fertilized eggs or soil the number of bacterial metabolic pathways with significant differences in every comparison between two sites was greater than that of fungi. Collectively, this study provides novel information about the occurrence of Chinese cordyceps, contributing to the large-scale artificial cultivation of Chinese cordyceps.

Internal cracks are one of the main defects limiting the quality of continuous casting blooms. With bearing steel GCr15 chosen as the specific research steel, the temperature of internal crack initiation was determined by the solid-phase fraction (fs) of the fracture, and by a simple and efficient high-temperature tensile method, the critical strain of internal crack initiation was determined. The thermal and mechanical behavior of continuous casting bloom was simulated and analyzed by a three-dimensional (3D) thermomechanical finite element model, and the model was verified by the online measured relationship between reduction force and amount of withdrawal and straightening units. Combining the critical criterion and strain distribution, an internal crack risk prediction model for continuous casting blooms was presented, and the predicted crack risk contour plot was verified by the morphology of actual bloom internal cracks. The maximum allowable single-roll reduction amount with different solidification phase fractions was analyzed for 320 mm × 425 mm GCr15 blooms, which concluded that the reasonable reduction strategy of continuous casting blooms could meet the requirement of relief center segregation and avoid internal crack risk simultaneously.

The mechanical behavior of AZ31B magnesium alloy was studied through uniaxial tensile tests at strain rates of 0.001, 1, 100, and 1000/s. The results show that an increase in the strain rate results in a gradual increase in the flow stress. Considering that the original Johnson–Cook (J–C) model cannot adequately describe the flow stress of AZ31 magnesium alloy at different strain rates, a rate-dependent modified Johnson–Cook (M-J–C) model was proposed, and the coefficients were calibrated according to the experimental results. The calibration and validation show that the M-J–C model has a high accuracy in characterizing the flow stress of AZ31B magnesium alloy and can well predict the hardening curve of ZK60 and AM60 magnesium alloys at different strain rates in the literature. In addition, the variation in the fracture strain with different strain rates was characterized. The fractography was studied to reveal the mechanism of underlying fracture. The proposed M-J–C constitutive model combined with a failure criterion was developed and coded into LS-DYNA through the user subroutine UMAT. The comparison between the simulation and the experiment shows that the developed subroutine is accurate enough to simulate the plastic and fracture behaviors of AZ31B magnesium alloy at different strain rates.

The dynamic fragmentation of ZrCuNiAl bulk metallic glass (BMG) subjected to various impact velocities was investigated in argon atmosphere. The results demonstrated that the ZrCuNiAl metallic glass generated debris after impact. The cumulative mass distribution curves of ZrCuNiAl BMG samples after impact under various velocities were obtained; the results showed that the cumulative mass of BMG samples conforms to the Schuhmann power function distribution. The characteristic fragment size λ governing the fragment distributions was determined by fracture toughness and expansion strain rate. The results demonstrated that characteristic fragment size decreases with an increase in impact velocity, which was well described by the model. A relationship between the cumulative mass distribution and the impact velocity of Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 alloy was obtained based on energy principles. This formula is feasible to predict the cumulative mass distribution of Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 alloy after impact under a wide velocity range.

Background Zearalenone (ZEA) is a resorcylic acid lactone derivative derived from various Fusarium species that are widely found in food and feeds. The molecular structure of ZEA resembles that of the mammalian hormone 17β-oestradiol, thus zearalenone and its metabolites are known to compete with endogenous hormones for estrogen receptors binding sites and to activate transcription of oestrogen-responsive genes. However, the effect of long-term low-dose ZEA exposure on the reproductive response to Bacillus subtilis ANSB01G culture for first-parity gilts has not yet been investigated. This study was conducted to investigate the toxic effects of ZEA as an estrogen receptor selective modulator and the alleviating effects of Bacillus subtilis ANSB01G cultures as ZEA biodegraders in pregnant sows during their first parity. Results A total of 80 first-parity gilts (Yorkshire × Landrace) were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments during gestation: CO (positive control); MO (negative control, 246 μg ZEA/kg diet); COA (CO + B. subtilis ANSB01G culture with 2 × 109 CFU/kg diet); MOA (MO + B. subtilis ANSB01G culture with 2 × 109 CFU/kg diet). There were 20 replications per treatment with one gilt per replicate. Feeding low-dose ZEA naturally contaminated diets disordered most of reproductive hormones secretion and affected estrogen receptor-α and estrogen receptor-β concentrations in serum and specific organs and led to moderate histopathological changes of gilts, but did not cause significant detrimental effects on reproductive performance. The addition of Bacillus subtilis ANSB01G culture to the diet can effectively relieve the competence of ZEA to estrogen receptor and the disturbance of reproductive hormones secretion, and then ameliorate toxicosis of ZEA in gilts. Conclusions Collectively, our study investigated the effects of feeding low-dose ZEA on reproduction in pregnant sows during their first parity. Feeding low-dose ZEA could modulate estrogen receptor-α and -β concentrations in specific organs, cause disturbance of reproductive hormones and vulva swelling, and damage organ histopathology and up-regulate apoptosis in sow models. Diet with Bacillus subtilis ANSB01G alleviated negative effects of the ZEA on gilts to some extent.

One of the most common approaches for quenching single-photon avalanche diodes is to use a passive resistor in series with it. A drawback of this approach has been the limited recovery speed of the single-photon avalanche diodes. High resistance is needed to quench the avalanche, leading to slower recharging of the single-photon avalanche diodes depletion capacitor. We address this issue by replacing a fixed quenching resistor with a bias-dependent adaptive resistive switch. Reversible generation of metallic conduction enables switching between low and high resistance states under unipolar bias. As an example, using a Pt/Al2O3/Ag resistor with a commercial silicon single-photon avalanche diodes, we demonstrate avalanche pulse widths as small as ~30 ns, 10× smaller than a passively quenched approach, thus significantly improving the single-photon avalanche diodes frequency response. The experimental results are consistent with a model where the adaptive resistor dynamically changes its resistance during discharging and recharging the single-photon avalanche diodes.

Three new pyrrole alkaloids albifipyrrols A–C (1–3), were isolated from the endophytic fungus Albifimbria viridis collected from the Chinese medicinal plant. Their structures were elucidated by extensive NMR and HRESIMS spectrometric analyses. All compounds were evaluated for immunosuppressive activity. Fortunately, compound 2 exhibits certain inhibition specifically against the LPS-induced proliferation of B lymphocyte cells with IC50 value 16.16 μM. Graphical Abstract

This cross-sectional study focused on the association between heart rate variability (HRV) and early repolarization pattern (ERP). It included 1236 patients categorized into three groups: ERP type 1: J-point elevation with notched/slurred QRS; ERP type 2: ST elevation without dominant J-wave; and non-ERP group. Analyzing time-domain indexes include standard deviation of NN (normal-to-normal) RR intervals (SDNN), root mean square of successive difference in NN RR intervals (RMSSD), and proportion of consecutive NN intervals that differ by more than 50 ms (PNN50), there were significant differences between any two groups (all P 0.01). All time-domain indexes showed: ERP type 2ERP type 1non-ERP. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that SDNN at nighttime and gender were independently associated with the maximum magnitude of J-point elevation ≧ 0.2 mV. The findings strongly suggested that based on electrocardiogram characteristics, parasympathetic tone denoted by HRV may be related to different types of ERP.