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Over the past two decades, numerous non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been identified in different biological systems including virology, especially in large DNA viruses such as herpesviruses. As a representative oncogenic alphaherpesvirus, Marek's disease virus (MDV) causes an important immunosuppressive and rapid-onset neoplastic disease of poultry, namely Marek's disease (MD). Vaccinations can efficiently prevent the onset of MD lymphomas and other clinical disease, often heralded as the first successful example of vaccination-based control of cancer. MDV infection is also an excellent model for research into virally-induced tumorigenesis. Recently, great progress has been made in understanding the functions of ncRNAs in MD biology. Herein, we give a review of the discovery and identification of MDV-encoded viral miRNAs, focusing on the genomics, expression profiles, and emerging critical roles of MDV-1 miRNAs as oncogenic miRNAs (oncomiRs) or tumor suppressor genes involved in the induction of MD lymphomas. We also described the involvements of host cellular miRNAs, lincRNAs, and circRNAs participating in MDV life cycle, pathogenesis, and/or tumorigenesis. The prospects, strategies, and new techniques such as the CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing applicable for further investigation into the ncRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms in MDV pathogenesis/oncogenesis were also discussed, together with the possibilities of future studies on antiviral therapy and the development of new efficient MD vaccines.

Enthesitis, a characteristic of spondyloarthritis, has been paid considerable attention by researchers, and numerous enthesitis-related studies have been published in recent years. However, no study has been conducted to analyze enthesitis-related researches with bibliometric methods. This study aimed to provide a broad understanding of enthesitis-related researches and explore the direction of hot topics and future research trends from a bibliometric perspective. The global literatures on enthesitis published from 2012 to 2021 were scanned in the Web of Science Core Collection databases. Visualization and bibliometric analyses were generated by an online bibliometric platform and VOSviewer software to explore the hot topics and research trends. A total of 1,181 documents were included in this study. Publications were mainly from these countries in North America and Western Europe. Among these countries, the United States was the leading country with the maximum publication counts (210), highest h-index (47), and largest collaboration network as of June 29, 2022. The most influential journal and powerful author were Journal of Rheumatology and Professor Mease PJ, respectively. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords identified that "axial spondyloarthritis", "interleukin 23", and "secukinumab" might be the future hotspots. More and more attention had been paid to enthesitis in the past 10 years. Present studies focused on the effect of inflammatory cytokines involved in the pathogenesis and the development of antibodies against these factors. These studies played a key role in understanding the research direction and subsequent management of enthesitis, and helped researchers extract hidden valuable information for further study.

Gastric cancer is one of the most lethal human malignancies in the world. Although great efforts are put in developing novel therapeutic targets, the effective targeting drugs are still limited. Recent studies reveal the abnormality of Hippo/YAP axis play critical role in the oncogenic process of gastric cancer. It is of great importance to demonstrate the regulation of Hippo signaling activity and YAP protein turnover in gastric cancer. Besides, the phosphorylation cascade on YAP function, which has been thoroughly investigated, the ubiquitination of YAP is also important in Hippo signaling status. Here, We utilized the DUB (Deubiquitinase) siRNA library to identify critical DUB for Hippo signaling. We discovered OTUB1 as a critical factor to facilitate gastric cancer cell stemness and progression, which deubiquitinated and stabilized YAP protein. The clinical data analysis implicated OTUB1 was higher expressed in gastric cancer, which correlated with YAP activity and poor survival. OUTB1 interacted with YAP protein via its OTU domain (Ovarian tumor domain) and deubiquitinated YAP at several lysine sites (K90, K280, K343, K494 and K497), which subsequently inhibited YAP degradation. Our study revealed a novel deubiquitinase of Hippo/YAP axis and one possible therapeutic target for YAP-driven gastric cancer.

Background Multifunctional hydrogels with controllable degradation and drug release have attracted extensive attention in diabetic wound healing. This study focused on the acceleration of diabetic wound healing with selenide-linked polydopamine-reinforced hybrid hydrogels with on-demand degradation and light-triggered nanozyme release. Methods Herein, selenium-containing hybrid hydrogels, defined as DSeP@PB, were fabricated via the reinforcement of selenol-end capping polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels by polydopamine nanoparticles (PDANPs) and Prussian blue nanozymes in a one-pot approach in the absence of any other chemical additive or organic solvent based on diselenide and selenide bonding-guided crosslinking, making them accessible for large-scale mass production. Results Reinforcement by PDANPs greatly increases the mechanical properties of the hydrogels, realizing excellent injectability and flexible mechanical properties for DSeP@PB. Dynamic diselenide introduction endowed the hydrogels with on-demand degradation under reducing or oxidizing conditions and light-triggered nanozyme release. The bioactivity of Prussian blue nanozymes afforded the hydrogels with efficient antibacterial, ROS-scavenging and immunomodulatory effects, which protected cells from oxidative damage and reduced inflammation. Further animal studies indicated that DSeP@PB under red light irradiation showed the most efficient wound healing activity by stimulating angiogenesis and collagen deposition and inhibiting inflammation. Conclusion The combined merits of DSeP@PB (on-demand degradation, light-triggered release, flexible mechanical robustness, antibacterial, ROS-scavenging and immunomodulatory capacities) enable its high potential as a new hydrogel dressing that can be harnessed for safe and efficient therapeutics for diabetic wound healing.

The crystal phase structure of cathode material plays an important role in the cell performance. During cycling, the cathode material experiences immense stress due to phase transformation, resulting in capacity degradation. Here, we show phase-engineered VO2 as an improved potassium-ion battery cathode; specifically, the amorphous VO2 exhibits superior K storage ability, while the crystalline M phase VO2 cannot even store K+ ions stably. In contrast to other crystal phases, amorphous VO2 exhibits alleviated volume variation and improved electrochemical performance, leading to a maximum capacity of 111 mAh g−1 delivered at 20 mA g−1 and over 8 months of operation with good coulombic efficiency at 100 mA g−1. The capacity retention reaches 80% after 8500 cycles at 500 mA g−1. This work illustrates the effectiveness and superiority of phase engineering and provides meaningful insights into material optimization for rechargeable batteries.

In this study, discarded mushroom-stick, which is widely available, was selected as a precursor to prepare MnO

Background To establish and verify the accuracy and reliability of a sulcus-to-sulcus diameter (STS) prediction model. Methods In this retrospective study, the prediction formula was established with the data from 1466 eyes from 733 subjects from July 2020 to April 2021 and verified with the data from 278 eyes from 139 subjects between May 2021 and June 2021. Each subject was measured with a Pentacam, IOLMaster 700, OPD-Scan III, and ultrasound biomicroscope. The prediction formulas were established with multiple linear regression, and intergroup correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland–Altman tests were used to assess the agreement between the predicted and actual STS (actual STS was measured by UBM). Results The explanatory variables relevant to the horizontal STS (STSH) were the Pentacam white-to-white diameter (WTWP; standardized partial regression coefficient [β] = 0.330; p p p p p p Conclusions The Pentacam-measured WTW, the K value and the ACD are important for predicting the STS diameter. The prediction model has good accuracy and reliability. Trial registration Not applicable.

A selenium-functionalized e-caprolactone was synthesized by introducing a phenyl selenide group at the 7-position. A polymer can be obtained through the ring opening polymerization by using this compound as the monomer in a base/thiourea binary organocatalytic system. A living polymerization process was achieved under mild conditions. The resulting polymers had a controlled molecular weight with a narrow molecular weight distribution and high end-group fidelity. Random copolymers could be obtained by copolymerizing this compound with e-caprolactone. The thermal degradation temperature of the obtained copolymers decreased with the increasing molar ratio of selenide functionalized monomer in copolymers, while the glass transition temperature increased. In addition, the phenyl selenide side group could be further modified to a polyselenonium salt, which resulted in a polymer with good antibacterial properties. The survival rate of E. coli and S. aureus was only 9% with a polymer concentration of 62.5 μg mL-1.

Background Recently genome-based studies revealed that the abnormality of Hippo signaling is pervasive in TNBC and played important role in cancer progression. RING finger protein 31 (RNF31) comes to RING family E3 ubiquitin ligase. Our previously published studies have revealed RNF31 is elevated in ER positive breast cancer via activating estrogen signaling and suppressing P53 pathway. Methods We used several TNBC cell lines and xenograft models and performed immuno-blots, QPCR, in vivo studies to investigate the function of RNF31 in TNBC progression. Result Here, we demonstrate that RNF31 plays tumor suppressive function in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). RNF31 depletion increased TNBC cell proliferation and migration in vitro and in vitro. RNF31 depletion in TNBC coupled with global genomic expression profiling indicated Hippo signaling could be the potential target for RNF31 to exert its function. Further data showed that RNF31 depletion could increase the level of YAP protein, and Hippo signaling target genes expression in several TNBC cell lines, while clinical data illustrated that RNF31 expression correlated with longer relapse-free survival in TNBC patients and reversely correlated with YAP protein level. The molecular biology assays implicated that RNF31 could associate with YAP protein, facilitate YAP poly-ubiquitination and degradation at YAP K76 sites. Interestingly, RNF31 could also repress PDL1 expression and sensitive TNBC immunotherapy via inhibiting Hippo/YAP/PDL1 axis. Conclusions Our study revealed the multi-faced function of RNF31 in different subtypes of breast malignancies, while activation RNF31 could be a plausible strategy for TNBC therapeutics.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women on a global scale. It can generally be divided into four main categories, of which estrogen receptor ER-positive breast cancer accounts for most breast cancer cases. RBCK1 protein is an E3 ubiquitin ligase containing the UBL, NZF, and RBR domains. It is well known to exhibit abnormal expression in breast tumors, making it a valuable diagnostic marker and drug target. Additionally, studies have confirmed that in breast cancer, about 25 to 40% of tumors appear as visible hypoxic regions, while in hypoxia, tumor cells can activate the hypoxia-inducing factor HIF1 pathway and widely activate the expression of downstream genes. Previous studies have confirmed that in the hypoxic environment of tumors, HIF1α promotes the remodeling of extracellular matrix, induces the recruitment of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and immunosuppression of allogeneic tumors, thereby influencing tumor recurrence and metastasis. This research aims to identify RBCK1 as an important regulator of HIF1α signaling pathway. Targeted therapy with RBCK1 could be a promising treatment strategy for ER-positive breast cancer.

Esophageal squamous carcinoma (ESCC) is the major subtype of esophageal cancer in China, accounting for 90% of cases. Recent studies revealed that abnormalities in the Hippo/YAP axis are pervasive in ESCC and are recognized as the important driver of ESCC progression. Since the activity of Hippo signaling is controlled by phosphorylation cascade, it is a mystery why the major effector YAP is still over-activated when the cascade is inhibited. Several studies suggested that in addition to phosphorylation, other protein modifications such as ubiquitination also play important roles in manipulating Hippo/YAP signaling activity. Since YAP protein stability is controlled via an appropriate balance between E3 ubiquitin ligases and deubiquitinases, we performed deubiquitinase siRNA screening and identified USP36 as a deubiquitinase significantly related to Hippo/YAP signaling activity and ESCC progression. USP36 expression was elevated in ESCC samples and correlated with poor differentiation. USP36 expression was correlated with YAP protein levels in ESCC samples. Molecular studies demonstrated that USP36 associated with the YAP protein and enhanced YAP protein stability by blocking the K48-linked polyubiquitination of YAP. In conclusion, our study revealed a novel deubiquitinase in regulating Hippo signaling in ESCC, which could be an encouraging drug target for Hippo-driven ESCC.

Plasmonic core-satellite nanostructures assembled from simple building blocks have attracted extensive attention since they were reported by the way of DNA-directed assembly in 1998, because of their unique enhanced and synergistic optical properties and widespread potential applications in biosensing, imaging, drug delivery, and diagnostics. In this review, we introduce the synthetic methods of core-satellite nanostructures, emphazising the bottom-up synthesis method, including DNA, molecular, protein, peptide, amino acids, metal ion-assisted assembly, electrostatic adsorption assembly, clicked-to-assembly, and in situ deposition. Than we review and discuss their morphology classification, and summarize influencing factors of morphology. This is followed by overviews on optical properties, including localized surface plasmon resonance, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, surface-enhanced fluorescence and quenching, and applications in the biomedical field. Finally, the challenges and prospects of these kinds of nanostructures are discussed.

Objective Lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein (CRP) ratio (LCR) is a novel biomarker for predicting poor prognosis in many diseases. This study aims to analyze the association between preoperative LCR and 1-year mortality in elderly patients with displaced FNF undergoing hemiarthroplasty. Methods Between May 2017 and May 2019, a retrospective study including 364 elderly patients undergoing hemiarthroplasty for displaced FNF was performed. LCR was defined as the ratio of preoperative lymphocyte count to CRP level. The optimal cutoff value of LCR was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve, and all patients were categorized into low-LCR group and high-LCR group accordingly. The relationship between LCR and 1-year mortality was evaluated by using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Furthermore, the complications within 30 days after surgery, length of hospital stay, and perioperative red blood cell transfusion were also analyzed stratified by LCR. Results A total of 47 patients (12.9%) died within 1-year follow-up after surgery. The optimal cutoff value for LCR was 30,560 (specificity 76.6% and sensitivity 63.4%). Low-LCR (≤ 30,560) group had a higher mortality rate than high-LCR group (23.53% vs. 5.21%, P P = 0.029), perioperative transfusions (37.9% vs. 27.0%, P = 0.027), and longer hospital stay (7.84 ± 2.40 vs. 7.30 ± 2.32, P = 0.031). Conclusions The low level of preoperative LCR can effectively predict 1-year mortality and 30-day total complications after surgery in elderly patients with displaced FNF undergoing hemiarthroplasty.

Implicit discourse relation classification is one of the most challenging tasks in discourse parsing. Without connectives as linguistic clues, classifying discourse relations usually requires understanding text semantics at the word level, sentence level, and sentence span level. In this paper, we mainly proposed a graph-based model for relation classification. A semantic graph is firstly built to describe the syntactic dependencies and sentence interaction. Then, based on the learning principle of graph neural networks, a bidirectional gated recurrent unit (Bi-GRU) was introduced to work with graph attention network (GAT), which allows the expanded GAT to capture syntactic dependencies of long-distance nodes and selectively mine semantic features from multi-hop neighborhood nodes. In addition, we utilized the hierarchical self-organization ability of hyperbolic spaces to classify multi-level discourse relations, improving the accuracy of fine-grained discourse relation classification. Experimental results on Penn Discourse Treebank 2.0 (PDTB 2.0) demonstrated that our model could achieve improvements without any external knowledge.

To evaluate the effect of homogeneous spinal-shortening axial decompression procedure (HSAD) on bladder function in patients with spina bifida tethered syndrome. Patients with tethered spinal cord syndrome were collected prospectively, and all patients were treated with lumbar HSAD. Patients’ urodynamic evaluation mainly included detrusor function, sphincter function, sphincter coordination (Ig TLR, ratio of tension and loose of urethral sphincter), and bladder compliance. Meanwhile, all patients were followed up with ICI-Q-SF, SF-12, and Rantala scores. Twenty-four patients were included, with the average age of 27 ± 16 years. At the final follow-up, patients’ detrusor function, sphincter function, sphincter coordination, and bladder compliance, were all improved dramatically (all P

The Three Gorges reservoir area in the Yangtze River economic belt has frequent geological disasters. To assist decision-makers make effective emergency decisions based on their experience, this paper proposes a dynamic geological disaster emergency plan selection scheme based on case-based reasoning and prospect theory. Geological information and data of disaster sites in the Three Gorges reservoir area are collected from the China Geological Environment Monitoring Institute and China Geological Survey of the Ministry of Natural Resources. First, historical geological disasters are analyzed to extract the gene structure characteristics and develop a gene library, from which geological and economic disaster indicators are selected. The indicator values are then divided into several intervals according to their corresponding distributions, which are then processed with a pruning method. Prospect theory is applied to compensate for the differences in decision-making, for which comprehensive foreground values and rank schemes are calculated. A comparison is made between the proposed method and other methods, besides, the Zigui County landslide in Hubei Province is taken as an example to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex and dynamic evolving environment which facilitates tumor proliferation and progression. We aimed at investigating the characteristics of tumor microenvironment and its prognostic value in gliomas. Transcriptome data of 702 glioma samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas were included as training dataset, while 325 samples from Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database and 268 samples from GSE16011 database were used to validate. We found that the infiltration of stromal and immune cell varied in gliomas of different grades and pathological types, and was associated with poor prognosis. Based on the gene expression profile, we constructed a TME-related signature (TMERS), which was closely related to clinical features and genomic variation of gliomas. In TMERS-high group, specific gene mutations and increased copy number alternations were observed. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analysis showed that TMERS was an independent prognostic indicator. Then we developed a nomogram prognostic model to predict 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival of patients. Functional analysis confirmed that TMERS could reflect the status of glioma microenvironment, and immunological analysis showed that macrophages were significantly enriched in the TMERS-high group. We established a novel TME-related signature for predicting prognosis and provided new insights into immunotherapy.

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are of academic and economic significance, but still limited by the lack of highly active electrode materials for de-/intercalation of large-radius K ions. Herein, an interconnected nitrogen/sulfur co-doped carbon nanosheep bundle (N/S-CSB) was proposed as the potassium ions storage material. The rich co-doping of nitrogen/sulfur of N/S-CNB with three-dimensional hierarchical bundled array structure yields distensible interlayer spaces to buffer the volume expansion during K+ insertion/extraction, offers more electrochemical active sites to obtain a high specific capacity, and provides efficient channels for fast ion/electron transports. Therefore, the N/S-CSB anode achieved high reversible specific capacity of 365 mAh/g obtained at 50 mA/g after 200 cycles with a coulombic efficiency (CE) close to 100%, high rate performance and long cycle stability. Moreover, the in-situ Raman spectra indicated outstanding reaction kinetics of as-prepared N/S-CSB anode.

The strong light scattering from SPR has received an extraordinary attention due to the useful applications in photodetectors, cell and biomedical imaging. However, the applications using light scattering require a high scattering cross-section along with low absorption losses near the resonance wavelength. In this paper, effective plasmonic scattering of three-layered Au-Ag bimetallic nanoshells with a dielectric separate layer has been studied using the quasi-static approximation of classical electrodynamics. Because of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-induced intense light absorption, the effective scattering intensity is much weaker than that of scattering cross section. However, the effective scattering intensity could be improved by tuning the geometric dimension and local dielectric environment of the nanostructure. It has been found that the greatest effective scattering takes place when the outer Ag nanoshell has a thick thickness or the dielectric separate layer has a small dielectric constant. The effective scattering also depends on the inner Au sphere radius and outer surrounding dielectric constant. Because of the mode transformation of the SPR, the effective scattering could also be greatly improved when the inner Au sphere has a very small or large size. However, the effective scattering intensity changes non-monotonously as the surrounding dielectric constant increases. The greatest effective scattering could be obtained when the surrounding dielectric constant has an intermediate value. This tunable effective plasmonic scattering of Au@Ag three-layered nanoshells presents a potential for design and fabrication of plasmonic optical nanodevice based on resonance light scattering.

In the MOFs-based composites, the co-catalyst nanoparticles loads tend to agglomerate. In the self-assembly process of MOFs-based composites, the use of acid modulators solved the accumulation of AgI nanoparticles cocatalyst. The active sites of carboxyl groups and mesoporous structure brought by acid modulator provide more loading sites for AgI nanoparticles. The novel AgI/D-MIL-53(Fe) showed good adsorption and photocatalytic performance in the process of removing tetracycline pollutants. Compared to the degradation efficiency of the MIL-53(Fe) with 50.8%, it of AgI/MIL-53(Fe) increased to 85.1% and which further increased to 96.2% by AgI/D-MIL-53(Fe) based on the HCl modulator. On the one hand, it is beneficial for the mesoporous D-MIL-53(Fe) modulated by HCl modulator to disperse the AgI nanoparticles co-catalyst. On the other hand, AgI nanoparticles, as a photosensitive agent, adsorb visible light to generate photogenerated electrons and holes, and electrons rapidly transferred to the heterojunction bridge Ag0 and then captured by the holes from the D-MIL-53(Fe). The construction of AgI/D-MIL-53(Fe) Z-scheme heterojunction provided favorable conditions for the rapid separation and photogenerated electrons and holes. Finally, ·O2−, ·OH and h+ as the main active free radicals were driving forces. This study provided more possibilities and opportunities for the construction of mesoporous MOFs-based composites.

Based on the parent austenite orientation reconstruction method, it is aimed to reveal the origination of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) and its relationship with ductility of H13 steel. The orientation relationship between martensite and parent austenite of quenched H13 samples was (123.5°, 9.3°, 192.5°), which agreed with the Kurdumov–Sachs relationship. The variant distribution of quenched samples was dominated by close-packed plane group, and its high length fraction of V1/V2 inter-variant boundaries of calculated 62.6% was mainly contributed to HAGBs (> 45°). When the quenched H13 samples underwent the pre-tempering treatment, their density of HAGBs (> 45°) notably increased from 1.33 to 2.39 μm−1, which improved its total elongation from 8.3% to 11.5%. Compared with the quenched H13 samples, the length fraction of V1/V2 inter-variant boundaries of H13 samples with pre-tempering for 5, 10 and 60 min was reduced by 6.7%, 7.0% and 7.5%, respectively. During pre-tempering treatment, V1/V3&V5 variant pairs, etc., merged V1/V2 variant pair by strain-induced grain boundary migration, which decreased the length fraction of V1/V2 inter-variant boundaries by 7.0%. The pre-tempering treatment significantly increased HAGBs (> 45°) of H13 samples by sub-grains coarsening and strain-induced grain boundary migration mechanism.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term clinical and radiographic outcomes of partial patellectomy (PP) in patients with patella comminuted distal pole fractures. Methods Seventeen patients who were diagnosed with patella comminuted distal pole fractures and underwent PP procedures were retrospectively included between January 1995 and January 2005. We collected patient demographics and data on the mechanism of injury, time to surgery, fracture type, follow-up time, and post-operative complications (infection, patellofemoral arthritis, and stiffness). At the final follow-up, functional outcome was evaluated by the range of motion (ROM) and the Bostman Scoring System. Quadriceps strength was evaluated by using an isokinetic dynamometer to measure peak torque, and patellar height was evaluated by the Insall-Salvati (IS) ratio in lateral knee radiographs. The average follow-up period was 14.6 years (range, 11-19 years). Results We analyzed 17 patients (AO/OTA 34-A1), with an average age of 59.8 years (range, 43-76 years). According to the Bostman grading scales, final functional outcomes were excellent in 11 (64.7%) and good in six (35.3%) patients. All patients had full knee extension, and the average ROM was 125.1° (range, 121.4-129.3°). The average peak torque of the injured knee was 103.2 ± 9.7 Nm, and that of the uninjured opposite side was 108.3 ± 7.6 Nm, with no significant difference (p > 0.05). Furthermore, no postoperative complications, such as infection, posttraumatic osteoarthritis, or stiffness, were observed. Compared to the uninjured knee, the IS ratio of the injured knee was 0.76 ± 0.13, indicating that the patellar height was decreased, which meant patella baja. Conclusions The PP procedure for patella comminuted distal pole fractures is a safe, simple, and reliable technique that can provide good long-term clinical outcomes even with decreased patellar height and could be a satisfactory alternative treatment option when anatomical reduction is difficult.

A novel mycovirus belonging to the proposed family "Fusariviridae" was discovered in Alternaria Solani by sequencing a double-stranded RNA extracted from this phytopathogenic fungus. The virus was tentatively named “Alternaria solani fusarivirus 1” (AsFV1). AsFV1 has a single-stranded positive-sense (+ssRNA) genome of 6,845 nucleotides containing three open reading frames (ORFs) and a poly(A) tail. The largest ORF, ORF1 encodes a large polypeptide of 1,556 amino acids (aa) with conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and helicase domains. The ORF2 and ORF3 have overlapping regions, encoding a putative protein of 522 amino acids (aa) and a putative protein of 105 amino acids (aa) respectively, for which function is unknown now. Multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis revealed AsFV1 belonging to Fusariviridae. This is the first report of the full-length nucleotide sequence of a fusarivirus infected with Alternaria solani.

Background Microwave ablation (MWA) is a potentially curative treatment for unresectable patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ≤ 3 cm, while its therapeutic efficacy decreases significantly for HCC > 3cm. Previous studies have demonstrated that conventional transarterial chemoembolization (cTACE) combined with MWA (cTACE-MWA) may improve local tumor control rate and reduce the recurrence rate for HCC > 3cm. However, there have been few study designs to analyze the clinical efficacy of cTACE-MWA for medium-sized HCC (3–5cm). Therefore, this study aims to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of cTACE-MWA with cTACE alone for a single medium-sized HCC of 3–5 cm in diameter. Methods We retrospectively investigate the data of 90 patients with a single medium-sized HCC who were referred to our hospital and underwent cTACE-MWA or cTACE alone from December 2017 to March 2020. Then, patients were identified with propensity score-matched (1:1). The local tumor response to treatment and time to progression (TTP) were compared using mRECIST criteria between the cTACE-MWA group and the cTACE group. Results A total of 42 patients were included after matching (cTACE-MWA: 21; cTACE: 21). Comparing with cTACE, cTACE-MWA demonstrate significantly better local tumor control (ORR: 95.2% vs 61.9%, p = 0.02; DCR: 95.2% vs 66.7%, p = 0.045) and TTP (median 19.8 months vs 6.8 months, p < 0.001). The 1- and 2-year cumulative probabilities of OS were 100% and 95% in the cTACE-MWA group, which were significantly higher than those in the cTACE group (95% and 76%) (p = 0.032). Multivariate Cox regression analysis illustrates that cTACE-MWA was associated with better TTP (hazard ratio, 0.28; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.76; p = 0.012), but tumor size was associated with worse TTP (hazard ratio, 1.71; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.89; p = 0.045). Conclusions cTACE followed by MWA improved TTP and OS in patients with a single medium-sized HCC, and no major complication was observed in this study.

Hippo signaling restricts tissue growth by inhibiting the transcriptional effector YAP. Here we uncover a role of Hippo signaling and a tumor suppressor function of YAP in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer. We find that inhibition of Hippo/MST1/2 or activation of YAP blocks the ERα transcriptional program and ER+ breast cancer growth. Mechanistically, the Hippo pathway transcription factor TEAD physically interacts with ERα to increase its promoter/enhancer occupancy whereas YAP inhibits ERα/TEAD interaction, decreases ERα occupancy on its target promoters/enhancers, and promotes ERα degradation by the proteasome. Furthermore, YAP inhibits hormone-independent transcription of ERα gene (ESR1). Consistently, high levels of YAP correlate with good prognosis of ER+ breast cancer patients. Finally, we find that pharmacological inhibition of Hippo/MST1/2 impeded tumor growth driven by hormone therapy resistant ERα mutants, suggesting that targeting the Hippo-YAP-TEAD signaling axis could be a potential therapeutical strategy to overcome endocrine therapy resistance conferred by ERα mutants.

Carboxylic acid-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are normally passed for the “pre-catalysts” for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to the hydroxides constructed in-situ during its alkaline hydrolysis process (AHP) in lye. Whereas, it remains a mystery that they show advantageous activity over prototypical hydroxides when they are directly acted as OER catalysts. Herein, we propose for the first time that the steric hindrance effect of Nafion can induce enhanced catalytic activity of such MOFs. Different from conventional catalysts without AHP, the Nafion with 3D structure weakens the AHP of Co-MOF nanoribbons, thus forming small size and low crystallinity species (cobalt hydroxide) with more active sites. And the existence of Nafion also optimizes its electronic structure, which is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in-situ UV absorption spectra, in-situ Raman spectroscopy and so on. Compared with Co-MOF-K obtained by directly immersing the Co-MOF nanoribbons in 1.0 M KOH, the Co-MOF-NK obtained by AHP of Co-MOF mixed with Nafion shows better catalytic activity. Based on the above inspiration, we realized the low overpotential of 268 mV at 10 mA·cm−2 by preparing CoFe-MOF-NK. This work provides a new understanding of the structural reconstruction of MOFs in the field of electrocatalysis.

Creating an insulation material combining crack and delamination resistance, mechanical flexibility, strong adhesion, and biocompatibility is vital for implantable bioelectronic devices of all types. Here, we describe a nanocomposite material addressing these technological challenges that have been designed using blueprints from biomaterials that combine a similar set of properties. These composites are based on aramid nanofibers (ANFs), whose mechanical properties are complemented by the epoxy resins with strong adhesion to various surfaces. The nanoscale structure of the ANF/epoxy nanocomposite coating replicates the nanofibrous organization of human cartilage, which is known for its exceptional toughness and delamination resistance. The structural analogy between percolating networks of cartilage and ANF was demonstrated numerically using graph theory (GT) analysis. The match of multiple GT indexes indicated the near-identical organization pattern of cartilage and ANF/epoxy nanocomposite. When compared with the standard insulating material for bioelectronics, Parylene C, the ANF/epoxy nanocomposite exceeds its performance characteristics in respect to delamination resistance, interfacial adhesion, tissue biocompatibility, electrode cross-talk and inflammatory response. This study opens the possibility of GT-informed design of high-performance insulation materials suitable for different types of electronics for neural engineering and other biomedical applications. GT analysis also makes possible structural characterization of complex biological and biomimetic materials. While the design of the electronics for implantable devices has substantially advanced, the materials for their long-term insulation have not. Delamination of insulation materials constantly results in device failure. The essential problem of this field is finding a material that affords the combination of multiple contrarian properties that need to be resolved to afford future advances in this area. Here, we report a new nanocomposite material that combines durability, toughness, and flexibility, as well as excellent adhesion, biocompatibility, and low inflammatory response. This study opens the road for a large family of materials suitable for different types of implantable electronics for neural engineering and other biomedical applications.

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic metal that damages human health and normal plant metabolism, and often results in reduced crop growth and yield. To explore the Cd migration characteristic in paddy soil and ditch sediment in a small watershed, present study was conducted in two different Cd polluted paddy areas in Hunan Province, China. The Cd contents of ditch sediment and paddy soil in the typical polluted watershed (Beishan Town, Changsha County, China) and non-polluted watershed (Jinjing Town, Changsha County, China) were determinate. The results showed that the total Cd content and available Cd content in the ditch sediment and paddy soil in Beishan ranged from 0.50 to 6.29 mg kg−1 and 0.26–1.72 mg kg−1, respectively. The total Cd content and available Cd content in the ditch sediment and paddy soil in Jinjing ranged from 0.30 to 2.13 mg kg−1 and 0.05–0.44 mg kg−1, respectively. The total Cd content and available Cd content in the ditch sediment and paddy soil in Beishan presented logarithm decreasing trend with the runoff direction. However, the total Cd content and available Cd content in the ditch sediment and paddy soil in Jinjing presented linear increase trends with the runoff direction.