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BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION Borreria latifolia (Aubl.) K. Schum (Rubiaceae) is an annual weed with a strong allelopathic inhibitory effect on malignant weeds in orchards in southern China. This study was carried out to investigate its allelopathic potential and to identify allelochemicals present in B. latifolia.Aqueous extracts of B. latifolia inhibited the germination and radicle growth of Eleusine indica and the radicle growth of Bidens alba in a dose‐dependent manner. However, only the high‐concentration treatment at 50 mg mL−1 delayed the germination of B. alba and Digitaria sanguinalis. Among the root, stem, and leaf aqueous extracts of B. latifolia, the leaf extract had the strongest inhibitory effects on the germination and seedling growth of E. indica, followed by stem extract and then root extract. A total of 47 published allelochemicals, including coumarin, 4‐hydroxybenzoate, salicylic acid, 4‐hydroxycinnamic acid, and vanillic acid, were identified in the leaf extract. Among the five allelochemicals, coumarin was found to be present in the highest concentration in the leaf extract. Furthermore, coumarin exhibited a significantly greater inhibitory effect on E. indica (EC50 = 36.87 mg L−1) than did the other allelochemicals (EC50 = 100.87–156.30 mg L−1).This study indicates that the leaf extracts of B. latifolia and their allelochemicals have excellent potential as bioherbicides and that coumarin is one of the key allelochemicals in B. latifolia. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Bacterial virulence factors are involved in various biological processes and mediate persistent bacterial infections. Focusing on virulence factors of phytopathogenic bacteria is an attractive strategy and crucial direction in pesticide discovery to prevent invasive and persistent bacterial infection. Hence, discovery and development of novel agrochemicals with high activity, low‐risk, and potent anti‐virulence is urgently needed to control plant bacterial diseases. RESULTS: A series of novel β‐hydroxy pyridinium cation decorated pterostilbene derivatives were prepared and their antibacterial activities against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) were systematacially assessed. Among these pterostilbene derivatives, compound 4S exhibited the best antibacterial activity against Xoo in vitro, with an half maximal effective concentration (EC50) value of 0.28 μg mL−1. A series of biochemical assays including scanning electron microscopy, crystal violet staining, and analysis of biofilm formation, swimming motility, and related virulence factor gene expression levels demonstrated that compound 4S could function as a new anti‐virulence factor inhibitor by interfering with the bacterial infection process. Furthermore, the pot experiments provided convinced evidence that compound 4S had the high control efficacy (curative activity: 71.4%, protective activity: 72.6%), and could be used to effectively manage rice bacterial leaf blight in vivo. CONCLUSION: Compounds 4S is an attractive virulence factor inhibitor with potential for application in treating plant bacterial diseases by suppressing production of several virulence factors. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Naturally occurring alkaloids are particularly suitable for use as pesticide precursors and further modifications due to their cost‐effectiveness, unique mechanism of action, tolerable degradation, and environmental friendliness. The famous tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a persistent plant pathogenic virus that can parasitize many plants and severely reduce crop production. To treat TMV disease, TMV helicase acts as a crucial target by hydrolyzing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to provide energy for double‐stranded RNA unwinding. RESULTS: To seek novel framework alkaloid leads targeting TMV helicase, this work successfully established an efficient screening platform for TMV helicase inhibitors based on natural alkaloids. In vivo activity screening, enzyme activity detection, and binding assays showed that Rutaecarpine from Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth exhibited excellent TMV helicase inhibitory properties [dissociation constant (Kd) = 1.1 μm, half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) = 227.24 μm] and excellent anti‐TMV ability. Molecular docking and dynamic simulations depicted that Rutaecarpine could stably bind in active pockets of helicase with low binding energy (ΔGbind = −17.8 kcal/mol) driven by hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. CONCLUSION: Given Rutaecarpine's laudable bioactivity and structural modifiability, it can serve as a privileged building block for further pesticide discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hand gesture plays an important role in many circumstances, which is one of the most common interactive methods in daily life, especially for disabled people. Human–machine interaction is another popular research topic to realize direct and efficient control, making machines intelligent and maneuverable. Here, a special human–machine interaction system is proposed and namedas computer‐vision (CV) based gesture‐metasurface interaction (GMI) system, which can be used for both direct beam manipulations and real‐time wireless communications. The GMI system first needs to select its working mode according to the gesture command to determine whether to perform beam manipulations or wireless communications, and then validate the permission for further operation by recognizing unlocking gesture to ensure security. Both beam manipulation and wireless communication functions are validated experimentally, which show that the GMI system can not only realize real‐time switching and remote control of different beams through gesture command, but also communicate with a remote computer in real time by translating the gesture language to text message. The proposed non‐contact GMI system has the advantages of good interactivity, high flexibility, and multiple functions, which can find potential applications in community security, gesture‐command smart home, barrier‐free communications, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous realization of printing and holographic images has become an emerging and promising technology for optical storage and anti‐counterfeiting, which can significantly enhance the information capacity and security of an optical system. Herein, a non‐interleaved four‐channel metasurface based on opposite‐chirality‐coexisted meta‐atoms is proposed, which can simultaneously support four independent circular polarization (CP) information channels, including two near‐field printing channels and two far‐field holography channels. In addition, due to the chiral resonance properties, the operation frequencies of these four polarization channels can also be flexibly designed to simultaneously achieve polarization multiplexing and frequency multiplexing. As a proof of concept, two four‐channel metasurfaces, one of which works at a single frequency and the other works at two different frequencies, are designed and validated numerically and experimentally. It is shown in the results that two printing and two holographic images with different handedness can be stored at one frequency or two different frequencies through the flexible design of metasurface. This four‐channel metasurface provides a new avenue for the design of future photonic devices with highly integrated and multiple functionalities, and may have an advantage in diverse potential applications, such as advanced anti‐counterfeits, optical data storage, and image displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, frequency‐multiplexed metasurfaces have received extensive attention due to the increasing demands for device integration and communication capacity. However, most of previously reported works can only manipulate either surface waves (SW) or spatially propagating waves (SPW). In this paper, a frequency‐multiplexed holographic‐reflective‐integration (HRI) coding metasurface is proposed, which can independently manipulate SW and SPW at different frequencies with a shared aperture. To be specific, the metasurface can act as a holographic metasurface to manipulate SW at low frequency and a reflective metasurface to manipulate SPW at high frequency. The performance of the frequency‐multiplexed HRI coding metasurface is validated by matched simulation and measurement results of versatile wavefront and polarization manipulations. Due to the advantages of low profile, high aperture usage, and multifunction integration, the proposed frequency‐multiplexed HRI coding metasurface is promising to be applied in wireless communications, radar detections, and holographic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin‐decoupled metasurfaces can realize independent phase controls of two orthogonally circularly polarized (CP) waves, and hence have attracted much attention in recent years. However, all previously reported metasurfaces capable of simultaneously manipulating the transmission and reflection of CP waves can only achieve two decoupled polarization conversion channels. In this work, a spin‐ and space‐multiplexing metasurface is proposed, that can achieve independent phase controls of four different CP conversion channels, including two cross‐polarized transmission channels and two co‐polarized reflection channels. The performance of the metasurface is experimentally validated by multi‐channel independent holographic imaging. The results show that four independent holograms are realized in four CP conversion channels by only using a single metasurface, which can greatly improve the information capacity of the metasurfaces and make full use of polarization and space resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer, which is characterized by high heterogeneity and metabolic dysregulation. Inositol monophosphatase 1(IMPA1) is critical for the metabolism of inositol, which has profound effects on gene expression and other biological processes. Here, we report for the first time that IMPA1 was upregulated in TNBC cell lines and tissues, and enhanced cell colony formation and proliferation in vitro and tumorigenicity in vivo. Additionally, IMPA1 promoted cell motility in vitro and metastatic lung colonization in vivo. Mechanistic investigations by transcriptome sequencing revealed that 4782 genes were differentially expressed between cells with IMPA1 knockdown and control cells. Among the differentially expressed genes after IMPA1 knockdown, five significantly altered genes were verified via qRT‐PCR assays. Morerover, we found that the expression profile of those five targets as a gene set was significantly associated with IMPA1 status in TNBC cells. As this gene set was associated with mTOR pathway and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) process, we further confirmed that IMPA1 induced mTOR activity and EMT process, which at least in part contributed to IMPA1‐induced TNBC progression. Collectively, our findings reveal a previously unrecognized role of IMPA1 in TNBC progression and identify IMPA1 as a potential target for TNBC therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization plays an important role in practical applications, and hence it is an essential task to generate the desired polarization of a spatial propagating wave (SPW). Here, the authors propose a method to design radiation metasurface, or metasurface emitter, which can produce arbitrarily polarized SPW. Different from the conventional transmission and reflection metasurfaces that can only manipulate the incoming spatial wave, the proposed radiation metasurface can be regarded as an electromagnetic (EM) wave emitter that can generate SPW by itself. More importantly, the polarization of the generated SPW can be flexibly customized by designing the phase distribution on metasurface. The metasurface is fed by a monopole antenna, and the energy is first coupled into the metasurface to form a surface wave. Modulated by the metasurface, the surface wave is then converted into SPW. As a proof of concept, they design and fabricate the radiation metasurfaces that are capable of generating radially, azimuthally, linearly, and circularly polarized SPWs, as well as dual‐beam radiations with different polarizations, respectively. The measured results have a good match to the theoretical predictions and full‐wave simulations. The proposed method provides an efficient way to generate SPWs with any desired polarizations for easy integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nascent composite fibers were prepared through the melt‐spinning method with different graphene (GE) contents, following which post‐stretched composite fibers were obtained using a post‐stretching process under thermal treatment condition. The effects of GE content and post‐stretching ratio on the crystal structure and properties of the fibers were investigated in order to obtain PVDF composite fibers with high β crystal content and high hydrophobicity and oleophilicity. The results indicated that the addition of GE led to some extent to an improvement in the content of β crystals and the orientation of crystals. Furthermore, the addition of GE obviously improved the mechanical properties, hydrophobicity and oleophilicity of nascent composite fibers. The post‐stretching ratio had a significant influence on the transition of the crystal phase from α to β and the orientation of crystals. In addition, the post‐stretching played a positive role in enhancement of mechanical properties and hydrophobicity. When 5 wt% GE was added and the post‐stretching ratio was 6, PVDF composite fibers with high β crystal content, super‐oleophilicity and high hydrophobicity could be obtained. The β crystal content of PVDF composite fibers could reach 62.8%, oil contact angle was 0° and water contact angle was 116.0°. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Glyphosate has been used for weed control in South China in various situations for four decades, and most Eleusine indica populations are suspected to have evolved resistance to glyphosate. This research investigated underling target‐site glyphosate resistance mechanisms in six field‐collected, putative glyphosate‐resistant (R) E. indica populations. RESULTS: The six R E. indica populations were confirmed to be low (1.8 to 2.6‐fold) to moderately (5.6‐ to 8.4‐fold) resistant to glyphosate relative to the susceptible (S) population. Sixty‐seven glyphosate‐surviving plants from the six R populations were used to examine target‐site resistance mechanisms. Target‐site 5‐enolpyruvylshikimate3‐phosphate synthase (EPSPS) overexpression (OE) (plus further induction by glyphosate treatment) and gene copy number variation (CNV) occurred in 94% R plants, and among them, 16% had the P106A mutation and 49% had the heterozygous double TIPS (T102I + P106S) mutation (plus P381L). In addition, a low number of R plants (6%) only had the homologous TIPS (plus P381L) mutation. The (CT)6 insertion mutation in the EPSPS 5†‐UTR always associates with EPSPS OE and CNV. Progeny plants possessing EPSPS OE/CNV (and P106A) displayed low level (up to 4.5‐fold) glyphosate resistance. In contrast, plants homozygous for the TIPS mutation displayed higher (25‐fold) resistance to glyphosate and followed by plants heterozygous for this mutation plus EPSPS OE/CNV (12‐fold). CONCLUSIONS: Target‐site glyphosate resistance in E. indica populations from South China is common with prevalence of EPSPS OE/induction/CNV conferring low level resistance. Individual plants acquiring both the TIPS mutation and EPSPS OE/CNV are favored due to evolutionary advantages. The role of (CT)6 insertion mutation in EPSPS CNV is worth further investigation. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although autophagy may be beneficial for maintaining the metabolic balance of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the nucleus pulposus (NP) and its vitality under inflammation, the underlying mechanism still remains unclear. A previous study found that autophagy activation stimulated the release of exosomes in normal chondrocytes, which are located in a similar avascular environment and share many common features with those of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs). This study explored the protective effect on matrix degradation in the NP by exosomes derived from autophagy‐activated NPCs and exosomal microRNAs. NPCs‐derived exosomes (NPCs‐Exos) were isolated from culture medium of either normal NPCs or rapamycin‐treated NPCs and quantified by nanoparticle tracking analysis. The effect of rapamycin‐treated NPC‐derived exosomes on NPCs were assessed by coculture with interleukin 1β (IL‐1β)‐stimulated NPCs. After examination of six major proteinases of the ECM, matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP‐13) was chosen for further study. miR‐27a, which targets MMP‐13, was investigated through previous studies and bioinformatics tool. The levels of miR‐27a were upregulated in both rapamycin‐treated NPCs and their exosomes, compared to the control. When exosomal miR‐27a was transferred into NPCs, it alleviated IL‐1β‐induced degradation of the NPC ECM by targeting MMP‐13. Autophagy activation may promote the release of NPCs‐derived exosomes and thereby prevent the NPC matrix from degradation. Autophagy activation also alleviates intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), at least partly via exosomal miR‐27a, which restrains MMP‐13 expression under IL‐1β stimulation. Our work elucidates a new mechanism for how autophagy may participate in preventing IDD, which may be a promising therapeutic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have been proven to be one of the most effective anti‐counterfeiting strategies. However, optical PUFs endowed with flexibility and biocompatibility have not been developed, limiting their application scenarios. Herein, biocompatible and flexible optical PUF labels are developed by randomly embedding microdiamonds in silk fibroin films. The PUF labels can be conformally attached onto the surface of complex shaped objects, providing the desired protection against fake and interior products. In this system, silk fibroin films serve as a flexible and biocompatible substrate, while the Raman signal of the microdiamonds serves as response of the excitation. The extremely high stability and random distribution of the microdiamonds ensure the performance of PUFs, and the maximum encoding capability of 210000 is finally realized. The cytotoxicity analysis results also verify the biosafety of the PUF system. In addition, the as‐prepared PUF labels are attached onto the surface of polyethylene material, and human skin, and even have been implanted under chicken skin tissue, promising their practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, the organic solvent recycling still has great challenges. Herein, the thermal and solvent resistant poly (tetrafluoroethylene‐co‐perfluoropropylvinyl ether) (PFA) hollow fiber membranes (TS‐PFA HFMs) were continuously designed by on‐line compound technique for organic solvent recycling. The experiment results indicated that the increased sintering temperature brought about the porous surface and loose internal cavity structures. Importantly, the membrane exhibited the excellent thermal resistance at 70°C working condition. Furthermore, part of the poly (vinyl alcohol) was retained in the membrane which was competent to create synergistic effects, and endowed the membrane with not only favorable elasticity but also remarkable hot water resistance. Finally, the excellent organic solvent recycling ability of the membrane was demonstrated in simulated non‐aqueous solvent dyeing system. Specifically, no organic solvents or other hazardous substances were used during the fabrication process, which can realize the green preparation of the membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decorin (Dcn) is a member of the class I small leucine‐rich proteoglycans, whose expression in the nucleus pulposus (NP) of intervertebral discs (IVDs) has been shown to increase with aging in humans and sheep. Dcn induces autophagy in endothelial cells; however, its precise role in NP and IVD degeneration during aging is not well understood. We addressed this question in the present study by treating rat nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) with different concentrations of Dcn. The Western blot analysis and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay results showed that Dcn treatment induced autophagy and decreased apoptosis caused by interleukin (IL)‐1β application. This effect was dependent on the protein kinase B/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)/p70 S6 kinase signaling. Dcn treatment also decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase‐3 and ‐13 and decreased the IL‐1β‐induced attenuation of collagen type II and aggrecan levels. The role of Dcn in stimulating autophagy was further supported by the fact that the observed effects were abrogated by knocking down autophagy‐related protein 7 with Atg7 small interfering RNA. Thus, Dcn protects NPCs in IVDs from IL‐1β‐induced apoptosis and degeneration by promoting autophagy through mTOR signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: Starch properties are closely related to the rice quality as starch interacts with other components during rice storage. However, several studies have neglected that the changes in proteins and lipids influence the properties of starch in rice. Herein, we used an artificial climate chest to characterize the effect of glutelin and lipid oxidation on the physicochemical properties of starch during rice storage. Findings: Oxidation occurs in glutelin and lipids during the rice storage stage (p <.01). The oxidation indexes of glutelin and lipids showed the same significant negative correlation in peak viscosity (PV), breakdown (BD), and setback (SB). In contrast, concerning amylose content, final viscosity (FV), and SB, the oxidation of glutelin rather than lipids was more closely related to the changes observed in starch properties (p <.01). Lipid oxidation significantly correlated with trough viscosity (TV) and amylopectin content than glutelin oxidation (p <.01). Conclusions: All the oxidation indicators of glutelin and lipids were inversely correlated with BD and SB (p <.01). Carbonyl compound content and fatty acid oxidation were significantly correlated with the physicochemical properties of rice starch. Significance and novelty: The physicochemical changes in starch are closely related to the oxidation of glutelin and lipids, which can be used as indicators for assessing rice quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the cost‐effective graphite powder (GPd)‐coated polyurethane (PGPd‐PU) sponge hollow tube (PGPd‐PUHT) was prepared for high‐efficient continuous oil removal, the hydrophobicity‐superoleophilicity PGPd‐PU sponge was fabricated through a simple dip‐coating method, which dipping PU sponge into GPd dispersion and drying, then coating polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on sponge skeleton, as‐prepared sponge could selectively absorb a variety of oils up to 34 times of its own weight for dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The PGPd‐PUHT was prepared via wrapping PGPd‐PU sponge on porous tubular support. The obtained PGPd‐PUHT could continuously collect various types of oils from water surface with flux as high as 1.52 kL/m2h, and excellent separation efficiency (up to 97.7%) for toluene, as well as remarkable reusability. Moreover, a continuous floating oil collection device based on PGPd‐PUHT was designed which showed excellent floating oil collection ability. In addition, our strategy possesses the advantages of low cost, simple preparation, highly efficient, and easily scale‐up, showing a great potential for dealing with practical oil spill remediation. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48921. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a new strategy for the continuous separation of oil from water surface using a novel tubular unit based on graphene coated polyurethane (P‐GEPU) sponge, and the P‐GEPU sponge was fabricated by a simple dip‐coating method; the as‐prepared sponges could adsorb different kinds of oil and organic liquids while repelling water. Moreover, the tubular unit was assembled by wrapping the P‐GEPU sponge on a porous PU hollow tube and combined with the accessories including pipes and joints. The tubular unit could float on the surface of water, and a continuous oil collection from water surface through vacuum pressure could be fulfilled, showing a high oil‐water separation efficiency (>96%). Finally, oil‐water separation efficiency remains above 93% after 10 cycles, exhibiting excellent reusability. In addition, our findings are easily scaled up, showing a great promise for large‐scale oil spill remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has long been acknowledged to have a dismal prognosis. Therefore, prognostic markers, especially molecular ones, are of interest. So far, expression of Neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (N-WASP) and its associations with clinicopathologic variables and prognosis for patients with PDAC remain unknown. Methods: N-WASP expression was detected by immunohistochemical staining in a tissue microarray consisted of tumor and nontumor samples from 86 patients with PDAC. The correlations of N-WASP expression with clinicopathologic features and overall survival were evaluated. In addition, risk factors of perineural invasion (PNI) were identified. Results: High expression of N-WASP was more frequent in tumor than in nontumor tissues of PDAC patients (45.3 vs. 19.8 %, p < 0.001). The rank of N-WASP grading was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in nontumor tissues ( p = 0.048). Also, high expression of N-WASP in tumor tissues was significantly associated with PNI, and lymph node status had a marginally significant relation to tumoral N-WASP expression. Univariate analyses showed that, in addition to conventional clinicopathologic variables, including sex, histologic grade, PNI and lymph node metastasis, high tumoral N-WASP expression was an independent marker of PNI and served as a significant predictor of poor overall survival. The prognostic implication of N-WASP expression was not proven In the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Our data showed highly up-regulated expression of N-WASP in PDAC tissues, its correlations with PNI, and its association with an unfavorable prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) carries frequent chemoresistance and extremely dismal prognosis. The underlying mechanisms remain to be further elucidated. We here report the role of Notch1 in gemcitabine resistance and its prognostic significance in PC. Methods: A small interfering RNA (siRNA) specifically targeting Notch1 was transiently transfected into three PC cell lines (AsPC-1, BxPC-3, and MIA PaCa-2), followed by examination of chemosensitivity to gemcitabine. On the other hand, Notch1 expression was evaluated immunohistochemically and correlated with clinicopathological and prognostic variables. Results: Successful knockdown of Notch1 by specific siRNA induced increased chemosensitivity to gemcitabine in all three cell lines. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that Notch1 was highly expressed in PC tissues (54.8 %), in contrast to that in para-tumor tissues (16.4 %). In addition, Notch1 positivity was significantly correlated with early-term metastasis and shortened overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression identified Notch1 as an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions: Notch1 contributes to chemoresistance to gemcitabine, and serves as a significant indicator of unfavorable prognosis in PC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of standard-dose versus high-dose imatinib. Methods After a systematic review of English language articles, five studies including 2008 patients were eligible for the meta-analysis. Data extracted from each study were synthesized into overall odds ratios ( OR). Results The overall OR for the high dose vs standard dose was 1.19 (95% CI 1.00-1.42) and the Z-score for the overall effect was 1.93 ( P = 0.054), suggesting that high-dose imatinib added no survival benefits. The dose-related toxicity was also assessed in the same way. The rates of rash, hemorrhage, nausea, vomiting and taste disturbance increased as dose increased ( P < 0.05), whereas the incidence of headache, abdominal pain, edema, fatigue, anemia, infection, muscle cramp and constipation was nearly identical and showed no significant difference. Conclusions Imatinib at a standard dose produces a similar effect to that at a high dose. The severity of the toxicity is associated with the dose of imatinib. However, larger and randomized studies are needed to draw definitive conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation Jin L-P, Fan D-X, Zhang T, Guo P-F, Li D-J. The costimulatory signal upregulation is associated with Th1 bias at the maternal-fetal interface in human miscarriage. Am J Reprod Immunol 2011; 66: 270-278 Problem To evaluate whether the association of the costimulatory signal regulation with T helper 1/T helper 2 (Th1/Th2) bias at maternal-fetal interface in human pregnancy loss. Method of study The expression of CD80 and CD86 in decidual tissues and CD28 and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) in the decidual T cells was compared between normal early pregnancy and miscarriage by qPCR and Western blot. The cytokine production in decidual T cells was performed by flow cytometry. The correlation of costimulatory molecule expression with Th1/Th2 cytokines was analyzed. Results The CD80 mRNA and protein expression showed no significant difference between normal pregnancy and miscarriage. An increase in the expression of CD28 and CD86 was accompanied by a decrease in the expression of CTLA-4 in miscarriage in comparison with the early pregnancy. The higher expression of interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and lower expression of IL-4 and IL-10 in the decidual T cells were present in miscarriage. A correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation of CD86 and CD28 expression with the Th1 cytokine production (IL-2 and IFN-γ), a significant negative correlation of CTLA-4 expression with the Th1 cytokine production. Conclusion The upregualtion of costimulatory signals on T cells might form an abnormal immune microenvironment, a shift to Th1 responses, at maternal-fetal interface, which leads to human miscarriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vectorial structured beam, which possesses diverse inhomogeneous spatial field distributions, has been developed into an advanced technology for particle trapping, optical communication, and quantum information. However, most of the related studies are based on static devices that can only generate structured light with fixed field distributions. To break through this restriction, the study proposes and experimentally demonstrates a reflection‐type spin‐independent programmable metasurface (SIPM) that can generate arbitrary vector vortex beams (VVBs) dynamically in microwave frequencies. By controlling the working states of loaded positive‐intrinsic‐negative (PIN) diodes, the metasurface can realize real‐time and spin‐independent manipulations of amplitude and phase of the reflected waves. Therefore, any desired VVBs can be achieved by dynamically controlling the superimposition of left‐ and right‐handed reflected circularly polarized vortexes. The proposed SIPM exhibits powerful abilities in modulating the vectorial structured beams in the microwave band, and may bring potential technological innovations for the future spintronics, imaging display, optical computing, and wireless communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Bromotriphenylphosphonium Salt Promoted One-Pot Cyclization to 2-Fluoroalkyl-Substituted Indoles" by Zeng-xue Wang and colleagues is presented.