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Backgrounds A large proportion of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) are resistant to a standard dose of antihistamine. Acknowledged biomarkers for identifying these patients have not been determined. The neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been considered as an important indicator of inflammation in chronic diseases. Aims To explore whether NLR could serve as a biomarker for predicting the response to H1-antihistamine in patients with CSU. Methods This hospital-based, retrospective study included 109 patients with CSU diagnosed from 2017 to 2020 in our clinic and divided them into two groups by their responses to the 2-week antihistamine therapy of standard-dose: 69 with H1-antihistamine-refractory and 40 with non-H1-antihistamine-refractory CSU. The laboratory test results were collected from the hospital information system and integrated with SPSS software. Results Patients refractory to H1-antihistamine had significantly higher median NLR (P = 0.039), age (3 P = 0.021), complement C3 (P = 0.026), presence of elevated WBC (P = 0.026) and elevated monocytes (MONO) (P = 0.045) and significantly lower IgM (P = 0.022). The binary logistic regression model revealed that NLR was significantly associated with H1-antihistamine-refractory of CSU (odds ratio (OR) 1.717, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.065–2.766, P = 0.026), which was consistent with that after adjusted for potential confounding factors including age, complement C3, presence of elevated WBC and MONO, and IgM (OR 1.681, 95% CI 1.019–2.773, P = 0.042). Conclusion Our results showed a strong and significant association between higher NLR and H1-antihistamine resistance in CSU, suggesting that NLR may be a potential biomarker for predicting the response to H1-antihistamine therapy in patients with CSU.

Abstract Background Cutaneous infectious granulomas (CIG) are localized and chronic skin infection caused by a variety of pathogens such as protozoans, bacteria, worms, viruses and fungi. The diagnosis of CIG is difficult because microbiological examination shows low sensitivity and the histomorphological findings of CIG caused by different pathogens are commonly difficult to be distinguished. Objective The objective of this study is to explore the application of mNGS in tissue sample testing for CIG cases, and to compare mNGS with traditional microbiological methods by evaluating sensitivity and specificity. Methods We conducted a retrospective study at the Department of Dermatology of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University from January 1st, 2020, to May 31st, 2024. Specimens from CIG patients with a clinical presentation of cutaneous infection that was supported by histological examination were retrospectively enrolled. Specimens were delivered to be tested for microbiological examinations and mNGS. Results Our data show that mNGS detected Non-tuberculosis mycobacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, fungi and bacteria in CIG. Compared to culture, mNGS showed a higher positive rate (80.77% vs. 57.7%) with high sensitivity rate (100%) and negative predictive value (100%). In addition, mNGS can detect more pathogens in one sample and can be used to detect variable samples including the samples of paraffin-embedded tissue with shorter detective time. Of the 21 patients who showed clinical improvement within a 30-day follow-up, eighteen had their treatments adjusted, including fifteen who continued treatment based on the results of mNGS. Conclusions mNGS could provide a potentially rapid and effective alternative detection method for diagnosis of cutaneous infectious granulomas and mNGS results may affect the clinical prognosis resulting from enabling the patients to initiate timely treatment.

Abstract Notopterygium incisum Ting ex H. T. Chang is a rare and endangered traditional Chinese medicinal plant. In this research, we built a comprehensive habitat suitability (CHS) model to analyze the potential suitable habitat distribution of this species in the present and future in China. First, using nine different algorithms, we built an ensemble model to explore the possible impacts of climate change on the habitat distribution of this species. Then, based on this model, we built a CHS model to further identify the distribution characteristics of N. incisum‐suitable habitats in three time periods (current, 2050s, and 2070s) while considering the effects of soil and vegetation conditions. The results indicated that the current suitable habitat for N. incisum covers approximately 83.76 × 103 km2, and these locations were concentrated in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Gansu Province, Qinghai Province, and Sichuan Province. In the future, the areas of suitable habitat for N. incisum would significantly decrease and would be 69.53 × 103 km2 and 60.21 × 103 km2 in the 2050s and 2070s, respectively. However, the area of marginally suitable habitat would remain relatively stable. This study provides a more reliable and comprehensive method for modelling the current and future distributions of N. incisum, and it provides valuable insights for highlighting priority areas for medicinal plant conservation and resource utilization.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer. It has a poor prognosis, with approximately 20–30% of patients developing recurrent and/or metastatic diseases that is relatively high resistant to conventional therapy. Resisting cell death is a hallmark of cancer cells. Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death mediated by the activation of caspases. Necroptosis is a form of regulated necrosis that relies on the activation of receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), RIPK3 and mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL), the substrate of RIPK3. Cancer cells often display apoptosis resistance via upregulation of anti-apoptotic genes and defective necroptosis due to the epigenetic silence of Ripk3. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs that are involved in numerous biological processes including cell proliferation, differentiation and death. In this study, we screened a set of ∼120 miRNAs for apoptosis-regulating miRNAs and identified miR-381-3p as a suppressor of TNF-induced apoptosis in various cancer cells. Ectopic expression of miR-381-3p inhibits the activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3. The expression level of miR-381-3p inversely correlates with the sensitivity of cancer cells to TNF-induced apoptosis. Moreover, we found that overexpression of miR-381-3p blocks TNF-induced necroptosis by inhibiting the activation of RIPK3 and MLKL. Of note, Kaplan-Meier Plotter analysis demonstrates that papillary RCC patients with high miR-381-3p expression have a lower overall survival than those with low expression level of miR-381-3p. Importantly, miR-381-3p overexpression promotes colony formation in human renal cancer cells. Thus, miR-381-3p acts as an oncogenic miRNA that counteracts both apoptotic and necroptotic signaling pathways. Our findings highlight miR-381-3p as a biomarker for predicting sensitivity to apoptosis and necroptosis, and as a possible therapeutic target for RCC.

A linear temporal instability analysis of a viscous liquid jet in ambient gas under a thermal field is conducted. The basic temperature profile is derived analytically based on the thermal conduction equation and corresponding boundary conditions. The effects of several control parameters, including the temperature ratio ( T r ), Marangoni number (Ma), and Péclet number (Pe), on non-isothermal jet instability are systematically examined through parametric studies. An energy budget method is employed to evaluate the contributions of all physical mechanisms to the kinetic energy. The results reveal that reducing T r promotes the jet instability. For jets with T r > 1 , the maximum growth rate increases with the decrease in Ma or the increase in Pe, indicating that Marangoni stress and thermal conductivity suppress the instability of hot jets. Variations in these control parameters also influence the most dangerous and cutoff wavenumbers. Furthermore, the energy budget analysis reveals a transition in the dominant instability mechanisms between Rayleigh–Plateau and Marangoni instabilities. Specifically, enhancing the Marangoni stress or suppressing the thermal conductivity for hot jets shifts the dominant mechanism from Rayleigh–Plateau instability to Marangoni instability. Phase diagrams in various control parameter spaces are presented to predict transitions in the dominant instability mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear instability analysis of a viscous swirling liquid jet surrounded by ambient gas is carried out by considering the significant influence of axial shear effect. The jet azimuthal flow is assumed as a Rankine vortex, and the non-uniform velocity distribution in the jet axial direction is approximated by parabolic and error functions. The enhancement of jet rotation is found to promote the predominant mode with larger azimuthal wavenumbers, and the mode transition is decided by the competition between centrifugal force and axial shear stress. Subsequently, the influence of the axial shear effect is examined through changing the degree of shear stress and the thickness of the gas velocity boundary layer. It is found that an increase of jet average velocity or surface velocity in the axial direction leads to the predominant mode transition to smaller azimuthal wavenumbers, due to the combined effects of shear stress and gas pressure perturbation. A larger velocity difference between ambient gas and liquid jet also promotes the predominant modes with smaller azimuthal wavenumbers, and the physical mechanism is attributed to gas pressure perturbation. Phase diagrams of different azimuthal modes are given and compared with the study of Kubitschek & Weidman (J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 572, 2007, pp. 261–286), where a static swirling column without axial shear stress was considered. The strengthened axial shear effect is found to delay the transition of predominant modes with the increase of angular velocity. Experimental studies considering the swirling jets with different axial velocities are further carried out, which validate the theoretical findings. Different instability mechanisms and their transition rules are also identified through energy budget analysis. This study is expected to give scientific guidance on understanding the instability mechanisms of the swirling jets that widely exist in natural phenomena and engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, systemic gastrointestinal disorder characterized by episodic inflammation that requires life-long management. Although the etiology of IBD is not fully understood, it is hypothesized to involve a multifaceted interplay among genetic susceptibility, the host immune response, and environmental factors. Previous studies have largely concluded that IBD is associated with this complex interplay; however, more recent evidence underscores the significant role of dietary habits as risk factors for the development of IBD. In this review, we review the molecular mechanisms of high-sugar and high-fat diets in the progression of IBD and specifically address the impacts of these diets on the gut microbiome, immune system regulation, and integrity of the intestinal barrier, thereby highlighting their roles in the pathogenesis and exacerbation of IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetic clocks are accurate predictors of human chronological age based on the analysis of DNA methylation (DNAm) at specific CpG sites. However, a systematic comparison between DNA methylation data and other omics datasets has not yet been performed. Moreover, available DNAm age predictors are based on datasets with limited ethnic representation. To address these knowledge gaps, we generated and analyzed DNA methylation datasets from two independent Chinese cohorts, revealing age-related DNAm changes. Additionally, a DNA methylation aging clock (iCAS-DNAmAge) and a group of DNAm-based multi-modal clocks for Chinese individuals were developed, with most of them demonstrating strong predictive capabilities for chronological age. The clocks were further employed to predict factors influencing aging rates. The DNAm aging clock, derived from multi-modal aging features (compositeAge-DNAmAge), exhibited a close association with multi-omics changes, lifestyles, and disease status, underscoring its robust potential for precise biological age assessment. Our findings offer novel insights into the regulatory mechanism of age-related DNAm changes and extend the application of the DNAm clock for measuring biological age and aging pace, providing the basis for evaluating aging intervention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molting and metamorphosis are important physiological processes in insects that are tightly controlled by ecdysone receptor (EcR) through the 20‐hydroxyecdysone (20E) signaling pathway. EcR is a steroid nuclear receptor (SR). Several FK506‐binding proteins (FKBPs) have been identified from the mammal SR complex, and are thought to be involved in the subcellular trafficking of SR. However, their roles in insects are poorly understood. To explore whether FKBPs are involved in insect molting or metamorphosis, we injected an FKBP inhibitor (FK506) into a lepidopteran insect, Spodoptera litura, and found that molting was inhibited in 61.11% of the larvae, and that the time for larvae to pupate was significantly extended. A total of 10 FKBP genes were identified from the genome of S. litura and were clustered into 2 distinct groups, according to their subcellular localization, with FKBP13 and FKBP14 belonging to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) group and with the other members belonging to the cytoplasmic (Cy) group. All the CyFKBPs were significantly upregulated in the prepupal or pupal stages, with the opposite being observed for the ER group members. FK506 completely blocked the transfer of EcR to the nucleus under 20E induction, and significantly downregulated the transcriptional expression of many 20E signaling genes. A similar phenomenon was observed after RNA interference of 2 CyFKBPs (FKBP45 and FKBP12b), but not for FKBP13. Taken together, our data indicate that the cytoplasmic FKBPs, especially FKBP45 and FKBP12b, mediate the nuclear localization of EcR, thereby regulating the 20E signaling and ultimately affecting molting and metamorphosis in insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicellular organisms are composed of many tissue types that have distinct morphologies and functions, which are largely driven by specialized proteomes and interactomes. To define the proteome and interactome of a specific type of tissue in an intact animal, we developed a localized proteomics approach called Methionine Analog-based Cell-Specific Proteomics and Interactomics (MACSPI). This method uses the tissue-specific expression of an engineered methionyl-tRNA synthetase to label proteins with a bifunctional amino acid 2-amino-5-diazirinylnonynoic acid in selected cells. We applied MACSPI in Caenorhabditis elegans, a model multicellular organism, to selectively label, capture, and profile the proteomes of the body wall muscle and the nervous system, which led to the identification of tissue-specific proteins. Using the photo-cross-linker, we successfully profiled HSP90 interactors in muscles and neurons and identified tissue-specific interactors and stress-related interactors. Our study demonstrates that MACSPI can be used to profile tissue-specific proteomes and interactomes in intact multicellular organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linear instability analysis of liquid jets with periodic velocity modulation in the ambient gas is carried out. Utilizing the viscous potential theory and the Floquet theory, an analytical dispersion relation for the perturbation growth can be obtained. Due to the parametric resonance caused by velocity modulation, the oscillatory Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (OKHI) can be triggered in the short-wavelength region, leading to the competition between the OKHI and the intrinsic Rayleigh–Plateau and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (RP-KHI). The parametric study shows that the increase in the velocity oscillation amplitude can enhance the jet instability and lead to the transition of the instability mechanism from the RP-KHI to the OKHI. The velocity oscillation frequency mainly affects the growth of the OKHI. Specifically, the maximum growth rates of perturbation vary with the oscillation frequency at moderate frequencies due to the competition between the RP-KHI and the OKHI, whereas they converge to constant values as the frequency either increases or decreases continuously. The increase in the Weber number promotes the RP-KHI and the OKHI simultaneously, and the jet breakup is dominated by the axisymmetric perturbation of the RP-KHI consistently. The increase in the Reynolds number enhances the jet instability, but hardly affects unstable wavenumber regions. By comparing the maximum growth rates of axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric perturbations, the predominant mode of the jet instability can be identified. Considering variations in the velocity oscillation amplitude and frequency, the transition between the RP-KHI and the OKHI can be predicted by a phase diagram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear instability analysis of an inviscid coaxial swirling jet is carried out by deriving an analytical dispersion relation of perturbation growth. The azimuthal Rankine vortex and the axial discontinuous velocity distribution are utilized as the jet basic flow. Due to the existence of double interfaces, the instability mechanisms of the coaxial swirling jet are much more complex than those of the single-layered swirling jet. The effects of control parameters (including the swirling ratio, the Weber number, the jet radius ratio, the velocity ratios between different fluids, and the azimuthal velocity jump at the inner interface) on the temporal instability of coaxial swirling jet with different azimuthal modes are studied. By comparing the growth rate of different azimuthal modes, the predominant mode that determines the jet breakup is identified. The results indicate that an increase in the swirling ratio, the Weber number, and the radius ratio can lead to predominant mode transition to larger azimuthal wavenumbers. The velocity ratio between the inner jet and the annular jet and that between the surrounding fluid and the annular jet mainly affect the axial Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability. An enhancement of the KH instability leads to the jet breakup with smaller azimuthal wavenumbers. The azimuthal velocity jump affects the azimuthal KH instability, the centrifugal instability, and the Coriolis instability simultaneously, thus leading to a multiple influence on modes transition. The phase-diagram of the predominant modes is further given, showing that the relative importance between the centrifugal force and the interfacial tension plays a significant role on the transition of predominant modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the government scientifically forms the top management team greatly influences the performance of water conservancy project, which is a concern for practitioners and scholars. According to the investigation in many cases, the current top management team formation methods of water conservancy projects can be classified into nine categories. Through theoretical analysis and literature review, it is found that six factors influence the selection of the top management team formation methods in water conservancy projects. On this basis, a relationship matrix of top management team formation methods and influencing factors is developed, and the top management team formation method with the help of the 'entropy weight-VIKOR method' is optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The owner often entrusts multiple contractors to construct in parallel due to the linear distribution of a long-distance water diversion project (LDWDP). However, multiple contractors with more information are more likely to engage in opportunistic behaviors harming the project and the public interest. The tournament incentive mechanism is considered to be one of the most effective measures to solve this issue. There are few studies on tournament incentive in construction project management, and the heterogeneous characteristics of psychological preference and the differences in tournament form are ignored. Therefore, to bridge these gaps, the tournament theory is introduced in this study to design multicontractor incentive mechanisms considering fairness preferences and self-interest preferences in a LDWDP contract. The primary contributions of this study are (1) to develop multicontractor tournament incentive models considering the preference heterogeneity based on the Lazear-Sherwin (LR) tournament incentive model and the Fehr–Schmidt fairness preference model, thus remedying the lack of a multicontractor incentive mechanism in the construction project field; (2) to explore the impact of tournament grouping arrangement on the incentive structure and incentive effect under three scenarios to help the owners improve practical guidance for formulating an incentive mechanism; and (3) to design the incentive intensity associated with each contractor's relative ranking and absolute output performance to provide a theoretical basis for the transaction governance of large projects involving multiple contractors. This study not only improves the optimal incentive contract for LDWDP theoretically but also enriches and promotes the development of behavioral contract theory in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major infrastructure projects (MIPs) possess significant strategic positions in the national economy and social development. However, recently, the rent-seeking behavior between supervision units and project contractors has intensi- fied in project construction. This paper aims to study the behavior decision-making of stakeholders in rent-seeking behavior supervision system of MIPs. In the complex and uncertain environment of MIPs, game players have cognitive bias and value perception preference. Therefore, this study introduced prospect theory and constructed the perceived return matrix and evolutionary game model of MIP rent-seeking behavior supervision among project owners, supervision units, and project contractors. From the perspective of risk perception theory, the reasons for the behavioral tendencies of game participants and the conditions for the steady state of strategy selection were explored through system dynamics simulations. The results showed that the stable state of the optimal strategy in the rent-seeking behavior supervision system of MIPs is related to the cognitive bias of the game players and is influenced by the level of regulation cost, the intensity of punishment and the size of accident losses. The contribution of this study lies in providing theoretical basis and decision support for constructing a long-term preventive mechanism for rent-seeking activities in MIPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The breakup dynamics of coaxial liquid interfaces into compound droplets in a co-flow focusing process is studied systematically. In experiments, the jetting and dripping modes downstream the focusing orifice are identified within the parametric regime where a coaxial liquid cone can be established steadily, and the phase diagram is plotted under different flow rates of inner, outer, and driving liquids. The force balance for the jet interface is analyzed numerically to explore the critical conditions for the jetting-dripping transition. It is found that the instability of the inner interface is much easier to trigger the modes transition, and the transition criterion is decided by the balance of inertia force, shear stress, and interfacial tension at the local inner jet. The linear spatiotemporal instability analysis is further carried out to study the convective and absolute instabilities of the coaxial jets. The effects of main process parameters on jet instability are accessed, and the boundary between the absolute/convective instabilities is further compared with the experimental and numerical results, which achieves good agreement. Finally, the energy budget analysis of the instability of coaxial liquid jets is performed to provide more understanding of physical mechanisms for the mode transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy in recent years, the urbanization process of the provinces in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) has put serious pressure on the sustainability of the water resources carrying capacity (WRCC). It is necessary to analyze and diagnose the coordination state between urbanization and the WRCC. In this study, based on the Population-Economic-Social-Spatial (PESS) framework and Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model, we developed two index systems for the urbanization and WRCC, respectively. At the basis of the two index systems, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of the two systems is calculated by applying the improved CCD model. Based on the calculated CCD for each province, the spatio-temporal analysis was performed to analyze the characteristics of CCD in the YRB. The obstacle factor model is utilized to obtain the main obstacle factors. The results show that: (1) the coordination state between the urbanization and WRCC systems was improved to some extent in 2017, compared to 2008, but there are differences in the coordination state of the different provinces in the YRB. (2) In terms of the level of urbanization, the gap between the seven provinces' performance levels widened because urbanization grew at different rates. The WRCC system's performance presented a fluctuating downward trend from 2008 to 2017 in the YRB. (3) The pressure subsystem had a significant impact on the two systems' coordination state in the YRB, while the social urbanization and response subsystem had a less significant impact on the urbanization system and the WRCC system, respectively. Due to the growth of urbanization, the imbalanced development of the WRCC and urbanization has become the principal contradiction that must be solved in order to achieve sustainability in the YRB. The analysis of the coupling relationship between urbanization and WRCC may guide the policy makers in planning for realistic goals. The results provide a guide for high-quality development in the YRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal linear instability of viscous coaxial jets under a radial thermal field is carried out by considering axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric disturbances. The interfacial tensions of different fluids are taken to be temperature dependent. The para-sinuous, para-varicose, and helical unstable modes are identified in the Rayleigh regime. The energy budget is also employed to explore the relative importance of thermal-induced stresses on the jet instability at the most unstable wavenumber by changing the dimensionless parameters. It is shown that decreasing the temperature ratio of inner fluid to surrounding fluid (T13) promotes the jet instability. For coaxial jets at T13 > 1, the Marangoni flow makes coaxial jets more stable, and increasing the fluid thermal conductivity suppresses the jet instability. For coaxial jets at T13 < 1, however, their influences on the jet instability are opposite. Compared with the thermal-induced stresses at the inner and outer interfaces, the inner interfacial tension is the main factor dominating the flow. Increasing either inner interfacial tension or outer surface tension and decreasing viscosity of any fluid can promote the instability of coaxial jets. The variations of thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of either inner or surrounding fluids apparently influence the jet instability of the para-varicose mode, but hardly influence that of the para-sinuous mode. This work would provide great insight into the physical mechanism of thermal jet instability in various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bile acids (BAs), which are synthesized in the liver and cycled in the enterohepatic circulation, have been recognized as signaling molecules by activating their receptors in the intestine and liver. Serum taurine-conjugated BAs have been shown to be elevated after bariatric surgeries although the postoperative BA profiles within the enterohepatic circulation have not been investigated. Clarification of these profiles could help explain the mechanisms by which bariatric surgery leads to BA profile alterations and subsequent metabolic effects. We performed duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB), sleeve gastrectomy (SG), and sham procedures in an obese diabetic rat model induced by high-fat diet and streptozotocin. The weight loss and antidiabetic effects were evaluated postsurgery. BA profiles in the systemic serum and within the enterohepatic circulation were analyzed, together with the expression of related BA transporters and enzymes at week 12 after surgery. Compared with sham, SG induced sustained weight loss, and both DJB and SG significantly improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity with enhanced glucagon-like peptide 1 secretion. Similar to changes in the serum, BAs, especially taurine-conjugated species, were also elevated in the enterohepatic circulation (bile and portal vein) after DJB and SG. In addition, the expression of key BA transporters and conjugational enzymes was elevated postoperatively, whereas the enzymes responsible for BA synthesis were decreased. In conclusion, DJB and SG elevated BA levels in the systemic serum and enterohepatic circulation, especially taurine-conjugated species, which likely indicates increased ileal reabsorption and hepatic conjugation rather than synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From environmental and economic points of view, it is highly desirable to develop a clean and efficient catalytic process to produce epoxides. An attractive approach is to use a solid, recyclable catalyst and molecular oxygen as the oxidant without any sacrificial reductant or other additives. Nonetheless, the catalysts reported up to now still cannot balance with epoxide selectivity. It is of great importance to explore novel catalysts with both high activity and selectivity for the . In this work, cobalt(II) acetylacetonate (Co(acac)2) was covalently bonded to the silica surface of SBA-15 molecular sieve by multi-step grafting using 3-aminopropytrimethoxysilane (APTS) as coupling agent. Characterizations with nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction, transmission , Fourier transform and thermogravimetric analysis suggested that the metal complex was successfully immobilized on the aminosilane-modified SBA-15 surface and the channel structure remained intact. The synthesized Co(acac)2APTS@SBA-15 catalyst was used in the of trans-stilbene (TS) with molecular oxygen. Compared to the sample prepared by the impregnation method as well as Co(acac)2 solutions under the same reaction conditions, the Co(acac)2 immobilized catalyst exhibited remarkably higher TS conversion and trans-stilbene oxide (TSO) selectivity. An increase in TS conversion with Co content was observed when the Co loading was lower than 0.70% and the 0.70Co(acac)2APTS@SBA-15 sample exhibited the best catalytic performance. Up to 50.1% of TS conversion could be achieved within 6 h, affording TSO selectivity as high as 96.7%. The superior catalytic performance of this particular catalyst is attributed to the high activity of the immobilized Co(acac)2 species on SBA-15. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed a social discovery service model aimed to protect location privacy. The model divided user's data into index message and data message in order to separate location coordinates from location data, adopted multi-authority attribute based encryption method to encrypt index message and encrypted location data by symmetric encryption method. The analysis indicates that the model is both flexible on supporting stranger discovery and group management, and good at protecting social privacy, so it can be applied very well to social discovery service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which analyzes the genotype relationship between CK/CH/LDL/97 I strains and reference infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) based on sucrase isomaltase (SI) gene comparisons in chicks in China. It investigates the protection provided by vaccination with attenuated homologous and heterologous strains in chicks. It was found that CK/CH/LDL/97 I-type virus can be a new serotype compared to vaccine strains and other types of IBV isolates.

AIM: To determine whether glaucoma patients exhibit an abnormal melatonin concentration in serum and the effects of psychiatric disorders caused by glaucoma in melatonin secretion. METHODS: A sample of 80 primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) patients, 120 primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients, and 120 normal controls were enrolled in this study. All the participants were asked to complete the following questionnaires: Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), and self-rating depression scale (SDS). Variance analysis was used to compare the subscores between the groups. After that, we chose 58 patients with primary glaucoma and 20 non-glaucoma control patients to collect their serum samples at 7-10 a.m. Serum melatonin levels were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Of all participants, the scores of PSQI, SAS, and SDS in PACG and POAG group were 9.38±0.40, 46.08±8.99, 51.11±10.72 and 7.43±0.35, 45.42±9.87, 49.04±12.24 respectively, significantly higher than those in control group (4.16±0.28, 35.49±9.18, 40.31±13.08). The serum melatonin levels in PACG (37.29±2.99 pg/mL) and POAG (35.97±3.64 pg/mL) were significantly higher than the controls (29.96±3.94 pg/mL) (P

Mucins produced by corneal and conjunctival epithelia, conjunctival goblet cells and lacrimal apparatus are important components of preocular tear film, which play important roles as clearing molecules, lubricating agents, antimicrobial agents, dis-adhesive molecules, protective cell surface barrier, osmosensors and signal transmitter. The understanding of the functional roles of mucins and the regulatory steps governing its synthesis and secretion is necessary to develop effective treatment strategies for dry eye.