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Metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (GRM2) is highly expressed in hippocampal dentate granule cells (DGCs), regulating synaptic transmission and hippocampal functions. Newborn DGCs are continuously generated throughout life and express GRM2 when they are mature. However, it remained unclear whether and how GRM2 regulates the development and integration of these newborn neurons. We discovered that the expression of GRM2 in adult-born DGCs increased with neuronal development in mice of both sexes. Lack of GRM2 caused developmental defects of DGCs and impaired hippocampus-dependent cognitive functions. Intriguingly, our data showed that knockdown ofGrm2resulted in decreased b/c-Raf kinases and paradoxically led to an excessive activation of MEK/ERK1/2 pathway. Inhibition of MEK ameliorated the developmental defects caused byGrm2knockdown. Together, our results indicate that GRM2 is necessary for the development and functional integration of newborn DGCs in the adult hippocampus through regulating the phosphorylation and activation state of MEK/ERK1/2 pathway.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTMetabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (GRM2) is highly expressed in mature dentate granule cells (DGCs) in the hippocampus. It remains unclear whether GRM2 is required for the development and integration of adult-born DGCs. We providedin vivoandin vitroevidence to show that GRM2 regulates the development of adult-born DGCs and their integration into existing hippocampal circuits. Lack of GRM2 in a cohort of newborn DGCs impaired object-to-location memory in mice. Moreover, we revealed that GRM2 knockdown paradoxically upregulated MEK/ERK1/2 pathway by suppressing b/c-Raf in developing neurons, which is likely a common mechanism underlying the regulation of the development of neurons expressing GRM2. Thus, Raf/MEK/ERK1/2 pathway could be a potential target for brain diseases related to GRM2 abnormality.

A palladium-catalyzed 1,2-aminoacyloxylation of cyclopentene has been described and more structurally diverse bridged aza-bicycles could be readily achieved through further transformation.

Wheat straw, a typical agricultural solid waste, was employed to clarify the effects of torrefaction on the structural features and combustion reactivity of biomass. Two typical torrefaction temperatures (543 K and 573 K), four atmospheres (argon, 6 vol.% O2, dry flue gas and raw flue gas) were selected. The elemental distribution, compositional variation, surface physicochemical structure and combustion reactivity of each sample were identified using elemental analysis, XPS, N2 adsorption, TGA and FOW methods. Oxidative torrefaction tended to optimize the fuel quality of biomass effectively, and the enhancement of torrefaction severity improved the fuel quality of wheat straw. The O2, CO2 and H2O in flue gas could synergistically enhance the desorption of hydrophilic structures during oxidative torrefaction process, especially at high temperatures. Meanwhile, the variations in microstructure of wheat straw promoted the conversion of N-A into edge nitrogen structures (N-5 and N-6), especially N-5, which is a precursor of HCN. Additionally, mild surface oxidation tended to promote the generation of some new oxygen-containing functionalities with high reactivity on the surface of wheat straw particles after undergoing oxidative torrefaction pretreatment. Due to the removal of hemicellulose and cellulose from wheat straw particles and the generation of new functional groups on the particle surfaces, the ignition temperature of each torrefied sample expressed an increasing tendency, while the Ea clearly decreased. According to the results obtained from this research, it could be concluded that torrefaction conducted in a raw flue gas atmosphere at 573 K would improve the fuel quality and reactivity of wheat straw most significantly.

The VEGF receptor is mock-coupled with a known active compound and the active groups of the inhibitor which can bind to VEGF were analyzed. Using asiatic acid as a lead compound, 10 novel skeleton candidate compounds were designed through introduction of the active groups onto the special location and synthesized simultaneously. Furthermore, the structure of these compounds was determined by

In traditional methods, electrical property estimation of photovoltaic (PV) modules is achieved through two steps. First, a certain condition (usually standard testing condition, STC) is selected as the reference condition, and the physical parameters under the reference condition are extracted from current–voltage data points. Second, physical parameters under varying operating conditions are obtained by transforming equations, and the electrical properties of the PV modules are estimated. In this paper, the influence of different reference conditions on the accuracy of performance estimation is studied. The estimation results using different reference conditions are compared to obtain the error distribution pattern, which has essential reference significance for the selection of reference conditions in practical applications. In addition, a method of the selecting reference condition is proposed. A new objective function is proposed by considering three key operating points for each I–V curve under different operating conditions, which balances accuracy and computational complexity. A large amount of experimental data for different types of PV modules are used to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method. In comparison with the traditional methods using STC as the reference condition and existing method in Matlab/Simulink, the results obtained by the proposed method exhibit better accuracy. It can be further used to estimate the output power of PV system under varying operating conditions.

Jiao Ma,1,* Zhuoxiao Han,1,* Rui Jiao,1 Guanli Yuan,1 Cuiqing Ma,2 Xixin Yan,1 Aihong Meng1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 050000, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Immune Mechanism and Intervention on Serious Disease in Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 050000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Aihong Meng, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215, Heping West Road, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 050000, People’s Republic of China, Email mengaihong_med@126.comBackground: PM2.5 exposure is one of the major inducements of various respiratory diseases and related mortality. Meanwhile, irisin, a metabolism and thermogenesis-related hormone, is found to be protective against acute lung injury induced by LPS, which indicates its therapeutic function in lung injury. However, the function and underlying mechanism of irisin in PM2.5-induced acute lung injury (ALI) are still unclear. This study is aimed to discover the potential mechanisms of irisin in PM2.5-induced acute lung injury.Methods: Atg5 deficient mice and cells were established to clarify the relationship between irisin and autophagy in PM2.5-induced ALI. We also used Ad-mCherry-GFP-LC3B as a monitor of autophagy flux to claim the effects of irisin on autophagy. Western blotting and qPCR were used to reveal the molecular mechanism.Results: As a result, PM2.5 exposure induced lung injury whereas mitigated by irisin. Moreover, PM2.5 hampered autophagy flux, characterized by accumulation of p62, and autophagosomes, as well as blocked autolysosomes. Irisin improved the disturbed autophagy flux, which was abrogated by deficiency of Atg5. Additionally, we demonstrated that irisin activated AMPK and inhibited mTOR, which indicated the enhanced autophagy. Moreover, blockage of AMPK by compound C terminated irisin’s induction of autophagy in cultured MH-S cells.Conclusion: Our findings reveal that irisin performs protective effects against PM2.5-induced ALI by activating autophagy through AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway.Keywords: irisin, PM2.5, acute lung injury, autophagy

The environmental risk of heavy metals in hazardous municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (FA) is one of the most important concerns for its safely treating and disposing. This study investigated the stabilization behavior of heavy metals in FA using coal fly ash (CFA) as an additive via hydrothermal treatment. The effects of water washing pre-treatment and FA/CFA ratio on leaching behavior, speciation evolution, and risk assessment of heavy metals were studied. The results showed that 96.6-98.0 % of Cl can be effectively removed by water washing pre-treatment and hydrothermal treatment. Most heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) (91.5 %) were stabilized in the hydrothermal product, rather than transferred to liquid phase. Tobermorite can be synthesized by adjusting Ca/Si ratio with the addition of CFA. The heavy metals were transferred into more stable residue fractions with increasing CFA addition, which resulted in the significant reduction of leaching concentrations and risk assessment code (RAC) of heavy metals. Among, the product with 30% CFA exhibited the most superior performance with the lowest leaching concentrations of heavy metals and RAC was at no risk level (1). In addition, the economic performance of hydrothermal treatment exhibited a potential advantage by comparing with FA-to-cement, FA-to-glass slags and FA-to-chelating agentcement solidification/stabilization. Therefore, the hydrothermal treatment coupled with water washing pre-treatment would be a promising method for the detoxification of FA, as well as synergistic treatment of FA and CFA.

Carbonation of concrete causes corrosion of the steel reinforcement and reduces the service life of the structure. Based on the reality that fly ash discharge is increasing year by year and construction sand is becoming increasingly limited, it is of practical importance to study the effect of fly ash dosage and desert sand replacement rate on the carbonation resistance of concrete. Orthogonal test L9(34) with four factors and three levels was designed to study the influence of water-binder ratio, fly ash dosage, sand ratio and DSRR on carbonation resistance of desert sand concrete (DSC). The results of the orthogonal tests were analysed by range analysis and ANOVA and a comparatively better concrete mix ratio was given. Next, single-factor tests were designed to investigate the effects of fly ash and desert sand replacement rates on the carbonation resistance of DSC respectively. The regression model among carbonation depth, fly ash dosage and DSRR was established. The experimental results show that the carbonation depth of concrete with fly ash as a single variable increases with the amount of fly ash, increasing more rapidly in the early stages than in the later stages. As the DSRR increases, the carbonation depth of concrete with desert sand as a single variable first decreases and then increases and reaches its lowest value when DSRR equals 20%. When fly ash and desert sand are mixed into concrete simultaneously, the carbonation depth reaches minimum value on the condition that fly ash dosage is 10% and DSRR is 20%.

The waxberry-like mixed-phase TiO2 hollow microstructures (WMTHMs) are controllably prepared via a topotactic synthetic method, involving the synthesis of monodispersed CaTiO3 precursors by a solvothermal method and subsequently transforming them into TiO2 through a Na2EDTA-assisted ion-exchange process. The ratio of anatase-rutile is adjustable, and the two phases are connected well with each other. WMTHMs are composed of radially aligned nanorods, speeding up the electron transport. The optimum WMTHMs sample shows a specific surface area of 68.05 m2/g and exhibits an excellent light scattering capacity. The cell based on WMTHMs light scattering layer obtained an optimal efficiency of 9.12%. The improvement of cell efficiency is mainly attributed to the high specific surface area, the efficient light scattering, the appropriate ratio of anatase-rutile, the staggered bandgap structure, and the convenient one-dimensional electron transport channel.

BackgroundThe transition from methamphetamine (MA) casual use (MCU) to compulsive use is enigmatic as some MA users can remain in casual use, but some cannot. There is a knowledge gap if gut microbiota (GM) play a role in differing MCU from MA use disorder (MUD). We aimed to investigate the clinical features and GM differences between individuals with MCU and MUD.MethodWe recruited two groups of MA users –MCU and MUD – and matched them according to age and body mass index (n=21 in each group). Participants were accessed using the Semi-Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism, and their fecal samples were undergone 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing. We compared the hosts’ clinical features and GM diversity, composition, and structure (represented by enterotypes) between the two groups. We have identified differential microbes between the two groups and performed network analyses connecting GM and the clinical traits.ResultCompared with the casual users, individuals with MUD had higher incidences of MA-induced neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g., paranoia, depression) and withdrawal symptoms (e.g., fatigue, drowsiness, and increased appetite), as well as stronger cravings for and intentions to use MA, and increased MA tolerance. The GM diversity showed no significant differences between the two groups, but four genera (Halomonas, Clostridium, Devosia, and Dorea) were enriched in the individuals with MUD (pConclusionOur findings suggest that Ruminococcus-driven enterotype 2 and the genera Devosia might be two influential factors that differentiate MA casual use from MUD, but further studies are warranted.

Herein, we report a highly efficient non-noble bimetallic Ni–Mn/SiO2 catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone under mild reaction conditions.