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Metabolic reprogramming plays a critical role in the important cellular metabolic alterations that occur during the activation of immune cells to enable them to adapt to the extracellular environment. Here, we review recent studies on how substrate availability and metabolites mediate the signalling pathways that regulate fatty acid synthesis (FAS) in different immune cells and how FAS determines cellular fate and function. The major regulators sterol regulatory element-binding proteins and liver X receptors, the key enzyme ATP citrate lyase and the PI3K-Akt-mTOR signalling axis play important roles in de novo FAS during a variety of biological events, including cellular proliferation and differentiation and the development of organelles and intracellular membrane components in immune cells. In addition, the regulation of FAS substantially contributes to the inflammatory response of immune cells. Post-transcriptional modifications in FAS are also closely associated with the functional processes of immune cells. Understanding and investigating the intrinsic regulatory mechanism of FAS is of great significance for developing novel therapies for inflammation-induced diseases.

We report herein a case of Morganella morganii-associated acute purulent pericarditis that developed 3 years after allogenic bone marrow transplantation. The patient was successfully treated with surgical drainage and cefotaxime for 6 weeks. Splenectomy and immunosuppression for chronic GVH-D are likely to have favored the development of this rare infectious complication after BMT. M. morganii should be added to the list of bacteria causing purulent pericarditis, especially in immunocompromised hosts.

Background Yeasts, mostly Candida, are important causes of bloodstream infections (BSI), responsible for significant mortality and morbidity among hospitalized patients. The epidemiology and species distribution vary from different regions. The goals of this study were to report the current epidemiology of Candida BSI in a Shanghai Teaching Hospital and estimate the impact of appropriate antifungal therapy on the outcome. Methods From January 2008 to December 2012, all consecutive patients who developed Candida BSI at Ruijin University Hospital were enrolled. Underlying diseases, clinical severity, species distribution, antifungal therapy and its impact on the outcome were analyzed. Results A total of 121 episodes of Candida BSI were identified, with an incidence of 0.32 episodes/1,000 admissions (0.21 in 2008 and 0.42 in 2012) The proportion of candidemia caused by non-albicans species (62.8%), including C. parapsilosis (19.8%), C. tropicalis (14.9%), C. glabrata (7.4%), C. guilliermondii (5.8%), C. sake (5.0%) was higher than that of candidemia caused by C. albicans (37.2%). The overall crude 28-day mortality was 28.1% and significantly reduced with appropriate empiric antifungal therapy administered within 5 days (P = 0.006). Advanced age (OR 1.04; P = 0.014), neutropenia 3 (OR 17.44; P Conclusion The epidemiology of candidemia in Shanghai differed from that observed in Western countries. Appropriate empiric antifungal therapy influenced the short-term survival.

We present a fast and simple protocol for large-scale preparation of quaternary Cu(2)ZnSnSe(4) (CZTSe), as well as CZTSe/Cu(2)ZnSnS(4) (CZTS) core/shell nanowires using CuSe nanowire bundles as self-sacrificial templates. CuSe nanowire bundles were synthesized by reacting Cu(2 - x)Se nanowire bundles with sodium citrate solution. CZTSe nanowires were prepared by reacting CuSe nanowire bundles with Zn(CH(3)COO)(2) and SnCl(2) in triethylene glycol. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction studies show that stannite CZTSe is formed. The formed CZTSe nanowire bundles have diameters of 200-400 nm and lengths of up to hundreds of micrometers. CZTSe/CZTS nanocable bundles with similar morphologies were grown by the addition of some elemental sulfur to the reaction system for growth of CZTSe bundles. The stannite CZTSe/kesterite CZTS core/shell structure of the grown nanocables was confirmed by XRD and high-resolution transmission electron microscope investigation. The influence of S/Se molar ratio in the reaction system on the crystallographic structures and optical properties of CZTSe/CZTS nanocables was studied. The obtained CZTSe/CZTS core/shell nanocable bundles show broad and enhanced optical absorption over the visible and near-infrared region, which is promising for use in photovoltaic applications.

We examine the characteristic quantities of pion-emitting sources extracted by model-independent imaging analysis in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The moments of the spatial separation of pion pair emission can provide the characteristic information about the source geometry and coherence. They are better for describing the non-Gaussian sources with granular and core-halo structures. An improved granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets can reproduce the main characteristics of the two-pion correlation functions and source functions in the experiment of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=200$ GeV Au+Au collisions. The transverse-momentum dependence of the normalized first-order moments of the separation for the granular source is consistent with that of the usual interferometry results of source radii, after taking into account the Lorentz contraction in the direction of transverse momentum of pion pair., 10 pages, 9 figures

To determine the clinical significance of serum myoglobin (Mb) in the evaluation of severity and prognosis of non-cardiogenic critically ill patients by comparing with acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score.One hundred and thirty patients admitted consecutively to emergency intensive care unit (EICU) from April to December in 2005 were enrolled for the study. Determination of serum Mb content, routine serum biochemical tests and APACHE II scoring were performed simultaneously. The serum Mb was measured with the use of chemoluminescence and solid-chromatography. All the patients were followed up till recovery/discharge or death.APACHE II score, white blood cell count and mortality were significantly different between the two groups classified by the content of serum Mb [Mb140 microg/L (76 patients) and Mbor = 140 microg/L (55 patients)]. When Mb rose, diseases aggravated, APACHE II score and mortality went up (both P0.01). APACHE II score, Mb and neutrophil were remarkably higher in the death group (45 patients) than the recovery group (86 patients, all P0.01). Stepwise Cox Regression showed that Mb and APACHE II score were the parameters that related to the survival rate, while Mb was the main option. When Mb500 microg/L, the mortality rate was 82% (23/28); when APACHE II score20, the mortality rate was 85% (23/27); the morality rate went up to 95% (19/20) in the patients with Mb500 microg/L and APACHE II score20, suggesting that a combination of Mb determination and APACHE II score would raise the accuracy of evaluation of the prognosis of critically ill patients.Compares with APACHE II score for evaluation of critical illness, Mb can also be considered as a significant biomarker to evaluate the seriousness of the ailment in the critically ill and to judge the effect of the treatment.Therefore, it could be used as a prospective and meaningful biomarker for a quick evaluation of the disease severity in the ICU, so it is worth for further study.

We investigate the source imaging for a granular pion-emitting source model in high energy heavy ion collisions. The two-pion source functions of the granular sources exhibit a two-tiered structure. Using a parametrized formula of granular two-pion source function, we examine the two-tiered structure of the source functions for the imaging data of Au+Au collisions at Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) and Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We find that the imaging technique introduced by Brown and Danielewicz is suitable for probing the granular structure of the sources. Our data-fitting results indicate that there is not visible granularity for the sources at AGS energies. However, the data for the RHIC collisions with the selections of $40 < {\rm centrality} < 90%$ and $0.20, Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

A simple and hydrazine-free solution-based approach for depositing Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) absorber layers is reported. The process involves incorporating metal salts (Cu(CH3COO)2, Zn(CH3COO)2, SnCl2) and thiourea into a single pyridine-based solution, spin-coating a precursor film, and sulfurizing with sulfur powders or selenizing using Se pellets in an inert atmosphere, to form the desired CZTS or CZTSSe films. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra studies show that kesterite CZTS and CZTSSe are formed after sulfurization and selenization, respectively. The selenized CZTSSe displays higher crystallinity than the sulfurized CZTS. Photovoltaic devices (glass/ Mo /CZTSSe/ CdS /i- ZnO /n- ZnO /A) employing the solution precursor selenized at 500°C have yielded power conversion efficiency of 1.44% under AM 1.5 illumination.

AIM: To identify the two polymorphisms of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP) gene in the Chinese population and to explore their correlation with both hepatitis B virus (HBV) self-limited infection and persistent infection. METHODS: A total of 316 subjects with self-limited HBV infection and 316 patients with persistent HBV infection (195 subjects without familial history), matched with age and sex, from the Chinese Han population were enrolled in this study. Polymorphisms of MTP at the promoter region -493 and at H297Q were determined by the allele specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: The ratio of males to females was 2.13:1 for each group and the average age in the self-limited and chronic infection groups was 38.36 and 38.28 years, respectively. None of the allelic distributions deviated significantly from that predicted by the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was a linkage disequilibrium between H297Q and -493G/T (D’ = 0.77). As the χ2 test was used, the genotype distribution of MTP-493G/T demonstrated a significant difference between the self-limited infection group and the entire chronic group or the chronic patients with no family history (χ2 = 8.543, P = 0.015 and χ2 = 7.199, P = 0.019). The allele distribution at the MTP-493 position also demonstrated a significant difference between the study groups without family history (χ2 = 6.212, P = 0.013). The T allele emerged as a possible protective factor which may influence the outcomes of HBV infection (OR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.389-0.897). CONCLUSION: The polymorphism of the MTP gene, T allele at -493, may be involved in determining the HBV infection outcomes, of which the mechanism needs to be further investigated.