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Utilizing surface polarization to improve the separation efficiency of photoinduced carriers is considered to be an effective strategy to enhance the photocatalytic activity. Herein, a novel nonprecious metal-based P-doped g-C3N4 (PCN)/polyaniline (PANI)/BaTiO3 (BTO) (PPB) ternary photocatalyst with a hollow architecture was rationally designed and prepared by a combined wet-chemical and thermal treatment strategy. Except for the Z-scheme involved in PCN and PANI, the vertical polarization provided by ferroelectric BTO further improved the separation efficiency of the photoinduced charge carrier, resulting in an enhanced visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 602 μmol h−1 g−1, which was 21-fold higher than that of pristine g-C3N4, and an apparent quantum efficiency of 4.16% at 420 nm. In addition, benefitting from this ternary heterojunction, the photoinduced electrons were concentrated on the intermediate p-type PANI while holes were left on the lateral n-type PCN involved in the Z-scheme, resulting in the retention of high oxidation–reduction potentials. Moreover, this approach to enhance the photocatalytic activity by constructing a Z-scheme heterojunction and surface polarization could expand to other photosystems, which provides a new avenue for the rational design and the synthesis of novel photocatalysts.

Bornyl caffeate was initially discovered as a bioactive compound in medicinal plants. Despite the promising pharmacological activities including anti-tumor and antibacterial activities, the pharmacokinetics of the compound remain open. This work developed a high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method for the determination of bornyl caffeate and caffeic acid (major metabolite and a main unit of bornyl caffeate) in vivo. Successful application of the method included identification of its metabolites and investigation on the drug pharmacokinetics. A total of 30 compounds were identified as the metabolites of bornyl caffeate in rats. We attributed these metabolites to phase I metabolic routes of reduction, oxidation, hydrolysis and phase II metabolic reactions of glucuronidation, sulfation, O-methylation and glycine. Glucuronidation, sulfation, O-methylation and reduction were the main metabolic pathways of bornyl caffeate. The method presented a linear range of 1–4000 ng mL−1. The pharmacokinetic profile of bornyl caffeate was found to be a three compartment open model, while caffeic acid fitted to a two compartment open model when it was administered alone or served as the main metabolite of bornyl caffeate. The time to peak concentration (Tmax) and the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) of bornyl caffeate were 0.53 h and 409.33 ng mL−1. Compared with original caffeic acid, the compound displayed an increased half-life of elimination (T1/2β), area under the concentration time curve from 0 to t (AUC0–t) and area under the concentration time curve from 0 to ∞ (AUC0–∞), a decreased half-life of absorption (T1/2α) and an identical Cmax. Taking together, we concluded that bornyl caffeate is able to rapidly initiate therapeutic effect and last for a relatively long time in rats; metabolic pathways of O-methylation and reduction is key to interpret the mechanism and toxicity of bornyl caffeate.

Acrolein is a common environmental pollutant that has been linked to cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis (AS). Increasing evidence demonstrates that acrolein impairs the cardiovascular system by targeting vascular endothelial cells, but the underlying mechanisms haven't been completely elucidated. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), we observed that acrolein treatment induced cell reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, autophagy, pyroptosis and reduced cell migration. In addition, exposure to acrolein resulted in NLRP3 inflammasome activation as evidenced by cleavage of caspase-1 and downstream mature interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 secretion. Knockdown of NLRP3 by small interfering RNA remarkably suppressed acrolein-induced pyroptosis and increased cell migration. Moreover, the scavenging ROS relieved the autophagy, NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis. Furthermore, the role of autophagy in the acrolein-medicated pyroptosis and cell migration was investigated. In our study, 3-methyladenine (3-MA), an autophagy inhibitor, aggravated NLRP3 inflammasome activation, pyroptosis and decreased cell migration, rapamycin (Rapa), an autophagy inducer, alleviated aforementioned phenomenon under acrolein stress. Besides, we found damaged mitochondrion accentuated NLRP3 inflammasome and pyroptosis in acrolein-treated cells. In conclusion, it is possible that acrolein induced cell pyroptosis and suppressed cell migration via ROS-dependent autophagy. What's more, NLRP3 inflammasome activation plays a key role in this process.

Longitudinal torsional coupled rotary ultrasonic assisted drilling (LTC-RUAD) technology is introduced to improve the surface roughness of the hole wall and solve the tear, burr and delamination of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) induced by large thrust force and torque during conventional drilling (CD). An experiment and scale-span numerical investigation of drilling CFRPs was presented for both CD and LTC-RUAD process in this study. A drilling experimental platform using LTC-RUAD was built via a novel independently designed and manufactured LTC-RUAD vibration actuator, while the drilling experiments involving T700S-12K/YP-H26 CFRPs specimens with different process parameters were carried out by adopting the different ultrasonic vibration amplitude (UVA) in the longitudinal and torsional directions. Then, a three-dimensional (3D) scale-span FE simulation model of CD and LTC-RUAD which applied the different UVA using tapered drill-reamer (TDR) are developed to find more details about the effects of machining quality of the holes. Experimental and simulation results revealed that the maximum average thrust force reduction is observed to be as high as 30% under certain drilling conditions, and the maximum average thrust force and the delamination factor of the drilled hole shows a "concave" trend with the increase of the UVA. The quality at the exit of the drilled hole is the best when adopting Sr=2000rpm, Sf=0.01mm/rev, Alon=7.02μm and Ator=9.29μm in LTC-RUAD. The delamination factor is only 0.054. The damage factors are reduced by 69.67% compared with CD.

This study develops an integrated methodology to rapidly predict the thrust force with a tapered drill-reamer (TDR) by coupling a scale-span model and revised artificial neural networks (ANN) in drilling carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs). First, the optimum mesh size of the scale-span finite element (FE) model of CFRPs was optimized to enhance simulation efficiency on the premise of ensuring accuracy in drilling. Then, an order-driven FE computation approach was first proposed to improve computing efficiency for batch samples and maximize utilization of the available computing resources. Modeling and solving of the weight indices of material property parameters (MPPs) and machining parameters for the thrust force were first carried out entirely based on a feature selection model. A multi-layer revised ANN architecture model which considers the material properties of CFRPs and the corresponding initial weight indices was first designed for the thrust force prediction in Python software. Finally, drilling experiments involving T700S-12K/YP-H26 CFRPs specimens with different machining parameters were carried out, which more than 25 prediction results of the fresh samples showed that the established ANN prediction model with a 16-18-18-18-16-1 architecture is highly prediction precision, and the maximum absolute deviation is only 4.56% with the comparisons of experiments.

Phenology is an indicator of crop growth conditions, and is correlated with crop yields. In this study, a phenological approach based on a remote sensing vegetation index was explored to predict the yield in 314 counties within the US Corn Belt, divided into semi-arid and non-semi-arid regions. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data product MOD09Q1 was used to calculate the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series. According to the NDVI time series, we divided the corn growing season into four growth phases, calculated phenological information metrics (duration and rate) for each growth phase, and obtained the maximum correlation NDVI (Max-R2). Duration and rate represent crop growth days and rate, respectively. Max-R2 is the NDVI value with the most significant correlation with corn yield in the NDVI time series. We built three groups of yield regression models, including univariate models using phenological metrics and Max-R2, and multivariate models using phenological metrics, and multivariate models using phenological metrics combined with Max-R2 in the whole, semi-arid, and non-semi-arid regions, respectively, and compared the performance of these models. The results show that most phenological metrics had a statistically significant (p &lt, 0.05) relationship with corn yield (maximum R2 = 0.44). Models established with phenological metrics realized yield prediction before harvest in the three regions with R2 = 0.64, 0.67, and 0.72. Compared with the univariate Max-R2 models, the accuracy of models built with Max-R2 and phenology metrics improved. Thus, the phenology metrics obtained from MODIS-NDVI accurately reflect the corn characteristics and can be used for large-scale yield prediction. Overall, this study showed that phenology metrics derived from remote sensing vegetation indexes could be used as crop yield prediction variables and provide a reference for data organization and yield prediction with physical crop significance.

Owing to the human activities such as smelting and mining, arsenic (As), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) seriously polluted the soil of non-ferrous metal mining areas, thus efficient methods for the simultaneous immobilization of the three heavy metals are urgently needed. In the present study, Mg-Al modified biochars (MABs) were synthesized through a simple one-pot pyrolysis method to immobilize the three heavy metals. According to the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) test method, MABs had larger specific surface areas than biochar. Compared to the materials obtained at 300 °C and 700 °C, MAB with a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C (MAB 500) had a significant immobilization effect on As, Pb and Cd in the Gansu mining area. Compared with BC, the removal efficiencies of As, Pb and Cd increased from -62%, 17% and 5% to 52%, 100% and 66%, respectively. And the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) test showed that the leaching concentrations of the three heavy metals in the treated soil were all lower than the standard value. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and kinetic experiments showed that there were various mechanisms in the immobilization process of the three heavy metals, and the large specific surface area and the multi-Mg/Al-OH of MABs play an important role in this process. More charges were provided by larger specific surface for ion exchange with heavy metals. In addition, larger specific surface area also provided more adsorption sites. More complex sites were provided by Mg/Al-OH to form Mg/Al-O-M then immobilize the heavy metals. In summary, the immobilization mechanism may involve electrostatic attraction, precipitation/co-precipitation, and surface complexation.

Heavy metal pollution in soil and water has presented a new challenge for the environmental remediation technology. Nano zero valent iron (nZVI) has excellent adsorbent properties for heavy metals, and thus, exhibits great potential in environmental remediation. Used as supporting materials for nZVI, carbon-based materials, such as activated carbon (AC), biochar (BC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene (GNs) with aromatic rings formed by carbon atoms as the skeleton, have a large specific surface area and porous structure. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the advancement of carbon-based nano zero valent iron (C-nZVI) particles for heavy metal remediation in soil and water. First, different types of carbon-based materials and their combination with nZVI, as well as the synthesis methods and common characterization techniques of C-nZVI, are reviewed. Second, the mechanisms for the interactions between contaminants and C-nZVI, including adsorption, reduction, and oxidation reactions are detailed. Third, the environmental factors affecting the remediation efficiency, such as pH, coexisting constituents, oxygen, contact time, and temperature, are highlighted. Finally, perspectives on the challenges for utilization of C-nZVI in the actual contaminated soil and water and on the long-term efficacy and safety evaluation of C-nZVI have been proposed for further development.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in Wuhan, China, and soon caused an ongoing pandemic globally. In this study we conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia (CSEA) and infection control measures on perinatal care quality of 30 pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19.MethodsIndividual demographic data, clinical outcomes, laboratory investigations of pregnant women and their newborns were collected from electronic medical records of the Maternal and Children Health Hospital of Hubei Province, during January 24 to February 29, 2020. Anaesthesia and surgery results were compared between pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infection.ResultsUsing CSEA in cesarean section was effective and safe for pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infection. Administration of dezocine and morphine was effective as postoperative analgesia, and well tolerated in COVID-19 patients. The assessment of surgery outcomes also showed similar results in both confirmed and suspected cases. No respiratory failure nor distress were found in the mothers with confirmed COVID-19 infection and their neonates. None of these patients experienced severe obstetric complications related to anaesthesia and surgeries. No COVID-19 infection was reported in the neonates born to the mothers with confirmed COVID-19 infection and healthcare workers in these operations.ConclusionsIn cesarean section for pregnant women with COVID-19 infection, CSEA was safe and efficient in achieving satisfactory obstetrical anaesthesia and postoperative analgesia. No cross-infection occurred in the HCWs working in these operations.

BackgroundThe ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused serious concerns about its potential adverse effects on pregnancy. There are limited data on maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia.MethodsWe conducted a case-control study to compare clinical characteristics and maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with and without COVID-19 pneumonia.ResultsDuring the period 24 January–29 February 2020, there were 16 pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and 18 suspected cases who were admitted to labor in the third trimester. Two had vaginal delivery and the rest were cesarean delivery. Few patients presented respiratory symptoms (fever and cough) on admission, but most had typical chest computed tomographic images of COVID-19 pneumonia. Compared to the controls, patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had lower counts of white blood cells (WBCs), neutrophils, C-reactive protein (CRP), and alanine aminotransferase on admission. Increased levels of WBCs, neutrophils, eosinophils, and CRP were found in postpartum blood tests of pneumonia patients. Three (18.8%) of the mothers with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and 3 (16.7%) with suspected COVID-19 pneumonia had preterm delivery due to maternal complications, which were significantly higher than in the control group. None experienced respiratory failure during their hospital stay. COVID-19 infection was not found in the newborns, and none developed severe neonatal complications.ConclusionsSevere maternal and neonatal complications were not observed in pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia who had vaginal or cesarean delivery. Mild respiratory symptoms of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia highlight the need of effective screening on admission.

Acrolein, a highly reactive α,β-unsaturated aldehyde, is a toxic component of cigarette smoke. As a lipid peroxidation biomarker, acrolein plays an important role in a wide variety of disease states, such as neurodegenerative, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and atherosclerosis. Endothelial cell injury is one of the initiating factors of atherosclerosis, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Our study primarily focused on acrolein-induced autophagy–dependent apoptosis and the possible molecular mechanism. The results showed that treatment with acrolein increased the number of intracellular GFP-LC3 II punctuates and the expression of autophagosome biomarker LC3-II, with the low dose (25 μM) or at the early stage of treatment (3 h). Following treatment of EAhy926 cells with acrolein for 6 h, lysosomal permeabilization changed, and cathepsin B (CB) was released. Additionally, acrolein induced the collapse of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and cytochrome c was released. Furthermore, caspase-3 and caspase-9 activation showed that acrolein induced EAhy926 cell apoptosis. Autophagy inhibitor 3MA and CB inhibitor CA-074 Me (CA) attenuated acrolein-induced apoptosis. Collectively, our results suggested that acrolein-induced apoptosis is autophagy-dependent, occurring via injury to lysosomes and mitochondria. This study provides new mechanistic insight toward understanding the pathogenesis of acrolein-related disorders.

Insufficient neo-vascularization of in vivo implanted cell-seeded scaffold remains a major bottleneck for clinical translation of engineered bone formation. Demineralized bone matrix is an ideal bone scaffold for bone engineering due to its structural and biochemical components similar to those of native bone. We hypothesized that the microcarrier form of demineralized bone matrix favors ingrowth of vessels and bone regeneration upon in vivo implantation. In this study, a rat model of femoral vessel pedicle-based bone engineering was employed by filling the demineralized bone matrix scaffolds inside a silicone chamber that surrounded the vessel pedicles, and to compare the efficiency of vascularized bone regeneration between microcarrier demineralized bone matrix and block demineralized bone matrix. The results showed that bone marrow stem cells better adhered to microcarrier demineralized bone matrix and produced more extracellular matrices during in vitro culture. After in vivo implantation, microcarrier demineralized bone matrix seeded with bone marrow stem cells formed relatively more bone tissue than block demineralized bone matrix counterpart at three months upon histological examination. Furthermore, micro-computed tomography three-dimensional reconstruction showed that microcarrier demineralized bone matrix group regenerate significantly better and more bone tissues than block demineralized bone matrix both qualitatively and quantitatively (p

We investigated the protective effect and underlying molecular mechanism of nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) against mechanical-stretch-induced apoptosis in mouse fibroblasts. Normal cells, Nrf2 silencing cells, and Nrf2 overexpressing cells were respectively divided into two groups—nonintervention and cyclic mechanical strain (CMS)—subjected to CMS of 5333 μ (1.0 Hz for 4 h), six groups in total (control, CMS, shNfe212, shNfe212 + CMS, LV-shNfe212, and LV-shNfe212 + CMS). After treatment, cell apoptosis; cell-cycle distribution; expressions of Nrf2, Bax, Bcl-2, Cyt-C, caspase-3, caspase-9, cleaved-caspase-3, and cleaved-caspase-9; mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm); reactive oxygen species (ROS); and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured. Thirty virgin female C57BL/6 mice were divided into two groups: control (without intervention) and vaginal distension (VD) groups, which underwent VD for 1 h with an 8-mm dilator (0.3 ml saline). Leak-point pressure (LPP) was tested on day 7 after VD; Nrf2 expression, apoptosis, and MDA levels were then measured in urethra and anterior vaginal wall. Mechanical stretch decreased Nrf2 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expressions. Overexpression of Nrf2 alleviated mechanical-stretch-induced cell apoptosis; S-phase arrest of cell cycle; up-regulation of Bax, cytochrome C (Cyt-C), ROS, MDA, ratio of cleaved-caspase-3/caspase-3 and cleaved-caspase-9/caspase-9; and exacerbated the decrease of Bcl2 and ΔΨm in L929 cells. On the contrary, silencing of Nrf2 showed opposite effects. Besides, VD reduced LPP levels and Nrf2 expression and increased cell apoptosis and MDA generation in the urethra and anterior vaginal wall. Nrf2 exhibits a protective role against mechanical-stretch -induced apoptosis on mouse fibroblasts, which might indicate a potential therapeutic target of mechanical-trauma-induced stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

The focus of this study is exploring a scale-span modeling method to simulate the structural mechanical responses and dynamic progressive failure behaviors of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) in drilling. A dynamic progressive failure theory based on modified micromechanics of failure (MMF) criterion with new damage evolution laws was first introduced for intralaminar damage . The relationship between macroscopic stress and microscopic stress was established by the stress amplification factors (SAFs). Meanwhile, an auxiliary deleting element criterion was introduced to delete the serious distortion elements for the sake of preventing nonconvergence of the simulation model, and the bilinear cohesive model with mixed-mode failure criterion was employed to simulate the interlaminar delamination . Then, the drilling behaviors of T700S-12 K/YP-H26 CFRPs using a tapered drill-reamer (TDR) were simulated based on the established scale-span theory model which is implemented by user-defined material subroutine VUMAT built on ABAQUS/Explicit platform. Finally, a series of experiments were performed to validate correctness of the simulation results from the perspectives of hole-making quality evaluation index. Results show that the established scale-span simulation model is shown to agree reasonably well with the experiments, and different kinds of damage behavior of the prefabricated hole can be truly simulated in drilling CFRPs.

In this paper, a few mode fiber temperature sensor based on vernier effect is proposed. The sensor consists of two cascaded microcavities and realizes temperature sensing based on vernier effect. The single mode fiber(SMF) and few mode fiber(FMF) are fixed by a capillary glass tube to form an air reference microcavity. The end of the FMF is dipped with an appropriate amount of polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) to form a sensing microcavity with a certain thickness, which is an air microcavity-FMF–PDMS structure. Due to the different refractive index of each medium, the light is reflected on the four critical surfaces, and the four reflected light beams interfere, the vernier effect is formed by adjusting the microcavity length to a suitable length. When the external temperature changes, the microcavity length and refractive index of PDMS change, which leads to the change of interference spectrum. Therefore, the high sensitivity measurement of temperature can be realized by the change of reflection spectrum. The temperature characteristics of the sensor are studied experimentally. The results show that the temperature sensitivity is significantly improved compared with the traditional single microcavity sensor. In the temperature range of 35°C ∼ 45°C, the temperature sensitivity can reach 4.7nm/°C, and the linearity is very good. The sensor has the advantages of compact structure, simple fabrication and high sensitivity, so it has wide application prospects in the field of temperature sensing.

With the growing concern about safety and environmental issues, amino acid-based surfactants have great potential as sustainable and eco-friendly substances. In the present study, six N-acyl oligopeptide surfactants were synthesized using fatty acid methyl esters (i.e., methyl caprate, methyl laurate, and methyl myristate) and glycyl oligopeptides (i.e., glycylglycine and glycylglycylglycine). Surface active properties and aggregation behaviors of these surfactants were investigated using surface tension, fluorescence probe, dynamic light scattering, and microscopy measurements. The adsorption at the air-water interface and aggregation in the aqueous solution depend on the structure of both hydrophilic head-groups and hydrophobic tails. Spherical vesicles were observed in the aqueous solutions of glycylglycine derivatives, whereas short tubular aggregates were found in that of corresponding glycylglycylglycine products. Intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interaction between the amide head-groups might be responsible for the different self-assembly behavior and microstructure of N-acyl oligopeptide surfactants in the aqueous solution.

The brazed grinding wheels were fabricated by high-frequency induction brazing with varying temperature from 900 to 1000 °C. The morphology and chemical composition of the brazing resultants around cubic boron nitride (cBN) grit were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion X-ray spectrometry (EDS) techniques. Grinding tests of titanium alloy Ti6Al4V were carried out. The results showed that the reaction layer composed of Ti-N and Ti-B compound was formed between the cBN grit and filler alloy. The specific grinding force and specific grinding energy of brazed cBN wheels were much lower than those of the electroplated counterpart during grinding of titanium. In particular, a good sharpness and bonding strength of brazed cBN wheel were obtained when the brazing temperature is 940 °C. With the brazing temperature increase, the main wear pattern of brazed cBN wheel is pullout, breakage, and crush, successively, while adhesion is dominant on the surface of the electroplated cBN wheel.

The increasing wall stress as is elicited by arterial hypertension promotes their reorganization in the vessel wall which may lead to arterial stiffening and contractile dysfunction. The nuclear factor of activated T cells 5 (NFAT5) pathway plays a role in regulating growth and differentiation in various cell types. We investigated whether the NFAT5 pathway was involved in the regulation of biomechanical stretch-induced human arterial smooth muscle cell (HUASMC) proliferation, inflammation, and migration. Herein, we showed that stretch promoted the expression of NFAT5 in human arterial smooth muscle cells and regulated through activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase under these conditions. This may contribute to an improved activity of HUASMCs and thus promote reorganization in vascular remodeling processes such as hypertension-induced arterial stiffening and contractile dysfunction.

Aims Endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) dysfunction underlies a critical risk factor in diabetic vascular complications due to function defect in restoring endothelium injury. Crocetin has attracted increasing attention in several vascular-related diseases. In present study, we aimed to explore the role of crocetin in diabetic EPC dysfunction. Main methods EPCs were isolated from bone marrow in diabetic mice and identified using the fluorescence staining and flow cytometry. After exposure to various doses of crocetin, cell viability was detected by MTT assy. Then, colony formation, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, cell apoptosis and caspase-3 activity were assessed. The underlying mechanism was also investigated by western blotting. Key findings EPCs from diabetic mice exhibited dysfunction under hyperglycemia condition. Interestingly, crocetin treatment alleviated the impairment in diabetic EPC proliferation and colony formation. Simultaneously, the increases in LDH release, cell apoptosis and caspase-3 activity were also restrained following crocetin stimulation. Additionally, EPC migration response to SDF-1 was also impaired under diabetic condition, which was partly restored by crocetin. Mechanism analysis manifested that administration with crocetin repaired the damage in the activation of PI3K/AKT-eNOS pathway and NO production, but attenuated ROS elevation in diabetic EPCs. Importantly, preconditioning with antagonist of LY294002 (for PI3K/AKT) or N G -monomethyl- l -arginine (for eNOS) antagonized the beneficial effect of crocetin on diabetic EPC dysfunction. Significance These data corroborated that crocetin could restore the dysfunction of diabetic EPCs by enhancing NO bioavailability via regulation of PI3K/AKT-eNOS and ROS pathways. Therefore, this research supports a potential promising therapeutic aspect for diabetic patients.

Uncovering community structures is a fundamental and important problem for analyzing complex networks. The topology information, as the direct representation of networks, is widely used for community detection. But in fact, there are other two important types of information related with network topology: the global information which captures the importance of nodes in the whole network, and the local information which describes the similarities between nodes. It is of great value to consider the information of individual nodes and information between them for community detection methods simultaneously, which is largely ignored by previous methods. In this work, we integrate the global and local information uniformly in a novel nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) based model. Specifically, in the global aspect, we employ the PageRank to derive the importance of nodes, so that the more important the node is, the more influence the node is in the network. In the local aspect, we utilize nearness between nodes to obtain the similarities between nodes, so that nodes with larger similarities will have similar community memberships. Thereafter, we derive the multiplicative updating rule to learn the model parameter. Numerous experiments demonstrate that our approach has gained performance improvements up to almost 5% in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods.

Using the vibrating sample magnetometer and ex situ vector network analyzer ferromagnetic resonance, the static and dynamic magnetic properties of Tb (4 nm)/Cr ( t Cr )/Ni 80 Fe 20 (12 nm) trilayers with different thickness of Cr layer (from 0.2 to 4.0 nm) were investigated comparing with those of Ni 80 Fe 20 film. From the results of in-plane static magnetic hysteresis loops, we analyzed the soft magnetic properties and in-plane anisotropy, along with obtaining the saturation magnetization ( M s ) which shows no obvious reducing and a modulation akin to RKKY coupling. By fitting the relationship of resonance field and linewidth versus resonance frequency, the effective magnetization 4π M eff , gyromagnetic ratio γ , and effective damping coefficient ( α eff ) were extracted. It is worthwhile to mention that the inserting of ultrathin Cr layer (0.2 nm) enhanced the above parameters obviously, which then backed down towards their values in Ni 80 Fe 20 film with increasing the thickness of Cr layer as a result of the weakening magnetic proximity effect and the decreasing spin-pumping effect in trilayers. Finally, they became flattening with the Cr layer thicker than 1 nm where oscillations are also observed in the value of γ and α eff. Interestingly, the oscillations in α eff and γ are consistent with each other, which implies the damping mechanism mainly related to the spin-orbit coupling originating from the indirect interaction between Tb and Ni 80 Fe 20 . In addition, the inhomogeneous broadening (Δ H 0 ) were determined to be very small which further ascertain the accurate of the α eff .

After the publication of our article, we became aware that there were errors in Fig. 3c and 3d were incorrectly presented.

As a representative formulation of Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (Danshen)-Lignum Dalbergiae odoriferae (Jiangxiang), Xiangdan injection is widely prescribed for cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases in practice. This necessitates a pharmacokinetic investigation of this formulation to make it safer and more broadly applicable. We developed and validated a sensitive, selective, and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of 11 phenolic compounds including danshensu plus two diterpenoid quinones like cryptotanshinone and tanshinone IIA in rat. We applied this method for the pharmacokinetic studies of the 13 compounds in a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion after intravenous injection of Xiangdan injection or Danshen injection. In sham-operated rats, the animals taking Xiangdan injection exhibited significant growth of the area under the curve for danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, and tanshinone IIA compared with the changes seen in the data of those administrated with Danshen injection. Such a pattern was also observed in middle cerebral artery occlusion rats, whereas increased the area under the curve values were observed for danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, and tanshinone IIA. These results demonstrated that synergistic interactions occurred between the components of Danshen and the active compounds of Jiangxiang both in sham-operated and middle cerebral artery occlusion rats, increasing the bioavailability of Danshen. The results presented herein can be used to determine a reference dose for the clinical application of Xiangdan injection, and to elucidate the synergistic mechanism of Danshen and Jiangxiang.

The cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin (DOX) limits its clinical use in the treatment of a variety of solid tumors and malignant hematologic disease. However, the mechanism by which it causes cardiotoxicity is not fully understood. Apoptosis has been regarded as one of mechanisms underlying the cardiotoxic effects of DOX. In our study, we found that treatment of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with DOX induced autophagy and apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Treatment with DOX induced autophagy at earlier time (3 h), then lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) altered after treatment for 12 h which followed by the release of cathepsin D (CTSD). Lysosome-associated membrane proteins-1 and -2 (LAMP1 and LAMP2) were decreased in DOX-treated cells. Additionally, DOX induced the collapse of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, reduction of translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane-20 (TOM-20), and release of cytochrome c. Furthermore, autophagy inhibitor 3-MA relieved DOX-induced apoptosis as assessed by the expression of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9 and TUNEL assay. CTSD inhibitor, pepstatin A, upregulated TOM-20 and suppressed the mitochondria release of cytochrome c as well as apoptosis under DOX stress. Pyrroloquinoline quinine (PQQ), a new B vitamin, ameliorated aforementioned phenomenon. In conclusion, our results suggested that DOX-induced apoptosis was autophagy-dependent via lysosomal-mitochondrial axis. PQQ had an ability to protect cell from autophagy-dependent apoptosis induced by DOX via lysosomal-mitochondrial axis to some extent. This study provided new mechanistic insight toward understanding the pathogenesis of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and the protection effect of PQQ.

Rational design and preparation of electrocatalyst with optimal component and interfaces, which can work well for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media, are of great importance in practical water splitting. Herein, a multiscale structure surface engineering approach to construct Co(OH)

Apoptosis and oxidative damage are involved in the pathogenesis and progression of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Our previous results indicate that cell apoptosis and oxidative damage increase in a mouse model of mechanical injury-induced SUI and in fibroblasts treated with excessive mechanical strain. Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a well-characterized global antioxidant gene inducer that can reduce oxidative damage and apoptosis. Therefore, we predicted that Nrf2 may have a protective role in mechanical trauma-induced SUI. To test this hypothesis, a mouse model of vaginal distension- (VD-) induced SUI was established. Leak point pressure (LPP); levels of apoptosis, apoptosis-related proteins, and peroxidation products; and the activities of antioxidative proteins in the anterior vaginal wall were measured in wild-type (Nfe2l2+/+) C57BL/6 mice and Nrf2-knockout mice (Nfe2l2-/-). The results showed that Nrf2 knockout aggravated VD-induced reduction in LPP, increase in cell apoptosis and peroxidation product levels, decrease in antioxidative protein activities, and alterations in apoptosis-related protein levels in the vaginal walls of mice. To further confirm the role of Nrf2 in mechanical trauma-induced apoptosis and SUI, VD was performed on mice overexpressing Nrf2 via in vivo transfection of LV-Nfe2l2. The results showed that Nrf2 overexpression significantly alleviated VD-induced abnormalities in the anterior vaginal wall. Taken together, our data suggested that Nrf2 is a potential protective factor in mechanical trauma-induced apoptosis in a mouse model of SUI. Antioxidative therapy may be a promising treatment for mechanical trauma-related SUI.

Bifunctional rambutan-like nanosphere has been synthesised by combining the Au nanoparticles and polyluminol encapsulating with glucose oxidase using the one-pot hydrothermal redox protocol for the first time. Au nanoparticle/polyluminol/glucose oxidase (Au/PLUM/GOD) was developed via one step reaction through luminol solution redox reacted with HAuCl4 aqueous solution containing glucose oxidase protected from light at room temperature for 48 h. Highly luminescent luminol serves as a luminescent marker, while GOD possess high enzyme-catalytical charateristics when encapsulated in the bifunctional nanospheres. The synthetic method is easy, environmental friendly and high-productive. The prepared nanocomposites were used simply and effectively to develop highly sensitive solid-state electrochemiluminescent sensor for determination of glucose in human serum samples with wide linear range. Furthermore, it provided a promising approach for various biomolecule ECL sensors characterized by the parallel operative effects of both enzymic activities and the available concentrated surface luminescent molecules.

A highly binding dummy template molecularly imprinted polymers (Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs) was synthesized used Fe3O4-NH2@GO as carrier by dummy surface molecular imprinting technique (DSMIT) for the first time. Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs were characterized by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), brunauer emmett teller (BET) and vibrating specimen magnetometer (VSM). Adsorption and selectivity experiments of Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs and non-imprinted polymers (Fe3O4-NH2@GO@NIPs) verified that the Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs had a better selectivity and adsorption properties for five pyrethroids pesticides. Adsorption test results revealed that the adsorption behaviors of pyrethroids onto Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs followed Langmuir equation adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs were used as sorbent in magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) to extract five pyrethroids from fruit juice samples, following desorption with acidified ethyl acetate, the pyrethroids were quantified by gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC-ECD). The developed method MSPE coupled with GC-ECD achieved satisfactory recovery (72.1–106.8%) with RSD less than 10.8%, and the detection limits (LOD) for fenpropathrin (FENP), lambda-cyhalothrin (LC), cyfluthrin (CYF), fenvalerate (FEN) and deltamethrin (DEL) ranged from 0.007 to 0.015 μg/L. Compared to other methods, the procedure MSPE-GC-ECD based on Fe3O4-NH2@GO@MIPs in this work demonstrated to be a more convenient and practical method for the separation, enrichment, and detection of pyrethroids pesticides from fruit juice samples.

Aberrant epigenetic reprogramming is the main obstacle to the development of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos and the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which results in the low reprogramming efficiencies of SCNT and iPS. Histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), as a repressive epigenetic mark, plays important roles in mammalian development and iPS induction. However, the reprogramming of H3K27me3 in pig remains elusive. In this study, we showed that H3K27me3 levels in porcine early cloned embryos were higher than that in IVF embryos. Then GSK126 and GSK-J4, two small molecule inhibitors of H3K27me3 methylase (EZH2) and demethylases (UTX/JMJD3), were used to regulate the H3K27me3 level. The results showed that H3K27me3 level was reduced in cloned embryos after treatment of PEF with 0.75 μM GSK126 for 48 h, incubation of one-cell reconstructed oocytes with 0.1 μM GSK126 and injection of antibody for EZH2 into oocyte. Meanwhile, the development of the cloned embryos was significantly improved after these treatments. On the contrary, GSK-J4 treatment increased the H3K27me3 level in cloned embryos and decreased the cloned embryonic development. Furthermore, iPS efficiency was both increased after reducing the H3K27me3 level in donor cells and in early reprogramming phase. In summary, our results suggest that H3K27me3 acts as an epigenetic barrier in SCNT and iPS reprogramming, and reduction of H3K27me3 level in donor cells and in early reprogramming phase can enhance both porcine SCNT and iPS efficiency.

In recent years, agents for sludge dewatering have received extensive attention both from fundamental and applied research. Papers in the field of sludge dewatering agents are mainly concerned with the synthesis and characterization of agents as well as their interaction mechanisms with sludge. On the other hand, patents, which are characteristically different than papers, involve the invention and application of sludge dewatering agents. However, these researches rarely use bibliometric technology and social network analysis to provide a better understanding of the fundamental and applied researches in this specific field. This paper presents a quantitative analysis based on a total of 338 (out of 1126) core papers from Web of Science Expanded and 961 (out of 4678) core patents from Derwent Innovation to provide valuable suggestions that may promote further development in the field of sludge dewatering agents. The core point of this paper is to explore the relationship between fundamental research and applied research in the field of sludge dewatering agents through citation, characteristics of different countries/regions, collaborations of research area and organizations. Our results underline that highly cited papers support applied research by citating information among them. With respect to countries, Japan paid more attention to applied research, whereas the USA performed well both in fundamental research and applied research. China has high quantity in both papers and patents in agents for sludge dewatering. However, the papers per capita of population of China is low and the pattern still needs to optimized to improve the quality in this field. The unique development path revealed that developing countries still have a long way to go in terms of technology innovation. In addition, collaboration network of research areas has shown strong cooperation among applied researches, however they lack connection with fundamental sciences, such as physics or chemistry. Furthermore, collaboration network of organizations disclosed the necessity for upstream enterprises (agent producers) to work closely with downstream enterprises (agent users) in the sludge dewatering.

Background Bone tissue engineering is not widely used in clinical treatment. Two main reasons hide behind this: (1) the seed cells are difficult to obtain and (2) the process of tissue engineering bone construction is too complex and its efficiency is still relatively low. It is foreseeable that in the near future, the problem of seed cell sources could be solved completely in tissue engineering bone repair. As for the complex process and low efficiency of tissue engineering bone construction, usually two strategies would be considered: (1) the construction strategy based on injectable bone tissue and (2) the construction strategy based on osteogenic cell sheets. However, the application of injectable bone tissue engineering (iBTE) strategy and osteogenic cell sheet strategy is limited and they could hardly be used directly in repairing defects of large segmental bone, especially load-bearing bone. Methods In this study, we built an osteogenic micro-tissue with simple construction but with a certain structure and composition. Based on this, we established a new iBTE repair strategy—osteogenic micro-tissue in situ repair strategy, mainly targeting at solving the problem of large segmental bone defect. The steps are as follows: (1) Build the biodegradable three-dimensional scaffold based on the size of the defect site with 3D printing rapid prototyping technology. (2) Implant the three-dimensional scaffold into the defect site. This scaffold is considered as the “steel framework” that could provide both mechanical support and space for bone tissue growth. (3) Inject the osteogenic micro-tissue (i.e., the “cell-extracellular matrix” complex), which could be considered as “concrete,” into the three-dimensional scaffold, to promote the bone tissue regeneration in situ. Meanwhile, the digested cells were injected as the compared group in this experiment. After 3 months, the effect of in situ bone defect repair of osteogenic micro-tissue and digested cells was compared. Results It is confirmed that osteogenic micro-tissue could achieve a higher efficiency on cell usage and has a better repair effect than the digested cells. Conclusions Osteogenic micro-tissue repairing strategy would be a more promising clinical strategy to solve the problem of large segmental bone defect. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13287-018-1064-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Tanshinol borneol ester (DBZ) is a potential drug candidate composed of danshensu and borneol. It shows anti-ischemic and anti-atherosclerosis activity. However, little is known about its metabolism in vivo. This research aimed to elucidate the metabolic profile of DBZ through analyzing its metabolites using high-performance liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent TC-C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) with gradient elution using methanol and water containing 0.2% (v/v) formic acid as the mobile phase. Metabolite identification involved analyzing the retention behaviors, changes in molecular weights and MS/MS fragment patterns of DBZ and its metabolites. As a result, 20 potential metabolites were detected and tentatively identified in rat plasma, urine and feces after administration of DBZ. DBZ could be metabolized to O-methylated DBZ, DBZ-O-glucuronide, O-methylated DBZ-O-glucuronide, hydroxylated DBZ and danshensu. Danshensu, a hydrolysis product of DBZ, could further be transformed into 12 metabolites. The proposed method was confirmed to be a reliable and sensitive alternative for characterizing metabolic pathways of DBZ and providing valuable information on its druggability.

AimsCurrently, efficient regimens to reverse atherosclerotic plaques are not available in the clinic. Herein, we present sonodynamic therapy (SDT) as a novel methodology to rapidly inhibit progression of atherosclerotic plaques.Methods and resultsIn atherosclerotic rabbit and apoE-deficient mouse models, SDT efficiently decreased the atherosclerotic burden within 1 week, revealing a decrease in the size of the atherosclerotic plaque and enlarged lumen. The shrunken atherosclerotic plaques displayed compositional alterations, with a reduction in lesional macrophages and lipids. The rapid efficacy of SDT may be due to its induction of macrophage apoptosis, enhancement of efferocytosis, and amelioration of inflammation in the atherosclerotic plaque. Compared with atorvastatin, the standard of care for atherosclerosis, SDT showed more significant plaque shrinkage and lumen enlargement during 1 week treatment. Furthermore, SDT displayed good safety without obvious side effects. In a pilot clinical trial recruiting the patients suffering atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease, combination therapy of SDT with atorvastatin efficiently reduced progression of atherosclerotic plaque within 4 weeks, and its efficacy was able to last for at least 40 weeks.ConclusionSDT is a non-invasive and efficacious regimen to inhibit atherosclerotic plaque progression.

The HSPF [Hydrologic Simulation Program—FORTRAN (Computer software). EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory, Athens, Georgia] and SWAT [Soil and Water Assessment Tool (Computer software)...

With the recent development of distributed hydrological models, the use of multi-site observed data to evaluate model performance is becoming more common. Distributed hydrological model have many advantages, and at the same time, it also faces the challenge to calibrate over-do parameters. As a typical distributed hydrological model, problems also exist in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) parameter calibration. In the paper, four different uncertainty approaches – Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) techniques, Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE), Sequential Uncertainty Fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) and Parameter Solution (PARASOL) – are taken to a comparative study with the SWAT model applied in Peace River Basin, central Florida. In our study, the observed river discharge data used in SWAT model calibration were collected from the three gauging stations at the main tributary of the Peace River. Behind these approaches, there is a shared philosophy; all methods seek out many parameter set to fit the uncertainties due to the non-uniqueness in model parameter evaluation. On the basis of the statistical results of four uncertainty methods, difficulty level of each method, the number of runs and theoretical basis, the reasons that affected the accuracy of simulation were analysed and compared. Furthermore, for the four uncertainty method with SWAT model in the study area, the pairwise correlation between parameters and the distributions of model fit summary statistics computed from the sampling over the behavioural parameter and the entire model calibration parameter feasible spaces were identified and examined. It provided additional insight into the relative identifiability of the four uncertainty methods Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common hygienic problem affecting the quality of women’s life worldwide. In this research, we revealed the involvement and regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, oxidative damage, and TGF-β1 signaling in the pathological mechanisms of mechanical trauma-induced SUI. We found that excessive mechanical strain significantly increased apoptosis rate, decreased cell viability and ECM production, and broke the balance of MMPs/TIMPs compared with the nonstrain control (NC) group. The expression levels of TGFβ1, p-Smad3, Nrf2, GPx1, and CAT were downregulated, the production of ROS, 8-OHdG, 4-HNE, and MDA was increased, and the nuclear translocation of Smad2/3 was suppressed after 5333 μstrain’s treatment. Both mTGF-β1 pretreatment and Nrf2 overexpression could reverse mechanical injury-induced TGFβ1/Smad3 signaling inhibition and ECM remodeling, whereas mTGF-β1 had no effect on Nrf2 expression. Nrf2 overexpression significantly alleviated mechanical injury-induced ROS accumulation and oxidative damage; in contrast, Nrf2 silencing exhibited opposite effects. Besides, vaginal distention- (VD-) induced in vivo SUI model was used to confirm the in vitro results; Nrf2 knockout aggravates mechanical trauma-induced LPP reduction, ECM remodeling, oxidative damage, and TGF-β1/Smad3 suppression in mice. Therefore, we deduce that mechanical injury-induced ECM remodeling might be associated with Nrf2/ARE signaling suppression mediating TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling inhibition. This might reflect a new molecular target for SUI researches.

A two-stage titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) dosing strategy is applied for investigating the coagulation effect on simulated water containing humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) and these represent the dissolved organic matter (DOM). The influence of second TiCl 4 dose on coagulation efficiency, flock re-growth and the fractal dimension properties is studied for the beneficial effect of the second coagulant dose. Moreover, the impact of increased shear on the ultra filtration permeate flux in coagulation–ultra filtration (C–UF) hybrid process is explored. A small second dose essentially decreases the residual turbidity and improves the organic matter removal. Also, flocks with larger size and better recoverability result and having more compact structure than those obtained without the second TiCl 4 coagulant dose. At the same total TiCl 4 coagulant concentrations, the two-stage dosing mode reveals significant advantage over the single coagulant dosing in terms of turbidity removal, flock size and recoverability although organic matter removal and flock compactness degree are more or less deteriorated during the two-stage dosing process. The second TiCl 4 dose contributes to larger re-generated flocks with better re-growth ability than those obtained without the second dose within a wide range of high shear rate and even with prolonged breaking period. Two-stage dosing mode could improve the ultra filtration permeate flux under certain shear conditions. An extension in breakage time leads to much severer flux decline than short breakage periods. In case of FA simulated water, the ultra filtration permeate flux was less sensitive to increasing shear rate than in case of HA simulated water.

Curcumin is extracted from the rhizomes of the traditional Chinese herbCurcuma longaand has been proposed to function as a photosensitizer. The potential use of curcumin as a sonosensitizer for sonodynamic therapy (SDT) requires further exploration. This study investigated the sonodynamic effect of curcumin on macrophages, the pivotal inflammatory cells in atherosclerotic plaque. THP-1-derived macrophages were incubated with curcumin at a concentration of 40.7 μmol/L for 2 h and then exposed to pulse ultrasound irradiation (2 W/cm2with 0.86 MHz) for 5–15 min. Six hours later, cell viability was decreased in cells that had been treated with ultrasound for 10 and 15 min. After ultrasound irradiation for 15 min, the ratio of apoptotic and necrotic cells in SDT group was higher than that in ultrasound group, and the ratio of apoptotic cells was higher than that of necrotic cells. Both loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and morphological changes of cytoskeleton were apparent 2 h after treatment with curcumin SDT. These findings support that curcumin had sonodynamic effect on THP-1-derived macrophages and that curcumin SDT could be a promising treatment for atherosclerosis.