Search

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a type of retinal neovascularization in premature infants, has become a serious problem that drastically affects the quality of life of premature infants. ROP is associated with angiogenesis and neovascularization. Here, we aimed to explain the function and latent roles of Cytochrome P450 2J2 (CYP2J2) in hypoxia-induced retinopathy in retinal vascular endothelial cells (HRVECs). HRVECs were stimulated with hypoxia for 24 h to establish an in vitro retinopathy model. Cell viability and migration were evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Transwell assays, respectively. Protein and gene expression was determined by reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot analysis. We observed that pcDNA3.1(+)-CYP2J2 promoted CYP2J2 and Jagged1 expression, while Dll4 was down-regulated in hypoxia-stimulated HRVECs. Additionally, pcDNA3.1(+)-CYP2J2 inhibited HRVEC viability, reduced PCNA expression, and inhibited the migration of HRVECs. Further, the Notch pathway was inhibited in the Hypoxia+pcDNA3.1(+)-CYP2J2 group. Opposite results were observed upon Terfenadone treatment in hypoxia induced HRVECs. Finally, our findings further verified that DAPT promotes the effects of CYP2J2 on cell viability, migration, and Notch signaling in hypoxia-induced HRVECs, while EDTA reversed the inhibitory effects of CYP2J2 on hypoxia-induced HRVECs. In conclusions, CYP2J2 was found to inhibit the viability and angiogenesis of HRVECs by inhibiting Notch signaling in a hypoxia-induced retinopathy model.

Background Osimertinib is the standard first‐line treatment for non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation. Resistance to osimertinib remains a clinical challenge. However, the optimal therapy for these patients is still controversial. In this study, we aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy plus chemotherapy (IO+C) compared with chemotherapy (C) in NSCLC patients after progression on osimertinib. Methods Advanced NSCLC patients after progression on osimertinib were retrospectively reviewed. Progression‐free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety were evaluated between the patients treated with IO+C and C. Results A total of 40 patients were included in the study. There were 20 patients each in the IO+C group or C group. The ORR was significantly higher in patients in the IO+C group (45% vs. 25%, p, Our study provides the clinical evidence that immunotherapy plus chemotherapy is of more benefit to NSCLC patients after progression on osimertinib in both progression‐free time and overall survival.

Cu-catalyzed endo-selective asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides with ethenesulfonyl fluorides (ESFs) was successfully developed, this protocol provided an efficient and facile method to a wide range of chiral pyrrolidine-3-sulfonyl fluorides with good to excellent results (up to 87% yield, >20:1 dr, 94% ee). Some other chiral sulfonyl derivatives, such as sulfonamide and sulfonate, were easily accessible through simple transformations with high yields, which demonstrated that the cycloaddition products could be synthetically useful in the sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange (SuFEx) chemistry.

Lithium-air (Li-air) batteries stand out among the post-Li-ion batteries due to their high energy density, which has rapidly progressed in the past years. Regarding the fundamental mechanism of Li-air batteries that discharge products produced and decomposed during charging and recharging progress, the reversibility of products closely affects the battery performance. Along with the upsurge of the mainstream discharge products lithium peroxide, with devoted efforts to screening electrolytes, constructing high-efficiency cathodes, and optimizing anodes, much progress has been made in the fundamental understanding and performance. However, the limited advancement is insufficient. In this case, the investigations of other discharge products, including lithium hydroxide, lithium superoxide, lithium oxide, and lithium carbonate, emerge and bring breakthroughs for the Li-air battery technologies. To deepen the understanding of the electrochemical reactions and conversions of discharge products in the battery, we systematically review recent advances in the various discharge products, mainly focusing on the growth and decomposition mechanisms and the determining factors. We also provide perspectives for Li-air batteries on the fundamental development of discharge products and future applications. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Magnetic targeted drug delivery systems can improve drug utilization and reduce drug side effects. There are still many difficulties to be overcome in clinical practice. The main problems include providing large enough magnetic capture particles to concentrate drug-loaded magnetic micro-nanoparticles (MNPs) to the lesion site. The existing research focuses on the development of targeted carriers, and the magnet device has not formed a mature research system. Based on the recent development of magnet devices in recent years, this paper proposes the research direction of potential magnet devices. From the dynamic behavior of the particles under the magnetic field, the magnetic system and the mathematical model design direction of the optimized magnet are developed. This article describes the obstacles encountered in drug targeting in the study of magnet devices and summarizes the potential development of future magnet devices.

Background Anti-epileptic drugs have different effects on neonatal seizures, and new agents have been widely used in recent years. Meanwhile, significant differences still exist in the treatment for neonatal seizures, whether in choice of drug or in duration of treatment. And with the increase in options for treatment, the best choice of second-line treatment has not been recommended. Methods The MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase and clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched (January 1, 1960 to October 20, 2020). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or observational investigations studying anti-epileptic drugs for neonatal seizures were selected. And then we conducted a network meta-analysis and examined comparative efficacy of the first-line and second-line anti-epileptic drugs for neonatal seizures. Results Data were extracted from 11 included studies by 2 independent investigators. Random effects models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs). We performed direct meta-analyses with a random effects model and network meta-analyses for first-line and second-line drugs. Five published RCTs and 6 observational investigations with 1333 patients and 6 interventions contributed to the analysis. Conclusion We recommend phenobarbital as the first-line drug for neonatal seizures. In addition, there is a tendency for levetiracetam to be an effective second-line treatment for neonatal seizures after failure of first-line drugs.

To form the stator slots and isolate the stator and rotor, composite components for the oil-cooling air-core stator of a high temperature superconducting motor (HTSM) were designed based on a process that could be summarized as follows. First, the computational fluid dynamics analysis of the oil-cooling air-core stator was conducted. From the results, the load of temperature and oil pressure that apply on the composite cylinder were chosen to be 50 °C and 0.1 MPa, respectively. Second, the structure of the composite components was designed according to the forming technology, and the performance of that was obtained from the finite element method. The results show that the composite teeth were chosen to be a combination of GFRP block and 1Cr18Ni9Ti sheet. And the stresses of the composite cylinder with the thickness of 11 mm in all directions were lower and without buckling at 0.1 MPa. Third, the full-scale composite cylinder was designed and manufactured, and a full-scale simplified performance test platform was also developed to verify the strength of the cylinder. The test results show that the maximum strain of measuring point on the cylinder under 0.1 MPa is 325.1 $\mu \varepsilon $ , which meets the design requirements of the HTSM.

A highly efficient and environment-friendly scale inhibitor (MA-VA-VS) was synthesized via free radical solution polymerization method, where maleic anhydride (MA), vinyl acetate (VA) and vinyl sulfonate (VS) acted as monomers, while ammonium persulfate was used as initiator. The inhibition performance and the structure as well as properties was characterized using static jar measurement and dynamic test, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The surface morphology and composition of scale formed in the solution were examined using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The binding energies of inhibitor with calcite (104) face were calculated using Materials Studio 2017 (MS) at 323 K. The results show that the inhibition efficiency gradually increases with increasing inhibitor concentration. While as the Ca2+ concentration increases, the efficiency first increases and then decreases. With the increase in temperature or pH, the efficiency generally decreases. It is confirmed that the inhibition efficiency can reach 91.4% when 150 mg/L MA-VA-VS is used in a flow condition. Both the calculated binding energy and inhibition performance evaluation results demonstrate that the scale inhibition performance of MA-VA-VS is better than a commercial scale inhibitor (HPMA). The excellent inhibition performance of this inhibitor is due to its chelation and dispersion properties.

There are a few studies that reported sex disparities in clinical features, pathological features and outcomes among ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients, but studies focusing on sex-specific differences of myeloperoxidase (MPO)-AAV patients are scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze sex differences in clinicopathological features and outcomes of MPO-AAV. Patients diagnosed with MPO-AAV in Xiangya Hospital from January 2010 to June 2021 were included in the study and separated into female and male groups. The differences in clinical manifestations, laboratory parameters, pathological features and prognosis between the two groups were retrospectively analyzed. Three hundred and sixty-six patients were included and divided into female group (n = 176) and male group (n = 190). The age of the male group was 62.41 ± 10.49 years, significantly higher than that of the female group (58.69 ± 16.39, p = 0.011). Compared with the female group, the male group had a shorter duration of disease, higher levels of hemoglobin, eosinophil count, proteinuria, serum C4, and lower levels of serum globulin, serum IgG and serum IgM (p

We describe cooperative bimetallic catalysis that enables regio-/stereodivergent asymmetric α-allylations of aldimine esters. By employing Et

Carbon migration of alkenyl alcohols has been recognized as an increasingly viable methodology in organic synthesis. Herein, we disclose a silver-catalyzed 1,3-aza-benzyl migration of allyl alcohols by utilizing chelation-assisted selective cleavage of an unstrained C(sp

In this work, two MOFs, {[Cd3(L)2(m-BDC)(NO3)4]��2(H2O)}n (1) and [Zn3(L)(m-BDC)3]n (2), were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. Single crystal diffraction showed that the flexible tripod ligand L (1,3,5-[1-(2-methylimidazole-methylene)]benzene) delivers completely different configurations under the influence of the coordination metal [Cd(II), Zn(II)] ions, resulting in two completely different structures. In 1, the flexible tripod ligand L adopted a "chair" conformation which combined with Cd(II) ions, forming a two-dimensional structure in the orthorhombic C2221 space group. In 2, L adopted a "bowl" conformation which combined with Zn(II) ions, forming another two-dimensional structure in the P-3m1 space group. The synthesized MOFs were characterized by PXRD, thermogravimetry (TGA), infrared spectroscopy (IR), elemental analysis, fluorescence property analysis, Hirshfeld surface analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) quantitative calculations. The fluorescence analysis displayed that the maximum emission wavelength of 1 and 2 has a blue shift. In addition, the results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the thermal stability of 1 is 150 ��C higher than that of 2. This is probably because the energy of "chair" conformation is lower than that of the "bowl" conformation, which makes 1 more stable than that of 2.

A 2 MW direct-drive (DD) high temperature superconducting (HTS) wind power generator with HTS wires in the rotor field windings and copper transposed conductor in the stator coils was explored for the wind turbine application in this study. An oil-cooling air-core stator with non-magnetic teeth of the 2 MW DD HTS generator was designed because the high flux density generated by the HTS wires wound result in larger dissipation in iron teeth, and the process of that could be summarized as follows. First, a 2 MW DD HTS wind power generator was designed, and the electromagnetic (EM), loss, EM force, and insulation of the DD HTS generator were analyzed and developed, respectively. Second, the thermal and mechanical of the one pole pair oil-cooling air-gap armature was analyzed by the finite element analysis. Then, a pole pair segment of the oil-cooling air-core stator with the same structure as the 2 MW generator was designed and manufactured to identify potential challenges, obtain practical knowledge before production, and then reduce the development risk of the 2 MW DD HTS generator. Furthermore, a test system with converter, oil-cooling system, and data acquisition equipment was developed simultaneously to test the temperature distribution of the slotless stator. The performance test results show that the maximum temperature rise of the one pole pair oil-cooling stator under rated conditions is about 81.4 K, which satisfies the design requirements of the 2 MW DD HTS generator.

Electromagnetic forming (EMF) is a technology that uses Lorentz force to drive the deformation of light alloy. In the processing of small metal pipe fittings, attraction forming is beneficial to reduce the design requirements of forming coils and the application cost of actual tooling. However, the attractive dual-frequency current method requires strict matching between currents. This will lead to difficulty in controlling and changing the attractive force, thus reducing the uniformity of the deformation of the workpiece. To solve this problem, a field shaper is introduced to optimize the distribution of electromagnetic force and improve the uniformity of pipe forming. The finite element model including circuit field, electromagnetic field, and structure field was established, and the bulging of an aluminum alloy pipe fitting with a radius of 10 mm and a length of 40 mm under the action of 9-kV power supply was simulated. The results show that the deformation uniformity is increased by 15% and the degree of shape change is increased by 8.9% with the addition of field shaper. It is proved that field shaper can improve the uniformity of pipe fitting.

Electromagnetic forming (EMF) is widely used in the processing of tube fittings in the fields of aerospace, automobile, and other industrial manufacturing because of its high energy rate, which can significantly improve the forming limit of light-weight metal materials. One typical application of EMF is the tube attraction by a double-coil electromagnetic single-step (DCSS) forming method. However, the electromagnetic force in this method is unevenly distributed on the tube, which will affect the uniformity of the final shape and undermine the performance of the workpiece. To solve this problem, a triple-coil two-step forming (TCTS) method is proposed in this paper. An electromagnetic-structure coupling finite element model is established to analyze the forming process in both DCSS and TCTS methods; the tube forming uniformity in both methods is compared. To quantify the uniformity of tube, the forming uniform length, Duniform, is introduced and the area where the deformation is greater than 99% of the maximum deformation is defined as the forming uniform length. The simulation results show that when using the DCSS method, DuniformD=3.73mm, and when using TCTS method, DuniformT=11.63mm. The TCTS method increases the forming uniform length by 211%. All these results indicate the potential and the prospect of TCTS method for improving the forming uniformity of tube fittings.

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of electromagnetic flanging of tubes, which uses coils to generate electromagnetic forces to achieve the deformation with high speed but without contact. However, the electromagnetic force decays dramatically with the increase of distance, resulting in strict requirements of geometrical matching between the coils and the tubes. Usually, new coils should be fabricated for tubes with new sizes, which is inconvenient and uneconomical. Therefore, a more flexible and economical method is proposed in this paper, which introduces a solenoid field shaper into the existing electromagnetic flanging system. By adjusting the structure and the position of the field shaper, the distribution of electromagnetic forces can be reshaped to form tubes with various sizes, without changing the coil, whose cost is much higher than a field shaper. The principle of this method is introduced in detail. Then, an electromagnetic-structure coupled finite element simulation model is established to calculate the forming process. The results show that when forming an A6063-T83 aluminum alloy tube with an inner diameter of 110mm, the discharge voltage can be tuned down from 5.3kV, without field shaper, to 4.6kV, with field shaper. That means the energy consumption of the system can be saved by 25%, and the manufacturing process of the field shaper is simpler than that of the forming coil. What’s more, when forming tubes with different sizes, the new method shows higher effectiveness, greater flexibility, and lower cost than the traditional way.

Inorganic mesoporous silica gel spheres, which possess sufficient mechanical strength, thermal stability, and mobile phase endurance, are the most important and widely used materials for column packing in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). However, amorphous silica gel is generally reported as an inorganic chiral silica gel, and spherical all-inorganic chiral silica gel has not been reportedly used as the chiral stationary phase for HPLC. In this paper, inorganic spherical mesoporous silica gel was used in the method of polymerization-induced colloid aggregation (PICA), with silica sol as the raw material and L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) as the chiral monomer, to obtain mixed spheres of urea-formaldehyde resin and colloidal silica in a chiral environment. After high-temperature calcination (at 550 ℃) to remove the resin, inorganic mesoporous silica gel spheres based on L-Glu were prepared. Elemental analysis revealed that the prepared L-Glu chiral silica gel spheres were calcined completely, indicating that there were no organic constituents. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the silica gel spheres showed that the surface of the silica gel spheres was not smooth, with a uniform particle size of 3.0-4.5 μm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed that the pore size distribution of the synthetic silica gel spheres was uniform due to the accumulation of pores. Nitrogen adsorption tests revealed that the specific surface area of L-Glu chiral silica gel spheres was 117.844 m2/g, the pore volume was 0.411 cm3/g, and the average pore size was 12.312 nm. All the characterizations indicated that the inorganic chiral mesoporous silicon had a regular spherical shape. The silica gel spheres possess frameworks and pore structures, providing a chiral microenvironment that is suitable as a chiral stationary phase for separating racemic compounds by HPLC. Because of the chiral pore structure and frameworks, the enantiomers were retained to different degrees and separation was achieved. The porous structure also increased the contact surface between the racemates and the active sites of the inner wall and improved the separation efficiency. Hydrogen bonding between the chiral stationary phase and the racemates, dipole interactions, and van der Waals forces were also involved in enantiomer resolution. An HPLC column was prepared with L-Glu chiral silica gel as the stationary phase and n-hexane-isopropanol (9∶1, v/v) as the mobile phase. Fifteen racemic compounds were successfully separated on the chiral HPLC column, including seven racemic compounds for baseline separation, at a flow rate of 0.1 mL/min using 254 nm as the detection wavelength at 25 ℃. The separation of 10 benzene position isomers was successfully achieved, and eight of the benzene position isomers reached baseline separation. Experimental results showed that the chiral silica gel spheres possess sufficient mechanical strength and thermal stability, along with good chiral recognition ability and the ability to separate positional isomers. Compared with ordinary silica gel, these chiral silica gel spheres afforded better chiral separation and better separation of benzene position isomers, without further modification. The preparation of this chiral stationary phase also has the advantages of being cheap, convenient, and feasible.

We previously found that neurocritically ill patients are prone to refeeding syndrome (RFS), a potentially life-threatening complication. However, there is no unified or validated consensus on the screening tool for RFS so far. We aimed to validate and compare the performance of four screening tools for RFS in neurocritically ill patients. We conducted a single-center, observational, retrospective cohort study among neurocritically ill adult patients who were admitted to the neurocritical care unit (NCU), and who received enteral nutrition for 72 h or longer. They were scored on the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ), the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM), the modified criteria of the Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (mNICE), and ASPEN Consensus Recommendations for Refeeding Syndrome (ASPEN) scales to predict RFS risk via admission data. The performance of each scale in predicting RFS was evaluated. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors for RFS, and they were added to the above scales to strengthen the identification of RFS. Of the 478 patients included, 84 (17.57%) developed RFS. The sensitivity of the SNAQ and GLIM was only 20.2% (12.6–30.7%), although they had excellent specificities of 84.8% (80.8–88.1%) and 86.0% (82.1–89.2%), respectively; mNICE predicted RFS with a sensitivity of 48.8% (37.8–59.9%) and a specificity of 65.0% (60.0–69.9%); ASPEN had the highest Youden index, with a sensitivity and specificity of 53.6% (42.4–64.4%) and 64.7% (59.8–69.4%), respectively. The Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curves (AUC) of SNAQ, GLIM, mNICE, and ASPEN to predict RFS were 0.516 (0.470–0.561), 0.533 (0.487–0.579), 0.568 (0.522–0.613), and 0.597 (0.551–0.641), respectively. We identified age, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score as independent risk factors of RFS, and the combination of GCS and age can improve the AUC of ASPEN to 0.664 (0.620–0.706) for predicting RFS. SNAQ, GLIM, mNICE, and ASPEN do not perform well in identifying neurocritically ill patients at high risk of RFS, although ASPEN appears to have relatively a good validity among them. Combining GCS and age with ASPEN slightly improves RFS recognition, but it still leaves a lot of room for improvement.

We assessed the relationship between consciousness level and values of cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), mean transit time (MTT), and time to peak (TTP) obtained by whole-brain perfusion computed tomography (pCT) in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDOC).This study included 29 patients in vegetative state (VS), 34 with minimally consciousness state minus (MCS-), and 13 with minimally consciousness state plus (MCS+). All patients were evaluated using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R), the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR). The values of CBF, CBV, MTT, and TTP were obtained from patients who underwent pCT. Differences in CBF, CBV, MTT, and TTP were compared between the three types of pDOC. Correlations between the CRS-R, GCS, and FOUR scores and the pCT results were analyzed.Among the three groups, patients in VS showed a significantly decreased CBF in the bilateral frontal lobe, thalamus, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, brainstem, and damaged part. CBV was significantly reduced in patients with VS in the bilateral frontal lobe, thalamus, temporal lobe, brainstem, and damaged part. The total CRS-R, GCS, and FOUR scores were positively correlated with CBF, CBV, and TTP in almost all regions of interest.Reductions in CBF and CBV calculated with pCT are associated with impaired consciousness and perfusion CT could be a promising tool in evaluating the conscious level in patients with pDOC.

BackgroundsSleep disorders are the most common and disabling symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Understanding the associations between sleep characteristics and motor and non-motor symptoms (NMSs) in PD can provide evidence to guide therapeutic interventions and nursing strategies. We aimed to investigate the association between sleep characteristics and motor function and NMSs in PD using multiple approaches.MethodsA total of 328 participants were included, and all participants underwent Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) evaluation and clinical assessments of PD symptoms. We conducted Spearman's correlation to evaluate the associations between sleep and PD symptoms, nonlinear regression to assess the relationships between sleep habits and PD, and mediated analyses to test the effects of NMSs on global PSQI and PD severity, quality of life, and motor symptoms.ResultsPoor sleep was associated with more severe PD symptoms. In addition, the reflection point for bedtime was around 21:52, associated with motor symptoms, and insufficient and excessive total time spent in bed and nocturnal sleep duration were correlated with higher NMS burdens. The optimal points were 8–9.2 and 6.2–6.9 h, respectively. It was also discovered that NMSs played the mediating roles in global sleep with the quality of life, PD stages, and motor symptoms to a varying range of 6.8–95.4%.ConclusionsSleep disorders have a significant effect on the burden of PD symptoms. The current findings provide new insights into the monitoring and management of sleep and PD and need to be further explored in the future studies.

Exposure and slow strain rate tensile tests were conducted in a simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary water to investigate the oxidation resistance and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of 308L and 309L stainless steel (SS) cladding layers. A double-layer structure oxide layer grown on 308L SS and 309L SS contained the Cr-enriched nanocrystalline internal layer and the Fe-enriched spinel oxide in the external layer. Ni-enrichment at the matrix/oxide boundary was observed. The internal oxide film on 309L SS was thicker and had a lower Cr content than that on 308L SS. Preferential dissolution of inclusions led to pits on 308L SS and 309L SS surfaces during the exposure tests. More inclusions in 309L would decrease its SCC resistance due to the pits’ ability to act as the SCC initiation site. 308L SS had a lower susceptibility to SCC than 309L SS in PWR primary water. Lower ferrite content and higher strength/hardness reduced the oxidation and SCC resistance of 309L SS cladding. The effect of ferrite on oxidation and SCC of the SS claddings is discussed.

The use of electro-osmotic chemical is an effective method to improve the clayey soil foundation. Various boundary conditions can be adopted in this method. In this work, two electrode-clay contacts, three solution conditioners, and four anode solution supply times were used for clayey soil improvement. Based on the experimental data, electro-osmotic consolidation theory, and transport of ion theory, it is found that the electro-osmotic chemical effect of the separation of electrode-clay (E_S) is more beneficial for the transport of Ca2+, production of cementing material, and reduction of water content than that of electrode-clay (E_C) joining; through electrode-clay contact separation, the anode solution conditioner (NaPO3)6 (E_SHMP) delayed the cementing reaction and then increased the transport of Ca2+ near the cathode, which increased the amount of cementing material and the electro-osmotic chemical effect; and when the anode conditioner (NaPO3)6 was used, two days of anode solution supply followed by three days cut off from the anode solution led to the highest undrained shear strength increase after the application of electro-osmotic chemical, which resolved the uneven electro-osmotic chemical effect in the E_SHMP.

Wen Ye,1 Yan Yan,2 Yunliang Tang,1 Xiaoyang Dong,1 Gengfa Chen,1 Junwei Kang,1 Lianghua Huang,1 Qi Xiong,1 Zhen Feng1 1Department of Rehabilitation, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhen FengDepartment of Rehabilitation, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail medstu@126.comBackground: Neuronal damage is the main cause of neurological diseases. Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the functions of cell repair and replacement of neurons, secretion of neurotrophic factors, and immune regulation of the neural microenvironment.Objective: Previous study found that Orexin-A had a protective effect on neurons in the central nervous system, but it is lacking in making great efforts on the function of Orexin-A on NSCs. This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory responses and signaling mechanisms of Orexin-A on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NSCs.Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the mRNA level. Signaling pathway-related protein expression was detected by Western blot. The proliferation and migration of NSCs were investigated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) detection kit and transwell assay. Besides, the staining of hematoxylin and eosin (HE) was performed to study the morphology of cell.Results: Orexin-A decreased the pro-inflammatory cytokines of IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6 induced by LPS by regulating nuclear factor-k-gene binding (NF-kB) and phosphorylation of P38/Erk-mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) pathways, but not p-JNK signaling.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that Orexin-A can alleviate the inflammatory response of NSC. It can provide beneficial help in neural stem cell therapy applications.Keywords: NSCs, Orexin-A, NF-kB, MAPK

Acyl-coenzyme A oxidase 1 (ACOX1) is the first and rate-limiting enzyme in peroxisomal fatty acid β-oxidation of fatty acids. Previous studies have reported that ACOX1 was correlated with the meat quality of livestock, while the role of ACOX1 in intramuscular adipogenesis of beef cattle and its transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, gain-of-function and loss-of-function assays demonstrated that ACOX1 positively regulated the adipogenesis of bovine intramuscular preadipocytes. The C/EBPα-binding sites in the bovine ACOX1 promoter region at −1142 to −1129 bp, −831 to −826 bp, and −303 to −298 bp were identified by promoter deletion analysis and site-directed mutagenesis. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) further showed that these three regions are C/EBPα-binding sites, both in vitro and in vivo, indicating that C/EBPα directly interacts with the bovine ACOX1 promoter and inhibits its transcription. Furthermore, the results from bioinformatics analysis, dual luciferase assay, site-directed mutagenesis, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting demonstrated that miR-25-3p directly targeted the ACOX1 3’UTR (3’UTR). Taken together, our findings suggest that ACOX1, regulated by transcription factor C/EBPα and miR-25-3p, promotes adipogenesis of bovine intramuscular preadipocytes via regulating peroxisomal fatty acid β-oxidation.

BACKGROUND For patients with coronary heart disease, reperfusion treatment strategies are often complicated by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (IRI), leading to serious organ damage and malfunction. The miR-21/programmed cell death protein 4 (PDCD4) pathway is involved in the IRI of cardiomyocytes; however, the aberrant miR-21 expression remains unexplained. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether circRNA_0031672 downregulates miR-21-5p expression during I/R and to determine whether miR-21-5p-expressing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) reduce myocardial IRI. METHODS CircRNA_0031672, miR-21-5p, and PDCD4 expressions were evaluated in the I/R rat model and hypoxia/re-oxygenation (H/R)-treated H9C2 cells. Their interactions were subsequently investigated using luciferase reporter and RNA pulldown assays. Methyltransferase-like 3, a methyltransferase catalyzing N6-methyladenosine (m6A), was overexpressed in H9C2 cells to determine whether m6A modification influences miR-21-5p targeting PDCD4. BMSCs stably expressing miR-21 were co-cultured with H9C2 cells to investigate the protective effect of BMSCs on H9C2 cells upon H/R. RESULTS I/R downregulated miR-21-5p expression and upregulated circRNA_0031672 and PDCD4 expressions. CircRNA_0031672 knockdown increased miR-21-5p expression, but repressed PDCD4 expression, indicating that circRNA_0031672 competitively bound to miR-21-5p and prevented it from targeting PDCD4 mRNA. The m6A modification regulated PDCD4 expression, but had no effect on miR-21-5p targeting PDCD4. The circRNA_0031672/miR-21-5p/PDCD4 axis regulated myocardial cells viability and apoptosis after H/R treatment; co-culture with miR-21-5p-expressing BMSCs restored miR-21-5p abundance in H9C2 cells and further reduced H9C2 cells apoptosis induced by H/R. CONCLUSIONS We identified a novel circRNA_0031672/miR-21-5p/PDCD4 signaling pathway that mediates the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes and successfully alleviates IRI in myocardial cells by co-culture with miR-21-5p-expressing BMSCs, offering novel insights into the IRI pathogenesis in cardiovascular diseases.

PURPOSE To describe and evaluate the application of a new 3-D printing-assisted personalized macular buckle for patients with myopic foveoschisis (MFS). METHODS Twelve eyes of 12 patients with MFS were included in this study. Preoperative MRI images were subsequently measured after marker implantation and imported into the MIMICS software for the 3-D reconstruction of a virtual model of an eyeball and a marker. The virtual eyeball model was designed according to the degree of retinoschisis, which was measured using optical coherence tomography preoperatively. A macular buckle was designed using a titanium stent, assisted by 3-D printing; furthermore, it was surgically placed in combination with pars plana vitrectomy. Visual acuity, axial length and anatomic outcomes were analysed pre- and postoperatively. RESULTS Macular schisis in all patients was completely resolved after the surgery without any postoperative complications. The mean postoperative best corrected visual acuity (LogMAR) improved significantly from 1.21 to 0.92 during the 6-month follow-up period (p

This paper researched on the pre-synchronization grid connection method of a virtual synchronous generator (VSG), and proposed a fast pre-synchronization method based on the virtual power loop. According to the self-synchronization characteristics of the VSG power loop, the double power loop design was adopted in this paper. The two power loops had the same structure, which the power loop 1 was used to implement the basic VSG function, and the power loop 2 was used to achieve rapid pre-synchronous control. Therefore, the mathematical model of the VSG was similar to the synchronous generator in the pre-synchronization control. This method did not require a phase-locked loop and VSG has a good inertia and Damping performance. Moreover, this method was suitable for the networking of multiple VSGs.

Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder mainly characterized by progressive calcium deposition bilaterally in the brain, accompanied by various symptoms, such as dystonia, ataxia, parkinsonism, dementia, depression, headaches, and epilepsy. Currently, the etiology of PFBC is largely unknown, and no specific prevention or treatment is available. During the past 10 years, six causative genes (SLC20A2, PDGFRB, PDGFB, XPR1, MYORG, and JAM2) have been identified in PFBC. In this review, considering mechanistic studies of these genes at the cellular level and in animals, we summarize the pathogenesis and potential preventive and therapeutic strategies for PFBC patients. Our systematic analysis suggests a classification for PFBC genetic etiology based on several characteristics, provides a summary of the known composition of brain calcification, and identifies some potential therapeutic targets for PFBC.