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BACKGROUND Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), a classic anti-inflammatory and antitumorigenic agent, was recently identified as a potential treatment for obesity and insulin resistance. However, little is known about its direct impact on the liver.

As a great amount of chemicals are employed to carry out the coating process of paper, the wastewater from paper mill making coated products is characterized by high levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD), colour, and total suspended solids (TSS). In this study, wastewater from a paper mill making coated products was treated by a sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR) after a lab-scale coagulation, resulting in COD, colour, and TSS removal efficiencies of 87.7 ± 1.0%, 33.5 ± 5.2%, and 41.4 ± 3.7%, respectively, which exceeded the biological treatment performance in the paper mill. The removal of COD and colour was attributed to the removal of recalcitrant organic matter, and the removal of TSS was attributed to the biofilm.

Dissolved lignin in eucalyptus black liquor was obtained at five different reaction times (1 h to 5 h) throughout the main delignification process to reveal the structural changes of lignin and its contributions to pollution load at different degrees of delignification. During the delignification process, the lignin removal efficiency and Kappa number of the pulp had a clear linear relationship with the holding time at the highest temperature (170 C). This indicated that the degree of delignification to which the pulp could be regulated by the holding time. Condensation and degradation appeared to participate as two competitive reactions in the cooking process. The condensation structures of lignin increased remarkably in the first 3 h, which resulted in increased molecular weight. Then, the degradation of lignin became the main reaction at longer reaction times (4 h to 5 h), when the β-O-4’ and β–β’ bonds were dramatically broken. Furthermore, the lignin concentration in black liquor increased with delignification time, which had a positive correlation to chemical oxygen demand (CODcr) in black liquor. The proportion of CODcr produced by lignin increased remarkably in the decomposition stage of lignin, which revealed the importance of changes in the lignin structure during the delignification process to the pollution load.

Cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) activity is inhibited, and its expression is suppressed during many diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the mechanism is controversial. Here, we report that PXR may not take part in the downregulation of CYP3A during NAFLD. Hepatic CYP3A11 (major subtype of mouse CYP3A) mRNA and protein expression was significantly decreased in both mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and palmitate (PA)-treated mouse primary hepatocytes. Similarly, in HepG2 cells, PA treatment significantly suppressed the CYP3A4 (major subtype of human CYP3A) mRNA level and promoter transcription activity. However, Western blotting analysis found an induction of PXR nuclear translocation during NAFLD in both in vivo and in vitro models. Moreover, immunofluorescence determination also found nuclear translocation effect of PXR by PA stimulation in HepG2 cells. In addition, the siRNA knockdown of PXR did not affect the suppressive effects of PA on the CYP3A4 promoter transcription activity and mRNA levels in HepG2 cells. Similarly, PXR knockdown also did not affect the suppressive effects of PA on CYP3A11 mRNA and protein expression levels in mouse primary hepatoctyes. Taken together, the results showed that the suppressive effect of CYP3A transcription was independent of PXR regulation.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which has an unknown pathogenesis and lacks a curative treatment, is becoming more prevalent. A previous long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) profiling analysis revealed a potential role for fatty liver-related lncRNA 2 (FLRL2) in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. To further understand the role of FLRL2 in NAFLD and explore its therapeutic value, both in vivo and in vitro NAFLD models were constructed. Small interfering RNA and small hairpin RNA interference and adenovirus transfection were adopted to manipulate the expressions of FLRL2, aryl-hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator-like (Arntl), and sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) expression. Steatosis was evaluated through histologic staining with hematoxylin and eosin and oil red O and also by quantitative triglyceride measurements. FLRL2 is a widely distributed nuclear lncRNA that is down-regulated in NAFLD. Overexpression of FLRL2 resolved steatosis, lipogenesis, inflammation, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in NAFLD, and down-regulation of FLRL2 resulted in the opposite effects. Sequence analysis demonstrated that FLRL2 was located in the intronic region of the Arntl gene, and a luciferase assay showed transcriptional activation of the Arntl gene upon FLRL2 overexpression. A similar expression pattern and synergistic effect of Arntl manipulation was observed in NAFLD in vitro. Inhibition of Arntl partially reversed the steatosis amelioration induced by FLRL2 overexpression. Downstream Sirt1 was also inhibited in NAFLD and influenced by both FLRL2 and Arntl. In NAFLD mice, FLRL2 enhancement alleviated steatosis, activated the Arntl-Sirt1 axis, and inhibited lipogenesis, ER stress, and inflammation, providing preliminary evidence of the benefits of FLRL2-mediated gene therapy in NAFLD.-Chen, Y., Chen, X., Gao, J., Xu, C., Xu, P., Li, Y., Zhu, Y., Yu, C. Long noncoding RNA FLRL2 alleviated nonalcoholic fatty liver disease through Arntl-Sirt1 pathway.

In this letter, we investigate the application of antieigenvalues to spectrum sensing for the first time and design an antieigenvalue-based detector. A theoretical expression for the decision threshold of the proposed detector is also derived. It is shown that the mean-to-square extreme eigenvalue detector is a special case of the proposed one. Numerical simulations validate the theoretical analysis, and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed detector.

Biomass nanomaterials based on aromatic ring monomers have broad application prospects in the fields of drug delivery, catalysis and environment. In this paper, based on the effective dissolution of commercial alkali lignin in imidazole ionic liquids, lignin nanospheres were rapidly prepared by adding anti-solvent of water. In the three imidazole ionic liquids (1-amyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (C5mim][Ac]), 1-butyl-3methylimidazolium acetate ([Bmim][Ac]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim][Ac])), lignin can dissolve well, and the dissolution rates are all >25%, which is much higher than other organic solvents. And the longer the alkyl chain in imidazole ring is, the lower the solubility of lignin is. The paper also studied the effects of lignin concentration, the addition rate of anti-solvent, stirring rate and pH on the size of lignin nanospheres. It was found that the lignin nanospheres prepared under suitable conditions have particle size in the range of 52–210 nm and have good stability for over two months. And, compared to other studied, the particle size of the nanospheres is much smaller and easier to control. Moreover, the quality of lignin nanospheres was elucidated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and UV–vis spectroscopy (UV–Vis) measurements which found the molecular weight of lignin nanospheres was slightly lower the raw alkali lignin, and the main structure of the aromatic ring of lignin is preserved in the process of preparation of the nanospheres by ILs. The method of preparing lignin nanosphere from lignin-ionic liquids solution with water as anti-solvent is simple, rapid and environmentally friendly, and provides an efficient and feasible path for the high value utilization of lignin.

This paper proposes a novel scheme to solve the target localization problem by using combined measurements of received signal strength and angle-of-arrival (AOA) hybrid measurements in three-dimensional (3D) wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The proposed scheme can work effectively in both cases of known and unknown target transmit power. In the known transmit power case, by using polarized identity, we transform the available AOA measurements into a norm form and establish new relationships between the AOA measurements and the unknown target location, a novel target localization method is then proposed by using the second-order cone programming relaxation technique. Furthermore, we demonstrate that by using mean inequality, the proposed method can be effectively extended to the unknown transmit power case. In this case, we propose a practical alternating estimation procedure which alternatively estimates the target location and transmit power. Computer simulations are carried out to demonstrate that comparing with other methods, the proposed method can achieve significant performance gains for different settings in 3D WSNs.

In this paper, a fluorescent particulate stabilizer was developed for fluorescently labeling the oil-water interface of Pickering-emulsions. In this method, carbon nitride quantum dots (CNQDs) were selected to modify liquid paraffin emulsions, which were then stabilized by Laponite. This method avoids the adverse effect of dyes in studying the droplet interfaces of Pickering-emulsions. Our results indicated that the CNQDs are stable and monodispersed due to negative electrostatic repulsions, and no fluorescence quenching was found after the introduction of Laponite. The CNQDs obviously improved the particle wettability of Laponite to liquid paraffin, suggesting that they conferred increased particle hydrophobicity, which may in turn contribute higher stability to Pickering emulsions. With tunable wettability, CNQDs@Laponite nanoparticles standing at the oil-water interface may act as an identifiable, green-fluorescent interfacial film responsible for stabilizing and labelling oil-in-water Pickering emulsions. In addition, these results indicate an improved storage stability of Pickering emulsions compared with those stabilized by Laponite.

In this paper, a novel localization method for mixed near-field (NF) and far-field (FF) rectilinear or strictly noncircular sources is proposed using the noncircular information for a symmetric uniform linear array (ULA). For FF case, we adopt the NC-MUSIC method to achieve the DOA parameter, for NF case, by exploiting the center symmetrical characteristic of the ULA, we decouple the array steering vectors into two new vectors: one related only to the DOA parameter, and the other dependent on both DOA and range parameters. Based on the principle of rank reduction (RARE), three MUSIC-like estimators are formed to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA) and the range of mixed NF and FF rectilinear sources successively. Meanwhile, distinguishing the types of sources is also solved. The deterministic Cramer–Rao bound (CRB) of the mixed rectilinear signals is derived by the Slepian–Bangs formulation. Simulation results are provided, showing that the proposed method yields a performance better than existing ones.

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology to address the challenge of spectrum scarcity due to the massive number of objects in the Internet of Things (IoT). Equipping IoT objects with CR capability can also alleviate interference situations and achieve seamless connectivity in IoT. This paper deals with CR spectrum sensing and proposes a new eigenvalue-based detector by exploiting the summation of multiple large eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of received signals. By analyzing the distribution of the sum of the dependent large eigenvalues, we derive an approximate but explicit expression for the theoretical performance of the proposed detector. The theoretical analysis of the proposed detector is validated and its superior performance is demonstrated with real world signals. It is shown that the proposed detector outperforms the existing eigenvalue-based detectors and is more robust against noise uncertainty.

This paper investigates the resource allocation problem in device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based cellular network with energy harvesting, where the energy harvesting-powered D2D communications share the downlink resources of the cellular network. To fully exploit the high-data-rate D2D links in this system, a two-phase framework is proposed for D2D users. In particular, the D2D users harvest energy from the base station (BS) in the first phase and then transmit their own information using the harvested energy in the second one. Meanwhile, the D2D communications could cause severe interference to cellular users (CUs) and hence probably ruin the SIC decoding order of the CUs. To deal with this issue, joint power allocation and time scheduling scheme is proposed to maximize the throughput of the D2D links while guaranteeing the quality of service (QoS) for each CU. Through rigorous derivation, the optimal power control and time scheduling parameters are analyzed to simplify the optimization problem formulation. The closed-form optimal solution is derived in some cases. In other cases, a gradient-based algorithm is employed to find an appropriate sub-optimal solution. The simulation results are demonstrated to validate the superiority of the proposed scheme over the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme.

In this paper, the target node localization problems based on hybrid RSS-AOA measurements in both noncooperative and cooperative three-dimensional (3-D) wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are discussed. By using novel error approximate expressions for both received signal strength (RSS) and angle-of-arrival (AOA) measurement models, new estimators based on the least squares (LS) criterion are proposed. These estimators can be transformed into mixed semi-definite programming (SDP) and second-order cone programming (SOCP) problems by applying convex relaxation techniques. In addition, the closed-form Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the estimator on hybrid measurements in cooperative WSNs is also derived. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the proposed hybrid RSS-AOA estimators is lower than that of the discussed estimators in both noncooperative and cooperative cases.

The impulsive noise can deteriorate sharply the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In this paper, we propose a novel joint channel impulse response estimation and impulsive noise mitigation algorithm based on compressed sensing theory. In this algorithm, both the channel impulse response and the impulsive noise are treated as a joint sparse vector. Then, the sparse Bayesian learning framework is adopted to jointly estimate the channel impulse response, the impulsive noise, and the data symbols, in which the data symbols are regarded as unknown parameters. The Cramér-Rao Bound is derived for the benchmark. Unlike the previous impulsive noise mitigation methods, the proposed algorithm utilizes all subcarriers without any a priori information of the channel and impulsive noise. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves significant performance improvement on the channel estimation and bit error rate performance.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can produce lasting cognitive, emotional, and somatic difficulties that can impact quality of life for patients living with an injury. Impaired hippocampal function and synaptic alterations have been implicated in contributing to cognitive difficulties in experimental TBI models. In the synapse, neuronal communication is facilitated by the regulated release of neurotransmitters from docking presynaptic vesicles. The synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2 (SV2) isoforms SV2A and SV2B play central roles in the maintenance of the readily releasable pool of vesicles and the coupling of calcium to the N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complex responsible for vesicle docking. Recently, we reported the findings of TBI-induced reductions in presynaptic vesicle density and SNARE complex formation; however, the effect of TBI on SV2 is unknown. To investigate this, rats were subjected to controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham control surgery. Abundance of SV2A and SV2B were assessed at 1, 3, 7, and 14 days post-injury by immunoblot. SV2A and SV2B were reduced in the cortex at several time points and in the hippocampus at every time point assessed. Immunohistochemical staining and quantitative intensity measurements completed at 14 days post-injury revealed reduced SV2A immunoreactivity in all hippocampal subregions and reduced SV2B immunoreactivity in the molecular layer after CCI. Reductions in SV2A abundance and immunoreactivity occurred concomitantly with motor dysfunction and spatial learning and memory impairments in the 2 weeks post-injury. These findings provide novel evidence for the effect of TBI on SV2 with implications for impaired neurotransmission neurobehavioral dysfunction after TBI.

Aiming at the problem of impulsive noise in OFDM system, a novel impulsive noise suppression method based on maximum a posteriori criterion is proposed. Maximum optimization problem of the joint probability density function for estimation impulsive noise is established by using the maximum a posteriori criterion based on the prior information of the received signal. Due to the highly nonlinear of the problem, an alternating iterative optimization algorithm is designed by using the special structure of the log likelihood objective function. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method can effciently estimate impulsive noise and improve bit error rate performance.

While the analytical solution for the marginal distribution of a stochastic chemical reaction network has been extensively studied, its joint distribution, i.e. the solution of a high-dimensional chemical master equation, has received much less attention. Here we develop a novel method of computing the exact joint distributions of a wide class of first-order stochastic reaction systems in steady-state conditions. The effectiveness of our method is validated by applying it to four gene expression models of biological significance, including models with 2A peptides, nascent mRNA, gene regulation, translational bursting, and alternative splicing., 33 pages, 6 figures

Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) is a cytokine with immunomodulation effects. However, little is known about its role in metabolic diseases. In the current study, we aimed to explore the role of GCSF in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Male GCSF-/- mice were used to investigate the function of GCSF in vivo after high-fat diet (HFD). Primary hepatocytes were used for evaluating the function of GCSF in vitro. Liver immune cells were isolated and analyzed by flow cytometry. Our results showed that GCSF administration significantly increased serum triglyceride (TG) levels in patients. Circulating GCSF was markedly elevated in HFD-fed mice. GCSF-/- mice exhibited alleviated HFD-induced obesity, insulin resistance, and hepatic steatosis. Extra administration of GCSF significantly aggravated palmitic acid (PA)-induced lipid accumulation in primary hepatocytes. Mechanically, GCSF could bind to granulocyte colony stimulating factor receptor (GCSFR) and regulate suppressors of cytokine signaling 3, Janus kinase, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (SOCS3-JAK-STAT3) pathway. GCSF also enhanced hepatic neutrophils and macrophages infiltration, thereby modulating NAFLD. These findings suggest that GCSF plays an important regulatory role in NAFLD and may be a potential therapeutic target for NAFLD.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found GCSF was involved in lipid metabolism and NAFLD development. GCSF administration increased serum triglyceride levels in patients. GCSF deficiency alleviated HFD-induced insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in mice. GCSF could directly act on hepatocytes through GCSFR-SOCS3-JAK-STAT3 pathway, and regulate the infiltration of immune cells into the liver to indirectly modulate NAFLD. Our finding indicates that GCSF may provide new strategies for the treatment of NAFLD.

The development of intelligent and multifunctional hydrogels having photothermal properties, good mechanical properties, sustained drug release abilities with low burst release, antibacterial properties, and biocompatibility is highly desirable in the biomaterial field. Herein, mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) nanoparticles wrapped with graphene oxide (GO) were physically cross-linked in cellulose nanofibril (CNF) hydrogel to obtain a novel MPDA@GO/CNF composite hydrogel for controllable drug release. MPDA nanoparticles exhibited a high drug loading ratio (up to 35 wt %) for tetracycline hydrochloride (TH). GO was used to encapsulate MPDA nanoparticles for extending the drug release time and reinforcing the physical strength of the obtained hydrogel. The mechanical strength of the as-fabricated MPDA@GO/CNF composite hydrogel was five times greater compared to that of the pure CNF hydrogel. Drug release experiments demonstrated that burst release behavior was significantly reduced by adding MPDA@GO. The drug release time of the MPDA@GO/CNF composite hydrogel was 3 times and 7.2 times longer than that of the polydopamine/CNF hydrogel and pure CNF hydrogel, respectively. The sustained and controlled drug release behaviors of the composite hydrogel were highly dependent on the proportion of MPDA and GO. Moreover, the rate of drug release could be accelerated by near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation and pH value change. The drug release kinetics of the as-prepared composite hydrogel was well described by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model, and the drug release mechanism of TH from the composite hydrogel was anomalous transport. Importantly, this carefully designed MPDA@GO/CNF composite hydrogel showed good biocompatibility through an in vitro cytotoxicity test. In particular, the toxicity of GO was well shielded by the CNF hydrogel. Therefore, this novel MPDA@GO/CNF composite hydrogel with an encapsulation structure for controllable drug release and toxicity shielding of GO could be used as a very promising controlled drug delivery carrier, which may have potential applications for chemical and physical therapies.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is proved to be the main pathogenic agent of various diseases, including chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, and gastric cancer. In addition, chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis are common worldwide, which are supposed to increase the total mortality of patients. Epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between H. pylori infection of the gallbladder and chronic cholecystitis/cholelithiasis still remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of overall studies to investigate the relationship between H. pylori infection of the gallbladder and chronic cholecystitis/cholelithiasis. Two researchers searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases to obtain all related and eligible studies published before July 2020. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by the random-effects model. Subgroup analysis, heterogeneity, publication bias, and sensitivity analysis were also conducted. Twenty studies were included in the meta-analysis, involving 1735 participants and 1197 patients with chronic cholecystitis/cholelithiasis. Helicobacter species infection of the gallbladder was positively correlated with increased risk of chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis, especially H. pylori (OR = 3.05; 95% CI, 1.81–5.14; I2 = 23.5%). Besides, country-based subgroup analysis also showed a positive correlation between the gallbladder H. pylori positivity and chronic cholecystitis/cholelithiasis risk. For Asian and non-Asian country studies, the ORs were 4.30 (95% CI, 1.76–10.50; I2 = 37.4%) and 2.13 (95% CI, 1.23–3.70; I2 = 0.0%), respectively. The association was more obvious using the bile sample and urease gene primer. In conclusion, this meta-analysis provided evidence that there is a positive correlation between H. pylori infection in the gallbladder and increased risk of chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis.

Caoyuanwang Baijiu (CYW), a mild-flavor style Baijiu (MSB), is popular in northern China. However, there is a lack of studies reporting its aroma-active components. The aroma compounds of five CYW samples were analyzed using gas chromatography-olfactory-mass spectrometry coupled with aroma extraction dilution analysis. Fifty-five aroma-active compounds were identified in CYW, of which 27 had odor activity values ≥ 1. Reconstituted models successfully simulated the aroma profiles of CYW. The omission tests elucidated that β-damascenone, dimethyl trisulfide, ethyl pentanoate, butanoic acid, ethyl acetate, 3-methylbutanal, ethyl lactate, hexanoic acid, γ-nonalactone, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, ethyl butanoate, 1-propanol, 4-(ethoxymethyl)-2-methoxy-phenol, and vanillin were key odorants in CYW. The addition test confirmed the significant influence of dimethyl trisulfide on Chen-aroma note. Nine key odorants were identified as the differential quality-markers, and 85.71% key odorants were predicted using the partial least square regression (PLSR) analysis, indicating the applicability of PLSR in selecting the target compounds for omission tests.

Power line communication is severely affected by impulsive noise, especially asynchronous impulsive noise with high power spectral density and short duration. This paper presents an asynchronous impulsive noise suppression method in power line communication system. Based on the component of the asynchronous impulsive noise and the background noise extracted from the received signal by using a null subcarrier matrix, a sparse iterative covariance estimation method is proposed. A optimization problem for estimating impulsive noise power is formed based on a minimum covariance matrix fitting criterion, and the impulsive noise power is then obtained by an iterative algorithm. After that, the impulsive noise is estimated by using the linear minimum mean square estimate method and subtracted from the received signal. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve better performance in terms of bit error rate, and has lower computational complexity.

In this study, the completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process was initiated in a sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR). Then the reactor was operated under different IC/N ratios. The total inorganic nitrogen removal efficiency (TINRE) at IC/N ratios of 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5 and 2.0 were 37.0 ± 11.0%, 58.9 ± 10.2%, 73.9 ± 3.2%, 73.6 ± 1.8% and 72.6 ± 2.0%, respectively. The suitable range of IC/N ratio in this research is 1.25–2.0. The poor nitrogen removal performance at IC/N ratio of 0.75 was due to the lack of growth substrate for AnAOB and low pH simultaneously; at IC/N ratio of 1.0 this was because the substrate concentration was insufficient for fully recovering the AnAOB activities. Microbial analysis indicated that Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira and Candidatus Brocadia were the main ammonium oxidation bacteria (AOB), nitrite oxidation bacteria (NOB) and anammox bacteria (AnAOB), respectively. In addition, at IC ratios of 1.25 or higher, denitrification was promoted with the rise of IC/N ratio, which might be because the change of IC concentrations caused cell lysis of microorganisms and provided organic matter for denitrification.

Alpha synuclein (α-synuclein) is a neuronal protein found predominately in pre-synaptic terminals. While the pathological effects of α-synuclein aggregates has been a topic of intense study in several neurodegenerative conditions, less attention has been placed on changes in monomeric α-synuclein and related physiological consequences on neuronal function. A growing body of evidence supports an important physiological role of α-synuclein in neurotransmission. In the context of traumatic brain injury (TBI), we hypothesized that the regional abundance of soluble monomeric α-synuclein is altered over a chronic time period post-injury. To this end, we evaluated α-synuclein in the cortex, hippocampus and striatum of adult rats at 6 hours, 1 day, 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury. Western blot analysis demonstrated decreased levels of monomer α-synuclein protein in the ipsilateral hippocampus at 6 hours, 1 day, 1, 2 and 8 weeks, as well as in the ipsilateral cortex at 1 and 2 weeks and in the ipsilateral striatum at 6 hours after CCI compared to sham animals. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed lower α-synuclein and a modest reduction in synaptophysin staining in the ipsilateral hippocampus at 1 week after CCI compared to sham animals, with no evidence of intracellular or extracellular a-synuclein aggregates. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that monomeric α-synuclein protein abundance in the hippocampus is reduced over an extensive (acute-to-chronic) post-injury interval. This deficit may contribute to the chronically impaired neurotransmission known to occur after TBI.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is prevalent chronic liver diseases with unknown mechanism and no curative treatment. Hepatokines have demonstrated important role in NAFLD pathogenesis but, role of selenoprotein P (SeP) in NAFLD is unknown. Methods: We included NAFLD patients as well as equivalent healthy controls and collected demographic data, medical history and general information. Serum sample was sent for blood routine, biochemical study and also SeP by ELISA. NAFLD in vivo and in vitro models were generated with high fat diet and palmitic acid, respectively. siRNA, overexpression plasmid and purified protein of SeP were used to manipulate SeP level in hepatocyte. qRT-PCR, Western Blot and quantative triglyceride measurement were used to evaluated corresponding effect. Findings: A total of 79 NAFLD patients and 79 healthy controls were included in this case-control study. SeP is elevated in NAFLD patients (P < 0.05). With elevating level of SeP, NAFLD prevalence and detecting rate increases (P < 0.05). As NAFLD aggravated, serum SeP increases. Correlation analysis demonstrates that SeP is positively associated with NAFLD risk factors BMI, ALT, AST, GGT and serum uric acid (P < 0.05). Both NAFLD in vivo and in vitro models, SeP protein level is higher in liver. siRNA of SEPP1 inhibited TG accumulation by activating AMPK/ACC, and overexpression of SEPP1 with plasmid or recombinant protein both aggravated lipid accumulation and inhibited AMPK/ACC phosphorylation. Interpretation: SeP expression is activated in NAFLD and excerbated NAFLD through AMPK/ACC pathway, providing insight into new diagnostic, therapeutic target in NAFLD. Funding Statement: The authors stated: "None." Declaration of Interests: The authors declare there are no conflicting financial interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The study protocol was approved by the Hospital Ethics Committee and performed in accordance with Declaration of Helsinki. All persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study and study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki. Study protocol has been approved by ethical committee of our hospital and conforms to Animal Research: Reporting of in vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines.

This study explored the association between light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (LMAC) and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).A 9-year cohort study was performed among Chinese men who underwent their annual health checkups between 2009 and 2018. NAFLD was diagnosed based on abdominal ultrasound with exclusion of excess alcohol intake and other causes of liver disease. Logistic regression and Cox proportional regression analyses were applied to identify the risk of prevalent and incident T2DM.Of the 7,079 participants enrolled, 243 had T2DM at baseline and 630 developed T2DM during the 45,456 person-years follow-up. Both at the baseline and by the end of the follow-up, LMAC was associated with a decreased risk of prevalent T2DM in NAFLD-free participants but with a significantly increased risk in patients with NAFLD. LMAC was also associated with a decreased risk of incident T2DM in NAFLD-free participants. The adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of incident T2DM were 0.224 (0.115-0.437) and 0.464 (0.303-0.710) for NAFLD-free light drinkers and NAFLD-free moderate drinkers, respectively. Nondrinking, light-drinking, and moderate-drinking patients with NAFLD all showed significantly increased risks of incident T2DM. Compared with NAFLD-free nondrinkers, the adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of incident T2DM were 1.672 (1.336-2.092), 2.642 (1.958-3.565), and 2.687 (2.106-3.427) for nondrinking, light-drinking, and moderate-drinking patients with NAFLD, respectively.LMAC decreased the risks of prevalent and incident T2DM in NAFLD-free participants. LMAC, however, was associated with an increased risk of T2DM in patients with NAFLD (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT03847116).

Many crossing hydraulic structures have been constructed in the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (MR-SNWTP), which increases the likelihood of sudden water pollution accidents. After an accident, managers need to assess the extent of pollution under conditions of gate control, and it's necessary to make suitable emergency control decision under this assessment. Therefore, we researched the rapid prediction of pollutants behaviours under conditions of complicated gate control in this paper, by presenting three characteristic parameters of pollutant migration and diffusion. According to the simulation results, the influencing reasons and rapid prediction formulas for the characteristic parameters (peak transport distance, pollutant longitudinal length and peak concentration) after a sudden water-soluble pollution accident are proposed. Also, the approval results show that the formulas can accurately predict the location and range of the pollutant after the emergency accident. Finally, the rapid prediction formulas for the characteristic parameters played a fundamental role in the decisions involved in the Emergency Environmental Decision Support System is proved by two application examples.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common gastrointestinal disorder. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are first-line drugs for GERD. For those who fail to respond to PPIs, adding prokinetics to PPIs is recommended and several trials have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of prokinetic–PPI combination therapy. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and the Cochrane Library databases before February 2019 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which compared the efficacy of prokinetics plus PPI treatment with that of PPI monotherapy. Relevant studies were examined and data were extracted independently by two investigators. The risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs were used to evaluate the responder rate, and standard mean differences (SMDs) or mean differences (MDs) with 95% CIs were used for symptom score changes. Statistical heterogeneity was evaluated by the I2 statistic. Either a fixed-effect or a random-effect model was established for calculating the pooled data. A total of 14 studies, comprising 1,437 patients were ultimately included in the meta-analysis. The pooled analysis showed that compared to PPI monotherapy, addition of prokinetics to PPI did not elevate the rate of endoscopic responders (RR = 0.996, 95% CI 0.929 − 1.068, p = 0.917), but improved symptom response (RR = 1.185, 95% CI 1.042 − 1.348, p = 0.010). Additionally, the combined therapy achieved a greater symptom relief than monotherapy both in FSSG and GERD-Q subgroups (MD = − 2.978, 95% CI − 3.319 to − 2.638, p

A novel time-of-arrival–based localization algorithm in mixed line-of-sight/non-line-of-sight environments is proposed. First, an optimization problem of target localization in the known distribution of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight is established, and mixed semi-definite and second-order cone programming techniques are used to transform the original problem into a convex optimization problem which can be solved efficiently. Second, a worst-case robust least squares criterion is used to form an optimization problem of target localization in unknown distribution of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight, where all links are treated as non-line-of-sight links. This problem is also solved using the similar techniques used in the known distribution of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight case. Finally, computer simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have better performance in both the known distribution and the unknown distribution of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight environments.

Background Ulcerative colitis [UC] is a common chronic inflammatory bowel disease without curative treatment. Methods We conducted gene set enrichment analysis to explore potential therapeutic agents for UC. Human colon tissue samples were collected to test H3 acetylation in UC. Both in vivo and in vitro colitis models were constructed to verify the role and mechanism of H3 acetylation modification in UC. Intestine-specific vitamin D receptor [VDR]-/- mice and VD [vitamin D]-deficient diet-fed mice were used to explore downstream molecular mechanisms accordingly. Results According to the Connectivity Map database, MS-275 [class I histone deacetylase inhibitor] was the top-ranked agent, indicating the potential importance of histone acetylation in the pathogenesis of UC. We then found that histone H3 acetylation was significantly lower in the colon epithelium of UC patients and negatively associated with disease severity. MS-275 treatment inhibited histone H3 deacetylation, subsequently attenuating nuclear factor kappa B [NF-κB]-induced inflammation, reducing cellular apoptosis, maintaining epithelial barrier function, and thereby reducing colitis activity in a mouse model of colitis. We also identified VDR as be a downstream effector of MS-275. The curative effect of MS-275 on colitis was abolished in VDR-/- mice and in VD-deficient diet-fed mice and VDR directly targeted p65. In UC patients, histone H3 acetylation, VDR and zonulin-1 expression showed similar downregulation patterns and were negatively associated with disease severity. Conclusions We demonstrate that MS-275 inhibits histone deacetylation and alleviates colitis by ameliorating inflammation, reducing apoptosis, and maintaining intestinal epithelial barrier via VDR, providing new strategies for UC treatment.

In this paper, we propose a robust received signal strength (RSS) based localization method in mixed line-of-sight/non-line-of-sight (LOS/NLOS) environments, where additional path losses caused by NLOS signal propagations are included. Considering that the additional path losses vary in a dramatic range, we express the additional path losses as the sum of a balancing parameter and some error terms. By doing so, we formulate a robust weighted least squares (RWLS) problem with the source location and the balancing parameter as unknown variables, which is, simultaneously, robust to the error terms. By employing the S-Lemma, the RWLS problem is transformed into a non-convex optimization problem, which is then approximately solved by applying the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) technique. The proposed method releases the requirement of knowing specific information about the additional path losses in the previous study. Simulation results show that the proposed method works well in both dense and sparse NLOS environments.

Three basic ionic liquids (BILs), 1,3-dimethyl-imidazole dimethyl phosphate([MMIM][DMP]), 1-butyl-3methylimidazolium acetate([BMIM][Ac]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate([EMIM][Ac]), were applied to the pretreatment of eucalyptus biomass under microwave conditions with the decreasing alkalinity order of [EMIM][Ac] > [BMIM][Ac] > [MMIM][DMP]. The results showed that the alkalinity of ionic liquids has great effects on the pretreatment of biomass; the greater the alkalinity is, the more capable are the ionic liquids to dissolve hemicellulose, and [MMIM][DMP] with moderately weak alkalinity has a uniquely stronger ability to remove lignin from biomass. Dissolved lignin could easily be separated by using the acetone/water (1:1, v/v), and [MMIM][DMP] pretreatment can extract 41.8% of the total amount of eucalyptus lignin, of which [BMIM][Ac] and [EMIM][Ac] recovered 18.2% and 10.7% of the total amount of raw lignin, respectively. The untreated and ILs-treated eucalyptus samples were characterized by FTIR, XRD, TGA and SEM. Lower thermal stability and changes in crystal structure were observed after pretreatments.

There has been an increasing number of studies about microRNAs as key regulators in the development of hepatic fibrosis. Here, we demonstrate that miR-542-3p can promote hepatic fibrosis by downregulating the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7), which is known to antagonize transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1)-mediated fibrogenesis effect. The expression of miR-542-3p is increased in activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). Downregulation of MiR-542-3p by antisense inhibitors can inhibit HSCs activation markers, including α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen as well as TGFβ signaling pathways. MiR-542-3p was significantly upregulated in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 )-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice, and downregulation of miR-542-3p by lentivirus could prevent the development of hepatic fibrosis. In addition, miR-542-3p can directly bind to the 3'-untranslated region of BMP-7 mRNA, indicating that its profibrotic effect appears to be caused by its inhibition of BMP-7. Our results suggest that downregulation of miR-542-3p prevents liver fibrosis both in vitro and in vivo, highlighting its potential as a novel biomarker or therapeutic target for hepatic fibrosis.

Three basic ionic liquids(BILs), 1-amyl-3methylimidazolium acetate (C5mim][Ac]), 1-butyl-3methylimidazolium acetate ([Bmim][Ac]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim][Ac]), have been applied for the dissolution of lignin from wheat grass under microwave conditions with the decreased alkalinity order of [Emim][Ac]>[Bmim][Ac]>[C5mim][Ac]. Also the behavior of oxygen-containing groups within lignin in the dissolution of ionic liquids was investigated by elemental analysis, analytical pyrolysis, 2D-HSQC spectra, GPC, TG and FTIR analysis. Results revealed that [Emim][Ac] showed a higher dissolution capacity (≥ 330 g/kg) at 80°C within 30 min under microwave condition with higher alkalinity. In the process of dissolution, ionic liquids mainly attack the oxygen-containing groups and the aryl ether bond in the lignin side chain. The methoxy content reduction, the cleavage of β-O-4’ linkages and the degradation of β–β linkages obviously happened in the dissolution process, resulting in the decrease of the molecular weights. Ionic liquids treatment selectively degraded the G-type lignin fragments with demethoxylation and dehydration reactions occurring during dissolution. The results also indicate that the shorter the alkyl chain of the ionic liquids, the stronger the alkalinity is, the more destructive the oxygen-containing groups in the lignin side chain.

Bacillus is widely used in the livestock industry. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SC06 (Ba), originally isolated from soil, in piglets diet as an alternative to antibiotics (aureomycin), mainly on intestinal epithelial barrier and immune function. Ninety piglets were divided into three groups: G1 (containing 150 mg/kg aureomycin in the diet); G2 (containing 75 mg/kg aureomycin and 1×108 cfu/kg Ba in the diet); G3 (containing 2×108 cfu/kg Ba in the diet without any antibiotics). The results showed that, compared with the antibiotic group (G1), villus length, crypt depth and villus length/crypt depth ratio of intestine significantly increased in the G2 and G3 groups. In addition, intestinal villi morphology, goblet-cell number, mitochondria structure and tight junction proteins of intestinal epithelial cells in G2 and G3 were better than in G1. The relative gene expression of intestinal mucosal defensin-1, claudin3, claudin4, and human mucin-1 in G3 was significantly lower, while the expression of villin was significantly higher than in the antibiotic group. Probiotic Ba could significantly decrease serum interferon (IFN)-α, IFN-γ, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-4 levels, whereas increase tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and IL-6 secretion. Ba could also significantly decrease cytokines TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, and IL-4 level in liver, whereas it significantly increased IFN-α. Furthermore, replacing antibiotics with Ba also significantly down-regulated gene expression of TNF and IL-1α in intestinal mucosa, but up-regulated IL-6 and IL-8 transcription. Dietary addition of Ba could significantly reduce the gene expression of nuclear factor kappa beta (NFκB)-p50 and Toll-like receptor (TLR)6, while there was no significant difference for that of myeloid differentiation primary response 88, TNF receptor-associated factor-6, nucleotide-binding oligomerisation domain-containing protein 1, TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that probiotic Ba could increase the intestinal epithelial cell barrier and immune function by improving intestinal mucosa structure, tight junctions and by activating the TLRs signalling pathway.

Aims Epidemiologic evidence on alcohol consumption increasing the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is contradictory. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between alcohol consumption and GERD by a meta-analysis of observational studies. Short summary Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a prevalent disease, and the incidence is rising. We conducted a meta-analysis of observational studies, indicating that there was a significant association between alcohol consumption and the risk of GERD. This finding provides important implications for the prevention and control of GERD. Methods Two investigators retrieved relevant studies on PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE, respectively. The summary odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by random effects model to assess the association. Heterogeneity was quantified using the Q statistic and I2. Subgroup analysis, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were also conducted. Results Twenty-six cross-sectional studies and three case-control studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled random effects OR was 1.48 (95%CI, 1.31-1.67; I2 = 88.8%), in comparison between drinkers and non-/occasional drinkers. For reflux esophagitis and non-erosive reflux disease, two subtypes of GERD, the ORs were 1.78 (95%CI, 1.56-2.03; I2 = 87.5%) and 1.15 (95%CI, 1.04-1.28; I2 = 0.3%), respectively. In addition, the pooled OR for drinkers who drank

This brief studies the fusion estimation problem of signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) for a class of wireless networks. Based on the SINR state-space model with unknown covariances and unknown but bounded congestion control function, each local SINR estimator is designed such that an upper bound of the ${H_{2}}$ estimation performance is minimal. To improve the estimation performance, a convex optimization problem on the design of an optimal distributed fusion criterion is established in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily solved by standard software packages. Simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

This letter focuses on exploiting both eigenvalues and eigenvectors for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio. First, we design a blind learning algorithm for obtaining the prior knowledge of the maximum eigenvalue of noises and the leading eigenvector of primary signals by using historical sensing data. Then, we propose a new detector for spectrum sensing by exploiting both the maximum eigenvalue and the leading eigenvector. A theoretical expression for the decision threshold of the proposed detector is derived. Numerical results are provided to validate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed detector.

Quick and accurate estimation of organic pollution load such as COD in wastewater is very important for the implementation of cleaner production, especially in pulp and paper industry. In order to find the contribution of pollution load of aromatic organics, several non-aromatic and aromatic organics were studied. Results indicated that there was a good linear correlation between theoretical COD (ThOD) and composite parameters of ln(C + H)/O, which is calculated from the amount of C, H and O atoms in the molecular formula. From the regression line equation of ThOD vs ln(C + H)/O, it is found that the gradient of the aromatic ring regression line is lower than that of other acyclic compounds, which may be ascribed to aromatics which were hard to oxidize in measurements of COD. An actual COD well matched to the ThOD estimated for common aromatics with phenolic and non-phenolic structures often appeared for wastewater from pulp and paper industry, with a relative error rate of ± 5 %. Ideal recovery rates of these, 95 % to 105 %, were achieved. This work provides an effective method for quick and accurate estimation for pollution load contributions, which is important for contamination control and progress in industry.

In this study, we reported a pH/near-infrared (NIR)-responsive hydrogel for on-demand drug delivery and wound healing. Cellulose nanofibrils (TOCNFs) were produced by 2, 2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation method. Polydopamine (PDA) was introduced into TOCNFs network to fabricate a PDA/TOCNFs hydrogel through ion-crosslinking with calcium ion as a crosslinker. Then, tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) which loaded on PDA could be released from the prepared hydrogels in an on-demand fashion under NIR exposure or at lower pH conditions. In addition, the in vivo skin defect experiments illustrated that the resultant composite hydrogel had a synergistic effect on promoting wound healing. Therefore, owing to the unique pH/NIR responsiveness, long time period drug releasing property, antibacterial and mechanical properties, together with their biodegradability and biocompatibility, the prepared PDA/TOCNFs hydrogel is highly promising as a new drug delivery vehicle, offering simple and safe alternatives to the conventional systems based on the petroleum-based polymers.

Cooperative spectrum sensing has been studied to combat the hidden terminal problem by exploiting the spatial diversity in cognitive radio (CR) networks. This paper concerns blind cooperative spectrum sensing with soft fusion, where the a priori knowledge of channels and primary signals is unavailable, and soft information is transmitted from each secondary user (SU) to a fusion center for detection. We first introduce the Quade test to design a blind detector. Then, a new detector with both lower computational complexity and lower overhead is derived, where only the estimated power and the variance of the instantaneous power at each SU are required at the fusion center. The analytical expressions for the detection performance, in terms of false-alarm probability and detection probability, are derived for the proposed detector. Simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical analyses and demonstrate the superior performance of proposed detector compared to the state-of-the-art detectors. It is also shown that, with the increase of the number of hidden terminals in the CR, the proposed detector can maintain high detection performance while the conventional detectors exhibit rapid performance degradation.

A multichannel selection strategy is proposed for RF energy harvesting cognitive radio networks, where multiple channels are available, and each secondary user (SU) harvests RF energy from the channel being occupied by active primary users and transmits data using other idle channels. To maximize the average throughput of SUs which contend for the use of idle channels, the multichannel selection strategy is formulated to a convex optimization problem. Further, we derive an analytical solution to the optimization problem. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed strategy and verify the analytical solution.