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Objective: The expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) seems to be influenced by the endocrine environment. Numerous reports demonstrate the diverse expression of Bcl-2 family members under sex steroid regulation. With the exception of estrogen-related tumors, androgen-related tumors have shown their characteristics in Bcl-2 expression. In this study, the status of Bcl-2 expression in male hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients was examined to verify the high incidence of HCC in males.Methods: Tumor tissue microarray was used to examine Bcl-2 expression levels in 374 HCC cases including 306 males and 68 females. Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards model were applied to investigate the predictive value of Bcl-2 in HCC patients.Results: Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that male patients with higher Bcl-2 levels had significantly longer median survival time and recurrence time than those with lower levels. However, no significant differences in outcomes were found between different Bcl-2 levels in female patients. When the male patients were stratified into several age points, the level of Bcl-2 expression showed poorer predictive efficiency in the 45–49 and 55–60 age groups in andropause-age patients compared with other age groups. Bcl-2 was an independent prognostic factor for both overall survival (P < 0.0001) and recurrence time (P = 0.0001) in male patients. After excluding male patients in the 45–60 age group, the predictive efficiency was enhanced (n = 147, OS, P = 0.0002, TTR, P < 0.0001).Conclusions: Bcl-2 expression is an independent predictor of survival and recurrence in male HCC. Bcl-2 levels may also be regulated by androgens or androgen receptors in male HCC patients. Bcl-2 levels change and exhibit poor predictive efficiency when androgen levels vary dramatically (andropause age).

A highly stable thiazole functionalized covalent triazine framework, namely CTF-BT-500, was developed for C2H6/C2H4 separation, which exhibits a record-high ethane uptake (99.7 cm3 g−1) among all reported COFs at 298 K and 1 bar. This work not only presents an excellent C2H6-selective adsorbent, but also provides guidance for the construction of robust adsorbents for value-added gas purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C(sp3)−H oxyfunctionalization, the insertion of an O‐atom into C(sp3)−H bonds, streamlines the synthesis of complex molecules from easily accessible precursors and represents one of the most challenging tasks in organic chemistry with regard to site and stereoselectivity. Biocatalytic C(sp3)−H oxyfunctionalization has the potential to overcome limitations inherent to small‐molecule‐mediated approaches by delivering catalyst‐controlled selectivity. Through enzyme repurposing and activity profiling of natural variants, we have developed a subfamily of α‐ketoglutarate‐dependent iron dioxygenases that catalyze the site‐ and stereodivergent oxyfunctionalization of secondary and tertiary C(sp3)−H bonds, providing concise synthetic routes towards four types of 92 α‐ and β‐hydroxy acids with high efficiency and selectivity. This method provides a biocatalytic approach for the production of valuable but synthetically challenging chiral hydroxy acid building blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density functional theory (DFT) is used to investigate the N2O decomposition over Pd4−/0/+ clusters. The Eley–Rideal (ER) mechanism and the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism are well established. The average binding energies show that the most stable structure of Pd4−/0/+ clusters is the tetrahedral configuration. For the Pd4− cluster, the activation energies indicate that the rate-limiting step in two mechanisms is the formation of O2, and the ER mechanism occurs more easily than the LH mechanism. While for the Pd40 and Pd4+ clusters, the rate-limiting step in two mechanisms is the N2O decomposition to N2, and the LH mechanism is more likely to process. Among all clusters, the Pd4− cluster exhibits better catalytic activity compared with the Pd40 and Pd4+ clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent changes in the tide levels in estuaries cause constant changes in the hydraulics of fish passage systems, with important effects on successful fish passage and swimming behavior. In most cases, Japanese eels often have low passage rates in engineered fishways because of their special habits. In this study, we established a 1:4 scaled-down weir-hole combination bulkhead fishway, studied the effects of different tidal differences and water depths on the passage rates and swimming behavior of yellow-phase Japanese eels, and analyzed the response of the Japanese eels to the hydraulic factors by superimposing their swimming trajectories and the flow field simulation results. We found that the passage rate of the eels decreased from 68.18% to 50.00% and 45.45% under extreme high tide differences and extreme low tide differences, respectively. The eels tended to use the low-velocity area to climb up the wall, and when crossing the mainstream, the yellow-phase Japanese eels preferred the area with a flow velocity of 0.1~0.36 m/s and a turbulent kinetic energy range of 0.001~0.007 m2/s2. Their upstream swimming speed was maintained at a range of 0.1~0.3 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration adversely affect several quality traits of rice grains, but the biochemical mechanism remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to determine how changes in the source-sink relationship affected rice quality. Source-sink manipulation was achieved by free-air CO2 enrichment from tillering to maturity and partial removal of spikelet at anthesis using a japonica rice cultivar Wuyunjing 23. Enrichment with CO2 decreased the head rice percentage and protein concentration of milled rice, but increased the grain chalkiness. In contrast, spikelet removal resulted in a dramatic increase in the head rice percentage and protein concentration, and much less grain chalkiness. Neither CO2 enrichment nor spikelet removal affected the starch content, but the distribution of starch granule size showed distinct treatment effects. On average, spikelet removal decreased the percentage of starch granules of diameter >10 and 5–10 µm by 23.6 and 5.6%, respectively, and increased those with a diameter of 2–5 and 5 µm) and decreasing that of

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of long-term intake of Tartary buckwheat tea on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of eplerenone in rats. A validated high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) method was established to determine the eplerenone in plasma, and the portal vein absorption model was applied to conduct the pharmacokinetic study. Two groups of animals—buckwheat tea group and control group—were involved in this study. Plasma samples were obtained at different time points after administration, and were separated on Shimadzu HPLC-MS 2020 instruments. The method showed good linearity (r=0.9988) over a wide dynamic range (0.20–50 μg/mL). Within- and between-batch precisions ranged from 2.13% to 7.90%. The extraction recovery rates ranged from 91.96% to 94.96%. The data showed that in the Tartarian buckwheat group the area under the curve and maximum concentration of eplerenone were reduced compared with those of the blank group (p

The aim of this study is to introduce a self‐designed, minimally invasive technique for repairing an acute Achilles tendon rupture percutaneously. Comparing with the traditional open repair, the new technique provides obvious advantages of minimized operation‐related lesions, fewer wound complications as well as a higher healing rate. However, a percutaneous technique without direct vision may be criticized by its insufficient anastomosis of Achilles tendon and may also lead to the lengthening of the Achilles tendon and a reduction in the strength of the gastrocnemius. To address the potential problems, we have improved our technique using a percutaneous Kirschner wire leverage process before suturing, which can effectively recover the length of the Achilles tendon and ensure the broken ends are in tight contact. With this improvement in technique, we have great confidence that it will become the treatment of choice for acute Achilles tendon ruptures.