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In this study, reinforcement effect of 12 types of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on mechanical properties of cementitious composites was investigated Research results showed that among pristine MWCNTs with different diameters and lengths, the short MWCNTs with large diameter present the best reinforcing effect on strength of composites. Functionalization of MWCNTs is beneficial for enhancing strength of composites. Moreover, hydroxyl-functionalized MWCNTs feature a better reinforcement effect compared to carboxyl-functionalized MWCNTs. The best relative/absolute enhancements of 79%/74 MPa and 64.4%/5.6 MPa in compressive and flexural strength of composites are achieved by incorporating 0.5% of nickel-coated MWCNTs. XRD analyses revealed that the incorporation of MWCNTs decreases the orientation of CH in matrix, which is consistent with SEM observations. TG analyses showed that MWCNTs inhibit hydration of composites due to their absorption effect. However, extensive MWCNT networks improve microstructure of matrix and hinder the crack development under loading through fiber bridging and pull-out.

As a biomarker of prostate cancer, sarcosine plays an important role in the diagnosis of cancer. The specificity of enzymatic reaction between sarcosine oxidase and sarcosine could be applied for the rapid and specific assay of sarcosine. Enzyme-based sarcosine quantification method has attracted our attention due to its high specificity and selectivity, but its wide use is restricted by the poor stability and challenging reusability. In this study, sarcosine oxidase was used to synthesize magnetic cross-linked enzyme aggregates (MCLEAs) with great stability and recyclability. The MCLEAs were characterized by transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffractometer, and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. Subsequently, a colorimetric assay of sarcosine was developed based on the enzymatic reaction between MCLEAs and the substrate. The method can be used to quantify sarcosine with a linear range from 0.3125 to 10 μg mL−1 and recoveries ranging 87.50–97.75 %, suggesting its potential for reliable analysis of sarcosine in urine.

A fully implicit finite difference scheme with second-order time evolution for strong nonlinear diffusion equation of divergence type is studied. Theoretical analysis is established under a coercive condition reflecting the diffusion characteristics of the strong nonlinear equation. Some new reasoning techniques are developed to overcome the difficulties caused by the strong nonlinearity of the divergence diffusion operator. The existence of the fully implicit finite difference solution is proved by constructing an appropriate mapping in the fixed point argument and bounding the solution as well as its first- and second-order spatial difference quotients tactfully.

Utilizing recent theoretical results in high dimensional statistical modeling, a flexible yet computationally simple approach is proposed to estimate the partially linear models. Motivated by the partial consistency phenomena, the nonparametric component in the partially linear model is modeled via incidental parameters and estimated by a simple local average over small partitions of the support of the nonparametric variables. The proposed least-squares based method seeks to strike a balance between computation burden and efficiency of the estimators while minimizing model bias. It is shown that given inconsistent estimators of the nonparametric component, square root-n consistent estimators of the parameters of the parametric component can be obtained with little loss in efficiency. Moreover, conditional on the parametric estimates, an optimal estimator of the nonparametric component can be obtained using classic nonparametric methods. The statistical inference problems regarding the parametric parameters and a two-population nonparametric testing problem regarding the nonparametric component are considered. The results show that the behavior of the test statistics is satisfactory. To assess the performance of the new method in comparison with other methods, three simulation studies are conducted and a real data set about risk factors of birth weights is analyzed.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, especially in East Asia and China. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as critical regulators that may be involved in the development and progression of cancers in humans. However, the contributions of lncRNAs to HCC development, metastasis, and recurrence remain largely unknown. In this study, we comprehensively investigated lncRNA expression profile in HCC and normal tissues using TCGA RNA sequencing data, one RNA sequencing dataset, and two microarray datasets from GEO. By analyzing these four datasets, we identified hundreds of expression‐dysregulated lncRNAs in HCC tissues compared with normal tissues. Genomic copy number variation analysis showed that many of those lncRNAs disorder are related to the copy number amplification or deletion. Moreover, several lncRNAs expression levels are associated with HCC patients' overall and recurrence‐free survival, such as RP1‐228H13.5, TMCC1‐AS1, LINC00205, and RP11‐307C12.11. Furthermore, we identified two lncRNAs termed PVT1 and SNHG7 that may be involved in HCC cells metastasis by comparing lncRNAs expression profiles between early recurrence HCC tissues with metastasis and late recurrence HCC tissues without metastasis. Finally, loss‐of‐function assays confirmed that knockdown of SNHG7 and PVT1 impaired HCC cells invasion. Taken together, these findings may provide a valuable resource for further identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HCC patients.

In recent years, China's population has shown an obvious aging trend. This trend has been accompanied by an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and death. Intracranial stenting has become an important treatment modality for intracranial vascular disease because it is effective, safe, and widely approved. In this paper, we review the literature concerning the classification, structure, preparation, and performance of intracranial stents. We also summarize problems and future prospects in the context of intracranial stents. This paper will serve as a reference for the future research and development of intracranial stents.

// Weijun Jiang 1 , Peiran Zhu 1 , Jing Zhang 1 , Qiuyue Wu 1 , Weiwei Li 1 , Shuaimei Liu 1 , Mengxia Ni 1 , Maomao Yu 1 , Jin Cao 1 , Yi Li 1 , Yingxia Cui 1 and Xinyi Xia 1 1 Department of Reproduction and Genetics, Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing 210002, P.R. China Correspondence to: Xinyi Xia, email: xiaxynju@163.com Keywords: polymorphism, protamine, male infertility, transition protein Received: March 21, 2017 Accepted: May 09, 2017 Published: June 27, 2017 ABSTRACT Protamine (PRM) plays important roles in the packaging of DNA within the sperm nucleus. To investigate the role of PRM1/2 and transition protein 1 ( TNP1 ) polymorphisms in male infertility, 636 infertile men and 442 healthy individuals were recruited into this case-controlled study of the Chinese Han population, using MassARRAY technology to analyze genotypes. Our analysis showed that there were no significant differences between controls and infertile cases among the five single nucleotide polymorphisms identified in PRM1 , PRM2 and TNP1 [rs737008 (G/A), rs2301365 (C/A), rs2070923 (C/A), rs1646022 (C/G) and rs62180545 (A/G)]. However, we found that the PRM1 and PRM2 haplotypes GCTGC, TCGCA and TCGCC exhibited significant protective effects against male infertility compared to fertile men, while TCGGA, GCTCC and TCGGC represented significant risk factors for spermatogenesis. Our data showed that rs737008 and rs2301365 in PRM1 , and rs1646022 in PRM2 , were significantly associated with male infertility and that gene–gene interaction played a role in male infertility. A linkage disequilibrium plot for the five SNPs showed that rs737008 was strongly linked with both rs2301365 and rs2070923. These findings are likely to help improve our understanding of the etiology of male infertility. Further studies should include a larger number of genes and SNPs, particularly growing critical genes; such studies will help us to unravel the effect of individual genetic factors upon male infertility.

The mechanical and electrical properties of reactive powder concrete (RPC) with nano-ZrO2 (NZ) are investigated in this research. The reinforcing mechanisms of NZ to RPC are studied through thermogravimetry (TG) analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis. Research results indicate that the NZ has obvious modifying effect to RPC. The flexural, compressive and splitting strengths of RPC with NZ at curing age of 28 days achieve increases of 36.6%/4.19 MPa, 16.3%/16.18 MPa and 34.0%/1.08 MPa, respectively, compared to plain RPC. The addition of NZ makes a 20% decrease in the electrical conductivity of RPC. The NZ does not accelerate the hydration process of RPC. However, the microstructures of NZ filled RPC are denser than that of plain RPC. This leads to the reduction of the growth space of calcium hydroxide (CH) crystals, thus the size of CH crystals is reduced. Furthermore, NZ can reduce CH crystal orientation to improve the microstructures of the composites.

Missing data mechanism often depends on the values of the responses, which leads to nonignorable nonresponses. In such a situation, inference based on approaches that ignore the missing data mechanism could not be valid. A crucial step is to model the nature of missingness. We specify a parametric model for missingness mechanism, and then propose a conditional score function approach for estimation. This approach imputes the score function by taking the conditional expectation of the score function for the missing data given the available information. Inference procedure is then followed by replacing unknown terms with the related nonparametric estimators based on the observed data. The proposed score function does not suffer from the non-identifiability problem, and the proposed estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. We also construct a confidence region for the parameter of interest using empirical likelihood method. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed inference procedure performs well in many settings. We apply the proposed method to a data set from research in a growth hormone and exercise intervention study.

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and CNTF analogs were reported to have hepatoprotective effect and ameliorate hepatic steatosis in db/db or high-fat-diet-fed mice. Because hepatic steatosis and injury are also commonly induced by hepatotoxin, the aim of the present study is to clarify whether CNTF could alleviate hepatic steatosis and injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Unexpectedly, when combined with CCl4, CNTF aggravated hepatic steatosis and liver injury. The mechanism is associated with effects of CNTF that inhibited lipoprotein secretion and drastically impaired the ability of lipoproteins to act as transport vehicles for lipids from the liver to the circulation. While injected after CCl4 cessation, CNTF could improve liver function. These data suggest that CNTF could be a potential hepatoprotective agent against CCl4-induced hepatic injury after the cessation of CCl4 exposure. However, it is forbidden to combine recombinant mutant of human CNTF treatment with CCl4.

Varying-coefficient partially linear models provide a useful tools for modeling of covariate effects on the response variable in regression. One key question in varying-coefficient partially linear models is the choice of model structure, that is, how to decide which covariates have linear effect and which have nonlinear effect. In this article, we propose a profile method for identifying the covariates with linear effect or nonlinear effect. Our proposed method is a penalized regression approach based on group minimax concave penalty. Under suitable conditions, we show that the proposed method can correctly determine which covariates have a linear effect and which do not with high probability. The convergence rate of the linear estimator is established as well as the asymptotical normality. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through a simulation study which supports our theoretical results.

This paper investigates statistical inference for the single-index model when the number of predictors grows with sample size. Empirical likelihood method for constructing confidence region for the index vector, which does not require a multivariate non parametric smoothing, is employed. However, the classical empirical likelihood ratio for this model does not remain valid because plug-in estimation of an infinite-dimensional nuisance parameter causes a non negligible bias and the diverging number of parameters/predictors makes the limit not chi-squared any more. To solve these problems, we define an empirical likelihood ratio based on newly proposed weighted estimating equations and show that it is asymptotically normal. Also we find that different weights used in the weighted residuals require, for asymptotic normality, different diverging rate of the number of predictors. However, the rate n1/3, which is a possible fastest rate when there are no any other conditions assumed in the setting under...

We address the problem of identifying and estimating generalized linear models when the response variable is nonignorably missing. Three types of monotone missing data mechanism are assumed, including Logit model, Probit model and complementary Log–log model. In this situation, likelihood based on observed data may not be identifiable. In this article, we prove the model parameters are identifiable under very mild conditions and then construct estimators based on a likelihood-based approach. The proposed estimators are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed inference procedure performs well in many settings. We apply the proposed method to a data set from research in Chinese Household Income Project study.

This study for the first time designed to use supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) to extract total alkaloids, peimine and peiminine from the flower of Fritillaria thunbergii Miq. 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt radical cation scavenging activity (ABTS-RSA) and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay were selected to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of the extracts. A central composite design (CCD) with four variables (extract time (1.5–3.5) h, temperature (50–70) °C, pressure (15–35) MPa and co-solvent (ethanol: water) ratio (80–100, v/v) %was employed for optimization of process parameters, and response surface plots were constructed in accordance with a second order polynomial model. The highest yields of total alkaloids (2.9 mg/g), peimine (0.7 mg/g) and peiminine (0.07 mg/g) were predicted at optimal conditions of 2.9 h, 61.3 °C, 30.6 MPa and 90.3% ethanol and the antioxidant activity of the extracts was estimated to be comparable to that of α-tocopherol with ABTS value of 0.5 mg/mL and FRAP value of 658 mg AAE/100 g, respectively. These results suggest that optimization of the extraction conditions is critical for accurate quantification of total alkaloids, peimine and peiminine, and antioxidants in F. thunbergii Miq flower, which may further be used for industrial extraction procedure.

Nanographite platelets (NGPs) are used as multi-functional fillers to develop cementitious composites because the unique carbon-carbon hexagonal plane structure makes NGPs have excellent mechanical, electrical, dielectric and thermal properties. In this paper, cementitious composites filled with NGPs are fabricated to investigate the effect of NGPs on mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic properties of cementitious composites. Experiment results show that the addition of NGPs can effectively modify the above-mentioned properties of cementitious composites. When the content of NGPs reaches 5%, the hardness of the composites increases 1.5-fold, the abrasive loss per unit area of the composites reduces by 71%, the abrasion depth of the composites reduces by 73%, the thermal conductivity of the composites increases by 77%, the specific heat of the composites decreases by 17.7%, the damping ratio of the composites increases by 20%, and the electromagnetic wave reflectivity of the composites decreases by 38% compared with pure cementitious composites.

This article simulates the stress state and strain compatibility of the sensor embedded into concrete member to provide theoretical support for design and application of cement-based sensor. The effect of sensor dimension, voltage electrode separation, and surface roughness on strain compatibility between the embedded sensor and the concrete surrounding it is analyzed. The optimally designed sensor is embedded into concrete for health monitoring, and its stress state is investigated. A modified method for the monitoring results is proposed by studying the effect of embedded location and small deflection angle of the sensor, strength grade of concrete, amplitudes, and types of load on stress/strain compatibility. The results show that the optimum dimension and voltage electrode separation of the sensor are 20 mm × 20 mm × 40 mm and 10 mm, respectively. The sensors are nearly subjected to a uniaxial stress state when the sensor is embedded in internal strain-homogeneous area of concrete structure. The presence of the sensor will affect the stress distribution of the concrete around the sensor. The strain of the sensor is approximately coordinated with that of concrete surrounding it. The monitoring results need to be modified with the correction coefficient of corresponding effect factors to ensure monitoring accuracy.

Isothermal β heat treatments of Ti–6.5Al–3.5Mo–1.5Zr–0.3Si alloy were performed at the temperature of 1040–1240 °C to examine the influence of heating conditions on grain growth of the alloy. The results show that the grain size increases with heating temperature and holding time increasing. Rapid β grain growth of the alloy takes place at the temperature of over 1140 °C. The grain growth kinetics for the alloy follows the classical isothermal grain growth law. The growth time exponent (n) of 0.5651 and activation energy (Q) of 129.6 kJ·mol−1 are determined. Finally, in order to determine the grain size under different heating conditions, the grain growth model of the alloy was established.

A facile strategy has been developed to construct unique core–shell-structured Li2.7V2.1(PO4)3 nanocomposites with a Li3V2(PO4)3 core and LiVOPO4 shell by using nonstoichiometric design and high-energy ball milling (HEBM) treatment. The HEBM treatment supplies enough energy to drive the excess V atoms to the surface to form a V-enriched shell. Such kind of cathode can deliver a high reversible capacity of 131.5 mA h g−1 at 0.5C, which is close to the theoretical capacity (133 mA h g−1 in 3.0–4.3 V). Even at 20C, it still delivers an excellent discharge capacity of 116.3 mA h g−1, and a remarkable capacity of 111.0 mA h g−1 after 1000 cycles, corresponding to an ultra-small capacity-loss of 0.0046% per cycle. The significantly improved high-rate electrochemical performance can be attributed to the active shell of LiVOPO4, which not only efficiently facilitates the electron and Li+ ion transport during cycling processes, but also accommodates more Li+ ions to effectively compensate the capacity loss of the core.

X-linked Alport syndrome (XLAS) is a common hereditary nephropathy caused by COL4A5 gene mutations. To date, many splice site mutations have been described but few have been functionally analyzed to verify the exact splicing effects that contribute to disease pathogenesis. Here, we accidentally discovered 2 COL4A5 gene splicing mutations affecting the same residue (c.2917+1GA and c.2917+1GC) in 2 unrelated Chinese families. In vitro minigene assays showed that the 2 mutations produced 3 transcripts in H293T cells: one with a 96-bp deletion in exon 33, one with exon 33 skipping, and one with exon 33-34 skipping. However, fragment analysis results showed that the main splicing effects of the 2 mutations were different, the c.2917+1GA mutation mainly activated a cryptic donor splice site in exon 33 and resulted in the deletion of 96 bp in exon 33, while the c.2917+1GC mutation mainly caused exon 33 skipping. Our findings indicate that different nucleotide substitutions at the same residue can cause different splicing effects, which may contribute to the variable phenotype of Alport syndrome.

Lack of labelled data in the target domain for training is a common problem in domain adaptation. To overcome this problem, we propose a novel unsupervised domain adaptation method that combines projection and self-training based approaches. Using the labelled data from the source domain, we first learn a projection that maximises the distance among the nearest neighbours with opposite labels in the source domain. Next, we project the source domain labelled data using the learnt projection and train a classifier for the target class prediction. We then use the trained classifier to predict pseudo labels for the target domain unlabelled data. Finally, we learn a projection for the target domain as we did for the source domain using the pseudo-labelled target domain data, where we maximise the distance between nearest neighbours having opposite pseudo labels. Experiments on a standard benchmark dataset for domain adaptation show that the proposed method consistently outperforms numerous baselines and returns competitive results comparable to that of SOTA including self-training, tri-training, and neural adaptations.

Measurement device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocols are immune to all possible attacks on the photon detectors during quantum communication, but their key generation rates are low compared with those of other QKD schemes. Increasing each individual photons channel capacity is an efficient way to increase the key generation rate, and high-dimensional (HD) encoding is a powerful tool for increasing the channel capacity of photons. In this paper, we propose an HD MDI-QKD protocol with qudits hyper-encoded in spatial mode and polarization degrees of freedom (DOFs). In the proposed protocol, keys can be generated using the spatial mode and polarization DOFs simultaneously. The proposed protocol is unconditionally secure, even for weak coherent pulses with decoy states. The proposed MDI-QKD protocol may be useful for future quantum secure communication applications.

We present the main advances of dissection of complex traits in tomato by omics, the genes identified to control complex traits and the application of CRISPR/Cas9 in tomato breeding. Complex traits are believed to be under the control of multiple genes, each with different effects and interaction with environmental factors. Advance development of sequencing and molecular technologies has enabled the recognition of the genomic structure of most organisms and the identification of a nearly limitless number of markers that have made it to accelerate the speed of QTL identification and gene cloning. Meanwhile, multiomics have been used to identify the genetic variations among different tomato species, determine the expression profiles of genes in different tissues and at distinct developmental stages, and detect metabolites in different pathways and processes. The combination of these data facilitates to reveal mechanism underlying complex traits. Moreover, mutants generated by mutagens and genome editing provide relatively rich genetic variation for deciphering the complex traits and exploiting them in tomato breeding. In this article, we present the main advances of complex trait dissection in tomato by omics since the release of the tomato genome sequence in 2012. We provide further insight into some tomato complex traits because of the causal genetic variations discovered so far and explore the utilization of CRISPR/Cas9 for the modification of tomato complex traits.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are the most widely distributed natural toxins, and pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing herbal medicines are probably the most common poisonous plants affecting humans. We reported pyrrolizidine alkaloid-molecularly imprinted polymer solid-phase microextraction for the selective adsorption of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids from herbal medicine. A sulfonic compound, sodium allylsulfonate, was chosen as the functional monomer to interact with pyrrolizidine alkaloids through strong ionic interaction. To avoid template leakage and for the aim of cost saving, a relatively cheap dummy template was used for the fabrication of molecularly imprinted polymer-solid-phase microextraction fibers. The obtained fibers showed selective adsorption ability for four pyrrolizidine alkaloids, including europine, echimidine, lasiocarpine, and heliotrine. The extraction parameters, such as extraction time, extraction temperature, shaking speed, elution solvent and elution time, were optimized. Then ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry coupled with molecularly imprinted polymer-solid-phase microextraction method was developed for the fast and efficient analysis of four pyrrolizidine alkaloids from the model herbal plant Farfarae Flos. The established method was validated and exhibited satisfactory accuracy and precision. The present method provides an innovative and fast analytical strategy for the determination of trace toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in complicated samples.

Background Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and also a major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Olmesartan medoxomil (OM) is an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) and has been shown to exhibit renoprotective effects on a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat model. Yet, whether OM affects DN progression and renal injury in db/db mice, a type 2 diabetic murine model, has not been established. Methods Wild-type (n = 15) and db/db mice (n = 15) were treated with control saline or OM via oral gavage. The physiological and biochemical parameters were evaluated and histological examinations of kidney specimens were performed. Results Compared with saline-treated db/db mice, db/db mice administered with OM showed ameliorated diabetic physiological and biochemical parameters. In addition, OM decreased urinary albumin excretion and plasma creatinine level in db/db mice. Moreover, histologically, OM reduced glomerular hypertrophy and injury, and also ameliorated tubular injury, thus suggesting that OM improves renal function and minimizes renal pathological deterioration in db/db mice. Conclusion Our study reveals a beneficial role of OM in ameliorating DN in db/db mice, which is associated with its renoprotective function.

The study of morphological and molecular diversity and grouping analysis for cultivated inbred tomato lines is very important to help breeders in selecting parental lines for hybrid breeding and developing heterotic groups. In this study, a total of 324 cultivated inbred tomato lines collected from various sources were investigated for the presence of 17 agronomic traits and subsequently genotyped with a 56- (insertion–deletion) InDel assay. The phenotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 5 to 108% with an average of 36%, and the range of phenotypic diversity index was 0.41– 2.06, with an average of 1.59. The outstanding traits in terms of causing phenotypic diversity of the inbred tomato lines are resistance to gray leaf spot, hypocotyl colour, growth habit, fruit shape, plant height, days to 30% first flower, weight per fruit, hardness, brix, acid, number of locules and transverse diameter of fruit by principal component analyses (PCA). The values of Shannon’s information index, polymorphic information content and heterozygosity are 0.61, 0.33 and 0.06 respectively. The PCA and Ward’s method for cluster multivariate analysis based on 17 agronomic traits revealed that there are four major groups with rich genetic diversity within groups. Model-based population structure analysis indicated that the 324 cultivated inbred tomato lines were separated into two main groups that were different from the results of the three main groups and five subgroups by Nei’s (Am Nat 106:283–292, 1973) cluster analysis based on InDel markers. The Mantel test correlation coefficient of the matrices of morphological and InDel distances was 0.229. Overall, this study reveals that 324 cultivated inbred tomato lines are diverse with high homozygosity and a rich genetic background. Nei’s (1973) cluster analysis can serve as an effective approach for assigning germplasm into groups and for providing guidelines for parental selection in hybrid tomato breeding.

Cerebral ischemic injury is a leading cause of human mortality and disability, seriously threatening human health in the world. Activin A (Act A), as a well-known neuroprotective factor, could alleviate ischemic brain injury mainly through Act A/Smads signaling. In our previous study, a noncanonical Act A/Smads signal loop with self-amplifying property was found, which strengthened the neuroprotective effect of Act A. However, this neuroprotective effect was limited due to the self-limiting behavior mediated by Smad anchor for receptor activation (SARA) protein. It was reported that microRNA-17-5p (miR-17-5p) could suppress the expression of SARA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Thus we proposed that knockdown of miR-17-5p could strengthen the neuroprotective effect of Act A/Smads signal loop through SARA. To testify this hypothesis, oxygen-glucose deficiency (OGD) was introduced to highly differentiated rattus pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. After the transfection of miR-17-5p mimic or inhibitor, the activity of Act A signal loop was quantified by the expression of phosphorylated Smad3. The results showed that suppression of miR-17-5p up-regulated the expression of SARA protein, which prolonged and strengthened the activity of Act A signaling through increased phosphorylation of downstream Smad3 and accumulation of Act A ligand. Further luciferase assay confirmed that SARA was a direct target gene of miR-17-5p. These practical discoveries will bring new insight on the endogenous neuroprotective effects of Act A signal loop by interfering a novel target: miR-17-5p.

In this paper, we discuss the normality and shared values of meromorphic functions with differential polynomial. We obtain the main result: Let \(\mathcal {F}\) be a family of meromorphic functions in a domain D and k, q be two positive integers. Let \(P(z,w)=w^{q}+a_{q-1}(z)w^{q-1}+\cdots +a_{1}(z)w \) and \(H(f,f',\ldots ,f^{(k)})\) be a differential polynomial with \(\frac{\varGamma }{\gamma }|_H

Computer is one of the fastest growing industries in the past decades. Computer network further enables the information exchange from far remote locations within an unbelievable speed. As more and more devices are connected on the Internet of Things (IoT) network, organic interface on smart devices is influencing the security requirements. The attack on mobile devices and web interfaces constitute the major source of attacks in computer networks. Password as a form of authentication based on “what you know” has become widely used in computer devices and networks because of its ease of use and limited processing requirements by the application. However, this form of authentication is susceptible to various attacks including brute force attack, shoulder surfing, memory dump and spoofing. Also this form of authentication complicates the security requirements of IoT devices. Traditional keystroke features related to timing, depression of keys, and virtual key force of users, have been considered for authentication purposes. Recently, human emotion has been studied which can add another unique feature applied to password authentication. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the keystroke dynamics with the influence of emotion.

The existence of hydrocortisone in water resources is a serious threat to human health. However, the rapid and sensitive detection methods for hydrocortisone in wastewater are still lacking. Meanwhile, due to the weak redox activity of hydrocortisone, electrochemical technique cannot be used to detect hydrocortisone directly. Therefore, molecularly imprinted technique combined with prussian blue nanoparticles was synthesized for detecting HC indirectly in this work. We fabricated a novel and highly sensitive molecularly imprinted sensor based on the polydopamine/electro-reduced graphene oxide, which was used for the specific recognition of hydrocortisone in water samples. The prussian blue nanoparticles were introduced as probes to reflect the concentration of the target. The morphology of the prepared sensors was characterized by the scanning electron microscopy. And the feature of the imprinted electrode was performed by the cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the relative current signal of prussian blue decreased linearly with the increase of hydrocortisone concentration with a limit of detection 0.006 nM. Moreover, the imprinted sensor had a much higher affinity towards hydrocortisone than other analogues. Then, this system was successfully applied to determine hydrocortisone in real wastewater samples with workable results.

A low density refractory high entropy alloy of composition TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 was prepared by vacuum arc melting. Due to the formation of a single-phase BCC structure with uniform element distribution and a gradient passive film with a high concentration of passivating elements, the TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 high entropy alloy (HEA) exhibits low corrosion current density (10−7~10−8 A cm−2), high breakdown potential (1.8–1.9 VSCE) and excellent repassivation ability in 3.5 wt% NaCl and 1M HCl solutions. The properties were compared with HEAs, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) and traditional alloys reported in literatures. The results show that TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 possesses the most outstanding corrosion resistance in chloride environment.

As a typical steroid hormone drug, estradiol (E2) is also one of the most frequently detected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the aquatic environment. Herein, in response to the potential risk of E2 in steroid hormone pharmaceutical industry wastewater to human and wildlife, a novel carbon nanotubes / amine-functionalized Fe3O4 (CNTs/MNPs@NH2) nanocomposites with magnetic responsive have been developed for the enrichment and extraction of E2 in pharmaceutical industry wastewater, where amino-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs@NH2) were used as a magnetic source. The resultant CNTs/MNPs@NH2 possessed both the features of CNTs and desired magnetic property, enabling to rapidly recognize and separate E2 from pharmaceutical industry wastewater. Meanwhile, the CNTs/MNPs@NH2 had good binding behavior toward E2 with fast binding kinetics and high adsorption capacity, as well as exhibited satisfactory selectivity to steroidal estrogen compounds. Furthermore, the change of pH value of aqueous phase in adsorption solvent hardly affected the adsorption of E2 by CNTs/MNPs@NH2, and the adsorption capacity of E2 ranged from 19.9 to 17.2 mg g-1 in the pH range of 3.0 to 11.0, which is a latent advantage of the follow-up development method to detect E2 in pharmaceutical industry wastewater. As a result, the CNTs/MNPs@NH2 serving as a solid phase extraction medium were successfully applied to efficiently extract E2 from pharmaceutical industry wastewater. Therefore, the CNTs/MNPs@NH2 nanocomposites could be used as a potential adsorbent for removing steroidal estrogens from water. More importantly, the developed method would provide a promising solution for the monitoring and analysis of EDCs in pharmaceutical industry wastewater.

Altered microRNA expression is associated with tumor proliferation, metastasis, and tumorigenesis. In this study, we studied the role of miR-3117 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation and found that miR-3117 was upregulated in HCC tissues and cells. MTT assay, soft agar growth assay, BrdU assay, and cell cycle assay revealed that miR-3117 overexpression promoted HCC HepG2 cell proliferation and that knockdown of miR-3117 suppressed HepG2 proliferation. Mechanism analysis suggested PH domain and leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase-like (PHLPPL) as the target of miR-3117. Luciferase reporter assay suggested that miR-3117 directly binds to the 3'UTR of PHLPPL. Double knockdown of miR-3117 and PHLPPL copied the phenotypes caused by miR-3117 overexpression, suggesting that miR-3117 contributes to the proliferation of HepG2 by targeting PHLPPL. Our study provided a target for HCC therapy.

Wen Zhang,1 Ruizhen Zhao,1 Xiaoli Li,1 Xia Cui,1 Zijun Zhao,1 Yingqiu Mao,2 Fengzhi Wu,3 Qisheng Tang1 1Department of Encephalopathy, The Third Affiliated Hospital, 2Center of Scientific Research, 3Center of Journals, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Chaoyang District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Background: The Yi-nao-jie-yu decoction (YNJYD) is a herbal preparation widely used in the clinics of traditional Chinese medicine and has been recently used as an important new therapeutic agent in poststroke anxiety (PSA). The neuroendocrine–immune system plays an important role in PSA mechanisms, although the modulating effects of YNJYD remain unknown. This study investigated the potential effects of YNJYD on the neuroendocrine–immune system in a rat model of PSA.Materials and methods: The PSA model was induced by injecting collagenase (type VII) into the right globus pallidus, accompanied by empty water bottle stimulation for 2weeks. The sham group and the PSA model group were gavaged with saline, while the treatment groups received buspirone (BuSpar) or YNJYD. Behavior was evaluated with the open field test and elevated plus maze once a week. Pathological changes were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor, interleukin (IL)-6, adrenocorticotropic hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, IL-1α, and cortisol were detected by radioimmunoassay. Expression of the γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) α2 subunit was examined by Western blot and real-time polymerase chain reaction.Results: YNJYD-treated rats exhibited significantly better recovery than BuSpar-treated rats at 21days and 28days in the open field test and elevated plus maze. Hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed neural repair in the hippocampus in the treatment groups. Serum levels of IL-1α in the YNJYD group were significantly less than those in the model group and the BuSpar group. GABAAR protein and mRNA expressions were higher in the PSA model group than in the sham group, and YNJYD reversed these effects.Conclusion: YNJYD alleviated the symptoms of PSA mainly by decreasing IL-1α levels and downregulating GABAAR expression in the hippocampus to maintain a neuroendocrine–immune system balance. Keywords: neuroendocrine–immune system, amino acid neurotransmitter, cytokine, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis, poststroke emotion disorder

The present study carried out a phytochemical investigation on the root barks of Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz, leading to the isolation and characterization of two new aromatic ring butyrolactone derivatives, dasycarpusphenol acid A (1) and dasycarpusphenol acid B (2). Their structures were elucidated by using spectroscopic techniques and HR-FAB-MS. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited antioxidant activity, with their IC50 values being 28.95 and 41.76 mg·mL-1, respectively.

In eukaryotes, alternative splicing (AS) is one of the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms that play important roles by generating transcriptome diversity. To obtain a global view of AS and its dynamics during tomato fruit development, we analyzed the AS events using a large amount of transcriptome datasets. Same with other plant species, about half of the expressed multiexonic genes were alternatively spliced in tomato. Besides that, our further analyzation of RNA-seq datasets of ovule and pericarp at early fruit developmental stages reveals that the dynamic alteration of AS events occurred in specific tissues and AS was regulated spatially and temporally during early fruit development in tomato. By investigating the sequence variations at splice sites causing differential AS events between tomato cultivar ‘Moneymaker’ and wild species Solanum pimpinellifolium PI365967, we uncover that AS may play the regulatory roles during domestication of tomato. Taken together, our results provided the global AS pattern in tomato and highlighted the importance of AS during tomato fruit development and domestication.

Changes in the carbohydrate structure on the surface of tumor cells is an important feature of cancer metastasis. The specific role of sialic acids in the glycoconjugate terminal has not yet been clearly elucidated in these processes. Previously, we reported that α2,3-sialic acid residues in breast cancer are associated with metastatic potential. The α2,3-sialyltransferase ST3Gal III, which adds α2,3-sialic acids to glycoproteins, is overexpressed in various tumors, and enzyme activity is correlated with tumor metastasis, yet its mechanistic role has not been fully evaluated. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the influence of ST3Gal III on key steps in the process of breast cancer metastasis. ST3Gal III-overexpressing and ST3Gal III-silenced breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cell lines were generated. They showed an increase or decrease in the tumor-associated antigen sialyl-Lewis X (SLeX). The E-selectin binding capacity of the transfectants was proportional to cell surface SLeX levels. Cell migration and invasion were positively correlated with ST3Gal III levels. Moreover, ST3Gal III expression modulated the protein expression of invasion-related molecules, including β1 integrin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9 and cyclooxygenase-2, which may account for the mechanism involved in the effects of ST3Gal III on breast cancer invasiveness. In conclusion, our findings in these novel models of ST3Gal III expression revealed a critical requirement for ST3Gal III in several steps of breast cancer metastasis. ST3Gal III modulates breast cancer cell adhesion and invasion by altering the expression of invasion-related molecules. This study provides novel insights into the mechanisms underlying metastasis and suggests a new target for the effective drug treatment of breast cancer metastasis.

Objective To investigate the effect of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) on miRNA expression in coronary sinus blood (CSB) of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), especially after the termination of AF by RFA. And try to identify the possible miRNAs which can play real regulatory role in AF, so that to find the pathogenesis of AF and possible miRNA targets for intervention. Methods Thirty AF patients (paroxysmal, persistent and permanent AF, 10 each) were enrolled, alongside of 10 healthy subjects as controls. Peripheral blood (PB) samples were obtained before and 3 months after RFA, respectively. The total RNA was extracted and hybridized with the microRNA chips (microRNA v18.0), and the differential expressions of miRNA and clustering analysis in whole genome were performed with Volcano Plot and tMEV software respectively, and validated by Real-time PCR. The target gene of miRNAs was analyzed by retrieving the mirbase, miranda and targetscan databases. The important miRNAs were undergone with dual luciferase binding experiment to analyze and validate target genes. Results Comparing the CSB with PB of patient-self before RFA, 142 miRNAs expressed differently, of which 6 up-regulated and 8 down-regulated significantly (P

In this study, we established an ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–Q Exactive HF MS (UHPLC–HF MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 25 targeted metabolites relating to a broad coverage of central metabolic pathways, such as glycolysis pathway, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA), serine biosynthesis pathway (SSP), glutaminolysis pathway, and closely related biosynthetic reactions. A Shodex Asahipak NH2P-50 2D column was used to separate the targeted compounds, and Full MS + PRM detection using an electrospray ionization source in negative mode was employed. The method also integrated a sample purification step by passing through a Waters Sirocco 96 plate to remove protein impurities, ensuring the better resolution and sensitivity of the proposed method. The calibration curves of the method showed good linearity within the range of 1–10 000 μg L–1 with the correlation coefficient no less than 0.99. The method can be used for routine quantification of primary metabolites in a wide variety of...