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Abstract: Bubbles have been observed rapidly sweeping along very fine heated wires during subcooled nucleate boiling with jet flows emanating from the tops of the vapor bubbles. This paper analyzes the physical mechanisms driving the bubble and the jet flows from the tops of these moving bubbles. The flows are analyzed by numerically solving the governing equations for the velocity and temperature distributions around the bubble and the heated wire as the bubble moves along the wire. The bubble motion is due to the non-uniform temperature distribution in the liquid and in the wire caused by the bubble as it moves along the wire. The flow is driven by the horizontal Marangoni flow induced by the temperature difference across the bubble which thrusts the bubble forward. Comparisons with experimental observations suggest that the condensation heat transfer at the bubble interface is restricted by non-condensable gases that increases the surface temperature gradient and the resulting Marangoni flow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using our reported experimental data of effective thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and viscosity for CuO nanoparticle suspensions, the corresponding thermal diffusivity and Prandtl number are calculated. With the hard sphere model and considering effects of particle clustering and surface adsorption, the increase of viscosity for nanoparticle suspension observed is explained. It is shown that the effective thermal conductivity will be strongly affected by the formation and correlated spatial distribution of nanoparticle clusters when compared to viscosity in hosting liquid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental investigation is conducted to explore the subcooled boiling characteristics of nano-particle suspensions on Pt wires. Some phenomena are observed for the boiling of water-SiO2 nano-particle suspensions on Pt wires. The experiments show that there exist not any evident differences for boiling of pure water and of nano-particle suspensions at high heat fluxes. However, bubble overlap phenomenon can be easily found for nano-particle suspensions at low heat fluxes, which probably results from the increase of the attracter force between bubbles and of the bubble mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending the effective medium approximation with the fractal theory for describing nanoparticle clusters and their radius distribution, a predictive model is proposed for the effective thermal conductivity of nanoparticle suspension, combined with the consideration of size effect and surface adsorption effect of nanoparticles. The predicted effective thermal conductivity of nanoparticle suspension is consistent with experimental data in the dilute limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the molecular free path is introduced to derive a criterion distinguishing active molecules from inactive molecules in liquid phase. Based on molecular self-aggregation theory a concept of the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of active molecules is proposed to describe the physical configuration before the formation of the nuclei in the process of vapor-liquid phase transition. All active molecules exists in the form of the monomer when the concentration of active molecules is lower than CAC, while the active molecules will generate aggregation once the concentration of the active molecules reaches CAC. However, these aggregates with the aggregation number N smaller than 5 can steadily exist in bulk phase. The other excess active molecules can only produce infinite aggregation and form a critical nucleus of vapor-liquid phase transition. Without outer perturbation the state point of CAC corresponds to the critical superheated or supercooled state in the process of vapor-liquid phase transition. With the aggregate property, the interfacial tension between the bulk phase and the tiny new phase is predicted and a correction is made for the classical nucleation rate in a quite good agreement with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive usage of veterinary antibiotics has raised significant concerns regarding their environmental hazard and agricultural impact when entering surface water and soil. Animal waste serves as a primary source of organic fertilizer for intensive large-scale agricultural cultivation, including the widely utilized medicinal and edible plant, Polygonatum cyrtonem. In this study, we employed a novel plant stress tissue culture technology to investigate the toxic effects of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and sulfadiazine (SDZ) on P. cyrtonema. TCH and SDZ exhibited varying degrees of influence on plant growth, photosynthesis, and the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging system. Flavonoid levels increased following exposure to TCH and SDZ. The biosynthesis and signaling pathways of the growth hormones auxin and gibberellic acid were suppressed by both antibiotics, while the salicylic acid-mediated plant stress response was specifically induced in the case of SDZ. Overall, the study unveiled both common and unique responses at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels in P. cyrtonema following exposure to two distinct types of antibiotics, providing a foundational framework for comprehensively elucidating the precise toxic effects of antibiotics and the versatile adaptive mechanisms in plants. [Display omitted] • The shared and distinctive toxicities of TCH and SDZ antibiotics on P. cyrtonema were characterized. • Both TCH and SDZ disturb redox homeostasis and alter the antioxidant system. • SDZ exerts a more pronounced impact on photosynthesis and plant growth compared to TCH. • SDZ triggers the salicylic acid-mediated regulation of stress response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperate and boreal duff layers are well-distributed in forests and swamps across North America, Europe, and Asia. Despite its abundance, forest duff remains predominantly a fire load or forest redundancy rather than being developed as a biofuel. This study analyzed the pyrolysis characteristics and gas evolution behavior of forest duff at different heating rates and pyrolysis temperatures by coupling technique TG-FTIR-MS and Py-GC/MS. The pyrolysis behavior of forest duff was modeled by a parallel reaction scheme encompassing water evaporation and hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin degradation. The calculated decomposition temperature ranges of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin were 180–400 °C, 220–540 °C, and 200–800 °C, respectively. The temperature zones for the primary mass conversion were 200–500 °C, from which the main functional groups and volatile products were C-O-C, C O, -C n H 2n+1 , -OH, and non-condensable gases (CO 2 , CO, and CH 4). The carbohydrate and ketone yields peaked at 288 °C, whereas the maximum acid and ester yields were at 320 °C. The yields of furans, phenols, and aromatics increased with pyrolysis temperature, peaking at 622 °C. This study elucidates the influence of the heating rate and pyrolysis temperature on the selectivity of bioenergy and value-added chemicals from forest duff pyrolysis. [Display omitted] ● Carbohydrates and ketones yielded highest at 288 °Cfrom duff pyrolysis. ● Acids and esters yielded highest at 320 °C. ● Furans, phenols, and aromatics yielded highest at 622 °C. ● High heating rate promoted the non-condensable gases and VOCs emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel class of spatially non-uniformly correlated beams called twisted hyperbolic-sine-correlated (THSC) beams is introduced. The coherence structure of such beam sources is characterized by a hyperbolic sine function with a high-order twist phase embedded in its argument. The propagation properties of the THSC beams are numerically examined in detail. Our results reveal that the order numbers and twist factor of the twist phase has a significant effect on the spectral density and orbital angular momentum (OAM) flux density upon propagation, and they can be used to control the formation of certain specific far-field intensity profiles such as doughnut shape, rectangular window shape, and dumbbell-like shape, as well as the OAM flux distributions such as windmill-like shape. In addition, the THSC beams under certain order numbers may possess peculiar propagation characteristics such as diffraction-effect suppression, lateral shift of intensity maxima and beam spot rotation. Further, we have established a flexible yet compact experimental system to synthesize such kind of beam sources. The evolution properties of the intensity distribution are investigated and analyzed in the experiment.

Optical information transmission is vital in modern optics and photonics due to its concurrent and multi-dimensional nature, leading to tremendous applications such as optical microscopy, holography, and optical sensing. Conventional optical information transmission technologies suffer from bulky optical setup and information loss/crosstalk when meeting scatterers or obstacles in the light path. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally realize the simultaneous manipulation of the coherence lengths and coherence structures of the light beams with the disordered metasurfaces. The ultra-robust optical information transmission and self-reconstruction can be realized by the generated partially coherent beam with modulated coherence structure even 93% of light is recklessly obstructed during light transmission, which brings new light to robust optical information transmission with a single metasurface. Our method provides a generic principle for the generalized coherence manipulation on the photonic platform and displays a variety of functionalities advancing capabilities in optical information transmission such as meta-holography and imaging in disordered and perturbative media., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Recently a new family of partially coherent fields incorporating generalized inseparable cross-coupled phases named generalized higher-order twisted partially coherent beams (GHTPCBs) have been introduced. The twist factor u is a key parameter that not only quantifies the strength of the generalized cross-coupled phase for a given order, but also determines the amount of the concomitant orbital angular momentum (OAM). In this paper, we propose a simple and reliable method to measure the factor u using a two-pinhole mask. Without need of complicated optical system, it only requires to capture the far-field diffraction intensity distribution of the GHTPCB passing through the mask. By analyzing the Fourier spectrum of the intensity distribution, the value of twist factor can be derived nearly in real time. The influence of the separation distance between two pinholes and the pinholes' diameter and position on the measurement accuracy are thoroughly studied both in theory and experiment. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical results. Our methodology can also be extended to measure the sole factor of similar position dependent phases such as the topological charge of a vortex phase.

To investigate the influencing factors of lower limb amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Patients with diabetic foot ulcers who were hospitalised in a tertiary general hospital in Guizhou Province from January 2019 to March 2022 were retrospectively collected. Sociological information of the general population, comorbidities, laboratory-related indicators, and information on the specialty situation, using univariate analysis and multifactor analysis, compared the influencing factors of amputation and non-amputee patients. A total of 205 patients with diabetic foot and 69 ampute patients (33.7%) were enrolled. The univariate analysis found that the decrease in HDL cholesterol levels was associated with the occurrence of lower extremity amputation, and logistic stepwise regression analysis showed that HDL-C was inversely correlated with the amputation rate of patients with diabetic foot ulcers, and the risk of amputation at low levels of HDL-C was 2.452 times higher than that of high-level HDL-C (95% CI: 1.105-5.846). Decreased HDL cholesterol levels are an independent predictor of amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers., (© 2023 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc (3M) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

We investigate the second-order statistics of a twisted Hermite-Gaussian correlated Schell-model (THGCSM) beam propagation in turbulent atmosphere, including the spectral density, degree of coherence (DOC), root mean square (r.m.s.) beam wander and orbital angular momentum (OAM) flux density. Our results reveal that the atmospheric turbulence and the twist phase play a role in preventing the beam splitting during beam propagation. However, the two factors have opposite effects on the evolution of the DOC. The twist phase preserves the DOC profile invariant on propagation, whereas the turbulence degenerates the DOC. In addition, the influences of the beam parameters and the turbulence on the beam wander are also studied through numerical examples, which show that the beam wander can be reduced by modulating the initial parameters of the beam. Further, the behavior of the z-component OAM flux density in free space and in atmosphere is thoroughly examined. We show that the direction of the OAM flux density without the twist phase will be suddenly inversed at each point across the beam section in the turbulence. This inversion only depends on the initial beam width and the turbulence strength, and in turn, it offers an effective protocol to determine the turbulence strength by measuring the propagation distance where the direction of OAM flux density is inversed.

Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the primary cause of end-stage renal disease, raising a considerable burden worldwide. Recognizing novel biomarkers by metabolomics can shed light on new biochemical insight to benefit DKD diagnostics and therapeutics. We hypothesized that serum metabolites can serve as biomarkers in the progression of DKD., Methods: A cross-sectional study of 1,043 plasma metabolites by untargeted LC/MS among 89 participants identified associations between proteinuria severity and metabolites difference. Pathway analysis from differently expressed metabolites was used to determine perturbed metabolism pathways. The results were replicated in an independent, cross-sectional cohort of 83 individuals. Correlation and prediction values were used to examine the association between plasma metabolites level and proteinuria amount., Results: Diabetes, and diabetic kidney disease with different ranges of proteinuria have shown different metabolites patterns. Cysteine and methionine metabolism pathway, and Taurine and hypotaurine metabolism pathway were distinguishable in the existence of DKD in DC (diabetes controls without kidney disease), and DKD with different ranges of proteinuria. Two interesting tetrapeptides (Asn-Met-Cys-Ser and Asn-Cys-Pro-Pro) circulating levels were elevated with the DKD proteinuria progression., Conclusions: These findings underscore that serum metabolomics provide us biochemical perspectives to identify some clinically relevant physiopathologic biomarkers of DKD progression., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Peng, Wang, Shao, Wang, Feng, Wang, Ye, Chen and Jiang.)

The correction pointed out by Nemes [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A39, 667 (2022)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.435756] to our paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A37, 89 (2020)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.37.000089] is welcome. The author claims that the beam propagation factors M x 2, M y 2 are inadequate to characterize twisted elliptical multi-Gaussian Schell-model (TEMGSM) beams, which are introduced in our paper. Further, the author points out that there are two pairs of independent, normalized invariants to classify the TEMGSM beams. In this reply, we present the numerical example of the normalized intrinsic propagation invariants of the TEMGSM beams.

We introduce a new type of partially coherent vector beam, named the radially polarized twisted partially coherent vortex (RPTPCV) beam. Such a beam carries the twist phase and the vortex phase simultaneously, and the initial state of polarization (SOP) is radially polarized. On the basis of the pseudo-modal expansion and fast Fourier transform algorithm, the second-order statistics such as the spectral density, the degree of polarization (DOP) and the SOP, propagation through a paraxial ABCD optical system are investigated in detail through numerical examples. The results reveal that the propagation properties of the RPTPCV beam closely depends on the handedness of the twist phase and the vortex phase. When the handedness of the two phases is same, the beam profile is easier to remain a dark hollow shape and the beam spot rotates faster during propagation, compared to the partially coherent vortex beam or the RPTPCV beam with the opposite handedness of the two phases. In addition, the same handedness of two phases resists the coherence induced de-polarization of the beam upon propagation, and the SOP is also closely related to the handedness, topological charge of the vortex phase and the twist factor of the twist phase, providing an efficient way to modulate the beam's DOP and SOP in the output plane. Moreover, we establish an experiment setup to generate the RPTPCV beam. The average spectral density and the polarization properties are examined in the experiment. The experimental results agree reasonable well with the theoretical predictions. Our results will be useful for particle manipulating, free-space optical communications, and polarization lidar systems.

Twist phase is a nontrivial second-order phase that only exists in a partially coherent beam. Such twist phase endows the partially coherent beam with orbital angular momentum (OAM) and has unique applications such as in super-resolution imaging. However, the manipulation and the detection of the twist phase are still far from easy tasks in experiment. In this work, we present a flexible approach to generate a famous class of twisted Gaussian Schell-model (TGSM) beam with controllable twist phase by the superposition of the complex field realizations using a single phase-only spatial light modulator. The precise control of the amplitude and phase of the field realizations allows one to manipulate the strength of the twist phase easily. In addition, we show that the twist factor, a key factor that determines the strength of twist phase and the amount of OAM, can be measured by extracting the real part of the complex degree of coherence of the TGSM beam. The experiment is carried out with the help of the generalized Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment as the generated TGSM beam obeys Gaussian statistics. The flexible control and detection of the twist phase are expected to find applications in coherence and OAM-based ghost imaging., (© 2021 Haiyun Wang et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.)

Sepsis is a heterogeneous syndrome induced by infection and results in high mortality. Even though more than 100 biomarkers for sepsis prognosis were evaluated, prediction of patient outcomes in sepsis continues to be driven by clinical signs because of unsatisfactory specificity and sensitivity of these biomarkers. This study aimed to elucidate the key candidate genes involved in sepsis response and explore their downstream effects based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). The dataset GSE63042 with sepsis outcome information was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and then consensus WGCNA was conducted. We identified the hub gene SDF4 (stromal cell derived factor 4) from the M6 module, which was significantly associated with mortality. Subsequently, two datasets (GSE54514 and E-MTAB-4421) and cohort validation (n=89) were performed. Logistic regression analysis was used to build a prediction model and the combined score resulting in a satisfactory prognosis value (area under the ROC curve=0.908). The model was subsequently tested by another sepsis cohort (n=70, ROC= 0.925). We next demonstrated that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress tended to be more severe in patients PBMCs with negative outcomes compared to those with positive outcomes and SDF4 was related to this phenomenon. In addition, our results indicated that adenovirus-mediated Sdf4 overexpression attenuated ER stress in cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) mice lung. In summary, our study indicates that incorporation of SDF4 can improve clinical parameters predictive value for the prognosis of sepsis, and decreased expression levels of SDF4 contributes to excessive ER stress, which is associated with worsened outcomes, whereas overexpression of SDF4 attenuated such activation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Zhu, Su, Wang, Shen, Chen, Feng, Peng, Chen, Wang, Jiang and Chen.)

Background: Increasing evidence shows that Angptl4 affects proteinuria in podocytes injured kidney disease, however, whether there is a relationship between Angptl4 and IgA nephropathy (IgAN) has not been studied yet., Methods: Plasma and urine samples were obtained from 71 patients with IgAN and 61 healthy controls. Glomeruli from six renal biopsy specimens (three IgAN patients and three healthy controls) were separated by RNA-Seq. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to podocytes and Angptl4 between IgAN patients and healthy controls were performed using the Limma package. Gene set enrichment analysis was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups. STRING was used to create a protein-protein interaction network of DEGs. Association analysis between Angptl4 levels and clinical features of IgAN was performed., Results: Thirty-three podocyte-related and twenty-three Angpt4-related DEGs were found between IgAN patients and healthy controls. By overlapping the genes, FOS and G6PC were found to be upregulated in IgAN patients, while MMP9 was downregulated in IgAN patients. Plasma and urine Angptl4 levels were closely related to the degree of podocyte injury and urine protein, but not to the protein-creatine ratio., Conclusion: Our findings show that Angptl4 levels in plasma and urine are related to podocyte damage and, therefore, may be a promising tool for assessing the severity of IgAN patients to identify and reverse the progression to ESRD., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Jia, Peng, Liang, Zhang, Li, Zhou, Shen, Wang, Wang, Feng, Chen, Ren and Jiang.)

Twisted Laguerre-Gaussian Schell model (TLGSM) beams are a novel type of partially coherent beams, which carry the twist phase and the vortex phase simultaneously. In this paper, the self-reconstruction (SR) of the TLGSM beam partially blocked by an opaque obstacle and propagating through a thin lens focusing system is studied in detail. Implementing the pseudo-mode expansion method, we represent the TLGSM beam as a superposition of spatially coherent modes, which is applicable for calculating the cross spectral density (CSD) and spectral degree of coherence (SDOC) of such a beam using the Fourier transform. The numerical results reveal that the twist parameter, a measure of the strength of a twist phase, determines the characteristics of the SR. In the case of the topological charge of the vortex is positive, the SR capability of spectral density is significantly improved with the increase of the twist parameter. The physical mechanism behind these phenomena is analyzed in detail from the point view of mode expansion. Further, the dependence of the side ring intensity and SR capability of the SDOC on the twist parameter are also investigated. It is found that the SR capability and side ring intensity of the SDOC are simultaneously enhanced for a large twist parameter, providing an efficient way to determine the number of topological charge. Our study results may find application in communication and information recovery applications.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the general anesthetic requirements in patients with continuous endotracheal-laryngopharynx topical anesthesia using medicine injecting endotracheal tube during surgery. A total of 78 patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-II were randomly divided into test group and control group. After anesthesia, patients were injected by 1.5 mL of 1% Tetracaine for topical anesthesia, and later injected similarly at hourly intervals during surgery while patients in control group were non-injected. There was no statistical significance in values of SBP, DBP, MAP, HR and plasma concentrations of E, NE and Cor at same time point between the two groups during operation (P>0.05). There was no statistical significance in value of BIS at T 0 -T 5 between the two groups (P>0.05). However, value of BIS at T 6 in test group was significantly higher than that in control group (69.7±2.1 vs. 58.6±2.3, P<0.01). Doses of sevoflurane, propofol sufentanil and cisatracurium used up in test group decreased by 12.3% (P<0.01); 12.7% (P<0.01); 14.5% (P<0.01) and 4.9% (P>0.05) than those in control group, respectively. Continuous endotracheal-laryngopharynx topical anesthesia using 1% Tetracaine via medicine-injecting endotracheal tube can significantly decrease general anesthetic requirements of surgery., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr-20-169). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Translational Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)

We introduce a new kind of partially coherent source whose cross-spectral density (CSD) function is described as the incoherent superposition of elliptical twisted Gaussian Schell-model sources with different beam widths and transverse coherence widths, named twisted elliptical multi-Gaussian Schell-model (TEMGSM) beams. Analytical expression for the CSD function propagating through a paraxial ABCD optical system is derived with the help of the generalized Collins formula. Our results show that the TEMGSM beam is capable of generating a flat-topped elliptical beam profile in the far field, and the beam spot during propagation exhibits clockwise/anti-clockwise rotation with respect to its propagation axis. In addition, the analytical expressions for the orbital angular momentum (OAM) and the propagation factor are also derived by means of the Wigner distribution function. The influences of the twisted factor and the beam index on the OAM and the propagation factor are studied and discussed in detail.

Objective: To investigate the role of the PPARγ-PI3K/AKT-NO signaling pathway in cardiac hypertrophy induced by high glucose and insulin., Methods: Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by high glucose (25.5 mmol/L) and insulin (0.1 μmol/L) (HGI) was characterized in rat primary cardiomyocytes by measuring the cell surface area, protein content, and atrial natriuretic factor mRNA expression level. Protein and mRNA expressions were measured by Western blotting and real time RT-PCR, respectively. A spectrophotometric assay was used to measure the enzymatic concentration of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), and the Griess assay measured the NO concentration., Results: HGI induced significant cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and decreased the expression of PPARγ, AKT and eNOS at the mRNA and protein levels, which occurred in parallel with declining eNOS activity and NO concentration (P<0.05). The effects of HGI were inhibited by rosiglitazone (0.1 μmol/L), a selective PPARγ agonist (P<0.05). However, GW9662, a selective PPARγ antagonist, abolished the effects of rosiglitazone (P<0.05). LY294002, a PI3K/AKT inhibitor, and N(G)-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester, an NOS inhibitor, partially blocked the effects of rosiglitazone (P<0.05)., Conclusion: These results suggest that the PPARγ-PI3K/AKT-NO signal transduction pathway might be involved in HGI-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To investigate the potential effect of curcumin on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and a possible mechanism involving the PPARγ/Akt/NO signaling pathway in diabetes., Methods: The cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by high glucose (25.5mmol/L) and insulin (0.1μmol/L) (HGI) and the antihypertrophic effect of curcumin were evaluated in primary culture by measuring the cell surface area, protein content and atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) mRNA expression. The mRNA and protein expressions were assayed by reverse transcription PCR and Western blotting, whereas the NO concentration and endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) activity were determined using nitrate reduction and ELISA methods, respectively., Results: The cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by HGI was characterized by increasing ANF mRNA expression, total protein content, and cell surface area, with downregulated mRNA and protein expressions of both PPARγ and Akt, which paralleled the declining eNOS mRNA expression, eNOS content, and NO concentration. The effects of HGI were inhibited by curcumin (1, 3, 10μmol/L) in a concentration-dependent manner. GW9662 (10μmol/L), a selective PPARγ antagonist, could abolish the effects of curcumin. LY294002 (20μmol/L), an Akt blocker, and N(G)-nitro-l-arginine-methyl ester (100μmol/L), a NOS inhibitor, could also diminish the effects of curcumin., Conclusions: The results suggested that curcumin supplementation can improve HGI-induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy in vitro through the activation of PPARγ/Akt/NO signaling pathway., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most widely used nanomaterials, but the mechanism of AgNP toxicity in terrestrial plants is still unclear. We compared the toxic effects of AgNPs and Ag+ on Arabidopsis thaliana at the physiological, ultrastructural and molecular levels. AgNPs did not affect seed germination; however, they showed stronger inhibitory effect on root elongation than Ag+. The results of transmission electron microscopy and metal content analysis showed that AgNPs could be accumulated in leaves. These absorbed AgNPs disrupted the thylakoid membrane structure and decreased chlorophyll content, which can inhibit plant growth. By comparison, a small amount of Ag+ was absorbed by seedlings, and it did not pronouncedly affect chloroplast structure and other metal ion absorption as AgNPs did. Compared with Ag+, AgNPs could alter the transcription of antioxidant and aquaporin genes, indicating that AgNPs changed the balance between the oxidant and antioxidant systems, and also affected the homeostasis of water and other small molecules within the plant body. All the data from physiological, ultrastructural and molecular levels suggest that AgNPs were more toxic than Ag+.

The heat shock protein 27-kDa (HSP27) has been found overexpressed in several types of human cancer and is associated with treatment resistance and poor prognosis. Recent proteomic studies demonstrate that HSP27 is significantly overexpressed in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the relationship between HSP27 expression and patient prognosis remains nascent. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the expression of HSP27 and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters in CRC patients. Dysregulated expression of HSP27 was observed in neoplastic lesions, and appears to be involved in disease progression. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that detectable HSP27 expression was found in 145/182 (79.7%) CRC cases. There was a significant correlation between HSP27 expression and TNM stage (P=0.003). Patients with low HSP27 expression had better survival than those with high HSP27 expression. Additionally, multivariate analysis indicated that HSP27 expression is an independent prognostic marker for CRC. These results suggest that elevated expression of HSP27 protein is a frequent event during the progression of CRC. HSP27 might be used as a valuable prognostic marker for patients with CRC.