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A ZnO nanowire array was synthesized within 10 minutes, through electrodeposition of a Zn nanocrystal coating followed by a microwave hydrothermal treatment.

The growing concern over water shortage and pollution is propelling and accelerating the development of sewage treatment technologies. Among them, the catalytic hydrogenation method is highly recommended from a sustainable perspective, because it can turn toxic pollutants into valuable raw materials. The catalyst with excellent activity and stability plays a critical role in this "trash to treasure" approach. Herein, we proposed a novel economical, scalable and recyclable candidate catalyst, i.e., the copper nanoparticles supported on zinc oxide nanowire array (Cu-ZnO NWA), for realizing efficient and stable dye wastewater treatment. The salix argyracea-shaped Cu-ZnO NWA displays very outstanding universality and controllability towards the catalytic hydrogenation reactions of diverse dyes, owing to the fact that ZnO nanowire array not only offers a platform to realize stable and homogeneous dispersion of Cu nanoparticles, but also provides a large quantity of catalytically active sites. More attractively, its synthetic method can be facilely extended to various conductive substrates through combined electrodeposition and hydrothermal technique, showing its general applicability for the surface assembly of sewage treatment facilities. Benefiting from above advantages, this proposal offers an attractive approach for large-scale and continuous decolorization of dye wastewater, and presents a broad application prospect in the textile printing industry.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of dimple radius, depth and density on the lubrication performance of the plunger. Design/methodology/approach A lubrication model was adopted to consider eccentricity and deformation during the working process of the plunger, and a rig test was performed to confirm the simulation results. The texture was fabricated using laser surface texturing. Findings The simulation results suggested that when dimple radius or depth increases, oil film thickness of the plunger increases before decreasing, and asperity friction displays an opposite trend. Therefore, appropriate microdimple texture could facilitate lubrication performance improvement and reduce the wear. Microdimples were then lased on the plunger surface, and a basic tribological test was conducted to validate the simulation results. The experimental results suggested that the average friction coefficient decreased from 0.18 to 0.13, a reduction of 27.8%. Social implications The introduction of microdimple on a plunger couple to reduce friction and improve lubrication is expected to provide a new approach to developing high-performance plunger couple and improve the performance of the internal combustion engine. If applied, the surface texture could help reduce friction by around 27% and cap the cost relative to the plugger friction. Originality/value The microdimple texture was introduced into the plunger couple of a vehicle to reduce the friction and improve the performance. Findings suggested that surface texture could be used in the automotive industry to improve oil efficiency and lubrication performance. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ILT-07-2020-0259.

BACKGROUND Ten-eleven translocation (TET) methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 is an essential DNA demethylase that plays an important role in a variety of biological and pathological processes. However, no bibliometric analysis has methodically explored the knowledge domain of TET2 research. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to conduct a visual and scientometric analysis of TET2 research and to explore its current landscape, future direction, and research frontiers. METHODS Publications related to TET2 research were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) from 2009 to 2021. Excel, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer were used to perform the bibliometric visualization analysis. RESULTS A total of 2384 articles were retrieved. The number of publications on TET2 has been steadily increasing from 2009 to 2021. The USA is the largest contributor to the topic, with the largest number of publications. Harvard University and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale were the leading institutions. Levine RL of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the most prolific and influential author. High-frequency keywords were “tet2”, “DNA methylation”, “5-hrdroxymethylcytosine”, “5-methylcytosine”, “mutations”, “acute myeloid-leukemia”. The emerging research hotspots, according to keyword bursts, include “inflammation”, “gene expression”, “landscape” and “clonal hematopoiesis”. CONCLUSIONS Research with regards to TET2 is constantly evolving and deepening. We provide an objective and comprehensive analysis of the global status, research hotspots, and potential trends in the field of TET2 research by using a bibliometric approach. These results will assist researchers and clinicians in mastering the knowledge structure and future directions of TET2 research, thus guiding follow-up research.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a heterogeneous disease and its pathogenesis is still unclear. Growing clinical evidence has thrown light on the key role of NOD-like Receptor Family Pyrin Domain Containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation of allergic disease. However, the effect of NLRP3 activation in macrophages for AR has not been elucidated. This study aims to investigate the role of NLRP3 in ovalbumin (OVA)-stimulated bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) and to confirm the impact of macrophage pyroptosis in allergic rhinitis.Nasal inflammation levels were assessed by HE and dual immunofluorescence staining. BMDMs were cultured and were stimulated with OVA in the presence or absence of MCC950 to further investigate the effect of NLRP3 activation in macrophages. The cell lysates and supernatants were harvested to measure NLRP3 and downstream molecules, as well as cell rupture, and IL-1β production. Besides, an OVA-exposed AR mouse model was developed, and the histopathology in nasal mucosa, and the relationship between macrophage pyroptosis and local inflammation were detected. The inhibitory role of MCC950 was also evaluated.The present results uncovered that the number of macrophages and NLRP3 expression were increased in the nasal mucosa of AR subjects, and upregulation of macrophage pyroptosis contributed to local allergic inflammation. In addition, the OVA challenge induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in BMDMs, as evidenced by enhanced expressions of NLRP3-ASC-caspase-1 inflammasome, gasdermin D, production of IL-1β, and increased macrophage lysis. Furthermore, inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome attenuated nasal inflammation, accompanied by a reduced number of inflammatory cells and lower levels of IL-1β and OVA-specific IgE.Our results indicate that NLRP3 inflammasome played an important role in allergic airway inflammation by activating macrophage's pyroptotic cell death and releasing inflammatory mediators to local tissues. Inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis could be a promising therapeutic strategy for ameliorating inflammatory responses in allergic rhinitis.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the coupling mechanism of the roughness distribution characteristic and surface textures on the cylinder liner. Design/methodology/approach The cylinder liner-piston ring lubrication model with non-Gaussian roughness distribution surface was proposed in this paper to find the optimum cylinder liner surface. The motored engine tests were carried out to verify the simulation results. Findings The calculation and experiment results show that the large negative skewness surface has the optimal lubrication performance in the un-textured liner, while in the textured liner, the small negative skewness surface is more appropriate, which means surface textures couple with small negative skewness surface can improve the lubrication performance. Originality/value Although there are some works related to liner surface roughness and textures, the combine of roughness distribution and surface textures is not usually taken into account. Therefore, this research is different from others, as the present model considers with real non-Gaussian roughness distribution liners.

A mixed lubrication model of textured cylinder liner–piston ring was built to investigate the effects of four array modes namely, square array, stagger array, stretching, and shortening along liner axis array of micro-dimples on the tribological properties of cylinder liner–piston ring pair. The simulation results indicate that micro-dimples can enhance the hydrodynamic effects of lube oil, improving the film bearing capability. However, the effects differ significantly under the four dimple array modes: for square array, the cylinder liner–piston ring pair is well lubricated due to the synergistic effects of uniformly spaced micro-dimples that form homogeneous bearing film even around the fired top dead center where the lubrication condition is harsh; while the film of stagger array is the thinnest among the four schemes, which means its lubrication is also the worst. From square array mode, to shortening and stretching along liner axis array, then to stagger array mode, the total friction force of cylinder liner–piston ring shows an upward trend. By utilizing laser surface texturing method, square array, stretching along liner axis array, and stagger array of micro-dimples were textured on the gasoline engine cylinder bores, followed by a set of engine bench tests. The experimental results demonstrate that the engine motored torque of the three array modes increases in turns, which validates that the anti-friction effect of square array is optimal whereas that of stagger array is the most inefficient.

A novel fluorescence sensor has been developed and applied for the determination of carbon dioxide released from the biodegradation of polymer materials and for the evaluation of the biodegradability of polymers. The proposed analytical method is based on the extraordinarily quenching effect of carbonate on fluorescence signal of N,N-diphenylthiourea system. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the fluorescence quenching system performed satisfactorily in a linear detection concentration ranging from 2.00 × 10−4 to 9.00 × 10−3 mol L−1 of carbonate. The detection limit is 8.33 × 10−5 mol L−1 for carbonate. This proposed fluorescence system for the selective sensing of carbonate has been successfully applied to determine the biodegradability of polybutylene succinate and related polymers under controlled composting environment with devices assembled in our laboratory. The results exhibited that the biodegradation rate and final biodegradation percentage of biodegradable thermoplastic poly(ester uret...

Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen causing both hospital and community-acquired infections. Hemolysin is one of the important virulence factors for S. aureus and causes the typical β-hemolytic phenotype which is called complete hemolytic phenotype as well. Recently, Staphylococcus aureus with an incomplete hemolytic phenotype (SIHP) was isolated from clinical samples. To study the microbiologic characteristics of SIHP, SIHP was inoculated on the sheep blood agar plates supplied by different manufacturers to compare their hemolytic phenotype. Expression of hemolysin genes hla, hlb, hlgC and hld of SIHP was detected by qRT-PCR. In addition, the alpha-hemolysin encoded by gene hla was analyzed by western blot. At the same time, the antimicrobial susceptibility of SIHP was tested using the broth dilution method. The main antibiotic resistance gene mecA and virulence genes tst were detected by PCR in SIHP strains. Furthermore, the virulence of SIHP strains was detected through comparing their intracellular survival in macrophage. The cytokines and chemokines secreted by macrophage were measured by flow cytometry. Finally, the genotyping of SIHP was performed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis. The results showed that the incomplete hemolytic phenotype of SIHP could be observed on the sheep blood agar plates from different suppliers. The relative mRNA expression of hlb in SIHP was obviously increased compared to the control Staphylococcus aureus strains, while the expression of hla, hlgC and hld in SIHP was significantly decreased. In addition, it was shown that the alpha-hemolysin of SIHP was less than that of control strains as well. All sixty SIHP strains were identified to be the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and moreover these SIHP strains all contains mecA gene. The virulence gene tst were all present in SIHP, and the intracellular survival ability of SIHP was much greater than that of the gene tst negative Staphylococcus aureus. We also found that IL-2, IL-6 and IL-17A secreted in the supernatant of SIHP infected macrophages increased significantly compared to tst negative control strains infected ones. MLST analysis showed that all of SIHP strains were classified into ST5 clone. To our knowledge, this study firstly showed that SIHP strains are

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance has been associated with the up regulation of genes encoding efflux pumps and the down regulation of genes encoding outer membrane proteins (OMPs). Gene expression in bacteria is primarily initiated by sigma factors (σ factors) such as RpoE, which plays an important role in responding to many environmental stresses. Here, we report the first observation that RpoE serves as an antibiotic resistance regulator in Salmonella enteric serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). In this study, we found that the rpoE mutant (ΔrpoE) of S. Typhi GIFU10007 has elevated resistance to several antimicrobial agents, including β-lactams, quinolones, and aminoglycosides. Genomic DNA microarray analysis was used to investigate the differential gene expression profiles between a wild type and rpoE mutant in response to ampicillin. The results showed that a total of 57 genes displayed differential expression (two-fold increase or decrease) in ΔrpoE versus the wild-type strain. The expressions of two outer membrane protein genes, ompF and ompC, were significantly down-regulated in ΔrpoE (six and seven-fold lower in comparison to wild-type strain) and RamA, a member of the efflux pump AraC/XylS family, was up-regulated about four-fold in the ΔrpoE. Our results suggest RpoE is a potential antimicrobial regulator in S. Typhi, controlling both the down regulation of the OMP genes and up-regulating the efflux system.

We consider the problem of optimizing a sum of local objective functions corresponding to multiple agents. We discuss a distributed model where the agents can only exchange quantization data over a time-varying network. For solving this problem, we propose a method that involves agents updating their states by weighted averaging and probabilistically quantized information. The method indicates how the agents converge to a consensus and finds the optimal solution at expected rate O(1/√T), T is the number of iteration. The relationship between the convergence rate and the quantized interval in terms of expectation was also presented.

Based on the need for applied international trade talents in Zhejiang Province, a series of educational and teaching reforms are set out in International Economics & Trade Major of Zhejiang Wanli University and gradually build up a talent training mode as "Platform Supporting, Modular Training, Capability Orientation and Unity of Knowledge and Practice" with good achievement during the practice.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an important human pathogen, which commonly causes the acquired infectious diseases in the hospital and community. Effective and simple antibiotic treatment against S. aureus-related disease becomes increasingly difficult. Developing a safe and effective vaccine against S. aureus has become one of the world's hot spots once again. The key issue of developing the vaccine of S. aureus is how to find an ideal key pathogenic gene of S. aureus. It was previously suggested that EsxA might be a very important factor in S. aureus abscess formation in mice, but clinical experimental evidence was lacking. We therefore expressed EsxA protein through prokaryotic expression system and purified EsxA protein by Ni-affinity chromatography. ELISA was used to detect the anti-EsxA antibodies in sera of 78 patients with S. aureus infection and results showed that the anti-EsxA antibodies were positive in the sera of 19 patients. We further analyzed the EsxA positive antibodies related strains by antimicrobial susceptibility assay and found that all of the corresponding strains were multi-drug resistant. Among those multi-drug resistant strains, 73.7% were resistant to MRSA. The results indicated EsxA is very important in the pathogenesis of S. aureus. We suggested that the EsxA is very valuable as vaccine candidate target antigens for prevention and control of S. aureus infection.

In this paper, the principle of the singular point detection in wavelet domain is analyzed, and the expression of amplitude of the energy function of the digital modulated mixture is derived, and the effect of the additive Gaussian noise is analyzed. A new single channel source number estimation algorithm is proposed based on the energy operator without any prior knowledge. The simulation result shows the efficiency of this algorithm.

Background Tumor cell expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) can promote inflammation and cell survival in the tumor microenvironment. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling in tumor cells can mediate tumor cell immune escape and tumor progression, and it is regarded as one of the mechanisms for chronic inflammation in tumorigenesis and progression. The expression of TLR4 in human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and its biological function in the development and progression of breast cancer have not been investigated. We sought to characterize the expression of TLR1-TLR10 in the established human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231, and to investigate the biological roles of TLR4 in breast cancer cells growth, survival, and its potential as a target for breast cancer therapy. Methods TLRs mRNA and protein expressions were detected in human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 by RT-PCR, real-time PCR and flow cytometry (FCM). RNA interference was used to knockdown the expression of TLR4 in MDA-MB-231. MDA-MB-231 transfected with the vector pGenesil-1 and the vector containing a scrambled siRNA were as controls. Recombinant plasmids named TLR4AsiRNA, TLR4BsiRNA and TLR4CsiRNA specific to TLR4 were transfected into human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 with Lipfectamine™2000 reagent. TLR4 mRNA and protein expressions were investigated by RT-PCR, real-time PCR, FCM and immunofluorescence after silence. MTT analysis was performed to detect cell proliferation and FCM was used to detect the secretion of inflammatory cytokines in supernatant of transfected cells. Results The human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 was found to express TLR1-TLR10 at both the mRNA and protein levels. TLR4 was found to be the highest expressed TLR in MDA-MB-231. TLR4AsiRNA, TLR4BsiRNA and TLR4CsiRNA were found to significantly inhibit TLR4 expression in MDA-MB-231 at both mRNA and protein levels as compared to vector control(vector transfected cells). TLR4AsiRNA mediated the strongest effect. Knockdown of TLR4 gene in MDA-MB-231 resulted in a dramatic reduction of breast cancer cell viability. The cytokines which were secreted by the TLR4 silenced cells, such as IL-6 and IL-8, also decreased significantly as compared with vector control. No significant difference was observed in siRNA control (Recombinant plasmid named ScrambledsiRNA transfected cells) compared to vector control. Conclusions These studies identified the expression levels of multiple TLRs in human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and demonstrated that knockdown of TLR4 could actively inhibit proliferation and survival of breast cancer cells. Taken together, our results suggest RNAi-directed targeting of TLR4 may be a beneficial strategy for breast cancer therapy.