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Leukemia is a hematological malignancy associated with the uncontrolled proliferation of mutant progenitors, suppressing the production of normal blood cells. Current treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, still lead to unsatisfactory results with a 5 year survival rate of only 30-50%. The poor prognosis is related to both disease relapse and treatment-associated toxicity. Delivery strategies can improve the

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) can differentiate into myelinating oligodendrocytes during embryonic development, thereby representing an important potential source for myelin repair or regeneration. To the best of our knowledge, there are very few OPCs from human sources (human-derived OPCs [hOPCs]). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the safety and remyelination capacity of hOPCs developed in our laboratory, transplanted into the lateral ventricles of young animals. Several acute and chronic toxicity experiments were conducted in which different doses of hOPCs were transplanted into the lateral ventricles of Sprague-Dawley rats of different ages. The toxicity, biodistribution, and tumor formation ability of the injected hOPCs were examined by evaluating the rats' vital signs, developmental indicators, neural reflexes, as well as by hematology, immunology, and pathology. In addition, the hOPCs were transplanted into the corpus callosum of the shiverer mouse to verify cell myelination efficacy. Overall, our results show that transplanted hOPCs into young mice are nontoxic to their organ function or immune system. The transplanted cells engrafted in the brain and did not appear in other organs, nor did they cause tissue proliferation or tumor formation. In terms of efficacy, the transplanted hOPCs were able to form myelin in the corpus callosum, alleviate the trembling phenotype of shiverer mice, and promote normal development. The transplantation of hOPCs is safe; they can effectively form myelin in the brain, thereby providing a theoretical basis for the future clinical transplantation of hOPCs.

DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), a satel- lite-based cosmic-ray (CR) and gamma-ray measurement experiment, relies on its calorimeter to measure the energy of incident particles. The calorimeter adopts crystals of bismuth germanium oxide (BGO) as scintillating material, and it is designed to aim for measurements of energy ranging from 50 GeV to 100 TeV in the case of a CR nucleus. This article concerns the response of the BGO calorimeter to nucleus-type CRs. CRs with very low energy can rarely reach the detector due to the Earth’s magnetic field. A cutoff on lower energy can be observed in the energy spectrum. In this article, the cutoff is used to study the response of the calorimeter. Carbon, neon, silicon, and iron are analyzed separately in comparison with Monte Carlo simulations by Geant4.

The aim of this study was to clinically and histologically evaluate the efficacy of using acellular dermal matrix (ADM) for peri-implant vertical soft tissue augmentation at implant placement.Twenty patients were enrolled in this study. According to the initial thickness of vertical soft tissue, patients were assigned into the ADM group (≤2 mm) or the control group (2 mm) prior to implant surgery +ADM grafting or implant surgery alone. Second-stage surgery was carried out 3 months later, and a small piece of ridge membrane was harvested for histological and immunohistochemical evaluation. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB in peri-implant crevicular fluid (PICF) were also assessed 1 week, 1 month, and 5 months after second-stage surgery. Clinical parameters were recorded to evaluate peri-implant health at 1 week and 3 months after implant restoration.All 20 implants healed uneventfully and successfully. Soft tissue thicknesses were comparable in the two groups at second-stage surgery (3.20 ± 0.42 mm vs. 3.50 ± 0.58 mm). In the ADM group, the mean increase in soft tissue thickness was 1.85 ± 0.34 mm. Histological and immunohistochemical outcomes showed no differences between the two groups. VEGF and PDGF-BB levels in PICF were significantly lower in the ADM group 1 week after second-stage surgery (p .01), yet they decreased in both groups later. The difference between the groups had disappeared by 5 months after second-stage surgery. The clinical peri-implant parameters were good and stable by the end of the study (3 months after restoration).Our results suggested that using ADM at implant placement was effective in increasing the thickness of peri-implant vertical soft tissue and achieved comparable clinical and histological performance to the control group. However, the incremental soft tissue showed inferior angiogenic ability in the early stage of wound healing.

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical effect of intravascular interventional therapy in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke and its influence on cognitive function, cerebral hemodynamics and inflammatory factors as well as its clinical significance. Methods: Eighty patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to Tangxian people’s Hospital from January 2018 to January 2020 were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the control group were treated with conventional thrombolytic therapy on the basis of basic treatment, while patients in the experimental group were given intravascular interventional treatment on the basis of conventional treatment. Clinical effect, recovery of cognitive function and activities of daily living, improvement of cerebral hemodynamics indexes, and changes of inflammatory factors before and after treatment were analyzed by combining NIHSS score and symptom improvement before and two months after treatment, respectively. Results: The effective rate of the experimental group was 82.5% after treatment, and that of the control group was 60%, with a statistically significant difference (P =0.02). Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) and Barthel scores of the experimental group were significantly improved compared with those of the control group after treatment, with statistically significant differences between the two groups (P=0.00). The mean cerebral vascular blood flow (Qm) of the experimental group increased significantly after treatment compared with that of the control group, while vascular characteristic impedance (ZCV) and peripheral resistance (Rv) decreased significantly in the experimental, with a statistically significant difference (ZCV, P=0.01; Rv, P=0.05); After treatment, TNF- A, CRP, IL-6 and other indicators in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group, with statistically significant differences (P=0.00). Conclusions: Intravascular interventional therapy is an effective treatment regimen for acute ischemic stroke boasting a variety of advantages over conventional thrombolysis, such as significant symptom improvement, high efficacy, favourable recovery of cognitive function and activities of daily living, improvement of cerebral hsemodynamic indicators, and significant reduction of inflammatory cytokine levels. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.5.5255 How to cite this:Liu K, He J, Zang Y. Clinical effect of intravascular interventional therapy in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke and its influence on cognitive function, cerebral hemodynamics and inflammatory factors. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(5):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.5.5255 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background White matter injury is a common ischemic brain injury in premature infants and for which there is no effective treatment. Stem cell transplantation has emerged as a novel approach for replacing damaged brain tissues and promoting regenerative processes. Since intracerebral transplantation is not clinically feasible for premature infants, intranasal delivery of cells to the brain is a promising, noninvasive therapeutic approach for restoring the damaged brain. This study was conducted to investigate whether transplanted human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells exhibit neuroprotective effects in a rat model of WMI in premature infants. Methods SD rats aged 3 days were randomly divided into sham group, preterm white matter injury group and nasal transplantation group. Hypoxia–ischemia was induced in 3-day-old rat pups by right carotid artery ligation, followed by exposure to 6% oxygen for 90 min. Rats were intranasally administered the cell suspension (250,000 cells in 6 µL) twice in each nostril (1 × 106 cells total), and myelin basic protein immunofluorescence staining and transmission electron microscopy were performed to assess endogenous myelin growth in the right hemispheres. Behavioral tests, including the Morris water maze, adhesive-removal test, and cylinder rearing test, as well as a gait test, were performed to evaluate the therapeutic effects at 12 weeks after transplantation. Results The cells transplanted from the nose can enter brain tissue of rats 3 days after transplantation. The myelin sheath structure was more compact and the myelin sheath thickness was increased. The nerve function defect was improved 12 weeks after transplantation. Conclusions The intranasal administration of human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells had beneficial therapeutic effects on rehabilitation of the rat hypoxia-ischemia model. This technique is a potential strategy for applying oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in transplantation therapy against white matter injury.

rHDL is a synthesized drug delivery nanoplatform exhibiting excellent biocompatibility, which possesses most of the advantages of HDL. rHDL shows almost no toxicity and can be degraded to non-toxic substances in vivo. The severe limitation of the application of various antitumor agents is mainly due to their low bioavailability, high toxicity, poor stability, etc. Favorably, antitumor drug-loaded rHDL nanoparticles (NPs), which are known as an important drug delivery system (DDS), help to change the situation a lot. This DDS shows an outstanding active-targeting ability towards tumor cells and improves the therapeutic effect during antitumor treatment while overcoming the shortcomings mentioned above. In the following text, we will mainly focus on the various applications of rHDL in tumor targeted therapy by describing the properties, preparation, receptor active-targeting ability and antitumor effects of antineoplastic drug-loaded rHDL NPs.

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a satellite-borne detector for high-energy cosmic rays and $\gamma$-rays. To fully understand the detector performance and obtain reliable physical results, extensive simulations of the detector are necessary. The simulations are particularly important for the data analysis of cosmic ray nuclei, which relies closely on the hadronic and nuclear interactions of particles in the detector material. Widely adopted simulation softwares include the GEANT4 and FLUKA, both of which have been implemented for the DAMPE simulation tool. Here we describe the simulation tool of DAMPE and compare the results of proton shower properties in the calorimeter from the two simulation softwares. Such a comparison gives an estimate of the most significant uncertainties of our proton spectral analysis., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Chinese Physics Letters

As a BCS IV drug, ursolic acid (UA) has low oral bioavailability mainly because of its poor aqueous solubility/dissolution, poor permeability, and metabolism by cytochrome P450 (CYP) isozymes, such as CYP3A4. Most UA preparations demonstrated a much higher dissolution than that of its crystalline form yet a low drug concentration in plasma due to their lower consideration or evaluation for the permeability and metabolism issues. In the current study, a supramolecular coamorphous system of UA with piperine (PIP) was prepared and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. In comparison to crystalline UA and UA in physical mixture, such coamorphous system enhanced solubility (5.3-7-fold in the physiological solution) and dissolution (7-8-fold in the physiological solution within 2 h) of UA and exhibited excellent physical stability under 90-day storage conditions. More importantly, the pharmacokinetic study of coamorphous UA in rats exhibited 5.8-fold and 2.47-fold improvement in AUC0-∞ value, respectively, compared with its free and mixed crystalline counterparts. In order to further explore the mechanism of such improvement, the molecular interactions of a coamorphous system in the solid state were investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and density functional theory modeling suggested that intermolecular hydrogen bonds with strong interactions newly formed between UA and PIP after coamorphization. The in vitro permeability studies across Caco-2 cell monolayer and metabolism studies by rat hepatic microsomes indicated that free PIP significantly increased the permeability of UA and inhibited the enzymatic metabolism of UA by CYP3A4. However, PIP in the coamorphous combination exhibited a much lower level in the bioenhancing than its free form arising from the synchronized dissolution characteristic of the preparation (only 60% of PIP released in comparison to its free counterpart in 2 h). The in situ loop study in rats proposed that the acid-sensitive dissolution in the stomach of the coamorphous preparation helped to improve the effective free drug concentration, thereby facilitating PIP to play its role in bioenhancing. The current study offers an exploratory strategy to overcome poor solubility/dissolution, poor permeability, and metabolism by cytochrome P450 isozymes of the BCS IV drug to improve its oral bioavailability.

A method of identifying positron/electron species from the cosmic rays was studied in the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) experiment. As there is no onboard magnet on the satellite, the different features imposed by the geomagnetic field on these two species were exploited for the particle identification. Application of this method to the simulation of on-orbit electrons/positrons/protons and the real flight data proves that separately measuring the CR positrons/electrons with DAMPE is feasible, though limited by the field of view for the present observation data. Further analysis on the positron flux with this method can be expected in the future.

Precise measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic rays (CRs) show various kinds of features deviating from single power-laws, which give very interesting and important implications on their origin and propagation. Previous measurements from a few balloon and space experiments indicate the existence of spectral softenings around 10 TV for protons (and probably also for Helium nuclei). Very recently, the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) measurement about the proton spectrum clearly reveals such a softening with a high significance. Here we study the implications of these new measurements, as well as the groundbased indirect measurements, on the origin of CRs. We find that a single component of CRs fails to fit the spectral softening and the air shower experiment data simultaneously. In the framework of multiple components, we discuss two possible scenarios, the multiple source population scenario and the background plus nearby source scenario. Both scenarios give reasonable fits to the wide-band data from TeV to 100 PeV energies. Considering the anisotropy observations, the nearby source model is favored., 8 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables; accepted for publication in Frontiers of Physics

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is aimed to study the existence and distribution of dark matter via the observation of high-energy particles in space with a large energy bandwidth, high energy resolution, and high spatial resolution. The track reconstruction is to restore the positions and angles of the incident particles using the multiple observations of different channels at different positions, and its accuracy determines the angular resolution of the explorer. The track reconstruction is mainly based on the observations of two sub-detectors, namely, the Silicon Tracker (STK) and the BGO (Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 ) calorimeter. In accordance with the design and structure of the two sub-detectors, and using the data collected during the beam tests and ground tests of cosmic rays, we discuss in detail the method of track reconstruction for the DAMPE, which includes mainly three basic procedures: the selection of track hits, the fitting of track hits, and the judgement of the optimal track. Since an energetic particle most probably leaves multiple hits in different layers of the STK and BGO crystals, we first provide a method to obtain a rough track in the BGO calorimeter by the centroid method, and hereby to constrain the track hits in the STK. Then for the selected one group of possible track hits in the STK, we apply two different algorithms, the Kalman filter and the least square linear fitting, to fit these track hits. The consistency of the results obtained independently via the two algorithms confirms the validity of our track reconstruction results. Finally, several criteria for picking out the most possible track among all the tracks found in the reconstruction by combining the results of the BGO calorimeter and STK are discussed. Using the track reconstruction method proposed in this article and the beam test data, we confirm that the angular resolution of the DAMPE satisfies its design requirement.

In this work, hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (H-t-PDMS) nanocomposites reinforced by different contents of graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) were prepared via a facile solvent-free process, and the mechanical properties of the H-t-PDMS/GONR nanocomposites were investigated and compared with the corresponding nanocomposites containing pristine carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or functionalized CNTs (f-CNTs). It was found that the GONRs with abundant functional groups showed good compatibility with the H-t-PDMS matrix at appropriate content: both good dispersion levels of the GONR sheets and strong GONR/matrix interfacial interactions were achieved at low filler content (≤0.5 wt%), although the GONR sheets showed obvious clusters in the matrix at relatively high content. Mechanical testing indicated that the incorporation of a low content of GONRs into the H-t-PDMS polymer resulted in significant improvements in both the tensile and tear strengths, e.g. about 158 and 284% at 0.5 wt% GONRs, respectively; and such reinforcement efficiency of the GONRs in the PDMS nanocomposites was much better than those of the corresponding CNTs or f-CNTs, even superior to those of other carbon nanofillers in previous PDMS-based nanocomposite systems. Based on the morphology and fracture surface analysis, the possible reinforcing mechanisms were discussed and clarified to understand the discrepancies in the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite systems studied.

It is still unclear whether lung ultrasound (LUS) can be used to evaluate the severity of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS).To evaluate the role of LUS in assessing NRDS.From January 2017 to January 2018, newborns with suspected NRDS were enrolled. The LUS score and lung consolidation areas were determined. The receiver operative curve (ROC) was used to analyze the LUS score and lung consolidation to predict NRDS severity.Neonates with NRDS had higher LUS scores than those with non-NRDS (23.6 ± 3.6 vs. 16.2 ± 1.8, P 0.05). Among neonates with NRDS, the LUS scores increased with NRDS severity (18.0 ± 2.7 vs. 24.0 ± 1.7 vs. 27.0 ± 1.7, all P 0.05). There were almost no consolidation areas in non-NRDS, while 1.9 ± 1.7 consolidation areas were observed in the NRDS group (P 0.05). The number of consolidation areas also increased with NRDS severity (0 vs. 1.5 ± 0.8 vs. 4.1 ± 1.3, all P 0.05). The LUS score for NRDS vs. non-NRDS showed 80.2% sensitivity and 100% specificity using a cut-off of 21.5 (Area under the ROC curve, AUC = 0.938; P 0.001). The LUS score for severe vs. mild/moderate NRDS showed 73.1% sensitivity and 95.7% specificity using a cut-off of 25.5 (AUC = 0.944; P 0.001). The LUS score for predicting mechanical ventilation showed 81.3% sensitivity and 88.8% specificity using a cut-off of 25.5 (AUC = 0.912; P 0.001). The AUCs of consolidation areas were similar to those of LUS score (all P 0.05).The LUS score and consolidation areas can discriminate NRDS from non-NRDS and the different grades of NRDS, and predict the application of mechanical ventilation.

One of the main purposes of the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is to measure the cosmic ray nuclei up to several tens of TeV or beyond, whose origin and propagation remains a hot topic in astrophysics. The Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) on top of DAMPE is designed to measure the charges of cosmic ray nuclei from H to Fe and serves as a veto detector for discriminating gamma-rays from charged particles. We propose in this paper a charge reconstruction procedure to optimize the PSD performance in charge measurement. Essentials of our approach, including track finding, alignment of PSD, light attenuation correction, quenching and equalization correction are described detailedly in this paper after a brief description of the structure and operational principle of the PSD. Our results show that the PSD works very well and almost all the elements in cosmic rays from H to Fe are clearly identified in the charge spectrum., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer developed in China was designed to search for evidence of dark matter particles by observing primary cosmic rays and gamma rays in the energy range from 5 GeV to 10 TeV. Since its launch in December 2015, a large quantity of data has been recorded. With the data set acquired during more than a year of operation in space, a precise time-dependent calibration for the energy measured by the bismuth germanate oxide (BGO) electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) has been developed. In this paper, the instrumentation and development of the BGO ECAL are briefly described. The calibration on orbit, including that of the pedestal, attenuation length, minimum ionizing particle peak, and dynode ratio, is discussed, and additional details about the calibration methods and performance in space are presented.

Rutin, hyperoside and hesperidin were effectively extracted from Sorbus tianschanica leaves by an ionic liquid vacuum microwave-assisted method. A series of ionic liquids with various anions and alkyl chain length of the cations were studied and the extraction was performed in [C6mim][BF4] aqueous solution. After optimization by a factorial design and response surface methodology, total extraction yield of 2.37mg/g with an error of 0.12mg/g (0.71±0.04mg/g, 1.18±0.06mg/g and 0.48±0.02 for rutin, hyperoside and hesperidin, respectively) was achieved under -0.08MPa for vacuum, 19min and 420W for microwave irradiation time and power, and 15mL/g for liquid-solid ratio. The proposed method here is more efficient and needs a shorter extraction time for rutin, hyperoside and hesperidin from S. tianschanica leaves than reference extraction techniques. In stability studies performed with standard rutin, hyperoside and hesperidin, the target analytes were stable under the optimum conditions. The proposed method had a high reproducibility and precision. In addition, separation of rutin, hyperoside and hesperidin from [C6mim][BF4] extraction solution was completed effectively by AB-8 macroporous resin adsorption and desorption process. Ionic liquid vacuum microwave-assisted extraction is a simple, rapid and efficient sample extraction technique.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with a dismal prognosis including severe voluntary motor and sensory deficits in the presence of the current therapies, thus new and efficient treatment strategies are desperately required. Along with several advantages, such as easy accessibility, high-yield, potential of enormous proliferation, menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MenSCs) have been proposed as a promising strategy in regeneration medicine. In this study, the MenSCs were transplanted into incomplete thoracic (T10) spinal cord injury (SCI) rats, all rats were sacrificed at 7, 14, and 28 days after surgery. Based on the results, we found that MenSCs transplantation improved the hind limb motor function. Besides, H&E staining showed that MenSCs treatment markedly reduced cavity formation in the lesion site. Furthermore, treatment by MenSCs showed more MAP2-positive mature neurons, as well as axonal regeneration manifested by NF-200 and less expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) than the non-treatment in the lesion site. Additionally, immunofluorescence, Western blot, and qRT-PCR methods showed that levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were significantly higher in the injured spinal cord after implantation of MenSCs. Results of qRT-PCR indicated that inflammatory factors, including TNF-α and IL-1β were inhibited after MenSCs transplantation. The improved motor function of hind limb and the increased cell body area of motor neurons were suppressed by blocking of the BDNF-TrkB signaling. It was eventually revealed that MenSCs implantation had beneficial therapeutic effects on the rehabilitation of the rat spinal cord hemisection model, mainly by enhancing the expression of BDNF. MenSCs transplantation may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for patients with SCI in the future.

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), also known as Wukong in China, launched on December 17, 2015, is a new high energy cosmic ray and {\gamma}-ray satellite-borne observatory in space. One of the main scientific goals of DAMPE is to observe GeV-TeV high energy {\gamma}-rays with accurate energy, angular, and time resolution, to indirectly search for dark matter particles and for the study of high energy astrophysics. Due to the comparatively higher fluxes of charged cosmic rays with respect to {\gamma}-rays, it is challenging to identify {\gamma}-rays with sufficiently high efficiency minimizing the amount of charged cosmic ray contamination. In this work we present a method to identify {\gamma}-rays in DAMPE data based on Monte Carlo simulations, using the powerful electromagnetic/hadronic shower discrimination provided by the calorimeter and the veto detection of charged particles provided by the plastic scintillation detector. Monte Carlo simulations show that after this selection the number of electrons and protons that contaminate the selected {\gamma}-ray events at $\sim10$ GeV amounts to less than 1% of the selected sample. Finally, we use flight data to verify the effectiveness of the method by highlighting known {\gamma}-ray sources in the sky and by reconstructing preliminary light curves of the Geminga pulsar., Comment: 15 pages,16 figures

The interfacial properties between fiber bundle and polymer matrix play a crucial role in determining the final performance of fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Epoxy modified with nanofillers as new “matrix” for the composites has been shown to be a possibility to enhance the interfacial properties between fiber bundle and “matrix”. Herein, we synthesized silica nanoparticles with an average diameter of ~80 nm through using the sol-gel technique and achieved a good dispersion of silica in tetra-functional epoxy matrix after intensively mechanical mixing procedure. The results revealed that incorporation of silica nanoparticles into epoxy increased its stiffness, strength and toughness simultaneously. Such silica/epoxy composite as new “matrix” showed a good impregnation in the fiber bundles, and thus produced improved interfacial properties between glass fiber bundle and new “matrix”. For example, the presence of 15.0 wt% silica nanoparticles was found to produce ~15 %, 22 % and ~34 % in the elastic modulus, tensile strength and critical stress intensity factor of epoxy, respectively; and the interfacial strength between fiber bundle and the “matrix” was also enhanced by ~58.3 %. Based on the fracture surface analysis, several possible mechanisms were proposed and discussed to understand the improved interfacial properties between glass fiber bundle and tetra-functional epoxy modified with silica nanoparticles.

Background Endothelial-myofibroblast transition (EndMT) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic renal fibrosis. In this study, the effect of the complement fragments C3a/C5a and their receptor antagonists C3aRA and C5aRA on EndMT in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and the possible mechanisms were investigated. Methods The coexpression of CD31 with α-smooth muscle (α-SMA), C3a receptor (C3aR) and C5a receptor (C5aR) was detected in human renal biopsy tissue obtained from patients with early and advanced DKD and in normal renal tissues from patients with renal-cell carcinoma. The effects of C3aRA and C5aRA on EndMT and the expression of C3a/C3aR, C5a/C5aR, α-SMA, CD31, TGFβ, FN and β-catenin were examined in a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced rat model of DKD and in human renal glomerular endothelial cells (HRGECs) cultured in high glucose and with C3a/C5a, and DKK1 (a Wnt/β-catenin inhibitor). Results Double-labeling of α-SMA, C3aR, C5aR and CD31 was detected in the glomerulus of renal tissues obtained from biopsies of patients with DKD. Upregulated expression of α-SMA, TGF-β, FN and β-catenin and downregulated expression of CD31 were detected in the GECs of diabetic rats. The expression of these proteins was inhibited by treatment with C3aRA/C5aRA. In vitro, C3aRA/C5aRA and DKK1 ameliorated the high glucose-induced EndMT and the subsequent expression of α-SMA, TGFβ, FN and β-catenin in HRGECs. Conclusions The blockade of C3aR/C5aR and the downstream Wnt/β-catenin pathway may prevent EndMT and alleviate fibrosis in the glomeruli of individuals with DKD.

Gamma-rays are very important for probing high energy particle accelerators and to study the nature of dark matter. The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), launched on 17th December, 2015, is designed for high energy cosmic-ray and gamma-ray observatory. Gamma-rays constitute only a tiny fraction of all the particles that impinge on our detector, it is thus critical to reject a large amount of ‘background’ to get a clean gamma-ray event sample. Here we present an algorithm to identify gamma-rays from the remaining background, using a silicon-tungsten tracker converter which promotes pair conversion and measures the directions of incident particles, and a segmented anti- coincidence detector made from plastic scintillator which measures the charge of particles. We utilize a GEANT4-based Monte Carlo simulation to validate our selection algorithm and estimate its efficiency. This method has been applied to the flight data, and a preliminary clean GeV gamma-ray sky-map has been obtained.

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a space-based mission designed as a high energy particle detector for measuring cosmic-rays and gamma-rays in space. It was successfully launched on December 17, 2015, and since then it has been in stable data taking for more than one year. The large geometric factorand thick calorimeter enables DAMPE to have very good potential to measure cosmic-rays from 20 GeV up to 100 TeV. Here we analyze the proton component using the DAMPE flight data. Comprehensive Monte-Carlo simulations have been employed to validate the event selections and estimate the efficiency as well as the geometry factor. The analysis progress is reported and discussed

Our intent is to examine the predictive role of Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) on mortality of patients with type 2 diabetic nephropathy (DN). Based on the CCI score, the severity of comorbidity was categorized into three grades: mild, with CCI scores of 1–2; moderate, with CCI scores of 3–4; and severe, with CCI scores ≥5. Factors influencing mortality and differences between groups stratified by CCI were determined by logistical regression analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The impact of CCI on mortality was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier analysis. A total of 533 patients with type 2 DN were enrolled in this study, all of them had comorbidity (CCI score >1), and 44.7% (238/533) died. The mortality increased with CCI scores: 21.0% (50/238) patients with CCI scores of 1–2, 56.7% (135/238) patients with CCI scores of 3–4, and 22.3% (53/238) patients with CCI scores ≥5. Logistical regression analysis showed that CCI scores, hemoglobin, and serum albumin were the potential predictors of mortality (P

N-body simulations predict that galaxies at the Milky Way scale host a large number of dark matter (DM) subhalos. Some of these subhalos, if they are massive enough or close enough to the Earth, might be detectable in $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ rays due to the DM annihilation. 3FGL $\mathrm{J}2212.5+0703$, an unidentified gamma-ray source, has been suggested to be the counterpart candidate of a DM subhalo by Bertoni et al. In this work we analyze the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data of 3FGL $\mathrm{J}2212.5+0703$ to independently test the DM subhalo hypothesis of this source. In order to suppress the possible contamination from two nearby very bright blazars, we just take into account the front-converting gamma rays which have better angular resolutions than that of the back-converting photons. In addition to the spatial distribution analysis, we have extended the spectrum analysis down to the energies of $\ensuremath{\sim}100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$, and thoroughly examined the variability of the emission during the past 8 years. We confirm that 3FGL $\mathrm{J}2212.5+0703$ is a steady and spatially extended gamma-ray emitter at a high confidence level. The spectrum is well consistent with that expected from DM annihilation into $b\overline{b}$. The introduction of a phenomenological LogParabola spectrum just improves the fit slightly. All these results suggest that 3FGL $\mathrm{J}2212.5+0703$ could be indicative of a DM subhalo.

Graphene oxide (GO) paper with outstanding integrated multiple functionalities (good mechanical performance, thermal stability and flame resistance, etc.) is strongly needed for numerous potential applications in cutting-edge fields. In this work, we report a facile and green process to fabricate GO-based nanocomposite papers via introducing functionalized silica (f-SiO2) nanoparticles. The results reveal that addition of f-SiO2 produces simultaneous improvements in mechanical strength, stiffness and flame resistance for GO paper. With incorporation of 10 wt% f-SiO2, the tensile strength, elastic modulus and toughness of the GO/f-SiO2 nanocomposite papers can be increased by about 51%, 317%, and 69%, respectively. Various characterizations disclose that hydrogen bonds and covalent interactions between GO sheets and f-SiO2 mainly contribute to the effective load transfer and energy dissipation between them, and thus leading to the improvements of mechanical properties. Based on the structural observation and analysis, the improved flame resistance of the GO/f-SiO2 papers should be attributed to the formation of rGO/SiO2 protective char, which are derived from the decomposition and redeposition of the grafted silane molecules and inorganic SiO2 and thermal reduction of GO into rGO. Our results suggest that the mechanical and thermal properties of GO papers can be tuned by introducing inorganic/organic f-SiO2, providing a new route for the rational designing and development of mechanically flexible and flame-retardant GO-based nanocomposite paper materials.

A ground data analysis center is very important to the success of a mission. We introduce the Science Operations and Data Center (SODC) for the ASO-Smission, which consists of a scientific operation subcenter, a data management subcenter, a data analysis subcenter and a user service subcenter. Themission planning process, instrument observation modes and the data volume are presented. We describe the data flow and processing procedures from spacecraft telemetry to high-level science data, and the long-term archival as well. The data policy and distributions are also briefly introduced.

The Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) onboard the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is designed to measure cosmic ray charge (Z) and to act as a veto detector for gamma ray identification. To fully exploit the charge identification potential of PSD and to enhance its capability to identify gamma ray events, we develop an alignment method for the PSD. The path length of a given track in the volume of a PSD bar is derived taking into account the shift and rotation alignment corrections. By examining energy spectra of corner-passing events and fully contained events, position shifts and rotations of all PSD bars are obtained, and are found to be on average about 1mm and 0.0015 radian respectively. To validate the alignment method, we introduce artificial shifts and rotations of PSD bars into the detector simulation. These shift and rotation parameters can be recovered successfully by the alignment procedure. As a result of the PSD alignment procedure, the charge resolution of the PSD is improved from 4% to 8%, depending on the nuclei.