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The cycle life of LiNi0.88Co0.09Al0.03O2 was considerably improved by co-modification with Mg-doping and LiBO2-coating.

A considerable chunk of population in China live in rural areas. To create a suitable living environment in winter, many of them resort to additional solar house to improve the indoor thermal environment. Most of the previous studies focus on how the additional solar house changes the environment, but few try to optimize the size of that house. Therefore, this paper carries out field measurement and numerical simulation to evaluate the indoor thermal environment of a traditional building of Danihe Village, an important residential settlement in Xi’an, northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province, and explores the most suitable size of the additional solar house for improving the indoor thermal environment of the building in winter. The results show that the width of the additional solar house should be controlled within the range of 600–2400 mm, which provides the residents indoor with the best thermal environment. The research results offer a guide for improving indoor thermal environment and reducing indoor energy cost in future.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the prevalent microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), and it may lead to permanent blindness. The previous publication has indicated that both inflammatory response and oxidative stress are critical factors involved in DR progression, however, the accurate regulatory mechanism remains to be revealed. Src homology region 2 (SH2)-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2), a member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase family, was reported to play a role in diabetic nephropathy, whereas its function in DR was unknown and required further exploration. The level of phosphorylated, not the total, SHP2 increased in the retinas of rats with streptozotocin injection-induced DM. Further, the intravitreal injection of SHP2 shRNA lentivirus alleviated retinal pathological changes, and inhibited inflammatory response and oxidative stress, which were accompanied with Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) deactivation in DR rats. Additional co-immunoprecipitation results confirmed the interaction of SHP2 and YAP1. Collectively, our data preliminarily show that DR amelioration-induced by SHP2 inhibition in rats may attribute to the deactivation of YAP1 pathway.

ObjectivesTo quantitatively measure the T1 value, T2 value, proton density (PD) value, and cerebral blood flow (CBF) in young and middle-aged primary insomnia (PI) patients, and analyze the correlations between relaxation times, PD, and CBF to explore potential brain changes.MethodsCranial magnetic resonance (MR) images of 44 PI patients and 30 healthy subjects were prospectively collected for analysis. The T1, T2, PD, and CBF values of the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe were independently measured using three-dimensional arterial spin labeling (3D-ASL), synthetic magnetic resonance imaging (syMRI) and a whole-brain automatic segmentation method. The differences of these imaging indices were compared between PI patients and healthy subjects. Follow-up MR images were obtained from PI patients after 6 months to compare with pre-treatment images. The Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman rank were used for statistical analysis.ResultsBilateral CBF asymmetry was observed in 38 patients, with significant differences in both the T2 value and CBF between the four lobes of the brain (p ConclusionInsomnia symptoms may be associated with high CBF, and most PI patients have higher CBF and lower T2 values in the right cerebral hemispheres. The right hemisphere appears to play a critical role in the pathophysiology of PI. The 3D-ASL and syMRI technologies can provide a quantitative imaging basis for investigating the brain conditions and changes in young and middle-aged PI patients.

PurposeTo assess abdominal fat deposition and lumbar vertebra with iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL-IQ) and investigate their correlation with menopausal status.Materials and MethodsTwo hundred forty women who underwent routine abdominal MRI and IDEAL-IQ between January 2016 and April 2021 were divided into two cohorts (first cohort: 120 pre- or postmenopausal women with severe fatty livers or without fatty livers; second cohort: 120 pre- or postmenopausal women who were obese or normal weight). The fat fraction (FF) values of the liver (FFliver) and lumbar vertebra (FFlumbar) in the first group and the FF values of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) (FFSAT) and FFlumbar in the second group were measured and compared using IDEAL-IQ.ResultsTwo hundred forty women were evaluated. FFlumbar was significantly higher in both pre- and postmenopausal women with severe fatty liver than in patients without fatty livers (premenopausal women: p < 0.001, postmenopausal women: p < 0.001). No significant difference in the FFlumbar was observed between obese patients and normal-weight patients among pre- and postmenopausal women (premenopausal women: p = 0.113, postmenopausal women: p = 0.092). Significantly greater lumbar fat deposition was observed in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women with or without fatty liver and obesity (p < 0.001 for each group). A high correlation was detected between FFliver and FFlumbar in women with severe fatty liver (premenopausal women: r=0.76, pConclusionFat deposition in the vertebral marrow was significantly associated with liver fat deposition in postmenopausal women.

BACKGROUND Acute superior mesenteric venous thrombosis (MVT) is a rare condition associated with a high mortality rate. The treatment strategy for MVT is clinically challenging due to its insidious onset and rapid development, especially when accompanied by kidney transplantation. CASE SUMMARY Here we present a rare case of acute MVT developed 3 years after renal transplantation. A 49-year-old patient was admitted with acute abdominal pain and diagnosed as MVT with intestinal necrosis. An emergency exploratory laparotomy was performed to remove the infarcted segment of the bowel. Immediate systemic anticoagulation was also initiated. During the treatment, the patient experienced bleeding, anastomotic leakage, and sepsis. However, after aggressive treatment was administered, all thrombi were completely resolved, and the patient recovered with his renal graft function unimpaired. CONCLUSION The present case suggests that accurate diagnosis and timely surgical treatment are important to improve the survival rate of MVT patients. Bleeding with anastomotic fistula needs to be treated with caution because of grafts. Also, previously published cases of mesenteric thrombosis after renal transplantation were reviewed.

Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) are essential to maintain intestinal epithelial regeneration and barrier function. Our previous work showed that glucomannan from Aloe vera gel (AGP) alleviated epithelial damage, but the mechanism was still elusive. Herein, RNA-sequencing analysis showed that proliferation and differentiation of intestinal epithelial cells as well as the canonical Wnt pathway were involved in this process. Further experiments exhibited that AGP promoted nuclear translocation of β-catenin and expression of transcription factor 7, increased the number of Lgr5+ ISCs, and differentiated epithelial cells in mice colon. Intriguingly, AGP reversed the inhibition of IEC-6 cells proliferation induced by an inhibitor of the canonical Wnt pathway. Hence, this study implied that AGP promoted proliferation and differentiation of colon stem cells via Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which subsequently facilitated the regeneration of epithelial cells and alleviated colitis in mice. It may provide new insights into the role of polysaccharides in regulating intestinal homeostasis and relieving intestinal injury.

Increasing urban heat island and global warming have aroused serious thermal environmental problems and even harm people's thermal health. Because of the importance in people's daily life, a commercial pedestrianized block represents a symbol of a city or metropolis; therefore, focusing the attention on the thermal environment in such regions is very necessary. Most of the researches on the urban thermal environment are calculated by remote sensing data; limited by the low spatial resolution of remote sensing image, it may not obviously reflect the true thermal environment of the research site, especially in some microscale regions. Based on this, the new software ENVI-met is developed to research the thermal environment and forecast people's thermal sensation in a microscale region. Therefore, the objective of this study aims at conducting field measurement and numerical simulation to assess the thermal environment of a typical commercial pedestrianized space in southern China and assess the different urban design parameters in ameliorating the urban heat island effect. Our final results demonstrate a quantitative evidence for establishing a comprehensive standard for improving the thermal environment in a microscale region, and this study also can be a supplementary in the research field about improving thermal health.

The efficacy of trehalose on the lesion diameter of apples (cv. Golden Delicious) inoculated with

Advanced proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) characterized by aberrant retinal angiogenesis is a leading cause of retinal detachment and blindness. Krüppel-like factor 9 (KLF9), a member of the zinc-finger family of transcription factors, participates in the development of diabetic nephropathy and the promotion of angiogenesis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Therefore, we speculate that KLF9 may exert a crucial role in PDR. The current study revealed that KLF9 was highly expressed in the high glucose (HG)-treated human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) and the retinas of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) rats. Knockdown of KLF9 inhibited the proliferation, migratory capability, invasiveness and tube formation of HG-treated HRMECs. Besides, knockdown of KLF9 decreased the expression of yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) in HG-treated HRMECs. Dual-luciferase reporter assays confirmed that KLF9 transcriptionally upregulated YAP1 expression. Overexpression of YAP1 reversed the KLF9 silencing-induced repression of HRMEC proliferation and tube formation. Further in vivo evidence demonstrated that knockdown of KLF9 reduced the expression of Ki67, CD31 and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) in the retinas of OIR rats. Collectively, KLF9 silencing might mitigate the progression of PDR by inhibiting angiogenesis via blocking YAP1 transcription.

Targeting autophagy and lysosome may serve as a promising strategy for cancer therapy. Tea polysaccharide (TP) has shown promising antitumor effects. However, its mechanism remains elusive. Here, TP was found to have a significant inhibitory effect on the proliferation of colon cancer line HCT116 cells. RNA-seq analysis showed that TP upregulated autophagy and lysosome signal pathways, which was further confirmed through experiments. Immunofluorescence experiments indicated that TP activated transcription factor EB (TFEB), a key nuclear transcription factor modulating autophagy and lysosome biogenesis. In addition, TP inhibited the activity of mTOR, while it increased the expression of Lamp1. Furthermore, TP ameliorated the lysosomal damage and autophagy flux barrier caused by Baf A1 (lysosome inhibitor). Hence, our data suggested that TP repressed the proliferation of HCT116 cells by targeting lysosome to induce cytotoxic autophagy, which might be achieved through mTOR-TFEB signaling. In summary, TP may be used as a potential drug to overcome colon cancer.

'Docteur Jules Guyot' pears were immersed in acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) and 0.01 mol L

Background Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease, and the mortality of NAFLD-related heart diseases is higher than that of NAFLD-related liver diseases. We aimed to quantitatively measure liver, myocardium, and para-apical fat in obese patients and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with varying degrees of liver fat deposition using IDEAL-IQ technology and to explore the differences in fat content and their correlations. Materials and Methods This study retrospectively analyzed the data of 170 patients, including 85 obese patients (50 males, 35 females; average age, 43.5 years) and 85 T2DM patients (45 males, 40 females; average age, 45.5 years). All patients underwent axial T1WI, T2WI, and IDEAL-IQ, the FF map of the right liver lobe, the interventricular septum, the left ventricle, and para-apical fat was used for the quantitative measurement of fat content. Results For obese patients, the myocardial fat content was significantly higher in the severe fatty liver group than other liver groups (left ventricle, 3.65% ± 0.80%; interventricular septum, 3.46% ± 0.84%). For T2DM patients, the fat contents of different para-apical fat were positively correlated with fatty liver severity (p < 0.05) and were higher in T2DM patients with fatty liver than in obese patients with fatty liver. For both obese patients and T2DM patients, para-apical fat was only significantly different between the normal liver group (obese patients, 89.10±3.73%; T2DM patients, 89.14±3.80%) and the mild fatty liver group (obese patients, 92.64±2.43%; T2DM patients, 92.42±2.70%) (p < 0.01) and was unrelated to fatty liver severity (p > 0.05). Conclusion The results showed myocardial fat content increased with liver fat content, T2DM patients were more likely to have myocardial fat deposition than obese patients, and the fat content trends were consistent in para-apical fat in patients with varying degrees of fatty liver. This study provides an accurate and non-invasive method for the diagnosis and treatment of NAFLD-related heart diseases in obese patients and T2DM patients.

Apples (cv. Golden Delicious) were used as the materials to investigate methyl jasmonate (MeJA) dipping on quality parameters, organic acids metabolism and GABA shunt during storage at 21 ± 1 °C and 75 ± 5 % relative humidity. Results demonstrated that MeJA treatment reduced mass loss, respiratory intensity and ethylene release, and maintained higher flesh firmness and soluble solid content of apples. MeJA also decreased malic acid content, increased succinic and tartaric acids contents, and inhibited cytoplasmic aconitase (Cyt-ACO), NADP-malate (NADP-ME), phosphoenolpyruvate dehydrogenase (PEPC), mitochondrial citrate synthase (Mit-CS), glutamate dehydrogenase (GAD), and GABA transferase (GABA-T) activities in apples. NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase (NADP-IDH), mitochondrial cis-aconitase (Mit-ACO), and cytoplasmic NAD-malate dehydrogenase (CytNAD-MDH) activities in apples were also enhanced by MeJA dipping. Moreover, MeJA dipping enhanced MdCytNAD-MDH and MdNADP-IDH expressions, and down-regulated MdGAD, MdGABA-T, MdNADP-ME, MdPEPC, MdCyt-ACO and MdMit-CS expressions in apples. These results suggest that MeJA dipping can maintain storage quality of "Golden Delicious" apples by regulating organic acids metabolism and GABA shunt.