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Here we presented a novel micelle self-assembled from amphiphiles with π-conjugated moieties (OEG-DPH). The π-conjugated structural integrity of the micelles enabled stable encapsulation of Nile Red (NR, model drug). The self-assembly behaviour of the amphiphiles and the release profile of NR loaded micelles were investigated. Spherical core-shell structured NR loaded micelles with low CMC of 57 μg/mL and the efficient intracellular delivery process was monitored. This research provided a way to fabricate stable polymeric micelles and develop a practical nanocarrier for therapeutics delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is driven by neurohormonal activation of specific G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in cardiomyocytes and is accompanied by large-scale changes in cardiomyocyte gene expression. These transcriptional changes require activity of positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb), which is recruited to target genes by the bromodomain protein Brd4 or the super elongation complex (SEC). Here, we describe GPCR-specific regulation of these P-TEFb complexes and a novel mechanism for activating Brd4 in primary neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. The SEC was required for the hypertrophic response downstream of either the α1-adrenergic receptor (α1-AR) or the endothelin receptor (ETR). In contrast, Brd4 inhibition selectively impaired the α1-AR response. This was corroborated by the finding that the activation of α1-AR, but not ETR, increased Brd4 occupancy at promoters and superenhancers of hypertrophic genes. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that the activation of both receptors initiated similar gene expression programs, but that Brd4 inhibition attenuated hypertrophic genes more robustly following α1-AR activation. Finally, we show that protein kinase A (PKA) is required for α1-AR stimulation of Brd4 chromatin occupancy. The differential role of the Brd4/P-TEFb complex in response to distinct GPCR pathways has potential clinical implications, as therapies targeting this complex are currently being explored for heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let ω(n) is the number of distinct prime factors of the natural number n; we consider two cases where ℓ is even and odd natural numbers, and then we prove a more general form of the classical Erdős-Kac theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signalling functions of many G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) expressed in the myocardium are incompletely understood. Among these are the endothelin receptor (ETR) family and α 1 -adrenergic receptor (α 1 -AR), which are thought to couple to the G protein Gαq. In this study, we used transcriptome analysis to compare the signalling networks downstream of these receptors in primary neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. This analysis indicated increased expression of target genes of cAMP responsive element modulator (CREM) after 24 h treatment with the α 1 -AR agonist phenylephrine, but not the ETR agonist endothelin-1, suggesting a specific role for the α 1 -AR in promoting cAMP production in cardiomyocytes. To validate the difference observed between these two GPCRs, we used heterologous expression of the receptors and genetically encoded biosensors in HEK 293 cell lines. We validated that both α 1A - and α 1B -AR subtypes were able to lead to the accumulation of cAMP in response to phenylephrine in both the nucleus and cytoplasm in a Gαs-dependent manner. However, the ETR subtype ETA did not affect cAMP levels in either compartment. All three receptors were coupled to Gαq signalling as expected. Further, we showed that activation of PKA in different compartments was α 1 -AR subtype specific, with α 1B -AR able to activate PKA in the cytoplasm and nucleus and α 1A -AR only able to in the nucleus. We provide evidence for a pathway downstream of the α 1 -AR, and show that distinct pools of a receptor lead to differential activation of downstream effector proteins dependent on their cellular compartment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online sources for health information are becoming increasingly diverse, and these sources impact healthcare decision making. However, little is known about the factors influencing people's selection of online sources. Using the survey method, this study investigated how the individual characteristics of users influence their selection of five internet sources (search engines, social Q&A sites, online health communities (OHCs), social networking sites (SNSs), and crowdsourcing sites), for three distinct types of health search tasks (factual, exploratory, and personal experience). We found that individuals' source experience consistently predicted the selection of the four established sources (search engines, social Q&A sites, OHCs, and SNSs) for all types of tasks, whereas the selection of the comparatively new source, crowdsourcing sites, for all task types, was consistently predicted by race and preference for information. Health literacy was positively associated with the selection of search engines for all three types of search tasks, the selection of social Q&A sites for personal experience tasks, and the selection of OHCs for both exploratory and personal experience search tasks. Individuals with better health status were more likely to use SNSs for factual tasks. We also found some influence of personality. The findings suggest a need for interventions to reduce the divides in information access among user groups and for the development of technological innovations to tailor information delivery based on individual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of online health information for consumers has been a critical issue that concerns all stakeholders in healthcare. To gain an understanding of how quality is evaluated, this systematic review examined 165 articles in which researchers evaluated the quality of consumer-oriented health information on the web against predefined criteria. It was found that studies typically evaluated quality in relation to the substance and formality of content, as well as to the design of technological platforms. Attention to design, particularly interactivity, privacy, and social and cultural appropriateness is on the rise, which suggests the permeation of a user-centered perspective into the evaluation of health information systems, and a growing recognition of the need to study these systems from a social-technical perspective. Researchers used many preexisting instruments to facilitate evaluation of the formality of content; however, only a few were used in multiple studies, and their validity was questioned. The quality of content (i.e., accuracy and completeness) was always evaluated using proprietary instruments constructed based on medical guidelines or textbooks. The evaluation results revealed that the quality of health information varied across medical domains and across websites, and that the overall quality remained problematic. Future research is needed to examine the quality of user-generated content and to explore opportunities offered by emerging new media that can facilitate the consumer evaluation of health information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The edge device monitors the ruminating behaviour of cows in real-time. • The adaptive threshold makes ruminating monitoring for individual cows. • Edge computing reduces the amount of data transmission and cloud computing. • The ruminating information is uploaded to the cloud for further aggregation. Timely monitoring of the ruminating behaviour of dairy cows is beneficial for obtaining relevant information on dairy cow health to predict dairy cow diseases for the first time. To date, various strategies for monitoring ruminating behaviour have been proposed, but the real-time monitoring of these strategies has not been fully realized. Based on edge computing, we proposed a real-time method to monitor the ruminating behaviour of dairy cows. In this work, a self-designed edge device was used to collect and process the three-axis acceleration signals of dairy cows in real-time, and then a rumination recognition algorithm was used to calculate the overall sliding geometric mean of the Euclidean distance between the feature sets in real-time, determine the adaptive threshold, and verify the ruminating behaviour by the sliding window. Finally, real-time recognition of the ruminating behaviour of dairy cows was completed on the edge device side, without requiring substantial calculation time and resources. The edge device uploaded cow ruminating information to the cloud in real-time every two hours, and the cloud further aggregated the ruminating information. Compared with the traditional method of uploading three-axis acceleration data, this cloud-end integrated system based on edge computing reduced the amount of uploaded data bytes by 99.9%. Our ruminating recognition has achieved the following performance values: precision (93.7%), recall (92.8%), F1-score (93.3%), specificity (97.4%) and accuracy (96.1%), indicating a good classification effect. This research provides a real-time and effective method for monitoring of cow ruminating behaviour, and the proposed system can be used in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of AP1/FUL subfamily genes play an essential role in the regulation of floral meristem transition, floral organ identity, and fruit ripping. At present, there have been insufficient studies to explain the function of the AP1/FUL-like subfamily genes in Asteraceae. Here, we cloned two euAP1 clade genes TeAP1-1 and TeAP1-2, and three euFUL clade genes TeFUL1, TeFUL2, and TeFUL3 from marigold (Tagetes erecta L.). Expression profile analysis demonstrated that TeAP1-1 and TeAP1-2 were mainly expressed in receptacles, sepals, petals, and ovules. TeFUL1 and TeFUL3 were expressed in flower buds, stems, and leaves, as well as reproductive tissues, while TeFUL2 was mainly expressed in flower buds and vegetative tissues. Overexpression of TeAP1-2 or TeFUL2 in Arabidopsis resulted in early flowering, implying that these two genes might regulate the floral transition. Yeast two-hybrid analysis indicated that TeAP1/FUL proteins only interacted with TeSEP proteins to form heterodimers and that TeFUL2 could also form a homodimer. In general, TeAP1-1 and TeAP1-2 might play a conserved role in regulating sepal and petal identity, similar to the functions of MADS-box class A genes, while TeFUL genes might display divergent functions. This study provides a theoretical basis for the study of AP1/FUL-like genes in Asteraceae species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-driven recycling of sulfur-containing wastewater and hydrogen production is a novel concept that integrates environmental protection and new energy development. In this study, we designed for the first time a Zn-air battery self-driven coupling system for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), sulfur oxidation reaction (SOR) and developed a trifunctional catalyst suitable for this system capable of HER, SOR, and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). By synthesizing cobalt sulfide (Co 3 S 4) in situ on nickel foam (NF), we obtained Co 3 S 4 /NF monolithic catalyst. It only requires 0.312 V and 0.244 V in SOR and HER, respectively, at 100 mA cm−2. Based on this achievement, the SOR||HER coupled electrolysis system was assembled, which achieved 0.69 V at 100 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the Zn-air battery (using Co 3 S 4 as ORR catalyst) could spontaneously drive the SOR||HER system to achieve high-rate hydrogen production. These findings provide promising opportunities for zero-energy consumption H 2 production and recycling of sulfur-containing wastewater. [Display omitted] • The self-driven SOR||HER hybrid electrolysis system was successfully designed. • Co 3 S 4 electrocatalysts were grown on Ni foam as three-dimensional catalyst for HER, SOR and ORR. • The electrolysis can be realized without energy consumption. • The sulfur-containing waste water can be recycled and H 2 generation occurs spontaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing use of social media, the addictive use of this new technology also grows. Previous studies found that addictive social media use is associated with negative consequences such as reduced productivity, unhealthy social relationships, and reduced life-satisfaction. However, a holistic theoretical understanding of how social media addiction develops is still lacking, which impedes practical research that aims at designing educational and other intervention programs to prevent social media addiction. In this study, we reviewed 25 distinct theories/models that guided the research design of 55 empirical studies of social media addiction to identify theoretical perspectives and constructs that have been examined to explain the development of social media addiction. Limitations of the existing theoretical frameworks were identified, and future research areas are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the floral organ development ABC model, B class genes specify petal and stamen identification. In order to study the function of B class genes in flower development of Tagetes erecta, five MADS-box B class genes were identified and their expression and putative functions were studied. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses indicated that there were one PI-like gene—TePI, two euAP3-like genes—TeAP3-1 and TeAP3-2, and two TM6-like genes—TeTM6-1 and TeTM6-2 in T. erecta. Strong expression levels of these genes were detected in stamens of the disk florets, but little or no expression was detected in bracts, receptacles or vegetative organs. Yeast hybrid experiments of the B class proteins showed that TePI protein could form a homodimer and heterodimers with all the other four B class proteins TeAP3-1, TeAP3-2, TeTM6-1 and TeTM6-2. No homodimer or interaction was observed between the euAP3 and TM6 clade members. Over-expression of five B class genes of T. erecta in Nicotiana rotundifolia showed that only the transgenic plants of 35S::TePI showed altered floral morphology compared with the non-transgenic line. This study could contribute to the understanding of the function of B class genes in flower development of T. erecta, and provide a theoretical basis for further research to change floral organ structures and create new materials for plant breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water dropworts Oenanthe linearis Wall. ex DC. and O. javanica (Blume) DC. are aquatic perennial herbs that have been used in China as vegetables and traditional medicines. However, their phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity are poorly understood. Here, we presented the phenotypic traits and genome-wide DNA marker-based analysis of 158 water dropwort accessions representing both species. The analysis revealed that Oenanthe linearis was readily segregated into linear-leaf and deep-cleft leaf water dropworts according to their leaf shapes at flowering. Oenanthe javanica was classified by clustering analysis into two clusters based mainly on the morphological characteristics of their ultimate segments (leaflets). A set of 11 493 high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphisms was identified and used to construct a phylogenetic tree. There was strong discrimination between O. linearis and O. javanica, which was consistent with their phenotype diversification. The population structure and phylogenetic tree analyses suggested that the O. linearis accessions formed two major groups, corresponding to the linear-leaf and deep-cleft leaf types. The most obvious phenotypic differences between them were fully expressed at the reproductive growth stage. A single-nucleotide polymorphism-based analysis revealed that the O. javanica accessions could be categorized into groups I andII. However, this finding did not entirely align with the clusters revealed by morphological classification. Landraces were clustered into one group along with the remaining wild accessions. Hence, water dropwort domestication was short in duration. The level of genetic diversity for O. linearis (π = 0.1902) was slightly lower than that which was estimated for O. javanica (π = 0.2174). There was a low level of genetic differentiation between O. linearis and O. javanica (Fst = 0.0471). The mean genetic diversity among accessions ranged from 0.1818 for the linear-leaf types to 0.2318 for the groupII accessions. The phenotypic traits and the single-nucleotide polymorphism markers identified here lay empirical foundation for future genomic studies on water dropwort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Successful application of microorganisms to heavy metal remediation depends on their resistance to toxic metals. This study contrasted the differences of tolerant mechanisms between Pb2+ and Cd2+ in Enterobacter sp. Microbial respiration and production of formic acid showed that Enterobacter sp. had a higher tolerant concentration of Pb (>1000 mg l−1) than Cd (about 200 mg l−1). Additionally, SEM confirmed that most of Pb and Cd nanoparticles (NPs) were adsorbed onto cell membrane. The Cd stress, even at low concentration (50 mg l−1), significantly enlarged the sizes of cells. The cellular size raised from 0.4 × 1.0 to 0.9 × 1.6 μm on average, inducing a platelet‐like shape. In contrast, Pb cations did not stimulate such enlargement even up to 1000 mg l−1. Moreover, Cd NPs were adsorbed homogeneously by almost all the bacterial cells under TEM. However, only a few cells work as 'hot spots' on the sorption of Pb NPs. The heterogeneous sorption might result from a 'self‐sacrifice' mechanism, i.e., some cells at a special life stage contributed mostly to Pb sorption. This mechanism, together with the lower mobility of Pb cations, caused higher microbial tolerance and removal efficiency towards Pb2+. This study sheds evident contrasts of bacterial resistance to the two most common heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it's pharmacological effect for cancer therapy, conventional chemotherapy has been compromised by a series of shortcomings such as limited stability, nonspecific tumour targeting ability and severe toxic side effects. To overcome these limitations, multifunctional targeted drug delivery systems for combinatorial therapeutics have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Among them, synergistic phototherapy and chemotherapy have demonstrated their abilities to enhance therapeutic efficacies and reduce unwanted side effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of targeted drug delivery systems with combinations of phototherapy and chemotherapy and discuss the important roles of phototherapy agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it's pharmacological effect for cancer therapy, conventional chemotherapy has been compromised by a series of shortcomings such as limited stability, nonspecific tumour targeting ability and severe toxic side effects. To overcome these limitations, multifunctional targeted drug delivery systems for combinatorial therapeutics have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Among them, synergistic phototherapy and chemotherapy have demonstrated their abilities to enhance therapeutic efficacies and reduce unwanted side effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of targeted drug delivery systems with combinations of phototherapy and chemotherapy and discuss the important roles of phototherapy agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coexistence of heavy metals in aquatic systems causes complex toxicity in microorganisms. In this study, we explored the influences of Pb2+ addition on Cd2+ toxicity in Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (Rho). Cd toxicity alone was tested with up to 200 mg/L Cd2+ to induce stress. Cell counts and Cd2+ removal rates declined to a minimum when the Cd2+ concentration reached 150 mg/L, confirming strong Cd-induced toxicity. Then, co-existence of Pb2+ and Cd2+ was established as Pb-CdH (Pb/Cd = 1, molar ratio), Pb-CdM (Pb/Cd = 10), and Pb-CdL (Pb/Cd = 100). The Pb-CdL and Pb-CdM treatments showed clear similarities in terms of their effects on cell counts, polysaccharide concentrations, and cell morphology. There was also no significant difference in their gene expression profiles. The competition between the two types of cations caused preferential extra/intracellular sorption of less toxic Pb2+. Moreover, the expression of genes related to glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation was significantly enhanced in the cells with Pb-CdH treatment, suggesting that these cells were functional. Furthermore, the excitability-caused increase in the cell count after Pb-CdH treatment (Cd2+ = 112.4 mg/L) was 30% higher than that of the 100 mg/L Cd2+ treatment. These results proved that the addition of Pb2+ in solution significantly weakened the toxicity of Cd2+. [Display omitted] • Rho cells have the preferential sorption of Pb2+ under coexistence of Cd2+. • Cd toxicity is weakened as the less-toxic Pb2+ occupy the active binding sites. • The strategy of cell reproduction strengthens fungal ability to resist HM stress. • Sorption of HM by daughter cells were significantly lower than the mother cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A lumped-parameter-model of planetary gear train with different crack faults are built • Time-varying flexible transfer functions are first applied in calculating the full-band vibration signals • Fault features of two typical types of planetary gear train with sun gear and ring gear crack are investigated • Simulations and experimental tests verify the proposed method Due to the multiple gear-pair meshes in planetary gear train, fault features of tooth root crack are weak and complicated in vibration signals. Influenced by the time-varying transfer paths of vibration signals, the fault features of crack are further weakened, which becomes hard to diagnose. To reveal the origination of crack fault features, a lumped-parameter-model of planetary gear train is firstly built to solve the excitation forces that generate vibration signals. Gear mesh stiffness that drives the excitation forces is used to equivalently reflect the crack characteristics. Secondly, a finite-element-model of flexible housing is used to calculate the time-varying transfer functions that determine the amplitude characteristics of vibration signals. Based on the signal convolution theorem, the full-band vibration signal is deduced by the convolution of excitation forces and flexible transfer functions. Simulations and experimental tests on two typical types of planetary gear trains show good consistency at crack fault frequency features, which effectively validates the proposed models. Significant fault features locating at resonance modulation sidebands are summarized as effective indicators for crack diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]