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Investigating the association between human mobility and urban deprivation helps to understand the disparate routines of urban residents with different socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Though lots of research have revealed the difference in the population’s mobility behaviours impacted by social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, limited analytics focuses on the inequality in mobility recovery patterns of urban residents in the post-pandemic era. Using a large-scale geo-big data set (mobile phone GPS trajectories), we calculated the associations between the measured mobility recovery rate and urban deprivation indices (sevencategories) in 4835 London communities (LSOAs) during the first four months of 2022. Weshow that mobility recovery is associated with urban deprivation (particularly the ‘Barriers toHousing and Services’ deprivation index) over the observed post-pandemic period. The resultsfurther demonstrate that the residents from higher deprived/vulnerable communities are likely to obtain lower mobility recovery rates in London.

Background Interleukin 6 (IL-6) induce the inflammatory response directly related with the morbidity and mortality of neonatal. Here we aimed to explore the mechanism of IL-6 in neonatal inflammatory response by studying the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway. Methods Cord blood samples from health term neonatal and peripheral venous blood from health volunteers were collected. The monocytes of adults and cord blood were isolated and induced into macrophages. Then the macrophages were pretreated with or without MG132 before IL-6 stimulation. Proteins were analyzed by Western blot, mRNA by real time PCR and membrane molecule by flow cytometry. Results The acute phase protein gene expression in neonatal macrophages after stimulated with IL-6 were higher than that in adult. Significantly enhanced phosphorylation of STAT3 was seen in neonatal macrophages. Both mRNA and protein expression of SOCS3 in neonatal macrophages were lower than that in adult. After pretreated with MG132, the expression of SOCS3 protein was increased which lead to attenuate the STAT3 phosphorylation and APP gene expression. Conclusion Neonatal exhibit an enhanced expression of downstream target genes and IL-6/STAT3 signal pathway which is related with the diminished SOCS3. This provides a new sight into inflammatory responses in neonatal.

BACKGROUND: The infection rate of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children was less than that in adults. However, the underlining reason is not well known. METHODS: Children with COVID-19 were recruited from two Children’s Hospitals in Wuhan and Shanghai in this case-control study. The associations of initial symptoms with age, vaccinations of Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), and influenza and pathogens were determined by Chi-square t-test. RESULTS: We evaluated 248 confirmed cases, and 56 suspected cases with COVID-19. The median age was 6.82 years old, and 118 cases (38.82%) were girls. Furthermore, 30.26% of all patients were asymptomatic cases. The percentage of asymptomatic cases vaccinated with BCG was not significantly higher than that without BCG vaccination [86/280 (30.71%) vs. 6/13 (46.15%), P=0.203], and initial symptoms were not related with immunized influenza vaccine (P=0.267). Compared to parameters in pediatric patients with normal body temperatures, patients with fever had higher C reactive protein (CRP) (P

A novel dual-transformer-based full-bridge (DT-FB) converter with a current doubler rectifier (CDR), which can solve the drawbacks of existing FB converters, is proposed in this article. In the primary side of the proposed converter, two switching legs, two transformers, and two blocking capacitors form two half-bridge inverters. The secondary side composes of two output filter inductors and four power diodes, which connect with the form of the CDR. By employing this structure, a wide range of zero-voltage switching for leading-leg and zero-current switching for lagging-leg can be achieved. In the proposed converter, the output power is shared by two small-sized transformers and inductors instead of large-sized ones, which contributes to the improvement of power density and efficiency. Compared with the traditional FB converter, the proposed converter can obtain higher voltage gain, better rectified voltage, and lower current ripple. The operation principle, theoretical analysis, and design considerations of the proposed converter are described in this article. A prototype with 300–380 V input and 100 V/ 10 A output is designed and tested to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

Two-dimensional (2D) photodetectors based on photovoltaic effect or photogating effect can hardly achieve both high photoresponsivity and large linear dynamic range at the same time, which greatly limits many practical applications such as imaging sensors. Here, the conductive-sensitizer strategy, a general design for improving photoresponsivity and linear dynamic range in 2D photodetectors is provided and experimentally demonstrated on vertically stacked bilayer WS2/GaS0.87 under a parallel circuit mode. Owing to successful band alignment engineering, the isotype type-II heterojunction enables efficient charge carrier transfer from WS2, the high-mobility sensitizer, to GaS0.87, the low-mobility channel, under illumination from a broad visible spectrum. The transferred electron charges introduce a reverse electric field which efficiently lowers the band offset between the two materials, facilitating a transition from low-mobility photocarrier transport to high-mobility photocarrier transport with increasing illumination power. We achieved a large linear dynamic range of 73 dB as well as a high and constant photoresponsivity of 13 A/W under green light. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, cathodoluminescence, and Kelvin probe force microscopy further identify the key role of defects in monolayer GaS0.87 in engineering the band alignment with monolayer WS2. This work proposes a design route based on band and interface modulation for improving performance of 2D photodetectors and provides deep insights into the important role of strong interlayer coupling in offering heterostructures with desired properties and functions.

Offender homogeneity occurs when the same criminal group is composed of offenders with similar attributes (e.g., socio-economic-demographics). Exploring the homogeneity of offenders within spatio-temporal crime hotspots (STCHs) is useful for understanding not only the generational mechanisms of crime hotspots, but also has crime prevention implications. However, the homogeneity of offenders within STCHs has not been explored in criminological studies hitherto. Indeed, current techniques of STCH detection are limited to using statistical clustering methods in existing studies that lack the ability to identify the shape of STCHs or the distribution and variety of offences/offender activity with them. In this study, we utilise a spatio-temporal clustering algorithm called ST-DBSCAN to determine STCHs. We then propose novel entropy-based indices that measure the similarity of offenders (and offences) within STCHs. The method is demonstrated using theft crime records in the central area of Beijing, China. The results show that theft in the city is concentrated in a narrow space and time span (STCHs) and that within these associated offenders with similar social demographics, referred to as homogeneous offender groups are detectable.

Biodegradable magnesium alloys are promising candidates for use in biomedical applications. However, degradable particles (DPs) derived from Mg-based alloys have been observed in tissue in proximity to sites of implantation, which might result in unexpected effects. Although previous in vitro studies have found that macrophages can take up DPs, little is known about the potential phagocytic pathway and the mechanism that processes DPs in cells. Additionally, it is necessary to estimate the potential bioeffects of DPs on macrophages. Thus, in this study, DPs were generated from a Mg-2.1Nd-0.2Zn-0.5Zr alloy (JDBM) by an electrochemical method, and then macrophages were incubated with the DPs to reveal the potential impact. The results showed that the cell viability of macrophages decreased in a concentration-dependent manner in the presence of DPs due to effects of an apoptotic pathway. However, the DPs were phagocytosed into the cytoplasm of macrophages and further degraded in phagolysosomes, which comprised lysosomes and phagosomes, by heterophagy instead of autophagy. Furthermore, several pro-inflammatory cytokines in macrophages were upregulated by DPs through the induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that DPs derived from a Mg-based alloy are consistently degraded in phagolysosomes after phagocytosis by macrophages via heterophagy, which results in an inflammatory response owing to ROS overproduction. Thus, our research has increased the knowledge of the metabolism of biodegradable Mg metal, which will contribute to an understanding of the health effects of biodegradable magnesium metal implants used for tissue repair. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Biomedical degradable Mg-based alloys have great promise in applied medicine. Although previous studies have found that macrophages can uptake degradable particles (DPs) in vitro and observed in the sites of implantation in vivoin vivo, few studies have been carried out on the potential bioeffects relationship between DPs and macrophages. In this study, we analyzed the bioeffects of DPs derived from a Mg-based alloy on the macrophages. We illustrated that the DPs were size-dependently engulfed by macrophages via heterophagy and further degraded in the phagolysosome rather than autophagosome. Furthermore, DPs were able to induce a slight inflammatory response in macrophages by inducing ROS production. Thus, our research enhances the knowledge of the interaction between DPs of Mg-based alloy and cells, and offers a new perspective regarding the use of biodegradable alloys.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are atomically thick and without out-of-plane dangling bonds. As a result, they could break the confinement of lattice matching, and thus can be freely mixed and matched together to construct vertical van der Waals heterostructures. Here, we demonstrated an asymmetrical vertical structure of graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)/tungsten disulfide (WS

Two-dimensional (2D) photodetectors based on photovoltaic effect or photogating effect can hardly achieve both high photoresponsivity and large linear dynamic range at the same time, which greatly limits many practical applications such as imaging sensors. Here, the conductive-sensitizer strategy, a general design for improving photoresponsivity and linear dynamic range in 2D photodetectors is provided and experimentally demonstrated on vertically stacked bilayer WS

The solid progress in the study of a single two-dimensional (2D) material underpins the development for creating 2D material assemblies with various electronic and optoelectronic properties. We introduce an asymmetric structure by stacking monolayer semiconducting tungsten disulfide, metallic graphene, and insulating boron nitride to fabricate numerous red channel light-emitting devices (LEDs). All the 2D crystals were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which has great potential for future industrial scale-up. Our LEDs exhibit visibly observable electroluminescence (EL) at both 5.5 V forward and 7.0 V backward biasing, which correlates well with our asymmetric design. The red emission can last for at least several minutes, and the success rate of the working device that can emit detectable EL is up to 80%. In addition, we show that sample degradation is prone to happen when a continuing bias, much higher than the threshold voltage, is applied. Our success of using high-quality CVD-grown 2D materials for red light emitters is expected to provide the basis for flexible and transparent displays.

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have demonstrated great potential in next-generation electronics due to their unique optical and electronic properties. However, it remains challen...

We investigate the 2D-layer-dependent electronic and optoelectronic properties of lateral Au/graphene/WS2 photodetecting diodes. All 2D materials used [graphene and WS2 domains [monolayer (1L) and ...

BACKGROUND: Restenosis is one of the worst side effects of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) due to neointima formation resulting from the excessive proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and continuous inflammation. Biodegradable Mg-based alloy is a promising candidate material because of its good mechanical properties and biocompatibility, and biodegradation of cardiovascular stents. Although studies have shown reduced neointima formation after Mg-based CVS implantation in vivo, these findings were inconsistent with in vitro studies, demonstrating magnesium-mediated promotion of the proliferation and migration of VSMCs. Given the vital role of activated macrophage-driven inflammation in neointima formation, along with the well-demonstrated crosstalk between macrophages and VSMCs, we investigated the interactions of a biodegradable Mg-Nd-Zn-Zr alloy (denoted JDBM), which is especially important for cardiovascular stents, with VSMCs via macrophages. METHODS: JDBM extracts and MgCl(2) solutions were prepared to study their effect on macrophages. To study the effects of the JDBM extracts and MgCl(2) solutions on the function of VSMCs via immunoregulation of macrophages, conditioned media (CM) obtained from macrophages was used to establish a VSMC-macrophage indirect coculture system. RESULTS: Our results showed that both JDBM extracts and MgCl(2) solutions significantly attenuated the inflammatory response stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated macrophages and converted macrophages into M2-type cells. In addition, JDBM extracts and MgCl(2) solutions significantly decreased the expression of genes related to VSMC phenotypic switching, migration, and proliferation in macrophages. Furthermore, the proliferation, migration, and proinflammatory phenotypic switching of VSMCs were significantly inhibited when the cells were incubated with CMs from macrophages treated with LPS + extracts or LPS + MgCl(2) solutions. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results suggested that the magnesium in the JDBM extract could affect the functions of VSMCs through macrophage-mediated immunoregulation, inhibiting smooth muscle hyperproliferation to suppress restenosis after implantation of a biodegradable Mg-based stent.

Scientists have an enduring interest in understanding urban crime and developing security strategies for mitigating this problem. This chapter reviews the progress made in this topic from historic criminology to data-driven policing. It first reviews the broad implications of urban security and its implementation in practice. Next, it focuses on the tools to prevent urban crime and improve security, from analytical crime hotspot mapping to police resource allocation. Finally, a manifesto of data-driven policing is proposed, with its practical demand for efficient security strategies and the development of big data technologies. It emphasizes that data-driven strategies could be applied in cities due to their promising effectiveness for crime prevention and security improvement.

Two-dimensional (2D) tin disulfide (SnS2) crystals have been arousing immense attention for flexible electronics and integrated circuits in next generation because of their earth-abundant and nontoxic elemental components. Producing high quality crystal with controlled morphology, however, remains challenging due to the lack of understanding for its growth mechanism. Here, we demonstrate the direct chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth and morphology control of 2D SnS2 on CVD-grown WS2 layers. In addition to the formation of type II van der Waals (vdW) vertical heterostructures with enhanced charge separation, the morphology of SnS2 is found to be highly dependent on the underlying substrate surface, where lateral growth could be stabilized with epitaxially aligned crystals on the defect-free surface whereas cluster growth appears on the defect-rich surface. This is attributed to the lower energy barrier of migration for adsorbed active species on the defect-free surface, resulting in facilitated surface diffusion compared to the defect-rich surface. Similar results also occur when switching the growth substrates to other 2D transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 layers, showing the importance of defect-free 2D substrates on the SnS2 growth which is crucial for the applications in next-generation nanoelectronics such as photodetectors or light-emitting diodes.

UV-sensitive lateral all-two-dimensional (2D) photodetecting devices are produced by growing the large band gap layered GaS between graphene electrode pairs directly using chemical vapor deposition methods. The use of prepatterned graphene electrode pairs on the Si wafer enables more than 200 devices to be fabricated simultaneously. We show that the surface chemistry of the substrate during GaS leads to selective growth in graphene gaps, forming the lateral heterostructures, rather than on the surface of graphene. The graphene/GaS/graphene lateral photodetecting devices are demonstrated to be sensitive to UV light only, with no measurable response to visible light. Furthermore, we demonstrate UV-band discrimination in photosensing, with measured photocurrents only produced for middle-UV and not for near-UV wavelength regions. The detection limit could reach down to 2.61 μW/cm2 with a photoresponsivity as high as 11.7 A/W and a photo gain of 53.7 under 270 nm excitation. Gate-dependent modulation of the photocurrent is also demonstrated. The photodetectors exhibit long-term stability and reproducible ON-OFF switching behavior, with a response time lower than 60 ms. These results provide insights into how ultrathin UV sensing devices can be created using only 2D materials by exploiting large band gap 2D semiconductors such as GaS.

Background: The aim of the present study was to explore the association of vaccinations and clinical manifestations in pediatric patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19). Methods: Pediatric patients with COVID–19 were recruited from Wuhan Children’s Hospital and Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, including 248 laboratory–confirmed and 56 suspected cases from January 21 to March 12, 2020. Suspected and confirmed cases were diagnosed basing on the Novel Coronavirus 2019 Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol, seventh version. The associations of initial symptoms with age, vaccinations, pathogens, and cytokines were determined via Chi–square tests, Spearman correlations, and logistic regressions. Findings: We assessed 248 (81.58%) laboratory–confirmed cases and 56 (18.42%) suspected cases of COVID–19. The median age of all patients was 6.82 years (interquartile range: 2.08–10.20), and 186 cases (61.18%) were boys; furthermore, 30.26% of all patients were asymptomatic cases. The percentage of asymptomatic cases vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) was not significantly higher than that without BCG vaccination (86/280 [30.71%] vs 6/13 [46.15%], P = 0.203), initial symptoms was not corrected with immunized influenza vaccine ( P = 0.267). Significant correlations were found between age and immunoglobulin (Ig) A (P < 0.001), IgE (P = 0.021), IgG (P < 0.001), complement C4 (P = 0.031), interleukin (IL)–10 (P = 0.003), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–α (P = 0.044). Compared to parameters in pediatric patients with normal body temperatures, patients with fever had higher high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) (P < 0.001), IL–4 (P = 0.005), IL–10 (P = 0.038), TNF–α (P = 0.004), and TNF–γ (P = 0.036). Interpretation: Pediatric COVID–19 patients with BCG vaccinations exhibit similar clinical manifestations compared to those without BCG vaccinations, and the severity of symptoms in pediatric patients may be related to the maturity of immune function. Funding Statement: This study was partly supported by Top Medical Young Talents of Hubei Province, the National Science Foundation of China [81872637], Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning[201840324], Science and Technology Development Program of Pudong Shanghai New District [PKJ2017–Y01], Shanghai Professional and Technical Services Platform [18DZ2294100], and Shanghai Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17411965300, 17XD1402800,19441904400]. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Wuhan Children’s Hospital (IEC–2020R003–E01) and Shanghai Children’s Medical Center (SCMCIRB– K2020019–1).

A chemical vapor deposition method is developed for thickness‐controlled (one to four layers), uniform, and continuous films of both defective gallium(II) sulfide (GaS): GaS0.87 and stoichiometric GaS. The unique degradation mechanism of GaS0.87 with X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and annular dark‐field scanning transmission electron microscopy is studied, and it is found that the poor stability and weak optical signal from GaS are strongly related to photo‐induced oxidation at defects. An enhanced stability of the stoichiometric GaS is demonstrated under laser and strong UV light, and by controlling defects in GaS, the photoresponse range can be changed from vis‐to‐UV to UV‐discriminating. The stoichiometric GaS is suitable for large‐scale, UV‐sensitive, high‐performance photodetector arrays for information encoding under large vis‐light noise, with short response time (

We show how control over the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reaction chemistry of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) by hydrogen addition can enable the direct growth of centimeter-scale continuous films of vertically stacked MoS2 monolayer on graphene under atmospheric pressure conditions. Hydrogen addition enables longer CVD growth times at high temperature by reducing oxidation effects that would otherwise degrade the monolayer graphene. By careful control of nucleation density and growth time, high-quality monolayer MoS2 films could be formed on graphene, realizing all CVD-grown vertically stacked monolayer semimetal/semiconducting interfaces. Photoluminescence spectroscopy shows quenching of MoS2 by the underlying graphene, indicating a good interfacial charge transfer. We utilize the MoS2/graphene vertical stacks as photodetectors, with photoresponsivities reaching 2.4 A/W under 135 μW 532 nm illumination. This approach provides insights into the scalable manufacturing of high-quality two-dimensional elec...

Doping of two-dimensional materials provides them tunable physical properties and widens their applications. Here, we demonstrate the postgrowth doping strategy in monolayer and bilayer tungsten disulfide (WS

Doping of two-dimensional materials provides them tunable physical properties and widens their applications. Here, we demonstrate the postgrowth doping strategy in monolayer and bilayer tungsten disulfide (WS2) crystals, which utilizes a metal exchange mechanism, whereby Sn atoms become substitutional dopants in the W sites by energetically favorable replacement. We achieve this using chemical vapor deposition techniques, where high-quality grown WS2 single crystals are first grown and then subsequently reacted with a SnS precursor. Thermal control of the exchange doping mechanism is revealed, indicating that a sufficiently high enough temperature is required to create the S vacancies that are the initial binding sites for the SnS precursor and metal exchange occurrence. This results in a better control of dopant distribution compared to the tradition all-in-one approach, where dopants are added during the growth phase. The Sn dopants exhibit an n-type doping behavior in the WS2 layers based on the decreased threshold voltage obtained from transistor device measurements. Annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy shows that in bilayer WS2 the Sn doping occurs only in the top layer, creating vertical heterostructures with atomic layer doping precision. This postgrowth modification opens up ways to selectively dope one layer at a time and construct mixed stoichiometry vertical heterojunctions in bilayer crystals.

We show that reducing the degree of van der Waals overlapping in all 2D ultrathin lateral devices composed of graphene:WS2:graphene leads to significant increase in photodetector responsivity. This is achieved by directly growing WS2 using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in prepatterned graphene gaps to create epitaxial interfaces. Direct-CVD-grown graphene:WS2:graphene lateral photodetecting transistors exhibit high photoresponsivities reaching 121 A/W under 2.7 × 105 mW/cm2 532 nm illumination, which is around 2 orders of magnitude higher than similar devices made by the layer-by-layer transfer method. The photoresponsivity of our direct-CVD-grown device shows negative correlation with illumination power under different gate voltages, which is different from similar devices made by the transfer method. We show that the high photoresponsivity is due to the lowering of effective Schottky barrier height by improving the contact between graphene and WS2. Furthermore, the direct CVD growth reduces overlapping sections of WS2:Gr and leads to more uniform lateral systems. This approach provides insights into scalable manufacturing of high-quality 2D lateral electronic and optoelectronic devices.

The solid progress in the study of a single two-dimensional (2D) material underpins the development for creating 2D material assemblies with various electronic and optoelectronic properties. We introduce an asymmetric structure by stacking monolayer semiconducting tungsten disulfide, metallic graphene, and insulating boron nitride to fabricate numerous red channel light-emitting devices (LEDs). All the 2D crystals were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which has great potential for future industrial scale-up. Our LEDs exhibit visibly observable electroluminescence (EL) at both 5.5 V forward and 7.0 V backward biasing, which correlates well with our asymmetric design. The red emission can last for at least several minutes, and the success rate of the working device that can emit detectable EL is up to 80%. In addition, we show that sample degradation is prone to happen when a continuing bias, much higher than the threshold voltage, is applied. Our success of using high-quality CVD-grown 2D materials for red light emitters is expected to provide the basis for flexible and transparent displays.

Two dimensional (2D) materials have found various applications because of their unique physical properties. For example, graphene has been used as the electron transparent membrane for liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM) due to its high mechanical strength and flexibility, single-atom thickness, chemical inertness, etc. Here, we report using 2D MoS

Two dimensional (2D) materials have found various applications because of their unique physical properties. For example, graphene has been used as the electron transparent membrane for liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (TEM) due to its high mechanical strength and flexibility, single-atom thickness, chemical inertness, etc. Here, we report using 2D MoS2 as a functional substrate as well as the membrane window for liquid cell TEM, which is enabled by our facile and polymer-free MoS2 transfer process. This provides the opportunity to investigate the growth of Pt nanocrystals on MoS2 substrates, which elucidates the formation mechanisms of such heterostructured 2D materials. We find that Pt nanocrystals formed in MoS2 liquid cells have a strong tendency to align their crystal lattice with that of MoS2, suggesting a van der Waals epitaxial relationship. Importantly, we can study its impact on the kinetics of the nanocrystal formation. The development of MoS2 liquid cells will allow further study of various liquid phenomena on MoS2, and the polymer-free MoS2 transfer process will be implemented in a wide range of applications.

We show that reducing the degree of van der Waals overlapping in all 2D ultrathin lateral devices composed of graphene:WS

Polydopamine (PDA) has a promising application as coating of biomaterials due to its favorable degradability and bioadaptability. However, its bioactivity, such as anti-inflammatory capacity, was still little known. Herein, we investigated whether degradable products of PDA could affect inflammatory response in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human THP-1-derived macrophages. The supernatants containing degradation products of PDA, annotated as PDA extracts, were collected after PDA being immersed in cell culture medium for 3 days. Wherein, the composition of the degradation products was analyzed by HPLC assay. Collected PDA extracts were diluted into 100%, 50%, and 25% of original concentration, respectively, to evaluate their anti-inflammatory ability on LPS-induced macrophages from the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines to associated molecular mechanism. Our results showed that the PDA extracts were mainly composed of dopamine, quinine, and PDA segments. Furthermore, macrophages showed no cytotoxicity after PDA extract treatment with or without LPS, while the release levels of TNF-α and IL-6 by LPS-induced macrophages were decreased in dose-dependent by PDA extract treatment. Additionally, TLR-4 and MYD88 expression in protein and RNA level were downregulated by PDA extracts in LPS-induced macrophages. Similarly, PDA extracts effectively inhibited LPS-induced NF-κB trans-locating into nuclear by inactivation of the phosphorylation of IKK-α/β and IKβ-α. Of note, the production of LPS-induced ROS was reduced by PDA extracts in macrophages, while HO-1 expression, a critical protein of antioxidant signaling pathway, was increased. Based on these results, we proposed a potential mechanism by which degradation products of PDA suppressed inflammation of macrophages via downregulation TLR-4-MYD88-NFκB pathway and simultaneous activation HO-1 pathway, which might be a possible therapeutic target.

The relationship between breastfeeding and infant health has been well elucidated in past decades. Our previous study has shown that human β-defensin 1 (hBD-1) in human breast milk plays a protective role in reducing the incidence of upper respiratory infection in infants younger than 6 months. In the present study, we aim to reveal the mechanism underlying the protective role of hBD-1 by focusing on its immunoregulatory function in neonates. Cord blood (CB) from newborns’ umbilical cords, which can simulate many of the neonatal symptoms, was used to study the immunomodulatory role of hBD-1 in neonates in vitro. Our results showed that hBD-1 promotes the GM-CSF- and IL-4-driven differentiation of neonatal umbilical CB monocytes to immature dendritic cells (DCs) and the final maturation of CB monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs) induced by LPS but not inflammatory cytokine production. In addition, hBD-1 inhibits apoptosis in neonatal moDCs through CCR6, which might be a possible mechanism of the hBD-1-induced phenotypes in moDCs. Furthermore, we found that hBD-1 promotes the proliferation and activation, but not the maturation, of neonatal CB CD4 + T cells. These results extend the immunoregulatory effects of hBD-1 and provide a potential mechanism for the protective role of hBD-1 in early infants, which will inform the development of infant nutrition, novel vaccines and anti-infective strategies in the future.

Heterostructures based on two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted enormous interest as they display unique functionalities and have potential to be applied in next-generation electronics. In this report, we fabricated three types of heterostructures based on chemical vapor deposition-grown graphene and MoS

Objectives To determine the incidence and clinical features of paediatric primary vasculitis in patients from one centre in Eastern China. Methods Medical records of paediatric patients diagnosed with primary vasculitis between January 1999 and December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. For Henoch–Schönlein purpura (HSP) and Kawasaki disease (KD), patients included in the analyses had data available for the previous 5 years. Results In total, 1896 patients were identified, of whom 1100 had HSP, 760 had KD, 23 had Takayasu arteritis, five had polyarteritis nodosa, four had cutaneous polyarteritis, three had Behçet’s disease and one had microscopic polyangiitis. Of the 615 patients with HSP included in the analyses, 49.8% had HSP nephritis (for 90% of whom it occurred within 1 week of disease onset). Of the 470 patients with KD included in the analyses, 13.8% were diagnosed with incomplete KD and 29.0% had a concurrent coronary artery lesion. For the 23 patients with Takayasu arteritis, the common clinical symptoms were hypertension, asphygmia/weak pulse and heart failure; only one of these patients had been diagnosed at an early disease stage. The five patients with polyarteritis nodosa received immunosuppressant therapy following diagnosis. Other vasculitides were uncommon. Conclusions The most common primary vasculitides in this population of children from Eastern China were HSP and KD; other vasculitides were rare. Paediatricians should be suspicious of vasculitis when there is evidence of systemic inflammation and multisystem disease that cannot be explained by one specific disorder.