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Anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB (anti-SSA/SSB) antibodies impair pregnancy outcomes, including embryo implantation and pregnancy maintenance. Optimal endometrial immune status is essential for successful pregnancy. However, whether these antibodies affect endometrial immune status is still unclear. Menstrual blood can be collected non-invasively, differs from peripheral blood, and can reflect the endometrial immune status. We herein focused on changes in subsets of natural killer (NK) cells and T cells in menstrual blood.Menstrual blood samples from anti-SSA/SSB antibody-positive (n = 18) and anti-SSA/SSB antibody-negative control (n = 8) women were collected, and the profile of lymphocyte subsets was analyzed. The phenotypes of menstrual blood CD49a- and CD49a+ NK cells were compared, and the abundance of NK and CD49a+ NK cells in menstrual blood of the two groups was assessed. Additionally, CD4+T and CD8+T cells were investigated for their ability to secret functional cytokines.Menstrual blood contains a large number of (mostly CD49a+) NK cells, which exhibited a more exhausted phenotype with greater expression of the immune checkpoint molecules programmed cell death protein 1 and Tim-3 compared to CD49a- conventional NK cells. CD8+T cells in menstrual blood from anti-SSA/SSB antibody-positive women produced a stronger response after stimulation, accompanied by increased interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, and granzyme B secretion (P0.05, separately).Menstrual blood cell composition differs between anti-SSA/SSB antibody-positive women and normal controls, especially in terms of CD49a+ NK cells and CD8+T cells, unbalancing the immune cell composition and inflammatory uterine microenvironment and possibly contributing to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Many selenium (Se)-enriched soils suffer from severe lead (Pb) contamination. Many studies indicated that soil humus can effectively absorb heavy metal ions, and Se can alleviate Pb accumulation in plants. However, few studies explored the effects of exogenous Se levels on humus composition in Se-enriched soil and Pb enrichment in Brassica juncea (B. juncea). We conducted a pot experiment. First, the Se-enriched soil sample was mixed with 200 mg·kg−1 level of Pb and maintained in a stable equilibrium for 2 months. Second, the soil was treated in different ways. Six treatments were performed as follows: one control treatment (CK) was included, and five different doses of Na2SeO3 (S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5) were applied to the pots. Each treatment was prepared in triplicate. Then, the B. juncea seeds were sown in each pot. Finally, on the 40th day, B. juncea plants in each pot were harvested and soil was sampled for subsequent experimental analysis. The different levels of selenite decreased the Pb content in roots, stems, and leaves of B. juncea by 5.43–48.70%, 5.13–39.86%, and 6.62–31.91%, respectively, and significantly increased the Se contents by 7.22–24.21, 5.91–34.11, and 12.49–57.06 folds compared with control treatment, respectively. The total Pb in the soil was reduced by 1.06–13.68% and soil pH was increased by approximately 0.06–0.21 units in all treatments. Exogenous Se also reduced diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extracted Pb and exchangeable and iron-manganese oxide-bound Pb but increased the content of carbonate-bound and residual Pb. The composition of humus followed this order as follows: humic acids (HA) < fulvic acids (FA) << humin (HM); the adsorption isotherms of HA and FA for Pb2+ were well described by the Langmuir adsorption model, and the adsorption process were positively correlated with the Pb2+ concentration (P

Purpose To evaluate the anti-tumor effects of oxymatrine in vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) cells and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Methods We selected SW962 and A431 VSCC cell lines. Cell proliferation was examined using MTT assay. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected using flow cytometry. Migration and invasion were evaluated using transwell and wound-healing assays. The relevant protein expression and signaling pathways were analyzed using Western blotting. Results Oxymatrine inhibited the proliferation of SW962 and A431 VSCC cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Oxymatrine induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase by increasing the protein expression of P21 and decreasing levels of cyclin B1 and CDC2. Oxymatrine upregulated the expression of cleaved-caspase 3 and BAX and downregulated the expression of BCL2, which led to an increase in apoptosis. Oxymatrine also suppressed the migration and invasion of SW962 and A431 cells by reducing levels of MMP2 and MMP9. After treatment with oxymatrine or a RAS inhibitor (salirasib), expression levels of RAS, p-RAF, p-MEK, p-ERK, C-MYC, and MMP2 were reduced. When TGF-β1 was used to stimulate SW962 and A431 cells, the expression of the above proteins increased; this increase was reversed by using oxymatrine or salirasib again. Conclusion Oxymatrine inhibits proliferation and migration of VSCC cells by blocking the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway.

Recommender systems (RSs) are essential for e-commerce platforms to help meet the enormous needs of users. How to capture user interests and make accurate recommendations for users in heterogeneous e-commerce scenarios is still a continuous research topic. However, most existing studies overlook the intrinsic association of the scenarios: the log data collected from platforms can be naturally divided into different scenarios (e.g., country, city, culture). We observed that the scenarios are heterogeneous because of the huge differences among them. Therefore, a unified model is difficult to effectively capture complex correlations (e.g., differences and similarities) between multiple scenarios thus seriously reducing the accuracy of recommendation results. In this paper, we target the problem of multi-scenario recommendation in e-commerce, and propose a novel recommendation model named Scenario-aware Mutual Learning (SAML) that leverages the differences and similarities between multiple scenarios. We first introduce scenario-aware feature representation, which transforms the embedding and attention modules to map the features into both global and scenario-specific subspace in parallel. Then we introduce an auxiliary network to model the shared knowledge across all scenarios, and use a multi-branch network to model differences among specific scenarios. Finally, we employ a novel mutual unit to adaptively learn the similarity between various scenarios and incorporate it into multi-branch network. We conduct extensive experiments on both public and industrial datasets, empirical results show that SAML consistently and significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods.

Anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB antibodies (anti-SSA/SSB) were reported to increase the risk of recurrent pregnancy loss. However, the effects of anti-SSA/SSB antibodies on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and pregnancy outcomes were still unclear. The purpose of the study was to determine whether anti-SSA/SSB antibodies were detrimental to IVF and pregnancy outcomes. This study included 55 anti-SSA/SSB antibodies-positive women and 61 anti-SSA/SSB antibodies-negative control women receiving gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist long protocol (n = 30 and 39, respectively) or GnRH antagonist protocol (n = 25 and 22, respectively) for in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). The impact of anti-SSA/SSB antibodies on immune-related indicators, fertilization, embryo development and pregnancy outcomes were analyzed. With either GnRH agonist or antagonist protocol, women with anti-SSA/SSB had higher levels of peripheral blood cytokines, including TNF-α and IL-17A, lower levels of peripheral blood Th and NK cells, and poor IVF outcomes, including lower number of retrieved oocytes and embryos, lower M II oocytes rate, blastocyst formation rate, and perfect and available embryo rates. Moreover, clinical pregnancy rate, implantation rate, take-home baby rate, and birth weight were significantly lower in the study group as compared with those of the control group. In conclusion, women with anti-SSA/SSB are associated with adverse IVF and pregnancy outcomes. Screening for these antibodies and proper counselling of couples undergoing IVF-ET should be considered. Underlying immunopathology associated with SSA/SSB antibodies and reproduction should be explored further.

Problem Immune checkpoint molecules are receptors that can transmit inhibitory signals into cells to negatively modulate the immune response. However, their roles in NK cells during normal pregnancy remain poorly understood. Method of Study Peripheral blood samples were collected from women during the first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Peripheral blood NK (pNK) cells and T cells were analyzed for the expression of the immune checkpoint molecules TIGIT and PD-1 by flow cytometry. In addition, the ability of pNK cells to secret functional molecules was also evaluated. Results The expression of TIGIT on pNK cells increased gradually throughout pregnancy, whereas that of PD-1 showed the opposite pattern. However, on T cells, the expression of both TIGIT and PD-1 peaked during early pregnancy, and then declined gradually thereafter. Moreover, the expressions of granzyme B, IFN-γ and CD107a by pNK cells also decreased over the course of pregnancy. Compared with TIGIT- NK cells, TIGIT + NK cells possessed reduced expression of functional molecules. Conclusions As pregnancy progressed, the levels of immune checkpoint molecules expressed on pNK cells and T cells changed and the two molecules showed different trends. Furthermore, the secretion of functional molecules from pNK cells was negatively correlated with the trend of TIGIT expression, indicating TIGIT may play an important role in modulating the functions of pNK cells during pregnancy. Further study of TIGIT expression on pNK cells may enhance our understanding of its role in maintaining maternal-fetal tolerance and provide a useful marker for predicting instability during pregnancy.

Inflammasomes, intracellular, multimeric protein complexes, are assembled when damage signals stimulate nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain receptors (NLRs). Several inflammasomes have been reported, including the NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), NLRP1, NLRP7, ice protease-activating factor (IPAF), absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) and NLR family CARD domain-containing protein 4 (NLRC4). Among these inflammasomes, the NLRP3 inflammasome is the most well-studied in terms of structure and function. Unlike other inflammasomes that can only be activated by a finite number of pathogenic microorganisms, the NLRP3 inflammasome can be activated by the imbalance of the internal environment and a large number of metabolites. The biochemical function of NLRP3 inflammasome is to activate cysteine-requiring aspartate proteinase-1 (caspase-1), which converts pro-IL-1β and pro-IL-18 into their active forms, namely, IL-1β and IL-18, which are then released into the extracellular space. The well-established, classic role of NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in many disorders. In this review, we discuss the current understanding of NLRP3 inflammasome and its critical role in gynecological disorders and obstetrical complications.

Among causes of infertility, teratozoospermia is characterised by a percentage of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa4%. Macrozoospermia, one form of monomorphic teratozoospermia, is observed in1% of cases of male infertility and is described as approximately 100% large-headed and/or multitailed spermatozoa. This study reports that an infertile man with large-head spermatozoa presenting compound heterozygosity aurora kinase C (AURKC) mutations (c.382CT, c.572CT) by whole-exome sequencing. Consequently, both two novel AURKC mutations had high probability of damage-causing and conserved across species and extremely low allele frequency in the population. Flow cytometry analysis revealed a high ratio of sperm DNA fragmentation. Two intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedures were attempted for the patient, but all were unsuccessful. These results indicate that sequence analysis should be performed for the variants of AURKC in Chinese patients with macrozoospermia.

The spiro[indoline-3,3′-pyrrolidin]-2-ones were synthesized via a silica gel and alumina-mediated sequential transformation based on tryptamine-derived ynesulfonamide substrates under neat conditions. The inherent tendency of C−C bond migration through Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement in the synthesis of spirooxindole was prevented by water trapping to the spiroindoleninium intermediate. The functional group tolerances of the methodology were investigated using a variety of substrates. The detailed mechanism of the sequential transformation was probed by the isotope-labeled experiments. This strategy was further applied in the formal syntheses of indole alkaloids coerulescine and horsfiline.

Ynamides, as versatile synthetic precursors, have attracted much attention from synthetic chemists and sparked the development of a number of methodologies for the construction of various structures. 1H-Pyrrolo[2,3-d]carbazole is a core scaffold of a series of monoterpene indole alkaloids found in Kopsia, Strychnos, and Aspidosperma, for example. In this study, 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]carbazole derivatives were synthesized by a Brønsted acid-catalyzed tandem cyclization starting from tryptamine-based ynamides. This strategy prevented Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement by instantaneous intramolecular nucleophilic trapping of the indoleninium to afford a tetracyclic indoline via an in situ-formed enol species induced by the formation of a more stable conjugate diene moiety. The functional group tolerances were investigated by using a series of readily available substrates. A plausible mechanism has been proposed based on the evidence of the capture of the hemiaminal intermediate. Lastly, a Büchi ketone, which is the pivotal intermediate in the synthesis of the indole alkaloid vindorosine, was synthesized by utilizing our newly developed methodology.

A cascade [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement/aromatization strategy to the synthesis of 2-(3-methylbenzofuran-2-yl)phenol derivatives was developed and applied to the collective syntheses of seven 2-arylbenzofuran-containing natural products, namely glycybenzofuran, glycyuralin E, lespedezol A1, puerariafuran, 7,2′,4′-trihydroxy-3-benzofurancarboxylic acid, coumestrol, and 4′-O-methylcoumestrol. Among them, the total syntheses of glycybenzofuran, glycyuralin E, puerariafuran, 7,2′,4′-trihydroxy-3-benzofurancarboxylic acid, and 4′-O-methylcoumestrol were reported for the first time. The practicality of this novel strategy in preparation of the key intermediates was demonstrated by performing the reaction on gram scale and by synthesizing a series of natural products with 2-(3-methylbenzofuran-2-yl)phenol scaffolds in a common strategy.

IL-28B is a member of the newly discovered type III IFN family and exhibits unique antiviral properties compared with other family members. NK cells play a critical role in defending against viruses; however, little is known about the role of IL-28B in NK cell function. In a mouse model of influenza A virus (mouse adapted influenza A/PR/8/34 strain) infection, long-term overexpression of IL-28B induced by hepatocyte-specific gene delivery exerted a strong antiviral effect in the presence of NK cells. In IL-28B–overexpressing wild-type mice, the percentages and absolute numbers of NK cells in the spleen, liver, and lung were markedly increased, with higher proliferation and accelerated NK cell maturation based on phenotypes staining with CD11b and CD27 or CD11b and KLRG1. Furthermore, the effect of IL-28B on NK cells was macrophage dependent, as confirmed in an in vitro coculture assay and in in vivo macrophage- or alveolar macrophage–depletion experiments. Transwell studies demonstrated that CFSE-labeled NK cell proliferation was driven, in a dose-dependent manner, by unknown soluble factor(s) secreted by IL-28B–stimulated alveolar macrophages, without requiring direct cell–cell contact. An understanding of the NK cell–promoting features of IL-28B will facilitate future clinical application of this cytokine.

Although NK cells are classified as innate immune cells, recent studies have demonstrated the transformation of NK cells into long-lived memory cells that contribute to secondary immune responses in certain mouse models. However, whether NK cells mount an Ag-specific memory response to acute influenza virus infection has not yet been examined. Here, we show that, consistent with previous studies, lung NK cells play an important role in controlling viral proliferation after primary influenza virus infection. However, although lung NK cells display a memory phenotype at the late stage of infection, these cells do not protect mice against secondary influenza virus infection. Interestingly, liver NK cells from influenza virus–infected mice possess a memory phenotype and protect mice against secondary influenza virus infection. Memory-like liver NK cells display a CD49a+DX5− phenotype, and the adoptive transfer of purified liver CD49a+DX5− NK cells into naive mice followed by viral infection results in protective immunity and decreased viral titer. Moreover, we demonstrate that primary inactivated influenza virus induces memory NK cells residing in the liver of Rag1−/− mice. Collectively, these data suggest that liver CD49a+DX5− NK cells remember encountered Ag from influenza virus after primary infection and are more protective upon subsequent infection.

Abundant decidual natural killer (dNK) cells at the maternal-fetal interface are important during early pregnancy. However, functional subsets of dNK cells remain poorly understood. We describe a CD49a+PBX homeobox 1 (PBX1)+ dNK cell subset that promotes fetal development in humans and mice. The expression of PBX1 in dNK cells is up-regulated via the activated AKT1 pathway through the interaction of major histocompatibility complex G with the immunoglobulin-like transcript 2 receptor. PBX1 drives pleiotrophin and osteoglycin transcription in dNK cells, further promoting fetal development. Decreased PBX1 expression or the PBX1G21S mutant correlated with fetal growth restriction and pregnancy failure in patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA). Inactivation of Pbx1 in mouse dNK cells impairs fetal development by decreasing growth-promoting factors from CD49a+PBX1+ dNK cells. Impairment of PBX1 in dNK cells has positive correlation with URSA pathogenesis and may provide a potential marker for this condition.

Objective To explore the inhibition of the proliferation of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) by astragaloside IV. Methods MTT examined the cell proliferation of VSCC. Flow cytometry analyzed cell cycle and apoptosis. Western blot assay detected the expression of some relevant proteins. Results AS-IV reduced the proliferation of SW962 cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, induced cell-cycle arresting in G0/G1 phase, as demonstrated by the up-regulation of P53 and P21 expression, and the down-regulation of cyclin D1 expression. AS-IV enhanced the expression of Bax and cleaved-caspase 3, and suppressed Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl expression, which resulted in apoptosis increased. Furthermore, the expression of Beclin-1 and LC3-B was upregulated and that of P62 was downregulated, which suggested that AS-IV could increase the incidence of autophagy in SW962 cells. After inhibiting autophagy by 3-methyladenine (3-MA), cell apoptosis decreased upon AS-IV treatment. Similarly, TGF-β1 stimulated SW962 cells, cell proliferation enhanced, and the expression of TGF-βRII and Smad4 was decreased. Furthermore, the expression of proteins that promote apoptosis and autophagy decreased. After AS-IV treatment, the expression levels of the above proteins exhibited the opposite effect. Conclusion AS-IV inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis and autophagy through the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in VSCC.

Due to the deregulation of the power system, the electric power industry is undergoing a transformation in terms of its planning and operation strategies. Because of the importance in reducing financial and operational risk, improving load forecasting accuracy is paramount. In some load forecasting applications, K -means clustering is used to group customers prior to forecasting. This method has been shown to improve the accuracy of load predictions. However, there are situations where K -means clustering reduces load forecasting accuracy. This paper studies the factors that affect the performance of K -means clustering. Additionally, several strategies have been proposed to tackle the lower estimation accuracy problems for this clustering algorithm. The data used for validating the proposed strategies associated with the factors is from the Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (Con Edison). The mean absolute percent error and relative mean square error are utilized to evaluate the forecasting results of K -means-based least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) and preprocessed K -means-based LS-SVM. Additionally, the outperformance of preprocessed K -means-based LS-SVM is demonstrated via the data results.

A gold(i)-catalyzed substituent-controlled strategy for the stereoselective synthesis of bicyclic furan and pyran derivatives has been developed. The mechanisms of the reactions have been studied thoroughly by deuterium labelling experiments. The applications of the methodologies were demonstrated by evaluating the preliminary anti-fungal activity of the synthetic compounds.

Indole alkaloids bearing the tetracyclic indoline scaffolds of 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]carbazole have shown fascinating chemical diversity and significant biological activities. The development of efficient synthetic methodologies for such a tetracyclic scaffold remains highly desirable in both synthetic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. This review outlines key strategies for the construction of the tetracyclic indoline scaffolds in total syntheses of many indole alkaloids. The key strategies include nucleophilic additions, Diels-Alder reactions, radical cyclizations, and palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions. The representative examples and their applications in the total syntheses are described here and discussed in depth.

Cervical cancer is one of the malignant tumors with high incidence and high mortality among women in developing countries. The main factors affecting the prognosis of cervical cancer are the late recurrence and metastasis and the effective adjuvant treatment, which is radiation and chemotherapy or combination therapy. Galectins, a family containing many carbohydrate binding proteins, are closely involved in the occurrence and development of tumor. They are involved in tumor cells transformation, angiogenesis, metastasis, immune escape, and sensitivity against radiation and chemotherapy. Therefore, galectins are deemed as the targets of multifunctional cancer treatment. In this review, we mainly focus on the role of galectins, especially galectin-1, galectin-3, galectin-7, and galectin-9 in cervical cancer, and provide theoretical basis for potential targeted treatment of cervical cancer.

During investigating water-compatible Lewis acids catalyzed etherifications using alcohols as alkylating reagents directly, we developed Fe(III)-catalyzed trityl benzyl ether formations irradiated by microwave. Then an in situ trityl benzyl ether formation and disproportionation cascade reaction was achieved to yield the benzaldehyde products with good functional group tolerances under neat conditions at relative higher temperatures. The substituent effects of the substrates on the etherification and disproportionation were explored by changing the substitutions on benzyl alcohols and triarylmethanols using chemical kinetic plots methods and the mechanism of the transformation was studied by crossover experiments. The etherification and disproportionation cascade process could be conveniently scaled up in laboratory without losing much efficiency.

A straightforward process for the formation of tert-butyl-, benzyl-, Pmb-, and trityl-protected alcohols is developed.

With the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), an avalanche of new energy-use information became available. Better understanding of the actual power consumption patterns of customers is critical for improving load forecasting and efficient deployment of smart grid technologies to enhance operation, energy management, and planning of electric power systems. Unlike traditional aggregated system-level load forecasting, the AMI data introduces a fresh perspective to the way load forecasting is performed, ranging from very short-term load forecasting to long-term load forecasting at the system level, regional level, feeder level, or even down to the consumer level. This paper addresses the efforts involved in improving the system level intraday load forecasting by applying clustering to identify groups of customers with similar load consumption patterns from smart meters prior to performing load forecasting.

Sleep patterns have been associated with the development of cancers, although the association between sleep duration and breast cancer remains controversial. The purpose of our study was to explore the relationship between sleep duration and breast cancer risk. The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched, and restricted cubic splines were used to explore the dose-response relationship. Data from 415,865 participants were derived from 10 studies. A J-shaped nonlinear trend was found between sleep duration and breast cancer incidence (Pnon-linear= 0.012); compared with the reference hours (6 h or 7 h), with increasing sleep hours, the risk of breast cancer increased (Ptrend= 0.028). Moreover, a nonlinear relationship was found between sleep duration and estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (Pnon-linear= 0.013); the risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer increased with increasing sleep hours compared to the reference hours (Ptrend= 0.024). However, no nonlinear relationship was found between sleep duration and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer; the risk of estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer was 1.035 for every additional sleep hour. Compared to women with the reference number of sleep hours, women with a longer sleep duration might have a significantly increased risk of breast cancer, especially estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

A series of novel N-substituted-β-d-glucosamine derivatives that incorporate benzenesulfonamides were designed using a fragment-based drug design strategy. Each derivative was synthesized and evaluated in vitro for its inhibitory activity against human carbonic anhydrase (hCA) IX; several derivatives displayed desirable potency profiles against this enzyme. The molecular docking studies provided the design rationale and predicted potential binding modes for carbonic anhydrase (CA) IX and three target compounds, including the most potent inhibitor, compound 7f (IC50 = 10.01 nM). Moreover, the calculated Log P (cLog P) values showed that all the compounds tended to be hydrophilic. In addition, topological polar surface area (TPSA) value-based predictions highlighted the selectivity of these carbohydrate-based inhibitors for membrane-associated CA IX.

Twenty-four diosgenyl saponins bearing cinnamoyl, carbamido and thiosemicarbazone groups were synthesized concisely. The cytotoxicities of the synthetic compounds on six human caner cell lines were evaluated employing MTT method. Structure-activity relationship could be observed, and two of the synthesized compounds (5c and 5f) exhibited selective inhibition on HeLa and MCF-7 cells, while three of them (5d, 5f and 5h) showed strong inhibition against HT1080.

Interleukin-28A (IL-28A) modulates CD11c+ dendritic cell (DC) function and promotes type 1T helper (Th1) differentiation, thus suppressing allergic airway diseases. However, the function of the IL-28A isoform IL-28B in these diseases remains largely unknown. In this study, we revealed a novel role of IL-28B in inducing type 1 immunity and protecting against ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic asthma in mice. IL-28B overexpression in wild-type mice promoted natural killer (NK) cell polarization in the lung, leading to the increased number of interferon (IFN)-γ-producing NK1 cells as well as Th1 differentiation. Importantly, IL-28B overexpression had no protective effect on OVA-induced asthma in IFN-γ-knockout (IFN-γ−/−) mice. These results demonstrate that IL-28B ameliorates experimental allergic asthma via enhancing NK cell polarization, which might be useful for prevention and treatment of allergic asthma.

A gold-catalyzed hydrogen bond-directed tandem cyclization strategy to synthesize indeno-chromen-4-one and indeno-quinolin-4-one derivatives has been developed. The hydrogen bond existing between the hydroxyl group (or the amide group) and the carbonyl group played an essential role in controlling the selectivity, which was confirmed by both experimental and theoretical evidence.

Due to the deregulation of the power system, the electric power industry is undergoing a transformation in terms of its planning and operation strategies. Because of the importance in reducing financial and operational risk, improving load forecasting accuracy is paramount. In some load forecasting applications, K-means clustering is used to group customers prior to forecasting. This method has been shown to improve the accuracy of load predictions. However, there are situations where K-means clustering reduces load forecasting accuracy. This paper studies the factors that affect the performance of K-means clustering. Additionally, several strategies have been proposed to tackle the lower estimation accuracy problems for this clustering algorithm. The data used for validating the proposed strategies associated with the factors is from Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (ConEdison). The mean absolute percent error (MAPE) and relative mean square error (RMSE) are utilized to evaluate the forecasting results of K-means based least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) and preprocessed K-means based LS-SVM. Additionally, the outperformance of preprocessed K-means based LS-SVM is demonstrated via the data results.

A novel strategy for the synthesis of multisubstituted naphthalenes was developed via a Au(i)-catalyzed alkyne alkoxylation/dienolether aromaticity-driven cascade cyclization using 1,5-enyne substrates. The functional group toleration was examined by synthesizing a series of substrates and the mechanism was also studied based on intermediates isolated through deuterium labeling experiments.

A straightforward process for the formation of tert-butyl-, benzyl-, Pmb-, and trityl-protected alcohols is developed.