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A simple coprecipitation route followed by a calcination process was developed to prepare 2D hierarchical Zn3(VO4)2 porous networks formed by the crosslinkage of monolayered nanoparticles. As a promising anode for lithium ion batteries, the electrochemical performance of Zn3(VO4)2 was investigated. At a current density of 1.0 A g−1, the Zn3(VO4)2 porous networks could register a high reversible discharge capacity of 773 mA h g−1 and the capacity retention was 94% after 700 cycles. Moreover, a remarkable reversible discharge capacity of 445 mA h g−1 was achieved at a current density of 5 A g−1 after 1200 cycles. Even at a higher current density of 10.0 A g−1, a high reversible capacity of 527 mA h g−1 could be delivered, which still remained at 163 mA h g−1 after 1200 cycles. This superior performance is attributed to the unique 2D porous networks with a stable structure. This work shows a new avenue for facile, cheap, green, and mass production of zinc vanadate oxides with 2D porous hierarchical networks for next-generation energy conversion and storage devices.

Aim: Protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) has been implicated in the development of renal inflammation and fibrosis. In particular, activation of PAR2 in cultured tubular epithelial cells induces extracellular signal-regulated kinase signalling and secretion of fibronectin, C–C Motif Chemokine Ligand 2 (CCL2) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), suggesting a role in tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. We tested this hypothesis in unilateral ureteric obstruction (UUO) in which ongoing tubular epithelial cell damage drives tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. Methods: Unilateral ureteric obstruction surgery was performed in groups (n = 9/10) of Par2−/− and wild type (WT) littermate mice which were killed 7 days later. Non-experimental mice were controls. Results: Wild type mice exhibited a 5-fold increase in Par2 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels in the UUO kidney. In situ hybridization localized Par2 mRNA expression to tubular epithelial cells in normal kidney, with a marked increase in Par2 mRNA expression by tubular cells, including damaged tubular cells, in WT UUO kidney. Tubular damage (tubular dilation, increased KIM-1 and decreased α-Klotho expression) and tubular signalling (extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation) seen in WT UUO were not altered in Par2−/− UUO. In addition, macrophage infiltration, up-regulation of M1 (NOS2) and M2 (CD206) macrophage markers, and up-regulation of pro-inflammatory molecules (tumour necrosis factor, CCL2, interleukin-36α) in WT UUO kidney were unchanged in Par2−/− UUO. Finally, the accumulation of α-SMA+ myofibroblasts, deposition of collagen IV and expression of pro-fibrotic factors (CTGF, TGF-β1) were not different between WT and Par2−/− UUO mice. Conclusion: Protease-activated receptor 2 expression is substantially up-regulated in tubular epithelial cells in the obstructed kidney, but this does not contribute to the development of tubular damage, renal inflammation or fibrosis.

Glomerular crescent formation is a hallmark of rapidly progressive forms of glomerulonephritis. Thrombosis and macrophage infiltration are features of crescent formation in human and experimental kidney disease. Protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) is a G-protein coupled receptor that links coagulation and inflammation. This study investigated whether pharmacological inhibition of PAR-2 can suppress glomerular crescent formation in rat nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NTN). Disease was induced in Wistar Kyoto rats by immunisation with sheep IgG followed by administration of sheep nephrotoxic serum. Rats (n = 8/group) received the PAR-2 antagonist (GB88, 10 mg/kg/p.o.), vehicle or no treatment starting 3 days before nephrotoxic serum injection and continuing until day 14. Vehicle and untreated rats developed thrombosis and macrophage infiltration in the glomerular tuft and Bowman's space in conjunction with prominent crescent formation. Activation of JNK signalling and proliferation in parietal epithelial cells was associated with crescent formation. GB88 treatment significantly reduced crescent formation with a substantial reduction in glomerular thrombosis, reduced macrophage infiltration in Bowman's space, and reduced activation of parietal epithelial cells. However, GB88 did not protect against the development of proteinuria, renal function impairment, inflammation or tubular cell damage in the NTN model. In conclusion, PAR-2 plays a specific role in glomerular crescent formation by promoting glomerular thrombosis, macrophage accumulation in Bowman's space and activation of parietal epithelial cells.

With the on-going Chinese fever all over the world, there is an increasing number of scholars studying methods and tools for assisting Chinese learning. This paper discusses the construction of an Assisted Reading System for Contemporary Chinese based on multi-aspect analysis (ARSCC). First of all, short essays about Chinese culture are selected as reading materials according to preliminary statistics. Secondly, a multi-aspect analysis of these essays is conducted in three stages: word segmentation and POS tagging, sense of content words and usage of function words annotation, and syntactic analysis. Finally, the above analysis results are displayed hierarchically and systematically. The system provides second-language learners with multi-aspect assisting information to improve their analysis-oriented reading comprehension ability. It also provides a platform for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

The diagnostic value of Helicobacter pylori stool antigen (HpSA) tests in elderly subjects remains unclear. The objective of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the immunochromatographic assay‐based HpSA test in a male elderly cohort and identify factors affecting the accuracy. Data for asymptomatic elderly male citizens (≥65 years old) who received health checkups at the Chinese PLA General Hospital between July 2007 and November 2018 were collected. The diagnostic accuracy of the HpSA test was determined using the 13C‐urea breath test as a reference standard. Associations between baseline comorbidities and the accuracy of the HpSA test were analyzed. In total, 316 participants were enrolled, including 193 in the pre‐treatment group (77.2 ± 7.8 years old) and 123 in the post‐treatment group (78.7 ± 8.3 years old). The accuracy (91.5%, 91.2%, and 91.9%) and specificity (97.6%, 98.7%, and 96.0%) were high in all participants, pre‐ and post‐treatment groups, respectively. However, sensitivities were only 68.7%, 65.1%, and 75.0%, respectively. In the pre‐treatment group, constipation was associated with decreased sensitivity (p = 0.039), while colorectal polyps were associated with increased sensitivity (p = 0.010). Multivariate analysis indicated that constipation and colorectal polyps are independent factors for the sensitivity of HpSA in the pre‐treatment group. The immunochromatographic assay‐based HpSA test achieved high accuracy with high specificity but suboptimal sensitivity in the elderly male cohort. Constipation and colorectal polyps were negatively and positively associated with HpSA sensitivity, respectively, in the pre‐treatment group., The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection is elevated along with increasing age. Compared with the 13C‐urea breath test, the immunochromatographic assay‐based stool antigen test achieves excellent accuracy with high specificity but suboptimal sensitivity in the male elderly population before and after the eradication of H. pylori. Caution is needed when applying this test to patients with constipation, which can reduce the sensitivity of the stool antigen test.

Background and Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) can lead to intestinal barrier dysfunction, and whether ICH-induced intestinal injury plays a role in brain edema. Methods: ICH mice model was prepared by an intrastriatal injection of bacterial collagenase. The following parameters were investigated at 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 1 d, 2 d, 3 d, or 7 d after ICH preparation. Mice were given intragastrically with FITC-dextran and the intestinal permeability was evaluated by serum fluorescence measurement. Serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level was assayed with ELISA kits. Ileum and jejunum were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Intestinal mucosal injuries were graded according to the scoring method (grade 0 to grade 4). Brain water content was evaluated via a wet/dry weight method. Correlations of intestinal injury, intestine permeability, LPS, and brain edema were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results: Compared with the Sham group, Ileum and jejunum damage occurred at 6 h after ICH, and the ICH-induced intestinal injury continued until 7 d. In line with the histopathological findings, the degree of ileum and jejunum injury was significantly increased at 6 h after ICH, showing mostly scores in Grade 1 to Grade 3 ( P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). After 6-h ICH, the intestinal permeability to FITC-dextran was higher compared to the Sham group, and the increase of intestinal permeability lasted 7 d ( P < 0.01). From 6 h to 7 d, serum LPS was significantly augmented ( P < 0.01). The brain content of the ipsilateral hemispheres was increased at 12 h, 1 d, 2 d, and 3 d after ICH ( P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), and the brain content of the contralateral hemispheres was also enhanced at 1 d, 2 d, and 3 d after ICH ( P < 0.01). The ileum and jejunum injury were positively associated with intestine permeability (r = 0.625, P < 0.01, r = 0.465, P < 0.01, respectively). The intestine permeability was positively associated with the serum level of LPS (r =0.585, P < 0.01). The LPS levels were positively associated with brain water content (r = 0.338, P < 0.01). Conclusion: ICH can cause intestinal mucosal injury. Consequently, the increase of intestinal permeability results in the translocation of endotoxins, which contributes to ICH-induced brain edema.

A simple coprecipitation route followed by a calcination process was developed to prepare 2D hierarchical Zn

Foreigners make various grammatical errors when learning Chinese due to the negative transfer of their mother tongue, learning strategies, etc. At present, the research on grammatical errors mainly focuses on a certain word or a certain kind of errors, resulting in a lack of comprehensive understanding. In this paper, a statistical analysis on large-scale data sets of grammatical errors made by second language learners is conducted, including words with grammatical errors and their quantities. The statistical analysis gives people a more comprehensive understanding of grammatical errors and have certain guiding significance for teaching Chinese as a second language (TCSL). Because of the large proportion of grammatical errors of “的[de](of)”, the usages of “的[de](of)” are integrated into automatic recognition of Chinese grammatical errors. Experimental results show that the performance is overall improved.

In the knowledge base of function word usage of “trinity”, the auxiliary word “DE” has the characteristics of high frequency and flexible usage. In this paper, a neural network model (TG network) is proposed to automatically recognize the usage of “DE”. In this network, the self-attention mechanism is firstly adopted as the first-layer feature encoder and GRU (gated recurrent unit) as the second-layer semantic extractor, and the recognition accuracy rate reaches 82.8%. Experiments show that the recognition effect of TG network is better than that of previous methods. In further experiments, the larger the window, the better the effect of the model is proved by setting different windows. At the same time, the fine-grained analysis of each usage category is carried out. In the future, it is expected that this model will automatically recognize more function words and the recognition results can be applied to other natural language processing tasks.

Activation of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) and c‐Jun amino terminal kinase (JNK) is prominent in human crescentic glomerulonephritis. p38 and JNK inhibitors suppress crescentic disease in animal models; however, the upstream mechanisms inducing activation of these kinases in crescentic glomerulonephritis are unknown. We investigated the hypothesis that apoptosis signal‐regulating kinase 1 (ASK1/MAP3K5) promote p38/JNK activation and renal injury in models of nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NTN); acute glomerular injury in SD rats, and crescentic disease in WKY rats. Treatment with the selective ASK1 inhibitor, GS‐444217 or vehicle began 1 hour before nephrotoxic serum injection and continued until animals were killed on day 1 (SD rats) or 14 (WKY rats). NTN resulted in phosphorylation (activation) of p38 and c‐Jun in both models which was substantially reduced by ASK1 inhibitor treatment. In SD rats, GS‐444217 prevented proteinuria and glomerular thrombosis with suppression of macrophage activation on day 1 NTN. In WKY rats, GS‐444217 reduced crescent formation, prevented renal impairment and reduced proteinuria on day 14 NTN. Macrophage activation, T‐cell infiltration and renal fibrosis were also reduced by GS‐444217. In conclusion, GS‐444217 treatment inhibited p38/JNK activation and development of renal injury in rat NTN. ASK1 inhibitors may have therapeutic potential in rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.

Tubular epithelial cells take up and degrade plasma albumin filtered by the glomerulus. Tubular damage resulting in reduced albumin uptake or degradation has been suggested as one mechanism contributing to albuminuria in kidney disease. This study investigated whether tubular albumin uptake or degradation is altered in acute and chronic glomerular disease. Mouse models of acute glomerular injury (anti-GBM disease and LPS-induced albuminuria) and chronic disease (streptozotocin-induced diabetes and db/db mice) were examined. Mice were injected intravenously with Alexa-albumin plus DQ-albumin and killed 20 minutes later. Tubular uptake of albumin (Alexa-albumin) and albumin degradation (Dye Quenched (DQ)-albumin) was assessed in tissue sections via confocal microscopy. Tubular uptake of Alexa-albumin in the models of diabetic nephropathy was not different to normal mice. However, the fluorescence signal resulting from degradation of DQ-albumin was significantly reduced in db/db mice, and the ratio of degraded to intact albumin was reduced in both models. The ratio of degraded to intact albumin in tubules was also reduced in the anti-GBM model. In the LPS model, both tubular uptake and degradation of albumin were significantly reduced, with a substantial reduction in the ratio of degraded to intact albumin in tubules. LPS stimulation of cultured tubular epithelial cells inhibited albumin uptake, indicating a direct role for LPS in modifying tubular handling of albumin. In conclusion, reduced degradation of filtered albumin in the proximal tubule is a common feature of glomerular diseases. This may be a general mechanism whereby tubular dysfunction contributes to the development of albuminuria.

Ginsenoside Rg3, extracted from Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, has been shown to possess neuroprotective properties. The present study aims to investigate the neuroprotective effects of ginsenoside Rg3 on rotenone-induced Parkinson's disease mice. Rotenone, a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor, leads to the augmentation of reactive oxygen species production in cells. Male C57/BL6 mice were intragastrically administered rotenone (30 mg/kg) and then treated with ginsenoside Rg3 (5, 10, or 20 mg/kg). Pole, rotarod, and open field tests were performed to evaluate motor function. Ginsenoside Rg3 decreased the climbing time in the pole test (p 0.01), whereas it increased the latency in the rotarod test (p 0.01) and the total distance (p 0.01) and mean speed in the open field test (p 0.01). Ginsenoside Rg3 treatment augmented the number of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons in the substantia nigra (p 0.01), mean density of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive nerve fibers (p 0.01), and dopamine content (p 0.01) in the striatum and reduced the reactive oxygen species level in the substantia nigra (p 0.01). Glutathione cysteine ligase regulatory subunit and glutathione cysteine ligase modulatory subunit expression levels were elevated in the ginsenoside Rg3 groups. Ginsenoside Rg3 also improved motor function in rotenone-induced Parkinson's disease mice. The neuroprotective effects of ginsenoside Rg3 are at least partly associated with its anti-oxidative properties via regulation of glutathione cysteine ligase modulatory subunit and glutathione cysteine ligase regulatory subunit expression.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of handedness on the relationship between implicit self-esteem (ISE) and explicit self-esteem (ESE). A total of 93 undergraduate students (28 left-handers, 32 mix-handers, and 33 right-handers) participated in this study. Participants reported their ISE, ESE, and handedness using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and an array of self-report measures. Results indicated that (a) there was a significant correlation between ESE and ISE in the whole sample, and (b) there was a very strong significant correlation in left-handed participants; and no significant correlation in right-handed participants. A further analysis showed a moderating effect of participants' handedness on the relationship between ISE and ESE. Implications and future research directions were discussed.

In order to understand the characteristics and relationships between indoor and outdoor PM_(2.5) during the heating period of 2014 in Beijing, the investigation of PM_(2.5) and associated species including organic and elemental carbon (OC/EC), water soluble ions, metal elements and trace organic matter (OM) were undertaken at a residential apartment. The average PM_(2.5) concentration was 55.2 ± 47.3 μg m^(-3) for indoor and 100.4 ± 82.1 μg m^(-3) for outdoor, and the indoor PM_(2.5) was found to be mainly from outdoors. OM and (NH_4)_2SO_4 were the dominated components of PM_(2.5), accounted for 71.5% in indoor PM_(2.5) and 52.4% in outdoor PM_(2.5), followed by fine soil and NH_4NO_3 (23.7% and 27.9%). The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentration was 187.3 ng m^(-3) and 387.0 ng m^(-3), and the phthalic acid esters (PAEs) concentration reached 1054.2 ng m^(-3) and 515.3 ng m^(-3), for indoor and outdoor, respectively. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) only existed indoors (5.5 ng m^(-3)). HCB and most PAEs in indoor PM_(2.5) were dominated by indoor sources whereas other species were greatly influenced by outdoor sources especially during the pollution period.

The main objective of this study was to preliminarily investigate the antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of Amomum tsao-ko (A. tsaoko) extracts against Bacillus subtilis and Listeria monocytogenes. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of A. tsaoko extracts against B. subtilis and L. monocytogenes were 1.25 mg/mL. Bacterial growth curves revealed that the A.tsaoko extracts had an obvious antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis and L. monocytogenes. Furthermore, the mechanism of action of A. tsaoko was evaluated by analyzing its effects on the integrity of cell membrane and cell morphology. The leakage of alkaline phosphatase (AKP) confirmed that the A. tsaoko extracts caused serious damage to the wall structure of B. subtilis and L. monocytogenes. Results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) manifested that the destructive effect of A. tsaoko extracts on cell morphology and cell integrity of bacterial cells. The results implied that A. tsaoko extracts showed relatively good antibacterial effect on B. subtilis and L. monocytog.