Ankle-subtalar joint complex instability is not uncommonly presented in the clinic, but symptoms and signs similar to other conditions can easily lead to its misdiagnosis. Due to the lack of ...appropriate animal models, research on ankle-subtalar joint complex instability is limited. The aims of the present study were to establish an animal model of ankle-subtalar joint complex instability in mice and to explore its relationship with post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA).
Twenty-one male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into three groups: SHAM group (sham surgery group), transected cervical ligament + anterior talofibular ligament (CL+ATFL) group, and transected cervical ligament + deltoid ligament (CL+DL) group. Two weeks after surgery, all mice underwent cage running training. Balance beam and gait tests were used to evaluate the changes in self-movement in the mice after ankle-subtalar ligament injury. Micro-CT and histological staining were used to evaluate the progress of PTOA.
Compared with the SHAM group, balance and gait were affected in the ligament transection group. Twelve weeks after surgery, the time required to cross the balance beam in the CL+ATFL group was 35.1% longer and the mice slipped 3.6-fold more often than before surgery, and the mean step length on the right side was 7.2% smaller than that in the SHAM group. The time required to cross the balance beam in the CL+DL group was 32.1% longer and the mice slipped 3-fold more often than prior to surgery, and the average step length on the right side was 5.6% smaller than that in the SHAM group. CT images indicated that 28.6% of the mice in the CL+DL group displayed dislocation of the talus. Tissue staining suggested that articular cartilage degeneration occurred in mice with ligament transection 12 weeks after surgery.
Transected mice in the CL+ATFL and CL+DL groups displayed mechanical instability of the ankle-subtalar joint complex, and some mice in the CL+DL group also suffered from talus dislocation due to ligament injury leading to loss of stability of the bone structure. In addition, as time progressed, the articular cartilage displayed degenerative changes, which affected the ability of animals to move normally.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
MXenes are promising supports for anchoring metal single atoms due to their versatile composition, well-defined nanostructures, and suitable conductivity. However, metal single atoms are usually ...coordinated with surface terminal groups (-O, -OH, -Cl, etc.) of MXenes via conventional wet-impregnation, resulting in limited electronic structure modification. Through a NiCl
2
molten salt etching method, we observed that Ni single atoms could be
in-situ
doped in the lattice of MXenes analogue TiC
0.5
N
0.5
support (denoted as Ni
1
/TiC
0.5
N
0.5
), resulting in much larger charge transfer from Ni atoms to adjacent Ti atoms, and thus increasing the electronic density of these Ti atoms. When used for NO
2
sensing, Ni
1
/TiC
0.5
N
0.5
exhibited excellent response sensitivity (ultra-low limit of detection ∼ 10 ppb), selectivity, and good stability at room temperature. This study provides an effective strategy for producing MXenes analogue supported metal single atoms for potential application in gas sensing.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Preparation of large single crystals of linear polymers for X‐ray analysis is very challenging. Herein, we employ a coordination‐driven self‐assembly strategy to secure the appropriate head‐to‐tail ...alignment of anthracene moieties, and for the first time obtained large‐sized Pt‐based linear polymer crystals through a 4+4 cycloaddition of anthracene in a single‐crystal to single‐crystal fashion. Using X‐ray diffraction to determine the polymer crystal structure, we found that both the polymerisation and depolymerisation steps proceed via a stable intermediate. Taking advantage of the temperature‐dependent slow depolymerization, the Pt‐based linear polymer showed potential as a sustained release anticancer drug platform. Utilizing the reversible contraction effect of unit‐cell volume upon irradiation or heating, the stimuli‐responsive crystals were hybridized with polyvinylidene fluoride to obtain a “smart material” with outstanding photoactuator performance.
Strong enough to bend: A coordination driven self‐assembly strategy secures the appropriate head‐to‐tail alignment of anthracene moieties gave large Pt‐based linear polymer crystals through a 4+4 cycloaddition of anthracene in a single‐crystal to single‐crystal fashion. The reversible contraction of unit‐cell volume upon irradiation or heating gave a photoactuator.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
A new KZnBP2O8‐type open‐frame zincoaluminophosphate, NaZnAlP2O8 (NZAPO), was obtained by a substitution design strategy and synthesized by a high temperature molten salt method. The structure of ...NZAPO was constructed by ZnAlP2O8∞ tetrahedral frame and Na+ ions, which is similar to those of KZnBP2O8 (KZBPO). With the remixing of Zn and Al in the new 4×8×8 network, NZAPO was characterized by enlarged eight‐membered loops as compared with those of KZBPO, indicating the high flexibility of ZnAlP2O8∞ tetrahedral frame and the validity of substitution design strategy to the access of fascinating open‐frame KZBPO‐type crystals. Remarkably, NZAPO not only exhibited similar optical properties with KZBPO but also featured a fascinating congruent melting behaviour, confirming the superiority of NZAPO in the family of KZBPO‐type crystals.
Combination of substitution design strategy and molten salt method for the rational obtainment of a new KZnBP2O8‐type congruent‐melting microporous zincoaluminophosphate, NaZnAlP2O8, with modified overall performance.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract Introduction: End stage renal failure patients on hemodialysis have significant vascular calcification This is postulated to be related to sub-clinical vitamin K deficiency, which is ...prevalent in hemodialysis patients. Vitamin K deficiency result in the failure of the matrix GLA protein (MGP) to undergo carboxylation. MGP is a natural local inhibitor of vascular calcification and the lack of functional carboxylated MGP may contribute to increase vascular calcification. Vitamin K supplement should therefore correct this anomaly and decrease the rate or severity of vascular calcification in this population of patients on long-term maintenance hemodialysis. Our study seeks to evaluate the prevalence and the progression of vascular calcification in a cohort of maintenance hemodialysis patients. It will also evaluate the efficacy of vitamin K supplementation in reducing the progression of vascular calcification in this group of patients. Methods: This will be a single-center randomized, prospective and open-label interventional clinical trial of end stage renal failure patients on hemodialysis. We aim to recruit 200 patients. Eligible patients will be randomized to either the standard care arm or active treatment arm. Active treatment arm patients will receive standard care plus supplementation with oral vitamin K2 isoform 360 mcg 3 times weekly for a total duration of 18 months. Primary outcome measured will be absolute difference in coronary artery calcification score at 18-month between control and intervention arms. Secondary outcomes will be to compare absolute difference in aortic valve calcification, percentage of patients with regression of coronary artery calcification of at least 10%, absolute difference in aortic and systemic arterial stiffness, mortality from any cause and major adverse cardiovascular over the same period. Discussion: Evidence of successful regression or retardation of vascular calcification will support the conduct of larger and longer-term trials aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events in this high-risk population using a safe and inexpensive strategy Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02870829. Registered on 17 August 2016 – Retrospectively registered, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02870829 National University Hospital's Institutional Review Board (2015/01000)
Physical dormancy (PY) commonly present in the seeds of higher plants is believed to be responsible for the germination failure by impermeable seed coat in hard seeds of legume species, instead of ...physiological dormancy (PD). In this study, a non-destructive approach involving multispectral imaging was used to successfully identify hard seeds from non-hard seeds in Medicago sativa, with accuracy as high as 96.8%–99.0%. We further adopted multiple-omics strategies to investigate the differences of physiology, metabolomics, methylomics, and transcriptomics in alfalfa hard seeds, with non-hard seeds as control. The hard seeds showed dramatically increased antioxidants and 125 metabolites of significant differences in non-targeted metabolomics analysis, which are enriched in the biosynthesis pathways of flavonoids, lipids and hormones, especially with significantly higher ABA, a hormone known to induce dormancy. In our transcriptomics results, the enrichment pathway of “response to abscisic acid” of differential expressed genes (DEG) supported the key role of ABA in metabolomics results. The methylome analysis identified 54,899, 46,216 and 54,452 differential methylation regions for contexts of CpG, CHG and CHH, and 344 DEGs might be regulated by hypermethylation and hypomethylation of promoter and exon regions, including four ABA- and JA-responsive genes. Among 8% hard seeds in seed lots, 24.5% still did not germinate after scarifying seed coat, and were named as non-PY hard seeds. Compared to hard seeds, significantly higher contents of ABA/IAA and ABA/JA were identified in non-PY hard seeds, which indicated the potential presence of PD. In summary, the significantly changed metabolites, gene expressions, and methylations all suggested involvement of ABA responses in hard seeds, and germination failure of alfalfa hard seeds was caused by combinational dormancy (PY + PD), rather than PY alone.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ
Introducing a de-novo home haemodialysis (HHD) program often raises safety concerns as errors could potentially lead to serious adverse events. Despite the complexity of performing haemodialysis at ...home without the supervision of healthcare staff, HHD has a good safety record. We aim to pre-emptively identify and reduce the risks to our new HHD program by risk assessment and using failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to identify potential defects in the design and planning of HHD.
We performed a general risk assessment of failure during transitioning from in-centre to HHD with a failure mode and effects analysis focused on the highest areas of failure. We collaborated with key team members from a well-established HHD program and one HHD patient. Risk assessment was conducted separately and then through video conference meetings for joint deliberation. We listed all key processes, sub-processes, step and then identified failure mode by scoring based on risk priority numbers. Solutions were then designed to eliminate and mitigate risk.
Transitioning to HHD was found to have the highest risk of failure with 3 main processes and 34 steps. We identified a total of 59 areas with potential failures. The median and mean risk priority number (RPN) scores from failure mode effect analysis were 5 and 38, with the highest RPN related to vascular access at 256. As many failure modes with high RPN scores were related to vascular access, we focussed on FMEA by identifying the risk mitigation strategies and possible solutions in all 9 areas in access-related medical emergencies in a bundled- approach. We discussed, the risk reduction areas of setting up HHD and how to address incidents that occurred and those not preventable.
We developed a safety framework for a de-novo HHD program by performing FMEA in high-risk areas. The involvement of two teams with different clinical experience for HHD allowed us to successfully pre-emptively identify risks and develop solutions.
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•Transverse and longitudinal flexural performances of STS composite slabs are presented.•Influences of the parameters on the flexural stiffness and capacity are examined.•A design ...formula is proposed to predict the elastic capacity.
The steel tube slab (STS) structure is a novel pipe-roofing structure, which is used as the support system for underground stations. The pipe-roofing structure is generally assumed as a beam structure in previous research, which is questionable, because the transverse and longitudinal coupling force mechanism is ignored. Hence, this work aims to investigate the flexural performance of STS composite slab through experimental test and establish a design approach for STS structure. Firstly, based on six tests on flexural performance of the STS composite slabs, the crack development, failure mode and deformation mechanism were analysed. Each of the specimens demonstrated a high bearing capacity that exceeded 3000 kN. Furthermore, the specimens exhibited ductility during testing with the failure occurring at either the flange or concrete between the steel tubes. Subsequently, the effect of the length–width ratio and spacing between the tubes on the flexural performance of the tested specimens were examined. The result indicated that the length–width ratio and the spacing between the tubes significantly affected the flexural stiffness, but had limited effects on the flexural capacity. Finally, a design approach was proposed to estimate the elastic capacity of STS composite slabs, and finite element (FE) models validated by the test results were established to increase the general applicability of the theoretical model. The predicted outcomes demonstrated a satisfactory correlation with both the test and FE results, with an average relative error of 9.8%. The study's findings are anticipated to serve as a dependable resource for the design and application of STS structures.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ
p53 is the most commonly mutated tumor suppressor gene in human cancers. In addition to the loss of tumor suppression function and exertion of dominant-negative effects over the remaining wild-type ...protein, several p53 mutants can gain novel oncogenic functions (gain-of-function, GOF) that actively regulate cancer development and progression. In human endometrial cancer, p53 mutation is more often associated with aggressive nonendometrioid cancer. However, it was unknown if p53 mutants contributed to endometrial cancer progression through the GOF properties.
To clarify the relationship between expression of p53 GOF mutation (p53-R175H) and invasive potential of human endometrial cancer KLE cells, we tested the consequences of up-regulation and down-regulation of p53-R175H in KLE cells by inducing p53-R175H expression vector or suppressing the p53 gene with short hairpin RNA.
We found that forced over-expression of p53-R175H significantly promoted cell migration and invasion, and induced activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway. Conversely, suppression of p53-R175H with short hairpin RNA significantly inhibited cell migration and invasion, and resulted in attenuation of EGFR/PI3K/AKT pathway.
These findings show for the first time that elevated expression of p53-R175H mutant may exert gain-of-function activity to activate the EGFR/PI3K/AKT pathway and thus may contribute to the invasive phenotype in endometrial cancer.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this work, MoS2-based hybrid tubular nanostructures are facilely synthesized via a self-assembly-assisted process and evaluated as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reactions ...(HERs) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs). By simply mixing the reactants under ambient conditions, (NH4)2MoS4/polydopamine (PDA) hybrid nanospheres are formed. The protonated dopamine is linked to tetrahedral MoS42– via weak N–H···S and O–H···S interactions, causing the PDA nanospheres merging together and forming nanorods under stirring-induced shear force. Moreover, the oxidative polymerization of dopamine proceeds on the surface of the nanorods, whereas it is prohibited inside the nanorods owing to lack of oxygen, leading to outward diffusion of dopamine and hence cavitation. After annealing, the tubular morphology is perfectly retained, while ultrafine MoS2 monolayers are formed due to the confinement of the framework. Benefiting from these unique structural features, the MoS2/C hybrid nanotubes possess abundant active sites and high surface area, as well as boost electronic and ionic transport, remarkably enhancing their electrocatalytic activities. The onset and half-wave potentials are 0.91 and 0.82 V, respectively, for ORR, close to those of Pt/C. Moreover, low onset potential and small Tafel slope are also observed for HER, demonstrating the potential of the hybrid nanotubes as a promising non-noble metal bifunctional electrocatalyst.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
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