Regulatory T cell (Treg)-mediated immunosuppression represents one of the crucial tumor immune evasion mechanisms and is a main obstacle for successful tumor immunotherapy. Hypoxia, a common feature ...of solid tumors, has been associated with potentiated immunosuppression, decreased therapeutic response, malignant progression and local invasion. Unfortunately, the link between hypoxia and Treg-mediated immune tolerance in gastric cancer remains poorly understood. In our study, Tregs and hypoxia inducible factor-1α were found to be positively correlated with each other and were increased with the tumor progression. A subsequent in vitro study indicated that supernatants derived from gastric cancer cells under hypoxic condition, could induce the expression of Foxp3 via TGF-β1. These findings confirmed the crucial role of Tregs as a therapeutic target in gastric cancer therapy and provided helpful thoughts for the design of immunotherapy for gastric cancer in the future.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment originating from the photon vacuum polarization. The corresponding three-loop kernel functions ...are calculated using asymptotic expansion techniques which lead to analytic expressions. Our final result, aμhad,NNLO=1.24±0.01×10−10, has the same order of magnitude as the current uncertainty of the leading order hadronic contribution and should thus be included in future analyses.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Roles of genes in heat acclimation (HA, repeated exercise-heat exposures) had not been explored. ACE I/D and ACTN3 R577X genetic polymorphisms are closely associated with outstanding exercise ...performances. This study investigated whether the two polymorphisms influenced the response to HA. Fifty young Han nationality male subjects were selected and conducted HA for 2 weeks. Exercise indicators (5-km run, push-up and 100-m run) were tested and rest aural thermometry (RTau) was measured before and after HA. ACE gene was grouped by I homozygote and D carrier, and ACTN3 gene was grouped by R homozygote and X carrier. Results showed that there were no differences between groups in age, body mass index, exercise indicators and RTau before HA. After HA, RTau of ACE I homozygote was lower than that of D carrier F(1, 48) = 9.12, p = 0.004, η = 0.40. Compared with RTau before HA, that of I homozygote decreased after HA (Δ = −0.26 °C, 95 % CI -0.34–0.18, p < 0.001), while that of D carrier did not change. There was a ACE gene × HA interaction in RTau F(1, 48) = 14.26, p < 0.001, η = 0.48. No effect of ACTN3 gene on RTau was observed. For exercise indicators, there were no differences between groups after HA, and no gene × HA interactions were observed. There may be a strong interaction of ACE gene and HA in the change of rest core temperature. I homozygote may have an advantage on improving heat tolerance.
•Rest core temperature of ACE gene I homozygote decreases after heat acclimation.•ACE gene plays a role in heat adaptation.•ACE gene × short-term heat acclimation interaction is limited in improving exercise.•Heat acclimation responses of ACTN3 R homozygote and X carrier have no difference.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging global pollutant. MPs research is mainly concentrated on water, with limited research on MPs in sewage sludge. MPs from various sources are collected into sewage ...and most of the MPs are trapped in the sludge during the sewage treatment process. Sludge is not only a sink of MPs, but also a source. Soil amendment with sludge provides nutrients into the soil, but it can also import substantial MPs into the soil, which has certain environmental risks. Therefore, we focused on the MPs in sludge and sludge-amended soil and conducted a literature review to summarize the sources, physical properties and fate of the MPs in sludge, as well as their separation, identification and statistical methods. MPs can accumulate in the soil, influence the properties of the soil, and also migrate, which might result in the pollution of deep soils and groundwater. In addition, the adsorption by MPs of heavy metals, organic pollutants, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes cannot be ignored as sewage sludge generally contains substantial concentrations of these pollutants. They can be adsorbed by the MPs and transferred into the soil with sludge amendment of soil. The combination and interaction of MPs with its adsorbed pollutants might increase environmental risk, further leading to possibility of them being uptaken by plants. The specific long-term risks to the environment caused by MPs in soil with sludge amendment require further exploration and investigation.
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•60%–99% MPs from different sewage sources are detained in sludge.•Unified method for separation and statistical identification of sludge MPs required•MPs can adsorb heavy metals, organic pollutants, antibiotics and ARGs.•MPs in sludge have stronger ability to adsorb pollutants than original MPs.•Soil amendment with sludge containing MPs carries potential environmental risks.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) have emerged as one class of outstanding porous materials due to their abundant nitrogen sites and highly thermal and chemical stability. However, most of the ...reported CTFs are neutral porous materials. Here, we report the synthesis of the well‐designed cationic covalent triazine frameworks (CCTFs) via an ionothermal method from the imidazolium monomer 1,3‐bis(4‐cyanophenyl)imidazolium chloride. The imidazolium active sites and pore structure of CCTFs at different synthetic temperature were systematically investigated. The porous CCTFs with positively charged (imidazolium moieties) backbones could effectively adsorb and capture of CO2 through dipole–quadruple interactions. Furthermore, the positively charged imidazolium moieties and the spatially confined nucleophilic chloride anions works in concert on the substrate, leading to synergistically enhanced catalysis for the cycloaddition reaction of epoxide with CO2. These findings provide a new way to design and construct ionic porous materials for sustainable catalysis.
Imidazolium‐based cationic covalent triazine frameworks (CCTFs) were successfully synthesised from starting monomer 1,3‐bis(4‐cyanophenyl)imidazolium chloride through an ionothermal method. Owing to the unique ionic feature of the stable CCTFs, they not only exhibit enhanced CO2 uptake capacity but also show highly efficient catalysis in the cycloaddition reaction of epoxides and CO2 without addition of any additive under mild conditions.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR) is promising in place of the Haber–Bosch process for artificial N2 fixation. However, the high activity and selectivity of eNRR are challenging to ...achieve simultaneously due to the scaling relations. Such “leverage” between activity and selectivity has severely restricted eNRR. To overcome this bottleneck, the complementary design of electronic structures in multicomponent electrocatalysts has been recently pursued, aiming to maximize the advantages of each component and optimize the multistep reactions, which has stood at the cutting edge in this aspect. Here, we present a minireview of the design, performance, and mechanism of multicomponent electrocatalysts with complementary electronic structures. We particularly emphasize the interactions between N2 and elements from d‐, p‐, and s‐blocks, which are essential for understanding how these electrocatalysts are beyond the “leverage” between activity and selectivity.
By integrating distinct yet complementary electronic structures of elements in different blocks, this concept is revolutionary in that it breaks the limitations of scaling relations, synchronously achieving high activity and selectivity for electrochemical nitrogen reduction.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Both the energy density and cycle stability are still challenges for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries in future practical applications. Usually, light‐weight and nonpolar carbon materials are used as ...the hosts of sulfur, however they struggle on the cycle stability and undermine the volumetric energy density of Li–S batteries. Here, heavy NiCo2O4 nanofibers as carbon‐free sulfur immobilizers are introduced to fabricate sulfur‐based composites. NiCo2O4 can accelerate the catalytic conversion kinetics of soluble intermediate polysulfides by strong chemical interaction, leading to a good cycle stability of sulfur cathodes. Specifically, the S/NiCo2O4 composite presents a high gravimetric capacity of 1125 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C rate with the composite as active material, and a low fading rate of 0.039% per cycle over 1500 cycles at 1 C rate. In particular, the S/NiCo2O4 composite with the high tap density of 1.66 g cm−3 delivers large volumetric capacity of 1867 mAh cm−3, almost twice that of the conventional S/carbon composites.
NiCo2O4 nanofibers serve as carbon‐free sulfur hosts to fabricate sulfur‐based composites with high volumetric capacity based on the high tap density. Furthermore, NiCo2O4 can accelerate the catalytic conversion of soluble intermediate polysulfides by strong chemical interaction, leading to a good cycle stability. Therefore, S/NiCo2O4 composite presents tremendous advantages over conventional S/carbon materials in improving the volumetric capacity and cycle stability.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
For high‐energy lithium–sulfur batteries, the poor volumetric energy density is a bottleneck as compared with lithium–ion batteries, due to the low density of both the sulfur active material and ...sulfur host. Herein, in order to enhance the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, a universal approach is proposed to fabricate a compact sulfur cathode with dense materials as sulfur host, instead of the old‐fashioned lightweight carbon nanomaterials. Based on this strategy, heavy lanthanum strontium manganese oxide (La0.8Sr0.2MnO3), with a high theoretical density of up to 6.5 g cm−3, is introduced as sulfur host. Meanwhile, the La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 host also acts as an efficient electrocatalyst to accelerate the diffusion, adsorption, and redox dynamics of lithium polysulfides in the charge–discharge processes. As a result, such S/La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 cathode presents high gravimetric/volumetric capacity and outstanding cycling stability. Moreover, an ultra‐high volumetric energy density of 2727 Wh L−1‐cathode is achieved based on the densification effect with higher density (1.69 g cm−3), which is competitive to the Ni‐rich oxide cathode (1800–2160 Wh L−1) of lithium–ion batteries. The current study opens up a path for constructing high volumetric capacity sulfur cathode with heavy and catalytic host toward practical applications of lithium–sulfur batteries.
Heavy metal oxides are more suitable than light carbon materials to fabricate compact cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. Specifically, lanthanum strontium manganese oxide nanofibers, with the tap density of 2.59 g cm−3, display efficient catalytic activity toward lithium polysulfides, enhancing the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, which can even exceed lithium–ion batteries.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Landsat and Sentinel-2 sensors together provide the most widely accessible medium-to-high spatial resolution multispectral data for a wide range of applications, such as vegetation phenology ...identification, crop yield estimation, and forest disturbance detection. Improved timely and accurate observations of the Earth's surface and dynamics are expected from the synergistic use of Landsat and Sentinel-2 data, which entails coordinating the spatial resolution gap between Landsat (30 m) and Sentinel-2 (10 m or 20 m) images. However, widely used data fusion techniques may not fulfil community's needs for generating a temporally dense reflectance product at 10 m spatial resolution from combined Landsat and Sentinel-2 images because of their inherent algorithmic weaknesses. Inspired by the recent advances in deep learning, this study developed an extended super-resolution convolutional neural network (ESRCNN) to a data fusion framework, specifically for blending Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager (MSI) data. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of the deep learning-based fusion algorithm in yielding a consistent and comparable dataset at 10 m from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2. Further accuracy assessments revealed that the performance of the fusion network was influenced by both the number of input auxiliary Sentinel-2 images and temporal interval (i.e., difference in image acquisition dates) between auxiliary Sentinel-2 images and the target Landsat-8 image. Compared to the benchmark algorithm, area-to-point regression kriging (ATKPK), the deep learning-based fusion framework proved better in the quantitative assessment in terms of RMSE (root mean square error), correlation coefficient (CC), universal image quality index (UIQI), relative global-dimensional synthesis error (ERGAS), and spectral angle mapper (SAM). ESRCNN better preserved the reflectance distribution as the original image compared to ATPRK, resulting in an improved image quality. Overall, the developed data fusion network that blends Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 images has the potential to help generate continuous reflectance observations of higher temporal frequency than that can be obtained from a single Landsat-like sensor.
•A deep learning network was developed to fuse Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data.•The fusion network enhanced Sentinel-2 SWIR data at 20 m to 10 m.•Landsat-8 imagery at 30 m were downscaled to 10 m by the fusion network.•A flexible number of auxiliary Sentinel-2 images were incorporated into fusion.•The fusion network was superior to ATPRK in preserving data distribution.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract
Since the identification of the first RNA demethylase and the establishment of methylated RNA immunoprecipitation-sequencing methodology 6 to 7 years ago, RNA methylation has emerged as a ...widespread phenomenon and a critical regulator of transcript expression. This new layer of regulation is termed “epitranscriptomics.” The most prevalent RNA methylation, N6-methyladenosine (m6A), occurs in approximately 25% of transcripts at the genome-wide level and is enriched around stop codons, in 5′- and 3′-untranslated regions, and within long internal exons. RNA m6A modification regulates RNA splicing, translocation, stability, and translation into protein. m6A is catalyzed by the RNA methyltransferases METTL3, METTL14, and METTL16 (writers), is removed by the demethylases FTO and ALKBH5 (erasers), and interacts with m6A-binding proteins, such as YTHDF1 and IGF2BP1 (readers). RNA methyltransferases, demethylases, and m6A-binding proteins are frequently upregulated in human cancer tissues from a variety of organ origins, increasing onco-transcript and oncoprotein expression, cancer cell proliferation, survival, tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis. Although RNA methyltransferase inhibitors are not available yet, FTO inhibitors have shown promising anticancer effects in vitro and in animal models of cancer. Further screening for selective and potent RNA methyltransferase, demethylase, or m6A-binding protein inhibitors may lead to compounds suitable for future clinical trials in cancer patients.
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