Background As the number of patients increases, there is a growing understanding of the form of pneumonia sustained by the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which has caused an outbreak in China. ...Up to now, clinical features and treatment of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been reported in detail. However, the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and coagulation has been scarcely addressed. Our aim is to investigate the blood coagulation function of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods In our study, 94 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were admitted in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. We prospectively collect blood coagulation data in these patients and in 40 healthy controls during the same period. Results Antithrombin values in patients were lower than that in the control group (p < 0.001). The values of D-dimer, fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products (FDP), and fibrinogen (FIB) in all SARS-CoV-2 cases were substantially higher than those in healthy controls. Moreover, D-dimer and FDP values in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection were higher than those in patients with milder forms. Compared with healthy controls, prothrombin time activity (PT-act) was lower in SARS-CoV-2 patients. Thrombin time in critical SARS-CoV-2 patients was also shorter than that in controls. Conclusions The coagulation function in patients with SARS-CoV-2 is significantly deranged compared with healthy people, but monitoring D-dimer and FDP values may be helpful for the early identification of severe cases.
On the size of rotating black holes Feng, Xing-Hui; Lü, H.
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
06/2020, Volume:
80, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Recently a sequence of inequalities relating the black hole horizon, photon sphere, shadow were proposed for spherically symmetric and static black holes, providing the upper bound for given mass. In ...this paper, we extend the discussion to include rotating black holes. When viewed from the north pole direction, the shadow remains a round disk, but the image is skewed when viewed from the equatorial plane. After properly implementing the “size” parameters for the rotating black holes, we verify that the sequence of inequalities remain valid for a variety of solutions, including Kerr, Kerr–Newman, Kerr–Sen and Kerr–Cvetič–Youm black holes. The upshot is that rotation makes both the actual and apparent sizes of a black hole smaller.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve critical roles in the pathogenesis of various cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Herein, in this study, we aimed to investigate the biological and ...clinical significance of lncRNA DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 5 (DGCR5) in LUAD. It was observed that DGCR5 was upregulated in LUAD tissues and LUAD cell lines. Inhibition of DGCR5 can prevent LUAD progression via playing anti‐apoptosis roles. Both mRNA expression and protein levels of BCL‐2 were increased by DGCR5 downregulation while reversely BAX was increased. Additionally, a novel microRNA target of DGCR5, hsa‐mir‐22‐3p was identified through bioinformatics search and confirmed by dual‐luciferase reporter system. Gain and loss‐of‐function studies were performed to verify whether DGCR5 exerts its biological functions through regulating hsa‐mir‐22‐3p in vitro. Overexpression of DGCR5 was able to reverse the tumor inhibitory effect of hsa‐mir‐22‐3p mimics. Furthermore, in vivo tests tumor xenografts were established to detect the function of DGCR5 in LUAD tumorigenesis. Downregulated DGCR5 expression was greatly associated with smaller tumor size, implying a favorable prognosis of LUAD patients. Taken these together, DGCR5 could be considered as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in LUAD diagnosis and treatment.
Our findings in LUAD cell lines and xenografts support the use of DGCR5 as an oncogene to promote LUAD development. This is the first reporting of a possible mechanism for a crosstalk between DGCR and hsa‐mir‐22‐3p crosstalk in LUAD. These results suggest DGCR5 as a potential target for LUAD treatment.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Critical patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even those whose nucleic acid test results had turned negative and those receiving maximal medical support, have been noted to progress ...to irreversible fatal respiratory failure. Lung transplantation (LT) as the sole therapy for end-stage pulmonary fibrosis related to acute respiratory distress syndrome has been considered as the ultimate rescue therapy for these patients.
From February 10 to March 10, 2020, three male patients were urgently assessed and listed for transplantation. After conducting a full ethical review and after obtaining assent from the family of the patients, we performed three LT procedures for COVID-19 patients with illness durations of more than one month and extremely high sequential organ failure assessment scores.
Two of the three recipients survived post-LT and started participating in a rehabilitation program. Pearls of the LT team collaboration and perioperative logistics were summarized and continually improved. The pathological results of the explanted lungs were concordant with the critical clinical manifestation, and provided insight towards better understanding of the disease. Government health affair systems, virology detection tools, and modern communication technology all play key roles towards the survival of the patients and their rehabilitation.
LT can be performed in end-stage patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19-related pulmonary fibrosis. If confirmed positive-turned-negative virology status without organ dysfunction that could contraindicate LT, LT provided the final option for these patients to avoid certain death, with proper protection of transplant surgeons and medical staffs. By ensuring instant seamless care for both patients and medical teams, the goal of reducing the mortality rate and salvaging the lives of patients with COVID-19 can be attained.
As a highly efficient mode of freight transport for global trade, international shipping is currently expected to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Various countermeasures and ...action plans have been proposed by stakeholders in the maritime community. This paper presents a comprehensive review to categorise the pathways and highlight the concepts, methodologies, characteristics, implementation barriers and future prospects of different abatement measures for carbon dioxide emissions in the maritime industry. In addition, the regulatory framework composed of rules and regulations, market-based measures and voluntary actions is reviewed and discussed. The literature reviewed is selective and critical considering papers from reputable journals and reports from leading institutions or organisations. It was found that most of the technological and operational measures were highly context-sensitive and no individual measure in isolation could achieve the objectives of low carbon or zero carbon shipping. Eco-friendly fuels and alternative power sources were found to be promising but their applications would significantly depend on ship types and ship routes, i.e., diversification and decentralization of ship power sources and marine fuel types are inevitable for future shipping. It was also shown that the economic considerations and legal framework are still the main challenges at present. This review has clarified the pathways to decarbonisation in the shipping industry and it is expected to be a useful resource for academic research and industrial practice.
•Interdisciplinary nature of countermeasures for ship emissions was highlighted.•Abatement measures for ship emissions are context-sensitive and interdependent.•Diversification of ship power systems and marine fuels seems to be inevitable.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) has served as a historic microbial engineering method that mimics natural selection to obtain desired microbes. The past decade has witnessed improvements in all ...aspects of ALE workflow, in terms of growth coupling, genotypic diversification, phenotypic selection, and genotype–phenotype mapping. The developing growth-coupling strategies facilitate ALE to a wider range of appealing traits. In vivo mutagenesis methods and multiplexed automated culture platforms open new gates to streamline its execution. Meanwhile, the application of multi-omics analyses and multiplexed genetic engineering promote efficient knowledge mining. This article provides a comprehensive and updated review of these advances, highlights newest significant applications, and discusses future improvements, aiming to provide a practical guide for implementation of novel, effective, and efficient ALE experiments.
Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) is a time-honored approach to obtain desired microbes in microbial engineering.Advanced strategies and tools facilitate and streamline ALE in growth coupling, genotypic diversification, phenotypic selection, and genotype–phenotype mapping.These strategies and tools have made considerable recent progress and have led to remarkable applications.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Based on the context of complexity = action (CA) conjecture, we calculate the holographic complexity of AdS black holes with planar and spherical topologies in Horndeski theory. We find that the rate ...of change of holographic complexity for neutral AdS black holes saturates the Lloyd’s bound. For charged black holes, we find that there exists only one horizon and thus the corresponding holographic complexity can’t be expressed as the difference of some thermodynamical potential between two horizons as that of Reissner–Nordstrom AdS black hole in Einstein–Maxwell theory. However, the Lloyd’s bound is not violated for charged AdS black hole in Horndeski theory.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Arabidopsis mutants produced by constitutive overexpression of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system are usually mosaics in the T1 generation. In this study, we used egg cell-specific promoters to ...drive the expression of Cas9 and obtained non-mosaic T1 mutants for multiple target genes with high efficiency. Comparisons of 12 combinations of eight promoters and two terminators found that the efficiency of the egg cell-specific promoter-controlled CRISPR/Cas9 system depended on the presence of a suitable terminator, and the composite promoter generated by fusing two egg cell-specific promoters resulted in much higher efficiency of mutation in the T1 generation compared with the single promoters.
The recently proposed complexity-action conjecture allows one to calculate how fast one can produce a quantum state from a reference state in terms of the on-shell action of the dual AdS black hole ...at the Wheeler–DeWitt patch. We show that the action growth rate is given by the difference of the generalized enthalpy between the two corresponding horizons. The proof relies on the second identity that the surface-term contribution on a horizon is given by the product of the associated temperature and entropy.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Non‐coding RNAs can exert significant roles various cancers, including NSCLC. Previously, we indicated that lncRNA DGCR5 can promote lung cancer progression through inhibiting hsa‐mir‐22‐3p. In our ...current study, we investigated the role of DGCR5 in cancer stem cell‐like properties of NSCLC. CSCs have been recognized as the frequent cause of tumor metastasis, tumor recurrence, and chemotherapy resistance. Here, lung cancer stem cells were successfully enriched from the parental NSCLC A549, H460, and H1299 cells by using tumor sphere formation assays and side population (SP) assays. We observed that DGCR5 was up‐regulated in the enriched CSCs of NSCLC. DGCR5 can inhibit the stemness of NSLCL while overexpression of DGCR5 promoted CSC‐like traits. In addition, miR‐330‐5p was predicted as target of DGCR5 and the correlation between them was validated by dual‐luciferase reporter assay, RIP assay, and RNA pull‐down assay. Meanwhile, it was found that miR‐330‐5p was decreased in CSCs of NSCLC. miR‐330‐5p mimics repressed the stemness while miR‐330‐5p inhibition enhanced CSC‐like properties by targeting CD44. Taken these together, DGCR5 can act as a crucial regulator of CSCs in NSCLC by modulating miR‐330‐5p/CD44 axis.
This is the first reporting of a possible mechanism for an interaction between DGCR and miR‐330‐5p in lung CSCs. We exhibited that DGCR5 silence can inhibit CSC‐like phenotypes in NSLCL by sponging miR‐330‐5p and increasing CD44 expression. These data suggested a possibility of developing DGCR5 as a potential target for NSCLC.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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