H19 is an imprinted long noncoding RNA abundantly expressed in embryonic liver and repressed after birth. We show that H19 serves as a lipid sensor by synergizing with the RNA‐binding polypyrimidine ...tract‐binding protein 1 (PTBP1) to modulate hepatic metabolic homeostasis. H19 RNA interacts with PTBP1 to facilitate its association with sterol regulatory element‐binding protein 1c mRNA and protein, leading to increased stability and nuclear transcriptional activity. H19 and PTBP1 are up‐regulated by fatty acids in hepatocytes and in diet‐induced fatty liver, which further augments lipid accumulation. Ectopic expression of H19 induces steatosis and pushes the liver into a “pseudo‐fed” state in response to fasting by promoting sterol regulatory element‐binding protein 1c protein cleavage and nuclear translocation. Deletion of H19 or knockdown of PTBP1 abolishes high‐fat and high‐sucrose diet–induced steatosis. Conclusion: Our study unveils an H19/PTBP1/sterol regulatory element‐binding protein 1 feedforward amplifying signaling pathway to exacerbate the development of fatty liver. (Hepatology 2018;67:1768‐1783)
•First review on Solidified Natural Gas (SNG) Technology via clathrate hydrates.•Prospects for improving the kinetics and storage capacity is presented.•Critical examination of ‘self-preservation’ ...and ‘tuning’ effect in hydrates is presented.•Challenges and future directives for commercial deployment of SNG technology are outlined.
Natural gas (NG), the cleanest burning fossil fuel, plays a crucial role in meeting the global energy demand, contributing to 24% and is projected to grow at a rate of about 2% until 2040. Natural gas is also considered as the bridging fuel to transition into a carbon-constrained world with reduced carbon dioxide emissions whilst catering to the huge energy demand. Efficient and effective modes of NG storage/transport are dire need in the current golden era of natural gas. A plethora of advantages offered by storing NG in the form of hydrates carve a niche for this novel technology. Termed as solidified natural gas (SNG) technology, it has remarkable potential to store multi-fold volumes of natural gas in compact hydrate crystals offering the safest and the most environmental friendly mode of NG storage. This review provides an account on the research efforts put forth in this technology. Hydrate formation and storage aspects have been examined thoroughly with a subtle account on the gas recovery. The review encompasses studies conducted using different promoters (thermodynamic, kinetic or a combination of both) in different reactor configurations, novel/innovative approaches and hybrid processes adopted to improve the kinetics of hydrate formation and to increase the gas storage capacity. Detailed sections on the ‘self-preservation’ and ‘tuning’ effect in hydrates have been included due to their significance in SNG technology. Process chain of the SNG technology, underlying challenges and measures adopted to deploy the SNG technology for large-scale NG storage applications are included in this review.
ABSTRACTHepatocellular carcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer related death in the world. Biannual surveillance for the disease in patients with cirrhosis and in high risk carriers of ...hepatitis B virus allows early stage cancer detection and treatment with good long term outcomes. Liver ultrasonography and serum α fetoprotein are the most commonly used surveillance tests. If suspicious results are found on the surveillance test, multiphasic computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging should be undertaken to confirm the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. If radiologic tests show inconclusive results, liver biopsy or repeat imaging could be considered for confirmation of hepatocellular carcinoma. Management of the disease is complex. Patients should be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team, and the selection of treatment should consider factors such as tumor burden, severity of liver dysfunction, medical comorbidities, local expertise, and preference of patients. Early stage hepatocellular carcinoma is best managed by curative treatment, which includes resection, ablation, or transplantation. Patients with intermediate stage disease often receive locoregional treatment. Systemic treatment is reserved for patients with advanced disease. Several positive, phase III, randomized controlled trials have expanded the systemic treatment options for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with promising long term outcomes, especially trials using combination treatments, which could also have eventual implications for the treatment of earlier stage disease.
This contribution provides a review of the topic of insoluble-bound phenolics, especially their localization, synthesis, transfer and formation in plant cells, as well as their metabolism in the ...human digestive system and corresponding bioactivities. In addition, their release from the food matrix during food processing and extraction methods are discussed. The synthesis of phenolics takes place mainly at the endoplasmic reticulum and they are then transferred to each organ through transport proteins such as the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) transporter at the organ's compartment membrane or via transport vesicles such as cytoplasmic and Golgi vesicles, leading to the formation of soluble and insoluble-bound phenolics at the vacuole and cell wall matrix, respectively. This part has not been adequately discussed in the food science literature, especially regarding the synthesis site and their transfer at the cellular level, thus this contribution provides valuable information to the involved scientists. The bound phenolics cannot be absorbed at the small intestine as the soluble phenolics do (5%-10%), thus passing into the large intestine and undergoing fermentation by a number of microorganisms, partially released from cell wall matrix of foods. Bound phenolics such as phenolic acids and flavonoids display strong bioactivities such as anticancer, anti-inflammation and cardiovascular disease ameliorating effects. They can be extracted by several methods such as acid, alkali and enzymatic hydrolysis to quantify their contents in foods. In addition, they can also be released from the cell wall matrix during food processing procedures such as fermentation, germination, roasting, extrusion cooking and boiling. This review provides critical information for better understanding the insoluble-bound phenolics in food and fills an existing gap in the literature.
An Advanced Lithium-Sulfur Battery Kim, Junghoon; Lee, Dong-Ju; Jung, Hun-Gi ...
Advanced functional materials,
February 25, 2013, Letnik:
23, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A lithium‐sulfur battery employing a high performances mesoporous hard carbon spherules‐sulfur cathode and a stable, highly conducting electrolyte is reported. The results demonstrate that the ...battery cycles with very high capacity, i.e., of the order of 750 mAh g−1 with excellent retention during cycling. In addition, by exploiting the high conductivity of our selected electrolyte, the battery performs very well also at low temperature, i.e., delivering a capacity of 500 mAh g−1(S) at 0 °C for over 170 charge‐discharge cycles. We believe that these results may substantially contribute to the progress of the lithium‐sulfur battery technology.
A porous hard carbon spherules‐sulfur (HCS‐S) composite cathode shows remarkable electrochemical behavior in a lithium cell using a solution of lithium triflate (LiCF3SO3) in tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TEGDME) as the electrolyte. The new composite, characterized by high capacity, long cycle life, and remarkable sulfur content, is proposed as a new cathode material for high energy‐lithium batteries.
Fertility rates below population replacement level now characterize a broad swath of post-industrial societies, especially in Southern Europe and East Asia. This article offers a theoretical ...framework that gives primacy to the role of gender-essentialist norms and institutional variation in labor markets to explain variation in total fertility rates across 24 OECD countries over the past two decades. We demonstrate the variation in gender-role ideologies that characterize post industrial countries and show how these country-level patterns interact with measures of labor market protection and the economic situation of young adult males to influence variation in TFRs. We provide evidence that interaction between gender-role ideologies and labor market institutions that reinforces men's role as breadwinners and women's role as caregivers (what we term gender-essentialist norms) is negatively related to post-industrial fertility.
In order to evaluate hydrate-based desalination (HBD), experiments with seawater samples were carried out at various conditions (i.e. hydraulic pressure, washing step, and hydrate-forming gas). ...Before and after the hydrate process, cations (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, and B3+) and anions (Cl− and SO42−) were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and ion chromatography (IC). In a single stage of CO2 hydrate process without any pretreatment, 71%–94% of each cation was removed in the following order: K+>Na+≈Mg2+≈Ca2+>B3+ and 73%–83% of each anion was removed. When the brines on the surface of hydrate pellets were removed, the ion removal efficiency increased above 4%. It was also found that the desalting efficiency depended on the hydrate-forming gas (CO2>CH4) and the hydraulic pressure (6–10MPa) to produce hydrate pellets. In this study, the removal efficiency of cations and anions in a real seawater sample using HBD processes were reported for the first time.
•We evaluated an application possibility of hydrate-based desalination process.•Increasing hydraulic pressure increased the removal efficiency of ions.•CO2 as a guest gas is more suitable than CH4 for the HBD process.•The property of ionic behavior depending on its concentration should be examined further in the future.
This paper presents a comprehensive study of model-based fault diagnosis (FD) and a fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme for sensor and actuator faults of turbojet engines. For actuator FD, an ...unbiased estimation scheme with a modified Kalman filter (KF) was developed. For sensor FD, two approaches, the generalized likelihood ratio with robust KF and the pseudo actuator model with modified KF, were investigated in a comparative study. For fault detection and isolation, test statistics are commonly employed to detect fault behavior. For FTC, integral-type sliding mode control using control reconfiguration and the reconstruction of the sensor signal was adopted with the FD schemes. The effectiveness of the employed methods was demonstrated in this study and discussed with numerical simulations.
Cell growth and proliferation are tightly coupled to metabolism, and dissecting the signaling molecules which link these processes is an important step toward understanding development, regeneration, ...and cancer. The transcriptional regulator Yes‐associated protein 1 (YAP) is a key regulator of liver size, development, and function. We now show that YAP can also suppress gluconeogenic gene expression. Yap deletion in primary hepatocytes potentiates the gluconeogenic gene response to glucagon and dexamethasone, whereas constitutively active YAP suppresses it. The effects of YAP are mediated by the transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor‐gamma coactivator 1. YAP inhibits its ability to bind to and activate transcription from the promoters of its gluconeogenic targets, and the effects of YAP are blunted upon its knockdown. In vivo, constitutively active YAP lowers plasma glucose levels and increases liver size.
Conclusion: YAP appears to reprogram cellular metabolism, diverting substrates away from the energy‐consuming process of gluconeogenesis and toward the anabolic process of growth. (Hepatology 2017;66:2029–2041)
Immunomodulation involves two mechanisms, immunostimulation and immunosuppression. It is a complex mechanism that regulates the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of various diseases affecting the ...immune system. Immunomodulators can be used as immunostimulators to reduce the side effects of drugs that induce immunosuppression. In this study, we characterized the chemical composition of high molecular weight fucoidan (HMWF) and low molecular weight fucoidan and compared their functions as natural killer (NK) cell-derived immunostimulators in vitro. We also tested the effectiveness of HMWF, which has a relatively high function in vitro, as an immunostimulator in immunosuppressed animal models. In these models, HWMF significantly restored NK cell cytotoxicity and granzyme B release to the control group level. In addition, the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-12, interferon (IFN)-γ, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α also increased in the spleen. This study suggests that HMWF acts as an effective immunostimulant under immunosuppressive conditions.
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