Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a dominant cause of death and permanent disability worldwide. Although TBI could significantly increase the proliferation of adult neural stem cells in the ...hippocampus, the survival and maturation of newborn cells is markedly low. Increasing evidence suggests that the secretome derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) would be an ideal alternative to MSC transplantation. The successive and microenvironmentally responsive secretion in MSCs may be critical for the functional benefits provided by transplanted MSCs after TBI. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the signaling molecules secreted in response to local tissue damage can further facilitate the therapeutic effect of the MSC secretome. To simulate the complex microenvironment in the injured brain well, we used traumatically injured brain tissue extracts to pretreat umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) in vitro and stereotaxically injected the secretome from traumatic injury‐preconditioned UCMSCs into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in a rat severe TBI model. The results revealed that compared with the normal secretome, the traumatic injury‐preconditioned secretome could significantly further promote the differentiation, migration, and maturation of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus and ultimately improve cognitive function after TBI. Cytokine antibody array suggested that the increased benefits of secretome administration were attributable to the newly produced proteins and up‐regulated molecules from the MSC secretome preconditioned by a traumatically injured microenvironment. Our study utilized the traumatic injury‐preconditioned secretome to amplify neurogenesis and improve cognitive recovery, suggesting this method may be a novel and safer candidate for nerve repair.
Cover Image for this issue: doi: 10.1111/jnc.14741
To most closely replicate the complex microenvironment in injured brain, we used extract of traumatic brain tissue to preconditioning umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro, and stereotaxically injected these secretome into dentate gyrus of hippocampus in a rat severe Traumatic brain injury (TBI) model. We observed that traumatically preconditioning secretome could significantly further promote the differentiation, migration and maturation of newborn cells in dentate gyrus, and finally improved the cognitive function after TBI. Our study utilized the injury‐preconditioning secretome to inducibly amplify the neurogenesis and cognitive recovery, which can offers a novel and safer candidate for nerve repair.
Open Science: This manuscript was awarded with the Open Materials Badge
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Cover Image for this issue: doi: 10.1111/jnc.14741
Thermal response behavior of transparent silver nanowire/PEDOT:PSS film heaters are intensively studied for manipulating heating temperature, response time, and power consumption. Influences of ...substrate heat capacity, heat transfer coefficient between air and heater, sheet resistance and dimension of Ag nanowire film, on the thermal response are investigated from thermodynamic analysis. Suggestion is given for practical applications that if other parameters are fixed, Ag nanowire coverage can be utilized as an effective parameter to adjust the thermal response. The heat transfer coefficient plays opposite roles on thermal response speed and achievable steady temperature. A value of ≈32 W m−2 K−1 is obtained from transient process analysis after correcting it by considering heater resistance variation during heating tests. Guidance of designing heaters with a given response time is provided by forming Ag nanowire film with a suitable sheet resistance on substrate of appropriate material and a certain thickness. Thermal response tests of designed Ag heaters are performed to show higher heating temperature, shorter response time, and lower power consumption (179 °C cm2 W−1) than ITO/FTO heaters, as well as homogeneous temperature distribution and stability for repeated use. Potential applications of the Ag heaters in window defogging, sensing and thermochromism are manifested.
Thermal response behavior of transparent Ag nanowire/PEDOT:PSS film heaters with uniform temperature distribution are investigated from thermodynamic analysis, and influencing factors, such as substrate heat capacity, heat transfer coefficient between air and heater, sheet resistance, and dimension of the film, on the thermal properties including heating temperature, response time, and power consumption are intensively studied for practical applications.
Mud crab, Scylla paramamosain, is an important aquaculture species. In recent decades, with the development of mud crab farming, seed production has become more and more important. Therefore, a ...precise understanding of embryonic and larval development is required for future study or application. In this study, we described the complete embryonic and larval development of S. paramamosain under the following conditions: temperature 28°C–31°C, salinity 26,000–30,000 mg/L, pH 7.9–8.2, and dissolved oxygen 4–5 mg/L. The embryonic development was divided into five stages: cleavage, blastula, appendage, eyespot‐heartbeat, and prehatching. The entire embryonic period spanned 9–11 days. The larval development consisted of six stages: zoea I (Z1), zoea II (Z2), zoea III (Z3), zoea IV (Z4), zoea V (Z5), and the megalopal stage. The duration of the larval stage was about 22–24 days, and it took about 3 days for each stage of Z1–Z4, about 4–5 days for Z5, and about 5–6 days for the megalopal stage. In general, in this study, we presented a comprehensive description of both embryonic and larval development with massive image information, which would help diagnose different developmental stages and provide an important guidance for future study or application.
Utilizing the synergistic effect of various fillers is an efficient strategy to enhance the thermal conductivity of polymer composites, in which the key is to modulate their dispersion and network ...formation in polymer matrix. In this work, expanded graphite (EG) was individually added into high density polyethylene (HDPE) to fabricate first the binary composites through melt blending. The electrical conductivity of the prepared composites was measured to determine the percolation threshold for HDPE/EG composites. Then HDPE/EG composites with three compositions, representing below percolation, just percolation and above percolation, respectively, were chosen as matrix and melt mixed with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to make HDPE/EG/CNTs ternary composites. It was found that adding CNTs results in a linear increase of thermal conductivity for HDPE/EG composites with composition below percolation, along the line by adding the same amount of EG. While a jump of thermal conductivity was observed by adding CNTs for HDPE/EG composites with composition just and above percolation. The electrical conductivity and rheology property were measured and SEM experiment was carried out to explore the filler dispersion and their network formation in HDPE matrix. All the results suggested a possible location CNTs in EG filler network for HDPE/EG composites with composition just and above percolation. Thus the formation of CNTs network within EG network is attributed to the main reason for the largely enhanced thermal property. This work endows a new enlightenment to fabricate the composites with a great thermal conductivity.
this paper applies an epsilon-based measure DEA approach to evaluate the regional ecological energy efficiency for 30 regions in China and its three major areas for the period 2007–2015. Based on ...this, the temporal and spatial disparities of China's regional ecological energy efficiency are investigated. To explore the sources of China's regional ecological energy inefficiency, the overall ecological energy inefficiency is decomposed into several input-specific inefficiencies. And then, the energy saving and pollution abatement potentials of each Chinese region is calculated using the differences between the target values and the actual values of energy consumption and pollution emissions. The empirical results show that China's ecological energy efficiency is relatively low and regional differences are significant for the period 2007–2015. It can be demonstrated that the inefficiency to abate pollution is the main contributor to China's regional ecological energy inefficiency. By calculating the potentials of energy saving and pollution abatement, it can be found that the east area has the lowest potential, followed by the central area, with the west area having the highest potential.
To expand the scientific understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation in restored ecosystems, we used 246 soil samples from a rocky catchment (10.24 km2) in an ecologically fragile karst ...area of southwest China and measured the effects of environmental factors under different vegetation restoration types (managed, including forage grassland and plantation forest, or natural, including grassland, shrubland, and secondary forest) on soil organic carbon content (SOCC) and soil organic carbon density (SOCD). Significantly higher SOCC and SOCD were found in natural vegetation than in managed vegetation and tillage land but no differences in SOCC or SOCD were detected between managed vegetation and tillage land. The environmental factors include rock outcrop ratio (ROR), bulk density, altitude, soil depth, slope gradient, and pH, all showing significant effect on SOC. The proportion of variations in SOCC and SOCD explained by environmental factors was higher in natural vegetation restoration than in managed vegetation restoration, and this proportion increased along the successional gradient. However, the environmental factors driving variations in SOCC and SOCD differed according to vegetation type. Soil bulk density had the strongest effect on SOCC variation in all vegetation types, except for forage grassland, in which the variation was instead controlled by ROR. The variation of SOCD was mainly driven by ROR in most vegetation types, except for tillage land and forage grassland, in which the driving factor was altitude. This results indicated that natural vegetation restoration is more beneficial to SOC sequestration than managed vegetation restoration and thus for mitigating global climate change. Accordingly, future studies should take these different environmental drivers under different vegetation restoration types into consideration when modeling SOC and guiding restoration management.
•The impacts of power sector development on China’s peaking target are investigated.•The ‘lock-in’ effect of coal power plants over their lifetime is evaluated.•Uncertainties regarding the capacity ...addition and generation hours are discussed.•A custom energy system model is developed for Chinese power sector.•Three peaking periods during 2020–2035 occur under different conditions.
After a three-year trend of flat or slightly decreasing CO2 emissions in China, carbon emissions rose again in 2017. This was mainly driven by the construction of additional coal power plants, resulting in large uncertainties regarding China’s future emission trajectories. This paper focuses on the uncertainties, including potential carbon ‘lock-in’ effects, for the Chinese power sector regarding the development of future coal power plants. This is accomplished through the development and application of a technology-rich bottom-up energy system model. Several scenarios were constructed to investigate the impacts of different future power sector pathways on China’s peak CO2 target. The results show that peaks occur at three different times based on different conditions: (1) If more coal power plants are added in the 13th (2016–2020) and 14th (2021–2025) five-year plan periods, it is likely that China will reach peak CO2 emissions around 2025–2035, (2) if coal power plants operate at higher utilization rates, the emission peak is more likely to occur later, between 2030 and 2035, and (3) if renewables are given more priority in the grid and operate at higher utilization rates, it is likely that China will reach peak emissions between 2025 and 2030. Moreover, if more stringent controls on coal capacity are implemented after 2020 and the rate of utilization of renewable power plants improves considerably, it is likely that the peak will occur earlier (between 2020 and 2025). Based on our results, we suggest that governments should integrate plans for investments in coal power plants into long-term emissions mitigation strategies and implement regulations to optimize their country’s power generation structure.
Accumulating evidence indicates that the long non-coding RNA HOTAIR plays a critical role in cancer progression and metastasis. However, the overall biological role and clinical significance of ...HOTAIR in gastric carcinogenesis remains largely unknown.
HOTAIR expression was measured in 78 paired cancerous and noncancerous tissue samples by real-time PCR. The effects of HOTAIR on gastric cancer cells were studied by overexpression and RNA interference approaches in vitro and in vivo. Insights of the mechanism of competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) were gained from bioinformatic analysis, luciferase assays and RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP). The positive HOTAIR/HER2 interaction was identified and verified by immunohistochemistry assay and bivariate correlation analysis.
HOTAIR upregulation was associated with larger tumor size, advanced pathological stage and extensive metastasis, and also correlated with shorter overall survival of gastric cancer patients. Furthermore, HOTAIR overexpression promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric carcinoma cells, while HOTAIR depletion inhibited both cell invasion and cell viability, and induced growth arrest in vitro and in vivo. In particular, HOTAIR may act as a ceRNA, effectively becoming a sink for miR-331-3p, thereby modulating the derepression of HER2 and imposing an additional level of post-transcriptional regulation. Finally, the positive HOTAIR/HER2 correlation was significantly associated with advanced gastric cancers.
HOTAIR overexpression represents a biomarker of poor prognosis in gastric cancer, and may confer malignant phenotype to tumor cells. The ceRNA regulatory network involving HOTAIR and the positive interaction between HOTAIR and HER2 may contribute to a better understanding of gastric cancer pathogenesis and facilitate the development of lncRNA-directed diagnostics and therapeutics against this disease.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The altering of electronic states of metal oxides offers a promising opportunity to realize high‐efficiency surface catalysis, which play a key role in regulating polysulfides (PS) redox in ...lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. However, little effort has been devoted to understanding the relationship between the electronic state of metal oxides and a catalyst's properties in Li–S cells. Herein, defect‐rich heterojunction electrocatalysts composed of ultrathin TiO2‐x nanosheets and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for Li–S batteries are reported. Theoretical simulations indicate that oxygen vacancies and heterojunction can enhance electronic conductivity and chemical adsorption. Spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques further indicate that the rich surface vacancies in TiO2‐x nanosheets result in highly activated trapping sites for LiPS and lower energy barriers for fast Li ion mobility. Meanwhile, the redistribution of electrons at the heterojunction interfaces realizes accelerated surface electron exchange. Coupled with a polyacrylate terpolymer (LA132) binder, the CNT@TiO2‐x–S electrodes exhibit a long cycle life of more than 300 cycles at 1 C and a high area capacity of 5.4 mAh cm−2. This work offers a new perspective on understanding catalyst design in energy storage devices through band engineering.
Defect‐rich heterojunction electrocatalysts based on CNT@TiO2‐x nanosheet hybrids are designed. This versatile interface can enhance the adsorption strength of polysulfides (PS), facilitate Li+/electron transfer, and promote of electrocatalytic activity for PS redox. As a result, CNT@TiO2‐x–S electrodes exhibit lower polarization, faster reaction kinetics, and longer cycle stability than that of CNT/TiO2‐x–S and CNT@TiO2–S electrodes.
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