Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are considered as critical regulators in the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia. In this present study, we aimed to investigate the impact and underlying mechanism of ...lncRNA X-inactive specific transcript (XIST) in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. An oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) model in PC12 cells was applied to mimic cerebral I/R injury in vitro and middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) model was performed in mice to mimic cerebral I/R injury in vivo. Real-time PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay, and western blotting assay were carried out to detect the expression levels of XIST, miR-362, and Rho-related coiled-coil containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2). The functional experiments were measured by CCK-8 assay, immumofluorescence assay, ELISA assay, TUNEL, and TTC staining. Results displayed that XIST was elevated in PC12 cells with OGD/R, as well as in the ischemic penumbra of mice with MCAO/R. In vitro, knockdown of XIST facilitated cell survival, inhibited apoptosis, and alleviated inflammation injury in OGDR PC12 cells. In vivo, inhibition of XIST remarkably reduced the neurological impairments, promoted neuron proliferation, and suppressed apoptosis in MCAO mice. Mechanistically, XIST acted as a competing endogenous RNA of miR-362 to regulate the downstream gene ROCK2. In conclusion, depletion of XIST attenuated I/R-induced neurological impairment and inflammatory response via the miR-362/ROCK2 axis. These findings offer a potential novel strategy for ischemic stroke therapy.
•Mesoporous CeO2 nanospheres with high specific area and surface defect were obtained.•Detailed characterizations towards mesoporous CeO2 nanospheres were performed.•Mesoporous CeO2 photocatalysts ...exhibited an excellent photocatalytic activity.•Ce3+, oxygen vacancies, and active sites were created by Zr-doping.•Zr-doping contributed to the enhanced visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity.
As one of the most significant rare-earth oxides, cerium dioxide (ceria, CeO2) has an enormous potential in a variety of materials science applications due to many excellent characteristics. In this work, cubic-phase mesoporous CeO2 (mCeO2) nanospheres with nanocrystalline frameworks, high Ce3+ and oxygen vacancy contents, large porosity and specific surface area, were fabricated via a facile solvothermal method using inorganic precursors and without surfactant as a template. The resulting products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and N2 adsorption-desorption analyses. Raman and XPS results confirmed the presence of Ce4+, Ce3+ and Zr4+ ions and oxygen vacancies. By comparison with the undoped ones, Zr-doping in mCeO2 nanospheres contributed to increased concentrations of Ce3+ (45.25% vs 32.64%) and oxygen vacancy (37.63% vs 27.53%), as well as decreased band gap energies (2.9 vs 3.1 eV). The photocatalytic activities of the pure and Zr-doped mCeO2 nanospheres were evaluated with the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation. The Zr-doped mCeO2 products exhibited a superior photodegradation rate of ca. 94% after 120 min visible-light illumination. A kinetic study suggested that the reaction followed pseudo-first order rate equation. The optimizations on Zr-doped mCeO2 nanospheres against structural, optical, and physicochemical properties might be responsible for the enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance. The plausible photodegradation mechanism over MB dyes of mCeO2 nanospheres were also proposed. This work is expected to provide an insight view into the design and synthesis of low-cost and high-efficiency CeO2-based photocatalysts with improved visible photocatalytic activity.
Numerous factors can influence the force exerted by clear aligners on teeth. This study aimed to investigate the stability of the force delivered by two different material appliances. 90 clear ...aligners with 2 materials and three different activations were designed and fabricated. Then, a device was employed to measure the force generated by the two types of PET-G material appliances immersed in artificial saliva for 0, 3, 7, 10, 14 days. Scanning electron microscopy was applied to observe the morphologic alterations on the aligner surfaces, respectively. The forces generated by different activation appliance exhibited differently, 0.0 mm < 0.1 mm < 0.2 mm. In addition, increasing the immersion times and the orthodontic force also decreased, but the forces decreased differently. Compared with the forces of conventional PETG appliances with 0.20 mm activation, the modified PETG appliances with the same activation exhibited significantly higher mean force. When comparing the mean force for modified PETG appliances after 10 and 14 days with conventional PETG appliances, the delivery forces exhibited significant differences (P < 0.05). The force delivered by both materials decreased obviously following artificial saliva immersion, and the force generated by modified aligners exhibited better stability than conventional aligners.
To solve the problems of low strength and unsatisfactory connection quality of single joining technology, a method of clinch-adhesive hybrid joining of steel/aluminum sheets with partially glued and ...inclined wall die was proposed. Al5052 aluminum alloy and Q235 steel were used as sample materials, finite element simulation combined with actual experiments was adopted, the effect of the gluing process on the strength of clinch-adhesive hybrid joints on the inclined wall die was explored, and the failure forms and failure mechanisms of the joints in shear and peel experiments were studied. The results showed that the partial gluing process is more effective than complete gluing. The interlock of the partially glued hybrid joints was increased by 144% compared to the fully glued joints, but the neck thickness value was reduced by only 10.6%. The shear strength and peel strength of partially glued hybrid joints were higher than those of fully glued hybrid joints and clinch joints. The failure mode of the hybrid joints under shear and peel loads was a mixed failure comprising interface failure and upper sheet separation failure.
The role of wave breaking (WB) in the ocean dynamics in the Bohai Sea, China under typhoon condition is systematically investigated utilizing a coupled wave-current model. The influences of WB on ...ocean dynamics and processes (mixing coefficient, temperature, mixed layer depth, and current) during the entire typhoon period (including the pre-typhoon, during-typhoon and after-typhoon stages) are comprehensively detected and discussed. Experimental results show that WB greatly enhances the turbulent mixing at about top 10 m depth under typhoon condition, the increase can be up to 10 times that of the normal weather. At the same time, WB generally strengthens the sea surface cooling by ∼1.2°C at the during-typhoon stage, about 3 times that in normal weather. The mixed layer depth, is rapidly increased by ∼1.6–3.6 m during typhoon due to WB, particularly, the deepening is stronger in the region from 120.5°E to 121.0°E on account of close to the typhoon eye. In addition, WB renders the current speed more uniformly within the entire depth in the Bohai Sea, the change in speed is ∼0.2 m/s, whereas the alternation in current vector is generally opposite to the wind direction except for the typhoon eye region, reflecting that WB has an inhibitory effect on the typhoon-forced current change. The effects of WB on vertical mixing coefficient response to the typhoon rapidly, while the impacts of WB on temperature, and mixed layer depth present hysteretic responses to typhoon. Finally, the mechanisms and distribution characteristics of WB-induced mixing and tidal mixing are compared under typhoon condition.
Hydrogels have three-dimensional network structures, high water content, good flexibility, biocompatibility, and stimulation response, which have provided a unique role in many fields such as ...industry, agriculture, and medical treatment. Poly(vinyl alcohol) PVA hydrogel is one of the oldest composite hydrogels. It has been extensively explored due to its chemical stability, nontoxic, good biocompatibility, biological aging resistance, high water-absorbing capacity, and easy processing. PVA-based hydrogels have been widely investigated in drug carriers, articular cartilage, wound dressings, tissue engineering, and other intelligent materials, such as self-healing and shape-memory materials, supercapacitors, sensors, and other fields. In this paper, the discovery, development, preparation, modification methods, and applications of PVA functionalized hydrogels are reviewed, and their potential applications and future research trends are also prospected.
Abstract Embodied imagery hypothesis proposes the activation of perceptual-motor systems during language processing. Previous studies primarily used concrete visual stimuli to investigate mental ...imagery in language processing by native speakers (NSs) and second language (L2) learners, but few studies employed schematic diagrams. The study aims to investigate mental imagery in processing prepositional phrases by English NSs and L2 learners. Using image-schematic diagrams as primes, we examine whether any mental imagery effect is modulated by target preposition ( over, in ), the abstractness of meaning (spatial, extended), and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; 1,040 ms, 2,040 ms). A total of 79 adult L2 learners and 100 NSs of English completed diagram–picture matching and semantic priming phrasal decision tasks. Results revealed interference effects on L2 processing of over phrases and under 2,040 ms SOA, but no such effects were observed in the NS group. The selective interference effects in L2 suggest different mental imagery patterns between L1 and L2 processing, and processing schematic diagram primes requires high cognitive demands, potentially leading to difficulties in integrating visual and linguistic information and making grammaticality judgments. The findings partially validate schematic diagrams as visual representations of concepts and suggest the need for further examination of schematic diagrams with varying degrees of complexity.
Recent advances in wavefront shaping, i.e., wavefront modulated by a spatial light modulator, have opened hopeful venues to focus light through scattering media in particular and unparalleled ways, ...by means of codifying the values of pixels of the modulator. The transmission matrix approach is one of the most exciting recent advances to obtain optimal phase distributions, due to the consent of enabling turbidity suppression, in both transmitted and reflected waves, with high resolution and large efficiency. However, the transmission matrix is ill-conditioned, which seriously affects the precision of phase distributions. In this paper, we study the ill-condition of the transmission matrix in detail. An idea of optimizing the singular values of the transmission matrix is proposed, which improves the accuracy and stability of the phase distribution. Experiments verify this idea.
Flexible strain sensors have received increasing attention with the development of wearable electronic devices. However, integrating wide strain detection range, high sensitivity while maintaining ...relatively wide linear response range for such sensor system still remain a challenge. A fabric based flexible sensor (S-CNT/PDMS-F) was designed and fabricated, and the sensor can simultaneously achieve high sensitivity, wide linear response and strain detection range by combining self-segregated carbon nanotube (CNT)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites and elastic medical bandage. It has been observed that this new sensor system can achieve a high sensitivity with a gauge factor of 615, a large linear responsive range of 0–100% strain (R2 = 0.993) and a wide strain detection range of ∼ 200%, which is superior to almost all the reported CNT/PDMS flexible strain sensors. Compared to the similar fabric based strain sensor system deploying non self-segregated structure (C-CNT/PDMS-F), our S-CNT/PDMS-F demonstrates higher electrical conductivity and lower electrical percolation threshold and response time of 55 ms, as well as more stable and repeatable performance under cyclic loading conditions. The capability of the sensors in monitoring physiological activities and weight distribution has also been demonstrated.
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•A CNT/PDMS nanocomposite coating with a self-segregated structure was prepared.•The nanocomposite coating was applied on an elastic medical bandage to obtain a fabric-based strain sensor.•The sensor showed a high sensitivity, wide linear response and strain detection range.
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