Porphyrins and their derivatives have been employed extensively in organic solar cells (OSCs) in recent years. However, a deeper understanding of the exciton dissociation process for the porphyrin ...donor/non‐fullerene acceptor (NFA) interface is still lacking. Herein, we have combined quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics simulations to explore the combination of mono and dimer porphyrin donors with various types of NFAs. The work reveals that the key issue lies in the exciton dissociation process of porphyrin materials, which have strong crystallinity to increase spacing (more than 5.0 Å), resulting in lesser miscibility and weaker intermolecular π‐π stacking. The pathway for exciton dissociation will be limited by the small number of high‐energy charge transfer (CT) states. To solve the above‐mentioned issues, we implement an improved strategy for modifying the side chain of the terminal unit, reducing the stacking distance to 4.4 Å, while the number of CT states reaches up to 40 % (3/A3 style 1). Additionally, the results also indicate the development potential for all porphyrin OSCs, particularly, the charge recombination (kCR) rate of the 1/Rf‐Iso system is lowered by nearly nine orders of magnitude. This research may offer fresh perspectives for extending the application range of porphyrin materials in OSCs.
Limitations of porphyrin materials, which are widely applied to all small molecule organic solar cells (OSCs), are described from the perspective of the exciton dissociation process. A strategy to improve the miscibility for porphyrin/non‐fullerene acceptor is proposed. The development potential of all porphyrin OSCs is also discussed.
Yolk sac tumor (YST) is one of rare malignant germ cell tumors (GCTs). Primary intracranial YST, also endodermal sinus tumor (EST), is a quite rare type of brain tumor. Here, we report a case of YST, ...review the relevant literature, and propose a treatment strategy for this rare tumor. A 6-year-old boy initially manifested symptoms of dizziness and vomiting. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a large irregular oval tumor in the cerebellar hemisphere. We subtotally removed the tumor by microsurgery through the left suboccipital approach. Immunohistochemical staining showed that alpha fetoprotein (AFP) was positive and the Ki-67 proliferation index was high (60%), suggesting a germ cell tumor. After 3 months of follow-up, neither recurrence of tumor nor complications were found in the patient. The diagnosis of YST should be confirmed on the basis of clinical manifestations, neuroimaging and pathological findings. Gross total resection (GTR) is an ideal treatment for YST. However, due to the location of the tumor, GTR is usually difficult, and the rate of postoperative complications is high. This reported case shows that subtotal resection can be a good treatment strategy for YST.
Microglial apoptosis is associated with neuroinflammation and no effective strategies are currently available to protect microglia against inflammation-induced apoptosis. Mouse microglial BV-2 cells ...(5 × 106) were incubated with 10 μg/mL lipopolysaccharides for 12 hours to mimic an inflammatory environment. Then the cells were co-cultured with mitochonic acid 5 (MA-5) for another 12 hours. MA-5 improved the survival of lipopolysaccharide-exposed cells. MA-5 decreased the activity of caspase-3, which is associated with apoptosis. MA-5 reduced the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling-positive cells, and increased adenosine triphosphate levels in cells. MA-5 decreased the open state of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and reduced calcium overload and diffusion of second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase (Smac). MA-5 decreased the expression of apoptosis-related proteins (mitochondrial Smac, cytoplasmic Smac, pro-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-3, and caspase-9), and increased the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins (Bcl2 and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein), mitochondria-related proteins (mitochondrial fusion protein 2, mitochondrial microtubule-associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3B II), and autophagy-related proteins (Beclin1, p62 and autophagy related 5). However, MA-5 did not promote mitochondrial homeostasis or decrease microglial apoptosis when Mitofusin 2 expression was silenced. This shows that MA-5 increased Mitofusin 2-related mitophagy, reversed cellular energy production and maintained energy metabolism in BV-2 cells in response to lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation. These findings indicate that MA-5 may promote the survival of microglial cells via Mitofusin 2-related mitophagy in response to lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation.
Expulsion identification is of significance for welding quality assessment and control in resistance spot welding. In order to improve the identification accuracy, a novel wavelet decomposition and ...Back Propagation (BP) neural networks with the peak-to-peak amplitude and the kurtosis index were proposed to identify the expulsion from electrode force sensing signals. The rapid step impulse and resultant damping vibration of electrode force was determined as a robust indication of expulsion, and this feature was extracted from the electrode force waveform by seven-layer wavelet decomposition with Daubechies5 wavelets. Then, the energy distribution proportion of the decomposed detail signals were calculated, and the highest-energy one was selected as the target signal. Two statistical indexes were introduced in this paper to measure the target signal in overall situation and volatility. The bigger the peak-to-peak amplitude is, the more violent the fluctuation is. Moreover, the higher the kurtosis index is, the stronger the impact is, and the lower the dispersion degree of the data is. Experimental analysis showed that neither the peak-to-peak amplitude nor the kurtosis index could accurately judge the expulsion defect individually, because of the early signal fluctuation, likely affected by the work-piece clamping, work-piece clearance, or the oxide film thickness. Therefore, the BP neural networks were introduced to identify the expulsion defects, which is a mature and stable non-linear pattern recognition method. Testing experiments presented good results with the trained networks and improved the evaluable accuracy effectively in the quality assessment of the resistance spot welding.
Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) is a novel marker of myocardial injury and has been reported to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) including patients with diabetes ...mellitus (DM). Unfortunately, its prognostic value in patients with CVD and impaired glucose metabolism (IGM) is unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of H-FABP in CVD patients with IGM.
A total of 4594 patients with angiography-proven coronary artery disease (CAD) were enrolled and divided into subgroup according to glucose metabolism status (normal glucose regulation NGR, pre-DM, and DM). Baseline levels of H-FABP were measured using latex immunoturbidimetric method. The cardiovascular events (CVE) were defined as cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke and coronary revascularization. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis were used to evaluate the relations of H-FABP and glucose metabolism status to CVEs.
During the follow-up period with up to 7.1 years, 380 CVEs occurred. Patients with CVE had higher levels of H-FABP compared to those without CVE (p < 0.001). Interestingly, H-FABP levels were also elevated in DM and pre-DM groups compared with NGR group (p < 0.001), when combined glucose metabolism status with H-FABP stratification, patients in the highest tertile of H-FABP appeared to have higher risk of CVEs with pre-DM (adjusted hazard ratio HR: 1.855, 95% confidential intervals CIs 1.076-3.214; p = 0.033) and DM (adjusted HR: 2.560, 95% CIs 1.409-4.650; p = 0.002). The Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that DM patients with the highest H-FABP levels were associated with the greatest risk of CVEs (p < 0.05).
Our data firstly showed that elevated H-FABP levels were associated with worse outcomes in CAD patients with pre-DM and DM, which provided the novel information that H-FABP might be a prognostic marker for clinical outcomes among patients with CAD and IGM.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract Background Big endothelin-1 (ET-1) has been proposed as a novel prognostic indicator of acute coronary syndrome, while its predicting role of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with stable ...coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear. Methods and results A total of 3154 consecutive patients with stable CAD were enrolled and followed up for 24 months. The outcomes included all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke and unplanned revascularization (percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting). Baseline big ET-1 was measured using sandwich enzyme immunoassay method. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier analysis were used to evaluate the prognostic value of big ET-1 on cardiovascular outcomes. One hundred and eighty-nine (5.99%) events occurred during follow-up. Patients were divided into two groups: events group ( n = 189) and non-events group ( n = 2965). The results indicated that the events group had higher levels of big ET-1 compared to non-events group. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that big ET-1 was positively and statistically correlated with clinical outcomes (Hazard Ratio: 1.656, 95% confidence interval: 1.099–2.496, p = 0.016). Additionally, the Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that patients with higher big ET-1 presented lower event-free survival ( p = 0.016). Conclusions The present study firstly suggests that big ET-1 is an independent risk marker of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with stable CAD. And more studies are needed to confirm our findings.
BACKGROUND Cardiac remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a noninvasive cardioprotective method in ischemia-reperfusion injury and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The aims of this study were to ...investigate the effects of RIC in a rat model of AMI. MATERIAL AND METHODS Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats included the AMI group that underwent ligation of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery (n=24), the RIC group that consisted the AMI rat model treated with RIC once daily in the left hind limb until days 1, 7 and 14 (n=24), and the sham group (n=24). Myocardial infarct size was measured by routine histology with triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) and Masson's trichrome histochemical staining for myocardial necrosis and fibrosis, respectively. Serum levels of Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The apoptosis index was detected using the TUNEL assay. Spectrophotometry of the myocardium was used to identify mitochondrial complexes and myocardial ATP. RESULTS The RIC group showed improved cardiac hemodynamics, reduced the size of the myocardial infarction, upregulated expression of Bcl-2, and down-regulation of the levels of Bax, caspase-3, and iNOS, and reduced cardiac myocyte apoptosis and inhibited the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP). CONCLUSIONS In a rat model of AMI, RIC improved the hemodynamic index, reduce the levels of apoptosis and myocardial injury, and improved mitochondrial function.
Background and Objective
Several small studies have found that moderate- to high-dose statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) could increase the serum proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 ...(PCSK9) level. However, little is known regarding the short-term, dose-dependent effects of low-dose atorvastatin and the rapid effects of a single dose of atorvastatin on PCSK9. The objective of this study was to investigate the short-term impact of low-dose atorvastatin on PCSK9 in humans.
Methods
In this randomized study, data from 66 subjects were analyzed. In protocol I, 32 patients were randomized to atorvastatin 10 mg/day (
n
= 19) or 20 mg/day (
n
= 13) and eight healthy subjects without therapy were controls for 8 weeks. Serum PCSK9 and lipid profile were determined at day 0, week 4, and week 8. In protocol II, 26 patients were randomized to a single dose of atorvastatin 10 mg (
n
= 11) or 80 mg (
n
= 15), and serum levels of PCSK9 were measured at 24 h after treatment.
Results
Atorvastatin 10 mg/day decreased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) by 32 % at 4 weeks and by 33 % at 8 weeks, and atorvastatin 20 mg/day resulted in reduction of LDL-C by 41 % at 4 weeks and by 38 % at 8 weeks. Atorvastatin 10 mg/day slightly increased serum PCSK9 by 5–7 % but without a significant difference, while atorvastatin 20 mg/day significantly increased serum PCSK9 by 30 % at 4 weeks and by 35 % at 8 weeks (
p
= 0.009 and
p
= 0.002, respectively). In addition, 24 h after a single dose, atorvastatin 10 mg significantly increased serum PCSK9 by 13 % and atorvastatin 80 mg by 27 % (
p
= 0.042 and
p
= 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion
The short-term impact of low-dose atorvastatin on PCSK9 was time and dose dependent, with a rapid increase in PCSK9 levels being observed within 24 h of dosing.
Recent guidelines highlighted the association between atherosclerosis and triglyceride-enriched lipoproteins in patients with impaired glucose metabolism. However, evidence from prospective studies ...for long-term prognostic utility of low-density lipoprotein triglyceride (LDL-TG) in real-world patients with prediabetes (Pre-DM) or diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) is currently not available. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of LDL-TG on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with stable CAD under different glucose metabolism status.
A total of 4381 patients with CAD were consecutively enrolled and plasma LDL-TG level was measured by an automated homogeneous assay. They were categorized according to both status of glucose metabolism DM, Pre-DM, normal glycaemia regulation (NGR) and tertiles of LDL-TG. All subjects were followed up for the occurrence of MACEs.
During a median of 5.1 (interquartile range 3.9 to 5.9) years' follow-up, 507 (11.6%) MACEs occurred. Cubic spline models showed a significant association between LDL-TG and MACEs in DM and Pre-DM but not in NGR. When the combined effect of elevated LDL-TG and glucose disorders was considered for risk stratification, the medium tertile of LDL-TG plus DM, and the highest tertile of LDL-TG plus Pre-DM or plus DM subgroups were associated with significantly higher risk of MACEs after adjustment of confounders including triglyceride hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals): 1.843 (1.149-2.955), 1.828 (1.165-2.867), 2.212 (1.396-3.507), all p < 0.05. Moreover, adding LDL-TG into the original model increased the C-statistic from 0.687 to 0.704 (∆C-statistic = 0.016, p = 0.028) and from 0.734 to 0.749 (∆C-statistic = 0.014, p = 0.002) in Pre-DM and DM, respectively.
In this longitudinal cohort study on real-world practice, higher LDL-TG was associated with worse outcomes among Pre-DM and DM patients with stable CAD.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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