Metabolic syndrome is a global public health problem and predisposes individuals to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Although the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated, ...accumulating evidence has uncovered a critical role of adipokines. Chemerin, encoded by the gene Rarres2, is a newly discovered adipokine involved in inflammation, adipogenesis, angiogenesis and energy metabolism. In humans, local and circulating levels of chemerin are positively correlated with BMI and obesity-related biomarkers. In this review, we discuss both peripheral and central roles of chemerin in regulating body metabolism. In general, chemerin is upregulated in obese and diabetic animals. Previous studies by gain or loss of function show an association of chemerin with adipogenesis, glucose homeostasis, food intake and body weight. In the brain, the hypothalamus integrates peripheral afferent signals including adipokines to regulate appetite and energy homeostasis. Chemerin increases food intake in seasonal animals by acting on hypothalamic stem cells, the tanycytes. In peripheral tissues, chemerin increases cell expansion, inflammation and angiogenesis in adipose tissue, collectively resulting in adiposity. While chemerin signalling enhances insulin secretion from pancreatic islets, contradictory results have been reported on how chemerin links to obesity and insulin resistance. Given the association of chemerin with obesity comorbidities in humans, advances in translational research targeting chemerin are expected to mitigate metabolic disorders. Together, the exciting findings gathered in the last decade clearly indicate a crucial multifaceted role for chemerin in the regulation of energy balance, making it a promising candidate for urgently needed pharmacological treatment strategies for obesity.
Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is known as an efficient way of converting the salinity gradient between river water and sea water into energy. However, the high cost and complex fabrication of the ...necessary ion exchange membranes greatly prohibit the development of the RED process. For the first time, an ionized wood membrane is demonstrated for this application, benefiting from the advantages of natural wood, which is abundant, low cost, sustainable, and easy to scale. The wood membrane maintains the aligned nanochannels of the cellulose nanofibers derived from the natural wood. The surface of the nanochannels can be functionalized to positively or negatively charged by in situ modifying the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose chains to quaternary ammonium or carboxyl groups, respectively. These charged aligned nanochannels serve as nanofluidic passages for selective ion transport with opposite polarity through the wood membrane, resulting in efficient charge separation and generating an electrochemical potential difference. The all‐wood RED device with 100 cells using a scalable stacking geometry generates an output voltage as high as 9.8 V at open circuit from a system of synthetic river water and sea water.
An all‐wood reverse electrodialysis device using a scalable stacking geometry of the positively and negatively charged ionized wood membranes is demonstrated for the first time. A high voltage up to 9.89 V can be generated by 100‐pairs of membranes, suggesting their great potential to generate salinity‐gradient power from the system of river water and sea water.
Microglia/macrophages are the major immune cells involved in the defence against brain damage. Their morphology and functional changes are correlated with the release of danger signals induced by ...stroke. These cells are normally responsible for clearing away dead neural cells and restoring neuronal functions. However, when excessively activated by the damage-associated molecular patterns following stroke, they can produce a large number of proinflammatory cytokines that can disrupt neural cells and the blood-brain barrier and influence neurogenesis. These effects indicate the important roles of microglia/macrophages in the pathophysiological processes of stroke. However, the modifiable and adaptable nature of microglia/macrophages may also be beneficial for brain repair and not just result in damage. These distinct roles may be attributed to the different microglia/macrophage phenotypes because the M1 population is mainly destructive, while the M2 population is neuroprotective. Additionally, different gene expression signature changes in microglia/macrophages have been found in diverse inflammatory milieus. These biofunctional features enable dual roles for microglia/macrophages in brain damage and repair. Currently, it is thought that the proper inflammatory milieu may provide a suitable microenvironment for neurogenesis; however, detailed mechanisms underlying the inflammatory responses that initiate or inhibit neurogenesis remain unknown. This review summarizes recent progress concerning the mechanisms involved in brain damage, repair and regeneration related to microglia/macrophage activation and phenotype transition after stroke. We also argue that future translational studies should be targeting multiple key regulating molecules to improve brain repair, which should be accompanied by the concept of a "therapeutic time window" for sequential therapies.
Organic molecules are rich in carbon-hydrogen bonds; consequently, the transformation of C-H bonds to new functionalities (such as C-C, C-N, and C-O bonds) has garnered much attention by the ...synthetic chemistry community. The utility of C-H activation in organic synthesis, however, cannot be fully realized until chemists achieve stereocontrol in the modification of C-H bonds. This Review highlights recent efforts to enantioselectively functionalize C(sp
)-H bonds via transition metal catalysis, with an emphasis on key principles for both the development of chiral ligand scaffolds that can accelerate metalation of C(sp
)-H bonds and stereomodels for asymmetric metalation of prochiral C-H bonds by these catalysts.
Data mining with big data Wu, Xindong; Zhu, Xingquan; Wu, Gong-Qing ...
IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering,
2014-Jan., 2014-01-00, 20140101, Letnik:
26, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Big Data concern large-volume, complex, growing data sets with multiple, autonomous sources. With the fast development of networking, data storage, and the data collection capacity, Big Data are now ...rapidly expanding in all science and engineering domains, including physical, biological and biomedical sciences. This paper presents a HACE theorem that characterizes the features of the Big Data revolution, and proposes a Big Data processing model, from the data mining perspective. This data-driven model involves demand-driven aggregation of information sources, mining and analysis, user interest modeling, and security and privacy considerations. We analyze the challenging issues in the data-driven model and also in the Big Data revolution.
Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is the most lethal subtype of stroke but currently lacks effective treatment. Microglia are among the first non-neuronal cells on the scene during the innate immune ...response to ICH. Microglia respond to acute brain injury by becoming activated and developing classic M1-like (proinflammatory) or alternative M2-like (anti-inflammatory) phenotypes. This polarization implies as yet unrecognized actions of microglia in ICH pathology and recovery, perhaps involving microglial production of proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Furthermore, alternatively activated M2-like microglia might promote phagocytosis of red blood cells and tissue debris, a major contribution to haematoma clearance. Interactions between microglia and other cells modulate microglial activation and function, and are also important in ICH pathology. This Review summarizes key studies on modulators of microglial activation and polarization after ICH, including M1-like and M2-like microglial phenotype markers, transcription factors and key signalling pathways. Microglial phagocytosis, haematoma resolution, and the potential crosstalk between microglia and T lymphocytes, neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes in the ICH brain are described. Finally, the clinical and translational implications of microglial polarization in ICH are presented, including the evidence that therapeutic approaches aimed at modulating microglial function might mitigate ICH injury and improve brain repair.
A
bstract
By taking the ultra-spinning limit as a simple solution-generating trick, a novel class of ultra-spinning charged black hole solutions has been constructed from Chow’s rotating charged ...black hole with two equal-charge parameters in six-dimensional
N
= 4 gauged supergravity theory. We investigate their thermodynamical properties and then demonstrate that all thermodynamical quantities completely obey both the differential first law and the Bekenstein-Smarr mass formula. For the six-dimensional ultra-spinning Chow’s black hole with only one rotation parameter, we show that it does not always obey the reverse isoperimetric inequality, thus it can be either sub-entropic or super-entropic, depending upon the ranges of the mass parameter and especially the charge parameter. This property is obviously different from that of the six-dimensional singly-rotating Kerr-AdS super-entropic black hole, which always strictly violates the RII. For the six-dimensional doubly-rotating Chow’s black hole but ultra-spinning only along one spatial axis, we point out that it may also obey or violate the RII, and can be either super-entropic or sub-entropic in general.
Yaodi Pao Zhuang (Monk Yaodi Distills the Essence of the Zhuangzi, 藥地炮莊), written by Ming dynasty scholar Fang Yizhi (1611–1671), was one of the greatest annotations of Zhuangzi 庄子 in the late Ming ...dynasty. However, the Buddhist thought in Yaodi Pao Zhuang has scarcely been examined. Drawing on the revival of the consciousness-only (vijñaptimātratā, 唯識) theory during the Ming dynasty, this study discussed how Fang Yizhi transformed the theory to annotate Zhuangzi in Yaodi Pao Zhuang through literature comparison and logical analysis. Meanwhile, from a speculative viewpoint drawing on Yi studies (studies of the Yi Jing, 易學), Fang Yizhi demonstrated that “storehouse consciousness” (alaya-vijnana, 阿賴耶識) could have contrasting properties of defilement (samklesa, 染) and purity (suddha, 淨). Moreover, he proposed “consciousness is wisdom” to replace the consciousness-only view of “transforming consciousness into wisdom” prevailing in the Tang dynasty, thus providing the conditions for the interpenetration of the consciousness-only doctrine into Zhuangzi. This study’s results highlight the positive implications of Fang Yizhi’s mutually supportive interaction model of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism for addressing contemporary cultural conflicts.
Rings with a twist: The highly enantioselective construction of five‐membered spiroindolenines has been realized by the iridium‐catalyzed intramolecular allylic dearomatization of indoles. The ...stereospecific migration of these spiro cyclopentane‐1,3′‐indole products provides enantioenriched 2,3,4,9‐tetrahydro‐1H‐carbazoles.
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