Objective
Impaired wound healing in diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health burden on patients, their families, and society. The present study aimed to systematically profile the m6A modification ...landscape in cutaneous wounds in a diabetic mouse model.
Approach
Diabetes was induced in mice through a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ); a single intraperitoneal injection of PBS was made in control mice for comparisons. Both groups then received an 8-mm diameter, full-thickness dorsal body wound with a biopsy punch. Five days after wound surgery, western blot analysis of harvested wound tissues from both groups was used to assess the expression of m6A-related enzymes. Genome-wide profiling of m6A-tagged transcripts was performed through MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq.
Results
ALKBH5, an m6A eraser, was significantly upregulated, while METTL3, METTL14, and WTAP, m6A writers, were markedly downregulated in the diabetic wounds. Additionally, a total of 1335 m6A peaks were differentially expressed in MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq analyses, with 558 upregulated and 777 downregulated peaks. Finally, there was hypomethylated and hypermethylated differentiation at the gene and transcript levels.
Innovation
The present study was the first to reveal the m6A landscape in diabetic wounds in an animal model.
Conclusion
This study, by deeply analyzing the role of m6A modifications in diabetic wound healing, provides new insights and understanding into the molecular mechanisms of diabetic wound healing. Future research could further explore how m6A modifications regulate the wound healing process, thereby offering new potential targets for the treatment of diabetic wounds.
The implementation of antibiotic intravenous-to-oral switch (IVOS) therapy in hospitals can slow down the development of drug resistance, reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions, and bring ...significant economic benefits. The aim of this study is to investigate the understanding of physicians at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University in Suzhou, China towards the antibiotic IVOS therapy.
15 physicians working in 9 different departments of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University participated in this study. A semi-structured face-to-face interview was conducted to collect interview information about the antibiotic IVOS therapy. NVivo12 software was used to organize the entire interview content, and the interview data was analyzed and summarized using the Colaizzi seven step method.
60% of participants were not familiar with antibiotic IVOS therapy. Barriers of antibiotic IVOS therapy were included by three key issues: (i) Physicians' potential cognition: 'Iv is always better than oral'; (ii) Subjective infusion intention of patients; and (iii) Limitations of drug selection. 60% of participants expressed welcome for pharmacists to help them perform antibiotic IVOS treatment. And electronic recognition technology may be a feasible method for prompting IVOS conversion that recognized by all participants in the interview. Participants also provided some suggestions for pharmacists and IVOS computer reminders.
Physicians' in China still have insufficient understanding of antibiotic IVOS therapy. The promotion of antibiotic IVOS therapy in China faces many challenges and obstacles. Strategies such as IVOS therapy computer reminders and clinical pharmacists' medication guidance were worth studying to help physicians develop antibiotic IVOS treatment.
To alleviate inhibition of anaerobic digestion caused by capsaicin, which is easily soluble in the lipid components of food waste (FW), an advanced oxidation process with sodium ...percarbonate/ultraviolet (SPC/UV) was used to generate free radicals for degrading capsaicin and recovering methane production. Free radical sweeping showed that the free radicals OH, O2— and CO3— worked together to degrade capsaicin. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that capsaicin likely had four degradation pathways via conversion into benzoquinone, and finally into carbon dioxide and water. The degradation rate of capsaicin in lipids increased from 62.2% to 96.0% when the SPC concentration increased from 2 mmol/L to 32 mmol/L (UV intensity = 20.66 mW/cm2). The degradation rate increased from 70.9% to 94.6% when the UV intensity increased from 20.66 mW/cm2 to 46.86 mW/cm2 (SPC concentration = 4 mmol/L). The subsequent products after capsaicin degradation were subjected to anaerobic digestion either directly or by adding FW. The reduced intracellular oxidative kinases of anaerobic digestion microorganisms recovered the CH4 yield from 27.2 mL/g-total volatile solids (TVS) with capsaicin to 311.2 mL/g-TVS with degraded capsaicin, which was 40.7% that of the control group (765.3 mL/g-TVS without capsaicin). After adding FW, the CH4 yield of SPC/UV degradation effluent was 504.1 mL/g-TVS, which was 82.6% that of the control group (610.4 mL/g-TVS).
Display omitted
•The effects of capsaicin degradation on anaerobic digestion were deeply analyzed.•Sodium percarbonate/ultraviolet degraded up to 94.6% of the added capsaicin.•OH, O2—and CO3— worked in the degradation system to degrade capsaicin.•The methane yield recovered to 82.6% of the control group with capsaicin degradation.•Cellular toxicity and oxidative damage were alleviated to ease capsaicin inhibition.
•We perform simulations of particle moving freely in flow with lattice Boltzmann method.•The performances of seven momentum exchange methods are compared.•We evaluate five kinds of refilling ...algorithms.•The corrected ME method and local iteration refill algorithm have good performance.
The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has been widely used in the study of particulate flows. In order to track a moving particle, it is critical to calculate correctly the hydrodynamic force exerted on the body, and reconstruct the state at a newly-generated fluid node originally covered by the object. A widely used force-evaluation technique in LBM is the momentum exchange (ME) method, and several versions have been proposed from different viewpoint. Generally, the ME method can be implemented together with the bounce-back (BB) rule for the no-slip boundary conditions imposed on a particle surface. However, the BB scheme is prone to produce spurious force oscillation which may deteriorate the numerical stability and even obtain inaccurate simulation results. An efficient way to suppress the unphysical oscillation is to design proper refilling algorithm to reconstruct the state at a fresh node, and some efforts have been made. The present work aims to examine the behaviors of several widely used ME methods coupled with different refilling algorithms. Three problems, including the sedimentation of a particle under gravity in a channel, the motion of a neutrally buoyant particle in a Couette flow, and the migration of a neutrally buoyant particle in a Poiseuille flow, are chosen as test cases. It is found that the ME methods yield quantitatively different results for the particle settling case, and moreover, behave qualitatively differently in the cases with neutrally buoyant particle. The ME methods can then be generally divided into two major types according to whether they can reproduce the Segré–Silberberg effect in the Poiseuille flow. For the refilling algorithms, the results show that the non-equilibrium term contributes to a smaller spurious force oscillation. However, after combined with the local iteration scheme, the refilling algorithms produce almost the same magnitude of fictitious oscillation. Moreover, the time-step decoupling scheme can further reduce the oscillation magnitude.
In order to facilitate the robust and precise 3D vessel shape extraction and quantification from in-vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), this paper presents a novel multi-scale Knowledge Transfer ...Vision Transformer (i.e., KT-ViT) for 3D vessel shape segmentation. First, it uniquely integrates convolutional embeddings with transformer in a U-net architecture, which simultaneously responds to local receptive fields with convolution layers and global contexts with transformer encoders in a multi-scale fashion. Therefore, it intrinsically enriches local vessel feature and simultaneously promotes global connectivity and continuity for a more accurate and reliable vessel shape segmentation. Furthermore, to enable using relatively low-resolution (LR) images to segment fine scale vessel shapes, a novel knowledge transfer network is designed to explore the inter-dependencies of data and automatically transfer the knowledge gained from high-resolution (HR) data to the low-resolution handling network at multiple levels, including the multi-scale feature levels and the decision level, through an integration of multi-level loss functions. The modeling capability of fine-scale vessel shape data distribution, possessed by the HR image transformer network, can be transferred to the LR image transformer to enhance its knowledge for fine vessel shape segmentation. Extensive experimental results on public image datasets have demonstrated that our method outperforms all other state-of-the-art deep learning methods.
•A novel knowledge transfer transformer for segmenting fine-scale 3D vasculature.•A unique vision transformer integrating both local convolutions and global encodings.•A U-shape multi-scale processing through the hierarchical convolutional transformer.•Knowledge transfer through transformers to explore the resolution inter-dependencies.
•The deep effects of oxygen vacancies on activating CO2 photoreduction activity was investigated.•The introduced oxygen vacancies could drive up the Fermi level, optimize the band structure.•The ...oxygen vacancies reduce the formation energy of *COOH intermediate and stabilized *CO2- and *CO intermediates.
Rationally designing highly active, low-cost and stable photocatalysts is a crucial endeavor for the development of photocatalysis as one of the most promising advanced carbon-negative technologies. Here, we explored the deep effects of oxygen vacancies on activating CO2 photoreduction via coupling theoretical calculations and experimental results. In broad themes, oxygen vacancies improved the transport and separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs and enhanced the photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity. The deep effects, however, were that for n-Type semiconductor, the introduced oxygen vacancies could drive up the Fermi level, optimize the band structure, boost the reduction capability of the photogenerated electrons, and enhance the adsorption properties of reactants of the photocatalyst for the photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction. We highlighted the rational design of the photocatalysts, and how the essential theory deserves to be integrated into the exploitation of the photocatalysts to accelerate the development of photocatalysis.
Phenazines are a large group of nitrogen-containing heterocycles, providing diverse chemical structures and various biological activities. Natural phenazines are mainly isolated from marine and ...terrestrial microorganisms. So far, more than 100 different natural compounds and over 6000 synthetic derivatives have been found and investigated. Many phenazines show great pharmacological activity in various fields, such as antimicrobial, antiparasitic, neuroprotective, insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. Researchers continued to investigate these compounds and hope to develop them as medicines. Cimmino et al. published a significant review about anticancer activity of phenazines, containing articles from 2000 to 2011. Here, we mainly summarize articles from 2012 to 2021. According to sources of compounds, phenazines were categorized into natural phenazines and synthetic phenazine derivatives in this review. Their pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action, biosynthetic pathways and synthetic strategies were summarized. These may provide guidance for the investigation on phenazines in the future.
Display omitted
•The addition of nZVI alleviated the inhibition of acid on the anaerobic digestion.•nZVI promoted lactic acid degradation and increased methane production.•nZVI optimized microbial ...community structure.•nZVI addition improved electrochemical performance of the anaerobic digestion.•Excess nZVI (>2 g/L) disrupted cell structure and inhibited methane production.
Serious inhibition of methane production in an anaerobic digestion (AD) system can be caused by propionic acid, which is derived from lactic acid degradation. Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) was used in this study to improve conversion of propionic acid into acetic acid, thereby promoting methane production. The methane yield was markedly enhanced when nZVI concentration increased from 0 to 2 g/L; however, it decreased when nZVI concentration further increased to 8 g/L. At an nZVI concentration of 2 g/L, the methane yield increased by 37% from 398.5 to 546.4 mL CH4/g TVS. The abundance of Candidatus Cloacamonas in the bacterial community increased from 2.17% to 3.78%, which facilitated conversion of propionic acid into acetic acid. Meanwhile, the abundances of Methanomassiliicoccus and Methanosarcina in archaeal community increased, which was beneficial to methane production. Cyclic voltammetry showed that the electron transfer coefficient in the AD system increased from 0.029 to 0.034 s−1.
To address the severe inhibition effect of propionic acid derived from lactic acid degradation on methane production, microbial electrodes were used to enhance electron transfer in lactic acid ...anaerobic digestion system. Excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy analysis revealed that electrochemical treatment reduced the content of humic acids, which implied that intercellular electron transfer pathway changed from extracellular polymer transfer to more efficient microbial electrode transfer. The electron-producing bacteria Firmicutes with increased abundance from 51.5% to 59.7% provided more electrons on anode by degrading acetates for methanogenesis, while hydrogenotrophic methanogens Methanoculleus with increased abundance from 66.5% to 77.2% produced more methane on cathode from H2 and CO2. The microorganisms formed stable biofilms on anode and cathode surfaces at 0.8 V, resulting in a 27.4% increase in methane yield to 477.1 mL CH4/g total volatile solids.
•Electrochemistry increased methane yield from lactic acid anaerobic digestion by 27.4%.•Electron extracellular polymer transfer converted to direct electrode transfer.•Electron-producing bacteria Firmicutes boosted along with enhanced electron transfer.•Microbes formed stable biofilm on the electrode at 0.8 V to promote electron transfer.
To investigate optical and communication performances of quantum dots (QDs) under ultraviolet (UV) and solar-blind deep-ultraviolet (DUV) environments, we manufacture green-, orange-, and ...red-emissive thin films as light converters by using II-VI family CdSe-based QDs; and prepare 385- and 375-nm UV lights, as well as 280-nm DUV light as excitation sources in an optical wireless communication (OWC) system. With a 1.5-m distance and 385-nm UV excitation, the highest data rate of the orange QDs reaches 77 Mb/s below the forward-error-correction (FEC) limit (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">3.8\times 10^{-3} </tex-math></inline-formula>), using on-off keying (OOK) modulation and post-equalization. This value slightly decreases to 72 Mb/s with 375-nm UV excitation and further decreases to 48 and 42 Mb/s when replaced with green and red QDs, respectively. High quantum yield and absorbance of the orange QDs become the main reasons for achieving the highest data rate among others. Equalization shows apparent benefit in reducing the bit error rate (BER) when the emitting optical power of QDs is sufficient. Without equalization, only 62, 45, and 40 Mb/s can be achieved under the same condition, whereas the BER increases drastically when using 280-nm DUV light due to a decrease in optical emission. Optical performances of QDs, such as quantum yield, absorbance, and fluorescent lifetime, are evaluated to analyze their influences on the communication performance of QD-based OWC systems, such as frequency response, data rate, BER, and eye diagram. These comprehensive studies provide effective guidelines for designing diversified OWC systems.
PDF
