The soluble complexes formed between hydrolyzed soybean protein and calcium at pH 7.4 were investigated using dialysis, gel chromatography, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The ...results demonstrate that the amount of calcium bound was significantly different for soybean protein hydrolysates obtained using the proteases neutrase, flavourzyme, protease M, and pepsin. Maximum levels of calcium binding (66.9 mg/g) occurred with hydrolysates produced using protease M. Peptide fragments exhibiting high calcium binding capacity had molecular weights of either 14.4 kDa or 8 to 9 kDa, and the calcium binding capacity was linearly correlated with carboxyl group content (R²= 0.8204). FTIR experiments revealed that upon binding calcium, the amide I band underwent a shift to lower wave numbers. A wide, intense Ca-O absorption band also appeared between 400 and 100 cm⁻¹ in the far-infrared spectrum. The width and intensity of this band increased after treatment of samples with glutaminase. The amount of bound calcium was related to both the molecular weight of the peptides and to the carboxyl group content, and the most likely sites for calcium binding are the carboxyl groups of Asp and Glu.
The biexciton cascade process in self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) provides an ideal system for realizing deterministic entangled photon-pair sources, which are essential to quantum information ...science. The entangled photon pairs have recently been generated in experiments after eliminating the fine-structure splitting (FSS) of excitons using a number of different methods. Thus far, however, QD-based sources of entangled photons have not been scalable because the wavelengths of QDs differ from dot to dot. Here, we propose a wavelength-tunable entangled photon emitter mounted on a three-dimensional stressor, in which the FSS and exciton energy can be tuned independently, thereby enabling photon entanglement between dissimilar QDs. We confirm these results via atomistic pseudopotential calculations. This provides a first step towards future realization of scalable entangled photon generators for quantum information applications.
Despite the remarkable success of immunotherapy in many types of cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has yet to benefit. Innate immune cells are critical to anti-tumor immunosurveillance and ...recent studies have revealed that these populations possess a form of memory, termed trained innate immunity, which occurs through transcriptomic, epigenetic, and metabolic reprograming. Here we demonstrate that yeast-derived particulate β-glucan, an inducer of trained immunity, traffics to the pancreas, which causes a CCR2-dependent influx of monocytes/macrophages to the pancreas that display features of trained immunity. These cells can be activated upon exposure to tumor cells and tumor-derived factors, and show enhanced cytotoxicity against pancreatic tumor cells. In orthotopic models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, β-glucan treated mice show significantly reduced tumor burden and prolonged survival, which is further enhanced when combined with immunotherapy. These findings characterize the dynamic mechanisms and localization of peripheral trained immunity and identify an application of trained immunity to cancer.
Diagnosis of the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes (T1D) is preceded by the appearance of circulating autoantibodies to pancreatic islets. However, almost nothing is known about events leading to ...this islet autoimmunity. Previous epidemiological and genetic data have associated viral infections and antiviral type I interferon (IFN) immune response genes with T1D. Here, we first used DNA microarray analysis to identify IFN-β-inducible genes in vitro and then used this set of genes to define an IFN-inducible transcriptional signature in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a group of active systemic lupus erythematosus patients (n = 25). Using this predefined set of 225 IFN signature genes, we investigated the expression of the signature in cohorts of healthy controls (n = 87), patients with T1D (n = 64), and a large longitudinal birth cohort of children genetically predisposed to T1D (n = 109; 454 microarrayed samples). Expression of the IFN signature was increased in genetically predisposed children before the development of autoantibodies (P = 0.0012) but not in patients with established T1D. Upregulation of IFN-inducible genes was transient, temporally associated with a recent history of upper respiratory tract infections (P = 0.0064), and marked by increased expression of SIGLEC-1 (CD169), a lectin-like receptor expressed on CD14(+) monocytes. DNA variation in IFN-inducible genes altered T1D risk (P = 0.007), as exemplified by IFIH1, one of the genes in our IFN signature for which increased expression is a known risk factor for disease. These findings identify transient increased expression of type I IFN genes in preclinical diabetes as a risk factor for autoimmunity in children with a genetic predisposition to T1D.
Significant efforts have been devoted to assess the effects of conservation tillage (no-tillage NT and straw returning) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, global warming potential (GWP), greenhouse ...gas intensity (GHGI), and net economic budget in crop growing seasons. However, only a few studies have evaluated the effects conservation tillage on the net ecosystem economic budget (NEEB) in a rice–wheat cropping system. Therefore, a split-plot field experiment was performed to comprehensively evaluate the effects of tillage practices (i.e., conventional intensive tillage CT and NT) and straw returning methods (i.e., straw returning or removal of preceding crop) on the soil total organic carbon (TOC), GHG emissions, GWP, GHGI, and NEEB of sandy loam soil in a rice–wheat cropping system in central China. Conservation tillage did not affect rice and wheat grain yields. Compared with CT and straw removal, NT and straw returning significantly increased the TOC of 0–5 cm soil layer by 2.9% and 7.8%, respectively. However, the TOC of 0–20 cm soil layer was not affected by tillage practices and straw returning methods. NT did not also affect the N2O emissions during the rice and wheat seasons; NT significantly decreased the annual CH4 emissions by 7.5% and the annual GWP by 7.8% compared with CT. Consequently, GHGI under NT was reduced by 8.1%. Similar to NT, straw returning did not affect N2O emissions during the rice and wheat seasons. Compared with straw removal, straw returning significantly increased annual CH4 emissions by 35.0%, annual GWP by 32.0%, and annual GHGI by 31.1%. Straw returning did not also affect NEEB; by contrast, NT significantly increased NEEB by 15.6%. NT without straw returning resulted in the lowest GWP, the lowest GHGI, and the highest NEEB among all treatments. This finding suggested that NT without straw returning may be applied as a sustainable technology to increase economic and environmental benefits. Nevertheless, environmentally straw returning methods should be considered in future studies.
•Effects of conservation tillage on GHG emissions and NEEB in rice-wheat cropping systems were investigated.•NT significantly decreased annual GWP and GHGI, but increased NEEB compared with CT.•Straw returning significantly increased annual GWP and GHGI, but did not affect NEEB compared with straw removal.•NT with straw removal may be a sustainable technology to increase economic and environmental benefits.
In this paper, biomedical Mg–Zn–Ca alloy was processed by high pressure torsion (HPT) up to a maximum of 5 revolutions at room temperature and 7.5GPa. The microstructures of as-received material and ...HPT material were studied, as well as the corrosion properties and degradation mechanism of the alloy immersed in simulation body fluid (SBF). It revealed that the average grain size of as-received material was 11μm and most of the second phases distributed along the grain boundaries. The corrosion pits formed near the grain boundaries where the corrosion rate was much faster than that of other areas. After HPT processing for 5 revolutions, not only the grain size was significantly refined to 130–150nm, but also the second phases distributed uniformly. These microstructural variations caused the entire surface of the alloy corroded almost at the same corrosion rate. The corrosion interface of the center region and the edge region presented the uniform and gentle profile curve without any obvious corrosion pits. The HPT material in SBF tended to degrade by uniform corrosion mode.
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•The ultra-fine grain biomedical alloy was obtained by HPT at room temperature, and the grain size was 130–150nm.•The microstructural homogeneity of HPT material was improved after 5 revolutions.•In physiological environment the corrosion resistance of HPT material was improved with the increase of revolution numbers.•HPT material after 5 revolutions degraded by uniform corrosion mode in simulated body fluid.
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