Pyroptosis is a pro-inflammatory form of regulated cell death and is dependent on the enzymatic activity of inflammatory proteases that belong to the family of cysteine-dependent aspartate-specific ...proteases (caspases). Pyroptosis is morphologically, mechanistically, and pathophysiologically distinct from other forms of cell death, including apoptosis and necrosis. Pyroptosis is characterized by rapid plasma membrane rupture, with the consequent release of intracellular contents and pro-inflammatory mediators, including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, and the alarmin HMGB-1.Recent studies have shown that pyroptosis may be involved in atherosclerosis and play an important role in atherosclerotic lesion instability. Here, we review the progress made in understanding the morphological, molecular, and pathophysiological mechanisms of pyroptosis and its potential role in atherosclerosis.
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•Aberrant skin scars including keloids and hypertrophic scars are characterized by excessive collagen formation and deposition.•Aberrant skin scar formation is the final result of ...pathological wound healing process.•The TGF-β/Smad signal pathway in the fibroblasts and myofibroblasts is involved in the scarring process of skin fibrosis.•Multiple therapeutic strategies that target the TGF-β/Smad signal pathway are evaluated to attenuate aberrant skin scars.
Aberrant scar formation, which includes keloid and hypertrophic scars, is associated with a pathological disorganized wound healing process with chronic inflammation. The TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway is the most canonical pathway through which the formation of collagen in the fibroblasts and myofibroblasts is regulated. Sustained activation of the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway results in the long-term overactivation of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, which is necessary for the excessive collagen formation in aberrant scars. There are two categories of therapeutic strategies that aim to target the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in fibroblasts and myofibroblasts to interfere with their cellular functions and reduce cell proliferation. The first therapeutic strategy includes medications, and the second strategy is composed of genetic and cellular therapeutics. Therefore, the focus of this review is to critically evaluate these two main therapeutic strategies that target the TGF-β/Smad pathway to attenuate abnormal skin scar formation.
It is still very urgent and challenging to simultaneously develop high‐rate and long‐cycle oxide cathodes for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) because of the sluggish kinetics and complex multiphase ...evolution during cycling. Here, the concept of accurately manipulating structural evolution and formulating high‐performance heterostructured biphasic layered oxide cathodes by local chemistry and orbital hybridization modulation is reported. The P2‐structure stoichiometric composition of the cathode material shows a layered P2‐ and O3‐type heterostructure that is explicitly evidenced by various macroscale and atomic‐scale techniques. Surprisingly, the heterostructured cathode displays excellent rate performance, remarkable cycling stability (capacity retention of 82.16% after 600 cycles at 2 C), and outstanding compatibility with hard carbon anode because of the integrated advantages of intergrowth structure and local environment regulation. Meanwhile, the formation process from precursors during calcination and the highly reversible dynamic structural evolution during the Na+ intercalation/deintercalation process are clearly articulated by a series of in situ characterization techniques. Also, the intrinsic structural properties and corresponding electrochemical behavior are further elucidated by the density of states and electron localization function of density functional theory calculations. Overall, this strategy, which finely tunes the local chemistry and orbitals hybridization for high‐performance SIBs, will open up a new field for other materials.
An abnormal heterostructured biphasic layered oxide cathode for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) is successfully constructed, and its dynamic formation process, intrinsic structural properties, and electrochemical behavior are elucidated by a series of in situ characterization techniques and density functional theory calculations. The concept of accurately manipulating structural evolution and formulating heterostructured cathode materials by local chemistry and orbital hybridization modulation is further demonstrated.
Flexible and low-cost poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based electrolytes are promising for all-solid-state Li-metal batteries because of their compatibility with a metallic lithium anode. However, the low ...room-temperature Li-ion conductivity of PEO solid electrolytes and severe lithium-dendrite growth limit their application in high-energy Li-metal batteries. Here we prepared a PEO/perovskite Li3/8Sr7/16Ta3/4Zr1/4O₃ composite electrolyte with a Li-ion conductivity of 5.4 × 10−5 and 3.5 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 25 and 45 °C, respectively; the strong interaction between the F⁻ of TFSI⁻ (bistrifluoromethanesulfonimide) and the surface Ta5+ of the perovskite improves the Li-ion transport at the PEO/perovskite interface. A symmetric Li/composite electrolyte/Li cell shows an excellent cyclability at a high current density up to 0.6 mA cm−2. A solid electrolyte interphase layer formed in situ between the metallic lithium anode and the composite electrolyte suppresses lithium-dendrite formation and growth. All-solid-state Li|LiFePO₄ and high-voltage Li|LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O₂ batteries with the composite electrolyte have an impressive performance with high Coulombic efficiencies, small overpotentials, and good cycling stability.
Summary
The continuing nitrogen (N) deposition observed worldwide alters ecosystem nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning. Litter decomposition is a key process contributing to these changes, but ...the numerous mechanisms for altered decomposition remain poorly identified.
We assessed these different mechanisms with a decomposition experiment using litter from four abundant species (Achnatherum sibiricum, Agropyron cristatum, Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis) and litter mixtures representing treatment‐specific community composition in a semi‐arid grassland under long‐term simulation of six different rates of N deposition.
Decomposition increased consistently with increasing rates of N addition in all litter types. Higher soil manganese (Mn) availability, which apparently was a consequence of N addition‐induced lower soil pH, was the most important factor for faster decomposition. Soil C : N ratios were lower with N addition that subsequently led to markedly higher bacterial to fungal ratios, which also stimulated litter decomposition.
Several factors contributed jointly to higher rates of litter decomposition in response to N deposition. Shifts in plant species composition and litter quality played a minor role compared to N‐driven reductions in soil pH and C : N, which increased soil Mn availability and altered microbial community structure. The soil‐driven effect on decomposition reported here may have long‐lasting impacts on nutrient cycling, soil organic matter dynamics and ecosystem functioning.
Metal fluorides/oxides (MF(x)/M(x)O(y)) are promising electrodes for lithium-ion batteries that operate through conversion reactions. These reactions are associated with much higher energy densities ...than intercalation reactions. The fluorides/oxides also exhibit additional reversible capacity beyond their theoretical capacity through mechanisms that are still poorly understood, in part owing to the difficulty in characterizing structure at the nanoscale, particularly at buried interfaces. This study employs high-resolution multinuclear/multidimensional solid-state NMR techniques, with in situ synchrotron-based techniques, to study the prototype conversion material RuO2. The experiments, together with theoretical calculations, show that a major contribution to the extra capacity in this system is due to the generation of LiOH and its subsequent reversible reaction with Li to form Li2O and LiH. The research demonstrates a protocol for studying the structure and spatial proximities of nanostructures formed in this system, including the amorphous solid electrolyte interphase that grows on battery electrodes.
In order to conform to the development of the times and effectively promote the reform of vocal music education in colleges and universities, this paper proposes an innovative path of diversified ...vocal music education reform in colleges and universities under the modern advanced educational concepts that are steadily gaining utilisation and popular acceptance in China and the West. In this paper, the passive collective behaviour of biology is introduced in the teacher stage in the basic TLBO algorithm, and then the feedback stage is added after the student stage to increase the effectiveness of students’ learning methods, maintain the diversity of students and make available a system the deployment of which would swiftly bring students with poor grades to the attention of teachers; to this end, the algorithm is made to perform a local fine search, and the optimisation accuracy of the algorithm and its global search ability are improved. Finally, based on the numerical simulation of the standard test set and compared with the existing optimised TLOB algorithm, it is concluded that 92% of the solutions in the ETLBO are dominated or not dominated by the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised TLBO, while only 2% of the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised ETLBO are dominated by the non-dominated solutions of the TLBO. Centralised solutions dominate or do not dominate each other. It is concluded that the optimised TLBO algorithm has the best solution ability and also has practical application significance.
This paper introduces the BOPPPS teaching model integrated with flipped classrooms into the intercultural communication classroom by decomposing the BOPPPS teaching module and analyzing the ...differences with traditional teaching methods by combining social network analysis methods. The basic teaching model framework was built, and an effective blended teaching model was created by utilizing the third-order nonlinear expression of social networks introduced into the online platform. A 10-week teaching model experiment was conducted for two classes to explore English major students in a university. The overall average score of the experimental class improved by 23.6 points to 86.02, and the score improvement was significantly higher than that of the control class, proving that the hybrid teaching model is an effective way to cultivate talents for universities.
Atherosclerosis is a progressive, chronic inflammation in arterial walls. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in inflammation, but the exact mechanism in atherosclerosis is unclear. Our ...microarray analyses revealed that the levels of lncRNA-FA2H-2 were significantly decreased by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OX-LDL). Bioinformatics analyses indicated that mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL) might be regulated by lncRNA-FA2H-2. In vitro experiments showed that lncRNA-FA2H-2 interacted with the promoter of the MLKL gene, downregulated MLKL expression, and the binding sites between -750 and 471 were necessary for lncRNA-FA2H-2 responsiveness to MLKL. Silencing lncRNA-FA2H-2 and overexpression of MLKL could activate inflammation and inhibited autophagy flux. Both lncRNA-FA2H-2 knockdown and overexpression of MLKL could significantly aggravate inflammatory responses induced by OX-LDL. We found that the 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and Atg7-shRNA enhanced inflammatory responses induced by knockdown of lncRNA-FA2H-2 and overexpression of MLKL. We demonstrated that the effects of MLKL on autophagy might be associated with a mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)-dependent signaling pathways. In vivo experiments with apoE knockout mice fed a western diet demonstrated that LncRNA-FA2H-2 knockdown decreased microtubule-associated expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 II and lysosome-associated membrane protein 1, but increased expression of sequestosome 1 (p62), MLKL, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and interleukin-6 in atherosclerotic lesions. Our findings indicated that the lncRNA-FA2H-2-MLKL pathway is essential for regulation of autophagy and inflammation, and suggested that lncRNA-FA2H-2 and MLKL could act as potential therapeutic targets to ameliorate atherosclerosis-related diseases.
Optimizing charge transfer and alleviating volume expansion in electrode materials are critical to maximize electrochemical performance for energy storage systems. Herein, an atomically thin ...soft-rigid Co
S
@MoS
core-shell heterostructure with dual cation vacancies at the atomic interface is constructed as a promising anode for high-performance sodium-ion batteries. The dual cation vacancies involving V
and V
in the heterostructure and the soft MoS
shell afford ionic pathways for rapid charge transfer, as well as the rigid Co
S
core acts as the dominant active component and resists structural deformation during charge/discharge. Electrochemical testing and theoretical calculations demonstrate both excellent Na
transfer kinetics and pseudocapacitive behavior. Consequently, the soft-rigid heterostructure delivers extraordinary sodium storage performance (389.7 mA h g
after 500 cycles at 5.0 A g
), superior to those of the single-phase counterparts; and the assembled Na
V
(PO
)
||d-Co
S
@MoS
/S-Gr full cell achieves an energy density of 235.5 Wh kg
at 0.5 C. Our finding opens up a new strategy of soft-rigid heterostructure and broadens the horizons of material design in energy storage and conversion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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