Tricalcium silicate (C3S)/polyetherimide (PEI) stents are manufactured through an additive manufacturing process using binder jetting. The key issues of C3S/PEI composite ceramic slurry and additive ...manufacturing process parameters are discussed in detail. Firstly, the low-temperature auxiliary sintering temperature of the sample was determined, and the influence of PEI content on the compressive strength and bending strength before and after sintering was studied. The sintering temperature and optimal PEI content are 340 °C and 10 wt%. Under this PEI content, the flow rate change during the printing process of the slurry was measured, and a C3S/PEI composite slurry suitable for binder jetting additive manufacturing was obtained, and it had excellent mechanical properties. The effect of the parameters of the binder jetting additive manufacturing process on the molding quality of the C3S/10PEI composite ceramic slurry was studied. The effect of the printed layer height on the deposition line width and height was explored, resulting in a selection rule for the printing layer height using nozzle diameters. The influence of the number of layers of the printed sample on the height and line width of the sample is studied. Under the condition that the height of the printing layer is 80% of the nozzle diameter and the hot air assisted drying, the maximum error of the forming size is only 3.13%. Finally, the biocompatibility and cell adsorption effect of the scaffold were studied, and it was found that the C3S/PEI scaffold, which was additively manufactured by binder jetting and sintered at low temperature, had good biological properties.
Ferroptosis represents a distinct form of programmed cell death triggered by excessive iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation-induced damage. This mode of cell death differentiates from classical ...programmed cell death in terms of morphology and biochemistry. Ferroptosis stands out for its exceptional biological characteristics and has garnered extensive research and conversations as a form of programmed cell death. Its dysfunctional activation is closely linked to the onset of diseases, particularly inflammation and cancer, making ferroptosis a promising avenue for combating these conditions. As such, exploring ferroptosis may offer innovative approaches to treating cancer and inflammatory diseases. Our review provides insights into the relevant regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis, examining the impact of ferroptosis-related factors from both physiological and pathological perspectives. Describing the crosstalk between ferroptosis and tumor- and inflammation-associated signaling pathways and the potential of ferroptosis inducers in overcoming drug-resistant cancers are discussed, aiming to inform further novel therapeutic directions for ferroptosis in relation to inflammatory and cancer diseases.
A reliable strategy for improving the stability and shelf life of protein-stabilized systems is by covalently attaching the protein onto a polysaccharide. In this study, ovalbumin (OVA) was modified ...with dextran (DEX) of different molecular weights by the Maillard reaction, and was used to enhance the stability of emulsions loaded with resveratrol. The surface hydrophobicity, thermal stability, and FT-IR spectroscopy of the OVA-DEX conjugates were evaluated. The results showed that the surface hydrophobicity of OVA decreased, while the thermal stability of OVA was significantly improved after DEX covalent modification. The OVA-DEX1k-stabilized emulsion exhibited high encapsulation efficiency of resveratrol, with the value of 89.0%. In addition, OVA-DEX was considerably more effective in droplet stabilization against different environmental stresses (heat, pH, and ionic strength). After 28 days of storage at 25 °C, the OVA-stabilized emulsion showed faster decomposition of resveratrol, whereas the OVA-DEX-conjugate-stabilized emulsion had approximately 73% retention of resveratrol. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of resveratrol-loaded emulsions stabilized by OVA-DEX was higher during storage under different temperatures. These results proved that the OVA-DEX conjugates had the potential to form stable, food-grade emulsion-based delivery systems against environmental stresses, which strongly supports their potential in the field of food and biomedical applications.
•Provides guidance for the available configuration of the spring roll actuators.•Clarifies the conditions for the actuator electromechanical failure.•Develops the system damping as a function of the ...frequency by experiment.•Exploits the kinematic equations to characterize the motion of a crawling robot.
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) have received widespread attention in human-robot interaction and biomedical engineering due to their merits of large deformation, fast response, and excellent biocompatibility. The cylindrical DEA is one of the preferred structures, combining flexibility and compactness. However, the inherent non-linear behavior between the voltage and the actuator makes predicting the output performance during the design process difficult and encumbers its application, especially for multiple degrees of freedom. Herein, a dielectric elastomer spring-roll bending actuator capable of multimodal spatial locomotion using three pairs of electrodes is proposed in this paper. The electromechanical coupling behavior of the actuator under unidirectional bending deformation is described by analyzing the stress process between the spring and the film. The system's damping and excitation frequency relationship is obtained via a semi-analytical method. The experimental results validate the actuator design and show good consistency with the theoretical model. A prototype soft robot capable of running and turning is successfully demonstrated. The actuator also achieves various spatial trajectory paths via the cooperation between electrodes. Thus, the proposed scheme and modeling shed new light on the design and control of dielectric elastomers for multimodal deformation.
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Despite the introduction of combined antiretroviral therapy, the clinical outcomes of HIV-associated Burkitt lymphoma (BL) remain poor.
To evaluate the clinical characteristics, prognostic factors, ...and outcomes of HIV-associated BL, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients from multiple centers in China.
The study included 41 patients from 8 medical centers. Among the included population, male patients accounted for 87.8%, with 75.6% in advanced stages. Notably, 46.3% of cases involved bone marrow, while 19.5% involved the central nervous system (CNS). The most commonly used chemotherapy regimen was DA-EPOCH ± R, accounting for 53.6% of cases. The overall response rates for patients receiving DA-EPOCH ± R and R-Hyper-CVAD were 59% and 58.2%, respectively. Interestingly, patients receiving regimens containing rituximab had similar complete remission rates (25% vs. 23.5%) and overall survival time (45.69 ± 11.58 vs. 47.79 ± 11.72 months, P = 0.907) compared to those without rituximab, but differed in progression rates (33.3% vs. 47.1%). For the entire cohort, the 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 52% and 67%, respectively. CNS involvement was independent risk factors for survival, with 1-year PFS and OS rates of 0% and 38% for patients with CNS involvement, and PFS and OS rates of 66% and 75% for patients without CNS involvement.
HIV-associated BL patients in China have poor prognosis and show limited response to current treatment regimens. The absence of CNS involvement significantly improves clinical outcomes. The use of rituximab is not significantly associated with improved outcomes but can reduce disease progression.
The lysin motif (LysM) domain is an ancient and ubiquitous protein module that binds peptidoglycan and structurally related molecules. A genomic survey in a large number of species spanning all ...kingdoms reveals that the combination of LysM and receptor kinase domains is present exclusively in plants. However, the particular biological functions and molecular evolution of this gene family remain largely unknown. We show that LysM domains in plant LysM proteins are highly diversified and that a minimum of six distinct types of LysM motifs exist in plant LysM kinase proteins and five additional types of LysM motifs exist in nonkinase plant LysM proteins. Further, motif similarities suggest that plant LysM motifs are ancient. Although phylogenetic signals are not sufficient to resolve the earliest relationships, plant LysM motifs may have arisen through common ancestry with LysM motifs in other kingdoms. Within plants, the gene family has evolved through local and segmental duplications. The family has undergone further duplication and diversification in legumes, where some LysM kinase genes function as receptors for bacterial nodulation factor. Two pairs of homeologous regions were identified in soybean (Glycine max) based on microsynteny and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Expression data show that most plant LysM kinase genes are expressed predominantly in the root and that orthologous LysM kinase genes share similar tissue expression patterns. We also examined synteny around plant LysM kinase genes to help reconstruct scenarios for the evolution of this important gene family.
A noninvasive assessment method for acute or acute‐on‐chronic liver failure in patients with hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is urgently needed. We aimed to develop a scoring model for diagnosing ...HEV patients who developed liver failure (HEV‐LF) at different stages. A cross‐sectional set of 350 HEV‐LF patients were identified and enrolled, and the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Failure in China and the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver were adopted as references. HEV‐LFS, a novel scoring model that incorporates data on cholinesterase (CHE), urea nitrogen (UREA), platelets and international normalized ratio was developed using a derived dataset. For diagnosing HEV‐LF stages F1 to F3, the HEV‐LFS scoring model (F1: 0.87; F2: 0.90; F3: 0.92) had a significantly higher AUROC than did the CLIF‐C‐ACLFs (F1: 0.65; F2: 0.56; F3: 0.51) and iMELD (F1: 0.70; F2: 0.57; F3: 0.51) scoring models, of which the HEV‐LFS scoring model had the best sensitivity and specificity. In addition, the HEV‐LFS scoring model was correlated with mortality, length of hospitalization and ICU stay. As the GDTLF score increased, the CHE level decreased and the UREA increased gradually. Encouragingly, a calibration curve showed good agreement between the derivation and validation sets. Notably, we also established a nomogram to facilitate the practical operability of the HEV‐LFS scoring model in clinical settings. In conclusion, both CHE and UREA may be indicators for HEV‐LF patients. The HEV‐LFS scoring model is an efficient and accessible model for classifying HEV‐LF at different stages.
Solid-liquid equilibria in the quinary system NaCl + NaOH + Na
CO
+ Na
SO
+ H
O at 363.15 K were measured by the wet residue method, and the equilibrium solid phases and solubilities of saturated ...solutions were determined experimentally. Using the experimental results, dry-salt phase diagrams and water diagrams versus composition diagrams were plotted (saturated with saturated sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfate). The experimental results show that there are a solid solution (γ-salt, mNa
SO
·
Na
CO
) and co-saturation complex salts (S3, Na
SO
·NaCl·NaOH and S1, NaOH·Na
SO
) formed in this quinary system. Based on Xu's activity coefficient model, the solubilities of the quinary system NaCl + NaOH + Na
CO
+ Na
SO
+ H
O at 363.15 K were calculated with corresponding parameters. Comparing the experimental and calculated results, it was shown that the calculated values had a good agreement with the experimental ones.
Current results regarding the effect of folic acid (FA) supplement use on gestational hypertension (GH) and preeclampsia are limited and inconsistent. We aimed to investigate whether FA supplement ...use was associated with GH and preeclampsia. Participants from the Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort with information on periconceptional FA supplement use and diagnosis of GH/preeclampsia were included (n=4853). Robust Poisson regression was used to assess the association of FA supplement use and GH and preeclampsia. Among the 4853 participants in this study, 1161 (23.9%) and 161 (3.3%) women were diagnosed with GH and preeclampsia, respectively. The risk ratio of developing GH was higher in women who used ≥800 µg/d FA supplement from prepregnancy through midpregnancy than nonusers (risk ratio, 1.33 1.08-1.65). After adjusting for social-demographic, reproductive, lifestyle factors, family history of hypertension, other supplement use, and gestational weight gain, the adverse association remained significant (risk ratio, 1.32 1.06-1.64). Restricting the analysis among women with normal weight, without family history of hypertension, and without gestational diabetes mellitus, the positive FA-GH association still existed. We did not find any significant association between FA supplement use and preeclampsia regardless of adjustment. High-dose (≥800 µg/d) FA supplement use from prepregnancy through midpregnancy was associated with increased risk of GH. Attention should be given to avoid the potential risk of GH due to inappropriate FA supplement use in women who are planning or capable of pregnancy.
Abstract
The novel submicro-spheres SiO
2
@LaPO
4
:Eu@SiO
2
with core-shell-shell structures were prepared by connecting the SiO
2
submicro-spheres and the rare earth ions through an organosilane ...HOOCC
6
H
4
N(CONH(CH
2
)
3
Si(OCH
2
CH
3
)
3
(MABA-Si). The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and infrared spectroscopy (IR). It is found that the intermediate shell of the submicro-spheres was composed by LaPO
4
:Eu nanoparticles with the size of about 4, 5–7, or 15–34 nm. A possible formation mechanism for the SiO
2
@LaPO
4
:Eu@SiO
2
submicro-spheres has been proposed. The dependence of the photoluminescence intensity on the size of the LaPO
4
:Eu nanoparticles has been investigated. The intensity ratios of electrical dipole transition
5
D
0
→
7
F
2
to magnetic dipole transition
5
D
0
→
7
F
1
of Eu
3+
ions were increased with decreasing the size of LaPO
4
:Eu nanoparticles. According to the Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory, when the size of LaPO
4
:Eu nanoparticles was about 4, 5–7 and 15–34 nm, the calculated J-O parameter Ω
2
(optical transition intensity parameter) was 2.30 × 10
−20
, 1.80 × 10
−20
and 1.20 × 10
−20
, respectively. The increase of Ω
2
indicates that the symmetry of Eu
3+
in the LaPO
4
lattice was gradually reduced. The photoluminescence intensity of the SiO
2
@LaPO
4
:Eu@SiO
2
submicro-spheres was unquenched in aqueous solution even after 15 days.
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