Hepatitis is an inflammatory liver disease primarily caused by hepatitis A (HAV), B (HBV), C (HCV), D (HDV), and E (HEV) viruses. The chronic forms of hepatitis resulting from HBV and HCV infections ...can progress to cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), while acute hepatitis can lead to acute liver failure, sometimes resulting in fatality. Viral hepatitis was responsible for over 1 million reported deaths annually. The treatment of hepatitis caused by viral infections currently involves the use of interferon-α (IFN-α), nucleoside inhibitors, and reverse transcriptase inhibitors (for HBV). However, these methods do not always lead to a complete cure for viral infections, and chronic forms of the disease pose significant treatment challenges. These facts underscore the urgent need to explore novel drug developments for the treatment of viral hepatitis. The discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system and the subsequent development of various modifications of this system have represented a groundbreaking advance in the quest for innovative strategies in the treatment of viral infections. This technology enables the targeted disruption of specific regions of the genome of infectious agents or the direct manipulation of cellular factors involved in viral replication by introducing a double-strand DNA break, which is targeted by guide RNA (spacer). This review provides a comprehensive summary of our current knowledge regarding the application of the CRISPR/Cas system in the regulation of viral infections caused by HAV, HBV, and HCV. It also highlights new strategies for drug development aimed at addressing both acute and chronic forms of viral hepatitis.
In this paper, we present the resistance measurements of the amorphous ferromagnetic Co-rich microwires (metallic nucleus diameters 15–30 μm) during Joule heating by direct current. The heating ...currents were provided by a programming power supply, which allowed setting up a different heating and cooling regimes. The Wheatstone bridge circuit was used for continuous resistance monitoring during the heating process. We observed the dependences of the microwire resistance versus the time and the applied power of heating for the samples having common composition Co69Fe4Cr4Si12B11 and different diameters. It was shown that the irreversible changes of the microwire resistance were occurred during heat treatment. The microwires have gone through a crystallization phase under linear varying power in the range between 0 and 4.5 W and their relative resistance reduced by up to 10% relative to the initial values. The one-time annealing run increases the relative resistance of the microwires samples from 0.1% to 1% at the various values of maximum power. The repeated heating processes result to the reversibility of the resistance values; in that case each value of maximum applied power provides finite rise of the microwire resistance value.
•Joule heating set-up for in-situ resistance measurements of amorphous ferromagnetic microwires has been developed.•Small electrical resistance changes during heating process has been monitored in Co69Fe4Cr4Si12B11 amorphous microwires.•The microwire resistance changes indicate the structural transformations occurring in the material.
The fatty acid (FA) composition of spionids co-occurring in shallow water and occupying various habitats was analyzed to characterize spectrum and diversity of their food sources and elucidate their ...feeding habits and trophic relationships. These included free-living and tube-dwelling species, and also opportunistic and specialized shell-borers and their hosts. A plot of principal component analysis (PCA) scores based on the FA compositions of nine spionid species recognized five distinct groups with different feeding strategies and revealed differences not only between the species, but also within the same species from various habitats. The predominance of 20:5n-3, C16 polyunsaturated FAs, and 16:1n-7 in suspension feeders indicated that they feed on diatoms. Benthic dinoflagellates and diatoms, as well as bacteria, constituted a major part in the diet of deposit feeders. On the basis of high 22:6n-3 and 18:1n-9 contents,
Dipolydora commensalis
was attributed to omnivorous with a predominance of animal dietary input. The selective detritivore
Polydora glycymerica
relies on a microbial food web. FAs of
Laonice
aff.
cirrata
indicated the importance of foraminifera in the diet of this subsurface feeder. Polychaetes were found to have a capability of changing their feeding habits depending on habitat. Specialized shell-borers adapt their feeding habits to the host’s diet. The results obtained provide evidence that these species actually represent several non-overlapping groups characterized by different feeding strategies, which leads to weakening of their competitive relationships. Partitioning of food sources is regarded as one of the main mechanisms explaining the successful coexistence of spionid species.
Abstract
The ecosystem of the Naroch Lakes (Belarus) includes three water bodies, Lake Batorino, Lake Myastro and Lake Naroch. These lakes have a common catchment area. At the end of the 80 s, the ...ecosystem of the Naroch Lakes underwent a transformation, during which the nutrient load on the catchment area decreased, and the concentration of phosphorus as a limiting factor in these water bodies decreased significantly. At the same time, the Naroch Lakes were exposed to zebra mussel (
Dreissena polymorpha
Pallas) invasion. In the mid-90 s, the biological and hydrochemical characteristics of the ecosystem of the Naroch Lakes stabilized. We show here that complex processes associated with the transformation of the lake ecosystem and affecting both trophic interactions in the Naroch Lakes and the influence of environmental factors on them can be represented using a single parameter, the phase-locking index,
PLI
. In this case, a statistically significant numerical value of
PLI
characterizes the phase synchronization of two processes, oscillations of the concentration of total phosphorus, TP, and oscillations of the concentration of chlorophyll, Chl. We show that the phase synchronization of these processes occurs only after the stabilization of the ecosystem of the Naroch Lakes. In the period preceding the transformation of the lake ecosystem, there was no synchronization. Numerical evaluation of
PLI
as a holistic parameter allows us to characterize the transformation of the lake ecosystem as a whole without resorting to study of complex interactions of various factors involved in this transformation.
•New method of control of magnetic structure in magnetic microwires is proposed.•New magnetic states were created by combination of torsion and tension stresses.•Magnetic and Sixtus–Tonks techniques ...permit to select the predicted structures.
The experimental observation of the spiral domain structure has opened a new possibility of the fine control of the domain structure with different magnetization states in magnetic microwires which are the base elements of the magnetic sensors. Here we demonstrate that the tuning of magnetic domain structures in amorphous microwires can be engineered by the combination of tension and torsion mechanical stresses.
We have studied magnetic and structural properties of the Heusler-type Ni-Mn-Ga glass-coated microwires prepared by Tailor-Ulitovsky technique. As-prepared sample presents magnetoresistance effect ...and considerable dependence of magnetization curves (particularly magnetization values) on magnetic field attributed to the magnetic and atomic disorder. Annealing strongly affects the temperature dependence of magnetization and Curie temperature of microwires. After annealing of the microwires at 973 K, the Curie temperature was enhanced to about 280 K which is beneficial for the magnetic solid state refrigeration. The observed hysteretic anomalies on the temperature dependences of resistance and magnetization in the as-prepared and annealed samples are produced by the martensitic transformation. The magnetoresistance and magnetocaloric effects have been investigated to illustrate a potential technological capability of studied microwires.
We studied influence of post-processing (annealing and stress-annealing) on domain wall dynamics in Fe-, Ni- and Co-based magnetic microwires with spontaneous and induced magnetic bistability. ...As-prepared Co-based microwires with low and negative magnetostriction present linear hysteresis loops. Magnetic bistability in Co-based microwires has been induced by annealing. Minimizing magnetoelastic anisotropy either by adjusting the chemical composition with a low magnetostriction coefficient or by heat treatment is an appropriate route for the domain wall dynamics optimization in magnetic microwires. Stress-annealing allows further improvement of domain wall velocity and hence is a promising method allowing optimization of the DW dynamics in magnetic microwires. The beneficial influence of stress-annealing on the DW dynamics is explained considering an increase in the volume of outer domain shell with transverse magnetization orientation in expense of decrease in the radius of the inner axially magnetized core. Such transverse magnetic anisotropy can affect the DW dynamics in similar way as the applied transverse magnetic field and hence is beneficial for the DW dynamics optimization. Thus, stress-annealing allows designing the magnetic anisotropy distribution more favorable for the DW dynamics improvement. Co-rich microwires with magnetic bistability induced by annealing present a considerable enhancement in the DW velocity upon applied tensile stress: exactly the opposite to the case of magnetic microwires with spontaneous magnetic bistability. Observed dependence has been explained considering decrease in the magnetostriction coefficient under effect of the applied stress.
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•Rectangular hysteresis loops of annealed Co-rich microwires.•Tuning of hysteresis loops varying stress-annealing conditions.•Enhancement of domain wall velocity after annealing and stress-annealing.•Enhancement of domain wall velocity by applied stress in Co-rich microwires.•Modification of the magnetic anisotropy distribution by stress-annealing.
We observed a remarkable improvement of domain wall (DW) mobility, DW velocity, giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect and magnetic softening at appropriate stress-annealing conditions. Beneficial ...effect of stress-annealing on GMI effect and DW dynamics is associated with the induced transverse magnetic anisotropy. An improvement of the circumferential permeability in the nearly surface area of metallic nucleus is evidenced from observed magnetic softening and remarkable GMI effect rising. We assumed that the outer domain shell with transverse magnetic anisotropy associated to stress-annealing induced transverse magnetic anisotropy affects the travelling DW in a similar way as application of transversal bias magnetic field allowing enhancement the DW velocity. Observed decreasing of the half-width of the EMF peak in stress-annealed microwires can be associated to the decreasing of the characteristic DW width. Consequently, stress annealing enabled us to design the magnetic anisotropy distribution beneficial for optimization of either GMI effect or DW dynamics.
We demonstrated that magnetic properties (hysteresis loops, domain wall propagation and giant magnetoimpedance effect) of Fe and Co-rich amorphous microwires can be tailored by stress and ...conventional annealing. Observed dependences discussed considering stress relaxation, back stresses and change of the magnetostriction after samples annealing. These considerations have been proved by experimental observation of the change of the magnetostriction coefficient sign induced by annealing.
•Manipulation of hysteresis loop of amorphous Co–Fe- rich microwires by annealing.•Coexistence of Giant magnetoimpedance effect and fast domain wall propagation in the same sample.•Evidence of annealing dependence of the magnetostriction coefficient.•Effect of stress induced anisotropy on magnetic properties and GMI effect.
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