Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is now considered the leading cause of end-stage renal disease. In diabetes, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron overload are important determinants ...that promote the occurrence of DN. However, the underlying mechanism of how they cause diabetic kidney damage remains unclear. Ferroptosis, characterized by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, provided us with a new idea to explore the progression of DN. Iron overload, reduced antioxidant capability, massive ROS and lipid peroxidation were detected in the kidneys of streptozotocin-induced DBA/2J diabetic mice and high-glucose cultured human renal proximal tubular (HK-2) cells, which were the symbolic changes of ferroptosis. Furthermore, the characteristic mitochondrial morphological changes of ferroptosis were observed in high glucose cultured cells. Additional treatment of Ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1) in DN models significantly rescued these changes and alleviated the renal pathological injuries in diabetic mice. Besides, the decreased NFE2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) was observed in DN models. The specific knockdown of Nrf2 increased the sensitivity of cells to ferroptosis in the high glucose condition. In Nrf2 knockdown cells, up-regulating Nrf2 by treating with fenofibrate improved the situation of ferroptosis, which was verified in RSL-3 induced cells. Moreover, the ferroptosis-related changes were inhibited by increasing Nrf2 in fenofibrate treated diabetic mice, which delayed the progression of DN. Collectively, we demonstrated that ferroptosis was involved in the development of DN, and up-regulating Nrf2 by treating with fenofibrate inhibited diabetes-related ferroptosis, delaying the progression of DN. Our research revealed the development mechanism of DN from a new perspective, and provide a new approach delaying the progression of DN.
In diabetes, hyperglycemia causes the overload of redox-active (ferrous) iron and the accumulation of multiple sources of ROS, which provides conditions for the occurrence of ferroptosis. Simultaneously, the decreased glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) weakened the resistance to oxidative stress, promoted the occurrence of lipid peroxidation, and ultimately led to cell ferroptosis. However, up-regulating Nrf2 by treating with fenofibrate could regulate the expression of GPX4, solute carrier family 7 member (SLC7A11), ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH-1) and transferrin receptor 1 (TFR-1), which restored the antioxidant ability and rescued disordered iron pool, thereby inhibiting the diabetes-related ferroptosis. Display omitted
•The biomarkers of ferroptosis were significantly changed in diabetic models.•Inhibition of ferroptosis alleviated the renal pathological damages in diabetic mice.•Up-regulating Nrf2 alleviated the diabetes related ferroptosis in kidneys.•Ferroptosis was involved in the progression of diabetic nephropathy.
Plant straw resources are rich, and the annual yield of crop straw is large. To reduce environmental pollution caused by the burning of plant straw and realize maximum resource utilization of straw, ...the published literature data are analyzed in depth. It was found that the carbon element content in the straw was about 40% and the ash content was low. The straw activated carbon can meet the adsorption standard requirements of wooden activated carbon, which was a good material for the sustainable utilization of activated carbon. The activated carbons prepared from cotton straw and hemp straw have large specific surface area, and the total pore volumes of activated carbon from sunflower straw and hemp straw are obviously higher than that of other straw activated carbon. In order to improve the quality of activated carbon, the effects of various activators are better than that of single activator in the preparation of straw activated carbon. The study found that when the ratio of the initial concentration of pollutants to the adsorbent concentration is 30, the removal efficiencies of heavy metals (Cu(II), Cr(VI) and Fe(III)) aren’t less than 90%. This review will be of great significance to optimize the preparation conditions of straw activated carbon, improve the quality of straw activated carbon and expand the application range of straw activated carbon.
•The C element content of straw is approximately 40%.•Most of straw AC can meet the standard requirements of wooden AC.•The removal rates of heavy metals (Cu(II), Cr(VI) and Fe(III)) exceeded 90% (K < 30).•Straw AC has more advantages than coal-based AC.•The economic and environmental benefits of straw AC are better than other AC.
Nitrogen (N) deposition influences both above- and below-ground communities and influences ecosystem functioning. However it is not clear about direct or indirect interactions among plants, soils and ...microbes in response to nitrogen deposition. In this study, the responses of soil bacterial diversity to N enrichment were investigated at surface (0–10 cm) and sub-surface (10–20 cm) soils in a temperate steppe ecosystem. N addition (>120 kg N ha−1 yr−1) resulted in a significant shift in bacterial community composition and a decrease in bacterial OTU richness in surface soil, but the effect on the sub-surface layer was far less pronounced, even at the highest addition rate (240 kg N ha−1 yr−1). Bacterial OTU richness was significantly correlated with soil and plant characteristics. Hierarchical structural equation modeling showed that soil ammonium availability was responsible for the shift in bacterial richness, whereas the change in bacterial community composition was due to alterations in soil pH and plant composition. These results indicated that N fertilization directly affected soil bacterial richness but indirectly affected bacterial communities through soil acidification and plant community change, indicating distinct controls on soil bacterial diversity and community composition. Our results also suggest that N availability could be a good predictor for the loss of soil bacterial diversity under atmospheric nitrogen deposition.
•N deposition impacts soil bacterial community in grassland.•Different controls on soil bacterial diversity and community composition.•An integrated mechanism of plant–soil–microbe interactions.
To demonstrate the benefits of RNA-Seq over microarray in transcriptome profiling, both RNA-Seq and microarray analyses were performed on RNA samples from a human T cell activation experiment. In ...contrast to other reports, our analyses focused on the difference, rather than similarity, between RNA-Seq and microarray technologies in transcriptome profiling. A comparison of data sets derived from RNA-Seq and Affymetrix platforms using the same set of samples showed a high correlation between gene expression profiles generated by the two platforms. However, it also demonstrated that RNA-Seq was superior in detecting low abundance transcripts, differentiating biologically critical isoforms, and allowing the identification of genetic variants. RNA-Seq also demonstrated a broader dynamic range than microarray, which allowed for the detection of more differentially expressed genes with higher fold-change. Analysis of the two datasets also showed the benefit derived from avoidance of technical issues inherent to microarray probe performance such as cross-hybridization, non-specific hybridization and limited detection range of individual probes. Because RNA-Seq does not rely on a pre-designed complement sequence detection probe, it is devoid of issues associated with probe redundancy and annotation, which simplified interpretation of the data. Despite the superior benefits of RNA-Seq, microarrays are still the more common choice of researchers when conducting transcriptional profiling experiments. This is likely because RNA-Seq sequencing technology is new to most researchers, more expensive than microarray, data storage is more challenging and analysis is more complex. We expect that once these barriers are overcome, the RNA-Seq platform will become the predominant tool for transcriptome analysis.
•Taking the place of the time-consuming CFD simulation and the expensive wind-tunnel experiments in flow field prediction.•The method is based on the generative adversarial networks with the deep ...learning framework.•The method is validated on the supercritical airfoils for efficiently and accurately evaluating the flow field.
The efficient and accurate access to the aerodynamic performance is important for the design and optimization of supercritical airfoils. The aerodynamic performance is usually obtained by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods or wind-tunnel experiments. But the computations of CFD are very time intensive and expensive, and the prior knowledge in wind-tunnel experiments plays a decisive role in engineering. Though many surrogate methods were proposed to alleviate the costs of these traditional approaches, most of them can only calculate the low-dimensional aerodynamic performance, and is not able to provide the accurate prediction of transonic flow fields for supercritical airfoils. Since the flow fields are equipped with its own discipline as a physical system in fluid dynamics, it is therefore possible to learn this discipline via data-driven machine learning approaches. Deep learning is witness to expansive growth into diverse applications due to its immense ability to extract essential features from complicated physical systems. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) as a recent popular method in deep leaning are capable of efficiently capturing the distribution of training data. In this work, we proposed a surrogate model, ffsGAN, which leverage the property of GANs combined with convolution neural networks (CNNs) to directly establish a one-to-one mapping from a parameterized supercritical airfoil to its corresponding transonic flow field profile over the parametric space. Compared with the most existing surrogate models, the ffsGAN is superior in efficiently and accurately predicting the high-dimensional flow field rather than the low-dimensional aerodynamic characteristics. The ffsGAN method is first trained using 500 airfoils that sampled based on RAE2822. The flow fields are then predicted for unseen airfoils to evaluate the generalization of the model in terms of prediction accuracy. An investigation of the effects of various hyper-parameters in the network architectures and loss functions is performed. The experimental results show that ffsGAN is a promising tool for rapid evaluation of detailed aerodynamic performance. The elaborate flow field predicted by ffsGAN is possible to be considered in airfoil design to further improve the design and optimization quality in the future.
Proteomics profiling disclosed the molecular mechanism underlying beef poor meat quality. This study aimed to identify protein markers indicating the quality of beef during postmortem storage at 4°C. ...Beef longissimus dorsi samples were stored at 4°C. The meat water holding capacity (WHC), pH value and moisture content were determined at different time points during the storage period. The iTRAQ MS/MS approach was used to determine the proteomics profiling at 0, 3.5 and 7 d during storage at 4°C. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to investigate the potential correlated proteins associated with meat quality. Storage at 4°C gradually decreased the pH value, WHC, and hence the moisture content. The iTRAQ proteomic analysis revealed that a cluster of glycolytic enzymes including malate dehydrogenase, cytoplasmic, L-lactate dehydrogenase, phosphoglycerate mutase and pyruvate kinase, and another cluster of proteins involved in oxygen transport and binding (myoglobin) and hemoglobin complex (including Globin A1 and hemoglobin subunit alpha) were decreased during the postmortem storage. These results suggest that the decreased glycolysis, oxygen, and heme-binding activities might be associated with the beef muscle low quality and the decline of tenderness during postmortem storage at 4°C.
We present a national-scale model analysis on the sources and processes of inorganic nitrogen deposition over China using the GEOS-Chem model at 1/2° × 1/3° horizontal resolution. Model results for ...2008–2012 are evaluated with an ensemble of surface measurements of wet deposition flux and gaseous ammonia (NH3) concentration, and satellite measurements of tropospheric NO2 columns. Annual total inorganic nitrogen deposition fluxes are simulated to be generally less than 10 kg N ha−1 a−1 in western China (less than 2 kg N ha−1 a−1 over Tibet), 15–50 kg N ha−1 a−1 in eastern China, and 16.4 kg N ha−1 a−1 averaged over China. Annual total deposition to China is 16.4 Tg N, with 10.2 Tg N (62%) from reduced nitrogen (NHx) and 6.2 Tg N from oxidized nitrogen (NOy). Domestic anthropogenic sources contribute 86% of the total deposition; foreign anthropogenic sources 7% and natural sources 7%. Annually 23% of domestically emitted NH3 and 36% for NOx are exported outside the terrestrial land of China. We find that atmospheric nitrogen deposition is about half of the nitrogen input from fertilizer application (29.6 Tg N a−1), and is much higher than that from natural biological fixation (7.3 Tg N a−1) over China. A comparison of nitrogen deposition with critical load estimates for eutrophication indicates that about 15% of the land over China experiences critical load exceedances, demonstrating the necessity of nitrogen emission controls to avoid potential negative ecological effects.
•Sources and processes controlling nitrogen deposition over China are quantified.•Reduced nitrogen (NH3) and dry deposition process are significant contributors.•15% of the China's land experiences critical load exceedances for eutrophication.
A new type of amino polar binder with 3D network flexibility structure for high energy Li–S batteries is synthesized and successfully used with commercial sulfur powder cathodes. The binder shows ...significant performance improvement in capacity retention and high potential for practical application, which arouse the battery community's interest in the commercial application of high energy Li–S battery.
Low detection and nonadherence are major problems in current management approaches for patients with suspected atrial fibrillation (AF). Mobile health devices may enable earlier AF detection and ...improved AF management.
This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of AF screening in a large population-based cohort using smart device–based photoplethysmography (PPG) technology, combined with a clinical care AF management pathway using a mobile health approach.
AF screening was performed with smart devices using PPG technology, which were made available for the population ≥18 years of age across China. Monitoring for at least 14 days with a wristband (Honor Band 4) or wristwatch (Huawei Watch GT, Honor Watch, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China) was allowed. The patients with “possible AF” episodes using the PPG algorithm were further confirmed by health providers among the MAFA (mobile AF app) Telecare center and network hospitals, with clinical evaluation, electrocardiogram, or 24-h Holter monitoring.
There were 246,541 individuals who downloaded the PPG screening app, and 187,912 individuals used smart devices to monitor their pulse rhythm between October 26, 2018, and May 20, 2019. Among those with PPG monitoring (mean age 35 years, 86.7% male), 424 (of 187,912, 0.23%) (mean age 54 years, 87.0% male) received a “suspected AF” notification. Of those effectively followed up, 227 individuals (of 262, 87.0%) were confirmed as having AF, with the positive predictive value of PPG signals being 91.6% (95% confidential interval CI: 91.5% to 91.8%). Both suspected AF and identified AF markedly increased with age (p for trend <0.001), and individuals in Northeast China had the highest proportion of detected AF of 0.28% (95% CI: 0.20% to 0.39%). Of the individuals with identified AF, 216 (of 227, 95.1%) subsequently entered a program of integrated AF management using a mobile AF application; approximately 80% of high-risk patients were successfully anticoagulated.
Based on the present study, continuous home monitoring with smart device–based PPG technology could be a feasible approach for AF screening. This would help efforts at screening and detection of AF, as well as early interventions to reduce stroke and other AF-related complications. (Mobile Health mHealth Technology for Improved Screening, Patient Involvement and Optimizing Integrated Care in Atrial Fibrillation MAFA II; ChiCTR-OOC-17014138)
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It is a puzzle as to why more severe haze formed during the New Year Holiday in 2020 (NYH‐20), when China was in an unprecedented state of shutdown to contain the coronavirus (COVID‐19) outbreak, ...than in 2019 (NYH‐19). We performed a comprehensive measurement and modeling analysis of the aerosol chemistry and physics at multiple sites in China (mainly in Shanghai) before, during, and after NYH‐19 and NYH‐20. Much higher secondary aerosol fraction in PM2.5 were observed during NYH‐20 (73%) than during NYH‐19 (59%). During NYH‐20, PM2.5 levels correlated significantly with the oxidation ratio of nitrogen (r2 = 0.77, p < 0.01), and aged particles from northern China were found to impede atmospheric new particle formation and growth in Shanghai. A markedly enhanced efficiency of nitrate aerosol formation was observed along the transport pathways during NYH‐20, despite the overall low atmospheric NO2 levels.
Plain Language Summary
In China, there are multiple cases (e.g., the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai) when combustion‐related emissions (e.g., NOx) were actively, and successfully, reduced to transiently improve air quality. During the extended Chinese Lunar New Year holiday in 2020 (between 24 January and 10 February), whole China was in an unprecedented state of shutdown, because most people were contained in their homes to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19). Mobility, energy demand, and industrial output remained far below their normal levels. Nevertheless, widespread haze pollution still occurred over Eastern China. To elucidate haze formation mechanisms, we performed comprehensive and continuous measurements of aerosol chemistry and physics in and out of Shanghai before, during, and after the Chinese New Year Holiday in 2019 and 2020, respectively. We argue that the synergistic effects of long‐range transport and atmospheric chemistry leading to the efficient conversion of NOx to particulate nitrate were the key of haze formation during the Chinese New Year Holiday of the COVID‐19 outbreak in Shanghai.
Key Points
Higher concentrations and distinct compositions of aerosol particles were observed during the COVID‐19 shutdown
Fast formation of secondary inorganic aerosol contributed to high aerosol mass loading
Longer‐range, regional transport facilitated and enhanced particulate nitrate formation
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