We propose programed potential modulation strategies to balance the ion intercalation/deintercalation, surface tailoring and bubbling dispersion processes in the electrochemical exfoliation of ...graphite, resulting in high-quality graphene with high crystallinity, low oxidation degree, uniform size distribution and few layers.
•This study develops and validates a mobile catering app success model.•The relationships among 10 mobile catering app success variables are examined.•Perceived value influences eWOM more strongly ...than does user satisfaction.•User satisfaction affects intention to reuse more strongly than does perceived value.
This study develops and validates a mobile catering app success model based on the e-commerce system success model and marketing literature. Specifically, a research model which describes the relationships among system quality, information quality, service quality, product quality, perceived price, perceived promotions, perceived value, user satisfaction, intention to reuse, and eWOM is examined. Data collected from an online survey are analyzed against the research model using PLS-SEM. The results indicate that product quality, perceived price, perceived promotions, and eWOM can be added to the e-commerce system success model to form a mobile catering app success model. Additionally, the findings show that perceived value influences eWOM more strongly than does user satisfaction while user satisfaction affects intention to reuse more strongly than does perceived value. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for developing a successful mobile catering app.
We present sensitive 850 m imaging of the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field using 640 hr of new and archival observations taken with SCUBA-2 at the East Asian Observatory's James Clerk ...Maxwell Telescope. The SCUBA-2 COSMOS survey (S2COSMOS) achieves a median noise level of 850 m = 1.2 mJy beam−1 over an area of 1.6 sq. degree (main; Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys footprint), and 850 m = 1.7 mJy beam−1 over an additional 1 sq. degree of supplementary (supp) coverage. We present a catalog of 1020 and 127 sources detected at a significance level of >4 and >4.3 in the main and supp regions, respectively, corresponding to a uniform 2% false-detection rate. We construct the single-dish 850 m number counts at S850 > 2 mJy and show that these S2COSMOS counts are in agreement with previous single-dish surveys, demonstrating that degree-scale fields are sufficient to overcome the effects of cosmic variance in the S850 = 2-10 mJy population. To investigate the properties of the galaxies identified by S2COSMOS sources we measure the surface density of near-infrared-selected galaxies around their positions and identify an average excess of 2.0 0.2 galaxies within a 13″ radius (∼100 kpc at z ∼ 2). The bulk of these galaxies represent near-infrared-selected submillimeter galaxies and/or spatially correlated sources and lie at a median photometric redshift of z = 2.0 0.1. Finally, we perform a stacking analysis at submillimeter and far-infrared wavelengths of stellar-mass-selected galaxies (M = 1010-1012 M ) from z = 0-4, obtaining high-significance detections at 850 m in all subsets (signal-to-noise ratio, S/N = 4-30), and investigate the relation between far-infrared luminosity, stellar mass, and the peak wavelength of the dust spectral energy distribution. The publication of this survey adds a new deep, uniform submillimeter layer to the wavelength coverage of this well-studied COSMOS field.
The Michael addition reaction represents one of the most powerful methods for the formation of carboncarbon bonds in organic synthesis. Thanks to the rapid development of asymmetric organocatalysis, ...significant progress has been made during the past years in achieving organocatalytic asymmetric Michael reactions with a diverse combination of Michael donors and acceptors. Many new substrates have been accordingly applied in this reaction, together with the new approaches developed for the purpose of target- and diversity-oriented asymmetric synthesis. This review surveys the advances in target- and diversity-oriented asymmetric organocatalytic Michael reactions developed between 2009 and early 2011.
Recent advances in organocatalytic asymmetric Michael reactions for the target- and diversity-oriented synthesis have been summarised in this review.
Tea (Camellia sinensis) is a popular beverage worldwide. Drought stress (DS) is a major constraint on the growth, yield and quality of tea plants. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in plant ...responses to DS. We constructed eight small RNA libraries from the drought‐tolerant ‘Ningzhou 2’ (NZ2) and drought‐susceptible ‘Zhuyeqi’ (ZYQ) cultivars during four stages control (CK), the fourth day of DS, the eighth day of DS and after recovery (RC). A total of 268 conserved and 62 novel miRNAs were identified using small RNA sequencing. In total, 139 (52.9%) and 96 (36.0%) conserved miRNAs were differentially expressed during the four stages (P ≤ 0.05) in NZ2 and ZYQ, respectively. A total of 814 predicted target genes were identified as differentially regulated by 199 miRNAs through degradome sequencing. Among them, 201 and 218 genes were specific to the NZ2 and ZYQ cultivars, respectively, and 395 were common to both cultivars. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses revealed the biological roles of these targets and showed that some of the targets responded to DS in a stress‐ and cultivar‐dependent manner. Correlated expression patterns between miRNA and their targets showed that specific miRNAs target the miRNA effector Argonaute 1 (AGO1), drought signaling‐related receptors and enzymes, transcription factors, and other structural and functional proteins. The predicted regulatory networks provide insights into a potential miRNA‐mediated regulatory mechanism. These results will contribute to the breeding of drought‐tolerant tea plants and to elucidating miRNA regulation in response to drought.
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Except for an essential step for the pathology of multiple diseases including atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation is an imperative therapeutic target for developing ...novel approaches for pharmacological interventions. Thus, molecular understanding of inflammation not only revealed the mechanisms of drug action and their biological targets but also has spawned innovative maneuvers to influence multifaceted biological systems, providing new prospects for drug designing and suggesting important new implications for existing clinical medicine. Meanwhile, modulation of inflammation with the use of medicinal plants proposed an alternate to conventional therapeutic strategies for numerous ailments, particularly when suppression of inflammation is expected. In modern literature, several species of medicinal plants have been shown substantial antiinflammatory and immunomodulatory actions including inhibitory effects on suppression of cellular and humoral immunity, lymphocyte activation, and propagation of apoptosis. Herein, we reviewed the molecular pharmacology of inflammation, chemical components and biological activities of medicinal plants such as, curcumin from Curcuma longa, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate from Camellia sinensis as well as their mechanism of action during inflammation at molecular level. An extensive review of the literature and electronic databases was conducted, encompassing PubMed, GoogleScholar, ScienceDirect, medlineplus, www.clinicaltrial.gov, www.fda.gov, www.ema.europa.eu, www.drugbank.ca, TrialBulletin.com, www.theplantlist.org, and www.pharmacodia.com for assembling the information. Additionally, data was attained from books, ethnopharmacological literature, and relevant publications for essential elements of molecular mechanisms, signal transduction networks, transcription factors, complement system, reactive species, and clinical trials are selected for substantial understanding of biochemistry, pathophysiology as well as clinical importance of medicinal plants during inflammatory diseases.
Glucose homeostasis, regulated by glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucagon (GCG) is critical to human health. Several multi-targeting agonists ...at GIPR, GLP-1R or GCGR, developed to maximize metabolic benefits with reduced side-effects, are in clinical trials to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which tirzepatide, a GIPR/GLP-1R dual agonist, and peptide 20, a GIPR/GLP-1R/GCGR triagonist, manifest their multiplexed pharmacological actions over monoagonists such as semaglutide, we determine cryo-electron microscopy structures of tirzepatide-bound GIPR and GLP-1R as well as peptide 20-bound GIPR, GLP-1R and GCGR. The structures reveal both common and unique features for the dual and triple agonism by illustrating key interactions of clinical relevance at the near-atomic level. Retention of glucagon function is required to achieve such an advantage over GLP-1 monotherapy. Our findings provide valuable insights into the structural basis of functional versatility of tirzepatide and peptide 20.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been increasingly considered to play an important role in the pathological process of various cardiovascular diseases, which often bind to the proximal promoters of ...the protein‐coding gene to regulate the protein expression. However, the functions and mechanisms of lncRNAs in cardiomyocytes have not been fully elucidated. High‐throughput RNA sequencing was performed to identify the differently expressed lncRNAs and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) between acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rats and healthy controls. One novel lncRNA FGF9‐associated factor (termed FAF) and mRNAs in AMI rats were verified by bioinformatics, real‐time polymerase chain reaction or western blot. Moreover, RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed to determine the location of lncRNA. Subsequently, a series of in vitro assays were used to observe the functions of lncRNA FAF in cardiomyocytes. The expression of lncRNA FAF and FGF9 were remarkably decreased in ischemia–hypoxia cardiomyocytes and heart tissues of AMI rats. Overexpression of FAF could significantly inhibit cardiomyocytes apoptosis induced by ischemia and hypoxia. Conversely, knockdown of lncRNA FAF could promote apoptosis in ischemia–hypoxia cardiomyocytes. Moreover, overexpression of lncRNA FAF could also increase the expression of FGF9. Knockdown of the FGF9 expression could promote apoptosis in cardiomyocytes with the insult of ischemia and hypoxia, which was consistent with the effect of lncRNA FAF overexpression on cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Mechanistically, FGF9 inhibited cardiomyocytes apoptosis through activating signaling tyrosine kinase FGFR2 via phosphoinositide 3‐kinase/protein kinase B signaling pathway. Thus, lncRNA FAF plays a protective role in ischemia–hypoxia cardiomyocytes and may serve as a treatment target for AMI.
One novel long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) FGF9‐associated factor (termed FAF) were investigated in this study. LncRNA FAF plays a protective role in ischemia–hypoxia cardiomyocytes and may serve as a treatment target for acute myocardial infarction.
Carbon nanofiber webs with a hierarchically porous structure and a large surface area were developed by KOH activation of the pyrolyzed bacterial cellulose (denoted as pBC), which was extracted from ...the low-cost, eco-friendly and industrially producible coconut juice. The activated-pBC (denoted as A-pBC-x, x represents the mass ratio of KOH to pBC, x=5, 6 and 7) is composed of inter-welded homogeneous carbon nanofibers, which construct a mechanically robust three-dimensional (3D) conductive porous network. As an anode material for the lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the A-pBC-x exhibits significantly improved electrochemical performance compared to the pBC and current commercial graphite. Remarkably, the A-pBC-6 electrode can deliver a specific capacity of over 857.6mAhg−1 after 100 cycles at 100mAg−1 and retain high capacity of 325.38mAhg−1 even cycled at high current density of 4000mAg−1. The significant improvement for the lithium storage performance of the A-pBC-6 sample could be attributed to its hierarchical micropore–mesopore structure and high surface area, which can greatly enhance the contact area of the electrode–electrolyte, decrease the diffusion resistance of lithium ions, shorten the diffusion length of lithium ions and provide a solid and continuous pathway for electron transport.
Cancer cells undergo metabolic reprogramming such as enhanced aerobic glycolysis, mutations in the tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes, and upregulation of de novo lipid synthesis and glutaminolysis. ...These alterations are pivotal to the development and maintenance of the malignant phenotype of cancer cells in unfavorable tumor microenvironment or metastatic sites. Although mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) is a primary bioenergetic source, it has not been generally recognized as part of the metabolic landscape of cancer. The last few years, however, have seen a dramatic change in the view of cancer relevance of the FAO pathway. Many recent studies have provided significant evidence to support a “lipolytic phenotype” of cancer. FAO, like other well-defined metabolic pathways involved in cancer, is dysregulated in diverse human malignancies. Cancer cells rely on FAO for proliferation, survival, stemness, drug resistance, and metastatic progression. FAO is also reprogrammed in cancer-associated immune and other host cells, which may contribute to immune suppression and tumor-promoting microenvironment. This article reviews and puts into context our current understanding of multi-faceted roles of FAO in oncogenesis as well as anti-cancer therapeutic opportunities posed by the FAO pathway.
•FAO emerges as a new aspect of metabolic transformation in cancer.•Cancer cells rely on FAO for growth, stemness, drug resistance and metastasis.•FAO is reprogrammed in cancer and cancer-associated immune and other host cells.•FAO is druggable given the differential dependence of cancer and normal tissues.•FAO inhibitors including those for other ailments offer new anti-cancer therapies.