The design and development of crystalline porous materials (CPMs), including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), have been subjects of extensive study due to their ...regular crystalline lattices and well-defined pore structures. In recent times, an enormous amount of research effort has gone into using CPMs as sacrificial templates to fabricate electrochemically functional materials. The inherently electrochemically active sites inside CPMs are notably abundant and being explored with respect to electrochemical reactions. In this review, electrochemically active sites and the space around them (metal ions, ligands, crystal structures, pores, and morphologies) inside CPMs are the focus and recent progress in the fields of metal-ion batteries, metal-air batteries, water splitting, and other related electrochemical devices has been summarized. Overall, this review provides guidance on the preparation of electroactive CPMs
via
rational design and modulation of active sites such as redox-active metal clusters and organic ligands, and the space around the electrochemically active sites, and their applications in electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems.
This review provides references for the preparation of electroactive CPMs
via
rational design and modulation of active sites and the space around them, and their application in electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems.
Since early December 2019, the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei province of China. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the ...progression of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients. Associated results will be used to evaluate the prognosis and to find the optimal treatment regimens for COVID-19 pneumonia.
Patients tested positive for the COVID-19 based on nucleic acid detection were included in this study. Patients were admitted to 3 tertiary hospitals in Wuhan between December 30, 2019, and January 15, 2020. Individual data, laboratory indices, imaging characteristics, and clinical data were collected, and statistical analysis was performed. Based on clinical typing results, the patients were divided into a progression group or an improvement/stabilization group. Continuous variables were analyzed using independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables were analyzed using Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the risk factors for disease progression.
Seventy-eight patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. Efficacy evaluation at 2 weeks after hospitalization indicated that 11 patients (14.1%) had deteriorated, and 67 patients (85.9%) had improved/stabilized. The patients in the progression group were significantly older than those in the disease improvement/stabilization group (66 51, 70 vs. 37 32, 41 years, U = 4.932, P = 0.001). The progression group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with a history of smoking than the improvement/stabilization group (27.3% vs. 3.0%, χ = 9.291, P = 0.018). For all the 78 patients, fever was the most common initial symptom, and the maximum body temperature at admission was significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (38.2 37.8, 38.6 vs. 37.5 37.0, 38.4°C, U = 2.057, P = 0.027). Moreover, the proportion of patients with respiratory failure (54.5% vs. 20.9%, χ = 5.611, P = 0.028) and respiratory rate (34 18, 48 vs. 24 16, 60 breaths/min, U = 4.030, P = 0.004) were significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group. C-reactive protein was significantly elevated in the progression group compared to the improvement/stabilization group (38.9 14.3, 64.8 vs. 10.6 1.9, 33.1 mg/L, U = 1.315, P = 0.024). Albumin was significantly lower in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (36.62 ± 6.60 vs. 41.27 ± 4.55 g/L, U = 2.843, P = 0.006). Patients in the progression group were more likely to receive high-level respiratory support than in the improvement/stabilization group (χ = 16.01, P = 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis indicated that age (odds ratio OR, 8.546; 95% confidence interval CI: 1.628-44.864; P = 0.011), history of smoking (OR, 14.285; 95% CI: 1.577-25.000; P = 0.018), maximum body temperature at admission (OR, 8.999; 95% CI: 1.036-78.147, P = 0.046), respiratory failure (OR, 8.772, 95% CI: 1.942-40.000; P = 0.016), albumin (OR, 7.353, 95% CI: 1.098-50.000; P = 0.003), and C-reactive protein (OR, 10.530; 95% CI: 1.224-34.701, P = 0.028) were risk factors for disease progression.
Several factors that led to the progression of COVID-19 pneumonia were identified, including age, history of smoking, maximum body temperature at admission, respiratory failure, albumin, and C-reactive protein. These results can be used to further enhance the ability of management of COVID-19 pneumonia.
Aim
Examine the effects of dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP4) inhibitor Sitagliptin on the transforming growth factor‐β1 (TGF‐β1) signal transduction pathway in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) rats with ...ovarian fibrosis.
Methods
Thirty rats were divided randomly into the PCOS model group, Sitagliptin treatment group and blank control group. Dehydroepiandrosterone was administered to the model group and treatment group to establish the models. Then, the phenotype of rats was recorded, and the serum sex hormone levels were measured. The pathological structures of the rat ovaries were observed. The protein and mRNA expression levels of DPP4, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), TGF‐β1 and Smad2/3 in the ovaries were analyzed.
Results
There was no statistically difference in fasting body weight and blood glucose among the three groups before Sitagliptin treatment (P > 0.05). The fasting blood glucose level was significantly decreased after the administration of Sitagliptin (P < 0.05). The level of testosterone in the model group was reduced remarkably after Sitagliptin treatment (P < 0.001). The protein expression levels of DPP4, CTGF and TGF‐β1 in the ovarian stroma were lower in the treatment group than in the model group (P < 0.01, P < 0.001, P < 0.05). The mRNA levels of DPP4, CTGF and TGF‐β1 in the model group also greatly declined after Sitagliptin treatment (P < 0.05, P < 0.001, P < 0.01).
Conclusion
The DPP4 inhibitor Sitagliptin lowers fasting blood glucose, relieves the high androgen state of PCOS rats and delays the process of ovarian fibrosis, which may be related to reducing the levels of factors related to the TGF‐β1/Smad2/3 signaling pathway.
Graphene-based materials have been regarded recently as a promising substance for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices owing to their unique structure and extraordinary properties. ...Herein, an enormously facile one-step pyrolysis approach is reported for the fabrication of ternary (P,S,N)-doped graphene, which is further investigated as an efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Furthermore, optimized ternary-doped graphene can deliver excellent ORR catalytic activity that favors the four-electron ORR process and outstanding long-term durability (90.54% current retention after 20000 s which is far superior to that of commercial Pt/C) owing to the preferable synergetic coupling effect between P, S and N. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to reveal the synergetic coupling effect between doping elements in the ORR process. This work provides an extremely simple one-step pyrolysis method for the synthesis of P,S,N-doped graphene for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.
Ternary (P,S,N)-doped graphene was prepared by an extremely facile one-step pyrolysis approach to act as an efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for the ORR owing to the preferable synergetic coupling effect between P, S and N.
This letter proposes a direction of arrival (DOA) and time of delay (TOA) joint estimation algorithm with deep transfer learning. Recently deep learning technique has been applied to solve the joint ...estimation problem by using the pretrained network and perform well. But in real applications, different scenarios require to cost much time to obtain different pretrained network. In order to overcome these problems, a transfer scheme for DOA and TOA joint estimation is proposed based on a multi‐task network, which uses a shared‐private structure to enhance the transferability of the pretrained network in different signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) scenarios. Thus, for different target scenarios, the proposed transferring scheme just uses a few of data from new scenario to fine‐tune pretrained network, which can effectively reduce the computation complexity with satisfied estimation accuracy. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to other traditional methods in estimation accuracy and efficiency under different SNR testing scenarios.
This article proposed direction of arrival and time of delay joint estimation algorithm with deep transfer method. Proposed method can promote AI development and application in indoors position and outdoors localization.
Pitayas are currently attracting considerable interest as a tropical fruit with numerous health benefits. However, as a long-day plant, pitaya plants cannot flower in the winter season from November ...to April in Hainan, China. To harvest pitayas with high economic value in the winter season, it is necessary to provide supplementary lighting at night to induce flowering. To further explore the molecular regulating mechanisms of flower induction in pitaya plants exposed to supplementary lighting, we used de novo RNA sequencing-based transcriptomic analysis for four stages of pitaya plants subjected to light induction.
We assembled 68,113 unigenes in total, comprising 29,782 unigenes with functional annotations in the NR database, 20,716 annotations in SwissProt, 18,088 annotations in KOG, and 11,059 annotations in KEGG. Comparisons between different samples revealed different numbers of significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs). A number of DEGs involved in energy metabolism-related processes and plant hormone signaling were detected. Moreover, we identified many CONSTANS-LIKE, FLOWERING LOCUS T, and other DEGs involved in the direct regulation of flowering including CDF and TCP, which function as typical transcription factor genes in the flowering process. At the transcriptomic level, we verified 13 DEGs with different functions in the time-course response to light-induced flowering by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR analysis.
The identified DEGs may include some key genes controlling the pitaya floral-induction network, the flower induction and development is very complicated, and it involves photoperiod perception and different phytohormone signaling. These findings will increase our understanding to the molecular mechanism of floral regulation of long-day pitaya plants in short-day winter season induced by supplementary lighting.
Bacteria can act as a promising anti‐tumor platform due to their specific targeting capacity to the tumor microenvironment. In this study, it is discovered that intravenous administration of ...Escherichia coli TOP10 induces rapid and intense blood coagulation in tumor tissues instead of normal tissues. It is demonstrated that E. coli TOP10 can act as an activator of a coagulation cascade to trigger abnormal hemorrhage, blood coagulation, and inflammation with abundant macrophages recruitment in tumors. In addition, the recruited macrophages are principally polarized by lipopolysaccharide in the bacterial wall to the anti‐tumor M1‐like phenotype. Based on the above finding, coagulation‐tropism blood platelets decorated with CD47 antibodies (Anti‐CD47), which possess tropism for bacteria‐treated tumors are further prepared. As a result, Anti‐CD47 blocks the “don't eat me” signal from tumor cells, consequently promoting the phagocytosis of polarized M1‐like phenotype macrophages for tumor cells. This manipulation of local blood coagulation in tumors may find great potential for accurately delivering immune checkpoint inhibitors and facilitating tumor immunotherapy.
Living Escherichia coli TOP10 is demonstrated to induce rapid and intense blood coagulation specifically in tumors, along with macrophages recruitment and polarization. The coagulation‐tropism blood platelets decorated with CD47 antibodies (Anti‐CD47) are prepared for promoting the phagocytosis of polarized macrophages for tumor cells.
In recent years, gold compounds have gained more and more attentions in the design of new metal anticancer drugs. Numerous researches have reported that gold compounds, in addition to their widely ...studied cytotoxic antitumor effects, also reverse tumor immune escape and directly facilitate the functions of immune cells, leading to enhanced anticancer effects. This review mainly summarizes our current understandings of antitumor effects of gold drugs and their relationships with various aspects of antitumor immunity, including innate immunity, adaptive immunity, immunogenic cell death, and immune checkpoints, as well as their roles in adverse effects. Some recent examples of anticancer gold compounds are highlighted. The property of gold compounds is expected to combine with anticancer immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, to develop new anticancer therapeutic strategies.
Incineration of food waste leads to the release of NOx pollutants, whereas the formation mechanism of the NOx precursors (HCN, NH3, and HNCO) during the initial pyrolysis process is far from ...well-studied, limiting the source control on NOx release. In this work, 2,5-diketopiperazine (DKP) was selected as the N-containing model compound to study the formation mechanism of NOx precursors in food waste pyrolysis, by combining experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The C1-N2 bond broken via the N2-to-N5 H-transfer possesses the lowest energy barrier, together with the largest reaction rate constants in the range of 400–800 °C. NH3 can be easily generated with low energy barriers and high rate constants at low temperatures (below 630 °C). Whereas, the rate constants of the pathways for HCN formation will exceed those for NH3 generation in the range of 630–740 °C. In addition, the DKP pyrolysis can also lead to the formation of HNCO with a very low energy barrier, and it can convert into HCN and NH3 through further hydrogenation and decomposition. These calculation results are exactly consistent with the experimental results that NH3 was the main precursor in the range of 400–600 °C, and the yield of HCN exceeded that of NH3 when the temperature was over 600 °C. Our current work on the formation mechanism of NOx precursors during the pyrolysis of DKP can provide theoretical guidance for the development of NOx control technology in the pyrolysis/combustion process of organic waste.
Display omitted
•Experiments and DFT calculations are combined to explore the formation mechanism of NOx precursors during DKP pyrolysis.•NH3 formation is competitive at low temperatures while HCN formation is the opposite.•HNCO can convert into HCN and NH3 through hydrogenation and decomposition.•The rate constants of HCN formation pathways exceed those of NH3 in 630–740 °C.•The yield of HCN exceeds NH3 with 600 °C as the experimental turning point.
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) inhibit anti-tumor immunity. Aerobic glycolysis is a hallmark of cancer. However, the link between MDSCs and glycolysis is unknown in patients with ...triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Here, we detect abundant glycolytic activities in human TNBC. In two TNBC mouse models, 4T1 and Py8119, glycolysis restriction inhibits tumor granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) expression and reduces MDSCs. These are accompanied with enhanced T cell immunity, reduced tumor growth and metastasis, and prolonged mouse survival. Mechanistically, glycolysis restriction represses the expression of a specific CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (CEBPB) isoform, liver-enriched activator protein (LAP), via the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-ULK1 and autophagy pathways, whereas LAP controls G-CSF and GM-CSF expression to support MDSC development. Glycolytic signatures that include lactate dehydrogenase A correlate with high MDSCs and low T cells, and are associated with poor human TNBC outcome. Collectively, tumor glycolysis orchestrates a molecular network of the AMPK-ULK1, autophagy, and CEBPB pathways to affect MDSCs and maintain tumor immunosuppression.
Display omitted
•Aerobic glycolysis affects G-CSF and GM-CSF expression in TNBC•Aerobic glycolysis regulates CEBPB isoform, LAP, via AMPK-ULK1-autophagy pathway•LAP controls G-CSF and GM-CSF expression and MDSC development•Aerobic glycolysis impacts tumor immunity and patient outcome through MDSCs
Tumor-derived myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are critical tumor immunosuppression components. Li et al. show that the high glycolytic rate in triple-negative breast cancer cells is associated with MDSC promotion through an AMPK-ULK1 and autophagy pathway. Glycolysis restriction inhibits tumor G-CSF and GM-CSF and consequently MDSC development.
PDF
