Recently, we introduced PLanetary Atmospheric Tool for Observer Noobs (PLATON), a Python package that calculates model transmission spectra for exoplanets and retrieves atmospheric characteristics ...based on observed spectra. We now expand its capabilities to include the ability to compute secondary eclipse depths. We have also added the option to calculate models using the correlated-k method for radiative transfer, which improves accuracy without sacrificing speed. Additionally, we update the opacities in PLATON-many of which were generated using old or proprietary line lists-using the most recent and complete public line lists. These opacities are made available at R = 1000 and R = 10,000 over the 0.3-30 m range, and at R = 375,000 in select near-IR bands, making it possible to utilize PLATON for ground-based high-resolution cross-correlation studies. To demonstrate PLATON's new capabilities, we perform a retrieval on published Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer transmission and emission spectra of the archetypal hot Jupiter HD 189733b. This is the first joint transit and secondary eclipse retrieval for this planet in the literature, as well as the most comprehensive set of both transit and eclipse data assembled for a retrieval to date. We find that these high signal-to-noise data are well matched by atmosphere models with a C/O ratio of and a metallicity of times solar where the terminator is dominated by extended nanometer-sized haze particles at optical wavelengths. These are among the smallest uncertainties reported to date for an exoplanet, demonstrating both the power and the limitations of HST and Spitzer exoplanet observations.
Tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) play essential roles in cancer development and progression. However, the association of TIICs with prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients remains ...elusive. Infiltration of TIICs was assessed using ssGSEA and CIBERSORT tools. The association of TIICs with prognosis was analyzed in 1,802 CRC data downloaded from the GEO (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and TCGA (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/) databases. Three populations of TIICs, including CD66b+ tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs), FoxP3+ Tregs, and CD163+ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were selected for immunohistochemistry (IHC) validation analysis in 1,008 CRC biopsies, and their influence on clinical features and prognosis of CRC patients was analyzed. Prognostic models were constructed based on the training cohort (359 patients). The models were further tested and verified in testing (249 patients) and validation cohorts (400 patients). Based on ssGSEA and CIBERSORT analysis, the correlation between TIICs and CRC prognosis was inconsistent in different datasets. Moreover, the results with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) data in the same dataset also differed. The high abundance of TIICs found by ssGSEA or CIBERSORT tools can be used for prognostic evaluation effectively. IHC results showed that TANs, Tregs, TAMs were significantly correlated with prognosis in CRC patients and were independent prognostic factors (
≤ 0.001;
≤ 0.023). The prognostic predictive models were constructed based on the numbers of TANs, Tregs, TAMs (C-index
= 0.86; AIC
= 448.43; AIC
= 184.30) and they were more reliable than traditional indicators for evaluating prognosis in CRC patients. Besides, TIICs may affect the response to chemotherapy. In conclusion, TIICs were correlated with clinical features and prognosis in patients with CRC and thus can be used as markers.
Excessive nitrogen (N) application is widespread in Southern China. The effects of N fertilization on soil properties and crop physiology are poorly understood in tropical red loam soil. We conducted ...a field experiment to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilization rates on physiological attributes (chlorophyll, plant metabolic enzymes, soluble matters) on banana leaves, soil properties (soil enzymes, soil organic matter (SOM), soil available nutrients) as well as banana crop yield in a subtropical region of southern China. The N rates tested were 0 (N
), 145 (N
), 248 (N
), 352 (N
), 414 (N
), and 455 (N
) g N per plant. The correlations among soil factors, leaf physiological factors and crop yield were evaluated. The results indiated that the high rates of N fertilization (N
and N
) significantly decreased soil available potassium (K) content, available phosphorus (P) content, glutamine synthetase (GS) activity, and soluble protein and sugar contents compared with lower N rates. The N
treatment had the highest crop yields compared with higher N rates treatments, followed by the N
treatment. However, there were no significant differences in crop yields among N fertilization treatments. Factor analysis showed that the N
treatment had the highest integrated score for soil and leaf physiological factors among all treatments. Moreover, the N
treatment was the most effective in improving carbon and nitrogen metabolism in banana. Crop yield was significantly and positively linearly correlated with the integrated score (
= 0.823,
< 0.05). Path analysis revealed that invertase, SOM and sucrose synthase (SS) had a strong positive effect on banana yield. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) suggested that available K, invertase, acid phosphatase and available P were the most important factors impacting leaf physiological attributes. Cluster analysis demonstrated distinct differences in N application treatment related to variations in soil and leaf factors. This study suggested that excessive N fertilization had a negative effect on soil fertility, crop physiology and yield. The lower N rates were more effective in improving crop yield than higher rates of N fertilization. The N rate of 352 g N per plant (N
) was recommended to reduce excess N input while maintaining the higher yield for local farmers' banana planting.
Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), a major metabolic regulator, has been identified as a predictor of cancer prognosis in ovarian and colorectal cancers. The study aims to evaluate the ...significance of stromal NNMT in gastric cancer (GC). Expression of stromal NNMT in 612 GC and 92 non-malignant tissues specimens was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The association between NNMT expression and occurrence of cancer or patient outcome was further analyzed, and the factors contributing to disease prognosis were evaluated by multiple Cox models. Stromal NNMT expression was higher in the malignant tissue (p<0.001). NNMT expression was significantly associated with GC stage (p=0.006). Compared to stromal “NNMT-low” cases, “NNMT-high” cases has lower disease-specific survival (hazard ratio HR, 2.356; 95% confidence interval CI = 1.591–3.488; p<0.001) and disease-free survival (HR = 2.265; 95% CI = 1.529–3.354; p<0.001), as observed by multivariate Cox analysis after adjusting for stromal NNMT expression with other factors such as tumor grade and size. Notably, patients with stage II NNMT-low GC might be negatively affected by adjuvant chemotherapy, but lower stromal NNMT expression predicted a more favorable prognosis for GC. Our study confirmed that stromal NNMT expression is significantly increased in GC, which predicts an unfavorable post-operative prognosis for GC:
Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a malignancy caused mainly by chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV), is a highly fatal disease. Apart from clinical ...parameters like venous invasion and multinodularity, viral and host inflammation-related factors are important predictors of HCC prognosis after surgical treatment. The factors of prognostic value can be detected in the specimens of HCC patients. In preoperative peripheral blood, high HBV DNA and the genotypes and mutations of HBV or HCV, high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and high concentrations of macrophage migration inhibitory factor and osteopontin predict poor prognosis. In tumours, high ratios of neutrophil-to-CD8+ T cell and Treg-to-CD8+ T cell, high expression of pro-angiogenic factors such as hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and cell growth/survival factors such as CD24 and activation of inflammatory signalling pathways such as Wnt/β-catenin, nuclear factor-kappa B and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 predict early recurrence. In peritumoural hepatic tissues, high HBV DNA, HBV mutations, high densities of macrophages, activated stellates and mast cells, high expression of macrophage colony-stimulating factor/its receptor and placental growth factor, Th1/Th2-like cytokine shift, inflammation-related signature and activation of carcinogenesis-related pathways predict late recurrence. Further studies should be focused on the development of a robust strategy by integrating the viral factors, inflammatory factors and clinical factors of complementary prognostic value to ensure high validity of the assessment for postoperative HCC prognosis.
Three new phenolic compounds, epicocconigrones C-D (
-
) and flavimycin C (
), together with six known phenolic compounds: epicocconigrone A (
); ...2-(10-formyl-11,13-dihydroxy-12-methoxy-14-methyl)-6,7-dihydroxy-5-methyl-4-benzofurancarboxaldehyde (
); epicoccolide B (
); eleganketal A (
); 1,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-7-methylisobenzofuran (
); and 2,3,4-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)-5-methylbenzyl-alcohol (
), were isolated from fermentation cultures of a deep-sea sediment-derived fungus,
. Their planar structures were elucidated based on the 1D and 2D NMR spectra and HRESIMS data. The absolute configurations of compounds
-
were determined by ECD calculations. Compound
represented a rare fully symmetrical isobenzofuran dimer. All compounds were evaluated for their
-glucosidase inhibitory activity, and compounds
,
-
, and
exhibited more potent
-glucosidase inhibitory effect with IC
values ranging from 17.04 to 292.47 μM than positive control acarbose with IC
value of 822.97 μM, indicating that these phenolic compounds could be promising lead compounds of new hypoglycemic drugs.
Nine new azaphilones, including penicilazaphilones I-N (
,
and
-
),
-geumsanol D (
) and penidioxolanes C (
) and D (
) were isolated from the culture of the marine-derived fungus
E23Y-1A. The ...structures of the isolates were deduced from extensive spectroscopic data (1D and 2D NMR), high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS), and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations. All the azaphilones from
E23Y-1A were tested for their anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. Penicilazaphilone N (
) showed moderate anti-inflammatory activity with an IC
value of 22.63 ± 2.95 μM, whereas penidioxolane C (
) exhibited moderate inhibition against human myeloid leukemia cells (K562), human liver cancer cells (BEL-7402), human gastric cancer cells (SGC-7901), human non-small cell lung cancer cells (A549), and human hela cervical cancer cells, with IC
values of 23.94 ± 0.11, 60.66 ± 0.13, 46.17 ± 0.17, 60.16 ± 0.26, and 59.30 ± 0.60 μM, respectively.
As an important way to help express the preference relation between alternatives, distributed preference relation (DPR) can represent the preferred, non-preferred, indifferent, and uncertain degrees ...of one alternative over another simultaneously. DPR, however, is unavailable in some situations where a decision maker cannot provide the precise degrees of one alternative over another due to lack of knowledge, experience, and data. In this paper, to address this issue, we propose interval-valued DPR (IDPR) and present its properties of validity and normalization. Through constructing two optimization models, an IDPR matrix is transformed into a score matrix to facilitate the comparison between any two alternatives. The properties of the score matrix are analyzed. To guarantee the rationality of the comparisons between alternatives derived from the score matrix, the additive consistency of the score matrix is developed. In terms of these, IDPR is applied to model and solve multiple criteria group decision making (MCGDM) problem. Particularly, the relationship between the parameters for the consistency of the score matrix associated with each decision maker and those for the consistency of the score matrix associated with the group of decision makers is analyzed. A manager selection problem is investigated to demonstrate the application of IDPRs to MCGDM problems.
Two undescribed
-terphenyl derivatives, asperterphenylcins A-B (
-
), and two undescribed diphenyl ether derivatives, asperdiphenylcins A-B (
-
), together with three previously described
-terphenyl ...derivatives-4″-deoxyterprenin (
), terphenyllin (
), and 3″-hydroxyterphenyllin (
)-were obtained from the solid-rice culture of the marine-derived fungus
HM5-4, which was isolated from sponges from the South China Sea. Their structures were elucidated by HRESIMS data and NMR spectroscopic analysis. Compound
showed a strong inhibitory effect on
, with an inhibition circle diameter of 31.67 ± 2.36 mm at a concentration of 10.0 µg/disc. Compounds
and
displayed cytotoxic activity against human chronic myeloid leukemia cells (K562), human liver cancer cells (BEL-7402), human gastric cancer cells (SGC-7901), human non-small cell lung cancer cells (A549) and human HeLa cervical cancer cells, with IC
values ranging from 3.32 to 60.36 µM, respectively. Compounds
,
and
showed potent inhibitory activity against
-glucosidase, with IC
values of 1.26 ± 0.19, 2.16 ± 0.44 and 13.22 ± 0.55 µM, respectively.
Six undescribed capnosane-type macrocyclic diterpenes sarcocrassolins A-F (
-
) and one related known analog pavidolide D (
) were isolated from
, a soft coral collected off the Nansha Islands, in ...the South China Sea. Their complete structures, relative configurations and absolute configurations were established through comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, quantum mechanical nuclear magnetic resonance (QM-NMR) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Sarcocrassolins D (
) and E (
) showed inhibitory activity against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 cells with IC
values of 76.8 ± 8.0 μM and 93.0 ± 3.8 μM, respectively.
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