We report a 2-family cluster of persons infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in the city of Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China, during January 2020. The infections resulted ...from contact with an infected but potentially presymptomatic traveler from the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province.
Inflammatory bowel disease:Pathogenesis Zhang, Yi-Zhen; Li, Yong-Yu
World journal of gastroenterology : WJG,
01/2014, Letnik:
20, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD),including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis,is characterized by chronic relapsing intestinal inflammation.It has been a worldwide health-care problem with a ...continually increasing incidence.It is thought that IBD results from an aberrant and continuing immune response to the microbes in the gut,catalyzed by the genetic susceptibility of the individual.Although the etiology of IBD remains largely unknown,it involves a complex interaction between the genetic,environmental or microbial factors and the immune responses.Of the four components of IBD pathogenesis,most rapid progress has been made in the genetic study of gut inflammation.The latest internationally collaborative studies have ascertained 163susceptibility gene loci for IBD.The genes implicated in childhood-onset and adult-onset IBD overlap,suggesting similar genetic predispositions.However,the fact that genetic factors account for only a portion of overall disease variance indicates that microbial and environmental factors may interact with genetic elements in the pathogenesis of IBD.Meanwhile,the adaptive immune response has been classically considered to play a major role in the pathogenesis of IBD,as new studies in immunology and genetics have clarified that the innate immune response maintains the same importance in inducing gut inflammation.Recent progress in understanding IBD pathogenesis sheds lights on relevant disease mechanisms,including the innate and adaptive immunity,and the interactions between genetic factors and microbial and environmental cues.In this review,we provide an update on the major advances that have occurred in above areas.
As the NN bond in N2 is one of the strongest bonds in chemistry, the fixation of N2 to ammonia is a kinetically complex and energetically challenging reaction and, up to now, its synthesis is still ...heavily relying on energy and capital intensive Haber–Bosch process (150–350 atm, 350–550 °C), wherein the input of H2 and energy are largely derived from fossil fuels and thus result in large amount of CO2 emission. In this paper, it is demonstrated that by using Au sub‐nanoclusters (≈0.5 nm ) embedded on TiO2 (Au loading is 1.542 wt%), the electrocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (NRR) is indeed possible at ambient condition. Unexpectedly, NRR with very high and stable production yield (NH3: 21.4 µg h−1 mg−1cat., Faradaic efficiency: 8.11%) and good selectivity is achieved at −0.2 V versus RHE, which is much higher than that of the best results for N2 fixation under ambient conditions, and even comparable to the yield and activation energy under high temperatures and/or pressures. As isolated precious metal active centers dispersed onto oxide supports provide a well‐defined system, the special structure of atomic Au cluster would promote other important reactions besides NRR for water splitting, fuel cells, and other electrochemical devices.
Using Au sub‐nanoclusters anchored on TiO2 substrate as a heterogeneous electrocatalyst, the special Au active sites lead to the effective and stable electrochemical N2 reduction reaction with high NH3 yield (21.4 µg h−1 mg−1cat.) and Faradaic efficiency (8.11%) as well as 100% NH3 selectivity at ambient conditions.
Evolutionary feature selection (FS) methods face the challenge of "curse of dimensionality" when dealing with high-dimensional data. Focusing on this challenge, this article studies a variable-size ...cooperative coevolutionary particle swarm optimization algorithm (VS-CCPSO) for FS. The proposed algorithm employs the idea of "divide and conquer" in cooperative coevolutionary approach, but several new developed problem-guided operators/strategies make it more suitable for FS problems. First, a space division strategy based on the feature importance is presented, which can classify relevant features into the same subspace with a low computational cost. Following that, an adaptive adjustment mechanism of subswarm size is developed to maintain an appropriate size for each subswarm, with the purpose of saving computational cost on evaluating particles. Moreover, a particle deletion strategy based on fitness-guided binary clustering, and a particle generation strategy based on feature importance and crossover both are designed to ensure the quality of particles in the subswarms. We apply VS-CCPSO to 12 typical datasets and compare it with six state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results show that VS-CCPSO has the capability of obtaining good feature subsets, suggesting its competitiveness for tackling FS problems with high dimensionality.
Phosphors emitting visible and near-infrared persistent luminescence have been explored extensively owing to their unusual properties and commercial interest in their applications such as ...glow-in-the-dark paints, optical information storage, and in vivo bioimaging. However, no persistent phosphor that features emissions in the ultraviolet C range (200-280 nm) has been known to exist so far. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for creating a new generation of persistent phosphor that exhibits strong ultraviolet C emission with an initial power density over 10 milliwatts per square meter and an afterglow of more than 2 h. Experimental characterizations coupled with first-principles calculations have revealed that structural defects associated with oxygen introduction-induced anion vacancies in fluoride elpasolite can function as electron traps, which capture and store a large number of electrons triggered by X-ray irradiation. Notably, we show that the ultraviolet C afterglow intensity of the yielded phosphor is sufficiently strong for sterilization. Our discovery of this ultraviolet C afterglow opens up new avenues for research on persistent phosphors, and it offers new perspectives on their applications in terms of sterilization, disinfection, drug release, cancer treatment, anti-counterfeiting, and beyond.
ObjectiveThe SARS-CoV-2-infected disease (COVID-19) outbreak is a major threat to human beings. Previous studies mainly focused on Wuhan and typical symptoms. We analysed 74 confirmed COVID-19 cases ...with GI symptoms in the Zhejiang province to determine epidemiological, clinical and virological characteristics.DesignCOVID-19 hospital patients were admitted in the Zhejiang province from 17 January 2020 to 8 February 2020. Epidemiological, demographic, clinical, laboratory, management and outcome data of patients with GI symptoms were analysed using multivariate analysis for risk of severe/critical type. Bioinformatics were used to analyse features of SARS-CoV-2 from Zhejiang province.ResultsAmong enrolled 651 patients, 74 (11.4%) presented with at least one GI symptom (nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea), average age of 46.14 years, 4-day incubation period and 10.8% had pre-existing liver disease. Of patients with COVID-19 with GI symptoms, 17 (22.97%) and 23 (31.08%) had severe/critical types and family clustering, respectively, significantly higher than those without GI symptoms, 47 (8.14%) and 118 (20.45%). Of patients with COVID-19 with GI symptoms, 29 (39.19%), 23 (31.08%), 8 (10.81%) and 16 (21.62%) had significantly higher rates of fever >38.5°C, fatigue, shortness of breath and headache, respectively. Low-dose glucocorticoids and antibiotics were administered to 14.86% and 41.89% of patients, respectively. Sputum production and increased lactate dehydrogenase/glucose levels were risk factors for severe/critical type. Bioinformatics showed sequence mutation of SARS-CoV-2 with m6A methylation and changed binding capacity with ACE2.ConclusionWe report COVID-19 cases with GI symptoms with novel features outside Wuhan. Attention to patients with COVID-19 with non-classic symptoms should increase to protect health providers.
Plant neighbor detection and response strategies are important mediators of interactions among species. Despite increasing knowledge of neighbor detection and response involving plant volatiles, less ...is known about how soil-borne signaling chemicals may act belowground in plant-plant interactions. Here, we experimentally demonstrate neighbor detection and allelopathic responses between wheat and 100 other plant species via belowground signaling. Wheat can detect both conspecific and heterospecific neighbors and responds by increasing allelochemical production. Furthermore, we show that (-)-loliolide and jasmonic acid are present in root exudates from a diverse range of species and are able to trigger allelochemical production in wheat. These findings suggest that root-secreted (-)-loliolide and jasmonic acid are involved in plant neighbor detection and allelochemical response and may be widespread mediators of belowground plant-plant interactions.
Biofilm infections can induce chronic inflammation and stall the normal orchestrated course of wound-healing cascades. Herein, pH-switchable antimicrobial hydrogel with nanofiber networks for biofilm ...eradication and rescuing stalled healing in chronic wounds is reported on the basis of the self-assembly of a designed octapeptide (IKFQFHFD) at neutral pH. This hydrogel is biocompatible and exhibits an acidic pH (pathological environment of infected chronic wounds)-switchable broad-spectrum antimicrobial effect via a mechanism involving cell wall and membrane disruption. The antimicrobial activity of hydrogel is derived from its acidic pH-dependent nanofiber network destabilization and activated release of IKFQFHFD, which is antimicrobial only at acidic pH due to the antimicrobial peptide-like molecular structure. In addition, supramolecular nanofiber networks loaded with drugs of cypate (photothermal agent) and proline (procollagen component) are further developed. In vitro experiments show that loaded drugs exhibit acidic pH (pH ∼ 5.5)-responsive release profiles, and synergistic biofilm eradication and subsequent healing cascade activation of cells proliferation are achieved on the basis of the supramolecular nanofiber networks. Remarkably, the nanofiber networks of hydrogel enable in vivo complete healing of MRSA biofilm infected wound in diabetic mice within 20 days, showing great potential as promising chronic wound dressings. The proposed synergistic strategy for eradicating biofilm and activating subsequent healing cascades may offer a powerful modality for the management of clinical chronic wounds.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibition has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy in preserving the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in patients with acute ischemic ...stroke. Loss of the BBB is the key event associated with morbidity and mortality in these patients. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, the effects of VEGF inhibition and the possible mechanism that underlies acute cerebral ischemia in rats was investigated. Following the induction of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion for a 90-min period, either an anti-VEGF neutralizing antibody (RB-222; 5 or 10 µg), or IgG (control), was administered by intracerebroventricular injection at 1 h following reperfusion. Functional outcomes, BBB leakage, brain edema, microvessel numbers and the relative protein levels of VEGF, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, occludin and collagen-IV were then determined using neurological assessments, Evans Blue staining, brain water content, CD31 staining and western blotting. Treatment with RB-222 at a dose of 5 and 10 µg significantly improved neurological functional outcomes and diminished infarct size, BBB leakage and brain edema compared with the MCAO and IgG groups at 24 h following reperfusion; 10 µg RB-222 was more effective than a 5 µg dose of the antibody. In addition, RB-222 reduced the number of immature microvessels, which subsequently attenuated BBB permeability. RB-222 significantly repressed VEGF expression as well as decreased MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression. However, it enhanced occludin and collagen-IV levels in the ischemic rat brain compared with the MCAO and IgG groups. Taken together, the results indicate that early inhibition of VEGF may have significant potential against cerebral ischemia, partly by regulating the expression of MMPs.
The increasingly stringent requirement in large‐scale energy storage necessitates the development of high‐performance sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) that can operate under low‐temperature (LT) ...environment. Although SIBs can achieve good cycling stability and rate performance at room temperature, the sluggish electrochemical reaction kinetics at low temperature remains a great challenge for SIBs. Here, a superior LT SIB composed of 3D porous Na3V2(PO4)3/C (NVP/C‐F) and NaTi2(PO4)3/C foams (NTP/C‐F) is developed. First‐principles calculations reveal that the intrinsic Na+ diffusivity in NASICON‐type NVP and NTP is extremely high (maximum 3.84 × 10−5 for NVP and 2.94 × 10−9 cm2 s−1 for NTP) at –20 °C. In addition, the designed 3D interconnected porous foam structures demonstrate excellent electrolyte absorption ability and Na+ transport performance at low temperature. As a result, under −20 °C, the NVP/CF and NTP/CF electrodes (half‐cell configuration) can attain reversible capacities close to their theoretical values, and are able to be charged and discharged rapidly (20 C) for 1000 cycles. Based on these features, the designed NTP/CF||NVP/CF full cell also displays superb LT kinetics and cycling stability, making a great stride forward in the development of LT SIBs.
A high‐performance low‐temperature sodium ion full battery composed of 3D porous Na3V2(PO4)3/C and NaTi2(PO4)3/C foams is developed. Owing to the fast Na+ diffusivity of these two NASICON‐type electrodes and excellent electrolyte absorption ability of the foam structure, this full battery demonstrates superb kinetics and cycling stability (e.g., 20 C over 1000 cycles) at −20 °C.
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