Mesocrystals are 3D ordered nanoparticle superstructures, often with internal porosity, which receive much recent research interest. While more and more mesocrystal systems are found in ...biomineralization or synthesized, their potential as material still needs to be explored. It needs to be revealed, which new chemical and physical properties arise from the mesocrystal structure, or how they change by the ordered aggregation of nanoparticles to fully exploit the promising potential of mesocrystals. Also, the mechanisms for mesocrystal synthesis need to be explored to adapt it to a wide class of materials. The last three years have seen remarkable progress, which is summarized here. Also potential future directions of this reaserch field are discussed. This shows the importance of mesocrystals not only for the field of materials research and allows the appliction of mesocrystals in advanced materials synthesis or property improvement of existing materials. It also outlines attractive research directions in this field.
This Progress Report highlights recent advances in the field of mesocrystals. Focus is on understanding of the formation mechanisms as well as the generation or change of chemical and physical properties, such as optical, magnetic, mechanical, and catalytic performance due to the mesoscopically ordered nanoparticle aggregation. Future research directions in the field are also proposed.
Ultrahigh-dimensional variable selection plays an increasingly important role in contemporary scientific discoveries and statistical research. Among others, Fan and Lv J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. ...Methodol. 70 (2008) 849—911 propose an independent screening framework by ranking the marginal correlations. They showed that the correlation ranking procedure possesses a sure independence screening property within the context of the linear model with Gaussian covariates and responses. In this paper, we propose a more general version of the independent learning with ranking the maximum marginal likelihood estimates or the maximum marginal likelihood itself in generalized linear models. We show that the proposed methods, with Fan and Lv J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B Stat. Methodol. 70 (2008) 849—911 as a very special case, also possess the sure screening property with vanishing false selection rate. The conditions under which the independence learning possesses a sure screening is surprisingly simple. This justifies the applicability of such a simple method in a wide spectrum. We quantify explicitly the extent to which the dimensionality can be reduced by independence screening, which depends on the interactions of the covariance matrix of covariates and true parameters. Simulation studies are used to illustrate the utility of the proposed approaches. In addition, we establish an exponential inequality for the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator which is useful for high-dimensional statistical learning.
S100A8/A9 in Inflammation Wang, Siwen; Song, Rui; Wang, Ziyi ...
Frontiers in immunology,
06/2018, Volume:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
S100A8 and S100A9 (also known as MRP8 and MRP14, respectively) are Ca
binding proteins belonging to the S100 family. They often exist in the form of heterodimer, while homodimer exists very little ...because of the stability. S100A8/A9 is constitutively expressed in neutrophils and monocytes as a Ca
sensor, participating in cytoskeleton rearrangement and arachidonic acid metabolism. During inflammation, S100A8/A9 is released actively and exerts a critical role in modulating the inflammatory response by stimulating leukocyte recruitment and inducing cytokine secretion. S100A8/A9 serves as a candidate biomarker for diagnosis and follow-up as well as a predictive indicator of therapeutic responses to inflammation-associated diseases. As blockade of S100A8/A9 activity using small-molecule inhibitors or antibodies improves pathological conditions in murine models, the heterodimer has potential as a therapeutic target. In this review, we provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the distribution and biological functions of S100A8/A9 and highlight its application as a diagnostic and therapeutic target in inflammation-associated diseases.
This study investigated the impact of different storage temperatures on the quality of rice during an 11-month storage period. Rice is a crucial staple food, and maintaining its quality during ...storage is essential for food security. The research focused on moisture content and fatty acid value as key indicators of rice quality. Results showed that low-temperature storage, specifically at 0°C and 10°C, contributed to slower moisture loss and reduced lipid degradation compared to room temperature storage (25°C). This study underscores the significance of low-temperature storage in preserving the quality of rice over time.
The high-altitude imaging capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer an effective solution for maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. In such missions, the accurate identification of ...boats, personnel, and objects within images is crucial. While object detection models trained on general image datasets can be directly applied to these tasks, their effectiveness is limited due to the unique challenges posed by the specific characteristics of maritime SAR scenarios. Addressing this challenge, our study leverages the large-scale benchmark dataset SeaDronesSee, specific to UAV-based maritime SAR, to analyze and explore the unique attributes of image data in this scenario. We identify the need for optimization in detecting specific categories of difficult-to-detect objects within this context. Building on this, an anchor box optimization strategy is proposed based on clustering analysis, aimed at enhancing the performance of the renowned two-stage object detection models in this specialized task. Experiments were conducted to validate the proposed anchor box optimization method and to explore the underlying reasons for its effectiveness. The experimental results show our optimization method achieved a 45.8% and a 10% increase in average precision over the default anchor box configurations of torchvision and the SeaDronesSee official sample code configuration respectively. This enhancement was particularly evident in the model's significantly improved ability to detect swimmers, floaters, and life jackets on boats within the SeaDronesSee dataset's SAR scenarios. The methods and findings of this study are anticipated to provide the UAV-based maritime SAR research community with valuable insights into data characteristics and model optimization, offering a meaningful reference for future research.
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the non-cellular component in the cardiac microenvironment, and serves essential structural and regulatory roles in establishing and maintaining tissue architecture ...and cellular function. The patterns of molecular and biochemical ECM alterations in developing and adult hearts depend on the underlying injury type. In addition to exploring how the ECM regulates heart structure and function in heart development and repair, this review conducts an inclusive discussion of recent developments in the role, function, and epigenetic guidelines of the ECM. Moreover, it contributes to the development of new therapeutics for cardiovascular disease.
Milk-derived exosomes were identified as a novel mechanism of mother-to-child transmission of regulatory molecules, but their functions in intestinal tissues of neonates are not well-studied. Here, ...we characterized potential roles of porcine milk-derived exosomes in the intestinal tract. In vitro, treatment with milk-derived exosomes (27 ± 3 ng and 55 ± 5 ng total RNA) significantly promoted IPEC-J2 cell proliferation by MTT, CCK8, EdU fluorescence and EdU flow cytometry assays. The qRT-PCR and Western blot analyses indicated milk-derived exosomes (0.27 ± 0.03 μg total RNA) significantly promoted expression of CDX2, IGF-1R and PCNA, and inhibited p53 gene expression involved in intestinal proliferation. Additionally, six detected miRNAs were significantly increased in IPEC-J2 cell, while FAS and SERPINE were significantly down-regulated relative to that in control. In vivo, treated groups (0.125 μg and 0.25 μg total RNA) significantly raised mice' villus height, crypt depth and ratio of villus length to crypt depth of intestinal tissues, significantly increased CDX2, PCNA and IGF-1R' expression and significantly inhibited p53' expression. Our study demonstrated that milk-derived exosomes can facilitate intestinal cell proliferation and intestinal tract development, thus giving a new insight for milk nutrition and newborn development and health.
In this study, the antibacterial activities of eugenol, cinnamaldehyde, thymol, carvacrol, and their combinations against E. coli were investigated separately. First, broth macro-dilution assay was ...adopted to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the 4 components. Second, the combination testing was performed using chequerboard method. Finally, the combined effects were evaluated with an improved method, which was based on the indices of fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) and Effect of the Combination (EC) jointly. The results indicated that MICs of the 4 components were 1600, 400, 400, and 400 mg/L, respectively; treatments with cinnamaldehyde/eugenol, thymol/eugenol, carvacrol/eugenol, and thymol/carvacrol revealed synergistic effects according to the 2 indices. By means of combination, MICs of eugenol, cinnamaldehyde, thymol, and carvacrol decreased to 400, 100, 100, and 100 mg/L, respectively. Consequently, the negative impacts of unpleasant smell of these 4 components could be minimized, making it possible to add them to foods as preservatives. In addition, this improved evaluation method provided a more accurate and comprehensive way to evaluate combined effects.
For photocatalytic solar energy conversion, the critical challenge is to enhance the solar utilization efficiency. Many efforts have focused on the development of broad-band response nanomaterials. ...Here, we propose an alternative approach wherein, over Ni2P/TiO2 nanoparticles without noble metal, the UV–vis part of solar energy was absorbed and converted by a semiconductor and its infrared part was separately collected and converted into thermal energy to heat the photocatalytic reaction to a certain temperature. The photothermocatalytic hydrogen activity was 3.6 times that of the sum of the photocatalytic and thermocatalytic reactions. The in situ generated oxygen vacancies in Ni2P/TiO2 during the photothermocatalytic reaction were found to be responsible for the enhanced activity. Moreover, the photocurrent transient response results revealed the faster transfer of electrons from TiO2 to Ni2P at higher temperature which is vital for the significantly enhanced photothermocatalytic hydrogen production. The long-term test also shows the stability of the proposed reaction system.
With the acceleration of the urbanization process, waterlogging problems in coastal cities are becoming more and more serious due to climate change. However, up until now, the common procedures and ...programs for rainstorm waterlogging risk assessment in coastal cities still have not formed. Considering a series of impact factors of rainstorm waterlogging in coastal city, the present study established a paradigm for rainstorm waterlogging risk assessment through the combination of hydrological modeling and GIS spatial analysis, and took the residence in central urban area of Shanghai as an example. First, the simplified urban waterlogging model was applied to simulate the depth and extent of rainstorm waterlogging under six hypothetic scenarios. Second, the residence exposed to rainstorm waterlogging was extracted and analyzed supported by spatial analysis module of ArcGIS. Then, stage-damage curves were applied to analyze the loss rate of structure and contents of residential building. Finally, the waterlogging loss maps of residence in different scenarios, the annual average loss, and the risk curve were taken as the expression of waterlogging risk. The results show that the inundated water depth, vulnerability, and losses of residence all increase as the intensity of rainstorm increases. The old-style residence is most vulnerable to rainstorm waterlogging, followed by the new-style residence, and villa is less vulnerable to rainstorm waterlogging. The annual average loss of residence in Shanghai central urban area was about CNY 22.25 million. The results also indicate high risk in Yangpu and Putuo districts, Xuhui, Hongkou, Changning and Zhabei districts come under medium-risk zone, and Jing’an, Luwan and Huangpu districts come under low-risk zone. These results provide important information for the local government, and the methodology can be applied in other cities to provide guidance on waterlogging risk governance.
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