A recently developed pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 bursting in Wuhan, China, has quickly spread across the world. We report the clinical characteristics of 82 cases of death from COVID-19 in a ...single center. Clinical data on 82 death cases laboratory-confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 infection were obtained from a Wuhan local hospital's electronic medical records according to previously designed standardized data collection forms. All patients were local residents of Wuhan, and a large proportion of them were diagnosed with severe illness when admitted. Due to the overwhelming of our system, a total of 14 patients (17.1%) were treated in the ICU, 83% of deaths never received Critical Care Support, only 40% had mechanical ventilation support despite 100% needing oxygen and the leading cause of death being pulmonary. Most of the patients who died were male (65.9%). More than half of the patients who died were older than 60 years (80.5%), and the median age was 72.5 years. The bulk of the patients who died had comorbidities (76.8%), including hypertension (56.1%), heart disease (20.7%), diabetes (18.3%), cerebrovascular disease (12.2%), and cancer (7.3%). Respiratory failure remained the leading cause of death (69.5%), followed by sepsis/MOF (28.0%), cardiac failure (14.6%), hemorrhage (6.1%), and renal failure (3.7%). Furthermore, respiratory, cardiac, hemorrhagic, hepatic, and renal damage were found in 100%, 89%, 80.5%, 78.0%, and 31.7% of patients, respectively. On admission, lymphopenia (89.2%), neutrophilia (74.3%), and thrombocytopenia (24.3%) were usually observed. Most patients had a high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of >5 (94.5%), high systemic immune-inflammation index of >500 (89.2%), and increased C-reactive protein (100%), lactate dehydrogenase (93.2%), and D-dimer (97.1%) levels. A high level of IL-6 (>10 pg/ml) was observed in all detected patients. The median time from initial symptoms to death was 15 days (IQR 11-20), and a significant association between aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.002), alanine aminotransferase (p = 0.037) and time from initial symptoms to death was remarkably observed. Older males with comorbidities are more likely to develop severe disease and even die from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Respiratory failure is the main cause of COVID-19, but the virus itself and cytokine release syndrome-mediated damage to other organs, including cardiac, renal, hepatic, and hemorrhagic damage, should be taken seriously as well.
Summary
Cold stress severely affects plant growth and yield. C‐repeat binding factors (CBFs) play important roles in the response to cold stress. In the present study, we identified an R2R3‐MYB ...transcription factor (TF) MdMYB23 from apple (Malus × domestic) using transcriptome analyses, which was notably induced in response to cold stress. Transgenic apple calli and Arabidopsis with overexpression of MdMYB23 exhibited increased cold tolerance. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and transient expression assays indicated that MdMYB23 directly bound to the promoters of MdCBF1 and MdCBF2 and activated their expression. MdMYB23 interacted with the promoter of MdANR, a key modulator of proanthocyanidin biosynthesis, and activated its expression to promote proanthocyanidin accumulation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging. MdBT2 was identified as an MdMYB23‐interacting protein using yeast two‐hybrid (Y2H), pull‐down, and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays. MdBT2 repressed cold tolerance and proanthocyanidin accumulation by promoting the degradation of MdMYB23 protein. Our findings shed light on the functions of MYB TFs and underlying mechanism in the modulation of plant cold tolerance.
Significance Statement
An apple R2R3‐MYB TF MdMYB23 increases cold tolerance and proanthocyanidin accumulation by directly activating the expression of MdCBF1/2 and MdANR. MdBT2 represses cold tolerance and proanthocyanidin accumulation by promoting the degradation of MdMYB23 protein.
An integrated, free‐standing, and binder‐free type of flexible anode electrode is fabricated from numerous holey‐structured, 2D nickel‐based phosphide nanosheets connected with carbon nanotubes. This ...electrode architecture can not only uniformly disperse the nanosheets throughout the whole electrode to avoid aggregation or detachment, but also provide an ideal sodium ion and electrolyte diffusion and penetration network with high electronic conductivity. Meanwhile, bimetallic phosphide formation by introducing secondary metal species will lead to a synergistic effect to modify the electrochemical properties. Due to the excellent compositional and structural characteristics of this electrode, it delivers superior performance. This designed flexible anode with Ni1.5Co0.5Px nanosheets demonstrates a reversible capacity of 496.4 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C and a good rate capacity of 276.1 mAh g−1 at 8 C. Meanwhile, this connected integrated network woven from carbon nanotubes can effectively restrain volumetric expansion and shrinkage, and affect the conversion reaction products formation as well, from large‐sized microspheres to film structure, which is primarily credited with the improvement in electrochemical performance. This work may open up a new path for the synthesis of morphology‐controlled phosphides and promote the further development of flexible devices.
An integrated, free‐standing, and binder‐free type of flexible anode electrode is fabricated from numerous holey‐structured, 2D nickel‐based phosphide nanosheets connected with carbon nanotubes. This electrode architecture can not only uniformly disperse the nanosheets throughout the whole electrode to avoid aggregation or detachment, but also provide an ideal sodium ion and electrolyte diffusion and penetration network with high electronic conductivity.
Soil-borne fungal pathogens that cause crop disease are major threats to agriculture worldwide. Here, we identified a secretory polysaccharide deacetylase (PDA1) from the soil-borne fungus ...Verticillium dahliae, the most notorious plant pathogen of the Verticillium genus, that facilitates virulence through direct deacetylation of chitin oligomers whose N-acetyl group contributes to host lysine motif (LysM)-containing receptor perception for ligand-triggered immunity. Polysaccharide deacetylases are widely present in fungi, bacteria, insects and marine invertebrates and have been reported to possess diverse functions in developmental processes rather than virulence. A phylogenetics analysis of more than 5,000 fungal proteins with conserved polysaccharide deacetylase domains showed that the V. dahliae PDA1-containing subtree includes a large number of proteins from the Verticillium genus as well as the Fusarium genus, another group of characterized soil-borne fungal pathogens, suggesting that soil-borne fungal pathogens have adopted chitin deacetylation as a major virulence strategy. We showed that a Fusarium PDA1 is required for virulence in cotton plants. This study reveals a substantial virulence function role of polysaccharide deacetylases in pathogenic fungi and demonstrates a subtle mechanism whereby deacetylation of chitin oligomers converts them to ligand-inactive chitosan, representing a common strategy of preventing chitin-triggered host immunity by soil-borne fungal pathogens.
We propose a new type of spin-valley locking (SVL), named C-paired SVL, in antiferromagnetic systems, which directly connects the spin/valley space with the real space, and hence enables both static ...and dynamical controls of spin and valley to realize a multifunctional antiferromagnetic material. The new emergent quantum degree of freedom in the C-paired SVL is comprised of spin-polarized valleys related by a crystal symmetry instead of the time-reversal symmetry. Thus, both spin and valley can be accessed by simply breaking the corresponding crystal symmetry. Typically, one can use a strain field to induce a large net valley polarization/magnetization and use a charge current to generate a large noncollinear spin current. We predict the realization of the C-paired SVL in monolayer V
Se
O, which indeed exhibits giant piezomagnetism and can generate a large transverse spin current. Our findings provide unprecedented opportunities to integrate various controls of spin and valley with nonvolatile information storage in a single material, which is highly desirable for versatile fundamental research and device applications.
We investigated the electron-pairing mechanism in an iron-based superconductor, iron selenide (FeSe), using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Tunneling conductance spectra of ...stoichiometric FeSe crystalline films in their superconducting state revealed evidence for a gap function with nodal lines. Electron pairing with twofold symmetry was demonstrated by direct imaging of quasiparticle excitations in the vicinity of magnetic vortex cores, Fe adatoms, and Se vacancies. The twofold pairing symmetry was further supported by the observation of striped electronic nanostructures in the slightly Se-doped samples. The anisotropy can be explained in terms of the orbital-dependent reconstruction of electronic structure in FeSe.
Hybridizing carbonous matrix into metal sulfide is confirmed as an effective strategy to enhance electrode conductance and structure stability. However, a comprehensive understanding of the interface ...reaction mechanism between active materials and carbon substrate is still urgently needed. Based on the band energy theory, a route to enhance the rate ability for electrode is exploited on regulating interfaces of substrates/active heterojunction. Herein, the highly stable Na+-storage performance of GeS2/3DG is delicately designed, where the hierarchical structure is enabled by uniformly overcoating GeS2 nanograins with graphene matrix. Different from the widespread doping route of active materials for fast ion transfer, we focus on the effects of interface regulation on the high-rate Na– ion-storage performance of substrate/active materials. Here, a well-designed interface of the C–Ge bond at the heterointerface induced by hierarchical GeS2/graphene heterojunction is pioneeringly explored, which can result in a fast electron transfer by reducing electron gathering polarization. More importantly, defects in graphene can alleviate the polarization aroused by ion concentration, which not only offers anchoring/doping sites for C–Ge bond but also provides extra ion channels for Na-ion transportation into GeS2. This interface regulation of constructing metal–carbon bonds will shine light on the reaction kinetics and interface stability and contribute to the fundamental understanding of interface reaction mechanisms for metal sulfide anode materials.
Hereditary cholestasis in childhood and infancy with normal serum gamma‐glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity is linked to several genes. Many patients, however, remain genetically undiagnosed. Defects ...in myosin VB (MYO5B; encoded by MYO5B) cause microvillus inclusion disease (MVID; MIM251850) with recurrent watery diarrhea. Cholestasis, reported as an atypical presentation in MVID, has been considered a side effect of parenteral alimentation. Here, however, we report on 10 patients who experienced cholestasis associated with biallelic, or suspected biallelic, mutations in MYO5B and who had neither recurrent diarrhea nor received parenteral alimentation. Seven of them are from two study cohorts, together comprising 31 undiagnosed low‐GGT cholestasis patients; 3 are sporadic. Cholestasis in 2 patients was progressive, in 3 recurrent, in 2 transient, and in 3 uncategorized because of insufficient follow‐up. Liver biopsy specimens revealed giant‐cell change of hepatocytes and intralobular cholestasis with abnormal distribution of bile salt export pump (BSEP) at canaliculi, as well as coarse granular dislocation of MYO5B. Mass spectrometry of plasma demonstrated increased total bile acids, primary bile acids, and conjugated bile acids, with decreased free bile acids, similar to changes in BSEP‐deficient patients. Literature review revealed that patients with biallelic mutations predicted to eliminate MYO5B expression were more frequent in typical MVID than in isolated‐cholestasis patients (11 of 38 vs. 0 of 13). Conclusion: MYO5B deficiency may underlie 20% of previously undiagnosed low‐GGT cholestasis. MYO5B deficiency appears to impair targeting of BSEP to the canalicular membrane with hampered bile acid excretion, resulting in a spectrum of cholestasis without diarrhea. (Hepatology 2017;65:1655‐1669).
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