Electric vehicles (EVs) have been developed rapidly with the strong support of governments in recent years, but the market share of EVs is still small in China and the vast majority of Chinese ...consumers hesitate to adopt them. Thus, for the successful development of EVs, this paper proposes a personality-perception-intention framework to explore consumers' EV adoption behavior. The research model is empirically tested with data collected from 369 participants in China. Results indicate that the EV purchase intention can be explained 57.1% variance by consumer perception and personality. Two types of personality, such as personal innovativeness and environmental concern, significantly affect EV purchase intention directly. They are also significantly mediated by two kinds of perceptions (i.e. positive and negative utilities). The findings give a deeper understanding of EV adoption behavior, and provide recommendations for policymakers and manufacturers on promoting EVs.
The progress in the research work and real applications of sodium‐sulfur (NAS) battery in large scale energy storage is introduced. The key materials and interfaces of the battery, particularly the ...role of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS), are systematically reviewed. As the most important and difficult part, the high‐quality beta‐ alumina ceramic electrolyte tubes are prepared by a low‐cost solid state reaction process; their sealing performance and interfacial behavior with molten sodium and sulfur electrodes could be substantially improved by glass ceramic type sealants and surface modification, respectively. Combination of carbon and additives like SiO2 with different wetting behaviors for sulfur and the discharge product sulfides is shown to be significant in improving the electrochemical performances of NAS battery. Conductive ceramic coatings are developed as anti‐corrosion media of the current collector of sulfur electrode; this is identified as an effective route to protect the metal parts.
The key materials and the main interfaces in sodium‐sulfer (NAS) batteries, which are among the most important factors determining the performances and cost of the battery, are reviewed. Some of the latest research results for NAS battery materials and interfaces are presented. The outlook for future research directions is also discussed.
The effect of partial replacement of NaCl by using sodium substitutes (SS) on the physical, microbial and sensory characteristics of Harbin dry sausage was investigated. There were three salt ...formulations, including control (100% NaCl), NaCl partly substituted by KCl (SS1) (70% NaCl and 30% KCl), and NaCl partly substituted by KCl combined with other components (SS2) (70% NaCl, 20% KCl, 3.5% maltodextrin, 4% L-Lys, 1% L-Ala, 0.5% citric acid and 1% Ca-lactate). After a 12-day fermentation, the higher moisture content and Aw and lower pH were found in the SS2 treatment, compared to the control and SS1 treatments (P < .05). A decreased microbial diversity during fermentation was found in all sausages, and Staphylococcus spp. and Lactobacillus spp. became the dominant genera. Additionally, the SS2 treatment showed a higher L*-value and lower hardness and chewiness values (P < .05). Therefore, the formulation of SS2 could achieve a NaCl reduction of 30% in Harbin dry sausages with a better sensory acceptability.
•Sausages with sodium substitutes had higher moisture content and water activity.•Lactobacillus and Staphylococcus became the dominant bacteria in the sausages.•Sodium substitute SS2 could replace 30% NaCl in Harbin dry sausage.
The 5-methylcytosine (m5C) RNA methyltransferase NSUN2 is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and metastasis formation and is upregulated in multiple cancers. However, the biological ...significance of NSUN2 in gastric cancer (GC) and the modification of NSUN2 itself have not been fully investigated. Here, we analyzed the expression level of NSUN2 in tissue microarrays containing 403 GC tissues by immunohistochemistry. NSUN2 was upregulated in GC, and that it was a predictor of poor prognosis. NSUN2 promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells in vitro. We also demonstrated that small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)-2/3 interacts directly with NSUN2 by stabilizing it and mediating its nuclear transport. This facilitates the carcinogenic activity of NSUN2. Furthermore, m5C bisulfite sequencing (Bis-seq) in NSUN2-deficient GC cells showed that m5C-methylated genes are involved in multiple cancer-related signaling pathways. PIK3R1 and PCYT1A may be the target genes that participate in GC progression. Our findings revealed a novel mechanism by which NSUN2 functions in GC progression. This may provide new treatment options for GC patients.
This study investigated the purification and biochemical characteristics of the protease produced by Pediococcus pentosaceus isolated from Harbin dry sausages. The optimized fermented conditions were ...as follows: fermentation time 36 h, initial pH 5 and fermentation temperature 30 °C. A 29.6 kDa extracellular protease was purified using ammonium sulphate deposition, ion exchange layer system and gel filtration. The protease produced by P. pentosaceus had a certain pH and thermal stability at pH 6 and 30 °C. The microbial protease activity could be inhibited by ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA). Vmax and Km of the protease were 43.9 mg/min and 8.3 mg/mL, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) reflected the ability of the protease to hydrolyse sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins, particularly those of myosin heavy chain, paramyosin, actin, phosphorylase and creatine kinase-M types. 3D structure modelling of the P. pentosaceus protease found two domains in the protease protein and the correlation of the active sites with protease properties and substrate specificity. In conclusion, P. pentosaceus can be used as a starter culture or enzyme producing strain for inoculation in Harbin dry sausages.
•Fermentation conditions were optimized for the protease production from strain.•Enzymatic properties of the purified protease were investigated.•P. pentosaceus protease can hydrolyse myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein.•P. pentosaceus protease structures were simulated by homology modelling.
Immunotherapy has become a powerful cancer treatment, but only a small fraction of patients have achieved durable benefits due to the immune escape mechanism. In this study, epigenetic regulation is ...combined with gene therapy-mediated immune checkpoint blockade to relieve this immune escape mechanism. PPD (i.e., mPEG-b-PLG/PEI-RT3/DNA) is developed to mediate plasmid-encoding shPD-L1 delivery by introducing multiple interactions (i.e., electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic interactions) and polyproline II (PPII)-helix conformation, which downregulates PD-L1 expression on tumour cells to relieve the immunosuppression of T cells. Zebularine (abbreviated as Zeb), a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (DNMTi), is used for the epigenetic regulation of the tumour immune microenvironment, thus inducing DC maturation and MHC I molecule expression to enhance antigen presentation. PPD plus Zeb combination therapy initiates a systemic anti-tumour immune response and effectively prevents tumour relapse and metastasis by generating durable immune memory. This strategy provides a scheme for tumour treatment and the inhibition of relapse and metastasis.
Akkermansia muciniphila has been proved to play a crucial role in the progression of colitis, but its underlying mechanism remains inconclusive. In this study, we aim to investigate the effect of
on ...the development of acute colitis and explore the underlying mechanism. We found that the fecal level of
was decreased in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients compared to the healthy people in the GMrepo database. Oral administration of
strain BAA-835 significantly ameliorated the symptoms in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute colitis, evidenced by decreased body weight loss, colon length shortening, and colon histological inflammatory score. In addition, the number of goblet cells and the mucin family were enhanced after
treatment. Furthermore, proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) had a downward trend. Mechanistically, the expression of NLRP3, caspase-1 p20, and IL-1β p17 were upregulated in
-treated mice. Additionally, the colon tissues from high-
UC patients had a higher NLRP3 expression than that from low-
UC patients. Moreover, the upregulation of NLRP3 was observed in mouse macrophage Raw264.7 cells and bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) cells after incubation with
. To clarify whether the protective effect of
in colitis depends on NLRP3, we performed the NLRP3-deficient assay in NLRP3
mice
. The evidence showed that NLRP3 deficiency eliminated the protective effects of
in acute colitis. In conclusion,
alleviates DSS-induced acute colitis by NLRP3 activation, which enriches the mechanism and provides a new prospect for the probiotic-based treatment of colitis.
The gut microbiota and host immune response interaction influences the progression of intestinal inflammatory disease. As a well-recognized next-generation probiotic, Akkermansia muciniphila has been proved to play a crucial role in the progression of colitis, but its underlying mechanism remains inconclusive. We found that oral administration of
strain BAA-835 significantly ameliorated the symptoms of acute colitis. Mechanistically, the expression of NLRP3 was upregulated in the
group, and the protective effect of
in colitis depends on NLRP3 activation. This enriches the mechanism and provides a new prospect for the probiotic-based treatment of colitis, which would promote a deeper understanding of the complex characteristics of
and provide guidance for the treatment of human colitis in the future.
The global numbers of confirmed cases and deceased critically ill patients with COVID-19 are increasing. However, the clinical course, and the 60-day mortality and its predictors in critically ill ...patients have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study is to identify the clinical course, and 60-day mortality and its predictors in critically ill patients with COVID-19.
Critically ill adult patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) from 3 hospitals in Wuhan, China, were included. Data on demographic information, preexisting comorbidities, laboratory findings at ICU admission, treatments, clinical outcomes, and results of SARS-CoV-2 RNA tests and of serum SARS-CoV-2 IgM were collected including the duration between symptom onset and negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Of 1748 patients with COVID-19, 239 (13.7%) critically ill patients were included. Complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in 164 (68.6%) patients, coagulopathy in 150 (62.7%) patients, acute cardiac injury in 103 (43.1%) patients, and acute kidney injury (AKI) in 119 (49.8%) patients, which occurred 15.5 days, 17 days, 18.5 days, and 19 days after the symptom onset, respectively. The median duration of the negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was 30 (range 6-81) days in 49 critically ill survivors that were identified. A total of 147 (61.5%) patients deceased by 60 days after ICU admission. The median duration between ICU admission and decease was 12 (range 3-36). Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis revealed that age older than 65 years, thrombocytopenia at ICU admission, ARDS, and AKI independently predicted the 60-day mortality.
Severe complications are common and the 60-day mortality of critically ill patients with COVID-19 is considerably high. The duration of the negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and its association with the severity of critically ill patients with COVID-19 should be seriously considered and further studied.
Customized TALENs and Cas9/gRNAs have been used for targeted mutagenesis in zebrafish to induce indels into protein-coding genes. However, indels are usually not sufficient to disrupt the function of ...non-coding genes, gene clusters or regulatory sequences, whereas large genomic deletions or inversions are more desirable for this purpose. By injecting two pairs of TALEN mRNAs or two gRNAs together with Cas9 mRNA targeting distal DNA sites of the same chromosome, we obtained predictable genomic deletions or inversions with sizes ranging from several hundred bases to nearly 1 Mb. We have successfully achieved this type of modifications for 11 chromosomal loci by TALENs and 2 by Cas9/gRNAs with different combinations of gRNA pairs, including clusters of miRNA and protein-coding genes. Seven of eight TALEN-targeted lines transmitted the deletions and one transmitted the inversion through germ line. Our findings indicate that both TALENs and Cas9/gRNAs can be used as an efficient tool to engineer genomes to achieve large deletions or inversions, including fragments covering multiple genes and non-coding sequences. To facilitate the analyses and application of existing ZFN, TALEN and CRISPR/Cas data, we have updated our EENdb database to provide a chromosomal view of all reported engineered endonucleases targeting human and zebrafish genomes.
Display omitted
•Fermentation conditions were optimized for protease production.•L. fermentum R6 protease had activity at pH 6 and 40 °C.•L. fermentum protease can hydrolyse myofibrillar and ...sarcoplasmic proteins.
This study investigated the purification and biochemical characterization of the protease produced by Lactobacillus fermentum R6 isolated from Harbin dry sausages. The optimized fermentation conditions were as follows: a fermentation time of 48 h, an initial pH of 6 and a fermentation temperature of 37 °C. The 37.7 kDa extracellular protease was purified using ammonium sulphate deposition, an ion exchange layer system and gel filtration. The protease produced by L. fermentum R6 had the highest initial velocity and kcat/Km at pH 6, 40 °C. The microbial protease activity could be inhibited by ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA). The Vmax and Km of the protease were 58.2 ± 1.42 mg/min and 17.3 ± 0.85 mg/mL, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) reflected the ability of the protease to hydrolyse myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins, in particular, myosin heavy chain, paramyosin, phosphorylase and creatine kinase-M type. In conclusion, L. fermentum R6 can be used as a starter culture or an enzyme-producing strain for the inoculation of Harbin dry sausages.
PDF
