Appropriate autophagy has protective effects on ischemic nerve tissue, while excessive autophagy may cause cell death. The inflammatory response plays an important role in the survival of nerve cells ...and the recovery of neural tissue after ischemia. Many studies have found an interaction between autophagy and inflammation in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. This study outlines recent advances regarding the role of autophagy in the post-stroke inflammatory response as follows. (1) Autophagy inhibits inflammatory responses caused by ischemic stimulation through mTOR, the AMPK pathway, and inhibition of inflammasome activation. (2) Activation of inflammation triggers the formation of autophagosomes, and the upregulation of autophagy levels is marked by a significant increase in the autophagy-forming markers LC3-II and Beclin-1. Lipopolysaccharide stimulates microglia and inhibits ULK1 activity by direct phosphorylation of p38 MAPK, reducing the flux and autophagy level, thereby inducing inflammatory activity. (3) By blocking the activation of autophagy, the activation of inflammasomes can alleviate cerebral ischemic injury. Autophagy can also regulate the phenotypic alternation of microglia through the nuclear factor-κB pathway, which is beneficial to the recovery of neural tissue after ischemia. Studies have shown that some drugs such as resveratrol can exert neuroprotective effects by regulating the autophagy-inflammatory pathway. These studies suggest that the autophagy-inflammatory pathway may provide a new direction for the treatment of ischemic stroke.
Urban configuration can influence the local thermal environment by altering energy balances. However, previous studies have found that either sprawling urban or compact urban development could ...intensify urban heat island (UHI) intensity. How urban configurations can mitigate the UHI intensity has drawn full attention. In this study, we quantified the diurnal and seasonal UHI intensities in 36 cities in China and investigated their response to urban configurations. In each city, urban land cover maps were classified from Landsat 8 and UHIs were quantified using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST). Results show that the average UHI intensities of 36 cities vary temporally with a sequence of summer day > summer night > winter night > winter day. Moreover, whether the daytime UHI is higher or lower than the nighttime UHI significantly depends on climatic zones and seasons. Besides, we found that UHIs significantly correlate with urban configurations in two ways. First, for the spatial structure among built-up patches, a lower UHI located in the smaller built-up area with dispersed distribution when compared to the larger built-up patches, if the total built-up area holds constant. Second, for the spatial structure of a single patch, the single patch with more complex shape would mitigate the UHI intensities. Overall, urban configuration and other control variables (e.g., urban characteristics and climatic condition) can explain 41% and 51% of the variance in UHI in summer day and night, respectively. Therefore, the design of urban configuration can serve as an essential practice to mitigate UHI intensity. Considering the difficulties of altering the urban configuration in the urbanized area, planting vegetation might be a great choice to change the urban contiguity and shape complexity with providing an extra cooling effect.
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•We examined the effect of urban configuration on urban heat island intensities in 36 China mega-cities.•The relative relationship between daytime UHI and nighttime UHI depends on climatic zones and seasons.•UHI variations were significantly influenced by the division and shape complexity of the built-up area.•This study provides essential implication and perspectives of heat mitigation.
Quantifying source-oriented risk can identify primary pollution sources to help alleviate risks to ecosystems and human health posed by soil heavy metals. Taking Yulin National Energy and Chemical ...Industry Base as an example, ecosystem and human health risk assessments of each identified source category were quantitatively calculated by combining the Potential Ecological Risk (RI) and Total Carcinogenic Risk (Total-CR)/Total Hazard Index (Total-HI) assessment models with the positive matrix factorization (PMF) receptor model. In this work, an analysis of the Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), Contamination Index (Pi), RI, CR and HI of heavy metals (As, Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, Hg and Mn) identified universal ecosystem risks and both carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic health risks in most sites. Source apportionment results indicated that the dominant source of heavy metals in the soil was coal-related activities (52.5%), followed by industrial activities (22.0%), traffic activities (13.2%) and agricultural activities (12.3%). The source-oriented quantitative risk assessment results showed that coal-related activities are the greatest contributor to RI and Total-HI, while industrial activities are the largest source of Total-CR, which should be controlled, to reduce the carcinogenic health risk posed by exposure to heavy metals.
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•The level of heavy metals in soils from Yulin were investigated.•Igeo, Pi, RI, CR and HI values in soil indicated high risk to ecological and human health.•Four source categories were identified using PMF model.•Source contributions to ecological and human health risks were quantitatively and spatially identified.•Coal-related activities caused the greatest potential ecological risk and hazard index.
Advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) have fostered rapid developments in the field of microbiome research, and massive microbiome datasets are now being generated. However, the diversity of ...software tools and the complexity of analysis pipelines make it difficult to access this field. Here, we systematically summarize the advantages and limitations of microbiome methods. Then, we recommend specific pipelines for amplicon and metagenomic analyses, and describe commonly-used software and databases, to help researchers select the appropriate tools. Furthermore, we introduce statistical and visualization methods suitable for microbiome analysis, including alpha- and betadiversity, taxonomic composition, difference comparisons, correlation, networks, machine learning, evolution, source tracing, and common visualization styles to help researchers make informed choices. Finally, a stepby-step reproducible analysis guide is introduced. We hope this review will allow researchers to carry out data analysis more effectively and to quickly select the appropriate tools in order to efficiently mine the biological significance behind the data.
This paper presents a model-based open-circuit fault diagnosis approach for single-phase three-level neutral-point-clamped (3LNPC) converters in electric railway application. The diagnosis algorithm, ...which only requires the signals existing in the control system, not only detects open-circuit faults but also identifies the faulty device among the transistors and clamping diodes. The mixed logical dynamic (MLD) model of the converter is built to estimate the grid current. The residual generated from the measured current subtracting the estimated one is analyzed under different open-circuit faults. According to the characteristics of the residual changing rate, the proposed approach allows fault localization. The proposed method is effective both in traction and regenerative braking operation and has fast diagnosis speed. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed fault diagnosis algorithm.
Type 1 interferon-(alpha, beta, omega)-producing cells (IPCs), also known as plasmacytoid dendritic cell precursors (pDCs), represent 0.2%-0.8% of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in both humans ...and mice. IPCs display plasma cell morphology, selectively express Toll-like receptor (TLR)-7 and TLR9, and are specialized in rapidly secreting massive amounts of type 1 interferon following viral stimulation. IPCs can promote the function of natural killer cells, B cells, T cells, and myeloid DCs through type 1 interferons during an antiviral immune response. At a later stage of viral infection, IPCs differentiate into a unique type of mature dendritic cell, which directly regulates the function of T cells and thus links innate and adaptive immune responses. After more than two decades of effort by researchers, IPCs finally claim their place in the hematopoietic chart as the most important cell type in antiviral innate immunity. Understanding IPC biology holds future promise for developing cures for infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
Abiotic stress severely influences plant growth and development. MYB transcription factors (TFs), which compose one of the largest TF families, play an important role in abiotic stress responses.
We ...identified 139 soybean MYB-related genes; these genes were divided into six groups based on their conserved domain and were distributed among 20 chromosomes (Chrs). Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) indicated that GmMYB118 highly responsive to drought, salt and high temperature stress; thus, this gene was selected for further analysis. Subcellular localization revealed that the GmMYB118 protein located in the nucleus. Ectopic expression (EX) of GmMYB118 increased tolerance to drought and salt stress and regulated the expression of several stress-associated genes in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Similarly, GmMYB118-overexpressing (OE) soybean plants generated via Agrobacterium rhizogenes (A. rhizogenes)-mediated transformation of the hairy roots showed improved drought and salt tolerance. Furthermore, compared with the control (CK) plants, the clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-transformed plants exhibited reduced drought and salt tolerance. The contents of proline and chlorophyll in the OE plants were significantly greater than those in the CK plants, whose contents were greater than those in the CRISPR plants under drought and salt stress conditions. In contrast, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were significantly lower in the OE plants than in the CK plants, whose contents were lower than those in the CRISPR plants under stress conditions.
These results indicated that GmMYB118 could improve tolerance to drought and salt stress by promoting expression of stress-associated genes and regulating osmotic and oxidizing substances to maintain cell homeostasis.
The azo linkage is a prominent chemical motif which has found numerous applications in materials science, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals. Described herein is a sustainable ...heterogeneous‐gold‐catalyzed synthesis of azo arenes. Available nitroarenes are deoxygenated and linked selectively by the formation of NN bonds using molecular H2 without any external additives. As a result of a unique and remarkable synergy between the metal and support, a facile surface‐mediated condensation of nitroso and hydroxylamine intermediates is enabled, and the desired transformation proceeds in a highly selective manner under mild reaction conditions. The protocol tolerates a large variety of functional groups and offers a general and versatile method for the environmentally friendly synthesis of symmetric or asymmetric aromatic azo compounds.
Game of rates: A general approach for the chemoselective hydrogenative coupling of nitroarenes to give the corresponding azo compounds, using a heterogeneous gold catalyst, has been developed. As a result of the remarkable synergy between the metal and support, a facile condensation of transient nitroso and hydroxylamine intermediates proceeds. The desired transformation is highly selective under mild reaction conditions.
Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common malignant tumour of the biliary track system. Angiogenesis plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of malignant tumours. miR-143-3p acts as ...a tumour suppressor in various cancers. Their role in GBC is however less well defined. Here we show that the expression levels of miR-143-3p were decreased in human GBC tissues compared with the non-tumour adjacent tissue (NAT) counterparts and were closely associated with overall survival. We discovered that miR-143-3p was a novel inhibitor of tumour growth and angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro. Our antibody array, ELISA and PLGF rescue analyses indicated that PLGF played an essential role in the antiangiogenic effect of miR-143-3p. Furthermore, we used miRNA target-prediction software and dual-luciferase assays to confirm that integrin α6 (ITGA6) acted as a direct target of miR-143-3p. Our ELISA and western blot analyses confirmed that the expression of PLGF was decreased via the ITGA6/PI3K/AKT pathway. In conclusion, miR-143-3p suppresses tumour angiogenesis and growth of GBC through the ITGA6/PI3K/AKT/PLGF pathways and may be a novel molecular therapeutic target for GBC.
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