Background
Altered visceral sensation is common in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and nerve growth factor (NGF) participates in visceral pain development. Sodium butyrate (NaB) could induce colonic ...hypersensitivity via peripheral up‐regulation of NGF in animals. Enteric glial cells (EGCs) appear to be an important source of NGF. Whether butyrate could induce visceral hypersensitivity via increased EGC‐derived NGF is still unknown.
Methods
CRL‐2690 cells were used for transcriptome analyses after butyrate treatment. Rats received butyrate enemas to induce colonic hypersensitivity. Colorectal distention test was performed to assess visceral sensitivity. Immunofluorescence studies were used to evaluate the co‐expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and NGF or growth associated protein 43 in animal model. NGF expression in rat colon was also investigated. In vitro, CRL‐2690 cells were stimulated with NaB or trichostatin A (TSA). NGF or GFAP expression was also examined.
Key Results
Transcriptome analyses showed that butyrate induced marked changes of genes expression related to neurotrophic signaling pathways. NaB‐treated rats showed increased visceral sensitivity. An improved NGF expression level was observed in NaB‐treated rats. Meanwhile, a 2.1‐fold increase in co‐expression of GFAP and NGF was also determined in rats received NaB enemas. In cultured cells, both NaB and TSA treatment could cause obvious NGF expression. Thus, butyrate might regulate EGC function via histone deacetylase inhibition.
Conclusions & Inferences
Butyrate‐EGC interplay may play a pivotal role in regulation of NGF expression and the development of colonic hypersensitivity in IBS‐like animal model.
Our study illustrated that butyrate promoted the secretion of NGF from enteric glial cells (EGCs) and contributed to visceral hypersensitivity in rats. The results clarified the potential unignorable source of NGF from EGC and highlighted the important role of EGC in pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Lithium‐ion batteries have been long considered a promising energy storage technology for electrification of the transportation system. However, the poor safety characteristics of lithium‐ion ...batteries is one of several technological barriers that hinder their deployment for automobile applications. Within the field of battery research and development, titanium‐based anode materials have recently attracted widespread attention due to their significantly better thermal stability than the conventional graphite anode. In this chapter, the fundamental properties and promising electrochemical performance of titanium‐based anode materials will be discussed for applications in hybrid electric vehicles.
Nanostructured titanium‐based oxide materials have been long pursued as anode materials for safe, extremely long life, and high power lithium‐ion batteries. The outstanding safety and electrochemical performance of titanium‐based anodes originates from their relatively high working potential, much higher than the potential needed for graphitic anodes, to form solid electrolyte interphase. Compared to graphite, lithiated titanium‐based anodes release a substantially smaller amount of heat under abuse conditions.
This study aimed to systematically review evidence of the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among ‘left‐behind children’ in rural China. The electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE and ...Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure/Wanfang (Chinese) were utilized to search for terms including ‘depression’ or ‘depressive disorder’, ‘anxiety’ or ‘mental health’, combined with ‘left behind’, ‘children’ and ‘China’. High rates of psychological depression/anxiety have been reported among left‐behind children compared with their age‐matched peers. Prevalence rates of depression are reported to range from 12.1 to 51.4% and of anxiety are reported to range from 13.2 to 57.6%. Variability between studies is likely attributable to methodological variations relating to measures used and research setting. Potential predictors measured in studies include age and gender, types of being left, age/years of separation, socio‐economic status, etc. These high rates of reported psychological problems among this group of young people suggest the need to develop more effective approaches to prevention and management.
Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) comprises a large group of heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorders inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. It is characterized by progressive cerebellar ataxia with ...oculomotor dysfunction, dysarthria, pyramidal signs, extrapyramidal signs, pigmentary retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, cognitive impairment and other symptoms. It is classified according to the clinical manifestations or genetic nosology. To date, 40 SCAs have been characterized, and include SCA1–40. The pathogenic genes of 28 SCAs were identified. In recent years, with the widespread clinical use of next‐generation sequencing, the genes underlying SCAs, and the mutants as well as the affected phenotypes were identified. These advances elucidated the phenotype–genotype relationship in SCAs. We reviewed the recent clinical advances, genetic features and phenotype–genotype correlations involving each SCA and its differentiation. The heterogeneity of the disease and the genetic diagnosis might be attributed to the regional distribution and clinical characteristics. Therefore, recognition of the phenotype–genotype relationship facilitates genetic testing, prognosis and monitoring of symptoms.
In the present work, the sliding wear behaviour of surface mechanical attrition (SMA) treated AISI 304 stainless steel by spherical shot peening has been studied under both unlubricated and ...lubricated conditions under various contact loads. It was found that although SMA treatments could produce a hardened layer of several hundred microns thick with much increased hardness from 200 HV0.1 to 480 HV0.1, SMA treatments did not have a significant effect on the unlubricated wear behaviour of the steel. However, under oil-lubricating conditions, the SMA treated steel showed much better wear resistance than the untreated steel over a wide range of contact loads. The results are discussed in terms of plastic deformation and property changes induced during the sliding wear process.
► SMAT produced a 300μm thick hardened layer with much increased hardness. ► SMAT did not significantly affect the unlubricated sliding wear behaviour. ► SMAT is effective in enhancing wear resistance under lubrication condition.
Background
IL‐25 has been proposed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). This study aimed to evaluate the association of IL‐25 with the ...Th2‐biased inflammatory profiles in CRSwNP.
Methods
Nasal polyp (NP) tissues and control uncinate process tissues were collected from 92 patients with CRSwNP, 20 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (CRSsNP), and 16 normal control subjects. IL‐25 expression was examined using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry, RT‐qPCR, and ELISA. The inflammatory profiles and clinical characteristics of 2 NP subtypes (IL‐25high and IL‐25low) were evaluated, and the effects of IL‐25 on Th2 cytokine production in cultured dispersed polyp cells were examined in vitro.
Results
The mRNA and protein levels of IL‐25 were significantly increased in the polyp tissues compared with the control uncinate process tissues. The IL‐25high subtype showed greater computed tomography scores, endoscopic scores, and Th2 response. Exposure to IL‐25 activated type 2 innate lymphoid cells and Th2 cells in NP simultaneously which further increased Th2 cytokine production in vitro.
Conclusions
Local IL‐25 plays a crucial role in promoting Th2‐biased inflammatory profiles in NP and may serve as a promising therapeutic target in CRSwNP patients.
With the aim of gathering temporal trends on bacterial epidemiology and resistance from multiple laboratories in China, the CHINET surveillance system was organized in 2005. Antimicrobial ...susceptibility testing was carried out according to a unified protocol using the Kirby-Bauer method or automated systems. Results were analyzed according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2014 definitions. Between 2005 and 2014, the number of bacterial isolates ranged between 22 774 and 84 572 annually. Rates of extended-spectrum β-lactamase production among Escherichia coli isolates were stable, between 51.7 and 55.8%. Resistance of E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, piperacillin/tazobactam and cefoperazone/sulbactam decreased with time. Carbapenem resistance among K. pneumoniae isolates increased from 2.4 to 13.4%. Resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains against all of antimicrobial agents tested including imipenem and meropenem decreased with time. On the contrary, resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii strains to carbapenems increased from 31 to 66.7%. A marked decrease of methicillin resistance from 69% in 2005 to 44.6% in 2014 was observed for Staphylococcus aureus. Carbapenem resistance rates in K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii in China are high. Our results indicate the importance of bacterial surveillance studies.
A fundamental problem in geophysical modeling is related to the identification and approximation of causal structures among physical processes. However, resolving the bidirectional mappings between ...physical parameters and model state variables (i.e., solving the forward and inverse problems) is challenging, especially when parameter dimensionality is high. Deep learning has opened a new door toward knowledge representation and complex pattern identification. In particular, the recently introduced generative adversarial networks (GANs) hold strong promises in learning cross‐domain mappings for image translation. This study presents a state‐parameter identification GAN (SPID‐GAN) for simultaneously learning bidirectional mappings between a high‐dimensional parameter space and the corresponding model state space. SPID‐GAN is demonstrated using a series of representative problems from subsurface flow modeling. Results show that SPID‐GAN achieves satisfactory performance in identifying the bidirectional state‐parameter mappings, providing a new deep‐learning‐based, knowledge representation paradigm for a wide array of complex geophysical problems.
Plain Language Summary
Development of physically based models requires two steps, mathematical ion (forward modeling) and parameter estimation (inverse modeling). A high‐fidelity model requires high‐quality parameter support. The need for identifying forward and reverse mappings (i.e., a function that associates element of one set to another) is thus ubiquitous in geophysical research. A significant challenge in geosciences is that geoparameters are spatially heterogeneous and high dimensional and yet can only be observed at limited locations. The conventional workflow, built on minimizing the model‐observation mismatch at measurement locations, does not offer an efficient way for estimating the spatial structure of high‐dimensional parameter fields. This work presents a deep‐learning‐based framework for identifying the state‐parameter bidirectional mappings using the recently introduced generative adversarial networks (GANs). GANs have been shown to be adept at associating images from one domain to another. Its potential for discovering mappings in physically based models has not been demonstrated so far. This work shows that GAN can achieve high performance in learning bidirectional parameter‐to‐state mappings in physically based models, thus providing a new way of thinking and doing things in geosciences. The implication for additional applications in subsurface modeling is significant.
Key Points
The need for identifying forward and reverse mappings is ubiquitous in all geophysical research fields
This study shows that generative adversarial networks (GANs) can be used to learn the forward and inverse mappings at the same time
GAN provides a new way of thinking in combining physical‐based modeling with data‐driven modeling and has broad applications for geosciences