A novel FPCL model producing directional contraction through induction of fibroblast alignment by biphasic pulse direct current electric field.

Although parallel alignment of fibroblasts to the tension lines of scar has been evidenced in vivo, how scar contracture generates directional contraction remains largely unclear due to the lack of effective in vitro model. Fibroblast populated collagen lattice (FPCL), a widely used in vitro model, fails to mimic scar contracture since it produces concentric contraction with the random orientation of fibroblast. We hypothesized that a novel FPCL model with fibroblast alignment might produce directional contraction and then simulate scar contracture better.

Subsurface catalysis-mediated selectivity of dehydrogenation reaction.

Progress in heterogeneous catalysis is often hampered by the difficulties of constructing active architectures and understanding reaction mechanisms at the molecular level due to the structural complexity of practical catalysts, in particular for multicomponent catalysts. Although surface science experiments and theoretical simulations help understand the detailed reaction mechanisms over model systems, the direct study of the nature of nanoparticle catalysts remains a grand challenge. This paper describes a facile construction of well-defined Pt-skin catalysts modified by different 3d transition metal (3dTM) atoms in subsurface regions.

From 1D sequence to 3D chromatin dynamics and cellular functions: a phase separation perspective.

The high-order chromatin structure plays a non-negligible role in gene regulation. However, the mechanism, especially the sequence dependence for the formation of varied chromatin structures in different cells remains to be elucidated. As the nucleotide distributions in human and mouse genomes are highly uneven, we identified CGI (CpG island) forest and prairie genomic domains based on CGI densities of a species, dividing the genome into two sequentially, epigenetically, and transcriptionally distinct regions.

Tumor-targeted hybrid protein oxygen carrier to simultaneously enhance hypoxia-dampened chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy at a single dose.

Hypoxia is a characteristic feature of solid tumors and an important causation of resistance to chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT). It is challenging to develop efficient functional nanomaterials for tumor oxygenation and therapeutic applications. Through disulfide reconfiguration to hybridize hemoglobin and albumin, tumor-targeted hybrid protein oxygen carriers (HPOCs) were fabricated, serving as nanomedicines for precise tumor oxygenation and simultaneous enhancement of hypoxia-dampened chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy.

Bioinspired Hybrid Protein Oxygen Nanocarrier Amplified Photodynamic Therapy for Eliciting Anti-tumor Immunity and Abscopal Effect.

An ideal cancer therapeutic strategy is expected to possess potent ability to not only ablate primary tumors but also prevent distance metastasis and relapse. In this study, human serum albumin was hybridized with hemoglobin by intermolecular disulfide bonds to develop a hybrid protein oxygen nanocarrier with chlorine e6 encapsulated (C@HPOC) for oxygen self-sufficient photodynamic therapy (PDT). C@HPOC realized the tumor-targeted co-delivery of photosensitizer and oxygen, which remarkably relieved tumor hypoxia.

Realtime Hand-Object Interaction Using Learned Grasp Space for Virtual Environments.

We present a realtime virtual grasping algorithm to model interactions with virtual objects. Our approach is designed for multi-fingered hands and makes no assumptions about the motion of the user's hand or the virtual objects. Given a model of the virtual hand, we use machine learning and particle swarm optimization to automatically pre-compute stable grasp configurations for that object.

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor/IL-22/Stat3 signaling pathway is involved in the modulation of intestinal mucosa antimicrobial molecules by commensal microbiota in mice.

Compelling evidence demonstrates the crucial role of the commensal microbiota in host physiology and the detrimental effects of its perturbations following antibiotic treatment. However, the effects of commensal microbiota on intestinal mucosa antimicrobial molecules have not been elucidated systematically. Here, we investigate the impacts of antibiotic-induced depletion and subsequent restoration of the intestinal microbiota on the murine antimicrobial molecules in intestinal mucosa.

Leucine Carboxyl Methyltransferase Downregulation and Protein Phosphatase Methylesterase Upregulation Contribute Toward the Inhibition of Protein Phosphatase 2A by α-Synuclein.

The pathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of phosphorylated α-synuclein (α-syn). Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is responsible for α-syn dephosphorylation. Previous work has demonstrated that α-syn can regulate PP2A activity.

[Study on the inverse problem of electrical impedance tomography based on self-diagnosis regularization].

The inverse problem of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is seriously ill-posed, which restricts the clinical application of EIT. Regularization is an important numerical method to improve the stability of the EIT inverse problem as well as the resolution of the imaging. This paper proposes a self-diagnosis regularization method based on Tikhonov regularization and diagonal weight regularization method (DWRM).

Effects of histone methyltransferase inhibitor chaetocin on histone H3K9 methylation of cultured ovine somatic cells and development of preimplantation cloned embryos.

Aberrant hypermethylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) is a key barrier to the development of cloned embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The objective of this study was to assess the effects of chaetocin, an inhibitor of H3K9 methyltransferase SUV39 H, in regulating the H3K9 methylation in ovine SCNT embryos. Treatment of sheep fetal fibroblast cells with chaetocin specifically decreased the levels of H3K9 di-and trimethylation, and down-regulated the expression of H3K9 methyltransferases, SUV39H1/2 and G9A.

Hydrogen-Bonded Organic⁻Inorganic Hybrid Based on Hexachloroplatinate and Nitrogen Heterocyclic Cations: Their Synthesis, Characterization, Crystal Structures, and Antitumor Activities In Vitro.

Three new crystal structures containing [PtCl₆], pyridinium and benzimidazole groups have been prepared: [PtCl₆]·(H-bzm)₂·2(H₂O) (), [PtCl₆]·(H-bipy)₂·2(H₂O) (), [PtCl₆]·(H-dimethyl-bipy)₂·2(H₂O) () [H-bzm: benzimidazole cation, H-bipy: 2,2′-bipyridine cation, H-dimethyl-bipy: 4,4′-bimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine cation]. All compounds have been fully characterized by elemental analyses, single-crystal X-ray analyses, IR spectra, TG analyses, and fluorescence studies. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis suggests that the primary synthon contains ⁺N⁻H···Cl, including ionic bonding and hydrogen bonding interactions.

StressHacker: Towards Practical Stress Monitoring in the Wild with Smartwatches.

In modern life, the nonstop and pervasive stress tends to keep us on long-lasting high alert, which over time, could lead to a broad range of health problems from depression, metabolic disorders to heart diseases. However, there is a stunning lack of practical tools for effective stress management that can help people navigate through their daily stress. This paper presents the feasibility evaluation of StressHacker, a smartwatch-based system designed to continuously and passively monitor one's stress level using bio-signals obtained from the on-board sensors.

Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of severe burn patients: results of a retrospective multicenter study in China, 2011-2015.

Background: Severe burns injury is a serious pathology, leading to teratogenicity and significant mortality, and it also has a long-term social impact. The aim of this article is to describe the hospitalized population with severe burns injuries in eight burn centers in China between 2011 and 2015 and to suggest future preventive strategies.

Methods: This 5-year retrospective review included all patients with severe burns in a database at eight institutions.

[Application of free anterolateral thigh Kiss flap in repair of large scalp defect after malignant tumor resection].

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of free anterolateral thigh Kiss flap in repair of large scalp defect after malignant tumor resection.

Methods: Between December 2012 and December 2016，18 patients with large scalp defect after malignant tumor resection were treated. There were 16 males and 2 females with an average age of 52.

On the role of Ce in CO adsorption and activation over lanthanum species.

LaO exhibits good performance for various catalytic applications, such as oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and dry reforming of methane (DRM), during which coke formation may lead to the deactivation of catalysts. Typically, the reaction between CO adsorbed on LaO and coke is the rate-determining step of the coke elimination process. This paper describes the influence of Ce addition on the CO adsorption and activation over LaO.

N-Arylamines Coupled with Aldehydes, Ketones, and Imines by Means of Photocatalytic Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer.

A photoredox-catalyzed umpolung strategy for coupling reactions between aldehydes, ketones, imines, and N-arylamines is reported. These reactions proceed by a Brønsted acid-activated proton-coupled electron transfer pathway, and the protocol was used to synthesize a broad scope of 1,2-amino alcohols and vicinal diamines, both of which are common motifs in biologically active natural products, pharmaceutically active molecules, and ligands.

Role of Carbon Interstitials in Transition Metal Substrates on Controllable Synthesis of High-Quality Large-Area Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride Layers.

Reliable and controllable synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) layers is highly desirable for their applications as 2D dielectric and wide bandgap semiconductors. In this work, we demonstrate that the dissolution of carbon into cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) substrates can facilitate the growth of h-BN and attain large-area 2D homogeneity. The morphology of the h-BN film can be controlled from 2D layer-plus-3D islands to homogeneous 2D few-layers by tuning the carbon interstitial concentration in the Co substrate through a carburization process prior to the h-BN growth step.

Gut Microbiota as a Modulator of Paneth Cells During Parenteral Nutrition in Mice.

Background: Parenteral nutrition (PN) leads to decreased production of Paneth cell-derived antimicrobial peptides and is accompanied by dysbiosis of the gut. The role of gut microbiota in regulating Paneth cell function during PN is unknown.

Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice received either an antibiotic cocktail (Abx) or nothing (Normal) in their drinking water for 2 weeks before being fed either standard laboratory chow (Abx-Chow and Normal-Chow) or a continuous infusion of PN solution (Abx-PN and Normal-PN) for 7 days.

An Intelligent Monitoring Network for Detection of Cracks in Anvils of High-Press Apparatus.

Due to the endurance of alternating high pressure and temperature, the carbide anvils of the high-press apparatus, which are widely used in the synthetic diamond industry, are prone to crack. In this paper, an acoustic method is used to monitor the crack events, and the intelligent monitoring network is proposed to classify the sound samples. The pulse sound signals produced by such cracking are first extracted based on a short-time energy threshold.

Liquid crystal terahertz modulator with plasmon-induced transparency metamaterial.

An electrically tunable terahertz (THz) modulator with large modulation depth and low insertion loss is performed with liquid crystal (LC) metamaterial. The modulation depth beyond 90% and insertion loss below 0.5 dB are achievable at normal incidence by exploiting plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) effect.

Raf1 is a prognostic factor for progression in patients with non‑small cell lung cancer after radiotherapy.

Raf-1 proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (Raf1) acts as a part of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK signaling pathway and regulates cell migration, apoptosis and differentiation. However, few studies are available on the expression and clinical significance of Raf1 in non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study investigated the clinical value and prognostic significance of Raf1 in NSCLC patients, following radiotherapy.

Piperlongumine restores the balance of autophagy and apoptosis by increasing BCL2 phosphorylation in rotenone-induced Parkinson disease models.

Unlabelled: Parkinson disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer disease and is caused by genetics, environmental factors and aging, with few treatments currently available. Apoptosis and macroautophagy/autophagy play critical roles in PD pathogenesis; as such, modulating their balance is a potential treatment strategy. BCL2 (B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2) is a key molecule regulating this balance.

Patterning Graphene Surfaces with Iron-Oxide-Embedded Mesoporous Polypyrrole and Derived N-Doped Carbon of Tunable Pore Size.

This study develops a novel strategy, based on block copolymer self-assembly in solution, for preparing two-dimensional (2D) graphene-based mesoporous nanohybrids with well-defined large pores of tunable sizes, by employing polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) spherical micelles as the pore-creating template. The resultant 2D nanohybrids possess a sandwich-like structure with Fe O nanoparticle-embedded mesoporous polypyrrole (PPy) monolayers grown on both sides of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets (denoted as mPPy-Fe O @rGO). Serving as supercapacitor electrode materials, the 2D ternary nanohybrids exhibit controllable capacitive performance depending on the pore size, with high capacitance (up to 1006 F/g at 1 A/g), good rate performance (750 F/g at 20 A/g) and excellent cycling stability.