External Corrosion Detection of Oil Pipelines Using Fiber Optics.

Oil flowlines, the first "pipeline" system connected to the wellhead, are pipelines that are 5 to 30.5 cm (two to twelve inches) in diameter, most susceptible to corrosion, and very difficult to inspect. Herein, an external corrosion detection sensor for oil and gas pipelines, consisting of a semicircular plastic strip, a flat dog-bone-shaped sacrificial metal plate made out of the same pipeline material, and an optical fiber with Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, is described.

The combination of transversus abdominis plane block and rectus sheath block reduced postoperative pain after splenectomy: a randomized trial.

Background: Splenectomy performed with a curved incision results in severe postoperative pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of transversus abdominis plane block and rectus sheath block on postoperative pain relief and recovery.

Methods: A total of 150 patients were randomized into the control (C), levobupivacaine (L) and levobupivacaine/morphine (LM) groups.

Nanobody‑horseradish peroxidase and -EGFP fusions as reagents to detect porcine parvovirus in the immunoassays.

Background: Antibodies are an important reagent to determine the specificity and accuracy of diagnostic immunoassays for various diseases. However, traditional antibodies have several shortcomings due to their limited abundance, difficulty in permanent storage, and required use of a secondary antibody. Nanobodies, which are derived from single-chain camelid antibodies, can circumvent many of these limitations and, thus, appear to be a promising substitute.

Positive regulation of human PINK1 and Parkin gene expression by nuclear respiratory factor 1.

Previous studies have demonstrated that two Parkinson'sdisease-associatedgenes PINK1 and Parkin play a key role in mitochondrial quality control. But until now, the transcriptional regulation of these two genes under normal physiological conditions are not well understood. In this study, the transcriptional regulation of PINK1 and Parkin genes by nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) and its effect on PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy were studied.

Design of a two-layer structure to significantly improve the performance of zinc oxide resistive memory.

Resistive random access memory (RRAM) is considered to be one of the important candidates for the next generation of memory devices. Zinc oxide resistive memory has also been studied for many years, but there are still some controversial topics and problems. Herein, an unusual resistance state has been observed in devices following the measurement and analysis of ZnO resistive memories with different thicknesses, a middle resistance state was speculated to explain the instability of ZnO RRAM.

Ba-induced phase segregation and band gap reduction in mixed-halide inorganic perovskite solar cells.

All-inorganic metal halide perovskites are showing promising development towards efficient long-term stable materials and solar cells. Element doping, especially on the lead site, has been proved to be a useful strategy to obtain the desired film quality and material phase for high efficient and stable inorganic perovskite solar cells. Here we demonstrate a function by adding barium in CsPbIBr.

Morphological, anatomical and DNA methylation changes of tree peony buds during chilling induced dormancy release.

Bud endodormancy in tree peony is a growth cessation-like state, and sufficient chilling perception is necessary to break it. In this study, 120 plants were subjected to 0-4 °C climate chamber for 0-28 d with a weekly interval, morphology and structure changes of buds were studied with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and paraffin sections during the dormancy process. Dormancy status was evaluated after being transferred to greenhouse for 30 d.

Endothelial Progenitor Cells Attenuate Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury with Large-Volume Ventilation.

Ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) is a common complication that results from treatment with mechanical ventilation (MV) in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. The present study investigated the effect of endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) transplantation on VILI. Wistar rats were divided into three groups ( = 8): sham (S), VILI model (V) induced by tidal volume ventilation (17 mL/kg), and VILI plus EPC transplantation (VE) groups.

Construction of an Infectious cDNA Clone and Comparisons of Hordeivirus Cytopathology and Pathogenicity.

(PSLV), (LRSV), and (BSMV) are members of the genus in the family . However, the biological properties and molecular genetics of PSLV have not been compared with other hordeiviruses. Here, we have constructed an infectious cDNA clone of the PSLV Canadian strain and provided evidence that PSLV differs from BSMV and LRSV.

Ammonia mediates mitochondrial uncoupling and promotes glycolysis via HIF-1 activation in human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells.

It has been reported that ammonia produced by glutaminolysis activates the HIF-1 pathway in several types of cancer cells, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, the effects of ammonia on the activation of HIF-1 pathway and glycolysis in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were investigated and the underlying mechanisms involved were elucidated. The results showed that NHCl concentration-dependently increased the protein level of HIF-1α and enhanced the transactivation activity of HIF-1 in MDA-MB-231 cells.

The microbial zonation of SRB and soNRB enhanced the performance of SR-DSR process under the micro-aerobic condition.

The micro-aerobic condition has proven to effectively enhance the COD removal and elemental sulfur (S) transformation rate in the sulfate reduction-denitrifying sulfide removal (SR-DSR) process. However, the mechanisms of how micro-aerobic condition enhances S transformation remain largely unknown. Therefore in this work an integrated investigation was performed to document the mechanisms and the effect of different startup modes (micro-aerobic startup (termed as mSR-DSR) and anaerobic startup (termed as aSR-DSR)) on bioreactor performance and microbial community dynamics.

Deep-Reinforcement Learning-Based Co-Evolution in a Predator-Prey System.

Understanding or estimating the co-evolution processes is critical in ecology, but very challenging. Traditional methods are difficult to deal with the complex processes of evolution and to predict their consequences on nature. In this paper, we use the deep-reinforcement learning algorithms to endow the organism with learning ability, and simulate their evolution process by using the Monte Carlo simulation algorithm in a large-scale ecosystem.

Ac2-26 ameliorates lung ischemia-reperfusion injury via the eNOS pathway.

Background: Lung ischemia-reperfusion injury (LIRI) is a major complication after lung transplantation. Annexin A1 (AnxA1) ameliorates inflammation in various injured organs. This study aimed to determine the effects and mechanism of AnxA1 on LIRI after lung transplantation.

Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 inhibits oxidative stress-induced vascular endothelial cell injury by activating the miR-181d-5p/CDKN3 axis.

Endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction induces atherosclerotic coronary heart disease (CHD) development. Recent studies demonstrated that lncRNA NEAT1 mediates multiple biological functions of cells. How NEAT1 regulates EC function is still unclear, so this study explored the role and mechanism of NEAT1 in oxidative stress-induced ECs.

Alpha 1-antitrypsin for treating ventilator-associated lung injury in acute respiratory distress syndrome rats.

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is an essential life support tool for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, MV for ARDS can result in ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). This study aimed to assess whether alpha 1-antitrypsin (AAT) can reduce VILI in ARDS rats.

Icariin protects rotenone-induced neurotoxicity through induction of SIRT3.

Sirtuin-3 (SIRT3) is a mitochondrial NAD + -dependent deacetylase that is essential in regulating mitochondrial proteins and maintaining cellular antioxidant properties. It has been reported that icariin (ICA) is neuroprotective over various neurotoxicant induced oxidative stress. This study aimed to determine whether ICA exerts neuroprotective effects on rotenone (ROT)-induced neurotoxicity through activation of SIRT3.

Virtual Screening Guided Design, Synthesis and Bioactivity Study of Benzisoselenazolones (BISAs) on Inhibition of c-Met and Its Downstream Signalling Pathways.

c-Met is a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase and an important therapeutic target for anticancer drugs. In this study, we designed a small library containing 300 BISAs molecules that consisted of carbohydrates, amino acids, isothiourea, tetramethylthiourea, guanidine and heterocyclic groups and screened c-Met targeting compounds using docking and MM/GBSA. Guided by virtual screening, we synthesised a series of novel compounds and their activity on inhibition of the autophosphorylation of c-Met and its downstream signalling pathway proteins were evaluated.

MicroRNA-4286 promotes cell proliferation, migration, and invasion via PTEN regulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway in non-small cell lung cancer.

It is well-known that phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) is a tumor suppressor which negatively regulates PI3K/AKT signaling and is activated widely in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). However, genetic alterations in PTEN genes are rare, suggesting an undefined mechanism(s) for their suppression. Notably, growing evidence indicates that PTEN can be regulated by microRNAs involved in cancer progression.

Transcription regulation of NRF1 on StAR reduces testosterone synthesis in hypoxemic murine.

Male chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and sleep apnea patients are associated with serum testosterone level decline because of hypoxemia, resulting in male sexual dysfunction and lower reproductive capacity. Although testosterone replacement therapy used in clinic achieves good results, the side effects indicates that understanding the mechanism followed with targeted treatments are more meaningful. The known mechanism of Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) mediated steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) repression did not well explain the reason of hypoxia induced testosterone decline.

Computational Design of Mixed-Valence Tin Sulfides as Solar Absorbers.

Binary tin sulfides, such as SnS and SnS, are appealing because of their simple stoichiometry and semiconducting properties and are, therefore, being pursued as potentially cost-effective materials for optoelectronic applications. The multivalency of Sn, that is, Sn(+2) and Sn(+4) allows yet more intermediate compositions, SnS, whose structures and properties are of interest. SnS is already under consideration as a mixed-valence semiconductor.

Detection of pulmonary ground-glass opacity based on deep learning computer artificial intelligence.

Background: A deep learning computer artificial intelligence system is helpful for early identification of ground glass opacities (GGOs).

Methods: Images from the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI) database were used in AlexNet and GoogLeNet to detect pulmonary nodules, and 221 GGO images provided by Xinhua Hospital were used in ResNet50 for detecting GGOs. We used computed tomography image radial reorganization to create the input image of the three-dimensional features, and used the extracted features for deep learning, network training, testing, and analysis.

The roles of hypoxia-inducible Factor-1 and iron regulatory protein 1 in iron uptake induced by acute hypoxia.

Background Information: Divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) and transferrin receptor (TfR1) are vital proteins for cellular iron uptake. These proteins have hypoxia-responsive elements (HREs) in their 5'-regulatory region, and they are regulated by hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) transcriptionally under hypoxic condition. Besides, iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) regulates DMT1 and TfR1 by binding to iron-responsive elements (IREs) present in their mRNAs to control cellular iron homeostasis.

HIF 1 inhibits StAR transcription and testosterone synthesis in murine Leydig cells.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF1) is a critical transcription factor involved in cell response to hypoxia. Under physiological conditions, its a subunit is rapidly degraded in most tissues except testes. HIF1 is stably expressed in Leydig cells, which are the main source of testosterone for male, and might bind to the promoter region of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (Star), which is necessary for the testosterone synthesis, according to software analysis.

Methane adsorption and methanol desorption of copper modified boron silicate.

Boron silicate (BS) with a chabazite framework structure was synthesised using a direct route and rigorously characterized before it was ion-exchanged with copper to form Cu-BS. Employing infrared spectroscopy, we show that Cu-BS is capable of oxidising methane to methoxy species and methanol interacts with the boron sites without deprotonation.