Administration of fusion cytokines induces tumor regression and systemic antitumor immunity.

It is difficult to improve the curative effects of cancer immunotherapy on solid tumors. Cytokines, as powerful immune regulators, show potential in activating host antitumor immunity. We have previously found that the administration of certain cytokine combinations induces complete tumor clearance.

Nonspecific interactions between SpCas9 and dsDNA sites located downstream of the PAM mediate facilitated diffusion to accelerate target search.

RNA-guided Cas9 (SpCas9) is a sequence-specific DNA endonuclease that works as one of the most powerful genetic editing tools. However, how Cas9 locates its target among huge amounts of dsDNAs remains elusive. Here, combining biochemical and single-molecule fluorescence assays, we revealed that Cas9 uses both three-dimensional and one-dimensional diffusion to find its target with high efficiency.

Fruit and vegetable consumption and serum vitamin A in lactating women: A cross-sectional survey in urban China.

During the lactation period, healthy eating behavior is essential to maternal and child health. However, Chinese lactating women may have some traditional food restrictions. Our aims were to evaluate the fruit and vegetable consumption of Chinese lactating women and to examine the associations between fruit and vegetable consumption and serum vitamin A concentrations.

Recent advances of integrated microfluidic suspension cell culture system.

Microfluidic devices with superior microscale fluid manipulation ability and large integration flexibility offer great advantages of high throughput, parallelisation and multifunctional automation. Such features have been extensively utilised to facilitate cell culture processes such as cell capturing and culturing under controllable and monitored conditions for cell-based assays. Incorporating functional components and microfabricated configurations offered different levels of fluid control and cell manipulation strategies to meet diverse culture demands.

Super-stable mineralization effect of layered double hydroxides for heavy metals: Application in soil remediation and perspective.

Agriculture soil plays a crucial role in sustainable development of human society. Unfortunately, soil quality is continuing degradation due to industrial and agricultural activities. Among them, agriculture soil contamination by heavy metals has become a serious threat to global food safety and human health.

The distribution and behavioral characteristics of plateau pikas ().

Plateau pikas () are regarded as one of the main causes of the degradation of alpine meadows in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The population density of plateau pikas is directly related to the degree of grassland damage. In this study, field observation was conducted for one week in the southeastern QTP in August 2019.

Dendrimeric nanosystem consistently circumvents heterogeneous drug response and resistance in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly cancer with no efficacious treatment. The application of nanomedicine is expected to bring new hope to PDAC treatment. In this study, we report a novel supramolecular dendrimeric nanosystem carrying the anticancer drug doxorubicin, which demonstrated potent anticancer activity, markedly overcoming the heterogeneity of drug response and resistance of primary cultured tumor cells derived from PDAC patients.

Assessing the effects of inulin-type fructan intake on body weight, blood glucose, and lipid profile: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Inulin-type fructan (ITF) intake has been suggested to alleviate several features of metabolic syndrome including obesity, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia; yet, results from the human trials remained inconsistent. We aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of ITF intake on body weight, glucose homeostasis, and lipid profile on human subjects with different health status, including healthy, overweight and obese, prediabetes and diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Weighted mean differences (WMDs) between ITF and control groups were calculated by a random-effects model.

A density estimation model of plateau pika () supporting camera-monitoring programs.

As an important species in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the roles played by plateau pikas in grassland degradation and protection are controversial. The behavior characteristics and population density of this species are important in answering this question, but these traits have not been fully elucidated to date. Camera-capture methods have been used widely in recent years to characterize or calculate population density with the advantage of simple operation and nonintrusive investigation.

Chain length-dependent inulin alleviates diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorders in mice.

Dietary fiber is regarded to improve host metabolic disorders through modulating gut microbiota. The study was to investigate the effects of inulin with different degree of polymerization (DP) on adiposity, related metabolic syndrome, and the possible mechanisms from the points of gut microbiota and metabolite changes. C57Bl/6J male mice were randomly allocated to normal diet (ND) group, high-fat diet (HFD) group, two HFD groups with short-chain inulin (HFD-S) and medium and long-chain inulin (HFD-ML) for 8 weeks.

Exploiting the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system for human cancers and immunotherapy.

The discovery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) technology has brought advances in the genetic manipulation of eukaryotic cells, which has revolutionised cancer research and treatment options. It is increasingly being used in cancer immunotherapy, including adoptive T and natural killer (NK) cell transfer, secretion of antibodies, cytokine stimulation and overcoming immune checkpoints. CRISPR-Cas9 technology is used in autologous T cells and NK cells to express various innovative antigen designs and combinations of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) targeted at specific antigens for haematological and solid tumors.

Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution Is Associated With 30-Day Readmissions and Hospital Visits Among Patients With Heart Failure.

Background Long-term air pollution exposure is a significant risk factor for inpatient hospital admissions in the general population. However, we lack information on whether long-term air pollution exposure is a risk factor for hospital readmissions, particularly in individuals with elevated readmission rates. Methods and Results We determined the number of readmissions and total hospital visits (outpatient visits+emergency room visits+inpatient admissions) for 20 920 individuals with heart failure.

Association of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D with obesity-related indices in Chinese adults: A cross-sectional study.

Obesity has been a well-known risk factor of low-level serum vitamin D. Compared with the traditional obesity-related indicator (body mass index, BMI), associations for two novel anthropometric indices, a body shape index (ABSI) and body roundness index (BRI) with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, still remain unclear. This study aimed to assess the associations of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) status with these three obesity-related indices among Chinese adults.

Did anthropause generate a research pause during the pandemic? The experiences of a non-medical journal.

Contradicting expectations, a non-medical journal received increasing submissions during the pandemic, even though laboratories remained closed.Peer reviewers and handling editors were both more responsive and provided faster turnaround times during 2020.The reasons for increased submission to the journal may have been due to reanalysis of older data or extracting more findings from research done pre-pandemic.

Investigating COVID-19-Related query logs of Chinese search engine users.

Query logs include valuable information for understanding user intent and behavior in Web search. In this article, we investigate COVID-19-related query logs by dividing search sessions into different intent and analyzing the user behavior of groups and individuals. We believe it important to learn about the epidemic's influence on users' search behavior and refine search engine to confront similar epidemic outbreaks in the future.

Local Anomalies in the Column-Averaged Dry Air Mole Fractions of Carbon Dioxide Across the Globe During the First Months of the Coronavirus Recession.

We use a global transport model and satellite retrievals of the carbon dioxide (CO) column average to explore the impact of CO emissions reductions that occurred during the economic downturn at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The changes in the column averages are substantial in a few places of the model global grid, but the induced gradients are most often less than the random errors of the retrievals. The current necessity to restrict the quality-assured column retrievals to almost cloud-free areas appears to be a major obstacle in identifying changes in CO emissions.

Sociohydrology: Scientific Challenges in Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030 represent an ambitious blueprint to reduce inequalities globally and achieve a sustainable future for all mankind. Meeting the SDGs for water requires an integrated approach to managing and allocating water resources, by involving all actors and stakeholders, and considering how water resources link different sectors of society. To date, water management practice is dominated by technocratic, scenario-based approaches that may work well in the short term but can result in unintended consequences in the long term due to limited accounting of dynamic feedbacks between the natural, technical, and social dimensions of human-water systems.

A gradient screening approach for retired lithium-ion batteries based on X-ray computed tomography images.

Accurate and efficient screening of retired lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles is crucial to guarantee reliable secondary applications such as in energy storage, electric bicycles, and smart grids. However, conventional electrochemical screening methods typically involve a charge/discharge process and usually take hours to measure critical parameters such as capacity, resistance, and voltage. To address this issue of low efficiency for battery screening, scanned X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) cross-sectional images in combination with a computational image recognition algorithm have been employed to explore the gradient screening of these retired batteries.

Synthesis and characterisation of novel Cu(ii)-anchored biopolymer complexes as reusable materials for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue.

This study focused on the synthesis, photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and biological activity of novel N, N, O-donor tridentate water soluble 4-hydroxy benzohydrazide-grafted biopolymer Schiff base Cu(ii) complexes. The eco-friendly catalysts were designed for potential application in the degradation of organic dyes. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was investigated with various irradiation times (30, 60, 90 and 120 min), catalytic dosages (5, 10, 15 and 20 mg) and pH (3, 7 and 12).

Associations Between Long-Term Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Mortality in Heart Failure Patients.

Background Environmental health risks for individuals with heart failure (HF) have been inadequately studied, as these individuals are not well represented in traditional cohort studies. To address this we studied associations between long-term air pollution exposure and mortality in HF patients. Methods and Results The study population was a hospital-based cohort of individuals diagnosed with HF between July 1, 2004 and December 31, 2016 compiled using electronic health records.

Anharmonic kinetics of the cyclopentane reaction with hydroxyl radical.

Cyclopentane is one of the major constituents of transportation fuels, especially jet fuel and diesel, and also is a volatile organic compound with a significant presence in the atmosphere. Hydrogen abstraction from cyclopentane by hydroxyl radical plays a significant role in combustion and atmospheric chemistry. In this work we study the kinetics of this reaction at 200-2000 K using direct dynamics calculations in which the potential energy surface is obtained by quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations.

When Does Vapor Pressure Deficit Drive or Reduce Evapotranspiration?

Increasing vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increases atmospheric demand for water. While increased evapotranspiration (ET) in response to increased atmospheric demand seems intuitive, plants are capable of reducing ET in response to increased VPD by closing their stomata. We examine which effect dominates the response to increasing VPD: atmospheric demand and increases in ET or plant response (stomata closure) and decreases in ET.