Our previous works have shown that tanshinone IIA inhibited maladaptive extracellular matrix remodeling in cardiac fibroblasts implicating its potential role in treating of pathologic cardiac remodeling. However, the intrinsically poor solubility and bioavailability of tanshinone IIA hindered its clinical application. Here we develop monomethoxy-poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (lactic acid)-D-α-Tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (mPEG-PLA-TPGS) nanoparticle incorporating tanshinone IIA (tanshinone IIA-NPs) and study its efficacy in post-infarction left ventricular (LV) remodeling. Male C57BL/6 mice underwent left coronary...

To assess electronic health record patient portal use among Spanish-speaking patients with asthma compared to English-speaking patients and identify barriers to use. Using data collected for a PCORI-funded randomized controlled trial to increase patient portal use in low-income adults with uncontrolled asthma, we estimated the association between portal use, measured using surveys and actual user login data, and primary language. Open-ended survey responses were grouped into common themes. Among 301 adults with asthma: age 18-87,...

Complement receptor 3 (CD11b/CD18) is an important receptor that mediates adhesion, phagocytosis and chemotaxis in various immunocytes. The conidia of the medically-important pathogenic fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus can be internalized into alveolar epithelial cells to disseminate its infection in immunocompromised host; however, the role of CR3 in this process is poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the potential role of CR3 on A. fumigatus internalization into type II alveolar epithelial cells and its effect...

This study aimed to clone the full-length open reading frame (ORF) of goat ANGPTL8 gene sequence, reveal its molecular and expression characteristics, and explore its effect on the differentiation of goat intramuscular preadipocytes. The full-length ORF sequence of goat ANGPTL8 gene was cloned by RT-PCR technology, and bioinformatics analysis was performed by related biological software. RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of ANGPTL8 mRNA in goat tissues. Further use of RNA interference to study...

Perchlorate (ClO4-) industrial wastewater requires efficient removal to prevent adverse environmental impacts, however, high concentration and low biodegradability give rise to poor ClO4- bioreduction performance. S2--autotrophic granular sludge (S2--AuGS) was firstly cultivated for high concentration perchlorate (ClO4-) removal in the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor (ClO4-: 150 mg·L-1). Simultaneously, the S2- was utilized to control the SO42- generation as electron donor, the effluent SO42- concentration (190 mg·L-1) was satisfied with drinking water standard (250...

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is one of the most common causes of cancer death in men. BUB1B (BUB1 mitotic checkpoint serine/threonine kinase B) has been reported to contribute to the initiation and development of several cancers. Here, we aimed to explore the potential role of BUB1B in LUAD. We found BUB1B was upregulated in LUAD, suggesting its potential role as a biomarker for LUAD diagnosis. Significantly, LUAD patients with high BUB1B expression had a shorter survival...

Digital music albums can be sold either as singles or as a full album, which is not an option for selling physical music products. This paper investigates three pricing strategies for selling digital music albums. The first (strategy S) sets a unified unit price and all songs are sold at this price. The second (strategy F) determines a bundling price for selling the whole album. The third (strategy M) mixes strategies S and F. It...

Digital music albums can be sold either as singles or as a full album, which is not an option for selling physical music products. This paper investigates three pricing strategies for selling digital music albums. The first (strategy S) sets a unified unit price and all songs are sold at this price. The second (strategy F) determines a bundling price for selling the whole album. The third (strategy M) mixes strategies S and F. It...

There are no studies on the optimal intrusion force in orthodontic patients with the existing root resorption (RR). The study aimed to analyze the optimal intrusion force for central incisors with existing horizontal root resorption using the finite element method (FEM). We calculated the optimal intrusion force using the finite element method and curve fitting. We found that with the increase of the maxillary central incisor’s root horizontal resorption length, the optimal intrusion force interval’s...

The demonstration of batch-to-batch consistency is indispensable for quality control of vaccines. We did a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled trial to evaluate the immunogenicity consistency of one shot of Ad5-nCoV in healthy adults who had not received any COVID-19 vaccine before. All eligible participants were randomly assigned equally to receive one of three consecutive batches of Ad5-nCoV (5×1010 viral particles/vial, 0.5 mL). The primary endpoint was geometric mean titers (GMTs) of serum SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain...

Acute acidic stress from sources such as acid rain might impact on lake ecosystems in many aspects. Because zooplankton is sensitive to environmental change, it could be a good biotic indicator of the effects of acidification. We investigated survival and metabolic rates of three dominant zooplankton taxa in Lake Biwa, the cladoceran Daphnia pulicaria, and the copepods Eodiaptomus japonicus and Cyclopoida spp., when subjected to different pH values (pH 4.0−8.0) at low (10 °C) and...

A wave of Omicron infections rapidly emerged in China in 2022, but large-scale data concerning the safety profile of vaccines and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection features in liver transplant (LT) recipients have not been collected. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the protectiveness and safety profile of the inactivated vaccines in LT patients against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant infections. A multi-center retrospective study was conducted in...

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Prolonged infection and possible evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in patients living with uncontrolled HIV-1 infection highlight the importance of an effective vaccination regimen, yet the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines and predictive immune biomarkers have not been well investigated. Herein, we report that the magnitude and persistence of antibody and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) elicited by an Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine are impaired in SIV-infected macaques with high viral loads (> 105 genome copies per ml plasma, SIVhi) but...

Combinatorial chemo-photodynamic therapy is regared as effective cancer therapy strategy, which could be realized via multiple nano-drug delivery system. Herein, novel high payload nanoparticles stabilized by amphiphilic block polymer cholesterol-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)2000 (Chol-PEG2000) were fabricated for loading chemotherapeutic drug 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) and photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6). The obtained HCPT/Ce6 NPs showed uniform rod-like morphology with a hydration diameter of 178.9 ± 4.0 nm and excellent stability in aqueous solution. HCPT and Ce6 in the NPs...

Objective: To synthesize evidence regarding the relationship between outdoor air pollution and risk of asthma exacerbations in single lag0 and lag1 exposure patterns. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials, China National Knowledge Internet, Chinese BioMedical, and Wanfang databases. Articles published until August 1, 2020 and the reference lists of the relevant articles were reviewed. Two authors independently evaluated the eligible articles and performed structured extraction...

Current medicine for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cannot effectively reverse or block nerve injury. Traditional Chinese Medicine practice and research imply Aconiti lateralis Radix Praeparata (Fuzi) may meet this goal. Analysing the anti-AD effect of Fuzi and its potential molecular mechanism. AD model cells were treated with Fuzi in 0-300 mg/mL for 24 h in 37 °C. The cell viability (CV) and length of cell projections (LCP) for each group were observed, analysed, and standardised using...

High-strength bolts have been widely used in steel bolted connections, and fire-induced high temperatures will affect its basic mechanical properties and fracture behavior, leading to failure of the connection and even collapse of the overall structure. Tensile experiments are conducted on Grade 10.9 high-strength bolts to investigate the effect of stress triaxiality and heating history on their mechanical and fracture properties in the whole process of fire. The true stress-strain curves are obtained to determine...

Candida parapsilosis is becoming a predominant non-albicans cause of invasive candidiasis (IC). Echinocandins are the preferred choice for IC treatment and prophylaxis. Resistance to echinocandins in C. parapsilosis has emerged in several countries, but little is known about the susceptibility profile in China or about mechanisms of resistance. Here, we investigated the echinocandin susceptibilities of 2523 C. parapsilosis isolates collected from China and further explored the resistance mechanism among echinocandin-resistant isolates. Anidulafungin exhibited the highest...

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of various SARS-CoV-2 variants, a comprehensive evaluation of long-term efficacy of antibody response in convalescent individuals is urgently needed. Several longitudinal studies had reported the antibody dynamics after SARS-CoV-2 acute infection, but the follow-up was mostly limited to 1 year or 18 months at the maximum. In this study, we investigated the durability, potency, and susceptibility to immune evasion of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody in COVID-19 convalescents for 2...

Rickettsia heilongjiangensis, a tick-borne obligate intracellular bacterium and causative agent of spotted fever in China, has attracted increasing concern regarding its capability in causing human rickettsiosis. Here, we conducted a genomic analysis of a new Rickettsia heilongjiangensis strain B8 (B8) isolated from the serum of a patient who had been bitten by a Haemaphysalis longicornis tick in Anhui Province, China. The present study sought to identify exclusive genes that might be associated with the pathogenicity...

Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the pivotal cause of cervical carcinogenesis. HPV types distribution varies greatly by region, and its long-term changes of prevalence remain to be fully characterized in China. Here, the largest population of 198,111 consecutive women who underwent routine cervical screening were investigated from 2015 to 2021 in Guangzhou, south China. The results showed that the overall HPV prevalence was 21.66% (42,911/198,111), and the annual prevalence increased significantly from 2015...

A research idea of multi-physics field coupling can be used to solve the structural fire resistance problem. Most of the previous CFD-FEM numerical simulations in structural fire resistance studies apply adiabatic surface temperature (AST) to accurately describe the complex fire analysis boundary conditions, and this methodology belongs to the use of iterative coupling methods to achieve fluid-solid heat transfer coupling. However, there is less application for another direct two-way coupling method. In this paper, a...

A novel steel connection with high axial and rotational ductility has been proposed with the objective to improve the performance of steel-framed buildings in fire. A series of sub-frame models with this ductile connection have been built using Abaqus to study the influence of the characteristics of the part of the connection between the fin-plate which connects to the beam web and face-plate which connects to the column face on the overall connection behaviour. Measures...

A novel steel connection with high axial and rotational ductility has been proposed with the objective to improve the performance of steel-framed buildings in fire. A series of sub-frame models with this ductile connection have been built using Abaqus to study the influence of the characteristics of the part of the connection between the fin-plate which connects to the beam web and face-plate which connects to the column face on the overall connection behaviour. Measures...