Fat deposition in skeletal muscle is an important aspect of improving meat quality. Isoflavones can promote animal anabolism, but whether and how they regulate muscle fat deposition remain largely unclear. In this study, we explored the role and corresponding molecular mechanism of one of the major isoflavones, daidzein, in fat deposition in C2C12 myoblast cells. In the absence of fatty acids (FAs), daidzein did not promote triglyceride synthesis and lipid droplet formation in cells but...

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...

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...

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...

Bismuth-based photocatalytic technology has been a promising way to degrade contaminants in the aqueous system. In this work, a direct Z-scheme BiOCl/Bi3NbO7 heterojunction with a different molar ratio of Bi and Nb elements was fabricated through a facile in situ growth method. The structural and photoelectric characteristics of these as-prepared samples were investigated by SEM, XPS, TEM, XRD, BET, UV-vis DRS, PL, EIS and TPC. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of RhB,...

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...

Driven by the lifestyle habits of modern people, such as excessive smoking, drinking, and chewing betel nut and other cancer-causing foods, the incidence of oral cancer has increased sharply and has a trend of becoming younger. Given the current mainstream treatment means of surgical resection will cause serious damage to many oral organs, so that patients lose the ability to chew, speak, and so on, it is urgent to develop new oral cancer treatment methods....

This paper presented a preliminary experimental study on the effects of carbonation on fire spalling behaviour of concrete. An apparatus was developed to heat concrete under sustained loads and measure multi-field responses simultaneously. By creating concrete slab specimens with a surface half carbonated and half non-carbonated, the effects of carbonation on fire spalling behaviour of concrete were tested by the developed apparatus. Results showed that carbonation may raise the fire spalling risk of concrete but...

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...

This is code for VLDB 2023 of "ZKSQL: Verifiable and Efficient Query Evaluation with Zero-Knowledge Proofs" (Initial Paper ID: 771; Shepherding Paper ID: 967)

This is code for VLDB 2023 of "ZKSQL: Verifiable and Efficient Query Evaluation with Zero-Knowledge Proofs" (Initial Paper ID: 771; Shepherding Paper ID: 967)

We evaluated if elective single-blastocyst transfer (eSBT) could be adopted in women aged 36 or older. In this retrospective cohort, women aged ≥36 years received IVF ovarian stimulation cycles and had ≥ two blastocysts. A total of 240 women underwent eSBT and 189 double-blastocyst transfer (DBT) in the first transfer cycle. The subsequent frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles were a combination of single- and double- blastocyst transfers. Analysis was stratified for patients in age groups 36–37,...

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...

In the context of a binary treatment, matching is a well-established approach in causal inference. However, in the context of a continuous treatment or exposure, matching is still underdeveloped. We propose an innovative matching approach to estimate an average causal exposure-response function under the setting of continuous exposures that relies on the generalized propensity score (GPS). Our approach maintains the following attractive features of matching: (a) clear separation between the design and the analysis; (b)...

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...

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 test was designed and conducted to investigate the post-fire tensile behavior of the novel Hole-anchored Bolt (HB) bolted T-stub connection. The HB was anchored by the bolt hole with internal threads, for which the HB could be installed from one-side and is very suitable for the installation of the closed-section steel component. The full-period test method was used to consider the influence of load level and the fire temperature on the residual mechanical behavior...

: A primary breast lymphomais a rare form of extranodal lymphoma type. We aimed to analyze prognosticriskfactors and explore relapse factors in primary breast diffuse large B cell lymphoma (PB-DLBCL). : From November 2003 to September 2020, sixty-three patients from two medical centers newly diagnosed with PB-DLBCL patients were analyzed retrospectively. : The median age was 52, and >50% of patients were post-menopausal. The international prognostics index (IPI) (0–1) was mainlyin the low-risk group (84%),...

In order to effectively inhibit the explosion of titanium powder, this study used the Hartmann tube experimental system and the 20 L explosion tank experimental system to carry out flame propagation and explosion overpressure experiments, respectively, and the effect of NH4H2PO4 on the explosion suppression of titanium powder was studied. The results show that when the addition of NH4H2PO4 powder is 50%, the flame propagation velocity and explosion pressure can be reduced to the minimum,...

In order to effectively inhibit the explosion of titanium powder, this study used the Hartmann tube experimental system and the 20 L explosion tank experimental system to carry out flame propagation and explosion overpressure experiments, respectively, and the effect of NH4H2PO4 on the explosion suppression of titanium powder was studied. The results show that when the addition of NH4H2PO4 powder is 50%, the flame propagation velocity and explosion pressure can be reduced to the minimum,...

The fitness of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is thought to be an important determinant of a strain’s ability to be transmitted and cause outbreaks. Studies in the laboratory have demonstrated that MDR-TB strains have reduced fitness but the relative transmissibility of MDR-TB versus drug-susceptible (DS) TB strains in human populations remains unresolved. We used data on genomic clustering from our previous molecular epidemiological study in Songjiang (2011-2020) and Wusheng (2009-2020), China, to compare the relative transmissibility...

Structural basis of HCoV-19 fusion core and an effective inhibition peptide against virus entry

Personalized policy represents a paradigm shift from one-decision-rule-for-all users to an individualized decision rule for each user. Developing personalized policy in mobile health applications imposes challenges. First, for lack of adherence, data from each user are limited. Second, unmeasured contextual factors can potentially impact on decision making. Aiming to optimize immediate rewards, we propose using a generalized linear mixed modeling framework where population features and individual features are modeled as fixed and random effects, respectively,...

As a form of pollution source control and a low-impact development measure, bioretention is a convenient, economical and effective method for the removal of heavy metals from stormwater runoff, which can adapt to the randomness and uncontrollability of non-point source pollution. However, few studies have assessed the performance of bioretention in the simultaneous removal multiple heavy metals and the impact of heavy metal migration on the bioretention life cycle. In this study, the removal rates...