A 15-Inflammation-Related Gene Signature Predicts the Prognosis of Patients With Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

Chronic inflammation promotes the development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and PDAC-related inflammatory tumor microenvironment facilitates tumor growth and metastasis. Thus, we aimed to study the association between inflammatory response and prognosis in patients with PDAC. We conducted the whole transcriptomic sequencing using tissue samples collected from patients diagnosed with PDAC (n = 106) recruited from Shandong Cancer Hospital. We first constructed a prognostic signature using 15 inflammation-related genes in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort (n = 177) and further validated it in an independent International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) cohort (n = 90) and our in-house cohort. PDAC patients with a higher risk score had poorer overall survival (OS) (P < 0.001; HR, 3.02; 95% CI, 1.94-4.70). The association between the prognostic signature and OS remained significant in the multivariable Cox regression adjusting for age, sex, alcohol exposure, diabetes, and stage (P < 0.001; HR, 2.91; 95% CI, 1.73-4.89). This gene signature also robustly predicted prognosis in the ICGC cohort (P = 0.01; HR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.14-3.30) and our cohort (P < 0.001; HR, 2.40; 95% CI, 1.45-3.97). Immune subtype C3 (inflammatory) was enriched and CD8+ T cells were higher in patients with a lower risk score (P < 0.05). Furthermore, PDAC patients with higher risk scores were more sensitive to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and PARP inhibitors (P < 0.05). In sum, we identified a novel gene signature that was associated with inflammatory response for risk stratification, prognosis prediction, and therapy guidance in PDAC patients. Future studies are warranted to validate the clinical utility of the signature.

Polyethylene microplastics induced inflammation via the miR-21/IRAK4/NF-κB axis resulting to endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis in muscle of carp.

As a widespread environmental pollutant, microplastics pose a great threat to the tissues and organs of aquatic animals. The carp's muscles are necessary for movement and survival. However, the mechanism of injury of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs) to carp muscle remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, PE-MPs with the diameter of 8 µm and the concentration of 1000 ng/L were used to feed carp for 21 days, and polyethylene microplastic treatment groups was established. The results showed that PE-MPs could cause structural abnormalities and disarrangement of muscle fibers, and aggravate oxidative stress in muscles. Exposure to PE-MPs reduced microRNA (miR-21) in muscle tissue, negatively regulated Interleukin-1 Receptor Associated Kinase 4 (IRAK4), activated Nuclear Factor Kappa-B (NF-κB) pathway, induced inflammation, and led to endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis. The present study provides different targets for the prevention of muscle injury induced by polyethylene microplastics.

Extrinsic Interstitial Ions in Metal Halide Perovskites: A Review.

Perovskite solar cells have rapidly developed as a promising technology for the next generation of low-cost photovoltaics, receiving enormous attention from researchers and industries. Compared to traditional semiconducting materials, metal halide perovskite exhibits outstanding tolerance to extrinsic ions. At a certain range of doping concentration, the interstitial occupancy of extrinsic ions provides appealing benefits to the perovskite films, contributing to higher performance and stability of the devices. This review summarizes the research progress of interstitial ions for metal halide perovskite, providing insights into the mechanism and identification of interstitial doping of extrinsic ions, covering the benefits of interstitial ions in regulating crystal growth, inhibiting ion migration, and reducing defect density. Finally, based on the latest progress and findings, further topics and directions of research on interstitial ions in metal halide perovskite are proposed to advance the understanding of interstitial ions in perovskite and promote the development of perovskite photovoltaic technology.

A DNA Damage Response Related Signature to Predict Prognosis in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

The prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is disappointing in most subtypes and varies widely. DNA damage response (DDR) is associated with prognosis and immunotherapy in multiple cancers. Here, we identify a signature of eight DDR-related genes associated with overall survival, which stratifies AML patients into high- and low-risk groups. Patients in low-risk group were more likely to respond to sorafenib. The signature could be an independent prognostic predictor for patients treated with ADE and ADE plus gemtuzumab ozogamicin. Therefore, this DDR prognostic signature might be applied to prognostic stratification and treatment selection in AML patients, which warrants further studies.

Formate Additive for Efficient and Stable Methylammonium-Free Perovskite Solar Cells by Gas-Quenching.

In order to promote the commercialization of perovskite solar cells, gas-quenching is considered to be a promising technique for perovskite film fabrication. However, when handling with methylammonium-free (MA-free) perovskites, it is often difficult to obtain high-quality perovskite films by gas-quenching. Herein, formate additives are employed to regulate the crystallization of MA-free perovskite, and improve the quality of perovskite films. Different additives of formamidine formate (FAFO) and potassium formate (KFO) is compared to investigate the role of formate groups in the crystallization of perovskite films prepared by gas-quenching. The FAFO additive facilitates the perovskite crystallization in (001) orientation whereas KFO favors for (111) orientation. The MA-free device with addition of FAFO demonstrate a champion power conversion efficiency of 20.94 %, compared to that of 20.14 % for KFO devices. In addition, FAFO device also exhibits improved thermal stability in ambient condition without encapsulation, extending the T80 lifetime by 18 times compared to the pristine device.

Are mobile phone ownership and age of acquisition associated with child adjustment? A 5-year prospective study among low-income Latinx children.

This prospective, longitudinal study examined associations between whether and when children first acquire a mobile phone and their adjustment measures, among low-income Latinx children. Children (N = 263; 55% female; baseline Mage  = 9.5) and their parents were assessed annually for 5 years from 2012. Children first acquired a mobile phone at a mean (SD) age of 11.62 (1.41) years. Pre-registered multilevel models tested associations linking phone ownership, phone acquisition age, and the interaction between ownership and acquisition age to levels and changing trends of depressive symptoms, school grades, and reported and objectively assessed sleep. Results showed no statistically significant associations, controlling the False Discovery Rate. Findings suggest an absence of meaningful links from mobile phone ownership and acquisition age to child adjustment.

TBBPA causes inflammation and cell death via the ROS/NF-κB pathway in the gastric mucosa.

Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a common brominated flame retardant that has a wide range of toxic effects on organisms. However, the mechanism of the toxic effects of TBBPA on the digestive system has rarely been studied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of TBBPA toxicity on the gastric mucosa. In this study, TBBPA (mixed with corn oil) was administered by gavage at doses of 0 mg/kg (CG), 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg. The results showed that the levels of ROS, MDA and LPO were increased, and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were decreased. Large amounts of ROS activated the NF-κB pathway, leading to the development of an inflammatory response. The expression of BCL family and Caspase (Cas) family genes was increased, inducing apoptosis. The RIP3/MLKL pathway was activated, leading to cell necrosis. In summary, TBBPA can cause damage to the gastric mucosa through oxidative stress, leading to increased ROS activation of the NF-κB pathway. Treatment with the antioxidant NAC alleviated the damage to the gastric mucosa caused by TBBPA.

AHI estimation of OSAHS patients based on snoring classification and fusion model.

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a chronic and common sleep-breathing disease that could negatively influence lives of patients and cause serious concomitant diseases. Polysomnography(PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSAHS, but it is expensive and requires overnight hospitalization. Snoring is a typical symptom of OSAHS. This study proposes an effective OSAHS screening method based on snoring sound analysis. Snores were labeled as OSAHS related snoring sounds and simple snoring sounds according to real-time PSG records. Three models were used, including acoustic features combined with XGBoost, Mel-spectrum combined with convolution neural network (CNN), and Mel-spectrum combined with residual neural network (ResNet). Further, the three models were fused by soft voting to detect these two types of snoring sounds. The subject's apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was estimated according to these recognized snoring sounds. The accuracy and recall of the proposed fusion model achieved 83.44% and 85.27% respectively, and the predicted AHI has a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.913 (R2 = 0.834, p < 0.001) with PSG. The results demonstrate the validity of predicting AHI based on analysis of snoring sound and show great potential for monitoring OSAHS at home.

A collaborative effect of solid-phase denitrification and algae on secondary effluent purification.

This study explored the collaborative effect on nutrients removal performance and microbial community in solid-phase denitrification based bacteria-algae symbiosis system. Three biodegradable carriers (apple wood, poplar wood and corncob) and two algae species (Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella pyrenoidosa) were selected in these bacteria-algae symbiosis systems. Results demonstrated that corncob as the carrier exhibited the highest average removal efficiencies of total nitrogen (83.7%-85.1%) and phosphorus removal (38.1%-49.1%) in comparison with apple wood (65.8%-71.5%, 25.5%-32.7%) and poplar wood (42.5%-49.1%, 14.2%-20.7%), which was mainly attributed to the highest organics availability of corncob. The addition of Chlorella acquired approximately 3%-5% of promotion rates for nitrated removal among three biodegradable carriers, but only corncob reactor acquired significant promotions by 3%-11% for phosphorous removal. Metagenomics sequencing analysis further indicated that Proteobacteria was the largest phylum in all wood reactors (77.1%-93.3%) and corncob reactor without Chlorella (85.8%), while Chlorobi became the most dominant phylum instead of Proteobacteria (20.5%-41.3%) in the corncob with addition of Chlorella vulgaris (54.5%) and Chlorella pyrenoidosa (76.3%). Thus, the higher organics availability stimulated the growth of algae, and promoted the performance of bacteria-algae symbiosis system based biodegradable carriers.

Implications of Mexican-origin youth's work experiences for relationships with fathers.

OBJECTIVE: To illuminate family implications of youth's work, we examined longitudinal links between the work experiences of Mexican-origin youth in late adolescence and young adulthood and father-youth relationships. METHOD: Using data from 187 Mexican-origin youth and their employed fathers, we tested youth's (52.4% female; Mage = 19.64, SD = 1.78) work hours and workplace discrimination as predictors of paternal acceptance two years later (Time 1 paternal acceptance controlled), and tested moderation by youth gender and maternal employment. RESULTS: Multivariate multilevel models revealed a curvilinear association between youth workplace discrimination and father-reported acceptance. Moderation effects of youth gender and mother employment in linear links between youth work experiences and youth-reported acceptance also emerged. Work hours were stronger negative predictors of paternal acceptance for sons than daughters and youth with employed compared to nonemployed mothers. Workplace discrimination was a positive predictor of paternal acceptance of daughters but not sons. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight complex patterns in links between youth's work and family relationships, an understudied area. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived underemployment and couple relationships among African American parents: A dyadic approach.

OBJECTIVE: In the United States, underemployment is more common among ethnic minorities, especially African Americans. At the same time, African American couples are at higher risks of marital difficulties than other racial/ethnic groups. This study used a dyadic approach to examine implications of underemployment, as perceived by African American mothers and fathers, for their own and their partners' couple relationship experiences, including relational love and coparenting satisfaction. The vulnerability-stress-adaptation framework of couple relationships guided tests of moderation by depressive symptoms, work hours, workplace discrimination, and expressive personality. METHOD: The sample included 164 African American dual-earner parents (mean age = 40.53 and 43.11 for mothers and fathers) who were interviewed on two occasions across two years. Actor-partner interdependence modeling was used for the analyses. RESULTS: Fathers' underemployment perceptions negatively predicted their own reports of love and coparenting satisfaction. Significant interactions indicated that the negative effects of fathers' perceived underemployment on their own relational love were stronger for fathers with more depressive symptoms, and, for less expressive mothers, on mothers' love and coparenting satisfaction. However, mothers' perceived underemployment was a positive predictor of mothers' love when they worked fewer hours and a negative predictor of mothers' coparenting satisfaction when they had high expressive personality. CONCLUSION: Implications of underemployment experiences for couple relationships differ across gender and need to be considered in the context of partners' vulnerabilities, adaptive characteristics and other stressors. Findings advance understanding of underemployment and work-marriage linkages among African Americans, and highlight the utility of a dyadic approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevalence and predictors of PTSD, depression and posttraumatic growth among Chinese firefighters.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to investigate the psychological state of firefighters and to provide suggestions for working with firefighters in order to improve their mental health for the long term. METHODS: A questionnaire packet on depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and posttraumatic growth (PTG) was given to firefighters studying in a firefighter school of Nanjing to complete. A total of 409 valid questionnaires were retrieved. RESULTS: (1) The prevalence of depression, PTSD, and PTG were 27.94%, 4.89% and 59.41% respectively. (2) Firefighters whose major were Information Communication and Equipment Safety reported higher levels of depression and PTSD compared to firefighters in other majors [F (3, 386) = 5.43, p < 0.001; F (3, 386) = 4.57, p < 0.01]. (3) There was no significant difference in PTG scores regardless of the majors and the length of military service of firefighters [F (3, 386) = 0.52, p > 0.05; F (3, 386) = 0.29, p > 0.05]. CONCLUSION: Firefighters did have a certain level of mental stress in their lives, and the mental stress levels were significantly different among firefighters with different majors and length of military service.

Sibling Experiences in Middle Childhood Predict Sibling Differences in College Graduation.

To illuminate how within-family differences in achievement may emerge, this study examined sibling experiences in middle childhood as predictors of sibling differences in college graduation. First- and second-borns from 152 families reported on their experiences with siblings and parents at ages 11.80 (SD = 0.56) and 9.22 (SD = 0.90), respectively, and on their educational attainment at about age 26. Significant childhood predictors of sibling differences in college graduation status included low sibling warmth, fathers' differential time spent with siblings, and perceived unfair differential treatment by parents. Findings suggest long-term implications of early sibling dynamics for educational attainment and provided novel insights into families' role in achievement.

Sibling dynamics in adolescence predict young adult orientations to couple relationships: A dyadic approach.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents' sibling relationships may serve as a training ground for couple relationships given their similar features, including companionship, closeness and role structure. This study used a dyadic approach to examine sibling intimacy and control in adolescence as predictors of young adults' couple relationship orientations (attachment avoidance and anxiety and attitudes toward marriage). Additionally, research documenting the significance of an other-sex sibling for adolescents' romantic competence guided tests of sibling dyad sex constellation as a moderator of links between sibling relationships and couple relationship orientations in our predominantly heterosexual sample of youth. METHOD: Firstborns and secondborns from 151 families (Time 1 ages M = 16.42, SD = 0.79 and M = 13.83, SD = 1.14, respectively) reported on their sibling relationships in three annual home interviews and on their couple relationship orientations in web surveys ten years after Time 1. RESULTS: Estimating actor-partner interdependence models revealed negative effects of sibling intimacy and positive effects of control toward sibling on avoidant attachment, and positive effects of control toward and by sibling on anxious attachment. Sex constellation moderated the interaction effects of the two siblings' intimacy reports on attitudes toward marriage: Mutual high intimacy among mixed-sex dyads predicted more positive attitudes; among same-sex dyads, adolescents' own intimacy compensated for siblings' lower intimacy in predicting positive attitudes toward marriage. Findings emerged with parent marital love controlled. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest long-term effects of sibling relationships on couple relationship orientations and demonstrate the benefits of using dyadic approaches to examine the implications of sibling relationships.

Polypyrrole-Coated Zinc Ferrite Hollow Spheres with Improved Cycling Stability for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Here, ZnFe2 O4 double-shell hollow microspheres are designed to accommodate the large volume expansion during lithiation. A facile and efficient vapor-phase polymerization method has been developed to coat the ZnFe2 O4 hollow spheres with polypyrrole (PPY). The thin PPY coating improves not only the electronic conductivity but also the structural integrity, and thus the cycling stability of the ZnFe2 O4 hollow spheres. Our work sheds light on how to enhance the electrochemical performance of transition metal oxide-based anode materials by designing delicate nanostructures.

Visual detection of mercury(II) based on recognition of the G-quadruplex conformational transition by a cyanine dye supramolecule.

A supramolecular probe for visual detection of mercury (Hg) has been designed by using a cyanine dye and AS1411 G-quadruplexes, which exhibits an obvious color change from red to blue in response to an increased level of Hg(2+). The supramolecular probe exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity towards Hg(2+) and is promising for the detection of environmental samples with the naked eye.

Study on the interaction of a cyanine dye with human serum transferrin.

Complexation between the primary carrier of ligands in blood plasma, human serum transferrin (Tf), and a cyanine dye, 3,3'-di(3-sulfopropyl)-4,5,4',5'-dibenzo-9-phenyl-thiacarbocyanine-triethylam monium salt (PTC) was investigated using fluorescence spectra, UV/Vis absorption spectra, synchronous fluorescence spectra, circular dichroism (CD) and molecular dynamic docking. The experimental results demonstrate that the formation of PTC-Tf complex is stabilized by van der Waal's interactions and hydrogen bonds, and the binding constants were found to be 8.55 × 10(6), 8.19 × 10(6) and 1.75 × 10(4) M(-1). Moreover, fluorescence experiments prove that the operational mechanism for the fluorescence quenching is static quenching and non-radiative energy transfer. Structural investigation of the PTC-Tf complexes via synchronous fluorescence spectra and CD showed that the structure of Tf became more stable with a major increase in the α-helix content and increased polarity around the tryptophan residues after PTC binding. In addition, molecular modeling highlights the residues located in the N-lobe, which retain high affinity for PTC. The mode of action of the PTC-Tf complex is illustrated by these results, and may provide an effective pathway for the transport and targeted delivery of antitumor agents.

Synthesis and application of a targeting diagnosis system via quantum dots coated by amphiphilic polymer for the detection of liver cancer cells.

Water-soluble quantum dots (QDs) for liver cancer diagnosis were prepared using QDs with oleylamine ligand coated with poly(aspartate)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol)-dodecylamine (PASP-Na-g-PEG-DDA). Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy imaging showed that the novel QDs have an ellipsoidal morphology with a size of ~ 45 nm which could be used for biomedical application. Furthermore, the PASP-Na-g-PEG-DDA was then modified with anti-(vascular endothelial growth factor) (VEGF antibody), and a 1-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-3,5-diphenylformazan (MTT) assay showed that the novel anti-VEGF-targeting QDs in vitro had low toxicity. Confocal laser scanning microscopy observations revealed an intracellular (HepG2) distribution of the novel anti-VEGF-targeting QDs and the targeting efficiency of anti-VEGF. These novel QDs could be used as a probe for liver cancer cell imaging because of anti-VEGF targeting.

Characterizing system dynamics with a weighted and directed network constructed from time series data.

In this work, we propose a novel method to transform a time series into a weighted and directed network. For a given time series, we first generate a set of segments via a sliding window, and then use a doubly symbolic scheme to characterize every windowed segment by combining absolute amplitude information with an ordinal pattern characterization. Based on this construction, a network can be directly constructed from the given time series: segments corresponding to different symbol-pairs are mapped to network nodes and the temporal succession between nodes is represented by directed links. With this conversion, dynamics underlying the time series has been encoded into the network structure. We illustrate the potential of our networks with a well-studied dynamical model as a benchmark example. Results show that network measures for characterizing global properties can detect the dynamical transitions in the underlying system. Moreover, we employ a random walk algorithm to sample loops in our networks, and find that time series with different dynamics exhibits distinct cycle structure. That is, the relative prevalence of loops with different lengths can be used to identify the underlying dynamics.

[Investigation on the cyanine dyes supramolecular assembly and chiral inducement by fulvic acid].

Using cyanine dyes supramolecular as molecular probes to mark FA has important significance in life sciences and pharmaceutical chemistry, which can detect FA as drug efficacy mechanism and the change in physiological activity. In the present paper, we investigated supramolecular assembly and chiral inducement of cyanine dyes template by FA with absorption and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. The result suggests that FA can induce cyanine dyes from J-aggregation to monomer along with different colors change and has strong affinity with cyanine dye monomer. The template of FA not only can translate the chirality of MTC H-aggregation to other two states, but also induce ETC J-aggregation to molecular rearrangement and form left-handed helix of J-aggregates. Besides, the association of PTC with FA, i. e. binding to FA gave rise to the J-aggregation CD signals. Meanwhile, it was inferred that the meso substituent of cyanine dyes play an important role in the interaction between FA and the J-aggregation: the smaller the meso substituent, the higher the affinity interacted with FA. Clearly, the binding abilities between cyanine dyes and FA follow the order of MTC>ETC>PTC. These results support that the cyanine dyes supramolecular aggregates can be used as a kind of excellent molecular probes for specific recognition of FA and achieve the effect of visual inspection.