The Na+ /Ca2+ antiporter slr0681 affects carotenoid production in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under high-light stress.

BACKGROUND: Carotenoids play key roles in photosynthesis and are widely used in foods as natural pigments, antioxidants, and health-promoting compounds. Enhancing carotenoid production in microalgae via biotechnology has become an important area of research. RESULTS: We knocked out the Na+ /Ca2+ antiporter gene slr0681 in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 via homologous recombination and evaluated the effects on carotenoid production under normal (NL) and high-light (HL) conditions. On day 7 of NL treatment in calcium ion (Ca2+ )-free medium, the cell density of Δslr0681 decreased by 29% compared to the wild type (WT). After 8 days of HL treatment, the total carotenoid contents decreased by 35% in Δslr0681, and the contents of individual carotenoids were altered: myxoxanthophyll, echinenone, and ß-carotene contents increased by 10%, 50%, and 40%, respectively, while zeaxanthin contents decreased by ~40% in Δslr0681 versus the WT. The expression patterns of carotenoid metabolic pathway genes also differed: ipi expression increased by 1.2- to 8.5-fold, whereas crtO and crtR expression decreased by ~90% and 60%, respectively, in ∆slr0681 versus the WT. In addition, in ∆slr0681, the expression level of psaB (encoding a photosystem I structural protein) doubled, whereas the expression levels of the photosystem II genes psbA2 and psbD decreased by ~53% and 84%, respectively, compared to the WT. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that slr0681 plays important roles in regulating carotenoid biosynthesis and structuring of the photosystems in Synechocystis sp. This study provides a theoretical basis for the genetic engineering of microalgae photosystems to increase their economic benefits and lays the foundation for developing microalgae germplasm resources with high carotenoid contents. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

The relationship and interaction between triglyceride glucose index and obesity in the risk of prehypertension population: a cross-sectional study from a survey in Anhui, Eastern China.

BACKGROUND: The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index has been regarded as an effective proxy of Insulin resistance (IR). Studies on the TyG index, obesity and the risk of prehypertension (PHT) in elderly people are not apparent currently. The study sought to investigate the predictive value of TyG index and the associations with PHT risk and obesity. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Bengbu City, Anhui province, China. Participants older than 65 years accepted questionnaire surveys, physical examinations and blood biochemistry tests. Based on the testing results, indicators including BMI (body mass index), WC (waist circumference), WHtR (waist-to-height-ratio), LAP(Lipid accumulation products) and TyG were calculated. Residents were classified into quartiles by their TyG indexes. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was carried out to predict obesity indices for PHT. The three additive interaction indicators, RERI (relative excess risk due to interaction), AP (attributable proportion due to interaction) and S (synergy index) were used to assess the interaction impacts. RESULTS: Two thousand six hundred sixty-six eligible elderly people were included in study and the prevalence of PHT was 71.04% (n = 1894). With increasing TyG index quartile, PHT became more prevalent. After adjusting for confounding factors, the prevalence of PHT risk with TyG levels in the fourth quartile (Q4, male: 2.83, 95%CI: 1.77-4.54; female: 2.75, 95%CI:1.91-3.97) was greater than that in the first quartile (Q1:ref). TyG index (AUC: 0.626, 95%CI: 0.602 to 0.650) was superior than BMI (AUC: 0.609, 95%CI: 0.584 to 0.633) in predicting PHT among females. Eventually, there were significant interactions of TyG index with obesity in males (General obesity: AP = 0.87, 95%CI: 0.72 to 1.02, S = 10.48, 95%CI: 3.43 to 31.97; Abdominal obesity: AP = 0.60,95%CI: 0.38 to 0.83, S = 3.53, 95%CI: 1.99 to 6.26) and females (General obesity: AP = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.79 to 0.98, S = 12.46, 95%CI: 5.61 to 27.69; Abdominal obesity: AP = 0.66, 95%CI: 0.51 to 0.82, S = 3.89, 95%CI:2.54 to 5.98). CONCLUSION: TyG index and PHT risk are tightly correlated. The risk of chronic disease in the elderly can be decreased by early detection of PHT utilizing the TyG index. In this research, the TyG index was more predictable than other indicators of obesity.

First report of cobweb disease of Auricularia heimuer caused by Hypomyces mycophilus in Fujian Province, China.

Auricularia heimuer is a gelatinous fungus with great edible and medicinal values. In September 2021, a suspected cobweb disease was found in some A. heimuer farms in Fujian Province, China. The disease caused white cottony mycelium to grow on the basal surface of the A. heimuer at the beginning of infection and gradually spread along the outer edge of the fruiting body, and eventually the white pathogen mycelium covered the entire fruiting body, which eventually led to the wilting and death of about 35% of A. heimuer . Two heavily infected tissues of A. heimuer were collected and two isolates were obtained by single spore isolation and purification technique. The pathogen colonies grew 10 to 12 mm per day on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and the colonies were initially white in color and gradually changed to yellowish brown with neat margins. Well-developed mycelium with septum, Conidiophores are bottle-stemmed and whorl-shaped branches, Conidia solitary, as ovoid, colorless singletons or doublets. The chlamydospores are yellowish, smooth surface, with 2-3 septa, size 9-22 µm × 30-38 µm. These morphological features are consistent with the Hypomyces mycophilus (Gea et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2021). For molecular identification, genomic DNA of the two isolates was obtained using an extraction kit (Biocolor, Shanghai, China), internal transcribed spacers (ITS) regions and 5SrRNA were amplified using ITS1 and ITS4 primers (White et al. 1990). A 590 bp DNA fragment was obtained and the sequences were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. OP715875 and OP782039), A BLAST search in GenBank revealed the highest similarity (≥99%) to H. mycophilus (GenBank Accession Nos. MH857567 and KU937111) . To fulfill Koch's postulates, the isolates cultured on PDA plates for 10 days were made into a spore suspension with sterile water at a concentration of 5 × 106 conidia/ml and sprayed onto twenty healthy fruiting bodies grown to about 2 cm in diameter, and another ten healthy fruiting bodies sprayed with sterile water as control, and incubated in an artificial climate chamber at 25℃ and relative humidity of 90%-95% (Back et al. 2012). After 4 days of inoculation, the pathogen started to germinate and slowly grew white mycelium, then the white mycelium multiplied at the base of the fruiting bodies and spread from the base to the periphery, and finally the fruiting bodies were completely covered by the pathogenic mycelium and gradually wilted. The symptoms were consistent with the natural disease symptoms under cultivation conditions, while the control group had normal growth of the seeds and no disease symptoms. H. mycophilus was reisolated and purified from symptomatic cotyledons and identified by the above method, and the results of the two experiments were consistent. To our knowledge, this is the first report of H. mycophilus causing cobweb disease in A. heimuer.

Revealing the Interaction of Charge Carrier-Phonon Coupling by Quantification of Electronic Properties at the SrTiO3/TiO2 Heterointerface.

Oxide heterointerfaces with high carrier density can interact strongly with the lattice phonons, generating considerable plasmon-phonon coupling and thereby perturbing the fascinating optical and electronic properties, such as two-dimensional electron gas, ferromagnetism, and superconductivity. Here we use infrared-spectroscopic nanoimaging based on scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) to quantify the interaction of electron-phonon coupling and the spatial distribution of local charge carriers at the SrTiO3/TiO2 interface. We found an increased high-frequency dielectric constant (ε∞ = 7.1-9.0) and charge carrier density (n = 6.5 × 1019 to 1.5 × 1020 cm-3) near the heterointerface. Moreover, quantitative information between the charge carrier density and extension thickness across the heterointerface has been extracted by monochromatic near-field imaging. A direct evaluation of the relationship between the thickness and the interaction of charge carrier-phonon coupling of the heterointerface would provide valuable information for the development of oxide-based electronic devices.

Emission characteristics of coal gasification fine slag direct combustion and co-firing with coal.

Coal gasification is an effective way to use coal cleanly and efficiently, and coal gasification fine slag is a by-product of coal gasification with high carbon content, large specific surface area, developed pore structure and large output during production. At present, combustion has become an effective way to dispose of coal gasification fine slag on a large scale, and the coal gasification fine slag after combustion treatment can be further used for construction raw materials. In this paper, the emission characteristics of gas-phase pollutants and particulate matter under different combustion temperatures (900 °C, 1100 °C, 1300 °C) and combustion atmosphere (5%, 10%, 21% O2 concentration) are studied with the drop tube furnace experimental system. By co-firing different proportions of coal gasification fine slag (10%, 20%, 30%) and raw coal, the pollutants formation law under co-firing conditions is studied. Scanning electron microscopy-energy spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) is used to characterize the apparent morphology and elemental composition of particulate samples. The measurement results of gas-phase pollutants show that the increase of furnace temperature and O2 concentration can effectively promote combustion and improve burnout characteristics, but the emission of gas-phase pollutants increases. A certain proportion (10%-30%) of coal gasification fine slag is added to the raw coal, which reduces the total emission of gas-phase pollutants (NOx and SOx). Studies on the characteristics of particulate matter formation show that co-firing with coal gasification fine slag in raw coal can effectively reduce submicron particle emission, and the lower fine particle emission is also detected at lower furnace temperature and oxygen concentration. The element analysis of particulate matter formation shows that the Fe, Si and S elements content of submicron particle generated by YL (the coal gasification fine slag generated by water slurry furnace in of Shaanxi Extended China Coal Yulin Energy Chemical Co., Ltd) sample increases significantly with the increase of furnace temperature and O2 concentration, which is the main influencing factor for the increase of submicron particle. With the increase of the mixing ratio of YL sample, the content of major elements such as Fe, K and Mg of submicron particle decreases significantly, which is an important reason why the amount of the submicron particle decreases.

The dietary inflammatory index and metabolic health of population-based Chinese elderly.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and metabolic health in the Chinese elderly. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A total of 6,730 participants from the "Community-based Cardiovascular and Health Promotion Study" (CoCHPS) cohort were included in this study. The DII scores were acquired using a validated 125-item food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) (ranged -5.84 to 3.90). The correlation of DII with metabolic health indexes was evaluated with logistic regression and multivariable cox regression using SPSS and R software. RESULTS: Compared with low DII scores, subjects in the highest DII score quartiles had higher odds of metabolic dysfunction (OR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.07-1.68, p trend=0.023). In the subgroup analyses, the effect of a pro-inflammatory diet on metabolic dysfunction was particularly evident among people with hyperglycaemia (HR=1.58, 95% CI: 1.35-2.14), hypertension (HR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.07-2.09), dyslipidemia (HR=1.45, 95% CI: 1.24-1.87), abdominal obesity (HR=2.16, 95% CI: 1.57-2.96), and ≥60 years old (HR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.04-1.56) or who were women (HR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.08-1.67). CONCLUSIONS: DII score was associated with metabolic health. Further studies are needed to deepen our understanding of dietary parameters and different populations.

Facilitating the Deprotonation of OH to O through Fe4+ -Induced States in Perovskite LaNiO3 Enables a Fast Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Aliovalent doping is widely adopted to tune the electronic structure of transition-metal oxides for design of low-cost, active electrocatalysts. Here, using single-crystalline thin films as model electrocatalysts, the structure-activity relationship of Fe states doping in perovskite LaNiO3 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is studied. Fe4+ state is found to be crucial for enhancing the OER activity of LaNiO3 , dramatically increasing the activity by six times, while Fe3+ has negligible effect. Spectroscopic studies and DFT calculations indicate Fe4+ states enhance the degree of Ni/Fe 3d and O 2p hybridization, and meanwhile produce down-shift of the unoccupied density of states towards lower energies. Such electronic features reduce the energy barrier for interfacial electron transfer for water oxidization by 0.2 eV. Further theoretical calculations and H/D isotope experiments reveal the electronic states associated with Fe4+ -O2- -Ni3+ configuration accelerate the deprotonation of *OH to *O (rate-determining step), and thus facilitate fast OER kinetics.

Calcitriol alleviates ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity via AMPK/mTOR-mediated autophagy.

Excessive ethanol consumption causes cellular damage, leading to fetal alcohol syndrome and alcohol liver diseases, which are frequently seen with vitamin D (VD) deficiency. A great deal of progress has been achieved in the mechanisms of ethanol-induced hepatocyte damage. However, there are limited intervention means to reduce or rescue hepatocytes damage caused by ethanol. On the basis of our preliminary limited screen process, calcitriol showed a positive effect on protecting hepatocyte viability. Therefore, the molecular basis is worth elucidating. We found that calcitriol pretreatment markedly improved the cell viability, decreased cell apoptosis and oxidative stress and alleviated the abnormal mitochondrial morphology and membrane potential of hepatocytes induced by ethanol. Notably, autophagy was significantly enhanced by calcitriol, as evident by the increasing number of autophagosomes and autolysosomes, upregulated LC3B-Ⅱ and ATG5 levels, and promotion of p62 degradation. Furthermore, calcitriol pretreatment increased the colocalization of GFP-LC3-labeled autophagosomes with mitochondria, suggesting that calcitriol effectively promoted ethanol-induced mitophagy in hepatocytes. In addition, the inhibition of autophagy attenuated the protective and preventive effect of calcitriol. Furthermore, the effect of calcitriol on autophagy was regulated by AMPK/mTOR signaling, and signaling transduction was dependent on the Vitamin D receptor (VDR). In conclusion, calcitriol ameliorates ethanol-induced hepatocyte damage by enhancing autophagy. It may offer a convenient preventive and hepatoprotective mean for people on occasional social drink.

A kinetic evaluation and optimization study on NOx reduction by reburning under pressurized oxy-combustion.

Pressurized oxy-combustion is an emerging and more efficient technology for carbon capture, utilization, and storage than the first generation (atmospheric) oxy-combustion. NOx is a major conventional pollutant produced in pressurized oxy-combustion. In pressurized oxy-combustion, the utilization of latent heat from moisture and removal of acid gases (NOx and SOx) are mainly conducted in an integrated direct-contact wash column. Recent studies have shown that NOx particular inlet concentration should be maintained before direct contact wash column to remove NOx and SOx efficiently. As a result, minimizing NOx for environmental reasons, avoiding corrosion in carbon capture, utilization, and storage, and achieving effective NOx and SOx removal in direct contact wash columns are crucial. Reburning is a capable and affordable technology for NOx reduction; however, this process is still less studied at elevated pressure, particularly in pressurized oxy-combustion. In this paper, the kinetic evaluation and optimization study on NOx reduction by reburning under pressurized oxy-combustion was conducted. First, the most suitable mechanism was selected by comparing the results of different kinetic models with the experimental data in literature at atmospheric and elevated pressures. Based on the validated mechanism, a variety of parameters were studied at high pressure, i.e., comparing the effects of oxy and the air environment, different reburning fuels, residence time, H2O concentration, CH4/NO ratio, and equivalence ratio on the NO reduction. The results show that de-NOx efficiency in an oxy environment is significantly enhanced compared to the air environment. Improvement in the de-NOx efficiency is considerably higher with a pressure increase of up to 10 atm, but the effect is less prominent above 10 atm. The formation of HCN is significantly reduced while the N2 formation is enhanced as the pressure increases from 1 to 10 atm. The residence time required for the maximum NO reduction decreases as the pressure increases from 1 atm to 15 atm. At the higher pressure, the NO reduction rises prominently when the ratio of CH4/NO increases from 1 to 2; however, the effect fades after that. At higher pressure, the NO reduction by CH4 reburning decreases as the H2O concentration increases from 0 to 35%. The optimum equivalence ratio and high pressure for maximum NO reduction are 1.5 and 10 atm, respectively. This study could provide guidance for designing and optimizing a pressurized reburning process for NOx reduction in POC systems.

Hot corrosion behaviors of TP347H and HR3C stainless steel with KCl deposit in oxy-biomass combustion.

Oxy-combustion is one of the most promising technologies for carbon capture and sequestration. When CO2-neutral biomass is burned under oxy-combustion conditions, named "oxy-biomass combustion" a negative CO2 emission can be achieved. However, the high content of potassium and chlorine in biomass results in sever ash deposition and corrosion in air fired furnaces, which are further aggravated in oxy-combustion mode due to the enrichment of corrosive species by flue gas recycle. In this paper, the hot corrosion behaviors and mechanism of two representative materials (TP347H, HR3C) used for superheaters in furnaces are studied. The effects of oxy-combustion atmosphere, KCl deposition, effect of SO2, effect of water vapor, and temperature on the corrosion kinetics at the starting stage are investigated. The corrosion severity of the materials was determined using the weight gain method, and the microstructures and chemical compositions of corrosion layers were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results show that the hot corrosion rate is significantly sped up by KCl deposition, more than five times the gas corrosion rate under the same gas composition and temperature. HR3C with higher Cr and Ni contents is more likely to form Cr enrichment on the interface between the corrosion layer and the substrate than TP347H, resulting in stronger resistance to the hot corrosion than TP347H. When the corrosion atmosphere is changed from air-combustion to oxy-combustion, the hot corrosion rate is reduced with a denser Cr oxide film and less metal sulfides. The increase of temperature in the presence of KCl deposition significantly affects the hot corrosion rate, e.g. the corrosion rate at 650 °C is 16 times higher than that at 450 °C. Water vapor and SO2 concentrations have opposite influences on the hot corrosion, respectively. Compared to the dry environment, a high-humidity environment decreases the hot corrosion rate; however, a higher SO2 concentration facilitates the sulfation of KCl deposits, leading to stronger damage to the chromium oxide film and thereby an increased hot corrosion rate.

Experimental and kinetics study on SO3 catalytic formation by Fe2O3 in oxy-combustion.

Sulfur trioxide (SO3) is corrosive and environmentally harmful. Under oxy-combustion mode, the formation of SO3 is aggravated due to flue gas recirculation, and should be more concerned than that under traditional air-combustion mode. In this paper, the catalytic formation of SO3 by iron oxide (Fe2O3) under oxy-combustion mode was experimentally studied in a fixed-bed reactor, and effects of temperature (300-900 °C), atmosphere, catalyst particle size, SO2, O2, and H2O concentrations were discussed. Results show that Fe2O3 promotes SO3 formation, and the yield of SO3 reaches a maximum at 700 °C under both air- and oxy-combustion modes. Increasing O2 concentration in a range of 5-20% promotes the catalytic formation of SO3, whose effect is restricted at a higher O2 concentration. Both increases of SO2 concentration in a range of 500-3000 ppm and steam concentration in a range of 0-20% decrease the SO3 yield. A significant effect of Fe2O3 particle size on SO3 catalytic formation is observed. When the particle size decreases from 50-75 µm to 10-25 µm, the inflection temperature shifts from 700 °C to 600 °C, while the maximum SO3 yield increases by 33%. Kinetics analysis results show that in this case, the catalytic conversion from SO2 to SO3 by Fe2O3 has an apparent activation energy Ea of 18.9 kJ/mol and a pre-exponential factor A of 5.2 × 10-5. At 700 °C and with Fe2O3 particle size of 50-75 µm, the global reaction orders of SO2 and O2 for SO3 formation are 0.71 and 0.13, respectively.

A kinetic study on the catalysis of KCl, K2SO4, and K2CO3 during oxy-biomass combustion.

Biomass combustion under the oxy-fuel conditions (Oxy-biomass combustion) is one of the approaches achieving negative CO2 emissions. KCl, K2CO3 and K2SO4, as the major potassium species in biomass ash, can catalytically affect biomass combustion. In this paper, the catalysis of the representative potassium salts on oxy-biomass combustion was studied using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Effects of potassium salt types (KCl, K2CO3 and K2SO4), loading concentrations (0, 1, 3, 5, 8 wt%), replacing N2 by CO2, and O2 concentrations (5, 20, 30 vol%) on the catalysis degree were discussed. The comparison between TG-DTG curves of biomass combustion before and after water washing in both the 20%O2/80%N2 and 20%O2/80%CO2 atmospheres indicates that the water-soluble minerals in biomass play a role in promoting the devolatilization and accelerating the char-oxidation; and the replacement of N2 by CO2 inhibits the devolatilization and char-oxidation processes during oxy-biomass combustion. In the devolatilization stage, the catalysis degree of potassium monotonously increases with the increase of potassium salt loaded concentration. The catalysis degree order of the studied potassium salts is K2CO3 > KCl > K2SO4. In the char-oxidation stage, with the increase of loading concentration the three kinds of potassium salts present inconsistent change tendencies of the catalysis degree. In the studied loading concentrations from 0 to 8 wt%, there is an optimal loading concentration for KCl and K2CO3, at 3 and 5 wt%, respectively; while for K2SO4, the catalysis degree on char-oxidation monotonically increases with the loading potassium concentration. For most studied conditions, regardless of the potassium salt types or the loading concentrations or the combustion stages, the catalysis degree in the O2/CO2 atmosphere is stronger than that in the O2/N2 atmosphere. The catalysis degree is also affected by the O2 concentrations, and the lowest catalysis degree is generally around 20 vol% O2 concentration. The kinetic parameters under the different studied conditions are finally obtained.

Nutritional status of children left behind by migrant parents: Evidence from a survey in rural Anhui, eastern China.

We aimed to explore and analyse the dietary intake patterns of 3-6 year-old children left behind by one or both parents and to assess their associations with body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of childhood anaemia in rural Anhui, eastern China. We used random cluster sampling to recruit rural children aged 3-6 years in two rural areas in Anhui province. Sociodemographic information and dietary intake were collected by self-reported questionnaires. Height, weight and prevalence of anaemia were measured by trained nurses blinded to parental migration status. Factor analysis was applied to determine that major dietary patterns, binary logistic regression and generalised linear regression were used to explore the associations between anaemia and BMI Z-score with dietary patterns. Of 1720 children aged 3-6 years, 236 were left by both parents and 388 were left by a single parent. The prevalence of stunting and underweight among left-behind children with migration of both parents (BLBC) was significantly higher than that of non-left-behind children (NLBC). Three dietary patterns-"grain-vegetable," "meat-egg" and "fast food-sweet"-were identified in our study, and the total variance explained was 46.9%. The meat-egg dietary pattern was associated with a decreased risk of anaemia after adjustment for confounding factors in the left-behind children with migration of both parents (BLBC), left-behind children with single parent migration (SLBC) and non-left-behind children (NLBC) groups. After adjusting for confounding factors, the fast food-sweet dietary pattern was found to be associated with an increased risk of anaemia (OR [95% CI]: Q4: 2.21 [1.14, 4.57], p = 0.034). In addition, children with obesity had a lower intake of vegetables and fruits (ß = -0.08, 95% CI: -0.13, -0.02) compared with children with a normal weight. In conclusion, there are correlations between different types of parental migration and children's nutritional status in rural Anhui. The meat-egg dietary pattern may have a preventive effect on anaemia in comparison with other dietary patterns, irrespective of whether children are left behind or not. Children with overweight and obesity had a higher intake of pork and red meat and snacks compared with children with normal BMI.

Effect of lipid accumulation product on the development of hypertension among nondiabetic individuals in eastern China: A cross-sectional study.

This study was aimed at assessing the risk factors for hypertension (HTN) and prehypertension (PHT) in order to clarify the role of lipid accumulation product (LAP) in the development of HTN among nondiabetic individuals. A large cross-sectional study was conducted in community health service centers in urban Bengbu, Anhui Province, China. All participants completed an interview questionnaire and procedures to obtain physical measurements and biochemical indicators. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test for the prevalence of HTN and PHT in relation to each quartile increase in LAP level and family history of HTN. The resulting interaction effects were evaluated by relative excess risk of interaction (RERI), attributable proportion due to interaction (AP), and synergy index (SI). A total of 7733 subjects were enrolled in the study. The overall prevalence rates of PHT and HTN were 37.1% and 24.8%, respectively. After adjusting for confounding factors, multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that compared with subjects in LAP quartile 1, those in quartile 3 (OR, 1.257; 95% CI, 1.062-1.494) and quartile 4 (OR, 1.323; 95% CI, 1.101-1.592) had a significantly higher risk for HTN (p for trend < .001). A significant interaction was observed between LAP and family history of HTN in men (AP, 0.1661; 95% CI, 0.0024-0.3296; SI, 1.4037; 95% CI, 1.0599-1.8593) and in women (RERI, 1.4111; 95% CI, 0.1458-2.9678; AP, 0.1662; 95% CI, 0.0085-0.3237; SI, 1.3886; 95% CI, 1.0568-1.8247). The results demonstrated that the interactive effects of LAP with family history of HTN may influence the development of HTN synergistically.

Hepatic DKK1-driven steatosis is CD36 dependent.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is prevalent worldwide; about 25% of NAFLD silently progress into steatohepatitis, in which some of them may develop into fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver failure. However, few drugs are available for NAFLD, partly because of an incomplete understanding of its pathogenic mechanisms. Here, using in vivo and in vitro gain- and loss-of-function approaches, we identified up-regulated DKK1 plays a pivotal role in high-fat diet-induced NAFLD and its progression. Mechanistic analysis reveals that DKK1 enhances the capacity of hepatocytes to uptake fatty acids through the ERK-PPARγ-CD36 axis. Moreover, DKK1 increased insulin resistance by activating the JNK signaling, which in turn exacerbates disorders of hepatic lipid metabolism. Our finding suggests that DKK1 may be a potential therapeutic and diagnosis candidate for NAFLD and metabolic disorder progression.

Interaction analysis of lipid accumulation product and family history of diabetes on impaired fasting glucose and diabetes risk in population with normotension in Eastern China: a community-based cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Lipid accumulation product (LAP) is considered to be a new convenient useful indicator to assess the visceral fat. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the risk factors of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes, and explore the possible interacting influences of LAP with other factors on the risk of IFG and diabetes among Chinese normotension adults. METHODS: A multistage stratified cluster sampling method was conducted to select urban residents in Bengbu, China. For each eligible participant, data on questionnaire survey, anthropometric measurements and laboratory tests were obtained. The effects of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to height ratio (WHtR) and LAP for predicting IFG and diabetes were performed by multiple logistic regressions and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. The interaction effects were evaluated by relative excess risk of interaction (RERI), attributable proportion due to interaction (AP) and synergy index (SI). RESULTS: Six thousand, four hundred sixty-seven normotension subjects (2695 men and 3772 women) were enrolled in our study, the prevalence of IFG and diabetes were 9.37% and 14.33%, respectively. When assessed using ROC curve analysis, LAP exhibited higher diagnostic accuracy for identifying IFG and diabetes than BMI, the area under the AUC curve was 0.650 (95% CI: 0.637 to 0.662). After adjustment for age, sex, educational level and other confounding factors, multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that subjects with the fourth quartile of LAP were more likely to develop IFG (adjusted OR: 2.735, 95% CI: 1.794-4.170) and diabetes (adjusted OR: 1.815, 95% CI: 1.297-2.541) than those with the first quartile. A significant interaction between LAP and family history of diabetes was observed in participants (RERI = 1.538, 95%CI: 0.167 to 3.612; AP = 0.375, 95%CI: 0.118 to 0.631; SI = 1.980, 95%CI: 1.206 to 3.251). However, a significant interaction between LAP and abdominal obesity was indicated by the value of RERI (1.492, 95%CI: 0.087 to 3.723) and AP (0.413, 95%CI: 0.014 to 0.756), but not the value of SI (1.824, 95%CI: 0.873 to 3.526). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that there might be synergistic effect between LAP and family history of diabetes on the risk of IFG and diabetes.

Modulation of the Bi3+ 6s2 Lone Pair State in Perovskites for High-Mobility p-Type Oxide Semiconductors.

Oxide semiconductors are key materials in many technologies from flat-panel displays，solar cells to transparent electronics. However, many potential applications are hindered by the lack of high mobility p-type oxide semiconductors due to the localized O-2p derived valence band (VB) structure. In this work, the VB structure modulation is reported for perovskite Ba2 BiMO6 (M = Bi, Nb, Ta) via the Bi 6s2 lone pair state to achieve p-type oxide semiconductors with high hole mobility up to 21 cm2 V-1 s-1 , and optical bandgaps widely varying from 1.5 to 3.2 eV. Pulsed laser deposition is used to grow high quality epitaxial thin films. Synergistic combination of hard x-ray photoemission, x-ray absorption spectroscopies, and density functional theory calculations are used to gain insight into the electronic structure of Ba2 BiMO6 . The high mobility is attributed to the highly dispersive VB edges contributed from the strong coupling of Bi 6s with O 2p at the top of VB that lead to low hole effective masses (0.4-0.7 me ). Large variation in bandgaps results from the change in the energy positions of unoccupied Bi 6s orbital or Nb/Ta d orbitals that form the bottom of conduction band. P-N junction diode constructed with p-type Ba2 BiTaO6 and n-type Nb doped SrTiO3 exhibits high rectifying ratio of 1.3 × 104 at ±3 V, showing great potential in fabricating high-quality devices. This work provides deep insight into the electronic structure of Bi3+ based perovskites and guides the development of new p-type oxide semiconductors.

Efficiently generate functional hepatic cells from human pluripotent stem cells by complete small-molecule strategy.

BACKGROUND: Various methods have been developed to generate hepatic cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) that rely on the combined use of multiple expensive growth factors, limiting industrial-scale production and widespread applications. Small molecules offer an attractive alternative to growth factors for producing hepatic cells since they are more economical and relatively stable. METHODS: We dissect small-molecule combinations and identify the ideal cocktails to achieve an optimally efficient and cost-effective strategy for hepatic cells differentiation, expansion, and maturation. RESULTS: We demonstrated that small-molecule cocktail CIP (including CHIR99021, IDE1, and PD0332991) efficiently induced definitive endoderm (DE) formation via increased endogenous TGF-ß/Nodal signaling. Furthermore, we identified that combining Vitamin C, Dihexa, and Forskolin (VDF) could substitute growth factors to induce hepatic specification. The obtained hepatoblasts (HBs) could subsequently expand and mature into functional hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) by the established chemical formulas. Thus, we established a stepwise strategy with complete small molecules for efficiently producing scalable HBs and functionally matured HLCs. The small-molecule-derived HLCs displayed typical functional characteristics as mature hepatocytes in vitro and repopulating injured liver in vivo. CONCLUSION: Our current small-molecule-based hepatic generation protocol presents an efficient and cost-effective platform for the large-scale production of functional human hepatic cells for cell-based therapy and drug discovery using.

Modeling MEN1 with Patient-Origin iPSCs Reveals GLP-1R Mediated Hypersecretion of Insulin.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an inherited disease caused by mutations in the MEN1 gene encoding a nuclear protein menin. Among those different endocrine tumors of MEN1, the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are life-threatening and frequently implicated. Since there are uncertainties in genotype and phenotype relationship and there are species differences between humans and mice, it is worth it to replenish the mice model with human cell resources. Here, we tested whether the patient-origin induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines could phenocopy some defects of MEN1. In vitro ß-cell differentiation revealed that the percentage of insulin-positive cells and insulin secretion were increased by at least two-fold in MEN1-iPSC derived cells, which was mainly resulted from significantly higher proliferative activities in the pancreatic progenitor stage (Day 7-13). This scenario was paralleled with increased expressions of prohormone convertase1/3 (PC1/3), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), GLP-1R, and factors in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signal pathway, and the GLP-1R was mainly expressed in ß-like cells. Blockages of either GLP-1R or PI3K significantly reduced the percentages of insulin-positive cells and hypersecretion of insulin in MEN1-derived cells. Furthermore, in transplantation of different stages of MEN1-derived cells into immune-deficient mice, only those ß-like cells produced tumors that mimicked the features of the PNETs from the original patient. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first case using patient-origin iPSCs modeling most phenotypes of MEN1, and the results suggested that GLP-1R may be a potential therapeutic target for MEN1-related hyperinsulinemia.

Wide Bandgap Oxide Semiconductors: from Materials Physics to Optoelectronic Devices.

Wide bandgap oxide semiconductors constitute a unique class of materials that combine properties of electrical conductivity and optical transparency. They are being widely used as key materials in optoelectronic device applications, including flat-panel displays, solar cells, OLED, and emerging flexible and transparent electronics. In this article, an up-to-date review on both the fundamental understanding of materials physics of oxide semiconductors, and recent research progress on design of new materials and high-performing thin film transistor (TFT) devices in the context of fundamental understanding is presented. In particular, an in depth overview is first provided on current understanding of the electronic structures, defect and doping chemistry, optical and transport properties of oxide semiconductors, which provide essential guiding principles for new material design and device optimization. With these principles, recent advances in design of p-type oxide semiconductors, new approaches for achieving cost-effective transparent (flexible) electrodes, and the creation of high mobility 2D electron gas (2DEG) at oxide surfaces and interfaces with a wealth of fascinating physical properties of great potential for novel device design are then reviewed. Finally, recent progress and perspective of oxide TFT based on new oxide semiconductors, 2DEG, and low-temperature solution processed oxide semiconductor for flexible electronics will be reviewed.