Green Tea Polyphenols Alleviate Kidney Injury Induced by Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate in Mice.

INTRODUCTION: Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a common plasticizer. Studies have revealed that DEHP exposure can cause kidney damage. Green tea is among the most popular beverages in China. Green tea polyphenols (GTPs) have been proven to have therapeutic effects on organ damage induced by heavy metal exposure. However, few studies have reported on GTP-relieving DEHP-induced kidney damage. METHODS: C57BL/6J male mice aged 6-8 weeks were treated with distilled water (control group), 1,500 mg/kg/d DEHP + corn oil (model group), 1,500 mg/kg/d DEHP + corn oil + 70 mg/kg GTP (treatment group), corn oil (oil group), and 70 mg/kg GTP (GTP group) by gavage for 8 weeks, respectively. The renal function of mice and renal tissue histopathology of each group were evaluated. The renal tissues of mice in the model, treatment, and control groups were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. We calculated the differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) using the limma R package, the CIBERSORT algorithm was used to predict immune infiltration, the starBase database was used to screen the miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis, and immunohistochemical analyses were performed to verify protein expression. RESULTS: GTP alleviated the deterioration of renal function, renal inflammation and fibrosis, and mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum lesions induced by DEHP in mice. Differential immune infiltrations of plasma, dendritic, T, and B cells were noted between the model and treatment groups. We found that three differentially expressed miRNAs (mmu-miR-383-5p, mmu-miR-152-3p, and mmu-miR-144-3p), three differentially expressed mRNAs (Ddit4, Dusp1, and Snx18), and three differentially expressed proteins (Ddit4, Dusp1, and Snx18) played crucial roles in the miRNA-mRNA-protein regulatory axes when GTPs mitigate DEHP-induced kidney damage in mice. CONCLUSION: GTP can alleviate DEHP-induced kidney damage and regulate immune cell infiltration. We screened four important miRNA-mRNA-protein regulatory axes of GTP, mitigating DEHP-induced kidney damage in mice.

Experimental investigation on aero-optical effects of a hypersonic optical dome under different exposure times.

The aero-optical effects induced by the complex flow structure around a hypersonic optical dome is highly unsteady, which leads to significant differences in the imaging quality under different exposure times. It is of great significance to study the influence of exposure time on imaging quality for guiding the design of imaging guidance seekers and improving imaging guidance accuracy. Based on the hypersonic gun wind tunnel, an aero-optical effect measurement platform was built to measure the wavefront from transient exposure to long exposure. With the increase of exposure time, the accuracy of high-order optical path difference (OPD) reconstruction by low-order Zernike polynomials increased from 62.2% to 88.6%. The increase of exposure time was helpful to reduce the complexity of the wavefront spatial distribution structure. In principle, it could reduce the difficulty of wavefront adaptive correction systems. With the increase of exposure time, the ${{\rm OPD}_{\rm rms}}$OPDrms corresponding to ${{\rm OPD}_{\rm high-order}}$OPDhigh-order increased gradually, the amplitude decreased gradually, and the difference of ${{\rm OPD}_{\rm rms}}$OPDrms decreased gradually at different times. Under different exposure times, the large-aperture approximation principle could achieve a better prediction of Strehl ratio values. With the increase of exposure time, the imaging integral resolution, $R$R, decreased obviously, and it was stable at about ${1.43}{R_0}$1.43R0. Compared with that, $R$R was improved by about 30% when the exposure time was 6 ns.

Experimental investigation of aero-optics induced by supersonic film based on near-field background-oriented schlieren.

The effective acquisition of a distorted wavefront is the foundation of studying how to suppress and correct aero-optical effects. The background-oriented schlieren (BOS) technique, as a commonly quantitative measurement method of flow field, has great application potential in aero-optical effect measurement. With consideration of the thickness change of the refractive index field, introduction of near-field correction and construction of the double telecentric configuration, wavefront measurement accuracy was improved. A standard plano-convex lens was utilized to quantitatively evaluate the improved results, and the effectiveness of the improvement was verified. Determination methods of spatial resolution, sensitivity, and dynamic measurement range of wavefront measurement based on BOS were studied. The influences of cross-correlation interrogation window size and step length on the wavefront reconstruction accuracy were investigated. The step length should be less than the size of the interrogation window to make the reconstructed results have a satisfactory accuracy. Wavefront results of supersonic film at different positions and cases were obtained. The fitting results show that there is a good linear relationship between the root mean square of the optical path difference (OPDrms) and ρ1/ρ∞ at different locations. Under different experimental cases, the aero-optical distortion tends to become stronger first and then weaker along the flow direction, and the aero-optical distortion around Position 3 is relatively strong. The large aperture approximation can be used to predict Strehl ratio values effectively in a considerable range by OPDrms.

Research on aero-optical prediction of supersonic turbulent boundary layer based on aero-optical linking equation.

With the development of airborne imaging devices on the high-speed vehicle, aero-optical prediction of the turbulent boundary layer has attracted wide publicity. Based on the density distribution of supersonic (Mach 3.0) turbulent boundary layer obtained by nano-tracer-based planar laser scattering (NPLS) technique, we find that the time distribution characteristics of density fluctuation deviate from the Gaussian distribution mainly induced by the intermittency of a turbulent boundary layer. It may cause the prediction error of Sutton's linking equation to increase. The deflection-angle amplitude spectrum has a peak value at Stδ ≈1. With the increase of Stδ, the deflection-angle amplitude spectrum is more attenuated, which means that small-scale vortices make a relatively weak contribution to aero-optics, and which is mainly induced by large-scale vortices. With the assumption of locally homogeneous turbulence, the integral scale Λ is basically around 0.1δ. Without the assumption of locally homogeneous turbulence, the integral scale Λ is basically around 0.05δ. For the supersonic turbulent boundary layer with obvious inhomogeneity, based on the turbulence integral scale defined without the assumption of locally homogeneous turbulence, a fine aero-optical prediction result could also be obtained via the Sutton's linking equation. From the covariance distribution of density fluctuation, the prediction result based on the exponential distribution approximation is worse than that based on the Gaussian distribution approximation. The prediction effect is also shown through the change in coefficient. The prediction deviation of OPDrms based on the exponential distribution approximation is larger than that based on the Gaussian distribution approximation.

The investigation of the enrichment behavior of identified PFAS and unknown PFAA-precursors in water and suspended particulate matter of the surface microlayer: A case study in Tianjin (China).

The surface microlayer (SML) is an important air water interface layer, known as the skin of the ocean, which has chemical enrichment properties. Chemical enrichment in the SML can affect the occurrence of pollutants in the underlying water and air samples. Although the enrichment of per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), a class of persistent organic pollutants of high concern, has been reported in the SML, information on the behavior of unknown PFAA-precursors in SML is lacked, and it is not clear whether there is a similar PFAS enrichment in suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the SML. Therefore, to investigate these questions, we conducted a systematic survey of 24 PFAS in 11 paired water and SPM samples from the SML and underlying water (U50cm and U2m) from the Duliujian River, which flows to the Bohai sea in Tianjin, China. The ∑PFAS mean concentrations in the water and SPM samples were 38.2 ng/L and 64.6 ng/g dw, respectively. The PFAS concentrations of PFAS in the SML were higher than those in the underlying water, and the enrichment factors (EFs) were greater in the SPM than that in the water. The long-chain PFAS EFs were greater than those for short-chain PFAS, indicating that the EFs were positively correlated with the hydrophobicity. Moreover, by applying the total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay, the unknown PFAA-precursors (C5-C12) in the water and SPM contributed 11.4∼86.4 mol% and 7.1∼88.0 mol% to total PFAS, respectively. The ecological risk of the targeted PFAS in the SML was relatively higher than that in the underlying water, indicating that PFAS in the SML require more attention. Preliminary estimates indicate that the PFAS-enriched SML is an important exposure route that poses a potential risk to wildlife in rivers and oceans.

HeightFormer: Explicit Height Modeling without Extra Data for Camera-only 3D Object Detection in Bird's Eye View.

Vision-based Bird's Eye View (BEV) representation is an emerging perception formulation for autonomous driving. The core challenge is to construct BEV space with multi-camera features, which is a one-to-many ill-posed problem. Diving into all previous BEV representation generation methods, we found that most of them fall into two types: modeling depths in image views or modeling heights in the BEV space, mostly in an implicit way. In this work, we propose to explicitly model heights in the BEV space, which needs no extra data like LiDAR and can fit arbitrary camera rigs and types compared to modeling depths. Theoretically, we give proof of the equivalence between height-based methods and depth-based methods. Considering the equivalence and some advantages of modeling heights, we propose HeightFormer, which models heights and uncertainties in a self-recursive way. Without any extra data, the proposed Height-Former could estimate heights in BEV accurately. Benchmark results show that the performance of HeightFormer achieves SOTA compared with those camera-only methods.

Exploring the dynamics of antibiotic resistome on plastic debris traveling from the river to the sea along a representative estuary based on field sequential transfer incubations.

The environmental risks arising from ubiquitous microplastics or plastic debris (PD) acting as carriers of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have attracted widespread attention. Enormous amounts of plastic waste are transported by rivers and traverse estuaries into the sea every year. However, changes in the antibiotic resistome within the plastisphere (the biofilms formed on PD) as PD travels through estuaries are largely unknown. In this study, we performed sequential migration incubations for PD along Haihe Estuary to simulate the natural process of PD floating from rivers to the ocean. Metagenomic sequencing and analysis techniques were used to track microbial communities and antibiotic resistome on migrating PD and in seawater representing the marine environment. The total relative gene copies of ARGs on traveling PD remained stable. As migration between greatly varied waters, additional ARG subtypes were recruited to the plastisphere. Above 80 % ARG subtypes identified in the plastisphere were persistent throughout the migration, and over 30 % of these persistent ARGs were undetected in seawater. The bacterial hosts composition of ARGs on PD progressively altered as transported downstream. Human pathogenic bacteria carrying ARGs (HPBs-ARG) exhibited decreasing trends in abundance and species number during transfer. Individual HPBs-ARG persisted on transferred PD and were absent in seawater samples, comprising Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Based on all detected ARGs and HPBs-ARG, the Projection Pursuit model was applied to synthetically evaluate the potential risks of antibiotic resistance on migrating PD. Diminished risks on PD were observed upon the river-to-sea journey but consistently remained significantly higher than in seawater. The potential risks posed to marine environments by drifting PD as dispersal vectors for antibiotic resistance deserve greater attention. Our results provide initial insights into the dynamics or stability of antibiotic resistome on PD crossing distinct aquatic systems in field estuaries.

Metagenomic insights into the potential risks of representative bio/non-degradable plastic and non-plastic debris in the upper and lower reaches of Haihe Estuary, China.

As vectors for microorganisms and genetic elements, vast amounts of solid wastes, including plastics and non-plastics, enter oceans through estuaries globally. The heterogeneity of microbiomes developed on different types of plastic and non-plastic matrices and their potential environmental risks in field estuarine regions have not been fully explored. Here, microbial communities, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), virulence factors (VFs), and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) on substrate debris (SD) covering non-biodegradable plastics, biodegradable plastics, and non-plastics were first comprehensively characterized based on metagenomic analyzes (substrate identity). These selected substrates were field-exposed at both ends of the Haihe Estuary, China (geographic location). For substrate identity: conspicuously diverse functional gene profiles on different substrates were obtained; the relative gene copies of ARGs, VFs, and MGEs on non-biodegradable plastics were highest at both locations; non-biodegradable plastic matrices recruited the most abundant unique ARGs from ambient waters; the relative abundance of potential bacterial hosts carrying multiple ARGs and VFs (BH-AV) was much higher on non-biodegradable plastic surfaces than on the other two substrates, especially in the coastal water environment. For geographic locations: more abundant specific ARGs, VFs, and MGEs were significantly enriched on SD from the upper estuary; the average relative abundance of identified BH-AV on SD from the upper estuary was 1.99-7.14 folds from the lower estuary. Finally, the results of the Projection Pursuit Regression model verified the higher comprehensive potential risks arising from non-biodegradable plastics (substrate identity) and SD from the upstream of the estuary (geographic location). Based on comparative analysis, our results alert us to pay particular attention to ecological risks triggered by conventional non-biodegradable plastics in rivers and coastal environments and highlight the microbiological risk from terrestrial solid waste to the downstream marine environment.

The Activation of cGAS-STING in Acute Kidney Injury.

The activation of the cGAS-STING pathway is associated with many sterile inflammatory and inflammatory conditions, including acute kidney injury. As a cytoplasmic DNA sensor, sensitization of the cGAS-STING pathway can ignite the innate immune response in vivo and trigger a series of biological effects. In recent years, there is increasing evidence showing that the cGAS-STING pathway plays a vital role in acute kidney injury, a non-inflammatory disease induced by activation of innate immune cells, and closely related to intracellular reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial DNA, and the cGAS-STING pathway. This review provides a prospect of the cGAS-STING pathway and its relationship to acute kidney injury.

Green tea polyphenols alleviate di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-induced liver injury in mice.

BACKGROUND: Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a common plasticizer known to cause liver injury. Green tea is reported to exert therapeutic effects on heavy metal exposure-induced organ damage. However, limited studies have examined the therapeutic effects of green tea polyphenols (GTPs) on DEHP-induced liver damage. AIM: To evaluate the molecular mechanism underlying the therapeutic effects of GTPs on DEHP-induced liver damage. METHODS: C57BL/6J mice were divided into the following five groups: Control, model [DEHP (1500 mg/kg bodyweight)], treatment [DEHP (1500 mg/kg bodyweight) + GTP (70 mg/kg bodyweight), oil, and GTP (70 mg/kg bodyweight)] groups. After 8 wk, the liver function, blood lipid profile, and liver histopathology were examined. Differentially expressed micro RNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs in the liver tissues were examined using high-throughput sequencing. Additionally, functional enrichment analysis and immune infiltration prediction were performed. The miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis was elucidated using the starBase database. Protein expression was evaluated using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: GTPs alleviated DHEP-induced liver dysfunction, blood lipid dysregulation, fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, and mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum lesions in mice. The infiltration of macrophages, mast cells, and natural killer cells varied between the model and treatment groups. mmu-miR-141-3p (a differentially expressed miRNA), Zcchc24 (a differentially expressed mRNA), and Zcchc24 (a differentially expressed protein) constituted the miRNA-mRNA-protein regulatory axis involved in mediating the therapeutic effects of GTPs on DEHP-induced liver damage in mice. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that GTPs mitigate DEHP-induced liver dysfunction, blood lipid dysregulation, fatty liver disease, and partial liver fibrosis, and regulate immune cell infiltration. Additionally, an important miRNA-mRNA-protein molecular regulatory axis involved in mediating the therapeutic effects of GTPs on DEHP-induced liver damage was elucidated.

Research on the Structure Design and Mechanical Properties of Performance Optimized Multi-Axial Geogrid.

In order to solve the problem of low transverse tensile strength of triaxial geogrid, a kind of performance-optimized multi-axial geogrid (POMG) that can bear larger transverse loads was designed. Firstly, the forming equipment and process of POMG are designed. Secondly, through the test of formability and mechanical properties, the POMG with good formability and mechanical properties is obtained, and the average tensile strength of POMG with circular and semicircular holes is the highest, reaching more than 16 KN/m. Finally, the feasibility of the process is further verified by numerical simulation, and the shape distribution and stress-strain law of POMG during the forming process are obtained, which provides further guidance for the actual production.

Research on the Mechanical Properties and Stretch Forming Simulation of Triaxial Geogrid with Different Pre-Punched Hole Diameters.

In this paper, the tensile behavior of industrial polypropylene triaxial geogrid with different pre-punched hole diameters was studied by experiment and numerical analysis. The industrial polypropylene sheets with different diameters of circular holes were stretched at elevated temperature and then the tensile properties of triaxial geogrids at room temperature were evaluated. It was found that the pre-punched hole diameter of triaxial geogrid had a very close relationship with the mechanical properties. With the increase of the pre-punched hole diameter, the tensile strength of triaxial geogrid shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. Combined with numerical simulation, the optimal pre-punched hole diameter can be accurately obtained, and the distribution law of the width, thickness, stress, and strain of triaxial geogrid can be obtained. Under the condition of a stretching ratio of 3 and node spacing of 3 mm, it was found that the mechanical properties of industrial polypropylene triaxial geogrid was the best when the pre-punched hole diameter was 2.6 mm.

Enhanced Selenate Removal in Aqueous Phase by Copper-Coated Activated Carbon.

In this study, we prepared a novel sorbent derived from precipitating copper ion onto the surfaces of activated carbon (Cu-AC). The sorbents were comprehensively characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), zeta potential analysis, SEM, XRD, and FTIR. Batch experiments were conducted to evaluate selenate removal by Cu-AC under different conditions. The results showed that Cu was uniformly coated on the AC surface. Copper pretreatment markedly decreased the specific surface area and total pore volume of AC, and changed its surface zeta potential from highly negative to low negative and even positive. The Cu-AC substantially improved selenate adsorption capacity from the 1.36 mg Se/g AC of raw AC to 3.32, 3.56, 4.23, and 4.48 mg Se/g AC after loading of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 5 mmol Cu/g AC, respectively. The results of toxicity leaching test showed AC coated with ≤1.0 mmol Cu/g was acceptable for potential application. Selenate adsorption was significantly inhibited by high ionic strength (>50 mM NaCl) and pH (>10). The electrostatic attraction between positive surface charge of Cu-AC and selenate ions and hydrogen bonding between CuO and HSeO4- might contribute to selenate sorption. Evidence showed that the selenate adsorption might involve outer-sphere surface complexation. The adsorption data appeared to be better described by Langmuir than Freundlich isotherm. The spent adsorbent could be effectively regenerated by hydroxide for reuse. Only a little decrease of removal efficiency was observed in the second and third run. This study implies that Cu-coated AC is a potential adsorbent for sustainable removal selenate from relative low salinity water/wastewater.