Polystyrene nanoplastics induce cardiotoxicity by upregulating HIPK2 and activating the P53 and TGF-ß1/Smad3 pathways.

Nanoplastics (NPs) pollution has become a global environmental problem, raising numerous health concerns. However, the cardiotoxicity of NPs exposure and the underlying mechanisms have been understudied to date. To address this issue, we comprehensively evaluated the cardiotoxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) in both healthy and pathological states. Briefly, mice were orally exposed to four different concentrations (0 mg/day, 0.1 mg/day, 0.5 mg/day, and 2.5 mg/day) of 100-nm PS-NPs for 6 weeks to assess their cardiotoxicity in a healthy state. Considering that individuals with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of pollution, we further investigated the cardiotoxic effects of PS-NPs on pathological states induced by isoprenaline. Results showed that PS-NPs induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis, cardiac fibrosis, and myocardial dysfunction in healthy mice and exacerbated cardiac remodeling in pathological states. RNA sequencing revealed that PS-NPs significantly upregulated homeodomain interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) in the heart and activated the P53 and TGF-beta signaling pathways. Pharmacological inhibition of HIPK2 reduced P53 phosphorylation and inhibited the activation of the TGF-ß1/Smad3 pathway, which in turn decreased PS-NPs-induced cardiotoxicity. This study elucidated the potential mechanisms underlying PS-NPs-induced cardiotoxicity and underscored the importance of evaluating nanoplastics safety, particularly for individuals with pre-existing heart conditions.

Hypomethylation of Tumor necrosis factor-like cytokine 1A(TL1A) and its decoy receptor 3 expressive level increase has diagnostic value in HBV-associated cirrhosis.

For patients with cirrhosis, early diagnosis is the key to delaying the development of liver fibrosis and improving prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of TL1A, which is a susceptibility gene for hepatic fibrosis, and DR3 in the development of cirrhosis and fibrosis. We analyzed the expression of TL1A, DR3, and other inflammatory cytokines associated with liver fibrosis in serum and PBMCs in 200 patients.TL1A methylation level was lower in patients with HBV-associated LC than in the other groups. In addition, the mRNA level and serum of TL1A and DR3 expression levels were found to increase in the LC. Hypomethylation of the TL1A promoter is present in HBV-associated LC, and TL1A and DR3 are highly expressed in HBV-associated cirrhosis. These results indicate that TL1A and DR3 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of LC and TL1A methylation levels may serve as a noninvasive biomarker for early diagnosis and progression of LC.

Tuning Stiffness with Granular Chain Structures for Versatile Soft Robots.

Stiffness variation can greatly enhance soft robots' load capacity and compliance. Jamming methods are widely used where stiffness variation is realized by jamming of particles, layers, or fibers. It is still challenging to make the variable stiffness components lightweight and adaptive. Besides, the existing jamming mechanisms generally encounter deformation-induced softening, restricting their applications in cases where large deformation and high stiffness are both needed. Herein, a multifunctional granular chain assemblage is proposed, where particles are formed into chains with threads. The chain jamming can be classified into two types. Granular chain jamming (GCJ) utilizes typical particles such as spherical particles, which can achieve both high stiffness and great adaptability while keeping jamming components relatively lightweight, while by using cubic particles, a peculiar deformation-induced stiffening mechanism is found, which is termed as stretch-enhanced particle jamming (SPJ). The versatility of GCJ and SPJ mechanisms in soft robots is demonstrated through soft grippers, soft crawlers, or soft bending actuators, where great passive adaptability, high load capacity, joint-like bending, friction enhancement, or postponing buckling can be realized, respectively. This work thus offers a facile and low-cost strategy to fabricate versatile soft robots.

[Analysis of Gene Mutation Types of Thalassemia in Yulin Childbearing-age Population of Guangxi China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the genotype distribution of thalassemia in the population of childbearing age in Yulin area. METHODS: The polymerase reaction (PCR) combined with agargel eletrophoresis and reserve dot bolt hybridization was used to detected the α- and ß-thalassemia gene in 31 769 cases of suspected thalassemia population at childbearing-age. RESULTS: A total of 22 254 cases were identified as thalassemia gene detetion or mutation in 31 769 cases with a detecting rate of 70.05%, and the detecting rate of α-thalassemia, ß-thalassemia and α-combining ß-thalassemia were 45.86% (14 569/31 769), 19.45% (6 178/31 769) and 4.74% (1 507/31 769) respectively. 28 kinds of α-thalassemia gene mutations were detected, the common mutations were as follows: --SEA/αα (28.18%), -α3.7/αα (6.29%), -α4.2/αα (3.66%), αCSα/αα (1.93%) and αWSα/αα (1.89%)，and including two rare gene mutations: -THAI and HKαα. 16 kinds of ß-thalassemia gene mutations were detected, the common mutations were as follows: ß41-42/ßN (9.41%), ß-28/ßN (3.05%), ß-17/ßN (2.86%) and ß654/ßN (2.18%). 93 kinds of α combining ß-thalassemia gene mutations were detected, the common mutations were as follows: --SEA/αα (1.05%) and -α3.7/αα (0.56%) combining ß41-42/ßN. CONCLUSION: The detection rate of thalassemia gene is high in Yulin caildbearing-age population, and there is diversity in mutation spectrums of thalassemia. The most common genotypes are --SEA/αα in α-thalassemia and ß41-42/ßN in ß-thalassemia. The results are beneficial for the intervention and genetic consultation of thalassemia.

Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Robust Ni(OH)2 Nanoplate Arrays on NiAl Foil as Hierarchical Active Scaffold for Highly Efficient Overall Water Splitting.

Developing highly efficient low-cost electrocatalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolyte is essential to advance water electrolysis technology. Herein, Ni(OH)2 nanoplates aligned on NiAl foil (Ni(OH)2/NiAl) are developed by simply dealloying NiAl foil in KOH, which exhibits high electrocatalytic activity for OER with a small overpotential of 289 mV to achieve 10 mA cm-2 and outstanding durability with no detectable degradation during long-term operation. Furthermore, such Ni(OH)2/NiAl can effectively act as an active and robust hierarchical scaffold to simply electrodeposit other catalysts with intrinsically higher activity such as NiMo and NiFe nanoparticles for highly efficient HER and OER, respectively. The prepared NiFe/Ni(OH)2/NiAl displays superior OER catalytic activity with overpotentials of 246, 315, and 374 mV at 10, 100, and 500 mA cm-2, respectively. While NiMo/Ni(OH)2/NiAl catalyst exhibits remarkable HER performance with a small overpotential of 78 mV to deliver 10 mA cm-2. Consequently, the electrolysis device composed of the above two electrocatalysts demonstrates superb water splitting performance with a cell voltage of 1.59 V at 10 mA cm-2. These results open up opportunities to explore and optimize low-cost advanced catalysts for energy applications.

Crystallinity-Modulated Electrocatalytic Activity of a Nickel(II) Borate Thin Layer on Ni3 B for Efficient Water Oxidation.

The exploration of new efficient OER electrocatalysts based on nonprecious metals and the understanding of the relationship between activity and structure of electrocatalysts are important to advance electrochemical water oxidation. Herein, we developed an efficient OER electrocatalyst with nickel boride (Ni3 B) nanoparticles as cores and nickel(II) borate (Ni-Bi ) as shells (Ni-Bi @NB) via a very simple and facile aqueous reaction. This electrocatalyst exhibited a small overpotential of 302 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and Tafel slope of 52 mV dec-1 . More interestingly, it was found that the OER activity of Ni-Bi @NB was closely dependent on the crystallinity of the Ni-Bi shells. The partially crystalline Ni-Bi catalyst exhibited much higher activity than the amorphous or crystalline analogues; this higher activity originated from the enhanced intrinsic activity of the catalytic sites. These findings open up opportunities to explore nickel(II) borates as a new class of efficient nonprecious metal OER electrocatalysts, and to improve the electrocatalyst performance by modulating their crystallinity.

Correlation between the Uptake of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) and the Expression of Proliferation-Associated Antigen Ki-67 in Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To study the correlation between 18F-FDG uptake and cell proliferation in cancer patients by meta-analysis of published articles. METHODS: We searched PubMed (MEDLINE included), EMBASE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Review, and selected research articles on the relationship between 18F-FDG uptake and Ki-67 expression (published between August 1, 1994-August 1, 2014), according to the literature inclusion and exclusion criteria. The publishing language was limited to English. The quality of included articles was evaluated according to the Quality Assessment of Diagnosis Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2). The correlation coefficient (r) was extracted from the included articles and processed by Fisher's r-to-z transformation. The combined correlation coefficient (r) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated with STATA 11.0 software under a random-effects model. Begg's test was used to analyze the existence of publication bias and draw funnel plot, and the sources of heterogeneity were explored by sensitivity and subgroup analyses. RESULTS: According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 79 articles were finally included, including 81 studies involving a total of 3242 patients. All the studies had a combined r of 0.44 (95% CI, 0.41-0.46), but with a significant heterogeneity (I2 = 80.9%, P<0.01). Subgroup analysis for different tumor types indicated that most subgroups showed a reduced heterogeneity. Malignant melanoma (n = 1) had the minimum correlation coefficient (-0.22) between 18F-FDG uptake and Ki-67 expression, while the thymic epithelial tumors (TETs; n = 2) showed the maximum correlation coefficient of 0.81. The analytical results confirmed that correlation between 18F-FDG uptake and Ki-67 expression was extremely significant in TETs, significant in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), moderate in patients with lung, breast, bone and soft tissue, pancreatic, oral, thoracic, and uterine and ovarian cancers, average in brain, esophageal and colorectal cancers, and poor in head and neck, thyroid, gastric and malignant melanoma tumors. Subgroup analysis indicated that positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/CT imaging technology or Ki-67 and standardized uptake value (SUV) measurement technology did not significantly affect the results of r values, and Begg's test showed no significant publication bias. CONCLUSION: In cancer patients, 18F-FDG uptake showed a moderate positive correlation with tumor cell proliferation. Different tumor types exhibited varied degree of correlation, and the correlation was significant in TETs and GSTs. However, our results need further validation by clinical trials with a large sample of different tumor types.

[Effects of plant polysaccharides-containing compound agents on yield and matter accumulation and transportation of winter wheat].

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of foliar spraying of three kinds of compound agents [plant polysaccharides (P1), plant polysaccharides plus 5-aminolevulinic acid (P2), and plant polysaccharides plus 5-aminolevulinic acid and dimethylpiperidinium chloride (P3)] at the initial flowering stage of winter wheat on its yield components, sucrose content, soluble sugar content, the accumulation and translocation of dry matter, nitrogen and phosphorus. The grain number per spike and kilo-grains mass of winter wheat increased with the spray of the compound agents. The grain yield increased by more than 8.5% compared with the control. Within 20 days after spraying the three compound agents, the sucrose content of flag leaf had an obvious increase. Compared with the control, P1 and P3 increased the soluble sugar content by more than 4.5% and 11.0%, respectively. P3 enhanced the accumulations of post-anthesis dry matter, nitrogen and phosphorus by 48.5%, 116.9% and 18. 1%, respectively. Correspondingly, contributions of accumulated post-anthesis dry matter and nutrient to grain yield increased significantly. Whereas, the contribution of translocated pre-anthesis nutrient to grain yield in P3 treatment was smaller than in the other treatments. The high yield of winter wheat was related to the regulation of photosynthetic product supply in vegetative organ, the increased soluble sugar content in grain, and the accumulation of post-anthesis dry matter and nutrient regulated by the plant polysaccharides-containing compound agent.

[Effects of plant polysaccharide compound agents on the photosynthetic characteristics and dry matter of soybean].

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of foliar spraying three compound agents [plant polysaccharides (P1), plant polysaccharides and 5-aminolevulinic acid (P2), and plant polysaccharides and 5-aminolevulinic acid and dimethylpiperidinium chloride (P3)] at the initial flowering stage of soybean on its leaf chlorophyll content, photosynthesis and transpiration, dry matter accumulation and allocation, and grain yield. Within 35 days after spraying the three compound agents, the leaf chlorophyll content had obvious increase, and its decreasing trend with plant growth had somewhat delay. Compared with the control, spraying P1 and P3 increased the leaf photosynthetic rate and water use efficiency by more than 13.2% and 10.3%, respectively. With the spraying of the three compound agents, the dry matter accumulation in aerial part increased, and the allocation of dry matter from leaf to pod was also enhanced, with the contribution of post-anthesis assimilates to grain yield increased by more than 17.1%. The 100-grain mass and the pods and seeds per plant increased significantly after spraying P1 and P3, but had no significant increase after spraying P2. The grain yield of soybean treated with the three compound agents increased by more than 5.9%, compared with the control. This study showed that the three plant polysaccharide compound agents could increase the leaf chlorophyll content, delay the leaf-senescence, improve the leaf photosynthetic capacity and water status, effectively control the dry matter accumulation and post-anthesis assimilates allocation, and increase the grain yield of soybean.

[Effects of duodenal-jejunal bypass and sleeve gastrectomy on the expression of liver glucokinase in diabetic rats].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of duodenal-jejunal bypass(DJB) and sleeve gastrectomy(SG) on the expression of liver glucokinase(GCK) in diabetic rats. METHODS: Animal models of Goto-Kakizaki rats and Sprague-Dawley rats were established by DJB and SG. Results of fasting glycemia and insulin were compared. Liver tissue was harvested 8 weeks postoperatively.Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot were used to detect liver GCK mRNA and protein expression after operation. RESULTS: Fasting plasma glucose levels of DJB group and SG group in GK rats were markedly declined 3 day and 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks postoperatively(all P <0.01), while Sham group only dropped 3 day and 1 week postoperatively, and there were no significant differences 2 weeks postoperatively(P >0.05). Fasting plasma glucose levels of each group in SD rats did not change after operation. In GK rats, GCK mRNA level (1.45 +/-0.29) and protein expression (494.25 +/-30.25) after DJB were higher than Sham group (1.05 +/-0.19 and 409.13 +/-26.86) and control group (1.04 +/-0.17 and 404.75 +/-30.90). GCK mRNA level and protein expression after SG were 0.65 +/-0.25 and 345.25 +/-28.13 respectively, which were significantly lower than those in control group(all P <0.01). All the groups in SD rats experienced similar GCK expression change. CONCLUSION: Both DJB and SG can decrease the plasma glucose levels of GK rats, while there are different effects on the expression of liver GCK.

[Application of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in laparoscopic gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer patients treated by laparoscopy. METHODS: Fifteen patients with histologically proved gastric adenocarcinomas (stages II(, III(, IIII(M(0)) were treated with FOLFOX7 neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by laparoscopy between June 2005 and March 2007( trial group). Thirty patients were assigned to the control group with only laparoscopic treatment in the same period. The clinicopathological data were compared between two groups. RESULTS: All the patients in trial group accepted four cycles of preoperative chemotherapy and the toxicity was less than grade 3. Two of them achieved complete response, 10 achieved partial response and 3 kept stable disease. Ten patients of trial group underwent laparoscopic-assisted radical gastrectomy. The rates of R(0)-resection(80.0%) and pN(0) (60.0%) in trial group were significantly higher than those in control group(46.7% and 20.0%), while the rate of positive lymph node 11.0%(34/309) was significantly lower than that of control group 23.8%(142/596). The operation time and postoperative complication were similar in two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Advanced gastric cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be down-regulated in the stage, increase the rate of R(0)-resection, diminish the infiltration extent of tumor, decrease the metastasis of lymph node, and increase the possibility of laparoscopic radical gastrectomy.

[Efficacy of sleeve gastrectomy plus gastric remnant banding on weight reduction and remnant gastric dilatation: an animal experimental study].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of sleeve gastrectomy plus gastric remnant banding on weight reduction and remnant gastric dilatation in SD rat model. METHODS: Sleeve gastrectomy plus gastric remnant banding was performed in 20 male SD rats as the study group; sleeve gastrectomy was performed in 20 SD male rats as the control group, and laparotomy was performed in 10 SD male rats as the blank control group. Body weight was measured before the experiment, at day 1 and at 2-week intervals within 16 weeks after operation. RESULTS: The number of survival rats was 15 in the study group (15/20), 13 in the control group (13/20), and 10 in the blank control group (10/10). Postoperative body weight increased markedly in the blank control group, returned to the pre-operative level two weeks after operation in the control group, and four weeks after operation in the study group. Weight increase of the study group was significantly slower than that of the other two groups (P<0.01). Postoperative gastric dilation of the control group was more obvious as compared to the study group. CONCLUSION: Sleeve gastrectomy plus gastric remnant banding is safe and effective because of the restriction of postoperative gastric dilation.

Laparoscopic surgery: surgical education in the People's Republic of China: changes after 15 years.

The introduction of laparoscopic surgery education in Mainland China took place in 1991, when Chinese surgeons rushed to the hospital where the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the country was performed to learn the keyhole technique; and different groups of surgeons from Western countries visited the land to convey their experience and foresight with their friendship. The situation in laparoscopic surgery and its education has changed a lot in the last 15 years. Communication via conference and workshops are used heavily as a teaching method in laparoscopic surgery education. Technical training is conveyed mainly in laparoscopic centers. Simple simulators created by Chinese surgeons, technical support by the Western forerunners, financial support, and other resources from major companies, and the large population contributed a lot to the fast development of laparoscopic surgery in China.

Removal of disperse blue 2BLN from aqueous solution by combination of ultrasound and exfoliated graphite.

This paper reports an efficient and convenient removal of disperse blue 2BLN from aqueous solution by the combination of ultrasound and exfoliated graphite. The various affecting factors were studied. The removal ratio of disperse blue 2BLN is 96.9% for the initial concentration of 200 mg/L using 600 mg/L exfoliated graphite (exfoliation volume of 300 mL/g) at 45 degrees C within 120 min under ultrasound. The combination method was more effective than sonolysis or exfoliated graphite treatment individually.

Decolorization of azo dye direct scarlet 4BS solution using exfoliated graphite under ultrasonic irradiation.

A combination of ultrasound and exfoliated graphite has been used to treat wastewater containing direct scarlet 4BS for colour removal and for the reduction of absorption at a wavelength of 242 nm. The results show that the ultrasound/exfoliated graphite process is effective in removing direct scarlet 4BS from aqueous solution. Furthermore, it can achieve better results than either exfoliated graphite or ultrasound alone.

Evaluation of expanded graphite as on-line solid-phase extraction sorbent for high performance liquid chromatographic determination of trace levels of DDTs in water samples.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites are a typical kind of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Development of a simple, cost-effective and sensitive methodology to monitor DDTs concentrations in water environment is of particular significance for understanding the fate and behavior of these pollutants. In this paper, a method on the basis of solid-phase extraction (SPE) using expanded graphite (EG) as sorbent coupled on-line with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the determination of trace levels of p,p'-DDD (2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-1,1-dichloroethane), p,p'-DDT, o,p'-DDT and p,p'-DDE (2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-1,1-dichloroethene) in water. The analytes in water were preconcentrated onto the SPE column packed with expanded graphite, and subsequently eluted with methanol-water (90:10) mixed solvent. HPLC with a photodiode array detector was used for their separation and detection. The developed on-line solid-phase extraction protocol for HPLC permits the current HPLC separation and the next preconcentration proceeded in parallel, and thus allows one determination within 8min. The precision (R.S.D.) for 10 replicate injections of a mixture of 1mugl(-1) of each analyte was 3.2-6.2% for the peak area measurement. The detection limits (S/N=3) for preconcentrating 50ml of sample solution ranged from 10 to 25ngl(-1) at a sample throughput of 7.5samplesh(-1). The enhancement factors were about 700. The method was applied to the determination of trace p,p'-DDD, p,p'-DDT, o,p'-DDT and p,p'-DDE in local lake, river and tap water samples.

[Effect of weight loss induced by laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding on immunity of morbid obesity].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the immunity of morbid obesity (MO) before and after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB). METHODS: 15 cases, with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 35.8 kg/m(2), were treated by LAGB from Jun. 2003 to Oct. 2003 in our department. Patients' immune parameters were determined preoperatively and 1, 3 and 6 months postoperatively. 15 cases with a normal BMI (23.6 kg/m(2)) were set as controls. RESULTS: Before surgery, the MO had a significant lower level of CD(4)(+), CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+) and a higher level of serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) than the controls (P < 0.01). There was a significant reduction of weight and BMI 6 months postoperatively (P < 0.01). At the same time, CD(4)(+) increased and serum IL-2 decreased significantly. But CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+)and serum IL-2, IL-6 were still abnormal compare to the controls. CONCLUSIONS: MO may combined with an abnormal immunity. But after enough weight loss induced by LAGB, it can be partly reversed.

Diagnosis and management of cystic duct leakage after laparoscopic cholecystectomy: report of 3 cases.

BACKGROUND: Operative complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) vary. Abdominal pain and other symptoms caused by fluid accumulation in the operative area are not uncommon. Cystic duct (CD) leakage is one of the main sources of the fluid. This study was to evaluate the procedures used in the diagnosis and management of CD leakage after LC. METHOD: The clinical materials of 3 patients with CD leakage after LC were studied retrospectively. RESULTS: Three female patients underwent LC for chronic cholecystitis associated with stones. Their clinical symptoms were worsened of pre-existed cardiac arrhythmia, bile draining out from drainage tube, and biliary spillage from umbilical incision, respectively. Final diagnosis was made at the 1st, 2nd and 20th post-operative day. Two of the 3 patients were treated laparoscopically. Their opened CD stumps were closed with an endo-loop, with the abdomen irrigated and drained. The other patient was drained with the percutaneous technique, and a biliary stent was inserted under endoscopy. All patients recovered well. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical manifestations of CD leakage are different. Ascites can be found by B-ultrasound. Final diagnosis is dependent on magnetic resonance cholangiography and/or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Minimally invasive techniques can be applied to this complication safely and effectively. Reoperation for closure of the opened CD stump can be fulfilled under laparoscopy. Endoscopic drainage must be accompanied with effective abdominal drainage.