miR-181a targets PTEN to mediate the neuronal injury caused by oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation.

Evidence suggests that the microRNA-181 (miR-181) family performs various roles in the pathophysiology of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury (CIRI). MiR-181a has been identified as a critical determinant of neuronal survival. Moreover, the significance of miR-181a in controlling neuronal death after CIRI has received little attention. The objective of this study was to assess the role of miR-181a in neuronal cell injury after CIRI. To mimic the in-vitro and in-vivo CIRI, we developed an oxygen-glucose deficiency/reoxygenation (OGD/R) model in SH-SY5Y cells and a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion model in rats. MiR-181a expression was significantly higher in both in-vivo and in-vitro CIRI models. The overexpression of miR-181a increased cell damage and oxidative stress caused by OGD/R, whereas inhibition of miR-181a reduced both. PTEN has also been found to be a direct miR-181a target. PTEN overexpression reduced cell apoptosis and oxidative stress induced by miR-181a upregulation under an OGD/R condition. Furthermore, we found that the rs322931 A allele was related to increased miR-181a levels in IS peripheral blood and higher susceptibility to IS. The current results offer new insights into the understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of CIRI, as well as possible new treatment candidates.

Polymorphisms of Calgranulin Genes and Ischemic Stroke in a Chinese Population.

Background: The S100/calgranulin gene appears to modulate neuroinflammation following cerebral ischemia and could be a valuable biomarker for stroke prognosis, according to growing research. This study aimed at evaluating the correlation between calgranulin gene variants and susceptibility to ischemic stroke (IS) in the Southern Chinese population. Methods: Using an enhanced multi-temperature ligase detection reaction genotyping, 310 IS patients and 324 age-matched healthy controls were genotyped to identify five calgranulin gene variants. Results: According to the obtained results, the S100A8 rs3795391, rs3806232, and S100A12 rs2916191 variants were linked to a higher risk of IS, while the S100A9 rs3014866 variant was associated with a lower risk of IS. Moreover, the T-T-C-A-T, T-T-C-G-T, or C-C-C-G-C haplotypes have been linked to a greater risk of developing IS, according to haplotype analysis. The occurrence of the variant C allele there in S100A8 rs3795391, rs3806232, and S100A12 rs2916191 variants may impart a greater risk of stroke in the LAA subtype, according to further stratification by IS subtypes, while the T allele of the S100A9 rs3014866 variant may be linked to a reduced risk of stroke of all subtypes. Furthermore, patients with the variant C allele of the S100A8 rs3795391, rs3806232, and S100A12 rs2916191 variants presented with increased circulating S100A8 and S100A12 levels and larger infarct volumes relative to those with the major TT genotype. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that calgranulin gene variants are linked to IS susceptibility, implying that the calgranulin gene may be a potential biomarker for IS prevention and personalized treatment.

Troglitazone inhibits hepatic oval cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest through Hippo/YAP pathway regulation.

Hepatic oval cells have strong proliferation and differentiation capabilities and are activated when chronic liver injury occurs or when liver function is severely impaired. Peroxisome proliferation-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-dependent, sequence-specific nuclear transcription factors. PPARγ is closely related to liver diseases (such as liver cancer, liver fibrosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). As the main effector downstream of the Hippo signaling pathway, YAP can activate the hepatic progenitor cell program, and different expression or activity levels of YAP can determine different liver cell fates. We found that troglitazone (TRO), a classic PPARγ activator, can inhibit the growth of hepatic oval cells, and flow cytometry results showed that TRO inhibited the growth of WB-F344 cells by arresting the cells in the G0/1 phase. Western blot results also confirmed changes in G0/1 phase-related protein expression. Further experiments showed that PPARγ agonists induced hepatic oval cell proliferation inhibition and cell cycle G0/1 phase arrest through the Hippo/YAP pathway. Our experiment demonstrated, for the first time, the relationship between PPARγ and the Hippo/YAP pathway in liver oval cells and revealed that PPARγ acts as a negative regulator of liver regeneration by inhibiting the proliferation of oval cells.

Underwater Target Perception in Local HOS Space.

In this paper, we propose an underwater target perception architecture, which adopts the three-stage processing including underwater scene acoustic imaging, local high-order statistics (HOS) space conversion, and region-of-interest (ROI) detection. After analysing the problem of the underwater targets represented by the acoustic images, the unique cube structure of the target in local skewness space is noticed, which is used as a clue to develop the ROI detection of underwater scenes. In order to restore the actual appearance of the ROI as much as possible, the focus processing is explored to achieve the target reconstruction. When the target size and number are unknown, using an uncertain theoretical template can achieve a better target reconstruction effect. The performance of the proposed method in terms of SNR, detection rate, and false alarm rate is verified by experiments with several acoustic image sequences. Moreover, target perception architecture is general and can be generalized to a wider range of underwater applications.

Genetic Variants of lncRNA GAS5 Contribute to Susceptibility of Ischemic Stroke among Southern Chinese Population.

Emerging evidence suggests that the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) growth arrest special 5 (GAS5) plays crucial roles in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke (IS). The current research is aimed at assessing the correlation between two functional GAS5 variants (rs145204276 and rs55829688) and susceptibility to IS in a Han Chinese population. This study genotyped the two GAS5 variants in 1086 IS patients as well as 1045 age-matched healthy controls by using an improved multitemperature ligase detection reaction (iMLDR-TM) genotyping technology. We observed a considerable change in the frequencies of the rs145204276 allele and genotype among the IS patients and healthy control group. The del-T haplotype was substantially more prevalent in the IS cases compared to the control individuals. When study participants were stratified according to environmental factors, we found that the rs145204276 del allele was correlated with a higher risk of IS in male, smokers, hypertensive, and those ≥65 years old. Additional stratification conforming to IS subtypes exhibited that individuals carrying the rs145204276 del allele conferred a higher risk of expanding a larger artery atherosclerosis stroke subset. Moreover, there was a significant association between the rs145204276 del allele and elevated expression of GAS5 in IS patients. In contrast, the frequency of the allele related to rs55829688 was not statistically correlated with IS in all analysis. Our study supports a model wherein the rs145204276 variant in the GAS5 lncRNA is associated with IS risk, thus representing a potentially viable biomarker for IS prevention and treatment.

Potential use of ultrasound to promote fermentation, maturation, and properties of fermented foods: A review.

Conventional food fermentation is time-consuming, and maturation of fermented foods normally requires a huge space for long-term storage. Ultrasound is a technology that emerged in the food industry to improve the efficacy of food fermentation and presents great potentials in maturation of fermented foods to produce fermented foods with high quality. Proliferation of microorganisms was observed along with promoted enzyme activities and metabolic performance when treated by a short-term ultrasonication (<30 min) at a relatively low-power (≤100 W). Additionally, ultrasound at a high-power level (≥100 W) was highlighted to promote the maturation of fermented foods through promoting Maillard reaction, oxidation, esterification, and proteolysis. As a result of promoted fermentation and maturation, texture, color, flavor and taste of fermented foods were improved. All the reviewed studies have indicated that ultrasound at the proper conditions would be a promising technique to produce fermented foods with high-quality.

microRNA-186 alleviates oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation-induced injury by directly targeting hypoxia-inducible factor-1α.

Previous studies have suggested that microRNA-186 (miR-186) can be induced under hypoxic conditions, and is associated with apoptosis. This study was undertaken to explore the exact role of this microRNA (miRNA) in the apoptotic death of neurons during cerebral ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury. To model cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injuries, we utilized a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion approach in rats, as well as a model of oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) in Neuro2a cells. We found that in both in vitro and in vivo models of cerebral I/R injuries, levels of miR-186 were markedly decreased. When we overexpressed miR-186, this was associated with a reduction in the apoptotic death of neuroblastoma cells in the OGD/R model system, whereas the opposite was true when this miRNA was instead inhibited. We further found miR-186 to directly target hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) by interacting with the 3'-untranslated region of this mRNA. When we knocked down HIF-1α, this partially overcame the apoptotic death of cells in response to OGD/R injury and associated miR-186 downregulation. Our findings indicate that miR-186 is able to reduce ischemic injury to neurons at least in part through downregulating HIF-1α, suggesting that the miR-186/HIF-1α axis is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of ischemic stroke.

Identification of Circular RNA hsa_circ_0001599 as a Novel Biomarker for Large-Artery Atherosclerotic Stroke.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a recently discovered noncoding RNA isoform capable of regulating neurological disease incidence. The present study was designed to characterize the circRNA expression profiles present in large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA)-type acute ischemic stroke patients and to detect biomarkers suitable for LAA-stroke detection. Using a RNA-seq-based approach, we characterized circRNA expression profiles in five LAA-stroke patients and four controls. We confirmed the differential expression of target circRNAs through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and used Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses to explore their functional roles. The diagnostic value of specific circRNAs was evaluated through a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. We identified 182 upregulated and 176 downregulated circRNAs in LAA-stroke patients and confirmed the differential expression of six circRNAs through qRT-PCR. These differentially expressed circRNAs are primarily associated with chromatin modification, autophagy, platelet activation, and neural precursor cell proliferation. The hsa_circRNA_0001599 expression levels were positively correlated with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores and infarct volumes, with an ROC analysis of hsa_circRNA_0001599 in LAA-stroke, yielding an area under the curve of 0.805 (95% confidence interval: 0.748-0.862; p < 0.001), consistent with sensitivity and specificity values of 64.41% and 89.93%, respectively, for the diagnosis of LAA-stroke. A transcriptome-wide survey of differential circRNA expression in LAA-stroke patients revealed hsa_circRNA_0001599 as a putative circRNA biomarker of LAA-stroke diagnosis.

Association of miR-155 and Angiotensin Receptor Type 1 Polymorphisms with the Risk of Ischemic Stroke in a Chinese Population.

There is increasing evidence suggesting that dysregulation of miR-155 and its target angiotensin receptor type 1 (AT1R) are linked to the incidence of ischemic stroke (IS), but the underlying mechanisms remain to be clarified. In this study, we therefore sought to investigate how miR-155 and AT1R polymorphisms affect IS risk. We included 579 IS patients and 509 age-matched controls in the present analysis, genotyping individuals for the rs767649 polymorphism in miR-155, as well as for the rs1492099 and rs275653 polymorphisms in AT1R via iMLDR-TM genotyping technology. The allele and genotype frequencies for the assessed polymorphisms were comparable in IS patients and controls, without any detectable association between AT1R haplotype and IS risk. We conducted additional trial of ORG 10172 in acute stroke treatment-mediated stratification, which indicated that the AT1R rs1492099 T allele was linked to a decreased risk of large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA) stroke. We further found that those with the AT1R rs275653 AA genotype had a decreased risk of small-artery occlusion (SAO) strokes. We further confirmed elevated miR-155 expression in IS patients, but observed no link between the rs767649 polymorphism and expression of this microRNA. Similarly, rs1492099 and rs275653 polymorphisms did not impact AT1R expression levels. The miR-155 rs767649 polymorphism does not seem to be a key determinant of IS risk, whereas the AT1R rs1492099 polymorphism is linked to reduced LAA-stroke risk, and the rs275653 AA genotype is potentially protective against SAO strokes.

Genetic variants of ADAMTS7 confer risk for ischaemic stroke in the Chinese population.

Large-scale genome-wide association analyses show an association between ADAMTS7 variations and coronary risk. However, the link between ADAMTS7 variability and ischaemic stroke (IS) has yet to be determined. This study evaluated ADAMTS7 variants with respect to the risk of IS. Genetic association analyses were performed in two independent case-control cohorts with 1279 patients with IS and 1268 age-matched healthy controls. Four variant genotypes of the ADAMTS7 gene were identified using the Multiplex SNaPshot assay. The rs3825807, rs11634042, and rs7173743 variants of ADAMTS7 were related to lower IS risk in both initial and replication cohort. The G-T-T-C and G-T-C-C haplotypes are significantly less prevalent in the IS group than in the control group. Further stratification according to IS subtypes indicated that carriers with the variant alleles of the rs3825807, rs11634042 and rs7173743 variants of ADAMTS7conferred a lower risk of developing large-artery atherosclerosis stroke subtype. Also, the mutated rs3825807 G allele, as well as the mutated rs11634042 T allele of ADAMTS7, are linked to a significant reduction of ADAMTS7 in patients with IS. Our findings confirm the role of ADAMTS7 in the pathophysiology of IS, with potentially significant implications for the prevention, treatment, and development of novel therapies for IS.

Non-invasive and rapid pH monitoring for meat quality assessment using a low-cost portable hyperspectral scanner.

It has been demonstrated that optical spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the quantitative monitoring of the main chemical components in food. However, portable spectrometer for on-site food quality assessment has rarely been reported. Here, a low-cost and portable hyperspectral scanner is developed. Utilizing this hyperspectral scanner by handheld push-broom scanning, reflectance spectra of meat samples can be obtained non-invasively and rapidly. Support vector regression (SVR) model is used to predict the pH value. The prediction accuracy rate of the model is close to 90%, and the coefficient of determination is about 0.93, which shows the feasibility of this system in on-site monitoring pH of meat.

Nanostructured porous RuO2/MnO2 as a highly efficient catalyst for high-rate Li-O2 batteries.

Despite the recent advancements in Li-O(2) (or Li-air) batteries, great challenges still remain to realize high-rate, long-term cycling. In this work, a binder-free, nanostructured RuO(2)/MnO(2) catalytic cathode was designed to realize the operation of Li-O(2) batteries at high rates. At a current density as high as 3200 mA g(-1) (or ∼1.3 mA cm(-2)), the RuO(2)/MnO(2) catalyzed Li-O(2) batteries with LiI can sustain stable cycling of 170 and 800 times at limited capacities of 1000 and 500 mA h g(-1), respectively, with low charge cutoff potentials of ∼4.0 and <3.8 V, respectively. The underlying mechanism of the high catalytic performance of MnO(2)/RuO(2) was also clarified in this work. It was found that with the catalytic effect of RuO(2), Li(2)O(2) can crystallize into a thin-sheet form and realize a conformal growth on sheet-like δ-MnO(2) at a current density up to 3200 mA g(-1), constructing a sheet-on-sheet structure. This crystallization behavior of Li(2)O(2) not only defers the electrode passivation upon discharge but also renders easy decomposition of Li(2)O(2) upon charge, leading to low polarizations and reduced side reactions. This work provides a unique design of catalytic cathodes capable of controlling Li(2)O(2) growth and sheds light on the design of high-rate, long-life Li-O(2) batteries with potential applications in electric vehicles.

Understanding Moisture and Carbon Dioxide Involved Interfacial Reactions on Electrochemical Performance of Lithium-Air Batteries Catalyzed by Gold/Manganese-Dioxide.

Lithium-air (Li-air) battery works essentially based on the interfacial reaction of 2Li + O2 ↔ Li2O2 on the catalyst/oxygen-gas/electrolyte triphase interface. Operation of Li-air batteries in ambient air still remains a great challenge despite the recent development, because some side reactions related to moisture (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) will occur on the interface with the formation of some inert byproducts on the surface of the catalyst. In this work, we investigated the effect of H2O and CO2 on the electrochemical performance of Li-air batteries to evaluate the practical operation of the batteries in ambient air. The use of a highly efficient gold/δ-manganese-dioxide (Au/δ-MnO2) catalyst helps to understand the intrinsic mechanism of the effect. We found that H2O has a more detrimental influence than CO2 on the battery performance when operated in ambient air. The battery operated in simulated dry air can sustain a stable cycling up to 200 cycles at 400 mA g(-1) with a relatively low polarization, which is comparable with that operated in pure O2. This work provides a possible method to operate Li-air batteries in ambient air by using optimized catalytic electrodes with a protective layer, for example a hydrophobic membrane.

A Novel Multiobject Tracking Approach in the Presence of Collision and Division.

This paper aims to develop a general framework for accurately tracking and quantitatively characterizing multiple cells (objects) when collision and division between cells arise. Through introducing three types of interaction events among cells, namely, independence, collision, and division, the corresponding dynamic models are defined and an augmented interacting multiple model particle filter tracking algorithm is first proposed for spatially adjacent cells with varying size. In addition, to reduce the ambiguity of correspondence between frames, both the estimated cell dynamic parameters and cell size are further utilized to identify cells of interest. The experiments have been conducted on two real cell image sequences characterized with cells collision, division, or number variation, and the resulting dynamic parameters such as instant velocity, turn rate were obtained and analyzed.

Performance improvement of lithium manganese phosphate by controllable morphology tailoring with acid-engaged nano engineering.

Olivine-type lithium manganese phosphate (LiMnPO4) has been considered as a promising cathode for next-generation Li-ion batteries. Preparation of high-performance LiMnPO4 still remains a great challenge because of its intrinsically low Li-ion/electronic conductivity. In this work, significant performance enhancement of LiMnPO4 has been realized by a controllable acid-engaged morphology tailoring from large spindles into small plates. We find that acidity plays a critical role in altering the morphology of the LiMnPO4 crystals. We also find that size decrease and plate-like morphology are beneficial for the performance improvement of LiMnPO4. Among the plate-like samples, the one with the smallest size shows the best electrochemical performance. After carbon coating, it can deliver high discharge capacities of 104.0 mAh g(-1) at 10 C and 85.0 mAh g(-1) at 20 C. After 200 cycles at 1 C, it can still maintain a high discharge capacity of 106.4 mAh g(-1), showing attractive applications in high-power and high-energy Li-ion batteries.

Chiral separation of bupivacaine hydrochloride by capillary electrophoresis with high frequency conductivity detection and its application to rabbit serum and pharmaceutical injection.

Conductivity detection was employed to detect the enantiomers of bupivacaine hydrochloride (Bup), which were separated by high performance capillary electrophoresis. A computer-aided technique was used to calculate the binding energies, and the interaction between Bup enantiomers and cyclodextrins (CDs) is preliminarily discussed. Factors affecting the separation efficiency such as the types and concentration of chiral selectors, running buffer, pH value, separation voltage and capillary inside diameter and length were studied. Under optimized conditions, a baseline separation of Bup enantiomers was achieved in less than 15 min in 4mM NH4Ac-NaAc-HAc (pH 4.00) -0.48mM sulfobutyl ether-beta-cyclodextrin running buffer at a separation voltage of 12 kV. The lowest detectable concentration was 0.052 microg/mL. The proposed method was applied to chiral separation of Bup enantiomers in rabbit serum and pharmaceutical injections.