HMGN1 enhances CRISPR-directed dual-function A-to-G and C-to-G base editing.

C-to-G base editors have been successfully constructed recently, but limited work has been done on concurrent C-to-G and A-to-G base editing. In addition, there is also limited data on how chromatin-associated factors affect the base editing. Here, we test a series of chromatin-associated factors, and chromosomal protein HMGN1 was found to enhance the efficiency of both C-to-G and A-to-G base editing. By fusing HMGN1, GBE and ABE to Cas9, we develop a CRISPR-based dual-function A-to-G and C-to-G base editor (GGBE) which is capable of converting simultaneous A and C to G conversion with substantial editing efficiency. Accordingly, the HMGN1 role shown in this work and the resulting GGBE tool further broaden the genome manipulation capacity of CRISPR-directed base editors.

Difference in calcium ion precipitation between free and immobilized Halovibrio mesolongii HMY2.

Biomineralization has become a research focus in wastewater treatment due to its much lower costs compared to traditional methods. However, the low sodium chloride (NaCl)-tolerance of bacteria limits applications to only water with low NaCl concentrations. Here, calcium ions in hypersaline wastewater (10% NaCl) were precipitated by free and immobilized Halovibrio mesolongii HMY2 bacteria and the differences between them were determined. The results show that calcium ions can be transformed into several types of calcium carbonate with a range of morphologies, abundant organic functional groups (C-H, C-O-C, C=O, etc), protein secondary structures (ß-sheet, α-helix, 310 helix, and ß-turn), P=O and S-H indicated by P2p and S2p, and more negative δ13CPDB (‰) values (-16.8‰ to -18.4‰). The optimal conditions for the immobilized bacteria were determined by doing experiments with six factors and five levels and using response surface method. Under the action of two groups of immobilized bacteria prepared under the optimal conditions, by the 10th day, Ca2+ ion precipitation ratios had increased to 79%-89% and 80%-88% with changes in magnesium ion cencentrations. Magnesium ions can significantly inhibit the calcium ion precipitation, and this inhibitory effect can be decreased under the action of immobilized bacteria. Minerals induced by immobilized bacteria always aggregated together, had higher contents of Mg, P, and S, lower stable carbon isotope values and less well-developed protein secondary structures. This study demonstrates an economic and eco-friendly method for recycling calcium ions in hypersaline wastewater, providing an easy step in the process of desalination.

Expression and significance of mucin-4 and matrix metalloproteinase-7 in peri-implant disease.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to detect the levels of mucin (MUC)-4, metalloproteinase (MMP)-7, and MMP-8 in peri-implant crevicular fluid (PICF) and investigate whether the novel combinations of MMP-7 and MUC-4 are effective markers of peri-implant diseases, particularly when used in the PICF of healthy individuals, to provide a theoretical basis for finding a novel reference index that can aid the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of peri-implant diseases. METHODS: A total of 63 subjects with 2-5 years of upper prosthesis loading were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, composed of 24 controls and 39 patients with peri-implantitis (PI) group. MUC-4, MMP-7, and MMP-8 levels were detected through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: No significant differences in age, sex, and other parameters were found between the PI and control groups. The PI group had higher MMP-7 and MMP-8 expression levels (P<0.05) but lower MUC-4 level (P<0.001). Correlation analysis showed that MMP-7 was positively correlated with pocket probing depth (PPD) (r=0.451, P<0.001); MMP-8 was positively correlated with PPD, bleeding on probing (BOP), and gingival index (GI) (r=0.619, P<0.001; r=0.478, P<0.001; r=0.332, P=0.009). MUC-4 was negatively correlated with PPD, BOP, and GI (r=-0.492, P<0.001; r=-0.321, P=0.010; r=-0.396, P=0.001). MMP-7, MMP-8, and MUC-4 had certain diagnostic efficacy for PI. MMP-8 exhibited the best diagnostic efficacy for PI. When the cutoff value of MMP-8 was >21.21, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.868, and the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of PI were 0.96 and 0.68, respectively. The diagnostic efficacy of MMP-7 and MUC-4 parallel diagnostic models was higher than that of each factor, and the diagnostic sensitivity of the model for PI was 0.96, and the specificity was 0.56. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in MMP-7 and MUC-4 levels were found between the inflammation and control groups and may be diagnostic indicators for predicting PI; combinations of MMP-7 and MUC-4 had a good diagnostic value for inflammation.

The Effect of Octapeptide Repeats on Prion Folding and Misfolding.

Misfolding of prion protein (PrP) into amyloid aggregates is the central feature of prion diseases. PrP has an amyloidogenic C-terminal domain with three α-helices and a flexible tail in the N-terminal domain in which multiple octapeptide repeats are present in most mammals. The role of the octapeptides in prion diseases has previously been underestimated because the octapeptides are not located in the amyloidogenic domain. Correlation between the number of octapeptide repeats and age of onset suggests the critical role of octapeptide repeats in prion diseases. In this study, we have investigated four PrP variants without any octapeptides and with 1, 5 and 8 octapeptide repeats. From the comparison of the protein structure and the thermal stability of these proteins, as well as the characterization of amyloids converted from these PrP variants, we found that octapeptide repeats affect both folding and misfolding of PrP creating amyloid fibrils with distinct structures. Deletion of octapeptides forms fewer twisted fibrils and weakens the cytotoxicity. Insertion of octapeptides enhances the formation of typical silk-like fibrils but it does not increase the cytotoxicity. There might be some threshold effect and increasing the number of peptides beyond a certain limit has no further effect on the cell viability, though the reasons are unclear at this stage. Overall, the results of this study elucidate the molecular mechanism of octapeptides at the onset of prion diseases.

Nitric oxide alleviates toxicity of hexavalent chromium on tall fescue and improves performance of photosystem II.

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) was widely studied for phytoremediation of organic or heavy metal contaminated soils. However, there is still little information concerning toxicity of chromium (Cr) to tall fescue and roles of nitric oxide (NO) in plants against Cr(VI) stress. In this study, different Cr(VI) treatments (0, 1, 5 and 10 mg/L Cr(VI)) and NO treatments were applied with different combinations in hydroponics culture and their interactions to tall fescue were studied. Specifically, 100 µM sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and 100 µM NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME) treatments were used to apply exogenous NO or inhibit synthesis of NO respectively. Our results showed that tall fescue exhibits comparable Cr(VI) tolerance as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Additionally, Cr(VI) accumulation in tall fescue leaves were carefully studied and discussed. Moreover, we observed the significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) contents of tall fescue when subjected to Cr(VI) stress, as well as decreased photosynthetic activities induced by Cr(VI) stress by methods of chlorophyll a fluorescence transient, slow chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics and rapid light response curves. Decreased behaviors of photosynthetic activities may due to destruction of antennae pigments by Cr(VI), ROS burst induced by Cr(VI), and down regulation of photosystem II (PSII) by non-photochemical quenching to avoid over reduction of quinone A, which could be considered as an important strategy to cope with Cr(VI) stress. Meanwhile, exogenous NO treatment improves overall physiological and photosynthetic behaviors of tall fescue against Cr(VI) stress. Moreover, increased translocation factors and improved Cr(VI) tolerance of plants under exogenous NO treatment suggest that SNP treatment could be a useful application for Cr phytoremediation.

Weighted Large Margin Nearest Center Distance-Based Human Depth Recovery With Limited Bandwidth Consumption.

This paper proposes a weighted large margin nearest center (WLMNC) distance-based human depth recovery method for tele-immersive video interaction systems with limited bandwidth consumption. In the remote stage, the proposed method highly compresses the depth data of the remote human into skeletal block structures by learning the WLMNC distance, which is equivalent to downsampling the human depth map at $64{\times}$ the sampling rate. In the local stage, the method first recovers a rough human depth map based on a WLMNC distance augmented clustering approach and then obtains a fine depth map based on a rough depth-guided autoregressive model to preserve the depth discontinuities and suppress texture copy artifacts. The proposed WLMNC distance is learned by the large margin clustering problem with a weighted hinge loss to balance the clustering accuracy and depth recovery accuracy and is verified to be able to preserve depth discontinuities between skeletal block structures with occlusion. A theoretical analysis is conducted to verify the effectiveness of using the weighted hinge loss. Furthermore, a novel data set containing various types of human postures with self-occlusion is built to benchmark the human depth recovery methods. The quantitative comparison with the state-of-the-art depth recovery methods on the introduced benchmark data set demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method for human depth recovery with such a high upsampling rate.

A coumarin-based fluorescent probe for monitoring labile ferrous iron in living systems.

Labile Fe2+ has been considered to be a metabolically active and regulatory form of cellular iron. Monitoring the dynamic level of labile Fe2+ in biological systems is vital for evaluating the iron related biological processes and diseases as well as dissecting the exact physiological and pathophysiological functions of the labile Fe2+. Herein, we rationally constructed a coumarin-based fluorescent probe for sensing labile Fe2+ in living systems based on a novel Fe2+ meditated cyclization reaction strategy. The probe showed a highly selective and sensitive response to Fe2+, and the detection limit was determined to be 45 nM. Significantly, the probe displayed fast response to Fe2+, with the sensing reaction completed in 2 min, which is beneficial for real time sensing. The application of the probe for sensing different concentrations of labile Fe2+ in living cells has been conducted. In addition, the basal and endogenous levels of labile Fe2+ in living systems were also successfully monitored.

Remarkable improved electro-Fenton efficiency by electric-field-induced catalysis of CeO2.

In this study, we designed a novel combined electro-Fenton system for the treatment of wastewater containing biological recalcitrant using electric-field-induced ceria (CeO2) as the synergistic catalysts. It was found that by applying this CeO2 electro-Fenton system, the current efficiency improved from 74.49% to 109.82% within 2.5 min; the removal efficiency for dimethyl phthalate (DMP) increased from 85.5% to 94.9% within 20 min; and the mineralization rate increased from 76.01% to 93.58% after 120 min. The effects of parameters such as the applied potential, electrolyte, and concentration of Fe2+ on the current efficiency were systematically studied. Investigations by LSV, zeta titration, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)and electron spin resonance (ESR)revealed the reasons for achieving a current efficiency of over 100% in the CeO2 electro-Fenton system. A mechanism that involved Brønsted acid sites and the redox cycle of sulfate CeO2 was proposed.

A Mitochondria-Specific Fluorescent Probe for Visualizing Endogenous Hydrogen Cyanide Fluctuations in Neurons.

An ability to visualize HCN in mitochondria in real time may permit additional insights into the critical toxicological and physiological roles this classic toxin plays in living organisms. Herein, we report a mitochondria-specific coumarin pyrrolidinium-derived fluorescence probe (MRP1) that permits the real-time ratiometric imaging of HCN in living cells. The response is specific, sensitive (detection limit is ca. 65.6 nM), rapid (within 1 s), and reversible. Probe MRP1 contains a benzyl chloride subunit designed to enhance retention within the mitochondria under conditions where the mitochondria membrane potential is eliminated. It has proved effective in visualizing different concentrations of exogenous HCN in the mitochondria of HepG2 cells, as well as the imaging of endogenous HCN in the mitochondria of PC12 cells and within neurons. Fluctuations in HCN levels arising from the intracellular generation of HCN could be readily detected.

Bifunctional Fluorescent Probe for Sequential Sensing of Thiols and Primary Aliphatic Amines in Distinct Fluorescence Channels.

Thiols and primary aliphatic amines (PAA) are ubiquitous and extremely important species in biological systems. They perform significant interplaying roles in complex biological events. A single fluorescent probe differentiating both thiols and PAA can contribute to understanding the intrinsic inter-relationship of thiols and PAA in biological processes. Herein, we rationally constructed the first fluorescent probe that can respond to thiols and PAA in different fluorescence channels. The probe exhibited a high selectivity and sensitivity to thiols and PAA. In addition, it displayed sequential sensing ability when the thiols and PAA coexisted. The application experiments indicated that the probe can be used for sensing thiols and PAA in human blood serum. Moreover, the fluorescence imaging of endogenous thiols and PAA as well as antihypertensive drugs captopril and amlodipine in living cells were successfully conducted.

Toxic effects of cadmium on tall fescue and different responses of the photosynthetic activities in the photosystem electron donor and acceptor sides.

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) is a turf grass species which is widely used for rhizoremediation of organic contaminants and shows notable prospects in heavy metal phytoremediation. In this study, different concentrations of cadmium ion (Cd2+) were applied to study toxic effects of Cd2+ and responses of tall fescue by soilless culture. Tall fescue showed comparable high tolerance to Cd2+ as Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.). Additionally, the treatment with high concentration of Cd2+ leaded to decreased chlorophyll contents, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation, as well as damage of cell membrane, necrosis and apoptosis in tall fescue roots, and toxicity of Cd2+ on physiologic properties of tall fescue has been well discussed. Moreover, in photosystem II electron donor side, electron transport from oxygen evolution complex (OEC) to Yz residue of D1 protein was inhibited under high Cd2+ treatments, which may be due to the Cd2+ induced ROS production and the replacement of Ca2+ in the core of OEC. In electron acceptor side, electron transport efficiency from quinone B to photosystem I acceptors increased under high Cd2+ treatments, which may be an important response for plants against Cd2+ toxicity and its mechanism needs our further study.

Ascorbic Acid Alleviates Damage from Heat Stress in the Photosystem II of Tall Fescue in Both the Photochemical and Thermal Phases.

L-Ascorbate (Asc) plays important roles in plant development, hormone signaling, the cell cycle and cellular redox system, etc. The higher content of Asc in plant chloroplasts indicates its important role in the photosystem. The objective of this study was to study the roles of Asc in tall fescue leaves against heat stress. After a heat stress treatment, we observed a lower value of the maximum quantum yield for primary photochemistry (φPo), which reflects the inhibited activity of the photochemical phase of photosystem II (PSII). Moreover, we observed a higher value of efficiency of electron transfer from QB to photosystem I acceptors (δR0), which reflects elevated activity of the thermal phase of the photosystem of the tall fescue. The addition of Asc facilitate the behavior of the photochemical phase of the PSII by lowering the ROS content as well as that of the alternative electron donor to provide electron to the tyrosine residue of the D1 protein. Additionally, exogenous Asc reduces the activity of the thermal phase of the photosystem, which could contribute to the limitation of energy input into the photosystem in tall fescue against heat stress. Synthesis of the Asc increased under heat stress treatment. However, under heat stress this regulation does not occur at the transcription level and requires further study.

In situ synthesis of high density sub-50 nm ZnO nanopatterned arrays using diblock copolymer templates.

Fabrication of high density (~155 Gbit in(-2)) ZnO nanopatterns through in situ decomposition of Zn precursors inside diblock copolymer templates and their application as charge storage centers in nonvolatile memory devices is described. The fabrication is performed in a highly controlled fashion with the resulting ZnO nanopatterned arrays exhibiting diameters of 38 nm and heights of 14 nm offering sub-50 nm feature resolutions. The ZnO nanopatterns are naturally n-type due to the presence of zinc interstitials and oxygen vacancies that act as defect levels in trapping charge carriers. Test capacitors (metal-oxide-semiconductor, MOS) constructed using nanopatterns formed on p-Si exhibited a large flatband voltage shift of about ~2.2 V for a low operating voltage of 10 V. A high charge trap density of 3.47 × 10(18) cm(-3) combined with a good retention capacity is observed with low tunneling oxide (thermally grown) thickness of 3 nm. This demonstrates the significant promise of the ZnO nanopatterned arrays to act as charge storage centers for potential application in nonvolatile flash memory devices. The charge trapping characteristics, the capacitance-voltage measurements, and the potential of ZnO nanopatterns as charge storage centers in fabricating nonvolatile memory devices are discussed.

Effect of lavender essential oil on LPS-stimulated inflammation.

Lavender essential oil (LEO) is one the most favorite and widely used essential oils in aromatherapy. Many studies have demonstrated its functions in calming, assisting sleep, reducing pain and muscular spasms and its antiseptic function. To date, however, the mechanism of LEO on inflammation response is not well understood. In this study, we examined the effect of LEO on 5 µg/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation reaction in human monocyte THP-1 cells. We found treatment of 0.1% LEO significantly increased cell viability and inhibited the IL-1ß and superoxide anion generation in LPS-stimulated THP-1 cells. Treatment with LEO down-regulated both LPS-induced protein levels of phospho-NF-κB and membrane Toll-like receptor 4. To determine whether the chaperone protein was involved in the reaction, we determined the levels of Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70). Our results showed that LEO increased HSP70 expression in LPS-stimulated THP-1 cells, suggesting that the LEO inhibited LPS-induced inflammatory effect might be associated with the expression of HSP70.

Effectiveness of acupressure for residents of long-term care facilities with insomnia: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Acupressure on the Shenmen point (indexed as HT7) can improve insomnia, but there has been no longitudinal study to evaluate its efficacy for residents of long-term care facilities. No evidence from the existing literature indicates how long its efficacy can be maintained after stopping acupressure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acupressure on the Shenmen point for residents of long-term care facilities with insomnia. METHODS: Fifty residents with insomnia in long-term care facilities were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial, with 25 participants allocated to the experimental group and 25 participants to the control group. For a 5-week period, the experimental group received standard acupressure on the HT7 points of both wrists, whereas the control group received only light touch on the same places. Insomnia was measured with the Athens Insomnia Scale-Taiwan form (AIS-T). Participants' self-reported scores were done at baseline, during the 5-week period, and after intervention. This study was analyzed on an intention-to-treat procedure. RESULTS: The experimental group has significantly better scores on the AIS-T compared to the control group, not only during the intervention period, but also extending after intervention, as shown by generalized estimating equations (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Offering acupressure on a regular basis has the potential to improve insomnia in residents of long-term care facilities. Acupressure on the HT7 point may improve insomnia for up to 2 weeks after the intervention.

Metabolism of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in women with dysmenorrhea.

Menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea) is one of the main complaints in clinics for women. The pain is often accompanied by other symptoms such as headache, nausea, constipation or diarrhea, urinary frequency, and vomiting which often leave the patients incapacitated for work or school for a few days. Dietary supplementation with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) has been shown to alleviate the menstrual pain. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of dietary supplementation with PUFA (sunflower seed oil, borage oil and fish oil concentrate) for three months on RBC membrane fatty acid composition in healthy and dysmenorrheica young women. Conversion of linoleic acid, via gamma-linolenic acid, to dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (a precursor of anti-inflammatory prostaglandin E1) in dysmenorrheic subjects as compared to the controls was slower whereas the level of arachidonic acid (a precursor of pro-inflammatory PGE2) was not affected by the supplementation. Since there are no known side-effects associated with supplementation of these nutrients, management of dysmenorrhea through nutrition modulation should be an acceptable alternative to drug treatments.

[Aromatherapy for dysmenorrhea].

Dysmenorrhea is one of a number of discomforts that women often suffer. Many kinds of complementary therapies have been discussed in the literature on the subject, and aromatherapy is one of these. Aromatherapy uses the action of essential oils refined from plants to relieve discomfort. It is effective at relieving the symptom distress associated with many conditions, but the literature contains little information about essential oils and dysmenorrhea relief. This paper therefore discusses several topics that may be of interest to women, as follows: 1. The fundamental concept of aromatherapy and its applications. 2. The essential oil used for dysmenorrhea relief. 3. The principles of essential oil recipes for dysmenorrhea relief. 4. The method for using essential oil for dysmenorrhea relief, and things to note.

Quantitative prediction of traffic pollutant transmission into buildings.

An integrated air quality model that combines a CFD model and multi-room pollutant transport model has been developed to study the effect of traffic pollution on indoor air quality of a multi-room building located in close proximity to busy roads. The CFD model conducts the large eddy simulation of the three-dimensional turbulent flows and pollutant transport processes in outdoor, whereas the multi-room pollutant transport model performs zonal airflow and pollutant transport in indoor. The integrated model is verified with available field measurement of traffic-induced CO concentrations. Twelve scenarios of numerical experiments for various configurations of window openness are carried out to study the effects of the air change rate and the outdoor pollutant dispersion on indoor air quality. It is concluded that the windward side opening is a significant factor contributing to indoor air quality. Using air inlets on the sideward and leeward envelopes simultaneously can effectively lower the daily mean and peak indoor levels of traffic pollutants and maintain a desirable air change rate.

Removal dynamics of airborne road dust in a ventilated airspace.

We derive a simple linear dynamic equation to describe the removal mechanisms of airborne road dust from a ventilated airspace. The dynamic equation is sufficiently to take into account the simultaneous removal effects of turbulent coagulation, turbulent diffusive deposition, gravitational sedimentation, and airflow pattern within a ventilated airspace. Three dimensionless parameters TC, TD, and GS that characterize the relative effects of turbulent coagulation, turbulent diffusive deposition and gravitational settling, respectively, in a ventilated airspace were introduced to generalize the removal dynamics of airborne road dust. An environmental chamber test was carried out not only to determine the particle size distributions but also to verify the removal dynamics of airborne road dust in a ventilated airspace. Our results demonstrate that there is no significant variation for particle size distributions of road dust obtained from urban and suburban areas in north Taiwan region and both followed a lognormal distribution with average geometric mean diameter of 1.08 +/- 0.02 microm and geometric standard deviation of 2.59+/-0.03. Measured values match the simulated values with an r2 value of 0.93, whereas the overall RMSE value of 2.36 +/- 1.05 mg m(-3) is low, indicating that the ability to predict the removal dynamics of airborne road dust within a ventilated airspace using an average particle size based linear equation. Effects of TC, TD, GS, and various ventilation systems on the time-dependent road dust concentrations are also justified.