Impacts of carbonization temperature on the Pb(II) adsorption by wheat straw-derived biochar and related mechanism

To determine the quantitative correlations between physicochemical characteristics and Pb(II) adsorption amounts of biochar fractions, we prepared wheat straw-derived biochar under various carbonization temperatures (300-900 °C). The different fractions of the wheat straw-derived biochar, water-soluble material (WM), acid-soluble material (AM), and organic material (OM), were acquired. The ash content, ultimate analysis, pH, ion strength (IS), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and acidic functional groups (AFG) were characterized. The Pb(II) adsorption amounts of different biochars and their fractions were determined. The results revealed that the proportions of biochar fractions (WM, AM, and OM) varied with various carbonization temperatures. The maximum Pb(II) adsorption amount of wheat straw-derived biochar (q_Total) was 157.95 ± 0.13 mg/g obtained at 800 °C, and the quantitative correlations between Pb(II) adsorption amount (q) and carbonization temperature (T) can be elaborated by q_Total = 170.72-336.62exp(-0.0035T) (R² = 0.97), q_WM = 106.18-390.10exp(-0.0046T) (R² = 0.98), q_AM = 496.16-477.74exp(-0.0001T) (R² = 0.79), and q_OM = 1.80 + 34.69exp(-0.0038T) (R² = 0.85). For rate of contribution (RC) for Pb(II) adsorption, when T < 400 °C, the order was AM (60.72 ± 7.33%) > OM (23.41 ± 7.33%) > WM (15.87 ± 0.30%); however, when T ≥ 400 °C, the order was WM (52.31 ± 0.85% - 67.65 ± 2.99%) > AM (29.65 ± 0.46% - 35.77 ± 0.12%) > OM (2.30 ± 0.47% - 12.02 ± 2.43%). Moreover, q_WM and q_AM exhibited significant positive linear correlations with ash (q_WM = 9.92Ash - 123.65, and q_AM = 2.13Ash - 0.49), q_Total was predominantly affected by ash content (q_Total = 10.97 Ash - 95.49). The EDX, XRD, and FTIR analysis results further clarified that ion exchange and precipitation were the main adsorption mechanisms for Pb(II) adsorption by wheat straw-derived biochar.

Cloning and expression analysis of PRL and PRLR genes in black Muscovy duck

1. Prolactin hormone (governed by the PRL gene) is secreted by the anterior pituitary of animals, which combines with its receptor (prolactin receptor, PRLR) to act on target cells. Both PRL and PRLR are mainly associated with reproductive performance. The genetic mechanism of nesting in poultry is not yet clear, and so the aim of the current study was to determine expression patterns of PRL and PRLR at different times across the breeding stages of black Muscovy ducks.2. In this study, the CDS regions of PRL and PRLR were determined by RACE sequencing. The expression levels of PRL and PRLR in the pituitary, ovary and uterus from the black Muscovy duck were compared and analysed during the pre-laying, laying and nesting periods.3. The results showed that PRL and PRLR are highly homologous in a variety of poultry species. The expression of the PRL gene in the pituitary was the highest, which was significantly higher than seen in the ovary and uterus. This trend ran through the entire prenatal period, i.e. the laying period and the nesting period. The expression level of the PRLR gene in the pituitary and ovary was generally low, and expression in the uterus was the highest. There was no significant difference in expression of the PRLR gene between pituitary and ovary during different periods, but the expression level of the PRLR gene in the uterus reached its highest level during the nesting stage, which was significantly higher than seen in the early laying period.

[The efficacy and safety of tiotropium/olodaterol fixed-dose combination in Chinese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a pooled subgroup analysis of TONADO 1+2]

Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety profiles of tiotropium/olodaterol with the mono-components in Chinese and total study population from TONADO trial. Methods: In the replicate, double-blind, parallel-group, active-controlled, randomized, 52-week, Phase Ⅲ TONADO studies (TONADO 1+2), patients received tiotropium/olodaterol, tiotropium, or olodaterol via the Respimat(®) Inhaler (Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany). Primary end points were forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) area under the curve from 0 to 3 hours (AUC(0-3h)) response and trough FEV(1) response, and St George's respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ) total score at 24 weeks. Adverse events were also collected. This subgroup analysis only focused on the efficacy and safety of the drug at the approved dose in China. Results: 548 Chinese patients were randomized, aged 41 to 82 years [mean age, (63±8) years] and most were male (526, 96%), 111 received tiotropium/olodaterol 5/5 μg, and 127 received tiotropium 5 μg and 95 received olodaterol 5 μg. The baseline characteristics of these groups were similar. After 24 weeks, treatment with tiotropium/olodaterol 5/5 μg, tiotropium 5 μg and olodaterol 5 μg resulted in an adjusted mean FEV(1) AUC(0-3h) response of 0.240, 0.157 and 0.079 L, and trough FEV(1) response of 0.117, 0.068 and-0.001 L, respectively. Tiotropium/olodaterol 5/5 μg significantly improved SGRQ scores in Chinese patients compared with olodaterol 5 μg (32.729 and 37.202, respectively). Generally, the safety profile of tiotropium/olodaterol was comparable with mono-components in 52 weeks. Conclusion: Compared with tiotropium or olodaterol, tiotropium/olodaterol in Chinese patients provided significant improvement in lung function and quality of life, and the safety profiles were similar.

Expression and role of lncRNAs in the regeneration of skeletal muscle following contusion injury

Studies performed previously have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be involved in skeletal muscle regeneration; however, the roles of lncRNAs during the repair of skeletal muscle contusion remain unclear. The present study established a mouse skeletal muscle contusion injury model to identify the roles of lncRNAs that are specifically enriched in the skeletal muscle, namely metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (Malat1), H19, myogenesis-associated lnc (lnc-mg), long intergenic non-protein coding RNAs (linc)-muscle differentiation 1 (linc-MD1), linc-yin yang 1 (linc-YY1) and sirtuin 1-antisense (Sirt1-AS). Morphological analyses revealed that fibrotic scars and regenerating myofibers were formed in the muscle following contusion injury. Gene expression was analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The data revealed that the expression of inflammatory cytokines, myogenic regulatory factors and angiogenic factors increased significantly following skeletal muscle contusion. Additionally, various lncRNAs, including Malat1, H19, lnc-mg, linc-MD1, linc-YY1 and Sirt1-AS were also upregulated. Correlation was also observed between lncRNAs and regulatory factors for skeletal muscle regeneration including transforming growth factor-β1, myogenic differentiation, myogenin, myogenic factor 5 (myf5), myf6, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and angiopoietin 1. In conclusion, lncRNAs may serve important roles in the regeneration of skeletal muscle following contusion injury, which provides a promising therapy avenue for muscle injury.

Mechanochemical deconstruction of lignocellulosic cell wall polymers with ball-milling

In this work, the deconstruction mechanism of corn stover cell wall polymers during ball milling was evaluated. The characterization showed that ball milling not only brought about the dissociation of the cross-linked cellulose-hemicellulose-lignin complex but also led to the depolymerization of the cell-wall polymers especially the carbohydrates. Micromorphology characterization revealed that mechanical treatment disrupted the orderly fibrillar matrices with a porous structure. The breakage of β-1,4 glycosidic bonds in cellulose and the decomposition of arabinoxylans indicated the modification in polysaccharide chains. The degradation of lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC) linkages and the cleavage of β-O-4' linkages in lignin approved the partial degradation of lignin. In conclusion, mechanochemistry is an efficient force to make the polymers in plant fibers more digestible.

Accumulation of Tumor-Infiltrating CD49a+ NK Cells Correlates with Poor Prognosis for Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The discovery of CD49a⁺ liver-resident natural killer (NK) cells in mice alters our view of NK cells and provides another opportunity to study NK cells. Although evidence has suggested roles for NK cells in liver diseases, whether and how CD49a⁺ NK cells contribute to liver diseases remain unclear. In this study, we observed that accumulation of CD49a⁺ tissue-resident NK cells in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was higher than in peritumoral tissues. We studied the exhausted and regulatory phenotypes of CD49a⁺ tissue-resident NK cells by analysis of protein and mRNA. The proportion of CD49a⁺ NK cells was positively correlated to the proportion of NK cells expressing inhibitory receptors. In addition, CD49a⁺ NK cells expressed more of checkpoint molecules PD-1, CD96, and TIGIT. Transcriptomic analysis implicated CD49a⁺ tissue-resident NK cells in the negative regulation of immune responses. Comparison of murine and human CD49a⁺ NK cells revealed their distinct characteristics and functions. Finally, accumulation of tissue-resident CD49a⁺ NK cells in liver tumor was correlated to deteriorating disease condition and poor prognosis. Our findings show that CD49a⁺ NK cells accumulate in liver tumor and suggest a role for CD49a⁺ NK cells in the negative regulation of immune responses and the development of HCC.

Human CD96 Correlates to Natural Killer Cell Exhaustion and Predicts the Prognosis of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Immune checkpoint blockade has become a promising therapeutic approach to reverse immune cell exhaustion. Coinhibitory CD96 and T-cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), together with costimulatory CD226, bind to common ligand CD155. The balancing between three receptors fine-tunes immune responses against tumors. In this study, we investigated the expression of CD96, TIGIT, and CD226 in 55 fresh human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples, 236 paraffin-embedded HCC samples, and 20 normal human livers. The cumulative percentage, absolute count, and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD96⁺ NK cells are significantly increased in the intratumoral tissues of HCC and break the balance between three receptors. Human CD96⁺ NK cells are functionally exhausted with impaired interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) production, high gene expression of interleukin (IL)-10 and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1), and low gene expression of T-bet, IL-15, perforin, and granzyme B. In addition, blocking CD96-CD155 interaction specifically increases lysis of HepG2 cells by NK cells. HCC patients with a high level of CD96 or CD155 expression within tumor are strongly associated with deteriorating disease condition and shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival times. Patients with a higher cumulative percentage of CD96⁺ NK cells within tumor also exhibit shorter DFS. High plasma level of TGF-β1 in HCC patients up-regulates CD96 expression and dynamically shifts the balance between CD96, TIGIT, and CD226 in NK cells. Blocking TGF-β1 specifically restores normal CD96 expression and reverses the dysfunction of NK cells. Conclusion: These findings indicate that human intratumoral CD96⁺ NK cells are functionally exhausted and patients with higher intratumoral CD96 expression exhibit poorer clinical outcomes. Blocking CD96-CD155 interaction or TGF-β1 restores NK cell immunity against tumors by reversing NK cell exhaustion, suggesting a possible therapeutic role of CD96 in fighting liver cancer.

Characterization of mechanical pulverization/phosphoric acid pretreatment of corn stover for enzymatic hydrolysis

Lignocellulosic biomass from corn stover holds promise as a raw material for the production of alternative energy to replace fossil fuels. In this study, structural properties of corn stover after pretreatment using mechanical pulverization with or without subsequent phosphoric acid treatment were investigated. The results showed that a pulverization step loosened the compact structure of corn stover lignocellulose and effectively reduced particle size, while both pulverization and phosphoric acid pretreatment steps altered the crystallinity index. During pretreatment, hemicellulose content was reduced and accessibility of β-1,4 glycosidic bonds to hydrolysis by cellulase increased, while almost all lignin was retained. The results showed that the combined two-step pretreatment method improved sugar yield from lignocellulose during subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis from 20.01 mg/g to 41.41 mg/g in glucose yield. These results should guide the development of methods for improved lignocellulose conversion to sugars for enhanced bioethanol production.

Impaired Skeletal Muscle Regeneration Induced by Macrophage Depletion Could Be Partly Ameliorated by MGF Injection

Skeletal muscle injury is one of the most common injuries in sports medicine. Our previous study found that macrophage depletion impairs muscle regeneration and that mechano growth factor (MGF) may play an important role in this process. However, whether injection of MGF protects against impaired muscle regeneration after macrophage depletion has not been explored. Therefore, we generated a muscle contusion and macrophage depletion mouse model and injected MGF into the damaged muscle. Comprehensive morphological and genetic analyses were performed on the injured skeletal muscle after macrophage depletion and MGF injection. The results showed that injection of MGF did not exert a protective effect on muscle fiber regeneration; however, it did decrease fibrosis in the contused skeletal muscle after macrophage depletion. Moreover, MGF injection decreased the expression of muscle inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, and TGF-β), chemokines (CCL2, CCL5, and CXCR4), oxidative stress factors (gp91phox) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-10, and MMP-14). These results suggest that the impairment of skeletal muscle regeneration induced by macrophage depletion could be partly ameliorated by MGF injection and that inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress factors, chemokines, and MMP may be involved in this process.

Effects of LncRNA Lnc-LIF-AS on cell proliferation, migration and invasion in a human cervical cancer cell line

This study explored the effect of LncRNA Lnc-LIF-AS on cell proliferation, migration and invasion in the human cervical cancer (HCC) cell line SiHa. SiHa cells had the lowest expression of Lnc-LIF-AS in the 4 human cervical cancer cell lines (SiHa, ME-180, C-33A and HeLa) and were transfected and divided into the SiHa/con (transfected with pMIGRI) cell group, SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS (transfected with pMIGRI-Lnc-LIF-AS) cell group, and SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS-DN (transfected with pMIGRI-Lnc-LIF-AS-DN, in which the sequences overlapping with LIF mRNA was deleted) cell group. Overexpression of Lnc-LIF-AS could promote the proliferation, colony formation, invasion and migration in SiHa and ME-180 cells. And the low expression of Lnc-LIF-AS suppress the proliferation, colony formation invasion and migration in HeLa cells when the Lnc-LIF-AS expression has been suppressed. In the SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS cells group, the cell cycle was mainly halted in the S phase and overexpression of Lnc-LIF-AS had no effect on the apoptosis of SiHa cells. Overexpression of Lnc-LIF-AS could promote the secretion of LIF in SiHa cells, and the supernatant from SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS cells could promote cell proliferation in the SiHa/con cells. The STAT3 inhibitor could inhibit cell proliferation in the SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS cells. The expression level of Lnc-LIF-AS in cervical cancer tissues was higher than that in normal tissues and the expression level of Lnc-LIF-AS was positively correlated with the level of LIF. In the SiHa/con and SiHa/Lnc-LIF-AS-DN cell groups, there were no significant differences in cell proliferation, cell migration and cell invasion. The overexpression of Lnc-LIF-AS can promote cell proliferation, migration and invasion in cervical cancer cells, and the core function domain of this lncRNA was located in the overlapping a 3'-UTR base sequence of LIF mRNA.

[Efficacy and associated factors of olfactory training in the treatment of olfactory dysfunction]

Objective: To explore the clinical effects and the influence factors of olfactory training in the treatment of olfactory dysfunction. Methods: A total of 86 patients with olfactory dysfunction (49 post-infectious and 37 post-traumatic) in Beijing Anzhen Hospital during Dec 2016 to May 2017 were recruited in this prospective study. The clinical data of patients were analyzed, including gender, age, body mass index (BMI), course of disease, smoking history, drinking history, diabetes history, hypertension history, hyperlipidemia history, and anxiety visual analogue score (VAS). All patients were treated with olfactory training for 16 weeks, and all of them underwent Sniffin' Sticks olfactory test before and after treatment, which was evaluated by composite threshold-discrimination-identification score (TDI). SPSS 23.0 software, paired t test and univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Eighty patients received treatment, including 46 post-infectious olfactory dysfunction and 34 post-traumatic olfactory dysfunction. After olfactory training, the total scores of TDI increased with statistically significant (18.3±8.6 vs 13.6±7.4, t=-6.158, P<0.05). The overall efficacy was 40% (32/80). The effective rate were 45.7% (21/46) in post-infectious olfactory dysfunction and 32.4% (11/34) in post-traumatic olfactory dysfunction respectively, with no statistically significant difference (χ(2)=1.441, P=0.230). Logistic regression analysis showed that the course of disease was an influence factor in the clinical curative effect (OR=0.881, 95%CI: 0.799-0.973, P=0.012). In patients with less than a year of olfactory dysfunction, the olfactory function improved obviously with the efficiency of 50.9% (29/57). Conclusion: Sixteen weeks of olfactory training provides a significant therapeutic effect on the post-infectious and post-traumatic olfactory dysfunction, and the olfactory training can achieve better therapeutic effects at the early stage.

BMSC Transplantation Aggravates Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Fibrosis and Impairs Skeletal Muscle Regeneration

Skeletal muscle contusion is one of the most common muscle injuries in sports medicine and traumatology. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation has been proposed as a promising strategy to promote skeletal muscle regeneration. However, the roles and underlying mechanisms of BMSCs in the regulation of skeletal muscle regeneration are still not completely clear. Here, we investigated the role of BMSC transplantation after muscle contusion. BMSCs were immediately transplanted into gastrocnemius muscles (GMs) following direct contusion. Comprehensive morphological and genetic analyses were performed after BMSC transplantation. BMSC transplantation exacerbated muscle fibrosis and inflammation, as evidenced by increased leukocyte and macrophage infiltration, increased inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and increased matrix metalloproteinases. BMSC transplantation also increased muscle oxidative stress. Overall, BMSC transplantation aggravated inflammation, oxidative stress and fibrosis and impaired skeletal muscle regeneration. These results, shed new light on the role of BMSCs in regenerative medicine and indicate that caution is needed in the application of BMSCs for muscle injury.

Robust regression for optimal individualized treatment rules

Because different patients may respond quite differently to the same drug or treatment, there is an increasing interest in discovering individualized treatment rules. In particular, there is an emerging need to find optimal individualized treatment rules, which would lead to the "best" clinical outcome. In this paper, we propose a new class of loss functions and estimators based on robust regression to estimate the optimal individualized treatment rules. Compared to existing estimation methods in the literature, the new estimators are novel and advantageous in the following aspects. First, they are robust against skewed, heterogeneous, heavy-tailed errors or outliers in data. Second, they are robust against a misspecification of the baseline function. Third, under some general situations, the new estimator coupled with the pinball loss approximately maximizes the outcome's conditional quantile instead of the conditional mean, which leads to a more robust optimal individualized treatment rule than the traditional mean-based estimators. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are established. Their empirical performance is demonstrated via extensive simulation studies and an analysis of an AIDS data set.

An aggregated understanding of cellulase adsorption and hydrolysis for ball-milled cellulose

This study evaluated the effects of physicochemical properties of a series of ball-milled cellulose on cellulase adsorption and glucose yield. The relationship between cellulase adsorption and initial hydrolysis rate was also discussed. We found that hydrophobicity and surface charge are the key factors affecting cellulase adsorption on ball-milled cellulose. The results demonstrated that glucose yield had a positive correlation with specific surface area, while showed a negative correlation with particle size, degree of polymerization and crystallinity. Among these properties, specific surface area and crystallinity are the key factors affecting glucose yield. As ball milling progressed, cellulose showed lower enzyme adsorption capacity/amount of bound enzyme during initial stage of hydrolysis, but had higher initial hydrolysis rate. The enhanced rate is attributed to the fact that the amorphous region produced by ball milling reduces the free energy required for decrystallization thus increases the catalytic efficiency of the bound enzyme.