A WRF-UCM-SOLWEIG framework of 10m resolution to quantify the intra-day impact of urban features on thermal comfort

City-scale outdoor thermal comfort diagnostics are essential for understanding actual heat stress. However, previous research primarily focused on the street scale. Here, we present the WRF-UCM-SOLWEIG framework to achieve fine-grained thermal comfort mapping at the city scale. The background climate condition affecting thermal comfort is simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the urban canopy model (UCM) at a local-scale (500m). The most dominant factor, mean radiant temperature, is simulated using the Solar and Longwave Environmental Irradiance Geometry (SOLWEIG) model at the micro-scale (10m). The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is calculated based on the mean radiant temperature and local climate parameters. The influence of different ground surface materials, buildings, and tree canopies is simulated in the SOLWEIG model using integrated urban morphological data. We applied this proposed framework to the city of Guangzhou, China, and investigated the intra-day variation in the impact of urban morphology during a heat wave period. Through statistical analysis, we found that the elevation in UTCI is primarily attributed to the increase in the fraction of impervious surface (ISF) during daytime, with a maximum correlation coefficient of 0.80. Tree canopy cover has a persistent cooling effect during the day. Implementing 40% of tree cover can reduce the daytime UTCI by 1.5 to 2.0 K. At nighttime, all urban features have a negligible contribution to outdoor thermal comfort. Overall, the established framework provides essential input data and references for studies and urban planners in the practice of urban (micro)climate diagnostics and planning

Effects of Methotrexate on Plasma Cytokines and Cardiac Remodeling and Function in Postmyocarditis Rats

Excessive immune activation and inflammatory mediators may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of chronic heart failure. Methotrexate is a commonly used anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drug. In this study, we used a rat model of cardiac myosin-induced experimental autoimmune myocarditis to investigate the effects of low-dose methotrexate (0.1 mg/kg/d for 30 d) on the plasma level of cytokines and cardiac remodeling and function. Our study showed that levels of tumor necrosis factor-(TNF-)alpha and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are significantly increased in postmyocarditis rats, compared with the control rats. Methotrexate treatment reduced the plasma levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 and increased IL-10 level, compared to saline treatment. In addition, postmyocarditis rats showed significant cardiac fibrosis characterized by increased myocardial collagen volume fraction, perivascular collagen area, and the ratio of collagen type I to type III, compared with the control rats. However, MTX treatment not only markedly attenuated cardiac fibrosis, diminished the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, but also increased the left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening. Collectively, these results suggest that low-dose methotrexate has ability to regulate inflammatory responses and improves cardiac function and hence contributes to prevent the development of postmyocarditis dilated cardiomyopathy

Machine learning-assisted mapping of city-scale air temperature: Using sparse meteorological data for urban climate modeling and adaptation

The availability of high spatio-temporal resolution of urban air temperature is paramount for understanding urban heat island (UHI) and developing effective mitigation strategies, in particular for local-scale mitigations. Obtaining high spatial resolution of air temperature at city-scale is challenging as the quantity of weather stations is often limited in cities, particularly in those less developed ones. In this study, based on the existing weather station network in Guangzhou city, China, we compare eight different air temperature predictive models and select one with the best performance to interpolate city-scale air temperature. The training and validation of the models are performed using observatory meteorological data of 321 weather stations in Guangzhou. Deep learning-derived land cover information and social-economic data are encoded to be used as explanatory variables. The regression kriging combined with multiple linear regression is found to result in the best performance, with an average root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.92 °C and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.959. Furthermore, the quantities and locations of current weather stations can be optimized by the proposed model. Guided by the k-means clustering alongside the information of geocoordinates and land cover, the number of current weather stations in Guangzhou can be reduced by 50% (i.e., 160 weather stations) while retaining the model performance. This study proposes and demonstrates an effective model for obtaining city-scale air temperature at high spatio-temporal resolution with data from sparse weather stations, which is much needed for cities which want to enhance their city-scale air temperature mapping by complementing new weather stations to their existing weather station network.ISSN:0360-1323ISSN:0360-132

A Nonenzymatic Glucose Sensor Platform Based on Specific Recognition and Conductive Polymer-Decorated CuCo2O4 Carbon Nanofibers

CuCo2O4 decoration carbon nanofibers (CNFs) as an enzyme-free glucose sensor were fabricated via electrospinning technology and carbonization treatment. The CNFs with advantages of abundant nitrogen amounts, porosity, large surface area, and superior electrical conductivity were used as an ideal matrix for CuCo2O4 decoration. The resultant CuCo2O4–CNF hybrids possessed favorable properties of unique three-dimensional architecture and good crystallinity, accompanied by the CuCo2O4 nanoparticles uniformly growing on the CNF skeleton. To further enhance the selective molecular recognition capacity of the developed sensor, a conductive film was synthesized through the electropolymerization of thiophene and thiophene-3-boronic acid (TBA). Based on the synergistic effects of the performances of CNFs, CuCo2O4 nanoparticles, and boronic acid-decorated polythiophene layer, the obtained poly(thiophene-3-boronic acid) (PTBA)/CuCo2O4–CNF-modified electrodes (PTBA/CuCo2O4–CNFs/glassy carbon electrode (GCE)) displayed prominent electrocatalytic activity toward electro-oxidation of glucose. The fabricated sensor presented an outstanding performance in the two linear ranges of 0.01–0.5 mM and 0.5–1.5 mM, with high selectivity of 2932 and 708 μA·mM−1·cm−2, respectively. The composite nanofibers also possessed good stability, repeatability, and excellent anti-interference selectivity toward the common interferences. All these results demonstrate that the proposed composite nanofibers hold great potential in the application of constructing an enzyme-free glucose sensing platform

A Rutile TiO2 Electron Transport Layer for the Enhancement of Charge Collection for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

Interfacial charge collection efficiency has demonstrated significant effects on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, crystalline phase-dependent charge collection is investigated by using rutile and anatase TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL) to fabricate PSCs. The results show that rutile TiO2 ETL enhances the extraction and transportation of electrons to FTO and reduces the recombination, thanks to its better conductivity and improved interface with the CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI(3)) layer. Moreover, this may be also attributed to the fact that rutile TiO2 has better match with perovskite grains, and less trap density. As a result, comparing with anatase TiO2 ETL, MAPbI(3) PSCs with rutile TiO2 ETL delivers significantly enhanced performance with a champion PCE of 20.9% and a large open circuit voltage (V-OC) of 1.17V.</p

HDAC9 deficiency promotes tumor progression by decreasing the CD8+ dendritic cell infiltration of the tumor microenvironment

Background The tumor microenvironment (TME) contains a variety of immune cells, which play critical roles during the multistep development of tumors. Histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) has been reported to have either proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory effects, depending on the immune environment. In this study, we investigated whether HDAC9 in the tumor stroma regulated inflammation and antitumor immunity.Methods Hdac9 knockout mice were generated to analyze the HDAC9-associated inflammation and tumor progression. Immune cells and cytokines in TME or draining lymph nodes were quantified by flow cytometry and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. The antigen presentation and CD8+ T cell priming by tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells (DCs) were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. HDAC9-associated inflammation was investigated in a mouse model with dextran sulfate sodium–induced colitis. Correlation of HDAC9 with CD8+ expression was assessed in tissue sections from patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Results HDAC9 deficiency promoted tumor progression by decreasing the CD8+ DC infiltration of the TME. Compared with wild-type mice, the tumor-infiltrating DCs of Hdac9-/- mice displayed impaired cross-presentation of tumor antigens and cross-priming of CD8+ T cells. Moreover, HDAC9 expression was significantly positively correlated with CD8+ cell counts in human lung cancer stroma samples.Conclusions HDAC9 deficiency decreased inflammation and promoted tumor progression by decreasing CD8+ DC infiltration of the TME. HDAC9 expression in the tumor stroma may represent a promising biomarker to predict the therapeutic responses of patients receiving CD8+ T cell-dependent immune treatment regimens

Double molecular recognition ligands modified CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO hybrid with enhanced enrichment capacity for glycoproteins at neutral environment

In order to achieve specific enrichment of target glycoproteins, double molecular recognition ligands functionalized surface solid-phase adsorption materials that can play a role under physiological pH conditions, have obvious advantages. In this work, a novel strategy was proposed for the synthesis of double molecular recognition functionalized magnetic graphene nanocomposites. Horseradish peroxidase was selected as the template proteins for evaluating the selectivity and binding capacity of the adsorption material. The bimolecular recognition was realized by introducing 4-carboxyphenylboronic acid (CPBA) and Suberic acid bis(3-sulfo-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester) sodium salt (Sulfo-DSS) as functional ligands. The abundant oxygen-containing groups in the complex (abbreviated as CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO) were beneficial to reduce the pKa value of CPBA. Finally, CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO realized the selective adsorption of glycoproteins in the neutral environment (pH 7.0). The resultant CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO exhibited a high adsorption capacity of 1280.6 mg g−1 and excellent specificity toward glycoproteins compared to nonglycoproteins. Moreover, CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO with strong magnetic responses (59.29 emu·g−1), could achieve rapid aggregation and separation under the external magnetic field. The results demonstrated the great potential of CPDS/CMCS/Fe3O4-rGO composites to separate and enrich glycoproteins from the complex biological sample for the glycoproteins analysis

β-Glucan restores tumor-educated dendritic cell maturation to enhance antitumor immune responses.

Tumors can induce the generation and accumulation of immunosuppressive cells such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in a tumor microenvironment, contributing to tumor escape from immunological attack. Although dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines can initiate antitumor immune responses, tumor-educated dendritic cells (TEDCs) involved in the tolerance induction have attracted much attention recently. In this study, we investigated the effect of β-glucan on TEDCs and found that β-glucan treatment could promote the maturation and migration of TEDCs and that the suppressive function of TEDCs was significantly decreased. Treatment with β-glucan drastically decreased the levels of regulatory T (Treg) cells but increased the infiltration of macrophages, granulocytes and DCs in tumor masses, thus elicited Th1 differentiation and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses and led to a delay in tumor progression. These findings reveal that β-glucan can inhibit the regulatory function of TEDCs, therefore revealing a novel function for β-glucan in immunotherapy and suggesting its potential clinical benefit. β-Glucan directly abrogated tumor-educated dendritic cells-associated immune suppression, promoted Th1 differentiation and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte priming and improved antitumor responses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

miR-124 inhibits cell proliferation in breast cancer through downregulation of CDK4

Studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the malignant progression of human cancer. However, little is known about the potential role of miRNAs in breast carcinogenesis. miR-124 expression in breast cancer tissue was measured by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Target prediction algorithms and luciferase reporter gene assays were used to investigate the target of miR-124. Breast cancer cells growth was regulated by overexpression or knockdown miR-124. At the end of the study, tumor-bearing mice were tested to confirm the function of miR-124 in breast cancer. In this study, we demonstrated that the expression of miR-124 was significantly downregulated in breast cancer tissues compared with matched adjacent non-neoplastic tissues. We identified and confirmed that cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) was a direct target of miR-124. Overexpression of miR-124 suppressed CDK4 protein expression and attenuated cell viability, proliferation, and cell cycle progression in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-435S breast cancer cells in vitro. Overexpression of CDK4 partially rescued the inhibitory effect of miR-124 in the breast cancer cells. Moreover, we found that miR-124 overexpression effectively repressed tumor growth in xenograft animal experiments. Our results demonstrate that miR-124 functions as a growth-suppressive miRNA and plays an important role in inhibiting tumorigenesis by targeting CDK4