CD40LG and GZMB were correlated with adipose tissue macrophage infiltration and involved in obstructive sleep apnea related metabolic dysregulation: Evidence from bioinformatics analysis

Both obesity and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can lead to metabolic dysregulation and systemic inflammation. Similar to obesity, increasing evidence has revealed that immune infiltration in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with obstructive sleep apnea-related morbidity. However, the pathological changes and potential molecular mechanisms in visceral adipose tissue of obstructive sleep apnea patients need to be further studied. Herein, by bioinformatics analysis and clinical validation methods, including the immune-related differentially expressed genes (IRDEGs) analysis, protein-protein interaction network (PPI), functional enrichment analysis, a devolution algorithm (CIBERSORT), spearman’s correlation analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry (IHC), we identified and validated 10 hub IRDEGs, the relative mRNA expression of four hub genes (CRP, CD40LG, CCL20, and GZMB), and the protein expression level of two hub genes (CD40LG and GZMB) were consistent with the bioinformatics analysis results. Immune infiltration results further revealed that obstructive sleep apnea patients contained a higher proportion of pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages and a lower proportion of M2 macrophages. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed that CD40LG was positively correlated with M1 macrophages and GZMB was negatively correlated with M2 macrophages. CD40LG and GZMB might play a vital role in the visceral adipose tissue homeostasis of obstructive sleep apnea patients. Their interaction with macrophages and involved pathways not only provides new insights for understanding molecular mechanisms but also be of great significance in discovering novel small molecules or other promising candidates as immunotherapies of OSA-associated metabolic complications

Fractional-Order Controller Design for Oscillatory Fractional Time-Delay Systems Based on the Numerical Inverse Laplace Transform Algorithms

Fractional-order time-delay system is thought to be a kind of oscillatory complex system which could not be controlled efficaciously so far because it does not have an analytical solution when using inverse Laplace transform. In this paper, a type of fractional-order controller based on numerical inverse Laplace transform algorithm INVLAP was proposed for the mentioned systems by searching for the optimal controller parameters with the objective function of ITAE index due to the verified nature that fractional-order controllers were the best means of controlling fractional-order systems. Simulations of step unit tracking and load-disturbance responses of the proposed fractional-order optimal PIλDμ controller (FOPID) and corresponding conventional optimal PID (OPID) controller have been done on three typical kinds of fractional time-delay system with different ratio between time delay (L) and time constant (T) and a complex high-order fractional time delay system to verify the availability of the presented control method

The wurtzite-rocksalt phase transition for a BexMgyZn1-x-yO alloy: Be content vs Mg content

The Be-and Mg-content-dependent phase transition of BexMgyZn1 x O-y alloy is investigated by theoretically calculations and experiments. For a given content of Be, the maximum content of Mg at which the wurtzite structure still remains in BexMgyZn1 x O-y alloy is intensively studied. We find that as the content of Be increases, the maximum content of Mg in wurtzite BexMgyZn(1 x) O-y alloy increases accordingly. Moreover, the Be-and Mg-content-dependent band gap of the alloy at each wurtzite-rocksalt transition point is evaluated, which is expressed as an empirical law. In addition, the mechanism underlying the tunable band gap of the alloy in wurtzite BexMgyZn1 x O-y alloy is revealed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Wide Range Bandgap Modulation Based on ZnO-based Alloys and Fabrication of Solar Blind UV Detectors with High Rejection Ratio

Theoretical calculations on formation energies of MgZnO, BeZnO and BeMgZnO alloys are presented. The ternary alloy MgZnO (BeZnO) is found to be unstable with high Mg (Be) contents. However, the quaternary system BeMgZnO is predicted to be stable with small Be/Mg atom ratio. Subsequently, a wurtzite Be0.17Mg0.54Zn0.29O alloy with a bandgap of 5.15 eV has been acquired experimentally. Its bandgap is in the middle of solar blind region and thus it is an ideal material for realizing a high rejection ratio solar blind ultraviolet (UV) detector, which has long been a problem. A metal semiconductor metal (MSM) structured solar blind UV detector based on this material is then fabricated, realizing a much higher rejection ratio than reported MgZnO-based detectors. One more interesting thing is, as a complicated quaternary system, BeMgZnO can maintain its crystal quality in a wide compositional range, which is not happening in MgZnO and BeZnO. To get some microscopic insight into the Be Mg mutual stabilizing mechanism, more calculations on the lattice constants of BeZnO and MgZnO alloys, and the coordination preference of Be ions in alloy were conducted. The a-axis lattice compensation and 4-fold coordination preference of Be atom are confirmed the major origins for Be-Mg mutual stabilizing in ZnO lattice

Metallic aluminum suboxides with ultra-high electrical conductivity at high pressure

Aluminum, as the most abundant metallic elemental content in the Earth’s crust, usually exists in the form of alumina (Al2O3). However, the oxidation state of aluminum and the crystal structures of aluminum oxides in the pressure range of planetary interiors is not well established. Here, we predicted two aluminum suboxides (Al2O, AlO) and two superoxides (Al4O7, AlO3) with uncommon stoichiometries at high pressures using first-principles calculations and crystal structure prediction methods. We find that the P4/nmm Al2O becomes stable above ~765 GPa, and may survive in the deep mantles or cores of giant planets such as Neptune. Interestingly, the Al2O and AlO are metallic and have electride features, in which some electrons are localized in the interstitials between atoms. We find that Al2O has an electrical conductivity one order of magnitude higher than that of iron under the same pressure-temperature conditions, which may influence the total conductivity of giant planets. Our findings enrich the high-pressure phase diagram of aluminum oxides and improve our understanding of the interior structure of giant planets