A rapid preconcentration method using modified GP-MSE for sensitive determination of trace semivolatile organic pollutants in the gas phase of ambient air

A sensitive concentration method utilising modified gas-purge microsyringe extraction (GP-MSE) was developed. Concentration (reduction in volume) to a microlitre volume was achieved. PAHs were utilised as semivolatile analytes to optimise the various parameters that affect the concentration efficiency. The injection rate and temperature were the key factors that affected the concentration efficiency. An efficient concentration (75.0−96.1%) of PAHs was obtained under the optimised conditions. The method exhibited good reproducibility (RSD values that ranged from 1.5 to 9.0%). The GP-MSE concentration method enhances the volume reduction (concentration factor), leading to a low method detection limit (0.5−15 ng L–1). Furthermore, this method offers the advantage of small-volume sampling, enabling even the detection of diurnal hourly changes in the concentration of PAHs in ambient air. Utilising this method in combination with GC−MS, the diurnal hourly flux of PAHs from the gas phase of ambient air was measured. Indeed, the proposed technique is a simple, fast, low-cost and environmentally friendly

6-Bromoindirubin-3′-Oxime (6BIO) Suppresses the mTOR Pathway, Promotes Autophagy, and Exerts Anti-aging Effects in Rodent Liver

Liver aging is associated with age-related histopathological and functional changes that significantly enhance the risk of numerous diseases or disorders developing in elderly populations. 6-Bromoindirubin-3′-oxime (6BIO), a potent inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), has been implicated in various age-related diseases and processes, such as tumorigenesis, neurodegeneration, and diabetes. Recent studies have also revealed that 6BIO increases autophagy in yeast, mammalian cell lines, and dopaminergic neurons, which is one of the classical mechanisms strongly associated with liver aging. However, the impact or the mechanism of action of 6BIO in liver remains entirely unknown. Here, we find that 6BIO reduces oxidative stress, improves lipid metabolism, enhances autophagy, and significantly retards liver aging via modulating the GSK-3β pathway and mTOR pathway. Our findings suggest that 6BIO could be a potential agent to protect the liver in the field of anti-aging pharmacology

Regional Agroclimate Characteristic and Its Multiple Teleconnections: A Case Study in the Jianghan Plain (JHP) Region

Agricultural production depends on local agroclimatic conditions to a great extent, affected by ENSO and other ocean-atmospheric climate modes. This paper analyzed the spatio-temporal distributions of climate elements in the Jianghan Plain (JHP), Central China, and explored the impacts from teleconnection patterns, aimed at providing references for dealing with climate change and guiding agricultural activities. Both linear and multifactorial regression models were constructed based on the frequentist quantile regression and Bayesian quantile regression method, with the daily meteorological data sets of 17 national stations in the plain and teleconnection climate characteristic indices. The results showed that precipitation in JHP had stronger spatial variability than evapotranspiration. El Niño probably induced less precipitation in summer while the weakening Arctic Oscillation might lead to more summertime precipitation. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of the multifactorial and linear regression model at the median level were 0.42–0.56 and 0.12–0.18, respectively. The mean relative error (MRE) ranged −2.95–−0.26% and −7.83–0.94%, respectively, indicating the much better fitting accuracy of the multiple climatic factors model. Meanwhile it confirmed that the agricultural climate in JHP was under the influence from multiple teleconnection patterns

Human Motion Pattern Recognition and Feature Extraction: An Approach Using Multi-Information Fusion

An exoskeleton is a kind of intelligent wearable device with bioelectronics and biomechanics. To realize its effective assistance to the human body, an exoskeleton needs to recognize the real time movement pattern of the human body in order to make corresponding movements at the right time. However, it is of great difficulty for an exoskeleton to fully identify human motion patterns, which are mainly manifested as incomplete acquisition of lower limb motion information, poor feature extraction ability, and complicated steps. Aiming at the above consideration, the motion mechanisms of human lower limbs have been analyzed in this paper, and a set of wearable bioelectronics devices are introduced based on an electromyography (EMG) sensor and inertial measurement unit (IMU), which help to obtain biological and kinematic information of the lower limb. Then, the Dual Stream convolutional neural network (CNN)-ReliefF was presented to extract features from the fusion sensors’ data, which were input into four different classifiers to obtain the recognition accuracy of human motion patterns. Compared with a single sensor (EMG or IMU) and single stream CNN or manual designed feature extraction methods, the feature extraction based on Dual Stream CNN-ReliefF shows better performance in terms of visualization performance and recognition accuracy. This method was used to extract features from EMG and IMU data of six subjects and input these features into four different classifiers. The motion pattern recognition accuracy of each subject under the four classifiers is above 97%, with the highest average recognition accuracy reaching 99.12%. It can be concluded that the wearable bioelectronics device and Dual Stream CNN-ReliefF feature extraction method proposed in this paper enhanced an exoskeleton’s ability to capture human movement patterns, thus providing optimal assistance to the human body at the appropriate time. Therefore, it can provide a novel approach for improving the human-machine interaction of exoskeletons

Surface Water–Groundwater Transformation Patterns in the Jianghan Plain after the Impoundment of the Three Gorges Project and the Opening of the Yangtze-to-Hanjiang Water Transfer Project

Understanding the law of surface water–groundwater conversion in the face of high-intensity human activities is still a challenge. In this study, we employed statistical and system dynamics methods to investigate the surface water–groundwater conversion law in the Jianghan Plain following the impoundment of the Three Gorges Project (TGP) and the Yangtze-to-Hanjiang Water Transfer Project (YHWTP). The groundwater level’s long data set was used for the first time to study the water level change and water exchange in the research region after the impoundment of the TGP and the delivery of water from the YHWTP. The findings suggest a significant decrease in the interannual trend of the surface water level and groundwater level in the research region. It was observed that a 1m rise in the surface water level can lead to a 0.11–0.38 m rise in the groundwater level. The water level fluctuation coefficients of the surface water level and groundwater level are influenced by the impoundment of the TGP and the water delivery from the YHWTP, causing them to increase and decrease, respectively. In general, the surface water recharges the groundwater in the studied region. The water exchanges between the surface water and groundwater in the Yangtze River’s main stream, the middle region of the Hanjiang Plain, and the lower reaches of the Hanjiang River are, on average, 10−2 m3/(d·m), 10−5 m3/(d·m), and 10−3 m3/(d·m) orders of magnitude, respectively. The water exchange in the Yangtze River’s main stream was reduced after TGP impoundment, and it was enhanced following YHWTP water delivery

mTOR-dependent TFEB activation and TFEB overexpression enhance autophagy-lysosome pathway and ameliorate Alzheimer's disease-like pathology in diabetic encephalopathy

Abstract Background Diabetic encephalopathy (DE) is a complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that features Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like pathology, which can be degraded by the autophagy-lysosome pathway (ALP). Since transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master regulator of ALP, TFEB-mediated ALP activation might have a therapeutic effect on DE, but this has yet to be investigated. Methods We established T2DM mouse models and cultured HT22 cells under high-glucose (HG) conditions to confirm the role of ALP in DE. To further investigate this, both mice and HT22 cells were treated with 3-methyladenine (3-MA). We also analyzed the content of TFEB in the nucleus and cytoplasm to evaluate its role in ALP. To confirm the effect of TFEB activation at the post-translational level in DE, we used rapamycin to inhibit the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). We transduced both mice and cells with TFEB vector to evaluate the therapeutic effect of TFEB overexpression on DE. Conversely, we conducted TFEB knockdown to verify its role in DE in another direction. Results We found that T2DM mice experienced compromised cognitive function, while HG-cultured HT22 cells exhibited increased cell apoptosis. Additionally, both T2DM mice and HG-cultured HT22 cells showed impaired ALP and heavier AD-like pathology. This pathology worsened after treatment with 3-MA. We also observed decreased TFEB nuclear translocation in both T2DM mice and HG-cultured HT22 cells. However, inhibiting mTOR with rapamycin or overexpressing TFEB increased TFEB nuclear translocation, enhancing the clearance of ALP-targeted AD-like pathology. This contributed to protection against neuronal apoptosis and alleviation of cognitive impairment. Conversely, TFEB knockdown lessened ALP-targeted AD-like pathology clearance and had a negative impact on DE. Conclusion Our findings suggest that impaired ALP is responsible for the aggravation of AD-like pathology in T2DM. We propose that mTOR-dependent TFEB activation and TFEB overexpression are promising therapeutic strategies for DE, as they enhance the clearance of ALP-targeted AD-like pathology and alleviate neuronal apoptosis. Our study provides insight into the underlying mechanisms of DE and offers potential avenues for the development of new treatments for this debilitating complication of T2DM. Graphic Abstract Video abstrac

Identification of a novel bifunctional uracil DNA glycosylase from Thermococcus barophilus Ch5

International audienceGenomes of hyperthermophiles are facing a severe challenge due to increased deamination rates of cytosine induced by high-temperature, which could be counteracted by base excision repair mediated by uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) or other repair pathways. Our previous work has shown that the two UDGs (Tba UDG247 and Tba UDG194) encoded by the genome of the hyperthermophilic euryarchaeon Thermococcus barophilus Ch5 can remove uracil from DNA at high temperature. Herein, we provide evidence that Tba UDG247 is a novel bifunctional glycosylase which can excise uracil from DNA and further cleave the phosphodiester bond of the generated apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) site, which has never been described to date. In addition to cleaving uracil-containing DNA, Tba UDG247 can also cleave APcontaining ssDNA although at lower efficiency, thereby suggesting that the enzyme might be involved in the repair of AP site in DNA. Kinetic analyses showed that Tba UDG247 displays a faster rate for uracil excision than for AP cleavage, thus suggesting that cleaving AP site by the enzyme is a rate-limiting step for its bifunctionality. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Tba UDG247 is clustered on a separate branch distant from all the reported UDGs. Overall, we designated Tba UDG247 as the prototype of a novel family of bifunctional UDGs

Interfacial Dipoles Boost Open-Circuit Voltage of Tin Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

Tin halide perovskites are promising materials for real-world photovoltaic applications, and there is large room for their performance to grow. We improved energy-level alignment between the perovskite and electron transport layers by introducing 4-fluorophen­ethylamine hydrobromide as an interfacial dipole. Thus, the open-circuit voltage of FASnI3 solar cells increased to 0.974 V and their power conversion efficiency reached 15.7%, representing a significant advance in this field

Interfacial Dipoles Boost Open-Circuit Voltage of Tin Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

Tin halide perovskites are promising materials for real-world photovoltaic applications, and there is large room for their performance to grow. We improved energy-level alignment between the perovskite and electron transport layers by introducing 4-fluorophen­ethylamine hydrobromide as an interfacial dipole. Thus, the open-circuit voltage of FASnI3 solar cells increased to 0.974 V and their power conversion efficiency reached 15.7%, representing a significant advance in this field