N-(2-Hy­droxy­eth­yl)-5-(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)-4H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide

In the title compound, C13H15N3O3, the dihedral angle between the benzene and pyrazole rings is 7.7 (1)° and the O—C—C—N torsion angle of the side chain is 74.1 (2)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

Cis-regulatory functions of overlapping HIF-1alpha/E-box/AP-1-like sequences of CD164

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CD164 (also known as MGC-24v or endolyn) is a sialomucin which has been suggested to participate in regulating the proliferation, cell adhesion and differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. CD164 is also involved in the development of cancer. The functions of cis-regulatory elements of CD164 remain relatively unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, we investigated the function of cis-regulatory elements within the promoter of CD164. We fused the 5'-flanking region of CD164 to a luciferase reporter vector. The minimal promoter region was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Using <it>in silico </it>analysis, we found the presence of one HIF-1alpha (HIF-1A) motif (5_-RCGTG-3_) overlapping E-box (CACGTG) and two AP-1-like binding sites (CGCTGTCCC, GTCTGTTG), one of which is also overlapped with HIF-1alpha sequence. Dual-luciferase assay was performed to examine the transcriptional activity of AP-1 and HIF-1alpha of CD164 promoter. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to measure CD164 expression. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation was used to confirm the binding of HIF-1alpha and CD164.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Co-transfection of c-jun, HIF-1alpha and minimal promoter region construct demonstrated that c-jun and HIF-1alpha bound the CD164 promoter and promoted CD164 expression. Hypoxia treatment also led to the up-regulation of CD164 expression. The mutation of overlapping sequences resulted in the reduced expression of CD164 induced by HIF-1alpha. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation demonstrated that the HIF-1alpha bound the minimal promoter region.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Determination of the optimal promoter region and transcription factors governing CD164 expression is useful in understanding CD164 functions. These results suggest that cis-regulatory elements of CD164 overlapping HIF-1alpha/E-box/AP-1-like sequences may play important regulatory roles.</p

Health Effects of Exposure to Natural Arsenic in Groundwater and Coal in China: An Overview of Occurrence

Between 2001 and 2005, 21,155 of 445,638 wells in 20,517 villages in 292 counties in 16 provinces from China, or 5% of wells, were found to contain > 50 μg/L arsenic (As) by field testing with the Merck As kit. We achieved quality assurance of analysis of at least 10% of the wells containing > 50 μg/L As using hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry and silver dithiodicarbomate spectrometry. Our best estimate of the population exposed to > 50 μg/L As in drinking water was 582,769. This is probably an underestimate for China because of the limited area surveyed. In a survey of 135,492 individuals in eight provinces, we used the National Diagnosis Standard for Endemic Arsenicosis and identified 10,096 cases of arsenicosis with various degrees of skin lesions. The arsenicosis occurrence rate of 7.5% is likely an overestimate, because the survey focused more on known and suspected endemic areas of arsenicosis. The occurrence of arsenicosis correlates positively with the percentage of wells containing > 50 μg/L As, or at a ratio of 1 to 5%. Based on both the amount of As in well water and the rate of occurrence of arsenicosis, Shanxi province, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and Jilin province are the top three areas in China as of 2005 for exposure to endemic As from drinking water. Our survey also identified exposure to high levels of As from wells in several provinces and from the indoor burning of coal containing high levels of As in Shaanxi province. These areas, however, have not had any reports of previous arsenicosis endemics. In the endemic areas, the average rate of occurrence of arsenicosis at advanced stages was 1.2%, possibly because of a long exposure time of > 20 years; the rate of occurrence increased to 2.7% when we included a high dose of As exposure from the indoor burning of coal. Mitigation to reduce As exposure remains a challenge in rural China

Different Treatments of Zinc Oxide Ore in Caustic Leaching Process

Resource recycling of Zinc oxide ore is an important concern in zinc smelting industry at present. In this study, comparison of ultrasonic-assisted and traditional treatment of zinc oxide ore with caustic leaching process was investigated. Effects of experimental factors temperature, time, initial alkali concentration, ultrasonic power, and agitation rate, on zinc leaching rate, were examined. Results showed that zinc leaching rate of ultrasonic assisted process was better than that of traditional process. The optimal parameters were ultrasonic power of 400 W, temperature of 65℃, time of 40 min, initial alkali concentration of 4 mol/L, and liquid to solid ratio of 10∶1, and the average leaching rate of zinc under optimal conditions was 91.62%. Ultrasonic-assisted leaching can shorten the reaction time greatly. Ultrasonic played a notable effect in zinc oxide ore leaching process

Communication-less harmonic compensation in a multi-bus microgrid through autonomous control of distributed generation grid-interfacing converters

This paper proposes a novel approach to compensate buses voltage and current harmonics through distributed generation (DG) interfacing converter in a multi-bus microgrid. The control approach of each individual DG unit was designed to use only feedback variables of the converter itself that can be measured locally. In the proposed approach, the adjacent bus voltage is indirectly derived from the measured DG converter output voltage, DG line current and line impedance. A voltage closed-loop controller and a current closed-loop controller are designed to achieve both functions of DG real power generation and harmonics compensation. Therefore, the traditional harmonic measurement devices installed at the bus as well as the long distance communication between the bus and the DG converter are not required. The proposed approach can compensate the current harmonics, mitigate the buses voltage distortion and enable the customer devices to be operated in normal conditions within the multi-bus microgrid, and meanwhile relieve the burden of power quality regulator installed at the point of common coupling. Matlab simulations and experimental results are presented to show the operational effectiveness of the proposed approach.Published versio

Integrative Analysis of Machine Learning and Molecule Docking Simulations for Ischemic Stroke Diagnosis and Therapy

Due to the narrow therapeutic window and high mortality of ischemic stroke, it is of great significance to investigate its diagnosis and therapy. We employed weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to ascertain gene modules related to stroke and used the maSigPro R package to seek the time-dependent genes in the progression of stroke. Three machine learning algorithms were further employed to identify the feature genes of stroke. A nomogram model was built and applied to evaluate the stroke patients. We analyzed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to discern microglia subclusters in ischemic stroke. The RNA velocity, pseudo time, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) were performed to investigate the relationship of microglia subclusters. Connectivity map (CMap) analysis and molecule docking were used to screen a therapeutic agent for stroke. A nomogram model based on the feature genes showed a clinical net benefit and enabled an accurate evaluation of stroke patients. The RNA velocity and pseudo time analysis showed that microglia subcluster 0 would develop toward subcluster 2 within 24 h from stroke onset. The GSEA showed that the function of microglia subcluster 0 was opposite to that of subcluster 2. AZ_628, which screened from CMap analysis, was found to have lower binding energy with Mmp12, Lgals3, Fam20c, Capg, Pkm2, Sdc4, and Itga5 in microglia subcluster 2 and maybe a therapeutic agent for the poor development of microglia subcluster 2 after stroke. Our study presents a nomogram model for stroke diagnosis and provides a potential molecule agent for stroke therapy