Zeolite-cage-lock strategy for in situ synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon for selective separation of carbon dioxide gas

Porous carbon structures doped with 18.14% nitrogen and prepared by a carbonizing organic template in ZSM-39 zeolitic cages show high CO2 adsorption capacity.</p

X-Ray Induced Photodynamic Therapy: A Combination of Radiotherapy and Photodynamic Therapy

Conventional photodynamic therapy (PDT)'s clinical application is limited by depth of penetration by light. To address the issue, we have recently developed X-ray induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) which utilizes X-ray as an energy source to activate a PDT process. In addition to breaking the shallow tissue penetration dogma, our studies found more efficient tumor cell killing with X-PDT than with radiotherapy (RT) alone. The mechanisms behind the cytotoxicity, however, have not been elucidated. In the present study, we investigate the mechanisms of action of X-PDT on cancer cells. Our results demonstrate that X-PDT is more than just a PDT derivative but is essentially a PDT and RT combination. The two modalities target different cellular components (cell membrane and DNA, respectively), leading to enhanced therapy effects. As a result, X-PDT not only reduces short-term viability of cancer cells but also their clonogenecity in the long-run. From this perspective, X-PDT can also be viewed as a unique radiosensitizing method, and as such it affords clear advantages over RT in tumor therapy, especially for radioresistant cells. This is demonstrated not only in vitro but also in vivo with H1299 tumors that were either subcutaneously inoculated or implanted into the lung of mice. These findings and advances are of great importance to the developments of X-PDT as a novel treatment modality against cancer

Prioritization of candidate causal genes for asthma in susceptibility loci derived from UK Biobank

Kim Valette et al. perform a genomic study on asthma integrating genome-wide association study, functional mapping using lung and blood transcriptome-wide profiles, as well as Mendelian randomization. They show candidate causal genes expressed in lung and blood tissues that are putative therapeutic targets for asthma

Dynamical alterations of brain function and gut microbiome in weight loss

ObjectiveIntermittent energy restriction (IER) is an effective weight loss strategy. However, little is known about the dynamic effects of IER on the brain-gut-microbiome axis.MethodsIn this study, a total of 25 obese individuals successfully lost weight after a 2-month IER intervention. FMRI was used to determine the activity of brain regions. Metagenomic sequencing was performed to identify differentially abundant gut microbes and pathways in from fecal samples.ResultsOur results showed that IER longitudinally reduced the activity of obese-related brain regions at different timepoints, including the inferior frontal orbital gyrus in the cognitive control circuit, the putamen in the emotion and learning circuit, and the anterior cingulate cortex in the sensory circuit. IER longitudinally reduced E. coli abundance across multiple timepoints while elevating the abundance of obesity-related Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Parabacteroides distasonis, and Bacterokles uniformis. Correlation analysis revealed longitudinally correlations between gut bacteria abundance alterations and brain activity changes.ConclusionsThere was dynamical alteration of BGM axis (the communication of E. coli with specific brain regions) during the weight loss under the IER

A compendium of genetic regulatory effects across pig tissues

The Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project has been established to develop a public resource of genetic regulatory variants in livestock, which is essential for linking genetic polymorphisms to variation in phenotypes, helping fundamental biological discovery and exploitation in animal breeding and human biomedicine. Here we show results from the pilot phase of PigGTEx by processing 5,457 RNA-sequencing and 1,602 whole-genome sequencing samples passing quality control from pigs. We build a pig genotype imputation panel and associate millions of genetic variants with five types of transcriptomic phenotypes in 34 tissues. We evaluate tissue specificity of regulatory effects and elucidate molecular mechanisms of their action using multi-omics data. Leveraging this resource, we decipher regulatory mechanisms underlying 207 pig complex phenotypes and demonstrate the similarity of pigs to humans in gene expression and the genetic regulation behind complex phenotypes, supporting the importance of pigs as a human biomedical model.</p

A Productivity Analysis of the Industrial Security in the Mineral Resources Mining Industry

14-18<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">This study elaborates on the evaluating indicator system of mining industry security, and presents a method of combination between entropy and grey relation and makes an assessment of the security situation in China’s mineral mining industry during the period from 2002 to 2009. Then, this study establishes a safety warning model for the mineral resources industry based on BP neural network and simulates the warning of related security conditions. The final analysis finds that warning effect simulation and empirical assessment results of the model are basically the same and this further demonstrate the effectiveness of this study.</span

Study and Estimation of Embodied Carbon Based on Input-output Analysis

529-533In this paper, we use input-output analysis and commodity exporting data of China during 1999-2012 to conduct an empirical study and calculate carbon embodiments in China’s exporting goods. The results show that China has been exporting a large amount of carbon embodiments, and its increase of CO2 emissions has a close relationship with its export and import, among the annual CO2 emissions of China, about 12%-24% were caused by the demands of other countries

Establishment and maintenance of sister chromatid cohesion in fission yeast by a unique mechanism

During S phase, chromatid cohesion is established only between nascent sisters and with faithful pairing along their entire region, but how this is ensured is unknown. Here we report that sister chromatid cohesion is formed and maintained by a unique mechanism. In fission yeast, Eso1p, functioning in close coupling to DNA replication, establishes sister chromatid cohesion whereas the newly identified Cohesin-associated protein Pds5p hinders the establishment of cohesion until counteracted by Eso1p, yet stabilizes cohesion once it is established. Eso1p interacts physically with Pds5p via its Ctf7p/Eco1p-homologous domain

Nanocomposites of cobalt sulfide embedded carbon nanotubes with enhanced supercapacitor performance

CoS is one of the ideal electrode materials for supercapacitor, but its long-term stability and electrochemical performance needed to be improved before its successful application. Uniformly embedding carbon nanotubes (CNTs) inside the CoS matrix can provide numerous and effective diffusion paths of electrons and electrolyte ions, which can reduce the charge-transfer resistance and effectively improve the electrochemical performance of CoS. In this work, nanocomposites of Co2(CO3)(OH)2 and CNTs were prepared using a facile hydrothermal method, and then were transformed into CoS1.29@CNTs nanocomposites via an ion-exchange process. The carbon nanotubes were uniformly embedded inside the CoS1.29 matrix. When the amount of CNTs was 6.1 wt%, the CoS1.29@CNTs electrode exhibited a higher specific capacitance (99.7 mAh g-1) than that of CoS1.29 electrode (84.1 mAh g-1) at a current density of 1 A g-1 measured in 2 M KOH electrolyte. The asymmetric supercapacitor assembled with the [email protected]% electrode and an activated carbon (AC) electrode exhibited an energy density of 39.1 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 399.9 W kg-1. Moreover, the specific capacitance of the [email protected]%//AC device maintained 91.3 % of its original value after 2000 cycles at a current density of 3 A g-1

Hydrogen gas sensor based on mesoporous In2O3 with fast response/recovery and ppb level detection limit

Hydrogen gas sensors were fabricated using mesoporous In2O3 synthesized using hydrothermal reaction and calcination processes. Their best performance for the hydrogen detection was found at a working temperature of 260 oC with a high response of 18.0 toward 500 ppm hydrogen, fast response/recovery times (e.g. 1.7 s/1.5 s for 500 ppm hydrogen), and a low detection limit down to 10 ppb. Using air as the carrier gas, the mesoporous In2O3 sensors exhibited good reversibility and repeatability towards hydrogen gas. They also showed a good selectivity for hydrogen compared to other commonly investigated gases including NH3, CO, ethyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, styrene, CH2Cl2 and formaldehyde. In addition, the sensors showed good long-term stability. The good sensing performance of these hydrogen sensors is attributed to the formation of mesoporous structures, large specific surface areas and numerous chemisorbed oxygen ions on the surfaces of the mesoporous In2O3