56 research outputs found
β-Arrestin2 Inhibits Expression of Inflammatory Cytokines in BEAS-2B Lung Epithelial Cells Treated with Cigarette Smoke Condensate via Inhibition of Autophagy
Background/Aims: β-arrestin2 has been shown to have a role in human inflammatory disease. However, the role of β-arrestin2 in cigarette smoke-induced inflammation in the lung remains unknown. The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of β-arrestin2 on cigarette smoke condensate (CSC)-induced expression of inflammatory cytokines in the BEAS-2B human bronchial epithelial cell line in vitro, and the mechanisms involved. Methods: The MTT assay determined cell viability of cultured BEAS-2B cells. Autophagy was assessed by western blot, adenoviral mRFP-GFP-LC3 transfection, and immunofluorescence. The effects of β-arrestin2 shRNA knockdown were studied by western blot and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Western blot evaluated the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. Levels of inflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 were measured in cell culture supernatants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: CSC suppressed expression of β-arrestin2 in BEAS-2B cells, activated the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway, increased cell autophagy and the expression of IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1,pretreatment with the β-arrestin2 biased ligands, propranolol, and ICI118551 reversed these changes. Inhibition of autophagy reduced the expression of inflammatory cytokines following CSC. Conclusion: In the human bronchial epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B, β-arrestin2 reduced the expression of CSC-induced inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting autophagy, most likely via the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway
Site-specific Forest-assembly of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes on Electron-beam Patterned SiOx/Si Substrates
Based on electron-beam direct writing on the SiOx/Si substrates, favorable
absorption sites for ferric cations (Fe3+ ions) were created on the surface
oxide layer. This allowed Fe3+-assisted self-assembled arrays of single-wall
carbon nanotube (SWNT) probes to be produced. Auger investigation indicated
that the incident energetic electrons depleted oxygen, creating more dangling
bonds around Si atoms at the surface of the SiOx layer. This resulted in a
distinct difference in the friction forces from unexposed regions as measured
by lateral force microscopy (LFM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) affirmed that
the irradiated domains absorbed considerably more Fe3+ ions upon immersion into
pH 2.2 aqueous FeCl3 solution. This rendered a greater yield of FeO(OH)/FeOCl
precipitates, primarily FeO(OH), upon subsequent washing with lightly basic
dimethylformamide (DMF) solution. Such selective metalfunctionalization
established the basis for the subsequent patterned forest-assembly of SWNTs as
demonstrated by resonance Raman spectroscopy
TencentPretrain: A Scalable and Flexible Toolkit for Pre-training Models of Different Modalities
Recently, the success of pre-training in text domain has been fully extended
to vision, audio, and cross-modal scenarios. The proposed pre-training models
of different modalities are showing a rising trend of homogeneity in their
model structures, which brings the opportunity to implement different
pre-training models within a uniform framework. In this paper, we present
TencentPretrain, a toolkit supporting pre-training models of different
modalities. The core feature of TencentPretrain is the modular design. The
toolkit uniformly divides pre-training models into 5 components: embedding,
encoder, target embedding, decoder, and target. As almost all of common modules
are provided in each component, users can choose the desired modules from
different components to build a complete pre-training model. The modular design
enables users to efficiently reproduce existing pre-training models or build
brand-new one. We test the toolkit on text, vision, and audio benchmarks and
show that it can match the performance of the original implementations
From Silver Nanoparticles to Thin Films: Evolution of Microstructure and Electrical Conduction
Silver nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric matrix are investigated for
their potential as broadband-absorbing optical sensor materials. This
contribution focuses on the electrical properties of silver nanoparticles at
various morphological stages. The electrical current through thin films,
consisting of silver nanoparticles, was characterized as a function of film
thickness. Three distinct conductivity zones were observed. Two relatively flat
zones ("dielectric" for very thin films and "metallic" for films thicker than
300 - 400 {\AA}) are separated by a sharp transition zone where percolation
dominates. The dielectric zone is characterized by isolated particle islands
with the electrical conduction dominated by a thermally activated tunneling
process. The transition zone is dominated by interconnected silver nanoclusters
- a small increase of the film thickness results in a large increase of the
electrical conductivity. The metallic conductivity zone dominates for
thicknesses above 300 - 400 {\AA}
Spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas of mouse organogenesis using DNA nanoball-patterned arrays.
Spatially resolved transcriptomic technologies are promising tools to study complex biological processes such as mammalian embryogenesis. However, the imbalance between resolution, gene capture, and field of view of current methodologies precludes their systematic application to analyze relatively large and three-dimensional mid- and late-gestation embryos. Here, we combined DNA nanoball (DNB)-patterned arrays and in situ RNA capture to create spatial enhanced resolution omics-sequencing (Stereo-seq). We applied Stereo-seq to generate the mouse organogenesis spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas (MOSTA), which maps with single-cell resolution and high sensitivity the kinetics and directionality of transcriptional variation during mouse organogenesis. We used this information to gain insight into the molecular basis of spatial cell heterogeneity and cell fate specification in developing tissues such as the dorsal midbrain. Our panoramic atlas will facilitate in-depth investigation of longstanding questions concerning normal and abnormal mammalian development.This work is part of the ‘‘SpatioTemporal Omics Consortium’’ (STOC) paper package. A list of STOC members is available at: http://sto-consortium.org. We would
like to thank the MOTIC China Group, Rongqin Ke (Huaqiao University, Xiamen,
China), Jiazuan Ni (Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China), Wei Huang (Center
for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Shanghai, China), and Jonathan S. Weissman (Whitehead Institute,
Boston, USA) for their help. This work was supported by the grant of Top Ten
Foundamental Research Institutes of Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Key Laboratory
of Single-Cell Omics (ZDSYS20190902093613831), and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write (2017B030301011); Longqi Liu
was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(31900466) and Miguel A. Esteban’s laboratory at the Guangzhou Institutes of
Biomedicine and Health by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA16030502), National Natural Science Foundation of China (92068106), and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research
Foundation (2021B1515120075).S
A Distributed Blockchain Ledger for Supply Chain
Affordable and reliable supply chain visibility is becoming increasingly important as the complexity of the network underlying supply chains is becoming orders of magnitudes higher compared to a decade ago. Moreover, this increase in complexity is starting to reflect on the cost of goods and their availability to the consumers. Optimizing the physical distribution phase in supply chain by providing increased visibility to trading partners can directly reduce product cost. Current supply chain information systems often lack the ability to cost-effectively relay ground truth information in near real time to all stakeholders and most importantly to the supplier and the customer during the transport of the shipment. This thesis presents a solution that addresses this gap through a distributed architecture. The solution enables small, medium and large businesses to interact in a dynamic and shipment-centric manner through a private blockchain sub-ledger that digitizes the transfer of custody for each shipment. Information in this private ledger is augmented by a public event ledger that reflects the movement of the shipment in real time. Third party monitors are engaged in the validation of the geolocation of the shipments by posting their physical proximity in the form of events to the public ledger
Development and Application of a Structural Health Monitoring System Based on Wireless Smart Aggregates
Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems can improve the safety and reliability of structures, reduce maintenance costs, and extend service life. Research on concrete SHMs using piezoelectric-based smart aggregates have reached great achievements. However, the newly developed techniques have not been widely applied in practical engineering, largely due to the wiring problems associated with large-scale structural health monitoring. The cumbersome wiring requires much material and labor work, and more importantly, the associated maintenance work is also very heavy. Targeting a practical large scale concrete crack detection (CCD) application, a smart aggregates-based wireless sensor network system is proposed for the CCD application. The developed CCD system uses Zigbee 802.15.4 protocols, and is able to perform dynamic stress monitoring, structural impact capturing, and internal crack detection. The system has been experimentally validated, and the experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system. This work provides important support for practical CCD applications using wireless smart aggregates
Enhanced Performance of PVDF Composite Ultrafiltration Membrane via Degradation of Collagen-Modified Graphene Oxide
The collagen obtained from chrome leather waste can be used to modify graphene oxide (GO) to prepare polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite ultrafiltration membranes, a process that is conducive to the recovery of leather waste, comprehensive utilization of GO and improved performance of the membrane. In this paper, collagen-modified GO (CGO) was prepared by degradation of collagen from chrome leather waste and used to prepare a PVDF composite ultrafiltration membrane. The results show that the carboxyl content of CGO and dispersion were improved. The water flux and flux recovery rate of the modified ultrafiltration membrane were improved. The bovine serum albumin (BSA) intercepted on the membrane surface was easy to clean and the antifouling performance improved. The performance of the membrane decreased when the GO content exceeded 0.75 wt%, while CGO can reach 1.0 wt% without agglomeration due to its good dispersion
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