Klotho protects chondrocyte viability via FOXO1/3 in osteoarthritis

Purpose: To investigate the effect of Klotho and FOXO1/3 on the CH viability in OA.Methods: The survival rate of CHs, Klotho and FOXO1/3 protein expression, and ROS production were measured in the OA cartilages of different degenerative phases. H2O2 was also used to injure CHs, and the cell viability, Klotho and FOXO1/3 expressions, as well as ROS levels were investigated to clarify the effect of exogenic Klotho on the injured CHs. Additionally, in order to verify the role of FOXO1/3 in Klotho-treated CHs, SOD2, GPX1, inflammatory factors, collagen I/II, SOX9, and Runx-2 levels were analyzed by silencing FOXO1 and FOXO3 expression via siRNA transfection.Results: Klotho and FOXO1/3 expressions significantly decreased, and ROS production increased in severely human OA cartilage (p <0.05). Besides, H2O2 affected CHs viability with the suppression of Klotho and FOXO1/3 expression but ROS production was elevated. Exogenic Klotho application partly reversed the injury caused by H2O2. Furthermore, Klotho treatment of the injured CHs contributed to SOD2 and GPX1 expressions, and suppressed IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and MMP-13 production, resulting in  the upregulation of collagen II and SOX9 as well as downregulation of collagen I and Runx-2. However, the protective effect of Klotho was weakened by FOXO1 and FOXO3 gene silencing.Conclusion: Klotho protects CHs viability by suppressing oxidative stress and inflammation, which is associated with the mediation of FOXO1 and FOXO3. These findings provide new insights into the treatment of OA

Stacking tunable interlayer magnetism in bilayer CrI3

Diverse interlayer tunability of physical properties of two-dimensional layers mostly lies in the covalent-like quasi-bonding that is significant in electronic structures but rather weak for energetics. Such characteristics result in various stacking orders that are energetically comparable but may significantly differ in terms of electronic structures, e.g. magnetism. Inspired by several recent experiments showing interlayer anti-ferromagnetically coupled CrI3 bilayers, we carried out first-principles calculations for CrI3 bilayers. We found that the anti-ferromagnetic coupling results from a new stacking order with the C2/m space group symmetry, rather than the graphene-like one with R3 as previously believed. Moreover, we demonstrated that the intra- and inter-layer couplings in CrI3 bilayer are governed by two different mechanisms, namely ferromagnetic super-exchange and direct-exchange interactions, which are largely decoupled because of their significant difference in strength at the strong- and weak-interaction limits. This allows the much weaker interlayer magnetic coupling to be more feasibly tuned by stacking orders solely. Given the fact that interlayer magnetic properties can be altered by changing crystal structure with different stacking orders, our work opens a new paradigm for tuning interlayer magnetic properties with the freedom of stacking order in two dimensional layered materials

Verification of a Chemical Nonequilibrium Flows Solver Using the Method of Manufactured Solutions

AbstractThis paper presents code verification of a chemically nonequilibrium flows solver using the method of manufacturedsolutions.The Method of Manufactured Solutions(MMS) is a general approach for creating exact solutions to the governing equations and can be used in the code verification process. In the MMS, the analytical solutions for the flow variables are first constructed, then the governing equations are modified to satisfy these solutions by adding appropriate source terms which are generated by applying the governing equations to these solutions. After that, code verification process will start. The order of accuracy of the calculations will be computed and compared with theoretical order of accuracy to determine if the code passes the verification test. We created manufactured solutions for two different sets of Euler equations. One set includes the total density equation plus ns-1 species equations and the other contains only species continuity equations. The results show that the form of continuity equations has little influence on the behaviour of global conservative variable errors as the mesh is refined. Our study also indicates that a complete chemical reaction model is preferred to ensure the convergence of observed order of accuracy is smooth in the order of accuracy test

Polytypism and Unexpected Strong Interlayer Coupling of two-Dimensional Layered ReS2

The anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) layered materials, with both scientific interest and potential application, have one more dimension to tune the properties than the isotropic 2D materials. The interlayer vdW coupling determines the properties of 2D multi-layer materials by varying stacking orders. As an important representative anisotropic 2D materials, multilayer rhenium disulfide (ReS2) was expected to be random stacking and lack of interlayer coupling. Here, we demonstrate two stable stacking orders (aa and a-b) of N layer (NL, N>1) ReS2 from ultralow-frequency and high-frequency Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and first-principles density functional theory calculation. Two interlayer shear modes are observed in aa-stacked NL-ReS2 while only one interlayer shear mode appears in a-b-stacked NL-ReS2, suggesting anisotropic-like and isotropic-like stacking orders in aa- and a-b-stacked NL-ReS2, respectively. The frequency of the interlayer shear and breathing modes reveals unexpected strong interlayer coupling in aa- and a-b-NL-ReS2, the force constants of which are 55-90% to those of multilayer MoS2. The observation of strong interlayer coupling and polytypism in multi-layer ReS2 stimulate future studies on the structure, electronic and optical properties of other 2D anisotropic materials

Vibration characteristics of the impeller at multi-conditions in mixed-flow pump under the action of fluid-structure interaction

In this study, the flow field and impeller structure response in the mixed-flow pump are cooperative solved based on the bidirectional synchronization solving method, to study the vibration characteristics of the mixed-flow pump impeller rotor under the fluid-structure interaction. The pressure distributions of blade surface in the mixed-flow pump under different flow rate conditions were compared, and the deformation, equivalent stress distribution and natural vibration frequency of impeller blade under static force load were studied. Meanwhile, the deformation of impeller blade and coupling stress distribution was analyzed based on bidirectional fluid-structure interaction. The results show that the deformation of impeller blade increases from hub to rim, and the maximum deformation occurs at the rim of the blade. The stress distribution of impeller blade in the circumferential direction is symmetrical, and the maximum equivalent stress occurs at the blade outlet edge near the hub. The maximum deformation position and the stress concentration location are basically consistent before and after coupling calculation, but the maximum deformation value increases and the maximum equivalent stress value decreases under the fluid-structure interaction. The influence of water pressure on the strength and frequency of vibration is very limited. With the increase of flow rate, the maximum equivalent stress of impeller decreases and the total deformation increases gradually. The results of this research provide reference basis for the structure design and reliability analysis of the mixed-flow pump