Comparison of serum apolipoprotein A-I between Chinese multiple sclerosis and other related autoimmune disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serum apolipoprotein (apo) A-I was considered to be an immune regulator and could suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines generated by activated T cell in some autoimmune diseases. However, the change of serum apoA-I levels in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients is unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the presentation we performed a study on serum apoA-I levels in the patients with MS. We enrolled some age and gender matched patients with MS, autoimmune demyelinating diseases (Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Clinically Isolated Syndrome), neuroinflammatory diseases (viral encephalitis), autoimmune connective diseases (rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus) and healthy control groups, and tested their serum lipids levels: total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), apolipoproteinB100 (apoB100), apolipoproteinA-I (apoA-I).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For all patients, age had no effect on serum apoA-I levels (<it>P </it>> 0.05). Meanwhile, we proved the highest serum apoA-I levels in MS patients and the lowest serum apoA-I levels in SLE patients. Serum apoA-I levels was significantly elevated in female MS patients (P = 0.033; P < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In short we believed that patients with MS and other autoimmune demyelination had significantly decreased serum levels of apo A-I.</p

Multilayered Molybdate Microflowers Fabricated by One-Pot Reaction for Efficient Water Splitting

The development of high-performance, low-cost and rapid-production bifunctional electrocatalysts towards overall water splitting still poses huge challenges. Herein, the authors utilize a facile hydrothermal method to synthesize a novel structure of Co-doped ammonium lanthanum molybdate on Ni foams (Co-ALMO@NF) as self-supported electrocatalysts. Owing to large active surfaces, lattice defect and conductive channel for rapid charge transport, Co-ALMO@NF exhibits good electrocatalytic performances which requires only 349/341 mV to achieve a high current density of 600 mA cm-2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively. Besides, a low cell voltage of 1.52 V is required to reach the current density of 10 mA cm-2 in alkaline medium along with an excellent long-term stability for two-electrode configurations. Density functional theory calculations are performed to reveal the reaction mechanism on Co-ALMO@NF, which shows that the Mo site is the most favorable ones for HER, while the introduction of Co is beneficial to reduce the adsorption intensity on the surface of Co-ALMO@NF, thus accelerating OER process. This work highlighted the importance of the structural design for self-supporting electrocatalysts

Thermal properties of PEG/MOF-5 regularized nanoporous composite phase change materials: A molecular dynamics simulation

In this paper, a metal-organic framework MOF-5 loaded polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanowire was used to form composite phase change material PEG/MOF-5. The molecular dynamics method was used to simulate the thermal conductivity, melting point and latent heat by G-K function and pseudo-supercritical path method, respectively. The results show that the pores of MOF-5 promote the increase of the angle of the PEG main chain and the extension of the helical segment. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of the composite (0.60 W/m·K) is 17.6% and 100% higher than that of the PEG nanowire (0.51 W/m∙K) and the skeleton (about 0.3 W/m∙K), respectively. At the same time, MOF-5 can improve the crystallinity of the PEG to a certain extent. The predicted latent heat of PEG/MOF-5 composite material is as high as 78.4 kJ/kg with a mass filling rate of 50%. This paper explores the mechanism from a microscopic perspective in order to provide models and data for the thermal design of such materials

The SUPERCOLD-CGM survey: \\ I. Probing the extended CO(4-3) Emission of the Circumglactic medium in a sample of 10 Enormous Lyα\alpha Nebulae at z∼2z\sim2

To understand how massive galaxies at high-$z$ co-evolve with enormous reservoirs of halo gas, it is essential to study the coldest phase of the circum-galactic medium (CGM), which directly relates to stellar growth. The SUPERCOLD-CGM survey is the first statistical survey of cold molecular gas on CGM scales. We present ALMA+ACA observations of CO(4-3) and continuum emission from 10 Enormous Ly$\alpha$ Nebula (ELANe) around ultraluminous type-I QSOs at $z\sim2$. We detect CO(4-3) in 100$\%$ of our targets, with 60$\%$ showing extended CO on scales of 15$-$100 kpc. Q1228+3128 reveals the most extended CO(4-3) reservoir of $\sim$100 kpc and is the only radio-loud target in our sample. The CO reservoir is located along the radio axis, which could indicate a link between the inner radio-jet and cold halo gas. For the other five radio-quiet ELANe, four of them show extended CO(4-3) predominantly in the direction of their companions. These extended CO(4-3) reservoirs identify enrichment of the CGM, and may potentially contribute to widespread star formation. However, there is no evidence from CO(4-3) for diffuse molecular gas spread across the full extent of the Ly$\alpha$ nebulae. One target in our sample (Q0107) shows significant evidence for a massive CO disk associated with the QSO. Moreover, 70$\%$ of our QSO fields contain at least one CO companion, two of which reveal extended CO emission outside the ELANe. Our results provide insight into roles of both the cold CGM and companions in driving the early evolution of massive galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 27 pages, 16 figure

ECDSA White-Box Implementations: Attacks and Designs from CHES 2021 Challenge

Despite the growing demand for software implementations of ECDSA secure against attackers with full control of the execution environment, scientific literature on ECDSA white-box design is scarce. The CHES 2021 WhibOx contest was thus held to assess the state-of-the-art and encourage relevant practical research, inviting developers to submit ECDSA white-box implementations and attackers to break the corresponding submissions. In this work, attackers (team TheRealIdefix) and designers (team zerokey) join to describe several attack techniques and designs used during this contest. We explain the methods used by the team TheRealIdefix, which broke the most challenges, and we show the efficiency of each of these methods against all the submitted implementations. Moreover, we describe the designs of the two winning challenges submitted by the team zerokey; these designs represent the ECDSA signature algorithm by a sequence of systems of low-degree equations, which are obfuscated with affine encodings and extra random variables and equations. The WhibOx contest has shown that securing ECDSA in the white-box model is an open and challenging problem, as no implementation survived more than two days. In this context, our designs provide a starting methodology for further research, and our attacks highlight the weak points future work should address

ECDSA White-Box Implementations: Attacks and Designs from WhibOx 2021 Contest

Despite the growing demand for software implementations of ECDSA secure against attackers with full control of the execution environment, the scientific literature on white-box ECDSA design is scarce. To assess the state-of-the-art and encourage practical research on this topic, the WhibOx 2021 contest invited developers to submit white-box ECDSA implementations and attackers to break the corresponding submissions. In this work we describe several attack techniques and designs used during the WhibOx 2021 contest. We explain the attack methods used by the team TheRealIdefix, who broke the largest number of challenges, and we show the success of each method against all the implementations in the contest. Moreover, we describe the designs, submitted by the team zerokey, of the two winning challenges; these designs represent the ECDSA signature algorithm by a sequence of systems of low-degree equations, which are obfuscated with affine encodings and extra random variables and equations. The WhibOx contest has shown that securing ECDSA in the white-box model is an open and challenging problem, as no implementation survived more than two days. To this end, our designs provide a starting methodology for further research, and our attacks highlight the weak points future work should address

The Influence of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Process Parameters on 3D-Printed Quality and Stress–Strain Behavior of High-Entropy Alloy (HEA) Rod-Lattices

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing technology is suitable for the direct 3D printing of geometrically complex periodic micro-rod-lattices. However, controlling the geometric and performance consistency remains challenging due to manufacturability limitations, non-negligible process defects, and surface roughness, which is inconvenient to measure, affecting the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of the lattice structures. To improve the forming quality of the rod lattices and the consistency of repetitive 3D printing, we theoretically analyzed the causes of the defects and the effects of the L-PBF parameters on the process defects of CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy micro-rods. The forming quality of the micro-rods was evaluated and classified with control experiments, and the surface roughness was measured and analyzed. Randomly protruding metal particles on the surface were mainly caused by the diffusion of laser energy, the incomplete melting of some metal powders, and/or “balling” process-induced defects caused by laser remelting. The tensile mechanical properties of typical L-PBF-printed micro-rods with different geometric characteristics were compared and evaluated. The influence of the geometric characteristics of the defects on the mechanical properties is discussed. The mechanical properties of the L-PBF-printed rod lattices were evaluated by compression experiments. It was found that the properties of different rod lattices have a positive relationship with the relative density