Badanie wstępne ekspresji i wartości klinicznej oznaczenia czynnika wzrostu pochodzenia płytkowego BB, czynnika indukowanego hipoksją-1α i receptora chemokiny C-C typu 2 we krwi obwodowej w patogenezie choroby Gravesa-Basedowa

Introduction: Platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) plays an important role in the development of GD (Graves’ disease). However, it is still unknown whether PDGF-BB is expressed in peripheral blood and whether the expression of PDGF-BB contributes to GD. We aim to study the expression of PDGF-BB, hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α and C-C motif chemokine receptor (CCR)-2 in peripheral blood of patients with GD and explore its effect and potential mechanism in pathogenesis. Material and methods: 41 patients with GD (GD group) and forty-five healthy people (control group) were chosen. The concentration of PDGF-BB and HIF-1α in peripheral blood specimens were detected and compared between the two groups. The expression of CCR2 in macrophages in the peripheral blood specimens were examined using FCM (Flow Cytometry). Results: Both PDGF-BB and HIF-1α were expressed in human peripheral blood from the two groups. Compared with specimens from healthy people, there were statistically increased concentrations of PDGF-BB and HIF-1α in the GD group (P < 0.05). The proportion of CCR2-positive macrophages in peripheral blood in the GD group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: CCR2-positive macrophages may induce the expression of PDGF-BB through HIF-1α signal, and the high expression of PDGF-BB may be involved in the pathogenesis of GD.Wprowadzenie: Czynnik wzrostu pochodzenia płytkowego BB (platelet-derived growth factor BB, PDGF-BB) odgrywa ważną rolę w roz­woju choroby Gravesa-Basedowa (Graves’ disease, GD). Jednak wciąż nie wiadomo, czy PDGF-BB ulega ekspresji we krwi obwodowej i czy ekspresja PDGF-BB przyczynia się do GD. Badanie przeprowadzono w celu zbadania ekspresji PDGF-BB, czynnika indukowanego hipoksją-1α (hypoxia inducible factor-1α, HIF-1α) i receptora chemokiny C-C typu 2 (C-C motif chemokine receptor-2, CCR-2) we krwi obwo­dowej pacjentów z GD i zbadania wpływu tych cząsteczek i potencjalnego mechanizmu ich działania w patogenezie choroby. Materiał i metody: Do badania włączono 41 pacjentów z GD (grupa GD) i 45 osób zdrowych (grupa kontrolna). Stężenie PDGF-BB i HIF-1α w próbkach krwi obwodowej oznaczono i porównano między grupami. Do pomiaru ekspresji CCR2 w makrofagach krwi obwodowej zastosowano metodę cytometrii przepływowej (flow cytometry, FCM). Wyniki: W obu grupach badanych stwierdzono ekspresję PDGF-BB i HIF-1α we krwi obwodowej. W grupie GD odnotowano istotne statystycznie wyższe stężenia PDGF-BB i HIF-1α niż u osób zdrowych (p &lt; 0,05). Odsetek makrofagów CCR2-dodatnich we krwi obwo­dowej w grupie GD był istotnie wyższy niż w grupie kontrolnej (p &lt; 0,05). Wnioski: Makrofagi CCR2-dodatnie mogą indukować ekspresję PDGF-BB za pośrednictwem sygnału HIF-1α, a wysoka ekspresja PDGF­BB może odgrywać rolę w patogenezie GD

Selective degradation of styrene-contained plastics catalyzed by iron under visible light

Efficient degradation of plastics, the vital challenge for a sustainable future, stands in need of better chemical recycling procedures that help produce commercially valuable small molecules and redefine plastic waste as a rich source of chemical feedstock. However, the corresponding chemical recycling methods, while being generally restricted to polar polymers, need improvement. Particularly, degradation of chemical inert nonpolar polymers, the major constitutes of plastics, are reported to have suffered from low selectivity and very harsh transformation conditions. Herein, we report an efficient method for the selective degradation of styrene-contained plastics under gentle conditions through oxidative multiple sp3 C-C bond cleavage. The unpresented procedure is catalyzed with inexpensive iron salts under visible light, using oxygen as the green oxidant. Furthermore, simple iron salts can be used to degrade plastics in the absence of solvent under natural conditions, highlighting the potential application of iron salts as additives for degradable plastics

Instance hardness and multivariate Gaussian distribution-based oversampling technique for imbalance classification

Imbalance classification has received great attention due to its various real-world applications. Data-level approaches are the most convenient to address data imbalance, whereas oversampling is the most deeply explored. However, most previous studies used distance-based factors to select minority class instances for oversampling. Thus, the synthetic instances often did not follow the distribution of the original minority class instances. In this work, we propose a novel oversampling method based on instance hardness and multivariate Gaussian distribution. First, a fused feature set including k-disagree value and classification error is used for selecting and weighting minority class instances for oversampling. Here, the k-disagree value is also used to filter majority class instances. Then, multivariate Gaussian distribution is fitted to the subset of selected minority class instances, where the selection of subset is based on closest- and cluster-based methods. Next, new instances are generated based on the subset distribution. Finally, Euclidean distance-based instance selection is investigated for improved imbalance classification performance. Experimental results on the KEEL dataset repository show that our proposed method can outperform the other compared oversamplers in terms of both AUC and G-mean.</p

Cobalt catalyzed practical hydroboration of terminal alkynes with time-dependent stereoselectivity

Stereodefined vinylboron compounds are important organic synthons. The synthesis of E-1-vinylboron compounds typically involves the addition of a B-H bond to terminal alkynes. The selective generation of the thermodynamically unfavorable Z-isomers remains challenging, necessitating improved methods. Here, such a proficient and cost-effective catalytic system is introduced, comprising a cobalt salt and a readily accessible air-stable CNC pincer ligand. This system enables the transformation of terminal alkynes, even in the presence of bulky substituents, with excellent Z-selectivity. High turnover numbers (>1,600) and turnover frequencies (>132,000 h⁻¹) are achieved at room temperature, and the reaction can be scaled up to 30 mmol smoothly. Kinetic studies reveal a formal second-order dependence on cobalt concentration. Mechanistic investigations indicate that the alkynes exhibit a higher affinity for the catalyst than the alkene products, resulting in exceptional Z-selective performance. Furthermore, a rare time-dependent stereoselectivity is observed, allowing for quantitative conversion of Z-vinylboronate esters to the E-isomers.ISSN:2041-172

Metallurgical Coke Combustion with Different Reactivity under Nonisothermal Conditions: A Kinetic Study

The combustion characteristics and kinetics of high- and low-reactivity metallurgical cokes in an air atmosphere were studied by thermogravimetric instrument. The Coats–Redfern, FWO, and Vyazovkin integral methods were used to analyze the kinetics of the cokes, and the kinetic parameters of high- and low-reactivity metallurgical cokes were compared. The results show that the heating rate affected the comprehensive combustion index and combustion reaction temperature range of the cokes. The ignition temperature, burnout temperature, combustion characteristics, and maximum weight-loss rate of low-reactivity coke (L-Coke) were better than high-reactivity coke (H-Coke). Low-reactivity coke had better thermal stability and combustion characteristics. At the same time, it was calculated via three kinetic analysis methods that the combustion activation energy gradually decreased with the progress of the reaction. The coke combustion activation energy calculated by the Coats–Redfern method was larger than the coke combustion activation energy calculated by the FWO and Vyazovkin methods, but the laws were consistent. The activation energy of L-Coke was about 4~8 kJ/mol more than that of H-Coke

Dynamics and Cell-Type Specificity of the DNA Double-Strand Break Repair Protein RecN in the Developmental Cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120.

DNA replication and repair are two fundamental processes required in life proliferation and cellular defense and some common proteins are involved in both processes. The filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 is capable of forming heterocysts for N2 fixation in the absence of a combined-nitrogen source. This developmental process is intimately linked to cell cycle control. In this study, we investigated the localization of the DNA double-strand break repair protein RecN during key cellular events, such as chromosome damaging, cell division, and heterocyst differentiation. Treatment by a drug causing DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) induced reorganization of the RecN focus preferentially towards the mid-cell position. RecN-GFP was absent in most mature heterocysts. Furthermore, our results showed that HetR, a central player in heterocyst development, was involved in the proper positioning and distribution of RecN-GFP. These results showed the dynamics of RecN in DSB repair and suggested a differential regulation of DNA DSB repair in vegetative cell and heterocysts. The absence of RecN in mature heterocysts is compatible with the terminal nature of these cells

Provenance and Implication of Carboniferous–Permian Detrital Zircons from the Upper Paleozoic, Southern Ordos Basin, China: Evidence from U-Pb Geochronology and Hf Isotopes

Carboniferous&ndash;Permian detrital zircons are recognized in the Upper Paleozoic of the whole Ordos Basin. Previous studies revealed that these Carboniferous&ndash;Permian zircons occurred in the Northern Ordos Basin mainly originated from the Yinshan Block. What has not been well documented until now is where this period&rsquo;s zircons in the Southern Ordos Basin came from, and very little discussion about their provenance. To identify the provenance of the detrital zircons dating from ~350 to 260 Ma, five sandstone samples from the Shan 1 Member of Shanxi Formation and eight sandstone samples from the He 8 Member of Shihezi Formation were analyzed for detrital zircon U-Pb age dating and in situ Lu-Hf isotopic compositions. The results indicate that the two age clusters of 520&ndash;378 Ma and ~350&ndash;260 Ma in the Southern Ordos Basin most likely derived from the North Qinling Orogenic Belt&ndash;North Qilian Orogenic Belt and the North Qinling Orogenic Belt, respectively. Furthermore, we propose that the zircons aging ~320&ndash;260 Ma are representative of the important tectonothermal events occurred in the North Qinling Orogenic Belt during the Late Paleozoic

Investigation of CNN-based models for Frog Calling Activity Detection

Frogs plays an important role in monitoring and evaluating the health of wetland. Globally, many frog species are threatened. Therefore, it is valuable to first detect frog activity, then classify species, and lastly predict frog population. In this study, we used a CNN-based model to detect frog calls. Specifically, continuous field recordings were divided into fixed duration segments. Then, different CNN architectures and various time-frequency representations of frog calls were investigated. The different CNN models were evaluated using different training and test datasets to assess model robustness. Experimental results show that the best-averaged macro F1-score and accuracy obtained was 98.41% and 97.99%, obtained using Mel-spectrogram and VGG-style CNN. In addition, when the training and test data were from different recording days, the averaged macro F1-score reduced to 82.12% and 71.38%, respectively. </p

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Nature Experiences in Different Forests on Young People

Many studies have proved that having nature experiences in forests is conducive to human physiological and psychological health. However, currently there is little research focusing on the effects of forest characteristics and the experiential characteristics of nature experiences on changes in health. In the study, three types of forest (mixed forest; deciduous forest; coniferous forest) and an urban site were used to measure the effects of these environments on participants’ physiological and psychological restoration after nature experience activities (sitting and walking activities). The study participants were 30 young adult students from Beijing Forestry University. Restorative effects were measured by physiological indicators (blood pressure and heart rate) and four psychological questionnaires (Profile of Mood States (POMS); Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS); Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS); Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)). Results demonstrated that all types of forest were beneficial to lower blood pressure and heart rate as well as to reduce negative feelings while boosting positive emotions. The mixed forest was more effective in lowering blood pressure and heart rate as well as increasing vitality. The levels of restoration and positive mental health increased significantly, while all subscales of the POMS (with the exception of vigor) decreased greatly in the coniferous forest. Relative to the sitting activity, obvious decreases in blood pressure and negative emotions were observed, while significant increases in restoration, vitality and positive mental health were observed after the walking activity. In conclusion, the impact on subjects’ health restoration varied with different forest characteristics, and the experiential characteristics of exposure may be helpful for creating supportive interventions and lifting the benefits of forest therapy as people interact with the forest