Substrate screening approach for quasiparticle energies of two-dimensional interfaces with lattice mismatch

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are outstanding platforms for exotic physics and emerging applications by forming interfaces. In order to efficiently take into account the substrate screening in the quasiparticle energies of 2D materials, several theoretical methods have been proposed previously, but only applicable to interfaces of two systems' lattice constants with certain integer proportion. In this work, we analytically showed the equivalence and distinction among different approximate methods for substrate dielectric matrices. We evaluated the accuracy of these methods, by applying them to calculate quasi-particle energies of hexagonal boron nitride interface systems (heterojunctions and bilayers), and compared with explicit interface calculations. Most importantly, we developed an efficient and accurate interpolation technique for dielectric matrices that made quasiparticle energy calculations possible for arbitrarily mismatched interfaces, which is extremely important for practical applications.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, one tabl

Research progress of the impact of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on chronic hepatitis B infection

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is an infectious disease caused by persistent infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and is highly prevalent worldwide. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a group of liver diseases related to metabolic abnormalities, excluding those caused by alcohol consumption or other liver injury factors. In recent years, with improvement of living standards and changes in lifestyle, the incidence of NAFLD has been increasing substantially, becoming the most common type of liver diseases in China and Western countries, and the second leading cause of liver transplantation in the West. The rising prevalence of NAFLD has also led to an increase in the incidence of NAFLD in patients with chronic HBV infection. However, there is considerable controversy both domestically and internationally regarding the relationship between these two diseases, including the disease progression, pathogenesis, impact on antiviral treatment efficacy, and prognosis of these concomitant CHB and NAFLD patients. Currently, both domestic and international guidelines lack detailed descriptions of diagnostic and treatment strategies for these conditions. This article summarizes the recent research progress in concomitant CHB and NAFLD, including epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, the impact of NAFLD on the virology of HBV infection, potential mechanisms of NAFLD-induced negative regulation of HBV, the effect of NAFLD on antiviral therapy efficacy, and prognosis. This article aims to gain a deeper understanding of the diseases themselves and provide new insights for basic and clinical research as well as diagnostic and treatment approaches

A green and template-free synthesis process of superior carbon material with ellipsoidal structure as enhanced material for supercapacitors.

Metal Organic Frameworks or related carbon materials are the ideal materials for supercapacitors due to their high surface area and unique porous structure. Here, we propose a new green and recyclable synthesis method of porous carbon. Aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)₃) and trimesic acid (BTC) are employed as raw materials to obtain aluminium trimesic (denoted as Al-BTC) via their covalent reaction. Then, the porous carbon is obtained through carbonization and dissolving process to remove the aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃). Al(OH)₃ is recovered by the Bayer method for the next batch. The SEM images show that the porous carbon has rugby-like morphology with the same of 400 nm wide and 1000 nm long which indicates the porous carbon with c/a ratio of 2.5 providing the largest specific volume surface area. The sample offers 306.4 F gˉ¹at 1 A gˉ¹, and it can retain 72.2% even at the current density of 50 A gˉ¹. In addition, the porous carbon provides excellent durability of 50,000 cycles at 50 A gˉ¹ with only 5.05% decline of capacitance. Moreover, the porous carbon has an ultrafast charge acceptance, and only 4.4 s is required for one single process, which is promising for application in electric vehicles

Physical Exercise and Its Protective Effects on Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: What Is the Evidence?

As one of the most serious complications of diabetes, diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) imposes a huge burden on individuals and society, and represents a major public health problem. It has long been recognized that physical exercise has important health benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes, and regular physical exercise can delay or prevent the complications of diabetes. Current studies show that physical exercise has been regarded as an importantly non-pharmacological treatment for diabetes and DCM, with high efficacy and low adverse events. It can inhibit the pathological processes of myocardial apoptosis, myocardial fibrosis, and myocardial microvascular diseases through improving myocardial metabolism, enhancing the regulation of Ca2+, and protecting the function of mitochondria. Eventually, it can alleviate the occurrence and development of diabetic complications. Describing the mechanisms of physical exercise on DCM may provide a new theory for alleviating, or even reversing the development of DCM, and prevent it from developing to heart failure

The self-assembling growth of copper nanowires for transparent electrodes

Long (15 - 40 μm), thin (diameter of 20 ± 5 nm), and well-dispersed CuNWs Cu nanowires were prepared. The high-resolution TEM and selected area electron diffraction showed that the CuNWs were single-crystalline. To investigate the growth mechanism, we examined the microstructure of these CuNWs at different reaction time. It was found that the CuNWs were actually formed through the self-assembling of Cu nanoparticles along the [110] direction. The transparent electrodes fabricated using the CuNWs achieved a high transparency of 76 % at 31±5 Ω/□

Orthogonal optimization of the ratio of nano-silica sol-EVA-fly ash cement-based composite slurry and the effect on its physical properties

To address the problem that traditional cement-based slurry materials cannot meet the actual demand for grouting and reinforcement of large deformation roadways in coal mines, some high-performance composite slurry materials are obtained by modifying ordinary Portland cement with nano-silica sol, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and fly ash. The orthogonal test and extreme difference analysis are used to systematically study the variation of the physical and mechanical properties of the composite slurries, determine the optimal ratio, and further analyze the difference in the physical properties between the optimal ratio of composite slurries and pure cement, construct the hydration reaction mechanism model of the composite slurries, and elucidate the mechanical properties of the composite slurries for reinforcing broken rocks. The results of the study show that the optimum proportion of composite slurry is 0.7 water-cement ratio, 15% fly ash, 2% silica sol and 7.5% EVA. Compared with pure cement, the rheology of composite slurry is slightly decreased, but the stability and mechanical properties of the slurry are significantly improved, with the initial setting time shortened by 38.9%, the final setting time shortened by 53.8%, the precipitation rate reduced by 60%, the stone rate increased by 3.3%, the uniaxial compressive strength increased by 39.1%, the tensile strength increased by 97.2%, and the tensile/compression ratio increased by 41.7%. Silica sol and fly ash undergo volcanic ash reaction with Ca(OH)2 to generate more calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) and calcium aluminate hydrate (C-A-H) at different times, which promotes the hydration reaction of the composite slurry and accelerates the film formation of EVA to make the stone body more dense. The injection volume of the composite grout and the uniaxial compressive strength of the bonded body both increase with the increasing grouting pressure. With the increase in the Talbot index, the compressive strength first increases and then decreases. The failure mode is often characterized by bulging, and shear dilation deformation is pronounced. When the grouting pressure exceeds 2 MPa and the Talbot index is 0.5, the bond strength of the grout is higher, and the damage is reduced. This study provides a feasible way for early strength and toughening modification of ce-mentitious composite pastes

IZALPININ FROM FRUITS OF ALPINIA OXYPHYLLA WITH ANTAGONISTIC ACTIVITY AGAINST THE RAT BLADDER CONTRACTILITY

Background: Alpinia oxyphylla (Zingiberaceae), an herbaceous perennial plant, its capsular fruit is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of different urinary incontinence symptoms including frequency, urgency and nocturia. These symptoms are similar to the overactive bladder syndrome. In our lab, we found that the 95% ethanol extract of the capsular fruits exhibited significant anti-muscarinic activity. Some constituents in capsular fruits including flavonoids (e.g., izalpinin and tectochrysin), diarylheptanoids (e.g., yakuchinone A and yakuchinone B) and sesquiterpenes (e.g., nootkatone), are regarded as representative chemicals with putative pharmacological activities. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro antagonistic actions of izalpinin on carbachol-induced contraction of the rat detrusor muscle. Materials and Methods: In vitro inhibition of rat detrusor contractile response to carbachol was used to study the functional activity of izalpinin. The isolated detrusor strips of rats were mounted in organ baths containing oxygenated Krebs’ solution. The cumulative consecutive concentration-response curves to carbachol-evoked contractions in strips of rat bladder were obtained. Results: Carbachol induced concentration-dependent contractions of isolated rat bladder detrusor strips. The vehicle DMSO had no impact on the contraction response. The contraction effects were concentration-dependently antagonized by izalpinin, with a mean EC50 value of 0.35 µM. The corresponding cumulative agonist concentration-response curves shifted right-ward. Conclusions: Izalpinin exhibits inhibitory role of muscarinic receptor-related detrusor contractile activity, and it may be a promising lead compound to treat overactive bladder

Study on the construction technology of β-alanine synthesizing Escherichia coli based on cellulosome assembly

Introduction: β-Alanine is the only β-amino acid in nature; it is widely used in food additives, medicines, health products, and surfactants. To avoid pollution caused by traditional production methods, the synthesis of β-alanine has been gradually replaced by microbial fermentation and enzyme catalysis, which is a green, mild, and high-yield biosynthesis method.Methods: In this study, we constructed an Escherichia coli recombinant strain for efficient β-alanine production using glucose as the raw material. The microbial synthesis pathway of L-lysine-producing strain, Escherichia coli CGMCC 1.366, was modified using gene editing by knocking out the aspartate kinase gene, lysC. The catalytic efficiency and product synthesis efficiency were improved by assembling key enzymes with cellulosome.Results: By-product accumulation was reduced by blocking the L-lysine production pathway, thereby increasing the yield of β-alanine. In addition, catalytic efficiency was improved by the two-enzyme method to further increase the β-alanine content. The key cellulosome elements, dockerin (docA) and cohesin (cohA), were combined with L-aspartate-α-decarboxylase (bspanD) from Bacillus subtilis and aspartate aminotransferase (aspC) from E.coli to improve the catalytic efficiency and expression level of the enzyme. β-alanine production reached 7.439 mg/L and 25.87 mg/L in the two engineered strains. The β-alanine content reached 755.465 mg/L in a 5 L fermenter.Discussion: The content of β-alanine synthesized by constructed β-alanine engineering strains were 10.47 times and 36.42 times higher than the engineered strain without assembled cellulosomes, respectively. This research lays the foundation for the enzymatic production of β-alanine using a cellulosome multi-enzyme self-assembly system

Porcine FcγRIIb Mediates Enhancement of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) Infection

Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of virus infection caused by the uptake of virus-antibody complexes by FcγRs is a significant obstacle to the development of effective vaccines to control certain human and animal viral diseases. The activation FcγRs, including FcγRI and FcγRIIa have been shown to mediate ADE infection of virus. In the present paper, we showed that pocine FcγRIIb, an inhibitory FcγR, mediates ADE of PRRSV infection. Stable Marc-145 cell lines expressing poFcγRIIb (Marc-poFcγRII) were established. The relative yield of progeny virus was significantly increased in the presence of sub-neutralization anti-PRRSV antibody. The Fab fragment and normal porcine sera had no effect. Anti-poFcγRII antibody inhibited the enhancement of infection when cells were infected in the presence of anti-PRRSV antibody, but not when cells were infected in the absence of antibody. These results indicate that enhancement of infection in these cells by anti-PRRSV virus antibody is FcγRII-mediated. Identification of the inhibitory FcγR mediating ADE infection should expand our understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenesis for a broad range of infectious diseases and may open many approaches for improvements to the treatment and prevention of such diseases

The diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual

Here we present the first diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual. The genome was sequenced to 36-fold average coverage using massively parallel sequencing technology. We aligned the short reads onto the NCBI human reference genome to 99.97% coverage, and guided by the reference genome, we used uniquely mapped reads to assemble a high-quality consensus sequence for 92% of the Asian individual's genome. We identified approximately 3 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) inside this region, of which 13.6% were not in the dbSNP database. Genotyping analysis showed that SNP identification had high accuracy and consistency, indicating the high sequence quality of this assembly. We also carried out heterozygote phasing and haplotype prediction against HapMap CHB and JPT haplotypes (Chinese and Japanese, respectively), sequence comparison with the two available individual genomes (J. D. Watson and J. C. Venter), and structural variation identification. These variations were considered for their potential biological impact. Our sequence data and analyses demonstrate the potential usefulness of next-generation sequencing technologies for personal genomics