Preparation of Material for Adsorption Ag(I) in the Solution

The application of silver in electronics, jewelry, catalytic and other industries often produces a large amount of silver-containing wastewater, which causes serious impact to the surrounding environment and human health, while silver has a certain economic value attached to it. Therefore, how to effectively treat and recover Ag(?) from the silver-containing wastewater is a hot topic of concern at present. In order to seek an efficient and environmentally friendly adsorbent, this paper compared the adsorption efficiency of purified, thermally modified, acid modified and thermally-acid modified Bentonite on silver, selected an economical and reasonable purified clay as a carrier, and then completed the preparation of modified Bentonite as well as the optimization of conditions with sodium silicate as a surfactant and 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane as a modifier. The experiments showed that under the conditions of sodium silicate dosage of 15% of Bentonite, Bentonite and modifier dosage of 1:1, solution pH of 9, temperature of 45 °C and modification time of 5 h, the synthesized sulfhydryl modified Bentonite has good adsorption performance on Ag(?), and its adsorption capacity can reach 293.7 mg·g-1

Exploring a structural protein-drug interactome for new therapeutics in lung cancer

The pharmacology of drugs is often defined by more than one protein target. This property can be exploited to use approved drugs to uncover new targets and signaling pathways in cancer. Towards enabling a rational approach to uncover new targets, we expand a structural protein-ligand interactome () by scoring the interaction among 1000 FDA-approved drugs docked to 2500 pockets on protein structures of the human genome. This afforded a drug-target network whose properties compared favorably with previous networks constructed using experimental data. Among drugs with the highest degree and betweenness two are cancer drugs and one is currently used for treatment of lung cancer. Comparison of predicted cancer and non-cancer targets reveals that the most cancer-specific compounds were also the most selective compounds. Analysis of compound flexibility, hydrophobicity, and size showed that the most selective compounds were low molecular weight fragment-like heterocycles. We use a previously-developed screening approach using the cancer drug erlotinib as a template to screen other approved drugs that mimic its properties. Among the top 12 ranking candidates, four are cancer drugs, two of them kinase inhibitors (like erlotinib). Cellular studies using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells revealed that several drugs inhibited lung cancer cell proliferation. We mined patient records at the Regenstrief Medical Record System to explore the possible association of exposure to three of these drugs with occurrence of lung cancer. Preliminary in vivo studies using the non-small cell lung cancer (NCLSC) xenograft model showed that losartan- and astemizole-treated mice had tumors that weighed 50 (p < 0.01) and 15 (p < 0.01) percent less than the treated controls. These results set the stage for further exploration of these drugs and to uncover new drugs for lung cancer therapy

Oral Pathobiont Activates Anti-Apoptotic Pathway, Promoting both Immune Suppression and Oncogenic Cell Proliferation.

Chronic periodontitis (CP) is a microbial dysbiotic disease linked to increased risk of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). To address the underlying mechanisms, mouse and human cell infection models and human biopsy samples were employed. We show that the \u27keystone\u27 pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis, disrupts immune surveillance by generating myeloid-derived dendritic suppressor cells (MDDSCs) from monocytes. MDDSCs inhibit CTLs and induce FOXP3 + 

Quantifying stratospheric biases and identifying their potential sources in subseasonal forecast systems

The stratosphere can be a source of predictability for surface weather on timescales of several weeks to months. However, the potential predictive skill gained from stratospheric variability can be limited by biases in the representation of stratospheric processes and the coupling of the stratosphere with surface climate in forecast systems. This study provides a first systematic identification of model biases in the stratosphere across a wide range of subseasonal forecast systems. It is found that many of the forecast systems considered exhibit warm global-mean temperature biases from the lower to middle stratosphere, too strong/cold wintertime polar vortices, and too cold extratropical upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere regions. Furthermore, tropical stratospheric anomalies associated with the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation tend to decay toward each system\u27s climatology with lead time. In the Northern Hemisphere (NH), most systems do not capture the seasonal cycle of extreme-vortex-event probabilities, with an underestimation of sudden stratospheric warming events and an overestimation of strong vortex events in January. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), springtime interannual variability in the polar vortex is generally underestimated, but the timing of the final breakdown of the polar vortex often happens too early in many of the prediction systems. These stratospheric biases tend to be considerably worse in systems with lower model lid heights. In both hemispheres, most systems with low-top atmospheric models also consistently underestimate the upward wave driving that affects the strength of the stratospheric polar vortex. We expect that the biases identified here will help guide model development for subseasonal-to-seasonal forecast systems and further our understanding of the role of the stratosphere in predictive skill in the troposphere

Quantifying stratospheric biases and identifying their potential sources in subseasonal forecast systems

The stratosphere can be a source of predictability for surface weather on timescales of several weeks to months. However, the potential predictive skill gained from stratospheric variability can be limited by biases in the representation of stratospheric processes and the coupling of the stratosphere with surface climate in forecast systems. This study provides a first systematic identification of model biases in the stratosphere across a wide range of subseasonal forecast systems. It is found that many of the forecast systems considered exhibit warm global-mean temperature biases from the lower to middle stratosphere, too strong/cold wintertime polar vortices, and too cold extratropical upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere regions. Furthermore, tropical stratospheric anomalies associated with the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation tend to decay toward each system's climatology with lead time. In the Northern Hemisphere (NH), most systems do not capture the seasonal cycle of extreme-vortex-event probabilities, with an underestimation of sudden stratospheric warming events and an overestimation of strong vortex events in January. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), springtime interannual variability in the polar vortex is generally underestimated, but the timing of the final breakdown of the polar vortex often happens too early in many of the prediction systems. These stratospheric biases tend to be considerably worse in systems with lower model lid heights. In both hemispheres, most systems with low-top atmospheric models also consistently underestimate the upward wave driving that affects the strength of the stratospheric polar vortex. We expect that the biases identified here will help guide model development for subseasonal-to-seasonal forecast systems and further our understanding of the role of the stratosphere in predictive skill in the troposphere

Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 4 Targeting in Cancer: New Insights into Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4), a tyrosine kinase receptor for FGFs, is involved in diverse cellular processes, including the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, metabolism, and bile acid biosynthesis. High activation of FGFR4 is strongly associated with the amplification of its specific ligand FGF19 in many types of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, where it acts as an oncogene driving the cancer development and progression. Currently, the development and therapeutic evaluation of FGFR4-specific inhibitors, such as BLU9931 and H3B-6527, in animal models and cancer patients, are paving the way to suppress hyperactive FGFR4 signaling in cancer. This comprehensive review not only covers the recent discoveries in understanding FGFR4 regulation and function in cancer, but also reveals the therapeutic implications and applications regarding emerging anti-FGFR4 agents. Our aim is to pinpoint the potential of FGFR4 as a therapeutic target and identify new avenues for advancing future research in the field

Emerging Links between Control of Mitochondrial Protein ATAD3A and Cancer

Spanning from the mitochondria&rsquo;s outer surface to the inner membrane, the nuclear-encoded protein ATAD3A maintains vital roles in regulating mitochondrial dynamics, homeostasis, metabolism, and interactions with the endoplasmic reticulum. Recently, elevated levels of ATAD3A have been reported in several types of cancer and to be tightly correlated with cancer development and progression, including increased cancer cell potential of proliferation, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the current review, we reveal ATAD3A as the link between mitochondrial functions and cancer biology and the accumulating evidence presenting ATAD3A as an attractive target for the development of novel cancer therapy to inhibit aberrant cancer metabolism and progression

Hydrogen trapping and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) susceptibility of X70 grade high-strength, acid-resistant, submarine pipeline steel with Mg treatment

The hydrogen embrittlement (HE) susceptibility of X70 grade, Acid-resistant, submarine pipeline steel with Mg treatment was studied via constant loading and slow strain rate tension (SSRT). The hydrogen diffusion and trapping behaviour in the tested steels treated with different Mg content was analysed by electrochemical hydrogen permeation testing and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). The results suggested that micro/nanocomposite inclusions with “core-shell” structures obtained via Mg treatment have a greater activation energy of hydrogen desorption. On the one hand, this kind of inclusions can trap more hydrogen and reduce the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in steel; on the other hand, the internal rigid core of Al–Mg–Ti–O and external soft shell of MnS not only play a role in stress shielding but also hinder the initiation and expansion of stress cracks. For the X70 grade high-strength, acid-resistant submarine pipeline steel, an optimal Mg addition amount is 0.003% (mass fraction)