Physical exercise: bulking up neurogenesis in human adults

Whether neurogenesis occurs in the adult human brain has been a long-debated topic fueled by conflicting data both for and against neurogenesis in the mature brain. Recent reports from two independent teams may have indubitably proven that adult, hippocampal neurogenesis persists throughout the human lifespan. Llorens-Martín et al. found that thousands of immature, neurogenesis related, doublecortin-positive (DCX+) labelled neurons can be detected in the human dentate gyrus (DG) up to the eighth decade of life. While the presence of these DCX+ neurons decrease with age, they are significantly decrease in patient with Alzheimer’s disease. Another group have also found mammalian embryonic Hopx+ precursors to persist beyond the early development stage as quiescent Hopx+ radial glial-like neural progenitors during early postnatal period, then as Hopx+ adult dentate neural progenitors. Together, the findings from these two groups suggest that unlike the previously thought, neurogenesis and neuroplasticity can occur well into adulthood in some capacity, at least in the hippocampus. These recent findings that neurogenesis can occur beyond development have brought into questions whether physical exercise can be shown to promote neurogenesis and brain health, as it has been shown to promote the function of other organ systems. Some data has already shown physical exercise to induce adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) as demonstrated by restoration of cognitive functions, improvement of synaptic plasticity, and enhancement of angiogenesis. A large-scale meta-analysis has also demonstrated that 45–60 min of moderate-intensity physical exercise to dramatically improve cognitive functions in human subjects over the age of 50. Given these convergent developments in our understanding of neurogenesis and exercise induced improvement in cognitive function, we speculate that hippocampal neurogenesis can be promoted by physical exercise and discuss the current molecular evidence supporting the likely molecular pathways involved

Expression of the phosphorylated MEK5 protein is associated with TNM staging of colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Activation of MEK5 in many cancers is associated with carcinogenesis through aberrant cell proliferation. In this study, we determined the level of phosphorylated MEK5 (pMEK5) expression in human colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and correlated it with clinicopathologic data.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>pMEK5 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray (TMA) containing 335 clinicopathologic characterized CRC cases and 80 cases of nontumor colorectal tissues. pMEK5 expression of 19 cases of primary CRC lesions and paired with normal mucosa was examined by Western blotting. The relationship between pMEK5 expression in CRC and clinicopathologic parameters, and the association of pMEK5 expression with CRC survival were analyzed respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>pMEK5 expression was significantly higher in CRC tissues (185 out of 335, 55.2%) than in normal tissues (6 out of 80, 7.5%; <it>P </it>< 0.001). Western blotting demonstrated that pMEK5 expression was upregulated in 12 of 19 CRC tissues (62.1%) compared to the corresponding adjacent nontumor colorectal tissues. Overexpression of pMEK5 in CRC tissues was significantly correlated to the depth of invasion (<it>P </it>= 0.001), lymph node metastasis (<it>P </it>< 0.001), distant metastasis (<it>P </it>< 0.001) and high preoperative CEA level (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Consistently, the pMEK5 level in CRC tissues was increased following stage progression of the disease (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Analysis of the survival curves showed a significantly worse 5-year disease-free (<it>P </it>= 0.002) and 5-year overall survival rate (<it>P </it>< 0.001) for patients whose tumors overexpressed pMEK5. However, in multivariate analysis, pMEK5 was not an independent prognostic factor for CRC (DFS: <it>P </it>= 0.139; OS: <it>P </it>= 0.071).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>pMEK5 expression is correlated with the staging of CRC and its expression might be helpful to the TNM staging system of CRC.</p

Hydrogen-bond transition from the vibration mode of ordinary water to the (H, Na)I hydration states : molecular interactions and solution viscosity

With the aid of differential phonon spectrometrics (DPS) and surface stress detection, we show that HI and NaI solvation transforms different fractions of the HO stretching phonons from the mode of ordinary water centred at ∼3200 to the mode of hydration shell at ∼3500 cm−1. Observations suggest that an addition of the H ↔ H anti-hydrogen-bond to the Zundel notion, [H(H2O)2]+, would be necessary as the HO bond due H3O+ has a 4.0 eV energy, and the H ↔ H fragilization disrupts the solution network and the surface stress. The I− and Na+ ions form each a charge centre that aligns, stretches, and polarize the O:HO bond, resulting in shortening the HO bond and its phonon blue shift in the hydration shell or at the solute-solvent interface. The solute capabilities of bond-number-fraction transition follow: fH = 0, fNa ∝ C, and fI ∝ 1 − exp(−C/C0) toward saturation, with C being the solute molar concentration and C0 the decay constant. The fH = 0 evidences the non-polarizability of the H+ because of the H ↔ H formation. The linear fNa(C) suggests the invariance of the Na+ hydration shell size because of the fully-screened cationic potential by the H2O dipoles in the hydration shell but the nonlinear fI(C) fingerprints the I− ↔ I− interactions at higher concentrations. Concentration trend consistency between Jones–Dole’s viscosity and the fNaI(C) coefficient may evidence the same polarization origin of the solution viscosity and surface stress.Accepted versio

Cu2In2ZnS5/Gd2O2S:Tb for full solar spectrum photoreduction of Cr(VI) and CO2 from UV/vis to near-infrared light

Full solar spectrum active heterogenous photocatalysis for environmental applications remains highly challenging. Here we report the novel Cu2In2ZnS5/Gd2O2S:Tb (CG) hybrid photocatalysts via a facile solvothermal method for efficient Cr(VI) and CO2 reduction. The narrow band gap energies of the CG hybrid photocatalysts synthesized via a facile solvothermal method show excellent absorption and catalytic activity in the full solar spectrum. High Cr(VI) reduction rate of 90% and CH4 production rate of 57.73 μmol h−1 g−1 are achieved for CG hybrid photocatalyst with 1 wt.% Gd2O2S:Tb. The excellent performance is due to the fact that in the hybrid, Gd2O2S:Tb as cocatalyst, provides more active sites and inhibits the recombination of charge carriers due to the synergetic effect between Cu2In2ZnS5 and Gd2O2S:Tb, consequently improving the photocatalytic reduction activity.Financial support from the Province Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang (No. LY18E060005, LY18E020007 and LQ18E030005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21401180) are gratefully acknowledged

Analysis of Occupational Stress and Its Relationship with Secretory Immunoglobulin A in the Xinjiang Plateau Young Military Recruits

Background. With the continuous improvement of the modernization of the Chinese military and the major adjustments made by the state to the recruitment policy, the newly recruited military undergone multiple pressures such as targeted high-intensity military training and environmental changes. The mental health of military has become a crucial factor of improving the fighting capacity effectiveness of the troops. Objectives. To explore occupational stress of young recruits in the Xinjiang plateau environment during their basic military training period and analyze the relationship between occupational stress and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels. Methods. Using multistage stratified cluster random sampling, 625 recruits stationed at Xinjiang plateau command in 2014 were enrolled as subjects. Occupational stress was assessed by the Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition (OSI-R). sIgA in saliva was quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The resulting data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests, and correlation analysis. Results. Based on demographic characteristics, occupational stress was higher in the urban group than the rural group, coping ability for stress was greater in individuals who were students before joining the army than nonstudents, occupational stress was higher in smokers than nonsmokers, and coping ability for stress was higher in nonsmokers than in smokers (all P0.05). Salivary sIgA level was higher in the high occupational stress group than in the low stress group (P<0.01). Salivary sIgA was positively correlated with scores on the occupational role and personal strain questionnaires (rs=0.229, rs=0.268, P<0.01). Conclusion. Demographic characteristics influenced occupational stress among young recruits in cold and high-altitude area. Further, there were some relationships between occupational stress and salivary sIgA in young military recruits

Adjustable photocatalytic ability of monolayer g-C3N4 utilizing single–metal atom : density functional theory

Single–atom catalysis is an effective method to improve the catalytic efficiency. With the aid of density functional theory calculations, we investigated the thermodynamic performances during water splitting besides the structural and electronic performances of monolayer g–C 3 N 4 embedded with single Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag or Au atom. Based on the detailed analysis of the electronic redistributions and chemical bond relaxations, the ratio of ionic and covalent bonding parts of chemical bonds were adjusted by the single atoms, it changed the adsorption energy of intermediates, the free energy changes during reaction and then the overpotentials of oxidation evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Interestingly, the overpotentials of OER and HER reduce as the percentage of covalent bonding parts is close to a certain value, which are conductive to improve the OER and HER efficiency. In addition, the differences of redox potentials between catalysts and water oxidation/H + reduction are larger than the corresponding overpotentials of OER and HER on Pd 1 / and Pt 1 /g–C 3 N 4 , thus the OER and HER can happen on them

ZnIn2S4 flowerlike microspheres embedded with carbon quantum dots for efficient photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI)

Development of efficient heterostructured photocatalysts that respond to visible light remains a considerable challenge. We herein show the synthesis of ZnIn2S4/carbon quantum dot hybrid photocatalysts with flowerlike microspheres via a facile solvothermal method. The ZnIn2S4/carbon quantum dot flowerlike microspheres display enhanced photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical activity compared with that of pure ZnIn2S4. With a content of only 0.5 wt % carbon quantum dots, 93% of Cr(VI) is reduced under visible-light irradiation at 40 min. As a co-catalyst, the carbon quantum dots improve the light absorption and lengthen the lifetime of charge carriers, consequently enhancing the photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical activity