Dielectric characteristic of nanocrystalline Na0.5K0.5NbO3 ceramic green body

International audienceDielectric spectroscopy was applied to porous nanocrystalline Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN) ceramic green body, wherein influences of percolation effect and water adsorption at pore surface of the ceramic green body on dielectric response were examined over wide temperature (150 to 450 K) and frequency (100 Hz to 1 MHz) ranges. Dielectric permittivity of the ceramic green body is about 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than that of pure NKN powder or NKN ceramic. Furthermore, the high dielectric permittivity and high humidity sensitivity of the ceramic green body can appear again with aging a period of time in air. The data from this investigation make potential applications for NKN as a giant dielectric material or a humidity sensing material

Establishment, optimization, and application of genetic technology in Aspergillus spp.

Aspergillus is widely distributed in nature and occupies a crucial ecological niche, which has complex and diverse metabolic pathways and can produce a variety of metabolites. With the deepening of genomics exploration, more Aspergillus genomic informations have been elucidated, which not only help us understand the basic mechanism of various life activities, but also further realize the ideal functional transformation. Available genetic engineering tools include homologous recombinant systems, specific nuclease based systems, and RNA techniques, combined with transformation methods, and screening based on selective labeling. Precise editing of target genes can not only prevent and control the production of mycotoxin pollutants, but also realize the construction of economical and efficient fungal cell factories. This paper reviewed the establishment and optimization process of genome technologies, hoping to provide the theoretical basis of experiments, and summarized the recent progress and application in genetic technology, analyzes the challenges and the possibility of future development with regard to Aspergillus

A Printed Monopole Antenna for Triple-Band WLAN/WiMAX Applications

A new compact design of monopole antenna for triple-band WLAN/WiMAX applications with two band-notches based on broadband antenna is presented. By introducing a stub loaded ground and two new paper clip structures etched on radiation patch, a compact overall dimension 31 mm × 33 mm × 1 mm and three separated operating bands effectively covering 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN bands and 2.5/3.5/5.5 GHz WiMAX bands can be achieved. Compared with familiar U type slot, the introduced compact paper clip structure can save about 37% of dimension regions, which could effectively improve efficiency of band-notch formation. Simulated and measured results demonstrate that the proposed antenna has good dipole-like radiation characteristics with appreciable gain across the operating bands. Besides, main parameters of the two etched paper clip structures are investigated to control the positions and bandwidths of the two stop-bands, respectively, on basis of which the three working bands can be adjusted independently

Evaluation of pharmacokinetics and toxicology of biosimilar APZ001 antibody in Macaca cynomolgus

Purpose: To compare the pharmacokinetics of APZ001 antibody with those of cetuximab (Erbitux®) and to evaluate the toxicology of the former.Methods: To evaluate cetuximab’s biosimilar APZ001, Crl:CD1(ICR) (CD-1) mice and Macaca fascicularis (cynomolgus monkey) were chosen for the studies on acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, pharmacokinetics in chronic toxicity and immunogenicity toxicity. The study also compared the pharmacokinetic parameters of APZ001 with those of cetuximab upon single and multiple drug administrations in cynomolgus monkeys.Results: Pharmacokinetic parameters including maximum concentration (Cmax) and time to attain maximum drug concentration (Tmax), clearance rate and apparent volume of distribution of APZ001 were compared with those of cetuximab in both single and multiple administration studies. Difference of pharmacokinetics from weekly administration of APZ001 and cetuximab in cynomolgus monkeys was insignificant (p > 0.05), with relative bioavailability of 116.9 %. Both APZ001-treated and cetuximabtreated CD-1 mice showed the same level of food intake and body weight. Hematological and serological data were similar from APZ001 antibody and cetuximab treatments, so were the acute and chronic toxicity. Weekly transfusion of APZ001 did not alter its pharmacokinetic parameters. The administered drug was hardly detected in the serum in the 31st and 37th week of recovery; no accumulation of drug was observed upon withdrawal.Conclusion: APZ001 has extremely similar characteristics as cetuximab in terms of pharmacokinetics and toxicity.Keywords: Cetuximab, Pharmacokinetics, Acute toxicity, Chronic toxicity, Immunogenicity, Biosimila

Diabetic retinopathy risk in patients with unhealthy lifestyle: A Mendelian randomization study

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the causal association between unhealthy lifestyle factors and diabetic retinopathy (DR) risk and to determine better interventions targeting these modifiable unhealthy factors.DesignTwo-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed in this study. The inverse variance-weighted method was used as the primary method.MethodOur study included 687 single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with unhealthy lifestyle factors as instrumental variables. Aggregated data on individual-level genetic information were obtained from the corresponding studies and consortia. A total of 292,622,3 cases and 739,241,18 variants from four large consortia (MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit [MRC-IEU], Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits [GIANT], GWAS & Sequencing Consortium of Alcohol and Nicotine Use [GSCAN], and Neale Lab) were included.ResultIn the MR analysis, a higher body mass index (BMI) (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.42, 1.30–1.54; P < 0.001] and cigarettes per day (OR, 95% CI = 1.16, 1.05–1.28; P = 0.003) were genetically predicted to be causally associated with an increased risk of DR, while patients with higher hip circumference (HC) had a lower risk of DR (OR, 95% CI = 0.85, 0.76–0.95; P = 0.004). In the analysis of subtypes of DR, the results of BMI and HC were similar to those of DR, whereas cigarettes per day were only related to proliferative DR (PDR) (OR, 95% CI = 1.18, 1.04–1.33; P = 0.009). In the MR-PRESSO analysis, a higher waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was a risk factor for DR and PDR (OR, 95% CI = 1.24, 1.02–1.50, P = 0.041; OR, 95% CI = 1.32, 1.01–1.73, P = 0.049) after removing the outliers. Furthermore, no pleiotropy was observed in these exposures.ConclusionOur findings suggest that higher BMI, WHR, and smoking are likely to be causal factors in the development of DR, whereas genetically higher HC is associated with a lower risk of DR, providing insights into a better understanding of the etiology and prevention of DR

Predictive Value of Plasma MicroRNA-216a/b in the Diagnosis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common human malignancy with poor survival, which was usually diagnosed at an advanced stage. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of single stranded noncoding RNAs with only 17-25 ribonucleotides, were demonstrated to play an important role in lots of cancers. In the recent years, increasing evidence revealed that circulating miRNAs exhibited great potential in the diagnosis of various types of cancers. The present study was designed to evaluate the diagnostic value of plasma miRNA-216a/b for ESCC. Our results showed that the expression level of plasma miRNA-216a/b was significantly lower in ESCC patients compared with that of healthy controls. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis yielded an area under the ROC curve (AUC) value of 0.877 [95% CI (confidence interval): 0.818-0.922] for miRNA-216a and 0.756 (95% CI: 0.685-0.819) for miRNA-216b. Clinical data indicated that plasma miRNA-216a/b were inversely correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Additionally, the plasma miRNA-216b expression level was significantly upregulated in postoperative samples compared to preoperative samples. Our study, for the first time, demonstrated that plasma miRNA-216a/b might serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of ESCC and dysregulation of miRNA-216a/b might be involved in the progression of ESCC