Associations of systemic inflammatory markers with the risks of chronic heart failure: A case-control study

Objective: As a greater proportion of patients survived their initial cardiac insult, Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is becoming a major cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. However, the mechanism underlying the inflammation in patients with CHF has not yet been elaborated. This study aims to explore the associations between inflammation and CHF patients, and the predictive performance of inflammatory indicators in identifying patients with CHF. Methods: A matched case-control study was conducted by recruiting 385 patients who were diagnosed with CHF from January 2018 to December 2019 in The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Each CHF patient was matched against one control subject without CHF on the criteria of age, sex, Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking status, and comorbidities. The clinical data and systemic inflammatory indicators were compared between the two groups, independent risk factors of CHF were identified by multivariate regression analysis, and the predictive values of systemic inflammatory indicators for CHF were analyzed by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: After processed in the univariate and multivariate regression analysis models, three systemic inflammatory indicators (hs-CRP [high sensitivity C Reactive Protein], LMR [lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio], and Monocyte-to-High-density-lipoprotein Ratio [MHR]) were considered as independent predictors of CHF, among which the hs-CRP exhibited the best predictive performance (AUC = 0.752, 95%CI 0.717‒0.786, p < 0.001), followed by LMR (AUC = 0.711, 95% CI 0.675‒0.747, p < 0.001) and MHR (AUC = 0.673, 95% CI 0.635‒0.710, p < 0.001). The three-indicator combination showed an improved diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.757, 95% CI 0.724‒0.791, p < 0.001). In addition, the results of subgroup comparisons demonstrated that hs-CRP and MHR were associated with the severity of CHF (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The systemic inflammatory indicators such as hs-CRP, LMR, and MHR were independently correlated with the attack of CHF and might be the complementary markers of the diagnosis of CHF

Epigenetic hypomethylation and upregulation of GD3s in triple negative breast cancer.

Background: Breast cancer remains a major health problem in the world. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype with very poor prognosis. Up to now, the mechanism behind TNBC\u27s activity is still unclear and no candidate drug target has been identified. Thus, it is of critical importance to elucidate the pathways in TNBC and identify the relevant biomarkers. Recent studies showed that ganglioside D3 synthase (GD3s) played a very important role in development of cancers. However, the physiological functions and associated pathways of GD3s in TNBC are still unclear. Methods: Results: Conclusions: In summary, these results suggest that GD3s may be a potential biomarker and drug target in treatment of TNBC

Bis(μ-carboxyl­atoethyl­phospho­nato)bis­[aqua­(2,2′-bipyridine)manganese(II)]

The title compound, [Mn2(HO3PCH2CH2COO)2(C8H8N2)2(H2O)2], was obtained by hydro­thermal synthesis. The manganese(II) ions are six-coordinate and are linked by two 2-carboxy­ethyl­phospho­nate ligands, forming a centrosymmetric dimer. The Mn ions adopts a distorted octahedral coordination geometry. The dimers are further linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance 4.2754 (4) Å]

Study on the electrical-thermal properties of lithium-ion battery materials in the NCM622/graphite system

The phenomenon of fire or even explosion caused by thermal runaway of lithium-ion power batteries poses a serious threat to the safety of electric vehicles. An in-depth study of the core-material thermal runaway reaction mechanism and reaction chain is a prerequisite for proposing a mechanism to prevent battery thermal runaway and enhance battery safety. In this study, based on a 24 Ah commercial Li(Ni0.6Co0.2Mn0.2)O2/graphite soft pack battery, the heat production characteristics of different state of charge (SOC) cathode and anode materials, the separator, the electrolyte, and their combinations of the battery were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The results show that the reaction between the negative electrode and the electrolyte is the main mode of heat accumulation in the early stage of thermal runaway, and when the heat accumulation causes the temperature to reach a certain critical value, the violent reaction between the positive electrode and the electrolyte is triggered. The extent and timing of the heat production behaviour of the battery host material is closely related to the SOC, and with limited electrolyte content, there is a competitive relationship between the positive and negative electrodes and the electrolyte reaction, leading to different SOC batteries exhibiting different heat production characteristics. In addition, the above findings are correlated with the battery failure mechanisms through heating experiments of the battery monomer. The study of the electro-thermal properties of the main materials in this paper provides a strategy for achieving early warning and suppression of thermal runaway in batteries

Effect of potassium fertilization on storage root number, yield, and appearance quality of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)

Increasing storage root number is a pivotal approach to enhance both storage root (SR) yield and appearance quality of sweet potato. Here, 2-year field experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of 0 (K0), 120 (K1), 240 (K2), and 360 (K3) kg ha−1 potassium fertilizer (K2O) on lignin metabolism, root growth, storage root yield, and uniformity. The results demonstrated that potassium (K) application led to a decrease in the activities of key enzymes involved in lignin biosynthesis, including phenylalanine deaminase (PAL), 4-coumarate coenzyme A ligase (4-CL), cinnamic acid dehydrogenase (CAD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and peroxidase (POD). This resulted in a significant reduction in lignin and G-type lignin contents in potential SRs compared to K0 treatment within 10–30 days after planting (DAP). BJ553 exhibited a significant decrease in PAL activity, as well as lignin and G-type contents at 10 DAP, whereas YS25 showed delayed effects until 20 DAP. However, the number and distribution of secondary xylem conduits as well as the mid-column diameter area in roots were increased in K2 treatment. Interestingly, K2 treatment exhibited significantly larger potential SR diameter than other treatments at 15, 20, and 25 DAP. At harvest, K2 treatment increased the SR number, the single SR weight, and overall yield greatly compared with K0 treatment, with an average increase of 19.12%, 16.54%, and 16.92% respectively. The increase of SR number in BJ553 was higher than that of YS25. Furthermore, K2 treatment exhibited the lowest coefficient of variation for both SR length and diameter, indicating a higher yield of middle-sized SRs. In general, appropriate potassium application could effectively suppress lignin biosynthesis, leading to a reduction in the degree of pericycle lignification in potential SRs. This promotes an increase in the number of storage roots and ultimately enhances both yield and appearance quality of sweet potato. The effect of potassium fertilizer on lignin metabolism in BJ553 roots was earlier and resulted in a greater increase in the SR number compared to YS25

Different Perspectives of a Factory of the Future: An Overview

Digitalfactory,andCloudManufacturingaretwoapproaches that aim at addressing the Factory of the Future, i.e., to provide digital support to manufacturing factories. They find their roots in two different geographical areas, respectively Europe and China, and therefore presents some differences as well as the same goal of building the factory of the future. In this paper, we present both the digital factory and the cloud manufacturing approaches and discuss their differences

Deregulation of miRNAs in malignant pleural mesothelioma is associated with prognosis and suggests an alteration of cell metabolism

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive human cancer and miRNAs can play a key-role for this disease. In order to broaden the knowledge in this field, the miRNA expression was investigated in a large series of MPM to discover new pathways helpful in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. We employed nanoString nCounter system for miRNA profiling on 105 MPM samples and 10 healthy pleura. The analysis was followed by the validation of the most significantly deregulated miRNAs by RT-qPCR in an independent sample set. We identified 63 miRNAs deregulated in a statistically significant way. MiR-185, miR-197, and miR-299 were confirmed differentially expressed, after validation study. In addition, the results of the microarray analysis corroborated previous findings concerning miR-15b-5p, miR-126-3p, and miR-145-5p. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to explore the association between miRNA expression and overall survival (OS) and identified a 2-miRNA prognostic signature (Let-7c-5p and miR-151a-5p) related to hypoxia and energy metabolism respectively. In silico analyses with DIANA-microT-CDS highlighted 5 putative targets in common between two miRNAs. With the present work we showed that the pattern of miRNAs expression is highly deregulated in MPM and that a 2-miRNA signature can be a new useful tool for prognosis in MPM