Investigation of the energy performance of a novel modular solar building envelope

The major challenges for the integration of solar collecting devices into a building envelope are related to the poor aesthetic view of the appearance of buildings in addition to the low efficiency in collection, transportation, and utilization of the solar thermal and electrical energy. To tackle these challenges, a novel design for the integration of solar collecting elements into the building envelope was proposed and discussed. This involves the dedicated modular and multiple-layer combination of the building shielding, insulation, and solar collecting elements. On the basis of the proposed modular structure, the energy performance of the solar envelope was investigated by using the Energy-Plus software. It was found that the solar thermal efficiency of the modular envelope is in the range of 41.78–59.47%, while its electrical efficiency is around 3.51% higher than the envelopes having photovoltaic (PV) alone. The modular solar envelope can increase thermal efficiency by around 8.49% and the electrical efficiency by around 0.31%, compared to the traditional solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) envelopes. Thus, we have created a new envelope solution with enhanced solar efficiency and an improved aesthetic view of the entire building

Interaction between social categories in the composite face paradigm.

The composite face paradigm (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987) is widely used to demonstrate holistic perception of faces (Rossion, 2013). In the paradigm, parts from different faces (usually the top and bottom halves) are recombined. The principal criterion for holistic perception is that responses involving the component parts of composites in which the parts are aligned into a face-like configuration are slower and less accurate than responses to the same parts in a misaligned (not face-like) format. This is often taken as evidence that seeing a whole face in the aligned condition interferes with perceiving its separate parts, but it remains unclear to what extent the composite face effect also reflects contributions from other potential sources of interference. We present a new variant of the paradigm involving composites created from top and bottom parts of familiar faces drawn from orthogonal social categories of gender and occupation. This allows us to examine the contributions of differences in relatively visual properties (gender) or relatively semantic properties (occupation) to composite interference and to measure whether variation in a task-irrelevant category (e.g., differences in gender across the parts of the composite when the task is to categorize the occupation of one of the parts) will influence the size of the composite effect. Our findings show that the composite face effect can be modulated by task-irrelevant social categories and that this interference is primarily visual in nature because the influence of face gender is more direct and more consistent than the influence of occupation

Facial expression at retrieval affects recognition of facial identity.

It is well known that memory can be modulated by emotional stimuli at the time of encoding and consolidation. For example, happy faces create better identity recognition than faces with certain other expressions. However, the influence of facial expression at the time of retrieval remains unknown in the literature. To separate the potential influence of expression at retrieval from its effects at earlier stages, we had participants learn neutral faces but manipulated facial expression at the time of memory retrieval in a standard old/new recognition task. The results showed a clear effect of facial expression, where happy test faces were identified more successfully than angry test faces. This effect is unlikely due to greater image similarity between the neural training face and the happy test face, because image analysis showed that the happy test faces are in fact less similar to the neutral training faces relative to the angry test faces. In the second experiment, we investigated whether this emotional effect is affected by the expression at the time of learning. We employed angry or happy faces as learning stimuli, and angry, happy, and neutral faces as test stimuli. The results showed that the emotional effect at retrieval is robust across different encoding conditions with happy or angry expressions. These findings indicate that emotional expressions do not only affect the stages of encoding and consolidation, but also the retrieval process in identity recognition

Hypermethylated gene ANKDD1A is a candidate tumor suppressor that interacts with FIH1 and decreases HIF1α stability to inhibit cell autophagy in the glioblastoma multiforme hypoxia microenvironment.

Ectopic epigenetic mechanisms play important roles in facilitating tumorigenesis. Here, we first demonstrated that ANKDD1A is a functional tumor suppressor gene, especially in the hypoxia microenvironment. ANKDD1A directly interacts with FIH1 and inhibits the transcriptional activity of HIF1α by upregulating FIH1. In addition, ANKDD1A decreases the half-life of HIF1α by upregulating FIH1, decreases glucose uptake and lactate production, inhibits glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) autophagy, and induces apoptosis in GBM cells under hypoxia. Moreover, ANKDD1A is highly frequently methylated in GBM. The tumor-specific methylation of ANKDD1A indicates that it could be used as a potential epigenetic biomarker as well as a possible therapeutic target

A proteomic view of Caenorhabditis elegans caused by short-term hypoxic stress

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The nematode <it>Caenorhabditis elegans </it>is both sensitive and tolerant to hypoxic stress, particularly when the evolutionarily conserved hypoxia response pathway HIF-1/EGL-9/VHL is involved. Hypoxia-induced changes in the expression of a number of genes have been analyzed using whole genome microarrays in <it>C. elegans</it>, but the changes at the protein level in response to hypoxic stress still remain unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we utilized a quantitative proteomic approach to evaluate changes in the expression patterns of proteins during the early response to hypoxia in <it>C. elegans</it>. Two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) was used to compare the proteomic maps of wild type <it>C. elegans </it>strain N2 under a 4-h hypoxia treatment (0.2% oxygen) and under normoxia (control). A subsequent analysis by MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS revealed nineteen protein spots that were differentially expressed. Nine of the protein spots were significantly upregulated, and ten were downregulated upon hypoxic stress. Three of the upregulated proteins were involved in cytoskeletal function (LEV-11, MLC-1, ACT-4), while another three upregulated (ATP-2, ATP-5, VHA-8) were ATP synthases functionally related to energy metabolism. Four ribosomal proteins (RPL-7, RPL-8, RPL-21, RPS-8) were downregulated, indicating a decrease in the level of protein translation upon hypoxic stress. The overexpression of tropomyosin (LEV-11) was further validated by Western blot. In addition, the mutant strain of <it>lev-11(x12</it>) also showed a hypoxia-sensitive phenotype in subsequent analyses, confirming the proteomic findings.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken together, our data suggest that altered protein expression, structural protein remodeling, and the reduction of translation might play important roles in the early response to oxygen deprivation in <it>C. elegans</it>, and this information will help broaden our knowledge on the mechanism of hypoxia response.</p

Cinical, Metabolic, and Genetic Analysis and Follow-Up of Eight Patients With HIBCH Mutations Presenting With Leigh/Leigh-Like Syndrome

3-Hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA hydrolase (HIBCH, NM_014362.3) gene mutation can cause HIBCH deficiency, leading to Leigh/Leigh-like disease. To date, few case series have investigated the relationship between metabolites and clinical phenotypes or the effects of treatment, although 34 patients with HIBCH mutations from 27 families have been reported. The purpose of this study was to analyze the phenotypic spectrum, follow-up results, metabolites, and genotypes of patients with HIBCH deficiency presenting with Leigh/Leigh-like syndrome and explore specific metabolites related to disease diagnosis and prognosis through retrospective and longitudinal studies. Applying next-generation sequencing, we identified eight patients with HIBCH mutations from our cohort of 181 cases of genetically diagnosed Leigh/Leigh-like syndrome. Six novel HIBCH mutations were identified: c.977T&gt;G [p.Leu326Arg], c.1036G&gt;T [p.Val346Phe], c.750+1G&gt;A, c.810-2A&gt;C, c.469C&gt;T [p.Arg157*], and c.236delC [p.Pro79Leufs*5]. The Newcastle Pediatric Mitochondrial Disease Scale (NPMDS) was employed to assess disease progression and clinical outcomes. The non-invasive approach of metabolite analysis showed that levels of some were associated with clinical phenotype severity. Five (5/7) patients presented with elevated C4-OH in dried blood spots, and the level was probably correlated with the NPMDS scores during the peak disease phase. 2,3-Dihydroxy-2-methylbutyrate in urine was elevated in six (6/7) patients and elevated S-(2-caboxypropyl)cysteamine in urine was found in three patients (3/3). The median age at initial presentation was 13 months (8–18 months), and the median follow-up was 2.3 years (range 1.3–7.2 years). We summarized and compared with all reported patients with HIBCH mutations. The most prominent clinical manifestations were developmental regression/delay, hypotonia, encephalopathy, and feeding difficulties. We administered drug and dietary treatment. During follow-up, five patients responded positively to treatment with a significant decrease in NPMDS scores. Our research is the largest case series of patients with HIBCH mutations

Reliability analysis of the Ahringer Caenorhabditis elegans RNAi feeding library: a guide for genome-wide screens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Ahringer <it>C. elegans </it>RNAi feeding library prepared by cloning genomic DNA fragments has been widely used in genome-wide analysis of gene function. However, the library has not been thoroughly validated by direct sequencing, and there are potential errors, including: 1) mis-annotation (the clone with the retired gene name should be remapped to the actual target gene); 2) nonspecific PCR amplification; 3) cross-RNAi; 4) mis-operation such as sample loading error, <it>etc</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we performed a reliability analysis on the Ahringer <it>C. elegans </it>RNAi feeding library, which contains 16,256 bacterial strains, using a bioinformatics approach. Results demonstrated that most (98.3%) of the bacterial strains in the library are reliable. However, we also found that 2,851 (17.54%) bacterial strains need to be re-annotated even they are reliable. Most of these bacterial strains are the clones having the retired gene names. Besides, 28 strains are grouped into unreliable category and 226 strains are marginal because of probably expressing unrelated double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). The accuracy of the prediction was further confirmed by direct sequencing analysis of 496 bacterial strains. Finally, a freely accessible database named CelRNAi (<url>http://biocompute.bmi.ac.cn/CelRNAi/</url>) was developed as a valuable complement resource for the feeding RNAi library by providing the predicted information on all bacterial strains. Moreover, submission of the direct sequencing result or any other annotations for the bacterial strains to the database are allowed and will be integrated into the CelRNAi database to improve the accuracy of the library. In addition, we provide five candidate primer sets for each of the unreliable and marginal bacterial strains for users to construct an alternative vector for their own RNAi studies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Because of the potential unreliability of the Ahringer <it>C. elegans </it>RNAi feeding library, we strongly suggest the user examine the reliability information of the bacterial strains in the CelRNAi database before performing RNAi experiments, as well as the post-RNAi experiment analysis.</p

Association of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio with outcomes in stroke patients achieving successful recanalization by endovascular thrombectomy

ObjectiveSerum inflammatory biomarkers play crucial roles in the development of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). In this study, we explored the association between inflammatory biomarkers including platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and clinical outcomes in AIS patients who achieved successful recanalization.MethodsPatients with AIS who underwent endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) and achieved a modified thrombolysis in the cerebral infarction scale of 2b or 3 were screened from a prospective cohort at our institution between January 2013 and June 2021. Data on blood parameters and other baseline characteristics were collected. The functional outcome was an unfavorable outcome defined by a modified Rankin Scale of 3–6 at the 3-month follow up. Other clinical outcomes included symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) and 3-month mortality. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of PLR, NLR, and MLR on clinical outcomes.ResultsA total of 796 patients were enrolled, of which 89 (11.2%) developed sICH, 465 (58.4%) had unfavorable outcomes at 3 months, and 168 (12.1%) died at the 3-month follow up. After adjusting for confounding variables, a higher NLR (OR, 1.076; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.037–1.117; p &lt; 0.001) and PLR (OR, 1.001; 95%CI, 1.000–1.003; p = 0.045) were significantly associated with unfavorable outcomes, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of NLR and PLR was 0.622 and 0.564, respectively. However, NLR, PLR, and MLR were not independently associated with sICH and 3-month mortality (all adjusted p &gt; 0.05).ConclusionOverall, our results indicate that higher PLR and NLR were independently associated with unfavorable functional outcomes in AIS patients with successful recanalization after EVT; however, the underlying mechanisms are yet to be elucidated