The morphological dependent Tully-Fisher relation of spiral galaxies

The Tully-Fisher relation of spiral galaxies shows notable dependence on morphological types, with earlier type spirals having systematically lower luminosity at fixed maximum rotation velocity $V_{max}$. This decrement of luminosity is more significant in shorter wavelengths. By modeling the rotation curve and stellar population of different morphological type spiral galaxies in combination, we find the $V_{max}$ of spiral galaxies is weakly dependent on the morphological type, whereas the difference of the stellar population originating from the bulge disk composition effect mainly account for the morphological type dependence of the Tully-Fisher relation.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, ApJ accepte

Low Loss and Magnetic Field-tuned Superconducting THz Metamaterial

Superconducting terahertz (THz) metamaterial (MM) made from superconducting Nb film has been investigated using a continuous-wave THz spectroscopy with a superconducting split-coil magnet. The obtained quality factors of the resonant modes at 132 GHz and 450 GHz are about three times as large as those calculated for a metal THz MM operating at 1 K, which indicates that superconducting THz MM is a very nice candidate to achieve low loss performance. In addition, the magnetic field-tuning on superconducting THz MM is also demonstrated, which offer an alternative tuning method apart from the existed electric, optical and thermal tuning on THz MM

Genetic Susceptibility to Vitiligo: GWAS Approaches for Identifying Vitiligo Susceptibility Genes and Loci

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease with a strong genetic component, characterized by areas of depigmented skin resulting from loss of epidermal melanocytes. Genetic factors are known to play key roles in vitiligo through discoveries in association studies and family studies. Previously, vitiligo susceptibility genes were mainly revealed through linkage analysis and candidate gene studies. Recently, our understanding of the genetic basis of vitiligo has been rapidly advancing through genome-wide association study (GWAS). More than 40 robust susceptible loci have been identified and confirmed to be associated with vitiligo by using GWAS. Most of these associated genes participate in important pathways involved in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Many susceptible loci with unknown functions in the pathogenesis of vitiligo have also been identified, indicating that additional molecular mechanisms may contribute to the risk of developing vitiligo. In this review, we summarize the key loci that are of genome-wide significance, which have been shown to influence vitiligo risk. These genetic loci may help build the foundation for genetic diagnosis and personalize treatment for patients with vitiligo in the future. However, substantial additional studies, including gene-targeted and functional studies, are required to confirm the causality of the genetic variants and their biological relevance in the development of vitiligo

Escherichia coli infection indicates favorable outcomes in patients with infected pancreatic necrosis

IntroductionInfected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is a severe complication of acute necrotizing pancreatitis with increasing morbidity. Escherichia coli is the most frequently cultured microorganism in IPN. However, the implications of Escherichia coli infection on the outcomes of patients with IPN remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the clinical impacts of Escherichia coli infection on IPN.MethodsA prospective database with consecutive patients with IPN between January 2010 and April 2022 at a tertiary hospital was post-hoc analyzed. The clinical and microbiological characteristics, surgical management, and follow-up data of patients with and without Escherichia coli infection were compared.ResultsA total of 294 IPN patients were enrolled in this cohort. Compared with non-Escherichia coli infection cases (n=80, 27.2%), patients with Escherichia coli infection (n=214, 72.8%) were characterized by more frequent polymicrobial infections (77.5% vs. 65.0%, P=0.04) but a lower occurrence of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) (42.5% vs. 61.7%, P=0.003). In addition, significantly lower mortality (12.5% vs. 30.4%, p=0.002), fewer step-up surgical interventions (73.8% vs. 85.1%, P=0.025), and a lower rate of multiple organ failure (MOF) (25.0% vs. 40.2%, P=0.016) were also observed in patients with Escherichia coli infection. Multivariate analysis of mortality predictors indicated that MOF (odds ratio [OR], 6.197; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.373–16.187; P<0.001) and hemorrhage (OR, 3.485; 95% CI, 1.623–7.487; P=0.001) were independent predictors associated with higher mortality in patients with IPN. Escherichia coli infection was significantly associated with a lower mortality (OR, 0.302; 95% CI, 0.121–0.751; P= 0.01).ConclusionEscherichia coli infection indicates a favorable prognosis in patients with IPN, although the mechanism needs further investigation

Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis of a Competing Endogenous RNA Network Reveals a Prognostic Signature in Endometrial Cancer

In endometrial carcinoma, the clinical outcome directly correlates with the TNM stage, but the lack of sufficient information prevents accurate prediction. The molecular mechanism underlying the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) hypothesis has not been investigated in endometrial cancer. Multi-bioinformatic analyses, including differentially expressed gene analysis, ceRNA network construction, Cox regression analysis, function enrichment analysis, and protein-protein network analysis, were performed on the sequence data acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data bank. A ceRNA network comprising 366 mRNAs, 27 microRNAs (miRNAs), and 66 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) was established. Survival analysis performed with the univariate Cox regression analysis revealed nine lncRNAs with prognostic power in endometrial carcinoma. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, a signature comprising LINC00491, LINC00483, ADARB2-AS1, and C8orf49 showed remarkable prognostic power. Risk score and neoplasm status, but not TNM stage, were independent prognostic factors of endometrial carcinoma. A ceRNA network comprising differentially expressed mRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs may reveal the molecular events involved in the progression of endometrial carcinoma. In addition, the signature with prognostic value may discriminate patients with increased risk for poor outcome, which may allow physicians to take accurate decisions

Epigenome-wide association data implicates DNA methylation-mediated genetic risk in psoriasis

Abstract Background Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and altered keratinocyte differentiation and inflammation and is caused by the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Previous studies have revealed that DNA methylation (DNAm) and genetic makers are closely associated with psoriasis, and strong evidences have shown that DNAm can be controlled by genetic factors, which attracted us to evaluate the relationship among DNAm, genetic makers, and disease status. Methods We utilized the genome-wide methylation data of psoriatic skin (PP, N = 114) and unaffected control skin (NN, N = 62) tissue samples in our previous study, and we performed whole-genome genotyping with peripheral blood of the same samples to evaluate the underlying genetic effect on skin DNA methylation. Causal inference test (CIT) was used to assess whether DNAm regulate genetic variation and gain a better understanding of the epigenetic basis of psoriasis susceptibility. Results We identified 129 SNP-CpG pairs achieving the significant association threshold, which constituted 28 unique methylation quantitative trait loci (MethQTL) and 34 unique CpGs. There are 18 SNPs were associated with psoriasis at a Bonferoni-corrected P < 0.05, and these 18 SNPs formed 93 SNP-CpG pairs with 17 unique CpG sites. We found that 11 of 93 SNP-CpG pairs, composed of 5 unique SNPs and 3 CpG sites, presented a methylation-mediated relationship between SNPs and psoriasis. The 3 CpG sites were located on the body of C1orf106, the TSS1500 promoter region of DMBX1 and the body of SIK3. Conclusions This study revealed that DNAm of some genes can be controlled by genetic factors and also mediate risk variation for psoriasis in Chinese Han population and provided novel molecular insights into the pathogenesis of psoriasis

Magnetic PiezoBOTs: a microrobotic approach for targeted amyloid protein dissociation

Piezoelectric nanomaterials have become increasingly popular in the field of biomedical applications due to their high biocompatibility and ultrasound-mediated piezocatalytic properties. In addition, the ability of these nanomaterials to disaggregate amyloid proteins, which are responsible for a range of diseases resulting from the accumulation of these proteins in body tissues and organs, has recently gained considerable attention. However, the use of nanoparticles in biomedicine poses significant challenges, including targeting and uncontrolled aggregation. To address these limitations, our study proposes to load these functional nanomaterials on a multifunctional mobile microrobot This microrobot is designed by coating magnetic and piezoelectric barium titanate nanoparticles on helical biotemplates, allowing for the combination of magnetic navigation and ultrasound-mediated piezoelectric effects to target amyloid disaggregation. Our findings demonstrate that acoustically actuated PiezoBOTs can effectively reduce the size of aggregated amyloid proteins by over 80% in less than 10 minutes by shortening and dissociating constituent amyloid fibrils. Moreover, the PiezoBOTs can be easily magnetically manipulated to actuate the piezocatalytic nanoparticles to specific amyloidosis-affected tissues or organs, minimizing side effects. These biocompatible PiezoBOTs offer a promising non-invasive therapeutic approach for amyloidosis diseases by targeting and breaking down protein aggregates at specific organ or tissue sites

Discriminant Analysis of Jiang-Flavor Baijiu of Different Grades by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry and Electronic Tongue

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and electronic tongue were used to quantitatively determine the volatile compounds and taste indices of 21 Jiang-flavor baijiu samples of different grades. These samples were differentiated by chemometrics, and key differential compounds among grades were identified. Finally, a discriminant model was established by machine learning. The results showed that there were differences in the contents of volatile compounds in Jiang-flavor baijiu of three grades, indicating the feasibility of further discriminant analysis. The total content of flavor compounds in second-grade baijiu (4 908 mg/L) was significantly lower than that in premium-grade (6 583 mg/L) and first-grade baijiu (8 254 mg/L), while the proportion of several esters responsible for floral and fruity aromas in total esters showed a decreasing trend as the grade decreased. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) identified 16 key differential compounds represented by ethyl palmitate and acetic acid. The results of electronic tongue showed that the taste indexes of premium-grade baijiu were more consistent, with lower bitterness and astringency aftertaste. The taste indexes of second-grade baijiu showed significant intersample differences. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed clear discrimination of Jiang-flavor baijiu of different grades according to their taste indexes. The above results provide a basis for the establishment of Jiang-flavor baijiu quality system. Four discriminant models were established based on 25 differential compounds and taste indexes identified. The accuracy of all models was higher than 90%, and the support vector machine (SVM) model performed best, with an accuracy of 100%