HIV-Related Stigma, Sexual Identity, and Depressive Symptoms Among MSM Living With HIV: A Moderated Mediation Modeling Analysis

Depression is one of the biggest health issues among men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV, where sexual identity might play an intricate role. Yet, findings of the relationship between sexual identity and depression were mixed and few studies explored its underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the association between sexual identity and depression, and the potential mediating role of HIV-related stigma and moderating role of age. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 203 MSM living with HIV in Guangxi, China. Participants provided information on sexual identity, depression, HIV-related stigma, and background information. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and path analysis were applied to examine our hypotheses. Bivariate analysis demonstrated that participants who self-identified as gay reported a lower level of HIV-related stigma and depression. Path analysis revealed an insignificant direct effect of identifying as gay on depression. Yet, the indirect pathway was significant, with identifying as gay being associated with a lower level of HIV stigma and thus a lower level of depression. This indirect effect was moderated by age. The conditional indirect effect was significant in the younger group yet ceased in the older group. The study provided information to better understand the effect of sexual identity on mental health among stigmatized sexual and gender minorities by highlighting the mediating effect of HIV-related stigma and the protective effect of age. Interventions targeting mental health of MSM living with HIV might consider placing greater emphasis on addressing HIV-related stigma among younger MSM

Effects of Electroacupuncture on PGC-1α Expression in Brown Adipose Tissue

The inducible coactivator PGC-1α plays master regulator in mitochondrial biogenesis and thermogenesis in brown adipose tissues (BATs). BAT is a natural antiobesity organ which dissipates chemical energy in the form of heat through specialized mitochondrial protein UCP-1. Eletroacupuncture (EA) has been widely used as an alternative treatment for obesity and its related disorders such as type 2 diabetes. The molecular mechanism of electroacupuncture on treatment of obesity is still unclear. We hypothesized that electroacupuncture induced PGC-1α expression to increase the energy expenditure in BAT. Rats were randomly divided into control group and electroacupuncture treatment group. We investigated the effects of electroacupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) acupoint on the expressions of PGC-1α and its associated genes in the BAT of rats using real-time PCR and western blotting. We found that electroacupuncture effectively induces the expression of PGC-1α and UCP-1 by 4-fold and 5-fold in the BAT of rats, respectively. Our results indicated that the molecular mechanism of electroacupuncture for the treatment of obesity may be, or at least partially, through induction of both PGC-1α and UCP-1 expressions to increase energy expenditure in BAT

Mining of the Catharanthus roseus Genome Leads to Identification of a Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for Fungicidal Sesquiterpenes

Characterization of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from microbial genomes has been proven to be a powerful approach to discovery of new natural products. However, such a genome mining approach to discovery of bioactive plant metabolites has been muted. The plant BGCs characterized to date encode pathways for antibiotics important in plant defense against microbial pathogens, providing a means to discover such phytoalexins by mining plant genomes. Here is reported discovery and characterization of a minimal BGC from the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus, consisting of an adjacent pair of genes encoding a terpene synthase (CrTPS18) and cytochrome P450 (CYP71D349). These two enzymes act sequentially, with CrTPS18 acting as a sesquiterpene synthase, producing 5-epi-jinkoh-eremol (1), which CYP71D349 further hydroxylates to debneyol (2). Infection studies with maize revealed that 1 and 2 exhibit more potent fungicidal activity than validamycin. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that characterization of such cryptic plant BGCs is a promising strategy for discovery of potential agrochemical leads. Moreover, despite the observed absence of 1 and 2 in C. roseus the observed transcriptional regulation is consistent with their differential fungicidal activity, suggesting that such conditional co-expression may be sufficient to drive BGC assembly in plants.This is a manuscript of an article published as Liang, Jincai, Tianyue An, Jian-Xun Zhu, Shan Chen, Jian-Hua Zhu, Reuben J. Peters, Rongmin Yu, and Jiachen Zi. "Mining of the Catharanthus roseus Genome Leads to Identification of a Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for Fungicidal Sesquiterpenes." Journal of Natural Products 84, no. 10 (2021): 2709-2716. doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c00588. Posted with permission

Highly Graphitized Carbon Coating on SiO with a π⁻π Stacking Precursor Polymer for High Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

A highly graphitized carbon on a silicon monoxide (SiO) surface coating at low temperature, based on polymer precursor π⁻π stacking, was developed. A novel conductive and electrochemically stable carbon coating was rationally designed to modify the SiO anode materials by controlling the sintering of a conductive polymer, a pyrene-based homopolymer poly (1-pyrenemethyl methacrylate; PPy), which achieved high graphitization of the carbon layers at a low temperature and avoided silicon carbide formation and possible SiO material transformation. When evaluated as the anode of a lithium-ion battery (LIB), the carbon-coated SiO composite delivered a high discharge capacity of 2058.6 mAh/g at 0.05 C of the first formation cycle with an initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 62.2%. After 50 cycles at 0.1 C, this electrode capacity was 1090.2 mAh/g (~82% capacity retention, relative to the capacity of the second cycle at 0.1 °C rate), and a specific capacity of 514.7 mAh/g was attained at 0.3 C after 500 cycles. Furthermore, the coin-type full cell composed of the carbon coated SiO composite anode and the Li[Ni0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O₂] cathode attained excellent cycling performance. The results show the potential applications for using a π⁻π stacking polymer precursor to generate a highly graphitize coating for next-generation high-energy-density LIBs

Highly Graphitized Carbon Coating on SiO with a π⁻π Stacking Precursor Polymer for High Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

A highly graphitized carbon on a silicon monoxide (SiO) surface coating at low temperature, based on polymer precursor π⁻π stacking, was developed. A novel conductive and electrochemically stable carbon coating was rationally designed to modify the SiO anode materials by controlling the sintering of a conductive polymer, a pyrene-based homopolymer poly (1-pyrenemethyl methacrylate; PPy), which achieved high graphitization of the carbon layers at a low temperature and avoided silicon carbide formation and possible SiO material transformation. When evaluated as the anode of a lithium-ion battery (LIB), the carbon-coated SiO composite delivered a high discharge capacity of 2058.6 mAh/g at 0.05 C of the first formation cycle with an initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 62.2%. After 50 cycles at 0.1 C, this electrode capacity was 1090.2 mAh/g (~82% capacity retention, relative to the capacity of the second cycle at 0.1 °C rate), and a specific capacity of 514.7 mAh/g was attained at 0.3 C after 500 cycles. Furthermore, the coin-type full cell composed of the carbon coated SiO composite anode and the Li[Ni0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O₂] cathode attained excellent cycling performance. The results show the potential applications for using a π⁻π stacking polymer precursor to generate a highly graphitize coating for next-generation high-energy-density LIBs

The BINGO project

Context. Observations of the redshifted 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen (H 

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7