5-BDBD ameliorates an OVA-induced allergic asthma by the reduction of Th2 cytokines production

Objective(s): P2X4R is expressed in immunocyte and lung tissues. It has been a focus in inflammatory responses recently. This study investigated whether blockage of P2X4R attenuates allergic inflammation by modulating T cell response in ovalbumin-sensitized mice. Materials and Methods: Ovalbumin was used to sensitize and challenge for a mouse model. Intranasal application of 5-BDBD, P2X4R antagonist, were performed 3 hr before each airway allergen challenge. The lung was evaluated for P2X4R by real-time PCR and immunofluorescence. Th1/Th2 cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were measured by ELISA. T-bet, Gata-3, and p-p38 MAPK were measured by Western blot or real-time PCR. Results: P2X4R was overexpressed in the lung after allergen challenge compared with the control group. Blockage of P2X4R decreased inflammation in the lung, IL-4 expression was reduced as well as IL-5; IFN-γ expression was elevated in BALF in ovalbumin-sensitized mice. Moreover, blockage of P2X4R inhibited ovalbumin-induced increased Gata-3 level and decreased T-bet level. Conclusion: These findings suggest that 5-BDBD ameliorates an ovalbumin-induced asthmatic attack by the downregulation of cytokines related to the Th2 cell

Abnormal Spontaneous Brain Activity in Early Parkinson’s Disease With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a common symptom at the baseline of early Parkinson’s disease (PD) diagnosis, but the neural mechanism is unclear. To address the issue, the present study employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 19 drug-naïve PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC), 10 PD patients with MCI (PD-MCI) and 13 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) from the Parkinson’s progression markers initiative (PPMI) (http://www.ppmi-info.org/), and examined abnormal spontaneous brain activities in the PD-MCI. The pattern of spontaneous brain activity was measured by examining the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of blood oxygen level dependent signal. Voxel-wise one-way analysis of covariance and post hoc analyses of ALFF were performed under non-parametric permutation tests in a general linear model among the three groups, with age, gender and data center as additional covariates. Statistical significances in the post hoc analysis were corrected by a small volume correction with a cluster-level threshold of p < 0.05 (n = 10000 permutations, FWE-corrected). Correlations of clinical and neuropsychological assessments [i.e., Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) total score, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and cognitive domains] with the regional ALFF were performed in the PD-MCI group. Compared with the HC, both PD groups exhibited reduced ALFF in the occipital area (Calcarine_R/Cuneus_R). Specially, the PD-MCI group additionally exhibited increased ALFF in the opercular part of right inferior frontal gyrus (Frontal_Inf_Oper_R). Comparing with the PD-NC, the PD-MCI group exhibited significantly higher ALFF in the Frontal_Inf_Oper_R and left fusiform gyus (ps < 0.05). The correlation analysis revealed that the ALFF in the Frontal_Inf_Oper_R was positively correlated with the UPDRS total score (p < 0.05), but marginally negatively correlated with the MoCA score. For cognitive domains, the ALFF in the region also showed a significantly negative correlation with the score of SF test (p < 0.01) and a marginally negative correlation with the score of Symbol-Digit Modalities Test. Together, we concluded hyperactivity in the right inferior frontal gyrus in early PD with MCI, suggesting a compensatory recruitment in response to cognitive decline, which may shed light on thought of dementia progression and potentially comprehensive treatment in PD

Biomimetic lubricant-infused titania nanoparticle surfaces via layer-by-layer deposition to control biofouling

Lubricant-infused surfaces have attracted a lot of attention in antifouling applications. Previously, lubricant-infused surfaces fabricated by a layer-by-layer process involved two or more polyelectrolytes and needed post-treatments to generate pores. Here, the paper proposes a layer-by-layer sol-gel process to prepare a lubricant-infused surface. This process only involves a single material and without any post-treatment. The nanostructured titania layers were layer-by-layer assembled onto 316L stainless steel substrates by immersing the substrates into a titanium (IV) butoxide ethanol solution. The titania layers were subsequently surface-functionalized by fluorinated silanes and infiltrated with fluorinated lubricant to form lubricant-infused nanoparticle surfaces. The physicochemical properties of the lubricant-infused nanoparticle surfaces dominated the antifouling performance. These results give some insight into the construction of lubricant-infused nanoparticle surfaces with desirable liquid repellency and antifouling properties via a layer-by-layer sol-gel process

Single Space Object Image Denoising and Super-Resolution Reconstructing Using Deep Convolutional Networks

Space object recognition is the basis of space attack and defense confrontation. High-quality space object images are very important for space object recognition. Because of the large number of cosmic rays in the space environment and the inadequacy of optical lenses and detectors on satellites to support high-resolution imaging, most of the images obtained are blurred and contain a lot of cosmic-ray noise. So, denoising methods and super-resolution methods are two effective ways to reconstruct high-quality space object images. However, most super-resolution methods could only reconstruct the lost details of low spatial resolution images, but could not remove noise. On the other hand, most denoising methods especially cosmic-ray denoising methods could not reconstruct high-resolution details. So in this paper, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN)-based single space object image denoising and super-resolution reconstruction method is presented. The noise is removed and the lost details of the low spatial resolution image are well reconstructed based on one very deep CNN-based network, which combines global residual learning and local residual learning. Based on a dataset of satellite images, experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed method in enhancing the spatial resolution and removing the noise of the space objects images

Preparation of Superhydrophobic Steel Surfaces with Chemical Stability and Corrosion

Corrosion seriously limits the long-term application of Q235 carbon steel. Herein, a simple fabrication method was used to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces on Q235 carbon steel for anticorrosion application. The combination of structure and the grafted low-surface-energy material contributed to the formation of superhydrophobic steel surfaces, which exhibited a water contact angle of 161.6° and a contact angle hysteresis of 0.8°. Meanwhile, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface showed repellent toward different solutions with pH ranging from 1 to 14, presenting excellent chemical stability. Moreover, the acid corrosive liquid (HCl solution with pH of 1) maintained sphere-like shape on the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface at room temperature, indicating superior corrosion resistance. This work provides a simple method to fabricate superhydrophobic steel surfaces with chemical stability and corrosion resistance

Atmospheric Vapor Impact on Desert Vegetation and Desert Ecohydrological System

The ability of plants to absorb unsaturated atmospheric water vapor is a controversial topic. To study how vegetation in arid areas survives under limited water resources, this study uses Tamarisk in the Ulan Buh Desert of China as an example. The in-situ observation of a newly designed Lysimeter and sap flow meter system were used to monitor the precipitation infiltration and the utilization efficiency of Tamarisk of atmospheric vapor. The results show that the annual precipitation of 84 mm in arid areas could still result in deep soil recharge (DSR) with a recharge rate of 5 mm/year. Furthermore, DSR is detectable even in the winter, and the 5-year average DSR was 5.77% of the annual precipitation. It appears that the small precipitation events are critically important for the survival of Tamarisk. When the atmospheric relative humidity reaches 70%, Tamarisk leaves can absorb the unsaturated atmospheric vapor, which accounts for 13.2% of the annual precipitation amount. To adapt to the arid environment, Tamarisk can harvest its water supply from several sources including atmospheric vapor and micro-precipitation events (whose precipitation is below the measurement limit of 0.2 mm of the precipitation gauge) and can still permit a certain amount of recharge to replenish the deep soil moisture. Such an ecohydrological dynamic is of great significance to desert vegetation