Self-Assembly and Soft Material Preparation of Binary Organogels via Aminobenzimidazole/Benzothiazole and Acids with Different Alkyl Substituent Chains

The gelation behaviors of binary organogels composed of aminobenzimidazole/benzothiazole derivatives and benzoic acid with single-/multialkyl substituent chain in various organic solvents were designed and investigated. Their gelation behaviors in 20 solvents were tested as new binary organic gelators. This showed that the number and length of alkyl substituent chains and benzimidazole/benzothiazole segment have played a crucial role in the gelation behavior of all gelator mixtures in various organic solvents. More alkyl chains in molecular skeletons in present gelators are favorable for the gelation of organic solvents. The length of alkyl substituent chains has also played an important role in changing the gelation behaviors and assembly states. Morphological studies revealed that the gelator molecules self-assemble into different aggregates from wrinkle, lamella, belt, to fiber with change of solvents. Spectral studies indicated that there existed different H-bond formation and hydrophobic force, depending on benzimidazole/benzothiazole segment and alkyl substituent chains in molecular skeletons. The prepared nanostructured materials have wide perspectives and many potential applications in nanoscience and material fields due to their scientific values. The present work may also give new clues for designing new binary organogelators and soft materials

Altered FGF Signaling Pathways Impair Cell Proliferation and Elevation of Palate Shelves

In palatogenesis, palatal shelves are patterned along the mediolateral axis as well as the anteroposterior axis before the onset of palatal fusion. Fgf10 specifically expressed in lateral mesenchyme of palate maintains Shh transcription in lateral epithelium, while Fgf7 activated in medial mesenchyme by Dlx5, suppressed the expansion of Shh expression to medial epithelium. How FGF signaling pathways regulate the cell behaviors of developing palate remains elusive. In our study, we found that when Fgf8 is ectopically expressed in the embryonic palatal mesenchyme, the elevation of palatal shelves is impaired and the posterior palatal shelves are enlarged, especially in the medial side. The palatal deformity results from the drastic increase of cell proliferation in posterior mesenchyme and decrease of cell proliferation in epithelium. The expression of mesenchymal Fgf10 and epithelial Shh in the lateral palate, as well as the Dlx5 and Fgf7 transcription in the medial mesenchyme are all interrupted, indicating that the epithelial-mesenchymal interactions during palatogenesis are disrupted by the ectopic activation of mesenchymal Fgf8. Besides the altered Fgf7, Fgf10, Dlx5 and Shh expression pattern, the reduced Osr2 expression domain in the lateral mesenchyme also suggests an impaired mediolateral patterning of posterior palate. Moreover, the ectopic Fgf8 expression up-regulates pJak1 throughout the palatal mesenchyme and pErk in the medial mesenchyme, but down-regulates pJak2 in the epithelium, suggesting that during normal palatogenesis, the medial mesenchymal cell proliferation is stimulated by FGF/Erk pathway, while the epithelial cell proliferation is maintained through FGF/Jak2 pathway

Myocardial tissue and metabolism characterization in men with alcohol consumption by cardiovascular magnetic resonance and 11C-acetate PET/CT

Background: Chronic alcohol consumption initially leads to asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, but can result in myocardial impairment and heart failure if ongoing. This study sought to characterize myocardial tissues and oxidative metabolism in asymptomatic subjects with chronic alcohol consumption by quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and 11C-acetate positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT). Methods: Thirty-four male subjects (48.8 +/- 9.1 years) with alcohol consumption > 28 g/day for > 10 years and 35 age-matched healthy male subjects (49.5 +/- 9.7 years) underwent CMR and 11C-acetate PET/CT. Native and post T1 values and extracellular volume (ECV) from CMR and Kmono and K1 from PET imaging were measured. Quantitative measurements by CMR and PET imaging were compared between subjects with moderate to heavy alcohol consumption and healthy controls, and their correlations were also analyzed. Results: Compared to healthy controls, subjects with alcohol consumption showed significantly shorter native T1 (1133 +/- 65 ms vs. 1186 +/- 31 ms, p 0.05). In contrast, subjects with heavy alcohol consumption showed significantly lower Kmono values compared to those with moderate alcohol consumption (52.9 +/- 12.1 min(- 1) x 10(- 3) vs. 63.7 +/- 9.2 min(- 1) x 10(- 3), p = 0.012). Strong and moderate correlations were found between K1 and ECV in healthy controls (r = 0.689, p = 0.013) and subjects with moderate alcohol consumption (r = 0.518, p = 0.048), respectively. Conclusion: Asymptomatic men with heavy alcohol consumption have detectable structural and metabolic changes in myocardium on CMR and 11C-acetate PET/CT. Compared with quantitative CMR, 11C-acetate PET/CT imaging may be more sensitive for detecting differences in myocardial damage among subjects with moderate to heavy alcohol consumption.</div

A reactive oxygen species–related signature to predict prognosis and aid immunotherapy in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

BackgroundClear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a malignant disease containing tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are present in the tumor microenvironment and are strongly associated with cancer development. Nevertheless, the role of ROS-related genes in ccRCC remains unclear.MethodsWe describe the expression patterns of ROS-related genes in ccRCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas and their alterations in genetics and transcription. An ROS-related gene signature was constructed and verified in three datasets and immunohistochemical staining (IHC) analysis. The immune characteristics of the two risk groups divided by the signature were clarified. The sensitivity to immunotherapy and targeted therapy was investigated.ResultsOur signature was constructed on the basis of glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit (GCLM), interaction protein for cytohesin exchange factors 1 (ICEF1), methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA), and strawberry notch homolog 2 (SBNO2) genes. More importantly, protein expression levels of GCLM, MsrA, and SBNO2 were detected by IHC in our own ccRCC samples. The high-risk group of patients with ccRCC suffered lower overall survival rates. As an independent predictor of prognosis, our signature exhibited a strong association with clinicopathological features. An accurate nomogram for improving the clinical applicability of our signature was constructed. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses showed that the signature was closely related to immune response, immune activation, and immune pathways. The comprehensive results revealed that the high-risk group was associated with high infiltration of regulatory T cells and CD8+ T cells and more benefited from targeted therapy. In addition, immunotherapy had better therapeutic effects in the high-risk group.ConclusionOur signature paved the way for assessing prognosis and developing more effective strategies of immunotherapy and targeted therapy in ccRCC

Triangle-Y exchanges on intrinsic knotting of almost complete and complete partite graphs

Let G be a 0-or 1-deficient graph which is intrinsically knotted, let J represent any graph obtained from G by a finite sequence of δ-Y exchanges and/or vertex expansions. We prove that removing any vertex of J, and all edges incident to that vertex, yi

A Layered Spiking Neural System for Classification Problems

Biological brains have a natural capacity for resolving certain classification tasks. Studies on biologically plausible spiking neurons, architectures and mechanisms of artificial neural systems that closely match biological observations while giving high classification performance are gaining momentum. Spiking neural P systems (SN P systems) are a class of membrane computing models and third-generation neural networks that are based on the behaviour of biological neural cells and have been used in various engineering applications. Furthermore, SN P systems are characterised by a highly flexible structure that enables the design of a machine learning algorithm by mimicking the structure and behaviour of biological cells without the oversimplification present in neural networks. Based on this aspect, this paper proposes a novel type of SN P system, namely, layered SN P system (LSN P system), to solve classification problems by supervised learning. The proposed LSN P system consists of a multi-layer network containing multiple weighted fuzzy SN P systems with adaptive weight adjustment rules. The proposed system employs specific ascending dimension techniques and a selection method of output * Corresponding author. 1 2 G. Zhang et. al. neurons for classification problems. The experimental results obtained using benchmark datasets from the UCI machine learning repository and MNIST dataset demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed LSN P system. More importantly, the proposed LSN P system presents the first SN P system that demonstrates sufficient performance for use in addressing real-world classification problems

Preparation and Characterization of Binary Organogels via Some Azobenzene Amino Derivatives and Different Fatty Acids: Self-Assembly and Nanostructures

In present work the gelation behaviors of binary organogels composed of azobenzene amino derivatives and fatty acids with different alkyl chains in various organic solvents were designed and investigated. Their gelation behaviors in 20 solvents were tested as new binary organic gelators. It showed that the length of alkyl substituent chains and azobenzene segment have played a crucial role in the gelation behavior of all gelator mixtures in various organic solvents. Longer alkyl chains in molecular skeletons in present gelators are favorable for the gelation of organic solvents. Morphological studies revealed that the gelator molecules self-assemble into different aggregates from lamella, wrinkle, to belt with change of solvents. Spectral studies indicated that there existed different H-bond formation and hydrophobic force, depending on different substituent chains in molecular skeletons. The present work may also give new perspectives for designing new binary organogelators and soft materials