Black carbon and organic carbon dataset over the Third Pole

The Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings, also known as the Third Pole, play an important role in the global and regional climate and hydrological cycle. Carbonaceous aerosols (CAs), including black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), can directly or indirectly absorb and scatter solar radiation and change the energy balance on the Earth. CAs, along with the other atmospheric pollutants (e.g., mercury), can be frequently transported over long distances into the inland Tibetan Plateau. During the last decades, a coordinated monitoring network and research program named “Atmospheric Pollution and Cryospheric Changes” (APCC) has been gradually set up and continuously operated within the Third Pole regions to investigate the linkage between atmospheric pollutants and cryospheric changes. This paper presents a systematic dataset of BC, OC, water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), and water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) from aerosols (20 stations), glaciers (17 glaciers, including samples from surface snow and ice, snow pits, and 2 ice cores), snow cover (2 stations continuously observed and 138 locations surveyed once), precipitation (6 stations), and lake sediment cores (7 lakes) collected across the Third Pole, based on the APCC program. These data were created based on online (in situ) and laboratory measurements. High-resolution (daily scale) atmospheric-equivalent BC concentrations were obtained by using an Aethalometer (AE-33) in the Mt. Everest (Qomolangma) region, which can provide new insight into the mechanism of BC transportation over the Himalayas. Spatial distributions of BC, OC, WSOC, and WIOC from aerosols, glaciers, snow cover, and precipitation indicated different features among the different regions of the Third Pole, which were mostly influenced by emission sources, transport pathways, and deposition processes. Historical records of BC from ice cores and lake sediment cores revealed the strength of the impacts of human activity since the Industrial Revolution. BC isotopes from glaciers and aerosols identified the relative contributions of biomass and fossil fuel combustion to BC deposition on the Third Pole. Mass absorption cross sections of BC and WSOC from aerosol, glaciers, snow cover, and precipitation samples were also provided. This updated dataset is released to the scientific communities focusing on atmospheric science, cryospheric science, hydrology, climatology, and environmental science. The related datasets are presented in the form of excel files. BC and OC datasets over the Third Pole are available to download from the National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (10.12072/ncdc.NIEER.db0114.2021; Kang and Zhang, 2021)

The coinfection of ALVs causes severe pathogenicity in Three-Yellow chickens

Abstract The coinfection of ALVs (ALV-J plus ALV-A or/and ALV-B) has played an important role in the incidence of tumors recently found in China in local breeds of yellow chickens. The study aims to obtain a better knowledge of the function and relevance of ALV coinfection in the clinical disease of avian leukosis, as well as its unique effect on the pathogenicity in Three-yellow chickens. One-day-old Three-yellow chicks (one day old) were infected with ALV-A, ALV-B, and ALV-J mono-infections, as well as ALV-A + J, ALV-B + J, and ALV-A + B + J coinfections, via intraperitoneal injection, and the chicks were then grown in isolators until they were 15 weeks old. The parameters, including the suppression of body weight gain, immune organ weight, viremia, histopathological changes and tumor incidence, were observed and compared with those of the uninfected control birds. The results demonstrated that coinfection with ALVs could induce more serious suppression of body weight gain (P < 0.05), damage to immune organs (P < 0.05) and higher tumor incidences than monoinfection, with triple infection producing the highest pathogenicity. The emergence of visible tumors and viremia occurred faster in the coinfected birds than in the monoinfected birds. These findings demonstrated that ALV coinfection resulted in considerably severe pathogenic and immunosuppressive consequences

Aerodynamic Force and Aeroelastic Response Characteristics Analyses for the Galloping of Ice-Covered Four-Split Transmission Lines in Oblique Flows

In order to study the galloping mechanism of ice-covered four-split transmission lines in oblique flows, the aerodynamic forces and aero-elastic response characteristics of the crescent-shaped four-split ice-covered transmission lines are investigated through wind tunnel tests on rigid and aero-elastic models. According to Den Hartog and Nigel’s galloping theories, the damping coefficients are calculated based on the experimental data. The results show that the crescent-shaped ice-covered four-split transmission lines usually suffer from torsional galloping. Furthermore, based on the aero-elastic wind tunnel data, the galloping is characterized by an elliptical trajectory, negative damping ratio, and a negative strain at hanging position. In addition, the galloping appears to be more prone to occur under oblique flows, with a larger galloping amplitude and a lower critical wind speed. This might be because an out-of-plane vibration of the third-order mode is excited at a lower wind speed, leading to a coupled resonance between in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations at the third-order mode with a frequency ratio of 1:1. The experimental results in this paper can also be used to verify the fluid-structure interaction simulation method of ice-covered transmission lines

Bioengineered bacterial outer membrane vesicles encapsulated Polybia–mastoparan I fusion peptide as a promising nanoplatform for bladder cancer immune-modulatory chemotherapy

BackgroundNanosized bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) secreted by Gram-negative bacteria have emerged as a novel antitumor nanomedicine reagent due to their immunostimulatory properties. The encapsulated bacterial composition in OMVs can be edited via manipulating bioengineering technology on paternal bacteria, allowing us to design an ingenious antitumor platform by loading the Polybia–mastoparan I (MPI) fusion peptide into OMVs.MethodsOMVs containing the MPI fusion peptide were obtained from bioengineered Escherichia coli transformed with recombinant plasmid. The antitumor efficacy of bioengineered OMVs in vitro was verified by performing cell viability and wound-healing and apoptosis assays using MB49 and UMUC3 cells, respectively. Subcutaneous MB49 tumor-bearing mice were involved to investigate the tumor inhibition ability of bioengineered OMVs. Moreover, the activated immune response in tumor and the biosafety were also evaluated in detail.ResultsThe resulting OMVs had the successful encapsulation of MPI fusion peptides and were subjected to physical characterization for morphology, size, and zeta potential. Cell viabilities of bladder cancer cells including MB49 and UMUC3 rather than a non-carcinomatous cell line (bEnd.3) were decreased when incubated with bioengineered OMVs. In addition, bioengineered OMVs restrained migration and induced apoptosis of bladder cancer cells. With intratumor injection of bioengineered OMVs, growths of subcutaneous MB49 tumors were significantly restricted. The inherent immunostimulation of OMVs was demonstrated to trigger maturation of dendritic cells (DCs), recruitment of macrophages, and infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), resulting in the increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ). Meanwhile, several lines of evidence also indicated that bioengineered OMVs had satisfactory biosafety.ConclusionBioengineered OMVs fabricated in the present study were characterized by strong bladder cancer suppression and great biocompatibility, providing a new avenue for clinical bladder cancer therapy

Wind-Induced Response Characteristics and Equivalent Static Wind-Resistant Design Method of Spherical Inflatable Membrane Structures

The wind-induced responses and wind-resistant design method of spherical inflatable membrane structures are presented in this paper. Based on the wind pressure data obtained from wind tunnel experiments, the characteristics of wind-induced responses are studied via nonlinear dynamic time–history analysis, considering the influences of spans, rise–span ratios, internal pressures, wind velocities, and cable configurations. The results show that with the increment of wind velocity, the position of the maximum displacement changes from the top to the windward region, which usually leads to the exceedance of the displacement limitation. Under high wind velocity, enhancing the internal pressure can effectively reduce deflection. However, the membrane stress will also increase. Particular attention should be paid to checking the strength. The restraint effect of cross cables on wind-induced response is better than radial cables. Furthermore, an equivalent static analysis method for the wind-resistant design of spherical inflatable membrane structures is developed. The empirical formulas and recommendation values of gust response factors and nonlinear adjustment factors are provided for engineering reference

Modification of Taxifolin Properties by Spray Drying

Taxifolin is known as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and food supplement due to its high antioxidant activity, multiple pharmacological effects, and good safety profile. Previously, taxifolin spheres (TS) were obtained from industrially produced API taxifolin in Russia (RT). In our work, we perform a pharmaceutical analysis of this new taxifolin material versus RT. TS is an amorphous material; however, it is stable without the polymer carrier, as confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Both RT and TS demonstrate high safety profiles and are assigned to Class 1 of the Biopharmaceutical Classification System based on the results of experiments with MDCK cells. The water solubility of the new taxifolin form was 2.225 times higher compared with RT. Hausner ratios for RT and TS were 1.421 and 1.219, respectively, while Carr indices were 29.63% and 19.00%, respectively. Additionally, TS demonstrated sustained release from tablets compared with RT: the half-life values of tablets were 14.56 min and 20.63 min for RT and TS, respectively. Thus, TS may be a promising object for developing oral antiseptics in the form of orally dispersed tablets with sustained release patterns because of its anti-inflammatory, -protozoal, and -viral activities

Modification of Taxifolin Properties by Spray Drying

Taxifolin is known as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and food supplement due to its high antioxidant activity, multiple pharmacological effects, and good safety profile. Previously, taxifolin spheres (TS) were obtained from industrially produced API taxifolin in Russia (RT). In our work, we perform a pharmaceutical analysis of this new taxifolin material versus RT. TS is an amorphous material; however, it is stable without the polymer carrier, as confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Both RT and TS demonstrate high safety profiles and are assigned to Class 1 of the Biopharmaceutical Classification System based on the results of experiments with MDCK cells. The water solubility of the new taxifolin form was 2.225 times higher compared with RT. Hausner ratios for RT and TS were 1.421 and 1.219, respectively, while Carr indices were 29.63% and 19.00%, respectively. Additionally, TS demonstrated sustained release from tablets compared with RT: the half-life values of tablets were 14.56 min and 20.63 min for RT and TS, respectively. Thus, TS may be a promising object for developing oral antiseptics in the form of orally dispersed tablets with sustained release patterns because of its anti-inflammatory, -protozoal, and -viral activities

Transformable peptide nanoparticles arrest HER2 signalling and cause cancer cell death in vivo.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in &gt;20% of breast cancers. Dimerization of HER2 receptors leads to the activation of downstream signals enabling the proliferation and survival of malignant phenotypes. Owing to the high expression levels of HER2, combination therapies are currently required for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. Here, we designed non-toxic transformable peptides that self-assemble into micelles under aqueous conditions but, on binding to HER2 on cancer cells, transform into nanofibrils that disrupt HER2 dimerization and subsequent downstream signalling events leading to apoptosis of cancer cells. The phase transformation of peptides enables specific HER2 targeting, and inhibition of HER2 dimerization blocks the expression of proliferation and survival genes in the nucleus. We demonstrate, in mouse xenofraft models, that these transformable peptides can be used as a monotherapy in the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer

Transformable peptide nanoparticles arrest HER2 signalling and cause cancer cell death in vivo.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in &gt;20% of breast cancers. Dimerization of HER2 receptors leads to the activation of downstream signals enabling the proliferation and survival of malignant phenotypes. Owing to the high expression levels of HER2, combination therapies are currently required for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. Here, we designed non-toxic transformable peptides that self-assemble into micelles under aqueous conditions but, on binding to HER2 on cancer cells, transform into nanofibrils that disrupt HER2 dimerization and subsequent downstream signalling events leading to apoptosis of cancer cells. The phase transformation of peptides enables specific HER2 targeting, and inhibition of HER2 dimerization blocks the expression of proliferation and survival genes in the nucleus. We demonstrate, in mouse xenofraft models, that these transformable peptides can be used as a monotherapy in the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer