Background:Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is closely associated with obesity.However,this association could be influenced by the coexisting metabolic abnormalities.This study aimed to investigate the role of o...Background:Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is closely associated with obesity.However,this association could be influenced by the coexisting metabolic abnormalities.This study aimed to investigate the role of obesity and metabolic abnormalities in NAFLD among elderly Chinese.Methods:A cross-sectional study was performed among elderly residents who took their annual health checkups during 2016 in Keqiao District,Shaoxing,China.Results:A total of 3359 elderly adults were retrospectively included in this study.The overall prevalence of NAFLD was 28.7%.The prevalence of NAFLD were 7.14%,27.92%,34.80%,and 61.02%in participants with metabolically healthy normal weight(MHNW),metabolically abnormal normal weight(MANW),metabolically healthy obese(MHO),and metabolically abnormal obese(MAO),respectively.NAFLD patients in MHO group had more unfavorable metabolic profiles than those in MHNW group.Logistic regression analysis showed that sex,body mass index(BMI),fasting blood glucose,and serum uric acid were the risk factors of NAFLD.Conclusions:Both obesity and metabolic health were significantly associated with NAFLD in elderly Chinese.Screening for obesity and other metabolic abnormalities should be routinely performed for early risk stratification of NAFLD.展开更多
Background:Hepatic radiation injury severely restricts irradiation treatment for liver carcinoma.The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pent...Background:Hepatic radiation injury severely restricts irradiation treatment for liver carcinoma.The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid(Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced MRI(EOB-MRI)in the assessment of liver function after external radiation therapy and to determine the relationship between focal liver reaction(FLR)and liver function.Methods:A total of 47 patients with liver malignancies who underwent external beam radiation therapy were enrolled.EOB-MRI was performed on each patient at approximately one month post-radiotherapy.The hepatobiliary(HPB)phase images from EOB-MRI were fused with the planning CT images,and the isodose lines from the patients’treatment plans were overlaid onto the fused images.The correlation of the EOB-MR image intensity distribution with the isodose lines was studied.We also compared liver function in patients between pre-treatment and post-treatment.Results:Decreased uptake of Gd-EOB-DTPA,which was manifested by well-demarcated focal hypointensity of the liver parenchyma or FLR to high-dose radiation,was observed in the irradiated areas of 38 patients.The radiotherapy isodose line of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA was 30–46 Gy.The median corresponding dose curve of FLR was 34.4 Gy.Nine patients showed the absence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA in the irradiated areas.Compared to the 38 patients with the presence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA,9 patients with the absence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA showed significant higher levels of total bile acid,total bilirubin,direct bilirubin and alpha-fetoprotein(P<0.05).There were no significant differences in alanine transaminase,aspartate aminotransferase,gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase or albumin levels between the two groups(P>0.05).Conclusions:Visible uptake of Gd-EOB-DTPA by the liver parenchyma was significantly associated with liver function parameters.EOB-MRI can be a valuable imaging biomarker for the assessment of liver parenchyma function outside of radiation area.展开更多
Alstonia scholaris could be used as a traditional medicinal plant in China for the treatment of acute respiratory,which might be caused by respiratory tract infections.The investigation tested the anti-infective effec...Alstonia scholaris could be used as a traditional medicinal plant in China for the treatment of acute respiratory,which might be caused by respiratory tract infections.The investigation tested the anti-infective effects of total alkaloids extract(TA)from leaves of A.scholaris,and as a result,TA inhibited herpes simplex virus type 1(HSV-1),respiratory syncytial virus(RSV)and influenza A virus(H1N1)in vitro respectively.In addition,the survival days of mice were prolonged,and the lung weights and mortality of mice were decreased significantly,after oral administrated TA in H1N1 and beta-hemolytic streptococcus infectious models in vivo respectively.The finding supported partly the traditional usage of A.scholaris in the treatment of respiratory infections.展开更多
This paper tackles the robust leaderless Time-Varying Formation(TVF)control problem for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics,external disturbances and directed switching topol...This paper tackles the robust leaderless Time-Varying Formation(TVF)control problem for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics,external disturbances and directed switching topologies.In comparison with the previous achievements on formation control problems,the UAV swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics can accomplish the pre-designed TVF while tracking a pre-given trajectory which is produced by a virtual leader UAV in the presence of external disturbances.Firstly,by applying the consensus theory,a TVF controller is developed with the local neighborhood status information,the errors of real time status of all UAVs,the expected formation configuration and the pre-given trajectory under directed switching topologies.Secondly,through a certain matrix variable substitution,the UAV swarm system formation control issue is transformed into a lower dimensional asymptotically stable control issue.Thirdly,by introducing the minimum dwell time,the design steps of formation control algorithm are further acquired.In the meantime,the stability of the UAV swarm system is analyzed through the construction of a piecewise continuous Lyapunov functional and via the Linear Matrix Inequalities(LMIs)method.Finally,the comparison results of a numerical simulation are elaborated to verify the validity of the proposed approach.展开更多
Soot particles,mainly coming from fuel combustion,affect climate forcing through absorbing light and also result in adverse human health outcomes.Though biodiesel or additives blending with diesel was considered envir...Soot particles,mainly coming from fuel combustion,affect climate forcing through absorbing light and also result in adverse human health outcomes.Though biodiesel or additives blending with diesel was considered environmentally friendly,the understanding on absorbing and oxidative capacity of soot emitted from them are still unclear.The watersoluble organic carbon(WSOC)content,surface chemical structure,light absorption and oxidative potential(OPDTT)of soot from biodiesel/diesel and chemicals/diesel blends were investigated utilizing total organic carbon analyzer,X-ray photoelectron spectrometer,ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry and dithiothreitol(DTT)assay.The differences and correlations between soot properties were statistically analyzed.Chemicals/diesel blends soot owned significantly higher WSOC content,ratio of mass absorbing efficiency(MAE)in250 and 365 nm(E2/E3),OPDTT,and higher surface carbonyl content.Coconut biodiesel/diesel blends soot contained evidently higher aromatic carbon–oxygen single bond(ArC–O)content,and higher MAE365.The individual comparison of biodiesel/diesel blends showed20%coconut biodiesel blend owned the lowest WSOC,E2/E3 and OPDTT,while highest ArC–O and MAE365,representing strongest absorbing properties.Association analysis showed OPDTTwas significantly positively correlated with WSOC.Further,the evident negative correlation between MAE365 and OPDTT was observed.Our results showed coconut biodiesel/diesel blends soot induced lower levels of oxidative potential,whereas absorption of light was higher,which have far reaching consequences on climate forcing.Therefore,it is important to evaluate the balance point between light-absorbing properties and oxidative potential,under the wide use of biodiesel.展开更多
Graphene oxide(GO),a new and promising material,has been widely used as a co-catalyst in photocatalytic reactions;however,its capacity as a sole photocatalyst has rarely been investigated.In this study,ultraviolet(UV)...Graphene oxide(GO),a new and promising material,has been widely used as a co-catalyst in photocatalytic reactions;however,its capacity as a sole photocatalyst has rarely been investigated.In this study,ultraviolet(UV) light irradiation was used as a modification method to obtain reduced GO(rGO) samples.The samples were used as photocatalysts to examine their visible light photocatalytic activity toward hexavalent chromium(Cr(Ⅵ)) removal.Atomic force microscopy(AFM),X-ray diffraction(XRD),UV-vis spectrophotometry,Raman spectroscopy,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),and electron spin resonance(ESR) spectroscopy were applied to interpret the surface and structure changes with UV irradiation.The oxygen-containing functional groups(OFGs) on the GO surface were reduced to defective carbons andπ-conjugated C=C(sp^(2) domains) under UV light;this led to a decrease in the interlayer distance between GO sheets,GO fragmentation,and increased disorder on the GO surface.The restoration of sp^(2) domains led to a narrower band gap of GO,which favored the rGO excitation by visible light to generate electron-hole pairs.The rGO pre-irradiated with UV for 1 h(rGO-1),possessing the highest defect density and electron generation efficiency,exhibited the best Cr(Ⅵ) reduction efficiency,which was about three times that of the GO sample;moreover,it outperformed most of the reported GO-based nanomaterials.In addition,low pH and the addition of citric acid as a hole scavenger could further improve the photocatalytic activity.This study proves that GO or rGO can be used as a sole photocatalyst under visible light to remove environmental pollutants such as heavy-metal ions,and it paves the way for the development of this kind of material and its UV-irradiation modification for further applications.展开更多
The p53 pathway is a highly complex signaling network including several key regulators.HAUSP is a critical component of the p53 pathway acting as a deubiquitinase for both p53 and its key repressor Mdm2.Here,we identi...The p53 pathway is a highly complex signaling network including several key regulators.HAUSP is a critical component of the p53 pathway acting as a deubiquitinase for both p53 and its key repressor Mdm2.Here,we identified a novel HAUSP-interacting protein,HLA-B-associated transcript 3(Bat3)and found it to be capable of inducing p53 stabilization and activation via a HAUSP-dependent mechanism,resulting in cell growth inhibition.Surprisingly,the deubiquitylating enzymatic activity of HAUSP was not required for this phenomenon.Co-immunoprecipitation showed that p53 coexisted in a complex with Bat3 and HAUSP in vivo,and HAUSP may serve as a binding mediator to enhance the interaction between p53 and Bat3.Further studies revealed that formation of this three-protein complex interfered with the binding of p53 to its proteasome receptor S5a and promoted the accumulation of p53 in nucleus.Notably,Mdm2 protein abundance is also regulated by Bat3 in the presence of HAUSP.Overexpression of Bat3 and HAUSP increases Mdm2 protein levels without influencing the p53–Mdm2 interaction and Mdm2-mediated p53 ubiquitination,indicating that Bat3–HAUSP-mediated protein stabilization is not specific to p53 and different mechanisms may be involved in Bat3-mediated regulation of p53–Mdm2 pathway.Together,our study unravels a novel mechanism by which p53 is stabilized and activated by HAUSP-mediated interaction with Bat3 and implies that Bat3 might function as a tumor suppressor through the stabilization of p53.展开更多
基金supported by grants from the Key Research De-velopment Program of Zhejiang Province(2018C03018)Major Science and Technology Projects of Medicine and Health in Zhe-jiang Province(WKJ-ZJ-1923+1 种基金2020383364)National Key R and D Program of China(2017YFCO114102)。
文摘Background:Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is closely associated with obesity.However,this association could be influenced by the coexisting metabolic abnormalities.This study aimed to investigate the role of obesity and metabolic abnormalities in NAFLD among elderly Chinese.Methods:A cross-sectional study was performed among elderly residents who took their annual health checkups during 2016 in Keqiao District,Shaoxing,China.Results:A total of 3359 elderly adults were retrospectively included in this study.The overall prevalence of NAFLD was 28.7%.The prevalence of NAFLD were 7.14%,27.92%,34.80%,and 61.02%in participants with metabolically healthy normal weight(MHNW),metabolically abnormal normal weight(MANW),metabolically healthy obese(MHO),and metabolically abnormal obese(MAO),respectively.NAFLD patients in MHO group had more unfavorable metabolic profiles than those in MHNW group.Logistic regression analysis showed that sex,body mass index(BMI),fasting blood glucose,and serum uric acid were the risk factors of NAFLD.Conclusions:Both obesity and metabolic health were significantly associated with NAFLD in elderly Chinese.Screening for obesity and other metabolic abnormalities should be routinely performed for early risk stratification of NAFLD.
基金supported by grants from the Project of Health Commission of Zhejiang province(2014KYA075)Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang province(2014C33199)
文摘Background:Hepatic radiation injury severely restricts irradiation treatment for liver carcinoma.The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid(Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced MRI(EOB-MRI)in the assessment of liver function after external radiation therapy and to determine the relationship between focal liver reaction(FLR)and liver function.Methods:A total of 47 patients with liver malignancies who underwent external beam radiation therapy were enrolled.EOB-MRI was performed on each patient at approximately one month post-radiotherapy.The hepatobiliary(HPB)phase images from EOB-MRI were fused with the planning CT images,and the isodose lines from the patients’treatment plans were overlaid onto the fused images.The correlation of the EOB-MR image intensity distribution with the isodose lines was studied.We also compared liver function in patients between pre-treatment and post-treatment.Results:Decreased uptake of Gd-EOB-DTPA,which was manifested by well-demarcated focal hypointensity of the liver parenchyma or FLR to high-dose radiation,was observed in the irradiated areas of 38 patients.The radiotherapy isodose line of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA was 30–46 Gy.The median corresponding dose curve of FLR was 34.4 Gy.Nine patients showed the absence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA in the irradiated areas.Compared to the 38 patients with the presence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA,9 patients with the absence of decreased uptake area of Gd-EOB-DTPA showed significant higher levels of total bile acid,total bilirubin,direct bilirubin and alpha-fetoprotein(P<0.05).There were no significant differences in alanine transaminase,aspartate aminotransferase,gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase or albumin levels between the two groups(P>0.05).Conclusions:Visible uptake of Gd-EOB-DTPA by the liver parenchyma was significantly associated with liver function parameters.EOB-MRI can be a valuable imaging biomarker for the assessment of liver parenchyma function outside of radiation area.
基金The authors are grateful to the general program of applied basic research of Yunnan province(2019FB116)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFC1704007)for partly financial support.
文摘Alstonia scholaris could be used as a traditional medicinal plant in China for the treatment of acute respiratory,which might be caused by respiratory tract infections.The investigation tested the anti-infective effects of total alkaloids extract(TA)from leaves of A.scholaris,and as a result,TA inhibited herpes simplex virus type 1(HSV-1),respiratory syncytial virus(RSV)and influenza A virus(H1N1)in vitro respectively.In addition,the survival days of mice were prolonged,and the lung weights and mortality of mice were decreased significantly,after oral administrated TA in H1N1 and beta-hemolytic streptococcus infectious models in vivo respectively.The finding supported partly the traditional usage of A.scholaris in the treatment of respiratory infections.
基金co-supported by the Key-area Research and Development Program of Guangdong ProvinceChina(No.2019B090915001)+2 种基金National Key R&D Program of China(No.2018YFB1308000),National Natural Science Funds of China(Nos.61772508,U1913202,U1813205,U1713213)CAS Key Technology Talent Program,Shenzhen Technology ProjectChina(Nos.JCYJ20180507182610734,JSGG20191129094012321).
文摘This paper tackles the robust leaderless Time-Varying Formation(TVF)control problem for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics,external disturbances and directed switching topologies.In comparison with the previous achievements on formation control problems,the UAV swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics can accomplish the pre-designed TVF while tracking a pre-given trajectory which is produced by a virtual leader UAV in the presence of external disturbances.Firstly,by applying the consensus theory,a TVF controller is developed with the local neighborhood status information,the errors of real time status of all UAVs,the expected formation configuration and the pre-given trajectory under directed switching topologies.Secondly,through a certain matrix variable substitution,the UAV swarm system formation control issue is transformed into a lower dimensional asymptotically stable control issue.Thirdly,by introducing the minimum dwell time,the design steps of formation control algorithm are further acquired.In the meantime,the stability of the UAV swarm system is analyzed through the construction of a piecewise continuous Lyapunov functional and via the Linear Matrix Inequalities(LMIs)method.Finally,the comparison results of a numerical simulation are elaborated to verify the validity of the proposed approach.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21577003,21876003)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2016YFC0202200)+1 种基金the Australian Research Council under Discovery Project(No.DP180102632)the special fund of State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control(No.19Y02ESPCP)
文摘Soot particles,mainly coming from fuel combustion,affect climate forcing through absorbing light and also result in adverse human health outcomes.Though biodiesel or additives blending with diesel was considered environmentally friendly,the understanding on absorbing and oxidative capacity of soot emitted from them are still unclear.The watersoluble organic carbon(WSOC)content,surface chemical structure,light absorption and oxidative potential(OPDTT)of soot from biodiesel/diesel and chemicals/diesel blends were investigated utilizing total organic carbon analyzer,X-ray photoelectron spectrometer,ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry and dithiothreitol(DTT)assay.The differences and correlations between soot properties were statistically analyzed.Chemicals/diesel blends soot owned significantly higher WSOC content,ratio of mass absorbing efficiency(MAE)in250 and 365 nm(E2/E3),OPDTT,and higher surface carbonyl content.Coconut biodiesel/diesel blends soot contained evidently higher aromatic carbon–oxygen single bond(ArC–O)content,and higher MAE365.The individual comparison of biodiesel/diesel blends showed20%coconut biodiesel blend owned the lowest WSOC,E2/E3 and OPDTT,while highest ArC–O and MAE365,representing strongest absorbing properties.Association analysis showed OPDTTwas significantly positively correlated with WSOC.Further,the evident negative correlation between MAE365 and OPDTT was observed.Our results showed coconut biodiesel/diesel blends soot induced lower levels of oxidative potential,whereas absorption of light was higher,which have far reaching consequences on climate forcing.Therefore,it is important to evaluate the balance point between light-absorbing properties and oxidative potential,under the wide use of biodiesel.
基金financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.21876003 and41961134034)the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (No.2019QZKK0607)the 111 Project Urban Air Pollution and Health Effects (B20009)。
文摘Graphene oxide(GO),a new and promising material,has been widely used as a co-catalyst in photocatalytic reactions;however,its capacity as a sole photocatalyst has rarely been investigated.In this study,ultraviolet(UV) light irradiation was used as a modification method to obtain reduced GO(rGO) samples.The samples were used as photocatalysts to examine their visible light photocatalytic activity toward hexavalent chromium(Cr(Ⅵ)) removal.Atomic force microscopy(AFM),X-ray diffraction(XRD),UV-vis spectrophotometry,Raman spectroscopy,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),and electron spin resonance(ESR) spectroscopy were applied to interpret the surface and structure changes with UV irradiation.The oxygen-containing functional groups(OFGs) on the GO surface were reduced to defective carbons andπ-conjugated C=C(sp^(2) domains) under UV light;this led to a decrease in the interlayer distance between GO sheets,GO fragmentation,and increased disorder on the GO surface.The restoration of sp^(2) domains led to a narrower band gap of GO,which favored the rGO excitation by visible light to generate electron-hole pairs.The rGO pre-irradiated with UV for 1 h(rGO-1),possessing the highest defect density and electron generation efficiency,exhibited the best Cr(Ⅵ) reduction efficiency,which was about three times that of the GO sample;moreover,it outperformed most of the reported GO-based nanomaterials.In addition,low pH and the addition of citric acid as a hole scavenger could further improve the photocatalytic activity.This study proves that GO or rGO can be used as a sole photocatalyst under visible light to remove environmental pollutants such as heavy-metal ions,and it paves the way for the development of this kind of material and its UV-irradiation modification for further applications.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31500703,31371351,and 31671488)the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China(NCET-09-0737).
文摘The p53 pathway is a highly complex signaling network including several key regulators.HAUSP is a critical component of the p53 pathway acting as a deubiquitinase for both p53 and its key repressor Mdm2.Here,we identified a novel HAUSP-interacting protein,HLA-B-associated transcript 3(Bat3)and found it to be capable of inducing p53 stabilization and activation via a HAUSP-dependent mechanism,resulting in cell growth inhibition.Surprisingly,the deubiquitylating enzymatic activity of HAUSP was not required for this phenomenon.Co-immunoprecipitation showed that p53 coexisted in a complex with Bat3 and HAUSP in vivo,and HAUSP may serve as a binding mediator to enhance the interaction between p53 and Bat3.Further studies revealed that formation of this three-protein complex interfered with the binding of p53 to its proteasome receptor S5a and promoted the accumulation of p53 in nucleus.Notably,Mdm2 protein abundance is also regulated by Bat3 in the presence of HAUSP.Overexpression of Bat3 and HAUSP increases Mdm2 protein levels without influencing the p53–Mdm2 interaction and Mdm2-mediated p53 ubiquitination,indicating that Bat3–HAUSP-mediated protein stabilization is not specific to p53 and different mechanisms may be involved in Bat3-mediated regulation of p53–Mdm2 pathway.Together,our study unravels a novel mechanism by which p53 is stabilized and activated by HAUSP-mediated interaction with Bat3 and implies that Bat3 might function as a tumor suppressor through the stabilization of p53.
