Upregulation of circ0000381 atienuates microglial/macrophage pyroptosis after spinal cord injury

Neuroinflammation exacerbates secondary damage after spinal cord injury,while microglia/macrophage pyroptosis is important to neuroinflammation.Circular RNAs(circRNAs)play a role in the central nervous system.However,the functional role and mechanism of circRNAs in regulating microglia/macrophage pyroptosis after spinal cord injury are still poorly studied.In the present study,we detected microglia/macrophage pyroptosis in a female rat model of spinal cord injury,along with upregulated levels of circ0000381 in the spinal cord.Our further experimental results suggest that circ0000381 may function as a sponge to sequester endogenous microRNA423-3p(miR-423-3p),which can increase the expression of NOD-like receptor 3(NLRP3),a pyroptosis marker.Therefore,upregulation of circ0000381 may be a compensatory change after spinal cord injury to attenuate microglia/macrophage pyroptosis.Indeed,knockdown of circ0000381 expression exacerbated microglia/macrophage pyroptosis.Collectively,our findings provide novel evidence for the upregulation of circ0000381,which may serve as a neuroprotective mechanism to attenuate microglia/macrophage pyroptosis after spinal cord injury.Accordingly,circ0000381 may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Pore Structure Characteristics of Taiyuan Formation Shale in Qinshui Basin

Qinshui Basin is located in the southeast of Shanxi Province, China. Taking the shale of Taiyuan Formation in Qinshui Basin as the research object, the study analyzed the pore size of the shale of Taiyuan formation in detail from micropore to macropore by the methods of mercury injection, liquid nitrogen analysis and combination of liquid nitrogen and mercury injection. The results show that: 1) the visible pores and macropores are poorly developed and distributed unevenly in the shale of Taiyuan formation, and the micropores are well developed in the shale, and there are more open pores in the pore diameter range, and the pore connectivity is good;2) the liquid nitrogen experiment shows that the pores of Taiyuan Shale are relatively developed between 15 nm and 20 nm, and the formation of hysteresis loop may be caused by some narrow slit pores with similar layered structure;3) the comprehensive analysis of liquid nitrogen and mercury injection experiments shows that the shale of the Taiyuan formation mainly develops micropores, the Mesopores is not developed, the pore volume at 10 - 100 nm is more developed than other parts, and the specific surface is mainly contributed by micropores, which can improve the efficiency of shale gas resolution;at the same time, it provides a channel for Shale gas migration, which is beneficial to the development of shale gas.

苯并噁嗪的阻燃改性研究进展

基于自身低熔融黏度、固化过程不需添加催化剂、聚合过程中无小分子释放以及固化后树脂卓越的力学性能,近年来苯并噁嗪引起了学术界和诸多工业制造及生产行业的极大兴趣。尽管苯并噁嗪单体含氧、氮六元杂环结构,开环后聚合生成类似酚醛树脂的网状结构,不易燃烧,但仍无法满足高阻燃场合的应用需求。文中从苯并噁嗪的本体改性、共聚改性及物理共混改性三方面,综述了近些年苯并噁嗪树脂阻燃改性的一些研究成果,概述了其作为阻燃协效剂的应用,并对其阻燃改性方法及阻燃应用方向进行了展望。

Analysis on Several Heat Pump Applications in Large Public Buildings

The consumption of cooling and heating energy and the methods of heating and cooling used in large public buildings are analyzed in this paper. A comparison between initial investment and operation costs of heat pump and traditional heating modes used in large public buildings is also introduced. A life cycle cost (LCC) mathematical model is established to analyze the main factors that affect the LCC including the advantages and disadvantages of heat pumps currently in use. Some suggestions about heating and cooling modes applied in large buildings in different geographical areas are given in this paper.

Experimental study on the effect of Huangqi and Danshen ultramicro gel on vascular healing of wound in rats based on network pharmacology

Objective:To explore the effective components of Huangqi(Astragalus membranaceus(Fisch.)Bge.)and Danshen(Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge.)and predict their potential functional targets,to explore the effect and mechanism of Huangqi and Danshen ultrafine granule gel on wound vascular healing in rats by network pharmacology and experimental verification.Methods:Using the TCMSP database to screen the active components of two herbs and their potential targets,to search the target related to vascular injury through the Gene Card database,and to select the gene target with correlation coefficient greater than 10%.Then map the disease related target to the potential target of the compound,to obtain the common target,and to import the information to the String online analysis platform and Cytoscape to make the PPI map,and to carry on the topological analysis,KEGG and GO enrichment analysis through Metascape platform.The expression analysis of the main target genes of network pharmacology was verified by pathological section staining and optical density method to determine the content of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)in tissues,the number of tissue new capillaries,and the wound healing rate.Results:A total of 115 active components and 297 target genes were selected from Huangqi and Danshen,and 123 target genes were intersected with vascular injury,among which IL6,AKT1,INS,VEGFA,TNF,EGF,CASP3,MAPK1,TP53 were the active genes with the highest intersection value.The pathways involved are mainly related to AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications,MAPK signaling pathway,Pathways in cancer,human cytomegalovirus infection,Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis,Endocrine resistance,foxo signaling pathway etc.We experimentally validated VEGFA based on the primary target of vascular regeneration,the experimental results showed that there was different expression of VEGFA proteins in wound vascular healing process,and the quercetin,daidzein,luteolin,apigenin,tanshinone i of 115 active components were selected as the main compounds acting on the VEGFA.Conclusion:This study systematically reveals the material basis and mechanism of Huangqi and Danshen regulating wound vascular healing through multi-component,multi-target and multi-pathway and provides theoretical and scientific basis for the clinical application of Huangqi and Danshen.

Highly efficient solution-processed organic photovoltaics enabled by improving packing behavior of organic semiconductors

Solution processability is a unique property of organic semiconductors. The compact and regular π-π stacking between molecules is paramount in the performance of organic optoelectronic devices. However, it is still a challenge to improve their stacking quality without sacrificing the solution-processability from the aspect of materials design. Here, delicately engineered additives are presented to promote the formation of ordered aggregation of conjugated molecules by regulating their nucleation and growth dynamics. Intriguingly, the long-chain BTP-eC9-4F molecules can realize ordered aggregation comparable to short-chain ones without sacrificing processability. The domain size of BTP-eC9-4F aggregation is enlarged from 24.2 to 32.2 nm in blend films.Thereby exciton diffusion and charge transport become faster, contributing to the suppression of recombination losses. As a result, a power conversion efficiency of 19.2% is achieved in D18:BTP-eC9-4F based organic photovoltaics. Our findings demonstrate a facile strategy to improve the packing quality of solution-processed organic semiconductors for high-efficiency photovoltaics and beyond photovoltaics.

Time-space multiplexed photonic-electronic digital multiplier

Optical computing has shown immense application prospects in the post-Moore era.However,as a crucial component of logic computing,the digital multiplier can only be realized on a small scale in optics,restrained by the limited functionalities and inevitable loss of optical nonlinearity.In this paper,we propose a time-space multiplexed architecture to realize large-scale photonic-electronic digital multiplication.

A Simple Nonfused Ring Electron Acceptor with a Power Conversion Efficiency over 16%

By simplifying the r-bridge unit,a nonfused ring electron acceptor(NFREA)BM-2F was designed and synthesized with several high-yield steps.The specific molecular structure features of BM-2F are planar molecular backbone and out-of-plane side chain,which is favorable for charge transport and can suppress the over-aggregation.BM-2F based neat and blend films display obvious face-on molecular orientation.Specially,D18:BM-2F based blend film can form good bicontinuous interpenetrating network.More excitingly,a power conversion efficiency of 16.15%was achieved with D18:BM-2F based photovoltaic devices,which is the highest one based on NFREAs.Our researches manifest that NFREA is a promising direction for low-cost and high-performance organic solar cells.

On-chip photonic spatial-temporal descrambler

As an indispensable part to compensate for the signal crosstalk in fiber communication systems,conventional digital multi-input multi-output(MIMO)signal processor is facing the challenges of high com-putational complexity,high power consumption and relatively low processing speed.The optical MIMOenables the best use of light and has been proposed to remedy this limitation.However,the currently existing optical MIMO methods are all restricted to the spatial di-mension,while the temporal dimension is neglected.Here,an on-chip spatial-temporal descrambler with four channels were devised and its MIMO functions were experimentally verified simultaneously in both spatial and temporal dimensions.The spatial crosstalk of single-channel descrambler and four-channel descrambler is respectively less than-21 dB and-18 dB,and the time delay is simultaneously com-pensated successfully.Moreover,a more universal model extended to mode-dependent loss and gain(MDL)compensation was further de-veloped,which is capable of being cascaded for the real optical trans-mission system.The first attempt at photonic spatial-temporal de-scrambler enriched the varieties of optical MIMO,and the proposed scheme provided a new opportunity for all-optical MIMO signal pro-cessing.

A small microring array that performs large complex-valued matrix-vector multiplication

As an important computing operation,photonic matrix-vector multiplication is widely used in photonic neutral networks and signal processing.However,conventional incoherent matrix-vector multiplication focuses on real-valued operations,which cannot work well in complex-valued neural networks and discrete Fourier transform.In this paper,we propose a systematic solution to extend the matrix computation of microring arrays from the real-valued field to the complex-valued field,and from small-scale(i.e.,4×4)to large-scale matrix computation(i.e.,16×16).Combining matrix decomposition and matrix partition,our photonic complex matrix-vector multiplier chip can support arbitrary large-scale and complex-valued matrix computation.We further demonstrate Walsh-Hardmard transform,discrete cosine transform,discrete Fourier transform,and image convolutional processing.Our scheme provides a path towards breaking the limits of complex-valued computing accelerator in conventional incoherent optical architecture.More importantly,our results reveal that an integrated photonic platform is of huge potential for large-scale,complex-valued,artificial intelligence computing and signal processing.

Photoinduced excimer generation in perylene diimide dimer:effects of solvent polarity[Invited]

The aggregation and photoinduced excited state dynamics of organic π-conjugated molecules play a vital role in solar energy conversion and applications.This work investigates how solvent polarity affects the aggregation behavior and the photophysical process of perylene diimide dimer(PDI-II).The results show that the conjugations between PDI intramolecular chromophores are more likely to generate excimer,and the conjugations between PDI intermolecular chromophores are more likely to experience symmetry-breaking charge separation.Our study can provide a reference for the design of high-efficiency solar energy conversion materials.

Graphdiyne oxide-accelerated charge carrier transfer and separation at the interface for efficient binary organic solar cells

Interfacial engineering for the regulation of the charge carrier dynamics in solar cells is a critical factor in the fabrication of high-efficiency devices.Based on the successful preparation of highly dispersible graphdiyne oxide(GDYO)with a large number of functional groups,we fabricated organic solar cells employing GDYO-modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)as hole transport materials.Results show that theπ±πinteraction between GDYO and PEDOT:PSS is beneficial to the formation of an optimized charge carrier transfer channel and improves the conductivity and charge carrier mobility in the hole transport layer.Moreover,the improved interfacial contact contributes to the suppression of charge carrier recombination and the elevation of charge carrier extraction between the hole transport layer and the active layer.More importantly,the occurrence of charge carrier separation benefits from the optimized morphology of the active layer,which efficiently improves the performance,as proven by the results of transient absorption measurements.Therefore,with the holistic management approach to the multiobjective optimization of the charge carrier dynamics,a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 17.5%(with the certified value of 17.2%)is obtained for binary organic solar cells.All of these results indicate the potential application of the functionalized graphdiyne in the field of organic optoelectronic devices.

Correlation between clinical course and radiographic development on CT scan in patients with COVID-19

Background:To analyze the correlation between clinical course and radiographic development on computed tomography(CT)in patients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and to provide more evidence for treatment.Methods:This retrospective,observational,cohort study enrolled 49 patients with Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)-confirmed COVID-19,which included 30 patients admitted to the intensive care unit(ICU)of Wuhan Third Hospital and 19 patients either admitted to or receiving telemedicine consultation from Shanghai General Hospital,Shanghai Xuhui Dahua Hospital,and hospitals in other provinces.CT scans were performed in all enrolled patients and the radiographic features including simple ground-glass opacities(GGOs),GGO with interlobular septal thickening,consolidations with GGO,and consolidations only were monitored by repeating the CT.The progression of these radiographic features was analyzed in combination with their clinical staging and the time interval between onset of symptoms to CT.Results:Based on illness severity,the 49 patients were classified into four stages:mild(n=6),moderate(n=12),severe(n=16),and critically ill(n=15).The CT findings were classified into three phases:early(n=5),progres-sion(n=39),and recovery(n=5).Among the 49 patients,9 had bilateral diffuse GGO or diffuse consolidations(white lungs)and were counted as 18 lesions.Three patients had no abnormal findings on initial CT,but their repeat CT showed new lesions.In all,we identified 892 lesions including simple GGO,GGO with interlobular septal thickening,consolidations with GGO,and consolidations only.Conclusions:Most patients had pulmonary lesions on the posterior,inferior,and peripheral lung fields on CT.The development of GGO with interlobular septal thickening,GGO with consolidations,and consolidations only happened mainly between day 8 and 14.The emergence of consolidations may suggest the progression to the severe phase of the illness,whereas simple consolidations or“white lung”may suggest a critically ill phase.