[Clinical characteristics, pathology, and prognosis of children with diffuse endocapillary proliferative Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis]. / å„¿ç«¥å¼¥æ¼«æ€§æ¯›ç»†è¡€ç®¡å† å¢žç”Ÿæ€§ç´«ç™œæ€§è‚¾ç‚Žçš„ä¸´åºŠã€ç— ç†åŠé¢„åŽ.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical characteristics, pathology, and prognosis of children with diffuse endocapillary proliferative Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis (DEP-HSPN). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical, pathological, and prognosis data of 44 children with DEP-HSPN and 765 children without DEP-HSPN. The children with DEP-HSPN were diagnosed by renal biopsy in Jiangxi Provincial Children's Hospital from January 2006 to December 2021. RESULTS: Among the 809 children with purpura nephritis, 44 (5.4%) had DEP-HSPN, with a mean age of (8±3) years, and there were 29 boys (65.9%) and 15 girls (34.1%). Compared with the non-DEP-HSPN group, the DEP-HSPN group had a significantly shorter time from onset to renal biopsy and a significantly higher proportion of children with respiratory infection or gross hematuria, and most children had nephrotic syndrome. The DEP-HSPN group had significantly higher levels of 24-hour urinary protein, urinary protein grading, microscopic hematuria grading, serum creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen and significantly lower levels of serum albumin and complement C3 (P<0.05). The DEP-HSPN group had a higher pathological grading, with predominant deposition of IgA in the mesangial area and capillary loops, and higher activity scores in the modified semi-quantitative scoring system (P<0.05). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the renal complete remission rate between the two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children with DEP-HSPN have a rapid onset, severe clinical manifestations and pathological grading, and high activity scores in the modified semi-quantitative scoring system. However, most of the children with DEP-HSPN have a good prognosis, with a comparable renal complete remission rate to the children without DEP-HSPN.

Molecular Iron Oxide Clusters Boost the Oxygen Reduction Reaction of Platinum Electrocatalysts at Near-Neutral pH.

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a key energy conversion process, which is critical for the efficient operation of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Here, we report the significant enhancement of the ORR-performance of commercial platinum-on-carbon electrocatalysts when operated in aqueous electrolyte solutions (pH 5.6), containing the polyoxoanion [Fe28 (µ3 -O)8 (L-(-)-tart)16 (CH3 COO)24 ]20- . Mechanistic studies provide initial insights into the performance-improving role of the iron oxide cluster during ORR. Technological deployment of the system is demonstrated by incorporation into a direct formate microfluidic fuel cell (DFMFC), where major performance increases are observed when compared with reference electrolytes. The study provides the first examples of iron oxide clusters in electrochemical energy conversion and storage.

[Diversity and PICRUSt2-based Predicted Functional Analysis of Bacterial Communities During the Start-up of ANAMMOX].

Bacterial communities are vital for efficient nitrogen removal in an anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) system. However, the diversity and functional characteristics of a bacterial community during the start-up of ANAMMOX has not been reported. In this study, an up-flow anaerobic sludge bed reactor was used to start-up the ANAMMOX system, and 16S rRNA high-throughput gene sequencing, combined with PICRUSt2-based functional prediction analysis, was used to investigate the dynamic changes in diversity and function of the bacterial community at different times (d0, d30, d60, and d90) during the start-up. The results showed that 48 phyla, 111 classes, 269 orders, 457 families, 840 genera, and 1497 species were present during the start-up of ANAMMOX. Candidatus Brocadia and Candidatus_Kuenenia were the main detected ANAMMOX bacteria, and their relative abundance was significantly different at different times during the start-up of ANAMMOX (P<0.05). During the start-up, the alpha diversity indices of the bacterial community were significantly decreased (P<0.05), and the structure of the bacterial community exhibited significant spatial differentiation (R=0.846, P<0.01). Functional prediction analysis with PICRUSt2 revealed that the bacterial community was active in organic systems and metabolism at hierarchy level 1, implying abundant functional diversity. Further, the abundance of functional genes was significantly different at hierarchy level 2, during the start-up of ANAMMOX. Forty-nine functional genes involving metabolic nitrogen were detected. The abundance of functional genes, involved in nitrification, denitrification, ANAMMOX, and nitrate and nitrite assimilatory/dissimilatory reduction, changed significantly during the start-up of ANAMMOX.

[Microbial Community Structure and Diversity During the Enrichment of Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation Bacteria].

To understand the changes in microbial community characteristics during the enrichment of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) bacteria, an ASBR reactor was used to culture the ANAMMOX bacteria. The composition, diversity, and species co-occurrence network of the microbial community were investigated under different cultivation times. The results showed that the ANAMMOX bacteria were enriched by gradually increasing the substrate concentration, with removal efficiencies for NH4+-N, NO2--N, and total nitrogen of 97.6%, 95.4%, and 84.9%, respectively. The high-throughput sequencing found that the dominant phyla (relative abundance>5%) were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, Armatimonadetes, and Actinobacteria in the whole culture process. Candidatus Brocadia was the main ANAMMOX bacteria in the reactor, with its relative abundance increasing from 1.42% to 24.66%. During the cultivation process, the composition of the dominant microbial community did not change, while the relative abundance showed a significant difference (P<0.05). The alpha diversity of the microbial community significantly increased first and then decreased (P<0.05), and the beta diversity of the microbial community was significantly spatially differentiated (R=0.5672, P<0.01) during the culture process. Species network densities were 0.188, 0.068, 0.059, 0.18, and 0.0735 at different times during the culture process. Although the enrichment culture process resulted in weaker correlations between microorganisms, the related group of microorganisms in the phylum Aspergillus became the main node in the network. The enrichment process weakened the correlation between microorganisms; however, the microbial taxa related to the phylum Planctomycetes became the key node in the network.

Diurnal oscillations of endogenous H2O2 sustained by p66Shc regulate circadian clocks.

Redox balance, an essential feature of healthy physiological steady states, is regulated by circadian clocks, but whether or how endogenous redox signalling conversely regulates clockworks in mammals remains unknown. Here, we report circadian rhythms in the levels of endogenous H2O2 in mammalian cells and mouse livers. Using an unbiased method to screen for H2O2-sensitive transcription factors, we discovered that rhythmic redox control of CLOCK directly by endogenous H2O2 oscillations is required for proper intracellular clock function. Importantly, perturbations in the rhythm of H2O2 levels induced by the loss of p66Shc, which oscillates rhythmically in the liver and suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of mice, disturb the rhythmic redox control of CLOCK function, reprogram hepatic transcriptome oscillations, lengthen the circadian period in mice and modulate light-induced clock resetting. Our findings suggest that redox signalling rhythms are intrinsically coupled to the circadian system through reversible oxidative modification of CLOCK and constitute essential mechanistic timekeeping components in mammals.

Roles of mixing patterns in the network reconstruction.

Compressive sensing is an effective way to reconstruct the network structure. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the mixing patterns, measured by the assortative coefficient, on the performance of network reconstruction. First, we present a model to generate networks with different assortativity coefficients, then we reconstruct the network structure by using the compressive sensing method. The experimental results show that when the assortativity coefficient r=0.2, the accuracy of the network reconstruction reaches the maximum value, which suggests that the compressive sensing is more effective for uncovering the links of social networks. Moreover, the accuracy of the network reconstruction will be higher as the network size increases.

[Cloning and characterization of a novel human ceg1 gene cDNA].

ceg1 gene was a novel human gene, which was cloned by bioinformatics research and RT-PCR. It was a single exon gene and located on human chromosome 14. The length of the cDNA was 2050 bp. Bioinformatics analysis predicted a 1340 bp complete open reading frame (ORF) which encoded a 446 amino acid protein, containing an EGF-like and CLECT domain. We found that the homologous genes of ceg1 in mouse embryo and chicken embryo were specifically expressed in the brain by in-situ hybridization. The result of RT-PCR of the mature mouse organs showed it was widely expressed in many organs. The result indicates that ceg1 gene may have an essential role in the development of brain and the maintenance of the organs' normal function. The analysis of expression and function profile of ceg1 gene may provide valuable insights into the functions of ceg1 in the development and function of human body.