Lonicera flos and Cnicus japonicus extracts improved egg quality partly by modulating antioxidant status, inflammatory-related cytokines and shell matrix protein expression of oviduct in laying hens.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Lonicera flos and Cnicus japonicus extracts (LCE) on the laying performance, egg quality, morphology, antioxidant status, inflammatory-related cytokines, and shell matrix protein expression of oviduct in laying hens. A total of 1,728 Roman Pink laying hens aged 73-wk-old were randomly assigned into 4 groups (18 replicates/group, 24 layers/replicate) fed basal diets supplemented with 0, 300, 500, and 1,000 mg of LCE per kg of diet, respectively. The trial lasted for 11 wk, including 2-wk adjustment period and 9-wk testing period. The results indicated that laying hens fed diets supplemented with LCE linearly increased egg weight, yolk color and shell thickness at wk 78 and albumen height, Haugh unit and shell thickness at wk 83 (P < 0.05). At wk 78, LCE groups linearly affected the hydrogen peroxide content in magnum (P < 0.05) and 300 mg/kg LCE groups had the highest catalase activity in isthmus (P < 0.05). At wk 83, LCE groups linearly reduced (P < 0.05) hydrogen peroxide content in the magnum and isthmus and malondialdehyde content in the uterus whereas increased catalase activity in isthmus (P < 0.05). Furthermore, LCE levels quadratically affected glutathione peroxidase activity in isthmus at wk 83 (P < 0.05). At wk 78, the mRNA expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase and interferon-γ in isthmus and ovalbumin and ovocleidin-116 in uterus had linear effects in response to LCE levels (P < 0.05) and 1,000 mg/kg LCE group had the lowest mRNA expression of interleukin-6 in magnum (P < 0.05). At wk 83, LCE supplementation linearly decreased the mRNA expression of interleukin-1ß, interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor-α in magnum and tumor necrosis factor-α and inducible nitric oxide synthase in uterus (P < 0.05). It is concluded that LCE improved egg quality partly by modulating antioxidant status, inflammatory-related cytokines and shell matrix protein expression of oviduct in laying hens.

Establishment of an immune-related gene prognostic model for head and neck tumors.

This study aimed to screen the key immune-related genes (IRGs) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) and construct the IRGs-related prognostic model to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with HNSC. The RNA-seq data and clinical data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and IRGs were obtained from the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HNSC and normal samples were identified, followed by integration with IRGs to screen differentially expressed IRGs. After univariate and multivariate proportional hazard regression analyses, an IRG-based risk model was constructed. Meanwhile, data chip of GSE65858 as the validation set to assess the predicted performance of established model. Next, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify the independent prognostic factor of HNSC, and the Nomogram model was developed to predict patient outcome. Furthermore, the correlation between immune cell infiltration and risk score was analyzed. A total of 65 differently expressed IRGs associated with prognosis of HNSC were screened, and finally a 26-gene IRG signature was identified to construct a prognostic prediction model. The AUC of ROC curve was 0.750. Survival analysis showed that patients in the high-risk group had a worse prognosis. Independent prognostic analysis showed that risk score could be considered as an independent predictor for HNSC prognosis. Nomogram assessment showed that the model had high reliability for predicting the survival of patients with HNSC in 1, 2, 3 years. Ultimately, the abundance of B cells and CD4+ T cell infiltration in HNSC showed negative correlations with risk score. Our IRG-based prognostic risk model may be used to estimate the prognosis of HNSC patients.

The giant planar Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance in Dirac node arcs semimetal PtSn4.

Topological semimetals (TSMs) present intriguing quantum states and have attracted much attention in recent years because of exhibiting various anomalous magneto-transport phenomena. Theoretical prediction shows that some novel phenomena, such as negative magnetoresistance (MR) and the planar Hall effect (PHE), originate from the chiral anomaly in TSMs. In this work, high-field (33 T) Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations are obtained to reveal the topology of PtSn4. Giant PHE and anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) are observed in Dirac node arcs of semimetal PtSn4. First, a non-zero transverse voltage can be acquired while tilting the in-plane magnetic field. Moreover, the amplitude of PHE sharply increases at T * ∼ 50 K with decreasing temperature, which is suggested to be related to the Fermi surface reconstruction observed in PtSn4. Subsequently, the field-dependent amplitudes of the PHE show an abnormal behavior around 50 K, which is thought to stem from the complex correlation between the chiral charge and electric one in PtSn4 driving the system into different coupling states due to the complicated band structure. On the other hand, the relative AMR is negative and up to -98% at 8.5 T. Our work proves that the PHE measurements are a convincing transport fingerprint feature to confirm the chiral anomaly in TSMs.

Metal-Organic Framework MIL-101-NH2-Supported Acetate-Based Butylimidazolium Ionic Liquid as a Highly Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Synthesis of 3-Aryl-2-oxazolidinones.

A novel heterogeneous catalyst, the ionic liquid (IL) of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (BmimOAc) immobilized on MIL-101-NH2, denoted as IL(OAc-)-MIL-101-NH2, was prepared by the "ship-in-a-bottle" strategy. The IL of BmimOAc was prepared in the MIL-101-NH2 nanocages primordially, in which the condensation product of MIL-101-NH2's amine group with 1,1'-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) reacted with 1-bromo butane, and then the intermediate exchanged with potassium acetate. The structure and physicochemical properties of IL(OAc-)-MIL-101-NH2 were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, DRS UV-vis, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and elemental analysis. The results indicated that BmimOAc was anchored in the MIL-101-NH2 skeleton via the acylamino group and confined in the nanocages in the form of a single molecule. The composite material of IL(OAc-)-MIL-101-NH2 exhibited excellent catalytic activity and catalytically synthesized 3-aryl-2-oxazolone in an excellent yield of 92%. It can be reused up to six times without noteworthy loss of its activity and demonstrated distinct size-selective property for substrates. It was conjectured that the diffusion kinetics of reactants could be controlled by the aperture size of the metal-organic framework support.

miR-204 suppresses non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) invasion and migration by targeting JAK2.

Aberrant expression of microRNA is associated with the development and progression of cancers. MicroRNA-204 (miR-204) down-regulation has been previously demonstrated in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC); however, the underlying mechanism by which miR-204 suppresses tumorigenesis in NSCLC remains elusive. In this study, miR-204 expression was found to be down-regulated, and that of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) was found to be up-regulated in four NSCLC cell lines (A549, H1299, H1650, and H358) compared to the normal lung cell line. The overexpression of miR-204 suppressed the invasive and migratory capacities of H1299 cells. A luciferase assay confirmed that the binding of miR-124 to the -untranslated region of JAK2 inhibited the expression of JAK2 proteins in H1299 cells. JAK-2 overexpression effectively reversed miR-204-repressed NSCLC metastasis. Taken together, our findings revealed that miR-204 functions as a tumor suppressor in NSCLC by targeting JAK2, and that miR-204 may therefore serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of NSCLC.

The trend of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity in ovarian cancer survivors and its impacts on daily life during and one year after treatment.

PURPOSE: To explore the trend of progression and regression of peripheral neuropathy (PN) induced by combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel, and the impacts on daily activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PN was evaluated by nurse-based interview and patient-reported measures in their diary. The severity of PN scaled by National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria (NCI-CTC) before each cycle of chemotherapy and at three, six, and 12 months after drug withdrawal and coded as Grade I - V. RESULTS: The authors enrolled 106 eligible patients with ovarian cancer who underwent six cycles of combined chemotherapy of carboplatin plus paclitaxel. No patients showed Grade IV and V of PN and it was gradually aggravated following the dose accumulation. About 29.3% of the patients presented no PN, 64.2% Grade I, and 6.6% Grade II after the third course of chemotherapy, but increased to 36.8% of Grade I, 25.5% of Grade II, and 34.9% of Grade III after the sixth course of chemotherapy. At one-year follow-up, the rate of PN still existed with the rate of 88.5%, 57.3%, and 38.7% at three, six, and 12 months after drug withdrawal. Thirty-one patients encountered accidents, such as sharp injury (14.2%), fall (9.4%), burn (3.8%), and cold injury (1.9%). CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer treated with carboplatin plus paclitaxel suffer long term neuropathy and it affects patient's daily activities. Specialized care is necessary to provide not only during treatment, but also months to years after drugs withdrawal.

Effect of flavonoid compounds extracted from Iris species in prevention of carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis in rats.

We investigated the effect of flavonoid compounds extracted from species of genus Iris L. on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced rat liver fibrosis. Thirty Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal control group, liver fibrosis model group, and drug treatment group (N = 10 each). Next, 0.2 mL/100 g CCl4 was subcutaneously injected for 6 weeks in both model and treatment rats to generate the liver fibrosis model. In the control group, an equal volume of castor oil was injected subcutaneously. Rats in the treatment group also received 100 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1) flavonoid compounds via gastric tubes. After 6 weeks, rats were sacrificed, and their liver tissues were examined for pathological changes, including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, hyaluronic acid, laminin, and procollagen type-3. Liver tissues from control rats showed no significant pathological changes, while model animals showed significant liver fibrosis. In the treatment group, liver fibrosis significantly decreased compared to the model group (P < 0.05). Liver fibrotic indices, including hyaluronic acid, laminin, and procollagen type-3, in treatment rats were all significantly lower than those in the model group (P < 0.05), but not significantly different compared to the normal group (P > 0.05). Other liver function indices, including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and total bilirubin, in treatment rats were also significantly lower than those in model rats (P < 0.01) but higher than those in control animals (P < 0.05). Flavonoid compounds extracted from Iris plants showed significant inhibitory effects on CCl4-induced rat liver fibrosis.

Thermoelectric properties of armchair and zigzag silicene nanoribbons.

Using the nonequilibrium Green's function method and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we discuss the possibility of using silicene nanoribbons (SiNRs) as high performance thermoelectric materials. It is found that SiNRs are structurally stable if the edge atoms are passivated by hydrogen, and those with armchair edges usually exhibit much better thermoelectric performance than their zigzag counterparts. The room temperature ZT value of armchair SiNRs shows a width-dependent oscillating decay, while it decreases slowly with increasing ribbon width for the zigzag SiNRs. In addition, there is a strong temperature dependence of the thermoelectric performance of these SiNRs. Our theoretical calculations indicate that by optimizing the doping level and applied temperature, the ZT value of SiNRs could be enhanced to as high as 4.9 which suggests their very appealing thermoelectric applications.

The properties of BiSb nanoribbons from first-principles calculations.

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of BiSb nanoribbons (BSNRs) with different widths and edge configurations are investigated via the first-principles pseudopotential method. It is found that the pristine BSNRs with armchair edges (ABSNRs) are semiconductors and the band gaps exhibit a width dependent odd-even oscillation. In contrast, the pristine BSNRs with zigzag edges (ZBSNRs) are found to be metallic. When all the edge atoms are passivated by hydrogen, both the ABSNRs and ZBSNRs become semiconducting and the corresponding band gaps decrease monotonically with the increasing width. If, however, the edge atoms are partially passivated, the ABSNRs can be either semiconducting or metallic. Moreover, local magnetism appears when all the edge Sb atoms are passivated and there are one or more unsaturated Bi atoms. Using the nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) approach, we find that all the investigated odd-numbered ABSNRs have almost the same peak value of the power factor around the Fermi level. This is not the case for the even-numbered ABSNRs, where the peaks are twice that of when they are n-type doped. Our calculations indicate that BSNRs can have a very high room temperature figure of merit (ZT value), which makes them very promising candidates for thermoelectric applications.

Autologous stem cell transplantation for systemic lupus erythematosus: report of efficacy and safety at 7 years of follow-up in 17 patients.

INTRODUCTION: We observed the efficacy and toxicity of autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: Seventeen patients with SLE were treated with auto-SCT. No prisoners were used in the study. Peripheral blood stem cells were mobilized with cyclophosphamide (Cy) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. After a conditioning regimen of Cy and antithymocyte globulin, we reinfused stem cells. The probabilities of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were used to assess the efficacy and adverse experiences, to detect the toxicities of the treatment. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 89 months (range 33-110). Probabilities of 7-year OS and PFS were 82.4% ± 9.2% and 64.7% ± 11.6%, respectively. The principal adverse events included allergy, infection, elevation of liver enzymes, bone pain, and heart failure. Two patients died due to severe pneumonia and heart failure at 33 and 64 months after transplantation, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our 7-year follow-up results suggested that auto-SCT seemed beneficial for SLE patients.