Genome-wide identification and evolution of TC1/Mariner in the silkworm (Bombyx mori) genome

Li‑Qin Xie,Ping‑Lan Wang,Shen‑Hua Jiang,Ze Zhang,Hua‑Hao Zhang 한국유전학회 2018 Genes & Genomics Vol.40 No.5

TC1/Mariner transposons belong to class II transposable elements (TEs) that use DNA-mediated “cut and paste” mechanism to transpose, and they have been identified in almost all organisms. Although silkworm (Bombyx mori) has a large amount of TC1/Mariner elements, the genome wide information of this superfamily in the silkworm is unknown. In this study, we have identified 2670 TC1/Mariner (Bmmar) elements in the silkworm genome. All the TEs were classified into 22 families by means of fgclust, a tool of repetitive sequence classification, seven of which was first reported in this study. Phylogenetic and structure analyses based on the catalytic domain (DDxD/E) of transposase sequences indicated that all members of TC1/Mariner were grouped into five subgroups: Mariner, Tc1, maT, DD40D and DD41D/E. Of these five subgroups, maT rather than Mariner possessed most members of TC1/Mariner (51.23%) in the silkworm genome. In particular, phylogenetic analysis and structure analysis revealed that Bmmar15 (DD40D) formed a new basal subgroup of TC1/Mariner element in insects, which was referred to as bmori. Furthermore, we concluded that DD40D appeared to intermediate between mariner and Tc1. Finally, we estimated the insertion time for each copy of TC1/Mariner in the silkworm and found that most of members were dramatically amplified during a period from 0 to 1 mya. Moreover, the detailed functional data analysis showed that Bmmar1, Bmmar6 and Bmmar9 had EST evidence and intact transposases. These implied that TC1/Mariner might have potential transpositional activity. In conclusion, this study provides some new insights into the landscape, origin and evolution of TC1/Mariner in the insect genomes.

Structural, magnetic and dielectric properties of (Li1+, Al3+) co-doped Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite ceramics prepared by the sol-gel auto-combustion method

Qing Ni,Li Sun,Ensi Cao,Wentao Hao,Yongjia Zhang,Lin Ju 한국물리학회 2020 Current Applied Physics Vol.20 No.9

(Li1+, Al3+) co-doped Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrites, Ni0.5-xZn0.5-xLixAlxFe2O4 (x = 0.000, 0.025, 0.050 and 0.100), were synthesized by the sol-gel auto-combustion method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electronic microscope (FESEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and LCR meter were used to investigate the structural, magnetic and dielectric properties. Results of XRD and SEM indicate that both doping amount and calcination temperature play significant roles in crystal structure and grain growth. Also, it can be observed that the saturation magnetization and the coercivity change in a noticeable manner. The Ni0.475Zn0.475Li0.025Al0.025Fe2O4 ferrite sintered at 1200 °C has a relatively low coercivity value (62.93 Oe) and the largest saturation magnetization (110.95 emu/g). Besides, dielectric behavior is also improved by Li1+ and Al3+ co-doping

Current state of research about acupuncture for the treatment of COVID-19: A scoping review

Chen Chen,Jie Zhan,Hao Wen,Xiaojing Wei,Lu Ding,Chenyang Tao,Cui Li,Peiming Zhang,Yuyuan Tang,Jing-chun Zeng,Li-ming Lu 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.-

Background Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), acupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of COVID-19. The research community has responded rapidly and has already published many research articles about this topic. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library as well as CNKI, Wanfang and VIP from January 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021. The dates of publication, language of publication, methodological characteristics and the key findings were analyzed separately. The data are presented as bar graphs, structured tables and figures. Results In this scoping review, 16 research articles were included: 7 case reports, 6 observational studies, 1 review, 1 RCT and 1 nonrandomized clinical trial. The majority of the articles (81.3%) were published by Chinese scholars, 12.5% articles were by scholars in the United States, and 6.3% articles were by scholars in Iran. The included studies reported that acupuncture could alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19 patients, shorten their hospitalization days, and is effective for the elderly. There were no side effects reported. The most frequent acupoints used were LI4, PC6, ST36 and KI3. They reported many obstacles in implementing acupuncture therapy for treating COVID-19 patients. Conclusion Acupuncture has a good effect for the treatment of COVID-19, but high-quality evidence support is still lacking. Coupled with the difficulties that acupuncturists experienced during the process of treatment, the promotion of acupuncture treatment for COVID-19 faces many obstacles. Background Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), acupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of COVID-19. The research community has responded rapidly and has already published many research articles about this topic. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library as well as CNKI, Wanfang and VIP from January 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021. The dates of publication, language of publication, methodological characteristics and the key findings were analyzed separately. The data are presented as bar graphs, structured tables and figures. Results In this scoping review, 16 research articles were included: 7 case reports, 6 observational studies, 1 review, 1 RCT and 1 nonrandomized clinical trial. The majority of the articles (81.3%) were published by Chinese scholars, 12.5% articles were by scholars in the United States, and 6.3% articles were by scholars in Iran. The included studies reported that acupuncture could alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19 patients, shorten their hospitalization days, and is effective for the elderly. There were no side effects reported. The most frequent acupoints used were LI4, PC6, ST36 and KI3. They reported many obstacles in implementing acupuncture therapy for treating COVID-19 patients. Conclusion Acupuncture has a good effect for the treatment of COVID-19, but high-quality evidence support is still lacking. Coupled with the difficulties that acupuncturists experienced during the process of treatment, the promotion of acupuncture treatment for COVID-19 faces many obstacles.

Manganese-based spinel adsorbents for lithium recovery from aqueous solutions by electrochemical technique

Honglong Zhan,Yingjun Qiao,Zhiqiang Qian,Jun Li,Zhijian Wu,Xiaogang Hao,Zhong Liu 한국공업화학회 2022 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.114 No.-

The manganese-based spinel adsorbent (HMO) refers to lithium-ion adsorbents derived from the spinellithium manganese oxide (LMO). Two types of lithium ions extraction composite films composed of HMO(HMn2O4 and H1.6Mn1.6O4) are successfully prepared by the blade coating method. Based on the excellentLi+ selectivity of HMO and the outstanding conductivity of conductive carbon black (C), HMO/C films arecarried out to extract lithium by electrochemically switched ion exchange (ESIX) technique. HMO has acertain adsorption capacity for Li+ when the Li+ concentration is close to the actual brine, and the adsorptioncapacity of HMn2O4 and H1.6Mn1.6O4 is 24.56 mg/g and 34.40 mg/g, respectively. HMO showed goodselectivity for Li+ in multiple metal ions solution. The capacity of HMn2O4 and H1.6Mn1.6O4 keep 80% and86% of the initial values after 5 cycles, respectively. The inherent different lithium occupied leads to thedifference of electrical-adsorption abilities between HMn2O4 and H1.6Mn1.6O4. H1.6Mn1.6O4 has a broadapplication prospect in lithium extraction from salt lake brine due to its lower application voltage, largeadsorption capacity and superior stability.

Colorectal Cancer Concealment Predicts a Poor Survival: A Retrospective Study

Li, Xiao-Pan,Xie, Zhen-Yu,Fu, Yi-Fei,Yang, Chen,Hao, Li-Peng,Yang, Li-Ming,Zhang, Mei-Yu,Li, Xiao-Li,Feng, Li-Li,Yan, Bei,Sun, Qiao Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.7

Objectives: Understanding the situation of cancer awareness which doctors give to patients might lead to prognostic prediction in cases of of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Subsets of 10,779 CRC patients were used to screen the risk factors from the Cancer Registry in Pudong New Area in cancer awareness, age, TNM stage, and gender. Survival of the patients was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and assessed by Cox regression analysis. The views of cancer awareness in doctors and patients were surveyed by telephone or household. Results: After a median observation time of 1,616 days (ranging from 0 to 4,083 days) of 10,779 available patients, 2,596 of the 4,561 patients with cancer awareness survived, whereas 2,258 of the 5,469 patients without cancer awareness and 406 of the 749 patients without information on cancer awareness died of the disease. All-cause and cancer-specific survival were poorer for the patients without cancer awareness than those with (P < 0.001 for each, log-rank test). Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that cancer concealment cases had significantly lower cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.299; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.200-1.407)and all-cause survival (HR = 1.324; 95 % CI: 1.227-1.428). Furthermore, attitudes of cancer awareness between doctors and patients were significantly different (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Cancer concealment, not only late-stage tumor and age, is associated with a poor survival of CRC patients.

The Impact of Public Pension on Chinese Household Consumption

Ya-Hao LI(Ya-Hao LI),Fan YANG(Fan YANG),Shuang ZHANG(Shuang ZHANG) 한국웰빙융합학회 2024 웰빙융합연구 Vol.7 No.1

Purpose: The improvement of the social security system can greatly affect residents' future uncertainty, and it is important to study the relationship between public pensions and household consumption. Research design, data and methodology: Using the 2018 China Household Panel Survey (CFPS) data, the instrumental variable method is used to analyze the impact of pension insurance on urban residents' consumption. Results: The results of the study show that there are differences in the impact of three different pension insurance systems on household consumption. The pension insurance for public sector significantly boosts household consumption, and having a pension insurance for public sector can increase household consumption by 7.7%. The pension insurance for enterprise employee will reduce household consumption, but this is only significant for urban households. The pension insurance for urban and rural residents has a negative impact on household consumption. For the 16- to 39-year-old group, having a pension insurance for urban and rural residents will reduce household consumption by 5.7%. At the same time, household income, assets, scale, and education level will positively stimulate household consumption. Conclusions: The study reveals varying impacts among different pension types, highlighting the need for optimizing social security schemes to incentivize higher consumption rates.

Thermal Stability of Precipitates in Al-2.8wt%Cu-1.4wt%Li Alloy

Congcong Zhu,Guoai Li,Shijia Hao,Guoling Mao,Wenli Gao 대한금속·재료학회 2022 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.28 No.12

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Al-2.8 wt%Cu-1.4 wt%Li-T87 alloy after thermal exposure at 125, 150and 175 °C were measured and characterized by universal testing machine, scanning electron microscope and transmissionelectron microscope. The thermal stability of microstructures and mechanical properties of T87 heat-treated Al-2.8 wt%Cu-1.4 wt%Li alloy was investigated. The results show that the tensile strength of Al-2.8 wt%Cu-1.4 wt%Li-T87 alloy increasedfirst and then decreased with the increase of thermal exposure temperature, which is due to the change of the number and sizeof precipitates. After thermal exposure at 125 °C, the alloy exhibited higher strength due to further precipitation of θ′ phaseand stable size of T1phase. After thermal exposure at 175 °C, the mechanical properties of Al-2.8 wt%Cu-1.4 wt%Li-T87alloy decreased obviously, which was related to the dissolution of θ' phase and thickening of T1phase.

Intrinsic origin of amyloid aggregation: Behavior of histidine (εεε) and (δδδ) tautomer homodimers of Aβ (1–40)

Salimi, Abbas,Li, Hao,Shi, Hu,Lee, Jin Yong Elsevier 2019 Biochimica et biophysica acta, General subjects Vol.1863 No.5

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Amyloid-beta protein (Aβ) accumulation in the brain, which is influenced by several factors, is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite the important role of histidine in stabilizing the fibrillar structure of the Aβ peptide at neutral pH, the effect of histidine tautomerism on Aβ peptide aggregation is still largely unknown. Histidine is in equilibrium between δ and ε tautomers and there are three histidine residues (H6, H13, and H14) in the Aβ(1–40) peptide. We performed molecular dynamics simulation on (δδδ) and (εεε) histidine tautomers with different initial homodimeric configurations to elucidate structural and aggregation features. Results indicate that (εεε) homodimers have very low propensity or almost no tendency to form β-sheets, whereas (δδδ) dimers predominantly form β-sheets due to interactions between central hydrophobic core (CHC) residues and C-terminal residues. β-sheet formation occurred in the same regions of each dimer chain at the CHC and C-/N- terminals for different configurations of (δδδ). These results suggest that (δδδ) has an important role in AD progression. Our study provides deeper insight into the effect of tautomerism of histidine residues in Aβ(1–40) on amyloid aggregation.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> (εεε) tautomers show low propensity to form β-sheets during homodimerization. </LI> <LI> (δδδ) tautomers show high β-sheets amount during homodimerization. </LI> <LI> (δδδ) tautomers may play more important role than (εεε) in Alzheimer. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

High-fidelity bioelectronic muscular actuator based on porous carboxylate bacterial cellulose membrane

Wang, Fan,Jin, Zhen,Zheng, Shaohui,Li, Hao,Cho, Sunghoon,Kim, Hyeon Joe,Kim, Seong-Jun,Choi, Eunpyo,Park, Jong-Oh,Park, Sukho Elsevier 2017 Sensors and actuators. B Chemical Vol.250 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Human-friendly electronic products, such as smart mobile phones, soft haptic devices, wearable electronics, and implantable or disposal biomedical devices, will require the use of high-performance durable soft electroactive actuators with eco-friendly, biocompatible, and biodegradable functionalities. Here, we report a high-fidelity bioelectronic muscular actuator based on porous carboxylate bacterial cellulose (CBC) membranes fabricated using the facile zinc oxide (ZnO) particulate leaching (PL) method. The proposed CZ-PL muscular actuator exhibits large deformation, low actuation voltage, fast response, and high-durability in open air environment. In particular, the CZ-PL membrane shows a dramatic increase in the ionic liquid uptake ratio, ionic exchange capacity, and ionic conductivity of up to 70.63%, 22.50%, and 18.2%, respectively, for CBC, resulting in a 5.8 times larger bending deformation than that of the pure CBC actuator. The developed high-performance CZ-PL muscular actuator can be a promising candidate for meeting the tight requirements of human-friendly electronic devices such as wearable devices, biomimetic robots, and biomedical active devices.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> We developed a novel dry-type muscular actuator based on porous carboxylate bacterial cellulose (CBC) membrane. </LI> <LI> The porous CBC membrane was prepared by ZnO particulate leaching method. </LI> <LI> The proposed actuator showed better actuation performance than that of the pure CBC actuator. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Ecofriendly high-performance ionic soft actuators based on graphene-mediated cellulose acetate

Nan, Minghui,Wang, Fan,Kim, Seokjae,Li, Hao,Jin, Zhen,Bang, Doyeon,Kim, Chang-Sei,Park, Jong-Oh,Choi, Eunpyo Elsevier 2019 Sensors and actuators. B Chemical Vol.301 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Ionic-type artificial muscles with eco-friendly, biodegradable, and biocompatible functionalities have attracted attention for a wide range of potential applications in wearable electronics, soft haptic-feedback systems, and active biomedical devices. Here, we report on the development of an ecofriendly high-performance ionic soft actuator based on biofriendly cellulose acetate (CA), graphene nanopowders (GN), ionic liquid (IL) as a plasticizer, and biofriendly-flexible-nonmetallic conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiopene)-polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT: PSS) as an electrode, thereby realizing a novel ecofriendly CA-IL-GN actuator with a large bending mechanical deformation and a fast response time. The proposed CA-IL-GN (0.2 wt%) nanocomposite membrane exhibited dramatic increments in specific capacitance (2.92 times) and Young’s modulus (2.38 times), thus leading to a 2.9 times larger bending deformation and a 4.8 times faster response than those of pure CA-IL actuator. Therefore, the developed ecofriendly high-performance CA-IL-GN actuator can be considered to be a promising candidate for human-friendly electronics, including artificial muscles, flexible haptic devices, soft wearable devices, and bio-medical devices, due to its cost-effectiveness, large bending mechanical actuation, fast response, and bio-friendly functionalities.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Ecofriendly soft actuator based on cellulose acetate, graphene nanopowders, ionic liquid as plasticizer, and PEDOT:PSS as soft electrode. </LI> <LI> Proposed membrane exhibited increments in specific capacitance and Young’s modulus compare with a pure cellulose acetate actuator. </LI> <LI> Proposed actuator showed a 2.9 times larger bending deformation and a 4.8 times faster response than those of pure cellulose acetate actuator. </LI> </UL> </P>