Description: Article Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting up to 3% of the population. Here, Zuo et al. perform exome array analysis, identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 15 new loci, implicating several biological pathways in psoriasis risk and disease heritability. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms7793 Authors: Xianbo Zuo, Liangdan Sun, Xianyong Yin, Jinping Gao, Yujun Sheng, Jinhua Xu, Jianzhong Zhang, Chundi He, Ying Qiu, Guangdong Wen, Hongqing Tian, Xiaodong Zheng, Shengxiu Liu, Wenjun Wang, Weiran Li, Yuyan Cheng, Longdan Liu, Yan Chang, Zaixing Wang, Zenggang Li, Longnian Li, Jianping Wu, Ling Fang, Changbing Shen, Fusheng Zhou, Bo Liang, Gang Chen, Hui Li, Yong Cui, Aie Xu, Xueqin Yang, Fei Hao, Limin Xu, Xing Fan, Yuzhen Li, Rina Wu, Xiuli Wang, Xiaoming Liu, Min Zheng, Shunpeng Song, Bihua Ji, Hong Fang, Jianbin Yu, Yongxin Sun, Yan Hui, Furen Zhang, Rongya Yang, Sen Yang, Xuejun Zhang

Description: Background: Necrosis of alveolar macrophages following Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection has been demonstrated to play a vital role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Our previous study demonstrated that Wnt/β-catenin signaling was able to promote mycobacteria-infected cell apoptosis by a caspase-dependent pathway. However, the functionality of this signaling in the necrosis of macrophage following mycobacterial infection remains largely unknown. Methods: Murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells were infected with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in the presence of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. The necrotic cell death was determined by cytometric assay and electronic microscopy; the productions of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured by a cytometric analysis and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively; and the activity of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1)/apoptosis inhibition factor (AIF) signaling was examined by an immunoblotting assay. Results: The BCG can induce RAW264.7 macrophage cells necrosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner along with an accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Intriguingly, an enhancement of Wnt/β-catenin signaling shows an ability to reduce the mycobacteria-induced macrophage necrosis. Mechanistically, the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling is capable of inhibiting the necrotic cell death in BCG-infected RAW264.7 cells through a mechanism by which the Wnt signaling scavenges intracellular ROS accumulation and increases cellular GSH concentration. In addition, immunoblotting analysis further reveals that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is capable of inhibiting the ROS-mediated cell necrosis in part through a PARP-1/AIF- dependent pathway. Conclusions: An activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling can inhibit BCG-induced macrophage necrosis by increasing the production of GSH and scavenging ROS in part through a mechanism of repression of PARP-1/AIF signaling pathway. This finding may thus provide an insight into the underlying mechanism of alveolar macrophage cell death in response to mycobacterial infection.

Description: The cloud water content (CWC) in rainy clouds is a crucial parameter to determine the onset and the growth rate of precipitation, and to quantify the associated latent heating rate. No direct retrieval of CWC in rainy cloud from satellite observations is reported due to the difficulties of separating cloud particles from precipitation sized particles. However, based on multiple cloud simulations from the Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model, we have found that the CWC profile in warm rains can be well determined by three macro-physical cloud properties of cloud water path (CWP), cloud top height (CTH), and cloud bottom height (CBH). The CBH can be estimated using CWP, CTH and near surface rain rate. We proposed an algorithm with a lookup table for estimating the CWC profile using CWP, CTH and near surface rain rate as inputs. The performance of this algorithm was tested with WRF model simulations and a real drizzle case observed by the CloudSat satellite. Testing verified that the algorithm can retrieve the vertical distribution of CWC correctly with few errors at different spatiotemporal scales. In addition, the algorithm is not confined to particular microphysics schemes and is valid for multiple cloud systems in different areas over the world. This algorithm is expected to improve current knowledge of cloud water content in rainy clouds.

Description: Free nitrous acid (FNA), which is the protonated form of nitrite and inevitably produced during biological nitrogen removal, has been demonstrated to strongly inhibit the activity of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs). Herein we reported an efficient process for wastewater treatment, i.e., the oxic/anoxic/oxic/extended-idle process to mitigate the generation of FNA and its inhibition on PAOs. The results showed that this new process enriched more PAOs which thereby achieved higher phosphorus removal efficiency than the conventional four-step (i.e., anaerobic/oxic/anoxic/oxic) biological nutrient removal process (41 ± 7% versus 30 ± 5% in abundance of PAOs and 97 ± 0.73% versus 82 ± 1.2% in efficiency of phosphorus removal). It was found that this new process increased pH value but decreased nitrite accumulation, resulting in the decreased FNA generation. Further experiments showed that the new process could alleviate the inhibition of FNA on the metabolisms of PAOs even under the same FNA concentration. Scientific Reports 5 doi: 10.1038/srep08602

Description: Abstract. The asymmetrical crystal [Na(15C5) 2 ][Na(15C5)] 2 (AsMo 12 O 40 )] · CH 3 CN ( 1 ) was synthesized. Interestingly, the huge α-keggin ion AsMo 12 is distorted by introduction of CH 3 CN molecules and adopts a chiral assembly with space group P 4 . In contrast, the analogous compound AsW 12 co-crystallizes with trace H 2 O molecules. The hydrogen atoms of H 2 O are positionally disordered with 50 % occupation to correlate with AsW 12 in space group P 4/ m . Solid and solution CD spectra indicate that the crystals of 1 are in R configuration. This leads to the conclusion that molybdenum has greater affinity toward organic CH 3 CN, whereas tungsten has greater affinity to inorganic H 2 O. Additionally, AsMo 12 shows greater deformability than AsW 12 . It is suggested that POMo shows a greater potential as chiral material than POW because of the flexibility of Mo. As a highlight, CH 3 CN can function as a general chiral inducer for the innovation of other chiral crystals, if fixed along one dimension.

Description: We theoretically and numerically investigate a low-power, ultrafast, and dynamic all-optical tunable plasmonic analog to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in two nanodisk resonators side-coupled to a metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguide system. The optical Kerr effect is enhanced by the slow light effect of the plasmonic EIT-like effect and the plasmonic waveguide based on graphene-Ag composite material structures with giant effective Kerr nonlinear coefficient. The optical Kerr effect modulation method is applied to improve tuning rate with response time of subpicoseconds or even femtoseconds. With dynamically tuning the propagation phase of the plasmonic waveguide, π -phase shift of the transmission spectrum in the plasmonic EIT-like system is achieved under excitation of a pump light with an intensity as low as 5.85 MW/cm 2 . The group delay is controlled between 0.09 and 0.4 ps. All observed schemes are analyzed rigorously through finite-difference time-domain simulations and coupled-mode formalism. Results show a new direction toward the low power consumption and ultrafast responses of integration plasmonic photonic devices and all-optical dynamical storage of light devices in optical communication and quantum information processing.

Description: Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the choroidal thickness of patients with high myopia using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) and compare them with healthy subjects. Methods: We first conducted a cross-sectional study and then performed a meta-analysis to address this issue further. Using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT), the macular choroidal thickness of high myopic eyes and normal control eyes were measured and compared at each location. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to assess the association between choroidal thickness and clinical factors such as axial length (AL), spherical equivalent (SE), and central corneal thickness. In the high myopic eyes, subgroup analysis of macular choroidal thickness was performed in eyes with or without lacquer cracks and choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The meta-analyses were conducted using the Stata software package. Results: The high myopic eyes had a thinner choroid than the control eyes at all macular locations (all P 

Description: The effectiveness of grouting scheme has been simulated to prevent the coal spontaneous combustion at a goaf in Haizi Colliery, China. The colliery has been operated for long period over 27 years and has a complex ventilation network including airflow leakages which could possibly lead to the spontaneous combustion of coal at goafs. Firstly, the mine ventilation simulator MIVENA was used to analyze the mine ventilation network airflows to control airflows in and out of working faces and goafs. As the second approach, numerical simulations were carried by the simulator FLUENT in order to predict spontaneous combustion of residual coal with leakage flow in the #3205 goaf. It was cleared that the goaf can be divided into three zones based on oxygen concentration in the goaf area. Finally, the numerical simulation results show that the slurry grouting method is able to be an effective and economical method by reducing porosity in the goaf area to prevent spontaneous combustion of residual coal.

Description: Background: Hepatocyte carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Despite many achievements in diagnosis and treatment, HCC mortality remains high due to the malignant nature of the disease. Novel approaches, especially for targeted therapy, are being extensively explored. Gene therapy is ideal for such purpose for its specific expression of exogenous genes in HCC cells driven by tissue-specific promoter. However strategies based on correction of mutations or altered expressions of genes responsible for the development/progression of HCC have limitations because these aberrant molecules are not presented in all cancerous cells. In the current work, we adopted a novel strategy by targeting the DNA replication step which is essential for proliferation of every cancer cell. Methods: A recombinant adenovirus with alpha fetoprotein (AFP) promoter-controlled expressions of artificial microRNAs targeting DNA polymerases α, δ, ε and recombinant active Caspase 3, namely Ad/AFP-Casp-AFP-amiR, was constructed. Results: The artificial microRNAs could efficiently inhibit the expression of the target polymerases in AFP-positive HCC cells at both RNA and protein levels, and HCC cells treated with the recombinant virus Ad/AFP-Casp-AFP-amiR exhibited significant G0/1 phase arrest. The proliferation of HCC cells were significantly inhibited by Ad/AFP-Casp-AFP-amiR with increased apoptosis. On the contrary, the recombinant adenovirus Ad/AFP-Casp-AFP-amiR did not inhibit the expression of DNA polymerases α, δ or ε in AFP-negative human normal liver cell HL7702, and showed no effect on the cell cycle progression, proliferation or apoptosis. Conclusions: Inhibition of DNA polymerases α, δ and ε by AFP promoter-driven artificial microRNAs may lead to effective growth arrest of AFP-positive HCC cells, which may represent a novel strategy for gene therapy by targeting the genes that are essential for the growth/proliferation of cancer cells, avoiding the limitations set by any of the individually altered gene.