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"Chang, Tong"
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لقاء في القرية العالمية = An encounter in the global village : قصص مختارة من المؤتمر الدولي الرابع عشر للقصة القصيرة
هذا الكتاب يحتوي على قصص مختارة من المؤتمر الدولي الرابع عشر للقصة القصيرة وهذا اللقاء الذي نظم من قبل جمعية دراسة القصص القصيرة الإنجليزية (أس أس أس أس إي) وهي جمعية عالمية أنشئت في الولايات المتحدة عام 1992 وينعقد كل عامين ويعتبر اللقاء العالمي الوحيد الذي يركز بشكل خاص على دراسات القصة القصيرة أما القصص المشاركة في اللقاء فهي مكتوبة من قبل 29 كاتبا ينتمون إلى عشرة دول هي الصين وتايوان والهند والولايات المتحدة وكندا ونيوزلندا وفرنسا وإيرلندا والنمسا وسنغافورا وجامايكا.
BOOK
Propionate Ameliorates Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis by Improving Intestinal Barrier Function and Reducing Inflammation and Oxidative Stress
Propionate is a short chain fatty acid that is abundant as butyrate in the gut and blood. However, propionate has not been studied as extensively as butyrate in the treatment of colitis. The present study was to investigate the effects of sodium propionate on intestinal barrier function, inflammation and oxidative stress in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mice. Animals in DSS group received drinking water from 1 to 6 days and DSS [3% (w/v) dissolved in double distilled water] instead of drinking water from 7 to 14 days. Animals in DSS+propionate (DSS+Prop) group were given 1% sodium propionate for 14 consecutive days and supplemented with 3% DSS solution on day 7-14. Intestinal barrier function, proinflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway in the colon were determined. It was found that sodium propionate ameliorated body weight loss, colon-length shortening and colonic damage in colitis mice. Sodium propionate significantly inhibited the increase of FITC-dextran in serum and the decrease of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), occludin, and E-cadherin expression in the colonic tissue. It also inhibited the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) mRNA and phosphorylation of STAT3 in colitis mice markedly, reduced the myeloperoxidase (MPO) level, and increased the superoxide dismutase and catalase level in colon and serum compared with DSS group. Sodium propionate inhibited macrophages with CD68 marker infiltration into the colonic mucosa of colitis mice. These results suggest that oral administration of sodium propionate could ameliorate DSS-induced colitis mainly by improving intestinal barrier function and reducing inflammation and oxidative stress via the STAT3 signaling pathway.
Journal Article
Radiolabeled Liposomes for Nuclear Imaging Probes
Quantitative nuclear imaging techniques are in high demand for various disease diagnostics and cancer theranostics. The non-invasive imaging modality requires radiotracing through the radioactive decay emission of the radionuclide. Current preclinical and clinical radiotracers, so-called nuclear imaging probes, are radioisotope-labeled small molecules. Liposomal radiotracers have been rapidly developing as novel nuclear imaging probes. The physicochemical properties and structural characteristics of liposomes have been elucidated to address their long circulation and stability as radiopharmaceuticals. Various radiolabeling methods for synthesizing radionuclides onto liposomes and synthesis strategies have been summarized to render them biocompatible and enable specific targeting. Through a variety of radionuclide labeling methods, radiolabeled liposomes for use as nuclear imaging probes can be obtained for in vivo biodistribution and specific targeting studies. The advantages of radiolabeled liposomes including their use as potential clinical nuclear imaging probes have been highlighted. This review is a comprehensive overview of all recently published liposomal SPECT and PET imaging probes.
Journal Article
Moving and unsinkable graphene sheets immobilized enzyme for microfluidic biocatalysis
Enzymatic catalysis in microreactors has attracted growing scientific interest because of high specific surface enabling heat and mass transfer and easier control of reaction parameters in microreactors. However, two major challenges that limit their application are fast inactivation and the inability to the biocatalysts in microchannel reactors. A fluid and unsinkable immobilized enzyme were firstly applied in a microchannel reactor for biocatalysis in this study. Functionalized forms of graphene-immobilized naringinase flowing in microchannels have yielded excellent results for isoquercitrin production. A maximum yield of 92.24 ± 3.26% was obtained after 20 min in a microchannel reactor. Ten cycles of enzymatic hydrolysis reaction were successively completed and an enzyme activity above 85.51 ± 2.76% was maintained. The kinetic parameter
V
m
/
K
m
increased to 1.9-fold and reaction time was decreased to 1/3 compared with that in a batch reactor. These results indicated that the moving and unsinkable graphene sheets immobilized enzyme with a high persistent specificity and a mild catalytic characteristic enabled the repetitive use of enzyme and significant cost saving for the application of enzyme catalysis. Thus, the developed method has provided an efficient and simple approach for the productive and repeatable microfluidic biocatalysis.
Journal Article
Chloroplast genomes elucidate diversity, phylogeny, and taxonomy of Pulsatilla (Ranunculaceae)
Pulsatilla
(Ranunculaceae) consists of about 40 species, and many of them have horticultural and/or medicinal value. However, it is difficult to recognize and identify wild
Pulsatilla
species. Universal molecular markers have been used to identify these species, but insufficient phylogenetic signal was available. Here, we compared the complete chloroplast genomes of seven
Pulsatilla
species. The chloroplast genomes of
Pulsatilla
were very similar and their length ranges from 161,501 to 162,669 bp. Eight highly variable regions and potential sources of molecular markers such as simple sequence repeats, large repeat sequences, and single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified, which are valuable for studies of infra- and inter-specific genetic diversity. The SNP number differentiating any two
Pulsatilla
chloroplast genomes ranged from 112 to 1214, and provided sufficient data for species delimitation. Phylogenetic trees based on different data sets were consistent with one another, with the IR, SSC regions and the barcode combination
rbcL
+
matK
+
trnH-psbA
produced slightly different results. Phylogenetic relationships within
Pulsatilla
were certainly resolved using the complete cp genome sequences. Overall, this study provides plentiful chloroplast genomic resources, which will be helpful to identify members of this taxonomically challenging group in further investigation.
Journal Article
On the Species Delimitation of the Maddenia Group of Prunus (Rosaceae): Evidence From Plastome and Nuclear Sequences and Morphology
The recognition, identification, and differentiation of closely related plant species present significant and notorious challenges to taxonomists. The Maddenia group of Prunus , which comprises four to seven species, is an example of a group in which species delimitation and phylogenetic reconstruction have been difficult, due to the lack of clear morphological distinctions, limited sampling, and low informativeness of molecular evidence. Thus, the precise number of species in the group and the relationships among them remain unclear. Here, we used genome skimming to generate the DNA sequence data for 22 samples, including 17 Maddenia individuals and five outgroups in Amygdaloideae of Rosaceae, from which we assembled the plastome and 446 single-copy nuclear (SCN) genes for each sample. The phylogenetic relationships of the Maddenia group were then reconstructed using both concatenated and coalescent-based methods. We also identified eight highly variable regions and detected simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and repeat sequences in the Maddenia species plastomes. The phylogenetic analysis based on the complete plastomes strongly supported three main subclades in the Maddenia group of Prunus , while five subclades were recognized based on the nuclear tree. The phylogenetic network analysis detected six hybridization events. Integrating the nuclear and morphological evidence, we proposed to recognize five species within the Maddenia group, i.e., Prunus fujianensis, P. himalayana, P. gongshanensis, P. hypoleuca , and P. hypoxantha . Within this group, the first three species are well-supported, while the gene flow occurring throughout the Maddenia group seems to be especially frequent between P. hypoleuca and P. hypoxantha , eroding the barrier between them. The phylogenetic trees based on eight concatenated hypervariable regions had a similar topology with the complete plastomes, showing their potential as molecular markers and effective barcodes for further phylogeographic studies on Maddenia .
Journal Article
Air Conditioning Operation Strategies for Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools
The Executive Yuan in Taiwan plans to install air-conditioning (A/C) in all elementary schools within two years. However, besides the associated energy consumption and environmental issues, the use of A/C will inevitably result in the doors and windows of the classroom being closed, which will increase the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) within the classroom. An excessive indoor CO2 concentration can result in reduced cognitive performance and an impaired learning efficiency. Therefore, the moderate introduction of external air into the classroom is essential to increase the air exchange rate (AER) and reduce the CO2 concentration level. Accordingly, the present study conducts a numerical investigation into the effects of various A/C operation strategies on the CO2 concentration within the classroom given different proportions of students remaining in the classroom during the recess. Overall, the results indicate that the optimal usage strategy is to operate the A/C over the full school day (08:00~15:50 p.m.) in conjunction with a mechanical ventilation system providing a fresh air exchange rate of 5 l/s for every person in the room. However, the use of a mechanical ventilation system inevitably incurs an additional hardware and energy consumption. Thus, an alternative recommendation is also proposed, in which the windows are opened and the air conditioner is turned off at every recess and during the lunchtime period. It is shown that the resulting CO2 concentration in the classroom is still consistent with the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) regulations and the thermal comfort of the students is achieved for more than three-quarters of the school day.
Journal Article
Optimization of the double-ended traveling wave fault location model for transmission lines based on the integrated device of dynamic capacity expansion and traveling wave location
Although conventional traveling-wave fault location devices can detect fault points, their positioning accuracy degrades under complex operating conditions due to sag effects, dynamic line parameter variations, and environmental interference, failing to meet the requirements of high-reliability power grids. Concurrently, existing dynamic capacity expansion devices primarily focus on real-time monitoring of conductor temperature, current-carrying capacity, and environmental param but lack precise fault location functionality. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an integrated dynamic capacity expansion and traveling-wave positioning device capable of monitoring conductor temperature, ambient temperature, power-frequency current, and traveling-wave current. For the first time, a temperature-sag-line length coupling correction model is introduced. By real-time monitoring ambient and conductor temperature variations, the dynamic influence of environmental temperature on conductor sag effects is quantified to correct the actual transmission line length, thereby optimizing the double-ended traveling-wave fault location model. Case study results demonstrate that the positioning accuracy for the same fault point is improved to within 200 m, providing theoretical foundations and technological breakthroughs for intelligent operation-maintenance and rapid fault resolution in transmission lines.
Journal Article
Cancer-associated adipocytes promote the invasion and metastasis in breast cancer through LIF/CXCLs positive feedback loop
Cancer-associated adipocytes (CAAs), which are adipocytes transformed by cancer cells, are of great importance in promoting the progression of breast cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms involved in the crosstalk between cancer cells and adipocytes are still unknown. Here we report that CAAs and breast cancer cells communicate with each other by secreting the cytokines leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and C-X-C subfamily chemokines (CXCLs), respectively. LIF is a pro-inflammatory cytokine secreted by CAAs, which promotes migration and invasion of breast cancer cells via the Stat3 signaling pathway. The activation of Stat3 induced the secretion of glutamic acid-leucine-arginine (ELR) motif CXCLs (CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL3 and CXCL8) in tumor cells. Interestingly, CXCLs in turn activated the ERK1/2/NF-κB/Stat3 signaling cascade to promote the expression of LIF in CAAs. In clinical breast cancer pathology samples, the up-regulation of LIF in paracancerous adipose tissue was positively correlated with the activation of Stat3 in breast cancer. Furthermore, we verified that adipocytes enhanced lung metastasis of breast cancer cells, and the combination of EC330 (targeting LIF) and SB225002 (targeting C-X-C motility chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2)) significantly reduced lung metastasis of breast cancer cells
. Our findings reveal that the interaction of adipocytes with breast cancer cells depends on a positive feedback loop between the cytokines LIF and CXCLs, which promotes breast cancer invasion and metastasis.
Journal Article