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As a collective quasiparticle excitation of the magnetic order in magnetic materials, spin wave, or magnon when quantized, can propagate in both conducting and insulating materials. Like the manipulation of its optical counterpart, the ability to manipulate spin wave polarization is not only important but also fundamental for magnonics. With only one type of magnetic lattice, ferromagnets can only accommodate the right-handed circularly polarized spin wave modes, which leaves no freedom for polarization manipulation. In contrast, antiferromagnets, with two opposite magnetic sublattices, have both left and right-circular polarizations, and all linear and elliptical polarizations. Here we demonstrate theoretically and confirm by micromagnetic simulations that, in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, an antiferromagnetic domain wall acts naturally as a spin wave polarizer or a spin wave retarder (waveplate). Our findings provide extremely simple yet flexible routes toward magnonic information processing by harnessing the polarization degree of freedom of spin wave. Spin waves are promising candidates as carriers for energy-efficient information processing, but they have not yet been fully explored application wise. Here the authors theoretically demonstrate that antiferromagnetic domain walls are naturally spin wave polarizers and retarders, two key components of magnonic devices.

Piwi‐interacting RNAs (piRNAs), a novel class of small non‐coding RNAs, were first discovered in germline cells and are thought to silence transposons in spermatogenesis. Recently, piRNAs have also been identified in somatic tissues, and aberrant expression of piRNAs in tumor tissues may be implicated in carcinogenesis. However, the function of piR‐823 in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. Here, we first found that piR‐823 was significantly upregulated in CRC tissues compared with its expression in the adjacent tissues. Inhibition of piR‐823 suppressed cell proliferation, arrested the cell cycle in the G1 phase and induced cell apoptosis in CRC cell lines HCT116 and DLD‐1, whereas overexpression of piR‐823 promoted cell proliferation in normal colonic epithelial cell line FHC. Interestingly, Inhibition of piR‐823 repressed the expression of heat shock protein (HSP) 27, 60, 70. Furthermore, elevated HSPs expression partially abolished the effect of piR‐823 on cell proliferation and apoptosis. In addition, we further demonstrated that piR‐823 increased the transcriptional activity of HSF1, the common transcription factor of HSPs, by binding to HSF1 and promoting its phosphorylation at Ser326. Our study reveals that piR‐823 plays a tumor‐promoting role by upregulating phosphorylation and transcriptional activity of HSF1 and suggests piR‐823 as a potential therapeutic target for CRC. piR‐823 is up‐regulated in colorectal cancer tissues .piR‐823 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in colorectal cancer carcinogenesis.piR‐823 elevates the expression of HSP27, 60 and 70 by binding to HSF1 and enhancing its activity.

As the internet has become popularized in recent years, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i) has shifted from a face-to-face approach to delivery via the internet (internet-based CBT-i, ICBT-i). Several studies have investigated the effects of ICBT-i on comorbid anxiety and depression; however, the results remain inconclusive. Thus, a meta-analysis was conducted to determine the effects of ICBT-i on anxiety and depression. Electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library (throughout May 28, 2015), were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ICBT-i. Data were extracted from the qualified studies and pooled together. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated to assess the effects of ICBT-i on comorbid anxiety and depression. Nine records that included ten studies were ultimately qualified. The effect sizes (ESs) were -0.35 [-0.46, -0.25] for anxiety and -0.36 [-0.47, -0.26] for depression, which were stable using a between-group or within-group comparison and suggest positive effects of ICBT-i on both comorbid disorders. Although positive results were identified in this meta-analysis, additional high-quality studies with larger sample sizes are needed in the future.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by preferential loss of neurons in the striatum in patients, which leads to motor and cognitive impairments and death that often occurs 10-15 years after the onset of symptoms. The expansion of a glutamine repeat (>36 glutamines) in the N-terminal region of huntingtin (HTT) has been defined as the cause of HD, but the mechanism underlying neuronal death remains unclear. Multiple mechanisms, including inflammation, may jointly contribute to HD pathogenesis. Altered inflammation response is evident even before the onset of classical symptoms of HD. In this review, we summarize the current evidence on immune and inflammatory changes, from HD animal models to clinical phenomenon of patients with HD. The understanding of the impact of inflammation on HD would help develop novel strategies to treat HD.

The gut microbiota is reported to modulate the immune response in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we employ metagenomic and metabolomic studies to characterise gut microbiota in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) related cirrhosis, with or without HCC, and evaluate its effect on the peripheral immune response in an ex vivo model. We find that dysbiosis characterises the microbiota of patients with NAFLD-cirrhosis, with compositional and functional shifts occurring with HCC development. Gene function of the microbiota in NAFLD-HCC supports short chain fatty acid production, and this is confirmed by metabolomic studies. Ex vivo studies show that bacterial extracts from the NAFLD-HCC microbiota, but not from the control groups, elicit a T cell immunosuppressive phenotype, characterised by expansion of regulatory T cells and attenuation of CD8 + T cells. Our study suggest that the gut microbiota in NAFLD-HCC is characterised by a distinctive microbiome/metabolomic profile, and can modulate the peripheral immune response. Disease-specific gut microbiome signatures have been previously defined for patients with liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here the authors examine the composition of the gut microbiota in cirrhotic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with or without HCC and evaluate how dysbiosis influences peripheral immune responses.

Huntington disease (HD) represents a family of neurodegenerative diseases that are caused by misfolded proteins. The misfolded proteins accumulate in the affected brain regions in an age-dependent manner to cause late-onset neurodegeneration. Transgenic mouse models expressing the HD protein, huntingtin, have been widely used to identify therapeutics that may retard disease progression. Here we report that Berberine (BBR), an organic small molecule isolated from plants, has protective effects on transgenic HD (N171-82Q) mice. We found that BBR can reduce the accumulation of mutant huntingtin in cultured cells. More importantly, when given orally, BBR could effectively alleviate motor dysfunction and prolong the survival of transgenic N171-82Q HD mice. We found that BBR could promote the degradation of mutant huntingtin by enhancing autophagic function. Since BBR is an orally-taken drug that has been safely used to treat a number of diseases, our findings suggest that BBR can be tested on different HD animal models and HD patients to further evaluate its therapeutic effects.

Intertwining quantum order and non-trivial topology is at the frontier of condensed matter physics 1 – 4 . A charge-density-wave-like order with orbital currents has been proposed for achieving the quantum anomalous Hall effect 5 , 6 in topological materials and for the hidden phase in cuprate high-temperature superconductors 7 , 8 . However, the experimental realization of such an order is challenging. Here we use high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy to discover an unconventional chiral charge order in a kagome material, KV 3 Sb 5 , with both a topological band structure and a superconducting ground state. Through both topography and spectroscopic imaging, we observe a robust 2 × 2 superlattice. Spectroscopically, an energy gap opens at the Fermi level, across which the 2 × 2 charge modulation exhibits an intensity reversal in real space, signalling charge ordering. At the impurity-pinning-free region, the strength of intrinsic charge modulations further exhibits chiral anisotropy with unusual magnetic field response. Theoretical analysis of our experiments suggests a tantalizing unconventional chiral charge density wave in the frustrated kagome lattice, which can not only lead to a large anomalous Hall effect with orbital magnetism, but also be a precursor of unconventional superconductivity. An unconventional chiral charge order is observed in a kagome superconductor by scanning tunnelling microscopy. This charge order has unusual magnetic tunability and intertwines with electronic topology.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) plays an important role in identifying brain activity and behavior. However, the recorded electrical activity always be contaminated with artifacts and then affect the analysis of EEG signal. Hence, it is essential to develop methods to effectively detect and extract the clean EEG data during encephalogram recordings. Several methods have been proposed to remove artifacts, but the research on artifact removal continues to be an open problem. This paper tends to review the current artifact removal of various contaminations. We first discuss the characteristics of EEG data and the types of different artifacts. Then, a general overview of the state-of-the-art methods and their detail analysis are presented. Lastly, a comparative analysis is provided for choosing a suitable methods according to particular application.