Effective Natural Killer Cell Degranulation Is an Essential Key in COVID-19 Evolution

NK degranulation plays an important role in the cytotoxic activity of innate immunity in the clearance of intracellular infections and is an important factor in the outcome of the disease. This work has studied NK degranulation and innate immunological profiles and functionalities in COVID-19 patients and its association with the severity of the disease. A prospective observational study with 99 COVID-19 patients was conducted. Patients were grouped according to hospital requirements and severity. Innate immune cell subpopulations and functionalities were analyzed. The profile and functionality of innate immune cells differ between healthy controls and severe patients; CD56dim NK cells increased and MAIT cells and NK degranulation rates decreased in the COVID-19 subjects. Higher degranulation rates were observed in the non-severe patients and in the healthy controls compared to the severe patients. Benign forms of the disease had a higher granzymeA/granzymeB ratio than complex forms. In a multivariate analysis, the degranulation capacity resulted in a protective factor against severe forms of the disease (OR: 0.86), whereas the permanent expression of NKG2D in NKT cells was an independent risk factor (OR: 3.81; AUC: 0.84). In conclusion, a prompt and efficient degranulation functionality in the early stages of infection could be used as a tool to identify patients who will have a better evolution.     

Research on prevention and cure against heat-harm in constructing mines

With the mine exploitation depth getting deeper and deeper, the mine heat-harm turns into another natural disaster after the five disasters, which are the roof, the gas, the fire, the dust and the flood disaster. Compared with other researches on prevention and cure against the heat-harm, the research on prevention and cure against the heat-harm in constructing mine are less. Referring to the experience of prevention and cure against the heat-harm home and ＇abroad, analyzing the characteristic of cooling in the constructing mine, and based on the ground former freezing equipments and the modified mine temporary cooling equipments, the paper proposed four technical projects. By comparing with the four technical projects, the second project is preponderant both in technology and economy and can solve the heat-harm of the constructing mine, which is proved by the forecast and calculation. The project can be widely applied in de-temperature tasks of high temperature and heat-harm mines during the mine constructing period and in the exploiting preparing phase.     

煤矿工业建筑设计

煤矿工业建筑的设计要满足工艺流程的要求和结构体系本身规范的要求,还要体现人性化设计理念。本文通过对准备车间一个单体建筑的设计过程的总结,呼吁整个行业能重视人性化设计理念。     

Detection of Porphyrins in Hair Using Capillary Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Unlike humans, some animals have evolved a physiological ability to deposit porphyrins, which are pigments produced during heme synthesis in cells, in the skin and associated integument such as hair. Given the inert nature and easiness of collection of hair, animals that present porphyrin-based pigmentation constitute unique models for porphyrin analysis in biological samples. Here we present the development of a simple, rapid, and efficient analytical method for four natural porphyrins (uroporphyrin I, coproporphyrin I, coproporphyrin III and protoporphyrin IX) in the Southern flying squirrel Glaucomys volans, a mammal with hair that fluoresces and that we suspected has porphyrin-based pigmentation. The method is based on capillary liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (CLC-MS), after an extraction procedure with formic acid and acetonitrile. The resulting limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.006–0.199 and 0.021–0.665 µg mL⁻¹, respectively. This approach enabled us to quantify porphyrins in flying squirrel hairs at concentrations of 3.6–353.2 µg g⁻¹ with 86.4–98.6% extraction yields. This method provides higher simplicity, precision, selectivity, and sensitivity than other methods used to date, presenting the potential to become the standard technique for porphyrin analysis.     

The Potential Application of Starch and Walnut Shells as Biofillers for Natural Rubber (NR) Composites

The goal of this study was application of corn starch and ground walnut shells in various amounts by weight as biofillers of natural rubber (NR) biocomposites. Additionally, ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmiCl) and (3-aminopropyl)-triethoxysilane (APTES) were used to increase the activity of biofillers and to improve the curing characteristics of NR composites. The effect of biofillers used and their modification with aminosilane or ionic liquid on the curing characteristics of NR composites and their functional properties, including crosslink density, mechanical properties in static and dynamic conditions, hardness, thermal stability and resistance to thermo-oxidative aging were investigated. Starch and ground walnut shells were classified as inactive fillers, which can be used alternatively to commercial inactive fillers, e.g., chalk. BmiCl and APTES were successfully used to support the vulcanization and to improve the dispersion of biofillers in NR elastomer matrix. Vulcanizates with starch, especially those containing APTES and BmiCl, exhibited improved tensile properties due to the higher crosslink density and homogenous dispersion of starch, which resulted from BmiCl addition. NR filled with ground walnut shells demonstrated improved resistance to thermo-oxidative aging. It resulted from lignin present in walnut shells, the components of which belong to polyphenols, that have an antioxidant activity.     

Enhanced Anti-Cancer Effects of Conditioned Medium from Hypoxic Human Adult Dermal Fibroblasts on Cervical Cancer Cells

Hypoxia regulates fibroblast function by changing intracellular signaling and secretion factors, that influence the states of nearby cells. In this work, we investigated how medium (CM) from human adult dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) cultured in normoxic and hypoxic conditions affected cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. The HeLa cells showed decreased cell viability, increased apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest in response to CM from hypoxic-cultured HDFs (H-CM) compared with CM from normoxic-cultured HDFs (N-CM). Among the proteins up-regulated (>2-fold) in H-CM compared with N-CM, lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LTBR) decreased the viability of HeLa cells. Among the intracellular proteins down-regulated (>2-fold) in HeLa cells treated with H-CM compared with N-CM, the most enriched biological process GO term and KEGG pathway were protein deubiquitination and hsa05166:HTLV-I infection, respectively. In the protein–protein interaction network of intracellular proteins with altered expression (>2-fold), 1 up-regulated (TNF) and 8 down-regulated (ESR1, MCL1, TBP, CD19, LCK, PCNA, CHEK1, and POLA1) hub proteins were defined. Among the down-regulated hub proteins, the most enriched biological process GO term and KEGG pathway were leading strand elongation and hsa05166:HTLV-I infection, respectively. This study reveals that H-CM had stronger anti-cancer effects on cervical cancer cells than N-CM and induced intracellular signaling patterns related to those enhanced anti-cancer effects.     

MODELS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION: DIALOGUE WITH COMPUTER

A model of understanding texts of a natural language is presented, which consists of three levels. On the first level, the system uses only information in the given text. On the second level, it employs additional information from a knowledge base. On the third level, understanding is connected with some activity of the system stimulated by the available information.     

文字可视化技术在虚拟环境中的应用(英文)

文字和图像是人类日常交流常用的两种方式,同时它们之间有着很深的联系。我们常常将图像转化为文字(如通过文字来描述一副绘画作品),反之亦然(如通过一幅画来再现一段故事),但这个过程的转换对计算机系统而言则是一个挑战。随着自然语言处理技术和计算机图形技术的发展,人们逐渐意识到结合这两种技术,并通过整合人与人之间的交流方式来进一步提高人机界面的可能性,使之成为信息可视化领域一个新的研究方向之一。本文通过回顾基于文字到可视化技术的应用发展进程,并在对当前的相关研究进行了探讨的基础上提出了我们对故事可视化系统开发的解决方案。     

因需而型,应需为变——豫西南地区村镇住宅优化设计研究

研究豫西南农村的住宅设计模式,借助计算机数字化分析,探讨投入低、舒适度高的村镇住宅设计思路,并提出该因需而型,应需为变的优化设计策略。