The Hippo–YAP signaling pathway plays an essential role in epithelial cells during intestinal regeneration and tumorigenesis. However, the molecular mechanism linking stromal signals to YAP‐mediated intestinal regeneration and tumorigenesis is poorly defined. Here, we report a stroma–epithelium ISLR–YAP signaling axis essential for stromal cells to modulate epithelial cell growth during intestinal regeneration and tumorigenesis. Specifically, upon inflammation and in cancer, an oncogenic transcription factor ETS1 in stromal cells induces expression of a secreted protein ISLR that can inhibit Hippo signaling and activate YAP in epithelial cells. Deletion of Islr in stromal cells in mice markedly impaired intestinal regeneration and suppressed tumorigenesis in the colon. Moreover, the expression of stromal cell‐specific ISLR and ETS1 significantly increased in inflamed mucosa of human IBD patients and in human colorectal adenocarcinoma, accounting for the epithelial YAP hyperactivation. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into the signaling crosstalk between stroma and epithelium during tissue regeneration and tumorigenesis.

Objectives To investigate the pathogenicity of Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPN) possessing rmpA or the aerobactin gene in infected mice. Methods BALB/c mice were divided into four groups (n = 10 per group) and infected with: string test-positive and rmpA-positive or aerobactin-positive KPN (group 1), string test-negative but rmpA-positive KPN (group 2), string test-negative but aerobactin-positive KPN (group 3), or string test- and rmpA/aerobactin-negative KPN (group 4). Mouse survival time was compared among groups, and the infection of livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys and KPN growth were assessed in infected mice. Results Compared with the negative group (group 4), the survival rates of mice infected with rmpA- or aerobactin-positive KPN (groups 1–3) were significantly lower, their multi-organ injuries were significantly more severe, and bacterial enumeration was significantly higher. Conclusions Despite being string test-negative, aerobactin- or rmpA-positive KPN still exhibit high virulence and anti-immune effect activity. Therefore, the combination of the string test and gene detection of aerobactin and rmpA will be helpful in screening hypervirulent KPN.

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The effect of cold‐crystallization on poly (lactic acid) (PLA) injection‐molded parts was systemically investigated at different annealing temperatures (80/100/120°C) and annealing times (0.5/1/1.5/2 hr). The relative crystallinity (Xc) and crystal form (α' and α) of samples was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide X‐ray angle diffraction (WAXD). The dependence of the thermal and mechanical performance on relative crystallinity and crystal form/morphology was discussed in detail. A linear relationship between the increment of heat distortion temperature (HDT) and that of Xc was found. The tensile strength, tensile modulus and storage modulus all increased with annealing time and annealing temperature, while the tensile toughness presented a different behavior. The elongation at break for specimens reached a maximum value of 16.9% after annealing at 80°C for 2 hr, which is a threefold improvement compared to PLA samples prepared without annealing. This work suggests that annealing is an effective method for tailoring the physical properties of PLA products.

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Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), as a biodegradable semicrystalline thermoplastic, is usually blended with degradable poly(butylene-adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) to improve toughness for the sake of environmental concerns. To obtain controllable properties of PLA/PBAT composites, the use of nanoparticles is increasing from a technical point of view, thus making the blends more widely used in the final products. In this study, immiscible blends of PLA and PBAT (70/30 wt%) and PLA/PBAT with different carbon nanotube (CNT) contents (0.5, 1, and 2 wt%) were prepared using a twin-screw extruder followed by injection molding. The preferential distribution of CNTs in the PBAT phase was characterized by SEM and thermodynamic analysis, and reason for selective localization is discussed. The morphology of the PLA/PBAT composite showed PBAT particles dispersed within the PLA matrix with an average diameter of 0.38 μm. For the nanocomposites, the CNTs in the minor PBAT phase produced larger elongated PBAT domains with a maximum average diameter of 1.3 μm. The elongation at break of binary PLA/PBAT blends was 160.9%, while the maximum elongation at break of the nanocomposite was 294.3%. Additionally, the influence of CNTs on the crystallization behavior and rheological and mechanical properties of PLA/PBAT/CNT blends was systematically investigated.carbon nanotubes, nanocomposites, PLA/PBAT blends, rheological, thermal and mechanical properties | INTRODUCTIONPolylactic acid (PLA), as one of the most promising biodegradable and recyclable polymers, has been extensively studied. [1][2][3] Recently, PLA products have been promoted to replace conventional petroleum-based plastics, such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS), due to their sustainability, eco-efficiency and high stiffness. [4,5] However, the ductility and toughness of PLA are far from satisfactory from the technological view of producing more widely used final products. Blending PLA with elastomers and/or softer polymers is deemed an economically viable way to modulate the properties. [6][7][8] Considering environmental friendliness, biobased or degradable materials are preferred, such as poly(butylene adipate-co-Zhihua Xiao and Guili Li contributed equally to this work and are considered as co-first authors.

Background Although accumulating evidence has demonstrated that consumption time of energy and macronutrients plays an important role in maintaining health, the association between consumption time of different foods and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all‐cause mortalities is still largely unknown. Methods and Results A noninstitutionalized household population of the US 21 503 participants from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was included. Meal patterns and snack patterns throughout a whole day were measured using 24‐hour dietary recall. Principal component analysis was performed to establish dietary patterns. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between dietary patterns across meals and cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and all‐cause mortalities. During the 149 875 person‐years of follow‐up, 2192 deaths including 676 deaths because of CVD and 476 because of cancer were documented. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants consuming fruit‐lunch had lower mortality risks of all‐cause (hazard ratio [HR], 0.82; 95% CI, 0.72–0.92) and CVD (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.49–0.87); whereas participants who consumed Western‐lunch were more likely to die because of CVD (HR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.10–1.89). Participants who consumed vegetable‐dinner had lower mortality risks of all‐cause, CVD, and cancer (HR all‐cause , 0.69; 95% CI, 0.60–0.78; HR CVD , 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61–0.95; HR cancer , 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48–0.83). For the snack patterns, participants who consumed fruit‐snack after breakfast had lower mortality risks of all‐cause and cancer (HR all‐cause , 0.78; 95% CI, 0.66–0.93; HR cancer , 0.55; 95% CI, 0.39–0.78), and participants who consumed dairy‐snack after dinner had lower risks of all‐cause and CVD mortalities (HR all‐cause , 0.82; 95% CI, 0.72–0.94; HR CVD , 0.67; 95% CI, 0.52–0.87). Participants who consumed a starchy‐snack after main meals had greater mortality risks of all‐cause (HR after‐breakfast , 1.50; 95% CI, 1.24–1.82; HR after‐lunch , 1.52; 95% CI, 1.27–1.81; HR after‐dinner , 1.50; 95% CI, 1.25–1.80) and CVD (HR after‐breakfast , 1.55; 95% CI, 1.08–2.24; HR after‐lunch , 1.44; 95% CI, 1.03–2.02; HR after‐dinner , 1.57; 95% CI, 1.10–2.23). Conclusions Fruit‐snack after breakfast, fruit‐lunch, vegetable‐dinner, and dairy‐snack after dinner was associated with lower mortality risks of CVD, cancer, and all‐cause; whereas Western‐lunch and starchy‐snack after main meals had greater CVD and all‐cause mortalities.

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and PLA/natural fiber composites are considered as environmentally friendly materials and are becoming one of the research hotspots.Many research achievements of PLA and its composites prefer to focus on modification and the macro-properties of composites while there are few works on relationships between processing, structures, and properties. The ramie fiber (RF) reinforced PLA biological composites were prepared and PLA/RF injectionmolded samples were fabricated to investigate effects of RF percentage (0, 5 wt% RF, 10 wt% RF, 15 wt% RF, 20 wt% RF) on PLA crystallization, thermal and mechanical performance by experimental and numerical methods. Experimental and simulated results indicate that the RF serves as a kind of nucleation agent, accelerates the crystallization rate, shortens the half crystallization time of PLA. The degree of crystallinity is up to 16.2% when PLA is with 20 wt% RF. The half crystallization time of PLA with 5 wt% RF composite is reduced by up to 28%. Correspondingly, the tensile strength and Young's modulus of the PLA composites are also improved by the RF without sacrificing thermal stability.