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In this work, a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactor has been developed for the decomposition of CO 2 at atmospheric pressure. The response surface methodology based on a three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken design has been developed to investigate the effects of key independent process parameters (discharge power, feed flow rate, and discharge length) and their interactions on the reaction performance in terms of CO 2 conversion and the energy efficiency of the plasma process. Two quadratic polynomial regression models have been established to understand the relationships between the plasma process parameters and the performance of the CO 2 conversion process. The results indicate that the discharge power is the most important factor affecting CO 2 conversion, while the feed flow rate has the most significant impact on the energy efficiency of the process. The interactions between different plasma process parameters have a very weak effect on the conversion of CO 2 . However, the interactions of the discharge length with either discharge power or gas flow rate have a significant effect on the energy efficiency of the plasma process. The optimal process performance-CO 2 conversion (14.3%) and energy efficiency (8.0%) for the plasma CO 2 conversion process is achieved at a discharge power of 15.8 W, a feed flow rate of 41.9 ml Á min À1 and a discharge length of 150 mm as the highest global desirability of 0.816 is obtained at these conditions. The reproducibility of the experimental results successfully demonstrates the feasibility and reliability of the design of experiments approach for the optimization of the plasma CO 2 conversion process.

Emerging studies have reported the mechanosensitive Piezo1 (piezo type mechanosensitive ion channel component 1) plays essential roles in regulating the vascular tone through mechanistic actions on intracellular calcium homeostasis. However, the specific roles of Piezo1 in pulmonary vessels remain incompletely understood. We aim to investigate whether and how Piezo1 regulates the intracellular calcium homeostasis in human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) under normal and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) conditions. Cultured human PASMCs isolated from both control donors and idiopathic PAH patients were used as cell models. Fura-2 based intracellular calcium imaging was performed to measure the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca 2+ ] i ). Results showed that activation of Piezo1 by Yoda1 increases [Ca 2+ ] i by inducing both intracellular calcium release from internal calcium stores through the intracellular (intra-) Piezo1 localized at the subcellular organelles, including endoplasmic reticulum/sarcoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and nucleus; as well as extracellular calcium influx through the plasma membrane-localized Piezo1 in a mechanism independent of the store-operated calcium entry. Moreover, the Piezo1-mediated increase of [Ca 2+ ] i is linked to increased contraction and proliferation of PASMCs. Yoda1 induces dose-dependent vasocontraction in endothelium-denuded rat intrapulmonary arteries. Significant upregulation and increased activity of Piezo1 were observed in idiopathic PAH-PASMCs versus donor-PASMCs, contributing to the increased [Ca 2+ ] i and excessive proliferation of idiopathic PAH-PASMCs. In summary, Piezo1 mediates the increase of [Ca 2+ ] i by triggering both intracellular calcium release and extracellular influx. The enhanced Piezo1 expression and activity accounts, at least partially, for the abnormally elevated [Ca 2+ ] i and proliferation in idiopathic PAH-PASMCs.

Alteration in microbiota composition of respiratory tract has been reported in the progression of many chronic lung diseases, yet, the correlation and causal link between respiratory tract microbiota and the disease development of pulmonary hypertension (PH) remain largely unknown. This study aims to define and compare the respiratory microbiota composition in pharyngeal swab samples between patients with PH and reference subjects. A total of 118 patients with PH and 79 reference subjects were recruited, and the pharyngeal swab samples were collected to sequence the 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) V3-V4 region of respiratory microbiome. The relative abundances in patients with PH were profoundly different from reference subjects. The Ace and Sobs indexes indicated that the microbiota richness of pharynx value is significantly higher; while the community diversity value is markedly lower in patients with PH, comparing to those of the reference subjects. The microbiota on pharynx showed a different profile between the 2 groups by principal component analysis. The linear discriminant analysis effect size also revealed a significantly higher proportion of Streptococcus, Lautropia, and Ralstonia in patients with PH than reference subjects. The linear discriminant analysis effect size output, which represents the microbial gene functions, suggest genes related to bacterial invasion of epithelial cells, bacterial toxins were enhanced, while genes related to energy metabolism, protein digestion and absorption, and cell division pathways were attenuated in patients with PH versus reference subjects. In summary, our study reports the first systematic definition and divergent profile of the upper respiratory tract microbiota between patients with PH and reference subjects.

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N 6 -Methyladenosine (m 6 A), a pervasive posttranscriptional modification which is reversible, has been among hotspot issues in the past several years. The balance of intracellular m 6 A levels is dynamically maintained by methyltransferase complex and demethylases. Meanwhile, m 6 A reader proteins specifically recognize modified residues and convey messages so as to set up an efficient and orderly network of m 6 A regulation. The m 6 A mark has proved to affect every step of RNA life cycle, from processing in nucleus to translation or degradation in cytoplasm. Subsequently, disorders in m 6 A methylation are directly related to aberrant RNA metabolism, which results in tumorigenesis and altered drug response. Therefore, uncovering the underlying mechanism of m 6 A in oncogenic transformation and tumor progression seeks opportunities for novel targets in cancer therapy. In this review, we conclude the extensive impact of m 6 A on RNA metabolism and highlight its relevance with human cancer, implicating the far-reaching value in clinical application.

How to effectively deploy all wireless sensors and save a system’s energy consumption is a key issue in current wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Theoretical analysis has proven that a hexagonal structure is the best topology in the two-dimensional network, which can provide the maximum coverage area with the minimum number of sensor nodes and minimum energy consumption. Recently, many scientists presented their self-deployment strategies based on different virtual forces and discussed the corresponding efficiency via several case studies. However, according to our statistical analysis, some virtual force algorithms, e.g., virtual spring force, can still cause holes or twisted structure in a small region of the final network distribution, which cannot achieve the ideal network topology and will waste the system energy in real applications. In this paper, we first statistically analyzed the convergence and deployment effect of the virtual spring force algorithm to derive our question. Then we presented an optimized strategy that sensor deployment begins from the center of the target region by adding an external central force. At the early stage, the external force will be added to the most peripheral nodes to promote the formation of hexagonal topology and avoid covering holes or unusual structure. Finally, a series of independent simulation experiments and corresponding statistical results proved that our optimized deployment solution is very stable and effective, which can improve the energy consumption of the whole sensor network and be used in the application of a large scale WSN.