Methods used to strengthen metals generally also cause a pronounced decrease in electrical conductivity, so that a tradeoff must be made between conductivity and mechanical strength. We synthesized pure copper samples with a high density of nanoscale growth twins. They showed a tensile strength about 10 times higher than that of conventional coarse-grained copper, while retaining an electrical conductivity comparable to that of pure copper. The ultrahigh strength originates from the effective blockage of dislocation motion by numerous coherent twin boundaries that possess an extremely low electrical resistivity, which is not the case for other types of grain boundaries.

To determine whether reactive astrocytes stimulated by brain injury can transdifferentiate into functional new neurons, we labeled these cells by injecting a glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) targeted enhanced green fluorescence protein plasmid (pGfa2‐eGFP plasmid) into the striatum of adult rats immediately following a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and performed immunolabeling with specific neuronal markers to trace the neural fates of eGFP‐expressing (GFP+) reactive astrocytes. The results showed that a portion of striatal GFP+ astrocytes could transdifferentiate into immature neurons at 1 week after MCAO and mature neurons at 2 weeks as determined by double staining GFP‐expressing cells with βIII‐tubulin (GFP+‐Tuj‐1+) and microtubule associated protein‐2 (GFP+‐MAP‐2+), respectively. GFP+ neurons further expressed choline acetyltransferase, glutamic acid decarboxylase, dopamine receptor D2‐like family proteins, and the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor subunit R2, indicating that astrocyte‐derived neurons could develop into cholinergic or GABAergic neurons and express dopamine and glutamate receptors on their membranes. Electron microscopy analysis indicated that GFP+ neurons could form synapses with other neurons at 13 weeks after MCAO. Electrophysiological recordings revealed that action potentials and active postsynaptic currents could be recorded in the neuron‐like GFP+ cells but not in the astrocyte‐like GFP+ cells, demonstrating that new GFP+ neurons possessed the capacity to fire action potentials and receive synaptic inputs. These results demonstrated that striatal astrocyte‐derived new neurons participate in the rebuilding of functional neural networks, a fundamental basis for brain repair after injury. These results may lead to new therapeutic strategies for enhancing brain repair after ischemic stroke. GLIA 2015;63:1660–1670

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Electrically conductive asphalt concrete has the potential to satisfy multifunctional applications. Designing such asphalt concrete needs to balance the electrical and mechanical performance of asphalt concrete. The objective of this study is to design electrically conductive asphalt concrete without compromising on the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete. In order to achieve this goal, various tests have been conducted to investigate the effects of electrically conductive additives (steel fiber and graphite) on the laboratory-measured electrical and mechanical properties of asphalt concrete. The results from this study indicate that the critical embedded steel fiber length is 9.6 mm to maximize the fiber's potential to bridge across the crack from single fiber tensile test. Both steel fiber and graphite can produce conductive asphalt concrete with sufficiently low resistivity, but steel fiber is much more effective than graphite to improve the conductivity of asphalt concrete. A combination of steel fiber and graphite can precisely control the resistivity of asphalt concrete over a wider range. Besides, asphalt concrete containing an optimized amount of steel fibers has a significant improvement in Marshall Stability, rutting resistance, indirect tensile strength, and low temperature cracking resistance compared to the plain concrete. The addition of graphite could increase the permanent deformation resistance with compromised stability and low temperature performance. Asphalt concrete containing steel fibers and graphite weakens the steel fiber reinforcing and toughening effect, but still has a significant improvement in mechanical performance compared to the plain concrete.

Integration of public genome-wide gene expression data together with Cox regression analysis is a powerful weapon to identify new prognostic gene signatures for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), however, it remains largely unknown about the specific gene prognostic signature of HBV-associated HCC. Using Robust Rank Aggreg (RRA) method to integrate seven whole genome expression datasets, we identified 82 up-regulated genes and 577 down-regulated genes in HBV-associated HCC patients. Combination of several enrichment analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, we revealed that a three-gene (SPP2, CDC37L1, and ECHDC2) prognostic signature could act as an independent prognostic indicator for HBV-associated HCC in both the discovery cohort and the internal testing cohort. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that the high-risk group with lower expression levels of the three genes was enriched in bladder cancer and cell cycle pathway, whereas the low-risk group with higher expression levels of the three genes was enriched in drug metabolism-cytochrome P450, PPAR signaling pathway, fatty acid and histidine metabolisms. This indicates that patients of HBV-associated HCC with higher expression of these three genes may preserve relatively good hepatic cellular metabolism and function, which may also protect HCC patients from persistent drug toxicity in response to various medication. Our findings suggest a three-gene prognostic model that serves as a specific prognostic signature for HBV-associated HCC.

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