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Time-restricted feeding could be used as a nondrug intervention to prevent obesity and accelerate growth in adolescents.A photochemical C-N coupling of aryl halides with nitroarenes is demonstrated for the first time. Catalyzed by a NiII complex in the absence of any external photosensitizer, readily available nitroarenes undergo coupling with a variety of aryl halides, providing a step-economic extension to the widely used Buchwald-Hartwig C-N coupling reaction. The method tolerates coupling partners with steric-congestion and functional groups sensitive to bases and nucleophiles. Mechanistic studies suggest that the reaction proceeds via the addition of an aryl radical, generated from a NiI /NiIII cycle, to a nitrosoarene intermediate.The genus Alisma contains 11 species distributed worldwide, of which at least two species (A. orientale [Sam.] Juzep. and A. plantago-aquatica Linn.) have been used as common herbal medicines. Secondary metabolites obtained from the genus Alisma are considered to be the material basis for the various biological functions and medicinal applications. In this review, we mainly focused on the recent investigations of secondary metabolites from plants of the genus Alisma and their biological activities, with the highlighting on the diversity of the chemical structures, the biosynthesis of interesting secondary metabolites, the biological activities, and the relationships between structures and bioactivities.Solar-driven interfacial evaporation provides a promising method for sustainable freshwater production. However, high energy consumption of vapor generation fundamentally restricts practicality of solar-driven wastewater treatment. Here a facile strategy is reported to control the hydration of polymer network in hydrogels, where densely cross-linked polymers serving as a framework are functionalized by a highly hydratable polymeric network. The hydration of polymer chains generates a large amount of weakly bounded water molecules, facilitating the water evaporation. As a result, the hydrogel-based solar evaporator can extract water from a variety of contaminants such as salts, detergents, and heavy metal components using solar energy with long-term durability and stability. This work demonstrates an effective way to tune the interaction between water and materials at a molecular level, as well as an energy-efficient water treatment technology toward wastewater containing complex contaminants.Chronic vascular inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as essential inflammation regulators. We identify a novel lncRNA termed lncRNA-MAP3K4 that is enriched in the vessel wall and regulates vascular inflammation. In the aortic intima, lncRNA-MAP3K4 expression was reduced by 50% during the progression of atherosclerosis (chronic inflammation) and 70% during endotoxemia (acute inflammation). lncRNA-MAP3K4 knockdown reduced the expression of key inflammatory factors (eg, ICAM-1, E-selectin, MCP-1) in endothelial cells or vascular smooth muscle cells and decreased monocytes adhesion to endothelium, as well as reducing TNF-α, IL-1β, COX2 expression in macrophages. Mechanistically, lncRNA-MAP3K4 regulates inflammation through the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. lncRNA-MAP3K4 shares a bidirectional promoter with MAP3K4, an upstream regulator of the MAPK signaling pathway, and regulates its transcription in cis. lncRNA-MAP3K4 and MAP3K4 show coordinated expression in response to inflammation in vivo and in vitro. Similar to lncRNA-MAP3K4, MAP3K4 knockdown reduced the expression of inflammatory factors in several different vascular cells. Furthermore, lncRNA-MAP3K4 and MAP3K4 knockdown showed cooperativity in reducing inflammation in endothelial cells. Collectively, these findings unveil the role of a novel lncRNA in vascular inflammation by cis-regulating MAP3K4 via a p38 MAPK pathway.In order to achieve patient personalization and translate compounds through the discovery phase into the clinic, high throughput test models should be designed to be as closely matched to the patient as possible. Engineering high throughput and physiologically relevant biological models is the idealized scenario for testing next generation modulators. I present here a cautionary example of a misaligned model as well as my viewpoint on how overcoming this bottleneck is one of the next frontiers in chemical biology.Cancer is a singular cellular state, the emergence of which destabilises the homeostasis reached through the evolution to multicellularity. We present the idea that the onset of the cellular disobedience to the metazoan functional and structural architecture, known as the cancer phenotype, is triggered by changes in the cell’s external environment that occur with ageing what ensues is a breach of the social contract of multicellular life characteristic of metazoans. By integrating old ideas with new evidence, we propose that with ageing the environmental information that maintains a multicellular organisation is eroded, rewiring internal processes of the cell, and resulting in an internal shift towards an ancestral condition resulting in the pseudo-multicellular cancer phenotype. Once that phenotype emerges, a new local social contract is built, different from the homeostatic one, leading to tumour formation and the foundation of a novel local ecosystem.Herein, the synthesis and an extensive characterization of two novel Gd(AAZTA) (AAZTA=6-amino-6-methylperhydro-1,4-diazepine tetra acetic acid) derivatives functionalized with short (C2 and C4 ) n-alkyl acid functions are reported. The carboxylate functionality is the site for further conjugations for the design of more specific contrast agents (CAs). Interestingly, it has been found that the synthesized complexes display enhanced properties for use as MRI contrast agents on their own. The stability constants determined by using potentiometric titration and UV/Vis spectrophotometry were slightly higher than the one reported for the parent Gd(AAZTA) complex. Bay K 8644 cost This observation might be accounted for by the larger sigma-electron donation of the acyl substituents with respect to the one provided by the methyl group in the parent complex. As far as concerns the kinetic stability, transmetallation experiments with endogenous ions (e.g. Cu2+ ) implied that the Gd3+ ions present in these Gd(AAZTA) derivatives show somewhat smaller susceptibility to chemical exchange towards these ions at 25 °C, close to the physiological condition.