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Introduction: Patients frequently suffer from debilitating chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) subsequent to thoracoscopic surgery. The impact of postoperative dexmedetomidine infusion on CPSP remains elusive. This study aimed to scrutinize the effect of dexmedetomidine on both 1-year incidence of CPSP and the quality of recovery after thoracoscopic pulmonary nodule surgery. Methods: This retrospective analysis encompassed clinical and follow-up data from 1148 patients undergoing thoracoscopic pulmonary nodule surgery at our institution between September 2021 and August 2022. Depending on whether dexmedetomidine was infused intravenously or not on the first night after surgery, patients were stratified into the dexmedetomidine group or the control group, with propensity score matching applied to harmonize baseline characteristics. Comparative analysis sought to delineate distinctions of CPSP and recovery quality 1 year after surgery. Results: Following propensity score matching, a cohort of 258 patients in each group underwent analysis. Comparisons after matching revealed no statistically significant disparities in 1-year CPSP incidence [76/258 (29.5%) versus 78/258 (30.2%), P = 0.847], moderate-to-severe pain occurrence [17/76 (22.4%) versus 22/78 (28.2%), P = 0.405], neuropathic pain occurrence [11/76 (14.5%) versus 11/78 (14.1%), P = 0.948], and postoperative recovery quality assessed by 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) score (113.1 [107.2, 116.0] versus 113.0 [107.4, 116.0], P = 0.328). Multivariate logistic regression analysis encompassing the entire cohort identified being female [odds ratio (OR) 2.10, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.59–2.79, P < 0.001) and postoperative rescue analgesia (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.09–1.96, P = 0.010) as risk factors for CPSP, while intraoperative fentanyl dosage (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.87–0.98, P = 0.006) emerged as a protective factor. Conclusion: The prolonged administration of dexmedetomidine did not yield discernible amelioration in either 1-year CPSP or the recovery quality after thoracoscopic surgery. Noteworthy risk factors for CPSP encompassed female sex, postoperative rescue analgesia, and diminished fentanyl dosage intraoperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The gut microbiota significantly influences the health and growth of red-spotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara), a well-known commercial marine fish from Fujian Province in southern China. However, variations in survival strategies and seasons can impact the stability of gut microbiota data, rendering it inaccurate in reflecting the state of gut microbiota. Which impedes the effective enhancement of aquaculture health through a nuanced understanding of gut microbiota. Inspired by this, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the gut microbiota of wild and captive E. akaara in four seasons. Results: Seventy-two E. akaara samples were collected from wild and captive populations in Dongshan city, during four different seasons. Four sections of the gut were collected to obtain comprehensive information on the gut microbial composition and sequenced using 16S rRNA next-generation Illumina MiSeq. We observed the highest gut microbial diversity in both captive and wild E. akaara during the winter season, and identified strong correlations with water temperature using Mantel analysis. Compared to wild E. akaara, we found a more complex microbial network in captive E. akaara, as evidenced by increased abundance of Bacillaceae, Moraxellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae. In contrast, Vibrionaceae, Clostridiaceae, Flavobacteriaceae and Rhodobacteraceae were found to be more active in wild E. akaara. However, some core microorganisms, such as Firmicutes and Photobacterium, showed similar distribution patterns in both wild and captive groups. Moreover, we found the common community composition and distribution characteristics of top 10 core microbes from foregut to hindgut in E. akaara. Conclusions: Collectively, the study provides relatively more comprehensive description of the gut microbiota in E. akaara, taking into account survival strategies and temporal dimensions, which yields valuable insights into the gut microbiota of E. akaara and provides a valuable reference to its aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Inactivated parapoxvirus ovis (iPPVO) exerts strong immunomodulatory effects on innate immune cells, making it an attractive therapeutic candidate. However, little is known about the signaling pathways that are involved in iPPVO-induced immune responses. Methods: In this study, we systematically analyzed how different types of dendritic cells (DCs) react to iPPVO (Zylexis, strain D1701) in both BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice by flow cytometry and ELISAs, and investigated which signaling pathway is related to DC activation by Western blotting and protein profiling. Results: We demonstrated that bone marrow-derived conventional DCs (BM-cDCs) and bone marrow-derived plasmacytoid DCs (BM-pDCs) matured and secreted type I interferons in response to Zylexis stimulation in both mouse strains. Similarly, Zylexis promoted the secretion of IL-12/23p40 and TNF by pDCs. However, IL-12/23p40 and TNF secretion by cDCs were induced in BALB/c mice but not in C57BL/6 mice. Analyzing the underlying signaling pathways revealed that iPPVO-induced maturation of cDCs was Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) independent, while the maturation of pDCs partially depended on the TLR9 pathway. Moreover, the production of proinflammatory cytokines by cDCs and the secretion of IFN-α/β by pDCs partially depended on the TLR9 pathway in both mouse strains. Therefore, other signaling pathways seem to participate in the response of DCs to iPPVO, supported by protein profiling. Conclusion: Our data provide useful insights into the diversity of iPPVO sensors and their varying effects across different strains and species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blood–brain barrier (BBB)/blood–tumor barrier (BTB) impedes brain entry of most brain-targeted drugs, whether they are water-soluble or hydrophobic. Endothelial WNT signaling and neoplastic pericytes maintain BTB low permeability by regulating tight junctions. Here, we proposed nitazoxanide (NTZ) and ibrutinib (IBR) co-loaded ICAM-1-targeting nanoparticles (NI@I-NPs) to disrupt the BTB in a time-dependent, reversible, and size-selective manner by targeting specific ICAM-1, inactivating WNT signaling and depleting pericytes in tumor-associated blood vessels in breast cancer brain metastases. At the optimal NTZ/IBR mass ratio (1:2), BTB opening reached the optimum effect at 48–72 h without any sign of intracranial edema and cognitive impairment. The combination of NI@I-NPs and chemotherapeutic drugs (doxorubicin and etoposide) extended the median survival of mice with breast cancer brain metastases. Targeting BTB endothelial WNT signaling and tumor pericytes via NI@I-NPs could open the BTB to improve chemotherapeutic efficiency against brain metastases. [Display omitted] • Endothelial WNT signaling is activated in brain metastases to keep tight junctions. • Pericytes also contribute to low vascular permeability of brain metastases. • ICAM-1 could mediate drug delivery to silence BTB WNT and deplete tumor pericytes. • Nanomodulators could open the BTB for boosted drug delivery and brain tumor therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The research aimed to determine the effects of different surgical procedures on postsurgical pain and early prognosis. We reviewed the perioperative data of patients who underwent single/two-port television-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary nodule surgery in the day surgery ward of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. Methods The clinical and follow-up data of 693 patients undergoing thoracoscopic for pulmonary nodules in the day surgery ward under the centralized management model of our hospital were retrospectively analyzed during the period of January 2021 to December 2022. The patients were divided into a single-port and a two-port thoracoscopy group. The propensity-matching was used to balance the baseline data and analyze the differences in postoperative pain and prognosis of the patientsin the two groups. Results After propensity score matching, the single-port group had lower intraoperative fentanyl consumption [0.5 (0.35, 0.50) mg vs. 0.5 (0.40, 0.50) mg, P = 0.034], remifentanil consumption [0.48 (0.33, 0.63) mg vs. 0.53 (0.35, 0.73) mg, P = 0.031], intraoperative hemorrhage [20 (10, 50) mL vs. 50 (20, 50) mL, P = 0.001], and Visual Analogue Scale on postoperative third day [2 (2, 4) point vs. 3 (2, 4) point, P = 0.007], which were statistically different. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of postoperative rescue analgesia, chest drainage volume, length of hospitalization, pain on postoperative 1st, 5th, 9th, and 30th days, postoperative cough, pulmonary complications within 30 days after surgery, and unplanned hospital visits. Conclusion Compared with two-port thoracoscopy, single-port thoracoscopic day surgery for pulmonary nodules is a safe and feasible procedure that can significantly reduce the use of intraoperative opioid analgesics and the pain level of patients on postoperative 3rd day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methods accurately predicting the responses of colorectal cancer (CRC) and colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRLM) to personalized chemotherapy remain limited due to tumor heterogeneity. This study introduces an innovative patient‐derived CRC and CRLM tumor model for preclinical investigation, utilizing 3d‐bioprinting (3DP) technology. Efficient construction of homogeneous in vitro 3D models of CRC/CRLM is achieved through the application of patient‐derived primary tumor cells and 3D bioprinting with bioink. Genomic and histological analyses affirm that the CRC/CRLM 3DP tumor models effectively retain parental tumor biomarkers and mutation profiles. In vitro tests evaluating chemotherapeutic drug sensitivities reveal substantial tumor heterogeneity in chemotherapy responses within the 3DP CRC/CRLM models. Furthermore, a robust correlation is evident between the drug response in the CRLM 3DP model and the clinical outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These findings imply a significant potential for the application of patient‐derived 3DP cancer models in precision chemotherapy prediction and preclinical research for CRC/CRLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed to use cross wedge rolling (CWR) to manufacture sintered TC4 (S-TC4) titanium alloy blade preform prepared by powder metallurgy technology. The hot uniaxial compression tests, CWR experiments, and numerical simulation were carried out to investigate the influence of forming parameters on microstructure evolution. The results showed that the pattern of stress–strain curve is typical featured of work hardening and dynamic softening, and the Arrhenius equation was determined to describe the high-temperature flow behavior of the studied S-TC4 alloy. In regard to microstructure evolution, the volume fraction of alpha phase f α increases and then decreases radially from inside to outside, and the lamellar alpha phase was equiaxialized by to the shear and torsion stress. And increasing the initial forming temperature T was not conducive to the preservation of the alpha phase, and both the volume fraction of alpha phase fα and average thickness of lamellar alpha phase lα are negatively correlated with the rolling speed n and area reduction φ . Moreover, the maximum initial forming temperature, rolling speed, and area reduction are 940 °C, 10 r/min, and 60%, respectively, in order to achieve the best match between strong plasticity and thermal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an opportunistic parasite that can infect the central nervous system (CNS), causing severe toxoplasmosis and behavioral cognitive impairment. Mortality is high in immunocompromised individuals with toxoplasmosis, most commonly due to reactivation of infection in the CNS. There are still no effective vaccines and drugs for the prevention and treatment of toxoplasmosis. There are five developmental stages for T. gondii to complete life cycle, of which the tachyzoite and bradyzoite stages are the key to the acute and chronic infection. In this study, to better understanding of how T. gondii interacts with the host CNS at different stages of infection, we constructed acute and chronic infection models of T. gondii in astrocytes, and used label-free proteomics to detect the proteome changes before and after infection, respectively. A total of 4676 proteins were identified, among which 163 differentially expressed proteins (fold change ≥ 1.5 or ≤ 0.67 and p-value ≤ 0.05) including 109 up-regulated proteins and 54 down-regulated proteins in C8-TA vs C8 group, and 719 differentially expressed proteins including 495 up-regulated proteins and 224 down-regulated proteins in C8-BR vs C8-TA group. After T. gondii tachyzoites infected astrocytes, differentially expressed proteins were enriched in immune-related biological processes to promote the formation of bradyzoites and maintain the balance of T. gondii, CNS and brain. After T. gondii bradyzoites infected astrocytes, the differentially expressed proteins up-regulated the host's glucose metabolism, and some up-regulated proteins were strongly associated with neurodegenerative diseases. These findings not only provide new insights into the psychiatric pathogenesis of T. gondii, but also provide potential targets for the treatment of acute and chronic Toxoplasmosis. Author summary: Toxoplasma gondii is an extremely widespread and a worldwide health problem protozoon, which can infect the central nervous system, inducing acute and chronic infection and causing severe toxoplasmosis and behavioral cognitive impairment. However, there is still no effective vaccines to prevent infection, drugs used to treat the acute infected individuals have a lot of limitations, and no drugs to treat chronic infected individuals. In this study, we established an acute and chronic infection model of T. gondii in astrocytes, and then used label-free quantitative proteomics to detect the proteome changes before and after infection, respectively. We aimed to understand the molecular mechanism and find special targets of T. gondii infection at different stages by analyzing the biological processes and signaling pathways, which the differential expressed proteins were involved in. Our study may provide new insights for further exploring the parasite-host interaction, and new targets for developing anti-Toxoplasma vaccines and drugs for the treatment of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the performance and efficiency of ordinary galloping energy harvesters (GEHs), this paper proposes a GEH with a striped bluff body. The fluid-structure coupling simulation of the bluff body and the oscillator of the energy harvester was carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics. The cloud diagram in the flow field, tip displacement at the tip of the beam, lifting and dragging force, and trace and frequency response of the harvester are analyzed. Simulation results show that the GEH with a striped bluff body has the characteristics of rising frequency and falling peak compared with the ordinary GEH, which can be locked at a fixed peak to form a stable periodic response. Experimental results show that the striped bluff body energy harvester displays better energy harvest performance. The output root mean square voltage can be increased by 119.2% at 2 m/s wind speed, which means that the galloping harvester with a striped bluff body has more stable dynamic characteristics and shows better energy harvest performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Janus biomass aerogel was constructed by HLS (hydrothermal-treated loofah sponges) with rGO aerogel partial modification. The hydrophobic HLS@rGO serves as solar absorber for photothermal conversion, and the hydrophilic HLS ensure efficient water transportation. The Janus evaporator can achieve highly efficient solar-driven steam generation, seawater desalination, organic pollutant degradation, and water disinfection simultaneously. [Display omitted] Solar-driven water purification has been deemed as a cheap, green and renewable technology to mitigate water shortage and pollution. Herein, a biomass aerogel with hydrophilic-hydrophobic Janus structure has been prepared as solar water evaporator, which is achieved by partially modifying hydrothermal-treated loofah sponge (HLS) with reduced graphene oxide (rGO). It's a rare design philosophy that HLS serves as a substrate with large pores and hydrophilic properties to ensure continuous and effective water transport, and the hydrophobic layer with rGO modification guarantees good salt resistance in seawater desalination with high photothermal conversion efficiency. As a result, the obtained Janus aerogel, p-HLS@rGO-12, exhibits impressive solar-driven evaporation rates of 1.75 kg m-2h−1 and 1.54 kg m-2h−1 for pure water and seawater respectively, with good cycling stability in the evaporation process. Furthermore, p-HLS@rGO-12 also demonstrates outstanding photothermal degradation of rhodamine B (greater than98.8 % in 2 h) and sterilization of E. coli (nearly 100 % in 2 h). This work offers an unusual approach to achieve highly efficient solar-driven steam generation, seawater desalination, organic pollutant degradation, and water disinfection simultaneously. The prepared Janus biomass aerogel holds great potential application in the field of seawater desalination and wastewater purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image dehazing is a challenging task in computer vision. Currently, most dehazing methods adopt the U-Net architecture that directly fuses the decoding layer with the corresponding scale encoding layer. These methods ignore the effective utilization of different encoding layer information and existing feature information dilute problems, resulting in suboptimal edge details and overall scene aspects of dehazed image restoration. In addition, Squeeze and Excitation (SE) channel attention is widely used in dehazing network. However, the two fully-connected layers of dimensionality reduction operation in SE will negatively affect the weight prediction of feature channels, thus reducing the performance of the dehazing network. To solve the above problems, we propose a Multi-level Feature Interaction and Non-local Information Enhanced Channel Attention (MFINEA) dehazing model. Specifically, a multi-level feature interaction module is proposed to enable the decoding layer to fuse shallow and deep feature information extracted from different encoding layers for better recovery of edge details and the overall scene. Furthermore, an efficient non-local information enhanced channel attention module is proposed to mine more effective feature channel information for the weight assignment of the feature maps. The experimental results on several challenging benchmark datasets show that our MFINEA outperforms the state-of-the-art dehazing methods. • A Multi-level Feature Interaction module is designed to fuse shallow and deep information of the encoding stage in each layer of features in the decoding stage. • An Efficient Channel Non-local Information Enhancement Attention module is proposed to use non-local and local information fusion for effective learning of channel weight assignment. • A novel dehazing network MFINEA by integrating Multi-level Feature Interaction and Channel Non-local Information Enhancement Attention is proposed to the network can recover the dehazed images with better color, brightness, and details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, convolutional neural networks have been widely used in image defogging and achieved remarkable performance. However, most of the learning-based defogging methods using pairs of synthetic foggy and corresponding ground-truth images for training. Due to the gap between the distribution of real-word foggy and synthetic foggy images, there are limits to apply these defogging methods to autonomous driving in practice. CycleGAN is a two-way GANs network that could using unpaired real-word images to train image defogging models. However, there are several problems when CycleGAN is directly used for image defogging: (1) Using two different distributed data to train the same generator will confuse the learning of generators, which reduce the convergence speed and defogging results of the network. (2) The generator ignores the global features exploration which is very important for learning the scene and lighting information and needs the post-processing to restore the original image scales, which will result in a decrease in the quality of the generated image. To address these issues, we propose a Scale-free Heterogeneous CycleGAN (SH-CycleGAN) to utilize unpaired real-word images for boosting image defogging. The SH-CycleGAN contains a Heterogeneous Learning CycleGAN (HLCG) framework, and a generator with a Global Features Fusion module and an Adaptive Pooling module(GFFAP). Specifically, in the proposed HLCF framework, each BatchNorm layer learning in the generator is independent, which can solve the problem of confusion caused by learning different distributed data. Furthermore, the development of the GFFAP model can deal with image of any scales and improve the generated images. The experiments compared with eight state-of-the-art image defogging methods on both synthetic and real-world images demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art performance and obtains more pleasing visually defogging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Limited studies have explored the predictive efficiency of prediabetes based on two definitions for diabetes among Chinese middle-aged and older populations with prediabetes. Objective: To evaluate the predictive efficiency of prediabetes based on two definitions for diabetes and the clinical and public health benefit in Chinese middle-aged and older populations. Design: A 5-year cohort study from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Participants: A total of 5208 participants who had blood sample data at baseline in 2011. Main Measures: The exposure was prediabetes based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) and World Health Organization (WHO) definition. The main outcome was incident diabetes. The ability of prediabetes for predicting diabetes was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to explore the associations between prediabetes and the 5-year risk of diabetes and all-cause mortality. Key Results: Among those with prediabetes according to the ADA definition, only 426 (15.45%) with baseline prediabetes progressed to total diabetes, while according to the WHO definition, 208 (21.89%) progressed to total diabetes. In terms of the ability of predicting the incident total diabetes in 5 years, the ADA definition has a higher sensitivity than the WHO definition (70.76% versus 34.55%, P < 0.001), while the WHO definition has a higher specificity than the ADA definition (84.09% versus 49.35%, P < 0.001). Positive predictive values based on the two definitions were low (< 24%); negative predictive values were high (> 90%). Conclusions: Neither definition of prediabetes is robust for predicting diabetes development in Chineses middle-aged and older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical metal implants have many applications in clinical treatment. Due to a variety of application requirements, alloy materials with specific properties are being designed continuously. The traditional alloy properties testing experiment is faced with high-cost and time-consuming challenges. Machine learning can accurately predict the properties of materials at a lower cost. However, the predicted performance is limited by the material dataset. We propose a calculation framework of alloy properties based on knowledge transfer. The purpose of the framework is to improve the prediction performance of machine learning models on material datasets. In addition to assembling the experiment dataset, the simulation dataset is also generated manually in the proposed framework. Domain knowledge is extracted from the simulation data and transferred to help train experiment data by the framework. The high accuracy of the simulation data (above 0.9) shows that the framework can effectively extract domain knowledge. With domain knowledge, the prediction performance of experimental data can reach more than 0.8. And it is 10% higher than the traditional machine learning method. The explanatory ability of the model is enhanced with the help of domain knowledge. In addition, five tasks are applied to show the framework is a general method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer-modified concrete (PMC) is a promising seismic reinforcement material to improve the ultimate load carrying capacity and ductility of structures. This study investigates the reinforcing effects of PMC on voided concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns through axial compression tests on 21 specimens. A meticulous analysis, incorporating void arch height, steel tube thickness, and PMC reinforcement, elucidates failure modes, load-deformation behavior, and strain characteristics. The experimental results demonstrate that PMC reinforcements significantly enhance the structural behavior and load-bearing capacity, improve ductility, and prevent material detachment from excellent bonding and collaborative working properties. A novel calculation model for ultimate load capacity and lateral pressure coefficient of voided CFST columns is developed and validated. Results reveal a distinct improvement in specimen performance post PMC reinforcement, with load-displacement curves resembling intact specimens, mitigating the impact of void defects. Furthermore, PMC-reinforced specimens exhibit effective recovery of load-bearing capacity and ductility, offering a cost-effective alternative to steel tube thickening. Changes in strain and Poisson's ratio curves underscore PMC's ability to restore biaxial compression stress, enhancing stability. Prediction models, rooted in the Double Shear Unified Strength Theory, accurately anticipate ultimate bearing capacity and lateral pressure coefficient, bolstering practical engineering design and repair endeavors. In summation, this study provides comprehensive insights into PMC-reinforced voided CFST columns, facilitating informed structural enhancements and repairs. • PMC demonstrates significant reinforcement effects through its bonding and synergistic properties. • The behavior of specimens is close to that of intact specimens after reinforcement. • Changes in Poisson's ratio reveal the lateral constraint effect on specimens. • Parametric analysis shows PMC boosts specimen strength and ductility. • Theoretical model precisely predicts CFST columns' load capacity and lateral pressure coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Unsupervised algorithms has achieved remarkable performance in image dehazing. However, the CycleGAN framework can lead to confusion in generator learning due to inconsistent data distributions, and the DisentGAN framework lacks effective constraints on generated images, resulting in the loss of image content details and color distortion. Moreover, Squeeze and Excitation channel attention employs only fully connected layers to capture global information, lacking interaction with local information, resulting in inaccurate feature weight allocation for image dehazing. To solve the above problems, in this paper, we propose an Unsupervised Bidirectional Contrastive Reconstruction and Adaptive Fine-Grained Channel Attention Networks (UBRFC-Net). Specifically, an Unsupervised Bidirectional Contrastive Reconstruction Framework (BCRF) is proposed, aiming to establish bidirectional contrastive reconstruction constraints, not only to avoid the generator learning confusion in CycleGAN but also to enhance the constraint capability for clear images and the reconstruction ability of the unsupervised dehazing network. Furthermore, an Adaptive Fine-Grained Channel Attention (FCA) is developed to utilize the correlation matrix to capture the correlation between global and local information at various granularities promotes interaction between them, achieving more efficient feature weight assignment. Experimental results on challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of our UBRFC-Net over state-of-the-art unsupervised image dehazing methods. This study successfully introduces an enhanced unsupervised image dehazing approach, addressing limitations of existing methods and achieving superior dehazing results. The source code is available at https://github.com/Lose-Code/UBRFC-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anisotropic magnetoresistance in a highly oriented SmCo 5 device was systematically investigated at various temperatures. Currents were applied along the magnetic easy axis and the magnetic hard axis of SmCo 5 , and the corresponding anisotropic magnetoresistances were measublack, respectively. In both these instances, the anisotropic magnetoresistances exponentially decrease as the temperature increases. Notably, the anisotropic magnetoresistance magnitudes for the two instances intersect at 220 K. This intersection may relate to the compensation between the spin and orbital magnetic moments of Sm, which is also considered to be a hint of a ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic transition in SmCo 5. The results exhibit the capability to monitor magnetic configurations through magnetotransport properties, potentially facilitating the development of spintronic devices based on SmCo 5. • Anisotropic magnetoresistance in SmCo 5 was systematically investigated. • A crossover of the anisotropic magnetoresistances was observed at 220 K. • The crossover may be a hint of ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic transition of SmCo 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Braden Scale is widely used to assess the risk of pressure injury. However, the vague literal description of the items creates difficulties for bedside nurses and limits its sensitivity. To solve this problem, we developed a cartoon version of the Braden scale (CVBS) to improve the pressure injury risk assessment ability of bedside nurses. The CVBS was constructed by two nurses, and the final version was determined through a two-round Delphi consultation. The scale's content validity was calculated based on expert ratings. A total of 265 patients were evaluated simultaneously with the CVBS by 119 bedside nurses and 46 wound care specialists; and 114 bedside nurses and the same 46 wound care specialists evaluated 239 patients with the original Braden scale (OBS). The interrater reliability between the two groups was calculated as Kappa value, and then the Kappa values of the two versions were compared. The content validity for the draft scale was not good enough. After modification, the indices of all the items in the final CVBS reached 1.00. The Kappa value of the OBS was 0.69 (95% CI 0.61-0.76); for each item, it ranged from 0.60 to 0.80. The interrater reliabilities of the CVBS were higher than those of the OBS, with an overall kappa value of 0.87 (95% CI 0.81-0.92) and a range of 0.77 to 0.93 for each item. The differences between the Kappa values of the CVBS and those of the OBS were all statistically significant. The CVBS had good validity and showed higher interrater reliability than the OBS, indicating that it may improve bedside nurses' ability to assess pressure injury risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high quality development of feed industry is an important way to get rid of excess capacity and can promote the sustainable development of feed industry. The paper constructs the evaluation index system of high-quality development of feed industry from dimensions of supply and demand, using the coupling coordination degree model to analyze the level of coupling and coordination of the high-quality development of the feed industry in 30 provinces from 2010 to 2020. The results showed that the coupling and coordination level of high-quality development in Chinese feed industry showed a fluctuating growth trend as a whole, which had experienced a stage change of 'slightly unbalanced development-barely coordinated development-primary coordinated development - good coordinated development'. The experiment indicates that the coupling coordination model can put forward the key measures for the high-quality development of feed industry from the aspects of accelerating the transformation and upgrading of feed product structure, promoting the high-quality development of feed industry technology and broadening the market width of feed industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debris of plastics with a size < 5 mm, called microplastics, possess long-lived legacies of plastic pollution and a growing threat to human beings. The adverse effects and corresponding molecular mechanisms of microplastics are still largely unknown and must be prioritized. Antibiotics commonly co-existed with microplastics; the current study investigated the syngenetic toxic effect of doxycycline (Dox) and polystyrene microplastics (PS). Specifically, we found that Dox combined with PS exposure perturbed gut microbiota homeostasis in mice, which mediated brain lesions and inflammation with a concomitant decline in learning and memory behaviors through the gut-brain axis. Of note, PS exposure resulted in intestinal damage and structural change, but Dox did not accelerate the disruption of intestinal barrier integrity in PS-treated mice. Interestingly, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can reverse neurological impairment caused by combined PS and Dox exposure via compensating gut microbes; therefore, the learning and memory abilities of mice were also recovered. This work not only provides insights into the syngenetic effect of microplastics and antibiotics and highlights their distal neurotoxicity through the gut-brain axis but also offers a promising strategy against their combined toxicity. [Display omitted] • Dox combined with PS exposure perturbed gut microbiota homeostasis in mice. • Co-exposure causes brain lesions and inflammation accompanied by decreased learning and memory behaviors through the gut-brain axis. • Fecal microbiota transplantation can reverse neurological impairment via compensating gut microbes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoplastics (NPs) exposure is usually linked with abnormal inflammation and oxidative stress, which are high-risk triggers of atherosclerosis; however, whether this exposure causes the development of atherosclerosis is vague. Here, we found that PS NPs co-exposure with ox-LDL induces significant accumulation of lipid, as well as oxidative stress and inflammation in RAW264.7 macrophages. Using an ultrasound biomicroscope (UBM), we observed the emergence of atherosclerotic plaques at the aortic arch of apolipoprotein knockout (ApoE-/-) mice after being exposed to PS NPs for three months. Oil-red O and hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining at the mice's aortic root also observed the deposition of lipids with plaque formation. Moreover, the development of atherosclerotic disease is associated with disturbances in lipid metabolism and oxidative stress damage in the mice liver. In conclusion, this study provides additional evidence to further understand the possible cardiovascular damage caused by NPs exposure. [Display omitted] • PS NPs co-exposure with ox-LDL induces significantly accumulation of lipid. • PS NPs co-exposure with ox-LDL induces oxidative stress and inflammation. • UBM technique indicated atherosclerotic plaques in PS NPs-exposed ApoE-/- mice. • Oil-red O and H&E staining also observed the deposition of lipids. • PS NPs exposure disturbs lipid metabolism and causes oxidative stress in the liver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional rural cultural heritage is not only the crystallisation of China's long agricultural history but also can guide the development of modern agriculture to some extent. It has its values for scientific research, education, tourism and other aspects. About exploration on the value of agricultural cultural heritage, there are some problems such as landscape homogenisation as well as iconic landscape deficiency. This paper focuses on the concept of rural culture, studies the planning of ecological agricultural circular economy in combination with agricultural ecological scenery, analyses the actual situation of regional rural culture and its actual planning needs, and verifies it through practice. From the researching point of view, the planning method proposed in this paper can be effectively combined with the traditional agricultural culture concept and can promote the development of agriculture and tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broussonetia papyrifera, Cryptomeria fortunei, Arundo donax, and Robinia pseudoacacia were planted on a zinc smelting slag site. The habitat conditions and spatial distribution of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) in slag were analyzed after seven years of restoration. The results showed that the pH, conductivity (EC), and moisture content of phytoremediated slag were lower than those of the control slag. The redox potential (Eh) and EC decreased with increasing slag depth. Phytostabilization significantly increased the contents of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in slag. TN, AN, AP, and DOC in slag showed obvious surface polymerization. Phytostabilization increased the content of calcite and gypsum in the slag. As and Sb concentrations were significantly lower than control slag, with an average decrease of 651–844 and 422–693 mg·kg −1, respectively. Residual As and Sb in phytoremediated slag was the most present form, the proportion of which was higher than that in the control slag. The proportions of calcium-bound and aluminum-bound As and Sb were lower. The contents of arsenic and antimony in plants had lower levels and followed the order of roots > leaves > stems. As and Sb showed a strong positive correlation with pH, EC, moisture content, and a negative correlation with TN, TP, AN, AP, and DOC. In summary, phytostabilization significantly improved slag site conditions and reduce As and Sb available concentrations. Novelty statement Co-contamination of As and Sb is common in mining areas because of similar chemical properties. There are only few reports on the effects of matrix modification and phytoremediation (without additional soil cover) on the soil physicochemical properties, the spatial distribution, and the bioavailability of As and Sb in zinc slag with an alkaline pH. The research determined that phytostabilization significantly improved slag site conditions and reduce As and Sb available concentrations. The results obtained can be used as necessary information for the large-scale ecological restoration or vegetation reconstruction of zinc smelting slag yards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Identifying the contours and correlates of species turnover is central to understanding the nature of biogeographical regions. The Hengduan Mountains region of south‐central China (HMR) is well known for its high diversity of plants, but its boundaries and internal floristic structure are poorly understood, especially in relation to geographical and environmental factors.With data on occurrences and elevational ranges of seed plants across the HMR and adjacent areas of the greater Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, we identified motifs (distinct species assemblages) by Grade of Membership models, and characterized relative contributions of geography, elevation, and climate to their spatial patterns.Motifs segregate primarily by latitude, elevation, and correlated environmental variables, most sharply across the tropical‐temperate divide. Secondarily, they segregate by longitude and geographical features, and reveal a novel divide across the Jinsha River. A core set of motifs corresponds to previous delineations of the HMR.The HMR biodiversity hotspot is more a mosaic of floristic elements than a cohesive entity. Grade of Membership models effectively reveal the geographical contours of biotic structure, and are a valuable new tool for biogeographical analysis. See also the Commentary on this article by Muellner‐Riehl & Favre, 232: 964–966. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate efficacy and safety of raltitrexed‐based transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using real‐world evidence. Methods: All eligible HCC cases were collected from multiple centers in Chongqing, China, from January 2013 to December 2018 and divided into the raltitrexed group (raltitrexed + lobaplatin + pirarubicin) and control group (lobaplatin + pirarubicin). Propensity score matching (PSM) with a 1:1 ratio was used to eliminate the imbalance of potential confounding factors between groups. The primary end‐point was overall survival (OS) and the secondary end‐points were progression‐free survival (PFS) and disease control rate. Results: The median follow‐up period for patients in the raltitrexed and control groups was 8.7 and 5.9 months, respectively. After PSM, median OS was 10.0 months in the raltitrexed group and 7.0 months in the control group (p = 0.002). The 6‐month, 1‐year, and 2‐year OS rates of the raltitrexed group were significantly higher than those of the control group (78.2% vs. 60.9%, p = 0.010; 43.5% vs. 22.8%, p = 0.030; and 17.4% vs. 2.2% p = 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis of these propensity score‐matched HCC patients revealed treatment, age, tumor size, lipiodol accumulation, and the number of TACE cycles as independent predictors of OS (all p < 0.05). The disease control rate of the raltitrexed and control groups was 87.4% and 65.8%, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Raltitrexed‐based TACE can prolong the OS of patients with intermediate and advanced HCC in a real‐world clinical setting, and is safe and tolerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the speciation of arsenic and antimony in the rhizosphere of 6 pioneer plants grown in zinc smelting slag to understand the main affecting factors of phytoremediation. Compared with the control slag, the pH of rhizosphere decreased significantly (p < 0.05) and the DOC content increased significantly (p < 0.05). Overall, the contents of arsenic (except Photinia serrulata and Lolium perenne) and antimony in the rhizosphere were lower than those of control slag. The proportions of residual arsenic and antimony in the rhizosphere were the highest and significantly higher than control slag. Exchangeable state, aluminum-bound state and calcium-bound state were lower than control slag. The contents of arsenic and antimony in plants were normal and followed the order of roots > leaves > stems. Arsenic and antimony were significantly positively correlated with Free iron and aluminum oxides and negatively correlated with DOC. After 7 years of phytoremediation, the content and bioavailability of arsenic and antimony in the rhizosphere were significantly reduced and have a normal contents in plants. It is speculated that phytoremediation increases the migration of arsenic and antimony to the surrounding area, and Photinia serrulata and Lolium perenne exhibited the best performance on stabilise arsenic in slag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an uncertain SIR (spreader, ignorant, stifler) rumor spreading model driven by one Liu process is formulated to investigate the influence of perturbation in the transmission mechanism of rumor spreading. The deduced process of the uncertain SIR rumor spreading model is presented. Then an existence and uniqueness theorem concerning the solution is proved. Moreover, the stability of uncertain SIR rumor spreading differential equation is proved. In addition, the influence of different parameters on rumor spreading is analyzed through numerical simulation. This paper also presents a paradox of stochastic SIR rumor spreading model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research aims to analyze the diagnostic contribution of different discriminative regions of the breast ultrasound image and develop a more effective diagnosis method taking advantage of the discriminative regions' complementarity. Methods: First, the discriminative regions of the original breast ultrasound image as the inner region of the lesion, the marginal zone of the lesion, and the posterior echo region of the lesion were defined. The pretrained Inception‐V3 network was used to analyze the diagnostic contribution of these discriminative regions. Then, the network was applied to extract the deep features of the original image and the other three discriminative region images. Since there are many features, principal components analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of the extracted deep features. The selected deep features from different discriminative regions were fused to original image features and sent to the stacking ensemble learning classifier for classification experiments. In this study, 479 cases of breast ultrasound images, including 356 benign lesions and 123 malignant ones, were collected retrospectively and randomly divided into the training and validation set. Results: Experimental results show that by using Inception‐V3, the diagnostic performance of each discriminative region is different, and the diagnostic accuracy and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the lesion marginal zone image (78.3%, 0.798) are higher than those of the lesion inner region image (73.3%, 0.763) and the posterior echo region image (71.7%, 0.688), but lower than those of the original image (80.0%, 0.817). Furthermore, the best classification performance was obtained when all the four types of deep features (from the original image and three discriminative region images) were fused, and the ensemble learning for classification evaluation was employed. Compared with the original image, the classification accuracy and AUC increased from 80.83%, 0.818 to 85.00%, 0.872, and the classification sensitivity and specificity varied from 0.710, 0.798 to 0.871, 0.787. Conclusions: The inner region of the lesion, the marginal zone of the lesion, and the posterior echo region of the lesion play significant roles in the diagnosis of the breast ultrasound image. Deep feature fusion of these three kinds of images and the original image can effectively improve the accuracy of diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resolving evolutionary relationships among closely related species with interspecific gene flow is challenging. Genome‐scale data provide opportunities to clarify complex evolutionary relationships in closely related species and to observe variations in species relationships across the genomes of such species. The Himalayan–Hengduan subalpine oaks have a nearly completely sympatric distribution in southwest China and probably constitute a syngameon. In this study, we mapped resequencing data from different species in this group to the Quercus aquifolioides reference genome to obtain a high‐quality filtered single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset. We also assembled their plastomes. We reconstructed their phylogenetic relationships, explored the level and pattern of introgression among these species and investigated gene tree variation in the genomes of these species using sliding windows. The same or closely related plastomes were found to be shared extensively among different species within a specific geographical area. Phylogenomic analyses of genome‐wide SNP data found that most oaks in the Himalayan–Hengduan subalpine clade showed genetic coherence, but several species were found to be connected by introgression. The gene trees obtained using sliding windows showed that the phylogenetic relationships in the genomes of oaks are highly heterogeneous and therefore highly obscured. Our study found that all the oaks of the Himalayan–Hengduan subalpine clade from southwest China form a syngameon. The obscured phylogenetic relationships observed empirically across the genome are best explained by interspecific gene flow in conjunction with incomplete lineage sorting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in multiple biological processes. Identifying LncRNA–protein interactions (LPIs) is key to understanding lncRNA functions. Although some LPIs computational methods have been developed, the LPIs prediction problem remains challenging. How to integrate multimodal features from more perspectives and build deep learning architectures with better recognition performance have always been the focus of research on LPIs. Results: We present a novel multichannel capsule network framework to integrate multimodal features for LPI prediction, Capsule-LPI. Capsule-LPI integrates four groups of multimodal features, including sequence features, motif information, physicochemical properties and secondary structure features. Capsule-LPI is composed of four feature-learning subnetworks and one capsule subnetwork. Through comprehensive experimental comparisons and evaluations, we demonstrate that both multimodal features and the architecture of the multichannel capsule network can significantly improve the performance of LPI prediction. The experimental results show that Capsule-LPI performs better than the existing state-of-the-art tools. The precision of Capsule-LPI is 87.3%, which represents a 1.7% improvement. The F-value of Capsule-LPI is 92.2%, which represents a 1.4% improvement. Conclusions: This study provides a novel and feasible LPI prediction tool based on the integration of multimodal features and a capsule network. A webserver (http://csbg-jlu.site/lpc/predict) is developed to be convenient for users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Weakly hydrogen bonded water migrate from cellulose under dry preparation can fully plasticize the polyvinyl alcohol. • Cellulose and polyvinyl alcohol form hydrogen bonding at the interface layer. • Water molecules migrate to the free volume of the cellulose/PVA interface forming stable bridging hydrogen bond. • Water in the plant fiber has an important role in plant fiber/PVA composite materials prepared by dry preparation method. The preparation of a composite material based on plant fiber that contains water and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) powder was analyzed by molecular dynamic simulations. The results show that water migration from cellulose under specific temperature and pressure conditions is influenced by its hydrogen bonding with different components. Water strongly hydrogen bonded to plant fiber migrates with difficulty, whereas weakly hydrogen bonded water migrates to the interfacial layer to form stable hydrogen bonded bridges. Water molecules not captured by the interfacial layer migrate to the PVA phase and form new hydrogen bonds that have a plasticizing effect for PVA. The plasticized PVA can better coat the plant fiber, forming more hydrogen bonds between PVA and plant fiber. Hydrogen bonding bridges formed by water at the interface strengthen the interfacial bonding. Simulation and experimental results show that PVA with a lower molecular weight has stronger interfacial binding strength with the plant fiber, giving a higher modulus. The appropriate plant fiber water content achieves the optimal composite mechanical properties. Water has a significant role in the interfacial enhancement of plant fiber/PVA composite materials prepared by the dry preparation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike the well-understood alpine treeline, the upper range limits of tree taxa that do not reach the alpine treeline are largely unexplained. In this study, we explored the causes of the exceptionally high elevation (4270 m) occurrence of broad-leaved evergreen oaks (Quercus pannosa) in the south-eastern Himalayas. We assessed the course of freezing resistance of buds and leaves from winter to summer at the upper elevational limit of this oak species. Linked to leaf phenology, we analyzed freezing resistance and assessed minimum crown temperature for the past 65 years. We also examined potential carbon limitation at the range limit of this species. Last season buds and leaves operated at a safety margin of 5.5 and 11 K in mid-winter. Once fully dehardened early in July, last season foliage is damaged at −5.9 and new foliage at −4.6 °C. Bud break is timed for late June to early July when low temperature extremes historically were never below −3.0 °C. The monsoon regime ensures a long remaining season (149 days), thus compensating for the late onset of shoot growth. Compared with a site at 3450 m, specific leaf area is reduced, foliar non-structural carbohydrate concentrations are similar and the δ13C signal is higher, jointly suggesting that carbon limitation is unlikely at the range limit of this species. We also show that these oaks enter the growing season with fully intact (not embolized) xylem. We conclude that the interaction between phenology and freezing tolerance results in safe flushing, while still facilitating shoot maturation before winter. These factors jointly determine the upper range limit of this oak species. Our study illuminates an exceptional case of broad-leaved evergreen tree performance near the treeline, and by exploring a suite of traits, we can underpin the central role of flushing phenology in such a stressful environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), as a three-dimensional thermoelectric effect in ferromagnetic materials, is expected to break through the limitations of the traditional Seebeck effect, thereby improving thermoelectric conversion efficiency. This study reports an anisotropic anomalous Nernst effect in metallic nickel assembled by the alignment of nanowires. It is found that the ANE voltage varies with the angle to the alignment direction of nanowires within the in-plane of metallic nickel. The ANE voltage reaches 530 nV under a longitudinal temperature difference of 23 K when the magnetic field is applied parallel to the alignment direction of nanowires, which is 143% of its value in the vertical direction. This design concept for anisotropic materials may provide a novel path to enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in ANE-based thermoelectric devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The synergistic modification of RAC with nano-silica and hybrid fibers were investigated. • The workability, strength, and microstructure of RAC with different parameters. • DIC measurement effectively displays crack propagation. • 3D-CT scanning characterizes NS particles changing specific pore spaces. The present study was conducted to meet the demand of the construction schedule for emergency repair and construction in special projects by using the recycled aggregates produced by mechanically crushing the demolished materials on-site. The study aims to modify recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) by incorporating silica nanoparticles (NS) and mixed fibers together to meet the needs of the above special project. Here, the properties of 21 kinds of concrete with different NS contents and mixed proportions of fibers were tested, including their fresh properties, hardening properties and microstructure. Their working properties in the fresh state were studied by measuring slump and unit weight; while the mechanical properties after hardening were mainly evaluated in terms of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and flexural strength, and here the flexural toughness as well as the residual strength of the specimens were calculated using two methods. In addition, the effects of different NS contents, steel fibers and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers on crack development and water absorption were investigated in the microstructure. The pores between the cement matrix, interfacial transition zone (ITZ) and fibers and how they are alteredby NS were characterized by SEM and 3D-CT scans. All these results indicate that NS content has a significant effect on both the workability and mechanical properties of RAC, that steel fibers are beneficial to improve the overall mechanical index of RAC, while PVA fibers have a limited enhancement effect, and that NS particles in the microstructure help to fill the pores of 0.001–0.01 mm3 volume in the cement matrix and improve the performance of the ITZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Twelve post-fire SRCFST specimens subject to lateral impact are tested. • The lateral impact responses of post-fire SRCFST members are investigated. • The effects of different parameters on the impact behaviour are analyzed. • Simplified methods are proposed to evaluate the impact responses of SRCFST members. Steel-reinforced concrete-filled steel tube (SRCFST), which exhibits superior mechanical behaviour and fire resistance than traditional concrete-filled steel tube (CFST), is widely used as a main load-carrying component in different structures. Structure might experience severe damage even collapse as a result of both impact and fire in extreme events. This study reports an experimental investigation on the responses of post-fire SRCFST members under lateral impact. Impact tests on 12 SRCFST specimens after fire were conducted, and the main parameters considered include the fire exposure time, impact height, axial load ratio, and section steel type. The temperature-time curves, failure modes, impact force, midspan deflection, axial force, plastic deformation, and energy absorption are investigated. The results show that post-fire SRCFST specimens under lateral impact experience global flexural failure. As the fire duration increases, the global deformation and local buckling of the specimen become more visible, and the plateau impact force decreases while the midspan deflection increases. In addition, based on the equivalent temperature of SRCFST members and the membrane force factor method, new simplified evaluation methods are proposed for calculating the dynamic flexural capacity and maximum deflection of SRCFST members subjected to lateral impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact load acting on structure can cause a completely different structural response from the static load, and structure may be subjected to both impact and fire in extreme events, leading to severe structural damage or collapse. This paper reports the lateral impact responses of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members after fire. Nine CFST specimens with different parameters, i.e., the fire duration time, impact heights, and boundary conditions, were tested using an electric furnace and a drop hammer impact system. The failure modes, impact force, midspan deflection, and energy absorption were investigated and compared. Results reveal that post-fire CFST members exhibit global bending failure under lateral impact, and increasing the fire duration time reduces the impact resistance of CFST members, with lower peak and plateau impact forces but larger deflection. The finite element (FE) model of post-fire CFST members under lateral impact was developed and calibrated against the test results to further analyze the impact responses. In addition, simplified methods were proposed for the evaluation of dynamic flexural capacity, plateau impact force and maximum deflection of CFST members subjected to lateral impact. • Nine CFST specimens after fire subject to lateral impact are tested. • The lateral impact response of post-fire CFST members is investigated and compared. • The FE model is developed to investigate the impact responses of CFST members after fire. • Simplified methods are proposed for evaluating the impact responses of CFST members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prebaked carbon anodes are used in the electrolytic production of aluminum. They are made of petroleum coke, butts, recycled anodes, and coal tar pitch. The anode quality, which depends on the raw material quality and the production conditions, has an important impact on the cell performance. Metallic impurities (V, Ni, and Fe) found in cokes and anodes increase the carbon consumption by catalyzing the air and CO2 reactivities. In turn, this increases the production cost, energy consumption, and the emission of greenhouse gases. The current methods for detecting the metallic impurities in carbon are time consuming and require intensive sample preparation, skilled personnel, and costly reagents. In this work, simple, rapid, and effective tools were developed using colorimetric methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A tumor comprising of different types of tissues (such as hair, muscle, bone, etc.) is known as a teratoma. It is a type of germ cell (cells that make sperm or eggs) tumor. When these germ cells have rapid cancerous growth, then such a teratoma is called a malignant teratoma. We have studied the differences between gonadal and extra-gonadal malignant teratomas and the effects of chemotherapy in both genders.Methods: The samples of 3799 male and 1832 female patients with malignant teratoma samples, between the ages of 1 and 85+ years, were selected from the years 1973 to 2014. Trends in incidence, estimated prevalence, incidence rates, and frequency were calculated in gonadal and extra-gonadal tumors with age adjustment. The five-year observed, expected, and relative survival rates were analyzed to study the prognosis.Results: The gonadal took over a majority percentage of malignant teratomas compared with the extra-gonadal (90% vs. 10% in male; 83% vs. 17% in female). For the male, the total of the gonadal and the extra-gonadal were all significantly decreased from 1973 to 2014 (p < 0.05). For the female, there were no significant trends. As for prevalence, incidence, and frequency, there were two separate peaks of malignant teratomas. One peak was at under 1 year old, which was composed of the extra-gonadal tumor; the other peak was at 20-24 for male and 10-34 for female, which was composed of the gonadal tumor. This separation of the gonadal and extra-gonadal showed a significant difference (p < 0.05). As for the prognosis, the extra-gonadal tumor showed significantly lower survival rates than the gonadal (p < 0.05). In the short term, the survival rate of the chemotherapy group was higher than the supportive care group. However, in the long term, the survival rate of the chemotherapy group was lower than the supportive care group.Conclusion: The gonadal and extra-gonadal malignant teratomas show lots of differences. Chemotherapy might not help improve survival rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract We present a facile two-step procedure for synthesizing spiky nanohybrids of titanium dioxide/gold (TiO 2 /Au) nanoparticles. In this process, spiky TiO 2 is obtained using a hydrothermal method, followed by the introduction of plasmonic Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) via a photoreduction approach in which titanium fluoride and chloroauric acid tetrahydrate are used as raw materials. The photodegradation property of the resulting sample was evaluated according to the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) via excitation with visible light. Additionally, the antimicrobial property of the spiky TiO 2 /Au nanoparticles was examined with respect to the suppression of the growth of Escherichia coli (E. coli). Compared with commercial TiO 2 , the spiky TiO 2 /Au nanoparticles exhibited a significantly enhanced photocatalytic efficiency in persistent organic pollutant degradation and bacteria inactivation under simulated environmental conditions. The photocatalysis mechanism primarily entails the combination of AuNPs with spiky TiO 2 nanoparticles, which increases the optical path owing to the unique spiky structures of the latter. This results in an improved light-harvesting efficiency based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of AuNPs and the promotion of the charge-separation efficiency through electron-trap processes. These nanoparticles realize the objective of effectively addressing the inherent weaknesses of bare TiO 2 and potentially facilitate new fitting approaches for applications in sewage treatment and marine antifouling paint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geographical distribution of pollinators is an important factor determining the biogeographical pattern of floral evolution and diversification. In Africa, a guild of plant species has converged in a floral syndrome for pollination by long‐tongued hawkmoths (predominantly Agrius convolvuli). It is hypothesized that such floral convergence could track the geographical distribution of long‐tongued hawkmoths, so it may not be confined to Africa. We investigated the pollination biology of Lilium sargentiae E. H. Wilson, which is endemic to China and exhibits traits suggestive of long‐tongued hawkmoth pollination. Lilium sargentiae was visited by A. convolvuli as well as small beetles (Nitidulidae) but pollination was mostly or totally effected by the moth. It was consistent with other hawkmoth‐pollinated plants in terms of floral tube length, nectar traits, tepal reflectance, and scent composition. We present the first experimental evidence for the hypothesis proposed above and for hawkmoth pollination in the widespread and ornamentally and economically important genus Lilium L. in a natural habitat. Our findings imply that long‐tongued hawkmoths (especially the extremely widespread A. convolvuli) as a distinctive pollinator niche may have underlain the evolution of long‐tubed (>8 cm) flowers across different continents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Online species distribution data, global or regional, are increasingly used in biodiversity studies although data limitations have been reported. We explore, for the two major databanks in our research region, how incomplete data are at a large taxonomic and geographic scale, how it is affected by spatial grain, and to what degree it affects inference from analyses of richness or turnover and the environment. Location: China. Major taxa studied: Vascular plants. Methods: We assembled species lists of all vascular plants from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII) at three spatial scales (national, provincial, county). We determined the completeness of each compilation by comparing the number of species with that from inventory‐based species list (for 28 provinces, 14 counties, and 146 nature reserves within counties). We related richness from each of the data sources (GBIF, NSII, inventory) to environmental variables (temperature, precipitation, elevational range) and compared regression models among the three data sources. We quantified floristic similarity between regions based on the three data sources and related species turnover to geographic and environmental distances. Results: Data incompleteness was prevalent at all spatial grains, but it increased with decreasing grain and it was higher for GBIF than for NSII. At the national scale, GBIF included 64.1% and NSII included 89.4% of true species richness in China. At the county scale these figures dropped to an average of 12.7% for GBIF and 60.0% for NSII. This changed the order and significance of environmental determinants of richness in regression models. The relationship between floristic similarity and geographic or environmental distance was shallower for GBIF and NSII, compared to inventory data. When the GBIF data were supplemented with the NSII data, the data completeness of GBIF increased from 64.1% to 90.8% at the national scale, from 37.2% to 89.0% at the province scale, and from 12.7% to 63.0% at the county scale. Main conclusions: Main specimen‐record databases are incomplete, which has the potential to heavily affect ecological patterns and mechanisms inferred from these data. Biodiversity analyses based on raw species lists from such sources should be viewed with utmost caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Sika deer (Cervus nippon Temminck) antler is traditional animal medicine of renal protection in East Asia. This study measured the effect of sika deer antler protein (SDAPR) on gentamicin (GM)-induced cytotoxicity in HEK293 cells, and investigated the effect of SDAPR against GM-induced nephrotoxicity in mice. Methods: HEK293 cells viability and oxidative stress were measured in HEK293 cells while flow cytometry was used for apoptosis analysis. The acute kidney injury biomarkers, kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and cystatin c (Cys-C), were repeatedly measured by ELISA assay. ICR male mice were randomly assigned six groups: Control, GM with vehicle, single SDAPR, GM with SDAPR at three concentrations 50, 100, 200 mg/kg/d, p.o., 10 d. GM was injected for 8 consecutive days (100 mg/kg/d, i.p.). Renal function, oxidative stress and levels of inflammatory factors were measured in vivo. Renal tissues were stained with H&E to observe pathological changes. Results: Pretreatment with SDAPR (0.5-4.0 mg/mL) significantly improved cell viability. Treatment with SDAPR could reduce KIM-1, NGAL and Cys-C activity. SDAPR could improve antioxidant defense and attenuated apoptosis on HEK293 cells. SDAPR also ameliorated GM-induced histopathologic changes, and decreased blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Cr). Additionally, SDAPR significantly regulated oxidative stress marker and interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) inflammatory cytokines. Conclusion: These results show that SDAPR could be an effective dietary supplement to relieve GM-induced nephrotoxicity by improved antioxidase activity, suppressed inflammation, and inhibited apoptosis in vitro and vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured surfaces of porous scaffolds can imitate the hierarchical pore space architecture of bone tissue, thus playing a critical role in bone regeneration. In this work, hydrothermal treatment was exploited to construct nanostructured surfaces of the porous CaSiO 3 scaffolds fabricated by selective laser sintering (SLS). The rod- or sheet-like hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanostructured surfaces were controllably constructed via using different hydrothermal reaction solution. And nanostructured surfaces possessed high specific surface area, which provided more adsorption sites for cell adhesion and migration. Simultaneously, the biomimetic features of the hierarchical nanostructure effectively promoted cell proliferation and differentiation. Moreover, the nanostructured surfaces decelerated the overquick degradation of the scaffolds due to the slower degradation rate of HAp than that of CaSiO 3 . Besides, the scaffolds maintained stable mechanical properties even after hydrothermal treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Various imaging modalities have been used to diagnose suspicious breast lesions. Purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic accuracy for breast cancer using mammography, ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: Total 107 patients aged from 19 to 62 years are included in this retrospective study. Mammography, ultrasonography and MRI scans were performed for each patient detected with suspected breast tumor within a month. In addition, the tumor diversity (10 types of benign and 5 types of malignant) was confirmed by pathological findings of tumor biopsy. To compare the diagnosis performance of the three imaging modalities, the overall fraction correct (accuracy), positive predict value (PPV), negative predict value (NPV), sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Meanwhile, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was also performed. RESULTS: The diagnostic accuracy ranged from 78.5% to 86.9% among three imaging modalities. All modalities yielded a PPV lower than 77.8% and a NPV higher than 90.0% in identifying the presence of malignant tumors. MRI presented a diagnostic accuracy of 86.9%, as well as a sensitivity of 95.5% and an area under curve (AUC) of 0.948, which are higher than mammography and ultrasonography. CONCLUSION: By using a diverse dataset and comparing the diagnostic accuracy of three imaging modalities commonly used in breast cancer detection and diagnosis, this study also demonstrated that mammography, ultrasonography and MRI had different diagnostic performance in breast tumor identification. Among them, MRI yielded the highest performance even though the unexpected specificity may lead to over-diagnosis, and ultrosonography is slightly better than mammography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, CycleGAN-based methods have been widely applied to the unsupervised image dehazing and achieved significant results. However, most existing CycleGAN-based methods ignore that the input of the generator contains two different distributions of data which can often lead to confusion in the learning process of the generator, consequently limiting the final dehazing performance. Moreover, reconstructing clear images through model architecture design and loss functions is an indirect constraint, making it difficult to compensate for the missing high-frequency information, such as textures and structures in the extracted features from hazy images. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose an Unsupervised Multi-Branch with High-Frequency Enhancement Network (UME-Net) which contain an Multi-Branch Dehazing Network (MBDN) and a High-Frequency Components Enhancement Module (HFEM). Specifically, MBDN constructs a single unsupervised dehazing network with Shared Encoding Module (SEM) and Multi-Branch Decoding Module (MDM). SEM enhance the consistency of feature representation and MDM effectively addresses the confusion during the generator learning process in CycleGAN-based methods. Furthermore, based on a key observation that hazy images and their corresponding clear images exhibit only subtle differences in high-frequency information, the HFEM is designed to compensates for the missing high-frequency information in the network which further enhances the reconstruction capability of the UME-Net for restore edge and texture information in obscured by dense haze. Experimental results on challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of our UME-Net over SOTA unsupervised image dehazing methods. The source code is available at https://www.github.com/thislzm/UME-Net. • An Unsupervised Multi-branch Dehazing Network (MBDN) is designed to explore how to avoid the learning confusion caused by the input of different data distributions in CycleGAN-based methods, and explore effective ways to enhance the feature representation consistency of multi-branch networks, further improve the dehazing performance of the model. • Based on the observation that hazy images and their clear counterparts exhibit only subtle differences in high-frequency information, a High-Frequency Enhancement Module (HFEM) is proposed to efficiently extract high-frequency details (e.g., edges and textures) from hazy images. This module enhances the ability to capture high-frequency features by adaptively fusing high-frequency information into the network. Moreover, the efficient utilization of high-frequency information by the HFEM enhances network robustness when images are heavily contaminated with haze. • A novel method called UME-Net is developed to seamlessly integrate the designed MBDN and HFEM module to handle image dehazing in various challenging scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanopore sequencers can enrich or deplete the targeted DNA molecules in a library by reversing the voltage across individual nanopores. However, it requires substantial computational resources to achieve rapid operations in parallel at read-time sequencing. We present a deep learning framework, NanoDeep, to overcome these limitations by incorporating convolutional neural network and squeeze and excitation. We first showed that the raw squiggle derived from native DNA sequences determines the origin of microbial and human genomes. Then, we demonstrated that NanoDeep successfully classified bacterial reads from the pooled library with human sequence and showed enrichment for bacterial sequence compared with routine nanopore sequencing setting. Further, we showed that NanoDeep improves the sequencing efficiency and preserves the fidelity of bacterial genomes in the mock sample. In addition, NanoDeep performs well in the enrichment of metagenome sequences of gut samples, showing its potential applications in the enrichment of unknown microbiota. Our toolkit is available at https://github.com/lysovosyl/NanoDeep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation of remote sensing images is crucial for various practical applications. In the field of deep learning, convolutional neural network (CNN) has been the primary approach for semantic segmentation over the past decade. Recently, Transformer-based models have achieved superior segmentation performance due to their exceptional global modelling capabilities. However, the Transformer-based models tend to focus more on extracting global contextual information, leading to suboptimal performance in segmenting local edges and difficulties in preserving fine-grained details during the patch token downsampling process. Inspired by the local receptive field of CNN, this article proposes a Local-Enhanced Multi-Scale Aggregation Swin Transformer (LMA-Swin) for semantic segmentation of high-resolution remote sensing images. Specifically, we adopt Swin Transformer as main encoder, introduce convolutional blocks as auxiliary encoder, and design a feature modulation module (FMM) to integrate the local contextual modelling ability of CNN into the Transformer backbone. Additionally, we propose a novel cross-aggregation decoder (CAD) to effectively aggregate shallow edge information and deep semantic information, thereby enhancing the discriminative ability for multi-scale objects. On the ISPRS Vaihingen and Potsdam datasets, experimental results illustrate noteworthy improvement in segmentation performance accomplished through the proposed approach. Code: . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camouflage is a key defensive strategy in animals, and it has been used to illustrate and study evolution for 150 years. It is now evident that many camouflage concepts likely also apply to plants, attracting greatly increased attention. Here, we review the hypotheses and evidence for different camouflage strategies used by plants and conceptualise the state of play in plant concealment under a general framework of camouflage theory. In addition, we compare the camouflage strategies used by plants and animals, outline key factors promoting and constraining the evolution of concealment, and highlight the evolutionary and ecological implications of plant camouflage. Ultimately, we show how plant camouflage exhibits many commonalities with animals and how this understudied parallel phenomenon can inform key questions in ecology and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]