Search

The development of drug resistance remains a major challenge in cancer treatment. Ferroptosis, a unique type of regulated cell death, plays a pivotal role in inhibiting tumour growth, presenting new opportunities in treating chemotherapeutic resistance. Accumulating studies indicate that epigenetic modifications by non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) can determine cancer cell vulnerability to ferroptosis. In this review, we first summarize the role of chemotherapeutic resistance in cancer growth/development. Then, we summarize the core molecular mechanisms of ferroptosis, its upstream epigenetic regulation, and its downstream effects on chemotherapeutic resistance. Finally, we review recent advances in understanding how ncRNAs regulate ferroptosis and from such modulate chemotherapeutic resistance. This review aims to enhance general understanding of the ncRNA-mediated epigenetic regulatory mechanisms which modulate ferroptosis, highlighting the ncRNA-ferroptosis axis as a key druggable target in overcoming chemotherapeutic resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives There are three major subtypes of breast cancer, ER+, HER2+ and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), namely ER−, PR−, HER2−. TNBC is the most aggressive breast cancer with poor prognosis and no target drug up to now. Actinomycin D (ActD) is a bioactive metabolite of marine bacteria that has been reported to have antitumor activity. The aim of study is to investigate whether ActD has a synergetic effect on TNBC with Doxorubicin (Dox), the major chemotherapeutic drug for TNBC, and explore the underlying mechanism. Methods TNBC cell lines HCC1937, MDA-MB-436 and nude mice were used in the study. Drug synergy determination, LDH assay, MMP assay, Hoechst 33342 staining, Flow cytometry, Flexible docking and CESTA assay were carried out. The expression of proteins associated with apoptosis was checked by Western blot and siRNA experiments were performed to investigate the role of P53 and PUMA induced by drugs. Results There was much higher apoptosis rate of cells in the ActD + Dox group than that in ActD group or Dox group. Expression of MDM2 and BCL-2 was reduced while expression of P53, PUMA and BAX were increased in the groups treated with ActD + Dox or Dox compared to the control group. Furthermore, P53 siRNA or PUMA siRNA tremendously abrogated the cell apoptosis in the groups treated by ActD, Dox and ActD + Dox. Flexible docking and CESTA showed that ActD can bind MDM2. Conclusions ActD had a synergetic effect on TNBC with Dox via P53-dependent apoptosis and it may be a new choice for treatment of TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 8-week feeding experiment aimed to investigate the effects of fermented soybean residue in diets on the growth performance, serum antioxidant parameters, intestinal digestive capacity, and microbial composition of the hindgut of Furong crucian carp. The feeds were formulated to contain 0%, 6%, 12%, 18%, and 24% fermented soybean residue (CON, FSR6, FSR12, FSR18, and FSR24, respectively), respectively, to form five diets (crude protein: 33%; crude lipid: 5%). The results showed that incorporating 6% fermented soybean residue into the diet significantly increased the weight gain rate (WGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) and decreased the feed coefficient rate (p < 0.05). Through regression analysis of WGR and SGR, the optimal levels of the dietary fermented soybean residue of Furong crucian carp were determined to be 6.78% and 7.06%. Incorporating fermented soybean residue into the diet decreased the lipid content of the whole body and the levels of glucose, total cholesterol, and triglyceride in the serum of Furong crucian carp. The inclusion of 6% and 12% fermented soybean residue in the diet markedly increased the antioxidant capacity, intestinal amylase activity, and intestinal villous height of Furong crucian carp (p < 0.05). At the 6% level, fermented soybean residue significantly increased the abundance of Romboutsia and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 while significantly decreasing the abundance of Vibrio (p < 0.05), indicating that a 6% level of fermented soybean residue was beneficial for intestinal health. In conclusion, incorporating 6–7% fermented soybean residue into the diet of Furong crucian carp was recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of morbidity and the second leading cause of death among female malignant tumors. Although available drugs have been approved for the corresponding breast cancer subtypes (ER-positive, HER2+) currently, there are still no effective targeted drugs or treatment strategies for metastatic breast cancer or triple-negative breast cancer that lack targets. Therefore, it is urgent to discover new potential targets. ERCC6L is an essential protein involved in chromosome separation during cell mitosis. However, the effect of ERCC6L on the tumorigenesis and progression of breast cancer is unclear. Methods and results: Here, we found that ERCC6L was highly expressed in breast cancer, especially in TNBC, which was closely related to poor outcomes of patients. An ERCC6L conditional knockout mouse model was first established in this study, and the results confirmed that ERCC6L was required for the development of the mammary gland and the tumorigenesis and progression of mammary gland cancers. In in vitro cell culture, ERCC6L acted as a tumor promoter in the malignant progression of breast cancer cells. Overexpression of ERCC6L promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while knockdown of ERCC6L caused the opposite results. Mechanistically, ERCC6L accelerated the cell cycle by regulating the G2/M checkpoint signalling pathway. Additionally, we demonstrated that there is an interaction between ERCC6L and KIF4A, both of which are closely related factors in mitosis and are involved in the malignant progression of breast cancer. Conclusions: We first demonstrated that ERCC6L deficiency can significantly inhibit the occurrence and development of mammary gland tumors. ERCC6L was found to accelerate the cell cycle by regulating the p53/p21/CDK1/Cyclin B and PLK/CDC25C/CDK1/Cyclin B signalling pathways, thereby promoting the malignant progression of breast cancer cell lines. There was a direct interaction between KIF4A and ERCC6L, and both are closely associated with mitosis and contribute to growth and metastasis of breast tumor. To sum up, our results suggest that ERCC6L may be used as a promising target for the treatment of BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation and regular monitoring of soil moisture is very important for many agricultural, hydrological, or climatological applications. Our objective was to evaluate potential contributions of polarimetry to soil moisture estimation during crop growing cycles using RADARSAT-2 C-band images. The research focused on wheat field data collected during Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment (SMAPVEX12) conducted in 2012 in Manitoba (Canada). A sensitivity analysis was performed to select the most relevant non-polarimetric and polarimetric variables extracted from RADARSAT-2, and statistical models were developed to estimate soil moisture. In fine, three models were developed and validated: a non-polarimetric model based on cross-polarized backscattering coefficient σ H V 0 ; a polarimetric mixed model using six polarimetric and non-polarimetric retained variables after the sensitivity analysis; and a simplified polarimetric mixed model considering only the phase difference ( ϕ H H − V V ) and the co-polarized backscattering coefficient σ H H 0 . The validation reveals significant positive contributions of polarimetry. It shows that the non-polarimetric model has a much larger error (RMSE = 0.098 m3/m3) and explains only 19% of observed soil moisture variation compared to the polarimetric mixed model, which has an error of 0.087 m3/m3, with an explained variance of 44%. The simplified model has the lowest error (0.074 m3/m3) and explains 53.5% of soil moisture variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an advanced image editing technology, image inpainting leaves very weak traces in the tampered image, causing serious security issues, particularly those based on deep learning. In this paper, we propose the global–local feature fusion network (GLFFNet) to locate the image regions tampered by inpainting based on deep learning. GLFFNet consists of a two-stream encoder and a decoder. In the two-stream encoder, a spatial self-attention stream (SSAS) and a noise feature extraction stream (NFES) are designed. By a transformer network, the SSAS extracts global features regarding deep inpainting manipulations. The NFES is constructed by the residual blocks, which are used to learn manipulation features from noise maps produced by filtering the input image. Through a feature fusion layer, the features output by the encoder is fused and then fed into the decoder, where the up-sampling and convolutional operations are employed to derive the confidential map for inpainting manipulation. The proposed network is trained by the designed two-stage loss function. Experimental results show that GLFFNet achieves a high location accuracy for deep inpainting manipulations and effectively resists JPEG compression and additive noise attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of morbidity and the second leading cause of death among female malignant tumors. Although available drugs have been approved for the corresponding breast cancer subtypes (ER-positive, HER2+) currently, there are still no effective targeted drugs or treatment strategies for metastatic breast cancer or triple-negative breast cancer that lack targets. Therefore, it is urgent to discover new potential targets. ERCC6L is an essential protein involved in chromosome separation during cell mitosis. However, the effect of ERCC6L on the tumorigenesis and progression of breast cancer is unclear. Methods and results: Here, we found that ERCC6L was highly expressed in breast cancer, especially in TNBC, which was closely related to poor outcomes of patients. An ERCC6L conditional knockout mouse model was first established in this study, and the results confirmed that ERCC6L was required for the development of the mammary gland and the tumorigenesis and progression of mammary gland cancers. In in vitro cell culture, ERCC6L acted as a tumor promoter in the malignant progression of breast cancer cells. Overexpression of ERCC6L promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while knockdown of ERCC6L caused the opposite results. Mechanistically, ERCC6L accelerated the cell cycle by regulating the G2/M checkpoint signalling pathway. Additionally, we demonstrated that there is an interaction between ERCC6L and KIF4A, both of which are closely related factors in mitosis and are involved in the malignant progression of breast cancer. Conclusions: We first demonstrated that ERCC6L deficiency can significantly inhibit the occurrence and development of mammary gland tumors. ERCC6L was found to accelerate the cell cycle by regulating the p53/p21/CDK1/Cyclin B and PLK/CDC25C/CDK1/Cyclin B signalling pathways, thereby promoting the malignant progression of breast cancer cell lines. There was a direct interaction between KIF4A and ERCC6L, and both are closely associated with mitosis and contribute to growth and metastasis of breast tumor. To sum up, our results suggest that ERCC6L may be used as a promising target for the treatment of BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidence suggests that ferroptosis, a unique regulated cell death modality that is morphologically and mechanistically different from other forms of cell death, plays a vital role in the pathophysiological process of neurodegenerative diseases, and strokes. Accumulating evidence supports ferroptosis as a critical factor of neurodegenerative diseases and strokes, and pharmacological inhibition of ferroptosis as a therapeutic target for these diseases. In this review article, the core mechanisms of ferroptosis are overviewed and the roles of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases and strokes are described. Finally, the emerging findings in treating neurodegenerative diseases and strokes through pharmacological inhibition of ferroptosis are described. This review demonstrates that pharmacological inhibition of ferroptosis by bioactive small‐molecule compounds (ferroptosis inhibitors) could be effective for treatments of these diseases, and highlights a potential promising therapeutic avenue that could be used to prevent neurodegenerative diseases and strokes. This review article will shed light on developing novel therapeutic regimens by pharmacological inhibition of ferroptosis to slow down the progression of these diseases in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of image-editing technologies, it is particularly important to develop image forensics methods for digital information security. In this study, a deep neural network called multi-path inpainting forensics network (MPIF-Net) was developed to locate the inpainted regions in an image. The interaction of shallow and deep features between different paths was established, which not only preserved detailed information but also allowed for the further mining of deep features. Meanwhile, an improved residual dense block was employed as the deep feature extraction module of each path, which can enhance the feature extraction ability of the model by introducing a frequency domain attention mechanism. In addition, a boundary guidance module was constructed to alleviate the prediction distortion in the boundaries of the inpainted region. Finally, extensive experimental results regarding various deep inpainting datasets demonstrated that the proposed network can accurately locate inpainted regions, exhibit excellent generalization and robustness, and verify the effectiveness of the designed module. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divergent N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications are dynamic and reversible posttranscriptional RNA modifications that are mediated by m6A regulators or m6A RNA methylation regulators, i.e., methyltransferases ("writers"), demethylases ("erasers"), and m6A-binding proteins ("readers"). Aberrant m6A modifications are associated with cancer occurrence, development, progression, and prognosis. Numerous studies have established that aberrant m6A regulators function as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes in multiple tumor types. However, the functions and mechanisms of m6A regulators in cancer remain largely elusive and should be explored. Emerging studies suggest that m6A regulators can be modulated by epigenetic modifications, namely, ubiquitination, SUMOylation, acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, O-GlcNAcylation, ISGylation, and lactylation or via noncoding RNA action, in cancer. This review summarizes the current roles of m6A regulators in cancer. The roles and mechanisms for epigenetic modification of m6A regulators in cancer genesis are segregated. The review will improve the understanding of the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of m6A regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital image inpainting technology is causing serious hidden danger to the security of multimedia information. In this paper, a deep network called frequency attention-based dual-stream network (FADS-Net) is proposed for locating the inpainting region. FADS-Net is established by a dual-stream encoder and an attention-based blue-associative decoder. The dual-stream encoder includes two feature extraction streams, the raw input stream (RIS) and the frequency recalibration stream (FRS). RIS directly captures feature maps from the raw input, while FRS performs feature extraction after recalibrating the input via learning in the frequency domain. In addition, a module based on dense connection is designed to ensure efficient extraction and full fusion of dual-stream features. The attention-based associative decoder consists of a main decoder and two branch decoders. The main decoder performs up-sampling and fine-tuning of fused features by using attention mechanisms and skip connections, and ultimately generates the predicted mask for the inpainted image. Then, two branch decoders are utilized to further supervise the training of two feature streams, ensuring that they both work effectively. A joint loss function is designed to supervise the training of the entire network and two feature extraction streams for ensuring optimal forensic performance. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed FADS-Net achieves superior localization accuracy and robustness on multiple datasets compared to the state-of-the-art inpainting forensics methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viral seasonality in the aquaculture industry is an important scientific issue for decades. While the molecular mechanisms underpinning the temperature-dependent pathogenesis of aquatic viral diseases remain largely unknown. Here we report that temperature-dependent activation of IL6-STAT3 signaling was exploited by grass carp reovirus (GCRV) to promote viral entry via increasing the expression of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90). Deploying GCRV infection as a model system, we discovered that GCRV induces the IL6-STAT3-HSP90 signaling activation to achieve temperature-dependent viral entry. Further biochemical and microscopic analyses revealed that the major capsid protein VP7 of GCRV interacted with HSP90 and relevant membrane-associated proteins to boost viral entry. Accordingly, exogenous expression of either IL6, HSP90, or VP7 in cells increased GCRV entry in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, other viruses (e.g., koi herpesvirus, Rhabdovirus carpio, Chinese giant salamander iridovirus) infecting ectothermic vertebrates have evolved a similar mechanism to promote their infection. This work delineates a molecular mechanism by which an aquatic viral pathogen exploits the host temperature-related immune response to promote its entry and replication, instructing us on new ways to develop targeted preventives and therapeutics for aquaculture viral diseases. Author summary: Viral seasonality in the aquaculture industry has been an important scientific issue for decades, which is causing billions of economic losses every year worldwide. However, there is a lack of understanding of how temperature influences the pathogenesis of aquatic viruses infecting fish, shellfish, and other ectotherms. Here, deploying aquatic grass carp reovirus (GCRV) as a model system, we demonstrate for the first time that the temperature-dependent IL6-STAT3-HSP90 signaling axis is exploited by GCRV to promote viral entry. We found that HSP90 interacted with viral structural proteins and membrane-associated proteins to enable viral entry. Furthermore, our study indicates other aquatic viruses might evolve a similar mechanism to promote their infection. By elucidating the molecular mechanism of temperature-dependent aquatic viral pathogenesis, our work may help to develop targeted prevention and control strategies against aquatic viral diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-spatiotemporal resolution soil moisture (SM) plays an essential role in optimized irrigation, agricultural droughts, and hydrometeorological model simulations. However, producing high-spatiotemporal seamless soil moisture products is challenging due to the inability of optical bands to penetrate clouds and the coarse spatiotemporal resolution of microwave and reanalysis products. To address these issues, this study proposed a framework for multi-source data merging based on the triple collocation (TC) method with an explicit physical mechanism, which was dedicated to generating seamless 1 km daily soil moisture products. Current merging techniques based on the TC method often lack seamless daily optical data input. To remedy this deficiency, our study performed a spatiotemporal reconstruction on MODIS LST and NDVI, and retrieved seamless daily optical soil moisture products. Then, the optical-derived sm1, microwave-retrieved sm2 (ESA CCI combined), and reanalysis sm3 (CLDAS) were matched by the cumulative distribution function (CDF) method to eliminate bias, and their weights were determined by the TC method. Finally, the least squares algorithm and the significance judgment were adopted to complete the merging. Although the CLDAS soil moisture presented anomalies over several stations, our proposed method can detect and reduce this impact by minimizing its weight, which shows the robustness of the method. This framework was implemented in the Naqu region, and the results showed that the merged products captured the temporal variability of the SM and depicted spatial information in detail; the validation with the in situ measurement obtained an average ubRMSE of 0.046 m³/m³. Additionally, this framework is transferrable to any area with measured sites for better agricultural and hydrological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endogenous neurotoxin 1-methyl-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroiso-quinoline (Salsolinol, SAL) is a dopamine metabolite that is toxic to dopaminergic neurons in vitro and in vivo, and is involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the molecular mechanism by which SAL induces neurotoxicity in PD remains challenging for future investigations. This study found that SAL induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells and mice. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis were used to detect differentially expressed genes in SAL-treated SH-SY5Y cells. We found that NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3)-dependent pyroptosis was enriched by SAL, which was validated by in vitro and in vivo SAL models. Further, NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes (ASC, NLRP3, active caspase 1, IL-1β, and IL-18) were increased at the mRNA and protein level. Acteoside mitigates SAL-induced neurotoxicity by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome-related pyroptosis in in vitro and in vivo PD models. In summary, the present study suggests for the first time that NLRP3-dependent pyroptosis plays a role in the pathogenesis of SAL-induced PD, and acteoside mitigates SAL-induced pyroptosis-dependent neurotoxicity in in vitro and in vivo PD models. The present results demonstrated a new mechanism whereby SAL mediates neurotoxicity by activating NLRP3-dependent pyroptosis, further highlighting SAL-induced pyroptosis-dependent neurotoxicity as a potential therapeutic target in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exploiting cancer metabolism during nutrient availability holds immense potential for the clinical and therapeutic benefits of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Dietary methionine is a metabolic dependence of cancer development, but how the signal transduction integrates methionine status to achieve the physiological demand of cancer cells remains unknown. Methods: Low or high levels of dietary methionine was fed to mouse models with patient-derived xenograft or diethyl-nitrosamine induced liver cancer. RNA sequence and metabolomics were performed to reveal the profound effect of methionine restriction on gene expression and metabolite changes. Immunostaining, sphere formation assays, in vivo tumourigenicity, migration and self-renewal ability were conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of methionine restriction and sorafenib. Results: We discovered that mTORC1-c-Myc-SIRT4 axis was abnormally regulated in a methionine-dependent manner and affected the HCC progression. c-Myc rewires methionine metabolism through TRIM32 mediated degradation of SIRT4, which regulates MAT2A activity by ADP-ribosylation on amino acid residue glutamic acid 111. MAT2A is a key enzyme to generate S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Loss of SIRT4 activates MAT2A, thereby increasing SAM level and dynamically regulating gene expression, which triggers the high proliferation rate of tumour cells. SIRT4 exerts its tumour suppressive function with targeted therapy (sorafenib) by affecting methionine, redox and nucleotide metabolism. Conclusions: These findings establish a novel characterization of the signaling transduction and the metabolic consequences of dietary methionine restriction in malignant liver tissue of mice. mTORC1, c-Myc, SIRT4 and ADP ribosylation site of MAT2A are promising clinical and therapeutic targets for the HCC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the potential of L- and C- bands Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data to monitor soil moisture over the forested sites of SMAP Validation Experiment 2012 (SMAPVEX12). The optimal backscattering coefficients and polarimetric parameters to characterize the soil moisture were determined based on L-band Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), C-band RADARSAT-2, and ground measurements composed of soil and vegetation parameters collected during SMAPVEX12. Linear and circular backscattering coefficients (σ0) and polarimetric parameters such as correlation coefficients (ρHHVV) and phase difference (φHHVV) between HH and VV, pedestal height (PH), entropy (H), anisotropy (A), α angle, surface (Ps), and double bounce (Pd) powers were used to develop the relationships with soil moisture. The analysis of these relationships shows that over the forested sites of SMAPVEX12: (a) at L-band several optimal backscattering coefficients and polarimetric parameters allow the monitoring of soil moisture, particularly the linear and circular σ0 (r = 0.60–0.96), Ps (r = 0.59–0.84), Pd (r = 0.60–0.82), ρHHHV_30°, ρVVHV_30°, φHHHV_30° and φHHVV_30° (r = 0.56–0.81). However, compared to the results obtained with σ0, there is no added value of the polarimetric parameters for soil moisture retrievals. (b) at C-band, only a few polarimetric parameters φHHHV, φVVHV, and φHHVV are correlated with soil moisture (r = ~0.90). They can contribute to soil moisture retrievals over forested sites when L-band data are not available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chemoresistance is a major factor contributing to the poor prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, and cancer stemness is one of the most crucial factors associated with chemoresistance and a very promising direction for cancer treatment. However, the exact molecular mechanisms of cancer stemness have not been completely elucidated. Methods: m6A-RNA immunoprecipitation and sequencing were used to screen m6A-related mRNAs and lncRNAs. qRT-PCR and FISH were utilized to analyse DDIT4-AS1 expression. Spheroid formation, colony formation, Western blot and flow cytometry assays were performed to analyse the cancer stemness and chemosensitivity of PDAC cells. Xenograft experiments were conducted to analyse the tumour formation ratio and growth in vivo. RNA sequencing, Western blot and bioinformatics analyses were used to identify the downstream pathway of DDIT4-AS1. IP, RIP and RNA pulldown assays were performed to test the interaction between DDIT4-AS1, DDIT4 and UPF1. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models were generated to evaluate chemosensitivities to GEM. Results: DDIT4-AS1 was identified as one of the downstream targets of ALKBH5, and recruitment of HuR onto m6A-modified sites is essential for DDIT4-AS1 stabilization. DDIT4-AS1 was upregulated in PDAC and positively correlated with a poor prognosis. DDIT4-AS1 silencing inhibited stemness and enhanced chemosensitivity to GEM (Gemcitabine). Mechanistically, DDIT4-AS1 promoted the phosphorylation of UPF1 by preventing the binding of SMG5 and PP2A to UPF1, which decreased the stability of the DDIT4 mRNA and activated the mTOR pathway. Furthermore, suppression of DDIT4-AS1 in a PDX-derived model enhanced the antitumour effects of GEM on PDAC. Conclusions: The ALKBH5-mediated m6A modification led to DDIT4-AS1 overexpression in PDAC, and DDIT-AS1 increased cancer stemness and suppressed chemosensitivity to GEM by destabilizing DDIT4 and activating the mTOR pathway. Approaches targeting DDIT4-AS1 and its pathway may be an effective strategy for the treatment of chemoresistance in PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grafting organic molecules onto an insoluble matrix is an effective way to improve the electronic conductivity and insolubility in electrolyte of organic electrode materials. The active group of C＝N in DAP@C composites synthesized by chemical grafting of 2,3-diaminophenazine (DAP) with carbon felt through amide bonds (–CO–NH–) displays excellent electrochemical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This type of fly ash is difficult to float even at a higher concentration of collector due to less dispersion of the collector molecules on the surface. Emulsification of kerosene in the presence of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) dramatically reduces the size of the kerosene droplets. The results showed that much less collector was required to achieve a good separation of carbon from fly ash when SDS was employed in conjunction with the collector. In this paper, the influence of the concentration of emulsifier on flotation was discussed. The emulsifier concentration of 0.2 kg/t produced the superior performance of LOI of 54.5% and the corresponding CR of 93.1%. The contact angle and attachment efficiency of CFA after pretreatment were found to be increased. The results of XRD and SEM demonstrate that a complete separation of unburned carbon from CFA could be achieved by using the emulsifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture (SM) is a crucial driving variable for the global land surface-atmosphere water and energy cycle. There are now many satellite-based SM products available internationally and it is necessary to consider all available SM products under the same context for comprehensive assessment and inter-comparisons at the global scale. Moreover, product performances varying with dynamic environmental factors, especially those closely related to retrieval algorithms, were less investigated. Therefore, this study evaluated and identified the relative strengths of nine mainstream satellite-based SM products derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), Chinese Fengyun-3B (FY3B), the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS), and the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) by using the Pearson correlation coefficient (R), R of SM seasonal anomalies (Ranom), unbiased Root Mean Square Error (ubRMSE), and bias metrics against ground observations from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN), as well as the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Noah model simulations, overall and under three dynamic (Land Surface Temperature (LST), SM, and Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD)) conditions. Results showed that the SMOS-INRA-CESBIO (IC) product outperformed the SMOSL3 product in most cases, especially in Australia, but it exhibited greater variability and higher random errors in Asia. ESA CCI products outperformed other products in capturing the spatial dynamics of SM seasonal anomalies and produced significantly high accuracy in croplands. Although the Chinese FY3B presented poor skills in most cases, it had a good ability to capture the temporal dynamics of the original SM and SM seasonal anomalies in most regions of central Africa. Under various land cover types, with the changes in LST, SM, and VOD, different products exhibited distinctly dynamic error characteristics. Generally, all products tended to overestimate the low in-situ SM content but underestimate the high in-situ SM content. It is expected that these findings can provide guidance and references for product improvement and application promotions in water exchange and land surface energy cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distributed consensus control problem for nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with external disturbances under switching directed topologies is investigated. Distributed sliding-mode observers are designed considering both nonlinear dynamics and disturbances in MASs. Utilizing estimated states information via sliding-mode observers, a control protocol is constructed and analyzed to ensure the MASs reach consensus, and additionally guarantee the desired disturbance rejection criterion. Furthermore, the simulation experiment is carried out by taking multiple simple-pendulum network systems. By comparing this work with the related existing results, our designed observers are superior in estimating states information simultaneously considering both nonlinear dynamics and external disturbances, and the experiment result analysis shows validity of distributed consensus algorithm based on sliding-mode observers for MASs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between the chemokine receptor XCR1 and its ligand is closely related to the immune function in animals; however, there are only a few reports on role of XCR1 in the immune system of fish. We aimed to analyze the expression of XCR1 in various organs or tissues of grass carp before and after Grass Carp Reovirus (GCRV) infection to better understand the function of XCR1 in resistance to GCRV infection. We cloned and sequenced the cDNA of grass carp XCR1 and analyzed the molecular structure of XCR1 based its amino acid sequence. Further, we analyzed the relative expression levels of XCR1 in different organs or tissues of male parent grass carp with GCRV resistance (P1) and their first-generation offspring (F1) before and after GCRV infection. Our results show that the total length of cDNA of the grass carp XCR1 gene is 1659 bp and encodes 365 amino acids. XCR1 contains seven conserved transmembrane helical domains. The homologous tertiary structure of XCR1 is similar to its homologs in other species. After artificial GCRV infection, there were significant differences in the expression of the grass carp XCR1 gene in different tissues, at different time points, and between P1 and F1 fish. These results will contribute to our understanding of the role of XCR1 in fish immune responses and contribute to the development of GCRV-resistant grass carp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fermented soybean meal (FSM) is an important feed material that can replace fish meal to solve the shortage of animal protein. To improve the utilization of FSM, we optimized the co-fermentation conditions of soybean meal using Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium and studied the effects of replacing fish meal with different proportions of FSM on serum antioxidant indices and gut microbiota (GM) composition of crucian carp (Carassius auratus). Our results showed that the co-fermentation of soybean meal was the most effective when the ratio of B. subtilis X-2 and E. faecium X-4 was 2:3, glucose addition was 4.5%, KH2PO4 addition was 0.15%, MgSO4·7H2O addition was 0.1%, anhydrous sodium acetate addition was 0.4%, fermentation time was 120 h, and the solid–water ratio was 1:1. Replacing 40% fish meal with FSM in the feed significantly improved the serum T-AOC, POD, and IgM levels in C. auratus. Although there were significant differences in the midgut and hindgut microbiota structures of C. auratus, the addition of FSM to the feed did not cause significant differences in the GM structure, whether in the midgut or hindgut. Therefore, 40% FSM is the most suitable substitute for fish meal in the feed of C. auratus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection has been rapidly increasing. However, the specific clinical features of ADEM associated with SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2-ADEM) have not been previously evaluated. We screened all articles resulting from a search of PubMed and Web of Science databases looking for reports of ADEM published between December 01, 2019, and June 5, 2021. Of the 48 ADEM cases identified from 37 studies, 34 (71%) had ADEM while 14 (29%) were of AHLE. RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 was positive in 83% (n = 19) of patients. 26 patients (54%) were male, and 18 patients (38%) were female, with a male to female sex ratio of 1.4:1; median age was 44 (1.4–71) years. 9 patients (19%, 9/48) were children. Of the 9 children patients, their median age was 9 years (range 1.4–13 years), 6 patients (67%) were female, and 2 patients (22%) were male, with a female to male sex ratio of 3:1.39 patients (81%) was performed CSF analysis. PCR for SARS-CoV-2 tested positive in 3 patients (14%, 3/22) on CSF sample. 31 (64%) of patients had a poor outcome on discharge from hospital. Five (10%) patients died in hospital. Compared to classic ADEM, SARS-CoV-2-ADEM have a more longer duration between the onset of the antecedent infective symptoms and the start of ADEM symptoms, the older age distribution of the patients, relatively poor outcome, a lower full recovery rate, a more frequently brain lesions involved the periventricular white matter and corpus callosum, and less frequently affected the deep gray matter. Taken together, the present comprehensive review reveals that although rare, ADEM can be associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2-ADEM seems to share most features of classic ADEM, with moderate discrepancies from the classical ADEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder featuring both motor and nonmotor symptoms associated with a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Oxidative stress (OS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. Genetic and environmental factors can produce OS, which has been implicated as a core contributor to the initiation and progression of PD through the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. The transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) orchestrates activation of multiple protective genes, including heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which protects cells from OS. Nrf2 has also been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects and modulate both mitochondrial function and biogenesis. Recently, a series of studies have reported that different bioactive compounds were shown to be able to activate Nrf2/antioxidant response element (ARE) and can ameliorate PD-associated neurotoxin, both in animal models and in tissue culture. In this review, we briefly overview the sources of OS and the association between OS and the pathogenesis of PD. Then, we provided a concise overview of Nrf2/ARE pathway and delineated the role played by activation of Nrf2/HO-1 in PD. At last, we expand our discussion to the neuroprotective effects of pharmacological modulation of Nrf2/HO-1 by bioactive compounds and the potential application of Nrf2 activators for the treatment of PD. This review suggests that pharmacological modulation of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway by bioactive compounds is a therapeutic target of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cerebrovascular diseases associated with SARS-CoV-2 are being increasingly reported in the literature as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues. However, a case-based retrospective analysis of the literature about SARS-CoV-2-cerebrovascular disease (SCVD) is not yet well established. Thus, we reviewed the literature on SCVD covering a comprehensive range of topics spanning the clinical features, mechanism, treatment, and outcomes of patients with SCVD. Methods: We searched PubMed® and included single-case reports and case series with full text in English that reported original data of patients with CVD and a confirmed recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Clinical data were extracted. Results: We included all 51 articles indexed in PubMed® that were published between January 1, 2020, and June 20, 2020. The selected studies reported a total of 167 cerebrovascular events including ischemic stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cerebral venous thrombosis in patients with confirmed COVID-19. The detailed demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with CVD are summarized. Conclusion: This summary of patient characteristics may help clinicians better anticipate SCVD outcomes and complications in their COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed extensive development of the marine aquaculture industry over recent years. However, such rapid and disordered expansion posed risks to coastal environment, economic development, and biodiversity protection. This study aimed to produce an accurate national-scale marine aquaculture map at a spatial resolution of 16 m, using a proposed model based on deep convolution neural networks (CNNs) and applied it to satellite data from China's GF-1 sensor in an end-to-end way. The analyses used homogeneous CNNs to extract high-dimensional features from the input imagery and preserve information at full resolution. Then, a hierarchical cascade architecture was followed to capture multi-scale features and contextual information. This hierarchical cascade homogeneous neural network (HCHNet) was found to achieve better classification performance than current state-of-the-art models (FCN-32s, Deeplab V2, U-Net, and HCNet). The resulting marine aquaculture area map has an overall classification accuracy > 95 % (95.2 %–96.4, 95 % confidence interval). And marine aquaculture was found to cover a total area of ∼ 1100 km 2 (1096.8–1110.6 km 2 , 95 % confidence interval) in China, of which more than 85 % is marine plant culture areas, with 87 % found in the Fujian, Shandong, Liaoning, and Jiangsu provinces. The results confirm the applicability and effectiveness of HCHNet when applied to GF-1 data, identifying notable spatial distributions of different marine aquaculture areas and supporting the sustainable management and ecological assessments of coastal resources at a national scale. The national-scale marine aquaculture map at 16 m spatial resolution is published in the Google Maps kmz file format with georeferencing information at 10.5281/zenodo.3881612 (Fu et al., 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Effects of Replacing Dietary Fish Meal by Soybean Meal Co-Fermented Using Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium on Serum Antioxidant Indices and Gut Microbiota of Crucian Carp Carassius auratus." The correction states that there was an error in Figure 1 of the original publication, where Figure 1F was mistakenly duplicated as Figure 1G. The corrected figure has been provided, and the authors assure that this correction does not affect the scientific conclusions of the study. The original publication has been updated accordingly. [Extracted from the article]

MoS2 is considered a potential electrode material for lithium-ion batteries because of its high energy density. However, it has not been commercialized owing to its poor cycle stability. To explore the reasons for its poor cycle stability, in situ X-ray diffraction, in situ transmission electron microscopy, and other characterization methods were used to explore the lithium storage mechanism and the phase transitions of MoS2 during lithium storage. Because MoS2 forms an amorphous structure during cycling, these physical methods have difficulty distinguishing between the various electrochemical stages of the reaction in detail. In this work, in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was adopted to record the change in the impedance of the MoS2 electrode during the discharging and charging processes. The results show that the first discharging and charging process of MoS2 can be further divided into six stages and five stages, respectively. In addition, a program based on Python was used to batch-process EIS data, which promotes the further application of in situ EIS. This study can help researchers analyze the lithium storage process of MoS2 in more detail than was previously possible, and this method can also be applied to mechanistic research on other electrode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aggregation and neurotoxicity of the presynaptic protein α-synuclein and the progressive loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons are believed to be the key hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD). A53T mutant α-synuclein causes early onset PD and more severe manifestations. A growing body of evidence shows that misfolding or deposition of α-synuclein is linked to the maintenance of mitochondrial dynamics, which has been proven to play an important role in the pathogenesis of PD. It has been observed that Dl-3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) may be safe and effective in improving the non-tremor-dominant PD. However, the potential mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether NBP could decrease the loss of dopaminergic neurons and α-synuclein deposition and explore its possible neuroprotective mechanisms. Methods: A total of 20 twelve-month-old human A53T α-synuclein transgenic mice and 10 matched adult C57BL/6 mice were included in the study; 10 adult C57BL/6 mice were selected as the control group and administered with saline (0.2 ml daily for 14 days); 20 human A53T α-synuclein transgenic mice were randomly divided into A53T group (treated in the same manner as in the control group) and A53T + NBP group (treated with NBP 0.2 ml daily for 14 days). Several markers of mitochondrial fission and fusion and mitophagy were determined, and the behavioral, olfactory, and cognitive symptoms were assessed as well. Results: In the present study, it was observed that the A53T-α-synuclein PD mice exhibited anxiety-like behavioral disturbance, impairment of coordination ability, memory deficits, and olfactory dysfunction, loss of dopaminergic neurons, and α-synuclein accumulation. Meanwhile, the mitofusin 1 expression was significantly decreased, and the mitochondrial number and dynamin-related protein 1, Parkin, and LC3 levels were increased. The detected levels of all markers were reversed by NBP treatment, and the mitochondrial morphology was partially recovered. Conclusion: In the present study, a valuable neuropharmacological role of NBP has been established in the A53T-α-synuclein PD mouse model. Possible neuroprotective mechanisms might be that NBP is involved in the maintenance of mitochondrial dynamics including mitochondrial fission and fusion and clearance of damaged mitochondria. It is essential to perform further experiments to shed light on the precise mechanisms of NBP on mitochondrial homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim was to verify whether genes in the coagulation complement and cytokine interaction pathways are crucial to the resistance to grass carp hemorrhagic disease in grass carps (Ctenopharyngodon idella). To evaluate this, we acquired male grass carps with grass carp reovirus (GCRV) resistance, F1 generation, ordinary male fish, control F1 progenies (hybridized ordinary fish), and barbel chub (Squaliobarbus curriculus) as a positive control. We compared the expression variation of 13 immune factors in different tissues using real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Our results showed that the expression of the transforming growth factor-β3, nerve growth factor receptor, coagulation factor D, chemokine receptor XCR1, profibrinolysin, γ-globulin of complement component 1, complement component 2, and complement component 5 in the different tissues of the barbel chub were significantly higher than those in the grass carps populations under normal conditions. Except for a limited number of genes, their expression exhibited significant differences. There was no significant difference in these genes among grass carp populations with different GCRV resistance. These results indicate that the high gene expression in the coagulation complement and cytokine interaction pathways may be the main reason for the strong resistance of barbel chub to GCRV. However, high gene expression was not a factor affecting GCRV resistance between grass carp populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensitive and selective fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) probe was synthesized by using glucosamine as a single reagent in a one-step hydrothermal treatment and was also characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer, fluorescence spectrophotometer, transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). N-CDs exhibited a superior water solubility and an excellent fluorescence characteristic and was used as a fluorophore to measure ClO− and NO2− based on their oxidation in the presence of Fe2+. The quenching mechanism of ClO− and NO2− to the system probe of Fe2+@N-CDs was also demonstrated. The detection limit of the probe to ClO− was 0.75 μM in the linear range of 1 to 17.5 μM and for NO2− was 0.85 μM with the linear range of 2.5 to 20 μM. Speciation analysis of ClO− and NO2− could be distinguished due to the different reactive response time to the system probe of Fe2+@N-CDs, and the accuracy was further confirmed by detecting them in actual river water and tap water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The damage evolutions of square concrete-filled steel tubular (CFT) columns were experimentally studied by the axial compression cyclic loading test and the acoustic emission (AE) monitoring technique. Based on the mechanical analysis and damage observations, the limit damage states, i.e. inner concrete cracking, confinement of steel tube, yielding and buckling of steel tube, weld seam splitting and inner concrete spalling were verified. The released strain energy due to the damage of CFT column was monitored by the AE technique and analyzed by the peak frequency classification method. The results show that the buckling of steel tube is the damage state with the maximum load carrying capacity for CFT columns. Most of the released strain energy were detected by the AE signals with the peak frequency between 30 and 75 kHZ and most of the strain energy were released after the buckling of the steel tube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed extensive development of the marine aquaculture industry over recent years. However, such rapid and disordered expansion posed risks to coastal environment, economic development, and biodiversity protection. This study aimed to produce an accurate national-scale marine aquaculture map at a spatial resolution of 16 m, using a proposed deep convolution neural networks (CNNs) based model and applied it to satellite data from China's GF-1 sensor in an end-to-end way. The analyses used homogeneous CNNs to extract high-dimensional features from the input imagery and preserve information at full resolution. Then, a hierarchical cascade architecture was followed to capture multi-scale features and contextual information. This hierarchical cascade homogeneous neural network (HCHNet) was found to achieve better classification performance than current state-of-the-art models (FCN-32s, Deeplab V2, U-Net, and HCNet). The resulting marine aquaculture area map has an overall classification accuracy > 95 % (95.2 %-96.4, 95 % confidence interval). And marine aquaculture was found to cover a total area of ~1100 km2 (1096.8 km2-1110.6 km2, 95 % confidence interval) in China, of which more than 85 % are marine plant culture areas, with 87 % found in the Fujian, Shandong, Liaoning, and Jiangsu provinces. The results confirm the applicability and effectiveness of HCHNet when applied to GF-1 data, identifying notable spatial distributions of different marine aquaculture areas and supporting the sustainable management and ecological assessments of coastal resources at a national scale. The national-scale marine aquaculture map at 16 m spatial resolution is published in the Google Maps kmz File Format with georeferencing information at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3881612 (Fu et al., 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of diet 7.5 g/kg α-ketoglutarate (AKG) on the growth performance, antioxidant defense system, digestive enzymes, and immune response of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). A total of 400 grass carp with an average body weight 10.81 ± 0.68 g was randomly allocated into 2 groups with 4 replicates of 50 fish respectively. The experiment was conducted in net cages (1.5 m × 1.5 m × 1.5 m) suspended in an indoor cement pool. Fish were fed a basic diet containing either 0 (control) or 7.5 g/kg AKG (supplemented diet). The experiment lasted for 8 weeks (56 days). Results indicated that compared with the control group, the final weight (FW), weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) in the AKG group were increased significantly (P < 0.05). However, the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was decreased significantly (P < 0.05). The 7.5 g/kg AKG supplementation significantly increased the activities of glutamine synthetase (GS), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT), total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), and hexokinase (HK), as well as the concentrations of glutathione (GSH), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), and complement 3 (C3) in blood (P < 0.05), while significantly decreased the concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hemoglobin (Hb) (P < 0.05). The GS activity and GSH concentration in hepatopancreas were increased significantly (P < 0.05), whereas the glycogen concentration in hepatopancreas, and the glycogen concentration and GS activity in the muscle were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). In addition, 7.5 g/kg AKG supplementation significantly increased the concentration of GSH and the activities of amylase, protease, and lipase in fore-gut, alkaline phosphates (ALP) in the mid-gut, and Na-ATP and Ca-ATP in the gill (P < 0.05), as well as γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT) both in fore-gut and mid-gut (P < 0.05), whereas the activity of acid phosphatase (ACP) in the mid-gut was decreased significantly (P < 0.05). In conclusion, diet 7.5 g/kg AKG supplementation in grass carp may improve the growth performance and immune response and play crucial roles in regulating the activities of GS, antioxidant defense system, and digestive enzymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current intensive fish farming usually causes high environmental ammonia (HEA) in ponds that is toxic to fish. α‐Ketoglutarate (α‐KG) can be rapidly transaminated to glutamic acid and further aminated to glutamine. Therefore, we hypothesized that dietary α‐KG supplementation would alleviate HEA toxicity to fish. To test the hypothesis, 270 healthy grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) juveniles were randomly assigned to control, HEA (18.37 mg/L ammonia) and HEA + α‐KG (0.75% of α‐KG) groups. Ammonia and free amino acid content in plasma and brain, liver glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity, and urea and glycogen content were measured on the first, seventh and 42nd days. Our results showed short‐term HEA exposure (1 day) led to a significant ammonia accumulation in the brain and plasma and significantly decreased glutamic and aspartic acid content in the brain and increased glutamine content in the brain and plasma. The long‐term HEA exposure (42 days) caused significant reductions in glycine and arginine content in the brain tissue. In most cases, dietary α‐KG supplementation alleviated the fluctuations in FAA content in the brain and plasma. Our results suggested dietary α‐KG alleviated HEA toxicity to grass carp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational design of highly active and stable nanocatalysts towards the detoxification of Cr(VI)-contaminated water is of great importance for environmental remediation. In the present work, a novel Pd-based hybrid nanomaterial, composed of Pd nanoparticles (Pd NPs) supported on three-dimensional hierarchical titania nanoflowers (fTiO2), was fabricated and systematically investigated as the catalyst of chromium detoxification. Pd NPs with diameter of ~ 2.8 nm were found to be uniformly and firmly supported onto the crystalline nanosheets of fTiO2. More importantly, the highly open porous flower-like architecture of Pd NPs/fTiO2 could not only endow the catalyst with high surface area (237.5 m2 g−1) and large pore volume (0.86 cm3 g−1), but also facilitate reactant diffusion and exposure of active sites. Benefitting from these remarkable features, the Pd NPs/fTiO2 exhibited superior catalytic performance for reduction of Cr(VI) in the presence of formic acid. The TOF reached up to 633.0 h−1, which was several and even more than one hundred times as high as those obtained by previously reported supported Pd-based catalysts. Moreover, the catalytic activity of Pd NPs/fTiO2 could remain almost unchanged after being recycled several times, demonstrating its long-term stability. Therefore, the Pd NPs/fTiO2 would be promising for practical wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a growth factor crucial for neuronal survival, while its role in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)-induced neuronal apoptosis remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether administering exogenous BDNF can protect against neuronal apoptosis and neurological deficits following SAH in a rat model. The BDNF level was found to be significantly decreased in the basal cortex at 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h following SAH. Exogenous BDNF significantly decreased the expression of Bax and reduced activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9 and the number of apoptotic neurons. Moreover, exogenous BDNF treatment significantly improved the neurological deficits at 72 h and long-term behavioral deficits (day 14) following SAH in a rat model. These findings indicate that exogenous BDNF attenuated SAH-induced neuronal injury in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-rare earth doped oxides with red emission are one of the current research hotspots for achieving the warm white light range in the phosphor converted white light emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) field. In the current work, a novel Mn4+-activated La2CaHfO6 red phosphor is reported for the first time and its crystal structure is analyzed by Rietveld refinement. The photoluminescent properties of La2CaHfO6:Mn4+ are investigated in detail with the help of diffuse refletance spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and temperature-dependent PL spectroscopy. Based on the diffuse refletance spectra, the calculated optical band gap for La2CaHfO6 is 4.9 eV, indicating that La2CaHfO6 could be a suitable host for activators' doping. Under 380 nm near-ultraviolet (n-UV) light excitation, the as-prepared La2CaHfO6:Mn4+ displays intense red emission centered at 693 nm. Through an accurate calculation of Dq/B (2.47) and nephelauxetic effect β1 (0.949), the origination of strong crystal field (CF) and deep-red emission is demonstrated. By combining the representative La2CaHfO6:0.002Mn4+, blue BAM:Eu2+, and green (Ba,Sr)2SiO4:Eu2+ phosphors with a 380 nm UV chip to fabricate the pc-WLEDs device, a white light is obtained with low correlated color temperature (CCT = 5165 K) and high color rendering index (Ra = 87.8), demonstrating that the as-prepared La2CaHfO6:Mn4+ phosphors can be used as red-emitting candidate in pc-WLEDs lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Acellular dermal matrix (ADM) is commonly used to treat burn injuries and wounds. In this study, we aimed to analyze the structural and biomechanical characteristics of an ADM from human scars. Methods: We randomly selected human mature scars, human proliferative scars, and human normal skin as experimental specimens. Split-thickness dermal grafts were obtained using a free-hand graft knife. Samples were subjected to cell lysis to obtain ADMs. Structural analysis was performed via light microscopy, fluorescence microplate reader and scanning electron microscopy. Thereafter, human epithelial stem cells were incubated on these ADMs. Finally, the biomechanical characteristics of the ADMs were analyzed using a tensile machine. Results: Normal skin ADM fibers were arranged in order, whereas proliferative scar ADM fibers were dense and disordered, and mature scar ADM fibers were porous and slightly disordered. The residual DNA of three ADM meet the residual DNA standard of biological material. After incubating human epithelial stem cells on ADMs, cells grew in an aggregated state in both normal skin ADMs and mature scar ADMs; however, cells adhered only on the surface of proliferative scar ADMs. No significant differences were observed in the Young's modulus, relaxation slope, creep slope, creep, or maximum tensile stress among the three ADMs, although significant differences in stress–strain elongation and relaxation were noted. Conclusions: Our findings showed that mature scar ADMs were similar to proliferative scar ADMs, showing a slight lag compared with normal skin ADMs, providing insights into the biomechanical features of these scar tissues. ADM Acellular dermal matrix H&E Hematoxylin and eosin PBS Phosphate-buffered saline SEM Scanning electron microscopy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model-based polarimetric decomposition under multi-angular condition is refined to estimate soil moisture over agricultural fields covered by different crops from Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) time series. The approach allows to disentangle the vegetation and ground scattering components in order to invert the latter for the retrieval of soil moisture. For the vegetation volume separation, the crop orientations were estimated from SAR observations acquired at different incidence angles, and the associated volume scattering component was subtracted from each acquisition individually. Afterward, the soil moisture was retrieved from both ground scattering components (surface, dihedral), using the developed multi-angular cost functions comprised of dominant Bragg surface (β) or Fresnel dihedral (α) scattering parameters. Compared to former soil moisture retrievals from model-based decomposition of multi-angular polarimetric SAR data, the present refined approach that integrated both ground components, surface and dihedral, is independent of the power attenuation and loss during the microwave propagation through the vegetation. In this way, the ambiguity in the dihedral scattering component (most prominent around 45° incidence angle) was overcome, enabling a more robust retrieval methodology by clearly decoupling the soil and vegetation dielectric constants. The proposed multi-angular approach for soil moisture retrieval was validated with respect to the ground measurements conducted during the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment in 2012. Due to the increased number of valid dominant surface/dihedral components which are used to retrieve the soil moisture in the multi-angular approach, an overall retrieval rate of 90%, significantly higher than that of the single-angular condition (50%), is obtained. The results indicate an overall retrieval rmse of 0.07–0.09 m3/m3 for the early crop growth stage, and a rmse of 0.09–0.12 m3/m3 for the later crop development until mature stage. However, the retrieval performance is highly dependent on the crop structure and phenological development stages, but the multi-angular rmse range is mostly lower than all single-angular rmses, indicating better quality of the multi-angular inversion than the single-angular one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, a one-pot in situ strategy is adopted to directly grow uniform perovskite nanocrystals on exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BN NSs). Such a nanohybrid structure shows excellent thermal conductivity, and it could timely dissipate excess heat. As a consequence, superior thermal stability is achieved, with the photoluminescence emission intensity at 120 °C still maintaining 80% of the initial intensity at 25 °C (nearly 6 times that of pure perovskite NCs). This result presents the highest thermal stability ever reported in inorganic composites based on all-inorganic lead halide perovskite materials, which provides a new opportunity for CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) NCs to find promising applications in perovskite NC-based optoelectronic devices such as white light emitting diode (LED) devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching topologies with disturbances, we propose a distributed H∞ consensus control protocol based on relative output feedback and utilize an iterative algorithm for solving nonlinear matrix inequality in this paper. Firstly, a consensus control protocol via relative output feedback is designed. Then, an iterative algorithm is utilized to calculate nonlinear matrix inequality. By this, the output feedback gain is designed but not chosen, which increases the design degree of freedom and meanwhile H∞ performance index γ is obtained. Finally, the proposed theory is applied to multiple simple-pendulums network systems driven by DC motors, and simulation results show the effectiveness of the designed consensus control protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]