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Cordyceps primarily consists of ascomycetes, a parasitic fungus that infects insects and arthropods. Recently, Cordyceps has been shown to manifest a diverse range of pharmacological activities, rendering it applicable for the treatment and mitigation of various diseases, such as diabetes, acute liver injury, and colitis. Many active constituents have been identified from Cordyceps sinensis, including cordycepin, adenosine, sterols, and polysaccharides. Polysaccharides constitute a primary active component of Cordyceps, exhibiting immunomodulatory effects. We searched the Web of Science database with the keywords of cordyceps, polysaccharide, and immune modulation; collected related studies from 2004 to 2024; and eliminated articles with low influence and workload. A review of the research advancements regarding the immunomodulatory effects of Cordyceps polysaccharides was conducted with the aim of furnishing valuable reference information. Research indicates that polysaccharides exhibiting immunomodulatory activity are predominantly sourced from Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris. Immunological experimental results demonstrate that Cordyceps polysaccharides can augment the activities of macrophages, lymphocytes, and dendritic cells while fostering the expression of immune-active substances such as cytokines and chemokines. Furthermore, animal experiments have substantiated the immunomodulatory effects of Cordyceps polysaccharides. These effects encompass ameliorating immune suppression induced by drugs or radiation, enhancing immune organ indices, elevating the expression of immunoreactive substances, and mitigating immune evasion prompted by tumors. In conclusion, Cordyceps polysaccharides exhibit significant immunomodulatory activity and merit further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the in situ TaC/Ni composites were prepared by reactive sintering method using Ta, Ni and graphite as raw materials, and their oxidation behavior at 873, 973 and 1073 K in air is investigated by static cyclic oxidation method. The results present that the oxidation behavior of composites conforms to the linear kinetic law. At 873 K, the oxidation of TaC and Ni–Ta matrix generate NiO, Ta2O5, TaO2 and NiTa2O6. The oxide scale is consisted by double continuous layers, including the outer NiO and inner Ta2O5 layer, due to the diffusion of Ni ion through the oxide ion vacancies in Ta2O5. The Oxygen inward diffuse along the interface between TaC and Ni–Ta matrix, and then dissolves in TaC and replaces C sites to generate Ta oxides. At 973 K, more Ta oxides occupy the oxide scale, forming the alternative distribution of NiO and Ta oxides, resulted from the accelerated diffusion of Ta ions. At 1073 K, the oxide scale is mainly taken up by NiTa2O6 with slight NiO. The formation reaction of Ta2O5 and NiTa2O6 shows high Pilling Bedworth ratio near to 2, resulting in the expansion and compressive stress in oxide scale. The oxidation of composites is primarily controlled by the inward diffusion of Oxygen, leading the formation of non-protective oxide scale with pores and cracks on surface. One effective method to improve the oxidation resistance of TaC/Ni composites is to restrict the formation of Ta2O5 and NiTa2O6, to inhibit the appearance of cracks in oxide scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TiC/Ni composites with different CeO2 or CeO2@Ni content are fabricated by pressureless reactive sintering, and the CeO2@Ni particles are prepared by electroless plating technique. The results show that the continuous Ni layer is prepared on CeO2 particles, leading to the decrease of contact angle between CeO2 and Ni from about 116° to 65°. The relative density of composites with 1 wt% CeO2 increases from 85.79% to 96.45% by Ni layer on CeO2 particles. The CeO2 or CeO2@Ni particles exhibit no obvious influence on the microstructure of composites, and Ce atoms of CeO2 diffuse into TiC particles during the reactive sintering process. The mass gain of composite decreases from 7.4709 to 4.9075 mg cm−2 by addition of 1 wt% CeO2@Ni. The Ce‐doped in NiO and TiO2 would restrict the inward diffusion of O atoms and outward diffusion of Ni atoms, resulting in the improvement of oxidation resistance of composite. With the increase of CeO2@Ni content from 0 to 1 wt%, the surface specific resistance of composite decreases from 3.16 to 0.56 Ω cm2 at 800 °C due to the thinner oxide scale and lower bandgap of TiO2 by Ce doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is associated with malignant disorders. DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) is a DNA methylesterase reported to be upregulated in multiple organs and shown to inhibit fibrosis. However, the detailed effect of DNMT3A on OSF remains unclear. Methods: To mimic OSF in vitro, oral fibroblasts were exposed to arecoline and molecular biological experiments were performed to detect the function of DNMT3A in OSF. Results: We found that von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) was downregulated and highly methylated in OSF. Arecoline remarkably increased the viability, invasiveness, and migration of oral fibroblasts, but upregulation of VHL partially reversed these effects. DNMT3A induces DNA hypermethylation in the VHL promoter, and VHL markedly inhibits the level of tenascin‐C (TNC) by inducing the ubiquitination of TNC. TNC reversed the inhibitory effect of VHL upregulation on the differentiation of oral fibroblasts into myofibroblasts. Conclusion: DNMT3A induces OSF by promoting methylation of the VHL promoter. Hence, our study provides novel insights into the discovery of novel strategies that can be employed against OSF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic disorder with a high malignant transformation rate. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis are key events in OSF. The Notch signaling plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of various fibrotic diseases, including OSF. Our study aimed to explore the effects of Notch on the EMT and angiogenesis processes during the development of OSF. The expression of Notch in OSF tissues versus normal buccal mucosa samples was compared. Arecoline was used to induce myofibroblast transdifferentiation of buccal mucosal fibroblasts (BMFs). Short hairpin RNA technique was used to knockdown Notch in BMFs. Pirfenidone and SRI-011381 were used to inhibit and activate the TGF-β1 signaling pathway in BMFs, respectively. The expression of Notch was markedly upregulated in OSF tissues and fibrotic BMFs. Knockdown of Notch significantly decreased the viability and promoted apoptosis in BMFs subjected to arecoline stimulation. Downregulation of Notch also significantly suppressed the EMT process, as shown by the reduction of N-cadherin and vimentin with concomitant upregulation of E-cadherin. In addition, knockdown of Notch upregulated VEGF and enhanced the angiogenic activity of fBMFs. Moreover, inhibition of TGF-β1 suppressed viability and EMT, promoted apoptosis, and induced angiogenesis of fBMFs, while activation of TGF-β1 significantly diminished the effects of Notch knockdown on fBMFs. Knockdown of Notch suppressed EMT and induced angiogenesis in OSF by regulating TGF-β1, suggesting that the Notch-TGF-β1 pathway may serve as a therapeutic intervention target for OSF. Highlights: Notch is upregulated in oral submucous fibrosis tissues and fibrotic buccal mucosal fibroblasts (fBMFs). Knockdown of Notch suppresses the viability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, promotes apoptosis, and induces angiogenesis in fBMFs. Activation of the transforming growth factor beta 1 signaling diminished the effects of Notch knockdown on fBMFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In seismic tomography practices the Earth's surface is sometimes assumed to be either spherical or flat for convenience in forward modelling calculations. The effect of irregular surface topography on seismic wave propagation is thus ignored, resulting in biases in the phases and amplitudes of synthetic seismograms, which contribute to the residuals that are mapped into velocity structures in tomography inversions. In this study, we conduct a series of inversion experiments based on the adjoint waveform tomography method to quantitatively assess the topography effect on waveform-based inversion results. We first employ models with simplified topography to better highlight and quantify the topography effect. Results show that when topography effect is ignored in the forward modelling, it is mapped into velocity perturbations, leading to spurious velocity anomalies in tomography models. The strength of the spurious velocity anomaly is quasi-linearly related to locally averaged topography gradient. Our inversion experiments demonstrate that in places of strong topography variation, such as the Longmenshan Fault Zone region where the 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake occurred, topography effect can lead to spurious relative velocity anomalies of up to 10 per cent, which cannot be ignored in waveform-based tomography inversions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focal depth of earthquakes is essential for studies of seismogenic processes and seismic hazards. In regions with dense seismic networks, focal depth can be resolved precisely based on the traveltime of P and S , which is less feasible in case of sparse networks. Instead, surface waves are usually the strongest seismic phases at local and regional distances, and its excitation is sensitive to source depth, thus theoretically important for estimating focal depth even with a limited number of seismic stations. In this study, short-period (0.5–20 s) Rayleigh waves are explored to constrain focal depths. We observe that the optimal period (the period corresponding to the maximum amplitude) of Rayleigh waves at local distances (≤200 km) shows an almost linear correlation with focal depth. Based on this finding, we propose an automated method for resolving the focal depth of local earthquakes using the linear regression relation between the optimal period of Rayleigh wave amplitude spectra and focal depth. Synthetic tests indicate the robustness of this method against source parameters (focal mechanism, source duration and non-double-couple component) and crustal velocity structure. Although the attenuation (Q factor) of shallow crust can introduce complexities in determining focal depth, it can be simultaneously estimated if a sufficient number of stations are available. The proposed method is applied to tens of small-to-moderate earthquakes (M w 3.5–5.0) in diverse tectonic settings, including locations in the United States (Oklahoma, South Carolina, California, Utah, etc.) and China (Sichuan, Shandong). Results demonstrate that reliable focal depth, with uncertainty of 1–2 km, can be determined even with one or a few seismic stations. This highlights the applicability of the method in scenarios characterized by sparse network coverage or historical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secernin-1 (SCRN1) is a regulator of exocytosis in mast cells. Recently, SCRN1 was reported to be correlated with the prognosis of colorectal cancer and gastric cancer, but its functional effects on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remain unclear. Our aim was to explore the expression pattern and the migration and invasion effects of the newly identified SCRN1 in OSCC. Western blotting (WB) was performed to measure SCRN1 expression in human OSCC tissue samples and OSCC cell lines. The effects of SCRN1 on OSCC cell proliferation, invasion and migration were analyzed by cell counting kit-8 and Transwell assays. The expression levels of TGF-β, Smad3 and phosphorylated Smad3 (p-Smad3) were measured by WB. The secretion of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 was determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of SCRN1 was significantly elevated in OSCC tissues and cell lines. SCRN1 knockdown reduced the expression of TGF-β and p-Smad3 in OSCC cells. TGF-β stimulation promoted proliferation, invasion and migration and enhanced the expression of p-Smad3 and the secretion of MMP9 in SCRN1-knockdown OSCC cell lines. Our study demonstrated that SCRN1 is upregulated in OSCC. Further analyses demonstrated that SCRN1 promotes the proliferation, invasion and migration of OSCC cells via TGF-β/Smad3 signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An isolate of chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV; genus Potyvirus) of Solanum nigrum L. from southwest China (ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi) was identified and sequenced (GenBank: OP404087). Comparison with other ChiVMV isolates and recombination analyses suggested a recombinant origin. The most significant recombination event among all 21 complete ChiVMV isolates was an ending breakpoint at 1408–1488 for ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi with ChiVMV-TaiW and ChiVMV-YunN/Ca operating as the respective major and minor parents. Interestingly, the 5′ UTR of ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi is 15 nucleotides ('AAAAATAAAACAACC') longer than other reported isolates. A full-length clone of ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi was constructed and was shown to be infectious in Nicotiana benthamiana. The additional 15 nt of 5′ UTR in ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi was stable when transmitted through three generations. Experiments with modified clones showed that the additional 15 nt are essential for infection by this isolate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short-distance coal seam group refers to the coal seams which has obvious mining influence on the adjacent coal seam during mining process. In the process of short-distance coal seam mining, there are a large number of cracks around the stope due to the mining stress, resulting in serious air leakage and high risk of spontaneous combustion. To mining the working face under the condition of overlying close goaf in Xutuan Coal Mine in Huaibei Mining area, the distribution of spontaneous combustion dangerous area in goaf was studied systematically with the help of engineering test, laboratory research and numerical simulation. Results show that a "Γ" distribution of high oxygen concentration area was found above the roadway of the goaf due to the effect of air leakage and coal seam space, the high spontaneous combustion risk area is close to the return airway. A three-dimensional distribution of the high spontaneous combustion risk area was formed in the composite goaf after mining in the lower coal seam face, the spontaneous combustion risk of the upper position is higher than that of the lower position. Besides, based on the pyrolysis-room temperature oxidation experiments of coal sample, it is considered that the inert environment and high temperature promote the production of active groups in coal and thus enhanced the oxidation ability of coal, mechanism of spontaneous combustion of residual coal in the overlying goaf was further revealed. Accordingly, the comprehensive fire prevention and fire extinguishing measures of nitrogen injection, leakage plugging and inhibitor injection are put forward. With the method of numerical simulation, it was found that nitrogen injection at the position of 50 m in the goaf can effectively reduce the spontaneous combustion risk in the compound goaf, and the injection of TEMPO inhibitor was put forward based on the secondary oxidation characteristics of residual coal. The research conclusion can provide theoretical guidance for the fire prevention technology of coal seam mining in the overlying close goaf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A UV-curing flame-retardant coating with varying mass content of bisphenol A epoxy acrylate (BAEA), 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylic acid phosphate (PM-2) and polyurethane acrylate (PUA) were prepared, improving the flame-retardant and mechanical properties of jute/polypropylene (PP) composites. BAEA is the main film-forming prepolymer. Phosphate ester groups in PM-2 can promote the formation of carbon layer during combustion, and PM-2 can also be used as a good adhesion binder to improve the coating adhesion levels. The flexible long chain in PUA could reduce the shrinkage of the coating and provide further adhesion. To avoid the oxygen inhibition of the radical polymerization, isopropylthioxanthone and triethanolamine were used to reduce the reaction between photoinitiator phenyl bis (2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl) phosphine oxide and oxygen. Compared to the uncoated composites (J–P), the peaks of heat release rate and total smoke production of coated composites decreased and limiting oxygen index values increased significantly, which revealed that the coatings showed effective fire protection effect. The bending strength of the coated composites can increase by 90% over uncoated sample J–P. This simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly UV-curing coating has good adhesion and can effectively improve the flame-retardant and mechanical properties of composites, which expand application of the flame-retardant fiber composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glucose metabolism in cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) within the tumor microenvironment is a material and energy source for tumorigenesis and tumor development. However, the characteristics and important regulatory mechanisms of glucose metabolism in fibroblasts associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are still unknown. Methods: We successfully isolated, cultured, purified and identified CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs). Cell culture, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and CCK8, flow cytometry, Seahorse XF Analyzer, MitoTracker assay, western blotting (WB), transmission electron microscope, Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), immunofluorescence (IF), and Label-free quantitative proteomics assay, animal xenograft model studies and statistical analysis were applied in this study. Results: We demonstrated that the proliferation activity of CAFs was significantly enhanced as compared to NFs, while the apoptosis rate was significantly decreased. CAFs in OSCC preferentially use oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) rather than glycolysis. Moreover, CAFs showed stronger maximal respiration, a larger substantial mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity (SRC) and higher adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production capacity than NFs. The results of mitotracker green fluorescence staining showed that compared with NFs, CAFs exhibited stronger green fluorescence. The results of WB showed the expression level of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) obviously increased in CAFs compared to NFs. These results confirmed that CAFs have greater mitochondrial activity and function than NFs. Furthermore, Label-free quantitative proteomics assays showed that both ATP synthase subunit O (ATP5O) and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1) are important differentially expressed proteins in the mitochondria of CAFs/NFs. Overexpression of TRAP1 in CAFs increased basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR), maximal respiration, ATP production and SRC. In vivo, overexpression TRAP1 expression in CAFs suppress tumor growth. Conclusion: Taken together, the results indicated that TRAP1 is an important regulatory molecule of CAFs glucose metabolism and promotes OSCC progression by regulating the OXPHOS of CAFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glucose metabolism in cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) within the tumor microenvironment is a material and energy source for tumorigenesis and tumor development. However, the characteristics and important regulatory mechanisms of glucose metabolism in fibroblasts associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are still unknown.Methods: We successfully isolated, cultured, purified and identified CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs). Cell culture, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and CCK8, flow cytometry, Seahorse XF Analyzer, MitoTracker assay, western blotting (WB), transmission electron microscope, Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), immunofluorescence (IF), and Label-free quantitative proteomics assay, animal xenograft model studies and statistical analysis were applied in this study.Results: We demonstrated that the proliferation activity of CAFs was significantly enhanced as compared to NFs, while the apoptosis rate was significantly decreased. CAFs in OSCC preferentially use oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) rather than glycolysis. Moreover, CAFs showed stronger maximal respiration, a larger substantial mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity (SRC) and higher adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production capacity than NFs. The results of mitotracker green fluorescence staining showed that compared with NFs, CAFs exhibited stronger green fluorescence. The results of WB showed the expression level of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) obviously increased in CAFs compared to NFs. These results confirmed that CAFs have greater mitochondrial activity and function than NFs. Furthermore, Label-free quantitative proteomics assays showed that both ATP synthase subunit O (ATP5O) and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1) are important differentially expressed proteins in the mitochondria of CAFs/NFs. Overexpression of TRAP1 in CAFs increased basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR), maximal respiration, ATP production and SRC. In vivo, overexpression TRAP1 expression in CAFs suppress tumor growth.Conclusion: Taken together, the results indicated that TRAP1 is an important regulatory molecule of CAFs glucose metabolism and promotes OSCC progression by regulating the OXPHOS of CAFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies how to identify strategies for mitigating cyber-infrastructure vulnerabilities. We propose an optimization framework that prioritizes the investment in security mitigations to maximize the coverage of vulnerabilities. We use multiple coverage to reflect the implementation of a layered defense, and we consider the possibility of coverage failure to address the uncertainty in the effectiveness of some mitigations. Budgeted Maximum Multiple Coverage (BMMC) problems are formulated, and we demonstrate that the problems are submodular maximization problems subject to a knapsack constraint. Other variants of the problem are formulated given different possible requirements for selecting mitigations, including unit cost cardinality constraints and group cardinality constraints. We design greedy approximation algorithms for identifying near-optimal solutions to the models. We demonstrate an optimal (1–1/e)-approximation ratio for BMMC and a variation of BMMC that considers the possibility of coverage failure, and a 1/2-approximation ratio for a variation of BMMC that uses a cardinality constraint and group cardinality constraints. The computational study suggests that our models yield robust solutions that use a layered defense and provide an effective mechanism to hedge against the risk of possible coverage failure. We also find that the approximation algorithms efficiently identify near-optimal solutions, and that a Benders branch-and-cut algorithm we propose can find provably optimal solutions to the vast majority of our test instances within an hour for the variations of the proposed models that consider coverage failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there have been growing concerns regarding risks in federal information technology (IT) supply chains in the United States that protect cyber infrastructure. A critical need faced by decisionmakers is to prioritize investment in security mitigations to maximally reduce risks in IT supply chains. We extend existing stochastic expected budgeted maximum multiple coverage models that identify "good" solutions on average that may be unacceptable in certain circumstances. We propose three alternative models that consider different robustness methods that hedge against worst‐case risks, including models that maximize the worst‐case coverage, minimize the worst‐case regret, and maximize the average coverage in the (1−α) worst cases (conditional value at risk). We illustrate the solutions to the robust methods with a case study and discuss the insights their solutions provide into mitigation selection compared to an expected‐value maximizer. Our study provides valuable tools and insights for decisionmakers with different risk attitudes to manage cybersecurity risks under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology (IT) infrastructure relies on a globalized supply chain that is vulnerable to numerous risks from adversarial attacks. It is important to protect IT infrastructure from these dynamic, persistent risks by delaying adversarial exploits. In this paper, we propose max‐min interdiction models for critical infrastructure protection that prioritizes cost‐effective security mitigations to maximally delay adversarial attacks. We consider attacks originating from multiple adversaries, each of which aims to find a "critical path" through the attack surface to complete the corresponding attack as soon as possible. Decision‐makers can deploy mitigations to delay attack exploits, however, mitigation effectiveness is sometimes uncertain. We propose a stochastic model variant to address this uncertainty by incorporating random delay times. The proposed models can be reformulated as a nested max‐max problem using dualization. We propose a Lagrangian heuristic approach that decomposes the max‐max problem into a number of smaller subproblems, and updates upper and lower bounds to the original problem via subgradient optimization. We evaluate the perfect information solution value as an alternative method for updating the upper bound. Computational results demonstrate that the Lagrangian heuristic identifies near‐optimal solutions efficiently, which outperforms a general purpose mixed‐integer programming solver on medium and large instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affinity Propagation (AP) algorithm is not effective in processing large-scale data-sets, so the paper purposed an affinity propagation clustering algorithm based on large scale data-set, called LD-AP. First, we use the idea of grid clustering to divide large data-sets into small datasets and running AP in them to ensure the center of clustering. Then, we introduced the structure similarity matrix to calculate the distance of the cluster center. At last, we used Density peak Clustering Algorithm (DP) algorithm to cluster the cluster again. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm is better than the original algorithm in the clustering effect and computation speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the density-based spatial clustering of application with noise algorithm can identify clusters with arbitrary shape, there is a problem that the global parameter Eps needs to be manually set. In this paper, we propose a parameter adaptive density-based spatial clustering of application with noise by using the cuckoo search algorithm, which could solve the global optimization problem quickly. According to the cuckoo search algorithm to calculate the optimal global parameter Eps, the improved algorithm avoids human intervention in the process of clustering, and achieves clustering process automation. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm in this paper can select the reasonable Eps parameter value and get the clustering results with high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li Xiao and Qiannan Hu contributed equally to this work. Reference 1 Xiao L, Hu Q, Peng Y. TRAP1 suppresses oral squamous cell carcinoma progression by reducing oxidative phosphorylation metabolism of Cancer-associated fibroblasts. [Extracted from the article]