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The effect on the band alignment of SnSe2/GaP heterojunctions was investigated by applying an external electric field and strain perpendicular to the interface between two monolayers of SnSe2 and GaP.

Yulian Gao,1,&ast; Hongxia Lin,1,&ast; Yumin Xu,2,&ast; Yijin Yao,1,&ast; Dake Shi,1 Junjie Li,1 Haixing Zhu,1 Hanssa Dwarka Summah,3 Lei Ni,1 Yun Feng1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Hospital Infection Management, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Respiratory, Poudre D’Or Chest Hospital, Rivière du Rempart, Mauritius&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yun Feng; Lei Ni, Email fy01057@163.com; nilei625@139.comPurpose: Carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria bloodstream infection (CRGNB-BSI) has gradually become a major threat worldwide due to its treatment difficulty and high mortality. This study aimed to determine the risk factors for CRGNB-BSI in immunosuppressed patients.Patients and Methods: A total of 427 immunosuppressed patients with CRGNB-BSI were retrospectively investigated from 2015 to 2021. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to evaluate independent risk factors for CRGNB-BSI.Results: The most common etiology was Klebsiella Pneumoniae (50.59%; 216/427), while the Acinetobacillus baumannii infection was associated with the highest mortality (58.25%) among all etiologies. The 60-day mortality of immunosuppressed patients with CRGNB-BSI was 52.48% (224/427). Procalcitonin (PCT) > 0.5 μg/L (OR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.28– 4.19, P = 0.005) and age > 55 years (OR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.17– 3.64, P = 0.012) were found to be predictors of 60-day mortality of CRGNB-BSI, and tigecycline regimen (OR = 3.20, 95% CI: 1.81– 5.67, P < 0.001) was associated with higher mortality. Multivariate analysis also revealed that patients who developed acute kidney injury (AKI) (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.11– 4.30, P = 0.023), gastrointestinal bleeding (OR = 3.18, 95% CI: 1.10– 9.16, P = 0.032), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) (OR = 12.11, 95% CI: 2.61– 56.19, P = 0.001), and septic shock (OR = 3.24, 95% CI: 1.77– 5.94, P < 0.001) showed worse outcomes. The risk factors were also significantly associated with mortality in the different subgroups.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that PCT > 0.5 μg/L, age > 55 years, and the tigecycline regimen were significantly associated with higher 60-day mortality among immunosuppressed patients with CRGNB- BSI. Patients developing MODS, septic shock, or AKI had worse clinical outcomes.&#x2003Keywords: bloodstream infection, carbapenem-resistant, immunosuppressed patients, subgroups, prognosis

Single-cell behaviors are essential during early-stage biofilm formation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether single-cell behaviors could be precisely and continuously manipulated by optogenetics. We thus established adaptive tracking illumination (ATI), a novel illumination method to precisely manipulate the gene expression and bacterial behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the surface at the single-cell level by using the combination of a high-throughput bacterial tracking algorithm, optogenetic manipulation, and adaptive microscopy. ATI enables precise gene expression control by manipulating the optogenetic module gene expression and type IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility and microcolony formation during biofilm formation through bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) level modifications in single cells. Moreover, we showed that the spatial organization of single cells in mature biofilms could be controlled using ATI. Therefore, this novel method we established might markedly answer various questions or resolve problems in microbiology. KEY POINTS: • High-resolution spatial and continuous optogenetic control of individual bacteria. • Phenotype-specific optogenetic control of individual bacteria. • Capacity to control biologically relevant processes in engineered single cells.

When diffusion coefficients of different components in a mixture are similar, NMR spectra of pure individual components are difficult to be obtained via a diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) experiment. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) is used to analyze the data from the DOSY experiment. Through the properties of the systematic absence of cross-peak (SACP) in the 2D asynchronous spectra, spectra of pure components can be obtained even if their diffusion coefficients are similar. However, fluctuations in peak-position and peak-width are often unavoidable in NMR spectra, which makes SACPs unrecognizable. To address the problem, a 2D quotient spectrum is used to identify the masked SACPs. However, undesirable interference peaks due to the fluctuations in peak-position and peak-width are still present when we extract a spectrum of a component by slicing the 2D asynchronous spectrum across the SACP. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to select a suitable subset of spectra where the diversities of peak-position and peak-width are significantly reduced. Then, we used the selected spectra to construct a refined 2D asynchronous spectrum so that the spectra of pure components with significant attenuated interference can be obtained. The above approach has been proven to be effective on a model system and a real-world example, demonstrating that 2D-COS possesses a bright perspective in the analysis of the bilinear data from DOSY experiments.

With the development of quantum computers, the security of classical cryptosystems is seriously threatened, and the Saber algorithm has become one of the potential candidates for post-quantum cryptosystems (PQCs). To address the problems of long delay and the high power consumption of Saber algorithm hardware implementation, a lightweight Saber algorithm hardware design scheme based on the joint optimization of data readout and clock (DRC) was proposed. Firstly, an analysis was carried out on the hardware architecture, timing overhead and power consumption distribution of the Saber algorithm, and the key circuits that limit the performance of the algorithm were identified; secondly, a dual-port SRAM parallel reading method was adopted to improve the data reading efficiency and reduce the timing overhead of double data reading in the multiplier module. Then, a clock gating technology was used to reduce the dynamic flipping probability of internal registers and reduce the hardware power consumption of the Saber algorithm; finally, data reading and clock gating were jointly optimized to design a high-speed and low-power Saber algorithm hardware IP core. Lightweight IP cores were integrated into RISC-V SoC systems via APB bus in a TSMC 65 nm process to complete the digital back-end design. The experimental results show an IP core area of 0.99 mm2 and power consumption of 8.49 mW, which is 33% lower than that reported in the related literature. Under 72 MHz & 1 V operating conditions, the number of clock cycles for the Saber algorithm’s key generation, encryption and decryption are 3315, 9204 and 1420, respectively.

An exothermic reaction in a semibatch reactor can potentially cause thermal runaway due to evolved energy accumulation or a secondary reaction. This research aims to propose safety criteria for solid-liquid reactions in semibatch reactors. Simulation modeling was carried out to build thermal runaway criteria for solid-liquid reactions in semibatch reactors. A new model for the energy and mass balance of solid-liquid reactions was successfully established. Criteria for the safety boundary diagram and the temperature diagram were ameliorated for solid-liquid reactions. The results showed that the dissolution heat has a great influence on the thermal behavior of the reaction. Experiments to neutralize citric acid and sodium hydroxide were carried out to determine the critical parameters for the neutralization reaction using the temperature diagram criterion. The proposed criteria would be reasonably expected to provide some guidance for chemical process optimization and safety design for engineering.

Due to the attractive potential in avoiding the elaborate definition of anchor attributes, anchor-free-based deep learning approaches are promising for object detection in remote sensing imagery. CornerNet is one of the most representative methods in anchor-free-based deep learning approaches. However, it can be observed distinctly from the visual inspection that the CornerNet is limited in grouping keypoints, which significantly impacts the detection performance. To address the above problem, a novel and effective approach, called GroupNet, is presented in this paper, which adaptively groups corner specific to the objects based on corner embedding vector and corner grouping network. Compared with the CornerNet, the proposed approach is more effective in learning the semantic relationship between corners and improving remarkably the detection performance. On NWPU dataset, experiments demonstrate that our GroupNet not only outperforms the CornerNet with an AP of 12.8%, but also achieves comparable performance to considerable approaches with 83.4% AP.

Background: A significant part of blast injury is accompanied by hemorrhagic shock (BS), while research on its fluid resuscitation strategies have not been reported. Although blood products are usually recommended in most resuscitation cases, they are less available in certain conditions. To this end, here, we focused on a widely used and more accessible fluid type- crystalloid fluid, in BS treatment. Methods: We conducted studies in rats comparing the therapeutic effects of 3 different crystalloid solutions at different time points after BS, and explored the underlying mechanisms. Generally, the survival rates gradually dropped along with the time when fluid resuscitation was given. Results: Among different types of solution, the hypertonic saline (HS) group showed th objective: A significant part of blast injury is accompanied by hemorrhagic shock (BS), while researches on its fluid resuscitation strategies have not been reported. Although blood products are usually recommended in most resuscitation cases, they are less available in certain conditions. To this end, here we focused on a widely used and more accessible fluid type- crystalloid fluid, in BS treatment. Results: Among different types of solution, the hypertonic saline (HS) group showed the highest survival rates. The lactated Ringer’s solution (LR) only displayed lifesaving effect at 0.5h resuscitation time point. Moreover, it is worth noting that the survival rates of the normal saline (NS) group at all the time points were lower than the non-treatment control. Mechanism study in rats indicated that the therapeutic differences may be caused by varied degrees of pulmonary edema and inflammatory responses under different crystalloid fluid resuscitation. Conclusions: In conclusion, we assessed the effects and investigated the mechanisms of different crystalloid fluid resuscitation strategies for BS for the first time, which potentially contributes to the establishment of guidance for crystalloid fluid resuscitation of BS patients.

The pathophysiology of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is not fully understood and there are no diagnostic or predictive biomarkers. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived nano-sized vesicles, carrying nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and other bioactive substances. As reported, serum neural cell adhesion molecule L1 (L1CAM)-captured EVs (LCEVs) can provide reliable biomarkers for neurological diseases; however, little is known about the LCEVs in children with ASD. The study enrolled 100 children with ASD (2.5-6 years of age; 90 males) and 60 age-matched TD children (54 males) as control. The serum sample was collected and pooled into five ASD subgroups and three TD subgroups (n = 20). LCEVs were isolated and characterized meticulously. Whole-transcriptome of LCEVs was analyzed by lncRNA microarray and RNA-sequencing. All raw data was submitted on GEO Profiles, and GEO accession numbers is GSE186493. RNAs expressed differently in LCEVs from ASD sera vs. TD sera were screened, analyzed, and further validated. A total of 1418 mRNAs, 1745 lncRNAs, and 11 miRNAs were differentially expressed, and most of them were downregulated in ASD. Most RNAs were involved in neuron- and glycan-related networks implicated in ASD. The levels of EDNRA, SLC17A6, HTR3A, OSTC, TMEM165, PC-5p-139289_26, and hsa-miR-193a-5p were validated in at least 15 ASD and 15 TD individual serum samples, which were consistent with the results of transcriptome analysis. In conclusion, whole-transcriptome analysis of serum LCEVs reveals neural and glycosylation changes in ASD, which may help detect predictive biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of ASD, and provide reference for diagnoses and therapeutic management of the disease.

In this paper, highly flame retardant C60/PMMA composites were prepared using an in situ polymerization method by introducing fullerene (C60) into polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to improve its combustion characteristics.

Chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the first treatment choice. Angiogenesis inhibitors are effective for lung cancer treatment. This study explored whether chemotherapy combined with angiogenesis inhibitors could achieve better efficacy in NSCLC. The zebrafish A549 xenograft model was used to investigate the combined effect of apatinib and chemotherapeutic agents in NSCLC. Apatinib combined with pemetrexed demonstrated the highest antitumor effect compared with apatinib combined with gemcitabine or paclitaxel in vitro. In the zebrafish A549 xenograft model, apatinib and pemetrexed, alone or in combination, showed significant inhibition of tumor growth. Co-treatment with apatinib and pemetrexed demonstrated the best antitumor effects, suggesting that the combination of apatinib and pemetrexed might be a promising alternative therapy for patients with lung cancer. Apatinib combined with pemetrexed had enhanced antitumor effects compared with either one alone in the zebrafish model of NSCLC.

In this paper, the geometric structures and electron-optical properties of AlAs/GaS heterojunctions and Se-doped AlAs/GaS heterojunctions are calculated based on first-principles of density functional theory (DFT). At the same time,...

Cell envelope proteases (CEPs) can break down milk protein into peptides with different functions, which are of great benefit to human health. Therefore, the high-yield CEPs of Lactobacillus plantarum have the potential to produce functional dairy products. In previous experiments, we found that Na2HPO4, inulin, casein peptone and leucine have significant effects on CEP production by Lactobacillus plantarum LP69. So we proceeded to optimize the composition of the CEP-producing culture medium of L. plantarum through Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology. The protease activity, protein content and specific activity of CEPs produced by L. plantarum by inulin (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 %), casein peptone (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 %), Na2HPO4 (0.50, 0.52, 0.54 %) and leucine (14, 16, 18 mg/L) were evaluated. The optimal ratio of medium is 0.4 % inulin, 0.66 % casein peptone, 0.5 % Na2HPO4 and 14.04 mg/L Leucine. The final enzyme activity reached (24.46±0.81) U/mL, and the specific activity reached (1.41±0.46) U/mg.

In this paper, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) composites with excellent thermal stability and flame retardancy were prepared by in situ polymerization. The morphology, structure, transmittance, thermal stability, flame retardancy, and mechanical properties of the materials were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), cone calorimetry, etc. According to the results, the initial decomposition temperature of CNTs/PMMA prepared using carbon nanotubes with a concentration of 2 mg/mL increases from 175 to 187 °C when compared with pure PMMA, and the weight loss ratio decreases significantly at the same time. In addition, the maximum limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of CNTs/PMMA composites is 22.17, which is 26.9% higher than that of PMMA. SEM images of residues after LOI tests demonstrate that when CNTs/PMMA is heated, a dense and stable interconnected network structure (i.e., carbon layer) is formed, which can effectively inhibit the combustion of pyrolysis products, prevent the transfer of heat and combustible gas, and finally interrupt the combustion of composite materials. However, a 25% decrease in the transmittance of CNTs/PMMA composites is observed in the Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra. Although the addition of CNTs reduces the transparency of PMMA, its tensile and impact strength are all improved, which illustrates that CNT is a competitive flame retardant for PMMA.

The phenotypic diversity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is frequently observed in research, suggesting that bacteria adopt strategies such as bet-hedging to survive ever-changing environments. Gene expression noise (GEN) is the major source of phenotypic diversity.

The gut microbiota and liver cancer have a complex interaction. However, the role of gut microbiome in liver tumor initiation remains unknown. Herein, liver cancer was induced using hydrodynamic transfection of oncogenes to explore liver tumorigenesis in mice. Gut microbiota depletion promoted liver tumorigenesis but not progression. Elevated sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) was observed in mice with gut flora disequilibrium. Pharmacological inhibition of SREBP2 or Srebf2 RNA interference attenuated mouse liver cancer initiation under gut flora disequilibrium. Furthermore, gut microbiota depletion impaired gut tryptophan metabolism to activate aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). AhR agonist Ficz inhibited SREBP2 posttranslationally and reversed the tumorigenesis in mice. And, AhR knockout mice recapitulated the accelerated liver tumorigenesis. Supplementation with Lactobacillus reuteri , which produces tryptophan metabolites, inhibited SREBP2 expression and tumorigenesis in mice with gut flora disequilibrium. Thus, gut flora disequilibrium promotes liver cancer initiation by modulating tryptophan metabolism and up-regulating SREBP2.

For photovoltaic (PV) modules, dust accumulation is one of the reasons for the reduction of output power, while conventional cleaning is expensive and inefficient for large scale PV power plants. Therefore, the research of superhydrophobic self-cleaning thin film on PV modules is proposed in this paper. The preparation of superhydrophobic film combines the low surface energy layer and anti-reflection layer which enhances the adhesion between the superhydrophobic film and the glass substrate by forming the stable covalent bonds. Its fundamental characteristics were tested and analyzed including transmittance, contact angle, micromorphology and energy spectrum. Finally, the effect of the superhydrophobic film on the self-cleaning performance and improvement of output power were investigated after coating the film on PV modules. The comparison results show that the prepared superhydrophobic thin film not only has anti-reflection and self-cleaning ability to improve the transmittance and output power of the PV modules, but also has excellent weatherability by forming stable covalent bonds through dehydration reactions.

Dense Ba(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 complex perovskite ceramics have been successfully fabricated by directional solidification using a laser floating zone (LFZ) technique with various pulling rates. The crystal structure, microstructure, and especially ordering structure are thoroughly investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The LFZ solidified rods are all of the fcc lattice structure with Fm 3 ‾ m space group resulting from B-site 1:1 cation ordering in comparison to the hexagonal structure associated with 1:2 ordering prepared by conventional sintering. The 1:1 ordering domains are formed based on the space charge model and separated by anti-phase domain boundaries related to reducing pure translational symmetry upon phase transition. Preferential orientations that directions in the fcc unit cell align along the growth direction (//ND) exist in all the LFZ solidified rods. The slightest deviation is obtained with 75 μm/s pulling rate. The preferential orientated 1:1 ordered ceramics are expected to adopt properties superior to the conventional sintered polycrystalline counterparts.

Adiabatic calorimeters (ARCs) are critical in thermal analysis and thermal hazard assessment. As testing equipment continually improves, analyzing changes in physical fields in sample pools during thermal decomposition reactions is increasingly essential. Therefore, this study analyzed the thermal decomposition of tert-butyl peroxyacetate (TBPA). On the basis of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation method and the kinetic model of TBPA thermal decomposition, a full-scale model of an adiabatic reactor for the thermal decomposition of TBPA was constructed. The temperature rise curve obtained after monitoring the temperature of the system during thermal decomposition was compared with that obtained during the experiment; thus, the rationality of the CFD model was verified. Accordingly, the temperature field, temperature rate, and velocity field in the reactor were analyzed. The temperature distribution of the system was relatively uniform during thermal decomposition under completely adiabatic conditions, resulting in an effectively nonexistent temperature gradient. At the same time, the self-heat rate (dT/dt) of the system in the process of thermal decomposition was analyzed. It was found that self-heat rate (dT/dt) of the system in the full sensing state was much larger than that in the experimental process, maximum self-heat rate ((dT/dt)max) reaching 15℃/min, while in the experimental process was only 1.074℃/min.

Compared with traditional volume space-based multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), surface space-based MVPA has many advantages and has received increasing attention. However, surface space-based MVPA requires considerable programming and is therefore difficult for people without a programming foundation. To address this, we developed a MATLAB toolbox based on a graphical interactive interface (GUI) called surface space-based multivariate pattern analysis (SF-MVPA) in this manuscript. Unlike the traditional MVPA toolboxes, which often only include MVPA calculation processes after data preprocessing, SF-MVPA covers the complete pipeline of surface space-based MVPA, including raw data format conversion, surface reconstruction, functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) data preprocessing, comparative analysis, surface space-based MVPA, leave one-run out cross validation, and family-wise error correction. With SF-MVPA, users can complete the complete pipeline of surface space-based MVPA without programming. In addition, SF-MVPA is designed for parallel computing and hence has high computational efficiency. After introducing SF-MVPA, we analyzed a sample dataset of tonal working memory load. By comparison with another surface space-based MVPA toolbox named CoSMoMVPA, we found that the two toolboxes obtained consistent results. We hope that through this toolbox, users can more easily implement surface space-based MVPA.

The part of expression noise that is brought about by transcriptional regulation (represented here as NTR) is an important criterion for estimating the regulatory mode of a gene. However, characterization of NTR is an under-explored area, and there is little knowledge regarding the genome-wide NTR in the model pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Here, with a library of dual-color transcriptional reporters, we estimated the NTR for over 90% of the promoters in P. aeruginosa. Most promoters exhibit low NTR, while 42 and 115 promoters with high NTR were screened out in the exponential and the stationary growth phases, respectively. Specifically, a rearrangement of NTR was found in promoters involved in amino acid metabolism when bacteria enter the exponential phase. In addition, during the stationary phase, high NTR was found in a wide range of iron-related promoters involving siderophore synthesis and heme uptake, ExsA-regulated promoters involving bacterial virulence, and FleQ-regulated promoters involving biofilm development. We also found a large-scale negative dependence of transcriptional regulation between high-NTR promoters belonging to different functional categories. Our findings offer a global view of transcriptional heterogeneity in P. aeruginosa.

Metallothionein (MT) is a multifunctional inducible protein in animals, plants, and microorganisms. MT is rich in cysteine residues (10-30%), can combine with metal ions, has a low molecular weight, and plays an essential biological role in various stages of the growth and development of organisms. Due to its strong ability to bind metal ions and scavenge free radicals, metallothionein has been used in medicine, health care, and other areas. Zinc is essential for plant growth, but excessive zinc (Zn) is bound to poison plants, and cadmium (Cd) is a significant environmental pollutant. A high concentration of cadmium can significantly affect the growth and development of plants and even lead to plant death. In this study, the human metallothionein gene