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Cooperative perception as an emerging application of LiDAR-driven signal processing in driving scenarios has received widespread attention in recent years. Despite impressive advancements in previous works through sophisticated strategies, challenges remain due to inevitable data sparsity and localization errors. To this end, we propose a Spatio-Temporal Cooperative Perception (STCP) framework to address the above issues. Our novelties derive from two core components. A multi-scale temporal integration module is introduced to aggregate historical clues from the ego agent for mitigating data sparsity interference. In addition, we design a spatial cooperation transformer to perform pragmatic cooperation and eliminate the feature misalignment from collaborators due to localization errors. Extensive experiments are conducted on real-world and simulated multi-agent 3D object detection datasets. Quantitative analyses show that our framework outperforms existing methods on DAIR-V2X and V2X-Sim datasets with significant gains of 2.16% and 2.98% regarding AP@0.5.

• A novel peak-splitting structure Ag-OMS was prepared and showed favourable catalysis. • The internal charge was redistributed of structural distortion and atomic displacement. • It greatly enhances the oxygen reduction activity of manganese oxides. Manganese oxides have received extensive attention in Oxygen Reduction Reaction(ORR) research. However, the poor electrical conductivity and oxygen adsorption capacity of manganese oxides limit their development, so it is necessary to prepare catalysts with highly active surfaces. We propose a method to introduce an ionically conductive medium and induce structural distortion via thermodynamics, resulting in novel peak-splitting highly active structures for enhanced oxygen reduction activity. With the aid of refined structural analysis, High-angle annular dark-field (HAADF-STEM) imaging, and theoretical calculations, it is elucidated that this peak-splitting structure results from thermodynamically induced structural distortions and atomic displacements. The introduction of the ionically conductive medium promotes the formation of Ag-O-Mn conductive bond bridges, which regulate the energy level matching of manganese oxides and oxygen intermediates. The thermodynamically induced structural distortion exposes new atomic planes in the material, and the creation of this highly active surface is accompanied by a redistribution of surface charges, which modulates the adsorption of manganese active sites with oxygen intermediates and greatly enhances the oxygen reduction activity. Specifically, this Ag-OMS-2 with a novel split structure exhibits excellent activity at 0.836 V, superior to Pt/C kinetics and good stability. The preparation of such highly active structures is instructive for the development of manganese oxides. In order to enhance the intrinsic activity of manganese oxides, a novel peak-splitting structure was prepared, and the internal charge of the material was redistributed by means of structural distortion and atomic displacement, which improved the energy level matching and adsorption capacity of manganese and oxygen, which improved the oxygen reduction activity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water electrolysis in alkaline media is the most promising technology for hydrogen production, but efficient electrocatalysts are required to reduce the overpotential in HER and OER processes. In this work, the multicomponent transition metal catalyst Cr–Cu/CoOxwas loaded on copper foam by electrodeposition and annealing, and the catalyst exhibited excellent electrochemical activity. The HER overpotential is 21 mV and the OER overpotential is 252 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm–2. The overall water splitting voltage is 1.51 V, even better than the Pt/C//RuO2two-electrode system (1.61 V). The excellent performance of this catalyst is mainly derived from the close synergistic interaction among Cu, Co, and Cr. The doping of Cr modulates the valence states of Cu and Co at the active sites and improves the adsorption of various reaction intermediates. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the doping of Cr can optimize the adsorption of the reaction intermediate H*. Meanwhile, the high-valent Cr and Co promote hydrolysis through strong adsorption with OH–. The present work provides a reasonable strategy for designing low-cost transition metals as efficient catalysts for water electrolysis.

Driven by the demands of diverse artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled application, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is considered one of the key technologies for 6G edge intelligence. In this paper, we consider a serial task model and design a quality of service (QoS)-aware task offloading via communication-computation resource coordination for multi-user MEC systems, which can mitigate the I/O interference brought by resource reuse among virtual machines. Then we construct the system utility measuring QoS based on application latency and user devices' energy consumption. We also propose a heuristic offloading algorithm to maximize the system utility function with the constraints of task priority and I/O interference. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed algorithm's significant advantages in terms of task completion time, terminal energy consumption and system resource utilization.

We developed an analysis pipeline that can extract microbial sequences from spatial transcriptomic (ST) data and assign taxonomic labels, generating a spatial microbial abundance matrix in addition to the default host expression matrix, enabling simultaneous analysis of host expression and microbial distribution. We called the pipeline spatial metatranscriptome (SMT) and applied it on both human and murine intestinal sections and validated the spatial microbial abundance information with alternative assays. Biological insights were gained from these novel data that showed host–microbe interaction at various spatial scales. Finally, we tested experimental modification that can increase microbial capture while preserving host spatial expression quality and, by use of positive controls, quantitatively showed the capture efficiency and recall of our methods. This proof-of-concept work shows the feasibility of SMT analysis and paves the way for further experimental optimization and application.

The pH-neutral aqueous redox flow battery (ARFB) is one of the most attractive flow batteries due to its non-corrosiveness, low-cost, and wider electrochemical stability window compared to those with acidic or alkaline electrolytes. However, there are few families of organic redox-active molecules available as catholyte materials for pH-neutral ARFBs. Herein, through incorporation of quaternary ammonium moiety into the redox-active phenoxazine nucleus, an organic catholyte material, N, N, N-trimethyl-2-(10H-phenoxazin-10-yl) ethan-1-aminium chloride (NEt-POZ) is achieved for pH-neutral ARFBs. The NEt-POZ has a high redox potential of 0.79 V versus SHE and rapid redox kinetics (0.23 cm s−1) as well as high water-solubility (∼2.6 M in H2O). Paired with a methyl viologen (MV) anolyte in the pH-neutral aqueous electrolyte, a viologen-phenoxazine ARFB full cell is assembled, which shows an open circuit voltage of ∼1.23 V. However, the results of long-term cycling experiments indicate low Coulomb efficiency and rapid declining capacity of the NEt-POZ catholyte. The mechanism analysis unveils that the unstable doubly oxidized tri-cations (NEt-POZ3+) formed via the disproportionation of radical di-cations (NEt-POZ2+) in solution readily react with chloride anions to form poly-chlorinated derivatives, which precipitate from the catholyte due to their poor water solubility, leading to a rapid decrease in capacity. When there is no chloride present in the electrolyte solution, highly reactive NEt-POZ3+cations can interact with other counter-anions (such as sulfate and carbonate ions) and even water to form complex adducts.

Infections induce a set of pleiotropic responses in animals, including anorexia, adipsia, lethargy and changes in temperature, collectively termed sickness behaviours1. Although these responses have been shown to be adaptive, the underlying neural mechanisms have not been elucidated2–4. Here we use of a set of unbiased methodologies to show that a specific subpopulation of neurons in the brainstem can control the diverse responses to a bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide (LPS)) that potently induces sickness behaviour. Whole-brain activity mapping revealed that subsets of neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) and the area postrema (AP) acutely express FOS after LPS treatment, and we found that subsequent reactivation of these specific neurons in FOS2A-iCreERT2(also known as TRAP2) mice replicates the behavioural and thermal component of sickness. In addition, inhibition of LPS-activated neurons diminished all of the behavioural responses to LPS. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing of the NTS–AP was used to identify LPS-activated neural populations, and we found that activation of ADCYAP1+neurons in the NTS–AP fully recapitulates the responses elicited by LPS. Furthermore, inhibition of these neurons significantly diminished the anorexia, adipsia and locomotor cessation seen after LPS injection. Together these studies map the pleiotropic effects of LPS to a neural population that is both necessary and sufficient for canonical elements of the sickness response, thus establishing a critical link between the brain and the response to infection.

Power amplifier (PA) models, such as the neural network (NN) models and the multilayer NN models, have problems with high complexity. In this article, we first propose a novel behavior model for wideband PAs, using a real-valued time-delay convolutional NN (RVTDCNN). The input data of the model is sorted and arranged as a graph composed of the in-phase and quadrature ( $I/Q$ ) components and envelope-dependent terms of current and past signals. Then, we created a predesigned filter using the convolutional layer to extract the basis functions required for the PA forward or reverse modeling. Finally, the generated rich basis functions are input into a simple, fully connected layer to build the model. Due to the weight sharing characteristics of the convolutional model’s structure, the strong memory effect does not lead to a significant increase in the complexity of the model. Meanwhile, the extraction effect of the predesigned filter also reduces the training complexity of the model. The experimental results show that the performance of the RVTDCNN model is almost the same as the NN models and the multilayer NN models. Meanwhile, compared with the abovementioned models, the coefficient number and computational complexity of the RVTDCNN model are significantly reduced. This advantage is noticeable when the memory effects of the PA are increased by using wider signal bandwidths.

Electrocatalytic water splitting is a promising technology for large-scale hydrogen production. However, it requires efficient catalysts to overcome the large overpotentials in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report a novel heterostructure catalyst Co9S8/Cu2S on copper foam (Co9S8/Cu2S/CF) with multistep impregnation and electrodeposition. Due to the strong interfacial interaction, the interfacial electrons transfer from Co sites to S sites, which promote the adsorption of oxygen-containing intermediates, water molecules, as well as the dissociation of water molecules. Therefore, the heterostructure catalyst exhibits low overpotentials of 195 mV for OER and 165 mV for HER at 10 mA cm–2, respectively. Moreover, it only needs 1.6 V to realize water splitting at 10 mA cm–2in a two-electrode cell. This work provides an efficient method to tailor the surface electronic structure through specific morphological design and construct a heterostructure interface to achieve alkaline water splitting.

In situglyco-editing on the cell surface can endow cellular glycoforms with new structures and properties; however, the lack of cell specificity and dependence on cells’ endogenous functions plague the revelation of cellular glycan recognition properties and hamper the application of glyco-editing in complicated authentic biosystems. Herein, we develop a thermally triggered, cell-specific glyco-editing method for regulation of lectin recognition on target live cells in both single- and cocultured settings. The method relies on the aptamer-mediated anchoring of microgel-encapsulated neuraminidase on target cells and subsequent thermally triggered enzyme release for localized sialic acid (Sia) trimming. This temperature-based enzyme accessibility modulation strategy exempts genetic or metabolic engineering operations and, thus for the first time, enables tumor-specific desialylation on complicated tissue slices. The proposed method also provides an unprecedented opportunity to potentiate the innate immune response of natural killer cells toward target tumor cells through thermally triggered cell-specific desialylation, which paves the way for in vivoglycoimmune-checkpoint-targeted cancer therapeutic intervention.

Mutations in the leptin gene (ob) result in a metabolic disorder that includes severe obesity1, and defects in thermogenesis2and lipolysis3, both of which are adipose tissue functions regulated by the sympathetic nervous system. However, the basis of these sympathetic-associated abnormalities remains unclear. Furthermore, chronic leptin administration reverses these abnormalities in adipose tissue, but the underlying mechanism remains to be discovered. Here we report that ob/obmice, as well as leptin-resistant diet-induced obese mice, show significant reductions of sympathetic innervation of subcutaneous white and brown adipose tissue. Chronic leptin treatment of ob/obmice restores adipose tissue sympathetic innervation, which in turn is necessary to correct the associated functional defects. The effects of leptin on innervation are mediated via agouti-related peptide and pro-opiomelanocortin neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. Deletion of the gene encoding the leptin receptor in either population leads to reduced innervation in fat. These agouti-related peptide and pro-opiomelanocortin neurons act via brain-derived neurotropic factor-expressing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (BDNFPVH). Deletion of BDNFPVHblunts the effects of leptin on innervation. These data show that leptin signalling regulates the plasticity of sympathetic architecture of adipose tissue via a top-down neural pathway that is crucial for energy homeostasis.

Lipid rafts, highly ordered cell membrane domains mainly composed of cholesterol, sphingolipids, and protein receptors, serve as important functional platforms for regulation of lipid/protein interactions. The major predicament in lipid raft study is the lack of direct and robust visualization tools for in situ tracking raft components. To solve this issue, we herein report a proximity enzymatic glyco-remodeling strategy for direct and highly efficient lipid raft labeling and imaging on live cells. Through cofunctionalization of raft-specific recognition motif and glycan-remodeling enzyme on gold nanoparticles, the fabricated nanoprobe can be specifically guided to the raft domains to perform catalytic remodeling on neighboring glycans. Taking advantage of the abundant glycoconjugates enriched in lipid rafts, this elaborate design achieves the translation of one raft-recognition event to multiple raft-confined labeling operations, thus, significantly increasing the labeling efficiency and imaging sensitivity. The direct covalent labeling also enables in situ and long-term tracking of raft components in live cells. The method possesses broad applicability and potential expansibility, thus, will greatly facilitate the investigations on the complex composition, organization, and dynamics of lipid rafts.

The solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) dictates the performance of most batteries, but the understanding of its chemistry and structure is limited by the lack of in situ experimental tools. In this work, we present a dynamic picture of the SEI formation in lithium-ion batteries using in operando liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry in combination with molecular dynamics simulations. We find that before any interphasial chemistry occurs (during the initial charging), an electric double layer forms at the electrode/electrolyte interface due to the self-assembly of solvent molecules. The formation of the double layer is directed by Li+and the electrode surface potential. The structure of this double layer predicts the eventual interphasial chemistry; in particular, the negatively charged electrode surface repels salt anions from the inner layer and results in an inner SEI that is thin, dense and inorganic in nature. It is this dense layer that is responsible for conducting Li+and insulating electrons, the main functions of the SEI. An electrolyte-permeable and organic-rich outer layer appears after the formation of the inner layer. In the presence of a highly concentrated, fluoride-rich electrolyte, the inner SEI layer has an elevated concentration of LiF due to the presence of anions in the double layer. These real-time nanoscale observations will be helpful in engineering better interphases for future batteries.

The inadequate electrical conductivity of metal sulfides, along with their tendency to agglomerate, has hindered their use in energy storage and catalysis. The construction of a heterojunction can ameliorate these deficiencies to some extent. In this paper, MnS–BaS heterojunction catalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method, which is a simple and inexpensive process. The MnS–BaS heterojunction catalysts exhibited superior performance owing to the strong synergistic interaction between MnS and BaS. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal strong interactions at the heterojunction interface and significant electron transfer between MnS and BaS, which further modulates the electronic structure of Mn. The elevation of the center of the d-band enhances the adsorption of oxygen and oxygen-containing intermediates on the catalyst, thus promoting the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The practical application of MnS–BaS catalysts was tested by assembling zinc–air batteries. This study provides a rational strategy for designing transition metal catalysts that are efficient and low cost.

Global climate change exerts profound effects on snow cover, with consequential impacts on microbial activities and the stability of soil organic carbon (SOC) within aggregates. Northern peatlands are significant carbon reservoirs, playing a critical role in mitigating climate change. However, the effects of snow variations on microbial-mediated SOC stability within aggregates in peatlands remain inadequately understood. Here, an in-situfield experiment manipulating snow conditions (i.e., snow removal and snow cover) was conducted to investigate how snow variations affect the soil microbial community and the associated stability of SOC within soil aggregates (> 2, 0.25–2, and < 0.25 mm) in a northeast peatland of China. Results showed that snow removal significantly increased SOC content (0.27%–6.18%) and stability (2.29%–8.51%) within aggregates. Compared to soils with snow cover, the removal of snow caused lower soil temperatures (2.56 and 2.28 ℃) and frequent freeze-thaw cycles (11 times), consequently decreasing the stability of aggregates (19.15% and 6.41%) in the topsoil (0–30 cm) and subsoil (30–60 cm). Furthermore, more recalcitrant carbon fractions (0.89% and 2.06%) and SOC stability (9.95% and 13.68%) were present in micro aggregates (< 0.25 mm) at two soil depths. Moreover, reductions in bacterial diversity (Shannon: 0.06%–4.23%; Chao 1: 2.88%–13.31%) and network stability were observed in response to snow removal. Taken together, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis demonstrated that snow removal indirectly promoted SOC stability by regulating carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) within aggregates (P< 0.01). Overall, our study suggested that micro aggregates protection and an appropriate C: N ratio enhanced carbon sequestration in response to climate change.

The effect of photochemical reaction time on glyoxal and hydrogen peroxide at the air–liquid (a–l) interface is investigated using in situ time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF–SIMS) enabled by a system for analysis at the liquid vacuum interface (SALVI) microreactor. Carboxylic acids are formed mainly by reaction with hydroxyl radicals in the initial reactions. Oligomers, cluster ions, and water clusters formed due to longer photochemistry. Our results provide direct molecular evidence that water clusters are associated with proton transfer and the formation of oligomers and cluster ions at the a–l interface. The oligomer formation is facilitated by water cluster and cluster ion formation over time. Formation of higher m/zoligomers and cluster ions indicates the possibility of highly oxygenated organic components formation at the a–l interface. Furthermore, new chemical reaction pathways, such as surface organic cluster, hydration shell, and water cluster formation, are proposed based on SIMS spectral observations, and the existing understanding of glyoxal photochemistry is expanded. Our in situ findings verify that the a–l interfacial reactions are important pathways for aqueous secondary organic aerosol (aqSOA) formation.

Northeast China is the region with the largest area of wetlands in China. The Sanjiang Plain and the Songnen Plain are large freshwater marsh distribution regions that are affected by climate warming and by the increasing frequency and density of extreme weather and are the regions most subject to disturbances by human activities in Northeast China. The wetlands of the Sanjiang Plain and the Songnen Plain have shrunk severely in the past 60 years, and wetland functions have been reduced substantially because of climate change, unreasonable land use, fire episodes, engineering and construction works and urbanization. Large-scale agricultural development started in the 1950s has been the most important driving factor for wetland loss and degradation in the Sanjiang Plain. Water shortage has been the most important factor for degradation and fragmentation of wetlands in the Songnen Plain. To mitigate wetland degradation and better protect wetlands, special regulations, long-term mechanisms and technical support of wetland protection should be established. A wetland compensation program should be implemented, and technologies for increasing the adaptive capacity of wetlands should be developed. Moreover, it is most important to find the balanced threshold between agricultural development and wetland protection.

The development of solid phase extraction (SPE) combined with the sensitive detection of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been successfully applied for the analysis of complex environmental samples. In this work, a silver nanoplate-decorated copper membrane was fabricated as a recyclable SERS-active SPE substrate. The membrane was fabricated viamodified galvanic displacement on a commercial copper membrane. Compared with filter paper SERS substrates, the as-synthesized substrate has relatively rapid heat conduction, which can lead to a greater temporal stability under continuous laser irradiation conditions. The relative standard deviation (RSD) value of the intensity change is 0.31%. The experimental results also showed that these substrates have a long life and are reproducible even after 5 cycles. The RSD was calculated to be 12.13%, which indicates that this method was recyclable. The signal intensity of filtering is almost 28 times higher than that of the traditional dropping method, which proves that the membrane has rapid extraction ability. The qualitative and quantitative detection of phorate was investigated based on a flow-through method. A good linearity (R2= 0.98) was achieved for phorate in the concentration range of 3.84 to 288 nmol L−1. In addition, the simulated detection of phorate in actual water such as underground water, surface water, and drinking water was also studied. These results demonstrated its practical application to rapidly detect phorate in the real environment.

The development of highly efficient sorbent materials for CO2capture under ambient conditions is of great importance for reducing the impact of CO2on the environment and climate change. In this account, strong CO2adsorption on a boron antisite (BN) in boron-rich porous boron nitrides (p-BN) was developed and studied. The results indicated that the material achieved larger adsorption energies of 2.09 eV (201.66 kJ/mol, PBE-D). The electronic structure calculations suggested that the introduction of BNin p-BN induced defect electronic states in the energy gap region, which strongly impacted the adsorption properties of the material. The bonding between the BNdefect and the CO2molecule was clarified, and it was found that the electron donation first occurred from CO2to the BNdouble-acceptor state then, followed by electron back-donation from BNto CO2accompanied by the formation of a BNC bond. The thermodynamic properties indicated that the adsorption of CO2on the BNdefect to form anionic CO2δ−species was spontaneous at temperatures below 350 K. Both the large adsorption energies and the thermodynamic properties ensured that p-BN with a BNdefect could effectively capture CO2under ambient conditions. Finally, to evaluate the energetic stability, the defect formation energies were estimated. The formation energy of the BNdefects was found to strongly depend on the chemical environment, and the selection of different reactants (B or N sources) would achieve the goal of reducing the formation energy. These findings provided a useful guidance for the design and fabrication of a porous BN sorbent for CO2capture.

Spiral tubes are used in a wide range of applications and it is significant to understand the vibration introduced by two-phase flow in spiral tubes. In this paper, the numerical method is used to study the vibration induced by the gas-liquid two-phase flow in a spiral tube with different flow regimes. The pressure fluctuation characteristics at the pipe wall and the solid vibration response characteristics are obtained. The results show that the motion of small bubbles in bubbly flow leads to small pressure fluctuations with low-frequency broadband (0–50 Hz). The motion of the gas plug in the plug flow causes small amplitude periodic pressure fluctuation with a shortened low-frequency broadband (0–15 Hz) compared to the bubbly flow. The motion of the gas slug in the slug flow causes large periodic fluctuations in pressure with a significant dominant frequency (6–7 Hz). The wavy flow is very stable and has a distinct main frequency (1–2 Hz). The vibration regime in the bubbly flow and wave flow are close to the first-order mode, and the vertical vibrating component is dominant. The plug flow and slug flow excite higher-order vibration modes, and the lateral vibration component plays more important part in the vibration response.

Activation of glucose-sensing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus using radio waves or magnetic fields remotely and non-invasively in vivoincreases plasma glucose and glucagon, and suppresses plasma insulin; conversely, remote inhibition of glucose-sensing neurons decreased blood glucose and increased plasma insulin.

Objective To investigate in vivoconfocal microscopy (IVCM) to diagnose hidden corneal foreign bodies.Methods Male Kunming mice (n= 25; 12 weeks old) were anaesthetized prior to the insertion of five different materials (spiny wood, rusty iron, sharp stone, sharp glass fragment and human hair fragment) into the cornea by different traumatic processes. A separate mouse was used for each corneal foreign body. The corneas of the mice were scanned 24 h later by a laser scanning IVCM to establish the characteristics (shape, reflectivity and depth in the cornea) of each foreign body. These findings were used to help screen and identify corneal foreign bodies in patients. Corneal smears and scraping cultures were performed in cases of probable corneal infection.Results Animal models for the five different foreign particles were established successfully, with each showing distinctive characteristics. These animal results were used to diagnose 41 patients with suspected corneal foreign bodies who were negative by slit lamp examination, but positive by IVCM (observational case series). The most prevalent type of hidden foreign body was plant material (51.2%), followed by metal (29.3%). Ten patients with corneal foreign bodies developed fungal keratitis, found using IVCM.Conclusions Laser IVCM is an effective and reliable tool for the diagnosis of hidden corneal foreign bodies.

Class A scavenger receptor (SRA), also known as CD204, has been shown to participate in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and the pattern recognition of pathogen infection. However, its role in adaptive immune responses has not been well defined. In this study, we report that the lack of SRA/CD204 promotes Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 agonist–augmented tumor-protective immunity, which is associated with enhanced activation of CD8+effector T cell and improved inhibition of tumor growth. Dendritic cells (DCs) deficient in SRA/CD204 display more effective immunostimulatory activities upon TLR4 engagement than those from wild-type counterparts. Silencing of SRA/CD204 by RNA interference improves the ability of DCs to prime antigen-specific CD8+T cells, suggesting that antigen-presenting cells, for example, DCs, play a major role in SRA/CD204-mediated immune modulation. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized role for SRA/CD204, a non-TLR pattern recognition receptor, as a physiologic negative regulator of TLR4-mediated immune consequences, which has important clinical implications for development of TLR-targeted immunotherapeutic intervention.

Class A scavenger receptor (SRA), also known as CD204, has been shown to participate in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and the pattern recognition of pathogen infection. However, its role in adaptive immune responses has not been well defined. In this study, we report that the lack of SRA/CD204 promotes Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 agonist–augmented tumor-protective immunity, which is associated with enhanced activation of CD8+ effector T cell and improved inhibition of tumor growth. Dendritic cells (DCs) deficient in SRA/CD204 display more effective immunostimulatory activities upon TLR4 engagement than those from wild-type counterparts. Silencing of SRA/CD204 by RNA interference improves the ability of DCs to prime antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, suggesting that antigen-presenting cells, for example, DCs, play a major role in SRA/CD204-mediated immune modulation. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized role for SRA/CD204, a non-TLR pattern recognition receptor, as a physiologic negative regulator of TLR4-mediated immune consequences, which has important clinical implications for development of TLR-targeted immunotherapeutic intervention.

Understanding water dynamics is a prerequisite for the restoration of degraded ecosystems in arid and semiarid regions. In this study, we carried out δD and δ18O analyses of precipitation, unsaturated soil water, overland flow, surface runoff, and groundwater samples from a seasonally flooded wetland in the Momoge National Nature Reserve of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China, to identify the water sources and understand the mechanisms of unsaturated soil water movement. Unsaturated soil water content (W/W%) at every 20 cm along with a soil profile (0–100 cm) was collected during the growing season, and the HYDRUS-1D model was used to simulate temporal-spatial variations. The results showed that the local meteoric water line (δD=5.90δ18O-7.34, R2=0.95) had a smaller slope and intercept than the global meteoric water line because of strong evaporation at our study site under semi-arid climate. The groundwater was partly recharged by local precipitation viaoverland flow and unsaturated soil water infiltration. Unsaturated soil water was sourced from both precipitation and groundwater with variations at different depths. The upper soil layer at 0–15 cm was mainly sourced from limited precipitation, while the groundwater could move up to a 25 cm layer during the dry period. The unsaturated soil water content increased with soil depth in the top 40 cm, decreased at depths of 40 to 80 cm, and increased again at depths of 80 to 100 cm. The HYDRUS-1D model could simulate the unsaturated soil water dynamics well in the upper (0–40 cm) and lower (80–100 cm) sections, but poorly for depths of 40–80 cm due to the upward and downward flow. The bidirectional unsaturated soil water movement highlights the importance of capillary groundwater for wetland plants with similar climatic or hydrogeological conditions.

The H7N9 influenza virus emerged in China in 2013, causing more than 1560 human infections, 39% of which were fatal. A ‘cytokine storm’ in the lungs of H7N9 patients has been linked to a poor prognosis and death; however, the underlying mechanism that triggers the cytokine storm is unknown. Here, we found that efficient replication of the H7N9 virus in mouse lungs activates gasdermin E (GSDME)-mediated pyroptosis in alveolar epithelial cells, and that the released cytosolic contents then trigger a cytokine storm. Knockout of Gsdmeswitched the manner of death of A549 and human primary alveolar epithelial cells from pyroptosis to apoptosis upon H7N9 virus infection, and Gsdmeknockout mice survived H7N9 virus lethal infection. Our findings reveal that GSDME activation is a key and unique mechanism for the pulmonary cytokine storm and lethal outcome of H7N9 virus infection and thus opens a new door for the development of antivirals against the H7N9 virus.

Extensive studies have established a role of scavenger receptor CD204 in pattern recognition and ligand uptake. Strikingly, we recently revealed a previously unrecognized feature of CD204 action in attenuating T-cell activation and antitumor immunity. Blocking its activity in dendritic cells represents a promising approach to the improvement of cancer immunotherapy.

Elevated fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels are effective in ameliorating the underlying pathophysiologic defects in β-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. Studies aimed at a full understanding of the mechanisms that enforce silencing of HbF expression in adult erythroid cells offer the promise of targeted molecular therapy. Here we show that depletion of Methyl CpG Binding Domain Protein 2 (MBD2) or disruption of MBD2-Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylose Complex (NuRD) interactions results in high levels of HbF in HUDEP-2 cell progenitor derived primary erythroblasts and CD34 + progenitor derived primary adult erythroid cells.

We have recently demonstrated that glucose-regulated protein 170 (Grp170), a stress-responsive molecular chaperone of the endoplasmic reticulum, can be exploited to stimulate anticancer immunity due to its superior antigen chaperoning and delivering capacity. The immune remodeling of the tumor microenvironment induced by a Grp170-based chaperone leads to immune responses that effectively control the progression of both primary neoplasms and their metastases. Our findings support the development of Grp170-based immunomodulating strategies to potentiate antitumor immune responses.