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Developing efficient and economical electrocatalysts for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE). Cobalt oxides are considered promising non-precious OER catalysts due to their high activities. However, the severe dissolution of Co atoms in acid media leads to the collapse of crystal structure, which impedes their application in PEMWE. Here, we report that introducing acid-resistant Ir single atoms into the lattice of spinel cobalt oxides can significantly suppress the Co dissolution and keep them highly stable during the acidic OER process. Combining theoretical and experimental studies, we reveal that the stabilizing effect induced by Ir heteroatoms exhibits a strong dependence on the distance of adjacent Ir single atoms, where the OER stability of cobalt oxides continuously improves with decreasing the distance. When the distance reduces to about 0.6 nm, the spinel cobalt oxides present no obvious degradation over a 60-h stability test for acidic OER, suggesting potential for practical applications. Dissolution of Co atoms in acidic media impedes the application of cobalt oxides in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Here, the authors reveal a stabilizing effect induced by Ir single atoms on cobalt oxides that suppress Co dissolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of pooled data from different repeated survey series to study long-term trends is handicapped by a measurement difficulty: different survey series often use different scales to measure the same attitude and thus generate scale-incomparable data. In this article, the authors propose the latent attitude method (LAM) to address this scale-incomparability problem, on the basis of the assumption that attitudes measured by ordinal categories reflect a latent attitude with cut points. The method extends the latent variable method in the case of a single survey series to the case of multiple survey series and leverages overlapping years for identification. The authors first assess the validity of the method with simulated data. The results show that the method yields accurate estimates of mean attitudes and cut point values. The authors then apply the method to an empirical study of Americans' attitudes toward China from 1974 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gemcitabine (GEM), as a first‐line chemotherapeutics for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) treatment, still faces several clinical challenges, restricted by instability in blood circulations, low tumor selectivity, and acquired nature characteristics of chemo‐resistance. To solve these challenges, the rational design of combination therapy with GEM and other therapy modalities is imperative. Herein, a small molecular self‐assembly nano‐prodrug is developed, which can achieve the co‐delivery of GEM, Ferrocene and nutlin‐3a on the achievement of GEM‐induced apoptosis with ferroptosis. In this nano‐prodrug, the disulfide linkage not only acts as a GSH‐responsive trigger but also plays an important role in self‐assembly behavior of nanoparticle that can load nutlin‐3a. Interestingly, nutlin‐3a plays an important role in both ferroptosis and apoptosis, one is effectively sensitized cells to ferroptosis by inhibiting cystine uptake, and the other is promoted apoptosis by elevating p53 expression. To further enhance the drug tumor accumulation and maintain stability in systemic circulations, this nano‐prodrug is then encapsulated into plectin1 receptor‐targeting phospholipid micelles (DSPE‐PEG‐PTP), which displays high selective tumor inhibition and good biosafety on different mice models, especially in orthotopic and patient‐derived xenograft (PDX) models. The findings provide new insights into the combination therapy of GEM with ferroptosis for reduced chemo‐resistance on PDAC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma rapidly acquires resistance to chemotherapy, remaining a fatal disease. Immunotherapy is one of the breakthroughs in cancer treatment, which includes immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T‐cell immunotherapy, and neoantigen vaccines. However, immunotherapy has not achieved satisfactory results in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Immunogenic death comprises proinflammatory cell death, which provides a way to enhance tumor immunogenicity and promote an immune response in solid tumors. Herein, an ionic liquid ablation agent (LAA), synthesized from choline and geranic acid, which triggers necrosis‐induced immunotherapy by remodeling an immunosuppressive "cold" tumor to an immune activated "hot" tumor is described. The results indicate that LAA‐treated tumor cells can enhance immunogenicity, inducing dendritic cell maturation, macrophage M1 polarization, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration. The results of the present study provide a novel strategy for solid tumor immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The longitudinal distance between the vehicle and the forward vehicle, as well as the longitudinal distance between the vehicle and the opposite vehicle, is the main risk factor of overtaking behavior on two-way two-lane roads. Accurate measurement of these distances is the basis and key to automatic driving technology of two-way two-lane roads. In order to measure these longitudinal distances and improve the ranging accuracy, a vehicle distance measurement method of two-way two-lane roads based on monocular vision was proposed. Firstly, the vehicle detection model suitable for two-way two-lane roads was trained using YOLOv5s neural network. Secondly, aiming at the problem that the camera roll angle is not considered in the traditional geometric ranging method, the influence of the roll angle of the camera on ranging results using the traditional geometric ranging method was analyzed. In addition, the improved geometric ranging method considering the roll angle of the camera was proposed. Then, tests were conducted on a two-way two-lane road, and the results showed that the proposed method was effective. Compared with other methods, the improved geometric ranging method has higher ranging accuracy in this scene and can provide a reference for vision-based vehicle distance measurement in multi-lane scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electroreduction of CO2 to methane using renewable energy is a promising approach to achieving carbon neutrality. At commercially relevant current densities (>200 mA cm−2), methane selectivity is however below 50%. Herein, we reported a benzenethiol-modified Cu nanoparticle catalyst that achieved a methane faradaic efficiency of 54.5% at a partial current density of 383 mA cm−2, 1.9-fold higher than that of Cu nanoparticle controls. In situ vibrational spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations showed that the benzenethiol modulated the electronic structure of the Cu surface to enable a lowered coverage of *CO, favouring the formation of *CHO, a key intermediate embarking on the CH4 pathway, over the competing carbon–carbon coupling, the pathway towards multicarbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration of fine materials such as soil from the roadbed and the ground will gradually pollute the aggregate in the arrester bed of truck escape ramps. However, there are few studies on the impact of aggregate pollution of the arrester bed on the stopping distance of runaway vehicles. This paper uses the discrete element method to study the influence of aggregates with different degrees of pollution on stopping distance by taking silty cohesive soil as a typical pollutant. In this paper, the stopping process of the uncontrolled vehicle on the arrester bed with different pollution levels was numerically simulated. The simulation results show that the uncontrolled vehicle's stopping distance increases with the contaminated aggregate's soil content. The simulation results show that when the soil content in the contaminated aggregate is less than 15%, the increase in the stopping distance of the uncontrol vehicle is less than 5%; when the soil content is 20–25%, the stopping distance of the uncontrolled vehicle increases by more than 20%; and when the soil content is 30–35%, the stopping distance of uncontrol vehicle increases by more than 50%. Different maintenance measures should be taken according to the increase in stopping distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many conflicting theories about the relationship between media reports and public opinion, but few of them are supported by empirical work on large data sets. We use sentiment results on over 260,000 China-related articles in The New York Times to show that events in international relations affect media sentiment which, in turn, affects public opinion. We find that sudden shifts in US-China relations are accompanied by changes in how The New York Times covers China and that the news reporting on China leads public opinion on China by 1 year. Our work illustrates how The New York Times, a prestigious mass media institution, propagates international relation signals to shape American views of the Chinese state and the Chinese people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Although the fall protection net installed at the end of the truck escape ramp has a protective effect on trucks and drivers, but lacks sufficient theoretical basis and verification method. Objectives: The primary objective of this paper was to design a fall protection net that meets the regulations and research its protection performance. Methods: The finite-element method was used to design the overall size, material, mesh length, mesh type, shape, and supporting structure of the fall protection net installed at the end of truck escape ramp, then dummy and truck models were used to impact the fall protection net to verify the rationality of the design. After the design completed, the truck model was used to impact the fall protection net twice to research the cumulative protection performance. Results: A fall protection net with a width of 6000 mm, a span of 6000 mm, a depth of 5196 mm, a mesh length of 150 mm, a mesh type of diamond mesh, a shape of 60-degree V-shaped, a supporting structure of steel pipe supporting has a better effect on energy absorption and protection. Within the two consecutive impacts, the residual plastic deformation and stress of the fall protection net generated in the first impact severely affect the protection performance in the second impact. Conclusion: It is feasible to use the finite-element method to design and research the fall prevention net installed at the end of the truck escape ramp, and the fall protection net can indeed protect the trucks and drivers, and it should be inspected and maintained after impact to ensure the protective performance in subsequent use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "A Self-Assembly Combined Nano-Prodrug to Overcome Gemcitabine Chemo-Resistance of Pancreatic Tumors." The correction addresses an error in Figure 2H, where the figures in the Fc group and nutlin-3a group were mistaken. However, the error does not significantly impact the overall findings and conclusions of the paper. The corrected figure is provided in the notice. The authors apologize for the error. [Extracted from the article]

The global prevalence of osteoporosis is being exacerbated by the increasing number of aging societies and longer life expectancies. In response, numerous drugs have been developed in recent years to mitigate bone resorption and enhance bone density. Nonetheless, the efficacy and safety of these pharmaceutical interventions remain constrained. Corylin (CL), a naturally occurring compound derived from the anti-osteoporosis plant Psoralea corylifolia L., has exhibited promising potential in impeding osteoclast differentiation. This study aims to evaluate the effect and molecular mechanisms of CL regulating osteoclast differentiation in vitro and its potential as a therapeutic agent for osteoporosis treatment in vivo . Our investigation revealed that CL effectively inhibits osteoclast formation and their bone resorption capacity by downregulating the transcription factors NFATc1 and c-fos, consequently resulting in the downregulation of genes associated with bone resorption. Furthermore, it has been observed that CL can effectively mitigate the migration and fusion of pre-osteoclast, while also attenuating the activation of mitochondrial mass and function. The results obtained from an in vivo study have demonstrated that CL is capable of attenuating the bone loss induced by ovariectomy (OVX). Based on these significant findings, it is proposed that CL exhibits considerable potential as a novel drug strategy for inhibiting osteoclast differentiation, thereby offering a promising approach for the treatment of osteoporosis.

In this paper, we present findings from four separate studies using different data sources and methods to examine Chinese attitudes toward the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical results consistently indicate a marked and significant decline in Chinese attitudes toward the US between late 2019 and the end of 2022. Using a quasi-experimental design and granular survey data that exploit daily variations in public opinion, we offer additional evidence that the decline in Chinese attitudes toward the United States followed a distinct pattern not true for Chinese attitudes toward other countries. Specifically, the rise in Chinese unfavorability toward the United States closely corresponded to the heightened Chinese attention to the pandemic's progression in the United States. These results collectively suggest a causal effect of COVID-19, shedding light on how public health crises, international relations, and media jointly shape the increasing enmity between the two great powers., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Introduction: Pediatric sepsis (PS) is a life-threatening infection associated with high mortality rates, necessitating a deeper understanding of its underlying pathological mechanisms. Recently discovered programmed cell death induced by copper has been implicated in various medical conditions, but its potential involvement in PS remains largely unexplored. Methods: We first analyzed the expression patterns of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) and assessed the immune landscape of PS using the GSE66099 dataset. Subsequently, PS samples were isolated from the same dataset, and consensus clustering was performed based on differentially expressed CRGs. We applied weighted gene co-expression network analysis to identify hub genes associated with PS and cuproptosis. Results: We observed aberrant expression of 27 CRGs and a specific immune landscape in PS samples. Our findings revealed that patients in the GSE66099 dataset could be categorized into two cuproptosis clusters, each characterized by unique immune landscapes and varying functional classifications or enriched pathways. Among the machine learning approaches, Extreme Gradient Boosting demonstrated optimal performance as a diagnostic model for PS. Discussion: Our study provides valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying PS, highlighting the involvement of cuproptosis-related genes and immune cell infiltration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Huang, Chen, Wang, Lai, Mi and Chen.)

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease whose etiology is attributed to development of Lewy bodies and degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Currently, there are no definitive diagnostic indicators for PD. In this study, we aimed to identify potential diagnostic biomarkers for PD and analyzed the impact of immune cell infiltrations on disease pathogenesis. The PD expression profile data for human SN tissue, GSE7621, GSE20141, GSE20159, GSE20163 and GSE20164 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for use in the training model. After normalization and merging, we identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using the Robust rank aggregation (RRA) analysis. Simultaneously, DEGs after batch correction were identified. Gene interactions were determined through venn Diagram analysis. Functional analyses and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were used to the identify hub genes, which were visualized through Cytoscape. A Lasso Cox regression model was employed to identify the potential diagnostic genes. The GSE20292 dataset was used for validation. The proportion of infiltrating immune cells in the samples were determined via the CIBERSORT method. Sixty-two DEGs were screened in this study. They were found to be enriched in nerve conduction, dopamine (DA) metabolism, and DA biosynthesis Gene Ontology (GO) terms. The PPI network and Lasso Cox regression analysis revealed seven potential diagnostic genes, namely SLC18A2, TAC1, PCDH8, KIAA0319, PDE6H, AXIN1, and AGTR1, were subsequently validated in peripheral blood samples obtained from healthy control (HC) and PD patients, as well as in the GSE20292 dataset. The results revealed the exceptional sensitivity and specificity of these genes in PD diagnosis and monitoring. Moreover, PD patients exhibited a higher number of plasma cells, compared to HC individuals. The SLC18A2, TAC1, PCDH8, KIAA0319, PDE6H, AXIN1, and AGTR1 are potential diagnostic biomarkers for PD. Our findings also reveal the essential roles of immune cell infiltration in both disease onset and trajectory., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Osteoporosis is one of the major health problems characterized by decreased bone density and increased risk of fractures. Nowadays, the treating strategies against osteoporosis are efficient, but still have some drawbacks. Micheliolide, a guaianolide sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Michelia compressa and Michelia champac, has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects. Here, our data suggest that Micheliolide could protect mice from ovariectomy induced bone loss. According to the Micro-CT scan and histomorphometry quantification data, Micheliolide treatment inhibits excessive osteoclast bone resorption without affecting bone formation in estrogen deficiency mice. Consistently, our data suggest that Micheliolide could inhibit osteoclastogenesis in vitro. Additionally, we confirmed that Micheliolide inhibits osteoclasts formation via inhibiting P38 MAPK signaling pathway, and P79350 (a P38 agonist) could rescue this effect. In summary, our data suggest that Micheliolide could ameliorate estrogen deficiency-induced bone loss via attenuating osteoclastogenesis. Hence, Micheliolide could be used as a novel anti-resorptive agent against osteoporosis.

The US global leadership in science and technology has greatly benefitted from immigrants from other countries, most notably from China in the recent decades. However, feeling the pressure of potential federal investigations since the 2018 launch of the China Initiative, scientists of Chinese descent in the United States now face higher incentives to leave the United States and lower incentives to apply for federal grants. Analyzing data pertaining to institutional affiliations of more than 200 million scientific papers, we find a steady increase in the return migration of scientists of Chinese descent from the United States to China. We also conducted a survey of scientists of Chinese descent employed by US universities in tenured or tenure-track positions (n = 1,304), with results revealing general feelings of fear and anxiety that lead them to consider leaving the United States and/or stop applying for federal grants. If the situation is not corrected, American science will likely suffer the loss of scientific talent to China and other countries.

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated death and the first most diagnosed cancer in the world. More than 2 million new cases are diagnosed and 1.6 million people die due to lung cancer every year. It is urgent to explore novel drugs and approaches for lung cancer treatment. Cinobufotalin is a TCM isolated from dried toad venom, which has been used to treat lung cancer. However, the precise mechanism remains unclear., Objective: This study was to investigate the mechanism of cinobufotalin treated in lung cancer., Methods: Cell growth was identified by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Besides, ferroptosis of lung cancer cells was determined by intracellular iron content, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, RNA levels and proteins were detected by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot (WB), respectively. In addition, the regulatory effect of hsa-miR-367-3p on TFRC was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay., Results: This study indicated that cinobufotalin suppressed lung cancer cell growth through resibufogenin. Besides, cinobufotalin induced ferroptosis in lung cancer cells through resibufogenin. Moreover, cinobufotalin increased lncRNA LINC00597 level, whereas it downregulated hsa-miR-367-3p expression in lung cancer cells via resibufogenin. In addition, ferroptosis inducer transferrin receptor (TFRC) was the target of hsa-miR-367-3p, and lncRNA LINC00597 upregulates TFRC expression through sponging hsa-miR-367-3p in lung cancer cells., Conclusion: In summary, this study indicated that cinobufotalin induced ferroptosis to suppress lung cancer cell growth by lncRNA LINC00597/hsa-miR-367-3p/TFRC pathway via resibufogenin might provide novel therapeutic targets for lung cancer therapy., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Frequency-sensitive super-collimation (FSSC) is a novel dispersion phenomenon of photonic crystals (PhCs) that can realize the beam collimating propagation with very high frequency sensitivity. In order to deeply investigate the origin and the stability of FSSC phenomenon in a wide parameter space, we study the geometry of dispersion surface in detail. Four features for the special geometry of dispersion surface with FSSC are found for rectangular PhCs. The special geometry supports the stability of FSSC in a wide range of parameter space. Two-parameter modulation (TPM) method, in which the aspect ratio β and the dielectric constant of rods ɛ r of rectangular lattice are chosen as the key parameters, is used to analyze the geometry of dispersion surface from the frequency changes at the high-symmetry points. Step by step, the origin of such geometry is revealed and the evolving process can be explained by the field distribution changes of Bloch modes at the high-symmetry points. Furthermore, we show that the geometry not only can be used to explain the origin and the stability of FSSC, but also can help us to find other FSSC phenomenons. Theoretically, we believe the geometry of dispersion surface and the TPM can be widely used on the studies of complex dispersion properties of PhCs. The FSSCs found in this work with higher sensitivity or higher stability can help us to design new on-chip PhC devices.

Background: LTX-315 is an oncolytic peptide deriving from bovine lactoferrin, with the ability to induce cancer immunogenic cell death. However, the mechanism used by LTX-315 to trigger the antitumor immune response is still poorly understood. The expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) largely determines the efficacy and effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies targeting this specific immune checkpoint. This study aimed to demonstrate the potential effect and mechanism of LTX-315 in PD-L1 inhibition-induced anti-pancreatic cancer immunity., Methods: Both immunodeficient and immunocompetent mouse models were used to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of monotherapy and combination therapy. Flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry were used to assess the immune microenvironment. Multiomic analysis was used to identify the potential target and down-streaming signaling pathway. Both in-house tissue microarray and open accessed The Cancer Genome Atlas data sets were used to evaluate the clinical relevance in pancreatic cancer prognosis., Results: LTX-315 treatment inhibited PD-L1 expression and enhanced lymphocyte infiltration in pancreatic tumors. ATP11B was identified as a potential target of LTX-315 and a critical regulator in maintaining PD-L1 expression in pancreatic cancer cells. As regards the mechanism, ATP11B interacted with PD-L1 in a CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing 6 (CMTM6)-dependent manner. The depletion of ATP11B promoted CMTM6-mediated lysosomal degradation of PD-L1, thus reactivating the immune microenvironment and inducing an antitumor immune response. The significant correlation among ATP11B, CMTM6, and PD-L1 was confirmed in clinical samples of pancreatic cancer., Conclusions: LTX-315 was first identified as a peptide drug inducing PD-L1 downregulation via ATP11B. Therefore, LTX-315, or the development of ATP11B-targeting drugs, might improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)