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A new approach is presented in this paper for the dynamic modeling of the chemical and isotopic evolution of C1–3 during the hydrocarbon generation process. Based on systematic data obtained from published papers for the pyrolysis of various hydrocarbon sources (type I kerogen/source rock, type II kerogen/source rock, type III kerogen/source rock, crude oil, and asphalt, etc.), the empirical evolution framework of the chemical and isotopic composition of C1–3 during the hydrocarbon generation process was built. Although the empirical framework was built only by fitting a large amount of pyrolysis data, the chemical and isotopic composition of C1–3 derived from the pyrolysis experiments all follow evolution laws, convincing us that it is applicable to the thermal evolution process of various hydrocarbon sources. Based on the simplified formula of the isotopic composition of mixed natural gas at different maturities (δ13Cmixed), δ13Cmixed = X × n i A × δ 13 C i A + Y × n i B × δ 13 C i B X × n i A + Y × n i B , it can be derived that the cumulative isotopic composition of alkane generated in a certain maturity interval can be expressed by the integral of the product of the instantaneous isotopic composition and instantaneous yield at a certain maturity point, and then divided by the cumulative yield of alkane generated in the corresponding maturity interval. Thus, the cumulative isotopic composition (A(X)), cumulative yield (B(X)), instantaneous isotope (C(X)), and instantaneous yield (D(x)) in the dynamic model, comply with the following formula during the maturity interval of (X0~X). A(X) = ∫ X 0 X C X × D X d x B (X) , where A(X) and B(X) can be obtained by the fitting of pyrolysis data, and D(x) can also be obtained from the derivation of B(X). The dynamic model was applied on the pyrolysis data of Pingliang Shale to illustrate the quantitative evolution of the cumulative yield, instantaneous yield, cumulative isotope, and instantaneous isotope of C1–3 with increasing maturity. The dynamic model can quantify the yield of methane, ethane, and propane, as well as δ13C1, δ13C2, and δ13C3, respectively, during the hydrocarbon generation process. This model is of great significance for evaluating the natural gas resources of hydrocarbon source rock of different maturities and for identifying the origin and evolutionary process of hydrocarbons by chemical and isotopic data. Moreover, this model provides an approach to study the dynamic evolution of the isotope series of C1–3 (including reversed isotopic series), which is promising for revealing the mechanism responsible for isotopic reversal when combined with post-generation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Gongronella is important in agriculture and industry by secreting various natural bioactive metabolites such as chitosanases and organic acids. During the most recent 8 years, a total of 14 new species have been described, remarkably enriching the diversity of this genus. In this study, we added three more new species to this valuable genus, based on a combination of morphological traits and phylogenetic information. Six strains of the genus Gongronella were isolated from soil collected in Hainan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses of ITS and LSU rDNA sequences grouped these strains into three independent clades. According to their unique morphological characteristics, they were classified as G. multiramosa sp. nov., G. qichaensis sp. nov. and G. oleae sp. nov. The G. multiramosa was characterized by multiple branched sporangiophores and was closely related to G. pedratalhadensis. The G. qichaensis was characterized by obscure collars and closely related to G. butleri, G. hydei and G. banzhaoae. The G. oleae was characterized by the presence of oil droplets in the sporangiospores and was closely related to G. chlamydospora and G. multispora. Their descriptions and illustrations were provided, and their differences from morphological allies and phylogenetic-related species are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the numerous treatments for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), chemotherapy is still one of the most effective methods. However, the impact of chemotherapy on immune cells is not yet clear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the different roles of immune cells and their relationship with treatment outcomes in the tumor and blood before and after paclitaxel therapy. We analyzed the single-cell sequencing data of immune cells in tumors and blood before and after paclitaxel treatment. We confirmed a high correlation between T cells, innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), and therapeutic efficacy. The differences in T cells were analyzed related to therapeutic outcomes before and after paclitaxel treatment. In the effective treatment group, post-treatment tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells were associated with elevated inflammation, cytokines, and Toll-like-receptor-related gene expression, which were expected to enhance anti-tumor capabilities in tumor immune cells. Moreover, we found that the expression of immune-checkpoint-related genes is also correlated with treatment outcomes. In addition, an ILC subgroup, b_ILC1-XCL1, in which the corresponding marker gene XCL1 was highly expressed, was mainly present in the effective treatment group and was also associated with higher patient survival rates. Overall, we found differences in gene expression in T cells across different groups and a correlation between the expression of immune checkpoint genes in T cells, the b_ILC1-XCL1 subgroup, and patient prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal species in the family Mortierellaceae are important for their remarkable capability to synthesize large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially arachidonic acid (ARA). Although many genomes have been published, the quality of these data is not satisfactory, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the lipid pathway in Mortierellaceae. We provide herein two novel and high-quality genomes with 55.32% of syntenic gene pairs for Mortierella alpina CGMCC 20262 and M. schmuckeri CGMCC 20261, spanning 28 scaffolds of 40.22 Mb and 25 scaffolds of 49.24 Mb, respectively. The relative smaller genome for the former is due to fewer protein-coding gene models (11,761 vs. 13,051). The former yields 45.57% of ARA in total fatty acids, while the latter 6.95%. The accumulation of ARA is speculated to be associated with delta-5 desaturase (Delta5) and elongation of very long chain fatty acids protein 3 (ELOVL3). A further genomic comparison of 19 strains in 10 species in three genera in the Mortierellaceae reveals three types of fatty acid synthase (FAS), two of which are new to science. The most common type I exists in 16 strains of eight species of three genera, and was discovered previously and consists of a single unit with eight active sites. The newly revealed type II exists only in M. antarctica KOD 1030 where the unit is separated into two subunits α and β comprised of three and five active sites, respectively. Another newly revealed type III exists in M. alpina AD071 and Dissophora globulifera REB-010B, similar to type II but different in having one more acyl carrier protein domain in the α subunit. This study provides novel insights into the enzymes related to the lipid metabolism, especially the ARA-related Delta5, ELOVL3, and FAS, laying a foundation for genetic engineering of Mortierellaceae to modulate yield in polyunsaturated fatty acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although species of Absidia are known to be ubiquitous in soil, animal dung, and insect and plant debris, the species diversity of the genus and their ecological habitats have not been sufficiently investigated. In this study, we describe five new species of Absidia from forest and grassland soils in southwestern China, with support provided by phylogenetic, morphological, and physiological evidence. The species diversity and ecological habitat of Absidia are summarized. Currently, 22 species are recorded in China, which mainly occur in soil, especially in tropical and subtropical forests and mountains. An updated key to the species of Absidia in China is also provided herein. This is the first overview of the Absidia ecological habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flame-retardant micro-encapsulated sepiolite (MSEP) was successfully prepared by sol-gel method. Fourier transform infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were utilized to prove that sepiolite was encapsulated. Then, the mechanical properties, flame retardance, smoke suppression, and pyrolysis characteristics of silicone rubber foam (SiFs) with MSEP and zinc borate (ZB) were analyzed. The results indicated that the tensile and compressive properties of SiFs could evidently improve with the incorporation of MSEP/ZB. SiFs with 3 wt% MSEP and 6 wt% ZB could achieve an limiting oxygen index value of 30.9 vol% and UL-94 V-0 rating, the time to ignition was 64.7% above that of pure SiFs, the peak heat release rate and total heat release were 42.7% and 25.0% lower than that of pure SiFs, respectively. Furthermore, the peak smoke production rate and total smoke production of SiFs with 3 wt% MSEP and 6 wt% ZB were merely 54.22% and 64.10% of pure SiFs. Especially, the thermal stability of SiFs was significantly enhanced, and the carbon residue of SiFs became denser and more complete after adding 3 wt% MSEP and 6 wt% ZB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species of Absidia are distributed widely in the environment, while their diversity is insufficiently studied. Three new species, A. frigida, A. gemella and A. longissima, are proposed herein from Xinjiang and Yunnan in China based on phylogenetic, morphological and physiological evidence. According to maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses, the phylogenetical results suggest that A. frigida, A. gemella and A. longissima are closely related to A. psychrophilia, A. turgida and A. zonata and A. koreana, respectively, based on ITS and LSU rDNA sequences. Absidia frigida is characterized by a lower growth temperature, which does not grow above 24 °C. It differs from A. psychrophilia by sporangiophores, sporangia, columellae, collars and projections. Absidia gemella is distinguished from A. turgida by hypha, sporangiospores, sporangia, projections and sporangiophores. Absidia longissima is discriminated from A. zonata and A. koreana by sporangiophores, columellae and collars. The three new species are described and illustrated in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars at home and abroad have studied the concentrations of Se in coal and the relationship between Se and sulfur assignment. However, little attention has been paid to the study of Se in floating coal, especially the distribution pattern of Se in floating coal of densimetric fractions and the influencing factors. A total of 138 coal samples were collected from 14 provinces and cities in China to test the Se and sulfur concentrations in coal, and we carried out the comparison of Se with forms of sulfur with 81 of them. A total of 10 coal samples were selected for float-and-sink analyses to investigate the distribution pattern of Se in floating coal. The results showed that the average Se concentration of Chinese coal was 2.26 μg/g, which is identical with the results of previous research studies, which found an average Se concentration of 2~3 μg/g. Selenium was not uniformly distributed in floating coals of densimetric fractions but it had some regularity. The main controlling factor was the sulfur content in the coal. The Se concentrations of the high-sulfur coal showed a "linear growth" distribution with an increasing density, the Se concentrations of the floating coal in each densimetric fraction increased slowly and the Se concentrations of the floating coal of a densimetric fraction > 2.00 g/cm3 increased sharply. The other controlling factor was the ash yield of the coal. The Se concentrations of the low–medium-sulfur floating coal showed a "parabolic-like" distribution, i.e., low Se concentrations at both ends and high Se concentrations at the middle densimetric fraction. With the increase in the ash content of the coal from 18.23% to 51.92%, the densimetric fraction with the highest Se concentration gradually progressed from 1.40 g/cm3 to 1.50 g/cm3, 1.60 g/cm3 and 1.80 g/cm3 in order. The correlation between the selenium of the raw coal from different regions and the total sulfur, pyrite sulfur and organic sulfur was not significant. However, there existed a significant correlation between Se, total sulfur, pyrite sulfur and organic sulfur in floating coals from the same mining area and depositional environment, among which pyrite sulfur was the most correlated with Se, followed by total sulfur and organic sulfur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has been widely recognized as a promising strategy for relieving the pressure from energy crisis and environmental pollution. However, current efficiency for photocatalytic hydrogen generation has been limited due to a low separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. p-n heterojunction with a built-in electric field emerges as an efficient strategy for photocatalyst design to boost hydrogen evolution activities due to a spontaneous charge separation. In this work, we investigated the effect of different preparation methods on photocatalytic hydrogen production over NiO-TiO2 composites. The results demonstrated that a uniform distribution of NiO on a surface of TiO2 with an intimate interfacial interaction was formed by a sol-gel method, while direct calcination tended to form aggregation of NiO, thus leading to an uneven p-n heterojunction structure within a photocatalyst. NiO-TiO2 composites fabricated by different methods showed enhanced hydrogen production (23.5 ± 1.2, 20.4 ± 1.0 and 8.8 ± 0.7 mmolh−1g−1 for S1-20%, S2-20% and S3-10%, respectively) as compared with pristine TiO2 (6.6 ± 0.7 mmolh−1g−1) and NiO (2.1 ± 0.2 mmolh−1g−1). The current work demonstrates a good example to improve photocatalytic hydrogen production by finely designing p-n heterojunction photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respirable particulate matter air pollution is positively associated with SARS-CoV-2 mortality. Real-time and accurate monitoring of particle concentration changes is the first step to prevent and control air pollution from inhalable particles. In this research, a new light scattering instrument has been developed to detect the mass concentration of inhalable particles. This instrument couples the forward small-angle single particle counting method with the lateral group particle photometry method in a single device. The mass concentration of four sizes of inhalable particles in the environment can be detected simultaneously in a large area in real-time without using a particle impactor. Different from the traditional light scattering instrument, this new optical instrument can detect darker particles with strong light absorption, and the measurement results mainly depend on the particle size and ignore the properties of the particles. Comparative experiments have shown that the instrument can detect particles with different properties by simply calibrating the environmental density parameters, and the measurement results have good stability and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small-angle optical particle counter (OPC) can detect particles with strong light absorption. At the same time, it can ignore the properties of the detected particles and detect the particle size singly and more accurately. Reasonably improving the resolution of the low pulse signal of fine particles is key to improving the detection accuracy of the small-angle OPC. In this paper, a new adaptive filtering method for the small-angle scattering signals of particles is proposed based on the recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm. By analyzing the characteristics of the small-angle scattering signals, a variable forgetting factor (VFF) strategy is introduced to optimize the forgetting factor in the traditional RLS algorithm. It can distinguish the scattering signal from the stray light signal and dynamically adapt to the change in pulse amplitude according to different light absorptions and different particle sizes. To verify the filtering effect, small-angle scattering pulse extraction experiments were carried out in a simulated smoke box with different particle properties. The experiments show that the proposed VFF-RLS algorithm can effectively suppress system stray light and background noise. When the particle detection signal appears, the algorithm has fast convergence and tracking speed and highlights the particle pulse signal well. Compared with that of the traditional scattering pulse extraction method, the resolution of the processed scattering pulse signal of particles is greatly improved, and the extraction of weak particle scattering pulses at a small angle has a greater advantage. Finally, the effect of filter order in the algorithm on the results of extracting scattering pulses is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastrodia elata is a well-known medicinal and heterotrophic orchid. Its germination, limited by the impermeability of seed coat lignin and inhibition by abscisic acid (ABA), is triggered by symbiosis with fungi such as Mycena spp. However, the molecular mechanisms of lignin degradation by Mycena and ABA biosynthesis and signaling in G. elata remain unclear. In order to gain insights into these two processes, this study analyzed the transcriptomes of these organisms during their dynamic symbiosis. Among the 25 lignin-modifying enzyme genes in Mycena, two ligninolytic class II peroxidases and two laccases were significantly upregulated, most likely enabling Mycena hyphae to break through the lignin seed coats of G. elata. Genes related to reduced virulence and loss of pathogenicity in Mycena accounted for more than half of annotated genes, presumably contributing to symbiosis. After coculture, upregulated genes outnumbered downregulated genes in G. elata seeds, suggesting slightly increased biological activity, while Mycena hyphae had fewer upregulated than downregulated genes, indicating decreased biological activity. ABA biosynthesis in G. elata was reduced by the downregulated expression of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED-2), and ABA signaling was blocked by the downregulated expression of a receptor protein (PYL12-like). This is the first report to describe the role of NCED-2 and PYL12-like in breaking G. elata seed dormancy by reducing the synthesis and blocking the signaling of the germination inhibitor ABA. This study provides a theoretical basis for screening germination fungi to identify effective symbionts and for reducing ABA inhibition of G. elata seed germination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic hydrogen production is a promising route to the provision of sustainable and green energy. However, the excess addition of traditional electron donors as the sacrificial agents to consume photogenerated holes greatly reduces the feasibility of this approach for commercialization. Herein, considering the abundant hydroxyl groups in cellulose, the major component of biomass, we adopted glucose (a component unit of cellulose), cellobiose (a structure unit of cellulose) and dissolving pulp (a pretreated cellulose) as electron donors for photocatalytic hydrogen production over a TiO2-Au-CdS material. The well-designed ternary TiO2-Au-CdS possesses a hierarchical three-dimensional ordered macroporous (3DOM) structure, which not only benefits light harvesting but can also facilitate mass diffusion to boost the reaction kinetics. As expected, the fabricated photocatalyst exhibits considerable hydrogen production from glucose (645.1 μmol·h−1·g−1), while the hydrogen production rates gradually decrease with the increased complexity in structure from cellobiose (273.9 μmol·h−1·g−1) to dissolving pulp (79.7 μmol·h−1·g−1). Other gaseous components such as CO and CH4 are also produced, indicating the partial conversion of biomass during the photoreforming process. This work demonstrates the feasibility of sustainable hydrogen production from biomass by photoreforming with a rational photocatalyst design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a powerful cytogenetic method used to precisely detect and localize nucleic acid sequences. This technique is proving to be an invaluable tool in medical diagnostics and has made significant contributions to biology and the life sciences. However, the number of cells is large and the nucleic acid sequences are disorganized in the FISH images taken using the microscope. Processing and analyzing images is a time-consuming and laborious task for researchers, as it can easily tire the human eyes and lead to errors in judgment. In recent years, deep learning has made significant progress in the field of medical imaging, especially the successful application of introducing the attention mechanism. The attention mechanism, as a key component of deep learning, improves the understanding and interpretation of medical images by giving different weights to different regions of the image, enabling the model to focus more on important features. To address the challenges in FISH image analysis, we combined medical imaging with deep learning to develop the SEAM-Unet++ automated cell contour segmentation algorithm with integrated attention mechanism. The significant advantage of this algorithm is that it improves the accuracy of cell contours in FISH images. Experiments have demonstrated that by introducing the attention mechanism, our method is able to segment cells that are adherent to each other more efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of fingerprint recognition systems, fingerprint liveness detection is gradually becoming regarded as the main countermeasure to protect the fingerprint identification system from spoofing attacks. Convolutional neural networks have shown great potential in fingerprint liveness detection. However, the generalization ability of the deep network model for unknown materials, and the computational complexity of the network, need to be further improved. A new lightweight fingerprint liveness detection network is here proposed to distinguish fake fingerprints from real ones. The method includes mainly foreground extraction, fingerprint image blocking, style transfer based on CycleGan and an improved ResNet with multi-head self-attention mechanism. The proposed method can effectively extract ROI and obtain the end-to-end data structure, which increases the amount of data. For false fingerprints generated from unknown materials, the use of CycleGan network improves the model generalization ability. The introduction of Transformer with MHSA in the improved ResNet improves detection performance and reduces computing overhead. Experiments on the LivDet2011, LivDet2013 and LivDet2015 datasets showed that the proposed method achieves good results. For example, on the LivDet2015 dataset, our methods achieved an average classification error of 1.72 across all sensors, while significantly reducing network parameters, and the overall parameter number was only 0.83 M. At the same time, the experiment on small-area fingerprints yielded an accuracy of 95.27%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alxa Block is an important component of the North China Craton, but its metamorphic basement has been poorly studied, which hampers the understanding of the Alxa Block and the North China Craton. In this study, we conducted geochronological and geochemical studies on three TTG (tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite) gneisses and one granitic gneiss exposed in the Langshan area of the eastern Alxa Block to investigate their crustal evolution. The zircon U-Pb dating results revealed that the protoliths of the TTG and granitic gneisses were formed at 2836 ± 20 Ma, 2491 ± 18 Ma, 2540 ± 38 Ma, and 2763 ± 42 Ma, respectively, and were overprinted by middle–late Paleoproterozoic metamorphism (1962–1721 Ma). All gneiss samples had high Sr/Y ratios (41–274) and intermediate Mg# values (44.97–55.78), with negative Nb, Ta, and Ti anomalies and moderately to strongly fractionated REE patterns ((La/Yb)N = 10.6–107.1), slight Sr enrichment, and positive Eu anomalies, displaying features of typical high-SiO2 adakites and Archean TTGs. The magmatic zircons from the 2.84 Ga and 2.49 Ga TTG rocks had low εHf(t) values of −1.9–1.7, and −3.83–2.12 with two-stage model ages (TDMC) of 3.24–3.11 Ga and 3.10–3.01 Ga, respectively, whereas those from the 2.54 Ga TTG rock exhibited εHf(t) values ranging from −1.1 to 3.46 and TDMC from 3.0 Ga to 2.83 Ga, suggesting that the crustal materials of the basement rocks in the eastern Alxa Block were initially extracted from the depleted mantle during the late Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean era and were reworked in the late Mesoarchean and late Neoarchean era. By contrast, the Alxa Block probably had a relative younger crustal evolutionary history (<3.24 Ga) than the main North China (<3.88 Ga), Tarim (<3.9 Ga), and Yangtze (<3.8 Ga) Cratons and likely had a unique crustal evolutionary history before the early Paleoproterozoic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Growth and fatness traits are economically important in pig farming. The exploration of underlying genetic architecture for vital phenotypes is helpful in speeding up the process of genetic improvement for different pig breeds. Hence, for Diannan small-ear (DSE) pig, eight phenotypic traits including six body measurement traits and two fatness traits were examined. Based on the Geneseek Porcine 50K SNP Chip data, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in a DSE pig population. Through a genome-wide association study, some candidate genes were detected potentially related to the traits of interest. These findings help to understand the genetic basis of porcine growth traits could be used in future pig breeding schemes. In the livestock industry, the growth and fatness traits are directly related to production efficiency and economic profits. As for Diannan small-ear (DSE) pigs, a unique indigenous breed, the genetic architecture of growth and fatness traits is still elusive. The aim of this study was to search the genetic loci and candidate genes associated with phenotypic traits in DSE pigs using GWAS based on the Geneseek Porcine 50K SNP Chip data. A total of 22,146 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in 265 DSE pigs and used for Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis. Seven SNPs were found to be associated with back height, chest circumference, cannon bone circumference, and backfat thickness at the suggestive significance level. Based on gene annotation results, these seven SNPs were, respectively, mapped to the following candidate genes, VIPR2, SLC10A2, NUCKS1, MCT1, CHCHD3, SMOX, and GPR1, which are mainly involved with adipocyte differentiation, lipid metabolism, skeletal muscle development, and average daily weight gain. Our work offers novel insights into the genetic architecture of economically important traits in swine and may play an important role in breeding using molecular markers in the DSE breed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are currently the most viable option for energy storage systems in electric vehicle (EV) applications due to their high specific energy, falling costs, and acceptable cycle life. However, accurately predicting the parameters of complex, nonlinear battery systems remains challenging, given diverse aging mechanisms, cell-to-cell variations, and dynamic operating conditions. The states and parameters of batteries are becoming increasingly important in ubiquitous application scenarios, yet our ability to predict cell performance under realistic conditions remains limited. To address the challenge of modelling and predicting the evolution of multiphysics and multiscale battery systems, this study proposes a cloud-based AI-enhanced framework. The framework aims to achieve practical success in the co-estimation of the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) during the system's operational lifetime. Self-supervised transformer neural networks offer new opportunities to learn representations of observational data with multiple levels of abstraction and attention mechanisms. Coupling the cloud-edge computing framework with the versatility of deep learning can leverage the predictive ability of exploiting long-range spatio-temporal dependencies across multiple scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoparticles of metal–organic frameworks (MOF NPs) are crystalline hybrid micro- or mesoporous nanomaterials that show great promise in biomedicine due to their significant drug loading ability and controlled release. Herein, we develop porous capsules from aggregate of nanoparticles of the iron carboxylate MIL-100(Fe) through a low-temperature spray-drying route. This enables the concomitant one-pot encapsulation of high loading of an antitumor drug, methotrexate, within the pores of the MOF NPs, and the collagenase enzyme (COL), inside the inter-particular mesoporous cavities, upon the formation of the capsule, enhancing tumor treatment. This association provides better control of the release of the active moieties, MTX and collagenase, in simulated body fluid conditions in comparison with the bare MOF NPs. In addition, the loaded MIL-100 capsules present, against the A-375 cancer cell line, selective toxicity nine times higher than for the normal HaCaT cells, suggesting that MTX@COL@MIL-100 capsules may have potential application in the selective treatment of cancer cells. We highlight that an appropriate level of collagenase activity remained after encapsulation using the spray dryer equipment. Therefore, this work describes a novel application of MOF-based capsules as a dual drug delivery system for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a member of the PIKs family, PIK3C3 participates in autophagy and plays a central role in liver function. Several studies demonstrated that the complete suppression of PIK3C3 in mammals can cause hepatomegaly and hepatosteatosis. However, the function of PIK3C3 overexpression on the liver and other organs is still unknown. In this study, we successfully generated PIK3C3 transgenic pigs through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) by designing a specific vector for the overexpression of PIK3C3. Plasmid identification was performed through enzyme digestion and transfected into the fetal fibroblasts derived from Diannan miniature pigs. After 2 weeks of culturing, six positive colonies obtained from a total of 14 cell colonies were identified through PCR. One positive cell line was selected as the donor cell line for SCNT for the construction of PIK3C3transgenic pigs. Thirty single blastocysts were collected and identified as PIK3C3 transgenic-positive blastocysts. Two surrogates became pregnant after transferring the reconstructed embryos into four surrogates. Fetal fibroblasts of PIK3C3-positive fetuses identified through PCR were used as donor cells for SCNT to generate PIK3C3 transgenic pigs. To further explore the function of PIK3C3 overexpression, genotyping and phenotyping of the fetuses and piglets obtained were performed by PCR, immunohistochemical, HE, and apoptosis staining. The results showed that inflammatory infiltration and vacuolar formation in hepatocytes and apoptotic cells, and the mRNA expression of NF-κB, TGF-β1, TLR4, TNF-α, and IL-6 significantly increased in the livers of PIK3C3 transgenic pigs when compared with wild-type (WT) pigs. Immunofluorescence staining showed that LC3B and LAMP-1-positive cells increased in the livers of PIK3C3 transgenic pigs. In the EBSS-induced autophagy of the porcine fibroblast cells (PFCs), the accumulated LC3II protein was cleared faster in PIK3C3 transgenic (PFCs) thanWT (PFCs). In conclusion, PIK3C3 overexpression promoted autophagy in the liver and associated molecular mechanisms related to the activation of ULK1, AMBR1, DRAM1, and MTOR, causing liver damage in pigs. Therefore, the construction of PIK3C3 transgenic pigs may provide a new experimental animal resource for liver diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matching infrared (IR) facial probes against a gallery of visible light faces remains a challenge, especially when combined with cross-distance due to deteriorated quality of the IR data. In this paper, we study the scenario where visible light faces are acquired at a short standoff, while IR faces are long-range data. To address the issue of quality imbalance between the heterogeneous imagery, we propose to compensate it by upgrading the lower-quality IR faces. Specifically, this is realized through cascaded face enhancement that combines an existing denoising algorithm (BM3D) with a new deep-learning-based deblurring model we propose (named SVDFace). Different IR bands, short-wave infrared (SWIR) and near-infrared (NIR), as well as different standoffs, are involved in the experiments. Results show that, in all cases, our proposed approach for quality balancing yields improved recognition performance, which is especially effective when involving SWIR images at a longer standoff. Our approach outperforms another easy and straightforward downgrading approach. The cascaded face enhancement structure is also shown to be beneficial and necessary. Finally, inspired by the singular value decomposition (SVD) theory, the proposed deblurring model of SVDFace is succinct, efficient and interpretable in structure. It is proven to be advantageous over traditional deblurring algorithms as well as state-of-the-art deep-learning-based deblurring algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is driven by the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs). An unmet need in the field is the translation of the genomic landscape into effective TSG-specific therapies. Methods: We correlated genomes against transcriptomes of patients' MPM tumors, by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). The identified aberrant biochemical networks and potential drug targets induced by tumor suppressor loss were validated by integrative data analysis and functional interrogation. Results: CDKN2A/2B loss activates G2/M checkpoint and PI3K/AKT, prioritizing a co-targeting strategy for CDKN2A/2B-null MPM. CDKN2A deficiency significantly co-occurs with deletions of anti-viral type I interferon (IFN-I) genes and BAP1 mutations, that enriches the IFN-I signature, stratifying a unique subset, with deficient IFN-I, but proficient BAP1 for oncolytic viral immunotherapies. Aberrant p53 attenuates differentiation and SETD2 loss acquires the dependency on EGFRs, highlighting the potential of differentiation therapy and pan-EGFR inhibitors for these subpopulations, respectively. LATS2 deficiency is linked with dysregulated immunoregulation, suggesting a rationale for immune checkpoint blockade. Finally, multiple lines of evidence support Dasatinib as a promising therapeutic for LATS2-mutant MPM. Conclusions: Systematic identification of abnormal cellular processes and potential drug vulnerabilities specified by TSG alterations provide a framework for precision oncology in MPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed an efficient method for synthesis of substituted N-benzoylindole via Pd(II)-catalyzed C–H functionalization of substituted N-(2-allylphenyl)benzamide. The reaction showed a broad substrate scope (including N-acetyl and N-Ts substrates) and substituted indoles were obtained in good to excellent yields. The most distinctive feature of this method lies in the high selectivity for N-benzoylindole over benzoxazine, and this is the first example of Pd(II)-catalyzed synthesis of substituted N-benzoylindole. Notably, this new method was applied for the synthesis of key intermediate of indomethacin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language has been one of the most effective ways of human communication and information exchange. To solve the problem of non-contact robust speech recognition, recovery, and surveillance, this paper presents a speech recovery technology based on a 24 GHz portable auditory radar and webcam. The continuous-wave auditory radar is utilized to extract the vocal vibration signal, and the webcam is used to obtain the fitted formant frequency. The traditional formant speech synthesizer is selected to synthesize and recover speech, using the vocal vibration signal as the sound source excitation and the fitted formant frequency as the vocal tract resonance characteristics. Experiments on reading single English characters and words are carried out. Using microphone records as a reference, the effectiveness of the proposed speech recovery technology is verified. Mean opinion scores show a relatively high consistency between the synthesized speech and original acoustic speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preoperative assessment of tumor invasiveness is essential to avoid overtreatment for patients with small-sized ground-glass nodules (GGNs) of 10 mm or less in diameter. However, it is difficult to determine the pathological state by computed tomography (CT) examination alone. Aberrant glycans has emerged as a tool to identify novel potential disease biomarkers. In this study, we used a lectin microarray-based strategy to investigate whether glycosylation changes in plasma immunoglobulin G (IgG) provide additional information about the invasiveness of small GGNs before surgery. Two independent cohorts (discovery set, n = 92; test set, n = 210) of GGN patients were used. Five of 45 lectins (Sambucus nigra agglutinin, SNA; Datura stramonium agglutinin, DSA; Galanthus nivalis agglutinin, GNA; Euonymus europaeus lectin, EEL; and Vicia villosa agglutinin, VVA) were identified as independent factors associated with pathological invasiveness of small GGNs (p < 0.01). Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated the combination of these five lectins could significantly improve the accuracy of CT in diagnosing invasive GGNs, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.792 (p < 0.001), a sensitivity of 74.6%, and specificity of 74.4%, which was superior to current clinical biomarkers. These results suggest that the multilectin assay based on plasma IgG glycosylation may be a useful in vitro complementary test to enhance preoperative determination of the invasiveness of GGNs and guide surgeons to select proper clinical management to avoid overtreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]