Search

BackgroundOpioid use disorder presents a public health issue afflicting millions across the globe. There is a pressing need to understand the opioid supply chain to gain new insights into the mitigation of opioid use and effectively combat the opioid crisis. The role of anonymous online marketplaces and forums that resemble eBay or Amazon, where anyone can post, browse, and purchase opioid commodities, has become increasingly important in opioid trading. Therefore, a greater understanding of anonymous markets and forums may enable public health officials and other stakeholders to comprehend the scope of the crisis. However, to the best of our knowledge, no large-scale study, which may cross multiple anonymous marketplaces and is cross-sectional, has been conducted to profile the opioid supply chain and unveil characteristics of opioid suppliers, commodities, and transactions. ObjectiveWe aimed to profile the opioid supply chain in anonymous markets and forums via a large-scale, longitudinal measurement study on anonymous market listings and posts. Toward this, we propose a series of techniques to collect data; identify opioid jargon terms used in the anonymous marketplaces and forums; and profile the opioid commodities, suppliers, and transactions. MethodsWe first conducted a whole-site crawl of anonymous online marketplaces and forums to solicit data. We then developed a suite of opioid domain–specific text mining techniques (eg, opioid jargon detection and opioid trading information retrieval) to recognize information relevant to opioid trading activities (eg, commodities, price, shipping information, and suppliers). Subsequently, we conducted a comprehensive, large-scale, longitudinal study to demystify opioid trading activities in anonymous markets and forums. ResultsA total of 248,359 listings from 10 anonymous online marketplaces and 1,138,961 traces (ie, threads of posts) from 6 underground forums were collected. Among them, we identified 28,106 opioid product listings and 13,508 opioid-related promotional and review forum traces from 5147 unique opioid suppliers’ IDs and 2778 unique opioid buyers’ IDs. Our study characterized opioid suppliers (eg, activeness and cross-market activities), commodities (eg, popular items and their evolution), and transactions (eg, origins and shipping destination) in anonymous marketplaces and forums, which enabled a greater understanding of the underground trading activities involved in international opioid supply and demand. ConclusionsThe results provide insight into opioid trading in the anonymous markets and forums and may prove an effective mitigation data point for illuminating the opioid supply chain.

Simple Summary: As a growth-promoting additive, taurine has various physiological functions in aquatic animals. However, few studies have explored the effects of taurine intake on gastropod species' growth performance and other physiological metabolism. The present study evaluates the effects of different taurine supplementation levels (0.0% as control, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, and 3.0%) on the growth performance, lipid composition, and antioxidant ability of juvenile ivory shells Babylonia areolata and obtains the optimum concentration of taurine for ivory shell culture. The results showed that (1) moderate taurine supplementation in an artificial diet (about 1.5–2.0%) could significantly improve the growth performance and antioxidant ability of ivory shells; (2) taurine supplementation could change the lipid composition of juvenile ivory shells; and (3) taurine supplementation could increase the expression of orexin and Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and inhibit the expression of leptin and cholecyatoklnin. In this study, an eight-week feeding trial was performed to investigate the effects of different taurine supplementation levels (0.0% as control, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, and 3.0%) on the growth performance, lipid composition, and antioxidant ability in juvenile ivory shells Babylonia areolata. The results showed that taurine supplementation significantly improved the specific growth rates (SGRs) and survival rates of ivory shell (except the survival rate in the 3.0% taurine diet group) (p < 0.05). The SGRs showed an increasing and then decreasing tendency with increasing dietary taurine supplementation, and the highest value was observed in the 2.0% taurine diet (2.60%/d). The taurine content in the muscle of ivory shells fed taurine-supplemented diets significantly increased when compared to the control group (p < 0.05). The profiles of C22:2n6 in the muscle of ivory shells fed taurine-supplemented diets were significantly higher than in the control group (p < 0.05), and the highest values were observed in the 2.0% taurine supplementation group. The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) content in the hepatopancreas showed an increasing and then decreasing tendency with increasing dietary taurine supplementation, while the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentration showed a decreasing tendency. Furthermore, the activities of pepsin and lipase in both the intestine and hepatopancreas significantly increased at moderate taurine supplementation levels compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Accordingly, obvious increases in the histological parameters in the intestine of ivory shells fed taurine-supplemented diets were also found. As for the antioxidant ability, the activities of the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) showed an increasing and then decreasing tendency with increasing dietary taurine supplementation, and the highest values were observed in the 1.0% and 1.0–2.0% taurine supplementation groups, respectively; the malondialdehyde (MDA) contents significantly decreased with increasing dietary taurine supplementation (p < 0.05). The taurine intake affected the expression of four appetite-related genes in the hepatopancreas, in which orexin and NPY showed an increasing and then decreasing tendency, while leptin and cholecyatoklnin decreased with increasing dietary taurine supplementation. In conclusion, moderate taurine supplementation in an artificial diet (about 1.5–2.0%) could improve the growth performance and antioxidant ability and change the lipid composition of juvenile ivory shells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepcidin, a cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptide, has a highly conserved gene structure in teleosts, and it plays an essential role in host immune response against various pathogenic bacteria. Nonetheless, few studies on the antibacterial mechanism of hepcidin in golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) have been reported. In this study, we synthesized a derived peptide, TroHepc2-22, from the mature peptide of T. ovatus hepcidin2. Our results showed that TroHepc2-22 has superior antibacterial abilities against both Gram-negative (Vibrio harveyi and Edwardsiella piscicida) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae) bacteria. Based on the results of a bacterial membrane depolarization assay and propidium iodide (PI) staining assay in vitro, TroHepc2-22 displayed antimicrobial activity by inducing the bacterial membrane depolarization and changing the bacterial membrane permeability. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) visualization illustrated that TroHepc2-22 brought about membrane rupturing and the leakage of the cytoplasm for the bacteria. In addition, TroHepc2-22 was verified to have hydrolytic activity on bacterial genomic DNA in view of the results of the gel retardation assay. In terms of the in vivo assay, the bacterial loads of V. harveyi in the tested immune tissues (liver, spleen, and head kidney) were significantly reduced in T. ovatus, revealing that TroHepc2-22 significantly enhanced the resistance against V. harveyi infection. Furthermore, the expressions of immune-related genes, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin 1-β (IL-1β), IL-6, Toll-like receptor 1 (TLR1), and myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) were significantly increased, indicating that TroHepc2-22 might regulate inflammatory cytokines and activate immune-related signaling pathways. To summarize, TroHepc2-22 possesses appreciable antimicrobial activity and plays a vital role in resisting bacterial infection. The observation of our present study unveils the excellent application prospect of hepcidin as a substitute for antibiotics to resist pathogenic microorganisms in teleosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) could regulate various biological processes. Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) is one of the primary germs of the Humpback grouper (Cromileptes altivelis), a commercial fish of great importance for Asian aquaculture. However, there is limited available information on the host-virus interactions of C. altivelis. miRNAs have been shown to play key roles in the host response to infection by a variety of pathogens. To better understand the regulatory mechanism of miRNAs, we constructed miRNA transcriptomes and identified immune-related miRNAs of C. altivelis spleen in response to NNV infection. Reads from the three libraries were mapped onto the Danio rerio reference genome. As a result, a total of 942 mature miRNAs were determined, with 266 known miRNAs and 676 novel miRNAs. Among them, thirty-two differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRs) were identified compared to the PBS control. These DEmiRs were targeted on 895 genes, respectively, by using miRanda v3.3a. Then, 14 DEmiRs were validated by qRT-PCR and showed consistency with those obtained from high-throughput sequencing. In order to study the relationship between viral infection and host miRNA, a cell line from C. altivelis brain (CAB) was used to examine the expressions of five known DEmiRs (miR-132-3p, miR-194a, miR-155, miR-203b-5p, and miR-146) during NNV infection. The results showed that one miRNA, cal-miRNA-155, displayed significantly increased expression in response to the virus infection. Subsequently, it was proved that overexpression of cal-miR-155 enhanced cell apoptosis with or without NNV infection and inhibited virus replication in CAB cells. Oppositely, the cal-miRNA-155 inhibitor markedly suppressed apoptosis in CAB cells. The results of the apoptosis-related genes mRNA expression also showed the regulation of cal-miR-155 on the apoptosis process in CAB cells. These findings verify that miR-155 might exert a function as a pro-apoptotic factor in reply to NNV stimulation in CAB cells and help us further study the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of NNV in C. altivelis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The railgun is a promising weapon, but suffers from poor contact and harsh magnetic field environment. We used the moment of inertia to measure the deformation resistance of the rail, studied the contact characteristics of the railgun by contact force, and compared the performances of different structures of the rail. The magnetic field environment in the bore and the thrust on the armature of different structure railguns were studied by FEM-BEM simulation, and the final structure of the hyperbolic augmented quadrupole railgun was determined. The new structure of the railgun possesses better deformation resistance and contact characteristics, and can provide an electromagnetic shielding area and greater thrust. The test results show that the proposed railgun exhibits less rail damage and less armature ablation after launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on second-level L-band sounding data, the vertical distribution and variation of meteorological elements at airports in 2010–2020 are investigated. At the same time, the relationships between airport visibility and meteorological elements at different potential heights are also investigated. Then, based on hourly measurements of 26 meteorological elements in 2018–2020, the hourly visibility of airports is predicted by 9 artificial intelligence algorithm models. The analyses show: (1) For the vertical changes in four meteorological elements of the airports, the negative vertical trends of temperature and relative humidity increase clearly from northwestern to southeastern China. The significant negative trend of air pressure in the vertical direction in the eastern China is greater. (2) Within about 2000 geopotential metres (gpm) from the ground, the visibility has a strong correlation with the air pressure, and most of them are negative. Within 400 gpm from the ground, airport visibility is negatively correlated with the relative humidity. At 8:00 a.m., airport visibility is positively correlated with the wind speed within 2000 gpm from the ground at most airports, while at 20:00 p.m., the positive correlation mainly appears within 400 gpm from the ground. (3) The passive aggressive regression-(PAR) and isotonic regression-(IST) based models have the worst effect on airport visibility prediction. The dispersion degree of the visibility simulation results obtained by Huber regression-(HBR) and random sample consensus regression-(RANSAC) based models is relatively consistent with the observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic railgun is a launcher that relies on electrical energy to do work to propel a projectile to high speed. In the military application of railgun, the acquisition and adjustment of projectile movement characteristics, including acceleration and velocity, are very important. In order to realize the rapid calculation of the projectile movement characteristics and the precise adjustment of the thrust, the force and projectile movement characteristics for a complex structure railgun, augmented quadrupole hyperbolic railgun, were studied by the method of field-circuit coupling. Based on Biot-savart Law and accurate fitting of current distribution, the electromagnetic characteristics and force characteristics of the launcher are analyzed, and the iterative method is used to realize the coupling between the pulse forming network and the calculation of the force on launcher and finally solve the movement of the launcher projectile characteristic. Comparing the calculation and experiment, the error of speed calculating with this method is small in the low speed stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To evaluate the research frontiers and evolution laws in the field of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) and to predict the next direction of development. Background: In recent years, the clinical applications of ERAS have been widely recognized by the medical community. Nursing work is present throughout the entire process, and nurses not only play a role in multidisciplinary coordination but also maintain independent professional characteristics. Methods: The citation analysis method was used to analyse the research documents in the Web of Science database over the last 10 years. Results: The number of documents in the field published from 2011 to 2020 increased annually. The application in colorectal surgery was the most important research frontier. From 2016 to 2020, the research frontiers were diversified. The application in colorectal surgery remains the most important research frontier, and perioperative nursing will play an important role in the future. Conclusions: This study used citation analysis to analyse the research frontiers and evolution of ERAS in the last 10 years. Implications for nursing management: This research will help nursing managers to carry out research and clinical promotion plans in the ERAS field and guide the transformation of scientific research achievements into nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trepibutone was widely used for cholelithiasis, cholecystitis, biliary tract dyskinesia, cholecystectomy syndrome, and chronic pancreatitis in clinic. However, few investigations on trepibutone have been conducted. In this study, an accurate, sensitive, and selective analytical method was developed and successfully applied to assess the pharmacokinetic behavior of trepibutone in rats. Trepibutone and carbamazepine (internal standard, IS) were quantified using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode with the transitions of m/z 311.09→265.08 and m/z 237.06→194.08, respectively. The linearity, precision, accuracy, extraction recovery, matrix effect, and stability of the established method were all excellent within acceptable range. A total of 30 metabolites were identified in plasma and urine by Q-Exactive high resolution mass spectrometry, and several common metabolic pathways were observed such as dealkylation, oxidation, reduction, glucuronidation, and so on. This research provides more information on trepibutone in pharmacodynamics and toxicology and will assist the usage of trepibutone in clinical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide-beam and broadband dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with broadside pattern is proposed and analyzed. The excellent performance of wide beam is achieved by designing the metal ground. In addition, the antenna has broad bandwidth by introducing an air gap between the dielectric resonator (DR) and the ground. From simulated results, the impedance bandwidth (S11 < −10 dB) of the proposed antenna is about 35%, from 2.8 to 4 GHz, and the maximum 3 dB beam width in H-plane is greater than 210°. A prototype of the proposed DRA is produced and tested. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the vibration performance of simply supported slotted plate using structural intensity (SI) method. First, the SI distribution of the slotted plate under given excitation for different slot depths is obtained using finite element methods. The SI streamline of each case shows that the SI distribution can be significantly affected by adjusting the slot depth. The optimal position of dampers which can effectively implement vibration control of slotted plate for the fixed value of exciting frequency can be obtained from the SI streamline distribution. In case of changing vibrating frequencies, a new strategy of vibration control by adding soft material (hydrogel) layers is proposed. The main advantage of this strategy is that the properties of hydrogel can be easily adjusted by changing the chemical potential, thereby achieving the desired vibration control for different excitation conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed vibration control using hydrogel layers is investigated using SI method. The SI distribution and SI streamlines of the slotted plate with the new vibration control show that the proposed strategy is convenient. Our proposed method conceptualizes a new approach toward vibration control using constrained hydrogel layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the partial substitution of Li + for Mg 2+ on the microstructure and microwave dielectric properties of ceramics with nominal composition Li 2x Mg 2−x SiO 4 (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 1.25) were investigated. Li 2x Mg 2−x SiO 4 powders were synthesised by the traditional solid-state reaction. A fixed amount of Li 2 O-B 2 O 3 -Bi 2 O 3 -SiO 2 (LBBS) glass was used as a sintering aid to help decrease the sintering temperature to around 900 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the sintered specimens revealed that the phase of Li 2 MgSiO 4 gradually replaced that of Mg 2 SiO 4 as the major phase with increased x content in the ceramics with said nominal composition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that moderate Li substitution contributed to densification and uniform grains in the Li 2x Mg 2−x SiO 4 (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 1.25) ceramics. Additionally, microwave dielectric properties were strongly related to the substitution content and sintering temperature. The sintered sample of ceramics with nominal composition Li 2x Mg 2−x SiO 4 exhibited good microwave dielectric properties when x = 1 and sintered at 900 °C: ε r = 6.1, Q × f = 44,500 GHz and τ f = − 13 ppm / ℃ . These findings indicated high potential for LTCC applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guangzhou City, which is located in Hot Summer and Warm Winter Area, has the climate of high temperature and high humidity most of the time, and its urban heat island effect is quite obvious. Urban rivers can improve the urban thermal environment as a natural cooling source, as well as a favorable urban air path. This paper takes advantage of the remote sensing image data by ENVI software, combines the meteorological data from the weather stations distributed in the urban area, and analyses the influence of Pearl River on the surrounding area by some environment parameters, such as temperature, wind velocity and so on. The results show that urban river changes the surrounding airflow. The wind velocity in the area near the river is larger than that in the urban central area with high density of buildings, and the variation of wind direction in these areas is less frequent. The urban heat island intensity nearby the river is lower. The results also show the correlation between the complexity of urban underlying surface and the range influenced by the river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of Li 2 O-MgO-ZnO 2 -B 2 O 3 -SiO 2 (LMZBS) glass on the microstructure, sintering behaviour and microwave dielectric properties of Li(Zn 0.95 Co 0.05 ) 1.5 SiO 4 ceramics. Li(Zn 0.95 Co 0.05 ) 1.5 SiO 4 powders were synthesised by a traditional solid-state route and added with different amounts of LMZBS glass (0–4 wt%) to decrease the sintering temperature of the ceramics to approximately 900 °C. The XRD patterns showed that no chemical reactions occurred between the Li(Zn 0.95 Co 0.05 ) 1.5 SiO 4 ceramics and the LMZBS glass within the doping range. The SEM images indicated that the sample added with 1.5 wt% glass and sintered at 900 °C exhibited a compact and uniform microstructure. In particular, the microwave dielectric properties of the products were related to LMZBS glass content and sintering temperature. The sample with 1.5 wt% LMZBS glass exhibited excellent microwave dielectric properties, namely, ε r =6.12, Q × f =83,600 GHz and τ f = − 39.1 ppm / ℃ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoke detection technology based on computer vision is a popular research direction in fire detection. This technology is widely used in outdoor fire detection fields (e.g., forest fire detection). Smoke detection is often based on features such as color, shape, texture, and motion to distinguish between smoke and non-smoke objects. However, the salience and robustness of these features are insufficiently strong, resulting in low smoke detection performance under complex environment. Deep learning technology has improved smoke detection performance to a certain degree, but extracting smoke detail features is difficult when the number of network layers is small. With no effective use of smoke motion characteristics, indicators such as false alarm rate are high in video smoke detection. To enhance the detection performance of smoke objects in videos, this paper proposes a concept of change-cumulative image by converting the YUV color space of multi-frame video images into a change-cumulative image, which can represent the motion and color-change characteristics of smoke. Then, a fusion deep network is designed, which increases the depth of the VGG16 network by arranging two convolutional layers after each of its convolutional layer. The VGG16 and Resnet50 (Deep residual network) network models are also arranged using the fusion deep network to improve feature expression ability while increasing the depth of the whole network. Doing so can help extract additional discriminating characteristics of smoke. Experimental results show that by using the change-cumulative image as the input image of the deep network model, smoke detection performance is superior to the classic RGB input image; the smoke detection performance of the fusion deep network model is better than that of the single VGG16 and Resnet50 network models; the smoke detection accuracy, false positive rate, and false alarm rate of this method are better than those of the current popular methods of video smoke detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cathepsins, as a class of protein hydrolases, are widely found in the lysosomes of many tissues and play an essential role in various physiological activities. Cathepsin C (CTSC), a lysosomal cysteine protease, is an essential component of the lysosomal hydrolase family. In this study, we identified a CTSC from Trachinotus ovatus (TroCTSC) and analyzed its function. TroCTSC contained an ORF of 1368 bp and encoded 455 amino acids, which included three conserved catalytically active sites (Cys251, His397, and Asn419). It shares high homology (69.47%–90.77%) with the other known CTSC sequences of teleosts, which was most closely related to Seriola dumerili. TroCTSC was most abundant in the muscle, liver, and head kidney. After Vibrio harveyi infection, the expression levels of TroCTSC in liver, spleen, and head kidney were significantly up-regulated. TroCTSC was found in the cytoplasm with some of which were co-located with the lysosome. After V. harveyi stimulation, TroCTSC was translocated to nucleus in golden pompano snout (GPS) cells. In vitro, results revealed that the optimal hydrolase activity of the recombinant protein, rTroCTSC, was at 40 °C and pH 5.5. The activity of rTroCTSC was promoted by Zn2+ and Ca2+ but inhibited by Fe2+ and Cu2+. However, three mutant proteins, rTroCTSC-C251A, rTroCTSC-H397A, rTroCTSC-N419A, were dramatically reduced the proteolytic activity. Furthermore, in vivo results showed that overexpression of TroCTSC could significantly enhance body's ability to resist V. harveyi and promote the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β), IL-6 , IL-8 , interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). In contrast, the interference of TroCTSC expression induced a significant increase in the number of bacteria after V. harveyi infection. Our results suggested that TroCTSC was an essential effector of the innate immune system and played a pivotal role in antibacterial immunity. • Cathepsin C (TroCTSC) was identified and characterized from golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus), and had hydrolase activity. • TroCTSC was found in the cytoplasm with some of which were co-located with the lysosome. • The three conserved sites (Cys251, His397, and Asn419) were essential for hydrolase activity of TroCTSC. • TroCTSC was an essential effector of the innate immune system and played a pivotal role in antibacterial immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (ACP5) plays an important biological function in immune defense and is highly expressed in activated macrophages, osteoclasts and dendritic cells. In teleost, the functionality of ACP5 remains to be revealed. In this study, we cloned and identified SoACP5 from red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) and analyzed its function in vivo and in vitro. The open reading frame of SoACP5 is 1002 bp in length, encoding 333 amino acids. SoACP5 shares high sequence identities (96.70%–49.25%) with ACP5 of other species. The SoACP5 mRNA was widely distributed in collected tissues of healthy red drum, and with the maximum in gills. The expression of SoACP5 increased significantly in vivo following challenge with Edwardsiella tarda. Moreover, the recombinant SoACP5 protein (rSoACP5) was purified with his-tag band resin columns, and confirmed to have phosphatase activity which was optimal at pH 5 and 55 °C. Various metal ions (K+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cu2+, Fe2+ and Fe3+) have different effects on phosphatase activity. rSoACP5 induced the cellular proliferation of peripheral blood leukocytes. The over-expression and knockdown of SoACP5 in vivo had a significant effect on bacterial proliferation. Furthermore, both of the antibacterial activity and phosphatase activity were decreased when the reducedSoACP5 was oxidized by H 2 O 2. In summary, the present study indicated that SoACP5 is likely involved in host defense against bacterial infection in S. ocellatus. • We cloned and identified tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (SoACP5) from red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus). • Overexpression and knockdown analysis showed that SoACP5 played an important role in Edwardsiella tarda infection. • The activity of rSoACP5 was especially affected by calcium ions. • rSoACP5 could promote peripheral blood leukocytes proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatiotemporal dynamics in the brain have been recognized as strongly related to the formation of perceived and cognitive diseases, such as delusions and hallucinations in Alzheimer's disease. However, two practical considerations are rarely mentioned in related mechanism research: the connectomics networking and the anomalous diffusion generated by the complex medium between neurons and the complex topology of neural networks, respectively. Furthermore, how to optimize the corresponding dynamics behaviors has excellent implications for treating brain diseases. This article first realizes the networking under connectomics for an anomalous-diffusion single-neuron model and applies a nonlinear state feedback control to generate optimized dynamic behaviors, which provides a paradigm of nonequilibrium self-organization driven by anomalous diffusion. Then, by tracing the root distribution of the characteristic equation, some controlled conditions causing or inhibiting Turing instability and Hopf bifurcation are deduced, and the effects of self-diffusion and cross diffusion on Turing instability range are also revealed. At last, thorough numerical simulations are updated to illustrate the results. It is emphasized that delay, self-diffusion, cross diffusion, and fractional order occupy dominant positions in determining the network's spatiotemporal dynamics, and utilizing the control strategy can efficiently reduce Turing instability and delay Hopf bifurcation.

In recent years, the analysis of the dynamics of annular neural networks has received extensive attention and achieved some achievements. However, most of the current research merely focuses on the single-ring, low-dimension, two rings sharing one neuron cases, without considering the rich coupling modes between rings. In this article, a large-scale time-delay fractional-order dual-loop neural network model with cross-coupling structure is established, in which two rings complete information interaction through two shared neurons. Moreover, the Caputo fractional derivative is introduced in this article to describe the neural network more accurately. First, the transmission time delay between each neuron is selected as the key parameter leading to the bifurcation, and the characteristic equation of the network is creatively derived using the Coates flow graph method. Subsequently, through the holistic element method and magnitude angle formula, we simplify the analytical process. Then, we obtain the stability and Hopf bifurcation criterion of the network. Finally, the conclusions of the theoretical analysis are verified by a series of numerical simulations. The results show that the stability region of the network is closely related to the fractional order, the number of neurons, the distribution of neurons, and the self-feedback coefficients. Moreover, the time delays have a significant effect on the amplitude and period of the Hopf bifurcation.

Introduction: Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 5 (IGFBP5) exerts an essential biological role in many processes, including apoptosis, cellular differentiation, growth, and immune responses. However, compared to mammalians, our knowledge of IGFBP5 in teleosts remains limited., Methods: In this study, TroIGFBP5b, an IGFBP5 homologue from golden pompano ( Trachinotus ovatus ) was identified. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to check its mRNA expression level in healthy condition and after stimulation. In vivo overexpression and RNAi knockdown method were performed to evaluate the antibacterial profile. We constructed a mutant in which HBM was deleted to better understand the mechanism of its role in antibacterial immunity. Subcellular localization and nuclear translocation were verified by immunoblotting. Further, proliferation of head kidney lymphocytes (HKLs) and phagocytic activity of head kidney macrophages (HKMs) were detected through CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry. Immunofluorescence microscopy assay (IFA) and dual luciferase reporter (DLR) assay were used to evaluate the activity in nuclear factor-κB (NF-κβ) pathway., Results: The TroIGFBP5b mRNA expression level was upregulated after bacterial stimulation. In vivo , TroIGFBP5b overexpression significantly improved the antibacterial immunity of fish. In contrast, TroIGFBP5b knockdown significantly decreased this ability. Subcellular localization results showed that TroIGFBP5b and TroIGFBP5b-δHBM were both present in the cytoplasm of GPS cells. After stimulation, TroIGFBP5b-δHBM lost the ability to transfer from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. In addition, rTroIGFBP5b promoted the proliferation of HKLs and phagocytosis of HKMs, whereas rTroIGFBP5b-δHBM, suppressed these facilitation effects. Moreover, the in vivo antibacterial ability of TroIGFBP5b was suppressed and the effects of promoting expression of proinflammatory cytokines in immune tissues were nearly lost after HBM deletion. Furthermore, TroIGFBP5b induced NF-κβ promoter activity and promoted nuclear translocation of p65, while these effects were inhibited when the HBM was deleted., Discussion: Taken together, our results suggest that TroIGFBP5b plays an important role in golden pompano antibacterial immunity and activation of the NF-κβ signalling pathway, providing the first evidence that the HBM of TroIGFBP5b plays a critical role in these processes in teleosts., 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 © 2023 Du, Zhou, Du, Zhang, Cao and Sun.)

Coherence scanning interferometry (CSI) is a common optical measurement method for measuring three-dimensional surface profiles. However, batwings and ghost steps are common obstacles in CSI. In this paper, we proposed a gap-matching algorithm with the improved complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (impCEEMDAN) to solve the above two obstacles without any priori knowledge of the surface geometry from the tested sample. A micro-component with 500 nm and 1200 nm step heights and a 10 µm standard step of were used as test samples to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method. Simulations and experimental results show that this approach can effectively suppress the batwings effect and eliminate the ghost steps. Experiments also confirm that the approach has good accuracy and repeatability.

Normalizing the disordered tumor vasculature, rather than blocking it, is a novel method for anticancer therapy. Astragali polysaccharide (APS) and curcumin were reported to be active against carcinomas. However, the effect and mechanism of the combination of APS and curcumin on vascular normalization in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was not clear. In the present study, effects of combined APS and curcumin on tumor vascular normalization were evaluated in HepG2 tumor-bearing mice. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) was performed to observe the morphological structure of tumor vessels in vivo. The microstructure of the tumor vessels was also analyzed through scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, the expression of CD31 and NG2 was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining. Tumor vessels of HepG2 tumor-bearing mice treated with the combination were sparse with uniform growth, morphology rules, and complete vascular walls, which had fewer branches and sprouts. ECs of tumor vessels were arranged regularly and were tightly connected, tending toward normalization. The expression of CD31 was reduced while NG2 was increased significantly by the combination of APS and curcumin. The results indicated that APS and curcumin in combination showed a better effect on inhibiting tumor growth in an orthotopic nude-mouse model of HCC. More important, the combination induced normalization of tumor vascular better than APS or curcumin administration alone, improving the morphological structure of tumor vessels and promoting maturation of tumor vessels. The results of the present study provided a reasonable possibility for combination therapy of APS and curcumin in the treatment of HCC via tumor vascular normalization.