Search

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between 2-h post-load minus fasting plasma glucose (2hPG-FPG) and 1-year clinical outcomes, such as death, stroke recurrence, and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≥2–3 among acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients without diabetes mellitus (DM) history. Methods: 1,214 AIS patients without DM history, obtained from ACROSS-China, were divided into 4 quartiles, based on 2hPG-FPG measurements obtained 14 days post-admission. Four models were constructed using multivariate Cox and logistic regression analyses, based on the inclusion of age, gender, trial of ORG 10172 in acute stroke treatment, NIH Stroke Scale scores (model 1), plus 10 other clinical parameters (model 2), plus newly diagnosed DM (NDDM) post-admission (model 3), plus 2hPG and FPG (model 4). Associations found from those 4 models between 2hPG-FPG and 1-year clinical outcomes were confirmed via stratification, multiplicative interaction, sensitivity, and restricted cubic spline analyses. Results: The highest quartile of 2hPG-FPG, after adjusting for variables, such as stroke severity (model 2), was independently associated with death, stroke recurrence, and mRS ≥2–3 (odds ratio [OR] = 3.95, 2.96, 4.15, and 4.83, respectively, all p < 0.0001). Increased 2hPG-FPG remained independently associated with mRS ≥2–3 in models 3–4, as well as increased mRS ≥2 under stratification analyses among both non-NDDM and NDDM patients. Conclusion: 2hPG-FPG is a relatively specific indicator of poorer 1-year clinical prognoses among AIS patients, independent of NDDM, 2hPG, and FPG post-hospital admission. Therefore, the oral glucose tolerance test could be a useful approach for detecting a higher likelihood for developing poorer prognoses among patients without DM history.

Federated learning (FL) can help promote data privacy by training a shared model in a de-centralized manner on the physical devices of clients. In the presence of highly heterogeneous distributions of local data, personalized FL strategy seeks to mitigate the potential client drift. In this paper, we present the group personalization approach for applications of FL in which there exist inherent partitions among clients that are significantly distinct. In our method, the global FL model is fine-tuned through another FL training process over each homogeneous group of clients, after which each group-specific FL model is further adapted and personalized for any client. The proposed method can be well interpreted from a Bayesian hierarchical modeling perspective. With experiments on two real-world datasets, we demonstrate this approach can achieve superior personalization performance than other FL counterparts.

Some florfenicol (FF) metabolites have a strong binding affinity towards biomolecules in the edible tissues of some food animals. These bound FF residues cannot be extracted directly from edible tissues with organic solvents and are present in higher concentrations even than solvent extractable residues. In this study, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was established to detect the total residues of FF in eggs, by quantifying the metabolite florfenicol amine (FFA). The sample was hydrolyzed at 95-100 °C for 4 hours to release sample-matrix bound residues and convert them all into FFA. The hydrolyzed sample was washed with ethyl acetate to remove interfering substances, extracted with ethyl acetate under alkaline conditions, purified by solid phase extraction and quantified by UPLC-MS/MS. The recoveries of FFA in eggs ranged from 91.2 to 102.4%, with an RSD ≤ 10.9%. The LOD and LOQ were 0.5 and 1.0 μg/kg, respectively. This method can be applied to the quantification of total FF residues in eggs.

A high-fat diet plays a key role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, and this effect on the gut can also occur in the offspring of mothers with a high-fat diet. In this review, we discuss the role of a high-fat diet in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer and summarize the effects of a maternal high-fat diet on the activation of inflammation and development of colorectal cancer in offspring. Studies have found that a maternal high-fat diet primarily induces an inflammatory response in the colorectal tissue of both the mother herself and the offspring during pregnancy. This leads to the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the colorectal tissue and the release of inflammatory cytokines, which further activate the NF-κb and related inflammatory signaling pathways. Research suggests that high levels of lipids and inflammatory factors from mothers with a high-fat diet are passed to the offspring through the transplacental route, which induces colorectal inflammation, impairs the intestinal microecological structure and the intestinal barrier, and interferes with intestinal development in the offspring. This in turn activates the NF-κb and related signaling pathways, which further aggravates intestinal inflammation. This process of continuous inflammatory stimulation and repair may promote the uncontrolled proliferation of colorectal mucosal cells in the offspring, thus increasing their susceptibility to colorectal cancer.

Red raspberry contains a variety of bioactive ingredients and has high edible and medicinal value. Red raspberry extractions (RREs) have strong antioxidant capacity and anticancer ability in vivo and in vitro. This study was to explore the specific mechanism of RREs inhibiting the proliferation of liver cancer HepG2 cells and provide a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of liver cancer by RREs. HepG2 cells were cultured in vitro, and MTT assay was adopted to detect the effect of RREs on HepG2 cell activity. Colony formation assay was applied to detect the growth and proliferation of cells, cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, and dichloro-dihydro-fluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) assay was adopted to detect the effect of RREs on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells. The effect of RREs on cell mitochondrial membrane potential was evaluated by mitochondrial membrane potential assay kit with JC-1 (JC-1 assay), and western blot was used to detect the expression of apoptosis-related proteins (B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated x (Bax), and Caspase-3), thus investigating the effect of RREs on the molecular mechanism of HepG2 cell apoptosis. The results showed that RREs could inhibit the proliferation activity of HepG2 cells and promote their apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. The level of ROS in HepG2 cells interfered by RREs increased markedly, while the cell mitochondrial membrane potential decreased sharply. As the concentration of HepG2 increased, the mitochondrial membrane potential reduced steeply. Western blot results showed that the expression of apoptosis-related protein Bcl-2 in the RREs treatment group dropped, but the expression of Bax and Caspase-3 rose. In summary, RREs could inhibit the proliferation of liver cancer HepG2 cells and promote their apoptosis. This inhibition might be executed by inducing HepG2 cells to produce ROS, a decrease in Bcl-2/Bax protein ratio, and an obvious reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential.

Recently, functional homotopy (FH) architecture, defined as robust functional connectivity (FC) between homotopic regions, has been frequently reported to be altered in MDD patients (MDDs) but with divergent locations.In this study, we obtained resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) data from 1004 MDDs (mean age, 33.88 years; age range, 18-60 years) and 898 matched healthy controls (HCs) from an aggregated dataset from 20 centers in China. We focused on interhemispheric function integration in MDDs and its correlation with clinical characteristics using voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) devised to inquire about FH patterns.As compared with HCs, MDDs showed decreased VMHC in visual, motor, somatosensory, limbic, angular gyrus, and cerebellum, particularly in posterior cingulate gyrus/precuneus (PCC/PCu) (false discovery rate [FDR] q 0.002, z = -7.07). Further analysis observed that the reduction in SMG and insula was more prominent with age, of which SMG reflected such age-related change in males instead of females. Besides, the reduction in MTG was found to be a male-special abnormal pattern in MDDs. VMHC alterations were markedly related to episode type and illness severity. The higher Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score, the more apparent VMHC reduction in the primary visual cortex. First-episode MDDs revealed stronger VMHC reduction in PCu relative to recurrent MDDs.We confirmed a significant VMHC reduction in MDDs in broad areas, especially in PCC/PCu. This reduction was affected by gender, age, episode type, and illness severity. These findings suggest that the depressive brain tends to disconnect information exchange across hemispheres.

Layup temperature is a vital factor that affects the production quality of automated fiber placement for thermoset composites. For high quality production, this paper proposes a new prediction model of layup temperature by considering the structure of infrared heater of automatic fiber placement equipment. The model was first verified by comparing with the temperature results of layup experiments. Then a prediction on the effects of heater structure arrangement on layup temperature was conducted in the model. The research shows that the length of infrared tube and the radian of reflective-film have significant influences, rather than other parameters. According to this investigation, a heater structure-based heating strategy was presented in the paper to efficiently achieve constant temperature control in variable speed layup process.

The vertical distribution of soil microorganisms in soil indicates the restoration degree of degraded soil ecosystems. We took the untreated bare land and vegetation restoration sample plot in the red soil erosion area of southern China as the object of study; comparatively analysed the soil bacterial community changes in the 0 to 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 30 and 30 to 40 cm soil layers; and explored the environmental factors driving the change in the soil bacterial community. The poor nutrient conditions created by soil erosion increased the competitiveness of autotrophs and made Chloroflexi the dominant phylum of bacteria. Soil erosion led to the gradual similarity of soil bacterial communities in the 0 to 10, 10 to 20 and 20 to 30 cm soil layers. However, only the relative abundance of Actinobacteria changed in different soil layers in the erosion area, mainly due to the inconsistent distribution of soil organic carbon caused by erosion affecting the change in the Actinobacteria relative abundance in the soil layer. After vegetation restoration, the soil properties of the eroded land were obviously improved, and the dominant bacterial phylum changed from autotrophic bacteria ( Chloroflexi) to heterotrophic bacteria ( Actinobacteria). The change in community structure existed only in the 0 to 30 cm soil layer in the restoration area, while the community structure changed to mainly Proteobacteria in the 30 to 40 cm soil layer. The change in the respective proportions of Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria was the main reason for the difference in soil bacterial community structure among soil layers. The change in soil aggregates caused by vegetation restoration was the main environmental factor driving the variation in soil bacterial community structure, and the formation of aggregates was closely related to soil organic carbon. The vertical distribution of Actinobacteria in different soil layers can indicate the degree of soil ecosystem restoration in the red soil erosion area of southern China, and the relationship between Actinobacteria and soil organic carbon was significant.

Background Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are considered as a promising cell type in the stem cell transplantation treatment of neurological diseases because of their rich sources, easy access, and the same ectoderm source as the nervous system. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that shows neuroprotective function in ischemic stroke. Here we assessed the therapeutic effects of HFSCs on ischemic stroke injury and the synthetic effect of HGF along with HFSCs. Methods Rat HFSCs were intravenously transplanted into a middle cerebral artery ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) rat model. Neurological scoring and TTC staining were performed to assess the benefits of HFSC transplantation. Inflammatory cytokines, blood–brain barrier integrity and angiogenesis within penumbra were estimated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The differentiation of HFSCs was detected by immunofluorescence method 2 weeks after transplantation. Results HFSC transplantation could significantly inhibit the activation of microglia, improve the integrity of blood–brain barrier and reduce brain edema. Moreover, the number of surviving neurons and microvessels density in the penumbra were upregulated by HFSC transplantation, leading to better neurological score. The combination of HFSCs and HGF could significantly improve the therapeutic benefit. Conclusion Our results indicate for the first time that HGF modified HFSCs can reduce I/R injury and promote the neurological recovery by inhibiting inflammatory response, protecting blood–brain barrier and promoting angiogenesis.

Adventitious root (AR) formation plays a critical role for the clonal propagation of horticultural crops. In this study, Malus prunifolia var. ringo micro-cuttings were treated with IBA and darkness treatments to investigate the mechanism of darkness effects AR formation. Morphological and anatomical observation revealed that darkness promotes more ARs formation. Root morphology, and hormones level were evaluated during AR formation. Results indicated that darkness promotes AR formation by increasing auxin level at stages of 1 d and 3 d, moreover, ZR, ABA, GA3, BR and JA also changed. The number of ARs in darkness-treated group was significantly higher than that of control treatment; Additionally, genes related to light signal pathway-, hormones-, carbohydrate metabolism-, cell cycle-, and root development were determined by RT-qPCR. Auxin- and cytokinin-related genes, such as MdARF1, MdGH3;1, MdPAT1-1; MdPIN1, MdCRF2, MdCRF4, and MdRR10 were significantly induced by darkness treatment, which corresponded with higher hormones levels. Furthermore, light-signal-related genes (MdASP3, MdATPC1, MdBGLU13, MdCBA1, MdLHCB6, MdLHCA1, MdNPQ4, MdPTE1 and MdPSAL) were also induced by darkness-treatment, resulting changes in the expression profiles of cell cycle-related genes (MdCYCB2;1, MdCYCB2;3–1 and MdCYCB2;3–2) and also in the expression of root development-related genes (MdLRP1, MdRHS19, MdSGR1 and MdSHI). Collectively, darkness treatment mediated auxin-, cytokines-, light signal-, cell cycle-, carbohydrate metabolism-, and root development-related pathways to regulating AR formation. This work laid the foundation for applied research and could be useful in future crop improvement programs. This study revealed that darkness treatment during AR induction phase promoted more AR formation in plant tissue culture, and suggest that natural conditions of darkness should be simulated to improve rooting system in future research.

The variations in the lake area, water level, and water volume change of the Aral Sea from 1987 to 2018 were analyzed in this study, which is based on the multi-temporal Landsat images and remote sensing water body index (Normalized Difference Water Index, NDWI). Lake shorelines were automatically digitized and visualized using Net Shoreline Movement (NSM) and Linear Regression Rate (LRR) by Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). The surface area, water level, and water volume change of the North Aral Sea were not changed significantly in 1987-2018. The maximum lake area appeared in March 2015 with 3550.15 km2, the minimum lake area appeared in October 2001with 2830.56 km2. However, since 2010 the South Aral Sea split into the East Aral Sea and the West Aral Sea, the area change has shrunk dramatically. The area of the East Aral Sea decreased by 17852.65 km2 (89.99 %) from March 2011 to September 2018. The area of the West Aral Sea decreased by 2203.62 km2 (35.96 %) from August 2014 to March 2017. The distance of lake shoreline changes and rates of net movement along transects were determined by DSAS. The two largest positive values of NSM were 18715.93 and 12268.67 m, which showed lake shoreline retreat, occurred in the periods of 2010-2018 in the East Aral Sea and 1987-1999 in the South Aral Sea, respectively. The two periods in which the largest negative value of NSM appeared was (1987-1993) and (2001-2010) in the North Aral Sea, and the lake shoreline expanding distance was 145.43 and 545.84 m, respectively.

Nowadays, there are many dryness indices based on vegetation indices (VIs)-land surface temperature (Ts) feature space. Which dryness index should we use in dryness monitoring? The differences and capabilities for dryness monitoring among seven indices were evaluated in this study. These dryness indices were based on VIs-Ts or Albedo feature space. For instance, Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) from a triangle NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)-Ts feature space (TVDIt), TVDI from bi-parabolic NDVI-Ts feature space (TVDIc), TFDI from FPAR (Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation)-Ts feature space, TVDI from LAI (Leaf Area Index)-Ts feature space (TLDI), TVDI from EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index)-Ts feature space (TEDI), TVDI from SAVI (Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index)-Ts feature space (TSDI) and Vegetation Condition Albedo Dryness Index (VCADI) from NDVI-Albedo feature space. In this study, the assimilated 5/10 cm depth soil moisture, field measured 10 cm depth soil moisture, precipitation, and the assimilated land surface temperature data were selected as the indicators to test the performance of each dryness index in two periods of 2013/2015 and three periods of 2018. The results showed that the spatial distributions of dryness from TVDIc, TVDIt, TFDI, TLDI, TEDI, and TSDI were similar, except for VCADI. The ability of TSDI and TVDIt in dryness monitoring was not as good as TVDIc and TEDI, however, the robustness of them was stable and can be an alternative dryness index. TFDI can be applied to evaluate dryness conditions, but its robustness was not stable and its monitoring performance was not as good as other indices in Shaanxi province, China. Although TLDI can detect dryness conditions when NDVI reached saturation, its robustness was worse than TEDI. When NDVI did not reach saturation, TVDIc had the best ability in dryness monitoring. TEDI was the optimal dryness index when NDVI was approaching or reaching saturation. This study determined that NDVI reached saturation (LAI = 3) when its average value was >0.5368.

Integrating artificial enzymes onto nanostructures target- and site-specifically is still a challenge. Here we show that target miRNAs trigger the formation of DNAzyme site-specifically at the tip of filamentous phage for detecting miRNA biomarkers. Through an antibody-modified oligonucleotide, the tip of the phage with magnetic nanoparticles on the sidewall captures a target miRNA, inducing the formation of DNAzyme that extends from the phage tip through a hybridization chain reaction. After magnetic separation, the resultant complex catalyzes a colorimetric reaction with the signal correlated to target concentrations, leading to the quantification of miRNAs with a detection limit of 5.0 fM, about 10

Facile fabrication of porous carbon materials from waste halogenated plastic is highly attractive but frequently hampered due to potential release of halogenated organic pollutants. In this study, a novel type of carbon hybrid was tentatively synthesized from a real-world halogenated plastic as an inexpensive carbon source by sub/supercritical carbon dioxide carbonization technique. It was found that halogen-free carbon carrier was advantageously synthesized through carbonization of halogenated plastic without using catalysts due to zip depolymerization, random chain cracking and free radical reactions induced by sub/supercritical carbon dioxide technique. Exhibiting with more abundant functional groups including C-O, CO groups than pyrolytic carbon carrier, the derived carbon carrier demonstrated excellent performance in selective recovery of lithium from cathode powder with highest recovery efficiency of 93.6%. Mechanism study indicated that cathode powder was transformed into low-valence states of transition metals/metal oxides and released lithium as lithium carbonate due to collapse of oxygen framework via carbothermic reduction. This work provides an applicable and green process for synthesis of alternative carbon carrier from waste halogenated plastic and its application as carbothermic reductant in lithium recovery.

Chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (TPF) has been studied in patients with head and neck cancer. Its impact on patients with oral cavity cancer was not specified.We consecutively reviewed medical files of patients with untreated oral cavity cancer who received neoadjuvant TPF chemotherapy in our department from January 2017 to April 2020. Outcomes included the objective response to TPF chemotherapy, factors associated with the response, and progression and survival in different response groups.A total of 167 patients were included, with half of stage IV disease. Complete or partial response was observed in 51 patients. A total of 91 patients had stable disease, and 25 patients had progressive disease. The response was not associated with age, sex, anatomic subsite, and the tumor's T stage. It was related with N stage (p 0.001) and clinical stage (p = 0.004). Most patients with bulky nodes or nodes with obvious necrosis showed low response or even progressed after neoadjuvant TPF chemotherapy. The planned surgery was conducted in 159 patients. Disease relapse mostly occurred in 2 years after treatment. The 2-year overall survival and the progression-free survival were 89.0% and 85.2% for patients with complete or partial response, 62.4% and 55.6% for patients with stable disease, and 12.5% and 4.2% for patients with progressive disease, respectively.The response of neoadjuvant TPF chemotherapy in patients with oral cavity cancer is related to disease stage, especially the nodal stage. Patients with complete or partial response developed less progression events and better survival.

There are two main categories of dryness monitoring indices based on spectral feature space. One category uses the vertical distance from any point to a line passing through the coordinate origin, which is perpendicular to a soil line, to monitor the dryness conditions. The most popular indices are the Perpendicular Dryness Index (PDI) and the modified perpendicular dryness index (MPDI). The other category uses the distance from any point in feature space to the coordinate origin to represent the dryness status, for instance, the soil moisture (SM) monitoring index (SMMI) and the modified soil moisture monitoring index (MSMMI). In this study, the performances and differences of these four indicators were evaluated using field-measured SM (FSM) data based on Gaofen-1 (GF-1) wide field of view (WFV), Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) sensors. Performance evaluations were conducted in two study areas, namely an arid and semi-arid region of northwest China and a humid agricultural region of southwest Canada. We employed gradient-based structural similarity (GSSIM) to quantitatively assess the similarity of the structural information and structural characteristics among these four indicators. Monitoring SM in bare soil or low vegetation-covered areas in the semi-arid region, the SMMI, PDI, MSMMI, and MPDI from Near-Infrared (NIR)-Red had significantly negative linear correlations with the FSM at 0–5-cm depth (P < 0.01). However, SMMI was better than PDI in estimating SM in bare soil, which was better than MSMMI and MPDI for GF-1. Moreover, the PDI and SMMI had similar SM evaluation abilities, which were better than those of MPDI and MSMMI for Landsat-8. The GSSIM map of the SMMI/PDI and the MSMMI/MPDI showed that the low change areas accounted for 99.89% and 98.89% for GF-1, respectively, and 95.78% and 94.45% for Landsat-8, respectively. This result indicated that the SMMI, PDI, MSMMI, and MPDI values from NIR-Red in low vegetation cover were similar. In monitoring SM in agricultural vegetation areas, the accuracy of the four indices from Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) feature space was higher than that from NIR-Red feature space for Sentinel-2. The SM monitoring effect of MSMMI and MPDI was better than that of SMMI and PDI. Due to the lack of SWIR band, GF-1 was limited in monitoring SM in vegetation-covered areas. The SMMI and MSMMI, which do not rely on the soil line, were more suitable than PDI and MPDI for retrieving SM in the complex surface environment depending on the soil line and the number of parameters. GF-1 with 16-m resolution had higher accuracy in SM assessment than Landsat-8 with 30-m resolution and had almost the same accuracy as Sentinel-2 with 20 m.

The measurement of the relative permeability in tight rock is challenging due to its ultralow permeability and the time-consuming nature of the experiments. Studying the movable and unmovable fluid distribution and establishing a reliable relative permeability prediction model is an urgent problem to be solved. This paper used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to investigate movable and unmovable water distribution in tight sandstone under different centrifugal forces. A new method for predicting gas–water relative permeability in tight rock is established based on movable fluid distribution using the capillary bundle model. The results show that the distribution of movable and unmovable fluids is strongly influenced by the tight rock's pore size distribution and structure. The unmovable fluid saturation increases as the tight rock's permeability and median radius decrease. The nonlinear correlation between the NMR relaxation time and the pore throat size obtained from high-pressure mercury intrusion can be used to derive the pore size of the fluid distribution in tight rocks. The ratio of the movable fluid thickness to pore throat size increases near linearly with the logarithm of the pore throat size. The proposed mathematical model for the prediction of gas-water relative permeability based on movable fluid distribution is verified by comparing with the normalized relative permeability curve measured from experiments. This new model offers an alternative method of estimating the gas–water relative permeability when measurement is unavailable due to the ultralow permeability of the core samples.

Single image dehazing is a challenging task because haze seriously affect the visibility of images, and it further brings inconvenience to advanced computer vision analysis. In this paper, a novel and efficient algorithm is proposed to remove haze from a single image. Instead of obtaining transmission from fixed priors and constraints, a double exponential attenuation model (DEA model) based on color attenuation prior is established to compute transmission adaptively. DEA model contains two single exponential attenuation parts that can compensate each other. In addition, a normal unilateral constraint rule (NUCR) is designed to make the transmission more accurate. More importantly, DEA model has a dynamic adjustment function with different weights for different inputs. To circumvent distortion in sky and bright areas, an effective and robust approach is introduced to acquire atmospheric light value. Finally, the clear image can be restored with atmospheric scattering model. Several experimental results on synthetic and real-world images show that the proposed algorithm can protect and recover the detailed information excellently. The performance on synthetic datasets I-HAZE, O-HAZE and HazeRD are 0.762/16.598 (SSIM/PSNR),0.787/17.193, and 0.783/17.104, respectively.

This article aims to explore the applicability of SMMI (soil moisture monitoring index), MSMMI (modified soil moisture monitoring index), PDI (perpendicular drought index), and MPDI (modified perpendicular drought index) in estimating soil moisture (SM) in farmland. The random forest classifier was used to obtain two-stage land cover types maps. The sensitivity of Sentinel-2 spectral bands to the measured SM at a depth of 0–5 cm was optimized by random forest regression. According to the sensitive bands, SMMI and PDI from different feature spaces were constructed to explore their feasibility for monitoring SM under different land cover types. Second, fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in the study area was estimated by nine kinds of FVC estimation models and compared with the measured FVC. The effects of different FVC methods on estimating SM by MSMMI and MPDI were evaluated. The results show that red edge and short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands of Sentinel-2 had irreplaceable effects on the land cover classification. In terms of monitoring SM in bare soil areas, the SM indices with SWIR bands had high correlations with measured SM. For vegetation-covered areas, MSMMI from the FVCgr model (dimidiate pixel model with red edge bands) and the Short wave infrared1–Short wave infrared2 feature space had the highest correlation with the measured 0–5 cm depth SM. Whether vegetation-covered areas or bare soil areas, the combination of red edge and SWIR bands can effectively improve the estimation accuracy of SM. MSMMI can be used as the best SMMI in the study area. Sentinel-2 images, with great potential, can effectively estimate SM at a depth of 0–5 cm in farmland with complex environments.

The immunoproteasome has been found to connect multiple diseases, such as multiple myeloma and autoimmune disorders, and these antagonists of immunoproteasomes urgently need to be developed into drugs to relieve the suffering of patients. We summarized previous experiences and finally provided a simple and sensitive approach to detect β5i (the β5 subunit of the immunoproteasome) activity for research or industrial purposes. The results show that the published IC50 of ONX-0914 or bortezomib is repeatable with our assay. We also detected β5i activity in different cell lines, and the IC50 is acceptable and stable to be verified by many tests. It is worth noting that the combination of digitonin and a lower concentration of NP-40 will maintain higher immunoproteasome activity and completely lyse the cell membrane. Meanwhile, a lower concentration of DMSO is required to improve the kinetic process and reach the maximum rate of reaction. Compared to the β5c assay, the β5i commercial kit is limited to being selected. We prefer to make a highly efficient kit for the β5i assay to meet the academic or clinical needs of researchers, and it could be extensively used due to the cheaper cost and stability in the application.

Accurate prediction of crop yield before harvest is critical to food security and importation. The calculated ten explanatory factors and autumn crop yield data were used as data sources in this re...

Aptamer-based biosensors have been widely constructed and applied to detect diverse targets. Metronidazole is a widely used broad-spectrum antibacterial drug, whose residue has multiple risks to human health. Herein, metronidazole-specific aptamers were selected from a random ssDNA library with the full length of 79 nucleotides (nt) based on DNA library-immobilized magnetic beads SELEX technology. After ten rounds of selection, four aptamers with highly similar secondary structures were selected, among which AP32, with the lowest dissociation constants, was chosen as the optimal aptamer for further optimization. Then a semi-rational post-SELEX truncation was carried out based on the secondary structure analysis and molecular docking, as well as affinity assessment. Redundant nucleotides in AP32 were stepwise removed without the decrease of affinity. Following such strategy, a truncated aptamer AP32-4 with the length of only 15 nt was eventually screened. The dissociation constant of 77.22 ± 11.27 nM is almost equivalent to the original AP32. Furthermore, an aptamer-based fluorescent biosensor for metronidazole was constructed based on AP32-4. With the help of exonuclease-assisted target-recycling amplification, the biosensor exhibits a linear detection range of 25-800 nM, and the detection limit of 10.50 nM. The biosensor was applied to detect metronidazole in honey samples. The results show that not only an efficient strategy for screening robust and practicable aptamers, but also an ultrahigh sensitive detection platform for metronidazole were established.

This paper employs the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and Near-Infrared (NIR) threshold method...

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing worldwide. Lactic acid bacteria have shown efficacy in alleviating diabetes. We studied the remission effect of nine strains of lactic acid bacteria on the symptoms of high-fat diet- and streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetes and its mechanism in mice. The oral administration of Bifidobacterium adolescentis, B. bifidum or Lactobacillus rhamnosus to mice every day for more than 12 weeks showed that the individual strains could reduce the fasting and postprandial blood sugar levels, improve glucose tolerance and prevent pancreatic damage. However, L. rhamnosus strains showed greater efficacy than Bifidobacterium strains in the regulation of blood lipid levels. The effects of lactic acid bacteria on the recovery of glycolipid metabolism disorder and gut microbiota dysbiosis showed inter- and intraspecific differences. In addition, the strains that exhibited hypoglycaemic effects played a beneficial role in reducing insulin resistance by contributing to the production of short-chain fatty acids and alleviation of inflammation. The ability of lactic acid bacteria to reduce inflammation was found to be closely related to their ability to alleviate diabetes mellitus.

Upcycling of waste plastics as functional materials is a new approach for synthesizing low-cost and durable adsorbents with zwitterionic property. Herein, a facile process for recycling blending waste plastics to fabricate zwitterionic plastic-g-hydrogel (ZPH) for simultaneous adsorbing cationic and anionic heavy metals was developed. ZPH possessed high affinities for cations and anions in both acid and alkaline conditions owing to its zwitterionic property, and the maximum adsorption capacities of Pb

To understand the influence of underground mining disturbances on the shallow soil moisture in the Daliuta coal mine, remote sensing monitoring of the temporal and spatial evolution of surface soil moisture and the influence of mining on multi-source, multi-temporal and high spatial resolution remote sensing data were carried out. The scale effect of monitoring the soil moisture at different scales was analyzed using the Scaled Soil Moisture Monitor Index (S-SMMI). In this paper, SPOT 5/6 and Worldview-2 were used as the data source and mainly made up two aspects of the research: 1) based on the three SPOT data sets with the use of S-SMMI from different angles from the Daliuta mine from nearly three years of soil moisture temporal and spatial changes, the results show that the perturbation has a negative effect on the shallow soil moisture in the Daliuta coal mine, and average soil moisture of the mining area is smaller than the non-mining area, but the surface ecological construction has effectively improved the impact of the underground mining disturbance on the surface soil moisture. 2) the scale conversion of Worldview-2 data was carried out based on the resampling method. S-SMMI was used to analyze the scale effect of soil moisture monitoring at different scales. The results show that the difference between the soil moisture is only 0.0016 during the conversion process of 2 m-30 m.

Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are specific antagonists against bacteria. T7 phage has drawn massive attention in precision medicine owing to its distinctive advantages, such as short replication cycle, ease in displaying peptides and proteins, high stability and cloning efficiency, facile manipulation, and convenient storage. By introducing foreign gene into phage DNA, T7 phage can present foreign peptides or proteins site‐specifically on its capsid, enabling it to become a nanoparticle that can be genetically engineered to screen and display a peptide or protein capable of recognizing a specific target with high affinity. This review critically introduces the biomedical use of T7 phage, ranging from the detection of serological biomarkers and bacterial pathogens, recognition of cells or tissues with high affinity, design of gene vectors or vaccines, to targeted therapy of different challenging diseases (e.g., bacterial infection, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, inflammatory disease, and foot–mouth disease). It also discusses perspectives and challenges in exploring T7 phage, including the understanding of its interactions with human body, assembly into scaffolds for tissue regeneration, integration with genome editing, and theranostic use in clinics. As a genetically modifiable biological nanoparticle, T7 phage holds promise as biomedical imaging probes, therapeutic agents, drug and gene carriers, and detection tools.

This paper proposes a novel power flow tracing method based on power electronic signaling (PES) for peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading in DC microgrids. It employs a superimposed low-frequency sinusoidal carrier to trace DC power flows according to the bus port impedance characteristics of power converters. In order to support fair and accurate P2P trading, source-to-load power signaling (S2LPS) and source-to-source power verification (S2SPV) methods are presented. Through S2LPS, the P2P DC power flow from a specific distributed source (DS) to a power load (PL) is determined by detecting the carrier’s active power at the PL’s bus port. The same carrier is used to check the actual output power of the DS by S2SPV. By implementing S2LPS and S2SPV, the power flows of the system are traced, recorded, and verified by each DS and PL. Accurate power flow tracing is achieved on the physical layer, providing reliable data for P2P electricity trading. The principles of the proposed method are deduced in detail. Furthermore, the modifications to the control loops of DSs and PLs are depicted for implementations in DC microgrids. Finally, a 2.5kW experimental platform is built to validate the correctness and feasibility of the proposed method.

Objective To explore the influencing factors of age at onset of pain and severe pain in patients with Hartofilakidis type I developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Methods A retrospective study of 83 patients with DDH treated at our hospital from January 2017 to June 2021 was conducted. The age at onset of pain, patients’ demographic data, and radiographic parameters were collected. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the influencing factors of age at onset of pain. Cox regression analysis was used to determine the influencing factors of severe pain attacks. Results According to the results of multiple linear regression analysis, when the distance between the medial femoral head and the ilioischial line increased by one millimetre, the age at onset of pain decreased by 1.7 years (β = − 1.738, 95% CI − 1.914–[− 1.561], p β = − 0.334, 95% CI − 0.496–[− 0.171], p β]: = 0.947, 95% CI 0.898–0.999, p = 0.044). For each additional millimetre in the distance between the medial femoral head and the ilioischial line, the likelihood of severe pain increased by 2.4 times (Exp [β]: 2.417, 95% CI 1.653–3.533, p Conclusion Larger distances between the medial femoral head and the ilioischial line and sharp angle can lead to an earlier age at onset of pain in patients with DDH. Small LCEA and excessive distance between the medial femoral head and the ilioischial line are risk factors for severe pain.