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Intelligent answering technology, which enables computers to solve problems automatically, is often used to develop tutorial systems, and has a wide range of application prospects. However, due to the lack of linguistic analysis and understanding methods, there are few researches on intelligent algorithms for solving kinematics problems. Developing such an algorithm is challenging, because solving kinematics problems is a complex task that includes text understanding, problem analysis, and automatic solution. To understand all these complexities involved in kinematics problems requires background knowledge. And only when an automatic solver contains a powerful internal knowledge representation system can it perform these tasks. We, thus, develop KinRob, an tutorial system for solving kinematics problems by combining neural network and ontology. Firstly, we propose an ontology for KinRob, which defines the knowledge of kinematics, and can help the robot understand a kinematics problem. Secondly, to match the text in natural language with the ontology, we propose a novel tagging scheme based on the kinematic problem understanding model in named entity recognition (NER). Finally, extensive experiments are conducted, and the experimental results show that the performance of the proposed method on a dataset of kinematic problems from authoritative sources better than the baseline algorithms.

Two novel energetic compounds, 3-nitroxymethyl-5-(4-nitro-furazan-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole (4) and 3-nitroxymethyl-5-(4-azido-furazan-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole (5), were synthesized. Both of them were fully characterized, and the structure of 4 was further confirmed by X-ray single crystal diffraction. The thermal behaviors, detonation performances and the sensitivities of 4 and 5 were also investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), EXPLO5 program and BAM standard techniques. In addition, the electrostatic potential energy surface (ESP) was studied by Multiwfn program and density functional theory at B3LPY/6-31G (d, p). Both compounds have low melt-point, good energetic performance and mechanical sensitivity, which endow them with promising properties as plasticizing ingredients in propellant formulations.

ObjectiveAs one of the cancers that seriously threatens women’s health, ovarian cancer has a high morbidity and mortality rate. Surgery and chemotherapy are the basic treatment strategies for ovarian cancer, and chemotherapy resistance is a significant factor in affecting the prognosis, survival cycle, and recurrence of ovarian cancer. This article aims to analyze articles about ovarian cancer and drug resistance via bibliometric software, offering new ideas and directions for researchers in this field.MethodsBoth Citespace and Vosviewer are bibliometric software on the Java platform. Articles were collected on ovarian cancer and drug resistance in the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2013 to 2022. The countries, institutions, journals, authors, keywords, and references were analyzed, and the development status of this field was indicated from multiple perspectives.ResultsStudies on ovarian cancer and drug resistance generally showed an increasing trend from 2013 to 2022. The People’s Republic of China and Chinese institutions contributed more to this field. Gynecologic Oncology published the most articles, and the journal with the most citations was Cancer Research. Li Li was the author with the most publications, and Siegel RL was the author with the most citations. Through burst detection, it can be found that the research hotspots in this field mainly focused on the in-depth exploration of the drug resistance mechanism of ovarian cancer and the progress of PARP inhibitors and bevacizumab in the treatment of ovarian cancer.ConclusionsMany studies on the mechanism of drug resistance in ovarian cancer have been discovered; however, the deeper mechanism remains to be explored. Compared with traditional chemotherapy drugs, PARP inhibitors and bevacizumab have shown better efficacy, but PARP inhibitors have initially shown drug resistance. The future direction of this field should be to overcome the resistance of existing drugs and actively develop new ones.

Tungsten carbide is widely used as the material of replication mold to produce small aspheric optics, and the polishing process determines the precision of the mold. However, for micro-aspheric tungsten carbide mold, the existing polishing methods are difficult to realize the from error modification during the polishing because the polishing tool is always larger than small mold. Therefore, a polishing tool which using polyester fiber cloth to wrap small-size rigid ball is used in this paper. In order to predict the tool influence function (TIF) of this polishing tool, a series of theoretical analysis and experimental verification are carried out in this paper. Firstly, by analyzing the structural and viscoelastic characteristics of the fiber cloth, the pressure distribution in the polishing contact area is determined. And the polishing speed distribution is obtained by analyzing the kinematic movement of the polishing tool; Then, combined with Preston equation, the tool influence function is derived; Afterward, through a series of single point polishing experiments, it is verified that the volume error between the theoretical removal model and the experimental removal is less than 10.8%; Finally, the tool influence function is applied to the form error corrective polishing of small size symmetric aspheric tungsten carbide mold. After one form error corrective polishing, the PV value (Peak to Valley) of form error is decreased from 0.405um to 0.068um, which verifies the effectiveness of the polishing method of small size tungsten carbide mold in form error correction.

In order to observe and understand the effect of acoustic signal detection more intuitively, imaging analysis is needed to obtain clearer detection results, and the detection situation is analyzed manually. The commonly used imaging method is B-scan imaging, which is also widely used in medical imaging. In this paper, an acoustic signal imaging method based on synthetic aperture focusing and full matrix capture is proposed. The application of synthetic aperture focusing method in acoustic signal imaging was improved. Hilbert transformation was used to construct complex signal sequence, and the imaging processing process of full matrix method is proposed. From the aspects of data acquisition, analysis and processing, the echo signals are analyzed, and the differences between synthetic aperture focusing and full matrix method in acoustic signal imaging are compared.

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a prevalent pregnancy disease characterized by insufficient trophoblast cell migration (HTR8/SVneo). Consequently, accelerating trophoblast cell proliferation might ameliorate PE. This study assessed the effects and molecular mechanisms of Sufentanil (SUF) on HTR8/SVneo cells proliferation. HTR8/SVneo cells and PE clinical samples were used. Peripheral blood was collected from PE patients' samples, and microRNA (miR)-24-3p and 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (HSD11B2) was analyzed in the blood and cells. HTR8/SVneo cells were treated with varying SUF concentrations or transfected with miR-24-3p mimics/inhibitors, or HSD11B2 elevation vector. CCK-8, colony formation, transwell, and flow cytometry assays were then carried out. Association of miR-24 - 3p with HSD11B2 was investigated. PE animal model was constructed using Wistar rats to verify SUF's role on PE

This study aimed to compare the value of a modified chest tube drainage strategy to a traditional drainage strategy in single-port thoracoscopic pulmonary wedge resection.From January 2019 to July 2021, we collected clinical data on 405 patients who underwent single-port thoracoscopic pulmonary wedge resection in the No.1 Department of Thoracic Surgery at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, with 121 (29.9%) cases in the modified drainage strategy group and 284 (70.1%) cases in the traditional drainage strategy group. The propensity score matching method (Match Ratio = 1:1) was used to reduce differences in clinical characteristics between the two groups.Following 1:1 propensity score matching, 120 matched pairs (240 patients) were included in the study. There was no significant difference in general clinical characteristics between the two groups. There was no statistical difference in intraoperative factors except for operative times (71.42 ± 22.98 min vs. 86.80 ± 36.75 min, p 0.001). In terms of postoperative factors, there were significant differences in postoperative chest tube duration (0.00 ± 0.00 h vs. 32.68 ± 18.51 h, p 0.001), total drainage volume (143.03 ± 118.33 ml vs. 187.73 ± 140.82 ml, p = 0.008), postoperative hospital stay (2.61 ± 0.70 days vs. 3.27 ± 1.88 days, p 0.001), number of additional pain relief (0.14 ± 0.40 vs. 0.42 ± 0.74, p 0.001), facial pain score (2.7 ± 1.8 vs. 3.6 ± 2.7, p = 0.005) and adverse events (p = 0.046). Furthermore, there was a statistical difference between the two groups regarding CTCAE grade-1 complication, but no statistical difference in CTCAE grade-2 complication.A modified drainage strategy in single-port thoracoscopic pulmonary wedge resection is safe and feasible, allowing for less postoperative rehabilitation time, pain relief, reduced postoperative pleural effusion, and reduced clinical workload.

Two new species of Lepra are described from China: L. yunlingensis is characterized by its 2-spored asci and the presence of norstictic and cryptostictic acids; L. taiwanensis is characterized by its 1-spored asci and the presence of barbatic acid.

A new species Pertusaria wui is described from bamboo in Yunnan Province, China. Diagnostic characters include a thin, shiny, off-white, continuous and crustose thallus, numerous (mostly conical) verrucae with punctiform ostioles, uniseriate ascospores of 47.5–62.5 × 25–30 μm, 8-spored asci, and major lichen compounds lichexanthone and stictic acid.

A crystalline zirconium fluorophosphonate with K+ as charge-balancing ions exhibits superior Eu3+ adsorption capacities under strongly acidic conditions.

PurposeThree-parameter interval grey numbers (TPIGNs) have been extensively studied as an extended form of interval numbers. However, most existing TPIGN multi-attribute decision-making methods only consider the similarity of positions, ignore the similarity of developmental directions and focus primarily on static evaluation. To address these limitations, in this study, the authors propose a dynamic technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) based on modified Jaccard similarity and angle similarity for TPIGNs.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the authors extend Jaccard similarity to a TPIGN environment to represent positional similarity. A simple example is provided to illustrate the limitations of the traditional Jaccard similarity. Then, the authors introduce an angle similarity measure to represent developmental directional similarity. Finally, a dynamic TOPSIS model is constructed by incorporating time-series data into conventional two-dimensional static data. Stage weights are obtained by an objective function designed to maximize the amount and minimize the fluctuation of decision information. A quadratic weighting method is adopted to derive the overall evaluation value of alternatives.FindingsTo evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, this study takes the pre-assessment of ice disaster and the selection of cooperative enterprises as examples. The authors then provide the results of comparative and sensitivity analyses, which demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed method.Originality/valueThe proposed TOPSIS method in a TPIGN environment can take a more holistic and dynamic perspective for decision-making, which helps mitigate the limitations of single-perspective or static evaluations.

Objective Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), especially Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), has been disseminated across communities and hospitals, associated with severe infections and organ failure. In order to understand the clinical epidemiological characteristics of S. aureus stains in the first affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in 2018, the prevalence and the drug resistance of S. aureus stains were investigated, for improving the clinical effective prevention and control of S. aureus infection. Methods A total of 105 S. aureus isolates were separated from wound infection of inpatients in the first affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in 2018, and the department distributions and drug resistance of the isolates were analyzed. The genotyping homology analysis was conducted through the random amplified polymorphic DNA typing (RAPD-PCR) coupled with NTSYS cluster analysis. Results Among the 105 strains of S. aureus, 31 isolates were MRSA. The prevalence of MRSA among inpatients in the departments of burn, trauma, orthopedics, nephrology and neurosurgery were 35.48%, 19.35%, 9.68%, 6.45%, and 29.03%, respectively. Among the 105 strains, 35.24% strains were the hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and 64.76% strains were community-acquired infections (CAI). Random amplified polymorphic DNA genotyping of the 105 S. aureus strains showed seventeen different groups, most of which were type I, type VII, type IX, and type VII, the others were scattered. Conclusion The clinical characteristics of the 105 S. aureus between MRSA and MSSA strains differed significantly in the first affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in 2018. In order to curb the nosocomial infection and protect the susceptible populations, it is vital for us to the monitor, prevention and control for the S. aureus infection and transmission in the nosocomial settings. The observations from the study would improve our management of disinfection and sterilization measures, and provide guidance for clinical medication.

Background: New approaches to mitigate vaccine hesitancy (VH) and improve vaccine uptake and willingness are urgently needed. Nudging is a new approach that has shown effective results in several areas of health. However, the effectiveness is unclear regarding nudging interventions to improve intentions and behaviors related to COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus until August 5, 2022. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were considered to determine whether nudging improved COVID-19 vaccination behavior and intent. The risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as pooled measures to assess vaccination behavior. Intention to vaccinate was reported in the narrative synthesis. Results: A total of 15 RCTs involving 167,127 individuals were included. Nudge strategies significantly boosted the COVID-19 vaccine uptake rate (RR: 1.19, 95% CI [1.07, 1.33], p < 0.01). Subgroup analysis showed that there was a weak positive effect on vaccine uptake of social norms (RR: 2.04, 95% Cl [1.61, 2.57]), defaults (RR: 1.32, 95% CI [1.03, 1.69]), and salient reminders (RR: 1.19, 95% CI [1.04, 1.36]). Additionally, the effect of nudging interventions on COVID-19 vaccine uptake weakened over time(p < 0.0001). Most studies (9 of 10) involving vaccination intention outcomes showed positive or partially positive results. Conclusion: Nudging interventions can promote COVID-19 vaccination behavior and intentions, albeit with small magnitude, and need to be combined with other intervention strategies to promote vaccination.

To study the influence of drug cocrystal on the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The ETZ·2TMA·MeOH cocrystal was obtained by the solution evaporation crystallization method. The cocrystal structure was characterized by Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer. The single crystal belongs to orthorhombic crystal system with space group P212121(no.19), a = 12.9863(9) Å, b = 16.6603(11) Å, c = 25.9260(16) Å, V = 5609.2(6) Å3, Z = 8, T = 170.00 K. The main forces are the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the amide groups on ETZ and the carboxyl groups on TMA and the hydroxyl group on methanol. In addition, the solubility of ETZ and ETZ·2TMA·MeOH cocrystal was determined. The results show that, in contrast to most cocrystal systems that improve solubility, the solubility of ETZ·2TMA·MeOH decreased to 19.30 % of pure ETZ.

Objective To evaluate serum protein calponin 2 (CNN2) as a candidate biomarker for tubal ectopic pregnancy (EP). Design Retrospective study. Setting Single University affiliated tertiary hospital. Patient(s) Serum samples were obtained from 84 patients with EP, 39 with viable intrauterine pregnancy (vIUP), and 42 with miscarriage. Moreover, 10 fallopian tube and corresponding villous tissue samples from patients with EP, 6 villous tissue samples from patients with vIUP, and 10 villous tissue samples from patients with miscarriage were collected. Intervention(s) Serum CNN2 concentrations were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; CNN2 expression in tissues was evaluated via immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Main Outcome Measure(s) The diagnostic performance of serum CNN2 to discriminate an EP from vIUP and miscarriage. Result(s) CNN2 was highly expressed in villous stromal cells isolated from patients with EP, and CNN2 messenger ribonucleic acid expression was upregulated in villous tissues from women with EP compared with that in women with vIUPs and miscarriages. Serum CNN2 concentration was higher in women with EP than that in women with vIUP and miscarriage. The serum CNN2 predicted EP from vIUP and miscarriage with areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.931 (95% confidence interval: 0.889–0.975). For discriminating EP from miscarriage only, the AUC was 0.906 (95% confidence interval: 0.835–0.977). In contrast, the AUCs for serum human chorionic gonadotropin were 0.809 and 0.637, respectively. Conclusion(s) Our data highlight the possibility of serum CNN2 as a single biomarker for the diagnosis of EP. Clinical Trial Registration Number ChiCTR 1900020483

A novel 3D potassium-containing zirconium fluorophosphonate K

Constantan (Cu–Ni alloy) is widely used in the field of thermocouples due to its excellent thermoelectric and mechanical properties. To broaden the application area, the intrinsically high thermal ...

To suppress the mid-high-frequency error of small optical tungsten carbide aspheric molds, it is proposed to quickly select the critical process parameters by simulating the residual error after convolution of the tool influence function (TIF). After polishing for 10.47 min by the TIF, two simulation optimizations, RMS and Ra, converge to 9.3 and 5.347 nm, respectively. Their convergence rates are improved by 40% and 7.9%, respectively, compared to ordinary TIF. Then, a faster and more high-quality multi-tool combination smoothing suppression method is proposed, and the corresponding polishing tools are designed. Finally, the global Ra of the aspheric surface converges from 5.9 to 4.5 nm after smoothing for 5.5 min with a disc-shaped polishing tool with a fine microstructure and maintains an excellent low-frequency error (PV 0.0781 µm).

Y-Ti-O nano-scale oxides play important roles in ensuring the excellent performance of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels. In this study, a model powder system of Y2O3 and Ti was designed to investigate the formation and evolution mechanism of Y-Ti-O oxides. The morphology of powders tended to be stable after high energy ball milling for 240 min in Ar. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results suggested that there was no formation of new phase after mechanical milling. Thermo-gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) was applied to analyze physical and chemical reactions of milled powders respectively in Ar and air. The corresponding annealing and XRD were performed to study the types and structures of oxides at different temperatures. It shows that oxygen concentration and temperature are the critical factors affecting the formation of oxides. Ti was evolved into Ti6O, Ti3O and TiO2 in turn with temperature increasing. Then only TiO2 was reacted with Y2O3 to form Y2Ti2O7. The formation of Y2Ti2O7 began at around 500 ℃ and was completed around 1004 ℃. A maximum formation rate occurred at about 779 ℃. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) suggested that the main phase in powders sintered at 1100 ℃ was identified as pyrochlore structure Y2Ti2O7.

In order to increase the utilization rate of drug carried by microneedles and reduce waste, a two-step casting method was proposed to fabricate tip-loaded dissolving microneedles in this paper. The tip-loaded dissolving microneedles, also named layered microneedles, was consisted of two layers. The tip layer of the microneedles carried model drug, while the backing layer was fabricated with pure dissolving material. Polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone and hyaluronic acid were used as the base materials to fabricate the dissolving layers of the microneedle patches. Rhodamine B was chosen as the model drug to show the layered structure of tip-loaded microneedles. The material formulation and fabricating conditions of the tip-loaded dissolving microneedles and their transdermal insulin delivery efficiency were systematically studied. Nanoindentation testing showed that the tips of all three kinds of dissolving microneedles can bear the maximum loading of 50 mN with no damages, indicated sufficient mechanical strength for smooth skin puncturing as the minimum pressure required was 10 mN only. Moreover, our fabricated tip-loaded dissolving microneedles can greatly reduce the drug waste cause by unused backing layer in normal microneedles and realize a 30% enhancement of drug delivery efficiency after puncture treatment.

Skeletal remains encountered frequently in forensic applications are a challenging specimen, since their DNA is usually degraded due to harsh conditions, limiting the utilization of skeletal DNA. Forensic scientists have tried various methods to extract DNA from skeletal remains of low quantity and poor quality or improve detecting technology for more information from compromised DNA. Compared with traditional capillary electrophoresis (CE), massively parallel sequencing (MPS) is more sensitive to shorter fragments, able to detect allele sequences for variations from core motif or flanking regions, and able to detect more markers with a higher discrimination power. In this study, short tandem repeats (STR) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 35 human skeletons were genotyped by MPS platform, and CE method was also used to perform STR genotyping. The results indicated that the detection rates reached 100.00% in 16 of 35 samples with MPS method, while the same 100.00% was reached in only 9 samples with CE. The success rates of MPS were also higher than that of CE method in shared 21 loci (excluding Y-indel, DYS391, and SE33), especially in loci detected by MPS method only. Besides, all SNPs (124 and 90 SNPs in males and females) were detected in 18 samples of 35 samples by MPS method. Some intra-allelic sequence variants were observed in eight loci (D21S11, D8S1179, D5S2800, D3S1358, vWA, D2S1338, D1S1656, D12S391) using MPS technology. Interestingly, there is a sample showing genotyping disagreement in FGA locus. The clone sequencing verified that a "T" deletion discovered in flanking sequence of FGA led to wrong genotyping on Ampliseq Converge. Our results indicated that MPS could be adopted in qualified labs as a supplementary when the DNA of skeletal remains are hard to identify.

A uranyl–europium heterobimetallic compound, (TEA)3[(UO2)6Eu(H2O)4(PPA)6] (H3PPA = phosphonoacetic acid, TEA = tetraethylammonium cation), was synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions. The em...

Despite its prominent therapeutic efficacy, chemotherapy has raised serious concerns due to the severe adverse effects and multidrug resistance evoked, which propels the search for safe and green therapeutic agents. BAMLET (bovine α-lactalbumin made lethal against tumor cell) is a well-known protein-based anticancer agent of selective tumoricidal activity. Here, we prepared oleic acid-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (OA-MSNs) conjugated with bovine α-lactalbumin, a lipoprotein complex resembling BAMLET formed on the surface of MSNs (MSN-BAMLET) to load the anticancer drug of docetaxel (DTX). Compared to that of OA-MSNs/DTX, the obtained MSN-BAMLET/DTX with a sustained and pH-responsive drug release behaviors exhibited good biocompatibility and enhanced cytotoxic effect against cancer cells. Moreover, the presence of lipoprotein complex in MSN-BAMLET contributed to the improved dispersion of the composite in solution and the inhibitory effect on the migration of cancer cells. Furthermore, the adsorption profiles of protein corona on the obtained nanoparticles were analyzed. It was found that the marked low amount and abundance of plasma proteins were adsorbed on the α-lactalbumin coated siliceous composite demonstrated its long circulation property. Finally

Three kinds of methyl nitrate energetic compounds and their ammonium ion salts were synthesized. Intensive research of the crystal structures, thermal decomposition processes and energetic properties of these ammonium ions salts are presented.

Capacitive voltage transformers (CVTs), as the main voltage detection devices in the power grid, can accurately measure power frequency voltage, but CVT’s measurement of harmonic voltage will pass errors, resulting in CVT cannot accurately monitor the harmonic voltage in the power grid. Based on the current status of CVT, this paper studies the structure of CVT and the harmonic voltage transfer characteristics of CVT, and analyzes the frequency characteristic curve of CVT by using MATLAB simulation. Based on the study of the CVT frequency characteristic curve, this paper proposes a method of series voltage divider capacitor C3 at the ground terminal of CVT low voltage capacitance to indirectly measure the harmonic voltage on the primary side of CVT and verifies the accuracy of this method. Finally, this paper presents a preliminary design scheme for the series capacitor voltage division method.

Background: Abnormal maternal lipid concentrations are associated with increased risk of preeclampsia. However, previous studies mainly focused on fasting lipid concentrations, scarce data have been published on the relationship between postprandial triglyceride (TG) concentrations in the second trimester and the risk of preeclampsia. Our aim is to evaluate the potential of triglyceride (TG) concentrations at the time of oral lipid tolerance test (OLTT) measurement in the second trimester to predict preeclampsia and to elucidate the lipid metabolic changes related to these diseases. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of Pregnant women at 12-24 weeks of gestation undergone an OLTT in a university affiliated hospital between May 2019 and January 2020. Data were stratified into binaries according to the OLTT results. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to determine the optimal cut-off points of TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, sd-LDL, FFA, and BG for predicting preeclampsia.Results: 438 pregnant women were recruited to undergo an OLTT at 12-24 weeks of gestation. Among these, 24 women developed preeclampsia and 414 women remained normotensive. Women who subsequently developed preeclampsia had higher concentrations of 4-h postprandial TG than those who remained normotensive. In the linear logistic regression analyses of potential confounding factors, mid-trimester 4-h postprandial TG concentrations at the time of OLTT measurement were significantly higher in preeclamptic cases than in controls.Conclusions: Dyslipidemia in the second trimester of pregnancy, particularly postprandial hypertriglyceridemia, appears to be associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia. Mid-trimester 4-h postprandial TG concentration at the time of OLTT measurement may be a potential predictive marker of preeclampsia.

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen, with relatively low incidence but high case-fatality. Phytochemicals have been recognized as a promising antimicrobial agent as an alternative to synthetic chemicals due to their safety and high efficacy with multi-target sites. This study identified and characterized a novel antibacterial agent, dehydrocorydaline, in the Corydalis turschaninovii rhizome using HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap-HRMS, and its antibacterial effect with lowest MIC (1 mg/mL) and MBC (2 mg/mL) values. In addition, an in vitro growth kinetic assay, cytoplasmic nucleic acid and protein leakage assay, and observation of morphological changes in bacterial cells supported the strong antibacterial activity. Dehydrocorydaline also displayed effective inhibitory effects on biofilm formation and bacterial motility. In order to investigate the potential antibacterial mechanism of action of dehydrocorydaline against L. monocytogenes, label-free quantitative proteomics was used, demonstrating that dehydrocorydaline has multiple targets for combating L. monocytogenes including dysregulation of carbohydrate metabolism, suppression of cell wall synthesis, and inhibition of bacterial motility. Overall, this study demonstrated that dehydrocorydaline has potential as a natural and effective antibacterial agent with multi-target sites in pathogenic bacteria, and provides the basis for development of a new class of antibacterial agent.

The construction of enzyme mimics using protein protection layers possesses advantages of high biocompatibility and superior catalytic activity, which is desirable for biomedical applications including diseases diagnosis. Here, from E. coli expression system, recombinant protein of camel serum albumin (rCSA) from Camelus bactrianus was successfully obtained to encapsulate hemin via the self-assemble method without additional toxic organic reagents. As compared with that of horseradish peroxidase, the produced rCSA-hemin nanoparticles exhibited enhanced enzyme-mimicking activity and stability under harsh experimental conditions. Additionally, the steady-state kinetic analysis of rCSA-hemin in the solution revealed its higher affinity to the substrates. Therefore, a colorimetric detection method of H2O2 and glucose was constructed with a linear range of 2.5–500 μM with an LOD of 2.39 and 2.42 μM, respectively, which was also applied for the determination of glucose in the serum samples with satisfying recovery ratio ranging from 101.1% to 112.1%. The constructed camel protein-derived nanozyme system of remarkable stability holds promising potentials for the versatile biomedical uses.

An ultrastable zirconium phosphonate framework (SZ-7) exhibits superior Sr2+ ion-exchange properties in 1 M NaOH solution with high adsorption capacity (183 mg g−1) and in-depth removal performance (Kd = 3.9 × 105 mL g−1).

Vertical swirling gas-liquid flow is a kind of complex two-phase flow containing a nonzero tangential velocity component in engineering applications. The accurate flow regime characterization, phase distribution information and pressure drop data about vertical swirling flow are the basis for the optimization of steam generator (SG), which can greatly reduce the cost and improve the safety of nuclear plants. To get these key parameters of swirling vertical flow, we have made a comprehensive visualization experiment in a vertical pipe with 30mm diameter and 5m length by high-speed camera. The experimental pipe is separated into swirling part and non-swirling part. We have set three observation section with different vertical heights in the swirling part. Changing the flow rate of water and gas, different swirling flow pattern photos can be captured by high-speed camera. Based on the photos of different positions and image-processing MATLAB code, we can get three flow regime maps and figure out the decaying law of swirling gas-liquid flow. The pressure drop can be recorded by rotameter at each position. The decaying law of pressrure drop can be concluded from it. These data can be a guide for designing gas-liquid separator in SG to improve the efficiency of nuclear plant.

Most of the existing underwater acoustic communication networks use omni-directional transmission technology, which has problems such as poor communication concealment and low throughput, which severely limits network performance. The application of directional transmission technology to the underwater acoustic communication network can effectively solve the various problems existing in the omnidirectional underwater acoustic communication network, but there will also be new problems, such as the deafness problem. Aiming at the problems of low throughput, poor communication concealment and deafness, this paper proposes a deafness-free medium access control (DF-MAC) protocol for underwater acoustic communication networks with directional antennas. In the protocol, each node uses directional and omnidirectional modes to transmit data, and divides the underwater acoustic channel into two sub-channels. By sending a busy tone signal on one of the sub-channels, the neighboring node can distinguish whether the collision encountered is a normal data packet collision or a neighboring node collision, and then take different measures. This protocol can effectively solve the problem of deafness in the underwater acoustic communication network, increase network coverage, and improve communication concealment. The simulation results show that the proposed MAC protocol can significantly improve the throughput performance of the underwater acoustic communication network.

Aluminum (Al) toxicity and magnesium (Mg) deficiency often coexist in acidic soils. Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in diverse physiological processes and stress responses. Here, we investigated the role of NO in Mg-mediated root growth promotion and Al tolerance in Arabidopsis. Physiological and pharmacological methods together with molecular and genetic analyses were used. Al toxicity- and Mg deficiency-induced NO production contributed to inhibition of primary root growth. In contrast, Mg supply promoted root growth associated with decreasing NO production under Al stress and/or Mg deficiency conditions. Magnesium decreased the activities and expression of the genes related to NO biosynthesis enzymes in Col-0 roots. The NO-associated protein 1 mutant noa1 and the nitrate reductase mutant nia1nia2 with impaired NO production showed Al toxicity- and Mg deficiency-insensitive phenotypes, further confirming involvement of NO in Mg-mediated root growth promotion and alleviation of Al toxicity. Taken together, our results suggested that Mg-mediated enhancement of root growth and Al tolerance is associated with altering NO production in Arabidopsis.

Aim To evaluate the value and feasibility of capillary glucose assessment, combined with other non-laboratory measures, in screening for diabetes and prediabetes in the community. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we assessed fasting capillary glucose, fasting plasma glucose, and both capillary glucose and plasma glucose values after 2-h oral glucose tolerance tests in a total of 3736 samples. We determined the optimal threshold of capillary glucose using receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. The effect of screening methods using capillary glucose combined with other variables, such as age, BMI and waist circumference, was assessed according to area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve. Results There was a strong positive correlation between capillary glucose and venous plasma glucose. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose to screen for impaired fasting glucose was 0.722, while that for the model using capillary glucose after a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test to screen for impaired glucose tolerance was 0.916. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose to screen for diabetes was 0.835, while that for the model using 2-h oral glucose tolerance test capillary glucose was 0.912. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose + 2-h oral glucose tolerance test capillary glucose to screen for diabetes was 0.945. The discriminatory capability of models using capillary glucose was somewhat improved by adding non-laboratory variables. Conclusions Capillary glucose could be an alternative for screening for diabetes and prediabetes, especially in low-resource areas.

The nano-MOF+ technique was employed by assembling nanoporous metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 with nanoscale zero-valent iron (ZVI) particles to remove uranyl ions from aqueous solution under anoxic condition for the first time. The synthesized composite of Fe0@UiO-66-COOH exhibits a synergic effect between uranyl sorption by MOF host of UiO-66-COOH and chemical reduction by ZVI, reaching much elevated removal capacity and rate in comparison to those of the pristine UiO-66-COOH. The combined complexation and reduction mechanisms are further elucidated by the synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis. This work highlights the bright future of the nano-MOF+ technique in the application of uranium removal, especially for the remediation of the uranium-contaminated subsurface environment.