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Poor water stability is the main problem of commercialized Mn4+-doped fluorides for white light emitting diode (WLED) application. This work proposes a surface engineering strategy to rebuild a Mn4+-free fluoride shell on fluorides to effectively resist the destruction from water molecules. By simple processing using glyoxylic acid (GA) solution, the moisture resistance of the red-emitting fluorides can be significantly improved. The photoluminescence (PL) quantum efficiency (QE) of the surface-engineered K2SiF6:Mn4+ (KSFM-GA) still maintain 98.43% after water immersion for 360 h, in sharp contrary to the untreated one (its PLQE decreases to 59.79%). Additionally, PL intensity of the hydrolysed KSFM can be recovered to 99.1% through the treatment of the reducing GA solution. By using the high-stability KSFM-GA red phosphor, the as-fabricated high-performance warm-WLED device can still maintain 84.6% in luminous efficacy, higher than that (79.6%) with the untreated KSFM, after 500 hours of aging in a high temperature (85 oC) and high humidity (85%) environment.

We have proposed a general self-template hydrothermal route for preparing a series of porous ATiO3 (A = Ca, Sr, or Ba) submicrospheres. The obtained porous SrTiO3 hollow spheres showed the highest photocatalytic performance on methylene blue.

Multitemporal optical remote sensing image registration is still a challenging problem for current feature-based image registration algorithms due to the complex nonlinear discrepancies arising from diverse factors, including illumination, weather, and surface condition changes. To address the issue, this article attempts to combine the dual receptive field descriptors (DRFDs) constructed by a novel deep convolutional network. In addition, a novel inner loss function (ILF) that imposes constraints on the intermediate descriptors is adopted in order to consolidate the distinguishability of the descriptors when the overlapping areas of the input image patches are large. Subsequently, the dual feature distance maps (DFDMs) are built on the basis of the DRFDs and combined with features from accelerated segment test (FAST) key points for efficient and accurate correspondence establishment across the source image and the target image. Eventually, an iterative algorithm is proposed to remove the possible outliers. Experiments show that the combination of DRFDs trained with the ILF performs better than current learnable local descriptors, such as L2-Net, HardNet, and SOSNet. The image registration results using our method are more accurate than the methods based on learnable descriptors, such as L2-Net, HardNet, and SOSNet, and handcrafted descriptors, such as scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), SURF, and ORB.

This study was conducted to compare the differences of the whole blood zinc concentration in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) as compared to healthy controls, and to explore the correlations of the whole blood zinc level with coronary artery calcification (CAC) and cardiovascular event (CVE) in CKD patients. 170 CKD patients and 62 healthy controls were recruited . The whole blood zinc concentration were determined in using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) method. The degrees of CAC were evaluated by Agatston score based on computed tomography (CT). Regular follow-up visits were performed to record the incidence of CVE, and risk factors were analyzed by COX proportional hazard model and Kaplan-Meier survival curve. There were statistically significant lower zinc in CKD patients than in healthy population. The prevalence of CAC was 58.82% in CKD patients. Our study found that dialysis duration, iPTH, ALP, 25(OH)D3, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), total cholesterol and Hs-CRP were positively correlated with CAC, while albumin, Hb and zinc were negatively correlated with CAC. A COX proportional hazard model demonstrated that moderate to severe CAC, NLR, phosphate, 25(OH)D3, iPTH and HLDL were associated with an increased risk for CVE, while zinc, Hb and albumin was inversely associated with a reduced risk for CVEs. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that low zinc (zinc

Preservation at ultra-low temperatures has been a gold standardfor long-term storage of many types of clinical specimens including the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The frozen specimens can be easily transported and tested later. In addition, de-identified frozen remnant samples are resources for many preclinical or clinical studies. It is therefore crucial to understand whether freeze and thaw cycles (FTCs) can adversely affect SARS-CoV-2 test performance when frozen samples are tested. Some early studies suggest that the FTCs increased the cycles threshold (Ct) of RT-PCR indicating the potential degradation of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid after FTCs, while the others did not report any significant changes in the SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids after the FTCs. Moreover, the impact of FTCs on the performance of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen test is scarcely reported.In this study, we performed paired nucleic acid and rapid antigen testson the same samples to investigate and directly compare how FTCs affect the performance of two types of tests. Both inactivated viral culture fluid samples and clinical remnant samples were studied. Our results showed that FTCs had minimal negative effects on the performance of the rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test, and the test results remained largely consistent throughout the FTCs, whereas the Ct values of RT-PCR increased with the increase of the FTC numbers. In addition, our data also demonstrated that the SARS-CoV-2 is preserved better in VTM than PBS during FTCs in regard to nucleic acid testing.

As an important part of the Internet of Things, mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) will generate traffic with different service quality requirements due to the multi-sensor integration of nodes and application diversity. Due to the topological changes, resource constraints and self-organizing characteristics of MWSN, the Per-Hop Behavior (PHB) approach in the traditional Diff-Serv model has many challenges in providing differential service. In this paper, a path reservation multipath routing (PRMR) protocol is proposed, which can provide a suitable path for each type of traffic with service requirements. PRMR protocol includes path discovery algorithm and packet scheduling algorithm. In addition, the path scheduling model and scheduling algorithm in PRMR solve the problem of load imbalance among reserved paths caused by different types of traffic. In scenarios with different number of nodes, three types of traffic, integrity sensitive data, delay sensitive data and normal data, are used to verify the performance of PRMR differential service and load balancing. Simulation experiments not only compare the quality of service provided by each reserved path in PRMR, but also compare the differential service performance between PRMR and several multipath routing algorithms. Simulation results show that PRMR routing algorithm can guarantee high packet delivery rate and low delay for integrity-sensitive data and delay-sensitive data, respectively. In addition, the simulation results of the average residual energy index show that the protocol can achieve network energy balance.

Monotaxis heterodon (Bleeker, 1854) is widespread in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, however, it was reported that Monotaxis grandoculis (Forsskål, 1775) was the single species of Monotaxis in this area. We collected four M. heterodon specimens from the lagoon waters of Mischief Reef in South China Sea. A morphometric study was taken to confirm the occurrence of M. heterodon in the seawaters of the South China Sea and thoroughly separate them from M. grandoculis. In addition, DNA barcoding was taken for the classification of specimens. The mean genetic distance within M. heterodon group was 0.24 percentage points, group mean distance between M. heterodon and M. grandoculis was 8.71 percentage points. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the existence of M. heterodon in the lagoon waters of the South China Sea. This study will contribute to species identification within this genus distributed in the South China Sea.

The critical roles of transcription factors in cell differentiation and the delineation of cell phenotypes have been reported. The current study aimed to characterize the functions of the basic transcription factor 3 (BTF3) gene and its regulation of the intestinal stem cell marker B cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 (BMI1) gene in colorectal cancer (CRC). Stem cell-like traits and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of cultured human CRC cell line HCT116 were evaluated by CD133+ subpopulation counting, colony formation, tumorosphere generation, and expression of EMT-specific markers and stem cell markers. The interaction of BTF3 with BMI1 was analyzed. BTF3 was overexpressed in CRC tissues, which was associated with poor patient survival. BTF3 knockdown impaired the retention of stem cell-like traits of HCT116 and inhibited the EMT of HCT116 cells. BMI1 expression changed in a BTF3-dependent manner, and its overexpression could partially restore stem cell-like traits and EMT of cultured HCT116 cells after BTF3 knockdown. In parallel, treatment with the BMI1 inhibitor PTC-209 mimicked the effects of BTF3 knockdown on stem cell-like traits and EMT of cultured HCT116 cells. Together, these results support the notion that BTF3 and BMI1 are potential therapeutic targets to limit CRC metastasis.

All-inorganic perovskite quantum dots (PQDs, CsPbX

Niobium hydrides are attractive superconductors. Exploring the formation process of niobium hydrides is essential to elucidate the mechanism of superconductivity. One of the key issues is to clarify the atomic stacking patterns of Nb and H atoms, i.e., the structural evolution of Nb–H clusters. Here, the low-energy structural isomers of NbHn (n = 2–15) clusters are determined using the CALYPSO method combined with density functional theory calculations. Geometries were fully optimized at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ/6–311++G(d) level of theory to determine global minimum structures for each size. The results indicate that NbH13 is the most stable cluster in this size range. The 4d atomic orbital of Nb and the hydrogen 1s atomic orbital participate largely to the internal binding of the NbH13 cluster. They hydrogen storage density and adsorption energy of this cluster are calculated to be 12.4 wt% and 2.58 eV, respectively. The high hydrogen storage density, suitable hydrogen adsorption energy, and high stability of NbH13 shows promise as a hydrogen storage material. These results provide fundamental information for further design of metal hydrogen storage materials.

This study investigated the prognosis of coronary microvascular disease (CMD) as determined by stress perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with ischemic symptoms but without significant coronary artery disease (CAD).Patients with CMD have poorer prognosis with various cardiac diseases. The myocardial perfusion reserve index (MPRI) derived from noninvasive stress perfusion CMR has been established to diagnose microvascular angina with a threshold MPRI 1.4. The prognosis of CMD as determined by MPRI is unknown.Chest pain patients without epicardial CAD or myocardial disease from January 2009 to December 2017 were retrospectively included from 3 imaging centers in Hong Kong (HK). Stress perfusion CMR examinations were performed using either adenosine or adenosine triphosphate. Adequate stress was assessed by achieving splenic switch-off sign. Measurement of MPRI was performed in all stress perfusion CMR scans. Patients were followed for major adverse cardiovascular events defined as all-cause death, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), epicardial CAD development, heart failure hospitalization and non-fatal stroke.A total of 218 patients were studied (mean age 59 ± 12 years; 49.5% male) and the average MPRI of that cohort was 1.56 ± 0.33. Females and a history of hyperlipidemia were predictors of lower MPRI. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) occurred in 15.6% of patients during a median follow-up of 5.5 years (interquartile range: 4.6 to 6.8 years). The optimal cutoff value of MPRI in predicting MACE was found with a threshold MPRI ≤1.47. Patients with MPRI ≤1.47 had three-fold increased risk of MACE compared with those with MPRI1.47 (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.58 to 6.25; p = 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression after adjusting for age and hypertension demonstrated that MPRI was an independent predictor of MACE (HR: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.34; p 0.001).Stress perfusion CMR-derived MPRI is an independent imaging marker that predicts MACE in patients with ischemic symptom and no overt CAD over the medium term.

Virtual machine (VM) scheduling is one of the critical tasks in cloud computing. Many works have attempted to incorporate machine learning, especially reinforcement learning, to empower VM scheduling procedures. Although improved results are shown in several demo simulators, the performances in real-world scenarios are still underexploited. In this paper, we design a practical VM scheduling platform, i.e., VMAgent, to assist researchers in developing their methods on the VM scheduling problem. VMAgent consists of three components: simulator, scheduler, and visualizer. The simulator abstracts three general realistic scheduling scenarios (fading, recovering, and expansion) based on Huawei Cloud’s scheduling data, which is the core of our platform. Flexible configurations are further provided to make the simulator compatible with practical cloud computing architecture (i.e., Multi Non-Uniform Memory Access) and scenarios. Researchers then need to instantiate the scheduler to interact with the simulator, which is also pre-built in various types (e.g., heuristic, machine learning, and operations research) of scheduling algorithms to speed up the algorithm design. The visualizer, as an auxiliary component of the simulator and scheduler, facilitates researchers to conduct an in-depth analysis of the scheduling procedure and comprehensively compare different scheduling algorithms. We believe that VMAgent would shed light on the AI for the VM scheduling community, and the demo video is presented in https://bit.ly/vmagent-demo-video.

ObjectivesTo compare the safety and efficacy of completely zero-fluoroscopy radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with that of conventional RFA guided by three-dimensional mapping in Chinese children with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT).MethodsThe study had a single-center observational design and included 46 children aged 6–14 years who underwent RFA for PSVT at the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University between March 2019 and September 2021. The children were divided according to whether they underwent zero-fluoroscopy RFA (zero-fluoroscopy group, n = 26) or routine RFA under X-ray guidance (conventional group, n = 20). Three-dimensional mapping was used in both groups. Baseline characteristics, total procedure time, RFA time, volume and duration of X-ray exposure, target mapping time, the immediate RFA success rate, incidence of complications, and recurrence rate were compared between the two groups.ResultsThe children had a median age of 12 years (interquartile range 10, 13), 47.8% (22/46) were boys, and 52.2% (24/46) were girls. The mean body weight was 48.75 ± 15.26 kg. There was no significant between-group difference in the baseline data (P > 0.05). All children were followed up as outpatients at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively. The target mapping time was significantly longer in the zero-fluoroscopy group than in the conventional group (12.96 ± 2.24 min vs. 6.65 ± 2.56 min, P < 0.05); however, there was no significant between-group difference in the immediate success rate (100% vs. 100%), success rate at 6 months postoperatively (92.30% vs. 95.00%), complication rate (0% vs. 0.05%), recurrence rate (7.70% vs. 5.00%), RFA time (212.50 s vs. 214.00 s), or total procedure time (78.50 min vs. 74.00 min) (P > 0.05).ConclusionZero-fluoroscopy catheter ablation can completely avoid fluoroscopy exposure in children without affecting the safety and efficacy of RFA.

Low-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising candidates for gas sensing. Surface modification with specific molecules is considered an effective approach to enhance gas s...

Tb3+/Eu2+,3+-doped zinc aluminoborosilicate glasses were prepared using a conventional high temperature melt-quenching method. Infrared spectra and physical properties of as-prepared glasses verified that the addition of Tb/Eu causes structural weakness in the glass. Tuning of blue, green, and red emission bands achieves white light for the zinc aluminoborosilicate glasses. The broad blue emission band is attributed to the 5d-4f transition of Eu2+ due to partial reduction of Eu3+ during calcination in ambient atmosphere. The reduction of Eu3+ is related to the formation of Eu Zn • and V Zn '' defects and host alkalinity decreases with the addition of Eu3+. Emission spectra and decay curves confirm energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ in the zinc aluminoborosilicate glasses, and relative intensities of green and red luminescence can be tuned through concentrations changes of Tb3+ and Eu2+,3+. When the concentrations of Tb3+ and Eu2+,3+ are equal to 6% and 1.2%, respectively, a neutral white light emitting glass is obtained. Furthermore, the white-emitting glass shows very high thermal stability compared to a commercial Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphor. Therefore, luminescence tuning of glasses through changing activator concentrations and energy transfer is expected to achieve high-powered white LEDs.

Background It is uncertain whether long-term use of clopidogrel alone can cause gastric mucosal injury. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between ABCB1 C3435T polymorphisms, which could affect the intestinal absorption of clopidogrel, and gastric mucosal erosion in elderly Chinese men who used clopidogrel alone. Methods We selected 298 male patients (aged between 68.2 and 89.5 years, average age 78); 201 of them constituted the control group, and 97 constituted the case group. Patients taking clopidogrel alone who had undergone endoscopic screening for gastric erosion were analyzed for ABCB1 C3435T polymorphisms by a TaqMan assay. Results The proportion of people carrying the ABCB1 3435T allele (n = 63, 64.9% vs n = 97, 48.3%, p = 0.007) was significantly higher in the case group than in the control group. After adjustments for significant factors were made, ABCB1 3435T allele carrier (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.43-3.84, p

To pursue green ecological agriculture, long-life functionalized green house is looking for solar spectrum conversions with well spectral match, outstanding thermal and chemical stabilities, excellent anti-photobleaching and UV-conversion performance. CaS:Eu2+-based phosphors are widely known as a candidate for agricultural films with remarkable green-to-red conversion performance while they are also notorious for poor stabilities. In this work, a core-shell structured CaS:Eu2+@CaZnOS:Mn2+ composite phosphor was synthesized by a two-step solid state method. The coating layer of thermally and chemically inert oxysulfide prevents the sulfide core phosphor from hydrophilic, air-sensitive and heat-induced decompositions. Moreover, the addition of Mn2+ in CaZnOS shell qualifies the composite phosphor with strong UV absorption, which contributes to the improvement of the anti-photodegradation of the inner CaS:Eu2+ and the anti-aging of practical polymer films. The additional UV-to-orange red conversion resulting from CaZnOS:Mn2+ further extends the red components for the indoor plants. As a result, this dual UV/green excited and dual red-emitting super stable chalcogenide phosphor can be used as a general spectral conversion for plant cultivation.

Literatures indicate that microRNA-129-5p (miR-129-5p) or Fas-associated death domain (FADD) is related to intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), but the effect of miR-129-5p/FADD axis on IDD is not studied. The study aimed to investigate whether miR-129-5p influenced immune privilege and nucleus pulposus (NP) cell apoptosis in rats with IDD via regulating FADD.A rat model with caudal IDD was established, and injected with miR-129-5p agomir or miR-129-5p antagomir to figure out the character of miR-129-5p in the cell apoptosis and inflammation in the nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues of IDD rats. NP cells were grouped as the same ways for determining proliferation, apoptosis, and senescence in NP cells of IDD rats. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining detected the apoptosis of macrophages and CD8+ cells co-cultured via transfected NP cells. Expression of miR-129-5p, FADD, collagen I, collagen II, aggrecan and Sox-9 in NP tissues and cells were determined.Up-regulated miR-129-5p decreased FADD, collagen I and elevated collagen Ⅱ, aggrecan, and Sox-9 in NP tissues and repressed inflammation in serum and NP tissues in IDD rats. Up-regulated miR-129-5p facilitated proliferation, inhibited senescence, apoptosis, and decreased FADD, collagen I and increased collagen Ⅱ, aggrecan, and Sox-9 in NP cells of IDD rats. Elevated miR-129-5p promoted the apoptosis of macrophages and CD8+ cells.We pronounced that up-regulated miR-129-5p inhibited the apoptosis and facilitated the proliferation of NP cells, as well as the apoptosis of macrophages and CD8+ cells via decreased FADD in IDD, suggesting that miR-129-5p had a protective effect on IDD.

Background: There are still residual risks for atherosclerosis (AS)-associated cardiovascular diseases to be resolved. Considering the vital role of phenotypic switching of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in AS, especially in calcification, targeting SMC phenotypic modulation holds great promise for clinical implications.Methods: To perform an unbiased and systematic analysis of the molecular regulatory mechanism of phenotypic switching of SMCs during AS in mice, we searched and included several publicly available single-cell datasets from the GEO database, resulting in an inclusion of more than 80,000 cells. Algorithms implemented in the Seurat package were used for cell clustering and cell atlas depiction. The pySCENIC and SCENIC packages were used to identify master regulators of interested cell groups. Monocle2 was used to perform pseudotime analysis. clusterProfiler was used for Gene Ontology enrichment analysis.Results: After dimensionality reduction and clustering, reliable annotation was performed. Comparative analysis between cells from normal artery and AS lesions revealed that three clusters emerged as AS progression, designated as mSMC1, mSMC2, and mSMC3. Transcriptional and functional enrichment analysis established a continuous transitional mode of SMCs’ transdifferentiation to mSMCs, which is further supported by pseudotime analysis. A total of 237 regulons were identified with varying activity scores across cell types. A potential core regulatory network was constructed for SMC and mSMC subtypes. In addition, module analysis revealed a coordinate regulatory mode of regulons for a specific cell type. Intriguingly, consistent with gain of ossification-related transcriptional and functional characteristics, a corresponding small set of regulators contributing to osteochondral reprogramming was identified in mSMC3, including Dlx5, Sox9, and Runx2.Conclusion: Gene regulatory network inference indicates a hierarchical organization of regulatory modules that work together in fine-tuning cellular states. The analysis here provides a valuable resource that can provide guidance for subsequent biological experiments.

Background: To determine the mechanism of magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate in regulating the inflammatory microenvironment to antagonize gastric cancer. Methods: We established MFC xenograft mouse models to investigate the effects of magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate on gastric cancer. A PCR Array chip was deployed to detect the expression level of 96 genes associated with inflammation and immune response. We used immunohistochemistry to stain the key immune cells to observe the density changes in gastric cancer inflammatory microenvironment. The possible mechanism was further investigated in Raw264.7 cells fed with conditioned media from MFC, the expression of M1 and M2 markers were tested by Western blot and ELISA. Results: Magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate reduced the tumor weight, volume and improved survival rate of gastric cancer xenograft mice. From the results of chip screening, changes in inflammation and immune response regulation factors included chemokines and receptors (CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCR1), interleukins and receptors (IL-1β, IL10, IL23A, IL2, IL12, IL1R1), TNF-α and key molecules in NF-κB pathway. Magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate induced the aggregation of CD8 + T cells, reduced Treg infiltration and increased the density of macrophages. M2 macrophage marker Arg1 and cytokines such as IL6, IL10, VEGF-A were down-regulated, on the contrary, the expression of M1 markers iNOS and cytokines IL -12 were up-regulated. Conclusions: Magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate can regulate the inflammatory microenvironment to enhance anti-tumor immunity and suppress immune escape in gastric cancer. Most importantly, it can induce macrophage differentiation into M1 probably through the NF-κB pathway in the cancer inflammatory microenvironment.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a rare but serious skin condition, which can lead to death. Stevens-Johnson syndrome is usually attributed to drug-induced reactions, thus making it vital for clinicians to prevent its occurrence by knowing the trigger drugs. The objective of this study was to comprehensively and systematically excavate the drugs that cause SJS to provide references for clinician.This is an observational, retrospective study, conducting a disproportionality analysis. Where the Information Component (IC) method and Reporting odds ratio (ROR) are used to mine the drugs that cause SJS.A total of 17,787,905 reports were extracted from VigiBase database, of which 25,051 reports were related to SJS. The 18-44 age group had the largest number of cases (N=7,973, 31.83%). A total of 295 drugs was detected as signals. Allopurinol (IC025/ROR025=5.86/69.84), phenytoin (IC025/ROR025=5.60/57.65) and carbamazepine (IC025/ROR025=5.25/43.88) were the top 3 strongest signals. Our study only considered the possibility of SJS caused by a single drug.Allopurinol, phenytoin and carbamazepine were three strongest signals. Garenoxaci, carbocisteine and dimetindene were strong signals, but there are no relevant cases reported on PubMed or specific SJS in labels, which need further study to verify.

The tetravalent-state stability of manganese is of primary importance for Mn

Songklanakarin Journal of Science an Technology (SJST), 44, 4, 1048-1056

Songklanakarin Journal of Science an Technology (SJST), 44, 4, 953-962

In this paper, we rigorously derive the governed equations describing the motion of stable stratified fluid, from the mathematical point of view. Specially, we prove that the scaled Boussinesq equations strongly converge to the viscous primitive equations with density stratification as the aspect ration parameter goes to zero, and the rate of convergence is of the same order as the aspect ratio parameter. Moreover, in order to obtain this convergence result, we also establish the global well-posedness of strong solutions to the viscous primitive equations with density stratification., Comment: 24 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2105.10621

Eu

Phosphors with high quantum efficiency and thermal stability play a key role in improving the performance of phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs). A near-UV-pumped LED shows a great advantage due to its reduction of the negative effect of blue light on human health. In this work, we propose a series of near-UV excitable cyan-emitting Eu