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Background: Bile duct leaks (BDLs) are serious complications that occurs after hepatobiliary surgery and trauma, leading to rapid clinical deterioration. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the first-line treatment for BDLs, but it is not clear which patients will respond to this therapy and which patients will require additional surgical intervention. The aim of our study was to explore the predictors of successful ERCP for BDLs. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using data from six centers' databases. All consecutive patients who were clinically confirmed as BDLs were included in the study. Collected data were demographics, disease severity, and ERCP procedure characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to select independent predictive factors that affect the outcome of ERCP for BDLs, and a nomogram was established. Calibration and ROC curves were used to evaluate the models. Results: Four hundred and forty-eight consecutive patients were clinically confirmed as BDLs and 347 were excluded. In the 101 patients included patients, clinical success was achieved in 78 patients (77.2%). In logistic multivariable regression, two independent factors were negatively associated with the success of ERCP: SIRS (OR, 0.183; 95% CI 0.039–0.864; P = 0.032) and high-grade leak (OR 0.073; 95% CI 0.010–0.539; P = 0.010). Two independent factors were positively associated with the success of ERCP: leak-bridging drainage (OR 4.792; 95% CI 1.08–21.21; P = 0.039) and cystic duct leak (OR 6.193; 95% CI 1.03–37.17; P = 0.046). The prediction model with these four factors was evaluated using a receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.9351. The calibration curve showed that the model had good predictive accuracy. Conclusion: Leak-bridging drainage and cystic duct leak are positive predictors for the success of ERCP, while SIRS and high-grade leak are negative predictors. This prediction model with nomogram has good predictive ability and practical clinical value, and may be helpful in clinical decision-making and prognostication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing and utilizing CO2 from the production process is the key to solving the excessive CO2 emission problem. CO2 hydrogenation with green hydrogen to produce olefins is an effective and promising way to utilize CO2 and produce valuable chemicals. The olefins can be produced by CO2 hydrogenation through two routes, i.e., CO2-FTS (carbon dioxide Fischer–Tropsch synthesis) and MeOH (methanol-mediated), among which CO2-FTS has significant advantages over MeOH in practical applications due to its relatively high CO2 conversion and low energy consumption potentials. However, the CO2-FTS faces challenges of difficult CO2 activation and low olefins selectivity. Iron-based catalysts are promising for CO2-FTS due to their dual functionality of catalyzing RWGS and CO-FTS reactions. This review summarizes the recent progress on iron-based catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation via the FTS route and analyzes the catalyst optimization from the perspectives of additives, active sites, and reaction mechanisms. Furthermore, we also outline principles and challenges for rational design of high-performance CO2-FTS catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oncogene RAS, extensively studied for decades, presents persistent gaps in understanding, hindering the development of effective therapeutic strategies due to a lack of precise details on how RAS initiates MAPK signaling with RAF effector proteins at the plasma membrane. Recent advances in X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy offer structural and spatial insights, yet the molecular mechanisms involving protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions in RAS-mediated signaling require further characterization. This study utilizes single-molecule experimental techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the computational Machine-Learned Modeling Infrastructure (MuMMI) to examine KRAS4b and RAF1 on a biologically relevant lipid bilayer. MuMMI captures long-timescale events while preserving detailed atomic descriptions, providing testable models for experimental validation. Both in vitro and computational studies reveal that RBDCRD binding alters KRAS lateral diffusion on the lipid bilayer, increasing cluster size and decreasing diffusion. RAS and membrane binding cause hydrophobic residues in the CRD region to penetrate the bilayer, stabilizing complexes through β-strand elongation. These cooperative interactions among lipids, KRAS4b, and RAF1 are proposed as essential for forming nanoclusters, potentially a critical step in MAP kinase signal activation.RAS binding to RAF’s RBDCRD domain on lipid bilayers cooperatively induces nanoclustering, slowing complex diffusion—an essential mechanism in initial signal activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland has become a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and research has shown that the addition of straw or biochar may be a viable method for mitigating these emissions. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding the comparative biotic and abiotic effects of straw and biochar amendments on GHG emissions. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of 100 published papers to quantify the impact of straw and biochar application on GHG emissions. Our findings indicate that straw application significantly increased CO2 and CH4 emissions from agricultural ecosystems by 46.2% and 113.5%, respectively, but did not have a significant effect on N2O emissions. Conversely, biochar amendment significantly reduced CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions by an average of 11.0%, 31.7%, and 22.8%, respectively. We also found that straw and biochar amendments increased soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), and C/N ratio, and there were significant differences between them. Moreover, straw application significantly increased the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content and microbial quotient by 37.1% and 20.1%, respectively, while biochar application increased the MBC content by 25.0% without a significant effect on the microbial quotient. Furthermore, both straw and biochar applications promoted the nitrification process and increased the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) by 50.7% with straw and by 57.5% and 75.1% with biochar for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and AOB, respectively. The denitrification process was also stimulated by straw or biochar amendment, resulting in an increase in the abundance of nirK by 22.9% and 16.8%, respectively. Biochar amendment additionally increased the abundance of nosZ by 29.4%, indicating that the main reason for reducing N2O emissions through biochar application is the conversion of NO3−-N to N2. Thus, compared to straw application, biochar application is a more effective method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of leakage in biometrics, to improve the performance of speech retrieval and the security of single biometric template, this paper proposes a verifiable speech retrieval algorithm based on diversity security template and BioHashing. Firstly, both of biometrics which are the cross-correlation cosine and improved sub-band energy entropy ratio are fused to construct the time-frequency biometric vectors, finally the vectors are classified by the K-medoids algorithm. Then, the dimension vectors of the orthogonal set matrix which is constructed by Schmidt orthogonalization of the QCNN(Quantum Cellular Neural Network) chaotic matrix are one-to-one corresponding to the biometric vectors of the corresponding class to form the diversity biosafety templates, and the templates are further quantified to generate BioHashing sequences. Finally, the address index of dimension vectors of QCNN chaotic matrix and BioHashing sequences of corresponding class are one to one correspondingly encrypted by QCNN chaotic mapping encryption to construct hash index, and then the hash index is stored in the system hash index table of the cloud server. At the same time, the encrypted speech is uploaded to the cloud sever after 2D-LICM chaotic scrambling-shift encryption which is convenient to match and retrieve data for the users. Experimental results show that the diversity template has better security and complexity by using K-medoids algorithm to classify the biometric. Hash index and encrypted speech can effectively prevent the leakage of privacy data. At the same time, the retrieval system has better discrimination and retrieval performance, and it performs verifiable retrieval of speech for content preservation operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical formation of La–Al alloys in LiF–CaF2 molten salt on a molybdenum electrode at 1123 K was investigated by electrochemical techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry, square-wave voltammetry and open-circuit chronopotentiometry. The formation signals of four types of Al–La intermetallic compounds were observed. The Al–La alloy was obtained through galvanostatic electrolysis at 2.5 A·cm−2 for 3 h. The phase composition and microstructure of the electrolytic products were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). XRD results show that the phase compositions of the alloys are Al11La3 and Al, and EDS results reveal 26.7 at% La in the alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: KLHDC7B is a member of Kelch family, with a Kelch domain in the C-terminal half, which plays a role in various cellular events, such as cytoskeletal arrangement, protein degradation, gene expression. Although there is increasing evidence supporting KLHDC7B's vital role in tumorigenesis, a systematic analysis of KLHDC7B in cancers remains lacking. Therefore, we intended to investigate the prognostic value for KLHDC7B across 33 cancer types and explore its potential immunological function. Methods: GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus database) and TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atla) database were used to explore the role of KLHDC7B in 33 cancers. TIMER2, GEPIA2 and Kaplan–Meier plotter were utilized to explore the KLHDC7B expression level and prognostic value in different cancers. The pan cancer genetic variation and DNA methylation of KLHDC7B were analyzed by cBioPortal and MEXPRESS. TIMER2 was employed to investigate the correlation between KLHDC7B expression and immune infiltration. The relationship of KLHDC7B expression with TMB (tumor mutational burden) and MSI (microsatellite instability) were evaluated using Spearman correlation analysis. Finally, by GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, the underlying mechanisms of KLHDC7B in tumor pathophysiology were further investigated. Results: KLHDC7B expression level was related to pathological stages, MSI, TMB, immune checkpoint and immune cell infiltration in most cancers. Especially, we found that the KLHDC7B expression was negatively correlated with the immune infiltration of Myeloid derived suppressor cells into TGCT and GBM. Additionally, survival analysis showed that the expression of KLHDC7B was connected with overall survival (OS) in 3 cancers and disease-free survival (DFS) in 5 cancers. Furthermore, the enrichment analysis revealed that the KLHDC7B collecting genes and binding proteins are related to the function of proteins and immune response. Conclusion: KLHDC7B demonstrates strong clinical utility as markers of prognostic and immune response in pan-cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) supported on a cerium-based metal–organic framework Ce-MOF-801 (Pd/Ce-MOF-801) was prepared using an incipient wetness impregnation strategy. Multiple analytical techniques were used to investigate the physicochemical properties of Pd/Ce-MOF-801. Afterwards, its catalytic efficiency in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction between different haloarenes and phenylboronic acid was assessed. The developed Pd/Ce-MOF-801 displayed a high catalytic performance at 318 K and in the presence of K2CO3 as well as aqueous ethanol (as a solvent), much superior to Pd/Ce-BTC as well as the analogs reported in the literature by comprehensively comparing the catalytic activity and the relationship between reaction temperature and catalyst dosage. Moreover, the catalyst exhibited negligible Pd species leaching and was capable of being recycled in eight successive runs without any decay in reactivity. Such protocol has the advantages of ambient reaction conditions and tolerance to various substrates with various functional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irisin is a muscle-derived hormone that promotes the survival of motor neurons and enhances muscle size following injury. In this study, we investigated the beneficial effects and mechanism(s) of action of irisin in response to cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury (CIRI). Right-middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) models were generated in C57BL/6 J mice. Mouse neuronal cell lines (NSC-34) were used to confirm the molecular mechanisms of the protection afforded by irisin in response to CIRI. We found that irisin (250 μg/kg) improved cerebral function and reduced the cerebral infarct volume following CIRI. Irisin also protected neuronal cells against ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) induced apoptosis, assessed via TUNEL, and cleaved Caspase-3 staining. Western blotting of neuronal tissue from irisin treated I/R mice showed lower expression of pro-apoptotic Bax and caspase-9 (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01) and increased levels of the pro-survival protein Bcl-2 (P < 0.01 & P < 0.001 vs. I/R). Irisin also reduced the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) characterized through malondialdehyde (MDA) assays. Irisin was found to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis through the suppression of mitochondrial fission-linked dynamin-related protein 1 in CIRI mice (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05 v. I/R cohort). Moreover, mitochondrial fusion–related protein (Mfn2) and Opa1 expression were rescued following irisin treatment (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01 v. I/R cohort). Cell-based assays showed that irisin activates PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling in the neurons of CIRI mice. Furthermore, the beneficial effects of irisin on NSC-34 cell-survival, mitochondrial function, and ROS generation were reversed by VS-5584, a highly specific PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitor. Collectively, these data highlight the ability of irisin to alleviate CIRI in vivo and in vitro. The mechanisms of action of irisin include the attenuation of apoptosis through the prevention of mitochondrial fission and increased mitochondrial fusion and the alleviation of oxidative stress through activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis. We therefore identify irisin as a much-needed therapeutic for CIRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidation of renewable polyol/sugar into formic acid using molecular O2 over heterogeneous catalysts is still challenging due to the insufficient activation of both O2 and organic substrates on coordination-saturated metal oxides. In this study, we develop a defective MnO2 catalyst through a coordination number reduction strategy to enhance the aerobic oxidation of various polyols/sugars to formic acid. Compared to common MnO2, the tri-coordinated Mn in the defective MnO2 catalyst displays the electronic reconstruction of surface oxygen charge state and rich surface oxygen vacancies. These oxygen vacancies create more Mnδ+ Lewis acid site together with nearby oxygen as Lewis base sites. This combined structure behaves much like Frustrated Lewis pairs, serving to facilitate the activation of O2, as well as C–C and C–H bonds. As a result, the defective MnO2 catalyst shows high catalytic activity (turnover frequency: 113.5 h−1) and formic acid yield (>80%) comparable to noble metal catalysts for glycerol oxidation. The catalytic system is further extended to the oxidation of other polyols/sugars to formic acid with excellent catalytic performance. This work develops defective MnO2 catalysts with Frustrated Lewis Pairs through a coordination number reduction strategy to enhance the aerobic oxidation of various polyols/sugars to formic acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification plays important roles in bioprocesses and diseases. AlkB homolog 5 (ALKBH5) is one of two m6A demethylases. Here, we reveal that ALKBH5 is acetylated at lysine 235 (K235) by lysine acetyltransferase 8 and deacetylated by histone deacetylase 7. K235 acetylation strengthens the m6A demethylation activity of ALKBH5 by increasing its recognition of m6A on mRNA. RNA-binding protein paraspeckle component 1 (PSCP1) is a regulatory subunit of ALKBH5 and preferentially interacts with K235-acetylated ALKBH5 to recruit and facilitate the recognition of m6A mRNA by ALKBH5, thereby promoting m6A erasure. Mitogenic signals promote ALKBH5 K235 acetylation. K235 acetylation of ALKBH5 is upregulated in cancers and promotes tumorigenesis. Thus, our findings reveal that the m6A demethylation activity of ALKBH5 is orchestrated by its K235 acetylation and regulatory subunit PSPC1 and that K235 acetylation is necessary for the m6A demethylase activity and oncogenic roles of ALKBH5. Deregulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification can contribute to the pathogenesis of cancers. Here the authors show that m6A demethylase ALKBH5 is acetylated at K235 by acetyltransferase KAT8 and interacts with RNA-binding protein PSCP1 to enhance m6A demethylation and promote tumorigenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion: Based on phenotypic, physiological and proteomic analysis, the possible mechanism by which Ds-26-16 regulates salt tolerance in Arabidopsis seedlings was revealed. Functional and mechanistic characterization of salt tolerance genes isolated from natural resources is crucial for their application. In this study, we report the possible mechanism by which Ds-26-16, a gene from Dunaliella, and its point mutation gene EP-5, enhance salt tolerance in Arabidopsis seedlings. Both Ds-26-16 and EP-5 transgenic lines displayed higher seed germination rates, cotyledon-greening rates, soluble sugar contents, decreased relative conductivity and ROS accumulation when germinating under 150 mM NaCl conditions. Comparative proteomic analysis revealed that there were 470 or 391 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in Ds-26-16 or EP-5, respectively, compared with the control (3301) under salt stress. The GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed the DEPs in Ds-26-16 vs. 3301 and EP-5 vs. 3301 were similar and mainly enriched in photosynthesis, regulation of gene expression, carbohydrate metabolism, redox homeostasis, hormonal signal and defense, and regulation of seed germination. Thirty-seven proteins were found to be stably expressed under salt stress due to the expression of Ds-26-16, and eleven of them contain the CCACGT motif which could be bound by the transcription factor in ABA signaling to repress gene transcription. Taken together, we propose that Ds-26-16, as a global regulator, improves salt-tolerance by coordinating stress-induced signal transduction and modulating multiple responses in Arabidopsis seedlings. These results provide valuable information for utilizing natural resources in crop improvement for breeding salt-tolerant crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activated carbon-supported HgCl2 catalysts have seriously impeded the development of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry due to the sublimation of Hg species and environmental pollution problems. Herein, the template-free and organic solvent-free strategy was devised to synthesize non-metallic based nitrogen-doped carbon (U-NC) sphere catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination. This green strategy via ultrasonic chemistry initiates resin crosslinking reactions between aminophenol and formaldehyde resin by free radicals, leading to the ultra-rapid formation of U-NC with remarkably high pyrrolic N content in only 5 min. This U-NC catalyst exhibited an outstanding space-time-yield (1.6 gVCM·gcat−1·h−1), even comparable to the reported metallic catalyst. By combining kinetic analysis, advanced characterizations, and density functional theory, it is found that the amount of pyrrolic N is in linear with C2H2 conversion, and pyrrolic N in U-NC can effectively improve acetylene hydrochlorination performance by mediating HCl adsorption. This work sheds new light on rationally constructing metal-free catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A study was carried out on the preparation of YAl2 intermetallics from mixed oxide precursors using the method of electro-deoxidation. Y2O3 and Al2O3 mixed in molar proportions of 1:2 were sintered at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1200 °C for different hours. The sintered pellet was then electrolyzed in a molten CaCl2 at 850 °C using a graphite anode at a potential of 3.1 V. In this work, effects of sintering on the composition and the oxygen content in cathodic products were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and oxygen–nitrogen analyzer. Sintering mainly affects the porosity of the pellets, and it is found that porosity decreases gradually with the increase in sintering temperature and the extension of sintering time. When sintered at 900 °C for 4 h, the oxygen content in the cathodic product decreases to 1.85 wt%, and the efficiency of electro-deoxidation is 94.48%. At the same time, the mechanism of electrolysis was speculated. The results suggest that the formation of YAl2 is a multi-step process. During the reduction process from mixed oxides Y2O3/Al2O3 to YAl2 included many intermediate materials, such as YAlO3, Y3Al5O12 and YAl3, YAl2 intermediate alloy was prepared finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of large temperature difference between the center and ends of the metallic rod in the purification process of solid-state electrotransport (SSE), three types of electrode connections of tantalum and the corresponding rods of metallic lanthanum were designed, the temperature distributions of three kinds of rod were measured, and the influence of temperature difference on the purification effect of solid-state electrotransport was investigated. The results indicate that the maximum temperature difference of the rod will be significantly reduced through decreasing the cross section of electrode connection to make its unit length resistance close to that of rod, or increasing the unit length resistance of the section at both ends of the rod. When these two measures are adopted at the same time, the effect of decreasing rod temperature difference is the best in the present study, and the maximum temperature difference of the rod can be reduced to 29 °C when the maximum temperature of the rod is 820 °C. The migration velocity of the impurities at rod ends can be obviously improved after the rod temperature difference is reduced, which enables the purification effect and efficiency of solid-state electrotransport to be greatly raised; it is also found that the major impurities iron in metallic lanthanum migrates more easily than oxygen and carbon during the purification of metal lanthanum with solid-state electrotransport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Cervical fractures with ankylosing spondylitis (CAS) are a specific type of spinal fracture with poor stability, low healing rate, and high disability rate. Its treatment is mainly surgical, predominantly through the anterior approach, posterior approach, and the anterior–posterior approach. Although many clinical studies have been conducted on various surgical approaches, controversy still exists concerning the choice of these surgical approaches by surgeons. The authors present here a systematic evaluation and meta-analysis exploring the utility of the anterior–posterior approach versus the anterior approach and the posterior approach. Methods: After a comprehensive literature search of PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Embase databases, 12 clinical studies were included in the final qualitative analysis and 8 in the final quantitative analysis. Of these studies, 11 conducted a comparison between the anterior–posterior approach and the anterior approach and posterior approaches, while one examined only the anterior–posterior approach. Where appropriate, statistical advantage ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results: The present meta-analysis of postoperative neurological improvement showed no statistical difference in the overall neurological improvement rate between the anterior–posterior approach and anterior approach (OR 1.70, 95% CI 0.61 to 4.75; p = 0.31). However, the mean change in postoperative neurological function was lower in patients who received the anterior approach than in those who received the anterior–posterior approach (MD 0.17, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.36; p = 0.08). There was an identical trend between the anterior–posterior approach and posterior approach, with no statistically significant difference in the overall rate of neurological improvement (OR 1.37, 95% CI 0.70 to 2.56; p = 0.38). Nevertheless, the mean change in neurological function was smaller in patients receiving the anterior–posterior approach compared with the posterior approach, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two (MD 0.17, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.36; p = 0.08). Conclusions: The results of this review and meta-analysis suggest that the benefits of the anterior–posterior approach are different from those of the anterior and posterior approaches in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis-related cervical fractures. In a word, there is no significant difference between the cervical surgical approach and the neurological functional improvement. Therefore, surgeons should pay more attention to the type of cervical fracture, the displacement degree of cervical fracture, the spinal cord injury, the balance of cervical spine and other aspects to comprehensively consider the selection of appropriate surgical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refractory high-entropy alloys are considered as potential structural materials for elevated temperature applications. To obtain refractory high-entropy alloys with high strength, different amounts of Si were added into the NbMoTiVW refractory high-entropy alloys. The effects of Si on the phase constitution, microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties of NbMoTiVWSix alloys were investigated. Results show that when the addition of Si is 0, 0.025 and 0.05 (molar ratio), the alloys are consisted of primary BCC and secondary BCC in the intergranular area. When the addition of Si is increased to 0.075 and 0.1, eutectic structure including silicide phase and secondary BCC phase is formed. The primary BCC phase shows dendritic morphology, and is refined by adding Si. The volume fraction of intergranular area is increased from 12.22% to 18.13% when the addition of Si increases from 0 to 0.1. The ultimate compressive strength of the NbMoTiVW alloy is improved from 2,242 MPa to 2,532 MPa. Its yield strength is also improved by the addition of Si, and the yield strength of NbMoTiVWSi0.1 reaches maximum of 2,298 MPa. However, the fracture strain of the alloy is decreased from 15.31% to 12.02%. The fracture mechanism of the alloys is changed from mixed fracture of ductile and quasi-cleavage to cleavage fracture with increasing of Si. The strengthening of alloys is attributed to the refinement of primary BCC phase, volume fraction increment of secondary BCC phase, and formation of eutectic structure by addition of Si. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing and synthesizing high-efficiency non-precious metal-based catalysts having uniform active sites increases the reactivity and selectivity of materials and provides a platform for an in-depth understanding of their catalytic reaction mechanism. In this study, we provided an approach for fabricating isolated nickel single-atom sites (Ni SAs) with high loading (4.9 wt.%) stabilized on nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres (NHCS) using a core-shell structured Zn/Ni bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) composite as the sacrificial template. The as-fabricated Ni SAs/NHCS catalyst shows superior activity, selectivity, and recycling durability for the catalytic transfer hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline, thus achieving 100% yield of aniline with a turn-over frequency (TOF) value as high as 29.9 h−1 under mild conditions. This TOF value is considerably superior to the supported Ni nanoparticle catalysts. The experiments designed show that the hollow structure feature of NHCS facilitates accessible active sites and mass transfer, which thus contributes to the enhancement of the catalytic performance of Ni SAs/NHCS. Density functional theory calculations show the high chemo-selectivity and activity of the Ni SAs catalyst, arising from the unique role of the single Ni-N3 site on simultaneously activating the H donor (N2H4) and substrate, as well as the hydrogenation of the–NOH group as the rate-determining step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlation between music and human motion has attracted widespread research attention. Although recent studies have successfully generated motion for singers, dancers, and musicians, few have explored motion generation for orchestral conductors. The generation of music-driven conducting motion should consider not only the basic music beats, but also mid-level music structures, high-level music semantic expressions, and hints for different parts of orchestras (strings, woodwind, etc.). However, most existing conducting motion generation methods rely heavily on human-designed rules, which significantly limits the quality of generated motion. Therefore, we propose a novel Music Motion Synchronized Generative Adversarial Network (M2S-GAN), which generates motions according to the automatically learned music representations. More specifically, M2S-GAN is a cross-modal generative network comprising four components: 1) a music encoder that encodes the music signal; 2) a generator that generates conducting motion from the music codes; 3) a motion encoder that encodes the motion; 4) a discriminator that differentiates the real and generated motions. These four components respectively imitate four key aspects of human conductors: understanding music, interpreting music, precision and elegance. The music and motion encoders are first jointly trained by a self-supervised contrastive loss, and can thus help to facilitate the music motion synchronization during the following adversarial learning process. To verify the effectiveness of our method, we construct a large-scale dataset, named ConductorMotion100, which consists of unprecedented 100 hours of conducting motion data. Extensive experiments on ConductorMotion100 demonstrate the effectiveness of M2S-GAN. Our proposed approach outperforms various comparison methods both quantitatively and qualitatively. Through visualization, we show that our approach can generate plausible, diverse, and music-synchronized conducting motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A process of NaOH molten salt roasting–water leaching to treat titanium–vanadium slag obtained by direct reduction of titanomagnetite concentrates was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and thermogravimetry–differential scanning calorimetry (TG–DSC) techniques were used to characterize the samples. The results show that anosovite (MgxTi3−xO5) and clinopyroxene [Ca(Ti,MgAl)(SiAl)2O6] are the major phases of titanium–vanadium slag. In the NaOH molten salt roasting process, titanium is converted to intermediate product Na2TiO3 and vanadium is converted to water-soluble vanadate. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the roasting process conditions. NaOH to slag mass ratio (N/S) and roasting temperature are the main influential factors. Under the optimal roasting conditions, i.e., roasting temperature of 550 °C, N/S of 1.20, and roasting time of 80 min, the conversions of titanium and vanadium are 96.5 % and 93.0 %, respectively. In the water leaching process, Na2TiO3 is converted to amorphous structure of H2TiO3 since Na+ is exchanged with H+. Up to 93.0 % vanadium is leached out under the optimal leaching conditions. Titanium and vanadium in the titanium–vanadium slag can be separated and then recovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the selectivity of noble metal catalysts through electronic modulation is important for academic research and chemical industrial processes. Herein, we report a facile sacrificial template strategy for the synthesis of PdZn intermetallic compound (3–4 nm) highly distributed in ZnO/nitrogen-decorated carbon hollow spheres (PdZn-ZnO/NCHS) to optimize the selectivity of Pd catalysts, which involves carbonization of a core-shell structured polystyrene (PS)@ZIF-8 precursor in an inert atmosphere, impregnation Pd precursor, and subsequent H2 reduction treatment. Due to the unique structural and compositional features, the developed PdZn-ZnO/NCHS delivers an excellent catalytic performance for the semihydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol (MBY) to 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBE) with high activity (> 99%), high selectivity (96%), and good recyclability, outperforming the analog Pd on ZnO (Pd/ZnO) as well as the supported Pd nanoparticles (Pd/C and Pd/NC). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the presence of Znδ+ species in PdZn-ZnO/NCHS alters the adsorption modes of reactant and product, leading to a decrease of the adsorption strength and an enhancement of the energy barrier for overhydrogenation, which results in a kinetic favor for the selective transformation of MBY to MBE. In addition, PdZn-ZnO/NCHS was also very effective for the partial hydrogenation of dehydrolinalool to hydrolinalool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of present study was to determine the efficiency of CU selective resin for separation of radionuclides Cu from large excess of Zn. Adsorption behaviors towards Cu2+ ions was investigated as function of solution pH, contact time, Cu2+ concentration, Zn2+ concentration, amount of CU resin, the effect of coexisting cation ions and the irradiation stability of CU resin. A stronger binding propensity towards Cu2+ ions over Zn2+ and excellent radiation resistance of CU resin were found, which endowed that this CU resin is capable of effectively separating radioisotopes Cu. Moreover the good separation of Cu2+ has been achieved from bulky Zn2+ using column chromatography separation. In general, the present research has confirmed the great potential application of CU resin as a more efficient column chromatography material for the separation of medical radioisotopes Cu from irradiated Zn targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible power sources featuring high-performance, prominent flexibility and raised safety have received mounting attention in the area of wearable electronic devices. However, many great challenges remain to be overcome, notably the design and fabrication of flexible electrodes with excellent electrochemical performance and matching them with safe and reliable electrolytes. Herein, a facile approach for preparing flexible electrodes, which employs carbon cloth derived from commercial cotton cloth as the substrate of cathode and a flexible anode, is proposed and investigated. The promising cathode (NVPOF@FCC) with high conductivity and outstanding flexibility is prepared by efficiently coating Na3V2(PO4)2O2F (NVPOF) on flexible carbon cloth (FCC), which exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance and the significantly improved reaction kinetics. More importantly, a novel flexible quasi-solid-state sodium-ion full battery (QSFB) is feasibly assembled by sandwiching a P(VDF-HFP)-NaClO4 gel-polymer electrolyte film between the advanced NVPOF@FCC cathode and FCC anode. And the QSFBs are further evaluated in flexible pouch cells, which not only demonstrates excellent energy-storage performance in aspect of great cycling stability and high-rate capability, but also impressive flexibility and safety. This work offers a feasible and effective strategy for the design of flexible electrodes, paving the way for the progression of practical and sustainable flexible batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiotherapy is an important therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment through direct damage to cancer cells and augmentation of antitumor immune responses. However, the efficacy of radiotherapy is limited by hypoxia-mediated radioresistance and immunosuppression in tumor microenvironment. Here, we construct a stabilized theranostic nanoprobe based on quantum dots emitting in the near-infrared IIb (NIR-IIb, 1,500–1,700 nm) window modified by catalase, arginine–glycine–aspartate peptides and poly(ethylene glycol). We demonstrate that the nanoprobes effectively aggregate in the tumor site to locate the tumor region, thereby realizing precision radiotherapy with few side-effects. In addition, nanoprobes relieve intratumoral hypoxia and reduce the tumor infiltration of immunosuppressive cells. Moreover, the nanoprobes promote the immunogenic cell death of cancer cells to trigger the activation of dendritic cells and enhance T cell-mediated antitumor immunity to inhibit tumor metastasis. Collectively, the nanoprobe-mediated immunogenic radiotherapy can boost the abscopal effect to inhibit tumor metastasis and prolong survival. Hypoxia and immunosuppression contribute to tumor resistance to radiotherapy (RT). Here the authors design a nanoprobe based on NIR-IIb emitting quantum dots for image-guided RT and modified with catalase to relieve hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment, enhancing the precision and efficacy of RT and promoting anti-tumor immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A molecular-level understanding of how the electronic structure of metal center tunes the catalytic behaviors remains a grand challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we report an unconventional kinetics strategy for bridging the microscopic metal electronic structure and the macroscopic steady-state rate for CO oxidation over Pt catalysts. X-ray absorption and photoelectron spectroscopy as well as electron paramagnetic resonance investigations unambiguously reveal the tunable Pt electronic structures with well-designed carbon support surface chemistry. Diminishing the electron density of Pt consolidates the CO-assisted O2 dissociation pathway via the O*-O-C*-O intermediate directly observed by isotopic labeling studies and rationalized by density-functional theory calculations. A combined steady-state isotopic transient kinetic and in situ electronic analyses identifies Pt charge as the kinetics indicators by being closely related to the frequency factor, site coverage, and activation energy. Further incorporation of catalyst structural parameters yields a novel model for quantifying the electronic effects and predicting the catalytic performance. These could serve as a benchmark of catalyst design by a comprehensive kinetics study at the molecular level. A molecular-level understanding of the electronic effects remains a grand challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Here, the authors report an unconventional kinetics strategy for bridging the upscaling gap between the microscopic fingerprints of active sites and the macroscopic catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration regularities of impurities C, O, Fe, Co and Ni and the effect of crystal transition on C, O and Fe in purification of metal La by solid-state electrotransport (SSE) were studied. The impurity migration direction, removal extent and difficulty were intuitively judged by impurity residual rate distribution curve. It is indicated that major impurities Fe, Co, Ni, C and O in metal La are found to significantly migrate to anode and migration effects are much better with the increase in temperature and prolongation of time in purification of La by SSE. Impurities Fe, Co and Ni in La may be fast diffusion elements, which are very extreme to be removed, and removal difficulty is in the order of Fe < Co < Ni < O < C. When La was migrated for 100 h at 800 °C by SSE, the residual rates of impurity Fe, Co, Ni, O and C are 0.25%, 10.10%, 40.04%, 64.00% and 70.04%, respectively. The crystal transition of La, transformed from fcc crystal to bcc crystal, has significant effect on migration of interstitial impurities, and removal effect of interstitial impurities C and O can be significantly improved when purification was performed above crystal transition temperature of 865 °C of La. However, there is little effect on Fe. When La was migrated at 880 °C for 100 h, residual rates of impurities C and O are, respectively, 19.90% and 32.67% lower than those at 820 °C for 100 h, while that of Fe is lower than 0.25% in both situations. Therefore, more pure metal La can be obtained through further increasing temperature, especially above crystal transition temperature of 865 °C of La. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd), a highly toxic heavy metal, is widespreadly distributed in the environment. Chronic exposure to Cd is associated with the development of several diseases including cancers. Over the decade, many researches have been carried on various models to examine the acute effects of Cd; yet, limited knowledge is known about the long-term Cd exposure, especially in the human lung cells. Previously, we showed that chronic Cd-exposed human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells exhibited transformed cell properties, such as anchorage-independent growth, augmented cell migration, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). To study these Cd-transformed cells more comprehensively, here, we further characterized their subproteomes. Overall, a total of 63 differentially expressed proteins between Cd-transformed and passage-matched control cells among the five subcellular fractions (cytoplasmic, membrane, nuclear-soluble, chromatin-bound, and cytoskeletal) were identified by mass spectrometric analysis and database searching. Interestingly, we found that the thiol protease ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 (UCHL1) is one of the severely downregulated proteins in the Cd-transformed cells. Notably, the EMT phenotype of Cd-transformed cells can be suppressed by forced ectopic expression of UCHL1, suggesting UCHL1 as a crucial modulator in the maintenance of the proper differentiation status in lung epithelial cells. Since EMT is considered as a critical step during malignant cell transformation, finding novel cellular targets that can antagonize this transition may lead to more efficient strategies to inhibit cancer development. Our data report for the first time that UCHL1 may play a function in the suppression of EMT in Cd-transformed human lung epithelial cells, indicating that UCHL1 might be a new therapeutic target for chronic Cd-induced carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction mechanism of B and Ti in liquid Gd metal was theoretically analyzed, and the occurrence state transformation and removal of Ti impurity were experimentally analyzed in this study. The research results indicated that the B additive reacted with the Ti impurity in liquid Gd metal to form the high-melting-point TiB2 at 1673 K. Owing to the low density of TiB2 that is far lower than that of Gd, TiB2 floated up to the liquid surface, and then, the Ti impurity could be effectively removed from Gd metal. Prolonging melting time and increasing B additive amount could increase Ti removal rate, but the increase in the rate slows beyond a certain duration and B content. The recommended operating parameter, melting time of 60 min and B additive content of 0.1394 wt% could reduce Ti content from 0.1534 wt% to 0.0433 wt%, and the removal rate was 71.9%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the previous studies on the migrations of impurity aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu) in purification of rare earth metal by solid-state electrotransport (SSE), there are still some questions about that which direction they migrate to and whether there are significant migrations or not. The metal lanthanum (La) was used as research object, and the effects of migration temperature and time on the distributions and migration regularities of impurity Al and Cu were investigated in the present study by increasing concentration of impurity Al and Cu in raw metal La. The impurity migration direction and removal difficulty were intuitively judged by the residual rate distribution curve of impurity. It is indicated that metal impurity Al and Cu in metal La at 800 °C with direct current are found to significantly migrate to anode and their residual rates near cathode decrease with the increase in migration temperature and prolongation of migration time. The relatively large vapor pressure of Al and Cu makes their residual rate distribution curves being low in middle and high in ends. When metal La was continuously purified for 100 h at 800 °C by SSE, the residual rates of impurity Al and Cu at 20 mm from cathode are 68.43% and 57.43%, respectively, showing that Cu is much easier to be removed than Al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diet is a powerful evolutionary force for species adaptation and diversification. Acari is one of the most abundant clades of Arachnida, exhibiting diverse dietary types, while the underlying genetic adaptive mechanisms are not fully understood. Based on comparative analyses of 15 Acari genomes, we found genetic bases for three specialized diets. Herbivores experienced stronger selection pressure than other groups; the olfactory genes and gene families involving metabolizing toxins showed strong adaptive signals. Genes and gene families related to anticoagulation, detoxification, and haemoglobin digestion were found to be under strong selection pressure or significantly expanded in the blood-feeding species. Lipid metabolism genes have a faster evolutionary rate and been subjected to greater selection pressures in fat-feeding species; one positively selected site in the fatty-acid amide hydrolases 2 gene was identified. Our research provides a new perspective for the evolution of Acari and offers potential target loci for novel pesticide development. Liu et al. present a comparative analysis of 15 genomes from mites and identify genetic signatures for diet specialisation. Different gene families and selective pressures were revealed for herbivorous, haematophagous and fat-feeding species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The immunosuppressive microenvironment that is shaped by hepatic metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is essential for tumor cell evasion of immune destruction. Neutrophils are important components of the metastatic tumor microenvironment and exhibit heterogeneity. However, the specific phenotypes, functions and regulatory mechanisms of neutrophils in PDAC liver metastases remain unknown. Here, we show that a subset of P2RX1-negative neutrophils accumulate in clinical and murine PDAC liver metastases. RNA sequencing of murine PDAC liver metastasis-infiltrated neutrophils show that P2RX1-deficient neutrophils express increased levels of immunosuppressive molecules, including PD-L1, and have enhanced mitochondrial metabolism. Mechanistically, the transcription factor Nrf2 is upregulated in P2RX1-deficient neutrophils and associated with PD-L1 expression and metabolic reprogramming. An anti-PD-1 neutralizing antibody is sufficient to compromise the immunosuppressive effects of P2RX1-deficient neutrophils on OVA-activated OT1 CD8+ T cells. Therefore, our study uncovers a mechanism by which metastatic PDAC tumors evade antitumor immunity by accumulating a subset of immunosuppressive P2RX1-negative neutrophils. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive metastatic disease characterized by an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Here the authors show that a subset of P2RX1-negative neutrophils with immunosuppressive properties accumulate in PDAC metastatic liver tissues and promote tumor growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop new cellulases for efficient utilization of the lignocellulose, an endoglucanase (CoCel5A) gene from Colletotrichum orchidophilum was synthesized and a recombinant Pichia pastoris GS115/pPIC9K/cocel5A was constructed for secretory expression of CoCel5A. After purification, the protein CoCel5A was biochemically characterized. The endoglucanase CoCel5A exhibited the optimal activity at 55–75 °C and high thermostability (about 85% residual activity) at the temperature of 55 °C after incubation for 3 h. The highest activity of CoCel5A was detected when 100 mM citric acid buffer (pH 4.0–5.0) was used and excellent pH stability (up to 95% residual activity) was observed after incubation in 100 mM citric acid buffer (pH 3.0–6.0) at 4 °C for 24 h. Carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt (n = approx. 500) (CMC) and β-d-glucan were the best substrates for CoCel5A among the tested substrates. The kinetic parameters Vmax, Km, and Kcat/Km values against CMC were 290.70 U/mg, 2.65 mg/mL, and 75.67 mL/mg/s, respectively; and 228.31 U/mg, 2.06 mg/mL, and 76.45 mL/mg/s against β-d-glucan, respectively, suggesting that CoCel5A has high affinity and catalytic efficiency. These properties supported the potential application of CoCel5A in biotechnological and environmental fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problems of low contrast, global darkness and noise amplification in some hyperspectral and remote-sensing images, a new image fuzzy enhancement method based on contourlet transform (CT) domain is proposed. The algorithm includes the following four steps. Firstly, the cyclic translation method is used to suppress the pseudo-Gibbs phenomenon caused by the lack of translation invariance of the CT. Secondly, a nonlinear gain function is designed to enhance and suppress the high-frequency coefficients adaptively. Meanwhile, the multi-scale Retinex with mixed gray function is used to process the low-frequency sub-band coefficients. Then, the inverse translation and linear averaging and the inverse CT are performed on the enhanced coefficients, and finally the improved fuzzy contrast is used to enhance the texture and edge of the image globally. The experimental results show that the proposed method can make the image texture details more prominent, and enhance the overall visual effect of the images. Furthermore, the absolute mean difference and PSNR of images are also greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Os4BGlu14, a monolignol β-glucosidase, plays a negative role in seed longevity by affecting primary metabolism during seed development and aging. Seed longevity is a crucial trait in agriculture and in the conservation of germplasm resources. β-Glucosidases (BGlus) are multifunctional enzymes that affect plant growth and their adaptation to the environment. The function of rice BGlus in seed longevity, however, remains unknown. We report here that Os4BGlu14, a rice β-Glucosidase, negatively affected seed longevity during accelerated aging. Os4BGlu14 was highly expressed in rice embryos and induced by accelerated aging. Compared to the wild type, rice lines overexpressing Os4BGlu14 had significantly greater grain length, but smaller grain width and thickness. Overexpressing (OE) lines also showed lower starch but higher glucose contents. After accelerated aging treatment, OE lines displayed a significantly lower germination percentage than the wild type. Additionally, these lines had higher lignin accumulation before and after accelerated aging. Metabolome analysis detected 217 metabolites in untreated and aged rice seeds. Comparison of the differential metabolites between WT and OE5 revealed that ten key metabolites, four of which (e.g., uridine 5′-diphosphoglucose-glucose, UDPG) were increased, while the other six (e.g., γ-aminobutyric acid and methionine) were decreased, might be the crucial factors that lead to seed deterioration. Further analysis confirmed higher UDPG levels and more severe programmed cell death in OE lines than in the wild type. Furthermore, OE lines presented a lower germination rate after abscisic acid and paclobutrazol treatment during germination, compared to the wild type. Our study provides a basis for understanding the function of Os4BGlu14 in seed longevity in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of nanotechnologies in industrial chemical processes to address concerns about energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Topics include studies on nanoscience and nanotechnology in chemical processes, covering topics such as separation, energy storage, and catalytic reactions; and nanoscience and nanotechnology in industrial processes, nanomaterials for green chemical processes, novel nanomaterials for traditional processes for nanomaterials.

Radiation-chemical stability of ionic liquid [Hbet][Tf2N] has been investigated under gamma irradiation for Nd2O3 separation from simulated spent nuclear fuels. It was found that Nd2O3 dissolution decreases with increasing absorbed dose of [Hbet][Tf2N]. However, the dissolution ability of irradiated [Hbet][Tf2N] to Nd2O3 can be regenerated after washing with water. The radiolytic products of [Hbet][Tf2N] were identified by EMI–MS, and [Hbet]+ group occurred a little radiolysis during irradiation. The UV–Visible spectra shown an increase in absorption around 275 nm probably due to the radiolysis of [Hbet][Tf2N]. FTIR spectra shown little variation around 1730 cm−1 under high radiation dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction filtering is one of the most commonly used random noise attenuation methods in the industry; however, it has two drawbacks. First, it assumes that the seismic signals are piecewise stationary and linear. However, the seismic signal exhibits nonstationary due to the complexity of the underground structure. Second, the method predicts noise from seismic data by convolving with a prediction error filter (PEF), which applies inconsistent noise models before and after denoising. Therefore, the assumptions and model inconsistencies weaken conventional prediction filtering's performance in noise attenuation and signal preservation. In this paper, we propose a nonstationary signal inversion based on shaping regularization for random noise attenuation. The main idea of the method is to use the nonstationary prediction operator (NPO) to describe the complex structure and obtain seismic signals using nonstationary signal inversion instead of convolution. Different from the convolutional predicting filtering, the proposed method uses NPO as the regularization constraint to directly invert the effective signal from the noisy seismic data. The NPO varies in time and space, enabling the inversion system to describe complex (nonstationary and nonlinear) underground geological structures in detail. Processing synthetic and field data results demonstrate that the method effectively suppresses random noise and preserves seismic reflection signals for nonstationary seismic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fano resonance is realized theoretically in a photonic crystal. The structure is composed of a cavity side coupled to a partially transmitting waveguide. By optimizing the structure parameters, asymmetric sharp Fano resonance transmit-tance spectrum is achieved with quality factor of 2 213, extinction ratio of 57 dB and peak loss of 0.2 dB. The sharp spectrum can be used in sensor applications. Such as pressure sensor, the pressure sensitivity is about 9.15 nm/GPa. and for refractive index sensing application, the sensitivity is about 800 nm/RIU, and the maximum of figure of merit can reach 1 000. Besides, this sharp Fano resonance based on photonic crystal has potential applications in optical switches, filters etc. And it can be integrated into optical communications and optical integration circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activity of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) on metal-based nanocatalysts can be greatly promoted by the support of reducible oxides, while the role of support remains elusive. Herein, by varying the reduction condition to regulate the TiOx overlayer on Ru nanocatalysts, the reactivity of Ru/TiO2 nanocatalysts can be differentially modulated. The activity in FTS shows a volcano-like trend with increasing reduction temperature from 200 to 600 °C. Such a variation of activity is characterized to be related to the activation of CO on the TiOx overlayer at Ru/TiO2 interfaces. Further theoretical calculations suggest that the formation of reduced TiOx occurs facilely on the Ru surface, and it involves in the catalytic mechanism of FTS to facilitate the CO bond cleavage kinetically. This study provides a deep insight on the mechanism of TiOx overlayer in FTS, and offers an effective approach to tuning catalytic reactivity of metal nanocatalysts on reducible oxides. The activity of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) can be promoted by the reducible oxides, while their role remains elusive. Here, the authors reveal that, by varying the reduction condition to regulate the TiOx overlayer on Ru nanocatalysts, the TiOx overlayer participate in the C–O bond dissociation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of rice contaminated with soil cadmium (Cd) threatens human health. It is essential to ensure the production of rice that meets food quality standards. Therefore, a large-scale field survey was conducted in Zhejiang province, southeastern China, to investigate the relationship between Cd accumulation in rice grains and Cd bioavailability in soil, and thus to establish a model to predict Cd contents in rice grains based on soil properties. For this purpose, a total of 156 paired rice and soil samples were collected. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that Cd measurements obtained by diffusive gradient in thin films (DGT) had a higher correlation (r = 0.818, p < 0.001) with the Cd in rice grains as compared to the Cd measured by the DTPA, CaCl2, EDTA, and HCl extraction methods, which indicated that the DGT technique was a reliable method for the assessment of Cd bioavailability in soils. In addition, among the four extraction methods, the DTPA-extractable Cd showed the highest correlation with the Cd contents in rice grains. Therefore, we developed two predictive models (modelDGT and modelDTPA) to predict Cd levels in rice grains via Cubist multivariate mixed linear regression, using "soil DGT-measured Cd, pH, and oxide contents of Ca, Si, and Fe" or "soil DTPA-extractable Cd, pH, OM, and oxide contents of Ca and Fe" as explanatory variables, respectively. The overall modelDGT and modelDTPA had R2 values of 0.95 and 0.93, respectively, and relative error values of 0.30 and 0.33, respectively. Simple correlation analysis showed direct and close relationships between the measured Cd in rice grains and the Cd concentrations predicted by the Cubist modelDGT and modelDTPA, with R2 values of 0.979 and 0.922, respectively. Therefore, Cd levels in rice grains could be predicted very well based on the two prediction models, and thus, the two models derived in this study are effective in identifying soils in which the Cd in rice grains will exceed food safety standards, thereby helping to ensure safe rice production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent modification in eukaryotic RNAs. The biological importance of m6A relies on m6A readers, which control mRNA fate and function. However, it remains unexplored whether additional regulatory subunits of m6A readers are involved in the m6A recognition on RNAs. Here we discover that the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) LINC00266-1 encodes a 71-amino acid peptide. The peptide mainly interacts with the RNA-binding proteins, including the m6A reader IGF2BP1, and is thus named "RNA-binding regulatory peptide" (RBRP). RBRP binds to IGF2BP1 and strengthens m6A recognition by IGF2BP1 on RNAs, such as c-Myc mRNA, to increase the mRNA stability and expression of c-Myc, thereby promoting tumorigenesis. Cancer patients with RBRPhigh have a poor prognosis. Thus, the oncopeptide RBRP encoded by LINC00266-1 is a regulatory subunit of m6A readers and strengthens m6A recognition on the target RNAs by the m6A reader to exert its oncogenic functions. The involvement of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in the regulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification of RNA is unclear. Here, the authors show that LINC00266-1 encodes a peptide that binds to m6A reader, IGF2BP1 to enhance the recognition of m6A modified RNA transcripts and increase their stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the features of paramyxovirus respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza virus (PIV), and human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infection and determine the effect of meteorological conditions in Guangzhou, a subtropical region of southern China. We collected 11,398 respiratory samples from hospitalized pediatric patients with acute respiratory illness between July 2009 and June 2016 in Guangzhou. The samples were tested simultaneously for 18 respiratory pathogens using real-time PCR. Local meteorological data were also collected for correlation analysis. Of 11,398 patients tested, 5606 (49.2%) patients tested positive for one or more pathogens; RSV, PIV, and HMPV were the first, sixth, and ninth most frequently detected pathogens, in 1690 (14.8%), 502 (4.4%), and 321 (2.8%) patients, respectively. A total 17.9% (4605/5606) of patients with positive results had coinfection with other pathogens. Significant differences were found in the prevalence of RSV, PIV, and HMPV among all age groups (p < 0.001). RSV and HMPV had similar seasonal patterns, with two prevalence peaks every year. PIV appeared alternatively with RSV and HMPV. Multiple linear regression models were established for RSV, PIV, and HMPV prevalence and meteorological factors (p < 0.05). RSV and PIV incidence was negatively correlated with monthly mean relative humidity; RSV and HMPV incidence was negatively correlated with sunshine duration; PIV incidence was positively correlated with mean temperature. We described the features of paramyxovirus infection in a subtropical region of China and highlighted the correlation with meteorological factors. These findings will assist public health authorities and clinicians in improving strategies for controlling paramyxovirus infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address a special kind of Internet of Things (IoT) systems that are also real-time. We call them real-time IoT (RT-IoT) systems. An RT-IoT system needs to meet timing constraints of system delay, clock synchronization, deadline, and so on. The timing constraints turn to be more stringent as we get closer to the physical things. Based on the reference architecture of IoT (ISO/IEC 30141), the RT-IoT conceptual model is established. The idea of edge subsystem is introduced. The sensing & controlling domain is the basis of the edge subsystem, and the edge subsystem usually must meet the hard real-time constraints. The model includes four perspectives, the time view, computation view, communication view, and control view. Each view looks, from a different angle, at how the time parameters impact an RT-IoT system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel l 1 -norm loss based twin support vector regression ( l 1 -TSVR) model. The bound functions in this l 1 -TSVR are optimized by simultaneously minimizing the l 1 -norm based fitting and one-side ϵ -insensitive losses, which results in different dual problems compared with twin support vector regression (TSVR) and ϵ -TSVR. The main advantages of this l 1 -TSVR are: First, it does not need to inverse any kernel matrix in dual problems, indicating that it not only can be optimized efficiently, but also has partly sparse bound functions. Second, it has a perfect and practical geometric interpretation. In the spirit of its geometric interpretation, this paper further presents a nearest-points based l 1 -TSVR (NP- l 1 -TSVR), in which bound functions are constructed by finding the nearest points between the reduced convex/affine hulls of training data and its shifted sets, respectively. Computational results obtained on a number of synthetic and real-world benchmark datasets clearly illustrate the superiority of the proposed l 1 -TSVR and NP- l 1 -TSVR as comparable generalization performance is achieved in accordance with the other SVR-type algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bemisia tabaci is a pest that poses a significant threat to the survival of Nicotiana tabacum and leads to decreased production and economic losses. However, it is still unknown whether proteomic changes occur in resistant N. tabacum in response to B. tabaci stresses. In the present study, iTRAQ was performed to unmask the regulating networks mediated by candidate proteins involved in resistance against B. tabaci. A total of 357 differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) responsible for B. tabaci infestation were identified, including 178 upregulated and 179 downregulated proteins. The majority of DAPs were involved in the regulation of ROS production, cell expansion, citrate cycle (TCA cycle), photosynthesis, carbon fixation, and metabolic pathways. Moreover, the expression patterns of several genes encoding DAPs were validated by qRT-PCR. Our results indicate these proteins play a significant role in the resistance of N. tabacum against B. tabaci infestation. These findings also provide a valuable proteomic resource for the elucidation of the mechanism of resistance against B. tabaci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]