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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental efficiency level and trend of the transportation sector in the upper–mid–downstream of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the JingJinJi region in China and assess the effectiveness of policies for protecting the low-carbon environment. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the meta-frontier slack-based measure (SBM) approach to evaluate environmental efficiency, which targets and classifies specific regions into regional groups. First, this study employs the SBM with the undesirable outputs to construct the environmental efficiency measurement models of the four regions under the meta-frontier and group frontiers, respectively. Then, this study uses the technology gap ratio to evaluate the gap between the group frontier and the meta-frontier. Findings: The analysis reveals several key findings: (1) the JingJinJi region and the downstream of the YEB had achieved the overall optimal production technology in transportation than the other two regions; (2) significant technology gaps in environmental efficiency were observed among these four regions in China; and (3) the downstream region of the YEB exhibited the lowest levels of energy consumption and excessive CO2emissions. Originality/value: To evaluate the differences in environmental efficiency resulting from regions and technological gaps in transportation, this study employs the meta-frontier model, which overcomes the limitation of traditional environmental efficiency methods. Furthermore, in the practical, the study provides the advantage of observing the disparities in transportation efficiency performed by the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei regions.

Local vibration can induce vascular injuries, one example is the hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) caused by hand-transmitted vibration (HTV). Little is known about the molecular mechanism of HAVS-induced vascular injuries. Herein, the iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) followed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) proteomics approach was applied to conduct the quantitative proteomic analysis of plasma from specimens with HTV exposure or HAVS diagnosis. Overall, 726 proteins were identified in iTRAQ. 37 proteins upregulated and 43 downregulated in HAVS. Moreover, 37 upregulated and 40 downregulated when comparing severe HAVS and mild HAVS. Among them, Vinculin (VCL) was found to be downregulated in the whole process of HAVS. The concentration of vinculin was further verified by ELISA, and the results suggested that the proteomics data was reliable. Bioinformative analyses were used, and those proteins mainly engaged in specific biological processes like binding, focal adhesion, and integrins. The potential of vinculin application in HAVS diagnosis was validated by the receiver operating characteristic curve.

Chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) is responsible for respiratory gas exchange, eggshell calcium transport, embryonic acid-base equilibrium, allantoic ion, and water reabsorption during avian embryonic development. To further understand the timing of CAM gene expression during chick embryonic development, especially the calcium absorption mechanism, transcriptome quantitative comparative analysis was conducted on chick CAM during the embryonic period (E) of 9, 13, 17, and 20 days. A total of 6378 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Functional enrichment analysis of DEGs showed that CAM DEGs were mainly involved in biological processes such as “ion transport regulation”, “immune response” and “cell cycle”. Time series analysis of the differential genes showed that the functional cells of CAM began to proliferate and differentiate at E9 and the calcium content of egg embryo increased significantly at E13. Simultaneously, the observation of the ultrastructure of the eggshell showed that the interstice of the fiber layer was enlarged at E13, and the mastoid layer was partly exposed. Therefore, it is preliminarily inferred that CAM calcium transport starts at E13, and genes such as TRPV6, S100A10, and RANKLcooperate to regulate calcium release and transport.

In order to provide an efficient calcium transporter for the development of calcium supplement products, embryo eggs were selected for incubation. Carrying out calcium ions chelation on the embryo egg-derived egg white peptides (EED-EWPs) with high calcium binding activity produced incubation. The changes of EED-EWPs before and after chelation with calcium ions were compared, ζ-potential absolute value increased significantly, indicating that the embryo egg-derived egg white peptides calcium chelates (EED-EWPs-Ca) was successfully formed. Calcium binding activity results displayed that EED-EWPs on the 9th day of incubation had the highest calcium binding ability (6.96 μg/mg), which was 1.17 times that before incubation (5.97 μg/mg). EED-EWPs were isolated by IMAC metal chelating preloaded column, calcium binding amount was improved to 17.88 μg/mg, which was about 3 times that of those before isolation. The EED-EWPs were analyzed by mass spectrometry, six peptides with high calcium binding ability were identified. The mechanism of promoting calcium absorption of EED-EWPs produced during incubation was investigated by molecular docking with TRPV6 (a key protein for calcium transporter in the human small intestine). Results elucidated that amino and carboxyl groups in EED-EWPs were possible sites for calcium ions binding. This study would provide an efficient calcium transporter with high nutritional value for the development of calcium supplement products.

Precious metal nanomaterials have been widely used in electrochemical sensors. Further improving the dispersion of nanomaterials is beneficial to improving sensor performance and reducing the usage of noble metals. In this work, platinum nanoparticles (NPs) were loaded onto titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2) by the photoreduction method. The morphology, content, and distribution of NPs were determined by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The method has simple steps and a short synthesis time (14 min). NPs with an average particle size of about 5 nm were uniformly dispersed on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. The nano Pt loaded TiO2 (Pt/TiO2) nanocomposites were modified on the surface of the glassy carbon electrode, and an enzyme-free H2O2 sensor was constructed and used as a carrier of lactate oxidase to prepare an amperometric lactic acid biosensor. The enzyme-free H2O2 sensor has a wide detection range (0.002-15 mM), a low detection limit (0.92 uM), and has a rapid response time (2 s) toward H2O2 with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 3%. At the same time, the constructed lactic acid biosensor has a linear detection range of 0.003-0.7 mM and a detection limit of 3 uM toward lactate.

Lactic acid is a metabolic product of human physiological activity. It is of great importance in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and scientific sports management. It is necessary to build a lactate biosensor that can realize rapid and accurate detection of lactic acid. Graphene supported platinum nanoparticles (GPNs) were prepared by the redox reaction between graphene oxide, chloroplatinic acid and ethylene glycol. Pt nanoparticles were highly dispersed on the graphene, and the surface platinum content of the prepared GPNs was as high as 28%. The GPNs showed excellent electrochemical performance compared to graphene modified electrodes or platinum modified electrodes. An enzymatic lactic acid biosensor (ELB) was prepared by immobilizing lactate oxidase (LOx) on the GPNs modified glassy carbon electrode. The response current of the sensor at +0.4 V in the presence of lactic acid showed a wide linear relationship in the range of 0-1.0 mM, and the limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 8.0 uM according to S/N = 3. The ELB was free from common interfering species, and exhibited excellent stability. From the 1st day to the 15th day, the response signal lost less than 2%.

The objective of acoustic crosstalk cancellation is to use loudspeakers to deliver prescribed binaural signals (that reproduce a particular auditory scene) to a listener's ears, which is useful for 3-D audio applications. In practice, the actual transfer function matrix will differ from the design matrix, because of either the listener's head movement or rotation, etc. Crosstalk cancellation system (CCS) is very non-robust to these perturbations. Generally, in order to improve the robustness of CCS, several pairs of loudspeakers are needed whose position varies continuously as frequency varies. With the help of assumed stochastic analysis, we propose a stochastic robust approximation crosstalk cancellation method based on random perturbation matrix modeling the variations of the transfer function matrix. Under the free-field condition, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Despite decades of efforts in genome sequencing and functional characterization, some important protein families remain poorly understood. In this study, we report the classification, evolution, and functions of the largely uncharacterized AIM24 protein family in plants, including the identification of a novel subfamily. We show that two AIM24 subfamilies (AIM24-A and AIM24-B) are commonly distributed in major plant groups. These two subfamilies not only have modest sequence similarities and different gene structures but also are of independent bacterial ancestry. We performed comparative functional investigations on the two AIM24 subfamilies using three model plants: the moss Physcomitrium patens, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, and the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Intriguingly, despite their significant differences in sequence and gene structure, both AIM24 subfamilies are involved in ER stress tolerance and the unfolded protein response (UPR). In addition, transformation of the AIM24-Agene from P. patensinto the AIM24-Bnull mutant of A. thalianacould at least partially rescue ER stress tolerance and the UPR. We also discuss the role of AIM24genes in plant development and other cellular activities. This study provides a unique example of parallel evolution in molecular functions and can serve as a foundation for further investigation of the AIM24 family in plants.

Smartphones are becoming popular nowadays not only because of its communication functionality but also, more importantly, its powerful sensing and computing capability. In this paper, we describe a novel and accurate image and video based remote target localization and tracking system using the Android smartphones, by leveraging its built-in sensors such as camera, digital compass, GPS, etc. Even though many other distance estimation or localization devices are available, our all-in-one, easy-to-use localization and tracking system on low cost and commodity smartphones is first of its kind. Furthermore, smartphones' exclusive user-friendly interface has been effectively taken advantage of by our system to facilitate low complexity and high accuracy. Our experimental results show that our system works accurately and efficiently.

A new coumarin was obtained from the stems and roots of Wikstroemia indica (L.) C. A. Mey. Its structure was elucidated as methyl 3-(2-hydroxy-4-(7-hydroxy-6-methoxy-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yloxy) phenyl) propanoate by spectroscopic methods.

Precious metal nanomaterials have been widely used in electrochemical sensors. Further improving the dispersion of nanomaterials is beneficial to improving sensor performance and reducing the usage of noble metals. In this work, platinum nanoparticles (NPs) were loaded onto titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2) by the photoreduction method. The morphology, content, and distribution of NPs were determined by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The method has simple steps and a short synthesis time (14 min). NPs with an average particle size of about 5 nm were uniformly dispersed on the surface of TiO2nanoparticles. The nano Pt loaded TiO2(Pt/TiO2) nanocomposites were modified on the surface of the glassy carbon electrode, and an enzyme-free H2O2sensor was constructed and used as a carrier of lactate oxidase to prepare an amperometric lactic acid biosensor. The enzyme-free H2O2sensor has a wide detection range (0.002–15 mM), a low detection limit (0.92 μM), and has a rapid response time (2 s) toward H2O2with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 3%. At the same time, the constructed lactic acid biosensor has a linear detection range of 0.003–0.7 mM and a detection limit of 3 μM toward lactate.

The aim of the study was to test for human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and human telomerase RNA component (hTERC) gene amplification in tissues derived from esophageal cancer, in esophagus displaying atypical hyperplasia and in normal tissue, and to analyze the relationship between them and discuss whether HPV infection and hTERC gene amplification play a role in the duration of survival of esophageal cancer patients.