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• Chlorella incorporated into hydrogels for continuous oxygen and bioelectric delivery. • Hydrogels offer mechanical support and create optimal microenvironment for Chlorella. • Hydrogels improve diabetic wound healing by enhancing proliferation and angiogenesis. Electrical stimulation and oxygen are vital for promoting cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation to repair damaged tissues in chronic wound healing in patients with diabetes. The effective oxygen production by Chlorella has garnered attention in the medical field, but the potential of extracellular electron production in skin repair has not been explored. Inspired by this, we developed CHPS hydrogels, a composite of polyacrylamide and sodium alginate, with Chlorella loaded in a semi-interpenetrating network. This network is formed by crosslinking acrylamide initiated by free radicals, with alginate chains dispersed within the network. When applied to wounds, CHPS hydrogels effectively protect damaged tissue, provide mechanical support to Chlorella against external forces, and create an optimal artificial microenvironment to promote the proliferation of Chlorella. Our study demonstrated that CHPS hydrogels exhibit remarkable fracture elongation and adhesion properties and continuously produce oxygen and bioelectrical currents through photosynthesis. Furthermore, the sustained release of dissolved oxygen and bioelectricity by CHPS hydrogels significantly enhances cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis, leading to improved wound healing in diabetic mice. These findings provide compelling evidence for further exploration of CHPS hydrogels as a cost-effective, simple, and accessible strategy for enhancing the clinical treatment of chronic wounds in diabetic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In application scenarios such as astronautics, high-altitude aircraft, medical radiography, high-energy physics, and nuclear power plants, the irradiation resistance of electronic components is one of the basic requirements for their reliability. HfO 2 -based ferroelectric films have the advantages of high CMOS process compatibility, good miniaturizability, low operating voltage, and excellent irradiation resistance, which are the core materials for the new generation of irradiation resistance ferroelectric memories. In this paper, two kinds of metal-electrode ferroelectric capacitors, W/Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 /W (WW) and Pt/Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 /Pt (PP), have been prepared, and three gradient γ-irradiation experiments have been carried out on the two kinds of ferroelectric capacitors. The effect of metal electrodes on the irradiation resistance of Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 ferroelectric thin films was carefully investigated by comparing and analyzing the statistical laws of polarization change and rectangularity change before and after irradiation of a large number of devices. The experimental results show that the WW devices have better irradiation resistance than PP devices, and we further explain the irradiation resistance mechanism by first-principle calculations and finite element analysis to verify the credibility of the experimental results. Finally, we conducted a comparative test of the fatigue and wake-up characteristics of the WW devices before and after irradiation, and the results show that the prepared W/Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 /W devices can withstand very high total γ-dose radiation, reaching up to 13.86 Mrad(Si), and they are very suitable for the application of irradiation resistant electronics. [Display omitted] • The Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) thin films with outstanding ferroelectric properties were prepared. • The HZO ferroelectric thin films exhibited extremely high radiation tolerance (reaching up to 13.86 Mrad(Si)). • The effect of different metal electrodes on the irradiation resistance of HZO ferroelectric thin films was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Local structural heat sources with different heat flux densities are used to simulate local extreme environments at discontinuities in spacecrafts. • The thermal response, ablation law, and multi-scale ablation morphology of typical thermal protection materials (C/SiC) under the action of local heat sources are analyzed. • Improve the ablation retreat program (Umeshmotion+ALE) in the ABAQUS software so that C/SiC composite materials with large ablation amount until material perforation can be simulated numerically. This study uses ablation testing on C/SiC composite materials under local structured thermal sources with a wide range of heat flux densities, simulating the harsh local conditions caused by discontinuous structural interference on spacecrafts. The thermal response, ablation laws, and ablative perforation time of C/SiC composite materials are obtained under different heat flux densities. The experimental findings demonstrate that there are notable differences in the morphology of the ablation pits under various heat flux conditions. As the heat flux density increases, the temperature of the local structure heat source action center on the target surface increases, the depth and outer diameter of the erosion pits increase, and the wall surface of the erosion pits gradually tends to be smooth. Under the influence of local structural heat sources, the creation of material ablation pits and the process of material perforation are predicted using the improved Umeshmotion+ALE+birth and death element method. For various conditions, the temperature field results and ablation morphology are well predicted by the numerical simulation results. Numerical calculations can be used to analyze the thermal stress and oxidation sublimation contribution rates of targets under the action of structural heat sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trafficking of α‐Amino‐3–hydroxy‐5–methylisoxazole‐4–propionic acid (AMPA) receptors (AMPARs), mediated by AMPAR interacting proteins, enabled neurons to maintain tuning capabilities at rest or active state. α/β-Hydrolase domain-containing 6 (ABHD6), an endocannabinoid hydrolase, was an AMPAR auxiliary subunit found to negatively regulate the surface delivery of AMPARs. While ABHD6 was found to prevent AMPAR tetramerization in endoplasmic reticulum, ABHD6 was also reported to localize at postsynaptic site. Yet, the role of ABHD6 interacting with AMPAR at postsynaptic site, and the physiological significance of ABHD6 regulating AMPAR trafficking remains elusive. Here, we generated the ABHD6 knockout (ABHD6KO) mice and found that deletion of ABHD6 selectively enhanced AMPAR-mediated basal synaptic responses and the surface expression of postsynaptic AMPARs. Furthermore, we found that loss of ABHD6 impaired hippocampal long-term depression (LTD) and synaptic downscaling in hippocampal synapses. AMPAR internalization assays revealed that ABHD6 was essential for neuronal activity-dependent endocytosis of surface AMPARs, which is independent of ABHD6's hydrolase activity. The defects of AMPAR endocytosis and LTD are expressed as deficits in learning flexibility in ABHD6KO mice. Collectively, we demonstrated that ABHD6 is an endocytic accessory protein promoting AMPAR endocytosis, thereby contributes to the formation of LTD, synaptic downscaling and reversal learning. • Deletion of ABHD6 increases AMPAR-mediated basal synaptic responses in hippocampal CA1 neurons. • Deletion of ABHD6 impairs long-term depression in hippocampal Schaffer collateral pathway. • ABHD6 is required for homeostatic synaptic downscaling in cultured hippocampal neurons. • ABHD6 is essential for activity-dependent endocytosis of surface AMPARs. • ABHD6KO mice show deficits in reversal learning tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: A printable multifunctional electronic skin (e-skin) with an excellent self-healing ability was developed via a simple, clean and universally applicable method. Water served as both the only solvent throughout the fabrication process and the trigger of the self-healing process. Each e-skin component was biocompatible. Combined with conventional electronics, signals collected by the e-skin could be transmitted to smartphones via Bluetooth for post-processing.Electronic skins (e-skins) with an excellent sensing performance have been widely developed over the last few decades. However, wearability, biocompatibility, environmental friendliness and scalability have become new limitations. Self-healing ability can improve the long-term robustness and reliability of e-skins. However, self-healing ability and integration are hardly balanced in classical structures of self-healable devices. Here, cellulose nanofiber/poly(vinyl alcohol) (CNF/PVA), a biocompatible moisture-inspired self-healable composite, was applied both as the binder in functional layers and the substrate. Various functional layers comprising particular carbon materials and CNF/PVA were patterned on the substrate. A planar structure was beneficial for integration, and the active self-healing ability of the functional layers endowed self-healed e-skins with a higher toughness. Water served as both the only solvent throughout the fabrication process and the trigger of the self-healing process, which avoids the pollution and bioincompatibility caused by the application of noxious additives. Our e-skins could achieve real-time monitoring of whole-body physiological signals and environmental temperature and humidity. Cross-interference between different external stimuli was suppressed through reasonable material selection and structural design. Combined with conventional electronics, data could be transmitted to a nearby smartphone for post-processing. This work provides a previously unexplored strategy for multifunctional e-skins with an excellent practicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Application of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) on sensors is of great interest for researchers. Film forming ability of the sensing material is very important for both the preparation process and sensing properties of the devices. Humidity sensors based on UIO-66 derived polyelectrolyte films were well prepared by in situ thiol-ene click cross-linking polymerization in this work. The hydrophilicity of the sensing film could be controlled by the feed ratios. The optimized humidity sensor shows a fast response to RHs change (Res/Rec time is 3.1 s/1.5 s, respectively) with ∼1.2% RH of humidity hysteresis. The water molecules adsorption behavior of the film and the sensing mechanism were also be investigated. The humidity sensor with good water and thermal stability and repeatability was applied in breath monitoring, which can well distinguish different breath states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA-binding is an important feature of proteins, and protein-DNA interaction involves in many life processes. Various computational methods have been developed to predict protein-DNA complex structures due to the difficulty of experimentally obtaining protein-DNA complex structures. However, prediction of protein-DNA complex is still a challenging problem compared with prediction of protein-RNA complex, this may be due to the large conformational changes between bound and unbound structure in both protein and DNA. We extend PRIME 2.0 to PRIME 2.0.1 to model protein-DNA complex structures. By comparing sequence and structure alignment methods, we found that structure-based methods can find more templates than sequence-based methods. The results of all-to-all structure alignments showed that DNA structure plays an important role in prediction of protein-DNA complex structure. By exploring the relationship of sequence and structure, we found that in protein-DNA interaction, numerous structures with dissimilar sequences have similar 3D structures and perform the similar function. • PRIME 2.0.1 predicts the full-atom model of protein-DNA complex structure based on the 3D structure template of protein and DNA. • DNA plays a key role in the protein-DNA complexes structure prediction. • Numerous protein-DNA complexes with dissimilar sequences share similar 3D structures and perform the similar function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resveratrol (RES) is a polyphenol with diverse beneficial biological and pharmacological activities, and our previous results have demonstrated its neuroprotective effects in several metabolic diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential effect of RES against oleic acid (OA)-induced cell injuries in SH-SY5Y cells and explore the possible mechanism. Based on the dose- and time-dependent effects of OA on cell proliferation and LDH release, SH-SY5Y cells were challenged with OA and incubated with or without RES (10–5–10–9 mM) or sitagliptin (STG, 10–7 mM). Lipid accumulation, SREBP1 and PPARα protein expression, glucose consumption and IRS1, AKT, ERK phosphorylation under insulin stimulation, and ROS production were detected. The protein expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), Copine 6, and key molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway were measured via western blot. The expression of Wnt 1 was also measured via immunofluorescence staining. The results showed that RES treatment could alleviate the neurotoxicity induced by OA, as indicated by the increased cell proliferation and the decreased concentration of LDH in the supernatant. The increased lipid deposition and protein expression of SREBP1 and PPARα induced by OA was also reversed by treatment with RES. Moreover, RES could upregulate glucose consumption and the protein expression of phosphorylated IRS1, AKT, ERK and reduced ROS production in OA-induced SH-SY5Y cells. Furthermore, RES treatment reversed the imbalanced protein expression of BDNF, Copine 6, p-β-catenin, and Wnt 1 in SH-SY5Y cells induced by OA and decreased the hyperexpression of p-GSK3β. However, these effects were suppressed by DKK1, which is a specific antagonist of the Wnt signalling pathway. These results suggested that RES has a neuroprotective effect against OA-induced cell injury and dysfunctional glucolipid metabolism, and the mechanism might involve its ability to regulate oxidative stress and insulin resistance via the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The main factors influencing the formation process of saline submarine groundwater are summarized. • The submarine aquifer in this study area is the extension of the terrestrial brine (or saline water) aquifer to marine environments. • Paleoclimatic characteristics is the main factors for the formation of submarine saline water (or brine) in southern Laizhou Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scalability issue hinders the deployment of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in the Wide Area Networks (WANs). Existing solutions have two issues: (1) network performance relies on complicated controller synchronization, which increases the complexity of network control; (2) fine-grained flow processing enables flexible flow control at the cost of high processing load on the controllers and high flow table occupancy on switches. In this paper, we propose a scalable routing solution named HybridFlow, which achieves a good load balancing performance using a single controller with low control overhead (i.e., flow routing and rerouting overhead). HybridFlow mainly employs two techniques: hybrid routing and crucial flow rerouting. Hybrid routing enabled by commercial SDN switches gives us opportunities to reduce the processing load of the controller by routing flows with the hybrid OpenFlow/OSPF mode. Thus, the majority of flows can be routed by OSPF without involving the controller. Crucial flow rerouting realizes load balancing by dynamically identifying crucial flows based on a new metric called Variation Slope and rerouting these flows with the hybrid OpenFlow/OSPF mode. The simulation based on the real traffic traces and network typologies shows that compared with the optimal solution, HybridFlow can achieve 87% of the optimal load balancing performance by rerouting 36% less flows on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of halotolerant phosphate solubilizing bacteria as inoculants to convert insoluble phosphorus of salt-affected soils to an accessible form is a promising strategy to improve the phosphorus ingestion of plants in salt-affected agriculture. A total of four aerobic isolates with biggest clear halos on the 10% NaCl NBRIP medium plate containing tricalcium phosphate were isolated from the rhizospheric soils of native plants growing on the wall of Dagong Ancinet Brine Well, located in Sichuan of China. And these four isolates were classified to the same strain, named QW10-11, and closely related to Bacillus megatherium var. phosphaticum DSM 3228 and B. megaterium ATCC 14581 according to their phenotype and 16S rRNA. However, the Molecular evolutionary evidences of 16S-23S rRNA ISR further suggested that QW10-11, DSM 3228 and ATCC 14581 have respectively fall into the different sub-divisions in intra specific phylogeny. Strain QW10-11 has significantly better ability of tricalcium phosphate solubilization than that of lecithin solubilization. When it grows under pH 4.8-8.0, 24-33°C and 5-10% NaCl, it can exhibit the higher values of solubilized tricalcium phosphate between 59.3 and 71.4 μg ml. Furthermore, its tricalcium phosphate solubilizing activity was associated with the release of organic acids. Taken together, our results indicted that QW10-11 from the rhizospheric soils of halobiot of Dagong Ancinet Brine Well is attractive as efficient phosphate solubilizing candidates in the salt-affected agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present communication demonstrates a relatively green preparative route toward Au nanoplates in aqueous solution at room temperature with the use of tannic acid (TA), which is an environmentally friendly, soluble polyphenol, as a reducing agent. Such Au nanoplates exhibit notable catalytic performance toward the oxidation and reduction of H2O2. A glucose biosensor was further fabricated by immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOD) into chitosan–Au nanoplate composites film on the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE). This sensor exhibits good response to glucose, and the linear response range is estimated to be from 2 to 20mM (R =0.999) at 0.65V and from 2 to 10mM (R =0.993) at −0.2V, respectively. The sensitivity of the sensor determined from the slopes is 49.5μAmM−1 cm−2 at 0.65V. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Two genotypes of porcine circovirus (PCV) have been described, the non-pathogenic PCV1 and the pathogenic PCV2 in pigs. PCV-ORF1 encodes Rep and Rep’ proteins which have identical N-terminal sequence (RepN) within each PCV strain, but RepN has only 88% similarity between PCV1 and PCV2. Purified RepN of PCV2 was used as an immunogen to produce monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). 11 mAbs were screened out and established, and they were divided into two groups according to Western blot and IFA results. One group, including 1C1, bound only PCV2-RepN, while the other, including 3D10, had cross reactivity with RepN of both PCV1 and PCV2. Epitope mapping indicated that 1C1 and 3D10 recognized the linear epitopes L39FDYFIVG46 and K99EGNLLIE106 in PCV2-RepN, respectively. Protein sequence alignment of RepN indicated L39FDYFIVG46 is conserved in all PCV2 in NCBI database, whereas the PCV1 has amino acid substitutions V41C42 in this region. mAb 3D10 could recognize all PCV because all natural mutations in its epitope did not affect its binding. The information about characteristics and epitope of monoclonal antibodies may be useful for the development of diagnostic methods for PCV2 and for analyzing the function of Rep and Rep’ of PCV. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Strong UV absorbance spectra and fluorescence spectra from tetra-dendron dendrimers derived from ethylenediamine cores with different terminal groups (–NH2, –COOCH3) or di-dendron dendrimers derived from mono-Boc-protected ethylenediamine cores were studied under different conditions by varying experimental parameters such as pH value and concentration. The result shows a rapid increase of fluorescence intensity at low pH. It was reasonable that the formation of a fluorescence-emitting moiety had a close relationship to protonated tertiary amine groups in tetra-dendron dendrimers derived from ethylenediamine cores or di-dendron dendrimers derived from mono-Boc-protected ethylenediamine cores. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the concentration of two dendrimers plays an important role in fluorescence intensity. The increase in fluorescence intensity was linear with respect to concentration at low concentration regions but the intensity increases slowly at high concentration regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Fluorouracil (FU)/Leucovorin (LV)/Oxaliplatin compared to FU/LV in treating advanced colorectal cancer. Methods: Two independent researchers identified and extracted all relevant literature using MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library Database. The regimens included arm A (FU/LV) and arm B (FU/LV/Oxaliplatin) with no other chemotherapy agent. Results: Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) fulfilled the requirements. All RCTs showed superiority of FU/LV/Oxaliplatin to FU/LV when measuring RR (response rate) and PFS (progression-free survival); no significant improvement in OS (overall survival) was observed. This meta-analysis shows a better RR for the FU/LV/Oxaliplatin group (OR 4.02, 95% CI 2.37–6.82, p <0.00001). The incidence of grade 3/4 toxicities, including neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, vomiting, neurological toxicity, toxicity-related dose modification and discontinuation was higher in the FU/LV/Oxaliplatin group, while the incidence of anemia, nausea and diarrhea was not different. Conclusion: FU/LV/Oxaliplatin offers better efficacy (RR and PFS) than FU/LV in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. The incidence of grade 3/4 toxicities, i.e. neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, vomiting, neurological toxicity, is significantly higher in the FU/LV/Oxaliplatin than in the FU/LV group but these are manageable or reversible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) by direct in situ alkaline-catalyzed transesterification of the triglycerides (TG) in cottonseeds was examined. The experimental results showed that the amount of cottonseed oil dissolved in methanol was approximately 99% of the total oil and the conversion of this oil could achieve 98% under the following conditions: less than 2% moisture content in cottonseed flours, 0.3–0.335mm particle size, 0.1mol/L NaOH concentration in methanol, 135:1 methanol/oil mole ratio, 40°C reaction temperature and 3h reaction time. Further, the effects of co-solvent petroleum ether and methanol recycling on the cottonseed oil extraction and conversion were also investigated. The use of alkaline methanol as extraction and reaction solvent, which would be useful for extraction oil and gossypol, would reduce the gossypol content in the cottonseed meal. The free and total gossypol contents in the cottonseed meal obtained from in situ alkaline transesterification were far below the FAO standard. And the nontoxic cottonseed meal could be used as animal protein feed resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A series of mesoporous aluminophosphates (MAP) and Fe-aluminophosphates (Fe-MAP) with highly thermal stability and large surface area have been successfully synthesized by the use of semi-fluorinated surfactant, which were characterized by XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption, NMR, UV–Vis, and ESR techniques. These results show these samples are thermally stable up to 600°C. More importantly, these samples give large surface area (BET, ca. 430–580m2/g), which has an advantage for the use of catalysts or catalyst supports. In contrast, mesoporous aluminophosphates templated from copolymer surfactants such as F127 show relatively low surface area (<260m2/g). Furthermore, UV–Vis and ESR spectra suggest that Fe species in Fe-MAP are mainly in tetrahedral coordination. Finally, the tests of hydroxylation of phenol with hydrogen peroxide show that Fe-MAPs are catalytically active. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Silica samples condensed at acidic, neutral and alkaline media in the presence of various inorganic anions have been carefully investigated by 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopy. The results show that and could effectively improve the degree of silica condensation under neutral and alkaline media. Accordingly, for example, it is designable to synthesize hydrothermally stable and well ordered hexagonal mesoporous SBA-15 with very high degree of silica condensation in the presence of sulfate and carbonate species under neutral condition. As we expected, hexagonal mesoporous silica materials in the presence of sulfate (SBA-15-S) and carbonate species (SBA-15-U) show high degree of silica condensation, giving Q 4/Q 3 ratios at 6.3 and 4.3, which are much higher than that of conventional SBA-15 (Q 4/(Q 3 + Q 2) ratio at 1.8) synthesized in the absence of sulfate and carbonate species. Very interestingly, hexagonal mesoporous SBA-15-S and SBA-15-U shows very high hydrothermal stability, compared with SBA-15. For example, after being treated in 100% steaming at 780°C for 3h, SBA-15-S still remains its mesostructure. In constrast, SBA-15 loses most of the mesostructure. Furthermore, heteroatoms-substituted mesoporous materials such as aluminosilicate (Al-SBA-15-U) could also be synthesized in the presence of urea under neutral condition, and Al-SBA-15-U exhibits extraordinary hydrothermal stability. The unique and novel route for syntheses of hydrothermally stable and well ordered mesoporous silica and aluminosilicate materials in the presence of sulfate and carbonate species would be very important for potential application of mesoporous silica (SBA-15) and aluminosilicate materials (Al-SBA-15) as industrially supports and acidic catalysts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Bcl-2 family proteins play a crucial role in the regulation of the mitochondrial pathway that leads to apoptosis. Members of the Bcl-2 family can be divided into the anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL, and the pro-apoptotic proteins such as Bax and Bak and the BH3-only proteins. In this study, siRNA constructs to silence the Bax and Bak genes in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were generated. Stable CHO cell lines in which the expression of Bax and Bak were significantly knocked down were screened by Western blot analysis and confirmed by RT-PCR. CHO cells with both Bax and Bak knocked down showed a clear resistance against cytotoxic lectins and UV irradiation-induced apoptosis. Compared to original CHO-K1 cells, these cells also survived longer when cultured under extreme conditions such as complete nutrient depletion or in high-osmolality medium. CHO cells with both Bax and Bak genes knocked down displayed an extended lifespan as well as higher viable cell densities in fed-batch cultures, both in adherent form on microcarrier beads and in suspension. The IFN-γ productivity by a rCHO IFN-γ cell line in which both Bak and Bax were knocked down increased by 35% compared to the control cells. These results indicate that the genetic inactivation of Bax and Bak in recombinant CHO cells can be an effective strategy in delaying the onset of apoptosis in batch and fed-batch cultures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The spinel NiMn2O4 has been directly grown on 3D nickel foam by combining a simple microwave‐assisted hydrothermal with annealing process at different temperatures (350 °C to 650 °C), which can be used as a binder‐free electrode for high‐performance supercapacitors. The results indicate that the pure NiMn2O4 can be obtained below 550 °C. The as‐prepared NiMn2O4 at 450 °C has the largest specific capacitance of 802 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and excellent cycle stability (61 % capacity retention after 5000 cycles at 10 A g−1) among all the obtained samples. This outstanding electrochemical performance may be attributed to its relatively large grain size, high specific surface area, and appropriate pore structure. This indicates that NiMn2O4 grown on nickel foam shows great potential as an electrode material for supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure the speed, recall, and precision of the algorithm to solve the algorithm's measurement failure due to the problem of high underdetermination and the deviation of some outgoing lines from accessible nodes, the ideal resistance method is proposed to diagnose the corrosion of the grounding grid. The information extraction algorithm, a two-way heuristic network resistance diagnosis method, is added. A non-linear multi-objective optimization model of the deviation between the measured potential and the real potential is established. This paper puts forward that the grounding network's fault diagnosis is analogous to a neural network's training process, which makes full use of the excellent robustness and rapidity of a neural network training method. Simultaneously, the algorithm adds the retraining method combined with the field excavation in training and proves its feasibility through the Grobner basis codimension theory in algebraic geometry. Through result verification, it is found that the new algorithm can avoid the inversion failure caused by the algorithm failure due to the lack of accessible nodes and the abnormal part of input data at the same time as a fast solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Adult non-degenerative scoliosis accounts for 90% of spinal deformities in young adults. However, perioperative complications and related risk factors of long posterior instrumentation and fusion for the treatment of adult non-degenerative scoliosis have not been adequately studied.Methods: We evaluated clinical and radiographical results from 146 patients with adult non-degenerative scoliosis who underwent long posterior instrumentation and fusion. Preoperative clinical data, intraoperative variables, and perioperative radiographic parameters were collected to analyze the risk factors for perioperative complications. Potential and independent risk factors for perioperative complications were evaluated by univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis.Results: One hundred forty-six adult non-degenerative scoliosis patients were included in our study. There were 23 perioperative complications for 21 (14.4%) patients, eight of which were cardiopulmonary complications, two of which were infection, six of which were neurological complications, three of which were gastrointestinal complications, and four of which were incision-related complication. The independent risk factors for development of total perioperative complications included change in Cobb angle (odds ratio [OR] = 1.085, 95% CI = 1.035 ~ 1.137, P = 0.001) and spinal osteotomy (OR = 3.565, 95% CI = 1.039 ~ 12.236, P = 0.043). The independent risk factor for minor perioperative complications is change in Cobb angle (OR = 1.092, 95% CI = 1.023 ~ 1.165, P = 0.008). The independent risk factors for major perioperative complications are spinal osteotomy (OR = 4.475, 95% CI = 1.960 ~ 20.861, P = 0.036) and change in Cobb angle (OR = 1.106, 95% CI = 1.035 ~ 1.182, P = 0.003).Conclusions: Our study indicate that change in Cobb angle and spinal osteotomy are independent risk factors for total perioperative complications after long-segment posterior instrumentation and fusion in adult non-degenerative scoliosis patients. Change in Cobb angle is an independent risk factor for minor perioperative complications. Change in Cobb angle and spinal osteotomy are independent risk factors for major perioperative complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium and its alloys are widely used in blood-contacting implantable and interventional medical devices; however, their biocompatibility is still facing great challenges. In the present study, in order to improve the biocompatibility and antibacterial activities of titanium, TiO2 nanotubes were firstly in situ prepared on the titanium surface by anodization, followed by the introduction of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and gentamicin (GS) on the nanotube surface by layer-by-layer assembly, and finally, zinc ions were loaded on the surface to further improve the bioactivities. The nanotubes displayed excellent hydrophilicity and special nanotube-like structure, which can selectively promote the albumin adsorption, enhance the blood compatibility, and promote the growth of endothelial cells to some degree. After the introduction of PAA and GS, although the superhydrophilicity cannot be achieved, the results of platelet adhesion, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) activity, hemolysis rate, and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) showed that the blood compatibility was improved, and the blood compatibility was further enhanced after zinc ion loading. On the other hand, the modified surface showed good cytocompatibility to endothelial cells. The introduction of PAA and zinc ions not only promoted the adhesion and proliferation of endothelial cells but also upregulated expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and nitric oxide (NO). The slow and continuous release of GS and Zn2+ over 14 days can significantly improve the antibacterial properties. Therefore, the present study provides an effective method for the surface modification of titanium-based blood-contacting materials to simultaneously endow with good blood compatibility, endothelial growth behaviors, and antibacterial properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image-to-image translation tasks have been widely investigated with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). However, existing approaches are mostly designed in an unsupervised manner, while little attention has been paid to domain information within unpaired data. In this article, we treat domain information as explicit supervision and design an unpaired image-to-image translation framework, Domain-supervised GAN (DosGAN), which takes the first step towards the exploration of explicit domain supervision. In contrast to representing domain characteristics using different generators or domain codes, we pre-train a classification network to explicitly classify the domain of an image. After pre-training, this network is used to extract the domain-specific features of each image. Such features, together with the domain-independent features extracted by another encoder (shared across different domains), are used to generate image in target domain. Extensive experiments on multiple facial attribute translation, multiple identity translation, multiple season translation and conditional edges-to-shoes/handbags demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. In addition, we can transfer the domain-specific feature extractor obtained on the Facescrub dataset with domain supervision information to unseen domains, such as faces in the CelebA dataset. We also succeed in achieving conditional translation with any two images in CelebA, while previous models like StarGAN cannot handle this task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low humidity detection has been a great challenge in the field of humidity sensing. In recent years, polyelectrolytes have been proven to be promising materials for highly sensitive humidity sensors. In this work, cross-linked poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) were prepared for low humidity detection. The strong hydrophilicity of PILs contributes to humidity sensing while the cross-linked structure guarantees the stability of the sensing film. The optimized sensor shows high response (48.0) in 5–35% RH, with short response/recovery time (1 s/10 s) and a small humidity hysteresis (0.2% RH). The possible sensing mechanism of the sensors was discussed. • Cross-linked poly(ionic liquid)s were used as low humidity sensitive materials. • The optimized sensor shows high response in 5–35% RH. • The optimized sensor has short recovery time and small humidity hysteresis. • The introduction of glycerol could reduce the impedance of the sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Calcined Ge-UTL encountered structural degradation under pure water solution at RT. • A simply ultrasonic treatment caused random arrangement of the formed cfi layers. • The stacking faults of cfi layers generated abundant intracrystal mesopores. • An excellent styrene epoxidation activity (TOF = 403 h−1) is achieved on Co-Meso-UTL. Co-zeolites with hierarchical porous are significantly desirable for the liquid-phase selective epoxidation of styrene that required relatively open reaction spaces. A typical UTL germanosilicate with the absence of organic structure-directing agent molecules inside pore channels suffered from severe structural collapse after ultrasonic treatment under pure water medium, originating from the unstable germanium-rich double four ring subunits. The simple strategy cleaved the weak linkage Ge-O bands and caused the irregular location of silicon-rich cfi layers. Subsequently, Co activity centers was incorporated into the framework through reacting with the abundant silanol groups located in the hydroxyl nests at room temperature. The random arrangement of mono- or multi- cfi layers induced the stacking faults and generated a large amount of intracrystal mesopores after calcination. The resultant Co-Meso-UTL catalysts favored the molecules diffusion of large-sized styrene and target products, improving the accessibility of Co active sites and exhibiting excellent catalytic performance in the styrene epoxidation reaction with single hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) oxidant. Especially, high styrene oxide product selectivity was also obtained through controlling appropriate H 2 O 2 -added content as well as reaction time, which possessed a highest turnover frequency value of 403 h−1 among the reported catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By regulating the doping number of Li atoms in graphdiyne (GDY), the adsorption site of the structure is increased and the interaction between gas and skeleton is enhanced, thus creating a favorable environment for CO 2 adsorption. Li-GDYs have ultra-high CO 2 adsorption capacity and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. [Display omitted] • Three structures with different Li doping types are screened. • Li-GDYs exhibit an ultra-high CO 2 adsorption capacity and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. • Li doping has a more pronounced effect on enhancing the CO 2 − Li-GDYs interaction. • Gas distribution analyses demonstrate Li doping provides more adsorption sites. The development of CO 2 adsorbents with high adsorption and separation performances is important to solve severe environmental problems. Herein, two-dimensional graphdiyne acetylene rings doped with different concentrations of lithium atoms (1/2/6Li-GDYs) were introduced as potential adsorbents for CO 2 capture and separation by using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory methods. According to the structure analysis, Li atoms could stably bind to GDY with a binding energy of 1.04 – 2.77 eV/atom; 1/2/6Li-GDYs had high cohesive energy of 7.02 – 7.54 eV/atom. Electronic structure analysis confirmed the large charge transfer and strong interaction between Li atoms and GDY. The pore physical properties of Li-GDYs indicated that the pore volume, porosity, and pore size provided a favorable environment for CO 2 adsorption. Among Li-GDYs, 2/6Li-GDYs exhibited an ultra-high CO 2 adsorption capacity of 11.91 mmol/g at 298 K and 100 kPa, and was superior to other metal-modified adsorbents. The CO 2 /N 2 selectivity in 1/2/6Li-GDYs reached ∼ 168, ∼311, and ∼ 1021 at 298 K and 100 kPa. Gas distribution analysis revealed a broad CO 2 distribution consisting of multilayer adsorption peaks around Li and adjacent C atoms, illustrating the significant effect of Li and Li-connected C atoms on CO 2 adsorption. Interaction analysis showed that Li doping enhanced the CO 2 -framework interaction more significantly than the N 2 -framework interaction, resulting in ultra-high CO 2 adsorption capacity and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. The results of this work highlight 1/2/6Li-GDYs as ultrahigh-performance adsorbent materials for CO 2 adsorption and separation over N 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The combined effects of multiple air pollutants may differ from those of single air pollutants. • The combined exposure to air pollutants was positively associated with the incidence of ischemic heart disease. • The association was more pronounced among individuals with diabetes compared to those without. Air pollution and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are both associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Little is known about the combined effects of multiple air pollutants on IHD risk, especially among individuals with T2D. We sought to assess the association of combined exposure to multiple air pollutants with incident IHD and examine the modification effect of T2D. This study included 388 780 individuals (20 036 individuals with T2D) free of cardiovascular disease and cancer from the UK Biobank. The combined exposure to multiple air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) with diameters ≤ 2.5 μm (PM 2.5), PM with diameters between 2.5 and 10 µm (PM coarse), PM with diameters ≤ 10 μm (PM 10), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), and nitrogen dioxides (NO x), was assessed by creating a weighted air pollution score (APS), with a higher APS representing a higher level of air pollution exposure. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for incident IHD were assessed by multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models. During a median of 12.9 years of follow-up, 27 333 incident IHD cases were observed. Compared with the lowest tertile of the APS, the multivariable-adjusted HR (95 % CI) of IHD risk for the highest tertile was 1.13 (1.03–1.23) among individuals with T2D, while the HR was 1.06 (1.03–1.10) among individuals without T2D. Additionally, the associations between APS and IHD incidence showed a linear relationship among individuals with T2D (nonlinearity: P = 0.37), whereas a non-linear relationship was observed among individuals without T2D (nonlinearity: P = 0.02). For the joint analysis, individuals in the highest tertile of APS and with T2D had a 54 % higher risk of IHD compared to individuals in the lowest tertile of APS and without T2D, with a significant additive interaction (P interaction < 0.01). The proportion of relative excess risk was 17 % due to the interaction in categorical analyses. The combined exposure to multiple air pollutants has been associated with an elevated risk of incident IHD, and the association is more pronounced among individuals with T2D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is the preferred method for subtyping patients with primary aldosteronism, while the procedure is technically challenging. This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a single-catheter approach for AVS. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 106 consecutive patients who underwent AVS was performed to determine the procedural success and complication rates. Bilateral AVS procedures were performed using a single 5-Fr Tiger catheter with repeated manual reshaping. Results: We successfully advanced the catheter into the bilateral adrenal veins of all patients and reached a 90.6% procedural success rate of AVS. The procedural period was 33.0 ± 8.2 min, the fluoroscopy period was 5.8 ± 1.7 min, and the diagnostic contrast used was 17.3 ± 5.5 ml. Only one patient (0.9%) had a hematoma at the femoral puncture site. No other complications were observed. The operation period gradually shortened as the cumulative number of operations increased. The number of procedures required to overcome the learning curve was about 33 cases. Conclusions: The single-catheter approach is feasible and effective for AVS. Moreover, this approach required a relatively short learning curve for an inexperienced trainee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unconventional superconductivity, in particular, in noncentrosymmetric systems, has been a long-sought topic in condensed matter physics. Recently, Re-based superconductors have attracted great attention owing to the potential time-reversal symmetry breaking in their superconducting states. We report the superconducting properties of noncentrosymmetric compounds TaxRe1 – x with 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.25, and find that the superconducting transition temperature reaches a maximum of ∼8 K at the optimal level x = 0.15. Nevertheless, muon-spin rotation and relaxation measurements reveal no time-reversal symmetry breaking existing in its superconducting state, which is in sharp contrast to both centrosymmetric Re metal and many other noncentrosymmetric Re-based superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of African swine fever virus (ASFV) leads to high mortality in domestic pigs, and has caused huge losses in the global pork industry. Therefore, the rapid detection of ASFV is essential for the prevention and control of the epidemic. Herein, a denaturation bubble‐mediated strand exchange amplification (SEA) with colorimetric detection strategy for the rapid detection of ASFV was established and the results were visible with the naked eyes. The entire detection process based on isothermal amplification was performed on a portable metal bath only. And the whole process including rapid extraction and visual detection was finished within 50 min. The limit of detection of this method reached to 104 copies/μl of plasmid containing p72 gene. And the ASFV was successfully detected in eight different tissue and seven types of pig feed which revealed a strong anti‐interference ability in the presence of complex matrix. Through comparing 94 field positive and negative ASFV samples, excellent performance of SEA assay with 92.86% sensitivity and 100% specificity relative to PCR was observed. The developed method could be used for on‐site detection of ASFV with simplicity, rapidity, and visuality, especially suitable for pork industry food safety and ASFV control in resource‐limited areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wave power generation has been the object of extensive renewable energy research and development all over the world. Concerning the application of a wave energy converter to the harsh environment of the South China Sea, a study of the shape and internal layout of a pitching float wave energy converter was performed based on the mechanism of the oscillating‐float generator. Research methods based on potential flow theory and the use of ANSYS‐AQWA software were applied to predict the hydrodynamic performance and energy conversion of the pitching float wave energy converter. The influence of the float shape, width, side radius, and centroid position on the hydrodynamic performance of the float was analyzed. The results show that the pitching performance of the spherical‐bottom float was the best among the three basic shapes examined. The width of the float had the greatest impact on the pitching performance of the float, and the effect of the radius of the float on the pitching performance was also significant. The pitching performance of the float was improved with the realization of a larger radius in the pitching direction. The centroid position and rotational inertia also had a great impact on the pitching performance of the float. The wave energy converter designed in this study lays the foundation and provides reference for further research on the novel, efficient, and stable wave energy converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forgetting is an essential phenomenon in human brain to help people get away from chaos. Such phenomenon could be emulated in the electronic synaptic device, which is the critical unit for hardware implementation of Spiking Neural Network (SNN). To the best of our knowledge, however, forgetting phenomenon has rarely been applied in weights update of traditional SNNs based on spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). In this work, we propose a novel SNN training algorithm using forgetting phenomenon. The weights update procedures are composed of potentiation and forgetting, and implemented by single-polarity pulses and time intervals between training samples. Benchmarked with the MNIST handwriting dataset, we demonstrate the algorithm's performance by a single-layer perceptron with 784 × 10 synapses. Besides, the influence of some non-ideal factors are taken into consideration to analyze the robust performance of enhanced SNN. The simulation result indicates the proposed SNN with forgetting phenomenon exhibits faster convergence speed and higher recognition rate (88.07%) than traditional SNN with similar network scale. Moreover, it shows a good tolerance to the non-linear conductance response and variation while it has less endurance requirement of electronic synaptic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further expand the application scope of 2205 duplex stainless steel (DSS), its microstructure and mechanical properties require as much attention as its corrosion properties. In this study, 2205DSSs were prepared by aluminothermic reaction and the microstructures and mechanical behavior of the rolled alloys were analyzed. The micro-nanocrystals composite structure appears in the alloys after rough rolling with deformation of 40% at 1 0 0 0 ∘ C followed by finishing rolling with deformation of 30%, 50% and 70% at 6 0 0 ∘ C. With the increase of rolling deformation, the two-phase structure is gradually elongated, the average size of the two-phase grains is gradually increased, and some γ phase will change to α phase, the volume fraction of α phase is gradually increased, and the distribution of nanocrystals is gradually uniform. Meanwhile, the fracture mode of alloy is gradually changed from ductile fracture to brittle fracture. The strength and hardness of the alloy increase gradually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bullwhip effect (BWE) and stochastic demand coexist in supply chain operation management, which leads to a lower performance. In recent years, with the development of blockchain, cloud computing, big data, and other digital technologies (DTs), many enterprises hope to use them to weaken the BWE and improve profits. This paper focuses on improving the application level of DTs in the supply chain through coordination for enhancing the performance. We consider a supply chain with one-supplier-one-retailer and coordinate it with the cost-sharing contract and revenue-cost-sharing contract (the improved contract). We find out that the retailer and supplier did not always have the willingness to use DTs to alleviate the BWE. Even if they have the intention to use DTs, their ideal application level is not the same. After coordination, both the application level of DTs and the performance of the supply chain are improved, and we find that the improved contract has a better coordination effect. Finally, we validate our model by numerical simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with spirochetal infection, which causes neurosyphilis (NS) and at a later stage general paresis of the insane (GPI), present with brain pathology features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the relationships among these illnesses regarding biomarker levels are still unclear.Objective: To explore biomarker levels in NS and GPI compared with those in AD and the relationship between biomarker levels and cognitive function in NS and GPI.Methods: Levels of neurogranin (NGRN) and β-amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme (BACE1) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/plasma, together with amyloid-β 1-40 (Aβ40), Aβ42, and total tau in the CSF of 23 AD patients, 55 GPI patients, and 13 NS patients were measured. Patients were classified into none-to-mild, moderate, and severe stages of cognitive impairment.Results: Levels of CSF NGRN, BACE1, and tau as well as plasma BACE1 levels were significantly different among groups. In the none-to-mild stage, plasma BACE1 levels correlated with the protein levels in CSF and were significantly increased in AD patients versus GPI patients. The CSF tau levels in AD patients were significantly increased versus GPI patients in the moderate and severe stages. Pooling data from GPI and NS patients, both CSF tau and plasma NGRN levels correlated with cognitive scale scores.Conclusion: GPI and NS patients might have different biomarker level patterns compared to AD patients. While plasma BACE1 could be a promising early biomarker for distinguishing AD from GPI, CSF tau and plasma NGRN levels might be valuable in indications of cognitive function in pooled NS populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activation function is a crucial part for memristive neural networks. For the first time, we propose a memristor-based activation function by using the natural non-linear characteristics of the memristor itself. Compared to the virtual ground circuit in traditional memristive neural networks, the feedback resistance was replaced by the W/TaOx/Ru memristor with no additional expense. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed memristor-based activation function can achieve a performance similar to that of traditional activation functions on the Mixed National Institute of Standards and Technology database. In addition, an improvement in the recognition rate of up to 2% can be obtained in different neuromorphic networks by modulating the non-linearity of the memristor. Furthermore, the memristor-based activation function can also receive a 94% recognition rate even considering the non-ideal factors of the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising new bond coat using CuAlNiCrFe high-entropy alloy was proposed in this paper. The difference in pre-oxidation conditions between the traditional thermal-sprayed MCrAlY bond coat and CuAlNiCrFe high-entropy alloy bond coat deposited using high-speed laser cladding was investigated. The result confirmed that the CuAlNiCrFe high-entropy alloy bond coat deposited using high-speed laser cladding can complete the pre-oxidation faster and form a continuous α-Al 2 O 3 thermally grown oxide (TGO), which shortens the initial oxidation stage, thereby avoiding the formation of other oxides and spinel structures. In the subsequent isothermal oxidation process, the block-like structure of the high-speed laser cladding layer and the sluggish diffusion effect of the high-entropy alloy work together to ensure the slow and continuous supply of aluminum element to TGO layer and obtain a low growth rate. Also, the diffusion between the bonding layer and the substrate is controlled at a low level, and the new CuAlNiCrFe bond coat exhibits excellent oxidation and diffusion resistance. With the consumption of aluminum, the phase structure of the high-entropy alloy bond coat changed from BCC to FCC, but it still maintained a stable simple solid solution structure. • A high entropy alloys bond coat was prepared by ultra-high speed laser cladding. • The laser Cladded high-entropy alloys ensure the sluggish diffusion effect. • The CuAlNiCrFe bond coat shows great oxidation resistance in 1100 °C. • The phase structure of CuAlNiCrFe change to FCC single-phase solid solution. • A new thermal barrier coatings system with high entropy alloys was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of low-velocity NiCrBSi particles with a high surface temperature of 1800 °C during the long laminar plasma spraying process was studied. During the experiment, the maximum length of the laminar plasma jet exceeded 600 mm, and coatings were obtained using a laminar plasma spray at a wide spray distance ranging from 250 to 500 mm. Interestingly, the coatings obtained at a short spray distance of 250 mm showed special alternate porous and compact lamellar structure with island-like bulges that were evenly distributed on the coating surface. This type of structure was possibly formed by a low-velocity splashes deposition process intensified by the furry-like structure, which can be attributed to vapor phase deposition. The coatings obtained at an extremely long spray distance of 500 mm showed massive cracks. Moreover, the medium-distance sprayed coatings of 350–450 mm showed similar lamellar-like microstructure and mechanical performance because of the similarity in the particle states in the low-energy-gradient laminar plasma jet. Thus, a laminar plasma spray shows great reproducibility and potential for improving the spraying efficiency on an uneven plane. Unlabelled Image • Stable laminar plasma jet longer than 600 mm was adopted. • NiCrBSi coatings show similar properties regardless of spray distance within 500 mm. • Island-like bulges were found in atmospheric laminar plasma sprayed metal coatings. • A splashes gathering model was proposed and deposition mechanism was established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Searching the Longest Common Subsequences of many sequences is called a Multiple Longest Common Subsequence (MLCS) problem which is a very fundamental and challenging problem in many fields of data mining. The existing algorithms cannot be applicable to problems with long and large-scale sequences due to their huge time and space consumption. To efficiently handle large-scale MLCS problems, a Path Recorder Directed Acyclic Graph (PRDAG) model and a novel Path Recorder Algorithm (PRA) are proposed. Results In PRDAG, we transform the MLCS problem into searching the longest path from the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), where each longest path in DAG corresponds to an MLCS. To tackle the problem efficiently, we eliminate all redundant and repeated nodes during the construction of DAG, and for each node, we only maintain the longest paths from the source node to it but ignore all non-longest paths. As a result, the size of the DAG becomes very small, and the memory space and search time will be greatly saved. Empirical experiments have been performed on a standard benchmark set of both DNA sequences and protein sequences. The experimental results demonstrate that our model and algorithm outperform the related leading algorithms, especially for large-scale MLCS problems. Availability and implementation This program code is written by the first author and can be available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore and https://blog.csdn.net/wswguilin. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: To find the effect of coal chemical structure on biogas production, Lignite B was collected and extracted with nitrogen methylpyrrolidone (NMP), acetone and 0.60 mol/L NaOH. Simultaneously, methanogenic bacteria were enriched, and gas production experiments involving solvent extraction from residual coal and secondary gas production experiments involving coal were performed. The characteristics of biogas production, microcrystalline structure and coal chemical structure were analyzed. The results showed that the biogas production capacity of residual coal extracted by different solvents differed. The biogas production capacity of residual coal extracted by 0.60 mol/L NaOH was severely inhibited. The biogas production capacity of residual coal extracted by NMP and acetone was enhanced compared with that of raw coal. In contrast, primary residual coal still exhibits potential for methane production, but the methane production efficiency was reduced. Changes in the microcrystalline structure and functional groups of residual coal showed that solvent extraction increases the spacing and stacking height of the aromatic lamellae of coal, reduces the hydroxyl, methyl, methylene and aromatic hydrocarbon levels in coal, loosens the macromolecular network structure of coal, and enhances the connectivity of pores and fissures, thus allowing methane‐producing bacteria to enter the coal mass and create favorable conditions for gas production through interactions between the two. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements showed that the secondary gas production increased the C content on the coal surface, decreased the O content and the O/C ratio, thus promoting the consumption of oxygen‐containing functional groups on the coal surface to further produce gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the outstanding dielectric properties derived from the conjugated π-electron systems, conjugated polymers have been explored and developed in capacitive humidity sensors for a few decades. In this work, a series of composites – mesoporous silica and semiconducting polymers – MCM-41 (MCM, Mesoporous Crystalline Material)/PEDOT (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)) were chemically obtained by in-situ polymerization at 0 °C, while the amounts of PEDOT were adjusted by different evaporation times of EDOT (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) in the porous MCM-41 film. Additionally, it was able to modulate both the dielectricity and porosity of the composites via this convenient approach. The obtained capacitive humidity sensors based on MCM-41/PEDOT composites exhibit much better sensing performance than their bulk counterparts, with wider humidity sensing range, higher sensitivity and much faster response speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian rhythms are the endogenous oscillation of biological reactions and behaviors in most organisms on Earth. Circadian clocks are the pacemakers regulating circadian rhythms, and the transcription-translation dependent feedback loop (TTFL) model was supposed to be the sole model of circadian clocks. However, recent years have witnessed rapid progresses in the study of non-TTFL circadian clocks. The cyanobacterial circadian clock consists of three proteins (KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC), and is extensively studied as a non-TTFL circadian clock model. Although containing only three proteins, the molecular mechanism of the KaiABC circadian clock remains elusive. We recently noticed that KaiA has an auto-inhibition conformation during the oscillation, but how this auto-inhibition is regulated is unclear. Here, we started from the design of light modulated KaiAs to investigate this mechanism. We designed different KaiA constructs fused with the light modulable LOV2 protein, and used light-modulated KaiAs to regulate the phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of KaiC. Our data indicated that the N-terminal domain of KaiA is important for KaiA's reversible off/on switching during the unidirectional oscillation of the KaiABC system. This work provides an updated model to explain the molecular mechanism of the KaiABC circadian clock. • We designed and obtained a light modulated KaiA. • We showed that the N-terminal domain of KaiA and KaiB are indispensable for KaiC's oscillated phosphorylation. • We proposed a potential model to explain the function of KaiB and the N-terminal domain of KaiA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the literature review on medical education and university performance evaluations and from the perspective of individual advantage identification, an evaluation method of medical universities' performance in a hierarchical context was proposed. This study designs a method system, including individual learning benchmarking from the individual perspective, group learning benchmarking from the democratic perspective, and benchmarking of single and overall indicators. From the perspective of the most favorable to medical universities, this study applies the designed research methods to the performance evaluation of medical universities and takes 15 medical universities in China as samples to conduct an empirical research. The following conclusions were found. First, the method helps form various development modes of medical universities in the individual advantage characteristic context. Second, the method not only shows objectivity but also provides a basis for how medical universities find individual and integral benchmarking. Finally, the method demonstrates the democracy feature, which provides a basis for how relevant departments allocate resources and formulate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of studies that evaluate the association between normal weight central obesity and subsequent outcomes in patients with premature acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We evaluated 338 consecutive male patients (aged ≤ 55 years) with premature ACS. The primary outcomes were all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). We compared the hazard ratios (HRs) in patients with and without normal weight central obesity using multivariable Cox proportional hazard models. All-cause mortality (16.8%) of patients with normal weight central obesity was much higher than those (7.1%) without normal weight central obesity (P =.008). The incidence of MACCE in patients with and without normal weight central obesity were 40.7 and 23.6% (P =.001), respectively. After multivariable adjustment, the risks of all-cause mortality and MACCE were significantly higher in patients with normal weight central obesity than those without normal weight central obesity (adjusted HR: 1.83; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-3.31; P =.004 and adjusted HR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.18-2.27; P =.017, respectively). In conclusion, the risks of all-cause mortality and MACCE were significantly higher in male patients with premature ACS with normal weight central obesity than in those without normal weight central obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium fluoride is a promising candidate for resistive-switching random access memory (RRAM) with biodegradable property. However, the underlying resistive-switching (RS) mechanism and conduction mechanism in MgF2 material is still not fully studied, which limits the further performance optimization. In this work, we have demonstrated the rectification and bipolar RS behaviors in Ti/MgF2/Pt device. The un-Formed device exhibits stable rectifying characteristics, with a rectifying ratio of ∼103 at ±3 V. Furthermore, transition from rectification mode to RS behavior can be achieved by a Forming process. Then the analogue switching properties with high uniformity was obtained with quasi-DC sweeps, and gradual modulation of multi-state was further realized. At last, the conduction and switching mechanism was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of good performance in the logistics industry contributing towards a low-carbon economy is widely recognised. However, there are few studies on carbon emissions performance for the logistics industry, especially at the city level. Therefore, this study attempts to analyse the carbon emissions performance of the logistics industry at the city level by examining sixteen cities within Yunnan Province. In particular, the Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Malmquist index from both the static and dynamic perspective were explored. To further capture the driving factors of the carbon emissions performance in logistics, the Tobit model was applied to perform regression analysis. The results indicate that (1) with regards to static performance, two northwest cities, Nujiang and Diqing, have reached the technological frontier; (2) regarding dynamic performance, although six cities have improved, the average dynamic logistics carbon emissions performance of all the cities decreases by approximately 5.9% from 2011 to 2015; (3) in terms of driving factors, the economic development factor is found to be positively and significantly related to static carbon emissions performance, whereas others indicate negative and significant relationships. • We investigate carbon emissions performance in logistics at the city level. • An empirical study on sixteen cities in China is conducted. • Logistics-related carbon emissions of sixteen cities have increased from 2011 to 2015. • Carbon emissions performance in logistics vary across cities. • Carbon emissions performance in logistics attributes to different driving factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tiaopi Huxin recipe (TPHXR) is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for the clinical treatment of coronary heart disease. However, the mechanism of TPHXR treatment of atherosclerosis (AS) has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we have aimed to explore the potential antiatherosclerotic effect of TPHXR and its underlying mechanisms. Male ApoE knockout (ApoE−/−) mice were fed a high‐fat diet for 12 weeks and were randomly divided into four groups: the control group, and the low‐dose, medium‐dose, and high‐dose TPHXR groups. The nitric oxide (NO) levels in arterial tissue and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were measured by diaminofluorescein‐2 diacetate staining. Vasorelaxation of mice aorta was performed by wire myograph. Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), hs‐CRP, IL‐6, and IL‐1β, in mice plasma were analyzed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Western blot analysis was applied to observe protein expression. Oil Red O staining was utilized for the quantification of atherosclerotic plaques. Results showed that 4 weeks of high‐ and medium‐dose TPHXR treatment by oral gavage reduced atheromatous lesions in ApoE −/− mice. The high‐ and medium‐dose TPHXR treatment, but not the low‐dose treatment, promoted eNOS phosphorylation, increased NO levels and improved endothelium‐dependent vasorelaxation in ApoE −/− mice. High‐ and medium‐dose TPHXR, but not low‐dose TPHXR, decreased the expression of cav‐1, NF‐κB p50, NF‐κB p65, ICAM1, VCAM‐1, TNF‐α, IL‐6, and IL‐1β in the vasculature of ApoE −/− mice. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay analysis indicated that high‐ and medium‐dose TPHXR decreased the levels of TNF‐α, IL‐6, hs‐CRP, and IL‐1β. In conclusion, our findings show that TPHXR improved the endothelial function and reduced atheromatous lesions in ApoE −/− mice. This result may be due to the decreased expression of caveolin‐1 and NF‐κB and, hence, the attenuated inflammatory response in AS mice vasculature. TPHXR may represent a promising intervention in patients with AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]