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Abstract Cell motility increases the fitness of bacterial cells. Previous research focused on the transcriptional regulator CdsR, which represses cellular autolysis and promotes spore formation in Bacillus thuringiensis. However, the targets of CdsR are mostly unknown. Here, we reported a new function of CdsR in regulating cell motility. Mutation of cdsR results in increase of cell mobility, and a number of related genes were upregulated compared to wild type HD73. Thus, we investigated the transcription of the fla/che gene cluster, which involves in cell mobility and comprises eight operons/genes, including motAB1, cheY-yrhK, lamB-cheR, yaaR-fliG2, cheV-mogR, hag1, hag2, and yjbJ-flgG. Additionally, the motAB2 operon was discovered, which consists of homologs genes motA2 and motB2 that are like motA1 and motB1. Through promoter-lacZ fusion assays and EMSA experiments, it was discovered that CdsR directly regulates the motAB1, cheY-yrhK, lamB-cheR, yaaR-fliG2, cheV-mogR, hag1, hag2, yjbJ-flgG, and motAB2 operons by binding to their promoter regions. Importantly, it was confirmed that CdsR is a metalloregulator and the binding to promoter can be inhibited by Cu (II) ions. This research enhances our understanding of the regulation of cell mobility in B. thuringiensis.

Abstract Background Radiation-induced liver fibrosis (RILF) is a common manifestation of radiation-induced liver injury (RILI) and is caused primarily by activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in various diseases, but little is known about the function and mechanism of circRNAs in RILF. Methods RNA pull-down and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were used to screen binding proteins of hsa_circ_0096498 (circ96498). RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation, RNA pull-down and nuclear and cytoplasmic protein extraction were conducted to confirm the interaction between circ96498 and eukaryotic initiation factor 4A3 (EIF4A3). RNA sequencing was performed to screen target genes regulated by EIF4A3. HSCs with altered circ96498 and cell division cycle 42 (CDC42) expression were used to assess irradiated HSC activation. Circ96498 inhibition and CDC42 blockade were evaluated in RILF mouse models. Results In this study, we identified a radiation-sensitive circ96498, which was highly expressed in the irradiated HSCs of paracancerous tissues from RILI patients. Circ96498 inhibited the proliferation but promoted the apoptosis of irradiated HSCs, suppressed the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α, and decreased the expression of profibrotic markers (α-SMA and collagen 1) in irradiated HSCs. Mechanistically, irradiation induced the transport of EIF4A3 into the nucleus, and nuclear EIF4A3 increased the stability of CDC42 mRNA and increased CDC42 expression, thereby promoting HSC activation through the NF-κB and JNK/Smad2 pathways. However, the binding of circ96498 to EIF4A3 impeded the translocation of EIF4A3 into the nucleus, resulting in the inhibition of CDC42 expression and subsequent HSC activation. Furthermore, circ96498 knockdown promoted the development of the early and late stages of RILF in a mouse model, which was mitigated by CDC42 blockade. Conclusions Collectively, our findings elucidate the involvement of the circ96498/EIF4A3/CDC42 axis in inhibiting irradiated HSC activation, which offers a novel approach for RILF prevention and treatment. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which mainly affects the lungs but can also invade other systems, presents a diagnostic challenge when co‐existing with autoimmune disease. We report a case of 31‐year‐old Asian woman with anti‐synthetase syndrome who developed abdominal and subcutaneous lumps during treatment, along with elevated tumor markers, raising suspicion of malignancy. Pathological examination revealed M. tuberculosis infection, changing the diagnosis to multifocal extrapulmonary tuberculosis. This case highlights the need for prompt and detailed evaluations, and the importance of broad differential diagnosis.

Abstract BAP1, BRCA1-Associated Protein 1, serves as a novel tumor suppressor through the deubiquitination of monoubiquitination of H2A and subsequent gene transcriptional regulation. Regulated cell death like apoptosis or ferroptosis is considered an essential mechanism mediating tumor suppression. Previous reports, including ours, have demonstrated that BAP1 could promote apoptosis and ferroptosis to inhibit tumor development. Whether BAP1 regulated additional types of cell death remains unclear. Disulfidptosis is a recently identified novel cell death mode characterized by aberrant accumulation of intracellular disulfide (e.g., cystine) and depletion of NADPH. In this study, we first demonstrated that BAP1 could significantly protect disulfidptosis induced by glucose starvation, which is validated by various cell death inhibitors and the accumulation of disulfide bonds in the cytoskeleton proteins. BAP1 is known to inhibit SLC7A11 expression. We found that the protective effect of BAP1 against disulfidptosis was counteracted when overexpressing SLC7A11 or adding additional cystine. Conversely, BAP1-mediated suppression of disulfidptosis was largely abrogated when SLC7A11-mediated cystine uptake was inhibited by the knockout of SLC7A11 or erastin treatment. Besides, high BAP1 expression showed lower NADP+/NADPH levels, which might confer resistance to disulfidptosis. Consistent with these observations, the expression level of BAP1 was also positively correlated with NADPH-related genes in KIRC patients, though the underlying mechanism mediating NADPH regulation remains further investigation. In summary, our results revealed the role of BAP1 in the regulation disulfidptosis and provided new insights into the understanding of disulfidptosis in tumor development.

ABSTRACT Background Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has emerged as a cornerstone in multiple myeloma (MM) management, offering the prospect of prolonged disease control. However, the induction chemotherapy drugs required prior to ASCT carry cardiovascular toxicity (CVT), potentially leading to a range of cardiovascular complications. Methods and Results This retrospective observational study, conducted at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital from January 2020 to December 2023, analyzed 47 of the initial 173 patients who met the criteria. The cohort, comprising 22 males (46.81%) and 25 females (53.19%), had a mean age of 55.68 ± 11.38 years. They underwent various induction chemotherapy regimens, receiving a median of 5 (4–6) cycles of the course over an average duration of 7.10 ± 2.46 months. Before ASCT treatment following induction chemotherapy, echocardiographic findings indicated reductions in left ventricular end‐systolic dimension, right atrial diameter, E‐wave velocity, E/e' ratio, and the E/A ratio. The latter altered from a pretreatment value greater than 1 to posttreatment less than 1, marking diastolic dysfunction emergence or aggravation in 51.06% of patients. The electrocardiographic data indicate a reduced heart rate and prolonged P‐wave duration and P‐R duration, with an increase in arrhythmia incidence to 19.15% following induction chemotherapy. Conclusion Induction chemotherapy, administered prior to ASCT in patients with MM, can lead to the emergence or aggravation of cardiac diastolic dysfunction and increase the incidence of arrhythmic events. Therefore, it is crucial to emphasize the importance of balancing the benefits and risks of induction chemotherapy to maximize its efficacy while minimizing CVT.

Introduction: The Radical Remission Multimodal Intervention (RRMI) was developed by Kelly A. Turner, PhD, after analyzing more than 1500 cases of cancer survivors experiencing radical remission (a.k.a. spontaneous regression) across all cancer types and extracting key lifestyle factors shared by these cancer survivors. The RRMI workshops provide instruction on these lifestyle factors to participants with cancer and give them tools to help navigate their cancer recovery journey. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effect of the RRMI on the quality of life (QOL) of people with cancer. Methods: This was a pre-post outcome study. Data were collected, between January 2019 and January 2022, from 200 eligible adults of all cancer types, who attended the RRMI workshops (online and in-person). Participants were asked to complete questionnaires online, at baseline (i.e., before the intervention) and at month 1 and month 6 post-intervention. The RRMI workshops were led by certified Radical Remission health coaches. Participants completed the RRMI with personalized action plans for them to implement. The primary outcome QOL measure was the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp). Mixed-effects regression models were used to examine differences in FACIT-Sp score between month 1 and baseline, as well as month 6 and baseline. Models controlled for baseline score, covariates (including age, ethnic group, and body mass index), timepoints (month 1 or 6), training type (online or in-person), adherence score, and interaction between timepoints and adherence score. Results: 92% of participants were women, 77% were Non-Hispanic White, 88% were living in the US, and 66.5% were not living alone. One-quarter had breast cancer. Mean age ± SD was 55.3 ± 11.5 years. Final mixed-effects model analyses showed a significant increase in FACIT-Sp score of 9.5 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.2-12.8) points at month 1 ( P

Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS) data are widely recognized for their sensitivity to inland water bodies. However, the detection of water bodies using single CyGNSS data is subject to uncertainties, presenting challenges for large-scale and accurate water system detection. In this study, we employ CyGNSS data for regression estimation to map inland water bodies. In comparison to previous studies, we incorporate additional constraints, including topographic factors, vegetation information, soil moisture, and latitude and longitude data. Leveraging the U-shaped structure, Swin Transformer, and ContextModule, we effectively extract water body distribution information, referred to as CFRT. Through rigorous performance comparison with prevalent deep learning models, our method demonstrates remarkable accuracy. The generated water percent exhibits notable consistency with the reference data, achieving a root mean square error (RMSE) of 7.15% and a mean intersection over union of 0.778 within the reachable area of the CyGNSS data. Our approach emphasizes the significance of utilizing multi-source data to substantially enhance the accuracy of CyGNSS water system detection.

Abstract Temperature is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities. The ability to measure temperatures approaching absolute zero has driven numerous advances in low-temperature physics and quantum physics. Currently, millikelvin temperatures and below are measured through the characterization of a certain thermal state of the system as there is no traditional thermometer capable of measuring temperatures at such low levels. In this study, we develop a kind of diamond with sp 2-sp 3 composite phase to tackle this problem. The synthesized composite phase diamond (CPD) exhibits a negative temperature coefficient, providing an excellent fit across a broad temperature range, and reaching a temperature measurement limit of 1 mK. Additionally, the CPD demonstrates low magnetic field sensitivity and excellent thermal stability, and can be fabricated into probes down to 1 micron in diameter, making it a promising candidate for the manufacture of next-generation cryogenic temperature sensors. This development is significant for the low-temperature physics researches, and can help facilitate the transition of quantum computing, quantum simulation, and other related technologies from research to practical applications.

Abstract Background Numerous studies have indicated that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a crucial role in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, there are still many unknowns regarding the exact role of CAF subtypes in CRC. Methods The data for this study were obtained from bulk, single-cell, and spatial transcriptomic sequencing data. Bioinformatics analysis, in vitro experiments, and machine learning methods were employed to investigate the functional characteristics of CAF subtypes and construct prognostic models. Results Our study demonstrates that Biglycan (BGN) positive cancer-associated fibroblasts (BGN + Fib) serve as a driver in colorectal cancer (CRC). The proportion of BGN + Fib increases gradually with the progression of CRC, and high infiltration of BGN + Fib is associated with poor prognosis in terms of overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in CRC. Downregulation of BGN expression in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) significantly reduces migration and proliferation of CRC cells. Among 101 combinations of 10 machine learning algorithms, the StepCox[both] + plsRcox combination was utilized to develop a BGN + Fib derived risk signature (BGNFRS). BGNFRS was identified as an independent adverse prognostic factor for CRC OS and RFS, outperforming 92 previously published risk signatures. A Nomogram model constructed based on BGNFRS and clinical-pathological features proved to be a valuable tool for predicting CRC prognosis. Conclusion In summary, our study identified BGN + Fib as drivers of CRC, and the derived BGNFRS was effective in predicting the OS and RFS of CRC patients.

Abstract The cell death and survival paradox in various biological processes requires clarification. While spore development causes maternal cell death in Bacillus species, the involvement of other cell death pathways in sporulation remains unknown. Here, we identified a novel ArsR family transcriptional regulator, CdsR, and found that the deletion of its encoding gene cdsR causes cell lysis and inhibits sporulation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an ArsR family transcriptional regulator governing cell death. We found that CdsR directly repressed lrgAB expression. Furthermore, lrgAB overexpression resulted in cell lysis without sporulation, akin to the cdsR mutant, suggesting that LrgAB, a holin-like protein, induces cell death in Bacillus spp. The lrgAB mutation increases abnormal cell numbers during spore development. In conclusion, we propose that a novel repressor is vital for inhibiting LrgAB-dependent cell lysis.

BackgroundDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is a potential treatment for improving movement disorder. However, few large-sample studies can reveal its efficacy and safety. This study aims to initially explore the efficacy and safety of DBS in the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) on motor function in patients with post-stroke hemiplegia.Methods/designThis multicenter, prospective, double-blind, randomized crossover clinical trial aims to assess the safety and effectiveness of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) for patients with moderate to severe post-stroke hemiplegia. Sixty-two patients with stable disease after a year of conservative treatment will be enrolled and implanted with deep brain electrodes. Post-surgery, patients will be randomly assigned to either the DBS group or the control group, with 31 patients in each. The DBS group will receive electrical stimulation 1 month later, while the control group will undergo sham stimulation. Stimulation will be discontinued after 3 and 6 months, followed by a 2-week washout period. Subsequently, the control group will receive electrical stimulation, while the DBS group will undergo sham stimulation. Both groups will resume electrical stimulation at the 9th and 12th-month follow-ups. Post-12-month follow-up, motor-related scores will be collected for analysis, with the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity Scale (FMA-UE) as the primary metric. Secondary outcomes include balance function, neuropsychiatric behavior, fall risk, daily living activities, and quality of life. This study aims to provide insights into the therapeutic benefits of DBS for post-stroke hemiplegia patients.Result/conclusionWe proposed this study for the first time to comprehensively explore the effectiveness and safety of DBS in improving motor function for post-stroke hemiplegia, and provide evidence for DBS in the treatment of post-stroke hemiplegia. Study limitations are related to the small sample size and short study period.Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT05968248.

Wound healing requires a contamination-free, sterile, and breathable environment. However, to develop an ideal wound dressing with all these functionalities simultaneously poses significant challenges. In this study, we designed a wound dressing that mimics the structure of skin with good breathability and protective functions. The wound dressing consists of a hydrophilic Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P34HB) membrane coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles and a hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. Meanwhile, plasma treatment was also utilized to bond the two layers, resulting in an enhancement of 60 % in mechanical properties. The crosslinked fibrous membranes exhibited uniform stress distribution when stretching. Due to the unique structures of the wound dressing, it demonstrates wound exudate management, antibacterial functions, and hemostatic properties. The hydrophobic layer guided wound exudate towards the hydrophilic layer and the zinc oxide nanoparticles acted as a barrier against external bacteria and released zinc ions to inhibit bacterial growth in the exudate. Moreover, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) was measured to be over 86.55 kg/m2/day, the hemolysis rate was 2.38 %, and an impressive 81.98 % healing rate was recorded during in vitro wound healing. This skin-mimicking wound dressing shows great potential as a promising solution for the therapy of chronic wounds and infections.

Trichosanthes kirilowii (T. kirilowii) is a valuable plant used for both medicinal and edible purposes. It belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. However, its phylogenetic position and relatives have been difficult to accurately determine due to the lack of mitochondrial genomic information. This limitation has been an obstacle to the potential applications of T. kirilowii in various fields. To address this issue, Illumina and Nanopore HiFi sequencing were used to assemble the mitogenome of T. kirilowii into two circular molecules with sizes of 245,700 bp and 107,049 bp, forming a unique multi-branched structure. The mitogenome contains 61 genes, including 38 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 20 tRNAs, and three rRNAs. Within the 38 PCGs of the T. kirilowii mitochondrial genome, 518 potential RNA editing sites were identified. The study also revealed the presence of 15 homologous fragments that span both the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes. The phylogenetic analysis strongly supports that T. kirilowii belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and is closely related to Luffa. Collinearity analysis of five Cucurbitaceae mitogenomes shows a high degree of structural variability. Interestingly, four genes, namely atp1, ccmFC, ccmFN, and matR, played significant roles in the evolution of T. kirilowii through selection pressure analysis. The comparative analysis of the T. kirilowii mitogenome not only sheds light on its functional and structural features but also provides essential information for genetic studies of the genus of Cucurbitaceae.

Solar steam generation (SSG) is widely regarded as one of the most sustainable technologies for seawater desalination. However, salt fouling severely compromises the evaporation performance and lifetime of evaporators, limiting their practical applications. Herein, we propose a hierarchical salt-rejection (HSR) strategy to prevent salt precipitation during long-term evaporation while maintaining a rapid evaporation rate, even in high-salinity brine. The salt diffusion process is segmented into three steps—insulation, branching diffusion, and arterial transport—that significantly enhance the salt-resistance properties of the evaporator. Moreover, the HSR strategy overcomes the tradeoff between salt resistance and evaporation rate. Consequently, a high evaporation rate of 2.84 ​kg ​m−2 ​h−1, stable evaporation for 7 days cyclic tests in 20 ​wt% NaCl solution, and continuous operation for 170 ​h in natural seawater under 1 sun illumination were achieved. Compared with control evaporators, the HSR evaporator exhibited a >54% enhancement in total water evaporation mass during 24 ​h continuous evaporation in 20 ​wt% salt water. Furthermore, a water collection device equipped with the HSR evaporator realized a high water purification rate (1.1 ​kg ​m−2 ​h−1), highlighting its potential for agricultural applications.

Sleep staging has a very important role in diagnosing patients with sleep disorders. In general, this task is very time-consuming for physicians to perform. Deep learning shows great potential to automate this process and remove physician bias from decision making. In this study, we aim to identify recent trends on performance improvement and the causes for these trends. Recent papers on sleep stage classification and interpretability are investigated to explore different modeling and data manipulation techniques, their efficiency, and recent advances. We identify an improvement in performance up to 12% on standard datasets over the last 5 years. The improvements in performance do not appear to be necessarily correlated to the size of the models, but instead seem to be caused by incorporating new architectural components, such as the use of transformers and contrastive learning.

Abstract While polymorphism is prevalent in crystalline solids, polyamorphism draws increasing interest in various types of amorphous solids. Recent studies suggested that supercooling of liquid phase-change materials (PCMs) induces Peierls-like distortions in their local structures, underlying their liquid-liquid transitions before vitrification. However, the mechanism of how the vitrified phases undergo a possible polyamorphic transition remains elusive. Here, using high-energy synchrotron X-rays, we can access the precise pair distribution functions under high pressure and provide clear evidence that pressure can reverse the Peierls-like distortions, eliciting a polyamorphic transition in GeTe and GeSe. Combined with simulations based on machine-learned-neural-network potential, our structural analysis reveals a high-pressure state characterized by diminished Peierls-like distortion, greater coherence length, reduced compressibility, and a narrowing bandgap. Our finding underscores the crucial role of Peierls-like distortions in amorphous octahedral systems including PCMs. These distortions can be controlled through pressure and composition, offering potentials for designing properties in PCM-based devices.

Small object detection, which is frequently applied in defect detection, medical imaging, and security surveillance, often suffers from low accuracy due to limited feature information and blurred details. This paper proposes a small object detection method named YOLO-DHGC, which employs a two-stream structure with dense connections. Firstly, a novel backbone network, DenseHRNet, is introduced. It innovatively combines a dense connection mechanism with high-resolution feature map branches, effectively enhancing feature reuse and cross-layer fusion, thereby obtaining high-level semantic information from the image. Secondly, a two-stream structure based on an edge-gated branch is designed. It uses higher-level information from the regular detection stream to eliminate irrelevant interference remaining in the early processing stages of the edge-gated stream, allowing it to focus on processing information related to shape boundaries and accurately capture the morphological features of small objects. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed YOLO-DHGC method, we conducted experiments on several public datasets and a self-constructed dataset. Exceptionally, a defect detection accuracy of 96.3% was achieved on the Market-PCB public dataset, demonstrating the effectiveness of our method in detecting small object defects for industrial applications.

A high-precision ground microgravity simulation environment serves as the prerequisite and key to studying landing dynamics in microgravity environments. However, the microgravity level accuracy in traditional ground simulation tests is difficult to guarantee and fails to precisely depict the collision behavior of massive spacecraft. To solve such problems, this paper takes the microgravity simulation system based on quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) mechanism as the research object, and simulates a high-precision and high-level microgravity environment. Then, the collision contact force model of the planar foot and high elastic body rubber is established, the landing dynamics research under different microgravity environments is carried out, the influence of different microgravity environments on the landing behavior of large mass spacecraft is analyzed in depth, and ground microgravity simulation experiments are carried out. The results show that the microgravity simulation level reaches 10−4 g, the error of gravity compensation for each working condition is not more than 4.22%, and the error of sinking amount is not more than 4.61%, which verifies the superior compensation performance of the QZS mechanism and the accuracy of the dynamic model.

Abstract Background The risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD mortality are prevalent among cancer survivors (CS) population. The 2022 ESC Guidelines on cardio‐oncology have recommended that modifying cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) could potentially improve long‐term outcomes in CS. Objectives To identify the independent and joint chronic kidney disease (CKD) associations of hyperuricemia with the incidence of CVD and mortality outcomes among CS. Methods Utilizing data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey spanning 2005–2018, we assessed the risk of CVD through weighted multivariable logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression. Additionally, all‐cause and CVD‐related mortality were evaluated using weighted multivariable Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier analysis. Subgroup analysis was conducted to further elucidate the interplay between hyperuricemia, CKD, and mortality within the CS population. Results A total of 3276 CS participants were enrolled in this study. Results showed that hyperuricemia was positively related to the incidence of CVD (OR [95% CI] = 1.86 [1.24, 2.81], p = 0.004). RCS analysis further demonstrated that uric acid levels ≥345 μmol/L positively correlated with CVD incidence (p value for nonlinearity = 0.0013). However, the association between hyperuricemia and CVD mortality, as well as all‐cause mortality did not reach statistical significance in the fully adjusted model (HR = 1.48, 95% CI: 0.92–2.39, p = 0.11; HR = 1.11, 95% CI:0.92, 1.34, p = 0.28, respectively). Among CS participants with CKD, hyperuricemia could increase risks of all‐cause (HR [95% CI] = 1.39 [1.08, 1.11], p = 0.02) and CVD mortality (HR [95% CI] =2.17 [1.29, 3.66], p = 0.004) after adjusting for sex, age, and ethnicity. Conclusions In the CS population, hyperuricemia was positively associated with the incidence of CVD. In addition, CKD might be an intermediate variable among the CS population that mediated the effects of hyperuricemia on mortality.

Phytoplankton plays a key role in the stabilization of aquatic ecosystems. However, there is a lack of research on the structure of phytoplankton communities and their influencing factors in shallow lakes in Southeast Hubei. In this study, four typical lakes were selected in the summer of 2019, and the phytoplankton community structure and its drivers were investigated for each lake. The results showed that the number of phytoplankton species, dominant species, biomass, and abundance varied among lakes. A comprehensive trophic level index (TLI) assessment showed that Lake Xiandao was oligotrophic, Lake Baoan was light eutrophic, and Lake Wang and Lake Ci were moderate eutrophic. The Shannon–Wiener, Margalef, and Pielou indices showed that the phytoplankton communities of Lake Wang and Lake Ci are less stable, and the water bodies are more severely contaminated. In contrast, the communities of the Lake Baoan and Lake Xiandao are more stable and have superior water quality. A redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that the primary variables influencing phytoplankton community structures were pH and water temperature (WT) (Lake Ci); permanganate index (CODMn) and pH (Lake Xiandao); WT and total nitrogen (TN) (Lake Wang); and WT and total phosphorus (TP) (Lake Baoan).

Aviation information systems are a key component in ensuring efficient and smooth air transport operations. In this regard, the transfer of passenger information between parties is of paramount importance. With the continuous improvement of biometrics technology, this kind of individual identification that can provide accurate and unforgeable identification is widely used in various fields. This research presents the significance and effective application scenarios of facial recognition in biometrics in air transport operations. Due to the characteristics of aviation information systems, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is used in this study for secure and private transmission of facial recognition information. Distributed systems can give a transparent and secure platform to multiple parties to access sensitive passenger data. This study uses the Corda framework as the DLT that supports CorDapp development. Based on the above techniques, this study proposes two feasible application scenarios. One is a baggage match detection system to prevent misplaced baggage, and the other is an iAPIS system that transmits passenger information in real-time communication between airlines and border control agencies. This article details how to apply the research in these two scenarios, as well as the benefits and implications of the applications. Finally, this article presents an outlook for future development and feasible directions for improvement.

Abstract COVID-19 is a continuing threat to global public health security. For elderly people, timely and effective vaccination reduces infection rates in this group and safeguards their health. This paper adopted an offline Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to research the preference for COVID-19 vaccination amongst Chinese adults aged 50 years and above. Through multinomial logistic regression analysis, our DCE leverages five attributes—the risk of adverse reactions, protective duration, injection doses, injection period, and effectiveness—each of which is split into three to four levels. The risk of adverse reaction and the protective duration were demonstrated to be determinants of vaccination preference. Moreover, it was found that socio demographic factors like region, self-health assessment and the number of vaccinated household members can strengthen or weaken the effects of vaccine attributes. In conclusion, the preferences of the elderly population should be considered when developing COVID-19 vaccination programs for this population in China. Accordingly, the results may provide useful information for policymakers to develop tailored, effectively vaccination strategies.

The additive manufacturing (AM) of Ni-based superalloys has attracted extensive interest from both academia and industry due to its unique capabilities to fabricate complex and high-performance components for use in high-end industrial systems. However, the intense temperature gradient induced by the rapid heating and cooling processes of AM can generate high levels of residual stress and metastable chemical and structural states, inevitably leading to severe metallurgical defects in Ni-based superalloys. Cracks are the greatest threat to these materials’ integrity as they can rapidly propagate and thereby cause sudden and non-predictable failure. Consequently, there is a need for a deeper understanding of residual stress and cracking mechanisms in additively manufactured Ni-based superalloys and ways to potentially prevent cracking, as this knowledge will enable the wider application of these unique materials. To this end, this paper comprehensively reviews the residual stress and the various mechanisms of crack formation in Ni-based superalloys during AM. In addition, several common methods for inhibiting crack formation are presented to assist the research community to develop methods for the fabrication of crack-free additively manufactured components.

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) exhibits a rich diversity in fruit shape, with natural occurrences of gourd-like, flattened, and other special shapes. Despite the ongoing research into fruit shape, studies integrating elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFDs) with both Short Time-series Expression Miner (STEM) and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) for gene discovery remain scarce. In this study, six cultivars of jujube fruits with distinct shapes were selected, and samples were collected from the fruit set period to the white mature stage across five time points for shape analysis and transcriptome studies. By combining EFDs with WGCNA and STEM, the study aimed to identify the critical periods and key genes involved in the formation of jujube fruit shape. The findings indicated that the D25 (25 days after flowering) is crucial for the development of jujube fruit shape. Moreover, ZjAGL80, ZjABI3, and eight other genes have been implicated to regulate the shape development of jujubes at different periods of fruit development, through seed development and fruit development pathway. In this research, EFDs were employed to precisely delineate the shape of jujube fruits. This approach, in conjunction with transcriptome, enhanced the precision of gene identification, and offered an innovative methodology for fruit shape analysis. This integration facilitates the advancement of research into the morphological characteristics of plant fruits, underpinning the development of a refined framework for the genetic underpinnings of fruit shape variation.

With the increase of hexavalent Cr(VI) wastewater discharged from industrial production, it seriously pollutes water bodies and poses a risk to human health. Adsorption is used as an effective means to treat Cr(VI), but its effectiveness is affected by pH, and the adsorption performance decreases when acidity is strong. Furthermore, research on the mechanism of Cr(VI) adsorption using DFT calculations needs to be developed. This study focuses on the development of magnetically responsive core–shell nano-ion imprinted materials (Fe3O4@GO@IIP) through magnetic separation and surface imprinting techniques. Characterization techniques including FT-IR, XRD, and EDS confirmed the core–shell nanostructure of Fe3O4@GO@IIP. Batch adsorption experiments and model simulations demonstrated the exceptional adsorption capacity of Fe3O4@GO@IIP for Cr(VI) in strongly acidic solutions (pH = 1), reaching a maximum of 89.18 mg/g. The adsorption mechanism was elucidated through XPS and DFT calculations, revealing that Fe3O4@GO@IIP operates through electrostatic interactions and chemical adsorption, with charge transfer dynamics quantified during the process. This research provides new insights for addressing Cr(VI) treatment in highly acidic environments.

Bacillus thuringiensis produces insecticidal crystal proteins encoded by cry or cyt genes and targets a variety of insect pests. We previously found that a strong promoter of a DeoR family transcriptional regulator (HD73_5014) can efficiently drive cry1Ac expression in B. thuringiensis HD73. Here, we investigated the regulation of neighbor genes by HD73_5014. The HD73_5014 homologs are widely distributed in Gram-positive bacterial species. Its neighbor genes include pepV, rsuA, and ytgP, which encode dipeptidase, rRNA pseudouridine synthase and polysaccharide biosynthesis protein, respectively. The four open reading frames (ORFs) are organized to be a pepR gene cluster in HD73. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the rsuA and ytgP genes formed a transcriptional unit (rsuA-ytgP operon), while pepV formed a transcriptional unit in HD73. Promoter-lacZ fusion assays showed that the pepV and rsuA-ytgP promoters are regulated by HD73_5014. EMSA experiments showed that HD73_5014 directly binds to the pepV promoter region but not to the rusA-ytgP promoter region. Thus, the HD73_5014 transcriptional regulator, which controls the expression of the dipeptidase pepV, was named PepR (dipeptidase regulator). We also confirmed the direct regulation between PepR and PepV by the increased sensitivity to vancomycin in ΔpepV and ΔpepR mutants compared to HD73.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex group of chronic intestinal diseases, the cause of which has not yet been clarified, but it is widely believed that the disorder of the intestinal microenvironment and its related functional changes are key factors in the development of the disease. Houttuynia cordata thunb. is a traditional plant with abundant resources and long history of utilization in China, which has attracted widespread attention in recent years due to its potential in the treatment of IBD. However, its development and utilization are limited owing to the aristolochic acid alkaloids contained in it. Therefore, based on the relationship between the intestinal microenvironment and IBD, this article summarizes the potential mechanisms by which the main active ingredients of Houttuynia cordata thunb., such as volatile oils, polysaccharides, and flavonoids, and related traditional Chinese medicine preparations, such as Xiezhuo Jiedu Formula, alleviate IBD by regulating the intestinal microenvironment. At the same time, combined with current reports, the medicinal and edible safety of Houttuynia cordata thunb. is explained for providing ideas for further research and development of Houttuynia chordate thunb. in IBD disease, more treatment options for IBD patients, and more insights into the therapeutic potential of plants with homology of medicine and food in intestinal diseases, and even more diseases.

BackgroundThe prevalence of mental distress is common for medical students in China due to factors such as the long duration of schooling, stressful doctor-patient relationship, numerous patient population, and limited medical resources. However, previous studies have failed to provide a comprehensive prevalence of these mental disorders in this population. This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety, and suicidal behaviors, among medical students in China.MethodsWe conducted a systematic search for empirical studies on the prevalence of depression, anxiety, suicide attempt, suicide ideation, and suicide plan in Chinese medical students published from January 2000 to December 2020. All data were collected pre-COVID-19. The prevalence and heterogeneity estimations were computed by using a random-effects model and univariate meta-regression analyses.ResultsA total of 197 studies conducted in 23 provinces in China were included in the final meta-analysis. The prevalence data of depression, anxiety, suicide attempt, suicide ideation, and suicide plan were extracted from 129, 80, 21, 53, and 14 studies, respectively. The overall pooled crude prevalence for depression was 29% [38,309/132,343; 95% confidence interval (CI): 26%−32%]; anxiety, 18% (19,479/105,397; 95% CI: 15%−20%); suicide ideation, 13% (15,546/119,069; 95% CI: 11%−15%); suicide attempt, 3% (1,730/69,786; 95% CI: 1%−4%); and suicide plan, 4% (1,188/27,025; 95% CI: 3%−6%).ConclusionThis meta-analysis demonstrated the high prevalence of CMDs among Chinese medical students. Further research is needed to identify targeted strategies to improve the mental health of this population.

The infant auditory system rapidly matures across the first years of life, with a primary goal of obtaining ever-more-accurate real-time representations of the external world. Our understanding of how left and right auditory cortex neural processes develop during infancy, however, is meager, with few studies having the statistical power to detect potential hemisphere and sex differences in primary/secondary auditory cortex maturation. Using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a cross-sectional study design, left and right auditory cortex P2m responses to pure tones were examined in 114 typically developing infants and toddlers (66 males, 2 to 24 months). Non-linear maturation of P2m latency was observed, with P2m latencies decreasing rapidly as a function of age during the first year of life, followed by slower changes between 12 and 24 months. Whereas in younger infants auditory tones were encoded more slowly in the left than right hemisphere, similar left and right P2m latencies were observed by ∼21 months of age due to faster maturation rate in the left than right hemisphere. No sex differences in the maturation of the P2m responses were observed. Finally, an earlier left than right hemisphere P2m latency predicted better language performance in older infants (12 to 24 months). Findings indicate the need to consider hemisphere when examining the maturation of auditory cortex neural activity in infants and toddlers and show that the pattern of left–right hemisphere P2m maturation is associated with language performance.