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Natural Killer (NK) cell is the first batch of re-constructed cell populations after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), and its delayed reconstitution inevitably causes poor outcome. The traditional Chinese medicine Huiyang-Guben decoction (HYGB) has been clinically used in patients undergoing allo-HSCT, but its effect on NK cell reconstruction is still unclear. 40 patients with allo-HSCT therapy were randomly divided into the control group and the HYGB group, and were given oral administration of normal saline or HYGB for 4 weeks before allo-HSCT, respectively. NK cells were cultured and treated with transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) and HYGB in vitro, and cell viability, cell apoptosis, and the function of NK cells were evaluated. Functional verification experiments were performed by knocking down signal transduction molecule 7 (Smad7) in NK cells before TGF-β and HYGB treatment. Clinical data suggested that HYGB intervention decreased the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease after allo-HSCT, and increased the proportion of NK cell population. Meanwhile, HYGB improved cell viability, restrained apoptotic cell death, and enhanced cell killing activity of NK cells in patients with allo-HSCT. Notably, we found that HYGB significantly increased the expression level of Smad7 and the phosphorylation level of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) in NK cells from patients with allo-HSCT. Moreover, HYGB alleviated TGF-β-induced NK cell impairment and re-activated the Smad7/Stat3 signaling in vitro, while silencing Smad7 reversed the protective effect of HYGB on TGF-β-treated NK cells. HYGB promotes NK cell reconstruction and improves NK cell function after allo-HSCT through activating the Smad7/Stat3 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have achieved impressive success in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the response to ICIs varies among patients, and predictive biomarkers are urgently needed. PCDH11X is frequently mutated in LUAD, while its role in ICI treatment is unclear. In this study, we curated genomic and clinical data of 151 LUAD patients receiving ICIs from three independent cohorts. Relations between PCDH11X and treatment outcomes of ICIs were examined. A melanoma cohort collected from five published studies, a pan-cancer cohort, and non-ICI-treated TCGA-LUAD cohort were also examined to investigate whether PCDH11X mutation is a specific predictive biomarker for LUAD ICI treatment. Among the three ICI-treated LUAD cohorts, PCDH11X mutation (PCDH11X-MUT) was associated with better clinical response compared to wild-type PCDH11X (PCDH11X-WT). While in ICI-treated melanoma cohort, the pan-cancer cohort excluding LUAD, and the non-ICI-treated TCGA-LUAD cohort, no significant differences in overall survival (OS) were observed between the PCDH11X-MUT and PCDH11X-WT groups. PCDH11X mutation was associated with increased PD-L1 expression, tumor mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load, DNA damage repair (DDR) mutations, and hot tumor microenvironment in TCGA-LUAD cohort. Our findings suggested that the PCDH11X mutation might serve as a specific biomarker to predict the efficacy of ICIs for LUAD patients. Considering the relatively small sample size of ICI-treated cohorts, future research with larger cohorts and prospective clinical trials will be essential for validating and further exploring the role of PCDH11X mutation in the context of immunotherapy outcomes in LUAD. Key messages: PCDH11X mutation is associated with better clinical response compared to wild type PCDH11X in three ICIs-treated LUAD cohorts. In ICIs-treated melanoma cohort, the pan-cancer cohort excluding LUAD, and non-ICIs-treated TCGA-LUAD cohorts PCDH11X mutation is not associated with better clinical response, suggesting PCDH11X mutation might be a specific biomarker to predict the efficacy of ICIs treatment for LUAD patients. PCDH11X mutation is associated with increased PD-L1 expression, tumor mutation burden, and neoantigen load in TCGA-LUAD cohort. PCDH11X mutation is associated with hot tumor microenvironment in TCGA-LUAD cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Hyperglycemia on admission is associated with poor prognosis in ischemic stroke (IS) patients. We aimed to investigate the relationship between stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR) and short-term or long-term mortality in IS patients in the ICU and to explore whether this relationship is influenced by diabetes status. Materials and methods: We collected patients with severe IS requiring ICU admission in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-IV) database and calculated SHR. Outcomes included 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year mortality. The association between SHR and mortality in patients with critical IS was elucidated using Multivariate Cox regression and subgroup analysis for diabetes. Results: A total of 1376 patients were recruited. After adjusting for potential confounders, patients in the third and fourth quartiles had a significantly increased risk of death at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year compared to the first quartile of SHR (Q3 vs. Q1: HR 1.56–1.80, all p < 0.02; Q4 vs. Q1: HR 1.75–2.15, all p < 0.001; all p for trend < 0.001). In addition, the highest quartile of SHR was significantly associated with short-term or long-term mortality compared with the first quartile, regardless of diabetes status. Conclusions: Our results suggest that stress hyperglycemia, defined by the glucose/HbA1c ratio, is associated with increased short-term and long-term mortality in patients with ischemic stroke, independent of the patient's diabetes status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massively parallel sequencing allows for integrated genotyping of different types of forensic markers, which reduces DNA consumption, simplifies experimental processes, and provides additional sequence-based genetic information. The STRseqTyper122 kit genotypes 63 autosomal STRs, 16 X-STRs, 42 Y-STRs, and the Amelogenin locus. Amplicon sizes of 117 loci were below 300 bp. In this study, MiSeq FGx sequencing metrics for STRseqTyper122 were presented. The genotyping accuracy of this kit was examined by comparing to certified genotypes of NIST standard reference materials and results from five capillary electrophoresis-based kits. The sensitivity of STRseqTyper122 reached 125 pg, and > 80% of the loci were correctly called with 62.5 pg and 31.25 pg input genomic DNA. Repeatability, species specificity, and tolerance for DNA degradation and PCR inhibitors of this kit were also evaluated. STRseqTyper122 demonstrated reliable performance with routine case-work samples and provided a powerful tool for forensic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous cultivation of tobacco could cause serious soil health problems, which could cause bacterial soil to change to fungal soil. In order to study the diversity and richness of fungal community in tobacco-growing soil under different crop rotation, three treatments were set up in this study: CK (tobacco continuous cropping); B (barley-tobacco rotation cropping) and R (oilseed rape-tobacco rotation cropping). The results of this study showed that rotation with other crops significantly decreased the soil fungal OTUs, and also decreased the community richness, evenness, diversity and coverage of fungal communities. Among them, B decreased the most. In the analysis of the composition and structure of the fungal community, it was found that the proportion of plant pathogens Nectriaceae decreased from 19.67% in CK to 5.63% in B, which greatly reduced the possibility of soil-borne diseases. In the analysis of the correlation between soil environmental factors and fungal communities, it was found that Filobasidiaceae had a strong correlation with TP and AP, and Erysiphaceae had a strong correlation with TK and AK. NO3−-N and NH4+-N were the two environmental factors with the strongest correlation with fungal communities. The results of this study showed that rotation with other crops slowed down the process of soil fungi in tobacco-growing soil and changed the dominant species of soil fungi community. At the same time, crop rotation changed the diversity and richness of soil fungal community by changing the physical and chemical properties of soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seasonal surplus and putrefactive property of moist forages inevitably increase the pressure on environmental protection and residual grass disposal. In the current work, the anaerobic fermentation approach was adopted to assist the sustainable recycling of leftover Pennisetum giganteum (LP), and its chemical composition, fermentation performance, bacterial community and functional profiles during anaerobic fermentation were studied. Fresh LP was spontaneously fermented for up to 60 d. At the end of anaerobic fermentation, fermented LP (FLP) displayed homolactic fermentation with low pH value, ethanol, and ammonia nitrogen concentrations but high lactic acid concentration. Weissella was dominant in 3-day FLP, yet Lactobacillus was the overwhelming genus (92.6%) in 60-day FLP. The anaerobic fermentation process promoted (P < 0.05) the metabolism of carbohydrate and nucleotide while suppressing (P < 0.05) that of lipid, cofactors, vitamins, energy, and amino acid. The results showed that the residual grass with LP as an example could be successfully fermented even if no additives were added, without signs of clostridial and fungal contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive teaching resources will cause serious teaching efficiency problems for online teaching, and traditional online teaching models are even inferior to traditional classroom teaching in terms of teaching effects. Based on this, this paper analyzes massive educational resources and builds a scalable computer interactive education system based on large-scale multimedia data analysis. Moreover, this paper sets the role of the system according to the actual teaching situation, and constructs the functional module of the system structure. In addition, this paper uses computer simulation technology to analyze interactive technology and make technical improvements to make interactive technology the core technology of the computer interactive education system, and get an extensible interactive education system based on the characteristics of network teaching. Then helps to monitor and access the performance of an interactive educational system. Furthermore, this paper designs an experiment to evaluate the performance of the computer interactive education system, which is mainly carried out from two aspects: interactive evaluation and teaching evaluation. From the experimental research results, we can see that this system can effectively improve the quality of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance against disasters plays a critical role in community recovery by providing policyholders with reliable and timely payments for repairing or reconstructing damaged houses. By allowing homeowners to transfer risk, insurance enables homeowners to address house without experiencing significant financial burdens. Although historical events have highlighted the importance of insurance, its quantitative impact on community recovery, particularly in tornado-impacted communities, is understudied. This study focuses on advancing our understanding of whether sufficiently insured houses can have a positive impact on the recovery of tornado-impacted communities (i.e., the main research question). This paper proposes a two-stage simulation framework to quantitatively evaluate the effects of insurance on community recovery. In the first stage of the framework, we developed statistical models to estimate homeowners' insurance decisions prior to a tornado event. In the second stage, we examined the effects of insurance on various aspects of community recovery. To develop empirical and statistical models regarding insurance decisions and their impacts on housing recovery, we collected data through online surveys targeting residents whose properties were damaged by the tornadoes that occurred in May 2019 in the United States. Finally, the proposed simulation framework was applied to the City of Dayton, Ohio following those May 2019 tornado events to address the main research question. The results of the simulation concluded that sufficiently insured houses can have a positive impact on community recovery and highlighted the need for effective policies and economic incentives to encourage individuals to purchase insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of vehicles are emitting a large amount of particles into the atmosphere, causing serious harm to the ecological environment and human health. This study conducted the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) to investigate the emission characteristics of particle number (PN) of China-VI gasoline vehicles with different gasoline. The gasoline with lower aromatic hydrocarbons and olefins reduced particulate matter (PM) and PN emissions by 24% and 52% respectively. The average PN emission rate of the four vehicles during the first 300 s (the cold start period) was 7.2 times that of the 300 s–1800s. Additionally, because the particle transmission time and instrument response time, the test results of instantaneous emissions of PN were not synchronized with vehicle specific power (VSP). By calculating the Spearman correlation coefficient between pre-average vehicle specific power (PAVSP) and the test results of PN instantaneous emissions, the delay time was determined as 10s. After the PN emissions results were corrected, the PN emissions were found to be more related to VSP. By analyzing the influence of driving status on emission, this study found that vehicles in acceleration mode increased PN emissions by 76% compared to those in constant speed mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) straw decomposition and nutrient release (N, K, and P) processes were investigated using a 3-pool model (labile, intermediate, and resistant) to understand the determinant factors. Methods: A two-year field experiment was carried out with a split-plot design: the main plot contained two irrigation regimes, while the subplot contained three peanut straw incorporation rates. A total of 216 nylon-mesh bags consisting of peanut straw were buried at a depth of 20 cm, and were removed at 6 winter wheat growth stages (overwintering, double ridge, jointing, flowering, grain filling, and maturity), and the nutrient release (N, P and K) from the peanut straw was measured. Results: The decomposition dynamics of the labile and intermediate pools were similar in both years. The straw incorporation rate, rather than the irrigation regime, controlled the decomposition process, which increased with increased straw incorporation rates. At a high incorporation rate, the released N, P, and K from the peanut straw were approximately 39%, 30%, and 87% of the required regional fertilizer input for winter wheat, respectively. Furthermore, the N released from straw decomposition was strongly related to the released K as indicated by the stoichiometry ratio. The random forest model predicted that temperature, precipitation, and initial straw nutrients were the main drivers of peanut straw decomposition. Conclusions: We determined the nutrient stoichiometry and release characteristics of peanut straw decomposition, and found that in comparison to irrigation, the straw incorporation rate exhibits a more profound effect on the peanut straw decomposition process. Highlights: Peanut straw decomposition increases with incorporation rate than irrigation. The relative N release is synergistic with relative K release. High straw incorporation rate provides 30–40% of required N and P for wheat growth. Temperature, precipitation, and initial nutrient amount are the main drivers of straw decomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are one of the most challenging and prevalent refractory wounds associated with diabetes mellitus. It is characterized with long courses, high recurrence and disability rates. Hydrogel-based wound dressings have been demonstrated an effective and promising strategy for treating diabetic wounds. However, the complexity of the pathogenesis and microenvironment in diabetic wounds have restricted both the experts in functional hydrogels and clinicians. The former had no inspiration for clinical demands in the design process, and the latter was confused about clinical use because they knew little about the tremendous potential of the functional hydrogels. Here, important targets for DFUs treatment were listed, and effective products underlying the molecular pathogenesis were suggested for the designer. Then, the application of hydrogels into DFUs were classified in accordance with their functional targets and active ingredients. Hence, it is very convenient for clinicians to make a perfect option for different wounds. Finally, research gaps and future prospects for wound-healing hydrogels were presented. We envision that this review can inspire creativity and innovation in the development of hydrogel-based wound dressings for diabetic foot ulcer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoinduced non-thermalized hot electrons at an interface play a pivotal role in determining plasmonic driven chemical events. However, understanding non-thermalized electron dynamics, which precedes electron thermalization (~125 fs), remains a grand challenge. Herein, we simultaneously captured the dynamics of both molecules and non-thermalized electrons in the MXene/molecule complexes by femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. The real-time observation allows for distinguishing non-thermalized and thermalized electron responses. Differing from the thermalized electron/heat transfer, our results reveal two non-thermalized electron dynamical pathways: (i) the non-thermalized electrons directly transfer to attached molecules at an interface within 50 fs; (ii) the non-thermalized electrons scatter at the interface within 125 fs, inducing adsorbed molecules heating. These two distinctive pathways are dependent on the irradiating wavelength and the energy difference between MXene and adsorbed molecules. This research sheds light on the fundamental mechanism and opens opportunities in photocatalysis and interfacial heat transfer theory. Photoexcited MXenes could transfer charge carriers to or heat molecules at their interfaces. Here, the authors show using time-resolved spectroscopy that the non-thermalized carriers can directly transfer to molecules or heat them within 125 fs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel magnetic graphene nanocomposites (MGN) was fabricated via a environment-friendly electrochemical exfoliation in Fe2(SO4)3 aqueous solutions. Ferrous sulfate in the electrolyte had the potential to enhance both the exfoliation efficiency of graphite and the in-situ magnetization of graphene. The as-obtained MGN-700 °C was explored as an adsorbent for the removal of Congo red (CR) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption equilibrium was rapidly achieved in 20 min, and the kinetic adsorption was well fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Meanwhile, the adsorption isotherms followed the Freundlich model with a maximum capability of 582 mg g−1 for CR. Moreover, thermodynamic study indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Characterizations of the adsorbent suggested that the adsorption mechanisms of CR onto MGN-700 °C mainly involved hydrogen bond, electrostatic interaction and π–π stacking. After five cycles of adsorption/desorption, the removal efficiency of CR onto MGN-700 °Cremained at approximately 80%, demonstrating its excellent reusability. Furthermore, the adsorbent exhibited high adsorption capacity and a ferromagnetic feature, indicating its potential practical application in dye wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Deciphering the assembly rules of microbial communities is vital for a mechanistic understanding of the general principles driving microbiome structures and functions. In this study, a null modeling-based framework was implemented to infer the assembly rules of bacterial community in oat silages harvested in southern China starting from the grain-filling stage through to full ripening. Results: Most silages displayed "inferior" or "very inferior" fermentation quality. The fermentation qualities of silages tended to further decrease with the delay of harvest. Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, unclassified_f_Enterobacteriaceae, and Hafnia–Obesumbacterium constituted the predominated genera in silages. Delaying harvest increased the proportions of Hafnia–Obesumbacterium. Null model analysis revealed that stochastic processes were the primary contributor to the assembly of rare subcommunity during silage fermentation. The succession of abundant subcommunity was controlled both by stochastic and deterministic processes. Deterministic processes, more specifically, heterogeneous selection, were more prominent in the assembly of abundant bacteria in silages with the delay of harvest. Linear regression analysis indicated the important roles of DM, WSC and pH in the assembly of abundant subcommunity. Conclusion: This study, from the ecological perspectives, revealed the ecological processes controlling the bacterial community assembly in silage, providing new insights into the mechanisms underlying the construction of silage bacterial community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the work, the planar and ridge waveguides are fabricated by the combination of ion implantation and femtosecond laser ablation in the high-gain Nd3+-doped laser glass. The species, energy, and dose of ion implantation are O3+ ion, 6.0 × 106 eV, and 5.0 × 1014 ions/cm2, respectively. The pulse energy and the scanning velocity are 3 μJ and 50 μm/s for the FS laser ablation. The m-line curve and the refractive index distribution of the planar waveguide are got via a prism coupler and a reflection calculation method, respectively. The refractive index in waveguide core is increased by 2.3 × 10–3 through the O3+ ion irradiation. The microscope images and near-field intensity distributions for both planar and ridge waveguides are measured by a Nikon microscope and an end-face coupling arrangement, respectively. The cross-sectional dimension of the ridge waveguide is 4.2 μm × 10 μm. It has the potential to explore new dimensions in the field of the active waveguides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic water treatment is an advanced and efficient technology for water purification. Among various photocatalysts, iron-based metal–organic frameworks (Fe-MOFs) are widely applied for mineralizing organic wastewater due to their excellent water stability and photocatalytic activity. However, their practical application is impeded by insufficient photocatalytic performance, irreversible collapse of the framework structure during repeated use, and difficulty in recovery. In this study, we fabricated a Graphene oxide (GO) structure-oriented NH2-MIL-88B(Fe)/graphene oxide/sodium alginate (NM88B/GO/SA) aerogel for the removal of dyes and antibiotics, using GO interface regulation and dual-network crosslinking methods. In this hybrid system, a NM88B/GO heterostructure was formed through the directional growth of NM88B on the surface of GO. The introduction of sodium alginate (SA) enhanced the robustness and stability of the matrix, and effectively avoided aerogel fragmentation. With 30 wt% catalyst loading, the composite aerogel exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation performance towards high-concentration (50 ppm) tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl), achieving over 99% removal rate in 150 min. It also effectively degraded methylene blue (MB) at 10–30 ppm with over 99% removal rate. Furthermore, the aerogel showed excellent shape recovery ability, stability, and reusability. After five repeated tests, it maintained over 95% degradation efficiency for both TC-HCl and MB. This advanced aerogel holds great promise as a highly efficient and reusable photocatalyst for removing antibiotics and dyes from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a novel technology that can help enhance the wireless propagation environment by altering the electromagnetic properties of its massive low-cost passive reflecting elements. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of how the deployment of RIS influences cell coverage from the system level and to obtain valuable guidance for actual RIS deployment design. We derive the coverage area gain (CAG) brought by deploying RIS to the whole system and analyze how the deployment parameters influence performance. The results reveal that it is more favorable to deploy the RIS close to the base station (BS) to gain more long-range coverage, and the coverage area gain can keep approximately constant as long as the ratio of the RIS element number to the deployment distance (between the BS and the RIS) remains unchanged. The scaling law between the CAG and the ratio is obtained. Furthermore, we extend the analysis to the scenario with two RISs deployed and respectively derive the coverage area gains brought by the two RISs when they are symmetrically and vertically deployed. We find that the aforementioned ratio rule still holds here, and the vertical deployment can achieve higher CAG than the symmetric deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroinflammation mediated by microglia and oxidative stress play pivotal roles in the development of chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). We postulated that kainic acid (KA)-Induced status epilepticus triggers microglia-dependent inflammation, leading to neuronal damage, a lowered seizure threshold, and the emergence of spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS). Extensive evidence from our laboratory suggests that dextromethorphan (DM), even in ultra-low doses, has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in many animal models of neurodegenerative disease. Our results showed that administration of DM (10 ng/kg per day; subcutaneously via osmotic minipump for 4 weeks) significantly mitigated the residual effects of KA, including the frequency of SRS and seizure susceptibility. In addition, DM-treated rats showed improved cognitive function and reduced hippocampal neuronal loss. We found suppressed microglial activation-mediated neuroinflammation and decreased expression of hippocampal gp91phox and p47phox proteins in KA-induced chronic TLE rats. Notably, even after discontinuation of DM treatment, ultra-low doses of DM continued to confer long-term anti-seizure and neuroprotective effects, which were attributed to the inhibition of microglial NADPH oxidase 2 as revealed by mechanistic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NiAl alloy sheet was successfully prepared using current-assisted sintering, thus verifying the possibility of preparing a NiAl thin-wall component by current-assisted sintering and foil/foil reaction synthesis. Ni/Al laminated sheets were obtained by annealing at 550 °C at 5 MPa for 0.5 h; uniform NiAl alloy sheets were fabricated by annealing at 1150 °C at 15 MPa for 20 min. The experimental results showed that current-assisted sintering significantly reduced the reaction temperature and reaction time. Microstructural characterization revealed that the inter-diffusion ability of Al atoms is considerably weaker than that of Ni atoms. Molecular dynamics simulation confirmed these experimental results and showed that this difference becomes significant under the action of an electric field. The mechanism of synthesis of Ni/Al laminated sheets using current sintering is mainly determined by the diffusion behavior of Ni atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar white-light flares are characterized by an enhancement in the optical continuum, which are usually large flares (X- and M-class flares). Here, we report a small C2.3 white-light flare (SOL2022-12-20T04:10) observed by the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory and the Chinese H α Solar Explorer (CHASE). This flare exhibits an increase of ≈ 6.4% in the photospheric Fe i line at 6569.2 Å and ≈ 3.2% in the nearby continuum. The continuum at 3600 Å also shows an enhancement of ≈ 4.7%. The white-light bright kernels are mainly located at the flare ribbons and co-spatial with nonthermal hard X-ray sources, which implies that the enhanced white-light emissions are related to nonthermal electron-beam heating. At the bright kernels, the Fe i line displays an absorption profile that has a good Gaussian shape, with a redshift up to ≈ 1.7 km s−1, while the H α line shows an emission profile having a central reversal. The H α line profile also shows a red or blue asymmetry caused by plasma flows with a velocity of several to tens of km s−1. It is interesting to find that the H α asymmetry is opposite at the conjugate footpoints. It is also found that the CHASE continuum increase seems to be related to the change in the photospheric magnetic field. Our study provides comprehensive characteristics of a small white-light flare that help understand the energy release process of white-light flares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an automated solar flare detection software tool to automatically process solar observed images, detect and track solar flares, and finally compile an event catalog. It can identify and track flares that happen simultaneously or temporally close together. The method to identify a flare is based on the local intensity changes in macropixels. The basic characteristics, such as the time and location information of a flare, are determined with a triple-threshold scheme, with the first threshold (global threshold) to determine the occurrence (location) of the flare and the second and third thresholds (local thresholds) to determine the real start and end times of the flare. We have applied this tool to one month of continuous solar ultraviolet (UV) images obtained by the Solar Disk Imager (SDI) onboard the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), which show active phenomena such as flares, filaments or prominences, and solar jets. Our automated tool efficiently detected a total number of 226 solar events. After a visual inspection, we found that only one event was misidentified (unrelated to an active event). We compared the detected events with the GOES X-ray flare list and found that our tool can detect 81% of GOES M-class and above flares (29 out of 36), from which we conclude that the intensity increase in SDI UV images can be considered as a good indicator of a solar flare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem cell therapy for periodontal defects has shown good promise in preclinical studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of stem cell support on the regeneration of both soft and hard tissues in periodontal treatment. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science were searched and patients with periodontal defects who received stem cell therapy were included in this study. The quality of the included articles was assessed using Cochrane's tool for evaluating bias, and heterogeneity was analyzed using the I2 method. An Mendelian randomization investigation was conducted using abstract data from the IEU public databases obtained through GWAS. Nine articles were included for the meta-analysis. Stem cell therapy effectively rebuilds periodontal tissues in patients with periodontal defects, as evidenced by a reduction in probing depth, clinical attachment level and bone defect depth. And delta-like homolog 1 is a protective factor against periodontal defects alternative indicator of tooth loosening. The findings of this research endorse the utilization of stem cell treatment for repairing periodontal defects in individuals suffering from periodontitis. It is recommended that additional extensive clinical investigations be carried out to validate the efficacy of stem cell therapy and encourage its widespread adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mechanical transmission servo systems, where friction is the primary disturbance, such as robot joints, dynamic friction is considered the leading cause of control inaccuracy in low-speed regions and during velocity direction changes. The LuGre model is a well-established dynamic friction model that has proved successful in describing dynamic frictional phenomena in such systems. However, most identification methods of the LuGre model rely on the prior knowledge of the inner parameters, and the internal state is difficult to observe. These factors make the friction dynamics identification become very cumbersome. On the other hand, we have discovered that the LuGre model exhibits redundancy in predicting friction dynamics. Therefore, in this article, the LuGre model is remodeled as a dynamic neuron by its recurrent quadratic approximation to expose high-order hidden parameters. On the basis of this modeling approach, a direct adaptive control architecture is proposed to identify all unknown parameters without any prior knowledge. In this scheme, a self-tuning combined error neuron is designed whose signal–noise ratio is maximized by principle component analysis. Besides, a kernel function-based stabilizing term is introduced in the update laws to suppress the oscillation during transient response. The feasibility of the strategy is verified through stability analysis. Simulation results show that the estimated LuGre model correctly reveals the actual behavior of friction dynamics. Finally, comparative experiments are carried out on a rotary actuator. The results show that the proposed adaptive control-based learning strategy significantly enhances position tracking performance, especially in the processes of slow crawling and switching in speed direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum mechanics offers the possibility of unconditionally secure communication between multiple remote parties. Security proofs for such protocols typically rely on bounding the capacity of the quantum channel in use. In a similar manner, Cramér-Rao bounds in quantum metrology place limits on how much information can be extracted from a given quantum state about some unknown parameters of interest. In this work we establish a connection between these two areas. We first demonstrate a three-party sensing protocol, where the attainable precision is dependent on how many parties work together. This protocol is then mapped to a secure access protocol, where only by working together can the parties gain access to some high security asset. Finally, we map the same task to a communication protocol where we demonstrate that a higher mutual information can be achieved when the parties work collaboratively compared to any party working in isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The APETALA2 (AP2) transcription factor (TF) superfamily, one of the largest gene families in plants, plays an essential role in regulating plant growth and their stress responses. However, the role of AP2 in rice under pesticide stress remains unclear. To investigate the characteristics and functions of the rice AP2 gene family under pesticide stress, the expression of 105 AP2-coding genes and 26 AP2 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in mesotrione (MTR)-treated rice transcriptome datasets. Results: Three subfamilies of the AP2 gene family (AP2/ERF, RAV, and soloists) were identified using sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. Chromosome location analysis revealed that the 26 rice AP2 DEGs were unevenly distributed on 10 of the 12 rice chromosomes, and segmental duplication contributed to the expansion of Oryza sativa AP2 (OsAP2) gene family. Collinearity analyses demonstrated that rice AP2 genes displayed 16 orthologous gene pairs, and 12 and 26 orthologous gene pairs were shared of Arabidopsis and soybean, respectively. In addition, rice AP2 genes featured various gene structures, cis-elements, motif compositions, and conserved domains that allowed them to encode genes that elicit biotic and abiotic stress responses. An analysis of docking between MTR and six AP2 DEGs revealed amino acid residues involved in MTR binding. Quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction verified that several AP2 genes were preferentially expressed during MTR-induced stress. The roles of OsAP2 proteins in MTR metabolism were further supported by protein–protein interaction network analysis, which illustrated how these proteins interact with target proteins. Conclusion: The initial findings of this study define the features of the OsAP2 superfamily and offer important tools for functional analyses of OsAP2 genes implicated in the metabolism of MTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combined applied PICRUSt2 and BugBase tools to evaluate the effects of these two strains on the fermentation characteristics, microbial community, potential microbial risk and hygienic quality of whole-crop corn (WCC) silage. Fresh WCC harvested at the dough stage was ensiled with distilled water (CON), Leuconostoc lactis (LS) and Weissella confusa (WA) for 2, 4, 8, 15 and 30 days. After ensiling, all WCC silages presented desirable fermentation with high lactic acid and Lactobacillus proportions, low pH and ammonia nitrogen levels and absent butyric acid. Ensiling decreased the complexity of bacterial co-occurrence networks, and the Lc. lactis and W. confusa inoculation further decreased the complexity. The inoculation of W. confusa suppressed the most pathogenic pathways and related modules associated with zoonosis. In bacterial phenotype predicted analysis, although CON had lower proportions of 'Potentially pathogenic' than fresh material, this undesirable phenotype declined to negligible levels via LS and WA inoculation. Even for well-fermented WCC silages, the risk of pathogens remained after 30 days of ensiling. Therefore, WA could be developed as a promising fast start-up inoculant for reducing pathogenic contamination and improving hygienic quality of silage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA damage repair (DDR) genes are known to be closely associated with the progression of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we report a unique cluster of "deletion-up" genes in HCC, which are accordantly overexpressed in HCC patients and predict the unfavorable prognosis. Binding motif analysis and further validation with ChIP-qPCR unveil that the AP-2α directly modulate the transcription of critical DNA repair genes including TOP2A, NUDT1, POLD1, and PARP1, which facilitates the sanitation of oxidized DNA lesions. Structural analysis and the following validation identify LEI110 as a potent AP-2α inhibitor. Together, we demonstrate that LEI110 stabilizes AP-2α and sensitizes HCC cells toward DNA-damaging reagents. Altogether, we identify AP-2α as a crucial transcription modulator in HCC and propose small-molecule inhibitors targeting AP-2α are a promising novel class of anticancer agents. Our study provides insights into the concept of macroscopic inhibition of DNA damage repair-related genes in cancer treatment. In hepatocellular carcinoma, TFAP2A is a key player in the transcriptional regulation of a cluster of DNA damage repair genes: DNA repair is prevented by TFAP2A depletion, and the new TFAP2A inhibitor LEI110 shows anti-tumour efficacy in HCC cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing older workers' bridge employment intentions is critical in the current context of an aging workplace. Based on psychological contract and social exchange theories, this study explores the person-context transactions process in increasing bridge employment intentions. We conducted two sub-studies, Study 1 (N = 231) used two-wave time-lagged survey data to explore the mediating role of psychological contract types in the effect of three job crafting strategies on bridge employment intentions; Study 2 (N = 156) used a two-by-two (high emotional support/baseline × high/low compensation support) between-subjects experimental design to further explore the differences in the moderation of organizational resource support in the effect of psychological contract types on bridge employment intentions. Results in Study 1 found that accommodative and utilization crafting enhanced bridge employment intentions through shaping relational contract, and developmental crafting enhanced bridge employment intentions through shaping transactional contract. Results in Study 2 found that emotional support (perceived inclusive experience) boosted relationship-oriented older workers' intention to bridge employment, but compensation support (perceived) boosted transaction-oriented older workers' intention, and reduced relationship-oriented older workers' intention. The findings provide a new perspective on psychological contract types for research related to enhancing older workers' intention to bridge employment, and offers important implications for aging workforce management of organizations in China and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and intervertebral disk degeneration (IVDD) using a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis. Summary-level data from the Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) were used. Instrumental variables (IVs) for IVDD were selected from the large-scale Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) (20,001 cases and 164,682 controls). Bone mineral density (BMD) at five different sites (heel (n = 426,824), total body (TB) (n = 56,284), forearm (FA) (n = 8143), femoral neck (FN) (n = 32,735), and lumbar spine (LS) (n = 28,498)) was used as a phenotype for OP. Bidirectional causality between IVDD and BMD was assessed using inverse variance weighting (IVW) and other methods. Related sensitivity analyses were performed. Myopia was also analyzed as a negative control result to ensure the validity of IVs. Heel bone mineral density (heel BMD), total body bone mineral density (TB-BMD), femoral neck bone mineral density (FN-BMD), and lumbar spine bone mineral density (LS-BMD) have a direct causal relationship on intervertebral disk degeneration (IVDD) [heel BMD-related analysis: beta = 0.06, p = 0.03; TB-BMD-related analysis: beta = 0.18, p = 8.72E-08; FN-BMD-related analysis: beta = 0.15, p = 4.89E-03; LS-BMD-related analysis: beta = 0.16, p = 1.43E-04]. There was no evidence of a significant causal effect of IVDD on BMD. In conclusion, our study found a significant positive causal effect of lower BMD on IVDD, and we identified significant causal effects of heel, TB-, FN-, and LS-BMD on IVDD, but there was no evidence of a significant causal effect of IVDD on BMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of technology, the Internet of vehicles (IoV) has become increasingly important. However, as the number of vehicles on highways increases, ensuring reliable communication between them has become a significant challenge. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel approach that combines Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) with a time-optimized multitask offloading model based on Optimal Stopping Theory (OST) principles. NOMA-OST is a promising technology that can address the high volume of multiple access and the need for reliable communication in IoV. A NOMA-OST-based IoV system is proposed to meet the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication requirements. This approach optimizes joint task offloading and resource allocation for multiple users, tasks, and servers. NOMA enables efficient resource sharing by accommodating multiple devices, whereas OST ensures timely and intelligent task offloading decisions, resulting in improved reliability and efficiency in V2V communication within IoV, making it a highly innovative and technically robust solution. It suggests a low-complexity sub-optimal matching approach for sub-channel allocation to increase the effectiveness of offloading. Simulation results show that NOMA with OST significantly improves the system’s energy efficiency (EE) and reduces computation time. The approach also enhances the effectiveness of task offloading and resource allocation, leading to better overall system performance. The performance of NOMA with OST under V2V communication requirements in IoV is significantly improved compared to traditional orthogonal multiaccess methods. Overall, NOMA with OST is a promising technology that can address the high reliability of V2V communication requirements in IoV. It can improve system performance, and energy efficiency and reduce computation time, making it a valuable technology for IoV applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new perspective rectification method for image of bolts in flange joint is proposed and the image-based bolt-loosening detection process for the flange joint is established. The presented method can correct the perspective distortion for the picture using the four center points of corner bolts in bolt-group connection. However, it would be difficult to find the four known points when the picture comes from a flange joint, because of the occlusion of component and the definition of picture. In this paper, a new homography-based perspective rectification method is proposed to correct the perspective distortion for image of each nut based on the identified corners of the gasket. The method to determine the corners of the partially obscured gasket is also a novelty of this paper. Based on the proposed perspective rectification method, the image-based bolt-loosening detection process for the flange joint is proposed. The proposed method is verified using a bolt connection in laboratory. The results show that the proposed method can effectively correct the perspective distortion for image of each nut and identify the bolt-loosening of the flange joint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and validate a deep learning model based on multi-lesion and time series CT images in predicting overall survival (OS) in patients with stage IV gastric cancer (GC) receiving anti-HER2 targeted therapy. Methods: A total of 207 patients were enrolled in this multicenter study, with 137 patients for retrospective training and internal validation, 33 patients for prospective validation, and 37 patients for external validation. All patients received anti-HER2 targeted therapy and underwent pre- and post-treatment CT scans (baseline and at least one follow-up). The proposed deep learning model evaluated the multiple lesions in time series CT images to predict risk probabilities. We further evaluated and validated the risk score of the nomogram combining a two-follow-up lesion-based deep learning model (LDLM-2F), tumor markers, and clinical information for predicting the benefits from treatment (Nomo-LDLM-2F). Results: In the internal validation and prospective cohorts, the one-year AUCs for Nomo-LDLM-2F using the time series medical images and tumor markers were 0.894 (0.728–1.000) and 0.809 (0.561–1.000), respectively. In the external validation cohort, the one-year AUC of Nomo-LDLM-2F without tumor markers was 0.771 (0.510–1.000). Patients with a low Nomo-LDLM-2F score derived survival benefits from anti-HER2 targeted therapy significantly compared to those with a high Nomo-LDLM-2F score (all p < 0.05). Conclusion: The Nomo-LDLM-2F score derived from multi-lesion and time series CT images holds promise for the effective readout of OS probability in patients with HER2-positive stage IV GC receiving anti-HER2 therapy. Critical relevance statement: The deep learning model using baseline and early follow-up CT images aims to predict OS in patients with stage IV gastric cancer receiving anti-HER2 targeted therapy. This model highlights the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of stage IV GC, assisting clinicians in the early evaluation of the efficacy of anti-HER2 therapy. Key points: • Multi-lesion and time series model revealed the spatiotemporal heterogeneity in anti-HER2 therapy. • The Nomo-LDLM-2F score was a valuable prognostic marker for anti-HER2 therapy. • CT-based deep learning model incorporating time-series tumor markers improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the central role of human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) in tumor neoantigen presentation, quantitative determination of presentation capacity remains elusive. Based on a pooled pan-cancer genomic dataset of 885 patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), we developed a score integrating the binding affinity of neoantigens to HLA-I, as well as HLA-I allele divergence, termed the HLA tumor-Antigen Presentation Score (HAPS). Patients with a high HAPS were more likely to experience survival benefit following ICI treatment. Analysis of the tumor microenvironment indicated that the antigen presentation pathway was enriched in patients with a high HAPS. Finally, we built a neural network incorporating factors associated with neoantigen production, presentation, and recognition, which exhibited potential for differentiating cancer patients likely to benefit from ICIs. Our findings highlight the clinical utility of evaluating HLA-I tumor antigen presentation capacity and describe how ICI response may depend on HLA-mediated immunity. HLA-I plays a key role in triggering an immune response and predicting immune checkpoint efficacy. Here the authors develop a method for quantifying HLA-I neoantigen presentation capacity by integrating HLA-I allele divergence and neoantigens numbers, termed HAPS, to describe how immune checkpoint response may be mediated by HLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory is constructing the world's largest liquid scintillator detector, with a 20 kt target mass and approximately 700 m of overburden. The total underground space of civil construction is around 300,000 m 3 , with the main hall comprising about 120,000 m 3 , making it the largest experimental hall in the world. Maintaining a low radon concentration in the underground air is crucial for both human health and the accuracy of experiments involving rare decay detection, such as neutrino and dark matter experiments. To ensure human health and the integrity of neutrino physics experiments, the nominal radon concentration in the main hall must be kept below 200 Bq/m 3 with a maximum value below 400 Bq/m 3 . Introduction of fresh air from above ground can significantly lower radon concentration. A benchmark experiment conducted in the refuge room near the main hall revealed that the radon emanating from underground water is a significant source of radon in the underground air. The total underground ventilation rate is approximately 160,000 m 3 /h of fresh air with about 30 Bq/m 3 222 Rn from the bottom of the vertical tunnel after the installation of powerful fans. Of this, 55,000 m 3 /h is used for ventilation in the main hall. As a result of these measures, the radon concentration inside the main hall has decreased from 1600 Bq/m 3 to below 200 Bq/m 3 under stable working conditions, with exceptions during rare adverse weather events or fan failures. The employed strategies to control radon concentration in the underground air are described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low impact docking mechanism (LIDM) is a key fundamental equipment for space missions that is used to capture and connect vehicles. Its strict requirements for mass and volume makes a major challenge to achieve larger workspace and load capacity (the docking direction is maximum). Essentially, it is a Gough–Stewart platform (SP), and the main design difficulties are configuration design and dimension optimization. The paper proposed a new integrated joint and SP classification, which guide the configuration design. Meanwhile, a unified kinematics model is established by the vector method, and the force Jacobian matrix is obtained by the principle of virtual work. The key to dimension optimization is to seek a reasonable evaluation index. A proposed general evaluation index, task-oriented force ellipsoid (TOFE), is applicable to both isotropic and anisotropic design demands. It normalizes the input and output, transforms an anisotropic problem into an isotropic problem, and uses the smallest hypersphere radius as the characterization. Then, using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) obtain the Pareto front of the workspace and load capacity. Moreover, the influence of dimension parameters on output performance was revealed. Finally, the dimension optimization of the LIDM is completed, and its load capacity is improved by 13.51%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poultry waste can be produced into high-quality organic fertilizers by composting. In this project, a microbial agent was constructed. The objective of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of additives (microbial agent (TB) and manure compost (TM)) on composting process of chicken litter with mushroom residue. Results indicated that TB exhibited the highest composting temperature (72.1°C) and TM exhibited the longest high-temperature period (10 days). TB nutrients were better retained compared to the control and achieving a final total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and total potassium (TK) at 1.92%, 5.38% and 4.61%, respectively. After composting, the TP increased 1.22% in the treatments with manure compost inoculation compared with initial phase, while it increased 0.95% in CK2. At the end of composting, TM had lower E4/E6 values and organic matter (OM) content compared to CK2 illustrating that the addition of mature compost enhanced the humification of compost. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) analysis revealed that TM increased microbial community diversity, however, TB decreased microbial community diversity compared to the control. Compared with the direct addition of a few specific microorganisms as microbial agents, the addition of mature compost can obviously increase the microbial species in the composting process, extend high-temperature period and promote fermentation process. Obviously, the above research results provide theoretical lessons on how to rationally add exogenous microbes to promote the composting process scientifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T2* is the gold standard for detecting iron deposition in cardiac tissue, but the technique has limitations and cannot be fully performed in paediatric thalassemia patients. The aim of this study was to analyse clinical data to identify other predictors of cardiac iron deposition. A retrospective analysis was performed on 370 children with β-TM. According to the cardiac MRI results, patients were allocated to a cardiac deposition group and noncardiac deposition group. Multivariate analysis revealed that genotype and corrected QT interval were associated with cardiac iron deposition, indicating that the-β0/β0 genotype conferred greater susceptibility to cardiac iron deposition. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed, and the area under the curve (AUC) of genotype was 0.651. The AUC for the corrected QT interval was 0.711, at a cut-off value of 418.5 ms. ROC analysis of the combined genotype and corrected QT interval showed an AUC of 0.762 with 81.3% sensitivity and 64.7% specificity. Compared to patients with the β+/β+ and β0β+ genotypes, β0β0 children with β-TM were more likely to have cardiac iron deposition. Conclusion: The genotype and QTc interval can be used to predict cardiac iron deposition in children with β-TM who are unable to undergo MRI T2 testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Solar white-light flares (WLFs) are those accompanied by brightenings in the optical continuum or integrated light. The White-light Solar Telescope (WST), as an instrument of the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST) on the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), provides continuous solar full-disk images at 360 nm, which can be used to study WLFs. We analyze 205 major flares above M1.0 from October 2022 to May 2023 and identify 49 WLFs at 360 nm from WST observations, i.e. with an occurrence rate of 23.9%. The percentages of WLFs for M1 – M4 (31 out of 180), M5 – M9 (11 out of 18), and above X1 (7 for all) flares are 17.2%, 61.1%, and 100%, respectively, namely the larger the flares, the more likely they are WLFs at 360 nm. We further analyze 39 WLFs among the identified WLFs and investigate their properties such as white-light enhancement, duration, and brightening area. It is found that the relative enhancement of the white-light emission at 360 nm is mostly (>90%) less than 30% and the mean enhancement is 19.4%. The WLFs' duration at 360 nm is mostly (>80%) less than 20 minutes and its mean is 10.3 minutes. The brightening area at 360 nm is mostly (>75%) less than 500 arcsecond2 and the median value is 225. We find that there exist good correlations between the white-light enhancement/duration/area and the peak soft X-ray (SXR) flux of the flare, with correlation coefficients of 0.68, 0.58, and 0.80, respectively. In addition, the white-light emission in most WLFs peaks around the same time as the temporal derivative of SXR flux as well as the hard X-ray emission at 20 – 50 keV, indicative of the Neupert effect. It is also found that the limb WLFs are more likely to have a greater enhancement, which is consistent with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluroxypyr-meptyl (FLUME) is heterocyclic herbicide with internal absorption and transmission characteristics. Owing to its low cost and rapid efficacy, it has been widely used to control broad-leaved weeds in wheat, corn, and rice fields. However, the uptake, translocation, accumulation, and metabolism of FLUME in rice seedlings and the extent of oxidative stress induced by it remain largely unknown, which consequently restricts the comprehensive risk assessment of FLUME residues in the environment during rice production. Hence, we systematically investigated the growth and physiological responses of rice to FLUME and analyzed its uptake, translocation, accumulation, and metabolism in rice seedlings. The results indicated that under 0–0.12 mg/L FLUME treatment, only a small proportion of FLUME was translocated upward and accumulated in rice shoots following absorption via roots, with all the translocation factor values being < 1. Moreover, the distribution and enrichment ability of FLUME in rice seedlings were greater in roots than in shoots. Furthermore, we revealed that FLUME accumulation in rice seedlings evidently inhibited their growth and activated the defense system against oxidative stress, with an increase in the activity of antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes. In addition, multiple metabolic reactions of FLUME were observed in rice seedlings, including dehalogenation, hydroxylation, glycosylation, acetylation, and malonylation. Our study provides systematic insights into the uptake, translocation, accumulation, and metabolism of FLUME in rice seedlings as well as the oxidative stress induced by FLUME accumulation, which can help improve FLUME applications and environmental risk assessments in crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosgene is a highly concealed and highly toxic gas that seriously threatens human health and public security. Therefore, the detection of phosgene is of great significance to world security. Herein, a new type of fluorescent probe based on 2-(2-aminophenyl) imidazo [1,5-a] pyridine is reported for the rapid detection of phosgene. The probe itself only emits a faint green fluorescence, while phosgene allows it to produce a strong blue fluorescence. During the recognition process, phosgene interacts simultaneously with both amino site and imidazole moiety in the probe molecule, resulting in a four-ring-fused rigid structure with high fluorescence quantum yield. The probe not only has the characteristics of high efficiency, high sensitivity (detection limit 2.68 nM), and high selectivity, but also has remarkable spectral changes. Finally, a portable test strip is used to detect phosgene in the gas phase, and the fluorescent color change of the test strip can be easily observed. The most exciting thing is that the portable test strip with the probe PMPY-NH2 can produce a strong fluorescence response to 1 ppm of phosgene, which is far lower than the level of phosgene that seriously threatens to human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trace-amine-associated receptors (TAARs), a group of biogenic amine receptors, have essential roles in neurological and metabolic homeostasis1. They recognize diverse endogenous trace amines and subsequently activate a range of G-protein-subtype signalling pathways2,3. Notably, TAAR1 has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for treating psychiatric disorders4,5. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying its ability to recognize different ligands remain largely unclear. Here we present nine cryo-electron microscopy structures, with eight showing human and mouse TAAR1 in a complex with an array of ligands, including the endogenous 3-iodothyronamine, two antipsychotic agents, the psychoactive drug amphetamine and two identified catecholamine agonists, and one showing 5-HT1AR in a complex with an antipsychotic agent. These structures reveal a rigid consensus binding motif in TAAR1 that binds to endogenous trace amine stimuli and two extended binding pockets that accommodate diverse chemotypes. Combined with mutational analysis, functional assays and molecular dynamic simulations, we elucidate the structural basis of drug polypharmacology and identify the species-specific differences between human and mouse TAAR1. Our study provides insights into the mechanism of ligand recognition and G-protein selectivity by TAAR1, which may help in the discovery of ligands or therapeutic strategies for neurological and metabolic disorders.TAAR1 has a rigid consensus binding motif that binds to endogenous trace amine stimuli as well as two extended binding pockets that accommodate diverse chemotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China strives to become a leading sports nation. Through implemented policies and programs, Chinese children and adolescents have shown notable advancements and improvements in their engagement in physical activity in recent years, indicating an overall positive trend. However, some indicators exhibit a concerning "inversion phenomenon". This study utilizes data from three surveys conducted between 2016 and 2022 by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. By comparing current ratings with those from 2016 and 2018, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, significant obstacles in promoting physical activity and health among Chinese children and adolescents are revealed, with persistently low scores. The 2022 Global Matrix 4.0 report ranks Chinese children and adolescents 53rd out of 57 surveyed countries, with an overall average physical activity score of D. Similarly, the average score for sources of influence ranks at 53rd. Consequently, the establishment of an integrated school, family, and social sports promotion mechanism, led by the government, becomes an imperative prerequisite for enhancing the levels of physical activity and overall health among children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)has a high, chronic infection rate in Asian populations, but only few studies have analyzed the effect of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) or Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in patients exposed to HBV after haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT). This study aimed to assess the clinical outcomes of these patients. We conducted a retrospective research including 61 patients exposed to HBV after undergoing haplo-HSCT. The patients were classified into two groups: the CMV reactivation group and no CMV reactivation group. The results were compared between the two groups using the K-W test for continuous variables, Pearson's chi-square test for categorical variables, Kaplan–Meier curves to estimate overall survival (OS) and leukemia-free survival (LFS), and a Cox proportional hazards model to analyze multivariable influences. The 3-year cumulative HBV reactivation rate was 8.2%. The median duration of HBV reactivation was 16 months (16–22 months) after haplo-HSCT. The CMV reactivation group had a higher cumulative incidence of HBV reactivation than the group without CMV reactivation. The EBV reactivation was substantially higher in the CMV reactivation group compared to that in the no CMV reactivation group (37.0% vs.5.9% respectively; P = 0.002). Furthermore, EBV reactivation was a risk factor for 1-year LFS and 1-year OS. Based on our data, EBV reactivation was related to worse outcomes in patients exposed to HBV after haplo-HSCT, whereas CMV reactivation was not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]