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We propose an SPH‐based method for simulating viscoelastic non‐Newtonian fluids within a multiphase framework. For this, we use mixture models to handle component transport and conformation tensor methods to handle the fluid's viscoelastic stresses. In addition, we consider a bonding effects network to handle the impact of microscopic chemical bonds on phase transport. Our method supports the simulation of both steady‐state viscoelastic fluids and discontinuous shear behavior. Compared to previous work on single‐phase viscous non‐Newtonian fluids, our method can capture more complex behavior, including material mixing processes that generate non‐Newtonian fluids. We adopt a uniform set of variables to describe shear thinning, shear thickening, and ordinary Newtonian fluids while automatically calculating local rheology in inhomogeneous solutions. In addition, our method can simulate large viscosity ranges under explicit integration schemes, which typically requires implicit viscosity solvers under earlier single‐phase frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rail vehicle congestion restricts the smoothness and operation capability of rail transit lines. This paper proposes an intelligent congestion prevention scheduling method for urban rail vehicles based on multi terminal and multi line transfer in a time-varying environment. Firstly, based on SARIMA model and SVM model, the target model of urban rail vehicle congestion prevention scheduling in time-varying environment is established. Secondly, with the optimal spacing of stations as the optimization object and the allocation of urban rail vehicle dispatching stations as the input bar, the global optimal objective function of rail vehicle anti congestion dispatching is obtained, and the optimization objective is determined. Then, according to the evacuation conditions of time and traffic capacity, taking the passenger flow distribution conditions of urban rail vehicle dispatching stations as the input conditions, and based on the passenger flow distribution law, the passenger flow prediction model of urban rail transit under the condition of multi station and multi line is constructed. Finally, based on the passenger flow data, the passenger flow change characteristics of future stations are predicted to achieve the anti blocking dispatching of urban rail vehicles. The simulation test results show that in a time-varying environment, this method can effectively alleviate traffic congestion, optimize the selection of rail transit routes, and improve passenger travel efficiency at different starting and ending points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the requirement of mobile robots to achieve high mobility and strong obstacle-crossing in complex and variable environment, a design scheme of passive transformable wheel-legged obstacle-crossing robot is proposed. The transformable wheel conversion process of the robot is obtained by external force operation, so no additional driver is required, which reduces the complexity of the mechanism. Firstly, based on the three-dimensional modeling of the whole robot, the structure, principle and force of the transformable wheel are analyzed, and then the structure optimization is carried out by taking the ratio of the triggering torque during the transformation process and radius before and after unfolding as the index. Afterwards, the force condition during the transformable stage of the robot is analyzed and the relevant parameters of the robot platform are adjusted to achieve stable obstacle crossing. Finally, kinematics simulation of transformation and obstacle-crossing process of the robot is carried out by using the Adams software, physical prototype is made and rationality of the structure design of the whole machine is verified by experiment.

Abstract Difficulty falling asleep is one of the typical insomnia symptoms. However, intervention therapies available nowadays, ranging from pharmaceutical to hi-tech tailored solutions, remain ineffective due to their lack of precise real-time sleep tracking, in-time feedback on the therapies, and an ability to keep people asleep during the night. This paper aims to enhance the efficacy of such an intervention by proposing a novel sleep aid system that can sense multiple physiological signals continuously and simultaneously control auditory stimulation to evoke appropriate brain responses for fast sleep promotion. The system, a lightweight, comfortable, and user-friendly headband, employs a comprehensive set of algorithms and dedicated own-designed audio stimuli. Compared to the gold-standard device in 883 sleep studies on 377 subjects, the proposed system achieves (1) a strong correlation (0.89 ± 0.03) between the physiological signals acquired by ours and those from the gold-standard PSG, (2) an 87.8% agreement on automatic sleep scoring with the consensus scored by sleep technicians, and (3) a successful non-pharmacological real-time stimulation to shorten the duration of sleep falling by 24.1 min. Conclusively, our solution exceeds existing ones in promoting fast falling asleep, tracking sleep state accurately, and achieving high social acceptance through a reliable large-scale evaluation.

Objective: This study aimed to optimize the processing technology of edible fungi and evaluate its application potential as flavoring agents in the food industry. Methods: The content of non-volatile flavor components of the samples was determined by ion chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography, and the umami of the samples was evaluated by equal umami concentration. The volatile aroma components in the samples were detected by GC-MS, electronic nose and electronic tongue. The microstructure before and after Nano-pulverization was observed, and the experiment of increasing freshness and reducing salt was carried out. Results: After Nano-pulverization, the contents of umami amino acids, flavor nucleotides and organic acids in Stropharia rugosoannulata and A. bisporus increased significantly, and the types and quantities of volatile compounds increased significantly, while Nano-pulverization had little effect on the flavor components of Volvariella volvacea. The results of the electronic tongue showed that the pulverized samples were significantly improved in both umami and saltiness, the addition of 0.5% Nano-pulverization A. bisporus could increase the salt concentration by 0.28%, and the umami value was increased by 145%. Conclusion: Nano-pulverization technology can improve the taste of food. Nano-pulverized edible fungus powder can be used as an effective alternative to salt and flavor enhancers in the food manufacturing industry.

Abstract The RON receptor tyrosine kinase is an exceptionally interesting target in oncology and immunology. It is not only overexpressed in a wide variety of tumors but also has been shown to be expressed on myeloid cells associated with tumor infiltration, where it serves to dampen tumour immune responses and reduce the efficacy of anti-CTLA4 therapy. Potent and selective inhibitory antibodies to RON might therefore both inhibit tumor cell growth and stimulate immune rejection of tumors. We derived cloned and sequenced a new panel of exceptionally avid anti-RON antibodies with picomolar binding affinities that inhibit MSP-induced RON signaling and show remarkable potency in antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Antibody specificity was validated by cloning the antibody genes and creating recombinant antibodies and by the use of RON knock out cell lines. When radiolabeled with 89-Zirconium, the new antibodies 3F8 and 10G1 allow effective immuno-positron emission tomography (immunoPET) imaging of RON-expressing tumors and recognize universally exposed RON epitopes at the cell surface. The 10G1 was further developed into a novel bispecific T cell engager with a 15 pM EC50 in cytotoxic T cell killing assays.

In view of the problem that current context-aware recommender systems take users and systems as the main research direction and do not consider actual transportation network location characteristics,this article introduces a geographic information recommender system optimized by transportation network data. The system combines with transportation network data of geographic information in the context-aware recommender system to optimize the recommended results. Experimental results show that the recommended quality get improved significantly.

This paper presents a novel fast neighbor searching method. By using this method,fluid simulation based on smooth particle hydrodynamics(SPH) can be parallelized easily and run on graphic processing unit(GPU) with high efficiency. The neighbor searching method can search two or more kinds of particles,while saving their information in the same background grid. Ghost boundary particles are introduced to improve the accuracy of boundaries,which can enhance the fidelity of the fluid simulation. Experiments show that the proposed method is more efficient than the traditional SPH method based on GPU.

Abstract Background An increasing number of authors employing intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and virtual histology (VH-IVUS) have investigated the effect of statin use on plaque volume (PV) and plaque composition. However, inconsistent results have been reported. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the appropriate regimen of statins to effectively stabilize vulnerable coronary plaques. Methods Online electronic databases were carefully searched for all relevant studies. We compared mean values of PV and plaque composition between baseline and follow-up in patients receiving statin therapy. We pooled treatment effects and calculated mean differences (MD) with the 95% confidence interval (CI) using a random-effects model. By stratified analyses, we explored the influence of clinical presentation, dose and duration of statin treatment, and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels on the effects of statins. Results Seventeen studies involving 2,171 patients were analyzed. Statin therapy significantly decreased PV (−5.3 mm3; 95% CI: –3.3 mm3 to −7.2 mm3; P < 0.001), without heterogeneity. When considering the dose and duration of statins used, only subgroups employing a high dose and long duration demonstrated a significant reduction in PV (p < 0.001). A significant decrease in PV was noted if achieved LDL-C levels were p < 0.001). Statin treatment could induce a twofold decrease in PV in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) compared with that observed in patients with stable angina pectoris (SAP). A regressive trend was seen for necrotic core volume (MD: –2.1 mm3; 95% CI: –4.7 mm3 to 0.5 mm3, P = 0.11). However, statin use did not induce a significant change for fibrotic, fibro-fatty, or dense calcium compositions. Conclusions Our meta-analysis demonstrated that statin therapy (especially that involving a high dose and long duration and achieving

Abstract Background Daming capsule (DMC), a traditional Chinese formula, has a lipid-modulating action with reduced adverse side effects as compared with other lipid lowering compounds. Since endothelial dysfunction often accompanies the hyperlipidemic state, we hypothesize that DMC might restore endothelial dysfunction produced by a high-fat (HF) diet. Importantly, we also investigate possible mechanisms involved in mediating the effects of DMC on vascular reactivity. Methods Rats were divided into four groups: control, HF diet, HF mixed DMC diet, HF mixed atorvastatin (ATV) diet. After 30 days, the thoracic cavity was exposed to remove the thoracic aorta for (i) histological examination; (ii) measurement of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) by western blot; and (iii) tension study of thoracic aortic ring. Results HF diet induced significant attenuation in the contraction and relaxation of rat aortic rings. Treatment with DMC significantly improved the relaxation of the aortic rings as compared with those from HF rats (P < 0.05), which was abolished by a nonspecific NOS inhibitor L-NAME. Moreover DMC significantly restored the decrease in eNOS expression induced by HF diet. Similar results were found in histopathologic changes. DMC failed to restore the loss of vasocontraction of aorta explained by an impairment of ATP-sensitive K+ channels (KATP) on the structure and/or function. DMC exerted the same protective effect as ATV, a positive control drug, on vascular injury produced by HF diet. Conclusion DMC partially protects the aorta from HF-induced endothelial dysfunction via upregulation of the expression of eNOS.

Abstract Background The incidence of malignant melanoma (MM) was occurring at a faster rate than for most neoplasm worldwide, and melanoma metastasis is still the most formidable problem. So it is necessarily to find some biomarkers associated with melanoma metastasis. Methods In our study, 8 spontaneous lung metastatic mice models were created by B16F10 subcutaneously transplantation. The differential protein profiles of two kinds of subcutaneous transplanted tumor tissues, which was parental B16F10 (B16 group) and corresponding lung metastases (B16M group) were detected by two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS). Western blotting was used to validate the results, and the clinical significance of individual protein was detected furtherly in a set of human samples. Result In this study, thirty proteins were found to be differentially expressed (ratio > 2 or < -2, P < 0.01) and thirteen of them were identified by MS. Highly expressed proteins in B16M group included cytoskeleton/structure proteins (vimentin, gamma-actin, β-actin, laminin binding protein), the chaperone family of proteins (heavy-chain binding protein, Bip), immunoproteasome assembly (proteasome activator REG alpha) and others involved in glycolysis activity (PGK1, enolase, TPI, human skeletal muscle GAPDH) and protein transport (myoglobin). Vimentin was significantly up-regulated in B16M group compared with B16 group which was validated by western blotting. Immunohistochemistry was performed in a set of clinical samples, the results showed that over-expression of vimentin was frequently observed in primary melanoma patients with hematogenous metastasis (P < 0.05), not associated with lymph node metastasis (P > 0.05). The presence of TNM stage was a independent indicator of poor prognosis for melanoma patients (P = 0.004). Conclusion The aberrant immunohistochemical expression of vimentin in primary melanoma tissues may help to call attention for patients with high risk of hematogenous metastasis. That might be as a novel metastatic indicator for melanoma. In a word, vimentin is not only the dignostic marker but also the hematogenous metastasis predictor for melanomas clinically.

Starch is a widely used and economically important polymer; however, its industrial applications are limited by certain shortcomings, such as retrogradation and high digestion rate. To overcome these limitations, native starches can be hydrolyzed by β-amylase, resulting in the production of β-limit dextrin (β-LD) and maltose as a co-product. β-LD retains the original inner core structure of its parent amylopectin and contains truncated external chains that is not prone to form exterior chain helical. The described molecular structures of β-LD impart unique physicochemical attributes, including prevention of retrogradation, high solubility, relatively low digestibility, etc. Compared with other dextrins, β-LD has a more defined structure and a larger molecular weight, but it still maintains high solubility, which endows β-LD with a wider range of potential applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. The considerations for improving preparation efficiency of β-LD, identifying additional functional traits, and expanding its industrial applications have been outlined along with future research directions. The insights provided in this review will be advantageous for the commercial production and utilization of β-LD in food industry to create value from native starch., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

D-allulose, an epimer of D-fructose at C-3 position, is a low-calorie rare sugar with favorable physiochemical properties and special physiological functions, which displays promising perspectives in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Currently, D-allulose is extremely sparse in nature and is predominantly biosynthesized through the isomerization of D-fructose by D-allulose 3-epimerase (DAEase). In recent years, D-allulose 3-epimerase as the key biocatalyst for D-allulose production has received increasing interest. The current review begins by providing a summary of D-allulose regarding its characteristics and applications, as well as different synthesis pathways dominated by biotransformation. Then, the research advances of D-allulose 3-epimerase are systematically reviewed, focusing on heterologous expression and biochemical characterization, crystal structure and molecular modification, and application in D-allulose production. Concerning the constraint of low yield of DAEase for industrial application, this review addresses the various attempts made to promote the production of DAEase in different expression systems. Also, various strategies have been adopted to improve its thermotolerance and catalytic activity, which is mainly based on the structure-function relationship of DAEase. The application of DAEase in D-allulose biosynthesis from D-fructose or low-cost feedstocks through single- or multi-enzymatic cascade reaction has been discussed. Finally, the prospects for related research of D-allulose 3-epimerase are also proposed, facilitating the industrialization of DAEase and more efficient and economical bioproduction of D-allulose.

Background: There is a lack of evidence regarding the association between plasma phenylacetylglutamine levels and lesion severity and clinical prognosis in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with multivessel coronary disease (MVCD). This study aims to investigate the potential of phenylacetylglutamine as a biomarker for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) of patients with STEMI and MVCD., Methods and Results: Clinical data and blood samples were collected from 631 patients with STEMI and MVCD, who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Quantitative coronary angiography analysis was performed using the QAngio XA 7.3 system. Plasma phenylacetylglutamine concentrations were measured by rapid resolution liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Among a total of 631 patients, median plasma phenylacetylglutamine level was 3.8 (2.1-6.8) μmol/L and the cumulative MACE rate at follow-up was 12%. Plasma phenylacetylglutamine levels of patients with MACE were significantly higher than patients without MACE. We employed restricted cubic spline, Kaplan-Meier curves, and Cox proportional hazard models to explore the association between plasma phenylacetylglutamine and prognosis of patients with STEMI and MVCD. Per SD, an increment in phenylacetylglutamine was associated with a 24% higher risk of complexity lesion. Higher phenylacetylglutamine level was an independent predictor of MACEs (hazard ratio [HR], 2.76 [95% CI, 1.62-4.72]). A novel prognostic scoring system was established by combining phenylacetylglutamine levels with the synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with Taxus and cardiac surgery score, with higher scores significantly increasing the risk of MACEs (HR, 4.01 [95% CI, 2.04-7.89])., Conclusions: Phenylacetylglutamine levels were associated with lesion complexity and prognosis, may serve as a novel biomarker in patients with STEMI and MVCD.

Bacillus subtilis is one of the commonly used hosts for heterologous enzyme expression, depending on media rich in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate sources for optimal growth and enzyme production. Interestingly, our investigation of maltotetraose-forming amylase, a key enzyme for efficient maltotetraose synthesis, revealed that phosphate limitation significantly enhances the growth rate and production of heterologous enzymes in recombinant B. subtilis . Under phosphate-limited conditions in a 15 L fermenter, the enzyme activity reached 679.15 U/mL, an improvement of 101% over the initial levels and a 12 h reduction in fermentation time. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that phosphate limitation promotes sustained enzyme production by upregulating protein synthesis and quality control pathways while optimizing energy utilization. This strategy was validated across various enzyme systems, highlighting its general applicability for enhancing heterologous protein expressions. These findings provide valuable insights for the industrial production of maltotetraose-forming amylase and other high-value enzymes, supporting the advancement of microbial fermentation technology.

To investigate impacts of short-clustered maltodextrin (SCMD), trehalose (TH), and guar gum (GUAR) on mediating stabilizations of gluten proteins against cold denaturation, we focused on conformational transformations of gluten protein during frozen storage and its molecular mechanism. Firstly, we found SCMD markedly improved hydration features and decreased the surface hydrophilicity of gluten proteins, with the integrity and continuity of gluten network improving after 8-week frozen storage, compared to TH and GUAR. Furthermore, SCMD and TH addition hindered the conversion of α-helix to disordered β-fold and β-turn, while GUAR did not. Similar outcomes were observed in results of amino acid microenvironment. Molecular mechanism mining indicated the SCMD could establish additional hydrogen bonds with water and protein molecules, suppressing cold denaturation of protein. Our findings found saccharide composition and size were important factors in mediating protein stabilization during frozen storage, which will offer novel insights into the mitigation of cold-induced protein denaturation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Parasitism with Striga poses a major threat to global food production. Striga germination and growth rely on strigolactones (SLs) exuded by crop roots under phosphate (Pi)-deficient conditions, although the mechanism of this host-parasite interaction remains elusive. In this study, transcriptomic and functional analyses of sorghum treated with Pi deficiency or the SL GR24 5DS identify two ABC transporter G (ABCG) transporters of SL, Sorghum biocolor strigolactones transporter 1 (SbSLT1) and SbSLT2. Using AlphaFold2 and amino acid conversion mutants, we identify highly conserved amino acids in SL transport channels essential for transport function. Sorghum lines with single or double knockouts of these transporters exhibit significantly reduced SL secretion from roots, leading to decreased Striga germination and parasitism in field experiments and consequently reducing the grain loss under Striga infestation. This study thus describes the mechanism of SL exudation in monocots and defines conserved residues essential for SL transporter function, offering a potential strategy for enhancing crop resistance to Striga parasitism., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The post-operative rehabilitation and prognostic indexes of thoracoscopic segmental resection and wedge resection in the treatment of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were retrospectively analysed. The objective of this study was to provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of early-stage NSCLC in the elderly., Patients and Methods: One hundred and twenty elderly patients diagnosed with early-stage NSCLC in our hospital from January 2018 to December 2021 were selected as study subjects. The patients were divided into the thoracoscopic segmental lung resection group and the thoracoscopic wedge resection group. Various clinical data were compared between the two groups of patients., Results: In the thoracoscopic wedge resection group, operation time, anaesthesia time, intraoperative blood loss, post-operative chest tube volume, chest tube indwelling time and hospital stay were significantly higher compared to the thoracoscopic segmental lung resection group. Patients undergoing segmental resection also had higher Visual Analogue Scale scores and serum indices. In addition, the mini-mental state examination scores were lower in the segmental resection group compared to the wedge resection group., Conclusions: Thoracoscopic segmental resection and thoracoscopic wedge resection were both safe and feasible for the treatment of NSCLC. However, thoracoscopic segmental resection had the advantage of effectively reducing the amount of intraoperative bleeding, shortening the operation time and having less impact on lung function and physical function. This was conducive to the patient's faster recovery after surgery., (Copyright © 2025 Journal of Minimal Access Surgery.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in height of 7-18-year-old school-age children in China during the year of 2000-2019., Methods: We used the survey data from the Chinese National Survey on Students' Constitution and Health in Henan Province for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2014, and 2019. Data were categorized into subgroups based on geographic location, gender, and age; mean, standard deviation, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to analyze trends in height change among children and adolescents and the correlation between socioeconomic indicators and height change., Results: The height of children and adolescents in Henan has shown a continuous upward trend. The height difference between urban and rural areas has gradually narrowed but has not disappeared. The correlation of height development trends between neighbouring urban areas was higher than in other areas. The level of medical care was significantly associated with the change in height for both boys (r = 0.950, p = 0.013) and girls (r = 0.897, p = 0.039); GDP per capita (r = 0.940，p = 0.018) was significantly associated with the change in height for boys only., Conclusion: The height of Chinese children and adolescents will continue to maintain a positive growth trend, but we need to pay attention to the health status and nutritional intake of children and adolescents in economically disadvantaged areas in order to narrow the height disparity between different socio-economic groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The functional characteristics of starch films are significantly influenced by the amylose content and the distribution of the amylopectin chain length. This work used 1,4-α-glucan branching enzyme to molecularly reconstruct corn, pea, and cassava starch in order to examine the association. Films made of both natural and enzyme-modified starch were produced using the casting method. The study investigated the variations in starch films properties and explored the relationship between starch molecular structure and film qualities by correlation analysis. The results showed a significant positive connection (r = 0.954) between the tensile strength and amylose content, as well as a positive correlation (r = 0.939) between the A chains and the elongation at break. The average chain length (r = 0.932) and amylose content (r = 0.902) showed a positive correlation with the degradation temperature, whereas the amylose content (r = -0.946) showed an adverse correlation with the transparency. The B3 chain (r = 0.851) and the average chain length (r = 0.839) both exhibited a positive connection with its contact angle. As a result, our study thoroughly assesses how starch structure affects the characteristics of starch films and offers a fundamental modification pathway for the development of new application areas., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a common pathophysiological mechanism in retinal degeneration. PANoptosis is a newly defined integral form of regulated cell death that combines the key features of pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis. Oligomerization of mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel 1 is an important pathological event in regulating cell death in retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, its role in PANoptosis remains largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that voltage-dependent anion channel 1 oligomerization-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction was associated with PANoptosis in retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury. Inhibition of voltage-dependent anion channel 1 oligomerization suppressed mitochondrial dysfunction and PANoptosis in retinal cells subjected to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Mechanistically, mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species played a central role in the voltage-dependent anion channel 1-mediated regulation of PANoptosis by promoting PANoptosome assembly. Moreover, inhibiting voltage-dependent anion channel 1 oligomerization protected against PANoptosis in the retinas of rats subjected to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Overall, our findings reveal the critical role of voltage-dependent anion channel 1 oligomerization in regulating PANoptosis in retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury, highlighting voltage-dependent anion channel 1 as a promising therapeutic target., (Copyright © 2025 Neural Regeneration Research.)

This research introduces an innovative approach to optimal control for a class of linear systems with input saturation. It leverages the synergy of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models and reinforcement learning (RL) techniques. To enhance interpretability and analytical accessibility, our approach applies T-S models to approximate the value function and generate optimal control laws while incorporating prior knowledge. By addressing the challenge of limited interpretability associated with conventional neural network utilization in RL, our approach utilizes segmented functions for saturation derivative characteristics approximation, effectively handling non-differentiability issues at saturation boundaries. Furthermore, our research presents a novel gradient identification method to overcome the impractical reliance on next-time-step State variables in RL for current-time-step policy improvements. This enables the derivation of optimal control laws corresponding to each fuzzy rule, ensuring practical applicability in the control field. The proposed methodology is rigorously evaluated through computer simulations, confirming its effectiveness, optimality, and convergence properties. This research contributes valuable insights and practical solutions to input-saturation control systems, offering a versatile and robust framework for real-world applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 International Society of Automation. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The effectiveness of protected areas in mitigating human impacts remains uncertain due to limited in-situ data; however, atmospheric micropollutant deposition in alpine lakes may provide a quantitative approach to evaluate anthropogenic pressures and threats. In this study, the temporal changes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) inside/outside the Siling Co protected area, Tibet were reconstructed. The varying anthropogenic impact history suggested that, unlike the dominance of residential activities (i.e., biomass burning) outside the protected area, the protected area establishment significantly curtailed grazing and resource exploitation, leading to a sharp decline in atmospheric PAHs during the middle-1980. However, the PAH deposition increased rapidly after the 2000s, coinciding with the expansion of transportation networks in Tibet. The important contributions from gasoline/diesel exhaust and tire/asphalt dust in this period, as deciphered by the newly developed source-sample similarity index, emphasized the tourism activities as a point of concern for preserving the alpine ecosystem post-establishment. The observed delayed but notable increase in human impacts within the Siling Co protected area highlighted the need for long-term atmospheric monitoring to provide robust and reproducible data on anthropogenic pressures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: This research aimed to understand the long-term trends in the age of menarche among girls and spermarche among boys, and to analyze the factors that may influence the onset of menarche and first spermarche., Methods: The study was based on data from 49 566 students in Henan Province collected from the Chinese National Surveys on Students' Constitution and Health (CNSSCH) conducted between 2000 and 2019. Median age at menarche and spermarche was estimated by probit analysis. t-Tests were used to analyze the influence of menarche and first spermarche on physical examination indexes of adolescent children, and the chi-squared test was used to compare whether the differences in physical activity were statistically significant., Results: The age at menarche has decreased from 12.33 years in 2000 to 12.00 years in 2019, and the age at first spermarche has decreased from 14.01 years in 2000 to 13.99 years in 2019. The age at first spermarche in urban boys (13.61 years in 2000; 12.94 years in 2014) was consistently younger than that in rural boys (14.43 years in 2000; aged 13.08 in 2014), except in 2019. The age of menarche in urban girls (12.23 years in 2000; 11.89 years in 2019) was always earlier than that in rural girls (12.44 years in 2000; 12.05 years in 2019)., Conclusions: The age at menarche and spermarche for children in Henan Province generally showed a decreasing trend from 2000 to 2019. The status of BMI is significantly associated with the early onset of puberty in children., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Strigolactones (SLs) are hormones essential for plant development and environmental responses. SL perception requires the formation of the complex composed of an SL receptor DWARF14 (D14), F-box protein D3, and transcriptional repressor D53, triggering ubiquitination and degradation of D53 to activate signal transduction. However, mechanisms of SL perception and their influence on plant architecture and environmental responses remain elusive and controversial. Here, we report that key residues at interfaces of the AtD14-D3-ASK1 complex are essential for the activation of SL perception, discover that overexpression of the D3-CTH motif negatively regulates SL perception to enhance tillering, and reveal the importance of phosphorylation and N-terminal disordered (NTD) domain in mediating ubiquitination and degradation of D14. Importantly, low nitrogen promotes phosphorylation and stabilization of D14 to repress rice tillering. These findings reveal a panorama of the activation, termination, and regulation of SL perception, which determines the plasticity of plant architecture in complex environments., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Halogenophilic nucleophilic substitution (S N 2X) has a distinctly different reaction pathway compared to the bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction (S N 2), but they can lead to the same reaction product. However, their differences can be distinguished by studying stereoselective reactions in which both reaction pathways are possible. Herein, we utilize the stereospecific nature of S N 2 and the presence of a pro-chiral anion intermediate in S N 2X to conduct a quantitative study in which both S N 2 and S N 2X reactions exist. We developed a procedure supported by kinetic simulations to measure the halogenophilic percentage ( X %). We also developed a new parameter, relative halogenophilicity ( H ), to quantify the intrinsic characteristics of S N 2X reactions and found it to correlate well with the Hammett and Mayr postulates. We studied the time dependency of X % under different reaction conditions, which led to the discovery of two new distinct mechanisms: chalcogenophilic nucleophilic substitution (S N 2Ch) reaction and bromide-catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution. The S N 2 and S N 2X reactions exhibit similar behavior from both thermodynamic and kinetic perspectives, suggesting that they occur to varying degrees in most of the reactions. Consequently, they are inherently linked and should not be considered in isolation.

γ-Cyclodextrin (γ-CD) is an attractive material among the natural cyclodextrins owing to its excellent properties. γ-CD is primarily produced from starch by γ-cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (γ-CGTase) in a controlled system. However, difficulty in separation and low conversion rate leads to high production costs for γ-CD. In this study, γ-CGTase from Bacillus sp. G-825-6 STB17 was used in γ-CD production from cassava starch. With the introduction of sodium tetraphenylborate (NaBPh 4 ), the total conversion rate was promoted from an initial 18.07 % to 50.49 % and the γ-CD ratio reached 78.81 % with a yield of 39.79 g/L. Furthermore, the mechanism was conducted via the determination of binding constant, which indicated that γ-CD exhibited much stronger binding strength with NaBPh 4 than β-CD. The reformation of water molecules and the chaotropic effect might be the main driving forces for the interaction. Additionally, the conformations of CD complexes were depicted by NMR and molecular docking. The results further verified different binding patterns between CDs and tetraphenylborate ions, which might be the primary reason for the specific binding. This system not only guides γ-CD production with an efficient and easy-to-remove production aid but also offers a new perspective on the selection of complexing agents in CD production., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mitigating the cold denaturation of gluten protein during frozen storage is crucial for the quality improvement of frozen cereal products. Our previous study observed that starch derivatives, especially short-clustered maltodextrin (SCMD), could significantly improve frozen dough quality, alleviating the deterioration of gluten-network structure. To further reveal the cryoprotection mechanism of SCMD on gluten protein during frozen storage, the modulatory roles of SCMD in the hydration capacity and conformation behavior of gluten protein were explored, in comparison with DE2 maltodextrin (MD) and pregelatinized starch (PGS). Results demonstrated that SCMD significantly facilitated the reservation of bound water and decreased the surface hydrophobicity of gluten protein after 8 weeks of frozen storage. Remarkable effects of SCMD on stabilizing the secondary structure and microenvironment of aromatic amino acids of gluten protein were observed. Further mechanistic investigation showed that when the temperature dropped from 300 to 250 K, the short-clustered structure could stabilize the α-helixes more evidently than linear structures through hydrogen bonds with water and steric hindrance effect, rather than directly with protein. Our findings will provide novel insights into the cold denaturation of gluten protein and useful guidance in selecting the optimum structure to suppress this denaturation, improving the quality of frozen cereal products.

Background: Diabetes poses a serious global challenge, given its increasing prevalence, detrimental effects on public health, and substantial economic burden. Since 1950s, tens of drugs have been approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the past decade, the medical community and regulatory agencies have moved away from the glucose-centric paradigm and increasingly call for a holistic approach to assess different treatments' benefits and harms., Objective: This study aimed to assess the medication efficiency and technological progress of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) drugs, by considering their physiological outcomes, including both benefits (i.e., glucose lowering and weight loss) and adverse effects (mortality), relative to dosing frequency., Methods: To derive medication efficiency, this study utilized data from the US FDA and prominent meta-analyses. Given that both the benefits and adverse effects of medications are multidimensional, this study employed a nonparametric frontier method, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, to integrate these factors into a measure of medication efficiency. Physiological outcomes could assume both positive and negative values. Adverse effects were regarded undesirable outputs. The DEA model was built under the framework of directional distance function and was able to handle negative and undesirable values which naturally arose in the case of T2D medications., Results: The paper presented a ranking of 20 T2D drugs in terms of medication efficiency. Three of them were able to attain the highest medication efficiency, all of which were in the GLP-1 class, including oral Semaglutide, subcutaneous Semaglutide and Dulaglutide. However, the other two GLP-1 drugs, Lixisenatide and Liraglutide, were less efficient. The average medication efficiency of drugs approved post-2010 was significantly higher than pre-2010 drugs. High dose frequency, low HbA1c reduction and insignificant weight loss were the main driving factors behind inefficiencies. Overall, medication efficiency provided an alternative perspective on treatment effectiveness other than conventional measures such as cost-effectiveness., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Wang, Xu, Liu, Ban, Liu, Yan and Han.)

Background: Artificial intelligence has been proposed for brain metastasis (BM) segmentation but it has not been fully clinically validated. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a system for BM segmentation., Methods: A deep-learning-based BM segmentation system (BMSS) was developed using contrast-enhanced MR images from 488 patients with 10338 brain metastases. A randomized crossover, multi-reader study was then conducted to evaluate the performance of the BMSS for BM segmentation using data prospectively collected from 50 patients with 203 metastases at 5 centers. Five radiology residents and 5 attending radiologists were randomly assigned to contour the same prospective set in assisted and unassisted modes. Aided and unaided Dice similarity coefficients (DSCs) and contouring times per lesion were compared., Results: The BMSS alone yielded a median DSC of 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.90-0.92) in the multi-center set and showed comparable performance between the internal and external sets (P = .67). With BMSS assistance, the readers increased the median DSC from 0.87 (0.87-0.88) to 0.92 (0.92-0.92) (P < .001) with a median time saving of 42% (40-45%) per lesion. Resident readers showed a greater improvement than attending readers in contouring accuracy (improved median DSC, 0.05 [0.05-0.05] vs 0.03 [0.03-0.03]; P < .001), but a similar time reduction (reduced median time, 44% [40-47%] vs 40% [37-44%]; P = .92) with BMSS assistance., Conclusions: The BMSS can be optimally applied to improve the efficiency of brain metastasis delineation in clinical practice., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Neuro-Oncology.)

Actinomyces viscous (A. viscous) is well documented as a major cariogenic bacterium in the oral cavity and needs to be inhibited and removed timely. Essential oils (EOs) are recognized as secure antibacterial agents for treating oral diseases, but their volatility and insolubility limit their application. In this study, cinnamaldehyde was screened as the optimum EO for inhibiting the A. viscous growth by a micro-agar dilution method and microencapsulated by cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase)-catalyzed products. The antibacterial effects against A. viscous were investigated and compared with the free cinnamaldehyde. Antibacterial diameter, antibacterial efficiency and stability, and time-kill curve results revealed that the cinnamaldehyde emulsion had better antibacterial properties. 1 MIC of the cinnamaldehyde emulsion had an inhibitory zone of 9.92 nm, a 100 % inhibition rate when acting for 2 min or 5 min, and still maintained the same inhibitory effect for 2 years. The extracellular environment showed more pH decrease, conductivity increase, and protein leakage, suggesting damage to the cell membrane. Microstructure and flow cytometric analysis further revealed that the CGTase-catalyzed products induced more changes in the A. viscous membrane integrity. Based on the results, CGTase-catalyzed products can be used as a potential substance for encapsulating EOs for treating oral bacteria., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)