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[Display omitted] • The first study to comprehensively discover and identify alkaloids from Cyclocarya paliurus. (Batal) leaves. • 10 alkaloids were identified from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves by using UPLC-QTOF-MS. • Alkaloids from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves improve insulin resistance by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in HepG2 cells. Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves, which contain a range of bioactive compounds, have been used as a traditional Chinese medicine homologous food since ancient times. However, there is a paucity of literature on comprehensive studies of alkaloids in the leaves of Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.). For the first time, this study aimed to discover and identify alkaloids extracted from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS). A total of ten alkaloids have been identified from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves based on accurate mass spectra (mass accuracy, isotopic spacing and distribution) and comparison to fragmentation spectra reported in the literature. In vitro, alkaloids alleviated insulin resistance by increasing glucose consumption and glycogen content in insulin resistance HepG2 cells. The RNA-seq and western blotting results showed that alkaloids could upregulate the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and increase the phosphorylation of insulin receptor protein kinase B (AKT). This study not only clarified the chemical constituents and revealed that diverse alkaloids also presented from Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) leaves, also, it will provide chemical information on potential compounds for developing new drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolomics, the systematic study of metabolites, is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of plant-based food research and plays a pivotal role in the nutritional composition and quality control of plant-based foods. The diverse chemical compositions of plant-based foods lead to variations in sensory characteristics and nutritional value. This review explores the application of the metabolomics method to plant-based food origin tracing, cultivar identification, and processing methods. It also addresses the challenges encountered and outlines future directions. Typically, when combined with other omics or techniques, synergistic and complementary information is uncovered, enhancing the classification and prediction capabilities of models. Future research should aim to evaluate all factors affecting food quality comprehensively, and this necessitates advanced research into influence mechanisms, metabolic pathways, and gene expression. [Display omitted] • Metabolomics applications for plant-based foods in origins, cultivars and processing were reviewed. • The combination of multiple techniques makes the metabolomics analysis more comprehensive. • The combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics will be the trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new DPV-5G BS-ES communication and power mutual coupling system is developed. • A BSSCP model is proposed to minimize the number of 5G base station deployments. • The ISOM model is used to optimize the microgrid connection lines in 3D space. • Economically optimal simulation experiments are conducted for different PV systems. The emergence of ultra-dense 5G networks and a large number of connected devices will bring with them significant increases in energy consumption, operating costs, and CO 2 emissions. At the same time, the deployment of distributed photovoltaic (DPV) in megacities plays an important role in promoting the integration of "building-photovoltaic", adjusting the city's clean energy supply system, and building a green, and low-carbon smart city. The development of a new "DPV-5G Base Station-Energy Storage (DPV-5G BS-ES)" coupled DC microgrid system and its pre-deployment investment costs are fundamental factors to be considered when the problem of large-scale DPV and BS deployment in cities has to be addressed. There are almost no published papers on this issue in the literature, which only consider the problem of maximizing the deployment of 5G BS service coverage or only perform optimization analyses for the performance of microgrid systems without considering the economic optimality and low-carbon green issues in the construction of urban utilities. In order to solve the problem of 5G BS deployment and economic optimization of topology in the "DPV-5G BS-ES" coupled DC microgrid system, a novel deployment strategy is proposed in this paper. The strategy is divided into: (a) The Geographic Information System (GIS) for extracting and analyzing 3D data from all buildings in the area. (b) A GIS-based formulation of a mixed integer quadratic constrained planning model (BSSCP) under discrete fixed radius coverage constraints is used to delineate building clusters within the area and determine the optimal deployment location of 5G BS under each sub-cluster. (c) An Improved Self-Organizing Mapping (ISOM) model combines GIS and microgrid performance parameters to address the economically optimal connection of grid lines for DPV in 3D space. (d) Simulation experiments were conducted for the power output and profitability of eight different PV panels and tracking systems to calculate the economically optimal type of DPV generation hardware. The experimental results show that the BSSCP model proposed in this study reduced the 5G BS deployment cost input by up to 35.8974 % compared to that of the control experimental model. Meanwhile, the ISOM model obtained an average reduction of 52.3741 % in the cost of connecting cables for the optimized 25 DPV planning and DC microgrid topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of contour levees for rice irrigation represents a major landscape management activity with impacts on irrigation water use efficiency, crop management decisions, and food production. However, levee distribution information traditionally relies on local field surveys because remote sensing approaches are complicated by irregular spacing, shape, and landscape variability within the field. In this paper the authors develop a deep learning approach capable of identifying rice fields with contour style levee irrigation practices from open-source aerial imagery. To generate a levee-identification scheme, a hybrid ResNet/Unet model is built from the commonly known Residual Network (ResNet) architecture for multi-layer deep learning strategies. The model takes a 320 × 320 RGB aerial landscape image from the US National Agricultural Imagery Program as input along with label data to then generate a probability map of the distribution of farm fields that use contour levees within the image. In performing this task, the model generates a 0.991 receiver operating characteristic curve score. The model continues to perform well under the introduction of clouds, data augmentation, or minor reductions in spatial resolution. Throughout these tests, the model performed within 0.2 of its original score, except for when the image quality was reduced to 60 m wherein the model score dropped to 0.691. Via these tests the model demonstrates potential to function well given different spatial extents or potential satellite remote sensing with moderate (10 m) resolutions. This model provides a proof-of-concept for the use of aerial imagery and a deep learning strategy for irrigation-type mapping practices. • Contour levee identification method using aerial images yields ROC score of 0.991. • A ResNet/UNet hybrid provides ample performance for remote sensing applications. • The method is insensitive to simulated cloud cover up to 40% opacity. • Performance degrades with a decrease in resolution from 1 m to less than 10 m. • The introduction of dense static noise could present a challenge for the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the ERA-5 monthly reanalysis data and precipitation observations, this paper analyses the interdacal dry-wet transition and its mechanism in the Tarim Basin(TB) during summer. From the long-term perspective(1961–2021), TB is in a trend of "wet in the west and dry in the east". By taking a nine-year moving average of the precipitation(PRE), the research period is divided into three subperiods: P1(1961–1987), P2(1988–2009) and P3(2010−2021). From P1 to P3, the regional averaged Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI) demonstrates an interdecadal turning of "wetting to drying". During P2(1988–2009), the dynamic component of water vapor increases the zonal moisture transport, causing a slight increase in PRE. The potential evapotranspiration(PET) is weakened by the increase in PRE and relative humidity(RH), the decrease in 2-m temperature(T2m) and 10-m wind speed(10UV), resulting in the humidification of the TB. In the P3(2010–2021), the non-linear component of water vapor increases moisture convergence in the western TB, causing a significant increase in PRE. However, the decrease in RH, accompanied by increases in T2m and UV10, results in a rapid increase in PET. The TB gets dry. The South Asian high(SAH) develops southeastward, guiding more water vapor transport from the upstream westerly and the tropical Indian Ocean. The Western Pacific subtropical high(WPSH) extends northwestward, increasing water vapor convergence in the western TB. The main reason for the increased precipitation changes from increased water vapor advection to enhanced water vapor convergence. The differences in PRE formation and T2m amplitude cause the interdecadal change in RH, deriving an interdecadal transition of wet and dry in the TB. Our findings may deepen the understanding of climate change, and provide a scientific support for ecological development, and global climate governance in arid/semi-arid regions. • TB has been presented an interdacal dry-wet transition in summer. • The summer SPEI in the TB is consistent with the interdacadal variations of PET. • The SAH and the WPSH modulate the moisture transport pathways and precipitation formation, influence the dry-wet transition in the TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Purpose To assess the longitudinal changes of allograft pathophysiology by intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI in a rat model of acute renal allograft rejection. Materials and methods Acute rejection (AR) was induced by transplantation of Dark Agouti donor kidneys into Lewis recipients (n = 18). A Lewis-Lewis rat syngeneically transplanted (sTX) model served as the control (n = 6). Acute tubular necrosis (n = 6) and acute calcineurin inhibitor toxicity (n = 6) groups were established using Lewis rats. MRI was performed on postoperative day (POD) 1, 4 and 7 in the allogeneically transplanted (aTX) group and on POD4 in the other groups. Histological evaluation and PCR were performed. Results After the allogenic transplantation, all MRI parameters of allograft further decreased until POD7, and the D and ADC values in the cortex were significantly lower than that in the sTX group (1.03 ± 0.09 vs 1.52 ± 0.09 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; 1.21 ± 0.03 vs 1.78 ± 0.07 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05). The D*, f and R2* values of the aTX group in the cortex and medulla were significantly lower than those in the sTX group on POD7 (cortex, D*: 25.60 ± 4.78 vs 69.32 ± 9.79 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; f: 7.84 ± 1.83 vs 20.34 ± 3.08%, P adj < 0.05; R2*: 16.61 ± 4.18 vs 31.48 ± 6.43 1/s, P adj < 0.05; medulla, D*: 13.59 ± 6.08 vs 62.75 ± 9.20 × 10−3 mm2/s, P adj < 0.05; f: 7.46 ± 1.62 vs 14.68 ± 2.05%, P adj < 0.05; R2*: 21.59 ± 3.45 vs 39.53 ± 4.34 1/s, P adj < 0.05). AR grafts presented serve interstitial inflammation, tubulitis and infiltration of T-lymphocytes and macrophages. The MRI parameters, including D, ADC, D*, f and R2*, were significantly correlated with the histological changes, cell infiltration and inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels. Conclusions IVIM coupled with BOLD MRI allows longitudinal assessment of allograft diffusion, perfusion and oxygen consumption impairment caused by acute renal allograft rejection in rat model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein chemical synthesis can provide the homogeneous atypical ubiquitin chains that are usually difficult to obtain by other methods. Herein, we report a new one-pot ligation approach for the synthesis of atypical Ub chains based on the Tfacm-protected isoUb building block with operational simplicity and high efficiency. The key intermediate, the Tfacm-protected isoUb building block can be readily prepared by Fmoc SPPS. The practicality and efficiency of the new method is demonstrated by the successful preparation of K11-linked di-Ub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular automata (CA) is a powerful tool for modeling the evolution of macroscopic scale phenomena as it couples time, space, and variables together while remaining in a simplified form. However, such application has remained challenging in forest insect epidemics due to the highly dynamic nature of insect behavior. Recent advances in temporal trajectory-based image analysis offer an alternative way to obtain high-frequency model calibration data. In this study, we propose an insect-CA modeling framework that integrates cellular automata, remote sensing, and Geographic Information System to understand the insect ecological processes, and tested it with measured data of mountain pine beetle (MPB) in the Rocky Mountains. The overall accuracy of the predicted MPB mortality pattern in the test years ranged from 88% to 94%, which illuminates its effectiveness in modeling forest insect dynamics. We further conducted sensitivity analysis to examine responses of model performance to various parameter settings. In our case, the ensemble random forest algorithm outperforms the traditional linear regression in constructing the suitability surface. Small neighborhood size is more effective in simulating the MPB movement behavior, indicating that short-distance is the dominating dispersal mode of MPB. The introduction of a stochastic perturbation component did not improve the model performance after testing a broad range of randomness degree, reflecting a relative compact dispersal pattern rather than isolated outbreaks. We conclude that CA with remote sensing observation is useful for landscape insect movement analyses; however, consideration of several key parameters is critical in the modeling process and should be more thoroughly investigated in future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life cycles and transmission of most infectious agents are inextricably linked with climate. In spite of a growing level of interest and progress in determining climate change effects on infectious disease, the debate on the potential health outcomes remains polarizing, which is partly attributable to the varying effects of climate change, different types of pathogen-host systems, and spatio-temporal scales. We summarize the published evidence and show that over the past few decades, the reported negative or uncertain responses of infectious diseases to climate change has been growing. A feature of the research tendency is the focus on temperature and insect-borne diseases at the local and decadal scale. Geographically, regions experiencing higher temperature anomalies have been given more research attention; unfortunately, the Earth's most vulnerable regions to climate variability and extreme events have been less studied. From local to global scales, agreements on the response of infectious diseases to climate change tend to converge. So far, an abundance of findings have been based on statistical methods, with the number of mechanistic studies slowly growing. Research gaps and trends identified in this study should be addressed in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three homochiral coordination polymers based on semi-rigid alanine ligands and varied auxiliary N-donor ligands, [Cd(TMAla)(bpipa-4)]·2H 2 O ( 1 ), [Co 2 (TMAla) 2 (bipy) 2 ]·2.5H 2 O ( 2 ), [Co(TBAla)(bpee)(H 2 O) 2 ]·3H 2 O ( 3 ), (H 2 TMAla = terephthaloyl-mono( l -alanine), H 2 TBAla = terephthaloyl-bis( l -alanine), bpipa-4 = N,N′-bis(pyridin-4-yl)isophthalamide, bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine and bpee = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene), have been synthesized and structurally characterized. In these structures, the different metal ions are connected into two types of chains by the semi-rigid alanine ligands and various N-donor ligands in different direction, respectively, to generate diverse 2D layered coordination networks, which are further stacked into 3D supramolecular frameworks in an ABAB overlapping mode through interlayered hydrogen bonds. Complex 1 exhibits the 2D squamous sheet constructed by zigzag chains. Complex 2 shows a thick 2D layer motif formed through the looped and ladder-shaped chains. Complex 3 features a (4,4) grid 2D coordination network built via the zigzag and linear chains. Complex 1 displays a strong fluorescent emission at 402 nm in solid state at room temperature. Magnetic susceptibility measurement indicates weak antiferromagnetic interactions between the Co(II) ions in complex 2 . Meanwhile, complex 2 shows good photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes under UV light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short-term photovoltaic (PV) power prediction is mainly used to prevent photovoltaic power generation fluctuations, grid overvoltage, reverse current, and islanding effects. At the same time, the mid-term PV power forecast is of great significance to improving the availability of PV power generation and the benefit of PV grid connection. Because of the significant differences in time scales between mid-term and short-term power prediction, the short-term power prediction model or method cannot be directly applied to mid-term power prediction. Therefore, few scholars have developed effective short-to-mid-term power forecasting strategies for photovoltaics. As a result, this research proposes a prediction model based on a fast cull outlier algorithm (FC), a decision tree (DT), least squares support vector regression (LSSVR), and an improved whale bat optimization algorithm (IWBOA), which is used for the prediction of the short-to-mid-term photovoltaic power on different time scales, one day and one month in advance. The FC algorithm is used to analyze the difference between the overall data and the abnormal data in the local density and distance to remove the outliers in the original data set. The revised DT model differentiates the data according to climate characteristics to obtain different input data subsets with the best correlation and constructs an independent LSSVR-based model corresponding to the data subsets. The WOA algorithm is improved by independently designing the Chebyshev chaotic initialization strategy, chaotic adaptive inertia weight and BOA algorithm, and the kernel function width and penalty factor of each short-to-mid-term independent sub-PV power prediction model are optimized by IWBOA, thereby improving the computational speed and prediction accuracy of the LSSVR model. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is evaluated using actual data from photovoltaic power plants in China. The regression coefficient (R2), mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) of short-term forecasting ability of the FCDT-IWBOA-LSSVR model established in this paper are 0.99657, 0.22009, 0.32515, and 0.20959, respectively, while the R2, MSE, RMSE, and MAE of medium-term forecasting ability are 0.98374, 1.91371, 1.38336, and 0.6256. The calculation results show that the prediction accuracy of the FCDT-IWBOA-LSSVR model is higher than that of the WOA-LSSVR, PSO-LSSVR, PSO-BP, I-ACO-SVR, ANN, EMS-DSM-RT, 5 ML, and ELM models. • Short-to-mid-term photovoltaic power generation prediction model established. • The FC algorithm analyze local density and distance for data and remove outliers. • The DT model differentiates the data according to climate characteristics. • The IWBOA was used to optimize the parameters of the LSSVR prediction model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thalassospiramide lipopeptides have great potential for therapeutic applications; however, their structural and functional diversity and biosynthesis are poorly understood. Here, by cultivating 130 Rhodospirillaceae strains sampled from oceans worldwide, we discovered 21 new thalassospiramide analogues and demonstrated their neuroprotective effects. To investigate the diversity of biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) architectures, we sequenced the draft genomes of 28 Rhodospirillaceae strains. Our family-wide genomic analysis revealed three types of dysfunctional BGCs and four functional BGCs whose architectures correspond to four production patterns. This correlation allowed us to reassess the "diversity-oriented biosynthesis" proposed for the microbial production of thalassospiramides, which involves iteration of several key modules. Preliminary evolutionary investigation suggested that the functional BGCs could have arisen through module/domain loss, whereas the dysfunctional BGCs arose through horizontal gene transfer. Further comparative genomics indicated that thalassospiramide production is likely to be attendant on particular genes/pathways for amino acid metabolism, signaling transduction, and compound efflux. Our findings provide a systematic understanding of thalassospiramide production and new insights into the underlying mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[6]-Gingerol and [6]-shogaol are the major pungent components in ginger with a variety of biological activities including antioxidant activity. To explore their structure determinants for antioxidant activity, we synthesized eight compounds differentiated by their side chains which are characteristic of the C1-C2 double bond, the C4-C5 double bond or the 5-OH, and the six- or twelve-carbon unbranched alkyl chain. Our results show that their antioxidant activity depends significantly on the side chain structure, the reaction mediums and substrates. Noticeably, existence of the 5-OH decreases their formal hydrogen-transfer and electron-donating abilities, but increases their DNA damage- and lipid peroxidation-protecting abilities. Additionally, despite significantly reducing their DNA strand breakage-inhibiting activity, extension of the chain length from six to twelve carbons enhances their anti-haemolysis activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent widespread mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak in the Southern Rocky Mountains presents an opportunity to investigate the relative influence of anthropogenic, biologic, and physical drivers that have shaped the spatiotemporal patterns of the outbreak. The aim of this study was to quantify the landscape-level drivers that explained the dynamic patterns of MPB mortality, and simulate areas with future potential MPB mortality under projected climate-change scenarios in Grand County, Colorado, USA. The outbreak patterns of MPB were characterized by analysis of a decade-long Landsat time-series stack, aided by automatic attribution of change detected by the Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery algorithm (LandTrendr). The annual area of new MPB mortality was then related to a suite of anthropogenic, biologic, and physical predictor variables under a general linear model (GLM) framework. Data from years 2001–2005 were used to train the model and data from years 2006–2011 were retained for validation. After stepwise removal of non-significant predictors, the remaining predictors in the GLM indicated that neighborhood mortality, winter mean temperature anomaly, and residential housing density were positively associated with MPB mortality, whereas summer precipitation was negatively related. The final model had an average area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic plot value of 0.72 in predicting the annual area of new mortality for the independent validation years, and the mean deviation from the base maps in the MPB mortality areal estimates was around 5%. The extent of MPB mortality will likely expand under two climate-change scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) in Grand County, which implies that the impacts of MPB outbreaks on vegetation composition and structure, and ecosystem functioning are likely to increase in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Posttranscriptional gene regulation is governed by a network of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that interact with regulatory elements in the mRNA to modulate multiple molecular processes, including splicing, RNA transport, RNA stability, and translation. Mounting evidence indicates that there is a hierarchy within this network whereby certain RBPs cross-regulate other RBPs to coordinate gene expression. HuR, an RNA-binding protein we linked previously to aberrant VEGF mRNA metabolism in models of SOD1-associated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has been identified as being high up in this hierarchy, serving as a regulator of RNA regulators. Here we investigated the role of HuR in regulating two RBPs, TDP-43 and FUS/TLS, that have been linked genetically to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We found that HuR promotes the expression of both RBPs in primary astrocytes and U251 cells under normal and stressed (hypoxic) conditions. For TDP-43, we found that HuR binds to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) and regulates its expression through translational efficiency rather than RNA stability. With HuR knockdown, there was a shift of TDP-43 and FUS mRNAs away from polysomes, consistent with translational silencing. The TDP-43 splicing function was attenuated upon HuR knockdown and could be rescued by ectopic TDP-43 lacking the 3' UTR regulatory elements. Finally, conditioned medium from astrocytes in which HuR or TDP-43 was knocked down produced significant motor neuron and cortical neuron toxicity in vitro. These findings indicate that HuR regulates TDP-43 and FUS/TLS expression and that loss of HuR-mediated RNA processing in astrocytes can alter the molecular and cellular landscape to produce a toxic phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the divergence patterns of hosts could shed lights on the prediction of their parasite transmission. No effort has been devoted to understand the drivers of genetic divergence pattern of Oncomelania hupensis, the only intermediate host of Schistosoma japonicum. Based on a compilation of two O. hupensis gene datasets covering a wide geographic range in China and an array of geographical distance and environmental dissimilarity metrics built from earth observation data and ecological niche modeling, we conducted causal modeling analysis via simple, partial Mantel test and local polynomial fitting to understand the interactions among isolation-by-distance, isolation-by-environment, and genetic divergence. We found that geography contributes more to genetic divergence than environmental isolation, and among all variables involved, wetland showed the strongest correlation with the genetic pairwise distances. These results suggested that in China, O. hupensis dispersal is strongly linked to the distribution of wetlands, and the current divergence pattern of both O. hupensis and schistosomiasis might be altered due to the changed wetland pattern with the accomplishment of the Three Gorges Dam and the South-to-North water transfer project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pullorum disease caused by Salmonella Pullorum remains an important disease for the poultry industry due to high morbidity and mortality in many countries. Phage therapy is becoming an alternative strategy to control multidrug-resistant Salmonella infections in young chicks. However, how bacteriophages affect the growth performance of chicks infected with S. Pullorum remains poorly understood. Herein, we assessed the therapeutic efficacy of Salmonella phage CKT1 against hypervirulent arthritis - causing S. Pullorum. The results showed that single phage treatment after hypervirulent S. Pullorum infection significantly improved body weight loss of chicks. Compared with enlarged liver and spleen in only Salmonella challenged group, phage administration substantially reduced the liver/body and spleen/body weight ratios, bacterial loads in organs and the degree of hepatic sinusoidal dilatation and congestion. Moreover, phage CKT1 can enter the organs of chicks and stay for at least 3 d in liver and spleen, and promote higher serum levels of IL-6 production within 6 d postinfection, indicating phage-induced bacterial lysis may be involved in inflammatory immune response to S. Pullorum infection. Analysis of the microbiome of gastrointestinal tract of chicks demonstrated that Salmonella challenge significantly reduced the relative abundances of Lachnoclostridium and Blautia, resulting in remarkably increased Escherichia-Shigella and Klebsiella becoming the predominant bacterial taxa. In contrast, the use of phage CKT1 significantly reduced Escherichia-Shigella and Klebsiella populations in intestine, permitting the proliferation of beneficial microbiota in Firmicutes including Lachnoclostridium, Ruminococcus, Lactobacillus , and Pseudoflavonifractor. In addition, phage alone treatments did not affect the normal gut microbiota structure of chicks, and phage therapy on Salmonella infected chicks increased bacteria species richness in the cecum. These results suggest that Salmonella phage CKT1 could improve growth performance of chicks challenged with S. Pullorum by normalizing the abnormal intestinal microbiome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] CSA shows significant antioxidant activity. [•] CSA activates AKT, ERK and JNK signaling pathways. [•] CSA exerts antioxidant effects by the Nrf2-dependent antioxidant pathway. [•] CSA increases transcriptional activity of Nrf2 through binding to the ARE sequence. [•] CSA regulates the expression of antioxidant genes and enhance GSH generation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new epoxy adhesive filled with boron carbide (B4C) was investigated, which has two main functions of adhesiving and radiation shielding. The thermal neutron radiation shielding effect of the adhesive was detected by multiple-track spectrum analyzer, and it was excellent when the thickness of the adhesiving film was beyond 300μm. In addition, the sheared strength performance of the adhesive with five kinds of Hardeners was treated under the thermal cycling condition. The result displayed that combined use of Hardener A and Hardener B was better than others. Meantime, the sheared strength of the adhesive filled with different type of B4C powder was measured, and it was particularly better when the content of B4C powder B filled with 30%. Moreover, the sheared fracture surface was further analyzed by virtue of Metallographic Microscope and Scan Electric Microscope, and the exhibited result was well consistent with the former tensile sheared test. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent crystal structures of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) show the remarkable structural diversity of extracellular loop 2 (ECL2), implying its potential role in ligand binding and ligand-induced receptor conformational selectivity. Here we have applied molecular modeling and mutagenesis studies to the TM4/ECL2 junction (residues Pro174(4.59)-Met180(4.66)) of the human gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor, which uniquely has one functional type of receptor but two endogenous ligands in humans. We suggest that the above residues assume an a-helical extension of TM4 in which the side chains of Gln174(4.60) and Phe178(4.64) face toward the central ligand binding pocket to make H-bond and aromatic contacts with pGlu¹ and Trp³ of both GnRH I and GnRH II, respectively. The interaction between the side chains of Phe178(4.64) of the receptor and Trp³ of the GnRHs was supported by reciprocal mutations of the interacting residues. Interestingly, alanine mutations of Leu175(4.61), Ile177(4.63), and Met180(4.66) decreased mutant receptor affinity for GnRH I but, in contrast, increased affinity for GnRH II. This suggests that these residues make intramolecular or intermolecular contacts with residues of transmembrane (TM) domain 3, TM5, or the phospholipid bilayer, which couple the ligand structure to specific receptor conformational switches. The marked decrease in signaling efficacy of I177A and F178A also indicates that IIe177(4.63) and Phe178(4.64) are important in stabilizing receptor-active conformations. These findings suggest that the TM4/ECL2 junction is crucial for peptide ligand binding and, consequently, for ligand-induced receptor conformational selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Down-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the mouse leads to progressive and selective degeneration of motor neurons similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In mice expressing ALS-associated mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), VEGF mRNA expression in the spinal cord declines significantly prior to the onset of clinical manifestations. In vitro models suggest that dysregulation of VEGF mRNA stability con- tributes to that decline. Here, we show that the major RNA stabi- lizer, Hu Antigen R (HuR), and TIA-1-related protein (TIAR) cob- calize with mutant SOD1 in mouse spinal cord extracts and cultured glioma cells. The cobocalization was markedly reduced or abolished by RNase treatment. Immunoanalysis of transfected cells indicated that colocalization occurred in insoluble aggregates and inclusions. RNA immunoprecipitation showed a significant loss of VEGFmRNA binding to HuR and TIAR in mutant SOD1 cells, and there was marked depletion of HuR from polysomes. Ectopic expression of HuR in mutant SOD! cells more than doubled the mRNA half-life of VEGF and significantly increased expression to that of wild-type SOD! control. Cellular effects produced by mutant SOD!, including impaired mitochon- drial function and oxidative stress-induced apoptosis, were reversed by HuR in a gene dose-dependent pattern. In sum- mary, our findings indicate that mutant SOD1 impairs post- transcriptional regulation by sequestering key regulatory RNA-binding proteins. The rescue effect of HuR suggests that this impairment, whether related to VEGF or other potential mRNA targets, contributes to cytotoxicity in ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Changes in the phenolics of navel orange were investigated during maturation. • Several phenolic acids and antioxidant activities significantly decrease during maturation. • Partial least-squares discriminate analysis showed good separation of fruits at different maturity. • A significant correlation between antioxidant activities and some phenolic acids was found. Ripe navel orange has abundant amounts of phenolic compounds. Few studies monitored changes in these compounds during ripening. In this study, the effects of navel orange maturation on dynamic changes in antioxidant activity, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and phenolic acids were investigated. Five growth stages of navel orange were studied, and nine phenolic acids were detected via high performance liquid chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC – QQQ – MS). Results showed that antioxidant activity, TFC and TPC decreased gradually with fruit ripening. The concentrations of most phenolic acids also declined during fruit maturation, except for free fractions of sinapic acid and bound fractions of ferulic and caffeic acids. Ferulic acid was the most dominant of all phenolic acids at all growth stages. Partial least-squares showed significant differences among fruits of different maturities. A significant correlation between antioxidant capacity, TPC, TFC and some phenolic acids was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crosslinked ciprofloxacin (CIP) and polymethyltrimethoxysilane (PMTMS) with an inner micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coating was designed to improve the corrosion resistance and antibacterial property of magnesium alloy AZ31. Surface morphology and roughness of the obtained coating were characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and three-dimensional surface profilometry. Structural components and chemical compositions of the composite coatings were detected via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). Corrosion resistance of the coatings was investigated by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization curves and hydrogen evolution measurements. Cytocompatibility and antibacterial performance of the coatings were probed using in vitro cytotoxicity tests (MTT), live/dead cell staining and plate counting method. Results indicate that the MAO/CIP-PMTMS coating possesses enhanced corrosion resistance, antibacterial ability and cytocompatibility. It provides a way to effectively curb the sudden release and short release period of drugs, due to the reversible esterification reaction between -COOH in CIP and Si-OH in PMTMS during the coating formation and degradation process. And it holds a great potential in the applications of medical devices and bone implant materials. [Display omitted] • A MAO/CIP-PMTMS coating is prepared on AZ31 alloy with bird-nest-like structure. • Coating displays anticorrosion and antibacterial ability with low cytotoxicity. • Load and release of the drug with no obvious burst release is successfully achieved. • Sustained release of the drug is achieved by reversible esterification reaction. • A new coating preparation method for the anti-infection Mg bone implants is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Resting cells of Rhodococcus sp. G20 were used for the transformation of β-aminopropionitrile to β-alanine, an important beta amino acid. A 23 central composite experimental design was performed with the purpose of optimizing the β-alanine production in a bubble column reactor with 200mL working volume using response surface methodology (RSM). The individual and interactive effects of three independent variables (cells loading, substrate concentration, airflow rate) on β-alanine production were investigated. A quadratic polynomial predictive model was obtained after statistical analysis to predict the optimum biotransformation conditions. The optimum bioconversion conditions of β-aminopropionitrile in a batch operation for β-alanine production were as follows: cells loading of 16.50gww/200mL, substrate concentration of 1.29% (v/v), and airflow rate of 86.56L/h, under which an overall 40.6% increase in productivity of β-alanine was obtained. The influences of the temperature and pH on the conversion were also studied, and the optimums were 30°C and pH 7.5. The measured activation energy (E a) was found to be 22,199J/mol, thus indicating the presence of diffusional resistance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) modulate the majority of physiological processes through specific intermolecular interactions with structurally diverse ligands and activation of differential intracellular signaling. A key issue yet to be resolved is how GPCRs developed selectivity and diversity of ligand binding and intracellular signaling during evolution. We have explored the structural basis of selectivity of naturally occurring gonadotropin-releasing hormones (GnRHs) from different species in the single functional human GnRH receptor. We found that the highly variable amino acids in position 8 of the naturally occurring isoforms of GnRH play a discriminating role in selecting receptor conformational states. The human GnRH receptor has a higher affinity for the cognate GnRH I but a lower affinity for GnRH II and GnRHs from other species possessing substitutions for Arg8. The latter were partial agonists in the human GnRH receptor. Mutation of Asn7.45 in transmembrane domain (TM) 7 had no effect on GnRH I affinity but specifically increased affinity for other GnRHs and converted them to full agonists. Using molecular modeling and site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrated that the highly conserved Asn7,45 makes intramolecular interactions with a highly conserved Cys6,47 in TM 6, suggesting that disruption of this intramolecular interaction induces a receptor conformational change which allosterically alters ligand specific binding sites and changes ligand selectivity and signaling efficacy. These results reveal GnRH ligand and receptor structural elements for conformational selection, and support co-evolution of GnRH ligand and receptor conformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor is evolutionarily configured for high affinity binding of GnRH I ([Tyr5,Leu7,Arg8]GnRH) but at lower affinity for GnRH II ([His5,Trp7,Tyr8]GnRH). GnRH I is more potent in the activation of the G q/11 protein in the gonadotrope; however, GnRH II is more potent in the stimulation of apoptosis and antiproliferative effects through activating Gi protein-mediated signaling, implying that GnRH I and II selectively stabilize different receptor-active conformations that preferentially couple to different signaling pathways. Receptor activation involves ligand induction or conformational selection, but the molecular basis of the communication between ligand-binding sites and receptor allosteric sites remains unclear. We have sought conformational coupling between receptor-ligand intermolecular interactions and intramolecular interaction networks in the human GnRH receptor by mutating remote residues that induce differential ligand binding affinity shifts for GnRH I and II. We have demonstrated that certain Ala mutations in the intracellular segments of transmembrane domains 3 (Met132), 5 (Met227), 6 (Phe272 and Phe276), and 7 (Ile322 and Tyr323) of the human GnRH receptor allosterically increased ligand binding affinity for GnRH II but had little effect on GnRH I binding affinity. We examined the role of the three amino acids that differ in these two ligands, and we found that Tyrs in GnRH II plays a dominant role for the increased affinity of the receptor mutants for GnRH II. We propose that creation of a high affinity binding site for GnRH II accompanies receptor conformational changes, i.e.‘induced fit’ or ‘conformational selection,’ mainly determined by the intermolecular interactions between Tyrs and the receptor contact residues, which can be facilitated by disruption of particular sets of receptor-stabilizing intramolecular interactions. The findings suggest that GnRH I and II binding may selectively stabilize different receptor-active conformations and therefore different ligand-induced selective signaling described previously for these ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thiocarbonyl analogue of Vaska’s compound is produced in high yield by first treating IrCl(CO)(PPh3)2 with CS2 and methyl triflate to give [Ir(κ2-C[S]SMe)Cl(CO)(PPh3)2]CF3SO3 (1), secondly, reacting 1 with NaBH4 to give IrHCl(C[S]SMe)(CO)(PPh3)2 (2), and finally heating 2 to induce elimination of both MeSH and CO to produce IrCl(CS)(PPh3)2 (3). When IrCl(CS)(PPh3)2 is treated with Hg(CH=CHPh)2 the novel 2-iridathiophene, Ir[SC3H(Ph-3)(CH=CHPh-5)]HCl(PPh3)2 (4) is produced. The X-ray crystal structure of the iodo-derivative of 4, Ir[SC3H(Ph-3)(CH=CHPh-5)]HI(PPh3)2 (5) confirms the unusual 2-metallathiophene structure. Treatment of IrCl(CS)(PPh3)2 with Hg(CH=CPh2)2 produces both a coordinatively unsaturated 1-iridaindene, Ir[C8H5(Ph-3)]Cl(PPh3)2 (6) and a chelated dithiocarboxylate complex, Ir(κ2-S2CCH=CPh2)Cl(CH=CPh2)(PPh3)2 (7). X-ray crystal structure determinations for 6 and 7 are reported. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Discusses the structure of receptor-G protein complex and the mechanism by which the agonist-receptor complex activates the G protein. Major structural divisions of seven transmembrane (7-TM) receptors; Structure of rhodopsin; Ground-state structure of 7-TM [subA] receptors.

[Display omitted] • All N -phenyltetrahydroquinazolinones showed higher NtPPO inhibitory activity than flumioxazin. • 2o showed 10-fold more enhanced NtPPO-inhibiting potency than flumioxazin. • 2b and 2i could be potential lead compounds for weeds control in wheat fields. Discovering new protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO, EC 1.3.3.4) inhibitors is a promising direction for agrochemical research. Herein, we reported the discovery and in silico structure-guided optimization of N -phenyltetrahydroquinazolinones 1 and 2 as new PPO inhibitors. Most of the obtained compounds 1 and 2 exhibited significantly enhanced Nicotiana tabacum PPO (NtPPO) inhibitory potency than that of flumioxazin. Promisingly, 1-(tert -butoxy)-1-oxopropan-2-yl 2-chloro-4-fluoro-5-(4-oxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroquinazolin-3(4 H)-yl)benzoate, 2o , with a K i value of 4 nM, showed ten folds more enhanced NtPPO-inhibiting potency than flumioxazin. Additionally, compounds 2b and 2i showed a broad spectrum of broadleaf weeds control at 37.5–150 g ai/ha, and selective for wheat at 150 g ai/ha in the post-emergent application. The molecular simulation studies revealed the vital basis between N -phenyltetrahydroquinazolinones and NtPPO. The present work indicated that the N -phenyltetrahydroquinazolinone motif might be a potential scaffold for herbicide discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The flotation performances of malachite and calcite with CMDTP were explored. • CMDTP exhibited a stronger collecting power and a better selectivity on malachite than on calcite. • Cu2+ ions could promote the floatability of calcite in the presence of CMDTP. • CMDTP could adsorb on malachite surface via chemical interactions by FT-IR, zeta potential and XPS analysis. In this study, the flotation separation performances of malachite from calcite were investigated using a new chelating collector S-carboxymethyl-O, O'-dibutyl dithiophosphate (CMDTP) by micro-flotation tests, which showed that CMDTP exhibited a stronger collecting power and a better selectivity on malachite than octyl hydroxamic acid (OHA), 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ) and sodium isobutyl xanthate (SIBX). In the flotation separation of artificially mixed minerals, malachite could be separated successfully from calcite at pH around 9.0 when using Na 2 S as a regulator. Its adsorption mechanism was also studied by FT-IR, zeta potential and XPS measurements, all of which confirmed that CMDTP showed a better affinity to malachite surface than to calcite surface. Furthermore, XPS provided obvious evidence that CMDTP could easily react with Cu2+ sites on malachite surface, and only a tiny adsorption occurred on calcite surface without Cu2+ ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fused-ring compounds containing a N–B–N (NBN) unit have emerged as a class of emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in recent years. However, despite the success of these compounds in achieving efficient green OLEDs, their application in blue OLEDs has not yet been realized. In this study, two new NBN-containing compounds featuring unsymmetrical molecular structures are designed and synthesized. The structural design endows the compounds with efficient blue emission and narrower emission bandwidths. A blue fluorescent OLED based on one of the compounds exhibits simultaneously a high external quantum efficiency of 4.2% and an excellent Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.152, 0.096). The impressive performance of the OLED device suggests that with proper molecular designs, NBN-containing compounds possess great potential as excellent blue emitters for OLEDs, and thus merit further investigation and attention. [Display omitted] • Two new fused-ring compounds containing a N–B–N unit and featuring unsymmetrical molecular structures. • Easy adjustment of luminescent properties by simply changing the heteroatom in a boron-bonded structural motif. • Efficient blue emission with high fluorescence quantum yields and narrower emission bandwidths. • Efficient blue organic light-emitting diodes with excellent color coordinates based on N–B–N-containing compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Changes in the volatiles of navel orange were investigated during maturation. • Principal component analysis showed good separation of fruits at different maturity. • Changes in the relative content of volatiles were clearly observed during growth. This study investigated the changes in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of navel orange during fruit maturation. The volatiles in navel orange from July (young fruit period) to November (commercial maturation period) were separated by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Fifty-seven VOCs were identified and classified into five groups. Through principal component analysis, the samples of different months were discriminated, and one-way analysis of variance showed that 55 volatiles significantly differed during growth. Among the VOCs, the relative concentration of monoterpenes increased with maturity, and D-limonene was the component with the highest content. Similar behavior was exhibited for aldehydes, reaching the maximum content in November. On the contrary, esters decreased its concentration from July to November. The concentration of sesquiterpenes gradually increased, reaching the maximum level between August and November. Moreover, alcohols reached theirs largest content in September, β-Linalool had the highest content among the alcohols. These results provided important theoretical support for the development of navel orange components and comprehensively elucidate the flavor characteristics during the ripening of navel orange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parameritannin A-2 (PA-2) is a natural product extracted from the stems of the plant Urceola huaitingii. Our previous studies have shown that PA-2 exhibits significant synergistic anticancer effects with doxorubicin (DOX) in HGC27 gastric cancer cell lines. Here we report that our isobolographic analysis confirms the synergistic cytotoxic effects of PA-2 and DOX in HGC27 cells. Flow cytometry and immunoblotting indicate that PA-2 enhances DOX-mediated apoptosis. Importantly, PA-2 enhances the intracellular accumulation of DOX in HGC27 cells. The combination of DOX and PA-2 remarkably increases the release of cytochrome C and the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, compared with DOX treatment alone. Moreover, PA-2 attenuates the DOX-induced activation of Akt, ERK1/2 and p38 signaling pathways, providing a molecular mechanism for the synergistic effects of DOX and PA-2 in the induction of apoptosis. In conclusion, our studies demonstrate that PA-2 and DOX synergistically induce mitochondria-dependent apoptosis as PA-2 inhibits the PI3K/Akt, ERK1/2 and p38 pathways in HGC27 cells. These findings suggest that the combination treatment with PA-2 and DOX may represent a potent therapy for gastric cancer. • PA-2 exhibits significant synergistic anticancer effects with DOX in HGC27 cells. • PA-2 enhances the intracellular accumulation of DOX in HGC27 cells. • PA-2 enhances DOX-mediated apoptosis. • PA-2 attenuates the DOX-induced activation of Akt, ERK1/2 and p38 signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of foodborne illness globally. In this study, a spray drying and packaging process was developed to produce a thermally-stable dry powder containing bacteriophages that retains biological activity against C. jejuni after long distance shipping at ambient temperature. Spray drying using a twin-fluid atomizer resulted in significantly less (p < 0.05) titer reduction than spray drying using a vibrating mesh nebulizer. The use of centrifugation and dilution of filtered bacteriophage lysate in the formulation step resulted in a significantly greater (p < 0.05) proportion of bacteriophages remaining active relative to use of no centrifugation and dilution. The spray-dried bacteriophage powder generated using leucine and trehalose as excipients was flowable, non-cohesive, and exhibited a high manufacturing yield. The powder retained its titer with no significant differences (p > 0.05) in biological activity after storage in suitable packaging for at least 3 weeks at room temperature and after ambient temperature shipping a total distance of approximately 19,800 km, including with a 38 °C temperature excursion. The bacteriophage powder therefore appears suitable for global distribution without the need for cold chain infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verteporfin (VER), a photosensitizer used in macular degeneration therapy, has shown promise in controlling macrophage polarization and alleviating inflammation in acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, its hydrophobicity, limited bioavailability, and side effects hinder its therapeutic potential. In this study, we aimed to enhance the therapeutic potential of VER through pulmonary nebulized drug delivery for ALI/ARDS treatment. We combined hydrophilic hyaluronic acid (HA) with an oil-in-water system containing a poly(lactic acid- co -glycolic acid) (PLGA) copolymer of VER to synthesize HA@PLGA-VER (PHV) nanoparticles with favorable surface characteristics to improve the bioavailability and targeting ability of VER. PHV possesses suitable electrical properties, a narrow size distribution (approximately 200 nm), and favorable stability. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility, safety, and anti-inflammatory responses of the PHV by suppressing M1 macrophage polarization while inducing M2 polarization. The in vivo experiments indicated that the treatment with aerosolized nano-VER (PHV) allowed more drugs to accumulate and penetrate into the lungs, improved the pulmonary function and attenuated lung injury, and mortality of ALI mice, achieving improved therapeutic outcomes. These findings highlight the potential of PHV as a promising delivery system via nebulization for enhancing the therapeutic effects of VER in ALI/ARDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Proposed a novel advanced solar-driven combined heat and power system. • Constructed the overall heat current model and exergy analysis expression. • Analyzed the exergy loss and efficiencies of each component and the system. • Analyzed the influences of various parameters on the system exergy efficiency. Conducting research on advanced cycle of distributed energy system and improving energy utilization efficiency is an important approach to promote the development of distributed energy systems. The paper proposed a novel solar-driven supercritical carbon dioxide-heat pump cogeneration system based on solar power tower system and performed the overall modeling of the system using the heat current method. The overall exergy loss calculation model of the system was established by applying the exergy analysis method incorporating the standard thermal resistance-based entropy generation rate expression. The calculation results present that under rated condition, irreversible loss mainly occurs in the solar energy conversion part, accounting for 73.83 %, and the system exergy efficiency is 34.69 %. Besides, the paper investigated the steady state performance of the system under different working conditions and the influence of the turbine inlet temperature and the intermediate pressure on the system performance. When the direct normal irradiance increases, the proportion of exergy loss in solar energy conversion part increases by 62.13 %, while the change of system exergy efficiency depends on the operating state of the system. The optimum intermediate pressure is 11.72 kPa, when the net power output and the exergy efficiency of the whole system reaches the maximum. Finally, the proposed system contributes to the improvement of cascade utilization of energy, and the modeling method is effective for solar-driven supercritical carbon dioxide cogeneration systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although mapping activities of urban land change have been widely carried out, detailed information on urban development in time over rapid urbanization areas would have been lost in most studies with multi-year intervals. Here we provide a two-stage framework of long-term mapping of urban areas at an annual frequency in Beijing, China, over the period from 1984 to 2013. Classification for each year was carried out initially based on a number of Landsat scenes within that year using spectral information from a base image plus NDVI time series derived from all scenes. A temporal consistency check involving both temporal filtering and heuristic reasoning was then applied to the sequence of classified urban maps for further improvement. We assessed this time-series of urban maps based on two schemes. One is change detection in rapidly developing areas over the past three decades, and the other is accuracy assessment over the whole region in four selected years (i.e., 1984, 1990, 2000 and 2013). Based on validation using independent samples, the OAs (overall accuracies) of these four years are 96%, 93%, 92% and 95%, respectively. Meanwhile, the average accuracy of change detection for all years is 83%. In addition, the proposed temporal consistency check was found to be able to make considerable improvements (about 6%) to the overall accuracies and results of change detection. The resultant urban land sequence revealed that the average growth rates were 47.51 ± 4.17 km 2 /year, 34.65 ± 2.90 km 2 /year and 99.48 ± 1.3 km 2 /year for 1984–1990, 1990–2000 and 2000–2013, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exopolysaccharide from Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides XG5 (XG5 EPS) is a linear dextran that is built by glucose units via α-1,6 glycosidic bond. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the yield of XG5 EPS and its application in set yogurt. In laboratory scale, the culture conditions of XG5 EPS production were optimized using the L9 (33) orthogonal test. Here, the optimized yield of XG5 EPS was 26.02 g/L under the conditions of 100 g/L sucrose, initial pH 7.0, 25°C incubation, and 100 rpm for 36 h in a shaking flask. Based on the optimized parameters of laboratory scale, a pilot fed-batch fermentation was performed in a 50-L bioreactor with an adjusted agitation speed of 20 rpm. The XG5 EPS yield reached 40.07 g/L in fed-batch fermentation, which was 54% higher than that achieved in laboratory scale. In addition, XG5 EPS was added into set yogurt to investigate its effect on the stability of set yogurt. Our data demonstrated that the XG5 EPS improved the water-holding capacity, texture profile, and viscosity of set yogurt during cold storage compared with the controls. In particular, addition of 0.5% XG5 EPS increased the structure of 3-dimensional network of set yogurt, which eventually improved the physical stability of the set yogurt. Overall, this study provided new insights for exploring the pilot scale production and application of dextran. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal characteristic parameters and control strategies in the operation of urban heating systems are significant for carbon reduction and high efficiency. Considering load fluctuations and real-time outdoor temperature changes, this research constructs steady-state and dynamic heat current models of the heating system based on the standard thermal resistance model. Combined with genetic algorithms, an optimal setting method is proposed for the operating characteristic parameters of the heating system under variable operating conditions. To achieve the control of the optimal characteristic parameters, the dynamic heat current model is applied to derive the system energy state space equations and obtain the state space parameter matrix. Moreover, a holistic control strategy for the heating system based on the optimal node parameters is proposed. The control simulation results show that the proposed holistic control strategy based on the optimal node temperature can save energy by 25.4 % compared with the fixed node temperature. Meanwhile, the exergy efficiency of the heating system increases by 2.3 %. That is, the proposed asynchronous time-scale holistic control method is significant for the day-ahead optimal regulation strategy of the district heating system. • ➢Constructed a dynamic thermal power flow model of the heating system. • ➢Obtained the system energy state space equations and the state space parameter matrix. • ➢Proposed an asynchronous time-scale overall control method. • ➢The method improved exergy efficiency of the heating system by 2.3 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With large-scale penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the power grid, maintaining its stability and security of it has become a formidable challenge while the conventional frequency regulation methods are inadequate to meet the power balance demand. Energy storage systems have emerged as an ideal solution to mitigate frequent frequency fluctuations caused by the substantial integration of RES. Flywheel energy storage systems (FESS) are considered environmentally friendly short-term energy storage solutions due to their capacity for rapid and efficient energy storage and release, high power density, and long-term lifespan. These attributes make FESS suitable for integration into power systems in a wide range of applications. A comprehensive review of FESS on the generation side of the power systems, coal-fired thermal power units, wind turbine power plants, photovoltaic panels, and integrated energy systems have been presented. Furthermore, flywheel energy storage system array and hybrid energy storage systems are explored, encompassing control strategies, optimal configuration, and electric trading market in practice. These researches guide the developments of FESS applications in power systems and provide valuable insights for practical measurements ,shaping the future prospects of this technology. • Challenges of low-inertia and frequency stability and security while constructing a new power system are firstly summarized. • Optimal capacity configurations of FESS on power generations including dynamic characteristics, technical research, and capital investigations are presented. • Applications and field applications of FESS combined with various power plants are reviewed and conducted. • Problems and opportunities of FESS for future perspectives are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of pulse oximetry plethysmography (POP) for the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in cardiac arrest (CA) patients.Methods: This was a multicenter, observational, prospective cohort study of patients hospitalized with cardiac arrest at 14 teaching hospitals cross China from December 2013 through November 2014. The study endpoint was ROSC, defined as the restoration of a palpable pulse and an autonomous cardiac rhythm lasting for at least 20 minutes after the completion or cessation of CPR.Results: 150 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients and 291 in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) patients were enrolled prospectively. ROSC was achieved in 20 (13.3%) and 64 (22.0%) patients in these cohorts, respectively. In patients with complete end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) and POP data, patients with ROSC had significantly higher levels of POP area under the curve (AUCp), wave amplitude (Amp) and ETCO2 level during CPR than those without ROSC (all p < 0.05). Pairwise comparison of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated no significant difference was observed between ETCO2 and Amp (p = 0.204) or AUCp (p = 0.588) during the first two minutes of resuscitation.Conclusion: POP may be a novel and effective method for predicting ROSC during resuscitation, with a prognostic value similar to ETCO2 at early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(-)-Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg)-rich extract (EGCg >700 mg g-1) was prepared from green tea leaves through a three-stage process consisting of liquid-liquid extraction and silica column purification. Crude tea extract was dissolved in ethyl acetate. After filtration, the solution was extracted by 10 gL-1 citric acid solution twice, and then passed through silica column. The catechins compounds in the ethyl acetate eluate were back extracted to the aqueous phase, then extracted with a mixed solution of n-hexane/ethyl acetate (2/5, v/v) 3 times, concentrated, and freeze dried. 12.8 g EGCg-rich extract containing 709 mg g-1 EGCg and 965 mg g-1 total catechins was obtained from 300 g green tea leaves, with an EGCg recovery of 26.1% and a yield of 4.3%. This method was suitable for bulk preparation of EGCg-rich catechins from green tea leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current design practice of retaining wall is generally based on Rankine's and Coulomb's earth pressure theories that are subjected to some important limitations. In the present study, an analytical solution for displacement-dependent passive earth pressure on rigid walls is proposed by assuming a linear relationship between the passive earth pressure coefficient and displacement. Based on Coulomb's theory, the passive ultimate earth pressure coefficient is modified in order to adapt the earth pressure model to various wall movements. The proposed solution is verified with reported experimental data and shows good agreements. Based on the observed experimental data, the normalized passive ultimate displacements (s p / H) are obtained and found to be related to the n value which indicates the location of rotation center. By performing curve fitting, an exponential function of s p / H and the parameter n is proposed. Further, the influence of n value on the distribution of the proposed displacement-dependent passive earth pressure under various wall movements are studied. The proposed analytical model provides an effective approach to calculate the distribution of displacement-dependent passive earth pressure on rigid walls with various wall movements in cohesionless soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A “Sandwich” type of neutron shielding composite reinforced by carbon fiber was currently studied in view of the rapidly growing need of nuclear protective materials. Comparison to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of a variety of carbon fiber surface treatment, a new technology, named acetone–resin ultrasonic pretreatment was better to ensure that the carbon fiber and the resin glue were solidified effectively by diffusion as a whole, and also worked out the traditional problem about full impregnation of carbon fiber. Meanwhile, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetic analysis (TGA) of the composite filled with boron carbide were observed. The conclusion was that the effect of the acid anhydride type curing agent (B-570) was better than the polyamide type (TY-203) in the field of heat resistance, and the carbon fiber was helpful to improve the thermal stability of the composite when the adding content was 28.2%. In addition, the “Sandwich” type of neutron shielding composite was prepared for the tensile performance test. Compared to the boron carbide particles added directly into the composite, it has a huge performance improvement in the mechanical properties when the content of boron carbide filled with 20%, meanwhile it significantly upgrade the neutron shielding performance with spraying with 0.4mm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Ethyl acetate, n-butanol and n-hexane were used as solvents to separate catechins from green tea extract solution and the catechins were decaffeinated using citric acid solution. Ethyl acetate was confirmed to be an appropriate solvent for isolating catechins from tea extract, based on yield of catechins and concentrations of caffeine. The optimum extraction conditions were that 100 g tea was extracted in 3 L water at 80°C for 40 mm and the catechins in the extracted solution were isolated using 1.5 L ethyl acetate for three times. The extracted catechins in the ethyl acetate phase was then decaffeinated by washing the organic phase with 1.5 L of 10 g L-1 citric acid solution for three times. The obtained product contained 694.47 mg g-1 catehchins and 37.89 mg g-1 caffeine, with 78.8% caffeine being removed. The method is considered to be an alternative to replace traditional chloroform decaffeination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Metabolomic in C. paliurus leaves brewed by cold-brewing, steep-brewing, and boil-brewing were evaluated. • Fifteen potential differential metabolites were chosen and identified. • The cold-brewing method has a positive effect on the extraction of phenolic acid compounds. • These results provided a basis for making cold tea with C. paliurus leaves as raw materials. An original way of brewing Cyclocarya paliurus leaves, especially in China, is to steep leaves in hot water before people drink it directly. Recently, infusing tea leaves with cold water, a creative way in Taiwan, has become a popular way of making tea. This study was designed to investigate the differences in metabolites among three brewing methods (cold-brewing, steep-brewing, and boil-brewing) based on UPLC-QTOF-MS metabolomics experiments and the feasibility of cold-brewing methods for C. paliurus leaves. Unsupervised analysis (PCA) explained 54.6% (positive ion mode) and 57.4% (negative ion mode) of the total variance, whereas supervised analysis (OPLS-DA) with cross-validated R2Y and Q2 values > 0.5, could reveal potential metabolites with better discrimination among the three brewing methods. Fifteen potential differential metabolites were chosen and identified, and nine of them were further confirmed with reference standards. This study suggested that the cold-brewing method without an increase in temperature protected the phenol aromatic ring, thereby obtaining more phenolic acid compounds from C. paliurus leaves. These results provided a basis for making cold tea and promoting the development of cold tea with C. paliurus leaves as raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High quality training samples are essential for global land cover mapping. Traditionally, training samples are collected by field work or via manual interpretation based on high-resolution Google Earth images. Due to the difficulty of training sample collection, regular global land cover mapping is still a challenge. In this study, we developed an automatic training sample migration method based on the first all-season sample set in 2015 and all available archived Landsat 5 TM images in the Google Earth Engine cloud-based platform. By measuring the spectral similarity and spectral distance between the reference spectral and image spectral, we detected and identified the change state of training sample pixels in 2010, 2005, 2000, 1995, and 1990. Overall, 170,925 (66%), 118,586 (64%), 112,092 (67%), 154,931 (63%), and 147,267 (60%) respective training sample pixels were found with no changes over each five-year period. The detection (user's) accuracies of migrated training sample pixels as no change for the first four time periods were 99.25%, 97.65%, 95.03%, and 92.98%, respectively, by comparing with CCI-LC (Climate Change Initiative Land Cover) maps. Classification experiment showed that the migrated training samples can obtain a similar classification accuracy of 71.42% in 2010, when compared to the classification result in 2015 using the same number of training samples. Our study provides a potential solution to resolve the problem of lack of training samples for dynamic global land cover mapping efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myricetin targeting HSP90β to blocking TGF-β/Smad and non-Smad signaling pathway, and then inhibiting fibroblasts activation and EMT process, subsequently ameliorates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive-fibrosing lung disease with high mortality and limited therapy, which characterized by myofibroblasts proliferation and extracellular matrix deposition. Myricetin, a natural flavonoid, has been shown to possess a variety of biological characteristics including anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor. In this study we explored the potential effect and mechanisms of myricetin on pulmonary fibrosis in vivo and vitro. The in vivo studies showed that myricetin effectively alleviated bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis. KEGG analysis of RNA-seq data indicated that myricetin could regulate the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling pathway. In vitro studies indicated that myricetin could dose-dependently suppress TGF-β1/Smad signaling and attenuate TGF-β1-induced fibroblast activation and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Molecular docking indicated that heat shock protein (HSP) 90β may be a potential target of myricetin, and MST assay demonstrated that the dissociation constant (Kd) of myricetin and HSP90β was 331.59 nM. We demonstrated that myricetin interfered with the binding of HSP90β and TGF-β receptor II and impeded fibroblast activation and EMT. In conclusion, myricetin impedes TGF-β1-induced lung fibroblast activation and EMT via targeting HSP90β and attenuates BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans 10, cis 12-conjugated linoleic acid (t10c12-CLA) from ruminant-derived foodstuffs can induce body fat loss after oral administration. In the current study, a transgenic mouse that produced t10c12-CLA had been generated by inserting the Propionibacterium acnes isomerase (Pai) expression cassette into the Rosa26 locus, and its male offspring were used to elucidate the enduring influence of t10c12-CLA on overall health. Compared to their wild-type (wt) C57BL/6J littermates, both biallelic Pai/Pai and monoallelic Pai/wt mice exhibited reduced plasma triglycerides levels, and Pai/wt mice exclusively showed increased serum fibroblast growth factor 21. Further analysis of Pai/Pai mice found a decrease in white fat and an increase in brown fat, with more heat release and less physical activity. Analysis of Pai/Pai brown adipose tissues revealed that hyperthermia was associated with the over-expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1B, uncoupling proteins 1 and 2. These findings suggest that the systemic and long-term impact of t10c12-CLA on obesity might be mediated through the pathway of fibroblast growth factor 21 when low doses are administered or through enhanced thermogenesis of brown adipose tissues when high doses are employed. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]