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This study presents the design and implementation of a low-speed intrusion experiment under microgravity, with a strong motivation to support the pre-research of the Chinese asteroid exploration mission. In the experiment apparatus, we reconstructed an effective gravity of 10 - 2 g in a free-falling capsule in the drop tower. The simulant of regolith particles is processed using natural basalt and sorted using layered screens. The irregular shapes of the particles are retained to mimic the realistic regolith. A detailed description of the experimental system components and the full-cycle procedure is first presented, which gives 3.6 s of microgravity time for each trial. Repeatable controlled experiments are performed to characterize the dynamical responses of the simulant particles under centimeter-per second intrusion. The results reveal diverse responses that depend on different variables, and the mechanism of different responses is discussed based on theories of granular mechanics. This experimental study is expected to improve our understanding of the contact mechanics of regolith material, which will facilitate the operation design of future asteroid missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image dehazing is always a hot topic in the field of computer vision since haze has significant impact on the imaging quality of camera. Therefore, many image dehazing methods have been proposed for the past decades. To help researchers who are new to this field quickly figure out the development history as well as the current status of image dehazing, this review analyzes some representative dehazing methods, evaluates their advantages and disadvantages, and most importantly, points out the best dehazing method from different viewpoints. A large quantity of experiments show that AECR-Net can be generally considered to be the best dehazing algorithm and Tarel method can be regarded as the best real-time dehazing method. Besides, the mainstream benchmark, metrics, challenges and opportunities for image dehazing are also discussed in this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PiGF (Phosphor-in-glass film) with high color rendering was successfully prepared at a low sintering temperature. The influence of sintering temperature, the mass ratio of glass and phosphor, and different fluorescent layers on the luminescence properties of PiGF was systematically studied. It is of note that the "cyan cavity" is significantly reduced due to the addition of "cyan phosphor" (BaSi 2 O 2 N 2 :Eu2+). Under 455 nm blue light laser excitation, PiGF has the highest luminous efficiency of 94.55 lm/W and a white light composite PiGF with a correlated color temperature of 5500 K and a color rendering index of 95 can be obtained. In short, this work shows that the PiGF has great potential application in white light laser lighting. • The PiGF has a very high color rendering index, which can reach 95. • While maintaining a high color rendering index, the correlated color temperature is low, only about 5500 K. • First application of cyan phosphor (BaSi 2 O 2 N 2 :Eu2+) to laser lighting to fill in cyan glow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of biogas production from straws is limited by the collection, transportation, storage, and pretreatment of feedstocks. To address these constraints, this study investigated briquetting as a pretreatment strategy for rice straw (RS) to increase bioenergy generation. The results indicated that briquetted RS yielded 205.4 mL/g VS of methane, which was 11.7% higher compared to that produced by the untreated RS. The economic analysis revealed that the briquetting process had positive effects with a payback time of 3.4 y and an internal rate of return of 23.4%. It also reduced feedstock transportation and storage costs by 42.6%. Adding a NaOH treatment to the briquetting process increased methane production by 26.4% compared to untreated RS. However, the integration of briquetting with NaOH treatment might be an unprofitable method for processing RS. This became apparent when examining the production cost, which stood at 1.13 $/kg biomethane with an internal rate of return of 16.2%, representing an 8.7% increase and a 7.2% decrease, respectively, compared to the mono briquetting method. These results revealed that briquetting as a source pretreatment strategy can improve the productivity of straw biogas plants, thereby advancing the industry towards cleaner production. [Display omitted] • Briquetting, a source pretreatment strategy, improved straw biogas production. • The briquetting strategy integrates the collection and pretreatment of rice straw. • The proposed strategy reduced straw transportation and storage costs by 42.6%. • Adding an NaOH treatment reduced the profitability of a straw biogas plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An identification method is proposed for errors-in-variables (EIV) ARX model with input time-varying time-delays. A Markov chain is used to model varying time delays whose parameters are also estimated. The EIV system accounts for noises in both input and output. To estimate noise-free input, a linear state space model is used to describe input generation process and a Kalman smoother is adopted for its estimation. An expectation maximization algorithm is used to estimate ARX model parameters. A spinning process of polyester fiber and a continuous stirred tank reactor process are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. • Time-varying time-delays are considered for Errors-in-variables (EIV) system. • Kalman smoother is used to estimation the noise-free input. • The EM algorithm is used to estimate the EIV-TD system parameters and update the noise variance of the input data. • Two simulations are provided for performance evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on plant anti-oxygenation and programmed cell death (PCD) in fresh-cut pumpkins was investigated. Exogenous GABA positively promoted GABA accumulation and alleviated oxidant damage in pumpkins tissue. Pumpkins treated with GABA showed lower electrolyte leakage, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and MDA content, while higher activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) as compared to the non-treated tissues. Our results also found that GABA treatment retarded DNA degradation and cytochrome c release and delayed the apoptosis of pumpkin cells. On the other hand, the inhibitor of GABA generation, 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MP) treatment not only accelerated oxidant damage, but also induced cell death involving chromatin condensation, DNA ladder and cytochrome c releasing. Taken together, our present research indicated that exogenous GABA could alleviate the wound-induced oxidative stress and PCD occurrence in fresh-cut pumpkins. [Display omitted] • Exogenous GABA alleviated oxidant damage in fresh-cut pumpkins. • 3-Mercaptopropionic acid treatment accelerated oxidant damage and induced PCD. • GABA involved the PCD event and delayed PCD process in fresh-cut pumpkins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphor-in-glass (PiG) is one of the most important spectral converters to overcome thermal effect in high-power white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 –B 2 O 3 –ZnO–Na 2 O–Li 2 O glass was designed and sintered with Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce3+ (YAG: Ce) phosphors at the low temperature of 650 °C to obtain YAG: Ce-PiG. The optimized YAG: Ce-PiG shows the white light of the luminous efficiency (LE), correlated color temperature (CCT) and chromaticity coordinate (CIE) of 177.5 lm/W, 6410 K and (0.31,0.34), respectively. The white LEDs (WLED) were fabricated by coupling the YAG: Ce-PiG with a blue light emitting chip, and the correlation between the luminescence properties, the thickness of PiG and the ratio of phosphors was investigated. More importantly, the WLEDs of a maximum luminous efficiency can reach up to 199.5 lm/W with the thickness of 0.35 mm. In addition, a structure with vacuum packaging technique based on the WLEDs lighting combined with sapphire as substrate was fabricated, which can effectively reduce the heat accumulation during the working process of WLEDs. Compared with normal non-vacuum packaging, the working temperature of WLEDs was reduced by about 35%, from 359.2 to 232.2 °C, with the novel vacuum packaging technique under 30W high-power chip and the luminous performance can still be maintained at 94.7%. In a word, the prepared YAG: Ce-PiG exhibits a great potential for application in high-power solid-state WLEDs. • The new glass matrix of Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 –B 2 O 3 –ZnO–Na 2 O–Li 2 O was designed and the thermal quenching effect of PiG was alleviated. • The white LEDs fabricated using PiG with high thermal stability and luminous efficiency reach up to 199.5 lm/W. • The vacuum packaging technique can significantly reduce heat accumulation in high-power white light-emitting diodes by 35%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The symptom-related neurobiology characteristic of schizophrenia in the brain from a network perspective is still poorly understood, leading to a lack of potential biologically-based markers and difficulty identifying therapeutic targets. We aim to test the dysregulated cross-network interactions among the Salience Network (SN), Central Executive Network (CEN) and Default Mode Network (DMN) and how they contributed to different symptoms in schizophrenia patients.Methods: We examined network interactions among the SN, CEN and DMN in 76 patients with schizophrenia vs. 80 well-matched controls using dynamic causal modeling (DCM). We further analyzed the relation between network dynamics and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).Results: We observed that the DMN, CEN and SN across healthy controls and schizophrenia patients showed several similarities within or between-network pattern in the resting state. Comparing schizophrenia to controls, SN-centered cross-network interactions were most significantly reduced. Crucially, the strength of connections from CEN subnetwork 1 to DMN subnetwork 1 was positively correlated with the Positive Score of PANSS. The connection from the DMN subnetwork 2 to CEN subnetwork 2 was negatively correlated with the Negative Score of PANSS.Conclusions: Our study provides strong evidence for the dysregulation among SN, CEN and DMN in a triple-network perspective in schizophrenia. The connection between DMN and CEN could be clinically-relevant neurobiological signature of schizophrenia symptoms. Our study indicated that the description of brain triple network hypothesis could be a novel and possible bio-marker for schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a promising reaction, it could convert two greenhouse gases CO 2 and CH 4 into syngas (CO and H 2) which could provide a mixed fuel for daily life or chemical feedstock for industrial application. Transition metals were widely applied in this process, however, single component of transition metal catalysts could not meet the stability, selectivity and activity demands simultaneously. And the coke formation on the catalysts is the major barrier to the commercialization of DRM. This review presents a systematic discussion and analysis of methane dry reforming to syngas in the catalytic process from both experimental study and density functional theory (DFT) calculation based on recent research. It includes catalytic performance test of activity, selectivity and stability in DRM on monometallic and bimetallic systems, and also gives the discussion of carbon formation in the former parts. The later parts focus on CH 4 and CO 2 activation over monometal and bimetal surface using DFT simulation. The rate determining step and reaction mechanisms involved in DRM are obtained based on thermodynamic analysis and microkinetic model. In the end, we give our outlook to the design and preparation of good performance catalysts as well as further theoretical simulation and analysis in DRM. This review could provide some useful information for going into methane dry reforming from both experimental application and atomic scale. Image 1 • Dry reforming of methane could provide a mixed fuel or chemical feedstock. • Coke formation on the catalysts is the major barrier. • It includes catalytic performance test of activity, selectivity and stability. • The rate determining step and reaction mechanisms involved are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main challenges for developing data-based models lie in the existence of high-dimensional and possibly missing observations that exist in stored data from industry process. Variational autoencoder (VAE) as one of the deep learning methods has been applied for extracting useful information or features from high-dimensional dataset. Considering that existing VAE is unsupervised, an output-relevant VAE is proposed for extracting output-relevant features in this work. By using correlation between process variables, different weight is correspondingly assigned to each input variable. With symmetric Kullback–Leibler (SKL) divergence, the similarity is evaluated between the stored samples and a query sample. According to the values of the SKL divergence, data relevant for modeling are selected. Subsequently, Gaussian process regression (GPR) is utilized to establish a model between the input and the corresponding output at the query sample. In addition, owing to the common existence of missing data in output data set, the parameters and missing data in the GPR are estimated simultaneously. A practical debutanizer industrial process is utilized to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. • An output-relevant VAE is proposed for extracting output-relevant features by using correlation between process variables. • With symmetric Kullback–Leibler divergence, the similarity is evaluated between the stored samples and a query sample. According to the values of the SKL divergence, data relevant for modeling are selected. • Owing to the common existence of missing data in output data set, the parameters and missing data in the GPR are estimated simultaneously. • A practical debutanizer industrial process is utilized to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a deep convolutional network for single image dehazing based on derived image fusion strategy. Instead of estimating the transmission map and atmospheric light as previously performed, we directly generate a haze-free image by the proposed end-to-end trainable neural network. We derive five maps from the original hazy image based on the characteristics of the hazy scene to improve the dehazing performance. First, the exposure map (EM) and saliency map (SM) complement each other to focus on details in far-away and near-region scenes. Second, the white balance map (BM) and gamma correction map (GM) are employed to recover the latent colour and intensity components of the scene. Finally, the haze veil map (VM) is introduced to enhance the global image contrast. To efficiently blend the five derived maps, we propose a U-shaped deep convolutional network consisting of encoder and decoder layers to generate a haze-free image. The convolutional layers transferred from the pretrained ResNet50 are used as encoder layers for hierarchical feature extraction. Two efficient blocks, named the cascaded residual block and the channel compression block, are proposed in the network for better dehazing performance. The final dehazed result is generated by combining the significant features of the different derived maps. Additionally, perceptual loss is introduced for better visual quality. The experimental results for both synthetic and natural hazy images demonstrate that our algorithm performs comparably or even better than state-of-the-art methods in terms of the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structure similarity (SSIM) and visual quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence of structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia, the current study aimed to explore the effects of antipsychotic treatment on gray matter (GM) volume using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and investigate the relationship between brain structure and treatment response. The GM volumes of 33 patients with first-episode schizophrenia were calculated with voxel-based morphometry (VBM), with 33 matched healthy controls. Longitudinal volume changes within subjects after 4-month antipsychotic treatment were also evaluated. Correlation between volumetric changes and clinical symptoms derived from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were further investigated. Compared with healthy controls, decreased GM volumes in the frontal gyrus were observed in schizophrenia patients. After 4-month treatment, patients showed significantly decreased GM volume primarily in the bilateral frontal, temporal and left parietal brain regions. In addition, the GM volume changes of the left postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with negative symptoms improvement, and the correlation analysis revealed the total PANSS scores changes were associated with GM volume changes in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus. Besides, non-responders had reduced GM volume in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus compared with responders and healthy controls. Our results suggest that the abnormality in the right frontal gyrus exists in the early stage of schizophrenia. Moreover, the relationship between antipsychotics and structural changes was identified. The GM volume might have the potential to reflect the symptom improvement in schizophrenia patients. And MRI may assist in predicting the antipsychotic treatment response in first-episode schizophrenia patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the functional network properties in first-episode schizophrenia (SZ) patients at baseline and after 4-months treatment with second-generation antipsychotic drugs.Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory approaches were utilized to evaluate the functional integration and segregation of brain networks in 36 first-episode patients (20 male/16 female) with SZ and 36 age and sex matched healthy controls (20 male/16 female).Results: Compared with healthy controls, SZ at baseline showed lower clustering coefficient (Cp) and local network efficiency (Eloc), and this abnormal pattern was modulated with treatment of antipsychotic drugs at follow-up. Longitudinally, the increase of Cp was associated with the improvement of negative symptom. We found that the strength of functional connectivity between brain regions were significantly increased in three connections after treatment, mainly involving the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes.Conclusion: The current study suggested that antipsychotic drugs could modulate the faulty local clustering of the functional connectome in SZ. Furthermore, Cp, the parameter that reflects local clustering of topological organization, demonstrated the potential to be a connectome-based biomarker of treatment response to second-generation antipsychotics in patients with SZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A SPMM with eight stable equilibrium states is proposed. • The kinetostatic model and the multi-stability topologies of SPMM are developed. • The stabilities and switching paths are verified by experiments. A multi-stable flexible mechanism is a mechanical device that can switch to different stable equilibrium states under external power. Most existing multi-stable mechanisms are achieved by splicing bi-stable mechanisms. This paper proposes a novel Spatial Parallel Multi-stable Mechanism (SPMM) without bi-stable mechanisms connected, which even could achieve eight stable equilibrium states and meanwhile contain bi-stable mechanisms' advantages such like simple structure and reliable abilities. To identify the equilibrium states, the paper develops a kinetostatic model using the Energy-Kinematics Differential Equations (EKDE) for the proposed SPMM. Based on the equilibrium states, the multi-stability topologies are drawn referring to direct groups, including the distribution of various equilibrium states and the switching paths between every two stable states. At last, the paper shows the experimental results of a 3D printed prototype and verify the eight-stability behaviors and the switching paths through unstable equilibrium states. A concept of the application in deformable cable protection shell using the SPMM is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A design method of parallel flexible mechanisms is proposed. • Principles of stiffness superposition and joint type determination are deduced. • A design example of the RCC and the final structure are presented. Parallel flexible mechanisms with joints can better avoid stress concentration and achieve large motion range compared with integrated-structure ones. However, because of the lack of a mathematical model that can describe the stiffness contribution from the joints to the whole mechanism, the mechanism design is difficult and needs to be addressed. This paper proposes a synchronous design method involving stiffness and topology for parallel flexible mechanisms. To introduce and explain this method, this paper deduces two fundamental principles, namely, "Linear Stiffness Superposition Principle (LSSP)" and "Joint Type Determination Principle (JTDP)", and their deduction processes serve as the cores of the design method. To verify the method's effectiveness, a design process of a Remote Central Compliance (RCC) is presented as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonlinear sliding-mode (SLM) controller based on the maximum jerk and time-optimal step response has been developed for the control of servo-solenoid valves, which exhibits its performance advantages when compared to traditional PID controller. However, the experiments shows the responses of the SLM control under only jerk constraint will largely vary with different damping and loads, leading to the large overshoot and breakdown under some working conditions (e.g., large viscous damping coefficient). Thus, an improved SLM controller is developed in this paper to deal with the existing drawbacks, where a novel nonlinear SLM surface is proposed by taking into account both spool’s acceleration and jerk limitation. Firstly, the nominal model of servo-solenoid valve is built by linearizing the dynamics on the null position, and the system identification is carried out to achieve the model parameters and their variation ranges. Subsequently, the valve constraints under the power limitation are analyzed through the frequency response of the identified model, which comes out the maximum available velocity, acceleration and jerk. Finally, the improved SLM control algorithm is proposed, where the novel SLM surface considers the maximum plus jerk, the maximum minus jerk and the maximum acceleration. Experimental studies are conducted and the results show that the improved SLM controller under both acceleration and jerk constraints can achieve the continuous and stable sliding mode state, realize the time-optimal step response of the valve, and exhibit strong disturbance rejection abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous findings across studies of structural abnormality in schizophrenia (SZ) have impeded the development a unified theory of white matter pathology. As a cardinal symptom of SZ, auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) has been suspected to be associated with improper communication among several brain regions, which might indicated white matter pathology. Participants comprised 25 first-episode (FE) patients with AVH, 25 patients without AVH and 25 healthy subjects. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures were calculated using the TBSS of FSL. Voxel-based ANOVA tests were performed among the three groups and threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) method correction was used for multiple comparisons. Voxel-based one-way ANOVA showed significant group effects for fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) values. Post-hoc t -tests indicated that schizophrenia patients had lower FA and higher RD values in the internal capsule and anterior corona radiata than control subjects. Post-hoc analyses exhibited more widespread fiber disruptions in AVH patients than non-AVH patients. These results hinted on the important role of projection fiber disruption in schizophrenia patients. In addition, the current study also suggested that direct comparison between studies using patients with different symptom profiles should be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper proposes a structure of a planar three-limb flexible mechanism. • The determination of equilibrium and stability by contour maps is introduced. • The variation of the multi-stability topology of the mechanism is analyzed. In general, the classical multi-stable mechanisms are made of single-loop bi-stable mechanism elements, but this paper proposes a novel structure of a planar three-limb flexible mechanism whose multi-stability is dependent on the structure parameters. The structure of this flexible mechanism is ingeniously designed to have a large selection range of the original limb length, resulting in the variation of the multi-stability distribution and the possible switching paths. To analyze the variation of this flexible mechanism, the paper introduces a method avoiding computational singularity to determine the stability by contour map and a method to draw the multi-stability topology to seek for the possible switching paths. Using these methods, the paper presents the variation of the multi-stability topology of an axisymmetric and two mirror-symmetric planar three-limb flexible mechanisms as the original length of the limbs increases. The results shows the mulita-stability of this flexible mechanism can be determined by the original length of the limbs and limb arrangement. The whole statements provide a theoretical basis for designing and applying such type of flexible multi-stable mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The prediction bias is mainly caused by data imbalance. • Curriculum coefficients are useful for mining hard samples and improving model generalization. • Teacher-student network ensures unbiased glaucoma diagnoses and evidence map predictions. • The evidence map output by the student network can provide more detailed information. Glaucoma is a disease that causes irreversible damage to the optic nerve. Research on accurate automatic screening algorithms is essential for the prevention and treatment of glaucoma. However, due to the imbalance of existing datasets and the existence of some hard samples that accompany other diverse and complex fundus diseases, the performance of current glaucoma screening algorithms is limited. In addition, the lack of interpretability also makes it difficult for the current algorithms to meet the requirements of clinical applications. In this paper, we propose a new multitask curriculum learning framework (MTCLF) for unbiased glaucoma screenings and visualizations of model decision-making areas. MTCLF is a teacher-student framework. The teacher network is used to generate the label evidence map. The student network can diagnose glaucoma and predict the evidence map at the same time with the well-designed dual-branch CNN structure and collaborative learning module. We design two curriculum coefficients θ and σ to guide the training process of the student network in the sample space so that the student network can adaptively balance the sample contribution, reduce the prediction bias and mine hard samples. The experimental results show that the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, AUC and F 2 -score of MTCLF based on the LAG dataset for glaucoma diagnoses are 0.967, 0.961, 0.970, 0.996, and 0.958, respectively. These results are superior to those of the state-of-the-art methods. MTCLF not only achieves the best performance for unbiased glaucoma diagnoses but also generates a reliable evidence map to help clinicians explore fine lesion areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dilated convolutions ensure better feature transfer and accurate classification that result in a sensitivity boost. • Dilated convolutions serve as the main constituents of decoder, encoder blocks and skip connections. • Dilated convolutions of different rates are more effective at capturing dynamically complex blood vessels. • Proposed Weighted multi-output fusion retrieves high fidelity vascular map by extracting critical features from each output block. Retinal image segmentation can help clinicians detect pathological disorders by studying changes in retinal blood vessels. This early detection can help prevent blindness and many other vision impairments. So far, several supervised and unsupervised methods have been proposed for the task of automatic blood vessel segmentation. However, the sensitivity and the robustness of these methods can be improved by correctly classifying more vessel pixels. We proposed an automatic, retinal blood vessel segmentation method based on the U-net architecture. This end-to-end framework utilizes preprocessing and a data augmentation pipeline for training. The architecture utilizes multiscale input and multioutput modules with improved skip connections and the correct use of dilated convolutions for effective feature extraction. In multiscale input, the input image is scaled down and concatenated with the output of convolutional blocks at different points in the encoder path to ensure the feature transfer of the original image. The multioutput module obtains upsampled outputs from each decoder block that are combined to obtain the final output. Skip paths connect each encoder block with the corresponding decoder block, and the whole architecture utilizes different dilation rates to improve the overall feature extraction. The proposed method achieved an accuracy: of 0.9680, 0.9694, and 0.9701; sensitivity of 0.8837, 0.8263, and 0.8713; and Intersection Over Union (IOU) of 0.8698, 0.7951, and 0.8184 with three publicly available datasets: DRIVE, STARE, and CHASE, respectively. An ablation study is performed to show the contribution of each proposed module and technique. The evaluation metrics revealed that the performance of the proposed method is higher than that of the original U-net and other U-net-based architectures, as well as many other state-of-the-art segmentation techniques, and that the proposed method is robust to noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mannose delayed the decline of chlorophyll content. • Mannose regulated the gene expressions of chlorophyll catabolic enzymes. • Mannose retarded the PCD in broccoli by a mitochondria-dependent pathway. The effect of mannose treatment on chlorophyll catabolism and programmed cell death (PCD) in broccoli florets during storage at 20 ℃ has been investigated. The results showed that mannose treatment efficiently restrained chlorophyll degradation in broccoli florets via regulating chlorophyll catabolism genes (BoPPH, BoPAO, BoRCCR, BoSGR1 and BoSGR2). Meanwhile, mannose treatment efficiently suppressed the occurrence of PCD through the mitochondria-dependent pathway in broccoli florets. Less reactive oxygen species content observed in mannose-treated broccoli florets delayed the increase of mitochondrial membrane potential and inhibited unfolding of mitochondria permeability transition pore, which was associated with the inhibition of cytochrome c liberation in mitochondria and the maintenance of high levels of cytochrome c/a and the ratio of Ca2+ content, the activities of cytochrome c oxidase and alternative oxidase. These results suggested that mannose treatment inhibited senescence of broccoli florets through suppressing the chlorophyll degradation and the appearance of PCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the structure of corn, a NiFe Prussian blue analogue nanocages decorated magnesium hydroxide composite was synthesized for the first time using magnesium hydroxide rods (RMH) as the "corn cob", a Prussian blue analogue (PBA) as the "corn kernels" and polydopamine (PDA) as the membrane linking RMH and PBA. Subsequently, the RMH@PDA@PBA composite was introduced into epoxy resin (EP) to improve its fire retardancy and mechanical properties. The composition, structure and morphology of the RMH@PDA@PBA-incorporated EP composite were investigated. The tensile strength of EP with 3 wt.% RMH@PDA@PBA reached 41.77 MPa, which is higher than that of neat EP (40.51 MPa). The fire-retardant assessments illustrated that the limiting oxygen index and vertical burning tests (UL-94) of EP composite with 3 wt.% RMH@PDA@PBA progressed to 32.3% and the V-0 level as compared to those of virgin EP (24.4% and no rating). In addition, as compared to virgin EP, the peak heat release rate, peak smoke production rate, total heat release at 200 s and total smoke production at 200 s of EP/3RMH@PDA@PBA decreased by 43.1%, 50.0%, 43.9% and 56.3%, respectively. The investigation of the underlying mechanism revealed that the flame retardancy and smoke suppression of EP/3RMH@PDA@PBA were attributed to the endothermic decomposition of RMH, "gauze barrier" mechanism of MgO/FeO, catalytic charring effect of Fe derivatives (MgO/FeO, FeNi 3 , Fe 5 C 2 , Fe 2 N, etc.) and free radical scavenging effect of PBA@Fe[Ⅲ]. Thus, this study on bio-inspired hierarchical nanostructures paves a new pathway for the efficient production of fire-safe polymers. [Display omitted] • A novel low-cost RMH@PDA@PBA with corn structure was first prepared. • The RMH@PDA@PBA significantly improves the fire safety of epoxy resin. • 3 wt.% RMH@PDA@PBA endowed epoxy resin with UL-94 V-0 and reduced smoke production. • The addition of RMH@PDA@PBA enhanced the mechanical properties of epoxy resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Nanohybrids GPM with different GO content were synthesized via one-step hydrothermal method. • GPM improved the fire safety of EP with significantly reducing the PHRR, THR, PCOP and TSP with only 3 wt% loading. • Excellent fire safety of EP/GPM attributed to the comprehensive synergistic effect of Mg(OH) 2 and GO. • GPM exhibited superior mechanical properties compared to that of Mg(OH) 2. With the rapid development of Graphene based hybrid materials, various of them were fabricated to improve the fire safety of EP. However, the effect of GO content in the hybrid material on flame retardancy of EP composites is rarely reported. In order to find the optimal ratio of GO/Mg(OH) 2 , platelet-like Mg(OH) 2 functioned graphene (GPM) were synthesized with diverse content GO substance and then presented into EP resin for improving its fire retardancy. Various characterizations confirmed its composition, structure and morphology. The incorporation of GPM contains about 1% GO increased the tensile strength by 31.6% compared to that of untreated Mg(OH) 2. The GPM contains about 5% GO exhibited the finest fire safety in various EP composites. The fire-retardant assessments illustrated that the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of EP composite with 3 wt% GPM progressed to 27.8% compared with virgin EP (24.4%). In parallel, compared to virgin EP, the peak heat release rate, peak smoke production rate, total smoke production and peak CO production rate of EP/5GPM were diminished by 50.9%, 44.0 %, 25.5% and 53.1%, separately. The mechanism investigation revealed that the prominent flame retardancy and smoke suppression were attributed to the physical barrier of GO, the endothermic decomposition of Mg(OH) 2 , the barrier effect of MgO and synergistic effect between GO and Mg(OH) 2 toward the optimized carbonization. In perspective, hierarchical platelet structure with synergistic effect offered an effective approach for the fire-safe polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development of tungsten and molybdenum resources requires a new clean and recyclable separation technology. This work proposes a recyclable clean separation technology of tungsten and molybdenum with a porous amine resin. The resin was well prepared by assembling amine groups on trioctylamine (TOA) and the porous resin matrix D301 by the dipping method. Here, pH 7.8, temperature 25 °C, and reaction time 240 min was used as optimum condition, resulting in the highest sorption capacity 236 mg g−1, and it has a good cycle performance, exhibiting a retention rate of 90% after five cycles. Experimental spectroscopy combined theoretical calculation confirmed that this sustainable sorption behavior is substantially related to the amine functional groups on the resin. Experimental spectroscopy illustrated that the Cl− ions in the amine resin and the MoS 4 2− ions were subjected to ion exchange. Theoretical investigations further confirm that the sorption site is at the N atoms, the sorption behavior is chemical binding with the binding energy −0.055 Ha, and the bonding method is the s orbit of the N atoms in the amine resin hybridized with the s orbit of the S atoms in the amine resin. Owing to such an excellent performance in the selective sorption of molybdenum from the tungstate solution, the amine resin is greatly promising in the tungsten and molybdenum waste recovery field. [Display omitted] • A porous amine resin with 236 mg g−1 sorption capacity for molybdenum was prepared. • Experimental spectra confirmed the ion exchange mechanism between Cl− and MoS 4 2−. • Theoretical calculations determined the sorption site and bonding behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Novel field emitters with α-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites were simply prepared by dipping the iron into the oxalic acid solution, drop-coating CNTs to the iron substrate followed by in situ thermal oxidation. The surface morphology of the products has been characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). And further the composition was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of SEM, XRD and XPS showed that CNTs have been homogenously dispersed and partly wrapped on α-Fe2O3 nanorods. α-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites had exhibited greatly enhanced field emission properties with low turn-on field (about 1.211V/μm), and high field enhancement factor of 8658. Therefore, the α-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites are promising field emitters for field emission applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: When rhegmatogenous retinal detachment occurs, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) among other cytokines leaks into the subretinal space, induces resident retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to migrate, which is the initial step of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). In the current study, we aim to understand how this is regulated by focusing the cellular mechanisms involved. Here we indentified an Akt/Tuberous sclerosis protein 2 (TSC2)/mTOR complex1 (mTORC1) signaling pathway after TNF-α treatment to mediate RPE cell migration. Suppression of mTORC1 activation, either by its inhibitor rapamycin, or by activation of its suppressor AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK), inhibited TNF-α-mediated RPE cell migration, while RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knocking-down of SIN1 or Rictor, two key components of mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2), had no significant effect on TNF-α-induced RPE cell migration. Our data provide initial evidence that TNF-α-mediated in vitro RPE cell migration mainly requires Akt/mTORC1, but not mTORC2 signaling. The results of this study may lead to indentify novel signaling targets against PVR. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: o-Carboranyl aminoalcohols were synthesized using a standard Mannich reaction, and were tested for their anticancer properties using an in vitro test for CT26 cancer cells. The polar periphery of the aminoalcohols benefited from the high boron uptake in CT26 cancer cells with low toxicity, indicating their potential as BNCT agents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Synthesis, structural characterization, and biological activity studies of o-carborane-substituted 1,3,5-triazines (9–12) containing polar functional groups such as methoxyethyl and t-butoxycarbonylmethyl amine units are described. De-methylation of di(methoxyethyl)amine functionalized triazines 9 and 10 resulted in the production of di(hydroxyethyl)amine derivatives 13 and 14. NMR (1H and 13C) and X-ray crystallographic studies confirmed the structures derived from the sequential o-carborane substitution on the 1,3,5-triazine core. Preliminary in vitro studies revealed that compounds 9, 10, 13, and 14, despite their low cytotoxicity, accumulated at high levels in B-16 melanoma cells. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The morphological transformation process from CdS nanorods to hexagonal CdS flakes was investigated in detail by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The CdS flakes were liable to form with the alkalinity being increased and the reaction time being prolonged. Using this transformation, hexagonal CdS flakes with diameters of 0.3cm were grown via a recrystallization process in 6mol/L sodium hydroxide solution at 250°C. And the formation mechanism of CdS flakes is suggested based on the growth habits of polar crystals under proper basic hydrothermal conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An alcohol-thermal route has been developed to the growth of single crystals of yellow metastable PbO in largest dimensions of 11×1×0.1mm3, using freshly synthesized β-PbO crystallites as seeds. The transformation of metastable β-PbO to stable form (α-PbO) can be slowed down by choosing appropriate solvent as the growth medium. The obtained β-PbO crystals have a strong orientational growth parallel to the (001) plane and exhibit a lath shape. Studies found that cooling rate and NaOH concentration also have great influence on the crystallographic forms of the final products during the alcohol-thermal process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Powdered zirconium nitride (ZrN) has been prepared via a benzene-thermal synthesis via the reaction of anhydrous zirconium tetrachloride (ZrCl4) and lithium nitride (Li3N) at a temperature of 380–400 °C. The product was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the results show the mole ratio of Zr/N is 1:0.87. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern can be indexed to the cubic cell of ZrN with the lattice constant a=4.5675 A˚. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images indicate that average particle size is about 180 nm in diameter. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • A way to efficiently utilize BPS was found by batch and semi-continuous experiments. • AcoD showed synergistic effect, with best result noted with a BPS:CM ratio of 4:1. • The advantage of AcoD over AD is amplified with increasing OLR. • AcoD enhanced the coordination and efficiency among the key digestion bacteria. This study aimed to investigate the interactions between banana pseudo-stems (BPS) and chicken manure (CM) during anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) in batch and semi-continuous experiments. The batch experiments results showed that the methane yield was the highest (193.7 mL/g VS) in AcoD with BPS: CM ratio of 4:1, which was increased by 57.2% and 66.1%, respectively. Semi-continuous experiments revealed that AcoD resulted in higher methane production. Monitoring of the system parameters indicated that AcoD could better adapt to the increasing organic loading rate, with better system stability and methane production efficiency. The microbial analysis illustrated that AcoD increased the relative abundance of hydrolytic bacteria such as Firmicutes, Patescibacteria, and Bacteroidetes. With regard to archaea, AcoD improved the abundance of Methanosaeta , the major acetoclastic methanogens. These changes in the microbial flora allowed AcoD to remain stable while efficiently producing methane and improved the BPS and CM processing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Under the JITL framework, GMVAE is utilized to extract latent representations with multimode characteristics by considering Gaussian mixture models in the latent space. • Each latent variable can be described through a Gaussian mixture distribution. Subsequently, a MSKL divergence is utilized to measure its similarity. • Based on the MSKL divergence, weighted input and output historical data are obtained, and then a local model is established. • The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through a numerical example along with simulation on the TE benchmark process. Industrial data are often high-dimensional, nonlinear and multiple-modal. This paper develops a soft sensor model based on Gaussian mixture Variational Autoencoder (GMVAE) under the just-in-time learning (JITL) framework. To extract latent representations with multimode characteristics, GMVAE as a deep neural network model is utilized by considering Gaussian mixture models (GMM) in the latent space. After training the GMVAE model, each latent (or feature) variable can be described through a Gaussian mixture distribution. Subsequently, when a new sample arrives, a mixture symmetric Kullback-Leibler (MSKL) divergence is utilized to measure its similarity with historical data samples. MSKL divergence can measure similarity between two Gaussian mixture probability density functions. Based on the MSKL divergence, weighted input and output historical data are obtained, and then a local model is established. The effectiveness of the proposed soft sensor modeling method is validated through a numerical example along with simulation on the Tennessee Eastman benchmark process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pectolinarigenin exhibited antifibrotic activity in TGFβ1-induced fibroblasts. • Pectolinarigenin alleviated kidney fibrosis in mice after UUO surgery. • Pectolinarigenin suppressed SMAD3 phosphorylation in kidneys of UUO mice. • Pectolinarigenin inhibited STAT3 activation in kidneys of UUO mice. Renal fibrosis is a final common manifestation of CKD resulting in progressive loss of kidney function. The activation of SMAD3 and STAT3 played central roles in the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis, which has been recognized as potential targets for antifibrotic therapy. As we known, the potential of natural products as the candidates for drug discovery has been well recognized. Here, we identified that pectolinarigenin (PEC), as a natural flavonoid and a reported STAT3 inhibitor, dose-dependently suppressed TGFβ/SMADs activity in HEK293 cells by luciferase reporter assay. In TGFβ1-stimulated NRK-49F fibroblast, PEC blocked the phosphorylation of SMAD3 and STAT3, and downregulated the major fibrotic gene and protein expression of TGFβ, α-SMA, COL-1, and FN. Notably, oral administration of PEC at a dose of 25 mg/kg/d for 7 days or 14 days effectively ameliorated kidney injury and tubulointerstitial fibrosis after unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) surgery in mice. Mechanically, PEC treatment inhibited the phosphorylated activation of SMAD3 and STAT3, which further reduced the protein expression of TGFβ, α-SMA, COL-1, and FN in the obstructed kidneys of UUO mice. In summary, our results suggested that pectolinarigenin alleviated tubulointerstitial fibrosis by inhibiting the activation of SMAD3 and STAT3 signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• RHA is involved in a variety of biological processes. • RHA associates with DNA viruses including HAdV, HCMV, MYXV, EBV, KSHV, and HBV. • CREB-mediated transcriptional activity is inhibited by EBV SM or KSHV vPK. • RHA participates in replication of HBV via multiple mechanisms. RNA helicase A (RHA) is a ubiquitously expressed DExH-box helicase enzyme that is involved in a wide range of biological processes including transcription, translation, and RNA processing. A number of RNA viruses recruit RHA to the viral RNA to facilitate virus replication. DNA viruses contain a DNA genome and replicate using a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. RHA has also been reported to associate with some DNA viruses during replication, in which the enzyme acts on the viral RNA or protein products. As shown for Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, RHA has potential to allow the virus to control a switch in cellular gene expression to modulate the antiviral response. While the study of the interaction of RHA with DNA viruses is still at an early stage, preliminary evidence indicates that the underlying molecular mechanisms are diverse. We now review the current status of this emerging field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Traditional Gaussian Process Regression models typically assume independent identically distributed noises for all observations. However, applications with colored noises/disturbances frequently arise in modeling of complex processes. • We modeled the colored noise by an ARMA time series model and determined its covariance for subsequent Gaussian Process modeling. • A novel approach based on hybrid kernels is proposed, thereby avoiding parametric modeling of the colored noises. • A synthetic data, a simulated example and a polyester polymerization process were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Traditional Gaussian Process Regression (TGPR) models typically assume independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) noises for all observations. However, applications with colored noises/disturbances frequently arise in modeling of complex processes. In this work, first, we consider to model noise by an ARMA time series model and determine its covariance for subsequent Gaussian Process (GP) modeling. Then a novel approach based on hybrid kernels is proposed, thereby avoiding parametric modeling of the colored noises. Moreover, all hyper-parameters are estimated simultaneously by using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Finally, a synthetic data, a simulated example, as well as a polyester polymerization process are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Excessive uric acid (UA) level in the blood leads to hyperuricemic nephropathy (HN), which is characterized by glomerular hypertension, arteriolosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) is a potential mediator of inflammatory responses which contributes to renal interstitial fibrosis. However, the roles of FABP4 in HN remains unknown. In the study, a mouse model of HN induced by feeding a mixture of adenine and potassium oxonate, severe kidney injury and interstitial fibrosis, as well as the increased kidney-expressed FABP4 protein level were evident, accompanied by the activation of inflammatory responses. Oral administration of BMS309403, a highly selective FABP4 inhibitor, improved renal dysfunction, inhibited the mRNA level of KIM-1 and NGAL, as well as reduced the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and fibrotic proteins in the injured kidneys. BMS309403 treatment also inhibited the FABP4 activity and further suppressed the activation of JAK2-STAT3 and NF-kB P65 signaling pathways in the hyperuricemia-injured kidneys and UA-stimulated human tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells, respectively. In summary, our study for the first time demonstrated that FABP4 played a crucial role in kidney inflammation and fibrosis via the regulation of JAK2-STAT3 and NF-kB P65 pathways in HN mice. The results suggested that FABP4 inhibition might be a promising therapeutic strategy for HN. Image 1 • Hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for kidney inflammation and fibrosis. • FABP4 inhibition suppressed kidney inflammation and fibrosis in hyperuricemic mice. • FABP4 regulated JAK2-STAT3 and NF-κB signaling in kidneys of hyperuricemic mice. • FABP4 inhibition might be a therapeutic for hyperuricemic nephropathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering industrial process with high-dimensional, intrinsic nonlinearities and possibly abnormal observations, a robust deep learning soft sensor model is developed under the just-in-time learning framework. As an unsupervised deep learning approach, Variational Autoencoder (VAE) has been successfully applied to soft sensing problems owing to its ability to describe the latent representations by probability distributions. In this work, to construct high performance soft sensor model, mutual information (MI) is first introduced for input variable selection. By further incorporating MI as weights on variable of the traditional VAE model, a MI-based output-relevant VAE is developed. For each new sample that arrives, by utilizing Symmetric Kullback-Leibler (SKL) divergence, its relevance with historical samples is determined. Based on the SKL divergence, the input samples that are most relevant to the query sample can be collected. The selected historical input samples and corresponding output samples are employed to build a Gaussian process regression (GPR) local model. Expectation maximation (EM) algorithm is utilized to deal with the nonlinearity and abnormal output observations in GPR local model simultaneously for robustness of the soft sensors. Numerical simulations and a benchmark process are employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed soft sensor, which demonstrates its superior performance over traditional approaches. • A MI-based output-relevant VAE is presented by incorporating MI as weights on variable of the traditional VAE model. • The selected historical samples through SKL divergence are employed to build a GPR local model. • The abnormal output observations in GPR local model for robustness of the soft sensors is dealt with the EM algorithm. • Numerical simulations and a benchmark process are employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed soft sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagram of TUG891 in Cisplatin-induced AKI. TUG891 modulated the activities of PERK pathway of unfolded protein response, and consequently remitting apoptosis, ER stress and inflammation in cisplatin-induced AKI. • The GPR120 expression is downregulated in the kidneys of cisplatin-induced AKI. • TUG891, a synthetic GPR120 agonist, protected against cisplatin-induced AKI. • Activation of GPR120 by TUG891 inhibited ER stress and apoptosis in cisplatin injured kidneys. Activation of G protein-coupled receptor 120 (GPR120) could inhibit apoptosis and inflammation in cerebral ischemic injury and liver ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, whether GPR120 agonism exerted potential for cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury and the involved mechanisms remained unknown. In our study, pharmacological activation of GPR120 by TUG891 treatment remarkably reduced the elevated serum creatinine level and attenuated tubular injury. Cisplatin triggered ATF6, PERK and IRE1 pathways of unfolded protein response (UPR) of ER stress in the injured kidney tissue, as well as the downstream molecules eIF2α, ATF4 and XBP1. Protein of ER stress-mediated apoptosis, CHOP, was overexpressed in the cisplatin group. Oral application of TUG891 displayed effective inhibition of ER stress and apoptosis. TUG891 treatment significantly decreased the TUNEL positive cells and the flow cytometry of HK-2 cells delineated the similar results that the apoptosis rates were considerably reduced in the TUG891 group compared to cisplatin group. Collectively, activation of GPR120 by TUG891 exhibited renal protection against cisplatin-induced AKI via suppressing ER-associated apoptosis in tubular epithelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a variational autoencoder-based just-in-time (JIT) learning framework for soft sensor modeling. Just-in-Time learning is often applied for soft sensor modeling in industrial processes. However, traditional just-in-time learning methods measure the similarity based on Euclidean distance, which has not taken into consideration the uncertainty in variables. To improve traditional just-in-time learning methods, in the proposed approach, the variational autoencoder is employed to extract features from input data set containing noise. Each feature variable is expressed by a Gaussian distribution. Then, by using the distribution of each feature variable, Kullback-Leibler divergence is employed to evaluate the similarity between the historical samples and a query sample. Furthermore, historical samples that are most similar to the query samples based on the values of the Kullback-Leibler divergence are selected for modeling. Finally, Gaussian process regression as a nonlinear regression model, is used to model the relationship between the selected input samples and the corresponding output samples, and then make a prediction. A numerical example as well as application on a practical debutanizer industrial process demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. • Variational autoencoder is employed to extract the distribution of each feature variable. • Kullback-Leibler divergence is employed to evaluate the similarity between the historical samples and a query sample. • Gaussian process regression is used to build model based on the selected samples, and then make a prediction. • The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through a numerical example and an industrial process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schematic diagram of fisetin in LPS-induced septic AKI. Fisetin modulated the activities of TLR4/Src-mediated NF-κB p65 and MAPK pathways, thus alleviating kidney inflammation and apoptosis in LPS-induced septic AKI. • Fisetin is a polyphenolic flavonoid in many fruits and vegetables. • Fisetin alleviated kidney injury against LPS-induced septic AKI. • Fisetin inhibited LPS-induced kidney inflammation and apoptosis. • Fisetin inhibited renal Src-mediated NF-κB and MAPK signalling pathways in LPS-induced septic AKI. Sepsis is defined as end-organ dysfunction resulting from the host's inflammatory response to infection. One of the most common sepsis-injured organs is the kidneys, resulting in acute kidney injury (AKI) that contributes to the high morbidity and mortality, especially patients in the intensive care unit. Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, has been reported to protect against the rat of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury. However, the effect of fisetin on septic AKI remains unknown. The current study proposed to systematically investigate the renoprotective effects and the underlying mechanisms of fisetin in septic AKI mice. The model of septic AKI was established on male C57BL/6 J mice by a single intraperitoneal injection of LPS (10 mg/kg). Fisetin was administrated by gavage at 100 mg/kg for 3 consecutive days before LPS injection and the mice were sacrificed at 16 h after LPS injection. The serum and kidney samples were evaluated for biochemical analysis, histopathological examinations as well as inflammation and apoptosis related gene/protein expression. Pretreatment with fisetin significantly alleviated the elevated levels of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in LPS-treated mice. Consistently, LPS induced renal damage as implied by histopathological score and the increased injury markers NGAL and KIM-1, which was attenuated by fisetin. Meanwhile, LPS injection triggered proinflammatory cytokine production and inflammation related proteins in the kidneys. However, fisetin inhibited renal expression of IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, HMGB1, iNOS and COX-2 to improve inflammatory response. Furthermore, fisetin effectively reduced the number of TUNEL positive apoptotic cells and suppressed apoptotic protein of Bcl-2, BAX and cleaved caspase-3 in the kidneys of LPS-induced septic AKI. Mechanistically, LPS stimulated the expression of TLR4 and the phosphorylation of NF-κB p65, MAPK (p38, ERK1/2 and JNK), Src and AKT in the injured kidneys, while fisetin notably suppressed the corresponding protein expression. Fisetin alleviated kidney inflammation and apoptosis to protect against LPS-induced septic AKI mice via inhibiting Src-mediated NF-κB p65 and MAPK signaling pathways [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of renewable, hydrophobic, and biodegradable intelligent packaging materials as an alternative to petroleum-based plastic products has become a new research focus in recent years, but remains a challenge. Herein, regenerated cellulose/curcumin composite films were fabricated by dispersing hydrophobic curcumin uniformly in a hydrophilic cellulose matrix using an aqueous alkali/urea solvent based on the pH-driven principle of curcumin. In addition, a unilateral hydrophobic modification was carried out using chemical vapor deposition of methyltrichlorosilane to obtain Janus structure. The composite films exhibited high transparency in the visible light spectrum, excellent antioxidation, thermal stability, mechanical strength, gas barrier properties, and antibacterial activity. Furthermore, the films demonstrated the capability to lower the overall levels of volatile basic nitrogen in stored fish. The color of the films shifted from a pale yellow to a reddish-brown over time during storage. The composite films can be completely degraded after approximately 98 days in soil with an average environmental temperature of 29 °C. This work provided a facile strategy to prepare biodegradable cellulose/curcumin films with Janus structure as packaging materials which could preserve the freshness of food products while offering visual monitor of their freshness in real-time. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent progress in neuroscience research has provided evidence that schizophrenia is a disease that involves dysconnectivity of brain networks. Widespread gray matter loss was commonly observed but how these gray matter abnormalities are characterized at the large-scale network-level in schizophrenia, especially patients with first-episode (FE-SCZ) remains unclear.Methods: In this study, gray matter structural network aberrations were investigated by applying structural covariance network analysis to 193 first episode schizophrenia patients and 178 age and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). The mean gray matter volume in seed regions relating to eight specific networks (visual, auditory, sensorimotor, speech, semantic, default-mode, executive control, and salience) were extracted, and voxel-wise analyses of covariance were conducted to compare the association between whole-brain gray matter volume and each seed region for FE-SCZ and HCs.Results: The auditory network was less extended in FE-SCZ compared with HCs, with a significant decrease in the structural association between the Hesch's gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus. Hyperconnectivity was observed in executive control network with a significant increase in the structural association between the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the superior frontal gyrus and supplementary motor area.Conclusion: Our research shows that seed based structural covariance analysis can well characterize multiple large-scale networks, the observed changes might underly the hallucinations and cognitive impairments observed in FE-SCZ. Given that these patients were experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia, our findings suggest that such structural network deficits are present at an early stage in this disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract NbO-type MOF nano/microcrystals were facilely achieved by tuning the volume ratio of DMF and H 2 O mixed solvent under solvothermal conditions. It was found that NOTT-102 rhombohedral sample obtained with DMF:H 2 O volume ratio of 15:5 has the largest BET surface area (3006 m2 g−1), compared to the samples with the DMF:H 2 O volume ratio of 12:8 (2263 m2 g−1) and 20:0 (1962 m2 g−1) as well as the bulk NOTT-102, namely [Cu 2 (QPTC)] (H 4 QPTC = [1,1':4′,1″:4″,1‴-quaterphenyl]-3,3‴,5,5‴-tetracarboxylic acid), crystals (2942 m2 g−1). Furthermore, dye adsorption results indicate that NOTT-102 rhombohedral sample exhibits superior adsorption capacity (850 mg g−1) and adsorption selectivity for methylene blue (MB) in contrast to methyl orange, rhodamine B, and acid chrome blue K dyes, which may be one of the promising candidates for potential application in removal of organic dyes from aqueous solution. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • NbO-type MOF nano/microcrystals were facilely achieved by tuning the volume ratio of DMF and H 2 O. • NOTT-102 rhombohedral sample has the largest BET surface area compared to the other NOTT-102 nano/microcrystals. • NOTT-102 rhombohedral sample exhibits excellent adsorption capacity and selectivity for MB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) with CO 2 to syngas can not only reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, but also enrich energy resources. In this study, the performances of the direct and oxygen assisted activation of C–H bond for DRM reaction by Ni(111), Rh/Ni(111) and Rh 6 /Ni(111) were studied based on density functional theory calculations. Doping of Rh to Ni weakened the adsorption strength of the intermediate on the catalyst surface and promoted the activation of C–H bond. The energy barriers of direct dissociation of CH 3 ∗ → CH 2 ∗ + H∗ and CH 2 ∗ → CH∗ + H∗ are much lower than these of oxygen assisted dissociation of CH 3 ∗ + O∗ → CH 3 O∗ and CH 2 ∗ + O∗ → CH 2 O∗ for all the three catalysts, and the optimal reaction path of DRM reaction is CH 4 ∗ → CH 3 ∗ → CH 2 ∗ → CH∗. After formation of CH∗, direct dissociation of CH∗ → C∗ is easier to happen on Ni(111) surface compared to Rh/Ni(111) and Rh 6 /Ni(111) surfaces. However, CH∗ favores the oxygen assisted dissociation of CH∗ + O∗ → CHO∗, which prevents the resistance to carbon depositions. [Display omitted] • C–H activation for DRM reaction over Rh–Ni catalyst was well-established by DFT calculations. • Doping of Rh to Ni weakened the adsorption strength and promoted the activation of C–H bond. • Direct dissociation of CH x ∗(x = 1–3) had lower energy barriers than O∗ assisted dissociation. • Rh–Ni catalysts significantly prevented carbon depositions compared to the Ni catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • 0.05 and 2 mg/L sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim could not inhibit nitrogen removal. • The genes related electron donor behaviours were not significantly affected. • The degradation pathways of sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim were proposed. • The toxicity of intermediates tended to be lower than that of parent compounds. • The abundances and potential risks of antibiotic resistance genes were discussed. The widespread use of antibiotics inevitably results in their discharge into the water environment from the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. Corncob-supported solid-phase denitrification (CC-SPD) has been identified as a promising technology for nitrogen removal of WWTP effluents. The effects of sulfamethoxazole (SMX)/trimethoprim (TMP) on nitrogen removal in up-flow CC-SPD reactors and the influencing mechanisms are studied at microbial and genetic levels, and the antibiotic removal performance, degradation pathways, and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) are also extensively investigated. Long-term experimental results indicated that 0.05 and 2 mg/L SMX/TMP, either individually or in combination, had no inhibition on nitrogen removal performance in CC-SPD reactors. The NO 3 – -N removal capacity was approximately 125.60–142.91 mg NO 3 – -N /g CC. Although the microbial community structure evolved to adapt to the 0.05 mg/L SMX/TMP, the relative abundances (RAs) of denitrification genes and genes related to electron donor behaviours did not significantly alter. Furthermore, SMX, with a higher removal efficiency of 42.17%, was more easily degradable compared to TMP, and the degradation products of SMX were more readily mineralized. Additionally, microorganisms degrade antibiotics through processes such as ring opening, hydrogenation, and bond cleavage, with the toxicity of intermediates often being lower than that of parent compounds. Moreover, 0.05 mg/L SMX/TMP did not significantly change the RAs of ARGs and movable genetic elements (MGEs). This study provides important basis for the antibiotic risk prevention in WWTP effluents and the practical application of SPD technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncovering new therapeutics for kidney fibrosis hold promise for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Considerable studies confirmed that BRD4 inhibition ameliorated kidney injury and fibrosis. In the study, we synthesized a series of indol-6-yl-pyrrolo[2,3- c ]pyridin-7-one derivatives and biologically evaluated against BRD4 for structure-activity relationship (SAR). Notably, compound 3r (ZLD2218) exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity against BRD4, with the IC 50 value of 107 nM, which was comparative to 92 nM of positive control JQ-1. Importantly, at the dose of 15 and 30 mg/kg/d for consecutive 8 days, ZLD2218 alleviated kidney injury and fibrosis in unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) mice, with the 30 mg/kg/d being competitive to 100 mg/kd/d of JQ1. Mechanically, ZLD2218 inhibited BRD4 expression and further suppressed fibrotic signaling in the kidneys of UUO mice and TGF-β1-stimulated TCMK-1 cells. Furthermore, ZLD2218 at the dose of 30 mg/kg/d for 8 days to C57BL/6J mice did not affect liver, kidney function and organ pathological changes. Collectively, compound 3r (ZLD2218) might be a promising lead compound of BRD4 inhibitor for the treatment of kidney fibrosis. [Display omitted] • BRD4 was upregulated in fibrotic kidneys of mice after UUO surgery. • ZLD2218 was synthesized and evaluated as a BRD4 inhibitor with the IC 50 of 107 nM. • ZLD2218 alleviated kidney injury and fibrosis of UUO mice. • BRD4 inhibition by ZLD2218 might be a therapeutic for kidney injury and fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]