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Highlights • Hypoxia to allergic rhinitis (AR) is an important and emerging field. • Under hypoxic conditions, HIF-1α competes to combine ARNT and thus restrain the activation of AhR transcriptional response. • Hypoxia associated with AR can promote Th17 differentiation and IL-17 production but suppress the IL-10 expression. • Hypoxia is capable of reducing AhR activity, and HIF-1α is intimately involved in the pathogenesis of AR. Abstract Background Hypoxic conditions area key feature of allergic rhinitis (AR), however, the role of hypoxia in AR remains to be fully understood. The aim of this study was to survey the effect of hypoxia on the Th17 response in AR patients by investigating the action of hypoxia-influenced signaling pathways on Th17 differentiation. Methods 23 AR patients and 15 healthy controls were recruited for this study. Under normoxia and hypoxic conditions, the expression of HIF-1α, AhR, CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 and the presence of Th17 cells in CD4+T cells were measured. Furthermore, the amount of ARNT combined with either HIF-1α or AhR was determined after the exposure of 2-(1H-Indol-3-ylcarbonyl)-4-thiazolecarboxylic acid methyl easter (ITE) with normoxia and hypoxia. Results HIF-1α and AhR expression were higher in CD4+T cells from AR patients than in those from healthy controls. In a hypoxic environment, the expression of HIF-1α was elevated in CD4+T cells of both AR patients and healthy controls. Meanwhile, the suppressive effects of a non-toxic AhR ligand (ITE) on the Th17 response and its positive effects on IL-10 production were suppressed in the cells of AR patients and healthy controls under hypoxia. These effects were arisen from HIF-1α out-competing AhR for ARNT binding which limited the activity of the AhR pathway. Conclusions The present results suggest that hypoxia is capable of promoting the Th17 response by reducing AhR activity via HIF-1α activity. Thus hypoxia may be intimately involved in the pathogenesis of AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The identification of defect parameters in thermal non-destructive test and evaluation (NDT/E) was considered as a kind of inverse heat transfer problem (IHTP). However, it can be further considered as a shape optimization problem, and then a structure design optimization problem, and the design results should meet the surface temperature profile of the apparatus with defects. A bacterial colony chemotaxis (BCC) optimization algorithm and a radial basis function (RBF) neural network (NN) are applied to the thermal NDT/E for the identification of defects parameters. The RBFNN is a precise and convenient surrogate model for the time costly finite element computation, which obtains the surface temperature with different defect parameters. The BCC optimization algorithm is derivatively-free, and the convergence speed is fast. Then a simple but complete multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) framework is constructed for the sake of generality and flexibility. This method is applied to a simple verification case and the result is acceptable. The algorithm is also compared with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, and the BCC algorithm can access the optimum with faster speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microorganisms and organic carbon (C) pool composition are vital in regulating soil organic matter mineralization. However, our understanding of how parent materials and fertilizers affect this process is still limited. In this two-year study, the changes of cumulative soil organic C and nitrogen (N) mineralization and C and N pools (total, labile, and recalcitrant), C- and N-cycling enzymes, bacterial composition, and C- and N-cycling gene and their interactions were analyzed for soils developed on loess and river alluvium. These soils were under rice-rape seed rotation, and no fertilization (Control), NPK (NPK), and NPK plus organic manure (NPKM) were applied; treatments were arranged into a completely randomized design. Soil organic C mineralization was influenced by soil parent material and fertilization, whereas no interactive effects were found for soil N mineralization. The river alluvium promoted 2.24 times higher C and 1.27 times higher N mineralization than loess; fertilization intensified C and N mineralization in 1.70 and 1.22 times only in loess. Soil C and N fractions were influenced by the parent material, with 1.39 and 1.10 times higher effects found in soils formed on river alluvium. NPKM increased the content of total organic C in 1.31 times, labile C in 1.24 times, recalcitrant C in 1.34 times, total N in 1.21 times, and recalcitrant N in 1.17 times in loess soil. Similarly, in river alluvium soil, the increases were 1.41、1.21、1.53、1.23 and 1.28 times. Fertilization with NPKM increased C- and N-cycling enzyme activities in both soils. Parent material and fertilization shifted bacterial composition by changing pH, subsequently influencing N-cycling genes. However, only parent material affected C-cycling genes. Thus, C and N fractions play a direct role in the mineralization process of soil organic C, while bacteria indirectly influenced the C mineralization processes by promoting the enzyme activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in robotics and deep learning (DL) have made it possible to implement robots in civil infrastructures' quality defect inspection. Robots can reduce human inspectors' workloads and enhance inspection results' reliability by collecting data and automatically identifying quality defects from the raw data. However, current methods for training DL models rely on centralized strategies that require the aggregation of defect data (e.g., uploading to a cloud server), posing concerns about data privacy and security. Thus, this study proposes a three-fold federated learning (FL) framework for training DL models collaboratively, without the need to share local data among construction robots. The framework is specifically applied to image-based crack segmentation, critical for ensuring infrastructures' safety and serviceability. A lightweight DL model is developed to enable easy implementation on resource-constrained construction robots and to reduce communication costs during federated training. Experimental results show that the proposed FL method outperforms traditional centralized methods. The critical contribution of this study is the hierarchical FL framework, which enables construction robots to leverage big data in a privacy-preserving manner. • A cloud-edge-robot hierarchical federated learning (FL) method is proposed. • Robots collaboratively train the model for construction quality defect inspections. • A lightweight crack segmentation model, termly, CrackNet, is proposed. • CrackNet achieves comparable performance with less parameters. • FL outperforms centralized training methods and typical FL methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Behavioral conditioning is one of the most impressive demonstrations of brain-immune system interaction. Numerous animal studies have demonstrated behavioral conditioned effects on immune functions, however, human studies are rare. We investigated whether it is possible to behaviorally condition the acute response to interferon (IFN)β-1a. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, 30 healthy subjects received a single injection of IFNβ-1a (6MIU of REBIF®, Serono International) (unconditioned stimulus, UCS) together with a novel drink (conditioned stimulus, CS). Blood was drawn at baseline, 4, 8, and 24 h after drug administration. Within the first 8 h peripheral granulocytes significantly increased, while monocytes, lymphocytes, T-, B- and natural killer (NK) cell numbers were significantly reduced. In parallel, body temperature, heart rate, norepinephrine and interleukin (IL)-6 plasma levels were heightened within 8 h after injection. 8 days later, all previously IFNβ-treated subjects received a subcutaneous placebo (NaCl) injection, but only 15 subjects were re-exposed to the CS (experimental group), while a control group (N =15) drank water and an additional group of subjects (n =8) remained untreated (untreated group). Blood sampling was performed at baseline and at 4, 8, and 24 h. Re-exposition to the CS did not elicit conditioned responses in the experimental group. Moreover, no differences were observed between groups. These data provide negative findings regarding behavioral conditioning of cytokine effects in humans employing a one-trial learning paradigm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A rhodamine-based probe bearing an N,N-dimethylaniline unit was developed as a fluorescent chemodosimeter for Ce4+ in aqueous media. Importantly, the sensor can selectively respond to Ce4+ over other commonly coexistent metal ions (such as La3+, Ce3+, Pr3+, Nd3+, Sm3+, Eu3+, Gd3+, Er3+, Tb3+, Ho3+, Tm3+, Yb3+, Lu3+, Y3+) in aqueous media with a rapid response time. The system, which utilizes an irreversible Ce4+-promoted oxidation reaction, responds instantaneously at room temperature with linear proportionality to the amount of Ce4+. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Rational design of core-shelled Fe 2 O 3 microspheres doped in multi-lamellar rGO. • Fe 2 O 3 @rGO cathode actively catalyze polysulfides transformation to restrain the shuttle effect. • Enhance electrochemical performance of Li-S battery due to the synergistic effects of Fe 2 O 3 @rGO. We report a method based on 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid-formaldehyde (RF-COOH) microsphere hard templates to prepare core-shelled Fe 2 O 3 microspheres, which were then added to graphene oxide to obtain hierarchical reduced graphene oxide, ultimately dropping Fe 2 O 3 (Fe 2 O 3 @rGO) by Vitamin C reduction and freeze drying. When used as cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries, Fe 2 O 3 @rGO shows a high specific capacity of 400.5 mAh g−1 at 2 C after 500 cycles. The prominent performance is due to the collaborative assembly of rGO, which provides stable structural support and favourable conductivity, and core-shelled Fe 2 O 3 microspheres, which are certified to have a strong interaction with polysulfides. The loose and stable skeletons of highly electroconductive rGO can offer a conductive framework for rapid ion/electron transport. Meanwhile, the unique core-shelled structure of Fe 2 O 3 with the ample void space can anchor polysulfides through the strong chemical adsorption and buffer the mechanical stresses caused by volume expansion during the charge and discharge processes. Moreover, Fe 2 O 3 promotes the transformation of polysulfides to insoluble LiPSs during the discharging process, effectively alleviating the shuttling of the polysulfides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]