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Soil heavy metal remediation has always been the focus of research. This work synthesized a recoverable, reusable, and efficient material for Cr(VI)-contaminated soil through a new strategy. The main structure is a bead that encapsulates the layered double hydroxides(LDHs) and magnetic particles into an alginate bead (LDHs-M). Varying applications in soil suggested LDHs-M showed high immobilization performance. Including LDHs interlayer ions, proportion of components, pH, dosage, and initial Cr(VI) concentration, many influence factors were systemically explored, suggesting that LDHs contained in the bead played a prominent role during the immobilization and LDHs-M with the interlayer anions of NO 3 - showed excellent immobilization efficiency. Different characterizations were used to investigate the immobilization mechanism, indicating that interlayer anion exchange and electrostatic adsorption were the main ways for soil Cr(VI) immobilization. The toxicity also decreased with the reduction of Cr(VI). Meanwhile, the simulation of natural aging processes, plant growth, and changes in the microbial community in the soil after remediation were also investigated, which verified the immobilizing stability and bioavailability of LDHs-M. Furthermore, the magnetic belt recovery system showed superior recovery performance in solid phase separation. Then, the separated beads were regenerated in an electrolyte solution and reused in soil remediation. The perfect immobility, instantaneous separation, and regenerability made it a promising material in heavy metal contaminated soil. • LDHs-M was successfully synthesized and showed excellent immobilization performance. • The LDHs-M can easily recovery through the conveyor belt experiment and showed better regeneration property. • The main immobilization mechanism is ion-exchange and surface attraction, the reduction also contributed. • The remediation of LDHs-M decreased the Cr-resistant microbial species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a hierarchical energy management strategy (EMS) based on low-pass filter and equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) is proposed in order to lift energy sources lifespan, power performance and fuel economy for hybrid electrical vehicles equipped with fuel cell, battery and supercapacitor. As for the considered powertrain configuration, fuel cell serves as main energy source, and battery and supercapacitor are regarded as energy support and storage system. Supercapacitor with high power density and dynamic response acts during great power fluctuations, which relives stress on fuel cell and battery. Meanwhile, battery is used to lift the economy of hydrogen fuel. In higher layer strategy of the proposed EMS, supercapacitor is employed to supply peak power and recycle braking energy by using the adaptive low-pass filter method. Meantime, an ECMS is designed to allocate power of fuel cell and battery such that fuel cell can work in a high efficient range to minimize hydrogen consumption in lower layer. The proposed EMS for hybrid electrical vehicles is modeled and verified by advisor-simulink and experiment bench. Simulation and experiment results are given to confirm effectiveness of the proposed EMS of this paper. • Reduce stress on battery and fuel cell to lift power performances and fuel economy. • Adaptive low-pass filter to allocate peak power and braking energy to supercapacitor. • Minimizing hydrogen consumption while improving the working efficiency of fuel cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1800s, natural gas has been extracted from wells drilled into conventional reservoirs. Today, gas is also extracted from shale using high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF). These wells sometimes leak methane and must be re-sealed with cement. Some researchers argue that methane concentrations, C, increase in groundwater near shale-gas wells and that “fracked” wells leak more than conventional wells. We developed techniques to mine datasets of groundwater chemistry in Pennsylvania townships where contamination had been reported. Values of C measured in shallow private water wells were discovered to increase with proximity to faults and to conventional, but not shale-gas, wells in the entire area. However, in small subareas, C increased with proximity to some shale-gas wells. Data mining was used to map a few hotspots where C significantly correlates with distance to faults and gas wells. Near the hotspots, 3 out of 132 shale-gas wells (~ 2%) and 4 out of 15 conventional wells (27%) intersect faults at depths where they are reported to be uncased or uncemented. These results demonstrate that even though these data techniques do not establish causation, they can elucidate the controls on natural methane emission along faults and may have implications for gas well construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of cholamine, a raw material for synthesis of some active lipids, are unknown in poultry. To address this, 180 52-wk-old Hyline laying hens were randomly divided into 3 groups (20 replicates per group with three hens per replicate). The control group and the treatment groups (treatment 1 and 2) were fed basal diet and the diet supplemented with 500 or 1,000 mg of cholamine per kilogram of the diet for 35 d, respectively. The data showed that supplementary cholamine significantly lowered egg production, daily feed intake, serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, liver index, and the percentages of C15:0 and C20:0 in fatty acid composition of liver, significantly elevated hepatic triglyceride content, the ratio of villus height to crypt depth (P < 0.05), and the percentage of C18:2n−6 and the ratio of n−6 to n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in liver fat (P < 0.10). Moreover, supplementary cholamine altered the relative abundance of some intestinal bacteria with a decrease in the alpha biodiversity (P < 0.10). Additionally, transcriptome analysis on the livers of the treatment vs. the control groups identified 1,151 up- and 914 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and pathway analysis revealed that the suppressed Notch signaling pathway and the enhanced Oxidative phosphorylation pathway were enriched with DEGs. Particularly, fat absorption, transport and oxidative phosphorylation-related DEGs (e.g., FABP1, APOA4 , and PCK1) were significantly induced, but fatty acid synthesis, and lipid package and secretion-related DEGs (e.g., FASN, SCD , and MTTP) were not. In conclusion, supplementary cholamine may lower egg production by promoting hepatic lipid deposition and reducing abundances of beneficial intestinal bacteria and microfloral biodiversity in laying hens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel replaceable rhombus driving friction damper (RDF) is developed. • The hysteretic behavior of new PTED joint with RDF damper is theoretically derived. • The seismic optimization strategy for PC frames with NPTED joints is effective. • The parametrized modeling and structural analysis is automated in the optimization. • Design of performance- and cost-dominant cases is controlled by different ways. From the aspects of earthquake resilience, energy dissipation efficiency and building functionality, a novel post-tensioned energy dissipation (NPTED) joint with replaceable rhombus driving friction (RDF) damper is developed. To reach a well-balanced design scheme of a precast concrete (PC) frame with the NPTED joints, a multi-objective seismic optimization strategy with the dual concern of material cost and energy dissipation is put forward. The hysteretic behavior of the RDF damper is analytically derived, tested and numerically implemented into a finite element platform as a uniaxial material with the NPTED joint. To respond to the optimization problem in a more efficient way, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is modified to improve the quality of population. The development of some interfaces and batteries within the finite element analytical platform and Grasshopper® makes the parametrized modeling and structural finite element analysis be automated during the optimization process. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategy, as well as the NPTED joints, has been fully demonstrated by a case study on a 12-story PC frame. The results indicate that the seismic design of those performance-dominant cases is controlled by rare-level earthquake while that of those cost-dominant ones is controlled by frequent-level earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphitic phase carbon nitride (CN) is a safe and green photocatalyst, but the activity of the pristine CN photocatalyst is still unsatisfactory due to the significant recombination of photogenerated charges, so it is still challenging to realize the practical application of CN for photocatalysis. Herein, we report that a mechanical mixture consisting of pre-thermally polymerized melamine (Me) and 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (AT) can be transformed into a crystalline isotype heterojunction material (ISCN MT) by ionothermal synthesis. A series of characterizations and photocatalytic tests demonstrate that the polymerizability, porosity and photoelectric conversion efficiency of the constructed ISCN MT have been improved. The photogenerated charge pairs of the ISCN MT can migrate in S-scheme, indicating that ISCN MT retains the strongest reduction capacity and greatly improving the separation efficiency of photogenerated charge pairs. As a result, the ISCN MT exhibits outstanding performance. Its catalytic efficiency for visible light-triggered hydrogen evolution from water can reach 9.64 mmol·g−1·h−1 with an apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of 26.23%, which is 21 or 45 times higher than that of the carbon nitride material directly polymerized by Me or AT (CNM or CN T). In addition, the ISCN MT has a catalytic efficiency of 15.64 μmol·g−1·h−1 for photocatalysis CO 2 reduction under water vapor. This work provides a facile pathway for designing S-scheme isotype heterojunction CN-based photocatalysts for the efficient conversion of solar energy. [Display omitted] • S-scheme carbon nitride isotype heterojunction ISCN MT were prepared by an in-stu ionothermal synthesis method. • Ionothermal synthesis method can significantly improve the crystallinity of material. • ISCN MT showed excellent activity for photocatalytic H 2 evolution (9.64 mmol·g−1·h−1) and CO 2 reduction (15.64 μmol·g−1·h−1). • The exciton dynamics was analyzed in detail using TAS to prove the existence of a strong built-in electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Radiomics analysis of pre-treatment portal phase CT images could effectively predict response to NAC in patients with LAGC. • Proposed radiomics signature with XGB classifier showed the best predictive performance. • Clinical characteristics were unable to predict the response to NAC. To investigate the ability of the CT-based radiomics models for pretreatment prediction of the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). This retrospective analysis included 279 consecutive LAGC patients from center I (training cohort, n = 196; internal validation cohort, n = 83) who were examined by contrast-enhanced CT before treatment and 211 consecutive patients from center II who were recruited as an external validation cohort. A total of 102 features were extracted from the portal venous phase CT images, and feature selection was further subjected to three-step procedures. Next, five classifications, including Logistic Regression (LR), Naive Bayes, Random forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) algorithms, were applied to construct radiomics models for predicting the good-responder (GR) to NAC in the training cohort. The prediction performances were evaluated using ROC and decision curve analysis (DCA). No statistically significant difference was detected for all clinicopathological characteristics. Additionally, all six key features were significantly different between GR and poor-responder (PR). Compared to models from other classifiers, the model obtained with XGB showed promising prediction performance with the highest AUC of 0.790(95%CI: 0.700–0.880) in the training cohort. The corresponding AUCs were 0.784(95%CI, 0.659–0.908) and 0.803(95%CI, 0.717–0.888) in the internal and external validation cohorts, respectively. DCA confirmed the clinical utility. The proposed pretreatment CT-based radiomics models revealed good performances in predicting response to NAC and thus may be used to improve clinical treatment in LAGC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative stress plays a critical role in the progression of myocardial injury. Increasing evidence suggests that hiruidin can treat patients with cardio-injury. However, the mechanism of hirudin against myocardial infraction remains unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the potential role and mechanism of hirudin on both isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial infraction (MI) in rats and Hypoxia-Reoxygenation model in H9C2 cells. Compared with the model group, hirudin apparently decreased the levels of myocardial Creatine Kinase Isoenzyme-MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and alleviated myocardial histopathological changes induced by ISO injection. The underlying mechanisms were revealed by the following observations: Hirudin exerted its cardioprotective effect via restoring super oxide dismutase (SOD), attenuating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA). It induced the activation of Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signal pathway through disrupting Keap1-Nrf2 complex, thus Nrf2 translocated from cytoplasm to nucleus to regulate Nrf2-dependent gene (HO-1, SOD) expressions. Furthermore, it should be noted that hirudin restored mitochondrial membrane potential in addition to cytochrome C-related apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a tool for the characterization and measurement of nanometer, molecular and atomic resolution materials. The bimodal atomic force microscope developed in recent years is a method based on dynamic atomic force microscopy that simultaneously maps the surface of a sample and detects nanomechanical properties, and the method can simultaneously measure a variety of material properties. In this work, an improved cantilever beam motion model which can simply investigate the relationship between tip-surface interaction force and nanomechanical properties is demonstrated. Then, the theory of this AFM is studied in great detail. Finally, a mathematical model of interaction force and nanomechanical properties is possessed, which can clearly reveal the relationship among amplitude, phase shift and interaction force so as to further explore material's information such as young's modulus and indentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cynomolgus macaque PD1 knockout primery T cells generate and expand massivelly. • PD1 knockout did not change the characteristics of T cells and enhanced the immunity. • PD1-KO T cells did not cause overt toxicity in vivo. • Autologous PD1 knockout T cells are evident in blood 2 months after infusion. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) is a cell-surface receptor that plays a vital regulatory role in suppressing inflammatory T cell activity; therefore, it is an ideal target for T cell-redirecting therapies. Here, we describe a cynomolgus macaque model for studying the transfer of PD1-modified T cells. We developed the first T cell engager targeting the disruption of PD1 by electroporation of plasmids encoding sgRNA and Cas9. There were no significant differences between mock T cells and PD1-knockout (PD1-KO) T cells in terms of cell viability, T cell signature marker expression, cell apoptosis, or cell cycling during prolonged in vitro culture. However, in a mixed lymphocyte reaction, PD1-KO T cells exhibited increased proliferation for both CD4+ and CD8+T cells and enhanced IFNγ release. We adoptively transferred autologous PD1-KO T cells into three cynomolgus monkeys. The PD1-KO T cells did not cause overt toxicity as measured by evaluating body weight, hematological parameters, and blood chemistry parameters. Histopathological analyses of tissues showed no lesions related to the infused PD1-KO T cells. Our findings demonstrate the utility of cynomolgus monkeys in expanding PD1-KO T cells and evaluating the safety of this immunotherapy and provide a new strategy for T cell-based adoptive cell therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genotype imputation is a powerful technique employed by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and genotyping arrays, which can significantly enhance the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of genomic selection. The accuracy of imputation is largely determined by the choice of reference panel, with previous studies generally demonstrating that a closely related population as a reference panel leads to greater accuracy than a more distantly related population. Various strategies have been proposed for selecting desirable individuals via targeted resequencing, but their efficiencies need further improvement. In this study, we present a practical broiler selection methodology for a local Chinese chicken line that integrates established methods based on pedigree, genomics, and random sampling, and leverages genotype and pedigree information from the yellow-plumage dwarf chicken line. The efficacy of these selection strategies was assessed by evaluating their ability to accurately impute masked genotypes from data obtained using a 600K chip. Our findings reveal that the pedigree-based method yields superior accuracy in genotype imputation, whereas the haplotype-based method exhibits greater stability. Nonetheless, the impact of these targeted methods for selecting key individuals is slightly different when initiating a new sequencing project in a production context. Overall, this study highlights the advantages of using the pedigree-based approach as the preferred method for optimizing genotype imputation in broiler chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digit ratio, particularly the second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), is fixed before birth and is related to male sexual orientation; moreover, ethnicity may affect the digit ratio. We take photocopies of both hands of 308 men of Han ethnicity, and we explored the relationship between the 2D:4D ratio and sexual orientation among the three groups (121 homosexual men, 50 bisexual men and 177 heterosexual men). The results showed: (a) the digit ratio of the men presented the trend as follows: 2D:3D < 2D:4D < 3D:4D < 2D:5D < 4D:5D < 3D:5D; (b) homosexual and bisexual men had higher mean 2D:4D ratios on their right hands than heterosexual men; (c) there was no difference between homosexual men and bisexual men in the 2D:4D ratio; (d)there was no difference between right and left hands in the same group in the 2D:4D ratio. These results indicate that prenatal sex hormones may influence sexual orientation in the Han ethnicity in Kunming, Yunnan, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide an efficient and stable connection between seismic hazards and structural demands of super high-rise buildings, a modified spectral-velocity-based intensity measure (IM) is proposed in a general manner with the combination coefficients and the optimal number of modes estimated through the non-uniform flexural-shear coupled model (FSM-MS). With numerous FSM-MSs generated from statistical ranges of vibration periods, the optimal number of modes is regressed for near-field and far-field ground motions, respectively. Utilizing seven structural models with different heights and dynamic properties, the performance of selected IMs is systematically studied in two stages. The superiority of the proposed IM in stable and high efficiency is obviously observed through seven FSM-MSs, together with the other 19 IMs. Its sufficiency and scaling robustness are fully demonstrated by two significantly distinct super high-rise buildings. The proposed IM is promising as a specialized and desirable tool in the seismic performance evaluation of super high-rise buildings. • A spectral-velocity-based intensity measure (IM) with the adaptive combination coefficients and modal number is proposed. • The physical background of spectral velocity as the core of the IM for super high-rise buildings is systematically justified. • A two-stage strategy for evaluating IMs' performance is proposed based on simplified and refined structural models. • The superior stability and efficiency of the proposed IM are fully demonstrated by the comparison with the other 19 IMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We proposed a meta multi-task learning scheme (Meta-MTL) for nuclei segmentation with better domain adaptation and less data dependency. • In the contour-aware multi-task learning model, we proposed a feature fusion and interaction block (FFIB) for features communication between two parallel tasks. • Our proposed model achieves comparable performances with state-of-the-art models with fewer training samples. And the proposed model performs well on domain adaptation and domain generalization. [Display omitted] Cells/nuclei deliver massive information of microenvironment. An automatic nuclei segmentation approach can reduce pathologists' workload and allow precise of the microenvironment for biological and clinical researches. Existing deep learning models have achieved outstanding performance under the supervision of a large amount of labeled data. However, when data from the unseen domain comes, we still have to prepare a certain degree of manual annotations for training for each domain. Unfortunately, obtaining histopathological annotations is extremely difficult. It is high expertise-dependent and time-consuming. In this paper, we attempt to build a generalized nuclei segmentation model with less data dependency and more generalizability. To this end, we propose a meta multi-task learning (Meta-MTL) model for nuclei segmentation which requires fewer training samples. A model-agnostic meta-learning is applied as the outer optimization algorithm for the segmentation model. We introduce a contour-aware multi-task learning model as the inner model. A feature fusion and interaction block (FFIB) is proposed to allow feature communication across both tasks. Extensive experiments prove that our proposed Meta-MTL model can improve the model generalization and obtain a comparable performance with state-of-the-art models with fewer training samples. Our model can also perform fast adaptation on the unseen domain with only a few manual annotations. Code is available at https://github.com/ChuHan89/Meta-MTL4NucleiSegmentation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that the forkhead transcription factor FoxO6 involved in memory consolidation and hepatic glucose homeostasis. Here we asked whether chicken FoxO6 may regulate preadipocyte proliferation, apoptosis and early adipogenesis. Overexpression and knockdown of FoxO6 were performed and evaluated through cell proliferation methods, Oil-Red-O staining, and specific marker expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay was performed to confirm cyclin G2 (CCNG2) as a direct target gene of FoxO6. FoxO6 is ubiquitously expressed in different chicken tissues and highly expressed in liver, abdominal fat, and preadipocytes in cultured cell. FoxO6 overexpression decreased preadipocyte proliferation by causing G1-phase cell-cycle arrest, whereas inhibition of FoxO6 showed the opposite effects. Overexpression or knockdown of FoxO6 significantly altered the mRNA and protein levels of cell-cycle related markers, such as CCNG2, cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (CDKN1B), cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A) and cyclin D2 (CCND2). During preadipocyte proliferation, FoxO6 targets and induces expression of CCNG2 , as confirmed by ChIP assay and qPCR. In addition, FoxO6 induces preadipocyte apoptosis through increasing the protein expression levels of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-8. Moreover, FoxO6 at the early stage of adipogenesis suppressed mRNA and protein levels of the key early regulators of adipogenesis, such as PPARγ and C/EBPα. The results demonstrate that FoxO6 controls preadipocyte proliferation, apoptosis and early adipogenesis, and point to new approaches for further studies related to obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]