Search

Schizophrenia is a chronic and complex severe psychiatric disorder. Male and female are different in their risks for schizophrenia for the biologic and sociocultural reasons. Homocysteine (Hcy), Cysteine (Cys), and methionine (Met) play important roles in metabolism, and the three amino acids may also be involved in pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This study aimed to test the associations between sulfur-containing amino acid blood levels and risk of schizophrenia, evaluating the different risk in male and female. We organized a case-control study on 876 individuals with schizophrenia and 913 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as control group. The concentrations of Hcy, Cys and Met were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technology. Subsequently, restricted cubic spline was applied to explore full-range associations of these amino acids with schizophrenia. Interactions between levels of the three amino acids and sex on additive scale were also tested. Hcy levels at ≤29 μmol/L were associated with sharply increased risk of schizophrenia, inversely, Met was associated with sharply decreased risk of schizophrenia at levels ≤22 μmol/L. Increased Cys levels were associated with decreased risk of schizophrenia. Almost inverse associations were observed between Cys/Hcy and Met/Hcy ratios and schizophrenia. Significant synergistic interactions between levels of all the three amino acids and sex were discovered on an additive scale. Our study suggests a close association between sulfur-containing amino acids and schizophrenia with different risk in male and female. Future studies are demanded to clarify the pathogenic role of Hcy, Cys and Met in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical stabilization is frequently used to stabilize lead (Pb) or arsenate (As), but faces challenges in Pb-As co-contaminated soils because of the antagonistic reactions between chemical stabilizers and contaminants. In this work, we innovated an effective and cost-efficient stepwise steam flash heating (SSFH) strategy to simultaneously immobilize Pb and As, and unraveled the underlying mechanisms. The combination of 1.5 % Ca(H 2 PO 4) 2 and 2 % Fe 2 (SO 4) 3 only decreased 1.99 % Pb by toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP-Pb) but increased 17.8 % of TCLP-As due to the antagonistic effects. SSFH with Ca(H 2 PO 4) 2 in the first step and Fe 2 (SO 4) 3 in the second step achieved the minimal TCLP-Pb and TCLP-As of 0.778 and 0.327 mg/L, respectively. It also reduced 69.8 % of leachable As in 100-year acid rain simulation, indicating a favorable long-term stabilization performance. Additionally, SSFH approach reduced 43.2 % stabilizer dosage and 14.9 % cost. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) documented that the stepwise SFH promoted the transformation of Pb(NO 3) 2 and NaAsO 2 /NaAsO 3 /As 2 O 3 /As 2 O 5 into stable Pb 3 (PO 4) 2 and FeAsO 4 , preventing the formation of AsO 4 3- and FePO 4. Our findings proved the state-of-the-art SSFH approach and unraveled its mechanisms to stabilize Pb and As co-contamination in soils, offering a green and sustainable remediation alternative for the management of heavy metal contaminated sites. A novel stepwise SFH approach can be applied to overcome the stabilizer antagonist effects by separately immobilizing Pb and As in two sequential steps. It also decreased 43.2 % of stabilizer dosage and 14.9 % of cost comparing to conventional chemical stabilization. This approach can be used for other metal co-contaminated soils facing similar antagonistic challenges, and our work raises a state-of-the-art solution for cost-effective, green and sustainable remediation practices. [Display omitted] • Innovative stepwise steam flash heating (SSFH) for effective Pb and As immobilization. • SSFH efficiently eliminated the antagonistic effect by stabilizers. • Higher cost-efficiency and favorable long-term immobilization performance in SSFH. • SSFH changes Pb and As immobility mechanism evidenced by XANES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Microgrid optimal dispatch to reduce costs, carbon emissions and power fluctuation. • The multi-objective optimization algorithm based on war strategy. • Pareto frontier sort based on membership degree. • Reasonable allocation of new energy and energy storage. This article introduces a novel metaheuristic multi-objective optimization algorithm to address the complex multi-objective optimization scheduling challenges of the microgrids for the first time. Comparing with common multi-objective optimization algorithms, the proposed Multi-Objective War Strategy Optimization (MOWSO) has the following highlights: 1) MOWSO only needs to set three parameters. The few parameters make the algorithm simple to debug and real-world implement in practical applications. 2) MOWSO avoids the local centralized distribution of Pareto frontier based on a random selection strategy. The selection range of multiple objectives is expanded properly. In addition, a comprehensive multi-objective optimization dispatch model for microgrids is established, concurrently considering operating costs, carbon emissions, and power fluctuations. Furthermore, the impact of new energy proportion and Energy Storage (ES) on microgrid optimal dispatch is thoroughly investigated. Finally, a case study about a village microgrid in North China is presented to validate the effectiveness and the superiority of proposed multi-objective optimization dispatch model and novel MOWSO algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ketamine, as a non-competitive antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, was originally used in general anesthesia. Epidemiological data show that ketamine has become one of the most commonly abused drugs in China. Ketamine administration might cause cognitive impairment; however, its molecular mechanism remains unclear. The glymphatic system is a lymphoid system that plays a key role in metabolic waste removal and cognitive regulation in the central nervous system. Focusing on the glymphatic system, this study evaluated the behavioral performance and circulatory function of the glymphatic system by building a short-term ketamine administration model in mice, and detected the expression levels of the 5-HT2c receptor, ΔFosb, Pten, Akt, and Aqp4 in the hippocampus. Primary astrocytes were cultured to verify the regulatory relationships among related indexes using a 5-HT2c receptor antagonist, a 5-HT2c receptor short interfering RNA (siRNA), and a ΔFosb siRNA. Ketamine administration induced ΔFosb accumulation by increasing 5-HT2c receptor expression in mouse hippocampal astrocytes and primary astrocytes. ΔFosb acted as a transcription factor to recognize the AATGATTAAT bases in the 5′ regulatory region of the Aqp4 gene (−1096 bp to −1087 bp), which inhibited Aqp4 expression, thus causing the circulatory dysfunction of the glymphatic system, leading to cognitive impairment. Although this regulatory mechanism does not involve the Pten/Akt pathway, this study revealed a new mechanism of ketamine-induced cognitive impairment in non-neuronal systems, and provided a theoretical basis for the safety of clinical treatment and the effectiveness of withdrawal. [Display omitted] • Ketamine administration causes circulatory dysfunction of glymphatic system. • Ketamine administration induces cognitive impairment in mice. • Ketamine induces ΔFosb accumulation by increasing the expression of 5-HT2c receptor. • ΔFosb acts as a transcription factor to recognize and inhibit Aqp4 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we synthesized three novel isomorphic materials, RE-BDC-NH 2 (RE = Sm, Y, Er), and compared their capacity to confirm the importance of pore size. Er-BDC-NH 2 was proved to be the best choice among them with a relatively high CO 2 adsorption capacity (91 cm3g−1) and CO 2 /CH 4 selectivity (15). [Display omitted] • Three 3D stable microporous amino-functionalized rare earth hexanuclear cluster based MOFs composed of tetrahedral cages and octahedral cages were synthesized. • They exhibit notable CO 2 gas adsorption performance, compared with CH 4. • They achieve the separation of CO 2 /CH 4 mixture gas with excellent selectivity and recyclability. Climate pollution and global warming caused by greenhouse gases have become one of our toughest environmental challenges. CO 2 capture and separation from natural gas can effectively reduce CO 2 emissions and improve energy efficiency, accordingly, it is a serious challenge faced by industrial separation and scientific research to effectively reduce the carbon dioxide concentration in natural gas pipeline transportation and achieve the acquisition of high-purity methane (>99.5 %). In this study, three stable hexanuclear microporous rare earth cluster-based MOFs (Sm-BDC-NH 2 , Er-BDC-NH 2 , Y-BDC-NH 2) were successfully synthesized. The selectivity of CO 2 /CH 4 was improved by the introduction of amino groups to achieve better CO 2 /CH 4 separation performance, which was proved by dynamic penetration experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural images tend to recur similar patterns within the same scale and across different scales. Some recent progress on Single Image Super-Resolution (SISR) have elaborated on applying non-local attention mechanism to explore intrinsic feature correlation on multi-scale similarity to improve SR performance. However, recent advanced non-local attention-based methods typically utilize fixed-scale image patches to mine the correlations between local and global features, which is unreliable to judge the similarity between the non-local image patches across various scales. In this paper, we develop a novel Multi-Scale Non-Local Attention Network (MSNLAN) for SISR. The MSNLAN consists of a serial of Residual Groups (RGs) and an embedded Multi-Scale Non-Local Attention Block (MSNLAB) located at the middle of those RGs. Each RG is comprised of several Residual Multi-scale Attention Blocks (RMABs) which learns multi-scale features extracted from different receptive fields to fully capture diverse and complementary feature representations. MSNLAB is applied to establish more long-range dependencies by exploring multi-scale patches within the same feature map to seek more faithful and relevant non-local features. Moreover, we utilize Dense Skip Connections (DSC) between each RG and the MSNLAB to enhance the interaction of different context features, which is propitious for generating more impressive image details. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed MSNLAN outperforms other state-of-the-art competitors in terms of both quantitative and qualitative quality assessment results. The code will be available at https://github.com/kbzhang0505/MSNLAN. • Multi-scale non-local attention module exploring multi-scale long-range dependencies. • Residual multi-scale attention block (RMAB) for complementary feature representation. • Multi-scale non-local attention network for SR with the residual group of RMABs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two 2-fold interpenetrating MOFs (CTGU-39/40-a) with 1D/3D microporous pore systems were constructed to achieve efficient separation for C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture. Attributed to the confinement of C 2 H 2 through multiple C 2 H 2 -MOF interactions, CTGU-39-a combines ultra-high C 2 H 2 packing density, excellent C 2 H 2 /CO 2 selectivity and relatively low Q st of C 2 H 2. [Display omitted] • Two 2-fold interpenetrating MOFs (CTGU-39/40-a) with novel pore systems and diverse adsorption sites have been constructed. • CTGU-39/40-a can effectively separate C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture confirmed by both static adsorption and breakthrough experiments. • CTGU-39-a combines ultra-high C 2 H 2 packing density, excellent adsorption selectivity, and a relatively low C 2 H 2 Q st. Adsorptive separation of C 2 H 2 /CO 2 is industrially important and feasible but the design of highly efficient adsorbents remains very challenging owing to the almost identical physicochemical properties of the two gases. Herein, we constructed two new microporous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), termed CTGU-39/40 (CTGU = China Three Gorges University), with 2-fold interpenetrating frameworks and unique pore geometry/chemistry for C 2 H 2 /CO 2 separation. Both the activated MOFs (CTGU-39/40-a) can preferentially adsorb C 2 H 2 over CO 2 with excellent selectivity of 8.4 and 3.3 at 298 K and 100 kPa, respectively, as verified by static adsorption measurements. More importantly, attributed to the suitable pore aperture size (∼5 Å) and abundant adsorption sites, CTGU-39-a combines exceptionally high packing density of C 2 H 2 (0.41 g mL−1) and moderate isosteric heat of adsorption (Q st) for C 2 H 2 (26.8 kJ mol−1), outperforming most previously reported adsorbents. Theoretical calculations reveal that the preferential adsorption of C 2 H 2 within two MOFs is driven by cooperative adsorption behavior through multiple H-bonding and Coulomb interactions. Experimental breakthrough results further confirmed their practical separation ability and recyclability toward an equimolar C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture at different feeding rates. This work may offer new insights into the design of advanced porous materials for C 2 H 2 purification and potentially other gas separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new cost-effective and easily scalable Cu(Ⅱ)-MOF (termed as BUT-316) with unique local-molecule-trap (LMT) based on oppositely adjacent OMSs has been successfully constructed, which exhibited remarkable separation properties for C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture, as confirmed by both experiments and theoretical calculations. [Display omitted] • A new cost-effective and easily scalable Cu(II)-MOF (BUT-316) with local-molecule-trap (LMT) has been constructed successfully. • BUT-316-a can effectively separate C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture confirmed by both static adsorption and breakthrough experiments. • The LMT structure within BUT-316-a can provide a novel synergistic binding site for gas molecules. Adsorption-based C 2 H 2 purification is a promising technology in the petrochemical industry, but the seeking or design of suitable adsorbents faces the challenge of merging excellent separation properties with other implementable advantages. Here, we reported a cost-effective and easily scalable metal–organic framework (MOF), BUT-316-a (BUT = Beijing University of Technology), with unprecedented local-molecule-trap (LMT) for the preferential adsorption of C 2 H 2 over CO 2. Attributed to the existence of the LMT, high density of open metal sites (OMSs), and microporous pore structure, BUT-316-a combines high uptake (117.6 cm3 cm−3) and packing density of C 2 H 2 (0.36 g mL−1), coupled with good C 2 H 2 /CO 2 selectivity (17.2). The practical separation performance of BUT-316-a toward C 2 H 2 /CO 2 mixture and the associated host–guest interactions within the LMT were further unveiled by dynamic breakthrough experiments and theoretical calculations, respectively. This study may provide valuable insights into designing more advanced adsorbents with an optimal binding environment for gas separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial intestinal inflammation is a common disease of aquatic animal in high-density aquaculture. This study aims to construct a model of intestinal inflammation in northern snakehead, and analyze the intestinal transcriptome after Aeromonas hydrophila (A. hydrophila) infection by high-throughput sequencing technologies (RNA-seq), in order to obtain candidate genes and regulatory pathways that may participate in inflammatory response. Northern snakehead [(13.05 ± 2.39) g] were infected through anal for 24 h with different concentrations of A. hydrophila (1.0 × 10−4, 1.0 × 10−5, 1.0 × 10−6, 1.0 × 10−7 and 1.0 × 10−8 CFU/mL). Intestinal histology observation showed that infection with A. hydrophila caused obvious inflammatory responses in intestine, especially in hindgut. The results also indicated that intestinal permeability related parameters (D-LA and Na+-K+-ATP), immune-related parameters (C3, LZM, AKP, MPO, IL-1β and TNF-α) and immune-related gene expression (il-1β and tnf-α) were significantly changed compared to the CK group. In this process, high concentration of A. hydrophila infection caused the death of snakehead. On the basis of the above evaluation, we successfully constructed a model of intestinal inflammation induced by A. hydrophila in northern snakehead, and the optimal dosage of A. hydrophila was 1.0 × 10−6 CFU/mL. Subsequently, the constructed model was analyzed on the Illumina Genome Analyser II platform for intestinal transcriptome. Results showed that a total of 370,492,420 clean reads, 145,236 transcripts and 89,431 unigenes were obtained. Moreover, a total of 7566 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found, including 4486 upregulated genes and 3080 downregulated genes. Notably, the key pathways [Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and NOD-like receptors (NLRs)] and genes [ tlr1 , tlr2 , tlr5 , nf-κb , tnf-α , il-1β , il-10 , nod1 ] related to inflammation were discovered. These results revealed the response of northern snakehead to A. hydrophila at the transcriptional level, which provide insights for the regulatory mechanisms of intestinal inflammation in northern snakehead. • A model of intestinal inflammation in northern snakehead was constructed by Aeromonas hydrophila. • The optimal dosage of Aeromonas hydrophila for inducing intestinal inflammation in northern snakehead was 1.0 × 10−6 CFU/mL. • The key pathways and genes related to inflammation were discovered by high-throughput sequencing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Ni 6 -based MOF was successfully synthesized and utilized as a molecular electrocatalyst for four types of alkaline alcohol oxidation reactions (AOR). [Display omitted] • A novel highly-connected Ni 6 -based MOF (CTGU-38) has been successfully synthesized and characterized. • CTGU-38 exhibits good electrocatalytic performance toward four kinds of alkaline alcohol oxidation reactions (AOR). • This work provides a new vision for designing molecular electrocatalysts for energy conversion. Designing economical and efficient anode catalysts is critical for the commercial use of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). In this work, a novel Ni(II)-based metal–organic framework (MOF), {[Ni 3 (μ 3 -OH)(TMBTI)(1,4-bib)(H 3 O)} n (H 6 TMBTI = 2,4,6-trimethylbenzene-1,3,5-triylisophthalate, 1,4-bib = 1,4-bis(1-imidazoly)benzene) (CTGU-38, CTGU = China Three Gorges University), was successfully synthesized through solvothermal method. Structural analyses reveal that the CTGU-38 possesses a unique Ni 6 (μ 3 -OH) 2 (COO) 12 cluster and 3D porous framework with a rare (6,16)-connected topology. Further electrochemical experiments demonstrate that the CTGU-38 exhibits good electrocatalytic oxidation performance towards various alcohol fuel molecules, including the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), n -propanol oxidation reaction (NPOR), and isopropanol oxidation reaction (IPOR), with peak current densities ranging from 26.9 to 54.46 mA cm−2 in alkaline solution. These results indicate that the CTGU-38 appears to be a potential non-noble metal-based electrocatalyst for DAFCs, and this work provides new insights into the design of more efficient electrocatalysts at the atomic scale for energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil cadmium (Cd) contamination is a world-wide challenge and chemical stabilization is the most used remediation strategy. To solve the disadvantages of high stabilizer dosage and cost, we innovated a cost-efficient steam flash heating (SFH) approach to chemically immobilize Cd in contaminated soils, which introduced high-pressure saturated water vapor into soil microstructure, broke their binding with soil particles and accelerated Cd reactions with stabilizers by ultrafast pressure release. Using calcium dihydrogen phosphate, potassium hydrogen phosphate or calcium carbonate as stabilizer, Cd stabilization efficiency was 10.4%, 13.4% and 17.1% higher by SFH than conventional chemical stabilization, and the lowest Cd content in leachate was 0.61 mg/L. Additionally, SFH approach averagely reduced 50.1 ± 7.29% of stabilizer dosage, 34.1% of cost, and 29.9% of CO 2 emission. BCR sequential extraction results suggested that acid extractable Cd was preferentially transformed into residual Cd by SFH. Analysis of X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) documented that SFH treatment produced more stable Cd-minerals of Cd 3 (PO 4) 2 , CaCO 3 -Cd, and CdCO 3. Our findings proved the state-of-the-art SFH approach and uncovered its mechanisms to stabilize Cd in contaminated soils, offering a green and cost-efficient remediation alternative for heavy metal contaminated site management. [Display omitted] • Innovative steam flash heating for effective Cd immobilization. • SFH improves the molecular contact and mass transfer to accelerate Cd stabilization. • Higher cost-efficiency and lower energy consumption in steam flash heating. • Steam flash heating changes Cd immobilization mechanism evidenced by XANES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Florfenicol is a broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used in the U.S. to treat respiratory and enteric infections in goats in an extra-label manner, which requires scientifically based withdrawal intervals (WDIs) for edible tissues. This study aimed to determine the depletion profiles for florfenicol and florfenicol amine in plasma and tissues samples and to estimate WDIs for goats following subcutaneous injection of 40 mg/kg florfenicol, twice, 96 h apart. The samples were collected up to 50 days after the second dose. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using non-compartmental analysis. Three different pharmacostatistical methods with different operational tolerances were used to calculate WDIs. The plasma half-life was 101.80 h for florfenicol and 207.69 h for florfenicol amine after the second dose. Using the FDA tolerance limit method, WDIs were 202 and 101 days, while the EMA maximum residue limit method estimated 179 and 96 days for the respective tissue concentrations to fall below limits of detection (0.12 μg/g for liver and 0.05 μg/g for kidney). This study characterizes plasma pharmacokinetics and tissue depletion profiles of florfenicol and florfenicol amine in goats following subcutaneous injections and reports estimated WDIs for food safety assessment of florfenicol in goats. • Pharmacokinetics and tissue residue depletion of florfenicol were studied in goats. • Goats received 40 mg/kg florfenicol via subcutaneous injections twice 96 h apart. • Plasma half-life was 101.80 h for florfenicol and 207.69 h for florfenicol amine. • Withdrawal intervals were 202 and 101 days for liver and kidney using FDA tolerance limit method. • The results help derive extralabel withdrawal intervals of florfenicol in goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant functional traits can reflect plants' long-term adaptive responses to the environment. However, the ecological adaptation strategies adopted by desert plants in plant functional groups to cope with extreme environments remain unclear. Therefore, in this study, plants belonging to 16 common desert species were collected to measure leaf chemical and physiological traits in the extremely arid region along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin. Cluster analysis was used to divide the plants into different functional groups to reveal the response and adaptation mechanisms of plants to environmental and resource changes at a higher level. The results showed that (1) based on plant leaf functional traits, the 16 desert plants could be divided into three plant functional groups, showing significant differences in chemical element contents and ratios, osmoregulatory substance content, and water use efficiency (p ＜0.05). (2) Functional group 1 (FG1) had the highest leaf nutrient and water use efficiency and soluble sugar content, lower N and P content and the lowest soluble protein content, indicating a passive strategy of high consumption. Plants in functional group 2 (FG2) were poor in leaf N, rich in P and had the lowest organic carbon content, soluble sugar content, and water use efficiency, indicating a relatively conservative strategy. Members of functional group 3 (FG3) were rich in leaf C, N and P, and their proline, soluble protein and sugar content were all high, indicating a rapid resource acquisition and growth strategy. (3) There were significant correlations among most leaf traits of each functional group (p ＜0.05); although the relationships were inconsistent, extremely significant correlations existed between the organic carbon and nonstructural carbon contents in FG1, C/P and soluble sugar contents in FG2, and total N and proline contents in FG3 (p ＜0.01). These results indicate that desert plant functional groups adopt different ecological strategies and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how plants adapt and respond to extremely arid environments, providing a scientific basis for the protection of desert vegetation. • 16 desert plants in extremely arid regions were divided into 3 functional groups based on leaf functional traits. • 3 plant functional groups adopted passive, acquisitive and conservative ecological strategy, respectively. • The trade-offs between leaf functional traits differed considerably among 3 plant functional groups. • The diverse ecological strategies adopted by desert plant functional groups embody their adaptation to extremely aridity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surufatinib is a potent and orally active small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting VEGFRs 1 to 3, FGFR-1, and CSF-1R, and thus may exert antitumor and antiangiogenic effects. The objective of this study was to determine the tolerability and effects of food intake on the pharmacokinetic properties of surufatinib in healthy Chinese subjects. A total of 24 healthy Chinese male subjects aged between 18 and 55 years were enrolled. Subjects were administered a single dose of surufatinib 250–mg capsules in the fasted and fed states in succession. Pharmacokinetic analysis was performed through the collection of blood samples at predose and at several time points after surufatinib administration. Tolerability assessments comprised physical examination including vital sign measurements, laboratory testing, and ECG to determine adverse events (AEs). The 90% CIs of the geometric mean ratios of AUC 0–t and AUC 0–∞ in the fasted and fed states was within 0.80 to 1.25; and for C max , within 0.70 to 1.43, indicating that food had no effect on the bioavailability of surufatinib in these healthy Chinese male subjects. Food intake delayed the time to peak absorption of surufatinib, as the median T max in the fed state was longer than that in the fasted state (4.0 vs 2.0 h). Surufatinib was marginally excreted from urine (mean [SD] cumulative excretion fraction, 1.2% [0.4%]). AEs occurred in 7 of the 24 subjects (29.2%) and included upper respiratory tract infection, dizziness, merycism, intervertebral disc protrusion, influenza-like disease, hematuria, prostatitis, and elevated blood urea nitrogen. All AEs were grade 1 or 2. The bioavailability of surufatinib was not affected by food intake prior to dosing. However, food intake led to delated T max of surufatinib. The tolerability of a single oral dose of surufatinib 250 mg in the fasted and fed states was favorable in these healthy Chinese male subjects. These results indicate that surufatinib capsules could be administered before or after meals. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02320409. 1. Surufatinib was well tolerated in healthy Chinese subjects. 2. The bioavailability of surufatinib was not affected by food intake prior to dosing. 3. Safety assessments of surufatinib were similar under fasting or fed condition. 4. Surufatinib capsule can be administered pre-meal and post-meal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work based on two diffusion triples, the composition-dependent interdiffusivity matrices in the fcc Ni–Al–Ta alloys at 1373K and 1473K were efficiently deduced by using our newly developed two-dimensional (2D) inverse scheme. This scheme determines interdiffusivities from point and one-dimensional (1D) diffusion path to 2D composition region, yet requires much less experimental efforts, with the measured 2D composition profiles being well reproduced. Further, the interdiffusivities deduced from the inverse scheme were directly compared with those extracted by the traditional Sauer-Freise method and Whittle-Green method based on nine diffusion couples designed for verification. The interdiffusivities inferred from two distinct ways are fairly consistent, either at the binary boundaries or at the intersection points within the ternary composition range. Besides, the interdiffusion flux and the shift of the Kirkendall plane over the whole diffusion zone were simulated by applying the present 2D inverse scheme. The resulting 2D mapping presents a non-uniform but curved Kirkendall plane, which is in contrast to the flat shape generated in 1D diffusion couples and well explained by the calculated diffusion variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten undescribed diterpenoids namely rubellawus E-N of structural types pimarane (1 , 3 - 4), nor-abietane (2), nor-pimarane (5 – 6), isopimarane (7 – 9), and nor-isopimarane (10), along with eleven known compounds, were isolated and identified from the aerial parts of Callicarpa rubella Lindl. The structures of the isolated compounds were confirmed by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses and quantum chemical computations. Pharmacologically, almost all the compounds exhibited a potential inhibitory effect on oxidized low-density lipoprotein-induced macrophage foam cell formation, which suggests that these compounds may be promising candidates in the treatment of atherosclerosis. Undescribed diterpenoids from Callicarpa rubella Lindl. with anti-atherosclerosis activity were reported in this research. [Display omitted] • Twenty-one diterpenoids were isolated from Callicarpa rubella Lindl. • Ten undescribed ones including one tetracyclic and four nor-diterpenoids. • Most compounds exhibited potent anti-atherosclerosis activity. • First time to test the anti-atherosclerosis activity of pimarane diterpenoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Neodymium decreases the activity and gene expression of antioxidant enzymes. • Neodymium increases the generation of ROS in the gill of zebrafish. • Neodymium inhibits GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling in the gill of zebrafish. • Neodymium affects the generation of ROS via GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling. Rare earth element neodymium (Nd) is widely used in industry and agriculture, which may result in the pollution of aquatic environment. In this study, we exposed zebrafish with 10, 50, and 100 μg/L Nd for four weeks. The results showed that Nd could be accumulated in fish gill and Nd accumulation affected the equilibrium of nutrient elements. Nd decreased the antioxidant enzymes' activity and gene expression level, but enhanced the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, various concentration of Nd treatments inhibited Nrf2 signaling in gill. To examine the critical role of GSK-3β/Nrf2 signaling on ROS generation under Nd stress, we further interfered gsk-3β gene in zebrafish under 100 μg/L Nd exposure. The result showed that gsk-3β gene interference induced Nrf2 signaling as well as the expression and activity of antioxidant enzymes in fish gill. In all, Nd could be accumulated in fish gill, and the signaling of GSK-3β/Nrf2 was involved in regulating ROS generation under Nd treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An evaluation system considering pressure and pressure-bearing was established. • Grid scale ecological security was evaluated using this system and entropy method. • County scale security level was evaluated based on entropy matter-element model. • Changes of ecological security situation between 2000 and 2015 were explored. Abstract Ecological security is important for social and economic sustainable development which needs stable resources and eco-environment support. In this study, we established an evaluation indicator system considering pressure and pressure-bearing to quantify the ecological security for Kunming city as it is a socioeconomic center in Southwest China with important ecological niche and rapid urbanization. According to the weights assigned by entropy method, we overlaid 13 indicators which were divided into 2 units, pressure indicators and pressure-bearing indicators, to evaluate the ecological security on grid scale. And then, ecological security level on district-county scale was evaluated based on the entropy matter-element model. On this basis, we explored their spatial distribution characteristics and the change trend from 2000 to 2015. Results showed that spatial distribution characteristic of ecological security evaluation was similar with the results of pressure evaluation, showing the scores and levels gradually increased from the urban area to the surrounding areas. Compared the ecological security levels in 2000 and in 2015, both of the highest value and the lowest value increased slightly. In general, the area with improved ecological security situation accounted for 89.10% of the total area. In terms of the change trend of ecological security levels, eight counties deteriorated while five counties remained unchanged which were driven by different deterioration reasons. The evaluation results of this study can provide comprehensive and targeted support for regional sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The conventional procedures, based on attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR), have been developed for the origins traceability of cultivated Paris polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (PPY) samples with the help of partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and random forest. In this study, a set of 219 batch cultivated PPY samples, containing the cultivation years of 5, 6 and 7, and covering the municipal districts of Chuxiong, Dali, Honghe, Lijiang and Yuxi in Yunnan Province, China, were used to build the discrimination models. Firstly, a visualized analysis was carried out by t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) to reduce each data point in a two-dimensional map and make a knowledge of the sample distribution tendency. Secondly, the single spectra data sets of Paridis rhizome and leaf tissues, and the combination of these two data sets with variable selection (mid-level data fusion strategy), were used to establish PLS-DA and random forest models, and parallelly compared the model performance. Results demonstrated that the discrimination ability of PLS-DA preceded the random forest model, and the classification performance was remarkably improved after mid-level data fusion. These results verified each other by 5-, 6- and 7-year old Paridis samples and indicated that the model performance established in the present study was reliable. Besides, five agronomic characters, including the plant height, dry weight of rhizome and leaf tissues, and the allocation of rhizome and leaf were determined and analyzed, results of which indicated that the dry weight and their allocation was significantly different among various origins and fluctuated with the cultivation years. This study was using a comprehensive and green analytical method to discriminate the cultivated Paridis according to their provenances, which was simultaneously benefited for the appropriate cultivation areas selection based on the dry weight of rhizome tissues. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Identification cultivated Paridis basing on rhizome and leaf tissues. • PLS-DA and random forest models were established basing on ATR-FTIR spectra. • Mid-level data fusion strategy combined with PLS-DA presented a satisfying result. • Dry weight allocation fluctuated with origins and cultivation years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aims To investigate the status of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) research and the characteristics of patients with FH in China. Methods Published papers in Chinese or English language from PubMed, SinoMed and CNKI databases from 1971 to March 2018 were searched using 'Familial hypercholesterolemia', 'Chinese' and 'Han' as keywords. A systematic review of studies on familial hypercholesterolemia was then conducted. Results A total of 391 articles were found, in which 22% were in English and 78% were in Chinese; approximately 43% are case reports and 34% are genetic reports according to the study type; 52% discussed the status of the disease and 11% investigated the subclinical status according to the study content. Furthermore, 96% of the articles were published by tertiary hospitals and 46% were conducted by cardiologists. The first expert consensus was issued in February 2018. Of the 163 case reports published before 2018, 48.7% used the Chinese FH clinical diagnostic criteria and 34.4% did not clearly indicate the diagnostic criteria. The incidence rates of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) and apolipoprotein B (APOB) mutations were 82% and 9%, and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) mutations were rare in Chinese patients with FH. However, the data on lipid-lowering treatment rates, compliance rates and cardiovascular events in FH remain insufficient. Conclusions Large-scale epidemiological investigation of FH has not been demonstrated, the recognition of FH remains rudimentary, and the guidelines are incomplete in China. The diagnosis and management of Chinese FH needs to be improved. Highlights • Familial hypercholesterolemia is a common hereditary disorder in china. • Familial hypercholesterolemia is extremely underdiagnosed in china. • Familial Hypercholesterolemia is undertreated in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Spatially quantifying ecosystem services (ES) supply, demand and balance dynamics and exploring their relations with socio-economic factors are very significant for regional sustainability. In this study, land use/land cover (LULC) matrix model was used to quantify the relevant capacity of the ES supply, demand and balance in China. Also, we explored the spatial-temporal characteristics of ES at three scales (national, provincial and city scale). The results revealed that the ES supply, demand and balance in China had strong spatial heterogeneity and showed different time-varying characteristics on different scales. For the provinces with ES deficit, linear optimization model was then applied to achieve the theoretical ES balance through land cover conversion. For the provinces with negative regulating ES, farmland should be significantly reduced while desert and grassland should be converted to farmland and forest for the provinces with negative provisioning ES. In addition, the key driving factors of ES dynamics were selected through ordination analysis of 109 cities at city scale. The results showed that forest proportion was the most important influencing factor of ecosystem services supply while ES supply management can be carried out by adjusting the output values of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. On the other hand, ES demand can be adjusted by per capita GDP, energy consumption per unit of GDP and permanent population. The results can provide targeted information with ES management and this method can be applied at a smaller scale considering data availability. This study provides a convenient and propagable method for ES quantification and a quantitative support for regional ES management decisions. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • ES had strong spatiotemporal heterogeneity on national, provincial and city scales. • Forest proportion was the most important driving force of ES supply. • Different land cover conversion strategies should be implemented for ES balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Haloxylon ammodendron was found to be less drought-resistant than H. persicum. • Haloxylon ammodendron was groundwater dependent, but H. persicum was not. • Declining groundwater depths induced the water-carbon imbalance of H. ammodendron. • The two species converted to deeper, but different water sources during extreme drought. Abstract In the context of global change, frequent extreme droughts and artificial groundwater overexploitation have significantly changed water availability, which will have profound effects on ecosystem water balance and plant survival. However, few studies have explored the changes in physiology and water-use of desert plants caused by these emerging variations in water availability. Therefore, we investigated the photosynthesis, water potential, and water absorption of two dominant woody species (Haloxylon ammodendron and H. persicum) at three sites with different groundwater depths in the Gurbantunggut Desert of Central Asia during an extreme drought period. Our results showed that: (1) H. ammodendron exhibited more negative pre-dawn leaf water potential and lower photosynthetic capacity (–2.85 MPa, 24.19 μmol CO 2 m−2 s−1) than H. persicum (–2.31 MPa, 33.92 μmol CO 2 m−2 s−1) during the extreme drought period; (2) pre-dawn leaf water potential and carbon assimilation of H. ammodendron significantly decreased with declining groundwater depths, whereas those of H. persicum were barely affected; (3) both species converted to deeper but different water sources during the extreme drought period: H. ammodendron obtained 56–100% soil water from the near-groundwater layer, while H. persicum obtained 64–100% soil water from the deep soil layer; (4) the depths of water absorption constantly deepened with declining groundwater depths. Variations in water availability have led to the adjustment in plant water uptake, but this adjustment was not sufficient for the optimal physiological performance of H. ammodendron. Thus, under more intense and frequent drought events, further declines in groundwater depth could significantly inhibit growth of this species and may ultimately threaten its survival. Our findings on water use and physiological responses of dominant plant species to decreasing water availability provide a basis for predicting the future of desert plants under deteriorating water conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Hydrogen-rich water (HRW) has been widely used in research on plant resistance to Cd. However, the underlying molecular mechanism of HRW in ameliorating cadmium stress in vegetables is largely unknown. In this study, the RNA-sequencing analyses were used to characterize the role of HRW in the alleviation of Cd toxicity in Chinese cabbage seedlings. Based on the obtained results, two genes encoding metal ionic transporters, BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 were ultimately selected out. Then, a systematic validation of the metal ion transport function of these two ZIP-encoding genes of pak choi were performed via a yeast transformation system. The results showed that BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 increased the sensitivity of different yeast mutant strains to relative metal ionic stresses and facilitated the accumulation of metal ions (Cd2+, Mn2+, Zn2+, and Fe2+) in yeast; thus, it suggests that BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 probably have the ability to transport Cd2+, Mn2+, Zn2+ and Fe2+ in pak choi. The time-course and concentration-dependent expression profiles of BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 showed that as time with HRW increased, the effectiveness of the repression on the expression of BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 increased, and as the seedlings were exposed to increased Cd concentrations, the inhibition of BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 by HRW was also increased. Over all, these findings provide new insights into the genome-wide transcriptome profiles in pak choi and show that HRW reduced Cd uptake probably through inhibiting the expression of transporters related to Cd absorption, BcIRT1 and BcZIP2. Highlights • Transcriptome profiles induced by Cd or HRW plus Cd were obtained. • HRW efficiently regulated the expression of Cd-induced transporter related genes. • The first function validation of BcIRT1 and BcZIP2 were performed by a yeast system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, a duopoly remanufacturing game of competition on output based on boundedly rational expectation is formulated. It involves an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) who makes new products and a third-party independent remanufacture (IR) who uses returned cores to produce differentiated products. Both parties adopt nonlinear cost functions. The study shows that consumer's willingness-to-pay (WTP) has distinct effects on the OEM's performance and the stability of Nash equilibrium. We present results on existence, stability and local bifurcations of the equilibrium points. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the system with varying model parameters may be driven to chaos and the loss of stability may be caused by period doubling bifurcations. It is also shown that the state variables feedback and parameter variation method can be used to keep the system from instability and chaos. Highlights • A duopoly remanufacturing game with bounded rationality is proposed. • The local stability analysis of the equilibrium points had been studied. • The dynamics of the system have been analyzed. • Simulations show the complex dynamics when some parameters varying. • The model arrived at the equilibrium quickly for some controlling parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Paris polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (Franch.) Hand.-Mazz (PPY) was a frequently used herbal medicine in pharmaceutical field and different provenances might affect the clinical efficacy. Tracing the geographical origin was an important portion for PPY authentication and quality assessment. Present study was compared low-, mid- and high-level data fusion methodology for geographical traceability of PPY samples (161 batches) combined with multivariate classification methods such as support vector machine gird search (SVM-GS) and random forest (RF) on the basis of Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) spectra. Compared with the low- and mid-level data fusion strategy results basing on SVM-GS algorithm, result of high-level data fusion method (calculated by RF) was more satisfying. Result of RF basing on high-level data fusion strategy showed that merely two samples were misclassified and one sample was multiple assigned after voting with fuzzy set theory. Values of specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy rates were exceeded 0.91, 0.99 and 90.91%, for each class respectively, satisfying results of these were shown in training and test sets for high-level data fusion method. This feasible result indicated that the RF algorithm could establish a reliable and good performance model in geographical traceability on the basis of high-level data fusion strategy. Combination of high-level data fusion and RF algorithm could consider as a good choice for establishing a discrimination multivariate model for origins identification of PPY samples. Graphical Abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Samples were analyzed by FT-MIR and UV–Vis. • Classification capacity was compared base on low-, mid- and high-level data fusion strategy. • Classification models were established by SVM-GS and random forest. • High-level data fusion strategy improved the performance of classification model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Given that the consumption of pure varieties for Paridis Rhizome was increasing and causing a “ripple effect”, i.e. numerous other unofficial Paris species were harvested and traded as the succedaneum of Paridis. The purpose of this study was to establish an effective strategy to distinguish Paris species and trace geographical origins of pure varieties of Paridis samples. A total of 87 batch samples of wild Par is were analyzed by UPLC and FTIR. Among them, 79 batch samples of five species and 40 batch samples of Paris polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (Franch.) Hand.-Mazz were used to establish pattern recognition models of PLS-DA, SVM and random forest simultaneously, basing on polyphyllin content, FTIR spectra, UPLC chromatograms, low- and mid-level data fusion strategy. Quantitative analysis results revealed that more obvious fluctuation of polyphyllin content was shown in different species sample than that of pure varieties of Paridis collected from various origins. Pattern recognition models showed that compared with polyphyllin content, FTIR spectra, UPLC chromatograms and low-level data fusion method, mid-level data fusion strategy showed a better accuracy (>92%) in PLS-DA model to classify Paridis samples according to botanical and geographical origins. Similar results were obtained in SVM and random forest models. Thus, the classification of these three pattern recognition models were verified each other and demonstrated that mid-level data fusion strategy combined with chemometrics could recognize different Paris species and trace the pure varieties of Paridis geographical origins, correctly. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Seven samples of Paris species were analyzed by UPLC and FTIR. • Ten data matrices were used to establish discrimination model. • PLS-DA, SVM and random forest were used to identify species and trace origins. • Five samples of Paris species and three regions of pure Paridis were correctly distinguished on the basis of mid-level data fusion strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The band gap of SiGe alloy film is related to the thickness of the film and the content of silicon. • Band gap maps are given in different films thicknesses and Si content. • The change maps of direct band gap and indirect band gap of SiGe alloy films are given. Abstract First principles calculation based on density functional theory (DFT) with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) are carried out to investigate the electronic band structures of Si x Ge (1 − x) alloys nanofilms. The calculation results show that the band gaps of (100), (110) and (111) surfaces Si x Ge (1 − x) alloy films with different thickness first increase with the increase of Si content, then flatten out, and finally decrease. At the same time, the transformation of direct band gap and indirect band gap occurs when the thickness of films and Si content of the three surface Si x Ge (1 − x) alloy films changes to a certain critical condition. It will be a good way to obtain direct-gap band emission in Si x Ge (1 − x) alloys materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) has become a global public health issue in recent years, these new-type drugs can cause addiction and serious cognitive impairment. However, there are no effective methods for the prevention and treatment of ATS addiction at present. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a painless and non-invasive new therapeutic approach that has been used for the treatment of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders, but whether it can be used to treat drug addiction is unclear. In the present study, we investigated the possible effects of rTMS on methamphetamine(METH)-induced conditioned place preference (CPP). High-frequency (10 Hz) and low-frequency stimulation patterns (1 Hz) were applied to test the effect of rTMS on METH-induced CPP. The results showed that low-frequency but not high-frequency rTMS could block METH-CPP, accompanied with a downregulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid type B receptor subunit 1 (GABA B R1) expression in rat dorsolateral striatum. These results suggested that low-frequency rTMS could effectively inhibit the development of METH addiction and shed light on the rTMS as a potential approach for the prevention of drug addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on lung cancer cells is controversial, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, which harms the utilization of MSCs in tumor therapy. In this study, we found that human umbilical cord MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) promotes EMT, invasion, and migration, yet inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of lung cancer cells. The EMT-promoting effect of MSCs was mediated by exosomes derived from MSCs (MSC-exo) and eliminated by inhibiting exosome release. Moreover, silencing TGF-β1 expression in MSCs can revert the EMT-promoting effect and enhance the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effect of MSCs on lung cancer cells via MSC-exo. Further investigation found that Smad2/3, Akt/GSK-3β/β-catenin, NF-κB, ERK, JNK, and p38 MAPK in TGF-β1 signaling pathways could be activated by MSC-exo in lung cancer cells, while silencing TGF-β1 expression in MSCs may deactivate these pathways. These findings suggest a method by which MSCs may be safely employed in lung cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of cane sugar crystals can provide fundamental information for the setting of production process parameters. However, the overlap phenomenon of sugar particles has adverse effects on identifying the shape of sugarcane crystals in images, and it is critical to effectively recognize the status of the growth of cane sugar crystals. To realize the recognition and segmentation of three cane sugar crystal states, we propose ASSugarNet , a cane sugar crystal amodal segmentation method based on deep neural networks. To better extract multi-scale semantic features, the local feature enhance module is proposed. The foreground boundary enhancement loss function is adopted, which can effectively improve the segmentation quality of sugar crystal boundary regions. For overlapping crystals, the amodal segmentation module is used to predict the contours and masks of the occluded sugar crystals, which provides accurate input for the subsequent sugar crystal growth stage judgment. To verify the network performance, we create a dataset of cane sugar crystals. Compared with FCN, PSPNet and U-Net 3 + network, the experimental results show that the proposed network structure has better segmentation for three types of crystal performance, with MIoU of 81.47% and OA of 91.00%. The AP of ASSugarNet for adhesive particle segmentation is 32.25%, and the AP 50 is 52.14%. • A novel model for amodal segmentation of overlapping crystal particles ASSugarNet was proposed. • A foreground segmentation block and bounding context enhance block for feature extraction were proposed. • This module realized the prediction of occluder-occludee crystal particles' contours and masks. • The accuracy of the ASSugarNet in feature extraction and amodal segmentation for crystal particles is proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paris Polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis (Franch.) Hand.-Mazz has multiple therapeutic properties and the origins may affect clinical efficacy. Tracing the geographical origin is important to the authentication and quality assessment of this species. 177 wild samples collected from central, southeast and northwest Yunnan Province, China, were analyzed by single analytical method and data fusion strategies (low- and mid-levels) using Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectroscopies combined with chemometrics (partial least squares discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) and support vector machines grid search (SVM-GS)), for categorizing samples from different geographic origins. According to the results, mid-level data fusion strategy presented a better generalization performance and accuracy rates based on latent variables selected by PLS-DA than single analytical method and low-level data fusion strategy. Accuracy rates were almost 100% when both of the PLS-DA and SVM-GS were employed for classifying samples picked from southeast and northwest districts based on mid-level dataset. For samples collected from central of Yunnan where was divided into seven categories in this paper, the accuracy rates of training set and test set of PLS-DA and SVM-GS were preferable (>87%). Based on the mid-level data set, both of the classification results of PLS-DA and SVM-GS presented satisfying accuracy for 177 samples. Additionally, as small as possible parameters showed in mid-level data set, it suggested that this method was robust and generalized. Therefore, the comprehensive method was established for the origin traceability of wild P. Polyphylla Smith var. yunnanensis , which is meaningful for the quality control of herbal medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partitioning, a method considering environmental protection and development potential, is an effective way to provide regional management strategies to maintain ecological sustainability. In this study, we provide a large-scale regional division approach and present a strategy for Southwest China, which also has extremely high development potential because of the “Western development” policy. Based on the superposition of 15 factors, including species diversity, pattern restriction, agricultural potential, accessibility, urbanization potential, and topographical limitations, the environmental value and development benefit in the region were quantified spatially by weighting the sum of indicators within environmental and development categories. By comparing the scores with their respective median values, the study area was divided into four different strategy zones: Conserve zones (34.94%), Construction zones (32.95%), Conflict zones (16.96%), and Low-tension zones (15.16%). The Conflict zones in which environmental value and development benefit were both higher than the respective medians were separated further into the following 5 levels: Extreme conflict (36.20%), Serious conflict (28.07%), Moderate conflict (12.28%), Minor conflict (6.55%), and Slight conflict (16.91%). We found that 9.04% of nature reserves were in Conflict zones, and thus should be given more attention. This study provides a simple and feasible method for regional partitioning, as well as comprehensive support that weighs both the environmental value and development benefit for China's current Ecological Red Line and space planning and for regional management in similar situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of droplets with solid inclusions is of great research interest and has wide industrial applications. Reported here is a theoretical and experimental investigation of the measurement of droplets with solid inclusions using rainbow refractometry. A rainbow extinction model of a droplet with solid inclusions was deduced based on Beer-Lambert's Law. It takes into account the volume concentration, relative size, scattering efficiency of the solid inclusion, and liquid refractive index. An acoustic levitation system for a single droplet and a global rainbow instrumentation system for spray were integrated to study the effect of the H 2 O-CaCO 3 suspension droplets on the rainbow signal and the measured parameters. The results showed that the rainbow encountered unusual disturbances, introduced by the solid inclusions, but its overall structure was not destroyed. Discoveries also included that for volume concentrations of 2.5% or less the CaCO 3 particles with diameters below 4 μm had little effect on the measured parameters of the host droplet. The extinction characteristic was also analyzed. The rainbow extinction model failed to quantity the volume concentration of CaCO 3 , but succeeded in its qualitative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives ALK , RET and ROS1 fusions have been identified as treatable targets in 5%–15% of non-small-cell lung cancers, and thanks to the advanced sequencing technologies, their new partner genes have been steadily detected. Here we identified a rare fusion of ALK ( GCC2-ALK ) in a patient with advanced lung adenocarcinoma and monitored the treatment efficacy of ALK inhibitors on this patient. We further performed in vitro functional studies of this fusion protein for evaluating its oncogenic potential. Materials and methods The GCC2-ALK fusion gene was identified by targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) from the tumor DNA samples, and its fusion product was confirmed by Sanger sequencing the cDNA product. The functional study of GCC2-ALK was performed in Ba/F3 cells with cell proliferation and viability assays. The activation of downstream signaling pathways of ALK and their responses to crizotinib inhibition were studied in HEK-293 and 293T cells with ectopic expression of GCC2-ALK. In parallel, disease progression in the patient was monitored by computed tomography scanning and targeted NGS of either liquid or tissue biopsy samples throughout and after crizotinib treatment. Results Similarly to EML4-ALK, the GCC2-ALK fusion protein promotes IL-3-independent growth of Ba/F3 cells. Ectopic expression of GCC2-ALK leads to hyper-activation of ALK downstream signaling that can be inhibited by crizotinib. Crizotinib treatment of the patient resulted in 18 months of progression free survival without any trace of GCC2-ALK fusion in the liquid biopsies. Re-biopsy of a lung lesion at progression identified the re-occurrence of GCC2-ALK . The patient was then administrated with a second-generation ALK inhibitor, ceritinib, and received partial response until the last follow-up. Conclusion We identified and functionally validated GCC2-ALK as a constitutively activated fusion in NSCLC. The patient was benefited from crizotinib treatment initially and then ceritinib after progression, suggesting GCC2-ALK as a novel therapeutic target for ALK inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainbow refractometry can measure refractive index and size of spray droplets simultaneously. Recording parameters of global rainbow imaging system, such as recording distance and scattering angle recording range, play a vital role in in-situ high accuracy measurement. In the paper, a theoretical and experimental investigation on the effect of recording parameters on measurement error of global rainbow technique was carried out for the first time. The relation of the two recording parameters, and the monochromatic aberrations in global rainbow imaging system were analyzed. In the framework of Lorenz–Mie theory and modified Nussenzveig theory with correction coefficients, measurement error curves of refractive index and size of the droplets caused by aberrations for different recording parameters were simulated. The simulated results showed that measurement error increased with RMS radius of diffuse spot; a long recording distance and a large scattering angle recording range both caused a larger diffuse spot; recording parameters were indicated to have a great effect on refractive index measurement error, but have little effect on measurement of droplet size. A sharp rise in spot radius at large recording parameters was mainly due to spherical aberration and coma. To confirm some of the conclusions, an experiment was conducted. The experimental results showed that the refractive index measurement error was as high as 1 . 3 × 10 − 3 for a recording distance of 31 cm. In the case, recording parameters are suggested to be set to as small a value as possible under the same optical elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extractant residual in water phase is a destined and disgusted consequence after solvent extraction operation. In order to reduce extractant residual in aqueous phase, extractants modified by fluorination were probed. In this paper, tri-n-amylphosphate (TAP) was selected as model extractant along with its fluorinated analogue, tris (2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5-octafluoropentyl) phosphate (FTAP), to extract the salicylic acid from its aqueous solution to investigate residual and extraction behaviors by both experimental and computational methods. The experimental results obtained from multiple light scattering revealed that FTAP barely interacted with water and possessed high hydrophobicity. The solubility of FTAP in aqueous phase was less than 6.0 × 10 −5 (w/w), and declined with increase of temperature, which was similar to the nature of nonionic surfactant. In acid solution with high concentration, the solubility of FTAP remained quite low. The one-step extraction efficiency of FTAP on salicylic acid was approximately 85%. The cycling experimental results showed that the durability of FTAP was overwhelmingly excellent compared with that of TAP, especially after the cycles more than 10 times. DFT calculation demonstrated the hydrophobicity and extraction behavior at molecular level. All results implied that fluorinated modification of extractant was a possible way to reduce its loss in aqueous phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raman spectroscopy combined with artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used in medical diagnostic research and has great application value. However, there are still problems in the research process, such as the low prevalence of some diseases and difficulties in obtaining research samples, which will easily lead to data imbalance in medical Raman spectroscopy research. For AI classification and diagnosis algorithms, when the data imbalance problem is not addressed, majority class samples are selected, and the importance of minority class samples is ignored, reducing the accuracy of disease identification. Based on the above problems, this paper proposes a hybrid sampling technique of Raman-Gaussian distributed oversampling fused with random undersampling (R-GDORUS) to solve the data imbalance problem in medical Raman spectroscopy. The density and distance information carried by the minority samples are used to obtain the selection probability of the minority samples, determine the anchor samples from the minority samples, and generate a new minority sample in the form of a Gaussian distribution. Finally, a random undersampling strategy is used to remove some of the majority class spectral samples. This technique and five other mainstream methods for handling imbalanced data are applied to three major types of imbalanced medical Raman spectroscopy datasets: malignant tumors, class B infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, and the performance of the technique is evaluated using the AUC and G-mean values. The results demonstrate that the proposed technique can be used to effectively reduce the impact of impaired model performance caused by spectral data imbalance and has good application prospects. • This paper presents a hybrid sampling technique R-GDORUS for the first time. • We evaluated the good performance of the proposed technique of the study. • The results show that the method proposed provides a new solution to the Raman data imbalance in medical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BiOBr/FeWO 4 nanomaterials with S-scheme heterojunction were synthesized by a two-step hydrothermal method, and combined with K 2 S 2 O 8 to perform sonocatalytic degradation of Tetracycline (TC). Under the optimum experimental conditions of initial concentration of TC = 45 mg/L, ultrasonic time = 120 min, ultrasonic power = 500 W, catalyst addition = 1 g/L, pH = 6.5, composite ratio of BiOBr and FeWO 4 = 15%, the experiment results showed that BiOBr/FeWO 4 sonocatalyst removed TC by 86.54 ± 4.26%. K 2 S 2 O 8 was verified to enhance the sonocatalytic performance of BiOBr/FeWO 4 efficiently, and the removal ratio of TC could reach 92.99 ± 0.24% within 30 min by using BiOBr/FeWO 4 and K 2 S 2 O 8. There was no difference between the diffraction peaks of the XPS of the sonocatalyst before and after four recycles. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) result indicated that the sonocatalyst had excellent reusability. Finally, the mechanism of TC degradation was proposed, and the possible degradation intermediates and pathways of TC by MS Q-TOF were proposed. In conclusion, the synthesized BiOBr/FeWO 4 sonocatalyst had excellent sonocatalytic activity, reusability and stability, which indicated good application potential for the sonocatalytic removal of organic pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition-dependent interdiffusivities in the fcc Co–Ni–Ta alloys at 1373 K and 1473 K were deduced by using our newly developed numerical inverse scheme that combines two-dimensional (2D) simulations with diffusion triple experiments. This approach largely reduced the experimental efforts by analyzing only one single-phase diffusion triple at each temperature yet covering a much wider composition range than diffusion couples. The reliability of the high-throughput results was firstly verified by reproducing the experimental 2D composition profiles in each triple. In order to further validate the deduced interdiffusivities, several traditional one-dimensional (1D) diffusion couples were also devised, and the widely recognized Sauer-Freise method and Whittle-Green method were then employed to calculate the interdiffusivities for the binaries and at the intersection points within the ternary composition range, respectively. The interdiffusivities extracted from the inverse scheme agree well with those from the traditional approaches, which strongly proves the applicability of the present new scheme. Besides, the constructed main interdiffusivity planes at 1373 K and 1473 K provide an overview of the diffusion behavior in the fcc Co–Ni–Ta system and promote further kinetic studies. • The present inverse scheme deduces interdiffusivities covering two-dimensional (2D) composition region. • Diffusion triple technique requires much less experimental efforts than diffusion couple method. • Deduced interdiffusivities fairly consistent with those calculated from traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic band structures of Si and Ge low-dimensional nanostructure such as nanofilms and nanowires have been calculated using first principles based on density functional theory (DFT) with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The calculation results show that a direct band gap can be obtained from Si orientation [100] or in Ge orientation [111] confined low dimensional nanostructure. However, an indirect band gap is still kept in the Si orientation [111] or in the Ge orientation [110] confined low dimensional nanostructure. The calculation results are interesting and the transition mechanism from indirect to direct band gap in low dimensional nanostructures is given in the physical structures model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the γ-ray total dose induced degradation of double polysilicon self-aligned (DPSA) bipolar NPN transistors at low dose rate. Through comparing the measured results in low- and high-level injection regions, we find that the main irradiation damages related defects in two regions are quite different. In the case of lower emitter-base (E-B) bias, the damage is mainly localized in E-B interface region. For high-level injection, excess base current mainly results from radiation induced defects in intrinsic base region. Furthermore, a phenomenological model based on qualitatively analytical calculation is adopted to explain the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore the role of two SNPs (rs6295 & rs113195492) in the HTR1A gene promoter region that regulates the expression of the 5-HT1A receptor. A fragment spanning from −551 to +672 of HTR1A (Transcription start site +1) was cloned into the pGL-3 Basic Vector and three haplotype plasmids composed of two SNPs were constructed. HEK-293 cells and the SK-N-SH cells were transfected with the three plasmids, and the relative fluorescence intensity was measured. In HEK-293 cells, there was a significant difference when the relative fluorescence intensity of plasmid 1-1 was compared to that of plasmid 2-1. However, no significant difference was observed when the luciferase expression of plasmid 2-1 and plasmid 3-1 was analyzed. We also found that the expression trend of the SK-N-SH cells was similar to the HEK-293 cells, but the overall relative fluorescence intensity of the SK-N-SH cells was lower than that of the HEK-293 cells. Our finding showed that the rs6295 SNP, as a suspected variant that indicates susceptibility to schizophrenia, exhibited a higher transcriptional activity. The influence of the rs113195492 locus on schizophrenia needs to be explored further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron beam irradiation (EBI) was widely used in industry and known as a kind of novel physical modification methods to improve the processing characteristics of starch. It had significant influence on particle properties and crystal structure of Tartary buckwheat starch. The gradually deepened yellow degree and totally higher △E were observed after EBI treatment, with a dose correlated a* and b* values. More than that, amylose content and thermal stability decreased significantly with improved particle size values as well as wrinkles, holes and depression on the surface. C–H stretching vibration and C O carbonyl functional groups were generated and a reduced crystallinity in all ranges (short, intermediate and long) were observed, attributed to the partial deformation of amylose double helices and intertwist of amylopectin external chains in a way. These results indicated that EBI treatment had an obvious impacts on the particle properties and crystal structure. ● Gradually deepened yellow degree and higher △E were observed after EBI treatment ● Apparent amylose content and thermal stability of TBS decreased significantly ● Improved particle size values appeared with wrinkles, holes and depression on surface ● EBI treatment reduced crystallinity in all ranges (short, intermediate and long) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibrosis is a pathological process caused by abnormal wound healing response, which often leads to excessive deposition of extracellular matrix, distortion of organ architecture, and loss of organ function. Aging is an important risk factor for the development of organ fibrosis. C-X-C receptor 4 (CXCR4) is the predominant chemokine receptor on fibrocytes, C-X-C motif ligand 12 (CXCL12) is the only ligand of CXCR4. Accumulated evidence have confirmed that CXCL12/CXCR4 can be involved in multiple pathological mechanisms in fibrosis, such as inflammation, immunity, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and angiogenesis. In addition, CXCL12/CXCR4 have also been shown to improve fibrosis levels in many organs including the heart, liver, lung and kidney; thus, they are promising targets for anti-fibrotic therapy. Notably, inhibitors of CXCL12 or CXCR4 also play an important role in various fibrosis-related diseases. In summary, this review systematically summarizes the role of CXCL12/CXCR4 in fibrosis, and this information is of great significance for understanding CXCL12/CXCR4. This will also contribute to the design of further studies related to CXCL12/CXCR4 and fibrosis, and shed light on potential therapies for fibrosis. • Fibrosis is a typical aging-related pathological process, and is regarded as a common pathway to organ injury and failure. • CXCL12/CXCR4 have different effects on fibrogenesis, including inflammation, immunity, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and angiogenesis. • CXCL12/CXCR4 are involved in fibrosis in various organs, including the heart, liver, lung, and kidney. • It is of great clinical importance to further explore the effect of CXCL12/CXCR4 inhibition to potentiate the clinical effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unique 3D entangling Cu(II)-metal organic framework, namely, {[Cu 4 (abtc) 2 (btab) 6 ·3H 2 O]·2H 2 O} n ( 1 ), has been successfully constructed from Cu II and 3,3′,5,5′-azo benzene tetracarboxylate building units with the aid of N-donor bridging spacers [1,4-bis(triazol)butane], and directs a rare self-penetrating structure with polyhelix motifs and presents a new (4,4,8)-connected (4.6 5 ) 2 (6 4 .7.8) 2 (4 2 .6 20 .7 2 .8 4 ) topology. The magnetic investigations demonstrate that complex 1 exhibits antiferromagnetic coupling interaction between the adjacent Cu(II) ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by a facile one-step synthesis method, and the emission color of the ZnO NPs can be tuned from orange to yellow, green, blue-green and blue. These ZnO NPs were used as phosphors to fabricate UV-pumped white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs). The color rendering index of the WLEDs is (0.31, 0.33), which is close to the standard white emission. The WLEDs have high correlated color temperature (6532 K) and Commission International de L'Eclairage (90.4). These results indicated that the multi-colored ZnO NPs have great application potential in lighting and display. • A facile one-step method was developed for the preparation of multi-colored ZnO NPs, and the emission color of the NPs can be tuned from orange to yellow, green, blue-green and blue. • The fluorescence emission of these NPs transitioned from orange to blue by adjusting their particle size from 10 nm to 4 nm, which was due to quantum confinement effect. • Based on their unique optical properties, multi-colored ZnO NPs were used to prepare the WLEDs. The CIE of the WLEDs was (0.31, 0.33), which was close to the standard white emission. In addition, the WLEDs had a high CCT (6532 K) and CIR (90.4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD73 is a membrane-bound glycoprotein that can dephosphorylate AMP to adenosine. Increasing evidence has shown that CD73 is involved in the occurrence and development of liver fibrosis. However, the potential mechanism by which CD73 affects the progression of alcohol-related liver fibrosis (ALF) remains unknown. This study aimed to examine the role and mechanism of CD73 in autophagy in HSC-T6 cells and its role in ALF in mice that treated with alcohol plus CCl 4. We found that CD73 knockout reduced serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels and decreased liver injury and collagen deposition. Furthermore, autophagy-related indicators were downregulated in the liver fibrosis tissues of CD73-/- (EtOH + CCl4) mice. In vitro , the expression of CD73 and autophagy increased in activated HSC-T6 cells. Autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine, reduced autophagy and activation of acetaldehyde-induced HSC-T6 cells. When using CD73-siRNA, autophagy in HSC-T6 cells was found to be downregulated. However, the CD73 plasmid increased the activation and autophagy of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). In addition, CD73 induced autophagy through the AMPK/AKT/mTOR pathway, which is characterized by an increase in the ratio of P-AMPKα/AMPKα and a decrease in the ratio of P-AKT/AKT and P-mTOR/mTOR. Our study found that CD73 promotes HSCs activation by regulating autophagy through the AMPK/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text-based image captioning (TextCap) aims to remedy the shortcomings of existing image captioning tasks that ignore text content when describing images. Instead, it requires models to recognize and describe images from both visual and textual content to achieve a deeper level of comprehension of the images. However, existing methods tend to use numerous complex network architectures to improve performance, which still fails to adequately model the relationship between vision and text on the one side, while on the other side this leads to long running times, high memory consumption, and other unfavorable deployment problems. To solve the above issues, we have developed a lightweight captioning method with a collaborative mechanism, LCM-Captioner, which balances high efficiency with high performance. First, we propose a feature-lightening transformation for the TextCap task, named TextLighT, which is able to learn rich multimodal representations while mapping features to lower dimensions, thereby reducing memory costs. Next, we present a collaborative attention module for visual and text information, VTCAM, to facilitate the semantic alignment of multimodal information to uncover important visual objects and textual content. Finally, the conducted extensive experiments on the TextCaps dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. Code is available at https://github.com/DengHY258/LCM-Captioner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]