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The field of nanomedicine-catalyzed tumor therapy has achieved a lot of progress; however, overcoming the limitations of the tumor microenvironment (TME) to achieve the desired therapeutic effect remains a major challenge. In this study, a nanocomposite hydrogel (GH@LDO) platform combining the nanozyme CoMnFe-layered double oxides (CoMnFe-LDO) and natural enzyme glucose oxidase (GOX) was engineered to remodel the TME to enhance tumor catalytic therapy. The CoMnFe-LDO is a nanozyme that can convert endogenous H

In this paper, we present a two-level additive Schwarz method for a kind of tensor complementarity problem (TCP). The method is proved to be convergent monotonically and can reach the solution within finite steps. We report some preliminary numerical results to test the efficiency of the proposed method.

Bacterial genotyping is important for understanding the complex microbiota. Although fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has enabled bacterial community identification with high spatial resolution, its unavoidable cell fixation steps and signal generation by multi-probe stacking greatly limit its application in living bacterial genotyping. Here, we designed polyethyleneimine-encapsulated CRISPR/Cas12a-circular reporter nanoprobes (CasCLR) for rapid and sensitive visualization of gene information in living bacteria. We found that, nanoprobe-based sequential delivery of Cas12a/crRNA and circular reporter into bacteria allowed single genomic loci to initiate trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a, thereby cleaving CLR to generate amplified fluorescent signals for imaging of target gene. Using CasCLR, we can sensitively analyze the percentage of target bacteria in co-culture experiments and directly detect pathogenic bacteria in uncultured mouse gut microbe. In addition, CasCLR has the ability to sensitively analyze specific genotype of microbial communities in vivo. This nanobiotechnology-based bacterial gene analysis is expected to advance understanding of in vivo bacterial cytogenetic information.

Human calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), a member of the G-protein-coupled receptor superfamily (GPCR), has been a therapeutic target for developing new drugs against calciotropic disorders and non-calciotropic diseases. The highly efficient methodologies for pursuing novel ligands/drugs remained a challenge due to the redundant purification processes of membrane protein in some widely-used methods including NMR, X-ray crystallography, Fluorescence Titration Spectroscopy, and Circular Dichroism. Herein, extracellular domain (ECD) of CaSR as its functional fragment was used to develop a rapid chromatographic method, which involved the synthesis of stationary phase material based on the site-specific covalent reaction of Halogenated alkane dehalogenase (Halo)-tagged ECD of CaSR in cell lysate with 6-chlorocaproic acid modified silica beads, the use of the immobilized CaSR column for revealing the interaction of three known agonists with CaSR and further screening ligands from complex matrix like Chinese herb medicine 'Shuangdan'. The immobilized CaSR column was prepared rapidly without the protein purification and retained a good stability and specificity for at least 35 days. It was revealed that one type of binding sites occurred on CaSR with the binding affinity of neomycin gentamicin-C / kanamycin, presumably which related to the number of structural amino groups attached. This method allowed for recognizing specifically novel ligands from 'Shuangdan', demonstrating one type of binding sites on CaSR with the binding affinity of gallic acid caffeic acid paeonol. These results indicated that, the immobilization of a representative extracellular domain of CaSR to silica beads as biomaterial is feasible to develop a new rapid method, which can be successfully applied in screening novel ligands efficiently from complex matrices.

Given a full column rank matrix X ∈ R n × m , a matrix B ∈ R m × m and a symmetric matrix A 0 ∈ R p × p . In structural dynamic model updating, Yuan and Dai (2007) considered the matrix equation X T A X = B with a leading principal submatrix A 0 constraint. For a given matrix A ∗ ∈ R n × n , they updated the mass and stiffness matrix in the Frobenius norm sense such that the corrected matrices satisfy the generalized eigenvalue equation and orthogonality conditions. But due to measurement errors, the measured mass and stiffness matrices will not always satisfy these requirements. Since they still contain some useful information, we would like to retrieve their least-squares approximations to correct these matrices. Then we obtain the least-squares symmetric solutions of the equation X T A X = B with a trailing principal submatrix A 0 constraint by using the matrix differential calculus and canonical correlation decomposition. Furthermore, by applying the generalized singular value decomposition and projection theorem we get the best Frobenius norm approximate symmetric solution of this equation according to a given matrix A ∗ ∈ R n × n with A 0 as its trailing principal submatrix. Finally, a numerical algorithm for computing the best approximate solution is established. Some illustrated numerical examples are also presented.

Concerns have been raised regarding the ecotoxicity of ionic liquids (ILs) owing to their wide usage in numerous fields. Three imidazolium chloride ILs with different numbers of methyl substituents, 1-decyl-imidazolium chloride ([C10IM]Cl), 1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C10MIM]Cl), and 1-decyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride ([C10DMIM]Cl), were examined to assess their effects on growth, photosynthesis pigments content, chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthetic and respiration rate, and cellular ultrastructure of Scenedesmus obliquus. The results showed that algal growth was significantly inhibited by ILs treatments. The observed IC50,48h doses were 0.10 mg/L [C10IM]Cl, 0.01 mg/L [C10MIM]Cl, and 0.02 mg/L [C10DMIM]Cl. The chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll content declined, and the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, minimal fluorescence yield (F0), maximal fluorescence yield (Fm), maximum quantum yield of PSII photochemistry (Fv/Fm), effective quantum yield of PSII [Y(II)], non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and non-photosynthetic losses yield [Y(NO)] were notably affected by ILs in a dose-dependent manner. ILs affected the primary photosynthetic reaction, impaired heat dissipation capability, and diminished photosynthetic efficiency, indicating negative effects on photosystem II. The photosynthetic and respiration rates of algal cells were also reduced due to the ILs treatments. The adverse effects of ILs on plasmolysis and chloroplast deformation were examined using ultrastructural analyses; chloroplast swelling and lamellar structure almost disappeared after the [C10MIM]Cl treatment, and an increased number of starch grains and vacuoles was observed after all ILs treatments. The results indicated that one-methyl-substituted ILs were more toxic than non-methyl-substituted ILs, which were also more toxic than di-methyl-substituted ILs. The toxicity of the examined ILs showed the following order: [C10IM]Cl

Objective To compare the pharmacokinetics of naringin and neohesperidin after oral administration of Zhishi total flavonoid glycosides (ZSTFG) extracted from Aurantii Fructus Immaturus in normal and gastrointestinal motility disorders (GMD) mice. Methods ZSTFG was orally given to normal and GMD mice induced by atropine or dopamine. The plasma samples were incubated with β-glucuronidase/sulfatase, the total (free + conjugated) naringenin and hesperitin were extracted with acetonitrile. The validated HPLC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study. Results The results showed that, compared with the normal group, AUC0–∞, AUC0–t and Cmax for total naringenin and hesperitin were significantly higher (P Conclusion The results showed that there were significant differences in pharmacokinetic parameters of naringenin and hesperitin between normal and GMD groups. It was suggested that the absorption of naringenin and hesperitin was increased, and the elimination processes of naringenin and hesperitin were slower in the GMD group than the normal group. The data are of value for further pharmacological studies of ZSTFG and would be useful to provide a reference for improving the therapeutic regimen of ZSTFG in clinical trials.

In this paper, the theory on direct and inverse spectral problems for Jacobi matrices is revisited in a kind of pseudo-Jacobi matrices J ( n , r , β ) with a mixed path as its graph in the non-self-adjoint setting. In this context, a sign change in one of the nondiagonal entries of the matrix yields strong perturbations in its spectral properties. The reconstruction of a pseudo-Jacobi matrix from its spectrum and the spectra of two complementary principal matrices is investigated. An algorithm for the reconstruction of matrices from prescribed spectral data is provided and illustrative numerical experiments are performed.

The maternal early warning system is an effective tool to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. However, there has been limited research on developing a maternal early warning system especially suitable for Chinese high-risk pregnant women.The purpose is to develop a maternal early warning system to reduce preventable maternal mortality in pregnancy and puerperium in high-risk women in China.A cross-sectional survey design.The study was conducted in a first-level hospital in China.A total of 306 pregnant women were selected as the objects who were admitted to give birth from April to June 2021 in xxx.A convenience sampling method was used to select 42 experts from 20 hospitals in more than 10 cities in east and west China, which represents the developed and undeveloped cities. The maternal early warning indicators of high-risk pregnancy during pregnancy and after birth were determined via literature research, research group discussion, and the Delphi expert consultation.The final maternal early warning system for high-risk women in pregnancy and puerperium included 8 first-level indicators and 30 second-level indicators. The expert authority coefficients of the two rounds of consultation were 0.92 and 0.94, respectively. The Kendall harmony coefficients were 0.252 and 0.386, respectively (P0.001). The area under the ROC curve predicted by the early warning system for high-risk pregnancy during childbirth was higher than 0.86, and the best cut-off point was 9.97. It was statistically significant (P0.001).The constructed maternal early warning system for high-risk pregnancy in pregnancy and puerperium has comprehensive contents and high reliability, which will help midwives to identify high-risk pregnancies during childbirth.The results of this study can help to detect deterioration of the patient, predict morbidity in high-risk women and enable timely intervene to prevent possible severe illness.

Transport stress (TS) not only affects animal welfare but also eventually leads to higher morbidity and mortality. Moreover, TS could induce heart injury in animals, but the possible mechanism has yet to be fully explored. Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) is a main active component of Radix Astragali, which has an extensive anti-stress effect. However, the effect of APS on TS-induced heart injury has not yet been elucidated. In this study, a chick model of simulated TS was used. 240 newly hatched chicks were arranged into 4 groups: Control (Con), Transport group (T), Transport + water group (TW), and Transport + APS group (TA). Before transport, the chicks of the TW and TA groups were treated with deionized water and APS (0.25 mg/mL, 100 µL) by oral drops respectively. The histopathological analysis of myocardial tissue was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin staining. qRT-PCR and Western Blotting assays were employed to measure the expression of genes and proteins. Semiquantitative PCR was performed for the X box-binding protein-1 (XBP-1) mRNA splicing assay. The results indicated that APS significantly reduced TS-induced myocardial histopathological changes. Meanwhile, TS induced endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), evidenced by an activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling pathway and up-regulation of ERS-markers (P0.05). Moreover, TS markedly triggered autophagy induction by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), reflected by augmented LC3-II/LC3-I, AMPK phosphorylation and autophagy-related genes (ATGs) expression (P0.05). Importantly, our study manifested that treatment of APS could reduce TS-induced ERS and AMPK-activated autophagy, accordingly alleviating heart injury of transported chicks. In summary, these findings indicate that TS induces heart injury in chicks via an ERS-UPR-autophagy-dependent pathway, and APS as an effective therapeutic method to alleviate it.

Sexually transmitted infections such as Chlamydia trachomatis can enhance HIV-1 infection. However, the molecular mechanisms modulating the enhancement of HIV-1 infectivity and replication during HIV-1/sexually transmitted infections coinfection remain elusive. In this study, we performed an ex vivo infection of HIV-1 in PBMCs of C. trachomatis‒infected patients and observed a significant increase in HIV-1 p24 levels compared with those in cells from healthy donors. Similarly, C. trachomatis‒stimulated PBMCs from healthy donors showed enhanced susceptibility to HIV-1. C. trachomatis‒stimulated CD4 T cells also harbored more HIV-1 copy numbers. RNA sequencing data revealed the upregulation of CCL3L1/CCL3L3, a paralog of CCL3 in C. trachomatis‒stimulated CD4 T cells infected with HIV-1. Furthermore, an increase in CCL3L1/CCL3L3 expression levels correlated with HIV-1 replication in C. trachomatis‒stimulated cells. However, the addition of exogenous CCL3L1 reduces HIV-1 infection of healthy cells, indicating a dual role of CCL3L1 in HIV-1 infection. Further investigation revealed that a knockout of CCL3L1/CCL3L3 in Jurkat T cells rescued the increased susceptibility of C. trachomatis‒stimulated cells to HIV-1 infection. These results reveal a role for CCL3L1/CCL3L3 in enhancing HIV-1 replication and production and highlight a mechanism for the enhanced susceptibility to HIV-1 among C. trachomatis‒infected patients.

Using a discrete version of Floquet theory in a space with indefinite metric we reconstruct periodic pseudo-Jacobi matrices from given spectral data. We use two methods to characterize the signature operator H so that the periodic pseudo-Jacobi inverse eigenvalue problem is solvable. As a by-product of the obtained results, we precisely polish some non-rigorous assumptions in the existing literature.

Immobilized G protein-coupled receptor is a versatile tool to study ligand-receptor interactions. In this work, we synthesized the immobilized alpha 1A adrenergic receptor (α

Objective The present study, for the first time, was designed to examine the antifibrosis effects of Shenge Yangfei Capsules (SGYF) on bleomycin-induced pulmonary injury and fibrosis in rats. Methods Animals were divided into six groups randomly: saline control group, model group (bleomycin 5 mg/kg), and positive control group (Dexamethasone 5 mg/kg), and SGYF (70, 420, and 850 mg/kg/d, ig) group. Effects of SGYF on body weight and lung index were evaluated. For histological evaluation of lungs injury and fibrosis, lung specimens were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and Masson trichrome. Body weight and lung index from various groups were measured, and the concentrations of monoamine (MAO) and transforming growth factor-β1(TGF-β1) were also detected in lung homogenates. Results SGYF attenuated the bleomycin-induced weight loss and the lung index. Histologica levidence showed the ability of SGYF to decrease bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and consolidation. SGYF reduced MAO and TGF-β1 activity in lung tissues. Conclusions These findings suggest that SGYF may be a promising candidate to prevent bleomycin-induced lung damage or other interstitial lesions.

Pervaporation (PV) is an effective approach for the removal of trace or micro substances from solutions. PV membrane is considered to be the most essential element for this process. In this study, the fabrication of ceramic hollow fiber PV membranes is demonstrated through multilayer assembly of poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) and chitosan. The surface and cross-section morphologies, physical and chemical structures as well as the hydrophilicity of the membranes were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) and water contact angle, respectively. The PV performance of the composite membranes was investigated by dehydration of water-ethanol solution. The effect of assembly solution concentration on PV performance was studied systematically. The assembled composite membranes with the concentration of 0.75 wt% PSS solution exhibited the highest PV separation index (PSI) value of 4.47 × 105 with flux of 495 g/m2 h and separation factor of 904 for dehydration of 10 wt% water-ethanol solution at 70 °C.

The Warburg effect is a dominant phenotype of most tumor cells. Recent reports have shown that the Warburg effect can be reprogrammed by the tumor microenvironment. Lactic acidosis and glucose deprivation are the common adverse microenvironments in solid tumor. The metabolic reprogramming induced by lactic acid and glucose deprivation remains to be elucidated in glioblastoma. Here, we show that, under glucose deprivation, lactic acid can preserve high ATP levels and resist cell death in U251 cells. At the same time, we find that MCT1 and MCT4 are significantly highly expressed. The metabolic regulation factor HIF-1α decreased and C-MYC increased. Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF1) and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS)-related proteins (NDUFB8, ND1) are all distinctly increased. Therefore, lactic acid can induce lactate transport and convert the dominant Warburg effect to OXPHOS. Through bioinformatics analysis, the high expression of HIF-1α, MCT1 or MCT4 indicate a poor prognosis in glioblastoma. In addition, in glioblastoma tissue, HIF-1α, MCT4 and LDH are highly expressed in the interior region, and their expression is decreased in the lateral region. MCT1 can not be detected in the interior region and is highly expressed in the lateral region. Hence, different regions of glioblastoma have diverse energy metabolic pathways. Glycolysis occurs mainly in the interior region and OXPHOS in the lateral region. In general, lactic acid can induce regional energy metabolic reprogramming and assist tumor cells to adapt and resist adverse microenvironments. This study provides new ideas for furthering understanding of the metabolic features of glioblastoma. It may promote the development of new therapeutic strategies in GBM.

In this paper, we consider the matrix equation A X A H + C Y C H = F , where A , C and F are given matrices with appropriate sizes and [ X , Y ] is an unknown Hermitian and generalized skew-Hamiltonian matrix pair. Based on matrix differential calculus and projection theorem in inner product spaces, we exploit the best approximate solution [ X , Y ] in the set S to a given matrix pair [ X ∗ , Y ∗ ] , where S signifies the least-squares Hermitian and generalized skew-Hamiltonian solution set of the matrix equation A X A H + C Y C H = F . The analytical expression of the best approximate solution is presented by applying the canonical correlation decomposition and the generalized singular value decomposition. Finally, a numerical algorithm and an illustrated example are given.

Integrating synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical data to improve urban land cover classification has been identified as a promising approach. However, which integration level is the most suitable remains unclear but important to many researchers and engineers. This study aimed to compare different integration levels for providing a scientific reference for a wide range of studies using optical and SAR data. SAR data from TerraSAR-X and ENVISAT ASAR in both WSM and IMP modes were used to be combined with optical data at pixel level, feature level and decision levels using four typical machine learning methods. The experimental results indicated that: 1) feature level that used both the original images and extracted features achieved a significant improvement of up to 10% compared to that using optical data alone; 2) different levels of fusion required different suitable methods depending on the data distribution and data resolution. For instance, support vector machine was the most stable at both the feature and decision levels, while random forest was suitable at the pixel level but not suitable at the decision level. 3) By examining the distribution of SAR features, some features (e.g., homogeneity) exhibited a close-to-normal distribution, explaining the improvement from the maximum likelihood method at the feature and decision levels. This indicated the benefits of using texture features from SAR data when being combined with optical data for land cover classification. Additionally, the research also shown that combining optical and SAR data does not guarantee improvement compared with using single data source for urban land cover classification, depending on the selection of appropriate fusion levels and fusion methods.

Background Previous studies have found associations between single toxic metals, such as arsenic and cadmium, and kidney function in adults with diabetes. However, studies with regards to other metals and metal mixtures are still limited. Objective Our study aimed to investigate the associations between urinary concentrations of 5 selected metals and metal mixtures and kidney function using a sample of older adults with diabetes mellitus in Chinese communities. Methods In a sample of older adults (n = 5186), 592 eligible subjects were included in this study. Urinary concentrations of 5 metals, i.e., arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), vanadium (V), cobalt (Co), and thallium (Tl), were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated and dichotomized into indicator of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Logistic analysis and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were used to explore the associations between single metals and metal mixtures and CKD, respectively. Results Urinary levels of As and V were positively correlated with CKD (OR=2.37, 95% CI: 1.31-4.30 for As; OR=2.24, 95% CI: 1.25-4.03 for V), when compared the 4th quartile with the 1st quartile. After adjustment for potential confounders, the significant association between As and CKD still existed (OR=2.73, 95% CI: 1.23-6.07). BKMR analyses showed strong linear positive associations between As and V and CKD. Higher urinary levels of the mixture were significantly associated with higher odds of CKD in a dose-response pattern. As and V showed the highest posterior inclusion probabilities. Conclusion Urine As and V were positively associated with CKD in older adults with diabetes mellitus, separately and in a mixture. The metals mixture showed a linear dose-response association with the odds of CKD. The analyses of mixtures, rather than of single metals, may provide a real-world perspective on the relationship between metals and kidney function.

The pursuit of new ligands binding to muscarinic-3 acetylcholine receptor (M3R) is viewed as challenging due to the lack of screening methods with high efficiency. To address such challenges, this work developed and characterized an approach to the rapid discovery of M3R ligands using the immobilized receptor as the chromatographic stationary phase. We fused haloalkane dehalogenase (Halo) as a tag at the C-terminus of M3R. The fusion M3R was immobilized on 6-chlorocaproic acid-activated ammino-microspheres by the specific covalent reaction between the Halo-tag and the linker. Comprehensive characterizations of the immobilized M3R were performed by scanning electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and the investigation on the binding of three specific ligands to the receptor. The feasibility of the immobilized M3R in complex matrices was tested by screening the bioactive compounds in Zhisou oral liquid, assessing the interaction between the screened compounds and the receptor using zonal elution, and evaluating the in vivo activity of the targeted compounds. The results evidenced that the immobilized M3R has high specificity, good stability, and the capacity to separate M3R ligands from complex matrices. These allowed us to identify naringin, hesperidin, liquiritigenin, platycodin D, and glycyrrhizic acid as the potential ligands of M3R. The association constants of the five compounds to M3R were 4.44 × 104, 1.11 × 104, 7.20 × 104, 4.15 × 104, and 3.36 × 104 M−1. The synergistic application of the five compounds exhibited an equivalent expectorant activity to the original formula. We reasoned that the current method is possible to provide a highly efficient strategy for the discovery of receptor ligands.

Purpose The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and protein kinase B (AKT) pathways have emerged as essential intracellular signaling pathways in eukaryotic cells, particularly as regulators of cardiac hypertrophy. Previous studies indicated that arctiin, an active ingredient of biennial dried ripe burdock, could exhibit potent anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic activities via down-regulating the activation of MAPKs and AKT pathways. However, little is known about its effects on cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore whether arctiin could attenuate cardiac hypertrophy. General methods Arctiin (80 mg/kg) was administered by oral gavage once daily for 3 weeks from 1 week after surgery. Then, the mice were subjected to either chronic pressure overload generated by aortic banding (AB) or sham surgery (control group). Cardiac function was assessed by echocardiography. Findings The results indicated that arctiin attenuated cardiac hypertrophy induced by AB, and suppressed cardiac fibrosis and accumulation of collagen in vivo. Arctiin also inhibit the activation of MAPKs and AKT occurs in response to hypertrophic stimuli. Arctiin attenuated phenylephrine-induced hypertrophy of myocytes in vitro. Conclusions In conclusion, arctiin can improve cardiac function and prevent the development of cardiac hypertrophy by blocking the MAPKs and AKT signaling pathways.

In this paper, we present a semismooth Newton method for a kind of HJB equation. By suitably choosing the initial iterative point, the method is proved to have monotone convergence. Moreover, the semismooth Newton method has local superlinear convergence rate. Some simple numerical results are reported.

Impervious surface is an important environmental and socio-economic indicator for numerous urban studies. While a large number of researches have been conducted to estimate the area and distribution of impervious surface from satellite data, the accuracy for impervious surface estimation (ISE) is insufficient due to high diversity of urban land cover types. This study evaluated the use of panchromatic (PAN) data in very high resolution satellite image for improving the accuracy of ISE by various pan-sharpening approaches, with a further comprehensive analysis of its scale effects. Three benchmark pan-sharpening approaches, Gram-Schmidt (GS), PANSHARP and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to WorldView-2 in three spots of Hong Kong. The on-screen digitization were carried out based on Google Map and the results were viewed as referenced impervious surfaces. The referenced impervious surfaces and the ISE results were then re-scaled to various spatial resolutions to obtain the percentage of impervious surfaces. The correlation coefficient (CC) and root mean square error (RMSE) were adopted as the quantitative indicator to assess the accuracy. The accuracy differences between three research areas were further illustrated by the average local variance (ALV) which was used for landscape pattern analysis. The experimental results suggested that 1) three research regions have various landscape patterns; 2) ISE accuracy extracted from pan-sharpened data was better than ISE from original multispectral (MS) data; and 3) this improvement has a noticeable scale effects with various resolutions. The improvement was reduced slightly as the resolution became coarser.

A novel perylene diimide material was prepared by ionic self-assembly (ISA) method. The phase behavior and aggregated structures of the complex were then elucidated via a combination of different experimental techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry, one- and two-dimensional X-ray diffraction, UV/Vis absorption spectra, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The experimental results reveal that the ISA complex possesses multiple thermally-induced phase structures which are sensitive to peripheral chain motions. At room temperature, it can self-assemble into a monoclinic crystalline structure with dimensions of a = 4.10 nm, b = 3.70 nm, c = 0.34 nm, α = β = 90°, γ = 98.94°. During heating, the complex enters a hexagonal columnar liquid crystalline phase before developing into another monoclinic liquid crystalline phase. Notably, the complex can be well aligned by simple shearing, which shows anisotropic properties in UV/Vis absorption spectra. This property, in combination with the supramolecular structure, makes the complex a promising material for use in polarized optoelectronic devices.

Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalysts were prepared by deposition–precipitation method and used to produce hydrogen from waste plastics-derived syngas. The SiO2 core synthesized by the Stober process was used as the support. This core was synthesized using various solvents, and the effect of these solvents on the morphologies and catalytic performance of the Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalysts was investigated. The synthesis parameters of the Ni/SiO2 catalysts were further investigated to enhance the metal–support interaction and dispersion of Ni on the SiO2 support. The highest catalytic activity of 181 mmol/g-h was achieved when the Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalyst was synthesized in methanol (Ni/SiO2–M) and reacted at 800 °C at a water-addition rate of 0.75 g-H2O/h. The Ni/SiO2–M catalyst, which possessed strong metal–support interaction nickel phyllosilicates, high specific area, small particle size, and homogeneous metal dispersion, exhibited the best long-term stability.

Let RCmm and SCnn be nontrivial k-involutions if their minimal polynomials are both xk1 for some k2, i.e., Rk1=R1I and Sk1=S1I. We say that ACmn is (R,S,)-symmetric if RAS1=A, and A is (R,S,,)-symmetric if RAS=A with ,{0,1,,k1} and 0. Let S be one of the subsets of all (R,S,)-symmetric and (R,S,,)-symmetric matrices. Given XCnr, YCsm, BCmr and DCsn, we characterize the matrices A in S that minimize AXB2+YAD2 (Frobenius norm) under the assumption that R and S are unitary. Moreover, among the set S(X,Y,B,D)S of the minimizers of AXB2+YAD2=min, we find the optimal approximate matrix AS(X,Y,B,D) that minimizes AG to a given unstructural matrix GCmn. We also present the necessary and sufficient conditions such that AX=B,YA=D is consistent in S. If the conditions are satisfied, we characterize the consistent solution set of all such A. Finally, a numerical algorithm and some numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed results.

Unmarked tracking of hands and fingers is a promising enabler for human–computer interaction. It can also be applied to medical monitoring and handicap aids. This will give much help to the deaf-mutes who have trouble in communicating with others or interact with the computers. In this paper, we present a 3D hand tracking and character recognition algorithm using binocular stereo camera, which can get the crucial depth information of the target. To precisely understand the characters that the user writes in the air, we define a valid gesture indicating that the user is inputting useful information and a null gesture indicating that corresponding movements are not necessary in the characters. Our approach can adapt to angle variation and make the writing freer. We show the benefits of our method by evaluating on several videos.

In the clinical treatment of cancer, improving the effectiveness and targeting of drugs has always been a bottleneck problem that needs to be solved. In this contribution, inspired by the targeted inhibition on cancer from combination application of disulfiram and divalent copper ion (Cu2+), we optimized the concentration of disulfiram and Cu2+ ion for inhibiting esophageal cancer cells, and loaded them in hyaluronic acid (HA)/polyethyleneimine (PEI) nanoparticles with specific scales, in order to improve the effectiveness and targeting of drugs. The in vitro cell experiments demonstrated that more drug loaded HA/PEI nanoparticles accumulated to the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Eca109) and promoted higher apoptosis ratio of Eca109. Both in vitro and in vivo biological assessment verified that the disulfiram/Cu2+ loaded HA/PEI nanoparticles promoted the apoptosis of cancer cells and inhibited the tumor proliferation, but had no toxicity on other normal organs.