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Two new polyketide derivatives, penirubenones A and B (1 and 2), and two naturally rare amino-bis-tetrahydrofuran derivatives, penirubenamides A and B (3 and 4), together with nine known compounds (5–13) were isolated from the marine-derived fungus Penicillium rubens BTBU20213035. The structures were identified by HRESIMS and 1D and 2D NMR analyses, and their absolute configurations were determined by a comparison of experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy and 13C NMR data. We found that 6 exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, with an MIC value of 3.125 μg/mL, and 1 and 2 showed synergistic antifungal activity against Candida albicans at 12.5 and 50 μg/mL with 0.0625 μg/mL rapamycin.

In order to better understand pore–throat structure characteristics, the coupling relationship between micropore–throat structure and macro reservoir quality and influencing factors caused by authigenic minerals were studied. Petrographic analyses, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pressure-controlled mercury injection (PMI), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were performed on a suite of tight reservoir samples from the Chang 8 Member of the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the southwestern Ordos Basin, China. The results show that the pore–throat sizes obtained with the combination of PMI and NMR methods varied from nano- to microscale, revealing pore–throat sizes ranging from 0.001 μm to 70 μm, and showing that pore–throats with a radius larger than 1.0 μm are rare. Larger pore–throats with good connectivity (>rapex) account for a smaller part of the total pore volume, ranging from approximately 7.58% to 38.90% with an average of 22.77%, but account for more than 80% of contributions to permeability. The effective movable fluid porosity (φemp) measured by NMR, ranging from approximately 0.10% to 7.07% with an average of 2.56%, had a positive contribution to permeability. The contents of chlorite occurrence state, other than illite, are beneficial to pore–throat preservation. A new reservoir evaluation scheme of the Chang 8 reservoir is established. These research results provide a theoretical basis for the evaluation and development of tight sandstone oil and gas exploration.

Currently, little is known about the characteristics of polyphenol oxidase from wheat bran, which is closely linked to the browning of wheat product. The wheat PPO was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-Sepharose ion-exchange column, and Superdex G-75 chromatography column. Purified wheat PPO activity was 11.05-fold higher, its specific activity was 1365.12 U/mg, and its yield was 8.46%. SDS-PAGE showed that the molecular weight of wheat PPO was approximately 21 kDa. Its optimal pH and temperature were 6.5 and 35 °C for catechol as substrate, respectively. Twelve phenolic substrates from wheat and green tea were used for analyzing the substrate specificity. Wheat PPO showed the highest affinity to catechol due to its maximum Vmax (517.55 U·mL−1·min−1) and low Km (6.36 mM) values. Docking analysis revealed strong affinities between catechol, gallic acid, EGCG, and EC with binding energies of −5.28 kcal/mol, −4.65 kcal/mol, −4.21 kcal/mol, and −5.62 kcal/mol, respectively, for PPO. Sodium sulfite, ascorbic acid, and sodium bisulfite dramatically inhibited wheat PPO activity. Cu2+ and Ca2+ at 10 mM were considered potent activators and inhibitors for wheat PPO, respectively. This report provides a theoretical basis for controlling the enzymatic browning of wheat products fortified with green tea.

The search for alternative salt formulations similar to sodium chloride and their effect on marinated meat products is of great significance to the low-sodium meat processing industry. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of partially replacing sodium chloride with potassium lactate, calcium ascorbate, and magnesium chloride on the sodium content, water activity and distribution, protein solubility, microstructure, sensory characteristics and volatile flavor compounds in low-sodium marinated beef. The sodium content in the test group decreased up to 28% compared to 100% in the sodium chloride group C1. The formulation including 60% sodium chloride and a total of 40% compound alternative salts in groups F1 and F2 increased their myofibril fragmentation index and promoted the disruption of the myogenic fiber structure. Group F1 (the ratio of potassium lactate, calcium ascorbate and magnesium chloride was 2:1:1) performed higher solubility of myofibrillar proteins and lower transverse relaxation value than group F2 detected by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance, which indicated that F1 formulation was beneficial to promote the solubility of myofibrillar proteins and attenuate the water mobility of marinated beef. Moreover, group F1 had a more similar microstructure and more similar overall sensory attributes to group C1 according to the scanning electron microscopy. The sensory evaluation showed higher peak intensity and response values of volatile flavor compounds than group C1 and C2 (only 60% sodium chloride) when detected using gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry technology, which indicated that the compound alternative salts of group F1 can improve the lower quality of low-sodium marinated beef and perform similar attributes to the C1 sample regarding moisture distribution and microstructure and even performs better than it with regards to flavor. Therefore, the F1 formula possessed greater potential for application in low-sodium marinated meat products.

Lipid metabolism plays an important role in maintaining lipid homeostasis and regulating immune functions. However, the regulations and mechanisms of lipid metabolism on the regional immune function of avian adipose tissue (AT) have not been reported. In this study, qRT-PCR was used to investigate the changes and relationships of different lipid metabolism pathways in chicken AT during stress-induced immunosuppression (SIIS) inhibiting immune response to Newcastle disease virus vaccine, then the miRNA regulation patterns of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR) gene and its potential applications were further identified. The results showed that AT actively responded to SIIS, and ATGL, CPT1A and HMGCR were all the key genes involved in the processes of SIIS inhibiting the immune responses. SIIS significantly inhibited the natural and specific immune phases of the primary immune response and the initiation phase of the secondary immune response in AT by suppressing T cells by up-regulating steroid anabolism. Moreover, steroid metabolism could play dual roles in regulating the regional immune functions of AT. The miR-29a/c-3p-HMGCR network was a potential regulation mechanism of steroid metabolism in AT, and serum circulating miR-29a/c-3p had the potential as molecular markers. The study can provide valuable references for an in-depth investigation of the regional immune functions regulated by lipid metabolism in AT.

The calculation of volumes for irregular bodies holds significant relevance across various production processes. This spans tasks such as evaluating the growth status of crops and fruits, conducting morphological analyses of spatial objects based on volume parameters, and estimating quantities for earthwork and excavation. While methods like drainage, surface reconstruction, and triangulation suffice for smaller irregular bodies, larger ones introduce heightened complexity. Technological advancements, such as UAV photogrammetry and LiDAR, have introduced efficient point cloud data acquisition methods, bolstering precision and efficiency in calculating volumes for substantial irregular bodies. Notably, open-pit mines, characterized by their dynamic surface alterations, exemplify the challenges posed by large irregular bodies. Ensuring accurate excavation quantity calculations in such mines is pivotal, impacting operational considerations, acceptance, as well as production cost management and project oversight. Thus, this study employs UAV-acquired point cloud data from open-pit mines as a case study. In practice, calculating volumes for substantial irregular bodies often relies on the point cloud slicing method. However, this approach grapples with distinguishing multi-contour boundaries, leading to inaccuracies. To surmount this hurdle, this paper introduces an enhanced point cloud slicing method. The methodology involves segmenting point cloud data at fixed intervals, followed by the segmentation of slice contours using the Euclidean clustering method. Subsequently, the concave hull algorithm extracts the contour polygons of each slice. The final volume calculation involves multiplying the area of each polygon by the spacing and aggregating these products. To validate the efficacy of our approach, we employ model-derived volumes as benchmarks, comparing errors arising from both the traditional slicing method and our proposed technique. Experimental outcomes underscore the superiority of our point cloud volume calculation method, manifesting in an average relative error of 1.17%, outperforming the conventional point cloud slicing method in terms of accuracy.

The reliable fabrication of polycrystalline zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) membranes continues to pose challenges for their industrial applications. Here, we present a vapor-phase seeding approach that integrates atomic layer deposition (ALD) with ligand vapor treatment to synthesize ZIF membranes with high propylene/propane separation performance. This method began with depositing a ZnO coating onto the support surface via ALD. The support underwent treatment with 2-methylimidazole vapor to transform ZnO to ZIF-8, forming the seed layer. Subsequent secondary growth was employed at near-room temperature, allowing the seeds to grow into a continuous membrane. ZIF-8 membranes made on macroporous ceramic support by this method consistently demonstrated propylene permeances above 1 × 10−8 mol Pa−1 m−2 s−1 and a propylene/propane separation factor exceeding 50. Moreover, we demonstrated the effectiveness of the vapor-phase seeding method in producing the ZIF-67 membrane.

Difficulty in water injection during the water injection development (water injection production refers to the injection of water into the reservoir from injection wells during the development process of an oil field; due to its good economic efficiency and high feasibility, it has become the main method of oil field development) process of the G block reservoir is an important problem to solve. Three cores of the G block are used as the object of this study, and the laser particle size test is conducted on the target core to obtain the particle size distribution of the core. X-ray diffraction mineral content analysis is used to obtain the proportion of different mineral contents. On this basis, online nuclear magnetic technology is used to carry out the research on the change of reservoir physical properties during the high-magnification water injection process. The experiment shows that three cores (cores 8-2, 16-1, and 9) are identified as medium sandy fine sandstone with silt (the three-level naming method was adopted and the name has been changed to medium sandy fine sandstone containing silt, because the proportion of fine sand is greater than 50%, the content of medium sand is between 25%~50%, and the content of silt is between 10%~25%), medium sandy fin sandstone containing silt, and silt fine sandstone, by laser particle size testing. Their clay mineral contents are 2.47%, 2.51%, and 4.76%, respectively; the permeability (water) of the three cores continues to decrease with the increase in water injection, but the nuclear magnetic porosity and the signal intensity of different fluids in the nuclear magnetic T2 and nuclear magnetic two-dimensional spectrum show different variation patterns with the increase in water injection. The clay minerals of core 8-2 and core 16-1 are relatively small. The nuclear magnetic porosity increases rapidly to the maximum value and then decreases slowly with the increase in water injection. The right peak signal intensity in the T2 spectrum rises first and then drops, while the clay mineral content of core 9 is relatively high. The change trend of nuclear magnetic porosity is firstly decreasing and then increasing, and the signal intensity of the right peak in the T2 spectrum decreases first and then increases. The research concludes that in the early stage of water injection, clay minerals undergo hydration and a small amount of particle migration; in the later stage of water injection, due to the scouring effect of water, the fine silt and clay minerals in the cement easily fall off and migrate to the pore throat to the block. Some damage to the pore throat leads to a decrease in permeability, thus affecting the development effect.

Stem-cell-based therapy is very promising for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), yet has not become a reality. A critical challenge is the transplantation microenvironment, which impacts the therapeutic effect of stem cells. In AD brains, amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides and inflammatory cytokines continuously poison the tissue microenvironment, leading to low survival of grafted cells and restricted efficacy. It is necessary to create a growth-supporting microenvironment for transplanted cells. Recent advances in AD studies suggest that the asparaginyl endopeptidase (AEP) is a potential intervention target for modifying pathological changes. We here chose APP/PS1 mice as an AD model and employed pharmacological inhibition of the AEP for one month to improve the brain microenvironment. Thereafter, we transplanted neural stem cells (NSCs) into the hippocampus and maintained therapy for one more month. We found that inhibition of AEPs resulted in a significant decrease of Aβ, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in their brains. In AD mice receiving NSC transplantation alone, the survival of NSCs was at a low level, while in combination with AEP inhibition pre-treatment the survival rate of engrafted cells was doubled. Within the 2-month treatment period, implantation of NSCs plus pre-inhibition of the AEP significantly enhanced neural plasticity of the hippocampus and rescued cognitive impairment. Neither NSC transplantation alone nor AEP inhibition alone achieved significant efficacy. In conclusion, pharmacological inhibition of the AEP ameliorated brain microenvironment of AD mice, and thus improved the survival and therapeutic efficacy of transplanted stem cells.

Approximately 110 types of medicinal materials are listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, both for medicinal purposes and for use as food. There are several domestic scholars who have carried out research on edible plant medicine in China and the results are satisfactory. Though these related articles have appeared in domestic magazines and journals, many of them are yet to be translated into English. Most of the research stays in the extraction and quantitative testing stage, and there are a few medicinal and edible plants that are still under in-depth study. A majority of these edible and herbal plants are also highly enriched in polysaccharides, and this has an effect on immune systems for the prevention of cancer, inflammation, and infection. Comparing the polysaccharide composition of medicinal and edible plants, the monosaccharide and polysaccharide species were identified. It is found that different polysaccharides of different sizes have different pharmacological properties, with some polysaccharides containing special monosaccharides. The pharmacological properties of polysaccharides can be summarized as immunomodulatory, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive and anti-hyperlipemic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties. There have been no poisonous effects found in studies of plant polysaccharides, probably because the substances have a long history of use and are safe. In this paper, the application potential of polysaccharides in medicinal and edible plants in Xinjiang was reviewed, and the research progress in the extraction, separation, identification, and pharmacology of these plant polysaccharides was reviewed. At present, the research progress of plant polysaccharides in medicines and food in Xinjiang has not been reported. This paper will provide a data summary for the development and utilization of medical and food plant resources in Xinjiang.

Objectives: To develop a robust liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method to simultaneously measure seven human plasma androgens, namely testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), androstenedione (A4), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), 11-ketotestosterone (11-KetoT), and 11β-hydroxytestosterone (11β-OHT). Design and Methods: Plasma was extracted via a solid phase extraction method, and the analytical performance of the assay was validated according to the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Overall, 73 apparently healthy volunteers were recruited to evaluate the distribution of these seven androgens; their levels in 25 females with acne and 33 obese females were also evaluated. Results: The developed method exhibited a good precision, with the total coefficient variations (CV) and the intra-assay CVs being within 10%. Furthermore, the recoveries of T, DHT, A4, DHEA, DHEAS, 11-KetoT, and 11β-OHT were 90.3–105.8, 88.7–98.1, 92.4–102.5, 90.5–106.7, 87.6–99.9, 93.3–105.3, and 90.2–104.4%, respectively, and no significant matrix effect was observed after internal standard correction (

Change detection based on remote sensing images plays an important role in the field of remote sensing analysis, and it has been widely used in many areas, such as resources monitoring, urban planning, disaster assessment, etc. In recent years, it has aroused widespread interest due to the explosive development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and change detection algorithms based on deep learning frameworks have made it possible to detect more delicate changes (such as the alteration of small buildings) with the help of huge amounts of remote sensing data, especially high-resolution (HR) data. Although there are many methods, we still lack a deep review of the recent progress concerning the latest deep learning methods in change detection. To this end, the main purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the available deep learning-based change detection algorithms using HR remote sensing images. The paper first describes the change detection framework and classifies the methods from the perspective of the deep network architectures adopted. Then, we review the latest progress in the application of deep learning in various granularity structures for change detection. Further, the paper provides a summary of HR datasets derived from different sensors, along with information related to change detection, for the potential use of researchers. Simultaneously, representative evaluation metrics for this task are investigated. Finally, a conclusion of the challenges for change detection using HR remote sensing images, which must be dealt with in order to improve the model’s performance, is presented. In addition, we put forward promising directions for future research in this area.

The role of calcium ion (Ca2+) signaling in tumorigenicity has received increasing attention in melanoma research. Previous Ca2+ signaling studies focused on Ca2+ entry routes, but rarely explored the role of Ca2+ extrusion. Functioning of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) on the plasma membrane is the major way of Ca2+ extrusion, but very few associations between NCX and melanoma have been reported. Here, we explored whether pharmacological modulation of the NCX could suppress melanoma and promise new therapeutic strategies. Methods included cell viability assay, Ca2+ imaging, immunoblotting, and cell death analysis. The NCX inhibitors SN-6 and YM-244769 were used to selectively block reverse operation of the NCX. Bepridil, KB-R7943, and CB-DMB blocked either reverse or forward NCX operation. We found that blocking the reverse NCX with SN-6 or YM-244769 (5–100 μM) did not affect melanoma cells or increase cytosolic Ca2+. Bepridil, KB-R7943, and CB-DMB all significantly suppressed melanoma cells with IC50 values of 3–20 μM. Bepridil and KB-R7943 elevated intracellular Ca2+ level of melanoma. Bepridil-induced melanoma cell death came from cell cycle arrest and enhanced apoptosis, which were all attenuated by the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA-AM. As compared with melanoma, normal melanocytes had lower NCX1 expression and were less sensitive to the cytotoxicity of bepridil. In conclusion, blockade of the forward but not the reverse NCX leads to Ca2+-related cell death in melanoma and the NCX is a potential drug target for cancer therapy.

The plant–pest interaction and its mechanisms are a novel research direction for pest control. They provide molecular targets for developing new pesticides and targeted control measures to control insect herbivores. Glucosinolate is a large family of secondary substances found in cruciferous plants that are harmful to herbivorous insects. Specialist herbivores have developed specific anti-defense genes and detoxifying mechanisms against glucosinolate from the host plant, but how generalist herbivores respond to glucosinolate at the molecular level is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of different glucosinolate concentrations on the growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera. Moreover, the expression of sulfatase genes (HaSulfs) was also checked following exposure to glucosinolate concentrations. The developmental duration of larvae and pre-pupa of H. armigera was significantly increased by 14.79–25.03% after feeding glucosinolate compared to the control. Quantitative Real-Time PCR (RT-qPCR) was carried out to analyze the expression of HaSulf family genes in the midgut of fifth instar larvae of H. armigera. The results showed that the upregulated expression patterns of HaSulf family genes were diversified after feeding at different concentrations. The expression level of HaSulf was detected with the HaSulf antibody. Only the glucosinolate-fed larvae had a visible target band and were mainly distributed in the midgut wall. Taken together, glucosinolate can significantly affect the growth and development of H. armigera larvae. It can induce the expression of HaSulf in the midgut of H. armigera at gene and protein levels. This study could be useful to understand the development of plant-derived insecticides resistance in H. armigera.

α-Conotoxins GI and MI belong to the 3/5 subfamily of α-conotoxins and potently inhibit muscular nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). To date, no 3/4- or 3/6-subfamily α-conotoxins have been reported to inhibit muscular nAChRs. In the present study, a series of new 3/4-, 3/6-, and 3/7-subfamily GI and MI variants were synthesized and functionally characterized by modifications of loop2. The results show that the 3/4-subfamily GI variant GI[∆8G]-II and the 3/6-subfamily variants GI[+13A], GI[+13R], and GI[+13K] displayed potent inhibition of muscular nAChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes, with an IC50 of 45.4–73.4 nM, similar to or slightly lower than that of wild-type GI (42.0 nM). The toxicity of these GI variants in mice appeared to be about a half to a quarter of that of wild-type GI. At the same time, the 3/7-subfamily GI variants showed significantly lower in vitro potency and toxicity. On the other hand, similar to the 3/6-subfamily GI variants, the 3/6-subfamily MI variants MI[+14R] and MI[+14K] were also active after the addition of a basic amino acid, Arg or Lys, in loop2, but the activity was not maintained for the 3/4-subfamily MI variant MI[∆9G]. Interestingly, the disulfide bond connectivity “C1–C4, C2–C3” in the 3/4-subfamily variant GI[∆8G]-II was significantly more potent than the “C1–C3, C2–C4” connectivity found in wild-type GI and MI, suggesting that disulfide bond connectivity is easily affected in the rigid 3/4-subfamily α-conotoxins and that the disulfide bonds significantly impact the variants’ function. This work is the first to demonstrate that 3/4- and 3/6-subfamily α-conotoxins potently inhibit muscular nAChRs, expanding our knowledge of α-conotoxins and providing new motifs for their further modifications.

Carbon-based nanomaterials have become the subject of intensive interest because their intriguing physical and chemical properties are different from those of their bulk counterparts, leading to novel applications in smart sensors. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites with different structures and toxic effects produced by fungi. Mycotoxins have low molecular weights and highly diverse molecular structures, which can induce a spectrum of biological effects in humans and animals even at low concentrations. A tremendous amount of biosensor platforms based on various carbon nanocomposites have been developed for the determination of mycotoxins. Therefore, the contents of this review are based on a balanced combination of our own studies and selected research studies performed by academic groups worldwide. We first address the vital preparation methods of biorecognition unit (antibodies, aptamers, molecularly imprinted polymers)-functionalized carbon-based nanomaterials for sensing mycotoxins. Then, we summarize various types of smart sensors for the detection of mycotoxins. We expect future research on smart sensors to show a significant impact on the detection of mycotoxins in food products.

Seventeen new carbazole alkaloid derivatives, including a trimeric carbazole racemate, (±)-microphyltrine A (1), 15 dimeric carbazole racemates, (±)-microphyldines A–O (2–16), and a C-6–C-3″-methyl-linked dimeric carbazole, microphyldine P (17), were isolated from the leaves and stems of Murraya microphylla (Merr. et Chun) Swingle. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of HRESIMS and NMR data analysis. The optically pure isomers of these isolated carbazole alkaloids were obtained by chiral HPLC separation and their absolute configurations were determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data analysis.

Cell cycle regulation is orchestrated by a complex network of interactions between proteins, enzymes, cytokines, and cell cycle signaling pathways, and is vital for cell proliferation, growth, and repair. The occurrence, development, and metastasis of tumors are closely related to the cell cycle. Cell cycle regulation can be synergistic with chemotherapy in two aspects: inhibition or promotion. The sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs can be improved with the cooperation of cell cycle regulation strategies. This review presented the mechanism of the commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs and the effect of the cell cycle on tumorigenesis and development, and the interaction between chemotherapy and cell cycle regulation in cancer treatment was briefly introduced. The current collaborative strategies of chemotherapy and cell cycle regulation are discussed in detail. Finally, we outline the challenges and perspectives about the improvement of combination strategies for cancer therapy.

Gene therapy is used to correct or compensate for diseases caused by gene defects and abnormalities. Improving the transfection efficiency and reducing the toxicity of gene carriers are the keys to gene therapy. Similar to a typical cationic gene carrier—polyethylenimine (PEI, 25 kDa)—the polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer also has a large number of amino groups. These amino groups can be complexed with nucleic acids after protonation under physiological conditions. However, the concentrated positive charge can cause undesirable cytotoxicity. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have good biocompatibility and unique needle-like morphology, and have been proven to be efficiently taken up by cells. In this article, three-dimensional spherical PMAMA dendrimers are conjugated onto the surface of CNCs to obtain a kind of needle-like cationic carrier (CNC-PAMAM). PAMAM dendrimers act as anchors to bind the plasmid DNAs (pDNA) to the surface of the CNC. The prepared CNC-based carrier showed high transfection efficiency and low toxicity. The CNC-PAMAM can effectively deliver the suicide gene to the tumor site, enabling the suicide gene/prodrug system (cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine (CD/5-FC)) to play an effective anti-tumor role in vivo. This research demonstrates that the functionalization of CNCs with PAMAM dendrimers is an effective method for developing novel gene delivery systems.

With the gradual declining of oil increment performance of CO2 huff-and-puff wells, the overall oil exchange rate shows a downward tendency. In this regard, CO2 synergistic huff-and-puff technologies have been proposed to maintain the excellent effect and extend the technical life of such wells. However, there is no specific research on the mechanism and synergistic mode of CO2 huff and puff in horizontal wells. This study aims to establish the synergistic mode and determine the adaptability and acting mechanism of CO2 synergistic huff and puff. Three synergistic huff-and-puff modes are proposed based on the peculiarity of the fault-block reservoir’s small oil-bearing area and broken geological structure. We establish three typical CO2 synergistic huff-and-puff models and analyze the influence of different geological and development factors on the huff-and-puff performance with numerical simulation. Each factor’s sensitivity is clarified, and the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) mechanism of CO2 synergistic huff and puff is proposed. The sensitivity evaluation results show that the reservoir rhythm, inter-well passage, well spacing, high-position well liquid production rate, and middle-well liquid production rate are extremely sensitive factors; the stratum dip and injection volume allocation scheme are sensitive factors; and the relationship with structural isobaths is insensitive. The EOR mechanism of synergistic huff and puff includes gravity differentiation, supplementary formation energy, CO2 forming foam flooding, and coupling effect of production rate and oil reservoirs. The implementation conditions of the two-well cooperative stimulation mode are the simplest. The two-well model is suitable for thick oil layers with a positive rhythm and large formation dip. The single-well mode requires no channeling between the wells, and the multi-well mode requires multi-well rows and can control the intermediate well’s fluid production rate. Field application at C2X1 block shows a good performance with a total oil increment of 1280 t and an average water-cut reduction of 57.7%.

Marine biomass is a treasure trove of materials. Marine polysaccharides have the characteristics of biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, low cost, and abundance. An enormous variety of polysaccharides can be extracted from marine organisms such as algae, crustaceans, and microorganisms. The most studied marine polysaccharides include chitin, chitosan, alginates, hyaluronic acid, fucoidan, carrageenan, agarose, and Ulva. Marine polysaccharides have a wide range of applications in the field of biomedical materials, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, wound dressings, and sensors. The drug delivery system (DDS) can comprehensively control the distribution of drugs in the organism in space, time, and dosage, thereby increasing the utilization efficiency of drugs, reducing costs, and reducing toxic side effects. The nano-drug delivery system (NDDS), due to its small size, can function at the subcellular level in vivo. The marine polysaccharide-based DDS combines the advantages of polysaccharide materials and nanotechnology, and is suitable as a carrier for different pharmaceutical preparations. This review summarizes the advantages and drawbacks of using marine polysaccharides to construct the NDDS and describes the preparation methods and modification strategies of marine polysaccharide-based nanocarriers.

In the current cancer treatment, various combination therapies have been widely used, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) combined with chemokinetic therapy (CDT). However, due to the complexity of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the limitations of treatment, the efficacy of current treatment options for some cancers is unsatisfactory. Nowadays, cascade technology has been used in cancer treatment and achieved good therapeutic effect. Cascade technology based on nanotechnology can trigger cascade reactions under specific tumor conditions to achieve precise positioning and controlled release, or amplify the efficacy of each drug to improve anticancer efficacy and reduce side effects. Compared with the traditional treatment, the application of cascade technology has achieved the controllability, specificity, and effectiveness of cancer treatment. This paper reviews the application of cascade technology in drug delivery, targeting, and release via nano-drug delivery systems in recent years, and introduces their application in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced cancer treatment. Finally, we briefly describe the current challenges and prospects of cascade technology in cancer treatment in the future.

Chemotherapy is still the most direct and effective means of cancer therapy nowadays. The proposal of drug delivery systems (DDSs) has effectively improved many shortcomings of traditional chemotherapy drugs. The technical support of DDSs lies in their excellent material properties. Polysaccharides include a series of natural polymers, such as chitosan, hyaluronic acid, and alginic acid. These polysaccharides have good biocompatibility and degradability, and they are easily chemical modified. Therefore, polysaccharides are ideal candidate materials to construct DDSs, and their clinical application prospects have been favored by researchers. On the basis of versatile types of polysaccharides, this review elaborates their applications from strategic design to cancer therapy. The construction and modification methods of polysaccharide-based DDSs are specifically explained, and the latest research progress of polysaccharide-based DDSs in cancer therapy are also summarized. The purpose of this review is to provide a reference for the design and preparation of polysaccharide-based DDSs with excellent performance.

The transition from fertilized egg to larva in fish is accompanied with various biological processes. We selected seven early developmental stages in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, for transcriptome analysis, and covered 22,635 genes with 590 million high-quality RNA-sequencing (seq) reads. Differential expression analysis between neighboring developmental timepoints revealed significantly enriched biological categories associated with growth, development and morphogenesis, which was most evident at 2 vs. 5 days post fertilization (dpf) and 5 vs. 6 dpf. A gene co-expression network was constructed using the Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) approach and four critical modules were identified. Among candidate hub genes, GDF10, FOXA2, HCEA and SYCE3 were involved in head formation, egg development and the transverse central element of synaptonemal complexes. CK1, OAZ2, DARS1 and UBE2V2 were mainly associated with regulation of cell cycle, growth, brain development, differentiation and proliferation of enterocytes. IFI44L and ZIP10 were critical for the regulation of immune activity and ion transport. Additionally, TCK1 and TGFB1 were related to phosphate transport and regulating cell proliferation. All these genes play vital roles in embryogenesis and regulation of early development. These results serve as a rich dataset for functional genomic studies. Our work reveals new insights of the underlying mechanisms in channel catfish early development.

Microtubule actin crosslinking factor 1 (MACF1) is a large crosslinker that contributes to cell integrity and cell differentiation. Recent studies show that MACF1 is involved in multiple cellular functions such as neuron development and epidermal migration, and is the molecular basis for many degenerative diseases. MACF1 is highly abundant in bones, especially in mesenchymal stem cells; however, its regulatory role is still less understood in bone formation and degenerative bone diseases. In this study, we found MACF1 expression in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of osteoporotic bone specimens was significantly lower. By conditional gene targeting to delete the mesenchymal Macf1 gene in mice, we observed in MSCs decreased osteogenic differentiation capability. During early stage bone development, the MACF1 conditional knockout (cKO) mice exhibit significant ossification retardation in skull and hindlimb, and by adulthood, mesenchymal loss of MACF1 attenuated bone mass, bone microarchitecture, and bone formation capability significantly. Further, we showed that MACF1 interacts directly with SMAD family member 7 (SMAD7) and facilitates SMAD7 nuclear translocation to initiate downstream osteogenic pathways. Hopefully these findings will expand the biological scope of the MACF1 gene, and provide an experimental basis for targeting MACF1 in degenerative bone diseases such as osteoporosis.

Forkhead box class O family member proteins (FoxOs) are evolutionarily conserved transcription factors for their highly conserved DNA-binding domain. In mammalian species, all the four FoxO members, FoxO1, FoxO3, FoxO4, and FoxO6, are expressed in different organs. In bone, the first three members are extensively expressed and more studied. Bone development, remodeling, and homeostasis are all regulated by multiple cell lineages, including osteoprogenitor cells, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteoclast progenitors, osteoclasts, and the intercellular signaling among these bone cells. The disordered FoxOs function in these bone cells contribute to osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or other bone diseases. Here, we review the current literature of FoxOs for their roles in bone cells, focusing on helping researchers to develop new therapeutic approaches and prevent or treat the related bone diseases.

Propylene/propane and ethylene/ethane separations are performed by energy-intensive distillation processes, and membrane separation may provide substantial energy and capital cost savings. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) have emerged as promising membrane materials for olefin/paraffin separation due to their tunable pore size and chemistry property, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. In this review, we summarize the recent advances on ZIF membranes for propylene/propane and ethylene/ethane separations. Membrane fabrication methods such as in situ crystallization, seeded growth, counter-diffusion synthesis, interfacial microfluidic processing, vapor-phase and current-driven synthesis are presented. The gas permeation and separation characteristics and membrane stability are also discussed.

During bone modeling, remodeling, and bone fracture repair, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into chondrocyte or osteoblast to comply bone formation and regeneration. As multipotent stem cells, MSCs were used to treat bone diseases during the past several decades. However, most of these implications just focused on promoting MSC differentiation. Furthermore, cell migration is also a key issue for bone formation and bone diseases treatment. Abnormal MSC migration could cause different kinds of bone diseases, including osteoporosis. Additionally, for bone disease treatment, the migration of endogenous or exogenous MSCs to bone injury sites is required. Recently, researchers have paid more and more attention to two critical points. One is how to apply MSC migration to bone disease therapy. The other is how to enhance MSC migration to improve the therapeutic efficacy of bone diseases. Some considerable outcomes showed that enhancing MSC migration might be a novel trick for reversing bone loss and other bone diseases, such as osteoporosis, fracture, and osteoarthritis (OA). Although plenty of challenges need to be conquered, application of endogenous and exogenous MSC migration and developing different strategies to improve therapeutic efficacy through enhancing MSC migration to target tissue might be the trend in the future for bone disease treatment.

The space special environment mainly includes microgravity, radiation, vacuum and extreme temperature, which seriously threatens an astronaut’s health. Bone loss is one of the most significant alterations in mammalians after long-duration habitation in space. In this review, we summarize the crucial roles of major factors—namely radiation and microgravity—in space in oxidative stress generation in living organisms, and the inhibitory effect of oxidative stress on bone formation. We discussed the possible mechanisms of oxidative stress-induced skeletal involution, and listed some countermeasures that have therapeutic potentials for bone loss via oxidative stress antagonism. Future research for better understanding the oxidative stress caused by space environment and the development of countermeasures against oxidative damage accordingly may facilitate human beings to live more safely in space and explore deeper into the universe.

Abstract: Information technology (IT) has brought significant changes in people’s lives. As an important part of the IT industry, data centres (DCs) have been rapidly growing in both the number and size over the past 40 years. Around 30% to 40% of electricity consumption in DCs is used for space cooling, thus leading to very inefficient DC operation. To identify ways to reduce the energy consumption for space cooling and increase the energy efficiency of DCs’ operation, a dedicated investigation into the energy usage in DCs has been undertaken and a novel high performance dew point cooling system was introduced into a DC operational scheme. Based on the cooling load in DCs, a case study was carried out to evaluate the energy consumptions and energy usage effectiveness when using the novel dew point cooling system in different scales of DCs in various climates. It was found that by using the novel dew point cooling system, for 10 typical climates a DC can have a much lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.10 to 1.22 compared to that of 1.7 to 3.7 by using existing traditional cooling systems, leading to significantly increased energy efficiency of the DC operation. In addition, the energy performance by managing the cooling air supply at the different levels in DCs, i.e., room, row and rack level, was simulated by using a dynamic computer model. It was found that cooling air supply at rack level can provide a higher energy efficiency in DCs. Based on the above work, the energy saving potential in DCs was conducted by comparing DCs using an the novel dew point cooling system and the optimum management scheme for the cooling air supply to that using traditional air cooling systems and the same supply air management. Annual electricity consumptions for the two cases were given. It was found that by using the novel dew point cooling system and optimum management system for the cooling air supply, an 87.7~91.6% electricity consumption saving for space cooling in DCs could be achieved in 10 typical cities at 10 selected climatic conditions.

Occupational exposure is a significant source of metal contact; previous studies have been limited regarding the effect of occupational metal exposure on the development of hypertension. This study was conducted to assess the levels of exposure of certain metals (chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni)) in hypertensive and non-hypertensive workers and to assess the relationship between the risk of hypertension and metal exposure level. Our study included 138 hypertensive patients as case groups and 138 non-hypertensive participants as controls. The exposure risk level was divided according to the limit value after collecting and testing the metal dust in the workshop. Considering the influence of single- and poly-metal, single factor analysis and conditional logistic regression analysis of poly-metal were carried out. The results of the model indicated that the incidence of hypertension increased with an increase in Cr exposure level, and the risk of hypertension was 1.85 times higher in the highest exposure than in the lowest exposure (95% CI: 1.20–2.86, p < 0.05). Mn has the same effect as Cr. There was no significant correlation between Fe or Ni and hypertension. Our findings suggested that Cr and Mn exposure in the work environment might increase the risk of hypertension, while no effect of Fe and Ni on blood pressure was found. Prospective study designs in larger populations are needed to confirm our findings.

Leukemia is a non-solid cancer which features the malignant proliferation of leukocytes. Excessive leukocytes of lesions in peripheral blood will infiltrate organs, resulting in intumescence and weakening treatment efficiency. In this study, we proposed a novel approach for targeted clearance of the leukocytes in the peripheral blood ex vivo, which employed magnetic nanochains to selectively destroy the leukocytes of the lesions. The nanochains were doxorubicin-loaded nanochains of Fe3O4 nanoparticles which were fabricated by the solvent exchange method combined with magnetic field-directed self-assembly. Firstly, the nanochains were added into the peripheral blood during extracorporeal circulation and subjected to a rotational magnetic field for actuation. The leukocytes of the lesion were then conjugated by the nanochains via folic acid (FA) targeting. Finally, the rotational magnetic field actuated the nanochains to release the drugs and effectively damage the cytomembrane of the leukocytes. This strategy was conceptually shown in vitro (K562 cell line) and the method’s safety was evaluated in a rat model. The preliminary results demonstrate that the nanochains are biocompatible and suitable as drug carriers, showing direct lethal action to the leukemic cells combined with a rotational magnetic field. More importantly to note is that the nanochains can be effectively kept from entry into the body. We believe this extracorporeal circulation-based strategy by activating nanochains magnetically could serve as a potential method for leukemia treatment in the future.

This paper provides a novel and effective compensation method by improving the hardware design and software algorithm to achieve optimization of piezoresistive pressure sensors and corresponding measurement systems in order to measure pressure more accurately and stably, as well as to meet the application requirements of the meteorological industry. Specifically, GE NovaSensor MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensors within a thousandth of accuracy are selected to constitute an array. In the versatile compensation method, the hardware utilizes the array of MEMS pressure sensors to reduce random error caused by sensor creep, and the software adopts the data fusion technique based on the wavelet neural network (WNN) which is improved by genetic algorithm (GA) to analyze the data of sensors for the sake of obtaining accurate and complete information over the wide temperature and pressure ranges. The GA-WNN model is implemented in hardware by using the 32-bit STMicroelectronics (STM32) microcontroller combined with an embedded real-time operating system µC/OS-II to make the output of the array of MEMS sensors be a direct digital readout. The results of calibration and test experiments clearly show that the GA-WNN technique can be effectively applied to minimize the sensor errors due to the temperature drift, the hysteresis effect and the long-term drift because of aging and environmental changes. The maximum error of the low cost piezoresistive MEMS-array pressure transmitter proposed by us is within 0.04% of its full-scale value, and it can satisfy the meteorological pressure measurement.

To meet the radiosonde requirement of high sensitivity and linearity, this study designs and implements a monolithically integrated array-type piezoresistive intelligent pressure sensor system which is made up of two groups of four pressure sensors with the pressure range of 0–50 kPa and 0–100 kPa respectively. First, theoretical models and ANSYS (version 14.5, Canonsburg, PA, USA) finite element method (FEM) are adopted to optimize the parameters of array sensor structure. Combing with FEM stress distribution results, the size and material characteristics of the array-type sensor are determined according to the analysis of the sensitivity and the ratio of signal to noise (SNR). Based on the optimized parameters, the manufacture and packaging of array-type sensor chips are then realized by using the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process. Furthermore, an intelligent acquisition and processing system for pressure and temperature signals is achieved. The S3C2440A microprocessor (Samsung, Seoul, Korea) is regarded as the core part which can be applied to collect and process data. In particular, digital signal storage, display and transmission are realized by the application of a graphical user interface (GUI) written in QT/E. Besides, for the sake of compensating the temperature drift and nonlinear error, the data fusion technique is proposed based on a wavelet neural network improved by genetic algorithm (GA-WNN) for average measuring signal. The GA-WNN model is implemented in hardware by using a S3C2440A microprocessor. Finally, the results of calibration and test experiments achieved with the temperature ranges from −20 to 20 °C show that: (1) the nonlinear error and the sensitivity of the array-type pressure sensor are 8330 × 10−4 and 0.052 mV/V/kPa in the range of 0–50 kPa, respectively; (2) the nonlinear error and the sensitivity are 8129 × 10−4 and 0.020 mV/V/kPa in the range of 50–100 kPa, respectively; (3) the overall error of the intelligent pressure sensor system is maintained at ±0.252% within the hybrid composite range (0–100 kPa). The involved results indicate that the developed array-type composite pressure sensor has good performance, which can provide a useful reference for the development of multi-range MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensor.

In order to meet the requirement of high sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), this study develops and optimizes a piezoresistive pressure sensor by using double silicon nanowire (SiNW) as the piezoresistive sensing element. First of all, ANSYS finite element method and voltage noise models are adopted to optimize the sensor size and the sensor output (such as sensitivity, voltage noise and SNR). As a result, the sensor of the released double SiNW has 1.2 times more sensitivity than that of single SiNW sensor, which is consistent with the experimental result. Our result also displays that both the sensitivity and SNR are closely related to the geometry parameters of SiNW and its doping concentration. To achieve high performance, a p-type implantation of 5 × 1018 cm−3 and geometry of 10 µm long SiNW piezoresistor of 1400 nm × 100 nm cross area and 6 µm thick diaphragm of 200 µm × 200 µm are required. Then, the proposed SiNW pressure sensor is fabricated by using the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) lithography process as well as wet-etch release process. This SiNW pressure sensor produces a change in the voltage output when the external pressure is applied. The involved experimental results show that the pressure sensor has a high sensitivity of 495 mV/V·MPa in the range of 0–100 kPa. Nevertheless, the performance of the pressure sensor is influenced by the temperature drift. Finally, for the sake of obtaining accurate and complete information over wide temperature and pressure ranges, the data fusion technique is proposed based on the back-propagation (BP) neural network, which is improved by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The particle swarm optimization–back-propagation (PSO–BP) model is implemented in hardware using a 32-bit STMicroelectronics (STM32) microcontroller. The results of calibration and test experiments clearly prove that the PSO–BP neural network can be effectively applied to minimize sensor errors derived from temperature drift.