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Objective: Poorly controlled diabetes frequently exacerbates lung infection, thereby complicating treatment strategies. Recent studies have shown that exendin-4 exhibits not only hypoglycemic but also anti-inflammatory properties. This study aimed to explore the role of exendin-4 in lung infection with diabetes, as well as its association with NOD1/NF-κB and the T1R2/T1R3 sweet taste receptor. Methods: 16HBE human bronchial epithelial cells cultured with 20 mM glucose were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA). Furthermore, Sprague‒Dawley rats were fed a high-fat diet, followed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin and intratracheal instillation of PA. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were evaluated using ELISAs and RT‒qPCR. The expression of T1R2, T1R3, NOD1 and NF-κB p65 was assayed using western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Pathological changes in the lungs of the rats were observed using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Results: At the same dose of LPS, the 20 mM glucose group produced more proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6) and had higher levels of T1R2, T1R3, NOD1 and NF-κB p65 than the normal control group (with 5.6 mM glucose). However, preintervention with exendin-4 significantly reduced the levels of the aforementioned proinflammatory cytokines and signaling molecules. Similarly, diabetic rats infected with PA exhibited increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines in their lungs and increased expression of T1R2, T1R3, NOD1 and NF-κB p65, and these effects were reversed by exendin-4. Conclusions: Diabetic hyperglycemia can exacerbate inflammation during lung infection, promote the increase in NOD1/NF-κB, and promote T1R2/T1R3. Exendin-4 can ameliorate PA-related pneumonia with diabetes and overexpression of NOD1/NF-κB. Additionally, exendin-4 suppresses T1R2/T1R3, potentially through its hypoglycemic effect or through a direct mechanism. The correlation between heightened expression of T1R2/T1R3 and an intensified inflammatory response in lung infection with diabetes requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological lasers (TLs) have attracted widespread attention due to their mode robustness against perturbations or defects. Among them, electrically pumped TLs have gained extensive research interest due to their advantages of compact size and easy integration. Nevertheless, limited studies on electrically pumped TLs have been reported in the terahertz (THz) and telecom wavelength ranges with relatively low output powers, causing a wide gap between practical applications. Here, we introduce a surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity (SMDC) design to solve the difficulty of increasing power for electrically pumped TLs in the THz spectral range. Due to the strong coupling between the SMDC and the active region, robust 2D topological defect lasing modes are obtained. More importantly, enough gain and large radiative efficiency provided by the SMDC bring in the increase of the output power to a maximum peak power of 150 mW which demonstrates the practical application potential of electrically pumped TLs. The researchers showcase an exciting surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity design with enhanced power capabilities for electrically pumped Topological Lasers in the THz spectral range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern tunnel construction, TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) plays a very important role. In response to the needs of tunnel wall reinforcement and TBM automated construction for tunnel construction, a shotcrete mechanism mounted on the TBM is designed. In order to evaluate the kinematic performance of the mechanism, this paper studies the forward and inverse kinematics and spatial architecture of the TBM shotcrete robot. Firstly, based on the D–H parameter method, the number of joints and links is determined and structural analysis is performed to obtain the robot's forward kinematics equation, achieving the mapping between joint space and pose space. Then, by determining the joint variables, the mapping of the end tool in Cartesian space is achieved. Finally, based on the Monte Carlo random sampling method, the workspace of the robot is constructed, and its reachability and flexibility within the robot workspace are evaluated. The performance of the device is verified by building a prototype, which meets the requirements well. Through the research in this paper, it can provide theoretical basis and guidance for the design and control of the shotcrete robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is crucial to fully understand the degradation law of commercial LiFePO4 lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in terms of their health and safety status under different operating conditions, as well as the degradation mechanism and influencing factors. This work investigates the evolution patterns of cycling performance in commercial LiFePO4 batteries under different operating conditions, including temperature, electrolyte, charge/discharge rate, and depth of cycling. Structure characterization tests on electrode materials before and after long-term cycles have been carried out to elucidate the failure/degradation mechanisms during battery operation. It has been found that it is a comprehensive effect from different operation conditions that results in performance degradation. Fe element shuttling and Li deposition may cause internal decay of LiFePO4 LIBs. Additionally, working temperatures and the rate and depth of discharge (DOD) should be strictly controlled to achieve high energy retention and long life. This study proposes a perspective that explores the impact of internal and external factors on the degradation of the safety performance in LiFePO4 LIBs, with the aim of improving the safe and stable operation of large-scale LiFePO4 LIB energy storage systems, as it is favorable to unravel their complex multi-dimensional evolution mechanism and coupling effects throughout their life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteroconchia, a widespread and abundant aquatic invertebrate, is an important clade of bivalve mollusks. The relationship between the three branches of Heteroconchia, Palaeoheterodonta, Archiheterodonta, and Euheterodonta has become a main controversy in molecular studies of the relationships between bivalves. In the present study, we assembled the complete mitochondrial genomes of Tapes dorsatus (Veneridae) and Cardita variegata (Carditidae) using high-throughput sequencing. C. variegata is the first mitochondrial genome belonging to the family Carditidae to be reported. We used 12 protein coding genes (excluding atp8) from the complete mitochondrial genomes of 146 species to recover the internal relationships of Heteroconchia. Our results support the traditional view of early branching of Palaeoheterodonta and the recovery of the monophyly of Palaeoheterodonta, Anomalodesmata, Imparidentia. Rearrangement analysis show that gene arrangement within Venerida was highly variable. Time-calibrated phylogenetic studies based on a relaxed molecular clock model suggested that Veneridae originated approximately 337.62 million years ago (Ma) and split into two major clades, whereas Carditidae originated approximately 510.09 Ma. Our results provide evidence of the internal relationships of Heteroconchia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deschampsia antarctica Desv. and Poa annua L. are two Poaceae plants with enough endurance to successfully establish populations in the Antarctic region. Their adaptation to the Antarctic environment is closely linked to root-associated microbial communities. In this study, we obtained 16S rRNA sequencing data of the root-associated microbial communities of these two Poaceae plants from NCBI. Meta-analysis was used to investigate the similarities and differences between the root endosphere and rhizosphere-dwelling microbial communities in these two Poaceae plants. Here we report that two Poaceae-Poaceae plants' rhizospheric communities were found to be more species diversity than endospheric communities. The species diversity of P. annua was higher than that of D. antarctica in both endosphere and rhizosphere communities. Seven bacterial families form a core microbiome of two Antarctic Poaceae plants' root endosphere, in which Microbacteriaceae appears to be obligatory root endophytes of the two Antarctic Poaceae plants. The core microbiome of the two Poaceae plants' rhizosphere has six bacterial families. Chitinophagaceae, Burkholderiaceae, and Flavobacteriaceae are most likely to play a crucial role in Poaceae plants' adaptation to cold Antarctic conditions. Sphingobacteriaceae, Caulobacteraceae, Gemmatimonadaceae, and Flavobacteriaceae have a great influence on two Antarctic Poaceae plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solieria tenuis has the tendency to become a potential bloom in some regions of the sea in China. It has massive biomass. Therefore, making the best use of the bioresource of S. tenuis has gained attention. This study proposed a process for the comprehensive extraction of carrageenan and phycoerythrin from new resource S. tenuis and measured their bioactivities. The results showed that the purity of phycoerythrin could be up to 4.19 and the yield of phycoerythrin could be 0.06 mg/g (dry weight). The yield of carrageenan was 19.60% at 4% alkali concentration, 2 h alkali treatment time, and 62 °C alkali treatment temperature using the S. tenuis residue. The phycoerythrin had applications as an antioxidant and antibacterial agent, and carrageenan had applications in the culture medium. Thus, this emerging method fully used S. tenuis as new bioresources, which realized high value use and reduced the nitrogen content in production, having potential applications in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive impairment is a common feature among patients with diffuse glioma. The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between preoperative cognitive function and clinical as well as molecular factors, firstly based on the new 2021 World Health Organization’s updated classification of central nervous system tumors. A total of 110 diffuse glioma patients enrolled underwent preoperative cognitive assessments using the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Clinical information was collected from medical records, and gene sequencing was performed to analyze the 18 most influenced genes. The differences in cognitive function between patients with and without glioblastoma were compared under both the 2016 and 2021 WHO classification of tumors of the central nervous system to assess their effect of differentiation on cognition. The study found that age, tumor location, and glioblastoma had significant differences in cognitive function. Several genetic alterations were significantly correlated with cognition. Especially, IDH, CIC, and ATRX are positively correlated with several cognitive domains, while most other genes are negatively correlated. For most focused genes, patients with a low number of genetic alterations tended to have better cognitive function. Our study suggested that, in addition to clinical characteristics such as age, histological type, and tumor location, molecular characteristics play a crucial role in cognitive function. Further research into the mechanisms by which tumors affect brain function is expected to enhance the quality of life for glioma patients. This study highlights the importance of considering both clinical and molecular factors in the management of glioma patients to improve cognitive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant improvements, convolutional neural network (CNN) based methods are struggling with handling long-range global image dependencies due to their limited receptive fields, leading to an unsatisfactory inpainting performance under complicated scenarios. To address this issue, we propose the Inpainting Transformer (ITrans) network, which combines the power of both self-attention and convolution operations. The ITrans network augments convolutional encoder–decoder structure with two novel designs, i.e. , the global and local transformers. The global transformer aggregates high-level image context from the encoder in a global perspective, and propagates the encoded global representation to the decoder in a multi-scale manner. Meanwhile, the local transformer is intended to extract low-level image details inside the local neighborhood at a reduced computational overhead. By incorporating the above two transformers, ITrans is capable of both global relationship modeling and local details encoding, which is essential for hallucinating perceptually realistic images. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed ITrans network outperforms favorably against state-of-the-art inpainting methods both quantitatively and qualitatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caenogastropoda is a highly diverse group, containing ∼60% of all existing gastropods. Species in this subclass predominantly inhabit marine environments and have a high ecological and economic value. Owing to the increase in relevant phylogenetic studies, our understanding of between species relatedness in Caenogastropoda has improved. However, the biodiversity, taxonomic status, and phylogenetic relationships of this group remain unclear. In the present study, we performed next-generation sequencing of four complete mitochondrial genomes from three families (Buccinidae, Columbellidae, and Cypraeidae) and the four mitogenomes were classical circular structures, with a length of 16 177 bp in Volutharpa ampullacea, 16 244 bp in Mitrella albuginosa, 16 926 bp in Mauritia arabica asiatica and 15 422 bp in Erronea errones. Base composition analysis indicated that whole sequences were biased toward A and T. Then compared them with 171 complete mitochondrial genomes of Caenogastropoda. The phylogenetic relationship of Caenogastropoda derived from Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) trees constructed based on CDS sequences was consistent with the results of traditional morphological analysis, with all three families showing close relationships. This study supported Caenogastropoda at the molecular level as a separate clade of Mollusca. According to our divergence time estimations, Caenogastropoda was formed during the middle Triassic period (∼247.2–237 Ma). Our novel mitochondrial genomes provide evidence for the speciation of Caenogastropoda in addition to elucidating the mitochondrial genomic evolution of this subclass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rhein, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory response properties, is a beneficial treatment for different pathologies. However, the mechanism by which rhein protects against myocardial ischemic injury is poorly understood. Methods and results: To establish an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rat model, we performed left anterior descending (LAD) ligation. Sprague‒Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: sham, AMI, AMI + rhein (AMI + R), and AMI + mitochondrial fission inhibitor (AMI + M). The extent of myocardial injury was evaluated by TTC staining, serum myocardial injury markers, and HE and Masson staining. Cardiac mitochondria ultrastructure was visualized by transmission electron microscopy. TUNEL assay and flow cytometry analysis were used to estimate cell apoptosis. Protein expression levels were measured by Western blotting. In vitro, the efficacy of rhein was assessed in H9c2 cells under hypoxic condition. Our results revealed that rats with AMI exhibited increased infarct size and indicators of myocardial damage, along with activation of Drp1-dependent mitochondrial fission, decreased mitophagy and increased apoptosis rates. However, pretreatment with rhein significantly reversed these effects and demonstrated similar efficacy to Mdivi-1. Furthermore, rhein pretreatment protected against myocardial ischemic injury by inhibiting mitochondrial fission, as evidenced by decreased Drp1 expression. It also enhanced mitophagy, as indicated by increased expression of Beclin1, Pink1 and Parkin, an increased LC3-II/LC3-I ratio and increased formation of autolysosomes. Additionally, rhein pretreatment mitigated apoptosis in AMI. These results were also confirmed in vitro in H9c2 cells. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that rhein pretreatment exerts cardioprotective effects against myocardial ischemic injury via the Drp1/Pink1/Parkin pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Predict intraocular lens position after cataract surgery using the IOL Master 700 and explore the associated ocular parameters compared with the results obtained from the anterior segment analysis system (Sirius, CSO Inc, Florence, Italy). Methods: A total of 98 patients (106 eyes) were included in the retrospective study. The postoperative intraocular lens position was obtained using the IOL Master 700 and measured using Adobe Illustrator software. Correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were applied to study the correlation between the actual position of the postoperative intraocular lens (ALP) and the ocular parameters. In addition, Bland–Altman consistency analysis was used to compare the consistency between any two among the predicted intraocular lens position (ALPi) obtained using IOL Master 700 biometry, the predicted artificial lens position (ALPs) calculated using the anterior segment analysis system, or the ALP. Results: Ocular parameters, including preoperative anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, axial length, white-to-white, and postoperative refractive error were all correlated with ALP after cataract surgery (P < 0.05) using univariate analysis. However, in multivariate linear regression, only the first three variables were correlated with ALP. Compared with the equation obtained by the anterior segment analysis, the equation from IOL Master 700 biometry provided a better fit. The results of the consistency analysis showed that ALP, ALPi, and ALPs were in good agreement. Conclusion: IOL Master 700 biometry can help predict intraocular lens position after surgery, and its accuracy is better than that provided by the anterior segment analysis system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the current situation and factors influencing physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life in Chinese colorectal cancer survivors. Additionally, this study explored the associations between physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life. Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted, involving 173 colorectal cancer survivors with a mean age of 59 years. Self-reported data on basic demographic characteristics, physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life were collected. Results: Among 173 colorectal cancer survivors, 90 (52.0%) were engaged in manual work. The self-efficacy score was found to be 25.99 ± 7.10, while the global health status score was 54.96 ± 21.56. Global health status was associated with sex, residence, chemoradiotherapy, and monthly income (p < 0.01). The self-efficacy score exhibited a significant positive correlation with quality of life, while demonstrating a negative correlation with symptom scores (p < 0.01). Recreational PA scores were positively associated with global health status (P < 0.05). Self-efficacy, recreational physical activity during winter, and whether the participants underwent chemoradiotherapy explained 29.3% of the variance in quality of life among colorectal cancer survivors. Conclusions: Colorectal cancer survivors exhibited low levels of physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life. Their health is influenced by self-efficacy, recreational physical activity, and chemoradiotherapy. When developing intervention plans for colorectal cancer survivorship, it is crucial to consider survivors' self-efficacy and the type of physical activity in which they engage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the tourism economy and the ecological environment has always been a hot issue in tourism research today. Because increasing tourism in rural regions frequently endangers the environment and rural culture, this study uses the Markov Decision Process (MDP) to determine the best policy balance between environmental preservation and tourism infrastructure. First, this research describes the methods used to incorporate a decision-making framework based on MDP into rural ecotourism, with a particular emphasis on the Zibo region of China. To navigate this complex game interplay, we proposed a Markov Decision Process MDP model bearing three pivotal states for this problem. These states are the Economic State, Ecological State, and Environment State. In this model, we also identified three distinct actions. Each action carries its significance. These actions include Promoting Tourism, Environment Protection, and Infrastructural Investment. We relied on data spanning a decade in Zibo of China to calculate the likelihood and real-world dynamic probability. The optimum policy is driven after the MDP simulation. Second, to validate the optimum policy, the policies were also iterated. In the last phase, the Sequential Markov Decision Process is simulated. This simulation not only shows the current state and policy for the area but also predicts the future strategies and policies for Tourism Economy and Rural Environment protection. The experimental results show that the model achieved the best policy and strategy. The experimental results show that the model successfully achieved the best policy and strategy. After 10,000 iterations, the score of γ = 0.9 is achieved, and the iteration of policies provides a better insight into the chosen strategy. The results are optimistic, with our method achieving an accuracy of 85%, recall of 88%, precision of 82%, F1-Score of 85%, sensitivity of 88%, and consistency of 90%. Our approach outshines the competition when assessing performance in specific geographic areas, achieving the highest accuracy in Area A (92%) and Area C (94%). These findings demonstrate the adaptability and the effectiveness of our approach in handling various ecological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoestrogens (PEs) may harm liver function. However, studies in pregnant women are limited. Our study was conducted in pregnant women to assess the effect of serum PEs on liver function markers. We conducted a cross-sectional study focusing in the first trimester of pregnancy. A total of 352 pregnant women were enrolled in the study. We used generalized linear model (GLM) to explore the associations between each PE and each marker of liver function. We used Quantile g-computation (Qgcomp) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models to explore the associations between mixed exposure to all PEs and liver function markers. The GLM results showed that equol (EQU), daidzein (DAD), genistein (GEN), enterolactone (ENT), and enterodiol (END) were negatively correlated with albumin (ALB). DAD and GEN were associated with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT). DAD, GEN, naringin (NAR), and glycitein (GLY) were related to elevated aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Mixed exposure model results showed that the mixture of PEs was associated with reduced ALB. Our results support the existence of associations between PEs and maternal liver function in the first trimester. Emphasizing the detrimental associations between serum PEs and liver function in pregnant women is essential to ensure maternal liver health during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has health effects that may depend on its sources and chemical composition. In this study, characteristics of PM2.5 chemical composition and health risk assessment from Songyuan, China, were investigated during day and night in indoor and outdoor from February 4 to 19, 2021. Relative high concentrations of PM2.5 were obtained in indoor environment than outdoor, with 503.95 ± 209.62 μg/m3 during the day and 357.52 ± 232.81 μg/m3 at night for the indoor environment. Relatively high total carbon, organic carbons, elemental carbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OPAHs) were obtained in indoor environment. However, the average concentrations of PAHs were higher during night (73.57 ± 43.09 ng/m3) in indoor and OPAHs during day (6.027 ± 2.960 ng/m3) in outdoor. They had different I/O distributions of these compounds during day and night. Indeno(1,2,3-cd) pyrene was the dominant PAHs, and benzanthrone was the dominant OPAHs; this is different with the previous studies. The high indoor/outdoor ratios showed the indoor coal and biomass burning greatly affect the indoor pollutants. Average ILCR health risk assessment for PAHs was all higher than 10−6 for different age gender, suggesting there has potential cancer risk existed for populations living in the rural coal and biomass burning area Songyuan, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Przevalski's partridge (Alectoris magna) is one of the birds in the genus Alectoris endemic to China. The distribution of A. magna was narrow, and it was only found in parts of the Qinghai, Gansu, and Ningxia provinces. A. magna was considered a monotypic species until it was distinguished into two subspecies. However, external morphological characteristics, rather than genetic differences or evolutionary relationships, are now commonly used as evidence of subspecies differentiation. In this study, a chromosome-level reference genome of A. magna has been constructed by combining Illumina, PacBio and Hi-C sequencing data. The 1135.01 Mb A. magna genome was ultimately assembled. The genome showed 96.9% completeness (BUSCO), with a contig N50 length of 23.34 Mb. The contigs were clustered and oriented on 20 chromosomes, covering approximately 99.96% of the genome assembly. Additionally, altogether 19,103 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 95.10% were functionally annotated. This high-quality genome assembly could serve as a valuable genomic resource for future research on the functional genomics, genetic protection, and interspecific hybridization of A. magna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple template-free solvothermal method was employed to prepare ZnSnO3 cubic structures loaded with BiOI nanosheets. The composition, morphology, microstructure, and physicochemical properties were characterized using XRD, SEM, and UV–vis spectroscopy. The effect of the solvents, reaction times, temperature, and the molar ratio of Bi to Sn on the morphology, structure, and performance of the samples was systematically investigated. With the increase in the molar ratio of Bi to Sn, the band gap of the composite decreases from 3.24 to 1.95 eV and then increases to 1.97 eV. The photocatalytic properties of the as-obtained samples were studied in detail. The photocatalytic activity of the typical sample (B3Z7) was about 7.64 times higher than that of the pure ZnSnO3 sample, which should be attributed to their enhanced light absorption, small band gap, and distinctive morphology and structure. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and photocurrent density test show that the heterostructure can promote the charge transfer and separation efficiency of the photogenerated carriers in the as-synthesized composite sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) in pesticides has been prohibited for decades in China. Since then, there have been urbanization and transformation of the functional areas of many sites, which were formerly involved in the HCH industry. However, it is possible that, unless properly managed, these sites may still contain HCH residues in the soil and thus pose a threat to the surrounding environment and the quality of groundwater. This study aimed to characterize soil residues in a typical site that was historically involved in HCH production in southern China, by analyzing the α-HCH, β-HCH, and γ-HCH contents of the soil. The results suggested that HCHs persist in the environment and can have long-term effects. It was found that α-HCH and β-HCH were present in many samples in concentrations that were comparable or higher than those specified by China's Class 1 screening values. The distribution of residues was significantly correlated with the historical HCH production activities in the areas. The characteristic ratios of α-HCH/γ-HCH and β-HCH/(α + γ)-HCH at different soil depths were 1.4–3.7 and 0.21–1.04, respectively, which indicated the presence of significant localized residues of HCHs. The presence of HCHs in the soil suggested a downward migration, with concentrations rapidly decreasing in the upper layer soil (0–5 m), but a gradual increase in the deeper soil (5–14 m). HCHs were detected at depths exceeding 24 m, indicating heavy penetration. The proportions of γ-HCH and β-HCH changed with increasing soil depth, which was related to their relatively volatile and stable molecular structures, respectively. The results strongly suggested that there is widespread contamination of both soil and groundwater by HCHs even after decades. The likelihood of residual HCHs in the soil should therefore be taken into full consideration during urban planning to limit risks to human and environmental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) combined with iodine-125 (125I) seeds in the treatment of Bismuth type I or II malignant biliary obstruction (MBO). Methods: The clinical data of 74 cases of MBO treated with percutaneous SEMS combined with 125I seeds (combination group) and 81 cases of MBO treated with SEMS implantation alone (control group) in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The short-term and long-term efficacy of the two groups were compared. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the factors affecting the surgical efficacy and survival rate. Results: The liver blood test results of both groups improved at one week and one month post-stent insertion. No significant difference was established in the short-term efficacy or complications between the two groups (P = NS). Improved stent patency was observed in the combined group, 9.01 ± 4.38 months versus 6.79 ± 3.13 months, respectively (P < 0.001). Improved survival was also noted in the combined group 12.08 ± 5.38 months and 9.10 ± 4.16 months, respectively (P < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the type of biliary stent and liver metastasis were independent factors affecting survival. Conclusion: The implementation of SEMS combined with 125I seeds resulted in significantly longer stent patency and survival times than that of SEMS implantation alone, which is thus worthy of clinical promotion and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertebral bone is subject to a distinct set of disease processes from long bones, including a much higher rate of solid tumour metastases1–4. The basis for this distinct biology of vertebral bone has so far remained unknown. Here we identify a vertebral skeletal stem cell (vSSC) that co-expresses ZIC1 and PAX1 together with additional cell surface markers. vSSCs display formal evidence of stemness, including self-renewal, label retention and sitting at the apex of their differentiation hierarchy. vSSCs are physiologic mediators of vertebral bone formation, as genetic blockade of the ability of vSSCs to generate osteoblasts results in defects in the vertebral neural arch and body. Human counterparts of vSSCs can be identified in vertebral endplate specimens and display a conserved differentiation hierarchy and stemness features. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that vSSCs contribute to the high rates of vertebral metastatic tropism observed in breast cancer, owing in part to increased secretion of the novel metastatic trophic factor MFGE8. Together, our results indicate that vSSCs are distinct from other skeletal stem cells and mediate the unique physiology and pathology of vertebrae, including contributing to the high rate of vertebral metastasis.Vertebral osteoblasts in mouse and human are formed from a precursor skeletal stem cell population that is distinct from long bone skeletal stem cells in function, location and transcriptional programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichoderma longibrachiatum SMF2 is an important biocontrol strain isolated by our group that can promote plant growth and induce plant disease resistance. To further study its biocontrol mechanism, the effector proteins secreted by T. longibrachiatum SMF2 were analyzed through bioinformatics and transcriptome sequencing. Overall, 478 secretory proteins produced by T. longibrachiatum were identified, of which 272 were upregulated after treatment with plants. Functional annotation showed that 36 secretory proteins were homologous with different groups of effectors from pathogenic microorganisms. Moreover, the quantitative PCR results of six putative effector proteins were consistent with those of transcriptome sequencing. Taken together, these findings indicate that the secretory proteins secreted by T. longibrachiatum SMF2 may act as effectors to facilitate its own growth and colonization or to induce plant immunity response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to develop a radiomic signature constructed from deep learning features and a nomogram for prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) in breast cancer patients. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging data from 479 breast cancer patients with 488 lesions were studied. The included patients were divided into two cohorts by time (training/testing cohort, n = 366/122). Deep learning features were extracted from diffusion-weighted imaging–quantitatively measured apparent diffusion coefficient (DWI-ADC) imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) by a pretrained neural network of DenseNet121. After the selection of both radiomic and clinicopathological features, deep learning signature and a nomogram were built for independent validation. Twenty-three deep learning features were automatically selected in the training cohort to establish the deep learning signature of ALNM. Three clinicopathological factors, including LN palpability (odds ratio (OR) = 6.04; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.06–12.54, P = 0.004), tumor size in MRI (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.18–1.80, P = 0.104), and Ki-67 (OR = 1.01; 95% CI = 1.00–1.02, P = 0.099), were selected and combined with radiomic signature to build a combined nomogram. The nomogram showed excellent predictive ability for ALNM (AUC 0.80 and 0.71 in training and testing cohorts, respectively). The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 65%, 80%, and 75%, respectively, in the testing cohort. MRI-based deep learning radiomics in patients with breast cancer could be used to predict ALNM, providing a noninvasive approach to structuring the treatment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart healthcare monitoring systems are proliferating due to the Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled portable medical devices. The IoT and deep learning in the healthcare sector prevent diseases by evolving healthcare from face-to-face consultation to telemedicine. To protect athletes' life from life-threatening severe conditions and injuries in training and competitions, real-time monitoring of physiological indicators is critical. In this research work, we present a deep learning-based IoT-enabled real-time health monitoring system. The proposed system uses wearable medical devices to measure vital signs and apply various deep learning algorithms to extract valuable information. For this purpose, we have taken Sanda athletes as our case study. The deep learning algorithms help physicians properly analyze these athletes' conditions and offer the proper medications to them, even if the doctors are away. The performance of the proposed system is extensively evaluated using a cross-validation test by considering various statistical-based performance measurement metrics. The proposed system is considered an effective tool that diagnoses dreadful diseases among the athletes, such as brain tumors, heart disease, cancer, etc. The performance results of the proposed system are evaluated in terms of precision, recall, AUC, and F1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sports, advance sensing technologies generate massive amount of unstructured telemedicine data that need to be refined for accurate diagnosis of underlying diseases. For accurate prediction of diseases and classification of athletes' data, deep learning algorithms are frequently used at the cloud. However, the transmission of raw data of athletes to the cloud faces numerous challenges. Among them, security and privacy are a major challenge in view of the sensitive and personal information present within the unstructured data. In this paper, first we present a data block scrambling algorithm (without key management) for secured transmission and storage of ECG (electrocardiogram) data of table tennis players at the cloud. A small piece of original data stored at the cloud is used for scrambling the massive amount of remaining ECG data. The secured telemedicine data is then imported into Hadoop Distributed File System for data management, which is read by Spark framework to form Resilient Distributed Datasets. Finally, a deep learning approach is used that extracts useful features, learns the related information, and weights and sums the feature vectors at different layers for classification. Theoretical analysis proves that our proposed approach is highly robust and resilient to brute force attacks and at the same time has a much better accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity as compared to the existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-throughput screening platforms are fundamental for the rapid and efficient processing of large amounts of experimental data. Parallelization and miniaturization of experiments are important for improving their cost-effectiveness. The development of miniaturized high-throughput screening platforms is essential in the fields of biotechnology, medicine, and pharmacology. Currently, most laboratories use 96- or 384-well microtiter plates for screening; however, they have disadvantages, such as high reagent and cell consumption, low throughput, and inability to avoid cross-contamination, which need to be further optimized. Droplet microarrays, as novel screening platforms, can effectively avoid these shortcomings. Here, the preparation method of the droplet microarray, method of adding compounds in parallel, and means to read the results are briefly described. Next, the latest research on droplet microarray platforms in biomedicine is presented, including their application in high-throughput culture, cell screening, high-throughput nucleic acid screening, drug development, and individualized medicine. Finally, the challenges and future trends in droplet microarray technology are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous mechanoluminescence (ML) fibers and fiber-woven textiles have the potential to serve as new wearable devices for sensors, healthcare, human—computer interfacing, and Internet of Things. Considering the demands on wearability and adaptability for the ML textiles, it is essential to realize the continuous synthesis of fiber, while maintaining a desired small diameter. Here, we develop a novel adhere-coating method to fabricate ML composite fiber, consisting of a thin polyurethane (PU) core and ZnS:Cu/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) shell, with the outer diameter of 120 µm. By diluting PDMS to tune the thickness of liquid coating layer, droplets formation has been effectively prevented. The composite fiber exhibits a smooth surface structure and superior ML performances, including high brightness, excellent flexibility, and stability. In addition, a weft knitting textile fabricated by the continuous ML fiber can be easily delighted by manually stretching, and the ML fibers can emit visible signals upon human motion stimuli when woven into commercial cloth. Such continuous ultra-fine ML fibers are promising as wearable sensing devices for human motion detection and human—machine interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-low sulfur steel has excellent resistance to pitting and hydrogen-induced cracking, and is mainly used for gas pipeline steel, drilling steel and steel for structural parts of offshore platforms. This study reveals the limiting aspects of desulfurization at slag–metal interface from the perspective of experimental and theoretical calculations. Based on XPS results, the quantitative analysis shows that the relative contents of Si and O are decreasing and that of Ca, Mn and S are increasing as the etching depth increases at the slag–metal interface. Mn exists mainly as a divalent (Mn2+), S exists as a negative divalent (S2−), and Fe exists as a Fe–O and Fe–S at the same time. Under the conditions in this study, the analysis shows that the slag–metal interface is mainly composed of bridged oxygen (BO) and non-bridged oxygen (NBO), and the content of BO gradually decreases and that of NBO gradually increases as the depth deepens. With increasing basicity, the interfacial bridged oxygen gradually decreases and the NBO gradually increases. The increase in basicity leads to faster diffusion of sulfur and therefore to a decrease in Fe–S at the interface. Based on the experiment and simulation results, in this system, two main exchange reactions occur at the slag–metal interface, one is the exchange reaction between Fe and Mn/Si, and the other is the exchange of sulfur with oxygen. Afterwards, the Sulfur enters the slag and forms stable sulfides with Ca/Mn at the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ special-shaped microfibrillar composites, employing polyolefin elastomer (POE) as matrix and poly(lactic acid)/polyamide 6 (PLA/PA6) masterbatch as dispersed phase, were successfully prepared by using multistage stretching extrusion technology. The special-shaped microfibrils liking "gourd skewers" or "trepang" can be readily tuned by changing the weight ratio of PLA to PA6 in the POE/(PLA/PA6) composites. It was found that the morphological evolution of special shaped structure microfibril were mainly ascribed to the phase separation and viscosity difference between PLA and PA6 during stretching extrusion process. Owing to the large specific surface area and the "hang nail" effect of special-shaped microfibrils, the excellent elongation at break(867%) and tensile strength (20.1 MPa) can be achieved for the POE/(PLA/PA6) composites (PLA/PA6 = 12.5/12.5), which were 1.2 and 2 times higher than those of pure POE respectively. Dynamic rheology studies showed that the viscoelasticity of POE/(PLA/PA6) composites can be improved significantly compared to pure POE. This work provided a facile and cost-effective way to fabricate special shaped microfibrillar composites to improved strength and toughness simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the direct alloying of chrome ore can increase production efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The chrome ore reduction process in the converter consists of the dissolution of chrome ore in the slag and the reduction of chromium oxide in the slag by carbon. In present study, the interfacial dissolution phenomenon of FeCr2O4/slag was investigated using molecular dynamics method and ab initio molecular dynamics method. First, the calculations show that the diffusion coefficients (D) of the different elements are ranked as DMg > DFe > DO > DSi > DCr. The interfacial element distribution and oxygen structure analysis show that all three elements, Cr, Mg, and Fe, are distributed within the interface and form compounds such as MgCr2O4 and Mg1-xFexO, which are in good agreement with the results of experimental studies of chromite dissolution. The interfacial charge is mainly distributed around Fe, Cr, and O. Bader charge analysis shows that the valence of oxygen in FeCr2O4 and slag is − 1.0 e and − 1.6 e, respectively. The valence of oxygen at the slag interface increases during the dissolution process. This study provides a theoretical basis for the efficient direct alloying of chromite ores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanosilicate mesoporous materials (TiSi-MMs) with adjustable textural properties were synthesized by the sol-gel method. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was used as Si source, while tetraethyl orthotitanate (TEOT) or potassium titanium oxide oxalate dihydrate (PTOOD) was used as Ti source. With an increase of Ti content, the specific surface area and pore volume of TiSi-MMs decrease while the pore size increases. The specific surface area, pore volume and average pore diameter of TEOT-derived TiSi-MMs are larger than those of PTOOD-derived TiSi-MMs. In the acetalization reaction of biomass-derived furfural with n-propanol, the conversions of furfural over TEOT-derived TiSi-MMs are higher than that over silicate mesoporous material (Si-MM), demonstrating that the introduction of Ti significantly enhances the catalytic performance. Furthermore, the catalytic performance of TEOT-derived TiSi-MMs is better than that of PTOOD-derived TiSi-MMs. The sample with the largest Ti content and the highest number of strongly acidic sites shows the best catalytic performance. The numbers of strong acidic sites are positively correlated with the Ti contents of TiSi-MMs. Ti content and specific surface area are the two main factors affecting the catalytic performance because they determine the density and intensity of accessible Lewis acidic catalytic sites (coordinatively unsaturated Ti4+) in the catalyst channels, thus determining the catalytic performance in the acetalization reaction. These TiSi-MMs show good catalytic performance and can be used to efficiently catalyze the acetalization reaction of biomass derived furfural and n-propanol. Highlights: Lewis acid sites of the catalyst mainly originate from coordinatively unsaturated Ti4+ on surface. The number of strong acidic sites is positively correlated with the Ti content of catalyst. Acid strength rather than acid amount of the catalyst plays a more important role in some cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Various features extracted from breast MRI have the potential to serve as noninvasive biomarkers for the prediction of the biologic behavior of breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of focal breast edema and breast edema score (BES) on T2-weighted images in providing valuable biological information for breast cancer patients' personalized treatment. Method: Two hundred and five lesions in 201 patients with invasive breast cancer confirmed by surgery or biopsy in Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine from November 2018 to October 2019 were retrospectively recruited and analyzed in this study. Focal edema and BES were evaluated at fat-suppressed T2 weighted imaging. All the lesions were divided into two groups according to the presence of focal edema. The differences in clinicopathological characteristics between the two groups and between different BES were compared. Results: Two hundred and five lesions in 201 patients with invasive breast cancer were retrospectively recruited and analyzed in this study. On the fat-suppressed T2WI, focal edema was detected in 102 of 205 lesions (49.8%). BES was positively correlated with tumor size (p < 0.001), histologic grade (p = 0.006), Ki-67 index (p < 0.001), and N stage (p = 0.007), and was negatively correlated with expression of ER and PR (p < 0.001). Higher BES was more likely to present in patients with non-luminal breast cancer (p < 0.001) and suggested the possibility of a higher N stage. Conclusions: Focal edema on T2WI of breast MRI indicates stronger tumor invasiveness, in which non-luminal breast cancer is more inclined to present focal edema. Breast edema score, a novel and practical tool, helps guide the individualized treatment of patients with invasive breast cancer. Critical relevance statement: Focal edema on T2WI of breast MRI indicates stronger tumor invasiveness. Breast edema score helps guide the individualized treatment of patients with invasive breast cancer. Key points: Focal edema on T2WI of breast MRI indicates stronger tumor invasiveness. Non-luminal breast cancer is more inclined to present focal edema. Breast edema score is a novel and practical tool to guide therapy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propylene-ethylene (PPE) copolymer was added to high melt-strength polypropylene (HMS PP) for extrusion foaming. PPE postpones polypropylene (PP) crystalization and decreases the optimum foaming temperature. The blend maintains good melt strength and pronounced strain hardening(less than 30%) for a low melt mass flow rate (MFR) of PPE. The small phase separation of PPE (high ethylene content) and PP also favors cell nucleation during foaming. Thus, at lower foaming temperature, the small crystals may function as physical crosslinking, which can help to maintain melt strength and strain hardening behavior around the foaming window. The better cell nucleation and finer cells with higher expansion ratio (ER) in the foam sample were achieved. Combining the advantage of resin elasticity and better foam structure, better toughness was achieved with elongation at break as high as 150%, while maintaining the stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effect of disturbances on the operation process of a methane-fueled free-piston engine generator (FPEG) was experimentally investigated. Four disturbance sources, namely step change of external load, mixture flow rate fluctuation, random misfire of a cylinder, and elastic collision, were identified and applied to the FPEG. The results showed that the FPEG successfully achieved a steady-state operation with load. The maximum instantaneous electric power of 127 W and the average effective electric power of 38.9 W were obtained. When an external load was instantaneously disconnected, the engine frequency increased from 26.7 Hz to 31.3 Hz. The fluctuation amplitudes of induced voltage, pressure and compression ratio were 18.9%, 24.7% and 52.2% respectively in the disturbance. By contrast, when the external load was instantaneously connected, the corresponding values were 42.2%, 31.3% and 64.3% respectively, indicating that the instantaneous external load connection had a greater disturbance impact on the FPEG operation stability. Despite encountering the step change of external load, the FPEG can still restore stable operation and show good anti-disturbance ability. Compared with increasing mixture flow rate, reducing the mixture flow rate has a greater disturbance impact on the engine operation stability. Although random misfire of a cylinder will cause remarkable fluctuations in piston displacement and cylinder pressure, the FPEG will not stop running, but continues to work as a single-piston engine. Minor collision event may adversely affect the stability of engine operation, but will not lead to the FPEG shutdown. However, serious collision event may lead to ignition failure and shutdown accident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heterozygous mutations in HTRA1 were recently found to cause autosomal dominant cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), and it was named HTRA1-autosomal dominant disease (AD-HTRA1) in the consensus recommendations of the European Academy of Neurology. This study aimed to investigate the clinical features of a mutation in HTRA1 and the effect of HTRA1 mutation on white matter hyperintensity (WMH). Methods: A proband's brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed multiple lacunar infarctions and multiple WMH in the lateral ventricle, external capsule, frontal lobe and corpus callosum. The proband and family members were tested for CSVD-related genes by next-generation sequencing and the clinical data of the patients were collected. The published literature on AD-HTRA1 was collected, and the clinical characteristics and pathogenicity of the patients were summarized. Combined Annotation Dependent Depletion (CADD) is a tool for scoring the deleteriousness of single-nucleotide variants and insertion/deletion variants in the human genome. The relationship between the degree of WMH and the pathogenicity of the mutation was further analyzed. Result: It was found that the proband and her family members had a heterozygous missense mutation of c.854C > T (p.P285L) in the 4 exon of HTRA1 gene. A retrospective analysis of 5 families with c.854C > T mutation found that the patients had an early age of onset, cognitive impairment was more common, and alopecia and spondylosis could be combined at the same time. By univariate analysis, the severity of WMH was found to be significantly associated with the mutated CADD score (p < 0.05, Spearman's rho = 0.266). Conclusion: The clinical manifestations of AD-HTRA1 with mutation site c.854C > T (p.P285L) are similar to CARASIL, and brain MRI are mainly moderate or severe WMH and lacunar infarction (LI). WMH are affected by mutation sites. Therefore, our pathogenicity score for mutations can predict the severity of WMH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) is a technology that efficiently combines power generation and CO2 capture. In CLC, the fuel is oxidized by a metal oxide called an oxygen carrier (OC). CLC uses two reactors: a fuel reactor and an air reactor. The fuel reactor oxidizes the fuel and reduces the OC. The air reactor oxidizes the OC using air and then the OC is cycled back to the fuel reactor. It is typical for both the fuel and the air reactors to be fluidized beds (FBs). In this research, an Aspen Plus model was developed to simulate a CLC system. Aspen Plus has recently included a built-in FB unit operation module. To our knowledge, no literature has been reported using this FB module for simulating fluidized bed combustion or gasification. This FB unit process was investigated in Aspen Plus and a kinetic based model was used and compared the simulation results to experimental data and the commonly used Gibbs equilibrium model. The FB unit and the kinetic model well fit the experimental data for syngas and methane combustion within 2% of the molar composition of syngas combustion and within 4% for the methane combustion. An advantage of this model over other kinetic models in literature is that the core shrinking model kinetic rate equations have been converted into a power law form. This allows Aspen Plus to use a calculator instead of an external Fortran compiler. This greatly simplifies the modeling process. The reaction rate equations are given for all reactions. A sensitivity analysis of the reaction kinetics was conducted. All data, code, and simulation files are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemotherapy followed by donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is a promising treatment for relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, the best strategy for administering this therapy is still unclear. This study sought to explore the efficacy and safety of chidamide and CAG (cytarabine, aclarubicin, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) (CCAG) regimen followed by DLI in relapsed AML/MDS after allo-HSCT. This was a single-arm, phase II trial in patients with relapsed AML/MDS after allo-HSCT. CCAG regimen followed by DLI was given according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty adult patients were enrolled. The median follow-up time was 12 months. The complete remission (CR) rate was 45% and the partial remission (PR) rate was 5%. The 1-year overall survival (OS) was 56.7% (95% confidence interval (95% CI), 31.6–75.6%), and the median OS was 19 months. The 1-year relapse-free survival (RFS) was 83.3% (95% CI, 27.3–97.5%). Patients relapsing more than 6 months after HSCT and achieving CR/PR after CCAG plus DLI regimen attained significantly higher survival rates. The cumulative incidence of grade III–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) was 9.4%. There was no treatment-related mortality (TRM). These data suggest that CCAG plus DLI regimen is safe and induces durable remission and superior survival in patients with relapsed AML/MDS after allo-HSCT. Trial registration number: ChiCTR.org identifier: ChiCTR1800017740 and date of registration: August 12, 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the changes that beef undergoes during frozen storage and the corresponding mechanisms, the quality, moisture, protein, and flavor of beef after different frozen storage durations (30, 60, 120, and 180 days) were compared. The results showed that during frozen storage, the L* and a* values ​​of beef color decreased significantly from 37.58 ± 0.07 to 23.79 ± 0.37 and from 19.69 ± 0.35 to 12.63 ± 0.14, respectively, while the b* value increased significantly from 7.81 ± 0.23 to 29.25 ± 1.38, and the water-holding capacity and texture deteriorated significantly. Both the fiber interstitial space and degree of damage to muscle fibers in beef gradually increased with frozen storage time. Immobilized water in beef migrated toward free water with increasing frozen storage time, and the water distribution images reflected the migration of water from the inside to the outside of the beef, accompanied by a gradual loss of water. During frozen storage, the levels of various proteins in beef did not change significantly, but soluble protein yield decreased significantly from 91.43 ± 8.57% to 66.42 ± 4.34% and protein surface hydrophobicity (×1000) decreased significantly from 38.74 ± 1.35 to 33.27 ± 1.37. Electronic nose analysis revealed that the beef had a discernible flavor change after frozen storage for 180 days. The changing mechanisms mainly include the weakening of protein binding to water caused by protein denaturation, which causes the shift of immobilized water to free water and the loss of free water after thawing. Flavor changes may be associated with the oxidation or enzymatic hydrolysis of fat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfidated nanoscale zerovalent iron (S-nZVI) supported on a flower spherical Mg(OH)2 with different Mg/Fe ration were successfully synthesized. The synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that S-nZVI particles were well dispersed on the petals of the flower spherical Mg(OH)2. The influence of factors, including the initial solution pH, Mg/Fe, S/Fe were studied. The trichloroethylene (TCE) adsorption data on Mg(OH)2 and S-nZVI @Mg(OH)2 fit well to a Langmuir isotherm model, and the maximum adsorption of S-nZVI @Mg(OH)2 was 253.55 mg/g, which was 2.6-fold of S-nZVI. Meanwhile, the S-nZVI @Mg(OH)2 composite expanded the pH selection range of S-nZVI from 2 to 11. Cycling experiments showed that removal rate was 58.3% for the 5th cycle. TCE removal was due to synergistic action of reduction coupled with adsorption. During this process, 65.43% of total remove TCE from ion chromatography data was reduced and 34.57% of total remove TCE was adsorbed finally. At the same time, adsorption favors reduction. These observations indicated that the S-nZVI @Mg(OH)2 can be considered as potential adsorbents to remove TCE for environment remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain, vegetable, and fruit samples were collected from Xi'an City in Northwest China and analyzed for the characteristics, bio-accessibility, and dietary exposure of 22 phthalic acid esters (PAEs). All the studied PAEs were ubiquitously detected, except for diethyl phthalate in vegetables and fruits. In grains, the sum of detectable PAEs (∑22PAEs) varied between 0.0840 and 40.0 µg/g, with a mean of 4.19 µg/g, presenting rice > > beans > flour, and the major PAEs were di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). In vegetables, the ∑21PAEs ranged from 0.190 to 56.8 µg/g, with a mean of 8.07 µg/g, exhibiting leafy vegetables > root vegetables > fruits-vegetables > fungus > cauliflower > beans, and the main PAEs were di-iso-butyl phthalate (DiBP), DnBP, DEHP, di-iso-nonyl phthalate (DiNP), and di-iso-decyl phthalate (DiDP). In fruits, the ∑21PAEs varied between 0.300 and 12.6 µg/g, with a mean of 3.97 µg/g, presenting spring-winter season fruits > summer-autumn season fruits and shell-less fruits > shelled fruits, and the predominant PAEs were DiBP, DnBP, DEHP, DiNP, and DiDP. The bio-accessibility of PAEs in the gastrointestinal fluid simulant was higher than that in the single gastric or intestinal fluid simulant. The bio-accessibility of PAEs was correlated with the physiochemical properties of PAEs. The estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of human dietary exposure to PAEs were lower than the reference doses of United States Environmental Protection Agency and the tolerable dairy intakes (TDIs) of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), except for the EDI of DnBP in the grains and DiBP in the vegetables higher than or close to the TDI of the EFSA. The research suggested that special attention should be paid to human dietary exposure to DnBP and DiBP, especially for children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 (LNCM) is one of the most promising cathode materials owning to its high theoretical discharge-specific capacity, high voltage plateau, and high energy density. In this study, UIO-66 (Zr-based metal organic frameworks) was synthesized and mixed with LNCM particles to form ZrO2-coated LNCM (LNCM@ZrO2) materials via calcination. The structure and morphology of as-prepared LNCM@ZrO2 were studied. The amount of UIO-66 mixed with LNCM has great influences on its electrochemical performances. When the addition of UIO-66 was 10%, LNCM@ZrO2 presented preferable electrochemical properties. The first discharge capacity was 261.5 mAh/g, and the coulombic efficiency was 82.5% under 0.1C rate. The discharge capacity remained 209.3 mAh/g after 50 cycles. Moreover, the LNCM@ZrO2 materials also demonstrated superior rate capability in comparison to uncoated LNCM material. The convenience and inexpensive nature of the ZrO2-coated LNCM material processing and elevated electrochemical performances made LNCM@ZrO2 a good candidate for high-performance cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whiplash injury is common in traffic accidents, and severe whiplash is characterized by cervical spinal cord injuries with cervical dislocation or fracture, that can be diagnosed by postmortem computed tomography (PMCT), postmortem magnetic resonance (PMMR), or conventional autopsy. However, for cervical spinal cord injury without fracture and dislocation, PMMR can be more informative because it provides higher resolution of soft tissues. We report the case of a 29-year-old male who died immediately following a traffic accident, in which the vehicle hit an obstacle at a high speed, causing deformation of the bumper and severe damage of the vehicle body. PMCT indicated no significant injuries or diseases related to death, but PMMR showed patchy abnormal signals in the medulla oblongata, and the lower edge of the cerebellar tonsil was herniated out of the foramen magnum. The subsequent pathological and histological results confirmed that death was caused by medulla oblongata contusion combined with cerebellar tonsillar herniation. Our description of this case of a rare but fatal whiplash injury in which there was no fracture or dislocation provides a better understanding of the potentially fatal consequences of cervical spinal cord whiplash injury without fracture or dislocation and of the underlying lethal mechanisms. Compared with PMCT, PMMR provides important diagnostic information in forensic practice for the identification of soft tissue injuries, and is therefore an important imaging modality for diagnosis of whiplash injury when there is no fracture or dislocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional thermal environment management of the passenger compartment adopts the unified regulation method. Air distribution formed in this manner often causes thermal comfort and energy consumption problems. In view of the problems of conventional airflow organization, a new air supply strategy-variable air volume and temperature strategy is proposed. In this air supply strategy, variable air volume and variable temperature air supply is carried out according to the characteristics of thermal comfort requirements of passengers in different periods and positions in the cabin. STAR-CCM + software coupled with THESUES-FE software was implemented and compared with different air supply methods. The performance of the air supply strategy was evaluated based on PMV-PPD evaluation index. The results show that the variable air volume variable temperature air supply strategy has certain advantages and improves the thermal comfort level of the crew cabin. The cooling capacity of the automobile air conditioning is allocated effectively, thus improving the satisfaction of the occupants to the thermal environment. This strategy not only saves energy, but also improves the cooling effect in the cabin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnéli phase TinO2n−1 compacts were prepared by in situ reduction of TiO2 with charcoal powder via spark plasma sintering, and their thermoelectric performance was investigated. All the prepared compacts showed a significant decrease in electrical resistivity due to the enhanced carrier concentration originating from the introduced oxygen vacancy defects. The microstructures of the compacts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, which revealed that grain refinement due to the dry-mixing method promoted the reduction of TiO2 and formed a greater number of oxygen vacancy defects, leading to a further decrease in electrical resistivity of the MA30-5-50 MPa-10 min compact. Moreover, while the absolute Seebeck coefficient decreased as the number of oxygen vacancy defects increased, the power factor was steadily enhanced by a further decrease in the electrical resistivity at elevated temperatures. The x-ray diffraction results suggest that the n index of the Magnéli phase TinO2n−1 mainly depended on the TiO2 reduction and the sintering time, and the formed Magnéli phase Ti6O11 and Ti7O13 contributed significantly to a higher power factor. The highest power factor of 7.31 × 10–4 W m−1 K−2 was achieved in the C30-5-50 MPa-60 min compact at 973 K, and the highest ZT value reached 0.32 at 973 K, indicating an excellent n-type thermoelectric performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RNA m6A modification is the most widely distributed RNA methylation and is closely related to various pathophysiological processes. Although the benefit of regular exercise on the heart has been well recognized, the role of RNA m6A in exercise training and exercise-induced physiological cardiac hypertrophy remains largely unknown. Here, we show that endurance exercise training leads to reduced cardiac mRNA m6A levels. METTL14 is downregulated by exercise, both at the level of RNA m6A and at the protein level. In vivo, wild-type METTL14 overexpression, but not MTase inactive mutant METTL14, blocks exercise-induced physiological cardiac hypertrophy. Cardiac-specific METTL14 knockdown attenuates acute ischemia-reperfusion injury as well as cardiac dysfunction in ischemia-reperfusion remodeling. Mechanistically, silencing METTL14 suppresses Phlpp2 mRNA m6A modifications and activates Akt-S473, in turn regulating cardiomyocyte growth and apoptosis. Our data indicates that METTL14 plays an important role in maintaining cardiac homeostasis. METTL14 downregulation represents a promising therapeutic strategy to attenuate cardiac remodeling.The benefit of regular exercise on the heart has been well documented but the role of RNA m6A modification in exercise-induced cardiac remodelling remains largely unknown. In this study, the authors report that METTL14 plays an important role in RNA m6A modification in exercise-induced physiological cardiac hypertrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]