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Ferroptosis, a key factor in tumor progression, is poorly understood at the molecular level. This study investigates how ELK4 and CHMP6 regulate skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) cell proliferation and ferroptosis. Analysis of TCGA data reveals high expression of ELK4 and CHMP6 in SKCM. Overexpression of ELK4 or CHMP6 enhances cell proliferation, invasion, and migration while reducing ROS and Fe2 + levels. It also increases GPX4 and xCT expression and decreases ACSL4 levels in SKCM cells. The opposite effects are observed with ELK4 or CHMP6 knockdown. ELK4 binds to the CHMP6 promoter, promoting CHMP6 transcription. Knockdown of CHMP6 reverses the oncogenic effects of ELK4 overexpression. In conclusion, ELK4 enhances proliferation, invasion, and migration while inhibiting ferroptosis in SKCM cells by upregulating CHMP6 transcription. This study sheds light on the intricate mechanisms involved in SKCM progression and identifies potential therapeutic targets in melanoma treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metal (HM) contaminants are the emerging driving force for reshaping the microflora of plants by eradicating the non-tolerance and non-resistant microbes via their lethal effects. Seeds served as a prime source of ancestral microbial diversity hereditary transfer from generation to generation. However, the problem arises when they got exposed to metal contamination, does metal pollutant disrupt the delicate balance of microbial communities within seeds and lead to shifts in their microflora across generations. In this study, the endophytic community within Zea mays seeds was compared across three distinct regions in Yunnan province, China: a HM-contaminated site Ayika (AK), less-contaminated site Sanduoduo (SD), and a non-contaminated Site Dali (DL). High-throughput sequencing techniques were employed to analyze the microbial communities. A total of 492,177 high-quality reads for bacterial communities and 1,001,229 optimized sequences for fungal communities were obtained. These sequences were assigned to 502 and 239 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for bacteria and fungi, respectively. A higher diversity was recorded in AK samples than in SD and DL. Microbial community structure analysis showed higher diversity and significant fluctuation in specific taxa abundance in the metal-polluted samples exhibiting higher response of microbial flora to HM. In AK samples, bacterial genera such as Gordonia and Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia were dominant, while in SD Pseudomonas and Streptomyces were dominant. Among the fungal taxa, Fusarium, Saccharomycopsis, and Lecanicillium were prevalent in HM-contaminated sites. Our finding revealed the influential effect of HM contaminants on reshaping the seed microbiome of the Zea mays, showing both the resilience of certain important microbial taxa as well the shifts in the diversity in the contaminated and pristine conditions. The knowledge will benefit to develop effective soil remediation, reclamation, and crop management techniques, and eventually assisting in the extenuation of metal pollution's adverse effects on plant health and agricultural productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focused on exploring the diversity of viruses in the Napahai plateau wetland, a unique ecosystem located in Yunnan, China. While viruses in marine environments have been extensively studied for their influence on microbial metabolism and biogeochemical cycles, little is known about their composition and function in plateau wetlands. Metagenomic analysis was employed to investigate the viral diversity and biogeochemical impacts in the Napahai wetland. It revealed that the Caudoviricetes and Malgrandaviricetes class level was the most abundant viral category based on phylogenetic analysis. Additionally, a gene-sharing network highlighted the presence of numerous unexplored viruses and demonstrated their unique characteristics and significant variation within the viral community of the Napahai wetland. Furthermore, the study identified the auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). AMGs provide phages with additional functions, such as protection against host degradation and involvement in metabolic pathways, such as the pentose phosphate pathway and DNA biosynthesis. The viruses in the Napahai wetland were found to influence carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and amino acid metabolism, indirectly contributing to biogeochemical cycling through these AMGs. Overall, the research sheds light on the diverse and unique viral communities in the Napahai plateau wetland and emphasizes the significant roles of viruses in microbial ecology. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the characteristics and ecological functions of viral communities in plateau wetland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of sensing, the development of sensors with high sensitivity, accuracy, selectivity, sustainability, simplicity, and low cost remains a key focus. Over the past decades, optical and electrochemical sensors based on molecular imprinting techniques have garnered significant attention due to the above advantages. Molecular imprinting technology utilizes molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to mimic the specific recognition capabilities of enzymes or antibodies for target molecules. Recently, MIP-based sensors rooting in signal amplification techniques have been employed to enhance molecular detection level and the quantitative ability for environmental pollutants, biomolecules, therapeutic compounds, bacteria, and viruses. The signal amplification techniques involved in MIP-based sensors mainly cover nucleic acid chain amplification, enzyme-catalyzed cascade, introduction of high-performance nanomaterials, and rapid chemical reactions. The amplified analytical signals are centered around electrochemical, fluorescence, colorimetric, and surface-enhanced Raman techniques, which can effectively realize the determination of some low-abundance targets in biological samples. This review highlights the recent advancements of electrochemical/optical sensors based on molecular imprinting integrated with various signal amplification strategies and their dedication to the study of trace biomolecules. Finally, future research directions on developing multidimensional output signals of MIP-based sensors and introducing multiple signal amplification strategies are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular mechanism of sterility in cattleyak is still unresolved. The related factors of infertility in cattleyak were studied by tissue section, SERPINA5 gene cloning and bioinformatics technology. Tissue sections of the epididymis showed poorly structured and disorganized epithelial cells in the corpus of the epididymis compared to the caput of the epididymis, while in the cauda part of the epididymis, the extra basal smooth muscle was thinner, the surface of the epithelial lumen was discontinuous and the epithelium was markedly degenerated. The results of gene cloning showed that the coding sequence (CDS) region of the SERPINA5 gene in cattleyak was 1215 bp in length, encoding a total of 404 amino acids, of which the isoleucine content was the highest, accounting for a total of 49 amino acids (12.1%). The results of real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) showed that the expression of the SERPINA5 gene in the epididymis caput in cattleyak was significantly higher than that in the corpus and cauda (P < 0.05), but there were no significant differences between the corpus and cauda. In the current study, histological and bioinformatics analysis, physicochemical properties, and the expression analysis of the SERPINA5 gene in different regions of the epididymis in cattleyak were carried out to explore the biological complications of cattleyak infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inverted nipple deformity presents an unsatisfactory appearance that may induce an unpleasant sex life, but can also be associated with psychological discomfort and increased the functional problems, such as local irritation and inflammation. Methods: Multiple techniques have been used to correct inverted nipples, but they mostly lead to different problems such as deficiency of the nerve or duct, recurrence of the inverted nipple, and hypopigmented scars in the areola. To minimize complications and maintain the stability of the reconstructed nipple, we presented a minimal incision technique that designed four 3-mm-sized horizontal microincisions, which ran a sun-cross through the periphery and the core of the nipple to push the nipple together, then a vertical suture ran longitudinal to close the transverse incision to stabilize the projection. Results: This technique was performed in 71 patients classified as grade II or III of the inverted nipples, comprising 53 congenital cases and 18 patients with acquired deformity. Thirty-four patients had bilateral inverted nipples, and 37 patients had unilateral inverted nipple. During a mean follow-up period of 15 months, 70 corrected nipples remained raised without recurrence, and one nipple was found retracted at the outpatient clinic after 3 months. There were no serious complications associated with surgery regarding nipple necrosis, seven patients got temporary swelling, two patients got infected after touching water, three patients got extravasated blood, eight patients indicated that they touched scar under the nipple, and two patients reflected nipple dysesthesia. In the 15 months follow-up, the patients with Grade II nipple inversion maintained a nipple average height of 9.54 ± 0.95, and the patients with Grade III nipple inversion maintained a nipple average height of 9.19 ± 1.09, and 86.63% of patients were satisfied with their results. Conclusion: This is a simple, safe, effective and reliable technique that should be considered, providing sustained results over the long-term follow-up period with a high rate of stable eversion and low incidence of ischemia, necrosis, scarring and dysesthesia. The vertical scar of the transverse incision closure leads to an esthetic appearance without apparent scarring and minimizes the risk of an altered nipple sensation. Level of Evidence IV: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel event-triggered stochastic finite-time tracking control method for a robot manipulator. A stochastic dynamic model is constructed to depict the random moment of inertia of the manipulator system, and the parameter disturbance is estimated by using a stochastic configuration neural network. An event-triggered controller with uncertain disturbance rejection is proposed, which realizes the stochastic stability of the tracking error system with finite-time convergence, safe motion velocity, and high tracking accuracy. Compared with the existing works, the obvious feature of the proposed controller is that it can simultaneously restrain the random disturbance and uncertain parameter disturbance, save communication resources, and ensure that the manipulator system can reach a steady state in finite time. We also discuss the effectiveness of the proposed stochastic tracking control method by simulation-based comparative analysis and experimental study, and the results show that the controller can be updated less frequently while guaranteeing robust tracking performance of the robot manipulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let A be a subgroup of a finite group G and X = { X 1 , ... , X t } a set of subgroups of G. Then we say that X is a covering subgroup system for A in G if A = ⟨ X 1 ∩ A , ... , X t ∩ A ⟩ and (| X i | , | X j |) = 1 for all i ≠ j . In this paper, we generalize some results of the theory of permutable subgroups in Skiba (Algebra 436:1–16, 2015), Ore (Duke Math J 5:431–460, 1939), Ito and Szep (Act Sci Math 23:168–170, 1962), Deskins (Math Z 82:125–132, 1963), Kegel (Math Z 78:20–221, 1962), Isaacs (Arch Math 102:1–6, 20140, Guo and Skiba (Monatsh Math 185:443–453, 2018). In particular, we prove the following result. Theorem.LetAbe a subgroup of a finite groupGand E = (X 1 ⋯ X t) G , where X = { X 1 , ... , X t } is a covering subgroup system forA in G. Suppose that A X i x = X i x A for alliand all x ∈ G . If every member of X is a soluble (respectively primary) group, then the section A E / A E is soluble (respectively nilpotent). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic β cell damage is the primary contributor to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); however, the underlying mechanism remains nebulous. This study explored the role of ferroptosis in pancreatic β cell damage and the protective effects of grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE). In T2DM model rats, the blood glucose, water intake, urine volume, HbA1c, and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance were significantly increased, while the body weight and the insulin level were significantly decreased, indicating the successful establishment of the T2DM model. MIN6 mouse insulinoma β cells were cultured in high glucose and sodium palmitate conditions to obtain a glycolipid damage model, which was administered with GSPE, ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1), or nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) small interfering (si) RNA. GSPE and Fer-1 treatment significantly improved pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and protected against cell death. Both treatments increased the superoxide dismutase and glutathione activity, reduced the malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species levels, and improved iron metabolism. Furthermore, the treatments reversed the expression of ferroptosis markers cysteine/glutamate transporter (XCT) and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) caused by glycolipid toxicity. GSPE treatments activated the expression of Nrf2 and related proteins. These effects were reversed when co-transfected with si-Nrf2. GSPE inhibits ferroptosis by activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway, thus reducing β-cell damage and dysfunction in T2DM. Therefore, GSPE is a potential treatment strategy against T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adenosine receptor (AR) suppresses inflammation and fibrosis by activating cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling. We investigated whether altered AR expression contributes to the development of fibrotic diseases and whether A2AAR and A2BAR upregulation inhibits fibrotic responses. Primary human lung fibroblasts (HLFs) from normal (NHLFs) or patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (DHLF) were used for in vitro testing. Murine models of fibrotic liver or pulmonary disease were developed by injecting thioacetamide intraperitoneally, by feeding a high-fat diet, or by intratracheal instillation of bleomycin. Modafinil, which activates cAMP signaling via A2AAR and A2BAR, was administered orally. The protein amounts of A2AAR, A2BAR, and exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac) were reduced, while collagen and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) were elevated in DHLFs compared to NHLFs. In liver or lung tissue from murine models of fibrotic diseases, A2AAR and A2BAR were downregulated, but A1AR and A3AR were not. Epac amounts decreased, and amounts of collagen, α-SMA, KCa2.3, and KCa3.1 increased compared to the control. Modafinil restored the amounts of A2AAR, A2BAR, and Epac, and reduced collagen, α-SMA, KCa2.3, and KCa3.1 in murine models of fibrotic diseases. Transforming growth factor-β reduced the amounts of A2AAR, A2BAR, and Epac, and elevated collagen, α-SMA, KCa2.3, and KCa3.1 in NHLFs; however, these alterations were inhibited by modafinil. Our investigation revealed that A2AAR and A2BAR downregulation induced liver and lung fibrotic diseases while upregulation attenuated fibrotic responses, suggesting that A2AAR and A2BAR-upregulating agents, such as modafinil, may serve as novel therapies for fibrotic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudomonas mandelii SW-3, isolated from the Napahai plateau wetland, can survive in cold environments. The mechanisms underlying the survival of bacteria in low temperatures and high altitudes are not yet fully understood. In this study, the whole genome of SW-3 was sequenced to identify the genomic features that may contribute to survival in cold environments. The results showed that the genome size of strain SW-3 was 6,538,059 bp with a GC content of 59%. A total of 67 tRNAs, a 34,110 bp prophage sequence, and a large number of metabolic genes were found. Based on 16S rRNA gene phylogeny and average nucleotide identity analysis among P. mandelii, SW-3 was identified as a strain belonging to P. mandelii. In addition, we clarified the mechanisms by which SW-3 survived in a cold environment, providing a basis for further investigation of host-phage interaction. P. mandelii SW-3 showed stress resistance mechanisms, including glycogen and trehalose metabolic pathways, and antisense transcriptional silencing. Furthermore, cold shock proteins and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase may play pivotal roles in facilitating adaptation to cold environmental conditions. The genome-wide analysis provided us with a deeper understanding of the cold-adapted bacterium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effect of the stress relief annealing rate on residual stress was investigated using molecular dynamics simulation, and the difference in mechanical properties of workpieces before and after stress relief annealing was analyzed using nanoindentation simulation. The results show that the Stacking faults and dislocation motions are blocked during the heating stage to shift the stresses, and the residual stresses are released by the dislocation reaction dominated by Shockley dislocations. In the cooling stage, the Stair-rod dislocation reaction forms the Stacking Fault Tetrahedra to release the residual stress. The dislocation density is directly proportional to the residual stress during the stress relief annealing process, and the decrease in dislocation density leads to a decrease in surface hardness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ba1-xSrxNi2V2O8 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15) ceramics were fabricated utilizing the solid-state reaction methods. The XRD and structural refinement results demonstrated an increased presence of a new Ba0.5Sr0.5Ni2V2O8 phase with higher Sr2+ content. With a distinctive tetragonal structure, this new phase markedly differed from the hexagonal structure of BaNi2V2O8. Our analyses of molecular polarization, packing fraction, and distortion of the [NiO6] octahedra revealed that the εr and τf of Ba0.5Sr0.5Ni2V2O8 surpassed those of BaNi2V2O8, while its Q × f value was lower. This explains the amplified εr and τf value, alongside the diminished Q × f value of the ceramics. The introduction of Sr2+ elevated the τf value of the ceramics from − 49.5 ppm/°C to − 7.8 ppm/°C. The Ba0.85Sr0.15Ni2V2O8 specimen, sintered at 950 °C for 4 h, exhibited the most superior microwave dielectric performance: εr = 12.7, Q × f = 34,200 GHz, τf = − 7.8 ppm/°C. These outcomes underscore the promising practical potential of this ceramic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed endophytes played a crucial role on host plants stress tolerance and heavy metal (HM) accumulation. Dysphania ambrosioides is a hyperaccumulator and showed strong tolerance and extraordinary accumulation capacities of multiple HMs. However, little is known about its seed endophytes response to field HM-contamination, and its role on host plants HM tolerance and accumulation. In this study, the seed endophytic community of D. ambrosioides from HM-contaminated area (H) and non-contaminated area (N) were investigated by both culture-dependent and independent methods. Moreover, Cd tolerance and the plant growth promoting (PGP) traits of dominant endophytes from site H and N were evaluated. The results showed that in both studies, HM-contamination reduced the diversity and richness of endophytic community and changed the most dominant endophyte, but increased resistant species abundance. By functional trait assessments, a great number of dominant endophytes displayed multiple PGP traits and Cd tolerance. Interestingly, soil HM-contamination significantly increased the percentage of Cd tolerance isolates of Agrobacterium and Epicoccum, but significantly decreased the ration of Agrobacterium with the siderophore production ability. However, the other PGP traits of isolates from site H and N showed no significant difference. Therefore, it was suggested that D. ambrosioides might improve its HM tolerance and accumulation through harboring more HM-resistant endophytes rather than PGP endophytes, but to prove this, more work need to be conducted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, medical image synthesis has attracted the attention of an increasing number of researchers. However, most of current approaches suffer from the loss of multi-modal complementary information and thus fail to preserve the property of each modality, resulting in image distortion and texture detail loss. To alleviate this issue, a multi-modal magnetic resonance (MR) image synthesis algorithm based on a mixed attention fusion module in hybrid generative adversarial network is proposed. Firstly, a novel mixed attention fusion (MAF) module aggregating an adaptive fusion strategy (AFS) and a soft attention module is proposed to fuse the high-level semantic information and the low-level fine-grained feature at different scales between different layers to exploit rich representative complementary information adaptively. Subsequently, Resnet-bottlenect attention mechanism (Res-BAM) is designed to perform adaptive optimization and exploit mutual information while preserving the original property of each modality. Thereafter, the attention weight is inferred by a 1D channel feature map and a 2D spatial feature map, and multiplied with the original feature map in order to get the adaptive feature map, which is integrated with the original feature map in a residual connection to preserve the original property of each modality and prevent network degradation. Finally, the structural similarity (SSIM) and L 1 -norm are point-wise combined by an optimal weighting impact factor to preserve the high frequency information, brightness, color and SSIM, which are viewed as the original property of each modality. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our model on the state of the art in quantitative measures, reasonable visual quality and clinic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PPG-CNTs-nZVI bead was synthesized by polyvinyl alcohol, pumice, carbon nanotube, and guar gum-nanoscale zero-valent iron to be applied on simultaneously removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; phenanthrene) and heavy metals (Pb2+) via adsorption. The individual and simultaneous removal efficiency of phenanthrene and Pb2+ using the PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads was evaluated with a range of initial concentrations of these two pollutants. The kinetics and isotherms of phenanthrene and Pb2+ adsorption by the PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads were also determined. The PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads show reasonably high phenanthrene adsorption capacities (up to 0.16 mg/g), and they absorbed 85% of the phenanthrene (initial concentration 0.5 mg/L) in 30 min. High Pb2+ adsorption capabilities were also demonstrated by the PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads (up to 11.6 mg/g). The adsorption fits the Langmuir model better than the Freundlich model. The adsorption still remained stable with various ionic strength circumstances and a wide pH range (2–5). Additionally, the co-adsorption of phenanthrene and Pb2+ by the PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads resulted in synergistic effects. Particularly, phenanthrene-Pb2+ complex formation via π–cation interactions demonstrated a greater affinity than phenanthrene or Pb2+ alone. The present findings suggest that PPG-CNTs-nZVI beads may be effective sorbents for the simultaneous removal of PAHs and heavy metals from contaminated waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant secondary cell wall provides physical support for upright growth and transportation of water and nutrients. Detailed characterization of the molecular mechanism for SCW biosynthesis would be of great importance for breeding maize varieties. Cellulose, synthesized by the cellulose synthase complex (CSC), composed of cellulose synthase (CesA) proteins, is a main component of plant cell walls. However, CesA genes that are specific for SCW biosynthesis in maize were undefined. In our study, ZmCesA10, 11, and 12 were characterized to be responsible for SCW biosynthesis in maize. ZmCesA10, 11, and 12 interact with each other and are co-expressed in maize culms and roots. Mutants for ZmCesA10, 11, and 12, exhibited an increased culm brittleness, a reduced cell wall thickness, and cellulose content. We concluded that ZmCesA10, 11, and 12 would be markers for the SCW study, and finally this study helps in the construction of the molecular network for SCW biosynthesis in maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most common filler in stormwater treatment, zeolite (NZ-Y) has good cation exchange capability and stabilization potential for the removal of heavy metal from aqueous solutions. In this study, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and NZ-Y were selected to preparing new adsorbent (SDS-NZ) by using a simple hydrothermal method. The sorption–desorption performance and mechanism of Cu(II) onto SDS-NZ were investigated. The results showed that the sorption of Cu(II) on SDS-NZ was in accordance with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with an equilibrium time of 4 h. The sorption behavior fitted Langmuir isotherm with a saturation sorption capability of 9.03 mg/g, which was three times higher than that of NZ-Y. The modification of SDS increases the average pore size of NZ-Y by 3.96 nm, which results in a richer internal pore structure and more useful sorption sites for Cu(II) sorption. There was a positive correlation between solution pH values and sorption capability of Cu(II) in the range of 3.0–6.0. With the ionic strength increased, the sorption capability of Cu(II) onto SDS-NZ first decreased and then increased, which may be attributed to competitive sorption and compression of the electronic layer. The desorption of Cu(II) on SDS-NZ was favored by the increase in SDS concentration and ionic strength and decrease in solution pH values. The application of SDS-NZ in runoff improved the leaching risk of Cu(II). After several cycles, the ability of reused SDS-NZ to efficiently adsorb most heavy metals was verified with removal rates above 99%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-image deraining is of great significance for image recognition and analysis. However, the majority of current methods face challenges such as incomplete removal of tiny rain streaks, blurred restoration of background structure, and feature interference. To address these issues, a spatial-guided informative semantic joint transformer (SISTrans) is proposed. Specifically, a high-dimensional spatial feature mapping module is put forward to restrain the receptive field of filters by increasing the spatial resolution of the image, guiding the entire module to focus on local features and thereby learn the distribution of small rain streaks. Subsequently, a wavelet-content-aware-based dual-level module is designed to capture the high-level semantic information by using an improved Swin transformer and to establish effective long-range dependencies via a shifted window mechanism, thereby enhancing the quality of background restoration. Ultimately, a dynamic hybrid cross-fusion module is proposed to effectively avoid feature interference by recalibrating the features of two branches and fusing the calibrated features with a set of learnable parameters. Extensive experiments conducted on eight commonly benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed SISTrans outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. Code is available at: https://github.com/SL-Pen/SISTrans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although phytoplankton is well known as robust bioindicators to aquatic environments, their indicating functions based on different community parameters remain to be understood. In order to filter effective bioindicators in aquatic ecosystems, four phytoplankton community parameters including species richness (SR), total biomass (SBP), functional groups (FGBP), and size-fractionated chlorophyll-a (SC) were demonstrated in a subtropical artificial lake with ecological restoration in South China. Our results indicated that all the above four parameters exhibited high sensitivity to environmental variations and illustrated distinct aspects of indicating functions to aquatic environments due to their individual biological characteristics. Based on FGBP, both spatial and temporal differences in phytoplankton community could be identified. SR and SBP only classified the spatial and temporal distributions, respectively, while SC could distinguish the sewage outfalls from other sites. In terms of ecological management, two parameters (SR and FGBP) could distinguish the restored waters from untreated environments as non-point source pollution, and another parameter SC could indicate the sewage outfalls as point source pollution. Therefore, the combination of the above two categories of phytoplankton community parameters could make the strongest indicating functions. Our study provided greater insight into indicating functions of phytoplankton community parameters in an ecological restored lake and enabled better managements in such artificial lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Pinus massoniana: Lamb. is an important conifer forestry species in south China, but soil fertility has declined over time in monoculture plantations. Knowledge about how P. massoniana uses phosphorus (P) by distributing it among five biochemical fractions and how intercropping with broadleaf Castanopsis hystrix alters that pattern may inform long-term plantation management. Methods: We studied a single P. massoniana plantation that was split in half into a monoculture and a P. massoniana / C. hystrix intercropped plantation 25 years after establishment. We measured photosynthesis and leaf concentrations of total P, P allocated to five chemical fractions and total nitrogen (N). We also measured soil N concentrations. Results: Intercropping C. hystrix with 25-year-old P. massoniana for a further 34 years had no significant impact on P. massoniana total stem volume, although intercropped P. massoniana trees were 5 m taller. Intercropping with C. hystrix increased timber biomass due to the additional C. hystrix stems. Growth of C. hystrix was likely more limited by P than that of P. massoniana in both plantations. Total P concentration and its allocation among fractions declined with increasing leaf age, but differed in the two species. Leaf P-resorption efficiency in intercropped P. massoniana was 79%, which was about 15% greater than that in P. massoniana monoculture and in the intercropped C. hystrix. The greater P-resorption efficiency in intercropped P. massoniana than in monoculture was due to greater mobilization of P from all fractions, except phospholipids. Bulk soil N concentration was 50% greater in the intercropped plantation than in monoculture. Conclusion: Adding C. hystrix to an P. massoniana plantation was effective at increasing wood yield without compromising productivity of P. massoniana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Recent research indicates a correlation between plasma concentration of P2Y12 inhibitors and clinical events, particularly bleeding, which significantly impeded their clinical therapeutic performance. It is therefore vital to delve into the factors that might affect the plasma concentration. The study aims to summarize population pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PopPKPD) models for commonly prescribed P2Y12 inhibitors (clopidogrel, prasugrel, and ticagrelor) and assess bleeding risk in specific individual groups. Methods: The PopPKPD models of P2Y12 inhibitors were collected and summarized based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The collected models were replicated in simulations, which were used to assess factors affecting plasma concentrations of P2Y12 inhibitors. Simulation results for special populations were compared to therapeutic window based on reported exposure-effect relationships (PK/PD-related bleeding and thrombotic clinical outcomes) to predict bleeding risk in special populations with different dosing regimens and cumulative covariates. Result: Finally, 12 studies were included for PK simulation, 7 of which that also included PD data were subjected to further analysis, with the majority being based on Phase I or II trials. Simulations showed that several covariates such as female gender, weight, elderly can significantly impact on exposure, with special populations reaching up to 179% of the general population. However, after dose adjustment, blood concentrations for special populations can reach approximately ±20% of general population exposure. Therefore, lowering the maintenance dose of ticagrelor from 90 to 60 mg bid was first recommended to reduce bleeding risk without significantly increasing ischemic risk, particularly in elderly, small-weight Asian females. Conclusion: Lowering the maintenance dose of ticagrelor from 90 to 60 mg bid effectively reduces bleeding risk without increasing thrombotic infarction risk in elderly, small-weight Asian females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a unique breast cancer subtype with a high risk of metastasis and recurrence and a poor prognosis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) endows epithelial cells with the ability to move to distant sites, which is essential for the metastasis of TNBC to organs, including the lung. Autophagy, an intracellular degradation process that involves formation of double-layered lipid autophagosomes that transport cytosolic cargoes into lysosomes via autophagosome–lysosome fusion, is involved in various diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative, metabolic, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. The relationship between autophagy and cancer has become relatively clear. However, research on pharmacological drugs that block cancer EMT by targeting autophagy is still in the initial stages. Therefore, the re-evaluation of old drugs for their potential in blocking both autophagy and EMT was conducted. Methods: More than 2000 small molecule chemicals were screened for dual autophagy/EMT inhibitors, and FRAX486 was identified as the best candidate inhibitor of autophagy/EMT. The functions of FRAX486 in TNBC metastasis were detected by CCK-8, migration and wound healing assays. The effects of FRAX486 on autophagy and its target PAK2 were determined by immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation analysis and transmission electron microscopy. The findings were validated in mouse models. Results: Here, we report that FRAX486, a potent P21-activated kinase 2 (PAK2) inhibitor, facilitates TNBC suppression both in vitro and in vivo by blocking autophagy. Mechanistically, FRAX486 inhibits autophagy in TNBC cells by targeting PAK2, leading to the ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of STX17, which mediates autophagosome–lysosome fusion. The inhibition of autophagy by FRAX486 causes upregulation of the epithelial marker protein E-cadherin and thus suppresses the migration and metastasis of TNBC cells. Conclusions: The effects of FRAX486 on TNBC metastasis suppression were verified to be dependent on PAK2 and autophagy inhibition. Together, our results provide a molecular basis for the application of FRAX486 as a potential treatment for inhibiting the metastasis of TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to determine the status of heavy metal pollution in river sediments and wild fish in Xi'an, concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb) were collected and analyzed in sediments and wild fish during dry season (October–November 2020) and wet season (June–July 2021). This study aimed to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of heavy metals in urban rivers of Xi'an, China. Their distribution characteristics and sources as well their pollution levels and health risks were assessed. The findings revealed that influenced by human activities, the heavy metal content in sediments (mg·kg−1 dry weight) in wet season was ranked as follows: Cr (73.09) > Zn (63.73) > Pb (40.31) > Ni (31.52) > Cu (24.86) > As (6.83); in the dry season: Zn (94.07) > Cr (69.59) > Cu (34.24) > Ni (33.60) > Pb (32.87) > As (7.60). Moreover, 32 fish samples from six species indicated an average metal content trend (mg·kg−1 wet weight) of Zn (8.70) > Cr (0.57) > Pb (0.28) > Ni (0.27) > Cu (0.24) > As (0.05). The potential ecological risk indices for sediment heavy metal concentrations in both seasons were well below the thresholds, which indicates that the aquatic environment is in safe level. The analysis of the potential ecological risk of sediment heavy metal concentrations indicates that the aquatic environment is safe for the time being. Based on the estimated daily intake (EDI), target risk quotient (THQ), total target risk quotient (TTHQ), cancer risk (CR), total cancer risk (TCR), and the permissible safety limits set by the agencies, the consumption of the fish examined is safe for human health. However, the presence of Cr and As in wild fish should still be a concern for human health, especially for children. The cumulative effect of heavy metals and the bioconcentration factor (BCF) suggest that sediment and heavy metals in fish are closely related, with higher concentrations in fish living in the bottom layer of the water column than in other water layers, and increasing with increasing predator levels. Correlation analysis and PMF modeling identified and determined four comparable categories of potential sources, namely, (1) atmospheric deposition and traffic sources, (2) agricultural sources, (3) industrial sources, and (4) natural sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focused on exploring the diversity of viruses in the Napahai plateau wetland, a unique ecosystem located in Yunnan, China. While viruses in marine environments have been extensively studied for their influence on microbial metabolism and biogeochemical cycles, little is known about their composition and function in plateau wetlands. Metagenomic analysis was employed to investigate the viral diversity and biogeochemical impacts in the Napahai wetland. It revealed that the Caudoviricetes and Malgrandaviricetes class level was the most abundant viral category based on phylogenetic analysis. Additionally, a gene-sharing network highlighted the presence of numerous unexplored viruses and demonstrated their unique characteristics and significant variation within the viral community of the Napahai wetland. Furthermore, the study identified the auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). AMGs provide phages with additional functions, such as protection against host degradation and involvement in metabolic pathways, such as the pentose phosphate pathway and DNA biosynthesis. The viruses in the Napahai wetland were found to influence carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and amino acid metabolism, indirectly contributing to biogeochemical cycling through these AMGs. Overall, the research sheds light on the diverse and unique viral communities in the Napahai plateau wetland and emphasizes the significant roles of viruses in microbial ecology. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the characteristics and ecological functions of viral communities in plateau wetland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent efforts have been devoted to enhancing pretrained language models (PLMs) by utilizing extra heterogeneous knowledge in knowledge graphs (KGs) and have achieved consistent improvements on various knowledge-driven natural language processing (NLP) tasks. However, most of these knowledge-enhanced PLMs, regardless of the domain-specific knowledge required by PLMs, lack a Chinese corpus to support large-scale PLMs, especially in domain-specific PLMs. Herein, we harvest and process public geological reports (mainly various reports from the National Geological Archives of China), abstracts of papers from 34 geological journals, and abstracts of geological dissertations from 161 universities or scientific institutions. This paper introduces a large-scale Chinese geological corpus (GeoCorpus) containing approximately 232 MB of training data with a total of 243 million characters. Based on GeoCorpus, we also introduce a Chinese pretrained language representation model in the geological domain (CnGeoPLM). The model utilizes the generic BERT to complete parameter initialization and combines the GeoCorpus for the second stage of training. We evaluate and test CnGeoPLM and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) on three tasks of geological named entity recognition (GeoNER), geological entity relationship extraction (GeoRE), and geological entity clustering (GeoClu). In the results of both the GeoNER and GeoRE experiments, CnGeoPLM has different degrees of improvement in evaluation metrics compared to BERT. In the GeoClu experiment, CnGeoPLM is significantly more effective and discriminative in entity clustering effect compared to BERT. These results show that CnGeoPLM has a stronger representation ability in geological NLP tasks than BERT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioavailability is one of the important concepts affecting bioremediation of PAHs-contaminated site but often ignored in reaction transport models, resulting in failure of site repair prediction and incorrect evaluation of important parameters. A reaction transport model considering bioavailability is constructed that uses transition probability and Lagrangian methods to analyze the transport and reaction of PAHs in soil rather than the conventional reaction transport model. This method avoids the numerical problems associated with solving the transmission problem directly. The effects of soil physicochemical properties and biodegradation rate on the reaction and migration were evaluated using phenanthrene as model pollutant. It shows that low biodegradation rates are detrimental, may lead to elevated PAHs concentrations in liquids, prolong PAHs bioaccessibility, and create a risk of leakage, so the appropriate addition of reagents such as enzyme preparations is effective, but simply increasing the biodegradation rate is insufficient for contaminant removal from soil. Through sensitivity analysis, it was determined that the most important factor affecting the residual PAHs in soil should be the physical and chemical properties of soil, which provides a basis for the addition of surfactants, while it is also pointed out that the toxicity evaluation of surfactants is of great significance in soil remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiple quantum transitions within d-band correlation oxides such as rare-earth nickelates (RENiO3) triggered by critical temperatures and/or hydrogenation opened up a new paradigm for correlated electronics applications, e.g. ocean electric field sensor, bio-sensor, and neuron synapse logical devices. Nevertheless, these applications are obstructed by the present ineffectiveness in the thin film growth of the metastable RENiO3 with flexibly adjustable rare-earth compositions and electronic structures. Herein, we demonstrate a metal-organic decompositions (MOD) approach that can effectively grow metastable RENiO3 covering a large variety of the rare-earth composition without introducing any vacuum process. Unlike the previous chemical growths for RENiO3 relying on strict interfacial coherency that limit the film thickness, the MOD growth using reactive isooctanoate percussors is tolerant to lattice defects and therefore achieves comparable film thickness to vacuum depositions. Further indicated by positron annihilation spectroscopy, the RENiO3 grown by MOD exhibit large amount of lattice defects that improves their hydrogen incorporation amount and electron transfers, as demonstrated by the resonant nuclear reaction analysis and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. This effectively enlarges the magnitude in the resistance regulations in particular for RENiO3 with lighter RE, shedding a light on the extrinsic regulation of the hydrogen induced quantum transitions for correlated oxides semiconductors kinetically via defect engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the treatments for and manifestations of carotid blowout syndrome (CBS) and to further explore the critical role of high-flow bypass combined with parent artery isolation. The clinical data of nine patients with radiotherapy-related CBS who were admitted to our hospital from March 2020 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Relevant literature was reviewed. From March 2020 to March 2023, nine CBS patients were admitted to Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, including eight males and one female. Digital subtraction angiography was performed for all the patients; all the pseudoaneurysms were located at the petrous segment of the internal carotid artery. A balloon occlusion test was performed on four patients, which was tolerated by all patients. CT and MRI scans showed seven cases of osteonecrosis combined with infection and two cases of tumor recurrence. Emergency permanent parent artery occlusion was performed on six patients, aneurysm embolization was completed in one case, covered stent implantation was performed in one patient, and three cases were treated by cerebral bypass surgery (including two patients with failed interventional treatment). Rebleeding was found in two patients, and no rebleeding was found in the bypass group. Paralysis was found in three patients, and asymptomatic cerebral infarction without permanent neurologic impairment was found in three patients. Two patients died due to tumor progression. Emergency occlusion surgery is lifesaving in the acute phase of CBS. Endovascular therapy cannot prevent the progression of pseudoaneurysms or lower the recurrence rate of bleeding events. High-flow bypass combined with parent artery isolation is a safe and effective method that may facilitate further surgical treatment. Further research is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen is an essential component of living organisms and a major nutrient that limits life on Earth. Until now, freely available nitrogen mainly comes from atmospheric nitrogen, but most organisms rely on bioavailable forms of nitrogen, which depends on the complex network of microorganisms with a wide variety of metabolic functions. Microbial-mediated nitrogen cycling contributes to the biogeochemical cycling of wetlands, but its specific microbial abundance, composition, and distribution need to be studied. Based on the metagenomic data, we described the composition and functional characteristics of microbial nitrogen cycle-related genes in the Napahai plateau wetland. Six nitrogen cycling pathways existed, such as dissimilatory nitrate reduction, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, nitrification, anammox, and nitrate assimilation. Most genes related to the nitrogen cycling in this region come from bacteria, mainly from Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria. Habitat types and nitrogen cycle-related genes largely explained the relative abundance of total nitrogen pathways. Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on nitrogen cycle-related genes from different habitats and sources, combined with PCoA analysis, most of them clustered separately, indicating richness and uniqueness. Some microbial groups seemed to be special or general in the nitrogen cycling. In conclusion, it suggested that microorganisms regulated the N cycling process, and may lead to N loss throughout the wetland, thus providing a basis for further elucidation of the microbial regulation of N cycling processes and the Earth’s elemental cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess the practicability and safety of a novel endovascular robotic system for performing endovascular aortic repair in human. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in 2021 with 6 months post-operative follow-up. Patients with aortic aneurysms and clinical indications for elective endovascular aortic repair were enrolled in the study. The novel developed robotic system is applicable for the majority of commercial devices and various types of endovascular surgeries. The primary endpoint was technical success without in-hospital major adverse events. Technical success was defined as the ability of the robotic system to complete all procedural steps based on procedural segments. Results: The first-in-human evaluation of robot-assisted endovascular aortic repair was performed in five patients. The primary endpoint was achieved in all patients (100%). There were no device- or procedure-related complications or no in-hospital major adverse events. The operation time and total blood loss in these cases were equal to those in the manual procedures. The radiation exposure of the surgeon was 96.5% lower than that in the traditional position while the radiation exposure of the patients was not significantly increased. Conclusions: Early clinical evaluation of the novel endovascular aortic repair in endovascular aortic repair demonstrated practicability, safety, and procedural effectiveness comparable to manual operation. In addition, the total radiation exposure of the operator was significantly lower than that of traditional procedures. Clinical relevance statement: This study applies a novel approach to perform the endovascular aortic repair in a more accurate and minimal-invasive way and lays the foundation for the perspective automation of the endovascular robotic system, which reflects a new paradigm for endovascular surgery. Key Points: • This study is a first-in-human evaluation of a novel endovascular robotic system for endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). • Our system might reduce the occupational risks associated with manual EVAR and contribute to achieving a higher degree of precision and control. • Early evaluation of the endovascular robotic system demonstrated practicability, safety, and procedural effectiveness comparable to that of manual operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeletal fluorosis likely alters bone structural properties on the cortical and cancellous tissue levels in view that fluorine ion replaces bone mineral composition. Our previous study showed high bone turnover occurred in cortical bone of skeletal fluorosis. Therefore, this study further analyzed the microstructure of cancellous bone in fluorosis rats. Rats were randomly assigned into three groups: the control, low-dose fluoride group (10 mgF-/kg·day), and high-dose fluoride group (20 mgF-/kg·day). Rats were orally administered with fluoride for 1, 2, and 3 months of periods. The trabecular bone parameters of tibia were detected with micro CT and analyzed with software. The activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum were measured. Results showed that severity of dental fluorosis rose with the increase of dose and prolongation of fluoride exposure. Meantime, the poorer connectivity and less trabecular bone network were observed in cancellous bone of rats treated with fluoride. Data analysis indicated that fluoride treatment significantly decreased bone volume and connectivity degree, but amplified trabecular space in 1 and 2 months of periods. Intriguingly, trabecular thickness significantly decreased in 1-month high-dose fluoride group, but returned to the control in 3 months of period. Fluoride treatment mainly inhibited the GPX activity and increased the MDA level to activate oxidative stress. This study confirmed that excessive fluoride impaired cancellous bone and caused redox imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: The reduction in endogenous gibberellin improved drought resistance, but decreased cellulose and lignin contents, which made the mutant prone to lodging. It is well known that gibberellin (GA) is a hormone that plays a vital role in plant growth and development. In recent years, a growing number of studies have found that gibberellin plays an important role in regulating the plant height, stem length, and stressed growth surfaces. In this study, a dwarf maize mutant was screened from an EMS-induced mutant library of maize B73. The mutated gene was identified as KS, which encodes an ent-kaurene synthase (KS) enzyme functioning in the early biosynthesis of GA. The mutant was named as ks3-1. A significant decrease in endogenous GA levels was verified in ks3-1. A significantly decreased stem strength of ks3-1, compared with that of wild-type B73, was found. Significant decreases in the cellulose and lignin contents, as well as the number of epidermal cell layers, were further characterized in ks3-1. The expression levels of genes responsible for cellulose and lignin biosynthesis were induced by exogenous GA treatment. Under drought stress conditions, the survival rate of ks3-1 was significantly higher than that of the wild-type B73. The survival rates of both wild-type B73 and ks3-1 decreased significantly after exogenous GA treatment. In conclusion, we summarized that a decreased level of GA in ks3-1 caused a decreased plant height, a decreased stem strength as a result of cell wall defects, and an increased drought tolerance. Our results shed light on the importance of GA and GA-defective mutants in the genetic improvement of maize and breeding maize varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gestational gigantomastia (GG) is a rare condition characterized by excessive breast enlargement during pregnancy. Reported incidence ranges from 1 in 28, 000 to 1 in 100, 000 pregnancies worldwide. The etiology of the disease is not yet established, with theories ranging from hormonal imbalances, unregulated immune responses, to hypersensitivity. In this article, we report an extreme case of GG in a 29-year-old pregnant Chinese woman with a total breast weight of 13 kg. There is no laboratory analysis that reveals the cause of this enormous breast enlargement. The severity of the problem is further emphasized by the patient's breathing and walking problems. Finally, the case was successfully treated by bilateral mastectomies with the free areola–nipple complex graft implantation, followed by two-stage breast reconstruction. The surgery was successful, and the patient had an excellent post-operation recovery course. And this article provides a rare case report and discussion about the surgical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative assessment of the spatial and temporal variability and drivers of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) fraction concentrations are important for pollution control and public health preservation in China. In this study, we investigated the spatial temporal variation of PM2.5 chemical component based on the PM2.5 chemical component datasets from 2000 to 2019 and revealed the driving forces of the differences in the spatial distribution using geodetector model (GD), multi-scale geographically weighted regression model (MGWR), and a two-step clustering approach. The results show that: the PM2.5 chemical fraction concentrations show a trend of first increasing (2000–2007) and then decreasing (2007–2019). From 2000 to 2019, the change rates of PM2.5, organic matter (OM), black carbon (BC), sulfates (SO2– 4), ammonium (NH+ 4), and nitrates (NO– 3) were −0.59, −0.23, −0.07, −0.15, −0.02, and 0.04μg/m3/yr in the entirety of China. The secondary aerosol (i.e., SO2− 4, NO− 3, and NH+ 4; SNA) had the highest fraction in PM2.5 concentrations (55.6–68.1% in different provinces), followed by OM and BC. Spatially, North, Central, and East China are the regions with the highest PM2.5 chemical component concentrations in China; meanwhile, they are also the regions with the most significant decrease in PM2.5 chemical fraction concentrations. The GD and MGWR model shows that among all variables, the number of enterprises, disposable income, private car ownership, and the share of secondary industry non-linearly enhance the differences in the spatial distribution of PM2.5 component concentrations. Electricity consumption has the strongest influence on NH+ 4 emissions in Northwest China and BC and OM emissions in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial communities of wetlands play key roles in the earth's ecology and stability. To elucidate the cold adaptation mechanisms of bacteria in plateau wetlands, we conducted comparative genomic analyses of Pseudomonas sivasensis and closely related lineages. The genome of P. sivasensis W-6, a cold-adapted bacterium isolated from the Napahai plateau wetland, was sequenced and analyzed. The genome length was 6,109,123 bp with a G+C content of 59.5%. Gene prediction yielded 5360 protein-coding sequences, 70 tRNAs, 24 gene islands, and 2 CRISPR sequences. The isolate contained evidence of horizontal gene transfer events during its evolution. Two prophages were predicted and indicated that W-6 was a lysogen. The cold adaptation of the W-6 strain showed psychrophilic rather than psychrotrophic characteristics. Cold-adapted bacterium W-6 can utilize glycogen and trehalose as resources, associated with carbohydrate-active enzymes, and survive in a low-temperature environment. In addition, the cold-adapted mechanisms of the W-6 included membrane fluidity by changing the unsaturated fatty acid profile, the two-component regulatory systems, anti-sense transcription, the role played by rpsU genes in the translation process, etc. The genome-wide analysis of W-6 provided a deeper understanding of cold-adapted strategies of bacteria in environments. We elucidated the adaptive mechanism of the psychrophilic W-6 strain for survival in a cold environment, which provided a basis for further study on host-phage coevolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The γ-TiAl alloy has become one of the most competitive lightweight and high-temperature structural materials in aerospace and automotive fields because of its excellent properties. However, its room-temperature brittleness and low ductility make it easy to introduce defects and residual stresses during processing, seriously affecting its service performance. In this paper, molecular dynamics was used to simulate nano-cutting and stress relief annealing of single crystal γ-TiAl alloy. Then the microscopic defects and residual stress distribution of single crystal γ-TiAl alloy after nano-cutting are analyzed. Finally, the evolution of cutting residual stress during the annealing process is discussed, and the mechanism of stress relief annealing to regulate the residual stress distribution is elaborated. The results show that the annihilation of the Shockley partial dislocations and the recovery of the lattice distortion during annealing leads to the decrease in the cutting residual stresses. The residual tensile stresses on the subsurface and machined surfaces of the workpiece are transformed into residual compressive stresses due to the pinning effect of the stationary dislocations and the hindering effect of the stacking fault. The cutting residual stresses are best regulated at an annealing temperature of 900 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: PSD502 is a metered-dose spray for premature ejaculation. The two trials aimed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of PSD502 in healthy Chinese male and female individuals. Methods: Two phase I, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials were conducted in men (Trial 1) and women (Trial 2). The participants were randomized 3:1 to receive PSD502 (7.5 mg of lidocaine and 2.5 mg of prilocaine per spray) or a placebo. For male individuals, a single dose (three sprays) once daily was applied to the glans penis for 21 days except for nine sprays (three doses) on days 7 and 14, 4 h apart for each dose. For female individuals, two sprays were applied to the vagina and one to the cervix once daily for 7 days. The primary endpoint was safety. Pharmacokinetics analysis was also performed. Results: Twenty-four male and 24 female individuals were recruited. Treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 38.9% (7/18) of male individuals and 66.7% (12/18) of female individuals in the PSD502 group, respectively. Both trials reported 50.0% (3/6) treatment-emergent adverse events for the placebo. No grade ≥ 3 treatment-emergent adverse events, serious adverse events, or treatment-emergent adverse events leading to early withdrawal or discontinuation occurred. After consecutive applications, lidocaine and prilocaine cleared rapidly in both trials. Plasma concentrations exhibited high inter-individual variability. The maximum plasma concentrations of active ingredients were far below the anticipated minimum toxic concentrations. The area under the plasma concentration–time curve of metabolites were ≤ 20% of the parent drugs. No clinically significant accumulations were observed in the two trials. Conclusions: PSD502 was well tolerated and showed low plasma concentrations in healthy Chinese male and female individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ca1+xV2O6 (x = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0) ceramics were synthesized via the conventional solid-state reaction method. The effects of calcium ion content on the phase composition, sintering, microstructure, and microwave properties were investigated. XRD analysis showed that in the three samples with x < 1, the CaV2O6 phase and the Ca2V2O7 phase were the main phase and the secondary phase, respectively. In the sample with x = 1, Ca2V2O7 was the only crystalline phase. EDS analysis was consistent with the above results. The results of phase content showed that the increase in Ca2+ ion content led to an increase in the Ca2V2O7 phase and a decrease in the CaV2O6 phase. The increase in the Ca2V2O7 phase content led to an increase in the εr value, but worsened the Q × f value. In addition, due to the relatively large τf value of the Ca2V2O7 phase, the increase in Ca ions also improved the τf value of the ceramics. The Ca2V2O6 sample sintered at 950°C for 4 h showed optimal microwave dielectric properties: εr = 11.9, Q × f = 38,500 GHz (at 8.9 GHz), τf = −31 ppm/°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a Balakrishnan–Taylor viscoelastic wave equation with strong time-dependent delay. Under suitable assumptions on the coefficients of the delay term, we establish a generalized stability result, which improve some earlier results in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scene text detection methods based on deep segmentation techniques have achieved promising performances over the past years. However, there are still some challenges for accurately detecting arbitrary shape text instances, especially for those of pattern diversity. In this paper, we propose an arbitrary shape text detector that learns and combines instance-relevant contexts to generate accurate text instances of different patterns in scene images. Besides the instance-aware context, which is learned to distinguish adjacent text instances, the instance-relevant contexts also contain the instance shape-aware context learned by the shared segmentation-based subnet to indicate the distribution of text instances. The proposed instance formation algorithm then leverages the connectivity and the similarity of a text instance to segment the corresponding instance polygon, where the instance-relevant contexts guide the process to effectively separate dense text instances and robustly reconstruct complete arbitrary shape instances. Moreover, the formed instance polygons are refined with the local geometric features of text strokes predicted by a trainable regression-based subnet, which can help alleviate the effect of imprecise text pixel-level annotations for accurate boundary generation. Extensive experiments on four challenging datasets demonstrate the proposed method effectively improves the text detector's detection accuracy and robustness ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PIT1-positive pituitary adenoma (PIT1-PA) is one of the most important lineages of pituitary adenoma (PA), which causes systematic endocrine disorders and a worse prognosis. Tumour-associated fibroblast (TAF) is a crucial stroma cell type in the tumour microenvironment (TME). However, cellular and functional heterogeneity of TAF and immune cells in PIT1-PA have not been fully investigated. Methods: By single-cell RNA sequencing of four PIT1-PAs and further analyses, we characterised the molecular and functional profiles of 28 different cell subtypes. Results: PA stem cells in PIT1/SF1-positve PA were in a hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal state, and differentiated along the PIT1- and SF- dependent branches. C1Q was overwhelmingly expressed in tumour-associated macrophages, indicating its pro-tumoral functionality. PIT1-PA progression was characterised by lower cell–cell communication strength and higher cell adhesion-associated signals, indicating the immunosuppressive but pro-invasive microenvironment. IFN-γ signal repressed functional remodelling of myofibroblastic TAF (mTAF) towards inflammatory TAF/antigen-presenting TAF. IFN-γ inhibited mTAF phenotypes and N-cadherin expression through STAT3 signal axis. CDH2 knockdown in TAFs abrogated their pro-tumour function in PAs. Conclusions: Our study builds up a cellular landscape of PIT1-PA TME and highlights anti-tumour function of IFN-γ mediated TAF remodelling, which benefits clinical treatments and drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfoaluminate cement-based grouting material (SAGM) is broadly used to reinforce engineering structures. It requires a high water–cement ratio (> 0.6) to improve its fluidity and permeability. However, this would result in a slow rate of hydration and a prolonged setting time of SAGM. Our previous investigation demonstrated that nano lithium aluminum layered double hydroxides (LiAl-LDHs) can dramatically accelerate hydration and raise the total hydration heat of SAGM. At the same time, the exact mechanism is still unknown. In this study, nano LiAl-LDHs were added to a suspension of SAGM in a semi-permeable membrane, permitting the passage of ions and water, and the mechanism of nano LiAl-LDHs influencing early hydration of SAGM was investigated. According to the results, nano LiAl-LDHs with an average hydrodynamic particle size of 85 nm preferentially provided the crystal nuclei for the hydration product of calcium monosulphoaluminate (AFm). In cement slurry, nano LiAl-LDHs can release lithium and carbonate ions, and released lithium ions can interact with aluminum ions in an alkaline environment to speed up the dissolution of anhydrous calcium sulphoaluminate. Carbonate ions released from nano LiAl-LDHs promoted the dissolution of anhydrous calcium sulphoaluminate, resulting in the formation of AFt and CaCO3. The effect of nano LiAl-LDHs on the early hydration of SAGM can be attributed to the synergistic effects of crystal nuclei, lithium ions, and carbonate ions released from nano LiAl-LDHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a robust infrared and visible image fusion scheme that joins a dual-branch multi-receptive-field neural network and a color vision transfer algorithm is designed to aggregate infrared and visible video sequences. The proposed method enables the fused image to effectively recognize thermal objects, contain rich texture information and ensure visual perception quality. The fusion network is an integrated encoder-decoder modal with a multi-receptive-field attention mechanism that is implemented via hybrid dilated convolution (HDC) and a series of convolution layers to form an unsupervised framework. Specifically, the multi-receptive-field attention mechanism aims to extract comprehensive spatial information to enable the encoder to separately focus on the substantial thermal radiation from the infrared modal and the environmental characteristics from the visible modal. In addition, to ensure that the fused image has rich color, high fidelity and steady brightness, a color vision transfer method is proposed to recolor the fused gray results by deriving a map from the visible image serving as a reference. Extensive experiments verify the importance and robustness of each step in the subjective and objective evaluation and demonstrate that our work represents a trade-off among color fidelity, fusion performance and computational efficiency. Moreover, we will publish our research content, data and code publicly at https://github.com/DZSYUNNAN/RGB-TIR-image-fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM), as an important carrier of carrying and transporting runoff pollutants, can significantly affect the behavior and removal efficiency of pollutants in bioretention facilities. In order to control the pollution caused by naphthalene in bioretention facilities, the removal efficiency and migration characteristics of naphthalene were systematically investigated under the influences of PM. The results showed that the removal efficiency of naphthalene was 74 ~ 97% in bioretention facilities under the influences of PM. With the higher concentration, the lower rainfall return period, and the longer antecedent drying period, the removal efficiency of naphthalene in each medium layer were higher. Furthermore, the PM could increase the naphthalene adsorption capacity onto medium in the first 10 cm depth, which showed more than 80% removal efficiency and lower mobility of naphthalene. The removal efficiency of naphthalene was significantly higher (90 ~ 97%), when the particle size and concentration of PM were 0 ~ 45 μm and 500 mg/L, respectively. This study investigated the important role of PM for naphthalene removal in bioretention facilities, and provided effective guidelines for runoff pollution control, design of stormwater facilities, and assessment risk of naphthalene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To apply model-informed drug development (MIDD) approach to support the decision making in drug development and accelerate the clinical development of janagliflozin, an orally selective SGLT2 inhibitor. Method: We previously developed a mechanistic pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model of janagliflozin based on preclinical data to optimize dose design in the first-in-human (FIH) study. In the current study, we used clinical PK/PD data of the FIH study to validate the model and then simulate the PK/PD profiles of multiple ascending dosing (MAD) study in healthy subjects. Besides, we developed a population PK/PD model of janagliflozin to predict steady-state urinary glucose excretion (UGE [UGE,ss]) in healthy subjects in the Phase 1 stage. This model was subsequently used to simulate the UGE, ss in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) based on a unified PD target (ΔUGEc) across healthy subjects and patients with T2DM. This unified PD target was estimated from our previous work of model-based meta-analysis (MBMA) for the same class of drugs. The model-simulated UGE,ss in patients with T2DM was validated by data from the clinical Phase 1e study. Finally, at the end of the Phase 1 study, we simulated the 24-week hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level in patients with T2DM of janagliflozin based on the quantitative UGE/FPG/HbA1c relationship informed by our previous MBMA study for the same class of drugs. Results: The pharmacologically active dose (PAD) levels of multiple ascending dosing (MAD) study were estimated to be 25, 50,100 mg once daily (QD) for 14 days based on the effective PD target of approximately 50 g daily UGE in healthy subjects. Besides, our previous MBMA analysis for the same class of drugs has provided a unified effective PD target of ΔUGEc approximately 0.5–0.6 g/(mg/dL) in both healthy subjects and patients with T2DM. In this study, the model-simulated steady-state ΔUGEc (ΔUGEc,ss) of janagliflozin in patients with T2DM were 0.52, 0.61 and 0.66 g/(mg/dL) for 25, 50, 100 mg QD dose levels. Finally, we estimated that HbA1c at 24 weeks would decrease 0.78 and 0.93 from baseline for the 25 and 50 mg QD dose groups. Conclusions: The application of MIDD strategy adequately supported the decision making at each stage of janagliflozin development process. A waiver of Phase 2 study was successfully approved for janagliflozin based on these model-informed results and suggestions. This MIDD strategy of janagliflozin could be further utilized to support the clinical development of other SGLT2 inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses play important roles in ecosystems by interfering with the central metabolic pathways of the host during infection via the expression of auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs), altering the productivity of ecosystems and thus affecting geochemical cycling. In this study, the genetic diversity of phosphorus metabolism AMGs phoH, phoU and pstS was investigated by phylogenetic analysis, PCoA analysis, and alpha diversity analysis based on metagenomic data. It was found that the majority of the sequences were unique to Napahai plateau wetland. It was shown that the genetic diversity of phoH, phoU and pstS genes was independent of both habitats and host origins. In addition, the metabolic pathway of AMGs associated with the phosphorus cycling was identified based on metagenomic data. When phosphorus is deficient, virus utilizes AMGs to affect the metabolic pathway, contributing to higher phosphorus levels in the host and facilitating virus survival, replication, and propagation in the host cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problem on grouting control of water inflow disaster in coastal area, a caisson-type grouting experimental system of a single fracture in flowing water under tidal action was developed independently. Through the tide simulation system, the tidal action of different intensity and frequency was effectively described. Tide simulation system, fracture system, grouting system, water supply system and information monitoring system were combined to realize the visualization of the whole grouting process under tidal action. Furthermore, the grouting experiments of a plate fracture under different tidal action were developed and the blocking mechanism under tidal action was revealed. The conclusions were as follow: 1) Under constant water head, the slurry had three typical diffusion patterns, which were circular distribution, double U-shaped distribution and elliptical distribution respectively. 2) Under tidal action, the pressure showed a periodic fluctuation growth, and the growth rate slowed down with the increase of fracture aperture. 3) Strong tidal action would promote the diffusion of and increased the outflow amount of slurry, which was not conducive to grouting. Based on the water inflow treatment project of limestone mine in Guangxi, Through the field grouting tests, the 2# water inflow point was blocked. The research results have a certain reference value for the technology optimization of grouting engineering in coastal areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is involved in many pathological processes of cancers. However, the role of lncRNA LINC00052 in breast cancer progression is still unclear. Here, LINC00052 expression was detected by in situ hybridization and quantitative real-time PCR assays. Cell Counting Kit-8, wound healing, and transwell assays were used to investigate changes in the proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. MiR-548p was found associated with LINC00052 or Notch2 by RNA pull-down, dual-luciferase reporter, and qRT-PCR assays. The effect of LINC00052 on lung metastasis was explored through in vivo experiments. High LINC00052 expression was observed in breast cancer tissues and cells. LINC00052 silencing inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of MCF7 cells, and LINC00052 overexpression produced the opposite results. MiR-548p, a target gene of LINC00052, partially rescued the effects of LINC00052 on proliferation, migration, and invasion of MCF7. Notch2 was the target of miR-548p and LINC00052 could promote Notch2 expression. Moreover, the phosphorylation of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2), a downstream factor of Notch2, was increased by LINC00052, and a Pyk2 mutant could inhibit the cell migration and invasion induced by LINC00052 overexpression in MDA-MB-468 cells, which was similar to the function of the miR-548p mimic. We further demonstrated that LINC00052 exacerbated the metastases of breast cancer cells in vivo. Our research demonstrated that LINC00052 is highly expressed in breast cancer and promotes breast cancer proliferation, migration, and invasion via the miR-548p/Notch2/Pyk2 axis. LINC00052 could serve as a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]