Search

Thermal loading history and the induced cracks affect the thermomechanical response of the rock. This paper experimentally investigates, through a staged thermal loading process, the influence of uniform thermal pre-treatment on the following gradient heating responses of Stanstead granite. Specifically, petrographic analysis of thin sections acted as a control test to quantify the crack density and aperture evolution after uniform thermal pre-treatment with various target temperatures. Then, DIC technique was used to investigate the real-time thermomechanical response of the thermally pre-treated samples to thermal gradient loading. Results show that thermal cracks density and aperture increased with the pre-treating temperature, which then significantly affect the thermal cracking pattern under following gradient heating process. During thermal gradient loading, radial pattern of thermal gradient cracking initiating close to the heating source while the macroscopic cracking coalesced from the microcracks at the sample periphery and propagated towards the hotter interior. Interestingly, the results also suggest a transition in the thermomechanical behavior of the Stanstead granite between 300 and 500 °C. Macroscopic cracking was observed in all samples pre-treated at temperatures below 400 °C, while for those pre-treated at higher temperatures, no macroscopic cracking was observed, suggesting that the thermal resistance of the investigated samples increased with increased initial damage under thermal pre-treatment. Mineral grains expansion into pre-existing microcracks during the heating stage was captured using DIC and found to contribute to this behavior. This paper provides useful insights into the effect of the initial crack density and aperture induced by different thermal and/or mechanical loading history on the thermomechanical behavior of granitic rock under in situ temperature variation that might result from a variety of underground applications. Highlights: Quantitative analysis of the crack density and aperture evolution under uniform thermal treatment from petrographic images. Experimental staged heating treatment to investigate the effect of uniform thermal pre-treatment on thermal gradient response in granite. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used to investigate real-time thermomechanical behavior of granite exposed to thermal gradient loading. Thermal resistance of granitic rocks to thermal shock increased with increasing pre-existing crack density and aperture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a vibration energy acquisition device based on nonlinear magnetic coupling action is proposed. The piezoelectric element is deformed under the nonlinear magnetic force of the magnets and can output electrical energy based on the positive piezoelectric effect. The array arrangement of rectangular and circular piezoelectric sheets is designed to achieve high output power. Non-contact magnetic excitation in the excitation mode was chosen to avoid mechanical collision and device wear and to improve the service life. The equivalent analysis of the piezoelectric element is carried out, and the control equation of a Lagrange curve is combined. The natural frequencies of the rectangular and circular piezoelectric elements under modal analysis are obtained by simulation analysis. Experiments show that when magnets 1 repel each other and magnets 1 and 2 attract each other, the output voltage of the prototype is 73.75 V. When the load resistance is 10 kΩ, the output power of the prototype is 256 mW. The experimental device collects the vibration energy from excitation and then stores the electrical energy in a storage circuit. After the electrical energy output by the device is rectified by the rectifier bridge, 72 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can be lit, and power can be successfully supplied for the temperature and humidity sensor. The device worn on the wrist can harvest the vibration energy of the swinging arm, which confirms the good output performance of the device. The proposed device provides innovative ideas for the field of vibratory energy harvesting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological stress contributes to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and sudden cardiac death, yet its molecular basis remains obscure. RNA binding protein RBM24 plays a critical role in cardiac development, rhythm regulation, and cellular stress. Here, we show that psychological stress activates RBM24 S181 phosphorylation through eIF4E2-GSK3β signaling, which causally links psychological stress to CVD by promoting APOE translation (apolipoprotein E). Using an Rbm24 S181A KI mouse model, we show that impaired S181 phosphorylation leads to cardiac contractile dysfunction, atrial fibrillation, dyslipidemia, reduced muscle strength, behavioral abnormalities, and sudden death under acute and chronic psychological stressors. The impaired S181 phosphorylation of RBM24 inhibits cardiac translation, including APOE translation. Notably, cardiomyocyte-specific expression of APOE rescues cardiac electrophysiological abnormalities and contractile dysfunction, through preventing ROS stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, RBM24-S181 phosphorylation acts as a serum marker for chronic stress in human. These results provide a functional link between RBM24 phosphorylation, eIF4E-regulated APOE translation, and psychological-stress-induced CVD. Mental stress is well known to cause cardiovascular disease. Here, the authors show that an imbalance in RBM24-S181 phosphorylation impairs cardiac translation of APOE, leading to cardiac contractile dysfunction, atrial fibrillation, fibrosis, and sudden death under psychological stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-shot knowledge graph completion (KGC) aims to infer unseen facts when only one support entity pair is available for a particular relationship. Prior studies learn reference representations from one support pair for matching query pairs. This strategy can be challenging, particularly when dealing with multiple relationships between identical support pairs, resulting in indistinguishable reference representations. To this end, we propose a disentangled representation learning framework for one-shot KGC. Specifically, to learn sufficient representations, we construct an entity encoder with a fine-grained attention mechanism to explicitly model the input and output neighbors. We adopt an orthogonal regularizer to promote the independence of learned factors in entity representation, enabling the matching processor with max pooling to adaptively identify the semantic roles associated with a particular relation. Subsequently, the one-shot KGC is accomplished by seamlessly integrating the aforementioned modules in an end-to-end learning manner. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate the outperformance of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper described the development of a practical, improved and efficient method for the multigram-scale synthesis of volasertib, an injectable bioavailable potent and selective inhibitor of PLK1. The key to this optimization was the design and development of a novel synthetic strategy, which involved the preparation of key intermediate 4-amino-N-{4-[4-(cyclopropylmethyl)piperazin-1-yl]cyclohexyl}-3-methoxybenzamide (W-5) through nitro reduction sequence and (7R)-2-chloro-7-ethyl-7,8-dihydro-8-(1-methylethyl)-6(5H)-pteridinone (W-11) through reductive cyclization and N-methylation reaction. The developed process provided 46% overall yield, which enabled us to rapidly synthesize multi-gram quantities of volasertib in 99.42% purity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of brain–computer interfaces in recent years, deep learning models have been widely used in EEG-based personal identification. The training of complex models requires a large amount of data, but the acquisition of EEG signals is very time-consuming and energy-consuming. EEG data augmentation can reduce the overhead of EEG data acquisition and provide the data volume required by various complex models, which is conducive to applying EEG identification in practice. The generative adversarial network (GAN) has been applied to augment EEG data features. But the augmentation of temporal EEG signals is less studied. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of temporal EEG data augmentation based on an attention mechanism time series generative adversarial network (ATGAN), which can expand the original EEG dataset to facilitate the training of downstream deep learning classifiers. The experiment is conducted on the BCI Competition IV 2a dataset. The ATGAN model is trained with the temporal EEG signals after preprocessing, and the generated augmentation data by ATGAN is used to expand the original dataset. The accuracy of the EEG-based identification task on the augmented dataset is 7.78% higher than that on the original dataset, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the implementation of stringent pollution control measures, surface ozone (O3) pollution remains a significant issue in the North China Plain (NCP) in recent years. Here we examined long-term changes in surface O3 concentrations during 2015–2021 in the NCP. The mean summer maximum daily 8-hour average ozone concentration exhibited an annual increase of 12.77 µg m− 3 (p < 0.01) from 2015 to 2019, followed by a decline from 174 µg m− 3 in 2019 to 157 µg m− 3 in 2021. Subsequently, satellite-based formaldehyde (HCHO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns were used to track volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions to evaluate the causes of O3 changes. Results showed that the increase of HCHO column and the sharp decline of NO2 column have indeed led to no decrease in O3 concentration and even contributed to O3 enhancement in most areas in 2015–2019. However, the sharp decline of HCHO and NO2 columns contributed to the decline of O3 concentration since 2020. The HCHO/NO2 values showed a transitional regime ranging from 4.23 to 5.05 and the O3 sensitivities were predominantly VOC-limited and transitional regimes in 2019–2021, varying among different mega-city clusters. The HCHO/NO2 increased from 2.62 ± 2.41 in 2015 to 2.99 ± 3.49 in 2019 but decreased since then, facilitating O3 formation regime transition from NOx-limited to transitional (or from transitional to VOC-limited) regimes, which contributed to the decline in O3 levels. The study determined that the optimal ratio of HCHO to NO2 for reducing O3 concentration is 4.66 for the NCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microstructure, evolution of intermetallic compound (IMC) layers, and mechanical property changes in Sn58Bi/Cu and Sn58Bi–0.3Co/Cu solder joints were studied during thermal aging at 393 K. During aging, the nucleation rate of the Cu6Sn5 phase was significantly enhanced by introducing Co particles, forming a substitution solid solution (Cu, Co)6Sn5 with a small block-like structure that was freely distributed within the matrix. The IMC layer was transformed from Cu6Sn5 to (Cu, Co)6Sn5, forming a more stable structure that effectively suppressed the Cu3Sn layer growth. During the aging process, the size of (Cu, Co)6Sn5 grains was significantly smaller than Cu6Sn5 grains. Furthermore, gradual growth into prismatic shapes was observed in (Cu, Co)6Sn5 grains, with a relatively wide grain size distribution. The introduction of Co effectively inhibited the expansion of cracks during the aging process, and the probability of fracture occurring at the matrix/IMC interface was significantly reduced. Adding Co increased the shear strength of Sn58Bi/Cu solder joints within the identical aging period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional conjugated coordination polymers exhibit remarkable charge transport properties, with copper-based benzenehexathiol (Cu-BHT) being a rare superconductor. However, the atomic structure of Cu-BHT has remained unresolved, hindering a deeper understanding of the superconductivity in such materials. Here, we show the synthesis of single crystals of Cu3BHT with high crystallinity, revealing a quasi-two-dimensional kagome structure with non-van der Waals interlayer Cu-S covalent bonds. These crystals exhibit intrinsic metallic behavior, with conductivity reaching 103 S/cm at 300 K and 104 S/cm at 2 K. Notably, superconductivity in Cu3BHT crystals is observed at 0.25 K, attributed to enhanced electron-electron interactions and electron-phonon coupling in the non-van der Waals structure. The discovery of this clear correlation between atomic-level crystal structure and electrical properties provides a crucial foundation for advancing superconductor coordination polymers, with potential to revolutionize future quantum devices. Two-dimensional conjugated coordination polymers can show large electrical conductivity. Here, the authors synthesize high-quality single crystals of Cu3BHT to unveil the atomic structure and intrinsic superconducting properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a diffuse brain tissue injury caused by acute ischemia and hypoxia, and it is most commonly found in newborn infants but can also occur in adults. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies have showed improved outcomes for treating HIE-induced neuronal defects. However, many key issues associated with poor cell viability and tolerance of grafted MSCs after HIE remain to be resolved. Genetic engineering could endow MSCs with more robust regenerative capacities. Our research, along with that of other scientists, has found that the expression of intracellular erythropoietin (EPO) in human umbilical cord MSCs (hUC-MSCs) increases proportionally with the duration of hypoxia exposure. Furthermore, we observed that EPO, when introduced into the EPO gene-modified hUC-MSCs, can be secreted into the extracellular space. However, the underlying mechanisms that support the neuroprotective effects of EPO-MSCs remain unclear. EPO-MSCs, hUC-MSCs, and NC-MSCs were identified by flow cytometry, osteogenic, and adipogenic differentiation assays. The oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-induced SH-SY5Y cell-line was established, and five groups were set up: control, 24-h ischemia-hypoxia, co-cultured with hUC-MSCs, NC-MSCs, and EPO-MSCs after hypoxia. LEGENDplex™ multi-factor flow cytometry was used to detect the secretion of inflammatory factors in cell supernatants and cerebrospinal fluid. Chromosome-targeted excision and tagging (CUT&Tag) sequencing was applied to detect genomic H3K4me2 modifications, and conjoint analysis with transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed. Lentiviral vector infection was used to construct SH-SY5Y cells with stable knockdown of RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST), and flow cytometry was used to detect alterations in apoptosis. Finally, the molecular mechanism underlying the neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic effects of EPO-MSCs was investigated using RNA sequencing, qRT-PCR, and western blot assays. Our results suggest that EPO-MSCs are genetically engineered to secrete significantly more EPO. EPO-MSCs treatment has anti-apoptotic properties and offers neuronal protection during ischemic-hypoxic injury. Furthermore, RNA-seq results suggest that multiple inflammation-related genes were down-regulated after EPO-MSCs treatment. Application of RNA-seq and CUT&Tag combined analysis found that the expressions of REST were significantly up-regulated. Lentiviral vector infection to construct REST knockdown SH-SY5Y failed to rescue apoptosis after hypoxia and co-culture with EPO-MSCs, and SETD2-mediated H3K36me3 protein level expression was reduced. EPO-MSCs may promote neuronal survival by affecting H3K4me2 and thus activating the expression of REST and TET3. EPO-MSCs also upregulated the modification level of SETD2-mediated H3K36me3 and regulated the expression of inflammation-related genes such as PLCG2, as well as apoptosis genes BCL2A1. To investigate the neuroprotective effects of EPO-modified hUC-MSCs and the underlying epigenetic regulatory mechanisms, this study aims to provide a theoretical foundation for the potential application of EPO gene-modified hUC-MSCs in the treatment of HIE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), an ecologically and economically important forest species in East Asia, plays vital roles in carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. However, intensifying climate change threatens moso bamboo survival. Here we generate high-quality haplotype-based pangenome assemblies for 16 representative moso bamboo accessions and integrated these assemblies with 427 previously resequenced accessions. Characterization of the haplotype-based pangenome reveals extensive genetic variation, predominantly between haplotypes rather than within accessions. Many genes with allele-specific expression patterns are implicated in climate responses. Integrating spatiotemporal climate data reveals more than 1050 variations associated with pivotal climate factors, including temperature and precipitation. Climate-associated variations enable the prediction of increased genetic risk across the northern and western regions of China under future emissions scenarios, underscoring the threats posed by rising temperatures. Our integrated haplotype-based pangenome elucidates moso bamboo's local climate adaptation mechanisms and provides critical genomic resources for addressing intensifying climate pressures on this essential bamboo. More broadly, this study demonstrates the power of long-read sequencing in dissecting adaptive traits in climate-sensitive species, advancing evolutionary knowledge to support conservation. Moso bamboo is a critical species for carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change. This study presents a haplotype-based pangenome that uncovers substantial genetic diversity associated with climate adaptation and enables predictions of genetic vulnerability under future emission scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood and is closely related to the early development and differentiation of neuroendocrine (NE) cells. The disease is mainly represented by high-risk NB, which has the characteristics of high mortality and difficult treatment. The survival rate of high-risk NB patients is not ideal. In this article, we not only conducted a comprehensive study of NB through single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) but also further analyzed cuproptosis, a new cell death pathway, in order to find clinical treatment targets from a new perspective. Materials and Methods: The Seurat software was employed to process the scRNA-seq data. This was followed by the utilization of GO enrichment analysis and GSEA to unveil pertinent enriched pathways. The inferCNV software package was harnessed to investigate chromosomal copy number variations. pseudotime analyses involved the use of Monocle 2, CytoTRACE, and Slingshot software. CellChat was employed to analyze the intercellular communication network for NB. Furthermore, PySCENIC was deployed to review the profile of transcription factors. Result: Using scRNA-seq, we studied cells from patients with NB. NE cells exhibited superior specificity in contrast to other cell types. Among NE cells, C1 PCLAF + NE cells showed a close correlation with the genesis and advancement of NB. The key marker genes, cognate receptor pairing, developmental trajectories, metabolic pathways, transcription factors, and enrichment pathways in C1 PCLAF + NE cells, as well as the expression of cuproptosis in C1 PCLAF + NE cells, provided new ideas for exploring new therapeutic targets for NB. Conclusion: The results revealed the specificity of malignant NE cells in NB, especially the key subset of C1 PCLAF + NE cells, which enhanced our understanding of the key role of the tumor microenvironment in the complexity of cancer progression. Of course, cell death played an important role in the progression of NB, which also promoted our research on new targets. The scrutiny of these findings proved advantageous in uncovering innovative therapeutic targets, thereby bolstering clinical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nipah virus infection, one of the top priority diseases recognized by the World Health Organization, underscores the urgent need to develop effective countermeasures against potential epidemics and pandemics. Here, we identify a fully human single-domain antibody that targets a highly conserved cryptic epitope situated at the dimeric interface of the Nipah virus G protein (receptor binding protein, RBP), as elucidated through structures by high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This unique binding mode disrupts the tetramerization of the G protein, consequently obstructing the activation of the F protein and inhibiting viral membrane fusion. Furthermore, our investigations reveal that this compact antibody displays enhanced permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and demonstrates superior efficacy in eliminating pseudovirus within the brain in a murine model of Nipah virus infection, particularly compared to the well-characterized antibody m102.4 in an IgG1 format. Consequently, this single-domain antibody holds promise as a therapeutic candidate to prevent Nipah virus infections and has potential implications for vaccine development. The fully human single-domain antibody n425 aginst NiV targets a conserved cryptic epitope on G protein and inhibits membrane fusion by disrupting tetramerization. These insights advance neutralization mechanisms and effective countermeasure design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jumbo phages are a group of tailed bacteriophages with large genomes and capsids. As a prototype of jumbo phage, ΦKZ infects Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a multi-drug-resistant (MDR) opportunistic pathogen leading to acute or chronic infection in immunocompromised individuals. It holds potential to be used as an antimicrobial agent and as a model for uncovering basic phage biology. Although previous low-resolution structural studies have indicated that jumbo phages may have more complicated capsid structures than smaller phages such as HK97, the detailed structures and the assembly mechanism of their capsids remain largely unknown. Here, we report a 3.5-Å-resolution cryo-EM structure of the ΦKZ capsid. The structure unveiled ten minor capsid proteins, with some decorating the outer surface of the capsid and the others forming a complex network attached to the capsid's inner surface. This network seems to play roles in driving capsid assembly and capsid stabilization. Similar mechanisms of capsid assembly and stabilization are probably employed by many other jumbo viruses. Here, the authors present the 3.5-Å-resolution cryo-EM structure of the jumbo phage ΦKZ capsid, revealing ten minor capsid proteins that are hypothesized to contribute to capsid assembly and stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tube hydroforging process (THFG) is an advanced technology for manufacturing tubular components with complex cross-sections. The positive-curvature arc is one of the most fundamental and difficult-to-form features of complex cross-sections. However, its wrinkling mechanism in the THFG process cannot be explained by the existing theory. This restricts the application of the technology. First, because of the bending deformation caused by the excessive circumferential force, compression instability occurs at the positive-curvature arc part. This results in wrinkling similar to that in the conventional linear part. In addition, owing to the existence of the positive-curvature arc, the circumferential force produces a component force along the vertical direction that causes rigid displacement of the materials. This yields another new instability model: motion instability. The corresponding critical pressures for the two instability models were determined by adopting static method and energy methods respectively. Theoretically, motion instability is dominant in the early stages of compression, whereas compression instability is dominant in the subsequent stages. However, considering actual production, the correlations between the critical pressures of the different parts were compared. The wrinkling of the linear part inhibits the occurrence of compression instability in the positive-curvature arc. Thus, wrinkling of the arc can be caused only by motion instability. Therefore, the critical pressure for motion instability is defined as the critical pressure required for the positive-curvature arc. In addition, a forming window that considers the critical pressure of each part was established successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of nonzero fast points and linear structures reflects the properties of Boolean function's higher order derivatives, which is closely related to many cryptographic differential attacks. Rotation symmetric Boolean functions (RSBFs) is a super-class of symmetric functions, which are used widely in cryptography. We first obtain some existence results of nonzero linear structures of n-variable RSBFs with degree n - 2 . Moreover, we determine all the possible sets of fast points of n-variable RSBFs with degrees n - 3 and n - 4 based on integer partition. Finally, we investigate the existence of fast points of p-variable and 2p-variable RSBFs when p is an odd prime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new fabrication of micro-nano fluidic chips by thermal nanoimprint and multilayer compositing is proposed. The nano-channels with different aspect ratios were first manufactured by thermal nanoimprinting and Parylene layer coating, and the effect of parylene layer thickness on aspect ratio is studied. Then SU-8 layers with the micro channels and liquid reservoirs were superposed by ultraviolet exposure and secondary bonding to form a multilayer micro-nano fluidic chip. By optimizing the bonding parameters, a Parylene-SU-8 micro-nano fluidic chip with 200 μm wide and 8 μm deep micro-channels, cross-linked with 78 nm wide and 288 nm deep nano-channels was constructed, of which the maximum bonding strength is 0.92 MPa. This method has the advantages of simple process and low cost, which is suitable for mass manufacturing of micro-nano fluidic chips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a rotating piezoelectric energy harvester with dual excitation modules (D-PEH) designed to improve the energy harvesting ability in rotational motion and enhance the output performance. The dual excitation modules mainly consist of strike blocks and springs. The device is designed to optimize the excitation transfer between two piezoelectric patches, direct contact excitation of two piezoelectric patches, and simultaneous power generation for high power output. The structural variables that affect the output performance of the D-PEH are theoretically analyzed: the number of cam protrusions, rectangular piezoelectric patch mounting angles, and contact type of strike blocks. The modal analysis of the piezoelectric patches is performed using simulation. The experiment investigates the output characteristics of D-PEH at different structural parameters. The two parts achieve optimal power of 529 mW and 15.21 mW at external load resistance of 3 kΩ and 100 kΩ, respectively. The D-PEH can light up 293 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and stabilizes power to the temperature and humidity sensors. It offers a new idea for increasing the output power of rotating energy harvesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Omicron subvariants BQ.1.1, XBB.1.5, and XBB.1.16 of SARS-CoV-2 are known for their adeptness at evading immune responses. Here, we isolate a neutralizing antibody, 7F3, with the capacity to neutralize all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants, including BQ.1.1, XBB.1.5, and XBB.1.16. 7F3 targets the receptor-binding motif (RBM) region and exhibits broad binding to a panel of 37 RBD mutant proteins. We develop the IgG-like bispecific antibody G7-Fc using 7F3 and the cross-neutralizing antibody GW01. G7-Fc demonstrates robust neutralizing activity against all 28 tested SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses, providing potent prophylaxis and therapeutic efficacy against XBB.1 infection in both K18-ACE and BALB/c female mice. Cryo-EM structure analysis of the G7-Fc in complex with the Omicron XBB spike (S) trimer reveals a trimer-dimer conformation, with G7-Fc synergistically targeting two distinct RBD epitopes and blocking ACE2 binding. Comparative analysis of 7F3 and LY-CoV1404 epitopes highlights a distinct and highly conserved epitope in the RBM region bound by 7F3, facilitating neutralization of the immune-evasive Omicron variant XBB.1.16. G7-Fc holds promise as a potential prophylactic countermeasure against SARS-CoV-2, particularly against circulating and emerging variants. In this study, the authors develop a potent bispecific antibody targeting two epitopes within the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain and showing robust prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy against XBB.1 infection in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let E be an equivalence on a set X and let T ∃ (X) denote the semigroup (under composition) of all f : X → X that reflect E. Fix an element θ ∈ T ∃ (X) and for f , g ∈ T ∃ (X) , define a new operation ∗ on T ∃ (X) by f ∗ g = f θ g where f θ g denotes the product of g , θ and f in the original sense. In this paper, we characterize Green's relations on the variant semigroups T ∃ (X , θ) of T ∃ (X) with sandwich operation θ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumor characterized by invasive behavior and a compromised immune response, presenting treatment challenges. Surgical debulking of GBM fails to address its highly infiltrative nature, leaving neoplastic satellites in an environment characterized by impaired immune surveillance, ultimately paving the way for tumor recurrence. Tracking and eradicating residual GBM cells by boosting antitumor immunity is critical for preventing postoperative relapse, but effective immunotherapeutic strategies remain elusive. Here, we report a cavity-injectable bacterium-hydrogel superstructure that targets GBM satellites around the cavity, triggers GBM pyroptosis, and initiates innate and adaptive immune responses, which prevent postoperative GBM relapse in male mice. The immunostimulatory Salmonella delivery vehicles (SDVs) engineered from attenuated Salmonella typhimurium (VNP20009) seek and attack GBM cells. Salmonella lysis-inducing nanocapsules (SLINs), designed to trigger autolysis, are tethered to the SDVs, eliciting antitumor immune response through the intracellular release of bacterial components. Furthermore, SDVs and SLINs administration via intracavitary injection of the ATP-responsive hydrogel can recruit phagocytes and promote antigen presentation, initiating an adaptive immune response. Therefore, our work offers a local bacteriotherapy for stimulating anti-GBM immunity, with potential applicability for patients facing malignancies at a high risk of recurrence. Despite initial treatment with surgical resection, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) frequently recurs. Here the authors report the design of an immunostimulatory autolysing Salmonella based-nanocapsule delivery system, promoting anti-tumor immune responses and preventing postoperative relapse in preclinical GBM models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of ZnO decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) (ZnrGOx) with different doping ratios were synthesized by the alkaline hydrothermal method using graphene oxide (GO) and Zn(NO3)2·6H2O as precursors, and subsequently used for the adsorption study of Cr(VI) in water. The morphology, crystalline phase structure, and surface elemental properties of ZnrGOx composites were revealed by XRD, SEM, BET, FT-IR, and XPS characterizations. The results showed that ZnO nanoparticles can be clearly seen on the surface of layered rGO. Meanwhile, as the doping rate increased, the C = C double bonds were broken and more carboxylic acid groups formed in ZnrGOx. In addition, the ZnrGO0.1 composite had the most excellent adsorption performance and good stability, and reusability. The adsorption removal rate of Cr(VI) can reach 99%, and the maximum adsorption amount of Cr(VI) was 68.9655 mg/g in 3 h. The isothermal and kinetic model simulations showed that Cr(VI) adsorption on ZnrGO0.1 composite is a chemical adsorption process, spontaneous and endothermic. Based on the concentrations of different valence states of Cr in the solid and liquid phases, 40% of Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III) on the surface of ZnrGO0.1 composite. Moreover, the adsorption-reduction mechanisms of Cr(VI) on ZnrGO0.1 composite were further elucidated. The ZnrGO0.1 composite manifested great potential as an efficient adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underlying mechanism of fluorosis has not been fully elucidated. The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of fluorosis induced by sodium fluoride (NaF) using proteomics. Six offspring rats exposed to fluoride without dental fluorosis were defined as group A, 8 offspring rats without fluoride exposure were defined as control group B, and 6 offspring rats exposed to fluoride with dental fluorosis were defined as group C. Total proteins from the peripheral blood were extracted and then separated using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The identified criteria for differentially expressed proteins were fold change > 1.2 or < 0.83 and P < 0.05. Gene Ontology function annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed using the oeCloud tool. The 177 upregulated and 22 downregulated proteins were identified in the A + C vs. B group. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathway significantly enriched. PPI network constructed using Cytoscape confirmed RhoA may play a crucial role. The KEGG results of genes associated with fluoride and genes associated with both fluoride and inflammation in the GeneCards database also showed that TGF-β signaling pathway was significantly enriched. The immunofluorescence in HPA database showed that the main expression sites of RhoA are plasma membrane and cytosol, while the main expression site of Fbn1 is the Golgi apparatus. In conclusion, long-term NaF intake may cause inflammatory response in the peripheral blood of rats by upregulating TGF-β signaling pathway, in which RhoA may play a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for tumor postoperative treatments aimed at recurrence prevention and tissue regeneration have raised wide considerations in the context of the design and functionalization of implants. Herein, an injectable hydrogel system encapsulated with anti-tumor, anti-oxidant dual functional nanoparticles has been developed in order to prevent tumor relapse after surgery and promote wound repair. The utilization of biocompatible gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) was geared towards localized therapeutic intervention. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8@ceric oxide (ZIF-8@CeO2, ZC) nanoparticles (NPs) were purposefully devised for their proficiency as reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers. Furthermore, injectable GelMA hydrogels loaded with ZC NPs carrying doxorubicin (ZC-DOX@GEL) were tailored as multifunctional postoperative implants, ensuring the efficacious eradication of residual tumor cells and alleviation of oxidative stress. In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to substantiate the efficacy in cancer cell elimination and the prevention of tumor recurrence through the synergistic chemotherapy approach employed with ZC-DOX@GEL. The acceleration of tissue regeneration and in vitro ROS scavenging attributes of ZC@GEL were corroborated using rat models of wound healing. The results underscore the potential of the multifaceted hydrogels presented herein for their promising application in tumor postoperative treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection plays a vital role in numerous fields, including unmanned vehicles, security, and industry, among others. However, recent studies have shown that object detection models based on deep learning are vulnerable to adversarial example attacks. This poses significant challenges to the robustness of the models and substantially limits the applicability of object detection in critical security scenarios. Many existing adversarial attack methods for object detection focus primarily on specific types of object detection models. However, a widespread issue persists regarding weak transferability across different models. Furthermore, there is considerable room for enhancing the success rate of these attacks. To tackle these challenges, this paper proposes a data augmentation framework that leverages on the similarity between adversarial example generation and neural network training. Instead of utilizing the current gradient directly during the iterative process of calculating the gradient, the proposed method employs a weighted average gradient obtained by combining multiple data augmentation methods randomly. Additionally, the method combines the data-augmented gradients with momentum to obtain the gradients applicable to the adversarial attack in order to stabilize the update direction and avoid overfitting to the white-box model. The performance of the proposed method in attacking object detection models is evaluated on the MS COCO dataset using Faster R-CNN, YOLOv3 and YOLOv8. The experimental results demonstrate that, when compared to Projective Gradient Descend method and Iterative Fast Gradient Sign Method, the proposed method outperforms in both white-box and black-box settings. The transfer success rate achieved is up to 81.9% on RetinaNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching statistics through engaging applications to contemporary large-scale datasets is essential to attracting students to the field. To this end, we developed a hands-on, week-long workshop for senior high-school or junior undergraduate students, without prior knowledge in statistical genetics but with some basic knowledge in data science, to conduct their own genome-wide association study (GWAS). The GWAS was performed for open source gene expression data, using publicly available human genetics data. Assisted by a detailed instruction manual, students were able to obtain ∼ 1.4 million p-values from a real scientific study, within several days. This early motivation kept students engaged in learning the theories that support their results, including regression, data visualization, results interpretation, and large-scale multiple hypothesis testing. To further their learning motivation by emphasizing the personal connection to this type of data analysis, students were encouraged to make short presentations about how GWAS has provided insights into the genetic basis of diseases that are present in their friends or families. The appended open source, step-by-step instruction manual includes descriptions of the datasets used, the software needed, and results from the workshop. Additionally, scripts used in the workshop are archived on Github and Zenodo to further enhance reproducible research and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasound is an acoustic wave which can noninvasively penetrate the skull to deep brain regions, enabling neuromodulation. However, conventional ultrasound's spatial resolution is diffraction-limited and low-precision. Here, we report acoustic nanobubble-mediated ultrasound stimulation capable of localizing ultrasound's effects to only the desired brain region in male mice. By varying the delivery site of nanobubbles, ultrasound could activate specific regions of the mouse motor cortex, evoking EMG signaling and limb movement, and could also, separately, activate one of two nearby deep brain regions to elicit distinct behaviors (freezing or rotation). Sonicated neurons displayed reversible, low-latency calcium responses and increased c-Fos expression in the sub-millimeter-scale region with nanobubbles present. Ultrasound stimulation of the relevant region also modified depression-like behavior in a mouse model. We also provide evidence of a role for mechanosensitive ion channels. Altogether, our treatment scheme allows spatially-targetable, repeatable and temporally-precise activation of deep brain circuits for neuromodulation without needing genetic modification. Ultrasound may be used to non-invasively modulate the brain. Here the authors describe acoustic nanobubble-mediated ultrasound stimulation of specific brain region in male mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural energy storage composites present advantages in simultaneously achieving structural strength and electrochemical properties. Adoption of carbon fiber electrodes and resin structural electrolytes in energy storage composite poses challenges in maintaining good mechanical and electrochemical properties at reasonable cost and effort. Here, we report a simple method to fabricate structural supercapacitor using carbon fiber electrodes (modified by Ni-layered double hydroxide (Ni-LDH) and in-situ growth of Co-metal-organic framework (Co-MOF) in a two-step process denoted as Co-MOF/Ni-LDH@CF) and bicontinuousphase epoxy resin-based structural electrolyte. Co-MOF/Ni-LDH@CF as electrode material exhibits improved specific capacity (42.45 F·g−1) and cycle performance (93.3% capacity retention after 1000 cycles) in a three-electrode system. The bicontinuousphase epoxy resin-based structural electrolyte exhibits an ionic conductivity of 3.27 × 10−4 S·cm−1. The fabricated Co-MOF/Ni-LDH@CF/SPE-50 structural supercapacitor has an energy density of 3.21 Wh·kg−1 at a power density of 42.25 W·kg−1, whilst maintaining tensile strength and modulus of 334.6 MPa and 25.2 GPa. These results show practical potential of employing modified commercial carbon fiber electrodes and epoxy resin-based structural electrolytes in structural energy storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replacing fossil fuels with fuel cells is a feasible way to reduce global energy shortages and environmental pollution. However, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode has sluggish kinetics, which limits the development of fuel cells. It is significant to develop catalysts with high catalytic activity of ORR. The single-atom catalysts (SACs) of Pt supported on heteroatom-doped graphene are potential candidates for ORR. Here we studied the SACs of Pt with different heteroatoms doping and screened out Pt-C4 and Pt-C3O1 structures with only 0.13 V overpotential for ORR. Meanwhile, it is found that B atoms doping could weaken the adsorption capacity of Pt, while N or O atoms doping could enhance it. This regularity was verified on Fe SACs. Through the electronic interaction analysis between Pt and adsorbate, we explained the mechanism of this regularity and further proposed a new descriptor named corrected d-band center (εd-corr) to describe it. This descriptor is an appropriate reflection of the number of free electrons of the SACs, which could evaluate its adsorption capacity. Our work provides a purposeful regulatory strategy for the design of ORR catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple protocol has been proposed for the visible light-induced aromatic amidation reaction to afford 3,4-dihydroquinolin-2(1H)-ones. The amidation proceeded smoothly without any photocatalyst at room temperature, and the desired products were obtained in 46–72% yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the dynamic analysis of bladed rotors, bladed disks and rotors tend to be dealt with independently, where the former ones usually neglect the flexibility of shaft and the latter ones often assume the blade and disk to be rigid. This paper integrates these two aspects and presents a model order reduction method for bladed rotors supported by journal bearings. Methods: The coupling vibration characteristics of a bladed rotor-bearing system are addressed, where the mistuning in blades and disk is taken into account. The governing equations of motion of rotating bladed rotor-bearing systems are developed by employing 3D finite element (FE) model and the eight-coefficient model of bearing. The order of the model is significantly reduced before further analysis, and the mistuning in blades and disk are integrated into the reduced-order model (ROM). Results and Conclusion: The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by comparing with the full-order model. Numerical results shown that the flexibility of shaft can lead to significant influences on the responses of mistuned bladed disk, in both one engine order (EO) and higher EOs of excitations. Besides, the bearing stiffness and disk mistuning have also non-negligible effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy vehicles are regarded as an important measure for improving air quality, reducing oil dependence, fostering emerging industries, and promoting high-quality development. Since 2009, the Chinese government has been committed to promoting new energy vehicles through various policy measures, such as fiscal subsidies. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has brought great impact on the economy and society. Thus, it is a topic of research to determine if the fiscal subsidy policy can assist new energy vehicles to resist the pandemic's impact and build consumption resilience. Current researches lack enough attention to the role of fiscal subsidy policy in enhancing consumption resilience under the pandemic impact. By utilizing monthly sales data of new energy vehicles in Shanghai from January 2018 to February 2021, this study employs regression discontinuity (RD) analysis and the combination of the RD with the differences-in-differences (DID) model, to comprehensively evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new energy vehicle consumption and the effectiveness of fiscal subsidy policies in enhancing consumption resilience. The findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic shock, with a bandwidth of 3 months, led to a 23% decrease in new energy vehicles sales. In comparison with unsubsidized vehicles, sales of subsidized new energy vehicles significantly increased by 15–80% during the pandemic shock, indicating that fiscal subsidies are crucial in enhancing the consumption resilience of new energy vehicles. Compared with other country-specific new energy vehicles, the subsidy effect of domestic new energy vehicles is relatively inadequate during the pandemic shock. The retreat from subsidy policies has contributed to a decline in the consumption of new energy vehicles in response to the pandemic shock. It is necessary to further improve the consumption resilience of domestic new energy vehicles and pure electric vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unexpected surge of osteoporosis outpatients occurred after COVID-19 lockdown was lifted in China. To confirm the observation and identify possible reasons driving patients care seeking behaviors post-pandemic, we compared the outpatient volumes at the osteoporosis clinic in January through May, 2019–2022 and surveyed seven osteoporosis specialists across China to validate the phenomenon before devising an online questionnaire to collect patients' characters and physical activity levels. Univariate and binary logistic regression analyses were calculated to identify predictors of post-lockdown care-seeking. We received 480 valid responses, including 397 (82.7%) patients having visited the clinic after lockdown and 83 (17.3%) having not. Four significant predictors were identified, including being female, experiencing pain, aggravating symptoms, and heightened anxiety during lockdown (P < 0.05). Both groups experienced lower physical activity levels during lockdown, which however was not a significant predictor (P = 0.317). The surge in osteoporosis outpatient visits after COVID-19 lockdown suggests vast latent demand for osteoporosis care accumulated during the pandemic. Four significant factors predict post-lockdown outpatient care-seeking, including being female, experiencing pain and aggravating symptoms, and heightened anxiety levels. Though physical activity levels decreased during lockdown, it failed to predict care-seeking. This demonstrates resilience of osteoporosis patients to resume regular care despite disruption and stress the substantial backlog of unmet healthcare needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have indicated that functional abnormalities in the KNa1.2 channel are linked to epileptic encephalopathies. However, the role of KNa1.2 channel in traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains limited. We collected brain tissue from the TBI mice and patients with post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) to determine changes in KNa1.2 channel following TBI. We also investigated whether the MAPK pathway, which was activated by the released cytokines after injury, regulated KNa1.2 channel in in vitro. Finally, to elucidate the physiological significance of KNa1.2 channel in neuronal excitability, we utilized the null mutant-Kcnt2−/− mice and compared their behavior patterns, seizure susceptibility, and neuronal firing properties to wild type (WT) mice. TBI was induced in both Kcnt2−/− and WT mice to investigate any differences between the two groups under pathological condition. Our findings revealed that the expression of KNa1.2 channel was notably increased only during the acute phase following TBI, while no significant elevation was observed during the late phase. Furthermore, we identified the released cytokines and activated MAPK pathway in the neurons after TBI and confirmed that KNa1.2 channel was enhanced by the MAPK pathway via stimulation of TNF-α. Subsequently, compared to WT mice, neurons from Kcnt2−/− mice showed increased neuronal excitability and Kcnt2−/− mice displayed motor deficits and enhanced seizure susceptibility, which suggested that KNa1.2 channel may be neuroprotective. Therefore, this study suggests that enhanced KNa1.2 channel, facilitated by the inflammatory response, may exert a protective role in an acute phase of the TBI model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security of most quantum signatures cannot be proved with security model under chosen-message attack. No formal proof can prove that their security is fully dependent on the basic quantum theory. Based on the orthogonal quantum state and key-controlled quantum hash function, an arbitrated quantum signature is proposed. In this scheme, the signatory produces the quantum signature by quantum-encrypting the output of key-controlled quantum hash function. The signature verification is performed by decrypting the signed message and comparing the decrypted message with the output of the key-controlled quantum hash function. The security of the proposed scheme depends on the indistinguishability of the unknown quantum sequence. Its unforgeability can be formally proved with security model under chosen-message attack. Therefore, its security can be supported by the formal proof. On the other hand, in the proposed scheme, no entangled state is used. It also has better qubit efficiency as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asthma exacerbations caused by respiratory viral infections are a serious global health problem. Impaired antiviral immunity is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis, but the underlying mechanisms remain understudied. Here using mouse models we find that Cullin5 (CUL5), a key component of Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase 5, is upregulated and associated with increased neutrophil count and influenza-induced exacerbations of house dust mite-induced asthma. By contrast, CUL5 deficiency mitigates neutrophilic lung inflammation and asthma exacerbations by augmenting IFN-β production. Mechanistically, following thymic stromal lymphopoietin stimulation, CUL5 interacts with O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and induces Lys48-linked polyubiquitination of OGT, blocking the effect of OGT on mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein O-GlcNAcylation and RIG-I signaling activation. Our results thus suggest that, in mouse models, pre-existing allergic injury induces CUL5 expression, impairing antiviral immunity and promoting neutrophilic inflammation for asthma exacerbations. Targeting of the CUL5/IFN-β signaling axis may thereby serve as a possible therapy for treating asthma exacerbations.Asthma may be exacerbated by respiratory viral infection, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms are still unclear. Here the authors show, using mouse models of asthma with influenza infection, that asthma-induced cullin5 in alveolar macrophages suppresses IFN-β production to promote neutrophilic inflammation but dampens antiviral immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious public health problem worldwide, which could lead to an extremely high percentage of mortality and disability. Current treatment strategies mainly concentrate on neuronal protection and reconstruction, among them, exogenous neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation has long been regarded as the most effective curative treatment. However, due to secondary trauma, transplant rejection, and increased incidence of brain malignant tumor, a non-invasive therapy that enhanced endogenous neurogenesis was more suitable for TBI treatment. Our previous work has shown that miR-132 overexpression could improve neuronal differentiation of NSCs in vitro and in vivo. So, we engineered a new kind of AAV vector named AAV-PHP.eB which can transfect brain parenchyma through intravenous injection to overexpress miR-132 in brain after TBI. We found that miR-132 overexpression could reduce impact volume, promote neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG), accelerate neuroblast migrating into the impact cortex, ameliorate microglia-mediated inflammatory reaction, and ultimately restore learning memory function. Our results revealed that AAV-PHP.eB-based miR-132 overexpression could improve endogenous tissue repairment and release clinical symptoms after traumatic brain injury. This work would provide a new therapeutic strategy for TBI treatment and other neurological disorders characterized by markable neuronal loss and memory impairment. miR-132 overexpression accelerates endogenous neurogenesis and releases TBI-induced tissue repairment and memory impairment. Controlled cortical impact onto the cortex would induce serious cortical injury and microglia accumulation in both cortex and hippocampus. Moreover, endogenous neuroblast could migrate around the injury core. miR-132 overexpression could accelerate neuroblast migration toward the injury core and decreased microglia accumulation in the ipsilateral cortex and hippocampus. miR-132 could be a suitable target on neuroprotective therapy after TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, a full-scale ten-story reinforced concrete (RC) building structure was tested on the E-Defense shake table, the recorded test data from which provided a unique benchmark case to validate a state-of-the-art modeling approach. This paper presents the development and validation of a finite element model of the test building structure established on the OpenSees platform. In this model, RC beams and columns were simulated using the fiber-based beam-column element, and shear walls were modeled with the multi-layer shell element. The numerical model provided a reasonable estimate of the observed global responses of the test structure, including peak inter-story drifts and floor accelerations, for the wall direction. The multi-layer shell element effectively tracked the local strain, flexural and shear deformations of RC walls. Although the numerical model reasonably captured responses for the frame direction under base fixed JMA-Kobe 50% shaking, the simulation of RC frames was less accurate for base fixed JMA-Kobe 100% shaking when the test structure experienced significant damage at the maximum inter-story drift of 2.9%. Finally, a couple of important modeling issues for RC structure were discussed, including beam-column joint modeling and damping modeling. Use of the scissors model to represent the beam-column joints led to an improved estimation of the inter-story drifts of stories where the beam-to-column joints experienced severe damage. A transient Rayleigh damping model, in which a tangent stiffness matrix was used to formulate a system damping matrix, was recommended for structural nonlinear response history analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation is important for the accuracy of target detection. Semantic labels are difficult to obtain for real driving; however, they are easy to obtain in virtual datasets. So this paper presents an adaptive joint training strategy based on real and virtual datasets: (1) building multi-modal fusion networks using image, depth and semantic information. (2) A joint training strategy of virtual and real datasets and data sharing is used for semantic information, and an adaptive optimizer is provided. The monocular detection network obtained by training with this strategy has a large improvement in its effectiveness relative to the conventional network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To design and apply liquid Pb as coolant in nuclear reactors, it is important to understand its atomic behaviors with the steel container through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A reliable and capable Fe–Pb potential is the key to the MD simulations. In this work, an analytical bond-order potential (BOP) of Fe–Pb has been constructed through the data-fitting of various phases from experiments and first-principles calculations. The newly constructed potential has a better performance in predicting different Fe–Pb phases than the Fe–Pb potentials already published in the literature. Molecular dynamics simulations based on this BOP have been conducted to study the effect of Pb on bulk and grain boundary of BCC and FCC iron. For bulk iron, it is found that of the addition of Pb decreases the elastic constants, elastic moduli, and ductility of BCC Fe more significant than that of FCC Fe. The calculations of two typical tilt symmetrical grain boundaries of Fe and Fe96Pb4 indicate that the appearance of Pb would cause a more considerable brittleness for BCC Fe than that for FCC Fe. The obtained results are in good agreement with similar experimental observations in the literature, which not only provides a strong support to the reliability of newly constructed Fe–Pb potential, but sheds lights on the understanding of mechanical properties of Fe–Pb system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graph is 1-planar if it can be drawn in the Euclidean plane so that each edge is crossed by at most one other edge. A 1-planar graph on n vertices is optimal if it has 4n − 8 edges. We prove that 1-planar graphs with girth at least 6 are (1,1,1,1)-colorable (in the sense that each of the four color classes induces a subgraph of maximum degree one). Inspired by the decomposition of 1-planar graphs, we conjecture that every 1-planar graph is (2,2,2,0,0)-colorable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are with features of persistence, high toxicity, bioaccumulation and adverse impact on ecosystems and human beings. Although OCPs pollutions have been observed in the plateau lakes, comprehensive understandings in the distribution characteristics and human health risks of OCPs in these valuable but fragile ecosystems are limited. We here investigated the distribution, bioaccumulation process and health risks of OCPs in the Jianhu lake, a representative plateau lake in China. The endrin ketone, endrin aldehyde and heptachlor were the most dominant species in surface and columnar sediments. Their total contents ranged between 0 ~ 1.92 × 103 ng·g−1. The distribution of OCPs in sediment cores combined with chronology information indicated that the fast accumulation of OCPs happened during the last decades. Combining the distribution features of OCPs in different sources with mixing model results of carbon isotope (δ13C), farming area was identified as the main source (46%), and the OCPs were transported to lake by inflow-rivers (37%). The enrichment of OCPs in sediments caused considerable bioaccumulation of OCPs in local fish (∑OCPs 0–3199.93 ng·g−1, dw) with the bio-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) ranging from ND to 9.41. Moreover, growing time was another key factor governing the accumulation in specific species (Carassius auratus and Cyprinus carpio). Eventually, the carcinogenic risk index (CRI) and exposure risk index (ERI) of the endrin category and aldrin exceeded the reference value, indicating relatively high health risks through consumption of fish. Overall, this study systematically illustrated the bioaccumulation process and health risks of OCPs in the typical plateau lake, providing theoretical support for the better protection of this kind of lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly and gained resistance to multiple therapeutics targeting the virus. Development of host-directed antivirals offers broad-spectrum intervention against different variants of concern. Host proteases, TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB cleave the SARS-CoV-2 spike to play a crucial role in the two alternative pathways of viral entry and are characterized as promising pharmacological targets. Here, we identify compounds that show potent inhibition of these proteases and determine their complex structures with their respective targets. Furthermore, we show that applying inhibitors simultaneously that block both entry pathways has a synergistic antiviral effect. Notably, we devise a bispecific compound, 212-148, exhibiting the dual-inhibition ability of both TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB, and demonstrate antiviral activity against various SARS-CoV-2 variants with different viral entry profiles. Our findings offer an alternative approach for the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals, as well as application for broad-spectrum treatment of viral pathogenic infections with similar entry pathways. TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB, host proteases that facilitate SARS-CoV-2 entry, are promising drug targets. Here the authors simultaneously inhibit these host proteases and see synergistic antiviral effects, offering a broad-spectrum intervention against SARS-CoV-2 variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spin Hall resonance effect (SHRE) characterized by a large spin Hall conductivity (SHC) holds immense promise for achieving spin logic and memory devices. However, the identification of a material capable of achieving intrinsic SHRE remains elusive. Herein, we present compelling evidence of intrinsic SHRE within the Bi-based Janus BiXY (X = S, Se and Te; Y = Cl, Br and I) monolayers through first-principles calculations and an effective Hamiltonian model. We attribute the unusual scenario to the warping effect in the Janus monolayers which induces a non-zero out-of-plane spin component, accompanied by additional Rashba degenerate points. Furthermore, we develop a comprehensive effective Rashba Hamiltonian, incorporating high order terms of k to accurately describe the intrinsic SHRE and establish the resilience of this phenomenon in the Janus monolayers. Our study presents a captivating platform for exploring intrinsic SHRE and opens up exciting avenues for the development of novel spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex hydraulic fracture networks are critical for enhancing permeability in unconventional reservoirs and mining industries. However, accurately simulating the fluid flow in realistic fracture networks (compared to the statistical fracture networks) is still challenging due to the fracture complexity and computational burden. This work proposes a simple yet efficient numerical framework for the flow simulation in fractured porous media obtained by 3D high-resolution images, aiming at both computational accuracy and efficiency. The fractured rock with complex fracture geometries is numerically constructed with a cell-based discrete fracture-matrix model (DFM) having implicit fracture apertures. The flow in the complex fractured porous media (including matrix flow, fracture flow, as well as exchange flow) is simulated with a pipe-based cell-centered finite volume method. The performance of this model is validated against analytical/numerical solutions. Then a lab-scale true triaxial hydraulically fractured shale sample is reconstructed, and the fluid flow in this realistic fracture network is simulated. Results suggest that the proposed method achieves a good balance between computational efficiency and accuracy. The complex fracture networks control the fluid flow process, and the opened natural fractures behave as primary fluid pathways. Heterogeneous and anisotropic features of fluid flow are well captured with the present model. Highlights: Simple yet efficient method for fluid flow simulation in digital fracture network Fracture representation using a cell-based DFM with implicit fracture aperture A pipe-based cell-centered finite volume method for fluid seepage simulation Achieve a good balance between computational efficiency and accuracy Capture heterogeneous and anisotropic fluid flow characteristics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks have recently gained attention in photocatalysis. However, their use in CO2 photoreduction is yet to be reported. Moreover, facile preparation of metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks with good crystallinity remains considerably challenging. Herein, we report a series of metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks produced via a one-step synthesis strategy that does not require vacuum evacuation. Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks possessing controllable coordination environments of mononuclear and binuclear metal sites are obtained and act as photocatalysts for tunable syngas production from CO2. Metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks obtained via one-step synthesis exhibit higher crystallinity and catalytic activities than those obtained from two-step synthesis. The optimal framework material containing cobalt and triazine achieves a syngas production rate of 19.7 mmol g−1 h−1 (11:8 H2/CO), outperforming previously reported porous crystalline materials. This study provides a facile strategy for producing metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks of high quality and can accelerate their exploration in various applications. Here, the authors report a gram-scale, one-step synthesis of metallosalen-covalent organic frameworks (M(salen)-COFs) without vacuum evacuation. M(salen)-COFs exhibit good crystallinity and adjustable activities in CO2 photoreduction to syngas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the effect of mining dynamic response characteristics on the footwall working face of the normal fault under the influence of the gob area, theoretical research, indoor experiment, and numerical simulation are adopted to analyze the stress manifestation characteristics, overburden movement, and energy evolution characteristics during the process of mining. The results show that: (1) In the process of mining toward the fault, the working face shows the change characteristics of "stable-activation mutation-final stability". At 20 m from the fault, the arch structure of the working face was damaged, fissures appeared near the high fault fracture zone, and the displacement of the overburden rock increased significantly; (2) the maximum value was reached at 4–8 m from the coal wall, and the superposition of tectonic stress and mining stress led to the concentration of the stress and energy accumulating on the top plate near the fault, and the data close to the gob area were even larger; (3) If the plastic damage zone of the high-level rock layer on the hanging wall and footwall of the fault appears to have a wide range of penetration, and the area formed between the shear displacement curve of the fault plane and the X-axis appears to have a significant enhancement, it is considered that the fault has been activated; (4) The size of the coal pillar of the fault is determined to be 40 m, and combined with the pressure unloading technique of the variable-diameter drilling hole, the validation is carried out through the micro-vibration monitoring, and the results of which can be used as a reference for the safety of the working face under similar conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) exposure has a negative impact on the environment and biological health. However, the relationship between PFOS exposure and diabetes in adults is not clear. Objective: In this study, we included two distinct components: (1) in the cross-sectional analysis, we used data from the National Health and Nutrition Inspection Survey (NHANES) from 2015 to 2018 and eventually included 2539 subjects. The association between PFOS exposure and the risk of diabetes in adults was assessed by a logistic regression model, and further subgroup analysis was carried out according to sex, hypertension status and high cholesterol status. We adjusted for all covariates and found that the positive association between higher PFOS exposure and diabetes remained stable. (2) In vitro experiments were conducted as follows, rat insulinoma β cells (INS-1) were used as experimental materials; cell proliferation activity was detected using the MTT assay; quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of insulin; and Western blotting was used to detect insulin protein expression levels. Results: Compared with Q1, the OR of the highest exposure level group (Q4) of PFOS was 1.342(95% CI 0.940, 1.916). We conducted a logistic regression analysis based on sex, hypertension, and high cholesterol stratification. Stratified by sex, we found that the exposure level of PFOS was significantly positively associated with diabetes (P for trend < 0.05). Subgroup analysis showed that the positive association between PFOS exposure and diabetes was more significant in nonhypertensive individuals (P for trend < 0.01) and those with normal cholesterol levels (P for trend < 0.001). To further determine the causal relationship between PFOS exposure and diabetes, we used rat insulinoma β cells (INS-1) as experimental materials to study the effect of PFOS exposure on insulin secretion. We found that PFOS exposure significantly affected insulin secretion and insulin mRNA and protein expression. Conclusions: In summary, PFOS exposure is positively associated with the risk of diabetes. However, further studies are needed to confirm our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]