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Research on the preparation of diallyl sulfides and selenides is always an important challenge among chemists because these compounds are of high biological, pharmaceutical, industrial and chemical importance. For this purpose, in this attractive and highly efficient approach, we wish to report that copper (I) chloride immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles modified with benzothiazole–pyrimidine ligand (Fe3O4@BTH-Pyr-CuCl) is a novel and efficient magnetically recoverable catalyst for C–S and C–Se bonds formation through reaction of a category of heterocyclic compounds with aryl iodides, sulfur and selenium sources. The structure of Fe3O4@BTH-Pyr-CuCl nanocatalyst was well identified with FT-IR, SEM, TEM, EDX, elemental mapping, TGA, XRD, VSM and ICP-OES techniques. The recycling tests confirmed that the Fe3O4@BTH-Pyr-CuCl nanocatalyst was reused for 6 times without considerable reduction in its activity. This method is almost better than other methods reported in the literature for C–S and C–Se coupling of heterocycles for the following reasons, such as the use of an environmentally friendly solvent, high yields of products, the use of a catalyst that can be separated and reused and the performance of the reaction in a shorter time, presentation of well-analysis for catalyst and full NMR for products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To appropriately connect good simulation of rockfill material stress–strain behavior at element level with good simulation of dam deformation, a practical nonlinear elastic EBD constitutive model is developed by introducing dilatancy into the traditional Duncan–Chang EB model. Based on the dam deformation monitoring data of the 164.8 m high Aertashi concrete face rockfill dam and particle swarm optimization, five inversion cases are designed to obtain the optimal EB and EBD model parameters that achieve the best fit with monitoring data. The traditional EB model is shown to have difficulties in achieving good simulation for both settlement and horizontal displacement of rockfill dams, especially in terms of their distribution, whereas the EBD model can simulate both settlement and horizontal displacement well. More importantly, the EB model parameters that allow for acceptable simulation of dam deformation result in poor simulation of element level stress–strain behavior of the gravelly sand, rockfill, and overburden materials. In contrast, the EBD model can achieve good simulation of dam deformation and element level stress–strain behavior simultaneously, paving the way for accurate dam deformation prediction based on model parameters calibrated via triaxial tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale and objectives: The study aimed to investigate whether dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI parameters and preoperative radiological features (DCER-Features) add value to the clinicopathologic model for predicting metachronous metastases in rectal cancer patients. Materials and methods: From January 2014 to December 2020, 859 patients in the PACS system were retrospectively screened. Of the initial 722 patients with surgically confirmed rectal cancer and no synchronous metastases, 579 patients were excluded for various reasons such as lack of clinicopathological or radiological information. 143 patients were finally included in this study. And 73 Patients of them developed metachronous metastasis within five years. After stepwise multiple regression analyses, we constructed three distinct models. Model 1 was developed solely based on clinicopathological factors, and model 2 incorporated clinicopathological characteristics along with DCE-MRI parameters. Finally, model 3 was built on all available factors, including clinicopathological characteristics, DCE-MRI parameters, and radiological features based on rectal magnetic resonance imaging. The radiological features assessed in this study encompass tumor imaging staging, location, and circumferential resection margin (CRM) for primary tumors, as well as the number of visible lymph nodes and suspected metastatic lymph nodes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and decision curve analysis (DCA) were conducted to evaluate whether the diagnostic efficiency was improved. Results: The performance of model 3 (including clinicopathologic characteristics and DCER-Features) was the best (AUC: 0.856, 95% CI 0.778–0.886), whereas it was 0.796 (95% CI 0.720–0.828) for model 2 and 0.709 (95% CI 0.612–0.778) for model 1 (DeLong test: model 1 vs model 2, p = 0.004; model 2 vs model 3, p = 0.037; model 1 vs model 3, p < 0.001). The decision curves indicated that the net benefit of model 3 was higher than the other two models at each referral threshold. The calibration plot of the three models revealed an excellent predictive accuracy. Conclusion: This study suggests that DCER-Features have added value for the clinicopathological model to predict metachronous metastasis in patients with rectal cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the influence of the cosmological constant on black hole images, we have developed a comprehensive analytical method for simulating images of Kerr–de Sitter black holes illuminated by equatorial thin accretion disks. Through the application of explicit equations, we simulate images of Kerr–de Sitter black holes illuminated by both prograde and retrograde accretion disks, examining the impact of the cosmological constant on their characteristic curves, relative sizes, and observed intensities. Our findings reveal that, in comparison to Kerr black holes, the cosmological constant not only diminishes the relative size of a black hole but also amplifies its luminosity. Moreover, an observer’s relative position in the universe ( r 0 / r C ) can influence both the relative size and luminosity of a black hole, where r 0 is the distance from the observer to the black hole, r C is the cosmological horizon determined by the value of the cosmological constant Λ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cecropin A (1–7) is a cationic antimicrobial peptide which contain lots of basic amino acids. To understand the effect of basic amino acids on cecropin A (1–7), analogues CA2, CA3 and CA4 which have more arginine or lysine at the N-terminal or C-terminal were designed and synthesized. The interaction of cecropin A (1–7) and its analogs with DNA was studied using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Multispectral analysis showed that basic amino acids improved the interaction between the analogues and DNA. The interaction between CA4 and DNA is most pronounced. Fluorescence spectrum indicated that Ksv value of CA4 is 1.19 × 105 L mol−1 compared to original peptide cecropin A (1–7) of 3.73 × 104 L mol−1. The results of antimicrobial experiments with cecropin A (1–7) and its analogues showed that basic amino acids enhanced the antimicrobial effect of the analogues. The antimicrobial activity of CA4 against E. coli was eightfold higher than that of cecropin A (1–7). The importance of basic amino acid in peptides is revealed and provides useful information for subsequent studies of antimicrobial peptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning technology has been employed for precise medical image segmentation in recent years. However, due to the limited available datasets and real-time processing requirement, the inherently complicated structure of deep learning models restricts their application in the field of medical image processing. In this work, we present a novel lightweight LMU-Net network with improved accuracy for medical image segmentation. The multilayer perceptron (MLP) and depth-wise separable convolutions are adopted in both encoder and decoder of the LMU-Net to reduce feature loss and the number of training parameters. In addition, a lightweight channel attention mechanism and convolution operation with a larger kernel are introduced in the proposed architecture to further improve the segmentation performance. Furthermore, we employ batch normalization (BN) and group normalization (GN) interchangeably in our module to minimize the estimation shift in the network. Finally, the proposed network is evaluated and compared to other architectures on publicly accessible ISIC and BUSI datasets by carrying out robust experiments with sufficient ablation considerations. The experimental results show that the proposed LMU-Net can achieve a better overall performance than existing techniques by adopting fewer parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profound impact of excited magnetic states on the intricate interplay between electron and lattice behaviors in magnetic materials is a topic of great interest. Unfortunately, despite the significant strides that have been made in first-principles methods, accurately tracking these phenomena remains a challenging and elusive task. The crux of the challenge that lies before us is centered on the intricate task of characterizing the magnetic configuration of an excited state, utilizing a first-principle approach that is firmly rooted in the ground state of the system. We propose a versatile self-adaptive spin-constrained density functional theory formalism. By iteratively optimizing the constraining field alongside the electron wave function during energy minimization, we are able to obtain an accurate potential energy surface that captures the longitudinal and transverse variations of magnetization in itinerant ferromagnetic Fe. Moreover, this technique allows us to identify the subtle coupling between magnetic moments and other degrees of freedom by tracking energy variation, providing new insights into the intricate interplay between magnetic interactions, electronic band structure, and phonon dispersion curves in single-layered CrI 3 . This new methodology represents a significant breakthrough in our ability to probe the complex and multifaceted properties of magnetic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu-based tandem catalysis provides an efficient route to boost production of C2+ products for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR), but colloidally synthesized Cu NPs are still less explored in tandem electrocatalyst design. A Cu-based tandem catalyst was constructed in hexane by assembling colloidal Cu NPs and Ni–N–C nanocarbon with tunable Cu NPs/Ni–N–C mass ratios, of which colloidal Cu NPs are homogeneously distributed over Ni–N–C nanocarbon. The Cu NPs/Ni–N–C tandem catalysts have been fully characterized by TEM, PXRD and XPS. In the H-type cell, the CO2RR contrast experiments verified that the optimized Cu NPs/Ni–N–C composite produced tandem effect in generating C2H4, benefiting from which a fourfold promotion in faradaic efficiency, and fivefold enhancement in partial current density were achieved compared to the reference Cu NPs/Vulcan carbon. Finally, the post-CO2RR Cu NPs/Ni–N–C catalysts were also measured by CV, EIS, TEM and XPS to further understand the change of tandem catalyst during CO2RR. An efficient Cu-based tandem catalyst was designed by compositing colloidal Cu NPs and Ni–N–C nanocarbon, which boosts cascade production of C2H4 from electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Miltefosine is the first and only oral medication to be successfully utilized as an antileishmanial agent. However, the drug is associated with differences in exposure patterns and cure rates among different population groups e.g. ethnicity and age (i.e., children v adults) in clinical trials. In this work, mechanistic population physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models have been developed to study the dose-exposure–response relationship of miltefosine in in silico clinical trials and evaluate the differences in population groups, particularly children and adults. Methods: The Simcyp population pharmacokinetics platform was employed to predict miltefosine exposure in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a virtual population under different dosing regimens. The cure rate of a simulation was based on the percentage of number of the individual virtual subjects with AUCd0-28 > 535 µg⋅day/mL in the virtual population. Results: It is shown that both adult and paediatric PBPK models of miltefosine can be developed to predict the PK data of the clinical trials accurately. There was no significant difference in the predicted dose-exposure–response of the miltefosine treatment for different simulated ethnicities under the same dose regime and the dose-selection strategies determined the clinical outcome of the miltefosine treatment. A lower cure rate of the miltefosine treatment in paediatrics was predicted because a lower exposure of miltefosine was simulated in virtual paediatric in comparison with adult virtual populations when they received the same dose of the treatment. Conclusions: The mechanistic PBPK model suggested that the higher fraction of unbound miltefosine in plasma was responsible for a higher probability of failure in paediatrics because of the difference in the distribution of plasma proteins between adults and paediatrics. The developed PBPK models could be used to determine an optimal miltefosine dose regime in future clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel fault diagnosis method of gearbox based on Fourier Bessel series expansion-based empirical wavelet transform (FBEWT) and manifold regularization extreme learning machine (MRELM) is proposed to obtain excellent fault diagnosis results of gearbox in this paper. A new feature extraction strategy based on Fourier Bessel series expansion-based empirical wavelet transform is used to capture the key non-stationary features of the vibrational signal of gearbox, and significantly improve the diagnosis ability of gearbox. The ELM with manifold regularization is proposed for fault diagnosis of gearbox. In order to outstand the superiority and stability of the proposed FBEWT and manifold regularization ELM, the balanced dataset and unbalanced dataset, respectively, are used. The experimental results testify that FBEWT-MRELM are more superior and stable than FBEWT-ELM, EWT-MRELM, and EWT-ELM regardless of balanced dataset and unbalanced dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately detecting human actions in video has many applications, such as video surveillance and somatosensory games. In this paper, we propose a spatial-aware attention module (SAM) and a temporal-aware attention module (TAM) for spatio-temporal action detection in videos. SAM first concatenates the feature maps of consecutive frames on the channel and then uses dilated convolutional layer followed by a sigmoid function to generate a spatial attention map. The resulting attention map contains spatial information from consecutive frames, so it helps the detector focus on salient spatial features to achieve more accurate localization of action instances in consecutive frames. TAM deploys several fully connected layers to generate a temporal attention map. The temporal attention map focuses on the temporal association of each spatial feature; it can capture the temporal association of action instances, thereby improving the detector to track actions. To evaluate the effectiveness of SAM and TAM, we build an efficient and strong anchor-free action detector, cascading spatio-temporal attention network, equipped with a 2D backbone and SAM and TAM modules. Extensive experiments on two benchmarks, JHMDB and UCF101-24, demonstrate the preferable performance of SAM and TAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the multi-domain network scenario, in order to improve the survivability of service function chain (SFC) in the face of network failure, most methods solve this problem through virtual network function (VNF) backup mechanism. However, the traditional multi-domain SFC deployment method lacks a SFC partition mechanism for backup resource consumption and does not consider the isolation and privacy requirements between different network domains. In view of the above problems, this paper proposes a reliability partition scheme based on reinforcement learning in SFC partition stage, which can ensure that VNF is backed up while maintaining good load balancing and low inter-domain transmission delay, and improve the reliability of SFC. Then, this paper proposes a VNF backup mechanism with minimum resource fluctuation in the VNF mapping stage and uses the integer linear programming (ILP) model to determine the backup scheme of each VNF, so as to ensure the minimum fluctuation of resource occupancy of the entire network. Finally, this paper proposes a multi-domain SFC deployment and backup algorithm based on Federated learning (FA-MSDB). The experimental results indicate that FA-MSDB can effectively improve the survival rate of SFC, reduce the overall transmission delay, and ensure good inter-domain and intra-domain load balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground utility tunnels with various municipal pipelines inside provide convenience for cities and contribute to their sustainable development, but also bring potential fire risks. Previously, the relevant studies have predominately focused on horizontal section, while ignoring the influence of slope at the intersection of utility tunnels. In the present study, the smoke movement and temperature distribution were investigated in utility tunnel fires with five slopes and six heat release rates by numerical simulation. Four different sizes of pool fire experiments were also conducted in a full-scale utility tunnel. The results indicated that: (1) Smoke movement can be divided into five stages, including free rise, diffusion under inclined ceiling, diffusion under horizontal ceiling, flow back, and steady circulation. (2) Temperature upstream is larger than that downstream of the fire source, which is asymmetrically distributed and shows different characteristics with the change in slope. (3) Downstream ceiling temperature decreases gradually with increasing distance from the fire source. An empirical formula is proposed to predict the downstream maximum ceiling temperature rise considering the slope and dimensionless heat release rate. Good agreement was obtained between predicted and experimental values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel fault diagnosis method of gearbox based on Fourier Bessel series expansion-based empirical wavelet transform (FBEWT) and manifold regularization extreme learning machine (MRELM) is proposed to obtain excellent fault diagnosis results of gearbox in this paper. A new feature extraction strategy based on Fourier Bessel series expansion-based empirical wavelet transform is used to capture the key non-stationary features of the vibrational signal of gearbox, and significantly improve the diagnosis ability of gearbox. The ELM with manifold regularization is proposed for fault diagnosis of gearbox. In order to outstand the superiority and stability of the proposed FBEWT and manifold regularization ELM, the balanced dataset and unbalanced dataset, respectively, are used. The experimental results testify that FBEWT-MRELM are more superior and stable than FBEWT-ELM, EWT-MRELM, and EWT-ELM regardless of balanced dataset and unbalanced dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the lifespan of aged biodegradable mulch films from the perspective of realistic outdoor climate conditions is a challenge. However, it is worthwhile to determine the changes in their structure and stability. In this study, a talc-filled black poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/polylactide (PBAT/PLA) biodegradable mulch film was designed and mulched with shallow overburden soil to improve the anti-weathering characteristics of winter potatoes grown in southern China. This study focused on the weather resistance properties of biodegradable talc-filled PBAT/PLA-based mulch films. After 4 months of outdoor service, the elongation at break and tensile strength of talc-filled black PBAT/PLA films remained at 360 ± 250% and 15 ± 2.5 Mpa, respectively, with the number average molecular weight decreasing by 21.4% and the gel content increasing to 10%. Combining the results of microstructure analyses, molecular weight changes, thermodynamic properties, and mechanical and structural changes due to accelerated ageing under different indoor conditions, it was concluded that the maintenance of the mechanical properties of the mulch films could be attributed to the inhibition of random chain-breaking and heavy photo-crosslinking in the plastic film system. Our results using biodegradable films based on crop growth characteristics provide an effective strategy for extending the service life of biodegradable plastics and reducing the cost of biodegradable mulch films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pickering emulsion method is used to construct photo-responsive metal-free microcapsules comprising graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets dispersed in montmorillonite (Mt) colloidosomes. Morphology characterization revealed a spherical-shaped microcapsule with diameter ranges from 5 to 50 µm. Cr (VI) was employed as a target contaminant to evaluate the photocatalytic performance of the microcapsules. Batch investigation showed pH 3 to be the optimal condition with a complete Cr (VI) removal. XPS analysis proved that the as-prepared microcapsule is able to reduce Cr (VI) to Cr (III). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In principle, the local cosmic void can be simply modeled by the spherically symmetric Lemaitre–Tolman–Bondi (LTB) metric. In practice, the real local cosmic void is probably not spherically symmetric. In this paper, to reconstruct a more realistic profile of the local cosmic void, we divide it into several segments. Each segment with certain solid angle is modeled by its own LTB metric. Meanwhile, we divide the 1048 type Ia supernovae (SNIa) of the Pantheon Survey into corresponding subsets according to their distribution in the galactic coordinate system. Obviously, each SNIa subset can only be used to reconstruct the profile of one segment. Finally, we can patch together an irregular profile for the local cosmic void with the whole Pantheon sample. Note that, the paucity of each data subset lead us to focus on the inner part of each void segment and assume that the half radii of the void segments are sufficient to constrain the whole segment. We find that, despite 2 σ signals of anisotropy limited to the depth of the void segments, the constraints on every void segment are consistent with Λ CDM model at 95% CL. Moreover, our constraints are too weak to challenge the cosmic homogeneity and isotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our previous work, we have shown that nonlocal interactions in acoustic metamaterials can lead to highly unusual roton-like dispersion relations exhibiting a minimum of frequency versus wavenumber similar to that of superfluid Helium-4. However, this behavior was limited to only one or two propagation directions of sound. Here, we design a three-dimensional cubic-symmetry airborne acoustic metamaterial with nonlocal interactions along three orthogonal directions. By using numerical finite-element calculations, we show that the metamaterial supports roton-like behavior along all three orthogonal directions, but the behavior is far from isotropic. We compare these calculations with a simplified semi-analytical model, leading to good overall agreement. Corresponding experiments appear in reach, but are demanding due to the required dense and complex three-dimensional network of acoustic channels that connect compartments of air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Montmorillonite-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron composite functionalized by thiols (nZVI/Mt-SH) was synthesized by a two-step co-precipitation method for uranium (IV) removal from water. The SEM investigation showed that the morphology of nZVI/Mt was successfully modified by the (3-Mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane. The optimal adsorption efficiencies could be attributed to the synergetic behavior between SH-functionalized clay and iron nanoparticles. Analysis of the removal kinetics indicated the feature of monolayer chemisorption. The intraparticle diffusion exploration by Weber-Morris model illustrated a multi-phase removal process. This work suggests that the as-synthesized particles could be used as an efficient adsorbent to remove U(VI) from contaminated water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To compare the image quality of breath-hold magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (BH-MRCP) and respiratory-gating MRCP (RG-MRCP), and to explore breathing curve–based factors and patient-related data affecting image quality. Methods: A total of 126 participants who underwent RG-MRCP and BH-MRCP on a 3-T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner were enrolled from May to December 2021. The images were evaluated by three radiologists on a 5-point scale. Respiratory parameters were extracted from the breathing curves. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare the image quality between the two MRCPs. Logistic regression analyzes were performed to identify age, sex, abdominal pain, and breathing predictor variables of better image quality. Results: BH-MRCP performed better in visualizing intrahepatic bile ducts and overall image quality than RG-MRCP (p < 0.01). Factors predicting relatively good image quality included lower standard deviation of the respiratory amplitude (SDamp)-minimum-peak (odds ratio = 0.16, p < 0.01) for RG-MRCP and lower SDamp (OR = 0.69, p < 0.01) for BH-MRCP. Conclusions: BH-MRCP had significantly better overall image quality than RG-MRCP. Respiratory conditions exerted a significant impact on MRCP image quality, and parameters derived from the breathing curve could help predict the image quality of both sequences. Key Points: • Both breath-hold (BH) and respiratory-gating (RG) MRCP demonstrate satisfying image quality. • BH-GRASE-MRCP is significantly better than RG-MRCP at the group level, but not for every individual. • Respiratory conditions exert a significant impact on the image quality, and the breathing curve can help predict the image quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panicle structure is one of the most important agronomic traits directly related to rice yield. This study identified a rice mutant basal primary branch 1 (bpb1), which exhibited a phenotype of reduced panicle length and arrested basal primary branch development. In addition, lignin content was found to be increased while cellulose content was decreased in bpb1 young panicles. Map-based cloning methods characterized the gene BPB1, which encodes a peptide transporter (PTR) family transporter. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the BPB1 family is highly conserved in plants, especially the PTR2 domain. It is worth noting that BPB1 is divided into two categories based on monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants. Transcriptome analysis showed that BPB1 mutation can promote lignin synthesis and inhibit cellulose synthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, cell cycle, expression of various plant hormones, and some star genes, thereby inhibiting rice panicle length, resulting in basal primary branch development stagnant phenotypes. In this study, BPB1 provides new insights into the molecular mechanism of rice panicle structure regulation by BPB1 by regulating lignin and cellulose content and several transcriptional metabolic pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous theory and experiment has shown that introducing strong (nonlocal) beyond-nearest-neighbor interactions in addition to (local) nearest-neighbor interactions into rationally designed periodic lattices called metamaterials can lead to unusual wave dispersion relations of the lowest band. For roton-like dispersions, this especially includes the possibility of multiple solutions for the wavenumber at a given frequency. Here, we study the one-dimensional frequency-dependent acoustical phonon transmission of a slab of such nonlocal metamaterial in a local surrounding. In addition to the usual Fabry-Perot resonances, we find a series of bound states in the continuum. In their vicinity, sharp Fano-type transmission resonances occur, with sharp zero-transmission minima next to sharp transmission maxima. Our theoretical discussion starts with a discrete mass-and-spring model. We compare these results with solutions of a generalized wave equation for heterogeneous nonlocal effective media. We validate our findings by numerical calculations on three-dimensional metamaterial microstructures for one-dimensional acoustical wave propagation. Here, the authors report phonon transmission through a nonlocal material slab embedded in a local material and perform an analysis based on a one-dimensional mass-and-spring model. Evidence of rich phonon behaviours, including sharp resonances related to bound-states-in-the-continuum, are found and reproduced by a developed higher-order-gradient effective medium theory for nonlocal materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its automatic feature learning ability and high performance, deep learning has gradually become the mainstream of artificial intelligence in recent years, playing a role in many fields. Especially in the medical field, the accuracy rate of deep learning even exceeds that of doctors. This paper introduces several deep learning algorithms: Artificial Neural Network (NN), FM-Deep Learning, Convolutional NN and Recurrent NN, and expounds their theory, development history and applications in disease prediction; we analyze the defects in the current disease prediction field and give some current solutions; our paper expounds the two major trends in the future disease prediction and medical field—integrating Digital Twins and promoting precision medicine. This study can better inspire relevant researchers, so that they can use this article to understand related disease prediction algorithms and then make better related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of quantitative MRI in the differentiation of bladder paraganglioma from bladder leiomyoma. Methods: From 2014 to 2021, 11 patients with bladder paraganglioma and 14 patients with bladder leiomyoma confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively collected. All patients underwent multiparametric scanning with a 3.0 T MR system. Quantitative parameters including the SI-ratio on T1WI between the solid component of tumours and piriformis, ADC value and E-rate of the solid component of tumours were assessed. Independent sample t test or Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare these parameters between the two groups. The diagnostic efficiency of the parameters was examined using ROC curve analysis and the DeLong test. Results: There were significant differences in SI-ratio on T1WI (P < 0.001), ADC value (P = 0.002) and the E-rate (P = 0.040) between the paraganglioma group and the leiomyoma group. The cutoff value of SI-ratio on 3 leiomyoma was 1.241, and the AUC was 1.000 (0.858–1.000). The cutoff value of the ADC value was 0.979 × 10−3mm2/s, and the AUC was 0.907 (0.717–0.987). The cutoff value of E-rate was 98.7%, and the AUC was 0.714 (0.495–0.878). The AUCs of the SI-ratio on T1WI and ADC value were significantly higher than the E-rate AUC (P = 0.015 and 0.034, respectively). Conclusion: Quantitative MRI can effectively distinguish bladder paraganglioma from bladder leiomyoma with the SI-ratio on T1WI or ADC value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimum conditions of radio frequency explosion puffing (RFEP) of yam-wheat-cornstarch snacks were explored. The impact of electrode gap (180–190 mm), sample thickness (1–4 mm), and sample height (10–40 mm), on the heating rate and heating uniformity, was evaluated. The process parameters (puffing temperature: 60–100 °C; puffing pressure difference: 0.08–0.28 MPa; residence time: 5–25 min) for the production of snacks were optimized by using quadratic-orthogonal-rotation combination design (QORCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The quality of snacks was evaluated in terms of crispness, hardness, color difference ΔE, and moisture content. The best quality snacks were obtained with optimized conditions of electrode gap of 185 mm, geometry of 50 × 2 × 20 (length × thickness × height) mm, puffing temperature of 81 °C, puffing pressure difference of 0.17 MPa, and residence time of 16 min. The product qualities reached experimentally under the optimized conditions were 14 of crispness, 3117.36 g of hardness, 7.96 of color difference ΔE, and 12.88% (w. b.) of moisture content. Radio frequency explosion puffing could become a potential method for developing nutritious puffed snacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal action detection, aiming to determine the fragment and category of a human action simultaneously from continuous data stream, is still a challenge issue in the field of human–robot interaction, somatosensory game and security monitoring. In this paper, we present a novel one-stage skeleton-based TAD method, Action-CenterNet(ACNet) with a simple anchor-free and fully convolutional encoder-decoder pipeline. Our approach encodes skeleton position and motion data sequence from multiple persons into multi-channel skeleton images which are subsequently preprocessed by view invariant transform and translation-scale invariant. ACNet models each action fragment as a center point along the time dimension and generates a keypoint heatmap to locate and classify action fragments. To ensure the accurate temporal coordinates, the discretization error caused by the output stride of network is also learned. Compared with two-stage methods, ACNet is end-to-end differential and flexible. ACNet is also an anchor-free method avoiding the drawbacks of anchor boxes used in anchor-based TAD methods. Experimental results on PKU-MMD dataset, NTU RGB-D dataset and HITvs dataset reveal the excellent performance of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The gene qPE9-1, which encodes the G protein γ subunit, is important for nitrogen (N) use in rice and in regulating rice photosynthesis under elevated CO2 (eCO2). However, under a changing climate, the qPE9-1 response to combined increasing atmospheric CO2 (aCO2) and soil N availability is unclear. Therefore, we investigated the regulative roles of qPE9-1 in rice N use under eCO2. Methods: Wild-type (WT) and qPE9-1 RNAi rice plants were exposed to low (LN) and high (HN) N treatments under aCO2 (400 ppm) and eCO2 (800 ppm) in the growth chamber and the field Open-Top Chamber (OTC). Rice growth, net photosynthetic rate, and N uptake were determined in the growth chamber. Then, the OTC was used to evaluate to the combined impacts of eCO2 and N on rice yield. Results: Under HN conditions, the dry weight and net photosynthesis rate of WT plants was significantly increased under eCO2 compared with aCO2; however, there was no significant difference in the qPE9-1 RNAi lines. The CO2 and N levels had relatively minor effects on the carbon concentration of all plants. Regardless of the CO2 concentration, the N concentrations in the roots and leaves of all plants were significantly reduced under LN treatment compared with HN. Under LN conditions, eCO2 enhanced the N content of WT plants, but had no significant effects on the RNAi lines. The grain yield of WT plants was also significantly increased by eCO2 under HN treatment in the field OTC, whereas the RNAi lines were not affected. Conclusion: The G protein γ subunit qPE9-1 is involved in N uptake under elevated CO2; however, this response is affected by N levels. These findings provide useful information on efficient N management for adapting to the future CO2-enriched environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petrous bones and teeth are the skeletal elements most often targeted by researchers for ancient DNA (aDNA) extraction, and the sources of the majority of previously published ancient African genomes. However, the high temperature environments that characterise much of Africa often lead to poor preservation of skeletal remains. Here, we successfully reconstruct and analyse genome-wide data from the naturally mummified hair of a 4000-year-old individual from Sudan in northeastern Africa, after failed attempts at DNA extraction from teeth, petrous, and cranium of this and other individuals from the Kadruka cemeteries. We find that hair DNA extracted with an established single-stranded library protocol is unusually enriched in ultra-short DNA molecules and exhibits substantial interior molecular damage. The aDNA was nonetheless amenable to genetic analyses, which revealed that the genome is genetically indistinguishable from that of early Neolithic eastern African pastoralists located 2500 kms away. Our findings are consistent with established models for the southward dispersal of Middle Nile Valley pastoral populations to the Rift Valley of eastern Africa, and provide a possible genetic source population for this dispersal. Our study highlights the value of mummified hair as an alternate source of aDNA from regions with poor bone preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is one of the major pathogens responsible for hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). Many HFMD outbreaks have been reported throughout the world in the past decades. Compared with other viruses, EV-A71 infection is more frequently associated with severe neurological complications and even death in children. EV-A71 can also infect adults and cause severe complications and death, although such cases are very uncommon. Although fatal cases of EV-A71 infection have been reported, the underlying mechanisms of EV-A71 infection, especially the mode of viral spread into the central nervous system (CNS) and mechanisms of pulmonary edema, which is considered to be the direct cause of death, have not yet been fully clarified, and more studies are needed. Here, we first summarize the pathological findings in various systems of patients with fatal EV-A71 infections, focussing in detail on gross changes, histopathological examination, tissue distribution of viral antigens and nucleic acids, systemic inflammatory cell infiltration, and tissue distribution of viral receptors and their co-localization with viral antigens. We then present our conclusions about viral dissemination, neuropathogenesis, and the mechanism of pulmonary edema in EV-A71 infection, based on pathological findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II delta (CaMKIIδ) is the predominant cardiac isoform and it is alternatively spliced to generate multiple variants. Variable variants allow for distinct localization and potentially different functions in the heart. Dysregulation of CaMKIIδ splicing has been demonstrated to be involved in the pathogenesis of heart diseases, such as cardiac hypertrophy, arrhythmia, and diastolic dysfunction. However, the mechanisms that regulate CaMKIIδ are incompletely understood. Here, we show that RNA binding motif protein 24 (RBM24) is a key splicing regulator of CaMKIIδ. RBM24 ablation leads to the aberrant shift of CaMKIIδ towards the δ-C isoform, which is known to activate the L-type Ca current. In line with this, we found marked alteration in Ca2+ handling followed by prolongation of the ventricular cardiac action potential and QT interval in RBM24 knockout mice, and these changes could be attenuated by treatment with an inhibitor of CaMKIIδ. Importantly, knockdown of RBM24 in human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes showed similar electrophysiological abnormalities, suggesting the important role of RBM24 in the human heart. Thus, our data suggest that RBM24 is a critical regulator of CaMKIIδ to control the cardiac QT interval, highlighting the key role of splicing regulation in cardiac rhythm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of vision-assisted robot automatic welding, splash and arc noise will interfere with the useful information in the image, which has a serious impact on the subsequent vision-based weld seam recognition and tracking algorithm. Although various methods have been proposed to achieve noise reduction, those are implemented from a perspective of image processing or intelligent algorithm. In this paper, we propose a pairwise response noise reduction model (PRNM) from the imaging perspective of seam tracking camera, which provides an image processing-free method to suppress welding splash and arc. Inverse response law and the loss function is established and solved by using singular value decomposition, and then the irradiance of reference scene is restored. A tone mapping approach is proposed based on the advantages of full-range compression and joint estimator, followed by mapping the obtained irradiance distribution to a high dynamic range (HDR) image. The grayscale correspondences of two reference images and the HDR image are reflected in the form of a two-dimensional lookup table (LUT). For welding noise characteristics, an alignment strategy is proposed to further correct the LUT to form a PRNM, which responds to all pairwise inputs with high computational efficiency. A batch of PRNMs have potential to form imaging solutions serving a welding process library. Experimental results reveal that the proposed model has a good effect in noise reduction, and the real-time performance is suitable for weld seam tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cyclic loading frequency (fcyc) effects on the resilient modulus (Mr) of freezing–thawing coarse–fine mixtures geomaterials (FTCFG) have always been a research hotspot. A series of long-term cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on FTCFG having different fines content (FC) under different number of freeze–thaw cycles (NFT) to investigate the effect of fcyc and deviator stress amplitude (qcyc) on the Mr of FTCFG. The freezing–thawing cyclic was found to improve the Mr of FTCFG. Additionally, Mr of FTCFG shown an obviously rate-dependent characteristics. Then three kinetic effects (rate effect, piston effect, and fatigue effect) are discussed in systemically which are related to qcyc, fcyc and moisture holding capacity (wh). Finally, a rate dependent model of long-term resilient modulus was developed to predict FTCFG materials' resilient moduli as a function of qcyc, fcyc and wh. The comparisons between the calculation and experimental results reveal that the present model describes the Mr of FTCFG well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk aversion, which refers to the reluctant attitude of an economic agent to accept uncertain outcomes compared with a certain one even if the latter has a lower outcome in monetary value, plays a fundamental role in decision theory and risk management. This paper investigates how to measure different agents' risk-averse attitudes towards a risky situation consisting of multiple uncertain components under uncertainty theory. First, a general method to approximately compute the multivariate uncertain risk premium is proposed. Subsequently, the multivariate uncertain risk aversion is formally defined based on the multivariate uncertain risk premium, and the corresponding sufficient condition for utility functions being multivariate risk-averse is given. Its relation to Richard's correlation aversion under the framework of uncertainty theory is also discussed. Finally, the suggested theoretical findings are applied to an accounts receivables (ARs) pricing problem to exhibit their applicability. The results show that our method is more applicable in practice than the univariate approach. Moreover, for the AR financing, the AR owner should choose higher-credit trading partners and financial institutions with less risk aversion to cooperate for acquiring more cash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove the Möbius disjointness conjecture in short intervals for a class of skew products on the 2-torus, which includes Furstenberg's example of irregular flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable improvements in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) diagnostic and therapeutic strategy, the clinical prognosis of patients is far from satisfactory due to its recurrence and metastasis. Here, we attempted to explore the role of circMTO1 in RCC progression, and the underlying mechanism was further elucidated. We first detected the expression of circMTO1 in 90 pairs of RCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues using qRT-PCR. Besides, circMTO1, miR-211, miR-204 and KLF6 expression levels in RCC cells were also measured using qRT-PCR. MTT assay, cell migration, flow cytometry analysis, qRT-PCR and western blotting analysis were applied to evaluating the effect of circMTO1 in RCC cells. The bioinformatics analysis and the rescue experiment were devoted to the underlying mechanism. The results demonstrated CircMTO1 expression was significantly down-regulated in RCC tissues and cell lines. Besides, CircMTO1 inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, induced apoptosis in RCC cells. In addition, CircMTO1 serves as a sponge for miR-211 and miR-204, KLF6 is a direct target of miR-211 and miR-204. Furthermore, circMTO1 and KLF6 overexpression rescued the suppression of miR-211/204 in RCC cell proliferation. In short, circMTO1 repressed RCC progression by regulating KLF6 via sponging miR-211 and miR-204, which may provide new idea of diagnosis and treatment in renal cell carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nitrogen-doped carbon supported Co/Ni bimetallic catalyst 2wt%Co/Ni@NC-700-10 was prepared and found to be efficient in the reductive N-formylation of 2,4-diamino-5-nitroso-6-hydroxypyrimidine (DANHP) to 2,4-diamino-5-formyl-6-hydroxypyrimidine (DAFHP) for the synthesis of guanine. Under optimal conditions, the conversion of DANHP reached up to 95.6% with a DAFHP selectivity of 97.6%. The characterization results revealed that the cobalt/nickel nanoparticles of the catalyst uniformly dispersed and encapsulated in the nitrogen-dopped carbon, and the catalyst has the characters of large surface area, as well as uniform dispersion and small diameters of metal nanoparticles in the form of Co/Ni alloy, which endowed its good catalytic performance in the reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient SO42−–ZrO2–TiO2 super acid catalyst was fabricated via simple impregnation precipitation strategy and applied in one-step synthesis of adipicdihydrazide (ADH). The purity and yield of ADH reached up to 97.5 and 96.7% respectively without separation treatment. After five recycling of the catalyst, the ADH yield still remained 82%, revealing the excellent stability performance of SO42−–ZrO2–TiO2 catalyst. Further, the excellent catalytic performance could be attributed to (1) solid super acid existed in SO42−–ZrO2–TiO2; (2) robust SO42− maintained in ZrO2–TiO2; (3) the accelerated cleavage of C =O and improved nucleophilic attack reaction rate of hydrazine hydrate by vast proton produced. DFT calculation was employed to further analyze the electron cloud change of ZrO2–TiO2 with the SO42− introduction and calculate the adsorption energy barrier of SO42−–ZrO2–TiO2 for AA (− 2.08 eV). An efficient SO42−-ZrO2-TiO2 super acid catalyst was fabricated via simple impregnation precipitation strategy and applied in one-step synthesie of adipic dihydrazide. The resulting acidic centers of SO42−-ZrO2-TiO2 attracted electrons from surrounding water molecules to restore neutrality. Meanwhile, a large amount of H+ floated around in the reaction system, which could break the C=O double bond and improve the adipic acid conversion rate. The extreme catalytic activity was based on the fact that the electronic effects of SO42− and ZrO2-TiO2 facilitated the interaction with H+ in adipic acid and reduced hydrazine hydrate nucleophilic attack difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggested that anti-inflammatory microglia/macrophages (Mi/MΦ) play a role in “normal phagocytosis,” which promoted the rapid clearance of necrotic substances and apoptotic cells. More recently, a few studies have found that Mi/MΦ also play a role in “pathological phagocytosis” in the form of excessive or reduced phagocytosis, thereby worsening damage induced by CNS diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms and the Mi/MΦ subtypes related to this pathological phagocytosis are still unknown. Salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3), a member of the 5’ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) family, has been shown to regulate inflammation in several peripheral diseases. Whether SIK3 also regulates the inflammatory response in CNS diseases is currently unknown. Therefore, in this study, we created a transgenic tamoxifen-induced Mi/MΦ-specific SIK3 conditional knockout (SIK3-cKO) mouse to examine SIK3’s role in phagocytotic function induced by transient focal cerebral ischemia (tFCI). By single-cell RNA-seq, we found the pro-inflammatory Mi/MΦ phenotype performed an excessive phagocytotic function, but the anti-inflammatory Mi/MΦ phenotype performed a normal phagocytotic function. We found that SIK3-cKO caused Mi/MΦ heterogenization from the transitional phenotype to the anti-inflammatory phenotype after tFCI. This phenotypic shift corresponded with enhanced phagocytosis of both apoptotic and live neurons. Interestingly, SIK3-cKO enhanced normal phagocytosis of myelin debris but attenuating excessive phagocytosis of non-damaged myelin sheath, thereby protecting white matter integrity after tFCI. CD16, a pro-inflammation marker, was decreased significantly by SIK3-cKO and correlated with “excessive phagocytosis.” SIK3-cKO promoted long-term recovery of white matter function and neurological function as assessed with electrophysiological compound action potential (CAPs) and behavioral analysis. This study is the first to show a role of SIK3 in Mi/MΦ phagocytosis in CNS diseases, and reveals that promoting Mi/MΦ anti-inflammatory heterogenization inhibits “excessive phagocytosis” of live cells and facilitates “normal phagocytosis” of apoptotic cells. Therefore, inhibition of SIK3 in Mi/MΦ may be a potential therapeutic target in stroke and other CNS diseases with accompanying white matter destruction. In the acute stage of tFCI, Mi/MΦ polarized into different phenotypes. The pro-inflammatory Mi/MΦ phenotype performed an excessive phagocytotic function. In contrast, the anti-inflammatory Mi/MΦ phenotype performed a normal phagocytotic function. After tFCI, SIK3-cKO promoted anti-inflammatory phenotypic heterogenization of Mi/MΦ. SIK3-cKO promoted Mi/MΦ phagocytosis of apoptotic (normal phagocytosis) and living neuronal cell bodies (excessive phagocytosis) in gray matter. Interestingly, SIK3-cKO specifically increased normal phagocytosis of myelin debris concurrent with an attenuation of excessive phagocytosis of myelin sheath in white matter. These changes induced by SIK3-cKO were associated with protection of white matter integrity and long-term neurofunctional recovery after tFCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anisotropic conductivity and its temperature dependence of unintentionally doped and Fe-doped bulk (010) β-Ga2O3 were studied by using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) with the THz polarization being parallel to the [100] and the [001] directions. The responses to the THz waves were different along the a-axis and the c-axis, where the Drude and the Drude-Smith model were applied for fitting the data of these two axes, respectively. This suggests that the carriers travel along the a-axis as free carriers while those are highly localized along the c-axis. The unintentionally doped sample showed a unique temperature dependence, in particular, a decreasing trend of the real part of the complex conductivity with increasing temperature. This is attributed to carriers being completely thermally excited from shallow impurity levels, and afterward, the scattering behavior has been enhanced, causing the conductivity to decrease. Conversely, the Fe-doped sample showed little temperature dependence, indicating this sample to be thermally stable. Moreover, the mobility along the a-axis in the Fe-doped sample was estimated to be much higher than that along the c-axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon-based metal-free catalysts have emerged as a promising class of candidates to replace the precious metal catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, an efficient nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) co-doped nanocarbon electrocatalyst has been fabricated from ZIF-8 via strong host–guest chemical reactions, which involve disassembly–reassembly of ZIF-8 initiated by a reactive S-containing molecule of Ls (Ls = 4-(thiophen-2-yl) pyrimidine-2-thiol). In this case, Ls molecule with a strongly coordinative thiol group not only provides the S-heteroatoms but also rebuilds ZIF-8 to generate the precursor of Ls@ZIF-8, in which Ls exists in the form of Zn2+–Ls coordination assembly. This method renders homogeneous inclusion of S-source into ZIF-8 while maintaining the initial morphology of ZIF-8. By tuning the amount of Ls and annealing temperature, the optimal nitrogen and sulfur co-doped nanocarbon (designated as N-S-C-1) exhibits uniform N and S doping with an exceptionally high surface area (1658.8 m2/g) and pore volume (3.27 cm3/g), hierarchical porous structure as well as high electronic conductivity. In the alkaline electrolyte, N-S-C-1 achieves a comparable ORR activity to the benchmark Pt/C catalyst, but a better methanol tolerance and electrochemical stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks based object detection usually assumes that training and test data have the same distribution, which, however, does not always hold in real-world applications. In autonomous vehicles, the driving scene (target domain) consists of unconstrained road environments which cannot all possibly be observed in training data (source domain) and this will lead to a sharp drop in the accuracy of the detector. In this paper, we propose a domain adaptation framework based on pseudo-labels to solve the domain shift. First, the pseudo-labels of the target domain images are generated by the baseline detector (BD) and optimized by our data optimization module to correct the errors. Then, the hard samples in a single image are labeled based on the optimization results of pseudo-labels. The adaptive sampling module is approached to sample target domain data according to the number of hard samples per image to select more effective data. Finally, a modified knowledge distillation loss is applied in the retraining module, and we investigate two ways of assigning soft-labels to the training examples from the target domain to retrain the detector. We evaluate the average precision of our approach in various source/target domain pairs and demonstrate that the framework improves over 10% average precision of BD on multiple domain adaptation scenarios on the Cityscapes, KITTI, and Apollo datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most extensive and most deadly cancers in the world. Biomarkers for early diagnosis of HCC are still lacking, and noninvasive and effective biomarkers are urgently needed. Metabolomics is committed to studying the changes of metabolites under stimulation, and provides a new approach for discovery of potential biomarkers. In the current work, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics approach was utilized to explore the potential biomarkers in HCC progression, and the biomarker panel was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. Our results revealed that a biomarker panel consisting of hippurate, creatinine, putrescine, choline, and taurine might be involved in HCC progression. Functional pathway analysis showed that taurine and hypotaurine metabolism is markedly involved in the occurrence and development of HCC. Furthermore, our results indicated that the TPA activity and the level and expression of PKM2 were gradually increased in HCC progression. This research provides a scientific basis for screening potential biomarkers of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomistic simulations were performed to investigate the relationships among the misorientation, dislocation density, and grain boundary energy of twist and tilt bi-crystal grain boundaries. In this work, the grain boundary energies were calculated based on the embedded-atom method interatomic potential for Cu. The results show that the dislocation density of the grain boundary changes with the rotation angle, thereby affecting the grain boundary energy. Furthermore, the grain boundary energy of a grain boundary with no dislocations is greater than that of a grain boundary with dislocations, which results from the distribution of the atomic potential energy on the grain boundaries. Additionally, the grain boundary energy increases with the dislocation density of the grain boundary in the case of dislocations on the grain boundary. On this basis, a new relationship is proposed for the misorientation angle and grain boundary energy. We assume that when the driving force of dislocation nucleation breaks through the grain boundary energy barrier, the grain boundary energy declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a distorted black hole (BH), its ringdown waveform is a superposition of quasi-normal modes (QNMs). In general relativity (GR), the lower order QNM frequencies and damping rates can be well approximated by a polynomial of BH's dimensionless spin and overall scaled by BH's mass. That is to say, we can test the no-hair theorem of BH in GR model-independently by allowing not only an overall fractional deviation (as M. Isi et al. did) but also a set of fractional deviation for every coefficient. In the paper, we will apply the latter method to retest the no-hair theorem with GW150914 and probe hairs' behaviors if hairs exist. Eventually, we find the data favors GR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Polyaspartic Acid-Calcium (PASP-Ca) is a versatile and eco-friendly amino acid complex, primarily recognized for bolstering nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity. However, the core significance of this complex remains enigmatic in potato crop. We hypothesized that simultaneous application of PASP-Ca with potato genotypes characterized by substantial root systems and high genetic potentials for nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) would best address this knowledge gap.The synergistic effect of various PASP-Ca treatments on morph physiological, N-related, and enzymatic parameters coupled with their transcript levels (shoot and root) in four potato genotypes having contrasting NUEs under low and high N supplies in aeroponics.PASP-Ca markedly boosted plant growth, yield components, and photosynthetic efficiency, with pronounced effects observed in nitrogen-efficient genotypes, especially Qingshu-9, emphasizing the importance of genotype selection in optimizing nitrogen utilization. Moreover, PASP-Ca treatments, particularly LN-P100 significantly enhances root system architecture (RSA), contributing to expanded root dimensions and improved nutrient acquisition capacity, especially under nitrogen-deficient conditions. Carbohydrate metabolism in potato tubers benefits from PASP-Ca treatment, leading to increased starch content, thereby impacting tuber quality. Among the N-assimilating enzymes, a large genotypic variation was observed for glutamine synthetase (GS), which may be considered a potential trait for improving NUE. Molecular analysis further elucidated the underlying mechanisms, demonstrating the upregulation of essential genes involved in nitrogen metabolism.The potential efficacy of PASP-Ca synergist as a novel accelerant for enhancing potato crop growth, biomass production, and nitrogen utilization efficiency, all coalescing seamlessly with the ethos of sustainable agricultural practices.Methods: Polyaspartic Acid-Calcium (PASP-Ca) is a versatile and eco-friendly amino acid complex, primarily recognized for bolstering nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity. However, the core significance of this complex remains enigmatic in potato crop. We hypothesized that simultaneous application of PASP-Ca with potato genotypes characterized by substantial root systems and high genetic potentials for nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) would best address this knowledge gap.The synergistic effect of various PASP-Ca treatments on morph physiological, N-related, and enzymatic parameters coupled with their transcript levels (shoot and root) in four potato genotypes having contrasting NUEs under low and high N supplies in aeroponics.PASP-Ca markedly boosted plant growth, yield components, and photosynthetic efficiency, with pronounced effects observed in nitrogen-efficient genotypes, especially Qingshu-9, emphasizing the importance of genotype selection in optimizing nitrogen utilization. Moreover, PASP-Ca treatments, particularly LN-P100 significantly enhances root system architecture (RSA), contributing to expanded root dimensions and improved nutrient acquisition capacity, especially under nitrogen-deficient conditions. Carbohydrate metabolism in potato tubers benefits from PASP-Ca treatment, leading to increased starch content, thereby impacting tuber quality. Among the N-assimilating enzymes, a large genotypic variation was observed for glutamine synthetase (GS), which may be considered a potential trait for improving NUE. Molecular analysis further elucidated the underlying mechanisms, demonstrating the upregulation of essential genes involved in nitrogen metabolism.The potential efficacy of PASP-Ca synergist as a novel accelerant for enhancing potato crop growth, biomass production, and nitrogen utilization efficiency, all coalescing seamlessly with the ethos of sustainable agricultural practices.Results: Polyaspartic Acid-Calcium (PASP-Ca) is a versatile and eco-friendly amino acid complex, primarily recognized for bolstering nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity. However, the core significance of this complex remains enigmatic in potato crop. We hypothesized that simultaneous application of PASP-Ca with potato genotypes characterized by substantial root systems and high genetic potentials for nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) would best address this knowledge gap.The synergistic effect of various PASP-Ca treatments on morph physiological, N-related, and enzymatic parameters coupled with their transcript levels (shoot and root) in four potato genotypes having contrasting NUEs under low and high N supplies in aeroponics.PASP-Ca markedly boosted plant growth, yield components, and photosynthetic efficiency, with pronounced effects observed in nitrogen-efficient genotypes, especially Qingshu-9, emphasizing the importance of genotype selection in optimizing nitrogen utilization. Moreover, PASP-Ca treatments, particularly LN-P100 significantly enhances root system architecture (RSA), contributing to expanded root dimensions and improved nutrient acquisition capacity, especially under nitrogen-deficient conditions. Carbohydrate metabolism in potato tubers benefits from PASP-Ca treatment, leading to increased starch content, thereby impacting tuber quality. Among the N-assimilating enzymes, a large genotypic variation was observed for glutamine synthetase (GS), which may be considered a potential trait for improving NUE. Molecular analysis further elucidated the underlying mechanisms, demonstrating the upregulation of essential genes involved in nitrogen metabolism.The potential efficacy of PASP-Ca synergist as a novel accelerant for enhancing potato crop growth, biomass production, and nitrogen utilization efficiency, all coalescing seamlessly with the ethos of sustainable agricultural practices.Conclusions: Polyaspartic Acid-Calcium (PASP-Ca) is a versatile and eco-friendly amino acid complex, primarily recognized for bolstering nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity. However, the core significance of this complex remains enigmatic in potato crop. We hypothesized that simultaneous application of PASP-Ca with potato genotypes characterized by substantial root systems and high genetic potentials for nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) would best address this knowledge gap.The synergistic effect of various PASP-Ca treatments on morph physiological, N-related, and enzymatic parameters coupled with their transcript levels (shoot and root) in four potato genotypes having contrasting NUEs under low and high N supplies in aeroponics.PASP-Ca markedly boosted plant growth, yield components, and photosynthetic efficiency, with pronounced effects observed in nitrogen-efficient genotypes, especially Qingshu-9, emphasizing the importance of genotype selection in optimizing nitrogen utilization. Moreover, PASP-Ca treatments, particularly LN-P100 significantly enhances root system architecture (RSA), contributing to expanded root dimensions and improved nutrient acquisition capacity, especially under nitrogen-deficient conditions. Carbohydrate metabolism in potato tubers benefits from PASP-Ca treatment, leading to increased starch content, thereby impacting tuber quality. Among the N-assimilating enzymes, a large genotypic variation was observed for glutamine synthetase (GS), which may be considered a potential trait for improving NUE. Molecular analysis further elucidated the underlying mechanisms, demonstrating the upregulation of essential genes involved in nitrogen metabolism.The potential efficacy of PASP-Ca synergist as a novel accelerant for enhancing potato crop growth, biomass production, and nitrogen utilization efficiency, all coalescing seamlessly with the ethos of sustainable agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An immunoassay strategy has been developed based on nanomotor-assisted electrochemical measurements for simple and sensitive detection of immunoglobulin (IgG). The self-propelled Fe3O4@SiO2/Pt nanomotors were designed to label primary antibodies IgG (nanomotor-label) for the "on-the-fly" binding of the immune-protein. The core shell Au@Ag nanocubes (Au@Ag NCs) were used as labels of secondary antibodies (Au@Ag NCs-Ab2) to amplify electrochemical signal related to antigen concentration derived from the oxidation of Ag. The self-propelled nanomotors autonomously move in the solution to cruise and capture IgG and Au@Ag NCs-Ab2, resulting in the self-assembly of sandwich immune-complex. Finally, the immune-complex with magnetism can be transferred and modified on the electrode for the detection of IgG via differential pulse voltammetry. The self-propelled motion of the nanomotor-label obviates common procedures for the self-assembly of sandwich immunosensors to achieve satisfactory analysis results. With advantages of automation and miniaturization, the strategy based on self-propelled nanomotor-labels explores an effective method for the simple and sensitive detection of immune-protein in biosensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicated that the P-body components, CGH-1 and EDC-3 may play a crucial role in the regulation of lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans. Homo sapiens DDX6 or Saccharomyces cerevisiae Dhh1p (CGH-1 in C. elegans) could form complexes with EDC3 (Edc3p in yeast), respectively, which is significant for translation inhibition and mRNA decay. However, it is currently unclear how CGH-1 can be recognized by EDC-3 in C. elegans. Here, we provided structural and biochemical insights into the interaction between CGH-1 and EDC-3. Combined with homology modeling, mutation, and ITC assays, we uncovered an interface between CGH-1 RecA2 domain and EDC-3 FDF-FEK. Additionally, GST-pulldown and co-localization experiments confirmed the interaction between CGH-1 and EDC-3 in vitro and in vivo. We also analyzed PATR-1-binding interface on CGH-1 RecA2 by ITC assays. Moreover, we unveiled the similarity and differences of the binding mode between EDC-3 and CAR-1 or PATR-1. Taken together, these findings provide insights into the recognition of DEAD-box protein CGH-1 by EDC-3 FDF-FEK motif, suggesting important functional implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of Co2FeSi (CFS) films sandwiched by MgO and Pt layers are sputtered. For the as-deposited films, the magnetic easy axis lies in the sample plane. After annealing, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is shown to build in the stacks with CFS thickness ranged from 2.5 to 3.8 nm and is determined to be the order of 105–106 erg/cm3 in magnitude. The largest saturation magnetization of 1009 ± 41 emu/cm3, close to the bulk value of CFS, is obtained in the annealed stacks. The thickness of a magnetic dead layer is shown to monotonically increase with annealing temperature. This can be ascribed to the progress of the oxidation from the CFS/MgO interface with annealing temperature. No PMA is observed without Pt buffer or MgO top layers. The positive contributions to the PMA made by the Pt/CFS and CFS/MgO interfaces are experimentally verified. The strong PMA is shown to be maintained in the stacks with 4 nm Pt buffer and 0.5 nm MgO layers after high-temperature annealing. Our results provide some useful information on the design for the next generation of CFS-based spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of rare-earth transition metal GdFeCo films are fabricated by sputtering a composite target. The effects of sputtering parameters on perpendicular magnetic properties of GdFeCo films are systematically investigated. Typical perpendicular anisotropy of the order of 105 erg/cm3 is witnessed. Tunable changes in Gd-to-FeCo ratio in the films are demonstrated by manipulating sputtering parameters including sputtering power, working pressure, and gas flow rate. Magnetic compensation is shown to be achieved in the alloy films by changing sputtering parameters and film thickness, where the lowest net magnetization and the largest coercivity are simultaneously demonstrated. A wide range of variation of perpendicular magnetic properties can be easily realized by fabricating GdFeCo films with the composition across magnetic compensation point. Our results provide a low-cost and time-saving way for the fabrication of GdFeCo alloy films with desired properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion ratio, resilience rate, moisture-proof, complex dynamic viscosity and crystallization rate for scCO2-aid glutaraldehyde modified thermoplastic starch (SCaTSGA1.6) foams were substantially improved by further modification with sodium hexametaphosphate (SHP) and/or nano-silica (nano-SiO2) particles during their scCO2-assisted foaming processes. These properties of SHP modified SCaTSGA1.6 (SCaTSGA1.6SHPb and SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c) foams were further improved with increasing scCO2-pressures during their scCO2-assisted foaming processes. Extremely high expansion ratio of ~ 65 and high resilience rate of 77% of the most appropriate SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO20.5 foam were originally prepared using scCO2-assisted foaming processes. The significantly enhanced reliance rate found for SCaTSGA1.6SHPb and SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c foams is attributed to the better resilience of the smaller cell structures. Moreover, reaction of phosphate groups of SHP with the moisture-sensitive O–H groups of starch did occur favorably, and substantially improved the moisture-proof and complex dynamic viscosity (or melt strength) during the scCO2-assisted modification processing of SCaTSGA1.6SHPb and SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c. Thermal analyses revealed that crystallization rates and crystallization onset temperatures for SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c were substantially improved by addition of nano-SiO2 particles. This substantial increase in melt strength, higher dissolved CO2 concentrations at larger scCO2-pressures and/or higher crystallization rates for SCaTSGA1.6SHPb and/or SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c are expected to considerably enhance their nucleation rate and stability of cell structures during their scCO2-aid foaming processes. Consequently, higher expansion ratio, cell density and better reliance rate was found after the scCO2-aid foaming processes of SCaTSGA1.6SHPb and SC11TSGA1.6SHP4SiO2c foams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]