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The development of natural fibrous materials for noise reduction has attracted more and more attentions. In this study, the structural details, micromorphologies, and sound absorption of fabric-like texture structured natural palm sheath were investigated. It has exhibited better structural stability than common natural fibrous assemblies. The multilayered configuration with enhanced sound absorption was fabricated, and the effects of layer numbers on the absorption coefficients were further analyzed. This study has also fabricated the composite consisting of gypsum and fabric-like windmill palm sheath with different configurations for enhanced sound absorption in various frequency ranges. It is hoped that this work will be beneficial to explore the acoustical characteristics of fabric-like natural palm sheath, and thus promote the utilization of natural fibrous materials for fabricating sound absorber in noise reduction and control engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To streamline the data processing workflow, reduce processing time, ensure the timeliness of GPS satellite inter-frequency clock bias (IFCB) services, and facilitate data delivery, a new method is presented. This method directly estimates the IFCB model coefficients from observations. It has been validated using GPS data collected from 107 triple-frequency IGS observation stations and corresponding processing results. The estimated GPS satellite IFCBs obtained through two methods were investigated: (1) the epoch-wise estimation method, (2) the proposed model coefficients estimation method. The results show that the IFCB values computed with the proposed method are equivalent to those of the other method. As a final product, it is provided only in the form of model coefficients, which can significantly save storage space. Using the parameterized estimation IFCB product for triple-frequency precise point positioning (PPP) in static positioning shortens the convergence time by 24.8% compared to the uncorrected scheme, and slightly outperforms the epoch-wise estimation method by 1.8%. For real-time applications, the presented estimation method skips the fitting step, making it easy to broadcast to users and convenient for extrapolation. This also saves processing time, which is crucial for the timely delivery of the IFCB real-time service, thereby enhancing service accuracy. The real-time static and kinematic PPP positioning results demonstrate that the presented method achieves satisfactory accuracy and convergence performance compared to corrections based on epoch-wise IFCB values and their fitted counterparts, further confirming its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research has shown that political crisis events can directly impact the tourism industry. However, the current methods suffer from potential changes of unobserved variables, which poses challenges for a reliable evaluation of the political crisis impacts. This paper proposes a panel counterfactual approach with Internet search index, which can quantitatively capture the change of crisis impacts across time and disentangle the effect of the event of interest from the rest. It also provides a tool to examine potential channels through which the crisis may affect tourist outflows. This research empirically applies the framework to analyze the THAAD event on tourist flows from the Chinese Mainland to South Korea. Findings highlight the strong and negative short-term impact of the political crisis on the tourists' intentions to visit a place. This paper provides essential evidence to help decision-makers improve the management of the tourism crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active surveillance (AS) is the primary strategy for managing patients with low or favorable-intermediate risk prostate cancer (PCa). Identifying patients who may benefit from AS relies on unpleasant prostate biopsies, which entail the risk of bleeding and infection. In the current study, we aimed to develop a radiomics model based on prostate magnetic resonance images to identify AS candidates non-invasively. A total of 956 PCa patients with complete biopsy reports from six hospitals were included in the current multicenter retrospective study. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were used as reference standards to determine the AS candidacy. To discriminate between AS and non-AS candidates, five radiomics models (i.e., eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) AS classifier (XGB-AS), logistic regression (LR) AS classifier, random forest (RF) AS classifier, adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) AS classifier, and decision tree (DT) AS classifier) were developed and externally validated using a three-fold cross-center validation based on five classifiers: XGBoost, LR, RF, AdaBoost, and DT. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SEN), and specificity (SPE) were calculated to evaluate the performance of these models. XGB-AS exhibited an average of AUC of 0.803, ACC of 0.693, SEN of 0.668, and SPE of 0.841, showing a better comprehensive performance than those of the other included radiomic models. Additionally, the XGB-AS model also presented a promising performance for identifying AS candidates from the intermediate-risk cases and the ambiguous cases with diagnostic discordance between the NCCN guidelines and the Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System assessment. These results suggest that the XGB-AS model has the potential to help identify patients who are suitable for AS and allow non-invasive monitoring of patients on AS, thereby reducing the number of annual biopsies and the associated risks of bleeding and infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing a synthetic community system helps scientist understand the complex interactions among species in a community and its environment. Herein, a two-species community is constructed with species A (artificial cells encapsulating pH-responsive molecules and sucrose) and species B (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which causes the environment to exhibit pH oscillation behaviour due to the generation and dissipation of CO2. In addition, a three-species community is constructed with species A′ (artificial cells containing sucrose and G6P), species B, and species C (artificial cells containing NAD+ and G6PDH). The solution pH oscillation regulates the periodical release of G6P from species A′; G6P then enters species C to promote the metabolic reaction that converts NAD+ to NADH. The location of species A′ and B determines the metabolism behaviour in species C in the spatially coded three-species communities with CA′B, CBA′, and A′CB patterns. The proposed synthetic community system provides a foundation to construct a more complicated microecosystem. Most synthetic communities are unidirectional or two-way interaction without dynamic feedback. Here, the authors report a dynamic feedback system involving artificial cell species, biological cell species, and their environment using pH-sensitive molecule that phase-shift between fluid and gel phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steiner minimum tree problem on a graph, i.e., finding a tree with the minimum weight that covers the set of terminal nodes, is a classical NP-hard problem. Thus, we develop a method based on supervised learning to produce a near-optimal Steiner tree in this paper. It contains three main phases, namely node embedding, candidate set generation, and tree construction. Leveraged on compressed sensing, we devise a novel node embedding that exhibits a good nature of reversibility for sparse linear aggregations, which powers learning a mapping function from the terminal set to the optimal Steiner tree. Finally, we propose efficient pruning techniques to improve the solution quality. The experimental results show that our approach delivers high-quality solutions and runs faster than the competitors by one or two orders of magnitude on graphs with more than 200 nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cuproptosis, caused by excessively high copper concentrations, is urgently exploited as a potential cancer therapeutic. However, the mechanisms underlying the initiation, propagation, and ultimate execution of cuproptosis in tumors remain unknown. Here, we show that copper content is significantly elevated in gastric cancer (GC), especially in malignant tumors. Screening reveals that METTL16, an atypical methyltransferase, is a critical mediator of cuproptosis through the m6A modification on FDX1 mRNA. Furthermore, copper stress promotes METTL16 lactylation at site K229 followed by cuproptosis. The process of METTL16 lactylation is inhibited by SIRT2. Elevated METTL16 lactylation significantly improves the therapeutic efficacy of the copper ionophore– elesclomol. Combining elesclomol with AGK2, a SIRT2-specific inhibitor, induce cuproptosis in gastric tumors in vitro and in vivo. These results reveal the significance of non-histone protein METTL16 lactylation on cuproptosis in tumors. Given the high copper and lactate concentrations in GC, cuproptosis induction becomes a promising therapeutic strategy for GC. Cuproptosis regulation in tumors is unclear. Here the authors find that copper promotes METTL16 lactylation, inducing cuproptosis via stabilizing FDX1 in gastric cancer. Targeting lactyl-METTL16 and cuproptosis offers a potential feasible strategy for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottom-up synthesis of prototissues helps us to understand the internal cellular communications in the natural tissues and their functions, as well as to improve or repair the damaged tissues. The existed prototissues are rarely used to improve the function of living tissues. We demonstrate a methodology to produce spatially programmable prototissues based on the magneto-Archimedes effect in a high-throughput manner. More than 2000 prototissues are produced once within 2 h. Two-component and three-component spatial coded prototissues are fabricated by varying the addition giant unilamellar vesicles order/number, and the magnetic field distributions. Two-step and three-step signal communications in the prototissues are realized using cascade enzyme reactions. More importantly, the two-component prototissues capable of producing nitric oxide cause vasodilation of rat blood vessels in the presence of glucose and hydroxyurea. The tension force decreases 2.59 g, meanwhile the blood vessel relaxation is of 31.2%. Our works pave the path to fabricate complicated programmable prototissues, and hold great potential in the biomedical field. Protoissues have received a lot of attention for studying cell interaction and for biomedical engineering. Here, the authors demonstrate a high-throughput, bottom-up approach to assemble spatial programmable prototissues based on the magnetic Archimedes affect and demonstrate biomedical application for producing NO for vasodilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality lays out a grand blueprint for carbon emission reduction and climate governance in China. How to reduce energy consumption is the key to achieving this goal. The economic development and energy consumption show a very large gap at the provincial level, and this paper divides China into six regions (North, Northeast, East, Mid-South, Southwest, and Northwest) and analyzes the dynamic changes and reveals the driving factors that have affected CO2 emission changes from 1997 to 2017. Then, the driving forces including energy intensity, energy structure, energy efficiency, economic activity, and population scale were discussed employing the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) based on provincial panel data. The results show that CO2 emissions from energy consumption show an upward trend, from 4145 Mt in 1997 to 13,250 Mt in 2017, with an annual average growth rate of 1.06%; coal consumption is the main source of CO2 emission. The regions with the highest proportion of CO2 emissions are the East and North, which account for 50% of total emissions. China's CO2 emissions from energy consumption, coal consumption, and output have shown significant spatial autocorrelation at the provincial scale. According to coal consumption, energy consumption CO2 emissions are divided into three stages: phase I (1997–2002), the increase in CO2 emissions in six regions was attributed to significant and positive impacts of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale, the effects of which exceeded those of the energy structure and energy efficiency; phase II (2003–2012), the economic activity effect on CO2 emissions was highest in the East region, followed by the North and Mid-South regions; phase III (2013–2017), the East, Mid-South, and Southwest regions of China were dominated by the positive effects of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale. The major driver of CO2 emissions is economic activity; the energy efficiency effect is an important inhibitory factor. Regional economic development and energy consumption in China are unbalanced; we conclude that differentiated emission reduction measures should be of particular concern for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing image data of typical mining areas in the Loess Plateau from 1986 to 2018 were used to analyze the evolution of land use, explore the division of carbon sink functional areas, and propose carbon neutrality paths to provide a reference for the coal industry carbon peak, carbon-neutral action plan. Results show that (1) land use has changed significantly in the Pingshuo mining area over the past 30 years. Damaged land in industrial, opencast, stripping, and dumping areas comprises 4482.5 ha of cultivated land, 1648.13 ha of grassland, and 963.49 ha of forestland. (2) The carbon sink functional areas of the Pingshuo mining land is divided into invariant, enhancement, low carbon optimization, and carbon emission control areas. The proportion of carbon sinks in the invariant area is decreasing, whereas the proportion in enhancement, low carbon optimization, and carbon emission control areas is gradually increasing. (3) The carbon neutrality of the mining area must be reduced from the entire process of stripping–mining–transport–disposal–reclamation, and carbon emissions and carbon sink accounting must start from the life cycle of coal resources. Therefore, carbon neutrality in mining areas must follow the 5R principles of reduction, reuse, recycling, redevelopment, and restoration, and attention must be paid to the potential of carbon sinks in ecological protection and restoration projects in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate the lipid layer thickness (LLT) and blinking in children with or without allergic conjunctivitis (AC), and to compare those between the different types of AC. Methods: For this case–control study, 81 children with symptomatic AC with an average age of 9.62 ± 2.67 years were enrolled and subdivided according to the subtypes of AC, including seasonal/perennial allergic conjunctivitis group and vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC)/atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC) group. Another 82 age-matched healthy children were enrolled as control group. All subjects underwent routine eye examination and measurements of LLT, the number of incomplete or total blinking, partial blinking rate by the LipiView interferometer over a 10-s period. Other ocular surface assessment included fluorescein tear breakup time (TBUT), lower tear meniscus height, meibomian gland loss (MGL), meibum expressibility and quality. Results: Pediatric patients with AC had significant thinner LLT, shorter TBUT, decreased total blinking but increased partial blinking rate, especially in those with VKC/AKC (all P < 0.05). A significant deterioration of meibomian gland parameters was observed in AC group when compared with control subjects, demonstrated by severe upper and lower MGL, lid margin abnormalities, decreased meibum expressibility, and abnormal meibum quality, all of which were worse in the severe type of AC (all P < 0.05). Thinner LLT was significantly correlated with decreased TBUT (β = 3.666, P < 0.001) and severity of upper MGL (β = − 7.701, P = 0.002). Conclusion: Decreased LLT and blinking disorders in pediatric patients with AC may contribute to lipid layer deficiency in the long run, which should be considered and appropriately diagnosed for a more precise treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoarthritis (OA), a most common and highly prevalent joint disease, is closely associated with dysregulated expression and modification of RXRα. However, the role of RXRα in the pathophysiology of OA remains unknown. The present study aimed to investigate whether RXRα modulator, such as K-80003 can treat OA. Experimental OA was induced by intra-articular injection of monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) in the knee joint of rats. Articular cartilage degeneration was assessed using Safranin-O and fast green staining. Synovial inflammation was measured using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Expressions of MMP-13, ADAMTS-4 and ERα in joints were analyzed by immunofluorescence staining. Western blot, RT-PCR and co-Immunoprecipitation (co-IP) were used to assess the effects of K-80003 on RXRα-ERα interaction. Retinoid X receptor α (RXRα) modulator K‐80003 prevented the degeneration of articular cartilage, reduced synovial inflammation, and alleviated osteoarthritic pain in rats. Furthermore, K-80003 markedly inhibited IL-1β‐induced p65 nuclear translocation and IκBα degradation, and down-regulate the expression of HIF-2α, proteinases (MMP9, MMP13, ADAMTS-4) and pro-inflammatory factors (IL-6 and TNFα) in primary chondrocytes. Additionally, knockdown of ERα with siRNA blocked these effects of K-80003 in chondrocytes. In conclusion, RXRα modulators K-80003 suppresses inflammatory and catabolic responses in OA, suggesting that targeting RXRα‐ERα interaction by RXRα modulators might be a novel therapeutic approach for OA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, concern has been increasing regarding the carbon emissions generated by mining activities. China is an extremely large coal producer (3695 Mt/2015) and consumer (3698 Mt/2015), and Shanxi Province (i.e., a major coal-producing province in China) is a crucial element in China's energy conservation and emission reduction goals. In this study, the Pingshuo mining area (PMA) in Shanxi Province was chosen as a case to analyze the dynamic changes in carbon emissions based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method, and the factors influencing carbon emissions were analyzed via the IPAT equation. Carbon emission sources in opencast mines mainly included fuel and explosive use, coal mine methane escape, coal and gangue spontaneous combustion, and electricity consumption. The carbon emission of the PMA increased from 4 × 104 Mg in 1986 to 1.05 × 106 Mg in 2015, with an average annual increase of 11.64%. In the PMA, 4.71 × 106 Mg of carbon emissions from fuel consumption accounted for 41.79% of carbon emissions, and 5.26 × 106 Mg of carbon emissions from methane emissions accounted for 46.66%. Carbon emissions from explosives and electricity use were 4.1 × 105 Mg and 8.8 × 105 Mg, respectively. In this mining area, the factors influencing carbon emissions included population, GDP, and coal output. The results of this study not only provide a reference for cleaner production in mining areas but also lay a foundation for the study of global opencast coal mining carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Down syndrome candidate region 1 (DSCR1) has two differentially regulated isoforms (DSCR1-1 and DSCR1-4) and is reported to play a role in a number of physiological processes, such as the inhibition of cardiac hypertrophy, attenuation of angiogenesis and carcinogenesis, and protection against neuronal death. However, the function of DSCR1 in the retina is still not clear. Therefore, we analyzed the expression and location of DSCR1 in the retina of neonatal mice with oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR), and studied its effects on angiogenesis. The neonatal C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 75 % O for 5 days from postnatal day 7 (P7) to P12. At P12, the mice were returned to 21 % O at room air. The primary retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) were exposed to hypoxia (93 % N, 5 % CO, and 2 % O) at 37 °C for 36 h. And then the mouse retinal microvascular endothelial cells (mRMECs) were treated with 25 ng/mL vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or culture medium conditioned by hypoxic RGCs alone, hypoxic RGCs treated with DSCR1-4-siRNA (siDSCR1-4) or hypoxic RGCs treated with siDSCR1-4 and 200 ng/mL cyclosporin A (CsA), and then primed with VEGF (25 ng/mL). The expression of DSCR1-4 increased strongly at P16 after OIR. There was no change in messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of DSCR1-1 at P16 after OIR. The increased DSCR1 was mainly located in the RGCs of avascular retina. In addition, DSCR1-4 expression was increased in primary RGCs after hypoxia exposure. There was no change in mRNA expression of DSCR1-1 in primary RGCs after hypoxia exposure. Moreover, DSCR1-4 produced by hypoxic RGCs showed anti-angiogenic properties, with decreased cell proliferation, migration, tube formation, and inflammatory cytokines production. These properties were due to inhibited nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFATc) 1 dephosphorylation and translocation into nuclear in VEGF-treated mRMECs. Using siRNA-mediated knockdown of DSCR1-4 and NFATc1 inhibitor (Cs A) further demonstrated the inhibitory effect of DSCR1-4 on angiogenic properties in VEGF-induced mRMECs, and this effect was NFATc1-dependent. This report describes a novel effect of DSCR1-4 in the aspect of anti-angiogenesis, suggesting potential therapeutic strategies for proliferative retinopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In the present study, we investigated the effects of Magnolol on the retinal neovascularization (RNV) and local glial cells in an oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model and explored their molecular mechanisms. Materials and methods: Neonatal C57BL/6J mice were subjected to 75 % O ± 5 % from postnatal day (P) 7 to P12 and subsequently returned to room air. Mice were injected with 25 mg/kg Magnolol intraperitoneally once a day from P12 to P17, then retinas were harvested and flat-mounted to assess the retinal vessels, astrocytes and microglia. To clarify the molecular mechanisms of Magnolol, we observed the level of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, tumor necrosis factor-α, and analyzed the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway in OIR mice. Results: Intraperitoneal administration of Magnolol resulted in significant reduction of RNV without retinal toxicity or perturbation of developmental retinal angiogenesis. In addition, Magnolol preserved the astrocyte morphology and diminished the activation of microglia. Moreover, Magnolol down regulated the expression of inflammatory cytokines and inactivated the HIF-1α/VEGF pathway. Conclusions: These results indicated that Magnolol might have potential for the treatment of pathological retinal angiogenesis and glial dysfunctions via anti-inflammation and inhibition of HIF-1α/VEGF pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF) play a fundamental role in retinal neovascularization (NV) induced by low oxygen tension. In the presence of oxygen, the HIF-α subunit becomes hydroxylated at specific prolyl residues by prolyl hydroxylases (PHD), which triggers HIF-α for degradation. In our present study, we examined the effect of R59949, the diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) inhibitor II, on the retinal NV and its potential mechanism in an oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model. OIR model was induced by exposure of hyperoxia (75 % oxygen) to C57BL/6J mice from postnatal day 7 (P7) to P12 and then returned to room air. By intraperitoneal injection once a day (10 μg/g/day) from P12 to P17, R59949 not only effectively prevented pathologic NV but also preserved the astrocyte morphology. Furthermore, the expression of PHD-2 was upregulated and HIF-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were downregulated in the retina of OIR mice following R59949 treatment. These findings suggested a potential possibility that R59949 suppressed retinal neovascular pathophysiology via PHD2/HIF-1α/VEGF pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA is strongly associated with tumor growth and development. This study examined the potential roles of miR-125b in glioma growth. We found that miR-125b promotes glioma cell line growth and clone formation, and protects the glioma cells from apoptosis in vitro. The miR-125b-transfected glioma cells also demonstrated increased growth after in vivo transplantation. We further identified that miR-125b inhibits Connexin43 expression, and the overexpression of Connexin43 antagonizes the effects of miR-125b in cell growth and anti-apoptosis. We conclude that miR-125b regulates glioma growth partly through Connexin43 protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the appropriate drug targets for the development of a novel anti-tumor immunotherapy is one of the most risky steps in the drug development cycle. We have identified a hematopoietic cell-restricted serine/threonine kinase, hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1), as a possible target for therapeutic intervention. Targeted disruption of HPK1 alleles confers T cells with an elevated Th1 cytokine production in response to TCR engagement. HPK1 T cells proliferate more rapidly than the haplotype-matched wild-type counterpart and are resistant to prostaglandin E2 (PGE)-mediated suppression. Most strikingly, mice that received adoptive transfer of HPK1 T cells became resistant to lung tumor growth. Also, the loss of HPK1 from dendritic cells (DCs) endows them with superior antigen presentation ability, enabling HPK1 DCs to elicit a more potent anti-tumor immune response when used as cancer vaccine. It is probable that blocking the HPK1 kinase activity with a small molecule inhibitor may activate the superior anti-tumor activity of both cell types, resulting in a synergistic amplification of anti-tumor potential. Given that HPK1 is not expressed in any major organs, it is less likely that an inhibitor of HPK1 kinase activity would cause any serious side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]