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Nuclear accidents and the improper disposal of nuclear wastes have led to serious environmental radioactive pollutions. The rational design of adsorbents for the highly efficient separation of strontium(II) is essential in treating nuclear waste and recovering radioactive strontium resources. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential materials for the separation of aqueous metal ions owing to their designable structure and tunable functionality. Herein, a novel 3D MOF material MOF‐18Cr6, in which 1D channels are formed using 18‐crown‐6‐ether‐containing ligands as channel walls, is fabricated for strontium(II) separation. In contrast to traditional MOFs designed by grafting functional groups in the framework pores, MOF‐18Cr6 possesses regular 18‐crown‐6‐ether cavities on the channel walls, which not only can transport and intake strontium(II) via the channels, but also prevent blockage of the channels after the binding of strontium(II). Consequently, the functional sites are fully utilized to achieve a high strontium(II) removal rate of 99.73 % in simulated nuclear wastewater. This study fabricates a highly promising adsorbent for the separation of aqueous radioactive strontium(II), and more importantly, can provide a new strategy for the rational design of high‐performance MOF adsorbents for separating target substances from complex aqueous environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Forkhead box (FOX) proteins belong to one of the largest transcription factor families and play crucial roles in the initiation and progression of cancer. Prior research has linked several FOX genes, such as FOXA1 and FOXM1, to the crucial process of carcinogenesis. However, the overall picture of FOX gene family across human cancers is far from clear. Methods: To investigate the broad molecular signatures of the FOX gene family, we conducted study on multi‐omics data (including genomics, epigenomics and transcriptomics) from over 11,000 patients with 33 different types of human cancers. Results: Pan‐cancer analysis reveals that FOX gene mutations were found in 17.4% of tumor patients with a substantial cancer type‐dependent pattern. Additionally, high expression heterogeneity of FOX genes across cancer types was discovered, which can be partially attributed to the genomic or epigenomic alteration. Co‐expression network analysis reveals that FOX genes may exert functions by regulating the expression of both their own and target genes. For a clinical standpoint, we provided 103 FOX gene‐drug target‐drug predictions and found FOX gene expression have potential survival predictive value. All of the results have been included in the FOX2Cancer database, which is freely accessible at http://hainmu‐biobigdata.com/FOX2Cancer. Conclusion: Our findings may provide a better understanding of roles FOX genes played in the development of tumors, and help to offer new avenues for uncovering tumorigenesis and unprecedented therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short text classification has been a fundamental task in natural language processing, which benefits various applications, such as sentiment analysis, news tagging, and intent recommendation. However, classifying short texts is challenging due to the information sparsity in the text corpus. Besides, the performance of existing machine learning classification models largely relies on sufficient training data, yet labels can be scarce and expensive to obtain in real‐world text classification scenarios. In this article, we propose a novel self‐supervised short text classification method. Specifically, we first model the short text corpus as a heterogeneous graph to address the information sparsity problem. Then, we introduce a self‐attention‐based heterogeneous graph neural network model to learn short text embeddings. In addition, we adopt a self‐supervised learning framework to exploit internal and external similarities among short texts. Experiments on five real‐world short text benchmarks validate the effectiveness of our proposed method compared with the state‐of‐the‐art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancestor worship is regarded as the key element of the Han people's belief system across most of China. However, the rituals pertaining to death, such as in funerals and annual ancestor worship, vary from place to place. For decades, the state has made tremendous efforts to reform and standardise funerals consistent with its path to modernization by insisting on more socialist practices rather than those that are perceived as 'superstitious' and 'irrational', such as burning paper and incense or performing rituals. I argue that despite regulating the use of funeral materials or memorial types, the state has failed to reform the essence of death rituals, that is, the duty of filial piety and people's conception of the afterlife. In addition, funerals and other rituals related to death contribute to individual's social reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dense and strong calcite (CaCO3) ceramics were prepared by room‐temperature cold sintering with the aid of water and high pressure of up to 900 MPa. Under atmospheric pressure, calcite is barely soluble in water. However, the microstructure evolution and stress‐strain analysis during cold sintering revealed that the dissolution‐precipitation, plastic deformation, and pressure‐solution‐creep mechanisms played a crucial role in the densification and mechanical robustness of calcite ceramics, which was attributed to the significantly enhanced solubility of calcite in water under high pressure. The calcite ceramic cold sintered under 900 MPa from micron powder exhibited the highest relative density of 92.1% and best mechanical properties with compressive strength, flexural strength, hardness, and Young's modulus of 276.5 MPa, 52.5 MPa, 1.64 GPa, and 53.7 GPa, respectively. The as‐prepared calcite ceramic was stronger and harder than most stones and cement, indicating its promising application as novel building and biomimetic materials. The present study also provides a new strategy for densifying ceramics with low solubility by cold sintering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ring‐opening transformations of donor‐acceptor (D‐A) cyclopropanes enable the rapid assembly of complex molecules. However, the enantioselective formation of chiral quaternary stereocenters using substrates bearing two different acceptors remains a challenge. Herein, we describe the first palladium‐catalyzed highly diastereo‐ and enantioselective (3+2) cycloaddition of vinyl cyclopropanes bearing two different electron‐withdrawing groups, a subset of D‐A cyclopropanes. The key to the success of this reaction is the remote stereoinduction through hydrogen bond from chiral ligands, which thereby addressed the aforementioned challenge. A variety of chiral five‐membered heterocycles were produced in good yields and with high stereoselectivity (up to 99 % yields, 99 : 1 er and >19 : 1 dr). In‐depth mechanistic investigations, including control experiments and theoretical calculations, revealed the origin of the stereoselectivity and the importance of H‐bonding in stereocontrol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) plays an essential role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are discovered to be important targets of m6A modification, and they play fundamental roles in diverse biological processes. However, there is still a lack of knowledge with regards to the association between m6A and lncRNAs in human tumors. Methods: The relationship between lncRNAs and 21 m6A regulators was comprehensively explored, through the integration of multi‐omics data from M6A2Target, m6A‐Atlas, and TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas). In order to explore the potential roles of m6A‐related lncRNAs in human tumors, three applicable methods were introduced, which include the construction of ceRNA networks, drug sensitivity estimation, and survival analysis. Results: A substantial number of positive correlation events across 33 cancer types were found. Moreover, cancer‐specific lncRNAs were associated with tissue specificity, and cancer‐common lncRNAs were conserved in cancer‐related biological function. In particular, the m6A‐related lncRNA FGD5‐AS1 was found to be associated with cancer treatment, through its influence on cisplatin resistance in breast cancer patients. Finally, a user‐friendly interface Lnc2m6A, which is enriched with various browsing sections resource for the exhibition of relationships and putative biogenesis between lncRNAs and m6A modifications, is offered in http://hainmu‐biobigdata.com/Lnc2m6A. Conclusions: In summary, the results from this paper will provide a valuable resource that guides both mechanistic and therapeutic roles of m6A‐related lncRNAs in human tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNA has been reported to participate in human diseases including diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the role and mechanism of circ_0123996 in DN need to be further explored. Relative expression levels of circ_0123996, microRNA (miR)‐203a‐3p, SRY‐box 6 (SOX6), and inflammatory cytokines were determined using quantitative real‐time PCR. Western blot analysis was used to detect the protein expression of SOX6 and fibrosis‐related markers. Cell proliferation was measured using the Cell Counting Kit 8 assay. The interaction between miR‐203a‐3p and circ_0123996 or SOX6 was verified using the dual‐luciferase reporter assay. The circ_0123996 and SOX6 expression were increased and the miR‐203a‐3p expression was decreased in high glucose‐induced mesangial cells. Silenced circ_0123996 could hinder the proliferation, inflammation, and fibrosis of mesangial cells. In terms of mechanism, circ_0123996 could sponge miR‐203a‐3p to positively regulate SOX6 expression. Function experiments revealed that miR‐203a‐3p inhibitor could abolish the regulation of circ_0123996 silencing on mesangial cell proliferation, inflammation, and fibrosis. In addition, the knockdown of SOX6 could inhibit mesangial cell proliferation, inflammation, and fibrosis. Also, SOX6 overexpression could reverse the regulation of circ_0123996 silencing on mesangial cell progression. In summary, our data revealed that circ_0123996 promoted the proliferation, inflammation, and fibrosis of mesangial cells via modulating the miR‐203a‐3p/SOX6 axis, suggesting that circ_0123996 might be a target for alleviating DN progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the low activity of bulk Fe5C2 catalyst in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to ethanol, a supported Fe5C2 catalyst was designed and prepared with mesoporous carbon as the carrier. For a comparison, two iron carbide catalysts supported on activated carbon and microporous carbon were also prepared. Based on the characterization results of IR, XRD, H2‐TPR, CO‐TPD, XPS and MES, the oxygen‐containing functional groups (especially COOH group) on the surface of the carbon supports inhibit the formation of iron carbides, which are regarded as the active sites and play the key role in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to ethanol. However, the mesoporous carbon exhibits a more positive effect on the dispersion of iron particles than the other two carbon supports. As a result, the as‐prepared mesoporous catalyst presents an excellent activity (the ethanol yield of 85.8 %) and stability in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate. This work suggests a practical strategy in fabricating a supported iron carbides catalyst for the chemosynthesis of ethanol via DMO hydrogenation from syngas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allelopathy is an invasion driver, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) also play an important role in plant invasion. However, little is known about their interactive effects on plant invasion mechanisms. In this study, we have investigated the interactive effects of allelopathy and AMF on competition between the exotic invasive species, Bidens alba, and its native congener, Bidens biternata. A two‐factor (allelopathy, AMF) common garden experiment was conducted using sterilised soil with or without AMF inoculation and with or without activated carbon (AC) addition. The results showed that both AC and AMF had significant effects on the relative yield (RY) of invasive species and competitive aggressivity (AG) between invasive and native species. Both AC and AMF exerted interactive effects on the AG. Activated carbon significantly reduced AG (0.86 vs 0.15%) without AMF, while it had no significant effects on AG with AMF. Moreover, AC significantly reduced the mycorrhizal dependency of the native species (108.06% vs 23.62%) but did not affect the invasive species. The AMF increased the variety of organic compounds in the aqueous extracts of the rhizosphere soil of invasive species, regardless of the competition. Overall, allelopathy significantly increased the mycorrhizal dependency of the native species, while it promoted the competitive ability of the invader regardless of AMF inoculation. Conversely, AMF reduced the facilitation of allelopathy in the AG of the invasive species. These results suggest that AMF play a critical role in improving the resistance of the native species to the invader by mediating allelopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monomer 1,4‐oxathian‐2‐one (OX) was synthesized by a one pot two‐step method, and it was oxidized to the sulfone ester monomer, 1,4‐oxathian‐2‐one‐4,4‐dioxide (OX‐SO2). Three organic catalysts, 1,5,7‐triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec‐5‐ene (TBD), 1,8‐diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec‐7‐ene (DBU), and diphenyl phosphate (DPP) were screened for the ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of OX in dichloromethane at 30°C. It was found that OX has a high polymerizability, the TBD‐catalyzed ROP is very fast but with serious side reactions, the DBU‐catalyzed ROP is moderately controlled, and the DPP‐catalyzed ROP is well controlled until the polymerization reach equilibrium. Bulk ROP of OX‐SO2 was achieved with stannous octoate ((Sn[Oct]2) at 130°C. Poly(OX) is a semicrystalline polyester (Tm = 40‐60°C, Tg = −39.6°C), while Poly(OX‐SO2) is a highly crystalline polyester(Tg = 55°C, Tm = 211°C with decomposition). Kinetics experiments of OX and δ‐valerolactone (VL) revealed that VL polymerized faster than OX with DPP as the catalyst. Thermodynamic parameters of the ROP of OX and VL under identical conditions were measured; the ROP of OX is thermodynamically more favorable than that of VL. A series of random copolymers of OX and VL was prepared using TBD as the catalyst and confirmed that the in‐chain heteroatom greatly affected the crystallization of the copolymers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholestatic drug‐induced liver injury (DILI) induced by drugs or other xenobiotics is a severe and even fatal clinical syndrome. Here, living materials of hierarchy‐assembled dual probiotics system are fabricated by sequentially encapsulating probiotic Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (LDB) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) into Ca2+‐complexed polymer microspheres for effective prevention of cholestatic DILI. Upon entering intestinal tract of the constructed living materials, LGG is released because of pH‐triggered dissolution of outer enteric polymer coating. The released LGG can inhibit hepatic bile acids (BAs) synthesis by activating intestinal farnesoid X receptor‐fibroblast growth factor 15（FGF‐15) signaling pathway. BAs excretion is also facilitated by LGG through increasing the abundance of bile salt hydrolase (BSH)‐active gut commensal bacteria. Furthermore, exposed positively‐charged chitosan shell can absorb the excessive BAs via electrostatic interaction, which leads to steady BAs fixation by the imprisoned LDB, decreasing the total BAs amounts in enterohepatic circulation. Together, the fabricated living materials, obtained here, can effectively prevent cholestatic DILI through dredging cholestasis via gut‐liver axis modulation. The therapeutic effect is demonstrated in α‐naphthylisothiocyanate and clinical antiepileptic drug valproate acid‐induced cholestatic DILI mouse models, which reveal the great potential for effective cholestatic DILI management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Display front‐of‐screen (FOS) quality inspection is essential for the mass production of displays in the manufacturing process. However, the severe imbalanced data, especially the limited number of defective samples, has been a long‐standing problem that hinders the successful application of deep learning algorithms. Synthetic defect data generation can help address this issue. This paper reviews the state‐of‐the‐art synthetic data generation methods and the evaluation metrics that can potentially be applied to display FOS quality inspection tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine biofouling is one of the most significant challenges hindering practical uranium extraction from seawater. Single atoms have been widely used in catalytic applications because of their remarkable redox property, implying that the single atom is highly capable of catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and acts as an anti‐biofouling substance for controlling biofouling. In this study, the Co single atom loaded polyacrylamidoxime (PAO) material, PAO‐Co, is fabricated based on the binding ability of the amidoxime group to uranyl and cobalt ions. Nitrogen and oxygen atoms from the amidoxime group stabilize the Co single atom. The fabricated PAO‐Co exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity against diverse marine microorganisms by producing ROS, with an inhibition rate up to 93.4%. The present study is the first to apply the single atom for controlling biofouling. The adsorbent achieves an ultrahigh uranium adsorption capacity of 9.7 mg g−1 in biofouling‐containing natural seawater, which decreased only by 11% compared with that in biofouling‐removed natural seawater. These findings indicate that applying single atoms would be a promising strategy for designing biofouling‐resistant adsorbents for uranium extraction from seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of environmental uranyl is attracting increasing attention. However, the available detection strategies mainly depend on the selective recognition of uranyl, which is subject to severe interference by coexisting metal ions. Herein, based on the unique uranyl‐triggered photocleavage property, the protein BSA is labelled with fluorescent molecules that exhibit an aggregation‐induced emission effect for uranyl detection. Uranyl‐triggered photocleavage causes the separation of the fluorescent‐molecule‐labelled protein fragments, leading to attenuation of the emission fluorescence, which is used as a signal for uranyl detection. This detection strategy shows high selectivity for uranyl and an ultralow detection limit of 24 pM with a broad detection range covering five orders of magnitude. The detection method also shows high reliability and stability, making it a promising technique for practical applications in diverse environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The authors sought to study the risk factors associated with severe outcomes in hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients with cancer. Methods: The authors queried the New York University Langone Medical Center's records for hospitalized patients who were polymerase chain reaction–positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV‐2) and performed chart reviews on patients with cancer diagnoses to identify patients with active cancer and patients with a history of cancer. Descriptive statistics were calculated and multivariable logistic regression was used to determine associations between clinical, demographic, and laboratory characteristics with outcomes, including death and admission to the intensive care unit. Results: A total of 4184 hospitalized SARS CoV‐2+ patients, including 233 with active cancer, were identified. Patients with active cancer were more likely to die than those with a history of cancer and those without any cancer history (34.3% vs 27.6% vs 20%, respectively; P <.01). In multivariable regression among all patients, active cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.89; CI, 1.34‐2.67; P <.01), older age (OR, 1.06; CI, 1.05‐1.06; P <.01), male sex (OR for female vs male, 0.70; CI, 0.58‐0.84; P <.01), diabetes (OR, 1.26; CI, 1.04‐1.53; P =.02), morbidly obese body mass index (OR, 1.87; CI, 1.24‐2.81; P <.01), and elevated D‐dimer (OR, 6.41 for value >2300; CI, 4.75‐8.66; P <.01) were associated with increased mortality. Recent cancer‐directed medical therapy was not associated with death in multivariable analysis. Among patients with active cancer, those with a hematologic malignancy had the highest mortality rate in comparison with other cancer types (47.83% vs 28.66%; P <.01). Conclusions: The authors found that patients with an active cancer diagnosis were more likely to die from COVID‐19. Those with hematologic malignancies were at the highest risk of death. Patients receiving cancer‐directed therapy within 3 months before hospitalization had no overall increased risk of death. Lay Summary: Our investigators found that hospitalized patients with active cancer were more likely to die from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) than those with a history of cancer and those without any cancer history.Patients with hematologic cancers were the most likely among patients with cancer to die from COVID‐19.Patients who received cancer therapy within 3 months before hospitalization did not have an increased risk of death. Investigators have found that hospitalized patients with active cancer are more likely to die from coronavirus disease 2019 than those with a history of cancer and those without any cancer history. Patients who receive antineoplastic medications at least 3 months before hospitalization have no overall increased risk of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video Frame Interpolation synthesizes non‐existent images between adjacent frames, with the aim of providing a smooth and consistent visual experience. Two approaches for solving this challenging task are optical flow based and kernel‐based methods. In existing works, optical flow based methods can provide accurate point‐to‐point motion description, however, they lack constraints on object structure. On the contrary, kernel‐based methods focus on structural alignment, which relies on semantic and apparent features, but tends to blur results. Based on these observations, we propose a structure‐motion based iterative fusion method. The framework is an end‐to‐end learnable structure with two stages. First, interpolated frames are synthesized by structure‐based and motion‐based learning branches respectively, then, an iterative refinement module is established via spatial and temporal feature integration. Inspired by the observation that audiences have different visual preferences on foreground and background objects, we for the first time propose to use saliency masks in the evaluation processes of the task of video frame interpolation. Experimental results on three typical benchmarks show that the proposed method achieves superior performance on all evaluation metrics over the state‐of‐the‐art methods, even when our models are trained with only one‐tenth of the data other methods use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene platelets (electrically conductive 2D filler) and rubber nanoparticles (0D soft filler) can work together to develop electrically conductive and toughened epoxy composite adhesives. In this study, complementing effect between graphene platelets (GnPs) and rubber nanoparticles (RnPs) within an epoxy matrix is reported. In the 3‐phase composite adhesive, the 2D graphene platelets form global conductive network and rubber nanoparticles provide a viscoelastic phase inside the epoxy, both complementing each other to develop electrically conductive and toughened epoxy composite adhesives. Fracture toughness (K1c) and critical strain energy release rate (G1c) of the epoxy were augmented by 422% and 872%, respectively by adding 1 wt% RnPs and it recorded electrical percolation threshold at 0.78 vol% GnP. Also, the Young's modulus and strength of epoxy/1 wt% RnP composite were promoted from 1.57 to 2.32 GPa when 1 wt% GnP is added. Scanning electron microscopy analysis was conducted to investigate the toughening mechanism of epoxy/RnP/GnP and epoxy/GnP composites. Lap shear strength tests on epoxy composite adhesives confirm the reinforcement effect of GnPs and toughness effect of RnPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The multimedia contents shared on social network reveal public sentimental attitudes toward specific events. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct sentiment analysis automatically on abundant multimedia data posted by the public for real‐world applications. However, approaches to single‐modal sentiment analysis neglect the internal connections between textual and visual contents, and current multimodal methods fail to exploit the multilevel semantic relations of heterogeneous features. In this article, the various syncretic co‐attention network is proposed to excavate the intricate multilevel corresponding relations between multimodal data, and combine the unique information of each modality for integrated complementary sentiment classification. Specifically, a multilevel co‐attention module is constructed to explore localized correspondences between each image region and each text word, and holistic correspondences between global visual information and context‐based textual semantics. Then, all the single‐modal features can be fused from different levels, respectively. Except for fused multimodal features, our proposed VSCN also considers unique information of each modality simultaneously and integrates them into an end‐to‐end framework for sentiment analysis. The superior results of experiments on three constructed real‐world datasets and a benchmark dataset of Visual Sentiment Ontology (VSO) prove the effectiveness of our proposed VSCN. Especially qualitative analyses are given for deep explaining of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel antisense lncRNA NT5E was identified in a previous microarray that was clearly up‐regulated in pancreatic cancer (PC) tissues. However, its biological function remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to explore its function and clinical significance in PC. The lncNT5E expression was determined in PC specimens and cell lines. In vitro and in vivo studies detected the impact of lncNT5E depletion on PC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Western blotting investigated the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers. The interaction between lncNT5E and the promoter region of SYNCRIP was detected by dual‐luciferase reporter assay. The role of lncNT5E in modulating SYNCRIP was investigated in vitro. Our results showed that lncNT5E was significantly up‐regulated in PC tissues and cell lines and associated with poor prognosis. LncNT5E depletion inhibited PC cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT in vitro and caused tumorigenesis arrest in vivo. Furthermore, SYNCRIP knockdown had effects similar to those of lncNT5E depletion. A significant positive relationship was observed between lncNT5E and SYNCRIP. Moreover, the dual‐luciferase reporter assays indicated that lncNT5E depletion significantly inhibited SYNCRIP promoter activity. Importantly, the malignant phenotypes of lncNT5E depletion were rescued by overexpressing SYNCRIP. In conclusion, lncNT5E predicts poor prognosis and promotes PC progression by modulating SYNCRIP expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topsoil is disturbed by ploughing, the effects of infiltration, the movement of fine particles from the topsoil to the subsoil, and direct pressure from agriculture machinery, all creating an abrupt delineation in the form of a compacted layer with very low permeability. Spatial variability of soil properties, such as soil structure and penetration resistance (PR), can help identify the compacted layer. However, there are no quantitative methods to describe this layer. In this study, PR was used to survey different soil types. A Mann–Kendall (M‐K) test of PR data was used to identify the presence and position of the compacted layer in a dryland farming region of Northeast China. Our results demonstrated that PR was mainly affected by bulk density and soil water content. Compared with the topsoil, PR was more significantly affected by water content in deeper soil layers. An M‐K test of the PR curve can provide a more reliable and objective assessment of the thickness of the plough layer and location of the compacted layer than field observation. Our data indicated that there was a compacted layer in the soil profile in the study areas and the spatial variability of the compacted layer was heterogeneous. The plough layer was shallow, and the compacted layer was thicker in areas with frequent use of agricultural machinery. Moreover, frequent use of agricultural machinery resulted in a PR of the plough and compacted layers that was greater than that in other areas. Information on identifying the position and thickness of the compacted layer and the factors influencing their spatial distribution can be used to create effective soil management options and improve conditions for the development of plant roots in dryland farming regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A series of organic–inorganic hybrid clusters comprising thioarylated tetrathiafulvalene derivatives (A‐S‐TTFs) and Keggin‐type polyoxometalates have been prepared via proton‐induced intermolecular charge transfer or electrochemical oxidation methods, and their structural features have been intensively studied by X‐ray diffraction. The generation of co‐crystals occurs due to the flexible structure of the A‐S‐TTF and its electrostatic interaction with the polyoxometalate anions. The complexes can be divided into three types, i.e., type I, type II, and type III, which have organic/inorganic ratios of 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1, respectively. Multiple intermolecular interactions are observed between the organic and inorganic moieties, which stabilize the structures of the resulting hybrid clusters. In the clusters, Ar‐S‐TTFs are oxidized into radical cations [except in complex (TTF4)·(PMA)·(TBA), where TTF4 is presented as a +2 cation]. There are two factors affecting the packing styles and compositions of the hybrid clusters: 1) valence state of the Ar‐S‐TTF and 2) volume of the aryl groups thereon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new 3D isostructural lanthanide MOFs, {[Ln(L)1.5(H2O)2]⋅2H2O⋅2DMF}n (Ln=Gd, Dy and Eu, H2L=4‐(2‐carboxyvinyl)benzoic acid)), were obtained by solvothermal reaction. The three complexes are topologically expressed as the trinodal (2,4,5)‐connected nets. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the three complexes maintained favorable thermal stability at 425 °C. Further, the fluorescence detection tests showed that Eu‐MOF had excellent recognition ability to Fe3+ and small organic nitrobenzene in DMF and other different mixed solutions, with stable crystal skeleton revealed by PXRD date. In addition, the result of the magnetic testing showed that Dy‐MOF had antiferromagnetic properties at 1000 Oe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: NaCl ceramics were prepared by room‐temperature cold sintering using moistened NaCl powder with 4 wt% water and dry pressing using dehydrated powder. When the applied uniaxial pressure is low, the relative density of dry‐pressed NaCl ceramic is significantly lower than that of cold‐sintered ceramic, while the former is 98.5%‐99.3% and much higher than the latter (94.3%‐94.6%) for high applied pressure of 200‐300 MPa. The uniaxial pressure‐induced plastic deformation dominates the densification of dry‐pressed NaCl ceramic, and also plays a role during cold sintering as well as the dissolution‐precipitation process. The lower density of cold‐sintered NaCl ceramic under high applied pressure is attributed to the trapped water in ceramic body during cold sintering. Besides, the presence of water always promotes the microstructural homogeneity, which is responsible for the much higher Qf value of cold‐sintered NaCl ceramic. The optimal microwave dielectric properties with εr = 5.55, Qf = 49 600 GHz, and τf = −173 ppm/°C are obtained in cold‐sintered NaCl ceramic under the applied pressure of 300 MPa, indicating that it is a promising candidate as a microwave dielectric material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monomer casting polyamide‐polyether amine (MCPA‐PEA) materials initiated by TDI‐PEA macroinitiator presented an obvious toughness characteristic which was contributed by the combination effect of PEA‐TDI macroinitiator and soft PEA component itself. The MCPA‐PEA materials with different content of PEA‐TDI macroinitiator or PEA component were prepared and then the respective contribution of PEA‐TDI macroinitiator and soft PEA component on the synthesis and performance were researched. It was found that the PEA‐TDI macroinitiator presented the dominant contribution and main influence on the polymerization process with higher activation energy and reaction order than PEA component. The PEA molecular chains did not participated in the crystallization process and made no influence on crystal structure of MCPA material whatever the way of copolymerization or blending. The PEA‐TDI macroinitiator also showed the dominant contribution on the decreasing effect of crystallization properties than PEA component with lower crystallinity and smaller spherulites size. The fibrous‐structure for MCPA‐0.3%PEA matrix was more obvious with notable deformation and high impact strength which further indicated the dominant contribution of PEA‐TDI macroinitiator on toughness. The toughening mechanism was deduced as the vast energy consumption by intense extension of fibrous‐structure and the highly orientation of molecular chains. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:1353–1361, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to probe the roles of PIP2 in the interactions between MIM I‐BAR and model membranes, we performed a series of 10 μs‐scale coarse‐grained molecular dynamics simulations. Our results indicate that PIP2 plays predominant roles in the membrane binding of MIM I‐BAR in a concentration‐dependent manner and via electrostatic interactions. Besides, we find that the occurrence of the membrane curvature may induce the re‐distribution of lipids in the membrane and result in the local enrichment of PIP2 at negatively curved membrane areas. Combining these roles of PIP2 in the membrane binding of MIM I‐BAR helps explain how MIM I‐BAR senses negative curvature and, thus, contributes to maintaining membrane protrusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The injection of supercritical CO2 coupled with superheated steam (SHS) for heavy oil recovery can improve development efficiency. In order to help oil fields to improve the efficiency of CO2 and SHS utilization we must predict the thermophysical properties at well bottom. Based on the mass, energy, and momentum conservation equations, a non‐isothermal pipe‐flow model is established considering heat exchange between the integral joint tubing (IJT) and annuli. Coupled with the transient thermal conduction model in stratum and the S‐R‐K real gas model, a comprehensive model is established for the mixture flow in concentric dual‐tubing wells (CDTW). The model is solved by a numerical method and an iteration technique. The results show that: (a) the accuracy of the temperature profile calculation has been greatly improved compared with the previous model; (b) the heat‐carrying capacity per unit mass of the mixture and heating efficiency decrease with increasing supercritical CO2 content; (c) when a temperature difference exists between the IJT and annuli, a rapid flow of thermal energy exists inside the CDTW, which causes a significant temperature change near the wellbore, but the influence of temperature change on pressure profiles is negligible. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Currently, there are no synthetic or biologic materials suitable for long‐term treatment of large tracheal defects. A successful tracheal replacement must (1) have radial rigidity to prevent airway collapse during respiration, (2) contain an immunoprotective respiratory epithelium, and (3) integrate with the host vasculature to support epithelium viability. Herein, biopolymer microspheres are used to deliver chondrogenic growth factors to human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) seeded in a custom mold that self‐assemble into cartilage rings, which can be fused into tubes. These rings and tubes can be fabricated with tunable wall thicknesses and lumen diameters with promising mechanical properties for airway collapse prevention. Epithelialized cartilage is developed by establishing a spatially defined composite tissue composed of human epithelial cells on the surface of an hMSC‐derived cartilage sheet. Prevascular rings comprised of human umbilical vein endothelial cells and hMSCs are fused with cartilage rings to form prevascular–cartilage composite tubes, which are then coated with human epithelial cells, forming a tri‐tissue construct. When prevascular– cartilage tubes are implanted subcutaneously in mice, the prevascular structures anastomose with host vasculature, demonstrated by their ability to be perfused. This microparticle–cell self‐assembly strategy is promising for engineering complex tissues such as a multi‐tissue composite trachea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NdIII coordination compounds [Nd(4-pytza)3(H2O)2] ·2H2O ( 1) and [Nd(4-pytza)2(H2O)4]Cl ·2H2O ( 2) [H4-pytza = 5-(4-pyridyl)tetrazole-2-acetic acid] were synthesized by reactions of K4-pytza and NdCl3 ·6H2O at different pH values. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that 4-pytza ligands in 1 in a μ1,3-COO syn- syn or μ1,1,3-COO bridging mode coordinate to two central NdIII atoms to display a dinuclear unit, which is connected by one of these 4-pytza ligands acting in end-to-end bridging mode to form a 1D ladder-like chain. Different from 1, each 4-pytza in 2 with a μ1,3-COO syn- anti bridging mode coordinates to two NdIII atoms to display a 1D zigzag chain. Furthermore, the luminescence properties of 1 and 2 were investigated at room temperature in the solid state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian longhorned beetle is a destructive trunk borer in forests and urban landscape trees., Dynamic changes in the supercooling capacity of Anoplophora glabripennis larvae in a natural population and the mechanism of cold hardiness during different overwintering periods at physiological and biochemical levels were explored., The results showed that the supercooling point of overwintering larvae decreased initially before increasing subsequently with seasonal changes in ambient temperature. Fresh mass and glycogen tended to decrease initially and then reached their minimum levels in January. Total amounts of low molecular weight substances and free amino acids in the haemolymph increased gradually as the ambient temperature decreased. Glycerol (779.80 ± 29.10 µ m/m L) and trehalose (104.35 ± 12.38 µ m/m L) concentrations were always higher than those of glucose and mannitol. All low molecular weight substances (besides trehalose) were almost metabolized by early spring. The concentrations of serine, phenylalanine, valine, leucine, proline, glutamic acid and alanine all reached their highest level in the colder winter months., The results of the present study suggest that A. glabripennis larvae accumulate cryoprotectants to improve their supercooling capacity, and enhance cold hardiness by reducing the supercooling point with respect to a decrease in ambient temperature until freezing temperatures appear. Anoplophora glabripennis larvae are a freeze-tolerant insect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice bean ( Vigna umbellata) root apex specifically secretes citrate through expression activation of Vigna umbellata Multidrug and Toxic Compound Extrusion 1 ( Vu MATE1) under aluminum (Al3+) stress. However, the underlying mechanisms regulating Vu MATE1 expression remain unknown., We isolated and characterized a gene encoding Sensitive to Proton Rhizotoxicity1 ( STOP1)-like protein, Vu STOP1, from rice bean. The role of Vu STOP1 in regulating Vu MATE1 expression was investigated using the yeast one-hybrid assay. We characterized the function of Vu STOP1 in Al3 + - and H+-tolerance using in planta complementation assays., We demonstrated that Vu STOP1 has transactivation potential. We found that Vu STOP1 expression is inducible by Al3+ and H+ stress. However, although Vu STOP1 binds to the promoter of Vu MATE1, the inconsistent tissue localization patterns of Vu STOP1 and Vu MATE1 preclude Vu STOP1 as the major factor regulating Vu MATE1 expression. In addition, when a protein translation inhibitor increased expression of Vu STOP1, Vu MATE1 expression was inhibited. In planta complementation assay demonstrated that Vu STOP1 could fully restore expression of genes involved in H+ tolerance, but could only partially restore expression of At MATE., We conclude that Vu STOP1 plays a major role in H+ tolerance, but only a minor role in Al3+ tolerance. The differential transcriptional regulation of Vu STOP1 and Vu MATE1 reveals a complex regulatory system controlling Vu MATE1 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new diterpenoids, named paecilomycine A ( 1) and paecilomycine B ( 2), including a novel skeleton with a five-membered lactone ring, together with three known labdane diterpenoids, rel-(1 R,3 S,4a S,5 R,8a S)-5-[(3 E)-4-carboxy-3-methylbut-3-en-1-yl]decahydro-3-hydroxy-1,4a-dimethyl-6-methylidenenaphthalene-1-carboxylic acid ( 3), botryosphaerin E ( 4), and agathic acid ( 5), were isolated from solid culture of the insect pathogenic fungi strain Paecilomyces sp. The structures of all compounds were established on the basis of comprehensive spectroscopic studies. The relative configurations of 1 and 2 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diiron carbonyl complex [{(μ-SCH2)2O}Fe2(CO)6] ( A) reacted with Ph2PCl and Me3NO in MeCN at room temperature to give the expected and unexpected Ph2PCl-, Ph2PNMe2-, and Ph2PP(=O)Ph2-substituted complexes [{(μ-SCH2)2O}Fe2(CO)5L] [ 1, L = Ph2PCl; 2, L = Ph2PNMe2; 3, L = Ph2PP(=O)Ph2], whereas complex [{(μ-SCH2)2CH2}Fe2(CO)6] ( B) reacted with Ph2PCl and Me3NO under similar conditions to afford only the unexpected complexes [{(μ-SCH2)2CH2}Fe2(CO)5L] [ 4, L = Ph2PNMe2; 5, L = Ph2PP(=O)Ph2]. Similarly, complex [{(μ-SeCH2)2O}Fe2(CO)6] ( C) reacted with Ph2PCl and Me3NO in MeCN at room temperature to give the unexpected complexes [{(μ-SeCH2)2O}Fe2(CO)5L] [ 6, L = Ph2PNMe2; 7, L = Ph2PP(=O)Ph2], and the corresponding unexpected complexes [{(μ-SeCH2)2CH2}Fe2(CO)5L] [ 8, L = Ph2PNMe2; 9, L = Ph2PP(=O)Ph2] were produced by the reaction of complex [{(μ-SeCH2)2CH2}Fe2(CO)6] ( D) with Ph2PCl and Me3NO under similar conditions. The structures of 1- 9 were characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopy, and for 1- 5 and 7- 9 by X-ray crystallography. Possible pathways for the formation of the functionalized phosphine-substituted complexes 1- 9 have been suggested. Complexes 1- 9 can be regarded as models for [FeFe] hydrogenases as their structures are similar to the active site of [FeFe] hydrogenases, and some have been found to be catalysts for proton reduction to hydrogen in the presence of HOAc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore the regulatory effects of cytokines, such as EGF and bFGF, on expression of the neural-specific molecules tau and MAP2 mRNA in mononuclear cells (MNCs) derived from human umbilical cord blood (UCB). Phenotypic changes were monitored by inverse phase-contrast microscopy. Tau and MAP2 mRNA were determined by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Tau and MAP2-positive cells were determined by immunocytochemistry. The expression of tau mRNA was negative in uncultured cells, but MAP2 mRNA was positive; in cultured cells, tau protein mRNA expression was positive, MAP2 mRNA expression was upregulated by EGF+bFGF, EGF and bFGF compared to the control group (no cytokines). EGF+bFGF had a greater effect on MAP2 mRNA expression than EGF or bFGF alone. The same upregulatory tendency was noted for tau mRNA expression. It is concluded that MNCs derived from human UCB cells may express some neural specific molecules that can be upregulated by cytokines, especially EGF and bFGF together. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dendritic cells (DC) are the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APC); their ability to induce proliferation of T cells in a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assay is commonly used for the evaluation of their function. It is a general thought that gamma irradiation of APC does not influence their ability to activate T-cell proliferation, but the data from several studies are controversial. To further determine the mechanisms involved in DC-induced T-cell activation in MLR assay, human DC induced from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were gamma-irradiated and determine their effects on the proliferation and cytokine profiles of T cells in an autologous MLR. DC were induced from the PBMC of 11 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with RMPI 640 medium containing recombinant human GM-CSF (rhGM-CSF; 800 U/ml) and recombinant human IL-4 (rhIL-4; 500 U/ml). DC harvested on day 7 were divided into two equal parts. One part was not irradiated (naive DC); the other was γ-irradiated at a dose of 30 Gy. Cell surface molecules were analyzed by flow cytometry. T-cell proliferation was determined using a beta-scintillation counter. The levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 in co-culture supernatants were measured by ELISA. The results indicated that gamma irradiation reduced expression of CD86, CD80 and HLA-DR molecules on DC, especially CD86 (P=0.0072). DC, irradiated or non-irradiated, effectively stimulated autologous T-cell proliferation. Compared to naive DC, irradiated DC showed a markedly lower capacity to promote T-cell proliferation (P=0.0073), and strikingly up-regulated secretion of IL-4 (P=0.0145) and IL-2 (P=0.0323) by autologous T cells. No significant differences were noted in IL-6 and IL-10 production between T cells co-cultured with naive DC and irradiated DC (P>0.05). It is concluded that gamma irradiation of DC not only influences the phenotype of DC but also alters their capacity to stimulate the proliferation and the cytokine profiles of autologous T cells in a MLR. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background and Aim Methods Results Conclusion Helicobacter pylori infection is linked to various gastrointestinal conditions, such as chronic active gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer. Traditional treatment options encounter difficulties due to antibiotic resistance and adverse effects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a new treatment plan that combines vonoprazan (VPZ), amoxicillin, and bismuth for the eradication of H. pylori.A total of 600 patients infected with H. pylori were recruited for this multicenter randomized controlled trial. Patients treated for H. pylori elimination were randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to receive 14 days of vonoprazan‐based triple therapy (vonoprazan + amoxicillin + bismuth, group A) or standard quadruple therapy (esomeprazole + clarithromycin + amoxicillin + bismuth, group B). Compliance and adverse effects were tracked through daily medication and side effect records. All patients underwent a 13C/14C‐urea breath test 4 weeks after treatment completion.Intention‐to‐treat (ITT) and per‐protocol (PP) analyses revealed no substantial differences in H. pylori eradication rates between groups A and B (ITT: 83.7% vs 83.2%; PP: 90.9% vs 89.7%). However, significant differences were observed in the assessment of side effects (13.7% vs 28.6%, P < 0.001). Specifically, group A had significantly fewer “bitter mouths” than group B did (3.7% vs 16.2%, P < 0.001).Triple therapy comprising vonoprazan (20 mg), amoxicillin (750 mg), and bismuth potassium citrate (220 mg) achieved a PP eradication rate ≥90%, paralleling standard quadruple therapy, and had fewer adverse events and lower costs (¥306.8 vs ¥645.8) for treatment‐naive patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chiral metalens of circular polarization dichroism (CPD) in the mid‐infrared region of 3–5 µm is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally, in which one of the circularly polarized light beams (either left‐handed or right‐handed) is transmissively focused at a designed focal length, while the other beam is reflected. The metalens consists of subwavelength helical surface arrays covered by a gold thin film that gives rise to CPD with the handedness of the metallic helical surface, while the focusing is realized with a phase distribution that is found to be determined by the rotation angle of each individual helical surface along the radial direction of the lens. A chiral metalens of circular dichroism (CMCD) operating in the 3–5 µm region is designed and experimentally fabricated by the 3D laser direct writing technique followed by electron beam evaporation. Experimental focusing of the circularly polarized lights is demonstrated successfully with the lock‐in thermography technique to eliminate the severe background infrared radiation in the 3–5 µm wavelength region, and it is found that the results are consistent with the theoretical simulation. The demonstrated CMCD provides a new idea of implementing integrated functions of both imaging and circular dichroism with a single element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the fact that majority of support vector regression models have not been fully optimized in the realm of quantitative structure-activity relationship, an idea of simultaneous optimization has been proposed and evaluated on a set of novel kinase insert domain receptor/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 inhibitors including naphthalene and indazole-based compounds in this study. After the powerful feature searching process using genetic algorithm, the final support vector regression model was constructed on an optimal set of six descriptors, based on which simultaneous optimization was carried out. Specifically, the global optimum is grid searched in the joint parametric space defined by cost (C), gamma and epsilon, where performance of support vector regression using each combination of (C, gamma, epsilon) is evaluated and recorded, resulting in bulky information. Based on the data decomposition strategies provided in the main paper, the best performance was achieved for C = 1.2, gamma = 0.15 and epsilon = 0.065. As a comparison, a linear model based on genetic algorithm-multiple linear regression has also been developed and compared. Performances of these models are rigorously validated using both leave-one-out cross-validation and also external validation. The significant higher R(2) (0.908, 0.837) and lower root-mean-square error (0.237, 0.311) for 45 training and 16 test samples compared to that of genetic algorithm-multiple linear regression (0.764, 0.700 and 0.402, 0.421) confirm the superior performance of genetic algorithm-support vector regression. Robustness and predictive ability of this model is further prudently evaluated. The resulting models introduced not only the idea of simultaneous optimization in support vector regression, but also an efficient strategy for estimating the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 inhibitory activity of novel naphthalene and indazole-based compounds. Moreover, some insights into the structural features related to the biological activity of these compounds have also been provided, which might be of great help for further designing novel vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2/kinase insert domain receptor inhibitors with potent activity.