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Esm-1, endothelial cell-specific molecule-1, is a susceptibility gene for diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and is a secreted proteoglycan, with notable expression in kidney, which attenuates inflammation and albuminuria. However, little is known about Esm1 expression in mature tissues in the presence or absence of diabetes. We utilized publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing data to characterize Esm1 expression in 27,786 renal endothelial cells (RECs) obtained from three mouse and four human databases. We validated our findings using bulk transcriptome data from 20 healthy subjects and 41 patients with DKD and using RNAscope. In both mice and humans, Esm1 is expressed in a subset of all REC types and represents a minority of glomerular RECs. In patients, Esm1(+) cells exhibit conserved enrichment for blood vessel development genes. With diabetes, these cells are fewer in number and shift expression toward chemotaxis pathways. Esm1 correlates with a majority of genes within these pathways, delineating a glomerular transcriptional polarization reflected by the magnitude of Esm1 deficiency. Diabetes correlates with lower Esm1 expression and with changes in the functional characterization of Esm1(+) cells. Thus, Esm1 appears to be a marker for glomerular transcriptional polarization in DKD. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: Esm-1 is primarily expressed in glomerular endothelium in humans. Cells expressing Esm1 exhibit a high degree of conservation in the enrichment of genes related to blood vessel development. In the context of diabetes, these cells are reduced in number and show a significant transcriptional shift toward the chemotaxis pathway. In diabetes, there is a transcriptional polarization in the glomerulus that is reflected by the degree of Esm1 deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat is an important food crop in China. The quality of wheat affects the development of the agricultural economy. However, the high-quality wheat produced in China cannot meet the demand, so it would be an important direction for research to develop high-quality wheat. Grain protein content (GPC) is an important criterion for the quality of winter wheat and its content directly affects the quality of wheat. Studying the spatial heterogeneity of wheat grain proteins is beneficial to the prediction of wheat quality, and it plays a guiding role in the identification, grading, and processing of wheat quality. Due to the complexity and variability of wheat quality, conventional evaluation methods have shortcomings such as low accuracy and poor applicability. To better predict the GPC, geographically weighted regression (GWR) models, multiple linear regression, random forest (RF), BP neural networks, support vector machine, and long-and-short-term memory algorithms were used to analyze the meteorological data and soil data of Jiangsu Province from March to May in 2019–2022. It was found that the winter wheat GPC rises by 0.17% with every 0.1° increase in north latitude at the county level in Jiangsu. Comparison of the prediction accuracy of the coefficient of determination, mean deviation error, root mean square error, and mean absolute error by analyzing multiple algorithms showed that the GWR model was the most accurate, followed by the RF model. The regression coefficient of precipitation in April showed the smallest range of variation among all factors, indicating that precipitation in April had a more stable effect on GPC in the study area than the other meteorological factors. Therefore, consideration of spatial information might be beneficial in predicting county-level winter wheat GPC. GWR models based on meteorological and soil factors enrich the studies regarding the prediction of wheat GPC based on environmental data. It might be applied to predict winter wheat GPC and improve wheat quality to better guide large-scale production and processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intermediate and robust observer is presented in this article to robustly estimate secure state and reconstruct actuator attack for continuous-time/discrete-time cyber-physical system. First, we propose a general form of cyber-physical system under actuator attack and external disturbance, and then some assumptions are stated in order to facilitate further research. Second, a novel intermediate and robust observer is designed, based on which an augmented error equation is deduced, necessary and sufficient conditions for continuous-time/discrete-time cyber-physical system to obtain gain matrices are derived separately. Third, strict linear matrix inequality conditions are deduced by transforming the original problem into convex optimization problem. Finally, we conduct two simulation experiments with continuous-time and discrete-time unmanned ground vehicle model to show the effectiveness of the proposed secure state estimation and attack reconstruction approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic heterojunction photocatalysts consisting of silver covered AgBr/BiVO4 structures (Ag@AgBr/BiVO4) were prepared by hydrothermal-photoreduction method. Their phase composition and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopies. The photo-generated electron-hole pair recombination rate was characterized by I-t curves and photoluminescence measurements. Visible light absorption range of Ag@AgBr/BiVO4 plasmonic heterojunction was significantly enhanced. Ag@AgBr/BiVO4 showed high efficiency for degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under wLED light. RhB degraded by ~ 82% during 150 min reaction time. Ag@AgBr/BiVO4 photocatalyst remained constant after 8 cycles indicating its extreme stability. Enhancement mechanism of Ag@AgBr/BiVO4 plasmonic heterojunction photocatalyst is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop high performance of polymer-based composites, the dispersion state and interfacial interaction of nano-fillers are two key issues to be considered. Herein, we report the surface decoration of basalt fibers (BF) with nano-sized barium titanate (BT) particles and their dielectric application in poly(ether sulfone)-based composite laminates (PBCLs) was investigated in detail. Firstly, the nano-sized BT particles uniformly deposited along the BF surface through a simple and effective solvothermal method, as confirmed by SEM and XRD measurement. Then, novel ternary dielectric polymer-based composite laminates, consisting of BT particles decorated BF and poly(ether sulfone) (BT-BF/PES), were fabricated by hot-pressing method. Compared to raw BF filled PBCLs, the SEM images of BT-BF fibers reinforced PBCLs showed that all the BT-BF fibers strongly adhere to the PES matrix, and obscure fiber/PES interfaces are present without visible boundaries, indicating a improved interfacial interactions in this case. Thus, the mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of the resultant PBCLs were characterized and results indicated that the BF and BT particles show enhanced synergistic effects. Following this strategy, the flexural strength and dielectric constant of BT-BF/PES blend with 40 wt% of BT were increased by 28 and 350%, respectively, in comparison with those of BF/PES composite laminates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The macro- and microphysical properties of clouds can reflect their vertical physical structure and evolution and are important indications of the formation and development of precipitation. We used four-year merged CloudSat-CALIPSO-MODIS products to distinguish the macro- and microphysical properties of precipitating and non-precipitating clouds over central-eastern China during the warm season (May–September). Our results showed that the clouds were dominated by single- and double-layer forms with occurrence frequencies > 85%. Clouds with a low probability of precipitation (POP) were usually geometrically thin. The POP showed an increasing trend with increases in the cloud optical depth, liquid water path, and ice water path, reaching maxima of 50%, 60%, and 75%, respectively. However, as cloud effective radius (CER) increased, the POP changed from an increasing to a decreasing trend for a CER > 22 μm, in contrast with our perception that large particles fall more easily against updrafts, but this shift can be attributed to the transition of the cloud phase from mixed clouds to ice clouds. A high POP > 60% usually occurred in mixed clouds with vigorous ice-phase processes. There were clear differences in the microphysical properties of non-precipitating and precipitating clouds. In contrast with the vertical evolution of non-precipitating clouds with weaker reflectivity, precipitating clouds were present above 0 dBZ with a significant downward increase in reflectivity, suggesting inherent differences in cloud dynamical and microphysical processes. Our findings highlight the differences in the POP of warm and mixed clouds, suggesting that the low frequency of precipitation from water clouds should be the focus of future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image quality and resolution are important factors affecting the application value of remote sensing images. Although increasing the optical aperture of space optical remote sensors (SORSs) improves image resolution, it exacerbates the effects of the space environment on imaging quality. Thus, this study proposes thermal active optical technology (TAO) to enhance image quality while increasing the optical aperture of SORSs by actively correcting in-orbit wavefront aberrations. Replacing traditional wavefront detection and reconstruction with numerical calculation and simulation analysis, more realistic in-orbit SORS wavefront aberrations are obtained. Numerical and finite element analyses demonstrate that nonlinearities in TAO control lead to the failure of traditional wavefront correction algorithms. To address this, we use a neural network algorithm combining CNN and ResNet. Simulation results show that the residual of the systematic wavefront RMS error for SORS reduces to 1/100 λ . The static and dynamic modular transfer functions are improved, and the structural similarity index is recovered by over 23%, highlighting the effectiveness of TAO in image quality enhancement. The static and thermal vacuum experiments demonstrate the wide applicability and engineering prospects of TAO.

Cordyceps militaris has long been used as a crude drug and folk tonic food in East Asia. The present study aims to evaluate the antidiabetic and antinephritic effects of the aqueous extract of the Cordyceps militaris fruit body (CM) in diet-streptozotocin- (STZ-) induced diabetic rats. During four weeks of continuous oral administration of CM at doses of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 g/kg and metformin at 100 mg/kg, the fasting blood glucose and bodyweight of each rat were monitored. Hypoglycemic effects of CM on diabetic rats were indicated by decreases in plasma glucose, food and water intake, and urine output. The hypolipidemic activity of CM was confirmed by the normalization of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in diabetic rats. Inhibitory effects on albuminuria, creatinine, urea nitrogen, and n-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase verified CM's renal protective activity in diabetic rats. Furthermore, CM exerted beneficial modulation of inflammatory factors and oxidative enzymes. Compared with untreated diabetic rats, CM decreased the expression of phosphor-AKT and phosphor-GSK-3β in the kidneys. Altogether, via attenuating oxidative stress, CM displayed antidiabetic and antinephritic activities in diet-STZ-induced diabetic rats.