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External corrosion poses a significant threat to the integrity and lifespan of buried pipelines. Accurate prediction of corrosion rates is important for the safe and efficient transportation of oil and natural gas. However, limited data availability often impacts the performance of conventional predictive models. This study proposes a novel composite modeling approach integrating kernel principal component analysis (KPCA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and extreme learning machine (ELM). The key innovation lies in using KPCA for reducing the dimensionality of complex input data combined with PSO for optimizing the parameters of the ELM network. The model was rigorously trained on 12 different datasets and comprehensively evaluated using metrics such as the coefficient of determination (R2), standard deviation (SD), mean relative error (MRE), and root mean square error (RMSE). The results show that KPCA effectively extracted four primary components, accounting for 91.33% of the data variability. The KPCA-PSO-ELM composite model outperformed independent models with a higher accuracy, achieving an R2 of 99.59% and an RMSE of only 0.0029%. The model comprehensively considered various indicators under the conditions of limited data. The model significantly improved the prediction accuracy and provides a guarantee for the safety of oil and gas transport.

This study proposes a method for personalized daily hand exercise training to address the lack of personalization in rehabilitation training and its disconnect from daily life. This research aims to evaluate the impact of Happiness Memory Therapy on patients’ hand function through gamified daily life training. The methodology integrates Happiness Memory Therapy and Positive Mirror Theory to assist in life game design. Patient interviews and empathy are used to gather life experiences, interests, hobbies, and challenges, which are then incorporated into personalized rehabilitation training. The experimental process includes pre- and post-intervention tests to assess changes in subjective well-being (SWLS), happiness (SHS), positive and negative emotions (PANAS), psychological well-being (PWB), and hand function impairment (DASH). The results show that the intervention significantly enhances patients’ subjective well-being, happiness, positive emotions, and reduces negative emotions and hand function impairments. In conclusion, Happiness Memory Therapy and Positive Mirror Theory are effective in developing personalized daily hand exercise training methods and have a significant impact on improving the psychological health and quality of life of stroke patients, offering new ideas and methods for personalized rehabilitation training.

The aim of this study was to explore how the total flavonoids from Eucommia ulmoides leaves (EULs) regulate ischemia-induced nerve damage, as well as the protective effects mediated by oxidative stress. The cell survival rate was significantly improved compared to the ischemic group (p < 0.05) after treatment with the total flavonoids of EULs. The levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased, while catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) increased, indicating that the total flavonoids of EULs can significantly alleviate neurological damage caused by ischemic stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress (p < 0.01). The mRNA expression level of VEGF increased (p < 0.01), which was consistent with the protein expression results. Meanwhile, the protein expression of ERK and CCND1 increased (p < 0.01), suggesting that the total flavonoids of EULs could protect PC12 cells from ischemic injury via VEGF-related pathways. MCAO rat models indicated that the total flavonoids of EULs could reduce brain ischemia–reperfusion injury. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the potential mechanisms of the total flavonoids of EULs in treating ischemic stroke and their potential therapeutic effects in reducing ischemic injury, which provides useful information for ischemic stroke drug discovery.

Peanut shells, a major economic and oil crop in China, boast an abundant availability and remarkably high lignin content compared to other agricultural residues. Previous work indicated that the modified hierarchical zeolite (Zn-ZSM-5/MCM41) was effective in promoting the conversion of intermediate macromolecules during the lignin pyrolysis reaction and enhancing the yield and selectivity of liquid products. Thereby, this study aims to improve the quality of liquid products in the ex situ catalytic microwave co-pyrolysis of peanut shells and LDPE by utilizing Zn-ZSM-5/MCM41. Employing a compound center experimental design, we optimized reaction conditions through response surface analysis. The impact of microwave pyrolysis temperature and the catalyst-to-feedstock ratio on yield distribution and liquid product selectivity was explored. Results indicated a marginal increase in liquid product yield with rising pyrolysis temperatures. Moreover, an initial increase followed by a subsequent decrease in liquid product yield was observed with an increase in the catalyst-to-feedstock ratio. Optimal conditions of 450 °C and a catalyst-to-peanut hull ratio of 2.34% yielded the highest bio-oil yield at 34.25%. GC/MS analysis of the bio-oil revealed a peak in hydrocarbon content at 68.36% under conditions of 450 °C and a catalyst-to-feedstock ratio of 13.66%. Additionally, the quadratic model effectively predicted bio-oil yield and the selectivity for major chemical components. This study underscores the potential of Zn-ZSM-5/MCM41 in optimizing liquid product quality during catalytic co-pyrolysis, offering insights into bio-oil production and its chemical composition.

In the realm of building demolition, ensuring the uniform distribution of energy from multiple sources is of paramount significance for the systematic deconstruction of large structures. This study presents an integrated methodology that combines genetic optimization and potential energy balance to determine the most suitable locations for multiple energy release points, thereby enhancing the efficiency and reliability of the demolition process. We initiate our approach by randomly selecting energy release points within a building model and subsequently simulate energy dispersion utilizing a potential function until reaching stable boundaries. In instances where the discrepancy in the area between the regions with maximum and minimum energy dispersion exceeds a predefined threshold, we instigate an optimization process employing genetic algorithms. This optimization process involves genetic crossover and mutation operations, followed by subsequent energy balance calculations. The result is not only an improvement in demolition efficiency but also an assurance of even energy coverage throughout the target area.

Semantic information interaction plays an important role in transportation infrastructure modeling and management. To ensure semantic consistency during information exchange and data integration, ontology technology is commonly employed to measure the semantic relevance between concepts. Ontology semantic similarity accurately expresses relationships among various concepts in the domain, and when combined with Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology, it improves the efficiency of information transmission and management in construction. However, the complex structure, diverse components, and strong attribute diversity of transportation infrastructure pose challenges for analysis and computation, leading to limited precision in existing ontology semantic similarity methods. Aimed at these issues, this paper proposes a transport infrastructure ontology concept semantic similarity measurement model based on the Back Propagation (BP) neural network algorithm improved by the Spotted Hyena Optimizer (SHO-BP). Firstly, a semantic network for transportation infrastructure is established, and an ontology-based semantic similarity calculation model is constructed with three approaches, including Edge-Counting method, Feature-based method, and Information-Content method. Then, the SHO-BP algorithm is employed to comprehensively weight the three similarity measure approaches above. Finally, using bridge BIM models as examples, the semantic similarity of transportation infrastructure concepts involved in the BIM models are computed based on the weighted model derived from the aforementioned processes. The experiments demonstrate that the SHO-BP algorithm achieves a higher Pearson correlation coefficient than other algorithms for the comprehensive semantic similarity results in the field of transportation infrastructure. This improvement effectively enhances the accuracy of ontology semantic similarity calculation, and it is conducive to the sharing and integration of BIM information in different systems.

A novel atomic-level post-etch-surface-reinforcement (PESR) process is developed to recover the p-GaN etching induced damage region for high performance p-GaN gate HEMTs fabrication. This process is composed of a self-limited surface modification step with O2 plasma, following by an oxide removal step with BCl3 plasma. With PESR process, the AlGaN surface morphology after p-GaN etching was comparable to the as-epitaxial level by AFM characterization, and the AlGaN lattice crystallization was also recovered which was measured in a confocal Raman system. The electrical measurement further confirmed the significant improvement of AlGaN surface quality, with one-order of magnitude lower surface leakage in a metal-semiconductor (MS) Schottky-diode and 6 times lower interface density of states (Dit) in a MIS C-V characterization. The XPS analysis of Al2O3/AlGaN showed that the p-GaN etching induced F-byproduct and Ga-oxide was well removed and suppressed by PESR process. Finally, the developed PESR process was successfully integrated in p-GaN gate HEMTs fabrication, and the device performance was significantly enhanced with ~20% lower of on-resistance and ~25% less of current collapse at Vds,Q bias of 40 V, showing great potential of leverage p-GaN gate HEMTs reliability.

Large-slenderness-ratio (LSR) aircraft exhibit more severe lateral–directional coupling compared with other aircraft, which poses a significant challenge to their flight safety, especially during high-speed maneuvers. Reliable attitude decoupling control is, therefore, essential for LSR aircraft. In this study, a novel control framework that combines incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion (INDI) and extended state observer (ESO) is proposed for supersonic roll maneuver control of LSR aircraft. The ESO is used to estimate the angular acceleration on the basis of an onboard mathematical model. The acceleration estimator based on ESO achieves superior noise reduction compared with the complementary filter (CF) and reduces the onboard model requirement without significantly sacrificing estimation accuracy. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and frequency–domain analysis demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller. The sensitivity of parameter uncertainties is also investigated, revealing that the natural frequency of the actuator is the most critical parameter affecting robustness. Finally, flight tests validate the effectiveness of the proposed control structure.

This study investigates the synthesis of a new compound, PYR26, and the multi-target mechanism of PYR26 inhibiting the proliferation of HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. PYR26 significantly inhibits the growth of HepG2 cells (p < 0.0001) and this inhibition has a concentration effect. There was no significant change in ROS release from HepG2 cells after PYR26 treatment. The mRNA expressions of CDK4, c-Met and Bak genes in HepG2 cells were significantly inhibited (p < 0.05), while mRNA expression of pro-apoptotic factors such as caspase-3 and Cyt c was significantly increased (p < 0.01). The expression of PI3K, CDK4 and pERK proteins decreased. The expression level of caspase-3 protein was increased. PI3K is a kind of intracellular phosphatidylinositol kinase. PI3K signaling pathway is involved in signal transduction of a variety of growth factors, cytokines and extracellular matrix and plays an important role in preventing cell apoptosis, promoting cell survival and influencing cell glucose metabolism. CDK4 is a catalytic subunit of the protein kinase complex and is important for G1 phase progression of the cell cycle. PERK refers to phosphorylated activated ERK, which is translocated from cytoplasm to the nucleus after activation, and then participates in various biological reactions such as cell proliferation and differentiation, cell morphology maintenance, cytoskeleton construction, cell apoptosis and cell canceration. Compared with the model group and the positive control group, the tumor volume of the nude mice in the low-concentration PYR26 group, the medium-concentration group and the high-concentration group was smaller, and the organ volume was smaller than that in the model group and the positive control group. The tumor inhibition rates of low-concentration group PYR26, medium-concentration group and high-concentration group reached 50.46%, 80.66% and 74.59%, respectively. The results showed that PYR26 inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells and induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells by down-regulating c-Met, CDK4 and Bak, up-regulating the mRNA expression of caspase-3 and Cyt c genes, down-regulating PI3K, pERK and CDK4 proteins and up-regulating the protein level of caspase-3. In a certain range, with the increase in PYR26 concentration, the tumor growth was slower and the tumor volume was smaller. Preliminary results showed that PYR26 also had an inhibitory effect on the tumors of Hepa1-6 tumor-bearing mice. These results suggest that PYR26 has an inhibitory effect on the growth of liver cancer cells, therefore it has potential to be developed into a new anti-liver cancer drug.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important food and feed crop worldwide and is affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses. The cellular ATP levels decrease significantly during stress as ATP molecules move to extracellular spaces, resulting in increased ROS production and cell apoptosis. Apyrases (APYs) are the nucleoside phosphatase (NPTs) superfamily members and play an important role in regulating cellular ATP levels under stress. We identified 17 APY homologs in A. hypogaea (AhAPYs), and their phylogenetic relationships, conserved motifs, putative miRNAs targeting different AhAPYs, cis-regulatory elements, etc., were studied in detail. The transcriptome expression data were used to observe the expression patterns in different tissues and under stress conditions. We found that the AhAPY2-1 gene showed abundant expression in the pericarp. As the pericarp is a key defense organ against environmental stress and promoters are the key elements regulating gene expression, we functionally characterized the AhAPY2-1 promoter for its possible use in future breeding programs. The functional characterization of AhAPY2-1P in transgenic Arabidopsis plants showed that it effectively regulated GUS gene expression in the pericarp. GUS expression was also detected in flowers of transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Overall, these results strongly suggest that APYs are an important future research subject for peanut and other crops, and AhPAY2-1P can be used to drive the resistance-related genes in a pericarp-specific manner to enhance the defensive abilities of the pericarp.

Endocrine disruptors are newly identified water contaminants and immediately caught worldwide concern. An effort has been made to degrade endocrine disruptors in the water body by relying on laccase-assisted approaches, including laccase-mediated catalytic systems, immobilized laccase catalytic systems, and nano-catalytic systems based on atypical protein enzymes. Analogous to laccases, polyoxometalates (POMs) have a similar size as these enzymes. They are also capable of using oxygen as an electron acceptor, which could assist the removal of endocrine disruptors in water. This perspective begins with a brief introduction to endocrine disruptors and laccases, summarizes current approaches employing laccases, and focuses on the nano-catalytic systems that mimic the function of laccases. Among the inorganic nanoparticles, POMs meet the design requirements and are easy for large-scale production. The catalytic performance of POMs in water treatment is highlighted, and an example of using polyoxovanadates for endocrine disruptor degradation is given at the end of this perspective. Exploring laccase-mimetic POMs will give key insights into the degradation of emergent water contaminants.

The effect of the source/drain compressive stress on the mechanical stability of stacked Si nanosheets (NS) during the process of channel release has been investigated. The stress of the nanosheets in the stacking direction increased first and then decreased during the process of channel release by technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation. The finite element simulation showed that the stress caused serious deformation of the nanosheets, which was also confirmed by the experiment. This study proposed a novel channel release process that utilized multi-step etching to remove the sacrificial SiGe layers instead of conventional single-step etching. By gradually releasing the stress of the SiGe layer on the nanosheets, the stress difference in the stacking direction before and after the last step of etching was significantly reduced, thus achieving equally spaced stacked nanosheets. In addition, the plasma-free oxidation treatment was introduced in the multi-step etching process to realize an outstanding selectivity of 168:1 for Si0.7Ge0.3 versus Si. The proposed novel process could realize the channel release of nanosheets with a multi-width from 30 nm to 80 nm with little Si loss, unlocking the full potential of gate-all-around (GAA) technology for digital, analog, and radio-frequency (RF) circuit applications.

Labeled data in insufficient amounts and missing categories are two observable features for high maneuvering target trajectory data. However, the existing research achievements are insufficient for solving these two problems simultaneously during data classification. This study proposed a two-stage semi-supervised trajectory data classification algorithm. By pre-training the autoencoder and combining it with the Siamese network, a two-stage joint training was formed, which enabled the model to deal with missing categories by clustering and maintaining the classification ability under the missing label categories. The experimental simulation results showed that the performance of this algorithm was better than the classical semi-supervised algorithm label propagation and transferred learning when the amount of various labeled data was as low as 1–5. The two-stage training model also had a good effect on the problem of missing categories. When 75% of the types were missing, the purity could still reach 82%, which was about eight percentage points higher than the directly trained network. When two problems appeared simultaneously, compared with the directly trained network, the performance improved by about three percentage points on average, and the purity was consistently higher than the clustering results. In summary, this algorithm was more tolerant of the problems of labeled datasets, so it was more practical.

Plant polyploidization changes its leaf morphology and leaf development patterns. Understanding changes in leaf morphology and development patterns is a prerequisite and key to studying leaf development in polyploid plants. In this study, we quantified and analyzed the differences in leaf morphology, leaf growth polarity, and leaf size between diploid and tetraploid birches (Betula pendula subsp. pendula), and preliminarily investigated genes involved in leaf growth and development in birch. The results showed significant changes in leaf morphology in tetraploid birches, especially the basal part of the leaf. In addition, the proximal growth rate of tetraploid leaves was altered. The changed proximal growth rate did not affect the growth polarity pattern of tetraploid leaves. The leaf area of tetraploid was significantly larger than that of diploid birch. The difference in leaf size was mainly due to differences in their growth rates in the middle and late stages of leaf development. Increased cell expansion capacity was the major reason for the enormous leaves of tetraploid birch; however, cell proliferation did not contribute to the larger tetraploid leaf. The gene expression of ATHB12 was associated with cell size and leaf area, and may be a critical gene affecting the leaf size in diploid and tetraploid birches. The results will provide valuable insights into plant polyploid leaf development and a theoretical basis for later investigations into the molecular mechanisms underlying the gigantism of tetraploid birch leaves.

Poplar is an important afforestation and ornamental tree species in Northeast China. The distribution area of saline-alkali land is approximately 765 hm2 in Northeast China. The breeding of saline-alkali-resistant transgenic trees could be an effective method of afforestation in saline-alkali land. WRKY transcription factors play a crucial role in abiotic stress. In this study, we analyzed the genetic stability of the two-year-old PsnWRKY70 transgenic poplars. The results showed that PsnWRKY70 of transgenic poplars had been expressed stably and normally at the mRNA level. The gene interference expression (RE) lines had no significant effect on the growth of PsnWRKY70 under NaHCO3 stress, and the alkali damage index of RE lines was significantly lower than that of WT and overexpression (OE) lines at day 15 under NaHCO3 stress. POD activity was significantly higher in RE lines than in WT. The MDA content of the RE line was lower than that of the WT line. Transcriptome analysis showed that RE lines up-regulated genes enriched in cell wall organization or biogenesis pathway-related genes such as EXPA8, EXPA4, EXPA3, EXPA1, EXPB3, EXP10, PME53, PME34, PME36, XTH9, XTH6, XTH23, CESA1, CESA3, CES9; FLA11, FLA16 and FLA7 genes. These genes play an important role in NaHCO3 stress. Our study showed that the interference expression of the PsnWRKY70 gene can enhance the tolerance of NaHCO3 in poplar.

Understanding interactions between bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and biomaterials is of great significance in preserving the structure and bioactivity of BMPs when utilized in clinical applications. Currently, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is one of the most important growth factors in bone tissue engineering; however, atomistic interactions between BMP-2 and zinc-substituted hydroxyapatite (Zn-HAP, commonly used in artificial bone implants) have not been well clarified until now. Thus, in this work, the interaction energies, binding/debinding states, and molecular structures of BMP-2 upon a series of Zn-HAP surfaces (Zn-HAPs, 1 at%, 2.5 at%, 5 at%, and 10 at% substitution) were investigated by hybrid molecular dynamics (MD) and steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations. Meanwhile, cellular studies including alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay were performed to verify the theoretical modeling findings. It was found that, compared to pure HAP, Zn-HAPs exhibited a higher binding affinity of BMP-2 at the adsorption process; meanwhile, the detachment of BMP-2 upon Zn-HAPs was more difficult at the desorption process. In addition, molecular structures of BMP-2 could be well stabilized upon Zn-HAPs, especially for Zn10-HAP (with a 10 at% substitution), which showed both the higher stability of cystine-knots and less change in the secondary structures of BMP-2 than those upon HAP. Cellular studies confirmed that higher ALP activity and osteogenic marker gene expression were achieved upon BMP-2/Zn-HAPs than those upon BMP-2/HAP. These findings verified that Zn-HAPs favor the adsorption of BMP-2 and leverage the bioactivity of BMP-2. Together, this work clarified the interaction mechanisms between BMP-2 and Zn-HAPs at the atom level, which could provide new molecular-level insights into the design of BMP-2-loaded biomaterials for bone tissue engineering.

Accurate short-term traffic flow prediction is a prerequisite for achieving an intelligent transportation system to proactively alleviate traffic congestion. Considering the complex and variable traffic environment, so that the traffic flow contains a large number of non-linear characteristics, which makes it difficult to improve the prediction accuracy, a combined prediction model that reduces the unsteadiness of traffic flow and fully extracts the traffic flow features is proposed. Firstly, decompose the traffic flow data into multiple components by the seasonal and trend decomposition using loess (STL); these components contain different features, and the optimized variational modal decomposition (VMD) is used for the second decomposition of the component with large fluctuation frequencies, and then the components are reconstructed according to the fuzzy entropy and Lempel-Ziv complexity index and the Pearson correlation coefficient is used to filter the traffic flow features. Then light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), long short-term memory with attention mechanism (LA), and kernel extreme learning machine with genetic algorithm optimization (GA-KELM) are built for prediction. Finally, we use reinforcement learning to integrate the advantages of each model, and the weights of each model are determined to obtain the best prediction results. The case study shows that the model established in this paper is better than other models in predicting urban road traffic flow, with an average absolute error of 2.622 and a root mean square error of 3.479, both of which are lower than the prediction errors of other models, indicating that the model can fully extract the features in complex traffic flow.

Catalytic conversions of bioethanol to propylene were investigated over different zeolite catalysts. H-ZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 80) was found to be the most effective for propylene production. Furthermore, H-ZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 80) was investigated under different variables of catalytic reaction (calcination temperature, feed composition, reaction temperature, and time on stream) for the conversion of ethanol to propylene. The H-ZSM-5(80) catalysts calcined at 600 °C showed the highest propylene yield. The moderate acidic site on ZSM-5 is required for the production of propylene. The activity on ZSM-5 is independent of the ethanol feed composition. H-ZSM-5 catalyst deactivation was observed, owing to dealumination. The highest propylene yield was 23.4% obtained over HZSM-5(80). Propylene, butene, and ≥C5 olefins were formed by parallel reaction from ethylene. Olefins were converted to each paraffin by sequential hydrogenation reaction. HZSM-5(80) catalyst is a promising catalyst not only for ethanol but also for the conversion of bioethanol to light olefins.

WRKY is an important complex family of transcription factors involved in plant immune responses. Among them, WRKY70 plays an important role in the process of the plant defense response to the invasion of pathogens. However, the defense mechanism of PsnWRKY70 is not clear in Populus nigra. In this study, we showed that PsnWRKY70-overexpression lines (OE) had fewer leaf blight symptoms than PsnWRKY70-repressing lines (RE). PsnWRKY70 activated MAP kinase cascade genes (PsnM2K4, PsnMPK3, PsnM3K18), calcium channel proteins-related genes (PsnCNG3, PsnCNGC1, PsnCNG4), and calcium-dependent protein kinases genes (PsnCDPKL, PsnCDPKW, PsnCDPKS, PsnCDPKQ). Furthermore, 129 genes of PsnWRKY70 putative genome-wide direct targets (DTGs) were identified by using transcriptome (RNA-seq) and DNA affinity purification sequencing (DAP-seq). PsnWRKY70 directly binds to the promoters of homologous genes and LRR domain proteins to promote the expression of WRKY6, WRKY18, WRKY22, and WRKY22–1, LRR domain proteins LRR8, LRR-RLK, ADR1-like 2, NB-ARC, etc. Our study suggests that PsnWRKY70 enhances the resistance of A. alternata in poplar by activating genes in both pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI).

As the two types of major impurities in FCC slurry oil (SLO), olefins and sulfur seriously deteriorate the preparation and quality of mesophase pitch or needle coke. The development of a hydrotreatment for SLO to remove olefins and sulfur selectively becomes imperative. This work presents the potentiality of dispersed Mo2C and MoS2 nanoparticles as selective hydrotreating catalysts of SLO. Mo2C was synthesized by the carbonization of citric acid, ammonium molybdate and KCl mixtures while MoS2 was prepared from the decomposition of precursors. These catalysts were characterized by XRD, HRTEM, XPS, BJH, BET, and applied to the hydrotreating of an SLO surrogate with defined components and real SLO. The conversion of olefins, dibenzothiophene and anthracene in the surrogate was detected by GC-MS. Elemental analysis, bromine number, diene value, 1H-NMR and spot test were used to characterize the changes of the real SLO. The results show that hydrotreating the SLO surrogate with a very small amount of Mo-based nanoparticles could selectively remove olefins and sulfur without the overhydrogenation of polyaromatics. Mo2C exhibited much better activity than MoS2, with 95% of olefins and dibenzothiophene in the surrogate removed while only 15% anthracene was hydrogenated. The stability of the real SLO was significantly improved. Its structural parameters changed subtly, proving the aromatic macromolecules had been preserved.

Due to their high absorption coefficient and long carrier lifetime, halide perovskites are promising candidates for photocatalysts. For this study, the antisolvent crystallization protocol and the colloidal crystal templating approach were combined to fabricate the highly crystalline cesium lead bromide perovskite with inverse opal morphology (IO-CsPbBr3). Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope images demonstrate the three-dimensional well-ordered porous structures of the IO-CsPbBr3 and their single-crystalline features. The presented approach not only provides hierarchical porous structures but also enhances overall crystallinity. When used as catalysts to promote the polymerization of 2,2′,5′,2″-ter-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, the highly crystalline IO-CsPbBr3 exhibits a superior photocatalytic performance compared to its polycrystalline counterpart. Furthermore, the morphology and the crystalline structure of the highly crystalline IO-CsPbBr3 are well preserved under photocatalytic conditions. This novel approach enables the preparation of a halide perovskite inverse opal with high crystallinity.

Oxidizing aldehydes to generate carboxylic acids is a crucial reaction in nature and in chemical industry. The aldehyde oxidation, an easily achieved process in liver cells, is inert toward autoxidation in industrial production and difficultly achieved under enzymatic condition (in water, at pH 7, at room temperature). Herein, we prepared a supramolecular catalyst which are nanospheres assembled in aqueous media by chromium centered Anderson polyoxometalates Na3[CrMo6O18(OH)3] (namely, CrMo6) and cationic pillar[5]arenes (namely, P5A) with 10 positive charges which can be used as the phase transfer catalysts (PTCs). This supramolecular catalyst was exploited on aldehydes oxidation under enzymatic condition with relatively good conversion. Through DLS monitoring, the diameters of nanospheres were variable while changing the charge ratios of the ionic complexes (P5A-CrMo6), and it is probably because of the closer charge ratios causing the more compact assemblies. Also, the nano-morphologies were monitored by TEM and SEM, and the nanostructures were characterized by zeta potential, the X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), elemental analysis.

In this study, CH4 dry reforming was demonstrated on a novel microwave-synthesized ruthenium (Ru)/carbon nanotube (CNT) catalyst. The catalyst was tested in an isothermal laboratory-packed bed reactor, with gas analysis by gas chromatography/thermal conductivity detection. The catalyst demonstrated excellent dry-reforming activity at modest temperatures (773–973 K) and pressure (3.03 × 105 Pa). Higher reaction temperatures favored increased conversion of CH4 and CO2, and increased H2/CO product ratios. Slight coke deposition, estimated by carbon balance, was observed at higher temperatures and higher feed CH4/CO2. A robust global kinetic model composed of three reversible reactions—dry reforming, reverse water gas shift, and CH4 decomposition—simulates observed outlet species concentrations and reactant conversions using this Ru/CNT catalyst over the temperature range of this study. This engineering kinetic model for the Ru/CNT catalyst predicts a somewhat higher selectivity and yield for H2, and less for CO, in comparison to previously published results for a similarly prepared Pt_Pd/CNT catalyst from our group.

We present the anti-solvent precipitation of hydrophobic drugs griseofulvin (GF) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) in the presence of carboxylated carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs). The aqueous dispersed f-CNTs were directly incorporated into the drug particles during the precipitation process. f-CNTs with different levels of carboxylation were tested where the hydrophilicity was varied by altering the C:COOH ratio. The results show that the hydrophilic f-CNTs dramatically enhanced the dissolution rate for both drugs, and the enhancement corresponded to the hydrophilicity of f-CNTs. The time to reach 80% dissolution (t80) reduced from 52.5 min for pure SMZ to 16.5 min when incorporated f-CNTs that had a C:COOH ratio of 23.2 were used, and to 11.5 min when the ratio dropped to 16. A corresponding decrease was observed for SMZ for the above-mentioned f-CNTs. The study clearly demonstrates that it is possible to control the dissolution rate of hydrophobic drugs by altering the level of carboxylation of the incorporated CNTs.

miR-25, a member of the miR-106b-25 cluster, has been reported as playing an important role in many biological processes by numerous studies, while the role of miR-25 in metabolism and its transcriptional regulation mechanism remain unclear. In this study, gain-of-function and loss-of-function assays demonstrated that miR-25-3p positively regulated the metabolism of C2C12 cells by attenuating phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) gene expression and triglyceride (TG) content, and enhancing the content of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, the results from bioinformatics analysis, dual luciferase assay, site-directed mutagenesis, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting demonstrated that miR-25-3p directly targeted the AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (Akt1) 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR). The core promoter of miR-25-3p was identified, and the transcription factor activator protein-2α (AP-2α) significantly increased the expression of mature miR-25-3p by binding to its core promoter in vivo, as indicated by the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay, and AP-2α binding also downregulated the expression of Akt1. Taken together, our findings suggest that miR-25-3p, positively regulated by the transcription factor AP-2α, enhances C2C12 cell metabolism by targeting the Akt1 gene.

Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) gene plays a crucial role in maintaining genomic stability, tumorigenesis and myogenesis. However, little is known about the regulatory elements governing the transcription of porcine ROCK1 gene. In the current study, the transcription start site (TSS) was identified by 5’-RACE, and was found to differ from the predicted one. The region in ROCK1 promoter which is critical for promoter activity was investigated via progressive deletions. Site-directed mutagenesis indicated that the region from −604 to −554 bp contains responsive elements for Sp1. Subsequent experiments showed that ROCK1 promoter activity is enhanced by Sp1 in a dose-dependent manner, whereas treatment with specific siRNA repressed ROCK1 promoter activity. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), DNA pull down and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays revealed Sp1 can bind to this region. qRT-PCR and Western blotting research followed by overexpression or inhibition of Sp1 indicate that Sp1 can affect endogenous ROCK1 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. Overexpression of Sp1 can promote the expression of myogenic differentiation 1(MyoD), myogenin (MyoG), myosin heavy chain (MyHC). Taken together, we conclude that Sp1 positively regulates ROCK1 transcription by directly binding to the ROCK1 promoter region (from −604 to −532 bp) and may affect the process of myogenesis.