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Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) cable anchors, possessing exceptional mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, are increasingly serving as alternatives to traditional steel strands in coastal excavation support engineering. This study draws upon in-situ tests of deep excavation near the sea to examine the stress characteristics of CFRP cable anchors throughout their service period at various positions within the excavation plane. Moreover, the parameters of these cable anchors are optimized and analyzed through numerical simulations. The study revealed that the planar position, backfilling of the excavation and the time effect significantly affected the service performance of the CFRP cable anchors. As the days increase, the overall axial force and shear stress in the CFRP cable anchors undergo five stages of changes. Compared to steel strands, CFRP cable anchors demonstrated superior supporting effects on the adjacent soil. Given similar engineering geological conditions, the advisable range for inclination angle for CFRP cable anchors ranges between 20° and 30°, and cable anchor lengths is 10% shorter than the test length up to the test length itself. Within the scope of this study, the optimal support strategy recommends a 30° inclination angle and a length that is 10% shorter than that of the test length. • The application of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) material in coastal excavation support engineering has been proposed. • Based on the in-situ test, the stress characteristics of CFRP cable anchors have been revealed throughout their service period. • Through numerical simulations, an analysis and optimization of the parameters of CFRP cable anchors have been conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2-based building materials possess air purification, self-cleaning, and sterilization functionalities, making them innovative green building materials with significant potential for future energy-saving and emission-reduction applications. However, the transition from laboratory-scale to practical applications poses substantial challenges in improving the photocatalytic efficiency and stability of TiO2-based building materials. In recent years, researchers have made considerable efforts to enhance their efficiency and stability. This paper provides a concise overview of the photocatalytic principles employed in buildings for air purification, discusses preparation techniques for TiO2-based building materials, explores strategies to improve their efficiency, outlines key factors influencing their performance in practical applications, analyzes limitations, and discusses future development trends. Finally, we propose recommendations for further research on photocatalytic buildings and their real-world implementation as a valuable reference for developing highly efficient and stable photocatalytic building materials. The aim of this paper is to guide the application of TiO2-based photocatalysts in green buildings towards creating more efficient and stable low-carbon buildings that support sustainable urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The bond property of GFRP anchor rod is studied by tensile test of full-scale specimen. • The mechanical mechanism of GFRP bolt is analyzed microscopically. • Compare the calculation formula of bolt length under different national standards. Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bolt, which has excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, is gradually replacing metal bolt in rock and soil anchoring, compared with traditional reinforced bolts and other composite materials with high cost. In the current study, the influence of anchorage length and anchorage mode on the bonding property of bolt and concrete was investigated, and the stress mechanism of glass fiber bolt was analyzed based on the tensile test of a full-size laboratory sample. The results show that the failure modes of GFRP anti-floating anchor were pull-out failure and fracture failure, the ultimate bearing capacity of mechanical anchorage was noted as 1.08–1.24 times that of linear anchorage. Under the same anchorage method, with the increase of anchorage length, the relative displacement and the proportion of load bearing in the easing section of the bolt load–displacement curve decreased; thus, the load–displacement curve of the anchor in the form of mechanical anchorage was smoother. With the increase of load, the main load bearing mode of the bolt-concrete interface changed from the interface friction force and chemical adhesive force to the mechanical bite force, and then the interface concrete was broken, and the concrete no-acting zone was transformed into the acting zone until the bolt was damaged. Anchor had a maximum anchorage length beyond which the bearing capacity of the anchors increased minimally. Comparing the calculation formulas of anchor length under different national standards, it was suggested to use Chinese or European standards to calculate anchor length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Across-fault ground motions were corrected, decomposed, scaled, and synthesized. • Seismic performance of fault-crossing cable-stayed bridge with damper system. • Conventional multi-criteria method was improved to optimize fault-crossing angle. • Damper system of fault-crossing cable-stayed bridge was optimized. • Damping effect of viscous damper system on fault-crossing bridge was investigated. Bridge structures across active faults suffer the serious threats from large surface deformation and velocity pulses. This study focuses on developing a multi-criteria optimizing method and investigating the damping effect of the optimized damper system on a cable-stayed bridge across a strike-slip fault. A simplified baseline corrected method is adopted to recover the static offsets in near-fault records and the improved record-decomposition incorporation method is modified to produce artificial across-fault ground motions. A single pylon cable-stayed bridge across a strike-slip fault is taken as the case bridge and the refined nonlinear numerical model is established in OpenSees. The conventional multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) theory is improved by introducing new function forms and a control parameter to assess the best fault-crossing angles of the case bridge. The improved MCDM method is integrated with the beetle antennae search algorithm to optimize the damper system of the case bridge. Finally, the influence of fault-crossing angles and earthquake parameters (permanent displacements and ratios of maximum to permanent displacement) on the damping effect of the optimized damper system are investigated. The results indicate that the cable-stayed bridge reaches optimal seismic performance when the fault-crossing angle is around 90° (75°-105°) as both the biaxial nonlinearity of the pylon and the risk of the girder unseating are reduced. The damper system is efficiently optimized by the proposed method, and the displacement and force demand of the case bridge are balanced. Both the fault-crossing angles and earthquake parameters are observed to have considerable influence on the damping effects. More specifically, the damping effect on most seismic responses is optimized when the fault-crossing angle approaches 90° (60°-120°). As the permanent displacement increases, the damping effect on the pier-girder relative displacement is significantly reduced and the damping effect on the pier moments is moderately decreased. Moreover, the damping effect is improved for all the seismic responses as the ratios of maximum to permanent displacements increase, with the exception of transverse displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mudstone around the pile is damaged during pile driving, altering the mechanical properties of the mudstone. This study conducts standard penetration, uniaxial compression, and triaxial shear tests before and after pile driving. It develops a constitutive damage model of mudstone affected by pile driving based on the statistical damage theory and triaxial test data. The findings in this study show that: (1) The standard penetration number (N) of the clay around the pile remains unchanged after driving because of the thixotropic recovery effect. However, the N of mudstone surrounding the pile decreases by 35.1% on average, (2) The average uniaxial compressive strength is 1.56 MPa before pile driving and 1.12 MPa after pile driving, which decreases by 28.2%. After pile driving, c (cohesion) = 217.2 kPa, φ (internal frictional angle) = 21.6°, (3) The calculated value agrees well with the measured one, verifying the rationality of the model, and (4) The mechanical properties of mudstone change considerably after pile driving, and it is unrealistic to use the mechanical parameters of undisturbed mudstone to design the pile. This research provides theoretical support and parameter preparation for calculating pile driven mudstone foundations. • The tests were carried out before and after driving to investigate influence of driving on the mudstone's mechanics. • The variation of penetration impedance and strength before and after driving mudstone damage is discussed. • The mudstone's damage constitutive model around dynamic pile driving was established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water is one of the top issues to achieve green hydrogen energy and utilize solar energy. Construction of cocatalyst is a major part for efficient photocatalysts. Lamellar flower-like CoP@C cocatalyst is synthesized via the phosphating of cobalt precursor derived from metal-organic framework ZIF-67. Different from usual phosphating of ZIF-67 directly, a typical solvothermal treatment of ZIF-67 contributes to tuning the formation of C nanodots on the lamellar CoP. CoP@C as cocatalyst exhibits a remarkable role of improving photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution. CoP@C/CdS composite shows a photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 164.4 mmol g−1 h−1, which is much higher than those of pure CdS and other CoP/CdS photocatalysts. The heterojunction and interaction are verified between CoP@C and CdS. Light absorption and photoelectric properties of CoP@C/CdS are enhanced accompanying with strong reduction ability. A type-Ⅱ transfer path of photoelectrons is underway in CoP@C/CdS photocatalyst, accelerating the separation of electron-hole pairs and the transfer of carriers, and further resulting in the promoted photocatalytic performance. This work provides a suitable way to achieve carbon nanodots involved metal compound cocatalysts for efficient hydrogen production. [Display omitted] • A lamellar flower-like CoP@C cocatalyst is constructed from ZIF-67-derived Co(OH) 2 precursor. • A typical solvothermal treatment of ZIF-67 contributes to tuning the formation of C nanodots on CoP. • The present CoP@C/CdS exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity for H 2 evolution than other CoP/CdS. • The CoP@C/CdS heterostructure brings strong reduction ability and superior light adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deterioration issues of surface strength reduction occur in cemented soil exposed to marine corrosion environment for long-term, which seriously affects the durability and safety of the structure. Therefore, it is urgent to reveal the tempo-spatial deterioration mechanisms of cemented soil, which can provide a theoretical basis for practical anti-deterioration measures. In this study, the micro-cone penetration test of cemented soil exposed to seawater was conducted, and the ion profiles, pH, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy with energy disperse spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) tests of different slice layers from the exposed surface were performed. The results show that the deteriorated cemented soil along the erosion direction can be classified into completely deteriorated layer with zero-strength, deteriorated transition layer with only about 10% strength remaining, and an undeteriorated zone with no strength reduction. The depth of the deteriorated zone increased with corrosion time and decreased with cement content, but the strength reduction was not affected. The micro-cone penetration, ion concentration, pH, XRD and SEM–EDS results illustrated that the essential nature of deterioration of cemented soils is the tempo-spatial evolution of corrosive ions enriched by corrosion reactions and gradually induced the phase change of hydration products into non-cementitious or secondary expansion products, which ultimately leads to the strength reduction in surface layers. Moreover, Mg2+ and SO42− were mainly enriched in the deteriorated zone, and Cl− could invade and enrich in the undeteriorated zone. Besides, the leaching of Ca2+ and OH− was associated with the invasion of all these corrosive ions. This study contributes to the deterioration mechanism of cemented soil and provides useful reference for the development of seawater anti-corrosion binder.Graphical abstract: The deterioration issues of surface strength reduction occur in cemented soil exposed to marine corrosion environment for long-term, which seriously affects the durability and safety of the structure. Therefore, it is urgent to reveal the tempo-spatial deterioration mechanisms of cemented soil, which can provide a theoretical basis for practical anti-deterioration measures. In this study, the micro-cone penetration test of cemented soil exposed to seawater was conducted, and the ion profiles, pH, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy with energy disperse spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) tests of different slice layers from the exposed surface were performed. The results show that the deteriorated cemented soil along the erosion direction can be classified into completely deteriorated layer with zero-strength, deteriorated transition layer with only about 10% strength remaining, and an undeteriorated zone with no strength reduction. The depth of the deteriorated zone increased with corrosion time and decreased with cement content, but the strength reduction was not affected. The micro-cone penetration, ion concentration, pH, XRD and SEM–EDS results illustrated that the essential nature of deterioration of cemented soils is the tempo-spatial evolution of corrosive ions enriched by corrosion reactions and gradually induced the phase change of hydration products into non-cementitious or secondary expansion products, which ultimately leads to the strength reduction in surface layers. Moreover, Mg2+ and SO42− were mainly enriched in the deteriorated zone, and Cl− could invade and enrich in the undeteriorated zone. Besides, the leaching of Ca2+ and OH− was associated with the invasion of all these corrosive ions. This study contributes to the deterioration mechanism of cemented soil and provides useful reference for the development of seawater anti-corrosion binder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Brain functional abnormalities at rest have been observed in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, whether and how anatomical distance influences functional connectivity (FC) at rest is ambiguous in OCD. Methods: Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we calculated the FC of each voxel in the whole-brain and divided FC into short- and long-range FCs in 40 medicine-free patients with OCD and 40 healthy controls (HCs). A support vector machine (SVM) was used to determine whether the altered short- and long-range FCs could be utilized to distinguish OCD from HCs. Results: Patients had lower short-range positive FC (spFC) and long-range positive FC (lpFC) in the left precentral/postcentral gyrus (t = -5.57 and -5.43; P < 0.05, GRF corrected) and higher lpFC in the right thalamus/caudate, left thalamus, left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and left cerebellum CrusI/VI (t = 4.59, 4.61, 4.41, and 5.93; P < 0.05, GRF corrected). Furthermore, lower spFC in the left precentral/postcentral gyrus might be used to distinguish OCD from HCs with an accuracy of 80.77%, a specificity of 81.58%, and a sensitivity of 80.00%. Conclusion: These findings highlight that anatomical distance has an effect on the whole-brain FC patterns at rest in OCD. Meanwhile, lower spFC in the left precentral/postcentral gyrus might be applied in distinguishing OCD from HCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, the molecular mechanism of the interaction between lncRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) and the target of miRNAs in tumor vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation have not been clarified. Our aim is to study the interaction between lncRNA n339260 and miRNA30e-5p in the formation of VM.Methods: Animal xenografts were established, 104 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients' frozen tissues were obtained and HCC cells in vitro were used to observe the role of n339260 in HCC progression.Results: In vivo experiment showed lncRNA n339260 promoted tumor growth and VM formation. LncRNA n339260 and miRNA30e-5p were found to be associated with VM formation, metastasis and survival time in HCC patients. In vitro experiment showed that LncRNA n339260 could inhibit miRNA30e-5p expression and TP53INP1 was found to be the downstream targets of miRNA30e-5p. Snail, MMP2, MMP9, VE-cadherin, vimentin and N-cadherin overexpression and the downregulation of TP53INP1 and E-cadherin were observed in HCCLM3 and HepG2 cells overexpressing lncRNA n339260 or in cells with decreased expression of miRNA30e-5p.Conclusion: LncRNA n339260 promotes the development of VM, and lncRNA n339260 may enhance Snail expression by decreasing the expression of miRNA30e-5p, thereby reducing TP53INP1 expression. Therefore, a potential lncRNA n339260- miRNA30e-5p- TP53INP1 regulatory axis was associated with HCC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore the mechanical properties of cement-soil wrapped pile support system in soil-rock combination foundation pit support. In this paper, based on a deep foundation pit project in Qingdao, the horizontal displacement monitoring test of cement-soil wrapped pile support system was carried out. Combined with ABAQUS finite element numerical simulation, the foundation support model of cement-soil wrapped pile in soil-rock combination foundation was established. The variation rule of bending moment and displacement of cement-soil wrapped pile under different influencing factors is explored, And the reasonable position of the micro steel pipe piles in the cement-soil pile is clarified. The results of the study show that the micro steel pipe piles have the best support with less horizontal displacement when they are located on the excavation side of the foundation pit. With the gradual increase of excavation depth, the horizontal stress of the soil basically increases linearly, which is consistent with the change rule of active soil pressure along the depth direction. Increasing the strength of cement-soil can significantly improve the deformation resistance of the supporting structure. The research results can provide reference for the design and construction of foundation support for soil-rock combination foundations. • The in-site test of cement-soil wrapped micro steel pipe pile foundation pit support was carried out. • The influence of different factors on the support effect of cement-soil wrapped micro steel pipe pile was analyzed. • The force and deformation characteristics of the cement-soil wrapped micro steel pipe pile support type were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The expression and activation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) is associated with cell transformation and tumor initiation, but the functional role and the mechanism whereby it drives immune cell infiltration in breast cancer (BRCA) remain uncertain.Methods: Oncomine, Timer and UALCAN were used to analyze the expression of eIF4E in various cancers. PrognoScan, Kaplan-Meier plotter, and GEPIA were utilized to analyze the prognostic value of eIF4E in select cancers. In vitro cell experiments were used to verify the role of eIF4E in promoting the progression of BRCA. ImmuCellAI and TIMER database were used to explore the relationship between eIF4E and tumor infiltrating immune cells. The expression of a macrophage marker (CD68+) and an M2-type marker (CD163+) was evaluated using immunohistochemistry in 50 invasive BRCA samples on tissue microarrays. The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database was used to show the expression of eIF4E and related immune markers. LinkedOmics and NetworkAnalyst were used to build the signaling network.Results: Through multiple dataset mining, we found that the expression of eIF4E in BRCA was higher than that in normal tissues, and patients with increased eIF4E expression had poorer survival and a higher cumulative recurrence rate in BRCA. At the cellular level, BRCA cell migration and invasion were significantly inhibited after eIF4E expression was inhibited by siRNA. Immune infiltration analysis showed that the eIF4E expression level was significantly associated with the tumor purity and immune infiltration levels of different immune cells in BRCA. The results from immunohistochemical (IHC) staining further proved that the expression of CD68+ and CD163+ were significantly increased and correlated with poor prognosis in BRCA patients (P < 0.05). Finally, interaction network and functional enrichment analysis revealed that eIF4E was mainly involved in tumor-related pathways, including the cell adhesion molecule pathway and the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated that eIF4E expression has prognostic value for BRCA patients. eIF4E may act as an essential regulator of tumor macrophage infiltration and may participate in macrophage M2 polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lutein-b-methoxy polyethylene glycol (Lutein-b-mPEG) encapsulated lutein nanoemulsion was prepared. First, mercapto-terminated mPEG (mPEG-SH) was prepared. Then, vinyl-terminated lutein was prepared by the esterification reaction of lutein and allyl chloroformate. Finally, Lutein-b-mPEG was synthesized by the thiol-ene reaction of the vinyl-terminated intermediate and mPEG-SH. Lutein-b-mPEG was self-assembled in water to form spherical micelles, and the unreacted lutein was directly loaded in the micelles. The synthesis of the block copolymer and loading of unreacted lutein are completed in one pot. The results of IR, 1H NMR, GPC, and surface tension showed that the Lutein-b-mPEG was prepared. The TEM results showed that Lutein-b-mPEG loaded lutein self-assembled in water to form spherical micelles, and the average size is larger than that of Lutein-b-mPEG micelles. The chemical stability of lutein loaded by Lutein-b-mPEG micelles is greatly enhanced. Moreover, due to the water solubility and micellization of lutein, it is possible to greatly increase its bioavailability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotube-decorated nitrogen-doped carbon-coated nickel (CNT/Ni@N-C) microspheres have been fabricated by pyrolyzing the mixture of nickel-based metal organic framework (Ni-MOF) and melamine. The resultant composite is assembled from CNTs and spherical Ni@N-C composite. Besides, the CNT/Ni@N-C composite contains abundant nitrogen (N) dopants that contribute to defect dipole polarization. The melamine content is important for controlling the amount of N element and N dopant state in the composite. The optimized CNT/Ni@N-C composite with high content of pyridinic N exhibits strong absorption of −55.1 dB at 10.56 GHz with the thickness of 2.5 mm, and the effective absorbing bandwidth (reflection loss < −10 dB) is 11.2 GHz (6.0–17.2 GHz) with the thickness range of 1.5–4.0 mm. These results indicate that the N content and N dopant state have a great influence on electromagnetic wave absorption properties. This strategy will contribute to fabricate the carbon hybrid network consisting of metal organic frameworks derived metal/carbon hybrid and CNTs for electromagnetic wave absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The bolts physical and chemical properties are examined to analyze the fracture. • The actual line condition was fitted to calculate the heat flux in simulation. • The brake disc model with thread is established to obtain temperature and stress. In this research, the bolts fracture problem of brake disc under a section downhill of the Lanzhou-Wulumuqi railway (LW) line has been studied via experimental and fatigue analysis. The physical and chemical properties of the bolts were examined to analyze the fracture causes. In addition, the LW line condition was investigated and fitted to obtain the altitude-velocity histories. The finite element model of the brake disc was established with the thermo-mechanical coupling method to obtain the temperature and stress variation. Results revealed that the material defect was inexistence at the thread root, and the bolt performances meet relevant standards. Due to special geographical conditions in LW line, the train have to brake continually. The bolt fracture of the brake disc is caused mainly by high temperature during the continuous braking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eutectic high-entropy alloys have shown promising mechanical behaviors while their softening at elevated temperatures is still a challenge. Generally, the boundaries are the weak parts to be strengthened with increased temperatures in eutectic high-entropy alloys. Here, we found that the minor addition of boron in Ni 30 Co 30 Cr 10 Fe 10 Al 18 W 2 eutectic high-entropy alloy can significantly strengthen the FCC grain boundaries and the FCC/B2 phase boundaries at elevated temperatures. A remarkable tensile yield strength over 581 MPa with elongation of 71 % at 800 °C is achieved with minor boron addition, corresponding to a 45 % increase in yield strength and 129 % improvement in ductility compared with the boron-free counterpart. Accompanied by the boron-strengthened phase boundary, sustainable dynamic recovery occurs in the FCC and B2 phases during high-temperature tensile testing, ensuring excellent ductility. Moreover, the benchmark test indicates that the strengthening effect of boron and borides on the boundaries contributes up to 166 MPa to the yield strength of eutectic high-entropy alloy at 800 °C. These findings shed light on the development of high-temperature eutectic high-entropy alloys with a microalloying strategy. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A piezoelectric aptamer-based biosensor is raised for OA label-free detection. • Aptamer as recognition module reduces cost, improves sensitivity and specificity. • QCM as the detection device realizes simply and rapidly operate. • AuNPs amplifies the detection signal about 10 fold and reduces detection limits. • The biosensor can detect OA with high sensitivity, high specificity and a low LOD. Okadaic acid (OA) is one of the most common marine biological toxins, which can cause human poisoning or even death. It is desirable and essential to develop novel approaches for OA detection in a convenient, practical and low-cost manner. In this study, a novel piezoelectric aptasensor was designed for the detection of OA. The aptamers specifically binding with OA were used as the sensing elements. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) device was used as the transducer for responsive signal detection. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were used to amplify the detection signals. The results showed that the linear detection range of OA was 0.5 ∼ 200 nM with a detection limit of 0.32 nM. This biosensor provides a novel approach for inexpensive, ultrasensitive, well-specific and label-free detection of OA as well as other marine biological toxins with minor modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universal lesion detection (ULD) has great value in clinical practice as it can detect various lesions across multiple organs. Deep learning-based detectors have great potential but require high-quality annotated training data. In practice, due to cost, expertise requirements, and the diverse nature of lesions, incomplete annotations are encountered. Directly training ULD detectors under this condition can yield suboptimal results. Leading pseudo-label methods rely on a dynamic lesion-mining mechanism operating at the mini-batch level to address this issue. However, the quality of mined lesions is inconsistent across different iterations, potentially limiting performance enhancement. Inspired by the observation that deep models learn concepts with increasing complexity, we propose an exploratory-training-based ULD (ET-ULD) method to assess the reliability of mined lesions over time. Our approach uses a teacher-student detection model where the teacher mines suspicious lesions, which are then combined with incomplete annotations to train the student. On top of that, we design a bounding-box bank to record the mining timestamps. Each image is trained in several rounds, allowing us to get a sequence of timestamps for the mined lesions. If a mined lesion consistently appears, it is likely to be a true lesion, otherwise, it may just be a noise. This serves as a crucial criterion for selecting reliable mined lesions for retraining. Experimental results show that ET-ULD surpass existing state-of-the-art methods on two distinct lesion image datasets. Notably, on the DeepLesion dataset, ET-ULD achieved a 5.4% improvement in Average Precision (AP) over the previous methods, demonstrating its superior performance.

Large language models have been shown to excel in many different tasks across disciplines and research sites. They provide novel opportunities to enhance educational research and instruction in different ways such as assessment. However, these methods have also been shown to have fundamental limitations. These relate, among others, to hallucinating knowledge, explainability of model decisions, and resource expenditure. As such, more conventional machine learning algorithms might be more convenient for specific research problems because they allow researchers more control over their research. Yet, the circumstances in which either conventional machine learning or large language models are preferable choices are not well understood. This study seeks to answer the question to what extent either conventional machine learning algorithms or a recently advanced large language model performs better in assessing students' concept use in a physics problem-solving task. We found that conventional machine learning algorithms in combination outperformed the large language model. Model decisions were then analyzed via closer examination of the models' classifications. We conclude that in specific contexts, conventional machine learning can supplement large language models, especially when labeled data is available., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Kieser, Tschisgale, Rauh, Bai, Maus, Petersen, Stede, Neumann and Wulff.)

Background: Cholelithiasis-induced acute cholangitis (CIAC) is an acute inflammatory disease with poor prognosis. This study aimed to create machine-learning (ML) models to predict the outcomes of patients with CIAC., Methods: In this retrospective cohort and ML study, patients who met the both diagnosis of 'cholangitis' and 'calculus of gallbladder or bile duct' according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD) 9th revision, or met the diagnosis of 'calculus of bile duct with acute cholangitis with or without obstruction' according to the ICD 10th revision during a single hospitalization were included from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database, which records patient admissions to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, MA, USA, spanning June 1, 2001 to November 16, 2022. Patients who were neither admitted in an emergency department nor underwent biliary drainage within 24 h after admission, had an age of less than 18, or lost over 20% of the information were excluded. Nine ML methods, including the Logistic Regression, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Light Gradient Boosting Machine, Adaptive Boosting, Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting Decision Tree, Gaussian Naive Bayes, Multi-Layer Perceptron, and Support Vector Machine were applied for prediction of in-hospital mortality, re-admission within 30 days after discharge, and mortality within 180 days after discharge. Patients from Zhongda Hospital affiliated to Southeast University in China between January 1, 2019 and July 30, 2023 were enrolled as an external validation set. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was the main index for model performance assessment., Findings: A total of 1156 patients were included to construct models. We performed stratified analyses on all patients, patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and those who underwent biliary drainage during ICU treatment. 13-16 features were selected from 186 variables for model training. The XGBoost method demonstrated the most optimal predictive efficacy, as evidenced by training set AUROC of 0.996 (95% CI NaN-NaN) for in-hospital mortality, 0.886 (0.862-0.910) for re-admission within 30 days after discharge, and 0.988 (0.982-0.995) for mortality within 180 days after discharge in all patients, 0.998 (NaN-NaN), 0.933 (0.909-0.957), and 0.988 (0.983-0.993) in patients admitted to the ICU, 0.987 (0.970-0.999), 0.908 (0.873-0.942), and 0.982 (0.971-0.993) in patients underwent biliary drainage during ICU treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, in the internal validation set, the AUROC reached 0.967 (0.933-0.998) for in-hospital mortality, 0.589 (0.502-0.677) for re-admission within 30 days after discharge, and 0.857 (0.782-0.933) for mortality within 180 days after discharge in all patients, 0.963 (NaN-NaN), 0.668 (0.486-0.851), and 0.864 (0.757-0.970) in patients admitted to the ICU, 0.961 (0.922-0.997), 0.669 (0.540-0.799), and 0.828 (0.730-0.925) in patients underwent biliary drainage during ICU treatment, respectively. The AUROC values of external validation set consisting of 61 patients were 0.741 (0.725-0.763), 0.812 (0.798-0.824), and 0.848 (0.841-0.859), respectively., Interpretation: The XGBoost models could be promising tools to predict outcomes in patients with CIAC, and had good clinical applicability. Multi-center validation with a larger sample size is warranted., Funding: The Technological Development Program of Nanjing Healthy Commission, and Zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University, Jiangsu Province High-Level Hospital Construction Funds., Competing Interests: All authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a powerful method for visualizing biological processes and tracking cells. Engineered bioluminescent bacteria that utilize luciferase-catalyzed biochemical reactions to generate luminescence have become useful analytical tools for in vitro and in vivo bacterial imaging. Accordingly, this review initially introduces the development of engineered bioluminescent bacteria that use different luciferase-luciferin pairs as analytical tools and their applications for in vivo BLI, including real-time bacterial tracking of infection, probiotic investigation, tumor-targeted therapy, and drug screening. Applications of engineered bioluminescent bacteria as whole-cell biosensors for sensing biological changes in vitro and in vivo are then discussed. Finally, we review the optimizations and future directions of bioluminescent bacteria for imaging. This review aims to provide fundamental insights into bacterial BLI and highlight the potential development of this technique in the future.

Mitochondria are essential organelles involved in various metabolic processes in eukaryotes. The imaging, targeting, and investigation of cell death mechanisms related to mitochondria have garnered significant interest. Small-molecule fluorescent probes have proven to be robust tools for utilizing light to advance the study of mitochondrial biology. In this study, we present the rational design of cationic Nile blue probes carrying a permanent positive charge for these purposes. The cationic Nile blue probes exhibit excellent mitochondrial permeability, unique solvatochromism, and resistance to oxidation. We observed weaker fluorescence in aqueous solutions compared to lipophilic solvents, thereby minimizing background fluorescence in the cytoplasm. Additionally, we achieved photoredox switching of the cationic Nile blue probes under mild conditions. This enabled us to demonstrate their application for the first time in single-molecule localization microscopy of mitochondria, allowing us to observe mitochondrial fission and fusion behaviors. Compared to conventional cyanine fluorophores, this class of dyes demonstrated prolonged resistance to photobleaching, likely due to their antioxidation properties. Furthermore, we extended the application of cationic Nile blue probes to the mitochondria-specific delivery of taxanes, facilitating the study of direct interactions between the drug and organelles. Our approach to triggering cell death without reliance on microtubule binding provides valuable insights into anticancer drug research and drug-resistance mechanisms., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Background: Luminal A breast cancer is the most common molecular subtype of breast cancer. Exploring biomarkers to identify luminal A breast cancer patients at high risk of recurrence and metastasis has important clinical significance. UTP23 is a component of ribosomal small-subunit processome, which is involved in ribosome synthesis and RNA maturation. The role of UTP23 in breast cancer has not been reported., Methods: TCGA-BRCA data, LinkedOmics, STRING, Metascape and ssGSEA were used to analyze UTP23 expression in breast cancer and evaluate prognosis. Quantitative real-time PCR, western blot and in vitro cell experiment were used to demonstrate the role of UTP23 in breast cancer., Results: UTP23 showed abnormally high expression in multiple cancers and was associated with poor prognosis. UTP23 was associated with T stage, lymph node metastasis, race, histological type, molecular subtypes and survival status in breast cancer. Importantly, UTP23 was significantly associated with poor OS in luminal A or early breast cancer, not in non-luminal A or advanced breast cancer. UTP23 expression was significantly correlated with immune cells infiltration. Enrichment analysis suggested that UTP23 might regulate cell cycle and cell division. Bioinformatics analysis showed DCAF13 might be downstream factor of UTP23. UTP23 expression promoted MCF-7 cells proliferation, migration and invasion possibly through regulating DCAF13 expression., Conclusions: UTP23 may function in breast cancer progression. The elevated UTP23 may be a potential prognostic biomarker for luminal A or early breast cancer., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Quorum-sensing (QS) is involved in numerous physiological processes in bacteria, such as biofilm formation, sporulation, and virulence formation. Therefore, the search for new quorum-sensing inhibitors (QSI) is a promising strategy that opens up a new perspective for controlling QS-mediated bacterial pathogens. To explore new QSIs, a strain named Streptomyces sp. D67 with QS inhibitory activity was isolated from the soil of the arid zone around the Kumutag Desert in Xinjiang. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that strain D67 shared the highest similarity with Streptomyces ardesiacus NBRC 15402T (98.39%), which indicated it represented a potential novel species in the Streptomyces genus. The fermentation crude extracts of strain D67 can effectively reduce the violacein production produced by Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and the swarming and swimming abilities of Pseudomonas aeruginosa . It also has significant inhibitory activity on the production of virulence factors such as biofilm, pyocyanin, and rhamnolipids of P. aeruginosa in a significant concentration-dependent manner, but not on protease activity. A total of 618 compounds were identified from the fermentation crude extracts of strain D67 by LC-MS, and 19 compounds with significant QS inhibitory activity were observed. Overall, the strain with QS inhibitory activity was screened from Kumutag Desert in Xinjiang for the first time, which provided a basis for further research and development of new QSI.

The incidence of bladder cancer (BLCA) in men is higher than that in women. Differences in androgen levels between men and women are considered the main causes of incidence rate differences. In this study, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) significantly increased the proliferation and invasion of BLCA cells. In addition, BLCA formation and metastatic rates were higher in N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN)-treated male mice than in female and castrated male mice in vivo. However, immunohistochemistry showed that androgen receptor (AR) was expressed at low levels in normal and BLCA tissues of men and women. The classical AR pathway considers that DHT binds to AR and induces it to enter the nucleus, where it functions as a transcription factor. Here, a non-AR combination pathway of androgen that promoted BLCA development was investigated. The EPPK1 protein was bombarded with DHT, as determined by biotinylated DHT-binding pull-down experiments. EPPK1 was highly expressed in BLCA tissues, and EPPK1 knockdown significantly inhibited BLCA cell proliferation and invasion promoted by DHT. Moreover, JUP expression was elevated in DHT-treated high-EPPK1 expressing cells, and JUP knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and invasion. EPPK1 overexpression increased tumour growth and JUP expression in nude mice. Furthermore, DHT increased the expression of the MAPK signals p38, p-p38, and c-Jun, and c-Jun could bind to the JUP promoter. However, the promotion of p38, p-p38, and c-Jun expression by DHT was not observed in EPPK1 knockdown cells, and a p38 inhibitor suppressed the DHT-induced effects, indicating that p38 MAPK may be involved in the regulation of DHT-dependent EPPK1-JUP-promoted BLCA cell proliferation and invasion. The growth of bladder tumours in BBN-treated mice was inhibited by the addition of the hormone inhibitor goserelin. Our findings indicated the potential oncogenic role and mechanism of DHT in BLCA pathogenesis through a non-AR pathway, which may serve as a novel therapeutic target for BLCA., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

In this work, bacterial community composition and actinobacteria resources were explored in extremely hot and hyper-arid areas of Flaming Mountain. This was achieved through a combination of PCR amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene and cultivation-dependent isolation and characterization efforts. According to the high-throughput sequencing results and soil characteristics, 11 kinds of media were firstly designed to isolate actinobacteria, following the screening and identification of related strains. The results showed that a total of 2994 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained, involving 22 phyla, 77 orders and 121 genera. Among them, actinobacteria with the relative abundance of 8% ranked third, accounting for 33 genera and 47 species. A total of 132 strains distributed by eight families and 11 genera of actinobacteria were isolated from 11 media, of which six strains were potential new species. Furthermore, the functional characteristics of isolated strains were preliminarily evaluated. The results showed that the obtained strains generally had tolerance against heat, salt and alkali. Fifty-two strains had antibacterial activity, 69 strains could produce hydrolases, and 12.4% of the strains had quorum sensing inhibitory activity. The present study has laid a solid foundation for further understanding the bacterial diversity and exploiting actinobacteria resources in the Flaming Mountain area.

Introduction: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by high aggressiveness and a hypoxic tumour microenvironment. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a hypoxia-related pleiotropic cytokine that plays important roles in cancer. However, its role in PDAC progression has not been fully elucidated., Methods: The clinical significance of MIF and hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF1A) in PDAC was analysed using immunohistochemical staining on PDAC tissues and data from KM-Plotter database. Spatial distribution of MIF and HIF1A gene expression was visualized by spatial transcriptomics in PDAC cell xenografts. To monitor the role of MIF in PDAC cell malignancy, immunostaining, lentivirus shRNA, migration assays, flow cytometry, transcriptomics and in vivo tumorigenicity were performed., Results: The spatial distribution of MIF and HIF1A was highly correlated and that high MIF expression was associated with poor prognosis of PDAC patients. MIF knockdown impaired cell invasion, with a decrease in the expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR). Although PLAUR transcript was not reduced, a uPAR endocytic receptor, low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), was upregulated at both the mRNA and protein levels after MIF knockdown. The LRP1 antagonist RAP restored uPAR expression and invasiveness. MIF attenuated the nuclear translocation of p53, a transcriptional regulator of LRP1. Furthermore, MIF downregulation blunted the growth of PDAC cell xenografts and inhibited cell proliferation under normoxia and hypoxia. Transcriptome analysis also provided evidence for the role of MIF in cancer-associated pathways., Discussion: We demonstrate a novel link between the two pro-invasive agents MIF and uPAR and explain how MIF increases PDAC cell invasion capability. This finding provides a basis for therapeutic intervention of MIF in PDAC progression., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sun, Cheng, Zhang, Guo, Li, Li, Li, Bai, Mo and Huang.)

Introduction: Hypoxia is an important characteristic of solid tumors. However, spatial transcriptomics (ST) of hypoxia-associated heterogeneity is not clear., Methods: This study integrated Spatial Transcriptomics (ST) with immunofluorescence to demonstrate their spatial distribution in human claudin-low breast cancer MDA-MB-231 engraft. ST spots were clustered with differentially expression genes. The data were combined with hypoxia-specific marker and angiogenesis marker-labeled serial sections to indicate the spatial distribution of hypoxia and hypoxia-inducted transcriptional profile. Moreover, marker genes, cluster-specific hypoxia genes, and their co-essential relationship were identified and mapped in every clusters. The clinicopathological association of marker genes of hypoxia-dependent spatial clusters was explored in 1904 breast cancers from METABRIC database., Results: The tumor from center to periphery were enriched into five hypoxia-dependent subgroups with differentially expressed genes, which were matched to necrosis, necrosis periphery, hypoxic tumor, adaptive survival tumor, and invasive tumor, respectively. Different subgroups demonstrated distinct hypoxia condition and spatial heterogeneity in biological behavior and signaling pathways. Cox regression analysis showed that the invasive tumor (cluster 0) and hypoxic tumor (cluster 6) score could be served as independent prognostic factors in claudin-low patients. KM analysis indicated that high invasive tumor (cluster 0) and hypoxic tumor (cluster 6) score was associated with poor prognoses of claudin-low patients. Further analysis showed that hypoxia-induced immune checkpoints, such as CD276 and NRP1, upregulation in invasive tumor to block infiltration and activation of B cells and CD8+ T cells to change tumor immune microenvironment., Discussion: This study reveals hypoxia-dependent spatial heterogeneity in claudin-low breast cancer and highlights its potential value as a predictive biomarker of clinical outcomes and immunotherapy response. The molecules found in this study also provided potential molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets for subsequent studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sun, Li, Zhang, Zhao, Dong, Guo, Mo, Che, Ban, Li, Bai, Li, Hao and Zhang.)

Objective: Hypoxia is an important feature of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Previously, we found that hypoxia promotes ENO1 expression and PDAC invasion. However, the underlying molecular mechanism was remains unclear., Methods: The relationship between ENO1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed in 84 patients with PADC. The effects of CoCl 2 -induced hypoxia and ENO1 downregulation on the apoptosis, invasion, and proliferation of PDAC cells were evaluated in vitro and in vivo . Hypoxia- and ENO1-induced gene expression was analyzed by transcriptomic sequencing., Results: The prognosis of PDAC with high ENO1 expression was poor ( P < 0.05). High ENO1 expression was closely associated with histological differentiation and tumor invasion in 84 PDAC cases ( P < 0.05). Hypoxia increased ENO1 expression in PDAC and promoted its migration and invasion. Apoptotic cells and the apoptosis marker caspase-3 in the CoCl 2 -treated ENO1-sh group were significantly elevated ( P < 0.05). Transcriptomic sequencing indicated that CoCl 2 -induced PDAC cells initiated MAPK signaling. Under hypoxic conditions, PDAC cells upregulated ENO1 expression, thereby accelerating ERK phosphorylation and inhibiting apoptosis ( P < 0.05). Consistent results were also observed in a PDAC-bearing mouse hindlimb ischemia model., Conclusions: Hypoxia-induced ENO1 expression promotes ERK phosphorylation and inhibits apoptosis, thus leading to PDAC survival and invasion. These results suggest that ENO1 is a potential therapeutic target for PDAC., Competing Interests: No potential conflicts of interest are disclosed., (Copyright © 2022 Cancer Biology & Medicine.)

Photocatalytic reactions over effective photocatalysts are attractive to explore clean hydrogen energy from water with the utilization of solar energy. Ternary Co 1- x S@ZnCoS/CdS (ZCS/CdS) composites are constructed as photocatalysts through the hydrothermal formation of Co 1- x S and ZnCoS nanoparticles on CdS nanorods. Superior to the binary Co 1- x S/CdS composite, ZCS/CdS shows the improved photocatalytic activity with a hydrogen production rate of 58.4 mmol·g -1 ·h -1 , which is 31.4 and 2.1 times higher than those of CdS and Co 1- x S/CdS, respectively. Different from binary Co 1- x S/CdS, the participation of a small amount of zinc favors the formation of ZnCoS solid solution in ZCS/CdS. A synergistic promotion effect of ZnCoS and Co 1- x S is confirmed due to tight heterojunctions among Co 1- x S, ZnCoS, and CdS in ZCS/CdS. The unique heterostructure of ZCS/CdS benefits its enhanced absorption ability of visible light, accelerating the separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs and the electron transfer. ZCS/CdS exhibits the strong reduction ability and superior photocatalytic stability due to the role of double Z-scheme electron transfer pathways in the ternary composite. This work provides a suitable way to tune noble metal-free composite photocatalysts for efficient H 2 production.