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Background: RPL35A has been reported to work as a biomarker in tumor angiogenesis. However, little work has been performed on the expression level and functional importance of RPL35A in gastric cancer (GC). Methods: The protein expression level of RPL35A was detected by immunohistochemical staining and western blot analysis. The Celigo cell counting assay was used to assess cell proliferation. Both the wound healing assay and the transwell assay were conducted to evaluate cell migration. Flow cytometric analysis was utilized to detect cell apoptosis and cell cycle. A mouse xenograft model was constructed for in vivo experiments. Results: The results demonstrated that RPL35A expression was abundantly up-regulated in GC and positively related to tumor infiltrate. In addition, RPL35A knockdown could significantly suppress cell proliferation, migration, enhance apoptosis and arrest cell cycle. The in vivo study also verified the inhibitory effects of RPL35A knockdown on GC tumorigenesis. Conclusions: The above mentioned results indicated that the knockdown of RPL35A might be a considerable therapeutic strategy for the treatment of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the agreement between the predicted and measured central corneal thickness (CCT) reduction after the small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery and femtosecond laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (FS-LASIK) surgery. A total 165 patients were enrolled in this prospective study. Eighty patients with a mean spherical equivalent (SE) of −4.72 ± 1.80 Diopters (D) were treated with the FS-LASIK procedure and Eighty-five patients with a mean SE of −4.78 ± 1.63 D were treated with SMILE procedure. One eye for each patient was randomly selected and included for statistical analysis. Ultrasound pachymetry measurement and Scheimpflug camera corneal topography were performed preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively. The measured CCT reduction was calculated by comparing the preoperative examinations with postoperative examinations. Comparative statistics and linear regression analyses were performed. The mean predicted CCT reduction was 95.02 ± 21.39 μm in FS-LASIK group and 103.49 ± 22.87 μm in SMILE group (P =.015). The prediction of laser platform was found to overestimate the measured CCT reduction for both FS-LASIK group (ultrasound 13.20 ± 9.34 μm) and SMILE group (ultrasound 13.12 ± 8.68 μm). The prediction of laser platform was found to systematically overestimate the measured CCT reduction in FS-LASIK group. In SMILE group, the difference between predicted and measured CCT reduction were found significantly related with the predicted CCT reduction (P <.001 for ultrasound; and P =.004 for Pentacam). A systematic overestimation of measured CCT reduction in FS-LASIK group did not influence the refractive precision of FS-LASIK. Due to the different biomechanical distributions in post-SMILE cornea, the measured CCT reduction was influenced as the changes in refractive correction. Nomogram adjustment for high myopic correction needs further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fresh camel milk was widely accepted to help to prevent and control of diabetes, especially in Africa, Middle East, and cooler dry areas of Asia. In this study, type 2 diabetic patients were enrolled to supplement with 10 g of camel milk powder twice a day for 4 weeks (n = 14), cow milk powder served as the placebo (n = 13). It was found that camel milk supplement decreased fasting blood glucose, 2‐hr postprandial blood glucose, serum content of total cholesterol, resistin, and lipocalin‐2. There was also a significant increase in serum content of osteocrin, amylin, and GLP‐1in camel milk group, indicating an improvement on adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. Camel milk powder supplement significantly enriched the relative abundance of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 and [Eubacterium]_eligens_group compared with cow milk after the 4‐week intervention. This study suggested that camel milk powder can be used as a functional food help to treat type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: DHA (22:6n-3), a long-chain n-3 PUFA, is essential for normal brain development and function. Our previous study demonstrated that DHA significantly improves scopolamine-induced dementia. However, there are no reports on the relation between n-3 PUFA deficiency and scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment.Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether n-3 PUFA deficiency increases vulnerability to scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment.Methods: Male and female C57BL/6 mice were mated and fed an n-3 PUFA-adequate [containing 2.88% α-linolenic acid (ALA; 18:3n-3)] or -deficient (containing 0.09% ALA) diet for 2 consecutive generations. The corresponding second-generation male offspring were kept on the same diet as their mothers after weaning, and were randomly assigned to 2 subgroups at 7 wk of age, in which they were intraperitoneally injected with saline [fed n-3 PUFA-adequate (Con) or -deficient (Def) diet] or scopolamine [5 mg/kg body weight; fed n-3 PUFA-adequate (Sco) or -deficient (Def + Sco) diet] once per day for 7 d before killing. Behavioral performance was analyzed using the Morris Water Maze test. Fatty acid composition, protein expression, and indicators of cholinergic and oxidative stress in the brain were measured.Results: The Def group showed lower brain DHA (-63.7%, P ≤ 0.01) and higher n-6 PUFA (+65.5%, P ≤ 0.05) concentrations than the Con group. The Def + Sco group and the Sco group showed poorer spatial learning and memory (escape latency on the sixth day: +60.3% and +36.8%; platform crossings: -43.9% and -28.2%, respectively) and more obvious cholinergic dysfunction (acetylcholine: -47.6% and -27.7%, respectively), oxidative stress (glutathione peroxidase: -64.2% and -32.5%, respectively), apoptosis [B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2)-associated X protein/BCL2: +230.8% and +153.8%; phosphorylated P38/P38: +232% and +130%, phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/JNK: +104.5% and +58.8%, respectively], neuroinflammation (IL-1β: +317.6% and +95%, respectively), and neurodevelopmental delay (brain-derived neurotrophic factor: -54.4% and -7.25%, respectively) than their corresponding saline-treated controls.Conclusions: Dietary n-3 PUFA deficiency significantly decreases brain DHA concentrations and increases vulnerability to scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment in C57BL/6 male mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between dilation and proliferation and anastomosis of perforating arteries, and intracranial hemorrhage in moyamoya disease (MMD) patients, using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI). Methods: Adult patients with MMD at advanced stages were prospectively enrolled and underwent HRMRI exams. Dilation and proliferation of the lenticulostriate artery (LSA), medullary artery, and anterior or posterior choroidal arteries (AChA or PChA) were assessed. Abnormal anastomoses were identified between (1) the LSA and the medullary or insular arteries; (2) the thalamo-geniculate, thalamo-tuberal, or thalamo-perforating arteries and the medullary or insular arteries; and (3) the AChA or PChA and the medullary or insular arteries. The association between these variables and hemorrhagic events was calculated using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Fifty patients (14 men; mean age, 35.4 ± 9.7 years) were finally analyzed, including 17 hemorrhagic patients and 33 non-hemorrhagic patients. The inter-rater agreement for the qualitative evaluation of perforating arteries was good. Dilation and proliferation of the AChA or PChA (88.2% versus 54.5%, p = 0.027), and choroidal anastomosis (64.7% versus 18.2%, p = 0.002) were more frequently observed in patients with hemorrhage. Multivariate logistic regression showed that choroidal anastomosis remained significantly associated with hemorrhage (odds ratio = 5.95, 95% confidence interval = 1.21–29.25, p = 0.028). Conclusions: Choroidal anastomosis is independently associated with hemorrhagic events in adult patients with MMD at advanced stages. HRMRI can provide detailed information on both the anatomies and abnormal collaterals in MMD, which facilitates risk estimates of bleeding in MMD. Key Points: • High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging allows for the evaluation of perforating arteries in patients with moyamoya disease. • Choroidal anastomosis is associated with hemorrhagic events in patients with moyamoya disease. • High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging might facilitate further grading and classification of moyamoya vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, one-dimensional nitrogen doped porous carbon nano-arrays arranged by carbon nanotube (1D CNTs@NPC) were first constructed, using a coating technology at room temperature and followed by high temperature carbonization. It was expected that the resulting glassy carbon electrodes modified by 1D CNTs@NPC (CNTs@NPC/GCE) could express different electrochemical responses to ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), by virtue of the synergistic-improved effect between CNTs and NPC. Under the optimized conditions, there were excellent analytical parameters for CNTs@NPC/GCE to detect AA, DA and UA, i.e. a wide linear range of 40–2100 μM for AA, 0.5–49 μM for DA and 3–50 μM for AA with low detection limits of 0.36 μM, 0.02 μmol l−1 and 0.57 μM respectively. Importantly, the proposed CNTs@NPC/GCE was efficiently applied to determine AA, DA and UA in some real samples with high stability, reproducibility and selectivity. This work will offer an efficient potential for diagnosing ascorbic acid, dopamine or uric acid-related diseases on clinical testing in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime structures are significant man-made objects located along coastlines that have drawn considerable attention in maritime navigation, coastal engineering, and urban planning. During the process of map generalization, some maritime structures need to be collapsed. In our study, first, the representation characteristics of these maritime structures are analysed. Second, based on these characteristics, an automated approach of identifying these maritime structures that will potentially be collapsed while simultaneously extracting their partially proportional symbols is developed. Third, based on scale-driven thresholds, the collapse method is automated by selecting extracted partially proportional symbols and is collaborated with coastline simplification. Finally, the proposed approach is tested on various coastlines and maritime structures, and the experimental results demonstrate that our approach is effective for collapsing maritime structures and collaborating with the simplification operator for the automated generalization of coastlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article claims that the conjecturing clause-taking huaiyi predicate in Modern Chinese (e.g. Renmen huaiyi zheming taoyi de jingcha hen keneng canyu le zheqi anjian. 'People conjecture that the escaped policeman had probably been involved in the case.') is actually a parenthetical structure. Diachronically, it does not develop from an NP-taking huaiyi predicate (e.g. Wo hen huaiyi zhe ge shuofa. 'I doubt the statement a lot.') or a doubting clause-taking huaiyi predicate (e.g. Du Yifu changchang huaiyi ta yu erzi you guo nazhong ge'ermen yiqi de shiguang. 'Du Yifu often doubted that he had had times of buddy loyalty with his son.'). Rather, it develops from a prosodically separated conjecturing huaiyi predicate. The goal of this paper is to show that its formation did not follow the commonly accepted matrix clause pathway, whereby a parenthetical clause-taking predicate develops from a corresponding matrix clause structure. Instead, it followed a hypothesized conjoining pathway, which involves the loss of a phonetic gap between a prosodically separated huaiyi predicate and the clause with which it occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2017 Guidance by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended the criteria to qualify for a Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS)‐based biowaiver that includes high solubility of the drug across the physiological pH range as well as the formulation considerations, e.g., being qualitatively the same and quantitatively very similar to the reference product. These were ratified by the International Council for Harmonization (ICH) in 2018. The FDA has used the similar verbiage when referring to the BCS‐based biowaiver option for BCS class III drugs (highly soluble but poorly permeable). However, establishing in vitro‐in vivo correlations (IVIVC) using conventional mass balance deconvolution approaches, which assumes a single absorption compartment, is not likely for very rapidly dissolving dosage forms containing BCS III drugs. Unlike conventional mass balance deconvolution techniques, physiologically based pharmacokinetic models are able to disentangle different processes contributing to the input function, e.g., dissolution, gastrointestinal transit, and permeation and to establish IVIVC using variants of the compartmental absorption and transit model, supporting biowaiver for formulations containing BCS III drugs. However, there are knowledge gaps that need to be filled. This review provides a systematic assessment of the advancements in applications of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for IVIVC and biowaiver for such cases with the aim of identifying the most important gaps and hurdles. It concludes by calling for research efforts on the impact of excipients on dissolution and permeation, alongside the development of PBPK modeling to link these in vitro characteristics to in vivo bioequivalence outcomes through simulations of virtual clinical studies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To develop a prediction model to estimate the chances of live birth over multiple cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was launched in three reproductive centers including 10 824 couples who received 14 106 treatment cycles with known pregnancy outcomes by the end of 2016. Discrete time logistic regression was used to establish the model and a nomogram was developed to predict the chance of live birth on plain paper‐based final predictors. Results: Among 10 824 couples, 5809 (53.7%) ended up with a live birth with several successive transplant cycles. What's more, we found that younger female age (p < 0.001), smaller cycle number (p < 0.001), female body mass index (p < 0.001), male factor (p < 0.001), ovulation disorder (p = 0.006), and higher endometrial thickness (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with increased live birth rate. Discrimination of the model expressed by area under the curve (AUC) was 0.66. Conclusion: Our study will help shape couples' expectations of their ART outcome, allowing them to plan their treatments more efficiently and prepare emotionally and financially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new benzazepine alkaloids (1 and 2) were isolated from the whole plants of Thalictrum wangii. Their structures were determined by means of HR-ESI-MS and extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic studies. Compounds 1 and 2 were tested for their anti-rotavirus activity. The results revealed that compounds 1 and 2 exhibited potent anti-rotavirus activity with TI values of 17.9 and 17.6, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the globalization and sustainable development of the modern manufacturing industry, distributed manufacturing and scheduling systems that consider environmental effects have attracted increasing attention. This article addresses the distributed flexible job-shop scheduling problem with crane transportation (DFJSPC) for minimizing the weighted sum of makespan and total energy consumption. In this study, we present a mixed integer linear programming model for DFJSPC and make a first attempt to propose a Q -learning-based hyper-heuristic evolutionary algorithm (QHHEA) for solving such a strongly NP-hard problem. The QHHEA has the following features: (i) a hybrid population initialization method is designed to produce high-quality individuals with certain diversity; (ii) a novel left-shift decoding scheme is added to the decoding scheme to improve the utilization of machine processing and crane transportation resource; (iii) a Q -learning-based high-level strategy is developed to determine the most suitable low-level heuristic (LLH) from a pre-designed set based on valuable information fed by the efficacy of LLHs; (iv) a new state definition and a dynamic adaptive mechanism are used to balance population convergence and diversity; (v) an improved move acceptance method is adopted to avoid falling into local optima and to drive the search behavior toward promising regions. To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, extensive experiments and comprehensive comparisons are conducted on a benchmark with 36 instances. The statistical results show that QHHEA outperforms several state-of-the-art algorithms in solving DFJSPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to expand the application of PLLA in the packaging field, improving its toughness and antibacterial activity has been widely concerned. However, seldom researches can simultaneously efficiently improve the toughness and antibacterial activity of PLLA by adding one kind of additions. To address above problems, the bifunctional branched poly(butylene adipate) ionomer additive (b-PBAUi) was synthesized. For b-PBAUi, its branched structure not only increased the plasticizing effect of additive, but also acted as reaction sites to introduce more antibacterial ionic salt. Due to the special structure of b-PBAUi, PLLA/b-PBAUi blends achieved excellent toughness and antibacterial efficiency. The elongation of blend reached 125 % even by adding 5 wt% b-PBAUi, which was 10 times higher than that of PLLA. From the analysis of phase morphology, it could be found that the microvoids promoting tensile yielding was the main tensile toughening mechanism for PLLA/b-PBAUi blends. In addition, the antibacterial activity of PLLA was significantly improved by adding b-PBAUi. For PLLA/b-PBAUi 10 and PLLA/b-PBAUi 15 , the antibacterial efficiency against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria exceeded 99.0 %. By comprehensive consideration, the optimal blend ratio was achieved by PLLA/b-PBAUi 10 due to its excellent toughness and antibacterial efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melatonin (MT) is a vital hormone factor in plant growth and development, yet its potential to influence the graft union healing process has not been reported. In this study, we examined the effects of MT on the healing of oriental melon scion grafted onto squash rootstock. The studies indicate that the exogenous MT treatment promotes the lignin content of oriental melon and squash stems by increasing the enzyme activities of hydroxycinnamoyl CoA ligase (HCT), hydroxy cinnamaldehyde dehydrogenase (HCALDH), caffeic acid/5-hydroxy-conifer aldehyde O-methyltransferase (COMT), caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), 4-hydroxycinnamate CoA ligase (4CL), and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD). Using the oriental melon and squash treated with the exogenous MT to graft, the connection of oriental melon scion and squash rootstock was more efficient and faster due to higher expression of wound-induced dedifferentiation 1 (WIND1), cyclin-dependent kinase (CDKB1;2), target of monopteros 6 (TMO6), and vascular-related NAC-domain 7 (VND7). Further research found that the exogenous MT increased the lignin content of the oriental melon scion stem by regulating CmCAD1 expression, and then accelerated the graft healing process. In addition, the root growth of grafted seedlings treated with the exogenous MT was more vigorous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, h-BN-OH was obtained by hydroxylating h-BN and subsequently KH560 was grafted onto the surface of h-BN-OH, resulting in h-BN-KH560. The h-BN-KH560 was then dispersed in an epoxy resin (EP) to create an EP/h-BN-KH560 adhesive solution, with the content of h-BN-KH560 being varied. Graphene oxide (GO) was dispersed in PMIA precipitated fibers to produce PMIA/GO composite paper. Finally, the surface of the composite paper was evenly coated with the EP/h-BN-KH560 adhesive solution, and then PMIA/EP/GO/h-BN composites with different h-BN-KH560 contents and good thermal conductivity were prepared by hot pressing. The FTIR analysis confirmed the successful grafting of KH560 onto the surface of h-BN-OH. By utilizing h-BN-KH560 and GO as thermal conductive fillers, we achieved a higher thermal conductivity in the composite material, creating a "dual thermal conductivity network" compared to using a single filler. Additionally, the thermal conductivity increased as the content of h-BN-KH560 increased. At h-BN-KH560 contents of 20 wt%, 40 wt%, and 60 wt%, the thermal conductivities of the prepared PMIA/EP/GO/h-BN composites were 0.661 Wm−1K−1, 1.082 Wm−1K−1, and 1.206 Wm−1K−1, respectively. Importantly, the addition of the thermal conductive filler did not significantly affect the thermal stability of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two rotavirus vaccines (RV1 and RV5) are available on the private market in Taiwan, not included in national immunization program. Scanty reports evaluated the rotavirus vaccine effectiveness (VE) in Asian countries. From February 2014-July 2017, we conducted a prospective case-control study in ten hospitals in Taiwan. Case-patients included children aged 8–59 months, and hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed rotavirus acute gastroenteritis (AGE). For each case patient, up to four controls, rotavirus-negative AGE or non-AGE illnesses, respectively, were matched by gender, age and enrolled date. Vaccination history was confirmed through vaccination card or hospital record. VE was calculated as (1 − odds ratio of vaccination) × 100%. Totally 4248 AGE patients and 2242 non-AGE controls were enrolled. A total of 330 case-patients with rotavirus AGE, 1226 rotavirus-negative AGE controls and 1122 non-AGE controls were included for analysis. Unvaccinated rate was 85.15% for rotavirus-positive cases, 42.9% for rotavirus-negative controls, and 34.31% for non-AGE controls. VE of two-dose RV1 was 84.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]:77.7%, 90.1%) for rotavirus-negative AGE and 88.9% (95% CI: 83.4%, 92.8%) for non-AGE controls, while VE of three-dose RV5 was 92.5% (95% CI: 85.1%, 96.7%) and 96.4% (95% CI: 91.9%, 98.6%), respectively. For respective vaccine, VEs were not significantly different in term of rotavirus genotypes. VEs of both vaccines declined <80% in children aged three years by combined controls. Both vaccines provided excellent and sustained protection against rotavirus AGE hospitalization in children in Taiwan, but the effectiveness declined slightly in children aged three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive fuzzy control scheme is proposed for a class of unknown multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear dynamic systems with bounded control inputs. A regularized inverse matrix was adopted to obtain a stable controller. Using a hyperbolic tangent smoothing function, the control signals can be limited to the amplitude range of actuators. This solves the problem of an arbitrary amplitude of control signals, which is very disadvantageous for the actuator. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated by simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of Things is the core technology of smart agriculture and can reform and upgrade traditional agriculture for reducing cost, reducing pollution, and increasing productivity and quality in China. From government-led and market economy perspectives, promotion mechanisms and sustainable adoption of agricultural Internet of Things technology are analyzed. In the initial application phase, the promotion of Internet of Things requires government support. For investigating the relationship between the government and farmers, this study builds an evolutionary game model and finds that increases of cost subsidy, farmers' negative feedback, government's positive feedback, and chemical agriculture cost can make the model evolve toward the strategy set: farmer adoption and government support. For long-term development, a sustainable model in competitive market is built by competition game and exponential replication equation. This paper analyzes the equilibrium of adoption ratio, long-run profit, and the conversion between equilibrium points under capacity sharing strategy in competitive market. It is also found that the market will eventually evolve to the technology selection strategy whose long-run average profit dominates the market. The innovations are that evolutionary game is used for analyzing the initial stage and competitive game and asynchronous update mechanism are used for analyzing the sustainable development adoption. At last, references are provided for agricultural Internet of Things development policy from the perspectives of initial promotion and long-run sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which normally manifests as a multi-joint inflammatory reaction, is a common immunological disease in clinical practice. However, the pathogenesis of RA has not yet been fully elucidated. Rituximab (RTX) is an effective drug in the treatment of RA, however its therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action require further investigation. Thus, the present study aimed to screen the candidate key regulatory genes and explain the potential mechanisms of RA. Gene chips of RA and normal joint tissues were analyzed and, gene chips of RTX before and after treatment were investigated. In the present study, strong evidence supporting the pathogenesis of RA and mechanism of action of RTX were also revealed. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed using the limma package of RStudio software. A total of 1,150 DEGs were detected in RA compared with normal joint tissues. The upregulated genes were enriched in 'interleukin-12 production', 'I-κB kinase/NF-κB signaling', 'regulation of cytokine production involved in immune response' and 'cytokine metabolic process'. Functional enrichment analysis showed that RTX was primarily involved in the inhibition of 'adaptive immune response', 'B cell activation involved in immune response' and 'immune effector process'. Subsequently, leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily B member 1 (LILRB1), a hub gene with high connectivity degree, was selected, and traditional Chinese medicine libraries were molecularly screened according to the structure of the LILRB1 protein. The results indicated that kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucosyl-(1→2)-β-D-glucoside exhibited the highest docking score. In the present study, the DEGs and their biological functions in RA and the pharmacological mechanism of RTX action were determined. Taken together, the results suggested that LILRB1 may be used as a molecular target for RA treatment, and kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucosyl-(1→2)-β-D-glucoside may inhibit the pathological process of RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic structures and optical properties of pure, Cr, S single- and Cr/S co-doped rutile TiO2 were calculated by the first-principle plane wave pseudopotential method based on density functional theory. The calculated results indicate that the three different doping ways can lead to lattice distortion in the rutile TiO2 and introduce local electronic states in the forbidden band of TiO2. The local energy levels in the forbidden band of TiO2 are mainly contributed by Cr-3d and S-3p orbital. Compared with pure TiO2, the absorption edges (i.e. the edge of the main peak) of the doped TiO2 have different blue shifts; however, the light response ranges of the doped systems are extended, especially in the case of Cr single- and Cr/S co-doped TiO2. The extension of the visible light response range of the doped TiO2 may enhance its visible light photocatalytic performance. In addition, the co-doped TiO2 has a stronger oxidation ability, which may increase the catalytic efficiency of TiO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) plays a crucial role in the control of lipid homeostasis. Here, we investigated the effects of CP775146, a new selective PPARα agonist, on lipid metabolism in diet-induced obese mice and its possible mechanism. Methods. C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks to induce obesity and then received CP775146 via intraperitoneal injection for 3 days. The content/morphology of the liver, serum lipid, and liver function was measured. The expression of genes related to lipolysis and synthesis in liver was detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results. The safe dose of CP775146 was <0.3 mg/kg. CP775146 reduced the serum levels of liver enzymes, such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (AST) and lipid metabolism-related biomarkers, including triglycerides (TGs) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-c), and hepatic TG content, at a dosage of 0.1 mg/kg. HFD-induced pathological liver changes improved after CP775146 treatment. The expression of genes involved in liver fatty acid oxidation (acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase, long chain (Acadl), acyl-CoA oxidase 1 (Acox-1), carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1), and enoyl-CoA, hydratase/3-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase (Ehhadh)) was upregulated in CP775146-treated mice. Furthermore, CP775146 induced the expression of thermogenesis genes (cell death-inducing DFFA-like effector a (Cidea), uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp1)) and lipolysis genes (hormone-sensitive lipase (Hsl), adipose tissue triglyceride lipase (Atgl)) in epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT), activating browning and thermogenesis. Conclusion. CP775146 efficiently alleviates obesity-induced liver damage, prevents lipid accumulation by activating the liver fatty acid β-oxidation pathway, and regulates the expression of genes that control brown fat-like pathway in eWAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries, especially Zn-MnO2 battery, have attracted intensive attention owing to their unique features of high capacity, environmental friendliness, and safety. However, the problem of Mn dissolution hinders the development of zinc-ion batteries with long-term usage and high-rate performance. In this work, a novel preparation method for the polyaniline (PANI)-coated composite aerogel of MnO2 and rGO (MnO2/rGO/PANI) electrode is reported. The obtained composite possesses high electrical conductivity, and also effectively suppresses the dissolution of Mn. The fabricated MnO2/rGO/PANI//Zn battery exhibits a high capacity of 241.1 mAh·g−1 at 0.1 A·g−1, and an excellent capacity retention of 82.7% after 600 charge/discharge cycles. In addition, the rapid diffusion coefficient of the MnO2/rGO/PANI electrode was further examined by galvanostatic intermittent titration technique. This work provides new insights into the development of high-performance Zn-MnO2 battery with a better understanding of its diffusion kinetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered double hydroxide (LDH) is potentially excellent supercapacitor (SC) materials, but the low conductivity and easy agglomeration limit the further improvement of their electrochemical properties. Therefore, LDHs are requisite to grow on some conductive substrates to produce high-performance SC. In this paper, the conductive two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides (called MXene) were explored as the substrate to directly deposit NiFe-LDH nanosheets by a one-step hydrothermal method, then a three-dimensional (3D) porous NiFe-LDH/MXene electrode was obtained. The morphology and electrochemical performance of the composite electrodes were analyzed and investigated. The results show that the NiFe-LDH/MXene electrode has larger specific capacitance (720.2 F/g) than NiFe-LDH (465 F/g), and the capacitance of the composite electrode retained 86% after 1000 cycles (only 24% for NiFe-LDH), showing excellent cycle stability. The improved electrochemical performance of the composites is caused by the stable sheet-like structure of NiFe-LDH during charge-discharge time and the conductive network formed by the MXene, which can accelerates electron transport. In addition, the asymmetric SC based on NiFe-LDH/MXene positive electrode display a power density of 758.27 W/kg at an energy density of 42.4 Wh/Kg. These results indicate the NiFe-LDH/MXene composites can be applied as the novel candidate of high-performance SC electrodes. • The LDH/MXene synergistic hybrid structure is developed with MXene nanosheets as the substrate. • Prominent electrical performance is attributed to MXene providing a fast charge transfer path for LDH. • The anchoring of LDH on MXene surface provides the material with enhanced cyclic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Inflammatory responses play important roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between microRNA-146b-3p (miR-146b-3p) and inflammatory factors in thrombosis. Method. THP-1 cells were cultured in vitro, Western blot was used to determine the protein levels of COX-2 and p38MAPK in the cells, and real-time PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of miRNA-146b-3p and COX-2. A lentiviral expression vector of miRNA-146b-3p and its inhibitor were constructed to transfect THP-1 cells. COX-2 and p38MAPK expression in transfected cells was detected by Western blot and real-time PCR, respectively. Results. Ang II and TNF-α could elevate the expression of COX-2 in monocytes. The expression of COX-2 was upregulated by p38MAPK, which could be phosphorylated by Ang II, while there was an increasing tendency of p38MAPK phosphorylation after TNF-α stimulation. In addition, COX-2 expression and P38MAPK phosphorylation could be downregulated by miRNA-146b-3p and upregulated by the miRNA-146b-3p inhibitor. Ang II could increase miR-146b-3p expression, although there was no significant difference; however, the expression of miR-146b-3p was enhanced significantly by TNF-α. Conclusion. Our data implied that altered expression of miR-146b-3p was closely related to the progression of inflammation mediating the P38MAPK/COX-2 pathway. We suggest that the miR-146b-3p/p38MAPK/COX-2 pathway plays a key role in inflammation and arterial thrombosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests the existence of association between a large panel of modifiable biomarkers representing inflammation, coagulation, paraoxonase, and endothelial activation pathways and carotid atherosclerosis. Thus, this study investigated whether CRP, FGA, FGB, FGG, PON1, and EDNRA gene variants affected plasma hs-CRP, fibrinogen levels, and thickness of carotid intima media thickness (IMT). Nineteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms of CRP, FGA, FGB, FGG, PON1, and EDNRA genes were examined in 480 participants from 160 families. Carotid IMT was measured by ultrasound. Generalized linear models with generalized estimating equation were utilized to consider the dependence of subjects within families. In the recessive model, homozygotes for the minor alleles of rs1800789, rs1800790 and rs4220 SNPs in FGB gene indicated a reduced risk of IMT (Exp. β = 0.89, 0.89, 0.88), which remained significant after adjustment for confounding factors. Significant interaction effects between CRP SNP rs1130864 and rs3093059 and gender for IMT were observed with a significant association in men only. Men carrying minor-minor genotype of CRP SNP rs1130864 and rs3093059 had 0.70- and 0.78-fold lower IMT than men carrying minor-major/major-major genotype. We also observed that the interaction of CRP SNP rs1130864 and rs3093059 with obesity on IMT, hs-CRP and fibrinogen levels. These results support the hypothesis that inflammatory genes are involved in atherosclerosis, most likely via complex gene-gender and gene-obesity interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual‐mode "turn‐on" fluorescent‐colorimetric sensor, 1‐methyl piperazine rhodamine amide (MPRA), has been identified and developed for acidic pH detection in practice. After its structure and photophysical property were characterized and investigated in detail, it was noted to find that nonfluorescent and colorless MPRA would present rose Bengal color and emit strong saffron yellow fluorescence simultaneously with pH decreasing from 7.2 to 1.8 in PBS/acetonitrile (1 : 1, v/v). Under the optimized conditions, MPRA expressed an excellent partitioned and dual‐mode response to pH, i. e., ranging from 1.8 to 3.6 and 3.6 to 7.2 for fluorescent analysis, and 1.8 to 4.0 and 4.0 to 7.2 for colorimetric one with the acidity constant (Ka) of 1.75 obtained from Henderson‐Hasselbach equation. Importantly, the sensing was real‐time and reversible, which was successfully applied for pH detection in real fruit aqueous samples with R.S.D. less than 5.0%. The selective recognition mechanism for MPRA to H+ was confirmed to be the ring‐opened amide form mechanism by 1H NMR and theoretical calculation. MPRA will be a potential dual‐mode sensor for on‐site monitoring pH in acidic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a kind of small noncoding RNA molecules that are direct posttranscriptional regulations of mRNA targets. Studies have indicated that miRNAs play key roles in complex diseases by taking part in many biological processes, such as cell growth, cell death and so on. Therefore, in order to improve the effectiveness of disease diagnosis and treatment, it is appealing to develop advanced computational methods for predicting the essentiality of miRNAs. Result: In this study, we propose a method (PESM) to predict the miRNA essentiality based on gradient boosting machines and miRNA sequences. First, PESM extracts the sequence and structural features of miRNAs. Then it uses gradient boosting machines to predict the essentiality of miRNAs. We conduct the 5-fold cross-validation to assess the prediction performance of our method. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), F-measure and accuracy (ACC) are used as the metrics to evaluate the prediction performance. We also compare PESM with other three competing methods which include miES, Gaussian Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine. Conclusion: The results of experiments show that PESM achieves the better prediction performance (AUC: 0.9117, F-measure: 0.8572, ACC: 0.8516) than other three computing methods. In addition, the relative importance of all features also further shows that newly added features can be helpful to improve the prediction performance of methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: microRNA‐29 (miR‐29) family have shown different expression patterns in cardiovascular diseases. Our study aims to explore the effect and mechanism of miR‐29 family on cardiac development. Materials and methods: A total of 13 patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) and 7 controls were included in our study. Tissues were obtained from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) after surgical resection or autopsy. The next‐generation sequencing was applied to screen the microRNA expression profiles of CHD. Quantitative RT‐PCR and Western blot were employed to measure genes expression. Tg Cmlc2: GFP reporter zebrafish embryos were injected with microRNA (miRNA) to explore its role in cardiac development in vivo. Dual‐luciferase reporter assay was designed to validate the target gene of miRNAs. CCK‐8 and EdU incorporation assays were performed to evaluate cardiomyocyte proliferation. Results: Our study showed miR‐29b‐3p expression was significantly increased in the RVOT of the CHD patients. Injection of miR‐29b‐3p into zebrafish embryos induced higher mortality and malformation rates, developmental delay, cardiac malformation and dysfunction. miR‐29b‐3p inhibited cardiomyocyte proliferation, and its inhibitor promoted cardiomyocyte proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we identified that miR‐29b‐3p influenced cardiomyocyte proliferation by targeting NOTCH2, which was down‐regulated in the RVOT of the CHD patients. Conclusion: This study reveals that miR‐29b‐3p functions as a novel regulator of cardiac development and inhibits cardiomyocyte proliferation via NOTCH2, which provides novel insights into the aetiology and potential treatment of CHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the double Hopf bifurcation and the existence of quasi-periodic invariant tori in a generalized Gopalsamy neural network model. Regarding the connection weight and the delay as bifurcation parameters of the double Hopf bifurcation, we derive the normal form up to the fifth order near the critical point by using the center manifold theorem and the normal form method, and obtain sufficient conditions on the existence of invariant 2-tori for the truncated normal form. Moreover, we investigate the effect of higher-order terms on these 2-tori by a KAM theorem. It is proved that in a sufficiently small neighborhood of the bifurcation point, the neural network model has quasi-periodic invariant 2-tori for most of the parameter set where its truncated normal form possesses invariant 2-tori. We give a numerical example to verify the conditions on all results in remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have shown great potential to prevent chloride penetration into cementitious materials. This paper intends to investigate the effect of the divalent cation type and divalent to trivalent metal ion ratio of LDHs on their chloride binding capacity. Different types of M2+ (Mg, Ca, Zn)–Al–NO3 LDHs were prepared by a hydrothermal synthesis method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) were adopted to characterize the synthesized LDHs. In addition, the chloride binding capacity of LDHs was measured using the equilibrium isotherm of chloride binding. These results indicated that Zn–Al–NO3 LDH (Z-LDH) exhibited the largest chloride binding capacity because of its greatest basal spacing compared with Mg–Al–NO3 LDH (M-LDH) and Ca–Al–NO3 LDH (C-LDH). The chloride binding capacity of Z-LDH increased with the decrement of the divalent to trivalent metal ion ratio ranging from 2 to 4. Due to the competitive binding of anions, the chloride binding capacity of LDHs in simulated concrete pore (SCP) solution was slightly lower than that in deionized water. However, simulated carbonation of the SCP solution resulted in considerable desorption of chloride. Special attention should be paid to the desorption of chlorides caused by carbonation if LDHs are used in cementitious materials to prevent chloride penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is the most prevalent internal modification of eukaryotic mRNA modulating gene expression. m6A modification is a dynamic reversible process regulated by three protein groups: methyltransferases (writers), demethylases (erasers), and m6A-binding proteins (readers). m6A modification is involved in all phases of RNA metabolism, including RNA folding, stability, splicing, nuclear exporting, translational modulation and degradation. Main body: In recent years, numerous studies have reported that abnormal m6A modification causes aberrant expression of important viral genes. Herein, we review the role of m6A in viral lifecycle and its contribution to the pathogenesis of human diseases. Particularly, we focus on the viruses associated with human diseases such as HIV-1, IAV, HBV, HCV, EBV and many others. Conclusions: A better understanding of m6A-virus relationship would provide new insights into the viral replication process and pathogenesis of human diseases caused by viruses. In addition, exploration of the role of m6A in disease-causing viruses will reveal novel approaches for the treatment of such diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing low-cost and earth-abundant electrocatalysts with high activity for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly desired but still remains a significant challenge. Herein, hollow cobalt hydroxide/NiCo sulfide hybrid (Co(OH)2/Ni-Co-S) nanotube arrays are synthesized on nickel foam (NF) through a simple hydrothermal method and subsequent sulfurization, which serve as efficient electrocatalysts for overall water splitting. The optimized Co(OH)2/Ni-Co-S-8h electrocatalyst requires overpotentials of 300 mV and 340 mV to reach current densities of 30 and 100 mA cm−2 for the OER in 1.0 M KOH, respectively. In addition, the optimized Co(OH)2/Ni-Co-S-8h electrocatalyst requires overpotentials of 148 mV and 254 mV to reach the current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm−2 for the HER in the same electrolyte, respectively. Furthermore, the electrolyzer used as efficient catalysts for overall water splitting requires cell voltage of 1.62 V to obtain 10 mA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a facile two-step method was adopted to in-situ develop a flexible electrode with NiCo-LDH nanowires@NiCo-LDH nanosheets core-shell structure on carbon fiber cloth (CFC). The electrochemical properties of the composite materials with different Ni/Co molar ratios nanosheets were systematically studied. It is found that the NiCo-LDH nanowires@Ni2Co1-LDH nanosheets (NiCo@Ni2Co1) composite material achieves a high areal capacitance of 9.67 F/cm2 at 5 mA/cm2 and a good cycling stability (75% capacitance retention after 2000 cycles). The excellent performance benefits from the distinct core-shell structure and the synergistic effect of NiCo-LDH nanosheets and NiCo-LDH nanowires. Moreover, a solid-state flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) assembled with NiCo@Ni2Co1/CFC as positive electrode and activated carbon on CFC as negative electrode can work stably at a voltage of 1.6 V. This ASC displays a high areal energy density of 298.6 uWh/cm2 at a current density of 1 mA/cm2 and with a corresponding areal power density of 0.80 mW/cm2. • A NiCo@NiCo-LDH core-shell structure was synthesized by a two-step method. • The NiCo@Ni2Co1-LDH composite shows a high areal capacitance of 9.67 F/cm2. • The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor exhibits a high areal energy density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• VW-MRI–identified BA or intracranial VA plaques were more frequently observed in VBD patients with stroke than in those without stroke. • Symptomatic plaques in VBD patients showed a lower degree of stenosis, NWI, and RI than that in non-VBD patients. • VW-MRI may help to assess stroke mechanisms and identify VBD patients at high risk. To elucidate the vessel wall changes of vertebrobasilar dolichoectasia (VBD) with ischemic stroke, using vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (VW-MRI). Thirty-four patients with VBD (22 with stroke and 12 without stroke) who underwent VW-MRI were recruited. Forty-one patients without VBD who underwent VW-MRI were also recruited if they had a recent stroke due to atherosclerosis in the basilar artery or the intracranial vertebral artery. The vessel wall features of VBD were compared between stroke and non-stroke groups. The plaque characteristics were compared between VBD and non-VBD stroke patients. The frequency of plaques was higher (54.5% vs. 8.3%, P = 0.011) in VBD patients with stroke than that in non-stroke patients, while the frequencies of aneurysm, dissection, intraluminal thrombus, and diffuse/concentric wall enhancement did not differ. When the plaque features were compared between plaque-positive stroke patients with and without VBD, the degree of stenosis (31.0% ± 26.8% vs. 71.5% ± 19.0%, P < 0.001), normalized wall index (NWI) (0.7 ± 0.1 vs. 0.9 ± 0.1, P < 0.001), and remodeling index (RI) (1.0 ± 0.4 vs. 1.3 ± 0.4, P = 0.023) were lower in the VBD group, while intraplaque hemorrhage, and enhancement ratio showed no difference. This preliminary study suggests that atherosclerosis may be an important cause of stroke in VBD patients. Symptomatic plaques in VBD patients have a lower degree of stenosis, NWI, and RI than that in non-VBD patients. VW-MRI may help to assess stroke mechanisms and identify VBD patients at high risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To investigate the levels of nicotinamide - adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 2 (NOX2) in serum and pericardial drainage samples in the early stage after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and determine whether NOX2 is predictive of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF). Materials and Methods: This prospective pilot study involved 152 adults without history of atrial fibrillation who underwent first - time elective isolated CABG. Serum and pericardial fluid samples were simultaneously obtained from patients at baseline and 4, 12, and 24 h post operation. NOX2 levels were determined using enzyme - linked immunosorbent assays. The heart rhythm of patients was continuously monitored through a Holter monitor until discharge. Logistic regression and receiver - operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed, as appropriate. Results: Fifty-one patients (33.6%) experienced in-hospital POAF. NOX2 concentration in serum and pericardial drainage samples was increased after surgery, reached its peak at 12 h, and gradually declined thereafter toward the baseline levels by 24 h. At 12 h, patients with POAF had higher levels of serum NOX2 than those without (3.96 ± 0.35 vs. 3.70 ± 0.75 μg/mL, respectively, p = 0.004). There were no discernible differences in pericardial NOX2 between the 2 groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that serum NOX2 at 12 h post operation was the strongest independent predictor of POAF (odds ratio: 2.179, 95% confidence interval: 1.084–4.377). The area under the ROC curve of the POAF predictive model was 0.732 (95% confidence interval: 0.654–0.801). Conclusion: Serum NOX2 may be useful in the identification of POAF. Larger studies are warranted to substantiate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is designed to investigate the vibrational characteristics of a sandwich cylindrical shell structure with an elastic-porous metal–rubber core in the thermal environment by the power flow method. The finite element models of the homogeneous and sandwich cylindrical shell structures are established for harmonic response analysis completed by the mode superposition method. Further, the structural power flow is calculated and visualized based on the results of the finite element analysis. A comparison is made with the results for a plate available in the literature validating the effectiveness of the power flow visualization method. The effects of some key factors, such as the frequency, the metal–rubber core, the length-to-radius ratio, and the temperature on the power flow of the sandwich cylindrical shell structure, are analyzed using power flow cloud pictures and vector diagrams. The results reveal that the frequency affects the distribution of power flow, and the metal–rubber core can dissipate energy, whereas the length-to-radius ratio and temperature do not have a significant influence on the power flow of the sandwich cylindrical shell structure with a metal–rubber core (SCSMR). This work should be valuable for the noise and vibration control application of the SCS-MR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high prevalence of kidney diseases and the low identification rate of drug nephrotoxicity in preclinical studies reinforce the need for representative yet feasible renal models. Although in vitro cell-based models utilizing renal proximal tubules are widely used for kidney research, many proximal tubule cell (PTC) lines have been indicated to be less sensitive to nephrotoxins, mainly due to altered expression of transporters under a two-dimensional culture (2D) environment. Here, we selected HK-2 cells to establish a simplified three-dimensional (3D) model using gelatin sponges as scaffolds. In addition to cell viability and morphology, we conducted a comprehensive transcriptome comparison and correlation analysis of 2D and 3D cultured HK-2 cells to native human PTCs. Our 3D model displayed stable and long-term growth with a tubule-like morphology and demonstrated a more comparable gene expression profile to native human PTCs compared to the 2D model. Many missing or low expressions of major genes involved in PTC transport and metabolic processes were restored, which is crucial for successful nephrotoxicity prediction. Consequently, we established a cost-effective yet more representative model for in vivo PTC studies and presented a comprehensive transcriptome analysis for the systematic characterization of PTC lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As manual delineation of lesions in medical image is a very tedious and time consuming process, accurate and automatic segmentation of medical images can assist diagnosis and treatment. In this study, we propose a deep convolution neural network for stroke magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) segmentation. The main structure of our network consists of two symmetrical deep sub-networks, in which dense blocks are embedded for extracting effective features from sparse pixels to alleviate the over-fitting problem of deep networks. We use the multi-kernel to divide the network into two sub-networks for acquiring more receptive fields, and the dropout regularization method to achieve an effective feature mapping. For the post-processing of the soft segmentation, we use image median filtering to alleviate noises and preserve the edge details of images. Our network is evaluated on two public benchmark segmentation challenges (SISS: sub-acute ischemic stroke lesion segmentation and SPES: acute stroke outcome/penumbra estimation) with multi-modality MRI sequences. According to the results of the public benchmark reports, among 9 teams participating in both SISS and SPES challenges at the same time, our network achieves the top performance on SISS challenge, and the top 3 performance on the SPES challenge. In addition, our network also exhibits state-of-the-art performance compared with other segmentation methods. Finally, we extensively evaluate our network with an ablation experiment. The experimental results show that both multi-kernel and dropout strategies can improve the segmentation accuracy of our proposed network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a phenomenon that has become popular in mainland China in recent years, "mosheng ren communication," focusing specifically on an application known as Momo, a social discovery and dating platform that is widely used in China. It first outlines the context of post-Mao China, which has produced urbanism, individualization, and a sexual revolution. Thereafter, it turns to the theories of the stranger and cosmopolitanism, which are used to analyze mosheng ren communication. This paper adopts cultural discourse analysis as the analytical procedure to present the findings of online and offline interviews conducted in both Beijing and Shanghai to examine how Momo users in urban metropolises make use of this app in order to analyze the cultural radiants in their communication practices. Based on the data obtained, this paper analyzes mosheng ren communication in the Chinese context and describes how Momo is designed to facilitate it. Momo users can enter into sexual relations based on the use of authentic photos on their profiles; alternatively, they can communicate anonymously. They are also "in-between" traditional Chinese values and new values. Momo users contribute a Chinese form of cosmopolitanism through cultivation of insensitivity to mosheng ren, while their engagement in mosheng ren communication implies that the members of are more open to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly desirable to design and develop low-cost and Earth-abundant non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for the efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under alkaline conditions. Herein, hierarchically porous hortensia-like CoAl hydroxysulfide is converted from CoAl layered double hydroxides via alkaline etching and sulfuration strategies as an efficient electrocatalyst for the OER. In 1 M KOH, this electrode requires a low overpotential of 270 mV to drive the current density of 10 mA cm−2, with a small Tafel slope of 63 mV dec−1. Furthermore, it also possesses remarkably high stability with its activity being maintained at a stable overpotential of 10 mA cm−2 after testing for 26 h. Our work provides a promising cost-effective OER catalyst for large-scale electrochemical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the thrombus characteristics affecting the extent of recanalization to identify patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombus (CVT) more likely to benefit from endovascular therapy. Methods: Severe CVT patients scheduled for endovascular treatment were prospectively recruited into the study. Each thrombosed venous segment was evaluated regarding complete or partial recanalization based on digital subtraction angiography (DSA) after treatment. Magnetic resonance black‐blood thrombus imaging (MRBTI) was performed 1 day before endovascular treatment. The signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) of the clot, age of the clot, and baseline volume of the clot were compared between the complete and partial recanalization groups. A logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the association between these clot characteristics and recanalization status. Results: Twenty‐one CVT patients undergoing endovascular therapy were prospectively included. There were 110 thrombosed segments, 54 of these segments were completely recanalized after endovascular treatment. An acute clot sign (ACS) was found in 39 segments and a subacute clot sign (SCS) was found in 71 segments. There was no significant difference on baseline volume of the clot (1638.8 ± 1432.2 mm3 vs. 1957.5 ± 2056.1 mm3, P > 0.05) between the complete and partial recanalization groups. Logistic regression analysis showed that ACS on MRBTI was associated with complete recanalization (P < 0.001, odds ratio = 3.937, 95% confidence interval, 1.6–9.5). Interpretation: ACS can be used to predict complete recanalization in patients undergoing endovascular treatment. MRBTI provides a robust method to define clot composition and is potentially useful in selecting the most appropriate CVT patients for endovascular treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding crowd mobility behaviors would be a key enabler for crowd management in smart cities, benefiting various sectors such as public safety, tourism and transportation. This article discusses the existing challenges and the recent advances to overcome them and allow sharing information across stakeholders of crowd management through Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The article proposes the usage of the new federated interoperable semantic IoT platform (FIESTA-IoT), which is considered as "a system of systems." The platform can support various IoT applications for crowd management in smart cities. In particular, the article discusses two integrated IoT systems for crowd mobility: the Crowd Mobility Analytics System and the Crowd Counting and Location System (from the SmartSantander testbed). Pilot studies are conducted in the Gold Coast, Australia, and Santander, Spain, to fulfill various requirements such as providing online and offline crowd mobility analyses with various sensors in different regions. The analyses provided by these systems are shared across applications in order to provide insights and support crowd management in smart city environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall-induced slope failures in natural terrains are destructive natural disasters. Transport of fine particles may be induced by the rainwater seepage in a natural terrain slope comprising mixed coarse and fine particles. In this study, the interaction of internal erosion and infiltration in a soil slope is investigated. A coupled model of unsaturated flow and internal erosion is established. The effects of internal erosion on pore water pressure profiles and slope stability are studied. Parametric studies on erosion parameters and hydraulic parameters are conducted. The results of the numerical example show that internal erosion occurs mainly in the zone within the wetting front, which accelerates the advance of the wetting front and decreases the slope stability. The coefficient of erosion flux rate, βer of the erosion law, is the main factor that affects the internal erosion. The effect of erosion on the wetting front movement is more significant with large values of βer. The effects of parameters i* and αer are less significant when compared with βer. When the rainfall flux is equal or greater than the saturated coefficient of permeability, the influence of internal erosion on water infiltration and slope stability is significant. The effect of internal erosion can be neglected as long as the rainfall flux is less than the saturated coefficient of permeability. When the air-entry value of the soil is greater, the influence of internal erosion on infiltration and slope stability becomes less significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to develop pediatric physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for pantoprazole and esomeprazole. Pediatric PBPK models were developed by Simcyp version 15 by incorporating cytochrome P450 (CYP)2C19 maturation and auto‐inhibition. The predicted‐to‐observed pantoprazole clearance (CL) ratio ranged from 0.96–1.35 in children 1–17 years of age and 0.43–0.70 in term infants. The predicted‐to‐observed esomeprazole CL ratio ranged from 1.08–1.50 for children 6–17 years of age, and 0.15–0.33 for infants. The prediction was markedly improved by assuming no auto‐inhibition of esomeprazole in infants in the PBPK model. Our results suggested that the CYP2C19 auto‐inhibition model was appropriate for esomeprazole in adults and older children but could not be directly extended to infants. A better understanding of the complex interplay of enzyme maturation, inhibition, and compensatory mechanisms for CYP2C19 is necessary for PBPK modeling in infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous malignant lymphoproliferative disease. In the era of personalized medicine, genetic information is critical to early diagnosis, aiding risk stratification, directing therapeutic option, and monitoring disease relapse. However, lacking a circulating disease with most DLBCL cases hampers the acquisition of tumor genomic landscapes and disease dynamics. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a novel noninvasive, real-time, and tumor-specific biomarker, reliably reflecting the comprehensive tumor genetic profiles, thus holds great promise in individualized medicine, including precise diagnosis and prognosis, response monitoring, and relapse detection of DLBCL. Here, we reviewed the recent advances of ctDNA in DLBCL and discussed its clinical values at different time points during the disease courses by comparing with the current routine methods in clinical practice. Collectively, we anticipated that ctDNA will ultimately be integrated into the management of DLBCL to facilitate precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have great potential as protective coatings on magnesium alloys due to their nanolamellar structure and exchangeability of interlayer anions. ZnAl layered double hydroxides films intercalated with nitrate anions (ZnAl-NO 3 −-LDHs) was synthesized on the AZ31 magnesium alloy by hydrothermal method. In order to obtain better corrosion resistance, ZnAl-X-LDHs (X = Cl−, VO 4 3−, PO 4 3−, or MoO 4 2−) were prepared by using ZnAl-NO 3 −-LDHs as a precursor, and Cl−, VO 4 3−, PO 4 3−, and MoO 4 2− anions intercalated into the LDHs interlayers to replace NO 3 − through anion-exchange reaction. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy were used to investigate structure, morphology and composition of the ZnAl-LDHs. The corrosion resistance of ZnAl-LDHs intercalated with different anions was compared by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The results show that the corrosion resistance of ZnAl-LDHs films is ranged in order as follows: ZnAl-VO 4 3−-LDHs > ZnAl-MoO 4 2−-LDHs > ZnAl-PO 4 3−LDHs > ZnAl-Cl−LDHs > ZnAl-NO 3 −LDHs. ZnAl-VO 4 3−-LDHs has the largest basal spacing distances d (003) value and strongest ability to release anions and absorb chloride ions, so ZnAl-VO 4 3−-LDHs films has the optimal corrosion resistance and can provide enhanced anticorrosion protection for magnesium alloys substrate. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • ZnAl-LDHs intercalated with Cl−, PO 4 3−, MoO 4 2− and VO 4 3− anions were synthesized successfully by anion exchange reaction. • The anti-corrosion of ZnAl-LDHs with different anions: VO 4 3−>MoO 4 2−>PO 4 3−>Cl->NO 3 −. • The ZnAl-VO 4 3−-LDHs have the best anion-exchange ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porodaedalea is a polypore genus of the Hymenochaetales that encompasses pathogens of conifer trees. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive study of the phylogeny and diversity of Porodaedalea based on collections and isolates from Europe, North America, North Africa, and Asia. Phylogenetic analysis of a two-gene data set, nuc ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacers (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 = ITS) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1), shows that 20 terminal clades that correspond to phylogenetic species well supported within Porodaedalea. Based on morphological evidence, five new species, P. alpicola, P. indica, P. kesiyae, P. microsperma, and P. yunnanensis, are described and illustrated. In addition, four still unnamed lineages are detected in North America and East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Heimuer, Auricularia heimuer , is one of the most famous traditional Chinese foods and medicines, and it is the third most important cultivated mushroom worldwide. The aim of this study is to develop genomic resources for A. heimuer to furnish tools that can be used to study its secondary metabolite production capability, wood degradation ability and biosynthesis of polysaccharides. The genome was obtained from single spore mycelia of the strain Dai 13782 by using combined high-throughput Illumina HiSeq 4000 system with the PacBio RSII long-read sequencing platform. Functional annotation was accomplished by blasting protein sequences with different public available databases to obtain their corresponding annotations. It is 49.76 Mb in size with a N50 scaffold size of 1,350,668 bp and encodes 16,244 putative predicted genes. This is the first genome-scale assembly and annotation for A. heimuer , which is the third sequenced species in Auricularia. Highlights • The genome of Auricularia heimuer was sequenced, assembled and annotated. • The size of the genome is 49.76 Mb, encoding 16,244 putative predicted genes. • The genes that may be involved in biosynthesis of secondary metabolite were searched throughout the genome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]