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High‐efficiency separation of C6 alkanes, particularly the mono‐ and dibranched isomers by using porous solids, is of paramount significance in the petrochemical industry and, remains a daunting challenge. In this work, we report the complete separation of linear/monobranched hexanes from their dibranched isomers through selective size‐exclusion by a microporous MOF, Zn‐tcpt (H3tcpt=2,4,6‐tris(4‐carboxyphenoxy)‐1,3,5‐triazine), with a two‐fold interpenetrated structure of hms nets. Importantly, its adsorption capacity and selectivity are notably higher than those of the previously reported adsorbents that can split mono‐ and dibranched alkane isomers. Dynamic breakthrough measurements verify the excellent separation of C6 alkane isomers by Zn‐tcpt, and the size‐exclusion based separation mechanism has been confirmed by ab initio materials modeling. The high‐efficiency separation of alkane isomers by Zn‐tcpt can be attributed to its optimal pore dimensions as well as high porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐efficiency separation of C6 alkanes, particularly the mono‐ and dibranched isomers by using porous solids, is of paramount significance in the petrochemical industry and, remains a daunting challenge. In this work, we report the complete separation of linear/monobranched hexanes from their dibranched isomers through selective size‐exclusion by a microporous MOF, Zn‐tcpt (H3tcpt=2,4,6‐tris(4‐carboxyphenoxy)‐1,3,5‐triazine), with a two‐fold interpenetrated structure of hms nets. Importantly, its adsorption capacity and selectivity are notably higher than those of the previously reported adsorbents that can split mono‐ and dibranched alkane isomers. Dynamic breakthrough measurements verify the excellent separation of C6 alkane isomers by Zn‐tcpt, and the size‐exclusion based separation mechanism has been confirmed by ab initio materials modeling. The high‐efficiency separation of alkane isomers by Zn‐tcpt can be attributed to its optimal pore dimensions as well as high porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the physicians usually predict functional outcomes of stroke based on clinical experiences and big data, so we wish to develop a model to accurately identify imaging features for predicting functional outcomes of stroke patients. Using magnetic resonance imaging of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients, we developed and trained a VGG-16 convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict functional outcomes after 28-day hospitalization. A total of 44 individuals (24 men and 20 women) were recruited from Taoyuan General Hospital and China Medical University Hsinchu Hospital to enroll in the study. Based on "modified Rankin Scale (mRS)" and "National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)" assessments, men, women, and mixed men and women were trained separately to evaluate the differences of the results, and we have shown that VGG-16 demonstrated high accuracy in predicting the functional outcomes of stroke patients. The new deep-learning approach has provided an automated decision support system for personalized recommendations and treatments, assisting the physicians to predict functional outcomes of stroke patients in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of vas deferens noncontact laparoscopic high ligation of the hernia sac in children with indirect inguinal hernia (IIH). Materials and Methods: The clinical data of 146 male children with IIH treated in the Anhui Children's Hospital from January 2018 to June 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 82 patients in the observation group in which the inner ring opening was sutured and closed using the vas deferens noncontact suture and 64 patients in the control group in which the peritoneum at the inner ring opening was closed using the intradermal suture. The operation time, surgical complications, postoperative complications, and recurrence rate were compared between the two groups (followed up for 2 years). Results: The operation was successful in all the patients in both groups. In the observation group, there was one case of intraoperative spermatic cord vascular injury and one case of infra-abdominal wall vascular injury, and no intraoperative complications occurred in the control group. The operation time was 12.8 ± 1.4 minutes in the control group and 10.4 ± 2.6 minutes in the observation group (P < .01). The two groups of patients were followed up for 2 years, and no complications and no recurrence occurred. Conclusion: The vas deferens noncontact laparoscopic high ligation of the hernia sac to close the inner ring opening has several advantages: The operation is simple; the operation time is shorter than the traditional method, avoiding the possibility of vas deferens injury; and it is a safe, reliable, and effective surgical method. However, due to the small number of clinical cases in this study, its long-term effect requires further observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium sulfur batteries (LSBs) have attracted tremendous attention owing to their high theoretical specific capacity and specific energy. However, their practical applications are hindered by poor cyclic life, mainly caused by polysulfide shuttling. The development of advanced materials to mitigate the polysulfide shuttling effect is urgently demanded. Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) have been exploited as multifunctional materials for the decoration of separators owing to their high surface area, structural diversity, tunable pore size, and easy tailor ability. In this review, we aim to present the state‐of‐the‐art MOF‐based separators for LSBs. Particular attention is paid to the rational design (pore aperture, metal node, functionality, and dimension) of MOFs with enhanced ability for anchoring polysulfides and facilitating Li+ transportation. Finally, the challenges and perspectives are provided regarding to the future design MOF‐based separators for high‐performance LSBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases often adopt the multidrug therapy method because it can increase the efficacy or reduce the toxic side effects of drugs. Using different drugs simultaneously may trigger unexpected pharmacological effects. Therefore, efficient identification of drug interactions is essential for the treatment of complex diseases. Currently proposed calculation methods are often limited by the collection of redundant drug features, a small amount of labeled data and low model generalization capabilities. Meanwhile, there is also a lack of unique methods for multidrug representation learning, which makes it more difficult to take full advantage of the originally scarce data. Results Inspired by graph models and pretraining models, we integrated a large amount of unlabeled drug molecular graph information and target information, then designed a pretraining framework, MGP-DR (Molecular Graph Pretraining for Drug Representation), specifically for drug pair representation learning. The model uses self-supervised learning strategies to mine the contextual information within and between drug molecules to predict drug–drug interactions and drug combinations. The results achieved promising performance across multiple metrics compared with other state-of-the-art methods. Our MGP-DR model can be used to provide a reliable candidate set for the combined use of multiple drugs. Availability and implementation Code of the model, datasets and results can be downloaded from GitHub (https://github.com/LiangYu-Xidian/MGP-DR). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro air vehicles and vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones usually operate at relatively low values of the Reynolds number (Re=104-105). In the present study, three airfoils from different categories (AG14, BE50, and SD7032) are studied at Re=40,000-80,000. How the behavior of the laminar separation bubble changes with the Reynolds number is investigated and is found to give rise to differing aerodynamic forces that can severely degrade the aerodynamic performance of low-Reynolds-number airfoils. To obtain airfoils with satisfactory aerodynamic performance over a wide range of low Reynolds number, a multi-objective optimization approach is proposed and implemented with different design considerations. The airfoils optimized at these Reynolds numbers have a geometric dimple, as confirmed by unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations with a transition model, and by particle image velocimetry wind-tunnel testing. The dimple is effective in restricting the location and size of the laminar separation bubble, leading to robust and significantly improved aerodynamic performance. Also studied is how the number of nonuniform rational B-spline control points affects the optimum airfoil results, and the dimple always appears in the optimum geometry for Re=40,000-80,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the current problems in the safety monitoring of urban manhole covers, this paper proposes a safety monitoring system for manhole covers based on smart light poles. The system uses STM32F103C8T6 as the microcontroller, and processes and controls the movement, loss, tilt, flooding, and positioning data of the manhole cover. Then, the data frame is sent to the LoRa gateway of the nearby smart light pole through the LoRa communication protocol, and the LoRa gateway will transmit the abnormal state of the manhole cover to the large screen display of the smart light pole through the bus. At the same time, a voice broadcast is carried out to remind localized road vehicles and pedestrians. Besides, it is sent to the IoT cloud platform KitLink, and the cloud platform will push the abnormal status data to the subscribed management user, and the user will quickly process it according to the positioning data. Among them, the terminal sensing control device of the manhole cover adopts an integrated package, and at the same time, it is installed at the center point under the manhole cover by using a waterproof material. It can not only carry out reliable and accurate installation without changing the original components but also can effectively monitor the safety. Through the design and implementation test of the system, it can be seen that the system can efficiently and accurately realize all-round and multi-modal safety linkage monitoring of urban manhole covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To explore the role and mechanism of interleukin-8-mediated autophagy regulation of gastric cancer (GC) cells in GC. Methods. After cell culture, the SGC7901 cell line was separated into the control group and IL-8 (20 ng/mL) group, IL-8 (40 ng/mL) group, and IL-8 (60 ng/mL) group, to verify the effects of the PI3K/Akt signal path on the modulation of autophagy in GC cells. Western blot detected autophagy markers, ATG12-ATG5 complexes, autophagy-associated pathways, and apoptosis-associated factors in GC cells. Transwell was utilized to identify invasion capability. Results. Compared with the control group, the expression of LC3II, Atg5, ATG7, Beclin1, Bax, C-cas3, C-cas9, P-PI3K, P-Akt, and ATG12-ATG5 was remarkably elevated in the IL-8 (60 ng/mL) group, IL-8 (20 ng/mL) group, and the IL-8 (40 ng/mL) group. The expression of P62 and Bcl-2 in the IL-8 (60 ng/mL) group was also lower than that of the IL-8 (20 ng/mL) group and IL-8 (40 ng/mL) group, in contrast to the controls. The invasive quantity of GC SGC7901 cells in the IL-8 (60 ng/mL) group was also remarkably higher in contrast to the IL-8 (20 ng/mL) and IL-8 (40 ng/mL) groups. The relative expressions of LC3II, Atg5, ATG7, Beclin1, Bax, C-cas3, C-cas9, P-PI3K, P-Akt, and ATG12-ATG5 complex proteins in LY294002 group were considerably elevated. LC3II, Atg5, ATG7, Beclin1, Bax, C-cas3, C-cas9, P-PI3K, P-Akt, and ATG12-ATG5 were decreased in the IL-8 + LY294002 group. The relative expressions of P62 and Bcl-2 proteins in the IL-8 + LY294002 group were remarkably elevated, and the invasion of SGC7901 cells in the IL-8 group was elevated. In contrast to the IL-8 group, the invasion quantity of gastric cancer SGC7901 cells in the IL-8 + LY294002 group was considerably decreased. Conclusion. IL-8 promotes autophagy and aggression and suppresses apoptosis of GC SGC7901 cells by regulating PI3K/AKT pathway phosphorylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To study the development process of the human retina, we analyzed the development track of main cell types and transitional cell populations, identifying the retinal organoid cell differentiation-related genes (RDRGs). Methods. Single-cell RNA sequencing data (scRNA-Seq) of human retinal organoids were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database in this study. Data were processed with quality analysis and analysis of variance. Principal component analysis and t -distributed stochastic neighbor embedding were used to conduct dimension reduction analysis and type annotation for the screened data. Marker genes and RDRGs were identified by differential analysis. Cell differentiation characteristics were determined by trajectory analysis. Enrichment pathways were analyzed by Gene Ontology(GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG), and functional modules were obtained by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. Results. iPSCs were mainly located at the root of differentiation trajectory, while neurons and astrocytes were distributed in different branches, respectively. Meanwhile, 220 RDRGs were obtained. They were involved in the biological functions related to vision and visual development, as well as significantly enriched in signaling pathways associated with retinal vascular development and retinal neuroregulation. Protein-protein interaction network construction and functional subnetwork analysis were conducted on RDRGs, and two functional submodules were obtained. The enrichment analysis presented that the two submodules played a vital role in retinal development, visual perception, and cell respiration. Conclusions. This study identified RDRGs and revealed the biological functions involved in these genes, which are expected to provide evidence for researching retinal development and diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploitation of active ingredients from plant volatile organic compounds as natural gaseous fungicides shows remarkable potential for controlling fungal decay in postharvest agroproducts. Although 1-octanol is a common component of cereal volatiles, its antifungal potency against spoilage fungi in postharvest grains remains unclear. In this study, we studied the effectiveness of 1-octanol against Aspergillus flavus growth in postharvest grains and its mechanisms of action. 1-Octanol vapor and liquid contact dose-dependently inhibited A. flavus spore germination and mycelial growth at a low concentration. The simulated storage experiment demonstrated that 300 μL/L of 1-octanol vapor completely controlled A. flavus growth in wheat, corn, and paddy grains with 20% moisture content. 1-Octanol treatment irreversibly damaged the conidial and mycelial morphology of A. flavus and caused electrolyte leakage due to reduced plasma membrane integrity. It induced apoptosis along with morphological abnormalities, phosphatidylserine externalization, mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization, intracellular reactive oxygen species accumulation, and DNA fragmentation in A. flavus cells. Metabolomic analysis revealed that 1-octanol treatment disrupted the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, ATP-binding cassette transporters, amino acid metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. This study demonstrated the promising application potential of 1-octanol as a biofumigant for preventing fungal spoilage of postharvest cereal grains. Key points: • (1) 1-Octanol inhibits Aspergillus flavus growth in the vapor phase and liquid contact; • (2) 1-Octanol damages membrane integrity and induces apoptosis of A. flavus; • (3) Metabolomic changes in A. flavus mycelia were analyzed after 1-octanol treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After reviewing Grunsky operator and Faber operator acting on Dirichlet space, we discuss the boundedness of Faber operator on BMOA, a new subject which turns out to be closely related to the BMO theory of the universal Teichmüller space. In particular, we show that the Faber operator acts as a bounded operator on BMOA if the symbol conformal map stays nearly to the base point in the BMO-Teichmüller space. Meanwhile, we obtain several results on quasiconformal mappings, BMO-Teichmüller space and chord-arc curves as well. As by-products, this provides a complex analysis approach to the boundedness of the Cauchy integral acting on BMO functions on a chord-arc curve near to the unit circle in the BMO-Teichmüller space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the influence of bolt pre-tightening force and hole-bolt spacing on the mechanical responses and failure characteristics of rock-like materials with hole-bolt composite structures, a comprehensive set of physical tests was carried out. The findings suggest that enhancing the pre-tightening force improves the peak stress and elastic modulus of the material. However, these properties initially increase and then diminish with widening hole-bolt spacing. An increase in pre-tightening force results in more fractures around the hole, altering the material's failure mode from tensile-shear to purely tensile. Additionally, as the hole-bolt spacing expands, the tensile crack positioned above the hole progressively shifts away from the bolt, leading to a transition in failure mode from tensile to tensile-shear. Field tests confirm that the bolt force proximate to the pressure relief hole remains significantly greater than that at a distance, establishing hole-bolt spacing as a critical factor in anchorage stability. • The mechanical response and failure behavior of hole-anchor composite rock-like materials was investigated. • The physical test considers the pre-tightening force and hole-bolt spacing on the influence of the rock-like material. • The failure process of the rock-like material are successfully captured by the Digital Speckle Correlation Method (DSCM). • The bolt force is influenced by the distance from the pressure relief in the physical test and verified through the field test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder is the most common malignancy in dialysis patients in Taiwan compared with renal cell carcinoma in Western countries. Radical cystectomy is the standard of care for localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), as well as for selected patients with high-risk non-MIBC. Despite improvements in anesthetic competency, surgical techniques, and postoperative care, dialysis patients undergoing radical cystectomy are at a higher risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality than non-dialysis patients. Due to the relative rarity of the condition, published data on predictors of outcome in ESRD patients undergoing radical cystectomy are scant. Our study revealed that accurate reporting of complications is necessary for preoperative counseling, identifying modifiable risk factors, and planning risk mitigation strategies. High comorbidity and low-volume surgeons were interrelated as notable risk factors for major complications. In addition to tumor-related factors, male sex, older age, and major complications significantly influence survival. Background: We investigated the use of a standardized reporting system to study perioperative complications and oncologic outcomes after radical cystectomy in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with bladder cancer. Methods: We reviewed retrospective outcomes in 141 ESRD patients with bladder cancer who underwent radical cystectomy between 2004 and 2015. Complications were graded using the Clavien–Dindo classification system with 0–2 classified as "No Major Complications" and Clavien 3–5 as "Major Complications". Low-volume surgeons were classified as those performing fewer than nine cases during the study. Fisher's exact test along with the chi-squared test, two-tailed t tests, logistic regression, and the Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate all clinically meaningful covariates. Results: Ninety-nine (99, 70.2%) patients had no major complications, and forty-two (29.8%) patients had major complications. Patients in the major complications group were older, had a higher Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and had a longer hospitalization duration than those in the no major complications group (all, p < 0.05). Major complications were also more common when the procedure was performed by low-volume surgeons (p = 0.003). In multivariate logistic regression models, CCI ≥ 5 (p = 0.006) and low-volume surgeon (p = 0.004) were independent predictors of major complications. According to multivariate analysis with the Cox hazards regression, male sex, age > 70 years, CCI ≥ 5, bladder cancer stage ≥ 3, lymphovascular invasion, and experiencing major complications were significant poor prognostic factors for overall survival (all, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Accurate reporting of complications is necessary for preoperative counseling, identifying modifiable risk factors, and planning risk mitigation strategies. High comorbidity and low-volume surgeons were interrelated as notable risk factors for major complications. In addition to tumor-related factors, male sex, older age, and major complications significantly influence overall survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer-related anorexia/cachexia is known to be associated with worsened quality of life and survival; however, limited treatment options exist. Although megestrol acetate (MA) is often used off-label to stimulate appetite and improve anorexia/cachexia in patients with advanced cancers, the benefits are controversial. The present meta-analysis aimed to better elucidate the clinical benefits of MA in patients with cancer-related anorexia/cachexia. A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, OVID Medline, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Google Scholar databases found 23 clinical trials examining the use of MA in cancer-related anorexia. The available randomized, controlled trials were appraised using Version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2) and they had moderate-to-high risk of bias. A total of eight studies provided sufficient data on weight change for meta-analysis. The studies were divided into high-dose treatment (>320 mg/day) and low-dose treatment (≤320 mg/day). The overall pooled mean change in weight among cancer patients treated with MA, regardless of dosage was 0.75 kg (95% CI = −1.64 to 3.15, τ2 = 9.35, I2 = 96%). Patients who received high-dose MA tended to have weight loss rather than weight gain. There were insufficient studies to perform a meta-analysis for the change in tricep skinfold, midarm circumference, or quality of life measures. MA was generally well-tolerated, except for a clear thromboembolic risk, especially with higher doses. On balance, MA did not appear to be effective in providing the symptomatic improvement of anorexia/cachexia in patients with advanced cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical reinforcement learning (RL) requires a huge amount of data before achieving an acceptable result, and its performance can be rather poor during initial interacting process. Sample inefficiency and cold-start phenomenon of RL limits its feasibility in a range of real-world applications such as traffic signal control (TSC). On the other hand, a large amount of data on TSC can be accumulated by various model-based controllers (MBCs) rooted in traffic engineering. In this context, we propose a new RL approach which can avoid the appearance of cold starts by taking advantage of MBC experiences. First, three frameworks of joint utilization of RL and MBC are summarized for TSC, and staged framework is considered to have the edge over the other two. Then, a staged noisy-net prioritized dueling double deep Q-network (NPDD-DQN) is described in detail for TSC, where MBC experiences are used in both pre-training and online training processes. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that staged NPDD-DQN can achieve a boost in initial performance as compared to pure NPDD-DQN that does not utilize any control experiences, and learn to improve final performance beyond the underlying MBC. The effectiveness of the proposed method opens up the possibility of real implementation of RL in TSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of health-related texts can be used to detect adverse drug reactions (ADR). The greatest challenge for ADR detection lies in imbalanced data distributions where words related to ADR symptoms are often minority classes. As a result, trained models tend to converge to a point that strongly biases towards the majority class and then ignores the minority class. Since the most used cross-entropy criteria is an approximation to accuracy, the model focuses more readily on the majority class to achieve high accuracy. To address this issue, existing methods apply either oversampling or down-sampling strategies to balance the data distribution and exploit the most difficult samples of the minority class. However, increasing or reducing the number of individual tokens alone in sequence labeling tasks will result in the loss of the syntactic relations of the sentence. This paper proposes a weighted variant of conditional random field (CRF) for data-imbalanced sequence labeling tasks. Such a weighting strategy can alleviate data distribution imbalances between majority and minority classes. Instead of using softmax in the output layer, the CRF can capture the relationship of labels between tokens. The locally interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) algorithm was applied to investigate performance differences between models with and without the weighted loss function. Experimental results on two different ADR tasks show that the proposed model outperforms previously proposed sequence labeling methods. Author summary: Post-marketing drug safety surveillance offers the chance to detect serious ADRs resulting in hospitalization and ADRs occurring in patients, e.g., patients with high comorbidity and receiving drugs that are administered only in hospitals. This monitoring has traditionally been accomplished by surveying users. Recently, the automatically recording ADR of users in social media can greatly help biopharmaceutical enterprises to improve their products. Previous methods of name entity recognition in natural language processing were usually performed on the corpora with a balanced data distribution. Conversely, the datasets for ADR detection are extremely imbalanced. As a result, the detector tends to ignore the ADR symptoms and the related indications, which are more important. In this study, we propose a weighted CRF model based on BERT for the detection task of ADR. A weighted variant of the Viterbi Algorithm is implemented to assign more weight to the minority class, forcing the model to pay more attention to minority classes to ensure effective detection. The results suggested that the proposed method provides a significant performance boost without changing the model architecture in imbalanced-data tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the malignancies with an extremely inferior prognosis in the abdominal cavity, making it essential to develop more effective biomarkers for HCC. Although GNG5 has been linked to increased patient survival in a variety of human malignancies, no evidence has been found for its involvement in the development of HCC yet. Our study first analyzed the expression and prognosis of GNG5 in HCC using The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA database) with the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO database) and found that GNG5 has a potential oncogenic role. Based on survival analysis, the clinical importance and prognostic value of the GNG5 gene were studied. Relying on tumor Immune Estimation Resource database (TIMER database), we analyzed the correlation between the GNG5 gene and HCC Immune infiltration cells. GNG5 expression levels were significantly higher in HCC tissues compared to normal liver tissues. HCC patients with high GNG5 expression had significantly reduced overall survival time and affected multiple immune cell infiltrates. Additionally, KEGG functional enrichment analysis indicated the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway as the most promising carcinogenic pathway associated with GNG5. This is the first comprehensive revelation of GNG5 as a possible new biological marker associated with immune infiltration in HCC. Additionally, it holds promise as an emerging target for HCC immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compounding of polyoxometalates (POMs) with structurally well-defined and porous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) has become a hot research topic. Here, a core–shell type hybrid, {Ag5BW12O40}@[Ag3(μ-Hbtc)(μ-H2btc)]n (called {Ag5BW12O40}@Ag-BTC-2, where BTC = 1,3,5-benzyl carboxylic acid), was successfully prepared via a simple grinding method. IR, XRD, SEM, TEM, and XPS analysis was used to confirm the structure. The specific capacitance is 179.1 F g−1 when the current density is 1 A g−1, using nickel foam as the collector, and the capacitance retention is 97.4% after 5000 cycles. The resulting aqueous-based symmetric supercapacitor has a power density of 496 W kg−1 and an energy density of 12.4 W h kg−1. In addition, the degradation rates using {Ag5BW12O40}@Ag-BTC-2 toward methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB), and methyl orange (MO) exceeded 90% in 140 min and remained essentially unchanged over five replicate experiments, showing high photocatalytic activity. Meanwhile, when {Ag5BW12O40}@Ag-BTC-2 acts as a H2O2 biosensor, it has a low detection limit (0.19 μM), a wide linear range (0.4 μM–0.27 mM) and high anti-interference properties. This shows that the synthesis of POMOFs via a grinding method is an effective strategy to improve the performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to grasp the distribution characteristics of the pressure field on the inner wall of the volute casing of an atypical open impeller centrifugal pump, the instantaneous pressure at different operating conditions was experimentally measured under four operating rotational speeds to obtain the distribution characteristics of the average static pressure field in the volute casing of this pump model. The pressure pulsation amplitude and pressure pulsation intensity were also analyzed at different rotational speed cases, and the standard deviation analysis was performed. The results showed that the instantaneous pressure pulsation on the inner wall of the volute casing strongly fluctuates during the pump operating, and the closer to the volute casing outlet, the more intense the pressure pulsation was. After increasing the pump shaft speed, the fluctuation amplitude gradually decreased. The pressure pulsation on the wall of tip clearance is more intense than that on the inner wall of the volute shell. The intensity of the pressure pulsation on the wall of tip clearance decreases with the increase of the rotational speed, and the higher the speed, the less intense the pressure pulsation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thin and oriented zeolite films are important for advanced separations, catalysis, and sensing. Strategies for tailoring zeolites for applications include controlling their crystal size, shape, and orientation. Here, three siliceous DDR zeolite ultrathin films with different orientations achieved by homoepitaxial growth from 60 nm‐sized seed particles are reported. The 0.5 µm thick membrane shows a separation selectivity of 400 for CO2–CH4 mixtures and CO2 permeance of 25 × 10‐7 mol m‐2 s‐1 Pa‐1 at 20 °C and 1 bar, leading to a record‐high performance among all reported DDR membranes. Furthermore, the seed nanoparticles are grown into mono‐dispersed DDR sub‐micron crystals with trigonal and tabular habits. These crystals are assembled in monolayers for the growth of ultrathin and uniformly (h0h)‐oriented and c‐oriented films with maximum surface pore diameter of 0.365 and 0.263 nm, respectively, by using the 1‐adamantanamine template in fluoride medium. The novel strategy not only provides high‐performance membrane candidates for industrial CO2 separation, but also inspires interfacial engineering, pore size, and orientation controlling for other microporous crystals, and their membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning models have achieved high performance across different domains, such as medical decision-making, autonomous vehicles, decision support systems, among many others. However, despite this success, the inner mechanisms of these models are opaque because their internal representations are too complex for a human to understand. This opacity makes it hard to understand the how or the why of the predictions of deep learning models. There has been a growing interest in model-agnostic methods that make deep learning models more transparent and explainable to humans. Some researchers recently argued that for a machine to achieve human-level explainability, this machine needs to provide human causally understandable explanations, also known as causability. A specific class of algorithms that have the potential to provide causability are counterfactuals. This paper presents an in-depth systematic review of the diverse existing literature on counterfactuals and causability for explainable artificial intelligence (AI). We performed a Latent Dirichlet topic modelling analysis (LDA) under a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to find the most relevant literature articles. This analysis yielded a novel taxonomy that considers the grounding theories of the surveyed algorithms, together with their underlying properties and applications to real-world data. Our research suggests that current model-agnostic counterfactual algorithms for explainable AI are not grounded on a causal theoretical formalism and, consequently, cannot promote causability to a human decision-maker. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the explanations derived from popular algorithms in the literature provide spurious correlations rather than cause/effects relationships, leading to sub-optimal, erroneous, or even biased explanations. Thus, this paper also advances the literature with new directions and challenges on promoting causability in model-agnostic approaches for explainable AI. • A survey on model-agnostic counterfactual approaches for XAI. • A novel taxonomy for model-agnostic counterfactual approaches for XAI. • A set of properties for causability systems for XAI. • Opportunities and challenges for causability systems based on modelagnostic counterfactual approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an in-depth understanding of noncoding ribonucleic acid (RNA), many studies have shown that microRNA (miRNA) plays an important role in human diseases. Because traditional biological experiments are time-consuming and laborious, new calculation methods have recently been developed to predict associations between miRNA and diseases. In this review, we collected various miRNA–disease association prediction models proposed in recent years and used two common data sets to evaluate the performance of the prediction models. First, we systematically summarized the commonly used databases and similarity data for predicting miRNA–disease associations, and then divided the various calculation models into four categories for summary and detailed introduction. In this study, two independent datasets (D 5430 and D 6088) were compiled to systematically evaluate 11 publicly available prediction tools for miRNA–disease associations. The experimental results indicate that the methods based on information dissemination and the method based on scoring function require shorter running time. The method based on matrix transformation often requires a longer running time, but the overall prediction result is better than the previous two methods. We hope that the summary of work related to miRNA and disease will provide comprehensive knowledge for predicting the relationship between miRNA and disease and contribute to advanced computation tools in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the robust control problem of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to magnitude and rate saturation (MRS) is investigated via active disturbance rejection control. To this purpose, we propose a novel robust controller that involves an improved extended state observer (IESO), a composite loop, and two anti-windup loops. The IESO is designed to estimate the state and the total disturbance, which includes the uncertain dynamics and external disturbance. Compared with the traditional ESO, IESO absorbs an anti-windup loop to ensure accurate estimation under MRS. The convergence analysis of IESO is further carried out to theoretically verify the accurate estimation of IESO. The composite loop is generalized to cancel the total disturbance based on the output of IESO. Moreover, a rate anti-windup loop is designed to attenuate the effect of rate saturation on the estimation/cancellation of total disturbance. An algorithm for anti-windup gains computation is correspondingly established, in order to minimize the effect of external disturbance in terms of $L_{2}$ gain while guaranteeing the local asymptotic stability. Finally, the proposed method is applied to aeroengine, which involves large uncertainty and suffers from disturbance and MRS. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological soil crust is an important feature of desert ecosystem composition and surface landscape. Determining the role of biological soil crust in the energy flow and logistics cycle in the desert ecosystem is one of the frontier areas of ecological restoration in arid and semi-arid areas. Obtaining biological soil crust information from drone images is an efficient, fast, and low-cost method. However, due to the scattered and uneven growth of biological soil crusts and the complexity of the field environment, it is difficult to accurately extract biological soil crusts. In view of this, this study used the improved UNet++ model to extract biological soil crusts based on UAV image data. Firstly, the optimal Epoch, Backbone, and Loss function are selected and trained based on the network structure of UNet++ model. Then, the improved UNet++ model proposed in this paper, which takes ResNeXt as the Backbone and Soft Cross-Entropy Loss+Dice Loss as the Loss Function, is obtained. Finally, the test results of UNet++, U-Net, LinkNet, FPN, and PSPNet are compared with the improved UNet++ model in this paper. The results showed that the improved UNet++ model had the best segmentation effect, and the precision, recall, F1-Score, and IoU were 0.9788, 0.9501, 0.9495, and 0.9309, respectively. UAV image biological soil crust recognition based on the improved UNet++ model in this paper can obtain high-precision extraction results, provide good data support for studying the development of biological soil crusts in arid areas, and provide a new method for precise segmentation of different features in arid areas. In particular, it is of great significance to evaluate the governance effect of ecological restoration projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed the increasing collaboration between science and visual art/design projects. Kuang-Yi Ku, a Taiwanese artist based in the Netherlands whose artistic practice that converges art, design, and biotechnology is a case in point. Ku's works often deal with the human body, sexuality, interspecies interactions, and medical technology that aim to investigate the relationships among technology, individuals, and the environment. Based on Ku's practices in and observations on the expanded field of "Art and Science Collaboration", he converses with Liang-Kai Yu, PhD researcher in radical museology and queer studies. Firstly, they begin with Ku's speculative approach in bio-art/design that mobilizes not only visual languages in arts but also biomedical technology. Of interest here is whether the future orientation of a speculative approach in art/design could not only stimulate imaginations but also trouble the linear notion towards the future. Secondly, Ku and Yu reflect on the increasing demand for social and ecological goals requested by science-based artist residencies and open calls in Europe. This institutional phenomenon concerns the functionality of art and remains a debated subject. Thirdly, they discuss the shared concerns between bio-art/design and STS studies and consider how both fields could benefit from each other. Finally, the conversation moves back to Ku's bio-artistic projects with a focus on reproductive technology as well as the cross-species future. They address Ku's recent projects such as "Grandma Mom" (2021) that questions the patriarchal regime within the medical field and the ongoing "Queer Termite Project" that speculates an inter-species architecture in which humans and termites reciprocate one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transient startup and shutdown of centrifugal pumps is inevitable and its transient performance has thus attracted increasing attention in recent years. This study aims to reveal the transient characteristics of centrifugal pumps during the start-stop process by using the dimensionless analysis method and quasi-steady-state method. The research objects are three typical centrifugal pumps with an impeller structure. The startup process includes quick and slow startup, and the shutdown process includes low-speed and high-speed idle rotation. Results show that the similarity law of centrifugal pumps can be applied to transient hydraulic performance prediction under full flow conditions during slow startup and under small flow conditions during quick startup and idle shutdown. Quick or slow startup does not affect the evolution of the dimensionless power coefficients. The research result may be useful for the design of the new fluidmachinery equipment by utilizing transient hydraulic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since miRNAs can participate in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression, they may provide ideas for the development of new drugs or become new biomarkers for drug targets or disease diagnosis. In this work, we propose an miRNA–disease association prediction method based on meta-paths (MDPBMP). First, an miRNA–disease–gene heterogeneous information network was constructed, and seven symmetrical meta-paths were defined according to different semantics. After constructing the initial feature vector for the node, the vector information carried by all nodes on the meta-path instance is extracted and aggregated to update the feature vector of the starting node. Then, the vector information obtained by the nodes on different meta-paths is aggregated. Finally, miRNA and disease embedding feature vectors are used to calculate their associated scores. Compared with the other methods, MDPBMP obtained the highest AUC value of 0.9214. Among the top 50 predicted miRNAs for lung neoplasms, esophageal neoplasms, colon neoplasms and breast neoplasms, 49, 48, 49 and 50 have been verified. Furthermore, for breast neoplasms, we deleted all the known associations between breast neoplasms and miRNAs from the training set. These results also show that for new diseases without known related miRNA information, our model can predict their potential miRNAs. Code and data are available at https://github.com/LiangYu-Xidian/MDPBMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Therioaphis trifolii (Monell) is a well‐known pest in alfalfa cultivation in China. Individuals of T. trifolii were allowed to feed on 10 alfalfa cultivars and their growth, reproduction, and population life table parameters were estimated. Nymphs that fed on Hunter River had the longest development time, whereas nymphs that fed on Defu had the shortest development time. Adults that fed on Debao, Zhongmu No. 2, and Defu had the shortest development time, whereas adults that fed on Golden Empress and Hunter River had the longest development times. Individuals that fed on Zhungeer produced the greatest number of offspring (13.950), and those that fed on Hunter River produced the fewest offspring (6.000). The survival rate of T. trifolii was the highest on Algonquin and lowest on Hunter River, whereas the survival time was the longest on Golden Empress and shortest on Debao. The population that fed on Algonquin had the highest intrinsic growth rate (0.560) and shortest population doubling time (1.237 days), whereas those that fed on Hunter River had the lowest intrinsic growth rate (0.217) and longest population doubling time (3.194 days). The life table parameters of the experimental T. trifolii population were used to quantify the resistance strengths of the cultivars. Results indicate that the Hunter River cultivar may effectively resist damage from T. trifolii. This study provides a theoretical basis for breeding aphid‐resistant alfalfa cultivars, enabling further research into the prevention and control of aphid infestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exchanged folded hyerpcube is a brand-new interconnection network proposed by Qi et al. This paper considers the case such that n = 1 + s + t, and the exchanged folded hypercube is denoted by EFH(s, t). The bus topology is one of the most well-known topologies in WDM optical networks. A bus-topology WDM optical network with N terminals can be described by a linear array graph Ln, where N = 2n. In this article, the routing and wavelength allotment problem for embedding EFH(s, t) communication pattern on Ln is studied. To address this problem, the author proposed an embedding scheme as well as a wavelength allotment algorithm. Moreover, the number of allotted wavelengths is shown to be 2s+t + 2s+t− 2 + ⌊2t/3⌋. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Shorter-chain PFAAs show pH- and ionic strength-dependent sorption on AC. • DOM competes with longer-chain PFAAs but increases shorter-chain one sorption. • AC displays long-term and superior performance in immobilizing sediment PFAAs. • AC significantly reduced 45.5%–99.2% PFAA release under various disturbances. • After intense disturbance stopped, water PFAAs fell to initial levels or lower. The detection of elevated levels of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in sediments has become a significant concern, urgently requiring management and remediation efforts. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of industrially cost-effective activated carbon (AC) in remediating PFAA-contaminated sediments at different disturbance intensities and explored the sorption capacity of AC under broad environmentally relevant conditions and in response to environmental variations. AC exhibited high sorption effectiveness for PFAAs (excluding perfluorobutanoic acid < 40 %) across different pH, ionic strengths (IS), and dissolved organic matter (DOM). However, the increase in pH or reduction in IS might reactivate partially immobilized PFAAs. DOM outcompeted longer-chain PFAAs for sorption sites, resulting in their reactivation on AC, while it showed a stronger sorption than a competitive effect on shorter-chain PFAAs. The 192-day remediation experiment showed that AC significantly deactivated mobile PFAAs and decreased PFAA release by 45.5 %–99.2 % and 61.0 %–98.8 % under weak and intense disturbances, respectively, when compared with untreated sediment. Although intense disturbance led to an increase in PFAA release, the PFAA levels in the water column of the AC group after intense disturbance were comparable or even lower than those before intense disturbance, primarily owing to the secondary sorption of suspended AC. These findings are crucial for the appropriate and safe use of AC for PFAA sequestration, the management of PFAA-contaminated sediments, and the development of effective sediment remediation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic source reconstruction techniques are an essential technical basis for noise source identification and fault diagnosis. How to computationally efficiently obtain the accurate estimation of acoustic source location and strength remains a fundamental challenge for acoustic source reconstruction techniques. To accommodate the needs of processing complex-valued signals, complex approximate message passing algorithm (CAMP) is considered. Benefiting from the Onsager correction term, the reconstruction performance and convergence speed of CAMP are enhanced. The computational complexity of CAMP is significantly reduced by avoiding matrix inversion in each iteration. Therefore, a sparse Equivalent Source Method (ESM) based on CAMP is proposed in this paper and named CAMP-ESM for achieving acoustic source reconstruction with increased accuracy and computational efficiency. Simulation results show in the mid-high frequency range, CAMP-ESM achieves the best reconstruction results in the shortest time compared to other ℓ 1 -based ESM. In addition, the proposed method achieves a good balance between reconstruction accuracy and computational efficiency compared to other state-of-the-art ESM methods. Two experiments verified that CAMP-ESM can accurately localize the acoustic source and quantify the acoustic power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sumalarins D–G (1 – 4), four previously undescribed curvularin derivatives, along with two known related metabolites, curvularin (5) and dehydrocurvularin (6), were isolated and identified from the mangrove-derived fungus Penicillium sumatrense MA-325. Among them, sumalarin D (1) represents a unique example of curvularin derivative featuring a 5-methylfuran-2-yl-methyl group. Their structures were elucidated based on analysis of NMR and MS data as well as comparison of ECD spectra and quantum chemical calculations of NMR, and compound 1 was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Compounds 1 , 2 , 5 , and 6 are active against aquatic pathogenic bacteria Vibrio alginolyticus and V. harveyi with MIC values ranging from 4 to 64 μ g/mL, while compound 6 is cytotoxic against tumor cell lines 5673, HCT 116, 786-O, and Hela with IC 50 values of 3.5, 10.6, 10.9, and 14.9 μ M, respectively. Sumalarin D (1), the first curvularin featuring a unique 5-methylfuran-2-yl-methyl group at C-4, along with three curvularin congeners, were identified from the mangrove-derived Penicillium sumatrense MA-325. [Display omitted] • Four previously undescribed curvularins were isolated from mangrove-derived Penicillium sumatrense. • Sumalarin D (1) is the first curvularin featuring a unique 5-methylfuran-2-yl-methyl group at C-4. • ECD and DP4+ calculation and X-ray diffraction were used for structure determination. • Dehydrocurvularin (6) exhibited potent cytotoxic activities against a panel of tumor cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a well-known autoimmune disorder associated with joint pain, joint swelling, cartilage and bone degradation as well as deformity. The chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 13 (CXCL13) plays a crucial role in multiple cellular pathogenesis processes, including RA. TNF-α is a vital proinflammatory factor in the progression of RA. However, the role of CXCL13 in TNF-α production in RA has not been fully explored. Our analysis of both database and clinical samples revealed higher levels of CXCL13 and TNF-α in RA samples compared to healthy controls. CXCL13 concentration-dependently induces TNF-α synthesis in RA synovial fibroblasts. CXCL13 enhances TNF-α expression by interacting with the CXCR5 receptor, activating the ERK/p38 pathways, and inhibiting miR-330-3p generation. Importantly, treatment with CXCL13 shRNA counteracted the upregulation of TNF-α production induced by collagen-induced arthritis. Our findings support the notion that CXCL13 is a promising target in the treatment of RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water stable Zr-BTDB ultrathin nanosheets incorporated with benzothiadiazole moieties enable efficient aerobic oxidation of a wide range of sulfides to sulfoxides under visible light irradiation in water at room temperature. [Display omitted] • Ultrathin, water stable and photoactive Zr-MOF nanosheets were synthesized. • Zr-MOF nanosheets exhibit superior photocatalytic activity for aerobic oxidation of sulfides. • Singlet oxygen and superoxide radical are reactive oxygen species for the oxidation of sulfides. Ultrathin metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) nanosheets incorporating photochromic units are highly efficient heterogeneous photocatalysts, thanks to their highly exposed catalytic sites, short diffusion pathways, and efficient separation of photo-generated carriers. Herein, we report on the solvothermal synthesis of photoactive benzothiadiazole (BTz) functionalized Zr-MOF nanosheets (Zr-BTDB-NS), which are constructed from Zr 12 nodes linked by nine BTDB2− (BTDB = 4,4′-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole-4,7-diyl)dibenzoate) ligands. The Zr-BTDB-NS exhibited superior photocatalytic activity towards the aerobic oxidation of a broad range of sulfides to their corresponding sulfoxides under visible light irradiation in water at room temperature, even in a gram-scale. The Zr-BTDB-NS can be efficiently recycled and reused for seven cycles without a decrease in conversion or selectivity. Detailed mechanism studies revealed that the Zr-BTDB-NS generates singlet oxygen (1O 2) and superoxide radical (O 2 –) reactive oxygen species under visible light irradiation, which are responsible for the oxidation of sulfides into their corresponding sulfoxides. The simplicity of the synthetic approach as well as the diversity of photoactive organic units hold great promise for designing ultrathin, water-stable, and photoactive Zr-MOF nanosheets. This work will also be of added value for selective photooxidation of sulfides under green and mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litsea cubeba essential oil (LCEO) is a broad-spectrum bacteriostatic substance produced from the fruit of the Litsea tree that has been used for the treatment of various diseases in China for thousands of years. Here, the antifungal activities of LCEO against 10 different fungi (Naganishia diffluens, Fusarium sacchari, Cladosporium tenuissimum, Fusarium proliferatum, Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium subglutinans, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium oxalicum, Penicillium chrysogenum , and Aspergillus niger) that cause rot to waxberries were assessed. The chemical components of LCEO and its modes of action against P. oxalicum were investigated. Citral (32.62 %) was characterized as the main component of LCEO by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. LCEO exhibited excellent antifungal activities against all 10 fungi. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration of LCEO against P. oxalicum were 2.24 and 4.48 g/L, respectively. Furthermore, LCEO (MIC) compromised membrane permeability and integrity, caused leakage of the cell components, and increased production of malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy indicated that the morphology and ultrastructure of the LCEO-treated hyphal cell membrane and organelles were severely damaged. Meanwhile, LCEO increased the shelf life of waxberries from 1–2 to 5–6 d. LCEO is a potential ecologically friendly alternative to commercial fungicides to inhibit postharvest fungal contamination of waxberries during shipment and storage. [Display omitted] • Components of Litsea cubeba essential oil (LCEO) were identified by GC–MS. • LCEO showed outstanding inhibitory effects against ten fungal pathogen of waxberry. • LCEO damaged the plasma and mitcchondrial membrane of P. oxalicum. • LCEO resulted in the leakage of nucleic acids and soluble sugar from the mycelia. • LCEO is an alternative of synthetic preservatives to reduce decay in waxberry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small nucleolar RNA H/ACA Box 51 (SNORA51) is involved in progression of multiple cancers. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of SNORA51 in HCC and its clinical significance. A total of 136 patients with HCC who underwent surgery from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 were included. The expression of SNORA51 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was compared using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and bioinformatics methods. Methylation of the SNORA51 promoter in cancer and adjacent tissues was compared using bioinformatics. The relationship between SNORA51 expression levels and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with HCC, in addition to prognosis, was analyzed. The expression of SNORA51 in HCC was significantly higher compared with that in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). starBase demonstrated that higher expression levels of SNORA51 were associated with a significantly worse prognosis of patients with HCC compared with those who had lower expression levels of SNORA51 (P<0.05). Bioinformatics analysis using The University of Alabama at Birmingham Cancer Data Analysis Portal demonstrated that methylation of the SNORA51 promoter region in HCC was significantly decreased compared with adjacent tissues (P<0.05). A high expression of SNORA51 was significantly associated with portal vein tumor thrombus, vascular invasion and TNM stage (P<0.05). The median survival time of patients with high SNORA51 expression was significantly lower compared with those who had low SNORA51 expression (P<0.05). Both uni- and multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that SNORA51 expression was an independent risk factor that significantly worsened the prognosis of patients with HCC (P<0.05). The overexpression of SNORA51 in patients with HCC was significantly associated with a poor prognosis and may be related to the reduced methylation of the SNORA51 promoter region. Therefore, SNORA51 may be a promising biomarker for prediction of the prognosis of patients with HCC and may be a therapeutic target for the treatment of HCC in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tectonic evolution of the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean, and in particular the time of its closure, is debated. Here we present new constraints on the evolution of this region from an integrated paleomagnetic and geochronologic study of the Late Triassic Batang Group volcanic rocks in Qamdo, Eastern Qiangtang Terrane (EQT). Two zircon U‐Pb ages indicate that the volcanic rocks erupted at ∼227–222 Ma. New paleomagnetic results yield a robust Late Triassic paleopole of 57.6°N, 176.4°E (A95 = 7.8°), corresponding to a paleolatitude of 32.5 ± 7.8°N for the study area. Integrated with other lines of paleomagnetic and geological evidence, we show that the northward drift of the EQT placed it at the same paleolatitude as the Tarim Block by ∼227–222 Ma, which suggests that the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean in the Qamdo region closed before that time, and likely around ∼230 Ma. Plain Language Summary: The closure of the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean, which was one of the most important ancient oceans of Asia, closed when the Qiangtang Terrane (QT) collided with the terranes now located to the north of it. However, the evolution of this ocean, and especially the timing of its closure, are still debated. The drift history of the QT is a key to understanding the evolution of the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean. We present here new constraints on the evolution of this region from an integrated paleomagnetic and zircon U‐Pb geochronologic study of Late Triassic volcanic rocks in Qamdo, Eastern QT. Two zircon U‐Pb geochronologic results indicate that the volcanic rocks erupted at ∼227–222 Ma. New paleomagnetic results yield a robust Late Triassic paleopole of 57.6°N and 176.4°E, and indicate that the study area was then located at a paleolatitude of 32.5 ± 7.8°N. In integrating these data with other lines of evidence, we show that a northward drift of the EQT since the early Permian brought it to the same paleolatitude as the Tarim Block by ∼227–222 Ma. This implies that the closure of the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean in the Qamdo region occurred before 227–222 Ma, and likely around ∼230 Ma. Key Points: Volcanic rocks of the Late Triassic Batang Group are dated by U‐Pb on zircon to ∼227–222 MaPaleomagnetic data from these rocks yield a robust Late Triassic paleopole of 57.6°N, 176.4°E(A95 = 7.8°)Closure of the Paleo‐Jinshajiang Ocean occurred before 227–222 Ma, and likely around ∼230 Ma [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of copper, DsbS acts as a phosphatase toward DsbR, blocking the transcription of Dsb genes. In the presence of copper, the metal ion directly binds to the sensor domain of DsbS, and the Cys82 residue plays a critical role in this process. The copper-binding behavior appears to inhibit the phosphatase activity of DsbS, leading to the activation of DsbR and thus for copper resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an important human pathogen. [Display omitted] In nature, bacteria must sense copper and tightly regulate gene expression to evade copper toxicity. Here, we identify a new copper-responsive two-component system named DsbRS in the important human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; in this system, DsbS is a sensor histidine kinase, and DsbR, its cognate response regulator, directly induces the transcription of genes involved in protein disulfide bond formation (Dsb) (i.e., the dsbDEG operon and dsbB). In the absence of copper, DsbS acts as a phosphatase toward DsbR, thus blocking the transcription of Dsb genes. In the presence of copper, the metal ion directly binds to the sensor domain of DsbS, and the Cys82 residue plays a critical role in this process. The copper-binding behavior appears to inhibit the phosphatase activity of DsbS, leading to the activation of DsbR. The copper resistance of the dsbRS knock-out mutant is restored by the ectopic expression of the dsbDEG operon, which is a DsbRS major target. Strikingly, cognates of the dsbRS - dsbDEG pair are widely distributed across eubacteria. In addition, a DsbR-binding site, which contains the consensus sequence 5′-TTA-N 8 -TTAA-3′, is detected in the promoter region of dsbDEG homologs in these species. These findings suggest that the regulation of Dsb genes by DsbRS represents a novel mechanism by which bacterial cells cope with copper stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original definition of multiferroics is that one owns two or three "ferro" properties, such as ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, and ferromagnetism. Furthermore, novel effects would be generated by the cross-coupling effect among various orders of multiferroic materials, and it has a broad application prospect in electronic information, sensing, storage, wireless network and other fields. At present, researchers are still focus on the multiferroic materials with strong magnetoelectric coupling effect at room temperature. However, the realization and application of devices based on multiferroics are still on the way. Strain engineering is an effective way that can influence the physical properties of multiferroic materials. The physical properties of materials such as electricity, magnetism, and photoacoustic could be influenced by strain engineering through the interaction of lattice with electrons, spins, and orbits. Tuning the structural and physical properties of ferroelectric thin films by strain has been paid extensive attention. Through investigating the research of strain engineering in multiferroic materials in this paper, herein, the strain engineering in multiferroics are summarized and effect of strain engineering on the physical properties of multiferroics is reviewed. It is prospected that the current work may provide research ideas for the investigation and development of multiferroic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Hermitian materials can exhibit not only exotic energy band structures but also an anomalous velocity induced by non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection as predicted by the semiclassical equations of motion for Bloch electrons. However, it is unclear how the modified semiclassical dynamics modifies transport phenomena. Here, we theoretically demonstrate the emergence of anomalous oscillations driven by either an external dc or ac electric field, which arise from non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that geometric structures of electric wave functions can only affect the Hall conductivity. However, we are surprised to find a non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection induced anomalous linear longitudinal conductivity independent of the scattering time. We also show the emergence of a second-order nonlinear longitudinal conductivity induced by non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection, violating a well-known fact of its absence in a Hermitian system with symmetric energy spectra. These anomalous phenomena are illustrated in a pseudo-Hermitian system with large non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection. Finally, we propose a practical scheme to realize the anomalous oscillations in an optical system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug combination is a sensible strategy for disease treatment because it improves the treatment efficacy and reduces concomitant side effects. Due to the large number of possible combinations among candidate compounds, exhaustive screening is prohibitive. Currently, a large number of studies have focused on predicting potential drug combinations. However, these methods are not entirely satisfactory in terms of performance and scalability. In this paper, we proposed a Network Embedding frameWork in MultIplex Network (NEWMIN) to predict synthetic drug combinations. Based on a multiplex drug similarity network, we offered alternative methods to integrate useful information from different aspects and to decide the quantitative importance of each network. For drug combination prediction, we found seven novel drug combinations that have been validated by external sources among the top-ranked predictions of our model. To verify the feasibility of NEWMIN, we compared NEWMIN with other five methods, for which it showed better performance than other methods in terms of the area under the precision-recall curve and receiver operating characteristic curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generalized Euler equation of pump as turbine is derived, and the transient hydraulic performance of a centrifugal pump as turbine during an atypical startup period is measured. Meanwhile, the dimensionless analysis and the additional theoretical head calculation are also conducted. It is found that the transient characteristics of pump as turbine during atypical startup period mainly come from the rotational acceleration effect, rather than the flow inertia effect. The final stable values of dimensionless flowrate coefficient and dimensionless head coefficient are both closely related to the steady rotating speed and flowrate after startup process, but the dimensionless power coefficient is not remarkably related to them. In an atypical startup, the impact phenomena occur in both flowrate curve and outlet static pressure curve. At the same steady rotating speed, the larger the steady flowrate is, the more serious the flowrate impact is. Under the same steady flowrate, the lower the steady rotating speed is, the more remarkable the static pressure impact at the outlet is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Microplastics (MPs), polymer particles capable of accumulating heavy metals from ambient medias, have been widely found in agriculture and pasture soils. Through the consumption of MPs in soils, heavy metals adsorbed on MPs can be transported into ruminant digestive guts. To explore the behavior of Cd loaded MPs in ruminant digestive system, we initially established a ruminant digestive in-vitro method (RDM) that simulates the rumination cycle between mouth and rumen to evaluate the release rates of Cd on 4 most commonly used undegradable MPs (PE, PP, PVC, and PS) and a biodegradable MP (PLA). After 120 h of adsorption, the Cd adsorption capabilities by 5 MPs ranged from 0.23 μg/g to 2.45 μg/g. Through RDM, all tested Cd loaded MPs released high proportions of Cd with release rates from 21.5% to 41.8%, where PLA showed the highest Cd release rate. Cadmium was mainly released in rumen and abomasum phases, and the rumination cycle between mouth and rumen can affect the Cd release from MPs. The present study provides a new view on the environmental hazard of heavy metal and MP pollution that their co-exposure to ruminants should be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation The heterologous expression of recombinant protein requires host cells, such as Escherichiacoli , and the solubility of protein greatly affects the protein yield. A novel and highly accurate solubility predictor that concurrently improves the production yield and minimizes production cost, and that forecasts protein solubility in an E.coli expression system before the actual experimental work is highly sought. Results In this article, EPSOL, a novel deep learning architecture for the prediction of protein solubility in an E.coli expression system, which automatically obtains comprehensive protein feature representations using multidimensional embedding, is presented. EPSOL outperformed all existing sequence-based solubility predictors and achieved 0.79 in accuracy and 0.58 in Matthew's correlation coefficient. The higher performance of EPSOL permits large-scale screening for sequence variants with enhanced manufacturability and predicts the solubility of new recombinant proteins in an E.coli expression system with greater reliability. Availability and implementation EPSOL's best model and results can be downloaded from GitHub (https://github.com/LiangYu-Xidian/EPSOL). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: anti-HAV; hepatitis A virus; live-attenuated vaccine; persistence EN anti-HAV hepatitis A virus live-attenuated vaccine persistence 1751 1755 5 11/18/21 20211201 NES 211201 INTRODUCTION China used to be a country with high endemicity of hepatitis A (HA). To predict the persistence of anti-HAV antibody induced by a single dose of live-attenuated hepatitis A vaccine, the restricted cubic spline model 3 was employed based on the minimum protective anti-HAV antibody thresholds of >=10 mIU/ml. Both HAV-specific memory B cell and T cells remained, and the magnitude of anamnestic responses was present regardless of the status of the serum anti-HAV antibody pre-booster.4 Synthesizing all findings, we might conclude that a booster doses of live-attenuated HAV vaccine might not be necessary in a 20-year period. Long-term persistence of anti-HAV antibody conferred by a single dose of live-attenuated hepatitis A vaccine: Results from 17-year follow-up. [Extracted from the article]

Accurate prediction of drug-target interactions (DTIs) through biological data can reduce the time and economic cost of drug development. The prediction method of DTIs based on a similarity network is attracting increasing attention. Currently, many studies have focused on predicting DTIs. However, such approaches do not consider the features of drugs and targets in multiple networks or how to extract and merge them. In this study, we proposed a Network EmbeDding framework in mulTiPlex networks (NEDTP) to predict DTIs. NEDTP builds a similarity network of nodes based on 15 heterogeneous information networks. Next, we applied a random walk to extract the topology information of each node in the network and learn it as a low-dimensional vector. Finally, the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree model was constructed to complete the classification task. NEDTP achieved accurate results in DTI prediction, showing clear advantages over several state-of-the-art algorithms. The prediction of new DTIs was also verified from multiple perspectives. In addition, this study also proposes a reasonable model for the widespread negative sampling problem of DTI prediction, contributing new ideas to future research. Code and data are available at https://github.com/LiangYu-Xidian/NEDTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of friction-induced noise is a crucial research area for enhancing vehicle comfort, and this paper proposes a method based on circular pit texture to achieve this goal. We conducted a long-term sliding friction test using a pin-on-disc friction and a wear test bench to verify the validity of this method. To compare the friction noise of different surfaces, texture units with varying line densities were machined on the surface of friction disk samples. The resulting friction-wear and noise characteristics of the samples were analyzed in conjunction with the microscopic morphology of the worn surfaces. The results indicate that surfaces with textures can delay the onset of squeal noise, and the pattern of its development differs from that of smooth surfaces. The noise reduction effect is most evident due to the proper distribution of textures that can form furrow-like wear marks at the wear interface. The finite element results demonstrate that this morphology can improve pressure distribution at the leading point and reduce the tendency of system instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People in modern society are media multitaskers due to portable devices and omnipresent wireless networks, and college students are no exception. Previous studies have indicated that students' media multitasking behaviours in class harm their academic performances, and understanding the reasons for college students' engagement in such behaviour is meaningful. However, the literature takes media multitasking behaviour as an audience behaviour, which ignores the interaction between students and their surroundings. This study fills this gap by emphasizing the role of the social learning process. A survey was conducted in a public and comprehensive university in western China, and a total of 457 valid respondents were obtained. The results from PLS‐SEM revealed that college students' in‐class media multitasking behaviours were influenced by both observational learning (ie, imitating others) and reinforcement learning (ie, in‐class interventions), and this learning process was shaped by students' media multitasking self‐efficacy and self‐management of learning. These findings contribute to the current literature by providing a relatively new perspective for understanding college students' in‐class media multitasking behaviours, and suggestions about how to deal with such behaviours are also provided. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic In‐class media multitasking behaviours (ICMMBs) damage college students' academic performance.College students' ICMMBs are affected by individual factors, such as internet addiction and sensation seeking.Social learning theory is widely adopted as a general theoretical background to explain those behaviours of which possible consequences are easily observed no matter from others or from individuals themselves.What this paper adds This work enriches the media multitasking literature by investigating the predictors of ICMMBs from a relatively new perspective, that is, the social learning perspective.This work also contributes to the literature on media multitasking by examining how the social learning process of college students' ICMMBs differs across students.This work extends the application scope of social learning theory to the context of college students' ICMMBs.Implications for practice and/or policy. The role of imitating others proves the importance of the learning atmosphere in classrooms, so teachers or lecturers should pay special attention to build a learning atmosphere away from ICMMBs.Some in‐class interventions should be established, especially the formal policy of schools to require students to hand in their smartphones or other media before class and students' own mindfulness of such behaviour.Teachers or lecturers should take actions to lower the academic performance expectations of students with higher media multitasking self‐efficacy (MMSE) because students with higher MMSE often overestimate their capabilities to have good performance when conducting other tasks simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring stable photocatalysts with superior optical absorption and high energy conversion efficiency is the key to water splitting. By means of the first-principles calculations, we report a ternary Sn2S2P4 monolayer with excellent stabilities. Remarkably, the material presents an indirect bandgap of 1.77 eV with the band edge perfectly crossing the redox potential of water. Monolayer Sn2S2P4 exhibits noticeable optical absorption and photocurrent density in the visible range and has adequate driving forces to trigger overall water splitting. Anisotropic and high carrier mobility facilitate the fast transport of photogenerated carriers. Moreover, a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency that reaches as high as 17.51% is theoretically predicted, thereby indicating that the Sn2S2P4 monolayer is a promising candidate for overall photocatalytic water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]