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Abstract Timely and remote biomarker detection is highly desired in personalized medicine and health protection but presents great challenges in the devices reported so far. Here, we present a cost-effective, flexible and self-powered sensing device for H2S biomarker analysis in various application scenarios based on the structure of galvanic cells. The sensing mechanism is attributed to the change in electrode potential resulting from the chemical adsorption of gas molecules on the electrode surfaces. Intrinsically stretchable organohydrogels are used as solid-state electrolytes to enable stable and long-term operation of devices under stretching deformation or in various environments. The resulting open-circuit sensing device exhibits high sensitivity, low detection limit, and excellent selectivity for H2S. Its application in the non-invasive halitosis diagnosis and identification of meat spoilage is demonstrated, emerging great commercial value in portable medical electronics and food security. A wireless sensory system has also been developed for remote H2S monitoring with the participation of Bluetooth and cloud technologies. This work breaks through the shortcomings in the traditional chemiresistive sensors, offering a direction and theoretical foundation for designing wearable sensors catering to other stimulus detection requirements.

Lignin, as a natural antioxidant, shows great potential in food engineering and medicine. However, the inherent macromolecular structure, high polydispersity, and few phenolic hydroxy seriously limit its antioxidant activity. In this work, a mild iodocyclohexane demethylation for highly improving the antioxidant activity of lignin was proposed. The results showed –OCH3 content exhibited an almost linear decrease as a function of treating time, and the demethylation and cleavage of β–aryl ether bonds prompt an obvious increase in phenolic hydroxyl content (4.01 mmol/g) and a significant decline in aliphatic hydroxyl (∼0.03 mmol/g). Meanwhile, attributing to the fragmentation of β–O–4, β–β, and β–5 substructures, the polydispersity of lignin molecular weight decreases from 2.7 to 2.2. As a result, the formed catechol-typed lignin showed an outstanding antioxidant activity, with the radical (DPPH·) scavenging index (inverse of concentration for 50% of maximal effect (EC50) value) over 2 000 mL/mg, much superior to the commercial antioxidants (< 500 mL/mg). Further structure-activity relationship analysis implied that the Ph–OH/–OCH3 ratio might act as a key factor influencing the antioxidant activity of lignin. This mild demethylation demonstrates a facile and effective method for highly enhancing the antioxidant activity of lignin and makes the catechol-typed lignin a green and promising product for practical use in food, medicine, and pharmacy.

Abstract One of the crucial issues for applying electret/triboelectric power generators in the Internet of Things (IoT) is to take full advantage of specific high voltage signals and enable self-powered sensing. Therefore, inspired by Miura-origami, we present an innovative origami power generator (OPG) constructed from only one piece of electret thin film. The Miura-origami architecture realizes a generator with excellent deformability and stretchability and makes it unnecessary for any auxiliary support structure during the compress-release cycle. Various parameters of the generator are intensively investigated, including the excitation accelerations, excitation displacements, numbers of power generation units and deformation degree of the device. When stimulated with 5.0 g acceleration at 15 Hz frequency, the generator with 8 generation units can obtain an instantaneous peak-to-peak voltage and a remarkable optimum peak power of 328 V and 2152 μW at 50 MΩ, respectively. In addition, the regulable shape and multiple generation modes of the device greatly improve its applicability in various vibration energy collection requirements. Based on the above results, a hexagonal electret generator integrated with six-phase OPGs is developed as a “Buoy on Sky,” after which the signal waveforms generated from internal power generators are recognized with 92% accuracy through a neural network algorithm that identifies the vibration conditions of transmission lines. This work demonstrates that a fusion of origami art and energy conversion techniques can achieve a multifunctional generator design satisfying the requirements for IoT applications.

Abstract In soft rock tunnels, there are often large deformations during construction, especially when the groundwater seepage and softens the surrounding rock. For achieving the purpose of studying the softening effect of water immersion on strength and stability of surrounding rock, 15 rock samples were selected for physical and mechanical tests under 5 conditions: natural state and free immersion for 1, 3, 6, and 9 months, and nuclear magnetic resonance technology(NMR) was also adopted to test the internal pore structure of specimens with different immersion durations, thus the micro structure features of the gneiss, such as the NMR relaxation time T2 spectrum distribution, porosity, and pore volume ratio of different pore sizes under water softening were then obtained. The NMR results shows that the longer the free immersion duration of the rock sample, the greater the porosity; at the same time, the number of micropores in the rock gradually decreases under the interaction of water and rock, and the mesopores increase slightly first and then decrease all the time. The number of macropores is gradually increasing. When the immersion duration is 6 months, the number of macropores begins to increase significantly, and the mechanical properties of the specimens begin to drop significantly. By 9 months, the proportion of macropores in the rock has reached 57.6%. The results showed that the number growth of macropores is the root cause of the macroscopic failure of rock sample. The study results have significance for on-site construction in water-rich areas.

Abstract Background Osteoporosis remains a significant clinical challenge worldwide. Recent studies have shown that exosomes stimulate bone regeneration. Thus, it is worthwhile to explore whether exosomes could be a useful therapeutic strategy for osteoporosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs) on osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. Methods Exosomes were isolated from hucMSCs. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify the differentially expressed lncRNAs in myeloma-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Plasmids encoding LINC00520 or short hairpin RNA of LINC00520 were transfected into hucMSCs and then exosomes were isolated. After human osteoblasts hFOB1.19 were exposed to the obtained exosomes, cell survival, cell cycle, apoptosis and calcium deposits of hFOB1.19 cell were detected by MTT, 7-aminoactinomycin D, Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide and Alizarin red staining, respectively. Results In hFOB1.19 cells, 10 × 109/mL hucMSC-derived exosomes inhibited cell proliferation, arrested cell cycle, and promoted apoptosis, while hucMSCs or 1 × 109/mL exosomes promoted cell proliferation, accelerated cell cycle, and promoted calcium deposits and the expression of OCN, RUNX2, collagen I and ALP. In hFOB1.19 cells, exosomes from hucMSCs with LINC00520 knockdown reduced the survival and calcium deposits, arrested the cell cycle, and enhanced the apoptosis, while exosomes from hucMSCs overexpressing LINC00520 enhance the proliferation and calcium deposits and accelerated the cell cycle. Conclusions LINC00520 functions as a modulator of calcium deposits, and exosomes derived from hucMSCs overexpressing LINC00520 might be a novel therapeutic approach for osteoporosis.

Identifying the source and impact pathways of soil heavy-metal pollution is critical for its assessment and remediation. Numerical simulation has been widely used to simulate soil heavy-metal pollution processes and predict risks. However, traditional numerical simulation software requires a large number of parameters, which are difficult to obtain in site-scale studies. This study proposes a rapid method for identifying soil heavy-metal pollution processes using the TOUGH2/EOS7 software. It has automatic calibration and uncertainty analysis capabilities, which can effectively reduce the demand for parameters. This study established a method, including model selection, simulation, validation, and error analysis, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. This study identified the most realistic scenario for chromium pollution and simulated its release over 20 years, and the results met accuracy requirements with a best-case fit of 0.9998. The results showed that the method can quickly identify the source and impact pathways of soil heavy-metal pollution, providing strong evidence for environmental damage assessment.

The depletion of rivers and groundwater caused by climate change and human activity is threatening water security and ecosystems [...]

Double-layer primary support is proposed to control the deformation of surrounding rock in tunnels within weak geological conditions, where engineering challenges such as large deformations, tunnel faces, and arch collapse are encountered. This approach is based on the principle of combined resistance and release. A combined approach of numerical modeling and on-site surveillance was utilized to analyze the displacement and stress state of the tunnel support structure at different construction stages of primary support for the second layer, using Xiejiapo Tunnel as an engineering case. The findings indicate that the implementation of two-layer primary support can mitigate the progression of large deformations effectively in weak surrounding rock; the sooner the primary support for the second layer is applied, the better the deformation control, and the later the application takes place, the more effectively the tension in the surrounding rock is diminished, whereby the self-supporting capacity of surrounding rock comes into its own. The force of the shotcrete is reduced. Considering the structural deformation and stress state, as well as combination of resistance and release, it is best to implement the primary support for the second layer 10 feet behind the primary support for the first layer.

This paper presents a practical and straightforward control strategy for robotic manipulators with unknown dynamics to achieve prescribed tracking performance, which has implementation advantages compared with previous work. In particular, an improved extended state observer (ESO) synthesized with a continuously differentiable friction model and time-varying gains is presented to estimate system states and unknown dynamics. This ESO outperforms the conventional ones in dealing with friction mutations while avoiding peaking estimation values in the initial stage. By combining the prescribed performance function and the proposed ESO, an independent joint control scheme is proposed for a robotic manipulator to keep the tracking error within a predefined performance bound based only on position measurements. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is verified by comparative simulation and experimental results on a six-degrees-of-freedom robotic manipulator with active disturbance rejection controller and PID methods.

As industrial processes grow increasingly complex, fault identification becomes challenging, and even minor errors can significantly impact both productivity and system safety. Fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) has emerged as a crucial strategy for maintaining system reliability and safety through condition monitoring and abnormality recovery to manage this challenge. Statistical-based FDD methods that rely on large-scale process data and their features have been developed for detecting faults. This paper overviews recent investigations and developments in statistical-based FDD methods, focusing on probabilistic models. The theoretical background of these models is presented, including Bayesian learning and maximum likelihood. We then discuss various techniques and methodologies, e.g., probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA), probabilistic partial least squares (PPLS), probabilistic independent component analysis (PICA), probabilistic canonical correlation analysis (PCCA), and probabilistic Fisher discriminant analysis (PFDA). Several test statistics are analyzed to evaluate the discussed methods. In industrial processes, these methods require complex matrix operation and cost computational load. Finally, we discuss the current challenges and future trends in FDD.

Highlights A systematic summary of the research progress of hydrogel-based gas and humidity sensors is presented. The sensing mechanism of hydrogel-based gas and humidity sensors is elaborated. The potential of hydrogel-based vapor sensors in different fields of application is demonstrated.

As a high-value target, aircraft carrier formations will inevitably become the focus of drone swarm attacks, and the importance and necessity of Counter-UAV swarm operations are constantly highlighted. The article expounds the characteristics of the threat of UAV swarms faced by aircraft carrier formations, and analyzes the current Counter-UAV swarm combat capability of aircraft carrier formations based on the actual weapons and equipment and tactical tactics, and then proposes future aircraft carrier formations. The capability requirements provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of the aircraft carrier formation Counter-UAV swarm combat plan and the development of future aircraft carrier formation air defense weapons.

Highlights The common performance optimization strategies of smart composite hydrogel are summarized. The recent advanced progress of smart composite hydrogel-based wearable sensors is systematically discussed from the aspect of health monitoring. The current challenges and future prospects of smart composite hydrogel-based wearable sensors are presented.

Congential biliary dilitation (CBD) is rare biliary tract disease in clinic. Clinical classification and disease characteristics of CBD is the key of accurate treatment. Surgical treatment was regarded as the first choice for adult patients with CBD including traditional surgery. There is still a controversy in the strategy of reconstruction of bile duct during operation. In this article the progress in diagnosis and treatment of CBD was reviewed.

Abstract Rivers are among the most diverse, dynamic, and productive ecosystems on Earth. River flow regimes are constantly changing, but characterizing and understanding such changes have been challenging from a long-term and global perspective. By analyzing water extent variations observed from four-decade Landsat imagery, we here provide a global attribution of the recent changes in river regime to morphological dynamics (e.g., channel shifting and anabranching), expansion induced by new dams, and hydrological signals of widening and narrowing. Morphological dynamics prevailed in ~20% of the global river area. Booming reservoir constructions, mostly skewed in Asia and South America, contributed to ~32% of the river widening. The remaining hydrological signals were characterized by contrasting hotspots, including prominent river widening in alpine and pan-Arctic regions and narrowing in the arid/semi-arid continental interiors, driven by varying trends in climate forcing, cryospheric response to warming, and human water management. Our findings suggest that the recent river extent dynamics diverge based on hydroclimate and socio-economic conditions, and besides reflecting ongoing morphodynamical processes, river extent changes show close connections with external forcings, including climate change and anthropogenic interference.

Abstract Background The incidence and mortality of gastric cancer ranks fifth and fourth worldwide among all malignancies, respectively. Accumulating evidences have revealed the close relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and the initiation and progression of stomach cancer. However, rare prognostic models for mitochondrial-related gene risk have been built up in stomach cancer. Methods In current study, the expression and prognostic value of mitochondrial-related genes in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) patients were systematically analyzed to establish a mitochondrial-related risk model based on available TCGA and GEO databases. The tumor microenvironment (TME), immune cell infiltration, tumor mutation burden, and drug sensitivity of gastric adenocarcinoma patients were also investigated using R language, GraphPad Prism 8 and online databases. Results We established a mitochondrial-related risk prognostic model including NOX4, ALDH3A2, FKBP10 and MAOA and validated its predictive power. This risk model indicated that the immune cell infiltration in high-risk group was significantly different from that in the low-risk group. Besides, the risk score was closely related to TME signature genes and immune checkpoint molecules, suggesting that the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment might lead to poor prognosis in high-risk groups. Moreover, TIDE analysis demonstrated that combined analysis of risk score and immune score, or stromal score, or microsatellite status could more effectively predict the benefit of immunotherapy in STAD patients with different stratifications. Finally, rapamycin, PD-0325901 and dasatinib were found to be more effective for patients in the high-risk group, whereas AZD7762, CEP-701 and methotrexate were predicted to be more effective for patients in the low-risk group. Conclusions Our results suggest that the mitochondrial-related risk model could be a reliable prognostic biomarker for personalized treatment of STAD patients.

Abstract Epithelium‐specific ETS transcription factor 1 (ESE1) has been implicated in epithelial homeostasis, inflammation, as well as tumorigenesis, and cancer progression. However, numerous studies have reported contradictory roles—as an oncogene or a tumor suppressor of ESE1 in different cancers, and its function in the development and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has remained largely unexplored. Herein, we report that ESE1 was found upregulated in primary PDAC compared to normal pancreatic tissue, but high expression of ESE1 correlated to better relapse‐free survival in patients with PDAC. Interestingly, ESE1 was found to exhibit dual roles in regulation of malignant properties of PDAC cells in that its overexpression promoted cell proliferation, whereas its downregulation enhanced epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. In the context of TGF‐β‐induced EMT, ESE1 is markedly downregulated at post‐transcriptional level, and reconstituted ESE1 expression partially reversed TGF‐β‐induced EMT marker expression. Furthermore, we identify AGR2 as a novel transcriptional target of ESE1 that participates in TGF‐β‐induced EMT in PDAC. Collectively, our findings reveal an ESE1/AGR2 axis that interacts with TGF‐β signaling to modulate EMT phenotype in PDAC.

Abstract Climate plays a critical role in altering soil carbon (C) turnover and long‐term soil C storage by regulating water availability and temperature, and in turn biological activity. However, a systematic analysis of how key climatic factors shape the global patterns of soil C turnover is still lacking. Using global observation‐based data sets and a transit time theory, here we show that—excluding croplands and cold regions—soil C turnover time (τTO) and its variability are strongly related to ecosystem aridity through a power law scaling. According to such a relation, soil C turnover is faster but also more variable in wetter regions, suggesting more complex C cycling processes. The observed scaling of τTO and its coefficient of variation with aridity underlines the fundamental controls of climate on soil C turnover and may help reconcile soil C models with empirical observations for improved projection of soil C dynamics under climate change.

Immunogenic cell death (ICD), one of cell-death types through release of damage-associated molecular patterns from dying tumor cells, activates tumor-specific immune response and elicits anti-tumor immunity by traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, whether natural products could induce ICD in leukemia is not elucidated. Here, we report dietary γ-mangostin eradicates murine primary leukemic cells and prolongs the survival of leukemic mice. As well, it restrains primary leukemic cells and CD34+ leukemic progenitor cells from leukemia patients. Strikingly, γ-mangostin attenuates leukemic cells by inducing ICD as characterized by expression of HSP90B1, ANXA1 and IL1B. Additionally, γ-mangostin accelerates cytoplasmic chromatin fragments generation, promoting DNA damage response, and enhances cGAS activation, leading to up-regulation of chemokines. Meanwhile, it induces HDAC4 degradation and acetylated histone H3 accumulation, which promotes chemokines transcription. Ultimately, CD8+ T cell is activated and recruited by γ-mangostin-induced chemokines in the microenvironment. Our study identifies γ-mangostin triggers ICD and activates cGAS signaling through DNA damage response and epigenetic modification. Therefore, dietary γ-mangostin would act as a potential agent to provoke anti-tumor immunity in the prevention and treatment of leukemia.

Background: Gelsemium elegans (Gardner & Chapm.) Benth (G. elegans) has been widely used as a traditional folk medicine in China and Southeast Asia. As the most abundant alkaloid in G. elegans, Koumine (KM) has been revealed the effect of inflammatory attenuation modulating by macrophage activation and polarization. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the effect of KM on modulation of microglia polarization that led to the suppression of neuroinflammation and further improved neurodegenerative behavior. Methods: Inflammatory mediators, microglia M1 and M2 phenotype markers and Nrf2/HO-1 pathway related protein were assessed in LPS-induced BV2 cells and LPS-treated mice by RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and Western blotting. Moreover, the learning and memory abilities of mice were evaluated by Morris water maze test, and the neuronal damage was evaluated by the Nissl staining. Results: KM attenuated LPS-induced viability and morphological changes in BV2 microglial cells. Our findings showed that KM activated the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway to promote phenotypic switch from M1 to M2 phenotypes. This switch suppresses the release of inflammatory mediators in LPS-induced BV2 cells. Meanwhile, KM attenuated neuroinflammation through modulating microglia polarization and subsequently reversed the behavioral alterations in LPS-induced mice model of neuroinflammation. Conclusions: KM may alleviate neuroinflammation by regulating microglia polarization with the involvement of Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, resulting of the neuroprotective effect.

Cases of young patients combined with intracranial germinoma and parathyroid adenoma are extremely rare. A 6.25-year-old boy was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency at his first visit and was then treated with growth hormone substitution. Later, he was clinically diagnosed with central diabetes insipidus (CDI) and primary hyperparathyroidism, whereas no abnormal imaging evidence was identified, except for a thickened pituitary stalk. Due to persistent follow-up, parathyroid adenoma and intracranial germinoma were verified in succession. The patient had derived benefits from parathyroidectomy and chemotherapy plus radiotherapy. We concluded that children and adolescents who present with CDI and pituitary stalk thickening should undergo repeated screenings for underlying intracranial germinoma. Multiple lesions involving the parathyroid gland and pituitary should alert physicians to the possibility of multiple endocrine neoplasia or other inherited diseases; therefore, genetic screening is recommended.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the clinical application effect of an augmented reality (AR) plasticity model on the postoperative visual function recovery of children with concomitant exotropia.MethodsBetween September 2019 and October 2021, 28 patients with concomitant exotropia who visited Shenzhen Children’s Hospital (9 male and 19 female) were enrolled in this study. The average age of the patients was 6.4 ± 1.8 years. Postoperative rehabilitation training was conducted using a personalized AR binocular visual perception plasticity model developed based on the patient’s examination results. After 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months of training, the patients returned to the hospital for examinations of perceptual eye position, static zero-order stereopsis, dynamic first-order fine stereopsis, and dynamic second-order coarse stereopsis to compare the changes in eye position control and stereovision function.ResultsAfter 6 months of eye position training, the horizontal perception eye position of the 28 patients was significantly lower than that before training. The difference in eye position at the first and third months compared with that before training was not statistically significant (1st month: z = −2.255, p = 0.024 > 0.017; 3rd month: z = −2.277, p = 0.023 > 0.017; 6th month: z = −3.051, p = 0.002 0.017; 3rd month: z = −1.189, p = 0.234 > 0.017; 6th month: z = −2.225, p = 0.026 > 0.017). The difference in 0.8-m static zero-order stereopsis before and after training was not statistically significant (1st month: z = −2.111, p = 0.035 > 0.017; 3rd month: z = −1.097, p = 0.273 > 0.017; 6th month: z = −1.653, p = 0.098 > 0.017). The 1.5-m static zero-order stereopsis was improved after 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months of training compared with that before training (1st month: z = −3.134, p = 0.002

In this paper, we study the problem of multilinear multitask learning (MLMTL), in which all tasks are stacked into a third-order tensor for consideration. In contrast to conventional multitask learning, MLMTL can explore inherent correlations among multiple tasks in a better manner by utilizing multilinear low rank structure. Existing approaches about MLMTL are mainly based on the sum of singular values for approximating low rank matrices obtained by matricizing the third-order tensor. However, these methods are suboptimal in the Tucker rank approximation. In order to elucidate intrinsic correlations among multiple tasks, we present a new approach by the use of transformed tensor nuclear norm (TTNN) constraint in the objective function. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it can acquire a low transformed multi-rank structure in a transformed tensor by applying suitable unitary transformations which is helpful to determine principal components in grouping multiple tasks for describing their intrinsic correlations more precisely. Furthermore, we establish an excess risk bound of the minimizer of the proposed TTNN approach. Experimental results including synthetic problems and real-world images, show that the mean-square errors of the proposed method is lower than those of the existing methods for different number of tasks and training samples in MLMTL.