Search

Background: Epidemic zoning is an important option in a series of measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. We aim to accurately assess the disease transmission process by considering the epidemic zoning, and we take two epidemics with distinct outbreak sizes as an example, i.e., the Xi'an epidemic in late 2021 and the Shanghai epidemic in early 2022. Methods: For the two epidemics, the total cases were clearly distinguished by their reporting zone and the Bernoulli counting process was used to describe whether one infected case in society would be reported in control zones or not. Assuming the imperfect or perfect isolation policy in control zones, the transmission processes are respectively simulated by the adjusted renewal equation with case importation, which can be derived on the basis of the Bellman-Harris branching theory. The likelihood function containing unknown parameters is then constructed by assuming the daily number of new cases reported in control zones follows a Poisson distribution. All the unknown parameters were obtained by the maximum likelihood estimation. Results: For both epidemics, the internal infections characterized by subcritical transmission within the control zones were verified, and the median control reproduction numbers were estimated as 0.403 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.352, 0.459) in Xi'an epidemic and 0.727 (95% CI: 0.724, 0.730) in Shanghai epidemic, respectively. In addition, although the detection rate of social cases quickly increased to 100% during the decline period of daily new cases until the end of the epidemic, the detection rate in Xi'an was significantly higher than that in Shanghai in the previous period. Conclusions: The comparative analysis of the two epidemics with different consequences highlights the role of the higher detection rate of social cases since the beginning of the epidemic and the reduced transmission risk in control zones throughout the outbreak. Strengthening the detection of social infection and strictly implementing the isolation policy are of great significance to avoid a larger-scale epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postoperative recurrence of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar disc increases the physical damage and financial burden on patients and negatively affects physicians' treatment decisions. We conducted this meta-analysis to explore the risk factors for postoperative recurrence of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar disc for lumbar disc herniation. We conducted article search in the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases. PRISMA guidelines were followed in this review. The data are statistically analyzed by the Roundup Manager (version 3.6.1). The results of the meta-analysis are presented in the form of forest-like plots. We included 13 articles and identified 7524 cases. Patients with older age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18–1.40), higher body mass index (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.05–1.28), smoker (OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 0.95–3.15), degenerative grades ≥3 (OR = 6.07, 95% CI: 2.81–13.11), and postoperative sagittal motion ≥10° (OR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.63–3.58) have a higher recurrence rate. A thorough preoperative evaluation is essential to prevent postoperative recurrence of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy. The study addresses several factors of preoperative evaluation, which is hopeful to provide a reference for neurosurgeons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of the population is an essential aspect of addressing social, economic, and environmental problems. Gridded population data can provide more detailed information than census data, and multisource data from remote sensing and geographic information systems have been widely used for population estimation studies. However, due to spatial heterogeneity, the population has different distribution characteristics and variation patterns at different scales, while the relationships between multiple variables also vary with scale. This article presents a stepwise downscaling approach in that the random forest regression kriging technique is used to downscale census data to multi-resolution gridded population datasets. Using Nanjing, China, as the experimental case, population distribution maps were generated at 100 m, 500 m, and 1 km spatial resolution, and compared with the other three downscaling methods and three population products. The results demonstrated the produced gridded population maps by the proposed approach have higher accuracy and more accurate details of population distribution with the smallest mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) values of 1.590 and 2.189 ten thousand people (over 40% reduction). The artificial land and road data are the two most important indicators of population distribution for the regional random forest modeling in Nanjing. Our proposed method can be a valuable tool for population mapping and has the potential to monitor sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic alcohol consumption in adults can induce various cardiac toxicities such as arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. Prenatal alcohol exposure can increase the risk of developing congenital heart defects among offspring. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying long‐term alcohol exposure‐induced cardiotoxicity can help guide the development of therapeutic strategies. Methods: Cardiomyocytes derived from human‐induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC‐CMs) were engineered into cardiac spheroids and treated with clinically relevant concentrations of ethanol (17 and 50 mM) for 5 weeks. The cells were then analyzed for changes in mitochondrial features, transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles, and integrated omics outcomes. Results: Following chronic ethanol treatment of hiPSC‐CMs, a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and respiration and changes in expression of mitochondrial function‐related genes were observed. RNA‐sequencing analysis revealed changes in various metabolic processes, heart development, response to hypoxia, and extracellular matrix‐related activities. Metabolomic analysis revealed dysregulation of energy metabolism and increased metabolites associated with the upregulation of inflammation. Integrated omics analysis further identified functional subclusters and revealed potentially affected pathways associated with cardiac toxicities. Conclusion: Chronic ethanol treatment of hiPSC‐CMs resulted in overall decreased mitochondrial function, increased glycolysis, disrupted fatty acid oxidation, and impaired cardiac structural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this paper, a security problem in networked control systems which are modeled as linear quadratic Gaussian control systems is investigated from the perspective of attackers. We consider the scenario that the attackers can inject false data into two channels: sensor‐to‐controller and controller‐to‐actuator channels. The goal of attackers is to design the optimal stealthy false data injection attacks to maximize the linear quadratic Gaussian control cost function, where Kullback‐Leiber divergence is used as a stealthiness metric. Firstly, the cost function is divided into a fixed part and a part which is related to a remote estimation error covariance. Then, when the two channels are attacked by attackers, the recursion of remote estimation error covariance is derived. In the presence of attacks, the optimization problem with multiple decision variables, which may not be a convex problem, is transformed into a convex optimization problem and the corresponding optimal solution is obtained. In addition, an upper bound of benefit loss when using the optimal solution of the convex optimization problem is presented. Finally, a simulation example is presented to show the effectiveness of the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce and study the quasi-H o ¨ lder mappings between unit spheres of p-normed spaces. The quasi-H o ¨ lder map is a natural generalization of the H o ¨ lder map, Lipschitz map, quasi-isometry and ε -isometry, etc. Concretely, we study the extension of a quasi-H o ¨ lder embedding between unit spheres of p-normed spaces ( 0 < p ≤ 1 ) under the quasi-H o ¨ lder or anti-H o ¨ lder type assumption. We generalize the main results in Xiao and Lu (Ann Funct Anal 13(2):Paper No. 25, 2022) from the r-isometric case to the wider case of quasi-H o ¨ lder mappings. Moreover, the method we adopted here is different; and the Hahn–Banach property, required as a condition in the main theorems of [30] has been removed in our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aggregation of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is closely related to the pathogenesis and dysfunction of Parkinson's disease. Methods: To investigate the potential of nanoparticlemediated therapy, the interactive mechanism between α-syn and n-myristyltrimethylammonium bromide (MTAB) Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with different diameters was explored by molecular dynamics simulations. Results: The results indicated that there was a directional interaction between α-syn and n-MTAB AuNPs, in which the driving force for the binding of the C-terminus in α-syn came from electrostatic interactions and the nonamyloid β component (NAC) domain exhibited weak hydrophobic interactions as well as electrostatic interaction, thereby preventing α-syn aggregation. Energy statistics and analysis showed that for 5-MTAB AuNPs, acidic amino acids such as Glu and Asp played a very important role. Conclusions: This study not only demonstrated a theoretical foundation for the behavior of biomolecules directionally adsorbed on the surface of biofunctional nanoparticles but also indicated that 5-MTAB AuNPs may be a potential inhibitor against α-syn protein aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an asynchronous collision-tolerant ACRDA scheme based on satellite-selection collaboration-beamforming (SC-ACRDA) is proposed to solve the avalanche effect caused by packet collision under random access (RA) high load in the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet of Things (IoT) networks. A non-convex optimization problem is formulated to realize the satellite selection problem in multi-satellite collaboration-beamforming. To solve this problem, we employ the Charnes-Cooper transformation to transform a convex optimization problem. In addition, an iterative binary search algorithm is also designed to obtain the optimization parameter. Furthermore, we present a signal processing flow combined with ACRDA protocol and serial interference cancellation (SIC) to solve the packet collision problem effectively in the gateway station. Simulation results show that the proposed SC-ACRDA scheme can effectively solve the avalanche effect and improve the performance of the RA protocol in LEO satellite IoT networks compared with benchmark problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aimed to build a novel model with golgi apparatus related genes (GaGs) signature and relevant clinical parameters for predicting progression-free interval (PFI) after surgery for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods: We performed a bioinformatic analysis of integrated PTC datasets with the GaGs to identify differentially expressed GaGs (DE-GaGs). Then we generated PFI-related DE-GaGs and established a novel GaGs based signature. After that, we validated the signature on multiple external datasets and PTC cell lines. Further, we conducted uni- and multivariate analyses to identify independent prognostic characters. Finally, we established a signature and clinical parameters-based nomogram for predicting the PFI of PTC. Results: We identified 260 DE-GaGs related to PFI in PTC. The functional enrichment analysis showed that the DE-MTGs were associated with an essential oncogenic glycoprotein biosynthetic process. Consequently, we established and optimized a novel 11 gene signature that could distinguish patients with poorer prognoses and predicted PFI accurately. The novel signature had a C-index of 0.78, and the relevant nomogram had a C-index of 0.79. Also, it was closely related to the pivotal clinical characters of and anaplastic potential in datasets and PTC cell lines. And the signature was confirmed a significant independent prognostic factor in PTC. Finally, we built a nomogram by including the signature and relevant clinical factors. Validation analysis showed that the nomogram's efficacy was satisfying in predicting PTC's PFI. Conclusion: The GaGs signature and nomogram were closely associated with PTC prognosis and may help clinicians improve the individualized prediction of PFI, especially for high-risk patients after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have shown that bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9) is almost exclusively produced in the liver and reaches tissues throughout the body as a secreted protein. However, the mechanism of BMP9 action and its role in aging-associated liver injury and inflammation are still unclear. Results: Aging significantly aggravates acetaminophen (APAP)-induced acute liver injury (ALI). Increased expression of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) and BMP9 was identified in aged livers and in hepatocytes and macrophages (MФs) isolated from aged mice. Further analysis revealed that excess BMP9 was directly related to APAP-induced hepatocyte injury and death, as evidenced by activated drosophila mothers against decapentaplegic protein 1/5/9 (SMAD1/5/9) signaling, an increased dead cell/total cell ratio, decreased levels of ATG3 and ATG7, blocked autophagy, increased senescence‐associated beta‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐Gal) activity, and a higher rate of senescence‐associated secretory phenotype (SASP) acquisition. In contrast, Bmp9 knockout (Bmp9−/−) partially alleviated the aforementioned manifestations of BMP9 overexpression. Moreover, BMP9 expression was found to be regulated by C/EBPα in vitro and in vivo. Notably, BMP9 also downregulated autophagy through its effect on autophagy-related genes (ATG3 and ATG7) in MΦs, which was associated with aggravated liver injury and SASP acquisition. Conclusions: In summary, the present study highlights the crucial roles played by C/EBPα-BMP9 crosstalk and provides insights into the interrelationship between hepatocytes and MΦs during acute liver injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has brought along with it many environmental and social problems such as ecosystem damage and traffic congestion. Therefore, forecasting the trend of urban expansion and providing a reasonable urban planning basis for government departments have become the focus of researchers. An artificial neural network (ANN) can be used to consider spatial nonstationarity when obtaining the changing characteristics of urban land types. Therefore, in this study, we use cellular automata (CA) based on ANN (ANN-CA) to simulate and forecast urban expansion and discuss the parameter sensitivity of the model in detail. In addition, we propose a new Urban Expansion Early Warning Indicator system to warn about the deterioration of future land distribution patterns. Chengdu is selected as the study area, and the study period is from 2000 to 2020. The results showed the following: (1) The best accuracy was achieved when the neighborhood size is 7 × 7 and the number of model iterations is 250, and overall accuracy (OA), Kappa coefficient, and figure of merit (FOM) are 91.47%, 0.855, and 0.354, respectively; (2) ANN-CA is more suitable for predicting the urban expansion of Chengdu than CA based on logistic regression (LR-CA) and CA based on decision tree (DT-CA). Compared with the worst performance model, the score of OA increased by 6.23%, that of kappa increased by 0.062, and that of FOM increased by 0.056. (3) According to the current development trend, artificial built-up areas will increase substantially. The comprehensive evaluation results of the morphology effect, ecological effect, and intensity effect of urban expansion predict severe early warning for Jinniu District, Qingyang District, and Wuhou District by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was to explore the effect of different additives on nutritional value and microbial community of whole plant quinoa silage. Four varieties (lines) of quinoa were selected in experiment, including purplish red, SC-1, ZK-1 and ZK-5. The quinoa silage was made by adding lactic acid bacteria (0.05 g/kg), cellulase (0.5 g/kg) and formic acid (4 mL/kg). Direct silage was used as control group (CK). Quinoa silage for 60 d, the change of nutrient composition and the number of microorganism in quinoa were determined. The results showed that the sensory evaluation grade of additive silage of the four quinoa varieties (lines) was Grade I (excellent), and the quinoa silage made with lactic acid bacteria and formic acid as additives had the highest score. The dry matter content of quinoa silage prepared with three additives was significantly higher than that in control group ( P<0.05), and NDF content of SC-1 and ZK-1 quinoa silage in cellulase group was significantly lower than that in control group ( P<0.05). The content of ADF in four varieties quinoa silage in cellulase group were significantly lower than those in control group ( P<0.05), and the content of WSC in four varieties quinoa silage in cellulase group were higher than those in control group ( P<0.05). After quinoa silage, the content of lactic acid bacteria was 1.2×104~1.3×106 CFU/g, the number of yeast and mold colonies was less than 10² CFU/g, and pH value was between 3.56 and 3.9.The study indicates that the addition of lactic acid bacteria, cellulase, formic acid to quinoa silage can improve the quality of quinoa silage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open in new tab Download slide OBJECTIVES Our goal was to evaluate the risk-adjusted effects of operative and non-operative repair on long-term outcomes in patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (CCTGA/LVOTO). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 391 patients with CCTGA/LVOTO from 2001 to 2020 (operative group, 282; non-operative group, 109) in 3 centres in China. The operative group included 73 patients who underwent anatomical repair and 209 patients who underwent non-anatomical repair. The median follow-up time was 8.5 years. The inverse probability of treatment weighted-adjusted Cox regression and a Kaplan–Meier analysis were used to evaluate long-term outcomes. RESULTS Operative repair did not reduce the hazard ratio (HR) of death, tricuspid regurgitation or New York Heart Association functional class III/IV, but a significantly increased HR was observed for pulmonary valve regurgitation [HR, 2.84; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.10–7.33; P  = 0.031]. Compared with that in the non-operative group, anatomical repair resulted in significantly increased HRs for death (HR, 2.94; 95% CI, 1.10–7.87; P  = 0.032) and pulmonary valve regurgitation (HR, 9.71; 95% CI, 3.66–25.77; P  < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that in patients with CCTGA/LVOTO with moderate or worse tricuspid regurgitation (≥ moderate), anatomical repair significantly reduced the HR of death. An inverse probability of treatment weighting-adjusted Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the survival rates at 5 and 10 days postoperatively were 88.2 ± 4.0% and 79.0 ± 7.9%, respectively, in the anatomical repair group; these rates were significantly lower than the rates in the non-operative group (95.4 ± 2.0% and 91.8 ± 2.8%; P  = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS For patients with CCTGA/LVOTO, operative repair does not provide superior long-term outcomes, and anatomical repair results in a higher incidence of death. However, in patients with CCTGA/LVOTO with tricuspid regurgitation ≥ moderate, anatomical repair can reduce the risk of death in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis (EAF) is a rare inflammatory lesion, especially in orbit. EAF is believed to be related to IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), but the clinical manifestations of systemic involvement are relatively rare and easy to be confused with tumors or other inflammatory diseases. Histopathological examination is the most important way of its diagnosis and differentiation. Case presentation: We presented a 55-year-old female patient presented with recurrent swelling of the right lower eyelid for more than 2 months. The pathological diagnosis was EAF. Positive immunostaining for IgG, CD34, κ, and λ, while negative immunostaining for IgG4. Conclusions: Complete surgical resection is the preferred treatment, histopathological examination is the main diagnostic standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, N-doped layered porous carbon prepared by the high-temperature solid-state method is used as electrode material. Nano calcium carbonate (CaCO3) (40 nm diameter) is used as the hard template, sucrose (C12H22O11) as the carbon source, and melamine (C3H6N6) as the nitrogen source. The materials prepared at 850 °C, 750 °C, and 650 °C are compared with YP-50F commercial super-activated carbon from Japan Kuraray Company. The electrode material at 850 °C pyrolysis temperature has a higher specific surface area and more pores suitable for ion adsorption. Due to these advantages, the salt adsorption capacity (SAC) of the N-doped layered porous carbon at 850 °C reached 12.56 mg/g at 1.2 V applied DC voltage, 500 mg/L initial solution concentration, and 15 mL/min inlet solution flow rate, which is better than the commercial super activated carbon as a comparison. In addition, it will be demonstrated that the N-doped layered porous carbon at 850 °C has a high salt adsorption capacity CDI performance than YP-50F by studying parameters with different applied voltages and flow rates as well as solution concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐oxidative coupling of methane (CH4) by plasma has received particular attention due to the achievement of high methane conversion and product selectivity at a low temperature. In this work, experimental results suggest that the packing materials directly affect the electric field, which in turn determines the plasma discharge and, subsequently, the conversion of CH4 and the products selectivity. High selectivity to ethylene was obtained by BaTiO3 packing, which can be ascribed to the moderate electric field generated with special physiochemical properties. Furthermore, in the cases of packing by ZSM‐5, γ‐Al2O3 or SiO2 granules, small size of granules contributed to generate a stronger electric field, which improves CH4 conversion. However, reverse trend has been found in the case of packing by BaTiO3. Finally, the specific indicator of micro‐electric field was developed to illustrate the relationship between reaction performance and packing materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) for infection in patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)–associated vasculitis (AAV). Methods: Newly onset patients with AAV in China were included, and their laboratory tests and disease activity were analyzed. Based on infection, patients were divided into the infection group (A-I) and the non-infection group (A-NI). Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to investigate variables that are independently associated with infection. Results: In total, 418 patients were enrolled. Significantly higher white blood cell count (WBC, p < 0.001), neutrophils (p < 0.001), NLR (p < 0.001), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.001), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR, p < 0.001), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR, p = 0.032), C-reactive protein (CRP, p < 0.001), procalcitonin (PCT, p < 0.001), and Birmingham vasculitis activity score (BVAS, p = 0.005) were observed in the A-I group than in the A-NI group. It was detected that NLR (ρ = 0.273, p < 0.001), MLR (ρ = 0.153, p = 0.011), ESR (ρ = 0.143, p = 0.020), and PCT (ρ = 0.391, p < 0.001) were positively correlated with BVAS. Furthermore, NLR was not only an independent predictor of infection (adjusted OR: 1.144, 95% CI: 1.059–1.236, p = 0.001), but with the largest area under ROC curve, of which value was 0.750. Notably, the optimal cut-off value of NLR for infection was 6.01, with sensitivity of 70.07% and specificity of 71.68%. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that in addition to WBC, CRP, ESR, and PCT, NLR should also be used as a beneficial inflammatory indicator to differentiate infection in newly diagnosed AAV. Key Points • NLR was a helpful inflammatory marker in differentiating infection in newly diagnosed AAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foxtail millet is an important crop in Northwest China; however, the mechanism responsible for regulating root adjustment, including water uptake, sugar transport, or metabolism, in foxtail millet remains unclear. Two millet cultivars (the drought-resistant Yugu1 [YG] and the drought-sensitive An04 [An]) were used to detect physiological, molecular, and agronomic traits under two different soil water conditions. Water use efficiency increased by 18.4% and 63.2% under drought stress in An and YG, respectively. Under drought stress, YG and An root exudation (RE) decreased by 66.7% and 89.0%, the photosynthesis rate decreased by 34.3% and 61.8%, and the grain yield decreased by 40.6% and 62.6%, respectively. An contained a high ratio of soluble sugar to starch, whereas YG remained consistent. RNA-seq data showed a lower expression of beta-amylase 2 in YG than in An. The expression levels of three SWEET genes involved in sugar transport and four plasma membrane intrinsic protein (PIP) genes were higher in YG than in An, allocating more photosynthetic sugar to the roots to prevent a significant elevation in the ratio of soluble sugar to starch. The high expression levels of SiPIPs also enhanced root water transport capacity. Based on the above-mentioned adaptations, millet maintains high RE, stomatal conductance, and net photosynthetic rate in drought stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of occupations on brain structures has attracted considerable research interests in the last decade. The aim of this research is to find the effect of flight training on brain gray matter volume of pilots. The whole-brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data collected from 26 pilots and 24 controls was analyzed using Voxel-based morphological analysis method (VBM) combined with T1 data to quantitatively detect the local gray matter of brain tissue and calculate the gray matter volume. The result shows that the pilot group has larger gray matter volume in the lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus compared to the control group (P<0.05). Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the gray matter volume and the number of flight hours (r = 0.426, P = 0.048) after studying the average gray matter volume value of the agglomerate of participants whose flight hours are between 0 and 1000 hours. The lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus are involved in high-level visual processing, memory, multisensory integration and perception. The study has indicated the flight training could enlarge gray matter volume in the lingual gyrus and fusiform gyrus. During flying, pilots need to observe the instrumentation in the cockpit and fully interpret the readings, which may lead to the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allylamines are important building blocks in the synthesis of bioactive compounds. The direct coupling of allylic C−H bonds and commonly available amines is a major synthetic challenge. An allylic C−H amination of 1,4‐dienes has been accomplished by palladium catalysis. With aromatic amines, branch‐selective allylic aminations are favored to generate thermodynamically unstable Z‐allylamines. In addition, more basic aliphatic cyclic amines can also engage in the reaction, but linear dienyl allylic amines are the major products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allylamines are important building blocks in the synthesis of bioactive compounds. The direct coupling of allylic C−H bonds and commonly available amines is a major synthetic challenge. An allylic C−H amination of 1,4‐dienes has been accomplished by palladium catalysis. With aromatic amines, branch‐selective allylic aminations are favored to generate thermodynamically unstable Z‐allylamines. In addition, more basic aliphatic cyclic amines can also engage in the reaction, but linear dienyl allylic amines are the major products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in multiplex bioassay around the theme of precision diagnostics have gained great focus. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) is emerging as a powerful platform for multiplex bioassay due to its high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, particularly its reliable multiplex sensing ability. This review discusses the progress being made in the multiplex bioassay applicating ICPMS, mainly emphasizes on varieties of biomarkers and methodological innovations. Also, we summarized limitations and proposed prospects to shed new light on the emergence of more powerful and application-oriented analytical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the piezoelectric effect has been widely used in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, and the morphology of the piezoelectric material is a critical factor affecting the piezo-photoelectrochemical water splitting performance. Herein, we explored the mechanism of the piezo-photoelectrochemical performance of zinc oxide (ZnO) that is affected by the morphology. Firstly, three different ZnO nanostructures (nanosheets, nanorods, and nanospheres) were synthesized by the electrodeposition, hydrothermal, and sol-gel methods, respectively. Then, the measurements of PEC water splitting performance under the piezoelectric effect revealed a 3-fold increase for the ZnO nanosheets, a 1.4-fold increase for the nanorods, and a 1.2-fold increase for the nanospheres compared to no piezoelectric effect. Finally, finite element simulation showed that nanosheets generated the highest piezoelectric potential (0.6 V), followed by nanorods (0.2 V), and nanospheres the lowest (0.04 V). Thus, among the three morphologies, the ZnO nanosheets exhibited a great improvement in PEC performance under the piezoelectric effect. The great improvement is due to the non-axial vertical homogeneous growth of the ZnO nanosheets, subjecting them to the highest effective deformation stress, which enables the ZnO nanosheets to produce the highest piezoelectric potential to accelerate the carrier separation and limit the recombination of photoelectrons and holes. This work serves as a guide for developing various photoelectrodes that are used in piezo-photoelectrochemical water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical reports have significant clinical value to radiologists and specialists, especially during a pandemic like COVID. However, beyond the common difficulties faced in the natural image captioning, medical report generation specifically requires the model to describe a medical image with a fine-grained and semantic-coherence paragraph that should satisfy both medical commonsense and logic. Previous works generally extract the global image features and attempt to generate a paragraph that is similar to referenced reports; however, this approach has two limitations. Firstly, the regions of primary interest to radiologists are usually located in a small area of the global image, meaning that the remainder parts of the image could be considered as irrelevant noise in the training procedure. Secondly, there are many similar sentences used in each medical report to describe the normal regions of the image, which causes serious data bias. This deviation is likely to teach models to generate these inessential sentences on a regular basis. To address these problems, we propose an Auxiliary Signal-Guided Knowledge Encoder-Decoder (ASGK) to mimic radiologists' working patterns. Specifically, the auxiliary patches are explored to expand the widely used visual patch features before fed to the Transformer encoder, while the external linguistic signals help the decoder better master prior knowledge during the pre-training process. Our approach performs well on common benchmarks, including CX-CHR, IU X-Ray, and COVID-19 CT Report dataset (COV-CTR), demonstrating combining auxiliary signals with transformer architecture can bring a significant improvement in terms of medical report generation. The experimental results confirm that auxiliary signals driven Transformer-based models are with solid capabilities to outperform previous approaches on both medical terminology classification and paragraph generation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Although the significance of primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is supported by an increasing amount of evidence, the clinical and genetic characteristics of this condition are still poorly understood. This study aimed to explore the underlying genetic etiologies in a cohort of primary CH patients. Subjects and Methods: The clinical data of 33 patients with primary CH were collected and analyzed via a cross-sectional study. Genetic analysis was performed by high-throughput sequencing and Sanger verification, and the pathogenicity of the novel missense variants was predicted using a variety of comprehensive bioinformatic tools. Results: Among the 33 patients, 22 (22/33, 66.7%) harbored pathogenic variants in the causative genes of thyroid dysgenesis or dyshormonogenesis, with DUOX2 (15/33, 45.5%) topping the list, followed by TG, TPO, DUOXA2 and PAX8. Four novel genetic variants were detected, including a pathogenic frameshift and three likely pathogenic missense variants. Positive neonatal screening for TSH, neonatal jaundice and abnormal thyroid morphology were the main positive findings among all cases. Although 31 of the total 33 CH patients exhibited normal anthropometric and social performance, the other 2 had poor prognosis in this study. Conclusions: This study reported 33 new CH patients bearing four novel genetic variants, which enriched the variant spectrum of CH genes. In this cohort, genetic factors causing thyroid dyshormonogenesis were the main etiologies of CH development. Most patients exhibited a favorable prognosis; however, systematic management remains a challenge in achieving improved clinical outcomes for CH patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adventitious root (AR) development is an extremely complex biological process that is affected by many intrinsic factors and extrinsic stimuli. Some WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) transcription factors have been reported to play important roles in AR development, but their functional relationships with auxin signaling are poorly understood, especially the developmental plasticity of roots in response to adversity stress. Here, we identified that the WOX11/12a– SMALL AUXIN UP RNA36 (SAUR36) module mediates AR development through the auxin pathway in poplar, as well as under salt stress. PagWOX11/12a displayed inducible expression during AR development, and overexpression of PagWOX11/12a significantly promoted AR development and increased salt tolerance in poplar, whereas dominant repression of PagWOX11/12a produced the opposite phenotype. PagWOX11/12a proteins directly bind to the SAUR36 promoter to regulate SAUR36 transcription, and this binding was enhanced during salt stress. Genetic modification of PagWOX11/12a–PagSAUR36 expression revealed that the PagWOX11/12a –PagSAUR36 module is crucial for controlling AR development via the auxin pathway. Overall, our results indicate that a novel WOX11 –SAUR –auxin signaling regulatory module is required for AR development in poplar. These findings provide key insights and a better understanding of the involvement of WOX11 in root developmental plasticity in saline environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five caged polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols including an unprecedented octahydro-2,5-methanoindene skeleton (1) were discovered from Hypericum curvisepalum. Biologically, 1 and 2 are potent Cav3.2 T-type Ca2+ channel inhibitors with negligible effect on the cardiovascular antitarget, the human ether-à-go-go-related gene potassium channel. Additionally, 2 indicates strong antinociception in the mouse acetic acid writhing test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strain-controlled low cycle fatigue tests were carried out at 298 ​K for the newly developed micro-grain casting K4169 superalloy, and the cyclic stress response, deformation and fracture behaviors of the alloy were studied. The results show that the fatigue life of the alloy was increased by more than two times compared with other casting K4169 alloys. This can be partly attributed to grain refinement impeding crack initiation and propagation. When the strain amplitude was in plastic range (Δε t /2 ​≥ ​0.5%), the alloy displayed a short period of initial cyclic stability followed by cyclic softening to fracture. By observing dislocation configurations, only a few dislocations moved around grain boundaries at initial cycles, leading to short cyclic stability. Afterwards, dislocations in the slip bands cut γ" phase continuously leading to cyclic softening. When the strain amplitude was in elastic range (Δε t /2 ​≤ ​0.4%), the alloy exhibited elastic deformation and the peak stress kept stable. In addition, the crack initiation site changed from the MC carbides to the persistent slip bands on surface with increasing strain amplitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinodal decomposition is an important mechanism of exsolution. However, spinodal decomposition has not been observed in natural sulfide intergrowths. We utilized focused ion beam (FIB) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques to confirm spinodal decomposition in natural sulfide intergrowths (chalcopyrite and bornite). According to FIB and TEM analyses, spinodal decomposition occurred as small and curving alternating dark and bright fluctuations in natural bornite–chalcopyrite intergrowths. Due to the low temperature that drove the exsolution mechanism, fluctuations ~10 nm wide and 20–200 nm long contained non-stoichiometric and tetragonal bornite and chalcopyrite. The corresponding electron diffraction of spinodal decomposition displayed a satellite spot in the [−210] direction for bornite, and the (200)* and (224)* of chalcopyrite paralleled the (24−2)* and (242)* of bornite, respectively. These observations all agreed with spinodal decomposition, two coexisting phases formed with a crystallographic orientation relationship, which indicated the first observation of spinodal decomposition in natural sulfide intergrowths. These findings confirmed that spinodal decomposition is a mechanism for natural crystal growth. As spinodal decomposition is larger in extent and faster than nucleation and growth, other Cu ore deposits may also form via this mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants experiencing abiotic stress can produce excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), ultimately impacting the crop growth and yield. Hydrogen peroxide H2O2 is a relatively stable active ROS and is mainly scavenged by catalase. In this study, the catalase‐encoding E. coli KatE gene was transferred to cotton plants by Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation. From almost 100 independent transgenic lines, three transgenic lines were identified that did not display a discernible growth and yield phenotype when grown under well‐watered field conditions, but were tolerant to drought under field conditions, resulting in a ~ 25% higher cotton‐seed yield. The three lines were analysed under controlled laboratory conditions to explain the drought‐dependent phenotype: the transgenic lines displayed drought‐inducible EcKatE expression and total catalase activity was only higher than that of the wild type during growth under drought or salinity stress. Furthermore, drought‐induced ectopic EcKatE expression increased total SOD and POD activities, decreased H2O2 levels and improved photosystem II performance and relative water content. The results show that ectopic EcKatE expression displays an advantage during drought stress, without negatively affecting yield during well‐watered field conditions. EcKatE overexpression confers hyper‐resistance to drought in cotton and provides improved cotton‐seed yield under water‐limiting field conditions. And the EcKatE gene might also be a promising drought‐resistant gene for improving other crop varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The frequent incidence of postsurgical recurrence issues in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients is a primary concern considering the low cancer‐related mortality. Previous studies have demonstrated that epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) activation is closely related to PTC progression and invasion. In this study, we aimed to develop a novel EMT signature and ancillary nomogram to improve personalized prediction of progression‐free interval (PFI). Methods: First, we carried out a differential analysis of PTC samples and pairwise normal thyroid samples to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The intersection of the DEGs with EMT‐related genes (ERGs) were identified as differentially expressed EMT‐related genes (DE‐ERGs). We determined PFI‐related DE‐ERGs by Cox regression analysis and then established a novel gene classifier by LASSO regression analysis. We validated the signature in external datasets and in multiple cell lines. Further, we used uni‐ and multivariate analyses to identify independent prognostic characters. Results: We identified 244 prognosis‐related DE‐ERGs. The 244 DE‐ERGs were associated with several pivotal oncogenic processes. We also constructed a novel 10‐gene signature and relevant prognostic model for recurrence prediction of PTC. The 10‐gene signature had a C‐index of 0.723 and the relevant nomogram had a C‐index of 0.776. The efficacy of the signature and nomogram was satisfying and closely correlated with relevant clinical parameters. Furthermore, the signature also had a unique potential in differentiating anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) samples. Conclusions: The novel EMT signature and nomogram are useful and convenient for personalized management for thyroid cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer will cause many adverse consequences in paddy fields, especially for the reduction in N use efficiency. Biochar can be used to replace part of N fertilizer for rice production. A field experiment of 2-year/four-season was conducted to investigate the effects of N fertilizer reduction combined with rice straw biochar application on rice yield, soil fertility, and N use efficiency. The experiment contained six treatments: No N application (CK), customary N application (N100), 20% N reduction (N80), 20% N reduction + biochar (N80+BC), 40% N reduction (N60), and 40% N reduction + biochar (N60+BC). Compared with N100, N reduction alone had no significant impact on the number of tillers and aboveground biomass of rice, exceptfor N60 which slightly reduced grain yield, while biochar incorporation tended to obtain higher tillers, aboveground biomass, and grain yield of rice compared with N reduction alone. The average contribution of biochar to grain yield on the basis of N80 and N60 were 5.8% and 7.7%, respectively. Notably, biochar incorporation further improved the agronomic N efficiency (54.5–309.4% over N100) and apparent N recovery (25.7–150.5% over N100) on the basis of N reduction. Furthermore, biochar application could not only maintain N nutrition level of rice, but also improve soil fertility mainly by increasing soil pH and organic matter. Therefore, integrated application of mineral N fertilizer and biochar is a feasible nutrient management measure to increase rice yield and soil fertility, and improve N use efficiency in paddy ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we demonstrate a high-performance polarization rotator (PR) based on flat-shaped photonic crystal fiber. The flat surfaces of the fiber are plated on gold films as electrodes, and the core of the structure is filled with liquid crystal. The polarization rotation characteristics of the flat-shaped fiber can be effectively adjusted by applying external voltage. The optical properties are analyzed using the finite element method (FEM). The results show that the magnitude of the modulation voltage is closely related to the thickness of the flat fiber. When the fiber thickness is 20 μm, only 100 V is required to achieve the highest PR performance. In the wavelength of the 1.55 μm band (~200 nm bandwidth), the conversion length of the PR is only 3.99 μm, the conversion efficiency is close to 100%, and the minimum crosstalk value is −26.2 dB. The presented PR, with its excellent performance, might enable promising applications in the communication system and the photonic integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a self‐reporting bioadhesive patch that has strong adhesion to the wet tissues and meanwhile can avoid adhering to the adjacent tissues is a current research difficulty and challenge. In this paper, inspired by the wet adhesion of spider web, slippery surface of Nepenthes, and structural color phenomena of chameleons, a novel structural color medical patch with surface dual‐properties of wet bioadhesion and slipperiness for internal tissue repair based on inverse opal scaffold is presented. The adhesive surface made by poly(acrylic acid)–polyethylene glycol–N‐hydroxysuccinimide ester and gelatin hydrogel can attain tough adhesion to internal wet tissues by absorbing tissue interfacial water and the covalent cross‐linking between the hydrogel and tissue. Besides, the slippery surface made by liquid paraffin infused inverse opal scaffold can avoid adhesion to the adjacent tissues. It is demonstrated that the designed patch can adhere tightly to the defect tissue and improve the tissue repair without adjacent adhesion when applied in a rat model with full‐thickness perforation of the stomach wall. In addition, the responsive structural color can supply a color‐sensing monitoring to evaluate the adhesive and repair process. These features impart the bioinspired patch with great scientific significance and broad clinical application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flapping-motion of the caudal fin allows the fish to swim with high efficiency and mobility, particularly in terms of persistence, propulsion, and acceleration. This has led to theoretical and practical research on the development of robotic caudal fin thrusters that offer similar properties and performance. However, the current caudal fin thrusters are driven by electromagnetic motors, which require a transmission system that makes them difficult to miniaturize, and need protection against water intrusion. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel piezoelectric caudal fin thruster with a fully open structure that has no chambers in any of its parts. The converse, piezoelectric effect and direct friction drive principle are used to make a rotation unit for the piezoelectric actuator drive and achieve a reciprocating motion that makes the caudal fin flap. The proposed piezoelectric caudal fin thruster has an open and simple structure. It has a weight of 30 g, a length of 89 mm, and a thrust of 0.07 N. It is easy to miniaturize and is lighter, smaller, and more efficient than previously reported caudal fin thrusters that were based on ionic polymer–metal composites and shape memory alloys. Experimental results verified the effectiveness of the proposed design, which can be easily scaled up or down in size depending on the operating situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of current processing-in-memory (PIM) architectures are application specific, that is, they can only accelerate particular functions, e.g., matrix-vector dot product for neural network acceleration. However, practical applications usually involve various functions. In order to accelerate different functions, various accelerators, and dedicated circuits have been proposed. In this work, by exploring the similarities among some commonly used dedicated circuits, we adopt ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs) to build a reconfigurable multifunctional memory architecture named Re-FeMAT. Re-FeMAT is composed of multiple processing elements (PEs). Each PE is not only a nonvolatile memory array, but also can perform logic operations (i.e., the PIM mode), convolutions (i.e., the binary convolutional neural network and the convolutional neural network (CNN) acceleration mode) and content search (i.e., the ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) mode) without changing the circuit structure. Re-FeMAT can support applications that require multiple functions. As an example, by configuring different PEs to different working modes and using a simulated annealing algorithm or a tabu search algorithm to optimize the task-PE assignment, Re-FeMAT can completely accelerate few-shot learning applications. Our simulation results based on a calibrated FeFET model show that the proposed Re-FeMAT architecture achieves better performance and power efficiency than the previous FeMAT architecture. Compared with FeFET-based single-functional circuits, though the power dissipation of Re-FeMAT is higher in some modes, the power-delay product is still smaller. Compared with a state-of-the-art FeFET-based multifunctional accelerator named attention-in-memory, Re-FeMAT achieves lower power, latency, and energy when accelerating a complete few-shot learning task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The longitudinal associations of sleep timing and time in bed (TIB) with dementia and cognitive decline in older adults are unclear. Methods: This population‐based cohort study used data from 1982 participants who were aged ≥60 years, free of dementia, and living in rural communities in western Shandong, China. At the baseline (2014) and follow‐up (2018) examinations, sleep parameters were assessed using standard questionnaires. Cognitive function was measured using the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE). Dementia was diagnosed following the DSM‐IV criteria, and the NIA‐AA criteria for Alzheimer disease (AD). Data were analyzed using restricted cubic splines, Cox proportional‐hazards models, and general linear models. Results: During the mean follow‐up of 3.7 years, dementia was diagnosed in 97 participants (68 with AD). Restricted cubic spline curves showed J‐shaped associations of sleep duration, TIB, and rise time with dementia risk, and a reverse J‐shaped association with mid‐sleep time. When sleep parameters were categorized into tertiles, the multivariable‐adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of incident dementia was 1.69 (95%CI 1.01–2.83) for baseline sleep duration >8 hours (vs. 7–8 h), 2.17 (1.22–3.87) for bedtime before 9 p.m. (vs. 10 p.m. or later), and 2.00 (1.23–3.24) for mid‐sleep time before 1 a.m. (vs. 1–1.5 a.m.). Early bedtime and mid‐sleep time were significantly associated with incident AD (HR range: 2.25–2.51; p < 0.05). Among individuals who were free of dementia at follow‐up, baseline long TIB, early bedtime and mid‐sleep time, early and late rise time, and prolonged TIB and advanced bedtime and mid‐sleep time from baseline to follow‐up were associated with a greater decline in MMSE score (p < 0.05). These associations with cognitive decline were statistically evident mainly among men or participants who were aged 60–74 years. Conclusions: Long TIB and early sleep timing are associated with an increased risk of dementia, and the associations with greater cognitive decline are evident only among older people aged 60–74 years and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In material processing and handling processes, premixed interlayer often replace the ideal Ni/Al interface, which would become a new origin of alloying reaction. This work investigates shock-induced reaction mechanism and kinetics of premixed Ni/Al nanolaminates with molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical analysis. The reaction is found to be driven by the crystallization evolution in premixed interlayer and the diffusion of premixed atoms. Among them, multi-stage reaction patterns are strongly manifested by the crystallization evolution characteristics. Specifically, "crystallization-dissolution-secondary growth" and "crystallization-dissolution" of B2 phase respectively correspond to the solid-state and solid-liquid reaction cases, where crystallizations are fitted well by Johnson–Mehl–Avrami kinetics model. Interestingly, the different growth mechanisms of B2 grain are revealed, namely nuclei coalescence and atomic diffusion. Moreover, the analysis of microscopic diffusion theory indicates a certain non-random diffusion nature for solid-state reaction initiation, but near-purely random diffusion for solid-liquid reaction initiation. The diffused Al atoms possess a limited diffusion coefficient and enhanced diffusion correlation, resulting in extremely slow mixing rate in Ni layer. In addition, the influence law of Ni concentration in premixed interlayer on reactivity parameters can be quantitatively described by a quadratic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A traditional method for preparing a gel electrode membrane is generally free radical polymerization or chemical cross-linking, which inevitably introduces toxic substances. In this work, an all-natural gel electrolyte membrane is prepared by condensing chitosan, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, and tannic acid through a simple two-step method to achieve physical cross-linking through hydrogen bonding interactions. The hydrogel electrolyte membrane displays excellent mechanical properties with a strength of 2.8 MPa and an elongation of 35%, and a high ionic conductivity of 1.43 × 10−2 S cm−1; the flexible supercapacitor shows good electrochemical performance with a capacitance retention of 84% and an energy density of 14.29 Wh kg−1. Interestingly, based on the principle of sol–gel interaction, the electrochemical performance of the regenerated hydrogel electrolyte membrane remains stable, and the preparation method has also been proved to be a strategy universal to other natural polymer materials that contain the same functional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, is a major cosmopolitan pest on cruciferous crops. It has developed resistance to all major classes of chemical pesticides. Botanical pesticides are important in the control of insect pests due to its eco-friendly nature. In the present study, insecticidal and enzyme inhibition activity of the main alkaloids in Areca catechu (areca nut) against P. xylostella larvae were investigated. The methanol extracts of the areca nut (MEAN) caused high mortality in a leaf-dip bioassay, with a 50% lethal concentration (LC50) value of 45.04 mg/L. Eight alkaloid constituents were identified in the MEAN by UPLC-Triple-TOF/MS. The MEAN was dominated by arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline and guvacine. The bioassay results demonstrated that arecoline exhibited high activity, with an LC50 value of 70.28 mg/L, followed by arecaidine (97.67 mg/L), guvacoline and guvacine showing LC50 values of 188.15 and 137.66 mg/L, respectively. Both additive and synergism effect were displayed by all combinations of the constituents, especially arecoline + arecaidine (1:1), which had a synergism effect with a poison ratio of 1.35. Furthermore, the MEAN, arecoline and arecaidine were shown to inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities with values of 2.2, 3.44 and 3.13 nmol/min•mg protein, respectively, and in case of carboxylesterase (CarE) activities, higher inhibition was found in the arecoline and arecaidine exhibiting 34.29 and 20.82 nmol/min•mg protein, respectively. These results suggested that the MEAN, arecoline and arecaidine from areca nuts have insecticidal and enzyme inhibition activity against P. xylostella larvae, and they have potential to develop as eco-friendly botanical pesticide against P. xylostella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on node importance identification for temporal networks has attracted much attention. In this work, combined with the multi-layer coupled network analysis method, an optimized supra-adjacency matrix (OSAM) modeling method was proposed. In the process of constructing an optimized super adjacency matrix, the intra-layer relationship matrixes were improved by introducing the edge weight. The inter-layer relationship matrixes were formed by improved similarly and the inter-layer relationship is directional by using the characteristics of directed graphs. The model established by the OSAM method accurately expresses the structure of the temporal network and considers the influence of intra- and inter-layer relationships on the importance of nodes. In addition, an index was calculated by the average of the sum of the eigenvector centrality indices for a node in each layer and the node importance sorted list was obtained from this index to express the global importance of nodes in temporal networks. The experimental results on three real temporal network datasets Enron, Emaildept3, and Workspace showed that compared with the SAM and the SSAM methods, the OSAM method has a faster message propagation rate and larger message coverage and better SIR and NDCG@10 indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntheses of two triads are reported. Each triad is composed of two perylene-monoimides linked to a porphyrin via an ethyne unit, which bridges the perylene 9-position and a porphyrin 5- or 15-position. Each triad also contains a single tether composed of an alkynoic acid or an isophthalate unit. Each triad provides panchromatic absorption (350–700 nm) with fluorescence emission in the near-infrared region (733 or 743 nm; fluorescence quantum yield ~0.2). The syntheses rely on the preparation of trans-AB-porphyrins bearing one site for tether attachment (A), an aryl group (B), and two open meso-positions. The AB-porphyrins were prepared by the condensation of a 1,9-diformyldipyrromethane and a dipyrromethane. The installation of the two perylene-monoimide groups was achieved upon the 5,15-dibromination of the porphyrin and the subsequent copper-free Sonogashira coupling, which was accomplished before or after the attachment of the tether. The syntheses provide relatively straightforward access to a panchromatic absorber for use in bioconjugation or surface-attachment processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coconut husk biomass waste was used as the carbon precursor to develop a simple and economical process for the preparation of hierarchical porous activated carbon, and the electrochemical properties of the electrode material were explored. The important process variables of carbonization, the weight ratios of the coconut shell/KOH, the amount of source dopant, and the carbonization temperature were investigated in order to reveal the influence of the as-obtained microporous/mesoporous/macroporous hierarchical porous carbon materials on the powder properties. Using a BET specific surface area analyzer, Raman analysis, XPS and SEM, surface morphology, pore distribution and specific surface area of the hierarchical porous carbon materials are discussed. The results show that the as-prepared N-, S- and O-heteroatom-co-doped activated carbon electrode was manufactured at 700 °C for electrochemical characteristics. The electrochemical behavior has the characteristics of pseudo-capacitance, and could reach 186 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 when measured by the galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) test. After 7000 cycles of the charge–discharge test, the initial capacitance value retention rate was 95.6%. It is predicted that capacitor materials made when using coconut shell as a carbon source will have better energy storage performance than traditional carbon supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polarization of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) plays a key role in tumor development and immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, the impact of apoptosis on TAM polarization and immunotherapy efficacy in patients with different mismatch repair statuses (MMR) remains unclear. Here, we constructed an atlas of macrophage and found a higher rate of infiltration of M2-like TAM subpopulation in pMMR CRC tumor tissues compared with that in dMMR CRC tumor tissues. Importantly, a lower infiltration rate of M2c-like TAMs was associated with immunotherapy response. The M2 polarization trajectory revealed the apoptosis of M2c-like TAMs in dMMR while the differentiation of M2c-like TAMs in pMMR, implying a higher polarization level of M2 in pMMR. Furthermore, we found that a high expression of S100A6 induces the apoptosis of M2c-like TAMs in dMMR. In conclusion, we identified apoptotic TAM subpopulations in the M2 polarization trajectory and found that apoptosis caused by the high expression of S100A6 reduces their infiltration in tumors as well as the level of M2 polarization and contributes to a favorable immunotherapy response. These findings provide new insights into the potential role of apoptosis in suppressing tumors and enhancing immunotherapeutic efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ignition prediction of polymer-bonded explosives is difficult due to complex multiphysics coupling processes with heterogeneous microstructure, such as microcrack, microvoid, crystal size, and the interface property. Traditional simulation completely depends on the materials model and it is quite time-consuming. In this paper, considering heterogeneous microcracks, the data-driven ignition prediction method is proposed. A hybrid machine learning algorithm integrated with principal component analysis (PCA), binary gravitational search algorithm (BGSA) and backpropagation neural networks (BPNN) is developed. Based on the ignition database produced by finite element simulation, combining the developed prediction method, the results show better accuracy and efficiency on ignition prediction, compared with another four traditional machine learning algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: From the perspective of the work-home resource model, the present research aims to investigate the effect mechanism of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) on work-family enrichment. Sample and Method: Based on 316 Chinese employees' samples, this study takes the multiple linear regression technique to test our hypothesis model. Results: Our study reveals that FSSB is positively related to work-family enrichment. In addition, thriving at work can mediate the positive relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviors and work-family enrichment. Furthermore, the moderating role of intrinsic motivation is also found in this study. Specifically, intrinsic motivation strengthens the positive relationship between FSSB and thriving at work. Facing FSSB, individuals who score high in intrinsic motivation are prone to experience stronger thriving at work, while individuals who score low will hardly experience thriving at work. Conclusion: The current study comprehensively explores how informal organizational support (in our case, family supportive supervisor behaviors) leads to a better family outcome, thus contributing to the work-family interface literature. At the same time, our study also has some guiding significance for practitioners to build a family-friendly environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. In order to verify the safety and effectiveness of tirofiban combined with statins in the perioperative period of intracranial aneurysms, this study adopts systematic review and meta-analysis, so as to comprehensively understand the situation of intracranial aneurysms in the perioperative period, and tirofiban combined with statins was finally determined as an effective treatment drug. Methods. This study used systematic retrospective analysis and selected 80 patients with intracranial aneurysms treated in our hospital from June 2021 to June 2022 as the research objects. Through conventional drugs and tirofiban combined with statins used in this study, the intracranial levels, the probability of aneurysm rupture, and postoperative complications of the two groups were observed and recorded. Results. The analysis of 80 patients with intracranial aneurysms showed that the influence of intracranial levels in the observation group was better than that in the reference group, the rupture of aneurysms in the observation group was lower than that in the reference group, and the incidence of postoperative complications in the observation group was lower than that in the reference group. Conclusion. Through simulation verification, it is concluded that tirofiban combined with statins is safe and effective in the perioperative application of intracranial aneurysms. This drug can improve vascular recanalization, reduce the incidence of cerebrovascular disease events, and reduce the incidence of rebleeding. Its therapeutic effect is worthy of wide clinical application and promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wide‐bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) suffer from severe voltage loss, which significantly limits the enhancement of photovoltaic performance. Here, 4‐fluoro‐phenylethylammonium iodide (FPEAI) is used as a dual‐functional agent for oriented crystallization and comprehensive passivation of WBG PSCs. The additive of FPEAI promotes crystals to grow along with the (100) orientation with improved crystallinity and to spontaneously form Ruddlesden–Popper 2D perovskite on the grain boundary and surface of 3D crystals, which can passivate defects and protect the perovskite film from moisture erosion as well as suppressed ion migration. In addition, the 2D/3D heterostructure induces a matched energy‐level alignment, which mitigates the detrimental interfacial charge recombination at the interface of the 3D perovskite and hole transport layer. Consequently, the modified WBG PSCs exhibit an improved open‐circuit voltage to 1.3 V and a fill factor of 77.8%, leading to a remarkable power conversion efficiency of 19.1% with negligible hysteresis. Furthermore, the WBG PSCs maintain 85% of the original efficiency after 1000 h in air, demonstrating outstanding humidity stability. This work indicates that FPEAI can be used as a dual‐functional agent to significantly enhance the efficiency of WBG PSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the controllability of first-order impulsive fuzzy differential equations. Using the direct construction method, the controllability of first-order linear impulsive fuzzy differential equations is considered with a < 0 , the (c1) solution, and a < 0 , the (c2) solution, respectively.In addition, by employing the Banach fixed-point theorem, the controllability of first-order nonlinear impulsive fuzzy differential equations is studied. Finally, examples are presented to illustrate our theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for the bilinear Dunkl–Hausdorff operators on the product Lebesgue spaces and (central) Morrey spaces. We also obtain the sharp constant for the bilinear Dunkl–Hausdorff operators on the weighted Lebesgue spaces L k p (1 ≤ p < ∞) when the matrix A in the definition of operators is a scalar matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]