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A simple method for the controllable synthesis of Au nanocrystals–metal selenide hybrid nanostructures via amino acid guiding strategy is proposed. The results show that the symmetric overgrowth mode of PbSe shells on Au nanorods can be precisely manipulated by only adjusting the initial concentration of Pb2+. The shape of Au–PbSe hybrids can evolve from dumbbell-like to yolk-shell. Interestingly, the plasmonic absorption enhancement could be tuned by the symmetry of these hybrid nanostructures. This provides an effective pathway for maneuvering plasmon-induced energy transfer in metal–semiconductor hybrids. In addition, the photoactivities of Au–PbSe nanorods sensitized TiO2 electrodes have been further evaluated. Owing to the synergism between effective plasmonic enhancement effect and efficient interfacial charge transfer in these hybrid nanostructures, the Au–PbSe yolk-shell nanorods exhibit an outstanding photocurrent activity. Their photocurrent density is 4.38 times larger than that of Au–PbSe dumbbell-like nanorods under light irradiation at λ > 600 nm. As a versatile method, the proposed strategy can also be employed to synthesize other metal–selenide hybrid nanostructures (such as Au–CdSe, Au–Bi2Se3 and Au–CuSe). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Highly ordered porous MOFs have been emerged as promising candidates for efficient immobilization of enzyme. • An update and systematic review about MOFs for enzyme immobilization is presented. • General strategies for preparation of MOFs-enzyme composites and the key factors during synthetic procedures are summarized. • MOFs-enzyme composites with significantly improved catalytic performances have been extensively utilized in different fields. • Research hotspots, barriers and future perspectives of this developing area are described. As a typical green methodology, enzymatic catalysis has been extensively employed in multitudinous chemical and biological transformation procedures. However, intrinsic fragile nature of enzymes makes them prone to denaturation or destabilization in harsh practical conditions, leading to unavoidably shortened lifespan and extremely high cost. It was proven that enzyme immobilization is an efficient strategy for enhancing their catalytic performance in continuous industrial practices. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) with extremely high specific surface area, abundant porosity, extraordinary multifunctionality, and relatively high stability, in recent years, have attracted remarkable research interests as novel supporting matrices for efficient enzyme immobilization and protection. Many reported MOFs-enzyme composites exhibit unprecedented catalytic performances than those of free enzymes, including improved enzyme efficiency, stability, selectivity, and recyclability, due to the protection of enzymes by highly ordered frameworks. To present a systematic overview of this emerging and developing field, herein, we summarize an update review about the most recent advances in MOFs immobilizing enzymes from the aspects of general synthetic approaches, critical impact factors, enhanced catalytic performances, and the practical applications. Subsequently, the emerging theories, methodologies and technologies in this thriving area are briefly introduced. Finally, barriers and future perspectives about MOFs for enzyme immobilization are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propagation of surface water wave pulses over a topographical bottom with randomly arranged cylindrical steps is investigated by multiple scattering theory. It is shown that the waves within a certain frequency range can be localized due to the strong multiple scattering process. In the localized state, the wave intensity decreases exponentially as the transmitted distance increases. By making use of this effect, some components contained in the pulse can be filtered or inhibited by the cylinder ensemble and trapped for a relatively long period of time until dissipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show some properties of the acoustic propagation in two-dimensional sonic crystals, formed by parallel rigid cylinders placed in air. The transmission through slabs of sonic crystals and the associated band structures are considered. It is shown that within partial band gaps, the waves tend to be collimated or guided into the direction in which the propagation is allowed. Such a feature also prevails in the situations in which deaf bands appear. We show that within the partial band gaps, a stable imaging effect can be obtained for flat sonic crystal slabs, in analogy to the cases with photonic crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Method: This study included 74 Chinese male patients with HCC. They were divided into early (n = 19), intermediate (n = 37), and terminal (n = 18) groups, referred to as Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage 0+A, B, and C+D, respectively. Paired fecal and plasma samples were collected. Microbial composition and profiles were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The levels of gut damage marker (regenerating islet-derived protein 3α (REG3α)) and microbial translocation markers (soluble CD14 (sCD14), lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs)) were determined in plasma samples of patients by ELISA. Twenty plasma cytokine and chemokines were determined by Luminex.Results: In early, intermediate, and terminal groups, the abundance of the Bifidobacteriaceae family decreased significantly (3.52%, 1.55%, and 0.56%, respectively, P = 0.003), while the abundance of the Enterococcaceae family increased significantly (1.6%, 2.9%, and 13.4%, respectively, P = 0.022). Levels of REG3α and sCD14 were markedly elevated only in the terminal group compared with the early (P = 0.025 and P = 0.048) and intermediate groups (P = 0.023 and P = 0.046). The level of LBP significantly increased in the intermediate (P = 0.035) and terminal (P = 0.025) groups compared with the early group. The PGRP levels were elevated only in the terminal group compared with the early group (P = 0.018). The ratio of Enterococcaceae to Bifidobacteriaceae was significantly associated with the levels of REG3α, LBP, sCD14, and PGRPs. With HCC progression, increased levels of inflammatory cytokines accompanied by a T cell-immunosuppressive response and microbial translocation were observed.Conclusion: Gut microbiota compositional and functional shift, together with elevated gut damage and microbial translocation, may promote HCC development by stimulating inflammatory response and suppressing T cell response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust text reading is a very challenging problem, due to the distribution of text images changing significantly in real-world scenarios. One effective solution is to align the distribution between different domains by domain adaptation methods. However, we found that these methods might struggle when dealing sequence-like text images. An important reason is that conventional domain adaptation methods strive to align images as a whole, while text images consist of variable-length fine-grained character information. To address this issue, we propose a novel Adversarial Sequence-to-Sequence Domain Adaptation (ASSDA) method to learn “where to adapt” and “how to align” the sequential image. Our key idea is to mine the local regions that contain characters, and focus on aligning them across domains in an adversarial manner. Extensive text recognition experiments show the ASSDA could efficiently transfer sequence knowledge and validate the promising power towards the various domain shift in the real world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peripheral nerve stimulators have emerged as a crucial instrument in the realm of neurological disease, capable of modulating nerve activity through precisely targeted electrical stimulation to specific sites within the nervous system. Herein, a new wireless battery‐free peripheral nerve stimulation device for remote muscle activation is developed. The device with conch‐inspired bionic design can be wirelessly powered and controlled by a mobile phone playing audio via the piezoelectric effect. The device consists of two parts: a conch‐like signal‐intensifying piezoelectric resonator for converting acoustic wave into electrostimulation signal; and a pedestal with stimulation electrodes for transmitting the electrostimulation signal to a peripheral nerve. For remote nerve intervention, a programmed audio tone from one mobile phone can be tele‐transmitted from other phones according to the desired stimulation protocols. In‐vivo experiments in stimulating the sciatic nerve in mice showed that the device can activate muscles (e.g., 1 Hz 920 mV for 26 degree of leg movement), and the neuron‐muscle interaction has been confirmed by electromyogram (EMG). The wireless peripheral nerve stimulation conch achieves feasible remote muscle activation without batteries, and can extend the scope of self‐powered techniques for telemedicine and limb/trunk rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the safety and efficacy of iodine-125 seed implantation in the treatment of abdomen-thorax desmoid tumors (DTs). Data from 14 DT patients who received brachytherapy with iodine-125 seeds were retrospectively collected from 2014 to 2020. The operation was completed using CT guidance and the treatment plan system (TPS). The number of lesions and the target dosimetry parameters were recorded. After brachytherapy, the lesions were evaluated using response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST). Fourteen patients with 18 lesions were enrolled in this study; eleven lesions were in the thorax, seven were in the abdomen, and the lesion gross tumor volume (GTV) was 82.10 cc (interquartile range [IQR]: 40.37, 203.42 cc). The median number of seeds was 88 (IQR: 35, 158), and the median prescription dose was 120 Gy (IQR: 115, 120 Gy). The D 90 was 123 ± 16.7 Gy, the V 90 was 97% (IQR: 95.00, 97.25%), and the V 200 was 27% (IQR: 14.50, 33.00%). The median follow-up time for each lesion was 34 (IQR: 23, 67) months, and the local response rate was 100%. Following brachytherapy, the overall survival was 52.3 ± 30.72 months. One year after brachytherapy, one patient experienced persistent worsening of a brachial plexus injury; another received a ureteral stent. No brachytherapy-related complications were observed in the remaining patients. Iodine-125 brachytherapy is a novel treatment option for DT of the abdomen and thorax. Although it is a safe and effective treatment, the radiation dose of iodine-125 brachytherapy for DT-embedded organs at risk must be investigated further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early detection of leaks in natural gas gathering pipelines makes proactive maintenance and corrective measures take place more effective, thus enhancing the safe and reliable operation of pipelines and mitigating serious threats to the environment and human life. The data-driven leak detection methods have become a natural choice owing to the extensive deployment of sensors in the pipeline network. However, the supervised and semi-supervised leak detection methods need to utilize a certain amount of leak data to train reliable classifiers, and labeled data usually difficult to obtain in real-world applications especially for the gas industry. Besides, most of data-driven methods today only consider the long-term or short-term patterns hidden in the multivariate time series rather than both, which may reduce their effectiveness since temporal data generated in the real-world applications often relates to a mixture of these two patterns. To settle this challenge, we propose a novel unsupervised leak detection method by utilizing a one-dimensional convolutional autoencoder (1D-CAE) to learn short-term dependency patterns from local time series and a long short-term memory (LSTM) to discover evolving trends about long-term patterns from entire temporal data. The proposed method not only calculates the difference between actual samples and their predictions but also compares the inputs and their reconstructions, where comparisons of reconstruction are further extended from input space to hidden spaces. The obtained deviations are then integrated through the developed integration strategy and employed to calculate their global leak scores. Specially, considering that the magnitudes of deviations integrated together are diverse or there may exist correlation among these deviations caused by correlated neurons across layers, the minimum covariance determinant (MCD) method is employed to scale deviations and eliminate correlations along the projection pathway. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified on real datasets of natural gas gathering pipeline. In addition, analysis of experimental results demonstrates that the proposed method has good accuracy, and is conducive to operating in the context of uncontrolled long-term monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and development of a rapid and quantitative method for the detection of heavy metal ions is of great importance for environmental protection. We have prepared a 1,8-Naphthalimide modified cellulose composite fluorescent hydrogel (CENAEA/PAA) with a stereo double network structure. Characterized by excellent hydrogel functional structure and fluorescence detection performance, it can efficiently and selectively identify and detect Cr(VI) with linear quenching in the range of 0–400 μmol/L and detection limit of 0.58 μmol/L for Cr(VI). The results show that the CENAEA/PAA can effectively adsorb Cr(VI) with a maximum adsorption capacity of 189.04 mg/g. Finally, the morphological characteristics, chemical structure, fluorescence properties and adsorption behavior of CENAEA/PAA were analyzed and fitted well with the pseudo-second-order model and Freundlich model. Thus, the present work provides a green and sustainable approach for the synthesis of a functional material that can be used for the detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions. [Display omitted] • A 1,8-naphthalenediamine-modified cellulose composite fluorescent hydrogel (CENAEA/PAA) with a stereo double network structure was prepared. • The CENAEA was used as the raw material for in situ polymerization with acrylic acid to form CENAEA/PAA fluorescent hydrogel with three-dimensional double network structure. • It can efficiently detect and adsorb Cr(VI) with a linear quenching range of 0-400 μmol/L. The detection limit of Cr(VI) is 0.58 μmol/L and the maximum adsorption amount is 189.04 mg/g. • It provides new ideas for the design and development of cellulose-based fluorescent probes for biomass resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a remarkable period of brain development. Prenatal stress can increase the risk of various neuropsychiatric disorders. This research investigated neurochemical and behavioural changes in the offspring rats (especially adolescences) who were treated with repeated variable prenatal stress (PNS) during the third week of gestation. The study tested the concentration of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68), synaptotagmin‐1(Syt‐1), 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT), dopamine (DA), glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and oestrogen receptors (ERs) in the PFC (prefrontal cortex). We also tested prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR) (a measure of sensorimotor gating). The main results were as follows: PNS increased the BDNF and CD68 concentrations in adolescent females, and increased the Syt‐1 concentration in adolescent males. The increases in BDNF/CD68 concentration (in females) and Syt‐1/DA concentration (in males) with age were disturbed by PNS, and PNS changed the sex differences in CD68 concentration in adolescence and disturbed the sex differences in the Syt‐1 concentration (in adolescence) and DA concentration (in adults). In conclusion, we found that PNS lead to Sex‐dependent aberrant PFC development, and might accelerate the development of the adolescent PFC, and so that lessened the age difference (between adolescence and adulthood) and the sex difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since most real-world processes exhibit both nonlinear and time-varying characteristics, there exists a need for accurate and efficient models that can adapt in nonstationary environments. Also for adaptive control purpose, it is vital that an adaptive model has a fixed small model size. In this paper, we propose an adaptive tunable gradient radial basis function (GRBF) network for online modeling of nonlinear dynamic processes, which meets these practical requirements. Specifically, a compact GRBF model is constructed by the orthogonal least squares algorithm in training, which is capable of modeling variations of local mean and trend in the data well. During online operation, the adaptive GRBF model tacks the time-varying process's dynamics by replacing a worst performing node with a new node which encodes the current new data. By exploiting the local predictor property of the GRBF node, the new node optimization can be done extremely efficiently. The proposed approach combining the advantages of both the GRBF network structure and fast tunable node mechanism is capable of tracking the time-varying nonlinear dynamics accurately and effectively. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed fast tunable GRBF network significantly outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods, in terms of both adaptive modeling accuracy and online computational complexity. • Fast adaptive gradient radial basis function (GRBF) network for online modeling and prediction of nonlinear and nonstationary dynamic processes. • Small fixed number of nodes encode the learnt process's states, and each node is an accurate local predictor of the corresponding process state. • During online adaptation, the worst performing node is replaced by the newest process state which automatically becomes the perfect local predictor for the process output. • This tunable GRBF model is suitable for adaptive control system applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major depression is one of the leading causes of disability, morbidity, and mortality worldwide. The brain–gut axis functions are disturbed, revealed by a dysfunction of the brain, immune system, endocrine system, and gut. Traditional depression treatments all target the brain, with different drugs and/or psychotherapy. Unfortunately, most of the patients have never received any treatment. Studies indicate that gut microbiota could be a direct cause for the disorder. Abnormal microbiota and the microbiota–gut–brain dysfunction may cause mental disorders, while correcting these disturbance could alleviate depression. Nowadays, the gut microbiota modulation has become a hot topic in treatment research of mental disorders. Depression is closely related with the health condition of the brain–gut axis, and maintaining/restoring the normal condition of gut microbiota helps in the prevention/therapy of mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a selective ensemble of multiple local model learning for modeling and identification of nonlinear and nonstationary systems, in which the set of local linear models are self adapted to capture the newly emerging process characteristics and the prediction of the process output is also self adapted based on an optimally selected ensemble of subset linear local models. Specifically, our selective ensemble of multiple local model learning approach performs the model adaptation at two levels. At the level of local model adaptation, a newly emerging process state in the incoming data is automatically identified and a new local linear model is fitted to this newly emerged process state. At the level of online prediction, a subset of candidate local linear models are optimally selected and the prediction of the process output is computed as an optimal linear combiner of the selected subset local linear models. Two case studies involving chaotic time series prediction and modeling of a real-world industrial microwave heating process are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach, in comparison with other existing methods for modeling and identification of nonlinear and time-varying systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leak detection in natural gas pipelines is an extremely important and persistent problem in the oil and gas industry. The construction of accurate physical models of pipelines is limited by the high complexity, unavailable closed-form solution, and strict experienced personnel requirements. Moreover, industrial automation has the common problems of large amount of data with little information. This paper proposes a data-driven digital twin (DT) method for leak detection as a new paradigm solution to these challenges. From the perspective of knowledge-based data-driven, a DT pipeline learning and updating scheme based on normal data directly from operational data during the entity pipelines life-cycle is proposed to enhance DT adaptability. A DT-driven leak detection method is proposed, making effective use of data interaction and fusion of DT. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed approach is illustrated by deploying the DT pipeline in a simulated leak scenario of a real running natural gas pipeline. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Global Science and Technology Forum Pte Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultrasound-degraded oxidized konjac glucomannan (U-OKGM) was manufactured and its immune activity in RAW264.7 macrophages was examined. Results showed that ultrasound treatment, which was an effective method to obtain low molecular weight OKGM, did not change the main structure of polysaccharides under the test conditions. Molecular weights (MW) of OKGM and U-OKGM are about 1.58 × 106 g/mol and 5.64 × 105 g/mol, respectively. We showed that U-OKGM could inhibit NO secretion and augment phagocytotic activity of RAW264.7 cell, and 0.8 mg/mL U-OKGM reached significant level (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, TNF-α and IL-1β secretion levels were significantly (p < 0.05) decreased by U-OKGM treatments in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, the mRNA transcription of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 and iNOS were significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited by U-OKGM in LPS-activated RAW264.7 macrophages. The results suggest that ultrasonic treatment provides a viable modification to obtain low-molecular-weight polysaccharide, and U-OKGM has strong anti-inflammatory effects on LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that high entropy oxides can be used as electrode materials for supercapacitors. However, there is still the problem of their low energy density. We tried to increase the energy density while increasing the specific capacitance of high entropy oxides from the potential window. Transition metal elements Fe, Co, Cr, Mn and Ni were selected for their electrochemical activity, and high entropy oxides were prepared by a sol–gel method under different calcination temperatures. The calcination temperature affects the structural morphology and crystallinity of the high entropy oxides and thus also affects the electrochemical performance. The spinel-phase (FeCoCrMnNi)3O4 with a high specific surface area of 63.1 m2 g−1 was prepared at a low calcination temperature of 450 °C. The specific capacitance is 332.2 F g−1 at a current density of 0.3 A g−1 in 1 M KOH electrolyte with a wide potential window of (−1, 0.6). An improved energy density of 103.8 W h kg−1 is reached via the designed microstructure of the high entropy oxide electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-powered wearable sensing systems have attracted great attention for their application in continuous health monitoring, which can reveal real-time physiological information on the body. Here, an innovative self-powered sound-driven humidity sensor for wearable intelligent dehydration monitoring system has been proposed. The sensor is primarily comprised of PTFE membrane, ZnO nanoarrays and Ti thin film. The piezoelectric/triboelectric effect of ZnO nanoarrays/PTFE membrane is coupled with the humidity sensing process. Sound wave can drive PTFE membrane to vibrate, and the contact and separation between PTFE and ZnO can generate electrical signals through piezoelectric/triboelectric effect. At the same time, the surface of the nanostructures can absorb the water molecules, which will influence the electrical output of the device. The device can convert sound energy into electrical output without any external electricity power supply, and the outputting voltage decreases with increasing relative humidity, acting as the sensing signal. The sensor has been integrated with data processing unit and wireless transmission module to form a self-powered wearable intelligent dehydration monitoring system, which can actively monitor the humidity of exhaled breath and transmit the information to the mobile phone. The results can open a possible new direction for the development of sound-driven gas sensors and will further expand the scope for self-powered nanosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcription factors can affect autophagy activity by promoting or inhibiting the expression of autophagic and lysosomal genes. As a member of the zinc finger family DNA-binding proteins, ZKSCAN3 has been reported to function as a transcriptional repressor of autophagy, silencing of which can induce autophagy and promote lysosomal biogenesis in cancer cells. However, studies in Zkscan3 knockout mice showed that the deficiency of ZKSCAN3 did not induce autophagy or increase lysosomal biogenesis. In order to further explore the role of ZKSCAN3 in the transcriptional regulation of autophagic genes in human cancer and non-cancer cells, we generated ZKSCAN3 knockout HK-2 (non-cancer) and Hela (cancer) cells via the CRISPR/Cas9 system and analyzed the differences in gene expression between ZKSCAN3 deleted cells and non-deleted cells through fluorescence quantitative PCR, western blot and transcriptome sequencing, with special attention to the differences in expression of autophagic and lysosomal genes. We found that ZKSCAN3 may be a cancer-related gene involved in cancer progression, but not an essential transcriptional repressor of autophagic or lysosomal genes, as the lacking of ZKSCAN3 cannot significantly promote the expression of autophagic and lysosomal genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeroengine fault detection is extremely significant to ensure flight safety. However, it still poses a vast challenge due to the complexity of aeroengine systems. In this paper, an unsupervised deep autoencoder (DAE) with dimension fusion function (DFF) method (DFF-DAE) was proposed to effectively detect aeroengine faults based on multivariate time-series data. The proposed method does not rely on mathematical models and expert experience to automatically extract the hierarchical representation features of raw data. The DFF-DAE has a three-layer autoencoder with its first encoding layer incorporating a DFF, which is developed for multivariate time-series fusion before encoding. A case study of aeroengine rolling bearing locking fault was conducted on the turbofan engine ground test data composed of vibration and rotational speed time-series data in variable working states. The results indicated that DFF-DAE succeeds in efficiently employing multivariate time-series data to perform accurate fault detection. Compared with other state-of-the-art methods, DFF-DAE yields superior predictive ability and detection accuracy. Furthermore, DFF-DAE provides application potential for online fault detection because it is effective in variable working states of the aeroengine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical heavy metal pollutant, chromium has caused great harm to the natural environment. Chromium mainly exists in trivalent and hexavalent compounds in nature, among which Cr(VI) is more toxic. As an outstanding fluorescent material, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have the advantages of easy preparation, low cost, good optical stability, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity. The composite carbon quantum dots formed by compounding carbon quantum dots with other functional molecules can not only effectively reduce the preparation cost but also have stable fluorescence emission and metal ion recognition functions. In this paper, l‐arginine modified lignin composite carbon quantum dots (Arg‐l‐CQDs) are synthesized, their fluorescence responsiveness to a series of metal ions is analyzed, and their feasibility for Cr(VI) detection is analyzed. The results show that the Arg‐l‐CQDs can be used as a fluorescent probe to achieve specific fluorescence response, high selectivity, and anti‐interference to Cr(VI). There is a certain linear relationship between the concentration and the fluorescence intensity of the fluorescent probe. The linear equation is F/F0 = 0.5568‐0.0012C[Cr(VI)], the linear correlation coefficient is 0.9945, and the detection limit of the fluorescent probe is 0.8625 µmol L−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: A low temperature is required for flowering in Dendrobium nobile. However, this process can be suppressed or disrupted by a high ambient temperature. Little is currently known about the regulation networks and the mechanisms behind this process. Here, we report two isoforms from the DnFCA (FLOWERING CONTROL LOCUS C in D. nobile) gene locus, DnFCAγ and DnFCAβ, which cooperatively regulate temperature-related flowering in D. nobile. The overexpression in Arabidopsis indicated that both isoforms can partially rescue the late flowering of fca-1 but tend to delay the flowering time and downregulate the APETALA1 (AP1) expression in wild-type plants. When introduced into the detached axillary buds and seedlings of D. nobile, only DnFCAγ was able to suppress the transcription of DnAPL1 (AP1-LIKE 1 in D. nobile) in axillary buds, but both of them activated DnAGL19 (AGAMOUS LIKE 19 in D. nobile) in seedlings. Vernalization induced the accumulation of DnFCAβ in leaves, which allowed the activation of DnAGL19 and DnFT for the initiation of the inflorescence meristem (IM) in axillary buds. The synchronous enrichment of DnFCAγ in axillary buds may result in the suppression of DnAPL1, avoiding the premature development of floral organs until the floral primordium is produced after a long period of low temperatures. A high ambient temperature induced the long-standing accumulation of DnFCAγ in axillary buds, which can lead to the loss of flowering competence due to the lack of DnAPL1 activation. Timely flowering is a determinative trait for many economically valuable species in the Dendrobium genus of the Orchidaceae family, some of which are used for ornamental and medicinal purposes. D. nobile, a representative species of nobile-type Dendrobium, normally flowers in spring after exposure to sufficient low temperatures in winter. However, flowering can be stopped or disrupted by the untimely application of high temperatures. Little is known about the regulation and the mechanisms behind this switch. In this study, we report two isoforms from the KFK09_017173 locus of the D. nobile genome, named DnFCAγ and DnFCAβ, respectively, that cooperatively regulate flowering in D. nobile. These two isoforms are generated by alternative 3′ polyadenylation of DnFCA (FLOWERING CONTROL LOCUS C in D. nobile) pre-mRNA and contain a distinct 3′-terminus. Both can partially rescue late flowering in the Arabidopsis fca-1 mutant, while in wild-type Arabidopsis, they tend to delay the flowering time. When introduced into the detached axillary buds or young seedlings of D. nobile, both were able to induce the transcription of DnAGL19 (AGAMOUS LIKE 19 in D. nobile) in seedlings, whereas only DnFCAγ was able to suppress the transcription of DnAPL1 (AP1-LIKE 1 in D. nobile) in axillary buds. Furthermore, the time-course change of DnFCAγ accumulation was opposite to that of DnAPL1 in axillary buds, which was remarkable under low temperatures and within a short time after the application of high temperatures, supporting the suggestion that the expression of DnAPL1 can be inhibited by a high accumulation of DnFCAγ in floral buds. In leaves, the accumulation of DnFCAβ was in accordance with that of DnAGL19 and DnFT (FLOWERING LOCUS T in D. nobile) to a large extent, suggesting the activation of the DnAGL19–DnFT pathway by DnFCAβ. Taken together, these results suggest that the DnFCAγ–DnAPL1 pathway in axillary buds and the DnFCAβ–DnAGL19 pathway in the leaves cooperatively promote flowering under low temperatures. The long-term and constant, or untimely, application of high temperatures leads to the constitutive suppression of DnAPL1 by a high level of DnFCAγ in axillary buds, which consequently delays floral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Essential oils (EOs) are primarily isolated from medicinal plants and possess various biological properties. However, their low water solubility and volatility substantially limit their application potential. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to improve the solubility and stability of the Mosla Chinensis (M. Chinensis) EO by forming an inclusion complex (IC) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). Furthermore, the IC formation process was investigated using experimental techniques and molecular modeling. The major components of M. Chinensis 'Jiangxiangru' EOs were carvacrol, thymol, o-cymene, and terpinene, and its IC with β-CD were prepared using the ultrasonication method. Multivariable optimization was studied using a Plackett-Burman design (step 1, identifying key parameters) followed by a central composite design for optimization of the parameters (step 2, optimizing the key parameters). SEM, FT-IR, TGA, and dissolution experiments were performed to analyze the physicochemical properties of the ICs. In addition, the interaction between EO and β-CD was further investigated using phase solubility, molecular docking, and molecular simulation studies. The results showed that the optimal encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of EO in the ICs were 86.17% and 8.92%, respectively. Results of physicochemical properties were different after being encapsulated, indicating that the ICs had been successfully fabricated. Additionally, molecular docking and dynamics simulation showed that β-CD could encapsulate the EO component (carvacrol) via noncovalent interactions. In conclusion, a comprehensive methodology was developed for determining key parameters under multivariate conditions by utilizing two-step optimization experiments to obtain ICs of EO with β-CD. Furthermore, molecular modeling was used to study the mechanisms involved in molecular inclusion complexation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of NK cells against HIV-1 infections remains to be elucidated in vivo. While humanized mouse models potentially could be used to directly evaluate human NK cell responses during HIV-1 infection, improved functional development of human NK cells in these hosts is needed. Here, we report the humanized MISTRG-6-15 mouse model, in which NK cells were quick to expand and exhibit degranulation, cytotoxicity, and proinflammatory cytokine production in nonlymphoid organs upon HIV-1 infection but had reduced functionality in lymphoid organs. Although HIV-1 infection induced functional impairment of NK cells, antiretroviral therapy reinvigorated NK cells in response to HIV-1 rebound after analytic treatment interruption. Moreover, a broadly neutralizing antibody, PGT121, enhanced NK cell function in vivo, consistent with antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Monoclonal antibody depletion of NK cells resulted in higher viral loads in multiple nonlymphoid organs. Overall, our results in humanized MISTRG-6-15 mice demonstrated that NK cells provided direct anti-HIV-1 responses in vivo but were limited in their responses in lymphoid organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the existence of unstable sampled zero dynamics is recognised as a major barrier in many control problems. When the usual digital control with zero-order hold (ZOH) or fractional-order hold (FROH) input is used, unstable sampled zero dynamics inevitably appear in the discrete-time model even though the continuous-time system with relative degree more than or equal to three is of minimum phase. In this paper, we show how an approximate sampled-data model can be obtained for nonlinear systems by the use of multirate input and hold such as a generalised sample hold function (GSHF) in order that discrete zero dynamics of the resulting model can be arbitrarily placed. Furthermore, the properties of sampled zero dynamics are studied and the conditions for ensuring the stability of sampling zero dynamics of the desired model are derived. The results presented here generalise well-known notion of sampling zero dynamics from the linear case to nonlinear systems, and GSHF can provide some advantages over ZOH or FROH in terms of stability of discrete system zero dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We synthesis uniform Au-CdS core-shell hetero-nanorods and demonstrate the effective plasmon-exciton interaction induced optical nonlinear enhancement in metal-semiconductor hetero-nanostructures. After growing CdS semiconductor shell onto the Au nanorods, the longitudinal plasmon resonance exhibits considerable red-shift with enlarged absorption intensity. Nonlinear absorption responses transform from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption, and effective nonlinear absorption coefficient β is increased from -7.7 to +22.2 cm/GW. The observed behaviors indicate strong plasmon-exciton interaction and great local field enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) establishes a latent reservoir in resting memory CD4+ T cells. This latent reservoir is a major barrier to the eradication of HIV-1 in infected individuals and is not affected by highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Reactivation of latent HIV-1 is a possible strategy for elimination of this reservoir. The mechanisms with which latency is maintained are unclear. In the analysis of the regulation of HIV-1 gene expression, it is important to consider the nature of HIV-1 integration sites. In this study, we analyzed the integration and transcription of latent HIV-1 in a primary CD4+ T cell model of latency. The majority of integration sites in latently infected cells were in introns of transcription units. Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) demonstrated that more than 90% of those host genes harboring a latent integrated provirus were transcriptionally active, mostly at high levels. For latently infected cells, we observed a modest preference for integration in the same transcriptional orientation as the host gene (63.8% versus 36.2%). In contrast, this orientation preference was not observed in acutely infected or persistently infected cells. These results suggest that transcriptional interference may be one of the important factors in the establishment and maintenance of HIV-1 latency. Our findings suggest that disrupting the negative control of HIV-1 transcription by upstream host promoters could facilitate the reactivation of latent HIV-1 in some resting CD4+ T cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel contention resolution scheme for optical burst switching (OBS) networks is proposed. Traffic payload is classified into two types at the edge nodes, and they are transferred through the core nodes using two different routing algorithms—least-hop first routing and shortest-path first routing, respectively, leading to balanced traffic loads among fiber links. By using this contention resolution scheme, active avoidance of burst contention is achieved. Performance evaluation and simulation results indicate that the new scheme outperforms the commonly used shortest-path first routing and is robust under both Poisson and self-similar traffic. Furthermore, the new scheme can provide quality-of-service (QOS) differentiation when used with wavelength conversion, and the implementation of this scheme is easy, which makes OBS technology more applicable in network engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mice with a functional human immune system serve as an invaluable tool to study the development and function of the human immune system in vivo. A major technological limitation of all current humanized mouse models is the lack of mature and functional human neutrophils in circulation and tissues. To overcome this, we generated a humanized mouse model named MISTRGGR, in which the mouse granulocyte colonystimulating factor (G-CSF) was replaced with human G-CSF and the mouse G-CSF receptor gene was deleted in existing MISTRG mice. By targeting the G-CSF cytokinereceptor axis, we dramatically improved the reconstitution of mature circulating and tissue-infiltrating human neutrophils in MISTRGGR mice. Moreover, these functional human neutrophils in MISTRGGR are recruited upon inflammatory and infectious challenges and help reduce bacterial burden. MISTRGGR mice represent a unique mouse model that finally permits the study of human neutrophils in health and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fentanyl and short-acting remifentanil are often used in combination. We evaluated the effect of intraoperative opioid administration on postoperative pain and pain thresholds when the two drugs were used. Patients who underwent gynecological laparoscopic surgery were randomly assigned into two groups (15 patients each) to receive either sufficient (group A) or minimum (group B) fentanyl (maximum estimated effect site concentration: A: 7.86 ng/mL, B: 1.5 ng/mL). The estimated effect site concentration at the end of surgery was adjusted to the same level (1 ng/mL). Patients in both groups also received continuous intravenous remifentanil during surgery. The primary outcome was the pressure pain threshold, as evaluated by a pressure algometer 3 h postoperatively. The pressure pain threshold at 3 h postoperatively was 51.1% (95% CI: [44.4–57.8]) in group A and 56.6% [49.5–63.6] in group B, assuming a preoperative value of 100% (p = 0.298). There were no significant differences in pressure pain threshold and numeric rating scale scores between the groups after surgery. The pain threshold decreased significantly in both groups at 3 h postoperatively compared to preoperative values, and recovered at 24 h. Co-administration of both opioids caused hyperalgesia regardless of fentanyl dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct compaction (DC) is considered to be the most effective method of tablet production. However, only a small number of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can be successfully manufactured into tablets using DC since most APIs lack adequate functional properties to meet DC requirements. The use of suitable modifiers and appropriate co-processing technologies can provide a promising approach for the preparation of composite particles with high functional properties. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview and classification of different modifiers and their multiple combinations that may improve API tableting properties or prepare composite excipients with appropriate co-processed technology, as well as discuss the corresponding modification mechanism. Moreover, it provides solutions for selecting appropriate modifiers and co-processing technologies to prepare composite particles with improved properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ administration of vaginal probiotics has been proposed as an effective prevention strategy against gynecological diseases caused by microecological disorders. In this study, a thermosensitive in situ gel formulation was prepared for intravaginal delivery of Lactobacillus gasseri(L. gasseri). The optimized formulation was characterized for the rheological properties, in vitro release properties, and microencapsulation efficiency. The mixtures of poloxamer 407 (26.0% w/w) and 188 (9.0% w/w) produced an increase in gelation extent at 37 °C after dilution in simulated vaginal fluid (SVF). The presence of a low concentration of hyaluronic acid (HA, 0.3% w/w) improved the mucoadhesive properties and the capability to gel at 37 °C. Additionally, the viability of L. gasseri encapsulated with alginate or via co-extrusion technique with fructooligosaccharide (FOS, 0.5% w/w) was maintained at 11 log CFU/mL for eight weeks at 4 °C. In conclusion, the evaluation of the in situ thermosensitive gel formulation was shown to be efficacious for intravaginal delivery of L. gasseri with suitable textural and rheological properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] In view of the current public health hazards of food-borne pathogens, it is urgent to develop a rapid detection method with high sensitivity, good specificity and operational convenience, as well as to determine an effective sterilization strategy. Herein, versatile gold-ruthenium nanocomposites modified with antibody (Au@Ru-pAb Ncs) have been constructed for the sensitive detection of Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) via the lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA). Au@Ru-pAb Ncs based LFIA exhibited a wide detection range from 2.9 × 106 CFU/mL to 2.9 × 1011 CFU/mL with the limit of detection of 9.8 × 104 CFU/mL for S. typhimurium, and displayed excellent specificity. In addition, Au@Ru-pAb Ncs irradiated with 808 nm (500 mW/cm2) near-infrared light (NIR) had a significant antibacterial effect within only 5 min, attributed to its high photothermal conversion efficiency of 54.14%. Therefore, both sensitive detection of S. typhimurium and effective NIR-triggered photothermal sterilization were achieved by using versatile Au@Ru-pAb Ncs, showing great prospects in the field of pathogen detection and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Seed size is one of the most important agronomic traits determining the yield of crops. Cloning the key genes controlling seed size and pyramiding their elite alleles will facilitate yield improvement. To date, few genes controlling seed size have been identified in soybean, a major crop that provides half of the plant oil and one quarter of the plant protein globally. Here, through a genome‐wide association study of over 1800 soybean accessions, we determined that natural allelic variation at GmST05 (Seed Thickness 05) predominantly controlled seed thickness and size in soybean germplasm. Further analyses suggested that the two major haplotypes of GmST05 differed significantly at the transcriptional level. Transgenic experiments demonstrated that GmST05 positively regulated seed size and influenced oil and protein contents, possibly by regulating the transcription of GmSWEET10a. Population genetic diversity analysis suggested that allelic variations of GmST05 were selected during geographical differentiation but have not been fixed. In summary, natural variation in GmST05 determines transcription levels and influences seed size and quality in soybean, making it an important gene resource for soybean molecular breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of Sc3+ can stabilize calcite-phase LuBO3:Ce3+ to grow large-sized single crystals but leads to the significant degradation of scintillation performance. In the present work, alkali metal ion (A+ = Li+, Na+, K+)-incorporated (Lu, A, Sc)BO3:Ce was rapidly synthesized in batches via a high-throughput sol–gel method. The aliovalent substitution of Lu3+ with A+ is balanced by the generation of oxygen vacancies by forming complexes. Thanks to the increased oxygen vacancies, the luminescence and XEL intensity of (Lu, Li, Sc)BO3:Ce are significantly enhanced by 2.2 times and 1.9 times, respectively. Further, the incorporation of A+ is attributed to the improved transition efficiency of charge carriers. The prepared scintillation screen fabricated with LASBO:Ce and PMMA shows that the spatial resolution can reach 8.6 lp mm−1, indicating its potential application in efficient and low-cost non-destructive X-ray detection. This work is of great significance in improving the luminescence and scintillation performance of (Lu, Sc)BO3:Ce single crystals and thin films and their application in the scintillation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan, as a natural biomass material, is green, recyclable, sustainable and well biocompatible. The molecular chain is rich in active groups such as amino and hydroxyl groups, and its preparation of fluorescent probes has the advantages of biocompatibility and efficient detection performance. In this study, a bis(benzaldehyde) (BHD) fluorescent functional molecule was designed. Then a series of fluorescent chitosan-based hydrogel films (CSBHD) were prepared using chitosan as raw material and BHD as cross-linking agent. As a fluorescent probe for metal ions, CSBHD was able to efficiently detect Fe2+ with a linear correlation of fluorescence intensity in the range of 0–160 μM, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.55 μM. Moreover, it has excellent adsorption performance for Fe2+ ions, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 223.5 g/mg at 500 mg/L Fe2+ concentration. Finally, we characterised the structure and microscopic morphology of CSBHD films and found that CSBHD as a hydrogel film has a high cross-linking density, good water resistance, excellent thermal stability, strong resistance to swelling, and excellent stability in cycling tests. Hence, it has great potential for application in adsorption and detection of Fe2+ ions. It also provides a good strategy for the application of chitosan based fluorescent probe materials in environmental monitoring and heavy metal ion adsorption. • Design and development of a bis(benzaldehyde) (BHD) molecule with fluorescent functionality • Chitosan-based hydrogel membrane CSBHD with fluorescent properties was prepared. • The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.55 μM and the adsorption rate was about 89.4 %. • It provides new ideas for fluorescent probe research on chitosan biomass resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on exploring the therapeutic potential of artemisinin derivatives for treating polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), emphasizing their ability to alleviate hyperandrogenemia, regulate estrous cycles, and improve ovarian morphology in rodent models and human patients. Artemisinins achieve these effects by targeting LONP1, promoting its interaction with CYP11A1 to degrade this enzyme, thereby inhibiting ovarian androgen synthesis and addressing key symptoms of PCOS.

Chitosan, as a natural biomass material, is green, recyclable, sustainable and well biocompatible. The molecular chain is rich in active groups such as amino and hydroxyl groups, and its preparation of fluorescent probes has the advantages of biocompatibility and efficient detection performance. In this study, a bis(benzaldehyde) (BHD) fluorescent functional molecule was designed. Then a series of fluorescent chitosan-based hydrogel films (CSBHD) were prepared using chitosan as raw material and BHD as cross-linking agent. As a fluorescent probe for metal ions, CSBHD was able to efficiently detect Fe2+ with a linear correlation of fluorescence intensity in the range of 0–160 μM, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.55 μM. Moreover, it has excellent adsorption performance for Fe2+ ions, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 223.5 g/mg at 500 mg/L Fe2+ concentration. Finally, we characterised the structure and microscopic morphology of CSBHD films and found that CSBHD as a hydrogel film has a high cross-linking density, good water resistance, excellent thermal stability, strong resistance to swelling, and excellent stability in cycling tests. Hence, it has great potential for application in adsorption and detection of Fe2+ ions. It also provides a good strategy for the application of chitosan based fluorescent probe materials in environmental monitoring and heavy metal ion adsorption. • Design and development of a bis(benzaldehyde) (BHD) molecule with fluorescent functionality • Chitosan-based hydrogel membrane CSBHD with fluorescent properties was prepared. • The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.55 μM and the adsorption rate was about 89.4 %. • It provides new ideas for fluorescent probe research on chitosan biomass resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence suggests that maintenance of homeostasis between gut microbiota and host plays an important role in human health. Many diseases, such as those affecting the liver, have been linked to imbalances in gut microbial communities. However, it is not clear whether an imbalance in gut microbiota promotes the onset of liver injury or if the imbalance results from the pathological state. In the current study, antibiotics were used to disturb the gut microbiota of both rats fed a high-cholesterol diet and rats fed a normal diet (controls). The prevalence of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were reduced, and Proteobacteria was greatly increased in the guts of rats after antibiotic treatment. The antibiotic-induced perturbation of gut microbiota aggravated cholesterol accumulation and liver injury in rats fed a high-cholesterol diet. This may have been due to an increase in intestinal permeability and plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which lead to an increase in LPS absorption and activation of TLR4 signaling, resulting in the synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in liver tissues. This study suggests that imbalances in gut microbiota may be a predisposing factor for the onset of metabolic diseases and liver injuries related to cholesterol and high-cholesterol diets. Modulation of gut microbiota could be a novel target for preventing cholesterol-related metabolic disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dogs are susceptible to infectious diseases that occur primarily in the respiratory tract. The airway epithelium acts as a first line of defense and is constantly exposed to microorganisms present in the environment. Respiratory epithelial cells have recently gained wide use as a cell model for studying the pathogenesis of human, murine or swine respiratory pathogen infections. However, studies of the pathogenic mechanisms of canine pathogens have been hindered by the lack of reliable respiratory cell lines. Here, we cultured primary canine bronchiolar epithelial cells (CBECs), whose characteristics were confirmed by their expression of the epithelial cell-specific marker cytokeratin 18, and have provided protocols for their isolation and ex vivo expansion. Further, we established immortalized CBECs containing the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene via transfection of primary CBECs with the recombinant plasmid pEGFP-hTERT. Immortalized bronchiolar epithelial cells (hTERT-CBECs) retain the morphological and functional features of primary CBECs, as indicated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, proliferation assays, karyotype analysis, telomerase activity assay, and Western blotting, which demonstrate that hTERT-CBECs have higher telomerase activity, an extended proliferative lifespan, and a diploid complement of chromosomes, even after Passage 50. Moreover, this cell line is not transformed, as evaluated using soft agar assays and tumorigenicity analysis in nude mice, and can therefore be safely used in future studies. The isolation and establishment of stable hTERT-CBECs is of great importance for use as an in vitro model for mechanistic studies of canine pathogenic infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrothion (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) can be toxic for the human central nervous system and cause psychological disturbances and behavioral disorders. In order to evaluate the association between the two potential toxicants and mental health, in this study, we compare a male prisoner and control population. Forty-nine male prisoners and 52 control volunteers took part in the study. An aggressive behavior assessment, the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to characterize the participants’ mental health status. Venous blood was collected for detection of H2S and NH3. The results indicated that blood NH3 was significantly higher in male prisoners than in controls. However, blood H2S was significantly lower. Blood NH3 was also significantly and positively correlated with prisoners. In the multivariate adjusted models, after controlling for age, education, marital status, and BMI, we found a positive association between NH3 and prisoners, but not blood H2S. While the functions of the two toxicants were quite different, blood NH3 may be a potential biological risk factor for behavioral disorders and blood H2S showed neuroprotection. Additionally, the impact of other factors such as diet and gut bacteria should be considered when evaluating risk for behavioral disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on microplastics (MPs) focused on gut, liver, and brain, and MPs toxicity was size-dependent, but less has been reported on gill. Here, zebrafish were exposed to three sizes of MPs (45-53 μm, 90-106 μm, and 250-300 μm). Next, comparative transcriptome analysis and determination of physiological indices were performed in zebrafish gills to elucidate the size-associated toxicity of MPs to fish gills. Compared with the control, 60, 344, and 802 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified after exposure to 45-53 μm, 90-106 μm, and 250-300 μm MPs for 5 days, respectively. More DEGs in treatment with bigger MPs suggested that bigger MPs might induce more changes in zebrafish gills than smaller ones. These DEGs were significantly enriched in the FoxO signaling, cellular senescence, circadian rhythm and p53 signaling pathways. Besides, 90-106 μm and 250-300 μm MPs treatments inhibited the cell cycle and prevented the apoptosis. The GSH content significantly increased after MPs exposure, suggesting the induction of oxidative stress. AChE and Na+/K+-ATPase activities were significantly lowered in all MPs treatments than in the control, suggesting the inhibition of neurotransmission and ion regulation. These changes might negatively influence the normal functioning of gills, such as osmoregulation, ion regulation, and respiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was designed to determine the association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and inflammation in a goat sterile pericarditis model and to assess the effect of atorvastatin, a cholesterol-reducing drug, on AF. A total of 15 adult male goats were randomly divided into control, untreated pericarditis and atorvastatin-treated pericarditis groups. Pericarditis was induced via thoracotomy and atorvastatin was administered orally (60 mg/day) to the goats in the latter group for the duration of the study, commencing 1 week prior to surgery. The levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin(IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were significantly elevated following surgery in the untreated pericarditis and atorvastatin groups compared with the control group (P<0.05). However, lower levels of hs-CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α were observed in the atorvastatin group compared with the untreated pericarditis group (P<0.05). Additionally, the animals in the atorvastatin-treated pericarditis group had a longer effective refractory period (ERP) and a higher rate adaptation of the ERP compared with those in the untreated pericarditis group (P<0.05). There was a significant negative correlation between the levels of ERP and hs-CRP in the untreated pericarditis group. The inducibility of AF in the left atrium and the duration of AF in the untreated pericarditis and atorvastatin-treated groups increased significantly following surgery (P<0.05). The pericarditis group, however, had a longer duration of AF compared with the atorvastatin group (P<0.05). Thus, inflammation may promote AF by shortening atrial ERP and by reducing the rate adaptation of ERP. These results suggested that atorvastatin can attenuate AF by inhibiting inflammation and may assist in preventing the occurrence and recurrence of AF following cardiac surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smoothing-type algorithm has been successfully applied to solve various optimization problems. Based on a new class of smoothing functions, in this paper, we propose a smoothing-type algorithm with a mixed line search for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem. Under suitable conditions, the proposed algorithm is well-defined and maintains global convergence and local superlinear convergence. Preliminary numerical results are also reported and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, uniform Cu2−xSe-modified Au/Bi2Se3 hybrid nanoparticles with porous shells have been prepared through a cation exchange method. Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe Z-scheme heterojunction is introduced onto Au nanocube by replacing Bi3+ with Cu2+. Owing to the effective coupling between Au core and semiconductor shells, Au/Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe hybrids present a broad and strong plasmon resonance absorption in the visible band. More intriguingly, the carrier lifetime of Au/Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe hybrid photoelectrodes can be further tailored with corresponding Cu2−xSe content. Through parameter optimization, 0.1-Au/Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe electrode exhibits the longest electron lifetime (86.03 ms) among all the parallel samples, and corresponding photoelectrochemical performance enhancement is also observed in the tests. Compared with that of pure Bi2Se3 (0.016% at 0.90 V vs. RHE) and Au/Bi2Se3 (0.02% at 0.90 V vs. RHE) nanoparticles, the maximum photoconversion efficiency of porous Au/Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe hybrid photoanodes increased by 5.87 and 4.50 times under simulated sunlight illumination, attributing to the cooperation of Z-scheme heterojunction and plasmon resonance enhancement effects. All the results indicate that Au/Bi2Se3/Cu2−xSe porous hybrids combine eco-friendliness with excellent sunlight harvesting capability and effectively inhibiting the charge recombination, which provide a new idea for efficient solar-driven water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic Identification System (AIS) plays an essential role in maritime surveillance and the global shipping industry. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, almost all marine-related application needs can be realized by mining AIS Big Data. Most of the research, however, is still developing an AIS-based AI model for a specific task. When facing complex maritime applications, a large number of AI models are required. How to deploy these single-function AI models has become extremely challenging. Considering the distinctive characteristics of AIS data, this paper develops an AIS-based deep learning model for forecasting, classification, anomaly detection, and imputation in the maritime industry. This paper uses hierarchical blocks to ensure the expressive power and generalization ability, employs signal decomposition methods and processes the decomposed data like image processing. Finally, experiments have been conducted in both publicly available datasets and the dataset established in this paper. The performance of state-of-the-art models has been compared with the proposed model and the results shows that our approach can yield optimal results, including the optimal mean squared error in the forecasting task and imputation task, the accuracy in the anomaly detection task, and the category accuracy in the classification task, on our curated dataset. • We created a labeled dataset on vessel traffic in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by comparing data through standard screening, trajectory tracing, and manual verification. • To minimize redundancy in AIS sequence information, we employ a whitening extraction method to capture vessel behavior modes. • This paper propose a "Meta" model to cater to different task requirements concerning AIS data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous melanoma could be treated by immunotherapy, which only has limited efficacy on uveal melanoma (UM). UM immunotyping for predicting immunotherapeutic responses and guiding immunotherapy should be better understood. This study identified molecular subtypes and key genetic markers associated with immunotherapy through immunosignature analysis. We screened a 6-immune cell signature simultaneously correlated with UM prognosis. Three immune subtypes (IS) were determined based on the 6-immune cell signature. Overall survival (OS) of IS3 was the longest. Significant differences of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) score were detected among the three IS types. IS3 with the highest LDA score showed a low immunosuppression. IS1 with the lowest LDA score was more immunosuppressive. LDA score was significantly negatively correlated with most immune checkpoint-related genes, and could reflect UM patients' response to anti-PD1 immunotherapy. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) identified that salmon, purple, yellow modules were related to IS and screened 6 prognostic genes. Patients with high-expressed NME1 and TMEM255A developed poor prognosis, while those with high-expressed BEX5 and ROPN1 had better prognosis. There was no notable difference in OS between patients with high-expressed LRRN1 and ST13 and those with low-expressed LRRN1 and ST13. NME1, TMEM255A, Bex5 and ROPN1 showed potential prognostic significance in UM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]