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With the implementation of the double carbon plan, this paper considers the delivery fees of two risk averse logistics companies under carbon cap and trade mechanism. We establish logistics company Stackelberg (MS) model and retailer Stackelberg (RS) model under mean variance (MV) framework, respectively. We obtain the optimal delivery fees and retail prices. We find out that the higher degree of risk aversion can lead to a lower delivery fee. We also show that a higher carbon trading price or a higher cross price sensitivity will increase delivery fees. Moreover, we indicate that the performances of logistics companies under MS scenario are higher than that RS scenario. In addition, we suggest that under the carbon cap and trade rules, in order to obtain higher profits, logistics companies should use fuel vehicle for transportation under certain conditions, and use electric vehicle in other cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the important role of m6A, the most common and reversible mRNA modification, in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke, this study investigates the mechanisms of m6A methyltransferase METTL3 in neuronal damage in ischemic stroke. In silico analysis was used to pinpoint the expression of ANXA2, which was verified in clinical peripheral blood samples. SD rats were used for middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) establishment. The experimental data suggested that T lymphocytes were increased in peripheral blood samples of ischemic stroke patients and MCAO rats. The MCAO rats were treated with anti‐ANXA2 alone or combined with RP101075 (T lymphocyte infiltration inhibitor), followed by brain injury assessment. Oxygen–glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) was induced in primary cortical neurons, where shRNAs targeting ANXA2 or METTL3, or overexpression plasmids of METTL3 were introduced to verify the regulatory function for METTL3. Inhibition of T lymphocyte migration to the ischemic brain reduced brain injury in MCAO rats and neuronal damage in OGD/R‐exposed neurons. Ablation of ANXA2 in T lymphocytes inhibited the migration of T lymphocytes to the ischemic brain and reduced neuronal damage. Mechanistically, METTL3 reduced ANXA2 expression in T lymphocytes through m6A modification and inhibited p38MAPK/MMP‐9 pathway activation, exerting protective effects against neuronal damage in ischemic stroke. Overall, this study reveals the neuroprotective effects of METTL3‐mediated ANXA2/p38MAPK/MMP‐9 inhibition against ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve stability issues of super large cross-sectional tunnel with greater than 20 m across and an overall area greater than 314 m2 during excavation, a new technique named cross rock pillar method (CRPM) is proposed. A physical model test was firstly conducted to investigate the deformation and failure mechanisms of a tunnel using CRPM. In this physical model, a rock-like material simulating the V-class surrounding rock was made and a geomechanical model test bench was developed to simulate and observe the progressive failure process of the tunnel. Furthermore, fiber sensing technology was used to continuously monitor the horizontal strain in different cross sections. Test results show that the cross rock pillars play a significant role in preventing deformation of the surrounding rock during the tunnel excavation. A numerical model was then established to verify the results obtained by the physical model test. The deformation and stability mechanisms of the surrounding rock are determined using CRPM in super large cross-sectional tunnels. Finally, the proposed CRPM was successfully implemented in the Hongqihegou rail station, and the monitoring results show that the surrounding rock was adequately controlled throughout the excavation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning is widely used in the field of rolling bearing fault diagnosis because of its excellent advantages in data analysis. However, in practical industrial scenarios, the capability of intelligent fault diagnosis (IFD) method is still affected by two problems: (1) The signal samples provided for network learning are limited; (2) Fully extracting feature information from the original data is difficult. To address the above issues, a novel fault diagnosis method using joint learning network (JLNet) based on local-global feature perception is proposed. The method enhances the learning mechanism of fault signal through the local information dynamic perception subnetwork, which dynamically distinguishes between local impulse segment and normal signal segment. Then, a global channel attention mechanism (CAM) is used to guide the assignment of weights, which helps bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) to learn advanced discriminative features. The feature information of the original signal is thoroughly mined through local-global comprehensive perception, thus realizing efficient diagnosis. In addition, the variation of the characteristics of each layer is analyzed by visualization, which improves the interpretability of the network. Finally, experiments are conducted using two different datasets, and the results show that JLNet has a better diagnostic effects and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Laparoscopic holmium laser lithotripsy (LHLL) has been used to treat bile duct stones with unclear outcomes. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the LHLL and laparoscopic bile duct exploration (LBDE) efficacy and safety in treating bile duct stones. Methods: The correlational studies were searched databases, such as PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP, to identify eligible studies from inception to July 2022. The dichotomous and continuous outcomes were evaluated using odds ratio (OR), risk difference (RD) and weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Stata 15.0 and Review Manager 5.3 software helped in data analyses. Results: A total of 23 studies with 1,890 patients, primarily from China, were included. The results indicated that operation time (WMD = − 26.94; 95% CI:(− 34.30, − 19.58); P < 0.00001), estimated blood loss (WMD = − 17.97; 95% CI: (− 22.94, − 13.00); P = 0.002), rate of residual stone (OR = 0.15, 95%CI: (0.10, 0.23); P < 0.00001), length of hospital stay (WMD = − 2.88; 95% CI:(− 3.80, − 1.96); P < 0.00001) and time to bowel function recovery (WMD = − 0.59; 95% CI: (− 0.76, − 0.41); P < 0.00001) had statistically significant differences between the two groups. In postoperative complications, biliary leakage (RD = -0.03; 95% CI: (− 0.05, -0.00); P = 0.02), infection (RD = − 0.06; 95% CI: (− 0.09,− 0.03); P < 0.00001) and Hepatic injury (RD = − 0.06; 95% CI: (− 0.11, − 0.01); P = 0.02) revealed statistically significant differences. However, no significant differences were observed in biliary damage (RD = − 0.03; 95% CI: (− 0.06, 0.00); P = 0.06) and hemobilia (RD = − 0.03; 95% CI: (− 0.06, 0.00); P = 0.08). Conclusion: The current meta-analysis indicated that LHLL could be more effective and safer than LBDC. However, these results should be confirmed with a larger sample size and rigorously designed randomized controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senescence is a complex cell state characterized by stable cell cycle arrest and a unique secretory pattern known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The SASP factors, which are heterogeneous and tissue specific, normally include chemokines, cytokines, growth factors, adhesion molecules, and lipid components that can lead to multiple age-associated disorders by eliciting local and systemic consequences. The skeleton is a highly dynamic organ that changes constantly in shape and composition. Senescent cells in bone and bone marrow produce diverse SASP factors that induce alterations of the skeleton through paracrine effects. Herein, we refer to bone cell-associated SASP as "bone-SASP." In this review, we describe current knowledge of cellular senescence and SASP, focusing on the role of senescent cells in mediating bone pathologies during natural aging and premature aging syndromes. We also summarize the role of cellular senescence and the bone-SASP in glucocorticoids-induced bone damage. In addition, we discuss the role of bone-SASP in the development of osteoarthritis, highlighting the mechanisms by which bone-SASP drives subchondral bone changes in metabolic syndrome-associated osteoarthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to gain a deeper knowledge of the heat and mass transfer processes in the case of starchy fruits and vegetables during microwave drying, we have conducted an experimental study based on a developed microwave apparatus for drying potato. The changes in the temperature, drying rate, moisture content, thermal parameters, moisture state and distribution of the potatoes samples during the microwave drying process were obtained. The results show that, according to the temperature changes of the samples dried at different microwave powers (600 W, 800 W, 1000 W), the microwave drying process can be divided into three stages: heating stage, constant temperature stage, and cooling stage. The moisture content reduction of the samples in the constant temperature stage accounted for more than 90% of the total reduction. Meanwhile, as the microwave drying process goes by, the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the samples both decrease first and then increase, while the volumetric heat capacity presents an opposite trend. Moreover, the range and amplitude of transverse relaxation time of the samples reduce over the drying time, which confirms the existence of massive, outward moisture-migration in the dried samples. The loss of the weakly bound water in the moisture-migration, which is closely related to the starch, has a significant effect on the heat and mass transfer in the dried samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I explain the world of screen creatures by virtue of our familiar environment and the notion of the experiential world. My explanation is meant to strengthen the argument for the view that the constructivist world model does not need the perceptual relation. I also demonstrate that the experiential world is complete, meaning that every type of phenomenon can be explained within this realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the key for biological sequence structure and function prediction, disease diagnosis and treatment, biological sequence similarity analysis has attracted more and more attentions. However, the exiting computational methods failed to accurately analyse the biological sequence similarities because of the various data types (DNA, RNA, protein, disease, etc) and their low sequence similarities (remote homology). Therefore, new concepts and techniques are desired to solve this challenging problem. Biological sequences (DNA, RNA and protein sequences) can be considered as the sentences of "the book of life", and their similarities can be considered as the biological language semantics (BLS). In this study, we are seeking the semantics analysis techniques derived from the natural language processing (NLP) to comprehensively and accurately analyse the biological sequence similarities. 27 semantics analysis methods derived from NLP were introduced to analyse biological sequence similarities, bringing new concepts and techniques to biological sequence similarity analysis. Experimental results show that these semantics analysis methods are able to facilitate the development of protein remote homology detection, circRNA-disease associations identification and protein function annotation, achieving better performance than the other state-of-the-art predictors in the related fields. Based on these semantics analysis methods, a platform called BioSeq-Diabolo has been constructed, which is named after a popular traditional sport in China. The users only need to input the embeddings of the biological sequence data. BioSeq-Diabolo will intelligently identify the task, and then accurately analyse the biological sequence similarities based on biological language semantics. BioSeq-Diabolo will integrate different biological sequence similarities in a supervised manner by using Learning to Rank (LTR), and the performance of the constructed methods will be evaluated and analysed so as to recommend the best methods for the users. The web server and stand-alone package of BioSeq-Diabolo can be accessed at http://bliulab.net/BioSeq-Diabolo/server/. Author summary: Inspired by the similarities between the biological sequences and human languages, we apply the semantics analysis techniques derived from the natural language processing (NLP) to comprehensively and accurately analyse the biological sequence similarities, and propose a platform called BioSeq-Diabolo for intelligently and automatically analysing biological sequence similarities. BioSeq-Diabolo is an important updated version of BioSeq-BLM focusing on the homogeneous and heterogeneous biological sequence similarity analysing, which is beyond the reach of any exiting software tool or platform. BioSeq-Diabolo is named after a popular traditional sport in China whose components reflect its analysing procedures. When playing diabolo, the diabolo stably spins reflecting that the BioSeq-Diabolo is able to automatically construct the optimized predictors, and analyse the corresponding performance for a specific biological sequence similarity analysis task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing oxygen (O2) content and down‐regulating the concentration of glutathione (GSH) in tumor microenvironment (TME) by multiple approaches remain critical factors for the promotion of phototherapeutic effect, especially for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Herein, indocyanine green (ICG) laden dendritic mesoporous manganese‐silicon nanocomposite (NC) is designed and subsequently managed with calcification through in situ growth of calcium phosphate (IDMMS@CaP NC). As specific response behavior of the mildly acidic and GSH overexpressed TME, the IDMMS@CaP NC can rapidly collapse when accumulated at the tumor site, liberate Mn2+, Ca2+, and ICG, simultaneously reduce the concentration of GSH. Mn2+ can catalyze endogenous hydrogen peroxide to produce O2. Overloaded Ca2+ induces mitochondrial injury, and reduces cellular metabolism and O2 consumption. The photothermal effect from ICG with 808 nm laser irradiation can not only cause tumor cells necrosis but also accelerate blood flow to further improve the O2 content at the tumor site. Consequently, owing to effective GSH depletion and multiple O2 compensation, the PDT efficiency of ICG can be significantly increased. As proof of concept, the designed multifunctional nanocomposite will provide a general strategy for enhancing the role of phototherapy in cancer therapeutic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrophoretic-deposited (EPD) graphene oxide (GO) on carbon fiber (CF) has been tried to improve the fiber/epoxy interfacial properties. However, the nano-level understanding on the mechanisms of surface wettability is still somewhat limited, which will be important to ensure the manufacturing ability of CF composites. In this work, the interfacial wetting behavior was systematically investigated via molecular dynamics simulations (MD). The results show significant improvement in interfacial properties by changing the morphology of GO-modified fiber surfaces. In details, appropriately increasing the deposition thickness, surface roughness, stacking angle and the distribution uniformity of GO sheets could enhance the wettability of the fiber surface, resulting in higher cohesive strength. The variation of bond stretching energy was the main factor that induced the change of the potential energy of the epoxy system during wetting simulations. Moreover, two obvious peaks of angular bending energy were observed at the solid–liquid and liquid–vapor surface, which may provide further insights into the formation mechanism of interfacial tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change point detection for high‐dimensional data is an important yet challenging problem for many applications. In this article, we consider multiple change point detection in the context of high‐dimensional generalized linear models, allowing the covariate dimension p to grow exponentially with the sample size n. The model considered is general and flexible in the sense that it covers various specific models as special cases. It can automatically account for the underlying data generation mechanism without specifying any prior knowledge about the number of change points. Based on dynamic programming and binary segmentation techniques, two algorithms are proposed to detect multiple change points, allowing the number of change points to grow with n. To further improve the computational efficiency, a more efficient algorithm designed for the case of a single change point is proposed. We present theoretical properties of our proposed algorithms, including estimation consistency for the number and locations of change points as well as consistency and asymptotic distributions for the underlying regression coefficients. Finally, extensive simulation studies and application to the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative data further demonstrate the competitive performance of our proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to investigate effects of aerobic exercise in women with preeclampsia history. 42 women were enrolled. After 16 weeks, we found improvement in endothelial function index and oxidative stress biomarkers in the exercise group. Moreover, the change of endothelial function index was significantly associated with the change of total antioxidant capacity in the exercise group. Our findings showed aerobic exercise improved exercise capacity, endothelial function and oxidative stress in formerly preeclamptic women, and favorable modification of oxidative stress might be a vital pathway of endothelial function's melioration in those women, which deserves further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The global uniform exponential stability is established for zero-order delayed systems. • The stability results for impulsive dynamical networks are obtained. • The event-triggered impulsive control (ETIC) is designed to stabilize dynamical networks. • ETIC has lower impulse frequency and control cost than the classic impulsive control. • A non-instantaneous ETIC is proposed to improve the instantanity and discontinuity of ETIC. This paper studies the stability for impulsive dynamical networks (IDN) where different nodes may have different impulse time sequences. By deriving the conditions of global uniform exponential stability for zero-order delayed systems, the criteria of stability for IDN are established. The stability results for IDN are then used to design event-triggered impulsive control (ETIC) for stabilization of continuous-time dynamical networks (CDN). In every node of CDN, three levels of event-triggering conditions are set for ETIC. The exponential stabilization of CDN is shown to be achieved by the designed ETIC and it also shows that the ETIC is robust w.r.t. time-delays. Moreover, a non-instantaneous ETIC (NI-ETIC) is proposed for the stabilization of CDN. Three examples with numerical simulations are given to show that the designed ETIC has lower impulse frequency and cost of control than the classic time-triggered impulsive control. It is also shown that the discontinuity and the instantanity of ETIC are improved by the NI-ETIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the nucleation, growth, aggregation, sintering, and densification of sulfide in 1215MS free‐cutting steel billet with a total oxygen concentration of 70 ppm are investigated. A portion of oxygen in the steel dissolves in sulfide to form oxysulfide, Mn(S,O), which can be single‐particle spherelike (SPS), double‐particle rodlike (DPR), and multi‐particle rodlike (MPR), and SiO2 can precipitate at the outer edge of the SPS and connection in the DPR and MPR inclusion particles to form Mn(S,O)–SiO2 inclusion, which is formed by the change of liquid inclusion, that undergoes monotectic reaction to form oxides and oxysulfide. The possible phase‐transition process can be expressed as (Mn,Si)x(S,O)y(l) → Mn(S,O)(l → s) + (Mn,Si)xOy(s) → Mn(S,O)(s) + SiO2(s). Oxysulfide inclusions can aggregate under the influence of van der Waals and viscous drag forces. The larger the particle, the greater the critical spacing and aggregation force. MPR oxysulfide can be divided into three parts: droplet, flat surface, and neck, which have decreasing chemical potentials in turn. Sintering and densification occur after the aggregation of particles, where surface diffusion of elements dominates, while grain boundary diffusion and bulk diffusion dominate in the densification of particles. Meanwhile, the formation and evolution of five different morphologies of sulfides in 1215MS free‐cutting steels are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coal and rock dynamic disasters occur more and more frequently in deep mining, which is tightly correlated to the instability of coal pillars under high stress and cyclic disturbance load. In this study, the strength, deformation behaviors, and failure mechanism of coal under cyclic loading in a high‐stress state were investigated by considering the influence of cyclic loading rate. The experimental results indicate that the compressive strength is positively correlated with the cyclic loading rate, and the deformation patterns, AE amplitude, and spatial evolution are the same under various cyclic loading rates. The damage variable shows the "slow increase→fast increase→slow increase→ fast increase →slow increase→fast increase→rapid increase" trend. The damage growth rate ranges from 9.32 × 10−5 to 4.86 × 10−3, and increases with the cyclic loading rate. The spatial fractal dimensions under various cyclic loading rates are the same, and the distribution ranges from 2.1 to 2.9, showing a general downward trend. The microfailure mechanism under various cyclic loading rates is mixed failure dominated by tensile failure, with a small amount of shear failure. There is a positive correlation between the percentage of shear cracks and the cyclic loading rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is involved in the catalytic pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), which is closely related to energy metabolism. G6PD plays a crucial role in many types of cancer, but the specific molecular mechanisms of G6PD in cancer remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the potential oncogenic role of G6PD in various tumors based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the cBioPortal datasets, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) Xena browser, and the UALCAN-based online tool. G6PD was highly expressed in several cancer tissues (hepatocellular carcinoma, glioma, and breast cancer) compared with normal tissues and was significantly associated with poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, and breast cancer. Promoter methylation levels of G6PD were lower in Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma (BLCA) (P = 2.77e−02), breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA) (P = 1.62e−12), kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) (P = 4.23e−02), kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) (P = 2.64e−03), liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) (P = 1.76e−02), stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) (P = 3.50e−02), testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) (P = 1.62e−12), higher in prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) (P = 1.81e−09), and uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) (P = 2.96e−04) compared with corresponding normal tissue samples. G6PD expression was positively correlated with the infiltration level of immune cells in most tumors, suggesting that G6PD may be involved in tumor immune infiltration. In addition, the functional mechanism of G6PD also involves 'Carbon metabolism', 'Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis', 'Pentose phosphate pathway', and 'Central carbon pathway metabolism in cancer signaling pathway'. This pan-cancer study provides a relatively broad understanding of the oncogenic role of G6PD in various tumors and presents a theoretical basis for the development of G6PD inhibitors as therapeutic drugs for multiple cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, retrial queues with batch arrivals and heavy-tailed service times have been studied and the so-called equivalence theorem has been established under the condition that the service time is heavier than the batch size. The equivalence theorem provides the distribution (or tail) equivalence between the total number of customers in the system for the retrial queue and the total number of customers in the corresponding standard (non-retrial) queue. In this paper, under the assumption of regularly varying tails, we eliminate this condition by allowing that the service time can be either heavier or lighter than the batch size. The main contribution made in this paper is an asymptotic characterization of the difference between two tail probabilities: the probability of the total number of customers in the system for the M X / G / 1 retrial queue and the probability of the total number of customers in the corresponding standard (non-retrial) queue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mathematical models to forecast the risk trend of the COVID-19 pandemic timely are of great significance to control the pandemic, but the requirement of manual operation and many parameters hinders their efficiency and value for application. This study aimed to establish a convenient and prompt one for monitoring emerging infectious diseases online and achieving risk assessment in real time. Methods: The Optimized Moving Average Prediction Limit (Op-MAPL) algorithm model analysed real-time COVID-19 data online and was validated using the data of the Delta variant in India and the Omicron in the United States. Then, the model was utilized to determine the infection risk level of the Omicron in Shanghai and Beijing. Results: The Op-MAPL model can predict the epidemic peak accurately. The daily risk ranking was stable and predictive, with an average accuracy of 87.85% within next 7 days. Early warning signals were issued for Shanghai and Beijing on February 28 and April 23, 2022, respectively. The two cities were rated as medium–high risk or above from March 27 to April 20 and from April 24 to May 5, indicating that the pandemic had entered a period of rapid increase. After April 21 and May 26, the risk level was downgraded to medium and became stable by the algorithm, indicating that the pandemic had been controlled well and mitigated gradually. Conclusions: The Op-MAPL relies on nothing but an indicator to assess the risk level of the COVID-19 pandemic with different data sources and granularities. This forward-looking method realizes real-time monitoring and early warning effectively to provide a valuable reference to prevent and control infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grey prediction is a common method in the prediction. Studies show that general grey models have high modeling precision when the time sequence varies slowly, but some grey models show low modeling precision for the high-growth sequence. The paper researches the grey modeling for the high-growth sequence using the extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α). To improve the nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α)'s prediction precision and make data have better adaptability to the model, the paper makes improvements in the following three aspects: (1) the paper improves the accumulated generating sequence of original time sequence, i.e. making a new transformation of traditional accumulated generating sequence; (2) the paper improves the model's structure, extends the grey action and builds an extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃p,α); (3) the paper improves the model's background value and uses the value of cubic spline function to approximate the background value. Because the parameters of the new accumulated generating sequence transformed, the nonlinear grey Bernoulli model's time response equation and the background value are optimized simultaneously, the prediction precision increases greatly. The paper builds an extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model NGBM(1,1,t⌃2,α) using the method proposed and seven comparison models for China's express delivery volume per capita. Comparison results show that the extended nonlinear grey Bernoulli model built with the method proposed has high simulation and prediction precision and shows the precision superior to that of seven comparison models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of an electronic radiator filled with metal foam with a porosity of 96% was studied. The effect of the factors including the flow rates, the pores per linear inch (PPI) and the numbers of fins was analyzed. The results show that the electronic radiator with metal foam reflects a stronger ability of the heat transfer compared to the electronic radiator without metal foam. With the increase in the flow rate between 10 L/h and 60 L/h, the heat transfer coefficient of both of the two electronic radiators will be improved, but it is also dependent on the number of fins. In this study, we find that the heat transfer coefficient first increases and then decreases with the number of fins. The optimum number is three. As for the effect of the PPI, the higher the PPI, the larger the heat transfer coefficient, while the pressure drop always increases with the flow rates' increase, the pores per linear inch (PPI) and the numbers of fins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Growing evidence has suggested that gut microbiota is closely related to the risk of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but whether there is a causal effect remains unknown. We adopted a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluate the potential causal relationships between gut microbiota and the risk of IBS. Methods: Genetic instrumental variables for gut microbiota were identified from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 18,340 participants. Summary statistics of IBS were drawn from a GWAS including 53,400 cases and 433,201 controls. We used the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method as the primary analysis. To test the robustness of our results, we further performed the weighted-median method, MR-Egger regression, and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier test. Finally, reverse MR analysis was performed to evaluate the possibility of reverse causation. Results: We identified suggestive associations between three bacterial traits and the risk of IBS (odds ratio (OR): 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02, 1.15; p = 0.011 for phylum Actinobacteria; OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.00; p = 0.030 for genus Eisenbergiella and OR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.18; p = 0.005 for genus Flavonifractor). The results of sensitivity analyses for these bacterial traits were consistent. We did not find statistically significant associations between IBS and these three bacterial traits in the reverse MR analysis. Conclusions: Our systematic analyses provide evidence to support a potential causal relationship between several gut microbiota taxa and the risk of IBS. More studies are required to show how the gut microbiota affects the development of IBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to anionic group theory of nonlinear optical (NLO) materials that second‐harmonic generation (SHG) responses mainly originate from anionic groups, structural regulation on the cationic groups of salt‐inclusion chalcogenides (SICs) is performed to make them also contribute to the NLO effects. Herein, the stereochemically active lone–electron‐pair Pb2+ cation is first introduced to the cationic groups of NLO SICs, and the resultant [K2PbX][Ga7S12] (X = Cl, Br, I) are isolated via solid‐state method. The features of their three‐dimensional structures comprise highly oriented [Ga7S12]3− and [K2PbX]3+ frameworks derived from AgGaS2, which display the largest phase‐matching SHG intensities (2.5−2.7 × AgGaS2 @1800 nm) among all SICs. Concurrently, three compounds manifest band gap values of 2.54, 2.49, and 2.41 eV (exceeding the criterion of 2.33 eV), which can avoid two‐photon absorption under the fundamental laser of 1064 nm, along with the relatively low anisotropy of thermal expansion coefficients, leading to improved laser‐induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) values of 2.3, 3.8, and 4.0 times that of AgGaS2. In addition, the density of states and SHG coefficient calculations demonstrate that the Pb2+ cations narrow the band gaps and benefit SHG responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decline in natural snow due to global warming increases the reliance of ski resorts on artificial snow. To improve the formation rate and snow amount of artificial snow under any environmental conditions, it is necessary to use atomization technology that maintains the size of liquid drops of the snow-making spray field below a critical size, thus maximizing the number of freezing droplets into ice crystals. Here, we study the effects of the gas–liquid mass-mixing ratio (GLR) and the spacing (d) between two nozzles on the characteristics of the snow-making spray field produced by atomization technology for GLR of 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.2 and d of 5, 10, 15, and 20 cm. The measurement of the morphology, velocity, and particle-size distribution of the snow-making spray field is conducted by a laser particle-size measuring instrument, particle image velocimetry, and a high-speed camera. Our results show that both the spray cone and the intersection angles increase with the increase in the GLR in a two-nozzle arrangement, while the degree of interference between the nozzles increases with the decrease in spacing, d. We also find that the inward offset of the spray is the main reason for the increase in the intersection angle and the interference area and the deviation of the spray midline. In addition, we compare the characteristics of the spray field produced by the single and the two-nozzle systems. We conclude that the flow-field velocity of the single nozzle is smaller than that of the two nozzles and the velocity gradient of the liquid drops in the two-nozzle flow field varies greatly. The maximum vorticity (Max = 147) in the case of the two-nozzle arrangement is much larger than that of the single nozzle. Moreover, by analyzing the two-nozzle flow field at different spacings, we find that the particle-size distribution is most uniform for GLR = 0.10 and d = 15 cm. Thus, our study elucidates the characteristics of spray fields suitable for snow-making toward achieving higher quality and more efficient snow-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burgeoning need to study the applications of nanoparticles (NPs) in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields requires an understanding of their interactions with lipid membranes for further in vivo studies. In this paper, negatively charged egg yolk lecithin liposome (EYL) has been prepared and used as model lipid membranes. Positively charged Mg3Al-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are viewed as models of clay particles. The ability of the LDH NPs, a two-dimensional nanostructure with an average diameter of 100 nm (LDHs-100) or 500 nm (LDHs-500) to cross the membranes, has been thoroughly investigated via (high-resolution) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal fluorescence microscopy (CLSM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The liposomes with an average diameter of 1.5 μm were prepared by the thin-film rehydration method followed by an extrusion technique. A calcein leakage assay and steady-state fluorescence measurement displayed the variation of membrane integrity and polarity of the pyrene-located microenvironment during the interaction between EYL and calcein-interacted LDH NPs (CE-LDHs) or LDH NPs, respectively. These results imply that not only spherical particles but also even more sophisticated nanostructured materials are able to effectively cross the lipid bilayers, thereby engineering new compounds that may be encapsulated for safe and potential use in biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the current stage, quantum secret sharing (QSS) protocols still face many challenges and difficulties in practical application, including the expensive cost of quantum devices and the difficulties of quantum memory technology development. In order to solve the problem of expensive quantum devices, some scholars proposed the collective detection strategy, which cuts the use of quantum devices and increases communication efficiency. However, the use of quantum memory is usually still inevitable in these QSS protocols with collective detection. In this paper, we propose a newly designed (n,n) -threshold multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol with collective detection. And in this protocol, the sender Alice will measure the agents' qubits as soon as she receives them, avoiding the use of quantum memory. Considering the difficulties in the development of quantum memory, our protocol is more promising for practical application than the previous QSS protocol with collective detection. Additionally, we also analyze communication security and discuss measurement, the used quantum devices, and the communication efficiency of this new formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A heat and mass transfer model of droplet for artificial snow-making was established. • The critical droplet size for artificial snow-making under different environments was obtained. • The relationship between gas-liquid mass mixing ratio and snow-making density was studied, and the optimal gas-liquid mass mixing ratio suitable for artificial snow-making was obtained. This study investigates the heat and mass transfer of liquid droplets freezing in the process of artificial snow-making, and emphatically analyses the effects of droplet size, ambient temperature and relative humidity on the evaporative cooling and freezing of liquid droplets by establishing a theoretical model. On this basis, the critical droplet size for snow-making under different environmental conditions is obtained, and the accuracy of the droplet freezing model was verified by artificial snow-making experiments. Finally, by analyzing the density of artificial snow under different environmental conditions, the optimum gas-liquid mixing mass ratio (GLR) suitable for snow-making is obtained. The results show that the liquid droplets could be frozen under the action of self-evaporation and convection heat transfer with ambient. The time required for the droplet to be frozen completely shows a positive correlation with ambient temperature, relative humidity and droplet size. In the evaporation cooling stage, the droplet cooling rate increases with the decrease of ambient temperature, and in the phase transition stage, the time for the droplet resists the latent heat of phase transition increases with the increase of the droplet size. When the droplet size is smaller than the critical size for snow-making, the artificial snow can be achieved at a maximum temperature of 3 °C. The snow density decreases with the increase of GLR. And when the GLR is greater than 0.15, the snow density tends to be stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the Boltzmann transport equation under the relaxation time approximation to investigate the effect of minority blocking on the transport properties of nanocomposites (NCs). Taking p -type Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 NCs as an example, we find that the thermally excited minority carriers can be strongly scattered by engineered interfacial potential barriers. Such scattering phenomena suppress the bipolar effect, which is helpful to enhance the Seebeck coefficient and reduce the electronic thermal conductivity, especially at high temperatures. Further combining with the majority carriers low-energy filtering effect, the power factor and the figure of merit (ZT) can be significantly enhanced over a large temperature range from 300 K to 500 K. Such an improvement of ZT is attributed to the majority carriers low-energy filtering effect at low temperatures and to the minority carriers blocking effect at high temperatures. A principle that is helpful to provide guidance on the thermoelectric device design is identified: (1) blocking the minority carriers as often as possible and (2) filtering the majority carriers whose energy is lower than 2–3 k B T near the cold end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in ovarian function including follicle development and oocyte maturation, and embryonic development. However, whether BDNF treatment can reimpose ovarian aging and impaired fertility remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the reproductive outcomes of BDNF treatment and potential mechanisms in aged mice. Method: "Aged" mice (35–37 weeks old, n = 68) were treated with recombinant human BDNF protein (rhBDNF, 1 µg/200 µL) through daily intraperitoneal (IP) injection for 10 days with/without ovulation induction. Reproductive age mice (8–10 weeks old, n = 28) were treated with ANA 12 (a selective BDNF receptor, TrkB antagonist) through daily IP injection for 5 days with/without ovulation induction. Ovarian function was assessed by ovarian weight, number of follicles, and sex hormone productions. Following induction of ovulation, the number of total oocytes or abnormal oocytes, and blastocyst formation were assessed. Reproductive functions of the mice were evaluated, including pregnancy rate, mating duration for conception, implantation sites, litter size, and weight of offspring. Finally, the molecular mechanism of the effects of BDNF on ovarian cell functions in mice were examined by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Results: rhBDNF treatment increased the ovarian weight, number of follicles, number and quality of oocytes including increased blastocysts formation, blood estrogen levels, and pregnancy rate in 35-37-week-old mice. Conversely, BDNF receptor antagonist, ANA 12, treatment decreased the ovarian volume and number of antral follicles and increased the proportion of abnormal oocytes in 8-10-week-old mice. We further demonstrated that BDNF treatment promoted ovarian cell proliferation as well as activation of TrkB and cyclinD1-creb signalling. Conclusion: We demonstrated that ten consecutive days of daily IP injection of rhBDNF rescued ovarian function in aged mice. Our results further indicate that TrkB and cyclin D1-creb signaling may underlie the BDNF function in ovaries. Targeting BDNF-TrkB signaling is a potential novel therapeutic strategy to reverse ovarian aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiOx anode with higher specific capacity than graphite and better capacity retention than pure Si has received great attention from both academia and the industry. However, the further application of SiOx suffers from its low initial Coulombic efficiency and inadequate capacity retention. The academia has reported numerous strategies to overcome these obstacles, such as nanosizing, pore designing, nanoarchitecture, etc., while seldom did they satisfy the requirement of the industry, which asks for anode material with excellent performance in all performance metrics (e.g., specific capacity, initial Coulombic efficiency, capacity retention, tap density). Besides, the reproducibility, production cost, and safety of the strategies are less concerned, leading to the "misalignment" between academia and the industry. In this review, the advancements in the modification strategies, which are already or likely to be accepted by the industry, are introduced in detail and critically evaluated. Moreover, the fundamental mechanisms of SiOx and the relationship between its structure and performance are systematically discussed. In the end, outlooks and suggestions for future research are given to provide meaningful guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endoglin (ENG) is a single-pass transmembrane protein highly expressed on vascular endothelial cells, although low expression levels can be detected in many other cell types. Its extracellular domain can be found in circulation known as soluble endoglin (sENG). Levels of sENG are elevated in many pathological conditions, in particular preeclampsia. We have shown that while loss of cell surface ENG decreases BMP9 signaling in endothelial cells, knocking down ENG in blood cancer cells enhances BMP9 signaling. Despite sENG binding to BMP9 with high affinity and blocking the type II receptor binding site on BMP9, sENG did not inhibit BMP9 signaling in vascular endothelial cells, but the dimeric form of sENG inhibited BMP9 signaling in blood cancer cells. Here we report that in non-endothelial cells such as human multiple myeloma cell lines and the mouse myoblast cell line C2C12, both monomeric and dimeric forms of sENG inhibit BMP9 signaling when present at high concentrations. Such inhibition can be alleviated by the overexpression of ENG and ACVRL1 (encoding ALK1) in the non-endothelial cells. Our findings suggest that the effects of sENG on BMP9 signaling is cell-type specific. This is an important consideration when developing therapies targeting the ENG and ALK1 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition metal oxide (TMO) SrCoO3−δ family with rich structural diversity has been widely studied in the phase transition and energy application fields. We report the multiple-phase structure evolution, phase transitions during sintering, and electrical transport of A-site doped Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0–1.0) ceramics. Sr6Co5O15 (x = 0) adopts a hexagonal structure (H), Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0.2–0.4) ceramics adopts a cubic perovskite (CP) structure, and Sr4−xYxCo4O10.5+δ′ (x = 0.8–1.0) ceramics adopts an ordered-tetragonal (OT) structure; moreover, their phase transitions during the sintering processing of samples are systematically investigated. Combining the thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction results, the exothermic peak and weight gain of Sr3YCo4O10.5 (x = 1.0, T) at 1042 °C are considered to correspond to an ordered phase transition (T → OT) occurring. Finally, a systematic phase schema of the Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0–1.0) state dependence on the Y content and sintering temperature is obtained. The high-energy Y–O bond stabilizes the high-temperature CP structure (x = 0.2–0.4) and induces a structural evolution from the CP to OT structure (x = 0.8–1.0). In addition, all Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0–1.0) ceramics show semiconductive electrical transport behavior. Sr6Co5O15 (H) with a one-dimensional chain structure has the highest resistivity, while Sr3.8Y0.2Co4O12−δ (CP) with a three-dimensional corner-sharing structure exhibits the lowest resistivity, and Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0.2–1.0) ceramics show an increasing tendency in resistivity due to the hole carrier Co4+ converting to Co3+. We studied multiple-phase evolution and ordered phase transition in Sr4−xYxCo4O12−δ (x = 0–1.0) ceramics through Y–O bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Co, N co‑doped CNTs with in-situ anchored NiFe alloys are used as an oxygen catalyst. • Well-formed tubular Co-N@CNTs offers enough binding sites for anchoring NiFe alloys. • The Co-N x -C species on Co-N@CNTs can provide effective active sites to stabilize ORR. • In situ formed NiOOH/FeOOH from NiFe alloy are favored as active species for OER. • Synergistic effects between NiFe alloys and Co-N x -C species improve ORR/OER activity. Transition metal alloys have emerged as promising catalysts for oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER) because of their intermetallic synergy and tunable redox properties. However, for alloy nanoparticles, it is quite challenging to suppress the self-aggregation and promote the bifunctional activity. Anchoring alloys in heteroatoms-doped carbon matrix with excellent electro-conductibility is a powerful strategy to form strongly-coupled alloy-carbon nanohybrids. Here, highly-dispersed NiFe alloys are evenly in-situ anchored on the surface of Co, N co-doped carbon nanotubes (NiFe/Co-N@CNTs) via a gravity-guided chemical vapor deposition and self-assembly strategy. Stably-structured NiFe/Co-N@CNTs possesses a tubular skeleton with diameters of 80–100 nm and a hydrophilic surface. For ORR, half-wave potential of NiFe/Co-N@CNTs (0.87 V vs RHE) is higher than that of Pt/C (0.85 V). Strong synergies between NiFe alloys and Co-N x species facilitate the charge transfer on one-dimensional conductive structure to boost the 4e- ORR kinetics. For OER, NiFe/Co-N@CNTs has a lower overpotential (300 mV) than RuO 2 (400 mV) at 10 mA cm−2 due to in-situ formation of highly-active NiOOH/FeOOH species (as indicated by in-situ X-ray diffraction) at the catalytic sites on NiFe alloy. Rechargeable Zn-air battery (ZAB) with NiFe/Co-N@CNTs-based air–cathode exhibits promising open-circuit potential (1.52 V) and charge–discharge cycling stability (350 h). This alloy-carbon integrating strategy is meaningful for promoting dispersion, activity and stability of non-noble metal alloys for oxygen electrocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a representative new energy source, solar energy has the advantages of easy access to resources and low pollution. However, due to the uncertainty of the external environment, photovoltaic (PV) modules that collect solar energy are often covered by foreign objects in the environment such as leaves and bird droppings, resulting in a decrease in photoelectric conversion efficiency, power losses, and even the "hot spot" phenomenon, resulting in damage to the modules. Existing methods mostly inspect foreign objects manually, which not only incurs high labor costs but also hinders real-time monitoring. To address these problems, this paper proposes an IDETR deep learning target detection model based on Deformable DETR combined with transfer learning and a convolutional block attention module, which can identify foreign object shading on the surfaces of PV modules in actual operating environments. This study contributes to the optimal operation and maintenance of PV systems. In addition, this paper collects data in the field and constructs a dataset of foreign objects of PV modules. The results show that the advanced model can significantly improve the target detection AP values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the Keller-Segel-Stokes system (⁎) { n t + u ⋅ ∇ n = Δ n − ∇ ⋅ (n f (| ∇ v | 2) ∇ v) , v t + u ⋅ ∇ v = Δ v − v + w , w t + u ⋅ ∇ w = Δ w − w + n , u t = Δ u + ∇ P + n ∇ ϕ , ∇ ⋅ u = 0 , under no-flux/no-flux/no-flux/Dirichlet boundary conditions in smoothly bounded domains Ω ⊂ R 3 , with given suitably regular functions f and ϕ , as well as f satisfies f (| ∇ v | 2) ≤ K f (1 + | ∇ v | 2) − α 2 . It is shown that for all suitably regular initial data an associated initial-boundary value problem (⁎) possesses a globally defined bounded classical solution provided α > 1 4. We underline that the same results were established for the corresponding system with direct signal production in a well-known result if α > 1 2 in [50]. Our result rigorously confirms that the indirect signal production mechanism genuinely contributes to the global solvability of the three-dimensional Keller-Segel-Stokes system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at improving the handling efficiency and acquiring the satisfactory antivibration effect and damping performance, a quad-bundle spacer damper of 500 kV extra high voltage transmission lines was designed and developed based on a new rubber structure. Firstly, a mathematical vibration model of the spacer damper was constructed, and the structures of the defect-prone parts of the spacer damper were analyzed. Then, the structure was optimized based on the defect analysis, the clamp with fast installation as well as removal and the damper joint with superior performance were designed. On this basis, a new quad-bundle spacer damper was developed. Last but not least, the handling efficiency of the new quad-bundle spacer damper was evaluated, and performance tests were conducted according to the IEC standards. The evaluation and test results show that the handling efficiency, antivibration effect, and damping performance of the new quad-bundle spacer damper are significantly improved compared with those of the regular quad-bundle spacer damper, which provides a guarantee for the safe operation of 500 kV extra high voltage transmission lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cashmere goat has a typical characteristic in seasonal growth of cashmere. Studies have shown that one of the main factors affecting the cyclical growth of the cashmere is the photoperiod, however, its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Inner Mongolia Arbas cashmere goat was used to reveal the mRNA-microRNA regulatory mechanisms of cashmere growth in different photoperiod. Skin samples from cashmere goats under light control (short photoperiod) and normal conditions (long photoperiod) were collected. Sequencing was performed after RNA extraction. The differentially expressed miRNA and mRNA expression profiles were successfully constructed. We found 56 significantly differentially expressed known mRNAs (P<0.01) and 14 microRNAs (P<0.05). The association analysis of the microRNAs and mRNAs showed that two differentially expressed miRNAs might be targeted by six differentially expressed genes. Targeting relationships of these genes and miRNAs are revealed and verified. In all, the light control technology provides a new way to promote cashmere growth. Our results provide some references in the cashmere growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of drug–target interactions (DTIs) is a pivotal process in pharmaceutical development. Computational approaches are a promising and efficient alternative to tedious and costly wet-lab experiments for predicting novel DTIs from numerous candidates. Recently, with the availability of abundant heterogeneous biological information from diverse data sources, computational methods have been able to leverage multiple drug and target similarities to boost the performance of DTI prediction. Similarity integration is an effective and flexible strategy to extract crucial information across complementary similarity views, providing a compressed input for any similarity-based DTI prediction model. However, existing similarity integration methods filter and fuse similarities from a global perspective, neglecting the utility of similarity views for each drug and target. In this study, we propose a Fine-Grained Selective similarity integration approach, called FGS, which employs a local interaction consistency-based weight matrix to capture and exploit the importance of similarities at a finer granularity in both similarity selection and combination steps. We evaluate FGS on five DTI prediction datasets under various prediction settings. Experimental results show that our method not only outperforms similarity integration competitors with comparable computational costs, but also achieves better prediction performance than state-of-the-art DTI prediction approaches by collaborating with conventional base models. Furthermore, case studies on the analysis of similarity weights and on the verification of novel predictions confirm the practical ability of FGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change enhances the frequency of heatwaves that negatively affect photosynthesis and can alter constitutive volatile emissions and elicit emissions of stress volatiles, but how pre-exposure to mildly warmer temperatures affects plant physiological responses to subsequent severe heat episodes remains unclear, especially for aromatic plants with high and complex volatile defenses. We studied the impact of heat shock (45 °C/5 min) applied alone and after exposure to moderate heat stress (35 °C/1 h, priming) on foliage photosynthesis and volatile emissions in the aromatic plant Origanum vulgare through 72 h recovery period. Heat stress decreased photosynthesis rates and stomatal conductance, whereas the reductions in photosynthesis were primarily due to non-stomatal factors. In non-primed plants, heat shock-induced reductions in photosynthetic activity were the greatest, but photosynthetic activity completely recovered by the end of the experiment. In primed plants, a certain inhibition of photosynthetic activity remained, suggesting a sustained priming effect. Heat shock enhanced the emissions of volatiles including lipoxygenase pathway volatiles, long-chained fatty acid-derived compounds, mono- and sesquiterpenes, geranylgeranyl diphosphate pathway volatiles, and benzenoids, whereas different heat treatments resulted in unique emission blends. In non-primed plants, stress-elicited emissions recovered at 72 h. In primed plants, volatile emissions were multiphasic, the first phase, between 0.5 and 10 h, reflected the primary stress response, whereas the secondary rise, between 24 and 72 h, indicated activations of different defense metabolic pathways. Our results demonstrate that exposure to mild heat leads to a sustained physiological stress memory that enhances plant resistance to subsequent severe heat stress episodes. • Heat stress decreased leaf photosynthesis via non-stomatal factors. • Photosynthetic reductions were lower in plants pre-exposed to mild heat (priming). • Heat stress enhanced volatile emissions differently in primed and non-primed plants. • Volatile emissions recovered earlier in primed plants but later rose again. • Priming improves resistance and acclimation during subsequent severe heat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During tunnel construction, accurately ascertaining the adverse geological condition in front of the tunnel face is essential to ensure construction safety and decrease economic loss. As an accurate wave velocity modelling method, seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) still faces many difficulties when applied in a tunnel observation environment because of fewer observation data and smaller offset than ground seismic detection. This paper analysed the FWI for tunnel active seismic forward prospecting with a single shot. We adopted the N -order time integral wavefield and normalized integration objective function method to improve the stability and reduce the dependence of FWI on the initial model. Based on two assumptions on the wave velocity distribution in the tunnel, we proposed a 1-D velocity structure correction method to reduce the multiplicity of inversion. Then the improved tunnel FWI method based on these two inversion strategies was applied to a synthetic model with a rectangular anomaly and a lithology interface, verifying the method's effectiveness. Based on typical adverse geological bodies during tunnelling, three additional adverse geological models were built and verified the reliability of the methods in tunnel detection environments. There are still some false anomalies interference in the inversion results of the synthetic models from the inversion results. However, these problems are acceptable in limited tunnel observation space. Then the method was applied in a field example in the Yinsong water supply project in Jilin Province, China, and verified the effect on field data. Finally, the influence of the shot number on the inversion effect and the method's robustness are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a progressive pulmonary disease with no effective treatment and high mortality. Resveratrol has shown promising benefits in the treatment of PF. However, the probable efficacy and underlying mechanism of resveratrol in PF treatment remain unclear. This study investigates the intervention effects and potential mechanisms underpinning the treatment of PF with resveratrol. The histopathological analysis of lung tissues in PF rats showed that resveratrol improved collagen deposition and reduced inflammation. Resveratrol decreased the levels of collagen, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, myeloperoxidase, and hydroxyproline, lowered total anti-oxidant capacity, and suppressed the migration of TGF- β 1 and LPS-induced 3T6 fibroblasts. With resveratrol intervention, the protein and RNA expressions of TGF- β 1, a-SMA, Smad3/4, p-Smad3/4, CTGF, and p-ERK1/2 were markedly downregulated. Similarly, the protein and RNA expression levels of Col-1 and Col-3 were significantly downregulated. However, Smad7 and ERK1/2 were evidently upregulated. The protein and mRNA expression levels of TGF- β , Smad, and p-ERK correlated positively with the lung index, while the protein and mRNA expression levels of ERK correlated negatively with the lung index. These results reveal that resveratrol may have therapeutic effects on PF by reducing collagen deposition, oxidation, and inflammation. The mechanism is associated with the regulation of the TGF- β /Smad/ERK signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorosis is a serious global public health problem. Interestingly, so far, there is no specific drug treatment for the treatment of fluorosis. In this paper, the potential mechanisms of 35 ferroptosis-related genes in U87 glial cells exposed to fluoride were explored by bioinformatics methods. Significantly, these genes are involved in oxidative stress, ferroptosis, and decanoate CoA ligase activity. Ten pivotal genes were found by the Maximal Clique Centrality (MCC) algorithm. Furthermore, according to the Connectivity Map (CMap) and the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), 10 possible drugs for fluorosis were predicted and screened, and a drug target ferroptosis-related gene network was constructed. Molecular docking was used to study the interaction between small molecule compounds and target proteins. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results show that the structure of the Celestrol–HMOX1 composite is stable and the docking effect is the best. In general, Celastrol and LDN-193189 may target ferroptosis-related genes to alleviate the symptoms of fluorosis, which may be effective candidate drugs for the treatment of fluorosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Location-based application services and location privacy protection solutions are often required for the storage, management, and efficient retrieval of large amounts of geolocation data for specific locations or location intervals. We design a hierarchical tree-like organization structure, GL-Tree, which enables the storage, management, and retrieval of massive location data and satisfies the user's location-hiding requirements. We first use Geohash encoding to convert the two-dimensional geospatial coordinates of locations into one-dimensional strings and construct the GL-Tree based on the Geohash encoding principle. We gradually reduce the location intervals by extending the length of the Geohash code to achieve geospatial grid division and spatial approximation of user locations. The hierarchical tree structure of GL-Tree reflects the correspondence between Geohash codes and geographic intervals. Users and their location relationships are recorded in the leaf nodes at each level of the hierarchical GL-Tree. In top–down order, along the GL-Tree, efficient storage and retrieval of location sets for specified locations and specified intervals can be achieved. We conducted experimental tests on the Gowalla public dataset and compared the performance of the B+ tree, R tree, and GL-Tree in terms of time consumption in three aspects: tree construction, location insertion, and location retrieval, and the results show that GL-Tree has good performance in terms of time consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stealthy attacks in sensor and actuator loops are the research priorities in the security of cyber-physical systems. Existing attacks define the stealthiness conditions against the Chi-square or Kullback-Leibler divergence detectors and parameterize the attack model based on additive signals. Such conditions ignore the potential anomalies of the vulnerable outputs in the control layer, and the attack sequences need to be generated online, increasing the hardware and software costs. This paper investigates a type of multiplicative attack with essential stealthiness where the employed model is a novel form. The advantage is that the parameters can be designed in a constant form without having to be generated online. An essential stealthiness condition is proposed for the first time and complements the existing ones. Two sufficient conditions for the existence of constant attack matrices are given in the form of theorems, where two methods for decoupling the unknown variables are particularly considered. A quadruple-tank process, an experimental platform for attack and defense, is developed to verify the theoretical results. The experiments indicate that the proposed attack strategy can fulfill both the attack performance and stealthiness conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of the quantification of detection signals in the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) of defective in-service oil and gas pipelines, a non-uniform magnetic charge model was established based on magnetic effects. The distribution patterns of magnetic charges under different stresses were analyzed. The influences of the elastic load and plastic deformation on the characteristic values of MFL signals were quantitatively assessed. The experimental results showed that the magnetic charge density was large at the edges of the defect and small at the center, and approximately decreased linearly with increasing stress. The eigenvalues of the axial and radial components of the MFL signals were compared, and it was found that the eigenvalues of the radial component exhibited a larger decline rate and were more sensitive to stress. With the increase in the plastic deformation, the characteristic values of the MFL signals initially decreased and then increased, and there was an inflection point. The location of the inflection point was associated with the magnetostriction coefficient. Compared with the uniform magnetic charge model, the accuracy of the axial and radial components of the MFL signals in the elastic stage of the improved magnetic charge model rose by 17% and 16%, respectively. The accuracy of the axial and radial components of the MFL signals were elevated by 9.15% and 9%, respectively, in the plastic stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc homeostatic medicine is of great potential for cancer chemo‐immunotherapy; however, there are few reports on antitumor compounds that can trigger Zn2+‐mediated immune responses. In this work, we developed a novel cyclometalated PtIV‐terthiophene complex, Pt3, that not only induces DNA damage and cellular metabolism dysregulation, but also disrupts zinc homeostasis as indicated by the abnormal transcriptional level of zinc regulatory proteins, excess accumulation of Zn2+ in cytoplasm, and down‐regulation of metallothioneins (MTs), which further caused redox imbalance. The simultaneous disruption of zinc and redox homeostasis in response to Pt3 treatment activated gasdermin‐D mediated pyroptosis accompanied by cytoskeleton remodeling, thus releasing pro‐inflammatory cytokines to promote dendritic cell (DC) maturation and T cell tumor‐infiltration, eventually eliminating both primary and distant tumors in vivo. As far as we know, this is the first metal complex that can regulate zinc homeostasis to activate antitumor immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc homeostatic medicine is of great potential for cancer chemo‐immunotherapy; however, there are few reports on antitumor compounds that can trigger Zn2+‐mediated immune responses. In this work, we developed a novel cyclometalated PtIV‐terthiophene complex, Pt3, that not only induces DNA damage and cellular metabolism dysregulation, but also disrupts zinc homeostasis as indicated by the abnormal transcriptional level of zinc regulatory proteins, excess accumulation of Zn2+ in cytoplasm, and down‐regulation of metallothioneins (MTs), which further caused redox imbalance. The simultaneous disruption of zinc and redox homeostasis in response to Pt3 treatment activated gasdermin‐D mediated pyroptosis accompanied by cytoskeleton remodeling, thus releasing pro‐inflammatory cytokines to promote dendritic cell (DC) maturation and T cell tumor‐infiltration, eventually eliminating both primary and distant tumors in vivo. As far as we know, this is the first metal complex that can regulate zinc homeostasis to activate antitumor immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is accompanied by muscle weakness and muscle atrophy, typically resulting in death within 3–5 years from the disease occurrence. Though the cause of ALS remains unclear, increasing evidence has suggested that inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of ALS. Thus, we performed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to estimate the associations of circulating levels of cytokines and growth factors with the risk of ALS. Methods: Genetic instrumental variables for circulating cytokines and growth factors were identified from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 8293 European participants. Summary statistics of ALS were obtained from a GWAS including 20,806 ALS cases and 59,804 controls of European ancestry. We used the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method as the primary analysis. To test the robustness of our results, we further performed the simple-median method, weighted-median method, MR-Egger regression, and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier test. Finally, a reverse MR analysis was performed to assess the possibility of reverse causation between ALS and the cytokines that we identified. Results: After Bonferroni correction, genetically predicted circulating level of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-basic) was suggestively associated with a lower risk of ALS [odds ratio (OR): 0.74, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.60–0.92, P = 0.007]. We also observed suggestive evidence that interferon gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10) was associated with a 10% higher risk of ALS (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03–1.17, P = 0.005) in the primary study. The results of sensitivity analyses were consistent. Conclusions: Our systematic MR analyses provided suggestive evidence to support causal associations of circulating FGF-basic and IP-10 with the risk of ALS. More studies are warranted to explore how these cytokines may affect the development of ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pinus massoniana Lamb. is a crucial timber and resin conifer in China, but its plantation industry is threatened by outbreaks of pine wilt disease (PWD) caused by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (pinewood nematode; PWN). However, as of yet, there is no comprehensive analysis of NBS-LRR genes in P. massoniana involved in its defense against PWN. In this study, 507 NBS genes were identified in the transcriptome of resistant and susceptible P. masoniana inoculated with the PWN. The phylogenetic analysis and expression profiles of resistant and susceptible P. massoniana revealed that the up-regulated PmNBS-LRR97 gene was involved in conferring resistance to PWN. The results of real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that PmNBS-LRR97 was significantly up-regulated after PWN infection, especially in the stems. Subcellular localization indicated that PmNBS-LRR97 located to the cell membrane. PmNBS-LRR97 significantly activated the expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related genes in P. massoniana. In addition, the overexpression of PmNBS-LRR97 was capable of promoting the production of ROS, aiding in plant growth and development. In summary, PmNBS-LRR97 participates in the defense response to PWN and plays an active role in conferring resistance in P. massoniana. This finding provides new insight into the regulatory mechanism of the R gene in P. massoniana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]