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Virtual power plants (VPPs), serving as an integration and coordination platform for energy sources, have been rapidly developed in recent years. With the rapid expansion of distributed energy sources, disturbance problems within the VPP and cluster are becoming increasingly prominent. In this study, we commence by addressing the internal fluctuations within the VPP through the construction of a source–load uncertainty model. Then, we integrate the Nash bargaining game theory, treating different VPPs as participants in the game. This approach significantly mitigates disturbances within both VPPs and the cluster through the negotiation of power trading strategies. In addition, the coordination between VPPs and their coordination with the distribution network in the network-wide interaction is considered, and an optimization algorithm for distributed electricity trading based on the alternating direction method of multipliers is proposed to solve the model. The results show that the proposed model effectively copes with the internal and external disturbances of the VPP, improves the system’s ability to cope with the uncertainty risk, and reduces the operation cost.

The Lower Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation in Sichuan Basin and on its periphery is rich in shale gas resources, and it has become one of the important shale gas development intervals in Sichuan Basin. Controlled by complex sedimentary setting, the silty shale reservoir in Qiongzhusi Formation has various lithofacies and strong heterogeneity longitudinally, which restricts the exploration and development of shale gas. Therefore, it is urgent to study the sedimentary characteristics, sedimentary facies and sedimentary models. Based on the previous understanding of tectonic setting and sequence stratigraphy, and through detailed analysis of rock data, well logging data, geochemistry data and paleontology data, this paper clarifies the Early Cambrian sedimentary background of combined ocean-paleoland influence, moderate water depth and widespread reduction of Sichuan Basin and its periphery. The paper also believes that the Qiongzhusi Formation is mainly deposited in shore facies and continental shelf facies. The continental shelf facies are dominated, including shallow water continental shelf subfacies and deep water continental shelf subfacies. Based on the analysis of the combined action of wave and tide, seawater evaporation, suspension, rising ocean current, sedimentary paleogeomorphology and other fine-grained sedimentary influencing factors, and combined with the spatial distribution characteristics of sediments, the fine-grained sedimentary model of the Lower Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation in Sichuan Basin and on its periphery is established, i.e., in the early stage of sedimentation, the effect of differential sedimentation is significant, the sequence thickness varies greatly, and the sedimentary characteristics and influencing factors differ greatly in different regions. In the middle stage of sedimentation, the effect of differential sedimentation is diminished and the difference of sequence thickness decreases continuously. In the late stage of sedimentation, with steady sedimentation, it enters the "open basin" stage, and the sequence thickness tends to be consistent.

Abstract Alpha synuclein (a-syn) is an intrinsically disordered protein prevalent in neurons, and aggregated forms are associated with synucleinopathies including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Despite the biomedical importance and extensive studies, the physiological role of a-syn and its participation in etiology of PD remain uncertain. We showed previously in model RBL cells that a-syn colocalizes with mitochondrial membranes, depending on formation of N-terminal helices and increasing with mitochondrial stress1. We have now characterized this colocalization and functional correlates in RBL, HEK293, and N2a cells. We find that expression of a-syn enhances stimulated mitochondrial uptake of Ca2+ from the ER, depending on formation of its N-terminal helices but not on its disordered C-terminal tail. Our results are consistent with a-syn acting as a tether between mitochondria and ER, and we show increased contacts between these two organelles using structured illumination microscopy. We tested mitochondrial stress caused by toxins related to PD, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP/MPP+) and carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP) and found that a-syn prevents recovery of stimulated mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake. The C-terminal tail, and not N-terminal helices, is involved in this inhibitory activity, which is abrogated when phosphorylation site serine-129 is mutated (S129A). Correspondingly, we find that MPTP/MPP+ and CCCP stress is accompanied by both phosphorylation (pS129) and aggregation of a-syn. Overall, our results indicate that a-syn can participate as a tethering protein to modulate Ca2+ flux between ER and mitochondria, with potential physiological significance. A-syn can also prevent cellular recovery from toxin-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, which may represent a pathological role of a-syn in the etiology of PD.

Abstract Non‐sidelooking airborne radar encounters significant non‐stationary and heterogeneous clutter environments, resulting in a severe shortage of samples. Sparse recovery‐based space‐time adaptive processing (SR‐STAP) methods can achieve good clutter suppression performance with limited samples. Nonetheless, grid‐based SR‐STAP algorithms encounter off‐grid effects in non‐sidelooking arrays, which can severely degrade the clutter suppression performance. In this study, the authors propose a novel gridless SR‐STAP method in the continuous spatial‐temporal domain to address the issue of off‐grid effects. Inspired by the fact that sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) framework implicitly performs a structured covariance matrix estimation, the authors reparameterise its cost function to directly estimate the block‐Toeplitz structured matrix from the measurements in a gridless manner. Since the proposed cost function is non‐convex, we utilise a majorisation‐minimisation‐based iterative procedure to estimate the clutter covariance matrix. Finally, using the standard concept of semidefinite programming, the authors derive a convex gridless implementation of the SBL cost function for uniformly sampled radar systems. Extensive simulation experiments demonstrate the exceptional clutter suppression and target detection performance of the proposed algorithm.

Abstract Accurate species identification and abundance estimation are critical for the interpretation of whole metagenome sequencing (WMS) data. Yet, existing metagenomic profilers suffer from false-positive identifications, which can account for more than 90% of total identified species. Here, by leveraging species-specific Type IIB restriction endonuclease digestion sites as reference instead of universal markers or whole microbial genomes, we present a metagenomic profiler, MAP2B (MetAgenomic Profiler based on type IIB restriction sites), to resolve those issues. We first illustrate the pitfalls of using relative abundance as the only feature in determining false positives. We then propose a feature set to distinguish false positives from true positives, and using simulated metagenomes from CAMI2, we establish a false-positive recognition model. By benchmarking the performance in metagenomic profiling using a simulation dataset with varying sequencing depth and species richness, we illustrate the superior performance of MAP2B over existing metagenomic profilers in species identification. We further test the performance of MAP2B using real WMS data from an ATCC mock community, confirming its superior precision against sequencing depth. Finally, by leveraging WMS data from an IBD cohort, we demonstrate the taxonomic features generated by MAP2B can better discriminate IBD and predict metabolomic profiles.

ABSTRACTAchieving high strength-ductility synergy in hard-to-deform high-alloyed Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr alloys by rolling remains a great challenge. In this work, a Mg-8.2Gd-3.8Y-1.0Zn-0.4Zr (wt.%) alloy sheet possessing a high yield strength (YS) of ∼385 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of ∼420 MPa and elongation of ∼19% was achieved via a single-pass hard-plate rolling (HPR) process. The high YS is mainly from amounts of submicron FGs and strong interactions between densely distributed γ′ precipitates and pyramidal dislocations in CGs. The activation of multiple slip systems, HDI-hardening effect, and crack suppression effect from γ′ particles, endow the excellent ductility.

Carbohydrates have a protein sparing effect, but long-term feeding of a high-carbohydrate diet (HCD) leads to metabolic disorders due to the limited utilization efficiency of carbohydrates in fish. How to mitigate the negative effects induced by HCD is crucial for the rapid development of aquaculture. Uridine is a pyrimidine nucleoside that plays a vital role in regulating lipid and glucose metabolism, but whether uridine can alleviate metabolic syndromes induced by HCD remains unknown. In this study, a total of 480 Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) (average initial weight 5.02 ± 0.03 g) were fed with 4 diets, including a control diet (CON), HCD, HCD + 500 mg/kg uridine (HCUL) and HCD + 5,000 mg/kg uridine (HCUH), for 8 weeks. The results showed that addition of uridine decreased hepatic lipid, serum glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol (P

Patients with brain injury can suffer disability and accompanying complications. Current clinical treatments have significant limitations to successful repair due to the complexity of the pathological processes and the inhibitory microenvironment that follows brain injury. Here, we conclude recent research progresses in engineering strategies based on electrospun nanofibers for promoting neural repair and functional recovery after brain injury. Firstly, we introduce the main pathological mechanisms of current brain injuries, pointing out the prospect of the application of electrospun nanofiber scaffolds compared to current clinical treatment strategies. We then discuss the repair strategies combining the structure and the morphology of nanofiber scaffolds with load therapeutic factors such as cells, drugs and growth factors. All of these strategies show potential for improving the repair of brain injury. Finally, we point out the challenges facing the effective treatment of brain injury, aiming to provide insights into the development of repairing scaffolds for brain function recovery from the perspective of clinical treatment.

Abstract Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have revolutionized the modeling of biomolecular conformations and provided unprecedented insight into molecular interactions. Due to the prohibitive computational overheads of ab initio simulation for large biomolecules, dynamic modeling for proteins is generally constrained on force field with molecular mechanics, which suffers from low accuracy as well as ignores the electronic effects. Here, we report AIMD-Chig, an MD dataset including 2 million conformations of 166-atom protein Chignolin sampled at the density functional theory (DFT) level with 7,763,146 CPU hours. 10,000 conformations were initialized covering the whole conformational space of Chignolin, including folded, unfolded, and metastable states. Ab initio simulations were driven by M06-2X/6-31 G* with a Berendsen thermostat at 340 K. We reported coordinates, energies, and forces for each conformation. AIMD-Chig brings the DFT level conformational space exploration from small organic molecules to real-world proteins. It can serve as the benchmark for developing machine learning potentials for proteins and facilitate the exploration of protein dynamics with ab initio accuracy.

BASP1 is a membrane‐bound protein that plays a promotional or inhibitory role in a variety of tumors; however, its role in gastric cancer (GC) and in the immune microenvironment has not been reported. The objectives of this study were to determine whether BASP1 is a valuable prognostic marker for GC and to explore its role in the immune microenvironment of GC. The expression level of BASP1 in GC was analyzed based on the TCGA dataset and further verified using GSE54129 and GSE161533 datasets, immunohistochemistry, and western blotting. The association between BASP1 and clinicopathological characteristics, as well as its predictive value, were examined using the STAD dataset. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine whether BASP1 can be used as an independent prognostic indicator for GC, and a nomogram was constructed to predict OS. The association between BASP1 and immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoints, and immune cell markers was confirmed by enrichment analysis, as well as analysis based on the TIMER and GEPIA databases. BASP1 was observed to be highly expressed in GC and was associated with a poor prognosis. The expression of BASP1 was positively correlated with the expression of immune checkpoints and immune cell markers, as well as immune cell infiltration. Thus, BASP1 may serve as a standalone prognostic indicator for GC. BASP1 is highly correlated with immune processes, and its expression is positively correlated with the degree of immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoints, and immune cell markers.

Abstract Aim Evaluate the fully online flipped classroom's effects during the pandemic. Design A comparative descriptive study with historical control design. Methods In an internal medicine nursing course, the fully online flipped classroom instruction was used with 53 undergraduates in 2020. Their final examinations were compared with the 50 students taught with traditional offline methods in 2019. Online interactions and students' experiences were described. Pass rates in both classes were over 90% (Χ2 = 0.276, p = 0.60), but the median score in 2019 was higher than in 2020 (Z = −2.491, p = 0.01). There were 996 online interactions and 734 valid interactions in total. All 49 students believed the online flipped classroom schedule was reasonable and all but three said it was helpful. However, 19 students (39%) felt traditional teaching is more effective. Conclusions The fully online flipped classroom method was fairly effective during the pandemic. This model also did increase class participation and sufficient faculty–student interactions in remote education. However, fewer students earned outstanding scores, with possible reasons including the online flipped classroom, lack of clinical practice, stress from COVID‐19 and the shortened exam time. Overall, the method is worth recommending under public health emergencies like COVID‐19, and future research exploring potential concerns about scores is necessary.

To analyze the endogenous plasmid pDX of Lactobacillus acidophilus, and construct the Escherichia coli-Lactobacillus acidophilus shuttle vector based on the plasmid. In this study, the endogenous plasmid pDX was isolated from Lactobacillus acidophilus XW118, its sequence determination and functional analysis were performed, and then the promotor of plasmid pDX was used to construct a vector that could shuttle between Escherichia coli and lactic acid bacteria. The activity of the endogenous plasmid replicon of L. acidophilus in E. coli and the host range, transformation efficiency and passage stability of the shuttle vector in lactic acid bacteria were studied. The results showed that the size of Lactobacillus acidophilus plasmid pDX was 2062 bp, the GC content was 38.2%, and the plasmid contained four open reading frames (ORFs), which was presumed to be a rolling loop replication plasmid. The copy number of plasmid pDX in L. acidophilus was 31.05. In this study, an E. coli-lactic acid bacteria shuttle vector based on the replicon and promoter of plasmid pDX was constructed. The transformation efficiency of the vector was 0.24×102 to 2.75×103 CFU/μg (plasmid weight), and the plasmid loss rate was 25.45% to 48.36%. In this study, a vector capable of shuttling between E. coli and lactic acid bacteria was constructed, and the promoter of the endogenous plasmid of lactic acid bacteria with activity in E. coli was obtained, which provided a new operational approach for genetic engineering of lactic acid bacteria and metabolic engineering of E. coli.

Abstract Background Soybean (Glycine max) meal is one of the important protein sources for fish, but the non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) in soybean meal impair the intestinal barrier function. Here we aimed to investigate whether xylanase can alleviate the adverse effects on the gut barrier induced by soybean meal in Nile tilapia and to explore the possible mechanism. Results Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) (4.09 ± 0.02 g) were fed with two diets including SM (soybean meal) and SMC (soybean meal + 3,000 U/kg xylanase) for 8 weeks. We characterized the effects of xylanase on the gut barrier, and the transcriptome analysis was performed to investigate the underlying mechanism. Dietary xylanase improved intestinal morphology and decreased the concentration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in serum. The results of transcriptome and Western blotting showed that dietary xylanase up-regulated the expression level of mucin2 (MUC2) which may be related to the inhibition of protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (perk)/activating transcription factor 4 (atf4) signaling pathways. Microbiome analysis showed that addition of xylanase in soybean meal altered the intestinal microbiota composition and increased the concentration of butyric acid in the gut. Notably, dietary sodium butyrate was supplemented into the soybean meal diet to feed Nile tilapia, and the data verified that sodium butyrate mirrored the beneficial effects of xylanase. Conclusions Collectively, supplementation of xylanase in soybean meal altered the intestinal microbiota composition and increased the content of butyric acid which can repress the perk/atf4 signaling pathway and increase the expression of muc2 to enhance the gut barrier function of Nile tilapia. The present study reveals the mechanism by which xylanase improves the intestinal barrier, and it also provides a theoretical basis for the application of xylanase in aquaculture.

Amniotic membrane is the innermost membrane in human placenta. It supports epithelialization and has the characteristics of anti-fibrosis, anti-inflammation and anti-angiogenesis. It is gradually widely used in ophthalmic surgery and other surgical operations. In recently years, the amniotic membrane has been used more frequently in ophthalmic clinic and has achieved better curative effect. This article reviews the application of amniotic membrane transplantation in ocular diseases such as ocular burn, conjunctival disease, corneal disease, pterygium, glaucoma and macular hole. It is expected that amniotic membrane transplantation will bring new ideas for the treatment of ocular diseases.

The rapid advancement of electric vehicles (EVs) accentuates the criticality of efficient thermal management systems for electric motors, which are pivotal for performance, reliability, and longevity. Traditional thermal modeling techniques often struggle with the dynamic and complex nature of EV operations, leading to inaccuracies in temperature prediction and management. This study introduces a novel thermal modeling approach that utilizes a multihead attention mechanism, aiming to significantly enhance the prediction accuracy of motor temperature under varying operational conditions. Through meticulous feature engineering and the deployment of advanced data handling techniques, we developed a model that adeptly navigates the intricacies of temperature fluctuations, thereby contributing to the optimization of EV performance and reliability. Our evaluation using a comprehensive dataset encompassing temperature data from 100 electric vehicles illustrates our model’s superior predictive performance, notably improving temperature prediction accuracy.

Lithium-ion batteries are essential for the development of consumer electronics and electric vehicles due to their high energy density, low self-discharge rate, and easy maintenance. To optimize the performance of lithium-ion batteries and meet the battery requirements of devices, it is necessary to charge the batteries at a faster rate. Therefore, this paper proposes a five-stage constant current charging method based on Lamb wave depolarization to enhance the charging efficiency. Specifically, the orthogonal experimental method is first used to determine the near-optimal value of the charging current in each stage of the five-stage constant current charging process. Subsequently, Lamb waves are introduced during the charging process of each constant current charging stage. Compared with the traditional five-stage constant current charging method, the five-stage constant current charging method based on Lamb wave depolarization improves the charging efficiency. The charging efficiency of the five-stage constant current charging method based on Lamb wave depolarization with an excitation voltage peak-to-peak amplitude Vpp of 120 and an excitation duration of 6 min is 20% higher than that of the traditional five-stage constant current charging method. The weakening of the polarization effect is positively correlated with the Lamb wave excitation voltage. In addition, the five-stage constant current charging method based on Lamb wave depolarization is superior to the five-stage constant current shelving depolarization charging method and the five-stage constant current negative pulse depolarization charging method in improving the charging efficiency.

As a low-calorie sugar, D-allulose is produced from D-fructose catalyzed by D-allulose 3-epimerase (DAE). Here, to improve the catalytic activity, stability, and processability of DAE, we reported a novel method by forming organic–inorganic hybrid nanoflowers (NF-DAEs) and co-immobilizing them on resins to form composites (Re-NF-DAEs). NF-DAEs were prepared by combining DAE with metal ions (Co2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ca2+, Ni2+, Fe2+, and Fe3+) in PBS buffer, and were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. All of the NF-DAEs showed higher catalytic activities than free DAE, and the NF-DAE with Ni2+ (NF-DAE-Ni) reached the highest relative activity of 218%. The NF-DAEs improved the thermal stability of DAE, and the longest half-life reached 228 min for NF-DAE-Co compared with 105 min for the free DAE at 55 °C. To further improve the recycling performance of the NF-DAEs in practical applications, we combined resins and NF-DAEs to form Re-NF-DAEs. Resins and NF-DAEs co-effected the performance of the composites, and ReA (LXTE-606 neutral hydrophobic epoxy-based polypropylene macroreticular resins)-based composites (ReA-NF-DAEs) exhibited outstanding relative activities, thermal stabilities, storage stabilities, and processabilities. The ReA-NF-DAEs were able to be reused to catalyze the conversion from D-fructose to D-allulose, and kept more than 60% of their activities after eight cycles.

In recent years, a great deal of work has been devoted to the development of thermoresponsive polymers that can be made into new types of smart materials. In this paper, a branched polymer, HTPB-g-(PNIPAM/PEG), with polyolefin chain segments as the backbone and having polyethylene glycol (PEG) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) as side chains was synthesized by ATRP and click reactions using N3-HTPB-Br as the macroinitiator. This initiator was designed and synthesized using hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as the substrate. The temperature-responsive behavior of the branched polymer was investigated. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the branched polymer was determined by ultraviolet and visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis) and was found to be 35.2 °C. The relationship between the diameter size of micelles and temperature was determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS). It was found that the diameter size changed at 36 °C, which was nearly consistent with the result obtained by UV-vis. The results of the study indicate that HTPB-g-(PNIPAM/PEG) is a temperature-responsive polymer. At room temperature, the polymer can self-assemble into composite micelles, with the main chain as the core and the branched chain as the shell. When the temperature was increased beyond LCST, the polyolefin main chain along with the PNIPAM branched chain assembled to form the nucleus, and the PEG branched chain constituted the shell.

In space laser communication, the wide divergence angle of beacon light leads to substantial spatial losses, compounded by background light and detector noise; this results in compromised precision in the detection of the beacon light position. To solve this problem, a high-precision detection technique and communication composite technology employing a four-quadrant detector (QD) with beacon spread-spectrum modulation are proposed. Pseudo-random sequences (PRNs) are employed to spread the beacon communication spectrum, with the spread-spectrum signal utilized to modulate the intensity of the transmitted beacon light at the transmitter end. At the receiver, QD photocurrent signals are cross-correlated with an identical PRN that is used for modulation. The strong auto-correlation properties of PRNs, which are uncorrelated with noise, enhance the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), enabling precise position detection and beacon communication under high-SNR conditions. Theoretical analysis is used to explore the effects of spreading gain on the sensitivity of system detection and the precision of position detection. The experimental results demonstrate that the beacon spread-spectrum modulation scheme effectively detects the position of the light spot. At a received optical power of −37 dBm and spreading sequence PRN depths of 1023, 127, and 31, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) values are 0.983 μm, 2.876 μm, and 7.275 μm, respectively. This corresponds to improvements of 14.96 dB, 10.29, dB, and 6.26 dB compared to direct detection precision (30.811 μm). Additionally, under an identical signal bandwidth, the sensitivity improves by 14.6 dB, 10.1 dB, and 6.4 dB, respectively. The proposed beacon spread-spectrum scheme mitigates the limitations of hardware reception sensitivity and position-detection precision, demonstrating its potential application in high-precision detection in long-distance interstellar laser communication.

Space–time adaptive processing (STAP) is an effective technology in clutter suppression and moving target detection for airborne radar. When working in the heterogeneous environment, the number of training samples that satisfy independent and identically distributed (IID) conditions is insufficient, making it difficult to ensure the estimation accuracy of the clutter plus noise covariance matrix for traditional STAP methods. Sparse recovery–based STAP (SR–STAP) methods have received widespread attention in the past few years. The accurate estimation of the clutter plus noise covariance matrix can be achieved using only a few training samples. The iterative adaptive approach (IAA) can quickly and accurately estimate the power spectrum, but applying this method directly to the STAP method cannot produce good performance. In this paper, a fast IAA–based SR–STAP method is proposed. Based on the weighted l1 problem, the IAA spectrum is used as a weighted term to obtain a good approximation. In order to obtain an analytical solution, we use the weighted l2 norm to approximate the weighted l1 norm without loss of performance. Compared with the IAA–STAP method, the proposed method is more robust to errors. Moreover, the proposed method has a fast computational speed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulations.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne video synthetic aperture radar (SAR) possesses the characteristic of having high-continuous-frame-rate imaging, which is conducive to the real-time monitoring of ground-moving targets. The real-time imaging-processing system for UAV-borne video SAR (ViSAR) requires miniaturization, low power consumption, high frame rate, and high-resolution imaging. In order to achieve high-frame-rate real-time imaging on limited payload-carrying platforms, this study proposes a miniaturization design of a high-integration UAV-borne ViSAR real-time imaging-processing component (MRIPC). The proposed design integrates functions such as broadband signal generation, high-speed real-time sampling, and real-time SAR imaging processing on a single-chip FPGA. The parallel access mechanism using multiple sets of high-speed data buffers increases the data access throughput and solves the problem of data access bandwidth. The range-Doppler (RD) algorithm and map-drift (MD) algorithm are optimized using parallel multiplexing, achieving a balance between computing speed and hardware resources. The test results have verified that our proposed component is effective for the real-time processing of 2048 × 2048 single-precision floating-point data points to realize a 5 Hz imaging frame rate and 0.15 m imaging resolution, satisfying the requirements of real-time ViSAR-imaging processing.

Abstract Background Gonorrhea and chlamydia are the most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Previous studies have shown pay-it-forward (PIF) interventions to be associated with a substantial increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia test uptake compared to standard-of-care. We propose a 'pay-it-forward' gonorrhea and chlamydia testing randomized controlled trial (PIONEER). The trial would evaluate the effectiveness of two pay-it-forward strategies in promoting testing uptake compared to the standard of care (in which men pay for their tests out-of-pocket) among MSM and male STD patients in China. Methods PIONEER will be a three-armed, pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), conducted across 12 clinics (six MSM-led and six public STD clinics) to compare the effectiveness of three implementation strategies. Each facility will be randomized to a standard pay-it-forward intervention of gonorrhea/ chlamydia testing with minimal encouragement for testing, a community-engaged pay-it-forward arm, or a control arm where men pay for their tests out-of-pockets. The primary outcome will be dual gonorrhea/chlamydia test uptake. Secondary outcomes will include syphilis testing, amount donated in pay-it-forward, number of positive gonorrhea and chlamydia tests, and measures of antimicrobial resistance. A sequential transformative mixed methods design will be used to evaluate the implementation process in type 2 effectiveness-implementation hybrid design. Data sources will include survey on acceptability, and feelings and attitudes towards the interventions among participants; testing and treatment uptake data from clinic records, WeChat records, and qualitative data to gain insights into men's perceptions and attitudes towards the pay-it-forward, mechanisms driving uptake, and donating behaviors. Implementers and organizers will be interviewed about fidelity and adherence to protocol, sustainability of pay-it-forward intervention, and barriers and facilitators of implementing the intervention. Discussion PIONEER will substantially increase gonorrhea/chlamydia testing among MSM in China, providing an innovative and new financial mechanism to sustain STD screening among sexual minorities in low- and middle-income countries. This study will answer compelling scientific questions about how best to implement pay-it-forward and the individual and organizational characteristics that moderate it. Trial registration: The study with identification number NCT05723263 has been registered on clinicaltrials.gov/.

Abstract Ischemic stroke (IS) is a major threat to human health, and it is the second leading cause of long-term disability and death in the world. Impaired cerebral perfusion leads to acute hypoxia and glucose deficiency, which in turn induces a stroke cascade response that ultimately leads to cell death. Screening and identifying hypoxia-related genes (HRGs) and therapeutic targets is important for neuroprotection before and during brain recanalization to protect against injury and extend the time window to further improve functional outcomes before pharmacological and mechanical thrombolysis. First, we downloaded the GSE16561 and GSE58294 datasets from the NCBI GEO database. Bioinformatics analysis of the GSE16561 dataset using the limma package identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ischemic stroke using adj. p. values

Abstract Functional redundancy is a key ecosystem property representing the fact that different taxa contribute to an ecosystem in similar ways through the expression of redundant functions. The redundancy of potential functions (or genome-level functional redundancy $${{{{{{\rm{FR}}}}}}}_{g}$$ FR g ) of human microbiomes has been recently quantified using metagenomics data. Yet, the redundancy of expressed functions in the human microbiome has never been quantitatively explored. Here, we present an approach to quantify the proteome-level functional redundancy $${{{{{{\rm{FR}}}}}}}_{p}$$ FR p in the human gut microbiome using metaproteomics. Ultra-deep metaproteomics reveals high proteome-level functional redundancy and high nestedness in the human gut proteomic content networks (i.e., the bipartite graphs connecting taxa to functions). We find that the nested topology of proteomic content networks and relatively small functional distances between proteomes of certain pairs of taxa together contribute to high $${{{{{{\rm{FR}}}}}}}_{p}$$ FR p in the human gut microbiome. As a metric comprehensively incorporating the factors of presence/absence of each function, protein abundances of each function and biomass of each taxon, $${{{{{{\rm{FR}}}}}}}_{p}$$ FR p outcompetes diversity indices in detecting significant microbiome responses to environmental factors, including individuality, biogeography, xenobiotics, and disease. We show that gut inflammation and exposure to specific xenobiotics can significantly diminish the $${{{{{{\rm{FR}}}}}}}_{p}$$ FR p with no significant change in taxonomic diversity.

Magnesium alloys are more widely used at higher temperatures. However, it is not well known whether oxide layer, produced at high temperature, could show corrosion protection. Thus, the corrosion behaviors of oxidized AZW800 alloy were investigated by hydrogen evolution and electrochemical measurements to evaluate effect of oxide layer on corrosion resistance. The results showed that corrosion of removed oxide layer AZW800 alloy showed characteristic of localized corrosion, leaving randomly bulky pits. While reserved oxide layer AZW800 alloy exhibited a relatively uniform corrosion. The results indicated that oxide layer could hinder corrosion of oxidized AZW800 alloy in the initial period of immersion. While subsequently, aggravated corrosion would occur owing to defects of oxide layer and less protective products film. Besides, present of oxide layer eliminated micro-galvanic couple on alloy surface. The synergistic effect of elimination of micro-galvanic couple on alloy surface and alkalization effect transforms localized corrosion into relatively uniform corrosion of alloys.

Abstract Space‐time adaptive processing (STAP) struggles to effectively suppress clutter in the heterogeneous clutter environment due to the lack of training samples. In order to enhance clutter suppression performance of STAP, a subspace‐weighted mixed‐norm minimisation approach is given. First, a roughly estimated clutter subspace is obtained using the subspace augment (SA) approach. The weight vector is then designed using the association between the dictionary matrix and the noise subspace, allowing the algorithm to penalise sparse coefficients democratically. Finally, in order to solve the subspace‐weighted mixed‐norm minimisation problem, we derive a fast algorithm based on the alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM) framework. The proposed algorithm does not require iteratively updating the weight vector in contrast to the iterative re‐weighted l1 ${l}_{1}$ (IRL1) algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of computational efficiency and clutter suppression performance.

Magnesium matrix composite is another competitive light metal matrix composite following aluminum matrix composite, with excellent application prospects in the aerospace and automotive fields. In this paper, the Mg - 3Y – xSiCp (x = 0, 1, 3, 5 wt%) composites are fabricated by stir casting with ultrasonic vibration followed by extrusion. The microstructure of the alloys is investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques. The results reveal that the composites have a finer grain size due to the particle promoted nucleation (PSN) mechanism. When the SiCp content is 3 wt%, the grain size is the smallest (0.76 μm), and the refinement rate is about 16.7%. Moreover, the addition of SiCp can inhibit the transformation from low-angle grain boundaries (LABGs) to high-angle grain boundaries (HABGs), thus hindering the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) of the alloy, which decreases from 55.7% to 15.4%. The reduction in the proportion of recrystallized grains in the composite leads to increasing the maximum intensity of the texture. In addition, the tensile properties and the strengthening mechanism of the alloys are investigated. The results show that the composites have higher ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) due to the combination of grain refinement and dislocation strengthening. When the SiCp content is 5 wt%, the UTS (291 MPa) and YS (283 MPa) increase by ∼12.7% and ∼17.1%, respectively, over the matrix alloy. However, the addition of SiCp causes more oxides and holes in the alloys, which leads to a fracture strain (δ) decrease in the composites.

Single-phase face-centered cubic (fcc) medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) generally exhibit good ductility but insufficient room temperature strength that limits their potential application. Here, a deformation mechanism of twin-induced transformation was achieved to strength the CoCrNi-base alloy with gradient nanostructure obtained by surface mechanical rolling treatment (SMRT) technique. Significantly, the SMRT processed CoCrNi-based alloy exhibits a substantial improvement in the mechanical property comparing with the wrought counterpart by increasing the yield strength from 964 to 1664 MPa and the ultimate tensile strength from 1210 to 1883 MPa, while maintaining a uniform elongation of 11.3%. The enhanced combination of strength and ductility attributes to the extra hardening from the synergistic effect of nanostructure and phase transformation.

The expensive cost of master alloys for preparing high-performance Mg rare-earth alloys has prevented their large-scale production and application. This paper demonstrates that some inexpensive rare-earth oxides can replace the corresponding master alloys for material preparation by thermodynamic calculations, and low-cost Mg–3Y–1La2O3, Mg–3Y–1CeO2, Mg–3Y–1Sm2O3, and Mg–3Y–1Gd2O3 composites were prepared using the melting-casting-hot extrusion method. Y can reduce some rare earth oxides to rare earth element. When the content of rare earth element is high, it can form a second phase (Mg17La2, Mg12Ce) with Mg which is well bound to the matrix, revealing that the in-situ composite has a good particle-matrix interface relationship. In addition, the in-situ Mg17La2 is coarse and has a higher volume fraction, which plays a key role in the improvement of mechanical properties. The ultimate tensile strength of Mg–3Y–1La2O3 composite is 55.1 MPa higher than that of Mg–3Y alloy. The strengthening mechanism can be attributed to the load transfer and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the Mg17La2.

Abstract The High Line park (HLP) in New York City is one of the most successful contemporary greenway parks, inspiring urban planners, designers, artists, and administrators worldwide. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of user experiences in a long-term time frame (2011–2018) through the lens of online reviews. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling to quantitatively identify the key topics that represent 34,060 reviews and 30,285 users, followed by qualitative analysis to inductively interpret the LDA topics. The results identified experiential, programmatic and physical elements of the HLP that are meaningful to users. Three primary components were found that make HLP successful according to users: spectacular visual and activity-related experiences, the historical transformation and cultural exploration, and the added value from park services ranging from amenities to on-site living performance. The article helps inform future decision-making and planning & design practices for future greenway projects.

Abstract Background English as a Media of Instruction (EMI) teacher development project is based upon the framework for teacher Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and aims to effectively improve both the confidence and overall capacity of EMI lecturers. Kunming Medical University(KMU) conducted the EMI training project to improve teachers’ competence for MBBS education. This study aimed to assess teachers’ changes following the implementation of this training project, via the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. Methods A total of trainees (n = 84) were invited as the research objects. The effects of the EMI training project implemented in KMU were evaluated in terms of the reaction, learning, and behavior dimensions based on the Kirkpatrick model. The self-administered online anonymous questionnaires and observations of participants’ EMI lectures were administered to all participants to collect the data. Furthermore, to understand participants’ perceptions of the management and trainers of the training project, some open-ended questions were required to answer. Results Based on 1–3 level of the Kirkpatrick model, all participants were highly satisfied with the EMI training implementation on the reaction level, and expressed positive comments about the management of the training and trainers. On the learning level, participants’ scores on awareness of EMI teaching techniques increased significantly(t = 7.122, P

Abstract Background Multiple preclinical studies have reported a beneficial effect of extracellular vesicles (EVs), especially mesenchymal stem cells derived EVs (MSC-EVs), in the treatment of sepsis. However, the therapeutic effect of EVs is still not universally recognized. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis by summarizing data from all published studies that met certain criteria to systematically review the association between EVs treatment and mortality in animal models of sepsis. Methods Systematic retrieval of all studies in PubMed, Cochrane and Web of Science that reported the effects of EVs on sepsis models up to September 2022. The primary outcome was animal mortality. After screening the eligible articles according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, the inverse variance method of fixed effect model was used to calculate the joint odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan version 5.4. Results In total, 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis of those studies showed that EVs treatment was associated with reduced mortality in animal models of sepsis (OR 0.17 95% CI: 0.11,0.26, P

Blood vessel segmentation in fundus images is necessary for the diagnosis of ophthalmic diseases. In recent years, deep learning has achieved eminent performance in blood vessel segmentation, and there still exist challenges to reduce misidentification and improve microvascular segmentation accuracy. One reason is that traditional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) can not effectively extract multiscale information and discard the unnecessary information. Another reason is we can’t explain why some blood vessels fail to be identified. On the one hand, this paper proposes a Dual Attention Res2UNet (DA-Res2UNet) model. The DA-Res2UNet model uses Res2block rather than CNN to obtain more multiscale information and adds Dual Attention to help the model focus on important information and discard unnecessary information. On the other hand, the explainable method based on a pre-trained fundus image generator is adopted to explore how the model identifies blood vessels. We deduce several special situations that lead to the misidentification based on the model’s explanation and adjust the dataset for these special cases. The adjusted datasets significantly reduce the misidentification in the CHASE_DB1 dataset. Finally, the model trained by the adjusted datasets achieves the state-of-the-art F1-score of 81.88%, 82.77%, and 83.96% on the CHASE_DB1, DRIVE and STARE datasets, respectively.

BackgroundChina managed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with measures against Class B infectious diseases, instead of Class A infectious diseases, in a major shift of its epidemic response policies. We aimed to generate robust information on the transmission dynamics of novel coronavirus infection in Shanxi, a province located in northern China, after the implementation of the “Class B infectious disease Class B management” policy.MethodsWe consolidated infection data in Shanxi province from December 6, 2022 to January 14, 2023 through a network questionnaire survey and sentinel surveillance. A dynamics model of the SEIQHCVR was developed to track the infection curves and effective reproduction number (Rt).ResultsOur model was effective in estimating the trends of novel coronavirus infection, with the coefficient of determination (R2) above 90% in infections, inpatients, and critically ill patients. The number of infections in Shanxi province as well as in urban and rural areas peaked on December 20, 2022, with the peak of inpatients and critically ill patients occurring 2 to 3 weeks after the peak of infections. By the end of January 2023, 87.72% of the Shanxi residents were predicted to be infected, and the outbreak subsequently subsided. A small wave of COVID-19 infections may re-emerge at the end of April. In less than a month, the Rt values of positive infections, inpatients and critically ill patients were all below 1.0.ConclusionThe outbreak in Shanxi province is currently at a low prevalence level. In the face of possible future waves of infection, there is a strong need to strengthen surveillance and early warning.

Recently, significant achievements have been made in the gas exploration of marine Longmaxi shale in China. As exploration efforts have advanced, the exploration targets have gradually expanded to other sedimentary systems (marine-continental transitional and lacustrine). Compared with marine shale, shale in other sedimentary systems shows stronger heterogeneity, rendering previous exploration experiences of marine shale ineffective in guiding exploration efforts. Therefore, there is a pressing need for comparative studies to support future exploration practices. In this paper, the marine Longmaxi Formation and the marine-continental transitional Longtan Formation shales in the Lintanchang area of the southeastern of the Sichuan Basin are selected as the research objects. The study aims to compare the mineralogical characteristics, pore systems, and methane adsorption capacities of these two sets of shales, thereby revealing the differences in controlling factors that affect their physical properties and methane adsorption capacities. Our results show that the Longtan shale exhibits a higher clay mineral content, while the Longmaxi shale demonstrates significantly higher siliceous mineral content. Compare with Longmaxi shale, the Longtan shale exhibits a wider distribution range and higher average value of TOC content. The pore system in the Longmaxi shale is primarily dominated by organic matter-related pores, whereas the Longtan shale is characterized by clay mineral-related pores as the primary pore type. Given the variance in sedimentary environments, the controlling factors of physical properties differ significantly between the two sets of shales. In the case of the Longmaxi shale, TOC content is the most influential factor governing physical properties, while clay mineral content exerts the most significant influence on physical properties in the Longtan shale. Furthermore, TOC content emerges as the primary factor affecting methane adsorption capacity in both the Longmaxi and Longtan shales, despite the presence of significant variations in their pore systems. Nevertheless, the specific mechanisms through which TOC content impacts methane adsorption capacity exhibit variations between the two distinct shale types under investigation. The difference in sedimentary environment leads to various effects of mineral composition on methane adsorption capacity. Therefore, in the future research, the influences of different factors on methane adsorption capacity should be studied in combination with the sedimentary background.

Introduction Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an evidence-based treatment widely recommended to promote hand motor recovery after ischaemic stroke. However, the therapeutic efficacy of rTMS over the motor cortex in stroke patients is currently restricted and heterogeneous. This study aimed to determine whether excitatory rTMS over the contralesional dorsal premotor cortex (cPMd) facilitates the functional recovery of the upper limbs during the postacute stage of severe ischaemic stroke.Methods and analysis This study will be conducted as a single-blind, controlled, randomised study, in which 44 patients with poststroke hemiplegia with a course of disease ranging from 1 week to 3 months and Fugl-Meyer upper limb score ≤22 will be enrolled. The study participants will be randomly assigned to groups A (n=22) and B (n=22). The two groups are based on routine rehabilitation training and drug treatment; group A will be treated with low-frequency (1 Hz) rTMS over the contralesional primary motor cortex (cM1), and group B will be treated with high-frequency (10 Hz) rTMS over cPMd. For 2 weeks, rTMS will be administered once a day, 5 days a week. The primary outcome is the Fugl-Meyer assessment of the upper limb. The secondary outcomes include the Arm Subscore of the Motricity Index, Hong Kong edition of Functional Test for the Hemiplegic Upper Extremity, Modified Barthel Index and Modified Ashworth Scale score of the paralysed pectoralis major and biceps brachii. Furthermore, data of diffusion tensor imaging and functional MRI will be collected. These outcomes will be assessed before and after the completion of the intervention.Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (2020 SR-266). The findings of this study will be spread through networks of scientists, professionals and the general public as well as peer-reviewed scientific papers and presentations at pertinent conferences.Trial registration number ChiCTR2000038049

Onychomycosis is difficult to treat due to long treatment durations, poor efficacy rates of treatments, high relapse rates, and safety issues when using systemic antifungal agents. Device-based treatments are targeted to specific regions of the nail, have favorable safely profiles, and do not interfere with systemic agents. They may be an effective alternative therapy for onychomycosis especially with increasing reports of squalene epoxidase gene mutations and potential resistance to terbinafine therapy. In this review, we discuss four devices used as antifungal treatments and three devices used as penetration enhancers for topical agents. Lasers, photodynamic therapy, microwaves, and non-thermal plasma have the capacity to inactivate fungal pathogens demonstrated through in vivo studies. Efficacy rates for these devices, however, remain relatively low pointing toward the need to further optimize device or usage parameters. Ultrasound, nail drilling, and iontophoresis aid in improving the permeability of topical agents through the nail and have been investigated as adjunctive therapies. Due to the paucity in clinical data, their efficacy in treating onychomycosis has not yet been established. While the results of clinical studies point toward the potential utility of devices for onychomycosis, further large-scale randomized clinical trials following regulatory guidelines are required to confirm current results.

High-resolution satellite videos realize the short-dated gaze observation of the designated area on the ground, and its emergence has improved the temporal resolution of remote sensing data to the second level. Single object tracking (SOT) task in satellite video has attracted considerable attention. However, it faces challenges such as complex background, poor object feature representation, and lack of publicly available datasets. To cope with these challenges, a ThickSiam framework consisting of a Thickened Residual Block Siamese Network (TRBS-Net) for extracting robust semantic features to obtain the initial tracking results and a Remoulded Kalman Filter (RKF) module for simultaneously correcting the trajectory and size of the targets is designed in this work. The results of TRBS-Net and RKF modules are combined by an N-frame-convergence mechanism to achieve accurate tracking results. Ablation experiments are implemented on our annotated dataset to evaluate the performance of the proposed ThickSiam framework and other 19 state-of-the-art trackers. The comparison results show that our ThickSiam tracker obtains a precision value of 0.991 and a success value of 0.755 while running at 56.849 FPS implemented on one NVIDIA GTX1070Ti GPU.

Mesotherapy is a technique by which lower doses of therapeutic agents and bioactive substances are administered by intradermal injections to the skin. Through intradermal injections, mesotherapy can increase the residence time of therapeutic agents in the affected area, thus allowing for the use of lower doses and longer intervals between sessions which may in turn improve the treatment outcome and patient compliance. This systematic review aims to summarize the current literature that evaluates the efficacy of this technique for the treatment of hair loss and provides an overview of the results observed. Of the 416 records identified, 27 articles met the inclusion criteria. To date, mesotherapy using 6 classes of agents and their combinations have been studied; this includes dutasteride, minoxidil, growth factors or autologous suspension, botulinum toxin A, stem cells, and mesh solutions/multivitamins. While several studies report statistically significant improvements in hair growth after treatment, there is currently a lack of standardized regimens. The emergence of adverse effects after mesotherapy has been reported. Further large-scale and controlled clinical trials are warranted to evaluate the utility of mesotherapy for hair loss disorders.

Study design and objection: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive chronic disease characterized by damage to alveolar epithelial cells and abnormal deposition of the extracellular matrix. Although the disease course for most patients with IPF is progressive, in some cases the disease may appear as an acute exacerbation. Mechanical ventilation life support plays an important role in the treatment of patients with IPF but is associated with an increased risk of acute exacerbation of IPF (AE-IPF). Treatment is controversial and is not supported by sufficient clinical evidence. AE-IPF after lung cancer surgery is extremely rare, and the etiology and mechanism remain unclear, and its clinical manifestations are very similar to acute pulmonary edema and are easily misdiagnosed. Summaryof background data: We describe a 66-year-old male patient with IPF complicated with lung cancer who underwent thoracoscopic resection of the right upper lobe of the lung. Seventy-two hours after surgery, chest computed tomography indicated that AE-IPF in the mechanically ventilated lung was significantly greater than that in the operated lung. The patient’s own lung was used as a control and proved that mechanical ventilation can lead to AE-IPF. Results and conclusions: By highlighting the clinical characteristics of patients with acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, this article will enhance the vigilance of clinicians on AE-IPF caused by mechanical ventilation. Importantly, preoperative nintedanib therapy should be applied in advance to prevent AE-IPF on in patients with mild IPF. Precise pulmonary protective ventilation strategies need to be formulated for patients with IPF to reduce mortality.

IntroductionEarly decline of episodic memory is detectable in subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is associated with encoding episodic memories. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a novel and viable tool to improve cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment, but the treatment effect in SCD has not been studied. We aim to investigate the efficacy of rTMS on episodic memory in individuals with SCD, and to explore the potential mechanisms of neural plasticity.MethodsIn our randomized, sham-controlled trial, patients (n = 60) with SCD will receive 20 sessions (5 consecutive days per week for 4 weeks) of real rTMS (n = 30) or sham rTMS (n = 30) over the left DLPFC. The primary outcome is the Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Huashan version (AVLT-H). Other neuropsychological examinations and the long-term potentiation (LTP)-like cortical plasticity evaluation serve as the secondary outcomes. These outcomes will be assessed before and at the end of the intervention.DiscussionIf the episodic memory of SCD improve after the intervention, the study will confirm that rTMS is a promising intervention for cognitive function improvement on the early stage of dementia. This study will also provide important clinical evidence for early intervention in AD and emphasizes the significance that impaired LTP-like cortical plasticity may be a potential biomarker of AD prognosis by demonstrating the predictive role of LTP on cognitive improvement in SCD.Ethics and disseminationThe study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the hospital (No. 2023-002-01). The results will be published in peer-review publications.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.chictr.org.cn/, identifier ChiCTR2300075517.

Summary: Peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based advanced oxidation processes in liquid phase systems can actively degrade toluene. In this work, the catechol structural surfactant was introduced to synthesize the dispersed and homogeneous CoFe2O4 nanospheres and embedded into MoS2 nanoflowers to form magnetically separable heterojunction catalysts. The innovative approach effectively mitigated the traditionally low reduction efficiency of transition metal ions during the heterogeneous activation process. In CoFe2O4/MoS2/PMS system, the toluene removal efficiency remained 95% within 2 h. The contribution of SO4⋅-, ·O2−, ·OH, and 1O2 was revealed by radical quenching experiment and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results illustrated that MoS2 offers ample reduction sites for facilitating PMS activation via Fe3+/Fe2+ redox interactions. Furthermore, an investigation into the toluene degradation pathway within the CoFe2O4/MoS2/PMS system revealed its capability to suppress the formation of toxic byproducts. This ambient-temperature liquid-phase method presented promising route for the removal of industrial volatile organic pollutants.

Rice bran protein (RBP)-tannic acid (TA) complex was prepared and the RBP-TA emulsions were subjected to ultrasonic treatment with different powers. Ultrasonic treatment has a positive effect on improving the properties of RBP-TA emulsion. This study investigated the influence of different ultrasonic power levels on the physicochemical properties, microstructure, rheological properties, and stability of emulsions containing RBP-TA. Under the ultrasonic treatment of 400 W, the particle size, zeta potential, and adsorbed protein content of the RBP-TA emulsion were 146.86 nm, −20.7 eV, and 61.91%, respectively. At this time, the emulsion had the best emulsifying properties, apparent viscosity, energy storage modulus and loss modulus. In addition, the POV and TBARS values of RBP-TA emulsions were 6.12 and 7.60 mmol/kg, respectively. The thermal, salt ion, pH and oxidative stability of the emulsions were investigated, and it was shown that ultrasonic treatment was effective in improving the stability of RBP-TA emulsions.

Objective: This research explored the combined effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and aerobic exercise (AE) on executive function and specific serum biomarkers in healthy adults. Methods: Sixty healthy young adults were randomly assigned into tDCS+AE, tDCS only, or AE only groups. Interventions were carried out for 20 days. Executive functions were evaluated using tasks such as the 2,3-back task, the spatial working memory task, the Stroop test, T test, and hexagonal obstacle jump task. Serum biomarkers, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutamate, glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and iron ion, were analyzed pre- and post-intervention. Results: The tDCS+AE group showed superior enhancements in executive function, evidenced by improved accuracy rates in 2,3-back tasks, better performance in the staircase task, and reduced reaction times in the incongruent reaction time of the Stroop task compared to other groups. Importantly, we found substantial changes in serum biomarkers: increased levels of BDNF and SOD, and decreased levels of MDA and glutamate in the tDCS+AE group. These changes were significantly different when compared with the tDCS and AE only groups. Notably, these alterations in serum biomarkers were correlated with improvements in executive function tasks, thus offering a potential physiological basis for the cognitive improvements witnessed. Conclusion: The combined tDCS and AE intervention effectively improved executive function in healthy young adults, with the improvements linked to changes in key serum biomarkers. The results emphasize the potential of combined tDCS and AE interventions in engaging multiple physiological pathways to enhance executive function.

Objective: Radix Bupleuri and Radix Paeoniae Alba are referred to as Chai-Hu and Bai-Shao, respectively, in Chinese. We used molecular docking and network pharmacological approaches to explore the active components of this Chinese herb combination which is commonly used for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the Chai-Hu and Bai-Shao pair (CBP). Materials and Methods: The active compounds and action targets of Chai-Hu and Bai-Shao were identified in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database, and the Therapeutic Target Database, DrugBank, GenCards, DisGeNET, and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man databases were used to identify therapeutic targets in patients with AD. To identify a common target of CBP in the treatment of AD, we used the Metascape tool to perform Gene Ontology function enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses. In addition, CBP-AD protein–protein interaction (PPI) and herb-component-target networks were created using Cytoscape 3.8.2. Molecular docking was verified using AutoDock tools. Results We identified 20 active compounds of CBP, 202 active targets, 1,323 disease targets, and 117 active compound disease intersection targets; the PPI network showed that the top eight key targets were AKT1, interleukin (IL) 6, JUN, MAPK1, tumor necrosis factor, TP53, vascular endothelial growth factor, and epidermal growth factor. These act mainly on the fluid shear stress, atherosclerosis, IL-17, hypoxia-inducible factor-1, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease pathways, among others, which control immune inflammation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Based on molecular docking results, the active components of CBP bind well to its key targets. Conclusion Our results indicated that CBP was effective for treating AD by reducing the expression of inflammatory factors, promoting cell proliferation and differentiation, and preventing nerve cell death and anti-neuronal cell apoptosis.

Abstract Heart failure (HF) patients in general have a higher risk of developing cancer. Several animal studies have indicated that cardiac remodeling and HF remarkably accelerate tumor progression, highlighting a cause-and-effect relationship between these two disease entities. Targeting ferroptosis, a prevailing form of non-apoptotic cell death, has been considered a promising therapeutic strategy for human cancers. Exosomes critically contribute to proximal and distant organ-organ communications and play crucial roles in regulating diseases in a paracrine manner. However, whether exosomes control the sensitivity of cancer to ferroptosis via regulating the cardiomyocyte-tumor cell crosstalk in ischemic HF has not yet been explored. Here, we demonstrate that myocardial infarction (MI) decreased the sensitivity of cancer cells to the canonical ferroptosis activator erastin or imidazole ketone erastin in a mouse model of xenograft tumor. Post-MI plasma exosomes potently blunted the sensitivity of tumor cells to ferroptosis inducers both in vitro in mouse Lewis lung carcinoma cell line LLC and osteosarcoma cell line K7M2 and in vivo with xenograft tumorigenesis model. The expression of miR-22-3p in cardiomyocytes and plasma-exosomes was significantly upregulated in the failing hearts of mice with chronic MI and of HF patients as well. Incubation of tumor cells with the exosomes isolated from post-MI mouse plasma or overexpression of miR-22-3p alone abrogated erastin-induced ferroptotic cell death in vitro. Cardiomyocyte-enriched miR-22-3p was packaged in exosomes and transferred into tumor cells. Inhibition of cardiomyocyte-specific miR-22-3p by AAV9 sponge increased the sensitivity of cancer cells to ferroptosis. ACSL4, a pro-ferroptotic gene, was experimentally established as a target of miR-22-3p in tumor cells. Taken together, our findings uncovered for the first time that MI suppresses erastin-induced ferroptosis through releasing miR-22-3p-enriched exosomes derived from cardiomyocytes. Therefore, targeting exosome-mediated cardiomyocyte/tumor pathological communication may offer a novel approach for the ferroptosis-based antitumor therapy.

Encapsulation engineering is an effective strategy to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells. Here, authors design and synthesize self-crosslinked fluorosilicone polymer gel for nondestructive encapsulation at room temperature, and maintain 98% of efficiency after 1000 h in damp heat test.

Abstract Background Maternal obesity is the most common medical condition among women of reproductive age worldwide. The pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain have been suggested to be associated with maternal mental disorders. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain on antenatal depression, stress, and anxiety. Methods In total, 4,890 pregnant women were enrolled in the present study, which is based on an ongoing prospective cohort study. We used self-reported pre-pregnancy weights and the last weights measured prior to delivery (using professional instruments) to calculate the pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain. The questionnaires used included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and 10-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). We used Pearson product-moment correlation and multivariable logistic regression models to examine the impact of the pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain on different maternal mental disorders. Results After adjusting for conception, annual household income, occupation, education, smoking status, and drinking status, excessive gestational weight gain during pregnancy was associated with a greater chance of anxiety symptoms in the entire sample (adjusted model: odds ratio = 1.479, 95% confidence interval = 1.128, 1.938) and especially in women with a normal body mass index (adjusted model: odds ratio = 1.668, 95% confidence interval = 1.209, 2.302). However, the relationship between the maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and mental health was not significant. Conclusion Pregnant women with a normal pre-pregnancy body mass index had a greater chance of experiencing anxiety symptoms before delivery if gestational weight gain was excessive; however, its effects on depression or stress symptoms were not observed. The maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index may not be independently associated with maternal mental disorders.

Zearalenone is a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species. It frequently contaminates cereals used for foods or animal feeds, especially deposited in crude corn oil. Certain amounts of zearalenone can be removed during refining processes. In this study, we studied the influence of activated carbon and six industial absorbents (zeolite, diatomite, attapulgite, perlite, montmorillonite and activated clay) on the elimination of zearalenone during bleaching process of corn oil and explored the absorption mechanism of activated carbon. Results showed that activated carbon had an excellent adsorption capacity of zearalenone compared with the other six industrial adsorbents. For activated carbon, a high removal rate of zearalenone (exceeding 83%) from heavily zearalenone-polluted corn oil was achieved and the removal rate of zearalenone was kept above 60% after five regeneration cycles. The research on the adsorption mechanism of activated carbon showed that Freundlich adsorption isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model could well described the adsorption process. The thermodynamic study demonstrated that adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy further revealed that activated carbon was effectively combined with zearalenone via π-π interaction. Thus, activated carbon is an efficient and suitable adsorbent to control the levels of zearalenone during bleaching process of corn oil. This study not only proposed a systematic research scheme for the mechanism study of activated carbon for the elimination of zearalenone in corn oil, but also provided the scientific basis for developing effective methods to eliminate zearalenone in refined vegetable oils.

By introducing heterogeneous lamella-structure, we obtained a superior strength-ductility synergy in Mg-alloy associated with excellent strain-hardening ability, i.e. yield strength of ∼251 MPa, tensile strength of ∼393 MPa and elongation of ∼23%. By using advanced characterization techniques, we showed that strengthening was mainly caused by the non-uniform distribution of hetero-deformation induced (HDI) stress associated with grain-boundary disclinations, which are mediated by heterogeneous multi-grain interactions. Induced by grain-boundary disclinations and intergranular slip transfers, a variety of abnormal deformation modes have been activated，which contributed significantly to enhanced ductility. This work suggests a new avenue to evade strength-ductility trade-off dilemma in Mg-alloys.