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Abstract To validate the accuracy of Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) cervical spine modeling with three dimensional (3D)-3D registration for in vivo measurements of cervical spine kinematics. CBCT model accuracy was validated by superimposition with computed tomography (CT) models in 10 healthy young adults, and then cervical vertebrae were registered in six end positions of functional movements, versus a neutral position, in 5 healthy young adults. Registration errors and six degrees of freedom (6-DOF) kinematics were calculated and reported. Relative to CT models, mean deviations of the CBCT models were

Synthesizing single-atom catalysts through a general method presents a great challenge. Here the authors report that Fe, Co and Ni single-atom catalysts can be obtained using pre-located isolated Pt atoms as the catalyst and identify the role of Pt single atoms in the synthesis process.

Abstract Identifying and understanding the mechanisms behind strong phonon–phonon scattering in condensed matter systems is critical to maximizing the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. To date, the leading method to address this has been to meticulously survey the full phonon dispersion of the material in order to isolate modes with anomalously large linewidth and temperature-dependence. Here we combine quantitative MeV ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) analysis with Monte Carlo based dynamic diffraction simulation and first-principles calculations to directly unveil the soft, anharmonic lattice distortions of model thermoelectric material SnSe. A small single-crystal sample is photoexcited with ultrafast optical pulses and the soft, anharmonic lattice distortions are isolated using MeV-UED as those associated with long relaxation time and large displacements. We reveal that these modes have interlayer shear strain character, induced mainly by c-axis atomic displacements, resulting in domain formation in the transient state. These findings provide an innovative approach to identify mechanisms for ultralow and anisotropic thermal conductivity and a promising route to optimizing thermoelectric devices.

As power supply company carries out work to optimize the business environment, much problems such as asymmetric information about electricity consumption of electricity users, poor professional interaction channels and low work efficiency have emerged while the level of power supply services has been improved. Relying on the Internet of Things (IoT) platform of power supply company, open graphic library (OpenGL) technology, Activiti engine and Java programming technology and other mature technologies, a set of graphical workflow configuration platform has been built to support the customization of the electricity users. The platform graphically implements the construction of power business workflow, using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic to create front-end web and mobile applications. The workflow platform conducts compliance audit during workflow configuration, keeps business information strictly outside the negative list, and each work is automatically initiated, executed and associated to abstract behaviours with high application rate and comprehensiveness based on rich and diverse work scenarios to meet the needs of Beibei power supply company. After the workflow configuration platform was applied, the business management and execution efficiency of the power supply company was improved by more than 30%.

Hybrid manufacturing (HM) Ti-6Al-4V components combining the advantages of forging and additive manufacturing were achieved. The bonding zone of the HMed component joins the substrate and the additive manufactured zone and its α′-α/α′/αm-α/β heterogeneous microstructure was attributed to the distinguishing cooling rate and pseudo-isothermal annealing temperature. The phase transformation mechanisms were clarified with a numerical simulation model for thermal analysis. Moreover, preheating manipulate the size, volume fraction and distribution of α′/αm/α phases to tailor the heterogeneous microstructure.

Abstract Background Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) harboring oncogenic fusions has been reported to be highly enriched in mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) tumors with MLH1 hypermethylation (MLH1 me+) and wild-type BRAF and RAS. In this study, dMMR CRCs were screened for oncogene fusions using sequential DNA and RNA next generation sequencing (NGS). Results Comprehensive analysis of fusion variants, genetic profiles and clinicopathological features in fusion-positive dMMR CRCs was performed. Among 193 consecutive dMMR CRCs, 39 cases were identified as MLH1 me+ BRAF/RAS wild-type. Eighteen fusion-positive cases were detected by DNA NGS, all of which were MLH1 me+ and BRAF/RAS wild-type. RNA NGS was sequentially conducted in the remaining 21 MLH1 me+ BRAF/RAS wild-type cases lacking oncogenic fusions by DNA NGS, and revealed four additional fusions, increasing the proportion of fusion-positive tumors from 46% (18/39) to 56% (22/39) in MLH1 me+ BRAF/RAS wild-type dMMR cases. All 22 fusions were found to involve RTK-RAS pathway. Most fusions affected targetable receptor tyrosine kinases, including NTRK1(9/22, 41%), NTRK3(5/22, 23%), ALK(3/22, 14%), RET(2/22, 9%) and MET(1/22, 5%), whilst only two fusions affected mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade components BRAF and MAPK1, respectively. RNF43 was identified as the most frequently mutated genes, followed by APC, TGFBR2, ATM, BRCA2 and FBXW7. The vast majority (19/22, 86%) displayed alterations in key WNT pathway components, whereas none harbored additional mutations in RTK-RAS pathway. In addition, fusion-positive tumors were typically diagnosed in elder patients and predominantly right-sided, and showed a significantly higher preponderance of hepatic flexure localization (P

As an alternative and a straightforward cryopreservation biotechnological tool, liquid marble provides a promising cryopreservation approach. Currently, effective cell preservation mainly based on the addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and fetal bovine serum (FBS). As state-of-the-art cryoprotectant (CPA), DMSO, has intrinsic toxicity, which is the bottleneck of its widespread application. The complex compositions of FBS have the potential risks of pathogenic microorganism contamination. However, efficient cell cryopreservation using liquid marbles, a platform independent of DMSO and FBS, has not been well investigated yet. Herein, we explore the cryoprotection role of liquid marbles based on gelatin solution. Gelatin has a superior biocompatibility, which DMSO is incomparable. During a freeze-thaw cycle, gelatin produces negligible osmotic pressure, and has high ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI) activity to induce the formation of smaller and smooth ice crystals. Moreover, the specific structure of liquid marble also provides favorable supports for cell survival. The cryopreservation efficiency of mouse fibroblasts cells L929 via the gelatin-based liquid marble was as high as 90%, and the recovered cells could maintain their normal functionalities. This work opens a new window of opportunity for non-toxic and efficient cryopreservation of liquid marbles without the need of DMSO and FBS addition.

IntroductionRepeated hepatic arterial delivery of therapeutic agents to the liver by percutaneously implanted port-catheter systems has been widely used to treat unresectable liver cancer. This approach is applied to assess the therapeutic efficacy of repeated low-density lipoprotein-docosahexaenoic acid (LDL-DHA) nanoparticle treatments in a rat model of hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodsN1S1 hepatoma bearing rats underwent placement of a percutaneously implanted hepatic artery port-catheter system and were allocated to untreated, control LDL-triolein (LDL-TO) or LDL-DHA nanoparticle infusions groups. Treatments were performed every three days over a nine day study period. MRI was performed at baseline and throughout the study. At the end of the study tissue samples were collected for analyses.Results and DiscussionImplantation of the port catheters was successful in all rats. MRI showed that repeated infusions of LDL-DHA nanoparticles significantly impaired the growth of the rat hepatomas eventually leading to tumor regression. The tumors in the LDL-TO treated group showed delayed growth, while the untreated tumors grew steadily throughout the study. Histopathology and MRI support these findings demonstrating extensive tumor necrosis in LDL-DHA treated groups while the control groups displayed minor necrosis. Molecular and biochemical analyses also revealed that LDL-DHA treated tumors had increased levels of nuclear factor-kappa B and lipid peroxidation and depletion of glutathione peroxidase 4 relative to the control groups. Evidence of both ferroptosis and apoptosis tumor cell death was observed following LDL-DHA treatments. In conclusion repeated transarterial infusions of LDL-DHA nanoparticles provides sustained repression of tumor growth in a rat hepatoma model.

BackgroundWe aimed to explore the risk factors for hemorrhage of esophagogastric varices (EGVs) in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis and to construct a novel nomogram model based on the spleen volume expansion rate to predict the risk of esophagogastric varices bleeding.MethodsUnivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors for EGVs bleeding. Nomograms were established based on the multivariate analysis results. The predictive accuracy of the nomograms was assessed using the area under the curve (AUC or C-index) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and calibration curves. Decision curve analysis was used to determine the clinical benefit of the nomogram. We created a nomogram of the best predictive models.ResultsA total of 142 patients' hepatitis B cirrhosis with esophagogastric varices were included in this study, of whom 85 (59.9%) had a history of EGVs bleeding and 57 (40.1%) had no EGVs bleeding. The spleen volume expansion rate, serum sodium levels (mmol/L), hemoglobin levels (g/L), and prothrombin time (s) were independent predictors for EGVs bleeding in patients with hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (P

Understanding phase transformation behaviors and microstructural evolutions during optimized post-heat treatments is essential for tuning the mechanical performances of additively manufactured titanium alloys. In this work, distinctive dual-stage heat treatments were proposed for improving the microstructure and properties of the laser powder bed fusion processed Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The effects of the heat treatments on phase transformation behaviors, microstructural characteristics, mechanical and tribological properties of the alloy were investigated systematically. The dual-stage heat treatments combined with salt bath quenching proved to be an effective approach for obtaining fine lamellar α/β microstructures through the introduction of martensitic and massive phase transformations, as well as achieving optimized strength and ductility. The grain boundary populations of the alloy were strongly influenced by the phase transformation behaviors. Moreover, high-density dislocations were introduced during the dual-stage heat treatments, and the type dislocations were dominant. The nonadditive strengthening mixture rule between obstacles and dislocations was substantiated in this alloy. Different wear mechanisms were found in the dual-stage heat-treated alloys depending on their microstructural characteristics. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms of phase transformation, strengthening and toughening are also discussed.

Solid-liquid interface dynamics plays a crucial role in microstructure evolution during solidification. However, it is difficult to extract sufficient spatial information to describe the variation in the irregular and non-periodic solid-liquid interface domains, resulting in a challenge remaining in quantifying analysis by a quick and low-dimensionally visualized way. We proposed an interface-oriented two-point statistics method to solve the unbiassed statistics of the spatial information in these irregular and non-periodic interfaces. The challenge was successfully overcome by a carefully designed data-driven scheme, which has the advantages of easy to operate, high accuracy and efficiency. Taking the eutectic microstructure evolution simulated by phase-field method as an example, we also obtained novel insights on tailoring eutectic patterns, that is, the transformation of four patterns (lamellar elimination, regular lamellae, oscillatory eutectics and branching lamellae) depends on initial lamella spacing whether the interface energy is isotropic or anisotropic. Additionally, interfacial energy anisotropy, compared to the isotropic case, not only prolongs the time of patterns transformation, but also narrows the spacing range between elimination and creation of lamellae. Our proposed scheme is also able to be applied into more occasions about microstructure evolution in different materials systems.

Iron accumulation is an independent risk factor for postmenopausal osteoporosis, but mechanistic studies of this phenomenon are still focusing on molecular and genetic researches in model animal. Osteoporosis with iron accumulation is a distinct endocrine disease with complicated pathogenesis regulated by several proteins. However, the comprehensive proteome-wide analysis of human bone is lacking. Using multiplex quantitative tandem mass tag-based proteomics, we detected 2900 and quantified 1150 proteins from bone of 10 postmenopausal patients undergoing hip replacement. Comparing with non-osteoporosis patients, a total of 75 differentially expressed proteins were identified, comprising 53 downregulated proteins and 22 upregulated proteins. These proteins primarily affect oxidoreductase activity, GTPase activity, GTP binding, and neural nucleus development, were mainly enriched in neural, angiogenesis and energy-related pathways, and formed complex regulatory networks with strong interconnections. We ultimately identified 4 core proteins (GSTP1, LAMP2, COPB1, RAB5B) that were significantly differentially expressed in the bone of osteoporosis patients with iron accumulation, and validated the changed protein level in the serum of the medical examination population. Our systemic analysis uncovers molecular insights for revealing underlying mechanism and clinical therapeutics in osteoporosis with iron accumulation.

For solid tritium breeding materials, a high sintering temperature is essential to achieve satisfactory density, high crushing load, favorable physical and chemical properties, while lithium volatilization and grain coarsening occur at higher sintering temperature, which are not conducive to tritium production and release. Therefore, low temperature sintering of lithium containing ceramics needs to be studied. In this work, P25 titanium dioxide was hydrothermally treated in alkaline solution, and then used as titanium source to prepare Li2TiO3 ceramics. The prepared Li2TiO3 ceramics exhibit uniform and dense microstructure and extremely high crushing load (a.v. 78.93 ∼ 83.98 N) at a relative low sintering temperature (750 ∼ 800 °C). The thermal conductivity of Li2TiO3 ceramic sintered at 800 °C is calculated to be 3.48 W/m•K at room temperature, retaining 2.50 W/m•K at 773 K, which is comparable to the values in literatures. The results suggest the sintering activity of Li2TiO3 is greatly enhanced when alkaline hydrothermally treated P25 is used as titanium source.

In this work, we investigate the effect of hot isostatic pressing on the intermediate temperature tensile property of nickel-base single crystal superalloy. The experimental results indicate that the hot isostatic pressing improves the intermediate temperature plasticity of single crystal superalloy from 6.4% to 9.3%, but the yield strength remains unchanged. In addition, the fracture surface is changed by hot isostatic pressing, the microporosities disappear in the fracture surface under hot isostatic pressing, and an initial crack is formed from the region of plenty of stacked slip planar instead of microcracks by microporosities. The mechanism of the improvement of plasticity and the change of fracture behavior is explored in detail. The application of hot isostatic pressing reduces the size and volume faction of microporosities, which makes it difficult for the crack initiation and propagation, and further leads to the improvement of plasticity.

Additive manufacturing (AM) of titanium alloy entails severe microstructural heterogeneity and layer bands due to diverse thermal histories. While the thermal-microstructure relationship in AM has been reported, the details on how complex thermal histories influence the microstructural evolution have not been so addressed, and the formation of layer bands in multi-layer multi-pass builds is still unclear. To undertake such investigation, a thermal model is firstly calibrated using two part-scale blocks fabricated on differently sized substrates, and then used to study the relationship between key microstructural characteristics and the thermal cycling involved. Results show that the different evolutions of the temperature ranges just underneath the β-transus temperature (Tβ) controlled by the printing path are responsible for the different band distributions at the centre and corner of the blocks. Also, the α sizes in the normal region are closely linked to the integral area obtained from the thermal curve as temperature fluctuates between Tβ and α dissolution temperature, which helps linking AM variables to metallurgy. This further demonstrates that the α coarsening during thermal cycles is primarily driven by multi dissolution and precipation transformations instead of Ostwald ripening. Finally, the quantitative thermal-microstructure-microhardness relationship is established, helpful for the microstructural design.

Abstract To harness the full potential of the ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and microscopy (UEM), we must know accurately the electron beam properties, such as emittance, energy spread, spatial-pointing jitter, and shot-to-shot energy fluctuation. Owing to the inherent fluctuations in UED/UEM instruments, obtaining such detailed knowledge requires real-time characterization of the beam properties for each electron bunch. While diagnostics of these properties exist, they are often invasive, and many of them cannot operate at a high repetition rate. Here, we present a technique to overcome such limitations. Employing a machine learning (ML) strategy, we can accurately predict electron beam properties for every shot using only parameters that are easily recorded at high repetition rate by the detector while the experiments are ongoing, by training a model on a small set of fully diagnosed bunches. Applying ML as real-time noninvasive diagnostics could enable some new capabilities, e.g., online optimization of the long-term stability and fine single-shot quality of the electron beam, filtering the events and making online corrections of the data for time-resolved UED, otherwise impossible. This opens the possibility of fully realizing the potential of high repetition rate UED and UEM for life science and condensed matter physics applications.

Injuries caused by cerebral ischemia reperfusion (CIR) can worsen neurological outcomes, Biliverdin (BV) is an antioxidant and anti-apoptotic agent that was shown to affect CIR, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of BV and its potential underlying mechanism in CIR injury. CIR rat models and primary cortical neurons were established and treated with and without BV. Additionally, adenovirus vectors that could overexpress LncRNA H19 and overexpress or knock-down miR-181b-5p and Esm1 were created to investigate their regulation of molecular expression. Our findings showed that BV could significantly improve CIR injury, both in vivo and in vitro, decrease LncRNA H19 and Esm1 expression, and increase miR-181b-5p expression. Overexpression of LncRNA H19 inhibited the anti-injury effects of BV. Further, the down-regulation of miR-181b-5p or up-regulation of Esm1 expression weakened the in vitro protective effect of BV. RNA immunoprecipitation assay and dual luciferase reporter gene assay further confirmed that LncRNA H19 could sponge miR-181b-5p, and Esm1 was the target of miR-181b-5p. Rescue experiments confirmed that BV could regulate the LncRNA H19/miR-181b-5p/Esm1 molecular axis. Lastly, proteomic and bioinformatic analyzes revealed that Esm1 upregulation in BV-treated neurons resulted in the differential expression of 16 proteins, including 9 upregulated and 7 downregulated proteins. In conclusion, this study found that BV could ameliorate CIR injury by regulating the LncRNA H19/miR-181b-5p/Esm1 axis.

Background: To compare the efficacy of anterior cervical discectomy and hybrid fusion (ACDHF) with short-segment plate plus self-locking, stand-alone intervertebral cages versus traditional anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) with long-segment plate for multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (MCSM). Methods: All the patients were randomly divided into two groups. 30 cases underwent ACDHF with short-segment plate and self-locking stand-alone cages (hybrid group), while the other 30 cases received ACDF with long-segment plate (control group). In patients meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, operation time, blood loss, postoperative drainage volume, length of stay (LOS), visual analogue scale for neck pain (VASNP) scores, Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, and the cervical lordosis before and after the operation (5 days, 3, 6, 12 months after operation and final follow-up) were evaluated. The postoperative complications were analyzed as well. Results: All operations were performed uneventfully with followed-up. Compared with ACDF, ACDHF showed a shorter operation time, less intraoperative blood loss and postoperative drainage ( p < 0.05). There were no significant difference in LOS between two groups ( p ˃ 0.05). Both approaches significantly improved the JOA scores, VASNP scores and the cervical lordosis ( p < 0.05). Based on Bazaz grading system, hybrid group had a lower incidence of dysphagia than control group in follow-up periods of 5 days, 3 and 6 months ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: ACDF and ACDHF are both effective methods of restoring cervical lordosis following MCSM, but hybrid surgery minimizes intraoperative injury and postoperative dysphagia, making it a viable treatment option for the disorder.

Red blood cells (RBCs) were shown to transport and release nitric oxide (NO) bioactivity and carry an endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). However, the pathophysiological significance of RBC eNOS for cardioprotection in vivo is unknown. Here we aimed to analyze the role of RBC eNOS in the regulation of coronary blood flow, cardiac performance, and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in vivo. To specifically distinguish the role of RBC eNOS from the endothelial cell (EC) eNOS, we generated RBC- and EC-specific knock-out (KO) and knock-in (KI) mice by Cre-induced inactivation or reactivation of eNOS. We found that RBC eNOS KO mice had fully preserved coronary dilatory responses and LV function. Instead, EC eNOS KO mice had a decreased coronary flow response in isolated perfused hearts and an increased LV developed pressure in response to elevated arterial pressure, while stroke volume was preserved. Interestingly, RBC eNOS KO showed a significantly increased infarct size and aggravated LV dysfunction with decreased stroke volume and cardiac output. This is consistent with reduced NO bioavailability and oxygen delivery capacity in RBC eNOS KOs. Crucially, RBC eNOS KI mice had decreased infarct size and preserved LV function after AMI. In contrast, EC eNOS KO and EC eNOS KI had no differences in infarct size or LV dysfunction after AMI, as compared to the controls. These data demonstrate that EC eNOS controls coronary vasodilator function, but does not directly affect infarct size, while RBC eNOS limits infarct size in AMI. Therefore, RBC eNOS signaling may represent a novel target for interventions in ischemia/reperfusion after myocardial infarction.

Combining the core-shell structure with the optimization of surface composition and structure in the shell is a fantastic strategy to enhance the electrocatalytic performances. Here, we synthesized trimetallic Au@PtxSny core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable composition and structure of Pt-Sn alloyed shells. Impressively, the Au@PtSn core-shell NPs with hexagonal PtSn alloyed shells exhibited the highest mass activity and specific activity toward ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline electrolyte, which are 13.0 and 12.7 times higher than those of the commercial Pt/C. In addition, the Au@PtSn core-shell NPs displayed the best stability compared to commercial Pt/C, with only 44.8% loss vs. 86.8% loss in mass activity after 1,000 s due to the stronger anti-poisoning ability for reaction intermediates. The theory calculations reveal that the introduction of Au core and alloying Pt with Sn both endow Pt with an appropriate d-band center, and thus effectively boosting the EOR activity.

In the present study, a global presence/absence dataset including 2486 scale insect species in 157 countries was extracted to assess the establishment risk of potential invasive species based on a self-organizing map (SOM). According to the similarities in species assemblages, a risk list of scale insects for each country was generated. Meanwhile, all countries in the dataset were divided into five clusters, each of which has high similarities of species assemblages. For those countries in the same neuron of the SOM output, they may pose the greatest threats to each other as the sources of potential invasive scale insect species, and therefore, require more attention from quarantine departments. In addition, normalized ζi values were used to measure the uncertainty of the SOM output. In total, 9 out of 63 neurons obtained high uncertainty with very low species counts, indicating that more investigation of scale insects should be undertaken in some parts of Africa, Asia and Northern Europe.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequently occurring severe disease with high mortality. Cystatin C (Cys-C), as a biomarker of early kidney failure, can be used to detect and prevent acute renal injury. In this paper, a biosensor based on a silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (SiNW FET) was studied for the quantitative detection of Cys-C. Based on the spacer image transfer (SIT) processes and channel doping optimization for higher sensitivity, a wafer-scale, highly controllable SiNW FET was designed and fabricated with a 13.5 nm SiNW. In order to improve the specificity, Cys-C antibodies were modified on the oxide layer of the SiNW surface by oxygen plasma treatment and silanization. Furthermore, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel was involved in improving the effectiveness and stability of detection. The experimental results show that the SiNW FET sensors realize the lower limit of detection (LOD) of 0.25 ag/mL and have a good linear correlation in the range of Cys-C concentration from 1 ag/mL to 10 pg/mL, exhibiting its great potential in the future real-time application.

Tree peony seed oil (TPSO) is an important plant source of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (α-linolenic acid, ALA > 40%) that is receiving increasing attention for its excellent antioxidant and other activities. However, it has poor stability and bioavailability. In this study, a bilayer emulsion of TPSO was successfully prepared using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technique. Among the proteins and polysaccharides examined, whey protein isolate (WPI) and sodium alginate (SA) were found to be the most suitable wall materials. The prepared bilayer emulsion contained 5% TPSO, 0.45% whey protein isolate (WPI) and 0.5% sodium alginate (SA) under selected conditions and its zeta potential, droplet size, and polydispersity index were −31 mV, 1291 nm, and 27%, respectively. The loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency for TPSO were up to 84% and 90.2%, respectively. It was noteworthy that the bilayer emulsion showed significantly enhanced oxidative stability (peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content) compared to the monolayer emulsion, which was accompanied by a more ordered spatial structure caused by the electrostatic interaction of the WPI with the SA. This bilayer emulsion also exhibited markedly improved environmental stability (pH, metal ion), rheological properties, and physical stability during storage. Furthermore, the bilayer emulsion was more easily digested and absorbed, and had higher fatty acid release rate and ALA bioaccessibility than TPSO alone and the physical mixtures. These results suggest that bilayer emulsion containing WPI and SA is an effective TPSO encapsulation system and has significant potential for future functional food development.

This paper investigates the use of steel slag in the place of basalt coarse aggregate in Stone Mastic Asphalt-13 (SMA-13) gradings in the early forming of an experimental pavement and evaluates the test performance of the mixes, combined with 3D scanning techniques to analyse the initial textural structure of the pavement. Laboratory tests were carried out to design the gradation of the two asphalt mixtures and to assess the strength, chipping and cracking resistance of the asphalt mixtures using water immersion Marshall tests, freeze–thaw splitting tests, rutting tests and for comparison with laboratory tests, while surface texture collection and analysis of the height parameters (i.e., Sp, Sv, Sz, Sq, Ssk) and morphological parameters (i.e., Spc) of the pavement were performed to assess the skid resistance of the two asphalt mixtures. Firstly, the results show that a substitution of steel slag for basalt in pavements is a good alternative for efficient resource utilization. Secondly, when steel slag was used in place of basalt coarse aggregate, the water immersion Marshall residual stability improved by approximately 28.8% and the dynamic stability by approximately 15.8%; the friction values decayed at a significantly lower rate, and the MTD did not change significantly. Thirdly, in the early stages of pavement formation, Sp, Sv, Sz, Sq and Spc showed a good linear relationship with BPN values, and these texture parameters can be used as parameters to describe steel slag asphalt pavements. Finally, this study also found that the standard deviation of peak height was higher for steel slag–asphalt mixes than for basalt–asphalt mixes, with little difference in texture depth, while the former formed more peak tips than the latter.

Type specimens are valuable resources for investigating and exploring biodiversity on Earth, which has high academic and conservation value. Hemipteran insects are one of the most important and diverse groups in Insecta, and their type specimens have important reference value for many research fields. So far, the data on the type specimens of the Hemiptera in China have not been fully collated.Through extensive literature review, we have constructed a dataset of type specimens for the new species of hemipteran insects in China published from 1950 to 2017, which includes the data such as collection time, species author, specimen gender, preservation institution and geographical distribution. A total of 6583 type specimen records were collected, covering 3783 new species belonging to 1299 genera and 88 families. This dataset can provide help to the international community for conducting researches on taxonomy, biodiversity patterns, biota evolution, and pest management.

Abstract Since the performance of electronic circuits is becoming rather limited in face of intensively increasing of amount of information and related operations, all‐optical processing offers a promising strategy for future information system. It would benefit a great deal if the all‐optical processing could be implemented within the developed electronic chips of nanoscale structures. In that it is highly desirable to break the diffraction limit of light for achieving effective light manipulations with deep subwavelength structures compatible with the state‐of‐the‐art nanofabrication processes. It is of fundamental importance to get subwavelength optical localization, that is, squeeze light wave into subwavelength space for achieving freely manipulating of light fields. This review summarizes the development in realizing subwavelength optical localization by exciting toroidal mode in photonic metamaterials. The toroidal excitations in plasmonic metamaterials and Mie resonant metamaterials, in 3D structures and planar metamaterials, with single or few layers in spectral regime from microwave to optical frequencies are surveyed. Based on the discussion on the configurations of toroidal excitations, the recent development on toroidal‐related optical scattering control actively manipulates the toroidal excitations, and promising applications are further investigated and highlighted.

The multiple Exp-function method is employed for seeking the multiple soliton solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (gKP) equation, where contains one-wave, two-wave, and triple-wave solutions. The periodic wave including (exponential, cosh hyperbolic, and cos periodic), cross-kink containing (exponential, sinh hyperbolic, and sin periodic), and solitary containing (exponential, tanh hyperbolic, and tan periodic) wave solutions are obtained. In continuing, the modulation instability is engaged to discuss the stability of obtained solutions. Also, the semi-inverse variational principle is applied for the gKP equation with four major cases. The physical phenomena of these received multiple soliton solutions are analyzed and demonstrated in figures by choosing the specific parameters. By means of symbolic computation these analytical solutions and corresponding rogue waves are obtained with the help of Maple software. Via various three-dimensional, curve, and density charts, dynamical characteristics of these waves are exhibited.

Abstract A charge‐trapping memory (CTM) field effect transistor (FET) featured with an Hf1.5Gd2O6 charge trapping layer and thin MoS2 channel are fabricated. Benefit from high defect densities of the Hf1.5Gd2O6 film, large memory windows are achieved under low operating voltages (2.3 V@4 V, 3.1 V@5 V and 3.6 V@6 V), which distinctly outperform previously reported CTMs. In addition, high programming/erase (P/E) speeds, good data retention and endurance characteristics are experimentally demonstrated. The results demonstrate a feasibility of CTM FET with an HfGdO charge trapping layer and thin MoS2 channel for ultra‐low power memory devices application.

ABSTRACT Cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide in plant biomass and an important precursor of soil organic matter formation. Fungi play a key role in carbon cycling dynamics because they tend to decompose recalcitrant materials. Here, we applied [12C]cellulose and [13C]cellulose to distinguish the effects of application of compost, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer, and no fertilizer (control) for 27 years upon cellulose decomposition via RNA-based stable isotope probing (RNA-SIP). The loss ratio of added cellulose C in compost soil was 67.6 to 106.7% higher than in NPK and control soils during their 20-day incubation. Dothideomycetes (mainly members of the genus Cryptococcus) dominated cellulose utilization in compost soil, whereas the copiotrophic Sordariomycetes were more abundant in NPK and unfertilized soils. Compared with NPK and control soils, compost application increased the diversity of 13C-assimilating fungi. The 13C-labeled fungal communities in compost soil were more phylogenetically clustered and exhibited greater species relatedness than those in NPK and control soils, perhaps because of stringent filtering of narrow-spectrum organic resources and biological invasion originating from added compost. These changes led to an augmented decomposition capacity of fungal species for cellulose-rich substrates and reduced cellulose C sequestration efficiency. The RNA-SIP technique is more sensitive to responses of fungi to altered soil resource availability than DNA-SIP. Overall, long-term compost application modified fungal community composition and promoted fungal diversity and phylogenetic relatedness, accelerating the decomposition of substrate cellulose in soil. This work also highlights the RNA-SIP technique’s value for comprehensively assessing the contributions of active fungi to the substrate decomposition process. IMPORTANCE Cellulose is a very rich component in plant biomass and an important precursor of soil organic matter formation. Fungal communities are known to be important drivers of organic carbon accumulation in arable soils. However, current understanding of responses of fungal species to cellulose amendment and the contributions of active fungi to substrate decomposition process is still very superficial. Here, we established a [13C]cellulose microcosm experiment with soils subjected to long-term application of compost, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer, and no fertilizer (control). The novel 13C-RNA-SIP technique with subsequent high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the linkages between active fungal taxa and cellulose decomposition. Our study demonstrated that Dothideomycetes dominated cellulose utilization in compost soil, whereas the copiotrophic Sordariomycetes were more enriched in both NPK and unfertilized soils. We also found that the compost amendment promoted fungal diversity and phylogenetic relatedness and strengthened the decomposition capacity of fungi for cellulose-rich substrates by enhancing synergistic interactions, thereby reducing cellulose C sequestration efficiency. Overall, our research has implications for our understanding of the role of active fungi in cellulose C transformation in soils undergoing different types of long-term nutrient management.

The potential mechanism behind the browning inhibition in fresh-cut water chestnuts (FWC) after eugenol (EUG) treatment was investigated by comparing the difference in browning behavior between surface and inner tissues. EUG treatment was found to inactivate browning-related enzymes and reduce phenolic contents in surface tissue. Molecular docking further confirmed the hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding between EUG and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL). Moreover, EUG also enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging enzyme activities, ultimately decreasing the O2- generation rates. Regarding inner tissue, EUG induced the accumulation of colorless phenolic compounds and increased the antioxidant capacity. In conclusion, 1.5 % EUG exhibited the best inhibitory effect on FWC browning, which partly attribute to the direct inhibitory effects on PAL activity. Furthermore, EUG could also enhance the enzymatic/non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity and alleviate the ROS damage to membranes, thereby, preventing the contact between oxidative enzymes and phenols and indirectly inhibiting the enzymatic browning in FWC.

Ubiquitin modification is a common post-translational protein modification and an important mechanism whereby the body regulates protein levels and functions. As a common enzyme associated with ubiquitin modification, the ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 may be closely associated with the development of numerous pathological processes through its different structural domains. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the following: advances in ubiquitination research, the structure and function of A20, and the relationships between A20 and immune inflammatory response, apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, and autophagy.

Abstract Design and fabrication of new infrared (IR) nonlinear optical (NLO) materials with balanced properties are urgently needed since commercial chalcopyrite‐like (CL) NLO crystals are suffering from their intrinsic drawbacks. Herein, the first defect‐CL (DCL) alkali‐earth metal (AEM) selenide IR NLO material, DCL‐MgGa2Se4, has been rationally designed and fabricated by a structure prediction and experiment combined strategy. The introduction of AEM tetrahedral unit MgSe4 effectively widens the band gap of DCL compounds. The title compound exhibits a wide band gap of 2.96 eV, resulting in a high laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of ≈3.0 × AgGaS2 (AGS). Furthermore, the compound shows a suitable second harmonic generation (SHG) response (≈0.9 × AGS) with a type‐I phase‐matching (PM) behavior and a wide IR transparent range. The results indicate that DCL‐MgGa2Se4 is a promising mid‐to‐far IR NLO material and give some insights into the design of new CL compound with outstanding IR NLO properties based on the AEM tetrahedra and the structure predication and experiment combined strategy.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an epigenetic modification associated with various tumors, but its role in tumorigenesis remains unexplored. Here, as confirmed by methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (meRIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses, exposure of human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) caused an m6A modification in the 3′ UTR of ZBTB4, a transcriptional repressor. For these cells, CSE also elevated methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) levels, which increased the m6A modification of ZBTB4. RIP-qPCR illustrated that ZBTB4 was the intent gene of YTHDF2 and that levels of ZBTB4 were decreased in an YTHDF2-dependent mechanism. The lower levels of ZBTB4 were associated with upregulation of EZH2, which enhanced H3K27me3 combining with E-cadherin promoter, causing lower E-cadherin levels and induction of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Further, in the lungs of mice, downregulation of METTL3 alleviated the cigarette smoke (CS)-induced EMT. Further, the expression of METTL3 was high in the lung tissues of smokers and inversely correlated with ZBTB4. Overall, our results show that the METTL3-mediated m6A modification of ZBTB4 via EZH2 is involved in the CS-induced EMT and in lung cancer. These results indicate that m6A modifications are a potential therapeutic target of lung damage induced by CS.

The authors present on-chip and electromechanically reconfigurable nanokirigami with optical functionalities. 3D deformations are achieved via attractive electrostatic forces between a gold nanostructure layer and silicon substrate, resulting in optical reconfigurations with high modulation contrast and small unit size.

Vehicle detection systems play a significant role in intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). At present, vehicle detection is realized either by very costly inductive loops, by video cameras that require good weather conditions and high computing resources, or by recently developed magnetic sensors that only obtain limited detection accuracy in congested traffic conditions. To overcome these challenges, this paper develops a passive radar system that is robust to bad weather conditions, low cost and radio silent for vehicle detection. The device is installed at the side of the road under crowded traffic conditions. In the developed system, cross-correlation (CC) operation is applied to obtain suboptimal detection gain and computational complexity. To decrease the impact of interference that is independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) across isolated frequency channels and that of the Doppler effect produced by a mobile vehicle, a multichannel joint detection scheme based on multichannel fusion (MCF) is proposed and implemented. Furthermore, to achieve high resolution, an illuminator of opportunity (IO) with wide bandwidth is selected, and the system is then designed to receive a digital video broadcast-satellite (DVB-S) signal with a bandwidth of 37.5 MHz over multiple channels simultaneously. Simulation results show that the proposed MCF achieves better performance than the single-channel-based CC, and the advantage can be enhanced by increasing the number of channels for joint detection. Field test results further verify the novelty of the MCF and the developed passive radar prototype.

High-resolution satellite images contain valuable road semantic information, but the occlusion of vegetation and buildings and the sparse distribution and heterogeneous appearance of roads limit the accuracy of road extraction models. In this article, we propose a novel method for extracting roads using an ensemble learning model with a postprocessing stage. The network weights and biases of our proposed deep learning model are transmitted through the random combination of layers of different submodels during forward and backward propagation. In the gradient descent process, a superior loss function is designed to solve the problem of class imbalance caused by road sparseness, and more attention is given to hard classification samples to extract narrow and covered roads. In addition, we solve road disconnection issues in the results obtained with the neural network by extracting and analyzing the geometric structures and feature points of the roads. Experiments on two challenging datasets of remote sensing imagery show that the proposed method performs better than other models and can extract road information from complex scenes.

1,1,1-Trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) is a typical organochloride solvent in groundwater that poses threats to human health and the environment due to its carcinogenesis and bioaccumulation. In this study, a novel composite with nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) supported by polycaprolac-tone (PCL)-modified biochar (nZVI@PBC) was synthesized via solution intercalation and liquid-phase reduction to address the 1,1,1-TCA pollution problem in groundwater. The synergy effect and improvement mechanism of 1,1,1-TCA removal from simulated groundwater in the presence of nZVI@PBC coupling with Shewanella putrefaciens CN32 were investigated. The results were as follows: (1) The composite surface was rough and porous, and PCL and nZVI were loaded uniformly onto the biochar surface as micro-particles and nanoparticles, respectively; (2) the optimal mass ratio of PCL, biochar, and nZVI was 1:7:2, and the optimal composite dosage was 1.0% (w/v); (3) under the optimal conditions, nZVI@PBC + CN32 exhibited excellent removal performance for 1,1,1-TCA, with a removal rate of 82.98% within 360 h, while the maximum removal rate was only 41.44% in the nZVI + CN32 treatment; (4) the abundance of CN32 and the concentration of adsorbed Fe(II) in the nZVI@PBC + CN32 treatment were significantly higher than that in control treatments, while the total organic carbon (TOC) concentration first increased and then decreased during the culture process; (5) the major improvement mechanisms include the nZVI-mediated chemical reductive dechlorination and the CN32-mediated microbial dissimilatory iron reduction. In conclusion, the nZVI@PBC composite coupling with CN32 can be a potential technique to apply for 1,1,1-TCA removal in groundwater.

Rapid developments in wide-bandgap semiconductors have led to the demand for interconnection materials that can withstand harsh conditions. In this study, novel Ag composite pastes were developed with the assistance of metal organic decomposition (MOD) to significantly reduce the sintering temperature of commercial Ag pastes. The effects of the decomposition characteristics of different MODs on the microstructure, morphology, and the shear strength of the Ag-sintered joints were systematically investigated. Additionally, the low-temperature sintering mechanisms of the MOD-assisted Ag composite pastes were studied and proposed. Among all the MODs studied, the one consisting of propylamine complexed with silver oxalate demonstrated the best performance due to its ability to form Ag nanoclusters with the smallest size (~25 nm) and highest purity (~99.07 wt.%). Notably, the bonding temperature of the MOD-modified Ag pastes decreased from 250 °C to 175 °C, while the shear strength increased from 20 MPa to 40.6 MPa when compared to the commercial Ag pastes.

In this paper, a method to suppress the impact of the nonlinear effects on an all optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (AO-OFDM) system is proposed. By inserting a guard interval (GI), the duty cycle of the optical signal in each symbol period of each subcarrier is decreased, thus generating a ‘zeroed’ temporal. By giving different time delays to the sub-carriers, these ‘zeroed’ temporals and optical signals of the adjacent sub-carriers are interleaved, which reduces the coincidence of the optical signals between the sub-carriers and eliminates the products of the four-wave mixing (FWM) effect to suppress the influence of the nonlinear effect on the system. The simulation results show that for an AO-OFDM system with 32 subcarriers, inserting GI and introducing different delays for each subcarrier can improve the transmission distance by 30 km or enhance the spectral efficiency by 16.7%, considering the 7% hard decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold. Moreover, even when the number of subcarriers is up to 256 and the power of each subcarrier is as high as 0 dBm, our proposed signal optimization scheme can still guarantee that the BER can satisfy the 7% HD-FEC threshold.

Crystallization plays a critical role in determining crystal size, purity and morphology. Therefore, uncovering the growth dynamics of nanoparticles (NPs) atomically is important for the controllable fabrication of nanocrystals with desired geometry and properties. Herein, we conducted in situ atomic-scale observations on the growth of Au nanorods (NRs) by particle attachment within an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope (AC-TEM). The results show that the attachment of spherical colloidal Au NPs with a size of about 10 nm involves the formation and growth of neck-like (NL) structures, followed by five-fold twin intermediate states and total atomic rearrangement. The statistical analyses show that the length and diameter of Au NRs can be well regulated by the number of tip-to-tip Au NPs and the size of colloidal Au NPs, respectively. The results highlight five-fold twin-involved particle attachment in spherical Au NPs with a size of 3–14 nm, and provide insights into the fabrication of Au NRs using irradiation chemistry.

Recent years have witnessed the increasing risk of subsea gas leaks with the development of offshore gas exploration, which poses a potential threat to human life, corporate assets, and the environment. The optical imaging-based monitoring approach has become widespread in the field of monitoring underwater gas leakage, but the shortcomings of huge labor costs and severe false alarms exist due to related operators’ operation and judgment. This study aimed to develop an advanced computer vision-based monitoring approach to achieve automatic and real-time monitoring of underwater gas leaks. A comparison analysis between the Faster Region Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) and You Only Look Once version 4 (YOLOv4) was conducted. The results demonstrated that the Faster R-CNN model, developed with an image size of 1280 × 720 and no noise, was optimal for the automatic and real-time monitoring of underwater gas leakage. This optimal model could accurately classify small and large-shape leakage gas plumes from real-world datasets, and locate the area of these underwater gas plumes.

Abstract Vertical gate-all-around field-effect transistors (vGAAFETs) are considered as the potential candidates to replace FinFETs for advanced integrated circuit manufacturing technology at/beyond 3-nm technology node. A multilayer (ML) of Si/SiGe/Si is commonly grown and processed to form vertical transistors. In this work, the P-incorporation in Si/SiGe/Si and vertical etching of these MLs followed by selective etching SiGe in lateral direction to form structures for vGAAFET have been studied. Several strategies were proposed for the epitaxy such as hydrogen purging to deplete the access of P atoms on Si surface, and/or inserting a Si or Si0.93Ge0.07 spacers on both sides of P-doped Si layers, and substituting SiH4 by SiH2Cl2 (DCS). Experimental results showed that the segregation and auto-doping could also be relieved by adding 7% Ge to P-doped Si. The structure had good lattice quality and almost had no strain relaxation. The selective etching between P-doped Si (or P-doped Si0.93Ge0.07) and SiGe was also discussed by using wet and dry etching. The performance and selectivity of different etching methods were also compared. This paper provides knowledge of how to deal with the challenges or difficulties of epitaxy and etching of n-type layers in vertical GAAFETs structure.

Abstract Water splitting has been proposed to be a promising approach to producing clean hydrogen fuel. The two half‐reactions of water splitting, that is, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), take place kinetically fast in solutions with completely different pH values. Enabling HER and OER to simultaneously occur under kinetically favorable conditions while using exclusively low‐cost, earth‐abundant electrocatalysts is highly desirable but remains a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate that using a bipolar membrane (BPM) we can accomplish HER in a strongly acidic solution and OER in a strongly basic solution, with bifunctional self‐supported cobalt‐nickel phosphide nanowire electrodes to catalyze both reactions. Such asymmetric acid/alkaline water electrolysis can be achieved at 1.567 V to deliver a current density of 10 mA/cm2 with ca. 100% Faradaic efficiency. Moreover, using an “irregular” BPM with unintentional crossover the voltage needed to afford 10 mA/cm2 can be reduced to 0.847 V, due to the assistance of electrochemical neutralization between acid and alkaline. Furthermore, we show that BPM‐based asymmetric water electrolysis can be accomplished in a circulated single‐cell electrolyzer delivering 10 mA/cm2 at 1.550 V and splitting water very stably for at least 25 hours, and that water electrolysis is enabled by a solar panel operating at 0.908 V (@13 mA/cm2), using an “irregular” BPM. BPM‐based asymmetric water electrolysis is a promising alternative to conventional proton and anion exchange membrane water electrolysis.

Abstract Owing to the rapidly increasing consumption of fossil fuels, finding clean and reliable new energy sources is of the utmost importance. Thus, developing highly efficient and low‐cost catalysts for electrochemical reactions in energy conversion devices is crucial. Single‐atom catalysts (SACs) with maximum metal atom utilization efficiency and superior catalytic performance have attracted significant attention, especially for electrochemical reactions. However, because of the highly unsaturated coordination environment, the stability of SACs can be a challenge for practical applications. In this review, we will summarize the strategies to increase the stability of SACs and synthesizing stable SACs, as well as the application of SACs in electrochemical reactions. Finally, we offer a perspective on the development of advanced SACs through rational design and a deeper understanding of SACs with the help of in situ or operando techniques in electrochemical reactions.

A successful student has been defined as one who not only performs well in academics but is also happy. Hence, how to promote adolescents’ academic success and wellbeing is an important issue with which researchers have been concerned. A few studies have explored the relationship of filial piety to the academic achievement or life satisfaction of Chinese adolescents. However, in view of the close relationship between the two outcomes, the unique effects of filial piety on academic achievement and subjective wellbeing and their underlying mechanisms need to be further clarified. Based on a sample of 677 students in Grade 6 (Mage = 12.24, SD = 0.36) and their parents in Beijing, China, this study examines how adolescents’ reciprocal filial piety (RFP) and authoritarian filial piety (AFP) are related to their academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. It also examines the mediating role of adolescents’ educational expectations in these relationships, and the moderating role of parents’ educational expectations in the relationships of adolescents’ filial piety to educational expectations and of adolescents’ educational expectations to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. The results indicate that, when the two outcome factors are considered simultaneously, RFP is positively related to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. In contrast, AFP is negatively related to academic achievement but not significantly related to subjective wellbeing. Moreover, adolescents’ educational expectations play a mediating role in the relationships of both RFP and AFP to academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. In addition, the positive effect of adolescents’ educational expectations on subjective wellbeing is stronger when mothers’ educational expectations are higher, supporting the moderating role of parents’ educational expectations. Our findings provide new insights into and implications for the moderated mediation mechanism underlying the links between filial piety and early adolescent development.

Exchanges of products and services in bilateral industries may be accompanied by environmental and economic inequalities which lead to imbalanced situations in relation to environmental protection and economic development. In a close trade relationship between two countries such as Australia and China, their industries inevitably affect each other. This study maps the embodied CO2 emissions and value added in bilateral trade under the input–output model and measures the unequal exchanges in such trade using an originally established industrial environ-economic balance index. The bilateral trade between Australia and China is taken as an example to validate the outcomes of the research method. The results indicate that in 2014, Australia transferred 580.90 billion tons of CO2 and 105.85 billion USD of value added to China, while approximately 375.65 billion tons of CO2 and 25.15 billion USD of value added flowed from China to Australia. China’s manufacturing, construction, and services and other industries, and China’s and Australia’s real estate activities industries had net inflows of embodied CO2 emissions and value added, indicating these industries paid economic costs in return for reducing environmental pressure. In inter-industrial trade between Australia and China, 49 pairs of bilateral industrial trades were relatively fairly balanced, while the remaining 15 pairs of inter-industrial trades were imbalanced. The established environ-economic balance analysis method and quantitative findings are valuable for better understanding the environment impacts of the economic development of national economies and developing national policies in corresponding to the rising environmental issues.

Sepsis is a severe disease with high mortality, and liver injury is an independent risk factor for sepsis morbidity and mortality. We analyzed co-differentially expressed genes (co-DEGs) to explore potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for sepsis-related liver injury. Three gene expression datasets (GSE60088, GSE23767, and GSE71530) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). DEGs were screened between sepsis and control samples using GEO2R. The association of these DEGs with infection and liver disease was analyzed by using the CTD database. GO functional analysis, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed to elucidate the potential molecular mechanism of DEGs. DEGs of different tissues in GSE60088 were analyzed again to obtain specific markers of septic liver injury. Mouse model of sepsis was also established by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), and the expression of specific markers in liver, lung, and kidney tissues was analyzed using Western blot. Here, we identified 21 DEGs in three datasets with 8 hub genes, all of which showed higher inference scores in liver diseases than bacterial infections. Among them, only TNFRSF1A had a liver-specific differential expression. TNFRSF1A was also confirmed to be specifically reduced in septic liver tissues in mice. Therefore, TNFRSF1A may serve as a potential biomarker for septic liver injury.

Background: Insomnia and thalamic involvement were frequently reported in patients with genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (gCJD) with E200K mutations, suggesting E200K might have discrepancy with typical sporadic CJD (sCJD). The study aimed to explore the clinical and neuroimage characteristics of genetic E200K CJD patients by comprehensive neuroimage analysis. Methods: Six patients with gCJD carried E200K mutation on Prion Protein (PRNP) gene, 13 patients with sporadic CJD, and 22 age- and sex-matched normal controls were enrolled in the study. All participants completed a hybrid positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) examination. Signal intensity on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and metabolism on PET were visually rating analyzed, statistical parameter mapping analysis was performed on PET and 3D-T1 images. Clinical and imaging characteristics were compared between the E200K, sCJD, and control groups. Results: There was no group difference in age or gender among the E200K, sCJD, and control groups. Insomnia was a primary complaint in patients with E200K gCJD (4/2 versus 1/12, p = 0.007). Hyperintensity on DWI and hypometabolism on PET of the thalamus were observed during visual rating analysis of images in patients with E200K gCJD. Gray matter atrophy (uncorrected p