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Abstract Immobilized biomass technology has been regarded as an effective strategy to enhance simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) in existing aerobic biological wastewater treatment processes. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of SND in an aerobic immobilized biomass need to be proven. In this study, waste sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants was immobilized by cellulose triacetate as bioplates, and an immobilized bioplate reactor (IBPR) was successfully established for nitrogen removal tests. The SND efficiency of the IBPR was increased 18% under the intermittent aeration (IA) mode compared with that under the continuous aeration (CA) mode. During IA operation, the IBPR achieved 96% COD removal and 76% NH4 +-N removal, with 71% SND. The results of microbial community analysis by high-throughput sequencing showed that nitrogen-related functional bacteria were more abundant in the bioplates than in the attached biofilms. The colocalization of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in the bioplates was observed, and the microbial community of nitrogen-related functional bacteria clearly shifted with the substrate concentration gradients.

Abstract In the present paper, we report two studies examining the relationships among renunciation of desires, death anxiety, and mental health. In the first study, we constructed the Desire Questionnaire (DQ), which measures success in renouncing certain desire. The DQ has satisfactory psychometric properties. In the second study, 501 adults from a Chinese society ranging in age from 17 to 84 years (M = 35.58, SD = 14.76) completed the DQ, the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), and the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ), which measures mental health and the presence of psychiatric symptoms. As predicted, DQ had significant negative correlations with both DAS (p

Abstract Background Human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HucMSCs) have been recognized as a promising cell for treating myocardial infarction (MI). Inflammatory response post MI is critical in determining the cardiac function and subsequent adverse left ventricular remodeling. However, the local inflammatory effect of HucMSCs after intramyocardial injection in murine remains unclear. Methods HucMSCs were cultured and transplanted into the mice after MI surgery. Cardiac function of mice were analyzed among MI-N.S, MI-HucMSC and MI-HucMSC-C–C Motif Chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) antagonist groups, and angiogenesis, fibrosis and hypertrophy, and immune cells infiltration of murine hearts were evaluated between MI-N.S and MI-HucMSC groups. We detected the expression of inflammatory cytokines and their effects on CD4+ T cells migration. Results HucMSCs treatment can significantly improve the cardiac function and some cells can survive at least 28 days after MI. Intramyocardial administration of HucMSCs also improved angiogenesis and alleviated cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy. Moreover, we found the much higher numbers of CD4+ T cells and CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the heart with HucMSCs than that with N.S treatment on day 7 post MI. In addition, the protein level of C–C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5 (CCL5) greatly increased in HucMSCs treated heart compared to MI-N.S group. In vitro, HucMSCs inhibited CD4+ T cells migration and addition of CCL5 antibody or CCR5 antagonist significantly reversed this effect. In vivo results further showed that addition of CCR5 antagonist can reduce the cardioprotective effect of HucMSCs administration on day 7 post MI injury. Conclusion These findings indicated that HucMSCs contributed to cardiac functional recovery and attenuated cardiac remodeling post MI. Intramyocardial injection of HucMSCs upregulated the CD4+FoxP3+ Tregs and contributed to the migration of CD4+ T cells into the injured heart via CCL5/CCR5 pathway.

Abstract Background Whole-body bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) has been accepted as an indirect method to estimate appendicular lean mass (ALM) comparable to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However, single or limited frequencies currently used for these estimates may over or under-estimate ALM. Accordingly, there is a need to measure the impedance parameter with appendicular lean-specific across multiple frequencies to more accurately estimate ALM. We aimed to validate muscle-specific frequency BIA equation for ALM using multifrequency BIA (MF-BIA) with DXA as the reference. Methods 195 community-dwelling Korean older people (94 men and 101 women) aged 70 ~ 92y participated in this study. ALM was measured by DXA and bioimpedance measures at frequencies of 5 kHz ~ 3 MHz were assessed for independent predictive variables. Regression analyses were used to find limb-specific frequencies of bioimpedance, to develop the ALM equations and to conduct the internal cross-validation. The six published equations and the final equation of MF-BIA were externally cross-validated. Results 195 participants completed the measurements of MF-BIA and DXA. Using bivariate regression analysis, the 2 MHz impedance index explained R 2 = 91.5% of variability (P

Abstract Failure in an epoxy polymer composite material is prone to initiate by the coalescence of microcracks in its polymer matrix. As such, matrix toughening via addition of a second phase as rigid or/and rubber nano/micro-particles is one of the most popular approaches to improve the fracture toughness across multiple scales in a polymer composite, which dissipates fracture energy via deformation mechanisms and microcracks arrest. Few studies have focused on tailorable and variable toughening, so-called ‘active toughening’, mainly suggesting thermally induced strains which offer slow and irreversible toughening due to polymer’s poor thermal conductivity. The research presented in the current article has developed an instantaneous, reversible extrinsic strain field via remote electromagnetic radiation. Quantification of the extrinsic strain evolving in the composite with the microwave energy has been conducted using in-situ real-time fibre optic sensing. A theoretical constitutive equation correlating the exposure energy to micro-strains has been developed, with its solution validating the experimental data and describing their underlying physics. The research has utilised functionalised dielectric ferroelectric nanomaterials, barium titanate (BaTiO3), as a second phase dispersed in an epoxy matrix, able to introduce microscopic electro-strains to their surrounding rigid epoxy subjected to an external electric field (microwaves, herein), as result of their domain walls dipole displacements. Epoxy Araldite LY1564, a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A associated with the curing agent Aradur 3487 were embedded with the BaTiO3 nanoparticles. The silane coupling agent for the nanoparticles’ surface functionalisation was 3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (3-GPS). Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, 30%) and acetic acid (C2H4O2, 99.9%) used as functionalisation aids, and the ethanol (C2H6O, 99.9%) used for BaTiO3 dispersion. Firstly, the crystal microstructure of the functionalised nanoparticles and the thermal and dielectric properties of the achieved epoxy composite materials have been characterised. It has been observed that the addition of the dielectric nanoparticles has a slight impact on the curing extent of the epoxy. Secondly, the surface-bonded fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors have been employed to investigate the real-time variation of strain and temperature in the epoxy composites exposed to microwaves at 2.45 GHz and at different exposure energy. The strains developed due to the in-situ exposure at composite, adhesive and their holding fixture material were evaluated using the FBG. The domain wall induced extrinsic strains were distinguished from the thermally induced strains, and found that the increasing exposure energy has an instantaneously increasing effect on the development of such strains. Post-exposure Raman spectra showed no residual field in the composite indicating no remnant strain field examined under microwave powers

Abstract Background Within the class Enoplea, the earliest-branching lineages in the phylum Nematoda, the relatively highly conserved ancestral mitochondrial architecture of Trichinellida is in stark contrast to the rapidly evolving architecture of Dorylaimida and Mermithida. To better understand the evolution of mitogenomic architecture in this lineage, we sequenced the mitogenome of a fish parasite Pseudocapillaria tomentosa (Trichinellida: Capillariidae) and compared it to all available enoplean mitogenomes. Results P. tomentosa exhibited highly reduced noncoding regions (the largest was 98 bp), and a unique base composition among the Enoplea. We attributed the latter to the inverted GC skew (0.08) in comparison to the ancestral skew in Trichinellidae (-0.43 to -0.37). Capillariidae, Trichuridae and Longidoridae (Dorylaimida) generally exhibited low negative or low positive skews (-0.1 to 0.1), whereas Mermithidae exhibited fully inverted low skews (0 to 0.05). This is indicative of inversions in the strand replication order or otherwise disrupted replication mechanism in the lineages with reduced/inverted skews. Among the Trichinellida, Trichinellidae and Trichuridae have almost perfectly conserved architecture, whereas Capillariidae exhibit multiple rearrangements of tRNA genes. In contrast, Mermithidae (Mermithida) and Longidoridae (Dorylaimida) exhibit almost no similarity to the ancestral architecture. Conclusions Longidoridae exhibited more rearranged mitogenomic architecture than the hypervariable Mermithidae. Similar to the Chromadorea, the evolution of mitochondrial architecture in enoplean nematodes exhibits a strong discontinuity: lineages possessing a mostly conserved architecture over tens of millions of years are interspersed with lineages exhibiting architectural hypervariability. As Longidoridae also have some of the smallest metazoan mitochondrial genomes, they contradict the prediction that compact mitogenomes should be structurally stable. Lineages exhibiting inverted skews appear to represent the intermediate phase between the Trichinellidae (ancestral) and fully derived skews in Chromadorean mitogenomes (GC skews = 0.18 to 0.64). Multiple lines of evidence (CAT-GTR analysis in our study, a majority of previous mitogenomic results, and skew disruption scenarios) support the Dorylaimia split into two sister-clades: Dorylaimida + Mermithida and Trichinellida. However, skew inversions produce strong base composition biases, which can hamper phylogenetic and other evolutionary studies, so enoplean mitogenomes have to be used with utmost care in evolutionary studies.

Focusing on young people in Regent Park, Canada's first social housing project, this study emerged from a collaboration between university and community partners. It aimed to unpack young people's placemaking, exploring how they define and relate to their neighbourhood amidst the largest urban redevelopment in Canadian history. Following the community engagement in research (CEnR) framework and Freire's critical pedagogy, this study used arts‐based methods, including photovoice, photo elicitation, and neighbourhood mapping, with youth in Regent Park. Youth contributed to the study analysis through participating in photovoice activities. Thematic analysis was used to further solidify study findings. Five themes were generated: (1) a community‐like home and family, (2) organizations and physical spaces as resources, (3) good memories, (4) everyday life in Regent Park, and (5) redevelopment and neighbourhood safety as challenges. Despite the disruptions caused by the housing redevelopment, youth emphasized their sense of community, belonging, as well as their connections with the community. The findings contribute to placemaking literature in the context of social housing. Youth insight render practical and research implications. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct‐current triboelectric nanogenerators (DC‐TENGs) arising from electrostatic breakdown have garnered significant attention due to their advantages of rectification‐free operation, constant current output, and high output power density. Previous studies have primarily concentrated on improving its performance through structural design and parameter optimization, neglecting the potential benefits of external charge excitation. Here, a facile and universal strategy coupling charge pump and electric field enhancing effect with DC‐TENG (CE‐DC‐TENG) is proposed to improve the output performance of DC‐TENG. An alternating current TENG is used as the charge pump. A field‐enhancing conductive layer, which is introduced under the main DC‐TENG, is connected with the pump TENG to accumulate the charge and enhance the electric field for electrostatic breakdown. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by linear and rotary sliding mode TENGs. Furthermore, a fully integrated rotary sliding mode CE‐DC‐TENG is designed and fabricated, and it exhibits impressive performance with a 13‐fold higher power density of 1.56 W m−2 compared to conventional DC‐TENG. Moreover, it can directly power small electronics or be combined with a designed power management circuit for more efficient energy conversion. This work presents a new design strategy for improving the performance of DC‐TENG and facilitating its practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by Fanon's constructs of racial epidermal schema, this study explored youth's experiences with anti-Asian racism (AAR) and their perspective on how AAR is formed and maintained. We recruited 36 Asian youth (age range 14–23 years) residing in a metropolitan city in Canada to attend a semi-structured focus group. Results from the reflexive thematic analysis indicated the tenuous lines of invisibility and visibility of AAR—in a Whiteness dominant racial schema. When Asian youth are objectified within the boundary of Whiteness norms, AAR is pervasive but inconspicuous, happening early and frequently in their life but unrecognized. When they are objectified as threats to Whiteness dominance such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, AAR is visible in forms of overt discrimination, violence, and hate against Asians. Youth attributed roots of AAR to White supremacy and critically discussed their racialization process. Their reflexive insights serve as a form of resistance to AAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convenient and concise base-promoted synthesis of 3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinazolinones and multi-membered cyclic ureas has been developed. In the presence of tBuOK, a variety of 3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinazolinones as well as the N-arylated five-, six- and nine-membered cyclic ureas were readily synthesized under mild conditions. This method offers an alternative synthesis toolkit towards cyclic ureas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liparis gigantea is a Chinese traditional medicinal herb in the Orchidaceae family. It is a rare and special Liparis species that exhibits relatively large flowers. To illuminate its phylogenetic status and augment genomic resources, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of L. gigantea was first sequenced and assembled using whole genome next-generation sequencing in this study. The cp genome size is 158,462 bp with a total GC content of 36.9%. Characterized by a quadripartite structure, the genome consists of a large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,032 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,322 bp, which is separated by a pair of 27,054 bp inverted repeat regions (IRs). A total of 133 genes were annotated, including 87 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supported L. gigantea as the sister to two closely related terrestrial species, Liparis nervosa and L. vivipara. The results of this study provide genomic information for future research and application of this medicinal herb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharyngeal endoderm cells undergo convergence and extension (C&E), which is essential for endoderm pouch formation and craniofacial development. Our previous work implicates Gα13/RhoAmediated signaling in regulating this process, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we have used endoderm-specific transgenic and Gα13mutant zebrafish to demonstrate that Gα13 plays a crucial role in pharyngeal endodermC&E by regulating RhoA activation and E-cadherin expression. We showed that during C&E, endodermal cells gradually establish stable cell-cell contacts, acquire apical-basal polarity and undergo actomyosin-driven apical constriction, which are processes that require Gα13. Additionally, we found that Gα13-deficient embryos exhibit reduced E-cadherin expression, partially contributing to endoderm C&E defects. Notably, interfering with RhoA function disrupts spatial actomyosin activation without affecting E-cadherin expression. Collectively, our findings identify crucial cellular processes for pharyngeal endoderm C&E and reveal that Gα13 controls this through two independent pathways - modulating RhoA activation and regulating E-cadherin expression - thus unveiling intricate mechanisms governing pharyngeal endoderm morphogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avian colibacillosis, caused by avian Escherichia coli (E. coli), has historically been one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in large-scale poultry production, causing growth delays and mortality in chickens, resulting in huge economic losses. In recent years, the widespread use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of multidrug resistance in E. coli as a significant global problem and long-term challenge. Resistant E. coli can be transmitted to humans through animal products or the environment, which presents significant public health concerns and food safety issues. In this study, we analyzed the features of 135 E. coli strains obtained from a white feather broiler farm in Shandong, China, including antimicrobial susceptibility tests, detection of class 1 integrons, drug resistance genes, virulence genes, and phylogenetic subgroups. It is particularly worrying that all 135 E. coli strains were resistant to at least five antibiotic agents, and 100% of them were multidrug-resistant (MDR). Notably, the resistance genes of blaTEM, blaCTX-M, qnrS, aaC4, tetA, and tetB exhibited a high prevalence of carriage among the tested resistance genes. However, mcr-2~mcr-9 were not detected, while the prevalence of mcr-1 was found to be 2.96%. The most common virulence genes detected were EAST1 (14.07%, encoding enterotoxins) and fyuA (14.81%, encoding biofilm formation). Phylogenetic subgroup analysis revealed that E. coli belonging to groups B2 and D, which are commonly associated with high virulence, constituted 2.22% and 11.11%, respectively. The positive rate of class 1 integrons was 31.1%. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and animal experiments were performed on a unique isolated strain called 21EC78 with an extremely strong membrane-forming capacity. The WGS results showed that 21EC78 carried 11 drug resistance genes and 16 virulence genes. Animal experiments showed that intraperitoneal injection with 2 × 105 CFU could cause the death of one-day-old SPF chickens in 3 days. However, the mortality of Luhua chickens was comparatively lower than that of SPF chickens. This study reports the isolation of multidrug-resistant E. coli strains in poultry, which may pose a potential threat to human health via the food chain. Furthermore, the findings of this study enhance our comprehension of the frequency and characteristics of multidrug-resistant E. coli in poultry farms, emphasizing the urgent need for improved and effective continuous surveillance to control its dissemination.

In the navigation process, monitoring the running state of ship power plant equipment is crucial. In bad weather, when the critical equipment is abnormal, it is especially necessary to find out the root cause of the failure as soon as possible. In this case, it is required to use rapid detection equipment to detect and judge the key parameters. This paper proposes a vibration sensor (VS-TENG) of triboelectric nanogenerators based on spring vibration. The sensor adopts the spring structure inside and vibrates with the ship power equipment to collect the low-frequency vibration energy. This paper uses the VS-TENG sensors of two different spring parameters to study the electrical signal output under the excitation conditions of varying vibration frequencies. The results show that in the frequency range of 3–500 Hz, the efficient processing of different vibration excitation frequency signals can be realized, and the vibration frequency can be accurately identified. The error of medium-high frequency identification in VS-TENG is less than 1%. Especially at the resonant frequency, the maximum voltage output value can be achieved. On the PT500 Mini test bench, VS-TENG can reasonably identify the motor frequency and shutdown state. Therefore, VS-TENG can be applied to the condition monitoring of the vibration of the ship’s power plant and has a broad application prospect.

Abstract Aim To explore the mediating role of depression in older people receiving haemodialysis on social support and the attitude of participants towards death. Design A cross‐sectional questionnaire survey. Methods Data were collected from older people undergoing dialysis (N = 209) at two regional hospitals in the north of Taiwan. Confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation model was used to clarify the strength of relationships and intermediary effects of three scales in which with 5,000 bootstrap samples using LISREL 9.31. Results The final model provided a good fit for the data. Social support and depression have statistically significant effects on dialysis older person' negative death attitudes. The direct effect of social support on depression was the strongest (p

Abstract Background Aging is an inevitable process of life development. These physical changes may cause a decline in the functional adaptability and health of older adults. This study aims to determine if an association exists between health-related physical fitness measurements and self-reported health status in older Taiwanese adults. Methods A total of 22,389 Taiwanese adults aged 65 years or older were recruited as study participants. Demographic characteristics, life habits, anthropometric assessments, health-related physical fitness measurements, and self-reported health status from this dataset were analyzed using the chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance, and logistic regression analysis. Results The results showed that there was significant association between back scratch and self-reported health status (excellent/good) (odds ratio [OR], 1.003; 95% CI 1.000–1.006) after adjusting potential confounders (gender, height, weight, body mass index, education, monthly income, marital status, smoking status, and chewing betel nuts). However, adjusted OR for unhealthy status (poor/very poor) significantly decreased for chair sit-and-reach test (OR 0.994, 95% CI 0.988–0.999). Conclusions The present study reveals significant associations between health-related physical fitness measurements and self-reported health status in older Taiwanese adults. In particular, the waist-to-hip ratio could be involved in the cognitive process of one’s subjective health status, since individuals’ perception of their physical appearance affects their self-reported health. Future researches are suggested to investigate the causality between health-related physical fitness and subjective health status.

Abstract Background Microtubule‐targeing agents (MTAs), such as paclitaxel (PTX) and vincristine (VCR), kill cancer cells through activtion of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) and induction of mitotic arrest, but the development of resistance poses significant clinical challenges. Methods Immunoblotting and RT‐qPCR were used to investigate potential function and related mechanism of MORC2. Flow cytometry analyses were carried out to determine cell cycle distribution and apoptosis. The effect of MORC2 on cellular sensitivity to PTX and VCR was determined by immunoblotting, flow cytometry, and colony formation assays. Immunoprecipitation assays and immunofluorescent staining were utilized to investigate protein‐protein interaction and protein co‐localization. Results Here, we identified microrchidia family CW‐type zinc finger 2 (MORC2), a poorly characterized oncoprotein, as a novel regulator of SAC activation, mitotic progression, and resistance of cancer cells to PTX and VCR. Mechanically, PTX and VCR activate cyclin‐dependent kinase 1, which in turn induces MORC2 phosphorylation at threonine 717 (T717) and T733. Phosphorylated MORC2 enhances its interation with HSPA8 and LAMP2A, two essential components of the chaperone‐mediated autophagy (CMA) mechinery, resulting in its autophagic degradation. Degradation of MORC2 during mitosis leads to SAC activation through stabilizing anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome activator protein Cdc20 and facilitating mitotic checkpoint complex assembly, thus contributing to mitotic arrest induced by PTX and VCR. Notably, knockdown of MORC2 promotes mitotic arrest induced by PTX and VCR and enhances the sensitivity of cancer cells to PTX and VCR. Conclusions Collectively, these findings unveil a previously unrecognized function and regulatory mechanism of MORC2 in mitotic progression and resistance of cancer cells to MTAs. These results also provide a new clue for developing combined treatmentstrategy by targeting MORC2 in combination with MTAs against human cancer.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and is mainly transmitted by ticks. There is no effective vaccine for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) at present. We developed three DNA vaccines encoding CCHFV nucleocapsid protein (NP), glycoprotein N-terminal (Gn) and C-terminal (Gc) fused with lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1) and assessed their immunogenicity and protective efficacy in a human MHC (HLA-A11/DR1) transgenic mouse model. The mice that were vaccinated three times with pVAX-LAMP1-CCHFV-NP induced balanced Th1 and Th2 responses and could most effectively protect mice from CCHFV transcription and entry-competent virus-like particles (tecVLPs) infection. The mice vaccinated with pVAX-LAMP1-CCHFV-Gc mainly elicited specific anti-Gc and neutralizing antibodies and provided a certain protection from CCHFV tecVLPs infection, but the protective efficacy was less than that of pVAX-LAMP1-CCHFV-NP. The mice vaccinated with pVAX-LAMP1-CCHFV-Gn only elicited specific anti-Gn antibodies and could not provide sufficient protection from CCHFV tecVLPs infection. These results suggest that pVAX-LAMP1-CCHFV-NP would be a potential and powerful candidate vaccine for CCHFV.

Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants that pose a global threat to the environment. Mangrove ecosystems, which contribute to biogeochemical cycles, are vulnerable to various anthropogenic disturbances and chemical pollutants. In this study, the abundance and the characteristics of MPs were investigated in 10 species of benthic organisms, including crabs, bivalves, and snails, from seven typical mangrove distribution areas, with a total of 15 sampling sites in Hainan, South China. The abundance of MPs in each sampling site ranged between 0.83 ± 1.32 and 12.00 ± 0.00 items/individual, with an average of 3.90 ± 3.31 items/individual, while the abundance of MPs varied between 0.17 and 2.00 items/individual for the different species. Fibers (80.13%) were the most abundant MPs, most of the MPs were brown (37.18%) or blue (26.64%), and more than 80% were small-sized plastic (

Pain is strongly associated with neuro-immune activation. Thus, the emerging role of the endocannabinoid system in neuro-inflammation is important. Acupuncture has been used for over 2500 years and is widely accepted for the management of pain. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of electroacupuncture on the regulation of cannabinoid receptor type 1 within the peripheral nervous system. Inflammatory pain was induced by injecting Complete Freund's adjuvant to induce mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia. Electroacupuncture significantly attenuated the mechanical and thermal sensitivities, and AM251, a cannabinoid receptor type 1 antagonist, eliminated these effects. Dual immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that electroacupuncture elevated expression of cannabinoid receptor type 1, co-localized with Nav 1.8. Furthermore, electroacupuncture significantly reduced levels of Nav 1.8 and COX-2 by western blot analysis, but not vice versa as AM251 treatment. Our data indicate that electroacupuncture mediates antinociceptive effects through peripheral endocannabinoid system signaling pathway and provide evidence that electroacupuncture is beneficial for pain treatment.

Overactive inflammatory responses contribute to progressive cardiac dysfunction after myocardial infarction (MI). Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) has generated significant interest as potent immune modulators that can regulate excessive immune responses. We hypothesized that intravenous (iv) administration of human umbilical cord-derived MSC (HucMSC) exerts systemic and local anti-inflammation effects, leading to improved heart function after MI. In murine MI models, we confirmed that single iv administration of HucMSC (30×104) improved cardiac performance and prevented adverse remodeling after MI. A small proportion of HucMSC is trafficked to the heart, preferentially in the infarcted region. HucMSC administration increased CD3+ T cell proportion in the periphery while decreased T cell proportion in both infarcted heart and mediastinal lymph nodes (med-LN) at 7-day post-MI, indicating a systematic and local T cell interchange mediated by HucMSC. The inhibitory effects of HucMSC on T cell infiltration in the infarcted heart and med-LN sustained to 21-day post-MI. Our findings suggested that iv administration of HucMSC fostered systemic and local immunomodulatory effects that contributed to the improvement of cardiac performance after MI.

People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of each situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation also predicted the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Further analyses revealed the specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations that make their experiences more positive. Higher HDI was associated with situational experiences involving humor, socializing with others, and the potential to express emotions and fantasies. Lower HDI was associated with an increase in the presence of threats, blame, and hostility, as well as situational experiences consisting of family, religion, and money. Despite the increase in a few negative situational characteristics in lower HDI countries, the overall average experience still ranged from neutral to slightly positive, rather than negative, suggesting that greater HDI may not necessarily increase positive experiences but rather decrease negative experiences. The results illustrate how national economic status influences the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation.

Abstract Mitochondrial dysfunction is considered to be a key contributor to the development of heart failure. Replacing injured mitochondria with healthy mitochondria to restore mitochondrial bioenergy in myocardium holds great promise for cardioprotection after infarction. This study aimed to investigate whether direct transplantation of exogenous mitochondria derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSC‐mt) is beneficial and superior in protecting cardiac function in a mouse model of myocardial infarction (MI) compared to mitochondria derived from skin fibroblast (FB‐mt) and to explore the underlying mechanisms from their effects on the endothelial cells. The isolated MSC‐mt presented intact mitochondrial morphology and activity, as determined by electron microscopy, JC‐1 mitochondrial membrane potential assay, and seahorse assay. Direct injection of MSC‐mt into the peri‐infarct region in a mouse MI model enhanced blood vessel density, inhibited cardiac remodeling and apoptosis, thus improving heart function compared with FB‐mt group. The injected MSC‐mt can be tracked in the endothelial cells. In vitro, the fluorescence signal of MSC‐mt can be detected in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry after coculture. Compared to FB‐mt, MSC‐mt more effectively protected the HUVECs from oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis and reduced mitochondrial production of reactive oxygen species. MSC‐mt presented superior capacity in inducing tube formation, enhancing SCF secretion, ATP content and cell proliferation in HUVECs compared to FB‐mt. Mechanistically, MSC‐mt administration alleviated oxidative stress‐induced endothelial senescence via activation of ERK pathway. These findings suggest that using MSCs as sources of mitochondria is feasible and that proangiogenesis could be the mechanism by which MSC‐mt transplantation attenuates MI. MSC‐mt transplantation might serve as a new therapeutic strategy for treating MI.

With the advantages of high energy density, long cycle life and high stability, lithium-ion batteries have been used in a large number of fields such as electric vehicles and grid scale energy storage. To ensure the safe and reliable operation of battery systems, it is important to make an accurate and rapid estimation of the state of health (SOH) of Li-ion cells. A Li-ion cell is a complex nonlinear dynamic system. The SOH of a Li-ion can not be measured directly in actual working conditions; it can only be estimated indirectly by external characteristic parameters that reflects the extent of cell aging. It is difficult to ensure the reliability of method based on a single aging feature or model. Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-feature SOH estimation method that combines data-driven XGBoost and a Kalman filter. Firstly, a principal component analysis algorithm to reconstruct multiple battery aging features based on data is used, and an XGBoost online estimation model incorporating multiple features based on the reconstructed feature data is constructed. Finally, the joint optimal estimation of SOH of Li-ion cells by introducing a time-domain Kalman filter based on the real-time correction of the XGBoost model is achieved in this method. The results show that the method improves the accuracy and robustness of the estimation model and achieves a high-precision joint estimation of SOH for Li-ion cells.

We analyze whole-genome sequencing data from 141,431 Chinese women generated for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). We use these data to characterize the population genetic structure and to investigate genetic associations with maternal and infectious traits. We show that the present day distribution of alleles is a function of both ancient migration and very recent population movements. We reveal novel phenotype-genotype associations, including several replicated associations with height and BMI, an association between maternal age and EMB, and between twin pregnancy and NRG1. Finally, we identify a unique pattern of circulating viral DNA in plasma with high prevalence of hepatitis B and other clinically relevant maternal infections. A GWAS for viral infections identifies an exceptionally strong association between integrated herpesvirus 6 and MOV10L1, which affects piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) processing and PIWI protein function. These findings demonstrate the great value and potential of accumulating NIPT data for worldwide medical and genetic analyses.

Glycosylinositol phosphorylceramides (GIPCs), which have a ceramide core linked to a glycan headgroup of varying structures, are the major sphingolipids in the plant plasma membrane. Recently, we identified the major biosynthetic genes for GIPC glycosylation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and demonstrated that the glycan headgroup is essential for plant viability. However, the function of GIPCs and the significance of their structural variation are poorly understood. Here, we characterized the Arabidopsis glycosyltransferase GLUCOSAMINE INOSITOLPHOSPHORYLCERAMIDE TRANSFERASE1 (GINT1) and showed that it is responsible for the glycosylation of a subgroup of GIPCs found in seeds and pollen that contain GlcNAc and GlcN [collectively GlcN(Ac)]. In Arabidopsis gint1 plants, loss of the GlcN(Ac) GIPCs did not affect vegetative growth, although seed germination was less sensitive to abiotic stress than in wild-type plants. However, in rice, where GlcN(Ac) containing GIPCs are the major GIPC subgroup in vegetative tissue, loss of GINT1 was seedling lethal. Furthermore, we could produce, de novo, "rice-like" GlcN(Ac) GIPCs in Arabidopsis leaves, which allowed us to test the function of different sugars in the GIPC headgroup. This study describes a monocot GIPC biosynthetic enzyme and shows that its Arabidopsis homolog has the same biochemical function. We also identify a possible role for GIPCs in maintaining cell-cell adhesion.