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Brown carbon (BrC), as a short-lived climate forcer, is still poorly understood due to its insufficient quantification of chemical compositions, ambiguous optical properties, and complex formation mechanisms. This study firstly investigated the characteristics of BrC over a remote island of the East China Sea during the winter of 2019. Driven by the continental outflows, BrC increased 3–8 times than the clean episodes. Different from most urban studies, high water-soluble organic carbon to organic carbon (WSOC/OC) ratios (66% ± 18%) and low MS-BrC/WS-BrC ratios (methanol extracts vs. water extracts, 1.1) were observed, which resulted from the aging processes via the long-range transport over the ocean. When air masses originated from northern China with long travelling history over the ocean, aqueous phase processing promoted the formation of BrC under rich ammonium and nitrate. In contrast, air masses from eastern China travelled over less oceanic areas and were characterized of higher oxidation capacity, suggesting a dominant role of gas-phase processing in the formation of BrC. Biomass burning, fossil fuels combustion, and marine sources were apportioned as the major contributors to carbonaceous aerosols, of which marine sources accounted for more than 30%. The fractional solar absorption by BrC relative to elemental carbon in the ultraviolet range (300–400 nm) was simulated as 17.3 ± 7.51% for WS-BrC and 21.18 ± 7.97% for MS-BrC, indicating a non-negligible role of BrC in perturbating the radiative forcing in the marine atmosphere. • BrC was firstly investigated over the East China Sea during winter. • BrC increased 3–8 times than clean episodes when driven by the continental outflows. • High WSOC/OC ratios (66% ± 18%) and low MS-BrC/WS-BrC ratios (1.1) were observed. • Marine sources contributed for more than 30% of carbonaceous aerosols. • Aqueous phase process and gas-phase process promoted BrC formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty eight aryl pyrazole derivatives containing 5-fluorouracil were designed and synthesised via the key intermediate 1-aryl-3-methyl-1H-pyrazole-5-carboxylic acid. The structures of target compounds were confirmed by 1 H NMR, FT-IR, EA and their insecticidal activities were evaluated. The bioassays revealed that aryl pyrazole derivatives containing 5-fluorouracil exhibited excellent insecticidal activities against Culex pipiens and Musca domestica at a concentration of 0.1%. Some compounds still showed good insecticidal activities even at a concentration of 0.05%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbohydrates are an important energy source and play numerous key roles in all living organisms. Carbohydrates chemistry involved in diagnosis and treatment of diseases has been attracting increasing attention. Carbohydrates could be one of the major focuses of new drug discovery. Currently, however, carbohydrate-containing drugs account for only a small percentage of all drugs in clinical use, which does not match the important roles of carbohydrates in the organism. In other words, carbohydrates are a relatively untapped source of new drugs and therefore may offer exciting novel therapeutic opportunities. Here, we presented an overview of the application of carbohydrates in approved small molecule drugs and emphasized and evaluated the roles of carbohydrates in those drugs. The potential development direction of carbohydrate-containing drugs was presented after summarizing the advantages and challenges of carbohydrates in the development of new drugs. Carbohydrate-containing drugs were used for the treatment of a variety of diseases. [Display omitted] • Carbohydrates have been extensively explored in the development of new drugs. • The roles of carbohydrates in approved small molecule drugs. • The advantages and challenges of carbohydrates in drug development. • The potential development directions of carbohydrate-containing drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Villages are homes for most rural residents and powerhouses of the rural economy, with a vital role in reducing rural-urban disparity. It raises the need to explore the driving forces of village development, which in turn sheds light on strategies to secure rural revitalization. This research aims to dissect the factors contributing to village economic development through quantitative analysis of 338 villages in the traditional agricultural area of northern Jiangsu Province, China. This research leverages an integration of the econometric modeling and machine learning methodologies (multiple regression model and Boosted Regression Trees method) to ensure our findings' accuracy and comparativeness. This research finds: (1) village economic development depends more on the intensity of land-use than the absolute amount of farmland resources; (2) transportation infrastructure, labor outmigration, and land transfer are determinants of village economic development with increasing marginal effects; non-farm employment, entrepreneurship, and bottom-up partnership are also positively related to village economic development despite their non-linear effects. (3) Large-scale labor outmigration would brings a short-term positive effect but poses a long-term challenge to village development. The authors suggest that priority should be given to the construction of transportation infrastructure, regulation of farmland transfer, industrial integration, promotion of rural entrepreneurship, and land consolidation to achieve sustainable development of the village economy. •We demonstrate the relative impact and marginal effect of factors contributing to village development. •The intensity of land-use weighs more than the absolute amount of farmland resources. •Labor outmigration will be detrimental to the village development in the long-term, albeit beneficial in the short term. •Rural elites with entrepreneurship are crucial to sustainable village development. •Priority should be given to transportation infrastructure construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing efficient catalytic systems for water contamination removal is a topic of great interest. However, the use of heterogeneous catalysts faces challenges due to insufficient active sites and electron cycling. In this study, results from first-principles calculations demonstrate that dual reaction centers (DRCs) are produced around the Cu and Mn sites in Cu 1.0 /Mn 1.0 -ZnO due to the electronegativity difference. Experimental results reveal the material with DRCs greatly enhances electron transfer efficiency and significantly impacts the oxidation and reduction of peroxymonosulfate (PMS). In addition, the self-consistent potential correction (SCPC) method was introduced to correct the energy and charge of charged periodic systems simulating a catalytic process, resulting in more precise catalytic results. Specifically, the material exhibits a preference for adsorbing negatively charged PMS anions at electron-deficient Mn sites, facilitating PMS oxidation for the generation of 1O 2 , and PMS reduction around the electron-rich Cu for the formation of •OH and SO 4 •−. The major reactive oxygen species is 1O 2 , showcasing effective performance in various degradation systems. Overall, our work provides novel insights into the persulfate-based heterogeneous catalytic oxidation process, paving the way for the development of high-performance catalytic systems for water purification. [Display omitted] • Cu 1.0 /Mn 1.0 -ZnO exhibits high electron transfer rate and multi-active sites. • Theoretical calculations revealed the catalytic reaction's microscopic mechanism. • The degradation pathway of Rh–B was unveiled and an assessment was made of its toxicity. • The energy and charge of the charged system were corrected using the SCPC method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photoelectrochemical (PEC) method is described for aptamer-based detection of ofloxacin (OFL). It is making use of a TiO2 nanotube array (NTA) that is sensitized with a structure composed of polydopamine and silver sulfide nanoparticles. The NTA were prepared by a two-step synthetic method. First, the TiO2 nanotube electrode was covered with Ag2S nanoparticles via successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction strategy. Next, they were coated with a thin film of polydopamine (PDA) by in-situ polymerization. The inorganic/organic nanocomposites exhibit distinctly enhanced visible-light PEC activity. This was exploited to fabricate a PEC aptasensor. The PDA film serves as both the sensitizer for charge separation and as a support to bind the aptamer against OFL. The aptasensor undergoes a decrease in photocurrent due to the formation of the aptamer-OFL complex. Under the optimized conditions and at a typical working potential of 0 V (vs. Hg/Hg2Cl2), the NTA has a linear response in the 5.0 pM to 100 nM OFL concentration range and a 0.75 pM detection limit (at S/N = 3). The aptasensor was successfully applied to the determination of OFL in spiked milk samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-soluble organic species play an important role in cloud condensation nuclei and cloud formation in marine atmosphere. The present study investigated the influence of continental outflows and marine biogenic emission on organic aerosol in the East China Sea from the perspective of saccharides during a cold season and a warm season in 2019, respectively. Driven by the East Asian continental outflows during the cold season, levoglucosan emitted from biomass burning were the dominant species and were mostly concentrated in fine mode (<2.5 μm). Biogenic species, including primary sugars and sugar alcohols, were the dominant species in warm season, accounting for a high fraction of WSOC with 5.48 ± 3.29%, and were mostly distributed in coarse mode (2.5–10 μm). This trend was consistent with sea salt components (Na+ and Cl−) when air masses originated from oceanic areas, suggesting that marine emissions could be the major sources of saccharides during the warm season. Particularly, a dramatic increase in biogenic saccharides (glucose, sucrose, mannitol and arabitol) was observed when experienced the "Super Typhoon Lekima". Concentrations of these species were 2 to 5 times higher than that in normal days, illustrating the significant impact of extreme weather events on the emissions of biogenic aerosols in marine area. This study improves the understanding of combined impacts of continental outflows and marine emissions on water-soluble organic species in the East China Sea, again highlighting the important contribution of marine biogenic emissions under extreme weather conditions. [Display omitted] • Levoglucosan over the East China Sea was the dominant species in cold season when driven by continental outflows. • Marine biogenic emissions significantly contributed to biogenic saccharides and sugar alcohols in warm season over the East China Sea. • The significant increased biogenic emissions were observed during the super "Typhoon Lekima (2019)". • Size-distribution of saccharides was firstly reported over the East China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the synthesis and evaluation of carbon−coated Ni−Fe alloy catalysts (NiFex@C, x = 0, 0.3, 0.7, 1.1) for the hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde. The catalysts were characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The introduction of Fe was found to increase the average particle size of the bimetallic catalysts compared to the monometallic Ni@C. Ni existed in both metallic and oxide states, while Fe exhibited multiple oxidation states in the bimetallic catalysts. The carbon layer, approximately 2–3 nm thick, was confirmed to envelop the alloy particles. The catalytic performance of carbon−coated Ni−Fe alloy catalysts indicated that the addition of Fe to Ni@C enhanced the selectivity towards hydrocinnamaldehyde (HCAL), with NiFe0.7@C showing the highest selectivity (~88.6%) but at a reduced conversion rate. The carbon layer played a pivotal role in the stability and reusability of the catalysts. NiFe0.7@C maintained consistent performance over multiple reaction cycles, while NiFe0.7 NPs (without a carbon layer) exhibited significant deactivation. Both catalysts displayed strong magnetism, facilitating easy separation from the reaction mixture. This study sheds light on the significance of the carbon layer in bimetallic catalysts and provides valuable insights for designing efficient catalysts for hydrogenation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved ion chromatographic method including two elution procedures was proposed for the quantitative determination of atmospheric alkylamines in field atmospheric samples involving high levels of inorganic cations by using 18-crown-6 as mobile phase additive. When 18-crown-6 was added to the mobile phase, the retention times increased significantly for Na + , NH 4 + , K + and primary alkylamines but decreased for secondary and tertiary alkylamines due to the complexation with certain cations and interaction with both stationary and mobile phases of 18-crown-6. As a result, the separation of the cations was greatly promoted, which reduced the interference of peak distortion of overloaded inorganic cations on the quantitation of adjacent alkylamines. By using the presented method, five inorganic cations (Na + , NH 4 + , K + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ ) and six alkylamines (dimethylamine (DMAH + ), trimethylamine + diethylamine (TMAH +  + DEAH + ), propylamine (MPAH + ), triethylamine (TEAH + ), ethanolamine (MEOAH + ) and triethanolamine (TEOAH + )) were effectively separated and determined, and the relative standard derivations (RSDs) of objective cations were all less than 1% for retention time and 3.1% for peak area (n = 9), respectively. The linearity was excellent for each cation (R 2  > 0.993) except for NH 4 + and TEOAH + showing a non-linear response (R 2  > 0.998 for theoretical non-linear fitting), and the detection limit of these cations were 0.03–1.19 ng. The proposed method was successfully used in the determination of both alkylamines and inorganic cations in ambient particulate matters and gaseous alkylamines in ceiling duct exhaust. The annual average concentrations of DMAH + , TMAH +  + DEAH + and TEAH + were 15.56, 4.35 and 16.00 ng m −3 in PM 2.5 over Shanghai in 2013. The concentrations of gaseous DMA and TMA + DEA in ceiling duct exhaust reached a maximum of 940.0 and 112.7 μg m −3 , and were positively correlated with the human activity intensity, suggesting that human excreta emissions was a potential important source of atmospheric alkylamines in urban area of Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The singularities in 2-D time domain boundary element (TD-BEM) formulation for elastodynamics are divided into three categories: the wave front singularity, the space singularity and the dual singularity. A fully analytical procedure for dealing with the three singularities is proposed by adopting the concept of the finite part of an integral (Hadamard principle integral). In order to reduce the computation time, the conventional numerical procedure is adopted for the non-singular integrals in 2-D TD-BEM formulation. Therefore, the algorithm including the fully analytical procedure for dealing with singular integrals and the numerical procedure for dealing with non-singular integrals is implemented in this study. Two examples, 1-D rod and 2-D cavity representing the problems for the finite domain and the infinite domain respectively, are chosen to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. It shows that the results obtained from the proposed algorithm agree with the analytical solutions with good accuracy, indicating that the proposed algorithm is applicable for elastodynamics in both finite and infinite domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The dense feature adaptive connection module improves the quality of depth map. • The distributed 3D convolution reduces the computational cost and memory space. • The joint loss function makes the network sensitive to small depth structures. The goal of Multi-View Stereo is to reconstruct the 3D point cloud model from multiple views. With the development of deep learning, more and more learning-based research has achieved remarkable results. However, existing methods ignore the fine-grained features of the bottom layer, which leads to the poor quality of model reconstruction, especially in terms of completeness. Besides, current methods still rely on a large amount of consumed memory resources because of the application of 3D convolution. To this end, this paper proposes a Multiple Granularities Feature Fusion Network for Multi-View Stereo, an end-to-end depth estimation network combining global and local features, which is characterized by fine-granularity multi-feature fusion. Firstly, we propose a dense feature adaptive connection module, which can adaptively fuse the global and local features in the scene, provide a more complete and effective feature map for inferring a more detailed depth map, and make the ultimate model more complete. Secondly, in order to further improve the accuracy and completeness of the reconstructed point cloud, we introduce normal and edge loss futead of only using depth loss functions as in the existing methods, which makes the network more sensitive to small depth structures. Finally, we propose distributed 3D convolution instead of traditional 3D convolution, which reduces memory consumption. The experimental results on the DTU and Tanks & Temples datasets demonstrate that the proposed method in this papaer achieves the state-of-the-art performance, which proves the accuracy and effectiveness of the MG-MVSNet proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media data are increasingly used to examine associations between environmental exposures and mental wellbeing. In particular, studies highlight that exposure to natural outdoor environments (NOEs) is associated with fewer negative emotions. Also, people in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods tend to benefit more from NOEs than their counterparts in more privileged neighbourhoods ("equigenic" effects). However, exposure to NOEs is principally studied with remotely sensed data that fail to measure peoples' lived experience and the visible environment at eye-level. The current study explored relationships between two forms of NOEs (green and blue spaces) using Tencent Map street view imagery and negative emotions from social media Weibo microblogs in 1540 neighborhoods of Guangzhou, China. Negative emotions and exposure to visible green and blue space were assessed at the neighborhood-level (averaged by neighborhood). Higher levels of visible green space were associated with lower levels of negative emotions (3rd quartile: coefficient [coef.] = −0.006, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.012 to −0.000; 4th quartile: coef. = −0.007, CI = −0.013 to −0.001), and these associations were stronger during non-work times. No associations were observed for visible blue space except in interactions with socioeconomic status (SES); blue space provided an equigenic effect whereby people in lower-SES neighborhoods expressed fewer negative emotions than other lower-SES neighbourhoods without blue space. Because negative emotions are strongly linked to depression and anxiety, the importance of green and blue space visible at eye-level should be considered when promoting equitable public health. [Display omitted] • Assessed natural outdoor environment-emotion associations with social media and street view data. • Higher levels of visible green space were associated with lower levels of negative emotions. • Associations were stronger during non-work times. • No associations were observed for visible blue space except in interactions with socioeconomic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Protein–protein interactions are widespread in biological systems and play an important role in cell biology. Since traditional laboratory-based methods have some drawbacks, such as time-consuming, money-consuming, etc., a large number of methods based on deep learning have emerged. However, these methods do not take into account the long-distance dependency information between each two amino acids in sequence. In addition, most existing models based on graph neural networks only aggregate the first-order neighbors in protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Although multi-order neighbor information can be aggregated by increasing the number of layers of neural network, it is easy to cause over-fitting. So, it is necessary to design a network that can capture long distance dependency information between amino acids in the sequence and can directly capture multi-order neighbor information in protein–protein interaction network. Results: In this study, we propose a multi-hop neural network (LDMGNN) model combining long distance dependency information to predict the multi-label protein–protein interactions. In the LDMGNN model, we design the protein amino acid sequence encoding (PAASE) module with the multi-head self-attention Transformer block to extract the features of amino acid sequences by calculating the interdependence between every two amino acids. And expand the receptive field in space by constructing a two-hop protein–protein interaction (THPPI) network. We combine PPI network and THPPI network with amino acid sequence features respectively, then input them into two identical GIN blocks at the same time to obtain two embeddings. Next, the two embeddings are fused and input to the classifier for predict multi-label protein–protein interactions. Compared with other state-of-the-art methods, LDMGNN shows the best performance on both the SHS27K and SHS148k datasets. Ablation experiments show that the PAASE module and the construction of THPPI network are feasible and effective. Conclusions: In general terms, our proposed LDMGNN model has achieved satisfactory results in the prediction of multi-label protein–protein interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is disrupting the world from many aspects. In this study, the impact of emission variations on PM 2.5 -bound elemental species and health risks associated to inhalation exposure has been analyzed based on real-time measurements at a remote coastal site in Shanghai during the pandemic. Most trace elemental species decreased significantly and displayed almost no diel peaks during the lockdown. After the lockdown, they rebounded rapidly, of which V and Ni even exceeded the levels before the lockdown, suggesting the recovery of both inland and shipping activities. Five sources were identified based on receptor modeling. Coal combustion accounted for more than 70% of the measured elemental concentrations before and during the lockdown. Shipping emissions, fugitive/mineral dust, and waste incineration all showed elevated contributions after the lockdown. The total non-carcinogenic risk (HQ) for the target elements exceeded the risk threshold for both children and adults with chloride as the predominant species contributing to HQ. Whereas, the total carcinogenic risk (TR) for adults was above the acceptable level and much higher than that for children. Waste incineration was the largest contributor to HQ, while manufacture processing and coal combustion were the main sources of TR. Lockdown control measures were beneficial for lowering the carcinogenic risk while unexpectedly increased the non-carcinogenic risk. From the perspective of health effects, priorities of control measures should be given to waste incineration, manufacture processing, and coal combustion. A balanced way should be reached between both lowering the levels of air pollutants and their health risks. [Display omitted]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drug-Drug interactions (DDIs) are a challenging problem in drug research. Drug combination therapy is an effective solution to treat diseases, but it can also cause serious side effects. Therefore, DDIs prediction is critical in pharmacology. Recently, researchers have been using deep learning techniques to predict DDIs. However, these methods only consider single information of the drug and have shortcomings in robustness and scalability. Results: In this paper, we propose a multi-type feature fusion based on graph neural network model (MFFGNN) for DDI prediction, which can effectively fuse the topological information in molecular graphs, the interaction information between drugs and the local chemical context in SMILES sequences. In MFFGNN, to fully learn the topological information of drugs, we propose a novel feature extraction module to capture the global features for the molecular graph and the local features for each atom of the molecular graph. In addition, in the multi-type feature fusion module, we use the gating mechanism in each graph convolution layer to solve the over-smoothing problem during information delivery. We perform extensive experiments on multiple real datasets. The results show that MFFGNN outperforms some state-of-the-art models for DDI prediction. Moreover, the cross-dataset experiment results further show that MFFGNN has good generalization performance. Conclusions: Our proposed model can efficiently integrate the information from SMILES sequences, molecular graphs and drug-drug interaction networks. We find that a multi-type feature fusion model can accurately predict DDIs. It may contribute to discovering novel DDIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) are major chemical constituents of ambient submicron particles (PM 1) and have substantial implications for air quality, climate dynamics, and human health. Long-term observations of daily mean mass concentrations of OC and EC in PM 1 were conducted in Qingdao, a typical coastal megacity in northern China, in autumn and winter from Nov. 2017 to Jan. 2023. The variety in OC and EC concentrations under the active emission reduction policies of long-term carbon reduction in China, combined with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, were analyzed. OC and EC concentrations decreased noticeably from 8.28 ± 4.59 μg m−3 and 2.00 ± 1.17 μg m−3 during pre-COVID-19 pandemic to 6.34 ± 3.82 μg m−3 and 1.87 ± 1.01 μg m−3 during post-COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. The XGBoost-SHAP model indicated that emission sources had the most significant effect on OC and EC concentrations, followed by meteorological factors. Unfavorable meteorological conditions and a substantial increase in emissions are responsible for the increase of OC and EC concentration in winter. Potential source contribution function results indicated that the southern, eastern, and central Shandong regions were the primary source areas for transporting high concentrations of carbonaceous components. Positive matrix factorization analysis suggested that carbonaceous aerosols in Qingdao predominantly originated from coal/biomass combustion (54.75%–81.78%) and local vehicle emissions (8.72%–28.73%). Compared with that before COVID-19, coal/biomass combustion's contribution to OC and EC decreased by 19% after the COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution of vehicles increased by 110%, possibly due to the increase in motor vehicles and the rapid recovery in diesel consumption in freight transportation. Prohibiting biomass burning, such as open burning of straw, and measures such as promoting low-carbon and clean production of coal-fired industrial furnaces might have played a key role in reducing OC and EC levels. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the concentration levels and sources of carbonaceous components in PM 1 and provide theoretical guidance for environmental management. [Display omitted] • Carbonaceous aerosols in PM 1 decreased based on the 6-year measurements. • Driving factors of OC and EC in PM 1 were identified by machine learning method. • PMF and PSCF analysis revealed a dramatic change in sources of OC and EC. • Increased vehicles and diesel consumption contributed more during the post-COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biggest obstacle to treating wound healing continues to be the production of simple, inexpensive wound dressings that satisfy the demands associated with full process of repair at the same time. Herein, a series of injectable composite hydrogels were successfully prepared by a one-pot method by utilizing the Schiff base reaction as well as hydrogen bonding forces between hydroxypropyl chitosan (HCS), ε-poly- l -lysine (EPL), and 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzaldehyde (TBA), and multiple cross-links formed by the reversible coordination between iron (III) and pyrogallol moieties. Notably, hydrogel exhibits excellent physicochemical properties, including injectability, self-healing, water retention, and adhesion, which enable to fill irregular wounds for a long period, providing a suitable moist environment for wound healing. Interestingly, the excellent hemostatic properties of the hydrogel can quickly stop bleeding and avoid the serious sequelae of massive blood loss in acute trauma. Moreover, the powerful antimicrobial and antioxidant properties also protect against bacterial infections and reduce inflammation at the wound site, thus promoting healing at all stages of the wound. The study of biohydrogel with multifunctional integration of wound treatment and smart medical treatment is clarified by this line of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linfen, one of the most polluted cities in China, releases huge amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the atmosphere. The pollution characteristics of Linfen's PAHs, along with their emission sources and health risks, were scarcely discussed. This study conducted a multi-site observation campaign in Linfen during the non-heating and heating periods (2018–2019) using passive air samplers. Sixteen PAHs were analyzed for the gaseous and particulate samples collected at the 15 sites in the urban, rural, and background areas. The PAH concentrations in Linfen's atmosphere were 225.7 ± 81.9 ng m−3 during the heating period and 139.9 ± 47.5 ng m−3 during the non-heating period, annually averaged to 168.1 ± 58.6 ng m−3, which was predominantly contributed by the rural and urban emissions. Combustion was highly responsible for the PAHs, including the burning of coal for industrial production and winter heating, coupled with the utilization of oils by automobile engines. The spatiotemporal variations of PAHs were associated with the discrepancy of emission intensity rather than that of emission type. The BaP equivalent concentrations for the rural and urban areas were 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the various international standards, indicating the considerable carcinogenic risk for the majority of local residents. These findings are informative for better understanding the atmospheric PAH pollution in a typical resource-based Chinese city. [Display omitted] • Gaseous and particulate PAHs were investigated by a multi-site observation in Linfen, China. • The PAH pollution in Linfen was generally heavier than that of other cities worldwide. • Linfen's residents suffered from serious health risks associated with the atmospheric PAHs. • The primary emission sources of PAHs were discovered to be spatiotemporally homogenous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Several graft materials are available for use in the treatment of urethral stricture disease. Placental membrane is being used in a variety of settings as a graft in wound healing and tissue repair. We aim to evaluate the effect of implanting decellularized human placental membrane into rabbit urethras. Methods: Dorsal onlay graft urethroplasty using prepared human placental membrane was performed in 10 New Zealand White rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). After 3 months, the rabbits underwent cystourethroscopy to evaluate urethral patency. The rabbits were then euthanized and the urethras examined for pathological findings. Results: All urethroplasties were performed without complication. There were no observed episodes of urinary retention, infection, or renal failure. Urethral patency was achieved in all rabbits 3 months postoperatively. Urothelial replacement of the placental membrane graft was observed in all rabbits without malignant transformation. Conclusion: Dorsal onlay urethroplasty using decellularized human placental membrane can safely be performed in a rabbit model. This pilot study demonstrated urothelial replacement of human placental membrane in the rabbit urethra without stricture formation. Placental membrane is a promising biomaterial for urethral reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although use of cellular bone allografts (CBA) in orthopedic surgery has become increasingly common, little information is available regarding their short-term clinical performance. In these two case reports of two-stage hip arthroplasties, ViviGen Formable CBA (V-CBA) was used in stage one to fill voids left by previous metal implants. Methods: The two patients had distinctly different health profiles, but each of them had previous metal implants due to a hip fracture. In the otherwise healthy 49-year-old male patient, the total hip arthroplasty (THA) was performed 7 weeks after nail removal and V-CBA backfill. In the 64-year-old female patient with Type 1 diabetes and severe osteoporosis, stage 2 was performed after 12 weeks. At the time of THA for each patient, bone containing some V-CBA was removed to accommodate the hip implant. The explants were histologically analyzed for bone matrix, mineralization, and neovascularization. Results: Histological staining showed substantial new bone formation and neovascularization in both explants albeit at different levels of maturity. Conclusions: Although limited, these results suggest that V-CBA may facilitate new bone formation in healthy as well as in metabolically challenged patients. Level of evidence: V, case report [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Multi-AXis-Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements were performed to remote sensing the aerosol vertical profiles in suburb area of Shanghai, China from April to December 2017. The retrieval of aerosol extinction was based on the optimal estimation method combing the measured oxygen dimer O 4 absorption with simulation of forward radiative transfer model. It suggests that the employment of O 4 correction factor (CF O4) for daily aerosol retrieval should be adjusted, which includes three typical cases that a fixed CF O4 , no usage of CF O4 and different CF O4 in the morning and afternoon. In cases of using CF O4 , elevation angle dependent CF O 4 (α) were further proposed. Moreover, the retrieval results can be improved if the local sounding data of atmospheric temperature and pressure profiles were introduced into the forward radiative transfer model without utilizing additional CF O4. Afterwards, the retrieved Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and the surface Aerosol Extinction Coefficient (AEC) was in a good agreement with the AOD obtained from sun photometer observations and in-suit PM 2.5 concentrations, with a correlation coefficient R of 0.866 and 0.833, respectively. Besides, the vertical AEC profiles retrieved by MAX-DOAS were also validated well by the co-located lidar measurement. It can be found that the particles were mainly distributed below 1 km, and the maximum AEC usually appeared in the lowest 300 m and decreased with the altitudes. The averaged AEC within 1 km varied from 0.20 to 0.75 km−1, 0.25 to 1.08 km−1, 0.55 to 2.45 km−1 and 0.70 to 2.75 km−1 under different air quality of Grade II, III, IV and V. The sounding meteorological parameters and backward trajectories of air masses were integrated to diagnose the influencing factor of AEC at different altitudes, which illustrated that the AEC levels at lowest layer were impacted by the long distance transportation of air pollutants from north-northwest and regional local air pollution nearby during the winter time. The study shows that ground-based MAX-DOAS observation is powerful remote sensing technique to provide better understanding of aerosol properties at both ground surface and higher altitudes. Highlights • Aerosol vertical distribution were obtained by MAX-DOAS measurements in Shanghai. • O 4 correction factor (CF O4) need to be adjusted in the aerosol retrieval scheme. • Using local temperature and pressure profiles can improve the aerosol retrieval. • MAX-DOAS remote sensing are well validated by other auxiliary datasets. • High aerosol extinction usually occurred at the lowest layer below 0.3 km in winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to delay the rate and extent of gastric destabilization of emulsions using composite particle-particle layers at the O/W interface. Pickering emulsions (20 wt% oil) were prepared using lactoferrin nanogel particles (LFN, D h  = 100 nm) (1 wt%) or a composite layer of LFN and inulin nanoparticles, latter was enzymatically synthetized by inulosucrase IslA from Leuconostoc citreum (INP) ( D h  = 116 ± 1 nm) (1 wt% LFN 3 wt% INP). The hypothesis was that creating a secondary layer of biopolymeric particles might act as a barrier to pepsin to access the underlying proteinaceous particles. Droplet size, microscopy (optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)), ζ -potential and sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) were used to understand the colloidal fate of these Pickering emulsions in an in vitro gastric model (pH 3, 37 ○ C, pepsin). The ζ -potential measurements and TEM images confirmed that LFN and INP were at the O/W interface, owing to the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged LFN (+29.3 ± 0.7 mV) and INP (−10 ± 1.8 mV) at both neutral and gastric pH. The SDS-PAGE results revealed that adsorbed LFN was less prone to pepsinolysis as compared to a typical protein monolayer at the interface. Presence of INP further decreased the rate and degree of hydrolysis of the LFN (>65% intact protein remaining after 60 min of digestion) by acting as a steric barrier to the diffusion of pepsin and inhibited droplet coalescence. Thus, composite particle-particle layers (LFN + INP) at droplet surface shows potential for rational designing of gastric-stable food and pharmaceutical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a reliable, sensitive, and robust assay method for detection of many biological targets. However, it generally needs an externally-introduced label to form the donor-acceptor pair, which could alter the accuracy of the detection. To address this issue, we report herein the FRET-based reactive copper ion sensors by using in situ fluorescent proteins (FP) of human urine or blood serum as the energy donor. Using Bull Serum Albumin (BSA) as model proteins, the sensor exhibits a remarkably fluorescence enhancement when BSA binds to the surface of copper clusters (Cu NCs) base on electrostatic interaction. Conversely, low fluorescence enhancement is observed without using BSA. As proof-of-principle, this positive approach is directly applied to detect Cu 2+ using urine as the energy donor, accompanying with a signal enhancement by two factors and low detection limit of 0.5 μM Cu 2+ . Moreover, the proposed sensor could be applied in other complex environments, such as blood serum or cell culture medium. Consequently, the effectiveness, simplicity and diversity of our proposed strategy enable the development of a class of probes toward complex human environment for rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel dual-cladding photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with elliptical As 2 S 3 core has been proposed to obtain high-birefringence and high-nonlinearity in PCFs. As 2 S 3 has a high refractive index and a high nonlinear refractive index, as a result, it has a desired application on strengthening birefringence and nonlinearity. Then outer cladding of the PCF contains a hexagonal array of circular air holes. A circular array of circular air holes is introduced near the core as the inner cladding. We find that inner cladding could heighten birefringence and nonlinearity obviously. The simulation results show that the birefringence is as high as 0.307 at a wavelength of 1550 nm, and the nonlinearities of X- and Y-polarized reach 28660 km − 1 W − 1 and 38080 km − 1 W − 1 at the same wavelength, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The reaction networks for synthesis of PODE n were studied. • The adsorption of water on the catalyst reduces the reaction rate. • The power law and LHHW kinetics model were built and validated. Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (PODE n) are promising diesel blend components with high oxygen content, high cetane number and similar properties to diesel. In this paper, we conducted a series of experiments for synthesizing PODE n over a HZSM-5 catalyst in a batch stirred autoclave using methylal and trioxane as reactants. Our research focused on the water influence on these syntheses by contrasting the differences from experiments with or without water and built reaction pathway and rate laws. The experimental and kinetic results showed that decrease of water amount could not only increase yields of the PODE n but also reduce the influences on formation rates of the desired products and eliminate some side reactions. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize water amount in the raw materials for balancing costs of the feed and operation as well as yields of the products to maximize the economy in a commercial production of PODE n. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effect of rosuvastatin on gait and balance disorder progression and elucidate the role of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) on this effect. From April 2008 to November 2010, 943 hypertensive patients aged ≥60 years were enrolled from the Shandong area of China. Patients were randomized into rosuvastatin and placebo groups. Gait, balance, CVR, fall and stroke were assessed. During an average 72 months of follow-up, the decreasing trends for step length, step speed, and Berg balance scale scores and the increasing trends for step width and chair rising test were slower in the rosuvastatin group when compared to the placebo group. The hazard ratio of incident balance impairment and falls was 0.542 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.442-0.663] and 0.532 (95% CI 0.408-0.694), respectively, in the rosuvastatin group compared with placebo group. For CVR progression, the cerebrovascular reserve capacity and breath-holding index were increased and the pulsatility index decreased in the rosuvastatin group, while the cerebrovascular reserve capacity and breath-holding index were decreased, and pulsatility index increased in the placebo group. The changes in gait stability and balance function were independently associated with the changes in the CVR. The odds risks of balance impairment and falls were 2.178 (95% CI: 1.491-3.181) and 3.227 (95% CI: 1.634-6.373), respectively, in the patients with CVR impairment and patients without CVR impairment. Rosuvastatin ameliorated gait and balance disorder progression in older patients with hypertension. This effect might result from the improvement in the CVR. This double-blind clinical trial recruited 943 hypertensive patients aged ≥60 years who were randomly administered rosuvastatin and placebo interventions. The data indicates that rosuvastatin significantly ameliorated the progressions of gait and balance disorders in older hypertensive patients. The cerebrovascular reactivity might play an important mediating role in this amelioration., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Japanese Society of Hypertension.)

Allografts derived from live-birth tissue obtained with donor consent have emerged as an important treatment option for wound and soft tissue repairs. Placental membrane derived from the amniotic sac consists of the amnion and chorion, the latter of which contains the trophoblast layer. For ease of cleaning and processing, these layers are often separated with or without re-lamination and the trophoblast layer is typically discarded, both of which can negatively affect the abundance of native biological factors and make the grafts difficult to handle. Thus, a full-thickness placental membrane that includes a fully-intact decellularized trophoblast layer was developed for homologous clinical use as a protective barrier and scaffold in soft tissue repairs. Here, we demonstrate that this full-thickness placental membrane is effectively decellularized while retaining native extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold and biological factors, including the full trophoblast layer. Following processing, it is porous, biocompatible, supports cell proliferation in vitro, and retains its biomechanical strength and the ability to pass through a cannula without visible evidence of movement or damage. Finally, it was accepted as a natural scaffold in vivo with evidence of host-cell infiltration, angiogenesis, tissue remodelling, and structural layer retention for up to 10 weeks in a murine subcutaneous implant model., (© 2024 LifeNet Health. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Atmospheric mercury plays a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycle of mercury. This study conducted an intensive measurement of atmospheric mercury from 2015 to 2018 at a regional site in eastern China. During this period, the concentration of particle-bound mercury (PBM) decreased by 13%, which was much lower than those of gaseous elemenral mercury (GEM, 30%) and reactive gaseous mercury (GOM, 62%). The gradual decrease in the correlation between PBM and CO, K, and Pb indicates that the influence of primary emissions on PBM concentration was weakening. Moreover, the value of the partitioning coefficient (Kp) increased gradually from 0.05 ± 0.076 m 3 /μg in 2015 to 0.16 ± 0.37 m 3 /μg in 2018, indicating that GOM was increasingly inclined to adsorb onto particulate matter. Excluding the influence of meteorological conditions and the primary emissions, the change in aerosol composition is designated as the main trigger factor for the increasing gas-particle partitioning of reactive mercury (RM). The increasing ratio of Cl - , NO 3 - , and organics (Org) in the chemical composition of particle matters (PM 2.5 ), as well as the decrease in the proportion of SO 4 2- , NH 4 + , and K + , are conducive to the adsorption of GOM onto particles, forming PBM, which led to an increase of Kp and a lag of PBM reduction compared to GEM and GOM under the continuous control measures of anthropogenic mercury emissions. The evolution of aerosol compositions in recent years affects the migration and transformation of atmospheric mercury, which in turn can affect the biogeochemical cycle of mercury., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Human glutaminyl cyclase (hQC) is drawing considerable attention and emerging as a potential druggable target for Alzheimer's disease (AD) due to its close involvement in the pathology of AD via the post-translational pyroglutamate modification of amyloid-β. A recent phase 2a study has shown promising early evidence of efficacy for AD with a competitive benzimidazole-based QC inhibitor, PQ912, which also demonstrated favorable safety profiles. This finding has sparked new hope for the treatment of AD. In this review, we briefly summarize the discovery and evolution of hQC inhibitors, with a particular interest in classic Zinc binding group (ZBG)-containing chemicals reported in recent years. Additionally, we highlight several high-potency inhibitors and discuss new trends and challenges in the development of QC inhibitors as an alternative and promising disease-modifying therapy for AD., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Chen, Chen, Qin, Tong, Peng, Zhang and Xia.)

Background: Dental caries is a multifactorial disease, and the bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans ( S. mutans ) is one of the risk factors. The poor effect of existing anti-bacterial is mainly related to drug resistance, the short time of drug action, and biofilm formation., Methods: To address this concern, we report here on the cinnamaldehyde (CA) loaded chitosan (CS) nanocapsules (CA@CS NC) sustained release CA for antibacterial treatment. The size, ζ-potential, and morphology were characterized. The antibacterial activities in vitro were studied by growth curve assay, pH drop assay, biofilm assay, and qRT-PCR In addition, cytotoxicity assay, organ index, body weight, and histopathology results were analyzed to evaluate the safety and biocompatibility in a rat model., Results: CA@CS NC can adsorb the bacterial membrane due to electronic interaction, releasing CA slowly for a long time. At the same time, it has reliable antibacterial activity against S. mutans and downregulated the expression levels of QS, virulence, biofilm, and adhesion genes. In addition, it greatly reduced the cytotoxicity of CA and significantly inhibited dental caries in rats without obvious toxicity., Conclusion: Our results showed that CA@CS NC had antibacterial and antibiofilm effects on S. mutans and inhibit dental caries. Besides, it showed stronger efficacy and less toxicity, and was able to adsorb bacteria releasing CA slowly, providing a new nanomaterial solution for the treatment of dental caries., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Background: Despite the progress in perinatal-neonatal medicine, complications of extremely preterm infants continue to constitute the major adverse outcomes in neonatal intensive care unit. Human umbilical cord Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) may offer new hope for the treatment of intractable neonatal disorders. This study will explore the functional differences of HUMSCs between extremely preterm and term infants., Methods: UMSCs from 5 extremely preterm infants(weeks of gestation: 22 +5 w,24 +4 w,25 +3 w,26 w,28 w) and 2 term infants(39 w,39 +2 w) were isolated, and mesenchymal markers, pluripotent genes, proliferation rate were analyzed. HUVECs were injured by treated with LPS and repaired by co-cultured with HUMSCs of different gestational ages., Results: All HUMSCs showed fibroblast-like adherence to plastic and positively expressed surface marker of CD105,CD73 and CD90, but did not expressed CD45,CD34,CD14,CD79a and HLA-DR; HUMSCs in extremely preterm exhibited significant increase in proliferation as evidenced by CCK8, pluripotency markers OCT-4 tested by RT-PCR also showed increase. Above all, in LPS induced co-cultured inflame systerm, HUMSCs in extremely preterm were more capable to promote wound healing and tube formation in HUVEC cultures, they promoted TGFβ1 expression and inhibited IL6 expression., Conclusions: Our results suggest that HUMSCs from extremely preterm infants may be more suitable as candidates in cell therapy for the preterm infants., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is associated with high rates of restenosis and adverse clinical events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES)., Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term clinical outcomes of drug-coated balloon (DCB)-only treatment for de novo lesions with and without CAC., Methods: Patients with de novo coronary disease treated with the DCB-only strategy were retrospectively enrolled from three centers and categorized into a CAC group and a non-CAC group. The primary endpoint was the target lesion failure (TLF) rate during the 3-year follow-up. Secondary endpoints included the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), target lesion revascularization (TLR), cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI) and any revascularization. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to assemble a cohort of patients with similar baseline characteristics., Results: A total of 1,263 patients with 1,392 lesions were included, and 243 patients were included in each group after PSM. Compared with the non-CAC group, the incidence rates of TLF (9.52% vs. 4.94%, odds ratio [OR]: 2.080; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.083-3.998, P  = 0.034) and TLR (7.41% vs. 2.88%, OR: 2.642; 95% CI: 1.206-5.787, P  = 0.020) in the CAC group were higher. The incidence rates of MACE (12.35% vs. 7.82%, OR: 1.665; 95% CI: 0.951-2.916, P  = 0.079), cardiac death (2.06% vs. 2.06%, OR: 0.995; 95% CI: 0.288-3.436, P  = 0.993), MI (1.23% vs. 0.82%, OR: 2.505; 95% CI: 0.261-8.689, P  = 0.652) and any revascularization (12.76% vs. 9.67%, OR: 1.256; 95% CI: 0.747-2.111, P  = 0.738) were similar between groups., Conclusions: CAC increased the incidence of TLF and TLR without a substantial increase in the risk of MACE, cardiac death, MI, or any revascularization in patients treated with DCB-only angioplasty during the 3-year follow-up., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2023 Shan, Lu, Han, Pan, Li, Wang, Pan, Wang, Zheng, Li, Zhou, Qin, Shi, Zhou, Zhang, Guo, Qiu, Zhang, Qin, Sun, Qin, Huang and Qiu.)

One of the main reasons impeding wound healing is wound infection caused by bacterial colonization with a continuous stage of inflammation. Traditional wound treatments like gauze are being replaced by tissue adhesives with strong wet tissue adhesion and biocompatibility. Herein, a fast-crosslinking hydrogel is developed to achieve both strong antimicrobial properties and excellent biocompatibility. In this study, a simple and non-toxic composite hydrogel was prepared by the Schiff base reaction between the aldehyde group of 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzaldehyde (TBA) and the amino group of ε -Poly- L -lysine (EPL). Subsequently, a succession of experiments toward this new hydrogel including structure characterization, antimicrobial properties, cell experiment and wound healing were applied. The results of the experiments show that the EPL-TBA hydrogel not only exhibited excellent contact-active antimicrobial activities against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli ( E. coil ) and Gram-positive Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ), but also inhibited the biofilm formation. More importantly, the EPL-TBA hydrogel promoted the wound healing with low cytotoxicity in vivo . These findings indicate that the EPL-TBA hydrogel has a promising use as a wound dressing in the bacterial infection prevention and wounds healing acceleration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhang, Li, Wei, Yan, He, Wang, Chen and Qin.)

Background: Data on drug-coated balloons (DCB) for de novo coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) are limited. We aimed to investigate the long-term outcomes of substitution of drug-eluting stents (DES) by DCB., Methods: We compared the outcomes of less DES strategy (DCB alone or combined with DES) and DES-only strategy in treating de novo coronary CTO in this prospective, observational, multicenter study. The primary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), target vessel revascularization, myocardial infarction, and death during 3-year follow-up. The secondary endpoints were late lumen loss (LLL) and restenosis until 1-year after operation., Results: Of the 591 eligible patients consecutively enrolled between January 2015 and December 2019, 281 (290 lesions) were treated with DCB (DCB-only or combined with DES) and 310 (319 lesions) with DES only. In the DCB group, 147 (50.7%) lesions were treated using DCB-only, and the bailout stenting rate was relatively low (3.1%). The average stent length per lesion in the DCB group was significantly shorter compared with the DES-only group (21.5 ± 25.5 mm vs. 54.5 ± 26.0 mm, p  < 0.001). A total of 112 patients in the DCB group and 71 patients in the DES-only group (38.6% vs. 22.3%, p < 0.001) completed angiographic follow-up until 1-year, and LLL was much less in the DCB group (-0.08 ± 0.65 mm vs. 0.35 ± 0.62 mm, p  < 0.001). There were no significant differences in restenosis occurrence between the two groups (20.5% vs. 19.7%, p  > 0.999). The Kaplan-Meier estimates of MACE at 3-year (11.8% vs. 12.0%, log-rank p  = 0.688) was similar between the groups., Conclusion: Percutaneous coronary intervention with DCB is a potential "stent-less" therapy for de novo CTO lesions with satisfactory long-term clinical results compared to the DES-only approach., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wang, Yang, Lu, Pan, Han, Pan, Shan, Wang, Zheng, Li, Zhu, Qin, Shi, Zhou, Zhang, Guo, Zhang, Qin, Sun, Qin, Huang and Qiu.)

Orthobiologic procedures are based on altering the microenvironment of musculoskeletal tissues to induce an anti-inflammatory effect and reduce pain, promote healing of these tissues, or provide mechanical support. Allograft tissues have these inherent qualities and can be used as such. This could provide patients whose own autologous tissues may be compromised or have contraindications to harvesting an alternative to treat their orthopedic conditions. Although these allograft therapies are promising, they lack high-quality clinical studies and regulatory guidelines currently limit their use., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)