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Graphical abstract Highlights • Photochemical behavior of PCDPSs on SG surface was first investigated. • ROS (OH, 1O 2 and O 2 −) generated from SG surface take part in removing PCDPSs. • Two degradation pathways were proposed via LC–MS and DFT. Abstract Polychlorinated diphenyl sulfides (PCDPSs) are a group of dioxin-like compounds that have been widely used in agricultural and industrial productions. Here, we systematically investigated the photochemical behaviors of 2,2′,3′,4,5-pentachlorodiphenyl sulfide (2,2′,3′,4,5-PCDPS) on the surface of silica gel (SG) in an aqueous environment. Under the simulated sunlight irradiation, 2,2′,3′,4,5-PCDPS adsorbed on SG (0.11 mg/g) was found to be degraded with time, giving a removal rate of 68.5% within 16 h at pH 7.0. Environmental factors like pH and humic acid can also affect the removal rate. Results showed that the removal rate of 2,2′,3′,4,5-PCDPS in alkaline conditions (75.6% at pH 11) was higher than that in acidic conditions (46.7% at pH 3). Moreover, the addition of (1–5 mg/L) humic acid can promote the degradation rate compared to control group. In our study, it was found that SG can act as photocatalyst to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) for the degradation of PCDPSs, and UV light contributed much more than visible light (>420 nm). According to electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technology and radicals quenching experiments, hydroxyl radical (OH), single oxygen (1O 2), and superoxide radical (O 2 −) participated in the removal of the contaminant. Based on the identified intermediate products via LC–MS, two main pathways, i.e., the hydroxyl-substituted reaction of the benzene ring and the oxidation of the sulfur atom, were proposed for the photodegradation of 2,2′,3′,4,5-PCDPS. Then, the density functional theory (DFT) was employed to confirm these reaction pathways. This study would enhance the understanding of the photochemical transformation and environmental fate of PCDPSs on the surface of solids in natural waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Early screening of foodborne pathogenic bacteria is a key to prevent and control foodborne diseases. This study intended to develop a capillary biosensor for rapid and sensitive detection of Salmonella using the multi-column capillary for easy operation, the Fe-nanoclusters (FNCs) for signal amplification and the smart phone APP for image analysis. The multi-column capillary was successively preloaded the magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) column, the FNC column, two phosphate buffer solution with 0.05% Tween 20 (PBST) columns and the HCl column and the columns were separated by air gap. The iron spiral mixer was fabricated to accelerate the mixing, and the multi-ring magnets was developed to transfer the MNPs and their conjugates from column to column. The target bacteria were captured by the MNPs to form the magnetic bacteria and then conjugated with the FNCs to form the nanocluster bacteria. After washing with PBST, the nanocluster bacteria were transferred into the HCl column, and the iron ions were released and reacted with potassium hexacyanoferrate to form the Prussian Blue, which was finally measured and analyzed using the Hue-Saturation-Lightness color space based smartphone APP for the determination of the target bacteria. This proposed biosensor exhibited a wide linear range for detection of Salmonella typhimurium with the lower detection limit of 14 CFU/mL. The mean recovery of the target bacteria in spiked chicken samples was ~105.0%, indicating the applicability of this biosensor. The proposed biosensor had the potential for in-field detection of foodborne pathogens. Highlights • The multi-column capillary was demonstrated to simplify the operation. • Fe-nanocluster was used for effective amplification of biological signals. • Prussian Blue was used with smartphone imaging APP for signal indication. • The detection limit of this biosensor was 14 CFU/mL for Salmonella. • The mean recovery of Salmonella in the spiked chicken samples was ~105.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: The role of ultrasound (US) guided biopsy in selecting patients for an upfront lymph node dissection (ALND) has been controversial following the publication of the American College of Surgeons (ACOSOG) Z0011 data. The purpose of this study was to investigate if patients with positive axillary lymph nodes (LNs) proven by US guided biopsy should be recommended for ALND and to analyze the utility of preoperative US and US guided biopsy in planning axillary surgery to avoid both unnecessary ALND and unnecessary SLNB. Methods: Patients with a positive preoperative LN biopsy were identified and evaluated to determine their suitability for inclusion according to the criteria proposed in the Z0011 data. The correlation of the number of suspicious nodes found using US with the number of positive nodes on ALND was studied. Results: A total of 261 breast cancer patients who had a positive preoperative LN needle biopsy were identified, among them, 79 patients with cT1–2N0 breast cancer and ALND were enrolled in the study. Thirty-one patients (39.2%) had ≤2 positive nodes identified in pathology and 10 patients (12.7%) met all of the Z0011 criteria and might have been spared ALND. A significantly greater proportion of women with ≥3 positive nodes during ALND had >1 abnormal LN identified using US compared to women with ≤2 positive LNs found using ALND (66.7% vs. 6.5%, p<0.0001). Conclusion: US with needle biopsy is valuable to patients with multiple suspicious nodes found using US while SLND without US guided needle biopsy is suggested if only one abnormal LN is detected on US in the post-Z0011 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many studies have reported the prognostic value of haemoglobin level for cancers. Whereas the prognostic impact of decreased pretreatment haemoglobin level on the survival of patients with lung cancer remains controversial, herein, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate whether a decreased haemoglobin level before treatment is a significant predictor of survival in patients with lung cancer.Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies to evaluate the prognostic impact of a decreased haemoglobin level on the survival of patients with lung cancer. Relevant studies were retrieved from databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. Reference lists were hand-searched for potentially eligible studies. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess the quality of included studies. Observational studies were included if they provided sufficient information for the extraction of the pooled hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for overall survival, disease-free survival, relapse-free survival, progression-free survival, event-free survival and time to progression. Subgroup analysis, meta-regression and sensitivity analyses were applied to explain the heterogeneity.Results: Fifty-five articles involving a total of 22,719 patients were obtained to evaluate the correlation between haemoglobin level and survival. The results indicated that decreased haemoglobin level was significantly associated with poor overall survival of patients with lung cancer (HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.42-1.61), both in non-small cell lung cancer (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.44-1.72) and in small cell lung cancer (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.21-2.02). We also found that the lower the haemoglobin level, the shorter was the overall survival of patients with lung cancer (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16). However, the relationship between decreased haemoglobin and relapse-free survival was not significant (HR 1.37, 95% CI 0.91-2.05).Conclusion: A decreased pretreatment haemoglobin level among patients with lung cancer is a prognostic factor of poor survival that can serve as an important indicator in survival prediction, risk stratification and treatment selection. In clinical practice, more attention should be paid to monitoring pretreatment haemoglobin levels among patients with lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive neuroinflammation aggravates neurological damage after spinal cord injury (SCI). Controlling neuroinflammation might favor neuroregeneration and tissue repair. Dexmedetomidine is reported to inhibit post-SCI neuroinflammation in previous research. In the current study, to determine the mechanisms by which dexmedetomidine inhibits neuroinflammation, we tested the effect of dexmedetomidine hydrochloride on microglia in vitro and in a rat SCI model. We found that dexmedetomidine hydrochloride up-regulated programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), an immunoregulatory molecule, in activated microglia but not in resting microglia. In the presence of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), this enhanced PD-1 expression downregulated pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and upregulated anti-inflammatory cytokine expression in activated microglia. PD-L1/PD-1 engagement also induced microglia polarization toward the immunoregulatory M2 type. Moreover, dexmedetomidine hydrochloride promoted 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling in activated microglia. AMPK signaling was responsible for the above-mentioned changes of cytokine expression and M2 microglia polarization. Consistently, intraperitoneal injection of dexmedetomidine hydrochloride had a similar effect on microglia in the rat SCI model. Taken together, our study disclosed a novel mechanism underlying the anti-neuroinflammatory effect of dexmedetomidine: dexmedetomidine promotes AMPK signaling in activated microglia via upregulation of microglial PD-1 expression, and subsequently drives microglia polarization toward M2 type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-hydrothermal carbonization of food waste-woody biomass blend was conducted to enhance the pelletization and hydrochar-fuel properties. The hydrochar was characterized by proximate, elemental analysis and HHVs, whilst energy consumption of pelletization, tensile strength, and combustion characteristics of hydrochar pellets were evaluated. Results showed that food waste (FW) blended with 0–50% mainly decreased H/C of hydrochar, while blend ratio from 75% to 100% mainly decreased O/C. When FW blended from 0% to 75%, the energy consumption for hydrochar palletization decreased about 12–17 J, whereas tensile strength of pellets increased about 2.4–5.5 MPa by formation of solid bridge when woody biomass (WS) ratio was increased. The hydrochar pellets from high ratio FW had decreased ignition temperature and maximum weight loss rate with wider temperature range, indicating the increased flammability and moderate combustion. These findings demonstrate that HTC of food waste-woody biomass blend was suitable for pelletization towards solid biofuel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is considered an important source of bioactive molecules that can influence coronary arteries directly and is related to the concurrent presence of both obstructive coronary stenosis and myocardial ischemia independently. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become an emergent health problem worldwide. Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to address the relationship between the volume of EAT and NAFLD and other cardiovascular risk factors in the general population. Materials and methods: In this study, we selected a total of 2,238 participants aged at least 40 years from the Jidong community in Tangshan, China. The 64-slice CT was used to survey the volume of EAT and liver ultrasonography was used for the diagnosis of NAFLD. The study cohorts were compared according to EAT volume. Results: Cardiovascular risk factors, such as coronary artery calcium score, carotid intima-media thickness, NAFLD, and ideal cardiovascular health metrics were also found to be related to EAT. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, NAFLD groups showed significant association with higher EAT volume, after correcting for main cardiovascular disease risk factors (OR [95% CI], 1.407 [1.117, 1.773]). Conclusion: Our findings in a general community population provide evidence that EAT is strongly associated with NAFLD and other cardiovascular risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] 27 novel 5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3 H -1,2-dithiole-3-thione derivatives of brefeldin A were designed and synthesized to make them more conducive to the cancer treatment. The antiproliferative activity of all the target compounds was tested against six human cancer cell lines and one human normal cell line. Compound 10d exhibited nearly the most potent cytotoxicity with IC 50 values of 0.58, 0.69, 1.82, 0.85, 0.75, 0.33 and 1.75 μM against A549, DU-145, A375, HeLa, HepG2, MDA-MB-231 and L-02 cell lines. Moreover, 10d inhibited metastasis and induced apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The potent anticancer effects of 10d were prompted based on the aforementioned results, the therapeutic potential of 10d for breast cancer was worth further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Zr-MOF with excellent properties was synthesized and investigated for norfloxacin adsorption. • MOFs exhibited a maximum norfloxacin adsorption capacity of 134.5 mg g−1 from aqueous solution. • This adsorption process conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetics and the influence factor of adsorption by Zr-MOF. Zr-MOF was prepared under solvothermal conditions using zirconium acetate as the metal ion and 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalic acid as the organic ligand. It was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetry (TG). Zr-MOF was used as an adsorbent to remove norfloxacin from aqueous solutions. The experimental results were fitted, and the results showed that the pseudo-second-order kinetics model was appropriate for studying the removal of norfloxacin. We investigated the adsorption capacity of Zr-MOF under different masses, concentrations, and pH values. At pH 10, the maximum adsorption capacity after 5 h was 134.5 mg/g.Compared with another adsorbent,the adsorption capacity of Zr-MOF was higher.The removal of norfloxacin from an aqueous solution using Zr-MOF was feasible, inexpensive, and effective. Our findings indicate that Zr-MOF has broad application prospects for the purification of an aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • FeNi alloy confined in N -doped CNTs (FeNi-NC) was fabricated via pyrolysis. • FeNi-NC manifests excellent activities and durability, better than monometal. • Mediated electron transfer and singlet oxygenation occurred during PDS activation. • The interaction between PDS and FeNi-NC was boosted by inner FeNi redox process. • Fe species in the alloy can inhibit the generation of unwanted Ni component. A heterophane FeNi alloy confined in N -doped carbon nanotubes (FeNi-NC) catalyst was fabricated via pyrolysis of a mixture of metal salts and N/C precursors under inert conditions. The as-synthesized FeNi-NC was functionalized as heterogeneous Fenton-like catalysts for elimination of aqueous organic contaminants via potassium peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation. The effects of carbonization temperatures and Ni/Fe atomic ratios on the structure of FeNi-NC and catalytic properties were investigated. Benefiting from the designed structure and highly exposed active sites, the FeNi-NC catalyst manifests excellent catalytic activities and durability, better than those of the corresponding monometallic catalysts. Electron paramagnetic resonance and radical quenching tests indicated that the typical nonradical-involved (i.e., mediated electron transfer and singlet oxygenation) catalytic process occurred during the PDS activation. The interaction between PDS and FeNi-NC could be boosted by inner FeNi redox process and thus accelerated the electron transfer between PDS and carbon layer due to confined effect, resulting in dramatically enhanced performance. The Fe species in the alloy can improve the charge transfer for the effective reduction of Ni3+ to Ni2+ and inhibit the generation of unwanted Ni component with a high oxidation state. This work offers new insights to non-precious-metal alloy catalysts toward highly efficient wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Decellularized ECM was prepared using porcine tendon tissue. • AC@PDA nanoparticles were fabricated. • Bioactive AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogel was prepared. • Bioactive AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogel displayed good physiochemical properties as a wound dressing. • In vivo results confirmed the potential of AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogel as wound dressing for scarless wound healing. In this study, bioactive composite hydrogels were created using the decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM), GelMA, and Polydopamine-loaded Asiaticoside (AC@PDA) nanoparticles for use as wound dressings that could promote healing. A decellularization method was used to obtain ECM from porcine Achilles tendon tissue. AC@PDA nanoparticles were then synthesized and found to have a uniform spherical structure with good cytocompatibility, particularly when compared to PDA nanoparticles alone. The mechanical properties of the bioactive composite hydrogels showed good elasticity and shape recovery after compression, with a slight decrease in compressive strength due to the addition of nanoparticles. The formation of interpenetrating networks through the use of EDC/NHS was also found to improve the mechanical properties and moisture retention of the hydrogels. The PDA/ECM-G and AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogels showed higher water absorption capacity and similar moist retention capacity to the ECM-G hydrogel. The microstructure of the hydrogels was observed through SEM, with the ECM-G hydrogel showing a dense and compact structure, while the PDA/ECM-G and AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogels displayed a more porous and interconnected structure due to the presence of nanoparticles. In vitro cytotoxicity tests on human skin fibroblasts showed good biocompatibility for all hydrogels. The in vivo wound healing performance of the hydrogels was also tested on a full-thickness excisional wound model in mice, with the AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogel showing the fastest wound closure without scarring and the highest-formed hair follicles. The AC@PDA/ECM-G hydrogel had the best performance in promoting wound healing. These results suggest that the bioactive hydrogel has the potential for use as a wound dressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic separation was often applied to isolate and concentrate foodborne bacteria using immunomagnetic nanobeads before downstream bacterial detection. However, nanobead-bacteria conjugates (magnetic bacteria) were coexisting with excessive unbound nanobeads, limiting these nanobeads on magnetic bacteria to further act as signal probes for bacterial detection. Here, a new microfluidic magnetophoretic biosensor was elaboratively developed using a rotated high gradient magnetic field and platinum modified immunomagnetic nanobeads for continuous-flow isolation of magnetic bacteria from free nanobeads, and combined with nanozyme signal amplification for colorimetric biosensing of Salmonella. First, the platinum modified immunomagnetic nanobeads were mixed with the bacterial sample to form the magnetic bacteria, and magnetically separated to eliminate non-magnetic background. Then, the mixture of free immunomagnetic nanobeads and magnetic bacteria was injected with sheath flow (PBS) at higher flowrate into the semi-circle magnetophoretic separation channel under rotated magnetic field, which was generated by two repulsive cylindric magnets and their in-between ring iron gear, leading to continuous-flow isolation of magnetic bacteria from free immunomagnetic nanobeads because they suffered from different magnetic forces and thus had different deviating positions at the outlet. Finally, the separated magnetic bacteria and unbound magnetic nanobeads were respectively collected and used to catalyze coreless substrate into blue product, which was further analyzed using the microplate reader to obtain bacterial amount. This biosensor could determinate Salmonella as low as 41 CFU/mL in 40 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new nanozyme was synthesized by decorating MIL-88 with Pd and Pt NPs. • The nanozyme was verified to greatly enhance peroxidase-mimic activity. • This biosensor enabled detection of 32 CFU/mL Salmonella in 1 h. Pathogen screening is an important step in preventing foodborne diseases. In this study, a hybrid nanozyme, metal organic framework decorated with palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) (MIL-88@Pd/Pt), was innovatively synthesized and used with immune magnetic nanobeads (MNBs) for sensitive biosensing of Salmonella. First, immune MIL-88@Pd/Pt nanozymes and immune MNBs were mixed with target pathogens in a large-volume sample, resulting in effective isolation and specific label of target pathogens to form nanobead- Salmonella -nanozyme conjugates. Then, these conjugates were used to catalyze H 2 O 2 -TMB, and its color was changed from colorless to blue. Finally, catalysate absorption was measured to determine pathogen concentration. This colorimetric immunoassay could determine Salmonella typhimurium from 4 × 101 to 4 × 105 CFU/mL in 60 min with a detection limit of 32 CFU/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment cores were collected from Taihu Lake in China. The chronology was determined by radionuclide. Heavy metals and magnetic properties of each core slice were assessed, respectively. The concentrations of most heavy metals in sediments surged at 20 cm from the surface, accompanying the increase in the concentrations of single-domain magnetic particles. This may be resulted from the influence of anthropic activities on the lake's environment after the 1970s. Two feature selection methods, random forest (RF) and maximal information coefficient (MIC), were combined with support vector machine (SVM) model to simulate heavy metals, with the inclusion of selected magnetic and physicochemical parameters. Compared with the modeling results obtained with the full set of parameters, a reasonable simulation performance was obtained with RF and MIC. RF performed better than MIC by increasing the R2 of simulation models for Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Sb. For heavy metals with high ecological risks (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Sb), the correlation coefficients for observed and predicted data ranged from 0.73 to 0.97 with only 14–27% of the parameters selected by RF as input variables. The RF-RBF-SVM enabled heavy metal predictions based on the magnetic properties of the lake sediments. [Display omitted] • Heavy metals and magnetic parameters in Taihu sediment have risen since the 1970s. • Ecological risk lagged behind heavy metal pollution by 10 years in Taihu sediment. • The test-R of Cd, Cr, Hg, Sb, As, Co and Pb were better than those of Cu and Ni. • RF was better than MIC in improving SVM models in most heavy metal simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery did not achieve survival benefits compared to primary debulking surgery in advanced ovarian cancer. Niraparib is the only approved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor by the FDA to treat homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive ovarian cancer patients with platinum-sensitive relapse after ≥ 3 lines of chemotherapy hitherto. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant niraparib monotherapy in BRCAmut /HRD-positive patients with advanced unresectable ovarian cancer. Methods: This multi-center phase II single-arm study followed Simon's two-stage design. We planned to recruit 53 patients (aged 18-75 years) with newly diagnosed BRCAmut /HRD positive, unresectable (Fagotti score ≥ 8 or upper abdominal computed tomography score ≥ 3), FIGO stage III-IV high-grade serous or endometrioid ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer. Enrolled patients received two cycles (four weeks per cycle) of individualized starting dose of neoadjuvant niraparib (200mg or 300mg per day), interval debulking surgery, and at least four cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. Maintenance therapy of niraparib was dosed (200mg or 300mg per day) within 12 weeks up to three years or disease progression or patient withdrawal. The dual primary objectives were objective response rate (ORR) and R0 resection rate. Both progression-free survival and overall survival were secondary objectives. The data manager will record adverse events (AEs). If more than five patients achieved OR in the first stage, the study would enter the second stage. Results: Since February 2021, 16 patients have been enrolled. By September 20, 2021, six patients had completed neoadjuvant niraparib monotherapy, and four had completed interval debulking surgery. Their baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1. The ORR was 100% (CR n =0; PR n =6) and R0 reduction rate was 75% (R0, n =3; R1, n =1). CA-125 began to decline since day-14 after the first dose of niraparib, significantly decreased after the first cycle of neoadjuvant niraparib (median decrease, 70.8% [min, 23.8%; max, 97.4%] of baseline concentration), and continued to decline thereafter. Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) could be analyzed in nine patients, and the most common TEAEs were hematological AEs, including any grade leukopenia (66.7%), anemia (66.7%), and thrombocytopenia (55.6%). No treatment-related death was recorded. The grade ≥3 TEAEs were anemia (n =1) and thrombocytopenia (n =5). Thrombocytopenia mainly occurred after the first cycle of neoadjuvant niraparib, which synchronized with the decline of CA-125. Conclusions: Neoadjuvant niraparib monotherapy shows efficacy and tolerable toxicity in BRCAmut /HRD positive patients with advanced unresectable ovarian cancer. This phase II trial has completed the first stage of Simon's design, and more data and conclusions can be reported after the trial is completed. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background A variety of risk models have been developed to predict acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in-hospital mortality risk. As a distinct, higher-risk population, women with AMI have different risk profiles from their men counterparts. Published researches have indicated that the interaction between variables in these models for in-hospital mortality and gender are significant. Due to the interaction and gender differences, the predicting value of these risk models for women could be controversial. Methods Databases from the China Patient-centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events (China PEACE) Retrospective AMI Study were utilized for model derivation ( n = 16,100, women were 4896) and databases from the China PEACE Prospective AMI Study for model validation ( n = 6207, women were 2090). A multivariable backward stepwise logistic regression was used to examine correlates of in-hospital mortality, and the variables were subsequently weighted and integrated into a scoring system. Results We constructed a novel risk-predicting tool to estimate the baseline risk of in-hospital mortality among women with AMI. The risk score includes 8 variables [age, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, initial glomerular filtration rate (GFR), serum glucose, Killip class, cardiac arrest, ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF)]. The prognostic discriminatory capacity of the Women Acute Myocardial Infarction in-Hospital Mortality (WAMI) risk score was excellent (c statistic 0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83 to 0.86, p < 0.001). External validation of the model showed better prognostic capacity (c statistic 0.87, 95% CI: 0.84 to 0.90, p < 0.001) than the GRACE risk score (0.77, 95% CI 0.72–0.82, p < 0.001) and TIMI risk score (0.72, 95% CI 0.68–0.77, p < 0.001). Conclusions The WAMI Score is a simple robust tool for predicting the in-hospital mortality risk of women with AMI. Trial registration “China PEACE-Retrospective AMI Study”, NCT01624883, retrospectively registered: April 2012. Date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial: June 17, 2012. “China PEACE-Prospective AMI Study”, NCT01624909, prospectively registered: December 2012. Date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial: June 17, 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall-induced landslides are a significant hazard in many areas of loess-covered terrain in Northwest China. To investigate the response of a loess landslide to rainfall, a series of artificial rainfall experiments were conducted on a natural loess slope, located in the Bailong River Basin, in southern Gansu Province. The slope was instrumented to measure surface runoff, pore water pressure, soil water content, earth pressure, displacement, and rainfall. The hydrological response was also characterized by time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography. The results show that most of the rainfall infiltrated into the loess landslide, and that the pore water pressure and water content responded rapidly to simulated rainfall events. This indicates that rainfall infiltration on the loess landslide was significantly affected by preferential flow through fissures and macropores. Different patterns of pore water pressure and water content variations were determined by the antecedent soil moisture conditions, and by the balance between water recharge and drainage in the corresponding sections. We observed three stages of changing pore water pressure and displacement within the loess landslide during the artificial rainfall events: Increases in pore water pressure initiated movement on the slope, acceleration in movement resulting in a rapid decrease in pore water pressure, and attainment of a steady state. We infer that a negative pore water pressure feedback process may have occurred in response to shear-induced dilation of material as the slope movement accelerated. The process of shear dilatant strengthening may explain the phenomenon of semi-continuous movement of the loess landslide. Shear dilatant strengthening, caused by intermittent or continuous rainfall over long periods, can occur without triggering rapid slope failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exercise and low-fat diets are common lifestyle modifications used for the treatment of hypertension besides drug therapy. However, unrestrained low-fat diets may result in deficiencies of low-unsaturated fatty acids and carry contingent risks of delaying neurodevelopment. While aerobic exercise shows positive neuroprotective effects, it is still unclear whether exercise could alleviate the impairment of neurodevelopment that may be induced by certain low-fat diets. In this research, developing spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were treated with chronic swimming exercise and/or a low-soybean-oil diet for 6 weeks. We found that performance in the Morris water maze was reduced and long-term potentiation in the hippocampus was suppressed by the diet, while a combination treatment of exercise and diet alleviated the impairment induced by the specific low-fat diet. Moreover, the combination treatment effectively increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR), which were both down-regulated by the low-soybean-oil diet in the hippocampus of developing SHR. These findings suggest that chronic swimming exercise can ameliorate the low-soybean-oil diet-induced learning and memory impairment in developing SHR through the up-regulation of BDNF and NMDAR expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel aerated surface flow constructed wetland (SFCW) using exhaust gas from biological wastewater treatment was investigated. Compared with un-aerated SFCW, the introduction of exhaust gas into SFCW significantly improved NH 4 + -N, TN and COD removal efficiencies by 68.30 ± 2.06%, 24.92 ± 1.13% and 73.92 ± 2.36%, respectively. The pollutants removal mechanism was related to the microbial abundance and the highest microbial abundance was observed in the SFCW with exhaust gas because of the introduction of exhaust gas from sequencing batch reactor (SBR), and thereby optimizing nitrogen transformation processes. Moreover, SFCW would significantly mitigate the risk of exhaust gas pollution. SFCW removed 20.00 ± 1.23%, 34.78 ± 1.39%, and 59.50 ± 2.33% of H 2 S, NH 3 and N 2 O in the exhaust gas, respectively. And 31.32 ± 2.23% and 32.02 ± 2.86% of bacterial and fungal aerosols in exhaust gas were also removed through passing SFCW, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless ultrasonic vibration energy transmission systems through metal barriers based on piezoelectric transducers have drawn a lot of focus due to the advantage of nonpenetration of the barriers, thus maintaining the integrity of sealed structures. It is meaningful to investigate appropriate modeling methods and to characterize such wireless ultrasonic energy transmission channels with different geometric shapes. In this paper, equivalent circuit modeling and finite element modeling methods are applied to the planar metal barrier channel, and a 3-dimensional finite element modeling method is applied to the cylindrical metallic barrier channel. Meanwhile, the experimental setup is established and measurements are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the corresponding modeling methods. The results show that Leach’s equivalent circuit modeling method and finite element modeling method are nearly similarly effective in characterizing the planar metal barrier channel. But for a cylindrical metal barrier, only the three-dimensional finite element modeling method is effective. Furthermore, we found that, for the planar barrier, the effect of standing waves on the efficiency of wireless energy transmission is dominated. But for the curved barrier, only the resonant phenomenon of the piezoelectric transducer exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land surface phenology (LSP) has been widely retrieved from satellite data at multiple spatial resolutions, but the spatial scaling effects on LSP detection are poorly understood. In this study, we collected enhanced vegetation index (EVI, 250 m) from collection 6 MOD13Q1 product over the contiguous United States (CONUS) in 2007 and 2008, and generated a set of multiple spatial resolution EVI data by resampling 250 m to 2 × 250 m and 3 × 250 m, 4 × 250 m, …, 35 × 250 m. These EVI time series were then used to detect the start of spring season (SOS) at various spatial resolutions. Further the SOS variation across scales was examined at each coarse resolution grid (35 × 250 m ≈ 8 km, refer to as reference grid) and ecoregion. Finally, the SOS scaling effects were associated with landscape fragment, proportion of primary land cover type, and spatial variability of seasonal greenness variation within each reference grid. The results revealed the influences of satellite spatial resolutions on SOS retrievals and the related impact factors. Specifically, SOS significantly varied lineally or logarithmically across scales although the relationship could be either positive or negative. The overall SOS values averaged from spatial resolutions between 250 m and 35 × 250 m at large ecosystem regions were generally similar with a difference less than 5 days, while the SOS values within the reference grid could differ greatly in some local areas. Moreover, the standard deviation of SOS across scales in the reference grid was less than 5 days in more than 70% of area over the CONUS, which was smaller in northeastern than in southern and western regions. The SOS scaling effect was significantly associated with heterogeneity of vegetation properties characterized using land landscape fragment, proportion of primary land cover type, and spatial variability of seasonal greenness variation, but the latter was the most important impact factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exosome is a key RNA machine that functions in the degradation of unwanted RNAs. Here, we found that significant fractions of precursors and mature forms of mRNAs and long noncoding RNAs are degraded by the nuclear exosome in normal human cells. Exosome-mediated degradation of these RNAs requires its cofactor hMTR4. Significantly, hMTR4 plays a key role in specifically recruiting the exosome to its targets. Furthermore, we provide several lines of evidence indicating that hMTR4 executes this role by directly competing with the mRNA export adaptor ALYREF for associating with ARS2, a component of the cap-binding complex ( CBC), and this competition is critical for determining whether an RNA is degraded or exported to the cytoplasm. Together, our results indicate that the competition between hMTR4 and ALYREF determines exosome recruitment and functions in creating balanced nuclear RNA pools for degradation and export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge and information of post-fire vegetation recovery are essential for our understanding of ecosystem stability and resilience in response to present and future disturbances. Although previous studies have examined the post-fire vegetation recovery at landscape and regional levels, the lack of continent-wide analysis limits our understanding of fire effect on vegetation recovery across ecoregions and climate zones. With advanced technology in satellite observations as well as large-scale database development, it is possible for us to explore the large-scale effect of concurrent and lagged responses of terrestrial ecosystems to fire disturbances. In this study, we investigated the recovery of vegetation greenness in the early post-fire period in North America by integrating two national-level fire perimeter datasets and multiple Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products. We developed a new algorithm to estimate fire effect on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) by comparing fire pixels with their surrounding unburned pixels. Our results showed the fire effect on needleleaf trees was stronger than on other vegetation types, and the high-latitude ecoregions had larger NDVI reduction and longer recovery time than the mid-latitude ecoregions. We also found the variations in vegetation composition and fire severity can explain a large fraction of post-fire vegetation greenness recovery. Our satellite-based analysis showed a longer NDVI recovery time than the existing estimates, which indicates a stronger fire effect on ecosystems than previously thought. Findings in this study indicate that more sophisticated parameterization schemes of fire severity and post-fire vegetation recovery are needed for the vegetation-fire models to better simulate the terrestrial carbon cycling and climate-ecosystem feedbacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many efforts have been made on understanding the variant selection rules, the interplay of these rules and their combined effects on variant selection have not been well addressed. In this work, variant selection and morphology by the different cooling rates in Zr-xNb-0.4Mo (x=0.2, 0.6 and 1.0 wt.%) alloys are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. The results show that the variation of variant selection and morphology is attributed to the Nb content, the parent β grain size, the cooling rate, the β grain boundary (GB) characteristics and the interplay among them. The Nb addition (Nb≤0.6 wt.%) decreases the average grain size of parent β grains, and the smaller parent β grain size generally results in the larger degree of variant selection (DVS) values in the individual parent β grain due to their resistance to the uniform nucleation and growth of α-variants. The slow cooling rate promotes the diffusional transformation and favors the formation of special β GBs and the β GBs with high dislocation density, which usually lead to a stronger DVS in the individual parent β grains. The very large weighted area percentage of α-variant in the individual parent β grains, which accounts for the stronger DVS in the individual parent β grains, is due to the special β GBs, the β GBs with high dislocation density and the incomplete martensitic transformation (martensitic-diffusional mixed transformation). The β GB with high dislocation density has a larger contribution to the strong DVS of individual parent β grains than the special β GB. In addition, the result shows that the low density of statistically stored dislocations (SSDs) can inhibit the nucleation and growth of the α-variant produced by the special β GB. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aging of global population, the incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has surged in recent decades. NAFLD is a multifactorial disease that follows a progressive course, ranging from simple fatty liver, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is well established that aging induces pathological changes in liver and potentiates the occurrence and progression of NAFLD, HCC and other age-related liver diseases. Studies of senescent cells also indicate a pivotal engagement in the development of NAFLD via diverse mechanisms. Moreover, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), silence information regulator protein family (sirtuins), and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) are three vital and broadly studied targets involved in aging process and NAFLD. Nevertheless, the crucial role of these aging-associated factors in aging-related NAFLD remains underestimated. Here, we reviewed the current research on the roles of aging, cellular senescence and three aging-related factors in the evolution of NAFLD to HCC, aiming at inspiring promising therapeutic targets for aging-related NAFLD and its progression. • Aging is a vital risk factor for the occurrence of NAFLD. • Aging and cellular senescence play pivotal roles in NAFLD-HCC progression through multiple mechanisms. • NAD+, sirtuins and mTOR are closely involved in NAFLD-HCC progression. • Anti-aging therapies could alleviate the progression of NAFLD to HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Screening of pathogenic bacteria is an essential measure for ensuring food safety. A fast, sensitive and automatic platform for Salmonella determination was presented employing continuous-flow magnetic isolation, enzymatic impedance amplification and smartphone data analysis. First, magnetic nanoparticles coupling with polyclonal antibody, polystyrene spheres coupling with monoclonal antibody and glucose oxidase, and bacterial sample were simultaneously immitted into reaction chamber, and actively mixed for formation of MNP- Salmonella -PS complexes in the microfluidic chip. After the MNP- Salmonella -PS complexes were continuous-flow caught in separation channel using the enhanced magnetic field and successively washed for removing redundant immune PSs and remanent ions, glucose with high impedance was then pumped and catalyzed into hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid. Finally, impedance change of catalysate was dynamically measured with the on-chip PCB electrode and analyzed by the self-developed smartphone to quantify target bacteria. The microfluidic platform was able to quantitatively detect Salmonella from 1.3 × 102 to 1.3 × 106 CFU/mL in 1.5 h with a detection limit of 53 CFU/mL. The recovery of Salmonella in spiked chicken meats ranged from 88.2% to 112.0%, verifying its good practical applicability. This platform is featured with fast detection, high sensitivity and simple operation, and promising for in-field Salmonella screening. • An active stirring mixer in microfluidic chip was elaborately developed for efficient mixing. • The on-chip PCB electrode was proved for dynamic and accurate measurement of impedance. • Glucose-glucose oxidase-gluconic acid system was employed for effectively signal amplification. • This biosensor integrated whole detection procedures onto a chip to achieve automatic operations. • Salmonella typhimurium was detected to be as few as 53 CFU/mL within 1.5 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify the risk factors for severe acute esophagitis (AE) in lung cancer patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy (CRT).Methods: Articles from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched in August 2015. Articles reporting studies of the predictors for severe AE in lung cancer patients after CRT were included. Study quality was assessed using a modified quality assessment tool that was designed previously for an observational study. The effects of studies were combined with the study quality score using a best-evidence synthesis model. Severe AE incidence was also performed using the Metafor package of R-2.11.1.Results: A total of nine observational studies involving 1641 patients were included. The estimated incidence of severe AE was 14%. According to the best-evidence synthesis criteria, there were two strong-evidence risk factors for severe AE, which were the use of concurrent chemotherapy (CCT) and dose volume histogram (DVH). We also identified four limited-evidence risk factors.Conclusions: More attention should be paid to the levels of patients' esophagus function. Although there is no conclusive evidence for severe AE in lung cancer patients after CRT, the above-mentioned factors provide evidence to guide clinicians as to which patients will have severe AE and to choose an optimal prophylactic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inside Back Cover: A Library of Rare Earth Oxide Ultrathin Nanowires with Polymer-Like Behaviors (Angew. Photocatalysis, Polymer-Like Behaviors, Rare Earths, Synthesis, Ultrathin Nanowires Fifteen types of rare earth oxide ultrathin nanowires were synthesized, all exhibiting polymer-like behavior due to the extremely high aspect ratio. [Extracted from the article]

Keywords: Photocatalysis; Polymer-Like Behaviors; Rare Earths; Synthesis; Ultrathin Nanowires EN Photocatalysis Polymer-Like Behaviors Rare Earths Synthesis Ultrathin Nanowires 1 1 1 11/03/22 20221107 NES 221107 B Die Bildung von ultradünnen Nanodrähten b bei tiefen Temperaturen hat thermodynamische Vorteile. In ihrem Forschungsartikel (e202212251) berichten Di Qiu, Yaping Du et al. über einen effizienten Wachstumsprozess durch Zugabe von Polyoxometallat-Clustern zu den Monomeren. Allerdings sind bei niedrigen Temperaturen die Monomere für das Nanokristallwachstum mittels Vorläuferzersetzung schwierig zu erzeugen. [Extracted from the article]

Pathogen screening is an important measure for ensuring food safety. A colorimetric biosensor was presented for Salmonella determination employing staggered magnetic bead chains for continuous-flow bacteria isolation, MnO 2 nanozymes for effective signal amplification, and smartphone for accurate catalysate analysis. First, immune magnetic beads were distributed under the staggered magnetic field to form higher magnetic bead chains to occupy more cross-section of separation channel. Then, target bacteria were injected and captured onto magnetic bead chains, followed by labeling with the immune MnO 2 nanozymes to form bead-bacteria-nanozyme complexes. Finally, H 2 O 2 -TMB substrate was catalyzed by MnO 2 nanozymes on these complexes, and color change was monitored and analyzed through smartphone to quantify target bacteria. The sensor enabled Salmonella detection as few as 60 CFU/mL in 2 h. • The staggered magnetic field could enhance the occupation of MB chains in the channel. • The MnO 2 nanoflowers were used to greatly amplify the biological signal. • The smartphone App was developed for accurate analysis of color saturation. • This biosensor could detect Salmonella as low as 60 CFU/mL within 2 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid nitrogen was employed as a low-temperature medium to activate zero-valent iron (ZVI) powder in an attempt to strengthen its enhancement effect on anaerobic digestion (AD) of swine manure (SM). Surprisingly, it was found that both pristine ZVI and liquid nitrogen-pretreated ZVI (LZVI) did not significantly improve the AD performance or change the archaeal community structure. It was hypothesized that ZVI might not be effective at stress-free environment like in these digesters. To confirm this, an additional set of AD experiments were performed at high ammonia stress (about 4000 mg/L), results showed that ZVI and LZVI greatly alleviated ammonia inhibition and increased the CH 4 yield by 11.6% and 28.2%, respectively. Apparently, ZVI mainly affected AD systems by changing the metabolism pathways and enhancing the microbial activity to overcome process inhibition, and pretreatment of liquid nitrogen could significantly accelerate the dissolution of ZVI and improve its utilization efficiency, contributing to a greater extend of process recovery and improvement. [Display omitted] • Liquid nitrogen was applied to improve ZVI utilization efficiency during AD of SM. • ZVI/LZVI did not affect CH 4 yield and archaeal distribution in healthy digesters. • ZVI could alter metabolisms and activate microbes to overcome AD inhibition. • Liquid nitrogen soaking strengthened ZVI's enhancement effect at high TAN stress. • ZVI showed potentials in process revival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ureido amount of polyurea strongly influences the properties of polyurea grease. Here, four polyurea greases (diurea, tetraurea, hexaurea, and octaurea) were synthesized via regulating the proportion and adding order of reactants (diphenylmethane diisocyanate, octadecylamine, and 1,6–ethylenediamine), using polyalphaolefin (PAO 40) as the base stock. The effects of ureido amounts on the physicochemical, rheological and tribological properties were evaluated. More importantly, the correlation of structure and performance characteristics was explored. Results show that the tetraurea with a granular structure presents optimal physicochemical properties and structural strength. The diurea grease with rodlike structure presents the optimal tribological properties due to the synergies of polyurea deposited film and tribol chemical reaction film (ferric oxide and nitrides), as well as oil film. [Display omitted] • The four polyurea greases containing different ureido amounts are successfully synthesized. • The stacked granular tetraurea provides the best physicochemical properties due to the compatibility with base oil. • The stacked granular tetraurea presents the highest yield stress and structure strength. • The rodlike diurea presents the optimal tribological properties due to the synergy of boundary film and oil film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We assessed the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality of alpine meadows. • We used a neural network model to predict the importance of biodiversity to ecosystem multifunctionality. • Biodiversity collectively explains ecosystem multifunctional processes. • Species richness is an essential driver of ecosystem multifunctionality. Exploring the spatial pattern of biodiversity in different dimensions and its relationship with ecosystem multifunctionality was one of the hot topics in ecological research, and elevation was an important topographic factor affecting biodiversity changes. The maintenance mechanism of ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) relationship between different dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in alpine meadows on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau was still unclear. This paper investigates the elevation patterns of species, functions, and phylogenetic diversity of plant communities in alpine meadows on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and their effects on EMF using factor analysis and the radial basis function (RBF) neural network model. The results showed that (1) the species and phylogenetic diversity indices (except MPD index) increased and then decreased with elevation; the functional diversity indices FRic and FEve showed a decreasing trend with elevation, while FDiv showed the opposite. (2) Ecosystem multifunctional indices for the five elevation gradients were 3000 m > 3250 m > 3500 m > 3750 m > 4000 m. There were significant correlations between biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Species richness, Simpson, FRic, and FDiv increased with increasing EMF, but the relationship between phylogenetic diversity and EMF was insignificant. (3) Among the biodiversity indices, species richness and functional richness indices had a greater impact on EMF and were also important drivers to explain changes in EMF, followed by PD indices. The high biodiversity of alpine meadows can contribute to the supply of multifunctional ecosystems, making them healthier and more stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the facile and efficient strategy benzoin and 1,2-diarylethan-1-one derivatives form tetraaryl substituted pyrroles which are obtained as mixtures of regioisomers upon the transformation of substrates bearing two different aryl moieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oil contents and fatty acid (FA) compositions of ten new and one wild Camellia oleifera varieties were investigated. Oil contents in camellia seeds from new C. oleifera varied with cultivars from 41.92% to 53.30% and were affected by cultivation place. Average oil content (47.83%) of dry seeds from all ten new cultivars was almost the same as that of wild common C. oleifera seeds (47.06%). New C. oleifera cultivars contained similar FA compositions which included palmitic acid (C16:0, PA), palmitoleic acid (C16:1), stearic acid (C18:0, SA), oleic acid (C18:1, OA), linoleic acid (C18:2, LA), linolenic acid (C18:3), eicosenoic acid (C20:1), and tetracosenoic acid (C24:1). Predominant FAs in mature seeds were OA (75.78%~81.39%), LA (4.85%~10.79%), PA (7.68%~10.01%), and SA (1.46%~2.97%) and OA had the least coefficient of variation among different new cultivars. Average ratio of single FA of ten artificial C. oleifera cultivars was consistent with that of wild common C. oleifera. All cultivars contained the same ratios of saturated FA (SFA) and unsaturated FA (USFA). Oil contents and FA profiles of new cultivars were not significantly affected by breeding and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nogalamycin is an anthracycline antitumor antibiotic, consisting of the aromatic aglycone attached with a nogalose and a nogalamine. At present, the biosynthesis pathway of nogalamycin, especially the glycosylation mechanism of the two deoxysugar moieties, had still not been extensively investigated in vivo. In this study, we inactivated the three glycotransferase genes in the nogalamycin-produced strain, and investigated the function of these genes by analyzing the metabolites profiles in the fermentation broth. The in-frame deletion of snogD and disruption of snogE abolished the production of nogalamycin completely, indicating that the gene products of snogD and snogE are essential to the biosynthesis of nogalamycin. On the other hand, in-frame deletion of snogZ does not abolish the production of nogalamycin, but production yield was reduced to 28% of the wild type, implying that snogZ gene may involved in the activation of other glycotransferases in nogalamycin biosynthesis. This study laid the foundation of modification of nogalamycin biosynthesis/production by genetic engineering methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A finger-actuated micropump was elaborately developed for accurate liquid injection. • A finger-actuated micromixer with chaotic structure was developed for efficient mixing. • Gold@platinum nanocatalysts were used to amplify biological signals. • The whole bacteria detection procedures were integrated onto a single microfluidic chip. • This microfluidic biosensor could detect Salmonella as low as 350 CFU/mL within 1 h. A microfluidic biosensor was developed for rapid detection of Salmonella using a finger-actuated micropump, a finger-actuated micromixer, gold@platinum nanocatalysts (Au@PtNCs) and a smartphone App. First, immune magnetic nanobeads (MNBs), bacterial sample and immune Au@PtNCs were successively finger-actuated pumped into microfluidic chip. Then, they were fully mixed using finger-actuated micromixer to form MNB- Salmonella -Au@PtNC complexes. After hydrogen peroxide-tetramethylbenzidine was pumped into chip and catalyzed by nanocatalysts on complexes, resulting in color change from colorless to blue, the image of catalysate was collected and finally analyzed by self-developed smartphone App or directly compared with Pantone color card in chip to determine bacterial concentration. Experimental results showed this biosensor could quantitatively detect Salmonella from 3.5 × 102 to 3.5 × 105 CFU/mL in 1 h with lower detection limit of 350 CFU/mL. This biosensor has successfully integrated loading, mixing, incubation, washing, separation and detection onto a chip and might pave a promising way for bacterial detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Adopted SR to mine the fatigue mechanism based on test data. • Developed a fatigue equation to determine the fatigue life. • Demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of the developed fatigue equation. • Data-driven model for determination of fatigue equation. The fatigue life is one of the essential design indexes of the cement-stabilized cold recycled mixtures (CSCRM) in China. However, it is challenging to determine the fatigue equation of the CSCRM. In this study, the symbolic regression method is adopted to automatically identify a closed-form equation by the data-driven model to establish the fatigue prediction equation with a unified and concise mathematical structure. The developed method was illustrated and compared with the test results. The results show that the developed equation has a satisfactory prediction effect and provides a good and helpful tool to determine the fatigue life for CSCRMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrification inhibitor has been proved to be effective in retarding nitrification process of nitrogen in the soil. Application of nitrification inhibitors to the field is considered to be a major method in controlling nonpoint pollution induced by nitrogen fertilizer in agricultural production. Dicyandiamide and thiosulfate are two types of nitrification inhibitors widely used throughout the world. A large number of studies have been carried out on dicyandiamide and thiosulfate focusing on their inhibitory effects. Till now, very limited information is available on the comparative effects of dicyandiamide and thiosulfate on transformations of nitrogen in the soil. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide, potassium thiosulfate and their combination on the changes of mineral nitrogen, nitrification process and nitrogen recovery in the soil. A forty-day incubation experiment was conducted under the laboratory conditions (20 °C). The experiment included unfertilized control, soil appended with urea nitrogen of 200 mg/kg alone, soil appended with urea nitrogen and dicyandiamide of 40 mg/kg, soil appended with urea nitrogen and potassium thiosulfate of 64 mg/kg, and soil appended with urea nitrogen and two inhibitors. Soil moisture in different treatments remained 60 percent of field water capacity. During the experimental period, soil samples were collected dynamically and the contents of mineral nitrogen such as nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen were analyzed. The result showed that an active nitrification process was found in the soil appended with nitrogen without nitrification inhibitors, where 77.7 percent of NH4 +-N in applied nitrogen disappeared from the mineral nitrogen pool during the whole incubation period of 40 d. It was estimated that 56.6 percent of applied nitrogen was accumulated as NO3 --N. Addition of nitrification inhibitors dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate resulted in a decrease in the extent of NH4 +-N disappearance by 74.1 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively. However, addition of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate caused the increase in soil NH4 +-N concentration. The nitrification process of nitrogen was inhibited in the soil appended with dicyandiamide and dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate, and the inhibition rates from 35.5 percent to 98.7 percent and from 82.2 percent to 103.5 percent were recorded, respectively. The delay of nitrification process was more than 20 days in two treatments. The nitrification rate in the soil appended with potassium thiosulfate was from 1.6 percent to 62.6 percent and the delay of nitrification process was 10 days. It was indicated that dicyandiamide induced a more pronounced inhibition on nitrogen nitrification as compared to potassium thiosulfate. Furthermore, a more efficient inhibition was observed for addition of dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate than that of dicyandiamide or potassium thiosulfate alone. It was also observed that potassium thiosulfate increased the accumulation of NO2 --N in the soil while dicyandiamide suppressed the production of NO2 --N. Nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide or dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate increased the concentration of mineral nitrogen significantly while decreased the concentration of nitrogen unaccounted. Application of dicyandiamide, dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate increased the nitrogen recovery by 14.7 percent and 12 percent, respectively, compared with that in the treatment receiving nitrogen fertilizer alone. In summary, dicyandiamide proved superior to potassium thiosulfate in maintaining NH4 +-N, inhibiting nitrification process and enhancing nitrogen recovery. A synergistic effect was also observed for the combined application of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate. Results in this study are expected to provide scientific basis for practical application of two nitrification inhibitors. The inhibitory effect of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate depends on soil temperature, moisture, microbial activity and other factors, and field experiment needs to be conducted to test the inhibitive characteristics of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate on the nitrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrification inhibitor has been proved to be effective in retarding nitrification process of nitrogen in the soil. Application of nitrification inhibitors to the field is considered to be a major method in controlling nonpoint pollution induced by nitrogen fertilizer in agricultural production. Dicyandiamide and thiosulfate are two types of nitrification inhibitors widely used throughout the world. A large number of studies have been carried out on dicyandiamide and thiosulfate focusing on their inhibitory effects. Till now, very limited information is available on the comparative effects of dicyandiamide and thiosulfate on transformations of nitrogen in the soil. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide, potassium thiosulfate and their combination on the changes of mineral nitrogen, nitrification process and nitrogen recovery in the soil. A forty-day incubation experiment was conducted under the laboratory conditions (20 °C). The experiment included unfertilized control, soil appended with urea nitrogen of 200 mg/kg alone, soil appended with urea nitrogen and dicyandiamide of 40 mg/kg, soil appended with urea nitrogen and potassium thiosulfate of 64 mg/kg, and soil appended with urea nitrogen and two inhibitors. Soil moisture in different treatments remained 60 percent of field water capacity. During the experimental period, soil samples were collected dynamically and the contents of mineral nitrogen such as nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen were analyzed. The result showed that an active nitrification process was found in the soil appended with nitrogen without nitrification inhibitors, where 77.7 percent of NH4+-N in applied nitrogen disappeared from the mineral nitrogen pool during the whole incubation period of 40 d. It was estimated that 56.6 percent of applied nitrogen was accumulated as NO3--N. Addition of nitrification inhibitors dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate resulted in a decrease in the extent of NH4+-N disappearance by 74.1 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively. However, addition of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate caused the increase in soil NH4+-N concentration. The nitrification process of nitrogen was inhibited in the soil appended with dicyandiamide and dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate, and the inhibition rates from 35.5 percent to 98.7 percent and from 82.2 percent to 103.5 percent were recorded, respectively. The delay of nitrification process was more than 20 days in two treatments. The nitrification rate in the soil appended with potassium thiosulfate was from 1.6 percent to 62.6 percent and the delay of nitrification process was 10 days. It was indicated that dicyandiamide induced a more pronounced inhibition on nitrogen nitrification as compared to potassium thiosulfate. Furthermore, a more efficient inhibition was observed for addition of dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate than that of dicyandiamide or potassium thiosulfate alone. It was also observed that potassium thiosulfate increased the accumulation of NO2--N in the soil while dicyandiamide suppressed the production of NO2--N. Nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide or dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate increased the concentration of mineral nitrogen significantly while decreased the concentration of nitrogen unaccounted. Application of dicyandiamide, dicyandiamide combined with potassium thiosulfate increased the nitrogen recovery by 14.7 percent and 12 percent, respectively, compared with that in the treatment receiving nitrogen fertilizer alone. In summary, dicyandiamide proved superior to potassium thiosulfate in maintaining NH4+-N, inhibiting nitrification process and enhancing nitrogen recovery. A synergistic effect was also observed for the combined application of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate. Results in this study are expected to provide scientific basis for practical application of two nitrification inhibitors. The inhibitory effect of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate depends on soil temperature, moisture, microbial activity and other factors, and field experiment needs to be conducted to test the inhibitive characteristics of dicyandiamide and potassium thiosulfate on the nitrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caliguia Japonica has continuously broken out in large scale in Longnan City, Gansu Province of China, causing heavy economic losses. In order to effectively control the insect and to increase the production benefit of walnut in Longnan, the authors have investigated and observed the morphological characters and living habits of C. Japonica. The major causes of continuous large-scale occurrence of C. Japonica in Longnan City are analyzed concretely, and the integrated control measures are put forward from the aspects of silvicultural measures, physical control, chemical control and biological control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly efficient and regioselective acylation of pharmacologically interesting gastrodin with vinyl undecylenic acid has been firstly performed through an enzymatic approach. The highest catalytic activity and regioselectivity towards the acylation of 7′-hydroxyl of gastrodin was obtained with Pseudomonas cepacia lipase. In addition, it was observed the lipase displayed higher activity in the eco-friendly solvent 2-methyltetrahydrofuran-containing systems than in other organic solvents. In the co-solvent mixture of tetrahydrofuran and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (3/1, v/v), the reaction rate was 60.6 mM/h, substrate conversion exceeded 99%, and 7′-regioselectivity was 93%. It was also interesting that the lipase-catalyzed acylation couldn’t be influenced by the benzylic alcohol in gastrodin. However, pseudomonas cepacia lipase displayed different regioselectivity towards gastrodin and arbutin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

III D, "N2" in the following sentence should have been set as "N SB 2 sb ": The NOx removal efficiency and N2 selectivity of Cu@ZIF-7 under these experimental conditions and NOx removal efficiency of ZIF-7 are presented in Fig. This Erratum corrects three errors in our original paper.[1] 1. 5, which demonstrates ZIF-7 does not have any NOx removal efficiency. [Extracted from the article]

Although inhibitor of apoptosis protein-like protein-2 (ILP-2) is considered to be a novel enhancer of breast cancer proliferation, its underlying mechanism of action remains unknown. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the expression profile of ILP-2-related proteins in MCF-7 cells to reveal their effect on promoting breast cancer cell proliferation. The isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) method was used to analyse the expression profile of ILP-2-related proteins in MCF-7 breast cancer cells transfected with small interfering (si)RNA against ILP-2 (siRNA-5 group) and the negative control (NC) siRNA. The analysis of the iTRAQ data was carried out using western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. A total of 4,065 proteins were identified in MCF-7 cells, including 241 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs; fold change ≥1.20 or ≤0.83; P<0.05). Among them, 156 proteins were upregulated and 85 were downregulated in the siRNA-5 group compared with in the NC group. The aforementioned DEPs were mainly enriched in 'ECM-receptor interaction'. In addition, the top 10 biological processes related to these proteins were associated with signal transduction, cell proliferation and immune system processes. Furthermore, ILP-2 silencing upregulated N(4)-(β-N-acetylglucosaminyl)-L-asparaginase, metallothionein-1E and tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase, whereas ILP-2 overexpression exerted the opposite effect. The results of the present study suggested that ILP-2 could promote breast cancer growth via regulating cell proliferation, signal transduction, immune system processes and other cellular physiological activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce maintenance costs and avoid safety accidents, it is of great significance to carry out fault prediction to reasonably arrange maintenance plans for rotating mechanical equipment. At present, the relevant research mainly focuses on fault diagnosis and remaining useful life (RUL) predictions, which cannot provide information on the specific health condition and fault types of rotating mechanical equipment in advance. In this paper, a novel three-stage fault prediction method is presented to realize the identification of the degradation period and the type of failure simultaneously. Firstly, based on the vibration signals from multiple sensors, a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) network are combined to extract the spatiotemporal features of the degradation period and fault type by means of the cross-entropy loss function. Then, to predict the degradation trend and the type of failure, the attention-bidirectional (Bi)-LSTM network is used as the regression model to predict the future trend of features. Furthermore, the predicted features are given to the support vector classification (SVC) model to identify the specific degradation period and fault type, which can eventually realize a comprehensive fault prediction. Finally, the NSF I/UCR Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) dataset is used to verify the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed fault prediction method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The herboxidiene biosynthetic gene cluster contains a regulatory gene and six biosynthetic genes that encode three polyketide synthases (HerB, HerC and HerD) and three tailoring enzymes (HerE, HerF and HerG). Through single crossover recombination, an integrative plasmid was inserted into the genome of Streptomyces chromofuscus ATCC 49982 between herE and herF, resulting in low-level expression of herF and the downstream herG. The mutant strain produced two new compounds, 18-deoxy-25-demethyl-herboxidiene and 25-demethyl-herboxidiene. HerF was expressed in Escherichia coli and biochemically characterized as the dedicated methyltransferase in herboxidiene biosynthesis. It prefers 25-demethyl-herboxidiene to 18-deoxy-25-demethyl-herboxidiene, suggesting that C-25 methylation is the last tailoring step. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • A simple and effective method to synthesize N-doped silica photocatalyst. • The optimal N-doped silica shows excellent photocatalytic activity and reusability. • Dechlorination and hydroxylation were the main reaction mechanisms of PCB-209. • N-doping enhances the concentration of •OH and 1O 2 on the surface of silica. • The dechlorination of PCB-209 reached 82.5% and products' toxicity reduced. The development of chemically stable and efficient photocatalyst for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) disposal is highly significant and remains a major challenge. In this work, the nitrogen-doped silica was successfully synthesized and applied for the photocatalytic degradation of PCB-209. The nitrogen-doped silica calcined at 300 °C had the nanometer size with many surface defects, lager BET surface area, pore size, and pore volume than undoped silica calcined at 300 °C, and owned highest photocurrent response and minimum charge transfer resistance among as-prepared materials calcined at different temperature. In addition, the N-doped SiO 2 -300 catalyst had a smaller band gap (3.45 eV) than undoped-SiO 2 -300 material. Solution pH, sample dosage, and dissolved organic matter have certain effects on PCB-209 photocatalytic degradation. Additionally, PCB-209 can also be effectively photocatalytic degraded in the three investigated real water matrices. The production of •OH and 1O 2 through photocatalysis contributed to PCB-209 degradation, which was demonstrated by the results of electron paramagnetic resonance detection and scavenging experiments. Successive dechlorination and hydroxylation were main reaction mechanisms of PCB-209. The dechlorination efficiency of PCB-209 by the photocatalysis process over N-doped-SiO 2 -300 reached 82.5%, and the toxicity of photocatalytic degradation products was much less than that of parent compound. In summary, this study can enhance the present understanding on the photocatalytic performance of silica materials, which has great application potential for removal of organic pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) using multi-optical lengths is a very effective technique for quantitative analysis of mixture composition detection. Traditional chemometric methods build multi-optical lengths NIR quantitative model by representing multi-optical lengths NIR spectral data serially, which will also introduce noise and affect the predictive ability. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time a parallel express and feature extraction method based on quaternion signal processing techniques, which can greatly improve the performance of the multi-optical lengths NIR quantitative model. We measured the NIR spectra of the mixture solutions of Intra-lipid and India ink under 9 optical lengths that were 1, 1.15, 1.3, 1.45, 1.6, 1.75, 1.9, 2.05, and 2.2 mm, then we randomly selected three optical lengths NIR spectra to constitute an integral representation model by a pure quaternion matrix. Baseline correction pretreatment and data enhancement were performed and followed by Quaternion principal component analysis (QPCA) to obtain quaternion feature vectors. Support vector regression (SVR) was then employed to establish the quantitative model of Intra lipid in the mixture solution with volume percent from 6% to 10%. Compared with PCA-SVR for single optical length NIR data method, QPCA-SVR method for random three optical lengths NIR data significantly improved the accuracy of quantification. The determination coefficients of prediction (R p 2) are in the range of 0.9713 to 0.9882, which is remarkably higher than that of the PCA-SVR method for single optical length NIR data. The root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) are in the range of 0.1365 to 0.2215, which is appreciably lower than that of the PCA-SVR method. The research results show that the QPCA method can effectively improve the accuracy of multi-optical lengths NIR quantitative analysis, and has huge potential in multi-optical lengths quantitative applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peptides inherently feature the favorable properties of being easily synthesized, water-soluble, biocompatible, and typically non-toxic. Thus, boronic acid has been widely integrated with peptides with the goal of discovering peptide ligands with novel biological activities, and this effort has led to broad applications. Taking the integration between boronic acid and peptide as a starting point, we provide an overview of the latest research advances and highlight the versatile and robust functionalities of boronic acid. In this review, we summarize the diverse applications of peptide boronic acids in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, including the identification of covalent reversible enzyme inhibitors, recognition, and detection of glycans on proteins or cancer cell surface, delivery of siRNAs, development of pH responsive devices, and recognition of RNA or bacterial surfaces. Additionally, we discuss boronic acid-mediated peptide cyclization and peptide modifications, as well as the facile chemical synthesis of peptide boronic acids, which paved the way for developing a growing number of peptide boronic acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image restoration is essentially recognized as an ill-posed problem. A promising solution in recent years is incorporating deep network-driven priors into the iterative restoration procedure as constrained conditions. Among them, deep mean-shift prior utilizes the denoising autoencoder to play the role of prior updating. In this study, we present multiple wavelets guided deep mean-shift prior, which integrates the advantages of structural representation in the wavelet transform and learning ability in deep network. Specifically, by re-arranging the multi-view and multi-resolution features generated by multiple wavelet transforms as the input of denoising autoencoder, a more powerful prior information is learned. It benefits from the recurrent structure-preserving and multi-view complementary aggregation properties. We embed the learned prior information into the iterative recovery process and adopt proximal gradient descent to tackle it. Extensive experiments on image deblurring and compressed sensing tasks demonstrated significantly improved performances both visually and quantitatively. [Display omitted] • The model inherits structural representation in wavelet and learning ability in CNN. • Multi-channel features generated by multi-wavelets is rearranged as the network input. • It involves the recurrent structure-preserving and multi-view aggregation properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]