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Background: Gonadotropin precisely controls mammalian reproductive activities. Systematic analysis of the mechanisms by which epigenetic modifications regulate the synthesis and secretion of gonadotropin can be useful for more precise regulation of the animal reproductive process. Previous studies have identified many differential m6A modifications in the GnRH-treated adenohypophysis. However, the molecular mechanism by which m6A modification regulates gonadotropin synthesis and secretion remains unclear. Results: Herein, it was found that GnRH can promote gonadotropin synthesis and secretion by promoting the expression of FTO. Highly expressed FTO binds to Foxp2 mRNA in the nucleus, exerting a demethylation function and reducing m6A modification. After Foxp2 mRNA exits the nucleus, the lack of m6A modification prevents YTHDF3 from binding to it, resulting in increased stability and upregulation of Foxp2 mRNA expression, which activates the cAMP/PKA signaling pathway to promote gonadotropin synthesis and secretion. Conclusions: Overall, the study reveals the molecular mechanism of GnRH regulating the gonadotropin synthesis and secretion through FTO-mediated m6A modification. The results of this study allow systematic interpretation of the regulatory mechanism of gonadotropin synthesis and secretion in the pituitary at the epigenetic level and provide a theoretical basis for the application of reproductive hormones in the regulation of animal artificial reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the importance of cognitive intervention promoting physical health and well-being among college students has gained significant attention. The cognitive dimension is pivotal in determining individuals' behaviors and decisions, especially in domains where personal choices significantly impact well-being. However, with increasing awareness concerning the advantages of exercise and healthy behaviors, many college students require assistance prioritizing their physical health because of various problems, including current academic schedules and the stress of postgraduate college admissions. To address these issues, this study presented data mining algorithms to assess the efficacy of cognitive treatments in improving college students' health and fitness through sports activity. It smoothly integrates sports education into a larger social development framework, emphasizing the vital significance of holistic well-being and the numerous benefits of rigorous fitness and physical training regimens. It analyzes the efficacy of college students' sports learning using data mining to clarify the Apriori and decision tree algorithms. It addresses students' sports perceptions, cognitive interventions for sports health and health standards in college physical education. This paper evaluates the intervention's success based on sports value cognition, sports need cognition and sports attitude recognition to improve student performance. The analysis of undergraduate students' post-intervention scores revealed a considerable rise in these areas, with the experimental group scoring 14.2 and the control group scoring 11.53. The specific scores for sports value cognition were 17.86 and 15.7, while those for sports attitudes and cognition were 11.28 and 9.56, respectively. The impact of the cognitive intervention is further analyzed concerning body shape and physical fitness. The results reveal that a higher proportion of students in the intervention group engaged in physical exercise than the control group, especially with more than three weekly exercise sessions. The intervention and control groups' participation rates were 20.2% and 6.75%, respectively. Notably, the intervention group demonstrated a higher proportion (5.78%) of students engaging in five or more physical exercises per week than the control group (1.95%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is the most common phenotype of multiple sclerosis (MS), and its active stage is characterized by active T2 lesions with or without gadolinium (Gd) enhancement on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Natalizumab is indicated as monotherapy in adults with active RRMS in Japan. The main objective of this study was to investigate the long-term effect of natalizumab on disease progression in Japanese patients with RRMS using MRI data. Methods: This retrospective, chart review study was conducted at a single center in Japan. The main study outcome was the yearly proportion of patients with active T2-weighted image lesions detected with or without Gd enhancement on brain MRI (incidence rate) after treatment initiation for up to 5 years. Additional endpoints included annual relapse rate (ARR) and expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score. Results: This study included data from 85 patients with RRMS who had received natalizumab for ≥ 1 year; of these, 65 (76.5%) were female and the mean ± standard deviation (SD) age at baseline was 37.5 ± 10.0 years. The incidence rate of active T2 lesions was 52.9% (45/85) in the year prior to natalizumab treatment (Year − 1), which decreased to 2.4% and 1.6% in Year 0.5–1.5 and Year 1.5–2.5, respectively. No active T2 lesions were detected in Year 2.5–5.5 in patients who continued natalizumab treatment. EDSS score was stable, improved, and worsened in 61.8%, 26.3%, and 11.8% of patients, respectively. The median (range) EDSS score was 2.0 (0.0–7.0) at baseline (n = 85) and remained within a similar range (median score between 1.0 and 2.25 during Years 1–5). ARR decreased from 1.12 relapses per year at baseline to 0.12 relapses per year during Year 1 and remained below 0.15 relapses per year up to Year 5. Conclusion: The results of this first long-term study evaluating the effect of natalizumab on MRI activity and clinical outcomes in Japanese patients with RRMS suggest that natalizumab markedly reduced disease activity and maintained effectiveness over several years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of the strong force between the coating and the substrate is important to make the coating for solid‐phase microextraction with good stability, durability, and reproducibility during thermal and solvent desorption. In this paper, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks‐90 coating was immobilized on the stainless‐steel fiber via the chemical‐bonded method with the help of polydopamine. The fiber was used for the solid‐phase microextraction of lung cancer biomarkers prior to gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry analysis. Several extraction and desorption conditions were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the established method exhibited high enrichment factors (434–7560), low limits of detection (2.6–4.2 ng/L), wide linear ranges (0.02–30 μg/L), good repeatability (3.46%–9.37% for intra‐day, 4.11%–9.18% for inter‐day, n = 6) and reproducibility (5.37%–7.02%, n = 3). Moreover, the coated fiber is thermally stable and can be reused at least 100 cycles of extraction/desorption/conditioning without significant loss of extraction efficiency and precision. Eventually, the self‐made coated fiber combined with gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry was successfully applied to the extraction and detection of five biomarkers of lung cancer from real breath samples with a satisfactory recovery (96.6%–117.6%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-view learning improves the performance of existing learning tasks by using complementary information between multiple feature sets. In the latest research, multi-view learning model using privileged information is proposed; specific models are PSVM-2V and MCPK. In these models, views complement each other by acting as privileged information policies; however, a single view contains privileged information that can guide the classifier, and the existing framework does not consider it. In order to use this information to correct multi-view support vector machine classifier, we propose a framework for generating a series of small-scale views based on information hidden in a single view, which extends the original multi-view parallel structure to a hierarchical structure with sub-view mechanism. In this paper, two sub-view learning structures SL-PSVM-2V and SL-MCPK are constructed. The two new models fully exploit the data features in the view. Similarly, they follow the principles of consistency and complementarity. We use the standard quadratic programming solver to solve the new model. In 55 groups of classification experiments, the proposed model improves the classification accuracy by about 1.91% on the original basis. SL-MCPK ranks 1.3846 on average in the accuracy experiment, indicating that they have good classification ability. In addition, the computational time statistics and noise data set experiments are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method from multiple perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs), featuring long lifetime, small size, and low energy consumption, are increasingly popular for displays and general light sources. In the past decades, new light-emitting materials and novel device configurations are being continuously investigated to obtain highly efficient LEDs. Nevertheless, the unsatisfying external quantum efficiency severely limits their commercial implementation. Among all the approaches to boost the efficiency of LEDs, the incorporation of plasmonic structures exhibits great potential in increasing the spontaneous emission rates of emitters and improving the light extraction efficiency. In this Perspective, the methods to deal with challenges in quantum-well-based LEDs and organic LEDs by employing plasmonic materials are described, the mechanisms of plasmonic-based strategies to improve the light generation and extraction efficiency are discussed, and the plasmonic control over directional emission of phosphors is introduced as well. Moreover, important issues pertaining to the design, fabrication, and manipulation of plasmonic structures in LEDs to optimize the device performance, as well as the selection roles in finding appropriate plasmonic materials and structures for desired LED devices, are explained. This perspective lists the challenges and opportunities of plasmonic LEDs, with the aim of providing some insights into the future trends of plasmonic LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of mammalian reproductive activity is tightly dependent on the HPG axis crosstalk, in which several reproductive hormones play important roles. Among them, the physiological functions of gonadotropins are gradually being uncovered. However, the mechanisms by which GnRH regulates FSH synthesis and secretion still need to be more extensively and deeply explored. With the gradual completion of the human genome project, proteomes have become extremely important in the fields of human disease and biological process research. To explore the changes of protein and protein phosphorylation modifications in the adenohypophysis after GnRH stimulation, proteomics and phosphoproteomics analyses of rat adenohypophysis after GnRH treatment were performed by using TMT markers, HPLC classification, LC/MS, and bioinformatics analysis in this study. A total of 6762 proteins and 15,379 phosphorylation sites contained quantitative information. Twenty-eight upregulated proteins and fifty-three downregulated proteins were obtained in the rat adenohypophysis after GnRH treatment. The 323 upregulated phosphorylation sites and 677 downregulated phosphorylation sites found in the phosphoproteomics implied that a large number of phosphorylation modifications were regulated by GnRH and were involved in FSH synthesis and secretion. These data constitute a protein–protein phosphorylation map in the regulatory mechanism of "GnRH-FSH," which provides a basis for future studies on the complex molecular mechanisms of FSH synthesis and secretion. The results will be helpful for understanding the role of GnRH in the development and reproduction regulated by the pituitary proteome in mammals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metropolitan circle is the basic unit of regional competition. Enhancing the connection between cities in the metropolitan circle and optimizing the spatial layout of the metropolitan circle is one of the goals of regional high-quality development in the new era. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze the spatial network structure of the metropolitan circle. Taking Hangzhou metropolitan circle as an example, this study used web crawler technology to obtain data in multiple Internet big data platforms; used centrality analysis, flow data model, and social network analysis to construct the network connection matrix of human flow, goods flow, capital flow, information flow, and traffic flow; and explored the spatial network structure of the metropolitan circle. The results showed that the node intensity of the metropolitan circle presented a distribution pattern of strong in the east and weak in the west. The network connections of each county under the action of different element flows were different, and the skeleton of the integrated flow network connections showed a starfish-shaped feature. Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Shaoxing cities had strong group effects in goods flow and traffic flow, while Quzhou and Huangshan cities had relatively independent cohesive subgroups in human flow and information flow. This study can provide useful references for regional development and spatial planning implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constant Q, also called frequency‐independent Q, is a phenomenological assumption often used in practice for dissipative wave propagation in both forward and inverse seismic modelling. A constant Q dissipative model generally results in a temporal convolution‐type wave equation, which is computationally costly to solve by a time‐domain numerical modelling method. In this paper, we use the recently proposed weighting function method to derive the nearly constant Q wave equations in differential form for viscoelastic transversely isotropic media. These wave equations explicitly involve specified Q parameters, which is convenient for time‐domain waveform modelling and inversion. As numerical examples, we analyse the nearly constant Q behaviour of the proposed model , nearly constant Q wave reflection and wave propagation in a heterogeneous case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transferability of adversarial examples allows the attacker to fool deep neural networks (DNNs) without knowing any information about the target models. The current input transformation-based method generates adversarial examples by transforming the image in the input space, which implicitly integrates a set of models by concatenating image transformation into the trained model. However, the input transformation-based methods ignore the manifold embedding and hardly extract intrinsic information from high-dimensional data. To this end, we propose a novel feature transformation-based method (FTM), which conducts feature transformation in the feature space. FTM can improve the robustness of adversarial example by transforming the features of data. Combining with FTM, the intrinsic features of adversarial examples are extracted to generate transferable adversarial examples. The experimental results on two benchmark datasets show that FTM could effectively improve the attack success rate (ASR) of the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. FTM improves the attack success rate of the Scale-Invariant Method on Inception_v3 from 62.6% to 75.1% on ImageNet, which is a large margin of 12.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miniaturized mass spectrometers have become increasingly prevalent for real-time detection and analysis, owing to their compact size and portability. The pursuit of performance enhancement in these instruments is a pivotal objective within the domain of mass spectrometry miniaturization. This study introduces a novel miniature mass spectrometer featuring a discontinuous atmospheric pressure interface and a dual pressure chamber. Compared to conventional single-chamber, discontinuous sampling interface mass spectrometers, the newly developed instrument demonstrates a more than tenfold improvement in detection efficiency. This significant enhancement is achieved without the need for complex control of switch coupling time series, thereby streamlining the circuit design and improving the instrument's fault tolerance. Furthermore, by capitalizing on the benefits of discontinuous sampling, the instrument reduces the operational pressure relative to traditional continuous sampling in differential pressure vacuum chambers. It accommodates larger inlet capillary (0.38 mm) and skimmer (0.5 mm) diameters, leading to a ninefold increase in response strength for risperidone and lowering the detection limit to 0.5 ppb. The instrument's capacity for rapid drug detection, along with enhanced resolution and detection limits, underscores its potential utility. Additionally, it facilitates the use of smaller mechanical pumps, significantly diminishing both the instrument's volume and power consumption. This presents a promising avenue for further miniaturization of mass spectrometers. The unit uses a pinch valve for discontinuous atmospheric pressure interface and a skimmer is used to isolate the two chambers and ultimately achieve vacuum differential pressure After ions pass through the sample enter tube, they are focused on the axis through the ion funnel and passed through the skimmer. Entrance lens is used to reduce the effect of air impact on ions. The linear ion trap finally captures ions and completes the analysis. [Display omitted] • The new instrument outperforms the discontinuous atmospheric pressure interface mass spectrometer in detection efficiency. • The new instrument has better resolution than the continuous atmospheric pressure interface mass spectrometer. • The new instrument has a better detection limit than the continuous atmospheric pressure interface mass spectrometer. • The newly developed instrument has a more relaxed choice of pump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sulfur-doped yttrium ruthenate pyrochlore catalysts was synthesized by simple hydrothermal method and exhibits excellent OER activity and stability under acidic conditions. Remarkably, the Y 2 Ru 2 O 7 S-0.17 catalyst reaches a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with only 237 mV and remains stable during 30 hours of electrolysis. In contrast, the original Y 2 Ru 2 O 7 and commercial RuO 2 require 282 mV and 365 mV, respectively. The introduction of sulfur into the internal lattice, replacing a portion of oxygen ions, creates vacancies that enhance the surface adsorption of oxygen. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations expose that S-doping alters the hybridization between the Ru 4d center and O 2p orbitals, significantly decreasing the energy barrier of the rate-determining step of the OER (O*--OOH*). Consequently, the intrinsic activity of the catalyst is greatly enhanced. • The YRO catalyst with nanoparticles was prepared using the hydrothermal method for the first time. • Using ammonium thiocyanate as S source, anion doping of pyrochlore was achieved for the first time. • YROS-0.17 catalyst OER overpotential was only 237 mV and remained for more than 30 h at 10 mA/cm2. • The effect of S doping on oxygen vacancy and OER activity was explained by DFT calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted increasing concerns in electrocatalysis because of their maximal metal atom utilization, distinctive electronic properties, and catalytic performance. However, the isolated single sites are disadvantageous for reactions that require simultaneously activating different reactants/intermediates. Fully exposed metal cluster catalyst (FECC), inheriting the merits of SACs and metallic nanoparticles, can synergistically adsorb and activate reactants/intermediates on their multi-atomic sites, demonstrating great promise in electrocatalytic reactions. Here a facile method to regulate the atomic dispersion of Ni species from cluster to single-atom scale for efficient CO 2 reduction was developed. The obtained Ni FECC exhibits high Faradaic efficiency of CO up to 99%, high CO partial current density of 347.2 mA cm−2, and robust durability under 20 h electrolysis. Theoretical calculations illuminate that the ensemble of multiple Ni atoms regulated by sulfur atoms accelerates the reaction kinetics and thus improves CO production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of China's aging trend, the physical health of the elderly needs more attention and research from us. In particular, many elderly people are prone to accidental injuries during exercise, so how to protect the health of the elderly through high-tech is worthy of more in-depth research. This measure can promote the establishment of a health system for the elderly. This article is mainly based on the research on the health promotion system of the elderly's daily body functions based on nanoprotective gear technology. It uses the literature method to read a lot of literature to understand the current research status of the elderly's daily body function and health and the application status of nanotechnology, through the questionnaire and survey method for testing the blood pressure, heart rate, pulse wave velocity, bone density, and other physical indicators of the surveyed elderly population, and organize and analyze the relevant data. In this survey, 28.8% of the elderly who regularly participate in physical exercise have high systolic blood pressure, 33.3% of the elderly who do not participate in exercise regularly have high systolic blood pressure, and most of them are in the low bone density stage. Therefore, nanocare technology can effectively protect the health of the elderly and provide protection during exercise. The research in this article is aimed at illustrating the establishment and improvement of the physical function and health promotion system of the elderly through the impact data on physical indicators and providing a factual basis for the elderly to better participate in physical exercise and improve the health quality of the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite networks (SNs) are heterogeneous networks composed of typical functional domains, such as communication domains, observation domains, etc. Since the resources are independent among domains, and are highly dynamic with the movement of satellites, it is extremely difficult to capture the potential interaction relationship among various resources, even less to realize the coordinated scheduling of cross-domain resources in large-scale SNs. Motivated by these factors, we firstly propose a multi-aspect expanded hypergraph (MAEH) to accurately depict the Spatio-temporal features of resources in various domains as well as functional property, which is presented by different aspects. Particularly, the “aspect” can involve a group of resources with a similar feature in a hyperedge rather than a bilateral relationship between two individuals, thus the MAEH can dramatically reduce the redundant connections. By exploiting the MAEH, we model the multi-domain resource allocation problem in the form of mixed-integer linear programming to maximize the completed tasks. Through the topological nested characteristic of the MAEH, we propose a two-stage scheme to accomplish the resource allocation rapidly with lower computational complexity and to improve the resource utilization ratio efficiently. Simulation results validate that compared with the optimal performance, the executive time of the proposed scheme is average fivefold less under 4% extra communication resource cost. Besides, the resource utilization ratio improves over 15% by cross-domain collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the basis of animal reproductive activity, normal spermatogenesis directly determines the efficiency of livestock production. An in-depth understanding of spermatogenesis will greatly facilitate animal breeding efforts and male infertility treatment. With the continuous development and application of gene editing technologies, they have become valuable tools to study the mechanism of spermatogenesis. Gene editing technologies have provided us with a better understanding of the functions and potential mechanisms of action of factors that regulate spermatogenesis. This review summarizes the applications of gene editing technologies, especially CRISPR/Cas9, in deepening our understanding of the function of spermatogenesis-related genes and disease treatment. The problems of gene editing technologies in the field of spermatogenesis research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power-law dependence of the quality factor Q on frequency (i.e. Q=Q0|f/f0|γ), which is called the power-law frequency-dependent Q for brevity, is a common phenomenological description of seismic wave attenuation in the interior of the Earth. The wave equation in differential form is essential to forward and inverse modelling of dissipative seismic waveforms in an accurate and efficient manner. However, all existing methods are seemingly unable to explicitly incorporate the exponent parameter γ into the wave equation in differential form. This drawback apparently limits the development of gradient-based inverse methods for spatially varying γ via the wave equation. In this paper, we use a weighting function method to derive the viscoacoustic wave equations for the power-law frequency-dependent Q , which explicitly involve the parameters γ and Q0. A critical step in this method is to construct a dissipative model, for which the complex modulus is expressed as an N -order series in terms of the weighting function. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the accuracy of the dissipative model, the effect of γ on waveforms, and the application of the newly proposed wave equations in viscoacoustic wavefield modelling for the power-law frequency-dependent Q. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of computer technology, people have begun to combine virtual reality and other technologies to achieve scientific sports auxiliary training, to get rid of the state of traditional sports training purely relying on experience. The article proposes a deep learning BP neural network human body posture recognition algorithm and briefly introduces the human body motion posture. The purpose of this research was to use the powerful data processing, mining, and analysis functions of deep learning to train the massive data generated in competitive sports training and apply it to competitive sports training. It is committed to promoting the accuracy and analysis of competitive sports training. Refinement provides technical guidance for athletes' training, promotes the scientific and informatized development of competitive sports training in China, and provides some reference methods for the research and application of deep learning in competitive sports training. The article's research results show that (1) taking a rural area as an example, we recorded the exercise postures of rural athletes in five different states: static, upstairs, downstairs, walking, and running. Comparing the recognition rate and training time of The BP neural network algorithm, ABC-BP algorithm, AFS-BP algorithm, and ABC-AFS-BP algorithm, it can be found that in terms of recognition rate, ABC-AFS-BP algorithm, AFS-BP algorithm, and ABC-BP algorithm are better than traditional BP algorithm. Among them, the recognition rate of the ABC-AFS-BP algorithm is higher than that of the ABC-BP algorithm, but it takes slightly more time than the ABC-BP algorithm. In terms of training time, the ABC-BP algorithm takes less time, but the accuracy is lower than the ABC-AFS-BP algorithm; the ABC-AFS-BP algorithm has a greater improvement in time consumption than the AFS-BP model and can guarantee the recognition rate and accuracy, and the error rate curves of the four algorithms show that after 500 iterations of the training part, the iteration error value of the ABC-AFS-BP algorithm is the smallest. (2) We evaluated sports postures of athletes from a certain rural team and concluded that bad postures will have a certain impact on the body. Among them, more than 85% of athletes in football and basketball have pelvic rotation. The problem is that football players have reached 90% of the test sample. 60% of football players and basketball players have the problem of collapsed foot. The main problem of aerobic athletes is flat back and collapsed foot. More than 90% of badminton players have high and low shoulder problems, and more than 80% of them have neck problems, which is a very serious body posture problem. (3) Detecting the flexibility experiment of the BP posture detection algorithm, compared with the traditional motion posture recording method, we tested from the three aspects of recording motion accuracy, missed detection rate, and recording time. The result shows BP posture detection. The missing detection rate of the algorithm is low, basically maintained at about 2.0, the accuracy of recording actions is relatively high, generally maintained above 98%, and the highest is 99.15%, and the recording time is short, maintained at 3–4 minutes; comparing traditional posture detection with the BP attitude detection algorithm, the missed detection rate of the algorithm is relatively high, kept at 4–6, the action accuracy is lower than that of the BP attitude detection algorithm, generally kept at about 95%, and the recording time is kept at 5–6 minutes. The posture detection algorithm is more efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N6‐methyladenosine is considered to be the most common and abundant internal chemical modification among the more than 150 identified chemical RNA modifications. It is involved in most biological processes and actively participates in the regulation of animal reproduction. However, the potential function of m6A in the pituitaries of mammals is not yet clear. It is also unknown whether m6A is involved in the secretion and regulation of FSH by GnRH, which in turn affects mammalian reproduction. In this study, rats were treated with gonadorelin to simulate physiological GnRH‐mediated regulation of FSH synthesis and secretion, and m6A‐seq was used to analyze the differential m6A modification of the rat pituitary after gonadorelin treatment. A whole‐transcriptome map of m6A in the rat pituitary gland before and after gonadorelin treatment was successfully created. A total of 6413 differential peaks were identified, of which 3764 m6A peaks were upregulated and 2649 m6A peaks were downregulated. Among the 709 differentially expressed genes, 250 genes were discovered with differential methylation modifications. Intriguingly, the altered m6A peaks within mRNAs were enriched in steroid biosynthetic processes and responses to cAMP. The results of the study will lay a foundation for further exploration of the potential role of m6A modification in the regulation of reproductive hormone secretion and provide a theoretical basis for the application of GnRH analogs in mammalian artificial reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolificacy is an important trait of animals, specifically for sheep. The Bone morphogenetic protein receptor 1B (BMPR1B) is a major gene affecting the litter size of many sheep breeds. The well‐known FecB mutation (Q249R) was associated fully with the hyper prolific phenotype of Booroola Merino. However, the identification of variation in all exonic regions of BMPR1B was rare. In this study, we sequenced all exonic regions of BMPR1B gene of Mongolia sheep breed, and ten novel variants were detected by direct sequencing. Among them, the litter size of the Mongolia ewes with the CC genotype was significantly higher (0.34 additional lambs, p <.05) than those with the TT genotype of the g.29346567C>T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). The litter size of the Mongolia ewes with the TT genotype was significantly higher (0.19 additional lambs, p <.05 and.31 additional lambs, p <.01, respectively) than those with the GT and GG genotypes of the c.1470G>T SNP. The silent c.1470G>T mutation is predicted to increase the stability of the mRNA secondary structure through reducing minimum free energy and is predicted to change the mRNA secondary structure of BMPR1B. Our findings may give potentially useful genetic markers for increasing litter size in sheep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mammalian pituitary gland drives highly conserved physiological processes such as somatic cell growth, pubertal transformation, fertility, and metabolism by secreting a variety of hormones. Recently, single-cell transcriptomics techniques have been used in pituitary gland research. However, more studies have focused on adult pituitary gland tissues from different species or different sexes, and no research has yet resolved cellular differences in pituitary gland tissue before and after sexual maturation. Here, we identified a total of 15 cell clusters and constructed single-cell transcriptional profiles of rats before and after sexual maturation. Furthermore, focusing on the gonadotrope cluster, 106 genes were found to be differentially expressed before and after sexual maturation. It was verified that Spp1, which is specifically expressed in gonadotrope cells, could serve as a novel marker for this cell cluster and has a promotional effect on the synthesis and secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone. The results provide a new resource for further resolving the regulatory mechanism of pituitary gland development and pituitary hormone synthesis and secretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although promising, clinical translation of human mesenchymal stem or stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC EV) for acute lung injury is potentially limited by significant production costs. The current study was performed to determine whether pretreatment of MSC EV with high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMW HA) would increase the therapeutic potency of MSC EV in severe bacterial pneumonia. Methods: In vitro experiments were performed to determine the binding affinity of HMW HA to MSC EV and its uptake by human monocytes, and whether HMW HA primed MSC EV would increase bacterial phagocytosis by the monocytes. In addition, the role of CD44 receptor on MSC EV in the therapeutic effects of HMW HA primed MSC EV were investigated. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) pneumonia in mice, MSC EV primed with or without HMW HA were instilled intravenously 4 h after injury. After 24 h, the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, blood, and lungs were analyzed for levels of bacteria, inflammation, MSC EV trafficking, and lung pathology. Results: MSC EV bound preferentially to HMW HA at a molecular weight of 1.0 MDa compared with HA with a molecular weight of 40 KDa or 1.5 MDa. HMW HA primed MSC EV further increased MSC EV uptake and bacterial phagocytosis by monocytes compared to treatment with MSC EV alone. In PA pneumonia in mice, instillation of HMW HA primed MSC EV further reduced inflammation and decreased the bacterial load by enhancing the trafficking of MSC EV to the injured alveolus. CD44 siRNA pretreatment of MSC EV prior to incubation with HMW HA eliminated its trafficking to the alveolus and therapeutic effects. Conclusions: HMW HA primed MSC EV significantly increased the potency of MSC EV in PA pneumonia in part by enhancing the trafficking of MSC EV to the sites of inflammation via the CD44 receptor on MSC EV which was associated with increased antimicrobial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catalytic performance of single‐atom catalysts was strictly limited by isolated single‐atom sites. Fabricating high‐density single atoms to realize the synergetic interaction in neighbouring single atoms could optimize the adsorption behaviors of reaction intermediates, which exhibited great potential to break performance limitations and deepen mechanistic understanding of electrocatalysis. However, the catalytic behavior governed by neighbouring single atoms is particularly elusive and has yet to be understood. Herein, we revealed that the synergetic interaction in neighbouring single atoms contributes to superior performance for oxygen evolution relative to isolated Ir single atoms. Neighbouring single atoms was achieved by fabricating high‐density single atoms to narrow the distance between single atoms. Electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the Nei‐Ir1/CoGaOOH with neighbouring Ir single atoms exhibited a low overpotential of 170 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, and long‐durable stability over 2000 h for oxygen evolution. Mechanistic studies revealed that neighbouring single atoms synergetic stabilized the *OOH intermediates via extra hydrogen bonding interactions, thus significantly reducing the reaction energy barriers, as compared to isolated Ir single atoms. The discovery of the synergetic interaction in neighbouring single atoms could offer guidance for the development of efficient electrocatalysts, thus accelerating the world‘s transition to sustainable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adenopituitary secretes follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH), which plays a crucial role in regulating the growth, development, and reproductive functions of organisms. Investigating the process of FSH synthesis and secretion can offer valuable insights into potential areas of focus for reproductive research. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a significant paracrine/autocrine factor within the body, and studies have demonstrated its ability to stimulate FSH secretion in animals. However, the precise mechanisms that regulate this action are still poorly understood. In this research, in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that the activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) by EGF induces the upregulation of miR‐27b‐3p and that miR‐27b‐3p targets and inhibits Foxo1 mRNA expression, resulting in increased FSH synthesis and secretion. In summary, this study elucidates the precise molecular mechanism through which EGF governs the synthesis and secretion of FSH via the EGFR/miR‐27b‐3p/FOXO1 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A relationship between thermal effects and relaxation of the high-frequency shear modulus upon heat treatment of bulk Zr48(Cu5/6Ag1/6)44Al8 metallic glass is found. This relationship is attributed to the relaxation of a interstitial-type defect system frozen-in from the melt upon glass production. Calorimetric data show that thermal effects occurring on heating include heat release below the glass transition temperature, heat absorption above it and heat release caused by crystallization. The equation derived within the Interstitialcy theory can be used to calculate the shear modulus relaxation using the calorimetric data. The obtained results are used to trace the defect concentration as functions of temperature and thermal prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affecting the absorption of active ingredients in the intestine serves as one of the important compatibility mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the compatibility mechanism of ShengDiHuang Decoction (SDHD) by using the single‐pass intestinal perfusion in situ model. The major effective ingredients, catalpol, aucubin, acteoside, rehmannioside D, rehmannioside A, rhein, aloe emodin, emodin, chrysophanol, and physcion, were determined by HPLC. By analysing the effects of different concentrations, different pH, intestinal segments, protein inhibitors, and tight junction regulators on SDHD absorption, it was found that catalpol, aucubin, rehmannioside D, rehmannioside A, acteoside, rhein, and chrysophanol may undergo active transport, while aloe‐emodin and emodin may undergo passive transport. Catalpol, aucubin, and rehmannioside D may be substrates of BCRP and MRP2, while rehmannioside A and rhein may be substrates of BCRP, and acteoside and chrysophanol may be substrates of P‐gp, BCRP and MRP2. By comparing the Papp values of the major effective ingredients between single herb and herb‐pairs, the compatibility of rehmannia and rheum could significantly promote the absorption of components in rehmannia. It is verified that rheum has a synergistic effect on the absorption of rehmannia in SDHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A relationship between thermal effects and relaxation of the high-frequency shear modulus upon heat treatment of bulk Zr48(Cu5/6Ag1/6)44Al8 metallic glass is found. This relationship is attributed to the relaxation of a interstitial-type defect system frozen-in from the melt upon glass production. Calorimetric data show that thermal effects occurring on heating include heat release below the glass transition temperature, heat absorption above it and heat release caused by crystallization. The equation derived within the Interstitialcy theory can be used to calculate the shear modulus relaxation using the calorimetric data. The obtained results are used to trace the defect concentration as functions of temperature and thermal prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dendritic cell-associated C-type lectin-1 (Dectin-1) receptor has been reported to be involved in neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. The present study was designed to investigate the role of Dectin-1 and its downstream target spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) in early brain injury after ischemic stroke using a focal cortex ischemic stroke model.Methods: Adult male C57BL/6 J mice were subjected to a cerebral focal ischemia model of ischemic stroke. The neurological score, adhesive removal test, and foot-fault test were evaluated on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after ischemic stroke. Dectin-1, Syk, phosphorylated (p)-Syk, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression was analyzed via western blotting in ischemic brain tissue after ischemic stroke and in BV2 microglial cells subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury in vitro. The brain infarct volume and Iba1-positive cells were evaluated using Nissl's and immunofluorescence staining, respectively. The Dectin-1 antagonist laminarin (LAM) and a selective inhibitor of Syk phosphorylation (piceatannol; PIC) were used for the intervention.Results: Dectin-1, Syk, and p-Syk expression was significantly enhanced on days 3, 5, and 7 and peaked on day 3 after ischemic stroke. The Dectin-1 antagonist LAM or Syk inhibitor PIC decreased the number of Iba1-positive cells and TNF-α and iNOS expression, decreased the brain infarct volume, and improved neurological functions on day 3 after ischemic stroke. In addition, the in vitro data revealed that Dectin-1, Syk, and p-Syk expression was increased following the 3-h OGD and 0, 3, and 6 h of reperfusion in BV2 microglial cells. LAM and PIC also decreased TNF-α and iNOS expression 3 h after OGD/R induction.Conclusion: Dectin-1/Syk signaling plays a crucial role in inflammatory activation after ischemic stroke, and further investigation of Dectin-1/Syk signaling in stroke is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to illustrate innovations in text analysis associated with understanding conflict-related communication events. Two innovations will be explored: LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), the text modeling program from the open-source data analysis software program R, and SPSS Modeler. The LIWC analysis revisits the 2009 study by Donohue and Druckman and the 2014 study by Donohue, Liang, and Druckman focusing on text analyses of the Oslo I Accords between the Palestinians and Israelis to illustrate this approach. The R and SPSS modeling of text analysis use the same data set as the LIWC analysis to provide a different set of pictures associated with each leader's rhetoric during the period in which the Oslo I accords were being negotiated. Each innovation provides different insights into the mind-set of the two groups of leaders as the secret talks were emerging. The implications of each approach in establishing an understanding of the communication exchanges are discussed to conclude the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generalized standard-linear-solid model, also called the Zener model, is widely used in viscoacoustic/viscoelastic wavefield forward and inverse modelling because the wave equations in this model can be written in differential equation form, which can be solved efficiently by time-domain numerical methods such as finite-difference method, spectral element method, etc. For this model, however, two different expressions for the relaxation function (or complex modulus) appear in the literature somewhat confusingly. In addition to this confusion, the time- and frequency-domain versions of the wave equations for the generalized standard-linear-solid model are scattered throughout the literature. Here, we revisit the generalized standard-linear-solid model and seek to overcome the confusion concerning the expression for the relaxation function (or modulus). We present a unified approach to derive the viscoacoustic wave equations. We start with the time- and frequency-domain formulations separately to derive two sets of viscoacoustic wave equations. All these viscoacoustic wave equations are expressed in a simple and compact form. The two sets of viscoacoustic wave equations are equivalent to each other. The proposed method to derive the appropriate viscoacoustic wave equations can be extended to derive wave equations for other dissipative media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computation of complex‐valued traveltimes provides an efficient approach to describe the seismic wave attenuation for applications like attenuation tomography, inverse Q filtering and Kirchhoff migration with absorption compensation. Attenuating acoustic transverse isotropy can be used to describe the directional variation of velocity and attenuation of P‐waves in thin‐bedding geological structures. We present an approximate method to solve the acoustic eikonal equation for an attenuating transversely isotropic medium with a vertical symmetry axis. We take into account two similar parameterizations of an attenuating vertical symmetry axis medium. The first parameterization uses the normal moveout velocity, whereas the second parameterization uses the horizontal velocity. For each parameterization, we combine perturbation theory and the Shanks transform in different ways to derive analytic solutions. Numerical examples show that the analytic solutions derived from the second parameterization yield better accuracy. The Shanks transform solution with respect to only the anellipticity parameter from the second parameterization is demonstrated numerically to be the most accurate among all the analytic solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Extensive previous work has studied individuals' knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) in a virtual environment, revealing several key factors. However, prior work focused solely on simple correlations between these factors and KSB. And relatively little attention has been assigned to the complex relationships between them. This study argued that better understanding of the complex relationships may be more important because the nature and wide scope of the determinants of KSB may yield different interaction effects. Thus, to better understand the interaction effects of contextual factors and personal factors on KSB, this study adopted a person-situation interactionist approach which proposes that conscientiousness (C), job demands of skill variety (JDSV), and knowledge sharing self-efficacy (KSSE) have joint effects on virtual team (VT) members' KSB. We empirically validated the main effects and the two-way and three-way interaction effects using data collected from 219 VT members from an information technology company. Our results showed that (1) C, JDSV, and KSSE are all positively related to KSB; (2) KSSE positively moderates the relationship between C and KSB; and (3) JDSV and KSSE jointly moderate the relationship between C and KSB. This study offers a new research perspective on knowledge sharing and integrates personality traits theories, Job Characteristics Model, Job Demands-Resources Model, and social cognitive theory into a single research model to examine the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of KSB in a virtual environment. The results of the study might direct VT mangers how to recruit members and when to redesign members' job and foster their KSSE. Highlights • Conscientiousness positively affects knowledge sharing behavior. • Job demands of skill variety positively affects knowledge sharing behavior. • Knowledge sharing self-efficacy positively affects knowledge sharing behavior. • Personality, job design, self-efficacy jointly affect knowledge sharing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histone transmethylase complex comprising WD repeat domain 77 (WDR77) and protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) catalyzes dimethylation of H4R3 (H4R3me2) and drives cancer cell proliferation and migration, but its regulation is not fully understood. Here, we report that sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) directly deacetylates WDR77 and that this deacetylation interferes with the WDR77-PRMT5 interaction and suppresses proliferation of human colon cancer HCT116 cells. Using co-expression in HEK293T cells and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we observed that SIRT7 deacetylates WDR77 at Lys-3 and Lys- 243, which reduced of WDR77's interaction with PRMT5. More importantly, this reduction suppressed the transmethylase activity of the WDR77/PRMT5 complex, resulting in a reduction of the H4R3me2 modification. Rescue of the WDR77-KO HCT116 cells with a WDR77-2KR (K3R and K243R) variant yielded cell migration and proliferation rates that were significantly lower than those of WDR77-KO HCT116 cells rescued withWTWDR77. In summary, SIRT7 is a major deacetylase for WDR77, and SIRT7-mediated deacetylation of WDR77 at Lys-3 and Lys-243 weakens the WDR77-PRMT5 interaction and activity and thereby suppresses growth of cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing an S-scheme heterojunction is a highly effective approach for enhancing photocatalytic performance. However, the impact of a single S-scheme heterojunction on charge transfer is limited. To overcome this constraint, a dual S-scheme heterojunction, SrTiO 3 /SrCO 3 /C-doped TiO 2 (referred to as ST/SC/CT), is designed for UV-vis-driven hydrogen production. The mass-normalized and effective surface area-normalized hydrogen production activities of ST/SC/CT are higher than those of ST and CT, respectively. The enhancement in photocatalytic performance is primarily attributed to the improved separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers by the dual S-scheme heterojunction. Moreover, C-doping effectively extends the light absorption range from UV to visible and greatly improves the absorption intensity. The heterojunction and charge transfer mechanism are also investigated through microscopy and spectroscopic techniques, as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work offers valuable insights for the design of novel composites by combining surface modification with heterojunction engineering. [Display omitted] • SrTiO 3 /SrCO 3 /C-doped TiO 2 (ST/SC/CT) shows a dual S-scheme heterojunction. • A dual S-scheme heterojunction improves charge transfer and redox ability in ST/SC/CT. • ST/SC/CT shows improved photocatalytic performance compared with both ST and CT. • The charge transfer mechanism is investigated by experiments and DFT calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests a limited influence for corrective information in promoting more accurate beliefs, a phenomenon attributed to directional-motivated reasoning. We consider whether an act of self-affirmation—providing people with an alternative source of self-worth—reduces directional-motivated reasoning, thereby improving the effectiveness of corrective information. Across two experiments, self-affirmation was found to mitigate the influence of prior attitudes in how people responded to corrective information, resulting in greater belief accuracy. This effect was especially notable among those for whom the correction ran counter to existing attitudes. These findings contribute to our understanding of when corrections are likely to be effective and suggest practical approaches that might be implemented to improve the success of corrective information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the antibacterial and antifouling properties of polyimide (PI) membrane, both silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) are grafted onto PI membrane surface via a two–step modification route. The reaction mechanism involved, as well as changes in the membrane morphology and surface properties are investigated via various characterization techniques. The antibacterial performance is assessed by the zones of inhibition and bacterial suspension immersion tests. The antifouling property of the modified membrane is evaluated via the filtration test using the bovine serum albumin (BSA) and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (DTAB) aqueous feed solutions. The results show that, the modified PI membrane exhibits significantly improved antibacterial and antifouling performances simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The example of Co(II)-N-heterocyclic complex based on 1-hydroxyethylidenediphosphonic acid (H5L = CH3C(OH)(PO3H2)2), namely [Co2(H3L)2(2,2′-bipy)2] 1, has been solvothermally isolated using the second ligand 2,2'-bipyridine (2,2'-bipy) and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), elemental analysis, IR, and thermal gravimetric analyses. The single-crystal X-ray diffractions show that complex 1 possesses a 0-D structure built from binuclear unit [Co2(O–P–O)2] by μ2-(O–P–O) bridge. Then, H-bonding and π–π stacking interactions further expand this 0-D structure into a 3-D supramolecular framework. Fluorescent measurements reveal that the maximum emission peak is centered at 421.5 nm, mainly deriving from intraligand π*–π transition state of the second ligand 2,2'-bipy (λem = 419.5 nm, λex = 235 nm). Magnetism data indicate that 1 exhibits ferromagnetic behavior within binuclear Co(II) unit via μ2-(O–P–O) bridge in syn-anti mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We present an overall description of moveout formulas of P-SV converted waves in vertically inhomogeneous transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis by using the generalized moveout approximation. The term 'generalized' means that this approximation can be reduced to some existing approximations by specific selections of parameters, which provides flexibility in application depending on objectives. The generalized moveout approximation is separately expressed in the phase and group domains. All five parameters of the group domain (or phase domain) generalized moveout approximation are determined using the zero offset (or horizontal slowness) ray and an additional nonzero offset (or horizontal slowness) ray. We discuss the selection of parameters to link the generalized moveout approximation to some existing approximations. The approximations presented are tested on homogeneous, factorized, and layered transversely isotropic models. The results illustrate that utilizing an additional reference ray significantly improves the accuracy of phase-domain and group-domain moveout approximations for a large range of horizontal slownesses and source-receiver offsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objectives]To prepare donepezil hydrochloride microspheres and evaluate their quality. [Methods]The donepezil hydrochloride microspheres were prepared by emulsification-solvent evaporation method. The morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy and the particle size distribution was determined by Laser Diffraction Method. The encapsulation efficiency, drug loading capacity, and in vitro release were determined by HPLC. [Results]The prepared donepezil hydrochloride microspheres were spherical with the average particle diameter of 15. 927 μm. The drug loading capacity was 35. 62%. The encapsulation efficiency was 90.32%. The drug release in vitro lasted for14 d. The release curve accorded with the first-order kinetic equation. [Conclusions]The prepared donepezil hydrochloride microspheres performed good sustained release effect in vitro, and it was expected to be used for research on Parkinson's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films are deposited on the ZK60 magnesium alloy to improve the corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. The film thickness, surface composition, corrosion behavior, and biocompatibility are evaluated. Polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and immersion tests show that the PMMA film with a thickness of about 470 nm provides good protection against attack in simulated body fluids. At the same time, good cell adhesion and cell viability are observed from the PMMA-coated ZK60 magnesium alloy in vitro . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance Panax quinquefolius L (PQ), also known as American ginseng, has been used as a medicinal herb for thousands of years in the Far East, which was wildly used actively in healing the cardiovascular, endocrine and immune systems, in supporting chemoprevention of cancer. Materials and methods An integrated, rapid, sensitive and reliable UHPLC-ESI-QQQ MS/MS method was validated and successfully applied in a pharmacokinetics study in which four representative ginsenosides were measured in beagle plasma following oral administration of Panax quinquefolius L (PQ) in the form of ultrafine granular powder, standard powder and an extract. Results Two paired ions ([M+Na] + in the positive MS process, and two characteristic ions [Q 3 ] + in the positive MS/MS process) of the target compounds were optimized and selected for improved qualitative and quantitative analysis of ginsenosides in beagle plasma. The relative bioavailability of the target ginsenosides in these three formulations was measured by the pharmacokinetic parameters, including C max , T max , AUC 0−∞ and so on. The ultrafine granular powder had the highest bioavailability, as well as the greatest extent of and fastest dissolution in vitro . Conclusion Our results show that improved formulations of PQ could facilitate the dissolution and promote absorption of the important compounds it contains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a natural polymer, DNA attracts extensive attention and possesses great potential to open a new way for researches of biomedical or material science. In the past few decades, approaches have been developed to bring DNA into the realm of bulk materials. In this review, we discussed the progresses achieved for fabrication of novel materials with a large physical dimension from the DNA polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT For pre-stack phase-shift migration in homogeneous isotropic media, the offset-midpoint travel time is represented by the double-square-root equation. The travel time as a function of offset and midpoint resembles the shape of Cheops' pyramid. This is also valid for transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis. In this study, we extend the offset-midpoint travel-time pyramid to the case of 2D transversely isotropic media with a tilted symmetry axis. The P-wave analytical travel-time pyramid is derived under the assumption of weak anelliptical property of the tilted transverse isotropy media. The travel-time equation for the dip-constrained transversely isotropic model is obtained from the depth-domain travel-time pyramid. The potential applications of the derived offset-midpoint travel-time equation include pre-stack Kirchhoff migration, anisotropic parameter estimation, and travel-time calculation in transversely isotropic media with a tilted symmetry axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elemental mercury removal abilities of three different zeolites (NaA, NaX, HZSM-5) impregnated with iron(III) chloride were studied on a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor. X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption porosimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) analyses were used to investigate the physicochemical properties. Results indicated that the pore structure and active chloride species on the surface of the samples are the key factors for physisorption and oxidation of Hg0, respectively. Relatively high surface area and micropore volume are beneficial to efficient mercury adsorption. The active Cl species generated on the surface of the samples were effective oxidants able to convert elemental mercury (Hg0) into oxidized mercury (Hg2+). The crystallization of NaCl due to the ion exchange effect during the impregnation of NaA and NaX reduced the number of active Cl species on the surface, and restricted the physisorption of Hg0. Therefore, the Hg0 removal efficiencies of the samples were inhibited. The TPD analysis revealed that the species of mercury on the surface of FeCl3-HZSM-5 was mainly in the form of mercuric chloride (HgCl2), while on FeCl3-NaX and FeCl3-NaA it was mainly mercuric oxide (HgO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CO 2 emissions in East Africa are growing exponentially at 6.5% per year. • The process of energy clean-up is slow with little emission reduction. • Economic and population growth are the most significant emission drivers. • Emission patterns and drivers vary significantly from country to country. • Locally tailored emission reductions are needed. East Africa is typical of the less developed economies that have emerged since the 21st century, whose brilliant economic miracle has also triggered the rapid growth of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. However, previous carbon accounting studies have never focused on the region. Based on multi-source data, this paper rebuilt the 45-sectors carbon emission inventories of eight East African countries from 2000 to 2017, and used index decomposition analysis to quantify the drivers of growth. Here we found that overall the CO 2 emissions show a 'two-stage exponential growth' pattern, with significant heterogeneity between countries. In terms of the energy mix, technical progress in hydro and geothermal energy was almost offset by a growing appetite for oil and coal, making it the weak and valuable factor driving emissions reduction (−1.4Mt). But it was far from enough to overcome the pressure of economic and population growth, which brought about a 13Mt and 11Mt emission growth respectively from 2000 to 2017. Increasing energy intensity due to industrialization and transport development also contributed to an increment of 6.4Mt. Low-carbon policies should be tailored to local conditions and targeted at the improvement of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy so as to achieve a win-win situation between sustainable economic growth and emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Nb-doping lithium nickelate are synthesized via element thermal diffusion method. • The mechanism of Nb in improving the performance of the materials is investigated. • The Nb-doping reduce the volume change of crystal lattice. • The Nb element can inhibit the occurrence of side reactions at the interface. • Nb-doped materials have good performance in a wide operating temperature range. Multi-elemental doping is one of the most efficient approaches to stabilize the structure and improve the performance of the nickel-rich layered metal oxides, the promising cathode materials for next generation of lithium ion batteries. Nevertheless, to fully understand the fundamental role of each doped elements would be the practically requirement for the design of the materials. Herein, LiNiO 2 doped with single element Nb, a common dopant in various electrode materials, is synthesized to elucidate the functionality of Nb for the LiNiO 2 -based materials. It is found that the Nb-doping would enlarge the crystal lattice of LiNiO 2 , and reduce the volume change of the crystal lattice from expansion/contraction during the electrochemical processes. As a result, the cycling and rate performance of the doped materials can be greatly improved, due to preservation of the integrity of the secondary particles of the materials and enlargement of the pathway for the Li+ ion diffusion, in addition to the mitigation of the interfacial reactions of the electrolyte. Those ensure the doped materials with superior performance in a wide operating temperature region (55 °C to −10 °C). Nevertheless, the Li+/Ni2+ cation mixing induced by Nb-doping would have great impact on the performance of the materials. In particular, the Li+/Ni2+ cation mixing in the presence of excess doped Nb might impede the diffusion of the Li+ ions, resulting in deterioration of the rate performance. Based on the results, it is suggested that careful optimization of the amount of the doped Nb would be necessary to ensure the stability of the integrated structure and efficient diffusion of the Li+ ions of the LiNiO 2 -based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an essential phytohormone that regulates plant stress responses. ABA receptors in Arabidopsis thaliana (AtPYLs) have been extensively investigated by structural, biochemical, and in vivo studies. In contrast, relatively little is known about the ABA signal transduction cascade in rice. Besides, the diversities of AtPYLs manifest that the information accumulated in Arabidopsis cannot be simply adapted to rice. Thus, studies on rice ABA receptors are compulsory. By taking a bioinformatic approach, we identified twelve ABA receptor orthologs in Oryza sativa (japonica cultivar-group) (OsPYLs), named OsPYL1–12. We have successfully expressed and purified OsPYL1–3, 6 and 10–12 to homogeneity, tested the inhibitory effects on PP2C in Oryza sativa (OsPP2C), and measured their oligomerization states. OsPYL1–3 mainly exhibit as dimers and require ABA to inhibit PP2C’s activity. On the contrary, OsPYL6 retains in the monomer-dimer equilibrium state and OsPYL10–11 largely exist as monomers, and they all display an ABA-independent phosphatase inhibition manner. Interestingly, although OsPYL12 seems to be a dimer, it abrogates the phosphatase activity of PP2Cs in the absence of ABA. Toward a further understanding of OsPYLs on the ABA binding and PP2C inhibition, we determined the crystal structure of ABA-OsPYL2-OsPP2C06 complex. The bioinformatic, biochemical and structural analysis of ABA receptors in rice provide important foundations for designing rational ABA-analogues and breeding the stress-resistant rice for commercial agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the active site model of [FeFe]-hydrogenases, complexes [( μ-PDT)Fe(CO)](dppb) (PDT = SCHCHCHS, dppb = PhPCHCHCHCHPPh) ( 1) and [( μ-SCH)NCHCOMe]Fe(CO)(dppm) (dppm = PhPCHPPh) ( 2) were prepared by reactions of ( μ-PDT)Fe(CO) ( A) or [( μ-SCH)NCHCOMe]Fe(CO) ( B) with dppb or dppm in the presence of the decarbonylating agent MeNO∙2HO in MeCN at room temperature. Complex 1 was characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and H (P, C) NMR spectroscopic techniques. In addition, the molecular structures of 1 and 2 have been confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. In the crystal structure of 1, two phosphorus atoms of dppb reside in a basal position of the square-pyramidal coordination sphere of the Fe2 and Fe3 atoms. However, in the crystal structure of 2, P1 atom of dppm resides in an apical position of the square-pyramidal coordination sphere of the Fe2 atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]