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Vardenafil hydrochloride tablet is an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase type 5, primarily for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. This postprandial study evaluated the pharmacokinetics and bioequivalence of the test and reference formulations of vardenafil hydrochloride tablets in healthy Chinese volunteers. An open, randomized, single‐center, single‐dose, 2‐period, 2‐sequence bioequivalence test was conducted on 66 healthy subjects under fed conditions. Subjects were randomly assigned to a 20‐mg test or reference formulation with a 7‐day washout period. Venous blood samples (4 mL) were collected from each subject 25 times spanning predose (0 hour) to 24 hours after dosing. The plasma concentration of vardenafil was determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. Sixty‐two volunteers completed the study. Under fed conditions, the maximum plasma concentration was 29.1 ng/mL, the area under the concentration–time curve (AUC) from time 0 to the time of the last measurable concentration was 85.3 ng•h/mL, and AUC from time 0 to infinity was 87.1 ng•h/mL. The 90% confidence intervals of the geometric mean ratio of AUC time 0 to the time of the last measurable concentration and AUC from time 0 to infinity were within the bioequivalence acceptance range of 0.80‐1.25. The test formulation was a bioequivalent alternative to the reference formulation when taken under fed conditions in healthy Chinese subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of Notoginsenoside R1 (NGR1), a compound from Panax notoginseng, on the maturation of porcine oocytes and their embryonic development, focusing on its effects on antioxidant levels and mitochondrial function. This study demonstrates that supplementing in vitro maturation (IVM) medium with NGR1 significantly enhances several biochemical parameters. These include elevated levels of glutathione (GSH), nuclear factor erythrocyte 2‐related factor 2 (NRF2) and mRNA expression of catalase (CAT) and GPX. Concurrently, we observed a decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and an increase in JC‐1 immunofluorescence, mitochondrial distribution, peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐γ coactivator‐1α (PGC1α) and nuclear NRF2 mRNA levels. Additionally, there was an increase in ATP production and lipid droplets (LDs) immunofluorescence. These biochemical improvements correlate with enhanced embryonic outcomes, including a higher blastocyst rate, increased total cell count, enhanced proliferative capacity and elevated octamer‐binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) and superoxide dismutase 2 (Sod2) gene expression. Furthermore, NGR1 supplementation resulted in decreased apoptosis, reduced caspase 3 (Cas3) and BCL2‐Associated X (Bax) mRNA levels and decreased glucose‐regulated protein 78 kD (GRP78) immunofluorescence in porcine oocytes undergoing in vitro maturation. These findings suggest that NGR1 plays a crucial role in promoting porcine oocyte maturation and subsequent embryonic development by providing antioxidant levels and mitochondrial protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, CaO–Al 2 O 3 –MgO–SiO 2 glass was utilized to join SiC after surface polishing and etching, without the application of pressure. To join polished SiC at 1250 °C using CaO–Al 2 O 3 –MgO–SiO 2 glass proved unsuccessful. However, when polished SiC was joined at 1350 °C, the joint shear strength was 108.0 ± 15.5 MPa. Etching polished SiC with a NaOH–K 3 [Fe(CN) 6 ] solution effectively removed surface carbon, resulting in numerous micro-pits, that increased the joining area and improved the wettability of CaO–Al 2 O 3 –MgO–SiO 2 glass. The joint strengths of etched SiC joined at 1250 °C and 1350 °C were 29.0 ± 11.6 MPa and 125.1 ± 19.6 MPa, respectively. After ablation at 1200 °C for 10 min, the retained strength of the etched joints (joined at 1350 °C) was 61.9 ± 4.0 MPa, whereas the strength of the polished joints decreased to only 36.6 ± 10.7 MPa. Surface etching demonstrates the potential to significantly enhance the strength and high-temperature resistance of SiC joints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderate non‐covalent interaction of protein and polyphenols can improve the emulsifying property of protein itself. The corn protein hydrolysate (CPH) and tannic acid (TA) complex was successfully used to construct nanoemulsion for algal oil delivery. There has been no study on the feasibility of this nanoemulsion delivery system for other food functional components, for example, β‐carotene (β‐CE). CPH/TA complex‐based nanoemulsion system for β‐CE delivery was studied, focusing on the effect of β‐CE content on the physicochemical stability of the nanoemulsions. The nanoemulsion delivery systems (dia. 150 nm) with low viscosity and good liquidity were easily fabricated by two‐step emulsification. The nanoemulsions with high β‐CE content (>71.5 μg/mL) significantly increased (p < .05) the emulsion droplet size. However, there was no significant (p > .05) effect of β‐CE content on polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential of the nanoemulsions. The storage (30 days) experiment results demonstrated that the droplet size of the nanoemulsions with varying β‐CE content increased slightly during storage. However, the PDI values showed a slightly decreasing trend. Zeta potentials of the nanoemulsions showed no noticeable change during storage. Moreover, after storage of 30 days, the retention ratios of β‐CE were found to be up to 90%, which suggests an excellent protective effect for β‐CE by the nanoemulsion systems. The CPH/TA complex stabilized nanoemulsions could aggregate in gastric condition, but the β‐CE content did not have obvious effect on the digestive stability of the nanoemulsions. The CPH/TA complex could be employed as an emulsifier to construct a physicochemical stable nanoemulsion delivery system for lipophilic active components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cassiterite is the principal ore mineral for tin, and its oxygen isotope is a promising proxy to trace the origin and evolution of ore‐forming fluids, which requires precise and accurate oxygen isotopic analysis. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a powerful tool for oxygen isotope analysis, especially when samples bear complicated textures, but matrix‐matched reference materials are critical for accurate microanalysis. The only available matrix‐matched reference material for cassiterite oxygen isotope analysis is Yongde‐Cst, and more reference materials are required. Here, we report Piaotang‐Cst as a potential working reference material for cassiterite oxygen isotope microanalysis. Our extensive SIMS microanalysis confirmed that Piaotang‐Cst is relatively homogeneous, with an average two standard deviations (2SD) of 0.49‰ (n = 626). The δ18OVSMOW value of Piaotang‐Cst is 5.33 ± 0.07‰ (2SD, n = 5) as determined by a conventional fluorination isotope ratio mass spectrometer. We also demonstrated that there is no measurable matrix effect caused by the variable contents of trace elements for cassiterite oxygen isotope microanalysis. We proposed that the Piaotang‐Cst can be used as a working reference material for monitoring the external reproducibility and accuracy of SIMS analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the Multiscale Medalist Learning Algorithm (MMLA) as a novel heuristic approach for complex engineering optimization problems. By extending the Medalist Learning Algorithm, MMLA offers enhanced solution efficiency. The algorithm divides the learning process into successive periods with reduced search spaces, enabling focused search efforts in promising areas. Within each period, predefined learning stages are implemented. Top performers, known as medalists, engage in self-improvement operations through neighborhood searches, while common learners either learn from medalists or adapt based on the current state using neighborhood fluctuation. The MMLA balances exploration and exploitation capabilities through a natural growth curve that determines the learning efficiency. The MMLA's effectiveness and robustness are illustrated through the solution of a two-dimensional benchmark optimization problem and the successful resolution of ten well-known engineering design optimization problems. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the MMLA consistently outperforms other algorithms, providing competitive solutions with strict feasibility and minimal variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notoginsenoside R1 (NGR1), derived from the Panax notoginseng root and rhizome, exhibits diverse pharmacological influences on the brain, neurons, and osteoblasts, such as antioxidant effects, mitochondrial function protection, energy metabolism regulation, and inhibition of oxygen radicals, apoptosis, and cellular autophagy. However, its effect on early porcine embryonic development remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated NGR1's effects on blastocyst quality, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, glutathione (GSH) levels, mitochondrial function, and embryonic development‐related gene expression in porcine embryos by introducing NGR1 during the in vitro culture (IVC) of early porcine embryos. Our results indicate that an addition of 1 μM NGR1 significantly increased glutathione (GSH) levels, blastocyst formation rate, and total cell number and proliferation capacity; decreased ROS levels and apoptosis rates in orphan‐activated porcine embryos; and improved intracellular mitochondrial distribution, enhanced membrane potential, and reduced autophagy. In addition, pluripotency‐related factor levels were elevated (NANOG and octamer‐binding transcription factor 4 [OCT4]), antioxidant‐related genes were upregulated (nuclear factor‐erythroid 2‐related factor 2 [NRF2]), and apoptosis‐ (caspase 3 [CAS3]) and autophagy‐related genes (light chain 3 [LC3B]) were downregulated. These results indicate that NGR1 can enhance early porcine embryonic development by protecting mitochondrial function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural fiber composites are receiving more and more attention because of their greenness and low cost. Among natural fibers, bamboo is characterized by fast growth, a short cultivation period, high strength and good toughness, and is one of the strongest natural fibers in the world. A bamboo-fiber-reinforced polymer composite (BFRPC) has the characteristics of high mechanical strength, low density, degradability, etc. It has the industrial applicability comparable to metal materials, the same strong corrosion resistance as composites such as glass and carbon fibers, and the same immunity to electromagnetic interference and low thermal conductivity as natural materials. Its unidirectional specific strength and unidirectional specific modulus is higher than that of glass fiber, second only to the extremely high price of carbon fiber, which is playing an increasingly important role in the field of composite materials, and can be widely used in the fields of wind power, construction, aviation, automotive, medical care and so on. At present, it has been initially used in packaging, automotive and transportation fields, and is expected to replace petroleum-based plastics in various fields. In addition to their environmental protection and green production, they have excellent physical properties. This paper provides an overview of the mechanical properties of bamboo-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites and thermoset composites that have been developed so far, such as tensile strength, flexural properties and impact strength. In addition, the prospects of bamboo-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites for automotive, packaging and agricultural applications are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-temperature joining of SiC ceramics using raw CaO-Al 2 O 3 -MgO-SiO 2 mixed powders (CAMS-P) and CaO-Al 2 O 3 -MgO-SiO 2 glass (CAMS-G) as additives for the liquid-phase sintering of SiC nanopowders (NITE phase) in combination with surface oxidation was studied. Using CAMS-P as an additive for SiC joining required 1650 °C and produced a lower shear strength of 77.2 ± 3.5 MPa, compared to untreated SiC (108.2 ± 15.8 MPa). Using CAMS-G as an additive, the compactness of SiC joints obtained at 1550 °C was higher than that of NITE joints obtained at 1650 °C with CAMS-P as an additive. Nonetheless, the low joining temperature resulted in gaps and delaminations at the interface, and the joints strength was only 48.3 ± 5.6 MPa. Incorporating CAMS-G as an additive and surface oxidation achieved reliable NITE phase joining at 1550 °C, with no observed gaps or delaminations at the interface. The resulting joints strength was as high as 100.0 ± 0.8 MPa. The joining mechanism was discussed and compared, involving microstructural analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optoelectronic properties of quantum confined semiconductor nanocrystals depend critically on the band edge electron and hole levels and their exciton fine structures. Transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy has been widely used to probe the dynamics of photogenerated electrons, holes, and excitons in these materials through their state filling induced bleach of the band edge exciton transition. Such effects, in principle, reflect the band edge fine structures and are well understood for the conduction band electrons. However, the valence band hole state filling signals remain poorly understood due to the complexity of the valence band level structure and the presence of fast hole trapping in many materials. Herein, we report a study of the valence band hole state filling effect by comparing the TA spectra of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) with different degrees of hole trapping and by selective removal of the conduction band electrons to adsorbed methyl viologen molecules. We observe that in CdSe/CdS core/shell QDs with a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 81%, the valence band hole contributes to 22% ± 1% of the exciton bleach, while a negligible hole state filling signal is observed in CdSe core only QDs with a photoluminescence quantum yield of 17%. This hole state filling effect can be explained by a simplified valence band edge hole model that contains two sets of twofold degenerate hole levels that are responsible for the higher energy bright exciton and lower energy dark exciton states, respectively. Our result clarifies the TA spectral features of the valence band holes and provides insights into the nature of single hole states in CdSe-based QDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global precipitation is becoming increasingly intense due to the extreme climate. Therefore, creating new technology to manage water resources is crucial. To create a sustainable urban and ecological environment, a water level and water quality control system implementing artificial intelligence is presented in this research. The proposed smart monitoring system consists of four sensors (two different liquid level sensors, a turbidity and pH sensor, and a water oxygen sensor), a control module (an MCU, a motor, a pump, and a drain), and a power and communication system (a solar panel, a battery, and a wireless communication module). The system focuses on low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) devices along with low power consumption and high precision. This proposal collects rainfall from the preceding 10 years in the application region as well as the region's meteorological bureau's weekly weather report and uses artificial intelligence to compute the appropriate water level. More importantly, the adoption of dynamic adjustment systems can reserve and modify water resources in the application region more efficiently. Compared to existing technologies, the measurement approach utilized in this study not only achieves cost savings exceeding 60% but also enhances water level measurement accuracy by over 15% through the successful implementation of water level calibration decisions utilizing multiple distinct sensors. Of greater significance, the dynamic adjustment systems proposed in this research offer the potential for conserving water resources by more than 15% in an effective manner. As a result, the adoption of this technology may efficiently reserve and distribute water resources for smart cities as well as reduce substantial losses caused by anomalous water resources, such as floods, droughts, and ecological concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Phosphorus is one of the essential nutrients for plant growth. Phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSMs) can alleviate available P deficiency and enhance plant growth in an eco-friendly way. Although ammonium toxicity is widespread, there is little understanding about the effect of ammonium stress on phosphorus solubilization (PS) of PSMs. Results: In this study, seven PSMs were isolated from mangrove sediments. The soluble phosphate concentration in culture supernatant of Bacillus aryabhattai NM1-A2 reached a maximum of 196.96 mg/L at 250 mM (NH4)2SO4. Whole-genome analysis showed that B. aryabhattai NM1-A2 contained various genes related to ammonium transporter (amt), ammonium assimilation (i.e., gdhA, gltB, and gltD), organic acid synthesis (i.e., ackA, fdhD, and idh), and phosphate transport (i.e., pstB and pstS). Transcriptome data showed that the expression levels of amt, gltB, gltD, ackA and idh were downregulated, while gdhA and fdhD were upregulated. The inhibition of ammonium transporter and glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase (GS/GOGAT) pathway contributed to reducing energy loss. For ammonium assimilation under ammonium stress, accompanied by protons efflux, the glutamate dehydrogenase pathway was the main approach. More 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) was induced to provide abundant carbon skeletons. The downregulation of formate dehydrogenase and high glycolytic rate resulted in the accumulation of formic acid and acetic acid, which played key roles in PS under ammonium stress. Conclusions: The accumulation of 2-OG and the inhibition of GS/GOGAT pathway played a key role in ammonium detoxification. The secretion of protons, formic acid and acetic acid was related to PS. Our work provides new insights into the PS mechanism, which will provide theoretical guidance for the application of PSMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The 2,2′4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) is a common flame retardant that can be widely distributed in the environment and organisms but has been shown to induce toxicity to various organisms and organ systems. We found that exposure to BDE-47 induced the early embryonic development of in vitro porcine culture through oxidative stress and autophagy induced by mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Widely used as a flame retardant, 2,2′4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) is a persistent environmental pollutant with toxicological effects, including hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and endocrine disruption. To investigate the toxicological effects of BDE-47 on early porcine embryogenesis in vitro, cultured porcine embryos were exposed to BDE-47 during early development. Exposure to 100 μM BDE-47 decreased the blastocyst rate and mRNA level of pluripotency genes but increased the level of LC3 and the expression of autophagy-related genes. After BDE-47 exposure, porcine embryos' antioxidant capability decreased; ROS levels increased, while glutathione (GSH) levels and the expression of antioxidant-related genes decreased. In addition, BDE-47 exposure reduced mitochondrial abundance and mitochondrial membrane potential levels, downregulated mitochondrial biogenesis-associated genes, decreased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) abundance, increased the levels of GRP78, a marker of ER stress (ERS), and upregulated the expression of ERS-related genes. However, ER damage and low embryo quality induced by BDE-47 exposure were reversed with the ERS inhibitor, the 4-phenylbutyric acid. In conclusion, BDE-47 inhibits the development of early porcine embryos in vitro by inducing mitochondrial dysfunction and ERS. This study sheds light on the mechanisms of BDE-47-induced embryonic toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combined with the thickness control of interlayers (∼10 µm and ∼60 µm), SiC nano-powders with Al 2 O 3 -Y 2 O 3 -MgO-CaO additive (NITE-SiC) were used as the joining materials to achieve the low-temperature joining of SiC ceramics. Some residual pores were observed in the interlayer with a thickness of ∼60 µm after joining at 1650 ℃, and the shear strength of SiC joints measured was 39.3 ± 5.5 MPa. Observations showed the fracture of joints occurred at the interlayer. When the thickness of the interlayer decreased to ∼10 µm, no cracks or porosity were observed at the interface region after joining at 1650 ℃. The shear strength of SiC joints increased to 69.5 ± 8.9 MPa, and the fracture originated from the matrix. The results demonstrated using NITE-SiC with Al 2 O 3 -Y 2 O 3 -MgO-CaO additive as the joining layer and reducing the thickness of the interlayer could lower the joining temperature and significantly improve the mechanical strength of joints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional point cloud classification tasks have been a hot topic in recent years. Most existing point cloud processing frameworks lack context-aware features due to the deficiency of sufficient local feature extraction information. Therefore, we designed an augmented sampling and grouping module to efficiently obtain fine-grained features from the original point cloud. In particular, this method strengthens the domain near each centroid and makes reasonable use of the local mean and global standard deviation to extract point cloud's local and global features. In addition to this, inspired by the transformer structure UFO-ViT in 2D vision tasks, we first tried to use a linearly normalized attention mechanism in point cloud processing tasks, investigating a novel transformer-based point cloud classification architecture UFO-Net. An effective local feature learning module was adopted as a bridging technique to connect different feature extraction modules. Importantly, UFO-Net employs multiple stacked blocks to better capture feature representation of the point cloud. Extensive ablation experiments on public datasets show that this method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. For instance, our network performed with 93.7% overall accuracy on the ModelNet40 dataset, which is 0.5% higher than PCT. Our network also achieved 83.8% overall accuracy on the ScanObjectNN dataset, which is 3.8% better than PCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting performances of silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramic cutting tools with and without boride additive (2.5 vol% ZrB2 or TiB2) prepared by hot‐pressing at 1500°C were investigated. Due to the α‐ to β‐Si3N4 phase transformation and low densification temperature, boride‐containing Si3N4 ceramics with high hardness and high toughness were obtained. The turning tests showed that the effective cutting lengths of the Si3N4–2.5 vol% TiB2 ceramic (∼2480 m) and Si3N4–2.5 vol% ZrB2 ceramic (∼2200 m) were higher than the monolithic Si3N4 ceramic (∼1780 m). As the toughness was improved while maintaining relative high hardness, the cutting performances of the boride‐containing Si3N4‐based inserts were improved by adding 2.5 vol% ZrB2 or TiB2. The improved cutting performance indicated that the boride‐containing Si3N4 ceramics are expected to be used in the field of ceramic cutting tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

miR-144/451 and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) regulate two antioxidative systems that have been identified to maintain redox homeostasis in erythroid cells by removing excess reactive oxygen species (ROS). Whether these two genes coordinate to affect ROS scavenging and the anemic phenotype, or which gene is more important for recovery from acute anemia, has not been explored. To address these questions, we crossed miR-144/451 knockout (KO) and Nrf2 KO mice and examined the phenotype change in the animals as well as the ROS levels in erythroid cells either at baseline or under stress condition. Several discoveries were made in this study. First, Nrf2/miR-144/451 double-KO mice unexpectedly exhibit similar anemic phenotypes as miR-144/451 single-KO mice during stable erythropoiesis, although compound mutations of miR-144/451 and Nrf2 lead to higher ROS levels in erythrocytes than single gene mutations. Second, Nrf2/miR-144/451 double-mutant mice exhibit more dramatic reticulocytosis than miR-144/451 or Nrf2 single-KO mice during days 3 to 7 after inducing acute hemolytic anemia using phenylhydrazine (PHZ), indicating a synergistic effect of miR-144/451 and Nrf2 on PHZ-induced stress erythropoiesis. However, the coordination does not persist during the whole recovery stage of PHZ-induced anemia; instead, Nrf2/miR-144/451 double-KO mice follow a recovery pattern similar to miR-144/451 single-KO mice during the remaining period of erythropoiesis. Third, the complete recovery from PHZ-induced acute anemia in miR-144/451 KO mice takes longer than in Nrf2 KO mice. Our findings demonstrate that complicated crosstalk between miR-144/451 and Nrf2 does exist and the crosstalk of these two antioxidant systems is development-stage-dependent. Our findings also demonstrate that miRNA deficiency could result in a more profound defect of erythropoiesis than dysfunctional transcription factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the joining temperature of SiC ceramics by glass-ceramic joining, some oxides were usually introduced into to Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 for reducing the eutectic temperature. However, the joints might have poor high-temperature resistance due to the low melting point of the joining layer. In the present work, based on novel SiO 2 -based liquid phase extrusion strategy, joining of SiC ceramics with Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 interlayer was carried out by using Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 as the filler through spark plasma sintering (SPS). The SiO 2 -free interlayer of Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 was used for comparison. It was found that SiC joints using Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 could be only joined at a high temperature of 1800 °C, and the thickness of the interlayer was about 20 μm. The shear strength of the joint obtained at 1800 °C was 89.62 ± 4.67 MPa and the failure located in the SiC matrix. By contrast, reliable joining of SiC ceramics could be finished at as low as 1550 °C by extrusion of SiO 2 -containing liquid phase when using Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 as the interlayer, alongside the interlayer thickness of only several microns. The joint strengths after joining at 1550 °C was 84.90 ± 3.48 MPa and the failure located in matrix position. The joining mechanism was discussed by combining the detailed microstructure analysis and phase diagram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrosion behaviour of carbon steel (CS) exposed in the tidal zone of Beibu Gulf was investigated by experimental method. Q235 CS specimens were designed and exposed for 12 months. The corrosion mechanism of CS was characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Results show that the corrosion performance of CS can be verified by the formula D = atn. The corrosion products are mainly composed of α-FeOOH, γ-FeOOH, β-FeOOH, Fe3O4 and γ-Fe2O3. Significantly, Cl– is an intermediate in the corrosion process and promotes the formation of the characteristic product β-FeOOH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive phosphorus can lead to eutrophication in marine and coastal ecosystems. Sulfur metabolism-associated microorganisms stimulate biological phosphorous removal. However, the integrating co-biotransformation mechanism of phosphorus and sulfur in subtropical marine mangrove ecosystems with Spartina alterniflora invasion is poorly understood. In this study, an ecological model of the coupling biotransformation of sulfur and phosphorus is constructed using metagenomic analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction strategies. Phylogenetic analysis profiling, a distinctive microbiome with high frequencies of Gammaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, appears to be an adaptive characteristic of microbial structures in subtropical mangrove ecosystems. Functional analysis reveals that the levels of sulfate reduction, sulfur oxidation, and poly-phosphate (Poly-P) aggregation decrease with increasing depth. However, at depths of 25–50 cm in the mangrove ecosystems with S. alterniflora invasion, the abundance of sulfate reduction genes, sulfur oxidation genes, and polyphosphate kinase (ppk) significantly increased. A strong positive correlation was found among ppk, sulfate reduction, sulfur oxidation, and sulfur metabolizing microorganisms, and the content of sulfide was significantly and positively correlated with the abundance of ppk. Further microbial identification suggested that Desulfobacterales, Anaerolineales, and Chromatiales potentially drove the coupling biotransformation of phosphorus and sulfur cycling. In particular, Desulfobacterales exhibited dominance in the microbial community structure. Our findings provided insights into the simultaneous co-biotransformation of phosphorus and sulfur bioconversions in subtropical marine mangrove ecosystems with S. alterniflora invasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Erythrocyte parameter analysis is the important means for diagnosis and treatment of hematological diseases, which are essential for screening of thalassemia in southern China combined with hemoglobin electrophoresis analysis. But little is known regarding the reference intervals (RIs) in healthy pediatrics in these two areas. Methods: 95% RIs of erythrocyte parameters were calculated from 853 healthy preschoolers, aged from 1 days to <6 years, according to the C28‐A3C guidelines of the Institute of Clinical and Laboratory Standards. To express the magnitude of sex and age variation, standard deviation ratio (SDR) was calculated using ANOVA. Concurrently, we selected 3814 thalassemia carriers as carriers group and drew receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to establish the optimal cut‐off values of hemoglobin electrophoresis parameters, which were used as the upper/lower limits of RIs to efficiently screen thalassemia. Results: All parameters except red blood cell (RBC) required age partitioning, confirmed by SDRage above.4. There was no need for sex partitioning on all parameters, confirmed by SDRsex below.4. The optimal cut‐off value of Hemoglobin A2 (Hb A2) in the four subgroups was <7.8% (Hb A), 2.3%–3.2%, 2.5%–3.6% and 2.6%–3.6%, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, the establishment of RIs improved the diagnostic efficiency of hematological disease (especially thalassaemia) for children in Guangxi. It provides reliable hematological references for the identification and diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and health screening of children's clinical diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has always been a major issue for a hospital to acquire real-time information about a patient in emergency situations. Because of this, this research presents a novel high-compression-ratio and real-time-process image compression very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design for image sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT). The design consists of a YEF transform, color sampling, block truncation coding (BTC), threshold optimization, sub-sampling, prediction, quantization, and Golomb–Rice coding. By using machine learning, different BTC parameters are trained to achieve the optimal solution given the parameters. Two optimal reconstruction values and bitmaps for each 4 × 4 block are achieved. An image is divided into 4 × 4 blocks by BTC for numerical conversion and removing inter-pixel redundancy. The sub-sampling, prediction, and quantization steps are performed to reduce redundant information. Finally, the value with a high probability will be coded using Golomb–Rice coding. The proposed algorithm has a higher compression ratio than traditional BTC-based image compression algorithms. Moreover, this research also proposes a real-time image compression chip design based on low-complexity and pipelined architecture by using TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The operating frequency of the chip can achieve 100 MHz. The core area and the number of logic gates are 598,880 μm2 and 56.3 K, respectively. In addition, this design achieves 50 frames per second, which is suitable for real-time CMOS image sensor compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency communication networks play a vital role in disaster monitoring, transmission, and application during disaster emergency response (DER), however, the performance and stability of edge nodes in the emergency communication networks are often weak due to limited communication and computation resources. This weakness directly affects the quality of service (QoS) of the geospatial edge service (GES) chains involved in emergency monitoring. Existing research predominantly addresses service compositions in stable environments, neglecting the aggregation of efficient and robust GES chains in emergency communication networks. This study proposes an evolutionary particle swarm optimization (EPSO)-based emergency monitoring GES chain in an emergency communication network. It includes a GES chain model of emergency environment monitoring for tailing areas, as well as the designs of the particle chromosome encoding method, fitness evaluation model, and particle chromosome swarm update operators of the EPSO-based GES chain. Finally, the study conducts emergency environment monitoring experiments for tailing areas using the proposed method. Experiments results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly enhances the efficiency, stability, and reliability of emergency monitoring GES chains in the emergency communication network. This is crucial to providing fast and reliable services for DER during natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing demands on sustainability in the material science and engineering landscape, the use of wood, a renewable and biodegradable material, for new material development has drawn increasing attentions in the materials science community. To promote the development of new wood-based materials, it is critical to understanding not only wood's hierarchical structure from molecule to macroscale level, but also the interactions of wood with other materials and chemicals upon modification and functionalization. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in the Raman imaging technique, a new approach that combines spectroscopy and microscopy, in wood characterization and structural evolution monitoring during functionalization. We introduce the principles of Raman spectroscopy and common Raman instrumentations. We survey the use of traditional Raman spectroscopy for lignocellulosic material characterizations including cellulose crystallinity determination, holocellulose discrimination, and lignin substructure evaluation. We briefly review the recent studies on wood property enhancement and functional wood-based material development through wood modification including thermal treatment, acetylation, furfurylation, methacrylation, delignification. Subsequently, we highlight the use of the Raman imaging for visualization, spatial and temporal distribution of wood cell wall structure, as well as the microstructure evolution upon functionalization. Finally, we discuss the future prospects of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most deep learning models for temporal regression directly output the estimation based on single input images, ignoring the relationships between different images. In this paper, we propose deep relation learning for regression, aiming to learn different relations between a pair of input images. Four non-linear relations are considered: “cumulative relation,” “relative relation,” “maximal relation” and “minimal relation.” These four relations are learned simultaneously from one deep neural network which has two parts: feature extraction and relation regression. We use an efficient convolutional neural network to extract deep features from the pair of input images and apply a Transformer for relation learning. The proposed method is evaluated on a merged dataset with 6,049 subjects with ages of 0–97 years using 5-fold cross-validation for the task of brain age estimation. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.38 years, which is lower than the MAEs of 8 other state-of-the-art algorithms with statistical significance (p<0.05) in paired T-test (two-side). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Photosystem II (PSII), which splits water molecules at minimal excess photochemical potential, is inevitably photoinactivated during photosynthesis, resulting in compromised photosynthetic efficiency unless it is repaired. The energy cost of PSII repair is currently uncertain, despite attempts to calculate it.We experimentally determined the energy cost of repairing each photoinactivated PSII in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) leaves, which are capable of repairing PSII in darkness.As an upper limit, 24 000 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules (including any guanosine triphosphate synthesized at the expense of ATP) were required to repair one entire PSII complex. Further, over a 7‐h illumination period at 526–1953 μmol photons m−2 s−1, the ATP requirement for PSII repair was on average up to 4.6% of the ATP required for the gross carbon assimilation.Each of these two measures of ATP requirement for PSII repair is two‐ to three‐fold greater than the respective reported calculated value. Possible additional energy sinks in the PSII repair cycle are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

miR-495 and miR-142–3p suppress inflammatory response. Circ_0075932 is overexpressed in the burned skin of obese individuals and is involved in the regulation of PUM2 and AuroraA kinase, thus activating the NF-kB pathway. Obesity significantly influences the length of hospital stay for paediatric burn patients, who present symptoms of slower healing or greater functional impairment. In this study, the relationship between the abovementioned genes was assessed using an obese rat burn model. Luciferase assays, real-time PCR, Western blotting and ELISA assays were performed to explore the regulatory relationships of circRNA_0075932/miR-142, circRNA_0075932/miR-495, miR-142/NLRP3, and miR-495/PUM2. Luciferase assays indicated that miR-142 effectively suppressed the expression of circRNA_0075932/NLRP3 while miR-495 inhibited the expression of circRNA_0075932/PUM2. Downregulation of circRNA_0075932 suppressed the expression of circRNA_0075932/NLRP3/PUM2 and activated the expression of miR-142/miR-495. Exosomes collected from lenti-circRNA_0075932 shRNA-treated ADSCs showed remarkable efficiency in maintaining the post heat stress (PHS)-induced dysregulation of circRNA_0075932, miR-142, miR-495, NLRP3, PUM2, AuroraB, Ika, NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, and MCP-1 in THP-1 cells. Moreover, EXO-Lenti-circRNA_0075932 shRNA significantly restored burn-induced dysregulation of circRNA_0075932, miR-142, miR-495, NLRP3, PUM2, AuroraB, Ika, NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, and MCP-1 in obese rats. In conclusion, this study confirmed that the expression of circ_0075932 in adipose tissue is evidently increased in burn-associated infection in obese rats. Moreover, the administration of circ_0075932 shRNA exhibited a therapeutic effect upon burn-associated infection in obese rats by suppressing the expression of circ_0075932. • circRNA_0075932 shRNA elevated miR-142 and miR-495 level. • circRNA_0075932 shRNA suppressed NLRP3 and PUM2 level. • PHS-induced dysregulation of circRNA_0075932 and its downstream genes. • circRNA_0075932 regulates the signalling pathway of circRNA_0075932. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Disparity estimation of satellite stereo images is an essential and challenging task in photogrammetry and remote sensing. Recent researches have greatly promoted the development of disparity estimation algorithms by using CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks) based deep learning techniques. However, it is still difficult to handle intractable regions that are mainly caused by occlusions, disparity discontinuities, texture-less areas, and repetitive patterns. Besides, the lack of training datasets for satellite stereo images remains another major issue that blocks the usage of CNN techniques due to the difficulty of obtaining ground-truth disparities. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end disparity learning model, termed hierarchical multi-scale matching network (HMSM-Net), for the disparity estimation of high-resolution satellite stereo images. First, multi-scale cost volumes are constructed by using pyramidal features that capture spatial information of multiple levels, which learn correspondences at multiple scales and enable HMSM-Net to be more robust in intractable regions. Second, stereo matching is executed in a hierarchical coarse-to-fine manner by applying supervision to each scale, which allows a lower scale to act as prior knowledge and guides a higher scale to attain finer matching results. Third, a refinement module that incorporates the intensity and gradient information of the input left image is designed to regress a detailed full-resolution disparity map for local structure preservation. For network training and testing, a dense stereo matching dataset is created and published by using GaoFen-7 satellite stereo images. Finally, the proposed network is evaluated on the Urban Semantic 3D and GaoFen-7 datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that HMSM-Net achieves superior accuracy compared with state-of-the-art methods, and the improvement on intractable regions is noteworthy. Additionally, results and comparisons of different methods on the GaoFen-7 dataset show that it can severs as a challenging benchmark for performance assessment of methods applied to disparity estimation of satellite stereo images. The source codes and evaluation dataset are made publicly available at https://github.com/Sheng029/HMSM-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excess pressure is the main driving force of oil migration in the source-reservoir system of overpressured petroliferous basins. It can reflect the change in driving force for oil migration and its influence on oil accumulation in overpressure transport layers. The drilling stem test (DST) data, well logging data, and seismic velocity data are used to describe the plane distribution of the excess pressures in the Es4s member of the Dongying Depression. Then, the values and directions of the excess pressure gradient, which can indicate oil migration and accumulation, are calculated based on the plane distribution of the excess pressure in the Es4s member of the Dongying Depression. The results suggest that overpressure is widely developed in the Es4s member of the Dongying Depression, and the excess pressure gradually decreases from the center to the edge of each sag, while the variation in the excess pressure gradient is characterized by "low-high-low" in a circular band around the sags. The excess pressure in the sag areas exceeds 15 MPa, but the excess pressure gradient is mainly between 0 and 1 MPa/km. The excess pressure in the northern steep slope zone of the Lijin sag and the northern steep slope zone of the Minfeng sag are less than 15 MPa, while the excess pressure gradient ranges from 1 to 7 MPa/km. The excess pressure in the central anticline belt and the gentle slope belt in the south of the Niuzhuang sag are between 0 and 15 MPa, and the excess pressure gradient is from 0 MPa/km to 2 MPa/km. From geochemical evidence, local oil migration directions indicated by the excess pressure gradient are consistent with those indicated by the ratio parameters of carbazole compounds in crude oil samples, indicating that the direction of the excess pressure gradient can indicate the dominant direction of oil migration driven by excess pressure, and the oil from the Es4s source rock is mainly distributed in the areas with a high excess pressure gradient or the areas with a low excess pressure gradient and low excess pressure (area II). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tin and tungsten are important metals for the industrializing society. Deciphering the origin and evolution of hydrothermal fluids responsible for their formation is critical to underpin genetic models of ore formation. Traditional approaches obtain isotopic information mainly from bulk analysis of both ore and gangue minerals, or less frequently from in situ analysis of gangue minerals, which either bear inherited complexities and uncertainties or are indirect constraints. Hence, directly obtaining isotopic information from ore minerals such as cassiterite by in situ techniques is warranted. However, this has been hampered by challenges from both analytical and applicational aspects. In this study, we first demonstrate a lack of crystallographic orientation effects during cassiterite ion microprobe oxygen isotope analysis. Along with our newly developed matrix-matched reference material, the Yongde-Cst, which has a recommended δ18O value of 1.36 ± 0.16‰ (VSMOW) as defined by gas source isotope ratio mass spectrometry, in situ oxygen isotope analysis of cassiterite now is possible. We further refine the oxygen isotope fractionation (1000 ln α) for quartz-cassiterite by first-principles calculations, which is given by the equation of 1.259 × 106/T2 + 8.15 × 103/T − 4.72 (T is temperature in Kelvin). The 1000 ln α for quartz-cassiterite has a sensitive response to temperature, and makes cassiterite-quartz an excellent mineral pair in oxygen isotope thermometry, as described by the equation of T (℃) = 2427 × (δ18Oqtz − δ18Ocst)−0.4326 − 492.4. Using the well-established 1000 ln α of quartz-water, 1000 ln α of cassiterite-water is derived as 2.941 × 106/T2 − 11.45 × 103/T + 4.72 (T in Kelvin), which shows a weak response to temperature. This makes cassiterite an ideal mineral from which to derive δ18O of fluids as robust temperature estimates are no longer a prerequisite. We have applied oxygen isotope analysis to cassiterite samples from six Sn(-W) deposits in China. The results show considerable variability in δ18O values both within a single deposit and among studied deposits. Combining the δ18O of cassiterite samples and the equilibrium oxygen isotope fractionation, we find that the δ18O values of ore-forming fluids show a strong magmatic affinity with variable but mostly no to low degree involvements (~0-10%) of meteoric water, hence our results invite a reassessment on the extent and role of meteoric water in Sn-W mineralization. This study demonstrates that in situ oxygen isotope analysis of cassiterite is a promising tool to refine sources of ore-forming fluids, and to decode hydrothermal dynamics controlling tin and tungsten mineralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, modified municipal sludge was used in place of fine aggregate to manufacture concrete, and it's revealed how different quicklime and sludge contents affect concrete. The best modified sludge concrete group was used for the performance improvement test, after which the constitutive model, the carbonation depth prediction model, and the freeze-thaw damage model were fitted. The results showed that the compressive strength of the L10S10 was best in experiment of modified municipal sludge concrete. Under alkali activation, fly ash absorbed the remaining alkali in modified municipal sludge, promoted concrete hydration, and improved the mechanical characteristics of concrete. The F10N4 group had the best activation effect, with a compressive strength of 50.61 MPa. Test results could be accurately reflected by the constitutive model and carbonation depth prediction model that were devised. The freeze-thaw damage model based on relative dynamic elastic modulus has a correlation coefficient greater than 0.98. • The effect of modified municipal sludge on the mechanical properties of concrete is revealed. • The microscopic mechanism of alkali-activated modified municipal sludge concrete is studied. • The carbonation depth prediction model, freeze-thaw damage model of modified municipal sludge concrete is fitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This paper proposed a novel approach to suppress explosion intensity and reduce CO concentration simultaneously for methane-air mixture explosions through adding the Co 3 O 4 powder. • The Co 3 O 4 powder could significantly suppress the explosion severity by absorbing combustion-released energy and consuming key flame radicals. • The Co 3 O 4 powder could effectively reduce the post-explosion CO concentration, mainly by the CO catalytic oxidation method. • The CO removal performance was closely related to the partial pressure of CH 4 and the Co 3 O 4 powder usage. Rapid removing toxic CO for methane-air mixture explosions is essential in reducing casualties, but relevant research is rare. This paper proposed a novel approach for efficient CO removal and explosion suppression for methane-air mixture explosions using Co 3 O 4 powder. The effect of Co 3 O 4 powder on the explosion characteristics and basic parameters to quantify the CO removal performance have been studied, mainly including maximum explosion pressure (P m), combustion time (t c), flame propagation velocity, and average CO removal rate (R ave.). Results indicated that explosion intensity and CO concentration decreased significantly with Co 3 O 4 powder, due to increased heat absorption capacity and the active site of CO catalytic oxidation. However, the average CO removal rate decreased as the Co 3 O 4 powder usage and CH 4 partial pressure increased, which could reduce the dispersion degree of the Co 3 O 4 dust cloud. The CO removal was achieved through the CH 4 catalytic combustion and CO catalytic oxidation, which could reduce the CO generation and oxidize the generated CO to harmless CO 2 , respectively. This work provides a novel routine to lessen the explosion hazards and has promising applications in emergency rescue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granulomatous chronic inflammation is a typical pathological characteristic of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) infected by Nocardia seriolae , and it is also an important breakthrough to solve the problem of pathogen prevention and treatment. Spleen, the target organ of N. seriolae infection, is significant for studying pathogenic mechanism. However, histopathological characteristics and immunological molecular mechanisms of the development of splenic granulomas in fish have not been extensively studied. In the initial process of exploring the molecular mechanism of N. seriolae infectious splenic granuloma formation, we accidentally found positive signals of necroptosis-related gene by immunohistochemical staining, suggesting that necroptosis may be involved in the formation of granulomas. Nevertheless, the role of necroptosis in the formation of splenic granuloma is still unclear. In this study, we established a granuloma model in the spleen of largemouth bass infected by N. seriolae. Through multiple tissue staining, we compared splenic granulomas with hepatic and renal granulomas, and preliminarily clarified the histopathological characteristics of splenic granulomas and the formation pattern of fibrosis, calcium salt deposition and other lesions. Notably, we found that the expression of inflammatory factors and necroptosis-related molecules in spleen were significantly upregulated during N. seriolae infection. Further immunohistochemical staining showed that the splenic granulomas were accompanied by extensive and intense p-MLKL-positive signals in the peripheral tissue. In addition, western blot and immunofluorescence results showed that N. seriolae could induce necroptosis in primary spleen cells of largemouth bass in vitro. Our data indicated that necroptosis is closely related to the formation of splenic granulomas in largemouth bass, and provide some ideas for the study of the formation mechanism of fish granuloma. [Display omitted] • Construction of Nocardia seriolae granuloma model of largemouth bass. • Necroptosis of spleen epithelial cells was induced by Nocardia seriolae infection. • Nocardia seriolae mediated chronic inflammation through necroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Ediacaran Doushantuo shale is analyzed for organic matter accumulation mechanism. • Geochemical indicators suggest the paleoenvironment evolution characteristics of sedimentary. • Organic matter accumulation of the Doushantuo Formation is mainly controlled by redox conditions. • The Doushantuo shale is the oldest and a promising shale gas play in South China. The organic-rich Ediacaran Doushantuo Shale have been identified as a high-quality source rock and a main shale gas play in the Yichang area, South China, which was characterized by high TOC content, high thermal maturity, enormous cumulative thickness, and relatively high contents of brittle minerals. As the oldest shale gas stratum, the paleo-environmental characteristics and organic matter (OM) accumulation mechanism remain unclear in this special marine setting. In this study, core descriptions, TOC content, X-ray diffraction (XRD) mineralogical analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation, and elemental analysis, including the major, trace, and rare earth elements, were combined to identify lithofacies, reconstruct paleo-environmental conditions, and document organic matter (OM) accumulation mechanisms for this potential Ediacaran Doushantuo Shale in the Yichang area, South China. Four major shale lithofacies were identified based on TOC content and mineral composition. The geochemical redox proxies, such as the enrichment factors of Uranium (U-EF) and ratio of organic carbon to total phosphorus (C org /P), indicate that the Doushantuo Shale was probably deposited in a dysoxic-anoxic conditions, which is consist with the interpretation from size distribution of pyrite framboids. The terrigenous influxes suggest the Doushantuo Shale was deposited in arid climate in absence of chemical weathering. Meanwhile, the productivity proxies (biogenic SiO 2 , Ba, and P/Al) indicate that the organic-rich Doushantuo Shale was deposited under a relatively low primary productivity. In addition, hydrothermal input has limited influence on organic matter (OM) accumulation of the Doushantuo Shale, which was also reported in the Qinglinkou Section of Yichang area. It can be observed that the organic matter (OM) accumulation mechanism of the Doushantuo Shale, deposited after the Marinoan "Snow Earth" glaciation, in the Yichang area, South China, was mainly controlled by the redox conditions, which is much different from typical marine shales and transitional shales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unreliable service and the unstable operation of a high-frequency bus line are shown as bus bunching and the uneven distribution of headways along the bus line. Although many control strategies, such as the static and dynamic holding strategies, have been proposed to solve the above problems, many of them take on some oversimplified assumptions about the real bus line operation. So it is hard for them to continuously adapt to the evolving complex system. In view of this dynamic setting, we present an adaptive holding method that combines the classic approximate dynamic programming (ADP) with the multistage look-ahead mechanism. The holding time, the only control means used in this study, will be determined by estimating its impact on the operation stability of the bus line system in the remaining observation period. The multistage look-ahead mechanism introduced into the classic Q-learning algorithm of the ADP model makes it easy that the algorithm gets through its earlier unstable phase more quickly and easily. During the implementation of the new holding approach, the past experiences of holding operations can be cumulated effectively into an artificial neural network used to approximate the unavailable Q-factor. The use of a detailed simulation system in the new approach makes it possible to take into account most of the possible causes of instability. The numerical experiments show that the new holding approach can stabilize the system by producing evenly distributed headway and removing bus bunching thoroughly. Compared with the terminal station holding strategies, the new method brings a more reliable bus line with shorter waiting times for passengers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning can provide rapid brain age estimation based on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, most studies use one neural network to extract the global information from the whole input image, ignoring the local fine-grained details. In this paper, we propose a global-local transformer, which consists of a global-pathway to extract the global-context information from the whole input image and a local-pathway to extract the local fine-grained details from local patches. The fine-grained information from the local patches are fused with the global-context information by the attention mechanism, inspired by the transformer, to estimate the brain age. We evaluate the proposed method on 8 public datasets with 8,379 healthy brain MRIs with the age range of 0–97 years. 6 datasets are used for cross-validation and 2 datasets are used for evaluating the generality. Comparing with other state-of-the-art methods, the proposed global-local transformer reduces the mean absolute error of the estimated ages to 2.70 years and increases the correlation coefficient of the estimated age and the chronological age to 0.9853. In addition, our proposed method provides regional information of which local patches are most informative for brain age estimation. Our source code is available on: https://github.com/shengfly/global-local-transformer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lower Cambrian Niutitang and Sinian Doushantuo shales are the most important and widespread source rocks and target layers in South China. Reliable data of the thermal maturity of organic matter (OM) is widely used to assess hydrocarbon generation and is a key property used in determining the viability and hydrocarbon potential of these new shales. Nevertheless, traditional thermal maturity indicators are no longer suited to the vitrinite-lack marine shales. This study aims to combine high throughput Raman and infrared spectroscopy analysis to confirm and validate the thermal maturity in comparison with the bitumen reflectance (Rb). Raman parameters such as the differences between the positions of the two bands (VG-VD) are strong parameters for calculating the thermal maturity in a large vitrinite reflectance (Ro) ranging from 1.60% to 3.80%. The infrared spectroscopy analysis indicates that the aromatic C-C bands and CH2/CH3 aliphatic groups both are closely correlated with thermal maturity. The calculated Ro results from Raman and infrared spectroscopy are in strong coincidence with the Rb. The relationships between Rb and pore volumes/surface areas (calculated from N2 adsorption) indicate that the sample with Rb of 3.40% has the lowest pore volumes and surface areas. Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) observations of OM pores indicate that Ro of approximately 3.60% may be an upper limit for OM porosity development. Obviously, kerogen Raman and infrared spectroscopy can indicate methods for reducing the risk in assessing maturity with practical, low-cost accurate results. Exploration of shale gas in the high maturity (>3.40%–3.60%) region carries huge risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotational near-field photolithography (RNFP) has a great potential for nanostructure fabrication. However, photoresist may be transferred between head and disk resulting in failure of the photolithography process. Two models of photoresist transfer from a rotating disk to a photolithography head were developed using molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results revealed that photoresist transfer is mainly caused by the strong attraction between the hydrogen atoms in the photoresist and the chromium of the head. When the distance between disk and head is less than the critical flying height, the transfer amount increases with the decrease of rotational speed and flying height. Maintaining the flying height above the critical value is the most effective way to ensure the non-transfer of photoresist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zirconium isotope is a very promising tracer to investigate geological processes such as magmatic crystallization and differentiation, and to tackle the secular evolution of the continental crust. With zircon being its major hosting mineral, developing analytical technique with high accuracy, high precision and high efficiency is critical to facilitate its geological applications. This study presents an analytical method to measure zircon Zr isotope compositions by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). With careful sample preparation to limit the topography effect and instrumental tuning for maintaining its stability, we demonstrate that large geometry SIMS can provide zircon Zr isotope measurements with high accuracy, high precision and high efficiency. Based on extensive testing on our CAMECA IMS 1280HR, the recommended instrumental tuning parameters are: a primary beam intensity of ∼30 nA, a beam diameter of ∼20 × 15 μm2, a mass resolution power of 2400 and a raster size of 15 × 15 μm2, with 94Zr and 90Zr being collected by static Faraday cups via a signal accumulation time of 20 cycles × 4 s. By analyzing zircon reference materials commonly used for U–Pb and O analysis (i.e., 91500, Penglai, Plešovice, and Mudtank), we have achieved a δ94Zr repeatability of 0.04–0.07‰ (2SD, n = 33–75), and the Zr isotope compositions of zircon reference materials measured by SIMS agree remarkably well with those defined by double-spike solution methods. Our method consumes ∼1.2 ng materials in a single spot analysis (∼0.9 μm pit depth), together with its high spatial resolution (∼13 × 14 × 0.3 μm3 for data collection) and high efficiency (∼4 minutes per analysis), it is expected that our SIMS Zr isotope analytical method will be very useful for studying precious materials (e.g., zircon in lunar soil) and to facilitate big data research (e.g., detrital zircon study). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding the mechanism behind sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) remains a formidable task. This study endeavors to shed light on the complex cellular and molecular alterations that occur in the brains of a mouse model with SAE, ultimately unraveling the underlying mechanisms of this condition. Methods: We established a murine model using intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in wild type and Anxa1−/− mice and collected brain tissues for analysis at 0-hour, 12-hour, 24-hour, and 72-hour post-injection. Utilizing advanced techniques such as single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and Stereo-seq, we conducted a comprehensive characterization of the cellular responses and molecular patterns within the brain. Results: Our study uncovered notable temporal differences in the response to LPS challenge between Anxa1−/− (annexin A1 knockout) and wild type mice, specifically at the 12-hour and 24-hour time points following injection. We observed a significant increase in the proportion of Astro-2 and Micro-2 cells in these mice. These cells exhibited a colocalization pattern with the vascular subtype Vas-1, forming a distinct region known as V1A2M2, where Astro-2 and Micro-2 cells surrounded Vas-1. Moreover, through further analysis, we discovered significant upregulation of ligands and receptors such as Timp1-Cd63, Timp1-Itgb1, Timp1-Lrp1, as well as Ccl2-Ackr1 and Cxcl2-Ackr1 within this region. In addition, we observed a notable increase in the expression of Cd14-Itgb1, Cd14-Tlr2, and Cd14-C3ar1 in regions enriched with Micro-2 cells. Additionally, Cxcl10-Sdc4 showed broad upregulation in brain regions containing both Micro-2 and Astro-2 cells. Notably, upon LPS challenge, there was an observed increase in Anxa1 expression in the mouse brain. Furthermore, our study revealed a noteworthy increase in mortality rates following Anxa1 knockdown. However, we did not observe substantial differences in the types, numbers, or distribution of other brain cells between Anxa1−/− and wildtype mice over time. Nevertheless, when comparing the 24-hour post LPS injection time point, we observed a significant decrease in the proportion and distribution of Micro-2 and Astro-2 cells in the vicinity of blood vessels in Anxa1−/− mice. Additionally, we noted reduced expression levels of several ligand-receptor pairs including Cd14-Tlr2, Cd14-C3ar1, Cd14-Itgb1, Cxcl10-Sdc4, Ccl2-Ackr1, and Cxcl2-Ackr1. Conclusions: By combining snRNA-seq and Stereo-seq techniques, our study successfully identified a distinctive cellular colocalization, referred to as a special pathological niche, comprising Astro-2, Micro-2, and Vas-1 cells. Furthermore, we observed an upregulation of ligand-receptor pairs within this niche. These findings suggest a potential association between this cellular arrangement and the underlying mechanisms contributing to SAE or the increased mortality observed in Anxa1 knockdown mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The human endometrium in premenopausal women is an active site of physiological angiogenesis, with regenerative cells present, suggesting that the endometrium contains adult angiogenic stem cells. In the context of cardiac repair after ischemic injury, angiogenesis is a crucial process to rescue cardiomyocytes. We therefore investigated whether human endometrium-derived stem cells (hEMSCs) can be used for cardiac repair after ischemic injury and their possible underlying mechanisms. Methods: Comparisons were made between hEMSCs successfully isolated from 22 premenopausal women and human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) derived from 25 age-matched patients. Cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and angiogenesis were evaluated through in vitro experiments, while the ability of hEMSCs to restore cardiac function was examined by in vivo cell transplantation into the infarcted nude rat hearts. Results: In vitro data showed that hEMSCs had greater proliferative and migratory capacities, whereas hBMSCs had better adipogenic differentiation ability. Human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells, treated with conditioned medium from hEMSCs, had significantly higher tube formation than that from hBMSCs or control medium, indicating greater angiogenic potentials for hEMSCs. In vivo, hEMSC transplantation preserved cardiac function, decreased infarct size, and improved tissue repair post-injury. Cardiac metabolism, assessed by 18F-FDG uptake, showed that 18F-FDG uptake at the infarction area was significantly higher in both hBMSC and hEMSC groups, compared to the PBS control group, with hEMSCs having the highest uptake, suggesting hEMSC treatment improves cardiomyocyte metabolism and survival after injury. Mechanistic assessment of the angiogenic potential for hEMSCS revealed that angiogenesis-related factors angiopoietin 2, Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1, and FGF9 were significantly upregulated in hEMSC-implanted infarcted hearts, compared to the PBS control group. Conclusion: hEMSCs, compared to hBMSCs, have greater capacity to induce angiogenesis, and improved cardiac function after ischemic injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diverse community of microorganisms inhabits various parts of a plant. Recent findings indicate that perturbations to the normal microbiota can be associated with positive and negative effects on plant health. In this review, we discuss these findings in the context of understanding how microbiota homeostasis is regulated in plants for promoting health and/or for preventing dysbiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of E xternal D iaphragm (ED) in steel frame system is able to reinforce the stiffness of joint and provide efficient protection for the critical part of joint. However, due to the limitation of the existing design codes, the inside space of building is affected frequently by the excessive size of the ED. To reduce the size effect of ED, a hysteretic experiment on four steel joint specimens is first carried out in this paper, the effects of the width ratio (the ratio of ED width to beam flange width) and connection type (B olted web- W elded flange (BW) connection and F ull B olted (FB) connection) are investigated. Then, a numerical analysis is conducted to further explore the influence of the width ratio and the thickness ratio (the ratio of ED thickness to beam flange thickness). The results indicate that the specimen with BW connection exhibits larger stiffness and bearing capacity, but the specimen with FB connection has obvious ascendancy on the ultimate deformation capacity and ductility. Moreover, Changing the width ratio and thickness ratio are unable to cause significant variation on the seismic performance of steel joint if the thickness ratio is larger than 1.25. Therefore, the thickness of the ED is more critical than width to the seismic performance of steel joint. Meanwhile, in the circumstance of the thickness ratio is equal to 1, the width ratio of 0.1 is recommended for the minimum limited value in structure design. • The effect of connection type on the seismic performance of a steel joints with external diaphragm is examined through experimental study. • The impact of the width of external diaphragm on hysteretic behavior of joint is explored through experimental study. • The comprehensive effect of the width and thickness of external diaphragm is discussed through numerical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we establish a coupled damage-plastic constitutive model in the scheme of small deformation assumption, based on a continuum damage mechanics model proposed by Lemaitre, for the thin-walled circular steel tubes widely used in space structures. First, a new damage evolution law is developed for steel tubes. Then the isotropic damage-plastic constitutive model is created within the thermodynamics framework. In addition, the numerical integration algorithm for the proposed model is formulated based on the well-established operator split methodology and is implemented into ANSYS through the user-defined material subroutines. The uniaxial tension test and the spatial hysteresis experiment for thin-walled circular steel tubes are performed, which serves as calibration conditions for the new proposition. The model parameters are determined by the inverse optimization method and the least squares fitting method. Numerical results obtained from the proposed and Lemaitre model are compared with experimental data obtained by spatial hysteresis, and the predictive ability of both models is discussed in terms of the force-displacement hysteretic curves, the initiation and propagation of fracture, and the evolution of the damage variable. It is illustrated that the established model presents a good agreement with experimental observation. Furthermore, it performs a better prediction compared to Lemaitre's model. Lemaitre's model is able to predict the correct location for fracture onset but fails to capture the potential path of fracture propagation and the displacement at the fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoscale organic matter‐hosted pores (OM pores) are the dominant pore type in the marine, organic‐rich shales of the Upper Ordovician Wufeng Formation and the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation's first member in the Jiaoshiba Block, which provide important reservoir space for shale gas accumulation. In this study, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM), statistical analysis using ImageJ software, and gas adsorption tests were conducted to investigate the characteristics of OM pores, including pore shape, pore size distribution, pore quantity, and organic porosity. FE‐SEM images show that the OM pore sizes range between 2 and 900 nm. The predominant shape of the OM pores in the Wufeng shale is an irregular polygon, while elliptical and subrounded OM pores were observed in the Longmaxi Formation's first member shale. Average cross‐section area ratios of the OM pores to corresponding single‐particle organic matter (ØOMP/OM) for shale samples obtained via statistical analysis of FE‐SEM images range between 10% and 30%. We propose a new combination approach for the estimation of organic porosity, which gives organic porosities for the Wufeng shale and Longmaxi Formation's first member shale of 0.56%‐4.47% and 4.06%‐4.21%, respectively. To calculate the organic porosity for the OM pores with diameters of 10‐900 nm, the formula derived from the mass‐volume‐density‐organic matter relationships and ØOMP/OM of shale was used, while the organic porosity for pores with diameters of 0.3‐10 nm was estimated using carbon dioxide and nitrogen adsorption data. In addition, the reasons for the differences in the OM pore structures in the Wufeng shale and Longmaxi Formation's first member shale were examined for the study area and found to be the result of variations in total organic carbon (TOC) content and tectonic compression of the Wufeng shale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is that the precise description of damage behavior is crucial to well catch the mechanical behavior of structures in the dynamic numerical simulation, and address the issue on the coupled plastic-damage constitutive model for circular steel tubes of reticulated shells under severe earthquake. Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) constitutive model established by Lemaitre is reviewed at the beginning. Then, an improved damage model for circular steel tubes of reticulated shells is developed based on Lemaitre's model by replacing the original damage evolution law with a new one suitable for circular steel tubes. In addition, we introduce the stress update process. In this procedure, the well-known operator split strategy, which leads to the standard elastic predictor/return mapping algorithm, is adopted to solve the evolution problem of the improved model. Exploiting user-defined material subroutine, the implementation of the model is achieved within software ANSYS using BEAM189 element. Finally, the dynamic response of reticulated shells under severe earthquake are numerically simulated with the proposed model and with the conventional Prandtl-Reuss model, respectively. The comparison results show that the consideration of material damage accumulation, on the one hand, may change the failure mode of reticulated shells from dynamic instability to strength failure; on the other, may reduce the dynamic ultimate load obviously. This consideration should be taken into account when conducting nonlinear dynamic analysis of reticulated shells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using natural-scene-based steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) technique we measured the ocular-specific signals. • Two hours of monocular deprivation (MD) boosted the neural gain for the deprived eye. • Neural gain for the deprived eye increased progressively during the MD. • The effects of short-term MD can manifest when viewing natural scenes. • Our method is powerful in tracking neural responses to natural adapting environment. Ocular dominance plasticity beyond the critical period has been demonstrated in adult humans in recent investigations of short-term monocular deprivation (MD). To our knowledge, all previous research adopted non-natural synthetic stimuli in testing perceptual ocular dominance before and after the MD. However, it is recognized that complex natural stimuli may engage cortical mechanisms substantially different from simple synthetic stimuli. Therefore, it remains largely unknown whether reshaping of ocular dominance following MD could be observed during perception of natural scene stimuli without conspicuous interocular competition. Here we used the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) technique to measure the ocular-specific neural effects of MD with natural scene stimuli where the two eyes' images were tagged with different frequencies. Two hours of MD boosted the neural gain for the deprived eye. During the course of MD, the SSVEP amplitude ratio for the deprived eye compared to the non-deprived eye increased significantly over time, indicating a progressive increase of neural gain for the deprived eye. These findings demonstrate that the effects of short-term MD can manifest when viewing natural scenes, providing a natural case in support of the homeostatic compensation theory of MD. Our work also indicates that the technique of natural-scene-based SSVEP could be particularly useful for future work exploring the neural dynamics during adaptation to natural stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allergic asthma is an inflammatory disease involving the Th1/Th2 cell imbalance in the peripheral blood. Repeated herbal acupoint sticking (RHAS) has been used for hundreds of years in China to relieve the recurrence of allergic asthma, and it is still practiced today. Thus, we explored the effect on allergic asthma relapse and the underlying immunoregulatory mechanism in this study. Here, we enrolled 50 allergic asthma participants, and 38 of them completed the treatment and follow-up (the allergic asthma group). In addition, 13 healthy participants (the control group) were enrolled. The recurrence number of allergic asthma participants and asthma control test (ACT) were used to evaluate the effect of treatment on relieving allergic asthma recurrence. Flow cytometry was performed to analyze the levels of Th1 and Th2 cells in the peripheral blood. The serum levels of IgE, IFN-γ, and IL-4 were detected by ELISA. (1) In the allergic asthma group, compared to before the first treatment, the recurrence number of allergic asthma participants decreased and the ACT score increased at end of the last treatment, 18 and 30 weeks of the trial (P < 0.05). At 18 and 30 weeks of the trial, the recurrence number of allergic asthma participants was less and the ACT score was higher than the ones from the same period last year in the allergic asthma group (P < 0.05). Compared to before the first treatment, the percentage of Th1 cell did not change significantly, the percentage of Th2 cell decreased, and the Th1/Th2 cell ratio increased in the allergic asthma group by the end of the last treatment (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the release of IgE and IL-4 reduced (P < 0.05), and the release of IFN-γ did not significantly change in the allergic asthma group. (2) Compared with the control group, the serum levels of IgE and IL-4 and the percentage of Th2 cell were higher, and the Th1/Th2 cell ratio was lower in the allergic asthma group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between Th1 cell and IFN-γ before the first treatment. (3) Compared with the control group, the IgE levels and the percentage of Th2 cell were higher in the allergic asthma group (P < 0.01). Simultaneously, there was no significant difference between Th1 cell, the Th1/Th2 cell ratio, and the serum levels of IFN-γ and IL-4 by the end of the last treatment. The data suggested that RHAS reduced the amount of Th2 cell and elevated the Th1/Th2 cell ratio, thereby alleviating the inflammatory responses in the allergic asthma participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]