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Existing biohashing authentication schemes usually store bioinformation in the cloud, whose storage method can face the problems of bioinformation leakage and tampering, and single point of failure. To address the above problems, a ciphertext speech biohashing authentication scheme based on chaotic system and improved public chain is proposed. First, the fusion features are extracted and generated with the inner product of 3D chaotic system to generate the biohashing sequence. Second, the original speech is encrypted and uploaded to the InterPlanetary file system and then, uploaded to the blockchain after the data are encrypted. Finally, the server matches the hash sequence queried on the chain with the to-be-authenticated hash at the user's end using the Hamming distance. The experimental results show that the biohashing algorithm in this paper has better distinguishability, robustness, security and time efficiency. The key space of the speech encryption algorithm is 2 256 , which can well resist the exhaustive attack and ensure the security during speech authentication. In this paper, the combination of on-chain and off-chain storage of speech information can prevent the problem of bioinformation leakage and tampering, as well as avoiding the problem of single point of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: Gut–vascular barrier (GVB) dysfunction has been shown to be a prerequisite for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) development. However, the causes of GVB disruption and the underlying mechanisms are still elusive. Here, we explored whether and how Escherichia coli (E. coli) NF73‐1, a pathogenic E. coli strain isolated from nonalcoholic steatohepatitis patients, contributes to NAFLD by modulating the GVB. Methods: C57BL/6J mice were fed with high‐fat diet (HFD) or normal diet in the presence or absence of E. coli NF73‐1 for the indicated time periods. Intestinal barrier function and infiltration of immune cells were evaluated in these mice. Endothelial cells were exposed to E. coli NF73‐1 for barrier integrity analysis. Results: HFD‐induced GVB disruption preceded the damage of intestinal epithelial barrier (IEB) as well as intestinal and hepatic inflammatory changes and can be reversed by vascular endothelial growth factor A blockade. Antibiotic treatment prevented mice from HFD‐induced liver steatosis by restoration of the GVB. Notably, E. coli NF73‐1 caused a more conspicuous damage of GVB than that of the IEB and contributed to NAFLD development. Mechanistically, E. coli NF73‐1 dismantled the GVB by inhibiting the Wnt/β‐catenin signalling pathway. Activation of Wnt/β‐catenin improved the GVB and impeded the translocation of E. coli NF73‐1 into the liver in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: E. coli NF73‐1 disrupts GVB and aggravates NAFLD via inhibiting the Wnt/β‐catenin signalling pathway. Targeting E. coli NF73‐1 or selectively enhancing the GVB may act as potential avenues for the prevention and treatment of NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing activatable fluorescent probes with superlative fluorescence enhancement factor (F/F0) to improve the signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio is still an urgent issue. "AND" molecular logic gates are emerging as a useful tool for enhanced probes selectivity and accuracy. Here, an "AND" logic gate is developed as super‐enhancers for designing activatable probes with huge F/F0 and S/N ratio. It utilizes lipid‐droplets (LDs) as controllable background input and sets the target analyte as variable input. The fluorescence is tremendously quenching due to double locking, thus an extreme F/F0 ratio of target analyte is obtained. Importantly, this probe can transfer to LDs after a response occurs. The target analyte can be directly visualized through the spatial location without a control group. Accordingly, a peroxynitrite (ONOO−) activatable probe (CNP2‐B) is de novo designed. The F/F0 of CNP2‐B achieves 2600 after reacting with ONOO−. Furthermore, CNP2‐B can transfer from mitochondria to lipid droplets after being activated. The higher selectivity and S/N ratio of CNP2‐B are obtained than commercial probe 3'‐(p‐hydroxyphenyl) fluorescein (HPFin vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the atherosclerotic plaques at mouse models are delineated clearly after administration with in situ CNP2‐B probe gel. Such input controllable "AND" logic gate is envisioned to execute more imaging tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-voltage droop of high-voltage pulses is required to provide stable pulsed electric fields in many applications. Increasing the capacitance of energy storage capacitors increases both the size and the cost of the system. In this paper, four compensation stages based on the resonant circuit have been inserted into a 16-stage solid-state Marx generator to compensate for the voltage droop in different conditions. The nearly linear part of the sinusoidal voltage is precisely added to the load during discharging as compensation, and the rectangular pulsed voltage with little droop can be realized. Different numbers of compensation stages and different resonant inductances can compensate the droop to different levels, which means the compensation effect is also adjustable. Moreover, these compensation stages can operate as common stages in Marx generators as long as we open-circuit the resonant circuits. Since the capacitors in resonant compensation stages are also charged in parallel with capacitors in common stages, no auxiliary power supply is required. Simulating and experimental results show that the droop of a 9 kV pulse can be ideally compensated over a 500 Ω resistive load at various pulse widths. The pulse width should be shorter than the length of the nearly linear part of the sinusoidal voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The previous activatable probe toward one analyte can still produce imprecise signal as a result of the challenge cased by accurate identification in complex biological environment. As smarter molecules, dual-locked probes are able to respond to two different analyte with one or more output signals, which display significantly reduced background interference and increased spatial resolution. In this study, a smart cysteine/lipid droplets sequence-activated dual-locked fluorescent probe CN–NO 2 has been designed and synthesized for the detection of tumor tissues. The recognition group of CN–NO 2 removed after reacting with cysteine (Cys) and undergoing intramolecular rearrangement to generate complete fluorophores. This structure had a strong solvent effect; it could recognize lipid droplets (LDs) in cells, thus exhibiting fluorescence without secondary molecular adjustment. The fluorescence of CN–NO 2 was enhanced 1752-fold after double unlocking. Importantly, the unlocking process only takes 10 min. Furthermore, the fluorescence of CN–NO 2 was amplified remarkable and anchored at LDs after reacting with Cys in A549 cells. Therefore, CN–NO 2 clearly indicated the site of mouse xenograft tumor in vivo. Such sequence-activated dual-locked fluorescent probes are envisioned to execute more analysis and diagnostic tasks giving these unique characteristics. • The CN–NO 2 was enhanced 1752-fold after cysteine/lipid droplets double unlocking, and the unlocking process only takes 10 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic pain intensity estimation has great potential in current rehabilitation medicine, and patients' health status information can be obtained through the analysis of facial images. At present, deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have made great progress in many fields, including natural language processing, image classification and action recognition. Motivated by the current achievements, a novel end-to-end hybrid network is proposed to extract multidimensional features from image sequences, which is composed of 3D convolution, 2D convolution and 1D convolution. Specifically, the 3D convolutional neural network (3D CNN) is designed to capture the spatiotemporal features, and the 2D convolutional neural network (2D CNN) is designed to capture the spatial features, while the 1D convolutional neural network (1D CNN) is mainly used to capture the geometric information from facial landmarks. Finally, the features obtained by the three different networks are fused together for regression. The proposed HybNet is evaluated on UNBC-McMaster Shoulder Pain Expression Archive Database, and the experimental results show that it can effectively extract the discriminative high-level features and can achieve competitive performance with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, chemo-enzymatic synthesis of furfuralcohol (FOL) from corncob was attempted by sequential catalysis of HCOOH (1.0 wt%)-assisted solid acid SO 4 2−/SnO 2 -montmorillonite (2.0 wt%) at 180 °C for 10 min under microwave (600 W) and recombinant Escherichia coli CCZU-T15 whole-cells bioreduction for 4 h at 30 °C and pH 6.5. Furfural was obtained at 40.2% yield, and it (77.8 mM) could be completely biotransformed to FOL. Moreover, efficient biocatalyst recycling was achieved with immobilized cells. Clearly, this strategy has potential application for the effective synthesis of FOL from corncob. Highlights • Dilute HCOOH was used for assisting SO 4 2−/SnO 2 -MMT to produce furfural (FAL). • High FAL yield (40.2%) from corncob was achieved via co-catalysis under microwave. • FAL (77.8 mM) was completely coverted to furfuralcohol (FOL) under mild condition. • An efficient biocatalyst recycling was achieved with immobilized whole-cells • Effective synthesis of FOL from corncob was successfully demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Velocity-aligned Doppler spectroscopy was used to measure the speed distribution functions of HCl(v″=0–2,J″) produced in the 193 nm photodissociation of vinyl chloride. A mechanism which is consistent with our present data as well with our earlier work is three center elimination of HCl followed by concerted but nonsynchronous isomerization of the vinylidene fragment, with some of the isomerization energy converted to kinetic energy of the recoiling fragments. In order to explain the vibrational dependence of the translational and rotational energy distributions, the mechanism is assumed to be vibrationally adiabatic. In addition, magic angle Doppler spectroscopy was used to measure the speed distribution functions of Cl atoms produced in the photodissociation of vinyl chloride and the three dichloroethylene isomers. Bimodal energy distributions were observed for both spin–orbit states, with the Cl(2P1/2) fragment having more kinetic energy than Cl(2P3/2). The data are consistent with competitive reaction on two potential energy surfaces. Adiabatic correlation, with some scrambling in the asymptotic region, provide a qualitative explanation of the spin–orbit branching ratios. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have used partially deuterated vinyl chloride to elucidate the photodissociation mechanism of this molecule. We have found that 75% of the HCl fragments are produced by three-center α,α elimination. Surprisingly, the rotational energy distributions of HCl are the same for both elimination pathways. One possible explanation is that H atom migration in the parent molecule results in similar transition states for the two pathways. Alternatively, dissociation and fragment isomerization may be strongly coupled so that the product angular momentum distribution is determined late in the reaction coordinate. Very different rotational state distributions were observed for v‘=0 and v‘>=0. We speculate that this dichotomy is caused by formation of a hydrogen-bonded π complex between HCl(v‘>=0) and acetylene. We have also determined that HCl+ ions are produced primarily by an α,β mechanism. This mechanism consists of electronic excitation of vinyl chloride, followed by photoelimination and photoionization of electronically excited HCl*. Finally, we determined that H atoms are preferentially produced by detachment from the β carbon, as predicted from the relative stabilities of the α- and β-chlorovinyl radicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the ultraviolet photodissociation dynamics of 2-chloro-1, 1-diffluoroethylene. Product state population having a Boltzmann-like distribution; Agreement with a simple phase-space model; Nonstatistical state distribution of HCl produced in the photodissociation of vinyl chloride and dichloroethylene.

The direct arylation of substituted pyridines with several arylboronic acids has been developed. This transformation could proceed readily at ambient temperature using inexpensive reagents: iron(II) oxalate as a catalyst, potassium persulfate as a co-oxidant, which can afford the arylated products in mild to good yields. The mechanism is presumed to proceed through a nucleophilic radical addition to the pyridines with in situ reoxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Overexpression of Math1 has been demonstrated to induce robust ectopic new hair cells in greater epithelial ridge (GER) and lesser epithelial ridge (LER) of the postnatal rats'' cochlear in vitro. In spite of the similarities between cochlear and vestibular epithelia in origin and structure, no similar results have been reported in the non-sensory region of vestibular epithelia in vitro. In the study, the adenoviral vectors inserted with Math1 gene were constructed to examine their effect on vestibular epithelia in postnatal rats. In vivo, the adenovirus vectors administered in vestibular perilymphatic or endolymphatic space, their transduction efficiency and other indexes are different. We set up a culture construction to simulate and show the differences. In the study, we also developed a new dissection protocol to be quick to harvest the whole maculae and cristae. The new ectopic vestibular hair cell-like cells induced by overexpression of Math1, were found to appear in the non-sensory region of the postnatal rats'' vestibular epithelia as observed in the cochlear, and the number of the new cells was different when a different virus administration was simulated in vestibular perilymphatic or endolymphatic space, suggesting that the cells found could have the capability to differentiate into new hair cells. Our study might pave the way for further in vivo studies on vestibular Math1 adenoviral vector gene transfer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a serious complication of diabetes, which importantly contributes to the increased mortality of patients with diabetes. The development of DCM is accompanied by numerous pathological mechanisms, including oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. Accordingly, the present study aimed to determine the effects of the sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) inhibitor OSS-128167 on DCM using a mouse model of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes and high glucose (HG)-treated cardiomyocytes. C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with STZ for 5 days to simulate the diabetic cardiomyopathy model. Mice with STZ-induced diabetes (STZ-DM1) were orally administered OSS-128167 (20 or 50 mg/kg) through gavage every other day. The expression of SIRT6 in myocardial tissue was detected using western blotting. Tissue staining (hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome) was used to characterize myocardial structure, TUNEL fluorescent staining was used to detect myocardial apoptosis, and immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of inflammatory factors in myocardial tissue. Dihydroethidium staining and a malondialdehyde (MDA) detection kit were used to detect the oxidative stress levels in myocardial tissues. In vitro, H9c2 cells were pre-incubated with OSS-128167 for 1 h and then stimulated with HG (33 mM) for various durations. Expression levels of fibrosis markers, collagen-1 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, apoptosis-related proteins, Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved-poly ADP-ribose polymerase, tumor necrosis factor-α and the oxidative stress metabolite, 3-nitrotyrosine were analyzed using western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Commercially available kits were used to detect the activity of caspase-3 and the content of MDA in the H9c2 cell line. The corresponding results demonstrated that OSS-128167 aggravated diabetes-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis and fibrosis in mice. Mechanistically, OSS-128167 was revealed to increase the levels of inflammatory factors and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, OSS-128167 facilitated the inflammatory response and promoted the production of ROS while aggravating DCM development. These findings indicated that SIRT6 may target two closely combined and interacting pathological processes, the inflammatory response and oxidative stress, and may serve as a potentially advantageous therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, electrochemical sensors for nucleic acid testing based on CRISPR/Cas12a technology have attracted widespread interest due to their ease of operation and high detection sensitivity. Here, a label-free electrochemical sensor amplified by primer exchange reaction (PER), hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and CRISPR/Cas12a system was developed for analyzing miRNA- 155 and PCB 77. In the presence of targets, PER was initiated, whose products could be used to trigger the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a for the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) on the electrode. Afterwards, with the amplification of HCR on the electrode and electrostatic adsorption of Ru(NH 3) 6 3+, the concentration of the targets could be indicated by the DPV intensity with a low background signal. The detection limits for miRNA- 155 and PCB 77 were estimated to be 67 aM and 6.9 pg/L, respectively. This work provides a versatile method for sensitive detection of different targets using the same crRNA and can be used in various biochemical investigations. • A label-free electrochemical sensor was used for the detection of two targets. • PER, CRISPR/Cas system and HCR were applied for signal amplification. • CRISPR/Cas system can decrease the background signal without the usage of PAN. • The same crRNA can be used to detect different targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L-cysteine supported on an iron oxide magnetic nanoparticle was prepared by a facile and simple method. The catalyst was effectively applied to the one-pot synthesis of β-amino esters in moderate to good yield. Moreover, the magnetic organocatalyst could be readily recovered and reused up to five times without significant loss of its catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arylations of various quinones with several arylboronic acids have been developed. The reactions proceed readily at ambient temperature using iron(II) oxalate as a catalyst and potassium persulfate as a co-oxidant. The mechanism is presumed to proceed through a nucleophilic radical addition to the quinone with in situ reoxidation of the resulting dihydroquinone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring urban expansion and greenspace change is an urgent need for planning and decision-making. This paper presents a methodology integrating Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and hybrid classifier to undertake this kind of work using a sequence of multi-sensor SPOT images (SPOT-2,3,5) and Sentinel-2A data from 1996 to 2016 in Hangzhou City, which is the central metropolis of the Yangtze River Delta in China. In this study, orthorectification was first applied on the SPOT and Sentinel-2A images to guarantee precise geometric correction which outperformed the conventional polynomial transformation method. After pre-processing, PCA and hybrid classifier were used together to enhance and extract change information. Accuracy assessment combining stratified random and user-defined plots sampling strategies was performed with 930 reference points. The results indicate reasonable high accuracies for four periods. It was further revealed that the proposed method yielded higher accuracy than that of the traditional post-classification comparison approach. On the whole, the developed methodology provides the effectiveness of monitoring urban expansion and green space change in this study, despite the existence of obvious confusions that resulted from compound factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score, regarded as the effective indicator of patient nutrition, has been demonstrated to be related to prognosis of numerous tumours. Nevertheless, the significance of CONUT for gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) remains unclear. This study intended to clarify the association between CONUT and the prognosis of GISTs. Methods: Three hundred and fifty‐five patients with GISTs undergoing surgical resection at our center were retrospectively assessed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to help determine the cut‐off value of CONUT score. Relapse‐free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed by Kaplan–Meier curve analysis. Prognostic factors for RFS and OS were examined by Cox proportional hazards models. Results: A total of 355 patients were enrolled in this study. Areas under the curve (AUC) were 0.638 for CONUT score, and the cut‐off value of CONUT was shown to be three. Kaplan–Meier curve analysis showed that high CONUT score was linked to poorer RFS and OS. Univariate and multivariate analyses ultimately revealed that CONUT was a risk factor for RFS and OS, independent of demographics and clinicopathological tumour characteristics. Conclusions: CONUT score was an effective and novel predictor for prognosis of GIST patients treated with surgery, indicating its potential as a prognostic marker in the overall management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elimination of H2 in the photodissociation of mono- and di-chloroethylenes was studied with a pump-and-probe technique. A 193 nm excimer laser was used to photodissociate the parent molecules, and a tunable dye laser was used to probe the H2 fragment by 2+1 resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI). The nascent rotational state distributions of H2(X 1Σ+g,v″=0–4) were extracted from the REMPI spectra, and were found to have Boltzmann-type distributions. The maximum and average translational energies for some of the rovibrational levels of H2 were measured using magic angle Doppler spectroscopy. The translational energy of the fragments plus the internal energy of H2 was found to exceed the available energy for a three-center elimination mechanism. It is concluded that a migration mechanism plays a significant role in H2 elimination. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Optimum reaction conditions are examined for the arylation of substituted pyridines with arylboronic acids in the presence of iron(II) oxalate and potassium peroxodisulfate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents chemical equations related to the article "The Direct Arylation of Benzoquinones with Arylboronic Acid Promoted by Iron (II) Oxalate" by D. Guan and others published in the periodical "Journal of Chemical Research" in 2013.

A nontoxic and inexpensive TiO2/MoS2nanocomposite was prepared and employed as an efficient photocatalyst for the synthesis of symmetrical disulfides under visible light irradiation at room temperature. Both aryl and alkyl thiols survived the reaction conditions, affording the corresponding disulfides in good to excellent yields. The photocatalyst could be easily recovered by simple centrifugation and filtration and reused several times without significant loss in its activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Acute tonsillitis is a common disease in otorhinolaryngology. Meteorological factors can affect the incidence of many infectious diseases. This study aims to analyze the correlation between acute tonsillitis and meteorological conditions. Materials and Methods: We collected the meteorological data, including daily temperature, humidity, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of Shanghai, China, from 2014 to 2015. The monthly number of acute tonsillitis cases in our hospital was also calculated and used as the outcome variable. The associations between them were evaluated, respectively. Results: The average number of patients diagnosed with acute tonsillitis in our hospital per month was 68.67 ± 18.67 from 2014 to 2015. The average temperature, humidity, and PM2.5 of Shanghai during the defined period was 16.84 °C ± 7.80 °C, 75.93% ± 5.45%, and 52.38 ± 14.23 μg/m3, respectively. The temperature was significantly positively associated with the acute tonsillitis cases number both in Pearson correlation analysis (R = 0.423, P =.039) and in multivariate regression analysis (coefficient =2.194, P =.012). However, no correlation between the acute tonsillitis cases number and relative humidity or PM2.5 was found through a multivariate regression model (P =.225 and P =.243), respectively. Conclusion: The high temperature was associated with an increased incidence of acute tonsillitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and regioselective palladium-catalyzed ortho-C(sp2)-H acetoxylation of 2-aryloxypyridines with PhI(OAc)2 as both the oxidant and acetate source has been developed. The mono- and di-acetoxylated products can be achieved by tuning the equivalents of PhI(OAc)2 and the reaction temperature. A wide range of 2-aryloxypyridines is tolerated. Moreover, 2-pyridyloxyl and acetyl groups can be easily removed, which provides straightforward access to poly-substituted phenols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess any differences in spatial listening ability of cochlear implant recipients when using both or only one of two bilateral cochlear implants (BCIs) for stimuli originating from behind the subject. Twelve loudspeakers were placed in the rear horizontal plane of the subjects to test the sound localisation performance of BCI users and normal-hearing listeners (NHLs) with or without interfering noise. Stimuli were presented via two rear loudspeakers simultaneously during the speech recognition test. In the tone recognition test, another anechoic chamber was used with stimuli presenting from a loudspeaker behind the participants. Twenty-seven NHLs and eleven BCI users. Average root-mean-square (RMS) error for the bilateral condition was significantly lower than that for the right and left cochlear implant (CI) conditions with or without interfering noises (p < 0.05). Average speech or tone recognition scores for the bilateral condition and the right and left CI conditions were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Sound localisation with BCIs was significantly more accurate than with either implant alone. Speech and tone recognition scores were not better with two compared to those of one activated implant. Given the small number of subjects, the results should be considered as preliminary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R2745 --> Background & Aim：: Guanylate‐binding protein 5 (GBP5) is an essential component of cell‐autonomous immune responses against microbial infection. Here we investigated the potential roles for GBP5 in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Method: Colon tissues were collected from IBD patients at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen University, Guangzhou, China. Colitis mice were obtained by feeding male C57BL/6 mice with 2.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) water for 7days. Global gene expression profiles in the colonic mucosa of CD and UC were examined with our microarray dataset GSE16879. Individual gene and protein expression were analyzed by quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR) and Western blot, respectively. Gene enrichment analysis was performed with WEB‐based Gene Set Analysis Toolkit (WebGestalt). Immunohistochemistry and three‐color immunofluorescence were performed to examine the tissue and cellular localization of GBP5. Three GBP5 specific siRNA were used to transfect THP‐1 and Jurkart T cells to investigate the cellular function of GBP5. Result: Both immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence analyses indicated that GBP5 was only expressed in immune cells including T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes and macrophages, in the mucosa and the germinal center of the intestine, More GPB5 positive cells were observed in areas with more severe inflammation from the same patient. Consistently, highly elevated GBP5 expression was observed in the colonic mucosa of IBD patients and DSS induced colitis mice, In addition, the expression level of GBP5 returned to normal levels in the responders after infliximab treatment, but remained elevated in the non‐responders (Figure 1). From our transcriptome dataset, genes correlated with GBP5 were identified, and these genes were enriched in myeloid leukocyte activation and immune effector process, In line with this, GBP5 knockdown with siRNA in THP‐1 and Jukart T cell line led to the decreased expressions of TNFα, IFNG, IL‐8, IL‐18, CASP2, NLRP1 and NLRP4 (Figure 2). Discussion: Our observations demonstrated that GBP5 participated in IBD pathogenesis, The role of GBP5 in IBD may involve the regulation of immune cells and cytokines, Since GBP5 is a microbial sensor, our study may supply a novel link between the host and gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of IBD. Future effort will use the intestinal gbp5‐/‐ conditional knockout mouse model to define the exact role of GBP5 in IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the inner ear, the vestibular system is responsible for sense of balance, which consists of three semicircular canals, the utricle, and the saccule. Increasing evidence has indicated that the noncanonical Wnt/PCP signaling pathway plays a significant role in the development of the polarity of the inner ear. However, the role of canonical Wnt signaling in the polarity of the vestibule is still not completely clear. In this study, we found that canonical Wnt pathway-related genes are expressed in the early stage of development of the utricle and change dynamically. We conditionally knocked out β-catenin, a canonical Wnt signaling core protein, and found that the cilia orientation of hair cells was disordered with reduced number of hair cells in the utricle. Moreover, regulating the canonical Wnt pathway (Licl and IWP2) in vitro also affected hair cell polarity and indicated that Axin2 may be important in this process. In conclusion, our results not only confirm that the regulation of canonical Wnt signaling affects the number of hair cells in the utricle but also provide evidence for its role in polarity development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel oxide thin Slims with the thickness of about 480 nm were prepared by glancing angle DC reactive magnetron sputtering. The surface and cross-section morphologies and chemical compositions were charac¬terized by the field emission scanning electron microscope and the energy dispersive spectrometer. The cyclic voltammetry, optical modulation, optical density varying and colorization of NixOy thin films were e¬valuated by the electrochemical workstation and the ultraviolet visible spectrophotometer, respectively. The ion diffusion rates were calculated from linear tatting as a function of scanning rates. The coloring/Meaning re¬sponse time was obtained from the chronograph current measurements. The results show that the surface mor¬phology of NixOy films deposited at 80° glancing-angle was loose and porous. The cross-section presents inclined columnar structure, which provided a large specific surface area for the injection/extraction of ions or electrons. Under the driving potential of ±1.2 V, the electrochemical capacity and the rates of ion diffusion were significantly improved, resuming in excellent optical modulation and colorization resiliency. Meanwhile, the NixOy films presented good cyclic stability and rapid response characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the privacy and security issues of sensitive speech data in cloud storage, and how to achieve efficient retrieval with privacy-preserving for encrypted speech data in cloud storage, a searchable encryption over encrypted speech retrieval scheme in cloud storage was proposed. Firstly, the data owner encrypts the original speech data adopting symmetric encryption algorithm Lorenz chaotic mapping. Secondly, the encrypted speech data is uploaded to the cloud server for storage, and meanwhile the Mel frequency cepstrum coefficient (MFCC) features of original speech are extracted as the input of the convolutional neural network (CNN) to execute the deep semantic feature extraction, which is taken as the speech keywords. Finally, the extracted speech keywords are encrypted and stored in the cloud. When the authorized user sends a retrieval request, the trained CNN is utilized to extract the keywords of the speech to be retrieved, and the search trapdoor is generated and sent to the cloud server. In the process of retrieval, the Euclidean distance is used to match the encrypted keywords with the search trapdoor. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed scheme has higher security and retrieval accuracy, and can be suitable for the encrypted storage of speech data and efficient secure retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doppler profiles of chlorine and hydrogen atomic fragments produced in the photodissociation of mono- and dichloroethylenes at 193 nm have been measured in a pump-and-probe experiment using 2+1 resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization. In a second experiment, the angular distributions of the Cl fragments produced from chloroethylenes at 235 and 238 nm were measured using a perfect-focusing mass spectrometer. In a third experiment, we measured the power dependence of the relative yields of H, Cl, HCl, and HCl+ produced from vinyl chloride at 193 nm. For Cl detachment, two primary processes have been confirmed. One produces an isotropic angular distribution of photofragments, while the other produces an anisotropic distribution. For H atom detachment, an isotropic angular distribution and a Boltzmann velocity distribution were found. The ratio of yields of the Cl and H fragments was found to be 4±1 for CH2CCl2 and higher than 10 for t-CHClCHCl and CCl2CClH. The H, Cl, and HCl yields were found to be first order in laser intensity, while the HCl+ yield was found to be third order. Saturation measurements of the ion yield indicate that the latter results from a 1+1+1 resonance-enhanced process involving a bound state of the parent molecule. This intermediate state may also be responsible for producing the statistical component of the Cl atom product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work develops a novel photoelectrochemical sensor for the detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) based on the composite of UCNPs with semiconductors and conformational changes in the DNA structure. Firstly, SnS 2 , ZnIn 2 S 4 and UCNPs were assembled on the surface of the ITO electrode. Then Au NPs were dropped, which could facilitate the coupling of CdSe NPs modified DNA1 via Au–S bond, giving an ITO/SnS 2 /ZnIn 2 S 4 /UCNPs/CdSe heterojunction structure. When irradiated with 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light, the UV–visible light emitted by the UCNPs could excite the nanocomposite, producing an enhanced photoelectric reaction. Subsequently, CEA aptamer and DNA2-modified SiO 2 were added to form a Y-shaped DNA structure. At this time, the photocurrent was significantly reduced by the combination of the light-blocking effect of SiO 2 and the departure of CdSe NPs from the electrode surface. When the target CEA was added, the recognition between CEA and the aptamer led to the collapse of the Y-shaped DNA structure, the restoration of hairpin DNA and the proximity of CdSe to the electrode. Accordingly, the photocurrent signals enhanced again. Under optimal experimental conditions, the detection limit as low as 0.3 pg mL−1 was obtained with good selectivity, achieving a sensitive "on-off-on" photoelectrochemical sensor for CEA detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yields of mono- as well as bis-acetoxylated arenes depend significantly on the electronic nature of aryl substituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R4363 --> 826.6 --> Background: Previous studies reported inconsistent results regarding altered gut microbiome in patients with Crohn's disease (CD), likely due to the large impact of genetic polymorphisms and environmental factors on the structure of the gut microbiota. We aim to investigate the altered microbiome in CD with a cohort that minimizes the impact of irrelevant genetic and environmental factors on the gut microbiota. Method: Stool samples and clinical records were collected from 91 patients withCD and their healthy siblings in the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen University in Guangzhou, China, between March 2014 and December 2018. Fecal DNA was isolated and the V5‐V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced on a MiSeq platform. Data was processed with QIIME2. Spearman analysis was performed to identify the microbial features correlated with inflammatory markers. Result: Compared to healthy siblings, CD patients exhibited reduced alpha diversities based on the metrics of Chao1, Shannon, and observed speciesat the ASV level (P<0.05). Beta diversity was significantly different between study groups according to UniFrac based principle coordinate analysis (P<0.001). Altered abundances were observed at various taxonomic levels comparing between CD patients and their healthy siblings, including increased abundance in Escherichia‐Shigella and Veillonella, and decreased abundance in Lachnospiraceae, Prevotella 9 and Faecalibacterium in CD patients. Spearman analysis identified significant correlations between Escherichia‐ Shigella and Lachnospiraceae with inflammatory markers erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C‐reactive protein, and white blood cell count (Fig.1). Discussion: By comparing between CD patients with their siblings, the impact of the compounding genetic and environmental factors on the gut microbita was minimized. This approach allowed the identification of CD specific microbial fearures that are correlated with inflammatory markers. Further study along this line may establish CD specific microbial targets for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R2848 --> 826.10 --> Background: NLRP3 inflammasome is implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Since guanylate binding protein 5 (GBP5) induces the NLRP3 inflammasome activity, we aim to investigate the potential role of GBP5 in IBD pathogenesis. Methods: The expression of GBP5, NLRP3 inflammasome and related cytokines and chemokines were examined in two cohorts of IBD patients and healthy controls, by microarray transcriptome analysis, quantitative real time PCR, Western blot and Luminex Multi‐Analyte Profiling technology. Cellular and subcellular localization of GBP5 in colonic biopsies were examined by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence with confocal microscopy. For functional studies, GBP5 expression was induced by IFNγ or silenced by siRNA or CRISPR/CAS9 technique. Results: Expression of GBP5 was elevated in colonic mucosa in two geographically and culturally distinct IBD cohorts. In colonic tissues of IBD patients, the expression of GBP5 was mainly confined to immune cells and the levels of GBP5 expression were correlated with those of the inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In cultured T and macrophage cells, expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines were increased when GBP5 was induced, while GBP5 deficiency leads to decreased expression of the proinflammatory mediators including gasdermin D, caspase 1 and pro‐IL1β. Conclusions: GBP5 is required in the expression of many inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in intestinal immune cells. In addition, GBP5 may up‐regulate inflammatory reactions through an inflammasome mediated mechanism. Highly elevated GBP5 expression at the inflamed colonic mucosa in two geographically and culturally distinct IBD cohorts indicates that GBP5 plays a common and important role in IBD pathogenesis, and therefore, is a potential therapeutic target for the management of IBD patients of various genetic and environmental backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BETbromodomain inhibition has contributed new insights into generegulation and emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy in cancer.Structural analogy of early methyl-triazolo BET inhibitors has prompteda need for structurally dissimilar ligands as probes of bromodomainfunction. Using fluorous-tagged multicomponent reactions, we developeda focused chemical library of bromodomain inhibitors around a 3,5-dimethylisoxazolebiasing element with micromolar biochemical IC50. Iterativesynthesis and biochemical assessment allowed optimization of novelBET bromodomain inhibitors based on an imidazo[1,2-a]pyrazine scaffold. Lead compound 32(UMB-32) bindsBRD4 with a Kdof 550 nM and 724 nM cellularpotency in BRD4-dependent lines. Additionally, compound 32shows potency against TAF1, a bromodomain-containing transcriptionfactor previously unapproached by discovery chemistry. Compound 32was cocrystallized with BRD4, yielding a 1.56 Å resolutioncrystal structure. This research showcases new applications of fluorousand multicomponent chemical synthesis for the development of novelepigenetic inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] LER cells possessed high ability to proliferate post-explanted. [•] LER cells cannot differentiate into hair cells without Math1 expression. [•] LER cells induced to hair cell-like cells by Math1 mainly via direct transdifferentiation. [•] Newly formed hair cells cannot divide. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

R2702 --> Background & Aims: FUT2 encodes an α‐1,2‐fucosyltransferase required for the proper production of oligosaccharides and glycoproteins. The FUT2 polymorphism has been hypothesized to mediate a genetic mechanism to impact gut microbiota and consequently contribute to IBD pathogenesis, because of the high prevalence of loss‐of‐function polymorphisms of FUT2 and their association with IBD in genome‐wide association studies. In this study, we investigated the role of the gut microbiota in IBD patients with FUT2 loss‐of‐function mutation. Method: A total of 81 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients were enrolled in 6th Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen University in Guangzhou, China between March 2016 and July 2018. To determine the genotypes of the patients at rs1047781 (A385T) and rs601338 (G428A) of the FUT2 gene, individuals were asked to provided blood samples. All participants were divided into 3 groups according to their genotypes: SeSe, Sese, and sese groups. For microbiome study, fecal DNA was collected and the V5‐V6 region of the 16S rDNA was sequenced with a MiSeq platform. Metabolomics analysis targeting SCFA was performed by gas chromatography. Result: The FUT2 genotypes are associated with specific gut microbiome compositions and functions in IBD patients. Differences in alpha‐, beta‐diversities, bacterial abundances at every taxonomic levels were observed between different FUT2 genotypes. Escherichia was significantly decreased in the gut of the sese patients. On the other hand, CD8+ inducing Alistipe and Phascolarctobacterium and Th17 inducing Erysipelotrichaceae were more abundant in sese patients suggests that these bacteria may explain the higher incidence of IBD among sese individuals. The PICRUSt functional analysis based on the 16S data showed that, several carbohydrate synthesis pathways were enriched in IBD patients with non‐functional mutation of FUT2 (P<0.05). Interestingly, SCFA‐producing bacteria in sese patient were not decreased although SCFA is protective against colon inflammation. Metabolomics analysis targeting SCFA confirmed this observation. Discussion: Data presented here explained the association of non‐secretor status with IBD. Our study supports the hypothesis that FUT2 loss‐of‐function genotype causes altered gut microbiota that is poised to the development of IBD. The identification of the T cell inducing species in this study contributes to the knowledge base for the development of personalized microbial intervention for IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prior studies reported that 5 ~ 32% COVID-19 patients were critically ill, a situation that poses great challenge for the management of the patients and ICU resources. We aim to identify independent risk factors to serve as prediction markers for critical illness of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Methods: Fifty-two critical and 200 non-critical SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid positive patients hospitalized in 15 hospitals outside Wuhan from January 19 to March 6, 2020 were enrolled in this study. Multivariable logistic regression and LASSO logistic regression were performed to identify independent risk factors for critical illness.Results: Age older than 60 years, dyspnea, respiratory rate > 24 breaths per min, leukocytosis > 9.5 × 109/L, neutrophilia > 6.3 × 109/L, lymphopenia < 1.1 × 109/L, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio > 3.53, fibrinogen > 4 g/L, d-dimer > 0.55 μg/mL, blood urea nitrogen > 7.1 mM, elevated aspartate transaminase, elevated alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin > 21 μM, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score ≥ 2 were identified as risk factors for critical illness. LASSO logistic regression identified the best combination of risk factors as SOFA score, age, dyspnea, and leukocytosis. The Area Under the Receiver-Operator Curve values for the risk factors in predicting critical illness were 0.921 for SOFA score, 0.776 for age, 0.764 for dyspnea, 0.658 for leukocytosis, and 0.960 for the combination of the four risk factors.Conclusions: Our findings advocate the use of risk factors SOFA score ≥ 2, age > 60, dyspnea and leukocytosis > 9.5 × 109/L on admission, alone or in combination, to determine the optimal management of the patients and health care resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• General expression for peak compression factor (G) is proposed. • The influence of the pre-elution of solute on retention time and G is considered. • The Poppe equation for G is extended by taking pre-elution of solute into account. • Analytical expression for G under quadratic solvent strength is derived. Under gradient elution the solute will firstly migrate in initial mobile phase due to dwelling time (t D) of the system. The pre-elution of solute in initial mobile phase can be accounted for by a dimensionless value of t D /(t 0 k φ 0), where t 0 and k φ 0 denote dead time and retention factor in initial mobile phase, respectively. The influence of t D /(t 0 k φ 0) on retention time (t R) and peak compression factor (G) are discussed under linear gradient elution. A general expression for G is proposed, and two analytical forms of it which are suited for linear solvent strength model (LSSM) and quadratic solvent strength model (QSSM) respectively are presented. The well-known Poppe equation for G which is derived under LSSM is extended by taking t D /(t 0 k φ 0) into account. The expression for G under QSSM takes into account the curvature in the plot of logarithmic retention factor vs. mobile phase composition. By taking twelve compounds degraded from lignin as analytes, the experimental and predicted chromatograms are found to be well consistent. It is shown that t D /(t 0 k φ 0) has more effects on the prediction of t R than that of G. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies photocleavage of single DNA molecules. Manipulation of biomacromolecules at the single molecular level; Reactions of molecules in organisms; Substrate prepration.

Marine aquaculture plays an important role in seafood supplement, economic development, and coastal ecosystem service provision. The precise delineation of marine aquaculture areas from high spatial resolution (HSR) imagery is vital for the sustainable development and management of coastal marine resources. However, various sizes and detailed structures of marine objects make it difficult for accurate mapping from HSR images by using conventional methods. Therefore, this study attempts to extract marine aquaculture areas by using an automatic labeling method based on the convolutional neural network (CNN), i.e., an end-to-end hierarchical cascade network (HCNet). Specifically, for marine objects of various sizes, we propose to improve the classification performance by utilizing multi-scale contextual information. Technically, based on the output of a CNN encoder, we employ atrous convolutions to capture multi-scale contextual information and aggregate them in a hierarchical cascade way. Meanwhile, for marine objects with detailed structures, we propose to refine the detailed information gradually by using a series of long-span connections with fine resolution features from the shallow layers. In addition, to decrease the semantic gaps between features in different levels, we propose to refine the feature space (i.e., channel and spatial dimensions) using an attention-based module. Experimental results show that our proposed HCNet can effectively identify and distinguish different kinds of marine aquaculture, with 98% of overall accuracy. It also achieves better classification performance compared with object-based support vector machine and state-of-the-art CNN-based methods, such as FCN-32s, U-Net, and DeeplabV2. Our developed method lays a solid foundation for the intelligent monitoring and management of coastal marine resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]