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Phosphates play a crucial role in drug design, but their negative charge and high polarity make the transmembrane transport of phosphate species challenging. This leads to poor bioavailability of phosphate drugs. Combretastatin-A4 phosphate (CA4P) is such an anticancer monoester phosphate compound, but its absorption and clinical applicability are greatly limited. Therefore, developing carrier systems to effectively deliver phosphate drugs like CA4P is essential. Anion receptors have been found to facilitate the transmembrane transport of anions through hydrogen bonding. In this study, we developed a tripodal hexaurea anion receptor (L1) capable of binding anionic CA4P through hydrogen bonding, with a binding constant larger than 104 M−1 in a DMSO/water mixed solvent. L1 demonstrated superior binding ability compared to other common anions, and exhibited negligible cell cytotoxicity, making it a promising candidate for future use as a carrier for drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mango (Mangifera indica L.) faces escalating challenges from increasing drought stress due to erratic climate patterns, threatening yields, and quality. Understanding mango's drought response mechanisms is pivotal for resilience and food security. Results: Our RNA-seq analyses unveil 12,752 differentially expressed genes linked to stress signaling, hormone regulation, and osmotic adjustment. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis identified three essential genes—WRKY transcription factor 3, polyamine oxidase 4, and protein MEI2-like 1—as drought defense components. WRKY3 having a role in stress signaling and defense validates its importance. Polyamine oxidase 4, vital in stress adaptation, enhances drought defense. Protein MEI2-like 1's significance emerges, hinting at novel roles in stress responses. Metabolite profiling illuminated Mango's metabolic responses to drought stress by presenting 990 differentially abundant metabolites, mainly related to amino acids, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, contributing to a deeper understanding of adaptation strategies. The integration between genes and metabolites provided valuable insights by revealing the correlation of WRKY3, polyamine oxidase 4 and MEI2-like 1 with amino acids, D-sphingnosine and 2,5-Dimethyl pyrazine. Conclusions: This study provides insights into mango's adaptive tactics, guiding future research for fortified crop resilience and sustainable agriculture. Harnessing key genes and metabolites holds promise for innovative strategies enhancing drought tolerance in mango cultivation, contributing to global food security efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deformable attention only focuses on a small group of key sample-points around the reference point and make itself be able to capture dynamically the local features of input feature map without considering the size of the feature map. Its introduction into point cloud registration will be quicker and easier to extract local geometric features from point cloud than attention. Therefore, we propose a point cloud registration method based on Spatial Deformable Transformer (SDT). SDT consists of a deformable self-attention module and a cross-attention module where the deformable self-attention module is used to enhance local geometric feature representation and the cross-attention module is employed to enhance feature discriminative capability of spatial correspondences. The experimental results show that compared to state-of-the-art registration methods, SDT has a better matching recall, inlier ratio, and registration recall on 3DMatch and 3DLoMatch scene, and has a better generalization ability and time efficiency on ModelNet40 and ModelLoNet40 scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC)-Reinforced Concrete (RC) composite pier with high-strength steel bars was developed to address various deterioration concerns in bridges, such as reinforcement bar corrosion, decreased concrete strength, and inadequate seismic performance of RC piers. This paper focuses on the seismic performance of the bridge with ECC-RC composite piers with high-strength steel bars. The nonlinear finite element models of bridges with common RC piers and ECC-RC composite piers with high-strength steel bars are established using OpenSees. Considering the effect of chloride erosion during bridge service and the damage and repair of concrete cover, time-varying fragility curves for bridge piers, bearings, and the bridge system were established based on the Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) and the Capacity Demand Ratio (CDR) analysis method, followed by a comprehensive analysis. The results show that when ECC with high-strength steel bars is adopted in the plastic hinge area of bridge piers, the exceeding probability of ECC-RC composite piers with high-strength steel bars is significantly reduced. However, it has minimal impact on the seismic fragility of the bearings. When the bridge was in service for 100 years, the exceeding probability of the ECC-RC composite bridge system with high-strength steel bars was reduced by 18.79%, 51.33%, 49.38%, and 19.5%, respectively, under four different damage states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frailty is a reduced physiological reserve condition associated with postoperative morbidity and mortality. The chart-derived frailty index (CFI) can measure frailty using demographic and laboratory values. We evaluated the association of preoperative CFI with 90-d mortality after burn surgery. This large retrospective study included burn intensive care unit (ICU) patients between 2012 and 2021 and calculated CFI using the sum of the following five variables: age >70 y, body mass index <18.5 kg/m2, hematocrit <35%, albumin <3.4 g/dL, and creatinine >2.0 mg/dL; high CFI was a score of 3-5. Postoperative 90-d mortality rate, major adverse cardiac events (MACE), pneumonia, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) requirement, and prolonged ICU stay (>60 d) were evaluated. Of 1118 patients, 147 (13.1%) had high CFI. High CFI patients had a higher 90-d mortality rate than did low CFI patients (38.8% versus 22.6%, P < 0.001). A high CFI was significantly associated with postoperative 90-d mortality (hazard ratio = 4.124, 95% confidence interval = 2.980-5.707, P < 0.001) in multivariate Cox regression analysis. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed significantly different postoperative 90-d mortality rates between patients with high and low CFIs (log-rank test, P < 0.001). Incidences of postoperative MACE, pneumonia, the need for CRRT, and prolonged ICU stay were significantly higher in patients with high CFIs than in those with low CFIs. Preoperative high CFI was associated with increased 90-d mortality, MACE, pneumonia, CRRT requirement, and ICU stay following burn surgery. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gut dysbiosis and the resulting changes in the metabolites have been associated with neurological diseases. However, the relationship between the gut microbiota and sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD) need to be clarified. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the composition of gut microbiota and metabolome accompanying sCJD, and determine their correlation with disease severity. Methods: Fecal samples were collected from 25 sCJD patients and 23 healthy controls. The composition of the fecal microbiota and metabolites was respectively analyzed by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics. The correlation of gut microbiota and metabolites with MMSE, MoCA and MRC scores was analyzed. Results: The sCJD patients showed significant differences in the composition of gut microbiota and metabolites relative to the healthy controls. Several bacteria taxa in sCJD patients were increased at genus level, such as Turicibacter, norank_f_Christensenellaceae, Eisenbergiella, Bilophila and Holdemania. A total of 547 differential metabolites were identified between these two groups (VIP > 1, FDR p < 0.05). As per KEGG analysis, the metabolites related to the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, especially biochanin A, showed the most obvious decrease in the sCJD group. In addition, most metabolites involved in the pathways related to linoleic acid metabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis were associated with MRC scale. Conclusion: Our findings provide new insights into the relationship between gut microbiota and metabolites and sCJD. Some compounds, especially those related to the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids were significantly altered in patients with sCJD, and those related to linoleic acid metabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis might be biomarkers of evaluating disease severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare and fatal prion disease, specifically focusing on the MV2K subtype. The MV2K subtype is particularly rare in Asia due to the low prevalence of the MV genotype in the Asian population. The article presents the case of a Chinese patient with probable MV2K sCJD, highlighting the unique involvement of the midbrain and the dynamic progression of MRI changes. The study contributes to the understanding of this subtype and may aid in early diagnosis. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: To assess the proportion of clinically diagnosed MM2‐type sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD) in a Chinese cohort, describe the clinical features of MM2‐cortical (MM2C) and MM2‐thalamic (MM2T) type sCJD to improve the early detection of MM2‐type sCJD. Methods: A total of 209 patients with sCJD admitted to the Xuanwu Hospital between February 2012 and August 2022 were reviewed. The patients were classified into probable MM2C, MM2T‐type sCJD, and other types of sCJD according to current clinical diagnostic criteria. Clinical and ancillary data were compared between the groups. Results: Fifty‐one (24.4%) patients were clinically diagnosed with MM2‐type sCJD, of which 44 were diagnosed with MM2C‐type sCJD and 7 with MM2T‐type sCJD. In the absence of RT‐QuIC, 27 (61.3%) patients of MM2C‐type sCJD did not meet the US CDC sCJD criteria for possible sCJD on admission, even though the mean period from onset to admission was 6.0 months. However, all of these patients had cortical hyperintensity on DWI. Compared to the other types of sCJD, MM2C‐type sCJD was associated with slower disease progression and the absence of the typical clinical features of sCJD; the MM2T‐type sCJD group had a higher proportion of males, earlier age of onset, longer duration of disease, and a higher incidence of bilateral thalamic hypometabolism/hypoperfusion. Interpretation: In the absence of multiple typical sCJD symptoms within 6 months, the presence of cortical hyperintensity on DWI should raise concerns for MM2C‐type sCJD after excluding other etiologies. Bilateral thalamic hypometabolism/hypoperfusion may be more helpful in the clinical diagnosis of MM2T‐type sCJD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Heidenhain variant of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (HvCJD), as a rare phenotype of CJD, has been under-recognized. We aim to elucidate the clinical and genetic features of HvCJD and investigate the differences of clinical features between genetic and sporadic HvCJD to improve our understanding of this rare subtype. Method: HvCJD patients admitted to the Xuanwu Hospital from February 2012 to September 2022 were identified, and published reports on genetic HvCJD cases were also reviewed. The clinical and genetic features of HvCJD were summarized, and the clinical features between genetic and sporadic HvCJD were compared. Results: A total of 18 (7.9%) HvCJD patients were identified from 229 CJD cases. Blurred vision was the most common visual disturbance at the disease's onset, and the median duration of isolated visual symptoms was 30.0 (14.8–40.0) days. DWI hyperintensities could appear in the early stage, which might help with early diagnosis. Combined with previous studies, nine genetic HvCJD cases were identified. The most common mutation was V210I (4/9), and all patients (9/9) had methionine homozygosity (MM) at codon 129. Only 25% of cases had a family history of the disease. Compared to sporadic HvCJD, genetic HvCJD cases were more likely to present with non-blurred vision visual symptoms at onset and develop cortical blindness during the progression of the disease. Conclusions: HvCJD not only could be sporadic, but also, it could be caused by different PRNP mutations. Sporadic HvCJD was more likely to present with blurred vision visual symptoms at onset, and genetic HvCJD was more likely to develop cortical blindness with the disease's progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a fatal and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. Identification of inexpensive and easy-to-implement biomarkers of CJD which could predict disease severity and patient survival is important for improving disease management. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value of peripheral neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), monocyte to HDL ratio (MHR) and neutrophil to HDL ratio (NHR) for CJD. Methods: Patients with definite or probable CJD admitted to the Neurology Department of Xuanwu Hospital from 2014 to 2021 were enrolled and followed up until April 2022. Clinical information including sex, age, Barth Index, survival time and results of auxiliary examination were collected, and NLR, HDL, NHR and MHR were measured for all enrolled patients. The associations between NLR, HDL, NHR and MHR, and disease severity (evaluated by Barth Index), survival time and auxiliary examinations were evaluated. Results: A total of 88 CJD patients were enrolled and all were deceased. NLR (r = -0.341, p = 0.001), NHR (r = -0.346, p = 0.001) and MHR (r = -0.327, p = 0.002) were significantly associated with disease severity. Higher NHR (HR = 2.344, 95% CI = 1.277–4.303 p = 0.006) and lower HDL (HR = 0.567, 95% CI = 0.346–0.930, p = 0.025) were associated with shorter survival time in the CJD patients. Conclusions: Peripheral inflammatory biomarkers, especially NHR, were associated with disease severity and survival duration. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms and treatment strategies of CJD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The 14-3-3 protein in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a suitable biomarker for the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). However, it has also been detected in various non-prion-related rapidly progressive dementia (RPD), which affected its diagnostic performance and clinical utilization. Objective: To investigate the general disease distribution with positive 14-3-3 result and to evaluate the association between CSF 14-3-3 protein and the clinical features in patients with non-prion RPD. Methods: A total of 150 patients with non-prion RPD were enrolled. The clinical data were collected and CSF 14-3-3 test was performed for all patients. The distribution of various diseases with a positive 14-3-3 result was analyzed and the association of CSF 14-3-3 with clinical features was tested. Results: The CSF 14-3-3 protein was detected in 23.3% of non-prion RPD patients, and the most frequent diagnoses were autoimmune encephalitis (22.9%) and neurodegenerative disease (22.9%). CSF 14-3-3 protein was more common in older patients (p = 0.028) and those presenting myoclonus (p = 0.008). In subgroup analysis, the positive 14-3-3 test was more common in neurodegenerative disease with a long time from the symptom onset to CSF 14-3-3 test (p = 0.014). Conclusion: CSF 14-3-3 protein could be detected in a broad spectrum of non-prion RPD. In particular, patients with autoimmune encephalitis and rapidly progressive neurodegenerative diseases and those with myoclonus have a greater likelihood of a positive 14-3-3 result. These results could help clinicians interpret the results of CSF 14-3-3 protein more reasonably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescent cuprous complexes are of great importance among coordination compounds due to their relative abundance, low cost and ability to display excellent luminescence. The title heteroleptic cuprous polymer solvate, catena‐poly[[[(9,9‐dimethyl‐9H‐xanthene‐4,5‐diyl)bis(diphenylphosphane)‐κ2P,P′](μ‐pyridine‐3‐carbonitrile‐κ2N1:N3)copper(I)] hexafluorophosphate dichloromethane trisolvate], {[Cu(C6H4N2)(C39H32OP2)]PF6·3CH2Cl2}n, conventionally abbreviated as {[Cu(3‐PyCN)(Xantphos)]PF6·3CH2Cl2}n, where Xantphos and 3‐PyCN represent (9,9‐dimethyl‐9H‐xanthene‐4,5‐diyl)bis(diphenylphosphane) and pyridine‐3‐carbonitrile, respectively, has been described. In this polymer solvate, the asymmetric unit consists of three dichloromethane solvent molecules, a hexafluorophosphate anion and a polymeric heteroleptic cuprous complex cation, in which the cuprous centre is in a CuP2N2 tetrahedral coordination and is coordinated by two P atoms from the Xantphos ligand and two N atoms from two 3‐PyCN ligands (the pyridyl and cyano N atoms). It is through the connection of the μ2‐bridging 3‐PyCN ligand that these cuprous centres are linked into a one‐dimensional helical chain structure. The chains are further assembled through C—H...π interactions to form a supramolecular metal–organic framework containing solvent‐accessible channels. The UV–Vis absorption and photoluminescence properties of this heteroleptic cuprous polymer have been studied on as‐synthesized samples. Its luminescence emission should mainly originate from the metal‐to‐ligand charge transfer excited state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abbreviations CSF Cerebrospinal fluid DWI Diffusion-weighted images MRI Magnetic resonance imaging MRS Magnetic resonance spectroscopy MELAS Mitochondrial encephalopathy lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes NIID Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease PCR Polymerase chain reaction UTR Untranslated region Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. In summary, we reported an atypical patient of NIID identified by skin biopsy and genetic test, only presented with asymmetric MELAS-like white matter lesions without corticomedullary DWI hyperintensity. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) can be difficult to distinguish clinically from some non-prion neurological diseases. Previous studies have reported markedly increased levels of α-synuclein in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of CJD patients, indicating that it is a potential diagnostic biomarker.Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic power of CSF α-synuclein in discriminating CJD from non-prion disorders.Methods: The Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Embase databases were searched for articles published on or before February 25, 2022, using the search term (prion diseases OR Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome) AND (synuclein OR α-synuclein). The difference in CSF α-synuclein levels between CJD and non-prion diseases was calculated using random-effects models (I2 > 50%) or fixed-effects models (I2 < 50%) in terms of standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The publication bias was estimated using funnel plots and the Egger's test.Results: Ten studies were included in this study. The concentrations of CSF α-synuclein were significantly higher in CJD patients compared to total non-prion controls (SMD = 1.98, 95% CI 1.60 to 2.36, p < 0.00001), tauopathies (SMD = 1.34, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.68, p < 0.00001), synucleinopathies (SMD = 1.78, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.44, p < 0.00001), or Alzheimer's (SMD = 1.14, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.33, p < 0.00001). CSF α-synuclein could distinguish CJD from non-prion diseases with overall sensitivity of 89% (95% CI 80-95%), specificity of 92% (95% CI 86-95%), and AUC of 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94-0.97).Conclusion: CSF α-synuclein has excellent diagnostic value in discriminating CJD from non-prion neurological diseases. Given the high heterogeneity among the included studies, further studies are needed to confirm its clinical utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To elucidate and compare the genetic, clinical, ancillary diagnostic, and pathological characteristics across different Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS) phenotypes and explore the underlying causes of the phenotypic heterogeneities. The genetic, clinical, ancillary diagnostic, and pathological profiles of GSS patients reported in the literature were obtained and analyzed. Additionally, 3 patients with genetically confirmed GSS from our unit were included. Based on clinical presentation, patients were classified into typical GSS, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)-like GSS, GSS with dementia, and other categories. A total of 329 GSS cases were included with a 1.13:1 female-to-male ratio, median onset age 44, and median duration 4 years. Of the 294 categorized patients, 50.7% had typical GSS, 24.8% showed CJD-like GSS, and 16.3% presented with GSS with dementia. Clinical classification varied significantly based on genotype, with P102L more common in typical GSS and A117V prevalent in CJD-like GSS. Polymorphism at codon 129 has no effect on GSS phenotype, but the 129 M allele acts as a protective factor in GSS patients in Asia and North America. Moderate to severe spongiform degeneration and the presence of PK-resistant small fragments migrating at <11 kDa on electrophoretic gels along with PrP27–30 fragments were more prevalent in CJD-like GSS phenotype, while hyperphosphorylated tau protein co-deposition tends to be characteristic of typical GSS and GSS with dementia. This study reveals GSS's intricate nature, showing significant variations in clinical presentations, diagnostic findings, and pathological features. Mutation sites and pathological changes play crucial roles in determining the GSS clinical heterogeneity. • GSS exhibits diverse clinical, diagnostic, and pathological variations. • Typical GSS only makes up about half of all GSS patients. • Mutation sites and pathological changes determine GSS clinical heterogeneity. • Polymorphism at codon 129 doesn't affect GSS phenotype • 129 M allele acts as a protective factor in Asia/North America GSS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoplastics (NPs) inevitably interact with iron minerals (IMs) after being released into aquatic environments, changing their transport and fate. In this study, batch heteroaggregation kinetics of four types of NPs, i.e., polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS-Bare), amino-polystyrene (PS-NH 2), and carboxyl-polystyrene (PS-COOH), with two different IMs (hematite and magnetite) were conducted. We found that the heteroaggregation of NPs and IMs and the associated interfacial interaction mechanisms are both NPs-dependent and IMs-dependent. Specifically, the NPs had stronger heteroaggregation with hematite than magnetite; the heteroaggregation order of two IMs with NPs was PMMA > PS-NH 2 > PS-Bare > PS-COOH. Moreover, hydrogen bond, complexation, hydrophobic, cation-π, and electrostatic interaction were involved in the interfacial reaction between NPs and hematite, and electrons were transferred from the NPs to the hematite, causing the reduction of Fe3+ into Fe2+. Furthermore, we first revealed that both pre-homoaggregation of NPs and IMs could affect their subsequent heteroaggregation, and the homoaggregates of IMs could be interrupted by PMMA or PS-COOH NPs introduction. Therefore, the emerging NPs pollution is likely to generate an ecological effect in terms of elemental cycles such as iron cycle. This work provides new insights into assessing the environmental transfer and ecological effects of NPs in aquatic environments. [Display omitted] • NPs were heavier aggregate with hematite than magnetite. • IMs were heavier aggregate with PMMA NPs than PS NPs. • Homoaggregation of IMs inhibited PMMA NPs-IMs heteroaggregation. • Electron transfer from NPs causes reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+ on hematite surface. • Hydrogen bonds and steric hindrance dominate the CCC between different NPs and Hem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • High-density polyethylene fillers are successfully applied in CW-MFC. • CW-MFC removed 97.55% TN with an influent COD/TN ratio of 2.92. • HDPE fillers and plant biomass contributed to ecosystem stability. • Heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification potentially occurred in CW-MFC. There is an urgent need to meet strict nitrogen discharge limitation for secondary effluent from wastewater treatment plants, but the nitrogen removal is restricted due to the lack of carbon sources. To address the issues, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was utilized in the constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell (CW-MFC) for the treatment of low carbon wastewater. Meanwhile, wetland plant biomass was efficiently reclaimed, leading to higher nitrogen removal and bioelectricity generation. CW-MFC with biomass added in the anode attained the maximum total nitrogen (TN) removal of 97.55 % and power density of 2.22 mW/m2 with hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2d, which were much better than those in CW, CW-MFC with no biomass and CW-MFC with biomass added in the cathode. Owing to the HDPE fillers and Acorus calamus biomass addition in CW-MFC, more than 88 % chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 70 % TN were removed with HRT of 1.5d. In addition, metabolisms related to glycolysis, cellulose degradation and nitrogen were increased in CW-MFC, contributing to the enrichment of denitrifying, electroactive and heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria. This study verifies the feasibility of application of HDPE as the biocarriers in CW-MFC and provides mechanistic insights for the enhancement of nitrogen removal in low carbon wastewater treatment with plant biomass addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Derived from rapid advances in computer vision and machine learning, video analysis tasks have been moving from inferring the present state to predicting the future state. Vision-based action recognition and prediction from videos are such tasks, where action recognition is to infer human actions (present state) based upon complete action executions, and action prediction to predict human actions (future state) based upon incomplete action executions. These two tasks have become particularly prevalent topics recently because of their explosively emerging real-world applications, such as visual surveillance, autonomous driving vehicle, entertainment, and video retrieval, etc. Many attempts have been devoted in the last a few decades in order to build a robust and effective framework for action recognition and prediction. In this paper, we survey the complete state-of-the-art techniques in action recognition and prediction. Existing models, popular algorithms, technical difficulties, popular action databases, evaluation protocols, and promising future directions are also provided with systematic discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Co-photoaging of PSNPs and TiO 2 NPs exacerbates PSNPs oxidation. • Heteroaggregation between PSNPs and TiO 2 NPs are facet-dependent. • Homoaggregation and PDOC inhibit TiO 2 NPs-PSNPs herteroaggregation. • Van der Waals interaction dominates heteroaggregation between TiO 2 NPs and PSNPs. • Lewis-acid interaction dominates the heteroaggregation between TiO 2 NPs and APSNPs. Heteroaggregation between nanoplastics (NPs) and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO 2 NPs) determines their environmental fates and ecological risks in aquatic environments. However, the co-photoaging scenario of NPs and TiO 2 NPs, interaction mechanisms of TiO 2 NPs with (aged) NPs, as well as the dependence of their heteroaggregation on TiO 2 NPs facets remain elusive. We found the critical coagulation concentration (CCC) of polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) with coexisting RTiO 2 NPs was 1.9 − 2.2 times larger than that with coexisting ATiO 2 NPs, suggesting a better suspension stability of PSNPs+RTiO 2 NPs. In addition, CCC of TiO 2 NPs with coexisting photoaged PSNPs (APSNPs) was larger 1.7 − 2.2 times than that with PSNPs coexisting, indicating photoaging inhibited their heteroaggregation due to increasing electrostatic repulsion derived from increased negative charges on APSNPs and the polymer-derived dissolved organic carbon. Coexisted TiO 2 NPs promoted oxidation of PSNPs with the action of HO· and O 2 ·– under UV light, leading to inhibited heteroaggregation. Moreover, Van der Waals and Lewis-acid interaction dominated the formation of primary heteroaggregates of PSNPs-TiO 2 NPs (E SE = ‒2.20 ∼ ‒2.78 eV) and APSNPs-TiO 2 NPs (E SE = ‒3.29 ∼ ‒3.67 eV), respectively. The findings provide a mechanistic insight into the environmental process of NPs and TiO 2 NPs, and are significant for better understanding their environmental risks in aquatic environments. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct uninorms on a bounded trellis based on t-(co)norms on a ∧ (∨) -semi-trellis and closure (interior) operators. The key is how to ensure the monotonicity of the constructed binary operation, which is closely related to the neutral element. We propose the uninorms on bounded trellises and study some basic properties. Specially, the neutral element must be middle-transitive if there is a uninorm on a bounded trellis. Based on this, we introduce the construction method according to the left- and middle-transitive neutral element via t-norms, t-superconorms and closure operators on bounded trellises satisfying (CC1). Similarly, we provide the construction method when the neutral element is right- and middle-transitive via t-conorms, t-subnorms and interior operators on bounded trellises satisfying (CC2). Finally, we give two methods of constructing uninorms if the neutral element is middle-transitive and is not in any cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to hetero-deformation induced (HDI) strengthening and HDI work hardening, heterostructured materials with both "hard" and "soft" features have been proven to achieve strength–ductility synergy. Laser-directed energy deposition (LDED) has shown tremendous potential in the fabrication of heterostructured materials, but faces challenges in accurately placing the required structures or materials at specific times and locations. This study developed a novel Ti 2 AlC (MAX phase)-modified Inconel 718 composite material (MAX/Inconel 718) with multiscale precipitation (γ', carbides, Laves phase) characteristics during solidification, highly sensitive to changes in cooling rates, and exhibiting excellent controllability of strength. A method called multibeam diameter laser-directed energy deposition (MBD-LDED), which allows the dynamic adjustment of the beam diameter during the building process to alter the cooling rate during solidification, is proposed. This enabled the placement of MAX/Inconel 718 with different strengths at suitable positions within the part. Different combinations of beam diameters can form periodic distributions and spatial interlocking structures with alternating "soft" and "hard" features perpendicular and parallel to the building direction. Compared to commercial Inconel 718, MAX/Inconel 718 demonstrated excellent manufacturability, strength, and high-temperature oxidation resistance. This study provides new insights into the design and performance optimisation of heterostructures using homogeneous materials and offers guidance for the integrated manufacturing of heterostructured components in the context of comprehensive material–structure–performance design. [Display omitted] • A novel multibeam diameter laser-directed energy deposition method is proposed. • A customized heterostructure is created by manipulating the microstructure of MAX/Inconel 718 composite materials. • The spatial interlocking structure enhances the average stress during three-point bending test. • The significance and applications of synergizing multiple beam diameters with multiple feature resolutions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As precursor cells of odontoblasts, dental papilla cells (DPCs) form the dentin–pulp complex during tooth development. Nitric oxide (NO) regulates the functions of multiple cells and organ tissues, including stem cell differentiation and bone formation. In this paper, we explored the involvement of NO in odontoblastic differentiation. We verified the expression of NO synthase (NOS) in rat odontoblasts by nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate–diaphorase (NADPH‐d) staining and immunohistochemistry in vivo. The expression of all three NOS isoforms in rat DPCs was confirmed by quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR), immunofluorescence, and western blotting in vitro. The expression of neuronal NOS and endothelial NOS was upregulated during the odontoblastic differentiation of DPCs. Inhibition of NOS function by NOS inhibitor l‐NG‐monomethyl arginine (L‐NMMA) resulted in reduced formation of mineralized nodules and expression of dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) and dentin matrix protein (DMP1) during DPC differentiation. The NO donor S‐nitroso‐N‐acetylpenicillamine (SNAP, 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 μM) promoted the viability of DPCs. Extracellular matrix mineralization and odontogenic markers expression were elevated by SNAP at low concentrations (0.1, 1, and 10 μM) and suppressed at high concentration (100 μM). Blocking the generation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) with 1H‐(1,2,4)oxadiazolo‐(4,3‐a)quinoxalin‐1‐one (ODQ) abolished the positive influence of SNAP on the odontoblastic differentiation of DPCs. These findings demonstrate that NO regulates the odontoblastic differentiation of DPCs, thereby influencing dentin formation and tooth development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The keystone perforator island flap (KPIF) is popular in reconstructive surgery. However, despite its versatility, its biomechanical effectiveness is unclear. We present our experience of KPIF reconstruction in the human back and evaluate the tension-reducing effect of the KPIF. Between September 2019 and August 2020, 17 patients (51.82 ± 14.72 years) underwent KPIF reconstruction for back defects. In all cases, we measured wound tension at the defect and donor sites before and after KPIF reconstruction using a tensiometer. All defects occurred after complete excision of complicated epidermoid cysts and debridement of surrounding tissues. The defects were successfully covered with Type IIA KPIFs. All flaps survived, and there were no significant postoperative complications. The mean "tension change at the defect after Type I KPIF" and "tension change at the defect after Type II KPIF" were − 2.97 ± 0.22 N and − 5.59 ± 0.41 N, respectively, (P < 0.001). The mean "rate of tension change at the defect after Type I KPIF" and "rate of tension change at the defect after Type II KPIF" were − 36.54 ± 1.89% and − 67.98 ± 1.63%, respectively, (P < 0.001). Our findings confirm the stepwise tension-reducing effect of KPIF and clarify the biomechanics of this flap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asthma is a complex inflammatory disorder that plagues a large number of people. Schisandrin B is an active ingredient of the traditional Chinese herbal medicine Schisandra with various proven physiological activities such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. In this study, we explored the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects and provided the mechanistic insights into the activity of schisandrin B in a mouse model of ovalbumin- (OVA-) induced allergic asthma.Methods: Male BALB/c mice were sensitized and challenged with OVA to induce asthma and treated with various doses (15 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg, and 60 mg/kg) of SCH to alleviate the features of allergic asthma, airway hyperresponsiveness, inflammatory response, OVA-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)E level, and pathological injury.Results: Schisandrin B significantly attenuated the airway hyperresponsiveness induced by OVA. Moreover, schisandrin B administration suppressed inflammatory responses, reduced the level of IgE, and attenuated pathological injury. Mechanistically, schisandrin B treatment promoted the activation of nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), but suppressed the stimulation of the NF-κB pathway caused by OVA.Conclusion: Taken together, our study suggests that schisandrin B attenuates the features of asthmatic lungs by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway and activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI plays significant role in the epileptic zone detection. • This approach has strongest potential for selecting patients suitable for surgery. • VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI provides independent prognostic information for TLE-dual pathology. • Considered the cost-benefit ratio, at least v-EEG, MRI and PET are recommended use. • VBM and SPM are complementary tools for MRI and PET analysis. To investigate the application value of multimodal MRI combined with PET metabolic parameters in detecting temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with dual pathology (DP) and the prediction effect of post-surgical outcomes in these patients. We retrospectively reviewed 50 patients with TLE-DP who underwent surgery at our hospital between January 2016 and December 2021 and collected the demographics, clinical characteristics, video-electroencephalography (v-EEG), neuroimaging, and surgical data. Seizure outcome data were collected during a regular follow-up of at least 12 months and were graded using Engel scores. Fisher's exact test was used to compare the differences in DP detection rates of various diagnostic modalities. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to explore the prognostic factors for predicting seizure outcomes post-surgery. Of the 50 patients, 20 were males. The median age was 30, the median age at first seizure was 14, and the median duration was ten years. Voxel-based morphometry-PET statistical parametric mapping-PET/MRI (VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI) had the highest detection rate, followed by PET/MRI, VBM analysis, and PET-SPM. Regardless of follow-up duration, v-EEG, PET, image post-processing methods, and VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI statistically correlated with seizure outcomes using the log-rank test in the Kaplan-Meier analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI was an independent predictor of TLE-DP (hazard ratio (HR) = 15.674, 95 % CI = 0.002–0.122, P < 0.00 1). Our study illustrates that VBM-PSPM-PET/MRI has the highest detection value in patients with TLE-DP and can provide independent prognostic information for patients who undergo surgery. This approach has the most substantial potential for the selection of candidates for patients who undergo surgical treatment and for prognostic stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Severe inflammation and acute kidney injury (AKI) are serious adverse events after burn injuries. The neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a marker of inflammation. We evaluated the independent risk factors for postoperative AKI, including NLR, in burn-injured patients.Methods: The preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative variables of 473 burn-injured patients were collected. The risk factors for AKI after burn surgery were evaluated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of preoperative NLR was performed. The 3-month mortality after surgery was also compared between AKI and non-AKI groups using Kaplan-Meier analysis with a log-rank test.Results: Postoperative AKI occurred in 71 of 473 (15.0%) burn patients. The total body surface area burned (odds ratio (OR), 1.013; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.001-1.026; P = 0.037), inhalation injury (OR, 1.821; 95% CI, 1.008-3.292; P = 0.047), and preoperative NLR (OR, 1.094; 95% CI, 1.064-1.125; P < 0.001) were risk factors for AKI after surgery. The area under the ROC curve was 0.767, with an optimal cut-off value of 11.7. Moreover, the 3-month mortality after surgery was significantly higher in the AKI group than in the non-AKI group (49.3% vs 14.9%, P < 0.001).Conclusion: Total body surface area burned, inhalation injury, and preoperative NLR are risk factors for AKI after burn surgery, which is associated with early postoperative mortality. Preoperative NLR can provide useful information for the early detection of postoperative AKI and subsequent mortality in burn-injured patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, online gambling has a great negative impact on the society. In order to study the effect of people's psychological factors, anti-gambling policy, and social network topology on online gambling dynamics, a new SHGD (susceptible–hesitator–gambler–disclaimer) online gambling spreading model is proposed on scale-free networks. The spreading dynamics of online gambling is studied. The basic reproductive number R 0 is got and analyzed. The basic reproductive number R 0 is related to anti-gambling policy and the network topology. Then, gambling-free equilibrium E 0 and gambling-prevailing equilibrium E + are obtained. The global stability of E 0 is analyzed. The global attractivity of E + and the persistence of online gambling phenomenon are studied. Finally, the theoretical results are verified by some simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of an intraluminal suture in the placement of the PreserFlo MicroShunt (PMS) device to prevent early hypotony, a complication that can occur after the implantation of the device. The PMS is a microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) device designed to reduce medication burden and complications associated with traditional glaucoma surgery. The article explains the Hagen-Poiseuille Law, which can be used to predict pressure and flow through non-valved tubes, and how it applies to the PMS. The article also presents calculations showing the pressure differentials achieved with different intraluminal sutures. The findings suggest that the use of an intraluminal suture can prevent early postoperative hypotony. The conclusions drawn from the calculations are supported by a study that assessed the efficacy of intraluminal sutures in reducing the risk of hypotony post PMS implantation. The article concludes that routine placement of an intraluminal suture should be considered during PMS implantation to prevent early hypotony while still achieving sustained intraocular pressure reduction. [Extracted from the article]

Visual tracking remains a challenging research problem because of appearance variations of the object over time, changing cluttered background and requirement for real-time speed. In this paper, we investigate the problem of real-time accurate tracking in a instance-level tracking-by-verification mechanism. We propose a multi-stream deep similarity learning network to learn a similarity comparison model purely off-line. Our loss function encourages the distance between a positive patch and the background patches to be larger than that between the positive patch and the target template. Then, the learned model is directly used to determine the patch in each frame that is most distinctive to the background context and similar to the target template. Within the learned feature space, even if the distance between positive patches becomes large caused by the interference of background clutter, impact from hard distractors from the same class or the appearance change of the target, our method can still distinguish the target robustly using the relative distance. Besides, we also propose a complete framework considering the recovery from failures and the template updating to further improve the tracking performance without taking too much computing resource. Experiments on visual tracking benchmarks show the effectiveness of the proposed tracker when comparing with several recent real-time-speed trackers as well as trackers already included in the benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS), endoscopic options, medications and mainstay combination therapies for patients with cirrhosis who have had at least one episode of variceal haemorrhage. The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases, as well as the reference lists of relevant articles, were searched to identify eligible studies. P-scores, that were based solely on the point estimates and standard errors of the network estimates, were performed to rank all treatments, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 1 (best). The odds ratio (OR) was determined to assess effects on mortality, treatment failure and bleeding from gastroesophageal ulcers. A total of 43 randomized controlled trials comprising 3,787 adult patients were included. In total, 26 (61%) trials adopted concealed randomization, while most studies did not specify blinding. The drug combination of nadolol and isosorbide mononitrate (ISMN) ranked first for lowering risks of overall mortality (P-score=0.8162), mortality due to liver failure (P-score=0.7536) and bleeding from gastroesophageal ulcers (P-score=0.7536). This combination was determined to be superior to endoscopic sclerotherapy (ES) alone (OR=0.63, 95% CI: 0.42-0.94) and TIPS alone in reducing overall mortality (OR=0.62, 95% CI: 0.40-0.96). ES was more likely to increase treatment failure compared with TIPS, endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL), ES plus EVL, EVL plus nadolol/propranolol plus ISMN and nadolol/propranolol plus ISMN. In conclusion, the present network meta-analysis suggested that for a decreased mortality due to variceal rebleeding in patients with cirrhosis, nadolol plus ISMN may be a preferable choice, while ES is associated with a higher risk of unfavourable treatment outcomes. Further well-controlled studies are required to further elucidate the appropriate treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-shot learning (ZSL) typically explores a shared semantic space in order to recognize novel categories in the absence of any labeled training data. However, the traditional ZSL methods always suffer from serious domain shift problem in human action recognition. This is because: 1) existing ZSL methods are specifically designed for object recognition from static images, which do not capture the temporal dynamics of video sequences, and poor performances are always generated if those methods are directly applied to zero-shot action recognition; 2) these methods always blindly project the target data into a shared space using a semantic mapping obtained by the source data without any adaptation, in which the underlying structures of target data are ignored; and 3) severe inter-class variations exist in various action categories. The traditional ZSL methods do not take relationships across different categories into consideration. In this paper, we propose a novel aligned dynamic-preserving embedding (ADPE) model for zero-shot action recognition in a transductive setting. In our model, an adaptive embedding of target videos is learned, exploring the distributions of both the source and target data. An aligned regularization is further proposed to couple the centers of target semantic representations with their corresponding label prototypes in order to preserve the relationships across different categories. Most significantly, during our embedding, the temporal dynamics of video sequences are simultaneously preserved via exploiting the temporal consistency of video sequences and capturing the temporal evolution of successive segments of actions. Our model can effectively overcome the domain shift problem in zero-shot action recognition. The experiments on Olympic sports, HMDB51, and UCF101 datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Eriocitrin and eriodictyol could quench α-glucosidase intrinsic fluorescence. • Eriocitrin and eriodictyol induce α-glucosidase conformation changes. • The binding processes were mainly driven by hydrophobic interaction. • The inhibitory effect of eriocitrin was stronger than that of eriodictyol. The inhibition of α-glucosidase activity is a prospective approach to prevent postprandial hyperglycemia. As two flavonoids extracted from citrus fruits, eriocitrin and eriodictyol have similar structures and show multiple pharmacological activities. In order to investigate the effects of flavonoids structure on enzyme inhibition, spectroscopy and molecular docking analysis were used. Saccharomyces cerevisiae α-glucosidase (GH13) was used for studying the inhibitory mechanism by multi-spectroscopic analysis. Results indicated that they could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of α-glucosidase, the binding constants at 298 K were (7.02 ± 0.22) × 104 and (4.57 ± 0.16) × 104 L mol−1, respectively. The interaction between them with α-glucosidase were mainly driven by hydrophobic interaction, they induced conformational changes of α-glucosidase. The human α-glucosidase (C-terminal maltase-glucoamylase, GH31) was used in the molecular docking analysis to determine the interaction of eriocitrin and eriodictyol with the α-glucosidase. The results revealed that they could bind with α-glucosidase and might cause the decrease of α-glucosidase activity. The inhibitory effect of eriocitrin was stronger than that of eriodictyol, which might be due to the position and amount of hydroxyl groups. This work confirmed two novel α-glucosidase inhibitors and provided the structure-function relationship of flavonoids in inhibition of α-glucosidase activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pair of propeller‐like chiral trinuclear CuI clusters (R/S‐Cu3) with unique photoinduced fluorescence enhancement were prepared. R/S‐Cu3 showed intense variable luminescence after UV light irradiation, which was attributed to the stepwise oxidation of ligand in the clusters. It exhibited typical aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) (αAIE=17.3). Mechanism studies showed that metal cluster‐centered (MCC) and triplet metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (3MLCT) processes are the origin of the luminescence; the processes are regulated by a restriction of intramolecular motions mechanism in a different state. The chiral structure and AIE feature endow R/S‐Cu3 with remarkable circularly polarized luminescence (glum=2×10−2) in the aggregated state. It shows good capability for producing reactive oxygen species. This work enriches the kinds of atomically precise AIE clusters, gains insight into their luminescence mechanism, and offers the prospect of application in multifunctional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pair of propeller‐like chiral trinuclear CuI clusters (R/S‐Cu3) with unique photoinduced fluorescence enhancement were prepared. R/S‐Cu3 showed intense variable luminescence after UV light irradiation, which was attributed to the stepwise oxidation of ligand in the clusters. It exhibited typical aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) (αAIE=17.3). Mechanism studies showed that metal cluster‐centered (MCC) and triplet metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (3MLCT) processes are the origin of the luminescence; the processes are regulated by a restriction of intramolecular motions mechanism in a different state. The chiral structure and AIE feature endow R/S‐Cu3 with remarkable circularly polarized luminescence (glum=2×10−2) in the aggregated state. It shows good capability for producing reactive oxygen species. This work enriches the kinds of atomically precise AIE clusters, gains insight into their luminescence mechanism, and offers the prospect of application in multifunctional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from after-the-fact action recognition, action prediction task requires action labels to be predicted from partially observed videos containing incomplete action executions. It is challenging because these partial videos have insufficient discriminative information, and their temporal structure is damaged. We study this problem in this paper, and propose an efficient and powerful deep network for learning representative and discriminative features for action prediction. Our approach exploits abundant sequential context information in full videos to enrich the feature representations of partial videos. This information is encoded in latent representations using a variational autoencoder (VAE), which are encouraged to be progress-invariant. Decoding such latent representations using another VAE, we can reconstruct missing information in the features extracted from partial videos. An adversarial learning scheme is adopted to differentiate the reconstructed features from the features directly extracted from full videos in order to well align their distributions. A multi-class classifier is also used to encourage the features to be discriminative. Our network jointly learns features and classifiers, and generates the features particularly optimized for action prediction. Extensive experimental results on UCF101, Sports-1M and BIT datasets demonstrate that our approach remarkably outperforms state-of-the-art methods, and shows significant speedup over these methods. Results also show that actions differ in their prediction characteristics; some actions can be correctly predicted even though only the beginning $10\%$ 10 % portion of videos is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pearl (pe) mouse mutant has been identified as a model for Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome and bears a mutation in the beta3A subunit of the AP-3 complex, which has a core function in the biogenesis and function of various lysosomal-related organelles. Through large-scale mating, we found that female pearl mice also displayed reduced fertility with a smaller litter size. Abnormal uteri in both 1-month-old and 3-month-old mice were observed as having short and thin uterine horns, indicating abnormal development. Histological studies revealed that the endometrial epithelium and endometrial stoma of the uterus were both thinner than those in the normal controls. We examined some key factors in uterine development, including the Hoxa10, Hoxa11, and Wnt5a genes, and found that they all presented lower mRNA and protein levels. The pearl mouse could serve as a model for uterine hypoplasia, a common problem in female infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed to reveal the binding mechanism between bovine hemoglobin and o-phenylenediamine by using molecular spectroscopy techniques and molecular modeling methods. The experimental results revealed that the fluorescence quenching mechanism was a combined dynamic and static quenching. The binding constant was (1.17 ± 0.02)×104 L/mol, and only a single binding site exists. The binding distance was 2.46 nm. The binding process was a spontaneous reaction, dominated by hydrophobic forces. The molecular docking simulations have also confirmed the results of the spectroscopic methods. The results reported here may significantly help understanding the interaction mechanism of o-phenylenediamine and hemoglobin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nb2O5 doped BaCoO3‐δ was synthesized using traditional solid‐state reaction method. The electrochemical performance, physical properties and rate‐determining step of BaCo1‐xNbxO3−δ as a cathode material for intermediate‐temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT‐SOFCs) were investigated. The introduction of Nb in BaCo0.8Nb0.2O3‐δ(BCN20)brings a stable cubic phase and a relative lower TEC (∼16.94×10‐6 K−1) compared BCN20 with other Co‐based perovskites. The oxygen vacancy concentration (δ) for BCN20 symmetrical cell is 0.153. The area specific resistance (ASR) of BCN20 symmetrical cell is merely 0.0397 Ω⋅cm2 at 700 °C. Base on the above findings, BCN20 has a great electrochemical performance as a cathode material for IT‐SOFCs. Furthermore, we studies the reaction mechanism of BCN20 and concluded that desorption and diffusion of oxygen molecules is the oxygen reduction rate limiting step. Finally, full cell with BCN20 as cathode was tested and peak power density was measured to be 1042 mW⋅cm−2 at 800 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple water-chemistry factors determine nanoplastics aggregation and thus change their bioavailability and ecological risks in natural aquatic environments. However, the dominant factors and their interactive mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) showed greater colloidal stability in Li Lake water compared to ultrapure water. The RDA and PARAFAC results suggested that dissolved organic carbon, humic acid (HA) in particular, Ca2+, and pH are critical factors influencing PSNPs aggregation. Batch experiments showed that the critical coagulation concentration (CCC) of PSNPs was increased with pH increase; HA increased the CCC of PSNPs in NaCl by 2.6-fold but decreased that in CaCl 2 by 1.8-fold. Moreover, cations increased the adsorption of HA on PSNPs. The DFT results suggested that HA-cations complexes (E AE = −1.10 eV and −0.51 eV for HA-Ca2+ and HA-Na+, respectively) but not HA alone (E AE = −0.33 eV) are the main scenarios for their adsorption on PSNPs, and a cation-π mechanism between PSNPs and HA-cations complexes dominates PSNPs aggregation in this scenario. The findings are significant for better understanding the environmental process and fate of nanoplastics in aquatic environments. Nanoplastics are kinds of emerging contaminants. Nanoplastic aggregation determines their bioavailability and toxic risks to ecological health. Herein, the hydrodynamic sizes of PSNPs in local Li Lake water was tested and a redundancy analysis was performed to examine the key water-chemistry factors driving PSNPs aggregation. Moreover, the mechanisms in PSNPs aggregation driven by multiple dominant water-chemistry factors including cations, pH, and DOC were firstly unveiled by combining experimental characterization and theoretical computations. This work improves our understanding of the environmental fate of nanoplastics and provides a theoretical basis for the risk assessment and control of nanoplastics in real aquatic environments. [Display omitted] • DOC, Ca2+, and pH dominate the dispersion of PSNPs in the natural lake. • Ionic type but not strength plays a more crucial role in PSNPs aggregation in lake. • HA-cation complex is the main scenario for PSNPs adsorption in natural water. • DFT calculation first prove cation-π mechanism between HA-cation complex and PSNPs. • Single HA-effects on PSNPs aggregation overestimate the real health risks of PSNPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Acorus calamus was successfully recycled in MFC-CW as carbon source. • Efficient nitrogen removal and energy recovery were attained with biomass addition. • Biomass recycling enhanced the interactions between nitrifying microbes. • Biomass recycling enriched the functional genes of anammox. Acorus calamus was recycled as an additional carbon source in microbial fuel cell-constructed wetlands (MFC-CWs), for efficient nitrogen removal of low carbon wastewater. The pretreatment methods, adding positions, and nitrogen transformations were investigated. Results indicated that alkali-pretreatment cleaved the benzene rings in dominant released organics, producing chemical oxygen demand of 164.5 mg from per gram of A. calamus. Pretreated biomass addition in the anode of MFC-CW attained the maximum total nitrogen removal of 97.6% and power generation of 12.5 mW/m2, which were higher than those with biomass in the cathode (97.6% and 1.6 mW/m2, respectively). However, the duration of a cycle with biomass in the cathode (20–25 days) was longer than that in the anode (10–15 days). Microbial metabolisms related to organics degradation, nitrification, denitrification, and anammox were intensified after biomass recycling. This study provides a promising method to improve nitrogen removal and energy recovery in MFC-CWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Phenolic hydroxyl modified hyper-crosslinked polymers were synthesized. • The polymers had high specific surface area with predominant microporosity. • The polymer was efficient for adsorption of berberine hydrochloride with the capacity of 505.42 mg/g. • The electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding, and π-π stacking were the primary driving forces. Phenolic hydroxyl modified hyper-crosslinked polymers were synthesized according to two consecutive Friedel-Crafts reactions. The first Friedel-Crafts reaction grafted plentiful phenolic hydroxyl on the polymers, and the second Friedel-Crafts reaction inserted abundant methylene in the polymer chains. The resulting polymers had relatively high Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area (S BET) and pore volume (V total). The adsorption experiments indicated that the intermediate polymer, namely, PS-CA (Polystyrene-Catechol), showed excellent adsorption for berberine hydrochloride (BBH) with the maximum capacity (q max) of 505.42 mg/g at 298 K, and the electrostatic interaction, π-π stacking and hydrogen bonding were the main driving forces. Anhydrous alcohol could desorb 75.36% of the adsorbed BBH from the polymer. On the other hand, the final polymers owned much higher adsorption of aniline and β-naphthylamine due to the micropore-filling. The dynamic adsorption used Chinese herbs Coptidis rhizoma solution present that the dynamic capacity was 248.70 mg/g dry resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cathode efficiency for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells is largely limited by the catalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction. Here by, we design and synthesize CuCo2O4 decorated Er0.4Bi1.6O3 cathode by means of a simple gelation method and then screen‐print it on scandium‐stabilized zirconia electrolyte cell followed by a relatively lower temperature sintering process. The decoration of CuCo2O4 adequately enhances the electro‐catalytic activity of the composite cathode for the ORR. In addition, Er0.4Bi1.6O3 matrix also reduces the sintering temperature (from 1000 °C to 850 °C) compared to the pristine CuCo2O4 electrode. The CuCo2O4‐decorated‐Er0.4Bi1.6O3 composite cathode demonstrates a lower polarization resistance (0.016 Ω cm2 at 800 °C) in air, exhibiting an 87% decrease in comparison to the primary CuCo2O4 cathode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell subtype proportion variability between samples contributes significantly to the variation of functional genomic properties such as gene expression or DNA methylation. Although the impact of the variation of cell subtype composition on measured genomic quantities is recognized, and some innovative tools have been developed for the analysis of heterogeneous samples, most functional genomics studies using samples with mixed cell types still ignore the influence of cell subtype proportion variation, or just deal with it as a nuisance variable to be eliminated. Here we demonstrate how harvesting information about cell subtype proportions from functional genomics data can provide insights into cellular changes associated with phenotypes. We focused on two types of mixed cell populations, human blood and mouse kidney. Cell type prediction is well developed in the former, but not currently in the latter. Estimating the cellular repertoire is easier when a reference dataset from purified samples of all cell types in the tissue is available, as is the case for blood. However, reference datasets are not available for most other tissues, such as the kidney. In this study, we showed that the proportion of alterations attributable to changes in the cellular composition varies strikingly in the two disorders (asthma and systemic lupus erythematosus), suggesting that the contribution of cell subtype proportion changes to functional genomic properties can be disease-specific. We also showed that a reference dataset from a single-cell RNA-seq study successfully estimated the cell subtype proportions in mouse kidney and allowed us to distinguish altered cell subtype differences between two different knock-out mouse models, both of which had reported a reduced number of glomeruli compared to their wild-type counterparts. These findings demonstrate that testing for changes in cell subtype proportions between conditions can yield important insights in functional genomics studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The sluggish oxygen reduction reaction acts as a vital barrier to the performance enhancement for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. In this paper we report a CuCo 2 O 4 -Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ composite cathode synthesized via sol-gel and subsequent mechanical mixing methods. The composite cathode contains an electronic conductor CuCo 2 O 4 and an ionic conductor Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ , dramatically enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction kinetics and the sintering performance. Introduction of the Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ nanoparticles brings an obvious increase of triple phase boundaries and enhancement of electrochemical activities. As expected, the composite cathode with addition of 35 wt% of Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ shows the least polarization resistance of 0.07 Ω cm2 in air at 800 °C. What's more, the sintering temperature is distinctly reduced from 1000 °C to 800 °C. Highlights • The sintering temperature of the electrode can be reduced to 800 °C by the introduction of Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ. • The introduction of Er 0.4 Bi 1.6 O 3-δ can bring out a 42% drop in the polarization resistance of CuCo 2 O 4 cathode. • The rate-limiting steps in oxygen reduction reaction have been confirmed by the test of EIS with different oxygen partial pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to investigate the creep life at the high temperature of the Alloy 718 for automotive engine components using the initial strain parameter method (ISPM). Creep tests have performed at elevated temperatures in the range of 550 oC to 700 oC in this work. We also carried out constant stress creep tests. The initial strains were measured during 1 minute after loading. Both the creep stress and rupture time depend on the initial strain. We calculated the creep life of Alloy 718 by using the creep life prediction equations obtained from the ISPM. Then, we compared the creep life predicted by the ISPM to the Larson-Miller parameter (LMP). The experimental rupture time and the calculated rupture time by using the ISPM agreed with a confidence level of 95 %. The creep life predicted by using the ISPM was in very good agreement with the creep life predicted using the LMP method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationships between natural resource dependence, public education investment, and human capital accumulation. It addresses why the “blessing” of abundant natural resources often turns into a “curse” in many countries and regions, focusing on the crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital. According to our empirical analysis of provincial panel data from China, natural resource dependence is significantly and negatively correlated with human capital accumulation. The crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital exists only in the central and western regions of China. Our introduction of an interaction term for natural resource dependence and public education investment underscores the possibility of investing in public education to reduce the crowding-out effect of natural resource dependence on human capital. The government should utilize the income of the natural resource sector to increase investment in education to enhance local human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to improve the physical stability of ultra-high temperature (UHT) oat beverage by adding hydrophilic colloids (guar gum [GG] and xanthan gum [XG]) and a natural emulsifier (soluble soybean polysaccharide [SSPS]). The stability of the oat beverage was characterized by particle size, zeta potential, rheological properties, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, backscattered light intensity (ΔBS), and microstructure. The results indicated that XG reduced the average particle size and size distribution of the beverage, indicating that XG could prevent particle aggregation. GG increases the apparent viscosity of the oat beverage without affecting the zeta potential. When SSPS was added to the oat beverage, it increased the absolute value of the zeta potential and the infrared absorption peak intensity, while the average particle size and backscattered light intensity (ΔBS) decreased, resulting in a more uniform microstructure. The zeta potential reached a maximum value of 32.12 when GG, XG, and SSPS were combined, indicating that the physical stability of the oat beverage was effectively improved when all three were present simultaneously. This study may provide some suggestions for the industrial production of low-viscosity cereal beverages with good stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are common clinical problems that arise from various reasons. The differential diagnosis of benign and malignant VCFs is challenging. This study was designed to develop and validate a radiomics model to predict benign and malignant VCFs with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT). Results: Twenty-six features (9 PET features and 17 CT features) and eight clinical variables (age, SUVmax, SUVpeak, SULmax, SULpeak, osteolytic destruction, fracture line, and appendices/posterior vertebrae involvement) were ultimately selected. The area under the curve (AUCs) of the radiomics and clinical–radiomics models were significantly different from that of the clinical model in both the training group (0.986, 0.987 vs. 0.884, p < 0.05) and test group (0.962, 0.948 vs. 0.858, p < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between the radiomics model and clinical–radiomics model (p > 0.05). The accuracies of the radiomics and clinical–radiomics models were 94.0% and 95.0% in the training group and 93.2% and 93.2% in the test group, respectively. The three models all showed good calibration (Hosmer–Lemeshow test, p > 0.05). According to the decision curve analysis (DCA), the radiomics model and clinical–radiomics model exhibited higher overall net benefit than the clinical model. Conclusions: The PET/CT-based radiomics and clinical–radiomics models showed good performance in distinguishing between malignant and benign VCFs. The radiomics method may be valuable for treatment decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Glymphatic function has not yet been explored in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The spatial correlation between regional glymphatic function and bvFTD remains unknown. Method: A total of 74 patients with bvFTD and 67 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls (HCs) were selected from discovery dataset and replication dataset. All participants underwent neuropsychological assessment. Glymphatic measures including choroid plexus (CP) volume, diffusion tensor imaging along the perivascular (DTI‐ALPS) index, and coupling between blood‐oxygen‐level‐dependent signals and cerebrospinal fluid signals (BOLD‐CSF coupling), were compared between the two groups. Regional glymphatic function was evaluated by dividing DTI‐ALPS and BOLD‐CSF coupling into anterior, middle, and posterior regions. The bvFTD‐related metabolic pattern was identified using spatial covariance analysis based on l8F‐FDG‐PET. Results: Patients with bvFTD showed higher CP volume (p < 0.001); anterior and middle DTI‐ALPS (p < 0.001); and weaker anterior BOLD‐CSF coupling (p < 0.05) than HCs after controlling for cortical gray matter volume in both datasets. In bvFTD from the discovery dataset, the anterior DTI‐ALPS was negatively associated with the expression of the bvFTD‐related metabolic pattern (r = −0.52, p = 0.034) and positively related with regional standardized uptake value ratios of l8F‐FDG‐PET in bvFTD‐related brain regions (r range: 0.49 to 0.62, p range: 0.017 to 0.047). Anterior and middle glymphatic functions were related to global cognition and disease severity. Interpretation: Our findings reveal abnormal glymphatic function, especially in the anterior and middle regions of brain in bvFTD. Regional glymphatic dysfunction may contribute to the pathogenesis of bvFTD. ANN NEUROL 2023;94:442–456 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]