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While proposing dual carbon strategy goals, research on carbon reduction in integrated energy systems (IESs) has become a focus of attention. Traditional IES carbon emission flow is mostly based on energy flow, without considering the differences in energy quality. Exergy can be used as a reasonable measure of energy quality. Combining the theory of exergy flow and carbon emission flow, a modeling and analysis method for IES carbon emission flow considering energy quality is proposed. First, exergy flow models for electric and natural gas systems, equivalent exergy flow models for heat systems, and exergy hub models are introduced. Afterward, the exergy branch losses are allocated to the nodes at both ends. A networked modeling method for the carbon emission flow of energy stations is proposed. A unified matrix calculation model for IES carbon emission flow considering energy quality is established. On this basis, an IES carbon emission flow calculation method considering energy quality is proposed. Finally, this method is applied to the test IES, and the results show that the carbon emission flow calculation results reflect the distribution of carbon emissions borne by the effective energy supplied by the source and consumed by the load in the system, taking into account both the quantity and quality of energy. The reasonable allocation of new energy is conducive to synchronously improving the energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and cleanliness of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mathematical abilities of children with autism spectrum condition have been understudied. Magnitude representation is a fundamental numerical ability that emerges early in development and is linked to children's learning of formal mathematics. It remains unclear about whether children with autism spectrum condition differ from their peers without autism spectrum condition in the precision of magnitude representations. This study recruited preschool-aged children with autism spectrum condition (N = 70; 64 boys, M age = 5.20 years) and without autism spectrum condition (N = 117; 63 boys, M age = 5.11 years), and tested their precision of magnitude representation with an approximate number comparison task (dot comparison). Children with autism spectrum condition exhibited the lower numerical comparison accuracy (i.e. the weaker magnitude representation) than their peers without autism spectrum condition, regardless of the congruency between numerosity and surface area of dots. Moreover, the lower numerical comparison accuracy was observed even controlling for multiple general cognitive abilities (working memory, inhibitory control, and nonverbal intelligence) and language abilities. In addition, the variability of the comparison accuracy was larger in children with autism spectrum condition than without autism spectrum condition. These findings suggest that children with autism spectrum condition are at risk of weaker magnitude representation from an early age, emphasizing the need for specialized mathematics education or interventions to support their learning. The mathematical abilities of children with autism spectrum condition have been understudied. Magnitude representation (e.g. presenting the number of a collection of objects) is a fundamental numerical ability presented since early infancy and is correlated with children's later learning of formal mathematics. It remains unclear about whether children with autism spectrum condition differ from their peers without autism spectrum condition in precision of magnitude representations. This study compared preschool children with and without autism spectrum condition in their precision of magnitude representation with an approximate number comparison task, in which children compared two sets of dots without counting and chose the set with more dots. Children with autism spectrum condition exhibited the lower numerical comparison accuracy (i.e. the weaker magnitude representation) than their peers without autism spectrum condition. This difference existed even when multiple general cognitive abilities (working memory, inhibitory control, and nonverbal intelligence) and language abilities were statistically controlled. Moreover, the individual difference of the numerical comparison accuracy was larger in children with autism spectrum condition than without autism spectrum condition. These findings suggest that children with autism spectrum condition are at risk of weaker magnitude representation from an early age, emphasizing the need for specialized mathematics education or interventions to support their learning. In addition, the large variance in the precision of their magnitude representation suggests that individualized mathematics interventions are needed for children with autism spectrum condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of friction dependencies under real earthquakes has rarely been validated and the effect of the velocity and temperature increase caused by bidirectional excitation on the maximum displacement remains unclear. In this study, friction dependencies were validated using full-scale dynamic tests under earthquake response orbits, and their contribution to the maximum displacement was assessed under strong ground motions. In general, friction dependencies are still applicable to real earthquakes. Moreover, the effect of velocity increase can be ignored, but the effect of temperature increase on displacement is significant, particularly under ground motions with large magnitudes and small distances to faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In the complex world of cancer, iron and copper play essential roles as trace metal ions that are crucial for cancer cell survival. Disruption in their metabolic functions can be lethal to cancer cells, triggering ferroptosis and cuproptosis, respectively. Given an accelerated proliferation rate, cancer cells exhibit a heightened dependence on iron and copper, exposing vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited to reverse drug resistance. Notably, mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses, play a crucial role in regulating both ferroptosis and cuproptosis. This review focuses on elucidating the key mechanisms behind ferroptosis and cuproptosis and summarizes recent clinical applications targeting dysfunctional iron and copper metabolic pathways. Drug resistance is a hallmark of cancer development that underscores a critical need to address it, underscoring the critical need to explore novel approaches. Understanding and targeting these metal-related processes offers promising approaches for developing innovative cancer therapies, making use of vulnerabilities specific to cancer cells. Iron (Fe) and copper (Cu), essential transition metals, play pivotal roles in various cellular processes critical to cancer biology, including cell proliferation, mitochondrial respiration, distant metastases, and oxidative stress. The emergence of ferroptosis and cuproptosis as distinct forms of non-apoptotic cell death has heightened their significance, particularly in connection with these metal ions. While initially studied separately, recent evidence underscores the interdependence of ferroptosis and cuproptosis. Studies reveal a link between mitochondrial copper accumulation and ferroptosis induction. This interconnected relationship presents a promising strategy, especially for addressing refractory cancers marked by drug tolerance. Harnessing the toxicity of iron and copper in clinical settings becomes crucial. Simultaneous targeting of ferroptosis and cuproptosis, exemplified by the combination of sorafenib and elesclomol-Cu, represents an intriguing approach. Strategies targeting mitochondria further enhance the precision of these approaches, providing hope for improving treatment outcomes of drug-resistant cancers. Moreover, the combination of iron chelators and copper-lowering agents with established therapeutic modalities exhibits a synergy that holds promise for the augmentation of anti-tumor efficacy in various malignancies. This review elaborates on the complex interplay between ferroptosis and cuproptosis, including their underlying mechanisms, and explores their potential as druggable targets in both cancer research and clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hollow heart is a kind of physiological defect that seriously affects the yield, quality, and economic value of cucumber. However, the formation of hollow hearts may relate to multiple factors in cucumber, and it is necessary to conduct analysis. Results: In this study, hollow and non-hollow fruits of cucumber K07 were used for comparative transcriptome sequencing and analysis. 253 differentially expressed genes and 139 transcription factors were identified as being associated with the formation of hollow hearts. Hormone (auxin) signaling and cell wall biosynthesis were mainly enriched in GO and KEGG pathways. Expression levels of key genes involved in indole-3-acetic acid biosynthesis in carpel were lower in the hollow fruits than non-hollow fruits, while there was no difference in the flesh. The concentration of indole-3-acetic also showed lower in the carpel than flesh. The biosynthetic pathway and content analysis of the main components of the cell wall found that lignin biosynthesis had obvious regularity with hollow heart, followed by hemicellulose and cellulose. Correlation analysis showed that there may be an interaction between auxin and cell wall biosynthesis, and they collectively participate in the formation of hollow hearts in cucumber. Among the differentially expressed transcription factors, MYB members were the most abundant, followed by NAC, ERF, and bHLH. Conclusions: The results and analyses showed that the low content of auxin in the carpel affected the activity of enzymes related to cell wall biosynthesis at the early stage of fruit development, resulting in incomplete development of carpel cells, thus forming a hollow heart in cucumber. Some transcription factors may play regulatory roles in this progress. The results may enrich the theory of the formation of hollow hearts and provide a basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still a serious public health problem. In recent years, with the increasing incidence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) combined with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a more in-depth exploration of the pathogenesis of CHB combined with NAFLD is required. HBV can induce autophagy and use to increase replication. The removal of fat by autophagy, also known as lipophagy, is also currently considered an alternative pathway for lipid metabolism in liver cells. This degradation of autophagy prevents hepatotoxicity and steatosis. However, it is not known whether there is a correlation between HBV-related autophagy and the progression of NAFLD. We explored how HBV affects disease progression in NAFLD should be " and determined whether it is associated with HBV-associated autophagy. In this study, we constructed HBV-TG mouse high-fat diet (HFD) models and controls, and the results showed that the presence of HBV promoted the occurrence of NAFLD. We also demonstrated that HBV promotes lipid droplet accumulation in hepatocytes using HBV-stable expression cell lines HepG2.2.15 and AML12-HBV. In addition, this study also found that exogenous OA supplementation reduced HBV replication. We further studied the mechanism and found that HBV-related autophagy can promote the absorption of liver cells to lipid droplets. It can reduce the decomposition of lipid droplets by inhibiting the function of autophagolysosome, and eventually lead to the accumulation of lipid droplets in hepatocytes. In a word, HBV promotes the progression of NAFLD by increasing lipid accumulation in hepatocytes through incomplete autophagy. [Display omitted] • The hepatitis B virus promotes the occurrence of NAFLD. • HBV increase the lipid accumulation. • HBV promotes lipid accumulation through incomplete autophagy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress of relative paleointensity (RPI) estimations using marine sediments has greatly contributed to better understanding of the behavior of the past geomagnetic field. To enhance further the reliability of RPI estimations, we must overcome the problem that climatically induced variations of magnetic‐mineral assemblages in sediments may influence RPI records. Two major constituents of magnetic‐mineral assemblages in marine sediments are magnetofossils and detrital magnetic minerals, and the latter consists of silicate‐hosted magnetic inclusions and unprotected magnetic minerals. It is necessary to understand different RPI recording efficiencies among those constituents to tackle the problem, but previous evaluations were inconclusive. We studied this issue using a sediment core taken from the southeast Pacific Ocean. Rock‐magnetic investigations revealed that the magnetic mineral assemblage of this core during the last ∼900 Kyr is a mixture of low‐coercivity magnetofossils and middle‐coercivity detrital unprotected partially oxidized magnetite. Natural remanent magnetization versus isothermal remanent magnetization demagnetization diagram showed strong convex curvature, and RPI signals carried by the two components could be separated by calculating RPI from the gradients of 20–40 and 70–160 mT segments. We confirmed that RPI recording efficiency of magnetofossils is lower than that of detrital unprotected magnetites/maghemites. Because of the marginal overlap between the coercivity ranges of the two components, changes in their relative abundance do not influence RPI estimations. This condition is ideal for RPI estimations, and the resulted RPI curve closely coincides with that of the PISO‐1500 stack despite changes in the relative abundance of the two components. Plain Language Summary: Marine sediments potentially preserve records of geomagnetic field intensity variations in the past (paleointensity), which may be important for life on the Earth to shield influx of high‐energy particles from the universe. A serious problem recognized by previous studies is that paleointensity records from sediments sometimes include artificial changes induced by sediment lithology changes reflecting varying depositional environments. Two major constituents of magnetic minerals in sediments, which records paleointensity variations, are magnetites produced by magnetotactic bacteria, called magnetofossils, and inorganic magnetic minerals originated from weathering of rocks on land or materials of volcanic eruptions. Our study using a sediment core taken from the southeast Pacific Ocean revealed that magnetofossils yield lower paleointensity values than inorganic magnetic minerals. This implies that temporal changes in the relative abundance of magnetofossils and inorganic magnetic minerals in sediments may cause the artificial paleointensity variations. We could obtain a reliable paleointensity record from the studied sediments by evaluating separately the magnetizations carried by the two magnetic‐mineral components, which utilized the observations that the two magnetic‐mineral components have different resistance to an external magnetic field. Key Points: Magnetofossil and detrital partially oxidized unprotected magnetite are the major constituents of magnetic mineral assemblageLittle overlap in coercivity distribution of the two components enabled separate evaluation of relative paleointensity (RPI) recording efficiencyRPI recording efficiency of magnetofossil is lower than that of detrital unprotected magnetite/maghemite [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new kind of postharvest rot on Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) caused by a fungus was observed in vegetable cellars in Harbin, China in 2019 and 2020, causing considerable economic losses. A water-soaked spot appeared at the base of the midrib of leaves, extended into the upper part of the midrib, and ultimately turned into rot. The diseased part was dark brown or black with a few black spores on the surface. Fungal isolates were obtained from the diseased plants and identified as Aspergillus welwitschiae through morphological observation and multigene sequencing analysis of the internal transcribed spacer, β-tubulin and calmodulin genetic regions. Pathogenicity tests were conducted, and the resulting symptoms on Chinese cabbage were similar to those seen in the vegetable cellar. The isolates were also associated with rot and leaf spot on seedlings and affected the seed germination of Chinese cabbage. A host range test showed that the isolates could infect some common vegetables, including carrot, kidney bean, broccoli, radish, Chinese flowering cabbage, root-mustard, cabbage, non-heading Chinese cabbage, pepper, lettuce, oilseed rape, tomato and cucumber. The isolation, identification, and host range of the pathogen can provide a basis for the study of the occurrence, prevention and management of the disease in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To study the risk factors for granulocytopenia caused by antithyroid drugs. Methods. Patients who were diagnosed with Graves' hyperthyroidism and regularly treated with antithyroid drugs (ATDs) from January 2010 to July 2022 at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, aged >18 years, were selected for general information and laboratory tests and divided into two groups according to the occurrence of granulocytopenia. Independent risk factors for the development of granulocytopenia in patients treated with ATDs were analyzed using one-way and multiway logistic regression analyses, and the predictive value of each index was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC). Results. A total of 818 patients were enrolled, of which 95 developed granulocytopenia. Univariate analysis revealed that sex, white blood cell (WBC) counts, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) before medication were risk factors for ATD-induced granulocytopenia (P < 0.05). The abovementioned indicators were taken as independent variables, and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that female sex, higher ALT levels before medication, and lower NLR and WBC levels were independent risk factors for granulocytopenia using ATDs (P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that sex, NLR, ALT, and WBC count had significant predictive values (P < 0.05), and NLR and WBC count had higher predictive values (AUC = 0.916 and 0.700, respectively). Conclusion. Sex, NLR, ALT, and WBC were the main risk factors for granulocytopenia in patients with ATD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of recent artificial intelligence technology, especially after the great success of AlphaGo, there has been a growing interest in applying reinforcement learning (RL) to solve energy management strategy (EMS) problems for hybrid electric vehicles. However, the issues of current RL algorithms including deployment inefficiency, safety constraint, and simulation-to-real gap make it inapplicable to many industrial EMS tasks. With these in mind and considering the fact that there exists many suboptimal EMS controllers which can generate plentiful amounts of interactive data containing informative behaviors, an offline RL training framework that tries to extract policies with the maximum possible utility out of the available offline data is proposed. Furthermore, with connected vehicle technology standard in many new cars, rather than bringing all the data to the storage and analytics, a scheduled training framework is put forward. This cloud-based approach not only alleviates the computational burden of edge devices, but also more importantly provides a deployment-efficient solution to EMS tasks that have to adapt to changes of driving cycle. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on real controllers, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test is performed and the superiority of the proposed algorithm in contrast to dynamic programming, behavior cloning, rule-based, and vanilla off-policy RL algorithms is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the outstanding performance, composite materials are widely used and analyzing their properties and designing them based on performance has become a crucial task in the field of many manufacturing industries. Composite materials possess complex multiscale structures, and traditional fine-scale finite element modeling and analysis may lead to severe computational resource challenges. To overcome this difficulty, breakthroughs in key technologies of multiscale accelerated analysis algorithms are required. In this study, an innovative approach based on artificial intelligence and multiscale finite element method is presented. This approach involves partitioning the entire composite material structure into coarse grids that resemble homogenous structures of similar size, providing results consistent to fine-grid finite element analysis. By utilizing CNN for image feature recognition and employing the CGAN adversarial method, coarse-grid equivalent stiffness matrices and multiscale shape functions from completely random microstructures of composite materials can be obtained. Consequently, this enables a rapid response process from microstructure to low-resolution grid to high-resolution physical field, with remarkably accurate physical field results. Moreover, compared to traditional fine-grid finite element methods, this approach significantly reduces memory usage and computation time. This method is applicable to composite materials with varying shaped inclusions, different component properties, and diverse geometric distributions, allowing these materials to perform high-fidelity finite element calculations on coarse grids and predict their mechanical behavior. Furthermore, this breakthrough opens avenues for accelerating the optimization design of composite materials with diverse mechanical functionalities, by employing a bottom-up approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the risk level of ground motions (GM) for structures is crucial for their damage control and resilience enhancement, while the assessment and measurement criteria of GM risk levels for structures isolated by double concave friction pendulum system (DCFPS) remain unclear. Through statistical analysis of the response distribution of DCFPS with various design parameters under 1013 GM records, this study determines an energy dissipation efficacy of 99 %, a floor velocity of 0.35 m/s, a floor velocity of 0.60 m/s, and the displacement capacity of DCFPS as the response criteria for assessing four performance states of efficacy, habitability, functionality, and safety, respectively. In addition, the value of GM intensity in PGA, PGV, PGD, and the equivalent velocity of seismic input energy (V E) for measuring the four GM risk levels corresponding to the four performance states are obtained. Furthermore, a classification of GMs based on earthquake magnitude and fault distance is proposed according to their risk to DCFPS. It is found that the intensity value of each GM risk level varies for different design parameters of DCFPS but fluctuate within a small range, however, great differences exist when using different intensity measures (IM) in classifying GM risk levels. Therefore, based on the correlation between IMs and DCFPS responses, the conservatism of PGA, PGV, PGD and V E in assessing the risk of GMs for DCFPS are evaluated. • Four performance states and corresponding response-based assessment criteria for FPS structures are proposed. • Effect of GM IMs on measuring GM risk levels is clarified. • A statistical analysis method for determining the relations between GM IMs and measures of structural response is proposed. • The value of IMs for measuring GM risk levels are proposed for DCFPS structures with various design parameters. • A classification of GMs using earthquake magnitude and fault distance is proposed based on their risk for DCFPS structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine sediments can preserve continuous paleomagnetic intensity records. Different magnetic minerals may acquire remanent magnetizations differently, so that compositional variations of magnetic mineral assemblages in sediments may hinder extraction of reliable relative paleointensity (RPI) records. To better understand this issue, we conducted a paleo‐ and rock magnetic study of a sediment core from the Ontong Java Plateau, western equatorial Pacific Ocean. RPI estimated by normalizing natural remanent magnetization (NRM) with anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) decreases downcore with an inverse correlation with the ratio of ARM susceptibility to saturation isothermal remanent magnetization. This relationship indicates that the RPI signal weakens as the proportion of biogenic magnetite increases. The NRM–ARM demagnetization diagrams obtained have concave‐down curvature. These observations indicate that the RPI recording efficiency of the biogenic component is lower than that of the terrigenous component if we assume that the magnetizations of the high‐ and low‐coercivity windows are carried dominantly by biogenic and terrigenous components, respectively. This assumption is supported by first‐order reversal curve measurements, transmission electron microscope observations, low‐temperature measurements, and extraction of silicate‐hosted magnetic inclusions from the sediments. Previous studies have suggested that the RPI recording efficiency of biogenic magnetite is higher than that of the terrigenous component, which disagrees with our results. Different concentrations of silicate‐hosted magnetic inclusions in different sedimentary environments might explain this contradiction. We conclude that biogenic magnetite contributes to RPI records with lower efficiency than unprotected terrigenous magnetic minerals in the studied sediments. Changing biogenic magnetite proportions distort ARM‐normalized RPI estimations. Plain Language Summary: Magnetic minerals in marine sediments can preserve variations in the intensity of Earth's magnetic field (paleointensity) over geologic time, which is important for understanding how the field is generated within Earth's core. Paleointensity can be recorded by magnetic minerals with different recording efficiencies, which complicates recovery of reliable paleointensity records from sediments that contain different magnetic minerals. Our study of a sediment core from the western equatorial Pacific Ocean indicates that it contains two main types of magnetic minerals: biogenic magnetite produced by bacteria that align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field, and magnetic minerals produced by weathering of terrigenous sediments. The paleointensity record obtained from the sediment core weakens with increasing biogenic magnetite abundance in the sediments. We conclude that this biogenic magnetite records paleomagnetic intensity less efficiently than terrigenous magnetic minerals, which conflicts with the results of previous studies. This contradiction might be explained by differences in the concentrations of magnetic minerals embedded in nonmagnetic silicate minerals in our study area compared to those in previous studies. Key Points: ARM‐normalized relative paleointensity is inversely correlated with the proportion of biogenic magnetite in the studied sedimentsThe estimated relative paleointensity recording efficiency of biogenic magnetite is lower than that of terrigenous magnetic mineralsVarying abundances of magnetic inclusions might cause contrasting recording efficiencies for biogenic magnetite between different studies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: A biomechanical in vitro investigation.Objective: To evaluate the function and stability of self-designed biomimetic artificial atlanto-odontoid joint (BAAOJ) replacement on the atlantoaxial joint.Summary Of Background Data: Upper cervical fusion surgery is a common treatment for various atlantoaxial disorders, and favorable clinical outcome has been achieved. However, the fusion surgery results in loss of atlantoaxial motion as well as adjacent segments degeneration, reducing the quality of life of patients and might produce severe neurological symptoms. Non-fusion technology is expected to solve the above problems, but various designed devices have certain defects and are still in the exploratory phase.Materials and Methods: Biomechanical tests were conducted on 10 fresh human cadaveric craniocervical specimens in the following sequence: 1) intact condition, 2) after the BAAOJ arthroplasty, 3) after BAAOJ fatigue test, 4) after odontoidect-omy, and 5) after anterior rigid plate fixation. Three-dimensional movements of the C1-C2 segment were evaluated to investigate the function and stability of BAAOJ arthroplasty compared with the intact condition after the BAAOJ fatigue test, odontoidect-omy, and rigid plate fixation.Results: Comparing the BAAOJ implantation to the intact state, the range of motion and neutral zone were slightly reduced in all directions (P > 0.05). Compared with the rigid plate fixation, the BAAOJ implantation significantly increased the range of motion and neutral zone in all directions, especially in the axial rotation (P < 0.05).Conclusion: We designed a BAAOJ for correcting atlantoaxial disorders arising from atlantoaxial instability. As a non-fusion device, the most critical feature of BAAOJ replacement is the retention of flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation range of motion similar to the normal state. It can also stabilize the atlantoaxial complex, and the BAAOJ itself has a good initial stability.Level of Evidence: 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Enhancing the conductivity of CuCo-MOFs through in-situ method. • Bimetallic synergy improves the sensing characteristics by co-precipitation method. • Improving the conductivity, active sites, and stability of the sophisticated hierarchical Bi-MOF derivatives through thermal condensation-induced structural transformation. • An optimized MOF-based electrode for highly sensitive and ultra-stable electrochemical glucose sensing. Bimetallic organic frameworks (Bi-MOFs) have been recognized as one of the hotpots for electrochemical sensing due to their high surface area, abundant active sites, tunable structures and porosity. However, inadequate conductivity and hidden active site of MOFs remain as great challenges, hindered its further development. Here, an in-situ co-precipitation strategy was proposed for preparing sophisticated hierarchical Bi-MOF derivatives with excellent glucose sensing. Firstly, uniform CuO nanorods as the precursor are synthesized in situ on a Carbon Cloth (CC). Subsequently, Cu-BTC and Co-BTC were co-precipitated on the precursor, while the significant effect of incremental Co2+ doping concentration was investigated. Finally, Cu/Co-MOF derivatives are successfully obtained by controlled thermal structural transformation. Due to the synergistic effect of bimetallic oxides and the exposed active sites, the prepared sensing electrode exhibits high sensitivity (4.93 mA mM−1 cm−2), fast response time (2.9 s), and outstanding long-term stability (30 days). This study proposes a practical method for in-situ synthesizing hierarchical Bi-MOF derivatives, which provides wide-ranging prospects in the field of electrochemical sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemocyanin is the main respiratory protein of arthropods and is formed by hexameric and/or oligomeric subunits. Due to changes in the living environment and gene rearrangement, various hemocyanin subtypes and subunits evolved in crustaceans. This paper reviews the various hemocyanin subtypes and isoforms in shrimp and analyses published genomic data of sixteen hemocyanin family genes from Litopenaeus vannamei to explore the evolution of hemocyanin genes, subunits, and protein structure. Analysis of hemocyanin subtypes distribution and structure in various tissues was also performed and related to multiple and tissue-specific functions, i.e., immunological activity, immune signaling, phenoloxidase activity, modulation of microbiota homeostasis, and energy metabolism. The functional diversity of shrimp hemocyanin due to molecular polymorphism, transcriptional regulation, alternative splicing, degradation into functional peptides, interaction with other proteins or genes, and structural differences will also be highlighted for future research. Inferences would be drawn from other crustaceans to explain how evolution has changed the structure-function of hemocyanin and its implication for evolutionary research into the multifunctionality of hemocyanin and other related proteins in shrimp. [Display omitted] • The evolutionary relation of 16 hemocyanin genes in Penaeus vannamei was analyzed. • Hemocyanin subtypes in penaeid shrimp have functional diversity and tissue specificity. • The functional diversity of shrimp hemocyanin is related to their molecular polymorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the ongoing revolution in developing intelligent and connected vehicles (ICVs), there is a lack of research for powertrain control systems using the latest artificial intelligence and vehicle-to-everything technology that have already been widely adopted in the autonomous driving systems. In this context, recent development of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and one of the latest computing frameworks are coupled to facilitate an onboard-based intelligent powertrain control. Taking the boost control of a diesel engine equipped with variable geometry turbocharger as an example, the results show that the final control behavior indicated by the cumulated rewards is improved by 50.43% and the learning efficiency is improved by 74.29% for the proposed curiosity-driven DRL algorithm, compared with the same structure DRL algorithm with classic random exploration policy. In addition, unlike most of the DRL-based powertrain optimization algorithms, which have only been applied to single-machine architecture, this work manages the proposed DRL algorithm in parallel and, more importantly, from an edge computing perspective. This, in addition to greatly speeding up the algorithm training, can also realize a good balance of control accuracy and generality depending upon the selected training scenario. Moreover, unlike most of the cloud computing frameworks, which require low network latency, the proposed architecture can achieve a similar final control performance even if good network communication is not allowed. Compared with other existing powertrain control methods, the proposed algorithm is able to approximate a global powertrain control optimization autonomously in a connected manner, making it attractive to current ICVs with advanced automated driving and traditional powertrain control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermoresponsive microgels composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and chitosan (CS) were synthesized by soap-free emulsion polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide monomer in the presence of CS, using an anionic radical initiator and a chemical crosslinker. The resulting PNIPAM/CS microgels contracted in an aqueous phase at elevated temperature, exhibiting a negatively thermoresponsive nature with a volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of about 34.6 °C. The microgel dispersions with a relatively high polymer content gelated when being heated across their VPTT due to their attractive hydrophobic interactions. We systematically investigated this thermo-induced in situ gelation behavior by small-deformation oscillatory rheological measurements within the linear viscoelastic region. The dynamic temperature ramp sweeps revealed that the gelation temperature was greatly influenced by the polymer content of the microgel dispersion, decreasing with increasing polymer content. The isothermal time sweeps showed that the gelation occurred more quickly at either higher polymer content or higher isothermal heating temperature. The relaxation dynamics for the as-formed gel were also studied by isothermal frequency sweeps. It was found that the gels exhibited a frequency-independent storage modulus in the lower frequency range, and the greater the polymer content of the microgel dispersions, the more elastic the gels that formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies focused on the intraoperative blood pressure in Moyamoya disease (MMD) patients. We aimed to clarify whether or not it relates to early cerebral infarction after revascularization. We reviewed a retrospective cohort of Moyamoya disease from 2011 to 2018 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, and patients with radiologically confirmed early postoperative infarction were included in the analysis. Controls were matched based on age, sex, and revascularization modality at a ratio of 1:5. Perioperative clinical factors and intraoperative blood pressure data were collected and analyzed. A total of 52 patients out of 1497 revascularization surgeries (3.5%) who experienced CT or MRI confirmed early postoperatively cerebral infarction, aged 38.46 ± 11.70; 26 were male (50.0%). Average real variability (ARV)-systolic blood pressure (SBP) (OR 3.29, p = 0.003), ARV-diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (OR 4.10, p = 0.005), ARV-mean arterial pressure (MAP) (OR 4.08, p = 0.004), and the maximum drops of DBP (OR 1.08, p = 0.003) and MAP (OR 1.06, p = 0.004) were associated with early postoperative infarction. In patients who experienced massive cerebral infarction, the maximum drops of DBP (OR 1.11, p = 0.004) and MAP (OR 1.11, p = 0.003) are independent risk factors, whereas ARVs of SBP (OR 3.90, p < 0.001), DBP (OR 4.69, p = 0.008), and MAP (OR 4.72, p = 0.003) are significantly associated with regional infarction. High variance of intraoperative blood pressure and drastic blood pressure decline are independent risk factors for postoperative infarction in MMD patients who underwent revascularization surgery. Maintaining stable intraoperative blood pressure is suggested to prevent early postoperative cerebral infarction in MMD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drug chirality is attracting increasing attention because of different biological activities, metabolic pathways, and toxicities of chiral enantiomers. The chiral separation has been a great challenge. Optimized high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods based on vancomycin chiral stationary phase (CSP) were developed for the enantioseparation of propranolol, atenolol, metoprolol, venlafaxine, fluoxetine, and amlodipine. The retention and enantioseparation properties of these analytes were investigated in the variety of mobile phase additives, flow rate, and column temperature. As a result, the optimal chromatographic condition was achieved using methanol as a main mobile phase with triethylamine (TEA) and glacial acetic acid (HOAc) added as modifiers in a volume ratio of 0.01% at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/minute and at a column temperature of 5°C. The thermodynamic parameters (eg, ΔH, ΔΔH, and ΔΔS) from linear van 't Hoff plots revealed that the retention of investigated pharmaceuticals on vancomycin CSP was an exothermic process. The nonlinear behavior of lnk′ against 1/T for propranolol, atenolol, and metoprolol suggested the presence of multiple binding mechanisms for these analytes on CSP with variation of temperature. The simulated interaction processes between vancomycin and pharmaceutical enantiomers using molecular docking technique and binding energy calculations indicated that the calculated magnitudes of steady combination energy (ΔG) coincided with experimental elution order for most of these enantiomers. Enantioseparation of six pharmaceuticals was performed by HPLC method based on vancomycin CSP. Mobile phase additives, flow rate, and column temperature was optimized. Using binding energy calculations and molecular docking, thermodynamic properties of enantiomer retention onto CSP and chiral recognition mechanisms were explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract An artificial nanoenzyme model of ester hydrolysis was developed by self-assembly of cucurbit[8]uril-based host-guest supra-amphiphiles. Abstract Self-assembled vesicles are constructed based on supra-amphiphiles formed by cucurbit[8]uril and its two guest molecules. By modifying one of the guest molecules, an artificial nanohydrolase is constructed. An enhancement of catalytic activity for hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate is observed, which is attributed to the enrichment effect of substrate around catalytic sites through the molecular recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) serve as a bridge by migrating at the site of spinal cord injury (SCI) to facilitate the repair of the neural structure and neural function. However, OEC migration at the injury site not only faces the complex and disordered internal environment but also is closely associated with the migration ability of OECs. We extracted OECs from the olfactory bulb of SD rats aged <7 days old. We verified the micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-145a-5p expression level in the gene chip after SCI and OEC transplantation using quantitative reverse transcription (qRT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The possible target gene Plexin-A2 of miR-145a-5p was screened using bioinformatics and was verified using dual-luciferase reporter assay, Western blot, and qRT-PCR. The effect of miR-145a-5p/plexin-A2 on OEC migration ability was verified by wound healing assay, Transwell cell migration assay, and immunohistochemistry. Nerve repair was observed at the injured site of the spinal cord after OEC transplantation using tissue immunofluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and the Basso–Beattie–Bresnahan locomotor rating scale were further used for imaging and functional evaluation. miR-145a-5p expression in the injured spinal cord tissue after SCI considerably decreased, while Plexin-A2 expression significantly increased. OEC transplantation can reverse miR-145a-5p and Plexin-A2 expression after SCI. miR-145a-5p overexpression enhanced the intrinsic migration ability of OECs. As a target gene of miR-145a-5p, Plexin-A2 hinders OEC migration. OEC transplantation overexpressing miR-145a-5p after SCI can increase miR-145a-5p levels in the spinal cord, reduce Plexin-A2 expression in the OECs and the spinal cord tissue, and promote OEC migration and distribution at the injured site. OEC transplantation overexpressing miR-145a-5p can promote the repair of neural morphology and neural function. Our study demonstrated that miR-145a-5p could promote OEC migration by down-regulating the target gene Plexin-A2, and transplantation of miR-145a-5p engineered OECs was beneficial to enhance neural structural and functional recovery in SCI rats. • miR-145a-5p/Plexin-A2 promote migration of OECs. • miR-145a-5p engineered OECs promotes functional recovery of SCI rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis remains a critical concern in intensive care units due to its high mortality rate. Early identification and intervention are paramount to improving patient outcomes. In this study, we have proposed predictive models for early sepsis prediction based on time-series data, utilizing both CNN-Transformer and LSTM-Transformer architectures. By collecting time-series data from patients at 4, 8, and 12 h prior to sepsis diagnosis and subjecting it to various network models for analysis and comparison. In contrast to traditional recurrent neural networks, our model exhibited a substantial improvement of approximately 20%. On average, our model demonstrated an accuracy of 0.964 (± 0.018), a precision of 0.956 (± 0.012), a recall of 0.967 (± 0.012), and an F1 score of 0.959 (± 0.014). Furthermore, by adjusting the time window, it was observed that the Transformer-based model demonstrated exceptional predictive capabilities, particularly within the earlier time window (i.e., 12 h before onset), thus holding significant promise for early clinical diagnosis and intervention. Besides, we employed the SHAP algorithm to visualize the weight distribution of different features, enhancing the interpretability of our model and facilitating early clinical diagnosis and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: People with diabetes tend to face a higher risk of stroke. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated the different outcomes of new glucose-lowering drugs marketed in recent years on cardiovascular outcome events. The effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors on stroke risk were evaluated in published RCTs.Methods: A search of Embase, Cochrane Library, and PubMed databases identified studies with stroke as an outcome event up to 3 December 2021. Risk ratios for stroke outcomes were analyzed using a fixed-effects model. I2 was used to assess the heterogeneity of the study.Results: 19 RCTs with 155,027 participants with type 2 diabetes were identified. Pooled analysis showed that compared to placebo, GLP-1 agonists reduced non-fatal stroke by 15 % (RR = 0.85, 95%CI 0.77-0.94, P = 0.002, I2 = 0 %) and total stroke (RR = 0.84, 95%CI 0.77-0.93, P = 0.000, I2 = 0 %) by 16 %. SGLT-2 inhibitors and DPP-4 inhibitors were not significantly associated with lower stroke risk.Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicates that GLP-1 agonists have potential benefits for stroke. However, further studies are needed if GLP-1 agonists are to be used to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes. More research is also needed to investigate the effects of new glucose-lowering drugs on different stroke subtypes.Systematic Review Registration: This protocol was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/; registration number: CRD42022326382). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The exergy flow model of a single-layer regional heat network is developed. • The generalized Kirchhoff's first law of exergy flow at nodes is proposed. • The concepts including exergy-voltage and exergy-impedance of RIES are proposed. • The unified exergy flow calculation model of RIES is established. • The exergy-circuit model is developed to characterize the energy quality of RIES. A regional integrated energy system (RIES) involves many different forms of energy, which can use exergy as a measure of energy quality. Based on the multi-energy flow, this paper analyses the exergy flow distribution mechanism of the network, and puts forward a unified calculation model of the exergy flow of RIES. Firstly, the exergy flow distribution mechanism of the regional heat network is analysed. Taking the return network as the reference system, the exergy flow model of a single-layer regional heat network is established, and the equivalence rationality of the regional heat network is verified by the exergy flow balance analysis. Next, the concept of exergy-voltage is proposed based on exergy-potential difference, and the exergy flow calculation model of the equivalent region heat network is established. The relevant laws are extended to other energy links, the concepts of exergy-voltage of electric and gas distribution networks are proposed, and the exergy flow model is established. The energy station is equivalent to the exergy loss node. Based on exergy flow balance, the generalized Kirchhoff's first law of node exergy flow is proposed. Then, the concept of exergy-impedance is put forward. The exergy-circuit model and exergy flow unified calculation model of RIES are established. Lastly, the energy quality of a typical RIES in China is studied using the present method. Through the exergy flow distribution, it is expedient to determine the effective energy of the energy network and the energy quality characteristics of the entire system. This research demonstrates that the quantity and quality of energy and the overall and local energy quality may exhibit different characteristics. It is found that factors including improving energy structure, adopting reasonable network topology, selecting appropriate equipment, and operation mode for energy station may enhance the system energy quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article defines a new dynamic storage assignment problem (DSAP) and develops an integrated mechanism for optimization purpose, based on the ABC classification and mutual affinity of products. A product affinity-based heuristic (PABH)-a technique based on data mining-is developed for calculation of pairwise relationships between products. It is shown that the analytical and multi-parametric DSAP is a quadratic assignment problem (QAP) and thus non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP)-hard. A greedy genetic algorithm (GA) is therefore developed for handling the computational complexity of the DSAP. Performance comparisons between the new approach and the traditional ABC classification method are conducted. The experimental results show that a preferred storage assignment approach is to simultaneously maximize the sum of affinity values and the product of zone indicators and order frequencies based on traditional ABC classification. The experiments on a distribution center of a family care product manufacturer indicate 7.14 to 104.48 % improvement in the average order picking time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The yield of exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by Streptococcus thermophilus 05-34 reached up to 250 mg/L under the optimal fermentation condition, which was 4.2-fold higher than that produced under the non-optimal fermentation condition. Structure analysis showed that EPS produced under the optimal fermentation condition was composed of galactose and glucose in a molar ratio of 1.0:0.8. This EPS was with a molecular mass of 4.7 × 10 5 Da, which was increased by 9 times compared with that in the non-optimal fermentation condition, while monosaccharide composition did not change. Furthermore, real-time quantitative PCR showed that the transcription level of epsC , which is responsible for chain-length determination, was up-regulated by 2.7-fold, suggesting that the increased molecular mass of EPS was resulted from improving polymerization degree of monosaccharide. These findings demonstrated that the optimized fermentation condition can improve EPS molecular mass, and may consequently modify the rheological properties of EPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A protein self-assembly nano-spring was developed through host–guest interactions between cucurbit[8]uril and tripeptide FGG tags of fusion protein FGG-recoverin-GST. Fine control of the conformational changes of the Ca2+-responsive domain allows for a 50% stretch of the protein nano-spring as it switches from the contracted state to the extended state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pH-responsive artificial selenoenzyme was constructed by reversible binding between organoselenium compound 1 and CB[6] to form a pseudorotaxane-based molecular switch in response to pH stimuli. The glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity of the artificial selenoenzyme can be switched on/off in a mild and body suitable environment between pH = 7 and pH = 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean oil (SO) was modified through the reaction with dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) to convert carbon double bonds in the soybean oil molecules into norbornyl groups of different ratios. Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) compounds with carbon black (CB) containing different extender oils including SO, modified SO (MSO) and naphthenic oil (NO) were prepared for comparison. The gel fraction, crosslink density, bound rubber fraction, curing behavior, thermal, mechanical and dynamic properties and reactions between the SO, MSO and curatives were investigated. It was found that with an increase of the modification level, the gel fraction of the SBR/MSO vulcanizates slightly increased while the crosslink density and bound rubber fraction decreased. The SBR/SO and SBR/MSO compounds and vulcanizates showed a lower glass transition temperature (T g ) and better thermal stability than those of the SBR/NO compounds and vulcanizate. The SBR/MSO compounds exhibited faster curing. Their vulcanizates showed lower modulus and higher elongation at break and tensile strength in comparison with the SBR/NO vulcanizates. The dynamic mechanical analysis of SBR/MSO vulcanizates indicated that use of this rubber in tire tread is expected to improve traction but increase rolling resistance compared to the SBR/NO vulcanizates. After adjusting the curative recipe, the modulus and tensile strength and abrasion resistance of the SBR/MSO vulcanizates with low level of modification were tremendously improved with the tensile strength and elongation at break being significantly higher than that of SBR/NO vulcanizate. The use of this recipe is expected to achieve similar traction and lower rolling resistance compared to the SBR/NO recipe. The addition of MSO to SBR has a promising possibility to replace petroleum oils in the rubber along with improvement of safety in tire production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemokine CXC motif ligand 16 (CXCL16) is an important mediator that has been shown to participate in various human diseases. The role of CXCL16 in the immunopathology of sepsis remains unidentified. In this study, we found that human patients with sepsis had significantly higher soluble levels of serum CXCL16 than healthy volunteers on day of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Soluble CXCL16 remained significantly up-regulated in the patients with sepsis, which correlated with disease severity. Furthermore, nonsurvivors displayed significantly higher admission levels of soluble CXCL16 compared with survivors of septic patients. Soluble CXCL16 levels revealed significant prognostic value for 28-day mortality, and CXCL16 was shown to be an independent predictor of 28-day mortality in the patients with sepsis. In a murine model of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced nonsevere sepsis, supplementation of recombinant CXCL16 protein could increase sepsis-induced mortality and tissue injury. Conversely, neutralizing CXCL16 by anti-CXCL16 monoclonal antibody could decrease mortality and tissue injury in CLP-induced severe sepsis. However, CXCL16 did not affect the ability of these mice to clear bacteria in CLP. Taken together, CXCL16 could be related to sepsis not only as a novel biomarker of prognosis, but also as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effect of monoglyceride (MGs) acyl chain length and compounding of MGs on the oleogel properties and stability, 3 different pure MGs and 7 mixtures with different glycerol monostearate (MS): glycerol monobehenate (MB) ratios were studied with high oleic sunflower oil (HOSO) as the liquid oil. The oleogel properties were characterized in terms of structuring potential including oil binding capacity (OBC), hardness and rheological behavior, and the microstructural features associated with these properties determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), solid fat content (SFC), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). Changes in oleogel properties (OBC and hardness) and the microstructure during 30 days of storage were also evaluated. Different chain lengths and ratios of MS:MB led to different crystallization rates, polymorphic transitions and aggregation rates, so as to form different crystalline networks and stabilities. In general, the MB oleogel exhibited the highest properties and stability. An increase in OBC in the order of glycerol monolaurate (ML) < MS < MB was observed for pure MG oleogels. The oleogels with mixed MGs outperformed the mechanical properties of the single ones. The best oleogel properties and stabilities were obtained for the oleogel with the MS:MB ratio as 2:8. • Monoglyceride chain lengths influenced the oleogels properties and stability. • Compounding different monoglycerides tuned the oleogels properties and stability. • For single systems, the best oleogel was produced by glycerol monobehenate. • Oleogels with mixed monoglycerides showed better properties than pure oleogels. • The optimum ratio of glycerol monostearate: glycerol monobehenate was found as 2:8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Getting your proteins in a row: Self‐assembled protein nanowires were designed by utilizing highly specific supramolecular interactions of cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) and a tripeptide FGG‐tag attached on the N‐termini of dimeric glutathione S‐transferase (GST). With the aid of enzyme simulation, model protein GST was converted into a selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase mimic, and the CB[8]‐induced Se‐FGG‐GST(Y6C) nanowires demonstrated excellent antioxidative capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteine in Reih' und Glied: Selbstorganisierte Protein ‐ Nanodrähte wurden mithilfe hoch spezifischer supramolekularer Wechselwirkungen zwischen Cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) und einem FGG ‐ Tripeptid am N ‐ Terminus von dimerer Glutathion ‐ S ‐ Transferase (GST) erhalten. Gestützt durch eine Enzymsimulation wurde das Modellprotein GST in ein Imitat des Selenoenzyms Glutathion ‐ Peroxidase umgewandelt, und die CB[8] ‐ verknüpften Se ‐ FGG ‐ GST(Y6C) ‐ Nanodrähte zeigten eine ausgezeichnete antioxidative Wirkung. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cucurbituril (CB), a well-known macrocyclic cavitand, has been used extensively to construct supramolecular aggregates. Based on host-guest intertactions, an adamantanyl derivative guest molecule was designed and synthesized to prepare a supramolecular amphiphile with cucurbit[7]uril. In aqueous solution, the cucurbit[7]uril based supramolecular amphiphiles self-assemble into well-defined vesicles, and their disassembly can be achieved by addition of excess competitive agent 1-adamantanamine hydrochloride. This vesicle functions as a new nanocapsule to encapsulate molecules within its hollow cavity. Through competitive disassembly of supramolecular amphiphiles, the vesicles behave as a novel drug delivery carrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inflammatory and immune processes are key pathophysiological processes in the ischemic stroke, including leukocyte infiltration and destruction of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), which further lead to increased post-ischemic inflammation. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a specific subset of T lymphocytes that play a pivotal role in suppressing the activation of immune system, maintaining immune homeostasis, and regulating inflammation induced by pathogens and environmental toxins. We would like to discuss the paradox function of Tregs in ischemic stroke. The accumulating data indicate that Tregs are involved in the immune regulation and self-tolerance after ischemic stroke, contributing the outcome of ischemic stroke. Tregs could resist immune response overactivation, and were supposed to be the endogenous regulatory factors to control the immune response of ischemic brain. Although, there are still some controversies and unresolved issues about the functions and mechanisms of Tregs in ischemic stroke. More and more attention has been paid to Tregs in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke and it might be a potential therapeutic target in the future. In this review, we will summarize the recent findings on the specific functions and mechanisms of Tregs and discuss its potential therapeutic role in ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two bacterial strains Klebsiella oxytoca Sc and Methylobacterium mesophilicum Sr were isolated and identified from enrichment cultures using dimethyl isophthalate (DMI) as the sole source of carbon and energy, and mangrove sediment as an inoculum. DMI was rapidly transformed by K. oxytoca Sc in the culture with formation of monomethyl isophthalate (MMI), which accumulated in the culture medium. M. mesophilicum Sr, incapable of utilizing DMI, showed high capability of degrading MMI to a transitory intermediate isophthalic acid (IPA), which was further mineralized by this strain. The biochemical pathway of DMI degradation by these two bacteria in a consortium was proposed: DMI to MMI by K. oxytoca Sc, MMI to IPA by M. mesophilicum Sr, and IPA by both K. oxytoca Sc and M. mesophilicum Sr based on the identified degradation intermediates. The consortium comprising K. oxytoca Sc and M. mesophilicum Sr was effective in mineralization of DMI. The results suggest that complete degradation of environmental pollutant DMI requires the biochemical cooperation between different microorganisms of the mangrove environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Biodegradation of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) by individual species of bacteria isolated from mangrove sediment was conducted in batch experiments. Four morphologically distinct microorganisms, two of which showed ability to degrade DMT completely, were obtained and identified. Pasteurella multocida Sa displayed the greatest ability in degrading 98mg within 60h. At this initial concentration the rate of DMT degradation by P. multocida Sa was apparently higher than that by Sphingomonas paucimobilis Sy. Based on the data obtained from HPLC/MS/MS analysis degradation of DMT by these bacteria was observed to proceed with formation of monomethyl terephtlate and terephthalate acid (TA) sequentially. However, addition of TA to the culture medium containing DMT as a co-substrate was found to delay aerobic degradation of DMT by P. multocida Sa. From these results, it is evident that environmental bacteria are capable of metabolizing DMT as sole carbon and energy source and may be used in aerobic treatment of wastewater containing DMT. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Phthalate ester isomers, including dimethyl phthalate (DMP), dimethyl isophthalate (DMI) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), were found to be transformed by Rhodococcus rubber Sa isolated from a mangrove sediment using DMT as a carbon source initially. At a concentration of 80mgl−1, transformation of DMP, DMI and DMT was achieved in 9, 1 and 5 days, respectively. During the hydrolytical transformation of DMP, DMI and DMT, their corresponding intermediates were identified as mono-methyl phthalate (MMP), mono-methyl isophthalate (MMI) and mono-methyl terephthalate (MMT), suggesting that transformation of all three isomers followed an identical biochemical pathway of de-esterification. However, none of the produced monoesters was further transformed by R. rubber Sa and they accumulated in the culture media during incubation. It seems that further transformation of monoesters require a set of hydrolytic enzymes different from those involved in the first transformation reaction. Kinetics of DMT, DMI and DMP transformation was well described by the modified Gompertz model independent of the individual substrate condition or a mixture of the three isomers. Both DMI and DMT were easier transformed substrates than DMP, resulting in higher maximum transformation rate (R m) and shorter lag time phase () derived from the modified Gompertz model. The modified Gompertz model based on one-substrate system can be used in fitting transformation kinetics of mixture substrate system. Our data suggest that degradation of phthalate diesters involves different enzymes in the hydrolysis of the two identical ester groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A new 3D crack-tip singular element is developed; • The shape of the 3D SASE could be an circular cylinder with oblique end surfaces; • The oblique cylinder element has increased the accuracy; • It is found that plane strain eigen solution is better to construct the 3D element than the plane stress solution. This study further extends a developed symplectic analytical singular element (SASE) library to include three-dimensional (3D) cracks in dissimilar materials. We construct a trial symplectic eigen solution for 3D bimaterial interfacial cracks and use it as the crack tip enrichment to define the interior displacement field of a new singular element. The symplectic approach is applied for the numerical modelling of 3D bimaterial cracks for the first time. In the derivation, a non-standard shape of the 3D crack-tip element, i.e., a cylinder with two oblique ends with arbitrary orientations, is considered to better fit the mesh of curved 3D cracks. It is proven that the proposed 3D element has improved the accuracy and is still convenient to use. The present contribution has provided a new insight for choosing effective and efficient crack tip enrichments of 3D interfacial cracks, and is also an important step forward of the SASE library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new, capillary-based contact angle system capable of operation at elevated temperatures up to 200 °C and pressures of 69 bar. New data collected at the quartz/distilled water/n-decane interface from 25 °C to 200 °C indicate a strong temperature linear dependence (1.1° increase for every 5 °C) on the contact angle. This increase cannot be solely attributed to viscous forces influencing the dynamic contact angle, nor can it be sufficiently described by changes in the n-decane/distilled water interfacial tension. Changes to the liquid/solid adhesions also seem likely to be responsible for this temperature dependency. The experimental system will prove useful in fundamental wettability studies through porous media as a function of temperature and add depth to our understanding of enhanced oil recovery processes and interfacial phenomena as a whole. The data highlights the importance of temperature on the wetting behavior of relatively simple, homogeneous, and immiscible materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The support vector machine (SVM) combined with the genetic algorithm (GA) has been utilized for the fault diagnosis of transformers since its high accuracy. In addition to the fault diagnosis, the condition assessment of transformer oil-immersed insulation conveys the crucial engineering significance as well. However, the approaches for getting GA-SVM used to the moisture prediction of oil-immersed insulation have been rarely reported. In view of this issue, this paper pioneers the application of GA-SVM and frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) to realize the moisture prediction of transformer oil-immersed insulation. In the present work, a method of constructing a GA-SVM multi-classifier for moisture diagnosis based on the fitting analysis model is firstly reported. Then, the feasibility and reliability of the reported method are proved by employing the laboratory and field test experiments. The experimental results indicate that the reported prediction model might be serviced as a potential tool for the moisture prediction of transformer oil-immersed polymer insulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The goldfish hepatic insulin , glucagon , leptin -AI and -AII mRNA during fasting and refeeding were examined. • Insulin suppresses leptin -AI and -AII mRNA in in vivo and in vitro experiments. • Insulin inhibits leptin expression via insulin receptor coupled with MAPK-dependent cascades. • Insulin reduces the glucagon-induced leptin expression. • The fish-specifically high leptin level under food deprivation may be mediated by insulin and glucagon. Leptin is primarily considered a peripheral satiety hormone and is also found to perform important roles in energy homeostasis in vertebrates ranging from fish to mammals. The liver is a major source of leptin production in teleost fish. Using goldfish as a model, a previous report by our group illustrated the positive regulation of leptin mRNA levels by treatment with the hyperglycemic hormone glucagon, and our present study provided evidence for the negative regulation of hepatic leptin -AI and leptin -AII transcripts through the administration of the hypoglycemic hormone insulin. This study is the first to demonstrate changes in the hepatopancreatic insulin , glucagon , leptin -AI and leptin -AII mRNA levels in goldfish during fasting and refeeding. Insulin was found to be effective in suppressing leptin -AI and leptin -AII transcript levels in goldfish liver via both in vivo intraperitoneal injection and in vitro cell incubation approaches. Only the insulin receptor, not the IGF-I receptor, was involved in insulin-inhibited leptin mRNA level. The suppression of leptin levels by insulin was caused by the activation of MKK 3/6 /p38MAPK and MEK 1/2 /Erk 1/2 cascades. Insulin treatment could eliminate the stimulation of glucagon on leptin mRNA level. Our study describes the regulation and signal transduction mechanism of insulin on leptin mRNA levels in the goldfish liver, suggesting that the leptin function in fish is speculated to be not only an anorexigenic factor but also a metabolic mediator. This also supports the hypothesis that the poikilothermal fish use a passive survival strategy during the periods of food deprivation, which is mediated by the fish-specifically high leptin levels induced by the cooperation of insulin and glucagon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL), which excels at solving a wide variety of Atari and board games, is an area of machine learning that combines the deep learning approach and reinforcement learning (RL). However, to the authors' best knowledge, there seem to be few studies that apply the latest DRL algorithms on real-world powertrain control problems. If there are any, the requirement of classical model-free DRL algorithms typically for a large number of random exploration in order to realize good control performance makes it almost impossible to implement directly on a real plant. Unlike most of the other DRL studies, whose control strategies can only be trained in a simulation environment—especially when a control strategy has to be learned from scratch—in this study, a hybrid end-to-end control strategy combining one of the latest DRL approaches—i.e., a dueling deep Q-network and traditional Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID) controller—is built, assuming no fidelity simulation model exists. Taking the boost control of a diesel engine with a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and cooled (exhaust gas recirculation) EGR as an example, under the common driving cycle, the integral absolute error (IAE) values with the proposed algorithm are improved by 20.66% and 9.7% respectively for the control performance and generality index, compared with a fine-tuned PID benchmark. In addition, the proposed method can also improve system adaptiveness by adding another redundant control module. This makes it attractive to real plant control problems whose simulation models do not exist, and whose environment may change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical recovered ferric phosphate (FePO 4) precipitates from hypophosphite-laden wastewater were shown to be an efficient method for phosphorus (P) recovery. However, the influence of chloride ions (Cl−) coexisting commonly in wastewater is not known for this treatment. Herein, a field-induced electro-Fenton coupled with anodic oxidation electrochemical system consisting of a Ti-RuO 2 anode, an Fe inductive electrode and an activated carbon fiber (ACF) cathode, namely Ti-RuO 2 /Fe/ACF(NaCl) system, was established to recover phosphorus (P) as FePO 4 from hypophosphite-laden wastewater in the presence of Cl−. This system enabled a hypophosphite (H 2 PO 2 −, 1.0 mM) removal ratio of ~100% and all P was recovered within 30 min at 5.0 V under the initial solution pH of 3.0. The Faradaic efficiency and energy consumption of P recovery achieved the maximum value (~94%) and the lowest value (~16 kW h kg−1 P), respectively. Reactive oxygen species including 1O 2 , FeIVO2+, •O 2 − and •OH contribute to convert H 2 PO 2 − to PO 4 3−, which immediately formed FePO 4 with the generated Fe3+ at the optimized conditions. Therein, the contribution of non-radical 1O 2 was very considerable. This system exhibited good stability. The efficiency and cost for treatment of actual hypophosphite-laden wastewater were addressed to check its applicability for P recovery. [Display omitted] • Field-induced electro-Fenton coupled with anodic oxidation electrochemical system was raised. • Recovery of phosphorus as FePO 4 from hypophosphite-laden wastewater were largely enhanced. • The primary reactive oxygen species for oxidation of H 2 PO 2 − to PO 4 3− were identified. • Economic and stability analysis for real plating effluents treatment was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate whether PTX3 is differentially expressed in the granulosa lutein cells derived from women with PCOS and whether BMP6 can regulate the expression of PTX3 in hGL cells. Methods: The expression levels of BMP6 and PTX3 in granulosa lutein cells were evaluated by RT-qPCR. The correlation between the expression levels of BMP6 /PTX3 and oocyte quality indexes were analyzed using clinical samples. The cells were incubated with BMP6 at different concentrations and times to check the expression of PTX3 in KGN cells. TGF-β type I inhibitors and small interfering RNA targeting ALK2/3/6,SMAD1/5/8 and SMAD4 were used to study the involvement of SMAD dependent pathways in KGN cells. Results: The levels of BMP6 in hGL cells were negatively correlated with the corresponding oocyte maturation rate and high-quality embryo rate, whereas the levels of PTX3 were positively correlated with the corresponding oocyte maturation rate in PCOS. Additionally, the in vitro cell cultured results showed BMP6 significantly inhibited the expression of PTX3 in KGN cells. Furthermore, using a dual inhibition approach (kinase inhibitors and small interfering RNAs), we identified the ALK2/ALK3 type I receptors and BMPR2/ACVR2A type II receptors and the downstream SMAD1/SMAD5-SMAD4 signaling pathway were responsible for the BMP6-induced cellular activities in KGN cells. Conclusions: The suppressive effect of BMP6 on PTX3 was mediated by ALK2/ALK3 type I receptors and BMPR2/ACVR2A type II receptors in granulosa cells through the SMAD1/5-SMAD4 dependent signaling pathway in PCOS.Our findings provides new insights into the understanding of the pathogenesis of PCOS-related ovulatory disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic train services provide huge conveniences to passengers. This work aims to fix one vital promise in major line planning studies that passengers were homogeneous. In fact, passengers' rail travel expectations are heterogeneous. But those heterogeneities show common needs correlating with travel distances and defined station levels. Therefore, we cluster passenger heterogeneities into divided OD groups, extend service qualities, and add more train line factors to our line planning model. Cyclic line plan from this joint optimisation not only receives service quality improvements but also provides multiple train service types to match clustered OD groups. Moreover, we allow passengers to be served by different train service types, deliver a high level of direct services, and maintain the minimum operation cost. We compare concluded line plans with the results of the generic line planning model and the real-world line plan to show our solution advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving coordination between urbanization and ecosystem service value (ESV) in border counties can help optimize the spatial patterns of regional coordinated development. However, the majority of current analysis focuses on the urbanization process of core areas and large-scale administrative units and lacks a quantitative investigation of border counties. Taking 25 border counties in Yunnan Province, China, as research cases, this study evaluated urbanization level and ESV. A coupling coordination degree (CCD) model and a geographical detector model were used to explore the interaction of the two systems and reveal the influencing factors. Furthermore, different scenarios were simulated to reveal the effects of policy priorities on CCD. The results showed the following: (1) The urbanization level increased from 2005 to 2019 while the ESV level fluctuated, showing spatial patterns of having multiple centers and being high in the middle and low at both ends, respectively. (2) Although CCD increased, its level was still low, and the urbanization of most counties lagged behind. (3) Normalized difference vegetation index, temperature, and largest patch index were the main factors affecting CCD, and the interaction effects between any two of these factors were stronger than the independent effect of any single factor. (4) Policy priorities had a significant effect on CCD. Our findings can provide references for border cities in similar contexts to balance urbanization and ESV based on local circumstances. [Display omitted] • This study aims to fill the gap of quantitative research on the interaction between urbanization and ESV of border counties. • We reveal the influencing factors of the interaction between urbanization and ESV in border counties. • We analyze the policy priority based on the local actual circumstances. • It is urgent to promote sustainable development in border areas by conducting relevant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To explore the incidence and influencing factors of postoperative hypoglycemia in diabetic patients during the perioperative period and to construct a risk prediction model for postoperative hypoglycemia. Methods. Patients with T2DM admitted to the nonendocrinology department of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital from December 2019 to January 2022 were included as research subjects. Basic information, hospital blood glucose management methods, laboratory indicators, and surgery-related indicators were collected. A risk prediction model and scoring table for postoperative hypoglycemia in patients with perioperative diabetes mellitus were established. Results. A total of 440 patients were included, of which 109 had hypoglycemia, resulting in an incidence of postoperative hypoglycemia of 24.78%. The results show that preoperative C-peptide and operation duration were risk factors for postoperative hypoglycemia, while BMI and preoperative fasting blood glucose were protective factors. Conclusion. The model constructed in this study is a good method for evaluating the risk of postoperative hypoglycemia. The scoring table intuitively quantifies the risk of risk factors for outcome variables and has strong clinical practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Purpose The molecular signatures of cholangiocarcinoma are not well characterized. Targeting protein for Xenopus kinesin-like protein 2 (TPX2) has been shown to promote oncogenesis in the context of several cancers; however, its' role in cholangiocarcinoma has not been studied. We evaluated the role of TPX2 in cholangiocarcinoma. Methods Expression levels of TPX2 in cholangiocarcinoma were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Potential correlations were assessed by Chi-squared test. Impact of TPX2 expression on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell invasion and migration was investigated by CCK-8, flow cytometric analysis, and transwell assay, respectively. The expressions of cell-cycle, cell-apoptosis and EMT related target proteins were detected by immunoblotting. Results TPX2 expression in cholangiocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that paracancerous tissue (44.3% vs. 5.7%; P <0.01). Overexpression of TPX2 showed a positive correlation with TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, and prognosis of patients. Knockdown of TPX2 expression induced G2-M arrest, apoptosis and inhibited invasion and migration of cholangiocarcinoma cells. Treatment of cholangiocarcinoma cells with TPX2 siRNA resulted in upregulation of cyclin A1, cyclin B1, p53, Bax, and E-cadherin; while downregulation of cyclin D1, CDK2, Bcl-2, N-cadherin, β-cadherin MMP-2, MMP-9, Slug, and Twist1. Conclusions Collectively, these results indicate that TPX2 may serve as a potential biomarker of prognostic relevance and a potential therapeutic target for cholangiocarcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]