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Fe–N–C catalysts are emerging as promising alternatives to Pt‐based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), while they still suffer from sluggish reaction kinetics due to the discontented binding affinity between the Fe‐N4 sites and oxygen‐containing intermediates, and unsatisfactory stability. Herein, a flexible multichannel carbon fiber membrane immobilized with atomically dispersed Fe‐N4 sites and neighboring Fe nanoclusters/nanoparticles (FeN4‐FeNCP@MCF) is synthesized. The optimized geometric and electronic structures of the Fe atomic sites brought by adjacent Fe nanoclusters/nanoparticles and hierarchically porous structure of the carbon matrix endow FeN4‐FeNCP@MCF with outstanding ORR activity and stability, considerably outperforming its counterpart with FeN4 sites only and the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Liquid and solid‐state flexible zinc–air batteries employing FeN4‐FeNCP@MCF both exhibit outstanding durability. Theoretical calculation reveals that the Fe nanoclusters can trigger remarkable electron redistribution of the FeN4 sites and modulate the hybridization of central Fe 3d and O 2p orbitals, facilitating the activation of O2 molecules and optimizing the adsorption capacity of oxygen‐containing intermediates on FeN4 sites, and thus accelerating the ORR kinetic. This work offers an effective approach to constructing coupling catalysts that have single atoms coexisting with nanoclusters/nanoparticles for efficient ORR catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the composition and migration of agglomerate in reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), two different RAPs were selected, and the aging performance of RAPs was evaluated. Then, the RAPs were sieved into a single particle size from 13.2 to 0.075 mm, and hot-mix and extraction tests were carried out on the RAPs with single particle sizes. Through the comparative analysis of gradations of the hot mixing and extraction of RAPs with single particle sizes, the composition and its migration rule of agglomerates of RAPs were analyzed. The thickness of gradation (TG), thickness of gradation ratio (TGR), degree of separation (DS), and degree of separation ratio (DSR) were proposed to evaluate the fragmentation characteristics of RAP agglomerates with single particle sizes. According to the DS index, the grading standard of RAP agglomerates was determined. The results show that the agglomerate of RAP at each particle size is mainly composed of the mineral aggregate of the initial particle size of RAP, the aggregate with one gradation lower than the initial particle size, and other aggregates with smaller and finer content. During the hot mixing, the RAP with the single particle size larger than 2.36 mm mainly undergoes old agglomerate fragmentation, whereas RAP with the single particle size ≤2.36 mm will not only break into small particles, but also integrate new agglomerates. The RAP agglomerates can be divided into strongly bound agglomerates and weakly bound agglomerates according to whether they will be broken and separated during hot mixing. With the decrease of particle size of RAP, the proportion of strongly bound agglomerates gradually rises, whereas the proportion of weakly bound agglomerates declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate the biomechanical effects of screw orientation and fracture block size on the internal fixation system for Letenneur type II Hoffa fractures. Methods: The fracture models were randomly divided into six groups according to the fracture subtypes and the direction of nail placement, and a plumb line of the posterior condylar tangent was made across the base of the posterior femoral condyle. The fracture blocks of the three types of fracture were calculated and recorded in the sagittal position, and the biomechanical performance of the six groups was evaluated by biomechanical tests. The axial load on the fracture block at a displacement of 2 mm was set as the failure load, a gradually increasing axial load was applied to each fracture model using a customized indenter at a load of 250-750 N, and the displacements and failure loads of the six groups were recorded at different axial loads. Results: Biomechanical test results showed that the larger the fracture block, the greater was the stability when nailing from front to back, and the smaller the fracture block, the greater was the strength when nailing from back to front (p < 0.001). As the fracture block became larger, the biomechanical advantage of nailing from posterior to anterior decreased.The displacement under 250 N load were 1.351 ± 0.113 mm, 1.465 ± 0.073 mm for Group IIa AP and Group IIa PA. The displacement under 500 N load were 2.596 ± 0.125 mm, 2.344 ± 0.099 mm for Group IIa AP and Group IIa PA. The displacement under 750 N load were 3.997 ± 0.164, 3.386 ± 0.125 mm for Group IIa AP and Group IIa PA. The failure loads were 384 ± 14 N, 415 ± 19 N for Group IIa AP and Group IIa PA. In the type IIa fracture group, the difference was no longer significant (p > 0.001). Therefore, there is a mechanical threshold that ranges from 38.36 to 52.33% between type IIa and type IIb fractures. Conclusions: The effect of the nailing direction on the strength of fixation has a fracture-block critical point, which is consistent overall with the trend that the larger the fracture block is, the greater the stability when nailing from anterior to posterior, and the smaller the fracture block is, the greater the strength when nailing from posterior to anterior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the effect of escitalopram combined with aripiprazole on cognitive function in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and to evaluate the clinical efficacy of the combination therapy. A total of 70 patients with first-episode MDD were randomly divided into the study group or the control group, receiving escitalopram combined with aripiprazole (5 mg/day) or escitalopram monotherapy respectively for 8 weeks. The severity of illness was assessed by using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) at baseline, at the end of 4th and 8th week, and cognitive function was assessed by using the THINC integrated tool (THINC-it), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects (RSESE) was applied to assess adverse reactions. The average HAMD-17 and HAMA scores decreased over time in both the control and the study groups, but the reductions were not statistically different between two groups with the passage of time. In WCST, total number of response (TR) of the study group decreased relative to the baseline at the end of the eighth week, but the control group did not significantly change during whole eight weeks. Perseverative errors (PE) in the control group eventually decreased at the end of Week 8 compared to that at Week 4, but in the study group, it was a continuous trend of decrease. In CPT, the decrease of leakage responses (LR) in the study group was higher than that of the control group in 2-digit number, and LR of the control group was higher than that of the study group at the end of Week 8 in 4-digit number. The downtrend of LR in 4-digit number kept for the whole period in study group, while in the control group, the LR did not decrease significantly until the end of Week 8 compared to that at baseline. Escitalopram combined with a low-dose of aripiprazole, and escitalopram monotherapy could both enhance cognitive function of MDD patients, while the improvements of combination therapy might happen relatively earlier. The combined use of escitalopram and aripiprazole might be more beneficial to the domains of executive function (EF) and continuous attention compared to escitalopram monotherapy. There was no significant differences between two treatment options in alleviating depressive and anxiety symptoms. • This is a study based on cognitive function improvement and drug efficacy in patients with first-episode depression. • Compared to escitalopram monotherapy, combining aripiprazole could be more beneficial to some areas of cognitive function. • Both two options could alleviate depressive and anxiety symptoms, but there seemed no significant differences between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangroves play a globally significant role in carbon capture and storage, known as blue carbon ecosystems. Yet, there are fundamental biogeochemical processes of mangrove blue carbon formation that are inadequately understood, such as the mechanisms by which mangrove afforestation regulates the microbial‐driven transfer of carbon from leaf to below‐ground blue carbon pool. In this study, we addressed this knowledge gap by investigating: (1) the mangrove leaf characteristics using state‐of‐the‐art FT‐ICR‐MS; (2) the microbial biomass and their transformation patterns of assimilated plant‐carbon; and (3) the degradation potentials of plant‐derived carbon in soils of an introduced (Sonneratia apetala) and a native mangrove (Kandelia obovata). We found that biogeochemical cycling took entirely different pathways for S. apetala and K. obovata. Blue carbon accumulation and the proportion of plant‐carbon for native mangroves were high, with microbes (dominated by K‐strategists) allocating the assimilated‐carbon to starch and sucrose metabolism. Conversely, microbes with S. apetala adopted an r‐strategy and increased protein‐ and nucleotide‐biosynthetic potentials. These divergent biogeochemical pathways were related to leaf characteristics, with S. apetala leaves characterized by lower molecular‐weight, C:N ratio, and lignin content than K. obovata. Moreover, anaerobic‐degradation potentials for lignin were high in old‐aged soils, but the overall degradation potentials of plant carbon were age‐independent, explaining that S. apetala age had no significant influences on the contribution of plant‐carbon to blue carbon. We propose that for introduced mangroves, newly fallen leaves release nutrient‐rich organic matter that favors growth of r‐strategists, which rapidly consume carbon to fuel growth, increasing the proportion of microbial‐carbon to blue carbon. In contrast, lignin‐rich native mangrove leaves shape K‐strategist‐dominated microbial communities, which grow slowly and store assimilated‐carbon in cells, ultimately promoting the contribution of plant‐carbon to the remarkable accumulation of blue carbon. Our study provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms of microbial community responses during reforestation in mangrove ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), defined as the cessation of gonadal function before the age of 40 years. We aimed to develop and validate models to predict age-specific POI risk among long-term survivors of childhood cancer. To develop models to predict age-specific POI risk for the ages of 21–40 years, we used data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). Female survivors aged 18 years or older at their latest follow-up, with self-reported menstrual history information and free of subsequent malignant neoplasms within 5 years of diagnosis, were included. We evaluated models that used algorithms based on statistical or machine learning to consider all predictors, including cancer treatments. Cross-validated prediction performance metrics (eg, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC]) were compared to select the best-performing models. For external validation of the models, we used data from 5-year survivors in the St Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) with ovarian status clinically ascertained using hormone measurements (menopause defined by follicle stimulating hormone >30 mIU/mL and oestradiol <17 pg/mL) and medical chart or questionnaire review. We also evaluated an SJLIFE-based polygenic risk score for POI among 1985 CCSS survivors with genotype data available. 7891 female CCSS survivors (922 with POI) were included in the development of the POI risk prediction model, and 1349 female SJLIFE survivors (101 with POI) were included in the validation study. Median follow-up from cancer diagnosis was 23·7 years (IQR 18·3–30·0) in CCSS and 15·1 years (10·4–22·9) in SJLIFE. Between the ages of 21 and 40 years, POI prevalence increased from 7·9% (95% CI 7·3–8·5) to 18·6% (17·3–20·0) in CCSS and 7·3% (5·8–8·9) to 14·9% (11·6–19·1) in SJLIFE. Age-specific logistic regression models considering ovarian radiation dosimetry or prescribed pelvic and abdominal radiation dose, along with individual chemotherapy predictors, performed well in CCSS. In the SJLIFE validation, the prescribed radiation dose model performed well (AUROC 0·88–0·95), as did a simpler model that considered any exposures to pelvic or abdominal radiotherapy or alkylators (0·82–0·90). Addition of the polygenic risk predictor significantly improved the average positive predictive value (from 0·76 [95% CI 0·63–0·89] to 0·87 [0·80–0·94]; p=0·029) among CCSS survivors treated with ovarian radiation and chemotherapy. POI risk prediction models using treatment information showed robust prediction performance in adult survivors of childhood cancer. Canadian Institutes of Health Research, US National Cancer Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the limitation of existing excavator optimization methods, which primarily focus on the force performance while neglecting energy consumption and fail to realize environmentally friendly and low-carbon designs, this paper proposes a new multi-objective collaborative optimization method for an excavator to reduce energy consumption during the working process while maintaining optimal performance. By formulating a mathematical model that quantifies the energy consumption during the working process, this paper optimizes the working conditions by analyzing the energy consumption characteristics under typical working conditions. To overcome the limitation of existing linear weighting methods in multi-objective optimization, such as imbalanced optimization quality among sub-objectives, this paper proposes a new modeling approach based on the loss degree of sub-objectives. A multi-objective collaborative optimization model for the excavator with reduced energy consumption is established, and a corresponding multi-objective collaborative optimization algorithm is developed and applied to achieve optimal solutions for sub-objectives. The optimization results demonstrate that applying the new multi-objective collaborative optimization method to the excavator achieves better optimization quality than traditional methods. It also provides a more balanced improvement in the optimization values of each sub-objective, resulting in a significant reduction in the energy consumption of the excavator during operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drying shrinkage deformation is one of the main factors causing the cracking of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). An effective prediction model of drying shrinkage deformation is helpful to prevent the cracking of UHPC by taking precaution measures in construction and improve the service life of UHPC. The drying shrinkage deformation model was established based on the drying shrinkage test of the UHPC with different concrete ingredients (water binder ratio, steel fiber, superplasticizer, silica fume and fly ash). The statistical product and service solutions correlation method was used to analyze the correlation degree of ingredient with drying shrinkage deformation of different UHPCs. The scanning electron microscope and mercury intrusion porosimetry tests were conducted to explain the ingredient-deformation correlation from a microscopic view. Results indicate that the drying shrinkage deformation of UHPC fits well with the composite exponential function model. The drying shrinkage deformation of UHPC can be restrained with the decrease in water binder ratio and at a proper content of steel fiber (25–75 kg/m3) and fly ash (60–100 kg/m3), which can be ascribed to the reduced average pore size and cumulative pore volume of UHPC. Among different concrete ingredients, the water binder ratio is the most significant factor (correlation coefficient with 0.977) influencing the drying shrinkage deformation of UHPC. The findings are of great significance to prepare the UHPC with excellent drying shrinkage resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study identified discrepant therapeutic outcomes of antipsychotics. Methods: A total of 5191 patients with schizophrenia were enrolled, 3030 as discovery cohort, 1395 as validation cohort, and 766 as multi‐ancestry validation cohort. Therapeutic Outcomes Wide Association Scan was conducted. Types of antipsychotics (one antipsychotic vs other antipsychotics) were dependent variables, therapeutic outcomes including efficacy and safety were independent variables. Results: In discovery cohort, olanzapine related to higher risk of weight gain (AIWG, OR: 2.21–2.86), liver dysfunction (OR: 1.75–2.33), sedation (OR: 1.76–2.86), increased lipid level (OR: 2.04–2.12), and lower risk of extrapyramidal syndrome (EPS, OR: 0.14–0.46); risperidone related to higher risk of hyperprolactinemia (OR: 12.45–20.53); quetiapine related to higher risk of sedation (OR = 1.73), palpitation (OR = 2.87), increased lipid level (OR = 1.69), lower risk of hyperprolactinemia (OR: 0.09–0.11), and EPS (OR: 0.15–0.44); aripiprazole related to lower risk of hyperprolactinemia (OR: 0.09–0.14), AIWG (OR = 0.44), sedation (OR: 0.33–0.47), and QTc prolongation (β = −2.17); ziprasidone related to higher risk of increased QT interval (β range: 3.11–3.22), nausea (OR: 3.22–3.91), lower risk of AIWG (OR: 0.27–0.46), liver dysfunction (OR: 0.41–0.38), and increased lipid level (OR: 0.41–0.55); haloperidol related to higher risk of EPS (OR: 2.64–6.29), hyperprolactinemia (OR: 5.45–9.44), and increased salivation (OR: 3.50–3.68). Perphenazine related to higher risk of EPS (OR: 1.89–2.54). Higher risk of liver dysfunction in olanzapine and lower risk of hyperprolactinemia in aripiprazole were confirmed in validation cohort, and higher risk of AIWG in olanzapine and hyperprolactinemia in risperidone were confirmed in multi‐ancestry validation cohort. Conclusion: Future precision medicine should focus on personalized side‐effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen (N) deposition is a pervasive anthropogenic change that can alter the dynamics and storage of carbon (C) in tropical soils by altering the transformation of plant litter C to soil organic C (SOC). The response of fungi may be particularly important for explaining how N deposition affects SOC storage in tropical forests because they are the primary decomposers of plant litter. Fungi can be grouped into different ecological guilds, or functional groups, which often have contrasting responses to the same environmental change. However, little is known if shifts in fungal guilds and their functions explain increased tropical forest SOC storage under N deposition.We addressed this knowledge gap by assessing the effects of long‐term (6 years) experimental N addition (+N) on fungal guilds, their functions and SOC fractions in a tropical forest.Total SOC, dissolved organic C (DOC), particulate organic C and fungal necromass C were all higher in +N soils. The fungal community in +N soils was dominated by generalist saprotrophs, and leaf saprotroph abundance increased nearly 93‐fold compared to controls. These changes were accompanied by an increase in lignocellulolytic enzymes, indicating accelerated decomposition of recalcitrant litter C compounds. Chitosanase, which catalyses synthesis of glucosamine, was 1.37× higher in +N soils than controls; correspondingly, fungal necromass C contributed 1.42× more to SOC. Greater abundance of saprotrophic enzymes involved in organic acid synthesis in +N soils was associated with higher concentration of Ca2+ and DOC.We propose that N deposition increases SOC storage by enhancing saprotroph abundance and activity, whereby increased organic acid production supports fungal growth both directly and indirectly via the release of nutrients and DOC, resulting in greater inputs of necromass to the soil. Our findings highlight the importance of considering shifts in guild‐level fungal abundance and function to investigate changes in SOC dynamics and storage. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early sexual intercourse and a greater number of sexual partners have been proved associated with depression. However, the causality of these associations is not clear. To unveil the causal associations between sexual factors and major depression disorder (MDD). The bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was conducted, which used genetic variants associated with two sexual factors (age first had sexual intercourse, n = 406,457; lifetime number of sexual partners, n = 378,882) and MDD (n = 500,199) from the largest genome-wide association studies (GWASs) conducted by the UK biobank and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The two-step MR analysis was applied to assess mediation. The Genetic predictors for five risky behaviors were also obtained from the most up-to-date GWAS conducted by the UK Biobank (ever self-harmed: 117,733; ever attempted suicide: 4933; psychoactive substance abuse, alcohol use, and tobacco use: 463,010). MR analysis indicated a risky causal effect of age first had sexual intercourse (OR = 0.720, 95 % CI: 0.661–0.784, P = 2.45 × 10−14) and lifetime number of sexual partners (OR = 1.656, 95 % CI: 1.356–2.022, P = 7.46 × 10−7) on MDD. Mediation analysis showed the effects were mediated by tobacco use, with a proportion of 34.20 % on age first had sexual intercourse and 22.94 % on lifetime number of sexual partners separately. The overlap of participants in different traits and unclear gender. Robust genetic evidence indicated that premature sexual intercourse and more sexual partners were risks for MDD. Risky behaviors, especially the tobacco use, mediated this effect. • The causality between sexual factors and depression was still not clear. • Data were from the largest the largest genome-wide association studies. • MR analysis indicated a risky causal effect of sexual factors on depression. • Mediation analysis showed the causal effects were mediated by tobacco use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify the degree of lumbar spinal stenosis by assessing the anterior and posterior vertebral canal diameter and dural area, determine the sensitivity of the anterior and posterior spinal canal diameter, dural area and dural occupying rate in predicting the postoperative efficacy of oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) for patients with single-stage lumbar spinal stenosis, and identify the corresponding indicators suggesting that OLIF surgery should not be performed. Methods: In a retrospective analysis of patients who had previously undergone OLIF surgery in our hospital, we included a total of 104 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who had previously undergone single-stage surgery in our hospital. Three independent observers were employed to measure the anterior and posterior diameter of the spinal canal (AD, mm), dural area (CSA, mm2), the spinal canal area (SCA, mm2), and the ratio of the dural area to the spinal canal area (DM, %) at the disc level with the most severe stenosis on MRI. According to the values of AD and CSA in preoperative MRI, patients were divided into three groups: A, B, and C (Group A: AD > 12 and 100 < CSA ≤ 130, group B: Except A and C, group C: AD ≤ 10 and CSA ≤ 75). Preoperative and postoperative clinical outcome scores (Japanese Orthopaedic Association [JOA] score, VAS score, modified Macnab standard) of 104 patients were statistically. Results: There were significant differences in the preoperative and postoperative clinical correlation scores among the mild, moderate and severe lumbar spinal stenosis groups. The improvement rate of the post treatment JOA score, the difference between the preoperative and postoperative VAS score, and the modified Macnab standard were compared pairwise. There was no statistical significance in the improvement rate of the post treatment JOA score, the difference between the preoperative and postoperative VAS score, and the modified Macnab standard between Group A and Group B (P = 0.125, P = 0.620, P = 0.803). There were statistically significant differences between Group A and Group C and between Group B and Group C in the improvement rate of the JOA score, the difference in the pre- and postoperative VAS score, and the modified Macnab standard. The anterior and posterior vertebral canal diameter and dural area are sensitive predictors of the postoperative efficacy of OLIF surgery for single-stage lumbar spinal stenosis. Moreover, when the anterior and posterior vertebral canal diameter was less than 6.545 mm and the dural area was less than 34.43 mm2, the postoperative effect of OLIF surgery was poor. Conclusions: All the patients with mild, moderate, and severe lumbar spinal stenosis achieved curative effects after OLIF surgery. Patients with mild and moderate lumbar spinal stenosis had better curative effects, and there was no significant difference between them, while patients with severe lumbar spinal stenosis had poor curative effects. Both the anteroposterior diameter of the spinal canal and the dural area of the spinal canal were sensitive in predicting the curative effect of OLIF surgery for single-stage lumbar spinal stenosis. When the anterior and posterior vertebral canal diameter was less than 6.545 mm and the dural area was less than 34.43 mm2, the postoperative effect of OLIF surgery was poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to study the infection rates of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and co-infections with human papillomavirus (HPV) in a hospital gynecology outpatient clinic in the Haikou region in 2021. Methods: From January to December 2021, the Women and Children Medical Center of Hainan Province collected 2389 samples of cervical exfoliated cells and vaginal swab specimens from gynecologic outpatients. The samples were then analyzed descriptively for data, and the detection rate of each pathogen was tallied. All vaginal swabs were obtained for CT, UU, and NG DNA testing, and cervical exfoliated cells for HPV genotyping. Analyses were performed on the detection rate of each group. Results: In 2389 samples, the frequencies of pathogen identification among the 2389 samples were as follows: UU (58.43%); HPV (17.29%); CT (7.99%); and NG (0.38%). HPV, CT, UU, and NG were detected in 33.33%, 22.55%, 77.45%, and 2.94% of individuals between 15 and 20 years of age, respectively. The detection rates of CT, UU, and NG were substantially greater in the HPV-positive group than the the HPV-negative group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Among gynecologic outpatients at a hospital in the Haikou area, the probability of mixed infections with genital tract pathogens in HPV-positive patients was higher compared to HPV-negative patients. Reproductive tract infections are becoming more prevalent in younger people, hence adolescent sexual health education needs improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Clinacanthus nutans (Burm.f.) Lindau (C. nutans) has been used in the therapy of hepatitis B (HB) and is effective; however, the mechanism of action has not been elucidated. Objective. To investigate the protective effects of C. nutans aqueous extract on the hepatitis B virus (HBV) mouse model based on correlation analysis between gut microbiota and liver metabolomics. Materials and Methods. We firstly constructed the animal model by high-pressure injection of pcDNA3.1(+)/HBV plasmid into the tail vein and treated it with C. nutans. The biomarkers and inflammatory cytokines of HB were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and quantitative PCR; the Illumina-MiSeq platform was used for investigating gut microbiota; the LC-MS/MS method was utilized on screening liver tissue metabolites; multiomics joint analysis was performed using the R program. Results. Compared with the modeling group, C. nutans significantly decreased the expression levels of HBsAg, IL-1β, TNF-α P < 0.05 in the serum, and cccDNA P < 0.05 in the liver tissues of mice. C. nutans dramatically reduced the ratio of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes P < 0.05 and significantly declined the proportion of Lactobacillaceae and Lactobacillus P < 0.05 , dramatically increasing the relative abundance of Bacteroidales_S24-7_group, Rikenellaceae, and Alistipes P < 0.05 ; LC-MS/MS analysis results showed that C. nutans dramatically upregulate hippuric acid, L-histidine, trehalose, D-threitol, and stachyose and downregulate uridine 5′-diphosphate, cholic acid, trimethylamine N-oxide, CDP-ethanolamine, and phosphorylcholine P < 0.05 . The correlation analysis revealed that C. nutans affects the related metabolite levels of hippuric acid and cholic acid through the modulation of crucial bacteria (Alistipes) P < 0.01 , exerting specific anti-inflammatory effects. Conclusion. These results suggest that C. nutans exerts protective effects in HBV model mice, showing the therapeutic potential for anti-HBV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inventory is the basis of business activities; inventory management helps industries keep their inventories stocked with reasonable quantities, which ensures consumers demand while minimizing storage costs. The traditional manual inventory management has low efficiency and a high labor cost. In this paper, we used improved YOLOv3 to detect the cups stored on the warehouse shelves and counted their numbers to realize automated inventory management. The warehouse images are collected by the camera and transmitted to the industrial computer, which runs the YOLOv3 network. There are three feature maps in YOLOv3, the two smaller feature maps and the structure behind them are removed, and the k-means algorithm is used to optimize the default anchor size. Moreover, the detection range is limited to a specified area. Experiments show that, by eliminating those two feature maps, the network parameter is reduced from 235 MB to 212 MB, and detection FPS is improved from 48.15 to 54.88 while mAP is improved from 95.65% to 96.65% on our test dataset. The new anchors obtained by the k-means algorithm further improve the mAP to 96.82%. With those improvements, the average error rate of detection is reduced to 1.61%. Restricted detection areas eliminate irrelevant items to ensure the high accuracy of the detection result. The accurately counted number of cups and its change provide significant data for inventory management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangrove ecosystems are pivotal in blue carbon capture, yet they can also release varying levels of methane (CH 4). Fiddler crabs are known players in carbon (C) cycling within mangrove ecosystems, but their precise contributions to CH 4 emissions and microbially-driven processes are not yet well understood. We compared CH 4 emissions, soil physicochemical properties, and methanogenic and methanotrophic communities in non-bioturbated and bioturbated soils within two mangrove communities: Sonneratia apetala (SA) and Pongamia pinnata (PP). The presence of fiddler crabs led to an increase in CH 4 emission rates in the bioturbated soil, ranging from 86% to 430% compared to un-bioturbated soil. The bioturbated soil also exhibited higher levels of ammonium, pH, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) but with lower concentrations of nitrate, sulfate, salinity, and total nitrogen. Moreover, an increase was observed in the abundance methanogenic communities, but the abundance and diversity of methanotrophic communities was reduced in the bioturbated soil. The increased abundance of Methanosarcina and reduced abundance of type II methanotrophs in the bioturbated soil could result in an overall increase in CH 4 emissions. This study result highlights that bioturbation can greatly influence CH 4 emissions in mangroves and emphasizes the importance of considering the ecological role of fiddler crabs in the evaluation of coastal blue carbon sequestration. [Display omitted] • Fiddler crabs greatly accelerated CH 4 emissions in mangrove soils. • Crab bioturbation changed soil properties. • Crab bioturbation altered CH 4 -cycling communities. • CH 4 -cycling communities were associated with sulfate and salinity. • Fiddler crabs should be considered in mangrove carbon-cycling processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Tyrosine metabolism pathway-related genes were related to prostate cancer progression, which may be used as potential prognostic markers. Aims. To dissect the dysregulation of tyrosine metabolism in prostate cancer and build a prognostic signature based on tyrosine metabolism-related genes for prostate cancer. Materials and Method. Cross-platform gene expression data of prostate cancer cohorts were collected from both The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Based on the expression of tyrosine metabolism-related enzymes (TMREs), an unsupervised consensus clustering method was used to classify prostate cancer patients into different molecular subtypes. We employed the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis to evaluate prognostic characteristics based on TMREs to obtain a prognostic effect. The nomogram model was established and used to synthesize molecular subtypes, prognostic characteristics, and clinicopathological features. Kaplan–Meier plots and logrank analysis were used to clarify survival differences between subtypes. Results. Based on the hierarchical clustering method and the expression profiles of TMREs, prostate cancer samples were assigned into two subgroups (S1, subgroup 1; S2, subgroup 2), and the Kaplan–Meier plot and logrank analysis showed distinct survival outcomes between S1 and S2 subgroups. We further established a four-gene-based prognostic signature, and both in-group testing dataset and out-group testing dataset indicated the robustness of this model. By combining the four gene-based signatures and clinicopathological features, the nomogram model achieved better survival outcomes than any single classifier. Interestingly, we found that immune-related pathways were significantly concentrated on S1-upregulated genes, and the abundance of memory B cells, CD4+ resting memory T cells, M0 macrophages, resting dendritic cells, and resting mast cells were significantly different between S1 and S2 subgroups. Conclusions. Our results indicate the prognostic value of genes related to tyrosine metabolism in prostate cancer and provide inspiration for treatment and prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key frame extraction is an important manner of video summarization. It can be used to interpret video content quickly. Existing approaches first partition the entire video into video clips by shot boundary detection, and then, extract key frames by frame clustering. However, in most team-sport videos, a video clip usually includes many events, and it is difficult to extract the key frames related to all of these events accurately, because different events of a game shot can have features of similar appearance. As is well known, most events in team-sport videos are attack and defense conversions, which are related to global translation. Therefore, by using fine-grained partition based on the global motion, a shot could be further partitioned into more video clips, from which more key frames could be extracted and they are related to the events. In this study, global horizontal motion is introduced to further partition video clips into fine-grained video clips. Furthermore, global motion statistics are utilized to extract candidate key frames. Finally, the representative key frames are extracted based on the spatial–temporal consistence and hierarchical clustering, and the redundant frames are removed. A dataset called SportKF is built, which includes 25 videos of 197,878 frames in 112 min and 764 key frames from four types of sports (basketball, football, American football and field hockey). The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves state-of-the-art performance by introducing global motion statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main research objective of this paper is to develop a low-temperature Eutectic Phase Change Material (EPCM) for use in the Cold Storage Thermal Storage (CETS), with the aim of improving energy efficiency during the cold storage process and addressing energy crises and environmental concerns. In this study, capric acid, n-octanoic acid, and n-tetradecane are prepared as low-temperature EPCMs by melt blending, with the addition of nanographite to enhance their thermal conductivity. The thermal performance parameters, chemical stability, and thermal stability of the EPCMs under phase change cycles are tested and evaluated by using macroscopic experimental methods, DSC, FTIR, and infrared thermal imaging. The research results indicate that the G-2 low-temperature EPCM, prepared by mixing capric acid, n-octanoic acid, n-tetradecane, and nanographite with a mass ratio of 0.231:0.469:0.3:0.06, has optimal thermal properties, specifically including a melting point of 0.32 °C, a melting latent heat of 163.3 J/g, a thermal conductivity of 0.83 W/m·K, and an undercooling of 0.47 °C. These properties make it suitable for cold storage operations. Nanographite can effectively improve the thermal conductivity of EPCM, and a 6 % addition proportion can lead to a 417.45 % increase in thermal conductivity and a 64.39 % decrease in undercooling. However, once the content of nanographite exceeds 6 %, the stability of the EPCM will undergo a significant decline. Furthermore, the results of DSC, FTIR, and infrared thermal imaging confirm that capric acid, n-octanoic acid, n-tetradecane, and nanographite can be effectively co-melted with each other, the heat transfer framework function of nanographite improves the efficiency of latent heat utilization in EPCM, and the G-2 sample maintains acceptable chemical and thermal stability even after undergoing 200 phase change cycles. • A eutectic phase change material (EPCM) was developed using capric acid, n-octanoic acid, n-tetradecane, and nanographite. • The optimal low-temperature EPCM has a phase change temperature of 0.32 °C and a melting latent heat of 163.3 J/g. • The addition of 6 % nanographite in EPCM can lead to an increase in thermal conductivity of 417.45 %. • This new EPCM exhibits acceptable thermal and chemical stability after 200 phase change cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the application of recycled asphalt pavements, many recycled roads will face secondary regeneration in the near future. The variation in properties of asphalt pavement after primary regeneration will directly affect the quality of secondary recycled asphalt pavement. To investigate the mechanisms and performance of secondary asphalt regeneration, this study conducted laboratory simulations to prepare primary aged asphalt and regenerated asphalt. Building upon the foundation of primary regenerated asphalt, secondary aged asphalt and regenerated asphalt were produced and subjected to testing. Subsequently, changes in the chemical composition, functional group contents, and rheological properties of asphalt, before and after two rounds of regeneration, were analyzed through Thin-Layer Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detection (TLC-FID), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) testing. The results indicate that generic fractions can largely be restored to primary regeneration levels during secondary asphalt regeneration by incorporating regenerant and new asphalt. However, the carbonyl and sulfoxide indices are not effectively recovered in the secondary regeneration process, resulting in viscoelastic properties that do not match those of primary asphalt regeneration. • The mechanisms of secondary regeneration of asphalt was revealed. • The microstructure changes of asphalt before and after two times of regenerations were studied. • The performance evaluation of secondary asphalt regeneration was evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bacteria-ALP showed a more pronounced and sensitive response to CYN than algal-ALP. • Verrucomicrobia made the largest contribution to the total abundance of pho genes. • Verrucomicrobia's proportion increase with CYN concentration under low-P conditions. • Raphidiopsis has the highest abundance of the pst gene. • Elucidated the role of CYN in supporting the formation of Raphidiopsis blooms. Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) can induce phytoplankton community to secrete alkaline phosphatase (ALP), which is one of the important strategies for the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Raphidiopsis to thrive in extremely low-phosphorus (P) waters. However, how bacterioplankton community, another major contributor to ALPs in waters, couples to Raphidiopsis through CYN, and the role of this coupling in supporting the dominance of Raphidiopsis in nature remain largely unknown. Here, we conducted microcosm experiments to address this knowledge gap, using a combination of differential filtration-based and metagenomics-based methods to identify the sources of ALPs. We found that, compared with algal-derived ALPs, bacteria-derived ALPs exhibited a more pronounced and sensitive response to CYN. This response to CYN was enhanced under low-P conditions. Interestingly, we found that Verrucomicrobia made the largest contribution to the total abundance of pho genes, which encode ALPs. Having high gene abundance of the CYN-sensing PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, Verrucomicrobia's proportion increased with higher concentrations of CYN under low-P conditions, thereby explaining the observed increase in pho gene abundance. Compared with other cyanobacterial genera, Raphidiopsis had a higher abundance of the pst gene. This suggests that Raphidiopsis exhibited a greater capacity to uptake the inorganic P generated by ALPs secreted by other organisms. Overall, our results reveal the mechanism of CYN-induced ALP secretion and its impact on planktonic P-cycling, and provide valuable insights into the role of CYN in supporting the formation of Raphidiopsis blooms. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdermal drug delivery efficacy of hyaluronic acid dissolving microneedles (HA DMNs) is limited by low loading dose and poor drug condensation in needles. HA swelling MNs (HA SMNs) could improve the efficacy, but comparisons between the formulations is missing. In this work, DMNs and SMNs were fabricated of HA and methacrylated HA, respectively. Their properties of transdermal drug delivery were systematically compared. HA SMNs exhibited enhanced mechanical strength, fast swelling performance, and extended duration of microchannels in skin. The doxorubicin (DOX) loaded by one-step loading protocol in needles and baseplate of SMNs could be transdermally delivered through the diffusing path mediated by swollen needles, conquering the limit of poor drug condensation in DMNs needles and generated a longer Tmax but higher Cmax. The relative bioavailability of DOX/SMNs towards DOX/DMNs was 200% within 12 h. The results provide theoretical references for the application of HA MNs mediated transdermal drug delivery. • Hyaluronic acid based dissolving or swelling microneedles were fabricated. • One-step drug loading protocol was applied for preparation of DOX/MNs. • HA SMNs exhibited strengthened mechanical property and improved insertion capacity. • DOX in needles and baseplates of SMNs could be released through swollen needles. • The relative bioavailability of DOX/SMNs to DOX/DMNs was 200%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, no well-established biomarkers were ever found to distinguish unipolar depression and bipolar disorder (BD). This study aimed to provide a clearer comparison of UA levels between BD and major depressive disorder. Peripheral UA of 119 patients with BD in acute stage (AS) and 77 in remission stage (RS), and 95 patients with UD in AS and 61 in RS were measured, so were 180 healthy controls. UA levels in BD group were higher than UD and HC groups regardless of the AS or RS, while differences in UA levels between UD group and HC group were not significant. Differences in UA levels of BD-M (bipolar mania/hypomania) were higher than BD-D (bipolar depression) subgroups, and UA levels of BD-M and BD-D subgroups were higher than UD and HC groups. The comparison of number of participants with hyperuricemia among groups confirmed the above results. There were no significant differences in UA levels of between drug-use and drug-free/naïve subgroups. UA could distinguish BD and UD significantly both in acute and remission stage. The study suggests patients with BD had a higher level of UA than UD, especially in mania episode. UA may be a potential biomarker to distinguish BD from UD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strongly oxidative H2O2 is biologically important, but if uncontrolled, would lead to tissue injuries. Lactoperoxidase (LPO) catalyzes the redox reaction of reducing highly reactive H2O2 to H2O while oxidizing thiocyanate (SCN−) to relatively tissue-innocuous hypothiocyanite (OSCN−). SCN− is the only known natural, effective reducing-substrate of LPO; humans normally derive SCN− solely from food. While its enzymatic mechanism is understood, the actual biological role of the LPO-SCN− system in mammals remains unestablished. Our group previously showed that this system protected cultured human cells from H2O2-caused injuries, a basis for the hypothesis that general deficiency of such an antioxidative mechanism would lead to multisystem inflammation and tumors. To test this hypothesis, we globally deleted the Lpo gene in mice. The mutant mice exhibited inflammation and lesions in the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive or excretory systems, neuropathology, and tumors, with high incidence. Thus, this understudied LPO-SCN− system is an essential protective mechanism in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, mesoporous nickel cobaltate (NiCo2O4) nanomaterials were loaded onto nickel foam through a simple and environment-friendly reagent assisted hydrothermal method. The impacts of reagents on the micro-morphology and electrochemical capacitive properties were studied. The NiCo2O4 nanoneedle arrays prepared with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the auxiliary reagent exhibited a relatively higher specific surface area, convenient charge transport channel, excellent specific capacitance (1153.2 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1), remarkable rate performance (10 A g−1, 812 F g−1) and good cycling stability (75% of the initial value is retained at 10 A g−1 after 1000 cycles). The asymmetric supercapacitor assembled by the optimized NiCo2O4 nanomaterial as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode provides an energy density of 22.5 W h kg−1 at 800 W kg−1, and displays an excellent cycle performance of 97.1% after 1000 cycles at 1 A g−1. It is suggested that the CTAB-assisted nanoneedle array-structured NiCo2O4 electrode material could be a potential candidate for supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advance on highly realistic AI‐synthesised video approaches makes it hard to distinguish whether a speaker in video is real. Many existing DeepFakes detection approaches can be invalidated by using them as supervision in adversarial training, which in turn improves the performance of DeepFakes. This makes the problem a dilemma. However, human can recognise the identity of familiar persons by observing their motion styles. Inspired by this, the paper proposes a novel method to recognise original speaker's identity clues in DeepFakes videos by learning individual motion styles. As a biological signature, motion styles can neither be used in the training process of DeepFakes nor be modified to deceive detection methods without reducing realistic performance. Also, this paper proposes a novel pipeline to continuously restore the original frames from DeepFakes videos without knowing the DeepFakes approach in advance. Based on above ideas, our scheme makes it possible to restore DeepFakes videos. Through training the cross‐modal transfer module, the appearance embedding can be inferred from the identity code. Extensive experiments are conducted to reveal the effectiveness of the method, it shows for the first time that the original persons can be identified automatically and the original video from DeepFakes videos can be generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • ZrO 2 forms a solid solution with In 2 O 3 and changes the structure of Ru/In 2 O 3. • A strong interaction between Ru and In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 exists. • Ru is highly dispersed on the In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 support. • The addition of ZrO 2 promotes the hydrogen activation and improves the activity. • The addition of ZrO 2 avoids the over-reduction of In 2 O 3 and stabilizes the catalyst. With the strong metal-support interaction, In 2 O 3 supported Ru catalyst has been confirmed to be active for selective hydrogenation of CO 2 to methanol. Herein, we report that the addition of ZrO 2 into Ru/In 2 O 3 further improves the catalytic activity for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. The catalyst characterization shows a formation of In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 solid solution, which is an excellent support for the highly dispersed Ru catalyst. Compared to Ru/In 2 O 3 , a significantly higher methanol selectivity is achieved over the Ru/In 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 catalyst with 1 wt% Ru loading. The methanol space–time yield (STY) reaches 0.685 g MeOH h−1 g cat −1 at 300 ℃, 5 MPa, and 21000 cm3 g cat −1h−1. It has more than 20% increase compared to Ru/In 2 O 3. The addition of ZrO 2 optimizes the oxygen vacancies of In 2 O 3 , improves the CO 2 adsorption and enables a more stable catalyst architecture, while the hydrogen spillover by the highly dispersed ruthenium improves the hydrogen activation ability of the catalyst. All these results in a high level of methanol yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioinspired by the nanoporous architectures in living organisms, self-supporting membranes that contain nanopores have attracted extensive attention due to their transferrable property and promising applications in the fields of separation, filtration, sensing and catalysis. Due to the simplicity and operability, silica sol–gel processing and templating methods can be combined to fabricate self-supporting nanoporous silica membranes. Aiming at controllable porous architectures and mechanical flexibility of the silica membrane, a simple method to fabricate flexible, transferable, self-supporting hybrid silica membranes with controlled and ordered porous architectures has been developed. At first, self-assembly at the gas/liquid interface was used for the preparation of ordered latex spheres with controlled layers. Using such ordered spheres on a sacrificial ITO support as the template, self-supporting silica membranes containing ordered porous architectures were constructed. Then, multi-walled carbon nanotubes were introduced into such porous silica membranes to increase flexibility. Moreover, gold nanoparticles were deposited onto the pore walls of the self-supporting silica membranes to show the possibility for selective recognition, which shows that such self-supporting hybrid silica membranes with controlled porous architectures can be chemically modified and transferred into other surfaces for promising applications in the fields of separation, catalysis and sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies show that oxidative stress is associated with the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. There are two major types of antioxidant systems in vivo, namely enzymatic antioxidants and non-enzymatic antioxidants. This study investigated differences of non-enzymatic antioxidants between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Methods: Peripheral UA, ALB, and TBIL of 107 schizophrenic patients in the acute stage and 101 in the remission stage were measured respectively, so were 273 healthy controls. Results: The levels of UA (P = 0.020) and TBIL (P < 0.001) of schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were higher than those of healthy controls, while the level of ALB (P < 0.001) was lower. Similar results were detected form schizophrenic patients in the remission stage. Schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were divided into antipsychotics-use subgroup (n = 56) and antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup (n = 51). The level of UA (P = 0.001) in the antipsychotics-use subgroup was higher than that in the antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup, while the level of TBIL (P = 0.002) was lower than that in the antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup. Seventy-seven schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were followed up, and there was no significant difference in the level of UA before and after treatment, but levels of ALB (P < 0.001) and TBIL (P < 0.001) decreased significantly after the treatment. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the dysfunction of the peripheral non-enzymatic anti-oxidation system might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB), which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains the leading cause of death worldwide from a single infectious pathogen. Mtb is a paradigmatic intracellular pathogen that primarily invades the lungs after host inhalation of bacteria-containing droplets via the airway. However, the majority of Mtb-exposed individuals can spontaneously control the infection by virtue of a robust immune defense system. The mucosal barriers of the respiratory tract shape the first-line defense against Mtb through various mucosal immune responses. After arriving at the alveoli, the surviving mycobacteria further encounter a set of host innate immune cells that exert multiple cellular bactericidal functions. Adaptive immunity, predominantly mediated by a range of different T cell and B cell subsets, is subsequently activated and participates in host anti-mycobacterial defense. During Mtb infection, host bactericidal immune responses are exquisitely adjusted and balanced by multifaceted mechanisms, including genetic and epigenetic regulation, metabolic regulation and neuroendocrine regulation, which are indispensable for maintaining host immune efficiency and avoiding excessive tissue injury. A better understanding of the integrated and equilibrated host immune defense system against Mtb will contribute to the development of rational TB treatment regimens especially novel host-directed therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Higher pulvinar ReHO was associated with better social function in schizophrenia. • Patients with higher pulvinar ReHO and cognitive function showed better outcomes. • Genes related to synaptic transmission may regulate the process in brain. Identifying objective biological subtypes that predict long-term functional outcomes is crucial for understanding neurobiological mechanisms and identifying potential targets. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 178 patients and 70 controls, we explored social function patterns using latent profile analysis. Long-term outcomes were compared among the biological subtypes using K-means clustering. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to identify gene expression profiles associated with alterations in activity by leveraging transcriptional data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. In patients with more functional impairment, left medial pulvinar (PM) exhibited significantly lower regional homogeneity of brain activity (ReHo, [95% CI (0.06–0.27), P = 0.002), a finding validated in the independent cohort. Functional connectivity between PM and secondary visual cortex displayed a suggestive decrease. Patients belonging to "higher pulvinar ReHo - better information processing" demonstrated better long-term outcomes and acute treatment response [95% CI (11.2–34.4), P < 0.001]. The PLSR component of imaging-transcriptomic associations partly explained the ReHo differences among patients with varying levels of functional impairment. It revealed enrichment of genes in the synaptic signaling pathway. Pathological changes in the pulvinar may affect social functioning. Higher pulvinar ReHo and better information processing, two objective biomarkers, have a predictive value for better long-term functional outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Substituted diphenylamine antioxidants (SDPAs) and benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BZT-UVs) are contaminants of emerging environmental concern. However, little is known about the occurrence of these contaminants in the Arctic. In this study, we investigated the levels of 11 SDPAs and 6 BZT-UVs in livers and eggs of two seabird species, the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), as well as the liver of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) from Canadian high- and sub-Arctic sites. The concentrations of ΣSDPAs in seabird livers (median 336 pg g−1, wet weight (ww)) were significantly higher than the eggs (median 24 pg g−1, ww) and the seal livers (median 38 pg g−1, ww), suggesting liver was a primary tissue of SDPA accumulation in seabirds and that seabirds were at greater risk of exposure to SDPAs than marine mammals in the Arctic. The predominant SDPA was monostyryl octyl-diphenylamine and this compound was detected in every seabird and seal sample, indicating the widespread distribution of this contaminant in Arctic food webs. Unlike SDPAs, the detection rate and concentrations of BZT-UVs in seals were higher than in seabirds. The compound 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenol (UV329) or its isomer 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-(tert-butyl)-6-(sec-butyl) phenol (UV350) was the predominant BZT-UVs in seals, with the concentrations of ΣBZT-UVs between

Abstract Synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) are of emerging concern due to their potential environmental risks. However, the environmental occurrence and fate of SPAs are poorly understood. In this study, 13 SPAs were analyzed in 70 liquid and 21 solid samples from 12 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 2016 to investigate the distribution and composition of SPAs in different wastewater treatment processes in Canada. Wastewater samples were liquid-liquid extracted and biosolids were treated using ultrasonic assisted solvent extraction. SPAs were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The concentrations of total SPAs were in the ranges of 71–3193 ng L−1 in influent, less than method quantification limits (MQLs)-520 ng L−1 in effluent, and 479–4794 ng g−1 in biosolids (dry weight (dw)). SPAs were effectively removed (median >75%) from the liquid stream in most WWTPs. In one aerated lagoon and two primary treatment sites, low removal efficiency (median −26%-43%) was observed for 4- tert -octylphenol (4- t OP). These results indicate that wastewater effluent is a vector for SPAs, including the endocrine disruptor 4- t OP, to aquatic environments. The mass balance approximation found major removal mechanisms are sludge sorption/separation and degradation. A preliminary risk assessment suggested that most SPAs in WWTP effluent were unlikely to pose ecotoxicological risks to aquatic organisms in the receiving waters. Future research should evaluate the environmental risks of SPAs associated with land application of biosolids and investigate the occurrence and fate of the degradation products of these contaminants. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • The single phenolic ring 4- t OP, 2,4-DTBP and BHT were the dominant SPAs in Canadian WWTPs. • Chemically assisted primary treatments showed very low removal efficiency of 4- t OP (−13 ± 43%). • The removal mechanisms included sludge sorption/separation and degradation in WWTP liquid stream. • Most target SPAs were unlikely to pose risks to aquatic organisms in Canadian WWTP effluent receiving waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Substituted diphenylamine antioxidants (SDPAs) and benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BZT-UVs) are additives used in industrial and commercial applications to prevent degradation by oxidation and are contaminants of emerging environmental concern. Little is known about the fate of these contaminants in wildlife, particularly in reptiles, birds and marine mammals. Nine SDPAs and six BZT-UVs were measured in blood plasma of seven fish species, snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from various locations in North America. Plasma SDPAs were more frequently (90–100%) detected and with higher concentrations (median: 25–270 pg g−1, wet weight (ww)) in organisms from urban areas than rural locations (median: double-crested cormorants > bottlenose dolphins. Of the three quantifiable BZT-UVs, 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-di- tert -pentylphenol (UV328) showed higher detection frequency in most species of fish, bird and turtle (range of 0–67%), indicating the widespread distribution of UV328 in the aquatic environment of lower Great Lakes region. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • SDPAs and BZT-UVs detected in the blood of fish, turtles, birds and dolphins • First report of SDPAs and BZT-UVs in reptiles • Urban samples showed higher levels of SDPAs and BZT-UVs than rural areas. • SDPAs levels followed the order of fish ≥ turtles > cormorants > dolphin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector quantisation (VQ) is a widely used method for data compression or data clustering. This study proposes a fast codebook design method for image VQ. General particle swarm optimisation (PSO)‐K‐means hybrid methods for codebook design take too much time. To deal with this problem, the authors present a new clustering method, which takes a very short time and generates a pretty good codebook. This method contains four parts, i.e. pooling, PSO algorithm, reverse cast, and K‐means algorithm. Pooled images are used for the PSO process while original images are used for K‐means fine‐tuning, and these two processes connected by the reverse cast process. In the authors' experiment, this method can dramatically reduce the computation time by using big sizes of pooling window or enhance the codebook quality by using small sizes of pooling window. They can make the calculation time almost one‐tenth of that of the PSO‐K‐means hybrid method, and the scheme is also faster than the K‐means algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the main advantages of the proposed algorithm lie in the fact that it can reduce the computation time and enhance the quality of codebooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Co-occurrence of weight gain and efficacy may belong to a special biotype. • The study established three new biotypes, TR+nonAIWG, TR+AIWG and nonTR+nonAIWG. • Clinical and genetic data revealed the shared mechanism between AIWG and TR. • Clinicians should pay attention to the "thin" patients with higher obesity risk. Co-occurrence of antipsychotic-induced weight gain (AIWG) and therapeutic response (TR) did exist in clinic but was rarely studied. This study aims to identify potential TR/ AIWG biotypes and explore the clinical, genetic and neuroimaging features. This study enrolled 3030 patients to identify potential TR/AIWG biotypes and explore the clinical, genetic and neuroimaging features. We found three biotypes: TR+nonAIWG (46.91%), TR+AIWG (18.82%), and nonTR+nonAIWG (34.27%). TR+AIWG showed lower weight and lipid level at baseline, but higher changing rate, and higher genetic risk of obesity than TR+nonAIWG and nonTR+nonAIWG. GWAS identified ADIPOQ gene related to TR+AIWG biotypes and top-ranked loci enriched in one-carbon metabolic process, which related to both schizophrenia and metabolic dysfunction. Genetically predicted TR+AIWG was associated with higher odds of diabetes (OR=1.05). The left supplementary motor area was significantly negatively correlated with PRS of obesity. The distinguishing ability with multi-omics data to identify TR+AIWG reached 0.787. In a word, the "thin" patients with a higher risk of obesity are the target population of early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in convolutional neural networks have achieved prominent results for object counting or locating in images. In these networks, some adopt detection‐based methods which require providing bounding‐box annotations for training and these methods usually cannot deal with the crowded cases well. Other networks adopt density regression‐based methods which require only point annotations for training but these methods can only predict the total count without providing any location information. In this Letter, the authors propose an attention guided convolutional neural network (AGNet) for both crowded object locating and counting using point annotation as supervision without annotated bounding boxes which are far more time‐consuming to label. Accordingly, they define a multi‐task objective loss function to lead the training of AGNet to achieve the goal of crowded object locating. The experimental results on four challenging benchmark datasets for crowded objects counting demonstrate the superiority of the proposed AGNet over recent state‐of‐the‐art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many real-world complex systems consist of a set of basic units that are connected by different kinds of relationships. All types of such systems can be described by a multilayer network, where each link represents different types of interaction among the same set of nodes. In this paper, we present a general framework to characterize the influences (centrality) of layers. Furthermore, we propose two measures for layer centrality in terms of network connectivity under this framework. The basic idea of our measures consists in assigning more centrality value to layers that contribute more connectivity in a multilayer network. In other words, layers are more influential if more centrality values of links are assigned to them. We validate the measures on a real-world dataset of air transportation multilayer network and find that the measures are able to extract novel and useful information from the dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of microalgal biomass and bioproducts depends on long-term maintenance of certain physiological or biochemical features of the species. While unique characteristics may not be durably maintained with general subculture, cryopreservation methods better prevent alterations from desired characteristics. Post-thaw viability is critical to establishing microalgal cultures, and there is a critical need to effectively and rapidly evaluate microalgal viability after the post-thawing process. In the present study, we developed a rapid assay based on the change of fluorescence ratio to determine microalgal viability post-thaw. It was shown that the assessment of microalgal viability by the fluorescence ratio method correlated well with that of the FDA-staining (R 2  = 0.978) and regrowth method (R 2  = 0.976), demonstrating that the present method could be applied in the high-throughput detection of viability of microalgal strains. Subsequent to establishing this method, we aimed to find out optimal cryopreservation protocol for each strain from a group of 125 microalgal strains. The viability of these strains under different treatments was quickly evaluated by the fluorescence ratio method. Of these strains, 95 attained post-thaw viability over 60%. DMSO was a suitable cryoprotectant for most strains at a concentration ≤10%. Based on the dataset, the relative contribution of 3 variables-genus, cryoprotectants and concentration to post-viability was analyzed with the Random Forest (RF) classification method. All variables together could explain 97.8% of the viability, and type and concentration of cryoprotectant could explain 59.1% in Chlorophyta. This study provided a new approach for viability assay and demonstrated that this method can facilitate to find out the optimal protocols for cryopreservation of microalgal strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives Tight junction proteins are correlated with cancer development. As the pivotal proteins in epithelial cells, altered expression and distribution of different claudins have been reported in a wide variety of human malignancies. We have previously reported that claudin-7 was strongly expressed in benign bronchial epithelial cells at the cell-cell junction while expression of claudin-7 was either altered with discontinued weak expression or completely absent in lung cancers. Based on these results, we continued working on the expression pattern of claudin-7 and its relationship with lung cancer development. We herein proposed a new Digital Image Classification, Fragmentation index, Morphological analysis (DICFM) method for differentiating the normal lung tissues and lung cancer tissues based on the claudin-7 immunohistochemical staining. Methods Seventy-seven lung cancer samples were obtained from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University and claudin-7 immunohistochemical staining was performed. Based on C++ and Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV, version 2.4.4), the DICFM processing module was developed. Intensity and fragmentation of claudin-7 expression, as well as the morphological parameters of nuclei were calculated. Evaluation of results was performed using Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results Agreement between these computational results and the results obtained by two pathologists was demonstrated. The intensity of claudin-7 expression was significantly decreased while the fragmentation was significantly increased in the lung cancer tissues compared to the normal lung tissues and the intensity was strongly positively associated with the differentiation of lung cancer cells. Moreover, the perimeters of the nuclei of lung cancer cells were significantly greater than that of the normal lung cells, while the parameters of area and circularity revealed no statistical significance. Conclusions Taken together, our DICFM approach may be applied as an appropriate approach to quantify the immunohistochemical staining of claudin-7 on the cell membrane and claudin-7 may serve as a marker for identification of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex network response to node loss is a central question in different fields of science ranging from physics, sociology, biology to ecology. Previous studies considered binary networks where the weight of the links is not accounted for. However, in real-world networks the weights of connections can be widely different. Here, we analyzed the response of real-world road traffic complex network of Beijing, the most prosperous city in China. We produced nodes removal attack simulations using classic binary node features and we introduced weighted ranks for node importance. We measured the network functioning during nodes removal with three different parameters: the size of the largest connected cluster (LCC), the binary network efficiency (Bin EFF) and the weighted network efficiency (Weg EFF). We find that removing nodes according to weighted rank, i.e. considering the weight of the links as a number of taxi flows along the roads, produced in general the highest damage in the system. Our results show that: (i) in order to model Beijing road complex networks response to nodes (intersections) failure, it is necessary to consider the weight of the links; (ii) to discover the best attack strategy, it is important to use nodes rank accounting links weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to predict the future popularity of a message or video on online social media (OSM) has long been an attractive problem for researchers. Although many difficulties are still ahead, recent studies suggest that temporal and topological features of early adopters generally play a very important role. However, with the increase of the adopters, the feature space will grow explosively. How to select the most effective features is still an open issue. In this work, we investigate several feature extraction methods over the Twitter platform and find that most predictive power concentrates on the second half of the propagation period, and that not only a model trained on one platform generalizes well to others as previous works observed, but also a model trained on one dataset performs well on predicting the popularity for other datasets with different number of observed early adopters. According to these findings, at least for the best features by far, the data used to extract features can be halved without loss of evident accuracy and we provide a way to roughly predict the growth trend of a social-media item in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substituted diphenylamine antioxidants (SDPAs) and benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BZT-UVs) are additives used in industrial and consumer products to prevent degradation or color change of materials, but their environmental fate and disposition are not well characterized. In this study, SDPAs and BZT-UVs were analyzed in 68 liquid and 39 solid samples collected from 9 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Canada to investigate the occurrence and fate of these contaminants. The median concentrations of ΣSDPAs and ΣBZT-UVs was 483 and 76.2 ng L −1 in influent, 28.4 and 4.84 ng L −1 in effluent, and 2750 and 457 ng g −1 in biosolids (dry weight), respectively. Dinonyl-diphenylamine (C9C9) was the predominant congener of SDPAs in all matrices (>40%). For target BZT-UVs, the major components were 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-bis(1-methyl-1-phenylethyl)phenol (UV234) and 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-di- tert -pentylphenol (UV328). SDPAs and BZT-UVs were effectively removed (>90%) from the liquid stream in most WWTPs mainly through sludge sorption and separation, but biotransformation, UV treatment and filtration may also contribute to removal of some contaminants in advanced treatment plants. In contrast, the removal efficiency of target contaminants using chemically assisted primary treatment was low, likely due to the short hydraulic retention time of this site. Our results suggest that wastewater effluent is a vector of SDPAs and BZT-UVs to the aquatic environment. The results also highlight the high concentrations of SDPAs and BZT-UVs associated with the solid stream in WWTPs, which could affect the beneficial use of biosolids (e.g., compost or land applications). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector quantisation (VQ) shows a good performance for image coding with high‐compression ratios. However, there are many difficulties for image coding with VQ, especially the edge degradation and high‐computational complexity. To resolve these two problems, the authors propose a new coding method based on edge orientation patterns (EOPs) by classifying image blocks into nine classes according to their edge orientations. For colour image coding, 27 codebooks (nine for each colour component) are pre‐designed based on a series training images. In the encoding stage, an input colour image is decomposed into Y, Cb, and Cr components, and each component image is divided into non‐overlapping 4 × 4 blocks. For each block, eight edge orientation templates of size 4 × 4 are performed to determine its edge orientation. According to the edge orientation, each block is compressed by using the corresponding codebook. Essentially, the authors' scheme is a kind of classified VC (CVQ). Simulation results show that, their EOP‐based CVQ can largely improve the compression efficiency as well as speeding up the encoding process and it is sufficient to establish effectiveness of the authors' algorithm as compared with the existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) are two suites of chemicals that are of environmental concern as organic contaminants, but little is known about the exposure of wildlife to these contaminants, particularly in birds, in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The present study investigates the spatial distributions of nine cyclic and linear VMSs and 17 OPEs in the eggs of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and three congeneric gull species (i.e., herring gull (Larus argentatus), glaucous-winged gull (L. glaucescens), and California gull (L. californicus)) from nesting sites across Canada. ∑VMS concentrations for all bird eggs were dominated by decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6), and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4). With European starlings, birds breeding adjacent to landfill sites had eggs containing significantly greater ∑VMS concentrations (median: 178 ng g-1 wet weight (ww)) compared with those from the urban industrial (20 ng g-1 ww) and rural sites (1.3 ng g-1 ww), indicating that the landfills are important sources of VMSs to Canadian terrestrial environments. In gull eggs, the median ∑VMS concentrations were up to 254 ng g-1 ww and suggested greater detection frequencies and levels of VMSs in aquatic- versus terrestrial-feeding birds in Canada. In contrast, the detection frequency of OPEs in all European starling and gull eggs was lower than 16%. This suggested that low dietary exposure or rapid metabolism of accumulated OPEs occurs in aquatic feeding birds and may warrant further investigation for the elucidation of the reasons for these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of structural design on the thermal durability and fracture behavior of Yb-Gd-Y-based thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) were investigated through thermal cyclic exposure tests, such as furnace cyclic thermal fatigue (FCTF) and jet engine thermal shock (JETS) tests. The effects of composition in the bond coat and feedstock purity for the buffer layer on its lifetime performance were also examined. To overcome the drawbacks of Yb-Gd-Y-based material with inferior thermal durability due to poor mechanical properties and low coefficient of thermal expansion, a buffer layer was introduced in the Yb-Gd-Y-based TBC systems. In FCTF tests, the TBCs with the buffer layer showed a longer lifetime performance than those without the buffer layer, showing the longest thermal durability in the TBC with the Co-Ni-based bond coat and the buffer layer of regular purity. In JETS tests, the TBC with the Ni-based bond coat and the buffer layer of high purity showed a sound condition after 2000 cycles, showing better thermal durability for TBC with the Co-Ni-based bond coat rather than that with the Ni-based bond coat in the single layer coating without the buffer layer. The buffer layer effectively enhanced the thermal durability in slow temperature change (in the FCTF test), while the bond-coat composition and the feedstock purity for the buffer layer were found to be important factor to improve the thermal durability of the TBC in fast temperature change (in the JEET test). Finally, these research findings allow us to control the structure, composition, and feedstock purity in TBC system for improving the thermal durability in cyclic thermal environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CRISPR/Cas12a-based fluorescence biosensor was developed for the detection of exosomal miR-21 derived from lung cancer. The miR-21 can specifically trigger the release of free DNA via strand displacement reaction. The released DNA was extended by TdT to produce ultra-long poly-T chains which bond multiple crRNAs based on the A-T paired. Meanwhile, the trans -cleavage activity of CRISPR/Cas12a was ignited, resulting in the F-Q labeled ssDNA being cleaved and generating the fluorescence signal. [Display omitted] • The fluorescence biosensor coupled with CRISPR/Cas12a, SDR, TdT and MNPs is developed for determination of exosomal miR-21. • The biosensor exhibits high sensitivity and high specificity for the detection of exosomal miR-21. • The biosensor has been successfully used to detect the exosomal miR-21 in blood. • This method is able to accurately distinguish the cancer patients from the healthy people. • The biosensor is beneficial for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Exosomes-derived miRNA-21 (miR-21) is intimately correlated with the lung cancer and can be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Due to the low abundance, high homology and complex matrix of miR-21 in the exosomes, accurate determination of exosomal miR-21 remains challenging. Combination of CRISPR technology with biosensors improves the detection specificity and sensitivity. This article reports a CRISPR/Cas12a-based fluorescence bioassay for the detection of exosomal miR-21 derived from lung cancer by coupling the state-of-the-art technologies including strand displacement reaction (SDR), terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). This biosensor exhibits high sensitivity (161 fM), and high specificity (against mismatched sequences) for the determination of miR-21. Furthermore, this method has been successfully used to detect the exosomal miR-21 in blood, and the results show that the biosensor is able to accurately distinguish cancer patients from healthy people. It is anticipated that the fabricated biosensor has great potentials for early diagnosis of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]