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Background: Research has suggested significant correlations among ageing, immune microenvironment, inflammation and tumours. However, the relationships among ageing, immune microenvironment, cystitis and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) in the bladder have rarely been reported. Methods: Bladder single-cell and transcriptomic data from young and old mice were used for immune landscape analysis. Transcriptome, single-cell and The Cancer Genome Atlas Program datasets of BLCA and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) were used to analyse immune cell infiltration and molecular expression. Bladder tissues from mice, IC/BPS and BLCA were collected to validate the results. Results: Eight types of immune cells (macrophages, B-cells, dendritic cells, T-cells, monocytes, natural killer cells, γδ T-cells and ILC2) were identified in the bladder of mice. Aged mice bladder tissues had a significantly higher number of T-cells, γδ T-cells, ILC2 and B-cells than those in the young group (P < 0.05). Three types of T-cells (NK T-cells, γδ T-cells and naïve T-cells) and three types of B-cells (follicular B-cells, plasma and memory B-cells) were identified in aged mice bladder. Chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) is highly expressed in aged bladder, IC/BPS and BLCA (P < 0.05). CCR7 is likely to be involved in T- and B-cell infiltration in aged bladder, IC/BPS and BLCA. Interestingly, the high CCR7 expression on BLCA cell membranes was a prognostic protective factor. Conclusions: In this study, we characterised the expression profiles of immune cells in bladder tissues of aged and young mice and demonstrated that CCR7-mediated T- and B-cell filtration contributes to the development of bladder ageing, IC/BPS and BLCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic heart disease, especially myocardial infarction (MI), is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and desperately needs effective treatments, such as cell therapy. Cardiopulmonary progenitors (CPPs) are stem cells for both heart and lung, but their repairing role in damaged heart is still unknown. Here, we obtained CPPs from E9.5 mouse embryos, maintained their stemness while expanding, and identified their characteristics by scRNA‐seq, flow cytometry, quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction, and differentiation assays. Moreover, we employed mouse MI model to investigate whether CPPs could repair the injured heart. Our data identified that CPPs exhibit hybrid fibroblastic, endothelial, and mesenchymal state, and they could differentiate into cell lineages within the cardiopulmonary system. Moreover, intramyocardial injection of CPPs improves cardiac function through CPPs exosomes (CPPs‐Exo) by promotion of cardiomyocytic proliferation and vascularization. To uncover the underlying mechanism, we used miRNA‐seq, bulk RNA‐seq, and bioinformatic approaches, and found the highly expressed miR‐27b‐3p in CPPs‐Exo and its target gene Sik1, which can influence the transcriptional activity of CREB1. Therefore, we postulate that CPPs facilitate cardiac repair partially through the SIK1‐CREB1 axis via exosomal miR‐27b‐3p. Our study offers a novel insight into the role of CPPs‐Exo in heart repair and highlights the potential of CPPs‐Exo as a promising therapeutic strategy for MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft sensors have become reliable tools for estimating difficult-to-measure target variables in modern industrial processes. In order to make full use of labeled and unlabeled samples, an active semi-supervised soft sensor modeling method is proposed, which combines active learning and semi-supervised learning to maximize model performance and minimize the laboratory analysis cost of expanding the labeled sample data set. First, manifold regularization is introduced into the deep extreme learning machine (DELM) algorithm to form a semi-supervised DELM that improves the performance of a model trained with unlabeled samples. Then, considering non-Gaussian processes and the error information between the predicted and true values, an active sample selection strategy based on error Gaussian mixture model is developed. Using this strategy, the most uncertain and representative unlabeled samples are selected for labeling, and thereby expanding the labeled sample data set. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using industrial debutanizer process data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow in mixed-flow pumps under gas–liquid operating conditions is complex, involving special phenomena such as secondary flow and bubble breakup and coalescence. As a result, its pressure fluctuation characteristic is far different from that under pure water conditions. In this work, the energy performance, pressure fluctuation characteristics, and flow pattern under different inlet gas volume fractions (IGVFs) are studied through a visualization test in a mixed-flow pump. The air pocket forms easily close to the suction side of diffuser vanes, where two pressure fluctuation monitoring points are set up. The pressure increment decreases continuously when the IGVF increases, and the flow pattern shows a transition from bubble, condensed bubble, and air pocket to separated flow. Moreover, the pressure fluctuation amplitude and peak-to-peak values increase. The main frequency under different IGVFs is maintained as the blade passing frequency. When the IGVF increases to 15%, the peak-to-peak amplitude at P1 reaches the maximum, which is 2.24 times that of the pure water condition. Some amplitudes at one frequency fluctuate at different times when the IGVF is higher than 10%. The findings contribute theoretical support in improving the stability of multiphase pumps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural stem cells are multipotent stem cells that generate functional newborn neurons through a process called neurogenesis. Neurogenesis in the adult brain is tightly regulated and plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of brain function. Disruption of adult neurogenesis impairs cognitive function and is correlated with numerous neurologic disorders. Deciphering the mechanisms underlying adult neurogenesis not only advances our understanding of how the brain functions, but also offers new insight into neurologic diseases and potentially contributes to the development of effective treatments. The field of adult neurogenesis is experiencing significant growth in China. Chinese researchers have demonstrated a multitude of factors governing adult neurogenesis and revealed the underlying mechanisms of and correlations between adult neurogenesis and neurologic disorders. Here, we provide an overview of recent advancements in the field of adult neurogenesis due to Chinese scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a currently common strategy to treat cancer, surgical resection may cause tumor recurrence and metastasis due to residual postoperative tumors. Herein, an implantable sandwich‐structured dual‐drug depot is developed to trigger a self‐intensified starvation therapy and hypoxia‐induced chemotherapy sequentially. The two outer layers are 3D‐printed using a calcium‐crosslinked mixture ink containing soy protein isolate, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium alginate, and combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P). The inner layer is one patch of poly (lactic‐co‐glycolic acid)‐based electrospun fibers loaded with tirapazamine (TPZ). The preferentially released CA4P destroys the preexisting blood vessels and prevents neovascularization, which obstructs the external energy supply to cancer cells but aggravates hypoxic condition. The subsequently released TPZ is bioreduced to cytotoxic benzotriazinyl under hypoxia, further damaging DNA, generating reactive oxygen species, disrupting mitochondria, and downregulating hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α, vascular endothelial growth factor, and matrix metalloproteinase 9. Together these processes induce apoptosis, block the intracellular energy supply, counteract the disadvantage of CA4P in favoring intratumor angiogenesis, and suppress tumor metastasis. The in vivo and in vitro results and the transcriptome analysis demonstrate that the postsurgical adjuvant treatment with the dual‐drug‐loaded sandwich‐like implants efficiently inhibits tumor recurrence and metastasis, showing great potential for clinical translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mixed-flow pump performs well in transporting gas–liquid mixtures with large flow rates and high inlet gas volume fractions. However, its extensive development is still limited by the operating range and poor overall performance. In this study, a multiobjective and multicondition optimization methodology for improving the gas–liquid flow performance of a mixed-flow pump based on the inverse design is proposed. The impeller blade load is taken as the optimization variable. Moreover, the Euclidean distances of the pressure increment, efficiency, and gas volume fraction in the diffuser are adopted as optimization objectives. Results show that the numerical methodology is verified by the pressure increment and gas distribution obtained in the tests of the original pump. Optimized results demonstrate that the slope of the straight line, the stacking angle at the hub, and the intersection point of the rear parabola and the straight line significantly affect the objectives. The increased load of the first half of the impeller and the reduced load of the second half may improve the comprehensive performance of mixed-flow pumps. The blade length and wrap angle are reduced after optimization, which changes the inlet and outlet angles and deflection of the blade, thereby helping to enhance the cognition of mixed-flow pump performance optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the known promotional effects of cigarette smoking on progression of atherosclerosis (AS), tar as the most dominant toxic component in cigarette smoking has been little studied. Understanding the potential role and mechanisms of tar in AS may be a prerequisite for future reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Male ApoE−/− mice were fed with high-fat diet and injected intraperitoneally with cigarette tar (40 mg/kg/day) for 16 weeks. The results showed that cigarette tar significantly promoted the formation of lipid-rich plaques with larger necrotic cores and less fibrous, and caused severe iron overload and lipid peroxidation in AS lesions. Moreover, tar significantly upregulated the expression of hepcidin and downregulated FPN and SLC7A11 of macrophages in AS plaques. Ferroptosis inhibitor (FER-1 and DFO) treatment, hepcidin-knockdown or SLC7A11-overexpression reversed above changes, thereby delaying the progression of atherosclerosis. In vitro, the use of FER-1, DFO, si-hepcidin, and ov-SLC7A11 increased cell viability and inhibited iron accumulation, lipid peroxidation and GSH depletion in tar treated macrophages. These interventions also inhibited the tar induced upregulation of hepcidin, and increased the expression of FPN, SLC7A11, and GPX4. Furthermore, NF-κB inhibitor reversed the regulatory effect of tar on hepcidin/FPN/SLC7A11 axis, and then inhibiting macrophage ferroptosis. These findings indicated that cigarette tar promotes atherosclerosis progression by inducing macrophage ferroptosis via NF-κB-activated hepcidin/FPN/SLC7A11 pathway. [Display omitted] • We provide the first direct evidence for a causal effects of cigarette tar in exacerbating atherosclerosis. • Tar-induced macrophage ferroptosis is a key mechanism of AS. • Cigarette tar indueces macrophage ferroptosis through hepcidin mediated FPN/SLC7A11 axis dysregulation. • Activated NF-κB pathway is the upstream regulatory mechanism of hepcidin during tar exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, electrolysis of seawater in flat-tube nickel-yttria-stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) electrode-supported solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) were modeled and the effects of variations in electrical conductivity and microstructure of Ni-YSZ electrode support were investigated. When the current density was greater than 700 mA·cm−2, the conductivity of the electrode support decreased slightly with an increase in current density at 800 °C in hydrogen reduction environment; the conductivity of the electrode support decreased with an increase in the current density when the current density was greater than 400 mA·cm−2 at 800 °C in the seawater electrolysis environment. During long-term durability experiment of seawater electrolysis, the degradation rates in area specific resistance (ASR) were 0.096 mΩ·cm2/100 h and 0.207 mΩ·cm2/100 h with a current density of 300 mA·cm−2 (i.e., ≤400 mA·cm−2) and 1000 mA·cm−2 (i.e., ≥400 mA·cm−2), respectively. Besides, the various ions commonly present in seawater did not contaminate the Ni-YSZ support during the long-term durability test. The degradation mechanism of seawater electrolysis in flat-tube SOECs is discussed and clarified. • Conductivity of Ni-YSZ support in seawater environment is quantitatively studied. • Conductivity of Ni-YSZ support first increases and then decreases with electrolysis current. • ASR of Ni-YSZ support increases by 0.207 mΩ·cm2/100 h under 1000 mA·cm−2. • Conductivity of Ni-YSZ support is mainly related to Ni element, but not to seawater ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creep-fatigue (CF) response of 316H steel base metal (BM) and welded joint (WJ) as a function of holding time, along with corresponding deformation mechanism and failure mode are studied. The CF response of both BM and WJ exhibits initial hardening followed by gradual softening. Correspondingly, the hardening degree of BM is higher than that of WJ, while WJ has a faster softening rate, which is due to their different initial microstructure and microstructure evolution during the cyclic process. Due to the enhanced recovery process, the deformation mechanism changes from primarily planar to wavy slip, which explains the difference in cyclic softening. With the increase in holding time, the nucleation and growth of intergranular cavities and cracks lead to the transformation of the failure mode from transgranular to intergranular. The failure location of WJ occurs in the WM region, and the ferrite transformation plays an important role in the initiation and propagation of cracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multispectral pedestrian detection has received much attention in recent years due to its superiority in detecting targets under adverse lighting/weather conditions. In this paper, we aim to generate highly discriminative multi-modal features by aggregating the human-related clues based on all available samples presented in multispectral images. To this end, we present a novel multispectral pedestrian detector performing locality guided cross-modal feature aggregation and pixel-level detection fusion. Given a number of single bounding boxes covering pedestrians in both modalities, we deploy two segmentation sub-branches to predict the existence of pedestrians on visible and thermal channels. By referring to the important locality information in the reference modality, we perform locality guided cross-modal feature aggregation to learn highly discriminative human-related features in the complementary modality by exploring the clues of all available pedestrians. Moreover, we utilize the obtained spatial locality maps to provide prediction confidence scores in visible and thermal channels and conduct pixel-wise adaptive fusion of detection results in complementary modalities. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method, outperforming the current state-of-the-art detectors on both KAIST and CVC-14 multispectral pedestrian detection datasets. • A new perspective on how to generate more discriminative human-related features. • A pixel-level fusion strategy to combine results in two complementary modalities. • Results on KAIST and CVC-14 datasets demonstrates the superiority of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of diets supplemented with three sulfur-containing amino acids (SAA), namely, methionine, cysteine, and taurine, on the intestinal health status of juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) fed high-lipid diets. Four diets were formulated, namely, a high-lipid control diet (16% lipid, HL) and three SAA-supplemented diets, which were formulated by supplementing 1.5% methionine (HLM), 1.5% cysteine (HLC), and 1.5% taurine (HLT) into the HL control diet, respectively. Each diet was assigned to triplicate tanks, and each tank was stocked with 30 juvenile fish (appr. initial weight, 8 g). The histological and morphometric results showed that dietary SAA supplementation obviously improved the intestinal morphology and integrity, in particular as reflected by higher height of microvilli and mucosal folds. Dietary SAA supplementation, in particular cysteine, up-regulated the gene expression of mucin-2 and tight junction proteins (ZO-1, Tricellilun and JAM). Dietary SAA supplementation remarkably down-regulated the gene expression of apoptosis-related factors such as p38, JNK, and Bax, expression of pro-inflammatory factors (e.g., NF-κB, AP-1 IL-1β, IL-8, and TNF-α). SAA supplementation resulted in higher antioxidative abilities in the intestine. Additionally, dietary SAA supplementation largely altered the communities of intestinal microbiota. Compared with the HL group, higher relative abundance of potential beneficial bacteria, and lower relative abundance of opportunistic pathogens were observed in SAA-supplemented groups. Dietary taurine supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of Ligilactobacillus (in particular Lactobacillus murinus) and Limosilactobacillus (especially Lactobacillus reuteri). In conclusion, dietary sulfur-containing amino acids supplementation have promising potential in ameliorating the intestinal inflammation of turbot fed high-lipid diets. Especially dietary cysteine and taurine supplementation have more positive effects on the communities of the intestinal microbiota of turbot. • Dietary SAA can ameliorate the intestinal inflammation caused by high-lipid diets in turbot. • Dietary SAA enhanced the intestinal mucosal barrier function of turbot. • Dietary SAA improved the communities of intestinal microbiota of turbot. • Taurine increased the abundance of some lactic acid bacteria in the intestine of turbot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the great challenges of postoperative prostate cancer management is tumor recurrence. Although postoperative chemotherapy presents benefits to inhibit unexpected recurrence, it is still limited due to the drug resistance or intolerable complications of some patients. Electrospun nanofiber, as a promising drug carrier, demonstrating sustained drug release behavior, can be implanted into the tumor resection site during surgery and is conductive to tumor inhibition. Herein, we fabricated electrospun nanofibers loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and ABT199 to synergistically prevent postoperative tumor recurrence. Enzymatic degradation of the biodegradable electrospun nanofibers facilitated the release of the two drugs. The primarily released DOX from the electrospun nanofibers effectively inhibited tumor recurrence. However, the sustained release of DOX led to drug resistance of the tumor cells, yielding unsatisfactory eradication of the residual tumor. Remarkably, the combined administration of DOX and ABT199, simultaneously released from the nanofibers, not only prolonged the chemotherapy by DOX but also overcame the drug resistance via inhibiting the Bcl-2 activation and thereby enhancing the apoptosis of tumor cells by ABT199. This dual-drug-loaded implant system, combining efficient chemotherapy and anti-drug resistance, offers a prospective strategy for the potent inhibition of postoperative tumor recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerogels are special porous materials with low thermal conductivity, light weight, high energy absorption rate and large surface area, which have been applied in many fields. However, controlling the aerogel microstructure remains an academic challenge. Herein, by employing graphene oxide (GO) as the aerogel skeleton and utilizing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to regulate the ice crystal growth, we elucidate the relationships between the physicochemical properties of GO/PVA aerogel precursors and the nucleation and growth of ice crystals by using an ice-templating method. We demonstrate that due to the hydrogen bond formed between PVA and water molecules, resulting in the initial crystallization temperature being reduced from −12.60 °C (GO/PVA-0.01) to −16.21 °C (GO/PVA-0.1). Meanwhile, the strong hydrogen bond between PVA and GO limits the diffusion of water molecules, thereby inhibiting the growth of ice crystals, decreasing the pore size of the GO/PVA aerogel from 9.96 nm (GO/PVA-0.01) to 7.19 nm (GO/PVA-0.3), and thus the compressive strength of the aerogel increases from 0.045 MPa to 0.13 MPa. Overall, the finding of this study can be extended to other aerogel precursors, and exhibit important scientific value and practical significance for the preparation of aerogel materials with highly controllable structures and performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation can impact precipitation through biophysical processes and such effects are commonly examined by models. However, previous studies mostly conduct deforestation experiments with a single model and the simulated precipitation responses to deforestation diverge across studies. In this study, 11 Earth system models are used to robustly examine the biophysical impacts of deforestation on precipitation, precipitation extremes, and the seasonal pattern of the rainy season through a comparison of a control simulation and an idealized global deforestation simulation with clearings of 20 million km2 of forests. The multimodel mean suggests decreased precipitation, reduced frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation, and shortened duration of rainy seasons over deforested areas. The deforestation effects can even propagate to some regions that are remote from deforested areas (e.g., the tropical and subtropical oceans and the Arctic Ocean). Nevertheless, the 11 models do not fully agree on the precipitation changes almost everywhere. In general, the models exhibit higher consistency over the deforested areas and a few regions outside the deforested areas (e.g., the subtropical oceans) but lower consistency over other regions. Such intermodel spread mostly results from divergent responses of evapotranspiration and atmospheric moisture convergence to deforestation across the models. One of the models that has multiple simulation members also reveals considerable spread of the precipitation responses to deforestation across the members due to internal model variability. This study highlights the necessity of robustly examining precipitation responses to deforestation based on multiple models and each model with multiple simulation members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic power generation (PVPG) forecasting has attracted increasing research and industry attention due to its significance for energy management, infrastructure planning, and budgeting. Emerging deep learning (DL) models based on historical data have provided effective solutions for PVPG forecasting with great success. However, newly-constructed photovoltaic (NCPV) plants often lack collections of historical data, and thus it is difficult to forecast their future generation accurately. In this work, combining transfer learning (TL) and DL models, we initially propose two parameter-transferring strategies and a constrained long short-term memory (C-LSTM) model, to address the hourly day-ahead PVPG forecasting problem of NCPV plants. The K-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm is utilized to extract prior knowledge as physical constraints, which can guide the training process of C-LSTM. The performances of different TL methods combined with C-LSTM are evaluated specifically, and appropriate ones are determined accordingly. The proposed models are evaluated based on real-life datasets collected from actual PV plants in Australia. The results demonstrate that the proposed C-LSTM model outperforms the standard LSTM model with higher forecasting accuracy. In addition, the results also indicate that significant improvements in forecasting accuracy and stability can be obtained by the proposed TL strategies combined with C-LSTM, regardless of different sky conditions (i.e., clear sky, partly cloudy sky, and overcast sky), compared to the conventional machine learning and statistical models in the literature. The forecasting skill of the combined model has improved up to 68.4% compared with the reference persistence model. • Transfer learning (TL) strategies are proposed based on deep learning (DL) models. • A constrained LSTM (C-LSTM) is proposed by using KNN to extract prior knowledge. • C-LSTM outperforms the standard LSTM with higher forecasting accuracy. • TL assisted DL model can obtain significant accuracy and stability improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 56-day feeding trial was conducted in a flow-through seawater system to investigate the effects of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) on growth performance and lipid metabolism of turbot. Four experimental diets were prepared, differing only in the LPC supplementation, namely, 0 (LPC-0, control), 0.1 (LPC-0.1), 0.25 (LPC-0.25), and 0.5% (LPC-0.5) of dry matter. Each diet was randomly fed to triplicate tanks. LPC-0.1 and LPC-0.25 led to significantly higher weight gain than the control diet, and the highest weight gain was observed in LPC-0.1. Compared to the control group, the LPC-supplemented groups had higher survival and lower hepatosomatic index and viscerosomatic index. LPC-0.25 led to significantly lower contents of crude lipid and ash in whole fish. Dietary LPC supplementation led to a basic decrease in the lipid metabolism-related biochemical parameters in serum but had only very minor influence on the fatty acid composition in the liver and subcutaneous tissue around the fin (STF). High LPC levels upregulated the mRNA expression of BSAL and ApoEα in both the liver and STF. In conclusion, dietary LPC supplementation (0.1-0.25%) enhanced the growth, lowered the lipid accumulation in juvenile turbot, and significantly regulated the lipid metabolism. However, it seldom influenced the fatty acid composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Immunosuppressive drugs have shown great promise in treating autoimmune diseases in recent years. A series of novel oxazole derivatives were screened for their immunosuppressive activity. PO-322 [1H-indole-2,3-dione 3-(1,3-benzoxazol-2-ylhydrazone)] was identified as the most effective of these compounds. Here, we have investigated the mechanism(s) underlying the inhibition of T-cell proliferation in vitro by PO-322, as well as its effects on the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response and imiquimod-induced dermatitis in vivo.Experimental Approach: T-cell proliferation and apoptosis were analysed with flow cytometry. Cell viability was assessed with a CCK-8 assay. Protein kinase activity was assessed by SelectScreen Kinase Profiling Services. The phosphorylation of signal-regulated molecules was measured by Western blot. Cytokine levels were determined by elisa. The effect of PO-322 on DTH and imiquimod-induced dermatitis was evaluated in BALB/c mice.Key Results: PO-322 inhibited human T-cell proliferation with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 mAbs or alloantigen without significant cytotoxicity. Importantly, PO-322 was a selective inhibitor of the serum- and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) and decreased NDRG1 phosphorylation but not p70S6K, STAT5, Akt, or ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, PO-322 inhibited IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-17 expression but not IL-10 expression. Finally, treatment with PO-322 was safe and effective for ameliorating the DTH response and imiquimod-induced dermatitis in mice.Conclusions and Implications: PO-322 exerted immunosuppressive activity in vitro and in vivo by selectively inhibiting SGK1 activity. PO-322 represents a potential lead compound for the design and development of new drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the isolation and structural elucidation of 17 flavonoids from the leaves and stems of Cassia nodosa, a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine. The compounds were identified using spectroscopic methods and compared with literature data. Some of the identified compounds include kaempferol, apigenin, velutin, quercetin, genkwanin, chrysoeriol, luteolin, kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside, and kaempferitrin. Additionally, the document provides information on various compounds isolated from C. nodosa for the first time, including quercitrin, 2″,3″-diol acetonide-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside-kaempferol, aromadendrin, engeletin, sakuranetin, naringenin, davidigenin, and 2,5-dimethyl-7-hydroxychromone. The research was supported by the Key Laboratory and Science and Technology Innovation Team of Higher Education in Yunnan, China. [Extracted from the article]

Molecular dynamics simulation is used to study phase transformations during nanoindentation into the (0001) surface of monocrystalline AlN with wurtzite structure. With the indentation depth increasing, the following effects are observed consecutively: a Y-type tearing of the surface; nucleation and growth of a graphite-like phase; formation and flow of an amorphous phase; generation of tetragonal intermediate structure. Due to the symmetry of the crystal structure, a Y-type groove appears after the surface is torn under the force induced by the indenter. Later, graphite-like phase nucleates near the peak of the Y-type groove due to stress concentration, and then expands into the deformation zone where the normal force plays the dominant role. Subsequently, the normal force, exerted to the graphite-like phase, increases continuously and thus induces amorphization. The amorphous phase, appearing beneath the indenter, grows and flows laterally, and leads eventually to the generation of a tetragonal intermediate structure. The results are unaffected when the speed is varied in a wide range of 10–160 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a large number of solutions have been proposed to handle imbalanced classification problems over past decades, many researches pointed out that imbalanced problem does not degrade learning performance by its own but together with other factors. One of these factors is the overlapping problem which plays an even larger role in the classification performance deterioration but is always ignored in previous study. In this paper, we propose a density-based adaptive k nearest neighbor method, namely DBANN, which can handle imbalanced and overlapping problems simultaneously. To do so, a simple but effective distance adjustment strategy is developed to adaptively find the most reliable query neighbors. Concretely, we first partition training data into six parts by density-based method. Next, for each part, we modify distance metric by considering both local and global distribution. Finally, output is made by the query neighbors selected in the new distance metric. Noticeably, the query neighbors of DBANN are adaptively changed according to the degree of imbalance and overlap. To show the validity of our proposed method, experiments are carried out on 16 synthetic datasets and 41 real-world datasets. The results supported by the proper statistical tests show that our proposed method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) have roles in many diseases and immune pathways. To determine the roles of these cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), we measured ILC subsets using flow cytometry and multiplex immunofluorescence staining. Patients with stable RA had greater proportions of ILC2s and decreased proportions of ILC1s and ILC3s (all p < 0.05). The 28-joint disease activity (DAS28) score had positive correlations with the proportion of ILC1s and negative correlations with ILC2s (both p < 0.05). ILC2s of patients with RA expressed more IL-4 than healthy controls (p < 0.05). The proportions of ILC1s and ILC2s were greater in mice with CIA (both p < 0.05), especially the ILC2s in mice without arthritis after immunization and had correlations with multiple inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Multiplex immunofluorescence staining described the distribution of ILCs in spleen tissues. Our results indicate that dysregulation of ILCs occurs during the pathogenesis of RA and CIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is one of the main causes of neonatal disability and death. As a derivative of N-acetylserotonin, N-[2-(5-hydroxy-1H-indol-3-yl) ethyl]-2-oxopiperidine-3-carboxamide (HIOC) can easily cross the blood–brain barrier and have a long half-life in the brain. In this study, the hypothesis was verified that HIOC plays a neuroprotective role in the HIE model and its potential mechanism was evaluated. Firstly, an HIE rat model was established to deliver HIOC, revealing that it can reduce cerebral infarction volume, cerebral edema, and neuronal apoptosis. The results of immunofluorescence staining, Western blots and RT-PCR further showed that HIOC could inhibit the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the expression of related proteins. Finally, the activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway by HIOC was verified in vitro and in vivo. It was discovered that HIOC could increase the nuclear translocation of Nrf2, and that this induction can be reversed by the PI3K/Akt pathway inhibitor LY294002. In general terms, the neuroprotective effect of HIOC was confirmed in the HIE model, which is related to the activation of the Pi3k/Akt/Nrf2 signal pathway and the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult hippocampus are composed of multiple subpopulations. However, their origin and functional heterogeneity are still unclear. Here, we found that the contribution of murine Wnt-responsive (Axin2+) and Hedgehog-responsive (Gli1+) embryonic neural progenitors to adult NSCs started from early and late postnatal stages, respectively. Axin2+ adult NSCs were intended to actively proliferate, whereas Gli1+ adult NSCs were relatively quiescent and responsive to external stimuli. Moreover, Gli1+ NSC-derived adult-born neurons exhibited more complex dendritic arborization and connectivity than Axin2+ NSC-derived ones. Importantly, genetic cell ablation analysis identified that Axin2+ and Gli1+ adult NSCs were involved in hippocampus-dependent learning, but only Axin2+ adult NSCs were engaged in buffering stress responses and depressive behavior. Together, our study not only defined the heterogeneous multiple origins of adult NSCs but also advanced the concept that different subpopulations of adult NSCs may function differently. [Display omitted] • Murine Axin2+ and Gli1+ NSCs asynchronously acquire the quiescent property • Axin2+ and Gli1+ NSCs contribute differently to adult neurogenesis • Axin2+ and Gli1+ NSC-derived neurons show differences in maturation and connectivity • Axin2+, not Gli1+, NSCs buffer stress responses and depressive behaviors Luo et al. demonstrate that adult murine Axin2+ and Gli1+ NSCs show differences in the timing of acquiring the quiescent properties, age-induced neurogenesis decline, and responsiveness to external stimuli. They further show that Axin2+, not Gli1+, adult dentate NSCs are responsible for buffering stress responses and depressive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plaque erosion (PE) and plaque rupture (PR) are the main subtypes of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the differences of metabolic patterns between PE and PR remain largely unknown. 132 STEMI patients were divided into training set (PR, n = 36; PE, n = 36) and test set (PR, n = 30; PE, n = 30), the plasma from patients were analyzed by liquid chromatography quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We identified 56 and 28 differences in training and test set, respectively. Among these metabolites, it was found that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), salicylic acid and proline were recognized in both tests. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under curve of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was 0.81 and 0.75 in training and test samples, respectively; proline was 0.67 and 0.74 in training and test samples, respectively; salicylic acid was 0.70 and 0.73 in training and test samples, respectively. DHA, salicylic acid, and proline could be used as non-invasive biomarkers to differentiate PE and PR. [Display omitted] • The metabolic patterns of plaque erosion (PE) and plaque rupture (PR) were significantly different. • DHA, proline and salicylic acid were detected in training set and test set, DHA and proline were increased in PR group; salicylic acid was increased in PE group. • DHA, proline and salicylic acid could be used as a stable diagnosis marker to predict PE and PR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the most common urologic tumors. However, the carcinogenic mechanism of ccRCC remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of dual specificity phosphatase 9 (DUSP9) in ccRCC. Methods: Cell proliferation and migration abilities were detected by Cell Counting kit-8, wound-healing (scratch) assay and transwell assay. The expression of mRNA in ccRCC was measured by qPCR. Western blot and immunohistochemical staining were used for protein expression. In addition, nude mouse xenograft experiment establishes an in vivo model to detect the inhibitory effect of DUSP9 on tumor proliferation. Results: DUSP9 was significantly down-regulated in both ccRCC cell lines and ccRCC tissues compared to that in non-cancer cell lines and normal tissues. Besides, DUSP9 suppressed proliferation and migration of ccRCC cell lines in vitro. Importantly, the inhibition of tumor growth by DUSP9 was confirmed by xenograft tumor studies. And DUSP9 could inhibit both phosphorylation of mTOR and expression of its pathway-associated proteins Sox2, c-Myc, and HIF-1α, which are involved in cell proliferation and migration. Conclusion: Taken together, our results uncovered DUSP9 as a tumor suppressor in ccRCC, acting by regulating cell proliferation and migration via the mTOR pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest development of smart grid technologies gives rise to big load data and requires load pattern categorization (LPC). How to determine a precise cluster number and choose an appropriate clustering algorithm are critical and still remain challenging in LPC. In this work, we propose a novel parametric bootstrap (PB) algorithm to address the cluster number determination problem in load pattern analysis. The proposed PB algorithm is more robust against dimensionality of data and more applicable for the load demand data which is usually of high dimensionality. The PB algorithm is also general and independent of data type, resulting in a more precise cluster number determined than existing methods with little fluctuation. Moreover, an effective cascade clustering scheme is proposed to categorize load demand data and analyze load patterns, based on the PB algorithm and the K-means++ clustering algorithm. The results indicate the feasibility and the superiority of the proposed approach. Image 1 • A parametric bootstrap (PB) algorithm was proposed to determine cluster number. • The method is particularly effective for the data in high dimensional space. • A cascade clustering scheme was designed for load pattern categorization. • PB algorithm incorporated with K-means++ was applied to real-life load data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sandwich-Structured Implants to Obstruct Multipath Energy Supply and Trigger Self-Enhanced Hypoxia-Initiated Chemotherapy Against Postsurgical Tumor Recurrence and Metastasis (Adv. Sci. 22/2023) The postsurgical adjuvant treatment with combretastatin A4 phosphate and tirapazamineloaded implants efficiently inhibits tumor recurrence and metastasis, showing great potential for clinical applications. B Postsurgical Tumor Therapy with In Situ Implantation b In article number 2300899, Yanteng Xu, Zhaohui Tang, Yu Tao, Mingqiang Li, and co-workers report an implantable sandwich-structured dual-drug depot to achieve self-enhanced postsurgical tumor treatment through starvation therapy and hypoxia-induced chemotherapy that are triggered in sequence. [Extracted from the article]

Existing auto-encoder based infrared and visible image fusion methods typically utilize a shared encoder to extract features from different modalities and adopt a handcrafted fusion strategy to fuse the extracted features into intermediate representation before the decoder part. In this paper, we present a novel two-stage class conditioned auto-encoder framework for high-quality multispectral fusion tasks. In the first training stage, we introduce a class embedding sub-branch to the encoder network for modeling the characteristics of different modalities and adaptively scaling the intermediate features based on the input modality. Moreover, we design a cross-transfer residual block to promote the content and texture information flow in the encoder for generating more representative features. In the second training stage, we insert a learnable fusion module between the pre-trained class conditioned encoder and decoder parts to replace the handcrafted fusion strategy. Specific intensity and gradient loss functions are utilized to tune the model for the fusion of distinctive deep features in a data-driven manner. With the important designs including the class conditioned auto-encoder and the two-stage training strategy, our proposed TS-ClassFuse can better preserve distinctive information/features from the source images and decrease the training difficulty for simultaneously extracting informative features and determining the optimal fusion scheme. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of our method in terms of both qualitative and quantitative evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

USCs did not express hematopoietic stem cell markers (CD31: 0.45%, CD34: 0.28%) but expressed MSC markers (CD44: 100%, CD73: 97.1%, and CD105: 96.3%) and pericyte markers (CD146: 95.7%). USCs did not express hematopoietic stem cell markers (CD31, CD34, and CD45) but did express MSC markers (CD44 and CD133), the ESC marker SSEA4, and pericyte markers (CD146, PDGFRB, and NG2). In the article titled "Therapeutic Effects of Human Urine-Derived Stem Cells in a Rat Model of Cisplatin-Induced Acute Kidney Injury In Vivo and In Vitro" [[1]], the authors identified that the incorrect figure was mistakenly uploaded in Figure 1(d). [Extracted from the article]

Centrosome-associated protein E (CENPE) is a plus end-directed kinetochore motor protein, which plays a critical role in mitosis. In this in silico study, using data from the Cancer Genome Atlas-Esophageal Carcinoma (TCGA-ESCA), we analyzed the expression profile of CENPE mRNA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and adenocarcinoma (EA), its independent prognostic value and the potential mechanisms of its dysregulation in EA. Results showed that both ESCC and EA tissues had significantly elevated CENPE expression compared with their respective adjacent normal tissues. However, Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that high CENPE was associated with unfavorable OS in EA. Univariate and multivariate analysis confirmed that CENPE expression was an independent indicator of unfavorable OS in EA patients, as a continuous variable (HR: 1.861, 95%CI: 1.235–2.806, p = 0.003) or as categorical variables (HR: 2.550, 95%CI: 1.294–5.025, p = 0.007). However, CENPE expression had no prognostic value in ESCC. Compared with the methylation status in normal samples, 3 CpG sites were hypomethylated (cg27388036, cg27443373, and cg24651824) in EA, among which two sites (cg27443373 and cg24651824) showed moderately negative correlation with CENPE expression. In addition, we also found that although heterozygous loss (-1) was frequent in EA (50/88, 56.8%), it was not necessarily associated with decreased CENPE expression compared with the copy neutral (0) cases. The methylation of the -1 group was significantly lower than that of the +1/0 group (p = 0.04). Based on these findings, we infer that CENPE upregulation in EA might serve as a valuable indicator of unfavorable OS. The methylation status of cg27443373 and cg24651824 might play a critical role in modulating CENPE expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Macromolecular crowding effect on porcine pancreatic lipase activity was disclosed. • ITC was used to study the activity of lipase in hydrolyzing triglyceride. • Modulation of the catalytic activity of lipase with crowded medium was achieved. • Polysaccharide Ficoll400 can increase the activity of lipase by crowding effect. • Polysaccharide Ficoll400 induced a more active conformation of the enzyme. Abstract Pancreatic lipase is an interfacial enzyme. The kinetic parameters of pancreatic lipase derived from heat release in crowded surroundings have not been reported. In this work, the effect of crowded medium on the catalytic activity of porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) during lipid digestion was investigated by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC). The results showed that dietary polysaccharide Ficoll400 tended to increase the catalytic efficiency of PPL for both glyceryl trioleate and glyceryl trioctanoate substrates, whereas Dextran20 decreased the activity of the enzyme. The change in the fluorescence intensity and secondary structural content of PPL parallels the change of k cat / K m , of PPL, which was further confirmed in PEG2000. The findings of this research improve understanding of macromolecular crowding effects on interfacial catalysis by lipases. Moreover, it provides a useful method for research on enzyme kinetics in crowed medium by ITC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally demonstrate tunable Brillouin comb generation in a ring cavity composed of a piece of tellurite single mode fiber. The tunable Brillouin comb lines are separated with frequency space of 7.9 GHz, which is equal to the Brillouin frequency shift in the tellurite fiber. Due to the high Brillouin gain coefficient of the tellurite fiber, a tellurite fiber as short as 200 m was inserted into the ring cavity. Cascaded stimulated Brillouin Stokes and anti-Stokes lines are generated in the ring cavity leading to multi-wavelength Brillouin comb generation bi-directionally. By tuning the narrow-linewidth tunable laser, we can tune the Brillouin comb in the wide range of 1533 nm to 1565 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A simulation tool for dynamic modelling and transient control of adiabatic CAES is presented. • The structure of the simulation tool with a developed component library is introduced. • Multi-physical models covers pneumatics, thermodynamics, turbomachinery and electrics. • Case studies show its merits, e.g., performance analysis, dynamic control and grid applications. Abstract The field of large-scale electrical energy storage is growing rapidly in both academia and industry, which has driven a fast increase in the research and development on adiabatic compressed air energy storage. The significant challenge of adiabatic compressed air energy storage with its thermal energy storage is in the complexity of the system dynamic characteristics arising from the multi-physical (pneumatic, thermal, mechanical and electrical) processes. This has led to a strong demand for simulation software tools specifically for dynamic modelling and transient control of relevant multi-scale components, subsystems and whole systems with different configurations. The paper presents a feasibility study of a simulation tool development implemented by the University of Warwick Engineering team to achieve this purpose. The developed tool includes a range of validated simulation models from the fields of pneumatics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, electrical machines and power grids. The structure of the developed tool is introduced and a component library is built up on the Matlab/Simulink platform. The mathematical descriptions of key components are presented, which precedes a presentation of four case studies of different applications. The case studies demonstrate that the simulation software tool can be used for dynamic modelling of multi-scale adiabatic compressed air energy storage components and systems, real performance analysis, dynamic control strategy implementation and feasibility studies of applications of adiabatic compressed air energy storage integrated with power grids. The paper concludes that the continued development and use of such a tool is both feasible and valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The One-vs-One (OVO) scheme that decomposes the original more complicated problem into as many as possible pairs of easier-to-solve binary sub-problems is one of the most popular techniques for handling multi-class classification problems. In this paper, we propose an improved Dynamic Ensemble Selection (DES) procedure, which aims to enhance the OVO scheme via dynamically selecting a group of appropriate heterogeneous classifiers in each sub-problem for each query example. To do so, twenty heterogeneous classification algorithms are selected to obtain a set of candidate classifiers for each sub-problem derived from the OVO decomposition. Then, a simple yet efficient DES procedure is developed to execute the dynamic selection for each query example in each sub-problem. Finally, all the selected binary heterogeneous ensembles are combined by using majority voting to obtain the final output class. To evaluate the proposed method, we carry out a series of experiments on twenty datasets selected from the KEEL repository. The results supported by proper statistical tests demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of our proposed method, compared with state-of-the-art methods for OVO-based multi-class classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tar is the main toxic of cigarettes, and its effect on atherosclerosis progression and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) play a key role in atherogenesis and plaque vulnerability. The present study sought to investigate the mechanism of atherosclerosis progression through tar-induced VSMC necroptosis, a recently described form of necrosis. Methods: The effect of tar on atherosclerosis progression and VSMC necroptosis was examined in ApoE−/− mice and cultured VSMCs. The role of necroptosis in tar-induced plaque development was evaluated in RIPK3-deletion mice (ApoE−/−RIPK3−/−). The key proteins of necroptosis in carotid plaques of smokers and non-smokers were also examined. Quantitative proteomics of mice aortas was conducted to further investigate the underlying mechanism. Pharmacological approaches were then applied to modulate the expression of targets to verify the regulatory process of tar-induced necroptosis. Results: Tar administration led to increased atherosclerotic plaque area and reduced collagen and VSMCs in ApoE−/− mice. The expression of RIPK1、RIPK3、and MLKL in VSMCs of plaques were all increased in tar-exposed mice and smokers. RIPK3 deletion protected against VSMC loss and plaque progression stimulated by tar. In mechanistic studies, quantitative proteomics analysis of ApoE−/− mice aortas suggested that tar triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. PERK-eIF2α-CHOP axis was activated in tar-treated VSMCs and atherosclerotic plaque. Inhibition of ER stress using 4PBA significantly reduced plaque progression and VSMC necroptosis. Further study revealed that ER stress resulted in calcium (Ca2+) release into mitochondria and cytoplasm. Elevated Ca2+ levels lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which consequently promote RIPK3-dependent necroptosis. In addition, Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) activated by cytosolic Ca2+ overload binds to RIPK3, accounting for necroptosis. Conclusion: The findings revealed that cigarette tar promoted atherosclerosis progression by inducing RIPK3-dependent VSMC necroptosis and identified novel avenues of ER stress and Ca2+ overload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-class imbalance learning problems suffering from the different distribution of classes occur in many real-world applications. One-versus-One (OVO) decomposition strategy is a common and useful technique used to address multi-class classification problems, which consists in dividing the original multi-class problem into all binary class sub-problems. The effort to reduce the effect of non-competent classifiers has proven to be a useful way of improving the performance in the OVO scheme. However, these approaches might not be effective for imbalance scenarios, since they are based on standard biased learning procedures. On this account, we propose a novel approach named Distance-based Relative Competence Weighting with Adaptive Synthetic Example Generation (DRCW-ASEG), which properly addresses the synergy between imbalance learning and dynamic classifier weighting in OVO scheme. This new proposed algorithm aims to dynamically produce synthetic examples of minority classes in the stage of dynamic weighting process. We develop a thorough experimental study in order to verify the benefits of the proposed algorithm considering different base binary classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe-Cu-Nb-Si-B flakes with multiphase nanostructures have been obtained by annealing the amorphous ribbon and subsequently ball milled for 30 h. The crystal structures have been examined by X-ray diffraction pattern and Mössbauer spectrum. The results show that the particles annealed at 900 °C are made up of amorphous ferromagnetic phase, α-Fe 3 Si ferromagnetic phase and Fe 2 B phase, and the average hyperfine magnetic field ( H Bhf ) of particles is 24.02 T. Meanwhile, the relationships between the structure and the high frequency permeability have been studied. Compared with particles annealed at 600 °C, particles annealed at 900 °C exhibit higher saturation magnetization, which is evidenced by the larger H Bhf . Also, three magnetic loss peaks in a permeability spectrum have been observed for the particles annealed at 900 °C. The natural resonance frequencies are calculated, which are in good agreement with the experimental resonance peaks. The origin of the multiple magnetic loss peaks can be explained from the perspective of the distribution of shape anisotropy fields which is caused by multiple phase structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of the energy storage capacity of a cavern with a defined storage volume and type is the very first step in planning and engineering a Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) plant. The challenges in obtaining a reliable estimation arise in the complexity associated with the thermodynamics of the internal air compression and expansion processes and the coupled heat transfer with surroundings. This study developed the methodology for estimating the exergy storage capacity with a known cavern volume, as well as the cavern volume required for a defined exergy storage capacity with different operation and heat transfer conditions. The work started by developing the mathematical models of the thermodynamic responses of air in a cavern subject to cavern operation in isochoric uncompensated or isobaric compensated modes, and heat transfer conditions including isothermal, convective heat transfer (CHT) and adiabatic wall conditions. The simulated transient air pressure and temperature were verified with the operational data of the Huntorf CAES plant. The study of the Huntorf CAES cavern confirmed the importance of the heat transfer influence on the energy conversion performance. The increase of mass storage due to the reduced temperature variation leads to an enhanced total exergy storage of the cavern. According to our simulations, within the operating range of the Huntorf plant, 34.77% more exergy after the charging and 37.98% more exergy after throttling can be stored in the cavern with isothermal wall condition than those in the cavern with adiabatic wall condition. Also, the nearly isothermal behaviour and high operating pressure in the compensated isobaric cavern resulted in the high effectiveness of exergy storage per unit cavern volume. The required cavern volume of the assumed isobaric cavern operation can be reduced to only 35% of the current cavern volume at the Huntorf plant. Finally, cavern volumes for an operational gas storage facility were used to demonstrate the methodology in estimating the exergy storage capacity, which provided an initial assessment of the storage capacity in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 2 × 4 -cell superconducting linac module for the THz-FEL facility has been developed at the China Academy of Engineering Physics, which is expected to provide 6–8 MeV quasi-CW electron beams with an average current of 1–5 mA. The module consists of two 4-cell SRF cavities, two main couplers, two tuners and a cryostat. The design, fabrication and performance test of these components is presented in this paper. The test results reveal that all these components have reached their design goals and the module has also been assembled and horizontal tested at Chengdu. The gradients of both cavities at 2 K reach 10 MV/m, which meets our requirements. Currently beam-loading commissioning is underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report high efficiency linearly polarized Cerenkov radiation (CR) generation in a photonic crystal fiber with suspended rectangle core. The frequency up-conversion via the Cerenkov radiation upon pumping of Yb-doped femtosecond fiber laser is discussed in details. Experiment results show that the output spectrum contains, besides the infrared supercontinuum, intense green Cerenkov radiation around 536 nm, which carry about 43% of the pump energy at best. The influence of the high birefringence and dispersion character on the Cerenkov radiation generation is discussed. Experiment and simulation results indicate that the rectangle core photonic crystal fiber acts like single-mode single-polarization fiber at the pump wavelength. Only the pulse component along with the slow axis could be confined in the rectangle core well and release Cerenkov radiation efficiently. The Output green Cerenkov radiation is also demonstrated to be linearly polarized. Experiments results agree well with the theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple open-cavity laser is proposed for supercontinuum generation. Broadband supercontinuum covering the wavelength from 630 to 1700 nm with low multimode LD pump power (~ 1.7 W) is demonstrated. Giant nanosecond pulse generation can be realized by pumping a piece of Yb-doped double cladding fiber combined with two pieces of long passive fibers. There are no reflectors or modulators included in this laser. It is confirmed that the process of the passive self-Q-switch is mainly based on the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect. The peak power of the giant nanosecond pulses is high enough to generate supercontinuum with over 1000 nm bandwidth even in standard single-mode fiber, which makes this supercontinuum laser source low-cost and compact. Replacing the standard single-mode fiber with a piece of high nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, broader and flatter supercontinuum can be obtained because of the high nonlinear coefficient and the blue-shift of the zero-dispersion wavelength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate forecasts of photovoltaic power (PVP) are essential to the production, transmission, and distribution of electricity in power systems. However, PVP output is strongly weather-dependent, and the forecasting of PVP is highly dependent on the quality of numerical weather prediction (NWP) data. In recent years, a huge volume of numerical weather observation (NWO) data which are strongly associated with PVP output have been collected on-site by widely-installed smart meters and sensors. Appropriately utilizing high-fidelity NWO, in addition to low-fidelity NWP, has great potential in promoting the forecasting capability of deep learning (DL) models. Therefore, this paper proposes a cascaded multi-fidelity deep learning (CMF-DL) framework, which is coordinately driven by the data of both NWO and NWP, to deal with the day-ahead PVP forecasting problem. The proposed CMF-DL framework possesses great compatibility, and thus it can be incorporated with various DL models, such as the long short-term memory (LSTM) model and the gated recurrent unit (GRU) model. Subsequently, incorporated with CMF-DL, two newly-developed forecasting models, i.e., CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU, are proposed, and datasets from a real-life PV plant are utilized, to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approaches. From the results, the proposed CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU show greater forecasting capability and anti-noise ability than the basic LSTM and GRU. Both CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU can accept noisy NWP data with up to 35% errors. Additionally, compared to the persistence model, the forecasting skills of CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU can be significantly promoted by 39.87% and 44.02%, respectively. The proposed CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU also achieve better day-ahead PVP forecasting performance than the widely-used reference models in previous works. • A cascaded multi-fidelity deep learning (CMF-DL) framework is initially proposed. • CMF-DL possesses great compatibility and can incorporate a variety of DL models. • CMF-DL demonstrates stronger anti-noise ability than conventional DL models. • CMF-LSTM and CMF-GRU outperform other models with greater forecasting capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• N -acetylserotonin (NAS) has a neuroprotective role in the neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury model. • NAS suppresses activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. • NAS inhibits activation of mtDNA related-cGAS/STING pathway. • NAS ameliorates mitochondrial damage and neuroinflammation induced by oxidized mtDNA through the AMPK/PGC1α/TFAM signaling pathway in the neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage model. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a substantial cause of irreversible nerve injury in newborns. As the endogenous precursor of melatonin, N -acetylserotonin (NAS) can cross the blood–brain barrier and exert neuroprotective effects. Evidence shows that NAS exerts a neuroprotective role in ischemic brain injury by inhibiting the mitochondrial death pathway. This study investigates whether NAS can play a neuroprotective role in the HIE model and explores its underlying molecular mechanism. In vivo , postnatal day 7 (P7) Sprague-Dawley rats were used to construct the HIE rat model. Significant improvement in short-term neurobehavioral impairment, cerebral infarction volume decrease, and neuronal injury mitigation was observed with NAS treatment after hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury. In addition, we validated that NAS suppressed NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation and NLRP3 inflammasome-related protein expression in the HIE model. Furthermore, we demonstrate that NAS reduced mitochondrial membrane potential loss, oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), cytosolic mtDNA copy number and activation of its downstream cyclic guanosine monophosphate adenylate synthase (cGAS)/ stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway. Additionally, we further verified the activation of NAS on the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/ peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α)/ mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) pathway and found that inhibition of AMPK could increase cytosolic mtDNA copy number and NLRP3 inflammasome-related protein expression while decreasing STING protein expression. Our study demonstrated that NAS inhibits oxidative mtDNA-induced neuroinflammation, which is partially associated with AMPK/PGC-1α/TFAM pathway activation in the HIE model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of enhanced geothermal system and geological disposal of radioactive waste typically involve considerable variations in the host rock temperature, and the resulting thermal damage induced by mismatched inter-mineralic expansion could hence modify fundamentally the mechanical rock behaviour. Despite tremendous efforts dedicated to the examination of quasi-static performance after temperature changes, the influence of thermal exposure on the rock response in the long term, however, has stilled remained largely unaddressed. In this study, a series of triaxial creep experiments are thus carried out over variably confined Beishan granite that has been thermally-stressed across a wide range of temperatures. The evolution of failure strain, creep rate, and long-term strength parameters with respect to thermal damage and confinement condition is then critically analyzed. Our experimental investigation suggests that the competition between thermal cracking and hydrostatic compaction could reshape radically the crystalline fabric and hence exert a decisive structural control over the resulting creep deformation. In particular, we have shown that a suitably configured residual crack network could contribute to apparent blunting of subcritical cracking and therefore enhance considerably the rock resistance to stress corrosion. Pervasive grain disintegration, however, stemmed from aggressive thermal treatment would otherwise eradicate effectively the favourable particle interlocking and hence weaken substantially the long-term rock stability. The authors believe the novel findings presented could refine the understanding of time-dependent rock deformation after experiencing intense thermal loading, and thus have significant implications for the reliable decarbonized electricity production towards delivering sustainable energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the energy loss characteristics of a semi-open mixed-flow multiphase pump, an improved entropy generation theory considering the slip velocity was established to locate local areas with high energy loss. The relationships among local entropy generation, phase interface entropy generation, wall entropy generation, and unstable flow were analyzed for each component. The results showed that magnitude of interface entropy generation was similar to turbulent entropy generation and wall entropy generation, which could not be ignored. The interface entropy generation was mainly distributed at the leading edge, trailing edge, hub, and blade tip clearance. With an increased inlet gas volume fraction, the proportion of interfacial entropy production loss to total entropy production loss increased. As the inlet gas volume fraction increased to 30%, the interface entropy generation loss accounted for 70% of the local entropy generation loss at leading edge and 63% at trailing edge. The high interface entropy generation zone at the tip clearance region began to extend from the pressure side of the blade to the suction side of the blade. During the evolution of tip leakage vortex, the generation, unstable stretching, and breakup–regeneration stages were accompanied by a large loss of interface entropy generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black soldier fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), is a prominent insect for the bioconversion of various organic wastes. As a saprotrophic insect, the BSF inhabits microbe‐rich environments. However, the influences of the intestinal microorganisms on BSF growth and development are not very clear. In this study, the dynamics of the intestinal bacterial community of BSF larvae (BSFL) were analyzed using pyrosequencing. Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the most prevalent bacterial phyla in the intestines of all larval instars. The dynamic changes in bacterial community compositions among different larval instars were striking at the genus level. Klebsiella, Clostridium, Providencia, and Dysgonomonas were the relatively most abundant bacteria in the 1st‐ to 4th‐instar BSFL, respectively. Dysgonomonas and Providencia also dominated the 5th‐ and 6th‐instar larvae, at ratios of 31.1% and 47.2%, respectively. In total, 148 bacterial strains affiliated with 20 genera were isolated on different media under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Among them, 6 bacteria, BSF1–BSF6, were selected for further study. The inoculation of the 6 isolates independently into germ‐free BSFL feeding on an artificial diet showed that all the bacteria, except BSF4, significantly promoted BSF growth and development compared with the germ‐free control. Citrobacter, Dysgonomonas, Klebsiella, Ochrobactrum, and Providencia promoted BSF development significantly by increasing the weight gains of larvae and pupae, as well as increasing the prepupae and eclosion rates. In addition, Citrobacter, Klebsiella and Providencia shortened the BSF life cycle significantly. The results illustrate the promotive effects of intestinal bacteria on BSF growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]