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In this paper we prove that isometries with respect to the Kobayashi metric between certain domains having boundary points at which the boundary is infinitely flat extend continuously to the boundary. The strategy is to reestablish the Gehring-Hayman-type Theorem for these complex domains. Furthermore, the regularity of boundary extension map is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WRKY gene family is crucial for regulating plant growth and development. However, the WRKY gene is rarely studied in naked kernel formation in hull-less Cucurbita pepo L. (HLCP), a natural mutant that lacks the seed coat. In this research, 76 WRKY genes were identified through bioinformatics-based methods in C. pepo, and their phylogenetics, conserved motifs, synteny, collinearity, and temporal expression during seed coat development were analyzed. The results showed that 76 CpWRKYs were identified and categorized into three main groups (I−III), with Group II further divided into five subgroups (IIa−IIe). Moreover, 31 segmental duplication events were identified in 49 CpWRKY genes. A synteny analysis revealed that C. pepo shared more collinear regions with cucumber than with melon. Furthermore, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) results indicated the differential expression of CpWRKYs across different varieties, with notable variations in seed coat development between HLCP and CP being attributed to differences in CpWRKY5 expression. To investigate this further, CpWRKY5-overexpression tobacco plants were generated, resulting in increased lignin content and an upregulation of related genes, as confirmed by qRT-PCR. This study offers valuable insights for future functional investigations of CpWRKY genes and presents novel information for understanding the regulation mechanism of lignin synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations on shock train dynamics and relevant turbulence features in a backpressured supersonic channel flow are carried out using direct numerical simulation for three inflow Mach numbers of M a 0 = 1.61, 2.0, and 2.45. As Ma0 increases, the shock train undergoes a structural change characterized by the leading shock which changes from the symmetric "λ" (M a 0 = 1.61) to the symmetric "X" (M a 0 = 2.00) and then to the asymmetric "X" pattern (M a 0 = 2.45). The symmetry breaking of shock structures induces asymmetric separation, which significantly alters the distribution characteristics of wall variables such as wall pressure and friction. To examine the unsteady behaviors of the shock train, a mode decomposition technique, namely, reduced-order variational mode decomposition [Liao et al., J. Fluid Mech. 966, A7 (2023)], is adopted taking its merit of adaptively extracting time-frequency features of dynamic systems. The modal analysis reveals that the shock train system exhibits significant centralization of low-frequency energy. Specifically, two basic types of low-frequency oscillation modes dominate the unsteady motion of the shock train: one depicts overall translating oscillation while another represents accordion-like oscillation. The analysis of turbulent kinetic energy shows that turbulence amplification is mainly dominated by the interaction of the decelerating mean flow with streamwise velocity fluctuations in the vicinity of the leading shock for all three cases, which is unaffected by the symmetry breaking of shock structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the fully nonlinear wave equations on the product space R 3 × T with quadratic nonlinearities and on R 2 × T with cubic nonlinearities, respectively. It is shown that for the small initial data satisfying some space-decay rates at infinity, these nonlinear equations admit global smooth solutions when the corresponding partial null conditions hold and while have almost global smooth solutions when the partial null conditions are violated. Our proof relies on the Fourier mode decomposition of the solutions with respect to the periodic direction, the efficient combinations of time-decay estimates for the solutions to the linear wave equations and the linear Klein-Gordon equations, and the global weighted energy estimates. In addition, an interesting auxiliary energy is introduced. As a byproduct, our results can be applied to the 4D irrotational compressible Euler equations of polytropic gases or Chaplygin gases on R 3 × T , the 3D relativistic membrane equation and the 3D nonlinear membrane equation on R 2 × T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analogous to electronic transistors, transistor‐like responsive materials undergo sharp structural transitions in response to a very narrow range of microenvironment signals. This kind of material is typically limited to synthetic polymer‐derived nanoscale assembly or disassembly and has profound implications for modern high‐tech applications. Herein, we evolve this system from synthetic polymers to biopolymers and extend the corresponding assembly scale from the nanoscale to meso/macro‐scale. We develop unique protein nanocrystals with core–shell structures through a two‐step nucleation process. The protein nanocrystals exhibit exceptional transistor‐like pH‐responsive mesoscale assembly through the formation of inter‐particle β‐sheet linkers. This allows ultrasensitive cross‐linking behavior, such as self‐coacervation at a water/water interface, ultrafast gelation in seconds, and ultrasensitive swelling for detection of basic vapors at extremely low concentrations. This breakthrough has great promise for broader applications such as drug encapsulation and delivery, biosensing, cytomimetic materials, and microfluidic chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analogous to electronic transistors, transistor‐like responsive materials undergo sharp structural transitions in response to a very narrow range of microenvironment signals. This kind of material is typically limited to synthetic polymer‐derived nanoscale assembly or disassembly and has profound implications for modern high‐tech applications. Herein, we evolve this system from synthetic polymers to biopolymers and extend the corresponding assembly scale from the nanoscale to meso/macro‐scale. We develop unique protein nanocrystals with core–shell structures through a two‐step nucleation process. The protein nanocrystals exhibit exceptional transistor‐like pH‐responsive mesoscale assembly through the formation of inter‐particle β‐sheet linkers. This allows ultrasensitive cross‐linking behavior, such as self‐coacervation at a water/water interface, ultrafast gelation in seconds, and ultrasensitive swelling for detection of basic vapors at extremely low concentrations. This breakthrough has great promise for broader applications such as drug encapsulation and delivery, biosensing, cytomimetic materials, and microfluidic chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aggregation of proteins at interfaces has significant roles and can also lead to dysfunction of different physiological processes. The interfacial effects on the assembly and aggregation of biopolymers are not only crucial for a comprehensive understanding of protein biological functions, but also hold great potential for advancing the state-of-the-art applications of biopolymer materials. Recently, there has been remarkable progress in a collaborative context, as we strive to gain control over complex interfacial assembly structures of biopolymers. These biopolymer structures range from the nanoscale to mesoscale and even macroscale, and are attained through the rational design of interactions between biological building blocks and surfaces/interfaces. This review spotlights the recent advancements in interface-mediated assembly and properties of biopolymer materials. Initially, we introduce the solid–liquid interface (SIL)-mediated biopolymer assembly that includes the inorganic crystalline template effect and protein self-adoptive deposition through phase transition. Next, we display the advancement of biopolymer assembly instigated by the air–water interface (AWI) that acts as an energy conversion station. Lastly, we discuss succinctly the assembly of biopolymers at the liquid–liquid interface (LLI) along with their applications. It is our hope that this overview will stimulate the integration and progression of the science of interfacial assembled biopolymer materials and surfaces/interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its bioinspired applications. It highlights the benefits of bioinspired AI, such as increased accuracy in image and speech processing, reduced cost and energy usage through edge devices, and enhanced bio-signal quality. However, it also acknowledges the challenges posed by improper AI utilization, such as the generation of fake news and security issues. The document calls for research papers on bioinspired AI applications to explore its potential and address these challenges. It includes examples of research papers that utilize deep reinforcement learning for robot task sequencing, propose a real-time multi-surveillance pedestrian target detection model, develop an intelligent breast mass classification approach, and introduce a bio-inspired object detection algorithm for remote sensing images. The document concludes by emphasizing the importance of biomimetic artificial intelligence in various fields and promoting further research in this area. [Extracted from the article]

Herein, the use of biomolecules is reviewed as raw materials for creating functional responsive materials with a variety of tunable properties, including physicochemical and mechanical properties. Through self‐assembly/coassembly, self‐powered smart devices can be designed, which aim to create efficient and stable transformation systems within existing energy relations. These systems can respond to various chemical or physical stimuli, triggering reassembly and completing potential energy conversion through conformational changes at the molecular and mesoscopic scales. This energy conversion provides the necessary energy for macroscopic feedback behavior. Herein, bionic devices are presented that can perform energy conversion completely and autonomously and discuss the mechanism of energy conversion between different chemical potentials, kinetic, or thermal energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new characterization of Muckenhoupt A_{\infty }-weights whose logarithm is in vanishing mean oscillation (\mathbb {R}) in terms of vanishing Carleson measures on \mathbb {R}_+^2 and vanishing doubling weights on \mathbb {R}. This also gives a novel description of strongly symmetric homeomorphisms on the real line by using a geometric quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a NbO2-based selector was designed that can change high resistance states to low resistance states due to the insulator–metal transition (IMT). A one-selector-one-resistor cell for a 3D crossbar array composed of this selector and a TiN/TiO2/TiN bipolar resistive random access memory (RRAM) in series was modeled using the COMSOL finite element multiphysics software package. First, the temperature dependencies of the electrical conductivity (σ), thermal conductivity (kth), and mass specific heat (CP) were used to compare two IMT selectors, which showed that the NbO2-based selector better matched the RRAM due to its appropriate hysteresis width (hw), threshold voltage (Vth), and low off-state current (Ioff). Second, the effect of size variations for the NbO2 on the electrical performance of the IMT selector was investigated. Vth, hold voltage (Vhold), threshold current (Ith), Ioff, and Ith/Ioff ratio of the IMT selector were sensitive to thickness (L) and filament radius (r) of NbO2. L and r were designed by comparing the electrical characteristics of the NbO2 selectors of different sizes to make a connection with the TiO2-based bipolar RRAM. Finally, a TiN/NbO2/TiN/TiO2/TiN stack structure was simulated, and the results show a significantly reduced leakage current (1 μA), high read window (15.8), and improved readout margin (>27 word lines), which are suitable for next-generation high-density memory devices. This study provides guidance for the design of selectors connected to the RRAM, which is beneficial for circuit designs and process manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we establish the global existence of small data smooth solution to the 4-D quasilinear Klein-Gordon equation with the initial data posed on the product space R 3 × T. Our proof relies on the method of the space-time resonance and the energy estimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume of residential travel with different purposes follows relatively stable patterns in a specific period and state; therefore, it can reflect the operating status of urban traffic and even indicate urban vitality. Recent research has focused on changes in the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban mobility affected by the pandemic but has rarely examined the impact of COVID-19 on the travel conditions and psychological needs of residents. To quantitatively assess travel characteristics during COVID-19, this paper proposed a method by which to determine the purpose of residential travel by combining urban functional areas (UFAs) based on machine learning. Then, the residential travel structure, which includes origin–destination (OD) points, residential travel flow, and the proportion of flows for different purposes, was established. Based on taxi trajectory data obtained during the epidemic in Nantong, China, the case study explores changes in travel flow characteristics under the framework of the residential travel structure. Through comparison of the number and spatial distribution of OD points in the residential travel structure, it is found that residential travel hotspots decreased significantly. The ratios of commuting and medical travel increased from 43.8% to 45.7% and 7.1% to 8.1%, respectively. Conversely, the ratios of other travel types all decreased sharply. Moreover, under Maslow's hierarchy of needs model, further insights into the impacts of COVID-19 on changes in residential psychological needs are discussed in this paper. This work can provide a reference for decision makers to cope with the change in urban traffic during a public health emergency, which is beneficial to the sustainable healthy development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Internet of Things continues to grow and thrive, more and more data are consumed by machines for intelligent analysis. How to simultaneously support fast machine vision analysis and obtain high-quality reconstructed images to serve human vision has become a problem that needs to be solved. We propose a fast face image compression scheme based on a Joint Super-Resolution Network (JSRNet), where images are encoded hierarchically to support machine vision and human vision. To support fast machine vision tasks, we compress the downsampled version of the input image at the encoding side and implement base layer decoding at the decoding side with a lightweight super-resolution network, thus effectively reducing the codec time. To obtain high-quality reconstructed images, we design a content transfer module to transfer the visual information generated by the base layer to the enhancement layer. The joint optimization of the base layer and the enhancement layer also allows them to better cooperate to achieve better performance. We verify the performance of this scheme on the facial landmark detection task, and the experimental results show that our method saves more bit-rate and achieves more accurate facial landmark detection results with faster codec time than baselines. The reconstructed images are more in line with human visual characteristics, and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) are also improved significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification of land use and land cover from remote sensing images has been widely used in natural resources and urban information management. The variability and complex background of land use in high-resolution imagery poses greater challenges for remote sensing semantic segmentation. To obtain multi-scale semantic information and improve the classification accuracy of land-use types in remote sensing images, the deep learning models have been wildly focused on. Inspired by the idea of the atrous-spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) framework, an improved deep learning model named RAANet (Residual ASPP with Attention Net) is constructed in this paper, which constructed a new residual ASPP by embedding the attention module and residual structure into the ASPP. There are 5 dilated attention convolution units and a residual unit in its encoder. The former is used to obtain important semantic information at more scales, and residual units are used to reduce the complexity of the network to prevent the disappearance of gradients. In practical applications, according to the characteristics of the data set, the attention unit can select different attention modules such as the convolutional block attention model (CBAM). The experimental results obtained from the land-cover domain adaptive semantic segmentation (LoveDA) and ISPRS Vaihingen datasets showed that this model can enhance the classification accuracy of semantic segmentation compared to the current deep learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastic pollution caused by non-biodegradable plastics is one of the most widely discussed and notable challenges of the 21st century. Developing biodegradable plastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA), is broadly accepted as the ultimate way of alleviating this problem. However, current PLA production technology relies heavily on food-producible materials such as corn, which leads to competition for resources between material production and food supply. Carbon dioxide whose excessive emission aggravates global warming is an abundant underexplored carbon resource. Herein, we developed a cyanobacterial cell factory for the de novo biosynthesis of PLA directly from CO2, using combinational strategies of metabolic engineering and high-density cultivation (HDC). The heterologous pathway for PLA production, which involves engineered D -lactic dehydrogenase, propionate CoA-transferase, and polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase, was introduced into Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942. Subsequently, various metabolic engineering strategies, including promoter optimization, acetyl–CoA self-circulation, and carbon-flux redirection, were systematically applied, resulting in an approximately 19-fold increase of PLA to 15.0 mg g−1 dry cell weight (DCW) compared to the control. Finally, the PLA titer of 108.0 mg L−1 was obtained after using the HDC strategy, approximately 270 times higher than that obtained from the initially constructed strain. Surprisingly, the molecular weight (Mw, 62.5 kDa; Mn, 32.8 kDa) of our cyanobacterial PLA is among the highest reported levels, which is superior for commercialization. This study sheds light on the prospects of autotrophic plastic production from CO2 using cyanobacterial cell factories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-impact of environmental pollution among cities has been reported in more research works recently. To implement the coordinated control of environmental pollution, it is necessary to explore the structural characteristics and influencing factors of the PM2.5 spatial correlation network from the perspective of the metropolitan area. This paper utilized the gravity model to construct the PM2.5 spatial correlation network of ten metropolitan areas in China from 2019 to 2020. After analyzing the overall characteristics and node characteristics of each spatial correlation network based on the social network analysis (SNA) method, the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) regression analysis method was used to explore the influence mechanism of each driving factor. Patent granted differences, as a new indicator, were also considered during the above. The results showed that: (1) In the overall network characteristics, the network density of Chengdu and the other three metropolitan areas displayed a downward trend in two years, and the network density of Wuhan and Chengdu was the lowest. The network density and network grade of Hangzhou and the other four metropolitan areas were high and stable, and the network structure of each metropolitan area was unstable. (2) From the perspective of the node characteristics, the PM2.5 spatial correlation network all performed trends of centralization and marginalization. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and South Central Liaoning were "multi-core" metropolitan areas, and the other eight were "single-core" metropolitan areas. (3) The analysis results of QAP regression illustrated that the top three influencing factors of the six metropolitan areas were geographical locational relationship, the secondary industrial proportion differences, respectively, and patent granted differences, and the other metropolitan areas had no dominant influencing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apple scab caused by Venturia inaequalis is a serious disease of cultivated apple worldwide. In this study, we collected 132 V. inaequalis isolates from Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, and the U.K. and analyzed their genetic diversity by using 13 microsatellite markers. Cluster analysis based on population structure and genetic distances suggested high similarity among the four regions. Population differentiation values ranged from 0.044 to 0.155, indicating there is a high level of kinship among the four regions. All isolates could be divided into 5 lineages with a 0.76 similarity coefficient. Among the four regions, Shaanxi had only one lineage, Group II; Gansu had four lineages, Group I, Group II, Group IV, and Group V; Xinjiang had all five lineages, Group I, Group II, Group III, Group IV, and Group V; and the U.K. had three lineages, Group I, Group II and Group IV. High molecular variance was detected for populations in the four regions, with 91% of the variance occurring within the populations and 9% among the populations. Structure analysis there are three common ancestors of these four regions. The results of the present study shed light on the genetic diversity of V. inaequalis in Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang, which will lead to the development of more effective management strategies and new resistant apple cultivars through molecular marker-assisted selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of Printed Circuit board (PCB) is very complicated because it consists of woven composites and custom defined conducting layers. To improve the reliability of PCB, it is critical to predict the constitutive relations accurately. This study by implementing Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG), homogenizes a multilayer PCB to determine the effective mechanical properties and coefficient of thermal expansions. The homogenization is divided into two steps. The first step is to obtain the yarn material properties. The second is to write python script in TexGen4SC to generate the woven model and combine it with conducting layers in ABAQUS to obtain the PCB effective material properties. A new tool, which is freely accessible at cdmHUB, was developed to integrate the two steps woven homogenization. The homogenized material properties were validated with representative volume element (RVE) analysis. A good agreement was observed between MSG and RVE analysis. Finally, both structural analysis and dehomogenization were done to predict a PCB plate global responses and local stress fields. MSG-based plate structural analysis and dehomogenization matched the direct numerical simulation (DNS) very well. However, MSG is significantly faster than DNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality and shelf life of mushrooms are critical to their commercial viability. In this study, the effects of simulated transport vibration on postharvest quality of shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) were assessed over 12 days of storage. Furthermore, the protective performance of foam cushion material used in packaging during simulated transport was evaluated. Changes in respiration rate, weight loss, browning index, firmness, and malondialdehyde content were measured following vibration treatment. The results revealed that simulated transport vibration contributed to the deterioration of quality of shiitake mushrooms during storage, and the foam cushion material had a protective influence on the maintenance of shiitake mushroom quality. Taken together, our findings suggest that the foam cushion material used in packaging has the potential to improve the quality of shiitake mushrooms and extend their shelf life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of the sustainable development level is crucial to providing reasonable and effective management recommendations. However, analysis with a single scale can only reflect the sustainable status at a specific level. In this study, a multi-scale analysis of sustainability was conducted via the three-dimensional Ecological Footprint (EF) model in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Moreover, driving factors of sustainability were analyzed using the Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression model (MGWR). The conclusions include: (1) the development of YRD showed an unsustainable trend from 2014 to 2021, with per capita EF decreasing from 5.769 ha/cap to 5.283 ha/cap. The provincial sustainability is ranked as follows, from being the most sustainable to the least: Anhui Province > Jiangsu Province > Zhejiang Province > Shanghai City. (2) Based on dual indicators of EF depth and size, 41 cities were categorized into nine groups. The dominant type is always Medium size-Low depth (ML) and High size-Low depth (HL) type cities from 2014 to 2021. From the perspective of city scale, the sustainability of five cities weakened, while seven cities showed improvements. (3) Output value of primary industry (OVPI) and population (POP) were always the dominant factors affecting EF, but showed positive and negative correlations respectively. OVPI changes from north-south symmetric type to central symmetric type, while POP changes from central symmetric type to north-south symmetric type. This paper aims to comprehensively assess the sustainable development status from agglomeration-province-city perspectives, and its findings can provide a reference for similar regions with unbalanced development status between ecology and production. • The sustainability of the world-class urban agglomeration was assessed via the three-dimensional ecological footprint model. • More comprehensive and accurate analysis results based on multi-scale analysis. • The four patterns of influencing mechanism are revealed based on the MGWR model. • The combination analysis of dual indicators was adopted to classify the sustainability of 41 cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Innentitelbild: pH-Responsive Protein Conformation Transistor" discusses the successful creation of protein nanocrystals that exhibit rapid crystalline cross-linking behavior at pH levels above 7.6. This discovery has led to the development of a protein conformation proton transistor, which has potential applications in biomedicine, biosensing, and microfluidic chemistry. The research suggests that this pH-triggered cross-linking can be achieved in conditions similar to physiological environments, making it highly relevant in various fields. The authors of the article are Fei Tao, Qian Han, Miaoran Deng, Shuting Miao, and Peng Yang. [Extracted from the article]

The article titled "Inside Cover: pH-Responsive Protein Conformation Transistor" discusses the successful creation of protein nanocrystals that exhibit rapid crystalline cross-linking behavior at pH levels above 7.6. This discovery has led to the development of a protein conformation proton transistor, which has potential applications in biomedicine, biosensing, and microfluidic chemistry. The research suggests that this pH-triggered cross-linking can be achieved in conditions similar to physiological environments, making it highly relevant to these fields. The authors of the article are Fei Tao, Qian Han, Miaoran Deng, Shuting Miao, and Peng Yang. [Extracted from the article]

Correction for 'Interface-mediated protein aggregation' by Fei Tao et al., Chem. Commun., 2023, https://doi.org/10.1039/d3cc04311h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MCCA model improves the accuracy of land use structure simulation in YRD. • The index of land ecological risk assessment is expanded and optimized based on the regional characteristics of the YRD. • The ecological risk levels in 2020, 2025 and 2035 are evaluated considering ecological and economic benefits. • The spatial and temporal changes and aggregation patterns of ecological risk levels are discussed from both city-scale and patch-scale. • Several suggestions are provided for formulating more scientific and effective land use management strategies. Since land resources are essential to human survival, the over-exploitation and unreasonable utilization of land threatens the sustainability of human society. This paper uses the well-developed Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region as a case study, and adopts an improved Mixed-cell Cellular Automata Model (MCCA) to simulate the potential utilization of land resources in 2025 and 2035. Then, the paper attempts to construct a comprehensive assessment system that integrates multiple indicators, and evaluates regional risk changes at a micro patch-cell level and a macro city. The results suggest that (1) The utilization of land resources varies greatly in the YRD region from 2020 to 2035. While Shanghai will continue to make use of available built up land resources, the majority of land resources in Jiangsu Province will shift away from being agricultural in nature. Since forests make up a majority of the land resources in Zhejiang Province, and forests and agricultural land make up a majority of land resources in Anhui Province, the change in land utilization in these two provinces will be more gradual. (2) Changes in land utilization are also likely to cause ecological risks. The risk level in Shanghai is the highest, it is relatively high in Zhejiang but is likely to decrease, relatively low in Jiangsu but likely to increase, and Anhui has the lowest risk level. (3) The K-means clustering method obtained three ecological risk zones of the YRD, and the overall risk level is the highest in the central-eastern zoning ③, followed by the southern zoning ②, and the lowest in the northern zoning ①. Furthermore, the agglomeration pattern of the three zones transforms from L-L to H-H. (4) This paper puts forward corresponding suggestions and countermeasures for four aspects, including the strengthening of agricultural land protection, the regulation of built-up land use expansion, the coordination of an all-rounded approach of urban development, and the fostering of regional sustainable development, in hopes of optimizing land usage and alleviating ecological risk levels. Scientific estimations of potential ecological risks are critical to avoiding future ecological crises thus contributing to more sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coexistence of multiple homologous resistance‐nodulation‐division (RND) efflux pumps in bacteria is frequently described with overlapping substrate profiles. However, it is unclear how bacteria balance their transcription in response to the changing environment. Here, we characterized a repressor, SrpR, in Pseudomonas putida B6‐2 (DSM 28064), whose coding gene is adjacent to srpS that encodes the local repressor of the RND‐type efflux pump SrpABC gene cluster. SrpR was demonstrated as a specific repressor of another RND efflux pump gene cluster ttgABC that is locally repressed by TtgR. SrpR was found to be capable of binding to the ttgABC operator with a higher affinity (KD, 138.0 nM) compared to TtgR (KD, 15.4 μM). EMSA and β‐galactosidase assays were performed to survey possible effectors of SrpR with 35 available chemicals being tested. Only 2,3,4‐trichlorophenol was identified as an effector of SrpR. A regulation model was then proposed, representing a novel strategy for balancing the efflux systems with partially overlapping substrate profiles. This study highlights sophisticated interactions among the RND efflux pumps in a Pseudomonas strain, which may endow bacteria with certain advantages in a fluctuant environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising route to the synthesis of protein‐mimetic materials that are capable of strong mechanics and complex functions is provided by intermolecular β‐sheet stacking. An understanding of the assembly mechanism on β‐sheet stacking at molecular‐level and the related influencing factors determine the potential to design polymorphs of such biomaterials towards broad applications. Herein, we quantitatively reveal the air/water interface (AWI) parameters regulating the transformation from crowding amorphous aggregates to ordered phase and show that the polymorph diversity of β‐sheet stacking is regulated by the chain relaxation‐crystallization mechanism. An amorphous macroscale amyloid‐like nanofilm is formed at the AWI, in which unfolded protein chains are aligned in a short‐range manner to form randomly packed β‐sheets. The subsequent biopolymer chain relaxation‐crystallization to form nanocrystals is further triggered by removing the limitations of energy and space at the AWI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising route to the synthesis of protein‐mimetic materials that are capable of strong mechanics and complex functions is provided by intermolecular β‐sheet stacking. An understanding of the assembly mechanism on β‐sheet stacking at molecular‐level and the related influencing factors determine the potential to design polymorphs of such biomaterials towards broad applications. Herein, we quantitatively reveal the air/water interface (AWI) parameters regulating the transformation from crowding amorphous aggregates to ordered phase and show that the polymorph diversity of β‐sheet stacking is regulated by the chain relaxation‐crystallization mechanism. An amorphous macroscale amyloid‐like nanofilm is formed at the AWI, in which unfolded protein chains are aligned in a short‐range manner to form randomly packed β‐sheets. The subsequent biopolymer chain relaxation‐crystallization to form nanocrystals is further triggered by removing the limitations of energy and space at the AWI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a finger-type gallium nitride (GaN) Schottky barrier diode (SBD)-based microwave rectifier with medium-power capacity and wide power bandwidth. A complete solution including SBD design and fabrication, model extraction, circuit optimization, and demonstration is proposed. The finger-type anode and critical thickness epitaxial layer techniques are adopted to reduce the GaN SBD resistance to 1.9 Ω (0.011 m Ω ⋅ cm2) and achieve nearly constant junction capacitance over a wide range of voltages (17–25 V). Revised equivalent models including the effects of large pads, critical thickness epitaxial layer, and finger-type layout are proposed to describe the new features of the SBD. A 2.45-GHz microwave rectifier based on the GaN SBD is designed and measured, having a maximum power and an efficiency of 1.91 W and 78.5%, respectively. The high-efficiency power range (≥70% and ≥75%) is significantly extended to 14 and 10.8 dB. Finally, a wireless clinical examination prototype constructed by a rectifier, antennas, biomedical sensors, and a signal processer is proposed for demonstration. The resulting wireless electrocardiogram shown in computer is clear and stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regeneration is a unique defense mechanism of liver tissue in response to functional cell loss induced by toxic chemicals or surgical resection. In this study, we found that Islet‐cell autoantigen 69 (Ica69) accelerates liver regeneration in mice. Following 70% partial hepatectomy, both Ica69 mRNA and protein are significantly upregulated in mouse hepatocytes at the early stage of liver regeneration. Compared with the wild‐type mice, Ica69‐deficient mice have more severe liver injury, delayed liver regeneration, and high surgical accidental mortality following hepatectomy. Mechanistically, Ica69 interacts with Pick1 protein to regulate Tgfbr1 protein expression and Tgfβ‐induced Smad2 phosphorylation. Our findings suggest that Ica69 in liver tissue is a new potential target for promoting liver regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have obtained high accuracy results for pedestrian re-identification in the past few years. There is always a trade-off between high accuracy and computational time in CNNs. Training CNN is always very difficult as it may take a long time to produce high accuracy results. To overcome this limitation, a novel method parallel stochastic gradient descent (PSGD) is proposed to train a five-hierarchical parallel CNNs that is designed according to pedestrian attributes. Moreover, the momentum correction and adaptive adjustment of learning rate are applied during training process and the time interval for updating parameters is inspected during optimization of parameters selection. The results of this paper prove the effectiveness of proposed PSGD that successfully decreases the training process by five times and surpasses the state-of-the-art methods of pedestrian re-identification in terms of both accuracy and time. The minimum reported running time of the proposed method is 8.7 s which is minimum among all other state-of-the-art methods. These promising results show the efficiency and performance of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a great deal of interest in developing isolated dairy lipid fractions that are rich in phospholipids (PL), due to their health benefits and functional properties. Dairy by-products that contain elevated levels of PL and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) proteins can be an excellent source for these isolates. The β stream, a by-product of anhydrous milk fat production, is an excellent candidate because it contains a higher concentration of PL than many other dairy by-products. In this study, we investigated an economically feasible processing method to obtain these valuable components from the β stream. The use of zinc acetate and calcium acetate, along with mild heat treatment and pH adjustment, was effective in precipitating PL and proteins into a pellet fraction. With an additional extraction from the pellet using ethanol (90% at 70°C), a PL-enriched lipid fraction was obtained. The effective precipitation conditions were zinc acetate of 25 m푀 concentration at pH greater than 6.5 at 30°C, and calcium acetate of greater than 75 m푀 concentration at pH greater than 6.5 at 60°C. With ethanol extraction, PL recovery of 97.7 ± 1.7% from the zinc acetate precipitate and 94.9 ± 3.7% from calcium acetate precipitate were achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study proposes an end-to-end framework based on the bimodal recurrent neural network (BRNN) for AV-SAD that explicitly captures the temporal dynamic between acoustic and visual features. • The acoustic and visual features are directly learned from the data during training, creating a powerful end-to-end system. • The experimental evaluations on the CRSS- 4English-14 corpus (over 60h) demonstrate the benefits of using the proposed approach, which leads to statistically significant performance improvements over state-of-the-art methods. • This is the first end-to-end system for audiovisual speech activity detection. Speech activity detection (SAD) plays an important role in current speech processing systems, including automatic speech recognition (ASR). SAD is particularly difficult in environments with acoustic noise. A practical solution is to incorporate visual information, increasing the robustness of the SAD approach. An audiovisual system has the advantage of being robust to different speech modes (e.g., whisper speech) or background noise. Recent advances in audiovisual speech processing using deep learning have opened opportunities to capture in a principled way the temporal relationships between acoustic and visual features. This study explores this idea, proposing the bimodal recurrent neural network (BRNN) framework for SAD. The approach models the temporal dynamic of the sequential audiovisual data, improving the accuracy and robustness of the proposed SAD system. Instead of estimating hand-crafted features, the study investigates an end-to-end training approach, where acoustic and visual features are directly learned from the raw data during training. The experimental evaluation considers a large audiovisual corpus with over 60.8 h of recordings, collected from 105 speakers. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework leads to absolute improvements up to 1.2% under practical scenarios over a VAD baseline using only audio implemented with deep neural network (DNN). The proposed approach achieves 92.7% F1-score when it is evaluated using the sensors from a portable tablet under noisy acoustic environment, which is only 1.0% lower than the performance obtained under ideal conditions (e.g., clean speech obtained with a high definition camera and a close-talking microphone). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problem of continuous model updating for fault recognition in the time-varying process, a novel method called the Procrustes analysis–based Fisher discriminant analysis was proposed. First, each class of the training data was preprocessed by Procrustes analysis. Second, the new test data were aligned with each class of the training data by Procrustes analysis. Then, all the data were reduced to a low-dimensional space using Fisher discriminant analysis. Finally, the Euclidean distance between the test data and the training data after the Procrustes analysis was calculated, and the class recognition was achieved based on the discriminant principle of Fisher discriminant analysis. Two case studies show that the proposed Procrustes analysis–based Fisher discriminant analysis is superior to the traditional method based on Fisher discriminant analysis, and it can be used for fault recognition in a new and efficient way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plasmon frequencies of a general core/double-shell structure are studied by plasmon hybridization method, and three distinct plasmon modes (ω0, ω+, and ω-) are found, in which the value of ω0 is always stable, and ω+ as well as ω- is variable with the radius ratios. The influences of dielectric effect and permittivity difference between metallic core and outer-shell are also analyzed thoroughly. The origins of the stability and tunability of this core/double-shell structure are explored by comparing the charge densities and local field distributions at interfaces. Furthermore, our model can be simplified to different structures including metallic-core/dielectric-shell, dielectric-core/metallic-shell, metallic-core/metallic-shell and its complementary structures, of which the corresponding plasmon modes are also studied and compared with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), the predominant protein in bovine whey, was chemically modified by (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) to develop a biomacromolecule with antioxidant activity. The EGCG-modified β-lg was characterized by SDS-PAGE, MALDI-TOF MS and intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy. The antioxidant properties of EGCG-modified β-lg was assessed using DPPH radical scavenging activity, iron chelating ability, and inhibition of Cu2+-induced LDL oxidation. SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF MS results indicated the dimerization of β-lg after EGCG modification. Intrinsic fluorescence spectra suggested that EGCG modification caused an alteration in the conformational structure of β-lg. The results demonstrated that EGCG-modified β-lg possessed great antioxidant potential in terms of scavenging DPPH radical and chelating ferrous ion. Furthermore, the EGCG-modified β-lg showed a protective effect against LDL peroxidation. The results indicate that EGCG-modified β-lg could provide significant health benefits as an antioxidant. Highlights • Covalent modification by EGCG caused the formation of β-lg dimer. • EGCG modification altered β-lg conformation making it more hydrophilic. • EGCG-modified β-lg is a novel biomacromolecule with antioxidant activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, along with the wide application of new generation information technologies (New IT) in manufacturing, many countries issued their national advanced manufacturing development strategies, such as Industrial Internet, Industry 4.0, and Made in China 2025. One common aim of these strategies is to achieve smart manufacturing, which demands the interoperation, integration, and fusion of the physical world and the cyber world of manufacturing. As well, New IT [such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet, and cyber-physical systems (CPS)] have played pivotal roles in promoting smart manufacturing. Data generated in the physical world can be sensed and transfered to the cyber world through IoT and the Internet, and be processed and analyzed by cloud computing, big data technologies to adjust the physical world. The physical world and the cyber world of manufacturing are integrated based on CPS. On the other hand, servitization has become a prominent trend in the manufacturing. Embracing the concept of “Manufacturing-as-a-Service,” manufacturing is provided as service for users. Because of the characteristics of interoperability and platform independence, services pave the way for large-scale smart applications and manufacturing collaboration. Combining New IT and services, this paper proposes a framework—New IT driven service-oriented smart manufacturing (SoSM). SoSM aims at facilitating the visions of smart manufacturing by making full use of New IT and services. Complementary to the framework of SoSM, the New IT driven typical characteristics of SoSM are also investigated and discussed, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Soy protein isolate (SPI) has promising applications in various food products because of its excellent functional properties and nutritional quality. The structural and emulsifying properties of covalently modified SPI by (−)‐epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG) were investigated. RESULTS: SPI was covalently modified by EGCG under alkaline conditions. SDS‐PAGE analysis revealed that EGCG modification caused crosslinking of SPI proteins. Circular dichroism spectra demonstrated that the secondary structure of SPI proteins was changed by EGCG modification. In addition, the modifications resulted in the perturbation of the tertiary structure of SPI as evidenced by intrinsic fluorescence spectra and surface hydrophobicity measurements. Oil‐in‐water emulsions of modified SPI had smaller droplet sizes and better creaming stability compared to those from unmodified SPI. CONCLUSION: The covalent modification by EGCG improved the emulsifying property of SPI. This study therefore provided an innovative approach for improving the emulsifying properties of proteins. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we investigated the trapping of methylglyoxal (MGO) by propyl gallate (PG), a known food grade antioxidant, and the anti-carbonyl and anti-oxidative properties of the mono-MGO adduct of PG (MM-PG). Our result indicated that more than 77.5% MGO was suppressed by PG after a 30 min incubation of PG with MGO, which was much more effective than gallic acid (15.2%). For the first time, MM-PG was purified, and its structure was elucidated based on the analysis of its 1 H, 13 C, and 2D-NMR data. We also demonstrated that MM-PG had strong anti-oxidative and anti-carbonyl activities. Furthermore, PG could trap the MGO generated during the preparation of roasted pork, and both mono- and di- MGO adducts of PG were detected in the roasted pork system using LC/MS technique. Thus, PG could be widely applied in the food system for inhibiting the formation of both carbonyl species and oxidative species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemokine receptors play crucial roles in fundamental biological processes. Their malfunction may result in many diseases, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, and HIV. The oligomerization of chemokine receptors holds significant functional implications that directly affect their signaling patterns and pharmacological responses. However, the oligomerization patterns of many chemokine receptors remain poorly understood. Furthermore, several chemokine receptors have highly truncated isoforms whose functional role is not yet clear. Here, we computationally show homo- and heterodimerization patterns of four human chemokine receptors, namely CXCR2, CXCR7, CCR2, and CCR7, along with their interaction patterns with their respective truncated isoforms. By combining the neural network-based AlphaFold2 and physics-based protein–protein docking tool ClusPro, we predicted 15 groups of complex structures and assessed the binding affinities in the context of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Our results are in agreement with previous experimental observations and support the dynamic and diverse nature of chemokine receptor dimerization, suggesting possible patterns of higher-order oligomerization. Additionally, we uncover the strong potential of truncated isoforms to block homo- and heterodimerization of chemokine receptors, also in a dynamic manner. Our study provides insights into the dimerization patterns of chemokine receptors and the functional significance of their truncated isoforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To quickly grasp what interesting topics are happening on web, it is challenge to discover and describe topics from User-Generated Content (UGC) data. Describing topics by probable keywords and prototype images is an efficient human-machine interaction to help person quickly grasp a topic. However, except for the challenges from web topic detection, mining the multi-media description is a challenge task that the conventional approaches can barely handle: (1) noises from non-informative short texts or images due to less-constrained UGC; and (2) even for these informative images, the gaps between visual concepts and social ones. This paper addresses above challenges from the perspective of background similarity remove, and proposes a two-step approach to mining the multi-media description from noisy data. First, we utilize a devcovolution model to strip the similarities among non-informative words/images during web topic detection. Second, the background-removed similarities are reconstructed to identify the probable keywords and prototype images during topic description. By removing background similarities, we can generate coherent and informative multi-media description for a topic. Experiments show that the proposed method produces a high quality description on two public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primordial enzymes are proposed to possess broad specificities. Through divergence and evolution, enzymes have been refined to exhibit specificity towards one reaction or substrate, and are thus commonly assumed as “specialists”. However, some enzymes are “generalists” that catalyze a range of substrates and reactions. This property has been defined as enzyme promiscuity and is of great importance for the evolution of new functions. The promiscuities of two enzymes, namely glycerol dehydratase and diol dehydratase, were herein exploited for catalyzing long-chain polyols, including 1,2-butanediol, 1,2,4-butanetriol, erythritol, 1,2-pentanediol, 1,2,5-pentanetriol, and 1,2,6-hexanetriol. The specific activities required for catalyzing these six long-chain polyols were studied via in vitro enzyme assays, and the catalytic efficiencies were increased through protein engineering. The promiscuous functions were subsequently applied in vivo to establish 1,4-butanediol pathways from lignocellulose derived compounds, including xylose and erythritol. In addition, a pathway for 1-pentanol production from 1,2-pentanediol was also constructed. The results suggest that exploiting enzyme promiscuity is promising for exploring new catalysts, which would expand the repertoire of genetic elements available to synthetic biology and may provide a starting point for designing and engineering novel pathways for valuable chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macromolecular crystallization has many implications in biological and materials science. Similar to the crystallization of other molecules, macromolecular crystallization conventionally considers a critical nucleus, followed by crystallographic packing of macromolecules to drive further crystal growth. Herein, we discover a distinctive macromolecular crystallization pathway by developing the concept of a macromolecular mesocrystal. This nonclassical polymer crystallization occurs through the mesoscale self-assembly of (bio)macromolecular nanocrystals. The new concept for macromolecular crystallization presented herein is fundamental and relevant to many fields, including materials science, chemistry, biomimetics, nanoscience, and structural biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macromolecular crystallization has many implications in biological and materials science. Similar to the crystallization of other molecules, macromolecular crystallization conventionally considers a critical nucleus, followed by crystallographic packing of macromolecules to drive further crystal growth. Herein, we discover a distinctive macromolecular crystallization pathway by developing the concept of a macromolecular mesocrystal. This nonclassical polymer crystallization occurs through the mesoscale self-assembly of (bio)macromolecular nanocrystals. The new concept for macromolecular crystallization presented herein is fundamental and relevant to many fields, including materials science, chemistry, biomimetics, nanoscience, and structural biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable aluminum ion battery (RAIB) is a very promising large-scale energy storage scheme attributed by the advantages of aluminum with large theoretical capacity, high energy density, low cost, abundant earth resources and environment friendliness. The selection and preparation of cathode materials are crucial for the electrochemical performance of RAIB. In this study, the specific capacity and cycle life of RAIB were improved by using polyaniline doped with phytic acid and further optimized by ammonium hydroxide de-doping treatment. Phytic acid doping improves the spatial configuration of polyaniline, making the nanostructure more hierarchical and increasing the specific surface area. More importantly, ammonium hydroxide treatment provides more chemical reaction sites while maintaining hierarchic structural morphology of the material. Due to the advantages above, the de-doped polyaniline cathode obtains an initial discharge-specific capacity of the initial cycle is 78.1 mAh g−1 at a high current density of 1 A g−1. After cycling of 2000, the capacity loss is only 16.7%, and an average decay rate of 0.007% per cycle with the Coulomb efficiency remains about 100% after cycling of 5000. At the same time, the contribution of pseudo capacitance and working mechanism are investigated. The capacity contribution of RAIB has been divided into diffusion-control, surface-control and double-layer, which is more consistent with the actual situation and further deepens the understanding of the charging-discharging mechanism of RAIB. These results are expected to lay a foundation for the future development of RAIB systems for large-scale energy storage using organic polymers as cathode materials. • PANI-PA has better electrochemical performance than the commonly used PANI-HCl as the cathode material. • Ammonium hydroxide treatment improves the electrochemical performance of the PANI cathode material. • The contribution ratio of pseudo-capacitance, double layer and diffusion control is further calibrated in the CV curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WRKY transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles in plant resistance responses to pathogens. Wheat stripe rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a destructive disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum) worldwide. In this study, the two WRKY genes TaWRKY49 and TaWRKY62 were originally identified in association with high-temperature seedling-plant resistance to Pst (HTSP) resistance in wheat cultivar Xiaoyan 6 by RNA-seq. Interestingly, the expression levels of TaWRKY49 and TaWRKY62 were down- and up-regulated, respectively, during HTSP resistance in response to Pst. Silencing of TaWRKY49 enhanced whereas silencing TaWRKY62 reduced HTSP resistance. The enhanced resistance observed on leaves following the silencing of TaWRKY49 was coupled with increased expression of salicylic acid (SA)- and jasmonic acid (JA)-responsive genes TaPR1.1 and TaAOS, as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS)-associated genes TaCAT and TaPOD; whereas the ethylene (ET)-responsive gene TaPIE1 was suppressed. The decreased resistance observed on leaves following TaWRKY62 silencing was associated with increased expression of TaPR1.1 and TaPOD, and suppression of TaAOS and TaPIE1. Furthermore, SA, ET, MeJA (methyl jasmonate), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments increased TaWRKY62 expression. On the other hand, MeJA did not affect the expression of TaWRKY49, and H2O2 reduced TaWRKY49 expression. In conclusion, TaWRKY49 negatively regulates while TaWRKY62 positively regulates wheat HTSP resistance to Pst by differential regulation of SA-, JA-, ET and ROS-mediated signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions for the fractional Schrödinger equations ε 2 α ( − Δ ) α u + V ( x ) u = ∣ u ∣ 2 α ∗ − 2 u + σ g ( x , u ) , x ∈ R N , where ε and σ are positive parameters, 0 < α < 1 , ( − Δ ) α denotes the fractional Laplacian of order α , N > 2 α and 2 α ∗ = 2 N N − 2 α is the fractional critical exponent, V ∈ C ( R N , R + ) , g ∈ C ( R N × R , R ) . By the variational methods we study the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions. Our main results improve corresponding results in Shang and Zhang (2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]