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The tetraspanin gene family encodes cell‐surface proteins that span the membrane 4 times and play critical roles in a wide range of biological processes across numerous organisms. Recent findings highlight the involvement of a tetraspanin of the lepidopteran pest Helicoverpa armigera in resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry insecticidal proteins, which are extensively used in transgenic crops. Thus, a better understanding of lepidopteran tetraspanins is urgently needed. In the current study, genome scanning in 10 lepidopteran species identified a total of 283 sequences encoding potential tetraspanins. Based on conserved cysteine patterns in the large extracellular loop and their phylogenetic relationships, these tetraspanins were classified into 8 subfamilies (TspA to TspH). Six ancestral introns were identified within lepidopteran tetraspanin genes. Tetraspanins in TspA, TspB, TspC, and TspD subfamilies exhibit highly similar gene organization, while tetraspanins in the remaining 4 subfamilies exhibited variation in intron loss and/or gain during evolution. Analysis of chromosomal distribution revealed a lepidopteran‐specific cluster of 10 to 11 tetraspanins, likely formed by tandem duplication events. Selective pressure analysis indicated negative selection across all orthologous groups, with ω values ranging between 0.004 and 0.362. However, positive selection was identified at 18 sites within TspB5, TspC5, TspE3, and TspF10. Furthermore, spatiotemporal expression analysis of H. armigera tetraspanins demonstrated variable expression levels across different developmental stages and tissues, suggesting diverse functions of tetraspanin members in this globally important insect pest. Our findings establish a solid foundation for subsequent functional investigations of tetraspanins in lepidopteran species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bleomycin-induced scleroderma model is a well-established and dependable method for creating a mouse model of SSc (systemic sclerosis). In the field of skin connective tissue diseases, increasing evidence from clinical and animal experiments suggests that TLRs (Toll-like receptors) play an important role in several diseases. This study aimed to determine the role of TLR7 (Toll-like receptor 7) and TLR9 (Toll-like receptor 9) in the mechanisms of immune abnormalities and fibrosis in SSc. This study used TLR7-KO mice (TLR7-knockout mice with a balb/c background) and TLR9-KO mice (TLR9-knockout mice with a balb/c background) as well as WT mice (wild-type balb/c mice). All three kinds of mice were induced by BLM (bleomycin) in a scleroderma model as the experimental group; meanwhile, WT mice treated with PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) were used as the control group. We analyzed the fibrotic phenotype and the immunological abnormality phenotype of TLR7-deficient and TLR9-deficient mice in the SSc disease model using flow cytometry, RT-PCR (reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction), a histological examination, and IHC (immunohistochemical staining). In a mouse model of SSc disease, the deletion of TLR7 attenuated skin and lung fibrosis, while the deletion of TLR9 exacerbated skin and lung fibrosis. The deletion of TLR7 resulted in a relative decrease in the infiltration and expression of various pro-inflammatory and fibrotic cells and cytokines in the skin. On the other hand, the deletion of TLR9 resulted in a relative increase in the infiltration and expression of various pro-inflammatory and cytokine-inhibiting cells and cytokines in the skin. Under the influence of pDCs (plasmacytoid dendritic cells), the balances of Beff/Breg (IL-6 + CD19 + B cell/IL-10 + CD19 + B cell), Th17/Treg (IL-17A + CD4 + T cell/Foxp3 + CD25 + CD4 + T cell), M1/M2 (CD86 + macrophage/CD206 + macrophage), and Th1/Th2 (TNFα + CD3 + CD4 + T cell/IL-4 + CD3 + CD4 + T cell) were biased towards the suppression of inflammation and fibrosis as a result of the TLR7 deletion. Comparatively, the balance was biased towards promoting inflammation and fibrosis due to the TLR9 deletion. In the SSc model, TLR7 promoted inflammation and fibrosis progression, while TLR9 played a protective role. These results suggest that TLR7 and TLR9 play opposite roles in triggering SSc to produce immune system abnormalities and skin fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a rare tumor that typically grows in the lower spine. It is usually not aggressive and is most effectively treated with surgery. We studied data from over a thousand patients with spinal MPE from 2000 to 2020. Surgery was the main treatment for almost all patients. We found that younger age and having surgery were linked to better survival. Surprisingly, being male was associated with worse survival, and they tended to be diagnosed at a younger age than females. Our study, the largest of its kind, provides important information for treating spinal MPE. (1) Background: Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is a rare tumor of the spine, typically slow-growing and low-grade. Optimal management strategies remain unclear due to limited evidence given the low incidence of the disease. (2) Methods: We analyzed data from 1197 patients with spinal MPE from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2000–2020). Patient demographics, treatment modalities, and survival outcomes were examined using statistical analyses. (3) Results: Most patients were White (89.9%) with a median age at diagnosis of 42 years. Surgical resection was performed in 95% of cases. The estimated 10-year overall survival was 91.4%. Younger age (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.09, p < 0.001) and receipt of surgery (HR = 0.43, p = 0.007) were associated with improved survival. Surprisingly, male sex was associated with worse survival (HR = 1.86, p = 0.008) and a younger age at diagnosis compared to females. (4) Conclusions: This study, the largest of its kind, underscores the importance of surgical resection in managing spinal MPE. The unexpected association between male sex and worse survival warrants further investigation into potential sex-specific pathophysiological factors influencing prognosis. Despite limitations, our findings contribute valuable insights for guiding clinical management strategies for spinal MPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spike length (SL) is one of the most important agronomic traits affecting yield potential and stability in wheat. In this study, a major stable quantitative trait locus (QTL) for SL, i.e., qSl-2B, was detected in multiple environments in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping population, KJ-RILs, derived from a cross between Kenong 9204 (KN9204) and Jing 411 (J411). The qSl-2B QTL was mapped to the 60.06–73.06 Mb region on chromosome 2B and could be identified in multiple mapping populations. An InDel molecular marker in the target region was developed based on a sequence analysis of the two parents. To further clarify the breeding use potential of qSl-2B, we analyzed its genetic effects and breeding selection effect using both the KJ-RIL population and a natural mapping population, which consisted of 316 breeding varieties/advanced lines. The results showed that the qSl-2B alleles from KN9204 showed inconsistent genetic effects on SL in the two mapping populations. Moreover, in the KJ-RILs population, the additive effects analysis of qSl-2B showed that additive effect was higher when both qSl-2D and qSl-5A harbor negative alleles under LN and HN. In China, a moderate selection utilization rate for qSl-2B was found in the Huanghuai winter wheat area and the selective utilization rate for qSl-2B continues to increase. The above findings provided a foundation for the genetic improvement of wheat SL in the future via molecular breeding strategies. Key message: A major stable QTL for spike length was identified in wheat, and its genetic effect on yield related-traits as well as its potential use value in molecular breeding programs were characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public concern regarding safety policies serious consequences is anticipated to persist over an extended duration. A study examining a case of rapid public health policy adaptation in China during the COVID-19 epidemic was conducted by gathering public opinion data from major social media platforms. A systematic approach to comprehend public opinion was developed. Five fundamental elements and four dimensions were delineated. An indicator system was established utilizing the K-means text clustering model. Public prediction, expectation, and their evolution underlying public concern were elucidated employing TF–IDF text mining models. The HMM elucidated the way public opinion influences policy adjustments. The findings underscore that public concern regarding enduring events undergoes temporal shifts, mirroring the evolution of public opinion towards policy. Public opinion aroused by both the original event and derived events collaboratively influence policy adjustments. In China, public opinion serves as a mechanism for policy feedback and oversight; notably, negative public sentiment plays a pivotal role in expediting policy transitions. These findings aid in refining policies to mitigate emergencies through a feedback loop, thereby averting the emergence of safety risks such as social unrest prompted by public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Chronic total occlusion (CTO) of coronary arteries constitutes a substantial clinical challenge and has historically been managed through medical management and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). However, with the advancement in interventional technology, the success rate of percutaneous treatment has been significantly improved, and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has emerged as a primary mode of treatment for CTOs, demonstrating remarkable clinical efficacy. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate and contrast the outcomes of PCI and CABG in patients with CTO. Methods and Results. A systematic search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. The primary endpoints evaluated in this meta-analysis were the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and all-cause mortality. Secondary endpoints included myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac death, and the need for repeat revascularization. Nine studies, encompassing a total of 8,674 patients, were found to meet the criteria for inclusion and had a mean follow-up duration of 4.3 years. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that compared to CABG, PCI was associated with a lower incidence of all-cause mortality (RR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.66–0.92; P = 0.003) and cardiac death (RR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.31–0.96; P < 0.05), but an increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) (RR: 1.96; 95%CI: 1.07–3.62; P < 0.05) and repeat revascularization (RR: 7.13; 95% CI: 5.69–8.94; P < 0.00001). There was no statistically significant difference in MACE (RR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.69–1.81; P = 0.66) between the PCI and CABG groups. Conclusion. In the present meta-analysis comparing PCI and CABG in patients with chronic total occlusion of the coronary arteries, the results indicated that PCI was superior to CABG in reducing all-cause mortality and cardiac death but inferior in decreasing myocardial infarction and repeat revascularization. There was no statistically significant difference in MACE between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of e-commerce and the dramatic upsurge in direct-to-consumer deliveries, the last-mile problem has become increasingly apparent. With the distinct advantages of bringing economies of scale and providing 24/7 contactless self-service, smart parcel lockers play a critical role in solving the last-mile problem. However, due to a lack of planning, myopia expansion, and an ambiguous profit model, smart parcel locker suppliers in China have been suffering huge economic losses, restricting their further development. In the study, on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the cost elements and major revenue sources of smart parcel lockers, we propose a bilevel programming model to optimize the location of community smart parcel lockers with the upper-level model maximizing the profit of a third-party smart parcel locker supplier and the lower-level model maximizing user satisfaction. Then, a solution algorithm based on the genetic algorithm is proposed. Finally, some numerical experiments are carried out based on a medium-scale residential community in Jiading District, Shanghai. The sensitivity analyses conducted in this study reveal how the user satisfaction evaluation and the investment budget influence the expected profit. The modelling framework and numerical results can provide third-party smart parcel locker suppliers with significant theoretical support and practical guidance on planning the investment budget and optimizing the smart parcel locker locations to maximize their profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph convolution networks (GCNs) based methods for 3D human pose estimation usually aggregate immediate features of single-hop nodes, which are unaware of the correlation of multi-hop nodes and therefore neglect long-range dependency for predicting complex poses. In addition, they typically operate either on single-scale or sequential down-sampled multi-scale graph representations, resulting in the loss of contextual information or spatial details. To address these problems, this paper proposes a parallel hop-aware graph attention network (PHGANet) for 3D human pose estimation, which learns enriched hop-aware correlation of the skeleton joints while maintaining the spatially-precise representations of the human graph. Specifically, we propose a hop-aware skeletal graph attention (HSGAT) module to capture the semantic correlation of multi-hop nodes, which first calculates skeleton-based 1-hop attention and then disseminates it to arbitrary hops via graph connectivity. To alleviate the redundant noise introduced by the interactions with distant nodes, HSGAT uses an attenuation strategy to separate attention from distinct hops and assign them learnable attenuation weights according to their distances adaptively. Upon HSGAT, we further build PHGANet with multiple parallel branches of stacked HSGAT modules to learn the enriched hop-aware correlation of human skeletal structures at different scales. In addition, a joint centrality encoding scheme is proposed to introduce node importance as a bias in the learned graph representation, which makes the core joints (e.g., neck and pelvis) more influential during node aggregation. Experimental results indicate that PHGANet performs favorably against state-of-the-art methods on the Human3.6M and MPI-INF-3DHP benchmarks. Models and code are available at https://github.com/ChenyangWang95/PHGANet/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying plant early immunity, such as the unique immune mechanisms against pathogens, is an important field of research. Tomato wilt resulting from the infection by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol) is an important soil-borne vascular disease. In this study, we challenged tomato plants with Fol for a time-course RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis. The result indicated that phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathway genes were significantly enriched during the early invasion stage. Further study revealed that the flavonoids galangin and quercetin could effectively inhibit Fol growth and enhance wilt resistance in tomato. Moreover, the genes involved in plant-pathogen interactions, the MAPK signaling pathway, and plant hormone signal transduction were significantly enriched. These genes were also involved in plant pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) signaling pathways. Strikingly, the transcription levels of pathogen-related protein 1 (SlPR1) were dramatically increased at 2 days post Fol inoculation, implying that SlPR1 is important in early immunity in tomato. SlPR1 does not have direct antifungal activity. Instead, its C-terminal peptide CAPE1 could activate root defense responses, such as the reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst, salicylic acid (SA)/jasmonic acid (JA) production, and defense-related gene expression, which collectively increased tomato resistance to Fol infection. In addition, CAPE1 could induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Application of CAPE1 onto tomato leaves induced local resistance to the pathogen Botrytis cinerea and systemic resistance to Fol infection. These results advanced our understanding for the early immunity against Fol in tomato and provide potential strategy for tomato disease control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the effect of different contents of Cr on the isothermal structure transformation of FeO is systematically studied by a thermogravimetric analyzer, and it is found that the temperature range of eutectoid transformation of FeO in Fe–Cr alloy is 300–500 °C. Combined with the experimental data, the kinetic model of isothermal phase transformation of FeO is established based on Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov equation, and the time–temperature–transformation curve of isothermal transformation of FeO is predicted, which follows the law of C curve, and the C curve shifts backward with the increase of Cr content. Therm‐calc thermodynamic software calculates the Fe–O phase diagrams of different Cr contents. Combined with the experimental results, the effect mechanism of Cr content on FeO eutectoid transformation is clarified. With the increase of Cr content, the stability of FeO decreases, and under the same isothermal temperature and time, high Cr content has greater undercooling, a higher driving force of phase transition, and the starting time of eutectoid transformation is earlier than that of lower Cr content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we report an intramolecular endo-selective Heck reaction of iodomethylsilyl ethers of phenols and alkenols. The reaction leads to the formation of seven- and eight-membered siloxycycles in excellent yields, which could be further converted into the corresponding allylic alcohols upon oxidation. Thus, this method could be used for the selective (Z)-hydroxymethylation of o-hydroxystyrenes and alkenols. Rapid scan EPR experiments and DFT calculations suggest a concerted β-hydrogen elimination event to take place in the triplet state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulation of pollutants on the surface of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) station reduces the power generation efficiency of the whole power plant, affects electricity output, and decreases sales income; therefore, it is particularly important to develop a reasonable and effective cleaning process. Surface pollutants which have a strong interaction with the cleaning process of power stations can determine the quality of cleaning to a certain extent. In this paper, the pollutants on the surface of a trough CSP station with different usage times were collected and characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a particle size analyzer (PSA), and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). It was found that most of the surface pollutants were of a fine size and included amorphous particles which mainly resulted from the sedimentation of particles suspended for a short time or particles in the process of atmospheric circulation for a long time. Considering the service life of the mirror and the scarcity of water resources in the area where the trough CSP power station is located, a brush-based dry cleaning process with different cleaning times was developed. By comparing the changes in the reflectivity and micro-morphology of the mirror surface before and after cleaning, the feasibility and superiority of the brush-based dry cleaning process were fully confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erythrocyte dynamics and hemorheology exist inextricably connection. In order to further explore the population dynamics of erythrocytes in non-physiological shear stress flow and its microscopic hemolysis mechanism, this study improved the coarse-grained erythrocytes damaged model and established the hemoglobin (Hb) diffusion model based on the transport dissipative particle dynamics. The whole blood hemolysis simulation results showed that the red blood cells near the active shear side were more likely to be damaged, and most of the escaping cytoplasm was also concentrated in this side. After the destruction and relaxation of erythrocytes, the cell membrane presents a pathological state of relaxation and swelling. Moreover, we built a deep learning network for recognizing erythrocyte morphology and analyzing the erythrocyte population change rule in non-physiological shear stress flow. In this study, the clues of the blood shear-thinning effect were found from erythrocyte dynamics and coarse-grained simulation. After the shearing starts, the coin-stacked erythrocytes are depolymerized. Then, the overturned double concave erythrocytes changed into multilobe erythrocytes. When the flow shear stress gradually increases, most erythrocytes show an ellipsoidal tank-treading movement along the shear direction. Changes in erythrocyte morphology can reduce flow resistance, showing a phenomenon of the whole blood shear-thinning effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly heart failure patients need to use Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) to keep themselves alive. During treatment, hemolysis is an inevitable complication of interventional devices. The most common method for evaluating mechanical hemolysis is to calculate Hemolysis Index (HI) by the power-law formula. However, the HI formula still has obvious flaws. With an intention of further understanding the phenomenon of mechanical hemolysis in non-physiological flow, our study developed a coarse-grained erythrocyte destruction model at the cellular scale and explored the mechanism of the single erythrocyte shear destruction utilizing the Dissipative Particle Dynamics, including the erythrocyte stretching destruction process and the erythrocyte non-physiological shearing destruction process. In the process of stretching and shearing, the high-strain distribution areas of erythrocytes are entirely different. The high-strain areas during stretching are concentrated on the central axis. After the stretch failure, the erythrocyte changes from fusiform to shriveled biconcave. In the shear breaking process, the high strain areas are focused on the erythrocyte edge, causing the red blood cells to evolve from an ellipsoid shape to a plate shape. In addition to the flow shear stress, the shear rate acceleration is also an important factor in the erythrocyte shear damage. The erythrocyte placed in low shear stress flow is still unstably destroyed under high shear rate acceleration. Consequently, the inclusion of flow-buffering structures in the design of VADs may improve non-physiological hemolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing face hallucination methods always achieve improved performance through regularizing the model with facial prior. Most of them always estimate facial prior information first and then leverage it to help the prediction of the target high-resolution face image. However, the accuracy of prior estimation is difficult to guarantee, especially for the low-resolution face image. Once the estimated prior is inaccurate or wrong, the following face super-resolution performance is unavoidably influenced. A natural question that arises: how to incorporate facial prior effectively and efficiently without prior estimation? To achieve this goal, we propose to learn facial prior knowledge at training stage, but test only with low-resolution face image, which can overcome the difficulty of estimating accurate prior. In addition, instead of estimating facial prior, we directly explore the potential of high-quality facial prior in the training phase and progressively propagate the facial prior knowledge from the teacher network (trained with the low-resolution face/high-quality facial prior and high-resolution face image pairs) to the student network (trained with the low-resolution face and high-resolution face image pairs). Quantitative and qualitative comparisons on benchmark face datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art face super-resolution methods. The source codes of the proposed method will be available at https://github.com/wcy-cs/KDFSRNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment of N‐methyl‐S,S‐diaryl sulfoximines with methyl trifluoromethanesulfonate provides bench‐stable sulfoxinium salts in excellent yields. Applying them in Sonogashira‐, Heck‐ and Suzuki‐type cross‐coupling reactions leads to the corresponding products by sequential C−S bond cleavage and C−C bond formation. Electronic factors induced by substituents on the S‐aryl groups govern the coupling efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a new three-dimensional sessile droplet freezing model, involving the ice fraction and ice distribution after the droplet recalescence, is established based on the many-body dissipative particle dynamics with the energy conservation method for the first time. The proposed model is verified by comparing it with experimental results, and the accuracy of this model increases as the ice distribution becomes more non-uniform after recalescence. Furthermore, the effects of surface contact angle, droplet volume, surface temperature, and droplet supercooling degree on the freezing process are investigated in detail. The numerical results demonstrate that the angle of ice tips maintains a constant under various conditions. The upper and lower limits of solidification time under specific conditions are derived, and the droplet solidification time decreases linearly with the increase in supercooling. In addition, the average droplet solidification rate decreases with the increase in droplet volume, contact angle, and surface temperature, and the surface temperature is demonstrated to have the greatest influence on the solidification rate. Emphatically, we put forward an empirical formula, as a function of droplet volume, contact angle, droplet supercooling degree, and surface temperature, to predict the freezing time of a sessile supercooled droplet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thin film metallic glass (TFMG) has demonstrated significant potential for applications in the semiconductor industry. In this work, fully amorphous Mo-Co-B thin films with a smooth surface and dense microstructure were prepared through magnetron sputtering. The thermal stability and diffusion barrier performance of the Mo-based TFMG were evaluated through vacuum annealing at temperatures ranging from 300 to 800 °C for 30 min. Nanoindentation tests were conducted to investigate the evolution of mechanical properties with annealing for the Mo-based thin film. When subjected to annealing at temperatures below 700 °C, the Mo-based thin film retained its fully amorphous structure. It displayed enhanced hardness and Young's modulus due to the annihilation of free volume with annealing. Increasing the annealing temperature to 700 °C and 800 °C resulted in surface oxidation and crystallization of the Mo-based TFMG, respectively, leading to a continuous decline in its mechanical properties. When employed as the diffusion barrier between Cu and Si, the Mo-based barrier layer effectively blocked the diffusion of Cu atoms through the barrier at temperatures below 800 °C. The failure of the barrier occurred at 800 °C due to the crystallization of the amorphous phase. Such excellent diffusion barrier performance of the thermally stable Mo-Co-B TFMG makes it a promising candidate as the barrier material in Cu metallization. • Mo-based thin film metallic glasses with a dense microstructure were prepared by magnetron sputtering. • The thin film exhibits high thermal stability during vacuum annealing. • As a diffusion barrier in Cu/Si contact system, the thin film can effectively suppress Cu diffusion below 800 °C. • The failure of the barrier at 800 °C is dominated by the crystallization of the amorphous phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics have emerged as environmental hazards in recent years. This study was intended to prove the toxic effects of microplastics on the male reproductive system and further elucidate its mechanism. C57bl/6 mice were exposed to ultrapure water or different doses (0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/d) of 5 μm polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) for 4 weeks, and the GC-1 mouse spermatogonium was treated with different concentrations of PS-MPs. The results showed that sperm count and motility were decreased, and sperm deformity rate was increased after exposure to PS-MPs. The morphology of testes in PS-MPs groups exhibited pathological changes, such as abnormal development of spermatogenic tubules, and inhibited spermatogonium function. Furthermore, the fluorescence intensity of TUNEL staining and the BAX/BCL2 ratio were increased. Exposure to PS-MPs resulted in impaired mitochondrial morphology of spermatogonium, decreased activity of GSH-px and SOD, and increased the MDA level. In vitro, after treatment with PS-MPs, the cell apoptosis rate of spermatogonium was significantly increased, mitochondrial membrane potential was decreased, mitochondrial morphology was damaged, and exposure to PS-MPs increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, inducing an oxidative stress state in spermatogonia. In summary, PS-MPs induced a decrease in sperm quality by activating spermatogonium mitochondrial oxidative stress and apoptosis, offering novel insights into mitigating the reproductive toxicity of microplastics. [Display omitted] • Polystyrene microplastics induced male reproductive toxicity. • PS-MPs put spermatogonium in an oxidative stress state. • PS-MPs increased BAX/BCL2 apoptosis in spermatogonium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education expenditure is essential in mitigating air pollution, but the relationship between education expenditure and air pollution lacks in-depth discussion. Utilizing data at the county level in China during 2007–2021, this study estimates the effect of education expenditure from local governments on air pollution. Our findings demonstrate that education expenditure significantly and negatively affects air pollution, which remains robust after addressing endogeneity. The mechanism analysis presents that education expenditure reduces air pollution through the composition, technique, and income effects. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of education expenditure exhibits marked regional heterogeneity. Specifically, the role of education expenditure is significant in strong regulation, key, eastern, and central regions. By considering interaction terms, we identify the moderating effects of human capital, economic development, infrastructure construction, and public service for education expenditure. The cost-benefit analysis emphasizes that education expenditure improves social welfare. Our findings can inspire local governments to place more emphasis on air quality and public education expenditure. • We explore the effect of education expenditure on PM 2.5 concentration. • County-level panel data covering 28 provinces from 2007 to 2021 are employed. • Education expenditure reduces PM 2.5 concentration through composition, technique, and income effects. • Socioeconomic factors exert moderating effects on the role of education expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment. Human body can be exposed to microplastics through inhalation and ingestion and some microplastics can enter the blood and accumulate in various tissues and organs throughout the body. Animal experiments have suggested that microplastics may promote atherosclerosis. However, data on microplastics in human arteries and clinical evidence supporting a link between microplastics and atherosclerosis are currently lacking. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) was used in this study to detect microplastics in three types of human arteries: coronary and carotid arteries with atherosclerotic plaques, as well as the aorta without plaques. Microplastics were detected in all 17 arterial samples, with an average concentration of 118.66 ± 53.87 μg/g tissue. Four types of microplastics were identified: polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 73.70%), polyamide-66 (PA-66, 15.54%), polyvinyl chloride (PVC, 9.69%), and polyethylene (PE, 1.07%). Most importantly, the concentration of microplastics in arteries containing atherosclerotic plaques, both coronary arteries (156.50 ± 42.14 vs. 76.26 ± 14.86 μg/g tissue, P = 0.039), and carotid arteries (133.37 ± 60.52 vs. 76.26 ± 14.86 μg/g tissue, P = 0.015), was significantly higher than that in aortas which did not contain atherosclerotic plaques, suggesting that microplastics might be associated with atherosclerosis in humans. This study provides valuable data for further hazard assessments of microplastics on human cardiovascular health. [Display omitted] • Microplastics can accumulate in human arteries. • Microplastics in arteries are predominantly PET, followed by PA, PVC and PE. • Microplastics in arteries may be associated with atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenic crops producing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal proteins are grown widely for pest control, but the evolution of resistance in target pests could reduce their efficacy. Mutations in genes encoding cadherin, ABC transporter or tetraspanin were linked with resistance to Cry1Ac in several lepidopteran insects, including the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), a worldwide agricultural pest. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms by which these mutations confer insect resistance to Cry1Ac remain largely unknown. In this study, we analyzed the midgut transcriptomes of a susceptible SCD strain and three SCD-derived Cry1Ac-resistant strains of H. armigera (SCD-r1, with a naturally occurring deletion mutation of cadherin; SCD-KI, with a knock-in T92C point mutation in tetraspanin; and C2/3-KO, with both ABCC2 and ABCC3 knocked out). Evaluation of midgut transcript profiles of the four strains without Cry1Ac exposure identified many constitutively differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the resistant SCD-r1 (n = 1355), SCD-KI (n = 1254) and C2/3-KO (n = 2055) strains. Analysis of DEGs in the midguts of each strain after Cry1Ac exposure revealed similar patterns of response to Cry1Ac in the SCD and SCD-r1 strains, but unique responses in the SCD-KI and C2/3-KO strains. Expression of midgut epithelium healing and defense-related genes was strongly induced by Cry1Ac intoxication in the SCD and SCD-r1 strains, while immune-related pattern recognition receptor and effector genes were highly expressed in the SCD-KI strain after Cry1Ac exposure. This study advances our knowledge of the transcriptomic basis for insect resistance to Bt toxins and provides a valuable resource for further molecular characterization of insect response to Cry1Ac toxin in H. armigera and other pest species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a hydraulic pump is the power source of a hydraulic system, predicting its remaining useful life (RUL) can effectively improve the operating efficiency of the hydraulic system and reduce the incidence of failure. This paper presents a scheme for predicting the RUL of a hydraulic pump (gear pump) through a combination of a deep convolutional autoencoder (DCAE) and a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) network. The vibration data were characterized by the DCAE, and a health indicator (HI) was constructed and modeled to determine the degradation state of the gear pump. The DCAE is a typical symmetric neural network, which can effectively extract characteristics from the data by using the symmetry of the encoding network and decoding network. After processing the original vibration data segment, health indicators were entered as a label into the RUL prediction model based on the Bi-LSTM network, and model training was carried out to achieve the RUL prediction of the gear pump. To verify the validity of the methodology, a gear pump accelerated life experiment was carried out, and whole life cycle data were obtained for method validation. The results show that the constructed HI can effectively characterize the degenerative state of the gear pump, and the proposed RUL prediction method can effectively predict the degeneration trend of the gear pump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Spindle and kinetochore‑associated complex subunit 3 (SKA3) has recently been considered a key regulator of carcinogenesis. However, the connection between SKA3 and immune cell infiltration remains unknown. Methods: The current study investigated the expression mode, prognostic effect, and functional role of SKA3 in different tumors, particularly bladder cancer using numerous databases, comprising TIMER, GEPIA, HPA, UALCAN, PrognoScan, and Kaplan–Meier Plotter. Differentially expressed gene and enrichment analyses were implemented on SKA3 using R packages "edgR" and "clusterProfiler". Immunohistochemistry was further used to validate the expression of SKA3 gene in bladder cancer. Following that, the relevance of SKA3 expression to immune infiltration level in bladder cancer was evaluated using TIMER. Results: Overall, the level of SKA3 expression in tumor tissue significantly increased than in normal tissue. In bladder cancer and other tumors, patients with high SKA3 expression levels had worse overall survival (OS) (p = 0.016), disease-specific survival (DSS) (p = 0.00004), and disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.032). Additionally, the major molecular functions for SKA3 included nuclear division, mitotic nuclear division, mitotic sister chromatid segregation, humoral immune response, and cell chemotaxis. Additionally, SKA3 expression was found to be positively associated with enhanced M2 macrophage and T helper (Th) 2 cell infiltration in bladder cancer. Conclusions: Our study implies that SKA3 contributes to M2 macrophage and Th2 cell polarization by acting as an oncogene in bladder cancer. SKA3 might be a novel biomarker for evaluating prognosis and immune infiltration in bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is a highly conserved monitoring system that ensures a fidelity of chromosome segregation during mitosis. Bub3, a mitotic Checkpoint Protein, is a member of the Bub protein family, and an important factor in the SAC. Abnormal expression of Bub3 results in mitotic defects, defective spindle gate function, chromosomal instability and the development of aneuploidy cells. Aneuploidy is a state of abnormal karyotype that has long been considered as a marker of tumorigenesis. Karyotypic heterogeneity in tumor cells, known as "chromosomal instability" (CIN), can be used to distinguish cancerous cells from their normal tissue counterpart. In this review, we summarize the expression and clinical significance of Bub3 in a variety of tumors and suggest that it has potential in the treatment of cancer. HIGHLIGHT: The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is an evolutionarily highly conserved mitotic monitoring system that ensures a high fidelity of chromosomes during mitosis. Bub3 Mitotic Checkpoint Protein is a member of the Bub family and is an important component of the SAC. Abnormal expression of Bub3 results in defective spindle gate function, chromosomal instability and the development of aneuploidy cells. Aneuploidy, which represents a "state" of abnormal karyotype, has long been recognized as a hallmark of tumorigenesis (Bakhoum et al., 2017). Karyotypic heterogeneity in tumor cells draws its origin from "chromosomal instability" (otherwise known as CIN), a hallmark that distinguishes most cancers from its normal tissue counterpart (Lengauer et al., 1998; Bakhoum et al., 2017). In the process of cell mitosis, it is inevitable to be damaged by various physical, chemical, biological and other external factors. Various kinds of damage detection and repair gene regulation are critical to avoid abnormal cell division (Chao W. C. et al., 2012). Bub3 protein is an important component of the SAC during cell mitosis, which can maintain accurate chromosomal segregation and prevent the formation of aneuploidy during mitosis. Abnormal expression of Bub3 in a variety of malignancies suggests that Bub3 plays an important role in the genesis, progression, and metastasis of malignancies. This article will discuss the research progress of Bub3 in malignant tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a "one‐pot" strategy, a layer of microporous organic polymer was coated onto the surface of monodisperse amino‐functionalized silica microsphere via amino‐aldehyde condensation reaction with core‐shell structure. The change in chemical structure of material before and after modification was determined by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Due to existence of a large number of amino and aldehyde groups in microporous organic polymer shell, the water contact angle decreased from 56.8° (silica microspheres) to 34.7° (microporous organic polymer‐coated silica microspheres). Based on these properties, microporous organic polymer‐coated silica microspheres were employed as the stationary phase for capillary liquid chromatography and successfully offered baseline separation of polar small molecules. Additionally, the material could also be served as the sorbent of hydrophilic interaction chromatography to enrich glycopeptides from human serum digest. A total of 470 unique N‐glycopeptides and 342 N‐glycosylation sites mapped to 112 N‐glycosylated proteins were unambiguously identified from 2 μL of human serum, exhibiting a promising application prospect of microporous organic polymer‐coated silica microspheres in the pretreatment of proteomics samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apples are one of the most widely planted fruits in the world, with an extremely high annual production. Several issues should be addressed to avoid the damaging of samples during the quality grading process of apples (e.g., the long detection period and the inability to detect the internal quality of apples). In this study, an electronic nose (e-nose) detection system for apple quality grading based on the K-nearest neighbor support vector machine (KNN-SVM) was designed, and the nasal cavity structure of the e-nose was optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. A KNN-SVM classifier was also proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional SVMs. The performance of the developed device was experimentally verified in the following steps. The apples were divided into three groups according to their external and internal quality. The e-nose data were pre-processed before features extraction, and then Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were used to reduce the dimension of the datasets. The recognition accuracy of the PCA–KNN-SVM classifier was 96.45%, and the LDA–KNN-SVM classifier achieved 97.78%. Compared with other commonly used classifiers, (traditional KNN, SVM, Decision Tree, and Random Forest), KNN-SVM is more efficient in terms of training time and accuracy of classification. Generally, the apple grading system can be used to evaluate the quality of apples during storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to study granular sphere packings prepared with vertical vibration, and reveal the extremely slight global anisotropies of the void phase with systematic analyses on Delaunay pores and chords. Unexpectedly, the global orientational orders of the eigenvectors of tensors quantifying (i) pore throats, (ii) chords going through individual pores, (iii) shape of Voronoi cells and (iv) contact fabrics have consistent evolution laws when packing fraction changes, but the orientational order of the eigenvectors of a pore volume tensor exhibits a peculiarly different trend. With an orientation-dependent spatial correlation function, we attribute their different behaviors to the fact that different anisotropy variables probe the void phase at different length scales, so that their dependences on packing fraction are different. The segmentation of the void region into pores sensitively captures a unique and intricate structural anisotropy at an intermediate length scale. [Display omitted] • Slight void anisotropies in granular sphere packings due to gravity are revealed. • Length distribution of chords in the void displays a hidden cubatic order. • Pores in the void transform in a non-affine way when the packing is compacted. • Different anisotropy indices probe different length scales and behave differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An accurate three-dimensional successive droplets freezing model is achieved. • Five characteristics rebound patterns of successive droplets impact are found. • Superhydrophobic surface has more complex trend of successive droplets impact. • Pancake-like rebound is conducive to improving the anti-icing ability of the surface. Compared with single droplet impact, multiple-droplet impact is more common in nature, and its dynamic process is more complicated. Based on the many-body dissipative particle dynamics with energy conservation method, we investigate the successive impact of droplets on the superhydrophobic surface at room temperature under different conditions, and observe five rebound modes, which are mainly determined by the interval time and Weber number. For the first time, the pancake-like rebound was found on a non-microstructure surface. As a universal rebound form, its contact time on solid surface was less than other rebound forms. By simulating the successive collision of two droplets at a specific Weber number, the time interval of the pancake-like rebound is obtained, and the mechanism of this characteristic form is analyzed from the aspect of surface energy change during the impact. Finally, by studying the impact of the supercooled droplet on the cold surface with different temperatures, it is verified that the pancake-like rebound mode is more conducive to the anti-icing of the surface. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfluidic systems have attracted considerable attention due to their low reagent consumption, short analysis time, and ease of integration in comparison to conventional methods, but still suffer from shortcomings in sensitivity and selectivity. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) offers several advantages in the detection of compounds, including label-free detection at the single-molecule level, and the narrow Raman peak width for multiplexing. Combining microfluidics with SERS is a viable way to improve their detection sensitivity. Researchers have recently developed several SERS coupled microfluidic platforms with substantial potential for biomolecular detection, cellular and bacterial analysis, and hazardous substance detection. We review the current development of SERS coupled microfluidic platforms, illustrate their detection principles and construction, and summarize the latest applications in biology, environmental protection and food safety. In addition, we innovatively summarize the current status of SERS coupled multi-mode microfluidic platforms with other detection technologies. Finally, we discuss the challenges and countermeasures during the development of SERS coupled microfluidic platforms, as well as predict the future development trend of SERS coupled microfluidic platforms. [Display omitted] • Review the configuration of the SERS coupled microfluidic platforms. • The applications of SERS coupled microfluidic platforms are discussed. • Summarized the development of SERS coupled dual-mode microfluidic platforms. • Prospects for the development of SERS coupled microfluidic platforms are envisioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-branch real-time semantic segmentation network can quickly acquire low-level details and high-level semantics. However, the large contextual gap between them results in adverse impact on their fusion, and limits the further improvement of real-time segmentation accuracy. This paper proposes a tripartite real-time semantic segmentation network with scene commonality (TriSCNet) to address this problem. First, we add a parallel scene commonality branch based on the current two-branch architecture to learn intrinsic common features in similar street scene images, such as the spatial location distribution of various objects and the internal connections between them at the semantic level. Further, with the guidance of commonality, we propose an external branch attention module to enrich and enhance the feature information of traditional two branches. Finally, we utilize an alignment and selective fusion module to correct the misaligned context in the semantic branch and highlight the essential spatial information in the detailed branch. Our proposed TriSCNet achieves an excellent trade-off between accuracy and speed, yielding 77.9% mIOU at 67.2 FPS on Cityscapes test set and 75.8% mIOU at 127.4 FPS on CamVid test set, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle shape plays a crucial role in determining the mobility and impact characteristics of granular flows, yet analyses of the effects of particle shape are rare. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is used to create rock-like materials with varying shapes. This approach enables the precise control of mechanical properties other than particle shape, eliminating potential confounding factors. Then, we construct particle flow samples with distinct shape characteristics, quantitatively assessing their shape variations according to their overall regularity (OR). Flume experiments are conducted, with the findings used to calibrate a discrete element numerical model. By integrating the numerical simulations and experimental data, we systematically investigate the flow, impact, and deposition behaviours of granular flows under diverse flume inclinations considering the influence of particle shape. The results demonstrate that the mobility and destructiveness of granular flows increases with higher OR values and steeper flume inclinations. The transition from pile-up to runup deposition is primarily controlled by the flume inclination, while within specific inclination ranges, changes in OR can also induce deposition mechanism transition. This study provides substantial insights into interactions between granular flows and protection structures, emphasizing the significance of particle shape and terrain characteristics within a source area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological photonics provides a robust platform for the study of nanophotonic devices. The topological rainbow can be used to separate, slow, and trap topological photonic states of different frequencies at different positions. Although numerous reports have investigated the construction of traditional rainbow devices, limited methods have been proposed to realize topological rainbow phenomena and devices. In this Perspective, we provide an overview of the basic concept and mechanisms of rainbow trapping. A topological rainbow is discussed in terms of the implementation of synthetic dimensions. Additionally, recent advances of the topological rainbow are presented for elastic and acoustic waves. We introduce current physical methods of realizing the topological rainbow and discuss potential applications in physics and engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a widely cultivated crop and one of the most commonly consumed food grains in the world. It possesses several nutritional elements. Increasing attention to wheat grain phenolics bioactivity is due to the increasing demand for foods with natural antioxidants. To provide a comprehensive understanding of phenolics in wheat grain, this review first summarizes the phenolics' form and distribution and the phenolic components identified in wheat grain. In particular, the biosynthesis path for phenolics is discussed, identifying some candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of phenolic acids and flavonoids. After discussing the methods for determining antioxidant activity, the effect of genotypes, environmental conditions, and cultivation systems on grain phenolic component content are explored. Finally, the bioavailability of phenolics under different food processing method are reported and discussed. Future research is recommended to increase wheat grain phenolic content by genetic engineering, and to improve its bioavailability through proper food processing. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many practical applications of droplets freezing, and in many cases, it is necessary to prevent the droplets freezing to reduce the loss caused by freezing. Based on the many-body dissipative particle dynamics with energy conservation method, this research proposes an icing model that considers the recalescence process and initial ice mass fraction of droplets for the first time, which obtains a complete simulation of the two-phase four-stage freezing process of droplets. The accuracy and applicability of this model are verified by studying the single-phase Stefan problem, the recalescence process of droplet, and whether the initial ice mass fraction is considered for freezing. Then, the freezing process of droplets under four surface temperatures and five types of surface wettability was studied, and it was found that the temperature of droplets in recalescence stage would jump from nucleation temperature to equilibrium temperature, and almost unaffected by external factors. Change of the temperature distribution with dimensionless height H * before recalescence is only affected by the surface temperature and nucleation temperature. At the end of droplets recalescence, the initial ice mass fraction has little relationship with volume. As the contact angle, surface temperature, and droplet volume increase, temperature changes in the pre-cooling and solidification stages of droplets will slow down, and the solidification time will increase. Additionally, the temperature of the solid wall surface has almost no effect on the final ice shape, and the final ice tip phenomenon is more obvious on the surface with a larger contact angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a safer work area for electrical workers, a novel design concept of portable equipotential zone mats is presented in this article. The proposed mats can create a safe work area by enabling bonding with energized equipment, and thus, creating an equipotential zone for electrical workers who may be exposed to electrical potential differences. The proposed mats are portable; they can be conveniently transported to remote areas and set up at worksites. In this article, we have designed, built, and tested two sizes of mats. To evaluate their performance, the two mats have passed type tests according to the latest revision of American Society for Testing and Materials standard F2715. The testing results of the proposed equipotential zone mats are demonstrated in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Cerium tetraboride (CeB 4) nanocrystal was synthesized via a molten salt method. • The CeB 4 exhibits good adsorption capacity (491.8 mg/g) and ratio (97.8%) of CR. • The kinetic adsorption behaviors follow the pseudo-second-order model. • The equilibrium data fit with both the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Widely used synthetic dyes are one of the main pollutants that contaminate water environments seriously. From the environmental perspective, efficient adsorption of these wastes such as Congo red (CR) is of great importance, and numbers of adsorbents including inorganic materials have been developed. Herein, a lanthanide tetraboride nanocrystal powder CeB 4 with an average particle size of 50 nm synthesized for the first time via inorganic molten salt synthesis route using cerium fluoride (CeF 3) and sodium borohydride (NaBH 4) as the cerium and boron precursors in argon atmosphere exhibits good performance for the adsorption of CR. Essential effluence factors, such as initial pH value, contacting time, and initial concentration, were experimentally evaluated. The adsorption was pH dependent, and the kinetic data follow the pseudo–second–order kinetic model. It was also found that the equilibrium adsorption data could be represented by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, with a maximum capacity of 491.8 mg/g. On the basis of the adsorption–desorption experiments, CeB 4 exhibits good reusability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of gas sensors for detecting toxic, harmful, flammable, and explosive gases has always been very popular research direction. Graphene is considered potential chemi-resistive gas sensing material owing to its high specific surface area and good conductivity. Recent studies have shown that graphene-based gas sensors doped with metals, polymers, and metal oxides have good sensitivity, selectivity, and repeatability. Moreover, they are superior to traditional gas sensors. In this review, sensing mechanism of such composite sensors is introduced. In addition, research status on various sensors is discussed, and their advantages and disadvantages are summarized. Possible improvement methods are proposed as well. Finally, several common problems characteristic of graphene-based gas sensors are described, together with some critical ideas for improving their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the species in the FLiNaK–CeF3 and FLiNaK–CeF3–Li2O melts, in situ high temperature Raman spectroscopy was used with the aid of density functional theory (DFT) calculation. In molten FLiNaK, the CeF63− octahedra affected by alkali cations were identified to be the predominan species. Binuclear cerium oxyfluoride anions Ce2OF84− and Ce2OF106− were formed after adding O2− into the molten FLiNaK‐CeF3 (20 mol%) mixtures. Both of these two species were predicted to have Ce−O−Ce geometries with two CeF4/CeF5 moieties bridged by a single oxygen atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how pornographic spectatorship in virtual reality shapes sexuality and desire from a Lacanian perspective. By considering the specificity of VR pornography as a genre, it explores various implications of the embodied encounter with both pornographic images and VR technologies. I argue that the representation and production of eroticism in virtual reality generate a specific type of the viewing subject, who achieves sexual arousal via an act of seeing characterised by passivity. How this idea of passivity testifies to symbolic alienation as well as offering a possibility of resistance is further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) porous membranes were prepared by a two-step method of surface gelation-immersion precipitation phase inversion. The effects of spraying CS solution concentrations on the structure and properties of membranes were investigated. The results showed that with the concentration increasing of CS solution spraying on the surface of the casting solution film, the porosity of PVDF membranes gradually increased, the mean pore diameter of membranes firstly increased and then reduced, the surface contact angle decreased, and β crystal content in the top surface of membranes gradually decreased. The top surface of membrane without spraying CS solution displayed a dense structure, while the top surface of membranes after spraying CS solution exhibited a porous structure, while the cross-sectional structure of all membranes was composed of the finger-like voids. When the concentrations of spraying CS solution increased, the water flux of membranes firstly increased and then decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the transmission line grounding system design, spatial and temporal/seasonal variations of tower footing impedance should be considered. However, in real life, only spatial variations are taken into account at the design stage, seasonal variations have not been included. In this article, seasonal variations of tower footing impedance of several types of transmission line grounding systems at Manitoba Hydro, Canada, are investigated through field measurements for a whole year. The industrial practice uses simulated tower footing impedances by the software current distribution, electromagnetic interference, grounding and soil structure analysis (CDEGS) in the design of transmission line grounding systems, however, the accuracy of simulated tower footing impedances as a critical design parameter has never been evaluated. In this article, this industrial practice is evaluated by comparing simulated and measured tower footing impedances for various transmission line grounding systems. The importance to use proper tower footing impedance for lightning conditions is also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the effect of rheological parameter of blends on mixing performance of dynamic mixers, the flow of virtual material (VM)/thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) with high and low viscosities in it are simulated. The effect of rheological parameter ratios, including zero shear viscosity ratio (η0VM/η0TPU), relaxation time ratio (λVM/λTPU) and non‐Newtonian index ratio (NVM/NTPU) on pressure drop (Δp), segregation scale (S), and power consumption (P) are analyzed using Taguchi Orthogonal Method, and the effects of rotation speed (n) of the rotor and flow rate ratio (QVM/QTPU) are studied using single factor method. The results indicate η0VM/η0TPU is the most significant factor affecting Δp, S, and P. When η0VM/η0TPU = 1, λVM/λTPU = 1, NVM/NTPU = 1, S of blends reach the minimum value. With n increasing, the influences of QVM/QTPU and viscosity of TPU on S are reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of droplets impacting fiber has important applications in the recovery of waste liquid, separation of solid and liquid phases, gas and liquid phases, and glass wool manufacturing. This study explored the impact of droplets on fiber based on the many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD) method. First, the impact of droplets on fiber at different angles was simulated, and the results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. We then investigated the influence of droplet eccentricity, fiber tilt angle, and wettability on the collision results and found that droplet critical velocity V * , wetting length L, contact time t, and droplet capture rate all increased with tilt angle and decreased with the increase in eccentricity. In addition, fiber wettability had little effect on contact time t but had a greater effect on critical velocity V *. Except for hydrophobicity, wettability also had little effect on droplet capture rate. The theoretical derivation obtained the analytical formulas of critical velocity V * , dimensionless wetting length L * , and dimensionless contact time t * when the eccentric droplet hits the inclined fiber. The simulation results are highly consistent with the theoretical values. This research possesses important guiding significance for actual production and life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palladium‐catalyzed carbonylation reactions with Cr(CO)6 as carbonyl source are key for the preparation of N‐ynonylsulfoximines from NH‐sulfoximines and bromoalkynes. The couplings proceed at room temperature with a wide range of substrate combinations affording the corresponding products in good yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Tofacitinib attenuates scleroderma in a mouse model by reducing fibrosis in the skin and lungs. • Tofacitinib lowers collagen production, and the mRNA expression of collagen and fibrogenic cytokines. • Tofacitinib reduces adaptive immune response by affecting cytokine-producing T cells and T-helper/T-regulatory balance. • Tofacitinib restores cytokine-producing effector and regulatory B cells balance. • Tofacitinib diminishes infiltration of macrophages in the skin and lung tissues. Janus kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) was hyperactivated in biopsies from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and in several autoimmune disease models. Tofacitinib, a pan-JAK inhibitor, blocks the downstream signaling of multiple cytokines and has exhibited therapeutic efficacy in various autoimmune diseases, although its immunomodulating property in scleroderma is unclear. To evaluate the effect of tofacitinib on the modulation of cytokine-producing T and B cells, and proinflammatory cells in a mouse model of SSc. Bleomycin (BLM)-induced SSc was generated by intradermal injection of BLM or PBS for control. Mice received intraperitoneal tofacitinib (20 mg/kg) or vehicle 3 times per week from day 0–28. Mice were sacrificed at day 28 after the last BLM/PBS injection. Tofacitinib administration significantly alleviated fibrosis of the skin and lungs in scleroderma mouse model. Furthermore, tofacitinib suppressed adaptive and innate immune responses by reducing splenocytes, total lymphocytes, CD4+ T helper cells (especially Th2 and Th17 subtypes), IL-6-producing effector B cells, PDCA-1+ dendritic cells in the spleen, and infiltration of F4/80+, CD206+ and CD163+ macrophages in the skin and lungs. Conversely, tofacitinib increased the proportions of splenic regulatory T and B cells. The mRNA expression of extracellular matrix proteins and fibrogenic cytokines was downregulated by tofacitinib in both the skin and lungs. These observations suggest JAK inhibition as a therapeutic approach for the treatment of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, and highlight the potential of tofacitinib as a promising candidate for treating patients with scleroderma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not yet been clarified and is closely related to several pro‐inflammatory factors. MicroRNA‐233 (miR‐223) might be involved in the development of IBD; however, the mechanism underlying its pathogenesis is unclear. In this study, we attempted to determine the role of miR‐223 in dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)‐induced colitis and explore the involvement of the IL‐6/STAT3 pathway in the development of intestinal mucosal inflammation. Materials and Methods: Except control (WT) group, male C57BL/6 mice were provided DSS, then treated for with miR‐223 agomir or antagomir including DSS group, DSS + miR‐223 agomir (DSS + A) group, and DSS + miR‐223 antagomir (DSS + AN) group. The colitis symptoms were observed, the disease activity index (DAI) score were recorded daily, and colonic inflammation was evaluated by histopathological scoring. The expression of myeloperoxidase (MPO), cytokines and IL‐6/STAT3 pathway‐related proteins were measured. Results: miR‐223 expression in the terminal ileum and colon was increased in the DSS group compared with the WT group. Colitis symptoms were significantly alleviated in the DSS + A group and exacerbated in the DSS + AN group after administration of the miR‐223 agomir and antagomir, respectively. MPO, tumor necrosis factor‐α, IL‐6, and IL‐17 were decreased and IL‐10 was increased in the DSS + A group, but these changes were reversed in the DSS + AN group. Gp130, p‐STAT3, Bcl‐2, and Bcl‐xl in the colon declined in the DSS + A group, but these levels increased in the DSS + AN group. Conclusions: The upregulation of miR‐223 by agomir administration alleviated colonic inflammation in a DSS‐induced colitis model, which was likely mediated by inhibiting the production of pro‐inflammatory cytokines via the IL‐6/STAT3 signaling pathway. These findings provide evidence that miR‐223 might have potential therapeutic implications in IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a promising chemical hydrogen storage material, ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) has been receiving significant attention for its hydrogen release property. Researches on the development of effective catalysts for AB hydrolysis under mild conditions have been of potential application interest. In the last few years, some non-noble metal-based materials have been developed for dehydrogenation of AB via hydrolysis, due to their low cost, high activity, and high durability. Therefore, the summary and analysis of the rapidly developing non-noble metal catalyst systems without noble metals can better grasp the current development status to guide subsequent design and research. In this review, the latest advances in non-noble metal-based catalysts are summarized, which can be divided into the following categories: pure metal-based materials, metal-based compounds (borides, phosphides, and oxides), and metal/metal compound heterogeneous structures. Investigations into the composition, structure, and activity enhancement of the catalyst are further highlighted. Besides, hydrolysis mechanisms, catalyst persistence, and AB regeneration are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfoximines with nitrogen‐bound α‐ketoester units are efficiently prepared by an operationally simple one‐pot reaction sequence in air starting from methoxy(mesyloxy)iodobenzene, NH‐sulfoximines, and cyanoacetates. Key of the process is the in‐situ formation of hypervalent iodine reagents, which serve as electrophilic sulfoximidoyl sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]