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Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blinding eye disease among working adults and is primarily attributed to the excessive proliferation of microvessels, which leads to vitreous hemorrhage and retinal traction, thereby significantly impairing patient vision. NSUN2-mediated RNA m5C methylation is implicated in various diseases, and in this investigation, we focused on elucidating the impact of NSUN2 on the regulation of the expression of the downstream gene MUC1, specifically through RNA m5C methylation, on the progression of DR. Method: Utilizing Microarray analysis, we examined patient vitreous fluid to pinpoint potential therapeutic targets for DR. Differential expression of NSUN2 was validated through qRT-PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence in human tissue, animal tissue, and cell model of DR. The relationship between NSUN2 and DR was explored in vitro and in vivo through gene knockdown and overexpression. Various techniques, such as MeRIP-qPCR and dot blot, were applied to reveal the downstream targets and mechanism of action of NSUN2. Results: The levels of both NSUN2 and RNA m5C methylation were significantly elevated in the DR model. Knockdown of NSUN2 mitigated DR lesion formation both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, NSUN2 promoted MUC1 expression by binding to the RNA m5C reader ALYREF. Knockdown of ALYREF resulted in DR lesion alterations similar to those observed with NSUN2 knockdown. Moreover, MUC1 overexpression successfully reversed a series of DR alterations induced by NSUN2 silencing. Conclusions: NSUN2 regulates the expression of MUC1 through ALYREF-mediated RNA m5C methylation, thereby regulating the progression of DR and providing a new option for the treatment of DR in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has affected 700 million people worldwide since its outbreak in 2019. The current pandemic strains, including Omicron and its large subvariant series, exhibit strong transmission and stealth. After entering the human body, the virus first infects nasal epithelial cells and invades host cells through the angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 receptor and transmembrane serine protease 2 on the host cell surface. The nasal cavity is an important body part that protects against the virus. Immunisation of the nasal mucosa produces immunoglobulin A antibodies that effectively neutralise viruses. Saline nasal irrigation, a type of physical therapy, can reduce the viral load in the nasal cavity and prevent viral infections to some extent. As a commonly used means to fight SARS‐CoV‐2, the intramuscular (IM) vaccine can induce the human body to produce a systemic immune response and immunoglobulin G antibody; however, the antibody is difficult to distribute to the nasal mucosa in time and cannot achieve a good preventive effect. Intranasal (IN) vaccines compensate for the shortcomings of IM vaccines, induce mucosal immune responses, and have a better effect in preventing infection. In this review, we discuss the nasal defence barrier, the harm caused by SARS‐CoV‐2, the mechanism of its invasion into host cells, nasal cleaning, IM vaccines and IN vaccines, and suggest increasing the development of IN vaccines, and use of IN vaccines as a supplement to IM vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a new enzyme-free electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensing platform based on a novel DNA-quantum dot (QD) nanostructure and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) amplification for the trace detection of Cd2+. First, the Cd2+ aptamer triggers the HCR amplification circuit, so abundant biotin-labeled DNAs are introduced to the electrode, and then biotin as a linker specifically captures a large number of streptavidin (SA)-CdS QD complexes, showing very high ECL signals. After the present Cd2+ binds to its aptamer on the electrode, it causes the linear DNA structure loaded with a large number of QDs to break away from the electrode, resulting in a significantly decreased ECL response. This method combines the HCR-amplified DNA structure-QD signal with the specificity of the biotin–avidin reaction, enabling the rapid detection of Cd2+ in complex water. Therefore, this sensor provides a novel and competitive strategy for detecting heavy metal ions in actual samples, which extends its application to practical settings, such as environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water-sensitive effect of expansive soil (ES) poses a serious challenge to the safety and durability of infrastructure. To reduce the effect of water sensitivity on expansive soil, a new powder soil passivator with polyacrylic (PA) as the main component was proposed. In this paper, a series of macroscopic and microscopic tests were conducted to evaluate the water-sensitive passivation effect and mechanism of PA-ES composites. The results showed that PA significantly attenuated the water sensitivity of ES. With the increase in PA content in the PA-ES composites, the water sensitivity of the composites decreased, swelling and shrinkage deformation decreased, and the strength of the composites increased significantly. In addition, when the content of PA in the PA-ES composite is 6%, it can significantly alleviate the deformation of the composite and improve the saturated shear strength of the composite, meeting the requirements of ES engineering disposal. Finally, the results show that the mechanism of PA passivation of ES water-sensitive effect mainly includes adsorption, binding, and filling. The study shows that PA has a broad engineering application prospect as an ES passivator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen evolution reaction is a momentous part of electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices such as rechargeable metal–air batteries. It is particularly urgent to develop low-cost and efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reactions. As a potential substitute for noble metal electrocatalysts, transition metal selenides still prove challenging in improving the activity of oxygen evolution reaction and research into reaction intermediates. In this study, a simple one-step solvothermal method was used to prepare a polymetallic compound carbon matrix composite (Co9Se8/Ni3Se4/Fe3O4@C) with a multilayered nanosheets structure. It exhibited good OER activity in an alkaline electrolyte solution, with an overpotential of 268 mV at 10 mA/cm2. In addition, this catalyst also showed excellent performance in the 24 h stability test. The composite presents a multi-layer sheet structure, which effectively improves the contact between the active site and the electrolyte. The selenide formed by Ni and Co has a synergistic effect, and Fe3O4 and Co9Se8 form a heterojunction structure which can effectively improve the reaction activity by initiating the electronic coupling effect through the interface modification. In addition, carbon quantum dots have rich heteroatoms and electron transferability, which improves the electrochemical properties of the composites. This work provides a new strategy for the preparation of highly efficient OER electrocatalysts utilizing the multi-metal synergistic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid direct carbon fuel cells (HDCFCs) are promising to achieve high power density, good fuel-electrode contact, and high carbon-fuel conversion efficiency due to increased reaction sites and hybrid routines of carbon utilization. However, the performance of HDCFC is greatly restricted by mass transfer and detrimental carbon deposition. The so-called CO–CO 2 shuttle process, i. e., the coupling of the electrochemical reaction of CO to CO 2 and subsequent discharge of CO 2 towards the C fuel surface for gasification, is the key mass transfer process needed to be optimized. This study demonstrates a novel high-performance HDCFCs anode by integrating C-gasification tandem catalysis in dendritic channel anode support (t -HDCFCs), which greatly enhances the CO–CO 2 shuttle and mitigates carbon deposition. As a result, the t -HDCFC delivers a comparable or even higher electrochemical performance than the other HDCFCs under the same operation conditions, such as a peak power density of 556 mW cm−2 at 750 °C. • Dendritic channels enhance the mass transfer of the hybrid direct carbon fuel cell. • Forming the novel tandem catalysis improves CO–CO 2 shuttle mechanism. • The cell demonstrates high electrochemical performance and rich flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Heterogeneous MnNiCoP/FeOOH was successfully prepared by electrodeposition phosphating electrodeposition. • The interfacial synergism results in excellent HER and OER electrocatalytic activity and stability. • The catalyst can provide 1.627 V battery voltage at 100 mA cm−2, and shows good stability and durability. The production of three-dimensional heterogeneous structures is a vital approach for the creation of high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts. Herein, three-dimensional heterostructure MnNiCoP/FeOOH (MNC-P/FeOOH) supported by Ni foam was prepared by simple electrodeposition and phosphorylation as a bifunctional electrocatalyst. The results showed that the required overpotential for MNC-P/FeOOH catalyst to reach 100 mA cm−2 current density was 124 mV and 251 mV in 1.0 M KOH solution, respectively. Construction of heterojunction not only improves the OER performance of MnNiCoP, but also reduces the potential required to drive the integral water splitting at 100 mA cm−2 current density. The electrocatalytic activity of MNC-P/FeOOH is greatly increased due to a distinctive interface synergy and strong electronic contacts in the MNC-P/FeOOH heterojunction. This design approach of bifunctional transition metal phosphides provides a potential route to achieve total water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Radionuclide therapy (RNT) has become a very important treatment modality for cancer nowadays. Comparing with other cancer treatment options, sufficient efficacy could be achieved in RNT with lower toxicity. β− emitters are frequently used in RNT due to the long tissue penetration depth of the β− particles. The dysprosium-166/holmium-166 (166Dy/166Ho) in vivo generator shows great potential for treating large malignancies due to the long half-life time of the mother nuclide 166Dy and the emission of high energy β− from the daughter nuclide 166Ho. However, the internal conversion occurring after β− decay from 166Dy to 166Ho could cause the release of about 72% of 166Ho when 166Dy is bound to conventional chelators. The aim of this study is to develop a nanoparticle based carrier for 166Dy/166Ho in vivo generator such that the loss of the daughter nuclide 166Ho induced by internal conversion is prevented. To achieve this goal, we radiolabelled platinum-gold bimetallic nanoparticles (PtAuNPs) and core–shell structured gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with 166Dy and studied the retention of both 166Dy and 166Ho under various conditions. Results: The 166Dy was co-reduced with gold and platinum precursor to form the 166DyAu@AuNPs and 166DyPtAuNPs. The 166Dy radiolabelling efficiency was determined to be 60% and 70% for the two types of nanoparticles respectively. The retention of 166Dy and 166Ho were tested in MiliQ water or 2.5 mM DTPA for a period of 72 h. In both cases, more than 90% of both 166Dy and 166Ho was retained. The results show that the incorporation of 166Dy in AuNPs can prevent the escape of 166Ho released due to internal conversion. Conclusion: We developed a chelator-free radiolabelling method for 166Dy with good radiolabelling efficiency and very high stability and retention of the daughter nuclide 166Ho. The results from this study indicate that to avoid the loss of the daughter radionuclides by internal conversion, carriers composed of electron-rich materials should be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important issues of the organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) is the highly efficient blue‐emissive material, which demands both excellent photoluminescent quantum yield (PLQY) and balanced carrier mobilities. Herein, a series of blue‐emissive donor–π–acceptor (D–π–A) materials with fluorene π‐bridge and their D–A analogues are synthesized and discovered with a theoretical combined experimental method. Based on the excellent electron mobility of the oxadiazole (OXZ) acceptor, it is further proven that the insertion of the fluorene π‐bridge can not only contribute to the formation of hybrid local and charge‐transfer excited state with high PLQY, but also give rise to the hole mobilities by enhanced intermolecular face‐to‐face stacking. As a result, the non‐doped OLED of TPACFOXZ exhibits a high maximum external quantum efficiency approaching 10% with boosted and balanced hole and electron mobilities of 5.60 × 10−5 and 6.60 × 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively, which are among the best results of the non‐doped blue fluorescent OLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis is a serious complication after infection, whose further development may lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and so on. It is an important cause of death in critically ill patients who suffered an infection. Sepsis cardiomyopathy is a common complication that exacerbates the prognosis of patients. At present, though the pathogenesis of sepsis cardiomyopathy is not completely clear, in‐depth study of the pathogenesis of sepsis cardiomyopathy and the discovery of its potential therapeutic targets may decrease the mortality of sepsis patients and bring clinical benefits. This article reviews mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, oxidation stress, and other mechanisms in sepsis cardiomyopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis begins with molecular signal communication (MSC) between AM fungi and the roots of the host plant. We aimed to test the hypothesis that the transcriptional profiles of wheat roots can be changed significantly by AM symbiotic signals, without direct contact. Methods Non-mycorrhizal (NM) and MSC treatments involved burying filter membrane bags containing sterilized and un-sterilized inoculum of the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis , respectively. The bags physically separated roots and AM structures but allowed molecular signals to pass through. Extracted RNA from wheat roots was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing. Results Shoot total nitrogen and phosphorus content of wheat plants was decreased by the MSC treatment. A total of 2360 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 1888 up-regulated DEGs and 472 down-regulated DEGs, were found dominantly distributed on chromosomes 2A, 2B, 2D, 3B, 5B and 5D. The expression of 59 and 121 genes was greatly up- and down-regulated, respectively. Only a portion of DEGs could be enriched into known terms during gene ontology analysis, and were mostly annotated to 'catalytic activity', 'protein metabolic process' and 'membrane' in the molecular function, biological process and cellular component ontology categories, respectively. More than 120 genes that may be involved in key processes during AM symbiosis development were regulated at the pre-physical contact stages. Conclusions The transcriptional profiles of wheat roots can be changed dramatically by MSC. Much of the information provided by our study is of great importance for understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of AM symbiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass segmentation in mammograms is an important and challenging topic in breast cancer computer-aided diagnosis. In this work, we propose a novel multi-level nested pyramid network (MNPNet) for dealing with the limitations of intra-class inconsistency and inter-class indistinction that commonly existed in mass segmentation in mammograms. The MNPNet includes an encoder and a decoder. The former encodes contextual information, low-level detail information, and high-level semantic information in a multi-level multi-scale manner by multi-level nesting atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module on the feature pyramid generated by modified ResNet34. The latter consist of a series of simple yet effective bilinear upsampling and feature fusion operations to refine the segmentation results along mass boundaries. Our proposed MNPNet is greatly demonstrated on two public mammographic mass segmentation databases including INbreast and DDSM-BCRP, respectively achieving the Dice index of 91.10% and 91.69% without any pre/post-processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious problem in paddy soils. Biochar is frequently reported to deactivate Cd in soils and reduce Cd accumulation in rice plants, but few studies have addressed whether and how biochar affected the microbial communities in rice rhizosphere, which was an important factor determining the metal bioavailability and plant growth. In this study, biochar was pyrolyzed from bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla) chips at 350 °C. By using ICP-MS analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the impact of the biochar on Cd uptake by rice and on rhizospheric bacterial communities was investigated in both high-accumulating (HA) and low-accumulating (LA) rice cultivars grown in soils artificially contaminated with different Cd levels. Applied biochar significantly reduced Cd contents in rice plants of both cultivars, with substantially lower grain Cd contents for LA grown in highly contaminated soil. Soil pH was slightly increased by the applied biochar. Cd bioavailability was somehow reduced in soils, but not as significant as the reduction of Cd contents in rice plants. More interestingly, biochar application significantly altered the rhizobacterial community: it stimulated growth-promoting bacteria, such as Kaistobacter , Sphingobium (order Sphingomonadales), and Rhizobiaceae (order Rhizobiales); improved natural barrier formation and the transformation of metal mobilization around the rhizosphere mediated by, e.g., Rhodocyclaceae (class Betaproteobacteria) and Geobacter (class Deltaproteobacteria); and enhanced colonization of the LA rhizosphere possibly by taxa involved in Cd immobilization (Desulfovibrionales and Desulfobacterales). These results indicate that biochar application significantly reduces Cd uptake and accumulation by altering the rhizosphere bacterial community in rice grown on Cd-contaminated soils. The baseline data generated in this study provide insights that pave the way toward safer rice production. Unlabelled Image • Biochar lower Cd content in rice cultivars regardless of Cd accumulated capability. • Biochar supported metal-resistant and growth-promoting bacteria in the rhizosphere. • These reduced rice Cd uptake by reduced metal bioavailability and growth promotion. • The low-accumulating cultivar can colonize more taxa related to Cd immobilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the catalyst for water splitting, low overpotential and longer stability is very important. Here, we developed a simple strategy to prepare an efficient catalyst for oxygen evolution by partially phosphating NiFe-LDH and then etching and growing Prussian blue analogues on it. Benefiting from its unique hierarchical structure, the synthesized NiFeCo PBA-NiFeP catalyst showed excellent electrocatalytic performance in 1 M KOH. At 100 mA/cm2, the overpotential of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is only 245 mV and exhibits stability for over 50 h. This is superior to most of the OER catalysts reported so far. Its excellent performance is due to its unique hierarchical structure and the synergistic effect between polymetals, which enables it to have abundant active sites and efficient electron transfer. This controllable and universal strategy will provide a new idea for developing interfacial composites and preparing high efficiency electrocatalysts. • A new NiFeCo-PBA-NiFeP composite was prepared by hydrothermal-phosphating-etching process. • The unique hierarchical structure facilitates gas release and contact between the active site and the solution. • The synergistic effect between multiple metals improves the OER properties of the materials. • The combination of NiFeP and NiFeCo PBA improves the OER performance of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning-based approaches are excellent at learning from large amounts of data, but can be poor at generalizing the learned knowledge to testing datasets with domain shift, i.e., when there exists distribution discrepancy between the training dataset (source domain) and the testing dataset (target domain). In this paper, we investigate unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) techniques to train a cross-domain segmentation method which is robust to domain shift, eliminating the requirement of any annotations on the target domain. To this end, we propose an Entropy-guided Disentangled Representation Learning, referred as EDRL, for UDA in semantic segmentation. Concretely, we synergistically integrate image alignment via disentangled representation learning with feature alignment via entropy-based adversarial learning into one network, which is trained end-to-end. We additionally introduce a dynamic feature selection mechanism via soft gating, which helps to further enhance the task-specific feature alignment. We validate the proposed method on two publicly available datasets: the CT-MR dataset and the multi-sequence cardiac MR (MS-CMR) dataset. On both datasets, our method achieved better results than the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. Specifically, on the CT-MR dataset, our method achieved an average DSC of 84.8% when taking CT as the source domain and MR as the target domain, and an average DSC of 84.0% when taking MR as the source domain and CT as the target domain. Results from comprehensive experiments demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed EDRL model for cross-domain medical image segmentation. • A method synergistically integrating disentangled representation learning and entropy-based adversarial learning. • A soft gating strategy to dynamically select features for further performance improvement. • The proposed method achieved better results than other state-of-the-art methods when validated on two public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal communities play an important role in soil biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem function. The redistribution of water and soil causes significant differences in the soil physicochemical properties in eroding landscapes. However, changes in soil fungal diversity and key-stone taxa in soil-eroding catena remain poorly understood in these landscapes. In the current study, the diversity and key-stone taxa of the fungal community in topsoil samples were analyzed from three typical erosive topographic units (autonomous, transitional, and depositional zones). The Chao 1 index showed a decrease from the autonomous and transitional zones (1759.7 and 1752.6, respectively) to the depositional zone (1535.3), but there were no significant differences in the Shannon index. Transitional and depositional networks had fewer edges (318 and 387, respectively) and clustering coefficients (0.236 and 0.301, respectively) than the autonomous network (911 and 0.362, respectively). At the phylum level, the nutritional strategists of key-stone taxa tended to shift from r - to K-strategists along the soil-eroding catena, indicating that the majority of key-stone taxa were dominated by the phylum Ascomycota in the autonomous and transitional zones, whereas the phylum Basidiomycota was dominant in the depositional zone. The recalcitrant carbon composition (C C/C O, autonomous vs. transitional vs. depositional: 3.82 vs. 5.09 vs. 7.52) may have contributed to the decreased fungal richness along the soil-eroding catena. The primary controlling factors affecting key-stone taxa were soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and Olsen-P in the autonomous zone, SOC and C H/C O in the transitional zone, and C C/C O in the depositional zone. Exploring the changes in fungal diversity and key-stone taxa among different erosive topographic units can contribute to an in-depth understanding of the biogeochemical cycle in the eroding environment. • Fungal richness decreased along the soil-eroding catena. • High recalcitrant carbon content could induce low fungal richness in the depositional zone. • Fungal key-stone taxa tended to shift from r- to K-strategists along the soil-eroding catena. • Changes in soil properties could lead to spatial heterogeneity in fungal key-stone taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A low-cost and simple non-solvent induced phase separation was adopted. • With coagulation bath content varying, two kinds of pore structure were got. • The prepared PI porous films showed excellent properties in many aspects. Polyimide (PI) porous films were prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation with low-cost and simple method. A low-cost and environmentally friendly solution of water and ethanol was selected as non-solvent coagulation bath and effects of water and ethanol content on microstructure and properties was studied. The prepared films showed high mechanical property at high temperature, excellent dielectric property and thermal stability. Thus there are excellent application prospects in fields of flexible electronics and microelectronics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A new dual-potential ECL molecularly imprinted sensor was designed for double detection of trace CAP. • Zn-MOFs were firstly explored to show excellent ECL emission in both cathodic and anodic potential. • This is the first time that Zn-MOFs are used as dual-ECL emitters for the molecular sensing systems. • The high-performance dual-channel ECL sensor greatly expands the application prospects of multifunctional luminophor for MIP sensors. Functionalized metal organometallic frameworks (MOFs) offer unique advantages in the field of sensing due to their versatility and tunable optical properties. In this work, a new dual-potential electrochemiluminescence (ECL) molecularly imprinted sensor using single Zn-MOF signal probe was designed for double detection of trace chloramphenicol (CAP). As dual-signal ECL emitters, Zn-MOFs were firstly modified on the electrode, showing excellent ECL emission in both cathodic and anodic potential. Then the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was electrochemically prepared using o-phenylenediamine (O-PD) and CAP as a template molecule on the Zn-MOFs/electrode. After CAP as a molecular recognition element was eluted and removed from the Zn-MOFs/MIP/electrode, a new ECL sensor was developed for CAP detection by re-adsorption of CAP on the MIP, resulting in "off" of ECL signal. Compared with the conventional single-signal luminophores, Zn-MOFs show more stable and excellent dual ECL signals, which greatly improve the discriminability and accuracy of CAP trace detection. Under the optimal conditions, the linear range of CAP detection was 1 × 10-14−1 × 10-8 M, and the minimum limits of detection (LOD) were 2.1 fM and 2.5 fM for cathode and anode ECL, respectively. This is the first time that Zn-MOFs are used as dual-ECL emitters for molecular sensing systems, and the proposed dual-channel sensing system is flexibly applicable to sensitive detection of other antibiotics, which has broad practical application in food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For irreducible genuine Iwahori-spherical discrete series representations of central covers, we verify the Hiraga–Ichino–Ikeda formula for their formal degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate calculation of the electromagnetic force distribution of transformer windings under different loads and fault conditions is of great significance for transformer maintenance, condition evaluation and life prediction. Due to the influence of offshore wind power systems, offshore wind power transformers have high harmonic content and large changes in load rates, which can easily cause the coil destabilization, winding deformation or even damage because of the uneven distribution of the electromagnetic force. To improve the accuracy of electromagnetic force calculation, this paper proposes a fractional order numerical method. First, a three-dimensional axisymmetric transformer model and a symmetrical lumped parameter equivalent circuit model are established, respectively, based on field-circuit coupling. Second, the fractional order approximation of circuit components is realized by using the improved Oustaloup filter. In the fractional order model, the transformer is replaced by the lumped parameter equivalent circuit model. Third, as in the calculation process for integer order electromagnetic force, the integer order current has a large error, and the current waveform does not match the actual power frequency. The fractional order current and electromagnetic force at the 0.9 order are closer to the rated value. Finally, the effects of different load rates, three-phase short circuits and harmonic conditions are studied with the fractional order model. Compared with the traditional integer order finite element electromagnetic model, the fractional order equivalent circuit model established in this paper is more accurate and suitable for electromagnetic force calculation. The proposed method is significant for the structural design and state detection of transformers and also could be applied in the analysis of other dry-type transformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite remarkable success of deep learning, distribution divergence remains a challenge that hinders the performance of many tasks in medical image analysis. Large distribution gap may deteriorate the knowledge transfer across different domains or feature subspaces. To achieve better distribution alignment, we propose a novel module named Instance to Prototype Earth Mover's Distance (I2PEMD), where shared class-specific prototypes are progressively learned to narrow the distribution gap across different domains or feature subspaces, and Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) is calculated to take into consideration the cross-class relationships during embedding alignment. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed I2PEMD on two different tasks: multi-modal medical image segmentation and semi-supervised classification. Specifically, in multi-modal medical image segmentation, I2PEMD is explicitly utilized as a distribution alignment regularization term to supervise the model training process, while in semi-supervised classification, I2PEMD works as an alignment measure to sort and cherry-pick the unlabeled data for more accurate and robust pseudo-labeling. Results from comprehensive experiments demonstrate the efficacy of the present method. [Display omitted] • Propose instance to prototype Earth Mover's distance (I2PEMD) for distribution alignment; • I2PEMD combines shared prototype learning with EMD estimation; • Extensive validation on two typical yet challenging tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a versatile electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor based on Au nanoclusters (AuNCs)/Au-MnO 2 nanoflowers resonant energy transfer (RET) system coupled with rolling circle amplification (RCA) was designed for "OFF-ON" detection of prostate specificantigen (PSA) and Let-7a microRNA (miRNA). The biocompatible Au nanoclusters (Au NCs) displayed dramatically enhanced ECL intensitity and stability on 3,4-thiophene dicarboxylic acid (TDA) modified-electrode. Efficient ECL-RET system between AuNCs donors and Au-MnO 2 nanoflowers (NFs) acceptors was constructed, which was used to develop a sandwich ECL immunosensor for signal "OFF" detection of PSA. Furthermore, Let-7a miRNA (target II) triggered RCA reaction to produce long DNA nanowires, which can bridge a large number of biotin-streptavidin to label alkaline phosphatase (ALP), catalyzing L -ascorbic acid-2-trisodium phosphate (AAP) to produce abundant ascorbic acid (AA). Then AA in-situ reduced MnO 2 NFs to Mn2+, which inhibited ECL quenching, thus ECL was significantly recovered for "ON" detection of Let-7a. This versatile ECL platform combines 3,4-TDA-enhanced ECL of AuNCs, high quenching and oxidizing ability of Au-MnO 2 NFs, and target-initiated RCA reaction for multi-target assay. The proposed multifunctional biosensing system is also suitable for highly sensitive detection of other disease-related proteins with promising actual and clinical applications. [Display omitted] • A new ECL-RET system of Au-MnO 2 NFs/AuNCs was fabricated for versatile assay of dual targets. • A versatile biosensor based on a new ECL-RET system and RCA amplification was developed. • 3,4-Thiophene dicarboxylic acid was firstly used to much improve ECL and stability of AuNCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct methane SOFCs can use abundant methane fuel economically and efficiently. Ni-based anode supports are deemed as the best candidate for practical applications owing to their low-cost, chemical compatibility, and high catalytic activity. However, the Ni-based anodes are prone to degradation due to carbon deposition using methane fuel. For the first time, this experimental study, coupling with simulation, discloses the direct causes of carbon deposition are highly depended on the O/C ratio at anode/electrolyte interface, and can be controlled through tuning the mass transfer within anodes, by means of optimizing pore structure of anode-support, methane concentration of input gas, and the operating current density. It is found that more methane transferred to the anode/electrolyte interface can improve power output while resulting in a low O/C ratio at the interface, thus causing carbon deposition. On the contrary, increasing the operating current density and lowering the input methane concentration can reduce the O/C ratio at the interface, thus the carbon deposition over Ni-based anodes can be diminished, and even eliminated. By experimental and numerical analysis, this work points out the O/C ratio is key to the carbon deposition of methane-fueled SOFC, and also provides a facile strategy to mitigate the carbon deposition through tuning anode microstructure and operation parameters such as operating current density, inlet methane concentration. • Carbon deposition over Ni-based anodes was investigated by coupling with simulation. • The O/C ratio at the anode/electrolyte interface determines the carbon deposition. • The O/C ratio was tuned through anode microstructure and operation parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work provides a flexible and convenient method for fine-tuning the excited states of emitters, precise "surgery" was performed by targeting the molecular excited states through locally large twisted conformations, and finally obtained excellent hot exciton red emitters and high efficiency non-doped deep-red OLEDs. [Display omitted] • Deep-red emitters construct idea utilizing locally large twisted conformation. • Three emitters display hot exciton and aggregation-induced emission properties. • Breakthrough EQEs of hot exciton non-doped red devices up to 5.3% and 6%. The precise regulation of excited state is a challenge to emitters for achieving highly efficient non-doped deep-red electroluminescence (EL). Herein, we used triphenylamine and phenoxazine as donors and benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole as an acceptor to construct a hot exciton skeleton. Then chemically modified the phenoxazine by locally large twisted conformation to obtain N , N -diphenyl-4-(7-(10-phenyl-10H-phenoxazin-3-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)aniline (TPAPH), 4-(7-(10-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-10 H -phenoxazin-3-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)- N , N -diphenylaniline (TPAPHOC2), and 4-(3-(7-(4-(diphenylamino)phenyl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)-10 H -phenoxazin-10-yl)benzonitrile (TPAPHCN), thereby achieving excited state perturbation. As a result, three emitters exhibited aggregation-induced emission enhancement and hybridized local and charge transfers characteristics based on photophysical experimentals. In EL, the TPAPH-, TPAPHOC2-, and TPAPHCN-based non-doped devices achieved deep-red emission with Commission International de L'Eclairage coordinates of (0.68, 0.32), (0.69, 0.31), and (0.66, 0.34) and with emission peaks at 660, 669, and 647 nm, respectively. The maximum external quantum efficiencies were 5.3%, 3.7%, and 6.0%, respectively. The results of this study not only realize the non-doped deep-red OLEDs with high performance but also indicate that the presence of locally large twisted conformation presented an efficient manner for exploring precise excited state tuning for fluorescent emitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer is the most prevalent cause of death globally, and radiotherapy is considered the standard of care for most solid tumors, including lung, breast, esophageal, and colorectal cancers and glioblastoma. Resistance to radiation can lead to local treatment failure and even cancer recurrence. Main body: In this review, we have extensively discussed several crucial aspects that cause resistance of cancer to radiation therapy, including radiation-induced DNA damage repair, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis escape, abundance of cancer stem cells, modification of cancer cells and their microenvironment, presence of exosomal and non-coding RNA, metabolic reprogramming, and ferroptosis. We aim to focus on the molecular mechanisms of cancer radiotherapy resistance in relation to these aspects and to discuss possible targets to improve treatment outcomes. Conclusions: Studying the molecular mechanisms responsible for radiotherapy resistance and its interactions with the tumor environment will help improve cancer responses to radiotherapy. Our review provides a foundation to identify and overcome the obstacles to effective radiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite oxide ceramic membranes have the potentials for industrial oxygen production, particularly to replace the conventional expensive air separation units, which is of significance to improve the viability of the clean energy technologies like IGCC and Oxyfuel projects. In most of these applications, the steam presence is unavoidable thus requiring these membranes to be stable in the steam-containing atmosphere under high temperatures. In this work, La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3− α (LSCF) perovskite hollow fibre membrane was prepared and tested for O 2 separation in the presence of steam in the sweep gas. Three membranes were successfully tested at temperature of 900 °C using the sweep containing 3%, 4–12% and 100% steam (balanced by helium) for 370, 200 and 500 h, respectively. In the long run, the steam can etch the membrane surface, as evidenced by the leaching of iron and the formation of strontium carbonate. This etching process however is too slow to cause substantial damage on the membrane performance. Using pure steam sweep, the LSCF membrane was operated at 900 °C for nearly 500 h without any sign of O 2 flux decay, compared favourably with Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3− α (BSCF) hollow fibre membranes, which only lasted for 90 h. In contrast to the severe poisoning effects of other acid gases like SO 2 or NO x on the O 2 permeation through similar LSCF membrane, the detrimental effect of steam is negligible. In fact, the presence of minor steam less than 12% in the sweep is kinetically favourable for the surface oxygen exchange reactions, leading to the improvement of the O 2 flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative splicing (AS) plays a vital role in response to environmental stress. However, the functional impacts of AS on fruit quality in domestication and improvement remain unknown. In this study, we analyzed AS in fruit using RNA-seq of wild, landrace, and improved pear accessions. A total of new 237,085 transcripts were mapped to 29,254 genes. Based on these assembled transcripts, 191,060 AS events for 15,324 genes were identified, of which retained intron (RI) was the most frequent AS type, accounting for approximately 46.96% of AS events. Furthermore, 847 and 841 differential AS genes (DASGs) were identified during domestication and improvement, respectively. According to gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, the DASGs exclusively during domestication affected glycosylation and carbohydrate metabolism, while the DASGs exclusively during improvement were enriched in response to chemical stimulus. We found little overlap between DASGs and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in both the domestication and improvement processes, which indicated that AS was another gene regulatory mechanism for fruit development. Eight serine/arginine-rich (SR) genes related to AS regulation were differentially alternatively spliced during domestication or improvement, which indicated that SR genes might play regulatory roles in AS during the two processes in pear. Combined with gene annotation and previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs), 91 candidate DASGs related to fruit traits, including genes involved in sugar metabolism, acid metabolism, stone cell formation, and fruit firmness, were screened out during the investigation of domestication and improvement. Among them, Pectin acetylesterase 8 (PbrPAE8) produced PbrPAE8_1 and PbrPAE8_2 transcripts through AS, which was validated by qRT-PCR. The significant difference of AS ratio between landrace and improved groups were correlated with fruit firmness variability in these two populations. Our analysis is the first to reveal that AS variation is related to fruit quality during domestication and improvement of pear. Taken together, our study enriches the understanding of AS and its potential role in pear fruit improvement, thus providing useful references for other fruit tree crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer-Au nanocluster composite was synthesized, and used to fabricate a new amplified electrochemiluminescence (ECL) signal probe for sensitive detection of microRNA by multiple strand displacement amplification (SDA) strategy. The as prepared PAMAM-Au nanocluster with many amino groups could assemble a large number of quantum dots (QDs) to greatly amplify ECL of the probe. In addition, a new sliver nanocluster (NC) with excellent conductivity and many reactive carboxyl groups was prepared, and used to immobilize a large amount of capture (c1) DNA molecules on the electrode. Moreover, by using bifunctional DNA strand displacement reaction-mediated multiple cycling-amplification technique, a small number of target miRNA could induce to generate abundant DNA (t1) fragments, which was used as a linker to hybridize with c1 DNA on the electrode, and then conjugate many amplified QDs probe. Thus an amplified ECL analytical method for detecting target miRNA was designed, and highly sensitive detection of miRNA was achieved. This newly established strategy paves a new way for homogeneous microRNA detection, which hold great potential for application in early clinical diagnosis. A novel polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer-Au nanocluster composite was synthesized, and used to fabricate a new amplified electrochemiluminescence (ECL) signal probe for sensitive detection of microRNA by multiple strand displacement amplification (SDA) strategy. [Display omitted] • A new PAMAM-Au NCs nanocluster amplified QDs ECL biological probe was developed. • The newly prepared Ag NCs were used to much improve capture capacity and stability of electrode. • Multiple DNA strand replacement reaction cycle amplification technology was designed to much improve detection sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Propose an end-to-end unsupervised cross-domain image segmentation framework integrating diverse image translation with semantic image segmentation into one network. • Propose the diverse inter-domain semantic consistency loss and the intra-domain semantic consistency loss to regularize the cross-modality segmentation process. • Extensive validation on two public datasets. [Display omitted] Domain shift, a phenomenon when there exists distribution discrepancy between training dataset (source domain) and test dataset (target domain), is very common in practical applications and may cause significant performance degradation, which hinders the effective deployment of deep learning models to clinical settings. Adaptation algorithms to improve the model generalizability from source domain to target domain has significant practical value. In this paper, we investigate unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) technique to train a cross-domain segmentation method which is robust to domain shift, and which does not require any annotations on the test domain. To this end, we propose Cycle-consistent Cross-domain Medical Image Segmentation, referred as CyCMIS, integrating online diverse image translation via disentangled representation learning and semantic consistency regularization into one network. Different from learning one-to-one mapping, our method characterizes the complex relationship between domains as many-to-many mapping. A novel diverse inter-domain semantic consistency loss is then proposed to regularize the cross-domain segmentation process. We additionally introduce an intra-domain semantic consistency loss to encourage the segmentation consistency between the original input and the image after cross-cycle reconstruction. We conduct comprehensive experiments on two publicly available datasets to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results demonstrate the efficacy of the present approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ribosomal proteins are highly expressed in tumors and are closely related to their diagnosis, prognosis and pathological characteristics. However, few studies are available on the correlation between ribosomal proteins and chemoresistance. RRS1 (human regulator of ribosome synthesis 1), a critical nuclear protein involved in ribosome biogenesis, also plays a key role in the genesis and development of breast cancer by protecting cancer cells from apoptosis. Given that apoptosis resistance is one of the causes of the cisplatin resistance of tumor cells, our aim was to determine the relationship between RRS1 and cisplatin resistance in breast cancer cells. Here, we report that RRS1 is associated with cisplatin resistance in breast cancer cells. RRS1 silencing increased the sensitivity of MCF-7/DDP cells to cisplatin and inhibited cancer cell proliferation by blocking cell cycle distribution and enhancing apoptosis. AEG-1 (astrocyte elevated gene-1) promotes drug resistance by interfering with the ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of MDR1 (multidrug resistance gene 1), thereby enhancing drug efflux. We found that RRS1 binds to and stabilizes AEG-1 by inhibiting ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation, which then promotes drug efflux by upregulating MDR1. Furthermore, RRS1 also induces apoptosis resistance in breast cancer cells through the ERK/Bcl-2/BAX signaling pathway. Our study is the first to show that RRS1 sensitizes breast cancer cells to cisplatin by binding to AEG-1, and it provides a theoretical basis to improve the efficacy of cisplatin-based chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, coamorphization and cocrystal technologies are of particular interest in the pharmaceutical industry due to their ability to improve the solubility/dissolution and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, while the coamorphous system often tends to convert into the stable crystalline form usually crystalline physical mixture of each component during formulation preparation or storage. In this paper, BCS II drug baicalein (BAI) along with nicotinamide (NIC) were prepared into a single homogeneous coamorphous system with a single transition temperature at 42.5 °C. Interestingly, instead of the physical mixture of crystalline BAI and NIC, coamorphous BAI-NIC would transform to its cocrystal form under stress of temperature and humidity. The transformation rate under isothermal condition was temperature-dependent, since the crystallinity of the cocrystal enhanced as the temperature increased. Further mechanic studies showed the activation energy for the transformation under non-isothermal condition was calculated to be 184.52 kJ/mol. Additionally, water vapor sorption tests with further solid characterizations indicated the transformation was faster under higher humidity condition due to the faster nucleation process of cocrystal BAI-NIC. This research not only discovered the mechanism of transformation from coamorphous BAI-NIC to cocrystal form, but also provided an unusual method for cocrystal preparation from its coamorphous form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical interaction prediction is essential for the exploration of relationships between biomedical entities. Predicted biomedical interactions can help researchers with drug discovery, disease treatment, and more. In recent years, graph neural networks have taken advantage of their natural structure to achieve great progress in biomedical interaction prediction. However, most of them use node embedding instead of directly using edge embedding, resulting in information loss. Moreover, they predict links based on node similarity correlation assumptions, which have poor generalization. In addition, they do not consider the difference in topological information between negative and positive sample links, which limits their performance. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an adaptive line graph contrastive (ALGC) method to convert negative and positive sample links into two kinds of line graph nodes. By adjusting the number of intra-class line graph edges and inter-class line graph edges, an augmented line graph is generated and, finally, the information of the two views is balanced by contrastive learning. Through experiments on four public datasets, it is proved that the ALGC model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Structural variations (SVs) have recently become a topic of great interest in the area of genetic diversity and trait regulation. As genomic sequencing technologies have rapidly advanced, longer reads have been used to identify SVs at high resolution and with increased accuracy. It is important to choose a suitable sequencing platform and appropriate sequencing depth for SV detection in the pear genome. Results: In this study, two types of long reads from sequencing platforms, continuous long reads from Pacific Biosciences (PB-CLR) and long reads from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), were used to comprehensively analyze and compare SVs in the pear genome. The mapping rate of long reads was higher when the program Minimap2 rather than the other three mapping tools (NGMLR, LRA and Winnowmap2) was used. Three SV detection programs (Sniffles_v2, CuteSV, and Nanovar) were compared, and Nanovar had the highest sensitivity in detecting SVs at low sequencing depth (10–15×). A sequencing depth of 15× was suitable for SV detection in the pear genome using Nanovar. SVs detected by Sniffles_v2 and CuteSV with ONT reads had the high overlap with presence/absence variations (PAVs) in the pear cultivars 'Bartlett' and 'Dangshansuli', both of them with 38% of insertions and 55% of deletions overlapping with PAVs at sequencing depth of 30×. For the ONT sequencing data, over 37,526 SVs spanning ~ 28 Mb were identified by all three software packages for the 'Bartlett' and 'Dangshansuli' genomes. Those SVs were annotated and combined with transcriptome profiles derived from 'Bartlett' and 'Dangshansuli' fruit flesh at 60 days after cross-pollination. Several genes related to levels of sugars, acid, stone cells, and aromatic compounds were identified among the SVs. Transcription factors were then predicted among those genes, and results included bHLH, ERF, and MYB genes. Conclusion: SV detection is of great significance in exploring phenotypic differences between pear varieties. Our study provides a framework for assessment of different SV software packages and sequencing platforms that can be applied in other plant genome studies. Based on these analyses, ONT sequencing data was determined to be more suitable than PB-CLR for SV detection in the pear genome. This analysis model will facilitate screening of genes related to agronomic traits in other crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gallium nitride (GaN)-based resonant step-up converter is proposed for the application in the satellite electric propulsion (EP) system. This converter consists of a full-bridge inverter, a resonant tank, and a multistage Cockcroft–Walton voltage multiplier to provide a high voltage gain. Additionally, the air-core transformer is introduced due to the megahertz switching frequency allowed by the GaN device. Thus, the limited magnetizing inductance of transformer and the remarkable junction capacitance of diode have to be carefully considered in the resonant tank design, especially after considering that this converter normally operates at the light load in the EP system. In this work, the fourth-order $ LCLC$ resonant converter is investigated. The recommended parameter selection for the fourth-order resonant tank is also provided. A 1.2-MHz, 23-V/2.5-kV, and 6-W prototype is demonstrated. It achieves a low harmonics distortion and a low power loss with the zero voltage switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoblastoma (RB) is an intraocular malignancy that mainly affects young children. Previous reports have demonstrated that mutations or the inactivation of the RB1 gene were the main cause of RB; however, disruption of the intracellular signaling pathways following deficiency of RB1 requires further investigation. Based on the Gene Expression Omnibus data and bioinformatics prediction, the present study aimed to investigate the microRNA (miR)-338-3p/neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (NOVA1) axis in RB. Subsequently, overexpression and knockdown of miR-338-3p and NOVA1, respectively, were performed to study the role of miR-338-3p/NOVA1 in the progression of the RB cells. The results demonstrated that overexpression of miR-338-3p significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted apoptosis of the RB cells. Moreover, knockdown of NOVA1 showed similar results. A dual-luciferase reporter assay and rescue experiments further confirmed the direct binding between miR-338-3p and NOVA1. Taken together, the results indicated that miR-338-3p acted as tumor suppressor by targeting the oncogene of NOVA1 in RB, which may serve as potential therapeutic targets in RB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although considerable progress has been achieved in organic electroluminescence (EL) fields based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect emitters, highly efficient and multifunctional blue fluorophores with the AIE effect are still limited. In this work, a simple blue fluorescent molecule 3,4-diphenyl-5-(4ʹ-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)-[1,1ʹ-biphenyl]-4-yl)-4 H -1,2,4-triazole (TPETAZ) with the evident properties of AIE has been designed and synthesized based on tetraphenylethylene–triazole hybrid. The AIE-active molecule TPETAZ can act as both intrinsic blue light-emitting and electron-transporting layer in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Nondoped Device I with TmPyPB layer exhibits a maximal external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 2.4%, a maximum luminance (L) of 1020 cd m−2, and maximal EL emission peak of 468 nm. Even though Device II without a TmPyPB layer exhibited excellent performance, the maximal EQE was observed to be 2.0%, indicating a decrease of only 18% when compared with that of Device I. However, the maximal EL emission peak remains almost unchanged (~470 nm). Furthermore, efficient doped Device III can be obtained by doping the host with TPETAZ as the blue light-emitting material. A maximal EQE of 4.1% was obtained, which was greater than those of Devices I and II by 42% and 52%, respectively; this can be attributed to the effective recombination of electron and hole carriers. This work provides a valuable strategy for designing highly efficient multifunctional blue EL AIE-active fluorophores, which have significant potential for practical applications. [Display omitted] • An AIE-active blue-light emitter (TPETAZ) is designed and synthesized. • TPETAZ shows obvious aggregation-induced emission properties. • TPETAZ exhibits a photoluminescence quantum yield of 75.7% in film. • Non-doped OLED without electron-transporting material exhibits an EQE max of 2.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• AE frequency identification for four damage modes in 2.5D SiC f /SiC composites. • Eccentric tensile angle of 2.15° can lead to an increase to the fracture energy. • Matrix multi-source crack initiation mechanism is the main reason for toughening. Continuous fiber-reinforced silicon carbide composites have received significant attention due to their high-temperature mechanical stability. However, their widespread implementation has been hindered by intricate fracture mechanisms and limited toughness. This study presents a real-time approach for identifying damage type in 2.5D SiC f /SiC composites and highlights the significant impact of minor eccentric loading angle on the fracture behavior and mechanical properties using acoustic emission (AE). Even a slight degree of eccentric loading angle can significantly alter the fracture behaviors, leading to a significant increase in fracture toughness. The fracture damage evolution law of 2.5D SiC f /SiC under varying eccentric loading angles was investigated with the help of the AE damage identification, fracture morphology and finite element analysis. These findings provide valuable insights for multi-axis stress analysis of 2.5D high-performance composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Variation in anthocyanin biosynthesis in pear fruit provides genetic germplasm resources for breeding, while dwarfing is an important agronomic trait, which is beneficial to reduce the management costs and allow for the implementation of high‐density cultivation. Here, we combined bulked segregant analysis (BSA), quantitative trait loci (QTL), and structural variation (SV) analysis to identify a 14‐bp deletion which caused a frame shift mutation and resulted in the premature translation termination of a B‐box (BBX) family of zinc transcription factor, PyBBX24, and its allelic variation termed PyBBX24ΔN14. PyBBX24ΔN14 overexpression promotes anthocyanin biosynthesis in pear, strawberry, Arabidopsis, tobacco, and tomato, while that of PyBBX24 did not. PyBBX24ΔN14 directly activates the transcription of PyUFGT and PyMYB10 through interaction with PyHY5. Moreover, stable overexpression of PyBBX24ΔN14 exhibits a dwarfing phenotype in Arabidopsis, tobacco, and tomato plants. PyBBX24ΔN14 can activate the expression of PyGA2ox8 via directly binding to its promoter, thereby deactivating bioactive GAs and reducing the plant height. However, the nuclear localization signal (NLS) and Valine‐Proline (VP) motifs in the C‐terminus of PyBBX24 reverse these effects. Interestingly, mutations leading to premature termination of PyBBX24 were also identified in red sports of un‐related European pear varieties. We conclude that mutations in PyBBX24 gene link both an increase in pigmentation and a decrease in plant height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Distinct functional rhizobacteria clusters assist sedum in responding to Pb stress. • Diverse clusters assist AE to better adapt Pb stress and enhance Pb absorption. • Clusters driven growth promotion and Pb activation enhance plant Pb accumulation. • Highly specialized clusters reduce Pb stress for NAE by phosphorus-dissolving. • Stronger selection effect may lead to vulnerable community under extreme Pb stress. Lead (Pb) contamination presents a widespread environmental plague. Sedum alfredii is widely used for soil phytoremediation owing to its capacity to extract heavy metals, such as Pb. Although efficient Pb extraction is mediated by complex interactions between the roots and rhizospheric bacteria, the mechanism by which S. alfredii recruits microorganisms under Pb stress remains unclear. The Pb-accumulating ecotype (AE) and non-accumulating ecotype (NAE) of S. alfredii recruited different rhizobacterial communities. Under Pb stress, AE rhizosphere-enriched bacteria assembled into stable-connected clusters with higher phylogenetic and functional diversity. These microbes, e.g., Flavobacterium , could release indoleacetic acid to promote plant growth and siderophores, thereby increasing Pb availability. The NAE rhizosphere-enriched functional bacteria "desperately" assembled into highly specialized functional clusters with extremely low phylogenetic diversity. These bacteria, e.g., Pseudomonas , could enhance phosphorus solubilization and Pb precipitation, thereby reducing Pb stress and plant Pb accumulation. High niche overlap level of the rhizo-enriched species raised challenges in soil resource utilization, whereas the NAE community assembly was markedly constrained by environmental "selection effect" than that of AE rhizobacterial community. These results indicate that different ecotypes of S. alfredii recruit distinct bacterial functional assemblies to drive specific plant-soil feedbacks for different survival in Pb-contaminated soils. To cope with heavy metal stress, NAE formed a highly functional and specialized but vulnerable community and efficiently blocked heavy metal absorption by plants. However, the AE community adopted a more stable and elegant strategy to promote plant growth and the accumulation of dry matter via multiple evolutionary strategies that ensured a high yield of heavy metal phytoextraction. This for the first time provides new insights into the roles of rhizosphere microbes in plant adaptations to abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defoliant sensitivity is an important trait of machine-picked cotton that directly affects the defoliation efficiency and the quality of machine-picked cotton fibers. Identification of the genetic components underlying defoliant sensitivity in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is highly important. In this study, the defoliation rate (DR) of 328 re-sequenced upland cotton accessions after 5 days of defoliant treatment was evaluated at two locations for two years in four environments; the results showed a great variation among the accessions, and the phenotype were normally distributed. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was subsequently performed with resequencing data and defoliation rate data. As a result, two quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to defoliation rate were identified, qDS-A05 and qDS-A06 , among which, qDS-A06 was identified in three environments. By combining linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis, haplotype analysis, and expression analysis, a key candidate gene for DR was identified in qDS-A06 , which was named GhDS-A06. This gene encodes a carboxylate clamp (CC)-tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) protein, and is likely involved in the development of the abscission zone according to the reference of the function of TPR proteins in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana L.). Additionally, the favorable haplotype frequency of GhDS-A06 varied among diverse areas of cotton growing in China, and the favorable haplotype frequency in northwestern China was much greater than that in other regions, which suggested that the favorable haplotype GhDS-A06 was artificially selected during breeding for machine-harvested cotton in northwestern China. The findings in the study not only provide genetic insights into defoliant sensitivity in upland cotton but also offer an ideal target for molecular breeding of defoliant sensitivity improved machine-harvested cotton plants. • The variations of defoliation rate after defoliant treatment among 328 cotton accessions were revealed. • A key candidate gene related to defoliant sensitivity, GhDS-A06, was identified and clarified. • The favorable haplotype frequency was generally increased for adaptation to machine-harvested cotton breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to elucidate the dose‒response relationship between 24-h activity behaviors and body fat percentage (BFP) in Chinese preschool children using a compositional isotemporal substitution model (ISM). Methods: In a cross-sectional design, 881 children aged 3–6 from urban and rural areas of Jiangxi Province were sampled. Activity behaviors, including sedentary behavior (SB), low-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate- to high-intensity physical activity (MVPA), were measured using accelerometers. Sleep patterns were assessed through questionnaires, and BFP was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The study employed compositional data analysis (CoDA) and ISM to estimate the impact of reallocating durations of different activity behaviors on BFP. Results: Higher BFP was found in urban vs. rural children, decreasing with age. Overweight and obesity rates were 10.6% and 7.6%, respectively, above national averages. MVPA and LPA were negatively correlated with BFP, while SB was positively correlated. A 30-min MVPA reduction significantly increased zBFR, particularly in overweight children. Gender-specific nuances revealed that boys' MVPA negatively influenced zBFP (β = -0.155), P < 0.05), while girls' SB positively impacted zBFP (β = 0.636, P < 0.01). Isotemporal simulations emphasized amplified effects in overweight children, with boys' zBFR rising rapidly when MVPA was substituted and girls displaying a notable substitution effect between SB and LPA. Conclusion: BFP is closely linked to 24-h activity behaviors, notably in overweight and obese preschoolers. ISM identified MVPA as a critical influencer, with a 30-min reduction substantially increasing BFP. Gender disparities were evident, implicating MVPA in boys and LPA and SB in girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A design scheme of hydraulic wind turbine with multi-accumulator is presented to smooth the output power. The mathematical models of the impeller, hydraulic pump, hydraulic motor, conventional accumulator, controllable accumulator control, and constant speed control in the system are established respectively. The AMESim simulation models of the system are also established. Under the stable wind speed condition, the characteristics of impeller torque, hydraulic drive and conventional accumulator are studied. Under the turbulent wind speed condition, the characteristics of controllable accumulator are analyzed, and the system characteristics with and without controllable accumulator are compared. The results show that when the wind speed is stable, only the conventional accumulator works, which can stabilize the power output effectively. When the wind speed changes sharply, the controllable accumulator opens intermittently. It stores energy as the wind speed increases rapidly and releases energy for the system as the wind speed drops suddenly. The application of the multi-accumulator effectively reduces the torque fluctuation of generator, increases the system stability, and improves the quality of power generation. • A hydraulic wind turbine with multi-accumulator is proposed. • The control strategies of the multi-accumulator are studied. • The characteristics are analyzed under stable and turbulent wind speed conditions. • It can increase the system stability and improve the quality of power generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation and gene editing of the woody species kiwifruit are difficult and time-consuming. The fast and marker-free genetic modification system for kiwifruit has not been developed yet. Here, we establish a rapid and efficient marker-free transformation and gene editing system mediated by Agrobacterium rhizogenes for kiwifruit. Moreover, a removing-root-tip method was developed to significantly increase the regeneration efficiency of transgenic hairy roots. Through A. rhizogenes-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, the editing efficiencies of CEN4 and AeCBL3 achieved 55 and 50%, respectively. And several homozygous knockout lines for both genes were obtained. Our method has been successfully applied in the transformation of two different species of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis 'Hongyang' and A.eriantha 'White'). Next, we used the method to study the formation of calcium oxalate (CaOx) crystals in kiwifruit. To date, little is known about how CaOx crystal is formed in plants. Our results indicated that AeCBL3 overexpression enhanced CaOx crystal formation, but its knockout via CRISPR/Cas9 significantly impaired crystal formation in kiwifruit. Together, we developed a fast maker-free transformation and highly efficient CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system for kiwifruit. Moreover, our work revealed a novel gene mediating CaOx crystal formation and provided a clue to elaborate the underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Zinc (Zn) enrichment in cereal grains is a promising method to relieve human Zn malnutrition. Many factors influence grain Zn accumulation, but the role of rhizosphere microbes in soil environment and crop Zn uptake remain unknown. Methods: This study examined the relationships between rhizosphere microbes, rhizosphere soil nutrients, vegetal and grain Zn concentrations in six wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars with contrasting grain Zn concentrations grown in Zn-deficient soil. Results: Roots and spikes Zn concentrations at anthesis were positively correlated with grain Zn concentrations. Root Zn concentration was negatively correlated with rhizosphere soil available phosphorus (AP) and Zn (AZn). Spike Zn concentration was positively correlated with rhizosphere ammonium-N. The bacterial community assembly was more profoundly dominated by stochastic processes in the rhizosphere of high-Zn cultivars. Specifically enriched microbes were found within 144 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) affiliated with 15 phyla in the rhizosphere of the high-Zn cultivars at anthesis. Enriched microbes significantly correlated with AZn were only identified in the rhizosphere of high-Zn cultivars, where g_Olivibacter and o_Microtrichales had the function of decomposing organic matter, potentially facilitating the formation of organic acids and dissolving soil Zn. The AP-related enriched microbes g_Lysobacter, g_Crossiella, and g_TM7a in the rhizosphere of high-Zn cultivars were significantly negatively correlated with AP, indicating their role in decreasing the AP. Conclusion: This study implied that the rhizospheric microbes in the high-Zn cultivars had the potential function of increasing soil Zn availability and decreasing soil P availability, as an important microbial strategy for wheat grain Zn biofortification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Stone cells are often present in pear fruit, and they can seriously affect the fruit quality when present in large numbers. The plant growth regulator NAA, a synthetic auxin, is known to play an active role in fruit development regulation. However, the genetic mechanisms of NAA regulation of stone cell formation are still unclear. Here, we demonstrated that exogenous application of 200 μM NAA reduced stone cell content and also significantly decreased the expression level of PbrNSC encoding a transcriptional regulator. PbrNSC was shown to bind to an auxin response factor, PbrARF13. Overexpression of PbrARF13 decreased stone cell content in pear fruit and secondary cell wall (SCW) thickness in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. In contrast, knocking down PbrARF13 expression using virus‐induced gene silencing had the opposite effect. PbrARF13 was subsequently shown to inhibit PbrNSC expression by directly binding to its promoter, and further to reduce stone cell content. Furthermore, PbrNSC was identified as a positive regulator of PbrMYB132 through analyses of co‐expression network of stone cell formation‐related genes. PbrMYB132 activated the expression of gene encoding cellulose synthase (PbrCESA4b/7a/8a) and lignin laccase (PbrLAC5) binding to their promotors. As expected, overexpression or knockdown of PbrMYB132 increased or decreased stone cell content in pear fruit and SCW thickness in Arabidopsis transgenic plants. In conclusion, our study shows that the 'PbrARF13‐PbrNSC‐PbrMYB132' regulatory cascade mediates the biosynthesis of lignin and cellulose in stone cells of pear fruit in response to auxin signals and also provides new insights into plant SCW formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of continuous and high-intensity mining in soft rock coal mines, high-quality filling treatment is required for the goaf. A nondestructive acoustic velocimetry method is an excellent way to measure the quality of filling body to effectively maintain the rock stability of the mining area and decrease industrial solid waste. In this study, the gangue and fine sand are used as the filling aggregates, and the uniaxial compression test and acoustic wave test are conducted in the cementitious gangue-sand filling body with different gangue-sand ratio. The results show that the longitudinal wave velocity of the filling body is basically between 1.556 km/s and 2.413 km/s. When the gangue-sand ratio is small, and the slurry concentration is high, the early strength of the cementitious gangue-sand filling body is low, but the later strength has a good growth trend. For specimens with higher strength-filled bodies, the propagation speed of sound waves inside them is also faster, indicating a certain positive correlation between the strength of the filled body and the speed of sound waves. A mathematical equation using longitudinal wave velocity to predict the strength of filling body is established. This equation can be used to predict and judge the quality of the filling body in the mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of two representative dissolved organic matters (DOMs) (derived from corrupt plants (PDOM) and chicken manure (MDOM)) on sorption characteristic of oxytetracycline to three typical sediments (first terrace (FT), river floodplain (RF), and riverbed (RB) sediments collected from the Weihe River) were investigated. Results showed that both DOMs can make the adsorption equilibrium time advance about 6 hours. The presence of DOMs changed the sorption kinetics model and the spontaneous degree of the reaction but did not change the sorption isotherm models. The adsorption of oxytetracycline (OTC) could be promoted by adding PDOM, and its maximum adsorption amount increased by 23.8% for FT, 38.0% for RB, and 28.3% for RF, respectively, whereas MDOM could inhibit the adsorption and maximum adsorption amount decreased by 23.3% for FT, 11.6% for RB, and 16.1% for RF, respectively. In addition, the DOM concentration also affected the adsorption. Overall, this study suggests that the humus-like DOM can promote the adsorption of OTC while the protein-like DOM can inhibit the adsorption of OTC to sediments, which is determined by the aromaticity, hydrophilicity, and polarity of the DOMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Candidate genes were identified and the role of phytohormones such as JA-Me and ABA in the synthesis of S-RNase was emphasized in pear self-incompatibility. Abstract: Self-incompatibility (SI) occurs widely in flowering plants as an intraspecific reproductive barrier. This phenomenon promotes variation within species, but for some species such as Pyrus, SI is a nuisance rather than a benefit in agricultural production. Although many studies have been conducted on SI in pears, its mechanism remains unclear. In this study, high-throughput Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to identify SI-related genes in pear styles. Using transcriptome comparisons, differentially expressed genes of unpollinated (UP), cross-pollinated (CP), and self-pollinated (SP) styles were identified after 48 h. A total of 1796 and 1890 genes were identified in DSC (UP vs. CP) and DSI (UP vs. SP), respectively. KEGG analysis revealed that genes involved in the 'plant hormone signal transduction pathway' and 'plant-pathogen interaction pathway' were significantly enriched in DSI (UP vs. SP) compared to those in DSC (UP vs. CP). The expression level of S-glycoprotein ribonuclease (S-RNase) was dramatically reduced in cross-pollinated (CP) styles. To better understand the relationship between the expression patterns of S-RNase and two major KEGG pathways, the concentrations of phytohormones were measured, and the expression pattern of S-RNase was analysed using qRT-PCR. Our results demonstrate that methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid may enhance the expression level of S-RNase, and pollination can affect the synthesis of methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid in pear styles. Overall, this study is a global transcriptome analysis of SI in pear. A relationship between self-rejection, plant hormones, and pathogen defence was shown in pear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-temperature solid-phase approach was used to synthesize Eu3+-doped SrMo0.5W0.5O4 phosphors, whose morphological structure and luminescence properties were then characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, excitation spectra, emission spectra, and fluorescence decay curves. The results reveal that the best phosphor synthesis temperature was 900 °C and that the doping of Eu3+ and charge compensators (K+, Li+, Na+, NH4+) had no effect on the crystal phase change. SrMo0.5W0.5O4:Eu3+ has major excitation peaks at 273 nm, 397 nm, and 464 nm, and a main emission peak at 615 nm, making it a potential red fluorescent material to be used as a down converter in UV LEDs (273 nm and 397 nm) and blue light LEDs (464 nm) to achieve Red emission. The emission spectra of Sr1−yMo0.5W0.5O4:yEu3+(y = 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.07) excited at 273 were depicted, with the Eu3+ concentration increasing the luminescence intensity first increases and then decreases, the emission peak intensity of SrMo0.5W0.5O4:Eu3+ achieves its maximum when the doping concentration of Eu3+ is 1%, and the critical transfer distance is calculated as 25.57 Å. When various charge compensators such as K+, Li+, Na+, and NH4+ are added to SrMo0.5W0.5O4:Eu3+, the NH4+ shows the best effect with the optimal doping concentration of 3wt%. The SrMo0.5W0.5O4:Eu3+,NH4+ color coordinate is (0.656,0.343), which is close to that of the ideal red light (0.670,0.333). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fe−Pt intermetallic nanocrystals exhibit good chemical stability, unique magnetic and catalytic properties, but suffer from the ordering difficulty. It has been found that the addition of Au can promote the disorder-order transitions, but the mechanism is far from being well understood. In this work, the phase equilibria and phase transformations of the Fe−Pt−Au alloys have been experimentally investigated and thermodynamically analyzed. The results show that the driving forces for both the L 1 0 _FePt and L 1 2 _FePt 3 ordering are so weak that the homogeneous nucleation in the disordered fcc matrix is difficult, while a heterogeneous nucleation mechanism on the pre-existed phase boundary is preferred. On the other hand, there exists a metastable ternary miscibility gap between αAu and fcc-FePt or fcc-FePt 3 , and accordingly, when Au content is properly designed in the spinodal region, the enrichment of Au can take place spontaneously throughout a fcc Fe−Pt−Au structure during annealing. The segregation of αAu in the Fe−Pt−Au alloys can further accelerate the diffusion of Pt and Fe atoms, facilitate the nucleation of the ordered L 1 0 _FePt and L 1 2 _FePt 3 phases, and stimulate the ordering process. These results correlate the Au addition with the ordering of Fe−Pt intermetallics and further the magnetic and catalytic properties, and it is thus expected to provide guidance for a rational alloy design of Fe–Pt–Au materials. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]