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Objectives: This study investigates the impact of pension on depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults. Additional effort is made to test the mediating effect of multidimensional downward intergenerational support and the moderating effect of age on this relationship. Methods: A total of 1828 Chinese older community‐dwellers who met our inclusion criteria are drawn from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Multivariate regression modeling is applied to analyze the effect of pensions on depressive symptoms of older adults. Additionally, bootstrap method with resampling strategies is used to estimate the mediating effect of three dimensions of downward intergenerational support (instrumental, emotional, and financial support). Further, Johnson‐Neyman technique is employed to analysis and visualize the moderating effect of age. Results: The findings reveal a significant inverse relationship between pension levels and depressive symptoms (B = −6.664, SE = 2.826, p < 0.05). The analysis shows that downward intergenerational emotional support (B = −0.195, Boot SE = 0.103, 95% Boot CI [−0.404, −0.003]) serves as a partial mediator in this relationship. Furthermore, the results highlight the moderating role of age in the linkage between pension and depressive symptoms (B = 0.065, SE = 0.039, p < 0.1). Discussion: This investigation is pioneering in simultaneously assessing the mediating role of multidimensional downward intergenerational support and the moderating effect of age in the context of pension and depressive symptoms. The study underscores the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach in devising comprehensive intervention strategies. These should encompass pension policy consultation, respite services, and other crucial elements aimed at mitigating the severity or reducing the risk of depressive symptoms among the older adults. Key points: We discovered a moderating effect of age on the relationship between pension benefits and depressive symptoms in older adults, and further elucidated this effect using the Johnson‐Neyman method.Concurrently, we employed bootstrapping methods to validate the mediating effect of downward intergenerational support between pension benefits and depressive symptoms in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new bootstrap-aggregating (bagging) ensemble learning algorithm is proposed based on classification certainty and semantic correlation to improve the classification accuracy of ensemble learning. First, two predetermined thresholds are introduced to construct the long and short-text sample subsets, and different deep learning methods are compared to construct the optimal base classifier groups for each sample subsets. Then, the random sampling method employed in traditional bagging classification algorithms is improved, and a threshold group based random sampling method is proposed to obtain long and short training sample subsets of each iteration. Finally, the sample classification certainty of the base classifiers for different categories is defined, and the semantic correlation information is integrated with the traditional weighted voting classifier ensemble method to avoid the loss of important information during the sampling process. The experimental results on multiple datasets demonstrate that the algorithm significantly improves text classification accuracy and outperforms typical deep learning algorithms. The proposed algorithm achieves the improvements of approximately 0.082, 0.061 and 0.019 on CNews dataset when the F1 measurement is used over the traditional ensemble learning algorithms such as random forest, M_ADA_A_SMV and CNN_SVM_LR. Moreover, it achieves the best F1 values of 0.995, 0.985, and 0.989 on the datasets of Spam, CNews, and SogouCS datasets, respectively, when compared with the ensemble learning algorithms using different base classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional sentiment classification methods often ignore the influence of psychological features on classification results. Moreover, most sentiment classification methods fail to effectively integrate the context semantic information of local structural features and mine the interaction between context semantic features and local structural features. On this basis, we proposed a novel dual BiGRU-CNN-based sentiment classification method combining global and local attention. First, in order to integrate psychological information into sentiment classification, the advantage of the language query and word count model (LIWC) on effectively expressing the users' psychological features is utilized, and a heterogeneous graph attention networks (HAN) and LIWC-based text representation learning method (called HAN_LIWC) are proposed to improve the representation of each document. Then, we propose a new sentiment classification framework (called BCAT) in which the word features with context semantic information and the local structural features are comprehensively considered to improve the sentiment classification accuracy. Finally, we introduce the global attention layer and the local attention layer. In order to utilize the mutual effect between different features, the global attention layer focuses on mining the interaction between word features, the interaction between local structural features, and the interaction between word features and local structural features. Moreover, the local attention layer focuses on mining the contributions of all features to the final classification results. Experimental results on three datasets show that the proposed algorithm has greatly improved classification accuracy compared to typical traditional machine learning-based methods and deep learning-based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to describe the resolution time of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) after middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) and potential variables that may affect hematoma resolution. A retrospective analysis was performed on CSDH patients between December 2018 and December 2021. Patient characteristics, radiologic manifestations, and data of hematoma resolution were recorded. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify predictors of CSDH resolution time. A total of 53 patients were enrolled including 53 hematomas. Only 1 participant relapsed and did not require surgical evacuation. Hematoma resolution was observed in 27 (50.9%) at 4 months and 48 (90.6%) cases at the last radiologic follow-up. The median MMAE-to-resolution time was 19 weeks (interquartile range: 8–24). The burr-hole irrigation + MMAE group showed faster hematoma resolution than MMAE alone during early follow-up periods, but no significant difference was found at 6 months. Increased thickness of residual hematoma, excessive postoperative midline shift, high-density hematoma, mixed-density hematoma, separated hematoma, and anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents used were predictive of nonresolution at 4 months as determined by univariate analysis, whereas anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents used and high-density hematoma were not significant on multivariate analysis. No significant association was noted between hematoma resolution and comorbidities or other hematoma radiologic features. MMAE is an effective and minimally invasive treatment for CSDH with a lower recurrence rate. The median resolution time of CSDH following MMAE was 19 weeks (interquartile range: 8–24). Burr-hole irrigation contributed to early hematoma resolution but had no significant effect at 6 months. In addition, residual hematoma thickness, postoperative midline shift, and specific type of hematoma were associated with delayed hematoma resolution at 4 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eukaryotic initiation factor 6 (eIF6) is necessary for ribosome biogenesis and translation, but eIF6 has been poorly elucidated in insects. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that eIF6 originated from one ancestral gene among animals and exhibited specific duplication in Tribolium, yielding three homologues in Tribolium castaneum, eIF6, eIF6‐like 1 (eIF6l1), and eIF6‐like 2 (eIF6l2). It was found that eIF6 was highly expressed in the embryonic and early adult stages, eIF6l1 had peak expression at the adult stage, and eIF6l2 showed peak expression in late adults of T. castaneum. Tissue‐specific analyses in late‐stage larvae demonstrated that eIF6 was abundantly expressed in all tissues, while eIF6l1 and eIF6l2 had the highest expression in the gut and the lowest expression in the head of T. castaneum. Knockdown of eIF6 caused precocious pupation and eclosion, impaired ovary and testis development and completely repressed egg production. The expression levels of vitellogenin 1 (Vg1), Vg2 and Vg receptor (VgR) significantly decreased in ds‐eIF6 females 5 days post‐adult emergence. Silencing eIF6 activated ecdysteroid biosynthesis and juvenile hormone degradation but reduced the activity of insulin signalling in T. castaneum, which might mediate its roles in metamorphosis, reproduction and gene expression regulation. However, silence of eIF6l1 or eIF6l2 had no effects on metamorphosis and reproduction in T. castaneum. This study provides comprehensive information for eIF6 evolution and function in the insect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower Eocene Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA, is an alluvial succession with a sand content varying around 25%. It has been studied intensively for palaeontology, palaeoenvironments and palaeoclimates, as well as sedimentological and stratigraphic analysis. Channel dynamics were studied at a relatively low resolution throughout the basin over the geological time from late Palaeocene to early Eocene. Here, a high‐resolution study is reported to complement previous research at the basin scale. Efforts are made to document the characteristics and river planform styles of most sandstone bodies encountered through ca 300 m of alluvial stratigraphy in a 10 km2 area of the Deer Creek part of the McCullough Peaks area situated in the basin axis of northern Bighorn Basin. Four channel facies associations are recognized and ascribed to four river planform styles: crevasse channel, trunk channel, braided‐like channel and sinuous‐like channel, with the latter two types dominant. Braided‐like and sinuous‐like channel sandstone bodies differ significantly in thicknesses, being on average 6.1 m versus 9.0 m, but they have similar palaeoflow–perpendicular widths of on average 231 m and palaeoflow directions of on average N 003°. Braided‐like and sinuous‐like river planform styles show no spatial dependency in the 10 km2 study area. Results of this study are in line with existing basin‐scale depositional models that are composed of a single axial system fed by several transverse systems dominantly from the west. The feeding of these systems could be influenced by palaeoclimate changes possibly controlling their contribution over time, thereby impacting river planform styles. At the same time, changing water discharge hydrograph, sediment load and overbank cohesiveness may have equally driven the observed river planform style changes within the basin without a major role of catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the classification performance of existing adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) based algorithms effectively, an improved AdaBoost algorithm based on misclassified samples oriented feature selection and weighted non-negative matrix factorization (WNMF) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, in order to consider the effects of sample weights, a misclassified samples oriented feature selection (called MOFS) is proposed to select the most discriminative features which occur in the samples with high weights. Secondly, the explicit features and the part-based features of the training samples are both considered, and the WNMF algorithm is introduced and combined with MOFS to reduce the dimension of the training sample set. Finally, the concept of misclassification degree is introduced and a fine grained sample weight updating method is proposed to distinguish the samples with different misclassification degrees. Numerical experiments show that the proposed MOFS method achieves higher accuracy compared to traditional feature selection methods, and the proposed MOFS and WNMF based AdaBoost method obtains significant improvement on classification accuracy when comparing with typical existing AdaBoost based algorithms using different classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium super ionic conductor (NASICON)‐type Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 (LATP) is one of the most promising solid‐state electrolytes (SSEs) owing to its high Li‐ion conductivity, high stability with air, and low cost. However, LATP is less widely deployed due to its high incompatibility with lithium metal. Herein, a facile and inexpensive spray‐coating approach is proposed to construct a thin 3D organic/inorganic composite layer of a commercial boron nitride‐based release agent (BNRA) onto LATP. Apart from protecting LATP, this interfacial BNRA layer enables Li‐ion migration through BN defects and affords low resistance at BNRA/Li interface due to in situ formation of Li–N. Compared to bare LATP, which fails to support Li stripping–plating process in a lean‐lithium Li/Li symmetric cell (2 µm), BNRA‐LATP runs for ≈1800 h. The assembled lean‐lithium LiFePO4 (LFP)/BNRA‐LATP/Li solid state batteries (SSBs) deliver a specific capacity of 150.9 mA h g–1 at 0.5 C with minor capacity decay after 500 cycles. Besides, the BNRA layer eliminates thermal runaway risks of LATP‐based SSBs by fast in‐plane thermal dispersion. This work demonstrates a facile LATP‐protection strategy regarding Li incompatibility and thermal runway issues, and pinpoints the interfacial formation mechanism, fulfilling the pursuit of high‐performance low‐cost SSEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the wetting behavior of nanofluid under high voltage, a contact angle measurement system under electric field is designed and set up. The effects of mass concentration, the type of nanoparticles and the temperature of dielectric layer are considered. The experimental results manifest that the contact angle reduction rate of SiO2-water nanofluid is gradually increased with the increase of nanofluid concentrations from 0 to 0.05 wt%. While, it is decreased when the concentration is varied from 0.05 to 0.25 wt%. On the other hand, the contact angle reduction rate of Al2O3-water nanofluid is generally greater than SiO2-water nanofluid with the same volume concentration. In addition, the reduction rate of the contact angle of the SiO2-water nanofluid would be gradually increased with the increase of the surface temperature of the dielectric layer. Moreover, the experimental values are greatly deviated from the results calculated by Young–Lippmann equation and its modified form of nanofluid. Hence, the present study proposes a dimensionless surface tension correct factor to obtain the modified equation which is based on the Young–Lippmann equation. The influence of electric charge, electric field force, drag force and Brownian force on nanoparticles under high voltage are considered in the modified equation. The results show that the modified equation can predict the trend of the nanofluid contact angle under higher voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), is an economically important pest of rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and other members of the Poaceae. The effects of host plant type on SBPH life table parameters reared on two cultivars of rice (Zixiangnuo 2315 and Wuyujing 3), wheat (Jimai 22 and Nongda 26), and one grass weed (Echinochloa crusgalli Beauv.) under laboratory conditions were determined using the age‐stage, two‐sex life table. Additionally, the corresponding activities of three detoxifying enzymes – carboxylesterase (CarE), glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST), and mixed‐function oxidase (MFO) – were also measured. The results showed that host plant species and cultivars had effects on population parameters and activities of detoxification enzymes. Rice cv. Zixiangnuo 2315 and wheat cv. Nongda 26 were shown to be more suitable than the other three hosts. The activities of the three detoxifying enzymes showed different patterns of changes on the three host plants after feeding for 0–72 h. Regardless of short‐term (72 h) or long‐term (one generation) induction on host plants, the activity levels of GST and MFO in adult SBPH reared on rice 'Zixiangnuo 2315' were lower and higher, respectively, than on the other four hosts. The results may help understand the host adaptability of this pest and inform the development of strategies for effective field‐based integrated pest management programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formation of alluvial stratigraphy is controlled by autogenic processes that mix their imprints with allogenic forcing. In some alluvial successions, sedimentary cycles have been linked to astronomically‐driven, cyclic climate changes. However, it remains challenging to define how such cyclic allogenic forcing leads to sedimentary cycles when it continuously occurs in concert with autogenic forcing. Accordingly, we evaluate the impact of cyclic and non‐cyclic upstream forcing on alluvial stratigraphy through a process‐based alluvial architecture model, the Karssenberg and Bridge (2008) model (KB08). The KB08 model depicts diffusion‐based sediment transport, erosion and deposition within a network of channel belts and associated floodplains, with river avulsion dependent on lateral floodplain gradient, flood magnitude and frequency, and stochastic components. We find cyclic alluvial stratigraphic patterns to occur when there is cyclicity in the ratio of sediment supply over water discharge (Qs/Qw ratio), in the precondition that the allogenic forcing has sufficiently large amplitudes and long, but not very long, wavelengths, depending on inherent properties of the modelled basin (e.g. basin subsidence, size, and slope). Each alluvial stratigraphic cycle consists of two phases: an aggradation phase characterized by rapid sedimentation due to frequent channel shifting and a non‐deposition phase characterized by channel belt stability and, depending on Qs/Qw amplitudes, incision. Larger Qs/Qw ratio amplitudes contribute to weaker downstream signal shredding by stochastic components in the model. Floodplain topographic differences are found to be compensated by autogenic dynamics at certain compensational timescales in fully autogenic runs, while the presence of allogenic forcing clearly impacts the compensational stacking patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To verify the contribution of the globally disseminated Neisseria gonorrhoeae FC428 clone to the emergence of ceftriaxone resistance in Chengdu in south-west China during 2018.Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility of the N. gonorrhoeae isolates to six antibiotics was determined using the agar dilution method. A real-time PCR assay and WGS were used to identify the FC428 clone. Phylogenomic and molecular antimicrobial resistance analyses were conducted to characterize the transmission and evolution of related strains.Results: Four out of 112 N. gonorrhoeae isolates were confirmed as the ceftriaxone-resistant FC428 clone. Phylogenomic analysis revealed that they resulted from multiple introductions and subsequent local transmissions. The strains have undergone further evolutions characterized by the accumulation of mutations in resistance-associated genes and/or the acquisition of plasmids encoding penicillin and tetracycline resistance genes.Conclusions: The N. gonorrhoeae FC428 clone has spread to south-west China. Efforts should be made to enhance gonococcal antimicrobial surveillance to control further dissemination of this successful clone at both local and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) has revolutionized neuroscience research. This groundbreaking innovation has facilitated the development of three-dimensional (3D) neural organoids, which closely mimicked the intricate structure and diverse functions of the human brain, providing an unprecedented platform for the in-depth study and understanding of neurological phenomena. However, these organoids lack key components of the neural microenvironment, particularly immune cells like microglia, thereby limiting their applicability in neuroinflammation research. Recent advancements focused on addressing this gap by integrating iPSC-derived microglia into neural organoids, thereby creating an immunized microenvironment that more accurately reflects human central neural tissue. This review explores the latest developments in this field, emphasizing the interaction between microglia and neurons within immunized neural organoids and highlights how this integrated approach not only enhances our understanding of neuroinflammatory processes but also opens new avenues in regenerative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review has been made an attempt to seek some observed descriptors to comprehensively optimize structural stability and catalytic activity of single-atom catalysts. Electronic structure analysis can reveal the underlying mechanisms of atomic phy-chemical properties and local coordination structures on binding strength. The free electrons around Fermi level play an important role to determine the binding strength, which can be further influenced by electronegativity difference between single atom and nearby support atoms. This investigation can contribute to understanding the underlying mechanisms for the design of stable and active catalysts, and further provide a deep insight to the potential pathways in the research field of single-atom catalysts. Image 1 • Free electrons near Fermi level determine the stability and catalytic activity. • Bond strength between single atom and supports affects the structural stability. • Dangling bond near Fermi level of single atom provides the catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection, which is used to choose a subset of relevant features has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Typical feature selections include: traditional filters, mutual information based methods, clustering based methods and hybrid methods. As many feature selections cannot achieve the best features effectively and efficiently, a new hybrid feature selection method is proposed in this paper. First, the drawbacks of some existing feature relevance measurements are analyzed and a component co-occurrence based feature relevance measurement is proposed. Then, the implementation of the proposed feature selection is given: (1) the samples are preprocessed and two feature subsets are obtained by using two different optimal filters. (2) A feature weight based union operation is proposed to merge the obtained feature subsets. (3) As the hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm can produce clusters of high qualities without requiring the cluster number, it is applied to obtain the final feature subset by using a predetermined threshold. In the experiments, two typical classifiers: support vector machine and K-nearest neighbor are used on eight datasets (Lung-cancer, Breast-cancer-wisconsin, Arrhythmia, Arcene, CNAE-9, Madelon, Spambase and KDD-cup-1999), and the 10-cross validation is carried out when the F 1 measurement is used. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed feature relevance measurement is superior to those of traditional methods. In addition, the proposed feature selection outperforms many existing typical methods on classification accuracy and execution speed, illustrating its effectiveness in achieving the best features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The POFs based SPR sensors with different fiber structures and layer materials are presented and their sensing performances are compared and discussed. • The recent progresses for POFs based SPR sensors for the physical and biosensing applications are also presented. Polymer optical fibers (POFs) based SPR sensors have a lot of potential in biosensing fields because of their specific merits of good flexibility, high coupling efficiency and easy fabrication. In this context, a review of the recent developments of POFs based SPR sensors is presented. Several materials and structures of POFs and the working principle of optical fiber based SPR sensors are introduced briefly. Moreover, the POFs based SPR sensors with different fiber structures and layer materials are presented in detail, and their sensing performances are compared and discussed. Finally, an overview of the recent progresses for POFs based SPR sensors in the applications of physical and biochemical sensing fields are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although multiple assurance mechanisms (e.g., third-party certification, web assurance seals, and reputation systems) are commonly used in online marketplaces to ameliorate transaction risks, there is little understanding about how different assurance mechanisms may be combined, and under what conditions these serve as substitutes or complements. From a signaling perspective, this study examines how two broad categories of assurance mechanisms, those that function as default-independent signals (signals that reveal seller quality in general and offer no direct protection to buyers should anything go wrong with transactions) and those that function as default-contingent signals (signals that reveal seller quality specific to transactions and offer direct protection to buyers should anything go wrong with transactions), interact to impact sales performance of sellers, and how this interaction may be moderated by product type (search versus experience products). Empirical results show that for transactions involving search products, a default-independent signal and a default-contingent signal substitute each other, but for transactions involving experience products, the two types of signals complement each other. The results can account for the effects of combinations of assurance mechanisms as well as how these may be moderated by contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Li-ion batteries are a key technology for addressing the global challenge of clean renewable energy and environment pollution. Their contemporary applications, for portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and large-scale power grids, stimulate the development of high-performance battery materials with high energy density, high power, good safety, and long lifetime. High-throughput calculations provide a practical strategy to discover new battery materials and optimize currently known material performances. Most cathode materials screened by the previous high-throughput calculations cannot meet the requirement of practical applications because only capacity, voltage and volume change of bulk were considered. It is important to include more structure-property relationships, such as point defects, surface and interface, doping and metal-mixture and nanosize effects, in high-throughput calculations. In this review, we established quantitative description of structure-property relationships in Li-ion battery materials by the intrinsic bulk parameters, which can be applied in future high-throughput calculations to screen Li-ion battery materials. Based on these parameterized structure-property relationships, a possible high-throughput computational screening flow path is proposed to obtain high-performance battery materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al-based composites reinforced by Cu particles have been fabricated by powder extrusion method. Effects of Cu content and annealing temperature on the mechanical properties of the composites were studied. The results show that the mechanical properties of the composites are affected by the powder ratio and the diffusion degree between Cu particles and Al matrix, the strengthening mechanism is the synergistic strengthening, which results from the interaction of load transfer, dislocation strengthening and solid solution strengthening. Annealing significantly affects the mechanical strength of the samples with Cu content less than 5 wt%. After annealing at 510 °C for 0.5 h, the tensile strength of 2 wt%Cu and 5 wt%Cu samples increases by 41% and 76%, respectively, compared with that of as-extruded sample. In addition, the annealed samples hold good ductility and the elongations are greater than 15%. However, for samples with Cu content more than 10 wt%, the effect of annealing on the tensile strength seems to be weak, while the plasticity decreases rapidly with an increase of annealing temperature. Suitable powder ratio and annealing temperature can improve mechanical properties of the samples effectively. The tensile strength of 5 wt%Cu sample annealed at 510 °C for 0.5 h is up to 262 MPa, and its elongation is 15.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge Graph Embedding (KGE) aims to retain the intrinsic structural information of knowledge graphs (KGs) via representation learning, which is critical for various downstream tasks including personalized recommendations, intelligent search, and relation extraction. The graph convolutional network (GCN), due to its remarkable performance in modeling graph data, has recently been studied extensively in the KGE field. However, when learning entity representations, most attention-based GCN approaches treat neighborhoods as a whole to measure their importance without considering the direction information of relations. Additionally, these approaches make relation representations perform self-update via a learnable matrix, resulting in ignoring the impact of neighborhood information on representation learning of relations. To this end, this study presents an innovative framework, namely learning knowledge graph embedding with a dual-attention embedding network (D-AEN), to jointly propagate and update the representations of both relations and entities via fusing neighborhood information. Here the dual attentions consist of a bidirectional attention mechanism and a relation-specific attention mechanism for jointly measuring the importance of neighborhoods in respectively learning entity and relation representations. Thus D-AEN enables elements like relations and entities to interact well semantically, which makes their learned representations retain more effective information of KGs. Extensive experimental results on three standard link prediction datasets demonstrate the superiority of D-AEN over several state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li-ion batteries are a key technology for addressing the global challenge of clean renewable energy and environment pollution. Their contemporary applications, for portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and large-scale power grids, stimulate the development of high-performance battery materials with high energy density, high power, good safety, and long lifetime. High-throughput calculations provide a practical strategy to discover new battery materials and optimize currently known material performances. Most cathode materials screened by the previous high-throughput calculations cannot meet the requirement of practical applications because only capacity, voltage and volume change of bulk were considered. It is important to include more structure–property relationships, such as point defects, surface and interface, doping and metal-mixture and nanosize effects, in high-throughput calculations. In this review, we established quantitative description of structure–property relationships in Li-ion battery materials by the intrinsic bulk parameters, which can be applied in future high-throughput calculations to screen Li-ion battery materials. Based on these parameterized structure–property relationships, a possible high-throughput computational screening flow path is proposed to obtain high-performance battery materials. In this review, we discuss some quantitative descriptions of structure–property relationships by the intrinsic bulk parameters, which can be applied in the future high-throughput computational screening to obtain high-performance Li-ion battery materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection is an important technology on improving the efficiency and accuracy of spam filtering. Among the numerous methods, document frequency-based feature selections ignore the effect of term frequency information, thus always deduce unsatisfactory results. In this paper, a hybrid method (called HBM), which combines the document frequency information and term frequency information is proposed. To maintain the category distinguishing ability of the selected features, an optimal document frequency-based feature selection (called ODFFS) is chosen; terms which are indeed discriminative will be selected by ODFFS. For the remaining features, term frequency information is considered and the terms with the highest HBM values are selected. Further, a novel method called feature subset evaluating parameter optimization (FSEPO) is proposed for parameter optimization. Experiments with support vector machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayesian (NB) classifiers are applied on four corpora: PU1, LingSpam, SpamAssian and Trec2007. Six feature selections: information gain, Chi square, improved Gini-index, multi-class odds ratio, normalized term frequency-based discriminative power measure and comprehensively measure feature selection are compared with HBM. Experimental results show that, HBM is significantly superior to other feature selection methods on four corpora when SVM and NB are applied, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To extend the current understanding of the mercury-mediated cytotoxic effect, five neural cell lines established from different animal species were comparatively analyzed using three different endpoint bioassays: thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay (MTT), neutral red uptake assay (NRU), and Coomassie blue assay (CB). Following a 24-hr exposure to selected concentrations of mercury chloride (HgCl 2 ) and methylmercury (II) chloride (MeHgCl), the cytotoxic effect on test cells was characterized by comparing their 50% inhibition concentration (IC 50 ) values. Experimental results indicated that both these forms of mercury were toxic to all the neural cells, but at very different degrees. The IC 50 values of MeHgCl among these cell lines ranged from 1.15 ± 0.22 to 10.31 ± 0.70 μmol/L while the IC 50 values for HgCl 2 were much higher, ranging from 6.44 ± 0.36 to 160.97 ± 19.63 μmol/L, indicating the more toxic nature of MeHgCl. The IC 50 ratio between HgCl 2 and MeHgCl ranged from 1.75 to 96.0, which confirms that organic mercury is much more toxic to these neural cells than inorganic mercury. Among these cell lines, HGST-BR and TriG44 derived from marine sea turtles showed a significantly high tolerance to HgCl 2 as compared to the three mammalian neural cells. Among these neural cells, SK-N-SH represented the most sensitive cells to both chemical forms of mercury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hadoop framework has been widely applied in miscellaneous clusters to build large scalable and powerful systems for massive data processing based on commodity hardware. Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), the distributed storage component of Hadoop, is responsible for managing vast amount of data effectively in large clusters. To utilize the parallel processing infrastructure of Hadoop, Map/Reduce, the traditional workflow needs to upload data from local file systems to HDFS first. Unfortunately, when dealing with massive data, the uploading procedure becomes extremely time-consuming which causes almost intolerable delay for urgent tasks, along with unnecessary space waste due to replicated data. The primary contribution of this paper is the proposition of Zput and its supplementary mechanism named Zport. After the implementation is described, we introduce several improved details which are significant for runtime efficiency and performance. Evaluation results prove that Zput can accelerate the local data uploading procedure by over 315.4 %, while Zport can boost the remote block distribution by over 190.3 %. Besides, the compatibility for upper-layer applications remains intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection is often used in email classification to reduce the dimensionality of the feature space. In this study, a new document frequency and term frequency combined feature selection method (DTFS) is proposed to improve the performance of email classification. Firstly, an existing optimal document frequency based feature selection method (ODFFS) and a predetermined threshold are applied to select the most discriminative features. Secondly, an existing optimal term frequency based feature selection (OTFFS) method and another predetermined threshold are applied to select more discriminative features. Finally, ODFFS and OTFFS are combined to select the remaining features. In order to improve the convergence rate of parameter optimization, a metaheuristic method, namely global best harmony oriented harmony search (GBHS), is proposed to search these optimal predetermined thresholds. Experiments with fuzzy Support Vector Machine (FSVM) and Naïve Bayesian (NB) classifiers are applied on six corpuses: PU2, CSDMC2010, PU3, Lingspam, Enron-spam and Trec2007. Experimental results show that, DTFS outperforms other methods: such as Chi-squre, comprehensively measure feature selection, t -test based feature selection, term frequency based information gain, two-step based hybrid feature selection method and improved term frequency inverse document frequency method on six corpuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection, which can reduce the dimensionality of vector space without sacrificing the performance of the classifier, is commonly used in spam filtering. As many classifiers cannot deal with the features with large dimensions, the noisy, irrelevant and redundant data should be removed from the feature spaces. In this paper, a two-step based hybrid feature selection method, called TFSM, is proposed. Firstly, we select the most discriminative features by an existing document frequency based feature selection method (called ODFFS). Secondly, we select the remaining features by combining the ODFFS and a newly proposed term frequency based feature selection method (called NTFFS). Moreover, we propose a new optimizing meta-heuristic method, called GOPSO, to improve the convergence rate of standard particle swarm optimization. In the experiments, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayesian (NB) classifiers are used on four corpuses: PU2, PU3, Enron-spam and Trec2007. The experimental results show that, TFSM is significantly superior to information gain, comprehensively measure feature selection, t-test based feature selection, term frequency based information gain and improved term frequency inverse document frequency method on four corpuses when SVM and NB are applied respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zona pellucida domain protein Dusky (Dy) plays a vital role in wing morphogenesis in insects, but little information on its function has been reported. In this study, we found that dy regulated wing cell size, larval and pupal duration, and the metabolism of amino acid and 20‐hydroxyecdysone in Tribolium castaneum. Using RNA‐seq, 413 differentially expressed genes were identified between physiological buffer‐injected and dy‐double‐stranded RNA‐treated larvae, including 88 downregulated genes and 325 upregulated genes. Among these genes, dy knockdown increased CYP18A1 expression to elevate the 26‐hydroxylation of 20‐hydroxyecdysone, which ultimately led to growth defects in wing cells. Silencing of dy upregulated the transcription of genes encoding tyrosine aminotransferase, 4‐hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase, homogentisate 1, 2‐dioxygenase, and Pale to promote the catabolism of tyrosine and phenylalanine, which eventually reduced amino acid content. Furthermore, dy knockdown upregulated 4E‐BP expression, and 4E‐BP silencing partially phenocopied dy RNA interference‐mediated wing morphogenesis. These results suggest that Dy controls 20‐hydroxyecdysone and amino acid metabolism to regulate wing morphogenesis in the insect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The combination of cisplatin and gemcitabine-based chemotherapy has been recommended as a preferred regimen for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients with germline-based mutations. However, the underlying mechanism remains poorly elucidated. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the mechanistic basis of the cell-killing activity of gemcitabine plus cisplatin and identify potential therapeutic targets. Methods: First, we explored the synergistic cytotoxic effects of gemcitabine and cisplatin on PDAC through in vitro and in vivo experiments. Then, we investigated ferroptosis-related biomarkers, to assess the impact of the combination therapy on ferroptosis. Using bioinformatics methods, we identified SAT1 as a potential key mediator of ferroptosis induced by gemcitabine and cisplatin. We tested the polyamine levels in PDAC cells by LC–MS after overexpressed or knocked down SAT1, and explored the role of polyamines in ferroptosis using exogenous supplementation. Finally, we explored the regulatory effect of Sp1 on SAT1 through ChIP-qPCR and dual-luciferase reporter assay. Results: Gemcitabine plus cisplatin enhanced cell death and induced ferroptosis in PDAC. This combination upregulated SAT1 transcription by inhibiting Sp1. SAT1 activation promoted the catabolism of spermine and spermidine, leading to iron accumulation and lipid peroxide generation, ultimately resulting in ferroptosis. Conclusions: In summary, our findings suggested the gemcitabine and cisplatin combination therapy induced ferroptosis in a GSH-independent manner in PDAC. The combined treatment inhibited Sp1 and upregulated SAT1 transcription, leading to the breakdown of spermine and spermidine. Therefore, targeting SAT1-induced polyamine metabolism may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal inflammatory disease associated with CD4+ Th1 and Th17 cell immune responses. Tumour necrosis factor‐associated factor 5 (TRAF5) deficiency has been shown to aggravate DSS‐induced colitis. However, the potential role of TRAF5 in regulating CD4+ T cell immune responses in the pathogenesis of IBD remains unclear. TRAF5−/− CD4+CD45RBhigh T cells and WT CD4+CD45RBhigh T cells were transferred to Rag2−/− mice via intravenous (i.v.) tail injection, respectively, to establish a chronic colitis model. Adeno‐associated virus (AAV)‐mediated gene knockout technique was used to knock out runt‐associated transcription factor 1 (Runx1) expression in vivo. Specific cytokines of Th1 and Th17 cells were detected by quantitative RT‐PCR, immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and flow cytometry. In T‐cell transfer colitis mice, the Rag2−/− mice reconstituted with TRAF5−/− CD4+CD45RBhigh T cells showed more severe intestinal inflammation than the WT control group, which was characterised by increased expression of INF‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐17a. Furthermore, we found that the INF‐γ+CD4+, IL17a+CD4+, and INF‐γ+ IL17a+CD4+ T cells in the intestinal mucosa of Rag2−/− mice reconstituted with TRAF5−/− CD4+CD45RBhigh T cells were significantly higher than those of the WT control group by flow cytometry. Mechanistically, knockout Runx1 inhibited the differentiation of TRAF5−/− CD4+ T cells into Th1 and Th17 cells in the intestinal mucosa of T‐cell transfer colitis mice. TRAF5 regulates Th1 and Th17 cell differentiation and immune response through Runx1 to participate in the pathogenesis of colitis. Thus targeting TRAF5 in CD4+ T cells may be a novel treatment for IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel promising strategies for combination with sorafenib are urgently needed to enhance its clinical benefit and overcome toxicity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). the molecular and immunomodulatory antitumor effects of sorafenib alone and in combination with the new immunotherapeutic agent R848 are presented. Syngeneic HCC mouse model is presented to explore the antitumor effect and safety of three sorafenib doses alone, R848 alone, or their combination in vivo. R848 significantly enhances the sorafenib antitumor activity at a low subclinical dose with no obvious toxic side effects. Furthermore, the combination therapy reprograms the tumor immune microenvironment by increasing antitumor macrophages and neutrophils and preventing immunosuppressive signaling. Combination treatment promotes classical M1 macrophage‐to‐FTH1high M1 macrophage transition. The close interaction between neutrophils/classical M1 macrophages and dendritic cells promotes tumor antigen presentation to T cells, inducing cytotoxic CD8+ T cell‐mediated antitumor immunity. Additionally, low‐dose sorafenib, alone or combined with R848, normalizes the tumor vasculature, generating a positive feedback loop to support the antitumor immune environment. Therefore, the combination therapy reprograms the HCC immune microenvironment and normalizes the vasculature, improving the therapeutic benefit of low‐dose sorafenib and minimizing toxicity, suggesting a promising novel immunotherapy (R848) and targeted therapy (tyrosine kinase inhibitors) combination strategy for HCC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The droplet evaporation phenomenon is very important for the development of droplet microfluidic technology. The existing studies have shown that high frequency and high electrical field strength have great effects on droplet evaporation and wetting characteristics respectively. However, the effects of high frequency together with high voltage on nanofluid droplet evaporation and wetting characteristics have not been studied and the mechanism is not clear. Therefore, the evaporation characteristics of nanofluid droplets at high voltage and high frequency were experimentally investigated to improve its evaporation rate and reveal its evaporation mechanism. The results show that the evaporation rates increase first and then decrease with the increase of voltage frequency (0–2 kHz), and the frequency at the high voltage obtained the maximum evaporation rate increases (90 Hz) when compared with the low voltage condition. Besides, the effect of electrical field on nanoparticles using the deposition surface was also explored, and the results show that the motion of the particles manipulated by the electrical field forces together with the oscillatory fluctuations of the droplets result in the enhancement of the evaporation rate of the nanofluid. [Display omitted] • Frequency obtained maximum evaporation rate increases when compared to low voltage. • Evaporation rate of nanofluids increases with improvement of concentration and voltage. • Oscillatory fluctuations combined nanoparticle motion result in evaporation enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Mucosal‐associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate‐like lymphocytes that display a critical role in various liver diseases. However, the role of MAIT cells in cholestatic liver fibrogenesis remains obscure. Our study aims to assess the contribution of MAIT cells and underlying mechanisms during this process. Methods: Cholestatic murine models using MAIT cell‐deficient (MR1−/−) and wild‐type (WT) mice were established by feeding a 0.1% 3,5‐diethoxycarbonyl‐1,4‐dihydrocollidine (DDC)‐enriched diet or bile duct ligation (BDL). Liver samples were collected to determine the severity of fibrosis. Lymphocytes of the liver were isolated for analysing the phenotype and function of MAIT cells. Cell co‐culture experiments were performed to investigate the cross‐talk between MAIT and NK cells. Results: Liver MAIT cells were more activated with increased cytokines in cholestatic mice models than in control mice, although their frequency was decreased. MAIT cell deficiency led to severe liver inflammation and fibrosis with more activated HSCs in cholestatic mice. In addition, MR1−/− mice had an increased frequency of NK cells with higher expression of stimulatory receptors relative to WT mice. Paradoxically, activated MAIT cells significantly promoted the anti‐fibrotic ability of NK cells by enhancing their cytotoxicity against HSCs in co‐culture experiments. Importantly, this effect depended on direct cell–cell contact and TNF‐α produced by MAIT cells. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that MAIT cells ameliorate cholestatic liver fibrosis by enhancing the cytotoxicity of NK cells against HSCs. An in‐depth understanding of the MAIT cell‐mediated regulatory effect will provide more valuable immunotherapy strategies to treat liver fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper-based chalcogenides with the familiar diamond-like structure are superior thin-film light absorbers. Remarkably, several closely related chalcogen-deficient structures have recently been recognized as promising thermoelectric converters with ultra-low thermal conductivities. The combination of various constituent elements provides an ample space for material design. However, first-principles investigations on their electronic properties are complicated by the involvement of the shallow Cu-3 d semi-core states. Although Cu-3 d electrons are intrinsically rather localized, they also strongly hybridize with delocalized chalcogen- p states. The seemly incompatible tendencies require delicate theoretical treatments, and the conventional local density approximation (LDA) within density functional theory (DFT) is inadequate. In this work, we carefully analyze the characteristics of the Cu-3 d states, which form the basis for an in-depth understanding of the electronic properties of Cu-chalcogenides to provide insightful guidance for their energy harvesting applications. We show that the band-edge electronic properties can be reliably predicted by the DFT+ U + G 0 W 0 or the mBJ+ U methods. Moreover, the simple mBJ+ U method works equally well for moderate-gap systems and theoretically challenging narrow-gap systems. Cu-chalcogenides with narrow-gaps usually contain heavy elements, in which relativistic effects are expected to play an important role. We find that the orbital contraction effect tends to reduce the energy of the s conduction states in diamond-like structures, and might lead to a structural transformation to chalcogen-deficient structures. Although the spin–orbit coupling effect can be quite strong, its influence on the band structure can also be suppressed by strong hybridizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domain relation extraction (DRE) aims to understand domain semantics of unstructured text to mine structural knowledge. However, most existing DRE models may fail to fully represent the domain entity that is usually absent in the corpus of pre-trained language models. In addition, almost all these models directly use contextual semantics for relation classification that ignore purifying the task relevant features. To address these challenging problems, we propose a novel and effective M ulti- M odal S emantics F usion (MMSF) model, which can automatically capture domain semantics to discover the important semantics contained in images, thus enhancing the representations of the domain entity by exploiting the multi-modal semantics. Afterwards, we introduce heterogeneous graph neural networks to learn contextual semantics. To obtain the task relevant features for DRE, we design a new purified feature architecture by exploring the mutual information between contextual semantics and the labels of domain relation. With the enhanced representations of the domain entity and purified the task relevant features, the satisfactory results of relation classification can be guaranteed. Extensive experiments on two real domain relation extraction datasets demonstrate the superiority of our proposed model over several state-of-the-art models. The source code and experiment details of this paper can be obtained from https://github.com/SWT-AITeam/MMSF. • Proposing a novel MMSF model for domain relation extraction. • The MMSF can enrich the representations of the domain entity. • We introduce the IB theory to extract task relevant features. • Our MMSF achieves the state-of-the-art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moxidectin (MXD) is an antiparasitic drug used extensively in veterinary clinics. In this study, to develop a new formulation of MXD, a thermosensitive gel of MXD (MXD-TG) was prepared based on poloxamer 407/188. Furthermore, the gelation temperature, the stability, in vitro release kinetics and in vivo pharmacokinetics of MXD-TG were evaluated. The results showed that the gelation temperature was approximately 27 °C. MXD-TG was physically stable and can be released continuously for more than 96 h in vitro. The Korsmeyer–Peppas model provided the best fit to the release kinetics, and the release mechanism followed a diffusive erosion style. MXD-TG was released persistently for over 70 days in sheep. Part of pharmacokinetic parameters had a difference in female and male sheep (p < 0.05). It was concluded that MXD-TG had a good stability, and its release followed the characteristics of a diffusive erosion style in vitro and a sustained release pattern in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Abnormal repair after alveolar epithelial injury drives the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The maintenance of epithelial integrity is based on the self-renewal and differentiation of alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells, which require sufficient energy. However, the role of glutamine metabolism in the maintenance of the alveolar epithelium remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of glutamine metabolism in AT2 cells of patients with IPF and in mice with bleomycin-induced fibrosis. (2) Methods: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), transcriptome, and metabolomics analyses were conducted to investigate the changes in the glutamine metabolic pathway during pulmonary fibrosis. Metabolic inhibitors were used to stimulate AT2 cells to block glutamine metabolism. Regeneration of AT2 cells was detected using bleomycin-induced mouse lung fibrosis and organoid models. (3) Results: Single-cell analysis showed that the expression levels of catalytic enzymes responsible for glutamine catabolism were downregulated (p < 0.001) in AT2 cells of patients with IPF, suggesting the accumulation of unusable glutamine. Combined analysis of the transcriptome (p < 0.05) and metabolome (p < 0.001) revealed similar changes in glutamine metabolism in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. Mechanistically, inhibition of the key enzymes involved in glucose metabolism, glutaminase-1 (GLS1) and glutamic-pyruvate transaminase-2 (GPT2) leads to reduced proliferation (p < 0.01) and differentiation (p < 0.01) of AT2 cells. (4) Conclusions: Glutamine metabolism is required for alveolar epithelial regeneration during lung injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processes and mechanisms of fluvial landform evolution, especially in the transitional zones between mountains and plains, are of great significance for predicting future regional sustainability and ecosystem stability in the basin. As a region of significant cultural and ecological importance, the transitional area between Taihang Mountain and North China Plain still has a limited understanding of the fluvial landform evolution. With detailed field surveys and 39 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of 14 sections, we reconstruct fluvial landform evolution in the southern piedmont of the Taihang Mountain since the late Pleistocene. The results show that two major fluvial processes occurred during 18–10 ka BP and 9–3 ka BP. Meanwhile, the late Pleistocene-Holocene can be divided into 5 intervals in the alluvial fan and floodplain areas, with corresponding ages of 3 ka BP, 9–3 ka BP, 10–9 ka BP, 18–10 ka BP, and before 20 ka BP, respectively. The results also indicate that the regional fluvial processes primarily result from climate change and tectonic activities, and secondarily result from sea level fluctuation. Additionally, the prehistoric settlement pattern was also shaped by the evolution of regional rivers. Our research is significant for understanding the evolution and mechanisms of fluvial landforms in transitional zones. • Holocene fluvial landscape evolution were reconstructed in southern Taihang. • Mechanism of fluvial landscape evolution in transitional area was revealed firstly. • Fluvial evolution was response to climate and structure activity, less associated with sea level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Xiaolingtong (XLT), a new type of mobile phone system based on PHS technology for wireless access of fixed-line telephone networks, has grown very rapidly in China. However, there are many doubts about the future of XLT once 3G (the third generation of mobile communication) is finally employed. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to assess and compare XLT and 3G from four perspectives: technology, market demand, business models and government policy. It concludes that XLT and 3G will coexist with existing 2G/2.5G mobile communication networks for a considerable period of time. With service collaboration and integration, the coexistence of both of these technologies can enhance China''s mobile communication infrastructure and support the growth of mobile commerce. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to solve the problems of incomplete separation of arsenic, antimony and bismuth and low recovery rate of valuable elements in the traditional separation process of antimony and bismuth, the leachate from high antimony smearing slag containing bismuth was treated by reducing precipitation of arsenic, hydrolytic precipitation of antimony, neutralization dechlorinating and neutralization and precipitation of bismuth, respectively. The temperature and reaction time were investigated and analyzed. The results show that arsenate can be reduced to arsenic by adding sodium hypophosphite under the optimum conditions. Finally, arsenic was recovered in the form of arsernc oxide, and the recovery rate reached 91. 99%. After arsenic precipitation, water was added to the solution for hydrolytic precipitation, and antimony was precipitated in the form of SbOCl, and the precipitation rate was about 95%. SbOCl is added to ammonia for chlorine removal,antimony is precipitated and separated in the form of antimony oxide and the chlorine removal rate reaches 96%. After antimony precipitation, a certain amount of Ammonia water is added to neutralize bismuth, bismuth is separated in the form of Boil precipitation, and the precipitation rate of bismuth is controlled at about 99%. Thus the cascade separation and recovery of arsenic, antimony and bismuth were realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triflumezopyrim is an excellent pesticide for preventing and controlling rice planthoppers. It is widely used in the production of field rice and mainly through spraying with some inadvertent loss of pesticide to the soil. The future may bring development and utilization of seeds containing triflumezopyrim which will certainly impact earthworms. To evaluate the toxic effects of triflumezopyrim on earthworms, reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, malondialdehyde content (MDA), glutathione S-transferase (GST), and DNA oxidative damage (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, 8-OHdG) were measured after 7, 14, 21, and 28 d analyzing the effects of 6 concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg) of triflumezopyrim, respectively. ROS content did not change significantly in the early stages but showed a significant dose-effect relationship in the late stages. Antioxidant enzymes were activated in most treatment groups, and catalase activity was the same as that in the control group at 28 d. GST activity showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing whereas MDA content had no obvious change in trend. 8-OHdG showed significant positive correlation with the concentration of triflumezopyrim at 28 d, indicating that the degree of DNA oxidative damage increased accordingly. The results showed that chronic exposure of triflumezopyrim may cause both oxidative stress and DNA damage in earthworms and alter the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Image 1 • Subchronic toxicological test of triflumezopyrim on earthworms was determined. • Exposure to triflumezopyrim can induce SOD, POD, CAT and GST activity changes. • Triflumezopyrim can increase the ROS levels, leading to lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the worldwide spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus, scarce knowledge is available on the clinical features of more than two passages of patients. Further, in China, early intervention policy has been enacted since February. Whether early intervention contributes to swift recovery is still unknown. Hence, in this study, we focused on the patients from an isolated area, investigated the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of four serial passages of the virus.Methods: From January 25 to February 29, 2020, all patient data on the SARS-CoV-2 passages in this isolated area were traced, and the patients were grouped according to the passaging of SARS-CoV-2. Clinical characteristics of patients, including laboratory, radiology, treatment and outcomes, were collected and analyzed.Results: A total of 78 patients with four passages of virus transmission were included in this study. One patient transmitted SARS-CoV-2 to 8 patients (passage 2, P2), who next infected 23 patients (passage 3, P3), and then 46 patients (passage 4, P4). P2 received antiviral treatment when they had symptom, whereas P4 received antiviral treatment during their asymptomatic period. The incubation periods for P2, P3 and P4 patients were 7 days (IQR:2-12), 8 days (IQR:4-13) and 10 days (IQR:7-15), respectively. P2 patients showed lymphocytopenia (0.79 × 109/L), decreased lymphocyte percentages (12.15%), increased white blood cell count (6.51 × 109/L), increased total bilirubin levels (25% of P2 patients), increased C-reactive protein levels (100% of P2 patients) and abnormal liver function. By chest CT scans, all P2 patients (100%), 15 of P3 patients (65.22%) and 16 of P4 patients (34.78%) showed abnormality with typical feature of ground glass opacity. All of P2 patients (100%) received oxygen therapy, and in contrast, 19 of P4 patients (41.3%) received oxygen therapy. Further, significant decreased nucleic acid positive periods was found in P4 group (16 days, IQR: 10-23), compared with that of P2 group (22 days, IQR: 16-27). Moreover, the severity ratios were sharply decreased from 50% (P2 patients) to 4.35% (P4 patients), and the case fatality rate is zero.Conclusions: Judged from four passages of patients, early intervention contributes to the early recovery of COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers expression is of great significance for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has achieved microRNA sensing for the diagnosis of primary liver cancers. In this work, we developed a SERS technology for the rapid detection of lung cancers-related miRNA (miR-196a) using bimetallic Au-Ag nanowire (AgNW@AuNPs) substrates coupled with the target hairpin DNA. The finite-difference time-domain simulation proved that a large number of "hot spots" were generated between the AgNW and AuNPs, which resulted in a huge enhancement of the signal of Raman reporters. Filter paper treated by hexadecenyl succinic anhydride hydrophobic and modified with AgNWs@AuNPs was used as capturing substrate. The detection limits of miR-196a in PBS and serum were as low as 96.58 aM and 130 aM, respectively. Studies on nonspecific sequence and single-base mismatch of miRNA demonstrated that SERS-based platform was highly selective, excellent uniform, and reproducible. Finally, the platform was used to show that the miR-196a expression in the serum of lung cancer patients was much higher than that in healthy people. The detection results indicated that the SERS platform had potential applications in cancer diagnosis and might be a viable alternative to the conventional miRNA detection method, the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diamond-like Cu-based multinary semiconductors are a rich family of materials that hold promise in a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, accurate theoretical understanding of the electronic properties of these materials is hindered by the involvement of Cu d electrons. Density functional theory (DFT) based calculations using the local density approximation or generalized gradient approximation often give qualitative wrong electronic properties of these materials, especially for narrow-gap systems. The modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) method has been shown to be a promising alternative to more elaborate theory such as the GW approximation for fast materials screening and predictions. However, straightforward applications of the mBJ method to these materials still encounter significant difficulties because of the insufficient treatment of the localized d electrons. We show that combining the promise of mBJ potential and the spirit of the well-established DFT + U method leads to a much improved description of the electronic structures, including the most challenging narrow-gap systems. A survey of the band gaps of about 20 Cu-based semiconductors calculated using the mBJ + U method shows that the results agree with reliable values to within ±0.2 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The middle Eocene was a key period of global climate change from a warm "greenhouse" to a cooling "doubthouse". At the middle Eocene, an extensive arid climate in China was recorded in the mudstones and shales interbedded with salinastone which formed good hydrocarbon source rocks, especially in the Bohai Bay Basin. The sedimentary paleoenvironment and its variations affected the source rock quality and distribution. Based on successive and dense sampling of the middle Eocene Shahejie Formation shale (MES shale) in Nanpu Sag of Bohai Bay Basin, petro-mineralogical tests, geochemical methods and spectrum analysis were performed to analyse the palaeoenvironmental fluctuations and the responses to Milankovitch cycles. Element analysis on MES shale shows that the middle Eocene climate was arid and the sediments were deposited under dysoxic/suboxic conditions with relatively high salinity. Based on the Δlog R method, the organic matter (OM) abundance was evaluated and ranged from 0.18 to 3.55 wt % for MES shale. The mean primary productivity of 545 g C m−2 yr−1 shows a eutrophic environment in middle Eocene Nanpu paleolake. Wavelet analysis performed on gamma logging and palaeoenvironmental proxies revealed clear Milankovitch cycles for MES shale, and the cyclostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental fluctuations were effected by astronomical oscillation periods of the short eccentricity cycle (100 k.y.), obliquity cycle (39 k.y.) and precession cycle (19 k.y.). The depositional rate of MES shale was corrected to 0.43 m/k.y. The sedimental process of MES shale was associated with palaeoenvironmental variation, which have been divided into four stages affecting OM accumulation. A hypothesis that the vast carbon of "greenhouse" gases in the Palaeocene and early Eocene was fixed in organic matters during middle Eocene and enriched in the hydrocarbon source rocks of the sedimentary basins formed at early Eocene was proposed to explain the "doubthouse" world in the Eocene. • Clear Milankovitch cycles exist in mid-Eocene lacustrine shale of Bohai Bay Basin. • Pale-climate integration effects on organic matter enrichment in lacustrine shale. • Carbon fixation in shales was critical to decline greenhouse gases at mid-Eocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil fuel resources are invaluable to economic growth and social development. Understanding the formation and distribution of fossil fuel resources is critical for the search and exploration of them. Until now, the vertical distribution depth of fossil fuel resources has not been confirmed due to different understandings of their origins and the substantial variation in reservoir depths from basin to basin. Geological and geochemical data of 13 634 source rock samples from 1286 exploration wells in six representative petroliferous basins were examined to identify the maximum burial depth of active source rocks in each basin, which is referred to in this study as the active source rock depth limit (ASDL). Beyond the ASDL, source rocks no longer generate or expel hydrocarbons and become inactive. Therefore, the ASDL also sets the maximum depth for fossil fuel resources. The ASDLs of basins around the world are found to range from 3000 to 16 000 m, while the thermal maturities (Ro) of source rocks at the ASDLs are almost the same, with Ro ≈3.5±0.5 %. The Ro of 3.5 % can be regarded as a general criterion to identify ASDLs. High heat flow and more oil-prone kerogen are associated with shallow ASDLs. In addition, tectonic uplift of source rocks can significantly affect ASDLs; 21.6 billion tons of reserves in six representative basins in China and 52 926 documented oil and gas reservoirs in 1186 basins around the world are all located above ASDLs, demonstrating the universal presence of ASDLs in petroliferous basins and their control on the vertical distribution of fossil fuel resources. The data used in this study are deposited in the repository of the PANGAEA database at: 10.1594/PANGAEA.900865 (Pang et al., 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in the intracellular expression level of cancer-related microRNAs (miRNAs) are connected with worsening tumor progression. A simple, accurate, and sensitive analytical method for the imaging and detection of intracellular miRNA is still a great challenge due to the low abundance of miRNAs and the complexity of intracellular environments. In this work, target miRNA (miRNA)-mediated catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA)-induced gold nanocage (GNC)-hairpin DNA1 (hpDNA1)-hpDNA2-GNC nanostructures were designed for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection and imaging of the specific miR-125a-5p in the normal lung epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B cells) and lung cancer cell line (A549 cells). The finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations showed that the polymer of GNCs possessed a much stronger electromagnetic field in nanogaps than that of single GNC, theoretically confirming the rational design of the CHA assembly strategy. Using this method, miR-125a-5p can be detected in a wide linear range with a detection limit of 43.96 aM and high selectivity over other miRNAs in vitro. Moreover, SERS imaging successfully detected and distinguished the expression levels of intracellular miR-125a-5p in BEAS-2B cells and A549 cells. The results obtained by the SERS assay were consistent with those obtained by the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). This method can offer a powerful strategy for the imaging and quantitative detection of various types of biomolecules in vitro as well as in living cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: HIV progression is characterized by immune activation and microbial translocation from the gut. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are essential for gut homeostasis. Decreased intestinal SCFAs play a role in rapid HIV progression.Aims: To compare the SCFA profile, intestinal microbiome, and intestinal mucosal injury between patients with HIV (but not AIDS) and healthy controls.Methods: This was a prospective study of 15 patients without AIDS and 10 controls conducted between July 2016 and January 2017 at the Institute of Dermatology and Venereology (Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences). Stool specimens were collected to analyze the microbiome and SCFAs. Blood I-FABP and D-lactate (gut injury markers) were measured as well as T cells in HIV-positive patients. Intestinal mucosa was observed by colonoscopy.Results: Rikenellaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Roseburia, Lachnospiraceae, Alistipes, and Ruminococcaceae were decreased, while Moraxellaceae and Psychrobacter were increased in HIV-positive patients. Butyric acid (p = 0.04) and valeric acid (p = 0.03) were reduced in HIV-positive patients. Colonoscopy revealed no visible damage in all subjects. There were no differences in I-FABP and D-lactate between groups. Butyric and valeric acids mainly positively correlated with Rikenellaceae, Ruminococcaceae, Alistipes, Roseburia, and Lachnospiraceae. CD8+ cells were positively correlated with Proteobacteria. CD4+ cells, and CD4/CD8 were negatively correlated with acetic acid. CD8+ cells were positively correlated with valeric acid.Conclusion: The differences in the distribution of intestinal flora between HIV-infected and healthy individuals, especially some SCFAs, suggest that there is already a predisposition to intestinal mucosa damage in HIV-infected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circulation of magma is typically accompanied by the transfer of materials and thermal energy that can significantly alter the compositions and properties of sedimentary rocks, thereby influencing hydrocarbon generation and accumulation in sedimentary basins. In this study, the effects of magmatic activity on hydrocarbon accumulation are summarized and clarified for nine sedimentary basins in China from different perspectives. Magmatism has a multi–role relationship with hydrocarbon accumulation processes in sedimentary basins, affecting hydrocarbon generation, migration, accumulation, preservation and destruction. Volcanic ash provides nutrients that promote biological growth and enhance primary productivity. The extremely anoxic environment caused by magmatism can decelerate the oxidation and decomposition of organic matter, which favors the deposition and preservation of organic material. The upwelling of magma can transfer heat upward, enhancing the maturation of organic matter and promoting hydrocarbon generation. Mantle–derived hydrogen–rich fluids can effectively replenish the hydrogen that is consumed by thermal cracking of hydrocarbons. In addition, abundant mantle–derived inorganic CO 2 can cause the dissolution of carbonate minerals and cements in reservoirs, generating secondary pores. Furthermore, magmatic intrusions often form effective hydrocarbon traps, and the strata–penetrating magmatic walls and unconformable surfaces can act as predominant hydrocarbon migration pathways. It is noteworthy that the effects of magmatism differ markedly in different tectonic settings. In China, the basins in back arc rift settings (such as the Bohai Bay basin) are undergoing plate subduction. This geological scenario allows for the upward migration of magma from the mantle, along with the transport of thermal energy, mantle–related inorganic CO 2 , H-enriched materials, and occasionally volcanic ash. In contrast, basins in post-collisional rift settings (such as the Permian Junggar basin) have undergone lower crust delamination. These basins typically feature volcanic ash derived from the crust, as well as materials originated from the mantle. Lastly, basins in compressional settings (such as the Ordos basin) have experienced crustal block collision. The inner parts of these basins often contain significant amounts of volcanic ash and small-scale magmatic intrusions derived from the crust. Although magmatism can have significant positive impacts on hydrocarbon accumulation, there are also some negative aspects, such as porosity degradation in the oil and gas reservoirs, thermal cracking and degradation of oil, and breaching seals. Whether the movements of deep fluid are advantageous or disadvantageous for hydrocarbon accumulation mainly depends on relationship of hydrocarbon migration and charging, the formation of traps, and the composition, properties, and duration of deep fluid movements. The characteristics and movement of magma are important factors that need to be considered in hydrocarbon exploration and the evaluation of hydrocarbon reservoirs in sedimentary basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]