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Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of ofatumumab in the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSDs). Methods The clinical data of 25 patients with NMOSDs hospitalized in The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from April 2022 to March 2023 and treated with ofatumumab were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into 2 groups, Group A with 12 cases receiving regular medication, and Group B with 13 cases receiving medication based on the percentage of CD19+B lymphocytes. Annual relapse rate (ARR), the number of relapses, the frequency and time of relapses, and the symptoms of relapses were calculated before and at one year of medication. The neurological function was assessed by Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) before and at one year of medication. The adverse drug reactions were recorded during medication. Results After one year treatment with ofatumumab, 3 patients (12%) experienced recurrence. One patient in Group A experienced recurrence twice, one month and 5 months after treatment, respectively. At the second recurrence, the percentage of CD19+B lymphocytes was 2.80%. Two patients in Group B experienced recurrence, one patient relapsed twice at 2 and 6 months after medication. The percentage of CD19+B lymphocytes was 0.80% and 0.21%, respectively; another patient relapsed once at 2 months after medication. At the time of recurrence, the percentage of CD19+B lymphocytes was 0.70%. There was a statistically significant difference in ARR before and after one year treatment (F = 29.061, P = 0.000). After one year's treatment, the ARR of Group A (t = 13.215, P = 0.001) and Group B (t = 19.259, P = 0.000) was decreased than before. There were 8 cases of the injection site pain, 3 cases of fever after injection, and one case of headache after injection. There were no serious adverse reactions such as disability and death, and EDSS scores were not increased. Conclusions Continuous administration of ofatumumab every 3 months or based on the percentage of CD19+B lymphocyte can reduce recurrence. Combination with corticosteroids should be alert to the risk of infection.

Abstract Artificial light‐harvesting systems (LHSs) with a multi‐step sequential energy transfer mechanism significantly enhance light energy utilization. Nonetheless, most of these systems exhibit an overall energy transfer efficiency below 80%. Moreover, due to challenges in molecularly aligning multiple donor/acceptor chromophores, systems featuring ≥3‐step sequential energy transfer are rarely reported. Here, a series of artificial LHSs is introduced featuring up to 4‐step energy transfer mechanism, constructed using a cyclic peptide‐based supramolecular scaffold. These LHSs showed remarkably high energy transfer efficiencies (≥90%) and satisfactory fluorescence quantum yields (ranging from 17.6% to 58.4%). Furthermore, the structural robustness of the supramolecular scaffold enables a comprehensive study of these systems, elucidating the associated energy transfer pathways, and identifying additional energy transfer processes beyond the targeted sequential energy transfer. Overall, this comprehensive investigation not only enhances the understanding of these LHSs, but also underscores the versatility of cyclic peptide‐based supramolecular scaffolds in advancing energy harvesting technologies.

Abstract Nitrogen is a significant element that constitutes ambient organic aerosol. Individual N-containing organic molecules are known to have both natural and anthropogenic sources and implicated in a wide-ranging health and environmental effects. Yet, unlike carbon (C), the total quantity of aerosol organic nitrogen (ON) remains largely unquantified, hindering a quantitative understanding of their major sources and impacts. Here, aerosol ON is quantitatively surveyed in hundreds of aerosol filter samples collected from sites of varying urban influence in China using our recently developed method that permits simple, and yet sensitive, simultaneous detection of inorganic and organic nitrogen. Annual average ON concentration was in the range of 0.4–1.4 μg N m−3, representing 17–31% of aerosol total nitrogen. Monte Carlo simulations constrained by paired ON and OC measurements suggest N-containing organic molecules contributed typically 37–50%, with a 95% confidence interval of [12%, 94%], to ambient organic aerosols. Source apportionment analysis reveals that biomass burning and secondary formation are dominant ON sources, accounting for 21–24% and ~ 30% of ON, respectively. Primary biological aerosol is also a significant source of ON (7–18%), with its contribution more prominent in non-urban atmospheres. The results provide the quantitative data for the extent of presence of organic nitrogenous aerosol and the origin of their major sources. Such data, we anticipate, would bring forth a breakthrough in our ability to describe and model organic aerosols and to assess their environmental impacts, such as atmospheric nitrogen nutrient inputs to ecosystems.

Abstract The development of a cost‐competitive and efficient electrocatalyst is both attractive and challenging for hydrogen production by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a facile glycol reduction method to construct Ru nanoclusters coupled with hierarchical exfoliated‐MXene/reduced graphene oxide architectures (Ru‐E‐MXene/rGA) is reported. The hierarchical structure, formed by the self‐assembly of graphene oxides, can effectively prohibit the self‐stacking of MXene nanosheets. Meanwhile, the formation of the MXene/rGA interface can strongly trap the Ru3+ ions, resulting in the uniform distribution of Ru nanoclusters within Ru‐E‐MXene/rGA. The boosted catalytic activity and underlying catalytic mechanism during the HER process are proved by density functional theory. Ru‐E‐MXene/rGA exhibits overpotentials of 42 and 62 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in alkaline and acidic electrolytes, respectively. The small Tafel slope and charge transfer resistance (Rct) values elucidate its fast dynamic behavior. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves and chronoamperometry test confirm the high stability of Ru‐E‐MXene/rGA. These results demonstrate that coupling Ru nanoclusters with the MXene/rGA heterostructure represents an efficient strategy for constructing MXene‐based catalysts with enhanced HER activity.

ABSTRACT: This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamin E (VE) on laying performance, VE deposition, antioxidant capacity, immunity, follicle development, estrogen secretion, ovary metabolome, and cecal microbiota of laying hens. One hundred and twenty XinYang Black-Feathered laying hens (70 wk old) were randomly assigned to 2 groups (6 replicates of 20 birds), and fed a basal diet (containing 20 mg/kg VE, control (CON) group) and a basal diet supplemented with 20 mg/kg VE (VE group). The experiment lasted for 10 wk. Results showed that VE supplementation increased laying performance, antioxidant capacity, and immunity, as evidenced by increased (P < 0.05) performance (laying rate), antioxidant (glutathione peroxidase, total superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant capacity, and catalase) and immune (immunoglobulins) parameters, and decreased (P < 0.05) feed/egg ratio and malondialdehyde. Meanwhile, VE group had higher (P < 0.05) pregrade follicles, ovary index and serum estrogen levels than CON group. 16S rRNA sequencing showed that VE supplementation altered the cecal microbiota composition by increasing Bacteroides, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Prevotellaceae_UCG-001 and Megamonas abundances and reducing Christensenellaceae_R-7_group abundance (at genus level), which are mainly associated with the production of short-chain fatty acids. Metabolomic profiling of the ovary revealed that the major metabolites altered by VE supplementation were mainly related to follicle development, estrogen secretion, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, phototransduction, bile acid synthesis, and nutrient transport. Furthermore, changes in cecal microbiota (at genus level) and ovary metabolites were highly correlated with laying performance, antioxidant, and immune parameters. In summary, VE contributed to the laying performance of aged laying hens by enhancing antioxidant, immune, and ovarian functions, promoting follicle development and estrogen secretion, and regulating gut microbiota and ovary metabolites. These findings will provide a new perspective on the mechanisms of egg production in aged poultry ovaries.

While membrane separation has proven to be an outstanding method for separating oil in water (O/W) emulsions containing droplets smaller than 20 µm, it is severely limited due to fouling. Much research has been aimed at understanding the mechanism behind membrane fouling, particularly for ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. Interestingly, studies pointed out that the emulsifier, namely surfactant, is the main source of fouling in nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, while in the case of UF, oil is generally regarded as the main source of fouling. Herein, we study the fouling of UF membranes during separation of O/W emulsions stabilized by surfactants, with the explicit goal of determining the relative impact of the oil and surfactant present on fouling severity and dynamics. Results obtained from flux decline measurements, complimented by visualization using confocal microscopy, show that oil causes irreversible fouling to a certain extent, however, surfactant fouling dominates the observed membrane performance. The degree of fouling and flux recovery appears to be closely related to the properties the surfactant, namely charge and molecular weight, as has been observed in the past but attributed to the oil-membrane interactions, mediated by the surfactant. Further, to visualize the fouling mechanisms, direct observation via a confocal microscope set-up is used to capture real-time images of the membrane surface, which reveal that surface coverage of oil is not directly related to flux decline during the separation process. Our results suggest that membrane flux decline and fouling is dominated by membrane-surfactant interactions, the exact nature of which is a topic for future extensions of this work.

Objective To investigate the relationship between triglyceride glucose (TyG) index and the total load of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and its different imaging markers. Methods A total of 202 patients with CSVD admitted to The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2020 to May 2022 were selected. The clinical data of all patients were collected and TyG index was calculated. The lacunes, cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), white matter hyperintensity (WMH) and enlarged perivascular space (EPVS) were evaluated by MRI, and total load of CSVD score was calculated. Results 1) TyG index and total load of CSVD score: Logistic regression analysis showed the male (OR = 2.245, 95%CI: 1.017-4.957; P = 0.045), increase of age (OR = 1.084, 95%CI: 1.046-1.124; P = 0.000), hypertension (OR = 2.457, 95%CI: 1.189-5.078; P = 0.015) and increase of TyG index (OR = 2.657, 95%CI: 1.353-5.216; P = 0.005) were risk factors for moderate and severe total load of CSVD. 2) TyG index and imaging markers of CSVD: Logistic regression analysis showed the increase of TyG index was the risk factor of moderate and severe WMH (OR = 2.313, 95%CI: 1.095-4.885; P = 0.028), CMBs (OR = 1.690, 95%CI: 1.011-2.824; P = 0.045), lacunes (OR = 2.087, 95%CI: 1.235-3.525; P = 0.006), moderate and severe EPVS in basal ganglia (OR = 2.005, 95%CI: 1.190-3.378; P = 0.009). Conclusions TyG index is associated with the total load and various imaging markers of CSVD, which can be used as a valuable biomarker to evaluate CSVD and its severity.

Abstract Smoking negatively affects B cell function and immunoglobulin levels, but it is unclear if this immune dysfunction contributes to the risk of severe COVID-19 in smokers. We evaluated binding IgM, IgA and IgG antibodies to spike and receptor binding domain antigens, and used a pseudovirus assay to quantify neutralization titers in a set of 27 patients with severe COVID-19. We found no significant differences between binding and neutralization antibody responses for people with a smoking history and people who never smoked. High plasma viral load, but not antibody titers, was linked to an increased risk of death. Humoral immune dysfunction was not a major driver of severe COVID-19 in smokers.

Amid the rapid advancement of digital technology, a surge of digital startups has emerged, intensifying competitive pressures that pose significant challenges to the growth and survival of these enterprises in China. This study constructs a theoretical model based on optimal distinction theory and upper echelon theory, incorporating network ambidextrous capabilities (network exploitation and network exploration), routine replication (general routines replication and flexible routines replication), digital leadership, and opportunity iteration. Utilizing data collected from surveys distributed to 372 digital startups in China and employing hierarchical regression analysis, we investigate the impact and scope of network ambidextrous capabilities on opportunity iteration. The results indicate that both network exploitation and network exploration capability positively influence opportunity iteration. General routines replication partially mediates the relationship between network exploitation capability and opportunity iteration, while flexible routines replication partially mediates the relationship between network exploration capability and opportunity iteration. Furthermore, digital leadership positively moderates the mediating effect of general routines replication on the relationship between network exploitation capability and opportunity iteration, as well as the mediating effect of flexible routines replication on the relationship between network exploration capability and opportunity iteration, demonstrating moderated mediation effects. This study enhances the understanding of opportunity iteration and offers new insights and solutions for digital startups to adapt to opportunities in response to environmental changes.

Currently the law of heat and mass transfer and the analysis of coal damage in the process of injecting low-temperature liquid nitrogen (LN2) into the borehole of coal seam are the key problems to be solved urgently for the application of LN2 in the field of coal seam permeability enhancement. By using flowmeter, endoscope, thermocouple, mass balance and ultrasonic detector, the initial accumulation process and liquid level changes of LN2 during its injection into a coal borehole were visualized and analyzed. On this basis, the variation laws of the actual liquid level, net liquid level, and injection efficiency of LN2 in the borehole with time at different injection rates were investigated, and the coal body was ultrasonically detected for damage at three different times. It was found that the initial accumulation of LN2 will form an obvious Leidenfrost effect at the interface of the coal at the bottom of the borehole. With the continuous reduction of the coal temperature at the bottom of the borehole, the radiation heat transfer coefficient decreases, and then the thickness of the vapor film decreases. At different injection rates, the maximum increment of the net level in a 1 m borehole is about 35 cm, which means that when LN2 is injected into a long borehole, it should be injected segmentally, and the increase of injection time of LN2 will lead to the waste of LN2. The ratio of actual liquid level to net liquid level decreases first and then tends to be stable. The ratio of two liquid levels is similar in stable state. The change rule of LN2 injection efficiency with time at different rates is reduction-increase-stability-reduction. The injection efficiency of LN2 is higher at low injection rate. When the injection rate is increased, the nitrogen gas with phase change per unit volume of LN2 will have shorter heat exchange time in the borehole and lower discharge temperature outside the borehole, thus increasing the loss of LN2 and lowering the injection efficiency. Ultrasonic detection results show that as LN2 penetrates the fractures, the cold shock effect can freeze and shrink the fractures in both sides. As a result, the original fractures grow wider and their tips are stretched and deformed by the freezing and shrinking forces on both sides. Consequently, new fractures are formed.

It is imperative to develop an efficient catalyst to reduce the energy barrier of electrochemical water decomposition. In this study, a well-designed electrocatalyst featuring a core–shell structure was synthesized with cobalt sulfides as the core and molybdenum disulfide nanosheets as the shell. The core–shell structure can prevent the agglomeration of MoS2, expose more active sites, and facilitate electrolyte ion diffusion. A CoS2/MoS2 heterostructure is formed between CoS2 and MoS2 through the chemical interaction, and the surface chemistry is adjusted. Due to the morphological merits and the formation of the CoS2/MoS2 heterostructure, CoS2@MoS2 exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance during the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in an alkaline electrolyte. To reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2, only 254 mV of overpotential is required for CoS2@MoS2, which is smaller than that of pristine CoS2 and MoS2. Meanwhile, the small Tafel slope (86.9 mV dec−1) and low charge transfer resistance (47 Ω) imply the fast dynamic mechanism of CoS2@MoS2. As further confirmed by cyclic voltammetry curves for 1000 cycles and the CA test for 10 h, CoS2@MoS2 shows exceptional catalytic stability. This work gives a guideline for constructing the core–shell heterostructure as an efficient catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction.

The rational design of a heterostructure electrocatalyst is an attractive strategy to produce hydrogen energy by electrochemical water splitting. Herein, we have constructed hierarchically structured architectures by immobilizing nickel–cobalt oxide nanowires on/beneath the surface of reduced graphene aerogels (NiCoO2/rGAs) through solvent–thermal and activation treatments. The morphological structure of NiCoO2/rGAs was characterized by microscopic analysis, and the porous structure not only accelerates the electrolyte ion diffusion but also prevents the agglomeration of NiCoO2 nanowires, which is favorable to expose the large surface area and active sites. As further confirmed by the spectroscopic analysis, the tuned surface chemical state can boost the catalytic active sites to show the improved oxygen evolution reaction performance in alkaline electrolytes. Due to the synergistic effect of morphology and composition effect, NiCoO2/rGAs show the overpotential of 258 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2. Meanwhile, the small values of the Tafel slope and charge transfer resistance imply that NiCoO2/rGAs own fast kinetic behavior during the OER test. The overlap of CV curves at the initial and 1001st cycles and almost no change in current density after the chronoamperometric (CA) test for 10 h confirm that NiCoO2/rGAs own exceptional catalytic stability in a 1 M KOH electrolyte. This work provides a promising way to fabricate the hierarchically structured nanomaterials as efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production.

The range of the cold shock of low-temperature liquid nitrogen on coal, the variation law of thermal stress in coal caused by temperature difference and the mechanical action mechanism of coal damage are the key issues to be studied urgently in the application of liquid nitrogen in the field of coal and rock permeability enhancement. Using the non-contact full-field strain measuring device, infrared temperature distribution measuring device and the thermocouple temperature measuring device, the variation laws of the coal temperature field and strain field around the borehole with time are measured after the liquid nitrogen cold shock on the borehole of coal samples in the open environment. By establishing a thermal-stress model including elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, thermal expansion coefficient, temperature difference of measuring points and radius parameters of measuring points, the experiments are designed to measure the parameters of models and the parameters are input into the models for solution. The thermal stress at different positions in coal and rock and its variation law with cold shock distance and time are calculated, and the above laws of three types of coals with different metamorphic degrees are compared. The results show that in the process of liquid nitrogen cold shock, the temperature at each measuring point of three types of coal samples all shows a variation law of rapid decrease-slow decrease-stability, and the thermal stress at each measuring point has experienced three stages: rapid growth-slow growth-zero growth. The closer to the cold shock borehole, the greater the temperature difference between adjacent measuring points, and the greater the thermal stress. After 1 800 s of liquid nitrogen cold shock, the thermal stress at each measuring point of three kinds of coal samples basically reached a stable stage, and the thermal stress at 1 cm from the cold shock drilling hole was ≥ 1.84 MPa. The cold shock of liquid nitrogen can cause four kinds of deformation in the coal, and then damage the coal. Among them, the type II, III, IV deformation caused by “pressure-induced tension” and the compound deformation of three are the fundamental reasons for the formation of complex cracks in the coal. However, although the range of cooling and deformation of different coals is different, the overall range of action is limited, and it can only produce damage around the borehole. Therefore, the liquid nitrogen cold shock technology is suggested to be applied in combination with fracturing technologies, and the damage around the borehole after cold shock can effectively reduce the initiation pressure and make the fracturing fracture more complicated.

Mobile Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications have achieved the explosive growth in recent years. The mobile IIoT has flourished and become the backbone of the industry, laying a solid foundation for the interconnection of all things. The variety of application scenarios has brought serious challenges to mobile IIoT networks, which face complex and changeable communication environments. Ensuring data secure transmission is critical for mobile IIoT networks. This paper investigates the data secure transmission performance prediction of mobile IIoT networks. To cut down computational complexity, we propose a data secure transmission scheme employing Transmit Antenna Selection (TAS). The novel secrecy performance expressions are first derived. Then, to realize real-time secrecy analysis, we design an improved Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, and propose an intelligent data secure transmission performance prediction algorithm. For mobile signals, the important features may be removed by the pooling layers. This will lead to negative effects on the secrecy performance prediction. A novel nine-layer improved CNN model is designed. Out of the input and output layers, it removes the pooling layer and contains six convolution layers. Elman, Back-Propagation (BP) and LeNet methods are employed to compare with the proposed algorithm. Through simulation analysis, good prediction accuracy is achieved by the CNN algorithm. The prediction accuracy obtains a 59% increase.

In this article, well-posedness for two types of bilevel vector equilibrium problems with variable domination structures are introduced and studied. With the help of cosmically upper continuity or Hausdorff upper semi-continuity for variable domination structures, sufficient and necessary conditions are given for such problems to be Levitin-Polyak (LP) well-posed and LP well-posedness in the generalized sense. As variable domination structure is a valid generalization of fixed one, the main results obtained in this article extend and develop some recent works in the literature.

Melanoma is one of the most dangerous tumors due to its high-grade malignancy. Though patients in early stage can be completely cured by surgery, for high-risk cases (stage ⅡB-Ⅳ), adjuvant therapy is of great importance to prolong the survival and improve the prognosis. In recent years, thanks to the booming development of systemic regimen, the perioperative managements for stage Ⅲ cases have been continuously evolving. In the current paper, we focused on the role of lymph node biopsy and surgical resection, postoperative adjuvant therapy options, as well as the cutting-edge neoadjuvant therapy development, aiming to provide new perioperative strategies for stage Ⅲ melanoma patients.

The formation of Am(Ⅲ) colloid and its adsorption behaviors on bentonite colloid were investigated in Beishan 03 groundwater. A series of influencing factors, such as, pH, CO2 concentration in gas atmosphere, ionic strength and temperature, on colloidal stability and adsorption behavior were explored using Zeta potential laser particle size analyzer, asymmetric flow field flow fractionation system(AF4) and batch experimental method. The results show that the formation and stability of Am(Ⅲ) are closely dependent on the chemical natures of aqueous solution. Increasing temperature or increasing ionic strength will reduce the stability of Am(Ⅲ) colloids, while the increase of carbon dioxide concentration and pH will be beneficial to the stability of Am(Ⅲ) colloid. In addition, with the increase of pH, the density of Am(Ⅲ)-bentonite colloid particles increases, while the Am(Ⅲ) adsorption rate first decreases and then increases; the increase of ionic strength is favor of Am(Ⅲ) adsorption, but the density of colloidal particles decreases; the increase of CO2 concentration in gas phase has a promoting effect on particle density and Am(Ⅲ) adsorption.

In this paper, reduction-oxidation between Se and iron-based materials(pure iron and 304L stainless steel) was carried out in glove box under ambient temperature and low-oxygen. Using ion chromatography to analyse the concentration changes of sodium selenate solution and sodium selenite solution in which iron-based materials were immersed. The iron-based material samples before and after the reaction were analysed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer(EDS) and Raman spectrometry. The results show that the oxidation-reduction reaction rate of SeO2-4/SeO2-3 and pure iron is significantly faster than that of SeO2-4/SeO2-3 and 304L stainless steel; the reaction rate of ironbased materials and SeO2-3 is higher than that of iron-based materials and SeO2-4.

A mechanically compliant and robust sensing material is essential for accurate and reliable thermal sensing. Here, the authors report the use of elastic organic crystals as fluorescence-based thermal sensors that cover a wide range of temperatures with complete retention of the sensor’s elasticity.

Mentha canadensis L. is an important spice crop and medicinal herb with high economic value. The plant is covered with peltate glandular trichomes, which are responsible for the biosynthesis and secretion of volatile oils. Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) belong to a complex multigenic family involved in various plant physiological processes. Here, we cloned and identified a non-specific lipid transfer protein gene (McLTPII.9) from M. canadensis, which may positively regulate peltate glandular trichome density and monoterpene metabolism. McLTPII.9 was expressed in most M. canadensis tissues. The GUS signal driven by the McLTPII.9 promoter in transgenic Nicotiana tabacum was observed in stems, leaves, and roots; it was also expressed in trichomes. McLTPII.9 was associated with the plasma membrane. Overexpression of McLTPII.9 in peppermint (Mentha piperita. L) significantly increased the peltate glandular trichome density and total volatile compound content compared with wild-type peppermint; it also altered the volatile oil composition. In McLTPII.9-overexpressing (OE) peppermint, the expression levels of several monoterpenoid synthase genes and glandular trichome development-related transcription factors—such as limonene synthase (LS), limonene-3-hydroxylase (L3OH), geranyl diphosphate synthase (GPPS), HD-ZIP3, and MIXTA—exhibited varying degrees of alteration. McLTPII.9 overexpression resulted in both a change in expression of genes for terpenoid biosynthetic pathways which corresponded with an altered terpenoid profile in OE plants. In addition, peltate glandular trichome density was altered in the OE plants as well as the expression of genes for transcription factors that were shown to be involved in trichome development in plants.

The design of efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is of great significance for improving the energy efficiency of water electrolysis for hydrogen production. In this work, low-temperature fluorination and the introduction of a conductive substrate strategy greatly improve the OER performance in alkaline solutions. Cobalt–iron fluoride nanosheets supported on reduced graphene architectures are constructed by a one-step solvothermal method and further low-temperature fluorination treatment. The conductive graphene architectures can increase the conductivity of catalysts, and the transition metal ions act as electron acceptors to reduce the Fermi level of graphene, resulting in a low OER overpotential. The surface of the catalyst becomes porous and rough after fluorination, which can expose more active sites and improve the OER performance. Finally, the catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic performance in 1 M KOH, and the overpotential is 245 mV with a Tafel slope of 90 mV dec−1, which is better than the commercially available IrO2 catalyst. The good stability of the catalyst is confirmed with a chronoamperometry (CA) test and the change in surface chemistry is elucidated by comparing the XPS before and after the CA test. This work provides a new strategy to construct transition metal fluoride-based materials for boosted OER catalysts.

Abstract Background Mentha canadensis L. has important economic value for the production of essential oils, which are synthesised, secreted and stored in peltate glandular trichomes. As a typical multicellular secretory trichome, glandular trichomes are important biological factories for the synthesis of some specialised metabolites. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of glandular trichome development in M. canadensis. Results In this study, the R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene McMIXTA was isolated to investigate its function in glandular trichome development. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that McMIXTA belonged to the subgroup 9 R2R3-MYB, with a R2R3 DNA-binding domain and conserved subgroup 9 motifs. A subcellular localisation assay indicated that McMIXTA was localised in the nucleus. Transactivation analysis indicated that McMIXTA was a positive regulator, with transactivation regions located between positions N253 and N307. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays showed that McMIXTA formed a complex with McHD-Zip3, a trichome development-related HD-ZIP IV transcription factor. Overexpression of McMIXTA in Mentha × piperita L. caused an increase in peltate glandular trichomes density of approximately 25% on the leaf abaxial surface. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that the subgroup 9 R2R3-MYB transcription factor McMIXTA has a positive effect on regulating peltate glandular trichome development and the MIXTA/HD-ZIP IV complexes might be conserved regulators for glandular trichome initiation. These results provide useful information for revealing the regulatory mechanism of multicellular glandular trichome development.

Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) cold shock on coal reservoir is a promising technology, and its complex fracture networks are directly related to the temperature effect of each component in coal caused by temperature change. Among them, the typical temperature effects include the expansion difference of different mineral particles, the evaporation of pore water and the volume expansion of gas heated, and the phase transition of water into ice. The above-mentioned effects will all occur in the process of cold shock and temperature returning of coal samples, and further influence the generation of fractures. In this paper, the relationship between minerals, moisture and porosity of six kinds of coals in the range of −30 °C–40 °C and the overall thermal expansion coefficient of coal samples is explored by using low-temperature thermal expansion coefficient tester, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance tester, XRD diffraction analyzer, CT scanner and muffle furnace industrial analyzer. It is found that the main minerals in coal are generally lower than the thermal expansion coefficient of the whole coal. The moisture and porosity of coals are proportional to the overall thermal expansion coefficient of coal samples. Among them, the porosity of small holes accounts for the highest proportion, and its internal moisture and gas have the greatest influence on the overall thermal expansion of coal, which indicates that the temperature effect of pore water evaporation and gas volume expansion in pores plays an important role in the process of coal temperature change.

miR-30b, which is encoded by the gene located on chromosome 8q24.22, plays an important role in a variety of diseases. In most types of tumors, miR-30b significantly inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of cancer cells through the regulation of target genes. Moreover, miR-30b can inhibit the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway through the regulation of EGFR, AKT, Derlin-1, GNA13, SIX1, and other target genes, thus inhibiting the EMT process of tumor cells and promoting apoptosis. In addition, miR-30 plays a significant role in alleviating drug resistance in tumor cells. Although the use of miR-30b as a clinical diagnostic indicator or anticancer drug is still facing great difficulties in the short term, with the deepening of research, the potential application of miR-30b is emerging.

The pancreatic leak after pancreaticoduodenectomy was one of the main causes of postoperative death, the rate of which remained high. Octreotide, an octapeptide somatostatin analogue, has been used in the prevention and treatment of postoperative pancreatic leak since the 1 990 s. However, octreotide availability was controversial until now. The study on the prevention of pancreatic leak after pancreaticoduodenectomy using octreotide was reviewed in this article.

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is a phosphomonoester hydrolase and serves as a biomarker in various diseases. However, current detection methods for ALP rely on bulky instruments, extended time, and complex operations, which are particularly challenging in resource-limited regions. Herein, we synthesized a MOF-derived Fe-N-C nanozyme to create biosensors for the coulometric and visual detection of ALP. Specifically, we found the Fe-N-C nanozyme can efficiently oxidize 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to generate blue-colored tetramethyl benzidine (TMBox) without the need for H2O2. To construct the biosensor, we incorporated the ALP enzymatic catalytic reaction to inhibit the oxidation of TMB by Fe-N-C oxidase nanozyme. This biosensor showed rapid and highly sensitive detection of ALP in both buffer and clinical samples. The limit of detection (LOD) of our approach could be achieved at 3.38 U L−1, and the linear range was from 5 to 60 U L−1. Moreover, we also developed a visual detection for ALP by using a smartphone-based assay and facilitated practical and accessible point-and-care testing (POCT) in resource-limited areas. The visual detection method also achieved a similar LOD of 2.12 U L−1 and a linear range of 5–60 U L−1. Our approach presents potential applications for other biomarker detections by using ALP-based ELISA methods.

Community question answering (CQA), with its flexible user interaction characteristics, is gradually becoming a new knowledge-sharing platform that allows people to acquire knowledge and share experiences. The number of questions is rapidly increasing with the open registration of communities and the massive influx of users, which makes it impossible to match many questions to suitable question answering experts (noted as experts) in a timely manner. Therefore, it is of great importance to perform expert recommendation in CQA. Existing expert recommendation algorithms only use data from a single platform, which is not ideal for new CQA platforms with sparse historical interaction and a small number of questions and users. Considering that many mature CQA platforms (source platforms) have rich historical interaction data and a large amount of questions and experts, this paper will fully mine the information and transfer it to new platforms with sparse data (target platform), which can effectively alleviate the data sparsity problem. However, the feature composition of questions and experts in different platforms is inconsistent, so the data from the source platform cannot be directly transferred for training in the target platform. Therefore, this paper proposes feature-alignment-based cross-platform question answering expert recommendation (FA-CPQAER), which can align expert and question features while transferring data. First, we use the rating predictor composed by the BP network for expert recommendation within the domains, and then the feature matching of questions and experts between two domains by similarity calculation is achieved for the purpose of using the information in the source platform to assist expert recommendation in the target platform. Meanwhile, we train a stacked denoising autoencoder (SDAE) in both domains, which can map user and question features to the same dimension and align the data distributions. Extensive experiments are conducted on two real CQA datasets, Toutiao and Zhihu datasets, and the results show that compared to the other advanced expert recommendation algorithms, this paper’s method achieves better results in the evaluation metrics of MAE, RMSE, Accuracy, and Recall, which fully demonstrates the effectiveness of the method in this paper to solve the data sparsity problem in expert recommendation.

Abstract Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression precipitated by substance use occurred during both use and withdrawal. Exosomes play significant roles in biological functions and regulate numerous physiological and pathological processes in various diseases, in particular substance use disorders (SUDs) and other psychiatric disorders. To better understand the role of exosomal miRNAs in the pathology of symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with SUDs, we first isolated circulating exosomes from heroin-dependent patients (HDPs) and methamphetamine-dependent patients (MDPs) and identified exosomal miRNAs that were differentially expressed between patients and healthy controls (HCs). Furthermore, the correlations between exosomal DE-miRNAs and symptoms of anxiety and depression which were measured using Hamilton-Anxiety (HAM-A)/Hamilton-Depression (HAM-D) Rating Scales in the participants. Notably, the expression level of exosomal hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-129-5p, hsa-miR-363-3p, and hsa-miR-92a-3p showed significantly negative correlations with HAM-A scores in both HDPs and MDPs. But all of the 4 DE-miRNAs lost significant correlations with HAM-D scores in HDPs. Functional annotation analyses showed that the target genes of the DE-miRNAs were mainly enriched for “synapse”, “cell adhesion”, “focal adhesion” and “MHC class II protein complex”. Our study suggests that a set of circulating exosomal miRNAs were associated with anxiety and depression in SUD patients and may have clinical utility as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

Recent technological advances in the field of microfluidic chips have provided great opportunities to boost the development of exosome-based cancer diagnosis. The emerging microfluidic chips with intrinsic multi-functions can be highly competent for the establishment of next-generation analysis platform for exosome. Herein, efforts are made to give in-depth insights into the recent advances of engineering microfluidic chips on the representative examples of the current exosome-related research, ranging from exosome separation, enrichment, controllable release to downstream analysis. We discussed the challenges and solutions for the exosome analysis in the cancer diagnosis, especially the exosome heterogeneity, single exosome analysis, combination analysis of the exosomal protein and nucleic acid and the immuno-therapy related monitoring. The development trends and promising research directions of the exosome study in the future were also discussed. This review will shed light on facilitating design of novel microfluidic chips for the exosome mediated cancer diagnosis.

Migraine is a common clinical chronic neurovascular disease, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients. Studies have shown that patent foramen ovale (PFO) may be related to migraine, such as transient hypoxemia caused by patent foramen ovale related right ⁃ to ⁃ left shunt, or vasoactive substances passing through an unclosed oval foramen, avoiding lung tissue metabolism and directly entering the arterial system, and contradictory micro ⁃ embolism and other mechanisms may be related to migraines related to patent foramen ovale, especially migraine with aura. The closure of patent foramen ovale can benefit some migraine patients. This article intends to outline the relationship between patent foramen ovale and migraine, and its mechanism, prevention and treatment.

Evolved over eons to encode biological assays, plants-derived natural products are still the first dawn of drugs. Most researchers have focused on natural compounds derived from commonly used Pimpinella species, such as P. anisum, P. thellungiana, P. saxifrage, and P. brachycarpa, to investigate their antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Ethnopharmacological studies demonstrated that the genus Pimpinella has the homology characteristics of medicine and food and mainly in the therapy of gastrointestinal dysfunction, respiratory diseases, deworming, and diuresis. The natural product investigation of Pimpinella spp. revealed numerous natural products containing phenylpropanoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, sterols, and organic acids. These natural products have the potential to provide future drugs against crucial diseases, such as cancer, hypertension, microbial and insectile infections, and severe inflammations. It is an upcoming field of research to probe a novel and pharmaceutically clinical value on compounds from the genus Pimpinella. In this review, we attempt to summarize the present knowledge on the traditional applications, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of more than twenty-five species of the genus Pimpinella.

Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS) connect intelligent manufacturing equipment equipped with sensors, wireless and RFID communication technologies through data interaction, which makes the interior of the factory, even between factories, become a whole. However, intelligent factories will suffer information leakage and equipment damage when being attacked by ICPS intrusion. Therefore, the network security of ICPS cannot be ignored, and researchers have conducted in-depth research on network intrusion detection for ICPS. Though machine learning and deep learning methods are often used for network intrusion detection, the problem of data imbalance can cause the model to pay attention to the misclassification cost of the prevalent class, but ignore that of the rare class, which seriously affects the classification performance of network intrusion detection models. Considering the powerful generative power of the diffusion model, we propose an ICPS Intrusion Detection system based on the Diffusion model (IDD). Firstly, data corresponding to the rare class is generated by the diffusion model, which makes the training dataset of different classes balanced. Then, the improved BiLSTM classification network is trained on the balanced training set. Extensive experiments are conducted to show that the IDD method outperforms the existing baseline method on several available datasets.

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (S. suis 2) is an important swine pathogen and also an emerging zoonotic agent. HtpsA has been reported as an immunogenic cell surface protein on the bacterium. In the present study, we constructed an isogenic mutant strain of htpsA, namely ΔhtpsA, to study its role in the development and virulence of S. suis 2. Our results showed that the mutant strain lost its typical encapsulated structure with decreased concentrations of sialic acid. Furthermore, the survival rate in whole blood, the anti-phagocytosis by RAW264.7 murine macrophage, and the adherence ability to HEp-2 cells were all significantly affected in the ΔhtpsA. In addition, the deletion of htpsA sharply attenuated the virulence of S. suis 2 in an infection model of mouse. RNA-seq analysis revealed that 126 genes were differentially expressed between the ΔhtpsA and the wild-type strains, including 28 upregulated and 98 downregulated genes. Among the downregulated genes, many were involved in carbohydrate metabolism and synthesis of virulence-associated factors. Taken together, htpsA was demonstrated to play a role in the morphological development and pathogenesis of the highly virulent S. suis 2 05ZYH33 strain.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive subtype known for its extremely high drug resistance, progression, poor prognosis, and lack of clear therapeutic targets. Researchers are aiming to advance TNBC treatment worldwide. In the past 2–3 years, more positive results have emerged in the clinical research on TNBC treatment. Based on the results, several impressive drugs have been approved to benefit patients with TNBC, including the PARP inhibitors olaparib and talazoparib for germline BRCA mutation-associated breast cancer (gBRCAm-BC) and immunotherapy using the checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel for programmed cell death-ligand 1-positive (PD-L1+) advanced TNBC. Although neoadjuvant therapy has focused on combinations of systemic agents to optimize pathologically complete response, metastatic TNBC still has a poor prognosis. Innovative multidrug combination systemic therapies based on neoadjuvants and adjuvants have led to significant improvements in outcomes, particularly over the past decade.

In this study, Massachusetts Consortium for Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR) investigators assess the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and COVID-19 disease severity and report that the levels of detectable viral RNA, especially in plasma, correlates with severity of respiratory disease, inflammatory markers and predicted risk of death.

Abstract Background Peripheral perfusion index (PPI) is an indicator reflecting perfusion. Patients undergoing long time surgeries are more prone to hypoperfusion and increased lactate. Few studies focusing on investigating the association between PPI and surgical patients’ prognoses. We performed this study to find it out. Methods From January 2019 to September 2019, we retrospected all surgical patients who were transferred to ICU, Xinyang Central hospital, Henan province, China. Inclusive criteria: age ≥ 18 years old; surgical length ≥ 120 min. Exclusive criteria: died in ICU; discharging against medical advice; existing diseases affecting blood flow of upper limbs, for example, vascular thrombus in arms; severe liver dysfunction. We defined “prolonged ICU stay” as patients with their length of ICU stay longer than 48 h. According to the definition, patients were divided into two groups: “prolonged group” (PG) and “non-prolong group” (nPG). Baseline characteristics, surgical and therapeutic information, ICU LOS, SOFA and APACHE II were collected. Besides we gathered data of following parameters at 3 time points (T0: ICU admission; T1: 6 h after admission; T2: 12 h after admission): mean artery pressure (MAP), lactate, heart rate (HR), PPI and body temperature. Data were compared between the 2 groups. Multivariable binary logistic regression and ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves were performed to find the association between perfusion indictors and ICU LOS. Results Eventually, 168 patients were included, 65 in PG and 103 in nPG. Compared to nPG, patients in PG had higher blood lactate and lower PPI. PPI showed significant difference between two groups earlier than lactate (T0 vs T1). The value of PPI at two time points was lower in PG than nPG(T0: 1.09 ± 0.33 vs 1.41 ± 0.45, p = 0.001; T1: 1.08 ± 0.37 vs 1.49 ± 0.41, p 48 h was 0.772, and the cutoff value for PPIT1 was 1.35, with 83.3% sensitivity and 73.8% specificity. Conclusions PPI and blood lactate at T1(6 h after ICU admission) are associated with ICU LOS in surgical patient. Compared to lactate, PPI indicates hypoperfusion earlier and more accurate in predicting prolonged ICU stay.

Glehnia littoralis is a medicinal halophyte that inhabits sandy beaches and has high ecological and commercial value. However, the molecular mechanism of salt adaptation in G. littoralis remains largely unknown. Here, we cloned and identified a non-specific phospholipase C gene (GlNPC3) from G. littoralis, which conferred lipid-mediated signaling during the salt stress response. The expression of GlNPC3 was induced continuously by salt treatment. Overexpression of GlNPC3 in Arabidopsis thaliana increased salt tolerance compared to wild-type (WT) plants. GlNPC3-overexpressing plants had longer roots and higher fresh and dry masses under the salt treatment. The GlNPC3 expression pattern revealed that the gene was expressed in most G. littoralis tissues, particularly in roots. The subcellular localization of GlNPC3 was mainly at the plasma membrane, and partially at the tonoplast. GlNPC3 hydrolyzed common membrane phospholipids, such as phosphotidylserine (PS), phosphoethanolamine (PE), and phosphocholine (PC). In vitro enzymatic assay showed salt-induced total non-specific phospholipase C (NPC) activation in A. thaliana GlNPC3-overexpressing plants. Plant lipid profiling showed a significant change in the membrane-lipid composition of A. thaliana GlNPC3-overexpressing plants compared to WT after the salt treatment. Furthermore, downregulation of GlNPC3 expression by virus-induced gene silencing in G. littoralis reduced the expression levels of some stress-related genes, such as SnRK2, P5SC5, TPC1, and SOS1. Together, these results indicated that GlNPC3 and GlNPC3-mediated membrane lipid change played a positive role in the response of G. littoralis to a saline environment.