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Abstract This study utilizes a multidisciplinary approach, combining simulation experiments, thermal expansion analysis, XRD, SEM, and physical property assessments to investigate the firing temperature in illitic-kaolinitic porcelain. Our findings indicate that the accuracy of the thermal expansion method depends on both the actual firing temperature and dwell time. When dwell time is uncertain, the method provides a range of possible actual firing temperatures, differing by approximately 100 °C. Remarkably, as the porcelain body nears full vitrification, the determined firing temperature tends to be notably higher. A critical analysis of previous research suggests potential overestimation of ancient kiln temperatures. Additionally, our study highlights the usefulness of bulk density, water absorption, porosity, and mullite content in determining dwell time. Overall, our research offers new insights into ancient porcelain firing processes.

ObjectTo clarify the clinical efficacy of washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) for metabolic syndrome (MetS), and explore the differences in the metabolic profile of bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) in donor fecal bacteria suspension received by MetS patients with good and poor outcomes, and to construct a predictive model for the efficacy of WMT for MetS using differential metabolites.MethodsMedical data 65 MetS patients who had completed at least 2 courses of WMT from 2017.05 to 2023.07 were collected. Fecal bacteria suspension of WMT donors were collected, and the clinical data of MetS patients treated with WMT during this period were collected as well. The changes of BMI, blood glucose, blood lipids, blood pressure and other indicators before and after WMT were compared. OMVs were isolated from donor fecal bacteria suspension and off-target metabolomic sequencing was performed by Liquid Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (LC–MS).ResultsCompared with baseline, Body mass index (BMI), Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of MetS patients showed significant decreases after the 1st (short-term) and 2nd (medium-term) courses, and fasting blood glucose (FBG) also showed significant decreases after the 1st session. There was a significant difference between the Marked Response OMVs and the Moderate Response OMVs. It was showed that 960 metabolites were significantly up-regulated in Marked Response OMVs and 439 metabolites that were significantly down-regulated. The ROC model suggested that 9-carboxymethoxymethylguanine, AUC = 0.8127, 95% CI [0.6885, 0.9369], was the most potent metabolite predicting the most available metabolite for efficacy.ConclusionWMT had significant short-term and medium-term clinical efficacy in MetS. There were differences in the structure of metabolites between Marked Response OMVs and Moderate Response OMVs. The level of 9-Carboxy methoxy methylguanine in Marked Response OMVs can be a good predictor of the efficacy of WMT in the treatment of MetS.

Al7075 sheets are usually manufactured by plastic deformation process owing to its effective strength enhancement, but the high strength and low plasticity restrict the application of plastic deformed Al7075 sheets. This study applies hot multi-DoF (degrees of freedom) forming process to manufacturing Al7075 sheets, and investigates the microstructure and mechanical property evolution of Al7075 sheets during the forming process. The results show that grain size decreases from 21.37 μm to 7.27 μm, which is mainly because that the strong multi-directional metal flow could lead to intensive lattice rotation and dislocation movement throughout all matrix grains and cause rapid grain boundary formation. The Cube texture and Goss texture mutually transform in initial deformation stage and both textures ultimately transform into Copper texture in final deformation stage. The 50% deformation amount is the turning point of mechanical property transformation: (1) When deformation amount is below 50%, tensile strength/yield strength linearly increases and plasticity linearly decreases, which is due to the severe dislocation multiplication and dominant work hardening in this deformation stage. (2) When deformation amount exceeds 50%, the strength-plasticity collaboratively improve, which is mainly because that on one hand, effective grain refinement promotes strong grain boundary strengthening, and on the other hand, increasing grain boundaries promote the coordinated deformation between matrix grains and delay crack initiation and propagation during tensile deformation.

Abstract Multi-image steganography, a technique for concealing information within multiple carrier mediums, finds remote sensing images to be particularly apt carriers due to their complex structures and abundant texture data. These characteristics bolster the resilience against steganalysis and enhance steganographic capacity. The efficacy of multi-image steganography hinges on the diplomatic strategy of cover selection and the meticulous allocation of the payload. Nevertheless, the majority of current methods, which are empirically formulated, predominantly focus on the texture complexity of individual images, thereby potentially undermining overall security. This paper introduces a security-oriented approach to steganographic payload allocation for multiple remote sensing images aimed at fortifying the security of multi-image steganography. Our primary contributions include employing a steganalysis pre-trained network to quantify texture complexity in remote sensing cover images, directly correlating it with security. Additionally, we have developed an adaptive payload allocation strategy for multiple images, which embeds a payload proximate to each image’s maximal steganographic capacity while concurrently ensuring the security of the embedding process. Experimental results corroborate that our methodology excels in cover selection and payload allocation and achieves better undetectability against modern steganalysis tools.

Previous studies have specifically demonstrated that incorporating high-quality side-information can notably enhance the steganographic security of JPEG images. To obtain more precise side-information estimates, researchers utilize sophisticated deblocking or denoising filters, which enhance security but require a substantial amount of time. The challenge lies in achieving a significant improvement in security and efficiency. This paper introduces a steganographic network named WTSNet, which leverages wavelet transform for estimating side-information through iterative optimization in both the pixel and wavelet domains. The wavelet domain is purposely designed to capture intricate high-frequency texture details and facilitate precise estimation of the side-information. Furthermore, the embedding cost is adjusted based on the polarity of the estimated rounding error, ensuring both secure and efficient performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme substantially enhances the security of conventional JPEG steganography, which relies on additive distortion. Moreover, it outperforms the state-of-the-art JPEG steganography methods based on estimating side-information while consuming less time.

Loading rate is usually considered as a significant factor affecting formability of AZ91 magnesium alloy structural components. Herein, uniaxial tensile tests are conducted on extruded-annealed AZ91 alloy under room temperature with strain rates ranging from 1 × 10−4 s−1 to 1 × 10−2 s−1. Mechanical properties, microstructure characteristics, and fracture morphologies tensioned at these different strain rates are investigated. Extruded-annealed AZ91 alloy exhibits a positive strain-rate dependence of strength and a negative strain-rate dependence of elongation. With strain rate increasing, strain rate sensitivity basically decreases while strain-hardening rate increases. At higher strain rate, the larger strength is mainly attributed to the more rapid accumulation of dislocation and the larger dislocation density, and the lower elongation is mostly owing to the more elevated level of inhomogeneous deformation related with dislocations accumulation. As strain rate increases, the area fraction of basal texture increases while that of prismatic and pyramid texture decreases in tensioned samples, which is associated with the dominant room-temperature deformation mode of basal-slip and twinning co-induced lattice rotation. With tension strain rate increasing, there are three kinds of fracture modes including ductile facture with more and deeper dimples at low strain rate, ductile-brittle facture with some dimples and cleavage planes at mediate strain rate and brittle facture with dominant cleavage planes at high strain rate.

The use of fertilizers is mainly adopted in arid regions to improve the soil carbon (C) pool and crop productivity. However, the mechanisms underlying improvements in dryland wheat field soils related to microbial metabolic activity and community structure remain poorly understood. Therefore, a field experiment with four fertilization treatments and no fertilizer as the control (CK) was conducted for 10 years in a semi-arid region of China. The results revealed that the combined application of chemical and organic fertilizers (fermented chicken manure) clearly increased the levels of soil organic carbon (SOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and light-fraction organic carbon (LFOC) by 13.54–16.72%, 6.96–9.01%, and 11.00–13.51%, respectively, compared to the sole use of chemical fertilizers (FP treatment). Moreover, the combined treatment not only enhanced the metabolic activity of microorganisms concerning carbon source utilization but also increased the diversity of the bacterial community. This caused noticeable changes in the composition of the bacterial community. A Mantel test analysis revealed that Bacteroidetes and Mortierellomycota significantly enhanced the metabolic activity associated with carbohydrate, amino acid, and carboxylic acid C sources. Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Mortierellomycota facilitated the accumulation of active C and particulate organic carbon (POC), whereas Mortierellomycota specifically promoted the accumulation of heavy-fraction organic carbon (HFOC), thereby collectively influencing the SOC content. The combined application of chemical and organic fertilizers increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Mortierellomycota. This enhancement improved the metabolic utilization of carbohydrates, amino acids, and carboxylic acids, resulting in alterations in the types and quantities of soil metabolites. Consequently, these alterations ultimately affect the composition and quantity of the SOC pool in arid agroecosystems. In conclusion, the combined application of balanced NPK fertilizers and organic fertilizers has a strong positive effect in improving soil microbial activity and the soil C pool.

Abstract Background Changes in the gut microbiota composition is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and interventions targeting the gut microbiota present a potent approach for CKD treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of washed microbiota transplantation (WMT), a modified faecal microbiota transplantation method, on the renal activity of patients with renal dysfunction. Methods A comparative analysis of gut microbiota profiles was conducted in patients with renal dysfunction and healthy controls. Furthermore, the efficacy of WMT on renal parameters in patients with renal dysfunction was evaluated, and the changes in gut microbiota and urinary metabolites after WMT treatment were analysed. Results Principal coordinate analysis revealed a significant difference in microbial community structure between patients with renal dysfunction and healthy controls (P = 0.01). Patients with renal dysfunction who underwent WMT exhibited significant improvement in serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and blood urea nitrogen (all P

The applied patents related to Amomum tsaoko food were searched through the Baiten database to understand the layout and development trends of the patents related to Amomum tsaoko food. And the patent analysis method was used to statistically analyze the whole profile of the patents, trends in applications and authorization, territory of applications, applicants, legal status and events, patent value and layout of technical applications. A total of 3225 invention patents of Amomum tsaoko food were searched, including 641 authorized patents and 281 valid patents, which were distributed in Anhui, Jiangsu and Sichuan, etc. The results showed that the research and development of Amomum tsaoko food field began to enter a mature and stable period in 2019, and the authorized patents began to decline from 2015. The majority of patent applicants were enterprises, but the patent invalidation rate was high. There was a lack of patents with technical content, and the market conversion rate of patent economy was low. From the perspective of technical layout, the current active technology of Amomum tsaoko food patent applied to meat products, condiments, bean products, aquatic products and vegetable products, the innovation of health food and its extracts was slightly weak. In terms of health food, Amomum tsaoko had high recognition and attention for its health care efficacy in enhancing immunity, strengthening spleen and appetizing, and lowering blood pressure. The distribution pattern of patents related to Amomum tsaoko food was comprehensively analyzed in this paper, providing reference for the subsequent research and development of Amomum tsaoko food, and helping the upgrading of Amomum tsaoko industry.

Rapidly increasing plastics have been used and finally become wastes, resulting in increasing pressures to the environment. Microwave-assisted pyrolysis is a promising technology for converting organic wastes as waste plastics into value-added products. At present, many works on microwave-assisted pyrolysis of plastics have been published, but the achievements, challenges, and future directions of microwave-assisted pyrolysis of waste plastics have not been well summarized and discussed. In this work, the principle of microwave-assisted pyrolysis technology is introduced. Then, the progress of its application to recover useful products from plastics is reviewed and discussed in terms of key parameters including microwave power, pyrolysis temperature, reaction time, types of catalyst, microwave absorbents and feedstock mixing ratio. Especially, the yields and properties of the produced oil, gas and char are correlated with the process parameters. Finally, the existing challenges and prospects of disposal/reuse of waste plastics by microwave-assisted pyrolysis technology are discussed.

Abstract Reservoir computing (RC) has received recent interest because reservoir weights do not need to be trained, enabling extremely low-resource consumption implementations, which could have a transformative impact on edge computing and in-situ learning where resources are severely constrained. Ideally, a natural hardware reservoir should be passive, minimal, expressive, and feasible; to date, proposed hardware reservoirs have had difficulty meeting all of these criteria. We, therefore, propose a reservoir that meets all of these criteria by leveraging the passive interactions of dipole-coupled, frustrated nanomagnets. The frustration significantly increases the number of stable reservoir states, enriching reservoir dynamics, and as such these frustrated nanomagnets fulfill all of the criteria for a natural hardware reservoir. We likewise propose a complete frustrated nanomagnet reservoir computing (NMRC) system with low-power complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry to interface with the reservoir, and initial experimental results demonstrate the reservoir’s feasibility. The reservoir is verified with micromagnetic simulations on three separate tasks demonstrating expressivity. The proposed system is compared with a CMOS echo state network (ESN), demonstrating an overall resource decrease by a factor of over 10,000,000, demonstrating that because NMRC is naturally passive and minimal it has the potential to be extremely resource efficient.

Paederia foetida L. leaf (PFL) is recognized for its uric acid-lowering. However, the key compounds and their mechanisms of countering hyperuricemia remain unclear. In this study, bioaffinity ultrafiltration in combination with UPLC-ESI-QTrap-MS/MS was used to screen and identify potential xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitors in the purified PFL extract, and the possible mechanisms of their interaction were investigated by molecular docking. The experimental results showed that the purified PFL extract exhibited excellent antioxidant and anti-XO effect. Further the results of enzyme inhibition experiments in vitro showed that luteolin-7-O-glucoside (IC50 = 61.41 μg/mL), astragalin (IC50 = 114.89 μg/mL), quercitrin (IC50 = 124.50 μg/mL), dihydromyricetin (IC50 = 296.32 μg/mL), cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside (IC50 = 373.82 μg/mL), kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (IC50 = 450.10 μg/mL) and (-)-epigallocatechin (IC50 = 610.48 μg/mL) in purified PFL extract were the major contributors to the XO inhibitory activity, and confirmed this finding. Molecular docking revealed these inhibitors interact with critical XO residues through hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, and electrostatic interactions, highlighting flavonoids in purified PFL extract as potent XO inhibitors. This work provides insight into flavonoids in the purified PFL extract as potent XO inhibitors.

Aluminum alloy sheets with higher isotropy and finer grains possess larger post-formability and better mechanical properties. However, it is extremely difficult to simultaneously realize the isotropy improvement and grain refinement by conventional plastic deformation process. In this paper, a multidirectional rotary forging (MRF) process was applied to tune the isotropy degree and grain structure of Al7075 sheets. The isotropy behaviors of microstructure and mechanical property along different testing directions were investigated, and the grain refinement behaviors were studied. The microstructure analysis indicates that initial anisotropic textures firstly transform to different single textures individually, and then the lattice orientations of all these different single textures strongly rotate along 〈110〉 crystal direction to form the same multiple textures along 〈110〉//normal fiber, i.e. isotropic τ-fiber. The mechanical property analysis indicates that isotropic yield strength and tensile strength were obtained by MRF deformation, which was mainly attributed to the combined effect of texture isotropy and dislocation density isotropy. Strong grain refinement was achieved under the deformation amount of 70 %, and the final grain size was ∼ 0.8 μm, which were mainly contributed to the interaction effects of strong lattice rotation, complex slip system activation and dislocation gliding.

15Cr14Co12Mo5Ni2WA steel has huge application prospects in manufacturing aeroengine gears owing to its high strength and toughness. However, just because of its high strength, 15Cr14Co12Mo5Ni2WA steel is difficult to integrally deform at room temperature, which greatly restricts its industrial application. Cold rotary forging (CRF) is a local incremental metal forming process, and the small deformation force makes CRF ideal for deforming 15Cr14Co12Mo5Ni2WA steel. Thus, this paper is aimed to study the microstructure and mechanical property evolution mechanisms of 15Cr14Co12Mo5Ni2WA aviation gear steel during CRF process. The results show that grain size decreases from 26.2 μm to 16.9 μm, and the lattice orientation in each grain gradually becomes uniform during CRF process, which is mainly attributed to the combined effects of (Cr, Mo)23C6 carbide migration, dislocation movement and lattice rotation. Owing to the complex normal-external-transversal multi-directional metal flow, as-received ξ-fiber (//ND) firstly transforms to single dominant Brass texture in CRF-20% condition, and then transforms to θ-fiber (//ED) and Rotated-Cu texture at last deformation stage. Tensile/yield strength and Vickers hardness increase from 1049.3 MPa/1015.1 MPa and 316.6 HV in as-received condition to 1180.1 MPa/1146.7 MPa and 376.3 HV in CRF-50% condition, which is mainly attributed to the gradually increasing grain boundary strengthening, dislocation strengthening and secondary phase strengthening during CRF process.

A novel co-bonded octyl and pyridine silica (OPS) sorbent was prepared and applied for the solid phase extraction (SPE) of cyclopiazonic acid (CPA, a type of mycotoxin) in feed and agricultural products for the first time. A simple mixed-ligand one-pot reaction strategy was employed for OPS sorbent preparation. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, elemental analysis (EI), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis demonstrated the successful immobilization of octyl and quaternary ammonium groups onto the surface of silica gel. The large specific surface area, high-density functional groups, and mixed-mode anion-exchange characteristics of these silica particles made them the ideal material for the efficient extraction of CPA. Additionally, the OPS sorbents displayed excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility, satisfactory reusability, and low cost. The SPE parameters were optimized to explore the ionic and hydrophobic interactions between CPA and the functional groups, and the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) parameters were optimized to obtain a desirable extraction efficiency and high sensitivity to CPA. Meanwhile, the OPS sorbent presented a satisfactory extraction selectivity and low matrix effect. Under the optimized conditions, our developed CPA detection method was used to determine CPA level in rice, wheat flour, corn flour, peanut, and feed samples, exhibiting a lower detection limit, better linearity, higher sensitivity, and satisfactory extraction recovery rate than previously reported methods. Therefore, our method can be preferentially used as a method for the detection of CPA in agricultural products and feeds.

Abstract Background Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a severe idiopathic disorder of bile metabolism; however, the etiology and pathogenesis of ICP remain unclear. Aims This study comprehensively reviewed metabolomics studies related to ICP, to help in identifying the pathophysiological changes of ICP and evaluating the potential application of metabolomics in its diagnosis. Methods Relevant articles were searched through 2 online databases (PubMed and Web of Science) from January 2000 to March 2022. The metabolites involved were systematically examined and compared. Pathway analysis was conducted through the online software MetaboAnalyst 5.0. Results A total of 14 papers reporting 212 metabolites were included in this study. There were several highly reported metabolites: bile acids, such as glycocholic acid, taurochenodeoxycholic acid, taurocholic acid, tauroursodeoxycholic acid, and glycochenodeoxycholic acid. Dysregulation of metabolic pathways involved bile acid metabolism and lipid metabolism. Metabolites related to lipid metabolism include phosphatidylcholine, phosphorylcholine, phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, and ceramide. Conclusions This study provides a systematic review of metabolomics of ICP and deepens our understanding of the etiology of ICP.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is an innovative treatment for CD19-expressing lymphomas. CAR-T cells are primarily manufactured via lentivirus transfection or transposon electroporation. While anti-tumor efficacy comparisons between the two methods have been conducted, there is a current dearth of studies investigating the phenotypes and transcriptome alterations induced in T cells by the two distinct manufacturing methods. Here, we established CAR-T signatures using fluorescent imaging, flow cytometry, and RNA-sequencing. A small fraction of CAR-T cells that were produced using the PiggyBac transposon (PB CAR-T cells) exhibited much higher expression of CAR than those produced using a lentivirus (Lenti CAR-T cells). PB and Lenti CAR-T cells contained more cytotoxic T cell subsets than control T cells, and Lenti CAR-T cells presented a more pronounced memory phenotype. RNA-sequencing further revealed vast disparities between the two CAR-T cell groups, with PB CAR-T cells exhibiting greater upregulation of cytokines, chemokines, and their receptors. Intriguingly, PB CAR-T cells singularly expressed IL-9 and fewer cytokine release syndrome-associated cytokines when activated by target cells. In addition, PB CAR-T cells exerted faster in vitro cytotoxicity against CD19-expressing K562 cells but similar in vivo anti-tumor efficacy with Lenti CAR-T. Taken together, these data provide insights into the phenotypic alterations induced by lentiviral transfection or transposon electroporation and will attract more attention to the clinical influence of different manufacturing procedures.

The Loess Plateau in China has long grappled with issues such as chronic soil erosion, poor soil structure, and diminished organic matter. Soil organic carbon plays a crucial role in enhancing soil fertility, and fertilization is a key tool that influences it. In a comprehensive field experiment, we examined five fertilization methods: no fertilization (CK); traditional fertilization used by local farmers (FP); nutrient-balanced fertilization with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (OF); chemical fertilizers used in conjunction with organic fertilizers (OFM); and chemical fertilizers paired with bio-organic fertilizers (OFB). Our findings revealed that the OFM and OFB treatments were the most effective, explaining 84.35% and 81.26% of the variation in soil carbon sequestration, respectively. Further, the OF, OFM, and OFB treatments demonstrated superior effectiveness compared with the FP treatment in enhancing the soil carbon fractions. However, these fertilization patterns did not significantly alter the active-to-inert carbon ratio of the soil. OF, OFM, and OFB treatments enhanced the stability of soil carbon pools more than FP treatment. In structural equation modeling, factors such as microbial biomass nitrogen and phosphorus, soil pH, and β-N-acetyl glucosidase indirectly exhibited a limiting effect on the carbon pool stability index (CPSI), while β-glucosidase displayed an indirect positive correlation with the carbon fractions. In contrast, dissolved organic carbon, low-molecular-weight organic carbon, high-molecular-weight organic carbon, and crop yield demonstrated direct positive correlations with the CPSI. Consequently, both a balanced application of chemical fertilizers and the combination of organic and chemical fertilizers were effective in enhancing and sustaining the soil’s organic carbon content, thereby contributing to soil fertility stability. To this end, this study can inform the efficient selection and use of fertilizers, improving crop yield and soil carbon content.

In this paper, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is used in a C# environment to simulate the interaction between freak waves and bottom-fixed structures by establishing a fluid dynamics model. Paraview software 5.10.1 was used to analyze and visualize the simulation results. In order to simulate wave propagation accurately, the reliability of the model was verified by comparing experimental and simulated data. A two-dimensional numerical wave flume was established based on the SPH method, a conservative Riemann solver was introduced, a repulsive boundary condition was adopted, and a slope was used to eliminate wave reflection. Bottom-fixed structures of different heights and lengths, as well as different wave conditions, were selected to numerically simulate the interaction between freak waves and bottom-fixed structures. The results show that the height of bottom-fixed structures and wave conditions have a significant effect on hindering the propagation of rogue waves, while the length has little effect on the propagation of deformed waves. When the amplitude of the wave remains constant, both the period andthe duration of the deformed wave are longer. This research is of certain significance for the prediction of freak waves in marine engineering and the application and promotion of SPH methods.

The exceptional capabilities of the human brain provide inspiration for artificially intelligent hardware that mimics both the function and the structure of neurobiology. In particular, the recent development of nanodevices with biomimetic characteristics promises to enable the development of neuromorphic architectures with exceptional computational efficiency. In this work, we propose biomimetic neurons comprised of domain wall-magnetic tunnel junctions that can be integrated into the first trainable CMOS-free recurrent neural network with biomimetic components. This paper demonstrates the computational effectiveness of this system for benchmark tasks and its superior computational efficiency relative to alternative approaches for recurrent neural networks.

Research pertaining to threat modeling is significant. However, the existing threat modeling methods suffer from ambiguity, heterogeneity and incompleteness; furthermore, the threat models at different abstraction levels are separated from each other, and the model elements are fragmented. In the knowledge engineering community, an ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. Introducing the ontology method into the study of threat models is an effective way to solve the above problems. This paper creates a multiontology framework for the threat model of information systems (IS) based on domain knowledge (attack and defense knowledge), engineering experience, and industry standards (ISO/IEC 27032). The multiontology framework includes a generalized ontology (GO), a domain ontology (DO), and an application ontology (AO). This paper builds the ontology of each layer and ultimately presents case studies. The results show that the multiontology threat model based on adversarial attack and defense effectively solves the above problems of the existing threat modeling methods. In addition, systematic threat modeling using the multiontology method can be used not only for attack path-based threat analysis but also for adversarial attack and defense-based threat analysis. This method can help detect security issues and effectively guide security personnel.

Background: Overweight (OW) and obesity have become increasingly serious public health problems worldwide. The clinical impact of washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) from healthy donors in OW patients is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of WMT in OW patients. Methods: The changes in body mass index (BMI = weight (kg)/height (m)2), blood glucose, blood lipids and other indicators before and after WMT were compared. At the same time, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was performed on fecal samples of OW patients before and after transplantation. Finally, serum samples were tested for sphingolipids targeted by lipid metabolomics. Results: A total of 166 patients were included, including 52 in the OW group and 114 in the normal weight (NOW) group. For OW patients, WMT significantly improved the comprehensive efficacy of OW. In the short term (about 1 month) and medium term (about 2 months), a significant reduction in BMI was seen. At the same time, in the short term (about 1 month), liver fat attenuation (LFA), triglyceride (TG) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were significantly reduced. In the long term (about 5 months), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL-c), etc. were significantly reduced. WMT improved the gut microbiota of OW patients, and also had an improvement effect on OW patients by regulating sphingolipid metabolism. Conclusion: WMT had a significant improvement effect on OW patients. WMT could restore gut microbiota homeostasis and improve OW patients by regulating sphingolipid metabolism.

With the rapid development and widespread application of blockchain technology in recent years, smart contracts running on blockchains often face security vulnerability problems, resulting in significant economic losses. Unlike traditional programs, smart contracts cannot be modified once deployed, and vulnerabilities cannot be remedied. Therefore, the vulnerability detection of smart contracts has become a research focus. Most existing vulnerability detection methods are based on rules defined by experts, which are inefficient and have poor scalability. Although there have been studies using machine learning methods to extract contract features for vulnerability detection, the features considered are singular, and it is impossible to fully utilize smart contract information. In order to overcome the limitations of existing methods, this paper proposes a smart contract vulnerability detection method based on deep learning and multimodal decision fusion. This method also considers the code semantics and control structure information of smart contracts. It integrates the source code, operation code, and control-flow modes through the multimodal decision fusion method. The deep learning method extracts five features used to represent contracts and achieves high accuracy and recall rates. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy of our method for arithmetic vulnerability, re-entrant vulnerability, transaction order dependence, and Ethernet locking vulnerability can reach 91.6%, 90.9%, 94.8%, and 89.5%, respectively, and the detected AUC values can reach 0.834, 0.852, 0.886, and 0.825, respectively. This shows that our method has a good vulnerability detection effect. Furthermore, ablation experiments show that the multimodal decision fusion method contributes significantly to the fusion of different modalities.

Pythium insidiosum is a rare fungus-like pathogen that is known to cause pythiosis in mammals with high morbidity and mortality. Identification of the pathogen is essential for timely treatment and rational use of antibiotics. However, Pythium insidiosum is difficult to detect via conventional microbiological tests. The current gold standard is polymerase chain reaction, which is lacking in most hospitals since human pythiosis is rare in China. In this study, we used metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing and identified Pythium insidiosum in a 56-year-old Chinese male who was hospitalized due to severe edema in the right lower limb with scattered darkening indurations. The patient had a history of cirrhosis and occupational exposure to swamp water. Serological level of immune biomarkers indicated immunodeficiency, and Proteinase 3-Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody was positive. Surgical incision of the lesions revealed radiating and reticular cutaneous ulcers. Microbial infections were suspected but conventional tests failed to discover the etiology. Empirical use of penicillin, vancomycin, and ceftriaxone had no effect. As a result, the peripheral blood and tissue biopsies were sent for metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing, which reported Pythium insidiosum. This finding was corroborated by pathological staining, whole-genome sequencing, and internal transcribed spacer sequencing. Notably, antifungal treatment was ineffective, but the patient responded well to oral trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole, which may be due to the folp gene found in Pythium insidiosum genome. Our study prompts future studies to determine the optimal treatment of skin pythiosis.

Matrix completion has been widely used in image recovery and recommendation. The conventional matrix completion models based on multi-layer perceptron (MLP) only has local constraints on the observation data so that the completed matrix contains a lot of noise. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel matrix completion model based on the MLP integrating kernel regularization (MCKR). The proposed model uses the MLP to extract feature, which can automatically extract interaction feature of missing data and observational data. Moreover, through a non-linear mapping of low-dimensional latent subspace and schatten p-norm, a novel kernel regularization is derived to provide a global constraint for reducing the noise of the completed matrix. Finally, the validity and practicability of the proposed model is verified on three publicly available datasets. Compared with baselines including matrix factorization (MF), Logistic matrix factorization (LMF), expertise matrix factorization (EMF) and multi-layer perceptron (MLP), the proposed model achieves state-of-the-art result.

Abstract Background As a heavy metal, manganese (Mn) can be toxic to plants. Stylo (Stylosanthes) is an important tropical legume that exhibits tolerance to high levels of Mn. However, little is known about the adaptive responses of stylo to Mn toxicity. Thus, this study integrated both physiological and transcriptomic analyses of stylo subjected to Mn toxicity. Results Results showed that excess Mn treatments increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in leaves of stylo, resulting in the reduction of leaf chlorophyll concentrations and plant dry weight. In contrast, the activities of enzymes, such as peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), were significantly increased in stylo leaves upon treatment with increasing Mn levels, particularly Mn levels greater than 400 μM. Transcriptome analysis revealed 2471 up-regulated and 1623 down-regulated genes in stylo leaves subjected to Mn toxicity. Among them, a set of excess Mn up-regulated genes, such as genes encoding PAL, cinnamyl-alcohol dehydrogenases (CADs), chalcone isomerase (CHI), chalcone synthase (CHS) and flavonol synthase (FLS), were enriched in secondary metabolic processes based on gene ontology (GO) analysis. Numerous genes associated with transcription factors (TFs), such as genes belonging to the C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor, WRKY and MYB families, were also regulated by Mn in stylo leaves. Furthermore, the C2H2 and MYB transcription factors were predicted to be involved in the transcriptional regulation of genes that participate in secondary metabolism in stylo during Mn exposure. Interestingly, the activation of secondary metabolism-related genes probably resulted in increased levels of secondary metabolites, including total phenols, flavonoids, tannins and anthocyanidins. Conclusions Taken together, this study reveals the roles of secondary metabolism in the adaptive responses of stylo to Mn toxicity, which is probably regulated by specific transcription factors.

Amorphous-nanocrystalline (a-nc) boron carbide thin films were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) by using ortho-carborane as a single-source precursor for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) application. The effects of deposition temperature (Tdep) and total pressure (Ptot) on chemical composition, microstructure, stoichiometry and morphology of the boron carbide films were investigated. The TEM results show that the structure of the film is mainly composed of amorphous boron carbide with dispersive nano-grains, which will be able to improve the mechanical properties of the film with relatively low roughness. The hardness of the (a-nc) boron carbide film obtained in this study reached 20.6 GPa, and roughness of 3.21 nm. The deposited films sized 0.2–1.9 μm in thickness with B/C atomic ratio ranged from 0.14 to 3.29. The deposition rate decreased with increasing deposition temperature and Ptot, while B/C ratio increased.

The shale oil reservoir in the Lucaogou Formation in the Jimsar Sag, Junggar Basin has a complex lithology, complex pore structure, and strong heterogeneity. Conventional logging reservoir evaluation methods have difficulty accurately evaluating the lithology, physical properties, electrical properties, oil-bearing properties, source rock characteristics, brittleness, and horizontal in-situ stress. Starting from the logging response characteristics of complex lithologies, a multilevel, multi-logging parameter combination shale oil logging evaluation is proposed, and an evaluation model of the “seven properties” of shale oil reservoirs is established. This model is used to interpret the data in the study area and achieves good results, effectively solving the “three types of quality” evaluation problems of shale oil source rock quality, reservoir quality and engineering quality. Based on the comprehensive evaluation of the seven properties of logging, it is proposed that the lithology of the Lucaogou Formation shale oil determines the physical properties, brittleness, source rock properties, rock mechanical properties, contact relationships with the reservoir and physical property controls on the oil-bearing property; the “sweet spot” of shale oil in the Lucaogou Formation is clarified, providing effective support for the development of shale oil in the Jimsar Depression.

Topological solitons are exciting candidates for the physical implementation of next-generation computing systems. As these solitons are nanoscale and can be controlled with minimal energy consumption, they are ideal to fulfill emerging needs for computing in the era of big data processing and storage. Magnetic domain walls (DWs) and magnetic skyrmions are two types of topological solitons that are particularly exciting for next-generation computing systems in light of their non-volatility, scalability, rich physical interactions, and ability to exhibit non-linear behaviors. Here we summarize the development of computing systems based on magnetic topological solitons, highlighting logical and neuromorphic computing with magnetic DWs and skyrmions.

Due to its unique biological composition, aquatic products, especially fish, are extremely perishable compared to other muscle products. Herein, we proposed an artificial nanozyme-based colorimetric detection of hypoxanthine (Hx), the indicator of fish freshness, in a minute–time scale without the assistance of a natural enzyme (hypoxanthine oxidase). The principle is based on the interaction between Hx and polyvinylpyrrolidone-modified platinum cubic nanomaterials (PVP-PtNC), in which the catalytic active sites of PVP-PtNC’s surface were blocked by Hx. This causes the downregulation of PVP-PtNC’s catalytic ability and weakened its ability to catalyze the oxidization of 3,3′,5,5′-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) by H2O2. Accordingly, the decrease in the UV–vis absorption and the weakening of the colorimetric reaction color is proportional to the Hx concentration. On this basis, a target-triggered colorimetric method for detecting Hx is developed for fish freshness monitoring with a fast detection speed, low cost, high accuracy, and simplified operation. Experiments reveal that the correlation response of Hx is from 0.5 μM to 10 mM with a limit of detection of 0.16 μM. In particular, the Hx detected from real fish indicates that the method possesses a promising potential for practical application. All of these features are expected to promote the development of online detection tools for food safety monitoring.

The quality of unmanned aerial vehicle flight control and management system (UAV FCMS) software is crucial to guaranteeing the quality of UAVs. Software requirement elicitation (SRE) is an important part of the UAV FCMS software development process. However, this activity suffers from ambiguity, heterogeneity and incompleteness; furthermore, because the use of UAVs is closely related to their geographic environment, geographic environment factors must be fully considered when conducting UAV FCMS SRE activity. In the knowledge engineering community, an ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. Introducing the ontology method into the SRE process is an effective way to solve the above problems. This paper creates a UAV FCMS SRE ontology (SREO) based on domain knowledge and empirical data, as well as a geo-ontology based on geographic information metadata. Then, the paper integrates the above two ontologies into a new ontology. The goal of ontology integration is to analyze ontology concepts by adopting a hybrid ontology mapping method. The specific process analyzes the semantic similarities between the concepts of two ontologies and then decides whether to use a description logic (DL) strategy based on the analysis results. When the corresponding conditions are satisfied, the DL strategy is used to perform both direct and transitive reasoning for the relationships to achieve the ontology mapping, and the ontology integration is eventually implemented. Finally, this paper uses a criteria-based ontology evaluation approach to evaluate the quality of the newly integrated ontology. The evaluation results show that the UAV FCMS SREO considering geographic environment factors exhibits high quality. Further engineering practices also show that the SRE activities and the generated software requirement specifications (SRSs) exhibit a large increase in quality. Through the above activities, improvements to both the quality and reliability of UAV FCMS software can be achieved.

Morphological features have shown promising performances for hyperspectral image (HSIs) classification, as they can efficiently extract the multilevel spatial information of HSIs. However, the objects in the scenes are always with different sizes and shapes, making it difficult to excavate spatial information of important structures completely by the existing morphological methods. To address this problem, we propose a novel two-stage framework based on morphology and superpixel. Specifically, we propose self-dual saliency profiles (SPs) based on a saliency measure considering the grayscale contrast within objects and edge information. SPs are hierarchical features that characterize spatial information for salient objects whose saliency index is the significant local maxima. The SPs are constructed based on a two-step algorithm. First, all salient objects of different shapes in the scene are preserved, and the undesired spatial details are discarded by attribute filters based on the saliency measure. Second, the morphological feature is generated based on the organization structure of salient objects in the scene, which provides hierarchical spatial features of the image. Then, the superpixel segmentation is performed on each of the extracted SPs on the basis of the spatial information of salient objects. And, two types of superpixel-based features are extracted from SPs to exploit the information in SPs. The extracted innersuperpixel and intersuperpixel features are fused with spectral information to produce the classification map. The experiments conducted on three HSIs show that, the proposed approach significantly outperforms the other state-of-the-art methods.

Abstract Background Insulin resistance (IR) related metabolic disorders are associated with a worse prognosis of chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) infection or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the relationships among CHB, steatosis, IR and metabolic factors remain controversial. The study aims to evaluate the impact of insulin resistance severity on metabolic profiles in patients with CHB, NAFLD and the coincidence of the two. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study between January 2011 and December 2018 that included 2768 consecutive Chinese subjects (healthy controls: 667, CHB: 970, NAFLD: 878, CHB with NAFLD: 253). IR was determined with the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Metabolic measures included fasting serum insulin, glucose, lipid profiles and uric acid. Results The prevalence of IR was increased in CHB with NAFLD subjects compared with that in control subjects or subjects with CHB or NAFLD alone (41.5% vs 2.9%/11.9%/36.9%, respectively; P

AIM:To investigate the effect of microRNA-152-3p(miR-152-3p)targeting insulin-like growth factor 1(IGF1)gene on high glucose-induced retinal pigment epithelial ARPE-19 cell activity and apoptosis, and to explore its role mechanism. METHODS: High glucose was induced into ARPE-19 cells and transfected with miR-152-3p mimics. MTT assay was used to detect cell proliferation activity. Flow cytometry was used to detect apoptosis. Fluorescence quantitative PCR(RT-PCR)was used to detect cells. The expression levels of IGF1 and VEGF in the cells were detected by Western blot and the binding relationship between IGF1 and miR-152-3p was detected by the dual luciferase reporter gene.RESULTS:High glucose can decrease the activity of ARPE-19 cells, increase the apoptosis rate, inhibit the expression of miR-152-3p and increase the expression of IGF1 and VEGF. Over expression of miR-152-3p can up-regulate high glucose-induced cells. Increased activity and increased apoptosis inhibited the expression of IGF1 and VEGF. The dual luciferase reporter gene assay verified that IGF1 is the target gene of miR-152-3p.CONCLUSION: miR-152-3p can inhibit the inhibition of high glucose-induced ARPE-19 cell activity and increase apoptosis by targeting IGF1 gene.

Abstract Background Manganese (Mn), an essential element for plants, can be toxic when present in excess. Stylo (Stylosanthes) is a pioneer tropical legume with great potential for Mn tolerance, but its Mn tolerance mechanisms remain poorly understood. Results In this study, variations in Mn tolerance were observed among nine stylo genotypes. Stylo genotype ‘RY5’ exhibited the highest Mn tolerance compared to the other tested genotypes, whereas ‘TF2001’ was a Mn-sensitive genotype. The mechanisms underlying the response of stylo to Mn toxicity were further investigated using these two genotypes with contrasting Mn tolerance. Results showed that stylo genotype RY5 exhibited Mn tolerance superior to that of genotype TF2001, showing lower reductions in leaf chlorophyll concentration, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, photosynthetic indexes and plant dry weight under Mn toxicity. A label-free quantitative proteomic analysis was conducted to investigate the protein profiles in the leaves and roots of RY5 in response to Mn toxicity. A total of 356 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified, including 206 proteins from leaves and 150 proteins from roots, which consisted of 71 upregulated, 62 downregulated, 127 strongly induced and 96 completely suppressed proteins. These DEPs were mainly involved in defense response, photosynthesis, carbon fixation, metabolism, cell wall modulation and signaling. The qRT-PCR analysis verified that 10 out of 12 corresponding gene transcription patterns correlated with their encoding proteins after Mn exposure. Finally, a schematic was constructed to reveal insights into the molecular processes in the leaves and roots of stylo in response to Mn toxicity. Conclusions These findings suggest that stylo plants may cope with Mn toxicity by enhancing their defense response and phenylpropanoid pathways, adjusting photosynthesis and metabolic processes, and modulating protein synthesis and turnover. This study provides a platform for the future study of Mn tolerance mechanisms in stylo and may lead to a better understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying tropical legume adaptation to Mn toxicity.

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a common complication of pregnancy and a significant cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The adverse effects of FGR can last throughout the entire lifespan and increase the risks of various diseases in adulthood. However, the etiology and pathogenesis of FGR remain unclear. This study comprehensively reviewed metabolomics studies related with FGR in pregnancy to identify potential metabolic biomarkers and pathways. Relevant articles were searched through two online databases (PubMed and Web of Science) from January 2000 to July 2022. The reported metabolites were systematically compared. Pathway analysis was conducted through the online MetaboAnalyst 5.0 software. For humans, a total of 10 neonatal and 14 maternal studies were included in this review. Several amino acids, such as alanine, valine, and isoleucine, were high frequency metabolites in both neonatal and maternal studies. Meanwhile, several pathways were suggested to be involved in the development of FGR, such as arginine biosynthesis, arginine, and proline metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, and alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. In addition, we also included 8 animal model studies, in which three frequently reported metabolites (glutamine, phenylalanine, and proline) were also present in human studies. In general, this study summarized several metabolites and metabolic pathways which may help us to better understand the underlying metabolic mechanisms of FGR.

A formula is proposed based on Archard’s wear model to calculate wedge wear depth in a positive continuous engagement (PCE)-type sprag clutch with double-disc inner cam wedge in the overrun state. Methods to solve for the equation parameters are proposed. Using a sprag clutch with an M50 steel wedge as an example, wedge wear depth variation over time under high temperatures was analyzed. An easy-to-clamp wedge was designed and a high-temperature abrasion testing machine was used to test the wedge. The worn surface profile was observed using a three-dimensional profiler and the wedge wear depth was obtained. The effects of lubrication, temperature and speed on wear were analyzed using mixed-level orthogonal experimental design. Results show that the theoretical values are consistent with test values. Therefore, the model can be used to calculate wear accurately for the overrunning sprag clutch. Lubrication affects wear depth significantly, whereas temperature has a smaller effect and speed has very little influence. Within the experimental scope, when the temperature increased by 1°C, the wear depth increased by approximately 0.0145 μm and when the speed increased by approximately 1 time/minute, the wear depth increased by 0.00854 μm. These results provide theoretical support for optimal sprag clutch design.

Prefabricated buildings that are more environmentally friendly have been vigorously promoted by the Chinese government because of the reduced waste and carbon emissions during the construction process. Most of the construction processes of prefabricated buildings are completed in the prefabricated component factory, but the safety risks during the hoisting process cannot be ignored. In this paper, the initial framework of a Bayesian Network (BN) is obtained from the combination of the improved Human Factors Analysis and Classification System Model (HFACS) and BN. The improved similarity aggregation method (SAM) is used to calculate the prior probability of BN, which can better summarize and deal with the fuzzy judgment of experts on risk accidents. The improved SAM can consider both the weight of experts and the relative consistency of their opinions, which is of great significance for improving the reliability of BN inputted data. This paper uses the construction project in Sanya, Hainan Province, to verify the validity of the model. The results show that the calculation results of the model are basically consistent with the actual situation. The safety risk of this project is relatively low, and the premise of unsafe behaviors and unsafe supervision are the key risk factors of the project. In addition to maintaining good construction conditions and workers’ healthy states, it is also necessary to carefully check the performance of tower cranes and equipment such as spreaders. During the operation process of the tower crane, workers should avoid walking or staying within the hoisting range.

The characteristics of plant and soil bacterial communities in forest ecosystems have been reported, but our understanding of the relationship between plant communities and soil bacteria in different stages of secondary tropical rainforest succession is still poor. In June 2018, three different natural successional stages of tropical lowland rainforests, early (33 years), early-mid (60 years), and mid successional stage (73 years), in Hainan Island, China, were selected for this study. By conducting field investigation and 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, the composition and diversity of tree communities, the niche overlap of tree species with legumes among tree species, and the diversity and composition of soil bacterial communities and co-occurrence networks within communities across the successional stages were investigated. The results showed that plant richness and species diversity increased significantly during the secondary succession of tropical lowland rainforests. The order of positive correlations between nitrogen-fixing legumes and other species in plant communities was early-mid > mid > early successional stage. Soil nutrient content and soil bacterial richness were highest in the early-mid stages of succession, followed by mid and early stages of succession. Organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), alkali nitrogen (AN), and available phosphorus (AP) had a stronger positive impact on soil bacterial communities. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that with the advancement of rainforests succession, the negative correlation between soil bacterial species decreased, and the community stability increased. Overall, as a result of tropical lowland rainforest secondary natural succession, the richness and diversity of plant communities increased, which altered the living conditions of nitrogen-fixing legumes and the soil properties, and the network complexity of soil bacterial communities increased with the rising of rainforest soil nutrient content.

Isoquercitrin (IQ) widely exists in natural products, with a variety of pharmacological activities. In this study, the anti-apoptotic and antioxidative activities of IQ were evaluated. IQ showed protective activity against 2, 2′-azobis [2-methylpropionamidine] dihydrochloride (AAPH)-induced cell damage, as well as a marked reduction in reactive oxygen species (ROS). The evidence of IQ regulating Keap1-Nrf2-ARE and the mitochondrial-mediated Caspase 3 pathway were found in the MC3T3 osteoblastic cell line. Furthermore, IQ significantly decreased ROS production, apoptosis, and lipid peroxidation in AAPH-treated 72 h post-fertilization (hpf) zebrafish, as observed via DCFH-DA, acridine orange (AO), and a 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino) propane (DPPP) probe, respectively. In AAPH-treated 9 day post-fertilization (dpf) zebrafish, IQ strongly promoted osteogenic development, with increased concentrations by calcein staining, compared with the untreated group. In a molecular docking assay, among all signal proteins, Keap1 showed the strongest affinity with IQ at −8.6 kcal/mol, which might be the reason why IQ regulated the Keap1-Nrf2-ARE pathway in vitro and in vivo. These results indicated that IQ promotes bone development and repairs bone injury, which is valuable for the prevention and treatment of bone diseases.

This study aims to screen and characterize the protective effect of polysaccharides from Portulaca oleracea L. (POP) against H2O2-stimulated osteoblast apoptosis in vivo and in vitro. The enzymes viscozyme, celluclast, α-amylase, and β-glucanase were used to extract POPs. Among all enzyme-assisted POPs, the first participating fraction of viscozyme extract POP (VPOP1) exhibited the highest antioxidant activity. Hoechst 33342 and acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining and flow cytometry of MC3T3 cells revealed that VPOP1 inhibited apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, VPOP1 increased the expression levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NADPH quinine oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) and decreased the expression levels of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) and Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) in H2O2-induced cells compared with their controls. The results of an in vivo experiment show that VPOP1 significantly reduced reactive oxygen species generation and lipid peroxidation in zebrafish at 72 h post-fertilization and promoted bone growth at 9 days post-fertilization. Furthermore, VPOP1 was identified via 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone derivatization as an acidic heteropolysaccharide comprising mannose and possessing a molecular weight of approximately 7.6 kDa. Collectively, VPOP1 was selected as a potential anti-osteoporotic functional food because of its protective activity against H2O2-induced damage in vitro and in vivo.

Compared to hot forming, cold forming can manufacture components with higher accuracy and better mechanical properties. However, for some light-weight and high-strength materials, such as 7xxx series aluminum alloy, their room-temperature plasticity is poor, which limits the production of complex structural components of these materials. In this study, the microstructure evolution of annealed 7075 aluminum alloy and its influence on room-temperature plasticity were investigated. Firstly, the annealing experiments with different annealing temperature and soaking time were conducted, and the annealed microstructure evolution was analyzed. Secondly, the room-temperature tensile tests were conducted to evaluate the room-temperature plasticity. The relationship between annealed microstructure and plastic deformation behavior was studied. The new effect mechanisms of annealed microstructure on room-temperature plasticity was found. The results indicated that the annealed grains with high Schmid factor (˃0.4) adjacent to coarse granular-shaped secondary particles exhibited easy multiple slip system activation and smoothly transformed strain through the slip bands, which promoted the grain fragmentation. Concurrently, the secondary particles underwent rupture and separation. Owing to the low strain localization and multiple slip systems of the grain fragments, they can coordinately deform around the prior particle-matrix interfaces or between the separate particle pieces, which led to good room-temperature plasticity.

Spintronic three-terminal magnetic-tunnel-junction (3T-MTJ) devices have gained considerable interest in the field of neuromorphic computing. Previously, these devices required external circuitry to implement the leaking functionality that leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons should display. However, the use of external circuitry results in decreased device efficiency. We previously demonstrated lateral inhibition with a 3T-MTJ neuron that intrinsically performs the leaking, integrating, and firing functions; however, it required the fabrication of a complex multilayer structure. In this paper, we introduce an anisotropy gradient to implement a single-layer intrinsically leaking 3T-MTJ LIF neuron without the use of any external circuitry. This provides the leaking functionality with no hardware cost and reduced fabrication complexity, which increases the device, circuit, system, and cost efficiency.

The domain-wall (DW)-magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device implements universal Boolean logic in a manner that is naturally compact and cascadable. However, an evaluation of the energy efficiency of this emerging technology for standard logic applications is still lacking. In this article, we use a previously developed compact model to construct and benchmark a 32-bit adder entirely from DW-MTJ devices that communicates with DW-MTJ registers. The results of this large-scale design and simulation indicate that while the energy cost of systems driven by spin-transfer torque (STT) DW motion is significantly higher than previously predicted, the same concept using spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching benefits from an improvement in the energy per operation by multiple orders of magnitude, attaining competitive energy values relative to a comparable CMOS subprocessor component. This result clarifies the path toward practical implementations of an all-magnetic processor system.

Understanding the relationships among leaf and size traits and environment factors is essential for understanding and predicting the dynamics and ecophysiological processes of moso bamboo ( Phyllostachys edulis ) forests across their distribution range. Here, we evaluated these relationships at six sites within the moso bamboo distribution area in China. Specifically, we collected climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation) and soil physicochemical data from the sites, and we measured 14 leaf traits and 2 size traits (height and diameter) of both new and old moso bamboos and evaluated the relationship among environment factors, size traits and leaf traits. Climate factors had significant effects on the leaf traits of new bamboos but on those of old bamboos. For instance, mean annual precipitation (MAP) was the main driver of leaf-trait variation in new bamboos but not in old bamboos. Specifically, MAP was significantly negatively correlated with leaf mass (LM), leaf dry matter content, single leaf area (LA), and leaf width, but positively correlated with specific leaf area and the leaf length to width ratio. Moreover, potential evapotranspiration and solar radiation (SR) significantly affected the leaf nutrient traits of new bamboos. Mean annual temperature and actual evapotranspiration were significantly positively correlated with bamboo height. Bamboo diameter at breast height (DBH) had more explanatory power with respect to leaf traits than plant height, and LA, leaf length and width, and LM all decreased with increasing DBH in new bamboos. A structural equation model showed that soil physicochemical traits significantly affected leaf traits, but not size traits, of new bamboos. Overall, our study indicated an age-dependent response of bamboo leaf traits to environmental factors, although bamboos do not have secondary growth. These results suggest that future environmental changes, including climate change, will lead to age-related responses of bamboo leaf traits, which may further result in changes in stand structure and productivity of moso bamboo forests.

We, the Editor-in-Chief and Publishers of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, have retracted the following article: Xi-Xi Cao, Yu-Hong Li, Qian-Lin Ye, Xuan Hu, Tian-Feng Wang & Ming-Wen Fan (2017) Self-assembling anticaries mucosal vaccine containing ferritin cage nanostructure and glucan-binding region of S. mutans glucosyltransferase effectively prevents caries formation in rodents, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 13:10, 2332-2340, DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2017.1349046 The above article is being retracted as it has been brought to the attention of the Editor and Publisher that several images in the paper appear to have been manipulated. When approached for an explanation, the authors have been unable to verify their original data. The authors wish to apologize for their errors and the resulting inconvenience. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

Uniaxial compression tests were conducted on marble specimens containing two flaws. There are coplanar flaws and noncoplanar flaws. The inclination angle and spacing of flaws were considered of the coplanar flaws model, and the step angle and spacing of flaws were considered of the noncoplanar flaws model. Strength failure and crack coalescence behaviour were analysed in the paper. The crack evolution process containing microcrack initiation, coalescence, and failure is focused on the rock bridge coalescence and the extent of the pre-existing flaws. There are four forms of rock bridge coalescence: tensile crack coalescence, shear crack coalescence, mixed tensile and shear crack coalescence, and no coalescence. Also, there are four forms of the rock failure mode: tensile failure, shear failure, mixed tensile and shear failure, and split fracture. The outer end of the critical stress values were used to compare with the crack initiation strengths, and the crack initiation strengths were slightly larger than the critical stress. In addition, energy dissipation laws were analysed during the model fracturing process. The crack evolution mechanisms around the pre-existing flaw in the model were revealed by the distribution of microcrack and energy dissipation.

Twenty-one street dust samples were collected from the urban sites in Baoding, China, to investigate the species and bioavailabilty of arsenic in them. The ecological risk and bioavailability of arsenic were evaluated using three models including Bioavailability Factor (BF), Contamination Factors (Cf)and Geoaccumulation Index model (Igeo). The species of arsenic in the dust samples were analyzed using an optimized BCR sequential extraction method. The total concentrations of As in the street dust samples ranged from 13.16 mg kg−1 to 67.26 mg kg−1. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) of As ranged from 0.28 to 1.99. The speciation analysis indicated that As in the street dust samples were mainly in the residual fraction (F4), and the proportion ranged from 84.35% to 87.07%. Moreover, the ranges of the BF and Cf were 0.650–0.129 and 0.119–0.186, respectively. The results indicated that arsenic contained in the street dust samples was with low bioavailability.

Ainaxiang (Blumea balsamifera), also known as Sambong, is an important ancient medicinal herb in Southeast Asia. It is rich in volatile oil, and still widely used nowadays for skin wound healing and treatment of sore throats. We analyzed the volatile oil from Blumea balsamifera (BB oil) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Forty one components, including l-borneol, were identified. Next, the damaging effects of BB oil diluted with olive oil on liver at different concentrations (100%, 50%, 20%), were evaluated, using both normal and wounded skin. Plasma ALT, AST, ALP and TBili were assessed, along with liver histopathology. The results showed that serum levels of liver toxicity markers in the high concentration groups (100% w/v) increased compared with control groups, whereas no significant changes was observed in histopathology of liver samples. In the wound groups, treatment with BB oil resulted in a decrease in serum toxicity index, compared with normal animal groups. This study confirms the safety of short term BB oil consumption, though high BB oil doses may lead to mild liver injury and this response might be weakened in the case of cutaneous wounds. These results are expected to be helpful for guiding appropriate therapeutic use of BB oil.

The main components of sambong (Blumea balsamifera) are listed in this article. The whole plant and its crude extracts, as well as its isolated constituents, display numerous biological activities, such as antitumor, hepatoprotective, superoxide radical scavenging, antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammation, anti-plasmodial, anti-tyrosinase, platelet aggregation, enhancing percutaneous penetration, wound healing, anti-obesity, along with disease and insect resistant activities. Although many experimental and biological studies have been carried out, some traditional uses such as rheumatism healing still need to be verified by scientific pharmacological studies, and further studies including phytochemical standardization and bioactivity authentication would be beneficial.