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Abstract The multi‐component strategy has proven effective in advancing the performance of organic photovoltaics (OPVs), enhancing photocurrent and fill factor through spectral complementarity and morphology optimization. However, the open‐circuit voltage (VOC) mechanism in multi‐component systems lacks systematic investigation. In this study, we explore the influence of alloy‐like phases on energy level distribution and energy loss mechanisms in multi‐component OPVs. Appropriate modulation of donor alloy‐like phases maintains the original intermolecular stacking, enhances component compatibility, reduces acceptor aggregation, and improves acceptor phase purity, mitigating non‐radiative recombination losses. Additionally, suitable alloy‐like phase modulation elevates charge transfer (CT) states, reducing the gap between CT and local exciton state, lowering reorganization energy, and alleviating radiative recombination loss below the bandgap. Through synergistic optimization (layer‐by‐layer method with solid additive), ternary devices based on Y6 acceptor achieve a notable 19.41% power conversion efficiency, offering new insights for the analysis of the energy loss of the multi‐component OPVs.

The technology of 3D printing has emerged as a potent tool for the preparation of 3D-printed electrode. Using commercial graphene/polylactic acid (PLA) composite filaments as printed materials, fused deposition modeling as 3D-printed technique, 3D printed electrodes (3DEs) were created in this work. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and the composites of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) were used to modify the activated 3DEs for constructing a novel electrode (SACP@Au@3DE), and in this work chlorogenic acid (CGA) was regarded as a probe for testing the performance of SACP@Au@3DE. The surface physicochemical properties of the prepared 3DEs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrochemical properties of the prepared 3DEs were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The constructed SACP@Au@3DE can be used to determine CGA at concentrations ranging from 10 to 400 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 4.13 μM. Ultimately, the SACP@Au@3DE sensor was used for CGA detection in coffee powder sample to explore the potential for real sample analysis. This work opens the novel avenue of using conductive polymer modified 3D-printed electrode in the field of sensor.

Introduction Timely and effective treatments of pericoronitis are very important. We aimed to evaluate the role of ornidazole in the treatment of pericoronitis, to provide insights for clinical pericoronitis treatment. Material and methods The PubMed, Clinical trials, EMBASE, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Weipu and Wanfang databases were searched to find randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ornidazole in the treatment of pericoronitis from the establishment of the database to March 15, 2023. Review Manager 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis. Results A total of 16 RCTs involving 2004 patients were included. The results of the meta-analysis showed that the effective rate of ornidazole treatment was significantly higher than that of the routine treatment group (RR = 1.22, 95% CI (1.15, 1.29), p < 0.001). Ornidazole treatment was beneficial to reduce the oral bacterial density (MD = –26.13, 95% CI (–32.08, –21.51)), time to pain disappearance (MD = –0.64, 95% CI (–0.92, –0.17)) and time to disappearance of redness and swelling of the teeth crown (MD = –1.45, 95% CI (–2.43, –1.01)) compared to the routine treatment (all p = 0.05). No publication bias was found by the funnel plots and Egger test (p = 0.206). Conclusions Ornidazole is effective in the treatment of pericoronitis, with more advantages. Still, the effects and safety of ornidazole in the treatment of pericoronitis need to be evaluated by more high-quality RCTs with larger sample sizes.

ABSTRACTThe effect of cathelicidin hCAP18/LL-37 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis remains unclear. Here, we confirmed that LL-37 expression enhanced endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration and invasion in HCC cells. And the HER2/EGFR-MAPK/ERK signal participated in the process above. More frequent lung metastases were observed in an LL-37-overexpressing hematogenous metastasis model. Interestingly, 1,25(OH)2D3 together with si-LL-37 significantly enhanced 1,25(OH)2D3-induced inhibition of migration and invasion in PLC/PRF-5 cells, and also enhanced reversion of the EMT process. Therefore, LL-37 is involved in HCC metastases, and may act as an important factor to attenuate the inhibitory activity of 1,25(OH)2D3 on HCC metastasis. Targeting hCAP18/LL-37 may offer a potential strategy to improve the anticancer activity of 1,25(OH)2D3 in HCC therapy.

Plastic straws are well-known tools to assist human beings in drinking fluid, but most of them have micro-defects including black spot defects, head problems, pressure tube defects, and sealing wrinkles. The manual detection of these defects has drawbacks such as low efficiency, a high false detection rate, and excessive labor. This paper proposed machine vision-based detection with self-adaption and high-accuracy characteristics. A serial synthesis of algorithms including homomorphic filtering, Nobuyuki Otsu, and morphological opening operations is proposed to obtain plastic straws with binary images with good performance, and it was further found that the convolutional neural network can be designed to realize the real-time recognition of black spot defects, where the corner detection algorithm demonstrates the linear fitting of the edge point of the straw with the effective detection of sealing wrinkle defects. We also demonstrated that the multi-threshold classification algorithm is used to detect defects effectively for head problems and pressure tube defects. The detection system based on machine vision successfully overcomes shortcomings of manual inspection, which has high inspection efficiency and adaptively detects multiple defects with 96.85% accuracy. This research can effectively help straw companies achieve high-quality automated production and promotes the application of machine vision in plastic straw defects with the aid of machine learning.

The study investigated the quality changes of low-temperature (80 ℃) pork cooled from 80 ℃ to 10 ℃ by refrigerated cooling (RC) (4 ℃), frozen cooling (FC) (−18 ℃) and vacuum refrigerated cooling (VRC) (4 ℃) respectively by measuring cooling rate, mass loss rate, texture, color and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value. Furthermore, the TBA value and odor of pork cooled by above three cooling methods was also studied during storage at 4 ℃. The results showed that the cooling rate of VRC and FC were significantly higher than that of RC (P

Elevated SOX2 protein levels correspond to the poor prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Poor prognosis is closely correlated with the loss or disruption of cellular polarity; however, the relationships between SOX2 protein and polarity proteins in ESCC remain elusive. Herein, we found that the knockdown of SOX2 significantly decreased miR-142-3p expression and can regulate the translation of LLGL2 protein, a member of the Scribble complex. LLGL2 protein levels in ESCC are negatively correlated with miR-142-3p and SOX2 levels. Moreover, LLGL2 protein expression increased upon SOX2 knockdown in ESCC cell lines, and mutating the binding site for this miRNA in the LLGL2 3’-UTR disrupted its ability to inhibit LLGL2 expression. When LLGL2 was overexpressed, ESCC cell proliferation and invasion were inhibited in vitro and in vivo, which could be elucidated based on changes in gene expression after RNA sequencing, targeted proteomic analysis and bioinformatic assays. However, SOX2 protein did not directly bind to the promoter of miR-142-3p after ChIP sequencing. Together, these findings indicate that a SOX2 regulatory axis governs ESCC proliferation, migration, invasiveness, and apoptosis, thereby providing a potential avenue for future therapeutic intervention. Abbreviations CCK-8, Cell Counting Kit 8; Chip, Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; EC, Esophageal cancer; EMT, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; ESCC, Esophageal squamous cell carcinomas; LLGL2, lethal (2) giant larvae protein homolog 2; LLGL2ov, LLGL2 overexpression; MET, mesenchymal-epithelial transition; miRNAs, MicroRNAs; PRM-MS, Parallel reaction monitoring-Mass spectrometry; SD, Standard deviation; SOX, sex determining region Y (SRY)-like box; SOX2-Kd, SOX2-knockdwon; TUNEL, TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labeling.

Highlights Mulinia lateralis reaches sexual maturation within 2 months, facilitating comprehensive studies of gonadal development. A combined morphological and molecular analysis reveals the timing of gonad formation, sex differentiation and gametogenesis. WGCNA on 40 transcriptomes identifies key modules and molecular drivers of clam gonadal development. SOX2, FOXZ, HSFY, FOXL2 and HES1 are hub transcription factors for gonadal development of Mulinia lateralis.

Machining special microstructures on the surface of silicon nitride ceramics helps improve their service performance. However, the high brittleness and low fracture toughness of silicon nitride ceramics make it extremely difficult to machine microstructures on their surface. In this study, a femtosecond laser is used to machine parallel grooved microstructures on the surface of silicon nitride ceramics. The effects of the laser polarization angle, laser single pulse energy, scanning line spacing, and laser scan numbers on the surface morphology and geometric characteristics of grooved microstructures are researched. It is found that a greater angle between the direction of the scanning path and laser polarization is helpful to obtain a smoother surface. As the single pulse energy increases, debris and irregular surface structures will emerge. Increasing the laser scan line spacing leads to clearer and more defined parallel grooved microstructures. The groove depth increases with the increase in the scan numbers. However, when a certain number of scans is reached, the depth will not increase further. This study serves as a valuable research foundation for the femtosecond laser processing of silicon nitride ceramic materials.

Abstract Wnt signaling was initially recognized to be vital for tissue development and homeostasis maintenance. Further studies revealed that this pathway is also important for tumorigenesis and progression. Abnormal expression of signaling components through gene mutation or epigenetic regulation is closely associated with tumor progression and poor prognosis in several tissues. Additionally, Wnt signaling also influences the tumor microenvironment and immune response. Some strategies and drugs have been proposed to target this pathway, such as blocking receptors/ligands, targeting intracellular molecules, beta-catenin/TCF4 complex and its downstream target genes, or tumor microenvironment and immune response. Here we discuss the roles of these components in Wnt signaling pathway in tumorigenesis and cancer progression, the underlying mechanisms that is responsible for the activation of Wnt signaling, and a series of drugs targeting the Wnt pathway provide multiple therapeutic values. Although some of these drugs exhibit exciting anti-cancer effect, clinical trials and systematic evaluation should be strictly performed along with multiple-omics technology.

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are a large class of superfamily involved in a variety of biological processes with multiple functions, including phytohormone transport, heavy metal ion detoxification, and so on. Anthocyanin pigmentation in grapes is a commercially important feature of this superfamily. To elucidate the mechanisms of the VvABC gene at different stages in grape berries, we analyzed and characterized the ABC family in ‘ZhongShan-HongYu’ (ZS-HY) berries using RNA-seq analysis. In this study, a total of 146 VvABC genes were identified by comprehensive bioinformatics analysis, which outlined their gene structure, chromosomal location, conserved domains, phylogenetic relationships, and collinearity analysis. The VvABC family could be divided into eight subfamilies based on the phylogenetic analysis. Fifty-eight VvABC genes were identified from the RNA-seq data, of which 31 belong to the ABCG subfamily, 15 belong to the ABCC subfamily, 8 belong to the ABCB subfamily, 2 belong to the ABCF subfamily, and only 1 belongs to each of the ABCA and ABCD subfamilies. We used qRT-PCR to detect the expression of VvABC genes in different organs and found that it changed significantly in different organs. Phylogenetic analysis showed that genes involved in anthocyanin transport in other species were closely related to members of the ABCC subfamily. Subsequently, analysis of the promoter elements and the protein interactions of the VvABCC genes using RNA-seq was performed. This study has improved our understanding of the functions of the ABC gene family and provided a basis for the role of ABC genes in grape anthocyanin transport.

Abstract Due to its significance for gas hydrate accumulation, the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) is an essential condition for successful gas hydrate exploration and is usually controlled by three main factors: gas components, geothermal gradient, and permafrost thickness. Based on the core and conventional log data of gas hydrate potential region, the CSMHYD program was adopted to simulate the influences of above three factors on the thickness of the GHSZ. When the gas components of the gas hydrate were CH4, C2H6, and C3H8, with the CH4 percentage ranging from 50% to 100%, the average GHSZ thickness can reach 1000 m according to the forward simulation results. When the gas hydrate was composed of CH4 and one of C2H6, C3H8, H2S, and CO2, the influence order of the above four gases on the thickness of GHSZ is as follows: H2S ＞ C2H6 ＞ C3H8 ＞ CO2. Under the gas components of 90% CH4, 5% C2H6, and 5% C3H8, the thickness of GHSZ decreased rapidly as the geothermal gradient increased following an exponential relation with a correlation of 99.92% and increased slowly as permafrost thickness increased following a linear relation with a correlation of 99.9%. In addition, the thickness of a gas hydrate favorable reservoir was determined by comprehensive log methods as 500 m. We conclude that a reservoir within 500 m below the permafrost layer is favorable for gas hydrate reservoir formation.

Many marine organisms are generally poikilotherms, making seawater temperature one of the most important environmental factors affecting gonadal sex differentiation. Mollusca is the second-largest animal phylum with diverse reproductive systems, but studies on the impact of temperature on sex differentiation are limited to a few sequential hermaphrodites. By combining morphological and molecular analyses, we investigated the effect of temperature on gonadal sex differentiation of a commercially important gonochoristic scallop Patinopecten yessoensis in the field and under laboratory conditions. Based on the relative expression of FoxL2 and Dmrt1L in the gonads of 6- to 12 month-old scallops, we found the scallops start to differentiate at 7 months old in September when the seawater temperature was 21°C. To eliminate the effect of factors other than temperature on sex differentiation, we compared the gonadal development of juvenile scallops at different temperatures (21, 16 and 11°C) under laboratory conditions. After 50 days of treatment, the 11°C group contain more germ cell types, and have higher sex differentiation rates than the 21°C group. But no obvious sex bias was observed. These results suggest that high temperature (21°C) inhibits sex differentiation, whereas low temperature (11°C) accelerates sex differentiation by 2 months for this cold-water species. It also supports juvenile P. yessoensis is gonochoristic rather than protandrous hermaphroditic. Our study addresses for the first time an environmental influence associated with genetic controls on scallop sex differentiation. It will facilitate a better understanding of how environmental factors affect gonadal development in poikilotherms, especially in the less studied molluscs.

Viniferifuran was investigated for its potential to inhibit the activity of xanthine oxidase (XO), a key enzyme catalyzing xanthine to uric acid. An enzyme kinetics analysis showed that viniferifuran possessed a strong inhibition on XO in a typical anti-competitive manner with an IC50 value of 12.32 μM (IC50 for the first-line clinical drug allopurinol: 29.72 μM). FT-IR and CD data analyses showed that viniferifuran could induce a conformational change of XO with a decrease in the α-helix and increases in the β-sheet, β-turn, and random coil structures. A molecular docking analysis revealed that viniferifuran bound to the amino acid residues located within the activity cavity of XO by a strong hydrophobic interaction (for Ser1214, Val1011, Phe914, Phe1009, Leu1014, and Phe649) and hydrogen bonding (for Asn768, Ser876, and Tyr735). These findings suggested that viniferifuran might be a promising XO inhibitor with a favorable mechanism of action.

Virtual screening can significantly save experimental time and costs for early drug discovery. Drug multi-classification can speed up virtual screening and quickly predict the most likely class for a drug. In this study, 1019 drug molecules with actual therapeutic effects are collected from multiple databases and documents, and molecular sets are grouped according to therapeutic effect and mechanism of action. Molecular descriptors and molecular fingerprints are obtained through SMILES to quantify molecular structures. After using the Kennard–Stone method to divide the data set, a better combination can be obtained by comparing the combined results of five classification algorithms and a fusion method. Furthermore, for a specific data set, the model with the best performance is used to predict the validation data set. The test set shows that prediction accuracy can reach 0.862 and kappa coefficient can reach 0.808. The highest classification accuracy of the validation set is 0.873. The more reliable molecular set has been found, which could be used to predict potential attributes of unknown drug compounds and even to discover new use for old drugs. We hope this research can provide a reference for virtual screening of multiple classes of drugs at the same time in the future.

Sesame oils are subjected to different extraction methods including compression, aqueous extraction, and refining that includes degumming, alkali refining, bleaching, and deodorizing. This research investigated the fatty acid distribution and composition of triacylglycerols (TAGs) in the sesame oils and the acid value (AV), peroxides value (PV), sesamin, sesamolin, and total tocopherols. The results showed that sesame oil obtained by aqueous extraction had a higher content of sesamin, sesamolin, and tocopherols but lower free fatty acids (FFA) and peroxides. Aqueous extraction of sesame oil had the highest percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and lowest content of saturated fatty acids (SFA). Refining sesame oil had the lowest and the highest contents of PUFA and SFA, respectively. After different extraction methods and refining steps, the fatty acids' positional distribution's main specifications were retained. The composition of TAGs showed no significant difference between the compression and aqueous extraction of sesame oil, while the TAGs composition of refining sesame oil had a small but significant difference in comparison to the compression and aqueous extraction of sesame oil (P < 0.05) because of the high temperature in refining. After refining saturated-unsaturated-saturated triacylglycerol (SUS), saturated-unsaturated-unsaturated triacylglycerol (SUU) decreased, while saturated-saturated-unsaturated triacylglycerol (SSU) and unsaturated-saturated-unsaturated triacylglycerol (USU) increased. This research confirmed that the aqueous extraction method produced the best quality and the highest nutritional value sesame oil, while the extraction and refining sesame oil by pressing method had the lowest nutritional value. In addition, analyzing the composition of fatty acids and TAGs could serve as a basis for determining the production process of sesame oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]