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In motor cortex, behaviorally relevant neural responses are entangled with irrelevant signals, which complicates the study of encoding and decoding mechanisms. It remains unclear whether behaviorally irrelevant signals could conceal some critical truth. One solution is to accurately separate behaviorally relevant and irrelevant signals at both single-neuron and single-trial levels, but this approach remains elusive due to the unknown ground truth of behaviorally relevant signals. Therefore, we propose a framework to define, extract, and validate behaviorally relevant signals. Analyzing separated signals in three monkeys performing different reaching tasks, we found neural responses previously considered to contain little information actually encode rich behavioral information in complex nonlinear ways. These responses are critical for neuronal redundancy and reveal movement behaviors occupy a higher-dimensional neural space than previously expected. Surprisingly, when incorporating often-ignored neural dimensions, behaviorally relevant signals can be decoded linearly with comparable performance to nonlinear decoding, suggesting linear readout may be performed in motor cortex. Our findings prompt that separating behaviorally relevant signals may help uncover more hidden cortical mechanisms.

Colon cancer (CC) is one of the most common gastrointestinal malignancies. Effectiveness of the existing therapies is limited. Immunotherapy is a promising complementary treatment approach for CC. Major histocompatibility complex class I-related protein A and B (MICA/B) are ligands for NK cells. Shedding of MICA/B from the surface of tumor cells by cleavage of MICA/B at the membrane proxial region in MICA/B α3 structural domain is one of immune evasion strategies leading to escape of cancer cells from immunosurveillance. In this study, we generated a panel of MICA/B monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and identified one of mAbs, mAb RDM028, that had high binding affinity to MICA/B and recognized a site on MICA/B α3 structural domain that is critically important for cleavage of MICA/B. Our study has further demonstrated that RDM028 augmented the surface expression of MICA/B on HCT-116 human CC cells by inhibiting the MICA/B shedding resulting in the enhanced cyotoxicity of NK cells against HCT-116 human CC cells and mediated anti-tumor activity in nude mouse model of colon cancer. These results indicate that mAb RDM028 could be explored for developing as an effective immuno therapy against CC by targeting the MICA/B α3 domain to promot immunosurveillance mediated by MICA/B-NKG2D interaction.

Abstract Determining the precise course of bacterial infection requires abundant in vivo real‐time data. Synchronous monitoring of the bacterial load, temperature, and immune response can satisfy the shortage of real‐time in vivo data. Here, we conducted a study in the joint‐infected mouse model to synchronously monitor the bacterial load, temperature, and immune response using the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) fluorescence imaging, infrared thermography, and immune response analysis for 2 weeks. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was proved successfully labeled with glucose‐conjugated quantum dots in vitro and in subcutaneous‐infected model. The bacterial load indicated by NIR‐II fluorescence imaging underwent a sharp drop at 1 day postinfection. At the same time, the temperature gap detected through infrared thermography synchronously brought by infection reached lowest value. Meanwhile, the flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that immune response including macrophage, neutrophil, B lymphocyte, and T lymphocyte increased to the peak at 1 day postinfection. Moreover, both M1 macrophage and M2 macrophage in the blood have an obvious change at ~ 1 day postinfection, and the change was opposite. In summary, this study not only obtained real‐time and long‐time in vivo data on the bacterial load, temperature gap, and immune response in the mice model of S. aureus infection, but also found that 1 day postinfection was the key time point during immune response against S. aureus infection. Our study will contribute to synchronously and precisely studying the complicated complex dynamic relationship after bacterial infection at the animal level.

Sulfate attack is one of the most important factors affecting the durability of concrete, and the corrosion sources of internal sulfate attack (ISA) mostly come from the raw materials of concrete. Adding corrosion resistance admixtures to concrete is one of the most effective ways to prevent internal sulfate attack. By wrapping barium salt with SA gel, the modified barium chloride admixture (MB) is obtained which can exist stably in concrete and release barium ions to form barium sulfate in a sulfate environment. The modified barium salt has little effect on the cement workability and hydration process and even can improve the mechanical properties slightly. When the MB content reaches 6% (MB-6), the strength improvement effect is most obvious. Compared with the P-0, the 7d compressive strength of MB-6 is increased by 9.14%, and the 28d compressive strength is increased by 5.77%. It can be seen by SEM that the amount and crystal size of ettringite in the cement mixed with admixtures are reduced. The corrosion resistance of the matrix can be further improved by using a modified barium chloride-silica fume composite admixture (MB-F). After 90 days of internal sulfate attack, the strength of the MB-F even improves slightly. When the modified barium chloride to silica fume ratio is 4:6, the cement-based material achieved the best resistance to internal sulfate attack. In addition to MB, which can make sulfate ions fixation and inhibit the formation of ettringite, silica fume can also consume calcium hydroxide and generate more C-S-H gel, which compacts the weak part of the matrix and greatly improves the resistance to internal sulfate attack of cement-based materials. It provides the possibility for the application of modified barium salt in external sulfate attack.

Background A combination of axitinib and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) demonstrated promising efficacy in the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This study aims to prospectively evaluate the safety, efficacy, and biomarkers of neoadjuvant toripalimab plus axitinib in non-metastatic clear cell RCC.Methods This is a single-institution, single-arm phase II clinical trial. Patients with non-metastatic biopsy-proven clear cell RCC (T2-T3N0-1M0) are enrolled. Patients will receive axitinib 5 mg twice daily combined with toripalimab 240 mg every 3 weeks (three cycles) for up to 12 weeks. Patients then will receive partial (PN) or radical nephrectomy (RN) after neoadjuvant therapy. The primary endpoint is objective response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints include disease-free survival, safety, and perioperative complication rate. Predictive biomarkers are involved in exploratory analysis.Results A total of 20 patients were enrolled in the study, with 19 of them undergoing surgery. One patient declined surgery. The primary endpoint ORR was 45%. The posterior distribution of πORR had a mean of 0.44 (95% credible intervals: 0.24–0.64), meeting the predefined primary endpoint with an ORR of 32%. Tumor shrinkage was observed in 95% of patients prior to nephrectomy. Furthermore, four patients achieved a pathological complete response. Grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 25% of patients, including hypertension, hyperglycemia, glutamic pyruvic transaminase/glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (ALT/AST) increase, and proteinuria. Postoperatively, one grade 4a and eight grade 1–2 complications were noted. In comparison to patients with stable disease, responders exhibited significant differences in immune factors such as Arginase 1(ARG1), Melanoma antigen (MAGEs), Dendritic Cell (DC), TNF Superfamily Member 13 (TNFSF13), Apelin Receptor (APLNR), and C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 3 Like 1 (CCL3-L1). The limitation of this trial was the small sample size.Conclusion Neoadjuvant toripalimab combined with axitinib shows encouraging activity and acceptable toxicity in locally advanced clear cell RCC and warrants further study.Trial registration number clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04118855.

Background: The utility of bronchoscopy in the treatment of patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) has been proposed, although prior research has yielded inconclusive findings. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to examine the impact of bronchoscopy on mortality rates, duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), and length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) among patients with VAP. Methods: Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies were acquired by conducting a comprehensive search in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. To account for the potential heterogeneity, a random-effects model was utilized to combine the findings and incorporate its potential influence. Results: Eight RCTs and three cohort studies, including 3907 patients with highly suspected or clinically diagnosed VAP, were included. Compared to the controls, bronchoscopy use was not associated with a significant effect on all-cause mortality (relative risk [RR]: 0.81, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.62 to 1.05, p = 0.12; I2 = 57 %). Subgroup analysis showed that bronchoscopy used for the microbiological diagnosis of VAP was not associated with reduced mortality (RR: 0.92, 95 % CI: 0.75 to 1.13), while therapeutic bronchoscopy use was associated with significantly reduced mortality (RR: 0.53, 95 % CI: 0.35 to 0.81). The duration of MV or length of ICU stay was not significantly different between groups. Conclusions: Bronchoscopy use for the purpose of the microbiological diagnosis of VAP did not reduce short-term mortality compared to diagnosis without bronchoscopy use, while therapeutic bronchoscopy use was associated with reduced mortality in these patients.

Abstract Background Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) could be fatal to patients without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Current diagnostic methods are either invasive or inaccurate. We aimed to establish an accurate and non-invasive radiomics-based way to identify the risk of PCP infection in non-HIV patients with computed tomography (CT) manifestation of pneumonia. Methods This is a retrospective study including non-HIV patients hospitalized for suspected PCP from January 2010 to December 2022 in one hospital. The patients were randomized in a 7:3 ratio into training and validation cohorts. Computed tomography (CT)-based radiomics features were extracted automatically and used to construct a radiomics model. A diagnostic model with traditional clinical and CT features was also built. The area under the curve (AUC) were calculated and used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the models. The combination of the radiomics features and serum β-D-glucan levels was also evaluated for PCP diagnosis. Results A total of 140 patients (PCP: N = 61, non-PCP: N = 79) were randomized into training (N = 97) and validation (N = 43) cohorts. The radiomics model consisting of nine radiomic features performed significantly better (AUC = 0.954; 95% CI: 0.898-1.000) than the traditional model consisting of serum β-D-glucan levels (AUC = 0.752; 95% CI: 0.597–0.908) in identifying PCP (P = 0.002). The combination of radiomics features and serum β-D-glucan levels showed an accuracy of 95.8% for identifying PCP infection (positive predictive value: 95.7%, negative predictive value: 95.8%). Conclusions Radiomics showed good diagnostic performance in differentiating PCP from other types of pneumonia in non-HIV patients. A combined diagnostic method including radiomics and serum β-D-glucan has the potential to provide an accurate and non-invasive way to identify the risk of PCP infection in non-HIV patients with CT manifestation of pneumonia. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05701631).

For Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) based on motor imagery (MI), the MI task is abstract and spontaneous, presenting challenges in measurement and control and resulting in a lower signal-to-noise ratio. The quality of the collected MI data significantly impacts the cross-subject calibration results. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel cross-subject calibration method based on passive tactile afferent stimulation, in which data induced by tactile stimulation is utilized to calibrate transfer learning models for cross-subject decoding. During the experiments, tactile stimulation was applied to either the left or right hand, with subjects only required to sense tactile stimulation. Data from these tactile tasks were used to train or fine-tune models and subsequently applied to decode pure MI data. We evaluated BCI performance using both the classical Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) combined with the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) algorithm and a state-of-the-art deep transfer learning model. The results demonstrate that the proposed calibration method achieved decoding performance at an equivalent level to traditional MI calibration, with the added benefit of outperforming traditional MI calibration with fewer trials. The simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed cross-subject tactile calibration method make it valuable for practical applications of BCI, especially in clinical settings.

The Fe-based alloy coating was prepared on the surface of 25Cr2Ni4MoV steel substrate by laser cladding. The microstructure, microhardness, shear strength, friction and wear properties of the laser cladding coating were systematically studied. The results show that a good metallurgical bond has been formed between Fe-based alloy coating and substrate. The laser cladding layer is a typical dendritic crystal, which is composed of light gray and dark gray phases. The shear strength displacement curve shows the typical characteristics of brittle fracture, with an average shear strength of 280.83 MPa. The average dry friction coefficient, wear track depth and average wear volume of laser cladding Fe-based alloy coatings are (0.45 ± 0.01), (26 ± 3) μm and 0.066615 m3, respectively. The average dry friction coefficient, wear track depth and average wear volume of 25Cr2Ni4MoV substrate are (0.60 ± 0.01), (39 ± 3) μm and 0.13085 m3, respectively. The laser cladded Fe-based alloy coating exhibits much better wear resistance than the steel substrate, and the shear strength of the coating displays its potential for the application in the service environment of shear stress.

Complementary to brain–computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery (MI) task, sensory imagery (SI) task provides a way for BCI construction using brain activity from somatosensory cortex. The underlying neurophysiological correlation between SI and MI was unclear and difficult to measure through behavior recording. In this study, we investigated the underlying neurodynamic of motor/tactile imagery and tactile sensation tasks through a high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, and EEG source imaging was used to systematically explore the cortical activation differences and correlations between the tasks. In the experiment, participants were instructed to perform the left and right hand tasks in MI paradigm, sensory stimulation (SS) paradigm and SI paradigm. The statistical results demonstrated that the imagined MI and SI tasks differed from each other within ipsilateral sensorimotor scouts, frontal and right temporal areas in α bands, whereas real SS and imagined SI showed a similar activation pattern. The similarity between SS and SI may provide a way to train the BCI system, while the difference between MI and SI may provide a way to integrate the discriminative information between them to enhance BCI performance. The combination of the tasks and its underlying neurodynamic would provide a new approach for BCI designation for a wider application. BCI studies concentrate on the hybrid decoding method combining MI or SI with SS, but the underlining neurophysiological correlates between them were unclear. MI and SI differed from each other within the ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex in alpha bands. This is a first study to investigate the neurophysiological relationship between MI and SI through an EEG source imaging approach from high-density EEG recording.

Tripartite motif (TRIM) proteins are a multifunctional E3 ubiquitin ligase family that participates in various cellular processes. Recent studies have shown that TRIM proteins play important roles in regulating host–virus interactions through specific pathways, but their involvement in response to rabies virus (RABV) infection remains poorly understood. Here, we identified that several TRIM proteins are upregulated in mouse neuroblastoma cells (NA) after infection with the rabies virus using RNA-seq sequencing. Among them, TRIM44 was found to regulate RABV replication. This is supported by the observations that downregulation of TRIM44 inhibits RABV replication, while overexpression of TRIM44 promotes RABV replication. Mechanistically, TRIM44-induced RABV replication is brought about by activating autophagy, as inhibition of autophagy with 3-MA attenuates TRIM44-induced RABV replication. Additionally, we found that inhibition of autophagy with rapamycin reverses the TRIM44-knockdown-induced decrease in LC3B expression and autophagosome formation as well as RABV replication. The results suggest that TRIM44 promotes RABV replication by an autophagy-dependent mechanism. Our work identifies TRIM44 as a key host factor for RABV replication, and targeting TRIM44 expression may represent an effective therapeutic strategy.

To study the effects of basalt fibers (BFs), calcium sulfate whiskers (CSWs), and modified calcium sulfate whiskers (MCSWs) on the compressive strength and dynamic modulus of elasticity of concrete, this paper utilizes Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) to measure the microstructure of concrete and calculate the fractal dimension of pore surface area. The results indicate that both CSWs and BFs can increase the compressive strength of concrete. CSWs can enhance the dynamic modulus of elasticity of concrete, while the effect of BFs on the dynamic modulus of elasticity is not significant. The improvement in compressive strength and dynamic modulus of elasticity provided by MCSWs is significantly greater than that provided by CSWs. Both CSWs and BFs can effectively improve the pore structure of concrete and have a significant impact on the surface fractal dimension. CSWs inhibit the formation of ink-bottle pores, while BFs increase the number of ink-bottle pores. Due to the ink-bottle pore effect, the fractal dimension of the capillary pore surface is generally greater than three, lacking fractal characteristics. The compressive strength and dynamic modulus of elasticity of concrete have a good correlation with the fractal dimensions of large pores and transition pores.

Rumination in cattle is closely related to their health, which makes the automatic monitoring of rumination an important part of smart pasture operations. However, manual monitoring of cattle rumination is laborious and wearable sensors are often harmful to animals. Thus, we propose a computer vision-based method to automatically identify multi-object cattle rumination, and to calculate the rumination time and number of chews for each cow. The heads of the cattle in the video were initially tracked with a multi-object tracking algorithm, which combined the You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm with the kernelized correlation filter (KCF). Images of the head of each cow were saved at a fixed size, and numbered. Then, a rumination recognition algorithm was constructed with parameters obtained using the frame difference method, and rumination time and number of chews were calculated. The rumination recognition algorithm was used to analyze the head image of each cow to automatically detect multi-object cattle rumination. To verify the feasibility of this method, the algorithm was tested on multi-object cattle rumination videos, and the results were compared with the results produced by human observation. The experimental results showed that the average error in rumination time was 5.902% and the average error in the number of chews was 8.126%. The rumination identification and calculation of rumination information only need to be performed by computers automatically with no manual intervention. It could provide a new contactless rumination identification method for multi-cattle, which provided technical support for smart pasture.

Abstract High‐altitude hypoxia may disturb the metabolic modulation and function of both adipose tissue and liver. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a crucial organelle in lipid metabolism and ER stress is closely correlated with lipid metabolism dysfunction. The aim of this study is to elucidate whether the inhibition of ER stress could alleviate hypoxia‐induced white adipose tissue (WAT) lipolysis and liver lipid accumulation‐mediated hepatic injury. A rat model of high‐altitude hypoxia (5500 m) was established using hypobaric chamber. The response of ER stress and lipolysis‐related pathways were analyzed in WAT under hypoxia exposure with or without 4‐phenylbutyric acid (PBA) treatment. Liver lipid accumulation, liver injury, and apoptosis were evaluated. Hypoxia evoked significant ER stress in WAT, evidenced by increased GRP78, CHOP, and phosphorylation of IRE1α, PERK. Moreover, Lipolysis in perirenal WAT significantly increased under hypoxia, accompanied with increased phosphorylation of hormone‐sensitive lipase (HSL) and perilipin. Treatment with 4‐PBA, inhibitor of ER stress, effectively attenuated hypoxia‐induced lipolysis via cAMP‐PKA‐HSL/perilipin pathway. In addition, 4‐PBA treatment significantly inhibited the increase in fatty acid transporters (CD36, FABP1, FABP4) and ameliorated liver FFA accumulation. 4‐PBA treatment significantly attenuated liver injury and apoptosis, which is likely resulting from decreased liver lipid accumulation. Our results highlight the importance of ER stress in hypoxia‐induced WAT lipolysis and liver lipid accumulation.

Objective. In this study, we propose a tactile-assisted calibration method for a motor imagery (MI) based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system. Method. In the proposed calibration, tactile stimulation was applied to the hand wrist to assist the subjects in the MI task, which is named SA-MI task. Then, classifier training in the SA-MI Calibration was performed using the SA-MI data, while the Conventional Calibration employed the MI data. After the classifiers were trained, the performance was evaluated on a common MI dataset. Results. Our study demonstrated that the SA-MI Calibration significantly improved the performance as compared with the Conventional Calibration, with a decoding accuracy of (78.3% vs. 71.3%). Moreover, the average calibration time could be reduced by 40%. This benefit of the SA-MI Calibration effect was further validated by an independent control group, which showed no improvement when tactile stimulation was not applied during the calibration phase. Further analysis showed that when compared with MI, greater motor-related cortical activation and higher ${R} ^{{2}}$ value in the alpha-beta frequency band were induced in SA-MI. Conclusion. Indeed, the SA-MI Calibration could significantly improve the performance and reduce the calibration time as compared with the Conventional Calibration. Significance. The proposed tactile stimulation-assisted MI Calibration method holds great potential for a faster and more accurate system setup at the beginning of BCI usage.

Objective: The key principle of motor imagery (MI) decoding for electroencephalogram (EEG)-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is to extract task-discriminative features from spectral, spatial, and temporal domains jointly and efficiently, whereas limited, noisy, and non-stationary EEG samples challenge the advanced design of decoding algorithms. Methods: Inspired by the concept of cross-frequency coupling and its correlation with different behavioral tasks, this paper proposes a lightweight Interactive Frequency Convolutional Neural Network (IFNet) to explore cross-frequency interactions for enhancing representation of MI characteristics. IFNet first extracts spectro-spatial features in low and high-frequency bands, respectively. Then the interplay between the two bands is learned using an element-wise addition operation followed by temporal average pooling. Combined with repeated trial augmentation as a regularizer, IFNet yields spectro-spatio-temporally robust features for the final MI classification. We conduct extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets: the BCI competition IV 2a (BCIC-IV-2a) dataset and the OpenBMI dataset. Results: Compared with state-of-the-art MI decoding algorithms, IFNet achieves significantly superior classification performance on both datasets while improving the winner’s result in BCIC-IV-2a by 11%. Moreover, by conducting sensitivity analysis on decision windows, we show IFNet attains the best trade-off between decoding speed and accuracy. Detailed analysis and visualization verify IFNet can capture the coupling across frequency bands along with the known MI signatures. Conclusion: We demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed IFNet for MI decoding. Significance: This study suggests IFNet holds promise for rapid response and accurate control in MI-BCI applications.

There is a significant amount of dust during tunnel construction. As a comprehensive prevention method for tunnel dust, dust collector technology has been widely used in tunnel construction. The flow field distribution in a dedusting equipment cabin directly affects the treatment efficiency of tunnel dust. In this study, using a dedusting equipment compartment with 5 (in row) × 20 (in column) filter cartridges (FCs, diameter of 0.35 m) as the research object, the effects of air-intake mode, position, and other parameters on the airflow rate of FCs inside the cabin, and indoor air distribution characteristics were studied using a numerical calculation method, which was verified by an experiment. The results indicated that for the cabin with only an end air-intake, the length of the cabin cannot be too long, as this would cause a low airflow rate of the FCs located at the center of the cabin. Furthermore, the effects of setting a baffle and grille on the total airflow rate of the FCs inside the cabin with only an end air-intake was more significant than that with both an end air-intake and side air-intakes, the difference of the total airflow rate among them can be up to 59%. Setting a baffle at the end of an air-intake significantly reduced the total airflow rate of the FCs about 59%, which was significantly increased about 5% by setting grilles. Additionally, the side air-intakes improved the total airflow rate of the FCs more than the end air-intake by about 24%, but the intake efficiency of the former was lower than that of latter by about 61%. Finally, based on cabins with only an end air-intake, setting the side air-intakes on the cabin where the airflow rate of FCs is low, can significantly improve the total airflow rate of FCs in the cabin, particularly the FCs around the side air-intakes, the increase here can reach 36% compared with other locations.

Objective: Blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional MRI allows to investigte neural activities and connectivity. While the non-human primate plays an essential role in neuroscience research, multimodal methods combining functional MRI with other neuroimaging and neuromodulation enable us to understand the brain network at multiple scales. Approach: In this study, a tight-fitting helmet-shape receive array with a single transmit loop for anesthetized macaque brain MRI at 7T was fabricated with four openings constructed in the coil housing to accommodate multimodal devices, and the coil performance was quantitatively evaluated and compared to a commercial knee coil. In addition, experiments over three macaques with infrared neural stimulation (INS), focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) were conducted. Main results: The RF coil showed higher transmit efficiency, comparable homogeneity, improved SNR and enlarged signal coverage over the macaque brain. Infrared neural stimulation was applied to the amygdala in deep brain region, and activations in stimulation sites and connected sites were detected, with the connectivity consistent with anatomical information. Focused ultrasound stimulation was applied to the left visual cortex, and activations were acquired along the ultrasound traveling path, with all time course curves consistent with pre-designed paradigms. The existence of transcranial direct current stimulation electrodes brought no interference to the RF system, as evidenced through high-resolution MPRAGE structure images. Significance: This pilot study reveals the feasibility for brain investigation at multiple spatiotemporal scales, which may advance our understanding in dynamic brain networks.

IntroductionIn the field of upper limb brain computer interfaces (BCIs), the research focusing on bilateral decoding mostly based on the neural signals from two cerebral hemispheres. In addition, most studies used spikes for decoding. Here we examined the representation and decoding of different laterality and regions arm motor imagery in unilateral motor cortex based on local field potentials (LFPs).MethodsThe LFP signals were recorded from a 96-channel Utah microelectrode array implanted in the left primary motor cortex of a paralyzed participant. There were 7 kinds of tasks: rest, left, right and bilateral elbow and wrist flexion. We performed time-frequency analysis on the LFP signals and analyzed the representation and decoding of different tasks using the power and energy of different frequency bands.ResultsThe frequency range of 38 Hz showed power enhancement, whereas 8–38 Hz showed power suppression in spectrograms while performing motor imagery. There were significant differences in average energy between tasks. What’s more, the movement region and laterality were represented in two dimensions by demixed principal component analysis. The 135–300 Hz band signal had the highest decoding accuracy among all frequency bands and the contralateral and bilateral signals had more similar single-channel power activation patterns and larger signal correlation than contralateral and ipsilateral signals, bilateral and ipsilateral signals.DiscussionThe results showed that unilateral LFP signals had different representations for bilateral motor imagery on the average energy of the full array and single-channel power levels, and different tasks could be decoded. These proved the feasibility of multilateral BCI based on the unilateral LFP signal to broaden the application of BCI technology.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=130829, identifier ChiCTR2100050705.

Based on the observation records of deformation stations in Ankang area from 2017 to 2020, we compared and analyzed the earthquake-reflecting capacity of six sets of instruments, and systematically discussed the relationship between the source parameters and the characteristic parameters of co-seismic deformation wave from the delay time of surface wave, the biggest shock and duration, and obtained the influencing factors of the earthquake-reflecting capacity of deformation instruments and the physical distribution characteristics of co-seismic deformation wave. The result shows that the earthquake-reflecting capacity of instrument is related to the response characteristics and systematic error of instrument, the characteristics of underground medium; The physical distribution characteristics of co-seismic deformation wave show that there are linear or proportional distribution relationship in a certain degree between the delay time of surface wave and the epicenter distance of earthquakes, the biggest shock of co-seismic and magnitude, the duration time of co-seismic and magnitude and epicenter distance.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) have developed rapidly in recent years, but still face critical issues such as accuracy and stability. Ideally, a BMI system would be an implantable neuroprosthesis that would be tightly connected and integrated into the brain. However, the heterogeneity of brains and machines hinders deep fusion between the two. Neuromorphic computing models, which mimic the structure and mechanism of biological nervous systems, present a promising approach to developing high-performance neuroprosthesis. The biologically plausible property of neuromorphic models enables homogeneous information representation and computation in the form of discrete spikes between the brain and the machine, promoting deep brain-machine fusion and bringing new breakthroughs for high-performance and long-term usable BMI systems. Furthermore, neuromorphic models can be computed at ultra-low energy costs and thus are suitable for brain-implantable neuroprosthesis devices. The intersection of neuromorphic computing and BMI has great potential to lead the development of reliable, low-power implantable BMI devices and advance the development and application of BMI.

Abstract Advancements in lymphography technology are essential for comprehensive investigation of the lymphatic system and its function. Here, a shortwave infrared (SWIR) luminescence imaging of lymphatic vessels is proposed in both normal and lymphatic dysfunction in rat models with PbS quantum dots (PbS Qdots). The lymphography with PbS Qdots can clearly and rapidly demonstrate the normal lymphatic morphology in both the tail and hind limb. More importantly, compared to ICG, SWIR luminescence imaging with PbS Qdots can easily identify the dominant lymphatic vessel and node with higher luminescence signal in rats. Moreover, lymphatic pump is identified as segment contracting sections with a size of ≈1 cm in rat by in vivo SWIR lymphograhy, which propose a direct feature for precise evaluation of lymphatic function. Notably, in vivo SWIR luminescence imaging with PbS Qdots also clearly deciphers the in vivo pattern of morphological and function recovery from lymphatic system in rat model. In summary, SWIR luminescence imaging with PbS Qdots can improve the lymphography and thus deepen the understanding of the morphology and structure of the lymphatic system as well as lymphatic function such as lymphatic pump, which will facilitate the diagnosis of lymphatic dysfunction in the future.

IntroductionHow the human brain coordinates bimanual movements is not well-established.MethodsHere, we recorded neural signals from a paralyzed individual’s left motor cortex during both unimanual and bimanual motor imagery tasks and quantified the representational interaction between arms by analyzing the tuning parameters of each neuron.ResultsWe found a similar proportion of neurons preferring each arm during unimanual movements, however, when switching to bimanual movements, the proportion of contralateral preference increased to 71.8%, indicating contralateral lateralization. We also observed a decorrelation process for each arm’s representation across the unimanual and bimanual tasks. We further confined that these changes in bilateral relationships are mainly caused by the alteration of tuning parameters, such as the increased bilateral preferred direction (PD) shifts and the significant suppression in bilateral modulation depths (MDs), especially the ipsilateral side.DiscussionThese results contribute to the knowledge of bimanual coordination and thus the design of cutting-edge bimanual brain-computer interfaces.

Lung cancer is notorious for its high global morbidity and mortality. Here, we examined whether the LCMR1 gene, which we previously cloned from a human large-cell lung carcinoma cell line, contributes to the proliferation and metastasis of large-cell lung carcinoma. To this end, we performed pan-cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line-based LCMR1 expression profiling. Results revealed that LCMR1 was expressed at high levels in most solid tumors, including NSCLC. LCMR1 expression was the highest in the 95D large cell lung cancer cell line. Functional studies using lentivirus-based knockdown revealed that LCMR1 was critical for the proliferation, migration, and invasion of cultured large cell lung cancer cells. Moreover, blocking this gene significantly reduced tumor growth in a 95D cell xenograft mouse model. A multiple sequence-based assay revealed a mechanism by which LCMR1 diminished the RNA Pol II occupancy at the promoter of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-encoding genes to prevent their transcription. The HLA genes play vital roles in cancer-specific antigen presentation and anticancer immunity. A correlation assay using TCGA database identified a negative relationship between the expression levels of LCMR1 and HLA coding genes. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that LCMR1 is required for large cell lung cancer cell growth and invasion and suggest its potential as a valid target in clinical treatment.

The airborne hyperspectral remote sensing systems (AHRSSs) acquire images with high spectral resolution, high spatial resolution, and high temporal dimension. While the AHRSS captures more detailed information from the terrain objects, the computational complexity of data processing is greatly increased. As an important application technology in the hyperspectral domain, anomaly detection (AD) processing must be real-time and high-precision in many cases, such as post-disaster rescue, military battlefield search, and natural disaster detection. In this paper, the real-time AD technology for the push-broom AHRSS is studied, the mathematical model is established, and a novel implementation framework is proposed. Firstly, the optimized kernel minimum noise fraction (OP-KMNF) transformation is employed to extract informative and discriminative features between the background and anomalies. Secondly, the Nyström method is introduced to reduce the computational complexity of OP-KMNF transformation by decomposing and extrapolating the sub-kernel matrix to estimate the eigenvector of the entire kernel matrix. Thirdly, the extracted features are transferred to hard disks for data storage. Then, taking the extracted features as input data, the background separation model-based CEM anomaly detector (BSM-CEMAD) is imported to detect anomalies. Finally, graphics processing unit (GPU) parallel computing is utilized in the Nyström-based OP-KMNF (NOP-KMNF) transformation and the BSM-CEMAD to improve the execution efficiency, and the real-time AD for the push-broom AHRSS could be realized. To test the feasibility of the implementation framework proposed in this paper, the experiment is carried out with the Airborne Multi-Modular Imaging Spectrometer (AMMIS) developed by the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics as the data acquisition platform. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms many other state-of-the-art AD methods in anomalies detection and background suppression. Moreover, under the condition that the downlink data could retain most of the hyperspectral data information, the proposed method achieves real-time detection of pixel-level anomalies, with the initial delay not exceeding 1 s, the false alarm rate (FAR) less than 5%, and the true positive rate (TPR) close to 98%.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, universities around the world adopted a closed management model and various restrictive measures intended to reduce human contact and control the spread of the disease. Such measures have had a profound impact on university students, with a marked increase in depression-related psychological disorders. However, little is known about the specific status and factors influencing the impact of the pandemic on student mental health. Addressing this gap, this study examines the body dissatisfaction, physical activity, and sleep of university students during the pandemic, and uses their levels of depression to provide a theoretical basis for the development of mental health interventions for university students in the post-epidemic era. To achieve this, a total of 1,258 university students were randomly recruited for this cross-sectional study. Collected data included respondents' anthropometric measurements, body dissatisfaction levels, dietary habits, sleep status, physical activity levels, and depression levels. The overall detection rate of depression was 25.4%, with higher levels of depression among women. Multiple regression analysis showed that the PSQI score (β = 1.768, P < 0.01) and physical activity scores (β = -0.048, P < 0.01) were significant predictors of depression in men, while the PSQI score (β = 1.743, P < 0.01) and body dissatisfaction scores (β = 0.917, P < 0.01) were significant predictors of depression in women. Mental health problems were prevalent among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate the possibility of alleviating depression among university students by improving their body dissatisfaction, physical activity, and sleep. However, as this study was limited to Ganzhou City, it is challenging to extrapolate the findings to other populations. As this was a cross-sectional study, a causal relationship between depression levels and lifestyle habits cannot be determined.

ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects 36% to almost 100% of adults and causes severe complications only in immunocompromised individuals. HCMV viral surface trimeric (gH/gL/gO) and pentameric (gH/gL/UL128/UL130/UL131A) complexes play important roles in HCMV infection and tropism. Here, we isolated and identified a total of four neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) derived from HCMV-seropositive blood donors. Based on their reactivity to HCMV trimer and pentamer, these MAbs can be divided into two groups. MAbs PC0012, PC0014, and PC0035 in group 1 bind both trimer and pentamer and neutralize CMV by interfering with the postattachment steps of CMV entering into cells. These three antibodies recognize antigenic epitopes clustered in a similar area, which are overlapped by the epitope recognized by the known neutralizing antibody MSL-109. MAb PC0034 in group 2 binds only to pentamer and neutralizes CMV by blocking the binding of pentamer to cells. Epitope mapping using pentamer mutants showed that amino acid T94 of the subunit UL128 and K27 of UL131A on the pentamer are key epitope-associated residues recognized by PC0034. This study provides new evidence and insight information on the importance of the development of the CMV pentamer as a CMV vaccine. In addition, these newly identified potent CMV MAbs can be attractive candidates for development as antibody therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of HCMV infection. IMPORTANCE The majority of the global population is infected with HCMV, but severe complications occur only in immunocompromised individuals. In addition, CMV infection is a major cause of birth defects in newborns. Currently, there are still no approved prophylactic vaccines or therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for clinical use against HCMV infection. This study identified and characterized a panel of four neutralizing MAbs targeting the HCMV pentamer complex with specific aims to identify a key protein(s) and antigenic epitopes in the HCMV pentamer complex. The study also explored the mechanism by which these newly identified antibodies neutralize HCMV in order to design better HCMV vaccines focusing on the pentamer and to provide attractive candidates for the development of effective cocktail therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of HCMV infection.

Objective: We propose a tactile-induced-oscillation approach to reduce the calibration time in somatosensory brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Methods: Based on the similarity between tactile induced event-related desynchronization (ERD) and imagined sensation induced ERD activation, we extensively evaluated BCI performance when using a conventional and a novel calibration strategy. In the conventional calibration, the tactile imagined data was used, while in the sensory calibration model sensory stimulation data was used. Subjects were required to sense the tactile stimulus when real tactile was applied to the left or right wrist and were required to perform imagined sensation tasks in the somatosensory BCI paradigm. Results: The sensory calibration led to a significantly better performance than the conventional calibration when tested on the same imagined sensation dataset ( $\text{F}_{(1,19)}$ =10.89, P=0.0038), with an average 5.1% improvement in accuracy. Moreover, the sensory calibration was 39.3% faster in reaching a performance level of above 70% accuracy. Conclusion: The proposed approach of using tactile ERD from the sensory cortex provides an effective way of reducing the calibration time in a somatosensory BCI system. Significance: The tactile stimulation would be specifically useful before BCI usage, avoiding excessive fatigue when the mental task is difficult to perform. The tactile ERD approach may find BCI applications for patients or users with preserved afferent pathways.

A proportion of users cannot achieve adequate brain-computer interface (BCI) control. The diversity of BCI modalities provides a way to solve this emerging issue. Here, we investigate the accuracy of a somatosensory BCI based on sensory imagery (SI). During the SI tasks, subjects were instructed to imagine a tactile sensation and to maintain the attention on the corresponding hand, as if there was tactile stimulus on the skin of the wrist. The performance across 106 healthy subjects in left- and right-hand SI discrimination was 78.9±13.2%. In 70.7% of the subjects the performance was above 70%. The SI task induced a contralateral cortical activation, and high-density EEG source localization showed that the real tactile stimulation and imagined tactile stimulation shared similar cortical activations within the somatosensory cortex. The somatosensory BCI based on SI provides a new signal modality for independent BCI development. Moreover, a combination of SI and other BCI modalities, such as motor imagery, may provide new avenues for further improving BCI usage and applicability, especially in those subjects unable to attain adequate BCI control with conventional BCI modalities.

The mid-wave infrared imager has stronger transmission ability than the visible near-infrared imager, which can effectively overcome the limitation of the low-visibility climate on the image acquisition timeliness. Moreover, it is more conducive to the detection of long-distance small target. However, few infrared imager systems track the long-distance aerial target while detecting it in real-time. Meanwhile, conventional optical structures for long-distance imaging are cumbersome and bulky. Thus, the significant challenge to solve this problem is how to design a lightweight infrared imaging system for the detection of long-distance infrared small targets over complex scenes. In this article, the basic principle and design features of a compact mid-wave infrared imager system are detailed. The optical system has an ingenious design, compact structure, low power consumption, lightweight, and low installation cost. Simultaneously, an improved features from the accelerated segment test (IFAST) target detection algorithm is proposed, which is verified by comparative experiment, showing good robustness, and stability for infrared small target detection. Combining IFAST with two-dimensional turntable can realize the requirement of real-time object tracking and two filed imaging experiments were carried out. The results demonstrate the robustness and stability of the imager system in detecting and tracking infrared small targets, which can provide a reference for the design of compact mid-wave infrared instruments for similar applications.

Abstract Palladium diselenide (PdSe2), a new type of two-dimensional noble metal dihalides (NMDCs), has received widespread attention for its excellent electrical and optoelectronic properties. Herein, high-quality continuous centimeter-scale PdSe2 films with layers in the range of 3L–15L were grown using Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method. The absorption spectra and DFT calculations revealed that the bandgap of the PdSe2 films decreased with the increasing number of layers, which is due to the enhancement of orbital hybridization. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) analysis shows that PdSe2 has significant layer-dependent optical and dielectric properties. This is mainly due to the unique strong exciton effect of the thin PdSe2 film in the UV band. In particular, the effect of temperature on the optical properties of PdSe2 films was also observed, and the thermo-optical coefficients of PdSe2 films with the different number of layers were calculated. This study provides fundamental guidance for the fabrication and optimization of PdSe2-based optoelectronic devices.

Abstract High‐altitude hypoxia‐induced oxidative stress and inflammation played an essential role in the incidence and development of liver injury. Salidroside (Sal), a phenylpropanoid glycoside extracted from the plant Rhodiola rosea, has recently demonstrated antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and antihypoxia properties. Herein, we hypothesized that salidroside may alleviate hypoxia‐induced liver injury via antioxidant and antiinflammatory‐related pathways. A high‐altitude hypoxia animal model was established using hypobaric chamber. Male SD rats were randomly divided into the control group, hypoxia group, control +Sal group, and hypoxia +Sal group. Salidroside treatment significantly inhibited hypoxia‐induced increases of serum and hepatic pro‐inflammatory cytokines release, hepatic ROS production and MDA contents; attenuated hypoxia‐induced decrease of hepatic SOD, CAT, and GSH‐Px activities. Furthermore, salidroside treatment also potentiated the activation of Nrf2‐mediated anti‐oxidant pathway, as indicated by upregulation of n‐Nrf2 and its downstream HO‐1 and NQO‐1. In vitro study found that blocking the Nrf2 pathway using specific inhibitor ML385 significantly reversed the protective effect of salidroside on hypoxia‐induced liver oxidative stress. In addition, salidroside treatment significantly inhibited hepatic pro‐inflammatory cytokines release via JAK2/STAT3‐mediated pathway. Taken together, our findings suggested that salidroside protected against hypoxia‐induced hepatic oxidative stress and inflammation via Nrf2 and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways.

Bimsoils are a loose rock and soil system, and the occurrence of geological hazards is closely related to water. To investigate the permeability and seepage characteristics of bimsoils, factors on permeability are discussed in detail considering cementation state, and variable mass seepage is studied tentatively with self-developed apparatus. Results shown that the order of factors on permeability is rock content > cementation degree > rock size > Talbot index (describing the mass percentage for different particle size of sand), and there are significant differences between factors. Besides, permeability generally increases with the increase of rock content and decreases with the increase of cementing agent content, while increases slightly due to agglomeration effect at the clay content of 8%. It is more obvious for reducing the permeability of higher rock content bimsoils by strong cementing agent, however, it tends to be same eventually with cement content increasing. The seepage of bimsoils is dominated by fine particle losses, and the secondary inrush occurs under the larger particle radius ratio. Moreover, particle losses and the time needed for secondary inrush both increase with the increase of particle radius ratio. The results would provide consults for the preparation of similar materials and the prevention of tunnels and underground engineering disasters.

In the medical field, it is important to monitor and evaluate the blood supply status of organs and tissues during the clinical surgery. However, this largely depends on the surgeon’s experience and naked eye, which is easy to misjudge due to the interference of blood stains or other factors. A portable and flexible photoplethysmographic (PPG) detection probe is developed in this paper. And a new evaluation methodology of blood supply status is proposed based on this probe. Three typical indicators based on PPG is proposed to comprehensively evaluate the blood supply status, which are the blood oxygen saturation and its pulsation, differential characteristics of different lights, and time-frequency energy spectral characteristic. The probe and its evaluation methodology are verified using the brain of rats as a model.

As the resolution of airborne hyperspectral imagers (AHIs) continues to improve, the demand for accurate boresight calibration also increases. However, the high cost of ground control points (GCPs) and the low horizontal resolution of open digital elevation model (DEM) datasets limit the accuracy of AHI’s boresight calibration. We propose a method to enhance the accuracy of DEM-based boresight calibration using coplanarity constraints to address this issue. Our approach utilizes the relative accuracy of DEM in low-resolution DEM datasets. To make better use of the DEM, we apply coplanarity constraints to identify image features that display similar displacement in overlapping areas, and extract their corresponding elevation values from the DEM. These features and their relative heights are then incorporated into an optimization problem for boresight calibration. In the case of low-resolution DEM datasets, our method fully utilizes the relative accuracy of the DEM to improve the boresight correction precision. We have proven that the relative accuracy of elevation is more reliable than absolute accuracy in this situation. Our approach has been tested on the dataset from AHI, and the results have shown that the proposed method has better accuracy on low-resolution DEM datasets. In summary, our method provides a novel approach to improving the accuracy of DEM-based boresight calibration for AHIs, which can benefit applications, such as remote sensing and environmental monitoring. This research highlights the importance of utilizing the relative accuracy of low-resolution DEM datasets for improving the accuracy of boresight calibration.

The NSGA-II algorithm was used to establish a multi-objective optimization model for the oxygen enrichment rate of a blast furnace in terms of achieving a lower fuel ratio and higher pulverized coal ratio. The model has the hearth temperature as the constraint condition and the oxygen enrichment rate as the decision variable. The NSGA-II algorithm was used to obtain the Pareto optimal solution of the multi-objective optimization scheme. The prediction effect of the optimization scheme was then tested in industrial experiments. The results show that the optimal setting of the oxygen enrichment rate predicted by the model was 2.70%, which provides an optimal fuel ratio and pulverized coal ratio of 553.86 kg·tHM−1 and 144.58 kg·tHM−1, respectively. In actual production, when the oxygen enrichment rate was set at 2.71%, an optimal fuel ratio and pulverized coal ratio of 553.74 kg·tHM−1 and 148.73 kg·tHM−1 were obtained. The relative error in the oxygen enrichment rate between the model prediction and the actual prediction was 0.003%. The prediction results of the model suggest a reduction in CO2 emissions by 25,770.71 tons per year. The CO2 emission reduction in actual production was approximately 1.09 times the prediction of the model.

While SARS-CoV-2 S protein targeting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are well studied, little is known about N protein-targeting mAbs. Here, Kang et al. provide the crystal structure of the N protein RNA binding domain with a mAb derived from a convalescent patient and show that it compromises the N protein-induced complement hyperactivation.

The concentrated nitric acid oxidation was chosen as the surface treatments on carbon fibers in this paper. Treated carbon fibers were subjected to subsequent processing and forming, the electrodes applied in marine electric field detection were prepared. The electrochemical properties that related to practical application in marine electric field detection such as potential stability, polarization and cyclic voltammetry performance, the electrochemical impedance and the self-noise were characterized, thus an electrochemical evaluation system was formed to optimize the oxidation technology. Combining with the TGA and FTIR, the physical properties of carbon fibers were characterized and some oxidation laws were induced. The results indicate that the carbon fiber electrode prepared by oxidation 4 hours at 110 ℃ has the best electrochemical performance for detection.

Abstract Not only does the Dynastes tityus beetle display a reversible color change controlled by differences in humidity, but also, the elytron scale can change color from yellow-green to deep-brown in specified shapes. The results obtained by focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), show that the epicuticle (EPI) is a permeable layer, and the exocuticle (EXO) is a three-dimensional photonic crystal. To investigate the mechanism of the reversible color change, experiments were conducted to determine the water contact angle, surface chemical composition, and optical reflectance, and the reflective spectrum was simulated. The water on the surface began to permeate into the elytron via the surface elemental composition and channels in the EPI. A structural unit (SU) in the EXO allows local color changes in varied shapes. The reflectance of both yellow-green and deep-brown elytra increases as the incidence angle increases from 0° to 60°. The microstructure and changes in the refractive index are the main factors that influence the process of reversible color change. According to the simulation, the lower reflectance causing the color change to deep-brown results from water infiltration, which increases light absorption. Meanwhile, the waxy layer has no effect on the reflection of light. This study lays the foundation to manufacture engineered photonic materials that undergo controllable changes in iridescent color.

The instability of weak surrounding rock around shallow buried tunnels induced by rainfall is a challenge for tunnel engineering and threatens construction safety. To reveal the influence of rainfall on the rock surrounding a tunnel, the results of experiments on the failure of surrounding rock under different rainfall intensities and durations using a self-developed test system are presented. First, the stress and seepage behaviors of the surrounding rock under rainfall were analysed, and the results showed that the stress increased while the pore water pressure decreased as the rainfall intensity decreased. It was more difficult to maintain vault collapse as rainfall intensity increased, and the particle erosion in the model intensified as the rainfall duration increased. The change in pore water pressure was greater than the change in stress, but the stress and pore water pressures influenced each other during rainfall. The influence of rainfall on the rock at the top of the tunnel was greater than that at the two sides of the tunnel because the seepage channels at the top of the tunnel were more developed and collapsed more easily due to smaller stresses. According to the phenomena of the surrounding rock observed during the test, the evolution of progressive failure under rainfall was roughly divided into eight stages: stability, water drop, continuous water flow, partial collapse, mud and water mixture, vault collapse, throughgoing collapse, and massive water and mud gushing. Furthermore, the final failure pattern of the surrounding rock consists of an excavation disturbance zone, vault damage zone and collapse failure zone. This research helps to reveal the progressive failure of surrounding rock around tunnels under rainfall conditions and can be used as a reference for designing disaster prevention strategies in practical engineering.

In push-broom hyperspectral imaging systems, the sensor rotation to the optical plane leads to linear spatial misregistration (LSM) in hyperspectral images (HSIs). To compensate for hardware defects through software, this paper develops four methods to detect LSM in HSIs. Different from traditional methods for grayscale images, the method of fitting the sum of abundance (FSAM) and the method of searching for equal abundance (SEAM) are achieved by hyperspectral unmixing for a selected rectangular transition areas containing an edge, which makes good use of spatial and spectral information. The method based on line detection for band-interleaved-by-line (BIL) images (LDBM) and the method based on the Fourier transform of BIL images (FTBM) aim to characterize the slope of line structure in BIL images and get rid of the dependence on scene and wavelength. A full strategy is detailed from aspects of data selection, LSM detection, and image correction. The full spectrum airborne hyperspectral imager (FAHI) is China’s new generation push-broom scanner. The HSIs obtained by FAHI are tested and analyzed. Experiments on simulation data compare the four proposed methods with traditional methods and prove that FSAM outperforms other methods in terms of accuracy and stability. In experiments on real data, the application of the full strategy on FAHI verifies its effectiveness. This work not only provides reference for other push-broom imagers with similar problems, but also helps to reduce the requirement for hardware calibration.

Abstract Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were considered a regenerative therapeutic approach in both acute and chronic diseases. However, whether MSCs regulate the antioxidant metabolism of CD4+ T cells and weaken immunosenescence remains unclear. Here, we reported the protective effects of hPMSCs in aging-related CD4+ T cell senescence and identified the underlying mechanisms using a d-gal-induced mouse aging model. Methods In vivo study, 40 male C57BL/6 mice (8 weeks) were randomly divided into four groups: control group, d-gal group, hPMSC group, and PBS group. In in vitro experiment, human naive CD4+ T (CD4CD45RA) cells were prepared using a naive CD4+ T cell isolation kit II and pretreated with the Akt inhibitor LY294002 and Nrf2 inhibitor ML385. Then, isolated naive CD4+ T cell were co-cultured with hPMSCs for 72 h in the absence or presence of anti-CD3/CD28 Dynabeads and IL-2 as a mitogenic stimulus. Intracellular ROS changes were detected by flow cytometry. The activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase were measured by colorimetric analysis. The senescent T cells were detected SA-β-gal stain. The expression of aging-related proteins was detected by Western blotting, RT-PCR, and confocal microscopy. Results We found that hPMSC treatment markedly decreased the ROS level, SA-β-gal-positive cells number, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (IL-6 and OPN) expression, and aging-related protein (P16 and P21) expression in senescent CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, hPMSC treatment effectively upregulated Nrf2 nuclear translocation and the expression of downstream target genes (HO-1, CAT, GCLC, and NQO1) in senescent CD4+ T cells. Moreover, in vitro studies revealed that hPMSCs attenuated CD4+ T cell senescence by upregulating the Akt/GSK-3β/Fyn pathway to activate Nrf2 functions. Conversely, the antioxidant effects of hPMSCs were blocked by the Akt inhibitor LY294002 and Nrf2 inhibitor ML385 in senescent CD4+ T cells. Conclusions Our results indicate that hPMSCs attenuate d-gal-induced CD4+ T cell senescence by activating Nrf2-mediated antioxidant defenses and that upregulation of Nrf2 by hPMSCs is regulated via the Akt/GSK-3β/Fyn pathway.

Understanding the mechanism of high-temperature tolerance will help to breed crops adaptive to warming climate. Here, the authors show SLG1, a cytosolic tRNA 2-thiolation protein 2 encoding gene, is differentiated between the two Asian cultivated rice subspecies and confers high temperature tolerance of indica rice.

The black soil of Northeast China is sticky and agglomerates easily, which often adheres to the surface of a traditional furrow opener during the furrowing process. In this paper, biomimetic design principles in resistance-reducing, anti-adhesion and resistance-reducing mechanism of biomimetic disc furrow opener were studied. Nine kinds of singular convex hull, nine kinds of singular wedge and nine kinds of mixed convex hull and wedge structural biomimetic disc furrow opener were designed, and the furrowing process with the soil simulated by finite element method (FEM).Three types of biomimetic disc furrow opener with less resistance were manufactured by laser processing for comparative test in soil bin based on the simulation results. The test results showed that the resistance of the biomimetic disc furrow opener was less than that of the ordinary disc. The soil-disc stress, influence of biomimetic structures, moisture content and furrow speeds on resistance were discussed. The resistance-reducing rate of D-BC-3 reached the maximum value 15.36% at the furrow speed of 0.6 m/s and the soil moisture content of 20%. It is believed that the biomimetic design principles can provide the significant inspirations for the future design of disc furrow opener with drag reduction.

Abstract Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) is the depolymerized product of chitosan possessing various biological activities and protective effects against inflammation and oxidative injury. The aim of the present study was to investigate the antioxidant effects of COS supplements on aging‐related liver dysfunction. We found that COS treatment significantly attenuated elevated liver function biomarkers and oxidative stress biomarkers and decreased antioxidative enzyme activities in liver tissues in D‐galactose (D‐gal)‐treated mice. Furthermore, COS treatment significantly upregulated the expression of Nrf2 and its downstream target genes HO‐1, NQO1, and CAT. Moreover, in vitro experiments showed that COS treatment played a vital role in protecting H2O2‐exposed L02 cells against oxidative stress by activating Nrf2 antioxidant signaling. These data indicate that COS could protect against D‐gal‐induced hepatic aging by activating Nrf2 antioxidant signaling, which may provide novel applications for the prevention and treatment of aging‐related hepatic dysfunction.

ABSTRACTIn 2019, a new type of infectious disease characterized with haemorrhage and swellings of kidneys, occurred on commercial duck farms in Shandong province, China. Our systematic investigation led to the isolation of an astrovirus, designated AstV-SDTA strain and was isolated from a diseased duckling using LMH cells. Similar clinical symptoms were reproduced by experimental infection using the AstV-SDTA strain. The complete genome sequencing characterization of AstV-SDTA was conducted using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technique on Illumina HiSeq platform, and used polymerase chain reaction method to verify the NGS results for the obtained whole sequences. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that AstV-SDTA strain belongs to a novel goose astrovirus (GoAstV) branch of avian astroviruses, and the nucleotide homology based on the complete genome sequences among AstV-SDTA and other GoAstV strains deposited in Genbank was 97.2–98.8%. Taken together, these results suggest that the cross-species transmission of novel GoAstV between domestic waterfowl is possible. Further surveillance of novel GoAstV in poultry are needed in order to gain a better understanding of both the molecular and evolutionary characteristics of novel GoAstV.

End of vehicle streamlined head was selected as the installation location, and aerodynamic behavior of trains with and without braking plates was compared to analyze the formation of the braking force and the evolution of the flow field. An IDDES method based on the SST κ–ω turbulence model was used to investigate the unsteady flow, and the numerical algorithm was validated. Results show that the train aerodynamic drag was significantly increased by opening the braking plates, especially when several braking plates were arranged separately in series on each train car. Furthermore, the effect of the plate installed on the tail car was superior to that of the braking plate on the head car, when only a single braking plate was used. It was also found that both the maximum value of the slipstream and negative pressure close to the braking plate depend on the position and size of the braking plate. The flow field around the lower part of the train was only slightly affected by opening the braking plates, and pairs of vortices over the train appeared when the braking plates were opened, significantly affected both size and position of vortices in the train wake.

Feature representation is the key to the hyperspectral images (HSI) inpainting. Existing works mainly focus on using spectral and temporal auxiliary images to inpainting the corrupted region, which were proved to be low robust for all bands missing and high requirements for image acquisition. In this work, we propose an end-to-end inpainting framework for HSI based on convolutional neural networks, which does not require auxiliary images and makes full use of both spectral characteristics and spatial information. For spectral characteristics, a channel attention mechanism is proposed to reduce the redundancy of hyperspectral channels and model the correlation between channels. For spatial information, a local discriminative network is able to cope with the structural continuity of the corrupted regions, and a gradient consistency loss function is proposed to maintain the texture consistency of HSIs. Experimental results in the Airborne Visual Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Indians Pines public dataset and Feicheng Hyperspectral datasets show that our proposed method can provide competitive results compared with state-of-the-art methods.