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Yujuan Li,1,* Jing Zhou,1,* Qian Zhuo,2 Jingyun Zhang,1 Jingyan Xie,1 Suping Han,3 Shuli Zhao1,41Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 4State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground and purpose: To evade immune defense, cancer cells can employ extracellular vesicles (EVs) to inhibit the anti-tumor activity of lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment. However, the mechanisms and key molecules that mediate the effects of EVs on lymphocytes are unclear.Patients and methods: We used Quantibody® Human Cytokine Antibody Array 440 to determine the tumor immunity-related cytokine profile of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) stimulated with EVs derived from peritoneal washes or malignant ascites. We detected 21 upregulated and 27 downregulated proteins, including the immunosuppressive receptors Siglec-10, SLAM, PD-1, and TIM-3.Results: Flow cytometry analysis of PBLs or ovarian cancer ascites suggested that Siglec-10 expression on CD3+ T cells was higher in ovarian cancer patients than in healthy controls and in the malignant ascites of ovarian cancer patients than in their blood. Moreover, the expression of CD24, the Siglec-10 ligand, was associated with tumor stage and cancer cell metastasis. Finally, compared to the benign peritoneal wash-derived EVs, the malignant EVs significantly upregulated Siglec-10 expression on Jurkat T cells, inhibited the protein kinase C activity induced by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and ionomycin, and impaired the phosphorylation of the tyrosine kinase ZAP-70 activated by crosslinking with an anti-CD3 antibody.Conclusion: The EVs secreted by malignant ovarian cells upregulated Siglec-10 expression on T cells and impaired T cell activation in the tumor microenvironment. We believe that a comprehensive understanding of the regulation of Siglec-10 and CD24 by malignant EVs has clinical importance, as it will aid in the development of better immunotherapeutic strategies for ovarian cancer.Keywords: extracellular vesicles, Siglec-10, T cells, ovarian cancer, ascites

A new method to measure growth rates of individual photoautotrophic cells by combining stable isotope probing (SIP) and single-cell resonance Raman microspectrometry is introduced. This report explores optimal experimental design and the theoretical underpinnings for quantitative responses of Raman spectra to cellular isotopic composition. Resonance Raman spectra of isogenic cultures of the cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp., grown in 13C-bicarbonate revealed linear covariance between wavenumber (cm−1) shifts in dominant carotenoid Raman peaks and a broad range of cellular 13C fractional isotopic abundance. Single-cell growth rates were calculated from spectra-derived isotopic content and empirical relationships. Growth rates among any 25 cells in a sample varied considerably; mean coefficient of variation, CV, was 29 ± 3% (σ/x¯), of which only ~2% was propagated analytical error. Instantaneous population growth rates measured independently by in vivo fluorescence also varied daily (CV ≈ 53%) and were statistically indistinguishable from single-cell growth rates at all but the lowest levels of cell labeling. SCRR censuses of mixtures prepared from Synechococcus sp. and T. pseudonana (a diatom) populations with varying 13C-content and growth rates closely approximated predicted spectral responses and fractional labeling of cells added to the sample. This approach enables direct microspectrometric interrogation of isotopically- and phylogenetically-labeled cells and detects as little as 3% changes in cellular fractional labeling. This is the first description of a non-destructive technique to measure single-cell photoautotrophic growth rates based on Raman spectroscopy and well-constrained assumptions, while requiring few ancillary measurements.

The search for genetic variants that act as causative factors in human diseases by disrupting the normal splicing process has primarily focused on single nucleotide variants (SNVs). It is worth noting that insertions or deletions (indels) have also been sporadically reported as causative disease variants through their potential impact on the splicing process. In this study, to perform identification of indels inducing exon extension/shrinkage events, we used individual‐specific genomes and RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) data pertaining to the corresponding individuals and identified 12 exon extension/shrinkage events that were potentially induced by indels that disrupted authentic splice sites or created novel splice sites in 235 normal individuals. By evaluating the impact of these abnormal splicing events on the resulting transcripts, we found that five events led to the generation of premature termination codons (PTCs), including those occurring within genes associated with genetic disorders. Our analysis revealed that the potential functions of indels have been underexamined, and it is worth considering the possibility that indels may affect splice site usage, using RNA‐seq data to discover novel potentially disease‐associated mutations.

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) has declined more slowly in rural than urban areas in China, and data on the patterns of transmission and the high-risk populations in rural areas remains scarce. We conducted a population-based study of culture-positive pulmonary TB patients diagnosed in rural Linzhou City, Henan Province from July 2018 to February 2023. Genomic clusters were defined based on whole-genome sequencing and risk factors for clustering were identified by logistic regression. Transmission events were inferred with phybreak and transmission links were sought through epidemiological investigation of clustered patients. Logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between genomic differences of patient isolates and geographical distances of patient residences. Spatial hotspots were defined using kernel density estimation. Of 455 culture-positive patients, 430 were included in the final analysis. Overall, 192 (44.7%,192/430) patients were grouped into 49 clusters. Clusters containing ≥5 patients accounted for 18.4% (9/49) of the clusters and clustering was highest in student patients. No super-spreaders were detected. Confirmed epidemiologic links were identified for only 18.2% of clustered patients. The clustering risk decreased rapidly with increasing distances between patient residences, but 77.6% of clustered patient pairs lived ≥5.0 km apart. Both the Central Subdistrict and Rencun Township were identified as hotspots for TB transmission. Recent transmission appears to be an important driver of the TB burden in Linzhou. The formulation of effective strategies to reduce TB incidence in rural areas will require further studies to identify high-risk populations and venues where local inhabitants congregate and transmit the infection.

Hydrocarbon distribution in the western Qaidam Basin is complex and characterised by large reserves, dispersed distribution, local enrichment, and multi-layer accumulation. Near the Altyn Tagh Ranges, the traps are mainly oil-filled, whereas far away and near the basin centre, they are gas-filled. With hydrocarbon distribution in the western Qaidam Basin poorly understood, the tectonic evolution, source-rock thermal evolution and space–time configurations were studied using burial history, strata thickness, source-rock generation and expulsion processes, and trap formation. Mode 1 system was characterised by continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, rapid source-rock burial and trap formation early in the basin history resulting in early generation and trapping of low maturity oil and later generation of high maturity oil. Mode 2 was characterised by mid-section hydrocarbon accumulation, steady source-rock burial velocity and trap formation with the traps filled by mature oil and small amounts of gas. Mode 3 was characterised by tail hydrocarbon accumulation, rapid source-rock burial and trap formation late in basin development resulting in traps filled with high-maturity gas. In the Mesozoic–Cenozoic petroleum system, such as the Dina2 condensate gas field, hydrocarbon accumulation was earlier than in the Yingxi Shizigou oilfield belonging to the Cenozoic petroleum system, which was mainly controlled by tectonic evolution and source-rock thermal evolution. The well-matching relationships between hydrocarbon generation–expulsion time and trap formation may create a giant oilfield, an earlier formed trap, later matured source rock and good preservation leading to continuous accumulation of hydrocarbon favourable for exploration. In the western Qaidam Basin, hydrocarbon differential distribution was mainly controlled by source-rock burial history, stratigraphic thickness and trap formation processes. Multi-stage hydrocarbon accumulation characteristics are classified into three modes according to the thermal evolution stage of the source rock. A comparison of hydrocarbon accumulation processes between the Yingxi oilfield in the western Qaidam Basin and Dina 2 gas fields in the Kuqa foreland basin allowed hydrocarbon accumulation modes to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Te-based glass powder exhibits distinctive characteristics such as a low melting temperature and high chemical stability, rendering it a focal point of research in the realm of glass powder applications for solar cells. In this investigation, a pioneering Ge-containing Te-based lead-free glass powder was synthesized, and the influence of GeO2 content on critical parameters such as glass transition temperature (Tg), high-temperature fluidity, high-temperature wettability, acid and alkali resistance, as well as the network structure of the glass, was systematically explored. At an optimal GeO2 content of 8%, the glass powder displayed the lowest Tg (437°C), accompanied by a subdued crystallization reaction. The high-temperature fluidity and wettability exhibited favorable characteristics, indicating that the inclusion of GeO2 in the glass powder resulted in an enhanced interface contact. Building upon this foundation, techniques to augment the Ag+ content within the glass powder were investigated, along with the interaction between Ag+ and the SiNx anti-reflection layer or silicon on the surface of crystalline silicon solar cells. It was discerned that the Ag+ content in the glass powder significantly influences the deposition of silver microcrystals on the surface of crystalline silicon, thereby impacting the contact resistance of the solar cell. Then influences the series resistance and photoelectric conversion efficiency of the solar cell.

Introduction: Target therapy for cancer cell mutation has brought attention to several challenges in clinical applications, including limited therapeutic targets, less patient benefits, and susceptibility to acquired due to their clear biological mechanisms and high specificity in targeting cancers with specific mutations. However, the identification of truly lethal synthetic lethal therapeutic targets for cancer cells remains uncommon, primarily due to compensatory mechanisms.Methods: In our pursuit of core therapeutic targets (CTTs) that exhibit extensive synthetic lethality in cancer and the corresponding potential drugs, we have developed a machine-learning model that utilizes multiple levels and dimensions of cancer characterization. This is achieved through the consideration of the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of cancer-specific genes and the construction of a model that integrates statistics and machine learning. The model incorporates statistics such as Wilcoxon and Pearson, as well as random forest. Through WGCNA and network analysis, we identify hub genes in the SL network that serve as CTTs. Additionally, we establish regulatory networks for non-coding RNA (ncRNA) and drug-target interactions.Results: Our model has uncovered 7277 potential SL interactions, while WGCNA has identified 13 gene modules. Through network analysis, we have identified 30 CTTs with the highest degree in these modules. Based on these CTTs, we have constructed networks for ncRNA regulation and drug targets. Furthermore, by applying the same process to lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma, we have identified corresponding CTTs and potential therapeutic drugs. We have also analyzed common therapeutic targets among all three cancers.Discussion: The results of our study have broad applicability across various dimensions and histological data, as our model identifies potential therapeutic targets by learning multidimensional complex features from known synthetic lethal gene pairs. The incorporation of statistical screening and network analysis further enhances the confidence in these potential targets. Our approach provides novel theoretical insights and methodological support for the identification of CTTs and drugs in diverse types of cancer.

Mutations that affect phenotypes have been identified primarily as those that directly alter amino acid sequences or disrupt splice sites. However, some mutations not located in functionally important sites can also affect phenotypes, such as splice-site-creating mutations (SCMs). To investigate how frequent exon extension/shrinkage events induced by SCMs occur in normal individuals, we used personal genome sequencing data and transcriptome data of the corresponding individuals and identified 371 exon extension/shrinkage events in normal individuals. This number was about three times higher than the number of pseudo-exon activation events identified in the previous study. The average numbers of exon extension and exon shrinkage events in each sample were 3.3 and 11.2, respectively. We also evaluated the impact of exon extension/shrinkage events on the resulting transcripts and their protein products and found that 40.2% of the identified events may have possible functional impacts by either generating premature termination codons in transcripts or affecting protein domains. Our results indicated that a certain fraction of SCMs identified in this study can be pathogenic mutations by creating novel splice sites.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) is the second most common malignant tumors of the pancreas. Multiple endocrine neoplasia 1 ( MEN1) is the most frequently mutated gene in pNETs and MEN1-encoded protein, menin, is a scaffold protein that interacts with transcription factors and chromatin-modifying proteins to regulate various signaling pathways. However, the role of MEN1 in lipid metabolism has not been studied in pNETs. In this study, we perform targeted metabolomics analysis and find that MEN1 promotes the generation and oxidation of polyunsaturated fat acids (PUFAs). Meanwhile lipid peroxidation is a hallmark of ferroptosis, and we confirm that MEN1 promotes ferroptosis by inhibiting the activation of mTOR signaling which is the central hub of metabolism. We show that stearoyl-coA desaturase (SCD1) is the downstream of MEN1-mTOR signaling and oleic acid (OA), a metabolite of SCD1, recues the lipid peroxidation caused by MEN1 overexpression. The negative correlation between MEN1 and SCD1 is further verified in clinical specimens. Furthermore, we find that BON-1 and QGP-1 cells with MEN1 overexpression are more sensitive to everolimus, a widely used drug in pNETs that targets mTOR signaling. In addition, combined use everolimus with ferroptosis inducer, RSL3, possesses a more powerful ability to kill cells, which may provide a new strategy for the comprehensive therapy of pNETs.

The investigation of conductive silver pastes and inks has witnessed extensive research within the domain of printed electronics in recent years, primarily owing to the exceptional electrical conductivity and steadfastness intrinsic to silver. This paper introduces an approach for the fabrication of stable, cost-effective, and low-resistance conductive silver paste tailored for flexible printed circuits. This method facilitates the solidification of the conductive silver paste into a highly conductive silver film at a curing temperature of 250 °C. In the process of preparing the conductive silver paste, Ag flakes is subject to modification through the incorporation of Ag NPs, which are subsequently sintered at a low temperature curing setting. The sintering of Ag NPs serves to establish connections between adjacent particles of Ag flakes within the paste, thereby enhancing the conductivity and flexibility of the resulting conductive printed silver film. When the ratio of Ag NPs to Ag flakes is maintained at 10:90, the volume resistivity of the Ag NPs-modified film registers at 2.7 × 10 ^−5 Ω.cm. This demonstrates a substantial 53.45% reduction in the volume resistivity of the conductive printed silver film modified with Ag NPs, compared to its Ag NPs-absent counterpart. Post 200 cyclic bending tests, it becomes evident that the resistance change rate in the Ag NPs-modified conductive printed silver film is a mere 12.5%, whereas the Ag NPs-modified silver film lacking Ag NPs displays a resistance change rate of 21.5%. This discrepancy underscores the capacity of Ag NPs-modified Ag flakes to fortify the bending resistance of the conductive printed silver film. Comprehensive data analysis substantiates that the improvements in electrical conductivity and bending resistance can be attributed to the superior bridging facilitated by the sintering process on the surface of the Ag NPs-modified Ag flakes.

Objectives: Rupture of a brain arteriovenous malformation (bAVM) can cause intracranial hemorrhage and severe clinical outcomes. At present, the mechanisms of bAVM-related hemorrhage are poorly understood. This study aimed to summarize the potential genetic risk factors for bAVM-related hemorrhage and appraise the methodological quality of existing genetic studies on bAVM-related hemorrhage using a cross-sectional design.Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted on genetic studies associated with bAVM-related hemorrhage published in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet, and Wangfang databases, up to November 2022. Subsequently, a cross-sectional study was performed to describe the potential candidate genetic variants of bAVM associated with risk of hemorrhage and to evaluate the methodological quality of the identified studies using the Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment scale and Q-genie tool.Results: Of the 1811 records identified in the initial search, nine studies met the filtering criteria and were included. Twelve single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including IL6 rs1800795, IL17A rs2275913, MMP9 rs9509, VEGFA rs1547651, and EPHB4 rs314353, rs314308, and rs314313, were associated with bAVM-related hemorrhage. However, only 12.5% of the evaluated SNPs showed statistical power> 0.80 (α = 0.05). Methodological quality assessment revealed significant flaws in the designs of the included studies, such as less reliable representativeness of recruited individuals, short follow-up periods in cohort studies, and less comparability between groups of hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic patients.Conclusion:IL1B, IL6, IL17A, APOE, MMP9, VEGFA and EPHB4 were potentially associated with bAVM-related hemorrhage. The methodological designs of the analyzed studies required improvement in order to obtain more reliable results. Regional alliances and rare disease banks need to be established to recruit large numbers of bAVM patients (especially familial and extreme-trait cases) in a multicenter, prospective cohort study with an adequate follow-up period. Furthermore, it is important to use advanced sequencing techniques and efficient measures to filter candidate genetic variants.

An extensive vibronic band system of the FS2 radical in the 700–485 nm region has been observed for the first time by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) probing of the products of the reaction of F2 with various sulfur-containing compounds. Jet-cooled spectra were obtained by reacting fluorine with COS, H2S, or CS2 in the body of a continuous supersonic jet, just prior to expansion. Vibrational analysis of the jet spectra gives ν1’ = 768, ν2’ = 217, ν3’ = 495, ν1‘ = 705, ν2‘ = 293, ν3‘ = 684, and T00=14 922 cm-1, all in good agreement with ab initio predictions for the FS2 free radical. A rotational analysis of the high-resolution spectrum of the 350 band shows that the transition is polarized out-of-plane, with spin splittings characteristic of a molecule with a single unpaired electron. The rotational constants and spin–rotation interaction constants were determined with good precision for the ground and excited states. By combining the rotational constants with our ab initio estimates of the S–F bond length, the following structural parameters were obtained: r(S–F)=1.651 Å, r(S–S)=1.865(5) Å, and θ(FSS)=109.1(1)° for the X 2A‘ state and r(S–F)=1.642 Å, r(S–S)=2.105(5) Å, and θ(FSS)=97.6(1)° for the A 2A’ state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ab initio theory with split-valence plus polarization function and larger basis sets at the self-consistent field (SCF) and second order Mo\ller–Plesset (UMP2) levels was used to predict the geometries and spectroscopic parameters for the ground and first excited electronic states of the HS2, FS2, and ClS2 free radicals. The ground-state species are predicted to be bent and may be described as having a sulfur–sulfur double bond, a sulfur-substituent single bond, and an unpaired electron which is delocalized principally over the sulfur centers. The first electronic transition involves an (n,π*) electron promotion which leads to a longer S–S bond, smaller bond angle, and greater localization of the unpaired electron on the terminal sulfur atom. The adiabatic transition energies are predicted to be at ∼6700, 13 700, and 10 600 cm-1 for HS2, FS2, and ClS2, respectively. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the rather limited amount of experimental data available. These ab initio predictions provide critical information to aid in future experimental studies of the matrix isolation or gas-phase spectra of the thiosulfeno radicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectra of jet-cooled germanium dichloride were obtained by pyrolysis of trichlorogermane in the throat of a supersonic jet. Laser-induced emission excitation spectra were recorded for the weak 450–400 nm and strong 320–300 nm band systems, both of which were vibrationally analyzed. Ab initio predictions of the excited state geometries, vibrational frequencies, and excitation energies were made to aid in assigning the spectra. The strong ultraviolet band system is assigned as A 1B1–X 1A1 with upper state vibrational frequencies of ν1=354 cm-1 and ν2=104 cm-1. It is the direct analog of the 580–440 nm band system of dichlorocarbene. The weaker band system in the visible is shown to be the a 3B1–X 1A1 transition, with upper state vibrational frequencies of ν1=393 cm-1 and ν2=118 cm-1. This is the first report of direct laser-induced phosphorescence detection of the excited triplet state of any of the carbene or heavier carbene analogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the spatial and quantitative evaluation of water conservation within regional ecosystems holds vital significance for effective regional water resource management, allocation optimization, and enhanced ecological protection. In this study, we focus on Yunnan Province as our research subject and utilize land use data spanning from 2000 to 2018. The InVEST model serves as a key tool for evaluating Yunnan Province’s water conservation capacity over the past two decades. Furthermore, we employ Geographical detectors and ArcGIS 10.2 to delve into the spatial distribution patterns and the impact of both natural environmental and socio-economic factors on changes in water conservation capacity. The research findings reveal a spatial trend in regional water source conservation, characterized by a decreasing gradient from the southwest to the northeast. Over the past two decades, we have observed an initial decline followed by a subsequent increase in regional water source conservation, resulting in an overall upward trajectory. Precipitation displays the strongest correlation among natural environmental factors, indicating a significant influence on water conservation. Additionally, socio-economic data exhibit a noteworthy positive correlation with alterations in water conservation, primarily attributed to urbanization and the expansion of impermeable surfaces like urban construction land, which bolster regional water conservation efforts. This research offers valuable insights that can serve as a foundation for establishing local water source protection measures and ecological compensation mechanisms.

In this experiment, a quaternary fluorine-free refining slag system of CaO-SiO2-Al2O3-MgO was selected, with basicity ratios of 2, 4, and 6 and calcium-aluminum ratios of 1.5, 2.1, and 3. High-temperature “slag-steel equilibrium” experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of different basicity ratios and calcium–aluminum ratios on the morphologies, compositions, sizes, and quantities of the inclusions in H13 steel, aiming to improve the cleanliness of H13 steel to meet practical industrial requirements. The experimental results showed that with the increase in the basicity ratio and the calcium–aluminum ratio, the morphologies of the inclusions changed from elliptical to regular circular, with more regular edges. As the basicity ratio increased from 2 to 6, the densities of the inclusions showed a decreasing trend, with values of 40, 35, 30, 25, 32, and 30 inclusions/mm2. When the basicity ratio remained the same, the average size of the inclusions in the steel decreased first and then increased with the increases in the calcium–aluminum ratios, with sizes of 1.59 μm, 1.23 μm, and 1.38 μm, respectively. Among these, when the basicity ratio was 6 and the calcium–aluminum ratio was 2.1, the control effect on the densities and sizes of the inclusions was the best, yielding an inclusion density of 25 inclusions/mm2 and a size of 1.15 μm. Additionally, reducing the Al2O3 content in the slag could reduce the Al2O3 contents in the inclusions, which also promoted improvements in the elastic deformation capacities of the inclusions. With increases in the calcium–aluminum ratios in the slag system, the masses of the inclusions decreased due to the reduced Al contents in the steel. The Al contents in the steel also had an impact on the compositions of the inclusions.

Abstract Text detection methods based on grouping characters have emerged and have achieved promising performance. Nevertheless, previous methods that grouped characters by learning the relation of adjacent characters or used the heuristic clustering method with a handcrafted feature are unsuitable for dense, curved, or long texts. An effective manner of grouping characters is proposed by introducing K‐Means that is modified by the law of universal gravitation, an outlier detection mechanism and sufficient context information. Based on that, corresponding text detector is presented, named the Text Detector, based on modified K‐Means (KText), which can generate the bounding boundary of word‐level texts with an arbitrary shape. In the experimental stage, two novel stratagems are presented to replenish character‐level annotations to several datasets that provide only word‐level annotations. To evaluate the effectiveness of the method, experiments are carried out on three benchmarks, ICDAR2013, ICDAR2015 and Total‐Text, which contain horizontal, oriented and curved text. The results show that KText performs more competently than most state‐of‐the‐art text detectors when handling dense texts with an arbitrary shape.

ObjectiveUsing serum screening test and simulated gastrointestinal fluid digestion stability test to explore whether Oryza sativa recombinant human serum albumin (OsrHSA) has potential allergenicity.MethodsIn this study, 75 serum samples from patients with allergies to shrimp, wheat, house dust mites, eggs and milk, which containing specific IgE antibody concentrations greater than 3.5 kUA/L, as well as 4 healthy human serum samples were selected. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to investigate whether OsrHSA could bind to allergen-specific IgE antibodies in the serum. The digestive stability test of the simulated gastrointestinal fluid of OsrHSA protein was carried out in accordance with the national food safety standard, detection of genetically modified organisms and derived products-simulated gastrointestinal fluid digestion stability test.ResultsThree sera allergic to milk had immunological cross-reactions with OsrHSA, indicating that the protein might have antigenic intersection with milk allergens. OsrHSA was completely digested within 15 s in the simulated gastric and intestinal fluid, indicating that the protein was easily digested.ConclusionOsrHSA has low potential allergenicity and people who are allergic to milk needs consideration.

Glycolysis is a complex metabolic process that occurs to convert glucose into pyruvate to produce energy for living cells. Normal cells oxidized pyruvate into adenosine triphosphate and carbon dioxide in the presence of oxygen in mitochondria while cancer cells preferentially metabolize pyruvate to lactate even in the presence of oxygen in order to maintain a slightly acidic micro-environment of PH 6.5 and 6.9, which is beneficial for cancer cell growth and metastasis. Therefore targeting glycolytic signaling pathways provided new strategy for anti-cancer therapy. Natural products are important sources for the treatment of diseases with a variety of pharmacologic activities. Accumulated studies suggested that natural products exhibited remarkable anti-cancer properties both in vitro and in vivo. Plenty of studies suggested natural products like flavonoids, terpenoids and quinones played anti-cancer properties via inhibiting glucose metabolism targets in glycolytic pathways. This study provided an updated overview of natural products controlling glycolytic pathways, which also provide insight into druggable mediators discovery targeting cancer glucose metabolism.

Based on the context of communication and use of online communities in China, this study explored the characteristics and defects of risk communication of the government and official media in the event of COVID-19, as well as the factors that affected people's perception of the risk and protective behavior. The following results were found: (1) The government and official (mainstream) media accounts suffered from information lag in the early stage of COVID-19, while self-media accounts played the role of risk sensors, which caused people to have less trust in the government and the authorities and turn to the truth on self-media accounts. However, the low accessibility of self-media accounts and the imperfect check mechanism provided a hotbed for rumors, which further led to more fear and worry about risks. (2) During the middle and later periods of COVID-19, the government and the official media began to pay attention to the influence of self-media on peoples' emotions and behavior, and gradually improved the supervision of online information and the operation of official media accounts. This is intended to achieve information consistently and link mechanisms between official media and self-media to prevent and correct mistakes, as well as to achieve effective risk communication of information transparency, opinion exchange, and public sentiment stabilization.

With the increasing number of cancer survivors, the question of how to coexist with cancer has become more and more pressing. This research uses a mutual help WeChat group organized by cancer patients as the research field to observe the daily interactions of cancer patients, so as to improve understanding of how social media technology can help cancer patients in the treatment and recovery process. The study found that the WeChat group is the main source of health knowledge for the participating cancer patients, and that when compared to traditional web-based patient mutual aid communities, the WeChat group is a more timely, popular, continuous, and accurate source of information. Patients in the group can listen and respond to each other's questions and worries, providing both an outlet for patients to vent their emotions and concerns and a source of recognition and encouragement. In addition, this study found that the WeChat mutual aid group improves patients' self-efficacy of disease on four levels: successful experience in curing patients, imitating patients' behavior, verbal persuasion, and emotional support.

Abstract Point-of-care testing (POCT) is widely used for early diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. Lateral flow assay (LFA) is a successfully commercial tool for POCT. However, LFA often suffers from a lack of quantification and analytical sensitivity. To solve these drawbacks, we have previously developed a thermal LFA using plasmonic gold nanoparticles for thermal contrast into a portable device. Although this methodology significantly improves the analytical sensitivity compared with conventional visual detection, quantification problems are still remaining. In this study, we optimized the operating conditions for the device using conduction and radiation thermal sensing modes allowing the quantification of LFA. The limit of detection of the strips merely containing nanoparticles was decreased by 5-fold (conduction mode) and 12-fold (radiation mode) compared to traditional visual detection. The effect of the ambient temperature was studied for both methods of detection showing that the radiation mode was more affected by the ambient temperature than the conduction mode. To validate the thermal sensing method, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) biomarker was quantified using our LFA strips, obtaining a detection limit of 2.8 mIU/mL when using the radiation method of detection.

Bio-inspired self-repairing hardware is a distributed self-adaptive system, characterized by powerful fault-tolerant ability and environment adaptivity. However, it suffers from some difficulties such as large resource consumption and degraded circuit performances. From the viewpoint of cybernetics and computer science, the cellular differentiation and substitution process of bio-inspired self-repairing hardware can be converted into dynamic placement problems on a reconfigurable system. Current systems can only generate some predefined fault-free placements from a finite number of initial placements. The aim of this paper was to achieve high-quality placements from arbitrary initial placements. Based on P systems, an analysis has been made on the limitations of current systems and an improved computing system has been developed to achieve the ergodic property. Its computational power has been verified by a constructive proof. Moreover, centering on the problem how to improve the placement quality on a distributed platform, the optimization model, task allocation, optimization strategy, and membrane optimization algorithm have been designed and developed. The optimization performances were verified and the calculation amount was exhibited by experiments. Finally, it indicated by comparison that the proposed approach would reduce the resource consumption and maintain good circuit performances.

(1) Corn is the most widely planted food crop, feed crop, and economic crop in the world, and plays an important role in agricultural production and national economy development. The copine gene, also known as the BONZAI gene, encodes a Ca2+-dependent phospholipid membrane binding protein that is widely present in eukaryotes. It has been found that the copine protein is a negative regulator of disease resistance regulation and plays a key role in plants’ disease resistance response. In this study, the Agrobacterium-tumefacien-mediated method was used to successfully obtain T2 generation ZmBON3-gene-overexpressing plants and gene-edited plants. Related phenotypes and molecular identification showed that the disease resistance of overexpression plants was significantly reduced, and the disease resistance of gene-edited plants was significantly increased, which verified that the ZmBON3 gene was a negative regulatory gene. By detecting the physiological indexes related to defense, it was found that the content of H2O2 and the enzyme active water of CAT, POD, SOD, and PAL in ZmBON3-gene-edited plants was higher than those in the control plants and ZmBON3-gene-overexpressing plants, and the content of H2O2 and CAT, POD, and SOD in ZmBON3-gene-overexpressing plants was significantly higher than that in the control plants and ZmBON3-gene-overexpressing plants. The enzyme activity of PAL was the lowest. By detecting the expression of key genes of defense-related signaling pathways, it was found that ZmBON3 may be involved in the related defense processes mediated by the R gene, SA pathway, JA pathway, and ABA pathway. In addition, ZmBON3-geneedited plants showed obvious dwarf phenomenon at the seedling stage, but this did not affect the ear length, axis diameter, ear row number, and grain color.

This paper descripts a new reference force system of 10 MN, which will be used for the modernization of the existing build-up force standard machine at Jilin institute of metrology. The background of the machine, the idea of the modernization and the function of the new reference force system were explained. The calibration of this new reference force system was done at NIM several times and the long-term stability was study based on many test data and results. Meanwhile the uniformity of two outputs from the transducer was compared. The different between ISO standard and Chinese calibration guideline is also be discussed.

The reservoir water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) of the Yangtze River is adjusted between 145 m and 175 m throughout the year. The landslide below the reservoir water level bears periodic dynamic seepage pressure on the basis of the original steady-state water pressure. In the process of rising reservoir water levels in particular, the effective stress on the sliding zone soil below the reservoir water level line is reduced, and the sliding zone soil shows an unloading state. In order to study the creep characteristics of landslides in a reservoir area, direct shear creep tests of the sliding zone soil in the Huangtupo landslide in an unloading state were carried out in this study. The test results show that the creep characteristics of the sliding zone soil are obvious. The creep curve of the sliding zone soil presents an attenuation creep stage with low shear stress, which is mainly manifested as an elastic creep. However, with the increase in the shear stress, the creep curve of the sliding zone soil presents a steady creep stage, which is mainly manifested as viscoelastic creep. The nonlinear creep characteristics of the sliding zone soil are related to the creep time, stress level, and soil porosity. The longer the creep time, the greater the stress level and the denser the soil, the more obvious the nonlinear creep characteristics of the sliding zone soil. In this study, the Burgers model was used to fit the creep curve of the sliding zone soil, and the fitting effect was good, which indicates that the Burgers model can sufficiently describe the unloading state creep characteristics of the sliding zone soil in the Huangtupo landslide.

The fruit of Lycium ruthenicum (LRF), known as black wolfberry, is a medicinal and edible fruit. The fresh LRF is perishable and has only about 3 days of shelf life. Drying could prolong the shelf life of LRF. However, it could imply physical changes and chemical modification. This study evaluated the effect of sun drying (SD), hot air drying (HD), and freeze drying (FD) on the appearance characteristics, moisture content, bioactive compounds, amino acid composition, and antioxidant activity of LRF. The results showed that LRF dried by FD was round, expansive, fragile, and maintained the largest amount of appearance traits among the three drying methods. Drying methods had a significant effect on phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of LRF (P < 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that procyanidin content (PAC), asparagine (Asn), total phenolic content (TPC), total anthocyanin content (TAC), and moisture content were the main sources of the difference in LRF dried by different methods. The characteristic of LRF in FD was low moisture content, and high TPC, Asn, PAC, and TAC. Sun drying was opposite to FD. Hot air drying was high TPC and low TAC content. The quality of LRF was in the order of FD > HD > SD based on comprehensive evaluation of the phytochemical component content and antioxidant capacity. Additionally, the water temperature and soaking time had different antioxidant activity effect on LRF dried by different methods. These findings will provide useful information for production and utilization of LRF.

Half of the topseals to the world's largest oilfields are evaporites. Rock salt has a thermal conductivity two to four times greater than that of other sedimentary rocks found in oil- and gas-bearing basins. Strong heat conduction through evaporites can increase the geothermal gradient above evaporite deposits, resulting in a positive thermal anomaly and above-average temperature while simultaneously decreasing the geothermal gradient below evaporites, resulting in a negative thermal anomaly. Most Triassic-Jurassic hydrocarbon source rocks in the Kuqa Basin, western China, are overlain by ~1500-m-thick Tertiary evaporites with underlying Cretaceous sandstones and mudstones. Directly measured strata temperatures indicate an obvious break in the steepness of the geothermal gradient above and below Paleogene evaporites, with a significantly steeper geothermal gradient above the evaporites. Simulations of the thermal evolution of source rocks based on data collected from well Kela-2 indicate that if the thickness of evaporites (mainly rock salt and anhydrite rock) in overlying rocks above source rocks increases compared with the thickness of siliciclastic rocks in the overlying rocks, then strata temperatures and vitrinite reflectance in Jurassic source rocks will decrease accordingly. Our thermal simulations based on the thickness and thermal conductivity of evaporites accurately coincide with previous studies based on homogenization temperatures, hydrocarbon-water contact retrospection, and carbon isotope results from natural gases. The gas generation center located in the Kalasu Tectonic Belt today is also sealed in an evaporite-related structural trap that formed at this time. Therefore, the speculated natural gas generation times not only correlate with the evaporite-related structural trap formation, but the calculated maturity of deep source rocks below the evaporites also coincides with current gas reserves. And our studies can help to find the deep oils and gases under thick evaporites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the data generation rate of high-resolution satellites is increasing rapidly, to relieve the stress of data downloading and processing systems while enhancing the time efficiency of information acquisition, it is important to deploy on-board edge computing on satellites. However, the volume, weight, and computability of on-board systems are strictly limited by the harsh space environment. Therefore, it is very difficult to match the computability and the requirements of diversified intelligent applications. Currently, this problem has become the first challenge of the practical deployment of on-board edge computing. To match the actual requirements of the Luojia3 satellite of Wuhan University, this manuscript proposes a three-level edge computing architecture based on a System-on-Chip (SoC) for low power consumption and expandable on-board processing. First, a transfer level is designed to focus on hardware communications and Input/Output (I/O) works while maintaining a buffer to store image data for upper levels temporarily. Second, a processing framework that contains a series of libraries and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is designed for the algorithms to easily build parallel processing applications. Finally, an expandable level contains multiple intelligent remote sensing applications that perform data processing efficiently using base functions, such as instant geographic locating and data picking, stream computing balance model, and heterogeneous parallel processing strategy that are provided by the architecture. It is validated by the performance improvement experiment that following this architecture, using these base functions can help the Region of Interest (ROI) system geometric correction fusion algorithm to be 257.6 times faster than the traditional method that processes scene by scene. In the stream computing balance experiment, relying on this architecture, the time-consuming algorithm ROI stabilization production can maintain stream computing balance under the condition of insufficient computability. We predict that based on this architecture, with the continuous development of device computability, the future requirements of on-board computing could be better matched.

In the paper, a Carson reciprocity theorembased numerical method is proposed to analyze the crosstalk of space transient interference microstrip lines. Firstly, the proposed method is realized via solving the coupling voltage between the space transient interference and the microstrip lines by the use of Carson reciprocity theorem. Then the crosstalk between the microstrip lines caused by the coupling voltage is studied based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. Lastly, compared with the Baum-Liu-Tesche (BLT) equation method, the proposed method reduces the computational complexity without solving the complex scattering field. In this paper, coupling between a dipole and a microstrip line will be considered and its coupling model will be given. FDTD and the parasitic parameter model between the microstrip lines are used to get the crosstalk. In addition, the crosstalk between the microstrip lines caused by the space transient interference is analyzed in comparison with the impedance match and mismatch of the terminals. The simulated results show that the voltages of the reflection and crosstalk which are on the victim line with mismatched loads are larger than that with matched loads, and the fluctuate time of the signal on the victim line with mismatched loads is over two times than that with matched loads, which help to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Moreover, when we analyze the electromagnetic problems on the surface of the arbitrary shaped ideal conductor, the image method is unavailable because the surface of ideal conductor is not infinite, while the analytic method is unavailable either, on account of the boundary of the ideal conductor is irregular. So the conventional approach is difficult to solve the problems, but the proposed method can work well for the problems due to the fact that it has nothing to do with the boundary shape, and it is only connected with the source and its field. Therefore, the proposed method is suitable for a wide range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hierarchical support vector machine recognition algorithm based on a finite state machine (FSM-HSVM) to accurately and reliably recognize the locomotion mode recognition of an exoskeleton robot. As input signals, this method utilizes the angle information of the hip joint and knee joint collected by inertial sensing units (IMUs) on the thighs and shanks of the exoskeleton and the plantar pressure information collected by force sensitive resistors (FSRs) are used as input signals. This method establishes a framework for mode transition by combining the finite state machine (FSM) with the common locomotion modes. The hierarchical support vector machine (HSVM) recognition model is then tightly integrated with the mode transition framework to recognize five typical locomotion modes and eight locomotion mode transitions in real-time. The algorithm not only reduces the abrupt change in the recognition of locomotion mode, but also significantly improves the recognition efficiency. To evaluate recognition performance, separate experiments are conducted on six subjects. According to the results, the average accuracy of all motion modes is 97.106% ± 0.955%, and the average recognition delay rate is only 25.017% ± 6.074%. This method has the benefits of a small calculation amount and high recognition efficiency, and it can be applied extensively in the field of robotics.

Camellia granthamiana is a rare and endangered plant peculiar to China, and a total of 5 plants have been found at present. Based on the next generation sequencing, the whole chloroplast (Cp) genome of (Camellia granthamiana Sealy) of Camellia oleifera was constructed.In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Camellia granthamiana was assembled based on next generation sequencing.The cp genome was 157,001 bp in length, including a large single copy (LSC) region of 70,387 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,296 bp and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 52,082 bp. The genome contained 135 genes, including 90 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8 ribosomal RNA genes. The majority of these gene species occurred as a single copy.

The investigation of the constituents of the rhizomes of Dioscorea collettii afforded one new dihydroisocoumarin, named (−)-montroumarin (1a), along with five known compounds—montroumarin (1b), 1,1′-oxybis(2,4-di-tert-butylbenzene) (2), (3R)-3′-O-methylviolanone (3a), (3S)-3′-O-methylviolanone (3b), and (RS)-sativanone (4). Their structures were elucidated using extensive spectroscopic methods. To the best of our knowledge, compound 1a is a new enantiomer of compound 1b. The NMR data of compound 2 had been reported but its structure was erroneous. The structure of compound 2 was revised on the basis of a reinterpretation of its NMR data (1D and 2D) and the assignment of the 1H and 13C NMR data was given rightly for the first time. Compounds 3a–4, three dihydroisoflavones, were reported from the Dioscoreaceae family for the first time. The cytotoxic activities of all the compounds were tested against the NCI-H460 cell line. Two dihydroisocoumarins, compounds 1a and 1b, displayed moderate cytotoxic activities, while the other compounds showed no cytotoxicity.

Metabolic osteoarthritis (OA) has now been characterized as a subtype of OA, and links have been discovered between this phenotype and metabolic syndrome (MetS)--both with individual MetS components and with MetS as a whole. Hypertension associates with OA through subchondral ischaemia, which can compromise nutrient exchange into articular cartilage and trigger bone remodelling. Ectopic lipid deposition in chondrocytes induced by dyslipidemia might initiate OA development, exacerbated by deregulated cellular lipid metabolism in joint tissues. Hyperglycaemia and OA interact at both local and systemic levels; local effects of oxidative stress and advanced glycation end-products are implicated in cartilage damage, whereas low-grade systemic inflammation results from glucose accumulation and contributes to a toxic internal environment that can exacerbate OA. Obesity-related metabolic factors, particularly altered levels of adipokines, contribute to OA development by inducing the expression of proinflammatory factors as well as degradative enzymes, leading to the inhibition of cartilage matrix synthesis and stimulation of subchondral bone remodelling. In this Review, we summarize the shared mechanisms of inflammation, oxidative stress, common metabolites and endothelial dysfunction that characterize the aetiologies of OA and MetS, and nominate metabolic OA as the fifth component of MetS. We also describe therapeutic opportunities that might arise from uniting these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]