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Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rapidly progressing blood cancer. The prognosis of AML can be challenging, emphasizing the need for ongoing research and innovative approaches to improve outcomes in individuals affected by this formidable hematologic malignancy. Methods: In this study, we used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) from AML patients to investigate the impact of L-glutamine metabolism-related genes on disease progression. Results: Our analysis revealed increased glutamine-related activity in CD34 + pre-B cells, suggesting a potential regulatory role in tumorigenesis and AML progression. Furthermore, intercellular communication analysis revealed a significant signaling pathway involving macrophage migration inhibitory factor signaling through CD74 + CD44 within CD34 + pre-B cells, which transmit signals to pre-dendritic cells and monocytes. Ligands for this pathway were predominantly expressed in stromal cells, naïve T cells, and CD34 + pre-B cells. CD74, the pertinent receptor, was predominantly detected in a variety of cellular components, including stromal cells, pre-dendritic cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and hematopoietic progenitors. The study's results provide insights into the possible interplay among these cell types and their collective contribution to the pathogenesis of AML. Moreover, we identified 10 genes associated with AML prognosis, including CCL5, CD52, CFD, FABP5, LGALS1, NUCB2, PSAP, S100A4, SPINK2, and VCAN. Among these, CCL5 and CD52 have been implicated in AML progression and are potential therapeutic targets. Conclusions: This thorough examination of AML biology significantly deepens our grasp of the disease and presents pivotal information that could guide the creation of innovative treatment strategies for AML patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the spatial pattern and its influencing mechanism of cultural heritage is of great significance for the systematic protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage. In this study, the national-level cultural heritage of China as the research object, and the spatial patterns of the cultural heritage (CH), tangible cultural heritage (TCH) and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are analyzed are summarized using the multiple geospatial analysis method, and their spatial distribution differences. Then, the optimal parameter geodetector model was further used to analyze the influencing and interaction effect of natural environment (NE) factors, socioeconomic and cultural environment (SCE) factors on the spatial distribution of CH, TCH and ICH, and the interaction mechanism was deeply discussed. The results show that high-density region of CH are mainly located in the southeastern Heihe-Tengchong Line of China, while low-density region are mostly located in the northwestern Heihe-Tengchong Line. In terms of local spatial differences, the spatial distribution of material cultural heritage is different in different river basins, different terrains and different climates. The spatial distribution of ICH mainly shows significant differences in terrain and climate, and does not show significant differences in river basins. In terms of influencing factors, sociocultural environment, education level, historical settlement environment, road traffic, climate, economy, population and terrain factors all have a significant impact on the spatial distribution of CH and TCH. Sociocultural environment, education level, historical settlement environment, road traffic, climate, economy and population have a significant impact on the spatial distribution of ICH, while topographic factors and water system factors have no significant impact on the spatial distribution of ICH. Compared with ICH, TCH is more likely to be directly affected by topographic conditions (altitude, relief of terrain) and hydrological conditions (production and living water sources and flood risk) during its formation stage. At the same time, topographic and hydrological conditions can also indirectly affect the spatial distribution of TCH by directly affecting human agricultural activities, economic activities and cultural activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The cotton genus comprises both diploid and allotetraploid species, and the diversity in petal colour within this genus offers valuable targets for studying orthologous gene function differentiation and evolution. However, the genetic basis for this diversity in petal colour remains largely unknown. The red petal colour primarily comes from C, G, K, and D genome species, and it is likely that the common ancestor of cotton had red petals. Here, by employing a clone mapping strategy, we mapped the red petal trait to a specific region on chromosome A07 in upland cotton. Genomic comparisons and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the red petal phenotype introgressed from G. bickii. Transcriptome analysis indicated that GhRPRS1, which encodes a glutathione S‐transferase, was the causative gene for the red petal colour. Knocking out GhRPRS1 resulted in white petals and the absence of red spots, while overexpression of both genotypes of GhRPRS1 led to red petals. Further analysis suggested that GhRPRS1 played a role in transporting pelargonidin‐3‐O‐glucoside and cyanidin‐3‐O‐glucoside. Promoter activity analysis indicated that variations in the promoter, but not in the gene body of GhRPRS1, have led to different petal colours within the genus. Our findings provide new insights into orthologous gene evolution as well as new strategies for modifying promoters in cotton breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the impact of different environmental conditions on the stability of RGB images in ecological sites and the anti-interference properties of vegetation images on different underlying surfaces. Three vegetation types including sugarcane, forest, and karst (mainly shrub and grass) are used to segment green vegetation using machine learning, and the RGB vegetation indices are calculated using color channel data. Then, The effect of weather, season, and time period on different types of vegetation indices are studied, which provide technical references for quantitative application of RGB image data. The results indicate the following: ① For the vegetation with high canopy density, the SVM machine learning segmentation algorithm used in this study is more applicable, as the RGB image segmentation accuracy of sugarcane and forest is significantly higher than karst. For different weather conditions, the segmentation accuracy of sugarcane and forest RGB images on sunny or cloudy days is higher than that on rainy or foggy days, but the effect on sparse vegetation in karst is not obvious. Additionally, the segmentation accuracy of different vegetation types has a small increase with NLM filter processing. ② Change in weather, season, and time can affect the stability of the image index. For different weather conditions, the vegetation indices of sugarcane and forest images on sunny or cloudy days are the more stable (ExGR, outlier proportion between 3.25% and 5.63%), while on rainy and foggy days they are less stable (ExR, outlier proportion between 17.60% and 21.59%). For different seasons, the stability of the sugarcane and karst image index obtained in spring is better (ExG, outlier proportion between 3.32% and 6.88%), while the stability of the forest image index obtained in summer is better (ExR, outlier proportion = 10.32%). For different times within a day, the sugarcane image index obtained in the morning is more stable (ExGR, outlier proportion = 4.62%), while the stability of the forest image index obtained in the afternoon is better (ExGR, outlier proportion = 9.24%). ③ The stability of the sugarcane image index is more affected by weather and season. For forest, the influence of the weather is more obvious than the season. But, for karst, the effect of season on the vegetation index is greater than that of weather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high heat input welding (HHIW) can greatly enhance the welding efficiency of the steel plates. However, coarse grains and brittle microstructures will be formed in the heat‐affected zone (HAZ) during the HHIW process, which deteriorates the toughness of HAZ. In the present study, the effect of the Ti/N ratio on the size and distribution of titanium nitride (TiN) particles, microstructures, and toughness of HAZ after HHIW of 400 kJ cm−1 is investigated for the Ca‐treated steels with different Ti/N ratios of 1.61, 3.79, and 5.00 for TN16, TN38, and TN50 steels. The TN38 steel has the highest number density of the TiN particles with the sizes between 20 and 25 nm and the highest pinning force of the particles in three steels, resulting the smallest grain sizes in its HAZ. In addition, in three steels, the TN38 steel has the main microstructure of intragranular aciculate ferrites with the highest high‐angle grain boundaries density in its HAZ, thereby obtaining the highest value of low‐temperature impact toughness of the HAZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bladder dysfunction, notably urinary retention, emerges as a significant complication for cervical cancer patients following radical hysterectomy, predominantly due to nerve damage, severely impacting their postoperative quality of life. The challenges to recovery include insufficient pelvic floor muscle training and the negative effects of prolonged postoperative indwelling urinary catheters. Intermittent catheterization represents the gold standard for neurogenic bladder management, facilitating bladder training, which is an important behavioral therapy aiming to enhance bladder function through the training of the external urethral sphincter and promoting the recovery of the micturition reflex. Nevertheless, gaps remain in current research regarding optimal timing for intermittent catheterization and the evaluation of subjective symptoms of bladder dysfunction. Methods: Cervical cancer patients undergoing laparoscopic radical hysterectomy will be recruited to this randomized controlled trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to either early postoperative catheter removal combined with intermittent catheterization group or a control group receiving standard care with indwelling urinary catheters. All these patients will be followed for 3 months after surgery. The study's primary endpoint is the comparison of bladder function recovery rates (defined as achieving a Bladder Function Recovery Grade of II or higher) 2 weeks post-surgery. Secondary endpoints include the incidence of urinary tract infections, and changes in urodynamic parameters, and Mesure Du Handicap Urinaire scores within 1 month postoperatively. All analysis will adhere to the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: The findings from this trial are expected to refine clinical management strategies for enhancing postoperative recovery among cervical cancer patients undergoing radical hysterectomy. By providing robust evidence, this study aims to support patients and their families in informed decision-making regarding postoperative bladder management, potentially reducing the incidence of urinary complications and improving overall quality of life post-surgery. Trial registration: ChiCTR2200064041, registered on 24th September, 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The redox-active electrolyte materials are critical components in redox flow batteries (RFBs). Quaternary bipyridinium derivatives, such as viologens (4,4′-bipyridine double quaternary salts), represent an important class of organic anolyte materials that can be well-matched with cheap and non-corrosive pH-neutral aqueous electrolytes in RFB applications. Herein, to search for promising quaternary bipyridinium compounds, we investigated the redox potentials and kinetic rate constants of 228 C-substituted quaternary bipyridinium derivatives that either contain paraquat or diquat parent structures by applying density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The analysis of the results reveals the effects of the terminal functional groups, number of methylene units, substitution sites and parent structure on the electrochemical properties. On this basis, we identify several promising candidates for the anolyte materials of neutral aqueous organic RFBs and further assess their aqueous solubility and structural stability through DFT theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the spatial coupling relationship and interaction mechanism between green urbanization (GU) and tourism competitiveness (TC) is of great significance for promoting urban sustainable development. However, the lack of research on the interaction mechanism between GU and TC limits the formulation of effective environmental management policy and urban planning. Taking 734 counties in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) as the study area, this paper analyzes the spatial coupling relationship between GU and TC on the basis of comprehensive evaluation of GU and TC. Then, the interactive mechanism between GU and TC is systematically discussed, and the synergistic development strategy of the two is proposed. The results show that the GU level presents a multicore circle structure, with provincial capitals, prefecture-level urban districts and economically developed counties in east-central regions as high-value centers. The TC at county scale presents a multi-center spatial structure. Additionally, there is a significant positive spatial coupling between GU and TC in the YRB. The analysis further reveals that green urbanization level, social progress, population development, infrastructure construction, economic development quality, and eco-environmental protection has a observably influence on TC. Tourism competitiveness, service competitiveness, location competitiveness, resource competitiveness, market competitiveness, environmental influence, and talent competitiveness has a observably influence on GU. TC can promote GU, and the improvement of green urbanization level can support the development of tourism competitiveness. According to the spatial zoning method, 734 counties are divided into 6 categories, and the coordinated development strategy of GU and TC for each type of district is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Damage detection is essential for the maintenance of transportation infrastructure that experiences high daily traffic levels in potentially extreme environments and changes in use patterns. However, traditional physical inspection is always labor‐intensive, subjective, and biased, lacking the objective perspective required for a comprehensive and reliable assessment. Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) combined with emerging high‐performance sensor(s) have been intensively researched. Here, we present an aerial bridge surface survey method that can be used to assess damage. Existing damage detection methods focus on single types of damage and are limited in locating global damage, whereas our method detects two types of damage on the surface and marks them in a panoramic image. The workflow involves three steps: data acquisition using a meticulous UAV flight strategy that covers the entire surface, data processing using image‐based and point‐cloud models after polynomial rectification, and data output (i.e., damage detected by the combined models). To verify the method, a field test detected damage to two real bridges. A UAV equipped with a camera and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) equipment was employed. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is capable of producing accurate outputs and detecting damage with an average position error of 13.37 mm and a relative size error of 25.25%. Owing to the data fusion model taking advantage of two‐dimensional (2D) images and 3D LiDAR data, it outputs a high‐resolution 3D model and avoids environmental disturbances. After decision‐making‐level damage fusion, all position and size properties of damage information are computed into a panoramic damage image. This panoramic image showing all detecting damage helps technicians perform maintenance; the image can be zoomed to focus on any issue individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As infectious diseases have a severe impact on the individual survival and competitive ability of host species in grassland communities, competition between relevant species may have different consequences, potentially influencing the species composition of grassland communities and the functioning of grassland ecosystems. Understanding the impact of infectious diseases on competition is thus crucial for the health management of grassland ecosystems. How do infectious diseases affect the competitive coexistence of grassland plant species? In this study, by drawing on Tilman's multispecies competition model and incorporating the spread characteristics of grassland plant diseases, we built three spatial competition models of two grass species subject to infectious diseases, and we analyzed the invasion conditions of infectious diseases and how they impact the population dynamics and competitive consequences of the species. Our model revealed the following: (1) Diseases with high transmission rates and low virulence are more likely to invade populations, while the presence of non-host species is detrimental to disease invasion. (2) Disease promotes the coexistence of competing species, breaking down the original competition–compromise trade-off mechanism for species coexistence and greatly expanding the range of parameters within which the two species can coexist. (3) Pathogen infections indirectly weaken the suppression of inferior species by dominant species, which is similar to the cascade effect seen in trophic interactions. Our findings highlight the importance of disease in species coexistence and grassland biodiversity maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather events and frequent meteorological disasters pose significant threats to vegetation growth in the context of climate change. However, information regarding the impact of extreme climate events on vegetation in the ecologically fragile Karst area has been lacking. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying changes in extreme temperature and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) while exploring the relationship between extreme temperature and NDVI in Guangxi's Karst area, China. Our analysis reveals a pronounced trend toward extreme warming in the study region from 2000 to 2019. Warm days TX90d, TX95d, and TX99d (count of days where daily maximum temperature TX > 90th, 95th, and 99th percentile) significantly (P < 0.05) increased 7.1, 5.5, and 2.0 days per decade. Warm nights TN90d, TN95d, and TN98d (count of nights where daily minimum temperature TN > 90th, 95th, and 98th percentile) significantly (P < 0.05) increased 9.7, 6.8, and 4.2 days per decade, with the increase rate greater than warm days. Annual days for daily maximum temperature higher than 35 °C also increased 3.4 days per decade. The annual NDVI increased 0.04 per decade. We have identified a negative linear relationship between the trends of very cold and very warm days (i.e., very cold days TX01d and hot days TX99d) and NDVI. In contrast, the annual NDVI demonstrates a positive correlation with the annual days for daily maximum temperature higher than 35 °C. The results suggested that climate warming might to some extent benefit the vegetation growth. Nevertheless, it is imperative to enhance vegetation protection efforts, particularly in regions experiencing extreme warm and cold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the fluid transport and heat transfer characteristics in fractal porous media, introduce asymmetric factors to derive a generalized optimization principle for asymmetric branching flow and heat transfer, and obtain the optimal radius ratio for the superior flow resistance/heat resistance model; and the accurate models of permeability and thermal conductivity of asymmetric tree-fractal networks are developed and validated against the traditional Murray's law and symmetric tree-fractal network models. The results show that (a) the symmetric case can be regarded as a special case of the asymmetric fractal network model, and Murray's law is correct only for the symmetric bifurcation (flow percentage Ψi = 0.5), and the errors predicted by Murray's law for the asymmetric case with a flow percentage of 10% (Ψi = 0.1, n = 1) are 23.5% and 33.1% with respect to the optimal radius ratio of flow and heat transfer, respectively. (b) The symmetric case has the largest flow resistance and the smallest thermal resistance. The asymmetric length factor and radius ratio have significant effects on the dimensionless flow resistance/thermal resistance of the asymmetric fractal network, and there is a critical radius ratio (βm = 0.84), where a larger asymmetric length factor is detrimental to the flow of the tree-like branching network when β < βm, while the opposite effect is observed when β > βm. (c) The asymmetric radius factor affects the optimal radius ratio for thermal conductivity, but does not change the maximum value of thermal conductivity. (d) The pressure gradient and heat transfer coefficient in the fractal microchannel are related to the variation of the volume flow rate and the increase in the heat flux will weaken heat transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the management of late-onset hypertension and raises some methodological and interpretive concerns. The statistical analysis may overlook important interactions between sex and other factors, and the use of retrospective data from administrative databases introduces potential biases. The interpretation of the results suggests that there are no clinically meaningful differences in the initial management of late-onset hypertension between males and females, but this conclusion may be premature. The article also highlights the need for further research to examine prescribing practices and their long-term effects on patient outcomes. [Extracted from the article]

Different from the traditional enzymatic hydrolysis strategy, we rationally developed a ratiometric fluorescence probe DQMT-OH with AIE characteristics for sulfatase detection utilizing the "Lock-Key" strategy. It can be successfully used to monitor sulfatase in living cells and in vivo through different fluorescent channels with good cell permeability and low cytotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the depth restoration algorithms are complicated for a single defocused image, the restoration effect is poor on the image edges, complex textures and shadow areas. In this paper, the depth of a scene is recovered by a single image defocus cue, a novel approach of single defocused image depth restoration is proposed based on superpixel segmentation. First, the simple linear iterative cluster (SLIC) is used to divide the original image into several superpixel modules. Then, the defocus blur amount of each superpixel module is obtained according to the Gaussian–Cauchy mixed model, so as to obtain the superpixel-level sparse depth map. Finally, the cellular automata model is used to optimize the obtained sparse depth map and to restore the true and accurate panoramic depth map. Compared with other methods, the algorithm not only minimizes the error, but also simplifies the process of extending the edge defocus blur to the global. The experimental results on real data show that the method is not only less time-consuming, but also can effectively improve the depth recovery effect in areas with unclear edges, complex textures and shadows. These demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in providing reliable estimates of scene depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-air batteries (LABs) have attracted extensive attention due to their ultra-high energy density. At present, most LABs are operated in pure oxygen (O2) since carbon dioxide (CO2) under ambient air will participate in the battery reaction and generate an irreversible by-product of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3), which will seriously affect the performance of the battery. Here, to solve this problem, we propose to prepare a CO2 capture membrane (CCM) by loading activated carbon encapsulated with lithium hydroxide (LiOH@AC) onto activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF). The effect of the LiOH@AC loading amount on ACFF has been carefully investigated, and CCM has an ultra-high CO2 adsorption performance (137 cm3 g−1) and excellent O2 transmission performance by loading 80 wt% LiOH@AC onto ACFF. The optimized CCM is further applied as a paster on the outside of the LAB. As a result, the specific capacity performance of LAB displays a sharp increase from 27,948 to 36,252 mAh g−1, and the cycle time is extended from 220 h to 310 h operating in a 4% CO2 concentration environment. The concept of carbon capture paster opens a simple and direct way for LABs operating in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cotton's fundamental requirements for long periods of growth and specific seasonal temperatures limit the global arable areas that can be utilized to cultivate cotton. This constraint can be alleviated by breeding for early‐maturing varieties. By delaying the sowing dates without impacting the boll‐opening time, early‐maturing varieties not only mitigate the yield losses brought on by unfavorable weathers in early spring and late autumn but also help reducing the competition between cotton and other crops for arable land, thereby optimizing the cropping system. This review presents studies and breeding efforts for early‐maturing cotton, which efficiently pyramid early maturity, high‐quality, multiresistance traits, and suitable plant architecture by leveraging pleiotropic genes. Attempts are also made to summarize our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying early maturation, which involves many pathways such as epigenetic, circadian clock, and hormone signaling pathways. Moreover, new avenues and effective measures are proposed for fine‐scale breeding of early‐maturing crops to ensure the healthy development of the agricultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human noroviruses, single-stranded RNA viruses in the family Caliciviridae, are a leading cause of nonbacterial acute gastroenteritis in people of all ages worldwide. Despite three decades of genomic sequencing and epidemiological norovirus studies, full-length genome analyses of the non-epidemic or minor norovirus genotypes are rare and genomic regions other than ORF2 and 3′-end of ORF1 have been largely understudied, which hampers a better understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms of emergence of new strains. In this study, we detected a rare norovirus genotype, GIX.1[GII.P15], in a vomit sample of a 60 year old woman with acute gastroenteritis using Raji cells and sequenced the complete genome. Results: Using electron microscopy, a morphology of spherical and lace-like appearance of norovirus virus particles with a diameter of approximately 30 nm were observed. Phylogenetic analysis of VP1 and the RdRp region indicated that the KMN1 strain could be genotyped as GIX.1[GII.P15]. In addition, the VP1 region of KMN1 strain had 94.15% ± 3.54% percent nucleotide identity (PNI) compared to 26 genomic sequences available in GenBank, indicating a higher degree similarity between KMN1 and other GIX.1[GII.P15] strains. Further analysis of the full genome sequence of KMN1 strain showed that a total of 96 nucleotide substitutions (63 in ORF1, 25 in ORF2, and 8 in ORF3) were found across the genome compared with the consensus sequence of GIX.1[GII.P15] genome, and 6 substitutions caused amino acid changes (4 in ORF1, 1 in ORF2, and 1 in ORF3). However, only one nucleotide substitution results in the amino acid change (P302S) in the VP1 protein and the site was located near one of the predicted conformational B epitopes on the dimer structure. Conclusions: The genomic information of the new GIX.1[GII.P15] strain KMN1, which was identified in Kunming, China could provide helpful insights for the study of the genetic evolution of the virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The letter to the editor in the European Radiology journal discusses the evaluation of microvascular flow imaging for recurrent thyroid cancer. The study compares the effectiveness of microvascular flow imaging (MVFI) and power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) in detecting intratumoral vascularity before and after radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The authors highlight methodological issues in the study, such as retrospective design biases, lack of exploration of confounding variables, and the influence of operator expertise on outcomes. They suggest that future research should strive for prospective designs, comprehensive statistical analyses, and broader comparisons to establish MVFI as a standard imaging modality in thyroid cancer management. [Extracted from the article]

The letter to the editor in the European Radiology journal by Huang et al. addresses methodological and interpretative complexities in fetal choroid plexus volume studies, specifically focusing on fetuses with isolated ventriculomegaly. The study highlights issues with categorizing ventriculomegaly severity, statistical analysis, interpretation of results, and potential biases. The authors suggest the need for more refined criteria, additional statistical techniques, deeper exploration of biological processes, and a more diverse, multi-center sample for future research to enhance the robustness and generalizability of findings. Despite critiques, the study contributes to prenatal diagnostics and emphasizes the importance of ongoing research into choroid plexus volume as a potential marker for fetal neurodevelopmental disorders. [Extracted from the article]

Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) is a pathogenic fungus with a global distribution. Humans become infected by inhaling the fungus from the environment, and the fungus initially colonizes the lungs. If the immune system fails to contain C. neoformans in the lungs, the fungus can disseminate to the blood and invade the central nervous system, resulting in fatal meningoencephalitis particularly in immunocompromised individuals including HIV/AIDS patients. Following brain invasion, C. neoformans will encounter host defenses involving resident as well as recruited immune cells in the brain. To overcome host defenses, C. neoformans possesses multiple virulence factors capable of modulating immune responses. The outcome of the interactions between the host and C. neoformans will determine the disease progression. In this review, we describe the current understanding of how C. neoformans migrates to the brain across the blood–brain barrier, and how the host immune system responds to the invading organism in the brain. We will also discuss the virulence factors that C. neoformans uses to modulate host immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing need for inexpensive, safe, highly efficient, and time-saving damage detection technology, combined with emerging technologies, has made damage detection by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) an active research area. In the past, numerous sensors have been developed for damage detection, but these sensors have only recently been integrated with UAS. UAS damage detection specifically concerns data collection, path planning, multi-sensor fusion, system integration, damage quantification, and data processing in building a prediction model to predict the remaining service life. This review provides an overview of crucial scientific advances that marked the development of UAS inspection: underlying UAS platforms, peripherals, sensing equipment, data processing approaches, and service life prediction models. Example equipment includes a visual camera, a multispectral sensor, a hyperspectral sensor, a thermal infrared sensor, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). This review also includes highlights of the remaining scientific challenges and development trends, including the critical need for self-navigated control, autonomic damage detection, and deterioration model building. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion regarding the pros and cons of this emerging technology, along with a prospect of UAS technology research for damage detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time, continuous and accurate blast furnace burden level information is of great significance for controlling the charging process, ensuring a smooth operation of a blast furnace, reducing energy consumption and emissions and improving blast furnace output. However, the burden level information measured by conventional mechanical stock rods and radar probes exhibit problems of weak anti-interference ability, large fluctuations in accuracy, poor stability and discontinuity. Therefore, a space-time fusion prediction and detection method of burden level based on a long-term focus memory network (LFMN) and an efficient structure self-tuning RBF neural network (ESST-RBFNN) is proposed. First, the space dimensional features are extracted by the space regression model based on radar data. Then, the LFMN is designed to predict the burden level and extract the time dimensional features. Finally, the ESST-RBFNN based on a proposed fast eigenvector space clustering algorithm (ESC) is constructed to obtain reliable and continuous burden level information with high accuracy. Both the simulation results and industrial verification indicate that the proposed method can provide real-time and continuous burden level information in real-time, which has great practical value for industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human noroviruses, single-stranded RNA viruses in the family Caliciviridae, are a leading cause of nonbacterial acute gastroenteritis in people of all ages worldwide. Despite three decades of genomic sequencing and epidemiological norovirus studies, full-length genome analyses of the non-epidemic or minor norovirus genotypes are rare and genomic regions other than ORF2 and 3′-end of ORF1 have been largely understudied, which hampers a better understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms of emergence of new strains. In this study, we detected a rare norovirus genotype, GIX.1[GII.P15], in a vomit sample of a 60 year old woman with acute gastroenteritis using Raji cells and sequenced the complete genome. Results: Using electron microscopy, a morphology of spherical and lace-like appearance of norovirus virus particles with a diameter of approximately 30 nm were observed. Phylogenetic analysis of VP1 and the RdRp region indicated that the KMN1 strain could be genotyped as GIX.1[GII.P15]. In addition, the VP1 region of KMN1 strain had 94.15% ± 3.54% percent nucleotide identity (PNI) compared to 26 genomic sequences available in GenBank, indicating a higher degree similarity between KMN1 and other GIX.1[GII.P15] strains. Further analysis of the full genome sequence of KMN1 strain showed that a total of 96 nucleotide substitutions (63 in ORF1, 25 in ORF2, and 8 in ORF3) were found across the genome compared with the consensus sequence of GIX.1[GII.P15] genome, and 6 substitutions caused amino acid changes (4 in ORF1, 1 in ORF2, and 1 in ORF3). However, only one nucleotide substitution results in the amino acid change (P302S) in the VP1 protein and the site was located near one of the predicted conformational B epitopes on the dimer structure. Conclusions: The genomic information of the new GIX.1[GII.P15] strain KMN1, which was identified in Kunming, China could provide helpful insights for the study of the genetic evolution of the virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to describe the seepage and heat transfer problems of non-Newtonian fluids in porous media, a spatial fractional permeability model and a fractional thermal conductivity model for a fractal porous medium are developed based on the fractional non-Newtonian constitutive equation and the fractional generalized Fourier law. It is an innovative attempt to link fractional operators to the microstructure of pore porous media. The predictive capability of the proposed permeability and thermal conductivity model is verified by comparing with experimental data and the conventional capillary model, and the effects of fractal dimension, fractional parameters, and microstructural parameters on permeability and thermal conductivity are discussed. The results are as follows: (a) These two new models have higher accuracy than the conventional capillary model and reveal the relationship between the nonlocal memory and microstructural properties of complex fluids. (b) The permeability and thermal conductivity increase with increase in the fractional parameter α and radius ratio β and decrease with the increase in the fractal dimension (Dτ and Df) and microstructural parameters (length ratio γ , branching angle θ, and branching level m) of the porous medium. (c) When the radius ratio is larger than a certain value, the growth rate of permeability (β > 0.46) and thermal conductivity (β > 0.3) increases significantly, while the branch angle has the smallest influence on permeability and thermal conductivity, which can be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenazine derivatives represent an important class of emerging redox-active organic electrolyte materials in aqueous flow batteries for sustainable energy storage applications. But when serving as the anolyte or catholyte, the working voltage is relatively low in comparison to their inorganic counterparts. Moreover, most of the reported phenazine-based electrolyte materials have insufficient water-solubility, which plague their application to aqueous flow battery systems. Here, we investigated the redox potentials and solvation free energies for phenazine derivatives containing various electron-donating or electron-withdrawing groups at different substitution positions by applying density functional theory calculations combined with a thermodynamic Born–Haber cycle. The calculation results are validated with experimental data. On the basis of our calculations, we identified several promising anolyte and catholyte candidates for alkaline aqueous organic flow batteries. The information obtained from this study can provide useful clues for designing high-performance redox-active electrolyte materials to promote the practical application of aqueous organic flow batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the exponential growth of online videos and the availability of advanced video editing tools, the integrity of videos is increasingly threatened by various cyber-based attacks, particularly recompression attacks. Different recompression parameters are used for various attack scenarios. However, recompression operations can modify video data and cause authentication failures, especially for videos with integrated authentication information. To address this issue, this research proposes a robust video data concealing strategy to protect authentication information during recompression operations. By analyzing the impact of recompression on the reference and encoded components of a video, a robust embedding entity is developed. This entity enables the identification of suitable embedding parameters that minimize distortion caused by recompression. Based on the embedding entity and parameters, a scheme is proposed to hide data using two embedding methods, thereby enhancing the robustness of the overall approach. The performance of the scheme is evaluated based on criteria such as the correct rate of extracted information and the quality of marked videos. Hypothesis testing is employed to assess the confidence level. In comparison to existing robust video data hiding methods against recompression, our scheme demonstrates the ability to preserve more information during recompression, particularly with Quantization Parameters (QP) ranging from 25 to 34. This is achieved when the test videos are initially compressed with QP=28. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data hiding aims to embed a secret message into a digital object such as image by slightly modifying the object content without arousing noticeable artefacts. The resultant object containing hidden information will be sent to a desired receiver via some insecure channels, e.g. images transmitted through noisy channel, social networks are vulnerable to unknown pollution or compression by a third party, which may lead the transmitted objects to be attacked such that the reconstructed message has a significant error rate. It therefore requires us to use robust embedding strategies for data hiding to realise reliable message retrieval. To this end, in this paper, a metric model to estimate the robustness of data hiding for noisy transmission based on the statistical characteristics of cover and embedding operation is presented, the former is mainly reflected by spatial frequency and texture feature, and the latter embedding operation is mainly reflected by embedding modification. The goal is to ensure that both statistical characteristics and embedding operation can be used to maximise the embedding robustness. To the best knowledge, it is the first time to estimate robustness before data hiding by a special metric model. Experimental results show that, by combining the proposed metric model in three classical data hiding methods, i.e. BPS, DE and QIM, the robustness can be significantly improved, which demonstrates its superiority and applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR1 (ERF1) is a key component in ethylene signaling, playing crucial roles in both biotic and abiotic stress responses. Here, we demonstrate that ERF1 also has an important role during floral initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Knockdown or knockout of ERF1 accelerated floral initiation, whereas overexpression of ERF1 dramatically delayed floral transition. These contrasting phenotypes were correlated with opposite transcript levels of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays revealed that ERF1 associates with genomic regions of the FT gene to repress its transcription. ft‐10/ERF1RNAi plants showed a similar flowering phenotype to the ft‐10 mutant, whereas the flowering of FTox/ERF1ox mimicked that of FTox plants, suggesting that ERF1 acts upstream of FT during floral initiation. Similarly, altered floral transition in ethylene‐related mutants was also correlated with FT expression. Further analysis suggested that ERF1 also participates in delay in flowering‐time control mediated by the ethylene precursor 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic acid. Thus, ERF1 may act as a negative modulator of flowering‐time control by repressing FT transcription in Arabidopsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a diverse array of novel metal‐nitrogen‐carbon (M‐N‐C) single‐atom catalysts (SACs) have rapidly evolve, particularly in the realm of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Despite the plethora of proposed design and improvement strategies for SACs, a comprehensive review systematically compiling the components in M‐N‐C from a unified perspective is notably absent. For the first time, a thorough examination of each component in M‐N‐C is conducted, focusing on the perspective of entropy increase in the active sites of SACs. For the single M‐N4 sites and the whole M‐N‐C system, an increase in entropy implies an elevated degree of disorder and chaos. Broadly, the entropy‐increasing modification of M (single mental sites) and guest groups entails an augmentation of chaos, with the most effective co‐catalytic synergy achieved by establishing multiple active sites through a "cocktail effect". Concerning N (nitrogen and other heteroatoms) and C (carbon supports), the entropy increase modification induces heightened disorder, with symmetry breaking more likely to drive M‐N4 toward adsorbing oxygen molecules to attain an equilibrium symmetric structure. All these innovative design strategies have led to a remarkable improvement in the ORR activity and stability and offer a guiding criterion for the future preparation of SACs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration of Cryptococcus neoformans from the blood to the brain parenchyma is crucial to cause fatal meningoencephalitis. Although mechanisms involved in brain migration of C. neoformans have been widely studied in vitro, less is known about how the fungus crosses the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in vivo. This is in part because of the lack of an approach to quantitatively analyse the dynamics of fungal transmigration into the brain across the BBB in vivo. In this study, we report a novel approach to quantitatively analyse the interactions between C. neoformans and brain endothelial cells in a mouse model using flow cytometry. Using this system, we show that C. neoformans was internalised by brain endothelial cells in vivo and that mice infected with acapsular or heat‐killed C. neoformans yeast cells displayed a lower frequency of brain endothelial cells containing the yeast cell compared to mice infected with wild‐type or viable yeast cells, respectively. We further demonstrate that brain endothelial cells were invaded by serotype A strain (H99 strain) at a higher rate compared to serotype D strain (52D strain). Our experiments established that internalisation of C. neoformans by brain endothelial cells occurred in vivo and offered a powerful approach to quantitatively analyse fungal migration into the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) is one of the neurotropic pathogen that has been associated with severe neurological forms of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), but its pathogenesis is not yet clear. The limited host range of CA16 make the establishment of a suitable animal model that can recapitulate the neurological pathology observed in human HFMD more difficult. Because the human scavenger receptor class B, member 2 (hSCARB2) is a cellular receptor for CA16, we used transgenic mice bearing human SCARB2 and nasally infected them with CA16 to study the pathogenicity of the virus. Methods: Coxsackievirus A16 was administered by intranasal instillation to groups of hSCARB2 transgenic mice and clinical signs were observed. Sampled at different time-points to document and characterize the mode of viral dissemination, pathological change and immune response of CA16 infection. Results: Weight loss and virus replication in lung and brain were observed in hSCARB2 mice infected with CA16, indicating that these animals could model the neural infection process. Viral antigens were observed in the alveolar epithelia and brainstem cells. The typical histopathology was interstitial pneumonia with infiltration of significant lymphocytes into the alveolar interstitial in lung and diffuse punctate hemorrhages in the capillaries of the brainstem. In addition, we detected the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines and detected high levels of interleukin IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and IFN-γ in nasal mucosa, lungs and brain tissues. Conclusions: The hSCARB2-transgenic mice can be productively infected with CA16 via respiratory route and exhibited a clear tropism to lung and brain tissues, which can serve as a model to investigate the pathogenesis of CA16 associated respiratory and neurological disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fractional calculus has shown good adaptability in describing the mechanical properties of viscoelastic materials. Based on fractional order theory, the characteristics of blood flow in the fractal network of blood vessels are analyzed, and experiments are carried out by using a mixed solution to prove the results of simulation analysis that contains glycerol, gelatin, sodium chloride, etc. Under different time of fractional order conditions, the effects of Reynolds number, vascular network fractal dimension, and bifurcation series conditions, the blood flow characteristics in fractal vascular network are analyzed. The analysis results show that the blood flow increases with the increase in time fractional order and the flow resistance decreases with the increase in time fractional order. The blood flow law curve based on the equivalent Casson fluid theory has the same trend between the orders α = 0.9 and α = 1.0 of the time fractional order curve, so the order of time fractional order can describe the blood flow characteristics of equivalent Casson fluid. The experimental data are distributed on both sides of the theoretical calculation curve and the relative error is small, which is in good agreement with the effect of vascular fractal parameters obtained by integer order on blood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploitation of low-cost, efficient and stable electrocatalysts for overall water splitting in alkaline media is critical for future renewable energy systems, yet still remains a great challenge. Herein, we report the in situ growth of porous NiCoSe nanosheet arrays derived from 2D MOFs on Ni foam through a simple ion-exchange reaction followed by a hydrothermal process. Benefiting from the unique 2D multi-porous framework with high electrochemical active surface area, conductivity and open channels for the release of gaseous products, the as-prepared NiCoSe nanosheet arrays exhibit excellent electrochemical activity with a low overpotential of 170 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at 10 mA cm−2 and 278 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at 20 mA cm−2 and long-term stability. Furthermore, the full cell only requires 1.51 V to drive the current density of 10 mA cm−2 when the NiCoSe nanosheet arrays are used as both anode and cathode, which also exhibits distinguished durability for over 48 h. The present work presents a general strategy for the rational design and synthesis of multifunctional 2D porous electrocatalysts, which is also expected to extend to other noble-metal-free catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel glucose-Zn-based porous coordination polymer (PCP) was selected as a carrier of cell membranes (CMs) to fabricate CM-coated PCP (CMPCP) for rapid screening of potentially active compounds from natural products. The cell disruption and the amount of maximum CMs adsorbed on PCP were optimized according to the amount of immobilized protein. This new kind of matrix exhibited good reproducibility and stability, and was applied for fishing potentially active compounds from the extracts of Vaccinium corymbosum L. leaves (VCL). Using LC-MS/MS, chlorogenic acid and quercetin were identified as the potentially active compounds through comparison of normal and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)–modeled CMPCP. Our results suggested that the proposed approach based on CMPCP was environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and convenient in terms of green porous material, stable protein loading capacity, and accessible operation process. The developed method could provide a promising platform for efficient drug discovery from natural product resources. Graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile generic solvothermal strategy is employed to prepare C/SnOx/MoOy composite with evenly distributed C, Sn, Mo and O elements. The multi-element characteristic of active components and the introduction of carbon phase contribute greatly to the improved electrochemical performance as LIBs anodes. The influence of carbon phase and content of Sn and Mo on electrochemical behavior were investigated in this work. Carbon phase contributes greatly to the enhanced electric conductivity, structural integrity and pseudocapacitance contribution of the electrode. The best electrochemical performance is achieved in carbon/Sn–Mo oxide anode with a Sn/Mo ratio of about 1:1, indicating the mutual buffering relationship between Sn and Mo due to the different working voltage toward lithium. As a result, an excellent capacity retention of 98% (vs 2nd cycle) is delivered after 500 cycles at 0.5 A g−1. Even at a high rate of 2.0 A g−1, the capacity could be well remained after 500 cycles. Moreover, full cell employing such a C/SnOx/MoOy anode in combination with LiCoO2 cathode offers a good cycling performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyfluthrin is a widely used pesticide. In this study, a sensitive and efficient magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIP) was prepared by surface molecular imprinting, which used functionalized Fe3O4 particles as magnetic cores. Cyfluthrin was extracted and enriched using magnetic molecularly polymer for analyzing pesticide residue of Chinese herbal medicines. The crystal type, microstructure, particle size, saturation magnetization, and characteristic functional groups of the synthesized MMIPs were analyzed by analysis equipment. The results of isothermal adsorption and kinetic adsorption indicated that MMIPs reached adsorption equilibrium at 30 min, with a maximum capacity of 4.9 mg g−1, which had good adsorption performance, while selective adsorption experiments showed that MMIPs had higher affinity for cyfluthrin. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 32.987 ng ml−1 and 109.955 ng ml−1, respectively. And linear range (30–3000ng ml−1) of cyfluthrin with correlation coefficient R2=0.9979, and MMIPs were used in honeysuckle, the recoveries were 91.5%∼97.2%, and RSD was 5.35%∼8.32% (n = 3). It is indicated that the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer can be used as an effective material for the specific separation of cyfluthrin from honeysuckle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel magnetic solid phase extraction adsorbent was prepared, namely Fe3O4@SiO2 as the carrier, quercetin as the template molecule, acrylamide (AM) as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylamide (EGDMA) as the crosslinker, 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator to prepare magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIPs) with specific adsorption of quercetin by surface molecular imprinting technique. MMIPs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The binding properties of MMIPs were evaluated by isothermal adsorption, kinetic adsorption and selective adsorption experiments. The results showed that the saturated adsorption capacity and adsorption time were 17.9 μmol/g and 20 min, respectively, and showed high selectivity for quercetin. Under optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 55.327 ng/mL and 184.413 ng/mL, respectively. The recovery and RSD were 85.34–95.67% and 3.36–6.59, respectively. We successfully combined magnetic solid phase extraction with high performance liquid chromatography (MSPE-HPLC-UV) for the enrichment, separation and detection of quercetin in rat plasma. The results showed that the peak and half-life of quercetin in plasma were 1.5 h (32.310 μg/mL) and 3 h, respectively. The method was simple, rapid and efficient, and could be applied to the separation and detection of quercetin in complex matrices, and also provides a basis for the separation and identification of other natural chemical components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Li-deficiencies Li-rich materials with different ratio of Ni, Co and Mn were prepared via a solvothermal and high calcination process. • The introduction of Li deficiencies and modulation the cation rearrangements may enhance the structural stability and electron/ionic conductivity. • Li 1.12 Ni 0.32 Mn 0.44 Co 0.04 O 2 (LR1.8–811sample) displays excellent cycling and rate performance. • This method can obtain high performance Li-rich materials with long lifetime, low cost and high energy density. The anomalously high capacities of Li-rich materials are a result of contributions from both cationic and anionic redox processes, however, anionic redox also leads to capacity loss and structural degradation. In this study, the content of Li-O-Li configuration and the types of Li-O-TM configuration are regulated by introducing the Li deficiencies and changing the ratio of Ni/Co/Mn. The results of XRD, Raman spectra, XPS, HR-TEM and in-situ XRD characterizations indicate that the generation of the spinel structure and crystal defects strengthen the structural stability in the modified Li-rich materials. Besides, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation result prove that increasing the ratio of Ni/(Co+Mn) further enhance the electron contribution of the Ni ions and the electronic conductivity of as-prepared samples. The LR1.8–811 sample presents outstanding cycling performance and energy density, that is, the capacity retention is 98.64% and energy density is 764.7 Wh kg−1 after 100 cycles at a rate of 0.2C, respectively. These improvements are ascribed to the less content of Li-O-Li configuration and the more content of Li-O-Ni configuration in the LR1.8–811 material, which mitigated the oxygen redox and enhanced the structural stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1H and 2H NMR spectra of 4 natural and synthetic nicotine samples were collected in a non-quantitative way and site-specific 2H/1H peak intensity ratio (SPIR) was calculated for 12 distinct sites of nicotine. Experimental results illustrated that the SPIRs at sites of 6, 2′, and 5′β of natural nicotine were significantly different from those of the synthetic nicotine, and could be used for nicotine authentication as the measured SPIRs were indicative of the site-specific natural isotope fractionation. We demonstrated that this method could be applied to detect adulteration of natural nicotine with as low as 20% synthetic nicotine, without the need to measure the site-specific δD values, which usually required time-consuming quantitative 2H NMR and additional IRMS for the overall 2H/1H isotopic ratio determination. The distinguishable 2H/1H SPIRs of nicotine, which can be quickly measured by NMR in non-quantitative way, can serve as an attractive alternative tool for tobacco authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Pseudocapacitive P-doped nickel cobaltate (P-NCO) porous microspheres were prepared via a two-step strategy. The P-NCO showed superior electrochemical performance than the pristine NiCo 2 O 4 as anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). A reversible discharge capacity of 470 mAh g−1 can be maintained after 1000 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g−1, with an average capacity loss rate of 0.015% per cycle. The P-doped anode could deliver a reversible capacity of 496, 417, 303 and 210 mAh g−1 at 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 A g−1. Kinetic analysis revealed that pseudocapacitance plays a vital role in the lithium ion storage, which endows the P-NCO higher rate capacities and cycling stability. Attractive performance of the P-NCO anode is ascribed to the synergetic effect of porous structure and P-doping modification. The P-NCO demonstrates as a promising alternative to conventional anodes. Highlights • P-doped NiCo 2 O 4 has a capacity of 470 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles at 500 mA g−1. • Pseudo-capacitance plays an important role in the lithium ion storage. • A possible mechanism of the attractive performance was put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We study the weak finite element method solving convection–diffusion equations. A new weak finite element scheme is presented based on a special variational form. The optimal order error estimates are derived in the discrete H 1-norm, the L 2 -norm and the L ∞ -norm, respectively. In particular, the H 1-superconvergence of order k + 2 is obtained under certain condition if polynomial pair P k (K) × P k + 1 (∂ K) is used in the weak finite element space. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate our theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We propose a weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method for solving the one-dimensional Burgers' equation. Based on a new weak variational form, both semi-discrete and fully-discrete WG finite element schemes are established and analyzed. We prove the existence of the discrete solution and derive the optimal order error estimates in a discrete H 1 norm and the standard L 2 norm, respectively. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate our theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel B4O72− fluorescent probe, (E)‐1‐[(2‐hydroxynaphthalen‐1‐yl)methylene]phenylthiourea (NPC) was designed, synthesized and characterized by 1H‐NMR, 13C‐NMR, IR, ESI‐MS, EAs. The probe exhibited excellent selectivity and sensitivity for detecting B4O72− over other anions and metal ions with a lower detection limit of 0.21 μM in DMF / H2O (v:v=1:1). The fluorescence sensing properties of the probe were established by UV‐Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. What's more, the mechanism between NPC and B4O72− was also confirmed by ESI‐MS. The turn‐on fluorescence behaviour of B4O72− and NPC was found within 10 s which could be used as an effective probe for the detection of B4O72−. A new Naphthalaldehyde based "turn‐on" chemodosimeter was designed and used for monitoring B4O72− in DMF/H2O by the interaction of hydrogen bond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optically pure sulfoxides are valuable organosulfur compounds extensively employed in medicinal and organic synthesis. In this study, we present a biocatalytic oxidation‐reduction cascade system designed for the preparation of enantiopure sulfoxides. The system involves the cooperation of a low‐enantioselective chimeric oxidase SMO (styrene monooxygenase) with a high‐enantioselective reductase MsrA (methionine sulfoxide reductase A), facilitating "non‐selective oxidation and selective reduction" cycles for prochiral sulfide oxidation. The regeneration of requisite cofactors for MsrA and SMO was achieved via a cascade catalysis process involving three auxiliary enzymes, sustained by cost‐effective D‐glucose. Under the optimal reaction conditions, a series of heteroaryl alkyl, aryl alkyl and dialkyl sulfoxides in R configuration were synthesized through this "one‐pot, one step" cascade reaction. The obtained compounds exhibited high yields of >90 % and demonstrated enantiomeric excess (ee) values exceeding 90 %. This study represents an unconventional and efficient biocatalytic way in utilizing the low‐enantioselective oxidase for the synthesis of enantiopure sulfoxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid photocatalyst of Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S and perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) was prepared with a facile co-precipitation-hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology of Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI photocatalyst was investigated systematically by X-ray diffraction experiments (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scan electron microscopy (SEM), etc. The H 2 production rate of Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI is 5.166 mmol h −1 g −1 in the aqueous solution of sacrificial reagents Na 2 SO 3 and Na 2 S, which is 6.5 times of that of pure Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S solid solution without PDI modification. The corresponding apparent quantum efficiency (QE) of Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI nanocomposite is 22.5% under monochromatic light irradiation at 420 nm, which is also significantly higher than that of pure Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S solid solution (3.35%). Comparing to Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S solid solution, higher transient photocurrent is measured for the Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI nanocomposite. This result indicates that PDI can collect the photogenerated electrons in Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S, thereby inhibiting the photogenerated electron-hole pair recombination of Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI nanocomposite. This Zn 0.7 Cd 0.3 S/PDI hybrid catalyst suggests that organic semiconductor modification is a useful way for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of Zn x Cd 1−x S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WUSCHEL ( WUS ) gene encodes a plant-specific homeodomain-containing transcriptional regulator, which plays important roles during embryogenesis, as well as in the formation of shoot and flower meristems. Here, we isolated two homologues of Arabidopsis thaliana WUS ( AtWUS ), GhWUS1a_At and GhWUS1b_At , from upland cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum ). Domain analysis suggested that the two putative GhWUS proteins contained a highly conserved DNA-binding HOX domain and a WUS-box. Expression profile analysis showed that GhWUSs were predominantly expressed during the embryoid stage. Ectopic expression of GhWUSs in Arabidopsis could induce somatic embryo and shoot formation from seedling root tips. Furthermore, in the absence of exogenous hormone, overexpression of GhWUSs in Arabidopsis could promote shoot regeneration from excised roots, and in the presence of exogenous auxin, excised roots expressing GhWUS could be induced to produce somatic embryo. In addition, expression of the chimeric GhWUS repressor in cotton callus inhibited embryogenic callus formation. Our results show that GhWUS is an important regulator of somatic embryogenesis and shoot regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the NF-YB transcription factor gene family play important roles in diverse processes related to plant growth and development, such as seed development, drought tolerance, and flowering time. However, the function of NF-YB genes in cotton remains unclear. A total of 23, 24, and 50 NF-YB genes were identified in Gossypium arboreum (G. arboreum), Gossypium raimondii (G. raimondii), and G. hirsutum, respectively. A systematic phylogenetic analysis was carried out in G. arboretum, G. raimondii, G. hirsutum, Arabidopsis thaliana, cacao, rice and, sorghum, where the 150 NF-YB genes were divided into five groups (α–ε). Of these groups, α is the largest clade, and γ contains the LEC1 type NF-YB proteins. Syntenic analyses revealed that paralogues of NF-YB genes in G. hirsutum exhibited good collinearity. Owing to segmental duplication within the A sub-genome (At) and D sub-genome (Dt), there was an expanded set of NF-YB genes in G. hirsutum. Furthermore, we investigated the structures of exons, introns, and conserved motifs of NF-YB genes in upland cotton. Most of the NF-YB genes had only one exon, and the genes from the same clade exhibited a similar motif pattern. Expression data show that most NF-YB genes were expressed ubiquitously, and only a few genes were highly expressed in specific tissues, as confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis. The overexpression of GhDNF-YB22 gene, predominantly expressed in embryonic tissues, indicates that GhDNF-YB22 may affect embryogenesis in cotton. This study is the first comprehensive characterization of the GhNF-YB gene family in cotton, and showed that NF-YB genes could be divided into five clades. The duplication events that occurred over the course of evolution were the major impetus for NF-YB gene expansion in upland cotton. Collectively, this work provides insight into the evolution of NF-YB in cotton and further our knowledge of this commercially important species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is notably challenging to fabricate heavily heteroatom-doped porous carbonaceous materials with narrow ultramicropore size distributions for highly effective mixed-gas separation. In this study, new carbon-based materials with narrow ultramicropore size (<7 Å) distributions (>95%) and high N doping contents (>10 at%) are fabricated through the pyrolysis of a perchloro-substituted porous covalent triazine-based framework (ClCTF). In particular, the sample prepared at 650 °C (ClCTF-1-650) possesses the highest ultramicropores content (98%) and large N content (12 at%) and demonstrates a very high CH 4 and CO 2 capacity, as well as a low N 2 uptake under ambient conditions. The extraordinarily high CH 4 /N 2 and CO 2 /N 2 selectivities correlate with both the ideal adsorption solution theory (IAST) method and performed dynamic separation experiments (breakthrough experiments). The results reported in this study far exceed the CH 4 /N 2 and CO 2 /N 2 selectivities of previously reported carbon-based adsorbents including various nitrogen-doped ones. These results are believed to be associated with the unusually high N content, as well as the suitably narrow ultramicropore size distribution. This report introduces a new pathway to design porous absorbents with precisely controlled ultramicropores for gas separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercialization of tin dioxide-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries has still not been achieved mainly due to the poor cycling performance caused by the huge volume changes of the electrodes. We herein synthesized a three-dimensional tin dioxide-graphene composite nanofiber (3D SnO/GNF) membrane via a hydrothermal and electrospinning method assisted by a subsequent calcination process. In this cross-linked three-dimensional network, SnO particles are loaded on the graphene crystal structure uniformly, with the aggregation and volume expansion partially inhibited. As a free-standing 3D network, the resultant nanofiber membrane could be used as the anode directly without the addition of the binder and conductive agent. Serving as a binder-free anode material for LIBs, the SnO/GNF anode exhibits good electrochemical performance with high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability. More specifically, a high capacity of 763.9 mAh g was obtained at a current density of 100 mA g after 300 cycles. The extraordinary performance could be ascribed to the positive synergistic effect of the nanosized SnO particles and graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]