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A series of Sb x Bi 2-x S 3 solid solution photocatalysts with certain sulfur vacancy were constructed by adjusting the molar ratio of Sb to Bi through a simple hydrothermal strategy and applied for the efficient elimination of Cr(VI). [Display omitted] • Sb x Bi 2-x S 3 solid solution was constructed by a simple hydrothermal strategy. • Sb 1.75 Bi 0.25 S 3 can effectively remove Cr(VI) and exhibit excellent stability. • The certain sulfur vacancy effectively accelerates the separation of charge. The development of environmentally friendly and cost-effective photocatalysts is of vital significance for the effective removal of heavy metal contamination in water, but it is still a crucial challenge. Herein, the novel Sb x Bi 2-x S 3 solid solution photocatalysts with a certain amount of sulfur vacancy were prepared by adjusting the molar ratio of Sb to Bi through a simple hydrothermal strategy, and was applied to the effective photocatalytic reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)). Sb 1.75 Bi 0.25 S 3 with optimized ratio has superior reduction performance of Cr(VI), and the photocatalytic efficiency of Cr(VI) can achieve 91.9 % within 1 h of visible light illumination. The remarkable catalytic efficiency is due to the more applicable band structure of the solid solution photocatalyst, which is conducive for the photocatalytic reaction. Moreover, the substitution of Bi causes the crystal distortion of Sb 2 S 3 and induce the generation of sulfur defects, which can effectively capture photoelectrons, accelerate the carriers separation, and improve the reduction performance. This study provides a hopeful photocatalyst for wastewater purification and promotes the exploration of solid solution photocatalyst in water environment remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients infected with Acinetobacter baumannii (AB) bacteremia in hospital have high morbidity and mortality. We analyzed the clinical characteristics of pneumonia and nonpneumonia-related AB bloodstream infections (AB BSIs) and explored the possible independent risk factors for the incidence and prognosis of pneumonia-related AB BSIs. Methods: A retrospective monocentric observational study was performed. All 117 episodes of hospital-acquired AB bacteremia sorted into groups of pneumonia-related AB BSIs (n = 45) and nonpneumonia-related AB BSIs (n = 72) were eligible. Univariate/multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the independent risk factors. The primary outcome was the antibiotic susceptibility in vitro of pneumonia-related AB BSIs group. The secondary outcome was the independent risk factor for the pneumonia-related AB BSIs group. Results: Among 117 patients with AB BSIs, the pneumonia-related group had a greater risk of multidrug resistant A. baumannii (MDRAB) infection (84.44%) and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) infection (80%). Polymyxin, minocycline and amikacin had relatively high susceptibility rates (> 80%) in the nonpneumonia-related group. However, in the pneumonia-related group, only polymyxin had a drug susceptibility rate of over 80%. Univariate analysis showed that survival time (day), CRAB, MDRAB, length of hospital stay prior to culture, length of ICU stay prior to culture, immunocompromised status, antibiotics used prior to culture (n > = 3 types), endotracheal tube, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, PITT, SOFA and invasive interventions (n > = 3 types) were associated with pneumonia-related AB bacteremia. The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that recent surgery (within 1 mo) [P = 0.043; 0.306 (0.098–0.962)] and invasive interventions (n > = 3 types) [P = 0.021; 0.072 (0.008–0.671)] were independent risk factors related to pneumonia-related AB bacteremia. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that length of ICU stay prior to culture [P = 0.009; 0.959 (0.930–0.990)] and recent surgery (within 1 mo) [P = 0.004; 0.260 (0.105–0.646)] were independent risk factors for mortality in patients with pneumonia-related AB bacteremia. The Kaplan‒Meier curve and the timing test showed that patients with pneumonia-related AB bacteremia had shorter survival time compared to those with nonpneumonia-related AB bacteremia. Conclusions: Our study found that A. baumannii had a high rate of antibiotic resistance in vitro in the pneumonia-related bacteremia group, and was only sensitive to polymyxin. Recent surgery was a significantly independent predictor in patients with pneumonia-related AB bacteremia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in single‐cell sequencing technology have made it possible to measure multiple paired omics simultaneously in a single cell such as cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing (CITE‐seq) and single‐nucleus chromatin accessibility and mRNA expression sequencing (SNARE‐seq). However, the widespread application of these single‐cell multiomics profiling technologies has been limited by their experimental complexity, noise in nature, and high cost. In addition, single‐omics sequencing technologies have generated tremendous and high‐quality single‐cell datasets but have yet to be fully utilized. Here, single‐cell multiomics generation (scMOG), a deep learning‐based framework to generate single‐cell assay for transposase‐accessible chromatin (ATAC) data in silico is developed from experimentally available single‐cell RNA‐seq measurements and vice versa. The results demonstrate that scMOG can accurately perform cross‐omics generation between RNA and ATAC, and generate paired multiomics data with biological meanings when one omics is experimentally unavailable and out of training datasets. The generated ATAC, either alone or in combination with measured RNA, exhibits equivalent or superior performance to that of the experimentally measured counterparts throughout multiple downstream analyses. scMOG is also applied to human lymphoma data, which proves to be more effective in identifying tumor samples than the experimentally measured ATAC data. Finally, the performance of scMOG is investigated in other omics such as proteomics and it still shows robust performance on surface protein generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A forest fire is a destructive disaster that is difficult to handle and rescue and can pose a significant threat to ecosystems, society, and humans. Since driving factors and their effects on forest fires change over time and space, exploring the spatiotemporal patterns of forest fire occurrence should be addressed. To better understand the patterns of forest fire occurrence and provide valuable insights for policy making, we employed the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model to investigate the varying spatiotemporal correlations between driving factors (vegetation, topography, meteorology, social economy) and forest fires in Anhui province from 2012 to 2020. Then we identified the dominant factors and conducted the spatiotemporal distribution analysis. Moreover, we innovatively introduced nighttime light as a socioeconomic driving factor of forest fires since it can directly reflect more comprehensive information about the social economy than other socioeconomic factors commonly used in previous studies. This study applied remote sensing data since the historical statistic data were not detailed. Here, we obtained the following results. (1) There was a spatial autocorrelation of forest fires in Anhui from 2012 to 2020, with high-high aggregation of forest fires in eastern cities. (2) The GTWR model outperformed the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model and the Geographically Weighted Regression model (GWR), implying the necessity of considering temporal heterogeneity in addition to spatial heterogeneity. (3) The relationships between driving factors and forest fires were spatially and temporally heterogeneous. (4) The forest fire occurrence was mainly dominated by socioeconomic factors, while the dominant role of vegetation, topography, and meteorology was relatively limited. It's worth noting that nighttime light played the most extensive dominant role in forest fires of Anhui among all the driving factors in the years except 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referring video object segmentation (RVOS) aims to segment the target object in a video sequence described by a language expression. Typical multimodal Transformer based RVOS approaches process video sequence in a frame-independent manner to reduce the high computational cost, which however restricts the performance due to the lack of inter-frame interaction for temporal coherence modeling and spatio-temporal representation learning of the referred object. Besides, the absence of sufficient cross-modal interactions results in weak correlation between the visual and linguistic features, which increases the difficulty of decoding the target information and limits the performance of the model. In this paper, we propose a bidirectional correlation-driven inter-frame interaction Transformer, dubbed BIFIT, to address these issues in RVOS. Specifically, we design a lightweight and plug-and-play inter-frame interaction module in the Transformer decoder to efficiently learn the spatio-temporal features of the referred object, so as to decode the object information in the video sequence more precisely and generate more accurate segmentation results. Moreover, a bidirectional multi-level vision-language interaction module is implemented before the multimodal Transformer to enhance the correlation between the linguistic and multi-level visual features, thus facilitating the language queries to decode more precise object information from visual features and ultimately improving the segmentation performance. Extensive experimental results on four benchmarks validate the superiority of our BIFIT over state-of-the-art methods and the effectiveness of our proposed modules. The code is available in https://github.com/LANMNG/BIFIT. • A language query based multimodal RVOS Transformer outperforms the previous cutting-edge methods on several benchmarks. • Bidirectional multi-level vision-language interaction boosts correlation between cross-modal features. • Inter-frame interaction in Transformer decoder can model the temporal coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal apoptosis can lead to uncontrolled cell growth, aberrant homeostasis or the accumulation of mutations. Therapeutic agents that re-establish the normal functions of apoptotic signaling pathways offer an attractive strategy for the treatment of breast cancer. Baicalin (BA) is one of the natural compounds with anti-proliferation and pro-apoptosis activities against numerous tumor cells. However, low bioavailability restricts the clinical application of BA. In order to improve its therapeutic efficacy and study the mechanism of actions, active targeting delivery systems were developed for targeting tumor environment and selective cell killing effects. It emphasized on the construction of folate-conjugated albumin nanoparticles loaded with baicalin (FA-BSANPs/BA) and mechanisms of which on the promotion of breast cancer apoptosis. The physicochemical properties and structural characteristics of FA-BSANPs/BA were investigated. Cell experiments were carried out to study the targeted anti-breast cancer effects of FA-BSANPs/BA and its mechanism. The results showed that FA-BSANPs/BA was successfully constructed with stable structural characteristics and sustained release effects. Cellular uptake and MTT showed that it increased targeted uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity. Flow cytometry and western blot confirmed that it promoted apoptosis by increasing the expression of caspase-8 and ROS, and decreasing the level of Bid. It is suggested that the pro-apoptotic mechanism of FA-BSANPs/BA is related to regulation of key proteins in extrinsic apoptotic pathway. In conclusion, FA-BSANPs/BA is a good delivery carrier and significantly inhibits the breast cancer growth compared with free BA. The mechanism of FA-BSANPs/BA promoting apoptosis of breast cancer may be due to its action on the caspase-8/Bid/ROS pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer among women. Baicalin has been shown to inhibit breast cancer proliferation, but poor aqueous solubility and unknown mechanism of action limit its application. This study aimed to investigate the antiproliferative effects of baicalin-loaded folic acid-modified albumin nanoparticles (FA-BSANPs/BA) in breast cancer MCF-7 cells and its relationship with autophagy and ROS-mediated p38 MAPK and Akt/mTOR signaling pathways. Cell viability was detected by MTT assay. Flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy were used to detect cell cycle, apoptosis and autophagy. Western blot was used to detect protein expression. Results: Compared with the control and free baicalin groups, FA-BSANPs/BA inhibited viability of MCF-7 cells and increased cells in S phase, apoptotic bodies, pro-apoptotic proteins, autophagy markers and autophagosomes. These effects could be reversed when combined with the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine. FA-BSANPs/BA increased the levels of phosphorylated p38 MAPK, inhibited the levels of phosphorylated Akt and mTOR, and increased the level of ROS in MCF-7 cells. The effects of FA-BSANPs/BA could be reversed or enhanced using inhibitors of Akt, mTOR, p38 MAPK and ROS scavengers. Conclusions: Encapsulation in folate albumin nanoparticles improved the antiproliferative activity of baicalin. FA-BSANPs/BA induced autophagy and apoptosis via ROS-mediated p38 MAPK and Akt/mTOR signaling pathways in human breast cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) involved in breast cancer metastasis and chemoresistance has been increasingly recognized. However, it is necessary to search for more effective strategies to inhibit EMT thereby increase the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs. Emodin has a potential in overcoming tumor drug resistance and restraining the development of EMT, but the poor internalization into breast cancer cells limited the application. Results: MCF-7/ADR cells have more EMT characteristics than MCF-7 cell. EMT in MCF-7/ADR cells promotes the development of drug resistance via apoptosis resistance and facilitating the expression of P-gp. The anti-cancer effect of DOX enhanced by the decreasing of drug resistance protein P-gp and apoptosis-related proteins after EMT inhibited in MCF-7/ADR cells. E-PLNs increase the cellular uptake of EMO and restore DOX sensitivity in MCF-7/ADR cells by inhibiting EMT. Conclusion: E-PLNs inhibit EMT to enhance the sensitivity of breast cancer to DOX. The combination of E-PLNs and DOX can improve the efficacy of DOX in the treatment of breast cancer, which provides a new method to prevent or delay clinical drug resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-step pretreatment using sequential dilute acid/alkali was applied in this study to improve the hydrolysis of corncobs. 88.6% of the hemicellulose was selectively removed by dilute sulfuric acid hydrolysis (DA) in the first step, 88% of the lignin was effectively extracted by sodium hydroxide in the second step. Consequently, a high content of glucan (74.4%), corresponding to 94.6% recovery, remained in the pretreated biomass. The substrate enzymatic digestibilities (SED) of the two-step pretreated biomass were 64%, 80%, 91%, and 93% after 72 h hydrolysis with enzyme loadings of 5, 10, 15, and 20 FPU/g substrate, respectively, which were much higher than those of the DA-pretreated material. The ethanol concentration after the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process at 15% (w/w) solids loading reached 52 g/L, equivalent to 77.2% of the theoretical ethanol yield based on an untreated corncobs glucan content. The changes to the chemical and physical structures of the residues detected by SEM, FTIR, and the DPv test were correlated with the improved enzymatic digestibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple disasters induced by hurricanes such as floods, strong winds, and heavy rainfall have always been a significant threat to coastal infrastructures. However, few studies have attempted to model the dependence between hazards and study its impact on multi-hazard risks—these cognitive deficiencies inevitably affect the control of risks. This paper addresses these difficulties by first using the copulas to capture the dependence between hurricane-induced floods and strong winds based on synthetic multi-hazard events. Moreover, another two types of dependence, regression-based and mutually independent, are constructed to compare the impact of different dependence behaviors on the facility's failure. Second, the frequency of concurrent events and a scenario-based fragility function are convolved to quantify the multi-hazard risk of storage tanks. Subsequently, the annualized failure risk (AFR) and the mean return period of failure (MRPF) are used as two metrics for the multi-hazard risk. The case study results demonstrate that the BB1 copula can accurately describe the change in dependence across the full range of the multivariate distribution, avoiding overestimation or underestimation of equipment failure risks. The application of risk zoning provides decision-makers with more intuitive and convenient tools for planning and layout, highlighting the practicability of the proposed multi-hazard risk assessment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor cells, inflammatory cells and chemical factors work together to mediate complex signaling networks, which forms inflammatory tumor microenvironment (TME). The development of breast cancer is closely related to the functional activities of TME. This review introduces the origins of cancer-related chronic inflammation and the main constituents of inflammatory microenvironment. Inflammatory microenvironment plays an important role in breast cancer growth, metastasis, drug resistance and angiogenesis through multifactorial mechanisms. It is suggested that inflammatory microenvironment contributes to providing possible mechanisms of drug action and modes of drug transport for anti-cancer treatment. Nano-drug delivery system (NDDS) becomes a popular topic for optimizing the design of tumor targeting drugs. It is seen that with the development of therapeutic approaches, NDDS can be used to achieve drug-targeted delivery well across the biological barriers and into cells, resulting in superior bioavailability, drug dose reduction as well as off-target side effect elimination. This paper focuses on the review of modulation mechanisms of inflammatory microenvironment and combination with nano-targeted therapeutic strategies, providing a comprehensive basis for further research on breast cancer prevention and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar-driven reduction of dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) is still challenging due to the highly stable N–N triple bond. Herein, orthorhombic phase H-Bi5O7I microspheres with abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) were successfully prepared via a simple calcination and hydrogen reduction strategy. Based on the combined bismuth-rich strategy and the introduction of OVs in H-Bi5O7I, a remarkable photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance was achieved under visible light irradiation in the absence of any organic scavengers or noble-metal cocatalysts. H-Bi5O7I exhibits an NH4+ generation rate of 162.48 μmol g−1 h−1, which is 2.0 and 7.4 times higher than that of Bi5O7I and BiOI. It is because H-Bi5O7I with abundant OVs has a more proper band gap, better electron capturing ability and more effective separation and transfer rate for the photogenerated charge carriers. This study may provide a new direction and useful insight for the design of defect assisted N2 fixation photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of heat conduction pathway is the key to fulfill the demand for versatile thermal management. However, constructing a three-dimensional (3D) thermal bridge in a single step is challenging and entails the critical co-dispersion of multiple fillers. Here we propose a simple and controllable method to assemble conjugated hybrids of 1D carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with 2D graphene through hydrothermal centrifugation. In addition to armoring CNTs through the conjugation effect, ionic liquid crystals (ILC) assisted the CNTs to exfoliate graphite, facilitating the co-dispersion of the binary material. Remarkably, the resulting graphene/CNTs (GC) hybrids acquire hydrophilicity from the ILC and manifest diverse states depending on the water content, including octopus-like blocks, self-limiting gels, high-concentration slurries, and dilute dispersions. Hybrid nanocomposite papers containing ANF nanofibers with 3D thermally conductive bridges yield exceptional photothermal conversion performance and Joule heating performance, rendering them suitable for flexible wearable applications. The multistate GC hybrids presented here afford a novel reference for the one-step construction of 3D thermally conductive bridges. Graphene/CNTs (GC) conjugated hybrids were successfully prepared by ILC-assisted hydrothermal centrifugation. Particularly, the three-dimensional network structure formed by the ILC-armored GC hybrids can absorb free water molecules, resulting in a non-free-flowing gel state that can be easily converted into self-healing blocks and dispersions. [Display omitted] • Multistate Graphene/CNTs conjugated hybrids were successfully prepared through ILC-assisted hydrothermal centrifugation. • GC hybrids exhibit excellent electrical conductivity, scalability and exceptional redispersibility even after storage. • Various GC-derived bulk forms from the ILC armored GC hybrids are realized by facile processing. • GC hybrids assembled nanocomposite papers yield exceptional photothermal conversion and Joule heating performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological accidents triggered by natural disasters (Natech) have become a significant threat to the safety of coastal energy infrastructure. The domino accidents involved could propagate rapidly in a short duration and amplify an accident exponentially. In previous studies of Natech-related domino accidents, the scope of natural disasters was mainly focused on the phase of primary events, and the subsequent accident cascades were entirely driven by the domino effect. This simplification essentially weakens the real-time intervention of ongoing disasters in the evolution of accidents, making it difficult to accurately model the evolutionary patterns of domino accidents. Accordingly, a Natech-related domino evolution graph (NT-DEG) is proposed in this paper for dynamic modeling of accident evolution under the real-time disturbance of natural disasters. In addition, a stochastic process and a deterministic process are innovatively used to control the generation of primary events and the update of the evolution network at each timestamp. Moreover, using a dynamic community detection algorithm and graph metrics, an identification method for critical units in dynamic domino accidents is proposed. The application of NT-DEG to typhoon-related Natech indicates that continuous-onset natural disasters may cause new failure units that could participate in the original domino accident at any moment. This real-time intervention noticeably changes the propagation path and scale of the original accident and accelerates accident evolution. In addition, the validation based on the integrated simulation reveals that the proposed identification method can accurately identify the critical units, and the safety measures against them can noticeably reduce the scale of accident cascades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 3D/0D SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S was constructed by a simple solvothermal strategy. • SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S exhibits excellent activity for Cr(VI) reduction. • The heterostructure interface effectively accelerates the separation of charge. The development of highly competent and economical photocatalysts for competent erasure of heavy metal pollutants in water is of momentous import but still a significant challenge. Herein, 3D/0D SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S heterostructure photocatalyst was resoundingly fabricated through integrating Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S nanoparticles on the surface of SnIn 4 S 8 microsphere via a simple solvothermal method and applied to high efficiency photoreduction Cr(VI). The fabricated SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S with optimized composition ratio achieves the exceptional reduction Cr(VI) property and the photoreduction efficiency of 20 % SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S can reach 91.1 % within 30 min visible light illumination. The prominent photocatalytic efficiency comes from the intimate contact of heterostructure interface, which effectively expedites the separation and migration of carrier and inhibits the photocorrosion of photocatalyst. This work provides a promising photocatalyst for water environment remediation, and promotes the exploration of heterostructure photocatalyst for wastewater purification. The novel SnIn 4 S 8 /Cd 0.5 Zn 0.5 S heterojunction photocatalyst constructed by a simple solvothermal strategy exhibits superior and sustainable photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) activity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem that a dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) requires an external high voltage bias supply to improve the autonomy and security of the power generation system so that it could adapt to a changeable environment, and to improve the efficiency of power generation, based on the simulation research and analysis of three traditional self-biasing circuits, a new self-biasing circuit integrated with a self-supplementary circuit has been proposed in this paper. Under the same input conditions, the maximum output potential of the new self-biasing circuit is 2.23 times that of the traditional circuit. The pumping capability of the self-biasing circuit is greatly improved. At the same time, based on this circuit, in order to explore the factors affecting the energy conversion of the DEG, the overall electromechanical parameters of the circuit are compared and optimized by simulation experiments in this paper. The simulation and experimental results show that the capacitance-to-strain ratio of DEG and the mechanical frequency should be as large as possible within the safe range to obtain larger output potential, and the capacitance of charge pump should be 0.75 times of the capacitance of DEG in the initial state to improve efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A new method for producing high permeability thin-gauge non-oriented electrical steels with 2.3 mm thick Fe-3.2% Si steel as-cast strip was studied. The evolution of microstructure and texture was characterized during the entire processing route. Furthermore, the effects of cold-rolling with large reduction and intermediate annealing process on magnetic properties were studied. The results indicated that the as-cast strip with coarse grains exhibited strong λ-fiber. Coarse equiaxed grains with Cube texture were obtained after first-stage cold-rolling with a reduction of 71.74% and intermediate annealing at 900 °C, which promoted the formation of λ-fiber and α-fiber components in the final cold-rolled sheets. {100}⟨0vw⟩ texture was partially retained from the intermediate annealed grains, and new Cube and Goss components were nucleated within {110}〈110〉 shear bands. The magnetic properties of 0.2 mm final sheets were greatly improved by strengthening λ-fiber component with two-stage rolling process, and best magnetic properties were B 50 = 1.758 T, P 15/50 = 2.065 W/kg, P 10/400 = 15.173 W/kg, P 10/1k = 59.48 W/kg. Highlights • Thin-gauge non-oriented silicon steel with high magnetic properties was produced by twin-roll strip casting. • The effects of cold-rolling with large reduction and intermediate annealing process on magnetic properties were studied. • Role of rolling methods in microstructure and texture evolution along the entire route was explored. • The magnetic properties were improved by strong {100}⟨0vw⟩ texture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc (Zn) is a crucial trace element essential for human growth and development, particularly for reproductive health. Previous research has shown a decrease in serum zinc concentration with age and individuals with conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and diabetes mellitus. However, the specific effects of zinc deficiency on the female reproductive system, especially ovarian function, are not fully understood. In our study, we observed a significant reduction in the total number of follicles and mature follicles in the zinc deficiency group. This reduction correlated with decreased level of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and abnormal gene expression affecting hormone secretion regulation. Furthermore, we found that zinc deficiency disrupted mitochondrial dynamics, leading to oxidative stress in the ovaries, which further inhibited autophagy and increased ovarian apoptosis. These changes ultimately resulted in the failure of germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and reduced oocyte quality. Meanwhile, administration of zinc glycine effectively alleviated the oocyte meiotic arrest caused by dietary zinc deficiency. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that dietary zinc deficiency can affect hormone secretion and follicle maturation by impairing mitochondrial function and autophagy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3.1 mm thick non-oriented Fe-1.0% Si steel as-cast strip was produced by twin-roll strip casting. Samples with/without strip annealing were cold rolled to 0.5 mm and then annealed. The development of microstructure, precipitate and texture was characterized along the entire processing route. It was found that annealing after strip casting had a minor influence on the average grain size and texture of the as-cast strip. A large number of particles precipitated and coarsened during the strip annealing process. Meanwhile, precipitates hindered dislocation slip and crystal rotation such that more significant in-grain shear bands were formed in cold rolled sheets. During recrystallization annealing process, the newly formed fine precipitates in directly cold-rolled sheets consumed stored strain energy and also hindered grain growth. But the initial precipitates in the annealed strip grew further and the effect of pinning of dislocations and grain boundary was lost. Therefore, annealed sheets with strip annealing process showed homogeneous equiaxed grains and the recrystallization texture was characterized by strong λ-fiber texture, which led to high permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: RNA contains diverse modifications that exert an important influence in a variety of cellular processes. So far, more than 150 modifications have been identified in various RNA species, mainly in ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and messenger RNA (mRNA). In contrast to rRNA, tRNA, and mRNA, the known modifications in small RNA species have been primarily limited to 2′‐O‐ribose methylation in plants and inosine in mammals. The methylation of small RNAs in mammals is still unclear. Current methods widely used in the characterization of small RNAs are mainly based on the strategy of nucleic acid hybridization and sequencing, which cannot characterize modifications in small RNAs. Herein, we have systematically investigated modifications in small RNAs composed of 16–28 nucleotides (nt) by establishing an effective isolation and neutral enzymatic digestion of small RNAs in combination with liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐ESI‐MS/MS). This method allowed us to simultaneously detect 57 different types of nucleoside modification. By using this approach, we revealed 24 modifications in small RNAs comprising 16–28 nt from human cells. In addition, we found that the obesity‐associated protein (FTO) may demethylate N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) and N6,2′‐O‐dimethyladenosine (m6Am) in small RNAs of 16–28 nt. Our study demonstrates the existence of diverse modifications in small RNAs composed of 16–28 nt, which may promote in‐depth understanding of the regulatory roles of noncoding RNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To seek an effective anti‐lung cancer drug, a total of 14 derivatives were synthesized and characterized. The anti‐lung cancer effect of peiminine derivatives were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The results of MTT and cell apoptosis assays showed that in comparison with peiminine and its other derivatives, compound 1c (indole‐3‐acetic acid‐peiminine ester) exhibited the highest activity with an IC50 value of 12.78 ± 0.64 μM. Compound 1c (10 μM) significantly reduced the levels of IL‐6, TNF‐α, and IL‐1β in A549 cells. In addition, the qRT‐PCR results showed that compound 1c (10 μM) reduced the mRNA levels of TNF‐α, mTOR, Bcl‐2, Akt1, PI3K, and p65 and increased those of Bax and caspase‐9. Next, the anti‐lung cancer activity of compound 1c (5 mg/kg) was evaluated in A549‐bearing nude mice. It was revealed that the tumor size and weight were significantly inhibited after treatment with compound 1c. And the levels of IL‐6, TNF‐α, and IL‐1β were decreased in mouse tumors. Finally, the latent mechanism of compound 1c was explored by western blot analysis. It was revealed that compound 1c could decrease the expressions of NF‐κB, Bcl‐2, PI3K, Akt, and mTOR and increase the expressions of Bax and caspase‐9 abundance. In conclusion, compound 1c exhibits an inhibitory effect on lung cancer, which was found to occur via inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/NF‐κB signaling pathway, thus representing a potential new lead compound for application in lung cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We re-analyze the generation and utilization mechanism of temporal context in the semi-supervised VOS task and introduce the efficient tracklet data flow, based on which we propose a novel VOS model and achieve real-time running speed. Experimental results on three benchmark datasets show that our proposed model achieves a better trade-off between efficiency and accuracy. • We design a coherence-aware module to estimate the coherence of the predicted target and update the temporal context in a more robust way. • We devise a spatio-temporal context aggregation module to aggregate the spatial context and temporal context at each level of the decoder to alleviate the aliasing effect, and learn a robust and discriminative feature representation for the target object. Semi-supervised video object segmentation (VOS) is a highly challenging problem that has attracted much research attention in recent years. Temporal context plays an important role in VOS by providing object clues from the past frames. However, most of the prevailing methods directly use the predicted temporal results to guide the segmentation of the current frame, while ignoring the coherence of temporal context, which may be misleading and degrade the performance. In this paper, we propose a novel model named Coherence-aware Context Aggregator (CCA) for VOS, which consists of three modules. First, a coherence-aware module (CAM) is proposed to evaluate the coherence of the predicted result of the current frame and then fuses the coherent features to update the temporal context. CAM can determine whether the prediction is accurate, thus guiding the update of the temporal context and avoiding the introduction of erroneous information. Second, we devise a spatio-temporal context aggregation (STCA) module to aggregate the temporal context with the spatial feature of the current frame to learn a robust and discriminative target representation in the decoder part. Third, we design a refinement module to refine the coarse feature generated from the STCA module for more precise segmentation. Additionally, CCA uses a cropping strategy and takes small-size images as input, thus making it computationally efficient and achieving a real-time running speed. Extensive experiments on four challenging benchmarks show that CCA achieves a better trade-off between efficiency and accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods. The code will be public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Strain engineering" has been widely used to tailor the physical properties of layered materials, like graphene, black phosphorus, and transition-metal dichalcogenides. Here, we exploit thermal strain engineering to construct two dimensional (2D) WS2 in-plane heterojunctions. Kelvin probe force microscopy is used to investigate the surface potentials and work functions of few-layer WS2 flakes, which are grown on SiO2/Si substrates by chemical vapor deposition, followed by a fast cooling process. In the interior regions of strained WS2 flakes, work functions are found to be much larger than that of the unstrained regions. The difference in work functions, together with the variation of band gaps, endows the formation of heterojunctions in the boundaries between inner and outer domains of WS2 flakes. This result reveals that the existence of strain offers a unique opportunity to modulate the electronic properties of 2D materials and construct 2D lateral heterojunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bi 2 S 3 nanorods with abundant sulfur vacancies exhibit superior and sustainable photocatalytic nitrogen fixation activity under near-infrared irradiation and full solar irradiation. [Display omitted] • Controllable fabrication of sulfur-vacancy-rich Bi 2 S 3 nanorods were fabricated by a simple solvothermal route. • The abundant SVs can absorb nitrogen and decrease the photoinduced carriers recombination. • Bi 2 S 3 nanorods exhibit effective and sustainable photocatalytic N 2 fixation under near-infrared irradiation. Herein, orthorhombic phase Bi 2 S 3 nanorods with different concentration of sulfur vacancies (SVs) were controllably synthesized via a facile solvothermal strategy. Benefited from the high specific surface area, proper band gap, good reduction capacity and abundant SVs, the Bi 2 S 3 nanorods exhibit remarkable photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance. The ammonia yield of the sulfur-vacancy-rich Bi 2 S 3 -3 is around 51.04 μmol g−1 h−1 under full solar irradiation. Moreover, Bi 2 S 3 -3 also responds sensitively to near-infrared (NIR) light, and the nitrogen reduction rate is 33.37 μmol g−1 h−1. The superior photocatalytic performance of Bi 2 S 3 is mainly attributed to SVs, which can absorb nitrogen and afford plentiful active sites to activate molecular nitrogen. Moreover, SVs also can trap the photoinduced electrons and contribute to the separation of the interfacial charge. This work provides a promising and sustainable defect-rich photocatalyst for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen using solar energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of van der Waals heterostructures based on a graphene monolayer and other two-dimensional crystals has attracted great interest because the atomic registry of the two-dimensional crystals can modify the electronic spectra and properties of graphene. A twisted graphene bilayer can be viewed as a special van der Waals structure composed of two mutually misoriented graphene layers, where the sublayer graphene not only plays the role of a substrate, but also acts in an equivalent role as the top graphene layer in the structure. Here we report the electronic spectra of slightly twisted graphene bilayers studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Our experiment demonstrates that twist-induced van Hove singularities are ubiquitously present for rotation angles θ of less than about 3.5∘ , corresponding to moiré -pattern periods D longer than 4 nm. However, they totally vanish for θ>5.5 ∘ (D < 2.5 nm). Such a behavior indicates that the continuum models, which capture moiré-pattern periodicity more accurately at small rotation angles, are no longer applicable at large rotation angles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A network-based approach is developed to model the NaTech-related domino effect in process clusters. • Expected escalation vectors are used to characterize the pairwise connection strength. • Two constraints, escalation and probability thresholds, are imposed to reduce the computational complexity of traversing potential propagation pathways. • Improved community detection algorithm can discover process clusters in which dominoes effects occur intensively. • NaTech-related domino effect network structure is sensitive to the natural hazard intensity. Extreme disasters and their resulting cascading accidents are always being a considerable threat to process cluster safety. However, many current assessments of the domino effects within process clusters do not consider the uncertainty of the primary accidents triggered by natural hazards. Additionally, high-efficiency methods to model the complex dependencies of large-scale process clusters are still lacking. Hence, this paper expands a hazard scenario module at the front end of the assessment framework of a domino effect to consider the response of installations to hazard loads. Simultaneously, a network-based approach is developed to model the NaTech-related domino effect. The constructed network imposes two constraints, escalation and probability thresholds, to reduce the computational complexity of traversing potential propagation pathways. As a result, the proposed method can be applied to large-scale process clusters. The safety analysis of an oil storage base subject to hurricanes and concurrent flooding shows that the proposed method can clarify the role of each unit in a local and cross-community domino effect at the node and community levels, respectively. The results inform the implementation of emergency responses to accidents. Furthermore, sources of uncertainty indicate that the network structure of the NaTech-related domino effect is sensitive to hazard intensity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hurricane-induced compound events (HICEs), such as coastal surges and winds, usually exhibit a high degree of nonlinear dependence, and thus, a single disaster modeling method cannot effectively evaluate and design the corresponding engineering applications. Therefore, this research aims at developing a statistical model suitable for HICEs to analyze and design multivariate hazard scenarios. Simultaneously, a risk-driven weighting function is constructed, considering the likelihood of event occurrence and response of the targets, to identify the riskiest design event in the critical event set. We apply the proposed model to an industrial area on the Galveston coast; use numerically synthesized HICEs to explore the dependence of the flood height, wind speed, and current velocity; and discuss the effects of different weighting rules on the design events. The modeling results show that three marginal variables are significantly correlated with one another, and the correlation between the flood height and wind speed in extreme events is enhanced. Additionally, on the same set of critical events, the riskiest event is typically not the most likely event, and the difference between them decreases as the return period increases. Moreover, the risk-driven weighting function provides a reliable scheme for disaster prevention design events of special petrochemical facilities. • A statistical model for hurricane-induced compound events (HICEs) is developed to analyze multivariate hazard scenarios. • A risk-driven weighting function is constructed to identify the riskiest design event in the critical event set. • The correlation between the flood height and wind speed in extreme events is enhanced. • The riskiest event is typically not the most likely event, and the difference decreases as the return period increases. • Risk-driven weighting functions provide a reliable scheme for disaster prevention design events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Hybrid Zn–Al–In mixed metal oxides/carbon nanotubes composite was synthesized. [•] Zn–Al–In mixed metal oxides were dispersed highly onto the nanotubes. [•] Nanocomposite showed excellent visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity. [•] The superior photocatalytic activity is related to novel heterostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical research has predicted that a ripple of graphene generates an effective gauge field on its low-energy electronic structure and could lead to Landau quantization. Here, we demonstrate using a combination of an experimental method (scanning tunneling microscopy) and a theoretical approach (tight-binding approximation) that Landau levels will form when the effective pseudomagnetic flux per ripple Φ~(h²/la)Φ0 is larger than the flux quantum Φ0 (here, h is the height, l is the width of the ripple, and a is the nearest C-C bond length). The strain-induced gauge field in the ripple only results in one-dimensional (1D) Landau-level quantization along the ripple. Such 1D Landau quantization does not exist in two-dimensional systems in an external magnetic field. Its existence offers a unique opportunity to realize interesting electronic properties in strained graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene on SiC substrate were studied via a combination of transport measurements and scanning tunneling microscopy. We report the observation of enhanced intervalley scattering from one Dirac cone to the other, which contributes to weak localization of the twisted bilayer graphene by increasing the interlayer coupling strength. Our experiment and analysis demonstrate that the enhanced intervalley scattering is closely related to the periodic AB stacked atoms (the A atom of layer 1 and the B atom of layer 2 that have the same horizontal positions) that break the sublattice degeneracy of graphene locally. We further show that these periodic AB stacked atoms affect intervalley but not intravalley scattering. The result reported here provides an effective way to atomically manipulate the intervalley scattering of graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flexible self-supporting PAN/BiOBr-Cl composite microfibers exhibit superior and sustainable photocatalytic activity for nitrogen fixation and dye degradation. [Display omitted] • PAN/BiOBr-Cl microfibers were fabricated by a solvothermal route on PAN support. • PAN/BiOBr-Cl exhibits prominent flexibility and self-supporting property. • PAN/BiOBr-Cl has remarkable photocatalytic N 2 fixation and degradation performance. Self-supporting chlorine (Cl) doped bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) microfiber photocatalysts was successfully constructed via a simple solvothermal method by utilizing PAN nanofibers as the flexible carrier. Benefited from the high specific surface area, proper band gap, superior light absorption and reduction capacity, the Cl doped BiOBr/PAN microfibers have remarkable photocatalytic performance. The ammonia yield of the PAN/BiOBr-5 %Cl is 234.4 μmol g−1h−1 and the degradation rate of RhB is 91% within 240 min. Meanwhile, the microfiber photocatalyst proves superior stability and reusability though cyclic experiments. More importantly, compared to the traditional suspended nanoparticles, Cl doped BiOBr/PAN microfiber photocatalyst exhibits prominent flexibility and self-supporting property and can be easily separated and recovered from the service environment. This work affords a significant view into the design of excellent recoverable composite fiber materials for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation and pollutant degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A hybrid Bayesian network-based landslide risk assessment model is developed. • HBN-LRA model decomposes the landslide risk into three submodules. • Landslide risk is sensitive to geological and geomorphic conditions. • The proactive remedial module can assess and design slope drainage systems. Industrialization exposes more petrochemical facilities in the slope-industrial interfaces (SIIs) to the impact range of landslides, demanding practical assessment approaches for addressing associated damage and its potential consequences. However, accurately predicting the expansion and upgrade of landslide hazards in industrial plants is challenging, involving a series of cascading-event trigger-response analyses. Accordingly, this paper develops a hybrid Bayesian network-based landslide risk assessment (HBN-LRA) model to evaluate the landslide risk on storage tanks in SIIs. This model decomposes the landslide risk into three submodules: slope stability, failure of targets, and proactive remedial measures and updates. It transmits the landslide risk through conditional dependence between subsystems. The results of applying the HBN-LRA model toward quantifying the landslide risk in a typical SII area indicate that the distance from the slope in the system risk factors directly determines storage tank damage. Landslide risk is sensitive to geological and geomorphic conditions, such as soil depth, cohesion, and unit weight; their relative importance all exceed 0.15. Tests on the case slope demonstrate that reducing the drainage paving distance from 10 to 8 m can improve slope stability by 50%. This result highlights the potential of the proactive remedial module in evaluating and designing slope drainage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen (N 2) to ammonia (NH 3) under mild conditions is quite challenging due to high stability of the triple covalent bond. Here we report that Bi-decorated BiOBr microspheres with plentiful oxygen vacancies (OVs) were successfully fabricated by one-step solvothermal strategy and used as effective photocatalysts for nitrogen fixation. The metallic Bi was reduced in-situ by glycerol and deposited on the surface of BiOBr microspheres. The synchronously generated OVs can serve as the activation center for nitrogen. Compared to pure BiOBr, Bi@BiOBr hetero-structured microspheres have higher specific surface area, superior visible-light utilization, more effective separation of photoexcited charge carriers, thus exhibiting more pronounced visible light photocatalytic N 2 fixation performance. Specifically, the N 2 reduction rate of the Bi@BiOBr-2 is 1350 μmol g−1 h−1, which is 11.8 times higher than pure BiOBr (114 μmol g−1 h−1). This study provides a simple and low energy consumption method for effective and stable photocatalytic N 2 fixation. A simple one-step hydrothermal strategy was applied to prepare the metallic Bi-decorated BiOBr microspheres with plentiful oxygen vacancies that is proved to be an effective photocatalyst to yield ammonia under visible light without any organic scavengers or noble-metal cocatalysts. [Display omitted] • A simple one-step hydrothermal strategy was used to prepare the Bi@BiOBr with OVs. • The Bi and OVs increase the light absorbance and decrease the charge recombination. • The Bi@BiOBr-OVs shows effective and stable photocatalytic N 2 fixation property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The switch machine, an essential element of railway infrastructure, is crucial in maintaining the safety of railway operations. Traditional methods for fault diagnosis are constrained by their dependence on extensive labeled datasets. Semi-supervised learning (SSL), although a promising solution to the scarcity of samples, faces challenges such as the imbalance of pseudo-labels and inadequate data representation. In response, this paper presents the Semi-Supervised Adaptive Matrix Machine (SAMM) model, designed for the fault diagnosis of switch machine. SAMM amalgamates semi-supervised learning with adaptive technologies, leveraging adaptive low-rank regularizer to discern the fundamental links between the rows and columns of matrix data and applying adaptive penalty items to correct imbalances across sample categories. This model methodically enlarges its labeled dataset using probabilistic outputs and semi-supervised, automatically adjusting parameters to accommodate diverse data distributions and structural nuances. The SAMM model's optimization process employs the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to identify solutions efficiently. Experimental evidence from a dataset containing current signals from switch machines indicates that SAMM outperforms existing baseline models, demonstrating its exceptional status diagnostic capabilities in situations where labeled samples are scarce. Consequently, SAMM offers an innovative and effective approach to semi-supervised classification tasks involving matrix data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A risk-based method for evacuation planning in chemical accidents is presented. • Cumulative individual risk is used as the evaluation index for evacuation strategy. • Multi-hazard characteristics and domino effects are considered in this method. • The method can decide whether to evacuate or shelter-in-place after an accident. • This method can be applied in the development of emergency response strategies. With the agglomeration and complication of the chemical industry, the multi-hazard and dynamic characteristics have become new challenges for chemical safety management and loss prevention research. As an important topic of safety research in chemical industries, the evacuation strategy also needs to be improved according to the new characteristics of chemical accidents. Here we propose a method for evacuation strategy development in chemical accidents based on dynamic and multi-hazard risk assessment. This method adopts the cumulative individual risk as the evaluation indicator for the optimal evacuation strategy. This method can dynamically consider the multi-hazard characteristics and domino effects of chemical accidents during the evacuation. A multi-hazard chemical accident that happened in Xiangshui, China in 2019 is taken as a case study to show the effects of risk assessment results on evacuation strategy development. The case shows that a reasonable time period for shelter-in-place after the occurrence of the primary accident can reduce the cumulative individual risk in the evacuation process. It is expected that this paper can provide guidance and reference for loss prevention in chemical industries, and can also provide useful tools for the management of emergency response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peimisine is one of the alkaloids in Fritillariae ussuriensis Bulbus, which has anti‐acute lung injury effect. In order to obtain compounds with superior bio‐activity, 14 new derivatives were obtained from peimisine, and the better activity compounds were screened by MTT method. It was found that boc‐leucine mono peimisine ester monoamide (compound G, 25 μg/ml) had increased cell survival rate and reduced the TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6, and iNOS levels in RAW 264.7 by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐stimulated. In vivo, LPS (10 mg/kg) was given intraperitoneally to establish ALI model, and compound G (2.5 or 10 mg/kg) was injected into mice as the experimental group. The results showed that after the compound G (10 mg/kg) treatment, the Wet / Dry ratio of the lung was reduced, and the expression of TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6 and iNOS was inhibited. Meanwhile, compound G (10 mg/kg) could increase the content of IκB protein and reduce the content of p65 protein in lung tissue by Western blot analysis, which may play an anti‐acute lung injury role by inhibiting the activity of NF‐κB signaling pathway. In conclusion, compound G could attenuate LPS‐induced ALI in mice and it may become a new approach to treat ALI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is one of the top-ranked cancers for incidence and mortality worldwide. The biggest challenges in breast cancer treatment are metastasis and drug resistance, for which work on molecular evaluation, mechanism studies, and screening of therapeutic targets is ongoing. Factors that lead to inflammatory infiltration and immune system suppression in the tumor microenvironment are potential therapeutic targets. Interleukin-1 is known as a proinflammatory and immunostimulatory cytokine, which plays important roles in inflammatory diseases. Recent studies have shown that interleukin-1 cytokines drive the formation and maintenance of an inflammatory/immunosuppressive microenvironment through complex intercellular signal crosstalk and tight intracellular signal transduction, which were found to be potentially involved in the mechanism of metastasis and drug resistance of breast cancer. Some preclinical and clinical treatments or interventions to block the interleukin-1/interleukin-1 receptor system and its up- and downstream signaling cascades have also been proven effective. This study provides an overview of IL-1-mediated signal communication in breast cancer and discusses the potential of IL-1 as a therapeutic target especially for metastatic breast cancer and combination therapy and current problems, aiming at enlightening new ideas in the study of inflammatory cytokines and immune networks in the tumor microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fructus Gardeniae (FG) is a common Chinese medicine and food. However, the toxicity of FG has drawn increasing concern, especially its hepatotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to screen the hepatotoxic components of FG and evaluate their effects on rat liver BRL-3A cells. The chemical composition of FG was determined by HPLC-ESI-MS. CCK-8 assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of ten chemical components from FG, and then the toxic components with significant inhibitory activity were selected for further study. The results showed that geniposide, genipin, genipin-1-gentiobioside, gardenoside, and shanzhiside all suppress cells viability. Apoptosis assays further indicated that geniposide and its metabolite genipin are the main hepatotoxic components of FG. Pretreatment of cells with geniposide or genipin increased the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) were decreased, while the malondialdehyde (MDA) level was increased. The cell contents of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and nitric oxide (NO) were also increased. Molecular docking simulations were used to investigate the mechanism of FG-induced hepatotoxicity, revealing that geniposide and genipin bind strongly to the pro-inflammatory factor TNFR1 receptor of the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. The obtained results strongly indicate that the hepatotoxicity of FG is caused by iridoids compounds. Genipin had the most significant hepatotoxic effect. These toxic substances destroy the cell antioxidant defense system, increasing inflammatory injury to the liver cells and leading to apoptosis and even necrosis. Thus, this study lays a foundation for toxicology research into FG and its rational application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, environmental pollution and energy shortage have aroused people's wide concern. Here we report that S‐doped BiOCl photocatalyst was successfully fabricated via a simple solvothermal process. The as‐obtained S‐doped BiOCl photocatalysts were investigated by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), nitrogen adsorption‐desorption, UV/Vis diffuse reflectance (DRS), and photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra. The photocatalytic performance of the S‐doped BiOCl photocatalyst with different S contents was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of cationic dye (Rhodamine‐B (RhB)) and anionic dye (Congo red (CR)). The results reveal that all the S‐doped BiOCl samples possess better photocatalytic activity than pure BiOCl. Specifically, the degradation rate of S(6 %)‐BiOCl sample for RhB and CR was 99 % and 90 %, respectively. Meanwhile, the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance of the S‐doped BiOCl sample was investigated. The results show that the S(6 %)‐BiOCl sample possesses an excellent NH3 yield of 108.6 μmol g−1 h−1. Moreover, the S(6 %)‐BiOCl catalysts have excellent recyclability and stability. This work provides a facile and accessible pathway to design effective photocatalysts for both photocatalytic degradation and nitrogen fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evacuation path planning is an important research topic in emergency management of chemical accidents. Facing the challenges of the continuous increase in the frequency of multi-hazard chemical accidents including fires, explosions, and toxic releases, the requirement to improve the evacuation path planning method considering the dynamic and multi-hazard characteristics of the accidents has become increasingly urgent. In order to address the shortcomings of the static, single-hazard, and passive evacuation path planning methods, this paper proposes an evacuation path planning method for multi-hazard accidents in chemical industries based on advance and on-site risk perception. This method applies dynamic and comprehensive risk analysis as the equivalent distance criterion to improve the D* path planning algorithm. A chemical park in Guangzhou, China, is adopted as a case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and quantitatively demonstrate the effect of the method in improving evacuation efficiency. This paper further discusses the flexibility of the proposed method in considering environmental factors, evacuation preferences, and emergency response requirements. The evacuation path planning method proposed in this paper is expected to contribute to the optimization of emergency management of multi-hazard accidents and provide guidance for the enhancement of safety and loss prevention in chemical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study described here focuses on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a novel hot-rolled medium-Mn steel (Fe-0.25C-4Mn-1.88Al-0.6Si-0.04Nb-0.08V, wt%) that contained only 4 wt% Mn and modest Al content of 1.88 wt%. It was found that a relatively high content (25-53 vol%) of retained austenite was obtained by intercritical annealing process. With increase in intercritical annealing temperature from 700 to 740 and to 760 °C, retained austenite fraction increased from 25.1 to 53.2% and then decreased to 46.1%. Besides, mechanical stability of retained austenite in 700-760 °C intercritically annealed steels decreased with increase in intercritical annealing temperature. The 720 °C intercritically annealed steel yielded excellent mechanical properties with yield strength of 766 MPa, tensile strength of 951 MPa, total elongation of 48.6% and PSE of 46.22 GPa·%, achieved by a high volume fraction of retained austenite (46%) with relatively high mechanical stability. Thus, the 4% Mn steel present in this study indicated excellent mechanical properties of medium-Mn steels can be achieved using low alloy content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li2FeSiO4/C is synthesized by solid state reaction of Li2SiO3 (obtained by ball milling of LiOH·H2O and H2SiO3), FeC2O4, citric acid, and sucrose (923 K, 7 h). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CNF/PEI composite hydrogel (CPH) was prepared by chemical crosslinking using wheatstraw-based CNF and PEI as materials. The SEM results show that the micromorphology of die composite hydrogel was a honeycomb-like macroporous network structure. FTIR and elemental analysis show that CPH carried a large amount of amino groups. The adsorption of Cr(VI) results show that the pH 2 is optimal pH. The adsorption kinetics conform to the quasi-secondary kinetics model, the adsorption isothermal equation conforms to the Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacity is 117.1 mg/g and 123.5 mg/g at 25, 35 °C based on Langmuir model, respectively. After three adsorption-desorption cycles, its adsorption capacity is above 70% compared with the control group, indicating that CPH hydrogel has certain regeneration and recycling properties. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the utilization of agricultural wastes and the treatment of Cr(VI) pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder frequently accompanied by neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. The medicine and food homology (MFH) has shown potential for treating neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. This study aimed to provide a safe and efficient therapy for AD based on MFH. In this study, we develop a MFH formula consisting of egg yolk oil, perilla seed oil, raphani seed oil, cinnamon oil, and noni puree (EPRCN). To evaluate the ameliorative effects of EPRCN on AD-related symptoms, a mouse model of AD was constructed using intraperitoneal injection of scopolamine in ICR mice. Experimental results demonstrated that EPRCN supplement restored behavioral deficits and suppressed neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in the hippocampus of scopolamine-induced mice. An in vitro study was then performed using induction of Aβ(25–35) in glial (BV–2 and SW–1783) and neuron (SH–SY5Y) cell lines to examine the improvement mechanism of EPRCN on cognitive deficits. Multi-omics and in vitro studies demonstrated that these changes were driven by the anandamide (AEA)-Trpv1-Nrf2 pathway, which was inhibited by AM404 (an AEA inhibitor), AMG9810 (a Trpv1 inhibitor), and BT (an Nrf2 inhibitor). Consequently, EPRCN is an effective therapy on preventing cognitive deficits in mouse models of AD. In contrast to donepezil, EPRCN exhibits a novel modes action for ameliorating neuroinflammation. The mechanism of EPRCN on preventing cognitive deficits is mediated by improving neuroinflammation and oxidative stress via activating the AEA–Trpv1–Nrf2 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 140 modified ribonucleosides have been identified in RNA. Determination of endogenous modified ribonucleosides in biological fluids may serve as non-invasive disease diagnostic strategy. However, detection of the modified ribonucleosides in biological fluids is challenging, especially for the low abundant modified ribonucleosides due to the serious matrix interferences of biological fluids. Here, we developed a facile preparation strategy and successfully synthesized zirconium oxide-silica (ZrO 2 /SiO 2 ) composite capillary monolithic column that exhibited excellent performance for the selective enrichment of cis -diol-containing compounds. Compared with the boronate-based affinity monolith, the ZrO 2 /SiO 2 monolith showed ∼2 orders of magnitude higher extraction capacity and can be used under physiological pH (pH 6.5–7.5). Using the prepared ZrO 2 /SiO 2 composite monolith as the trapping column and reversed-phase C18 column as the analytical column, we further established an online solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in combination with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (online SPME-LC–MS/MS) analysis for the comprehensive profiling of ribonucleosides modification in human urine. Our results showed that 68 cis -diol-containing ribosylated compounds were identified in human urine, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest numbers of cis -diol-containing compounds were determined in a single analysis. It is worth noting that four modified ribonucleosides were discovered in the human urine for the first time. In addition, the quantification results from the pooled urine samples showed that compared to healthy controls, the contents of sixteen ribose conjugates in the urine of gastric cancer, eleven in esophagus cancer and seven in lymphoma increased more than two folds. Among these ribose conjugates, four ribose conjugates increased more than two folds in both gastric cancer and esophagus cancer; three ribose conjugates increased more than two folds in both gastric cancer and lymphoma; one ribose conjugate increased more than two folds in both esophagus cancer and lymphoma. The developed analytical method provides a good platform to study the modified ribonucleosides in human body fluids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The simultaneous exfoliation and functionalization of BNNS was achieved by ILC-assisted. • Free ILC can be recycled after exfoliation and used to exfoliate the new h-BN. • The functionalized BNNS exhibited remarkable dispersion stability in water and organic liquids. • Multifunctional flexible BNNS/ANF composite papers was prepared via vacuum-assisted filtration. • The paper showed excellent thermally conductive, mechanical properties, flame resistance. Due to their high thermal conductivity, hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) have great promise for thermal management materials. However, the lack of efficient, low cost, and large-scale approach to prepare functionalized BNNS is still the main factor limiting this research so far. Here, an ionic liquid crystal (ILC)-assisted method based on mechanical exfoliation is proposed to prepare functionalized BNNS. Importantly, free ILC can be recycled after exfoliation, thus reducing costs and expanding production. This method demonstrates that BNNS could still be prepared from ILC after nine times of recycling and reuse and the chemical structure of ILC was not destroyed. The reliable interaction between BNNS and ILC would achieve the noncovalent functionalization of BNNS. The resulting functionalized BNNS exhibited remarkable dispersion stability in water and organic liquids. Thanks to the excellent comprehensive properties of the functionalized BNNS, multifunctional flexible BNNS/aramid nanofibers (ANFs) composite papers is prepared. Compared to pure ANF papers, the BNNS/ANF composite papers have a significantly improved mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, flame retardance, and acid-base resistance. The ILC recycling approach has proved to be efficient, low cost, and green, providing a practical route to expedite its application for thermal management in modern electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Breast cancer, as a malignant disease that seriously threatens women's health, urgently needs to be researched to develop effective and safe therapeutic drugs. Nanoparticle drug delivery systems (NDDS), provide a powerful means for drug targeting to the breast cancer, enhancing the bioavailability and reducing the adverse effects of anticancer drug. However, the breast cancer microenvironment together with heterogeneity of cancer, impedes the tumor targeting effect of NDDS. Breast cancer microenvironment, exerts endogenous stimuli, such as hypoxia, acidosis, and aberrant protease expression, shape a natural shelter for tumor growth, invasion and migration. On the basis of the ubiquitous of endogenous stimuli in the breast cancer microenvironment, researchers exploited them to design the stimuli-responsive NDDS, which response to endogenous stimulus, targeted release drug in breast cancer microenvironment. In this review, we highlighted the effect of the breast cancer microenvironment, summarized innovative NDDS responsive to the internal stimuli in the tumor microenvironment, including the material, the targeting groups, the loading drugs, targeting position and the function of stimuli-responsive nanoparticle drug delivery system. The limitations and potential applications of the stimuli-responsive nanoparticle drug delivery systems for breast cancer treatment were discussed to further the application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of Emodin-loaded polymer lipid hybrid nanoparticles (E-PLNs) for breast cancer. The size, Zeta potential, surface morphology, encapsulation efficiency, stability, in vitro drug release of E-PLNs prepared by the nanoprecipitation method were characterized. The uptake, in-vitro cytotoxicities and apoptosis of free drug, E-PLNs were investigated against MCF-7 cells. The efficacy of E-PLNs in tumor bearing nude mice has also been studied.The average particle size of the experimentally prepared E-PLNs was (122.7±1.79) nm, and the encapsulation rate was 72.8%. Compared with free Emodin (EMO), E-PLNs showed greater toxicity to MCF-7 cells by promoting the uptake of EMO, and can promote the early apoptosis of MCF-7 cells. In addition to the morphological changes of apoptotic cells, the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 was significantly increased, which indicated that E-PLNs can induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells to achieve anticancer effect. Finally, E-PLNs significantly inhibited tumor growth by more than 60%, which may be related to its passive targeting effect on tumor site. Our results suggest that E-PLNs have shown good anti-breast cancer effect than free EMO. Moreover, the effect of E-PLNs on MCF-7 cells is mainly related to the induction of apoptosis. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Our study aimed to find potential biomarkers for drug resistance in liver cancer cells using metabolomics and further to evaluate the potential of psoralen-loaded polymer lipid nanoparticles (PSO-PLNs) to reverse the resistance of cells to doxorubicin. We used LC-MS-based non-targeted metabolomics, also known as global metabolite profiling, to screen in serum and urine of mice engrafted with a liver cancer cell line sensitive (HepG2/S) or resistant to doxorubicin (HepG2/ADR) for differentially regulated metabolites. We subsequently quantified the abundance of these metabolites in serum and the urine of mice. The mice were engrafted with HepG2 cells resistant against doxorubicin and were treated with I) doxorubicin, II) a combination of doxorubicin and psoralen and III) a combination of doxorubicin and psoralen packed in polymer lipid nanoparticles. Metabolites found to be differentially present in urine of mice engrafted with resistant HepG2 cells were: hippuric acid, hyaluronic acid, pantothenic acid, and betaine; retinoic acid and α-linolenic acid were found to be reduced in serum samples of mice with HepG2 cells resistant to doxorubicin. The targeted analysis showed that the degree of regression of metabolic markers in groups differed: treatment group 2 had stronger degree of regression than treatment group 1 and the negative control group had the smallest, which indicates that the PSO-PLNs have superior properties compared with other treatments. Psoralen reverses drug resistance of liver cancer cells and its efficacy can be increased by encapsulation in polymer lipid nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]