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Handmade cloning (HMC) has a higher yield and is relatively less difficult to operate compared to traditional micromanipulation cloning. Yet, there are few reports on handmade cloning in sheep. Therefore, this study investigates the key nodes such as AC and DC voltage, denucleation method and fusion method in sheep handmade cloning. In addition, it compares the effects of fibroblasts (FC) and umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC‐MSCs) of different states as donors on the development of HMC embryos. Furthermore, the effect of different freezing solutions on the survival rate of frozen blastocysts without zona pellucida was also investigated. The results indicate that an AC voltage of 150 V/cm and a DC voltage of 1800 V/cm significantly enhanced the fusion and blastocyst rates (p <.01). The blastocyst rate achieved with umbilical cord MSCs as nucleus donors was significantly higher (40.3%) than that achieved with fibroblasts and differentiated umbilical cord MSCs (21.5%, 22.5%) (p <.01). The highest survival rate was achieved using 20% DMSO + 20% EG for freezing without zona pellucida. In conclusion, the most efficient and pregnant ovine HMC cloning method using 150 V/cm AC, 1800 V/cm DC, knife‐cut denucleation, two‐step fusion and the use of UC‐MSCs as nucleus donors resulted in the highest overall efficiency and pregnancy after transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible pressure sensors play a significant role in wearable devices and electronic skin. Iontronic pressure sensors with high sensitivity, wide measurement range, and high resolution can meet requirements. Based on the significant deformation characteristics of alveoli to improve compressibility, and the ability of the arch to disperse vertical pressure into horizontal thrust to increase contact area, a graded hollow ball arch (GHBA) microstructure is proposed, greatly improving sensitivity. The fabrication of GHBA ingeniously employs a double‐sided structure. One side uses mold casting to create convex structures, while the other utilizes the evaporation of moisture during the curing process to form concave structures. At the same time, a novel side‐by‐side package structure is proposed, ensuring pressure on flexible substrate is maximally transferred to the GHBA microstructure. Within the range of 0.2 Pa–300 kPa, the iontronic pressure sensor achieves a maximum sensitivity of 10 420.8 kPa−1, pressure resolution of 0.1% under the pressure of 100 kPa, and rapid response/recovery time of 40/35 ms. In wearable devices, it is capable of monitoring dumbbell curl exercises and wirelessly correcting sitting positions. In electronic skin, it can non‐contactly detect the location of the wind source and achieve object classification prediction when combined with the CNN model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: There have been few studies on the use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells as donor nuclei in nuclear transplantation, despite their advantages of less reprogramming difficulty and shorter reprogramming distance. This study compared differences at the chromatin level, the level of differentially expressed genes, the level of histone modifications, and the level of DNA methylation in eight-cell embryos after using umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts as nucleus donors, using a single-cell transcriptome. Oocytes are efficient at reprogramming terminally differentiated cells to a totipotent state. Nuclear transfer techniques can exploit this property to produce cloned animals. However, the overall efficiency is low. The use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) as donor nuclei may increase blastocyst rates, but the exact reasons for this remain unexplored. A single-cell transcriptomic approach was used to map the transcriptome profiles of eight-cell embryos that were in vitro-fertilized and handmade-cloned using umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts as nuclear donors. Differences were examined at the chromatin level, the level of differentially expressed genes, the level of histone modifications and the level of DNA methylation. This research provides critical information regarding the use of UC-MSCs as a preferred donor nucleus for nuclear transfer techniques. It also offers unique insights into the mechanism of cellular reprogramming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher burnout refers to teachers' inability to cope with work stress smoothly. Previous studies have revealed that job burnout is negatively related to professional identity; however, little is known about the mechanism underlying the relationship between teacher professional identity and job burnout. This study tested the mediating effects of work engagement and psychological capital in the relationship between professional identity and job burnout. A descriptive correlational design was employed. Measures included the Professional Identity Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and Professional Quality of Life Scale. A total of 3147 primary and secondary school teachers in China, of which 2220 were women (70.5%) and 927 were men (29.5%), with an average age of 39 years (SD = 8.74), completed the questionnaire survey. SPSS PROCESS macro (version 21) was used to explore the mediating roles of work engagement and psychological capital in the relationship between professional identity and job burnout. Professional identity, work engagement, and psychological capital significantly negatively affected job burnout. Work engagement and psychological capital, when occurring in parallel or sequentially, partially mediated the relationship between professional identity and job burnout. Job burnout among teachers with high professional identity can be eliminated by increasing work involvement and promoting exercise to improve their psychological capital. These findings provide implications for preventing burnout among teachers in the future. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The relationship between professional identity and job burnout is mediated by work engagement.The relationship between professional identity and job burnout is mediated by psychological capital. The relationship between professional identity and job burnout is sequentially mediated by work engagement and psychological capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series data continuously collected by different sensors play an essential role in monitoring and predicting events in many real-world applications, and anomaly detection for time series has received increasing attention during the past decades. In this paper, we propose an anomaly detection method by densely contrasting the whole time series with its sub-sequences at different timestamps in a latent space. Our approach leverages the locality property of convolutional neural networks (CNN) and integrates position embedding to effectively capture local features for sub-sequences. Simultaneously, we employ an attention mechanism to extract global features from the entire time series. By combining these local and global features, our model is trained using both instance-level contrastive learning loss and distribution-level alignment loss. Furthermore, we introduce a reconstruction loss applied to the extracted global features to prevent the potential loss of information. To validate the efficacy of our proposed technique, we conduct experiments on publicly available time-series datasets for anomaly detection. Additionally, we evaluate our method on an in-house mobile phone dataset aimed at monitoring the status of Parkinson's disease, all within an unsupervised learning framework. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed approach in tackling anomaly detection in time series data, offering promising applications in real-world scenarios. • We propose Densely Contrastive Anomaly Detection (DCAD) by contrasting the whole time series and its subsequences in a latent space. • We jointly utilize a contrastive learning loss, a distribution alignment loss, and a reconstruction loss to train our model. • We conduct experiments on publicly available datasets for anomaly detection and an in-house mobile phone dataset for PD to thoroughly validate the effectiveness of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteonecrosis of femoral head (ONFH) is clinically common and easily diagnosed via imaging examination, especially when there is a definite cause, such as a fracture, long-term hormonotherapy, etc. However, some rare neoplastic lesions of the femoral head can mimic its image performance in some situations, leading to misdiagnosis. We present the case of a 57-year-old male with bone pain in the left hip joint that persisted for 2 years. CT and MRI images were performed and both were suggestive of ONFH. Unexpectedly, the histopathologic results of left proximal femur resection revealed the diagnosis of phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor (PMT), a rare mesenchymal tumor. His hip pain was obviously relieved after surgery, and the course of 1-year follow-up was uneventful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A practicable and environmentally benign process for the synthesis of protoberberine (PB) and 13‐methylprotoberberine (13‐MePB) alkaloids is reported. In contrast to previous dehydrogenation of saturated C ring utilizing a stoichiometric oxidant, the electrocatalytic approach through I2‐mediated electrochemical acceptorless dehydrogenation (ECAD) can eco‐efficiently construct aromatized C ring of PBs and 13‐MePBs in last‐stage. This new method to the aromatization of tetracyclic framework has been applied to divergent syntheses of ten PBs and eight 13‐MePBs in high yields. Importantly, this I2‐ECAD protocol can be conducted on a gram scale and applied in a continuous‐flow microreactor successfully. Given such practicability and efficiency, the developed synthetic strategy meets many salient features of green chemistry, and would be greatly beneficial to the synthesis of important isoquinoline fine chemicals and relevant natural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we have investigated the hydrophobic interactions and influence of nitrogen molecules on the critical distance of dewetting between the nanoscale hydrophobic plates. We show that dewetting transition is very sensitive to the distribution of nitrogen molecules. The nitrogen molecules prefer to aggregate in the vicinity of the two hydrophobic plates and exclude water molecules. Furthermore, our simulation results indicate that the effective range of hydrophobic attraction between the two nanoscale plates is enhanced by the aggregated nitrogen molecules. In particular, we find that the distribution patterns of nitrogen molecules are very different when the inter-plate region is filled with water or dewetted. These findings are helpful to understand the effects of gas molecules dissolved in water on hydrophobic interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal conditions are strongly changeable in a vehicle cabin, where passengers could suffer consecutive self‐thermoregulation to such dynamic changing thermal stresses, though its HVAC system works well. To observe human overall and local thermal sensations in dynamic thermal conditions, a series of experiments under various conditions were carried out in a cabin‐like climate chamber. The results showed that the head, chest, back, and hands during hot exposure are warmer leading to the overall thermal sensation being hot. The thermal sensation of the head was warmer than the overall thermal sensation. During cold exposure, arms, hands, legs, and feet were the main areas causing coldness. In a dynamic thermal environment, the previous skin temperature state and thermal sensation form a thermal sensation overshoot, causing a shift in the body's neutral temperature point. This study proposes a thermal sensation model for the prediction of human thermal sensation local and overall based on skin temperature changes in a dynamic environment. Considering the airflow characteristics in the cabin, the human body is set into seven local parts in the local thermal sensation model. To compensate for sensation overshoot from this, defining recovery points rp for local parts differentiate temperature setpoints according to the experienced thermal state so that the effect resulting from the dynamic condition is integrated into the model algorithm. The model provides a scientific basis for guiding design optimization and intelligent regulation in the dynamic environment of the vehicle cabin, so as to achieve efficient energy utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Zn 3 (OH) 2 V 2 O 7 ·2H 2 O (ZOV) is inactive for storing Zn2+ and is a key culprit for the capacity decay of vanadium-based cathodes. • Discharge byproducts arising from H+-insertion can be irreversibly transformed to ZOV by reacting with dissolved V-ions. • The formation of ZOV accelerates the dissolution of vanadium-based cathodes. • Electrolyte regulation using ethylene glycol realizes no formation of ZOV and a greatly enhanced stability. Vanadium-based materials stand out as promising cathode options for rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), primarily because of their high capacity and superior rate capability. Nevertheless, the utilization of vanadium-based cathodes in advancing ZIBs toward commercial viability is hindered by their insufficient stability and a notable lack of comprehension of the mechanisms driving capacity degradation. Herein, we identified the formation of Zn 3 (OH) 2 V 2 O 7 ·2H 2 O (ZOV) as a key contributor to the capacity decay of vanadium-based cathodes. Through a series of compelling experiments, we revealed that dissolved vanadium ions react with zinc salts or layered zinc hydroxide (formed from H+ insertion) during the immersion or cycling of vanadium-based cathodes in aqueous electrolytes, ultimately leading to the formation of detrimental ZOV. Strong evidence shows that ZOV is inactive for Zn2+ storage owing to the presence of the pure tetrahedral frameworks of vanadium. To suppress the formation of ZOV, adjustments were made to the electrolyte composition, including the solvents and solutes. Consequently, the absence of ZOV enables an impressive capacity retention of 85 % in the ZnSO 4 electrolyte after 150 cycles at 0.2 A g−1. Overall, this study directly unlocks the capacity decay mechanism in vanadium-based cathodes and offers valuable insights for the design of innovative electrolytes and novel vanadium-based cathode materials for ZIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer exhibits extremely high mortality, and there is a pressing need to identify novel leads for the development of efficient chemotherapy for lung cancer. Thus, there is a need to identify novel and effective molecules for the management of lung cancer. Objectives: In the present study, the in vitro anticancer effects of globularifolin were evaluated against human lung cancer and attempts were made to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms. Materials and Methods: Cell viability and proliferation was determined by MTT, EdU, and colony formation assays. Cellular processes were detected by annexin V/PI, confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Protein expression was detected by western blotting. Results: The results showed that globularifolin suppressed the growth and colony formation of the human lung cancer cells and exhibited an IC50 of 8 μM against the HCC827 and SK-LU-1 lung cancer cell lines. However, the IC50 of globularifolin was found to be comparatively higher against the normal MRC-5 cells. The globularifolin-induced inhibition of human lung cancer cells were found to be due to the induction of apoptosis, which was associated with upregulation of Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9, and downregulation of Bcl-2. Further investigation of the underlying mechanism revealed that inhibitory effects of globularifolin were mediated through apoptotic induction driven through inhibition of PI3K/Akt and PINK/Parkin signaling pathways driven respectively through reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and mitophagy. Conclusion: Taken together, the results show that globularifolin exerts anticancer effects on human lung cancer cells via regulation of ROS and suppression of PINK1/Parkin mitophagy pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many natural disordered systems such as percolation metal films may be approximated as fractals. Probing their properties can be difficult depending on the length scale involved. Often, characterizing the system at a convenient length scale and building models for extrapolating the measured data to other length scales is preferred. In such situations, a general algorithm for scaling the model network while preserving its statistical equivalence is required. Here, we provide an algorithm that draws inspiration from renormalization group theory for scaling disordered fractal networks. This algorithm includes three steps: expand, map, and reduce resolution, where the mapping is the only computationally expensive step. We describe a way to minimize the computational burden and accurately scale the model network. We experimentally validate the algorithm in a percolating electrical network formed by an ultra-thin gold film on a glass substrate. By measuring the resistance between many pairs of pads separated by a given length, we accurately predict the mean and standard deviation of the resistance distribution measured across pads separated by twice the original distance. The algorithm presented here is general and may be applied to any disordered fractal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous flow synthetic technologies had been widely applied in the total synthesis in the past few decades. Fully continuous flow synthesis is still extremely focused on multi‐step synthesis of complex natural pharmaceutical molecules. Thus, the development of fully continuous flow total synthesis of natural products is in demand but challenging. Herein, we demonstrated the first fully continuous flow approach towards asymmetric total synthesis of natural tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids, (−)‐isocanadine, (−)‐tetrahydropseudocoptisine, (−)‐stylopine and (−)‐nandinine. This method features a concise linear sequence involving four chemical transformations and three on‐line work‐up processing in an integrated flow platform, without any intermediate purification. The overall yield and enantioselectivity of this four‐step continuous flow chemistry were up to 50 % and 92 %ee, respectively, in a total residence time of 32.5 min, corresponding to a throughput of 145 mg/h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal initial pre-conditioning parameter is essential to properly adjust the temperature within the cabin in an effective and accurate way, especially while passengers' thermal comfort and energy-saving properties are both considered. Under the various environmental thermal loads, the pre-conditioning solutions resulting from those pre-fixed cooling parameters are unfeasible for achieving accurately passengers' comfort temperature. In addition, it is also difficult in such a narrow car space to identify a lot of local attributes due to the different material properties and sizes of a variety of structural parts that have various thermal responses to environmental conditions. This paper presents a data-driven decision model to numerically identify the degrees of the cabin thermal characteristic to determine satisfactory pre-conditioning parameter schemes. Initially, based on the thermal data within a vehicle recorded through the whole year at a selected hot climate region of the Middle East, the study levels multiple climate scenes corresponding to change in the cabin air temperature. Then three classification algorithms (Support Vector Machines, Decision Tree, and K-nearest neighbor model) are used to comparatively identify climate levels according to the input conditions. Based on the identified climate level, an appropriate parameters scheme for this level is applied. A comprehensive evaluation index (CEI) is proposed to characterize the passengers' satisfaction in numerical computation, on considering multi-satisfaction objectives including Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), local temperature, air quality, and energy efficiency; and it formulates the pre-conditioning parameter scheme for each climate scene with CEI. Several scene cases are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed models. The result shows that the pre-conditioning schemes of the model can effectively satisfy passengers in multi-satisfaction objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we designed a new type of digital hydraulic transformer using four gear–pump/motor units with a displacement ratio of 20:21:22:23 and two control valve groups that consist of four solenoid directional valves. The driving gear shafts of the four gear–pump/motor units are fixedly connected to achieve synchronous rotation. The two control valve groups are respectively installed through an integrated valve block on the inlet and outlet of each gear–pump/motor unit. With the objective of reducing the installed power and energy consumption of hydraulic traction systems, we propose a new energy-saving hydraulic system based on a digital hydraulic transformer. This hydraulic system uses a digital hydraulic transformer as a pressure/flow control element. By controlling the power on/off states of eight solenoid directional valves, the digital hydraulic transformer can realize a change in output flow and then a change in speed of the hydraulic cylinder piston rod. Through the theoretical derivation and simulation analysis of the hydraulic system pressure/flow change process, and the experimental verification of the built hydraulic traction system based on the experimental platform, a conclusion is drawn that the proposed digital hydraulic transformer can change the output pressure/flow of a hydraulic system through a binary digital control, verifying the feasibility of the pressure change principle of the designed digital hydraulic transformer and the rationality of the hydraulic traction system circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the different physiological properties and thermal conditions, different body parts of passengers have inconsistent thermal sensations and thermal requirements in a highly non-uniform and transient vehicle cabin thermal environment. Determining the thermal comfort requirements for different body parts of a passenger is essential for effectively supplying warm air to the right human part especially for electric vehicles with energy-saving attributes. In this paper, a comprehensive numerical model that integrates human thermal regulation mechanism and dynamic environmental characteristics is established to calculate the thermal comfort for passengers via thermal responses to a dynamic environment. The numerical computation sets up such a model structure, firstly considering human thermal regulation functions into the thermal response to the in-cabin dynamic thermal distributions, then combining Berkeley thermal comfort model to identify the thermal comfort level at different body parts, that would implement total numerical simulations to get thermal comfort evaluation, independent of human subjective feedbacks. The model is validated by experiments with an acceptable error and implemented for a cabin heating case study. The models can effectively predict the thermal comfort and thermal requirements of various body parts in a dynamic environment with human thermoregulation, as an important tool for designing a non-uniform environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Reduced inhibitory control is more pronounced during substance-related cue exposure among addicts. However, it is inconclusive whether smokers' inhibitory control would be impaired by smoking-related background. Furthermore, few studies explored whether the cigarette-specific disgust aroused by smoking warning images would alleviate the negative effect of smoking-related cues on smokers' inhibitory control. Objective: Experiment 1 investigated the effect of smoking-related background on inhibitory control in cigarette smokers with a modified Go/NoGo task and experiment 2 explored whether cigarette-specific disgust aroused by smoking warning images would alleviate the negative effect of smoking-related background on smokers' inhibitory control. Method: Sixty-two male participants (32 smokers and 30 non-smokers) were recruited in experiment 1 and 51 male smokers were recruited in experiment 2. Results: Experiment 1 found that compared to neutral background, smokers made more commission errors (i.e., executing a response to a no-go target) under smoking-related background, indicating that smoking-related background has a negative effect on smokers' inhibitory control. Experiment 2 found that after experiencing cigarette-specific disgust, smokers made fewer commission errors at post-mood induction than pre-mood induction, indicating that cigarette-specific disgust aroused by smoking warning images alleviates the negative effect of smoking-related background on smokers' inhibitory control. Conclusions: These results suggest that the negative effect of smoking-related cues on smokers' inhibitory control would be alleviated by cigarette-specific disgust aroused by smoking warning images, which emphasizes the important role of cigarette-specific disgust in strengthening smokers' inhibitory control towards smoking-related cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher burnout is one of the main reasons leading to decreased teaching performance and occupational mental health issues among teachers, drawing widespread global attention. Previous research has found that both resiliency and psychological empowerment can alleviate teacher burnout, yet there is no study simultaneously examining the relationships between resiliency, PE, and teacher burnout. Furthermore, previous studies have found gender differences in teacher burnout but have not examined the moderating effects of resiliency and psychological empowerment by gender group. Additionally, traditional analytical methods may overlook the compositional connections between these variables. To bridge this gap, we employed psychological network analysis to evaluate the psychological network of teachers with burnout across different genders. Findings indicate: (1) Female teachers exhibit a stronger link between their sense of departmental control and burnout, while male teachers show a stronger connection between solving instructional challenges and burnout. (2) Patience in male teachers' approach to teaching may enhance connections with their environment, and mastering job-relevant skills can boost male teachers' job happiness. (3) Female teachers' "I feel connected to others" demonstrates higher bridge centrality. In comparison, male teachers' "My work is vital to me" shows higher bridge centrality, indicating deeper connections with other symptom clusters. This study reveals the complex interactions among the factors of teacher burnout and investigates how gender differences influence the associations between these factors and burnout, by not only filling gaps in previous research but also offering new perspectives and strategies for understanding and intervening in teacher burnout, especially in the context of gender differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light is a powerful tool in sculpting the energy landscape of strong correlations. For example, low-intensity incoherent light is sufficient to change the way charge density wave (CDW) domains stack across layers of 1T-TaS2. The change in stacking type manifests in a large change in optical properties of 1T-TaS2 at room temperature. Much remains unknown about the mechanism of this light-induced stacking reorganization. Here, we study the temperature dependent optical tunability of 1T-TaS2 to probe the mechanism of the light-induced CDW stacking reorganization. We find that the optical tunability exhibits a peak at 250 K because of two opposing features. At lower temperatures, the domains grow bigger, and hence, the optical tunability is higher. However, the stacking reorganization becomes energetically less favorable at lower temperatures. The dynamics of tunability suggest that the mechanism of switching between the two stacking types could be explained by the classical nucleation theory. These findings shed light on the mechanism of the light-induced CDW stacking reorganization in 1T-TaS2 and such other layered CDW materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bystanders play a role in school bullying; more specifically, the defending behaviors of bystanders play an important role in stopping bullying. This study explores the relationship between defending behaviors and family functioning in the context of school bullying from a family perspective. The role played by individual characteristics (empathy and gender) in this relationship was also focused on. The participants were 994 adolescents (average age = 13.34 ± 0.92 years) from the east of China. They completed the McMaster Family Assessment Device, the Basic Empathy Scale, and the Defending Behaviors subscale of the Participant Role Questionnaire. After controlling for residence and age, we found that family functioning significantly and positively influenced defending behaviors, and cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy mediated the relationship between family functioning and defending behaviors. In addition, family functioning influenced defending behaviors in boys more strongly than in girls. This study may increase the likelihood that bystanders will engage in defending behaviors by informing interventions for school bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road (abbreviated as B&R) creates opportunities for the economy and trade development and the improvement of national relations of the Belt and Road countries. Development of service trade plays an important role in the Belt and Road. Henan Province takes the opportunity of B&R to develop the international service industry and makes some achievements. In the new era of development, analyzing the trade competitiveness of international service in Henan Province under the background of the Belt and Road is of great significance to help Henan Province recognize its own strengths and weaknesses in service trade development and make targeted improvements. Studies have shown that the share of international market, revealed, advantages of comparative competitiveness trade and service trade openness of service trade in Henan Province under the background of the Belt and Road are constantly improving, but the overall development level is still low and slow development occurs. We utilize the concept of fuzzy embedded along with Analytic Network Process (ANP) which makes it suitable for managing vagueness of the linguistics information of assessment system. Therefore, in order to further improve the international competitiveness of service trade in Henan Province, it is necessary to optimize the international market share, competitiveness, and degree of openness. Specifically, it is necessary to transform and upgrade the traditional service trade industry, continue to expand the breadth and depth of service trade openness, strengthen the talent team building to improve the quality of employees, and promote the brand construction of service industry to enhance the industry's development potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peptide drugs provide promising regimes in bladder cancer. In order to identify potential bioactive peptides involved in bladder cancer, we performed the present study. Methods: Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry assay was used to compare the endogenous peptides between bladder cancer and normal control. The potential biological functions of these dysregulated peptides are assessed by GO analysis and KEGG pathway analysis of their precursors. The SMART and UniProt databases are used to identify the sequences of the dysregulated peptides located in the functional domains. The Open Targets Platform database was used to investigate the precursors related to metabolic diseases. Results: A total of 9 up-regulated peptides and 110 down-regulated peptides in bladder cancer compared with normal control were identified (fold change > 1.2, P < 0.05). The MW of these dysregulated peptides ranged from 500 Da to 2500 Da and the MW of all identified peptides was below 3500 Da. The GO and KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these dysregulated peptides could play an important role in bladder cancer. Our further analysis revealed that 45HFNPRFNAHGDAN 57 derived from LGALS1 and those peptides derived from P4HB and SERPINA1 might be the promising diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets of bladder cancer. Conclusion: In the present study, we have identified the profile of the peptides significantly dysregulated in bladder cancer. Moreover, using bioinformatic analysis, we found the peptides derived from LGALS1, P4HB and SERPINA1 could be the promising diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets of bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate cryptography is one of the most promising candidates for post-quantum cryptography. Applying machine learning techniques in this paper, we experimentally investigate the side-channel security of the multivariate cryptosystems, which seriously threatens the hardware implementations of cryptographic systems. Generally, registers are required to store values of monomials and polynomials during the encryption of multivariate cryptosystems. Based on maximum-likelihood and fuzzy matching techniques, we propose a template-based least-square technique to efficiently exploit the side-channel leakage of registers. Using QUAD for a case study, which is a typical multivariate cryptosystem with provable security, we perform our attack against both serial and parallel QUAD implementations on field programmable gate array (FPGA). Experimental results show that our attacks on both serial and parallel implementations require only about 30 and 150 power traces, respectively, to successfully reveal the secret key with a success rate close to 100%. Finally, efficient and low-cost strategies are proposed to resist side-channel attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Methods Results Conclusion Prior research has revealed impaired inhibitory control as a pivotal factor contributing to smokers' struggle to control smoking impulses. However, few studies focus on enhancing smokers' inhibitory control. This study investigates the potential of social rewards to bolster inhibitory control among smokers and elucidates the underlying mechanisms.In Experiment 1, a reward‐based Go/Nogo paradigm assessed error rates and reaction times for 30 smokers exposed to social reward and neutral feedback in distinct contexts (smoking‐related and neutral). Experiment 2 used a modified paradigm, incorporating cognitive load manipulation, to investigate error rates, reaction times, N2, and P3 ERPs among 32 smokers facing social reward and neutral feedback under different cognitive loads (high and low).Smokers exhibit lower Nogo error rates with social reward feedback; higher error rates occur with smoking cues and high cognitive load; increased N2, P3 amplitudes under social reward versus neutral feedback; low cognitive load enhances P3 amplitude under social reward.Social reward improves smokers' inhibitory control, but this effect weakens with exposure to smoking cues; higher cognitive load further diminishes the enhancement of smokers' inhibitory control by social reward under smoking cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bladder cancer (BC) is a common malignancy in males, and currently lacks ideal therapeutic approaches. Exploring emerging therapeutic targets from the perspective of endogenous peptides to improve the prognosis of bladder cancer patients holds promise. In this study, we have identified CTSGDP-13, a novel endogenous peptide, which demonstrates potential anti-cancer effects in BC. Our findings reveal that CTSGDP-13 can promote ferroptosis in BC cells, both in vitro and in vivo, leading to the inhibition of BC progression. Furthermore, we have identified TRIM25 as a downstream regulatory target of CTSGDP-13. The expression of TRIM25 is significantly upregulated in BC, and its inhibition of ferroptosis promotes BC progression. Mechanistic studies have shown that CTSGDP-13 promotes the ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of TRIM25 by disrupting its interaction with the deubiquitinase USP7. Further investigations indicate that CTSGDP-13 promotes ferroptosis in BC by regulating the USP7/TRIM25/KEAP1 axis. The elucidation of the functional mechanisms of natural CTSGDP-13 and TRIM25 holds promise in providing valuable therapeutic targets for BC diagnosis and treatment. • CTSGDP-13 is a novel peptide that significantly down-regulated in BC. • CTSGDP-13 facilitates the ferroptosis of BC cells. • TRIM25 is up-regulated in BC and inhibits the ferroptosis of BC cells. • CTSGDP-13 can bind and regulate TRIM25 by disrupting the interaction between deubiquitinase USP7 and TRIM25. • CTSGDP-13 and TRIM25 could be the promising targets for BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juglone, a naphthoquinone isolated from many species of the Juglandaceae family, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries because of its antiviral, antibacterial, and antitumor activities. However, the toxicity of juglone has also been demonstrated. Here, we used porcine oocytes as a model to explore the effects of juglone on oocyte maturation and studied the impact of vitamin C (VC) administration on juglone exposure‐induced meiosis defects. Exposure to juglone significantly restricted cumulus cell expansion and decreased the first polar body extrusion. In addition, juglone exposure disturbed spindle organization, actin assembly, and the distribution of mitochondria during oocyte meiosis, while the acetylation level of α‐tubulin was also reduced. These defects were all ameliorated by VC administration. Our findings indicate that juglone exposure induced meiotic failure in porcine oocytes, while VC protected against these defects during porcine oocyte maturation by ameliorating the organization of the cytoskeleton and mitochondrial distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developed an improved hidden Markov model for tool wear monitoring under switching cutting conditions in micro-milling. • Investigated the relationship between cutting condition, cutting time and tool wear state transition. • Considered the effect of cutting condition on the observation in the proposed model. • Verified the effectiveness of the approach with various experimental studies. The tool wear monitoring (TWM) system which can estimate the tool wear state and predict remaining useful life (RUL) of the tool plays an important role in micro-milling because of the high precision requirement for work-pieces and the high tool wear rate. Due to its ability in modelling the non-stationary physical process, hidden Markov model (HMM) has been broadly used in TWM, but almost all of researches have been done under fixed cutting conditions. In order to monitor tool wear under switching cutting conditions, an improved HMM is proposed in this paper. A hazard model is constructed to describe the time varying and condition adaptive state transition probability. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) which is powerful in approximating a nonlinear function is adopted to compute the observation probability. Then, the state transition probability and observation probability are integrated to estimate the tool wear state and predict the RUL online using forward algorithm. Experiments on variant cutting conditions are conducted to verify effectiveness of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Mg-Zn alloy had been investigated as biodegradable material for fabricating orthopedic implants. In this paper, nano-hydroxyapatite (nano-HA) [Ca 10 (PO 4) 6 (OH) 2 ] was uniformly distributed on the surface of magnesium particles by ball milling process, and then the composite of Mg-5.5Zn/HA was successfully fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Effect of the nano-HA content on the compressive strength and the bioactivity in vitro (corrosion behavior, cytotoxicity) of the composite was analyzed. Results indicated that with the increasing of the nano-HA content (from 0 to 10 wt%), the compressive yield strength is improved remarkably. Comparing with Mg-5.5Zn alloy, of the nano-HA (10 wt%) can improve the compressive yield strength by 43% and bending strength by 14%. Furthermore, the in-vitro immersion tests revealed the positive and negative effects of nano-HA content on the corrosion behavior of Mg-5.5Zn/HA composite. The nano-HA can improve the degradation resistance of the Mg-5.5Zn matrix. Addition of 10 wt% HA can decrease the corrosion rate by 49%. Furthermore, the composite exhibits acceptable cytotoxicity to L-929 cells, and impressive potential to be used as an orthopedic implant material. • The high density and completely solid solution Mg-5.5Zn/HA composite was successfully fabricated by Spark plasma sintering (SPS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored a bidirectional impact on the recognition accuracy of various facial expressions deriving from both the observer and sender in a sample of Chinese participants. A facial manipulation task was used to examine the ability of an observer's facial feedback to modulate the recognition of various facial expressions. Furthermore, the effect of a sender's facial expression with an open or closed mouth on recognition accuracy was investigated. The results showed that only recognition accuracy of a sad facial expression was influenced simultaneously by bidirectional sources from a sender and observer. Moreover, the impact of the unidirectional cue of a sender's facial feature (i.e., mouth openness) on happy and neutral faces was found to influence the recognition accuracy of these faces, but not the observer's bodily state. These findings indicate that the bidirectional impact derived from an observer and sender on facial expression recognition accuracy differs for emotional and neutral expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of individual differences on learners' study time allocation has been emphasised in recent studies; however, little is known about the role of individual thinking styles (analytical versus intuitive). In the present study, we explored the influence of individual thinking styles on learners' application of agenda‐based and habitual processes when selecting the first item during a study‐time allocation task. A 3‐item cognitive reflection test (CRT) was used to determine individuals' degree of cognitive reliance on intuitive versus analytical cognitive processing. Significant correlations between CRT scores and the choices of first item selection were observed in both Experiment 1a (study time was 5 seconds per triplet) and Experiment 1b (study time was 20 seconds per triplet). Furthermore, analytical decision makers constructed a value‐based agenda (prioritised high‐reward items), whereas intuitive decision makers relied more upon habitual responding (selected items from the leftmost of the array). The findings of Experiment 1a were replicated in Experiment 2 notwithstanding ruling out the possible effects from individual intelligence and working memory capacity. Overall, the individual thinking style plays an important role on learners' study time allocation and the predictive ability of CRT is reliable in learners' item selection strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Design of experimental apparatus for evaporation experiment under variable water tables in the vadose zone. • The coupled model can accurately describe the distribution of water content under different water tables. • Isothermal water flux and thermal vapor flux dominates the change of water content. • The variation of water and vapor fluxes are consistent with the variation of the evaporation front. • The variation of the evaporation front is different under shallow and deep water table. In arid and semi-arid regions, the depth of water table has a significant effect on evaporation. The soil in these regions is unsaturated, and the transport of liquid water and water vapor is accompanied by variation of the water table depth. In this study, we designed a laboratory experimental apparatus to conduct evaporation experiments of soil under shallow and deep water table conditions through continuous monitoring of water content and temperature variation in the vadose zone. A numerical model was used to simulate the coupled transport of liquid water, water vapor and heat in the vadose zone under two different water table elevations. The experimental and numerical results were in good agreement. Liquid water and water vapor fluxes driven by pressure head and temperature gradient were calculated and analyzed to illustrate the distribution of the water content. Both isothermal liquid flux and thermal vapor flux dominates the variation of water content. By determining the location of the evaporation front and analyzing its dynamic variation, we found that the evaporation front ranged from the surface to a depth of 2.5 cm under a shallow water table. For a deep water table, the evaporation front was nearly at a constant depth of 15 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely evaluation of cauda equina syndrome (CES) is important to prevent symptom progression and potentially restore neurologic function. Missed diagnoses and delays in treatment may lead to permanent neurologic deficits and significant ramifications for patients' quality of lives. While health care disparities related to race and ethnicity are well reported for nonemergent conditions, the literature on disparities in outcomes for emergent spinal conditions such as CES remains sparse. The objective of this study is to identify disparities in complication, mortality and readmission rates following surgical intervention for CES based on race. This was a retrospective review of the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) database, a comprehensive all payer database for all hospitalizations within New York State. Overall, 2,114 patients who underwent lumbar surgery for CES were identified. Patients underwent lumbar decompression (821, 38.8%), fusion (746, 35.3%), or both (547, 25.9%). African American patients consisted of 8% (177), Caucasian patients 79% (1680), and Asian patients 12% (257) of the overall population. Primary outcomes of interest were all-cause postoperative complications, mortality rates, and 30-day readmissions. Patients with CES treated surgically between the years 2000-2015 were identified based on diagnosis and procedural codes. Patient demographics (age, sex, race, comorbidities and insurance status) and hospital characteristics (size as defined by hospital bed number quartiles) were evaluated. Descriptive statistics of patient characteristics were reported and compared using chi-squared and paired-sample t-tests for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the association of race and outcomes variables, controlling for age, sex, comorbidities, length of stay, insurance and hospital characteristics. Significance was set at p<0.05. On multivariate analysis, the odds of 30-day mortality were 2.98-fold greater in African American patients than other patients (p=0.029). By 180 and 360 days, odds of mortality were 4.27 and 3.05-fold greater in African American patients than other patients, respectively (p <0.001 each). Thirty-day readmissions were 1.87-fold greater in African American patients compared to the others (p=0.004). No difference in overall complication rate was found between African American patients and all other race groups (p=0.306). We demonstrate that in patients included in the New York State SPARCS database, health disparities in the surgical management of CES exist. African American patients were found to have higher and increasing rates of mortality from 30 days to 1 year and greater readmission rates compared to other race groups. The findings of this study should inform practice and policy decisions on better addressing racial disparities in emergent spine conditions. This abstract does not discuss or include any applicable devices or drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis of 3-aryloxy-2-oxindole derivatives from 3-hydroxy-2-oxindoles and aryl boronic acids through copper(II)-promoted reaction is achieved. This reaction provides an efficient protocol for the coupling between aryl boronic acid and tertiary aliphatic alcohol, opening a new avenue to format corresponding 3-phenyl-3-aryloxy-2-oxindole core, which has potentially value in the field of life-science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A micron-scale palladium(II) material has been successfully prepared using Schiff base-modified hexagonal boron nitride as a support and used for the first time as an efficient and recyclable catalyst in organic synthesis. The morphology, composition, metal loading and thermal stability of the catalyst were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and thermogravimetric (TG) analyses. Then, the micron material was tested in various C-C cross-coupling reactions and exhibited excellent catalytic activities in the Suzuki and Heck reactions. Moreover, the catalyst could be easily recovered by simple filtration and reused at least ten times without significant loss of its catalytic activity. In general, this work demonstrates the possibility of using Schiff-base@hexagonal boron nitride as an efficient support for heterogeneous catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A moisture- and air-stable palladium(II)-Schiff base complex supported on h-BN was simply prepared by using commercially available reagents. This nanomaterial was applied as an excellent and recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for the Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions. And it has been characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, XPS, TG and ICP-AES techniques. High yields, ligand-free, low reaction time, water as solvent, non-toxicity and recyclability of the catalyst are the main merits of these protocols. In addition, a series of pharmacologically relevant products were successfully synthesized using this catalyst. Above all, this work opens up an interesting and attractive avenue for the use of h-BN as an efficient support for heterogeneous catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Like adults, children need to allocate study time and endeavour optimally in order to enhance learning effectiveness. Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the development of shifting from habitual to agenda-based processes on study decisions. Sample The participants were 309 children in the second, fourth, and sixth grades. Methods We adopted the research paradigm proposed by Ariel and Dunlosky (2013, Mem. Cognit., 41, 416). In Experiment 1, the students selected items to study either with or without time constraint. In Experiment 2, the students were instructed to select all three items or one item to study per trial. Results The results of Experiment 1 showed that for sixth graders, the likelihood of selecting high-value items under the restricted-study-time condition was higher than that under the restricted-total-time condition; second and fourth graders failed to construct an agenda of prioritizing high-reward items for study in the restricted-study-time condition. In Experiment 2, when students were instructed to select one item to study per trial, high-value items were prioritized over items on the left of the array for sixth graders; on the contrary, second and fourth graders seemed to choose item for study arbitrary, although they tend to choose high-value items compared with their choice pattern in no-choice-limit condition. Conclusions The results indicate that children can shift towards agenda-based process when habitual responding cannot maximize reward, and there is an age-related improvement in shifting between grade 4 and grade 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Modeling algorithms for human thermal sensation integrating physiological responses. • The change rate reveals TS and avoids the inconsistency of raw physiological levels. • CRPR and CRMAP are significantly different in warm chamber than in the cool. • Case analysis verifies feasibility of proposed thermal sensation model with 0.8 R 2. Background and Objectives: Thermal conditions are changeable in cabin space, where occupants could suffer consecutive self-thermoregulation to such changing thermal stresses. Thermal environment management is expected to be purposefully auto-adjustable for the environment by recognizing individual real-time thermal sensations. Current thermal sensation evaluation models are developed for virtual simulations rather than for realistic scenarios, challenging to evaluate human thermal sensation in the field surveys. Methods: The study constructs a human thermal sensation model via human physiological responses to evaluate the human thermal sensation in the actual vehicle environment. The thermal sensation model forms with exponential functions to clarify the relationship between thermal sensation and pulse rate and blood pressure, which successfully expresses the approximately linear trend around neutral sensation and compensates for the end-points bias. The study set up experimental cases to determine the parameter states in the thermal sensation model. Firstly, subjective thermal sensation scoring was performed by combing with an established seven-point-scale questionnaire survey system for human thermal sensation. Wearable sensors are then applied to measure the human physiological response, including blood pressure B P , pulse rate P R and blood oxygen saturation S p O 2. Results: The subjects revealed significantly higher pulse rates (positively correlated) and lower blood pressure (negatively correlated) in the warm chamber than in the cool chamber. The defined parameter change rate effectively reveals the trend of human thermal sensation and avoids the inconsistency of raw physiological response levels. The change rate in P R and M A P between the thermal sensation in cold -3 and hot +3 is about a 10% difference. Conclusions: Based on the thermal sensation model algorithm, model parameters were fitted by the subjects' thermal sensation voting and the change rate of their physiological responses. With the coefficient of determination (R 2) of the regression over 0.8, the proposed thermal sensation model can be employed for human thermal sensation evaluation. The physiological thermoregulatory responses effectively indicate the thermal state of the human body and can be used in thermal environments in conjunction with human smart wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel and efficient synthesis of isatins from α -hydroxy amides via ruthenium-mediated aromatic C–H activation is described. The reactions proceeded smoothly under mild conditions and generated the corresponding products in good to excellent yields. This methodology has a broad substrate scope and opens up an interesting and attractive avenue for the application of intramolecular ortho -C–H activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Lithocholic acid (LCA), one of the most common metabolic products of bile acids (BAs), is originally synthesized in the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and released to the intestine, where it assists absorption of lipid-soluble nutrients. LCA has recently emerged as a powerful reagent to inhibit tumorigenesis; however, the anti-tumor activity and molecular mechanisms of LCA in gallbladder cancer (GBC) remain poorly acknowledged. Here, we analyzed serum levels of LCA in human GBC and found that LCA was significantly downregulated in these patients, and reduced LCA levels were associated with poor clinical outcomes. Treatment of xenografts with LCA impeded tumor growth. Furthermore, LCA treatment in GBC cell lines decreased glutaminase (GLS) expression, glutamine (Gln) consumption, and GSH/GSSG and NADPH/NADP+ ratios, leading to cellular ferroptosis. In contrast, GLS overexpression in tumor cells fully restored GBC proliferation and decreased ROS imbalance, thus suppressing ferroptosis. Our findings reveal that LCA functions as a tumor-suppressive factor in GBC by downregulating GLS-mediated glutamine metabolism and subsequently inducing ferroptosis. This study may offer a new therapeutic strategy tailored to improve the treatment of GBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a growing number of empirical studies have revealed that activating mate-related motives might exert a specific set of consequences for human cognition and behaviors, such as attention and memory, little is known about whether mate-related motives affect self-regulated learning. The present study examined the effects of mate-related motives (mate-search and mate-guarding) on study-time allocation to faces varying in attractiveness. In two experiments, participants in mate-related priming conditions (Experiment 1: mate-search; Experiment 2: mate-guarding) or control conditions studied 20 female faces (10 highly attractive, 10 less attractive) during a self-paced study task, and then were given a yes/no face recognition task. The finding of Experiment 1 showed that activating a mate-search motive led the male participants to allocate more time to highly attractive female faces (i.e., perceived potential mates) than to less attractive ones. In Experiment 2, female participants in the mate-guarding priming condition spent more time studying highly attractive female faces (i.e., perceived potential rivals) than less attractive ones, compared to participants in the control condition. These findings illustrate the highly specific consequences of mate-related motives on study-time allocation, and highlight the value of exploring human cognition and motivation within evolutionary and self-regulated learning frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Teacher burnout is characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from excessive work-related stress. Previous research based on traditional latent variable theory has revealed a significant negative relationship between TB and psychological capital (PsyCap). This study explored the complex symptoms of TB and the contact points of PsyCap in reducing TB using psychometric network analysis.Methods: A total of 3991 teachers completed the burnout subscale of the Professional Quality of Life and Psychological Capital Scale.Results: The results showed that: (a) In the TB network, the core symptoms displayed by teachers due to burnout are difficulty feeling "I am a very caring person", "I am happy", and "I am the person I always wanted to be"; (b) The TB-PsyCap network was closely connected, and the symptoms affected each other. PsyCap affected the TB network through "I feel optimistic and happy almost every day" and "I often feel that there is a future as a teacher"; (c) PsyCap's bridge symptoms had a negative impact on TB, and PsyCap may reduce TB primarily through optimistic, hopeful dimensions.Conclusion and Implications: Psychometric network analysis helps us understand the complex symptoms of TB and the contact points of PsyCap in reducing TB. This study offers valuable insights into the prevention of, and intervention in, burnout within the teaching community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at the distributed computation for semi-definite programming (SDP) problems over multi-agent networks. Two SDP problems, including a non-sparse case and a sparse case, are transformed into distributed optimization problems, respectively, by fully exploiting their structures and introducing consensus constraints. Inspired by primal–dual and consensus methods, we propose two distributed algorithms for the two cases with the help of projection and derivative feedback techniques. Furthermore, we prove that the algorithms converge to their optimal solutions, and moreover, their convergences rates are evaluated by the duality gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ang-(1-5) improved I/R-induced changes in ventricular hemodynamics and coronary flow in isolated rat hearts. • Ang-(1-5) decreased the expression of apoptotic enzymes and increased the expression of anti-oxidant enzymes. • The cardio-protective effects of Ang-(1-5) were attenuated by Mas R antagonist. • Ang-(1-5) has cardio-protective effects by activating anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic enzymes via Mas R. Angiotensin-(1-5) [Ang-(1-5)], which is a metabolite of Ang-(1-7) catalyzed by angiotensin-converting enzyme, is a novel pentapeptide of the renin-angiotensin system. Ang-(1-7), Ang III and Ang IV have a cardio-protective effect via Mas receptor, Ang II type 2 receptor (AT 2 R) and AT 4 R, respectively. However, it is not clear whether Ang-(1-5) has cardio-protective effects. The aim of this study is to investigate whether Ang-(1-5) protects the heart against ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. After sacrificing Sprague-Dawley rats, the hearts were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer for a 20 min pre-ischemic period with and without Ang-(1-5) followed by 20 min global ischemia and 50 min reperfusion. Ang-(1-5) (1 μM) improved changes in post-ischemic left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), ±dP/dt, and post-ischemic left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) induced by reperfusion compared to control hearts. Ang-(1-5) decreased myocardial infarct size and LDH activity, and increased coronary flow and the amount of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in coronary effluent during reperfusion compared to control hearts. Pretreatment with Mas receptor antagonist but not with AT 1 R or AT 2 R antagonist attenuated the improvement of changes in I/R-induced ventricular hemodynamics by Ang-(1-5). Ang-(1-5) treatment decreased Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-9 protein levels, and increased Bcl-2 protein level, which were attenuated by A779 pretreatment. Ang-(1-5) treatment increased Mn-superoxide dismutase, catalase, and heme oxygenase-1 protein levels, which was attenuated by A779 pretreatment. These results suggest that the cardio-protective effects of Ang-(1-5) against I/R injury may be partly related to activating anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic enzymes via Mas receptor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Myostatin (MSTN) is a transcriptional growth factor that inhibits the development and growth of skeletal muscle. The MSTN-deficient animals display an increase in skeletal muscle mass known as double-muscling. Therefore, MSTN becomes an important target for improving lean meat production in livestock husbandry. There are many local pig breeds in China, but because of the slow growth, poor feed conversion, and low lean meat percentage and other unsatisfactory qualities, pure local breeds are rarely used on commercial farms. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of MSTN single allele mutation on carcass composition in Meishan crossbred pigs and demonstrate a way to increase lean meat yield while maintaining prolificacy and good meat quality of local pig crossbreeds. This has significant implications for the widespread use and conservation of local pig breeds in China. The Meishan pig is a traditional Chinese native breed, known for its excellent reproduction performance that is widely used in commercial pig production through two-way or three-way crossbreeding systems. However, the lean meat yield of Meishan crossbred pigs is still very low and cannot meet the market demand. To evaluate the lean meat yield of Meishan crossbred pigs, six wild-type Meishan sows were artificially inseminated by using the MSTN+/− Duroc boar semen in this experiment. Some reproductive performance-related traits of Meishan sows were recorded to ensure that semen from MSTN knockout Duroc boar did not affect offspring production, including total births, live births, sex, and litter weight. In total, 73 piglets were obtained and 63 were alive. Male to female ratio was close to 1: 1. because of factors such as disease, only 43 pigs were utilized, including 28 MSTN mutant pigs (MSTN+/−) and 15 MSTN homozygous pigs (MSTN+/+). We compared the growth performance and carcass performance of these full or half-sib populations and found that there were no differences between MSTN+/− and MSTN+/+ genotypes for live animal measures including average daily gain (ADG), body dimensions, or ultrasonic measurement of fat thickness when pigs were harvested after 120 days of feeding. Conversely, the MSTN+/− pigs had higher dressing percentage and lean meat percentage, lower level of carcass fat, larger longissimus muscle area, less percentage of skin and skeleton, thinner average backfat thickness, and lower intramuscular fat (IMF) content than MSTN+/+ pigs. In conclusion, the production of MSTN+/− mutant progeny from Meishan females resulted in improved carcass composition, providing a feasible solution to improve the lean meat yield of Chinese local fat-type pig breeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Researchers have hitherto established hundreds of animal stress models. However, these models have some limitations due to the complexity in operation and large differences between individual animals. In particular, there are few stress models that are specifically applied in mammalian ovaries. In this study, using intraperitoneal injection of cortisol/corticosterone (CORT), we successfully established a stress model that acts on the ovarian function. Our data showed that CORT inhibits ovarian and follicular development and blocks ovulation. The establishment of this model might provide a living platform for studying ovarian stress in future research. The aim of this study is to establish an ovarian stress model, and to investigate the effects of stress on follicular development. Our data showed that continuous intraperitoneal injection of CORT successfully created a stressful environment in the ovary. To assess the effects of CORT on ovarian functions, 80 three-week-old ICR (Institute of Cancer Research) female mice were randomly divided into control group and treatment group. All mice were injected intraperitoneally with pregnant horse serum gonadotropin (PMSG). At the same time, the treatment group were injected with CORT (1 mg/mouse) at intervals of 8 h; while the control group was injected with same volume of methyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Blood, ovaries, or ovarian granulosa cell samples were collected at 24 h, 48 h, and 55 h after PMSG injection. The results showed that, compared with the control group, CORT-injected mice revealed a significant decrease in ovulation rates, ovarian weight, ovarian index, the number of secondary follicles and mature follicles, levels of estrogen and progesterone, and mRNA expression of steroid synthase-related genes. Collectively, our findings clearly demonstrated that CORT injection could represent an effective practice to simulate stresses that inhibit ovarian functions by reducing follicular development and ovulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Day length modulates hypocotyl elongation in seedlings to optimize their overall fitness. Variations in cell growth‐associated genes are regulated by several transcription factors. However, the specific transcription factors through which the plant clock increases plant fitness are still being elucidated. In this study, we identified the no apical meristem, Arabidopsis thaliana‐activating factor (ATAF‐1/2), and cup‐shaped cotyledon (NAC) family transcription factor ATAF1 as a novel repressor of hypocotyl elongation under a short‐day (SD) photoperiod. Variations in day length profoundly affected the transcriptional and protein levels of ATAF1. ATAF1‐deficient mutant exhibited increased hypocotyl length and cell growth‐promoting gene expression under SD conditions. Moreover, ATAF1 directly targeted and repressed the expression of the cycling Dof factor 1/5 (CDF1/5), two key transcription factors involved in hypocotyl elongation under SD conditions. Additionally, ATAF1 interacted with and negatively modulated the effects of phytochrome‐interacting factor (PIF), thus inhibiting PIF‐promoted gene expression and hypocotyl elongation. Taken together, our results revealed ATAF1–PIF as a crucial pair modulating the expression of key transcription factors to facilitate plant growth during day/night cycles under fluctuating light conditions. Summary statement: This study identified Arabidopsis NAC transcription factor Arabidopsis thaliana‐activating factor (ATAF1) as a novel repressor of hypocotyl elongation under short‐day conditions. ATAF1 controls the transcription levels of key regulator CDF1/5 by repressing the central regulators phytochrome‐interacting factor via protein–protein interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the work reported herein, the concise and enantioselective total synthesis of the Schizozygine alkaloid (−)-strempeliopine was developed. This synthetic strategy featured the palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative asymmetric allylic alkylation of N-benzoyl lactam to set up the absolute configuration at the C20 position, a highly diastereoselective one-pot Bischler–Napieralski/lactamization and iminium reduction sequence for the construction of the pentacyclic core structure, and the late-stage dearomative addition of indole, leading to the otherwise difficult-to-achieve hexacyclic indoline framework with complete control of four neighbouring stereocenters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate segmentation of anatomical structures is vital for medical image analysis. The state-of-the-art accuracy is typically achieved by supervised learning methods, where gathering the requisite expert-labeled image annotations in a scalable manner remains a main obstacle. Therefore, annotation-efficient methods that permit to produce accurate anatomical structure segmentation are highly desirable. In this work, we present Contour Transformer Network (CTN), a one-shot anatomy segmentation method with a naturally built-in human-in-the-loop mechanism. We formulate anatomy segmentation as a contour evolution process and model the evolution behavior by graph convolutional networks (GCNs). Training the CTN model requires only one labeled image exemplar and leverages additional unlabeled data through newly introduced loss functions that measure the global shape and appearance consistency of contours. On segmentation tasks of four different anatomies, we demonstrate that our one-shot learning method significantly outperforms non-learning-based methods and performs competitively to the state-of-the-art fully supervised deep learning methods. With minimal human-in-the-loop editing feedback, the segmentation performance can be further improved to surpass the fully supervised methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]