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Two o-carborane-hybridized macrocyclic arenes have been synthesized via Friedel–Crafts alkylation of carborane diaryl derivatives. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis clearly revealed their cavity structure and intermolecular interaction force. These novel macrocycles exhibited aggregation-induced luminescence and intramolecular charge transfer properties and also significant selectivity towards nitro explosive compounds. This work provided a method for the synthesis of hybridized macrocyclic arenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a major global health concern due to its high mortality and disability rates. Hemorrhagic transformation, a common complication of AIS, leads to poor prognosis yet lacks effective treatments. Preclinical studies indicate that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment within 12 h of AIS onset alleviates ischemia/reperfusion injuries, including hemorrhagic transformation. However, clinical trials have yielded conflicting results, suggesting some underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we confirmed that HBO treatments beginning within 1 h post reperfusion significantly alleviated the haemorrhage and neurological deficits in hyperglycemic transient middle cerebral arterial occlusion (tMCAO) mice, partly due to the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pro-inflammatory response in microglia. Notably, reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediate the anti-inflammatory and protective effect of early HBO treatment, as edaravone and N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine (NAC), two commonly used antioxidants, reversed the suppressive effect of HBO treatment on NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated inflammation in microglia. Furthermore, NAC countered the protective effect of early HBO treatment in tMCAO mice with hyperglycemia. These findings support that early HBO treatment is a promising intervention for AIS, however, caution is warranted when combining antioxidants with HBO treatment. Further assessments are needed to clarify the role of antioxidants in HBO therapy for AIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Apical periodontitis is an inflammatory disorder triggered by an immune response to bacterial infection, leading to the periapical tissue damage and alveolar resorption. However, the underlying mechanisms driving this process remain elusive, due to the complex and interconnected immune microenvironment within the local lesion site. In this study, the influence of Nlrp3 inflammasome‐mediated immune response on the apical periodontitis was investigated. Methodology: RNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry and ELISA assay were performed to investigate the activation of Nlrp3 inflammasome signalling pathways in the human periapical tissues, including radicular cysts, periapical granulomas and healthy oral mucosa. A mouse model of apical periodontitis was established to study the role of Nlrp3 knockout in periapical bone resorption and Treg cell stability, and the underlying mechanism was explored through in vitro experiments. In vivo Treg cell adoptive transfer was performed to investigate the effects of Treg cells on the progression of apical periodontitis. Results: Our findings find that the hyperactivated Nlrp3 inflammasome is present in human periapical lesions and plays a vital role in the immune‐related periapical bone loss. Using a mouse model of apical periodontitis, we observe that Nlrp3 deficiency is resistant to bone resorption. This protection was accompanied by elevated generation and infiltration of local Treg cells that displayed a notable ability to suppress RANKL‐dependent osteoclast differentiation. In terms of the mechanism of action, Nlrp3 deficiency directly inhibits the osteoclast differentiation and bone loss through JNK/MAPK and NF‐κB pathways. In addition, Nlrp3 induces pyroptosis in the stem cells from apical papilla (SCAPs), and the subsequent release of cytokines affects the stability of Treg cell in periapical lesions, leading indirectly to enhanced bone resorption. In turn, adoptive transfer of both Nlrp3‐deficient and wild‐type Treg cells effectively prevent the bone erosion during apical periodontitis. Conclusions: Together, our data identify that the Nlrp3 inflammasome modulates the Treg cell stability and osteoclastogenesis in the periapical inflammatory microenvironment, thus determining the progression of bone erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, an advanced imaging method may be necessary for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnosis and quantify liver fibrosis (LF). Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of the multicompartmental restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) model to characterize LF in a mouse model. Methods: Thirty mice with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)‐induced LF and eight control mice were investigated using multi‐b‐value (ranging from 0 to 2000 s/mm2) diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) on a 3T scanner. DWI data were processed using RSI model (2–5 compartments) with the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) determining the optimal model. Conventional ADC value and signal fraction of each compartment in the optimal RSI model were compared across groups. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine the diagnosis performances of different parameters, while Spearman correlation analysis was employed to investigate the correlation between different tissue compartments and the stage of LF. Results: According to BIC results, a 4‐compartment RSI model (RSI4) with optimal ADCs of 0.471 × 10−3, 1.653 × 10−3, 9.487 × 10−3, and > 30 × 10−3, was the optimal model to characterize LF. Significant differences in signal contribution fraction of the C1 and C3 compartments were observed between LF and control groups (P = 0.018 and 0.003, respectively). ROC analysis showed that RSI4‐C3 was the most effective single diffusion parameter for characterizing LF (AUC = 0.876, P = 0.003). Furthermore, the combination of ADC values and RSI4‐C3 value increased the diagnosis performance significantly (AUC = 0.894, P = 0.002). Conclusion: The 4‐compartment RSI model has the potential to distinguish LF from the control group based on diffusion parameters. RSI4‐C3 showed the highest diagnostic performance among all the parameters. The combination of ADC and RSI4‐C3 values further improved the discrimination performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quinoa is a full‐nutrition food; however, its poor flavor and small size make it not the best food option for direct consumption. In this study, a quinoa snack (QS, a cake) was developed, and the aroma profile of the products was improved by adding jujube fruit powder (made from dried jujube fruits, from 5% to 30%). Gas chromatography mass spectrum (GC–MS) combined with electronic nose (e‐nose) was applied for characterizing the aroma profiles of QS samples. Results showed a total of 26 aroma compounds were identified in QS samples by GC–MS, and 3‐methylbutanol (from 1525 μg/kg in QS‐30 to 3487 μg/kg in QS‐0), ethanol (from 1126 μg/kg in QS‐0 to 3581 μg/kg in QS‐30), hexanal (from 125.6 μg/kg in QS‐30 to 984.1 μg/kg in QS‐0), and acetaldehyde (from 531.9 μg/kg in QS‐30 to 191.1 μg/kg in QS‐0) were common. The e‐nose response of W1S (sensitive to methane, from 17.50 of QS‐0 to 93.85 of QS‐30) and W1W (sensitive to sulfur‐organic compounds of e‐nose, from 15.57 of QS‐0 to 39.50 of QS‐30) were significantly higher, and significant differences were presented among QS samples. In conclusion, the aroma profile of the QS sample was significantly (p <.05) enhanced by the addition of jujube powder, and QS‐30 with the highest jujube content (30%) presented the strongest aroma profile. Moreover, QS samples with different additions of jujube powders could be well distinguished by principal component analysis (PCA), and the combination of e‐nose and GC–MS was effective in the volatile profile analysis of QS samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we used dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) dispersion of aramid nanofibers (ANFs) as medium to exfoliate boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) from their bulk materials via a ball-milling route. The obtained BNNSs displayed large lateral sizes and were very clean without any contaminants. When milling under a high energy condition, many small-area nanosheets were appeared but the sample produced with high ANF concentration could still contain more large-size BNNSs. It was concluded that the DMSO is a good exfoliating medium for BNNSs due to the suitable viscosity, molecular weight, and polarity, while the introduction of ANFs can further improve the exfoliated sizes of BNNSs because of the buffering to impacting forces of milling balls. The ANF/BNNS composite exfoliated under high energy ball-milling and high ANF concentration gained the highest in-plane thermal conductivity of 27.23 W m−1 K−1 since the densified microstructure and the high dispersity, large lateral size, and high horizontal orientation of BNNSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The inhalational anesthetic isoflurane is commonly utilized in clinical practice, particularly in the field of pediatric anesthesia. Research has demonstrated its capacity to induce neuroinflammation and long-term behavioral disorders; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear [1]. The cation-chloride cotransporters Na+–K+–2Cl−–1 (NKCC1) and K+–2Cl−–2 (KCC2) play a pivotal role in regulating neuronal responses to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) [2]. Imbalances in NKCC1/KCC2 can disrupt GABA neurotransmission, potentially leading to neural circuit hyperexcitability and reduced inhibition following neonatal exposure to anesthesia [3]. Therefore, this study postulates that anesthetics have the potential to dysregulate NKCC1 and/or KCC2 during brain development. Methods: We administered 1.5% isoflurane anesthesia to neonatal rats for a duration of 4 h at postnatal day 7 (PND7). Anxiety levels were assessed using the open field test at PND28, while cognitive function was evaluated using the Morris water maze test between PND31 and PND34. Protein levels of NKCC1, KCC2, BDNF, and phosphorylated ERK (P-ERK) in the hippocampus were measured through Western blotting analysis. Pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α were quantified using ELISA. Results: We observed a decrease in locomotion trajectories within the central region and a significantly shorter total distance in the ISO group compared to CON pups, indicating that isoflurane induces anxiety-like behavior. In the Morris water maze (MWM) test, rats exposed to isoflurane exhibited prolonged escape latency onto the platform. Additionally, isoflurane administration resulted in reduced time spent crossing in the MWM experiment at PND34, suggesting long-term impairment of memory function. Furthermore, we found that isoflurane triggered activation of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α; downregulated KCC2/BDNF/P-ERK expression; and increased the NKCC1/KCC2 ratio in the hippocampus of PND7 rats. Bumetadine (NKCC1 specific inhibitors) reversed cognitive damage and effective disorder induced by isoflurane in neonatal rats by inhibiting TNF-α activation, normalizing IL-6 and IL-1β levels, restoring KCC2 expression levels as well as BDNF and ERK signaling pathways. Based on these findings, it can be speculated that BDNF, P-ERK, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF - α may act downstream of the NKCC1/KCC2 pathway. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that isoflurane administration in neonatal rats leads to persistent cognitive deficits through dysregulation of the Cation-Chloride Cotransporters NKCC1 and KCC2, BDNF, p-ERK proteins, as well as neuroinflammatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supramolecular room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are attractive due to their excellent RTP characteristics and water resistance. By evaluating the photophysical properties of HA/BisNpI‐doped materials, it is proved that hyaluronic acid (HA) is a promising matrix and the rigid plane N,N′‐(1,4‐phenylene)‐bis(1,8‐naphthalimide) (Ph‐BisNpI) is an excellent luminescent guest molecule for constructing RTP materials. Moreover, it is found that γ‐cyclodextrin (γ‐CD) can successfully bind BisNpI guest molecule. Accordingly, a tightly arranged ternary supramolecular system with HA as matrix, Ph‐BisNpI as the guest, and γ‐CD as the host is constructed by host‐guest interaction and hydrogen bonding. As expected, the obtained ternary supramolecular system HA/Ph@CD8 displays a superior RTP performance (52.7 ms longer lifetime than HA/Ph), water‐resistance, and even aqueous RTP (τ = 207 µs), which significantly extends the application of RTP in aqueous solution. These results are possibly attributed to the inclusion of γ‐CD on Ph‐BisNpI guest molecules and the self‐assembly of γ‐CD and HA to form a rigid hydrogen bonding network, which effectively inhibits the non‐radiative decay of Ph‐BisNpI and shields the triplet excitons from water and oxygen. Furthermore, the prepared ternary supramolecular RTP materials are successfully used as anticounterfeiting ink and exhibit broader application prospects in water environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals layered materials have been explored in depth. They can be vertically stacked into a 2D heterostructure and represent a fundamental way to explore new physical properties and fabricate high-performance nanodevices. However, the controllable and scaled growth of non-layered quasi-2D materials and their heterostructures is still a great challenge. Here, we report a selective two-step growth method for high-quality single crystalline CrTe/WSe2 and CrTe/MoS2 heterostructures by adopting a universal CVD strategy with the assistance of molten salt and mass control. Quasi-2D metallic CrTe was grown on pre-deposited 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) under relatively low temperatures. A 2D CrTe/TMDC heterostructure was established to explore the interface's structure using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and also demonstrate ferromagnetism in a metal–semiconductor CrTe/TMDC heterostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification, as a common epigenetic modification, has been widely studied in autoimmune diseases. However, the role of m6A in the regulation of the immune microenvironment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of m6A modification on the immune microenvironment of AS. We first evaluated RNA modification patterns mediated by 26 m6A regulators in 52 AS samples and 20 healthy samples. Thereafter, an m6A related classifier composed of seven genes was constructed and could effectively distinguish healthy and AS samples. Then, the correlation between m6A regulators and immune characteristics were investigated, including infiltrating immunocytes, immune reactions activity, and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes expression. The results indicated that m6A regulators was closely correlated with immune characteristics. For example, EIF3A was significantly related to infiltrating immunocytes; IGF2BP2 and EIF3A were significant regulators in immune reaction of TGF-β family member, and the expression of HLA-DPA1 and HLA-E were affected by EIF3A and ALKBH5. Next, two distinct m6A expression patterns were identified through unsupervised clustering analysis, and diverse immune characteristics were found between them. A total of 5889 m6A phenotype-related genes were obtained between the two expression patterns, and their biological functions were revealed. Finally, we validated the expression status of m6A modification regulators using two additional datasets. Our findings illustrate that m6A modifications play a critical role in the diversity and complexity of the AS immune microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easy and convenient reading for blinds is of great significance for lowering their learning, entertainment, and communication barrier, and improving their living quality. The general solution is to learn braille, far from satisfying the meet of the blinds' daily learning and communication. Here, a new‐type conductor/insulator‐identifiable e‐tattoo proximity sensor is developed by simply depositing the circular interdigitated electrodes on organic semiconductor. The discriminable recognition toward conductors and insulators is realized only based on a single e‐tattoo device. The sensors not only enable recognition of the protruding characters like braille based on distance difference, but also enable recognition of the handwriting ink‐brush and pencil graphite characters based on the unique advantage of the sensors in distinguishing conduct and insulator. These results open a new route to realize the material category recognition, provide a user‐friendly way to help the visual impaired effectively reintegrate into society, and broaden the application field of proximity sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed valent iron ions were used to create a flexible ionic crosslinking network through coordination, making PAA fiber highly stretchable, and the fiber was highly stretched to tear graphene oxide (GO) sheets into discontinuously-dispersed monolayer sheets. The monolayer sheets could construct many hydrogen bonds with PAA chains to serve as knots to hinder chain movement, controlling the shrinkage of stretched fiber. Co-solvent formamide could improve the heat resistance of PAA fiber through special calorific effect; thus the highly-stretched fiber could tolerate high temperature heat setting. Due to the advanced structure induced by stretching, internal force relaxation caused by heat setting, and the existence of knots, the resulting fiber possessed the features of high strength and no shrinkage. High strength made the fiber mechanically applicable, and the unshrinkability could help it to maintain large specific surface area and strong iron ions-immobilizing capability. As a result, the catalytic activity of non-shrinkable fiber was increased by 25% compared with that of shrinkable fiber for methylene blue (MB) decolorization, and iron ion loading ratio was increased by 174.5%; however, iron ion leaching ratio was decreased by 76.5%, which was conducive to reusability improvement. Thereby, the resulting fiber could be repeatedly used to decolorize MB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Al ions released from the sacrificial Al anode could combine with chloride anion to regenerate the Lewis acid AlCl SB 3 sb . To further illustrate the practicability of this deoxygenation method, the electroreductive deoxygenation of ketones was explored. To clarify the mechanism of the deoxygenation reaction, cyclic voltammetry (CV) experiments were explored to determine the role of AlCl SB 3 sb . Keywords: organic electrosynthesis; deoxygenation; alcohols; reduction EN organic electrosynthesis deoxygenation alcohols reduction 2993 2998 6 08/31/23 20230915 NES 230915 Graph Alcohol is a naturally abundant moiety found in natural products, bioactive molecules, and functional materials. [Extracted from the article]

The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies has enabled gene expression profiling at the single-cell resolution, thereby enabling the quantification and comparison of transcriptional variability among individual cells. Although alterations in transcriptional variability have been observed in various biological states, statistical methods for quantifying and testing differential variability between groups of cells are still lacking. To identify the best practices in differential variability analysis of single-cell gene expression data, we propose and compare 12 statistical pipelines using different combinations of methods for normalization, feature selection, dimensionality reduction and variability calculation. Using high-quality synthetic scRNA-seq datasets, we benchmarked the proposed pipelines and found that the most powerful and accurate pipeline performs simple library size normalization, retains all genes in analysis and uses denSNE-based distances to cluster medoids as the variability measure. By applying this pipeline to scRNA-seq datasets of COVID-19 and autism patients, we have identified cellular variability changes between patients with different severity status or between patients and healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomaly detection is one of the most important research contents in time series data analysis, which is widely used in many fields. In real world, the environment is usually dynamically changing, and the distribution of data changes over time, namely concept drift. The accuracy of static anomaly detection methods is bound to be reduced by concept drift. In addition, there is a sudden concept drift, which is manifested as a abrupt variation in a data point that changes the statistical properties of data. Such a point is called a change point, and it has very similar behavior to an anomaly. However, the existing methods cannot distinguish between anomaly and change point, so the existence of change point will affect the result of anomaly detection. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method to simultaneously detect anomaly and change point for time series with concept drift. The method is based on the fluctuation features of data and converts the original data into the rate of change of data. It not only solves the concept drift, but also effectively detects and distinguishes anomalies and change points. Experiments on both public and synthetic datasets show that compared with the state-of-the-art anomaly detection methods, our method is superior to most of the existing works and significantly superior to existing methods for change point detection. It fully demonstrates the superiority of our method in detecting anomalies and change points simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhibin subunit beta A (INHBA) is a member of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily that plays a fundamental role in various cancers. However, a systematic analysis of the exact role of INHBA in patients with gastric cancer (GC) has not yet been conducted. We evaluated the expression levels of INHBA and the correlation between INHBA and GC prognosis in GC. The relationship between INHBA expression, immune infiltration levels, and type markers of immune cells in GC was also explored. In addition, we studied INHBA mutations, promoter methylation, and functional enrichment analysis. Besides, high expression levels of INHBA in GC were significantly related to unfavorable prognosis. INHBA was negatively correlated with B cell infiltration, but positively correlated with macrophage and most anticancer immunity steps. INHBA expression was positively correlated with the type markers of CD8+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells. INHBA has a weak significant methylation level change between tumor and normal tissues and mainly enriched in cancer-related signaling pathways. The present study implies that INHBA may serve as a potential biomarker for predicting the prognosis of patients with GC. INHBA is a promising predictor of immunotherapy response, with higher levels of INHBA indicating greater sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We evaluated the diagnostic efficacy of deep learning radiomics (DLR) and hand-crafted radiomics (HCR) features in differentiating acute and chronic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). Methods: A total of 365 patients with VCFs were retrospectively analysed based on their computed tomography (CT) scan data. All patients completed MRI examination within 2 weeks. There were 315 acute VCFs and 205 chronic VCFs. Deep transfer learning (DTL) features and HCR features were extracted from CT images of patients with VCFs using DLR and traditional radiomics, respectively, and feature fusion was performed to establish the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The MRI display of vertebral bone marrow oedema was used as the gold standard for acute VCF, and the model performance was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC).To separately evaluate the effectiveness of DLR, traditional radiomics and feature fusion in the differential diagnosis of acute and chronic VCFs, we constructed a nomogram based on the clinical baseline data to visualize the classification evaluation. The predictive power of each model was compared using the Delong test, and the clinical value of the nomogram was evaluated using decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: Fifty DTL features were obtained from DLR, 41 HCR features were obtained from traditional radiomics, and 77 features fusion were obtained after feature screening and fusion of the two. The area under the curve (AUC) of the DLR model in the training cohort and test cohort were 0.992 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.983-0.999) and 0.871 (95% CI, 0.805-0.938), respectively. While the AUCs of the conventional radiomics model in the training cohort and test cohort were 0.973 (95% CI, 0.955-0.990) and 0.854 (95% CI, 0.773-0.934), respectively. The AUCs of the features fusion model in the training cohort and test cohort were 0.997 (95% CI, 0.994-0.999) and 0.915 (95% CI, 0.855-0.974), respectively. The AUCs of nomogram constructed by the features fusion in combination with clinical baseline data were 0.998 (95% CI, 0.996–0.999) and 0.946 (95% CI, 0.906–0.987) in the training cohort and test cohort, respectively. The Delong test showed that the differences between the features fusion model and the nomogram in the training cohort and the test cohort were not statistically significant (P values were 0.794 and 0.668, respectively), and the differences in the other prediction models in the training cohort and the test cohort were statistically significant (P < 0.05). DCA showed that the nomogram had high clinical value. Conclusion: The features fusion model can be used for the differential diagnosis of acute and chronic VCFs, and its differential diagnosis ability is improved when compared with that when either radiomics is used alone. At the same time, the nomogram has a high predictive value for acute and chronic VCFs and can be a potential decision-making tool to assist clinicians, especially when a patient is unable to undergo spinal MRI examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational researchers and practitioners have shown increasing interest in how newcomer proactivity contributes to socialization. This meta‐analysis synthesizes the existing empirical research that examines the relationships between frequently performed newcomer proactive behaviours (sensemaking, relationship building, positive framing and job change negotiation) and proximal and distal socialization outcomes. Proximal outcomes include role clarity, task mastery and social integration; distal outcomes include job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. Based on 45 independent samples (N = 11,508), proactive behaviours were found to be generally beneficial for newcomer socialization. Relative weight analyses identified positive framing as the strongest predictor of five of the seven reviewed outcomes while relationship building accounted for the greatest part of the variance in social integration. Job change negotiation was the weakest predictor of socialization outcomes. The study also explored the impact of boundary conditions, including culture, study design and sample type, on the magnitude of these effects. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peach aphid Tuberocephalus momonis seriously damages leaves and forms galls in the peach species Prunus persica f. rubro-plena , P. persica , and P. davidiana. Leaves bearing galls formed by these aphids will be abscised at least two months earlier than the healthy leaves on the same tree. Thus, we hypothesize that gall development is likely to be governed by phytohormones involved in normal organogenesis. The soluble sugar content was positively correlated between gall tissues and fruits, suggesting that the galls are sink organs. The results of UPLC-MS/MS analysis showed that higher concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) accumulated in both the gall-forming aphids, the galls themselves and the fruits of peach species than in healthy leaves, suggesting that BAP was being synthesized by the insects to stimulate the establishment of a gall. A significant increase in the concentrations of abscisic acid (ABA) in fruits and jasmonic acid (JA) in gall tissues indicated that these plants are defending from the galls. The concentrations of 1-amino-cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) significantly increased in gall tissues compared with healthy leaves, and were positively correlated with both fruit and gall development. In addition, transcriptome sequencing analysis revealed that during gall abscission, differentially expressed genes in both 'ETR-SIMKK-ERE1' and 'ABA-PYR/PYL/RCAR-PP2C-SnRK2' were significantly enriched during gall abscission. Our results showed that ethylene pathway was involved in the abscission of gall, and this gall abscission allowed the host plants to protect themselves from the gall-forming insects, at least partially. [Display omitted] • The foliar galls found on peach species are sink organs. • BAP produced by the gall-forming insects stimulates the establishment of the gall. • ACC is positively correlated with the development of both fruit and galls. • Plants protect themselves from gall-forming insects by early abscission of organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate exercise such as voluntary wheel-running can induce physiological cardiac hypertrophy. Notch1 plays an important role in cardiac hypertrophy; however, the experimental results are inconsistent. In this experiment, we aimed to explore the role of Notch1 in physiological cardiac hypertrophy. Twenty-nine adult male mice were randomly divided into a Notch1 heterozygous deficient control (Notch1+/− CON) group, a Notch1 heterozygous deficient running (Notch1+/− RUN) group, a wild type control (WT CON) group, and a wild type running (WT RUN) group. Mice in the Notch1+/− RUN and WT RUN groups had access to voluntary wheel-running for two weeks. Next, the cardiac function of all of the mice was examined by echocardiography. The H&E staining, Masson trichrome staining, and a Western blot assay were carried out to analyze cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis, and the expression of proteins relating to cardiac hypertrophy. After two-weeks of running, the Notch1 receptor expression was decreased in the hearts of the WT RUN group. The degree of cardiac hypertrophy in the Notch1+/− RUN mice was lower than that of their littermate control. Compared to the Notch1+/− CON group, Notch1 heterozygous deficiency could lead to a decrease in Beclin-1 expression and the ratio of LC3II/LC3I in the Notch1+/− RUN group. The results suggest that Notch1 heterozygous deficiency could partly dampen the induction of autophagy. Moreover, Notch1 deficiency may lead to the inactivation of p38 and the reduction of β-catenin expression in the Notch1+/− RUN group. In conclusion, Notch1 plays a critical role in physiologic cardiac hypertrophy through the p38 signaling pathway. Our results will help to understand the underlying mechanism of Notch1 on physiological cardiac hypertrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Indirect CO 2 capture and utilization by biomimetic mineralization to NSQ. • Hierarchical NSQ sphere of 10 μm diameter assembled by nanosheets is synthesized. • CTS plays a key role in the construction of hierarchical structures. • CTS readily binds Mg2+/Mg thus modulating nucleation and growth of hierarchical NSQ. • The CTS additions, temperature, and time affect the crystal phase and morphology. Recently, CO 2 mineralization with magnesium salts is a cost-effective method for CO 2 utilization and sequestration. The obtained hydrated magnesium carbonate can serve as high-value added functional materials. Inspired by biomineralization, nesquehonite (NSQ) was prepared via chitosan-induced mineralization of MgCl 2 -(NH 4) 2 CO 3 , achieving indirect mineralization of CO 2. The effects of chitosan (CTS) addition, reaction temperature, and reaction time on the phase composition and micromorphology of the products were systematically investigated. When the chitosan addition was 2%, the reaction temperature was 60℃, and the reaction time was 300 min, the obtained product was hierarchical spherical NSQ with an average diameter of 10 μm. The construction mechanism of the hierarchical spherical NSQ was elucidated. Zeta potential and 1H NMR analyses indicated the interaction of CTS with Mg2+, binding Mg2+ through –OH and –NH 2 groups, thereby prolonging the nucleation and growth process of NSQ. FT-IR, XPS, TEM, and AFM analyses revealed that CTS induced directional growth of nanosheets by chemisorption on the crystal surface. Ultimately, through CTS bridging, the nanosheets aggregated and assembled into NSQ sphere. DFT calculations further indicated that CTS forms Mg-O and Mg-N bonds with Mg2+ and that there are Mg-O, Mg-N bonds and hydrogen bonding interactions between CTS and NSQ. This work provides new insights into the preparation of hierarchical NSQ via a biomimetic mineralization mechanism. Additionally, NSQ with a multiscale hierarchical structure has a promising future in the fields of adsorbents, templating agents, and drug carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland ecosystem health is significantly impacted by degradation, yet the correlation between grassland degradation and soil microorganisms remains unclear. In our study, we investigated the effects of grassland degradation on soil microbial populations and metabolic functions in Shiqu County in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using metagenomic sequencing and the Biolog EcoPlates method. Our findings indicated that grassland degradation reduces vegetation biomass and soil nutrients (e.g., above-ground biomass [AGB, −84.19 %], soil organic carbon [SOC, −37.13 %], total carbon [TC, −56.93 %], and microbial biomass carbon [MBC, −66.38 %]) while increasing soil pH. Significant alterations in the classification of soil bacterial communities (explaining 82.77 % of the variance) and fungal communities (explaining 78.31 % of the variance) were observed, with a significant correlation (r = 0.9969, p = 0.001). Genes associated with carbon degradation and enzyme activity degradation showed decreased relative abundance in cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and starch, with similar trends in enzyme activity regulation. Additionally, the AWCD (average well color development) value of non-degraded grasslands significantly exceeded that of degraded grasslands. Simultaneously, soil microorganisms exhibited a preference for carbon sources like amino acids, carbohydrates, and polymers. The study unveils characteristic changes in microbial community and metabolic functions under varying grassland degradation levels while examining influencing factors. • Grassland degradation has resulted in significant changes within the soil microbial community. • Grassland degradation caused a decrease in carbon metabolism-related enzyme activities. • Grassland degradation altered soil carbon utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant galls are an important chemical resource, and allow scientists to explore the active substances resulting from continuous interactions between plants and gall-inducing insects. In this study, the gall-inducing insect, Cryptosiphum atriplicivorum (Hemiptera: Aphididae), was identified for the first time from galls on Artemisia sieversiana and A. sylvatica. The chemical components of the galls were analyzed using hydro-distillation, and higher concentrations of essential oils (EOs) were found in galls on A. sylvatica than in those from A. sylvatica. GC-MS analysis revealed that the major chemical components in the EOs from A. sieversiana and A. sylvatica galls were monoterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids, including eucalyptol, (–)-borneol, (+)-camphor, β -caryophyllene, and (E)- β -farnesene. Concentrations of these chemicals were higher in the galls than in uninfected plants. Fumigant toxicity assays demonstrated that A. sylvatica and A. sieversiana gall EOs had strong insecticidal activity against C. chinensis , with LC 50 values of 7.65 ± 1.84 and 46.79 ± 5.21 μL/L, respectively. Moreover, the monoterpenoids eucalyptol, (–)-borneol, and (+)-camphor, which were prominent in the gall tissues, all exhibited significant fumigant activity against Callosobruchus chinensis (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), with LC 50 values of 20.96 ± 4.19 μL/L, 7.37 ± 0.60 μL/L, and 4.89 ± 1.52 μL/L, respectively. Interestingly, fumigation with these EOs at insecticidal concentrations did not affect soybean seed germination or seedling growth. These results illustrate that chemicals from the galls on A. sieversiana and A. sylvatica have the potential to be exploited as insecticides for overcoming storage pests. [Display omitted] • Aphid galls are quite abundant resources with defensive components. • Cryptosiphum atriplicivoru identified for the first time here as a gall-inducing insect from the Artemisia spp. • EOs extracted from these galls contain high concentrations of volatile terpenoids. • Gall EOs showed fumigant toxicity against the storage pest Callosobruchus chinensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the association between serum levels of common and uncommon unsaturated fatty acids and prediabetes risk. Data were collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2003–2004 and 2011–2012. Weighted proportional and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association of serum PUFAs and MUFAs with prediabetes risk after adjusting for potential confounders. A total of 3575 individuals were enrolled in this study. Serum levels of PUFAs EPA (20:5 n3) and GLA (18:3 n6) were associated with increased prediabetes risk (EPA (20:5 n3): OR = 1.878, 95% CI: 1.177–2.996, P trend = 0.002; GLA (18:3 n6): 1.702, 95% CI: 1.140–2.541, P trend = 0.016). The MUFAs PA (16:1 n7) and EA (20:1 n9) were associated with the risk of prediabetes (OR in quintile5: PA (16:1 n7): 1.780, 95% CI: 1.056–3.001, P trend = 0.003; EA (20:1 n9): 0.587, 95% CI: 0.347–0.994, P trend = 0.010). Moreover, nonlinear analysis revealed that serum levels of EPA (20:5 n3) and EA (20:1 n-9) were nonlinearly associated with prediabetes risk. Some serum n-3 PUFAs are positively associated with prediabetes, several serum n-6 PUFAs are inversely associated with prediabetes. Regulating individual serum USFA levels may help prevent prediabetes, thereby providing evidence for clinical and nutritional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NiFe‐based hydroxides are considered as promising nonprecious catalysts for water oxidation due to their low cost and easy preparation. However, the rational design of NiFe‐based electrocatalysts remains a great challenge to address the sluggish reaction kinetics and severe deactivation problems for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, the authors report a facile approach to fabricate an amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe hydroxide catalyst, which enables high activity and outstanding stability toward OER in alkaline media. The overpotential of electrodeposited amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe is only 195 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Meanwhile, the durability of the amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe is maintained for 300 h at 100 mA cm−2. The comprehensive characterization results reveal that the improved electrochemical performance of the amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe catalyst is originated from the favorable oxidation transition of active sites enabled by Ce‐doping. It is a very good strategy to introduce highly oxidized state ions to regulate the NiFe‐based catalyst to improve the catalytic activity and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism by which closely related species can coexist is a central factor in the stability of ecological communities. The larch adelgid (Adelges laricis laricis) and the eastern spruce adelgid (Adelges (Sacchiphantes) abietis) have both been found on the branches of Picea koraiensis in China. These two adelgids exhibit strong infectivity and readily induce the formation of 'fish scale-like' and 'pineapple-like' galls with branch parasitism rates of between 75.01 ± 7.03 and 88.02 ± 4.39%. Interestingly, the gall tissues in which these two gall-inducing insects were found to be coexisting were discovered at a rate of ~0.2% in the studied populations. The weight and number of gall chambers as well as the number of adelgids in the 'fish scale-like' side were higher than those in the 'pineapple-like' side. Furthermore, compared with the normal branches, a diterpene neoabietic acid was found at elevated concentrations in the gall tissues, with especially high concentrations seen in the tissues of the co-occupied galls. Neoabietic acid exhibited strong antibacterial activities against Bacillus spp. isolated from the branches of P. koraiensis , as well as potent antifungal activity against the hyphal growth of Fusarium graminearum JMY-1, which was obtained from the gall tissues. Our result provides evidence that the coexistence of the two closely related species could be explained by alterations of the host tissues by the insects resulting in increased concentrations of the antimicrobial agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent control delays and changeable grid operational conditions pose significant challenges to the stability of the Modular multilevel converter-based high voltage direct current (MMC-HVDC) system, inducing the risk of high-frequency resonances (HFR). This paper proposes a passivity enhancement based on the second-order digital differentiator (DD) and lead-lag compensator, ensuring reliable and robust HFR suppression performance even under the resonance frequency drift and fault earthing scenes. First, the passivity-based stability analysis is provided based on the system output impedance model, elucidating the HFR mechanisms and frequency drift problems. Second, the proposed passivity enhancement scheme's control structure and impedance reshaping principle are analyzed to verify resonance suppression ability. Third, the control parameters tuning process and direct realization of differentiator are detailed, reinforcing the stable margin and harmonic rejection ability. Finally, several case studies and simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed passivity-based HFR suppression scheme. • The proposed scheme integrates a second-order digital differentiator plus a lead-lag compensator. • Superior passivity and harmonic rejection ability are ensured, with frequency drift risk-solving ability. • Parameters tuning and differentiator discretization realization are elaborated. • Large phase lag and noise amplification problems are solved by impedance reshaping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mouse femur, particularly the distal femur, is commonly utilized in orthopedic research. Despite its significance, little is known about the key events involved in the postnatal development of the distal femur. Therefore, investigating the development process of the mouse distal femur is of great importance. In this study, distal femurs of CD-1 mice aged 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks were examined. We found that the width and height of the distal femur continued to increase till the 4th week, followed with stabilization. Notably, the width to height ratio remained relatively consistent with age. Micro computed tomography analysis demonstrated gradual increases in bone volume/tissue volume, trabecular number, and trabecular thickness from 1 to 6 weeks, alongside a gradual decrease in trabecular separation. Histological analysis further indicated the appearance of the secondary ossification center at approximately 2 weeks, with ossification mostly completed by 4 weeks, leading to the formation of a prototype epiphyseal plate. Subsequently, the epiphyseal plate gradually narrowed at 6 and 8 weeks. Moreover, the thickness and maturity of the bone cortex surrounding the epiphyseal plate increased over time, reaching peak cortical bone density at 8 weeks. In conclusion, to enhance model stability and operational ease, we recommend constructing conventional mouse models of the distal femur between 4 and 8 weeks old. • Revealing the key events involved in the postnatal development of the distal femur. • There are continuous increases in distal femur width and height until the 4th week. • Mouse between 4w and 8w are recommend for models of the distal femur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to develop soybean polysaccharide (SSPS) -carboxylated nanocellulose (CNC) blending films with enhanced mechanical and barrier properties to be used as a tear-free and edible packaging materials. The films were formed by casting method, with CNC as the strengthening unit and glycerol as the plasticizer. The effect of CNC on structural and physical performances of the SSPS-CNC films were studied. SEM indicated that the film will stratify with excess CNC (10 %), but the film remains intact and compact. Incorporation of CNC into SSPS films did not change peak position in the XRD pattern significantly. Hydrogen bonds among SSPS, glycerol and CNC were indicated by the FTIR spectra. The compounding of CNC greatly lessened the light transmittance and hydrophilicity (CA increased from 55.42° to 70.67°), but perfected the barrier (WVP decreased from 3.595 × 10−10 to 2.593 × 10−10 g m−1 s−1 Pa−1) and mechanical properties (TS improved from 0.806 to 1.317 MPa). The results of packaging dehydrated vegetable indicated that the SSPS-8CNC film can effectively inhibit the packaged cabbage absorption water vapor. As a consequence, SSPS film perfected by CNC is hopeful to pack dehydrated vegetables in instant foods. [Display omitted] • The blending of CNC improved the film's mechanical and barrier properties. • The SSPS-CNC blending film possesses a weaker hydrophilicity. • The SSPS-CNC film can be used for packaging dehydrated vegetables in instant foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of integration of low-frequency vibration isolation and vibration energy harvesting, this paper proposes a novel nonlinear oscillator with triboelectric nanogenerator damper (NO-TENGD), which can realize different nonlinear characteristics of quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) and bistable by changing the length of rigid links. The mechanism of improving the isolation performance of NO-TENGD was analyzed and discussed with a dynamic model proposed, and the effects of excitation frequency, friction force, geometric parameters, and spring stiffness were studied. The damping can be increased by adjusting the pressure of TENGD, which can effectively suppress the resonance peak value of response amplitude and force transmissibility. The experimental results show that when the excitation frequency is larger, the amplitude response of NO-TENGD is smaller under frictionless condition, and the amplitude response of NO-TENGD under large friction condition is smaller than that under small friction one. NO-TENGD with QZS has a good vibration isolation effect, and the output power can light up 50 LED lights or electronic watches. Finally, NO-TENGD with QZS can achieve low frequency vibration suppression, and increasing damping can reduce the response amplitude and force transmissibility of the beam bridge in the resonance frequency range. • Triboelectric nanogenerator damper is proposed to improve isolation performance. • Increase damping to suppress resonance peaks of amplitude and transmissibility. • Vibration of the isolator can be monitored through output voltage. • Triboelectric nanogenerator can light up 50 LED lights or electronic watches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A double bistable superposition strategy is proposed to improve the energy harvesting performance of ultra-low frequency vibration. • DBSP-TENG is designed to harvest human vibration energy, and the advantages are verified. • The output voltage and output power were increased by 2.5 times and 4.2 times. • Human-wearing experiments validated DBSP-TENG's practical value. The output of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is related to the relative motion of friction materials, and it is difficult for traditional bistable TENG to have a large amplitude in a small space which is a significant challenge for wearable applications. Especially, the vibration produced by the movement of human limbs has ultra-low frequency characteristics. This paper proposes a double bistable superimposed triboelectric nanogenerator (DBSP-TENG) to achieve large amplitude motion under ultra-low frequency excitation, thereby increasing the response amplitude and output power of TENG. The simplified physical model of DBSP-TENG is analyzed and its dynamic response characteristics are numerically simulated to verify its bistability. The experimental results show that under the ultra-low frequency excitation condition, the output can be increased by superimposing bistability without changing the bistable region conditions. Compared with traditional bistable, the output voltage and power of DBSP-TENG are increased to 2.5 times and 4.2 times at 2 Hz, respectively. The application value of DBSP-TENG is further proved by human wearing experiments. DBSP-TENG can harvest ultra-low frequency vibration energy to power microelectronic components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since December 2019, the infection caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed an enormous threat to human health security worldwide. Constant mutation of viral genome and varying therapeutic responses of patients infected with this virus prompted efforts to uncover more novel regulators in the pathogenesis. The involvement of N6 -methyladenosine, a modified form of RNA, plays a crucial role in viral replication, viral pathogenicity, and intricate signaling pathways connected with immune responses. This review discusses research advances revealing the regulation of the life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and antiviral responses of host cells by RNA m6A modification, highlights the biological functions of N6 -methyladenosine components in SARS-CoV-2 infection and virus-host interactions, and outlines current challenges and future directions for exploring the potential clinical value of m6A modification in COVID-19. [Display omitted] • RNA m6A modification in SARS-CoV-2 genome significantly affects viral replication and pathogenicity. • RNA m6A modification in host cell genome can be triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection, altering antiviral responses of host cells to SARS-CoV-2 through a variety of mechanisms. • RNA m6A modification and m6A enzymes serve as promising prognostic factors and therapeutic targets for COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular disease is the prime determinant to cardiovascular morbidities and mortalities, which comprises the early vascular damage and subsequent cardiovascular events. Non-alcohol Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a systemic metabolic disorder that drives the progression of vascular disease through complex interactions. Although a causal relationship between NAFLD and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has not been established, a growing number of epidemiological studies have demonstrated an independent association between NAFLD and early vascular disease and subsequent cardiovascular events. In addition, mechanistic studies suggest that NAFLD initiates and accelerates vascular injury by increasing systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, impairing insulin sensitivity and lipid metabolism, and modulating epigenetics, the intestinal flora and hepatic autonomic nervous system; thus, NAFLD is a putative driving force for CVD progression. In this review, we summarize the clinical evidence supporting the association of NAFLD with subclinical vascular disease and cardiovascular events and discuss the potential mechanisms by which NAFLD promotes the progression of vascular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model offers a general and systematic framework to represent a nonlinear plant and provides an effective platform to facilitate stability analysis and control synthesis. This paper is concerned with the stability of the equilibrium point of a class of T-S fuzzy-model-based coupled control systems (TSFCCSs). Combined the Lyapunov method and graph theory, a systematic method to construct a global Lyapunov function for TSFCCSs is proposed, and then the substantial criteria of global stability at the equilibrium point with the condition of the system topology property are obtained. The theoretical results are suitable for the microgrid which is an application of the coupled control system. The significance of the presented results is that the global asymptotic stability of the microgrid can be achieved at the equilibrium point owing to the proposed secondary nonlinear T-S fuzzy control. Finally, one numerical simulation of a microgrid with six-generator seven-bus topology is presented to illustrate the progressiveness and feasibility of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupled oscillator systems under the stochastic disturbance in practical have nonlinearity and uncertainty. To overcome the issue, the T–S fuzzy coupled oscillator system (TSFCOS) model is proposed in this paper, which provides an effective solution to coupled oscillator systems that are complex, uncertain and ill-defined. Subsequently, with the proposed nonlinear T–S fuzzy control, we give insight to the stability of the TSFCOSs with stochastic disturbance. Combined Lyapunov method and graph-theoretical technique, a systematic method to construct a global Lyapunov function for TSFCOSs is first provided, and then substantial stability criteria with the condition of the system topology property are obtained. Considering the application of our theoretical results in practical engineering, microgrids (the power networks) can be regarded as a kind of TSFCOSs with stochastic disturbance. With a numerical test of a six-generator seven-bus microgrid, the progressiveness and feasibility of our theoretical results are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel composite auxetic reentrant honeycomb structure is designed and fabricated. • The underwater impact properties of composite reentrant honeycomb structure were explored and analyzed by experiment and finite element analysis. • The effect of gradient form, peak pressure and decaying time on the fluid-structure interaction was analyzed and revealed. • The effect of cavitation of composite reentrant honeycomb structure was analyzed and investigated. In this paper, the effects of the gradient form, peak pressure and decaying time on the fluid-structure interaction of composite auxetic re-entrant honeycomb structures was experimentally and numerically investigated. The specimens for this experiment were manufactured by hot-press molding method. The acrylic transparent tube was utilized to accommodate water medium, pistons and specimen during experiment. The exponential decaying shock wave was simulated by accelerating the fly plate to impact the piston based on the one-stage light gas gun system. The incident velocity of the fly plate and process of the fluid-structure interaction response were monitored by high frame rate camera. In addition, the velocity of the shock wave in water was measured by transducers installed at different measuring points. The voltage signal of the dynamic overpressure collected by transducers was amplified by the charge amplifier and recorded by the oscilloscope. On the other hand, finite element software Abaqus/Explicit was applied to simulate the cavitation process of water domain and dynamic response of specimens. The experimental results and numerical results were in good agreement. The results indicated that the increase of the thickness of the fly plate had a certain effect on the propagation velocity of the shock wave, and the increase of the peak pressure would make the cavitation generation position close to the fluid-structure interface and make the cavitation duration longer. And the average structure which has a minimum transformation of 8.12 mm shows better underwater impact resistance than the gradient structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Core–shell structures exhibit excellent versatility, tunability, and stability due to the different material compositions. Here, we synthesized the core–shell structure (SiO2@Au) by sol–gel method and measured the scattering spectra of its monomer, dimer, and trimer by dark field technique. Meanwhile, the contribution of multipole moments to the scattering cross-section is discussed by Mie theory. The simulated total scattering cross-section mainly contributed by electric dipole moments is in good agreement with the experimental spectra. We also found that the inner surface charge of gold shells changes significantly at different wavelengths of linearly polarized light as well as at different circularly polarized light. The asymmetric trimer with a core–shell structure has a more significant chiral response than the gold trimer. Meanwhile, there is a significant electric field enhancement at the slit between particles. This is especially useful for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and the detection of trace chiral molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the problem of global asymptotic stability for the discrete-time stochastic coupled systems with time-varying delay (DSCSTD). Based on graph theory and Lyapunov method, a systematic method is given for constructing a global Lyapunov function for the DSCSTD. Some novel stability criteria for the DSCSTD are obtained. Furthermore, to demonstrate the significance in practice, the theoretical results are applied to stochastic coupled oscillators. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. The above work will provide a theoretical principle for subsequent controller design of the DSCSTD in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the correlation between the clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings and the hospitalization days in Coronavirus Infectious Disease-19 (COVID-19) discharged patients. We retrospectively identified 172 discharged patients with COVID-19 pneumonia from January 10, 2020, to February 28, 2020, in Hunan province. The patients were categorized into group 1 (≤ 19 days) and group 2 (> 19 days) based on the time from symptom onset to discharge. Cough during admission occurred more commonly in group 2 (68.4%) than in group 1 (53.1%, p = 0.042). White blood cell (p = 0.045), neutrophil counts (p = 0.023), Alanine aminotransferase (p = 0.029), Aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.027) and Lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.021) that were above normal were more common in group 2. Patients with single lesions were observed more in group 1(17.7%, p = 0.018) and multiple lesions observed more in group 2(86.8%, p = 0.012). The number of lobes involved (p = 0.008) in the CT score (p = 0.001) for each patient was all differences between the two groups with a statistically significant difference. Mixed ground-glass opacity (GGO) and consolidation appearances were observed in most patients. GGO components > consolidation appearance was more common in group 1 (25.0%) than in group 2 (8.0%) with a significant difference (0.015), GGO < consolidation was more common in group 2(71.1%, p = 0.012). From the logistic regression analysis, the CT score (OR, 1.223; 95% CI, 1.004 to 1.491, p = 0.046) and the appearance of GGO > consolidation (OR, 0.150; 95% CI, 0.034 to 0.660, p = 0.012) were independently associated with the hospitalization days. Thus, special attention should be paid to the role of radiological features in monitoring the disease prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since intermittent nature of distributed generation and uncertainty in load behavior, the existing secondary control are not sufficient to deal with robustness and fast response. In this paper, attacked from a cooperative based control perspective inspired to the tracking consistency paradigm, a robust nonlinear distributed secondary voltage controller is proposed to achieve fast compensation for the islanded microgrid. Employing sparse communication, the proposed control strategy can achieve a compromise between the conflicting goals of voltage regulation and reactive power sharing. As the distributed architecture only requires the information of its own and its neighbor, the use of centralized controllers is avoided and the flexibility and scalability of system can be enhanced. Finally, the stability analysis is provided and the simulation results are presented to verify control performance under rapid load changes, robustness under communication failure, and flexibility during plug-and-play operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To analyse clinical and radiological changes from disease onset to exacerbation in coronavirus infectious disease-19 (COVID-19) patients.Methods: We reviewed clinical histories of 276 patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and extracted data on patients who met the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 severe/fatal pneumonia and had an acute exacerbation starting with mild or common pneumonia.Results: Twenty-four patients were included. Of these, 8% were smokers, 54% had been to Wuhan, and 46% had comorbidities. Before acute exacerbation, elevated lactate dehydrogenase (232.9 ± 88.7) was present, and chest CT scans showed the number of involved lobes was 4 (2-5) and total CT score was 6 (2-8). Following acute exacerbation, patients were likely to have more clinical symptoms (p < 0.01) and abnormal laboratory changes (p < 0.01). The number of involved lobes and CT score after an exacerbation significantly increased to 5 (5-5) and 12 (9-14), respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that, when the cutoff value of CT score was 5, the sensitivity and specificity for severe pneumonia were 90% and 70%, respectively. CT findings of ground glass opacity with consolidations (91.7%), bilateral distribution (100.0%), and multifocal lesion (100.0%) were features in found in patients after exacerbation.Conclusions: There are significant changes in clinical, laboratory, and CT findings in patients from disease onset to exacerbation. An increase in the number of involved lobes or an increased CT score from the baseline may predict poor clinical outcomes. Combining an assessment of CT changes with clinical and laboratory changes could help clinical teams evaluate the prognosis.Key Points: • The common chest CT signs of COVID-19 pneumonia after exacerbation were ground glass opacity (GGO) with consolidation, bilateral distribution, and multifocal lesions. • An increase in number of involved lobes or an increased CT score from the baseline may predict a poor clinical outcome. • Worsened symptoms and abnormal laboratory results are also associated with poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydromagnesite with different morphologies has been synthesized using magnesite as raw materials. The influences of pyrolysis temperature, the pH value of the magnesium bicarbonate solution and pyrolysis time on the preparation process of hydromagnesite were investigated. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fully automatic specific surface meter (BET). The phase transition process and mechanism of hydrated magnesium carbonate with different crystal structures were further explored. The results showed that porous rod-like, porous flower-like and lamellar hydromagnesite was prepared at above 70 °C, 90 min and different pH values. The specific surface area of porous rod-like, porous follower-like and lamellar hydromagnesite is 59.292m2/g, 34.568m2/g and 27.973m2/g, respectively. While the average pore sizes of the corresponding hydromagnesite are 15.172 nm, 15.368 nm and 17.132 nm, respectively. Based on the crystal assembly method, the structural stability of hydromagnesite is the highest compared with lansfordite and nesquehonite. Unlabelled Image Typical SEM micrographs of porous rod-like, porous flower-like and lamellar hydromagnesite; Triangular plot of compositional characters of magnesite carbonates; Crystal structure of landsfordite, nesquehonite and hydromagnesite. • Porous rod-like, porous flower-like and lamellar hydromagnesite was prepared using natural magnesite. • The texture properties and shape features of hydromagnesite were characterized. • Hydromagnesite morphology has a significant effect on the texture properties. • Hydromagnesite owns the best structural stability compared with landfordite and nesquehonite. • The phase transformation mechanism of hydrated magnesium carbonate was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs) were fabricated by powder bed fusion (PBF), and the effect of energy densities on the microstructure, phase transformation behavior and shape memory effect (SME) was studied. The results indicated that the NiTi SMAs exhibit a microstructure with coarse and long grains surrounded by fine grains, while the increase in energy density from 44.5 J/mm3 to 133.3 J/mm3 makes the grain size larger, and different energy densities induce various grain orientations. Specifically, the NiTi alloy produces more martensite B19' at two energy densities of 44.5 J/mm3 and 111.1 J/mm3 after aging at 773 K for 2 h. The phase transition behavior of B19' is related to the high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) fraction and the grain orientation spread (GOS) distribution. SME tests showed that the NiTi alloy prepared by PBF had unstable recovery strain compared to the specimens after aging, and the SME of NiTi alloy after aging was more consistent with the evolution of the residual B19' content and grain orientation of the B2 phase. The sample prepared at an energy density of 111.1 J/mm3 exhibited the best recovery strain of 4.5%, depending on the greater residual B19' content and grain orientations of the B2 phase with higher Schmid factors. These results reveal the relationship between the recovery strain and microstructural evolution of NiTi SMAs prepared by PBF, and provide new insights into the fabrication of NiTi alloy with better SME by appropriate PBF process. • B19' phase transition is related to the high angle grain boundaries fraction. • B19' phase transition behavior is related to grain orientation spread distribution. • SME in NiTi with different energy densities depends on the B19' content and orientation. • NiTi alloys prepared at 111.1 J/mm3 exhibited the best recovery strain. • The relationship between recovery strain and microstructural evolution was revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sevoflurane commonly adopted for anesthetic in clinical practice, however, its influences on cerebral blood flow and cognitive function remain controversial. Herein, the sevoflurane-induced hypotension on arterial blood pressure, cerebral blood flow, cognitive function, and hippocampal inflammation was investigated in mice. A significant decrease in arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow was indicated by the sevoflurane anesthesia treatment. Moreover, sevoflurane-induced hypotension was associated with the impaired cognitive function and the increased levels of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and oxidative stress in hippocampus. These findings suggest that sevoflurane-induced hypotension may lead to the cognitive dysfunction and hippocampal inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and hypothesis: Pelvic floor dysfunction is a common condition which can lead to distressing consequences such as urinary incontinence (UI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and fecal incontinence (FI). Pregnancy is a known major risk factor. This study aims to assess the level of knowledge about pelvic floor disorders among pregnant women in our local population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a population of pregnant women in their third trimester. A 47-question questionnaire was distributed to a random sample group. Knowledge scores were calculated. Possible predictive factors for knowledge level such as age, ethnicity, parity, ethnicity and educational levels were studied. Results: Thirty-three out of 104 respondents (31.7%) reported history of urinary incontinence, 3 respondents (2.9%) reported sensation of prolapse, and 1 respondent (0.96%) reported fecal incontinence. The knowledge score for urinary incontinence was the highest at 46.2% and lowest in pelvic organ prolapse at 35.3%. Mean knowledge scores increased significantly with age (p = 0.021) and educational level (p = 0.046). The nulliparous women scored higher than the multiparous women. Age and educational level had a significant impact on multivariate analysis scores. Conclusions: The knowledge on pelvic floor disorders is poor among our local pregnant women. Healthcare professionals should place increased emphasis on advocating pelvic floor exercises for pregnant women during their routine antenatal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine vision is used to reconstruct three-dimensional information from images. To perceive depth information of target objects, many techniques in machine vision such as camera calibration, epipolar lines rectification, stereo matching, etc. are considered. In the stereo-matching field which is regarded as a critical step, local and global stereo-matching methods are the two key methods to get the disparity image which is used to calculate the depth information. A local method – Adaptive Support-Weight (ASW) algorithm which has high efficiency and simple structure can obtain comparable accuracy of results with the global method. But in the final disparity image obtained by ASW, there are still some significant mismatching areas. In this paper, ASW and two disparity refinement steps are proposed to refine the accuracy of the disparity image. The mismatching areas in the disparity image are corrected by the two disparity refinement steps which mainly include the variable-cross region, disparity inheritance, and fixed window voting methods. Then, the performance of the proposed algorithm under different parameters is analyzed based on the Middlebury benchmark. Finally, the experimental results show that the accuracy of the disparity image is improved after the disparity refinement steps and the final refined result is comparable to some stereo-matching algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recently, three successful antineutrino experiments (Daya Bay, Double Chooz, and RENO) measured the neutrino mixing angle θ 13 ; however, significant discrepancies were found, both in the absolute flux and spectral shape. Much effort has been expended investigating the possible reasons for the discrepancies. In this study, Monte Carlo-based sampling was used to evaluate the fission fraction uncertainties. We found that fission cross-section uncertainties are an important source of uncertainty for 235U, 239Pu, and 241Pu, but for 238U, elastic and inelastic cross-sections are more important. Among uncertainty related to manufacturing parameters, fuel density is the main uncertainty; however, the total manufacturing uncertainty was very small. The uncertainties induced by burnup were evaluated through the atomic density uncertainty of the four isotopes. The total fission fraction uncertainties from reactor simulation were 0.83%, 2.24%, 1.79%, and 2.58% for 235U, 238U, 239Pu, and 241Pu, respectively, at the middle of the fuel cycle. The total fission fraction uncertainty was smaller than the previously derived value of 5%. These results are helpful for studying the reactor antineutrino anomaly and precisely measuring the antineutrino spectrum in the Daya Bay antineutrino experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have read the article by Cai et al. and find there is a discrepancy between their data and conclusion. Their statement, "Specifically, DSG2 expression was associated with tumor size", is not supported by their own clinicopathological data and analysis. After reviewing some similar articles, we also found no available evidence showed a statistically significant association between them. Therefore, we would like to suggest Cai et al. to rectify the results they published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]