Search

The conventional Relation Extraction (RE) task involves identifying whether relations exist between two entities in a given sentence and determining their relation types. However, the complexity of practical application scenarios and the flexibility of natural language demand the ability to extract nested relations, i.e., the recognized relation triples may be components of the higher-level relations. Previous studies have highlighted several challenges that affect the nested RE task, including the lack of abundant labeled data, inappropriate neural networks, and underutilization of the nested relation structures. To address these issues, we formalize the nested RE task and propose a hierarchical neural network to iteratively identify the nested relations between entities and relation triples in a layer by layer manner. Moreover, a novel self-contrastive learning optimization strategy is presented to adapt our method to low-data settings by fully exploiting the constraints due to the nested structure and semantic similarity between paired input sentences. Our method outperformed the state-of-the-art baseline methods in extensive experiments, and ablation experiments verified the effectiveness of the proposed self-contrastive learning optimization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research was to investigate the application value of deep learning-based computed tomography (CT) images in the diagnosis of liver tumors. Fifty-eight patients with liver tumors were selected, and their CT images were segmented using a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm. The segmentation results were quantitatively evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), precision, and recall. All the patients were examined and diagnosed by CT enhanced delayed scan technique, and the CT scan results were compared with the pathological findings. The results showed that the DSC, precision, and recall of the CNN algorithm reached 0.987, 0.967, and 0.954, respectively. The images segmented by the CNN were clearer. The diagnostic result of the examination on 56 cases by CT enhanced delay scanning was consistent with that of pathological diagnosis. According to the result of pathological diagnosis, there were 6 cases with hepatic cyst, 9 with hepatic hemangioma, 12 cases with liver metastasis, 10 cases with hepatoblastoma, 3 cases with focal nodular hyperplasia, and 18 cases with primary liver cancer. The result of CT enhanced delay scanning on 58 patients was consistent with that of pathological diagnosis, and the total diagnostic coincidence rate reached 96.55%. In conclusion, the CNN algorithm can perform accurate and efficient segmentation, with high resolution, providing a more scientific basis for the segmentation of liver tumors in CT images. CT enhanced scanning technology has a good effect on the diagnosis and differentiation of liver tumor patients, with high diagnostic coincidence rate. It has important value for the diagnosis of liver tumor and is worthy of clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel chitosan/ZIF-8/algal powder (ZIF-8/CP/CT) composite adsorbent was synthesized for efficient adsorption of uranyl ions in seawater. The results demonstrate that ZIF-8/CP/CT exhibits excellent uranium adsorption performance within the pH range of 4.0–8.0, with an adsorption rate exceeding 89 %. Kinetic and thermodynamic experiments reveal that the theoretical maximum adsorption capacity of ZIF-8/CP/CT for U(VI) is 873 mg/g (308 K, pH = 6.0), indicating a spontaneous exothermic reaction. Mechanistic analysis reveals that the hydroxyl, amino, and P O bonds on the surface of ZIF-8/CP/CT and the C N bond within ZIF-8 play a pivotal role in facilitating uranium adsorption. In addition, quaternary phosphorus salt improves the competitiveness of the adsorbent toward uranium. Compared with ZIF-8 and unsupported ionic liquid ZIF-8/C/CT, the ratio of U V partition coefficients of ZIF-8/CP/CT increases by 20-fold and 6-fold, respectively. Moreover, the implementation of adsorption treatment on genuine uranium tailings wastewater effectively reduces the uranium content to 40 μg/L. Consequently, ZIF-8/CP/CT demonstrates promising potential for extracting uranium from seawater and holds significant value for uranium wastewater treatment. • pH 4-8 has exceptional U adsorption capabilities, making it suitable for extracting uranium from seawater and wastewater. • The K d value of ZIF-8/CP/CT for U is 22 times higher than that for V. • After uranium adsorption in real wastewater, it is reduced to 40 μg/L, meeting the nuclear industry's emission standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reveal the pharmacokinetic process of narirutin, naringin, and honokiol in normal and different courses of liver-stagnation and spleen-deficiency syndrome depressive rats after intragastric administration of Zhi-Zi-Hou-Po decoction (ZZHPD), a rapid ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was proposed in this study. Chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rat was employed as the depression model. Acetonitrile solution containing 0.1% acetic acid and methyl alcohol-water (50 : 50, v / v) was chosen as the protein precipitant and redissolve solution severally; a Shim-pack GISS C18 column coupled with 0.1% aqueous acetic acid-acetonitrile in gradient elution was employed to separate the mixed constituents in plasma. The WinNonLin software (version 6.1) was chosen as the analytical tool for the pharmacokinetic parameters. The results indicated that compared with rats in the control group, the sucrose preference, scores in the open-field test, and the concentration of 5-HT in plasma of rats in CUMS and CUMS + ZZHPD treatment groups were lower, while the immobility time in the forced swimming test of rats in these two groups was longer, which implied that the depression model was successful. These behavioral and biochemical indexes of rats above in the CUMS + ZZHPD treatment group were improved after oral administration of ZZHPD, which indicated that the antidepressant effect of ZZHPD was definite. The UHPLC-MS/MS method was stabilized, sensitive, and exclusive, and the extraction recovery and matrix effect of three analytes were all above 89%. The Tmax, AUC, and Cmax of three ingredients in CUMS-induced depression rats were significantly larger than control rats, while these pharmacokinetic parameters in CUMS + ZZHPD treatment rats were decreased significantly compared with CUMS-induced depression rats, which may relate with the changes in physiological function of the gastrointestinal tract and liver in CUMS-induced liver-stagnation and spleen-deficiency syndrome depressive rats. This study provided important information for the clinical rational use of ZZHPD in antidepressant treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel polyvinyl alcohol–carbon nanotube containing an imidazolyl ionic liquid/chitosan composite hydrogel (termed CBCS) was prepared for highly selective uranium adsorption from seawater. The results show that CBCS has good adsorption properties for uranium within the pH range of 5.0–8.0. Kinetics and thermodynamics experiments show that the theoretical maximum adsorption capacity of CBCS to U(VI) is 496.049 mg/g (288 K, pH = 6.0), indicating a spontaneous exothermic reaction. Mechanism analysis shows that the hydroxyl group, amino group, and C N bond on the surface of CBCS directly participate in uranium adsorption and that the dense pores on the surface of CBCS play an important role in uranium adsorption. The competitive adsorption experiment shows that CBCS has excellent uranium adsorption selectivity. In addition, CBCS exhibits good reusability. After five adsorption–desorption cycles, the uranium adsorption rate of CBCS can still reach >98 %. Hence, CBCS has excellent potential for uranium extraction from seawater. • Hydroxyl group, amino group, and C N bond on the surface of CBCS participate in uranium adsorption • The distribution coefficient of CBCS for uranium is significantly higher than that for vanadium. • The uranium adsorption rate of CBCS can reach >90 % at pH 5.0–8.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is a highly conserved cell protective protein. In this study, we explored its functions in shrimp hemocytes. Our results indicated that LvMANF knockdown could cause a decrease in total hemocyte count (THC) and an increase in caspase3/7 activity. To further explore its working mechanism, transcriptomic analyses were performed with wild-type and LvMANF-knockdown hemocytes. Three upregulated genes from transcriptomic data, including FAS-associated factor 2, rho-associated protein kinase 1, and serine/threonine-protein kinase WNK4 were validated with qPCR. Further experiments showed that LvMANF knockdown and tyrosine kinase LvAbl knockdown could decrease tyrosine phosphorylation in shrimp hemocytes. In addition, the interaction between LvMANF and LvAbl was validated with immunoprecipitation. The knockdown of LvMANF would decrease ERK phosphorylation and increase LvAbl expression. Our results suggest intracellular LvMANF may maintain shrimp hemocyte viability by interacting with LvAbl. • LvMANF keeps shrimp hemocyte viability. • LvMANF maintains ERK-pathway activation in shrimp hemocyte. • LvMANF affects shrimp hemocyte tyrosine phosphorylation. • LvMANF interacts with a tyrosine kinase LvAbl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of metabolic profile of traditional Chinese medicine in vivo is always a challenge task. Usually, screening out and identifying the exogenous compounds manually from total ion chromatograms (TICs) of biologic samples is time-consuming and strenuous. In this study, a systematic identification strategy based on LC–MS was adopted to clarify the metabolic profiling of Zhi-Zi-Hou-Po decoction ( ZZHPD ) in rat. Bile, urine and feces samples of rat were obtained after oral administration and then analyzed by LC–MS after proper preparation. The xenobiotics were screened out from TICs globally and rapidly by untargeted metabolomics-driven strategy (UMDS) based on the combined of XCMS online (a web-based platform to process LC–MS data), MetAlign (a software to process LC–MS data) and SIMCA-P (a software for data analysis). Most of the xenobiotics were identified by means of series product ions filtering (sPIF), which was based on the database-hit of ZZHPD (including prototype and metabolites). Then the unmatched constituents were identified tentatively and their source and metabolic pathway were clarified by using diagnostic fragment ions strategy (DFIS). As a result, a total of 83 compounds including 44 prototype compounds and 39 metabolites were rapidly identified or tentatively characterized from the biologic samples, and among them, four of which were found for the first time. Further research on the correlations of these prototype compounds and metabolites revealed that glucuronidation is the main metabolic pathways of ZZHPD in rat bile and urine, while prototype compounds were the abundant ingredients detected in rat feces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel untargeted metabolomics-driven strategy based on LC-MS was used to rapidly screen and identify the absorbed components and metabolites of Zhi-Zi-Hou-Po decoction (ZZHPD) in rat plasma. The plasma sample was obtained from orbital venous of rats after oral administration and pretreated by protein precipitation before analysis. All sample data from total ion chromatograms (TICs) of LC-TOF/MS were aligned and peak picked by XCMS and MetAlign combined to extract three-dimensional datasets (peak code, t -m/z pairs and ion intensity). Xenobiotics in rat plasma were differentiated from endogenous components by multivariate statistical analysis and then divided into prototype compounds and metabolites by comparing t -m/z with the chemical compounds of ZZHPD. Combined with fragment ions and structure information of LC-TSQ/MS, a total of 61 compounds, including 35 prototype compounds and 26 metabolites, were rapidly identified or tentatively characterized in rat plasma. Results indicated that iridoid glycosides, monoterpenoids, flavonoids, and lignans were the main absorbed chemical components of ZZHPD. Glucuronidation and sulfation were the main metabolic pathways of ZZHPD compounds in vivo. In addition, there were ring-opening reactions and reduction reactions for iridoid glycosides, hydrolysis for flavonoids, as well as hydroxylation and stereoscopic conversion reactions for lignans. This study offers a systematically applicable approach for rapid screening and identification of xenobiotics and metabolites derived from multi-herb prescription in vivo, and provides useful information for ascertaining bioactive ingredients and action mechanisms of ZZHPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium niobate (LN) is widely used in various optoelectronic systems due to its structural anisotropy and ferroelectric feature, which is one of the most essential platforms for next‐generation integrated optoelectronics. However, the insulating and optically transparent characteristics of LN have greatly limited the application in photodetection. Here, a high‐performance LN/WS2 based photodetector is achieved through a van der Waals integration strategy in which the pyroelectric property of LN and the moderate bandgap of WS2 are well combined. Upon light illumination, the light induced carriers in WS2 would increase and the pyroelectric charges of LN will cross the interfacial gap and asymmetrically inject into the WS2, creating an n−/n+ homojunction, thus improving the on‐state current. Under dark conditions, the sudden removal of the laser would introduce an instantaneous enhancement of polarization in the LN lattice, leading to an improved confinement on the remaining carriers in WS2, achieving a lower dark current. In this regard, the configurated device acquires a high on/off ratio more than 104 under zero bias, which represents the best among all the reported LN‐based photodetectors. This work realizes the complementary integration of 2D materials and ferroelectric LN and provides a feasible way for high‐performance photodetectors based on the LN platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effectual-combination ingredients of ZZHPD were identified • A systematic strategy based on multilevel active-constituents mining was provided. • The possible antidepressant effect network of ZZHPD was constructed. Zhi-zi-Hou-po decoction (ZZHPD) has been used to treat depression in the clinic for thousand years in China. However, the pharmacodynamic substance of ZZHPD is still not totally clear due to its complex components. The objective of this study was to identify the effectual combination ingredients (ECIs) of ZZHPD , which could represent the antidepressant effect of the original formula. Firstly, differential plasma absorbed components with different variable importance in projection (VIP) value in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression and control rat were revealed by untargeted metabolomics-driven strategy based on HPLC-ESI-TOF/MS, XCMS online and SIMCA-p software. Secondly, network topology scores (NTS) of plasma absorbed components were exposed by protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis based on components-related genes and depression-related genes, which were performed by network pharmacology tools. Finally, the ECIs were screened by considered of VIP value and NTS. Then the bioactivity was evaluated by cell viability and expression of glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interleukin 1β (IL-1β) of a lipopolysaccharide-induced astrocyte depression model. An effective combination composed with 12 components was filtrated as ECIs of ZZHPD , exposed to which the cell viability effect, the expression of GFAP and IL-1β in astrocytes were essentially equivalent with original ZZHPD (p > 0.05), and that both characteristic constituents and trace compounds of ZZHPD might exert synergistic actions through multi-targets. The result of this study provided useful information for the clinical application and modern development of ZZHPD , and the proposed strategy could be regard as an alternative solution for effective combination screening of herbal medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on plant investigation of Guangxi Lagou Nature Reserve, the result indicated that the vascular plants are abundant, represented by 1,078 species (including varieties, subspecies), belonging to 657 genera in 186 families. Among these plants found, there are about 88 timber plants, 358 medicinal plants, 36 oil plants, 70 fiber plants, 29 starch plants, 25 fruit plants, 28 aromatic plants, 39 tannic plants, 12 health beverage plants, 49 forage plants, 75 ornamental plants, 23 soil-conserving plants, 43 rare and endangered plants. It's urgent to protect the plant resources, so suggestions about conservation and sustainable utilization of the resources were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, novel sodium alginate/Cyphos IL101–loaded reduced graphene oxide/polyethyleneimine (SPGO; Cyphos IL101 = trihexyl (tetradecyl) phosphonium chloride) gel beads were prepared for highly selective extraction of uranium (U) resources from seawater. Results revealed that seawater pH (pH = 8) was the best adsorption condition for SPGO usage, and the adsorption rate of U reached >97 %. Further, in simulated seawater adsorption tests, the distribution coefficient of U was considerably higher than those of coexisting ions. In addition, U adsorption by SPGO, which was chemical adsorption, occurred via a spontaneous endothermic reaction. Mechanism studies revealed that carboxyl, hydroxyl, amino, and phosphate groups on the SPGO surface were involved in U adsorption. The addition of Cyphos IL101 significantly improved the selective adsorption performance of SPGO for U in seawater, and SPGO demonstrated excellent recycling capabilities. Thus, SPGO shows great potential for extracting U from seawater. • The optimum adsorption pH of SPGO for U after Cyphos IL101 loading was 8. • Loading of Cyphos IL101 improved the adsorption selectivity of SPGO for U. • The maximum distribution coefficient ratio of SPGO to U–vanadium was 15.6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-based uranium resources are becoming scarce because of the widespread development and use of nuclear energy. Therefore, to make up for the shortage of uranium resources, a new chitosan/carboxymethyl- β -cyclodextrin/quaternary ammonium salt–functionalized amidoxime carbon adsorbent (CSAOCF) was designed and synthesized for extracting uranium from seawater. Experimental studies show that the adsorption of uranium by CSAOCF is a spontaneous endothermic reaction and chemical adsorption. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacity of uranium can reach 726 mg/g at 308 K and pH = 6. Moreover, the adsorption efficiency and selectivity of CSAOCF for uranium were significantly improved after the introduction of the carboxymethyl group, and the selection and partition coefficient of CSAOCF for uranium and vanadium increased from 16-fold to 30-fold under the same conditions. This indicates that there is a synergistic effect between carboxyl and amidoxime groups, which can promote the adsorption of uranium by CSAOCF. Furthermore, CSAOCF exhibits good oil resistance and can be reused more than five times. Therefore, CSAOCF containing carboxymethyl and amidoxime functional groups can considerably improve the selective adsorption of uranium and has great potential in the extraction of uranium from seawater. [Display omitted] • Synergistic effect of carboxymethyl and amidoxime groups enhances U adsorption, and the theoretical q m can reach 726 mg/g. • AO-adsorbent containing carboxymethyl group has a 30-fold higher K d for U than for V. • Under the pollution condition of 20 % oil content, the adsorption rate of uranium only decreases by 3.8 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR) has attracted much attention for yielding ammonia. Thus, it is of great significance to exploit new catalysts with a high nitrate-to-ammonia (NO3−-to-NH3) activity. In this study, we embedded different concentrations of Cu in an oxide octahedral molecular sieve (Cu(x)-OMS-1). We found that the Cu-dispersed OMS-1 optimizes the adsorption capabilities of the intermediates in NITRR and inhibits the competitive HER at a high current density. We reveal, using operando Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and theoretical investigations, that the introduction of copper effectively promotes nitrate protonation during NITRR. Consequently, the catalyst presents the capacity for reducing nitrate to ammonia at a high current density (>100 mA cm−2) with ∼100% Faraday efficiency. The maximum NH3 partial current density reaches 148 mA cm−2 with a high production rate (0.69 mmol h−1 cm−2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract For the past decades, quantitative serum proteomics in mammals have been widely applied in biomarker screening. Various serum protein removal methods have been developed to effectively sequester serum abundant proteins. However, few methods have been found for the removal of arthropod serum abundant proteins. Here, gel filtration chromatography and ultracentrifugation methods were applied to remove hemocyanin from Litopeaneus vannamei serum. When shrimps were challenged with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), a total of 486 serum proteins were identified using mass spectrometry, and 18 upregulated WSSV responsive proteins were identified with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ). These results provide an effective method to remove hemocyanin from shrimp serum. With this method some previously unidentified WSSV responsive serum proteins were revealed, which would give us a better insight into the response of crustaceans to WSSV infection. Highlights • A novel method has been developed to effectively remove hemocyanin from shrimp serum. • Novel shrimp serum proteins have been identified. • Novel WSSV responsive proteins have been identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work realizes the complementary and hybrid integration of ferroelectric LiNbO3 with 2D materials toward a high-performance photodetection chip. Van der Waals Integrated LiNbO3/WS2 for High-Performance UV-Vis-NIR Photodetection (Laser Photonics Rev. 17(10)/2023) B Van der Waals Integrated LiNbO SB 3 sb /WS SB 2 sb for High-Performance UV-Vis-NIR Photodetection b In article number 2300286, Heyuan Guan, Tiefeng Yang, Huihui Lu, and colleagues propose a LiNbO3/WS2 hetero-integrated architecture, optimize the light-to-electric conversion through combining pyroelectric effect with photoconductive effect, and realize high on/off ratio operation. [Extracted from the article]

Most existing relation extraction methods focus on extracting relations with the flat or overlapping structure, where constituent elements of these relations are only entities. However, in many application scenarios, relations with nested structures are more common, of which the elements can be both entities or relation triples. The almost vacant research on nested relation extraction can be attributed to two difficulties: (1) how to formalize and recover the nested structures of relations from the unstructured texts. (2) how to keep the extraction method effective in low-data settings. To solve these problems, first, we formally define the nested RE task and propose a prompt-tuning-based method, called iterPrompt , through constructing the iterative prompt templates for all possible relation triples to establish the nested structures. Then, we combine the prompts with the pre-trained language model by converting the nested RE task into the masked word prediction task to adapt our method to low-data settings. Furthermore, to alleviate the data sparsity problem, a dynamic relation identifier assignment strategy is proposed by associating the candidate relation triple with the randomly generated relation identifier, for representing the semantics of the current extracted relation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed iterPrompt method outperforms previous state-of-the-art baselines and has good compatibility for both flat and overlapping relation extraction tasks. • Nested relation extraction plays a crucial role in real-world applications. • An iterative prompt learning method is proposed to model the nested structure. • A relation identifier assignment method is proposed to solve data sparsity problem. • The proposed method is effective for extracting different kinds of relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural cell death pathways such as apoptosis and pyroptosis play dual roles: they eliminate harmful cells and modulate the immune system by dampening or stimulating inflammation. Synthetic protein circuits capable of triggering specific death programs in target cells could similarly remove harmful cells while appropriately modulating immune responses. However, cells actively influence their death modes in response to natural signals, making it challenging to control death modes. Here, we introduce naturally inspired "synpoptosis" circuits that proteolytically regulate engineered executioner proteins and mammalian cell death. These circuits direct cell death modes, respond to combinations of protease inputs, and selectively eliminate target cells. Furthermore, synpoptosis circuits can be transmitted intercellularly, offering a foundation for engineering synthetic killer cells that induce desired death programs in target cells without self-destruction. Together, these results lay the groundwork for programmable control of mammalian cell death. [Display omitted] • Synthetic synpoptosis protein circuits proteolytically control apoptosis and pyroptosis • Circuits override cell death biases and induce mixed death modes in populations • Synpoptosis circuits can be coupled to inputs to enable cell-state-specific activation • Engineered sender cells can kill other cells through intercellular circuit transmission Naturally inspired protein engineering produces synpoptosis circuits that programmably control user-selectable death programs in target mammalian cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhi - Zi - Da - Huang decoction ( ZZDHD ), a typical traditional Chinese medicine prescription, is widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of alcoholic liver disease. However, due to lack of holistic metabolic research, the active ingredients of ZZDHD have not been fully elucidated. It entails a huge obstacle for the quality evaluation, pharmacokinetic studies and clinical-safe medication administration of ZZDHD . In this work, an untargeted metabolomics-driven approach was proposed to rapidly screen and characterize xenobiotics and related metabolites in vivo conducted by LC–TOF/MS and LC–QqQ/MS. The t R – m / z pairs which were present in the ZZDHD -dosed group and absent in the control group could be clearly displayed by XCMS Online platform combined with supervised orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. Among them, a total of 61 ZZDHD -related xenobiotics and metabolites including 34 prototype components and 27 metabolites were rapidly identified or tentatively characterized in rat plasma. The results indicated that iridoid glycosides and monoterpenoids from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, flavonoid glycosides from Citrus aurantium L., as well as anthraquinones from Rheum palmatum L. were the main absorbed chemical components of ZZDHD . Hydrolysis, glucuronidation and sulfation were the main metabolic pathways of ZZDHD in vivo . The present study provided a solid basis for further revealing the relationship between the xenobiotic metabolome and pharmacological activity of ZZDHD . In addition, the application of untargeted metabolomics-driven approach offers a fresh insight for rapid screening and identifying xenobiotics and metabolites of ZZDHD and other multiherb prescription. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]