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BACKGROUND: Early weaning is prone to damage intestinal barrier function, resulting in diarrhea, whereas rutin, as a natural flavonoid with multiple biological functions, shows potential in piglets. Therefore, the effects of dietary rutin on growth, antidiarrheal, barrier function, antioxidant status and cecal microbiota of weaned piglets were investigated with the control group (CON) (basal diet) and Rutin (basal diet+500 mg kg−1 rutin) groups fed for 14 days. RESULTS: The results showed that dietary 500 mg kg−1 rutin significantly decreased diarrhea index, serum diamine oxidase activity and total aerobic bacterial population in mesenteric lymph nodes, whereas it significantly increased the gain‐to‐feed ratio (G:F) and serum growth hormone content, jejunal villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio, and also enhanced jejunal claudin‐1 and zonula occludens‐1 mRNA and protein expression. Meanwhile, dietary rutin significantly decreased inflammation‐associated mRNA expression, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, swollen mitochondrial number and mitochondrial area in the jejunum, whereas it increased the total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD) and glutathione peroxidase activities and activated the Nrf2 signaling pathway. Moreover, dietary rutin significantly increased Firmicutes abundance and decreased Campylobacterota abundance, which were closely associated with the decreased diarrhea index and MDA content or increased Claudin‐1 expression and T‐SOD activity. CONCLUSION: Dietary 500 mg kg−1 rutin increased G:F by improving intestinal morphology, and alleviated diarrhea by enhancing intestinal barrier, which might be associated with the enhanced antioxidant capacity via activating the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway and the improved cecal microbial composition in weaned piglets. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz (THz) radiation sources based on two‐color femtosecond plasmas in air are becoming a mature technology for coherent spectroscopy and strong‐field physics across the extended THz range to several tens of THz. The field‐resolved detection of such THz transients relies on the third‐order nonlinearity of the detection medium. Here, a comparative measurement is demonstrated with air‐biased coherent detection (ABCD) and solid‐state biased detection (SSBCD) as a novel method to measure the dispersion of the magnitude and phase of the relevant third‐order nonlinearity χ(3)(2ω±Ω;ω,ω,±Ω)$\chi ^{(3)}(2\omega \pm \Omega;\omega,\omega,\pm \Omega)$ for fused silica (SiO2${\rm SiO}_2$) and silicon nitride (SiN). Based on the development of the ultrabroadband SSBCD device with a detection bandwidth exceeding 30 THz, χ(3)$\chi ^{(3)}$ measurements are obtained across the 1–28 THz frequency range, hence covering the THz and far‐infrared. It is shown that the vibrational modes in SiO2${\rm SiO}_2$ and SiN in the THz range lead to strong resonant enhancement and dispersion of the nonlinearity. The SSBCD devices operate down to nanojoule (nJ) probe energy, and their is demonstrated by measuring the dielectric function of the Lorentzian line profile of transverse‐optical (TO) phonon mode at 9 THz in single‐crystal gallium arsenide (GaAs) and observing the weak phonon combination bands near the TO phonon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve fast and accurate detection of Gannan navel orange fruits with different ripeness levels in a natural environment under all-weather scenarios and then to realise automated harvesting of Gannan navel oranges, this paper proposes a YOLOv5-NMM (YOLOv5 with Navel orange Measure Model) object detection model based on the improvement in the original YOLOv5 model. Based on the changes in the phenotypic characteristics of navel oranges and the Chinese national standard GB/T 21488-2008, the maturity of Gannan navel oranges is tested. And it addresses and improves the problems of occlusion, dense distribution, small target size, rainy days, and light changes in the detection of navel orange fruits. Firstly, a new detection head of 160 × 160 feature maps is constructed in the detection layer to improve the multi-scale target detection layer of YOLOv5 and to increase the detection accuracy of the different maturity levels of Gannan navel oranges of small sizes. Secondly, a convolutional block attention module is incorporated in its backbone layer to capture the correlations between features in different dimensions to improve the perceptual ability of the model. Then, the weighted bidirectional feature pyramid network structure is integrated into the Neck layer to improve the fusion efficiency of the network on the feature maps and reduce the amount of computation. Lastly, in order to reduce the loss of the target of the Gannan Navel Orange due to occlusion and overlapping, the detection frame is used to remove redundancy using the Soft-NMS algorithm to remove redundant candidate frames. The results show that the accuracy rate, recall rate, and average accuracy of the improved YOLOv5-NMM model are 93.2%, 89.6%, and 94.2%, respectively, and the number of parameters is only 7.2 M. Compared with the mainstream network models, such as Faster R-CNN, YOLOv3, the original model of YOLOv5, and YOLOv7-tiny, it is superior in terms of the accuracy rate, recall rate, and average accuracy mean, and also performs well in terms of the detection rate and memory occupation. This study shows that the YOLOv5-NMM model can effectively identify and detect the ripeness of Gannan navel oranges in natural environments, which provides an effective exploration of the automated harvesting of Gannan navel orange fruits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of complex scenarios, the information insufficiency of classification tasks dominated by a single modality has led to a bottleneck in classification performance. The joint application of multimodal remote sensing data for surface observation tasks has garnered widespread attention. However, issues such as sample differences between modalities and the lack of correlation in physical features have limited the performance of classification tasks. Establishing effective interaction between multimodal data has become another significant challenge. To fully integrate heterogeneous information from multiple modalities and enhance classification performance, this paper proposes a dual-branch cross-Transformer feature fusion network aimed at joint land cover classification of hyperspectral imagery (HSI) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. The core idea is to leverage the potential of convolutional operators to represent spatial features, combined with the advantages of the Transformer architecture in learning remote dependencies. The framework employs an improved self-attention mechanism to aggregate features within each modality, highlighting the spectral information of HSI and the spatial (elevation) information of LiDAR. The feature fusion module based on cross-attention integrates deep features from two modalities, achieving complementary information through cross-modal attention. The classification task is performed using jointly obtained spectral and spatial features. Experiments were conducted on three multi-source remote sensing classification datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed model compared to existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work reveals the influence of loading parameters on the crack growth behavior of a Zr/Ti/steel composite plate with a crack normal to the interface by using an experiment and the finite element method. The Chaboche model was first used to study cyclic plastic evolution in composite materials. The results reveal that an increase in Fmax, Fm, and Fa can promote da/dN; meanwhile, an increase in R will reduce da/dN. The plastic strain accumulation results indicate that Fm mainly contributes to the tensile strain and compressive stress after the first cycle. Additionally, Fa increases the stress range and compression stress and greatly improves the plastic strain accumulation degree in subsequent loading cycles. The Fmax can significantly increase the stress amplitude and plastic strain accumulation level. When R increases, the plastic strain accumulation increases a little, but the stress amplitude and compression stress decrease greatly. Furthermore, it is also found that the elastic–plastic mismatch also affects the plastic evolution, that is, strengthening or weakening the effect of the loading parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime analysis is important for social security management. With the advance of crowd sensing techniques, abundant multisource crowd sensed data could be used for crime analysis. The occurrence of crimes usually has some patterns in terms of temporal and spatial aspects. Investigating the spatio-temporal correlation of crimes could provide more useful cues for crime analysis and help discover underlying crime patterns. In this paper, we conduct a spatio-temporal study to understand urban crimes leveraging multisource crowd sensed data, including crime data, meteorological data, POI distribution, and taxi trips. Specifically, we first present monthly temporal trends and spatial distribution of crimes. We then investigate the spatio-temporal correlation using meteorological data (e.g., weather conditions and air temperature) and POI distribution and taxi trips. It is found that taxi trips and air temperature have a strong correlation with the crime, and some POI categories have a valuable correlation with the crime, e.g., College & University. We also find that Overcast days would witness more crime than other weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that the conductivity of graphene on thin-film polymer substrates can be accurately determined by reflection-mode air-plasma-based THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The phase uncertainty issue associated with reflection measurements is discussed, and our implementation is validated by convincing agreement with graphene electrical properties extracted from more conventional transmission-mode measurements. Both the reflection and transmission THz-TDS measurements reveal strong non-linear and instantaneous conductivity depletion across an ultra-broad bandwidth (1–9 THz) under relatively high incident THz electrical field strengths (up to 1050 kV/cm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an efficient and flexible 3D FFT framework for state-of-the-art multi-GPU distributed-memory systems. In contrast to the traditional pure MPI implementation, the multi-GPU distributed-memory systems can be exploited by employing a hybrid multi-GPU programming model that combines MPI with OpenMP to achieve effective communication. An asynchronous strategy that creates multiple streams and threads to reduce blocking time is adopted to accelerate intra-node communication. Furthermore, we combine our scheme with the GPU-Aware MPI implementation to perform GPU-GPU data transfers without CPU involvement. We also optimize the local FFT and transpose by creating fast parallel kernels to accelerate the total transform. Results show that our framework outperforms the state-of-the-art distributed 3D FFT library, being up to achieve 2× faster in a single node and 1.65× faster using two nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel failure criterion, accounting for various degrees of concrete cracking and confinement levels, is presented to estimate the bond strength between steel rebar and concrete. • An interlock capacity coefficient, considering the surface properties of both concrete and steel rebars, is presented to adjusts concrete compressive strength. • Opening of concrete crack at the peak bond stress, alongside sliding, proves crucial to the failure criterion. • A practical computation approach is presented to estimate the bond strength of cracked RC members with commonly used confinement configurations. This study delves into the intricate relationship between concrete cracking and bond strength, a critical factor in transferring forces between concrete and steel rebars. While previous research has often overlooked the impact of concrete cracking on bond strength and overestimated the beneficial effects of external confinement, this study aims to fill these gaps. A new failure criterion is introduced to predict bond strength of steel rebar in cracked concrete, considering the influence of concrete crack roughness and steel rebar surface features on force transfer at their interface. This criterion incorporates an interlock capacity coefficient that considers crack kinematics and the mentioned factors, enhancing the evaluation of effective compressive strength of cracked concrete in the limit analysis. Leveraging the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, an adaptable failure criterion accounts for crack kinematics, concrete damage, and confinement level to assess force transfer at the concrete/steel rebar interface. The developed criterion offers a practical calculation method to estimate bond strength in cracked reinforced concrete (RC) members with various confinement setups. Validation of this criterion and approach involved comparison against experimental results from 127 specimens, confirming its effectiveness and reliability in predicting bond strength in real-world scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self–reporting molecularly–imprinted electrochemical sensor is prepared for the detection of Zearalenone (ZEA). Firstly, the reduced graphene nanoribbons and reduced graphene oxide (rGNR–rGO) were simultaneously modified onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to improve the sensor's sensitivity. After electrodepositing copper nanoparticles onto the rGNR–rGO/GCE, cyclic voltammetry scanning was performed in potassium ferrocyanide solution, and copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF) was deposited onto rGNR–rGO/GCE to further improve the sensor's sensitivity while giving it self–reporting capability. Then, molecularly–imprinted polymer films were prepared on the CuHCF/rGNR–rGO/GCE to ensure the selectivity of the sensor. It is found that the linear range of ZEA detection by the constructed sensor is 0.25–500 ng·mL −1, with a detection limit of 0.09 ng·mL −1. This sensor shows the merits of good selectivity, high sensitivity and accurate detection, providing a great possibility for the precise detection of low concentration ZEA in food. [Display omitted] • rGNR–rGO were co-modified onto GCE to improve the sensitivity of the sensor. • CuHCF was formed in [Fe(CN) 6 ]3−/4– solution by CV scanning CuNPs/rGNR–rGO/GCE. • CuHCF can increase sensitivity while giving the sensor self-reporting capability. • MIP is generated on the electrode by electropolymerization to improve selectivity. • The sensor has a linear range of 0.25–500 ng/mL and a detection limit of 0.09 ng/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fingerprint information on molecular reorientation and plasmon-catalytic reaction is acquired synchronously using the in situ surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) strategy, revealing that molecular reorientation precedes the plasmon-mediated chemical reaction. [Display omitted] • We uncover that molecular reorientation precedes the plasmon-mediated chemical reaction. • That spectral change due to molecular reorientation is clearly extracted. • Molecular reorientation during PMCRs is in-situ observed, offering new insights into the plasmonic catalysis mechanisms. • The puzzle that why the conversion to DMAB is suppressed with concentrated PATP is solved with our new insights. Understanding the molecular orientation is crucial for revealing the mechanism of chemical reactions. However, how to accurately monitor the molecular orientation remains a great challenge because of the motion of the molecules during the chemical reaction. Here, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was used to monitor the molecular reorientation from the plasmon-catalyzed conversion of p-aminothiophenol (PATP) to p,p'-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB). Spectral change due to molecular reorientation, which is often overlooked, is clearly extracted through the protonation of the PATP molecules to suppress the conversion of PATP to DMAB. Meanwhile, by monitoring the Raman features, the reaction process and molecular reorientation are simultaneously recorded, offering fresh insights on the long-standing puzzle that why the conversion to DMAB is suppressed with concentrated PATP: this is because the over-crowded PATP adsorbed on the substrate hampered its own space-taking reorientation (similar to the space-steric effect) which is a prerequisite for producing DMAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broad bean fermentation is of vital importance in PixianDouban (PXDB) production, as well as a key process for microorganisms to degrade protein, which lays the foundation for the formation of PXDB flavor. In this study, two fungi and bacteria were screened, and their morphology, molecular biology, growth, and enzyme production characteristics were analyzed, and then they were applied to the broad bean fermentation simulation system. The protein, peptide, amino acid, amino nitrogen, and sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) in the system were evaluated. The results showed that the four microorganisms were Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus jensenii, Staphylococcus gallinarum, and Enterobacter hormaeche. Aspergillus oryzae had the highest protease activity at pH 7.0, while the other three strains had better enzyme activity stability under neutral acidic conditions. And the total protein (F1 and F2 were 18.32 g/100 g, 19.15 g/100 g, respectively), peptides (11.79 ± 0.04 mg/g and 12.06 ± 0.04 mg/g), and amino acids (55.12 ± 2.78 mg/g and 54.11 ± 1.97 mg/g) of the fungus experimental groups (F) were higher than the bacterial experimental groups (B). In addition, the enzyme system produced by fungi exhibited a stronger ability for albumin (20 kDa) and glutenin (<30 kDa) deterioration in neutral conditions, while the bacterial enzyme system was more efficient in degrading albumin (<30 kDa) and glutenin (20–30 kDa) in acidic conditions, as indicated by SDS‐PAGE. These findings showed that both bacteria and fungi played an important role in the degradation of protein in different fermentation stages of broad bean fermentation. Practical applications: There is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the protein composition and protein degradation mechanism of broad beans in the fermentation stage of PXDB. This research work explored the differences in the degradation of PXDB fermented protein by different microorganisms, and provided a theoretical basis for optimizing the production of PXDB and improving the quality of PXDB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Benzbromarone and febuxostat use different mechanisms to reduce serum urate. However, the effectiveness of benzbromarone versus febuxostat in reducing serum urate in gouty patients classified with different types of hyperuricaemia remains unclear. Method: In this retrospective study from January 1, 2018, to September 30, 2020, subjects were identified if they were newly treated with benzbromarone 25 mg daily or febuxostat 20 mg daily. The subjects were classified into four types according to their 24-h urinary uric acid and fractional excretion of uric acid. The baseline data and follow-up information after 28 ± 3 days of treatment were collected. Results: Seventy-three subjects with gout were finally enrolled. Among them, 50 were treated with benzbromarone. The percent changes in serum urate from the baseline were − 33.71 ± 13.59% and − 29.45 ± 10.62% in the benzbromarone and febuxostat group, respectively, without a significant difference between the groups (P = 0.188). No differences were found between the groups in subjects classified as the renal underexcretion type, combined type, or "normal" type. In patients with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2, the rate of serum urate lowering was higher in those treated with benzbromarone than in those treated with febuxostat. Febuxostat treatment significantly lowered serum creatinine from the baseline (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate among different types of hyperuricaemia. Benzbromarone was more effective than febuxostat in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2, while febuxostat had a renal protective effect. Key Points • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate in patients with different types of hyperuricaemia. • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily was more effective than febuxostat 20 mg daily in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2. • Febuxostat had a renal protective effect after about 1 month treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of GGC trinucleotide repeats in NOTCH2NLC gene. Despite identifying uN2CpolyG, a toxic polyglycine (polyG) protein translated by expanded GGC repeats, the exact pathogenic mechanisms of NIID remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of polyG by expressing various forms of NOTCH2NLC in mice: the wild-type, the expanded form with 100 GGC repeats (either translating or not translating into uN2CpolyG), and the mutated form that encodes a pure polyG without GGC-repeat RNA and the C-terminal stretch (uN2CpolyG-dCT). Both uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT induced the formation of inclusions composed by filamentous materials and resulted in neurodegenerative phenotypes in mice, including impaired motor and cognitive performance, shortened lifespan, and pathologic lesions such as white-matter lesions, microgliosis, and astrogliosis. In contrast, expressing GGC-repeat RNA alone was non-pathogenic. Through bulk and single-nuclei RNA sequencing, we identified common molecular signatures linked to the expression of uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT, particularly the upregulation of inflammation and microglia markers, and the downregulation of immediate early genes and splicing factors. Importantly, microglia-mediated inflammation was visualized in NIID patients using positron emission tomography, correlating with levels of white-matter atrophy. Furthermore, microglia ablation ameliorated neurodegenerative phenotypes and transcriptional alterations in uN2CpolyG-expressing mice but did not affect polyG inclusions. Together, these results demonstrate that polyG is crucial for the pathogenesis of NIID and highlight the significant role of microglia in polyG-induced neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Progression of non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting has been reported and is associated with the triggering of an inflammatory response. The perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) may be used as a novel imaging biomarker for the direct quantification of coronary inflammation. Objectives: To investigate whether FAI values can help identify changes in inflammation status in patients undergoing stent implantation, especially in NTLs. Methods: Patients who underwent pre- and post-stenting coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) examination between January 2015 and February 2021 were consecutively enrolled. The pre- and post-stenting FAIs of the full coronary arteries were compared in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries. Moreover, local FAI values were measured and compared between the NTLs and target lesions in the stent implantations. We also compared changes in plaque type and volume in NTLs before and after stenting. Results: A total of 89 patients (mean age 61 years; male 59) were enrolled. The perivascular FAI values in the full coronary arteries decreased after stenting in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries, similar to those in the target lesions. Conversely, the perivascular FAI values in the NTLs increased after stenting (p < 0.05). In addition, the plaque volumes significantly increased in the NTLs after stenting, regardless of whether they were non-calcified, mixed, or calcified (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Perivascular FAI values and plaque volumes increased in the NTLs after stenting. Perivascular FAI can be a promising imaging biomarker for monitoring coronary inflammation after stenting and facilitate long-term monitoring in clinical settings. Clinical relevance statement: Perivascular fat attenuation index, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in non-target lesions and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment. Key Points: • Perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) values and plaque volumes increased in the non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting, suggesting potential focal inflammation progression after stenting. However, stenting along with anti-inflammatory treatment ameliorated inflammation in the full coronary arteries. • Perivascular FAI, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in NTLs and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CuMOFs was combined with MIP to improve the recognition ability of the sensor. • RGO was modified on GCE to improve the stability and sensitivity of the sensor. • Fe 3 O 4 can simplify the preparation process and amplify the electrochemical signal. • MMIP-CuMOFs can serve as signal probe via in situ forming copper hexacyanoferrate. • MMIP-CuMOFs/RGO/GCE exhibited excellent detection performance for bisphenol A. In this work, novel magnetic molecularly imprinted CuMOFs (MMIP-CuMOFs) were synthesized and applied to construct an electrochemical bisphenol A sensor. The constructed sensor used an electrode modified with reduced graphene oxide (RGO/GCE) as the sensing platform to improve its stability and sensitivity. The Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles in magnetic MOFs simplified the preparation process. Moreover, the combination of CuMOFs and molecular imprinting methodology was beneficial for improving the detection specificity, and the electroactive copper hexacyanoferrate generated by the reaction of Cu2+ in CuMOFs with potassium ferricyanide was used as the signal probe. The sensor showed a good linear relationship in the range of 0.5 to 500 nmol/L, with a low detection limit of 0.18 nmol/L. In addition, the sensor had good selectivity, repeatability (RSD = 2.59 %), and a good recovery rate for actual milk sample detection (99.8–102.49 %). This technique holds great promise for the detection of detrimental substances in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Changes in the key flavor substances were elucidated during broad bean fermentation. • The core microorganisms during the fermentation process were identified. • The pathways and mechanisms for forming the key flavor substances were established. Pixian Douban (PXDB) is a popular Chinese condiment for its distinctive flavor. Broad bean fermentation (Meju) is the most important process in the formation of flavor substances. Key flavors were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and metagenomic technology was applied to study the microbial diversity during broad bean fermentation. In addition, the main metabolic pathways of key flavors were explored. Results indicated that Staphylococcus_gallinarum was the main microorganism in the microbial community, accounting for 39.13%, followed by Lactobacillus_agilis , accounting for 13.76%. Aspergillus_flavus was the fungus with the highest species abundance, accounting for 3.02%. The KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis showed that carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism were the main metabolic pathways. Glycoside hydrolase and glycosyltransferase genes were the most abundant, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of active enzyme genes. A total of 113 enzymes related to key flavors and 39 microorganisms corresponding to enzymes were annotated. And Staphylococcus_gallinarum, Lactobacillus_agilis, Weissella_confusa, Pediococcus_acidilactici, Staphylococcus_kloosii, Aspergillus_oryzae, and Aspergillus_flavus played a key role in the metabolic pathway. This study reveals the formation mechanism of key flavors in fermented broad bean, it is important for guiding the industrial production of PXDB and improving product quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mutations in the fused in sarcoma (FUS) gene have been associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and essential tremor. Among the FUS mutations, p.P525L as a hot spot variant has been reported in more than 20 patients with ALS. Apart from the typical ALS phenotype, patients with p.P525L mutation exhibit some atypical symptoms. However, movement disorders related to p.P525L mutation have not been emphasized currently. Methods: Two unrelated patients with ALS were evaluated through a set of clinical and laboratory tests. The genetic screening was performed through next‐generation sequencing. Muscle biopsies were performed on the 2 patients. Muscle samples were stained according to standard histological and immunohistochemical procedures. Results: The first patient presented with juvenile‐onset neurogenic weakness and wasting and simultaneously had dropped head, ophthalmoplegia, tremor, involuntary movements, and cognitive impairments. The second patient showed a typical ALS phenotype and prominent adventitious movements. Genetic screening disclosed de novo p.P525L FUS mutation in the 2 patients by family cosegregation analysis. Muscle biopsy showed neurogenic patterns and numerous lipid droplets aggregating in the fibers. Conclusion: Apart from the typical ALS phenotype, patients with p.P525L mutation in the FUS gene can present with great clinical heterogeneity including multiple movement disorders. Numerous lipid droplets in muscle fibers indicate that skeletal muscle is likely an important therapeutic target for ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot carriers (HCs) and thermal effects, stemming from plasmon decays, are crucial for most plasmonic applications. However, quantifying these two effects remains extremely challenging due to the experimental difficulty in accurately measuring the temperature at reaction sites. Herein, we provide a novel strategy to disentangle HCs from photothermal effects based on the different traits of heat dissipation (long range) and HCs transport (short range), and quantitatively uncover the dominant and potential‐dependent role of photothermal effect by investigating the rapid‐ and slow‐response currents in plasmon‐mediated electrochemistry at nanostructured Ag electrode. Furthermore, the plasmoelectric surface potential is found to contribute to the rapid‐response currents, which is absent in the previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot carriers (HCs) and thermal effects, stemming from plasmon decays, are crucial for most plasmonic applications. However, quantifying these two effects remains extremely challenging due to the experimental difficulty in accurately measuring the temperature at reaction sites. Herein, we provide a novel strategy to disentangle HCs from photothermal effects based on the different traits of heat dissipation (long range) and HCs transport (short range), and quantitatively uncover the dominant and potential‐dependent role of photothermal effect by investigating the rapid‐ and slow‐response currents in plasmon‐mediated electrochemistry at nanostructured Ag electrode. Furthermore, the plasmoelectric surface potential is found to contribute to the rapid‐response currents, which is absent in the previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effects of maximum load, load ratio, and average load on fatigue crack propagation of Zr702/TA2/Q345R composite plate with a crack normal to the interface are studied by experiment and finite element method. When crack propagates to the interface from the compliant material side, the crack growth rate decreases to the minimum at first. After crack penetrates through the interface, the fatigue crack growth rate accelerates continuously. When crack propagates to the interface from the stiff material side, the fatigue crack growth rate generally increases with the crack length. Regardless of the direction of crack growth, the increase of load ratio will weaken the difference of crack growth rate near the interface caused by material property mismatch. Finite element results show that elastic modulus mismatch significantly changes the variation of the stress intensity factor amplitude. All results demonstrate that crack growth rate is dependent on the competition of the stress intensity factor amplitude, the fatigue crack growth rate in the corresponding material, and the interface strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Pseudomonas umsongensis GO16 is a metabolically versatile bacterium. • GO16 grows with waste-derived substrates (hydrolysed PET, glycerol, butyrate etc.) • GO16 produces a blend of short and medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates PHA. • PHAs are blended on the level of PHA granule in GO16. • PHA blends offer better mechanical and physical properties. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biological polyesters, viewed as a replacement for petrochemical plastic. However, they suffer from suboptimal physical and mechanical properties. Here, it was shown that a metabolically versatile Pseudomonas umsongensis GO16 can synthesise a blend of short chain length (scl) and medium chain length (mcl)-PHA. A defined mix of butyric (BA) and octanoic acid (OA) in different ratios was used. The PHA monomer composition varied depending on the feeding strategy. When OA and BA were fed at 80:20 ratio it showed 14, 8, 77 and 1 mol% of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate, (R)-3-hydroxyhexanoate, (R)-3-hydroxyoctanoate and (R)-3-hydroxydecanoate respectively. The polymer characterisation clearly shows that polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and mcl-PHA are produced individually. The two polymers are blended on the PHA granule level, as demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy and yeast two-hybrid assay. The resulting blend has a specific viscoelasticity compared to PHB and PHO. Mcl-PHA acts as a plasticiser and reduces PHB brittleness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor for ZEA detection was developed. • O-GNRs was prepared by cutting CNTs using an improved Hummers' oxidation method. • The rGNRs and AuNPs are electrodeposited on GCE to amplify electrochemical signals. • MIP is generated on the electrode by electropolymerization to improve selectivity. • The sensor has a linear range of 1–500 ng/mL and the detection limit is 0.34 ng/mL. In this work, a highly sensitive and selective molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor is exploited to detect zearalenone (ZEA) by the synergistic effect of reduced graphene nanoribbons (rGNRs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The oxidized GNRs are firstly produced by an improved Hummers' oxidation method, and then reduced and modified together with AuNPs onto a glassy carbon electrode by electrodeposition technique to realize collaborative amplification of electrochemical signal. The molecularly imprinted polymer film with specific recognition sites can be generated on the modified electrode by electropolymerization. The effect of experimental conditions is systematically investigated to obtain the best detection performance. It is found that the constructed sensor shows a wide linear range of 1–500 ng·mL−1 for ZEA with a detection limit as low as 0.34 ng·mL−1. Obviously, our constructed molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor shows great potential in the application of precisely detecting ZEA in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the call for new verification methods in a recent editorial in Weather and Forecasting, this study proposed two new verification metrics to quantify the forecast challenges that a user faces in decision-making when using ensemble models. The measure of forecast challenge (MFC) combines forecast error and uncertainty information together into one single score. It consists of four elements: ensemble mean error, spread, nonlinearity, and outliers. The cross correlation among the four elements indicates that each element contains independent information. The relative contribution of each element to the MFC is analyzed by calculating the correlation between each element and MFC. The biggest contributor is the ensemble mean error, followed by the ensemble spread, nonlinearity, and outliers. By applying MFC to the predictability horizon diagram of a forecast ensemble, a predictability horizon diagram index (PHDX) is defined to quantify how the ensemble evolves at a specific location as an event approaches. The value of PHDX varies between 1.0 and −1.0. A positive PHDX indicates that the forecast challenge decreases as an event nears (type I), providing creditable forecast information to users. A negative PHDX value indicates that the forecast challenge increases as an event nears (type II), providing misleading information to users. A near-zero PHDX value indicates that the forecast challenge remains large as an event nears, providing largely uncertain information to users. Unlike current verification metrics that verify at a particular point in time, PHDX verifies a forecasting process through many forecasting cycles. Forecasting-process-oriented verification could be a new direction in model verification. The sample ensemble forecasts used in this study are produced from the NCEP global and regional ensembles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis procedure for evaluation of load–deformation behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls with continuous or lap-spliced bar connections in plastic hinge zones under horizontal loads. For the shear walls with continuous bars, the lateral deformations caused by flexure, shear, and reinforcement slip are evaluated by considering their interaction. The flexural deformation is calculated by conventional fiber model. The shear mechanism is based on modified compression field theory with a softened smeared cracked reinforced concrete membrane element. Both the flexural and shear deformations are estimated separately in the plastic hinge and non-plastic hinge regions. In addition, an approach is proposed for analysis of plastic hinge length based on fracture energies of materials. For the shear walls with lap-spliced bars, due to its complicated behavior and mechanism, a simple way to deal with the lap splice is proposed. The equations regarding bond-slip of the lap splice with minimum spliced length are established and the stress and strain states of lap splices with different spliced lengths are analyzed on the basis of equilibrium of forces with a mean bond stress model. Finally, the validity of the proposed analysis procedure is confirmed by comparing the analytical results with previous experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript presents the experimental investigations on the seismic behavior of precast grouted sleeve column-to-foundation connections. Six full-scale specimens were constructed with varying longitudinal reinforcement ratios and stirrup ratios. Four specimens were precast with grouted sleeve connections. Two cast-in-place reference specimens were equivalent in design with the precast ones, but only without the grouted sleeve connections. Vertical compression ratio of approximately 0.41 was applied for use in high seismic regions. Damage states, load-carrying capacity, ductility, energy dissipation and strain distributions of the specimens are investigated and are compared with the cast-in-place reference specimens. The test results demonstrate that the sleeve connection exhibited comparable lateral deformation capacity and ductility but lower strength capacity compared to the cast-in-place reference specimens. Among the precast specimens, the increase in stirrup ratio slightly increased both the yield and the ultimate strength. The increase in longitudinal reinforcement ratio showed greater effects by considerably raising the ultimate strength, while increasing the yield strength marginally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic afterglow is a fascinating phenomenon with exceptional applications. However, it encounters challenges such as low intensity and efficiency, and typically requires UV-light excitation and facile intersystem crossing (ISC) due to its spin-forbidden nature. Here, we develop a novel strategy that bypasses the conventional ISC pathway by promoting singlet-triplet transition through the synergistic effects of the intra/intermolecular heavy-atom effect in aromatic crystals, enabling the direct population of triplet excited states from the ground state. The resulting materials exhibit a bright organic afterglow with a remarkably enhanced quantum efficiency of up to 5.81%, and a significantly increased organic afterglow lifetime of up to 157 microseconds under visible light. Moreover, given the high-efficiency visible-light excitable organic afterglow emission, the potential application is demonstrated in lifetime-resolved, color-encoded, and excitation wavelength-dependent pattern encryption. This work demonstrates the importance of the direct population method in enhancing the organic afterglow performance and red-shifting the excitation wavelength, and provides crucial insights for advancing organic optoelectronic technologies that involve triplet states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Liquid interfacial self‐assembly of metal nanoparticles holds great promise for its various applications, such as in tunable optical devices, plasmonics, sensors, and catalysis. However, the construction of large‐area, ordered, anisotropic, nanoparticle monolayers and the acquisition of self‐assembled interface films are still significant challenges. Herein, a rapid, validated method to fabricate large‐scale, close‐packed nanomaterials at the cyclohexane/water interface, in which hydrophilic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide coated nanoparticles and gold nanorods (AuNRs) self‐assemble into densely packed 2D arrays by regulating the surface ligand and suitable inducer, is reported. Decorating AuNRs with polyvinylpyrrolidone not only extensively decreases the charge of AuNRs, but also diminishes repulsive forces. More importantly, a general, facile, novel technique to transfer an interfacial monolayer through a designed in situ reaction cell linked to a microfluidic chip is revealed. The self‐assembled nanofilm can then automatically settle on the substrate and be directly detected in the reaction cell in situ by means of a portable Raman spectrometer. Moreover, a close‐packed monolayer of self‐assembled AuNRs provides massive, efficient hotspots to create great surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement, which provides high sensitivity and reproducibility as the SERS‐active substrate. Furthermore, this strategy was exploited to detect drug molecules in human urine for cyclohexane‐extracted targets acting as the oil phase to form an oil/water interface. A portable Raman spectrometer was employed to detect methamphetamine down to 100 ppb levels in human urine, exhibiting excellent practicability. As a universal platform, handy tool, and fast pretreatment method with a good capability for drug detection in biological systems, this technique shows great promise for rapid, credible, and on‐spot drug detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization behavior of activated reinforcing steel bars (rebars) in concrete was investigated by use of measured cathodic polarization curves. Five factors thought to contribute to the polarization behavior of rebars in concrete were examined, including relative humidity, Cl − content, rebar diameter, water-cement ratio and corrosion duration. The Levenberg-Marquardt curve-fitting algorithm made it possible to determine the corrosion rate and electrochemical parameters of underlying anodic and cathodic sub-process simultaneously. Degrees of activation polarization and concentration polarization related to cathodic reaction were quantified. A prediction model for the average value of corrosion rate in regard to the whole surface of a corroded rebar was proposed based on the electrochemical corrosion theory. Finally, the accuracy of this model was testified by comparing the predictions of this model with published corrosion test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a challenge to develop a robust sensor for simple, rapid operation and sensitive detection of neurotransmitters in complex specimens. Herein, ferric citrate functionalized gold nanoparticles (CA-FeIII/Au NPs) are utilized to develop a facile sensor based on surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS) for sensitive detection of dopamine (DA). The sensor is prepared by decorating the acupuncture needle with Au NPs, which enables sufficient surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy enhancement. The CA-FeIII structure is highly sensitive and selective for DA due to the formation of the CA-FeIII-DA resonant structure; this indicates the advantages of capturing, carrying, and separating DA molecules from complicated samples in a simple operation. Furthermore, the practical application of the fabricated sensor is validated by the detection of DA in pretreated serum and cerebrospinal fluid of acupuncture-treated mice with detection limits of 0.1 and 2.5 n m DA, respectively. The developed active acupuncture needle sensor has potential benefits for sensitive detection and qualitative identification of DA molecules from biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance and behavior of reinforced concrete structures at serviceability limit state and at ultimate limit state highly rely on the bond interaction between reinforcement and surrounding concrete; therefore a proper evaluation regarding the bond behavior under corresponding state is particularly critical. However, it is not easy to implement the common bond models, characterized by nonlinearity and affiliated with the variable of slip, into practical design and analysis. In this paper, the mean bond stress model associated with steel strain (stress) level and the bond-strain model representing the relationship between bond stress and reinforcement strain are developed to simplify and improve the normal analysis on bond behavior in pre- and post-yield phases. Compared with the results of some well-known experimental campaigns, the proposed models indicate a good agreement with the bond behavior at pre- and post-yield stages. Finally, a thorough discussion about the values of mean bond stresses is carried out; the suggested values considering bond characteristics in several phases of reinforced concrete members are presented by a series of analytical parametric studies on test results in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotation capacity of reinforced concrete ( RC) beams is a vital property for its relationships with moment redistribution, energy absorbability, and so on. Evaluation of the rotation capacity has been one of the classic and intractable problems in structural engineering over the past decades. The precise prediction about rotational behavior of a RC beam is the primary basis of quantifying its rotation capacity. In this paper a displacement-based finite layer element method considering the factors of flexural cracks, concrete crushing, and pre-and postyield behavior of bond is presented to predict the rotational behavior. In conclusion, it shows good agreement between simulation results, implemented by the proposed method, and the test results in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptides are the major constituents of senile plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Aβ monomers (AβMs) can coalesce to form small, soluble oligomers (AβOs), followed by reorganization and assembly into long, thread-like fibrils (AβFs). Recently, soluble AβOs have been regarded as reliable molecular biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD because of their high toxicity for neuronal synapse and high concentration levels in the brains of AD patients. In this work, we reported a label-free, sensitive and selective method for visual and fluorescent detection of AβOs based on the inner filter effect (IFE) of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the fluorescence of CdTe quantum dots (QDs). Specifically, the fluorescence of CdTe QDs was quenched significantly by AuNPs through the IFE. PrP(95–110), an AβOs-specific binding peptide from cellular prion protein, triggered the aggregation and color change of AuNPs suspension; thus, the IFE of AuNPs on the fluorescence of CdTe QDs was weakened and the fluorescence intensity was recovered. However, in the presence of AβOs, the specific interaction of AβOs and PrP(95–110) prevented the absorption of PrP(95–110) onto the surface of AuNPs. As a result, the aggregation of AuNPs was inhibited and the fluorescence intensity of CdTe QDs was quenched again. This label-free method is specific for detection of AβOs but not for AβMs and AβFs. The detection limits were found to be 0.5 nM for the visual assay and 0.2 nM for the fluorescent detection. We believe that this work would be valuable for many investigations related to AD diagnosis and drug discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Transgenic tall fescue plants expressing RNAi constructs of essential genes of Rhizoctonia solani were resistant to R. solani. Abstract: Tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important turf and forage grass species widely used for home lawns and on golf courses in North Carolina and other transition zone states in the US. The most serious and frequently occurring disease of tall fescue is brown patch, caused by a basidiomycete fungus, Rhizoctonia solani. This research demonstrates resistance to brown patch disease achieved by the application of host induced gene silencing. We transformed tall fescue with RNAi constructs of four experimentally determined 'essential' genes from R. solani (including genes encoding RNA polymerase, importin beta-1 subunit, Cohesin complex subunit Psm1, and a ubiquitin E3 ligase) to suppress expression of those genes inside the fungus and thus inhibit fungal infection. Four gene constructs were tested, and 19 transgenic plants were obtained, among which 12 plants had detectable accumulation of siRNAs of the target genes. In inoculation tests, six plants displayed significantly improved resistance against R. solani. Lesion size was reduced by as much as 90 %. Plants without RNAi accumulation did not show resistance. To our knowledge, this is the first case that RNAi constructs of pathogen genes introduced into a host plant can confer resistance against a necrotrophic fungus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quaternary chalcogenide Cu2FeSnS4 is important and interesting owing to its many advantageous characteristics for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, such as a suitable direct band gap (1.0-1.5 eV), low toxicity, and a relatively high abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. To date, most of the reports on Cu2FeSnS4 have focused on the synthetic method and optical properties, and few studies have comprehensively and systematically reported the growth mechanism of Cu2FeSnS4 nanoparticles. Therefore, we have synthesized Cu2FeSnS4 nanocrystals by a simple hot-injection method and performed detailed characterizations. Raman spectroscopy is a characterization tool to differentiate the mixed-composition phases in the synthetic pathway of Cu2FeSnS4 nanocrystals, which cannot be efficiently distinguished by X-ray diffraction. A possible synthesis mechanism for Cu2FeSnS4 has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) is widely used for water treatment. However, the effects of high magnetic intensities on removing magnetized flocs are unclear. In this study, separating phosphate–ferric flocs via HGMS at different magnetic intensities and gradients were evaluated. The TP removal efficiencies in the 5% #1 steel wool matrix were 65.1%, 82.1%, 89.1%, and 97.5% when the magnetic intensity was 0, 1.0, 3.5 and 5.5 T, respectively. The TP removal rate increased by 21.9% when the magnetic gradient increased from 6 × 10 3 to 15 × 10 3 at 5.5 T. The magnetic susceptibility of flocs in 1.0-T HGMS effluents was 1.5 emu/g, and saturation magnetization was not observed at 5.0 T. The volume mean particle size D (4, 3) of the phosphate–ferric flocs decreased as the magnetic intensity increased. Magnetite was the primary mineral phase in the 0-T HGMS effluents, whereas no mature crystals were detected in the 1.0-T HGMS effluents. Microanalysis showed that magnetite particles in phosphate–ferric flocs were captured by the steel wool matrix by the magnetic force. It is expected that some of the phosphate–ferric flocs will break into magnetite and ferric precipitates. Increasing the magnetic intensity from 1.0 T to 5.5 T captured more ferric precipitates, which subsequently improved the TP removal efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A novel electrochemical active polyaniline (PANI) nanowire was fabricated and utilized for the construction of a highly sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor for hepatitis B virus gene. The uniform PANI nanowire was prepared by the enzymatic polymerization of aniline monomers on the amyloid-like nanofiber (AP nanowire), which was self-assembled from an aniline-attached nonapeptide, aniline-GGAAKLVFF (AP). The prepared PANI nanowires were characterized by electron microscopy, UV–vis absorption spectra, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). These ultra-thin nanowires displayed high electrochemical activity. Then the nucleic acid biosensor was constructed by modifying a glass carbon electrode with AP nanowires which were functionalized by a designed hair-pin loop DNA. Upon the presence of target nucleic acid and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labeled oligonucleotide, the HRP will catalyze the polymerization of aniline monomers conjugated in AP nanowires, leading to the formation of PANI nanowires which can bring about a dramatical increase in the current response of the biosensor. The dynamic range of the sensor for hepatitis B virus gene is 2.0–800.0fM with a low detection limit of 1.0fM (3σ, n=10). The biosensor also displayed highly selectivity and stability. All these excellent performances of the developed biosensor indicate that this platform can be easily extended to the detection of other nucleic acids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

End concrete cover separation is one of the most common failure modes for RC beams strengthened with external FRP reinforcement. The premature failure mode significantly restricts the application of FRP materials and could incur serious safety problems. In this paper, an innovative stress field-based analytical approach is proposed to assess the failure strength of end concrete cover separation and the conventional plane-section analysis is extended to evaluate the corresponding carrying capacity of FRP-strengthened RC beams. First, the dowel action of reinforcement and the induced concrete splitting, reflecting the interaction between concrete, steel and FRP, are considered in establishing the geometrical relationships of stress field for cracked concrete block. Then, the cracking angle and innovative failure criterion, considering the arrangement of steel and FRP reinforcement and cracking status of concrete and its softening effect, are derived to predict the occurrence of concrete cover separation and related mixed modes of debonding failure. Subsequently, an extended sectional analytical approach, in which the components of effective tensile strain of FRP resulted from flexural and shear actions are both considered, is presented to evaluate the carrying capacity of strengthened beams. Finally, the proposed calculational model is effectively validated by experimental results available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effects of load ratio, elastic mismatch and plastic mismatch on the fatigue crack growth behavior of zirconium-titanium-steel composite plate are discussed in detail. Firstly, considering the crack closure effect caused by load ratio, different effective driving force models of crack tip are studied. The results show that Daniel's two parameter driving force model has the best normalization effect. Then, based on the material inhomogeneity theory, the equation of actual stress intensity factor at crack tip is obtained, and the crack growth rate equation considering elastic mismatch is obtained. Furthermore, the influence of plastic mismatch is studied. Finally, by dividing the influence area of the elastic-plastic mismatch and combining the respective crack growth criteria, the crack growth rate equation considering the load ratio and elastic-plastic mismatch is obtained. • The effects of property mismatch of composites are discussed in detail. • The influence areas of different property mismatches are divided in detail. • The crack propagation law of Zr/Ti/steel composite plate is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensitivity and credibility detecting histamine (HA) as an important neurotransmitter in biofluids is of importance in analytical science and physiology. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is able to realize the high sensitivity with single molecules level, but providing the high sensitivity for HA with a small cross section remains a challenge. Here we develop the metal complex-based SERS nanoprobe nitrilotriacetic acid-Ni2+ (NTA-Ni2+) combined with self-assemble Au NPs active substrates for sensitive detection of HA. The NTA-Ni2+ can capture the HA molecules close to Au NPs substrates and then amplify the Raman signals of HA owing to the formation of a complex of NTA-Ni2+-HA. The self-assemble Au film through the evaporation-driven method can provide the high-density hot spots substrate with high stability and reproducibility. The NTA-Ni2+ decorated Au NPs as nanoprobe responds to HA with 1 μM level of sensitivity. More importantly, the developed SERS nanoprobe composing of NTA-Ni2+ and self-assemble Au NPs can be utilized to detect and monitor the HA spiked into serum, indicating the potential prospect in analysis of HA in complex specimen. [Display omitted] • Histamine has a strong affinity to Ni2+ through amino group and imidazole nitrogen. • The method of evaporation-driven assembly of Au NPs array with high density hot spots is facile and convenient. • NTA-Ni2+ functionalized Au NPs as SERS nanoprobe can realize sensitive and selective detection of HA. • Au NPs-NTA-Ni2+ SERS nanoprobe allows for efficiently analysis and record of HA in complex specimen. NTA-Ni2+ functionalized Au NPs as SERS nanoprobe not only can capture the histamine close to metallic nanostructure, but also can amply the Raman signals of histamine with high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, and currently there is no clinical treatment to cure it or to halt its progression. Aggregation and fibril formation of β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) are central events in the pathogenesis of AD. Many efforts have been spent on the development of effective inhibitors to prevent Aβ fibrillogenesis and cause disaggregation of preformed Aβ fibrils. In this study, the conjugates of ferrocene and Gly-Pro-Arg (GPR) tripeptide, Boc-Gly-Pro-Arg(NO2)-Fca-OMe (4, GPR–Fca) and Fc-Gly-Pro-Arg-OMe (7, Fc–GPR) (Fc: ferrocene; Fca: ferrocene amino acid) were synthesized by HOBT/HBTU protocol in solution. These ferrocene GPR conjugates were employed to inhibit Aβ1–42 fibrillogenesis and to disaggregate preformed Aβ fibrils. The inhibitory properties of ferrocene GPR conjugates on Aβ1–42 fibrillogenesis were evaluated by thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence assay, and confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. The interaction between the ferrocene GPR conjugates and Aβ1–42 was monitored by electrochemical means. Our results showed that both GPR and GPR–Fca can significantly inhibit the fibril formation of Aβ1–42, and cause disaggregation of the preformed fibrils. As expected, GPR–Fca shows stronger inhibitory effect on Aβ1–42 fibrillogenesis than that of its parent peptide GPR. In contrast, Fc–GPR shows no inhibitory effect on fibrillogenesis of Aβ1–42. Furthermore, GPR–Fca demonstrates significantly protection against Aβ-induced cytotoxicity and exhibits high resistance to proteolysis and good lipophilicity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The intracellular α-synuclein (α-syn) protein, whose conformational change and aggregation have been closely linked to the pathology of Parkingson''s disease (PD), is highly populated at the presynaptic termini and remains there in the α-helical conformation. In this study, circular dichroism confirmed that natively unstructured α-syn in aqueous solution was transformed to its α-helical conformation upon addition of trifluoroethanol (TFE). Electrochemical and UV–visible spectroscopic experiments reveal that both Cu (I) and Cu (II) are stabilized, with the former being stabilized by about two orders of magnitude. Compared to unstructured α-syn (Binolfi et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133 (2011) 194–196), α-helical α-syn stabilizes Cu (I) by more than three orders of magnitude. Through the measurements of H2O2 and hydroxyl radicals (OHtions containing different forms of Cu (II) (free and complexed by unstructured or α-helical α-syn), we demonstrate that the significantly enhanced Cu (I) binding affinity helps inhibit the production of highly toxic reactive oxygen species, especially the hydroxyl radicals. Our study provides strong evidence that, as a possible means to prevent neuronal cell damage, conversion of the natively unstructured α-syn to its α-helical conformation in vivo could significantly attenuate the copper-modulated ROS production. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reactions between ethylenediamine solutions of K4Ge9 and triphenylindium yielded three novel Zintl ions, [In(Ge9)2]5− (1), [(Ge9)2In(C6H5)]4− (2), and [Ge9{In(C6H5)3}2}]4− (3). Species 1 exhibits an indium metal atom coordinated by two nine-atom germanium cages which bond to the central metal in an η 3-mode. The “staggered” arrangement of the two clusters confers the indium metal centre an octahedral coordination geometry. Species 2 displays trigonal planar coordination around the indium atom with an [In(C6H5)]2+ moiety acting as a bridge between the two halves of a [Ge9–Ge9]6− dimer. Finally, species 3 is composed of a [Ge9]4− deltahedral Zintl ion acting as a Lewis base to two In(C6H5)3 moieties. All three anions were characterized in the solid-state by single-crystal X-ray diffraction in [K(2,2,2-crypt)]5[1]·2en, [K(2,2,2-crypt)]4[2]·3tol and [K(2,2,2-crypt)]4[3], respectively. The existence of the anions in solution was confirmed by electrospray mass-spectrometry. DFT level calculations were also conducted on all of the cluster anions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A search library about benzylisoquinoline alkaloids was established based on preparation of alkaloid fractions from Rhizoma coptidis, Cortex phellodendri, and Rhizoma corydalis. In this work, two alkaloid fractions from each herbal medicine were first prepared based on selective separation on the 'click' binaphthyl column. And then these alkaloid fractions were analyzed on C18 column by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Many structure-related compounds were included in these alkaloids fractions, which led to easy separation and good MS response in further work. Therefore, a search library of 52 benzylisoquinoline alkaloids was established, which included eight aporphine, 19 tetrahydroprotoberberine, two protopine, two benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline, and 21 protoberberine alkaloids. The information of the search library contained compound names, structures, retention times, accurate masses, fragmentation pathways of benzylisoquionline alkaloids, and their sources from three herbal medicines. Using such a library, the alkaloids, especially those trace and unknown components in some herbal medicine could be accurately and quickly identified. In addition, the distribution of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in the herbal medicines could be also summarized by searching the source samples in the library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Ferrocene (Fc) and its conjugates have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their unique electrochemical behavior and significant biological activities such as antitumor, antimalarial, and antifungal. Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-containing peptides, because of their selective binding to integrins which are highly expressed in tumor-induced angiogenesis, play a key role in cancer targeted therapy. In this study, Fc–RGD and Fc–Am–RGD (Fc: ferrocenoyl; Am: 6-aminohexanoic acid) conjugates were synthesized, and the antitumor activities in vitro were investigated. The cell uptake of the conjugates by B16 murine melanoma cells was measured using HPLC-electrochemical method. The antitumor activities of the conjugates were also evaluated by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and flow cytometric measurements. The experimental results revealed that Fc–RGD and Fc–Am–RGD exhibit more effective antitumor activities than their parent compounds RGD and Fc-COOH. Moreover, it is found that Fc–Am–RGD yields the lowest IC50 values of 5.2±1.4μM toward B16 cells. The HPLC-electrochemical studies confirmed that the insertion of flexible alkyl spacer Am between Fc and RGD significantly increases the cell uptake toward B16 cells and consequently improves the antitumor activity. Our results suggest that Fc–RGD and Fc–Am–RGD conjugates are potential candidates for cancer treatment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study proposes a dynamical performance-ranking method (called the Du-Zhou ranking method) to predict the relative performance of individual ensemble members by assuming the ensemble mean is a good estimation of the truth. The results show that the method 1) generally works well, especially for shorter ranges such as a 1-day forecast; 2) has less error in predicting the extreme (best and worst) performers than the intermediate performers; 3) works better when the variation in performance among ensemble members is large; 4) works better when the model bias is small; 5) works better in a multimodel than in a single-model ensemble environment; and 6) works best when using the magnitude difference between a member and its ensemble mean as the 'distance' measure in ranking members. The ensemble mean and median generally perform similarly to each other. This method was applied to a weighted ensemble average to see if it can improve the ensemble mean forecast over a commonly used, simple equally weighted ensemble averaging method. The results indicate that the weighted ensemble mean forecast has a smaller systematic error. This superiority of the weighted over the simple mean is especially true for smaller-sized ensembles, such as 5 and 11 members, but it decreases with the increase in ensemble size and almost vanishes when the ensemble size increases to 21 members. There is, however, little impact on the random error and the spatial patterns of ensemble mean forecasts. These results imply that it might be difficult to improve the ensemble mean by just weighting members when an ensemble reaches a certain size. However, it is found that the weighted averaging can reduce the total forecast error more when a raw ensemble-mean forecast itself is less accurate. It is also expected that the effectiveness of weighted averaging should be improved when the ensemble spread is improved or when the ranking method itself is improved, although such an improvement should not be expected to be too big (probably less than 10%%, on average). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaction of an ethylenediamine (en) solution of K4Pb9 and 2,2,2-crypt (4,7,13,16,21,24-hexaoxa-1,10-diazabicyclo[8.8.8]hexacosane) with a tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution of Mn3(Mes)6 (Mes = 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl) yielded the anionic cluster [Mn@Pb12]3-. This species was observed in the positive and negative ion-mode electrospray mass-spectra of the crude reaction mixture. The crystalline samples obtained from such solutions allowed us to confirm the composition of the sample as [K(2,2,2-crypt)]3[Mn@Pb12]·1.5en (1). Because of numerous issues related to crystal sample quality and crystallographic disorder a high-quality crystal structure solution could not be obtained. Despite this, however, the data collected permit us to draw reasonable conclusions about the charge and connectivity of the [Mn@Pb12]3- cluster anion. Crystals of 1 were further characterized by elemental analysis and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations on such a system reveal a highly distorted endohedral cluster anion, consistent with the structural distortions observed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The cluster anions are considerably expanded compared to the 36-electron closed-shell analogue [Ni@Pb12]2- and, moreover, exhibit significant low-symmetry distortions from the idealized icosahedral (Ih) geometry that is characteristic of related endohedral clusters. Our computations indicate that there is substantial transfer of electron density from the formally Mn(-I) center to the low-lying vacant orbitals of the [Pb12]2- cage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Let G be a subgroup of , and , set , and . As , we obtain the general cases of , then one can easily obtain the nontrivial bound of as , which improves from Malykhin (2005) . On the other hand, it is known J. Bourgain obtain the nontrivial bound for with arbitrary by the sum-product method, however his bounds not be explicit. We also give some connections between and Erdös–Szemerédi Conjecture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• An electrochemical strategy for mass fabrication of SERS sensors is reported. • The sensors reported in this work is reusable after simple acid rinsing. • Nutrient distributions in the meat products are readout within minutes. • Food spoiling at an early stage is easily uncovered using our SERS sensor. Surface-enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS) is one of the most important on-site testing tools. However, it remains a great challenge for the SERS to achieve on-site safety evaluation for fish and meat products, due to their extremely complicated compositions of wide-ranging chemicals, the potential existence of unknown micro-organisms, and the difficulty to directly acquire spectra information from inside the product. Here, we report a convenient strategy for mass fabrication of a novel type of SERS sensors through electrochemical nanoetching of commercial Ag needles. The thus obtained SERS sensor features rich surface nanostructures of ultrahigh SERS sensitivity, making them highly compatible with low-cost portable Raman spectrometers to realize on-site detection. These sensors can be inserted into the products to read out the depth-profile information, e.g., from purine, proteins, and lipids. Unlike the conventional insertable SERS sensors that are coated with foreign plasmonic nanoparticles, the novel sensor possesses nano-carved plasmonic surface structures that are highly resistant to aggregation and materials loss, enabling much improved durability well suited for depth-profiling applications. Interestingly, these sensors can be repetitively regenerated by acid rinsing while maintain high enhancement effect. Instant detection of fish or meat spoilage at early stage is realized in a few minutes using the novel sensors reported here, demonstrating an attractive means for on-site food quality control in a rapid, low-cost, and convenient manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through proper arranging of a hybrid combination of longitudinal fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars and steel bars in the tensile region of the beam, the advantages of both FRP and steel materials can be sufficiently exploited to enhance the flexural capacity and ductility of a concrete beam. In this paper, a methodology for the flexural strength design of hybrid FRP-steel reinforced concrete (RC) beams is proposed. Firstly, based on the mechanical features of reinforcement and concrete and according to the latest codified provisions of longitudinal reinforcement conditions to ensure ductility level, the design-oriented allowable ranges of reinforcement ratio corresponding to three common flexural failure modes are specified. Subsequently, the calculation approach of nominal flexural strength of hybrid FRP-steel RC beams is established following the fundamental principles of equilibrium and compatibility. In addition to the common moderately-reinforced beams, the proposed general calculation approach is also applicable to lightly-reinforced beams and heavily-reinforced beams, which are widely used but rarely studied. Furthermore, the calculation process is properly simplified and the calculation accuracy is validated by the experimental results of hybrid FRP-steel RC beams in the literature. Finally, with the ductility analysis, a novel strength reduction factor represented by net tensile steel strain and reinforcement ratio is proposed for hybrid FRP-steel RC beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]