Search

The primary objective of this work was to delve into the potential therapeutic advantages and dissect the molecular mechanisms of salidroside in enhancing erectile function in rats afflicted with diabetic microvascular erectile dysfunction (DMED), addressing both the whole-animal and cellular dimensions.We established a DMED model in Sprague‒Dawley (SD) rats and conducted in vivo experiments. The DMED rats were administered varying doses of salidroside, the effects of which on DMED were compared. Erectile function was evaluated by applying electrical stimulation to the cavernous nerves and measuring intracavernous pressure in real time. The penile tissue underwent histological examination and Western blotting. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was employed in the in vitro trial to induce an oxidative stress for the purpose of identifying alterations in cell viability. The CCK-8 assay was used to measure the viability of corpus cavernous smooth muscle cells (CCSMCs) treated with vs. without salidroside. Flow cytometry was utilized to detect alterations in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Apoptosis was assessed through Western blotting and TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL). Animal and cellular experiments indicate that the Nrf2/HO-1 signalling pathway may be upregulated by salidroside, leading to the improvement of erectile function in diabetic male rats by alleviating oxidative stress and reducing apoptosis in corpus cavernosum tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing multi-channel data related to the industrial chain through graph representation learning is of significant value for industrial chain risk detection. Multi-channel data related to the industrial chain exhibits strong correlations, which enables such data to be modeled using graph structures. Furthermore, due to multi-channel data being multi-source, heterogeneous, and containing temporal information, industrial chain risk detection can be effectively conducted from the perspective of temporal heterogeneous graph representation learning. However, existing methods primarily obtain node features by sequentially processing the temporal heterogeneous information within a single graph, and they use attention based on discrete tokens to learn long-term information, which overlooks the multi-temporal information interactions between nodes and fails to effectively capture the temporal patterns in long-term information. To address these problems, we propose a multi-temporal heterogeneous graph learning with pattern-aware attention (MTHG-PA) for industrial chain risk detection. Firstly, we propose a method for interactive aggregation of multi-temporal heterogeneous information to learn node features, thereby avoiding the problem of insufficient information interaction between nodes across time. Secondly, we design a temporal pattern-aware attention module to learn the temporal patterns in long-term information, addressing the problem that traditional attention mechanisms can only handle discrete tokens. We conduct extensive experiments on three real-world datasets. The results show that our proposed method achieves superior performance in temporal heterogeneous graph learning compared to state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the auspice of further developing 5G mobile communication technology and integrating it with the latest advancements in the field of Industrial Internet-of-Things, this study conducts in-depth research and detailed analysis on the combination of 5G with industrial systems based on composite structures, communication network architectures, wireless application scenarios, and communication protocols. The status quo, development trend, and necessity of 5G mobile communication technology are explored and its potential in industrial applications is analyzed. Based on the current practical development level of 5G technology, by considering different requirements for bandwidth, real-time performance, and reliability in communication networks of industrial systems, this study proposes three feasible paths for the integration between 5G and industrial systems, including the method to use 5G in place of field buses. Finally, by introducing real-world cases, this study has successfully demonstrated the integration of 5G and industrial systems by extending 5G terminals as field bus gateways. This study provides valuable references for research and practice in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption of Ni2+ doped TiO2 (001) crystal plane for different gas molecules is studied by combining theory with experiment. The results show that O2 molecules are adsorbed on crystal plane in the form of chemical bond. XPS results prove that the doping of Ni2+ increases the chemisorbed oxygen ability of crystal plane. The adsorption of O2 molecules leads to the increase of the crystal plane conductivity, which is confirmed by the simulation results of the increase of Fermi level DOS and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experiment. H2O and N2 molecules are adsorbed by crystal plane in the form of hydrogen bond and physical adsorption, respectively, and their contributions to the crystal plane conductivity increase and decrease respectively, which is also confirmed by EIS under different atmospheres. Interestingly, small-angle XRD proves that the sample exists interlayer clearance, and the adsorption of gas molecules in the crystal surface gap further improves the storage capacity of TiO2 materials for gas molecules. The results of this study are of great significance for improving the oxygen carrying capacity and catalytic gas sensitive performance of TiO2 materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional chalcogenides have made significant advances as chemiresistive gas sensors due to their high sensing response and low power consumption. However, their inherent morphological complexity, low thermal oxidation temperature, and poor conductivity pose as major obstacles to practical application. In this study, we introduced a synthesis method in combination of hydrothermal reaction and heat treatment to fabricate SnS-based sensing materials with different forms of two-dimensional nanostructure. During preparation, SnS2 with different morphologies were firstly synthesized via hydrothermal reaction, followed by thermal oxidation and nitrogen calcination, flower-like SnS nanostructure, and nanoflake SnS–SnO2 composite, respectively. The samples synthesized by this method demonstrate improved crystallinity, which can overcome the obstacle of poor conductivity. In comparison, the flower-like SnS nanostructure assembled by ultra-thin nanosheets demonstrates improved gas-sensitive performance over nanoflake SnS–SnO2 composite. At the working temperature of 200 °C, the SnS sensor shows a response value as high as 13.3- to 100-ppm ethanol. Besides, the sensor exhibits stable sensing performance and excellent recovery characteristics in response to ethanol. The preparation method proposed in this paper provides an effective approach for the development of high-performance two-dimensional chalcogenide gas sensing materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent dementia in the world. Wearable technology has been useful in the computer-aided diagnosis and long-term monitoring of PD in recent years. The fundamental issue remains how to assess the severity of PD using wearable devices in an efficient and accurate manner. However, in the real-world free-living environment, there are two difficult issues, poor annotation and class imbalance, both of which could potentially impede the automatic assessment of PD. To address these challenges, we propose a novel framework for assessing the severity of PD patient's in a free-living environment. Specifically, we use clustering methods to learn latent categories from the same activities, while latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models are utilized to capture latent features from multiple activities. Then, to mitigate the impact of data imbalance, we augment bag-level data while retaining key instance prototypes. To comprehensively demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed framework, we collected a dataset containing wearable-sensor signals from 83 individuals in real-life free-living conditions. The experimental results show that our framework achieves an astounding 73.48% accuracy in the fine-grained (normal, mild, moderate, severe) classification of PD severity based on hand movements. Overall, this study contributes to more accurate PD self-diagnosis in the wild, allowing doctors to provide remote drug intervention guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring and understanding the development of agricultural management requires fine information on multiple agricultural land use classes. According to the main data bulletin of China's third national land survey released in 2021, the proportion of arable land in China accounts for 16% of the total land area. After excluding areas that are not suitable for development (slope greater than 25 degrees), the remaining area represents arable land affected by human activities, constituting 96.69% of the total arable land area in the country. Artificially irrigated areas are products of the intertwined interactions between the natural environment and human society. However, the original remote sensing image (China's land use/cover datasets, CLUDs), which is designed to depict the land use and cover patterns in mainland China, categorizes arable land into two main types: paddy fields and dryland. It lacks a subdivision of artificially irrigated areas. We also found a data discrepancy of more than 10% between the statistical data of rice and the paddy field data in CLUDs. To refine land use data, and then improve the simulation accuracy of the hydrological model, this article proposes a dual-source datasets fusion algorithm, learning based on big data, namely the LUCC statistical data fusion (LUSF) algorithm for integrating the remote sensing-based cropland area dataset and statistics dataset. The runoff simulation results show that, in the Yangtze River Basin, using LUSF datasets, the mean absolute percentage error value of monthly simulated runoff decreased by 0.74%, and the root mean square error value decreased by 0.22 million m 3 . At the basin scale, the absolute error of the simulated runoff is reduced by an average of 433 million m 3 per year, and 36 million m 3 every month. The LUSF datasets corrected the canopy interception coefficient effectively; the runoff simulation error was reduced by 2.96 billion m 3 /a. In the past 40 years, the runoff variation in Dongting Lake and Hanjiang River has been most strongly impacted by changes in the underlying surface. These results reveal that the new data fusion method has some significant improvement over the original method, applicable to the runoff simulation disturbed by strong human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher plants, cuticular wax deposited on the surface of epidermal cells plays an important role in protecting the plant from biotic and abiotic stresses; however, the molecular mechanism of cuticular wax production is not completely understood. In this study, we identified a glossy green mutant (98-1030gl) from the glaucous cabbage inbred line 98-1030. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the amount of leaf cuticular wax significantly decreased in 98-1030gl. Genetic analysis showed that the glossy green trait was controlled by a single recessive gene. Bulked segregant analysis coupled with whole genome sequencing revealed that the candidate gene for the glossy green trait was located at 13,860,000–25,070,000 bp (11.21 Mb) on Chromosome 5. Based on the resequencing data of two parents and the F2 population, insertion-deletion markers were developed and used to reduce the candidate mapping region. The candidate gene (Bol026949) was then mapped in a 50.97 kb interval. Bol026949 belongs to the Agenet/Tudor domain protein family, whose members are predicted to be involved in chromatin remodeling and RNA transcription. Sequence analysis showed that a single nucleotide polymorphism mutation (C → G) in the second exon of Bol026949 could result in the premature termination of its protein translation in 98-1030gl. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Bol026949 is relatively conserved in cruciferous plants. Transcriptome profiling indicated that Bol026949 might participate in cuticular wax production by regulating the transcript levels of genes involved in the post-translational cellular process and phytohormone signaling. Our findings provide an important clue for dissecting the regulatory mechanisms of cuticular wax production in cruciferous crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 nsp3 is essential for viral replication and host responses. The SARS-unique domain (SUD) of nsp3 exerts its function through binding to viral and host proteins and RNAs. Herein, we show that SARS-CoV-2 SUD is highly flexible in solution. The intramolecular disulfide bond of SARS-CoV SUD is absent in SARS-CoV-2 SUD. Incorporating this bond in SARS-CoV-2 SUD allowed crystal structure determination to 1.35 Å resolution. However, introducing this bond in SARS-CoV-2 genome was lethal for the virus. Using biolayer interferometry, we screened compounds directly binding to SARS-CoV-2 SUD and identified theaflavin 3,3'-digallate (TF3) as a potent binder, Kd 2.8 µM. TF3 disrupted the SUD-guanine quadruplex interactions and exhibited anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in Vero E6-TMPRSS2 cells with an EC50 of 5.9 µM and CC50 of 98.5 µM. In this work, we provide evidence that SARS-CoV-2 SUD harbors druggable sites for antiviral development. The SARS-unique domain (SUD) of SARS-CoV-2 plays important roles in virus life cycle. Here the authors determine the crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 SUD and perform a compound screen, which identify theaflavin 3,3'-digallate as a potent SUD binder that exhibits anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of 1470 nm diode laser enucleation of the prostate (DiLEP) and plasmakinetic resection of the prostate (PKRP) in elderly benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients with lower urinary tract symptoms. Methods: A total of 123 elderly patients with BPH were randomized to undergo either 1470 nm DiLEP or PKRP by means of a random number table from September 2020 to April 2022. The perioperative and postoperative data were studied during a 3- and 6-month follow-up. Results: The patients treated with 1470 nm DiLEP had significantly decreased operation time (74.6 ± 17.0 vs 98.8 ± 18.9 minutes, p < 0.001), hemoglobin loss (1.06 ± 0.49 vs 1.59 ± 0.60 g/dL, p < 0.001), bladder irrigation time (22.1 ± 8.1 vs 33.9 ± 10.0 hours, p < 0.001), catheter duration (3.2 ± 1.3 vs 5.8 ± 1.0 days, p < 0.001), and hospital stay (7.6 ± 1.4 vs 9.6 ± 1.3 days, p < 0.001) compared with the PKRP group. Besides, International Index of Erectile Function-5 score of 1470 nm DiLEP group at postoperative 3- and 6-month follow-up was significantly higher than PKRP group. No differences achieving statistical significance were identified in total prostate-specific antigen, maximum urinary flow rate, International Prostate Symptom Score, quality-of-life score, and the postvoid residual urine volume, transient incontinence, urethral stricture, bladder neck contracture, and retrograde ejaculation at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Conclusions: 1470 nm DiLEP is safer than PKRP, with a smaller effect on sexual function, and it is comparable with the efficacy of PKRP, thus making it more suitable for elderly BPH patients. Clinical Trial Registration number: S2021-463-01. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration of novel ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors is becoming a challenging and compelling research focus on semiconductor physics, materials, and device applications. Ternary B–C–N compounds have attracted much attention because their electronic structure and semiconductor properties are quite different depending on the chemical composition and atomic arrangement of boron, carbon, and nitrogen elements in the lattice. However, the lack of well-controlled high-quality B–C–N crystals has limited their potential as UWBG devices. In this study, B–C–N compounds are synthesized in bulks from graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) using ball milling and high-pressure high temperature technique. The synthesized B–C–N compounds produced are highly crystallized layered-materials with intercalated graphene layers in C-doped h-BN layers. The doped carbon atoms occupy boron sites and nitrogen sites of the h-BN layers unbalanced, giving rise to the n-type conductivity of the B-C-N layered compounds. The measured optical bandgaps range from 3.4 to 6.0 eV, which can be regulated by the carbon content. Their electronic properties are also tunable. Our work is expected to initiate potential applications of the B–C–N material as UWBG semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant U-box E3 ubiquitin ligases (PUBs) play an important role in growth, development, and stress responses in many species. However, the characteristics of U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase genes in cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) are still unclear. Here, we carry out the genome-wide analysis of U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase genes in cabbage and identify 65 Brassica oleracea var. capitata U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase (BoPUB) genes in the cabbage genome. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that all 65 BoPUB genes are grouped into six subfamilies, whose members are relatively conserved in the protein domain and exon-intron structure. Chromosomal localization and synteny analyses show that segmental and tandem duplication events contribute to the expansion of the U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase gene family in cabbage. Protein interaction prediction presents that heterodimerization may occur in BoPUB proteins. In silico promoter analysis and spatio-temporal expression profiling of BoPUB genes reveal their involvement in light response, phytohormone response, and growth and development. Furthermore, we find that BoPUB genes participate in the biosynthesis of cuticular wax and in response to cold stress and pathogenic attack. Our findings provide a deep insight into the U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase gene family in cabbage and lay a foundation for the further functional analysis of BoPUB genes in different biological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (A. pleuropneumoniae) causes porcine pleuropneumonia that seriously endangers pig's health. Adh, located in the head region of trimeric autotransporter adhesion of A. pleuropneumoniae, affects bacterial adhesion and pathogenicity. However, how Adh mediates A. pleuropneumoniae immune invasion is still unclear. Here, we established the A. pleuropneumoniae strain L20 or L20 ΔAdh-infected porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM) model, and applied protein overexpression, RNA interference, qRT-PCR, Western blot and immunoflourescence techniques to dissect the effects of Adh on PAM during A. pleuropneumoniae infection. We found that Adh could increase the A. pleuropneumoniae adhesion and intracellular survival in PAM. Gene chip analysis of piglet lungs further showed that Adh significantly induced cation transport regulatory-like protein 2 (CHAC2) expression, whose overexpression suppressed the phagocytic capacity of PAM. Furthermore, CHAC2 overexpression dramatically increased glutathione (GSH) expression, decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS), and promoted A. pleuropneumoniae survival in PAM, while the knockdown of CHAC2 reversed these phenomena. Meanwhile, CHAC2 silence activated the NOD1/NF-κB pathway, resulting in an increase in IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α expression, whereas this effect was weakened by CHAC2 overexpression and addition of NOD1/NF-κB inhibitor ML130. Moreover, Adh enhanced the secretion of LPS of A. pleuropneumoniae, which regulated the expression of CHAC2 via TLR4. In conclusion, through a LPS-TLR4-CHAC2 pathway, Adh inhibits respiratory burst and inflammatory cytokines expression to promote A. pleuropneumoniae survival in PAM. This finding may provide a novel target for the prevention and treatment of A. pleuropneumoniae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the day-by-day evaporation observation data in the Yangtze River Basin from 1951 to 2019, the effects of the gradual shift of observation instruments from 20 cm diameter evaporation pan (D20) to E601 evaporation pan after 1980 are discussed, including inconsistent data series, and missing and anomalous data. This study proposes a governance and improvement method for dual-source evaporation data (GIME). The method can accomplish the homogenization of data from different observation series and solve the problem of inconsistent and missing data, and we applied it in practice on data of the Yangtze River Basin. Firstly, the primary and secondary periods of the data were obtained by wavelet periodicity analysis; secondly, we considered the first cycle of observations to be representative of the sample and calculated the conversion relationship between the primary and secondary periods; thirdly, the conversion coefficient between the dual-source observations was calculated, and the results were corrected for stations outside the main cycle; finally, the daily evaporation dataset of E601 pan was established through data fusion and interpolation technology. The study found that the annual average conversion coefficients of the D20 and E601 pans in the Yangtze River Basin are basically between 0.55 and 0.80, and there are obvious differences in different regions. The conversion coefficient is positively correlated with relative humidity, wind speed, minimum temperature and altitude; and negatively correlated with sunshine duration, average temperature and maximum temperature. Evaporation is high in the upper reaches of the basin and low in the middle and lower reaches; in particular, evaporation is highest in the southwest, which is associated with the drought hazards. In addition, the article presents the spatial distribution of the conversion coefficients of D20 and E601 pans in the Yangtze River Basin. The results can realize the rapid correction of the evaporation data of the local meteorological department, and can be extended to the processing of other types of data in similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overcoming resistance to alkylating agents has important clinical significance in glioma. Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) has a tumor-suppressive effect on tumor cells. However, whether it plays a role in temozolomide resistance in glioma is still unclear. We constructed a TMZ-resistant LN-18/TR glioma cell line, observed the effect of C3G on TMZ resistance in this cell line, and explored the role of miR-214-5p in chemoresistance. Results showed that β-catenin and MGMT were significantly upregulated in LN-18/TR cells. C3G upregulated miR-214-5p and enhanced the cytotoxic effect of temozolomide on LN-18/TR cells. Contrarily, C3G downregulated β-catenin and MGMT. Moreover, the miR-214-5p mimic downregulated β-catenin and MGMT in LN-18/TR cells, whereas the miR-214-5p inhibitor had the opposite effect; the miR-214-5p inhibitor significantly blocked the C3G-induced downregulation of β-catenin and MGMT. C3G or the miR-214-5p mimic enhanced temozolomide-induced apoptosis in LN-18/TR cells, whereas the miR-214-5p inhibitor blocked this effect. Furthermore, C3G or miR-214-5p agomir combined with TMZ significantly inhibited the growth of LN-18/TR tumors. Collectively, our research discovered the potential signaling mechanism associated with C3G-mediated suppression of TMZ resistance in LN-18/TR cells through miR-214-5p, which can facilitate the treatment of MGMT-induced resistance in glioma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pearl River Delta is one of the most economically dynamic regions in the world, and assessing its resource-environmental pressure of the urban agglomeration is of great importance to the ecological well-being and sustainable development of this region. To systematically assess the impact of human activities on the environment, we established a three-dimensional footprint family model that incorporates the ecological footprint (EF), carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF), and improved the model in which the occupation of natural resources under ecological surplus is represented by the footprint depth, while the footprint size is dispensed with. The improved model addressed the problem that the conventional 3D footprint family model would remain a 2D plane state under ecological surplus, which could thereby distinguish natural capital flows from stocks, and deliver reliable prediction of the human demand for natural capital and the supply of natural environment to natural capital. Based on the improved model, we proposed the resource-environmental pressure (REP) evaluation system. As the proposed system incorporates multiple types of footprints related to ecological resources, water resources and carbon emissions, the assessment will not rely on one single type of footprint and free from subjective judgments, which promotes the shift of resource-environmental pressure research from single-dimensional and descriptive studies to multi-dimensional, prospective, and integrated research. In the present work, we evaluated the REP of the urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta in 2000 ~ 2015 and made a quantitative analysis of the three members of the footprint family. The research shows that the major contributors to the increasing REP in the study area from 2000 to 2015 were ecological footprint depth (EFdepth) and carbon footprint depth (CFdepth), which grew rapidly at an annual growth rate of 7.09 and 18.9%, respectively, and the situation is getting worse. Besides, there was a substantial regional difference in the distribution of REP, with the value in the central region significantly higher than in other regions of the study area. These research findings could provide new inspirations for optimization of regional resource utilization and regulation of urban resource-environmental pressure; the research is also expected to provide a scientific basis for decision-makers to systematically evaluate the impact of human activities on the environment and assess resource-environmental pressure in other urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six nonlinear, optical chromophores, Z1–Z6, based on the bis(N,N-diethyl)aniline-derived donor and thiolated isophorone bridge, were designed and synthesized. The bis(N,N-diethyl)aniline-derived donor was applied in a chromophore with thiolated isophorone as an electron bridge for the first time. In particular, the bridge parts of chromophores Z2–Z6 were modified with different functional groups, including tert-butyltrimethylsilane and tert-butyl(methyl)diphenylsilane derivative: 1,3-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzene and alkylaniline cyanoacetate, respectively. Density functional theory calculations suggested this series of chromophores show much greater hyperpolarizability than traditional, nonlinear, optical chromophores due to strong electron donor ability. These chromophores, Z1–Z6, showed very high poling efficiencies due to the large steric hindrance and hyperpolarizability of the chromophores. A large poling efficiency (2.04 ± 0.08 nm2/V2) and r33 value (193 pm/V) were achieved for polymeric thin films doped with 25 wt% chromophore Z6 at 1310 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting human body motion is a promising application to monitor the health status of the elderly or patient. With the rapid advancement of the fifth generation of cellular network technology (5G), an increasing number of radio frequency (RF) devices are deployed on the human body. These devices have great potential to continuously and remotely detect human motions. In this paper, we propose a thorough study for developing effective on-body RF motion detection systems from three perspectives, including effects of signal frequencies, effects of on-body sensor locations, and effects of classification algorithms. First, based upon handcrafted on-body RF characteristics, the detection accuracies are studied at 0.4GHz, 2.4GHz, and 5GHz, when the RF transceiver is mounted on the human hand, foot, and head. A minimal redundancy maximal relevance (mRMR) based stepwise detection is implemented to cross-validate the study. It also proves that a subset of candidate features can provide an acceptable detection accuracy. Moreover, to improve the detection performance, an attention-based bidirectional long-short term memory (BiLSTM) is proposed for on-body RF motion detection. We distinguish the typical human body motions, including standing, walking, and falling, with an average accuracy of 99.04%. The performance of the proposed attention-based BiLSTM has been analyzed with visualized training histories and attention weights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) belongs to a subgroup of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with an increasing incidence all over the world. Tanshinone IIA (TSA), an active compound of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge., has been found to have anti-tumor effects on many tumors, but its anti-LUAD effect and its mechanism have not been reported yet. In this study, bio-information analysis was applied to characterize the potential mechanism of TSA on LUA, biological experiments were used to verify the mechanisms involved. TCGA, Pubchem, SwissTargetPrediction, Venny2.1.0, STRING, DAVID, Cytoscape 3.7.2, Omicshare, GEPIA, RSCBPDB, Chem Draw, AutoDockTools, and PyMOL were utilized for analysis in the bio-information analysis and network pharmacology. Our experiments in vitro focused on the anti-LUAD effects and mechanisms of TSA on LUAD cells (A549 and NCI-H1975 cells) via MTT, plate cloning, Annexin V-FITC and PI dual staining, flow cytometry, and western blot assays. A total of 64 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of TSA for treatment of LUAD were screened out. Gene ontology and pathway analysis revealed characteristic of the DEGs network. After GEPIA-based DEGs confirmation, 46 genes were considered having significant differences. Further, 10 key DEGs (BTK, HSD11B1, ADAM33, TNNC1, THRA, CCNA2, AURKA, MIF, PLK1, and SORD) were identified as the most likely relevant genes from overall survival analysis. Molecular Docking results showed that CCNA2, CDK2 and PLK1 had the lowest docking energy. MTT and plate cloning assays results showed that TSA inhibited the proliferation of LUAD cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Annexin V-FITC and PI dual staining and flow cytometry assays results told that TSA promoted the apoptosis of the two LUAD cells in different degrees, and induced cycle arrest in the G1/S phase. Western blot results showed that TSA significantly down-regulated the expression of CCNA2, CDK2, AURKA, PLK1, and p-ERK. In summary, TSA could suppress the progression of LUAD by inducing cell apoptosis and arresting cell cycle, and these were done by regulating CCNA2-CDK2 complex and AURKA/PLK1 pathway. These findings are the first to demonstrate the molecular mechanism of TSA in treatment of LUAD combination of network bio-information analysis and biological experiments in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-time operation of traction systems under severe working environment easily induces various faults in high-speed trains, and thereby puts passengers in an unsafe position. Thanks to widely equipped sensors in high-speed trains and the technical development of advanced data analysis techniques, real-time fault detection (FD) using only online data is an inevitable trend to improve safety and reliability of high-speed trains. In this paper, an edge computing-aided FD framework for traction systems in high-speed trains is proposed; the superior advantages include: 1) its implementation can be easily carried out without system information such as accurate mathematical models of traction systems; 2) it has the well-deserved expansibility without being redesigned for the control structure of traction systems; 3) it nearly does not occupy resource of traction control units, and it does not overburden the information transmission systems. This highly intelligent FD framework using edge computing is firstly speculated in details, and its core theory is then applied to a dSPACE platform of high-speed trains for verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rapid response/recovery ribbon‐like hydroxyapatite (HAp) humidity sensor with loose spatial structure has been fabricated in this work. The HAp film was prepared on polyethylene terephthalate‐indium tin oxide (PET‐ITO) interdigital substrate by electrochemical deposition method. The HAp film was characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR techniques. Electrochemically deposited HAp has a preferred orientation in a‐plane, which exposes a great many of hydroxyl groups. The HAp has a flat ribbon‐like microstructure that effectively captures and detects water molecules. The gap of the interdigital electrode was filled with long ribbon‐like HAp to form a loose spatial structure which facilitates water molecules adsorption and desorption. The HAp humidity sensor showed high sensitivity, low hysteresis and good linearity. In particular, HAp sensor has a short response time of 0.9 s and recovery time of 5.6 s. Besides, the humidity sensing mechanism of HAp sensor was also investigated in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Duck viral hepatitis (DVH) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting ducks. It can be caused by five agents, including duck hepatitis A virus genotypes 1 (DHAV-1), 2 (DHAV-2), and 3 (DHAV-3), as well as duck hepatitis virus 2 and duck hepatitis virus 3. Since 2007, DHAV-3 has been known to be the most prevalent in East and South Asia. So far, the information regarding the propagation of DHAV-3 in cultured cells is limited. In this study, we describe the comparative studies on the growth properties of DHAV-3 in primary duck embryo fibroblast (DEF) cells using two different strains: a virulent strain C-GY and an attenuated strain YDF120. The effect of fetal calf serum (FCS) and chick serum (CS) on DHAV-3 replication and the mechanism of the inhibitory effect conferred by FCS were also investigated. Results: Following serial passages, both C-GY and YDF120 failed to produce cytopathic effect and plaques. The combined quantitative real-time PCR and indirect immunofluorescence staining methods showed that the two viruses could be propagated productively in DEF cells. Investigation of the viral growth kinetics revealed that the two viruses replicated in DEF cells with similar efficiencies, while the viral load of the virulent C-GY strain peaked more rapidly when compared with the attenuated YDF120 strain. Neutralization assay and time-of-drug-addition study indicated that FCS displayed inhibitory effect on DHAV-3 replication. Analysis on the mechanism of action of FCS against DHAV-3 demonstrated that the inhibitory effect was reflected at three steps of the DHAV-3 life cycle including adsorption, replication, and release. Conclusions: Both virulent and attenuated DAHV-3 strains can establish noncytocidal, productive infections in DEF cells. The virulent strain replicates more rapidly than the attenuated strain in early infection period. FCS has an inhibitory effect on DHAV-3 replication, which may be attributed to action of a non-specific inhibitory factor present in FCS directly on the virus. These findings may provide new insights into the development of potential antiviral agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total variation (TV) regularization-based iterative reconstruction algorithms have an impressive potential to solve limited-angle computed tomography with insufficient sampling projections. The analysis of exact reconstruction sampling conditions for a TV-minimization reconstruction model can determine the minimum number of scanning angle and minimize the scanning range. However, the large-scale matrix operations caused by increased testing phantom size are the computation bottleneck in determining the exact reconstruction sampling conditions in practice. When the size of the testing phantom increases to a certain scale, it is very difficult to analyze quantitatively the exact reconstruction sampling condition using existing methods. In this paper, we propose a fast and efficient algorithm to determine the exact reconstruction sampling condition for large phantoms. Specifically, the sampling condition of a TV minimization model is modeled as a convex optimization problem, which is derived from the sufficient and necessary condition of solution uniqueness for the L1 minimization model. An effective alternating direction minimization algorithm is developed to optimize the objective function by alternatively solving two sub-problems split from the convex problem. The Cholesky decomposition method is used in solving the first sub-problem to reduce computational complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently solve the verification problem of the accurate reconstruction sampling condition. Furthermore, we obtain the lower bounds of scanning angle range for the exact reconstruction of a specific phantom with the larger size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel non-enzymatic carbohydrates sensor which was an indium tin oxide (ITO) glass electrode modified by nickel and copper nanoparticles (Cu/Ni/ITO) was developed by an electrochemical method. The crystallinity, morphology, electrochemical measurements and amperometric response of the as-prepared ITO modified electrode were examined by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopic (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry, respectively. The Cu/Ni/ITO electrode had better electroactivity for glucose oxidation than that obtained using Cu/ITO, Ni/ITO, and Ni/Cu/ITO. The logistic regression equation, Ipa = ( A1 - A2)/[1 + ( Cglucose/ x0) p] + A2, was used to fit the calibration curves of glucose aqueous solution concentrations and responsive current intensity. In research of other saccharides, such as fructose, lactose, sucrose, and maltose, which were detected by the Cu/Ni/ITO electrode, it was obvious that the Cu/Ni/ITO electrode was more sensitive to monosaccharides than disaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides can be detected because the saccharides themselves had aldehyde group or be isomerized to an isomer having an aldehyde group in alkaline environment, and then aldehyde group produced carboxylic acid in the catalytic oxidation of the electrode, which lead to the change of electrode surface conductivity and the appearance of oxidation peak, and the alkaline environment further promotes the above reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia is a common toxicant in aquatic systems; this substance has become a critical threat to fish, especially in early life stages. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of unionized ammonia (NH-N: 0, 0.068, 0.138, 0.206, 0.275, 0.343, 0.412, and 0.481 mg L) on fertilized eggs and larvae of obscure puffer Takifugu obscurus, a fish species with potential economic value. Results showed that hatch time was significantly retarded and hatch rate was significantly decreased as NH-N concentrations increased; newly hatched larvae exhibited high rate of abnormalities and low viability. The survival rate of larvae also decreased significantly as NH-N concentrations increased; larvae could tolerate NH-N to a less extent than embryos. NH-N also caused a significant decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Na/K ATPase activities but not in malondialdehyde (MDA) levels of larvae. Two-way ANOVA indicated that there was a statistically significant interaction between NH-N concentrations and exposure times on SOD activity but not on Na/K ATPase activity. Such responses indicated that an increase in ammonia concentration in surface water may negatively affect the early development of T. obscurus and thus likely impair population recruitment and persistence of this fish species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulation and breakdown of large algal blooms often causes serious hypoxia in lakes, representing a major potential threat to zooplankton grazers such as Daphnia. Generally, populations comprise different age groups, whose molecular responses to environmental stressors are different. The aim of our study was to investigate the age-dependent effects of oxygen depletion on D. magna survival and selected gene expressions of energy-relevance and stress-defense. Four age groups of D. magna (1, 4, 7 and 14 days) were exposed to 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25 mM dissolved oxygen (DO) for 48 h. Results showed that survival rates of 14-day-old individuals in 0.0625 mM DO and 0.125 mM DO were much lower than those in 0.25 mM DO, while no significant difference was found in remaining age groups. Low DO up-regulated hemoglobin expression compared with the controls in all age groups; the similar pattern in α-esterase was observed when 1-day-old individuals were exposed to 0.0625 mM, 4- and 7-day-old individuals at 0.125 mM, respectively. HSP70 and CAT expression were significantly upregulated in 1- and 7-day-old individuals exposed to 0.125 mM. The findings indicate that age structure should be taken into account when interpreting dynamics of Daphnia populations affected by oxygen depletion. Age may modify energy reallocation and alter susceptibility of the organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this work, magnetic FeO@mesoporous silica composites were synthesized by a microemulsion (oil-in-water/ethanol) approach which was applied with a modified Stöber reaction. Cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide was employed as the surfactant, nano-FeO particles were dispersed in microemulsion. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) formed oil drops, and ammonia solution facilitated the hydrolysis polymerization of TEOS. The diameters of the magnetic FeO@mesoporous silica composites can be tuned within the range 120-380 nm by varying the ratio of ethanol/water and the amount of nano-FeO particles. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface areas of magnetic FeO@mesoporous silica composites were determined to be within the range 490-759 m/g and their pore sizes were around 2.3 nm as it was determined by Barrett-Joyner-Halenda method. Furthermore, the encapsulation of poorly water-soluble drugs within magnetic FeO@mesoporous silica composites was investigated using protoporphyrin IX. Magnetic FeO@mesoporous silica composites showed a drug loading within 22-68 mg/g, which can be an excellent drug delivery platform for photodynamic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of inorganic hollow nanoparticles has attracted more and more attention in recent research. In this article, hollow α-FeO-silica composites were synthesized by a modified Stöber method. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) formed oil drops, and ammonia solution facilitated the hydrolysis polymerization of TEOS. In the hydrolysis process of TEOS, we used cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and poly(acrylic acid) colloidal aggregates as the surfactant and template, respectively. The diameters of the composites we obtained are about 20 and 180 nm, respectively, which are smaller than that of pure silica spheres (200 nm). Moreover, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface areas of hollow α-FeO-silica composites were determined to be in the range of 377-498 m/g, and their pore sizes are around 2 nm as were determined by BJH method. The mesoporous silica was successfully coated around the α-FeO. The synthesis process of the composites is a simple, one-step route, which exhibits the potential need for a great amount of synthesis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CdS semiconductor nano-films were grown on ITO glass substrates by means of chemical bath deposition (CBD), with Cd(NO3)2 as Cd ion and (NH2)2CS as S ion sources. The concentration of Cd ions, deposition temperature, deposition time and post-treatment temperature have an impact on the formation of CdS nano-films. UV-vis absorption spectrum and atomic force microscope (AFM) images indicated that the change of concentration and post-treatment temperature may adjust the band-gap of CdS to obtain stable, homogeneous and compact films. Formation mechanism of the crystal nucleus and CdS film was also discussed. Active sites on the surface of ITO are critical to the formation of the crystal nucleus and a uniform and compact CdS nano-film. The active site and crystal nucleus are formed due to the comprehensive effect of electricity, thermodynamics and chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CdSe nanoparticle‐polyelectrolyte electrodes sensitized by tetrasulfonated copper phthalocyanine (CuTsPc) were fabricated by the layer‐by‐layer self‐assembly technique. The structural and optical properties of the electrodes were characterized by UV‐vis absorption spectra and AFM. The sensitized electrode shows a broad photovoltaic response range. The surface photovoltage corresponding to the CuTsPc Q band transition in the sensitized electrode is approximately five times stronger than that of pure CuTsPc. This is probably due to the electron transfer from the excited state of CuTsPc to the conduction band of CdSe nanoparticles, which leads to a high probability of carrier separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited-angle computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction is a challenging problem in the field of CT imaging. In some special applications, limited by the geometric space and mechanical structure of the imaging system, projections can only be collected with a scanning range of less than 90°. We call this kind of serious limited-angle problem the ultra-limited-angle problem, which is difficult to effectively alleviate by traditional iterative reconstruction algorithms. With the development of deep learning, the generative adversarial network (GAN) performs well in image inpainting tasks and can add effective image information to restore missing parts of an image. In this study, given the characteristic of GAN to generate missing information, the sinogram-inpainting-GAN (SI-GAN) is proposed to restore missing sinogram data to suppress the singularity of the truncated sinogram for ultra-limited-angle reconstruction. We propose the U-Net generator and patch-design discriminator in SI-GAN to make the network suitable for standard medical CT images. Furthermore, we propose a joint projection domain and image domain loss function, in which the weighted image domain loss can be added by the back-projection operation. Then, by inputting a paired limited-angle/180° sinogram into the network for training, we can obtain the trained model, which has extracted the continuity feature of sinogram data. Finally, the classic CT reconstruction method is used to reconstruct the images after obtaining the estimated sinograms. The simulation studies and actual data experiments indicate that the proposed method performed well to reduce the serious artifacts caused by ultra-limited-angle scanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]