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Innate immunity serves as the first line of host defense in the body against pathogenic infections or malignant diseases. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), as vital signaling mediators, can efficiently elicit innate immune responses to oxidative-related stress or damage. In the era of nanomedicine, various immunostimulatory nanosystems have been extensively designed and synthesized to elicit immune responses for the immunotherapy of cancer or infectious diseases. In this review, we emphasize that ROS derived from nanosystems regulates innate immune cells to potentiate immunotherapeutic efficacy, such as primarily dendritic cells, macrophages, or natural killer cells. Meanwhile, we also summarize the pathway of ROS generation triggered by exogenous nanosystems in innate immune cells of DCs, macrophages, and NK cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Periplaneta americana residue is a byproduct of using Periplaneta americana in pharmaceutical research and development for extracting active ingredients. Three hundred Three-yellow chickens were selected for the experiment and randomly divided into 6 groups (5 replications per group, 10 chickens per replicate): the control group (group A) was fed a basal ration, and the experimental groups (groups B, C, D, E, and F) were fed experimental diets in which P. americana residue replaced puffed soybean meal at proportions of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, respectively, for a period of 42 d. The aim was to assess the impact of different levels of P. americana residue on the growth, survival, intestinal morphology, digestive enzyme activity, intestinal flora, and intestinal transcriptional responses of Three-yellow chickens. The results indicated that the increase in P. americana residue levels had a linear and quadratic impact on the average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR), respectively. The ADG was notably greater in the 40% group than in the 100% group, while the FCR was significantly lower in the 20% and 40% groups than in the 100% group (P < 0.05). Protease, lipase, and amylase activities exhibited a quadratic increase with increasing concentrations of P. americana residue (P < 0.05). Protease and lipase activities were notably greater in the 20% and 40% groups than in the 0% group (control group), amylase activity was significantly greater in the 40% group than in the 0% group (control group) (P < 0.05). Duodenal crypt depth (CD) decreased quadratically with increasing P. americana residue (P < 0.05). The duodenal villus height/crypt depth ratio (V/C) was significantly lower in the 100% group than in the 60% group (P < 0.05). The intestinal villus height (VH) increased quadratically with increasing levels of P. americana residue. The VH in the 60% group was significantly greater than that in the 0% (control group), 20, 80, and 100% groups (P < 0.05). The Chao and Ace indices demonstrated linear and quadratic increases with increasing levels of P. americana residue, while the Pd index showed a quadratic increase with increasing levels of P. americana residue (P < 0.05). The relative abundance profile of Lactobacillus exhibited a linear and quadratic decrease with increasing levels of P. americana residue, with the 100% group showing a significantly lower abundance than the 0% (control group) and 40% groups (P < 0.05). The transcriptome results showed that P. americana residue could enhance the digestive system by promoting vitamin, fat, carbohydrate digestion and absorption, cholesterol metabolism, etc. In conclusion, P. americana residue can replace puffed soybean meal without negatively affecting the growth performance of three-yellow chickens. The low and medium groups had positive effects on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activity, intestinal morphology, intestinal flora, and substance digestion and absorption of three-yellow chickens. The recommended replacement of P. americana residue for puffed soybean meal in the diets of three-yellow chickens ranged from 20% to 60%., Competing Interests: DISCLOSURES The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Dodecenylsuccinic anhydride (DDSA) has been widely used to obtain amphiphilic starches. In this study, we investigated the functionalities of synchronous intermissive multi-ultrasound-assisted esterified starch. Compared to native starch (NS), it was deduced that multi-ultrasound-modified starch (US), esterified starch (ES), and multi-ultrasound-assisted esterified starch (UES) exhibited increased viscosities but reduced gelatinization temperatures and thermal stabilities. The viscoelastic moduli, retrogradation behaviors and hydrophobicity of the ES and UES species significantly altered. Moreover, the results of structural characterization suggested that esterification reduced the molecular weight and structural order of starch, whereas the intermissive ultrasonication treatment did not aggravate the structural disruption of ES. Additionally, compared with NS and US, the emulsification abilities of the ES and UES specimens were improved, leading to the desirable effect of stabilizing astaxanthin. Overall, this study provides a method for preparing amphiphilic starch, which can be exploited as a potential emulsifier and emulsion stabilizer for bioactive compounds., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder closely associated with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. The core of the disease lies in the abnormal expansion of the CGG trinucleotide repeat sequence at the 5'end of the FMR1 gene. When the repetition exceeds 200 times, it causes the silencing of the FMR1 gene, leading to the absence of the encoded Fragile X mental retardation protein 1 (FMRP). Although the detailed mechanism by which the CGG repeat expansion triggers gene silencing is yet to be fully elucidated, it is known that this process does not alter the promoter region or the coding sequence of the FMR1 gene. This discovery provides a scientific basis for the potential reversal of FMR1 gene silencing through interventional approaches, thereby improving the symptoms of FXS. Epigenetics, a mechanism of genetic regulation that does not depend on changes in the DNA sequence, has become a new focus in FXS research by modulating gene expression in a reversible manner. The latest progress in molecular genetics has revealed that epigenetics plays a key role in the pathogenesis and pathophysiological processes of FXS. This article compiles the existing research findings on the role of epigenetics in Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) with the aim of deepening the understanding of the pathogenesis of FXS to identify potential targets for new therapeutic strategies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xie, Li, Xiao, Chen, Zang, Liu, Ye and Tang.)

The formation conditions and functional property differences of esterified starch (ES) and granular esterified-pregelatinized starch (EPS) synchronously prepared by octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) modification remain unclear. In this study, we explored the formation conditions and physicochemical properties of ES and EPS after OSA modification. The modification temperature controlled the formation amount and time for both starch types during OSA modification. Compared to ES, EPS exhibited a higher degree of substitution, cold-water swelling power, water-absorption capacity and apparent viscosity in cold water. The structural characterization confirmed the molecular weight and short/long-range molecular order of ES and EPS decreased. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy indicated EPS retained its granular morphology. The X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the presence of more starch-lipid complexes formed in EPS than in ES. This study provides a novel method for preparing esterified and granularly esterified-pregelatinized starches that could be used as promising additives in low-energy formula foods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) cause health and environmental effects worldwide. Cyanophage is a virus that exclusively infects cyanobacteria. Using cyanophages to control blooms is the latest biological control method. However, little research on the genomics of cyanophages and the presence of numerous proteins with unidentified functions in cyanophage genomes pose challenges for their practical application and comprehensive investigation. We selected the broad-spectrum and efficient cyanophage YongM for our study. On the one hand, through rational analysis, we analyze essential genes, establish the minimal cyanophage genome and single essential gene modules, and examine the impact of essential modules on growth. Additionally, we conducted ultraviolet mutagenesis on YongM to generate more efficient cyanophages' critical modules through random mutagenesis. Then, we sequenced and analyzed the functionality of the mutational gene modules. These findings highlight several gene modules that contribute to a deeper understanding of the functional components within cyanophage genomes.

The ability to clone large DNA fragments from genomes is valuable for both basic and applied research, such as the construction of synthetic genomes, and the expression of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for natural product discovery. Here, we report a fast and efficient platform for the direct capture of genome DNAs, by combining CRISPR and Gibson assembly. We demonstrate this method with the ability of cloning large DNA fragments ranging from 30 to 77 kb from various host genomes, achieving a near 100% cloning fidelity for DNA fragments below 50 kb. We next demonstrate this method by the cloning of a 40 kb fragment from Streptomyces ceruleus A3(2), which is rich in BGCs for natural products; and used this method cloning the 40 kb fengycin synthetic gene cluster from B. subtilis 168, encoding for a class of peptides with bioactivity. This method provides efficient and simple opportunities for assembling large DNA constructs from distant sources.

The non-stationarity of EEG signals results in variability across sessions, impeding model building and data sharing. In this paper, we propose a domain adaptation method called GPL, which simultaneously considers global knowledge and prototype-based local class information to enhance the classification accuracy of motor imagery signals. Depending on the amount of labeled data available in the target domain, the method is implemented in both unsupervised and semi-supervised versions. Specifically, at the global level, we employ the maximum mean difference (MMD) loss to globally constrain the feature space, achieving comprehensive alignment. In the context of class-level operations, we propose two memory banks designed to accommodate class prototypes in each domain and constrain feature embeddings by applying two prototype-based contrastive losses. The source contrastive loss is used to organize source features spatially based on categories, thereby reconciling inter-class and intra-class relationships, while the interactive contrastive loss is employed to facilitate cross-domain information interaction. Simultaneously, in unsupervised scenarios, to mitigate the adverse effects of excessive pseudo-labels, we introduce an entropy-aware strategy that dynamically evaluates the confidence level of target data and personalized constraints on the participation of interactive contrastive loss. To validate our approach, extensive experiments were conducted on a highly regarded public EEG dataset, namely Dataset IIa of the BCI Competition IV, as well as a large-scale EEG dataset called GigaDB. The experiments yielded average classification accuracies of 86.03% and 84.22% respectively. These results demonstrate that our method is an effective EEG decoding model, conducive to advancing the development of motor imagery brain-computer interfaces. The architecture proposed in this study and the code for data partitioning can be found at https://github.com/zhangdx21/GPL., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Emergency prehospital wound closure and hemorrhage control are the first priorities for life-saving. Majority of bioadhesives form bonds with tissues through irreversible cross-linking, and the remobilization of misalignment may cause severe secondary damage to tissues. Therefore, developing an adhesive that can quickly and tolerably adhere to traumatized dynamic tissue or organ surfaces in emergency situations is a major challenge. Inspired by the structure of human serum albumin (HSA), a branched polymer with multitentacled sulfhydryl is synthesized, then, an instant and fault-tolerant tough wet-tissue adhesion (IFA) hydrogel is prepared. Adhesive application time is just 5 s (interfacial toughness of ≈580 J m -2 ), and favorable tissue-adhesion is maintained after ten cycles. IFA hydrogel shows unchangeable adhesive performance after 1 month of storage based on the internal oxidation-reduction mechanism. It not only can efficiently seal various organs but also achieves effective hemostasis in models of the rat femoral artery and rabbit-ear artery. This work also proposes an effective strategy for controllable adhesion, enabling the production of asymmetric adhesives with on-demand detachment. Importantly, IFA hydrogel has sound antioxidation, antibacterial property, hemocompatibility, and cytocompatibility. Hence, the HSA-inspired bioadhesive emerges as a promising first-aid supply for human-machine interface-based health management and non-invasive wound closure., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Some wheat-based foods require different doses of oil to moderate quality of dough during processing and the influence mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the effect of rapeseed oil addition on physicochemical characteristics and fine structure of dough and underlying mechanism were elucidated by rheometer, scanning microscope and molecular spectroscopic method. Results showed that compared with native dough (without exogenous rapeseed oil), the addition of rapeseed oil changed the fine structure, improved extensibility, but reduced viscoelasticity of the dough. Moreover, high addition especially 20 wt% oil (based on wheat flour) significantly changed gelatinization and retrogradation behaviors of the dough, whilst disrupted gluten network and increased random coil content (32.1%) of dough except that decreased its α-helix (21.2%), β-sheet (23.1%), disulfide bond (7.9 μmol/g) compared with native dough which were 16.3%, 29.2%, 33.1%, 11.0 μmol/g, respectively. Results in the study could provide a certain understanding for application of vegetable oils in wheat-based products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity and structure within the Dengchuan cattle population and effectively protect and utilize their germplasm resources. Herein, the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 100 Dengchuan cattle (46 bulls and 54 cows) were determined using the GGP Bovine 100K SNP Beadchip. The results showed that among the Dengchuan cattle, a total of 101,220 SNPs were detected, and there were 83,534 SNPs that passed quality control, of which 85.7% were polymorphic. The average genetic distance based on identity-by-state (IBS) within the conservation population of Dengchuan cattle was 0.26 ± 0.02. A total of 3,999 genome-length runs of homozygosity (ROHs) were detected in the Dengchuan cattle, with ROH lengths primarily concentrated in the range of 1-5 Mb, accounting for 87.02% of the total. The average inbreeding coefficient based on ROHs was 4.6%, within the conservation population of Dengchuan cattle, whereas it was 4.9% for bulls, and the Wright inbreeding coefficient (F IS ) value was 2.4%, demonstrating a low level of inbreeding within the Dengchuan cattle population. Based on neighbor-joining tree analysis, the Dengchuan cattle could be divided into 16 families. In summary, the conservation population of Dengchuan cattle displays relatively abundant diversity and a moderate genetic relationship. Inbreeding was observed among a few individuals, but the overall inbreeding level of the population remained low. It is important to maintain this low level of inbreeding when introducing purebred bloodlines to expand the core group. This approach will ensure the long-term conservation of Dengchuan cattle germplasm resources and prevent loss of genetic diversity.

Fingering front morphologies for water and non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) infiltrating into homogeneous unsaturated porous media were quantitatively described based on the fractal assumption. Correlations of fractal dimensions with physical properties of the fluids were studied. The implications of fractal dimensions for environmental systems are further discussed. Fingering front morphologies had fractal properties, and diesels which with high capillary numbers experienced high fractal dimensions than water. Fractal dimension was suggested as an indicator for dye coverage and infiltration depth, which represent pollution area and depth, respectively. The pollution areas showed positive correlations with fractal dimensions while the infiltration depths showed negative correlations. This information is useful for contaminated soil risk management and important in the effective design of recovery and remediation schemes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Thirty protoberberine derivatives, of which twenty five were new, were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-Helicobacter pylori (HP) activities, taking 2,3,10-trimethoxy-9-p-methylbenzylaminoprotopalmatine chloride 1 as the lead. Among them, berberine (BBR) derivative 7c displayed the highest potency against six tested metronidazole (MTZ)-resistant strains and two tested MTZ-susceptible strains with the MIC values of 0.4-1.6 μg/mL with favorable druglike profiles including low toxicity and high stabilities in plasma and artificial gastric fluid. Mechanistic study revealed that 7c might target HP urease with IC 50 value of 0.27 μg/mL against Jack bean urease. Furthermore, 7c might change the permeability of the bacterial membrane and direct interact with HP DNA, which also contribute to its bactericidal activity. Therefore, BBR derivatives constituted a new family of anti-HP candidates, with the advantage of good safety profile and multi-target mechanisms, and are worthy for further investigation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Large-area oriented ZnO nanoarrays (including nanowire, nanorod, and nanotube) on ITO glass substrates are synthesized via the simple hydrothermal, electrodeposition, and electrochemical etching approach. The morphology of ZnO nanoarrays is controlled by adjusting the reaction temperature, reaction time, and current density. The scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) results indicate the successful preparation of large-area oriented ZnO nanoarrays with different types, and the energy-dispersive X-microanalysis spectrum (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirm that the composition of the obtained nanoarrays is ZnO. More importantly, the as-prepared ZnO nanotube arrays are observed with about a 40% increase in ultraviolet absorption intensity compared to the ZnO nanowire/nanorod arrays, due to having larger specific surface areas. The as-prepared different types of ZnO nanoarrays have great potential for applications in low-cost and high-performance optoelectronic devices.

Disrupted circadian rhythms are associated with the onset of chronic diseases and impairments, including cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. However, whether circadian disruptions accelerate the progression of Alzheimer's disease and the respective pathway remains unclear. In this study, we constructed animal models using male C57BL/6N and APP/PS1 mice. Irregular illumination during sleeping hours was administered to the mice in our intervention groups to consistently disrupt their circadian rhythms. The impact of the intervention was evaluated through body weight tracking, cerebral index determination, histopathological staining, and biochemical marker analysis. Transcriptomic sequencing identified critical genes, with the data subsequently validated using RNA m 6 A detection and site analysis. The evaluations revealed that circadian disruptions impaired normal weight gain, liver and kidney functions, neuronal cells, and overall brain function. Transcriptomic sequencing data revealed a trend of elevating expression of Hif3α mRNA in the intervention groups. Further analysis of specific gene sites revealed that m 6 A methylation of the Hif3α gene at m 6 A site 3632 primarily drove the observed variations in HIF3A protein expression in our model. Furthermore, the expression of proteins in PC12 cells, N2a cells, and mice brains validated that an increase in HIF3A expression decreased KDM3A and TGF-β1 protein expression. Our study reveals a hitherto unknown pathway through which the disruption of circadian rhythms, by triggering m 6 A methylation at m 6 A site 3632 in the Hif3α gene, leads to the initiation and acceleration of AD. These findings provide valuable insights and guidelines for treating AD patients and enhancing caregiving by professionals.

Our current planetary crisis, including multiple jointly acting factors of global change, moves the need for effective ecosystem restoration center stage and compels us to explore unusual options. We here propose exploring combinatorial approaches to restoration practices: management practices are drawn at random and combined from a locally relevant pool of possible management interventions, thus creating an experimental gradient in the number of interventions. This will move the current degree of interventions to higher dimensionality, opening new opportunities for unlocking unknown synergistic effects. Thus, the high dimensionality of global change (multiple jointly acting factors) would be more effectively countered by similar high-dimensionality in solutions. In this concept, regional restoration hubs play an important role as guardians of locally relevant information and sites of experimental exploration. Data collected from such studies could feed into a global database, which could be used to learn about general principles of combined restoration practices, helping to refine future experiments. Such combinatorial approaches to exploring restoration intervention options may be our best hope yet to achieve decisive progress in ecological restoration at the timescale needed to mitigate and reverse the most severe losses caused by global environmental change., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between baseline soluble suppression of tumorigenesis-2 (sST2) concentration and the outcomes of heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF) or death in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) with or without renal insufficiency (RI)., Methods: Between March 2011 and December 2015, 3454 patients with CHD from the Chinese PLA General Hospital were enrolled in this cohort study. The patients were followed up until October 2021. AF, HF, and death events were recorded. Associations between baseline sST2 concentrations and clinical outcomes were assessed using Kaplan-Meier (K-M) curves, and Cox regression and generalised additive models. Subgroup analysis were carried out between RI and non-RI groups., Results: Among the patients with CHD (61.5 ± 11.8 years; 78.6 % men), 415 (12.02 %) had RI. During a median follow-up of 8.37 years, HF and AF were reported in 216 (6.25 %) and 174 (5.04 %) patients, respectively, and 297 (8.60 %) died. The K-M curves indicated that patients in the higher quartiles of sST2 concentrations were correlated with a poor survival rate of HF, AF, or death (all Ps  < 0.001). Generalised additive model (GAM) demonstrated a nonlinear positive association between sST2 concentration and the risk of HF, AF, and death in CHD patients. The cut-off value of sST2 for predicting HF, AF and death were 32.1, 25.4 and 28.6 ng/mL, respectively. CHD patients with sST2 higher than the cut-off value had higher risks of HF (HR: 3.02, 95%CI: 2.24-4.05), AF (HR: 2.86; 95%CI: 2.10-3.90), and death (HR:2.11, 95%CI: 1.67-2.67). Furthermore, in patients with RI (12.02 %, n = 415), the prognostic value of sST2 over the cut-off value for HF and death remained unchanged (HR: 3.21 and 2.35; P  < 0.05). In patients with CHD with or without RI, sST2 improved the area under the curve (AUC) of traditional risk models for predicting clinical endpoint events., Conclusions: The biomarker sST2 may be useful for predicting HF, AF, and death in patients with CHD. The predicted value was not affected by renal function., Competing Interests: All authors disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this publication., (© 2024 The Authors.)

The present study aimed to investigate the differential effects of n -3 and n -6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) on placental and embryonic development. Pregnant mice were assigned to five groups: healthy control (HC), diabetes mellitus control (DMC), diabetes + low-dose n -3 PUFA (L n -3), diabetes + high-dose n -3 PUFA (H n -3), and diabetes + n -6 PUFA ( n -6). On E12.5d, the H n -3 group, but not the n -6 group, had a higher placenta weight. The weight ratio of embryo to placenta in the n -6 group was significantly lower than in the H n -3 group but higher than in the DMC group. The H n -3 group had significantly higher protein levels of VEGF, IGF-1, and IGFBP3, while the n -6 group had lower VEGF than the DMC group. Compared with the DMC group, embryonic Cer-16:0 was significantly higher in the H n -3 group, while embryonic PC (36:6), PC (38:7), and PE (40:7) were significantly lower in the n -6 group. The embryo and placenta weights were positively correlated with placental VEGF, IGFBP3, and embryonic Cer-16:0, and they were negatively correlated with embryonic PC (36:6) and PE (40:7). The weight ratio of embryo to placenta was negatively correlated with embryonic PC (36:6). In addition, embryonic Cer-16:0 was positively correlated with placental VEGF and IGFBP3. In conclusion, n -3 PUFA and n -6 PUFA improved placental and embryonic growth through different mechanisms.

Aim: This study aims to explore the association of cumulative exposure to cardiovascular health behaviors and factors with the onset and progression of arterial stiffness., Methods: In this study, 24,110 participants were examined from the Kailuan cohort, of which 11,527 had undergone at least two brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) measurements. The cumulative exposure to cardiovascular health behaviors and factors (cumCVH) was calculated as the sum of the cumCVH scores between two consecutive physical examinations, multiplied by the time interval between the two. A logistic regression model was constructed to evaluate the association of cumCVH with arterial stiffness. Generalized linear regression models were used to analyze how cumCVH affects baPWV progression. Moreover, a Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to analyze the effect of cumCVH on the risk of arterial stiffness., Results: In this study, participants were divided into four groups, according to quartiles of cumCVH exposure levels, namely, quartile 1 (Q1), quartile 2 (Q2), quartile 3 (Q3), and quartile 4 (Q4). Logistic regression analysis showed that compared with the Q1 group, the incidence of arterial stiffness in terms of cumCVH among Q2, Q3, and Q4 groups decreased by 16%, 30%, and 39%, respectively. The results of generalized linear regression showed that compared with the Q1 group, the incidence of arterial stiffness in the Q3 and Q4 groups increased by -25.54 and -29.83, respectively. The results of Cox proportional hazards regression showed that compared with the Q1 group, the incidence of arterial stiffness in cumCVH among Q2, Q3, and Q4 groups decreased by 11%, 19%, and 22%, respectively. Sensitivity analyses showed consistency with the main results., Conclusions: High cumCVH can delay the progression of arterial stiffness and reduce the risk of developing arterial stiffness.

In our efforts to develop inhibitors selective for neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) over endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), we found that nNOS can undergo conformational changes in response to inhibitor binding that does not readily occur in eNOS. One change involves movement of a conserved tyrosine, which hydrogen bonds to one of the heme propionates, but in the presence of an inhibitor, changes conformation, enabling part of the inhibitor to hydrogen bond with the heme propionate. This movement does not occur as readily in eNOS and may account for the reason why these inhibitors bind more tightly to nNOS. A second structural change occurs upon the binding of a second inhibitor molecule to nNOS, displacing the pterin cofactor. Binding of this second site inhibitor requires structural changes at the dimer interface, which also occurs more readily in nNOS than in eNOS. Here, we used a combination of crystallography, mutagenesis, and computational methods to better understand the structural basis for these differences in NOS inhibitor binding. Computational results show that a conserved tyrosine near the primary inhibitor binding site is anchored more tightly in eNOS than in nNOS, allowing for less flexibility of this residue. We also find that the inefficiency of eNOS to bind a second inhibitor molecule is likely due to the tighter dimer interface in eNOS compared with nNOS. This study provides a better understanding of how subtle structural differences in NOS isoforms can result in substantial dynamic differences that can be exploited in the development of isoform-selective inhibitors.

The development of new drug therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an important research topic today, but the pathogenesis of AD has not been thoroughly studied, and there are still several shortcomings in existing drug therapies. Therefore, this study aims to explore the molecular mechanism of lactoferrin in the treatments of AD and ulcerative colitis (UC) which are susceptible to AD, starting from the principle of "one drug, two diseases, and the same treatment." This study used pathological staining and specific indicators staining to preliminarily evaluate the interventions of lactoferrin on UC injury and AD progression. And 16s RNA full-length sequencing was used to investigate the effect of lactoferrin on the abundance of intestinal microbiota in AD mice. Then, intestinal tissue and brain tissue metabolomics analysis were used to screen specific metabolic pathways and preliminarily verify the metabolic mechanism of lactoferrin in alleviating 2 diseases by regulating certain specific metabolites. Moreover, lactoferrin significantly changed the types and abundance of gut microbiota in AD mice complicated by UC. To conclude, this study proved the clinical phenomenon of AD susceptibility to UC, and verified the therapeutic effect of lactoferrin on 2 diseases. More importantly, we revealed the possible molecular mechanism of LF, not only does it enrich the cognitive level of lactoferrin in alleviating AD by regulating the gut microbiota through the brain gut axis from the perspective of the theory of "food nutrition promoting human health," but it also provides a practical basis for the subsequent research and development of lactoferrin and drug validation from the perspective of "drug food homology.", (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Sparse-view computed tomography (CT) is an important way to reduce the negative effect of radiation exposure in medical imaging by skipping some X-ray projections. However, due to violating the Nyquist/Shannon sampling criterion, there are severe streaking artifacts in the reconstructed CT images that could mislead diagnosis. Noting the ill-posedness nature of the corresponding inverse problem in a sparse-view CT, minimizing an energy functional composed by an image fidelity term together with properly chosen regularization terms is widely used to reconstruct a medical meaningful attenuation image. In this paper, we propose a regularization, called the box-constrained nonlinear weighted anisotropic total variation (box-constrained NWATV), and minimize the regularization term accompanying the least square fitting using an alternative direction method of multipliers (ADMM) type method. The proposed method is validated through the Shepp-Logan phantom model, alongisde the actual walnut X-ray projections provided by Finnish Inverse Problems Society and the human lung images. The experimental results show that the reconstruction speed of the proposed method is significantly accelerated compared to the existing $ L&#95;1/L&#95;2 $ regularization method. Precisely, the central processing unit (CPU) time is reduced more than 8 times.

Exposure to environmentally hazardous substances is recognized as a significant risk factor for neurological associated disorders. Among these substances, polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs), widely utilized in various consumer products, have been reported to exhibit neurotoxicity. However, the potential association of PS-MPs with abnormal anxiety behaviors, along with the underlying molecular mechanisms and key proteins involved, remains insufficiently explored. Here, we delineated the potential mechanisms of PS-MPs-induced anxiety through proteomics and molecular investigations. We characterized the PS-MPs, observed their accumulation in the brain, leading to anxiety-like behavior in mice, which is correlated with microglia activation and pro-inflammatory response. Consistent with these findings, our studies on BV2 microglia cells showed that PS-MPs activated NF-κB-mediated inflammation resulting in the upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNFα and IL-1β. Of particular significance, HRAS was identified as a key factor in the PS-MPs induced pro-inflammatory response through whole proteomics analysis, and knockdown of H-ras effectively inhibited PS-MPs induced PERK-NF-κB activation and associated pro-inflammatory response in microglia cells. Collectively, our findings highlight that PS-MPs induce anxiety of mice via the activation of the HRAS-derived PERK-NF-κB pathway in microlglia. Our results contribute valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms of PS-MPs-induced anxiety, and may offer implications for addressing neurotoxicity and prevention the adverse effects of environmentally hazardous substances, including microplastics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA)-modified starches have gained widespread interest, but the modification can produce two starches with different states ignored. Herein, the two types of starches, esterified starch (ES) and pregelatinized esterified starch (PES), prepared by OSA modification were separated, and their structural and functional characteristics were comprehensively explored. Results showed that compared with native starch (NS), ES and PES exhibited high water-holding capacity, solubility, and swelling power and significantly decreased pasting temperature and thermal stability. Dynamic rheological tests illustrated that OSA modification changed the rheological behavior of starches. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that PES with higher degree of substitution showed more obvious ester carbonyl and carboxylate groups than ES. Laser confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed that the short-range molecular order of ES, especially PES, decreased after modification. X-ray diffraction indicated that OSA modification disrupted the crystalline structure of starch, and that more amylose-lipid complex was formed in PES. Scanning electron microscopy showed that OSA modification eroded starchs surface and reduced its smoothness, and significantly disrupted PES integrity. ES and PES could be developed as food additives for retrogradation inhibition of dough. These results provide new insights into OSA modification and expand its functional application in foods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Competing Interests: Disclosures None.

Objectives: The present study aimed to explore the preventive effect of mussel oil (MO) on atherosclerosis and the potential mechanism in apolipoprotein E-null (ApoE -/- ) mice., Methods: ApoE -/- mice were fed with a high-fat and high-cholesterol chow and given corn oil (CO), fish oil (FO), MO, or aspirin (ASP, dissolved in CO) by gavage for 12  weeks. The total n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in MO (51.01%) and FO (46.82%) were comparable (mainly C22:6n-3 and C20:5n-3). Wild-type mice were fed with a normal chow and given equivalent CO as health control (CON)., Results: Compared with the CON group, obvious atherosclerotic plaque appeared at aorta and aortic sinus in the CO group. Compared with the CO group, MO but not FO had a significantly smaller atherosclerotic plaque area in the aorta. The aortic atherosclerotic plaque area was comparable in the MO, CON, and ASP groups. The MO group had a significantly smaller atherosclerotic plaque area, lower lipid deposition, lower contents of smooth muscle cell (SMC), and slightly lower contents of macrophage at the aortic sinus than the FO group. Serum concentrations of IL-1β, NF-κB, and VCAM-1 were comparable in the MO and FO groups and were significantly lower than the CO group. Compared with the CO group, the MO group but not FO group had significantly lower aortic protein levels of p65NF-κB, p38MAPK, and VCAM-1. The aortic protein levels of p-p65NF-κB and p-p38MAPK were significantly lower in the MO group than the FO group., Conclusion: In conclusion, MO is more potent than FO in preventing atherosclerosis, and the possible mechanism may be by downregulating p38MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway, decreasing VCAM-1 and macrophage, and inhibiting proliferation and migration of SMC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Li, Song, Li, Kuang, Liu, Liu and Li.)

We investigated the stability of a soy protein isolate (SPI)/soy hull polysaccharide (SHP) composite and its effect on the quality of fermented products. Sonication contributed to a more stable SPI/SHP composite. Increasing SHP concentrations increased the viscoelasticity of the emulsions and decreased turbiscan stability index (TSI) values, indicating that SHP improved the emulsification and stability of the composite emulsions. The fermented products with SHP had an increased ability to bind to water. Hardness, gelling, chewiness, sourness, and astringency increased with polysaccharide addition. Additionally, SHP promoted acid production by lactic acid bacteria during storage. All groups had viscoelastic behavior (G' ˃ G″, tan δ < 1), with viscosity increasing and subsequently decreasing. TSI values were significantly lower in the treated groups than in the control group. The results revealed that SHP improved the sensory quality and storage stability of fermented products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Clinically, patients with dementia are at high risk of developing enteritis, especially those with AD. This study explored the potential therapeutic benefits of bamboo leaf flavonoids (BLF) for ulcerative colitis (UC) treatment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse model., Methods: Various methods were employed, including pathological staining of brain/colon tissue, inflammatory cytokine detection in serum, and oxidative stress indicator assessment to compare ulcerative enteritis (UC) injury in normal and AD mice and determine whether AD mice were susceptible to colitis. Then, the effects of BLF on UC and AD were investigated via several unique indices further to determine whether it alleviated colitis injury and possessed beneficial properties. Moreover, four main components of BLF were utilized to treat primary colon epithelial cells and neuron cells to compare their effects in alleviating inflammation and oxidation. Furthermore, homoorientin embedded with ursolic acid was detected by HPLC and the in vitro release simulation experiments of the nanoparticles were performed., Results: BLF complexes positively impacted ulcerative colitis by reducing disease activity, it also helped to reduce inflammation. Moreover, the BLF complexes decreased oxidative stress in the brain and colon tissues, indicating its potential as a neuroprotective agent. The flavonoid complexes reduced the expression levels of GFAP, Iba-1, and Aβ in the brain tissue, highlighting its role in attenuating neuroinflammation and AD pathology. Additionally, the embedded homoorientin coated with ursolic acid showed stronger bioactivities when compared with the uncoated group., Conclusion: These results suggest that BLF complexes and its four main chemicals may be useful for treating AD- and UC-related complications, the embedded homoorientin coated with ursolic acid even demonstrated stronger bioavailability than homoorientin. Considering BLF complexes were verified to suppress the progressions of AD and UC for the first time, and the embedded homoorientin was never reported in published articles, the present study might provide a new perspective on its potential applications., (© 2024 The Authors. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The immunomodulatory effect of divalent manganese cations (Mn 2+ ), such as activation of the cGAS-STING pathway or NLRP3 inflammasomes, positions them as adjuvants for cancer immunotherapy. In this study, it is found that trace Mn 2+ ions, bound to bovine serum albumin (BSA) to form Mn@BSA nanocomplexes, stimulate pro-inflammatory responses in human- or murine-derived macrophages through TLR4-mediated signaling cascades. Building on this, the assembly of Mn@BSA nanocomplexes to obtain nanowire structures enables stronger and longer-lasting immunostimulation of macrophages by regulating phagocytosis. Furthermore, Mn@BSA nanocomplexes and their nanowires efficiently activate peritoneal macrophages, reprogramme tumor-associated macrophages, and inhibit the growth of melanoma tumors in vivo. They also show better biosafety for potential clinical applications compared to typical TLR4 agonists such as lipopolysaccharides. Accordingly, the findings provide insights into the mechanism of metalloalbumin complexes as potential TLR agonists that activate macrophage polarization and highlight the importance of their nanostructures in regulating macrophage-mediated innate immunity., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Oral pathogens can produce volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), which is the main reason for halitosis and indicates the risk of periodontitis. High-sensitivity detection of exhaled VSCs is urgently desired for promoting the point-of-care testing (POCT) of halitosis and screening of periodontitis. However, current detection methods often require bulky and costly instruments, as well as professional training, making them impractical for widespread detection. Here, a structural color hydrogel for naked-eye detection of exhaled VSCs is presented. VSCs can reduce disulfide bonds within the network, leading to expansion of the hydrogel and thus change of the structural color. A linear detection range of 0-1 ppm with a detection limit of 61 ppb can be achieved, covering the typical VSC concentration in the breath of patients with periodontitis. Furthermore, visual and in situ monitoring of Porphyromonas gingivalis responsible for periodontitis can be realized. By integrating the hydrogels into a sensor array, the oral health conditions of patients with halitosis can be evaluated and distinguished, offering risk assessment of periodontitis. Combined with a smartphone capable of color analysis, POCT of VSCs can be achieved, providing an approach for the monitoring of halitosis and screening of periodontitis.

As a π-conjugated conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is recognized as a promising environmentally friendly thermoelectric material. However, its low conductivity has limited applications in the thermoelectric field. Although thermoelectric efficiency can be significantly enhanced through post-treatment doping, these processes often involve environmentally harmful organic solvents or reagents. In this study, a novel and environmentally benign method using purified water (including room temperature water and subsequent warm water) to treat PEDOT:PSS film has been developed, resulting in improved thermoelectric performance. The morphology data, chemical composition, molecular structure, and thermoelectric performance of the films before and after treatment were characterized and analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectrum, XRD pattern, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a thin film thermoelectric measurement system. The results demonstrate that the water treatment effectively removes nonconductive PSS from PEDOT:PSS composites, significantly enhancing their conductivity. Treated films exhibit improved thermoelectric properties, particularly those treated only 15 times with room temperature water, achieving a high electrical conductivity of 62.91 S/cm, a Seebeck coefficient of 14.53 μV K -1 , and an optimal power factor of 1.3282 µW·m -1 ·K -2 . In addition, the subsequent warm water treatment can further enhance the thermoelectric properties of the film sample. The underlying mechanism of these improvements is also discussed.

Objective: In view of the high incidence and mortality of esophageal cancer, the latest statistical data on the disease burden of esophageal cancer can provide strategies for cancer screening, early detection and treatment, and help to rationally allocate health resources. This study provides an analysis of the global disease burden and risk factors of esophageal cancer from 1990 to 2019., Methods: Using the 2019 Global Burden of Disease, Injury and Risk Factor (GBD) data, we present the incidence, mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) of esophageal cancer in 21 regions and 204 countries and different sociodemographic index (SDI) regions from 1990 to 2019. The age-period-cohort model was used to estimate the age, period, and cohort trend of esophageal cancer in different SDI regions. The estimated proportion of DALY attributable to each risk factor from 1990 to 2019., Results: From 1990 to 2019, the number of new cases of esophageal cancer, the number of deaths and DALY increased by 67.07%, 55.97% and 42.13%, respectively, but age standardized incidence rate (ASIR), age standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and age standardized DALY rate (ASDR) decreased by 19.28%, 25.32% and 88.22%, respectively. Overall, the results of the age-period-cohort model showed that the incidence, mortality, and DALY rates in countries and regions with higher SDI levels showed a downward trend over time and with the passage of time. Conversely, there were no significant changes in incidence and mortality in countries and regions with low SDI levels. In the past 30 years, the incidence and death of esophageal cancer in the world has gradually changed to people over 80 years old, but the population aged 60-79 still accounts for the largest proportion. The global DALY in esophageal cancer is mainly attributable to smoking, followed by alcohol consumption and occupational exposure., Conclusions: Although ASIR, ASMR and ASDR have decreased significantly, esophageal cancer is still the main factor causing the disease burden worldwide. Public health administrators in low SDI and low-middle SDI countries are high-risk areas for esophageal cancer, and preventive control measures should be implemented to raise awareness, screening, and treatment of esophageal cancer in these areas. Tobacco and alcohol control and reduction of occupational hazards are key steps in reducing the burden of esophageal cancer., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Acne is a dermatologic disease with a strong pathologic association with human commensal Cutibacterium acnes. Conspicuously, certain C. acnes phylotypes are associated with acne, whereas others are associated with healthy skin. Here we investigate if the evolution of a C. acnes enzyme contributes to health or acne. Two hyaluronidase variants exclusively expressed by C. acnes strains, HylA and HylB, demonstrate remarkable clinical correlation with acne or health. We show that HylA is strongly pro-inflammatory, and HylB is modestly anti-inflammatory in a murine (female) acne model. Structural and phylogenic studies suggest that the enzymes evolved from a common hyaluronidase that acquired distinct enzymatic activity. Health-associated HylB degrades hyaluronic acid (HA) exclusively to HA disaccharides leading to reduced inflammation, whereas HylA generates large-sized HA fragments that drive robust TLR2-dependent pathology. Replacing an amino acid, Serine to Glycine near the HylA catalytic site enhances the enzymatic activity of HylA and produces an HA degradation pattern intermediate to HylA and HylB. Selective targeting of HylA using peptide vaccine or inhibitors alleviates acne pathology. We suggest that the functional divergence of HylA and HylB is a major driving force behind C. acnes health- and acne- phenotype and propose targeting of HylA as an approach for acne therapy., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Decoupling economic growth from CO 2 emissions is imperative for China. Meanwhile, establishing a consistent and comprehensive decoupling inventory that includes national (N), regional and provincial (RP), and city and county (CC) levels is essential for further policy formulation. This research aims to investigate the decoupling status using the "N-RP-CC" approach while considering changes in decoupling trends at the different levels. A combination of the Tapio decoupling model and cluster analysis is employed to study the decoupling's spatiotemporal characteristics and trends. The study first calculates the decoupling value for "national, 7; regions, 30; provinces, 1501 CCs" in China, 2006-2017. The results show that there continues to be an improvement in the decoupling trend at the national level. Conversely, the regional scale exhibits a more vulnerable decoupling trend compared to the national level, with weak and extended negative decoupling observed in northeastern and northern China. Moreover, provincial heterogeneities are increasingly evident, with poor decoupling statuses appearing in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Xinjiang, as well as many central provinces. Additionally, although more than half of CCs exhibit weak decoupling during most years, seven different states of decoupling were also identified during the time frame. These findings further indicate that spatiotemporal heterogeneities extend beyond RP scales within CCs. Taking the Yangtze River as a boundary line reveals a severe situation in northern areas along with rapid development trends observed in southern regions. Finally, we clustered 1414 CCs based on their industrial proportions for 2017 which further highlights increasingly prominent heterogeneities that should be carefully considered. Based on these findings, policy recommendations such as spatial organization and optimization and technique investment are proposed to achieve CO 2 emission decoupling under the N-RP-CC levels., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Selecting the appropriate patient for further treatment after surgery for gastric cancer can improve the patient prognosis. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has the potential to predict recurrence and prognosis after gastric cancer surgery, but the results are still inconclusive. As the completed studies had small sample sizes and were inconsistent, a meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effect of ctDNA on recurrence and prognosis after gastric cancer surgery., Methods: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and the Web of Science were searched for potentially eligible studies published up to April 7, 2023. Pooled relative risk (RR) and pooled hazard ratio (HR) were calculated to evaluate recurrence, recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) following gastric cancer surgery., Results: A pooled analysis revealed that patients who were ctDNA positive before and after surgery were at a high risk of gastric cancer recurrence (RR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.19-2.71; RR = 3.17, 95% CI: 2.36-4.25). The pooled data revealed that ctDNA-positive patients had a poorer RFS and OS (HR = 6.37, 95% CI: 2.70-15.01; HR = 4.58, 95% CI: 1.68-12.49)., Conclusions: ctDNA-positive patients were at a high risk of recurrence after gastric cancer surgery and had a poorer prognosis. Hence, ctDNA-positive patients needed close follow-up and further treatment., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background: It is vital to screen or develop alternative therapeutic drugs with higher curative characteristics and fewer side effects for the clinical treatment of gastric cancer., Methods: Gastric cancer cells were exposed to different auramycin G doses while determining the impact on cell viability, migration, and invasion. Then the antitumor effects of auramycin G, 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) and their combination were evaluated. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis regulated by auramycin G and its analogs were investigated., Results: Auramycin G inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 23.72 ± 6.36 mg/L and 32.54 ± 5.91 mg/L for AGS and MGC803 cells, respectively. The migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells were significantly inhibited by 10 mg/L auramycin G, which was consistent with the down-regulation of the VEGFR2-VEGFA-pPI3K-pAkt-pErk1 and VEGFR3-VEGFC-pPI3K-pAkt-pmTOR proteins. Notably, the average tumor weights were significantly reduced in both the auramycin G (2.21 ± 0.45 g) of 50 mg/kg body weight and auramycin G + 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) groups (1.33 ± 0.28 g), compared with the control (3.73 ± 0.56 g). Considering that auramycin G decreased the growth of blood and lymphatic vessels while reducing the degree of tumor malignancy, it effectively suppressed tumors by regulating the angiogenic and lymphangiogenic pathways., Conclusion: The present study confirmed that auramycin G displayed a prominent antitumor activity in gastric tumor models, both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, it was confirmed that auramycin G played a specific role in certain gastric cancer cell types, while the mechanism was validated to be associated with angiogenesis- and lymphangiogenesis-related pathway suppression., (© 2023. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to The International Gastric Cancer Association and The Japanese Gastric Cancer Association.)

Knowledge on relationship and determinants of water and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange is crucial to land managers and policy makers especially for the desertified land restoration. However, there remains highly uncertain in terms of water use and carbon sequestration for artificial plantation in desert. Here, continuous water and carbon fluxes were measured using eddy covariance (EC) in conjunction with hydrometeorological measurements over an artificial C4 shrub, Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) Bunge, from July 2020 to 2021 in Tengger Desert, China. Throughout 2021, evapotranspiration (ET) was 189.5 mm, of which 85% (150 mm) occurred during growing season, that was comparable with the summation of precipitation (132.2 mm), dew (33.5 mm) and potential other sources (e.g. deep subsoil water). This ecosystem was a strong carbon sink with net ecosystem production (NEP) up to 446.4 g C m -2 yr -1 , much higher than surrounding sites. Gross primary production (GPP, 598.7 g C m -2 yr -1 ) in this shrubland was comparable with that of other shrublands, whereas ecosystem respiration (Re, 152.3 g C m -2 yr -1 ) was lower. Random Forest showed that environmental factors can explain 71.56% and 80.07% variation of GPP and ET, respectively. Interestingly, environmental factors have divergent effect on water and carbon exchange, i.e., soil hydrothermic factors (soil moisture content and soil temperature) determine the magnitude and seasonal pattern of ET and Re, while aerodynamics factors (net radiation, atmospheric temperature and wind speed) determine GPP and NEP. As such, divergent response of abiotic factors resulted in the decoupling of water and carbon exchange. Our results suggest that H. ammodendron is a suitable species for large-scale afforestation in dryland given its low water use but high carbon sequestration. Therefore, we infer that artificial planting H. ammodendron in dryland could provide an opportunity for climate change mitigation, and the long-term time series data is needed to confirm its sustainable role of carbon sequestration in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Studies have shown that blue mussel lipid extract (BMLE) can improve the glycemic traits, inflammatory cytokines, and lipid profile of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China. Gut microbiota is closely related to T2DM. This study aims to explore whether BMLE can improve the glycemic status of T2DM patients by regulating gut microbiota in a 60-day double-blind randomized controlled trial. A total of 133 T2DM subjects were randomized into BMLE ( n = 44), fish oil (FO) ( n = 44), and corn oil (CO) ( n = 45) groups. The participants were asked to take two corresponding oil capsules (0.8 g per capsule each) every day. The faecal microbiota, glycemic traits, and other cardiometabolic factors were analyzed at baseline and endpoint. The α diversity estimators of Ace and Chao1 decreased significantly in all three groups, but there was no significant difference between the groups. Eight bacteria decreased significantly in the BMLE group but not in the FO and CO groups: unclassified&#95;Clostridia&#95;UCG&#95;014, unclassified&#95;Bacteroidia, Erysipelotrichaceae, and uncultured&#95;Ruminococcaceae&#95;bacterium at the family level and unclassified&#95;Bacteroidia, uncultured&#95;Ruminococcaceae&#95;bacterium, unclassified&#95;Clostridia&#95;UCG&#95;014, and Turicibacter at genus level. In the BMLE group, the change in the relative abundance of Erysipelotrichaceae was positively correlated with the changes in the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) ( r = 0.454, p < 0.01) and fasting insulin ( r = 0.414, p < 0.01). The change in the relative abundance of Turicibacter was positively correlated with the changes in HOMA-IR ( r = 0.431, p < 0.01), fasting insulin ( r = 0.414, p < 0.01), total cholesterol (TC) ( r = 0.358, p < 0.05), and triacylglycerol (TG) ( r = 0.393 p = 0.013). In conclusion, BMLE might improve glycemic traits by modulating gut microbiota in T2DM patients.

Non-stationarity of EEG signals leads to high variability between subjects, making it challenging to directly use data from other subjects (source domain) for the classifier in the current subject (target domain). In this study, we propose MI-DAGSC to address domain adaptation challenges in EEG-based motor imagery (MI) decoding. By combining domain-level information, class-level information, and inter-sample structure information, our model effectively aligns the feature distributions of source and target domains. This work is an extension of our previous domain adaptation work MI-DABAN (Li et al., 2023). Based on MI-DABAN, MI-DAGSC designs Sample-Feature Blocks (SFBs) and Graph Convolution Blocks (GCBs) to focus on intra-sample and inter-sample information. The synergistic integration of SFBs and GCBs enable the model to capture comprehensive information and understand the relationship between samples, thus improving representation learning. Furthermore, we introduce a triplet loss to enhance the alignment and compactness of feature representations. Extensive experiments on real EEG datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of MI-DAGSC, confirming that our method makes a valuable contribution to the MI-EEG decoding. Moreover, it holds great potential for various applications in brain-computer interface systems and neuroscience research. And the code of the proposed architecture in this study is available under https://github.com/zhangdx21/MI-DAGSC., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Radon exhalation rate from soil is a critical factor in evaluating environmental radon levels. However, AlphaGUARD PQ2000PRO may have some sensitivity towards thoron, which can have a significant impact on radon measurement. The traditional radon exhalation models generally ignore the presence of thoron, leading to an overestimation of the radon exhalation rate from soil. To handle this issue, a new model was proposed based on an analysis of several previous studies on radon exhalation theories. To prove the feasibility of the model, the radon exhalation rate measurements were performed by two different types of detectors-AlphaGUARD PQ2000PRO and RAD7. The radon exhalation rate obtained by using the new model is in good agreement with that obtained by using the theoretical model of radon exhalation of RAD7 within one standard error. This new model can be applied to accurately measure radon exhalation rate from soil by the PIC detector (PQ2000PRO)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microplastics (MPs) can affect phytoplankton and its photosynthetic performance in many but often in negative ways. Phytoplankton is an important source of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic ecosystems, but the impact of MPs on the algal production of DOM is poorly known. We investigated the impacts of polyvinyl chloride MPs on the growth and DOM production by Chlamydomonas reinhardtii microalgae in a 28-day-long experiment. During the exponential growth phase of C. reinhardtii, MPs slightly affected algal growth and DOM production. At the end of experiment, MPs decreased the biomass of C. reinhardtii by 43 % in the treatment with MPs exposed to simulated solar radiation prior the experiment (light-aged) and more than in the treatment with virgin MPs. The light-aged MPs decreased algal DOM production by 38 % and modified the chemical composition of DOM. According to spectroscopic analyses, the light-aged MPs increased aromaticity, average molecular weight and fluorescence of DOM produced by C. reinhardtii. The elevated fluorescence was associated with humic-like components identified by a 5-component parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) from the excitation-emission matrices. We conclude that although MPs can leach DOM to aquatic ecosystems, they potentially modify the aquatic DOM more by interfering with the algal production of DOM and changing the composition of produced DOM., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the maximum contaminant level limit for radon concentration in drinking water as 11.1 Bq L -1 . A new device based on the bubbling method with a 290 mL sample bottle was designed for intermittent continuous measurement of water radon concentration. A STM32 is used to control the switch of the water pump and the valves. The Water-Radon-Measurement software written in C# is to connect RAD7 and calculate the water radon concentration automatically., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

As a remarkable multifunctional material, ferroferric oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) exhibits considerable potential for applications in many fields, such as energy storage and conversion technologies. However, the poor electronic and ionic conductivities of classical Fe 3 O 4 restricts its application. To address this challenge, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles are combined with graphene oxide (GO) via a typical hydrothermal method, followed by a conductive wrapping using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) for the fabrication of composite films. Upon acid treatment, a highly conductive porous Fe 3 O 4 @RGO/PEDOT:PSS hybrid is successfully constructed, and each component exerts its action that effectively facilitates the electron transfer and subsequent performance improvement. Specifically, the Fe 3 O 4 @RGO/PEDOT:PSS porous film achieves a high specific capacitance of 244.7 F g -1 at a current of 1 A g -1 . Furthermore, due to the facial fabrication of the highly conductive networks, the free-standing film exhibits potential advantages in flexible thermoelectric (TE) materials. Notably, such a hybrid film shows a high electric conductivity (σ) of 507.56 S cm -1 , a three times greater value than the Fe 3 O 4 @RGO component, and achieves an optimized Seebeck coefficient (S) of 13.29 μV K -1 at room temperature. This work provides a novel route for the synthesis of Fe 3 O 4 @RGO/PEDOT:PSS multifunctional films that possess promising applications in energy storage and conversion.

As an important means to address global climate change and land-use/land-cover (LULC) change, ecological restoration projects (ERPs) have a large effect on carbon storage functions and eco-environmental quality. However, the various ERPs carried out in the Yellow River Delta region have important implications for ecological security strategies in China. Therefore, based on land-use data and remote sensing image data, with the help of ArcGIS and Google Earth Engine (GEE) platforms, this study uses the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model, an improved remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) model and other methods to deeply examine the evolutionary trends of eco-environmental quality and carbon storage during the implementation of ERPs in the Yellow River Delta and selects key implementation areas for in-depth analysis to determine the implementation effects of ERPs. Our findings suggested that the RSEI and carbon storage levels in the study area had opposite evolutionary trends from 2001 to 2020. Among them, the RSEI showed a fluctuating upwards trend (0.4461 (2001) and 0.5185 (2020)), while the total carbon stock showed a fluctuating downwards trend (30.67 Tg (2001) and 26.40 Tg (2020)). However, from 2015 to 2020, the RSEI and carbon storage were at a relatively stable level, which indirectly indicated that the ERPs carried out during the period from 2015 to 2020 had achieved a good comprehensive implementation effect. In addition, the areas with better improvement effects from 2015 to 2020 were primarily located in the mouth of the Yellow River Delta (Areas C and D), and their RSEI and the total carbon stock showed a certain upwards trend. This research can promote the formulation of the management strategy of ERPs in the Yellow River Delta, which is of tremendous importance to the ecological environmental preservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Due to its convenience and safety, electroencephalography (EEG) data is one of the most widely used signals in motor imagery (MI) brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). In recent years, methods based on deep learning have been widely applied to the field of BCIs, and some studies have gradually tried to apply Transformer to EEG signal decoding due to its superior global information focusing ability. However, EEG signals vary from subject to subject. Based on Transformer, how to effectively use data from other subjects (source domain) to improve the classification performance of a single subject (target domain) remains a challenge. To fill this gap, we propose a novel architecture called MI-CAT. The architecture innovatively utilizes Transformer's self-attention and cross-attention mechanisms to interact features to resolve differential distribution between different domains. Specifically, we adopt a patch embedding layer for the extracted source and target features to divide the features into multiple patches. Then, we comprehensively focus on the intra-domain and inter-domain features by stacked multiple Cross-Transformer Blocks (CTBs), which can adaptively conduct bidirectional knowledge transfer and information exchange between domains. Furthermore, we also utilize two non-shared domain-based attention blocks to efficiently capture domain-dependent information, optimizing the features extracted from the source and target domains to assist in feature alignment. To evaluate our method, we conduct extensive experiments on two real public EEG datasets, Dataset IIb and Dataset IIa, achieving competitive performance with an average classification accuracy of 85.26% and 76.81%, respectively. Experimental results demonstrate that our method is a powerful model for decoding EEG signals and facilitates the development of the Transformer for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A series of potent, selective, and highly permeable human neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitors (hnNOS), based on a difluorobenzene ring linked to a 2-aminopyridine scaffold with different functionalities at the 4-position, is reported. In our efforts to develop novel nNOS inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, we discovered 17 , which showed excellent potency toward both rat ( K i 15 nM) and human nNOS ( K i 19 nM), with 1075-fold selectivity over human eNOS and 115-fold selectivity over human iNOS. 17 also showed excellent permeability ( P e = 13.7 × 10 -6 cm s -1 ), a low efflux ratio (ER 0.48), along with good metabolic stability in mouse and human liver microsomes, with half-lives of 29 and >60 min, respectively. X-ray cocrystal structures of inhibitors bound with three NOS enzymes, namely, rat nNOS, human nNOS, and human eNOS, revealed detailed structure-activity relationships for the observed potency, selectivity, and permeability properties of the inhibitors.