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Ammonia, with high energy density and easy transportation, holds significant potential to become an integral part of future energy systems. Among tremendous strategies, electrocatalytic ammonia production is no doubt an efficient and eco-friendly method. One particularly intriguing class of electrocatalysts for reducing nitrate to ammonia is transition metal oxides, which have been heavily researched. However, how these catalysts' oxygen vacancy (V O ) affects their performance remains elusive. To address this, taking titania (the most important catalyst) as an example, we carried out experimental investigations and simulations. Contrary to the prevailing belief that the concentrated V O would increase the catalytic efficiency of nitrate reduction, it was found that a relatively low level of V O is favorable for maximizing catalytic efficiency. At low cathodic voltages, titania with minimal V O delivered both the highest reduction efficiency and the best selectivity among the different titania samples in this paper. In addition to outlining the merits of lower electron transfer resistance and accelerated reaction dynamics, we also put forth a previously unmentioned factor, the adsorption of hydrogen or the creation of an ordered hydrogen bond network, which put up a hydrogen-rich atmosphere for following nitrate reduction. Further simulation study revealed that within the hydrogen-rich atmosphere isolated V O serves as the ideal active center to enable the lowest energy barriers for the reduction of nitrate into ammonia. These findings offer fresh insights into the working mechanism of oxide-based electrocatalysts for ammonia production.

Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of GGC trinucleotide repeats in NOTCH2NLC gene. Despite identifying uN2CpolyG, a toxic polyglycine (polyG) protein translated by expanded GGC repeats, the exact pathogenic mechanisms of NIID remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of polyG by expressing various forms of NOTCH2NLC in mice: the wild-type, the expanded form with 100 GGC repeats (either translating or not translating into uN2CpolyG), and the mutated form that encodes a pure polyG without GGC-repeat RNA and the C-terminal stretch (uN2CpolyG-dCT). Both uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT induced the formation of inclusions composed by filamentous materials and resulted in neurodegenerative phenotypes in mice, including impaired motor and cognitive performance, shortened lifespan, and pathologic lesions such as white-matter lesions, microgliosis, and astrogliosis. In contrast, expressing GGC-repeat RNA alone was non-pathogenic. Through bulk and single-nuclei RNA sequencing, we identified common molecular signatures linked to the expression of uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT, particularly the upregulation of inflammation and microglia markers, and the downregulation of immediate early genes and splicing factors. Importantly, microglia-mediated inflammation was visualized in NIID patients using positron emission tomography, correlating with levels of white-matter atrophy. Furthermore, microglia ablation ameliorated neurodegenerative phenotypes and transcriptional alterations in uN2CpolyG-expressing mice but did not affect polyG inclusions. Together, these results demonstrate that polyG is crucial for the pathogenesis of NIID and highlight the significant role of microglia in polyG-induced neurodegeneration., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

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

A self-reporting molecularly-imprinted electrochemical sensor is prepared for the detection of Zearalenone (ZEA). Firstly, the reduced graphene nanoribbons and reduced graphene oxide (rGNR-rGO) were simultaneously modified onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to improve the sensor's sensitivity. After electrodepositing copper nanoparticles onto the rGNR-rGO/GCE, cyclic voltammetry scanning was performed in potassium ferrocyanide solution, and copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF) was deposited onto rGNR-rGO/GCE to further improve the sensor's sensitivity while giving it self-reporting capability. Then, molecularly-imprinted polymer films were prepared on the CuHCF/rGNR-rGO/GCE to ensure the selectivity of the sensor. It is found that the linear range of ZEA detection by the constructed sensor is 0.25-500 ng·mL -1 , with a detection limit of 0.09 ng·mL -1 . This sensor shows the merits of good selectivity, high sensitivity and accurate detection, providing a great possibility for the precise detection of low concentration ZEA in food., 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.)

Ratiometric electrochemical sensors are renowned for their dual-signal processing capabilities, enabling automatic correction of background noise and interferences through built-in calibration, thus providing more accurate and reproducible measurements. This characteristic makes them highly promising for food analysis. This review comprehensively summarizes and discusses the latest advancements in ratiometric electrochemical sensors and their applications in food analysis, emphasizing their design strategies, detection capabilities, and practical uses. Initially, we explore the construction and design strategies of these sensors. We then review the detection of various food-related analytes, including nutrients, additives, metal ions, pharmaceutical and pesticide residues, biotoxins, and pathogens. The review also briefly explores the challenges faced by ratiometric electrochemical sensors in food testing and potential future directions for development. It aims to provide researchers with a clear introduction and serve as a reference for the design and application of new, efficient ratiometric electrochemical sensors in food analysis., Competing Interests: 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., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Reactive astrocytes are important pathophysiologically and synthesize neurosteroids. We observed that LPS increased immunoreactive TLR4 and key steroidogenic enzymes in cortical astrocytes of rats and investigated whether corticosteroids are produced and mediate astrocytic TLR4-dependent innate immune responses. We found that LPS increased steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and StAR-dependent aldosterone production in purified astrocytes. Both increases were blocked by the TLR4 antagonist TAK242. LPS also increased 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) and corticosterone production, and both were prevented by TAK242 and by siRNAs against 11β-HSD1, StAR, or aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2). Knockdown of 11β-HSD1, StAR, or CYP11B2 or blocking either mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) or glucocorticoid receptors (GR) prevented dephosphorylation of p-Ser 9 GSK-3β, activation of NF-κB, and the GSK-3β-dependent increases of C3, IL-1β, and TNF-α caused by LPS. Exogenous aldosterone mimicked the MR- and GSK-3β-dependent pro-inflammatory effects of LPS in astrocytes, but corticosterone did not. Supernatants from astrocytes treated with LPS reduced MAP2 and viability of cultured neurons except when astrocytic StAR or MR was inhibited. In adrenalectomized rats, intracerebroventricular injection of LPS increased astrocytic TLR4, StAR, CYP11B2, and 11β-HSD1, NF-κB, C3 and IL-1β, decreased astrocytic p-Ser 9 GSK-3β in the cortex and was neurotoxic, except when spironolactone was co-injected, consistent with the in vitro results. LPS also activated NF-κB in some NeuN + and CD11b + cells in the cortex, and these effects were prevented by spironolactone. We conclude that intracrine aldosterone may be involved in the TLR4-dependent innate immune responses of astrocytes and can trigger paracrine effects by activating astrocytic MR/GSK-3β/NF-κB signaling., (© 2024 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.)

Background: Progression of non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting has been reported and is associated with the triggering of an inflammatory response. The perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) may be used as a novel imaging biomarker for the direct quantification of coronary inflammation., Objectives: To investigate whether FAI values can help identify changes in inflammation status in patients undergoing stent implantation, especially in NTLs., Methods: Patients who underwent pre- and post-stenting coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) examination between January 2015 and February 2021 were consecutively enrolled. The pre- and post-stenting FAIs of the full coronary arteries were compared in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries. Moreover, local FAI values were measured and compared between the NTLs and target lesions in the stent implantations. We also compared changes in plaque type and volume in NTLs before and after stenting., Results: A total of 89 patients (mean age 61 years; male 59) were enrolled. The perivascular FAI values in the full coronary arteries decreased after stenting in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries, similar to those in the target lesions. Conversely, the perivascular FAI values in the NTLs increased after stenting (p < 0.05). In addition, the plaque volumes significantly increased in the NTLs after stenting, regardless of whether they were non-calcified, mixed, or calcified (p < 0.05)., Conclusion: Perivascular FAI values and plaque volumes increased in the NTLs after stenting. Perivascular FAI can be a promising imaging biomarker for monitoring coronary inflammation after stenting and facilitate long-term monitoring in clinical settings., Clinical Relevance Statement: Perivascular fat attenuation index, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in non-target lesions and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment., Key Points: • Perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) values and plaque volumes increased in the non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting, suggesting potential focal inflammation progression after stenting. However, stenting along with anti-inflammatory treatment ameliorated inflammation in the full coronary arteries. • Perivascular FAI, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in NTLs and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Radiology.)

Objective: To explore the recovery effect of acupuncture combined with rehabilitation therapy on muscle spasms in patients with spinal cord injury through a systematic review of meta-analysis methods., Methods: Use "acupuncture," "electronic-acupuncture," "spinal cord," "spasm," and "paraplegia" as keywords, CNKI, Google, Wanfang, VIP, sci-hub, Web of Science, PubMed, and other Chinese or English databases were searched. To collect the domestic and foreign research on acupuncture combined with rehabilitation for muscle spasms in patients with spinal cord injury. Preliminary screening was conducted, and data extraction and quality evaluation were carried out on the included literature, including publication time, sample size, treatment methods, recovery effects, etc. According to the literature, the influence of acupuncture combined with rehabilitation therapy on muscle spasms in patients with spinal cord injury and related indices was analyzed. The search period was from January 2018 to June 2023, and the selected research results were tested by RevMan5.3 software and data consolidation for consistency. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)., Results: A preliminary literature search yielded 172 papers. 53 papers from sci-hub, 71 papers from HowNet, 36 papers from Wanfang, and 12 papers from VIP. Finally, 10 articles that met the criteria were included, including 594 patients. According to different treatment methods, the literature about acupuncture combined with rehabilitation therapy for muscle spasms in patients with spinal cord injury was analyzed for consistency, and data were merged. It was concluded that acupuncture combined with rehabilitation The clinical curative effect of the experimental group of patients is higher than that of the control group MD=5.31, 95%CI (2.94, 7.81), Z=5.64, P < .001; the clinical effective rate of the experimental group is higher than that of the control group. The improvement of the clinical spasticity index (CSI) score index of the patients in the experimental group was better than that of the control group MD = -3.09, 95%CI (-4.51, -1.67), Z =4.28, P < .001; the MAS score of the patients in the experimental group The improvement was better than that of the control group MD =-0.76, 95%CI (-1.16, -0.38), Z=8.13, P < .001; the improvement of Barthel index (BI) in the experimental group was better than that of the control group MD=9.81, 95%CI (7.84,11.71), Z=12.71, P < .001; no adverse events were reported in the experimental group and the control group., Conclusion: This study shows that acupuncture and rehabilitation are more effective than other therapeutic methods in the treatment of muscle spasms after spinal cord injury, and more randomized controlled trials are needed to verify this in the future.

Salidroside, a principal bioactive component of Rhodiola crenulata, is neuroprotective across a wide time window in stroke models. We investigated whether salidroside induced neurogenesis after cerebral ischemia and aimed to identify its primary molecular targets. Rats, subjected to transient 2 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), received intraperitoneal vehicle or salidroside ± intracerebroventricular HSC70 inhibitor VER155008 or TrkB inhibitor ANA-12 for up to 7 days. MRI, behavioural tests, immunofluorescent staining and western blotting measured effects of salidroside. Reverse virtual docking and enzymatic assays assessed interaction of salidroside with purified recombinant HSC70. Salidroside dose-dependently decreased cerebral infarct volumes and neurological deficits, with maximal effects by 50 mg/kg/day. This dose also improved performance in beam balance and Morris water maze tests. Salidroside significantly increased BrdU + /nestin + , BrdU + /DCX + , BrdU + /NeuN + , BrdU - /NeuN + and BDNF + cells in the peri-infarct cortex, with less effect in striatum and no significant effect in the subventricular zone. Salidroside was predicted to bind with HSC70. Salidroside dose-dependently increased HSC70 ATPase and HSC70-dependent luciferase activities, but it did not activate HSP70. HSC70 immunoreactivity concentrated in the peri-infarct cortex and was unchanged by salidroside. However, VER155008 prevented salidroside-dependent increases of neurogenesis, BrdU - /NeuN + cells and BDNF + cells in peri-infarct cortex. Salidroside also increased BDNF protein and p-TrkB/TrkB ratio in ischemic brain, changes prevented by VER155008 and ANA-12, respectively. Additionally, ANA-12 blocked salidroside-dependent neurogenesis and increased BrdU - /NeuN + cells in the peri-infarct cortex. Salidroside directly activates HSC70, thereby stimulating neurogenesis and neuroprotection via BDNF/TrkB signalling after MCAO. Salidroside and similar activators of HSC70 might provide clinical therapies for ischemic stroke., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Temperature is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities. The ability to measure temperatures approaching absolute zero has driven numerous advances in low-temperature physics and quantum physics. Currently, millikelvin temperatures and below are measured through the characterization of a certain thermal state of the system as there is no traditional thermometer capable of measuring temperatures at such low levels. In this study, we develop a kind of diamond with sp 2 -sp 3 composite phase to tackle this problem. The synthesized composite phase diamond (CPD) exhibits a negative temperature coefficient, providing an excellent fit across a broad temperature range, and reaching a temperature measurement limit of 1 mK. Additionally, the CPD demonstrates low magnetic field sensitivity and excellent thermal stability, and can be fabricated into probes down to 1 micron in diameter, making it a promising candidate for the manufacture of next-generation cryogenic temperature sensors. This development is significant for the low-temperature physics researches, and can help facilitate the transition of quantum computing, quantum simulation, and other related technologies from research to practical applications., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by CGG repeat expansion of FMR1 gene. Both FXTAS and neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) belong to polyglycine diseases and present similar clinical, radiological, and pathological features, making it difficult to distinguish these diseases. Reversible encephalitis-like attacks are often observed in NIID. It is unclear whether they are presented in FXTAS and can be used for differential diagnosis of NIID and FXTAS., Case Presentation: A 63-year-old Chinese male with late-onset gait disturbance, cognitive decline, and reversible attacks of fever, consciousness impairment, dizziness, vomiting, and urinary incontinence underwent neurological assessment and examinations, including laboratory tests, electroencephalogram test, imaging, skin biopsy, and genetic test. Brain MRI showed T2 hyperintensities in middle cerebellar peduncle and cerebrum, in addition to cerebellar atrophy and DWI hyperintensities along the corticomedullary junction. Lesions in the brainstem were observed. Skin biopsy showed p62-positive intranuclear inclusions. The possibilities of hypoglycemia, lactic acidosis, epileptic seizures, and cerebrovascular attacks were excluded. Genetic analysis revealed CGG repeat expansion in FMR1 gene, and the number of repeats was 111. The patient was finally diagnosed as FXTAS. He received supportive treatment as well as symptomatic treatment during hospitalization. His encephalitic symptoms were completely relieved within one week., Conclusions: This is a detailed report of a case of FXTAS with reversible encephalitis-like episodes. This report provides new information for the possible and rare features of FXTAS, highlighting that encephalitis-like episodes are common in polyglycine diseases and unable to be used for differential diagnosis., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this work, novel magnetic molecularly imprinted CuMOFs (MMIP-CuMOFs) were synthesized and applied to construct an electrochemical bisphenol A sensor. The constructed sensor used an electrode modified with reduced graphene oxide (RGO/GCE) as the sensing platform to improve its stability and sensitivity. The Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles in magnetic MOFs simplified the preparation process. Moreover, the combination of CuMOFs and molecular imprinting methodology was beneficial for improving the detection specificity, and the electroactive copper hexacyanoferrate generated by the reaction of Cu 2+ in CuMOFs with potassium ferricyanide was used as the signal probe. The sensor showed a good linear relationship in the range of 0.5 to 500 nmol/L, with a low detection limit of 0.18 nmol/L. In addition, the sensor had good selectivity, repeatability (RSD = 2.59 %), and a good recovery rate for actual milk sample detection (99.8-102.49 %). This technique holds great promise for the detection of detrimental substances in food., 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.)

Modern synthetic technology generally invokes high temperatures to control the hydration level of ceramics, but even the state-of-the-art technology can still only control the overall hydration content. Magically, natural organisms can produce bioceramics with tailorable hydration profiles and crystallization traits solely from amorphous precursors under physiological conditions. To mimic the biomineralization tactic, here, we report pressure-controlled hydration and crystallization in fabricated ceramics, solely from the amorphous precursors of purely inorganic gels (PIGs) synthesized from biocompatible aqueous solutions with most common ions in organisms (Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , CO 3 2- , and PO 4 3- ). Transparent ceramic tablets are directly produced by compressing the PIGs under mild pressure, while the pressure regulates the hydration characteristics and the subsequent crystallization behaviors of the synthesized ceramics. Among the various hydration species, the moderately bound and ordered water appears to be a key in regulating the crystallization rate. This nature-inspired study offers deeper insights into the magic behind biomineralization.

In this study, the flexural bearing behavior of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) beams reinforced with U-type Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) was investigated using a four-point bending loading method. Nine test beams were produced: one original beam, three RC beams with corrosion alone, and five corroded beams strengthened with U-type TRC. The analysis focuses on assessing the impacts of the steel corrosion degree and the number of textile layers on various aspects of the bending behavior, such as failure modes, bearing capacity, and load displacement curves, in U-type TRC-strengthened corroded beams. The experimental results revealed three distinct failure modes in the U-type TRC-strengthened corroded beams. TRC effectively enhanced the bearing capacity. With sufficient textile layers, it can be restored to the level of the original RC beams. Moreover, in the cases of severe corrosion in RC beams, the bearing capacity increased more significantly. The TRC also enhanced the ductility. Finally, a calculation equation for the ultimate bearing capacity of U-type TRC-strengthened corroded beams was presented and validated, demonstrating consistent alignment with the experimental data.

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

Emerging aqueous ammonium-ion batteries (AIBs) are considered inexpensive, highly safe, ecofriendly, and sustainable energy storage systems. Although some high-performance electrode materials have been reported for AIBs, a comprehensive understanding of the origin of the high ammonium-ion storage performance is still lacking. Herein, the percolating network of anionic vacancies is determined to be the origin of the superior ammonium-ion storage properties of the Prussian blue analogues based on ab initio molecular dynamics simulation and electrochemical kinetic analyses. Fe[Fe(CN) 6 ] with a percolating anionic vacancy network delivers an outstanding rate of 64.7 mAh g -1 at 2000 mA g -1 in addition to a capacity retention of 94.5% after 10 000 cycles. The low-strain intercalation ammonium-ion storage mechanism of highly deficient Fe Prussian blue with Fe as the redox center is revealed by in situ X-ray diffraction and ex situ X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. The results provide insights into the mechanism of ammonium-ion storage in Prussian blue analogues and guidance in the development of aqueous AIBs.

Pixian Douban (PXDB) is a popular Chinese condiment for its distinctive flavor. Broad bean fermentation (Meju) is the most important process in the formation of flavor substances. Key flavors were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and metagenomic technology was applied to study the microbial diversity during broad bean fermentation. In addition, the main metabolic pathways of key flavors were explored. Results indicated that Staphylococcus&#95;gallinarum was the main microorganism in the microbial community, accounting for 39.13%, followed by Lactobacillus&#95;agilis, accounting for 13.76%. Aspergillus&#95;flavus was the fungus with the highest species abundance, accounting for 3.02%. The KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis showed that carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism were the main metabolic pathways. Glycoside hydrolase and glycosyltransferase genes were the most abundant, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of active enzyme genes. A total of 113 enzymes related to key flavors and 39 microorganisms corresponding to enzymes were annotated. And Staphylococcus&#95;gallinarum, Lactobacillus&#95;agilis, Weissella&#95;confusa, Pediococcus&#95;acidilactici, Staphylococcus&#95;kloosii, Aspergillus&#95;oryzae, and Aspergillus&#95;flavus played a key role in the metabolic pathway. This study reveals the formation mechanism of key flavors in fermented broad bean, it is important for guiding the industrial production of PXDB and improving product quality., 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 Ltd.)

The generation and presence of excessive hypochlorous acid derivative ionic form (ClO - ) could cause various diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, DNA damage, and cardiovascular illness. It is a critical need to develop a highly sensitive sensor for reliable detection of ClO - in cells and water-soluble systems. In this work, a hydroxyl group has been introduced into the compound 2-amino-3-(((E)-4-(2-(2-(2-hydroxyethoxy)ethyl)-1,3-dioxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[de]isoquinolin-6-yl)benzylidene)amino)maleonitrile (NDC) to increase its solubility in water, at the same time, the hydrazone unit was designed as a specific recognition group for the "off-on" fluorescence probe of ClO - . The probe NDC presents high selectivity, sensitivity, anti-interference, and low detection limit (67 nM) for ClO - . The recognition mechanism that ClO - breaks the C=N bond and forms the fluorescent compound 4-(2-(2-(2-hydroxyethoxy)ethyl)-1,3-dioxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[de]isoquinolin-6-yl)benzaldehyde (ND-3) has been confirmed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The probe NDC presents a good performance in the actual test of water samples and can be designed as the test papers for the quick and convenient detection of ClO - range from 0 to 1 μM. Moreover, the practical application was demonstrated by the successful imaging of endogenous and exogenous ClO - in HeLa cells. Our fluorescent biomass-based platform opens vast possibilities for repeatability, sensitivity, and selectivity detection of ClO - in cells and water-soluble systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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

Parabens (PBs), a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are extensively used as additives in personal care products (PCPs); however, distinguishing between endogenous and exogenous contamination from PCPs in hair remains a challenge. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the levels, distribution patterns, impact factors, and sources of PBs in 119 human hair samples collected from Changchun, northeast China. The detection rates of methylparaben (MeP), propylparaben (PrP), and ethylparaben (EtP) in hair samples were found to be 100%. The concentration of PBs in hair followed the order of MeP (57.48 ng/g) > PrP (46.40 ng/g) > EtP (6.80 ng/g). The concentration of PrP in female hair was significantly higher (65.38 ng/g) than that observed in male hair (7.82 ng/g) (p < 0.05). The levels of excretion rates of MeP (ER MeP ) and excretion rates of PrP (ER PrP ) in the hair-dying samples (ER MeP : 17.89 ng/day; ER PrP : 14.15 ng/day) were found to be 2.52 and 2.40 times higher, respectively, compared to the non-hair-dying samples (ER MeP : 7.09 ng/day; ER PrP : 6.05 ng/day). However, the system exposure dosage (SED) results revealed that although hair dyes exhibited higher PBs, human exposure was found to be lower than certain PCPs. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that toner, face cream, body lotion, and hair conditioner were identified as the primary sources of PBs in male hair. Furthermore, the human exposure resulting from the utilization of female hair dye and serum exhibited a positive correlation with hair ER MeP and ER PrP levels, indicating in the screening of samples, excluding hair samples using hair dye and haircare essential oil can effectively avoid the interference caused by exogenous contamination from PCPs., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biological polyesters, viewed as a replacement for petrochemical plastic. However, they suffer from suboptimal physical and mechanical properties. Here, it was shown that a metabolically versatile Pseudomonas umsongensis GO16 can synthesise a blend of short chain length (scl) and medium chain length (mcl)-PHA. A defined mix of butyric (BA) and octanoic acid (OA) in different ratios was used. The PHA monomer composition varied depending on the feeding strategy. When OA and BA were fed at 80:20 ratio it showed 14, 8, 77 and 1 mol% of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate, (R)-3-hydroxyhexanoate, (R)-3-hydroxyoctanoate and (R)-3-hydroxydecanoate respectively. The polymer characterisation clearly shows that polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and mcl-PHA are produced individually. The two polymers are blended on the PHA granule level, as demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy and yeast two-hybrid assay. The resulting blend has a specific viscoelasticity compared to PHB and PHO. Mcl-PHA acts as a plasticiser and reduces PHB brittleness., 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 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Atomically thin platinum diselenide (PtSe 2 ) films are promising for applications in the fields of electronics, spintronics, and photodetectors owing to their tunable electronic structure and high carrier mobility. Using terahertz (THz) spectroscopy techniques, we investigated the layer-dependent semiconducting-to-metallic phase transition and associated intrinsic carrier dynamics in large-scale PtSe 2 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The uniformity of large-scale PtSe 2 films was characterized by spatially and frequency-resolved THz-based sheet conductivity mapping. Furthermore, we use an optical-pump-THz-probe technique to study the transport dynamics of photoexcited carriers and explore light-induced intergrain carrier transport in PtSe 2 films. We demonstrate large-scale THz-based mapping of the electrical properties of transition metal dichalcogenide films and show that the two noncontact THz-based approaches provide insight in the spatial and temporal properties of PtSe 2 films.

In this work, a highly sensitive and selective molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor is exploited to detect zearalenone (ZEA) by the synergistic effect of reduced graphene nanoribbons (rGNRs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The oxidized GNRs are firstly produced by an improved Hummers' oxidation method, and then reduced and modified together with AuNPs onto a glassy carbon electrode by electrodeposition technique to realize collaborative amplification of electrochemical signal. The molecularly imprinted polymer film with specific recognition sites can be generated on the modified electrode by electropolymerization. The effect of experimental conditions is systematically investigated to obtain the best detection performance. It is found that the constructed sensor shows a wide linear range of 1-500 ng·mL -1 for ZEA with a detection limit as low as 0.34 ng·mL -1 . Obviously, our constructed molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor shows great potential in the application of precisely detecting ZEA in food., 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.)

To investigate the long-term effects of dietary zinc oxide nanoparticle (Nano-ZnO, 20-40 nm) on the relative organ weight, liver function, deposition, and absorption of trace minerals in intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) pigs, piglets were allocated to NBW (6 normal birth weight piglets fed basal diets), IUGR (6 IUGR piglets fed basal diets) and IUGR+NZ (6 IUGR piglets fed basal diets + 600 mg Zn/kg from Nano-ZnO) groups at weaning (21 days of age), which were sampled at 163 days of age. There were no noteworthy changes in the relative weight of organs, hepatic histomorphology, serum alkaline phosphatase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase activities, and Mn, Cu, and Fe concentrations in leg muscle, the liver, the tibia, and feces among the IUGR, NBW, and IUGR+NZ groups (P>0.05), and no intact Nano-ZnO in the jejunum, liver, and muscle was observed, while dietary Nano-ZnO increased the Zn concentrations in the tibia, the liver, serum, and feces (P<0.05) and mRNA expression of metallothionein (MT) 1A, MT2A, solute carrier family 39 member (ZIP) 4, ZIP14, ZIP8, divalent metal transporter 1, solute carrier family 30 member (ZnT) 1, ZnT4 and metal regulatory transcription factor 1, and ZIP8 protein expression in jejunal mucosa (P<0.05). Immunohistochemistry showed that dietary Nano-ZnO increased the relative optical density of ZIP8 (mainly expressed in cells of brush border) and MT2A (mainly expressed in villus lamina propria and gland/crypt) (P<0.05). In conclusion, long-term dietary Nano-ZnO showed no obvious side effects on the development of the major organs, liver function, and metabolism of Cu, Fe, and Mn in IUGR pigs, while it increased the Zn absorption and deposition via enhancing the expression of transporters (MT, ZIP, and ZnT families) in the jejunum, rather than via endocytosis as the form of intact nanoparticles., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Predicting the biological properties of molecules is crucial in computer-aided drug development, yet it's often impeded by data scarcity and imbalance in many practical applications. Existing approaches are based on self-supervised learning or 3D data and using an increasing number of parameters to improve performance. These approaches may not take full advantage of established chemical knowledge and could inadvertently introduce noise into the respective model. In this study, we introduce a more elegant transformer-based framework with focused attention for molecular representation (TransFoxMol) to improve the understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) of molecular structure property relationships. TransFoxMol incorporates a multi-scale 2D molecular environment into a graph neural network + Transformer module and uses prior chemical maps to obtain a more focused attention landscape compared to that obtained using existing approaches. Experimental results show that TransFoxMol achieves state-of-the-art performance on MoleculeNet benchmarks and surpasses the performance of baselines that use self-supervised learning or geometry-enhanced strategies on small-scale datasets. Subsequent analyses indicate that TransFoxMol's predictions are highly interpretable and the clever use of chemical knowledge enables AI to perceive molecules in a simple but rational way, enhancing performance., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Valence tuning of transition metal oxides is an effective approach to design high-performance catalysts, particularly for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that underpins solar/electric water splitting and metal-air batteries. Recently, high-valence oxides (HVOs) are reported to show superior OER performance, in association with the fundamental dynamics of charge transfer and the evolution of the intermediates. Particularly considered are the adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) and the lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM). High-valence states enhance the OER performance mainly by optimizing the e g -orbital filling, promoting the charge transfer between the metal d band and oxygen p band. Moreover, HVOs usually show an elevated O 2p band, which triggers the lattice oxygen as the redox center and enacts the efficient LOM pathway to break the "scaling" limitation of AEM. In addition, oxygen vacancies, induced by the overall charge-neutrality, also promote the direct oxygen coupling in LOM. However, the synthesis of HVOs suffers from relatively large thermodynamic barrier, which makes their preparation difficult. Hence, the synthesis strategies of the HVOs are discussed to guide further design of the HVO electrocatalysts. Finally, further challenges and perspectives are outlined for potential applications in energy conversion and storage., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

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

Ultrasensitive sensing to trace atomic and molecular analytes has gained interest for its intimate relation to industrial sectors and human lives. One of the keys to ultrasensitive sensing for many analytical techniques lies in enriching trace analytes onto well-designed substrates. However, the coffee ring effect, nonuniform distribution of analytes onto substrates, in the droplet drying process hinders the ultrasensitive and stable sensing onto the substrates. Here, we propose a substrate-free strategy to suppress the coffee ring effect, enrich analytes, and self-assemble a signal-amplifying (SA) platform for multimode laser sensing. The strategy involves acoustically levitating and drying a droplet, mixed with analytes and core-shell Au@SiO 2 nanoparticles, to self-assemble an SA platform. The SA platform with a plasmonic nanostructure can dramatically enrich analytes, enabling enormous spectroscopic signal amplification. Specifically, the SA platform can promote atomic detection (cadmium and chromium) to the 10 -3 mg/L level by nanoparticle-enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and can promote molecule detection (rhodamine 6G) to the 10 -11 mol/L level by surface-enhanced Raman scattering. All in all, the SA platform, self-assembled by acoustic levitation, can intrinsically suppress the coffee ring effect and enrich trace analytes, enabling ultrasensitive multimode laser sensing.

Mixed mode fracture is a widely studied topic, while the coupling effects of mixed mode cracking are unclear. In this paper, elastic fracture behaviors and the coupling effects of the mixed mode cracks are studied in detail based on the finite element method, experimental study and linear elastic fracture mechanics. Results show that there always exist II-III coupling effects at the crack tips of mixed mode cracks, which have many effects on the crack tip field and crack propagation behavior. It is found that a mode II component at the tip of a mixed mode crack is the main reason for crack deflection, while the mode III components show no effect. For any mixed mode crack, mode II components at the crack tip can be divided as that by mode II loading which causes plane crack propagation, and by the coupling effect which causes spatial crack propagation. On this basis, a new fracture criterion suitable for any mixed mode crack is proposed, combined with the coupling effect and the linear elastic superposition principle. The research in this paper provides a solution to the problem of an II-III coupling effect in mixed mode fracture research and further promotes the development of fracture mechanics.

As nano-zinc oxide (Nano-ZnO), a new type of nanomaterial, has antioxidant and intestinal protection effects, we hypothesized that dietary Nano-ZnO could modulate poor meat quality, oxidative stress and disturbed gut microbiota in the finishing pig model of naturally occurring intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). A total of 6 normal-born weight (NBW) and 12 IUGR piglets were selected based on birth weight. The pigs in the NBW group received a basal diet, and IUGR pigs were randomly divided into two groups and treated with basal diet and 600 mg/kg Nano-ZnO-supplemented diet. Dietary Nano-ZnO ameliorated IUGR-associated declined meat quality by lowering the drip loss 48h , cooking loss, shearing force and MyHc IIx mRNA expression, and raising the redness ( a* ), peak area ratio of immobilized water ( P 22 ), sarcomere length and MyHc Ia mRNA expression. Nano-ZnO activated the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2-glutamyl cysteine ligase (Nrf2-GCL) signaling pathway by promoting the nuclear translocation of Nrf2, increasing the GCL activities, and mRNA and protein expression of its catalytic/modify subunit (GCLC/GCLM), thereby attenuating the IUGR-associated muscle oxidative injury. Additionally, the composition of IUGR pigs' cecal microbiota was altered by Nano-ZnO, as seen by changes in Shannon and Simpson indexes, the enhanced UCG-005 , hoa5-07d05 gut group and Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group abundance. The UCG-005 and hoa5-07d05 gut group abundance were correlated with indicators that reflected the meat quality traits and antioxidant properties. In conclusion, Nano-ZnO improved the IUGR-impaired meat quality by altering water holding capacity, water distribution and the ultrastructure of muscle, activating the Nrf2-GCL signaling pathway to alleviate oxidative status and regulating the cecal microbial composition.

Rationale: Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) stenosis, as a common arterial disease, if coexists with other possible causes of abdominal pain, is complicated, which may require not only conservative treatment but also surgical intervention., Patient Concerns: A 64-year-old male patient who was admitted to our hospital with pain located around the umbilicus and right lower quadrant for 12 hours., Diagnosis: SMA stenosis was initially diagnosed. After balloon dilatation of SMA and stent implantation, computed tomography angiography reexamination showed that the stent was migrated and the stenosis reoccurred. During the ileocecal resection and enterolysis, the necrotic bowel was found and cut open, and the intestinal fistula was found. Combined with his abdominal surgery history, the patient was diagnosed with complicated SMA stenosis with intestinal necrosis., Interventions: The balloon dilatation of SMA and stent implantation was performed. Because the stent was migrated and the stenosis reoccurred, so a balloon stent was implanted in the proximal stenosis of SMA again. The patient's symptoms were relieved and reoccurred again. The ileocecal resection and enterolysis were performed., Outcomes: The computed tomography angiography showed that the stents were well deployed and unobstructed after 9 months follow-up., Lessons: When dealing with undetermined abdominal pain that especially has something to do with mesenteric artery ischemia, if there coexists with other possible causes of abdominal pain, we cannot only focus on vascular diseases. We should be vigilant, integrate multiple factors and their interactions to guarantee the accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis and therapy., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

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

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary rutin on the meat quality, antioxidant status and mitochondrial structure and function in the breast muscle of heat-stressed broilers. A total of 192 male broilers were randomly assigned into three groups and treated with normal control (CON), heat stress (34 °C, HS), and HS with 500 mg kg -1 rutin supplementation (HS + Rutin), respectively., Results: Dietary rutin significantly reversed HS-induced decrease in body weight, average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and feed efficiency. Rutin supplementation attenuated HS-induced impaired meat quality by decreasing the lightness, drip loss at 24 and 48 h, the peak time of free water (T 22 ) and the peak area ratio of free water (P 22 ), and increasing the pH 24h and peak area ratio of immobilized water (P 21 ). Rutin supplementation promoted superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase activities and total antioxidant capacity, and decreased malondialdehyde levels compared with the HS group. Moreover, rutin attenuated HS-induced mitochondrial damage by increasing the mitochondrial DNA copy number and improving mitochondrial morphology. Dietary rutin significantly increased mitochondrial biogenesis-related mRNA (proliferator-activated γ receptor coactivator-1α [PGC-1α], nuclear respiratory factor 1 [NRF1], and mitochondrial transcription factor A [TFAM]) expression via the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway. HS significantly increased mitophagy-related genes and proteins (Parkin, PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 [PINK1], microtubule associated protein light chain 3-II [LC3-II]) expression, and dietary rutin significantly reversed these alterations., Conclusion: Dietary rutin attenuated the HS-induced decline in meat quality and antioxidant capacity of broilers, which may be related to inhibition of the AMPK/PINK1-Parkin signaling pathway to attenuate mitochondrial damage. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are promising for large-scale energy storage systems due to their high safety, large capacity, cost-effectiveness, and environmental friendliness. However, their commercialization is currently hindered by several challenging issues, including cathode degradation and zinc dendrite growth. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives have gained significant attention and are widely used in AZIBs due to their highly porous structures, large specific surface area, and ability to design frameworks for Zn 2+ shuttle. Based on preceding contributions, this review aims to generalize two design principles for MOF-based materials in AZIBs: cathode preparation and anode protection. For cathode preparation, we mainly introduce novel MOF-based electrode materials such as pure MOFs, porous carbon materials, metal oxides, and their compounds, focusing on the analysis of the specific capacity of AZIBs. For anode protection, we systematically analyze MOF-based materials used as 3D Zn architecture, solid electrolyte interfaces, novel separators, and solid-state electrolytes, highlighting the improvement in the cyclic stability of Zn anodes. Finally, we propose the future development of MOF-based materials in AZIBs. Our work can give some clues for raising the practical application level of aqueous ZIBs.

The frequency-resolved terahertz (THz) beam profile characteristics of a two-color air-plasma THz source were investigated in the broadband frequency range (1-15 THz). The frequency resolution is achieved by combining THz waveform measurements and the knife-edge technique. Our results show that the THz focal spot size is strongly frequency dependent. This has important implications on nonlinear THz spectroscopy applications where accurate knowledge of the applied THz electrical field strength onto the sample is important. In addition, the transition between the solid and hollow beam profile of the air-plasma THz beam was carefully identified. Far from the focus, the features across the 1-15 THz range have also been carefully examined, revealing the characteristic conical emission patterns at all frequencies.

Background: To analyze and explore the clinical efficacy of ultrasound guided femoral nerve block combined with modified swelling anesthetic solution in high ligation and stripping of the great saphenous vein., Methods: 90 patients with varicose great saphenous vein of lower limbs undergoing high ligation and stripping of great saphenous vein were randomly divided into group A (femoral nerve block combined with modified swelling anesthesia), group B (simple swelling anesthesia) and group C (epidural anesthesia), with 30 patients in each group. The serum CRP level, operation duration, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospitalization time, total hospitalization cost, postoperative VAS score, preoperative and postoperative VCSS score, intraoperative mean arterial pressure and heart rate, postoperative related complications, and patients, satisfaction with diagnosis and treatment were compared among the three groups., Results: There was no significant difference in operation duration, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative complications, and preoperative and postoperative VCSS scores among the three groups ( P  > 0.05). The postoperative hospitalization time, postoperative VAS score and total hospitalization cost of patients in group A and B were lower than those in group C, and the postoperative hospitalization time and postoperative VAS score in group A were more significant ( P  < 0.05). Compared with group B, the fluctuation range of intraoperative mean arterial pressure and heart rate, and postoperative serum CRP level in group A and C were lower, especially in group A ( P  < 0.05). The three groups of patients were followed up regularly after surgery. The results showed that the number of postoperative complications in group A was lower than that in the other two groups ( P  < 0.05), and the postoperative complications of the three groups were effectively relieved after symptomatic treatment (dressing change, anti-infection, taking drugs to improve circulation, etc.). The satisfaction of patients in group A was significantly higher than that in groups B and C ( P  < 0.05)., Conclusions: Ultrasound guided femoral nerve block combined with modified swelling anesthetic solution applied in high ligation and stripping of the great saphenous vein can significantly improve postoperative inflammatory stress reaction of patients, effectively ensure the safety and reliability of surgical progress, help to improve analgesia effect and accelerate physical rehabilitation, and has short hospitalization time, low medical cost, and high satisfaction of patients' diagnosis and treatment, which is worthy of widespread clinical promotion and reference., 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., (© 2023 Chen, Liu, Zhou, Fan, Zhao and Lin.)

The widespread of SARS-CoV-2 presents a significant threat to human society, as well as public health and economic development. Extensive efforts have been undertaken to battle against the pandemic, whereas effective approaches such as vaccination would be weakened by the continuous mutations, leading to considerable attention being attracted to the mutation prediction. However, most previous studies lack attention to phylogenetics. In this paper, we propose a novel and effective model TEMPO for predicting the mutation of SARS-CoV-2 evolution. Specifically, we design a phylogenetic tree-based sampling method to generate sequence evolution data. Then, a transformer-based model is presented for the site mutation prediction after learning the high-level representation of these sequence data. We conduct experiments to verify the effectiveness of TEMPO, leveraging a large-scale SARS-CoV- 2 dataset. Experimental results show that TEMPO is effective for mutation prediction of SARS- CoV-2 evolution and outperforms several state-of-the-art baseline methods. We further perform mutation prediction experiments of other infectious viruses, to explore the feasibility and robustness of TEMPO, and experimental results verify its superiority. The codes and datasets are freely available at https://github.com/ZJUDataIntelligence/TEMPO., 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 © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

With the advancement of industrialization, tank fermentation technology is promising for Pixian broad bean paste. This study identified and analyzed the general physicochemical factors and volatile metabolites of fermented broad beans in a thermostatic fermenter. Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME)-two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC × GC-MS) was applied to detect the volatile compounds in fermented broad beans, while metabolomics was used to explore their physicochemical characteristics and analyze the possible metabolic mechanism. A total of 184 different metabolites were detected, including 36 alcohols, 29 aldehydes, 26 esters, 21 ketones, 14 acids, 14 aromatic compounds, ten heterocycles, nine phenols, nine organonitrogen compounds, seven hydrocarbons, two ethers, and seven other types, which were annotated to various branch metabolic pathways of carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. This study provides references for subsequent functional microorganism mining to improve the quality of the tank-fermented broad beans and upgrade the Pixian broad bean paste industry., Competing Interests: 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., (© 2022 The Authors.)

Heterostructure materials, as newborn electrode materials for rechargeable batteries, are attracting increasing attention due to their robust architectures and superior electrochemical performances. It is widely believed that the inner electric field induced at the interface can improve the electric conductivity and ion diffusion kinetics, thus enhancing the long-term stability and high-rate performance of the batteries. Although much progress is made on heterostructure construction, the performance of the batteries is still far from satisfying the commercial applications. In this work, a new type of SnO 2 /SnS x (x = 1, 1.5) heterostructure embedded in carbon framework (C@SnO 2 /SnS x ) is constructed via a facile sulfidation process. Compared to a single heterojunction, the multi-heterojunctions generated at SnO 2 /SnS x interface can induce an intensified built-in electric field, which promotes charge transportation and reaction kinetics of the electrode for Na-ions storage. Upon the sodiation process, the induced intensified electric field drives Na ions from Sn 2 S 3 or SnO 2 to SnS, while an inverse transportation of Na ions are accelerated upon the desodation process. As a result, C@SnO 2 /SnS x exhibits an outstanding reversible capacity of 510 mA h g -1 after 300 cycles at 200 mA g -1 ., 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 © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a promising technique for trace determination. More and more attention is focused on hybrid SERS substrates, which coupled with noble metal nanoparticles and carbon-based materials. Herein, expanded graphite (EG) is used to prepare EG-covered support by ultrasonic washing and filtration. Such support is flexible and can be cut into any shape. And the contact angle (θe) for Au nanorods (Au NRs) sol on the EG-covered support was 108.2° and the hydrophobic surface is helpful for Au NRs to construct 'hot spots' during evaporation. The limits of detection (LOD) for crystal violet (CV), thiram, malachite green (MG) and methylene blue (MB) were as low as 1 ppb, 50 ppb, 1 ppb and 1 ppb, respectively. Moreover, a fast and convenient 'paste-sampling' method could be employed for trace contaminants on real samples, because EG-based Au NRs substrate is of flexibility and porosity. Thus, CV residue on shrimp could be determined lower than 1 ppb and thiram residue on grapes could be identified lower than 50 ppb. In addition to high sensitivity, the stability of EG-based Au NRs substrate is also very good. Even after acid/alkali pretreatment (pH = 4∼10) or 30 min of thermal treatment (T = 20∼100 °C), the enhancement of the substrate remained stable. What's more, the substrate could be stored as long as 30 days. The highly stable, sensitive, cost-effective and easy-to-produce EG-based Au NRs substrates exhibit a great potential to promote application of SERS for routine analysis., 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 © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by dysfunction of the upper and lower motor neurons resulting in muscle weakness and wasting. Recently, several studies on ALS patients and ALS animal models indicated that intramuscular toxicity played a role in ALS disease progression; however, the mechanisms driving this are unknown. In this study, we explored the possible dysfunction of lipid metabolism in myocytes associated with ALS. Initially, skeletal muscle from 41 ALS patients, as well as 53 non-ALS control subjects, was investigated, and we identified that lipid droplet accumulation in the muscle fibers of ALS patients was significantly increased, especially in patients with FUS mutations. A myoblast (C2C12) cell line expressing mutant FUS (FUS-K510Q) was able to induce lipid droplet accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Consistently, transgenic flies expressing FUS-K510Q under a muscle-specific driver showed elevated triglyceride levels in the flight muscles, as well as locomotor defects. Biochemical analysis of C2C12 cells and fly muscle tissues showed upregulation of PLIN2, and downregulation of ATGL and CPT1A, indicating inhibition of lipolysis and fatty acid β-oxidation in muscle cells with FUS mutations. Our study provided a potential explanation for the pathogenesis associated with lipid droplets accumulating in skeletal muscle in ALS. Our data also suggested that disordered lipid metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction play a crucial role in intramuscular toxicity in ALS., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Amines levels present important indicative value in food safety and human health. Although they are involved in some normal physiological responses of the organism, their overproduction or intake may cause pathological responses. Herein, we report a recyclable visual packaging bag for volatile amines detections based on the naphthylamide derivative N-S and its positive PL characteristics. Specifically, handmade test strips based on compound N-S have been applied to fish freshness labeling, and the cyclic fumigation experiment shows its restorable PL effect and efficiency. The possible PL transfer mechanism of naphthylamide derivative N-S is uncovered by the density functional theory (DFT) calculation and titration mass spectrometer and 1 H NMR. This work expands a conjugation in a molecule by hydrogen-bond activated ESIPT (H-ESIPT) and provides a portable detection method for volatile amines detection., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Platinum-based catalysts are widely used in hydrogen evolution reactions; however, their applications are restricted because of the cost-efficiency trade-off. Here, we present a thermodynamics-based design strategy for synthesizing an Al 73 Mn 7 Ru 20 (atomic %) metal catalyst via combinatorial magnetron co-sputtering. The new electrocatalyst is composed of ~2 nanometers of medium-entropy nanocrystals surrounded by ~2 nanometers of amorphous regions. The catalyst exhibits exceptional performance, similar to that of single-atom catalysts and better than that of nanocluster-based catalysts. We use aluminum rather than a noble metal as the principal element of the catalyst and ruthenium, which is cheaper than platinum, as the noble metal component. The design strategy provides an efficient route for the development of electrocatalysts for use in large-scale hydrogen production. Moreover, the superior hydrogen reaction evolution created by the synergistic effect of the nano-dual-phase structure is expected to guide the development of high-performance catalysts in other alloy systems.

Aggregation and fibrillation of β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) as well as accumulation of toxic metal ions have been believed to be the central events to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, an attractive therapeutic tactic for AD is to design and synthesize inhibitors and metal chelators to prevent Aβ aggregation and chelate toxic metal ions. In this study, the polypeptide functionalized gold nanoparticles (PFGNP) were obtained by modifying polypeptides Cys-Gly-Gly-Gly-Leu-Pro-Phe-Phe-Asp (CGGGLPFFD) and Cys-Gly-Gly-Gly-Gly-Gly-His (CGGGGGH) onto gold nanoparticles through gold-sulfur bond. The inhibitory properties of PFGNP toward Aβ 1-42 fibril formation was assessed by thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence method and corroborated by atomic force microscopy analysis. The ability of PFGNP to complex copper ions was studied by electrochemical method. The experimental results reveal that PFGNP can effectively chelate copper ions and significantly inhibit the fibrillation of Aβ 1-42 . Moreover, PFGNP exhibits significantly protective effect on Aβ-induced cytotoxicity toward human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells., (© 2022 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Micron-sized silicon oxide (SiO x ) has been regarded as a promising anode material for new-generation lithium-ion batteries due to its high capacity and low cost. However, the distinct volume expansion during the repeated (de)lithiation process and poor conductivity can lead to structural collapse of the electrode and capacity fading. In this study, SiO x anode materials coated with TiO 0.6 N 0.4 layers are fabricated by a facile solvothermal and thermal reduction technique. The TiO 0.6 N 0.4 layers are homogeneously dispersed on SiO x particles and form an intimate contact. The TiO 0.6 N 0.4 layers can enhance the conductivity and suppress volume expansion of the SiO x anode, which facilitate ion/electron transport and maintain the integrity of the overall electrode structure. The as-prepared SiO x -TiON-200 composites demonstrate a high reversible capacity of 854 mAh g -1 at 0.5 A g -1 with a mass loading of 2.0 mg cm -2 after 250 cycles. This surface modification technique could be extended to other anodes with low conductivity and large volume expansion for lithium-ion batteries.

Plasmon-mediated chemical reactions have attracted intensive research interest as a means of achieving desirable reaction yields and selectivity. The energetic charge carriers and elevated local temperature induced by the nonradiative decay of surface plasmons are thought to be responsible for improving reaction outcomes. This study reports that the plasmoelectric potential is another key contributor in plasmon-mediated electrochemistry. Additionally, we disclose a convenient and reliable method for quantifying the specific contributions of the plasmoelectric potential, hot electrons, and photothermal heating to the electroreduction of oxygen at the plasmonic Ag electrode, revealing that the plasmoelectric potential is the dominating nonthermal factor under short-wavelength illumination and moderate electrode bias. This work elucidates novel mechanistic understandings of plasmon-mediated electrochemistry, facilitating high-performance plasmonic electrocatalyst design optimization.

Proteins are the fundamental biological macromolecules which underline practically all biological activities. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs), as they are known, are how proteins interact with other proteins in their environment to perform biological functions. Understanding PPIs reveals how cells behave and operate, such as the antigen recognition and signal transduction in the immune system. In the past decades, many computational methods have been developed to predict PPIs automatically, requiring less time and resources than experimental techniques. In this paper, we present a comparative study of various graph neural networks for protein-protein interaction prediction. Five network models are analyzed and compared, including neural networks (NN), graph convolutional neural networks (GCN), graph attention networks (GAT), hyperbolic neural networks (HNN), and hyperbolic graph convolutions (HGCN). By utilizing the protein sequence information, all of these models can predict the interaction between proteins. Fourteen PPI datasets are extracted and utilized to compare the prediction performance of all these methods. The experimental results show that hyperbolic graph neural networks tend to have a better performance than the other methods on the protein-related datasets.

Background: Familial episodic pain syndrome type 3 (FEPS3) is an inherited disorder characterized by the early-childhood onset of severe episodic pain that primarily affects the distal extremities. As skin biopsy has revealed a reduction in intraepidermal nerve fiber density and degeneration of the unmyelinated axons, it remains unclear whether FEPS3 patients have pathological changes in the peripheral nerve., Methods: The clinical features of patients with FEPS3 were summarized in a large autosomal dominant family. Sural nerve biopsies were conducted in two patients. Whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed in the index patient. Sanger sequencing was used to analyze family co-segregation., Results: Fourteen members exhibited typical and uniform clinical phenotypes characterized by length-dependent and age-dependent severe episodic pain affecting the distal extremities, which can be relieved with anti-inflammatory medicine. The WES revealed a heterozygous mutation c.665G > A (p.R222H) in the SCN11A gene, which was co-segregated with the clinical phenotype in this family. A sural biopsy in patient V:1, who was experiencing episodic pain at 16 years old, showed normal structure, while the sural nerve in patient IV:1, whose pain attack had completely diminished at 42 years old, displayed a decrease of the density of unmyelinated axons with the axonal degeneration., Conclusions: The clinical phenotype of FEPS3 showed distinctive characteristics that likely arise from dysfunctional nociceptive neurons that lack detectable pathological alterations in the nerve fibers. Nevertheless, long-term dysfunction of the Nav1.9 channel may cause degeneration of the unmyelinated fibers in FEPS3 patient with pain remission., (© 2022. Fondazione Società Italiana di Neurologia.)

Objectives: Benzbromarone and febuxostat use different mechanisms to reduce serum urate. However, the effectiveness of benzbromarone versus febuxostat in reducing serum urate in gouty patients classified with different types of hyperuricaemia remains unclear., Method: In this retrospective study from January 1, 2018, to September 30, 2020, subjects were identified if they were newly treated with benzbromarone 25 mg daily or febuxostat 20 mg daily. The subjects were classified into four types according to their 24-h urinary uric acid and fractional excretion of uric acid. The baseline data and follow-up information after 28 ± 3 days of treatment were collected., Results: Seventy-three subjects with gout were finally enrolled. Among them, 50 were treated with benzbromarone. The percent changes in serum urate from the baseline were - 33.71 ± 13.59% and - 29.45 ± 10.62% in the benzbromarone and febuxostat group, respectively, without a significant difference between the groups (P = 0.188). No differences were found between the groups in subjects classified as the renal underexcretion type, combined type, or "normal" type. In patients with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , the rate of serum urate lowering was higher in those treated with benzbromarone than in those treated with febuxostat. Febuxostat treatment significantly lowered serum creatinine from the baseline (P = 0.001)., Conclusions: Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate among different types of hyperuricaemia. Benzbromarone was more effective than febuxostat in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , while febuxostat had a renal protective effect. Key Points • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate in patients with different types of hyperuricaemia. • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily was more effective than febuxostat 20 mg daily in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m 2 . • Febuxostat had a renal protective effect after about 1 month treatment., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR).)

This study was to investigate effects of zinc oxide nanoparticle (Nano-ZnO) on growth, immunity, intestinal morphology and function of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) finishing pigs. Six normal birth weight (NBW) and 12 IUGR male piglets were obtained and weaned at 21 d. NBW-weaned piglets fed basal diets (NBW group), IUGR-weaned piglets allocated to two groups fed basal diets (IUGR group) and basal diets further supplemented 600 mg Zn/kg from Nano-ZnO (IUGR+Zn group), respectively. All pigs were slaughtered at 163 d. Results showed: (1) IUGR pigs showed no difference in body weight at 77d and 163d ( P > 0.05), while had increased villus height (VH) and villus surface area in jejunum ( P < 0.05) and enhanced interleukin-6, TNF-α and NF-κB mRNA expression ( P < 0.05) as compared to NBW group; Compared with IUGR group, dietary Nano-ZnO did not affect the body weight ( P > 0.05), but increased VH to crypt depth ratio and IgA concentration ( P < 0.05) and decreased TNF-α and NF-κB mRNA expression in jejunum ( P < 0.05). (2) IUGR increased the number of swollen mitochondria and autolysosomes, and protein expressions of sequestosome-1 (P62) and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 B/A (LC3B/A) in jejunum as compared to NBW group ( P < 0.05); Compared with IUGR group, Nano-ZnO decreased the number of swollen mitochondria and autolysosomes, and P62 and LC3B/A protein expression ( P < 0.05). (3) IUGR increased mucosal contents of malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl (PC) and Keap1 protein expression ( P < 0.05) as compared to NBW group; Compared with IUGR group, dietary Nano-ZnO increased activities of total antioxidant capacity, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione content ( P < 0.05), and enhanced nuclear respiratory factor 2 (Nrf2), glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit and glutathione peroxidase 1 mRNA expression, and increased total and nuclear Nrf2 protein expression ( P < 0.05), and decreased malondialdehyde and PC content, and Keap1 protein expression ( P < 0.05) in jejunum. Results suggested that IUGR pigs showed postnatal catch-up growth and improved intestinal morphology, and dietary Nano-ZnO may further improve intestinal morphology, reduce inflammation, decrease autophagy and alleviate oxidative stress via Nrf2/Keap1 pathway in jejunum of IUGR pigs., 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 © 2022 Zhou, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Wang and Wang.)