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Five sewage sludge specimens with different organic contents were prepared by mixing mass ratio 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 40% of dry soil powder into raw sewage sludge. The addition of dry soil powder can reduce the organic content of sewage sludge without significantly changing its particle composition. Oedometer tests were conducted, starting from a small effective vertical stress σ v′ = 3 kPa. It is observed that the e-logσ v′ compression curves show an inverse ‘S’ shape due to suction pressure resisting deformation. The suction pressure decreases exponentially with the organic content, a regressed equation for which has been provided. Burland’s concept of intrinsic compression line (ICL) is adopted for correlating the compression curves of sludgewith various organic contents. It is found that the ICL with high organic content lies above the low one, that is, the higher the organic content, the greater the void index. In addition, the shape of the ICL for organic sludges is an inverse ‘S’ rather than slightly concave upwards for inorganic reconstituted clays. An average ICL is provided to normalize the compression curves of sludges with different organic contents. The intrinsic compression parameters e * 100 and C c * can be correlated with the organic content, which increase linearly with the organic content, and the regressed equations for them were provided.

Regiocontrol in traditional cycloaddition reactions between unsaturated carbon compounds is often challenging. The increasing focus in modern medicinal chemistry on benzocyclobutene (BCB) scaffolds indicates the need for alternative, more selective routes to diverse rigid carbocycles rich in C(sp 3 ) character. Here, we report a palladium-catalyzed double C–H activation of two adjacent methylene units in carboxylic acids, enabled by bidentate amide-pyridone ligands, to achieve a regio-controllable synthesis of BCBs through a formal [2+2] cycloaddition involving σ bonds only (two C–H bonds and two aryl–halogen bonds). A wide range of cyclic and acyclic aliphatic acids, as well as dihaloheteroarenes, are compatible, generating diversely functionalized BCBs and hetero-BCBs present in drug molecules and bioactive natural products.

With the progress of regional integration in China and the growth of passenger travel demand, a single travel mode has been unable to meet passengers’ cross-regional, multimodal, and personalized travel needs. Air-rail integration service (ARIS) is gradually catching on with travellers. Compared with developed countries, ARIS remains in its infancy in China, with a low penetration rate. Against this backdrop, this study presents an SP survey of ARIS passengers at Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport as an example and analyses the factors affecting their transfer process using multiple ordinal logistic regression. The satisfaction analysis results help to construct a simulation model of ARIS of Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport by using AnyLogic to verify the optimization effect. The research results show a significant impact on the ARIS transfer process by gender, education, occupation, travel mode, travel cost, location of the shuttle bus, arrival frequency of shuttle bus, manual baggage check-in service, self-service check-in, and the performance of security check equipment. The adoption of optimization measures will reduce ARIS shuttle bus, baggage check-in, and security check-in times by 68%, 50%, and 45%, respectively.

Soft rot is a widespread, catastrophic disease caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) that severely damages the production of Amorphophallus spp. This study evaluated the rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities in Pcc-infected and uninfected plants of two species of Amorphophallus, A. muelleri and A. konjac. Principal component analysis showed that the samples formed different clusters according to the Pcc infection status, indicating that Pcc infection can cause a large number of changes in the bacterial and fungal communities in the Amorphophallus spp. rhizosphere soil. However, the response mechanisms of A. muelleri and A. konjac are different. There was little difference in the overall microbial species composition among the four treatments, but the relative abundances of core microbiome members were significantly different. The relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacillus, and Lysobacter were lower in infected A. konjac plants than in healthy plants; in contrast, those of infected A. muelleri plants were higher than those in healthy plants. For fungi, the relative abundances of Ascomycota and Fusarium in the rhizosphere of infected A. konjac plants were significantly higher than those of healthy plants, but those of infected A. muelleri plants were lower than those of healthy plants. The relative abundance of beneficial Penicillium fungi was lower in infected A. konjac plants than in healthy plants, and that of infected A. muelleri plants was higher than that of healthy plants. These findings can provide theoretical references for further functional research and utilization of Amorphophallus spp. rhizosphere microbial communities in the future.

Background: Fei Jin Sheng Formula (FJSF) is widely used in clinical treatment of lung cancer. But the underlying active ingredients and mechanisms are unclear. Objective: To investigate the active components and functional mechanisms of FJSF in treating lung cancer using a network pharmacology approach and molecular docking combined with vitro experiments. Methods: Based on the TCMSP and related literature, the chemical components of related herbs in FJSF were collected. The active components of FJSF were screened by ADME parameters, and the targets were predicted by the Swiss Target Prediction database. The "drug-active ingredient-target" network was constructed by Cytoscape. Disease-related targets of lung cancer were acquired from GeneCards, OMIM, and TTD databases. Then drug-disease intersection target genes were obtained through the Venn tool. GO analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed via the Metascape database. Cytoscape was used to construct a PPI network and perform topological analysis. Kaplan-Meier Plotter was used to analyze the relationship between DVL2 and the prognosis of lung cancer patients. xCell method was used to estimate the relationship between DVL2 and immune cell infiltration in lung cancer. Molecular docking was performed by AutoDockTools-1.5.6. The results were verified by experiments in vitro. Results: FJSF contained 272 active ingredients and 52 potential targets for lung cancer. GO enrichment analysis is mainly related to cell migration and movement, lipid metabolism, and protein kinase activity. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis mainly involves PI3K-Akt, TNF, HIF-1, and other pathways. Molecular docking shows that the compound Xambioona, quercetin and methyl palmitate in FJSF has a strong binding ability with NTRK1, APC, and DVL2. Analysis of the data in UCSC to analyze the expression of DVL2 in lung cancer shows that DVL2 was overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis shows that the higher DVL2 expression in lung cancer patients was associated with poorer overall survival and poorer survival in stage I patients. It was negatively correlated with the infiltration of various immune cells in the lung cancer microenvironment. Vitro Experiment showed that Methyl Palmitate (MP) can inhibit the proliferation, migration, and invasion of lung cancer cells, and its mechanism of action may be to downregulate the expression of DVL2. Conclusion: FJSF may play a role in inhibiting the occurrence and development of lung cancer by downregulating the expression of DVL2 in A549 cells through its active ingredient Methyl Palmitate. These results provide scientific evidence for further investigations into the role of FJSF and Methyl Palmitate in the treatment of lung cancer.

The topological and metrical classifications of fractal sets are important topics in analysis. The goal of the present paper is to carry out such studies by using a finite state automaton. Firstly, we introduce Σ-automaton for self-similar sets, and we define topology automaton for fractal gaskets. Next, we show that a fractal gasket is always bi-Hölder equivalent to the pseudo-metric space induced by its topology automaton. Thirdly, we investigate when the pseudo-metric spaces induced by different automata can be bi-Lipschitz equivalent. As an application, we obtain a rather general sufficient condition for two fractal gaskets to be bi-Hölder or bi-Lipschitz equivalent.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to report two cases of breast cancer patients whose side effects after Tamoxifen were treated with traditional Korean medicine.Methods: Two breast cancer patients underwent Tamoxifen after breast-conserving surgery, and both were treated with traditional Korean medicine. Subjective discomfort symptoms were evaluated using the Numerical Rating Scale. Adverse events were assessed using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, Version 5.0.Results: After treatment with traditional Korean medicine, the discomfort symptoms that occurred after Tamoxifen, such as osteoarthritis, hot flushes, and cold sweat, all gradually improved. In addition, no hematologic, hepatic, or renal side effects were observed from the traditional Korean medicine treatment.Conclusion: This case study suggests that traditional Korean medicine may contribute to the improvement of side effects caused by Tamoxifen and enhance the quality of life of patients.

Root-knot nematode (RKN) is a soil-borne pathogen that severely damages Panax notoginseng. It has been recently shown that intercropping P. notoginseng in forests constitutes an innovative system that can promote P. notoginseng growth and suppress the spread of disease. However, there is little research on the interspecific interaction between pine trees and P. notoginseng. Here, two years of field experiments were designed to explore the effects of RKN infestation and P. notoginseng–pine tree intercropping on the growth and saponin synthesis of P. notoginseng. The results showed that RKN infestation could significantly reduce the root biomass, nutrient uptake and saponin accumulation of P. notoginseng seedlings. Interestingly, two-year-old P. notoginseng plants grew normally (specifically, root biomass, saponin synthesis, nutrient uptake and root morphology were normal) under nematode infection, while the incidence of RKN disease was decreased compared with that of seedlings before transplantation, indicating that P. notoginseng has adult-plant resistance (APR) to RKN disease. Furthermore, P. notoginseng–pine tree intercropping could significantly reduce the incidence of RKN disease and increase the biomass, nutrient uptake and saponin synthesis of P. notoginseng under mild infection, and root architecture may play a key role. Above all, P. notoginseng showed APR to RKN disease, and P. notoginseng–pine tree intercropping represents a type of interspecific facilitation that can promote the growth and quality of P. notoginseng.

ObjectivesTo identify the arthritogenic B cell epitopes of glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) and their association with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).MethodsIgG response towards a library of GPI peptides in patients with early RA, pre-symptomatic individuals and population controls, as well as in mice, were tested by bead-based multiplex immunoassays and ELISA. Monoclonal IgG were generated, and the binding specificity and affinity were determined by ELISA, gel size exclusion chromatography, surface plasma resonance and X-ray crystallography. Arthritogenicity was investigated by passive transfer experiments. Antigen-specific B cells were identified by peptide tetramer staining.ResultsPeptide GPI293-307was the dominant B cell epitope in K/BxN and GPI-immunised mice. We could detect B cells and low levels of IgM antibodies binding the GPI293-307epitopes, and high affinity anti-GPI293-307IgG antibodies already 7 days after GPI immunisation, immediately before arthritis onset. Transfer of anti-GPI293-307IgG antibodies induced arthritis in mice. Moreover, anti-GPI293-307IgG antibodies were more frequent in individuals prior to RA onset (19%) than in controls (7.5%). GPI293-307-specific antibodies were associated with radiographic joint damage. Crystal structures of the Fab–peptide complex revealed that this epitope is not exposed in native GPI but requires conformational change of the protein in inflamed joint for effective recognition by anti-GPI293-307antibodies.ConclusionsWe have identified the major pathogenic B cell epitope of the RA-associated autoantigen GPI, at position 293–307, exposed only on structurally modified GPI on the cartilage surface. B cells to this neo-epitope escape tolerance and could potentially play a role in the pathogenesis of RA.

Family resilience is not the sum of the individual psychological resilience of each of the family members, but the family itself as a unit of resilience research. The representative models of family stress tolerance theory mainly include McCubbin’s series of family stress tolerance models and Walsh’s family stress tolerance framework, which are widely used in the practice of family therapy. In the future, empirical studies on family resilience should be strengthened, measurement tools with high reliability and validity should be established, and the combination of family resilience theory and community-based practice should be promoted.

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a rare autoimmune disease in which recurrent and progressive chondritis occurs throughout the body. We report a case of a 56-year-old female subject presented as intermittent fever and cough, who was found obvious luminal stenosis and intense 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in her larynx and trachea via bronchoscopy and FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). The auricular cartilage biopsy demonstrated chondritis. At first she was diagnosed as RP and treated by glucocorticoid and methotrexate, leading to completely response. Fever and cough recurred after 18 months, and FDG PET/CT were performed again and targeted a newfound nasopharyngeal lesion, where the biopsy proved to be an extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type.

Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS), as a cytosolic DNA sensor, plays a crucial role in antiviral immunity, and its overactivation induces excess inflammation and tissue damage. Macrophage polarization is critically involved in inflammation; however, the role of cGAS in macrophage polarization during inflammation remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that cGAS was upregulated in the LPS-induced inflammatory response via the TLR4 pathway, and cGAS signaling was activated by mitochondria DNA in macrophages isolated from C57BL/6J mice. We further demonstrated that cGAS mediated inflammation by acting as a macrophage polarization switch, which promoted peritoneal macrophages and the bone marrow–derived macrophages to the inflammatory phenotype (M1) via the mitochondrial DNA–mTORC1 pathway. In vivo studies verified that deletion of Cgas alleviated sepsis-induced acute lung injury by promoting macrophages to shift from the M1 phenotype to the M2 phenotype. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that cGAS mediated inflammation by regulating macrophage polarization through the mTORC1 pathway, and it further provided a potential therapeutic strategy for inflammatory diseases, especially sepsis-induced acute lung injury.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infects a quarter of the world's population and may progress to active tuberculosis (ATB). There is no gold standard for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Some immunodiagnostic tests are recommended to detect LTBI but can not distinguish ATB from LTBI. The breath test is useful for diagnosing ATB compared to healthy subjects but was never studied for LTBI. This proof-of-concept study (Chinese Clinical Trials Registry number: ChiCTR2200058346) was the first to explore a novel, rapid, and simple LTBI detection method via breath test on high-pressure photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPPI-TOFMS). The case group of LTBI subjects (n = 185) and the control group (n = 250), which included ATB subgroup (n = 121) and healthy control (HC) subgroup (n = 129), were enrolled. The LTBI detection model indicated that a breath test via HPPI-TOFMS could distinguish LTBI from the control with a sensitivity of 80.0% (95% CI: 67.6%, 92.4%) and a specificity of 80.8% (95% CI: 71.8%, 89.9%). Nevertheless, further intensive studies with a larger sample size are required for clinical application.