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A catalytic nanoplatform (Mn3O4/OCN-PpIX@BSA) was developed for MRI-guided combinational chemodynamic–sonodynamic therapy through tumor microenvironment modulation.

The nervous system is composed of a variety of neurons and glial cells with different morphology and functions. In the mammalian peripheral nervous system (PNS) or the lower vertebrate central nervous system (CNS), most neurons can regenerate extensively after axotomy, while the neurons in the mammalian CNS possess only limited regenerative ability. This heterogeneity is common within and across species. The studies about the transcriptomes after nerve injury in different animal models have revealed a series of molecular and cellular events that occurred in neurons after axotomy. However, responses of various types of neurons located in different positions of individuals were different remarkably. Thus, researchers aim to find the key factors that are conducive to regeneration, so as to provide the molecular basis for solving the regeneration difficulties after CNS injury. Here we review the heterogeneity of axonal regeneration among different cell subtypes in different animal models or the same organ, emphasizing the importance of comparative studies within and across species.

Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) plays an important role in the transport of glucose into cells. Studies found that GLUT1 is highly expressed in a variety of tumor cells, and it’s the rate-limiting transporter for tumor cells to uptake glucose, meaning that GLUT1 is a potential target for tumor treatment. Thus, the inhibition of GLUT1 by novel small compounds to lower glucose levels for cancer cells has become an emerging strategy. In this study, potential GLUT1 inhibitors were discovered by pharmacophore-based high-throughput virtual screening. First, 96 GLUT1 inhibitors were used to establish common pharmacophore hypotheses. The best pharmacophore model ADHRRR_1 was used to screen the ZINC database. Then, ADMET was launched to predict the pharmacokinetics of hit compounds from virtual screening. After that, the standard docking and precise docking were employed to dock these compounds with 4PYP protein; five molecules were selected as candidates of GLUT1 inhibitors for further analysis. Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulations and Molecular Mechanics/Poisson Boltzmann Surface Area (MM/PBSA) method were applied to evaluate the binding stability and affinity of the five protein–ligand composites. Finally, Zinc000068152777 and Zinc000141918576 with lower docking scores and binding free energy emerged as the potential GLUT1 inhibitors. Taken together, these results in our study may provide valuable information for cancer therapeutics by disturbing the energy metabolism of tumors.

Background: Patients undergoing emergency surgery often experience fluid depletion. Therefore, it is critical to use an efficient emergency preoperative blood volume assessment method. Based on current ultrasound assessment, a new method for ultrasound diagnosis and treatment, called Dai's preoperative ultrasound assessment (DPUA), has been developed. Three cardiovascular ultrasound views of DPUA include apical four-chamber, parasternal long-axis, and subxiphoid inferior vena cava views. Data of cardiovascular ultrasound slices correspond to volume conversion and fluid rehydration protocol ultrasound integration algorithm, which can be used to guide volume management in emergency surgery patients. Methods: This trial was a single-center randomized controlled study whose subjects were 60 patients undergoing emergency general anesthesia with no one dropped out. They were divided into experience group and ultrasound group. In experience group, patient volume status was assessed through blood pressure, heart rate, and fluid supplementation for patients based on the personal experience of anesthesiologists. In ultrasound group, the anesthesiologist chose different rehydration solutions through DPUA. Results: The main outcome indicator of this study was the stability of the circulatory blood pressure, which was mainly reflected in the comparison of the average arterial pressure at different times. The difference in the mean arterial pressure at the beginning of surgery was statistically significant (P=0.003**), and blood pressure fluctuation in ultrasound group was smaller than that in experience group, indicating that DPUA maintained better stability of the volume at the beginning of the operation. The experience group used more crystalloids within 30 min of choosing the fluid replacement regimen, and the ultrasound group used more colloids (P=0.036*). Conclusions: Preoperative ultrasound assessment of the DPUA could effectively and accurately assess the patient's cardiac function and volume status, as well as better guide perioperative fluid management. Trial registration: Registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04111783. First registered on 01/10/2019, https://clinicaltrials.gov/.

Objective: To investigate the oral health related quality of life in elderly diabetic patients and analyze its influencing factors. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select 190 elderly patients with diabetes under the Department of Endocrinology and Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine in the Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University as the research subjects. The Chinese version of the Oral Health Influence Scale (OHIP-14) was used to conduct a questionnaire survey, and univariate analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of oral health related quality of life in elderly diabetic patients. Results: The elderly diabetic patients’ oral health related quality of life score was 34.48 ± 3.23, which is in the middle-lower range. The findings of multivariate stepwise regression analysis revealed that the course of disease, regular visits to the dentist, sleep quality, oral health knowledge, and oral health attitude together explained 58.9% of the total variance in elderly diabetic patients in terms of their oral health related quality of life (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The oral health related quality of life of elderly diabetic patients is generally low, and is affected by the duration of diabetes, sleep quality, and oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior (regular visits to the dentist). Improving patients’ attention to oral health problems by improving sleep as well as their own oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior is an effective way to enhance oral health related quality of life.

Owing to frequent man-machine interaction, cable crane operation during the dam construction becomes an intensive dangerous special equipment and easily enlarge exposure. In particular, high wind weather increases the risk of falling objects at high altitude and enhance the impact space of cable crane. These factors lead to space conflicts in the limited space, and prone to accidents. However, previous studies mainly focused on safety monitoring through various technologies, but lack of sufficient prior control, and current methods for searching the optimal transit route of cable crane are insecure and insufficient since the wind environment, complex construction process, and dense man-machine interaction are not simultaneously considered. Thus, in this article, a transit route optimization method for cable crane exposure considering dynamic wind loads during the dam construction is proposed to reduce hazard exposure risk. A comprehensive evaluation function is constructed to assess the cable crane transit route with taking the hazard exposure, efficiency, and operability and collision risk into consideration. The objective is to make use of the NSGA-II algorithm to optimize the transit route under different working situations based on neural networks. The model feasibility is validated by applying it to the Dagangshan hydropower station. A set of results show that the novel methodology is able to reduce exposure and assess the comprehensive performance of different transit route. This method provides an important objective and precise evaluation tool for the cable crane optimal transit route, and also promotes safety management in the project.

To investigate the refractive and biometrical developments of children with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) who received laser photocoagulation (LP) or intravitreal ranibizumab injection as treatment.This case-control study involved cases with Zone II Stage 3 ROP. Fourteen children (28 eyes) who received single LP were included in the laser group, and 14 children (27 eyes) who received single intravitreal ranibizumab injection were included in the injection group. The mean age at operation was 37.00±1.72 and 36.36±1.66 weeks for the laser and injection groups, respectively (P=0.161), and refraction measurements and biometry were performed at the mean age of 5.00±1.63 and 5.00±0.94 years for the laser and injection groups, respectively (P=1.000). Spherical equivalent (SE) after mydriatic refraction and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were measured by refraction test. Central corneal thickness (CCT), anterior corneal surface curvature and curvature radius, anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT) and axial length (AL) were measured by biometry using the IOL Master700 biometric instrument (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG). The biometrical images were reanalysed using a self-developed program in MATLAB (R2016a, MathWorks, Inc.) to obtain additional eye parameters, including the curvatures of the posterior cornea and the anterior and posterior surfaces of the lens. SPSS (V.23.0) was used for statistical analysis. Independent sample t test was used to compare the eyeball biological and refractive state measures of the two groups, and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between SE and the biological parameters.1. (1) Cornea-related parameters: CCT (0.54±0.04mm vs 0.55±0.02mm, P0.05), anterior corneal surface curvature radius (7.56±0.26 mm vs 7.67±0.43mm, P0.05) and posterior corneal surface curvature radius (6.82±0.27mm vs 6.79±0.42mm, P0.05). (2) ACD (3.21 ± 0.25mm vs 3.22 ± 0.19mm, P0.05). (3) Lens-related parameters: anterior lens surface curvature radius (10.04±0.89mm vs 9.82±1.08mm, P0.05), posterior lens surface curvature radius (5.49±0.55mm vs 5.92±0.73mm, P0.05) and LT (3.80±0.14mm vs 3.59±0.16mm, P0.05). (4) AL (21.82±1.07 vs 22.68±1.61, P0.05). (5) Parameters related to refractive state: SE (-2.43±3.56 vs -0.53±3.12, P0.05) and BCVA (log MAR, 0.17±0.14 vs 0.21±0.18, P0.05). 2. (1) The SE of children in the laser group was positively correlated with LT (r=0.438, P0.05), negatively correlated with ACD (r=-0.437, P0.05) and had no significant correlation with other eyeball biological indicators (P0.05). (2) The SE of children in the injection group was negatively correlated with AL (r=-0.537, P0.05), positively correlated with CCT (r=0.455, P0.05) and had no significant correlation with other eyeball biological indicators (P0.05).LP and intravitreal ranibizumab injection as ROP treatments produce myopic refraction with increased degree of myopia in children who received LP than in children who received ranibizumab injection. The increased myopia after LP is due to the increases in LT and posterior lens curvature and a shallow ACD.

Open-pit mining is a common method for extracting coal, but considerable resources are often left unrecovered at the bottom of end-slopes, leading to a permanent waste of resources. This research presents a sustainable approach of multi-layer highwall mining at different levels to address the issue of abundant resources left unrecovered at the bottom of the end-slope in thick-seam open-pit mines. The interlayer between the upper and lower entries is simplified into a beam structure model, the bending moment distribution characteristics of the beam under a load of highwall miner are analyzed, and a method for calculating the thickness range of the interlayer is proposed. The web pillar width and interlayer thickness, obtained theoretically, are verified through a numerical simulation, and the results of mining a single layer are compared to those of mining multiple layers. The results show that the web pillar width and interlayer thickness derived from the numerical simulation are basically the same as those of the theoretical analysis. Compared with single layer mining, the vertical stress on the web pillar in the lowest panel is reduced by 14.83~18.25%, and the safety factor of the web pillar is increased to 0.27. The web pillars and interlayers at different elevations are stable during multi-layer highwall mining. These findings support the feasibility of multi-layer highwall mining for resource recovery, which is conducive to sustainable mining.

Air pollution is closely associated with human health and the economy. Therefore, it is important to understand variations in the spatiotemporal and sectoral emission distributions of major air pollutants and their drivers. The policies (APAPPC) promulgated by China in 2013 have also achieved remarkable results. Rate of change, trend analysis, and a geographically and temporally weighted regression model were used to study the effects of socioeconomic factors on NOx, SO2, and dust emissions in China during 2011–2017. During the study period, annual average emissions of NOx, SO2, and dust decreased by 11.45, 13.42, and 4.82 Mt (−47.64, −60.53, and −39.05%), respectively. Pollutant emissions were concentrated in North China, with Shandong and Hebei provinces exhibiting the highest NOx and SO2 and dust emissions, respectively. Pollutant emissions from the power and industrial sectors were mainly distributed in East (27.08 and 28.00%, respectively) and North China (23.57 and 20.04%, respectively), whereas emissions from the residential sector were mainly concentrated in North (22.48%) and Southwest China (20.07%). Pollutant emissions were positively correlated with electricity generation, urban population density, urban green spaces, private car ownership, the secondary industry as a share of regional GDP, and steel production and negatively correlated with disposable income and gross construction output. Per capita disposable income was the dominant driving factor.

With the development of high-density and high-rise buildings on both sides of the street, widespread attention has been paid to the applicability of the traditional greening model of 'the more trees, the better atmospheric environment' in dealing with air pollution in urban street canyons. Clarifying the characteristics of street canyons greening and its planting design pattern on the reduction of emission pollutants by vehicles is an important prerequisite for the improvement of air quality in the street canyons. Based on literature review, we compared the applicability and limitations of the three methods, including field observation, wind tunnel test, and numerical simulation. We further analyzed the effects of roadside trees and hedges on the dispersion and deposition of air pollutants, and put forward a framework of adaptive greening design for air quality improvement. Finally, we proposed that future studies should address the creation of graphic languages for roadside greening design, the development of technical guidelines for evaluating the exposure of air pollution, and the optimization of parameterization schemes for the physical processes of greening effect in computational fluid dynamics models. Overall, our review could provide ideas and reference for the subsequent research.随着街道两侧建筑群向高密度、高层化发展,传统“树越多越好”的绿化模式在应对城市街谷空气污染时是否适用受到广泛关注。明晰街谷绿化植物特征及其种植设计模式对机动车排放污染物消减的调控机理是发挥其提升街谷空气品质的重要前提。本文通过对近年国内外相关文献的梳理,比较分析了现场观测、风洞试验和数值模拟3种研究方法的适用性及局限性,详细剖析了行道树、绿篱两类绿化模式对街谷空气污染物扩散与沉降的影响机制,提出了一套面向空气质量提升的街谷绿化适应性设计工作框架。最后,分别从典型街谷绿化设计图示语言研制、街谷空气污染暴露评估技术指南编制、计算机流体力学模型中街谷绿化效应物理过程参数化方案优化等方面进行探讨,以期为后续研究提供思路和借鉴。.

Deep space optical communication (DSOC) is becoming a hot topic. Pulse position modulation (PPM) is an effective tool to realize DSOC benefiting from the feature of high sensitivity. In this paper, we analyze 2 × 1 optical PPM systems with photon-counting detectors, where the distance difference between the two links causes asynchronous superpositions at the receiving end. Two synchronization algorithms are proposed to estimate the time offsets of the two links, which are the optimal Global Maximum Likelihood Estimation (GMLE) and the suboptimal Integer Comparison - Fractional Likelihood Estimation (ICFLE). The complexities of the two methods are also compared. In order to measure the two proposed algorithms, the Cramer-Rao bounds (CRB) are derived. According to simulation results, both the two proposed algorithms approach the deduced CRBs. Furthermore, an equivalent experiment is designed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. It’s also indicated that the proposed algorithms may be utilized in practical systems.

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology has been widely used in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.However, the effects of Cas9, as an exogenous protein, on the growth and production of natural products in S.cerevisiae are still unclear.In this study, Cas9 gene was expressed in S.cerevisiae by integration into the genome and construction into vectors, and two natural products, carotenoid and miltiradiene, were selected as the target products to study the effects of Cas9 expression on yeast growth and production capacity.The results showed that whether Cas9 was integrated into the genome or expressed by vectors, Cas9 inhibited the growth of S.cerevisiae, which was more obvious in the form of genome integration.When Cas9 was integrated into the genome, it had no effect on the production of carotenoid and miltiradiene by S.cerevisiae, but when Cas9 was expressed by vectors, the ability of S.cerevisiae to produce carotenoids and miltiradiene was significantly reduced.Therefore, in order to further efficiently knock out Cas9 after gene editing and minimize the adverse impact of Ura3 and Trp1 vectors, this study systematically explored the removal efficiency of the two vectors, and a plasmid capable of efficient gene editing was constructed, which optimized the application of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system in S.cerevisiae, and provided reference for the application of gene editing technology based on Cas9.

The prevailing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has presented some neurological manifestations including hyposmia, hypogeusia, headache, stroke, encephalitis, Guillain–Barre syndrome, and some neuropsychiatric disorders. Although several cell types in the brain express angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), the main SARS-CoV-2 receptor, and other related proteins, it remains unclear whether the observed neurological manifestations are attributed to virus invasion into the brain or just comorbidities caused by dysregulation of systemic factors. Here, we briefly review the neurological manifestations of SARS-CoV-2, summarize recent evidence for the potential neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2, and discuss the potential mechanisms of COVID-19-associated neurological diseases.

Fine particulate matter (PM

Cerebral malaria (CM) is a life-threatening neurological complication caused by Plasmodium falciparum. About 627,000 patients died of malaria in 2020. Currently, artemisinin and its derivatives are the front-line drugs used for the treatment of cerebral malaria. However, they cannot target the brain, which decreases their effectiveness. Therefore, increasing their ability to target the brain by the nano-delivery system with brain-targeted materials is of great significance for enhancing the effects of antimalarials and reducing CM mortality. This study used glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) on the blood–brain barrier as a target for a synthesized cholesterol-undecanoic acid–glucose conjugate. The molecular dynamics simulation found that the structural fragment of glucose in the conjugate faced the outside the phospholipid bilayers, which was conducive to the recognition of brain-targeted liposomes by GLUT1. The fluorescence intensity of the brain-targeted liposomes (na-ATS/TMP@lipoBX) in the mouse brain was significantly higher than that of the non-targeted liposomes (na-ATS/TMP@lipo) in vivo (P Graphical Abstract

Once an human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individual enters the onset period, a variety of opportunistic infections may occur, affecting various systems and organs throughout the body, due to the considerable reduction in the body’s immune function. The objectives of this study were to explore the relationship between immune status and microbial communities in the lungs of individuals with HIV infection. A total of 88 patients with lung disease [80 (91%) HIV-positive and 8 (9%) HIV-negative] were enrolled in our study between January and July 2018, and 88 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples were obtained during bronchoscopy. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated differences in the pulmonary microbiome of patients with HIV who had different immune statuses. The diversity of bacteria in the lungs of HIV-positive individuals was lower than that in HIV-negative individuals (p < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the composition and distribution of bacteria and fungi between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative groups (p < 0.01). The number of fungal species in the BALF of HIV-positive patients was higher than in HIV-negative patients. The diversity of bacteria and fungi in the BALF of HIV-positive patients increased with decreasing CD4 T-cell counts. Linear regression analysis showed that Pneumocystis (R2 = 6.4e−03, p < 0.05), Cryptosphaeria (R2 = 7.2e−01, p < 0.05), Candida (R2 = 3.9e−02, p < 0.05), and Trichosporon (R2 = 7.7e−01, p < 0.05) were negatively correlated with CD4 counts (F-test, p < 0.05). The samples collected from HIV-positive patients exhibited a different pattern relative to those from the HIV-negative group. Differences in host immune status cause differences in the diversity and structure of lower respiratory tract microorganisms.

A short-term composting process to prepare substrate is an effective way to cultivate oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp.), which can increase the yield of mushrooms and lower the rate of contamination in non-industrialized cultivation. Moreover, it is different from the traditional composting processes for fertilizers and lacks systematic study, such as microbial succession and compost quality. In this study, a series of different tests of composting duration (0, 2, 4 and 5 d) were performed. A composting duration of 4-5 d over 58 °C was suitable for mushroom cultivation based on the biological efficiency (BE) range of 69.76-73.41 % and the contamination rate of 0 %. The content of total carbon (TC) continuously decreased during composting, while the content of total nitrogen (TN) reacted in an opposite matter. The final TN and C/N ratios were 1.89 % and 28/1, respectively, which fell well within the optimal range of nutritional requirements for oyster mushroom cultivation. The composting bacteria were more diverse than the fungal species. Caldibacillus, Thermobispora, Thermopolyspora, Thermobacillus and Ureibacillus were the predominant bacterial genera during the thermophilic stage. Co-occurrence patterns of microbial communities and physicochemical properties were performed using a network analysis, which indicated that bacteria can play more efficient roles than fungi in the degradation of organic matter. The structural equation model showed that composting duration significantly affected bacterial diversity, lignocellulose degradation rates, and BE. The correlations between bioinformatics parameters with composting characters and agronomic traits were determined by the Mantel test and showed that the induction of bacterial diversity over time rapidly activated carbon metabolism during short-term composting. This study provides a new idea of agro-waste composting for mushroom cultivation.

In this paper, we study porous media equation $u_{t}=\Delta u^{m}-u^{p}$ with nonlinear boundary condition $\frac{\partial u}{\partial\nu}=ku^{q}$. We determine some sufficient conditions for the occurrence of finite time blow-up or global existence. Moreover, lower and upper bounds for blow-up time are also derived by using various inequality techniques.

At present, alloy materials are being widely used as wear-resistant coatings due to good mechanical properties. In this paper, electrodeposition was used to prepare a Co–Mo coating. The influence of parameters on the phase, morphology, composition, and property of the coating has been studied, and the electrochemical mechanism has been deeply studied. The study of process parameters found that when the concentration of Na2Mo4 is 0.05 mol/L, the concentration of C6H5Na3O7 is 0.15 mol/L, the pH of the solution is 7, and the temperature is 50 °C, the content of Mo in a Co–Mo coating is 39.56%, and the microhardness reaches the maximum value of 503 HV. The study of electrochemical behavior found that the optimization of process parameters bringsa positive shift in the reduction potential, an increase in the exchange current density, and a decrease in charge transfer impedance. The microhardness of a Co–Mo coating prepared with the leaching solution of Mo-containing waste after component control of the plating solution is 483.6 HV, which is valuable to the high-value recycling of Mo secondary resources.

Relay-aided free-space optical (FSO) communication systems have the ability of mitigating the adverse effects of link disruption by dividing a long link into several short links. In order to solve the relay selection (RS) problem in a decode and forward (DF) relay-aided FSO system, we model the relay selection scheme as a Markov decision process (MDP). Based on a dueling deep Q-network (DQN), the DQN-RS algorithm is proposed, which aims at maximizing the average capacity. Different from relevant works, the switching loss between relay nodes is considered. Thanks to the advantage of maximizing cumulative rewards by deep reinforcement learning (DRL), our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DQN-RS algorithm outperforms the traditional greedy method.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women and remains a formidable therapeutic challenge. Mitochondria participate in a myriad of essential cellular processes, such as metabolism, and are becoming an ideal target for cancer therapy. Artemisinin and its derivatives have demonstrated multiple activities in the context of various cancers. Mitochondrial autophagy(mitophagy) is one of the important anti-tumor mechanisms of artemisinin drugs. However, the lack of specific tumor targeting ability limits the anti-tumor efficacy of artemisinin drugs. In this study, a GSH-sensitive artesunate smart conjugate (TPP-SS-ATS) was synthesized and liposomes (TPP-SS-ATS-LS) that target tumor cells and mitochondria were further prepared. The advantages of TPP-SS-ATS-LS targeting to the breast tumor were verified by in vivo and in vitro evaluations. In our study, the cytotoxicity was obviously enhanced in vitro and tumor growth inhibition rate was increased from 37.7% to 56.4% at equivalent artesunate dosage in breast cancer orthotopic implanted mice. Meanwhile, mitochondrial dysfunction, suppression of ATP production and respiratory capacity were detected in breast cancer cells. We further discovered that TPP-SS-ATS-LS inhibited tumor cells proliferation through mitophagy by regulating PHB2 and PINK1 expression. These results provide new research strategies for the development of new artemisinin-based anti-tumor drugs.

At present, alloy materials have been widely used as wear-resistant coatings due to good mechanical properties. In this paper, electrodeposition was used to prepare the Co-Mo coating. The electrochemical behavior of the deposition of alloy and the phase composition, morphology, composition and property of the coating have been studied. The study of process parameters found that when the concentration of Na2Mo4 is 0.05mol/L, the concentration of C6H5Na3O7 is 0.15mol/L, the pH of the solution is 7, and the temperature is 50℃, the content of Mo in Co-Mo coating is 39.56%, and the microhardness reaches the maximum value of 503HV. The study of electrochemical behavior found that when the concentration of Na2Mo4 is 0.05mol/L, the concentration of C6H5Na3O7 is 0.15mol/L, the pH of the solution is 7 and the temperature is 50℃, the most positive deposition potential, maximum exchange current density and minimum charge transfer impedance were obtained, which explained why the best performance coating can be obtained under this condition.

This study optimized the method for ozone (O3) degradation of prometryn in the clam Ruditapes philippinarum and evaluated toxicity changes during ozone degradation. The gas chromatography method for the detection of prometryn was appropriately improved. The linear range was 5 to 500 ng/mL, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9964. The addition concentration of prometryn was 0.025 to 0.100 mg/kg, the recovery was 77.97 to 85.00%, the relative standard deviation (n = 6) was 2.36 to 7.86%, and the limit of detection was 0.3 μg/kg. Using the central composite design in two experiments, ozone as gas and ozone dissolved in water, the effect of degradation rate was studied on three variables: ozone concentration, temperature, and exposure time. Ozone as gas and ozone dissolved in water have the same degradation effect on prometryn. The O3 concentration was 4.2 mg/L, the temperature was 40°C, the exposure time was 10 min, and the maximum degradation rate was 89.94 and 89.69% for the two experiments, respectively. In addition, the toxicity of ozone degradation products was evaluated using buffalo rat liver cells. After ozone treatment for 30 min, the toxicity of the ozone degradation products was reduced to 52.15% compared with that of prometryn itself. The toxicity of the ozone degradation products increased slightly when the ozonation time was prolonged; the toxicity at 180 min was greater than that of the parent compound prometryn. Overall, the application of ozone degradation of pesticide residues is a promising new technology. This study determined better degradation conditions for prometryn in R. philippinarum and also provided a theoretical basis for the widespread use of ozone technology in the future. HIGHLIGHTS

The purpose of this paper is to use a multivariate wavelet approach to examine the causal relationship between tourism and economic growth in the 11 Asian regions for the period from 1995 to 2016. ...

Crocins, enriched in Gardenia jasminoides fruits, have a pharmacological activity against central nervous system diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer cell growth. The biosynthesis of crocins has been widely explored, but its regulatory mechanism remains unknown. Here, the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors related to crocin biosynthesis were systematically identified on the basis of the genome of G. jasminoides. A total of 95 GjbHLH transcription factor genes were identified, and their phylogenetic analysis indicated that they could be classified into 23 subfamilies. The combination of gene-specific bHLH expression patterns, the coexpression analysis of biosynthesis genes, and the analysis of promoter sequences in crocin biosynthesis pathways suggested that nine bHLHs in G. jasminoides might negatively regulate crocin biosynthesis. This study laid a foundation for understanding the regulatory mechanism of crocin biosynthesis and the improvement and breeding of G. jasminoides varieties.

DNA damage and antioxidant activities of sour meat peptides were evaluated using chemiluminescence and spectroscopic methods. All sour meat peptides exhibited DNA damage protection and free radical scavenging activities against DPPH radicals, hydroxyl radicals and superoxide anions in a dose-dependent manner, and showed the strongest inhibition of hydroxyl radicals and the weakest inhibition of superoxide anion radicals. The IC50 values of sour meat peptides from inoculating fermentation were 2.11, 4.23, 0.097 and 9.85 mg/mL for the inhibition of DNA damage and scavenging capacities of DPPH radicals, hydroxyl radicals and superoxide anion radicals, respectively, and were significantly lower than those of traditional fermentation (P

Ophraella communa is an efficient biocontrol agent used against the invasive weed Ambrosia artemisiifolia. It is an herbivorous insect that feeds on specific plants; the olfactory functions of this insects plays an important role in their search for host plants. There are no reports on O. communa sensilla types, morphology, or chemosensory protein (CSP) genes. In this study, we observed the external structure and distribution of antennal sensilla in adult O. communa antennae by scanning electron microscopy; moreover, we cloned 11 CSPs (CSP1–CSP11) and elucidated their tissue-expression profiles using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Six types of sensilla were identified: sensilla trichodea (including two subtypes), sensilla chaetica, sensilla basiconica (including two subtypes), sensilla styloconica, sensilla coeloconica, and Böhm bristles. Both male and female antennae had all six types of sensilla, and no sexual dimorphism was noted in sensillar types or distribution. We also found that the expression levels of CSP2, CSP3, CSP4, CSP6, and CSP7 in male and female antennae were higher than those in other tissues, which suggests that these five CSPs may be related to olfactory function in O. communa. Ultimately, our results lay the foundation for interpreting the olfactory functions of adult O. communa.

Considering the characteristics of extremely thick inclined open-pit coal mine with large amount under end slope, large end-slope height, and long exposure time, it is important to study the slope stability research during open-pit mining. This study takes the whole process of excavation descending and steep end-slope mining of an extremely thick inclined open-pit mine as the background. The slope stability factor of the end slopes were calculated for each stage of mining with different coal seam thicknesses by using the strength reduction method. The slope data, such as vertical stress, horizontal stress, and increment of maximum shear strain, are analyzed. The results show that the vertical stress and stability factor are decreasing throughout the mining stage. The horizontal stress shows a pattern of increasing and then decreasing in the excavation descending and steep end-slope mining. The greater the thickness of coal seam, the less the stability of the slope.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide. Previous studies have reported that sevoflurane, a frequently used anesthetic, can induce cognitive impairment in preclinical and clinical settings. However, the mechanism underlying the development of this neurotoxicity is currently unclear.Methods: Seven-month-old APP/PS1 mice were placed in an anesthesia induction box containing 3% sevoflurane in 100% O2 for 6 h, while BV2 cells were cultured with 4% sevoflurane for 6 h. Pyroptosis and tau protein expression in excised hippocampus tissues and cells were measured using Western blotting and immunofluorescence assay. Caspase-1 and NLRP3 were knocked out in BV2 microglia using CRISPR/Cas9 technology to determine whether they mediate the effects induced by sevoflurane.Results: Sevoflurane directly activated caspase-1 to induce pyroptosis in the mouse model of AD via NLRP3 and AIM2 activation. In addition, sevoflurane mediated cleavage of gasdermin D (GSDMD) but not gasdermin E (GSDME), promoted the biosynthesis of downstream interleukin-1β and interleukin-18, and increased β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and tau phosphorylation. The nontoxic caspase-1 small-molecule inhibitor VX-765 significantly inhibited this activation process in microglia, while NLRP3 deletion suppressed sevoflurane-induced caspase-1 cleavage and subsequently pyroptosis, as well as tau pathology. Furthermore, silencing caspase-1 alleviated the sevoflurane-induced release of IL-1β and IL-18 and inhibited tau-related enzymes in microglia.Conclusion: This study is the first to report that clinical doses of sevoflurane aggravate the progression of AD via the NLRP3/caspase-1/GSDMD axis. Collectively, our findings elucidate the crucial mechanisms of NLRP3/caspase-1 in pyroptosis and tau pathogenesis induced by sevoflurane and suggest that VX-765 could represent a novel therapeutic intervention for treating AD.

Physical-layer network coding (PNC) has received much attention, both from academia and industry lately, since it takes advantages of multiple-access signals. Because of a reduced number of time slots (TSs), PNC is capable of improving throughput significantly, especially for a typical 3-node network consisting of 2 user terminals and 1 relay node. However, a network with $M$ nodes ( $M>3$ ) and without adopting additional techniques needs $(2M-2)$ TSs to realize information exchange among all the nodes, since network coding is unable to distinguish between users at the relay node. This paper proposes uniquely decodable codes (UDCs) for PNC in wireless cooperative communications. The proposed UDC requires only two TSs for information exchange irrespective of the number of nodes in the network. This paper also investigates the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward modes for UDC-based PNC. The bit error rate and throughput of the proposed schemes are analyzed in this paper. Using simulation results, we demonstrate that our theoretical results align well with the simulation results.

Salt stress is one of the abiotic factors that causes adverse effects in plants and there is an urgent need to detect salt stress in plants as early as possible. Multicolor fluorescence imaging, as a powerful tool in plant phenotyping, can provide information about primary and secondary metabolism in plants to detect the responses of the plants exposed to stress in the early stage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of multicolor fluorescence imaging’s application in the early detection of salt stress in plants. In this study, the measurements were conducted on Arabidopsis and the multicolor fluorescence images were acquired at 440, 520, 690, and 740 nm with a self-developed imaging system consisting of a UV light-emitting diode (LED) panel for an excitation at 365 nm, a charge coupled device (CCD) camera, interference filters, and a computer. We developed a classification method using the imaging analysis of multicolor fluorescence based on principal component analysis (PCA) and a support vector machine (SVM). The results showed that the four principal fluorescence feature combinations were the ideal indicators as the inputs of the SVM model, and the classification accuracies of the control and salt-stress treatment at 5 days and 9 days were 92.65% and 98.53%, respectively. The results indicated that multicolor fluorescence imaging combined with PCA and SVM could act as a tool for early detection in salt-stressed plants.

In the Internet age, emotions exist in cyberspace and geospatial space, and social media is the mapping from geospatial space to cyberspace. However, most previous studies pay less attention to the multidimensional and spatiotemporal characteristics of emotion. We obtained 211,526 Sina Weibo data with geographic locations and trained an emotion classification model by combining the Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT) model and a convolutional neural network to calculate the emotional tendency of each Weibo. Then, the topic of the hot spots in Nanchang City was detected through a word shift graph, and the temporal and spatial change characteristics of the Weibo emotions were analyzed at the grid-scale. The results of our research show that Weibo’s overall emotion tendencies are mainly positive. The spatial distribution of the urban emotions is extremely uneven, and the hot spots of a single emotion are mainly distributed around the city. In general, the intensity of the temporal and spatial changes in emotions in the cities is relatively high. Specifically, from day to night, the city exhibits a pattern of high in the east and low in the west. From working days to weekends, the model exhibits a low center and a four-week high. These results reveal the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the Weibo emotions in the city and provide auxiliary support for analyzing the happiness of residents in the city and guiding urban management and planning.

In this paper, we investigate the light-bullet dynamics during femtosecond laser filamenation in an anomalous dispersion regime based on the experimentally observed blueshifted resonant radiation (RR) in fused silica. A numerical simulation is performed and well reproduces the pronounced asymmetric feature of the RR spectra. By applying a time-frequency analysis to the propagating laser field, this specific spectral feature is found to be closely connected to the positively chirped property of RR in the time domain. In the context of the effective three-wave mixing model, this temporal chirp character of the RR is ascribed to the variable phase-matching conditions, which can be traced back to the accelerative propagation of the light bullet during its formation. Our work provides a deep understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of femtosecond laser-pulse propagation in condensed media.

Background Trimetazidine (TMZ) pretreatment protects cardiomyocytes during cardiac surgery. TMZ may protect elderly patients with ischaemic heart disease (IHD) undergoing non-cardiac surgery. Methods This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (registration #ChiCTR1900025018) of patients with IHD scheduled to undergo non-cardiac surgery at Shenzhen People’s Hospital (Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China) between June 2014 and September 2015, randomized to 60 mg TMZ or placebo 12 h before surgery. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of in-hospital cardiovascular events. The secondary endpoints were myocardial ischaemia on five-lead electrocardiogram (cECG), cardiac troponin I (cTnI) elevation, cardiac death, acute coronary events, heart failure, and arrhythmia requiring treatments. Results Compared with the placebo group, the TMZ group showed a lower occurrence of in-hospital cardiovascular events (primary endpoint, 20.0% vs. 37.5%, P = 0.02), myocardial ischaemia (15.0% vs. 32.5%, P P P P P Conclusions In elderly patients with IHD undergoing non-cardiac surgery, TMZ pretreatment was associated with myocardial protective effects. Trial registration The trial was prospectively registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=41909 with registration number [ChiCTR1900025018] (7/8/2019).

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death, characterized by excessive membrane lipid peroxidation in an iron- and ROS-dependent manner. Celastrol, a natural bioactive triterpenoid extracted from

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure has been linked to numerous adverse health effects, with some disadvantaged subgroups bearing a disproportionate exposure burden. Few studies have been conducted to estimate the exposure and inequality of different subgroups due to a lack of adequate characterization of disparities in exposure to air pollutants in urban areas, and a mechanistic understanding of the causes of these exposure inequalities. Based on a long-term series of PM2.5 concentrations, this study analyzed the spatial and temporal characteristics of PM2.5 in 31 provincial capital cities of China from 2000 to 2016 using the coefficient of variation and trend analyses. A health risk assessment of human exposure to PM2.5 from 2000 to 2016 was then undertaken. A cumulative population-weighted average concentration method was applied to investigate exposures and inequality for education level, job category, age, gender and income population subgroups. The relationships between socioeconomic factors and PM2.5 exposure concentrations were quantified using the geographically and temporally weighted regression model (GTWR). Results indicate that the PM2.5 concentrations in most of the capital cities in the study experienced an increasing trend at a rate of 0.98 μg m−3 per year from 2000 to 2016. The proportion of the population exposed to high PM2.5 (above 35 μg m−3) increased annually, mainly due to the increase of population migrating into north, east, south and central China. The higher educated, older, higher income and urban secondary industry share (SIS) subgroups suffered from the most significant environmental inequality, respectively. The per capita GDP, population size, and the share of the secondary industry played an essential role in unequal exposure to PM2.5.