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A disease of imbalanced control of blood glucose levels due to impairment of insulin secretion or acceptance is known as diabetes mellitus. It could be induced by the high intake of sugar in diets, or by genetic background, or both. The antioxidant, which plays a role in neutralising free radicals, is crucial as the free radical could increase the chances of getting diabetes through several pathways. Injection of insulin and anti-diabetic drugs are common approaches to treating diabetes, but unfortunately, many side effects have been reported. Green synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticle, which is one of the applications of nanotechnology, could be a promising method in combating diabetes as it is biocompatible, less toxic, and has large surface to volume ratio. In this study, green synthesis and characterization of Cr2O3 NPs were carried out. The Cr2O3 NPs were shown to be spherical in shape, with an average size that falls within 100 nm. The EDX spectrum indicated that only chromium (Cr) and oxygen (O) were present in the sample. Other characterization techniques such as FTIR and UV-VIS spectroscopy were conducted. For ABTS and DPPH assays, Cr2O3 NPs exhibited highest free radical scavenging properties at 74.57% and 84.12% at 30 minutes and 60 minutes at the concentrations of 5 mg/mL and 1 mg/mL, respectively. Lastly, Cr2O3 NPs showed 95.28 % at the concentration of 0.25 mg/mL in α-amylase inhibition assay.

Introduction: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is common and remains a clinical concern in China. Since neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is linked to genetic factors, we aimed to identify the gene variants of the red blood cell membrane (RBCM) and evaluate the clinical risk factors in Chinese neonates with hyperbilirubinemia. Methods: 117 hyperbilirubinemia neonates (33 cases of moderate hyperbilirubinemia and 84 cases of severe hyperbilirubinemia) and 49 controls with normal bilirubin levels were selected as our study subjects. A customized 22-gene panel with next-generation sequencing (NGS) was designed to characterize genetic variations among the neonates. Sanger sequencing was used to verify the accuracy of the NGS. The clinical risk factors and potential effects of genetic variations in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia were subsequently assessed. Results: After data filtering, suspected pathogenic variants of UGT1A1, SLCCO1B1, and RBCM-associated gene were identified in neonates, the combined numbers of RBCM-associated gene variants were found to have differences between the hyperbilirubinemia group and the controls (p = 0.008), they were also different between severe hyperbilirubinemia and moderate hyperbilirubinemia (p = 0.008), and were correlated with an increased risk of hyperbilirubinemia (odds ratio = 9.644, p = 0.006). The UGT1A1-rs4148323 variant in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia was significantly increased as compared with the controls (p < 0.001). However, there was no statistical difference for the SLCO1B1-rs2306283 variant between the hyperbilirubinemia group and the controls. In addition, breastfeeding contributed to an increased risk of hyperbilirubinemia. Conclusion: Our study highlights that the RBCM-related gene variants are an underestimated risk factor, which may play an important role in developing hyperbilirubinemia in Chinese newborns.

Technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in the steel industry have been actively developed since the early 1990s in order to deal with global climate change. In particular, the utilization of various types of biomass including wood, bamboo, grass, food and agricultural by-product are being attempted as carbon neutral fuels in the blast furnace process. In this study, an alternative reducing agent for coke and pulverized coal using biomass was developed and the effect on blast furnace performance and CO2 reduction was evaluated. The first investigation was whether a burden material made of torrefied biomass mixed with iron ore and coal (Iron-bearing Biomass Coke, IBC) could be used as a substitute for coke in the form of a carbonized briquette. In addition, a method of mixing torrefied biomass with pulverized coal (Bio-PC) to inject through tuyere in a blast furnace was examined. As a result, when coke was replaced with 10% of IBC, the reducibility of the sintered ore was improved in association with an increased CO gas utilization ratio, hence CO2 emissions decreased by 2.3%. Furthermore, the combustion efficiency of Bio-PC mixed with 10% of torrefied biomass was improved by 13.2%, thus, the amount of CO2 emissions was calculated to decrease by 4%. These results suggest that the possibility of using IBC and Bio-PC in blast furnaces, as they could effectively reduce CO2 emissions in the ironmaking process.

An iodide-containing cationic covalent organic framework as a nonmetallic radiosensitizer increases X-ray deposition and enhances radiotherapy of colon cancer in vitro and in vivo by inducing ferroptosis.

Stimulus-responsive biodegradable nanocarriers with tumor-selective targeted drug delivery are critical for cancer therapy.

The in situ hydrogenation of nitroarenes under visible-light irradiation without any additional hydrogen source, following the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution photocatalyzed by a sp2-carbon conjugated COF, was successfully accomplished.

Herein, we report the first reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive dithioketal-linked covalent organic framework (COF) for synergetic chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer.

Background: Genotoxic impurities (GTIs) are produced during the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical excipients. L-malic acid, an important active pharmaceutical ingredient and excipient, is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the detection of potential GTIs in L-malic acid has not been reported. Objective: This study aims to establish a rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to determine the concentration of potential GTIs in L-malic acid, including N-nitroso-aspartic (NASP) and 2-chlorosuccinic acid (CSA). Methods: In this work, GTIs were separated by a reverse-phase Accucore C18 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 2.6 μm), with gradient elution using methanol and 0.05% ammonia. The multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) negative mode was used to detect GTIs, with transitional ion pairs of m/z from 131.6 to 88.0 for NASP, and from 150.9 to 70.9 for CSA. Results: The limit of detections (LODs) of NASP and CSA were 2 ng/mL (0.02 ppm) and 5 ng/mL (0.05 ppm), respectively. Both the limit of quantifications (LOQs) of NASP and CSA were 20 ng /mL (0.2 ppm). Good linearity of calibration curves in the concentration ranging from 10 to 500 ng/mL was obtained. The precision was less than 5%, and the intermediate precision was less than 10%. The accuracy ranged from 95.4% to 102.4%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 5%. Also, the solution's stability and robustness were acceptable. Conclusion: Compliant with requirements from (International Council for Harmonization) ICH guidelines, this method can be used for routine analysis and stability studies for GTIs’ levels in pharmaceutical quality control.

The first example of a photocatalyst-free strategy for the photo-promoted synthesis of gem-dihaloenones is developed.

Derived from a D–A–D motif monomer, a novel COF was designed and synthesized, which exhibited excellent efficiency for hydrogen evolution from water under visible-light irradiation as a photocatalyst.

This study applied short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging technology to analyze the textile pattern used in the Jeogori of Baekdamsa Temple. First introduced in 1748, the Jeogori is a very important relic in the study of Korean traditional costume. The garment w as designated as a national treasure in 1993, and the pattern in its yellow silk has been well established. However, obtaining the pattern information of its reddish purple decoration has proven to be quite challenging. In contrast to yellow, reddish purple is a color that is difficult for a camera to recognize; thus, analyzing patterns in this color using only high-definition digital or infrared photography is difficult. In this work, SWIR hyperspectral imaging technology, which has recently been used in investigations of cultural heritage sites, was applied to identify the textile pattern on the Jeogori of Baekdamsa Temple. The technology successfully identified the patterns of a Wan-character, dragon, and phoenix. This type of textile pattern was identified in Korea from the end of the 17th century to the early-to-mid-18th century. This study is meaningful because it not only provides a detailed image of the textile pattern on the Jeogori of Baekdamsa Temple, which has not been previously achieved, but also proposes a new strategy based on hyperspectral imaging technology for studying the cultural heritage of textiles.

Fe2O3-C-Ni heterojunction structured composite on foam Ni was successfully prepared by simple and effective hydrothermal reaction. The obtained material had good structural stability and excellent electrical conductivity. This binder-free Fe2O3-C-Ni electrode exhibits typical pseudocapacitance. Specific capacitance of Fe2O3-C-Ni in 1.0 mol L-1 KOH reaches 844.6 F g-1, which is higher than that of Fe2O3-Ni and C-Ni electrodes. For practice application, assembled Fe2O3-C-Ni//AC capacitor exhibits a long-term cycling performance with remains 79.5% capacitance retention within 20000 cycles at 1 A g-1.

Metal oxide electrode materials have relatively high theoretical capacitance. However, structure, morphology and composition of this kind of materials have significant influence on electrochemical performance. Moreover, metal oxide electrode materials have problems of low power density and cyclic stability. In this work, Mo-doped hydroxide zinc carbonate material (Mo-HZC) is synthesized on foam Ni surface by hydrothermal method. This Mo-doping electrode exhibits typical pseudocapacitance. Specific capacitance of Mo-HZC in 1.0 mol L-1 KOH is 698.9 F g-1 (1.0 A g-1), which is 2.5 times that of the undoped sample. The maximum energy density and power density of Mo-HZC electrode are 32.1 WH kg-1 and 3.16 KW kg-1, respectively. Assembled Mo-HZC//AC capacitor exhibits a long-term cycling performance with remains 79.5% capacitance retention within 20 000 cycles at 1.0 A g-1.

Objective: To investigate the physiological effects of exogenous emulsifiers in broiler chickens that were fed tallow-incorporated reduced-energy diets over 35 days.Methods: A total of 256 Ross 308 one-day-old broilers (42.28±0.16 g) were randomly allocated in a 2×2 factorial arrangement to 32 pens with eight chicks per cage. Birds were fed one of four dietary treatments as follows: i) positive control (PCN; energy sufficient diet); ii) negative control (NCN; energy-deficient diet, –100 ME kcal/kg); iii) PCL (PCN plus 0.05% emulsifier); and iv) NCL (NCN plus 0.05% emulsifier). Growth performance was evaluated weekly whereas assessments for the carcass traits, digestibility, some blood metabolites, ileal morphology, and meat quality were measured on d 21 and d 35.Results: Birds fed the NCL diet had higher (p

VNIR hyperspectral images can be analyzed in situations involving color changes, such as before and after cleaning, without pre-treatment. In this study, to analyze the application of the VNIR hyperspectral system, we compared the black contaminants on the surface of the Jigwangguksa Pagoda upper stereobate at Beopcheonsa Temple, Wonju before and after cleaning with laser. After a preliminary experiment to evaluate the applicability of VNIR hyperspectral imaging, we took images of the four sides (north, south, east, and west). The 823 nm band image was used for comparing before and after cleaning. As per the result of the image differencing analysis about before and after cleaning, the spectral reflectance of the area where the cleaning was performed showed a tendency to increase. Additionally, it was found that not only the washed area but also the extent of change could be calculated through monochrome for quantitative comparison, and imaging analysis using the VNIR hyperspectral system was sufficiently effective for comparison before and after cleaning.

The warm Arctic–cold continent pattern (WACC) of near-surface air temperature variability has often been associated with the connection between Arctic sea ice reduction and cold weather over the midlatitude continents. Whether the existence of this pattern is due to variability of sea ice or is caused by atmospheric internal dynamics is subject to debate. Based on a long integration of a primitive equation atmospheric model (SGCM), this study examines the origin of the warm Arctic–cold North American pattern (WACNA), which is characterized by a pair of opposite surface air temperature anomalies over the high-latitude Chukchi–Bering Sea region and the North American continent, in boreal winter on the intraseasonal time scale. The model atmosphere is maintained by a time-independent forcing, so that atmospheric internal dynamics is the only source of variability. It is found that the SGCM model simulates well the behavior of the observed WACNA pattern. The WACNA pattern develops by interacting with the time-mean flow and synoptic-scale transient eddies. Two pathways of Rossby wave propagation are associated with WACNA. The northern pathway originates from eastern Siberia moving eastward across the Bering Strait to Canada, and the southern pathway is rooted in the subtropical waveguide propagating across the eastern North Pacific. Our simulation of this pattern implies that tropospheric dynamics alone can generate the WACNA, and the predictability associated with this pattern is likely limited by its internal dynamics nature. Significance Statement The warm Arctic–cold continent pattern of temperature variability has often been associated with the connection between Arctic sea ice reduction and cold weather over the midlatitude continents, which implies possible impacts of polar warming on midlatitude climate. There has been debate on whether the existence of this pattern depends on variability of sea ice or can be caused by processes within the atmosphere. In this study, we use a simple atmospheric model, which has a constant forcing; thus, atmospheric internal dynamics is the only source of variability. We show that atmospheric internal dynamics alone can generate the warm Arctic–cold North American pattern. The result has implications for our understanding of the impact of global warming.

Purpose: To evaluate the difference of refractive errors measured by skiascopy and autorefractometry before and after application of cycloplegics according to age, the degree of myopia and of astigmatism.Methods: School myopia (384 eyes of 227 persons) were measured by skiascopy and autorefractometry before and after instillation of cycloplegics, and each refractive error was compared. According to age, it was divided into elementary school group (236 eyes), middle and high school group (54 eyes), and university group (94 eyes). Myopic spherical power was classified into mild group with power -2.0 diopter (D) or less (119 eyes), moderate group with -2.0 D or more and -6.0 D or less (178 eyes), and high group with greater than -6.0 D (87 eyes). Astigmatism is divided into mild group with less than -2.0 D (296 eyes) and high group with greater than -2.0 D (88 eyes).Results: The post-cycloplegics spherical and spherical equivalent refractive values by the autorefractometry and the skiascopy were measured to be lower than manifest autorefractometry, and the astigmatic power after cycloplegic refraction was measured to be high, but there is no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). In the case of elementary school, middle and high school, the value of spherical and astigmatism increased significantly compared to the university group, but there is no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). The difference of refractive errors between the spherical and the spherical equivalent value increased significantly as the degree of myopia increased. The value of difference between mild and high group of astigmatism was significantly increased in high group compared to mild group.Conclusions: It should be necessary to accurately measure to wear glasses in school myopia with the younger, the more myopia is greater than -6.0 D, and high astigmatism with more than -2.0 D.

Improving the photocatalytic performance of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is an important way to expand its potential applications. In this work, zero-dimensional (0D) Bi2O3 nanoparticles were anchored to the surface of tridimensional (3D) MIL101(Fe) by a facile solvothermal method to obtain a novel 0D/3D heterojunction Bi2O3/MIL101(Fe) (BOM). The morphology and optical properties of the as-prepared Bi2O3/MIL101(Fe) composite were characterized. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized samples was evaluated by degrading chlortetracycline (CTC) under visible-light irradiation. The obtained BOM-20 composite (20 wt % Bi2O3/MIL101(Fe)) exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity with CTC degradation efficiency of 88.2% within 120 min. The degradation rate constant of BOM-20 toward CTC is 0.01348 min−1, which is 5.9 and 4.3 times higher than that of pristine Bi2O3 and MIL101(Fe), respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to the formation of a Z-scheme heterojunction between Bi2O3 and MIL101(Fe), which is conducive to the rapid separation of photogenerated carriers and the enhancement of photogenerated electron and hole redox capacity. The intermediate products were analyzed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), and a possible photocatalytic degradation path of CTC was proposed. This work provides a new perspective for the preparation of efficient MOF-based photocatalysts.

A full colonoscopy is currently required in children and adolescents with colorectal polyps, because of their potential of neoplastic transformation and complications such as intussusception. We aimed to analyze the associations of polyp characteristics in children and adolescents with colorectal polyps. Based on these findings, we also aimed to reevaluate the necessity of conducting a full colonoscopy.Pediatric patients18 years of age who had undergone a colonoscopic polypectomy and those with5 colorectal polyps were included in this multicenter, retrospective study. Baseline clinicodemographics, colonoscopic and histologic findings were investigated.A total of 91 patients were included. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that polyp size was the only factor associated with the presence of any polyps located proximal to the splenic flexure (odds ratio [OR], 2.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28 to 4.28; p=0.007). Furthermore, polyp location proximal to the splenic flexure and sessile morphology were associated with the presence of any adenomatous polyp (OR, 8.51; 95% CI, 1.43 to 68.65; p=0.023; OR, 18.41; 95% CI, 3.45 to 173.81; p=0.002, respectively).In children and adolescents presenting with5 colorectal polyps, polyp size and the presence of any adenomatous polyp were positively associated with polyp location proximal to the splenic flexure. This finding supports the necessity of a full colonoscopic exam in pediatric patients with colorectal polyps for the detection of polyps before the occurrence of complications such as intussusception or neoplastic transformation.

Recently, 3D bioprinting has been explored as a promising technology for biomedical applications with the potential to create complex structures with precise features. Cell encapsulated hydrogels composed of materials such as gelatin, collagen, hyaluronic acid, alginate and polyethylene glycol have been widely used as bioinks for 3D bioprinting. However, since most hydrogel-based bioinks may not allow rapid stabilization immediately after 3D bioprinting, achieving high resolution and fidelity to the intended architecture is a common challenge in 3D bioprinting of hydrogels. In this study, we have utilized shear-thinning and self-healing ionically crosslinked oxidized and methacrylated alginates (OMAs) as a bioink, which can be rapidly gelled by its self-healing property after bioprinting and further stabilized via secondary crosslinking. It was successfully demonstrated that stem cell-laden calcium-crosslinked OMA hydrogels can be bioprinted into complicated 3D tissue structures with both high resolution and fidelity. Additional photocrosslinking enables long-term culture of 3D bioprinted constructs for formation of functional tissue by differentiation of encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells.

In recent years, work has gone into developing deep interpretable methods for image classification that clearly attributes a model's output to specific features of the data. One such of these methods is the prototypical part network (ProtoPNet), which attempts to classify images based on meaningful parts of the input. While this method results in interpretable classifications, this method often learns to classify from spurious or inconsistent parts of the image. Hoping to remedy this, we take inspiration from the recent developments in Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF) to fine-tune these prototypes. By collecting human annotations of prototypes quality via a 1-5 scale on the CUB-200-2011 dataset, we construct a reward model that learns to identify non-spurious prototypes. In place of a full RL update, we propose the reweighted, reselected, and retrained prototypical part network (R3-ProtoPNet), which adds an additional three steps to the ProtoPNet training loop. The first two steps are reward-based reweighting and reselection, which align prototypes with human feedback. The final step is retraining to realign the model's features with the updated prototypes. We find that R3-ProtoPNet improves the overall consistency and meaningfulness of the prototypes, but lower the test predictive accuracy when used independently. When multiple R3-ProtoPNets are incorporated into an ensemble, we find an increase in test predictive performance while maintaining interpretability.

Autoregressive large language models (LLMs) have made remarkable progress in various natural language generation tasks. However, they incur high computation cost and latency resulting from the autoregressive token-by-token generation. To address this issue, several approaches have been proposed to reduce computational cost using early-exit strategies. These strategies enable faster text generation using reduced computation without applying the full computation graph to each token. While existing token-level early exit methods show promising results for online inference, they cannot be readily applied for batch inferencing and Key-Value caching. This is because they have to wait until the last token in a batch exits before they can stop computing. This severely limits the practical application of such techniques. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective token-level early exit method, SkipDecode, designed to work seamlessly with batch inferencing and KV caching. It overcomes prior constraints by setting up a singular exit point for every token in a batch at each sequence position. It also guarantees a monotonic decrease in exit points, thereby eliminating the need to recompute KV Caches for preceding tokens. Rather than terminating computation prematurely as in prior works, our approach bypasses lower to middle layers, devoting most of the computational resources to upper layers, allowing later tokens to benefit from the compute expenditure by earlier tokens. Our experimental results show that SkipDecode can obtain 2x to 5x inference speedups with negligible regression across a variety of tasks. This is achieved using OPT models of 1.3 billion and 6.7 billion parameters, all the while being directly compatible with batching and KV caching optimization techniques.

The automatic collection of key milestone nodes in the process of aircraft turnaround plays an important role in the development needs of airport collaborative decision-making. This article exploits a computer vision-based framework to automatically recognize activities of the flight in/off-block and docking/undocking and record corresponding key milestone nodes. The proposed framework, which seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art algorithms and techniques in the field of computer vision, comprises two modules for the preprocessing and collection of key milestones. The preprocessing module extracts the spatiotemporal information of the executor of key milestone nodes from the complex background of the airport ground. In the second module, aiming at two categories of key milestone nodes, namely, single-target-based nodes represented by in-block and off-block and interaction-of-two-targets-based nodes represented by docking and undocking stairs, two methods for the collection of key milestone are designed, respectively. Two datasets are constructed for the training, testing, and evaluation of the proposed framework. Results of field experiments demonstrate how the proposed framework can contribute to the automatic collection of these key milestone nodes by replacing the manual recording method routinely used today.

Recent research shows bilingualism to be a reserve factor, delaying the onset of symptoms of dementia and slowing the rate at which cognitive decline progresses. This chapter explores how bilingualism may affect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and why bilingual individuals are more resilient to the effects of Alzheimer’s pathology. The chapter starts with an overview of bilingualism, then leads into how bilingualism acts as a possible mechanism of cognitive reserve. We consider bilingual experience to be a factor of cognitive reserve from three perspectives: pathological symptoms, neuroimaging, and biomarkers. Collectively, bilingualism appears to be beneficial for delaying symptoms, slowing progression, and maintaining cognitive functioning in the face of Alzheimer’s disease. The chapter ends with conclusions based on the research to-date and outlines possible implications for future research.

C16H14Cl2O5, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 23.2297(5) Å, b = 16.3509(3) Å, c = 8.7300(2) Å, V = 3315.89(12) Å3, Z = 8, Rgt (F) = 0.0472, wRref (F 2) = 0.1268, T = 293 K.