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Timely monitoring is essential for effective disease control and public health management. Early outbreak detection and swift responses inform optimal resource allocation for effective public health protection. Disease incidence datasets often consist of time series counts that exhibit threshold characteristics. Currently, there is limited research on the monitoring of such data in the field of statistical process control. In this paper, we propose a new threshold‐based control chart for threshold autoregressive models, which has been proven to be effective. Several existing efficient control charts are also employed for comparison. We conduct an extensive simulation study using the Monte Carlo method. Finally, the method is applied to the meningitis data that motivated this investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immobilized efficient catalysts on 3D substrate structures are practical and effective for improving photocatalytic hydrogen production, yet the deposition of photocatalysts on the 3D substrate remains the challenging. In this work, ZnIn 2 S 4 microspheres were synthesized with Pt–Co as cocatalysts (named as ZIS-Pt-Co) and firmly loaded as the thermoset coatings onto the 3D printed textured substrate. Two morphologies of 3D printed textured substrate, upright pyramid and inverted pyramid structure, were prepared by DLP to improve the specific surface area for hydrogen evolution. Under the optimal ZIS-Pt-Co coatings mass of approximately 12.6 mg, the inverted pyramid structure was found to have a better hydrogen production yields (1555 μmol h−1 g−1). By adequately utilizing the synergistic effect of the catalysts and the 3D printed substrates for photocatalytic hydrogen production, the photocatalytic water splitting performance was improved without using sacrificial agents. Moreover, the substrates can be reused multiple times with new catalysts coating for the photocatalytic reaction. This will be beneficial for promoting the application and promotion of low-cost, large-area photocatalytic reactors. [Display omitted] • In situ photo-deposition of Pt–Co on ZnIn 2 S 4 boosts photocatalytic H 2 production. • ZIS-Pt-Co coating on printed substrate enhances photocatalytic H 2 evolution. • At 12.6 mg coating, the inverted pyramid yields1555 μmol h−1 g−1 in H 2 production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep drip irrigation combined with high‐density planting is one of the most economical and effective ways to address residual film pollution. This study aimed to explore the photosynthetic potential of and achieve water‐saving and high‐yielding filmless cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) by optimizing the irrigation amount. We analyzed the effect of source leaf activity on leaf nitrogen allocation and photosynthetic nitrogen utilization efficiency (PNUE) under different irrigation amounts (mm, 375 (W5), 348 (W4), 320 (W3), 293 (W2), and 265 (W1)) in a 2‐year field experiment under this planting mode. The photosynthetic pigment content, leaf mass per area, and light compensation point all decreased with increasing amounts of irrigation, while the apparent quantum yield of photosynthesis, light saturation point, maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax), maximum electron transport rate (Jmax), triose phosphate utilization rate (VTPU), nitrogen content in the electron transfer component (NB), and nitrogen content in the carboxylation component (NC) showed opposite trends. At the later full boll stage, the W3 and W4 treatments increased the leaf area of a whole plant (LA) by 10.4% and 19.4%, respectively, compared to that in the W1 treatment, while the PNUE increased by 20.2% and 20.8%, respectively, compared to that in the W5 treatment. In addition, principal component analysis found that the factor variables total nitrogen content in the photosynthetic apparatus (NT), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), light‐saturated net photosynthetic rate (Amax), NC, and Vcmax had higher loadings and were all positively correlated with PNUE; LA had a higher loading and was positively correlated with reproductive organ biomass. Therefore, we recommend using an irrigation rate of 320 mm in this cultivation system to increase nitrogen in carboxylation and electron transport components, enhance photosynthetic capacity, and thereby improve PNUE to increase reproductive organ biomass and reduce the irrigation amount in arid areas. Core Ideas: Optimizing the irrigation amount can enhance the source leaf activity of filmless cotton.The content of nitrogen in carboxylation and electron transport components is the key to improve photosynthetic rate.Increasing the leaf area of a whole plant can increase reproductive biomass.The optimal irrigation system rate is 320 mm under deep drip irrigation without film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High primary rock stress can limit the generation of rock cracks caused by blasting, and blasting usually shows different rock breaking states under different primary rock stress conditions. There are a large number of naturally formed joints in rock mass, due to the limitations of laboratory tests, a numerical model of jointed rock mass was established using LS-DYNA software to investigate the evolution of blasting damage under various in-situ stresses and open joints. In this simulation, using the Lagrange-Euler (ALE) procedure and the equation of state (JWL) that defines explosive materials, the study considered different joint thicknesses (2cm, 4cm, and 6cm), joint angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°), and in-situ stress conditions (lateral stress coefficients of 0.5, 1, and 2, with vertical in-situ stresses of 10MPa and 20MPa), through stress analysis and damage area comparison, the relationship between damage crack propagation and horizontal and vertical stress difference is explored. The research aimed to understand the mechanisms underlying crack initiation and propagation. The results show that: (1) The presence of joints exerts a barrier effect on the expansion and penetration of cracks. When explosion stress waves reach the joint surface, their propagation is impeded, leading to the diffusion of wing cracks at the joint ends. When the lateral stress coefficient and joint angle are the same, an increase in initial in-situ stress results in a reduction in the area of the blasting damage zone. (2) Under the same initial in-situ stress conditions, the area of the blasting damage zone initially increases and then decreases with an increasing joint angle. However, it remains larger than that without a joint, and there exists an optimal angle that maximizes the damage area. In the simulated conditions, the area of damage cracks is greatest when the joint angle is 60° dip angle. (3) The presence of initial in-situ stress has a certain impact on the initiation and expansion of blasting cracks. The degree and nature of this influence are not solely related to the lateral stress coefficient but also depend on the joint's angle and thickness. When in-situ stress is present, the initial in-situ stress field's pressure is not conducive to the initiation and propagation of blasting cracks. However, the existence of a joint has a noticeable guiding and promoting effect on crack propagation, and the pattern of crack propagation is influenced by both joint and in-situ stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermostatic animals need to maintain a stable body temperature. A high-temperature environment can cause body temperature to exceed the range of tolerance of the organism, resulting in a heat stress response. The reproductive organs (such as the testes) are more sensitive to temperature due to their special anatomical location. However, to date, the effect of heat stress on the biological function of insulin in testicular cells has not been revealed. Therefore, the current study established a testis cell model to study the effect of heat stress on the biological activity of insulin. The results showed significant alterations in the insulin-induced intracellular signaling under heat stress conditions. Moreover, the IR-mediated intracellular signaling pathway was significantly downregulated under heat stress conditions. Further studies demonstrated that heat stress led to senescence of testicular cells by Sa-β-gal staining. Furthermore, the expression of senescence markers (p16 and p21) was increased under heat stress. In addition, heat stress was found to cause oxidative stress in testicular cells, which may be the underlying molecular mechanism by which heat stress changes the signaling properties of insulin. Collectively, the current study showed that heat stress caused alterations in insulin-induced intracellular signaling. Heat stress also induced testicular cell senescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holocene paleoclimate reconstructions and comparisons largely rely on accurate age-depth modeling. However, uncertainties in chronology, such as those caused by sparse radiocarbon dates, will hamper inter-core comparisons and correlations, and might result in misleading "cause and consequence" conclusions. This study aimed to find a solution to increase the comparability and minimize the uncertainty of wetland chronology as much as possible. Sediment cores were recovered and radiocarbon dated from the Lianhuachi wetland located in Southeastern China. Humification degree and loss-on-ignition (LOI) were determined using colorimetric and combustion methods respectively. Our data were compared with previously published datasets obtained in the same wetland. The results show that independent humification profiles from the Lianhuachi wetland displayed high similarities. This high similarity between the humification profiles allowed us to transfer radiocarbon ages from one core to another using sequence slotting correlation. Applying the humification-based chronology refinement method to all sediment cores resulted in an improvement in the correlation coefficients between the same but independently measured proxy sequences from the wetland, which suggests both the inter- and intra-core comparability was improved. Because determining peat humification degree is easy, inexpensive, and time-saving, we suggest that humification can serve as a tool that can be used to correlate different cores and to transfer published radiocarbon ages within the same wetland (peatland) or in a comparable geological setting, to establish a more robust chronology of these comparable cores. The degree of peat humification can thus serve as a relative dating technique to refine the chronology of wetland (including peatland) records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteoporosis is often considered to be a disease of women. Over the last few years, owing to the increasing clinical and economic burden, the awareness and imperative for identifying and managing osteoporosis in men have increased substantially. With the approval of agents to treat men with osteoporosis, more economic evaluations have been conducted to assess the potential economic benefits of these interventions. Despite this concern, there is no specific overview of cost-effectiveness analyses for the treatment of osteoporosis in men. Objectives: This study aims (1) to systematically review economic evaluations of interventions for osteoporosis in men; (2) to critically appraise the quality of included studies and the source of model input data; and (3) to investigate the comparability of results for studies including both men and women. Methods: A literature search mainly using MEDLINE (via Ovid) and Embase databases was undertaken to identify original articles published between 1 January, 2000 and 30 June, 2022. Studies that assessed the cost effectiveness of interventions for osteoporosis in men were included. The Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases and the International Osteoporosis Foundation osteoporosis-specific guideline was used to assess the quality of design, conduct, and reporting of included studies. Results: Of 2973 articles identified, 25 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, classified into economic evaluations of active drugs (n = 8) or nutritional supplements (n = 4), intervention thresholds (n = 5), screening strategies (n = 6), and post-fracture care programs (n = 2). Most studies were conducted in European countries (n = 15), followed by North America (n = 9). Bisphosphonates (namely alendronate) and nutritional supplements were shown to be generally cost effective compared with no treatment in men over 60 years of age with osteoporosis or prior fractures. Two other studies suggested that denosumab was cost effective in men aged 75 years and older with osteoporosis compared with bisphosphates and teriparatide. Intervention thresholds at which bisphosphonates were found to be cost effective varied among studies with a 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture that ranged from 8.9 to 34.2% for different age categories. A few studies suggested cost effectiveness of screening strategies and post-fracture care programs in men. Similar findings regarding the cost effectiveness of drugs and intervention thresholds in women and men were captured, with slightly greater incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in men. The quality of the studies included had an average score of 18.8 out of 25 (range 13–23.5). Hip fracture incidence and mortality risk were mainly derived from studies in men, while fracture cost, treatment efficacy, and disutility were commonly derived from studies in women or studies combining both sexes. Conclusions: Anti-osteoporosis drugs and nutritional supplements are generally cost effective in men with osteoporosis. Screening strategies and post-fracture care programs also showed economic benefits for men. Cost-effectiveness and intervention thresholds were generally similar in studies conducted in both men and women, with slightly greater incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are extensively investigated for oxygen electrocatalysis, their development is hampered by their limited active sites and sluggish reaction kinetics. Here, sulfur mismatch substitution of NiFe–LDH (S–LDH) is demonstrated, which are in‐situ deposited on nitrogen‐doped graphene (S–LDH/NG). This atomic‐level sulfur incorporation leads to the construction of the tailored topological microstructure and the modulated electronic structure for the improved catalytic activity and durability of bifunctional electrocatalysts. The combined computational and experimental results clarify that the electron transfer between the sulfur anion and Fe3+ generates the high‐valence Fe4+ species, while the mismatch substitution of the sulfur anion induces the metallic conductivity, an increased carrier density, and the reduced reaction barrier. Consequently, the as‐fabricated Zn–air battery achieves a high power density of 165 mW cm‐2, a large energy density of 772 Wh kgZn‐1 at 5 mA cm‐2, and long cycle stability for 120 h, demonstrating its real‐life operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between nutrients, heavy metals, and sediment bacterial communities play a key role in the health of crabs and the biogeochemical cycles of aquaculture systems. However, the effects of sediment improvement activities in crab culture on nutrients and heavy metals and the response of bacterial communities to the relevant changes are unclear. In this study, 24 water and sediment samples were collected from two aquaculture sites (total of 12 ponds, 6 at each site). High-throughput sequencing was used to determine the structure of the bacterial community and the diversity in water and sediment samples. The relationship between nutrients, heavy metals, and bacterial communities and the changes of the three before and after the improvement of the sediment were analyzed. The results showed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes were predominant at the phylum level of sediment. Sediment improvement has an effect on NH4+-N, sulfide, total organic carbon (TOC), and heavy metals in sediments to varying degrees. In addition, redundancy analysis found that NH4+-N, NO3−-N, TP, and heavy metals were key drivers in crab culture pond sediments. The results of functional prediction showed that carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur metabolism were the dominant processes in the two crab farming areas. Overall, changes in nutrients and heavy metals caused by sediment improvement further affected the structure and function of bacterial communities and may affect biogeochemical cycles. Our study has deepened the understanding of the effects of sediment improvement on nutrients, heavy metals, and bacterial communities in crab culture ponds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is a type of agricultural product that is widely used as a food spice, herb and traditional medicine. White garlic (WG) can be processed into several kinds of products, such as green garlic (GG), Laba garlic (LAG) and black garlic (BG), which have multiple health effects. In this study, GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), DPPH (1,1′-diphenyl-2-propionyl hydrazide) radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) in vitro assays were used to compare the composition, antioxidant and antiproliferation effects of different processed garlic extracts. The relationship between the constituents and the bioactivities was analyzed using the principal components analysis (PCA) and heatmap analysis. BG showed the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 0.63 ± 0.02 mg/mL) in DPPH radical assays and the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 0.80 ± 0.01 mg/mL) by hydroxyl radical assay. Moreover, GC-MS results showed that 12 organosulfur compounds were detected in the extracts of four garlic products, and allyl methyl trisulfide showed a positive relation with the anticancer activity on SMMC-7721 cells (hepatocellular carcinoma cells). The results suggested that the processing of garlic had a significant influence on the constituents and antioxidant effects and that GG, LAG and BG might be better candidates for the related functional food products compared to WG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chlorophyll is a very important pigment involved in photosynthesis, while plant acyl-CoA biosynthesis is derived from plastid-localized fatty acids (FAs). Until now, the regulation of the acyl-CoA pathway for chlorophyll biosynthesis is still unknown. Results: Here, we identified a long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (LACS) gene BnLACS9 from Brassica napus. BnLACS9 complemented a LACS-deficient yeast strain YB525, which indicated that BnLACS9 has the LACS function. BnLACS9 was localized in the chloroplast envelope membrane, while mainly expressed in young leaves and flowers. Overexpression of BnLACS9 in Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in an increase in total CoA and MGDG content. In B. napus with overexpression of BnLACS9, the number of chloroplast grana lamellae and the chlorophyll content, as well as the MGDG and DGDG contents, increased compared to wild type. The net photosynthetic rate, dry weight of the entire plant and oil content of seeds increased significantly, accompanied by an increase in chlorophyll content. Transcriptome analysis revealed that overexpression of BnLACS9 improved the pathway of acyl-CoA biosynthesis and further improved the enzymes in the glycolipid synthesis pathway, while acyl-CoA was the substrate for glycolipid synthesis. The increased glycolipids, especially MGDG and DGDG, accelerated the formation of the chloroplast grana lamellae, which increased the number of chloroplast thylakoid grana lamella and further lead to increased chlorophyll content. Conclusions: In the present study, we demonstrated that BnLACS9 played a crucial role in glycolipids and chlorophyll biosynthesis in B. napus. The results also provide a new direction and theoretical basis for the improvement of the agronomic traits of plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the completion of first‐phase projects on the eastern and middle routes of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion (SNWD), the design and implementation of water pricing mechanism have become the key factors that affect the project operation. This paper launches the evaluation of implementation effect on the water price policy of the SNWD built projects in 2018 by coordinating the consumption of transfer water, allocation of receiving‐areas' water resources, collection of water fee for transfer water, as well as the implementation of local water price policies, which mainly exerted a comprehensive and interactive influence on the water price policy. Based on a series of data statistics and analysis, the usage of water transferred from the Yangtze River, improvement of regional water resources allocation, collection of water fee, and the implementation results of local water price policies were systematically analyzed. The main conclusions and corresponding suggestions were put forward to provide useful references on the formulation of water price policies for the design, optimization, and adjustment of the subsequent water pricing mechanism in the SNWD project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corrosion resistance of the HRB400 steel rebar alloyed with Cr and rare earths (RE) was systematically studied from two aspects, including the properties of the passive film and the protectiveness of the rust layer. The results presented that Cr increased the corrosion resistance of the steel rebar through stabilizing the passive film and was not involved in the formation of corrosion pits, while the pitting corrosion was initiated by the dissolution of (RE)2O2S inclusion, resulting in the local acidification at the bottom of the corrosion pits, which decreased the stability of the passive film. As for the long-term corrosion process, both Cr and RE decreased the corrosion rate of the steel rebar, which was related to the promotion effect on the formation of α-FeOOH in the rust layer from Cr and RE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quaternary ammonium oxime reactivators are a class of important reactivators for nerve agents poisoning, and their sensitive and specific analysis in biomedical samples meets many challenges due to their highly polar properties. In present paper, a novel determination method based on surface‐enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS) was developed for series of quaternary ammonium oxime reactivators. The self‐cleaning effect of iodine anion on the surface of porous shell‐insulated nanoparticles and the electrostatic adsorption effect were proved to be effective to remove the strong interference of protein and other coexisting substances and significantly improve the response intensity and fingerprint feature of Raman peaks. The analysis of five important quaternary ammonium oxime reactivators (PAM‐Cl, TMB‐4, MMB‐4, HI‐6, LüH6) was achieved in biomedical samples, which had the merit of simple sample pretreatment, rapid speed, high sensitivity, and fingerprint peak characteristics. The detection limits reached values of as low as 0.5 ng·mL−1 for dipyridyl quaternary ammonium oxime reactivators. The method has been successfully used for blood concentration monitoring in vivo and evaluation of the liposomes drug delivery ability to penetrate the blood–brain barrier in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the corrosion behavior and corrosion mechanism of titanium-steel composite plate was studied through immersion tests in simulated marine solution. The result shows that the corrosion behavior of titanium-steel composite plate is coordinated by various corrosion behaviors in the near interface area and the far interface area. The corrosion behavior of carbon steel matrix in the far interface area of titanium-steel composite plate in simulated solution is the same as that of carbon steel, because it is far from the interface and is not accelerated by galvanic effect. The corrosion reactions started with localized corrosion induced by inclusions and the diffusion of aggressive ions, and then changed from localized to uniform corrosion. The carbon steel at the interface is accelerated by galvanic effect in the early stage, and the tiny defects at the interface can also be used as the basic point of corrosion initiation. In the later stage, the corrosion at the interface reached a certain level, and the corrosion at the interface turned into the joint action of galvanic corrosion and crevice corrosion. In the whole corrosion process, corrosion is more likely to occur due to stress concentration at the interface. Under the combined action of different corrosion behaviors, the corrosion rate at the interface of titanium-steel composite plate is faster than that at the far interface area. • Elucidate the regional variations in TA2/Q345B composite panel corrosion. • Localized corrosion in distant interface areas results from inclusion dissolution. • Near-interface corrosion is hastened by galvanic corrosion and crevice corrosion. • Interface stress leads to swifter corrosion than distance carbon steel areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicated conflicting findings regarding the association between vitamin D and abnormal spermatozoa. Herein, we assessed the causal association between circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels and the risk of abnormal spermatozoa by utilizing bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Genome-wide association study summary statistics for 25OHD and abnormal spermatozoa were obtained from publicly accessible databases. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with 25OHD and SNPs associated with abnormal spermatozoa were used as instrumental variables (IVs) for forward MR analysis and reverse MR analysis, respectively. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) was the main MR approach, while weighted median, MR-Egger, and maximum likelihood methods were employed to supplement IVW. In addition, several sensitivity tests assessed the reliability of MR analysis. Forward MR analysis showed that elevated 25OHD levels significantly reduced abnormal spermatozoa risk (odds ratio [OR] = 0.75, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.56–1.00, P = 4.98E-02), and the effect remained statistically significant after excluding SNPs associated with confounders (OR = 0.73, 95 % CI: 0.54–0.98, P = 3.83E-02) or only utilizing SNPs located near 25OHD-associated genes only as IVs (OR = 0.58, 95 % CI: 0.41–0.81, P = 1.67E-03). Reverse MR analysis indicated abnormal spermatozoa not affecting 25OHD level (P > 0.05). Sensitivity tests showed that MR analyses were not affected by heterogeneity and horizontal polytropy. Overall, the present MR study supports that elevated 25OHD levels reduce the risk of abnormal spermatozoa. Therefore, ensuring adequate vitamin D intake and maintaining stable levels of 25OHD may be effective strategies to optimize reproductive outcomes. • GWAS data for 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and abnormal spermatozoa were used for MR study. • Elevated 25-Hydroxyvitamin D level significantly decreases abnormal spermatozoa risk. • Various sensitivity tests demonstrate the reliability of the MR results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Src family kinases (SFKs) are non-receptor tyrosine kinases and play a key role in regulating signal transduction. The mechanism of SFKs in various tumors has been widely studied, and there are more and more studies on its role in the kidney. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a disease with complex pathogenesis, including oxidative stress (OS), inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy, and apoptosis. In addition, fibrosis has a significant impact on the progression of AKI to developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). The mortality rate of this disease is very high, and there is no effective treatment drug at present. In recent years, some studies have found that SFKs, especially Src, Fyn, and Lyn, are involved in the pathogenesis of AKI. In this paper, the structure, function, and role of SFKs in AKI are discussed. SFKs play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of AKI, making them promising molecular targets for the treatment of AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the effect of the background magnetic field on plasma characteristics in a Hall thruster is numerically investigated using DUT-HTFS [Li et al., AIP Adv. 12, 015117 (2022)], an integrated fluid simulation platform on Hall thruster plasmas. The research shows that the background magnetic field significantly influences the distribution of the plasma density, especially the radial profiles of the plasma density near the ionization region and the acceleration region. In addition, the positions of the peak values of the electron power absorptions mainly occur near the dielectric walls of the exhaust plane, and the electron power absorption mechanism is mainly dominated by the Ohmic heating. The peak values of the axial electron current density on the inner and outer dielectric walls are higher than that on the centerline. This phenomenon is closely related to the near wall conduction mechanism of the electrons. In addition, the background magnetic field significantly influences the shapes, positions, and magnitudes of the peak values of the plasma parameters, such as the plasma density, the electron current density, the axial electric field, the electric potential, and the ionization rate. These results will help us to provide a valuable reference and reduce the risk for the experimental test programs and the applications of Hall thrusters in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The new essential tremor (ET)-plus nomenclature was proposed by the 2018 Tremor Consensus Criteria. However, few studies have adopted this usage and the clinical differences between ET and ET-plus remains unclear. To address this issue, we reclassified and compared the characteristics of ET and ET-plus patients in a large Chinese tremor cohort. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, 766 patients originally diagnosed with ET underwent neurological examination. Scale ratings were used to evaluate motor and non-motor symptoms, and quality of life (QoL). We then reclassified the ET cohort and compared demographic and clinical characteristics between ET and ET-plus patients. A logistic regression analysis was used to explore whether the presence of neurological soft signs in ET-plus was associated with tremor severity or QoL. Results: Among 665 clinically confirmed ET syndrome patients, 274 were ET and 391 were ET-plus. The most prevalent neurological soft sign was resting tremor. ET-plus patients were older, had older age at onset and longer disease duration. ET-plus patients recorded higher scores in tremor severity evaluations and lower in cognitive evaluations, whereas a higher proportion of patients presented with depression or anxiety symptoms. Resting tremor and questionable cerebellar signs were associated with tremor severity. Cognitive impairment was associated with worse QoL. Conclusions: ET-plus patients were older, had longer disease durations, worse tremor manifestations, and more distinct non-motor symptoms. Certain additional soft signs of ET-plus were associated with tremor severity or worse QoL. ET-plus patients may include advanced ET patients with additional neurological soft signs presenting along with disease progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Dyes play an important role in food, medicine, textile, and other industries, which make human life more colorful. With the increasing demand for food safety, the development of natural dyes becomes more and more attractive. (2) Methods: The literature was searched using the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, and SciFinder and this scoping review was carried out following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). (3) Results: 248 articles were included in this review. This review summarizes the research progress on natural dyes in the last ten years. According to structural features, natural dyes mainly include carotenoids, polyphenols, porphyrins, and alkaloids, and some of the newest dyes are summarized. Some pharmacological activities of carotenoids, anthocyanin, curcumin, and betalains in the last 10 years are summarized, and the biological effects of dyes regarding illumination conditions. The disadvantages of natural dyes, including sources, cost, stability, and poor bioavailability, limit their application. Here, some feasible strategies (potential resources, biotechnology, new extraction and separation strategies, strategies for improving stability) are described, which will contribute to the development and utilization of natural dyes. (4) Conclusion: Natural dyes show health benefits and potential in food additives. However, it is necessary for natural dyes to pass toxicity tests and quality tests and receive many regulatory approvals before their final entry into the market as food colorants or as drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common disabling gait disturbance in Parkinson's disease (PD). The objectives of this study were to explore alterations in the topological organization of whole-brain functional networks in patients with PD who will develop FOG. Methods: We recruited 20 patients with PD who developed FOG (PD-FOGt) during a 5-year follow-up period, 20 patients with PD who did not developed FOG (PD-FOGn) within the follow-up period, and 20 healthy control subjects. Using graph theory approaches, we performed a comparative analysis of the topological organization of whole-brain functional networks among the groups, and further explored their potential relationships with latency to develop FOG. Results: At baseline, the global topological properties of functional brain networks in PD-FOGt and PD-FOGn showed no abnormalities. Additionally, regarding regional topological properties, compared with PD-FOGn patients, PD-FOGt patients exhibited decreased nodal centrality in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Although there were no significant differences compared with PD-FOGn patients, the PD-FOGt group exhibited the lowest nodal centrality values in the frontal cortex (left gyrus rectus), and visual cortex (bilateral inferior occipital gyrus and left fusiform gyrus), and the highest nodal centrality values in the cerebellum (vermis_6) among the three groups. However, no relationship was found between the nodal centrality in above brain regions and latency to develop FOG. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the disrupted regional topological organization might contribute to the future development of FOG in PD patients, especially associated with damage to the left MFG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to solve the problem of video anomaly detection under the weakly-supervised setting. Different from previous works that usually deal with the problem in a multiple-instance learning manner, we formulate it as a fully-supervised learning task with label noises. Under this new perspective, we can fully leverage the advantages of well-designed action classifiers for anomaly detection as long as the label noises are cleaned. For this purpose, we devise a graph convolutional network for label noise cleaning, which integrates two crucial characteristics for anomaly analysis: feature similarity and temporal consistency. Supervised by both direct and indirect signals, the net propagates supervision information from high-confidence snippets to low-confidence ones and provides cleaned labels for action classifier training. In this way, we design an alternate learning strategy to progressively promote the discrimination of the action classifier. During the test phase, we directly utilize the learned action classifier for anomaly detection in an end-to-end fashion without any intermediate processing. We have conducted extensive experiments on various anomaly datasets of three scales with two main types of action classifiers, and achieved superior or comparable performances compared with state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, we manually annotate the temporal duration of anomalies in the training data of UCF-Crime, and give out the upper-limit performance of our cleaner net. The annotation can also be used as the ground truth for studying anomaly detection models under multi-level supervisory signals, which will mitigate the present shortage of large-scale anomaly datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA modification triggers malignant behaviors of tumor cells and thereby drives malignant progression in gastric cancer (GC). However, data regarding the prognostic values of m6A RNA methylation-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in GC are very limited in the literature. We aimed to investigate the prognostic potential of m6A-related lncRNAs in predicting prognosis and monitoring immunotherapy efficacy in GC patients.Methods: Transcriptome and clinical data were obtained from GC biopsies from Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). M6A-related lncRNAs associated with GC were identified by constructing a co-expression network, and the gene pairs differentially expressed in GC were selected using univariate analysis. We constructed a risk model based on prognosis-related lncRNA pairs selected using the LASSO algorithm and quantified the best cutoff by comparing the area under the curve (AUC) for risk stratification. A risk model with the optimal discrimination between high- and low-risk GC patients was established. Its feasibility for overall survival prediction and discrimination of clinicopathological features, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitors between high- and low-risk groups were assessed.Results: Finally, we identified 11 m6A-related lncRNA pairs associated with GC prognosis based on transcriptome analysis of 375 GC specimens and 32 normal tissues. A risk model was constructed with an AUC of 0.8790. We stratified GC patients into high- and low-risk groups at a cutoff of 1.442. As expected, patients in the low-risk group had longer overall survival versus the high-risk group. Infiltration of cancer-associated fibroblasts, endothelial cells, macrophages, particularly M2 macrophages, and monocytes was more severe in high-risk patients than low-risk individuals, who exhibited high CD4+ Th1 cell infiltration in GC. Altered expressions of immune-related genes were observed in both groups. PD-1 and LAG3 expressions were found higher in low-risk patients than high-risk patients. Immunotherapy, either single or combined use of PD-1 or CTLA4 inhibitors, had better efficacy in low-risk patients than high-risk patients.Conclusion: The new risk model based on a 11-m6A-related lncRNA signature can serve as an independent predictor for GC prognosis prediction and may aid in the development of personalized immunotherapy strategies for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a newly integrated fluid simulation platform, named DUT-HTFS, is developed for the multiple physical fields in Hall thrusters. The integrated simulation platform includes three inter-related parts: the geometry module, background magnetic field module, and plasma module. Using the geometry module, three sets of meshes for a Hall thruster are obtained. One set of the mesh is for the calculation of the background magnetic fields, the second is for the electric potentials, and the third is for the plasmas. Based on the meshes and using the background magnetic field module, a numerical result of the background magnetic field in the Hall thruster is obtained and discussed. Based on the meshes and the numerical result of the background magnetic field, using the plasma module, the numerical results of the plasmas in the Hall thruster are obtained. The results of the plasma density, the electric field, the electric potential, and the ionization rate are similar to those from HPHALL (Hybrid-PIC Hall thruster code) simulations and are qualitatively consistent with the experimental results from the literature. Furthermore, varying the neutral gas pressure from 0.02 to 0.03 Torr, the numerical results of the plasmas in the Hall thruster are obtained. These results reveal that neutral gas pressure effects contributed considerably to the shape, location, and magnitude of the peak plasma properties, including the ion density, axial electric field, and ionization rate. This fluid simulation platform could provide a new angle of view for better understanding of the physical mechanism in Hall thrusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Laccase-catalyzed synthesis of guaiacol produces oligomers with 10 units. • The guaiacol oligomers display an excellent antimicrobial ability. • The enzymatic route provides a green alternative for functional product. Guaiacol oligomers were synthesized by enzyme-catalyzed polymerization with laccase as the catalyst. The polymerization procedure in aqueous media was followed by UV–vis spectra. The oligomers were characterized by NMR and MALDI-TOF spectra. The UV–vis spectra observation showed a new peak formed in the range of 380−530 nm indicating that new substances formed. The NMR results indicated that phenolic hydroxyl participated in the polymerization. The MALDI-TOF spectra revealed the weight average polymerization degree of guaiacol oligomers is 10 and the mass of the repeating unit is 122. The thermal stability was studied by TGA/DSC analysis. Guaiacol oligomers were more thermally stable than guaiacol, which can be ascribed to the long π -conjugated chains. Antioxidant behavior based on ABTS+ radical showed a concentration-dependent activity and reached a plateau at 800 μg/mL. The prepared guaiacol oligomers displayed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli , in which the inhibition percentage is up to 99 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Fe (III), Zn (II), and Cr (III) were used to complex with corn silk polysaccharide (CSP) by classical methods and CSP-Fe, CSP-Zn, and CSP-Cr were successfully synthesized, respectively. The physicochemical properties and structural features were characterized by chemical composition analysis, inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively. The antioxidant activities and inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase of CSP, CSP-Fe, CSP-Zn, and CSP-Cr were compared. The results showed that the Fe (III), Zn (II), and Cr (III) chelation could change the morphology, conformation, thermostability, and biological activities of CSP. CSP-Zn exhibited higher antioxidant activities and inhibition effects on α-glucosidase than CSP, which suggested that it could be considered as a potential candidate for developing an ingredient of functional foods for antidiabetics. • Three polysaccharide complexes (CSP-Fe, CSP-Zn, and CSP-Cr) were synthesized from corn silk. • The physicochemical and structural features of CSP were changed when complexed with Fe (III), Zn (II), and Cr (III). • Fe (III), Zn (II), and Cr (III) were combined with the hydroxyl or carboxyl groups of CSP. • CSP-Zn exhibited higher antioxidant activities and inhibition effect in α-glucosidase than CSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve-oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA), the cyclopentenone precursor of jasmonic acid (JA), is required for the wounding response of plants. OPDA is derived from plastid-localized α-linolenic acid (α-LeA; 18:3) via the octadecanoid pathway, and is further exported from plastids to the cytosol for JA biosynthesis. However, the mechanism of OPDA transport from plastids has yet to be elucidated. In the current study, a plastid inner envelope-localized protein, designated 12- o xo- P htyo d ienoic A cid T ransporter 1 (OPDAT1), was identified and shown to potentially be involved in OPDA export from plastids, in Populus trichocarpa. Torr. OPDAT1 is expressed predominantly in young leaves of P. trichocarpa. Functional expression of OPDAT1 in yeast cells revealed that OPDAT1 is involved in OPDA transport. Loss-of-function of OPDAT1 in poplar resulted in increased accumulation of OPDA in the extracted plastids and a reduction in JA concentration, whereas an OPDAT1- overexpressing line showed a reverse tendency in OPDA accumulation and JA biosynthesis. OPDAT1 transcripts were rapidly induced by mechanical wounding of leaves, and an opdat1 mutant transgenic plant displayed increased susceptibility to spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) infestation. Collectively, these data suggest that OPDAT1 is an inner envelope transporter for OPDA, and this has potential implications for JA biosynthesis in poplar under environmental stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distributed adaptive containment control scheme is developed for a class of discrete-time multi-agent systems (MASs) under directed graphs. Each agent's model is described by nonlinear dynamics with unknown parameters that are nonlinearly coupled with the states. To deal with the uncertainties, a criterion function with weighted factor is adopted. By minimising the criterion function, a projection algorithm for each agent is designed to estimate the unknown parameters. Using the estimated parameters, an adaptive controller with only local information is designed for each agent to achieve containment control of MASs. Under the proposed distributed adaptive containment control scheme, it is guaranteed that all the leaders can finally track their reference signals and all the states of followers asymptotically converge to the convex hull formed by leaders (i.e. the convex hull formed by the reference signals). Finally, two simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing adversarial examples in a black-box threat model injures the original images by introducing visual distortion. In this paper, we propose a novel black-box attack approach that can directly minimize the induced distortion by learning the noise distribution of the adversarial example, assuming only loss-oracle access to the black-box network. To quantify visual distortion, the perceptual distance between the adversarial example and the original image, is introduced in our loss. We first approximate the gradient of the corresponding non-differentiable loss function by sampling noise from the learned noise distribution. Then the distribution is updated using the estimated gradient to reduce visual distortion. The learning continues until an adversarial example is found. We validate the effectiveness of our attack on ImageNet. Our attack results in much lower distortion when compared to the state-of-the-art black-box attacks and achieves 100% success rate on InceptionV3, ResNet50 and VGG16bn. Furthermore, we theoretically prove the convergence of our model. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/Alina-1997/visual-distortion-in-attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image inpainting and denoising are two important preprocessing steps widely used in image and visual analysis. In this paper, by the maximum a posterior estimation, we present a new framework to remove multiplicative noise and artifacts simultaneously, when the locations of the artifacts/damaged pixels are unknown. By taking into account the statistical distribution of multiplicative noise as Gamma or Rayleigh noise, we give the special data fidelity term. To suppress the noise and repair the missing intensities, the proposed method applies spatial regularization to the desirable image, and ℓ 0 norm regularization to the artifacts. We introduce three typical spatial regularization: total variation, second-order total generalized variation (TGV) and fractional-order total variation (FOTV) for smoothing images. Due to the non-convexity and non-differentiability of the proposed minimization problem, we introduce additional auxiliary variables to simplify the original problem, and then use the alternating direction method of multipliers to solve it. A set of experiments on synthetic images and real medical ultrasound images show that the proposed method can efficiently remove the multiplicative noise, and more importantly fill in the missing pixels very well. Compared to other similar method, the TGV and FOTV regularization can not only preserve edges and texture details of the image but also avoid the staircase effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SoxB subfamily is an important branch of Sox family and plays a key role in animal physiological process, but little is known about their function in planarian regeneration. This study aims to evaluate the function of DjSoxB family genes in intact and regenerating planarians Dugesia japonica. Here, we amplify the full-length cDNA of DjSoxB1 and DjSoxB2 in D. japonica by rapid amplification of the cDNA ends (RACE), detect the expression of DjSoxB family genes in planarian. The results show that DjSoxBs are expressed in parenchymal tissue and the hybridization signals partially disappear after irradiation indicates DjSoxB family genes are expressed in neoblasts. After the RNA interference (RNAi) of DjSoxB1, DjSoxB2 and DjSoxB3 separately, the numbers of proliferative cells are all reduced that causes planarians show slower growth of blastema in the early stage of regeneration, and nerves of planarians are affected that the movement speed of planarians decreases in varying degrees. Specially, planarians in the DjSoxB3 RNAi group show shrinkage and twisting. Overall, this study reveals that DjSoxB family genes play a role in cell proliferation during regeneration. They also play an important role in the maintenance of normal nerve function and nerve regeneration. These results provide directions for the functional study of SoxB family genes and provide an important foundation for planarian regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nighttime dehazing is a challenging ill-posed problem due to the severe haze pollution and color attenuation. Since available daytime dehazing approaches cannot be consistently adapted to the nighttime case, this paper specifically designs representation learning to enhance an end-to-end nighttime dehazing network. To explore attentive and problem-driven representations, we propose to realize effective learning via knowledge distillation together with neural architecture search (NAS), which are implemented via two parallel branches of networks, namely, representation learning network (RLN) and guided dehazing network (GDN). The challenges in nighttime dehazing come from distilling the clear elements from the hazy representation and the restoration of real color from ambient illumination or low light condition. To this end, we introduce the subnetwork of RLN to learn the feature of the clear elements of the ground truth. We specifically introduce a NAS for exploring the color subspace of the latent embedding space of both RLN and GDN. With the guidance from the representation learned by RLN, GDN could well learn the clear elements from the hazy image and recover the real color of it effectively. Extensive experimental results on the synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-arts in nighttime dehazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ingesting retrograded starch reduced the cholesterol levels of high-fat diet mice. • Ingesting retrograded starch decreased the ratio of Firmicutes / Bacteroidota. • Ingesting retrograded starch increased butyric acid and secondary bile acids levels. • Bacteroides were positively linked to butyric acid with anti-inflammatory functions. High-fat diet is a risk factor for many chronic diseases, whose symptoms are probably regulated by ingesting food ingredients such as resistant starch. For cooked rice stored in cold-chain, the starch component can retrograde to generate ordered structures (helices and crystallites) and become resistant. However, the role of retrograded starch in managing hyperlipidemia symptoms is insufficiently understood. Here, compared to the normal high-fat diet, ingesting retrograded starch reduced the triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of high-fat diet mice by 17.69% and 41.33%, respectively. This relieved hyperlipidemia could be linked to the changes in intestinal bacteria. Retrograded starch intervention increased the relative abundance of Bacteroides (2.30 times higher), which produces propionic acid (increased by 8.26%). Meanwhile, Bacteroides were positively correlated with butyric acid (increased by 98.4%) with strong anti-inflammatory functions. Hence, retrograded starch intervention may regulate the body's health by altering intestinal bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Water assists the histidine tautomerization through hydrogen bond replay. • Water catalyzes the proton transfer process governing the transition between the histidine tautomers. • hiε·(H 2 O) n tautomerism proceeds via a single proton transfer pathway. • Water-assisted histidine tautomerization might be related to the Aβ aggregation hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease. Histidine tautomerism plays a key role in the aggregation of amyloid peptides, which is important for understanding the origin of Alzheimer's disease as well as its diagnosis and treatment. Herein, density functional theory calculations were performed using explicit water molecules and joint implicit/explicit water cluster models to explore the catalytic mechanism and the key role of water assistance effect in the histidine tautomerization reaction. To clarify the proton transfer mechanism involved in histidine tautomerization, three to five water molecules were used to catalyze the proton transfer process governing the transition between the histidine tautomers. Potential energy calculations showed that hiε·(H 2 O) n tautomerism proceeds via a single proton transfer pathway. Systematic analyses of the hydrogen bonds and charge distribution of the key components indicated that tautomerism can be promoted by reducing the number of assistant water molecules or involving the joint implicit/explicit water solvent effect. This study provides theoretical insights into the mechanism of water-assisted histidine isomerization as it relates to the Aβ aggregation hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • MALDI-TOF MSI combined with LC-MS/MS analysis was used in Laba garlic processing. • Changes and the spatial distribution of the compounds in garlic tissue were analyzed. • Transformation and leaching occurred during the garlic greening processing. • Transformation and changes in constituents may affect the bioactivities of garlic. Laba garlic is a kind of vinegar processed garlic (Allium sativum L.) product with multiple health effects. This study applied matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MSI) and Q-TOF LC-MS/MS for the first time to investigate the garlic tissue spatial distribution changes of low molecular weight compounds during the Laba garlic processing. The distribution characteristics of the compounds were observed in processed and unprocessed garlic including amino acids and derivatives, organosulfur compounds, pigment precursors, polysaccharides and saponins. During Laba garlic processing, some bioactive compounds such as alliin and saponins were lost because they were transformed into other compounds or leached into the acetic acid solution, and some new compounds including pigments-related compounds occurred. This study provided a basis for the spatial distributions and changes of compounds in garlic tissue during Laba garlic processing, which suggested that the bioactivities of garlic might be changed after processing owing to the transformation and change of the constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) is a life-threatening condition associated with high mortality and morbidity. However, the underlying pathogenesis of SA-AKI is still unclear. Lyn belongs to Src family kinases (SFKs), which exert numerous biological functions including modulation in receptor-mediated intracellular signaling and intercellular communication. Previous studies demonstrated that Lyn gene deletion obviously aggravates LPS-induced lung inflammation, but the role and possible mechanism of Lyn in SA-AKI have not been reported yet. Here, we found that Lyn protected against renal tubular injury in cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) induced AKI mouse model by inhibition of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation and cell apoptosis. Moreover, Lyn agonist MLR-1023 pretreatment improved renal function, inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation and decreased cell apoptosis. Thus, Lyn appears to play a crucial role in orchestrating STAT3-mediated inflammation and cell apoptosis in SA-AKI. Hence, Lyn kinase may be a promising therapeutic target for SA-AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A characteristic blue pigment fraction (BPF) was isolated from Laba garlic. • Twenty-four constituents including peptides and saponins were detected in BPF. • BPF showed obvious antioxidant and immunomodulatory activity. • Immunomodulation was shown in phagocytosis activity, NO production and mRNA level. Laba garlic is a kind of garlic (Allium sativum L.) product and blue pigment fraction (BPF) is the characteristic fraction of Laba garlic. The objective of the study was to isolate BPF from Laba garlic and explore its stability, composition, antioxidant activity, and immunomodulatory activity. The results suggested BPF was unstable under alkaline conditions. Twenty-four constituents including 9 peptides and 10 saponins were detected in BPF by Q Exactive HF LC/MS anlaysis. BPF showed antioxidant activity in a dose-dependent manner. It also showed effective immunomodulatory activity at a concentration of 5 μg/mL at the cellular level and the morphology of RAW 264.7 cells changed to a polygonal and dendritic-like structure. BPF could significantly increase NO production (P < 0.05), and up-regulate the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-6, iNOS and NF-κB in the RT-QPCR analysis. The present study systematically analyzed the compositions of BPF for the first time, and the results suggested that BPF might be a potential immunomodulator candidate, which is beneficial for the development and application of garlic products and natural pigments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clerodendranthus spicatus is a traditional Chinese medicine and has been used to treat diabetes and some kidney diseases for a long history. The research aimed to study the active constituents, the potential targets and the related mechanisms of C. spicatus in the treatment of diabetes through network pharmacology method and verify the antidiabetic activity by molecular biology experiments. A comprehensive network pharmacology strategy was used to predict the key active constituents, the key targets and the related mechanisms and pathways of C. spicatus in the treatment of diabetes. The strategy mainly included screening and predicting potential active constituents and targets by network construction, GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) enrichment analysis. Based on the predicted results, C. spicatus was extracted by ultrasonic method with 50% ethanol and enriched by using macroporous resin. The compounds with potential antidiabetic effects were separated through silica-gel column chromatography and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography), and then identified by MS (mass spectrum) and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). The C. spicatus extract and isolated compounds were tested by in-vitro and cell experiments to verify their antidiabetic activities, including antioxidant activities, inhibition activities on α-glucosidase and α-amylase, the influence on glucose uptake in cell experiments and the Western blot of PI3K and Akt expression levels. A total of 18 active constituents and 16 key targets of C. spicatus in the treatment of diabetes were screened out through network pharmacology method. Phenolic acids might be the main target compounds for the next research. After extraction, enrichment and separation, the phenolic acids-enriched fraction of C. spicatus and four phenolic acid compounds (helisterculin C, salvianolic acid B, orthosiphoic acid E and ethyl caffeate) were obtained. Among them, salvianolic acid B was isolated from C. spicatus for the first time and orthosiphoic acid E was isolated from natural products for the first time. In experiment verification, the crude extract of C. spicatus , the phenolic acids-enriched fraction and the four compounds all showed antidiabetic potentials. The phenolic acids in C. spicatus had antioxidant activities, inhibitory activities on α-amylase and α-glucosidase and promoted glucose uptake in L6 cells through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. This study showed that C. spicatus had antidiabetic activities with the mechanism of the mode of multi-compounds acting on multi-targets and multi-pathways. The main active phenolic acid compounds were also identified. It provided theoretical basis for further development and utilization of C. spicatus. [Display omitted] • Phenols may be the main constituents of C. spicatus in the treatment of diabetes. • Orthosiphoic acid E was isolated from natural products for the first time. • The phenols in C. spicatus promoted glucose uptake through PI3K/Akt pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CA specifically inhibits the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in murine and human macrophages. • CA blocks the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome by suppressing ROS production and interrupting the NLRP3-NEK7 interaction as well as subsequent NLRP3 inflammasome assembly. • CA ameliorates lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute systemic inflammation and MSU-induced peritonitis in vivo. • In summary, CA acts as an NLRP3 potent inhibitor and exerts the potential application in NLRP3-driven diseases. Carnosic acid (CA) is a polyphenolic diterpene from rosemary extract with anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities. Numerous reports have focused on its anti-tumor ability, while the exact mechanisms underlying its anti-inflammation remains unclear. Here, we have identified that CA is a potent inhibitor of NLRP3 inflammasome in vitro and in vivo. CA not only reduces NLRP3 expression by blocking NF-κB activation, but also inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome assembly and activation by suppressing mitochondrial ROS production and interrupting NLRP3-NEK7 interaction. Furthermore, in mouse models, CA alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced acute systemic inflammation and MSU-induced peritonitis via NLRP3. Taken together, our data demonstrated the inhibitory effect of CA on NLRP3 inflammasome and pointed out the potential application of CA in the treatment of NLRP3-driven diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents profound degenerative conditions of the brain that cause significant deterioration in memory and cognitive function. Despite extensive research on the significant contribution of lipid metabolism to AD progression, the precise mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Hence, this study aimed to identify key differentially expressed lipid metabolism-related genes (DELMRGs) in AD progression. Methods: Comprehensive analyses were performed to determine key DELMRGs in AD compared to controls in GSE122063 dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus. Additionally, the ssGSEA algorithm was utilized for estimating immune cell levels. Subsequently, correlations between key DELMRGs and each immune cell were calculated specifically in AD samples. The key DELMRGs expression levels were validated via two external datasets. Furthermore, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was utilized for deriving associated pathways of key DELMRGs. Additionally, miRNA-TF regulatory networks of the key DELMRGs were constructed using the miRDB, NetworkAnalyst 3.0, and Cytoscape software. Finally, based on key DELMRGs, AD samples were further segmented into two subclusters via consensus clustering, and immune cell patterns and pathway differences between the two subclusters were examined. Results: Seventy up-regulated and 100 down-regulated DELMRGs were identified. Subsequently, three key DELMRGs (DLD, PLPP2, and PLAAT4) were determined utilizing three algorithms [(i) LASSO, (ii) SVM-RFE, and (iii) random forest]. Specifically, PLPP2 and PLAAT4 were up-regulated, while DLD exhibited downregulation in AD cerebral cortex tissue. This was validated in two separate external datasets (GSE132903 and GSE33000). The AD group exhibited significantly altered immune cell composition compared to controls. In addition, GSEA identified various pathways commonly associated with three key DELMRGs. Moreover, the regulatory network of miRNA-TF for key DELMRGs was established. Finally, significant differences in immune cell levels and several pathways were identified between the two subclusters. Conclusion: This study identified DLD, PLPP2, and PLAAT4 as key DELMRGs in AD progression, providing novel insights for AD prevention/treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catalysis of reactions by laccases are oxygen-dependent. Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are known to increase the solubility of oxygen when compared with water being applied in several fields as gas-dissolving agents. Herein, PFCs like Zonyl, perfluorohexane (C 6 F 14), and perfluorodecalin(C 10 F 18) were explored as promising agents to increase the rate of oxygen available on laccase-assisted oxidation of catechol. The oxidation of catechol was performed with and without aeration, using reactors with different agitation regimens (orbital shaker water bath and vertical rotating reactor). The enzymatic reactions and the level of oxygen were monitored by UV-Visible spectroscopy and oxygen quantification, respectively. The polymerization yield was estimated in terms of polymer weight gain after laccase-assisted oxidation and the products of reaction were analyzed by 1H NMR,MALDI-TOF and particle size measurements. After laccase oxidation, the poly(catechol) was successfully synthesized with a polymerization degree (DP) of 7 and a mean size of 115 nm, independently on the PFCs and aeration conditions. The findings showed that all PFCs examined, particularly perfluorodecalin, had the ability to dissolve oxygen, increasing its rate during oxidation reaction. The yield of poly(catechol) is 1.25 times higher using perfluorodecalin, under aeration, compared to the reaction carried out only with laccase. We provide the first evidence that PFCs significantly increase the oxidation of phenols by laccase. [Display omitted] • Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) act as oxygen dissolvers in enzymatic reactions. • PFCs enhance the laccase-assisted reaction of catechol. • Oxygen dissolution and yield of oxidation are independent on agitation regimens. • Highest amount of poly(catechol) produced when reaction is conducted with perfluorodecalin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastic film mulching under drip irrigation is a key cotton cultivation technology that can save water and increase yield in arid regions. However, the long-term promotion of film mulching has resulted in increasingly serious problems related to residual film pollution. We hypothesized that deep drip irrigation and optimized irrigation can ensure the sustainability of yield of non-film cotton; thus, film is not necessary under this planting system. To address the above issues, we investigated the effects of different irrigation volumes (in m3 ha−1: W 1 , 2649; W 2 , 2925; W 3 , 3201; W 4 , 3477; W 5 , 3753) on the soil water and salt distribution, agronomic attributes, biomass accumulation, yield composition and water use efficiency (WUE) of non-film cotton grown under deep drip irrigation in a two-year field trial. We also explored possible ways to exploit the full potential of decreasing water consumption and enhancing cotton production. The results showed that the seed cotton yield of W 3 was 7.5%, 7.1% and 3.2% higher than those of W 1 , W 2 and W 5 , respectively, while it was 5.2% lower than that of W 4 across the two-year study. Moreover, there was no significant difference in seed yield or WUE between the W 3 and W 4 treatments. Compared with the W 2 treatment, the W 3 treatment delayed the total growth period by only 0–2 d, the conductivity in the 0–10 cm soil layer was increased by 9.3–22.9%, and the soil water content in the 0–20 cm soil layer was increased by 1.7–4.0%. The cotton plant biomass and reproductive organ biomass increased with the amount of irrigation and followed this order W 5 > W 4 , W 3 , W 2 > W 1. Seed cotton yield was significantly correlated with effective bolls, while WUE was negatively correlated with vegetative organ biomass at the flowering and boll setting stages. Overall, the results suggested that under the non-film conditions, an irrigation amount of 3201 m3 ha−1 would improve the eco-friendliness and efficiency of cotton production systems in arid regions. • Non film deep-drip irrigation (NDI) system can solve the residual membrane pollution. • Salt accumulates on the surface of the soil under NDI system. • Optimizing irrigation under NDI system can achieve high-efficiency cotton production. • Maintaining proper vegetative organs in the later growth stage is conducive to yield increment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the arid region of Northwest China, exploring the feasibility of using non-film deep drip irrigation (DDI) instead of film drip irrigation to solve the problem of residual film pollution is an urgent task. Therefore, in this study, we hypothesized that efficient and clean production can be achieved by optimizing the irrigation amount of non-film cotton, thus improving the canopy environment and increasing the accumulation and distribution of biomass. A 2-year field experiment was performed to compare the cotton canopy microenvironment, biomass accumulation, lint cotton yield and fibre quality attributes under various irrigation levels. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with five irrigation amount treatments (m3 ha−1): 2649 (W 1); 2925 (W 2); 3201 (W 3); 3477 (W 4); and 3753 (W 5). The results revealed that an increase in the irrigation amount decreased the transmittance of canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) by 4.1–18.7%, while the cotton plant biomass (CPB) and reproductive organ biomass (ROB) were significantly increased by 7.6–5.9% and 22.0–54.1%, respectively. The fibre quality did not differ significantly among treatments. Moreover, under the W 4 treatment, the leaf area index (LAI), mean tilt angle (MTA), canopy humidity and cotton lint yield were increased by 1.4–22.3%, 0.3–8.7%, 0.6–2.9% and 4.4–18.7%, respectively, and the canopy temperature was decreased by 0.2–2.2% as compared to the other treatments. The lint cotton yield was negatively correlated with the canopy humidity from the initial squaring stage to the full boll stage. This comprehensive evaluative analysis suggests that the optimal irrigation amount of non-film cotton is 3477 m3 ha−1 under the studied conditions, and this irrigation method is recommended as an alternative to film drip irrigation as it allows cotton to be planted without worrying about plastic pollution in irrigated agricultural areas. This study enriches the high-efficiency cotton planting technologies of non-film DDI and provides scientific guidance for the further popularization and application of non-film cotton. Fig. 1 Graphical abstract illustrating the whole theme of the study. [Display omitted] • Deep-drip irrigation (DDI) can compensate the negative effects of non-film cotton cultivation on the canopy structure. • Increasing irrigation amount increased the leaf area index and mean tilt angle under DDI. • Lint cotton yield depends on the photosynthetically active radiation in the upper and middle canopy under DDI. • DDI without plastic mulching has the potential to replace mulched drip irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Proteomics analysis was firstly applied in the study of the protein content changes during processing, protein activities were also summarized. • The manufacturing process of Laba garlic resulted in protein configuration changes, in which the secondary structure transformed from α-helix into random coil. • Laba garlic processing lead to major protein functional property variations when compared with normal white garlic protein. • White garlic protein is an promising additive in food industry and Laba garlic protein is a great source for bioactive peptides extraction. Protein is one of the main nutrients in garlic with multiple functions and healthy effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of greening process on the functional and structural properties of garlic protein, and proteomic strategy was applied to analyze the changes of protein compositions as well as their activities. Results showed that the manufacturing process led to a smaller isoelectric point (pI) and larger particle size of garlic protein (Laba garlic protein, LP) compared to the unprocessed one (untreated white garlic protein, WP). Circular dichroism (CD) and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra showed that the dominant α-helix structure was lost and became random coil in LP. The surface hydrophobicity was also decreased after processing. Sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) revealed that molecular weight distributions of WP varied from 10 to 80 kDa but those of LP were in 10 to 25 kDa. In the functional property analysis, greening process resulted in poor emulsifying ability for WP at pH 7.2, but led to an increase in water holding capacity (WHC). The proteomic analysis indicated that WP had numerous kinds of proteins and the vital alliinase in WP was lost in LP, and only 6 types of proteins were reserved. The proteins in WP were presumably degraded into peptides in LP. This study firstly applied proteomic analysis to investigate the protein differences in garlic processing, and based on the significant properties difference, WP might be a promising agent for additives in food industry, while LP might be a potential source for bioactive peptides extraction and separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we develop a free-standing trifunctional and durable electrocatalyst integrating the Re-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanoarray on N-doped graphene (NG) modified nickel foam substrate (Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF). Particularly, Re-doping is proven to modify the local electronic structure, increase the electroactive surface area, and optimize the adsorption energies of Ni 3 S 2 , greatly enhancing trifunctional activities. Accordingly, the water electrolyzer based on the symmetric Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF electrodes achieves a small cell voltage of 1.58 V at 10 mA cm−2 and high Faradaic efficiency of ∼97%, exceeding Pt/C + IrO 2 counterpart. Moreover, the rechargeable Zn–air battery with the Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF leads to achieve a high power density of 99 mW cm−2 and round-trip efficiency of 71.2% with a long term stability of 5000 cycles. Taking full potential of Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF electrocatalysts used as "all-in-one" electrode, a real-life operation of self-powered water splitting system is demonstrated for practical applications into highly efficient and multifunctional renewable energy systems. The Re-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanoarray is designed and integrated on N-doped graphene modified nickel foam substrate as an efficient and robust trifunctional electrocatalyst for both water splitting and rechargeable Zn–air battery. Experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that the Re doping endows the Re–Ni 3 S 2 modulated electronic structural configuration and optimized chemisorption energy toward intermediates, which synergistically boosts the trifunctional electrocatalytic activity. [Display omitted] • Re-doping induces the lattice distortion and surface deformation of Ni 3 S 2. • Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF exhibits excellent trifunctional activities for HER/OER/ORR. • The Re–Ni and Ni–Ni bridge, Re–Ni bridge, and NG are trifunctional active sites. • Re–Ni 3 S 2 /NG/NF serves as electrodes for both water electrolyzer and Zn–air battery. • Highly efficient Zn–air battery powered water splitting system is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved understanding of past interactions between terrestrial vegetation and various forcings, such as climate change, human impact, and paleofire, is crucial for assessing impacts of future global change on terrestrial ecosystems. This study seeks to find the key factor or factors that have driven Holocene vegetation change along the East Asian monsoon margin. Several high-resolution pollen records are reviewed and new phytolith-based paleovegetation reconstructions and physical geochemical datasets are presented from a peatland in northeastern China. Using 108 modern topsoil samples as a training set, canopy cover and vegetation composition are estimated for the period since 5100 cal. yr BP. Variation partitioning analysis (VPA) is used to determine the relative importance of climate change, human impacts, and paleofire disturbance. The generalized dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS is forced with climate anomaly output from an atmospheric general circulation model to simulate vegetation dynamics during the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial era. The proxy-based estimates are compared to modelling output. Results indicate that regional tree cover varied from 10% to 40% during the past five millennia. The single-core, phytolith-based reconstructions are generally consistent with stacked tree pollen z-scores calculated from different records along the East Asian monsoon margin, implying that mid-Holocene tree cover decrease was persistent and almost synchronous over extensive areas. VPA demonstrates that long-term monsoon marginal vegetation successions were mainly caused by climate effects. Numerical modelling suggests that since the mid-Holocene the retreat of forests along the monsoon margin was primarily associated with precipitation deficits. Our investigation highlights that the precipitation associated with the East Asian monsoon system has exerted a stronger influence than the westerlies on the monsoon margin climate and vegetation change. With ongoing global change, close attention to variations in precipitation patterns and amounts should be especially helpful in efforts aimed at ecological monitoring, change prediction, and restoration. • Phytoliths provide complementary paleovegetation evidence to pollen for the monsoon margin area in northeastern China. • Phytolith-based quantitative tree coverage reconstructions suggest persistent forest cover since the mid-Holocene. • Vegetation dynamics within the monsoon margin area is strongly associated with East Asian monsoon variability. • DGVMs modelling suggests the dominant role of precipitation in regulating vegetation change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insect pollinators provide major pollination services for wild plants and crops. Honeybee viruses can cause serious damage to honeybee colonies. However, viruses of other wild pollinating insects have yet to be fully explored. In the present study, we used RNA sequencing to investigate the viral diversity of 50 species of wild pollinating insects. A total of 3 pathogenic honeybee viruses, 8 previously reported viruses, and 26 novel viruses were identified in sequenced samples. Among these, 7 novel viruses were shown to be closely related to honeybee pathogenic viruses, and 4 were determined to have potential pathogenicity for their hosts. The viruses detected in wild insect pollinators were mainly from the order Picornavirales and the families Orthomyxoviridae, Sinhaliviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Flaviviridae. Our study expanded the species range of known insect pollinator viruses, contributing to future efforts to protect economic honeybees and wild pollinating insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeted therapy and immunotherapy have brought hopes for precision cancer treatment. However, complex physiological barriers and tumor immunosuppression result in poor efficacy, side effects, and resistance to antitumor therapies. Bacteria‐mediated antitumor therapy provides new options to address these challenges. Thanks to their special characteristics, bacteria have excellent ability to destroy tumor cells from the inside and induce innate and adaptive antitumor immune responses. Furthermore, bacterial components, including bacterial vesicles, spores, toxins, metabolites, and other active substances, similarly inherit their unique targeting properties and antitumor capabilities. Bacteria and their accessory products can even be reprogrammed to produce and deliver antitumor agents according to clinical needs. This review first discusses the role of different bacteria in the development of tumorigenesis and the latest advances in bacteria‐based delivery platforms and the existing obstacles for application. Moreover, the prospect and challenges of clinical transformation of engineered bacteria are also summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Licorice is a medicinal and food plant widely used to treat diseases and produce food additives, because of its unique chemical constituents like polysaccharides, flavones, and saponins. Glycyrrhiza Polysaccharides (GPS-1) are water-soluble neutral polysaccharides extracted from licorice. Currently, GPS-1 is administrated to chickens by gavage every d for 14 d to observe the impact of GPS-1 on the Newcastle disease vaccine. To determine the immunity of these chickens to NDV, blood serum levels of hemagglutinin-inhibition (HI) antibody, and immunoglobulins IgA and IgG were measured. Meanwhile, the expression levels of cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and IFN-γ were measured to evaluate the degree of immune booster activity. The chickens' spleen and peripheral blood lymphocytes displayed a significant increase in the proportion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells after booster treatments with GPS-1. The results indicated that GPS-1 had a significant, dose-dependent, immune-boosting effect which could enhance NDV vaccine immunity in chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]