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Abstract Background Cellular senescence is essential to TME development, progression, and remodeling. Few studies have examined cellular senescence in HCC after TACE. Investigating the relationship between cellular senescence, post-TACE prognosis, the TME, and immune treatment responses is crucial. Methods We analyzed the GSE104580 dataset to identify DEGs. A cellular senescence-related signature was developed using LASSO Cox regression in the GSE14520 dataset and validated in the ICGC dataset. High- and low-risk subgroups were compared using GSVA and GSEA. Correlation studies were conducted to explore the relationship between the prognostic model, immune infiltration, immunotherapy response, and drug sensitivity. Results A cellular senescence-related signature comprising FOXM1, CDK1, CHEK1, and SERPINE1 was created and validated. High-risk patients showed significantly lower OS than low-risk patients. High-risk patients had carcinogenetic pathways activated, immunosuppressive cells infiltrated, and immunomodulatory genes overexpressed. They also showed higher sensitivity to EPZ004777_1237 and MK-2206_1053 and potential benefits from GSK-3 inhibitor IX, nortriptyline, lestaurtinib, and JNK-9L. Conclusions This study constructed a cellular senescence-related signature that could be used to predict HCC patients’ responses to and prognosis after TACE treatment, aiding in the development of personalized treatment plans.

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality worldwide. The interaction between receptors and ligands is the primary mode of intercellular signaling and plays a vital role in the progression of HCC. This study aimed to identify the macrophage-related receptor ligand marker genes associated with HCC and further explored the molecular immune mechanisms attributed to altered biomarkers. Single-cell RNA sequencing data containing primary and recurrent samples were downloaded from the China National GeneBank. Cell types were first identified to explore differences between immune cells from different sample sources. CellChat analysis was used to infer and analyze intercellular communication networks quantitatively. Three molecular subtypes were constructed based on the screened twenty macrophage-associated receptor ligand genes. Bulk RNA-Seq data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases. After the screening, the minor absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression model was employed to identify key markers. After collecting peripheral blood and clinical information from patients, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the correlation between key markers and IL-10, one of the macrophage markers. After developing a new HCC risk adjustment model and conducting analysis, it was found that there were significant differences in immune status and gene mutations between the high-risk and low-risk groups of patients based on macrophage-associated receptor and ligand genes. This study identified SPP1, ANGPT2, and NCL as key biological targets for HCC. The drug-gene interaction network analysis identified wortmannin, ribavirin, and tarnafloxin as potential therapeutic drugs for the three key markers. In a clinical cohort study, patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) resistance had significantly higher expression levels of OPN, ANGPT2, NCL, and IL-10 than patients with ICI-responsiveness. These three key markers were positively correlated with the expression level of IL-10. The signature based on macrophage-associated receptor and ligand genes can accurately predict the prognosis of patients with HCC and the sensitivity to immunotherapy. These results may help guide the development of targeted prevention and personalized treatment of HCC.

Abstract Background The structural diversity of extracellular polymeric substances produced by microorganisms is attracting particular attention. Poly-gamma-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is a widely studied extracellular polymeric substance from Bacillus species. The function of γ-PGA varies with its molecular weight (Mw). Results Herein, different endogenous promoters in Bacillus licheniformis were selected to regulate the expression levels of pgdS, resulting in the formation of γ-PGA with Mw values ranging from 1.61 × 103 to 2.03 × 104 kDa. The yields of γ-PGA and exopolysaccharides (EPS) both increased in the pgdS engineered strain with the lowest Mw and viscosity, in which the EPS content was almost tenfold higher than that of the wild-type strain. Subsequently, the compositions of EPS from the pgdS engineered strain also changed. Metabolomics and RT-qPCR further revealed that improving the transportation efficiency of EPS and the regulation of carbon flow of monosaccharide synthesis could affect the EPS yield. Conclusions Here, we present a novel insight that increased pgdS expression led to the degradation of γ-PGA Mw and changes in EPS composition, thereby stimulating EPS and γ-PGA production. The results indicated a close relationship between γ-PGA and EPS in B. licheniformis and provided an effective strategy for the controlled synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances.

IntroductionOilseed flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) yields are phosphate (P) fertilizer-limited, especially in the temperate semiarid dryland regions of North China. However, there are limited studies on the effects of P-fertilizer inputs on plant growth and soil microorganisms in flax planting systems.MethodsTo address this gap, a field experiment was conducted with four treatments: no P addition and application of 40, 80, and 120 kg P ha-¹, respectively. The aim was to investigate the influence of various P fertilizer inputs on yield, plant dry matter, P use efficiency, as well as the population of soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and bacteria in dryland oilseed flax.ResultsOur results show that the P addition increased the dry matter, and the yield of oilseed increased by ~200% at 120 kg P ha-1 addition with inhibition on the growth of AMF hyphae. The moderate P supply (80 kg ha-1) was adequate for promoting P translocation, P use efficiency, and P recovery efficiency. Soil pH, available P, and available K significantly (p< 0.05) promoted the abundance of the dominant taxa (Acidobacteria_GP6, Sphingobacteria and Bacteroidetes). In addition, it is imperative to comprehend the mechanism of interaction between phosphorus-fertilizer inputs and microbiota in oilseed flax soil. DiscussionThis necessitates further research to quantify and optimize the moderate phosphorus supply, regulate soil microbes to ensure high phosphorus utilization, and ultimately establish a sustainable system for oilseed flax cultivation in the local area.

The mechanisms underlying the impacts of climate change and vegetation dynamics on hydrological drought in humid regions are still lacking. In this study, we connected the four components of meteorology-soil-vegetation-runoff to investigate the spatio-temporal response relationship between vegetation growth and different drought types. Based on the Variable Infiltration Capacity model and the Self-organizing Map Algorithm, we proposed ecological risk bundles at the grid scale to characterize the potential impacts of different types and levels of drought on vegetation. Furthermore, we quantified the driving impact of temporal and spatial changes in vegetation coverage on the propagation of meteorological-hydrological drought. The study found that the centers of gravity for the occurrence frequencies of extreme and mild drought shifted towards regions where vegetation growth was influenced by climate change. In certain regions of the watershed, vegetation exhibits significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in its response to stress caused by different drought types. From 2004 to 2014, the stress on vegetation caused by moderate and mild meteorological droughts weakened, while soil moisture stress intensified after 2014. Simultaneously, the impacts of climate change and vegetation growth on runoff reached 48.25 % and 35.13 % respectively, and their synergistic effects triggered changes in the risk of co-concurrent return periods for hydrological drought events. Under the 100-year design return period, the co-occurrence return period of runoff shifted from its natural state of 162.9 years to 52.8 years, and the joint return period reversed its scenario, becoming shorter than the co-occurrence return period.

In demanding application scenarios such as clinical psychotherapy and criminal interrogation, the accurate recognition of micro-expressions is of utmost importance but poses significant challenges. One of the main difficulties lies in effectively capturing weak and fleeting facial features and improving recognition performance. To address this fundamental issue, this paper proposed a novel architecture based on a multi-scale 3D residual convolutional neural network. The algorithm leveraged a deep 3D-ResNet50 as the skeleton model and utilized the micro-expression optical flow feature map as the input for the network model. Drawing upon the complex spatial and temporal features inherent in micro-expressions, the network incorporated multi-scale convolutional modules of varying sizes to integrate both global and local information. Furthermore, an attention mechanism feature fusion module was introduced to enhance the model's contextual awareness. Finally, to optimize the model's prediction of the optimal solution, a discriminative network structure with multiple output channels was constructed. The algorithm's performance was evaluated using the public datasets SMIC, SAMM, and CASME Ⅱ. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm achieves recognition accuracies of 74.6, 84.77 and 91.35% on these datasets, respectively. This substantial improvement in efficiency compared to existing mainstream methods for extracting micro-expression subtle features effectively enhanced micro-expression recognition performance and increased the accuracy of high-precision micro-expression recognition. Consequently, this paper served as an important reference for researchers working on high-precision micro-expression recognition.

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are neurodevelopmental disorders with overlapping behavioral features and genetic etiology. While brain cortical thickness (CTh) alterations have been reported in ASD and ADHD separately, the degree to which ASD and ADHD are associated with common and distinct patterns of CTh changes is unclear. Methods We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Science Direct from inception to 8 December 2023 and included studies of cortical thickness comparing youth (age less than 18) with ASD or ADHD with typically developing controls (TDC). We conducted a comparative meta-analysis of vertex-based studies to identify common and distinct CTh alterations in ASD and ADHD. Results Twelve ASD datasets involving 458 individuals with ASD and 10 ADHD datasets involving 383 individuals with ADHD were included in the analysis. Compared to TDC, ASD showed increased CTh in bilateral superior frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and right superior parietal lobule (SPL) and decreased CTh in right temporoparietal junction (TPJ). ADHD showed decreased CTh in bilateral precentral gyri, right postcentral gyrus, and right TPJ relative to TDC. Conjunction analysis showed both disorders shared reduced TPJ CTh located in default mode network (DMN). Comparative analyses indicated ASD had greater CTh in right SPL and TPJ located in dorsal attention network and thinner CTh in right TPJ located in ventral attention network than ADHD. Conclusions These results suggest shared thinner TPJ located in DMN is an overlapping neurobiological feature of ASD and ADHD. This alteration together with SPL alterations might be related to altered biological motion processing in ASD, while abnormalities in sensorimotor systems may contribute to behavioral control problems in ADHD. The disorder-specific thinner TPJ located in disparate attention networks provides novel insight into distinct symptoms of attentional deficits associated with the two neurodevelopmental disorders. Trial registration PROSPERO CRD42022370620. Registered on November 9, 2022.

A Multiscale-Motion Embedding Pseudo-3D (MME-P3D) gesture recognition algorithm has been proposed to tackle the issues of excessive parameters and high computational complexity encountered by existing gesture recognition algorithms deployed in mobile and embedded devices. The algorithm initially takes into account the characteristics of gesture motion information, integrating the channel attention (CE) mechanism into the pseudo-3D (P3D) module, thereby constructing a P3D-C feature extraction network that can efficiently extract spatio-temporal feature information while reducing the complexity of the algorithmic model. To further enhance the understanding and learning of the global gesture movement's dynamic information, a Multiscale Motion Embedding (MME) mechanism is subsequently designed. The experimental findings reveal that the MME-P3D model achieves recognition accuracies reaching up to 91.12% and 83.06% on the self-constructed conference gesture dataset and the publicly available Chalearn 2013 dataset, respectively. In comparison with the conventional 3D convolutional neural network, the MME-P3D model demonstrates a significant advantage in terms of parameter count and computational requirements, which are reduced by as much as 82% and 83%, respectively. This effectively addresses the limitations of the original algorithms, making them more suitable for deployment on embedded and mobile devices and providing a more effective means for the practical application of hand gesture recognition technology.

Study region: The Yangtze River Basin Study focus: To accurately quantify the impact of climate change and human activities on the hydrological regime, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models for meteorology-runoff simulation are constructed for the multi-year average monthly flow process. The Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) method is used to quantitatively evaluate the hydrological processes in the watershed. Additionally, the grey relational analysis method is employed to explore key indicators affecting the ecological effects of fish. New hydrological insights for the region: The streamflow of the Yangtze River mainstem and its seven tributaries increases as the distance from the river mouth decreases. The degree of hydrological changes in various basins is moderate (33–66%). Except for the Jialing River, Wu River, and Poyang Lake, the streamflow changes in other basins are mainly influenced by human activities. Among them, Yichang is most affected by human activities (75.43%), while Wu River is most affected by climate change (67.05%). The rate of land use development has reached 116.9% over the past 20 years, and vegetation coverage has been increasing at a linear rate of 0.003 per year, Summer rainfall is significantly positively correlated with flow, while temperature is significantly negatively correlated. The Three Gorges Dam has reduced the spawning scale of fish and identified ''October runoff'' as the key indicator. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the response of watershed water resources and ecological effects.

For non-holonomic wheeled mobile robots with coupled constraints and bounded disturbances, a novel event-driven model predictive control (EMPC) strategy is designed in this paper. Firstly, to alleviate the computational and data transmission burden of the system, an EMPC algorithm considering the quasi-differential information of continuous state discrepancies is proposed, rather than only considering the system state at a single moment. Secondly, to accelerate the convergence speed of the system state, an exponential robust constraint is introduced when designing the optimization problem. Furthermore, the parameter conditions that ensure the feasibility and system stability are theoretically provided. In the end, simulation and comparison are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm.

Scientific ecological hydrological indicators provide constraints that contribute to the healthy operation and restoration of river ecosystems. Daily flow data from three Jing River outlets (SongZiKou (SZK), TaiPingKou (TPK), and OuChiKou (OCK)) spanning 1955–2019 were used. We employed innovative methods, such as IHA–RVA and annual distribution, to establish ecological flow thresholds. Surplus and deficit indicators were used to analyze annual and seasonal runoff dynamics. The PCA/RVA method identified relevant hydrological indicators and assessed hydrological changes influenced by the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR). Key findings include suitable ecological flow thresholds for the flood season (SZK/TPK/OCK – 218.6/94.5, 51.7/96.0, and 60.9–4,494.5 m3/s, respectively). The TGR impacted the flow duration curve, causing deficits during the flood season (up to 0.99, OCK) and surpluses in non-flood seasons (up to 5.04, OCK). The study assessed the Jing River watershed's response to hydrological changes, notably due to the reservoir's water storage and flow interruption during the dry season, revealing declining low pulse count (SDG) and duration (MTS) and increasing high pulse duration (GJP). This research employs innovative methods and hydrological indicators, enhancing understanding of Jing River watershed ecological hydrology, and offering essential data for water resource management and ecosystem health. HIGHLIGHTS The IHA–RVA method was used to study the biological flow thresholds and changes of three outlets of Jingjiang River in the middle of Yangtze River based on 60 years of daily flow data.; This study applied PCA and RDA to filter IHA for ERHIs, addressed redundancy issues, and investigated the ERHI's variation during dry period breaks and the Three Gorges Reservoir.;

Spectral confocal sensors are effective for measuring displacements. The core of the spectral confocal measurement system is a dispersive objective lens that uses optical dispersion to establish a one-to-one correspondence between the focusing position and wavelength, achieving high-resolution measurements in the longitudinal direction. Despite significant progress in dispersive objective lenses for spectral confocal sensor systems, challenges such as a limited dispersion range, high cost, and insufficient measurement accuracy persist. To expand the measurement range and improve the accuracy of the spectral confocal sensor, we designed a compact, long-axial dispersion objective lens. This lens has a simple structure that requires only six lens elements, two of which form cemented doublets. The system length is 58 mm, with a working distance of 46 ± 6 mm and a dispersion range of 12 mm within the wavelength range of 450–656 nm. The lens has an object-side numerical aperture (NA) of 0.22 and an image-side NA between 0.198 and 0.24, ensuring high light energy utilization. Finally, a spectral confocal measurement system was constructed based on the designed dispersive objective lens, and performance evaluation tests were conducted. The test results showed that the system achieved a resolution of 0.15 μm and a maximum linear error of ±0.7 μm, demonstrating high-precision measurement capabilities. The proposed lens design enables the development of more portable and cost-effective spectral confocal sensors.

Durian peel, an abundant waste in Malaysia could be a potential substrate for fermentable sugar recovery for value-added biochemical production. Common pretreatment such as acid or alkaline pretreatment resulted in the need for extensive solid washing which generated wastewater. Herein, this study aims to introduce sonication on top of chemical pretreatment to destruct lignin and reduce the chemical usage during the durian peel pretreatment process. In this study, the morphology and the chemical composition of the pretreated durian peels were studied. The sugar yield produced from the chemical pretreatment and the combined ultrasound and chemical pretreatment were compared. The morphology and chemical structure of durian peels were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM images showed that the structural change became more significant when sonication was introduced. Second, XRD profile indicated a relatively higher crystallinity index and FTIR spectra displayed a lower intensity of lignin and hemicellulose for ultrasound plus alkaline (UB) pretreatment as compared to acid, alkaline and ultrasound plus acid (UA) pretreatment. UB and UA pretreatment portrayed higher yield (376.60 ± 12.14 and 237.38 ± 3.96 mg reducing sugar/g dry biomass, respectively) than their controls without the application of ultrasound. Therefore, it could be concluded that ultrasound was able to intensify the fermentable sugar recovery from durian peel by inducing physical and chemical effect of cavitation to alter the morphology of durian peel. Fermentation of UB treated durian peel resulted in 2.68 mol hydrogen/mol consumed sugar and 131.56 mL/Lmedium/h of hydrogen productivity. This study is important because it will shed light on a way to handle durian waste disposal problems and generate fermentable sugars for the production of high value-added products.

Aims: Heme oxygenase (HO-1) affords protection against ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury; however, its effects on testicular I/R injury remain poorly explored. Herein, we aimed to examine the effects of HO-1 on testicular I/R injury and elucidate the underlying mechanism. Methods: Using the TALEN technique, we knocked out the HO-1 gene from rats. In vivo: Thirty hmox+/+ and 30 hmox−/− rats were randomly assigned to six groups: sham-operated (sham), I/R (the left testicle torsion/detorsion) 0 d,I/R 1d, I/R 3d, I/R 7d and I/R 28d. In vitro: GC-1 were suffered from: control,H/R (oxygen-deprivation/reoxygenation),H/R + HO-1 siRNA,H/R + c-Jun siRNA or H/R + HO-1 siRNA + c-jun.We performed immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry experiments to detect HO-1 nuclear translocation. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis and analyse the cell cycle. High-resolution miRNA, mRNA sequencing, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, and western blotting were performed to identify testicular I/R injury-related genes strongly conserved in HO-1 knockout rats. A double luciferase reporter assay was performed to verify the relationship between C-jun and miR-221/222. Main findings: In vivo, HO-1 improved the pathological damage induced by testicular I/R. In GC-1 cells, we confirmed the nuclear translocation of HO-1 and its protective effect against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) damage. Accordingly, HO-1 protein itself, rather than heme metabolites, might play a key role in testicular I/R. Gene sequencing was performed to screen for miR221/222 and its downstream gene, thymocyte selection-associated high mobility group box (TOX). HO-1 increased c-Jun phosphorylation in the H/R group, knocked down c-Jun in GC-1 cells, and decreased miR-221/222 expression. Inhibition of HO-1 expression decreased the expression of c-Jun and miR-221/222, which was rescued by adding c-Jun. Dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed the interaction between c-Jun and miR-221/222. Conclusions: HO-1 could exert a protective effect against testicular I/R via the phosphorylated c-Jun-miR-221/222-TOX pathway.

Lignin is one of the most widespread organic compounds found on earth, boasting a wealth of aromatic molecules. The use of lignin feedstock for biochemical productions is of great importance for achieving “carbon neutrality.” In recent years, a strategy for lignin valorization known as the “bio-funnel” has been proposed as a means to generate a variety of commercially valuable chemicals from lignin-derived compounds. The implementation of biocatalysis and metabolic engineering techniques has substantially advanced the biotransformation of depolymerized lignin into chemicals and materials within the supply chain. In this review, we present an overview of the latest advancements in microbial upcycling of depolymerized lignin into value-added chemicals. Besides, the review provides insights into the problems facing current biological lignin valorization while proposing further research directions to improve these technologies for the extensive accomplishment of the lignin upcycling.

The cooperation of multi-agent systems (MAS) based on distributed model predictive control (DMPC) is a current research hotspot, and how to more effectively handle additive disturbances and reduce resource consumption are two difficult problems that need to be solved. In view of this, this paper aims to design a more effective DMPC strategy for MAS, so as to effectively deal with the above problems without loss of the control performance. Firstly, a finite-horizon constrained optimization problem is established for MAS, in which a robustness constraint is designed to effectively handle additive disturbances. Then, a new efficient event-triggering condition is designed, which is established by considering the mixed information of differential and integral of the state error. Furthermore, based on the dual-mode control, an event-triggered robust DMPC algorithm is proposed to further reduce the resource consumption of the system. In addition, theoretical results are provided through analysis and deduction to ensure the iterative feasibility of the algorithm, stability of the closed-loop system and Zeno-free behavior. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to two examples for simulation and comparison to verify its effectiveness. The simulation results show that compared to DMPC and classical event-triggered DMPC methods, the proposed algorithm can reduce the average resource consumption of MAS by more than 81% and 36%, respectively, which indicates that the proposed strategy can effectively reduce the computation and communication burden of MAS without affecting the control performance.

ABSTRACT Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) has sparked widespread interest as a potential probiotic bacterium with many physiological functions that colonizes the human intestinal tract. The development of its in vitro culture is a promising and urgent research direction. Therefore, culture conditions were first optimized, and a significant improvement of cell density of A. muciniphila was achieved in a shake flask with 15.0 g/L of glucose, 37.0 g/L of tryptone, and an initial pH of 7.8. A high OD600 (optical density at 600 nm) value of 13.03 (1.03 × 1010 CFU/mL) was reached in a 5-L bioreactor by stage pH controlling, which is the highest reported value by use of a sole carbon source (glucose). Analysis of cell characteristics and protein expression showed that the optimized culture did not affect cellular morphology and the expression of the special outer membrane functional protein (Amuc_1100), while remarkably improving cell hydrophobicity, which is beneficial for bacterial colonization of the gut. The pattern of supernatant metabolites indicated that the optimized medium may promote cell reproduction by inducing cells to produce dethiobiotin and strengthen the metabolic pathway of glycerol 3-phosphate by shifting more glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase toward secretion at the cell surface, thereby improving cell surface hydrophobicity and adhesion to mucin. This study accomplished the high cell density culture of A. muciniphila without affecting its biological function, which also provides a more conducive fermentation strategy to enhance cell adhesion and facilitates its colonization in the gut. IMPORTANCE Currently, there is significant interest in Akkermansia muciniphila as a promising next-generation probiotic, making it a hot topic in scientific research. However, to achieve efficient industrial production, there is an urgent need to develop an in vitro culture method to achieve high biomass using low-cost carbon sources such as glucose. This study aims to explore the high-density fermentation strategy of A. muciniphila by optimizing the culture process. This study also employs techniques such as LC-MS and RNA-Seq to explain the possible regulatory mechanism of high-density cell growth and increased cell surface hydrophobicity facilitating cell colonization of the gut in vitro culture. Overall, this research sheds light on the potential of A. muciniphila as a probiotic and provides valuable insights for future industrial production.

Diamond tools experience severe chemical wear when machining ferrous metals, which hinders their practical applications. In order to improve the wear resistance of diamond cutting tools, in the diamond-graphite strong covalent structure prepared by laser induced solid-phase diffusion, carbon nanosheets (CNS) can be obtained by electrochemical stripping of the graphite layer onto the diamond matrix, which provides a new way to improve the limitations of diamond tools in application. After 14,400 cycles of reciprocating sliding against the GCr15 ball at a normal load of 2–8 N, friction was reduced by 45.9 %–65.6 % with high durability. The oxygen content is reduced by an order of magnitude during this process, suggesting that the CNS can prevent oxidation behavior at the sliding interface. The bare diamond had a relative wear rate of 4.1–15.4 times that of the CNS. It showed competitive inhibition of mechanochemical wear. Our work provides a convenient and green method of preparing in-situ CNS covalently bonded on a diamond surface, extending the way for the prospect of carbon materials.

Quantitatively separating the influence of climate change and human activities on runoff is crucial to achieving sustainable water resource management in watersheds. This study presents a framework for quantitative assessment by integrating the indicators of hydrologic alteration, the whale optimization algorithm and random forest (WOA-RF), and the water erosion prediction (WEP-L) models. This framework quantifies the differences in hydrological conditions and their driving forces at multi-timescales (annual, seasonal, and monthly). The results indicate that the runoff of the Wu River has decreased since 2005. Climate factors were found to influence the interannual variation of runoff mainly. Meanwhile, human activities had a more significant impact in autumn, with a relative contribution rate of 59.0% (WOA-RF model) and 70.8% (WEP-L model). Monthly, the picture is more complex, with the results of the WOA-RF model indicating that climate change has a significant impact in July, August, and September (88.8%, 92.7%, and 79.3%, respectively). However, the WEP-L model results showed that the relative contribution of land use is significant in April, May, June, October, and November (51.24%, 64.23%, 63.63%, 53.16%, and 50.63%, respectively). The results of the study can be helpful for regional water allocation. HIGHLIGHTS Based on indicators of the hydrologic alteration range of variation approach, the changes of hydrological regime in the Wujiang River basin in the past 30 years were analyzed.; Natural runoff was reconstructed by the whale optimization algorithm and random forest and the water erosion prediction models.; The effects of climate change and human activities on runoff change on annual, monthly, and seasonal scales were quantified.;

To address the limitation of narrow field-of-view in local oral cavity images that fail to capture large-area targets at once, this paper designs a method for generating natural dental panoramas based on oral endoscopic imaging that consists of two main stages: the anti-perspective transformation feature extraction and the coarse-to-fine global optimization matching. In the first stage, we increase the number of matched pairs and improve the robustness of the algorithm to viewpoint transformation by normalizing the anti-affine transformation region extracted from the Gaussian scale space and using log-polar coordinates to compute the gradient histogram of the octagonal region to obtain the set of perspective transformation resistant feature points. In the second stage, we design a coarse-to-fine global optimization matching strategy. Initially, we incorporate motion smoothing constraints and improve the Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors (FLANN) algorithm by utilizing neighborhood information for coarse matching. Then, we eliminate mismatches via homography-guided Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) and further refine the matching using the Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) algorithm to reduce cumulative errors and achieve global optimization. Finally, multi-band blending is used to eliminate the ghosting due to unalignment and make the image transition more natural. Experiments show that the visual effect of dental panoramas generated by the proposed method is significantly better than that of other methods, addressing the problems of sparse splicing discontinuities caused by sparse keypoints, ghosting due to parallax, and distortion caused by the accumulation of errors in multi-image splicing in oral endoscopic image stitching.

Abstract Background Bladder cancer (BCa) is the fourth most common malignant tumor with a poor prognosis worldwide. Further exploration and research are needed to unmask the underlying roles and molecular mechanisms of circular RNAs. In the current study, our findings showed that circXRN2 suppresses tumor progression driven by histone lactylation by activating the Hippo pathway in human bladder cancer. Methods RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) followed by circRNA sequencing confirmed circXRN2 as the research object. Overexpression of circXRN2 and knockdown of TAZ/YAP further verified the biological functions in T24 and TCCSUP cells. RIP, immunoprecipitation and coimmunoprecipitation were used to elucidate the interaction between circXRN2 and LATS1. A Seahorse metabolic analyzer was used to determine the glycolytic rate. Cleavage under targets and Tagmentation (CUT&Tag) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were employed to ensure the regulatory roles of H3K18 lactylation in the transcriptional activity of LCN2. Results CircXRN2 is aberrantly downregulated in bladder cancer tissues and cell lines. CircXRN2 inhibits the proliferation and migration of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, circXRN2 serves as a negative regulator of glycolysis and lactate production. Mechanistically, circXRN2 prevents LATS1 from SPOP-mediated degradation by binding to the SPOP degron and then activates the Hippo signaling pathway to exert various biological functions. The circXRN2-Hippo pathway regulatory axis further modulates tumor progression by inhibiting H3K18 lactylation and LCN2 expression in human bladder cancer. Conclusions CircXRN2 suppresses tumor progression driven by H3K18 lactylation by activating the Hippo signaling pathway in human bladder cancer. Our results indicated novel therapeutic targets and provided promising strategies for clinical intervention in human bladder cancer.

Abstract Based on the emergency rescue, the subsequent disposal, and the development and utilization projects of the Hongshiyan Landside Dam in Ludian, Yunnan, China, research has been conducted on key technical issues facing the development and utilization of landside dams, including the possibilty evaluation of development and utilization, structure analysis of wide gradation material, performance evaluation, investigation and design, dam seepage control, construction technology and equipment, and safe operation assessment. And innovative results has made in all seven aspects mentioned above, writing the history in this field. The achievements were directly applied to the development planning, investigation and design, construction, and operation and maintenance of the Hongshiyan Landside Dam, a comprehensive water conservancy project that integrates flood control, water supply, irrigation, and power generation, with significant comprehensive benefits.

Abstract Light-based 3D bioprinting is now employed widely to fabricate geometrically complex constructs for various biomedical applications. However, the inherent light scattering defect creates significant challenges in patterning dilute hydrogels to form high-fidelity structures with fine-scale features. Herein, we introduce a photoinhibiting approach that can effectively suppress the light scattering effect via a mechanism of simultaneous photoabsorption and free-radical reaction. This biocompatible approach significantly improves the printing resolution (~1.2 - ~2.1 pixels depending on swelling) and shape fidelity (geometric error less than 5%), while minimising the costly trial-and-error procedures. The capability in patterning 3D complex constructs using different hydrogels is demonstrated by manufacturing various scaffolds featuring intricate multi-sized channels and thin-walled networks. Importantly, cellularised gyroid scaffolds (HepG2) are fabricated successfully, exhibiting high cell proliferation and functionality. The strategy established in this study promotes the printability and operability of light-based 3D bioprinting systems, allowing numerous new applications for tissue engineering.

Microchannel heat dissipation systems are widely used in micro-electro mechanical systems owing to their high thermal conductivity and small size. Laser processing has the advantages of high efficiency and no tool contact, and is one of the best ways to process ceramic materials. However, the roughness of the machined surface will significantly affect the heat dissipation performance of the microchannel. In order to study the influence of roughness element characteristics on the heat dissipation efficiency of the micro-channel radiator, the surface roughness was simulated with typical shape, and the influence of different roughness element shape, height and spacing on the pressure field, velocity field and temperature field of the micro-channel radiator was analysed. The results indicate that the semi-circular roughness element has the highest heat transfer efficiency and that the overall flow is stable. With an increase in the height of the roughness element and a reduction in the spacing, the heat transfer efficiency and inlet/outlet pressure drop increased. When the height of the roughness element is 17.2 μm, the heat transfer ability was significantly improved and the pressure drop ratio is reduced by >20% compared with that for a height of 19.5 μm. When the distance between roughness elements is 33.5 μm, the maximum temperature of the heat dissipation system was only 331.85 K. Compared with other models, the temperature of the optimized model is reduced by 14.44K, and the heat transfer efficiency is the highest. The results of heat dissipation experiments show that compared with dry burning temperature, the optimized model can reduce the temperature of the micro-channel heat dissipation system by more than 73 K.

Purpose: This study aims to preserve the volatile components of Linggui Zhugan (LGZG) decoction, offering an experimental foundation for subsequent preparations efforts. Methods: Two modern sample preparation processes were compared with the traditional method approach using HPLC fingerprints. After identifying the main volatile components in LGZG aqueous decoction, the inclusion method of inclusion compounds (IC-LGZG) was established and optimized at laboratory, pilot and production scales. Characterization, stability testing of IC-LGZG, and experiments on gastric ulcer rats were conducted to validate the transferability of chemical composition and pharmaceutical efficacy. Results: The study focused on preserving the volatile components in LGZG modern preparations. HPLC analysis revealed cinnamaldehyde (CA) as the main volatile component in LGZG decoction. The optimized IC-LGZG preparation involved heating aromatic water to 40 °C, adding 20 g/L of β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD), keeping warm and stirring at 300 r for 30 min. This process exhibited good repeatability across different verification tests at varying scales. IC-LGZG obtained effectively transferred CA molecules into the β-CD molecules via encapsulation, remaining stable when stored in sealed and dark conditions. Finally, CA, IC-LGZG and M−LGZG (a mixture of IC-LGZG and water-soluble extract powder) effectively prevented the formation of gastric ulcer by mitigating reductions in IL-10, SOD and the increase of TNF-α, NO, MDA in serum. Conclusion: The IC-LGZG prepared using this process successfully transfers volatile components, both chemically and pharmacologically, making it suitable for modern preparations of LGZG.

Currently, the antibiotics-loaded hydrogels have not shown an over standard of clinical effects on periodontitis treatment. Abnormal crosstalk between macrophages and periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) is a key factor for unexpected clinical efficacy. Here, we reported a therapeutic strategy for the programmed intervention of macrophages and PDLSCs based on folic acid-modified liposome hydrogel composites loaded with genistein (FA-GEN-Lip@Gel). FA-GEN-Lip@Gel exhibited excellent thermos-sensitivity and injectability, could sustained-release genistein for more than 120 h. Flow cytometry showed that FA-GEN-Lip@Gel shifted macrophages from the M1 to M2 phenotype. We further confirmed the anti-inflammatory mechanisms that FA-GEN-Lip@Gel regulate TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB axis in macrophages. In addition, FA-GEN-Lip@Gel could promote osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs via remodeling of cytokine secretion of IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α and IL-10 in macrophages, as verified by conditioned culture system. Therefore, FA-GEN-Lip@Gel significantly reduced periodontal inflammation in vivo according to ELISA, H&E and immunofluorescence staining. Meanwhile, FA-GEN-Lip@Gel promoted alveolar bone regeneration by remodeling RANKL/OPG balance and increasing osteogenic markers of ALP, BMP2 and RUNX2. Altogether, this study develops a novel liposome-hydrogel composites that can be efficiently simultaneously boost inflammation resolution and osteogenic differentiation in periodontitis via modulating the crosstalk between macrophages and PDLSCs.

Study region: The Min River basin, China. Study focus: In order to investigate the ecohydrological response under historical and future land use changes, we simulated daily runoff sequences under different land use scenarios by coupling the PLUS model with the Physical Hydrological Model and quantitatively assessed the ecohydrological impacts of different land use changes in the watershed by combining the IHA method. New hydrological insights for the region: The Min River Basin is dominated by grassland, woodland and, cultivated land which account for 94 % of the total. During the period 2000–2020, the area of cultivated land decreased by 4.47 % overall, and construction land increased by 78.68 % overall. Compared to the base year of 2010, the multi-year average monthly runoff increased under different land use scenarios. The high flow indicators (1 daymax, 7 daymax, and 30 daymax) had the largest increasing trend under the natural development scenario in 2030, 54 m3/s, 33 m3/s, and 24 m3/s, respectively, whereas their increase decreased under the ecological protection scenario in 2030; the low flow indicators (1 daymin, 7 daymin, and 30 daymin) decreased less in the 2030 eco-protection scenario than in the natural development scenario, where they decreased by − 5 m3/s, − 9 m3/s, and − 11 m3/s, respectively. The results of the study contribute to a deeper understanding of the response of watershed hydrological processes to land-use change.

Abstract A novel extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) with flocculating activity produced by Pseudomonas fluorescein isolated from soil was studied in this paper. Firstly, atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) was applied to get a mutant of P. fluorescein with higher EPS production. A mutant T4-2 exhibited a 106.48% increase in flocculating activity compared to the original strain. The maximum EPS yield from T4-2 was enhanced up to 6.42 g/L, nearly 10 times higher than the original strain on a 3.6-L bioreactor with optimized fermentation conditions. Moreover, the flocculating activity of the mutant reached 3023.4 U/mL, 10.96-fold higher than that of T4. Further identification showed that EPS from mutant T4-2 was mainly composed of polysaccharide (76.67%) and protein (15.8%) with a molecular weight of 1.17 × 105 Da. The EPS showed excellent adsorption capacities of 80.13 mg/g for chromium (VI), which was much higher than many reported adsorbents such as chitosan and cellulose. The adsorption results were described by Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG 0, ΔH 0 and ΔS 0) revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Adsorption mechanisms were speculated to be electrostatic interaction, reduction, and chelation. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Using age- and height-adjusted total kidney volume, the Mayo Clinic Imaging Classification provides a validated approach to assess the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), but requires excluding patients with atypical imaging patterns, whose clinical characteristics have been poorly defined. We report an analysis of the prevalence, clinical and genetic characteristics of patients with atypical polycystic kidney disease by imaging. Patients from the extended Toronto Genetic Epidemiology Study of Polycystic Kidney Disease recruited between 2016 and 2018 completed a standardized clinical questionnaire, kidney function assessment, genetic testing, and kidney imaging by magnetic resonance or computed tomography. We compared the prevalence, clinical features, genetics, and renal prognosis of atypical versus typical polycystic kidney disease by imaging. Forty-six of the 523 (8.8%) patients displayed atypical polycystic kidney disease by imaging; they were older (55 vs. 43 years; P

Here, a styrene-based polymer monolithic column poly(VBS-co-TAT-co-AHM) with reversed-phase/hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (RPLC/HILIC) bifunctional separation mode was successfully prepared for capillary electrochromatography by the in situ polymerization of sodium p-styrene sulfonate (VBS) with cross-linkers 3-(acryloyloxy)-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (AHM) and 1,3,5-triacryloylhexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (TAT). The preparation conditions of the monolith were optimized. The morphology and formation of the poly(VBS-co-TAT-co-AHM) monolith were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The separation performances of the monolith were evaluated systematically. It should be noted that the incorporation of VBS functional monomer can provide π−π interactions, hydrophilic interactions, and ion-exchange interactions. Hence, the prepared poly(VBS-co-TAT-co-AHM) monolith can achieve efficient separation of thiourea compounds, benzene series, phenol compounds, aniline compounds and sulfonamides in RPLC or HILIC separation mode. The largest theoretical plate number for N,N′-dimethylthiourea reached 1.7 × 105 plates/m. In addition, the poly(VBS-co-TAT-co-AHM) monolithic column showed excellent reproducibility and stability. This novel monolithic column has great application value and potential in capillary electrochromatography (CEC).

The retina, as an external extension of the diencephalon, can be directly, noninvasively observed by ocular fundus photography. Therefore, it offers a convenient and feasible mode to study nervous system diseases. Caliber, tortuosity, and fractal dimension, as three commonly used retinal vascular parameters, are not only the reflection of structural changes in the retinal microcirculation but also capture the branching pattern or density changes of the retinal microvascular network. Therefore, it contributes to better reflecting the subclinical pathological changes (e.g., lacunar stroke and small cerebral vascular disease) and predicting the risk of incident stroke and recurrent stroke.

The retina is often used to evaluate the vascular health status of eyes and the whole body directly and noninvasively in vivo. Retinal vascular parameters included caliber, tortuosity and fractal dimension. These variables represent the density or geometric characteristics of the vascular network apart from reflecting structural changes in the retinal vessel system. Currently, these parameters are often used as indicators of retinal disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Advanced digital fundus photography apparatus and computer-assisted analysis techniques combined with artificial intelligence, make the quantitative calculation of these parameters easier, objective, and labor-saving.

Traumatic injuries in the central nervous system, such as traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, are associated with tissue inflammation and the infiltration of immune cells, which simultaneously affect the self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells. However, the tissue repair process instigated by endogenous neural stem cells is incapable of restoring central nervous system injuries without external intervention. Recently, resident/peripheral immune cells have been demonstrated to exert significant effects on neural stem cells. Thus, the restoration of traumatic injuries in the central nervous system by the immune intervention in neural stem cells represents a potential therapeutic method. In this review, we discuss the roles and possible mechanisms of immune cells on the self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells along with the prognosis of central nervous system injuries based on immune intervention. Finally, we discuss remaining research challenges that need to be considered in the future. Further elucidation of these challenges will facilitate the successful application of neural stem cells in central nervous system injuries.

River heat flux (HF) regime has been significantly affected by anthropogenic activities and climate variation, and it is of great significance to deeply explore intrinsic driving mechanisms and ecological effects. This study uses the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as its research area and, by constructing the wavelet model and the IHA-RVA model, quantifies the evolution mechanism and internal law of ‘flow- water temperature (WT) – HF’ over the past four decades and investigates the effects of Three Gorges Dam on the ecological reproduction of ‘four major Chinese carp’. The results show that, (1) flow and WT have three change cycle scales; the overall hydrologic variations of flow and WT were 64% and 62%, respectively, close to high variation. (2) The overall HF shows a decreasing trend from 1983 to 2019, with significant changes in HF in spring and winter regulated by the Three Gorges Reservoir; the basin flow-WT-HF relationships exhibit a hysteretic pattern, with the maximum WT occurring one month after the peak HF and flow. (3) The ‘four major Chinese carp’ natural breeding season is closely related to the time when the WT reaches 18 °C; HF is a vital habitat factor that influences fish spawning and reproduction. HIGHLIGHTS Analysis of flow and water temperature changes in the upper reaches of Yangtze River based on wavelet analysis and IHA-RVA model.; Variation of heat fluxes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River around 2003.; Heat flux is one of the important influencing factors on the spawning output of four major Chinese carp, and the suitable heat flux range for spawning of four major Chinese carp is identified.;

Carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbide matrix (Cf/SiC) composites have been widely used in aerospace for its superior properties. However, due to high hardness, heterogeneity, and anisotropy, many problems such as machining damage, low process efficiency, and rapid tool wear are encountered in machining Cf/SiC composite. In this study, laser-induced oxidation-assisted milling (LOAM), as novel hybrid machining process, was proposed to enhance machinability of Cf/SiC composites. Pulsed laser was used to induce reaction between Cf/SiC composites and oxygen. Easily removable loose and porous oxides were produced, which were simultaneously removed with milling tool, leading to improved material removal rate and tool life. Oxidation mechanisms and influences of laser parameters on oxidation behavior of Cf/SiC composite were studied. Conventional milling (CONV) without the assistance of laser was also performed on Cf/SiC composite for comparative analysis. Milling force, tool wear, and surface quality were studied in detail. Under laser irradiation, Cf/SiC composite was modified into metamorphic-layer that consisted of oxide layer and transition layer. Material irradiated with laser got melted, vaporized, and then reacted with oxygen, producing oxide. Oxide layer was formed due to the accumulation of oxide. Increasing laser energy density boosted oxidation reaction and increased the thickness of oxide layer. In contrast, increase in laser scanning speed decreased thickness of oxide layer. Results show that cutting force was extremely low and no tool wear occurred during milling oxide layer, indicating significant enhancement in machinability. Abrasive wear mainly occurred on flank face when milling transition layer. Surface damages, for instance fiber fracture and matrix fragmentation, were significantly contained by LOAM. Surface roughness Sa obtained via LOAM was 9.5 μm, which was lower than that obtained by CONV (35 μm). This study indicates that LOAM can achieve high-efficiency processing, low-defect surface, and prolonged tool life when machining Cf/SiC composite.

Since chondrocytes are highly vulnerable to oxidative stress, an anti-oxidative bioink combined with 3D bioprinting may facilitate its applications in cartilage tissue engineering. We developed an anti-oxidative bioink with methacrylate-modified rutin (RTMA) as an additional bioactive component and glycidyl methacrylate silk fibroin as a biomaterial component. Bioink containing 0% RTMA was used as the control sample. Compared with hydrogel samples produced with the control bioink, solidified anti-oxidative bioinks displayed a similar porous microstructure, which is suitable for cell adhesion and migration, and the transportation of nutrients and wastes. Among photo-cured samples prepared with anti-oxidative bioinks and the control bioink, the sample containing 1 mg/mL of RTMA (RTMA-1) showed good degradation, promising mechanical properties, and the best cytocompatibility, and it was selected for further investigation. Based on the results of 3D bioprinting tests, the RTMA-1 bioink exhibited good printability and high shape fidelity. The results demonstrated that RTMA-1 reduced intracellular oxidative stress in encapsulated chondrocytes under H2O2 stimulation, which results from upregulation of COLII and AGG and downregulation of MMP13 and MMP1. By using in vitro and in vivo tests, our data suggest that the RTMA-1 bioink significantly enhanced the regeneration and maturation of cartilage tissue compared to the control bioink, indicating that this anti-oxidative bioink can be used for 3D bioprinting and cartilage tissue engineering applications in the future.

The aerospace community widely uses difficult-to-cut materials, such as titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys, metal/ceramic/polymer matrix composites, hard and brittle materials, and geometrically complex components, such as thin-walled structures, microchannels, and complex surfaces. Mechanical machining is the main material removal process for the vast majority of aerospace components. However, many problems exist, including severe and rapid tool wear, low machining efficiency, and poor surface integrity. Nontraditional energy-assisted mechanical machining is a hybrid process that uses nontraditional energies (vibration, laser, electricity, etc) to improve the machinability of local materials and decrease the burden of mechanical machining. This provides a feasible and promising method to improve the material removal rate and surface quality, reduce process forces, and prolong tool life. However, systematic reviews of this technology are lacking with respect to the current research status and development direction. This paper reviews the recent progress in the nontraditional energy-assisted mechanical machining of difficult-to-cut materials and components in the aerospace community. In addition, this paper focuses on the processing principles, material responses under nontraditional energy, resultant forces and temperatures, material removal mechanisms, and applications of these processes, including vibration-, laser-, electric-, magnetic-, chemical-, advanced coolant-, and hybrid nontraditional energy-assisted mechanical machining. Finally, a comprehensive summary of the principles, advantages, and limitations of each hybrid process is provided, and future perspectives on forward design, device development, and sustainability of nontraditional energy-assisted mechanical machining processes are discussed.

Numerous antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factors (VFs) found in animal manure pose significant risks to human health. However, the effects of graphene sodium selenite (GSSe), a novel chemical nano-Selenium, and biological nano-Selenium (BNSSe), a new bioaugmentation nano-Se, on bacterial Se metabolism, chemotaxis, ARGs, and VFs in animal manure remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of GSSe and BNSSe on ARGs and VFs expression in broiler manure using high-throughput sequencing. Results showed that BNSSe reduced Se pressure during anaerobic fermentation by inhibiting bacterial selenocompound metabolism pathways, thereby lowering manure Selenium pollution. Additionally, the expression levels of ARGs and VFs were lower in the BNSSe group compared to the Sodium Selenite and GSSe groups, as BNSSe inhibited bacterial chemotaxis pathways. Co-occurrence network analysis identified ARGs and VFs within the following phyla Bacteroidetes (genera Butyricimonas, Odoribacter, Paraprevotella, and Rikenella), Firmicutes (genera Lactobacillus, Candidatus_Borkfalkia, Merdimonas, Oscillibacter, Intestinimonas, and Megamonas), and Proteobacteria (genera Desulfovibrio). The expression and abundance of ARGs and VFs genes were found to be associated with ARGs-VFs coexistence. Moreover, BNSSe disruption of bacterial selenocompound metabolism and chemotaxis pathways resulted in less frequent transfer of ARGs and VFs. These findings indicate that BNSSe can reduce ARGs and VFs expression in animal manure by suppressing bacterial selenocompound metabolism and chemotaxis pathways.

Nocaviogua A (1) and B (2), two lipolanthines featuring a non-canonical avionin (Avi)-containing macrocycle and a long acyl chain, were identified from the mutualistic actinomycete Nocardia sp. XZ19_369, which was isolated from the nodules of sea buckthorn collected in Tibet. Their planar structures were elucidated via extensive analyses of 1D and 2D NMR, as well as HRMS data. The absolute configurations were fully elucidated by advanced Marfey’s analysis and GIAO NMR calculations, representing the first time that the configurations of this family of lipolanthines have been determined. Nocaviogua A (1) exhibited weak cytotoxicity against human chronic uveal melanoma cells (UM92-1), non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H2170), and breast cancer (MDA-MB-231). Our work provides valuable information on this burgeoning class of lipolanthines for further investigations.

Accurate air conditioning load prediction is a key component of intelligent building management system for ensuring energy saving and safe operation of air conditioning system. In order to improve the prediction accuracy, a particle filter (PF) load prediction fusion estimation method based on long short-term memory (LSTM) and back propagation neural network (BP) is proposed. Firstly, spearman correlation analysis is used to select the influencing factors with high correlation as feature input. Aiming at the problem that the original signal is easy to be disturbed by noise and the data features are not obvious, locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) method is used to denoise the data to improve the data quality for further accurate prediction. Secondly, the data-driven air conditioning load state-space representation is established, which takes air conditioning load as the state variable and takes the load features collected by the sensor in real-time as the input variables. Thirdly, combined with the space representation method of air conditioning load based on LSTM-BP, PF is introduced to estimate the air conditioning load by using the fusion model. Meanwhile, the output load value of BP is fed back to the fusion model as the observation value to update the state-space representation of air conditioning load. Finally, two practical cases are used to verify the effectiveness of the method. The results indicate that the proposed method can provide more accurate and robust air conditioning load prediction.

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease. Broad knowledge about the genetics, epidemiology and clinical management of T1D has been achieved, but understandings about the cell varieties in the bone marrow during T1D remain limited. Objectives: We aimed to present a profile of the bone marrow cells and reveal the relationship of bone marrow and osteopenia in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced T1D mice. Methods: The whole bone marrow cells from the femurs and tibias of healthy (group C) and STZ-induced T1D mice (group D) were collected for single-cell RNA sequencing analysis. Single-cell flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry were performed to confirm the proportional changes among bone marrow neutrophils (BM-neutrophils) (Cxcr2+, Ly6g+) and B lymphocytes (Cd19+). X-ray and micro-CT were performed to detect bone mineral density. The correlation between the ratio of BM-neutrophils/B lymphocytes and osteopenia in STZ-induced T1D mice was analyzed by nonparametric Spearman correlation analysis. Results: The bone marrow cells in groups C and D were divided into 12 clusters, and 249 differentially expressed genes were found. The diversity of CD45+ immune cells between groups C and D were greatly affected: the proportion of BM-neutrophils showed a significant increase while the proportion of B lymphocytes in group D showed a significant decrease. X-ray and micro-CT analyses confirmed that osteopenia occurred in group D mice. In addition, the results of single-cell flow cytometry and correlation analysis showed that the ratio of BM-neutrophils/B lymphocytes negatively correlated with osteopenia in STZ-induced T1D mice. Conclusion: A single-cell RNA sequencing analysis revealed the profile and heterogeneity of bone marrow immune cells in STZ-induced T1D mice for the first time. The ratio of BM-neutrophils/B lymphocytes negatively correlated with osteopenia in STZ-induced T1D mice, which may enhance understanding for treating T1D and preventing T1D-induced osteopenia.

Hydrogel electrolytes, which feature intriguing characteristics of being soft and wet, accompanied with high solubility of zinc salts, are especially advantageous for fabricating flexible Zn-based batteries. Furthermore, the abundant and tunable chemistries of hydrogels offer opportunities to bestow novel affiliated functionalities, such as super toughness, extreme temperature tolerance, stimuli-responsive properties, and self-healing capability, by engineering polymer chains and chemical structures to fabricate flexible batteries with unprecedentedly scintillating functions. Herein, the design principles of functional hydrogel electrolytes including polymer chemistry, synthesis methods, characterisation and versatility demonstration for flexible Zn-based batteries are comprehensively reviewed. Relevant challenges and perspectives are also analysed and discussed.

Abstract Self‐triggered control strategy has been widely applied in cyber–physical systems, which are unavoidable to suffer various malicious cyber‐attacks. This paper is aimed at solving the cyber security problem of self‐triggered model predictive control in cyber–physical systems under false data injection attack, and a resilient control strategy is proposed based on control signal reconstruction. Firstly, the continuous control signal is discretely sampled at the controller side, and the key data samples are determined and protected. Then, the discretised control samples are transmitted through the network channel, based on which the control signal is reconstructed at the controlled system side according to a preset mode. It is further theoretically proved that the control signals reconstructed from the critical control samples can guarantee the feasibility and stability of the control system against the FDI attacks. Finally, a simulation verification on a robot system is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

A sensitive and rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was hereby developed for the determination of seven components, namely, glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhetinic acid, dehydrotumulosic acid, isoliquiritin, liquiritin, atractylenolide III, and cinnamic acid, in the plasma of rats after the oral administration of Ling-Gui-Zhu-Gan decoction (LGZGD). Besides, this very method was methodologically validated for specificity, linearity, inter-day and intra-day precision, accuracy, matrix effect, extraction recovery, and stability. It was also successfully used for the first time to compare the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the seven components after oral administration of LGZGD to normal rats and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rats. The results indicated significant differences between the pharmacokinetic characteristics of normal and NAFLD rats. To further reveal the different pharmacokinetic behaviors, the expressions of enzymes and transporters in the liver of normal and NAFLD rats were detected using UPLC-MS/MS. In the NAFLD rats, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1-1 (UGT1A1) and nine transporters were significantly inhibited and a positive correlation was observed between them and the AUC of the major components. The present results indicate that the pharmacokinetic differences between the normal and NAFLD rats might be attributed to the significant lower expression levels of both the metabolic enzyme UGT1A1 and nine transporter proteins in the NAFLD rats than in the normal rats. Meanwhile, UGT1A1 and the nine transporter proteins might be used as potential biomarkers to assess the ameliorative effect of LGZGD on NAFLD, which could provide useful information to guide the clinical application of LGZGD.

The aim of this study was to conduct a screening of potential therapeutic compounds found in the Atractylodes macrocephala rhizoma essential oil (AO) and explore its mechanism of action in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). An inflammation cell model was employed in conjunction with phospho-antibody array technology to explore potential therapeutic compounds of AO and their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Furthermore, we assessed their efficacy and mechanisms of action in treating dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. Via the screening process, we identified atractylone (ATR) as the primary active compound in AO. It has been demonstrated that ATR can both decrease the levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increase the expression of adhesion proteins such as claudin, ZO-1, and occludin in vitro. Moreover, ATR has been shown to improve UC symptoms in vivo. Via a non-targeted metabolomics analysis of colon tissue, we identified 57 distinct metabolites that responded to ATR treatment. Subsequent analysis of the metabolic pathways revealed that the action of ATR was primarily focused on the amino acid metabolism pathway. In summary, ATR may alleviate the symptoms of UC by regulating multiple signaling pathways. Additionally, ATR has a comprehensive function in anti-inflammation, antioxidative stress, and intestinal injury reduction.

Few-shot semantic segmentation (FSS) is committed to segmenting new classes with only a few labels. Generally, FSS assumes that base classes and novel classes belong to the same domain, which limits FSS’s application in a wide range of areas. In particular, since annotation is time-consuming, it is not cost-effective to process remote sensing images using FSS. To address this issue, we designed a feature transformation network (FTNet) for learning to few-shot segment remote sensing images from irrelevant data (FSS-RSI). The main idea is to train networks on irrelevant, already labeled data but inference on remote sensing images. In other words, the training and testing data neither belong to the same domain nor category. The FTNet contains two main modules: a feature transformation module (FTM) and a hierarchical transformer module (HTM). Among them, the FTM transforms features into a domain-agnostic high-level anchor, and the HTM hierarchically enhances matching between support and query features. Moreover, to promote the development of FSS-RSI, we established a new benchmark, which other researchers may use. Our experiments demonstrate that our model outperforms the cutting-edge few-shot semantic segmentation method by 25.39% and 21.31% in the one-shot and five-shot settings, respectively.

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) are extracellular macromolecules in bacteria, which function in cell growth and show potential for mechanism study and biosynthesis application. However, the biosynthesis mechanism of EPS is still not clear. We herein chose Bacillus licheniformis CGMCC 2876 as a target strain to investigate the EPS biosynthesis. epsK, a member of eps cluster, the predicted polysaccharide synthesis cluster, was overexpressed and showed that the overexpression of epsK led to a 26.54% decrease in the production of EPS and resulted in slenderer cell shape. Transcriptome analysis combined with protein-protein interactions analysis and protein modeling revealed that epsK was likely responsible for the synthesis of teichuronic acid, a substitute cell wall component of teichoic acid when the strain was suffering phosphate limitation. Further cell cultivation showed that either phosphate limitation or the overexpression of teichuronic acid synthesis genes, tuaB and tuaE could similarly lead to EPS reduction. The enhanced production of teichuronic acid induced by epsK overexpression triggered the endogenous phosphate starvation, resulting in the decreased EPS synthesis and biomass, and the enhanced bacterial chemotaxis. This study presents an insight into the mechanism of EPS synthesis and offers the potential in controllable synthesis of target products.

Objective During major resection of liver carcinoma, liver regeneration (LR) is induced by various clinical and biological factors. Heme oxygenase (HO)-1 has been found as a key inducer of LR in preclinical trial. The clinical evidence for the role of HO-1 in liver dysfunction (LD) including LR is still unknown and has been included in this study. Methods Therefore, plasma HO-1 were monitored during perioperative period in 65 patients with hepatectomy, with 35 training and 30 validation cohorts. LD were evaluated by liver function serum markers and calculation of regeneration indices, respectively. Results In the training setting, HO-1 levels were remarkably reduced after liver resection (P

Laser ablation is demonstrated to be a competent approach to processing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond which is admitted to own poor machinability and is accordingly arduous to machine using conventional techniques. Notwithstanding, initial laser absorption by defects typically precipitates undesirable ablation quality and an increment in internal defects. The strategy of metal-coating-assisted laser ablation, which applies a coating on the diamond prior to laser irradiation to curtail defects and advance the quality of the ablated surface, is proposed in this study. In addition, an absorptivity-based laser energy distribution model is established to evaluate surface roughness and ablation depth. It can be concluded that the metal coating prevents local graphitization during the early ablation stage. The laser ablation of Ti-coated diamond surfaces resulted in a maximum reduction in surface roughness of 42.6% and 53%, respectively, for 100 and 500 nm coating, in comparison to that with the uncoated surfaces. Besides, the ablation depth of the laser-ablated 500 nm coating surface abates and reaches 21% in comparison with the uncoated diamond, while the 100 nm coating has a negligible effect on the ablation depth. In summary, the application of thin coatings on diamond prior to laser ablation results in homogeneous graphitization and a better surface finish with a marginal reduction in ablation depth.