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Depression is a worldwide disease which has a great impact on peoples mental health and social functioning. Finding the factor causing depression is the precondition of treatment. This area has been investigated by enormous researchers. This paper reviews the researches about depression, including the effect of depression on brain, the relationship between tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) and depression and treatment. These references indicate that depression can affect the structure of brain, including synaptic plasticity and hippocampal volumetric changes and so on. Mutated TPH2 is a major reason of depression. This mutation will inhibit the expression of TPH2 and affect the produce of serotonin. Moreover, researchers are able to use mice to do experiments on TPH2, because TPH2 is conserved between human and mice. Medication can be used to treat depression and its the main way to treat it. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) can also be used to treat it, but now it has some technical problems in treating human and also have some ethical problem because it will change patients gene.

Ecosystem services has been widely explored in various theoretical or practical studies since its emergence more than 20 years ago. The two big issues in the past golden era of ecosystem services research were: ecosystem services valuing and ecosystem services trade-offs. We analyzed advantages of ecosystem services in promoting the attention that government and the public pay to the natural capital and the management of ecosystem services, together with summarizing the shortcomings. It was found that ecosystem services valuing made the public aware of the importance of natural capital from an economic perspective, while ecosystem services trade-offs highlighted the relationship between various ecosystem services from an ecological perspective, which could be better applied to ecosystem services-based ecosystem management. With an increasing number of papers focusing on ecosystem services flows, it is believed that ecosystem services flows integrating ecology, economy, sociology and geography disciplines will become a new key direction after ecosystem services valuing and trade-offs. To further promote the study of ecosystem services flows that link human and nature within geographical context, we need to focus on the value of ecosystem services flows with payment and benefit accounting, the relationship of ecosystem services flows by trade-off and synergy analysis, and the direction of ecosystem services flows by spatial and temporal assessment. In addition, a more efficient and widely recognized method is also essential for the development of quantifying ecosystem services flow. This study contributes to understanding the development stage of ecosystem services research and highlights the importance of ecosystem services flow research.

While the manufacturing process of ceramics is complex and each link is important to the ceramic, we focus on the sintering process of ceramics and construct models and algorithms to investigate the temperature of the ceramic sintering process in order to improve the yield of the ceramic sinter. We make full use of the ceramic sintering process node temperature and ceramic product problem data, adopt factor analysis for data dimensionality reduction, and use principal component analysis to extract factors to improve efficiency for subsequent optimisation. The random forest algorithm of integrated machine learning is used to investigate the effect of different nodal temperature rates on the ceramic product, and a decision tree is derived to identify the more influential temperature rates. These obtained important temperature factors affecting ceramic sintering can be used as a reference for the ceramic sintering process, thus achieving a study of the temperature of the ceramic sintering process.

The COVID-19 outbreak has created turbulence and uncertainty into multiple aspects of life in countries around the world. In China, the pandemic continues to pose a great challenge to the nature of traditional in-class education in schools. Chinese education has faced the difficult decision of whether to resume in-person teaching in an unprecedented and time-pressured manner. To ensure the quality of teaching and learning during this time, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of an "online + in-person" hybrid teaching model with a new three-part approach to the hybrid teaching lab, where students prepare for the in-person lab using virtual simulated experiments and learning modules and debrief their learning afterwards online as well. This approach not only enhances the efficiency during the in-person lab but also strongly reinforces concepts and laboratory skills by providing a "practice run" before physically attending the lab. A total of 400 medical undergraduates from Dalian Medical University in China were recruited for this study. In an undergraduate molecular biology laboratory course, we observed 200 students in a hybrid teaching model. We evaluated the learning outcomes from the "online + in-person" hybrid teaching model with a questionnaire survey and assessed the quality of experiment execution, report writing, and group collaboration. Moreover, the 200 students from the hybrid group were evaluated during an annual science competition at the university and compared to 200 students from the competition cohort who had no experience with a hybrid learning model. The comparison data were analyzed using a student's t-test statistical analysis. The students in the hybrid learning group demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for the model, high amount of time utilizing the online system, and high scores on laboratory evaluation assignments. Approximately 98% of the hybrid learning students reported that they preferred mixed teaching to the traditional teaching mode, and all students scored above 96% on the online laboratory report. Teachers of the course observed that the hybrid group had a noticeably higher level of proficiency in lab skills compared to the previous students. At the Dalian Medical University annual science competition, where we compared our hybrid group to a traditional learning group, scores for both the objective and subjective items showed that the students instructed with the hybrid lab model had superior performance (p 0.05). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a new three-part molecular biology laboratory course that strongly improved students' laboratory skills, knowledge retention, and enthusiasm for the course using online learning to improve their learning efficiency and expedite the in-person laboratory experience. We found that these students performed at a higher level in a combined theoretical/practical science competition compared to the students in traditional in-person lab courses. Additionally, our model subjectively fostered enthusiasm and excellence in both teachers and students. Further, cultivation of the students' independent learning and creative problem solving skills were emphasized. The exploration of an effective teaching model, such as the one described here, not only provides students with a solid foundation for their future medical studies and career development but also promotes more efficient in-person laboratory time.

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been proven to accelerate the healing of the tendon-bone interface (TBI), and macrophages are considered to play an important regulatory role. This study was designed to explore the polarization of macrophages during treatment of TBI injury with LIPUS. In a rat model of rotator cuff tear, LIPUS or mock sonication (controls) was administered from 1 week postoperatively. The supraspinatus-supraspinatus tendon-humerus complexes were harvested for further evaluation at different time points for measures such as new bone formation, TBI maturity, ultimate failure load and stiffness, and types of macrophages. In vitro, bone marrow-derived macrophages were cultured, and polarization was identified after stimulation with or without LIPUS (the LIPUS or control groups, respectively). Two weeks posttreatment, the LIPUS group showed higher bone volume/total volume ratios and better TBI maturity scores. Six weeks posttreatment, the failure load of the LIPUS group was significantly higher than that of the control group. LIPUS also accelerated initial inflammatory macrophage accumulation and facilitated anti-inflammatory macrophage polarization (M2) in the late period. In the in vitro macrophage polarization model, the LIPUS group showed a higher proportion of M2 macrophages and mRNA expression of anti-inflammatory genes than the control group, while there was no significant difference in the proinflammatory macrophages between the two groups. Our observations revealed that macrophage polarization may be a potential mechanism of LIPUS treatment for TBI repair.

The traditional topic-based auditing model lacks the ability of multi-object and multi-abnormal correlation auditing, which makes it impossible to solve the multi-scenario and multi-factor correlation-based auditing problem. This paper designs an intelligent power marketing audit model based on a knowledge graph. First, an entity identification and relationship extraction method for power marketing business based on NLP (natural language processing) and sequence annotation technology is proposed, and the description content is imported into the knowledge graph database; then, semantic disambiguation and knowledge are carried out by using bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT). Link to build a knowledge map of business audit rules: Finally, an experimental analysis is carried out by taking the copying and receiving business with a large business volume in the marketing audit work as an example, and it is verified that the proposed model can effectively improve the information analysis ability and the audit accuracy of the audit work.

Erlotinib is a first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI). Overcoming erlotinib resistance is crucial to improve the survival of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with sensitive EGFR mutations. It is also an important clinical problem that urgently needs a solution. In this study, we explored strategies to overcome erlotinib resistance from the perspective of energy metabolism. SIRT6 is a histone deacetylase. Here, we found that high expression of SIRT6 is associated with poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma, especially in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients. The next cell experiment found that SIRT6 expression increased in erlotinib-resistant cells, and SIRT6 expression was negatively correlated with the sensitivity of NSCLC to erlotinib. Inhibition of SIRT6 promoted erlotinib-induced apoptosis in erlotinib-resistant cells, and glycolysis in drug-resistant cells was also inhibited. Functional studies have shown that SIRT6 increases glycolysis through the HIF-1α/HK2 signaling axis in drug-resistant cells and inhibits the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to erlotinib. In addition, the HIF-1α blocker PX478-2HCL attenuated the glycolysis and erlotinib resistance induced by SIRT6. More importantly, we confirmed the antitumor effect of SIRT6 inhibition combined with erlotinib in NSCLC-bearing mice. Our findings indicate that the cancer metabolic pathway regulated by SIRT6 may be a new target for attenuating NSCLC erlotinib resistance and has potential as a biomarker or therapeutic target to improve outcomes in NSCLC patients.

Metalens has emerged as an important optical block in free-space optical systems, which shows excellent performance. Even the metalens based on gradient index (GRIN) profiles can be implemented for on-chip beam focusing behavior. However, for most previous schemes, the GRIN metalenses can only achieve on-chip beam focusing behavior in one dimension, which limits their applications in low-loss waveguide interconnecting or fiber-to-chip coupling. In this paper, an on-chip half Maxwell’s fisheye lens based on GRIN profiles with subwavelength features, integrated with silicon waveguides, is experimentally demonstrated. Benefitting from the index distribution and beam focusing characteristics of the half Maxwell’s fisheye lens, an on-chip beam transforming can be achieved for transverse electric (TE) fundamental mode in two waveguides with different heights and widths. The simulated 1 dB bandwidth can reach 1100 nm, which exhibits great prospects in integrated photonic circuits. The measured insertion loss of an on-chip 5.4 μm-length lens is less than 1 dB to connect a 220 nm-height, 8 μm-wide waveguide, and a 60 nm-height, 0.5 μm-wide waveguide in the wavelength range of 1280–1620 nm.

To investigate the value of the combined diagnosis of multiparametric MRI-based deep learning models to differentiate triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) from fibroadenoma magnetic resonance Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System category 4 (BI-RADS 4) lesions and to evaluate whether the combined diagnosis of these models could improve the diagnostic performance of radiologists.A total of 319 female patients with 319 pathologically confirmed BI-RADS 4 lesions were randomly divided into training, validation, and testing sets in this retrospective study. The three models were established based on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging, and T2-weighted imaging using the training and validation sets. The artificial intelligence (AI) combination score was calculated according to the results of three models. The diagnostic performances of four radiologists with and without AI assistance were compared with the AI combination score on the testing set. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and weighted kappa value were calculated to assess the performance.The AI combination score yielded an excellent performance (AUC = 0.944) on the testing set. With AI assistance, the AUC for the diagnosis of junior radiologist 1 (JR1) increased from 0.833 to 0.885, and that for JR2 increased from 0.823 to 0.876. The AUCs of senior radiologist 1 (SR1) and SR2 slightly increased from 0.901 and 0.950 to 0.925 and 0.975 after AI assistance, respectively.Combined diagnosis of multiparametric MRI-based deep learning models to differentiate TNBC from fibroadenoma magnetic resonance BI-RADS 4 lesions can achieve comparable performance to that of SRs and improve the diagnostic performance of JRs.

This study aimed to analyze the marketing strategies that influence consumer satisfaction during the pandemic. Refer to the literature related to consumer satisfaction, consumer loyalty and 4p theory. This paper used the SWOT analysis method to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese luxury hotels in detail. This study object is luxury hotels in China, which fill the gap in related fields. Combined with the market situation of Chinese hotel industry environment, this paper analyzed the opportunities and challenges of the Chinese hotel industry after the pandemic. This analysis showed that in some special periods, it is beneficial to improve customer satisfaction when Chinese luxury hotels appropriately reduce their product prices. Hotels can also carry out strategic cooperation with other industries to maintain competitiveness. In this study, the 4p theory was used to verify the conjecture, and suggestions to improve customer satisfaction were given according to the analysis.

Osteocalcin (Ocn), also known as bone Gla protein, is synthesized by osteoblasts and thought to regulate energy metabolism, testosterone synthesis and brain development. However, its function in bone is not fully understood. Mice have three Ocn genes: Bglap, Bglap2 and Bglap3. Due to the long span of these genes in the mouse genome and the low expression of Bglap3 in bone, researchers commonly use Bglap and Bglap2 knockout mice to investigate the function of Ocn. However, it is unclear whether Bglap3 has any compensatory mechanisms when Bglap and Bglap2 are knocked out. Considering the controversy surrounding the role of Ocn in bone, we constructed an Ocn-deficient mouse model by knocking out all three genes (Ocn−/−) and analyzed bone quality by Raman spectroscopy (RS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and MicroCT (μCT). The RS test showed that the alignment of hydroxyapatite crystals and collagen fibers was significantly poorer in Ocn−/− mice than in wild-type (WT) mice. Ocn deficiency resulted in a looser surface structure of bone particles and a larger gap area proportion. FTIR analysis showed few differences in bone mineral index between WT and Ocn−/− mice, while μCT analysis showed no significant difference in cortical and trabecular regions. However, under tail-suspension simulating bone loss condition, the disorder of hydroxyapatite and collagen fiber alignment in Ocn−/− mice led to more obvious changes in bone mineral composition. Collectively, our results revealed that Ocn is necessary for regulating the alignment of minerals parallel to collagen fibrils.

BackgroundSpinal schwannomas (SSs) are benign tumors affecting the nerve sheath, accounting for 25% of spinal nerve root tumors. Surgery represents the mainstay of treatment for SS patients. Following surgery, approximately 30% of patients experienced developed new or worsening neurological deterioration, which probably represented an inevitable complication of nerve sheath tumor surgery. The objective of this study was to identify the rates of new or worsening neurological deterioration in our center and accurately predict the neurological outcomes of patients with SS by developing a new scoring model.MethodsA total of 203 patients were retrospectively enrolled at our center. Risk factors associated with postoperative neurological deterioration were identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis. β–coefficients for independent risk factors were used to define a numerical score to generate a scoring model. The validation cohort at our center was used to verify the accuracy and reliability of the scoring model. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the scoring model.ResultsIn this study, five measured variables were selected for the scoring model: duration of preoperative symptoms (1 point), radiating pain (2 points), tumor size (2 points), tumor site (1 point), and dumbbell tumor (1 point). The scoring model divided the spinal schwannoma patients into three categories: low risk (0-2 points), intermediate risk (3-5 points), and high risk (6-7 points), with predicted risks of neurological deterioration of 8.7%, 36%, and 87.5%, respectively. And the validation cohort confirmed the model with the predicted risks of 8.6%, 46.4%, and 66.6%, respectively.ConclusionThe new scoring model might intuitively and individually predict the risk of neurological deterioration and may aid individualized treatment decision-making for SS patients.

Chronic heat stress caused by global warming can have serious implications for fish survival. The kidney plays a central role in many homeostatic functions, including water and electrolyte regulation, as well as acid-base balance. However, there is limited knowledge about the effect of heat stress on fish kidneys, especially in cold-water fish species. In this study, we investigated the effects of mild heat stress (24℃, M) and high heat stress (28℃, H) on A. baerii kidneys using histological observation, flow cytometry detection, and RT-qPCR. Our histological observations revealed that heat stress significantly caused infiltration of inflammatory cells in the kidney, especially at 28℃. The flow cytometry assay demonstrated a significant increase in the number of apoptotic cells after heat stress at 28°C compared to the control group at 20°C (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the mRNA expression levels of inflammation factors (IL-1β and TNF-α) did not differ significantly. However, the mRNA expression levels of heat shock proteins (HSP70, HSP90, and GRP75) were increased in A. baerii. In summary, this study provides insight into the effect of heat stress on A. baerii kidneys and contributes to understanding the coping strategies of cold-water fish to chronic heat stress.

BACKGROUND The applications of virtual reality in healthcare grows rapidly in China, where around half of the population have direct exposure to secondhand smoke. OBJECTIVE In a simulated environment of exposure to second-hand smoke, the current study explores the emotional and behavioral responses to enhanced social presence brought by virtual reality in contrast to flatscreen videos. METHODS 2 (VR vs. flatscreen) X 2 (high threat vs. low threat) experimental design. RESULTS the path model finds that both factors strongly influence social presence, which directly affects emotional responses (anger, disgust, and fear) and indirectly influences behavioral inten-tions (interfere and evade) towards second-hand smoking. CONCLUSIONS These results suggested that VR environment could be a better stimulator of anti-secondhand smoke emotions and behaviors than flatscreen videos.

Here we describedPerturbSci-Kinetics, a novel combinatorial indexing method for capturing three-layer single-cell readout (i.e.,whole transcriptomes, nascent transcriptomes, sgRNA identities) across hundreds of genetic perturbations. ThroughPerturbSci-Kineticsprofiling of pooled CRISPR screens targeting a variety of biological processes, we were able to decipher the complexity of RNA regulations at multiple levels (e.g.,synthesis, processing, degradation), and revealed key regulators involved in miRNA and mitochondrial RNA processing pathways. Our technique opens the possibility of systematically decoding the genome-wide regulatory network underlying RNA temporal dynamics at scale and cost-effectively.

Cancer therapies have made tremendous progress in the last decade, but monotherapy still has apparent limitations and lacks therapeutic efficacy. Thus, the simultaneous administration of multiple drugs has been widely explored and has shown better outcomes. Exosomes, deriving from almost all living cells, are natural nanocarriers designed to deliver drugs to tumor sites. Therefore, combinational antitumor therapies based on exosomes, such as engineered exosomes and different combinations of chemotherapeutic agents, therapeutic nucleic acids, photosensitizers, immunotherapy and phytochemicals, have considerable prospects and potential for clinical translation. Here, we summarize current strategies of cancer combination therapy in exosomes and propose opportunities and challenges in the future.

Background COVID-2019 has become a public health crisis, and as a vulnerable group, people with disabilities (PWDs) might be more seriously affected. However, the overall impact of COVID-19 on PWDs is unclear in Mainland China. Thus, we aimed to analyze the overall impact on PWDs from the early remission stage to the regular control stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mainland China. Methods In March 2020 and March 2021, anonymous questionnaires were distributed in the WeChat group of the PWDs using a convenient sampling method. The personal and family characteristics, perceived risk of COVID-19 infection, and the overall impact of COVID-19 on daily life and medical services needs were collected. The descriptive analysis, chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression analysis were used. Results 311 and 1083 PWDs were enrolled in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In 2020, 82.0% of the participants reported a negative impact on their daily life, and the proportion of big impact was 20.3%. In 2021, 73.1% of PWDs reported a negative impact on their daily life. Multivariate analysis found the impact on medical services needs was the common associated factor of the overall impact on daily life in 2020 and 2021, and PWDs with lower annual household income or chronic diseases were more likely to suffer bigger negative effects in 2020, while being in quarantine or not at work, having items in shortage and with less disability severity (without multiple disabilities or spinal cord injury) were the associated factors in 2021. Based on the matching method, we found that the overall impact on the daily life of PWDs decreased in 2021. Conclusions A majority of the PWDs reported a negative impact on their daily life in Mainland China at the early remission stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact has significantly weakened during the normal control period in 2021. It is recommended to fulfill the medical service needs of PWDs in a timely manner, and those being in quarantine or not at work, without SCI or multiple disabilities, and reporting some items in shortage suffered a bigger major overall COVID-19 impact on daily life.

Ischemic stroke is one of the world's leading causes of death and disability. During ischemic stroke, neuronal death is caused by inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and excitatory toxicity. For a long time, there has been a lot of interest in various studies to promote the repair of nerve damage after stroke. However, the mechanisms underlying the complex pathophysiological processes remain to be fully elucidated. Cerebral Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate (Rac) 1 was initially associated with poor prognosis after stroke. However, some recent studies suggest that Rac1 may contribute to the repair process of nerve injury after stroke and promote the recovery of nerve function. However, the current conflicting findings may be related to the timing of Rac1 interventions. Our study found that post-acute Rac1 activation contributes to ischemic recovery. Here, we first investigated the specific role of neuron Rac1 in neuroprotection and recovery of neurological function in the post-acute phase of stroke. We found that intraventricular injection of Rac1 activator beginning one week after MACO significantly improved brain atrophy and neurological function after MACO. Considering the important role of Rac1 in cell migration. In vitro experiments, we found that Rac1 induced NSCs migration after exogenous and endogenous activator stimulation. In vivo, the addition of Rac1 activator in the post-acute phase helped promote the migration of NSCs in SVC to the lesion area and differentiation into mature nerve cells. It is worth noting that Pak1 is an essential downstream protein of Rac1. Our results suggest that while Rac1 activates Pak1, Pak1 can promote the migration and differentiation of neural stem cells through the downstream p38/β-catenin signalling pathway. While promoting neurogenesis, we found that Rac1 promoted angiogenesis and axon remodelling, and enhanced the synaptic plasticity to support the process of nerve repair during the post-acute phase via downstream Pak1/p38/β-catenin signalling. It suggests that Rac1/Pak1/p38/β-catenin signalling may be a potential therapeutic target in the recovery stage of ischemic stroke.

Contract energy management model is a new energy saving mode based on single market mechanism. Due to its externality, the energy efficiency market cannot realize the optimal allocation of resources. Government energy-saving subsidy can solve the market failure of energy-saving service market and improve the performance level of energy-saving services company. However, due to the unbalanced support fields and single incentive tools in the government incentive policy, the incentive effect of the government subsidy policies for contract energy management projects is not satisfactory. Based on a two-stage dynamic decision-making model, this article analyzes the impact of different forms of government subsidy policies on the performance level decision-making of Energy Service Company, and draws the following conclusions. (1) The effect of the government's variable subsidy policy with payment conditions is better than the fixed subsidy policy without payment conditions. (2) Government incentive policy for contract energy management needs to be directed against different energy saving fields. (3) The government should adopt different forms of incentive policies for energy saving service companies with different energy saving levels in the same energy saving field. (4) When the government implements the variable subsidy policy with preset energy saving target, each within a reasonable range, with the increase of which, the incentive effect on energy saving service companies with lower energy saving level decreases. When the subsidy policy has no incentive effect, it is more unfavorable for the energy saving service companies which are below the average level of the industry.

The geographical environment and climate may affect the quality and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of Tibetan pork. In this study, the physicochemical indices and VOCs of Tibetan pork from Beichuan, Sichuan (BS); Meishan, Sichuan (MS); Aba, Sichuan (AS); Tongchuan, Shaanxi (TS); and Diqing, Yunnan (DY) China were determined by headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) with chemometrics methods. A discriminant model was established to screen the potential volatile markers of pork from different geographical locations. Tibetan pork maintains the advantages of high protein and low fat after being introduced to low-altitude areas. A total of 40 VOCs were identified from Tibetan pork, including aldehydes, esters, alcohols, hydrocarbons, acids, ketones, and sulfur heterocyclics. Tibetan pork from the locations was distinguished by principal component analysis (PCA). Moreover, nine volatile markers, including hexanal, benzaldehyde, 2-pentyl-furan, heptanal, 3-ethylcyclohexene, octanal, nonanal, formic acid, heptyl ester, and styrene, were employed to identify the origin of Tibetan pork based on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS–DA) combined with cluster analysis. The developed method distinguished the VOCs of Tibetan pork by geographical location. This study provides a reference for the objective evaluation of the origin of Tibetan pork.

This paper mainly studied the structural transformation of Pakistan’s power sector and the internal and external political problems encountered in its development, as well as the solutions. This study found that Pakistan changed from oil to coal to generate electricity, which can resolve its internal power shortage problem in short term. However, the best way later in the cooperation is to develop green energy to match the green economy, such as wind power. The construction of the economic corridor can expand the import and export of goods and personnel exchanges between China and Pakistan, and promote the transit trade with Pakistan. Besides, it would effectively increase China’s energy import routes-bypassing the traditional chokepoints of the Malacca Strait and the disputed South China Sea, bringing Middle Eastern oil directly to its southwestern hinterland and reducing dependence on the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines under construction. From a broader perspective, the completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will closely unite countries in South Asia, Central Asia, North Africa and the Gulf through economic and energy cooperation, forming economic resonance and strengthening Pakistan’s strategic position as a bridge connecting Eurasia and Africa.

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling ligands undergo carboxy terminal sterylation through specialized autoprocessing, called cholesterolysis. Sterylation is brought about intramolecularly in a single turn-over by an enzymatic domain, called HhC. HhC is found in precursor Hh proteins only. Through cholesterolysis, HhC is cleaved from the precursor. Attempts to identify molecules that inhibit intramolecular cleavage/sterylation activity of HhC have resulted in antagonists that bind HhC irreversibly through covalent mechanisms, as is commonplace for protein autoprocessing inhibitors. Here we report an exception to the “irreversibility rule” for protein autoprocessing inhibition. Using a FRET-based activity assay for HhC, we screened a focused library of sterol-like analogs for HhC cholesterolysis inhibitors. We identified and validated four structurally related noncovalent inhibitors, which were then used for SAR studies. The most effective derivative, tBT-HBT, binds HhC reversibly with an IC50 of 300 nM. An allosteric binding site for tBT-HBT, encompassing interactions from the two subdomains of HhC, is suggested by kinetic analysis, mutagenesis studies, and photoaffinity labeling. A striking resemblance is found between the inhibitors described here and a family of noncovalent, allosteric activators of HhC, which we described previously. The inhibitor/activator duality appears to be mediated by the same allosteric site, which displays sensitivity to subtle differences in the structure of a heterocycle substituent on the effector molecule.

Flexible organic solar cells (FOSCs) are one of the most promising power sources for aerospace aircraft due to their attractive advantages with high power-per-weight ratio and excellent mechanical flexibility. Understanding the performance and stability of high-performance FOSCs is essential for the further development of FOSCs for aerospace applications. In this paper, after systematic investigations on the performance of the state-of-the-art high-performance solar cells under thermal cycle and intensive UV irradiation conditions, in situ performance and stability tests of the solar cells in the 35 km stratospheric environment were carried out through a high-altitude balloon uploading. The encapsulated FOSCs with an area of 0.64 cm2 gave the highest power density of 15.26 mW/cm2 and an efficiency over 11%, corresponding to a power-per-weight ratio of over 3.32 kW/kg. More importantly, the cells showed stable power output during the 3-h continuous flight at 35 km and only 10% performance decay after return to the lab, suggesting promising stability of the FOSCs in the stratospheric environment.

As a novel material that can be used at subzero temperatures, anti-freezing hydrogels have been attracting extensive attention. Inspired by the freeze-tolerance phenomenon in seawater, which is achieved by mixing salts into water, an ionic compound (CaCl2) was used to gelatinize starch to form anti-freezing hydrogels. Native potato starch (NPS) anti-freezing hydrogels were formed at −10 °C, −18 °C, −30 °C, and − 50 °C with 6–9 kPa tensile strength and 100–230% elongation at break. The compressive stress of anti-freezing hydrogels at different environmental temperatures increased from 18.586 kPa to 36.551 kPa with the glass transform temperature of starch hydrogels dropped to −50 °C. The anti-freezing hydrogels showed excellent water retention ability, which could maintain a water content of 55% after 7 days at ambient temperature. The prototyping of anti-freezing starch hydrogels broadens the applications of starch in food, adhesives, medical materials, and intelligent materials.

MSR (magnetically shielded room) is one of the most effective methods of shielding the magnetic field of the environment. The design of a cuboid enclosed magnetic shielding room (MSR), which mainly made up of permalloy and aluminum, is optimized by an electromagnetic simulation software called ANSYS Maxwell. And the effects of the magnetic shielding room's parameters on the shielding effectiveness (SE) are studied. As far as we know, the presented results show that SE is inversely proportional to the size of the shielding space, but proportional to the thickness of each layer, and the interval between two layers exists an optimal value. An equivalent circuit model demonstrates the corresponding interpretations of the above results.