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The number of obese people is increasing dramatically worldwide, and one of the major causes of obesity is excess energy due to high-fat diets. Several studies have shown that reducing food and energy intake represents a key intervention or treatment to combat overweight/obesity. Here, we conducted a 12-week energy-restricted dietary intervention for high-fat diet-induced obese mice (C57BL/6J) to investigate the effectiveness of diet change in improving obesity. The results revealed that the diet change from HFD to NFD significantly reduced weight gain and subcutaneous adipose tissue weight in high-fat diet-induced obese mice, providing scientific evidence for the effectiveness of diet change in improving body weight and fat deposition in obese individuals. Regarding the potential explanations for these observations, weight reduction may be attributed to the excessive enlargement of adipocytes in the white adipose tissue of obese mice that were inhibited. Diet change significantly promoted lipolysis in the adipose tissue (eWAT: Adrb3, Plin1, HSL, and CPTA1a; ingWAT: CPT1a) and liver (reduced content of nonesterified fatty acids), and reduced lipogenesis in ingWAT (Dgat2). Moreover, the proportion of proliferative stem cells in vWAT and sWAT changed dramatically with diet change. Overall, our study reveals the phenotypic, structural, and metabolic diversity of multiple tissues (vWAT and sWAT) in response to diet change and identifies a role for adipocyte stem cells in the tissue specificity of diet change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating electron transport rate and ion concentrations in the local microenvironment of active site can overcome the slow kinetics and unfavorable thermodynamics of CO2 electroreduction. However, simultaneous optimization of both kinetics and thermodynamics is hindered by synthetic constraints and poor mechanistic understanding. Here we leverage laser-assisted manufacturing for synthesizing CuxO bipyramids with controlled tip angles and abundant nanograins, and elucidate the mechanism of the relationship between electron transport/ion concentrations and electrocatalytic performance. Potassium/OH− adsorption tests and finite element simulations corroborate the contributions from strong electric field at the sharp tip. In situ Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and differential electrochemical mass spectrometry unveil the dynamic evolution of critical *CO/*OCCOH intermediates and product profiles, complemented with theoretical calculations that elucidate the thermodynamic contributions from improved coupling at the Cu+/Cu2+ interfaces. Through modulating the electron transport and ion concentrations, we achieve high Faradaic efficiency of 81% at ~900 mA cm−2 for C2+ products via CO2RR. Similar enhancement is also observed for nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR), achieving 81.83 mg h−1 ammonia yield rate per milligram catalyst. Coupling the CO2RR and NITRR systems demonstrates the potential for valorizing flue gases and nitrate wastes, which suggests a practical approach for carbon-nitrogen cycling. Controlling the kinetics and thermodynamics of electrochemical processes is essential to achieve high-performance multielectron reduction. Here, the authors report laser-induced copper bipyramids with abundant nanograins and controlled tip angles for enhanced multielectron CO2 and nitrate reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaxial peaking capacitor is a key component in high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP) simulators with fast front pulse output. It poses significant technical and engineering challenges in limiting radiation field amplitude and test space. This paper presents the design and testing of a 180 pF, 3 MV coaxial peaking capacitor with improved insulation performance. In the insulation design, the length of the dielectric film is extended to reduce the background electric field on the flashover path. The electric field threshold obtained from image diagnosis is used as a reference. During capacitor testing, the insulation characteristics are diagnosed using both direct and indirect methods. The voltage measured by a D-dot probe, the output waveform of the Marx generator in the primary source, and the radiation field waveform are analyzed to understand the flashover characteristics of the capacitor and to improve the reliability of the test results. The experimental results demonstrate that the peaking capacitor can operate stably at 3.0 MV. If flashover occurring on the dropping edge of the pulse is permitted, the operating voltage can be greater than 3.7 MV without significantly affecting the radiation field waveform. The analysis on the surface flashover morphology of the peaking capacitor reveals that the flashover mainly occurs at the dropping edge of the capacitor's waveform, indicating that the damage to the film is not serious. This research significantly increases the working voltage of coaxial peaking capacitors and contributes to the development of high-altitude EMP simulation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing robot path planning(RPP) algorithms have the problems that the parameters are complexity. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a self-learning ACO(SlACO) algorithm for robot path planning. In SlACO, an improved grid map(IGM) method is used for modeling the working space and the 8-geometry is used as the moving rule of ant individuals. The strategy of multi-objective search is used for the whole ant colony. The SlACO has the feature that the whole algorithm only need set one computing parameter. Simulation results indicate that the SlACO algorithm can rapid plan a smooth even in the complicated working space and its efficiency is better than existing RPP algorithms.

Eosinophils in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) have been implicated in metabolic homeostasis and the maintenance of alternatively activated macrophages (AAMs). The absence of eosinophils can lead to adiposity and systemic insulin resistance in experimental a

The identification of textile fiber materials is a tedious task. Traditional physical or chemical methods rely on specialist knowledge and expensive instruments. Currently, the deep learning-based methods are limited by the lack of sufficient image samples. In this paper, we propose a method for the classification of textile materials based on advanced densely connected convolutional networks (Densenet) using fabric surface images. Firstly, we selected a small sample dataset containing five types of materials and performed some pre-processing, including colour weakening and data enhancement. The lightweight network Densenet was then used as the main body to ensure the low parameters of the network, making it more suitable for the recognition of small sample image datasets. The network is then fused with the attention mechanism, Orthogonal Softmax Layer (OSL) and the depth-separable convolution mechanism, and we call the final network AONet. It has only 0.64 M (million) parameters. In this paper, we tested four metrics of AONet for five types of fabric images, and the results showed that the recognition accuracy was 95.61%. The precision, recall and F1 scores were 94.87%, 94.31% and 94.40%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the major form of primary liver cancer, is a common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling is constantly activated in HCC and has been proposed as a chemotherapeutic target for HCC. Antrodia camphorata (AC), a medicinal mushroom unique to Taiwan, is traditionally used for treating HCC. Whereas natural AC is scarce, cultured AC mycelia are becoming alternatives. In this study, we investigated the anti-HCC effects of the ethyl acetate fraction of an ethanolic extract of AC mycelia (EEAC), particularly exploring the involvement of STAT3 signaling in these effects. We found that EEAC reduced cell viability, induced apoptosis, and retarded migration and invasion in cultured HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells. Immunoblotting results showed that EEAC downregulated protein levels of phosphorylated and total STAT3 and JAK2 (an upstream kinase of STAT3) in HCC cells. Real-time PCR analyses showed that STAT3, but not JAK2, mRNA levels were decreased by EEAC. EEAC also lowered the protein level of nuclear STAT3, decreased the transcriptional activity of STAT3, and downregulated protein levels of STAT3-targeted molecules, including anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-xL and Bcl-2, and invasion-related proteins MMP-2 and MMP-9. Over-activation of STAT3 in HCC cells diminished the cytotoxic effects of EEAC. In SMMC-7721 cell-bearing mice, EEAC (100 mg/kg, i.g. for 18 days) significantly inhibited tumor growth. Consistent with our in vitro data, EEAC induced apoptosis and suppressed JAK2/STAT3 activation/phosphorylation in the tumors. Taken together, EEAC exerts anti-HCC effects both in vitro and in vivo; and inhibition of STAT3 signaling is, at least in part, responsible for these effects. We did not observe significant toxicity of EEAC in normal human liver-derived cells, nude mice and rats. Our results provide a pharmacological basis for developing EEAC as a safe and effective agent for HCC management.

In this paper, the design of a self-developed EMP simulator with a 5 m height and an inverted conducting mono-cone antenna with a cone half-angle of 32° is introduced. The experimental region of the simulator is a circular area of 25 m in diameter around the cone vertex. Two feeding modes, feed-in over the ground and feed-in under the ground, are realized by two different high-voltage pulse sources. It can be concluded through radiation field testing that the radiation field waveform generated by the simulator has a rise time of 2–3 ns and a half-width of about 25 ns, meeting the specifications of the EMP experimental waveform in the IEC61000-2-9 standard. Meanwhile, the differences between the engineering implementation of the simulator and its ideal structure during the design process can lead to some distortion issues in the antenna radiation characteristics and the electromagnetic radiation field it generates. The radiation field waveform and the distribution of the EMP field generated by the simulator under different feeding methods, antenna wire quantities, antenna end processing methods, and different antenna resistive loading were studied, and the changes in the radiation field waveform and field distribution with different angles and distances of the monitoring point were analyzed. Based on the measurement results, the radiation characteristics of the antenna and the factors that affect the waveform of the field were studied and analyzed. Through the aforementioned work, a comprehensive understanding of the performance, radiation characteristics, and engineering factors affecting the electromagnetic environment generated by the simulator has been obtained. On this basis, the parameters of the antenna wire quantity, antenna end processing method, and test point position of the designed simulator were reconfirmed and optimized. In summary, this work has important reference significance for mastering the development technology of such simulators, understanding their antenna radiation characteristics, and conducting EMP-related assessments and effect experiments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore how a public national media outlet, the British BBC, represents an international legal case which has a highly political nature. The case is US versus Huawei/Meng Wanzhou, which took place between 2018 and 2021. Accusations were that the Chinese technology company committed fraud, leading the global HSBC bank to breach US sanctions against Iran. The charges were made by the US using what is called an 'extraterritorial law', which, while rejected as law by governments around the world, is policed by US economic powers and control over international finance. Using Critical Discourse Analysis we show that, while the BBC presents much detail of legal process, the actual nature of the law the US uses to bring criminal charges against international companies and banks, is neither considered nor questioned. Our interest is how such a law, which has a huge influence over global trade and politics, is presented to the public in this particular case. We contribute to the position that the nature of laws, how they are used and known, must always be understood within the prevailing discourses of the moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. (Jacques Anatole François Thibault) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overall, Part III stands out in this book as particularly important because it underscores peace-building process, showing how tactical use of language contributes to construct harmonious situations. This book is logically organized into three parts respectively discussing: the language of conflict (Chapters 2-4); hate speech in media (Chapters 5-10); and discourse and peace-building (Chapters 11-15) with an introductory chapter (Chapter 1) and an afterword (Chapter 16). Chiluwa, Innocent ed. 2021 Discourse and Conflict: Analysing Text and Talk of Conflict, Hate and Peace-building Palgrave Macmillan 454 978-3-030-76484-5 hb € 139.99 With the increasing occurrence of frictions, conflicts and wars worldwide, peace and conflict studies as an interdisciplinary field has received growing attention in academia ([3]; [2]). [Extracted from the article]

The strictest water resources management (SWRM) policy is a critical policy to address China's severe water shortage and pollution problems, and aims to promote sustainable water development and water governance. Based on data mining from multiple sources, including policy text from the strictest water resource management policy from 2011 to 2021, the reports of major media websites, and the Baidu Index, this study used the ROST-CM6 text-analysis tool to analyze the policy content, public opinion, and public perception of the strictest water resources management policy quantitatively and visually. The results found that the policy text and public-opinion are given high attention to the water resources assessment, water control management, and water resources protection, but the policy text focuses on the macro level, and pays more attention to national development and long-term planning. The public opinion belongs to the micro level and is more economic, and there is a certain degree of media bias. With notable regional disparities, the general public's opinion of the harshest water resource management policy has been rising every year. This research adds to the global body of knowledge on water governance, and serves as a guide for Chinese and other governments looking to improve their water resource management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]