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This study employs a data-driven methodology that embeds the principle of dimensional invariance into an artificial neural network to automatically identify dominant dimensionless quantities in the penetration of rod projectiles into semi-infinite metal targets from experimental measurements. The derived mathematical expressions of dimensionless quantities are simplified by the examination of the exponent matrix and coupling relationships between feature variables. As a physics-based dimension reduction methodology, this way reduces high-dimensional parameter spaces to descriptions involving only a few physically interpretable dimensionless quantities in penetrating cases. Then the relative importance of various dimensionless feature variables on the penetration efficiencies for four impacting conditions is evaluated through feature selection engineering. The results indicate that the selected critical dimensionless feature variables by this synergistic method, without referring to the complex theoretical equations and aiding in the detailed knowledge of penetration mechanics, are in accordance with those reported in the reference. Lastly, the determined dimensionless quantities can be efficiently applied to conduct semi-empirical analysis for the specific penetrating case, and the reliability of regression functions is validated.

Objective: To analyze the spatial autocorrelation and spatiotemporal clustering characteristics of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome(SFTS) in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2023. Methods: Data of SFTS in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2023 were collected. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted using GeoDa software, while spatiotemporal scanning was performed using SaTScan 10.0.1 software to identify significant spatiotemporal clusters of SFTS. Results: From 2011 to 2023, 5720 SFTS cases were reported in Anhui Province, with an average annual incidence rate of 0.7131/100,000. The incidence of SFTS in Anhui Province reached its peak mainly from April to May, with a small peak in October. The spatial autocorrelation results showed that from 2011 to 2023, there was a spatial positive correlation(P< 0.05) in the incidence of SFTS in all counties and districts of Anhui Province. Local autocorrelation high-high clustering areas are mainly located in the south of the Huaihe River. The spatiotemporal scanning results show three main clusters of SFTS in recent years: the first cluster located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the eastern region of Anhui Province; the second cluster primarily focused on the region of the Dabie Mountain range, while the third cluster primarily focused on the region of the Huang Mountain range. Conclusions: The incidence of SFTS in Anhui Province in 2011–2023 was spatially clustered.

Solar-driven CO2conversion to prepare value-added products is highly desirable but challenging. Central to the achievement of multi-carbon products viaCO2photoconversion is to break the bottlenecks of C–C coupling and multi-electron transfer. Herein, a charge relay system consisting of Pd-decorated BiOCl-wrapped CuBi2O4is reported by taking advantage of the synergy of Pd nanoparticles (PdNPs) and heterojunction for efficient CO2-to-C2H6photoconversion. The C2H6production rate reached 167.1 µmol g−1h−1with the electron selectivity of 81.1% in the absence of any sacrificial agents. The spectroscopic characterizations indicated that BiOCl nanosheets, acting as the charge relay, directionally transferred the photogenerated electrons from itself and CuBi2O4nanorods to PdNPs for C–C coupling. The coordinated ensemble of PdNPs and heterojunction significantly elevated the charge separation and transfer efficiency. Moreover, the in-situspectroscopic analysis supported by theoretical simulations demonstrated that the electron-rich PdNPs generated by the charge relay of PdNPs and heterojunction optimized the CO2-to-C2H6reaction pathway and reduced the energy barrier of the key *CHOCO intermediates. This work develops an innovative strategy to design the multifunctional catalysts for the photoconversion of CO2to value-added carbon products.

Although contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) images significantly improve the accuracy of diagnosing focal liver lesions (FLLs), the administration of contrast agents imposes a considerable physical burden on patients. The utilization of generative models to synthesize CE-CT images from non-contrasted CT images offers a promising solution. However, existing image synthesis models tend to overlook the importance of critical regions, inevitably reducing their effectiveness in downstream tasks. To overcome this challenge, we propose an innovative CE-CT image synthesis model called Segmentation Guided Crossing Dual Decoding Generative Adversarial Network (SGCDD-GAN). Specifically, the SGCDD-GAN involves a crossing dual decoding generator including an attention decoder and an improved transformation decoder. The attention decoder is designed to highlight some critical regions within the abdominal cavity, while the improved transformation decoder is responsible for synthesizing CE-CT images. These two decoders are interconnected using a crossing technique to enhance each other's capabilities. Furthermore, we employ a multi-task learning strategy to guide the generator to focus more on the lesion area. To evaluate the performance of proposed SGCDD-GAN, we test it on an in-house CE-CT dataset. In both CE-CT image synthesis tasks–namely, synthesizing ART images and synthesizing PV images–the proposed SGCDD-GAN demonstrates superior performance metrics across the entire image and liver region, including SSIM, PSNR, MSE, and PCC scores. Furthermore, CE-CT images synthetized from our SGCDD-GAN achieve remarkable accuracy rates of 82.68%, 94.11%, and 94.11% in a deep learning-based FLLs classification task, along with a pilot assessment conducted by two radiologists.

The resistance to intergranular corrosion (IGC) is crucial for 7xxx series high-strength aluminum alloy. The grain boundary characteristics and nanoscale intergranular precipitates are the most significant factors affecting the IGC performance of alloys. Exploring the influences of the two factors on the mechanism and kinetics of corrosion is a fundamental issue for IGC processes. In this paper, the multi-phase field model for electrochemical corrosion is employed to study the IGC processes. The effects of grain size, GB overpotential, and the status of nano-precipitates on the mechanism and kinetics of IGC are systematically and quantitatively investigated. Polycrystalline alloys with the averaged grain sizes in micrometer and nanoscale show typical IGC (GB network propagation) regime and massive corrosion regime respectively. The IGC tendency of micrometer-sized grains increases with the average grain size, while that of nanoscale grains exhibits the opposite trend due to different corrosion mechanisms. For the IGC in the presence of nano-precipitates, our simulations quantify that the orientation, size, and distribution of precipitates could substantially affect the corrosion rate. Nanoscale precipitates exhibit completely different corrosion regimes in the process of IGC, with trenching and penetrating corrosion patterns depending on the overpotential. The multi-phase field model lays a foundation for revealing the corrosion mechanism as well as designing new corrosion resistant materials.

For the goals of security and privacy preservation, we propose a blind batch encryption- and public ledger-based data sharing protocol that allows the integrity of sensitive data to be audited by a public ledger and allows privacy information to be preserved. Data owners can tightly manage their data with efficient revocation and only grant one-time adaptive access for the fulfillment of the requester. We prove that our protocol is semanticallly secure, blind, and secure against oblivious requesters and malicious file keepers. We also provide security analysis in the context of four typical attacks.

Poly(bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric) methacrylic anhydride-grafted carbon dots (CD-g-PEPMA) have been controllably synthesized and used as multifunctional lubricant additives of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG200). The polymers on the surfaces of CD-g-PEPMA not only endow them with particularly excellent dispersion stability but also enhance their adsorbability on the steel surface and embedded stability between the rubbing surfaces. Hence, CD-g-PEPMA as an additive showed outstanding rust resistance and tribological performance. Among CD-g-PEPMA-X (X represents the polymerization time), CD-g-PEPMA-2 (X = 2 h) exhibited the best tribological performance. At the optimum cof 2.0 wt %, CD-g-PEPMA-2 reduced the coefficient of friction and wear volume of PEG200 by 60.1 and 74.0%, respectively. The striking friction-reducing and antiwear functions of CD-g-PEPMA as additives can be attributed to the synergistic lubrication effect of carbon cores and polymers. The rolling, polishing, and mending effects of carbon cores combined with the favorable adsorbability and reactivity of polymers on steel surfaces synergistically induced the formation of boundary lubrication films on wear track surfaces. The films are composed of tribochemical reaction products such as Fe2(CO3)3, Fe3C, and FePO4embedded with carbon cores, tremendously reducing the friction and wear of the friction pair. The research results can provide substantial theoretical guidance and data support for designing and developing high-efficiency polymer–CD integrative multifunctional nanoadditives toward PEG.

High resolution (HR) 3D medical image segmentation is vital for an accurate diagnosis. However, in the field of medical imaging, it is still a challenging task to achieve a high segmentation performance with cost-effective and feasible computation resources. Previous methods commonly use patch-sampling to reduce the input size, but this inevitably harms the global context and decreases the model's performance. In recent years, a few patch-free strategies have been presented to deal with this issue, but either they have limited performance due to their over-simplified model structures or they follow a complicated training process. In this study, to effectively address these issues, we present Adaptive Decomposition (A-Decomp) and Shared Weight Volumetric Transformer Blocks (SW-VTB). A-Decomp can adaptively decompose features and reduce their spatial size, which greatly lowers GPU memory consumption. SW-VTB is able to capture long-range dependencies at a low cost with its lightweight design and cross-scale weight-sharing mechanism. Our proposed cross-scale weight-sharing approach enhances the network's ability to capture scale-invariant core semantic information in addition to reducing parameter numbers. By combining these two designs together, we present a novel patch-free segmentation framework named VolumeFormer. Experimental results on two datasets show that VolumeFormer outperforms existing patch-based and patch-free methods with a comparatively fast inference speed and relatively compact design.

Multi-modal tumor segmentation exploits complementary information from different modalities to help recognize tumor regions. Known multi-modal segmentation methods mainly have deficiencies in two aspects: First, the adopted multi-modal fusion strategies are built upon well-aligned input images, which are vulnerable to spatial misalignment between modalities (caused by respiratory motions, different scanning parameters, registration errors, etc). Second, the performance of known methods remains subject to the uncertainty of segmentation, which is particularly acute in tumor boundary regions. To tackle these issues, in this paper, we propose a novel multi-modal tumor segmentation method with deformable feature fusion and uncertain region refinement. Concretely, we introduce a deformable aggregation module, which integrates feature alignment and feature aggregation in an ensemble, to reduce inter-modality misalignment and make full use of cross-modal information. Moreover, we devise an uncertain region inpainting module to refine uncertain pixels using neighboring discriminative features. Experiments on two clinical multi-modal tumor datasets demonstrate that our method achieves promising tumor segmentation results and outperforms state-of-the-art methods.

Analyses of urban spaces have often stressed the importance of both the density and diversity of the people they attract. However, the diversity of people is a challenging concept to operationalize within the context of urban spaces, which is why many evaluations of urban space have relied primarily on density-based measures. We argue that a focus on only one of the two aspects misses important aspects of the variety of urban spaces in our cities. To address this, we design a methodology that evaluates both the density and diversity of human behavior in urban spaces based on geosocial media data. We operationalize density as the frequency of tweets from visitors to a particular location and diversity as the variety of the home neighborhoods of those visitors. Taking Singapore as a test case, we identify networks between the home neighborhoods of 28k Twitter users based on 2.2 million geolocated tweets collected between 2012 and 2016. Based on these data, we categorize the urban landscape of Singapore into four “performance” categories, namely High-Density/High-Diversity, High-Density/Low-Diversity, Low-Density/High-Diversity, and Low-Density/Low-Diversity. Our findings illustrate that this combined indicator provides useful nuance compared to differentiation between well and less performing spaces based on density alone. By enabling a categorization of urban spaces that fits closer to the diversity of human behavior in these spaces, human mobility data sets, such as the social media data we use, open the door to a practical evaluation of the design and planning of our heterogeneous urban environment.

In this study, we demonstrate and elucidate how spermidine carbon dots (Spd-CDs) enhance tomato tolerance under heat stress (45 °C). Foliar-applied Spd-CDs (6 mg L−1) have a higher maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (45.3%) and net photosynthesis rate (38.6%) compared to after heat stress for 12 hours. Similarly, 6 mg L−1Spd-CDs increased the maximum ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration rate, maximum ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carbohydrate/oxygenase carboxylation rate by 10.6% and 41.7%, 33.9% and 82.4%, respectively, accompanied by obvious physiological responses of chloroplast and increased the electron transfer rate (21.3% and 23.1%) were found under normal (25 °C) and high temperature, respectively. Heat stress-induced oxidative stress was significantly alleviated in Spd-CD-treated plants through the lowered accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (20.7%) and lipid peroxidation (10.9%), along with an elevated ratio of glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) (22.6%) and ascorbate acid/dehydroascorbic acid (AsA/DHA) (78.8%), and other antioxidant enzymes, including the ascorbate peroxidase (52.3%), monodehydroascorbate reductase (20.1%), dehydroascorbate reductase (18.3%), glutathione reductase (14.3%), glutathione S-transferase (16.2%), catalase (32.0%), superoxide dismutase (22.9%). Furthermore, using an inhibitor of GSH biosynthesis, buthionine sulfoximine, the Spd-CD induced heat tolerance was compromised, indicating that Spd-CDs induced thermotolerance may be dependent on the AsA–GSH cycle. Taken together, the application of Spd-CDs safeguarded the photosystem complex and ameliorated oxidative damage, thus enhancing thermotolerance. This study put forward that Spd-CDs are a potential tool for plants that are better addressed to the challenges of climate change.

The detoxification of nerve agents, a class of extremely toxic chemical warfare agents, is urgently needed because they have remained a threat to humanity. To date, zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) are the most popular catalysts in this realm. However, it is still essential to develop new and efficient catalysts based on Zr-MOFs to achieve more rapid hydrolysis. Herein, we report that the single-atom catalyst (SAC) with Cu single atoms on a UiO-66-NH2support (Cu@UiO-66-NH2) could significantly boost the degradation of the nerve agent simulant. Compared with the pristine UiO-66-NH2, this SAC exhibited remarkable catalytic activity with a half-life for hydrolysis of ∼2 min and better reusability in cyclic experiments. Both experimental and theoretical studies suggest that the atomically dispersed Cu species anchored to the amino groups rather than to the Zr6node of UiO-66-NH2acted as the catalytic active sites, leading to favorable binding geometries with the substrate and the product. A catalytic mechanism on the SAC different from that generally considered on the pristine Zr-MOFs was thus presented to elucidate the enhanced catalytic efficiency.

The adhesion of soft materials often fails due to stress concentration at the interface. Structural design offers an effective approach to disperse stress at the interface and enhance adhesion properties. Herein, we introduce the concept of discretized stress dispersion to achieve ultrastrong adhesion of soft materials. This involves incorporating discrete structures at the adhesion interface, with each unit structure designed to efficiently disperse stress. We implement this concept by introducing periodic strategic cuts into the adhesive, enabling it to deform into discrete mushroom-shaped structures under peel forces. Utilizing fracture mechanics theory, we demonstrate that such structural design can significantly improve adhesion strength compared to adhesives without structural design. Through 3D printing, we fabricate adhesive samples with strategic cuts, achieving a peak peel force of 3479 N/m, over 100-fold higher than adhesives without cuts (25 N/m). We analyzed stress dispersion of each unit structure through experiments of with different geometric parameters and analyze collaborative effects of multiple structures with theoretical model. Finite element analysis of the peel process highlights the critical role of cohesive zone influenced by geometric parameters, which determines the peak peel force. This concept of discretized stress dispersion advances the development of soft materials with ultrastrong adhesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and synthesis of cheap and high-efficiency catalytic membranes are of great significance for green chemical engineering. Herein, we report a Co/Zn bimetallic catalytic membrane (CoZn@CM) through a self-sacrificial template approach, where Co/Zn zeolitic imidazolate framework (Co/Zn-ZIF) was first in situ grown on the ceramic membrane (CM) and then pyrolyzed under Ar atmosphere. Adjusting the Co2+concentration during the synthesis of Co/Zn-ZIF@CM and the pyrolysis temperature can achieve the catalytic membrane of CoZn@CM with rich carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the membrane, lots of Co nanoparticles with a smaller particle size and a large number of mesopores, thereby improving its catalytic activity for the liquid-phase p-nitrophenol hydrogenation to p-aminophenol in a flow-through catalytic membrane reactor. The as-fabricated Co0.2Zn0.4–920@CM exhibits excellent catalytic activity, which is about 2.7 times that of Co0Zn0.6–920@CM and 2.4 times that of Co0.2Zn0.4–770@CM. Moreover, Co0.2Zn0.4–920@CM can keep its catalytic performance after five reaction cycles of p-nitrophenol hydrogenation.

This study aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of Cangzhu Erchen decoction (CZECD) in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using microarray analysis, network pharmacology, and molecular docking. The active components and candidate targets of CZECD were obtained using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform and Swiss Target Prediction. COPD-related targets were collected from 5 databases. Access to drug-disease interface targets in the Venny platform. The Cytoscape program and the STRING database were used for protein–protein interaction analysis and subsequent core target screening. The DAVID database was used for Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment pathway analysis, while AutoDockTools was used for molecular docking to confirm binding affinity between drugs and key targets. A total of 140 compounds from CZECD and 5100 COPD-related targets were identified. SRC, PIK3CA, STAT3, PIK3R1, AKT1, HSP90AA1, PIK3CB, GRB2, PIK3CD, and MAPK1 were identified as the major targets of CZECD in its anti-COPD activity. GO and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment studies revealed that CZECD mainly affects biological processes such as protein phosphorylation, xenobiotic response, positive regulation of the MAPK cascade, and inflammatory responses. Cancer, PI3K/AKT, and MAPK were the key pathways mediating these effects. The positive association between the core targets and the compounds was further validated by molecular docking. CZECD exerts its therapeutic role in COPD mainly through multiple compounds, targets, and pathways.

Lightweight SiBCN ceramic nanofibers were prepared by a combination of electrostatic spinning and high-temperature annealing techniques, showing tunable electromagnetic wave absorption. By controlling the annealing temperature, the nanoscale architectures and atomic bonding structures of as-prepared nanofibers could be well regulated. The resulting SiBCN nanofibers ∼300 nm in diameter, which were composed of an amorphous matrix, β-SiC, and free carbon nanocrystals, were defect-free after annealing at 1600 °C. SiBCN nanofibers annealed at 1600 °C exhibited good microwave absorption, obtaining a minimum reflection coefficient of −56.9 dB at 10.56 GHz, a sample thickness of 2.6 mm with a maximum effective absorption bandwidth of 3.45 GHz, and a maximum dielectric constant of 0.44. Owing to the optimized A + B + C microstructure, SiBCN ceramic nanofibers with satisfying microwave absorption properties endowed the nanofibers with the potential to be used as lightweight, ultrastrong radar wave absorbers applied in military and the commercial market.

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) contribute to the treatment of many human diseases, especially in the field of thrombosis, because of their anticoagulant activity. GAGs interrupt the coagulation process by interacting with multiple coagulation factors through defined sequences within their linear and negatively charged chains, which are not fully elucidated. Numerous methods have been developed to characterize the structure of pharmaceutical GAGs, including intravenouslyor subcutaneouslyadministered heparin and orally administered sulodexide. However, most currently available methods only focus on the oligosaccharide portion or analyze the whole mixture because longer-chain polysaccharides are extremely difficult to resolve by chromatographic separation. We have established two novel electrophoresis–mass spectrometry methods to provide a panoramic view of the structures of pharmaceutical GAGs. In the first method, an in-gel digestion procedure was developed to recover GAGs from the polyacrylamide gels, while in the second method, a strong anion exchange ultrafiltration procedure was developed to extract multiple GAG species from the agarose gels. Both procedures are compatible with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, and structural information, such as disaccharide composition and chain length, can be revealed for each GAG fraction. The applications of these two methods on analysis of two different GAG drugs, heparin and sulodexide, were demonstrated. The current study offers the first robust tool to directly elucidate the structure of larger GAG chains with more biological importance rather than obtaining a vague picture of all chains as a mixture, which is fundamental for better understanding the structure–activity relationship and quality control of the GAG drugs.

Theranostic nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as promising candidates for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Manganese dioxide (MnO2)-based NPs are potential contrast agents with excellent paramagnetic property and biocompatibility, exhibiting satisfactory magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) effects and biological safety. Recently, hyaluronic acid (HA) has gained increasing interest due to its tumor-targeting ability, which can improve the tumor affinity of manganese dioxide (MnO2)-based NPs. In this study, HA-coated and albumin (BSA)-templated MnO2and polydopamine hybrid nanoparticles (HMDNs) with tumor-targeting and superior imaging capability were fabricated viamodifying the nanoparticles prepared by integrating dopamine polymerization and MnO2biomineralization. The modification was found to enhance the cellular uptake of HMDNs by cancer cells. The prepared HMDN had high MRI contrasting capability with a longitudinal relaxivity of 22.2 mM−1s−1and strong photothermal therapy (PTT) effects with nearly complete tumor ablation under laser irradiation in vivo. HMDNs also showed effective clearance through kidneys, with no toxicity to important tissues. Therefore, HMDNs with superior imaging and PTT capability presented a new method to prepare tumor-targeting multifunctional nanotheranostics.

Sulfur is critical for the correct structure and proper function of proteins. Yet, lacking a sensitive enough isotope, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments are unable to deliver for sulfur in proteins the usual wealth of chemical, dynamic, and structural information. This limitation can be circumvented by substituting sulfur with selenium, which has similar physicochemical properties and minimal impact on protein structures but possesses an NMR compatible isotope (77Se). Here we exploit the sensitivity of 77Se NMR to the nucleus’ chemical milieu and use selenomethionine as a probe for its proteinaceous environment. However, such selenium NMR spectra of proteins currently resist a reliable interpretation because systematic connections between variations of system variables and changes in 77Se NMR parameters are still lacking. To start narrowing this knowledge gap, we report here on a biological 77Se magnetic resonance data bank based on a systematically designed library of GB1 variants in which a single selenomethionine was introduced at different locations within the protein. We recorded the resulting isotropic 77Se chemical shifts and relaxation times for six GB1 variants by solution-state 77Se NMR. For four of the GB1 variants we were also able to determine the chemical shift anisotropy tensor of SeM by solid-state 77Se NMR. To enable interpretation of the NMR data, the structures of five of the GB1 variants were solved by X-ray crystallography to a resolution of 1.2 Å, allowing us to unambiguously determine the conformation of the selenomethionine. Finally, we combine our solution- and solid-state NMR data with the structural information to arrive at general insights regarding the execution and interpretation of 77Se NMR experiments that exploit selenomethionine to probe proteins.

AbstractCommunicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was adopted for the first time to load Pd nanoparticles on Al2O3ceramic membranes (CMs) for fabricating catalytic membranes (Pd/CMs). The membrane surface was functionalized with the deposition of TiO2by ALD and subsequent calcination under different atmospheres [CM-TiO2-A, obtained by calcination under an atmosphere of pure argon; CM-TiO2-H, obtained by calcination under a mixed atmosphere of H2and Ar (H2/Ar = 1:9 in volume)]. The influence of the TiO2deposition on the microstructure of catalytic membranes and their catalytic performance in p-nitrophenol reduction to p-aminophenol were investigated in detail. The catalytic activity of Pd/CM-TiO2-H improved by 1.9 times compared to Pd/CM, and 100% conversion of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol can be achieved. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy results indicate that the ALD of TiO2and subsequent calcination under a 10% H2atmosphere can produce more surface oxygen vacancies, providing more active sites for Pd(hfac)2adsorption and then promoting the loading of Pd nanoparticles. The XPS and H2temperature-programmed reduction results suggest that calcining TiO2under the 10% H2atmosphere is more beneficial for the removal of the hfac ligands and the reduction of Pd(hfac)2, leading to a higher Pd0ratio. These two aspects contribute to the superior catalytic activity of Pd/CM-TiO2-H.

Colorless polyimide (CPI) films were modified by direct fluorination. The effects of fluorination duration on the chemical structure and surface physical morphology of CPI films were investigated in detail. The results show that direct fluorination induces significant changes in the surface composition and structure, leading to an enhancement in the F/C and O/C ratios. Fluoridation also resulted in increased surface microcracking. In comparison to the original CPI films, the fluorinated CPI films showed good thermal stability and higher glass transition temperatures (Tg), and higher optical transmittance (about 93.0%) in the ultraviolet–visible light region. Moreover, the fluorinated surfaces exhibit a high hydrophily and lipophilicity, and consequently a very high surface energy, according to contact angle measurements.

S-block single atoms represent an ideal catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as they can suppress the Fenton reaction. However, the symmetry of the s/p orbitals tends to generate either an excessively strong or weak interaction with intermediates. Herein, Ca single atoms coordinated with -S, -OP, and three N atoms (Ca/NPS-HC) were fabricated to modulate the adsorption of intermediates and promote the efficiency of s-block ORR catalysts. The experimental results from ORR demonstrated that the Ca/NPS-HC catalyst exhibited outstanding catalytic capability with a half-wave potential of 0.89 V, a kinetic current density of 56.6 mA cm–2at 0.85 V, and a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec–1, outperforming commercial Pt/C. The detailed mechanistic studies revealed that the asymmetric coordination of Ca single atoms led to the symmetry-breaking of electron distribution in Ca single atoms, attenuating the s-p hybridization from the intermediate adsorption process, and thereby minimizing the energy barrier of the whole ORR.

An AIEgen decorated porphyrin (TPETPyP) with 1O2quantun yield as high as 0.85 in PBS was facilely prepared through a simple one-step reaction for efficient photocleavage of proteins in PDT.

Lysosomal β-N-acetylhexosaminidase (Hex) has been reported to possess unique physiological performances. Detection and visualization of Hex in lysosome will be favorable to reveal the basis of its functions. However, Hex-specific fluorescent probes are rarely reported. In this study, we reported the first lysosome-targeting Hex-lighting-up aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active fluorescent probe (GlcNAc-TPE) with remarkably large Stokes shift and high sensitivity and selectivity. GlcNAc-TPE can selectively locate in lysosome and visualize endogenous Hex in live HCT116 cells and in live mice with high stability and good biocompatibility, providing a useful AIE probe for real-time visualization of Hex in live samples.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a significant gasotransmitter that naturally modulates inflammatory responses. Visualization of CO in situwould help to reveal its physiological/pathological functions. Unfortunately, most existing CO fluorescent probes show aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) properties. Herein, we report the reaction-based fluorescent probe (BTCV-CO) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics for CO detection and imaging. This ratiometric AIE probe showed excellent stability, high sensitivity (detection limit of 30.8 nM), and superior selectivity. More importantly, this CO-responsive AIE probe could be facilely designed and easily obtained by two-step synthesis with high yield, providing an easy-to-handle AIE toolbox for real-time visualization of CO in a living system.

AbstractHippo pathway has been implicated in the suppression of tissue overgrowth and tumor formation by restricting the oncogenic activity of Yes-associated protein (YAP). Transcription cofactor vestigial-like protein 4 (VGLL4), a natural YAP antagonist that competes with YAP for TEA domain transcription factor 4 (TEAD4) binding is a potential tumor suppressor in human gastric cancer. Comparing with the full length of VGLL4, the Tondu 2 domain of VGLL4 alone is fully functional in inhibiting YAP-induced TEAD4 reporter activity. Revealing the details of binding interaction between VGLL4 and TEAD4 would accelerate the discovery of improved drugs against YAP-driven human cancers. We investigated systematically the interaction mechanisms between TEAD4 and VGLL4 by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, free energy calculation, and free energy decomposition analysis. Our simulations show that two loops of VGLL4 (residues 218–222 and 251–252) have little binding contribution on VGLL4 binding to TEAD4. The β1 strand of VGLL4 plays important role in the contribution to the binding, whereas the α3 helix gives small contribution. More interestingly, the mutation of several residues of α2 helix to alanine results in the contribution of α2 helix decreasing, accompanied by the increased binding contribution of α3 helix. Deletion of the β1 or α3 segment of VGLL4 has slight effect on the remaining two segments. Our simulation is well consistent with the in vivoevaluation of the binding of biotinylated VGLL4 peptides to TEAD4 in HepG2 cells by immunological approaches. We expect this work can provide valuable information for design of improved VGLL4 derivative anticancer peptides.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

•PA induced FFA uptake and accelated lipid accumulation in HMCs.•PA induced oxidative stress and fibrosis in HMCs.•CD36 expression increased in HMCs stimulated by PA and in DN rats.•Iihibition CD36 surpressed PA induced HMCs oxidative stress and fibrosis.•AS-IV attenuates PA-induced oxidative stress and fibrosis through down-regulation CD36 exresssion.

Introduction:Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (HNL) is a benign, self-limiting disease that presents with few nonspecific symptoms such as fever and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HNL-HLH) is rare and case series have been reported in children. HNL-HLH in adults has not been systematically analyzed.

Objective To investigate levels of regulatory B (Breg) cells, plasma cells, and memory B cells in the peripheral blood, and interleukin (IL)-10 in the serum of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and to determine the correlation between Breg cell levels and the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score.Methods Levels of Breg cells, plasma cells, and memory B cells in the peripheral blood of 12 MS patients were measured using flow cytometry. IL-10 serum levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The correlation between Breg cell levels and MS EDSS score was measured using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Results Compared with healthy controls, MS patients had decreased levels of CD19+CD24hiCD38hiBreg cells in their peripheral blood and reduced serum levels of IL-10; however, the ratios of CD19+CD27hiCD38hiplasma cells and CD19+CD27+CD24himemory B cells to total B cells did not differ significantly between healthy controls and MS patients. CD19+CD24hiCD38hiBreg cell levels in the peripheral blood of MS patients were not significantly correlated with MS EDSS score.Conclusion Peripheral blood CD19+CD24hiCD38hiBreg cell levels and serum IL-10 levels were reduced in MS patients compared with controls, but Breg cell levels were not correlated with MS EDSS score.

A phosphine-catalyzed reaction between o-hydroxyaryl azomethine ylides and MBH carbonates provides access to highly functionalized γ-aminobutyric acid derivatives in moderate to good yields. Mechanistically, the reaction involves a phosphine-catalyzed tandem SN2′/2-aza-Cope rearrangement/intramolecular addition process.

Wheat (Triticumspp.) is often coinfected by several soil-borne fungal pathogens, causing serious crop yield and economic losses. Rapid diagnosis of infected fungi is critical for the application of disease control mechanisms. Therefore, we established a multiplex PCR method using specific primers for the simultaneous detection of five common soil-borne fungal pathogens affecting wheat: Rhizoctonia cerealis, Bipolaris sorokiniana, Gaeumannomyces graminisvar. tritici, Fusarium pseudograminearumand F. graminearum. The specific primers were designed based on the sequences of several unique genes: ITS (internal transcribed spacer) of R. cerealis, URP-1F (universal rice primer) of B. sorokiniana, β-tubulin of G. graminisvar. triticiand TEF1-α (translation elongation factor) of F. pseudograminearumand F. graminearum. During optimization, sensitivity assays showed that the detection limit of multiplex PCR was as low as 0.39 ng of mycelium DNA from a known pool of fungal DNA. To detect pathogens in wheat field, the multiplex PCR method was applied to infected wheat samples collected from wheat fields in the Fengqiu and Taikang counties in Henan Province, China. The R. cerealisand F. graminearumpathogens were identified in samples from Fengqiu, while the R. cerealis, G. graminisvar. tritici, B. sorokinianaand F. graminearumpathogens were identified in samples from Taikang. In conclusion, the results indicated that our multiplex PCR method was efficient and specific for the detection of soil-borne pathogens.

ABSTRACTSensitive assays for HIV-1 neutralizing antibody detection are urgently needed for vaccine immunogen optimization and identification of protective immune response levels. In this study, we developed an easy-to-use HIV-1 pseudovirus neutralization assay based on a human CD4+lymphoblastoid cell line A3R5 by employing a high efficient pseudovirus production system. Optimal conditions for cell counts, infection time, virus dose and concentration of DEAE-dextran were tested and identified. For T-cell line-adapted tier 1 virus strains, significantly higher inhibitory efficiency was observed for both monoclonal neutralizing antibody (4 fold) and plasma (2 fold) samples in A3R5 than those in TZM-bl assay. For circulating tier 2 strains, the A3R5 pseudovirus assay showed even much higher sensitivity for both neutralizing antibody (10 fold) and plasma (9 fold) samples. When sequential neutralizing antibody seroconverting samples were tested in both A3R5 and TZM-bl assays, the seroconverting points could be detected earlier for tier 1 (15.7 weeks) and tier 2 (68.3 weeks) strains in A3R5 assay respectively. The high sensitive pseudovirus assay using more physiological target cells could serve as an alternative to the TZM-bl assay for evaluation of vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies and identification of the correlates of protection.

This paper presents an integrated and coordinated cross-layer sensing and optimization flow for distributed dark silicon management for tiled heterogeneous manycores under a critical temperature constraint. We target some of the key challenges in dark silicon for manycores, such as: directly focusing on power density/temperature instead of considering simple per-chip power constraints, considering tiled heterogeneous architectures with different types of cores and accelerators, handling the large volumes of raw sensor information, and maintaining scalability. Our solution is separated into three abstraction layers: a sensing layer (involving hardware monitors and pre-processing), a dark silicon layer (that derives thermally-safe mappings and voltage/frequency settings), and an agent layer (used for selecting the parallelism of applications and thread-to-core mapping based on alternatives/constraints from the dark silicon layer).

Cancer is a major disease threatening human health worldwide, among which non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most deadly. Clinically, almost all anticancer drugs eventually fail to consistently benefit patients due to serious drug resistance. AKT is a key effector of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, which is closely related to the occurrence, development, and drug resistance of tumors. Herein, we first designed and synthesized 20 kinds of novel hybrid molecules targeting both tubulin and AKT based on a podophyllotoxin (PPT) skeleton through computer-aided drug design. By CCK8 assay, we screened the compound D1-1(IC50= 0.10 μM) with the strongest inhibitory activity against H1975 cells, and its activity was 100 times higher than PPT (IC50= 12.56 μM) and 300 times higher than gefitinib (IC50= 32.15 μM). Affinity analysis results showed that D1-1not only retained the tubulin targeting of PPT but also showed strong AKT targeting. Subsequent pharmacological experiments showed that D1-1significantly inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of H1975 cells and slightly induced their apoptosis by inhibiting both tubulin polymerization and the AKT pathway activation. Collectively, these data demonstrate that the novel hybrid molecule D1-1may be an excellent lead compound for the treatment of human NSCLC as a dual inhibitor of tubulin and AKT.

AbstractA number of continuous eddy covariance measurements and long-term biomass inventories had proved that old-growth forests are carbon sinks worldwide. The present study estimated the net ecosystem productivity (NEP) for an old-growth subtropical forest at the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve in South China to investigate the temporal pattern of carbon sequestration, both seasonally and annually. The measured NEP over 7 years (from 2003 to 2009) showed that this forest was a net carbon sink, ranging from 230 (in 2008) to 489…−2year−1(in 2004). The greatest value of NEP was found in the driest year and the lowest value in the wettest year during the study period. Within a year, NEP during the dry season was about 81.4 % higher than for the wet season. Accordingly, the dry season at seasonal scale and dry years at interannual scale are key periods for carbon sequestration in this forest. The strong seasonality of ecosystem or soil respiration (ER or SR) compared with gross primary productivity (GPP) resulted in substantial amounts of carbon being sequestered during dry seasons. A decrease of GPP and an increase of ER or SR demonstrated the lower carbon uptake in rainy years. From this study, we conclude that GPP and living biomass carbon increment are not overriding parameters controlling NEP. The variations in ER or SR driven by the rainfall scheme were the dominant factor determining the magnitude of NEP in this forest in South China.

An enantioselective cyclopropanation reaction of sulfoxonium ylides with β,γ-unsaturated ketoesters catalyzed by a chiral rhodium catalyst has been realized. A variety of optically pure 1,2,3-trisubstituted cyclopropanes was synthesized in 48–89% yields, with up to 99% ee, and with dr >20:1. Furthermore, research shows that a weak coordination between the chiral rhodium catalyst and β,γ-unsaturated ketoesters was responsible for the high diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity of the corresponding products.

Many wooden Chinese historic buildings are destroyed due to the ravages of frequent fire disasters. The fire risk of historic buildings are highly enlarged since a long-time weathered wooden structures in the natural environment. The clean fire-extinguishing technology using fluorinated chemical gases to put out a historic building fire rapidly at the initial stage is highly recommended and widely used. However, the gaseous hydrogen fluoride (HF) yielded during the fire suppression process could be a potential method to result in secondary damage due to its corrosiveness. Nowadays, experiments were employed to clarify the effect of fire suppression on the surface of historic wooden buildings. Five traditional fluorinated chemical gases, H-37, FK-5-1-12, H-1323, H-2402, and H-1301, are used to suppress a fixed flame. The wooden samples, including a Dao Talisman board, a painting paper, and wooden chips, are placed in a chamber. Wooden chips consist of traditional and weathered samples (acting as the Chinese historic buildings). The concentration of gaseous products yielded from fire suppression are monitored by a gas-FTIR from ABB, and the surface analysis is conducted by a Quanta FEG SEM–EDX from FEI. It is observed that flame enhancement happens at the early stage of fire suppression and varies with fire agents. The amount of F-deposited on the wooden surface is positively correlated with a total amount of gaseous HF. The color change mechanism of the wooden surface is comprehensive, although the amount of HF is a leading factor. The influence of HF on color change depends on the amount of both gaseous H2O and HF. It is concluded that the value of L* of the traditional chip is much easier to be reduced comparing with weathered samples with the same wood grain. The reduction of b∗value of weathered samples is much larger than the traditional ones. It suggests the weathered chips show a color shift toward blue because of fire suppression. The present study hopes to provide a basic acknowledgment for the comprehensive understanding of secondary damage caused by fire suppression.

The porous carbon nanosphere with multiple heteroatom doping derived from silicon oxycarbonitride (SiOCN) with an interconnected carbon and silica domains is reported as a robust host of the sulfur cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. The synthesis of the porous carbon nanosphere (SiOCN‐H) is straightforward etching spherical SiOCN prepared through pyrolysis of a Schiff‐base‐SiO2precursor. The pore structure of SiOCN‐H can be easily adjusted by altering the amount of tetraethyl orthosilicate added in the aldimine condensation reaction of 3‐aminopropyl‐triethoxysilane with glutaraldehyde. The optimized sample of SiOCN‐H‐1 possesses a larger pore volume of 1.433 cm3g−1and contains multiple heteroatoms of Si, O, and N with a total amount of about 21 wt%. The sulfur cathode based on SiOCN‐H‐1 exhibits decent cycling performance, retaining 77.2% of the initial capacity at 0.2C after 100 cycles. At 0.5C, the S/SiOCN‐H‐1 cathode still maintains remarkable cycling stability, delivering a reversible discharge capacity of 540 mAh g−1after 400 cycles with a low decay of 0.076% per cycle. The porous spherical structure and the chemical bonding capability of doped heteroatoms in SiOCN‐H‐1 primarily contribute to the high performances of the S/SiOCN‐H‐1 cathode by alleviating the dissolution and shuttle effect of polysulfides. The synthesis of the porous carbon nanosphere (SiOCN‐H) is straightforward etching spherical silicon oxycarbonitride (SiOCN) prepared through pyrolysis of a Schiff‐base‐SiO2precursor. The cathode materials are prepared by a simple vacuum melt‐diffusion method. The cathode of S/SiOCN‐H‐1 exhibits a reversible discharge capacity of 540 mAh g−1after 400 cycles at 0.5C with a low decay of 0.076% per cycle.

An electrocatalytic sensor based on electron mediator toluidine blue (Tb) decorated PtPd nanoalloys (PtPdNAs) biomimetic enzyme coupling with label-free hair aptamer (HA) for OTA detection was successfully constructed. In this work, label-free HA was designed containing anti-OTA aptamer sequence (APT) and complementary sequence (cDNA) of report DNA (rDNA). rDNA and Tb joint decorated PtPdNAs (Tb-PtPd-rDNA) was used as a signal probe. The peroxidase-like activity of the PtPdNAs combined with the synergistic catalysis of the Poly 3,4-ethoxylene dioxy thiophene-AuNPs (PEDOT-AuNPs) coated glass-carbon electrode (PE-Au/GCE) resulted in strong catalytic current of Tb and eventually significantly improved the sensitivity of the sensor. The response current had a good metrological-signal relationship with OTA concentration from 0.1 pg ml-1to 0.1 ng ml-1, and the low detection limit of 0.05 pg ml-1was obtained. Meanwhile, the proposed sensor exhibited a good correlation with HPLC when it was applied for OTA detection in red wine samples. The strategy broadens the design of catalytic sensor and can be applied to the detection of other small molecules.

In order to explore the protective effect of TBHQ (tert-butyl hydroquinone) and BCA (butylated caffeic acid) on tocopherols in oils and fats, various physicochemical indexes of oil samples and changes of tocopherols content during high temperature frying and Rancimat accelerated oxidation were determined. The results showed that the addition of appropriate amount of TBHQ and BCA in oils and fats greatly improved the antioxidant activity, and the added TBHQ and BCA could effectively reduce the loss of tocopherols during the heating process of fats and oils and played a certain role in the protection of tocopherols. In comparison, BCA had a stronger protective effect, especially for the protection of d-tocopherol.