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Introduction Modern waterborne industrial coatings require the highest standards in performance and quality. A majority of the finishes are currently semi-gloss, but there is a trend towards deep-matte and natural-looking [...]

Treatment of chronic osteomyelitis (bone infection) remains a clinical challenge; in particular, it requires enhanced delivery of antibiotic drugs for the treatment of intracellular Staphylococcus aureus(S. aureus), which prevents infection recurrence and resistance. Previous studies have found that noninvasive shock waves used to treat musculoskeletal diseases can alter cell permeability, however, it is unclear whether shock waves alter cell membrane permeability in chronic osteomyelitis. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether such changes in permeability promote the entry of antibiotics into osteoblasts to exert antibacterial effects.

IscB has a similar domain organization to Cas9, but the small size of IscB is better suited for delivery by adeno-associated virus. To improve the low editing efficiency of OgeuIscB (IscB from human gut metagenome) in mammalian cells, we developed high-efficiency miniature base editors by engineering OgeuIscB nickase and its cognate ωRNA, termed IminiBEs. We demonstrated the robust editing efficiency of IminiCBE (67% on average) or IminiABE (52% on average). Fusing non-specific DNA-binding protein Sso7d to IminiBEs increased the editing efficiency of low-efficiency sites by around two- to threefold, and we termed it SIminiBEs. In addition, IminiCBE and SIminiCBE recognize NNRR, NNRY and NNYR target-adjacent motifs, which broaden the canonical NWRRNA target-adjacent motif sites for the wild-type IscB nickase. Overall, IminiBEs and SIminiBEs are efficient miniature base editors for site-specific genomic mutations.

Condensates are a hallmark of emergence in quantum materials such as superconductors and charge density waves. Excitonic insulators are an intriguing addition to this library, exhibiting spontaneous condensation of electron–hole pairs. However, condensate observables can be obscured through parasitic coupling to the lattice. Here we employ nonlinear terahertz spectroscopy to disentangle such obscurants through measurement of the quantum dynamics. We target Ta2NiSe5, a putative room-temperature excitonic insulator in which electron–lattice coupling dominates the structural transition (Tc= 326 K), hindering identification of excitonic correlations. A pronounced increase in the terahertz reflectivity manifests following photoexcitation and exhibits a Bose–Einstein condensation-like temperature dependence well below the Tc, suggesting an approach to monitor the exciton condensate dynamics. Nonetheless, dynamic condensate–phonon coupling remains as evidenced by peaks in the enhanced reflectivity spectrum at select infrared-active phonon frequencies, indicating that parametric reflectivity enhancement arises from phonon squeezing. Our results highlight that coherent dynamics can drive parametric stimulated emission.

The modern building sector faces the challenge of meeting energy demands while minimizing environmental impacts and promoting energy efficiency. This research paper presents a comprehensive approach to optimizing building energy systems using a modified metaheuristic, the Developed Coyote Algorithm (DCO). The increasing importance of storage equipment in energy organizations, driven by changes in peak-load demand and the growing adoption of renewable energy sources, necessitates efficient storage solutions. Battery Energy Storage (BES) and Thermal Energy Storage (TES) are commonly used to store excess energy generated from renewable sources and supply it during peak demand. By applying the DCO algorithm, the operational plans of energy systems comprising BES, air-source heat pumps, and TES can be efficiently optimized with minimal computational requirements. The proposed method aims to enhance the productivity and sustainability of energy systems while providing valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders involved in renewable energy development. The discharge of batteries and thermal energy storage occurs during low electricity prices, with charging power fluctuating between 100 and 150 kW. GWO and IWWO results show that charging is done at night with 150 kW, with a reduced amount used during other times. Thermal energy storage can store energy from 500 to 800 kW during night time, while DCO generates 700–900 kW. The results of this research contribute to the effective management of batteries, heat sources, and thermal storage in building energy systems, further advancing the utilization of renewable energy resources.

The performances of nonlinear optics (NLO) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are strongly related to the torsion angles (θ) between donor (D) and acceptor (A) moieties in D–A architecture molecules. However, the underlying relationships connecting θ to the performances of NLO/TADF materials remain unclear. Herein, we present a comprehensive theoretical study on NLO/TADF materials composed of a series of D–A backbone molecules (TPAAP/TPAAQ series and AQ-DMAC/AQ-MeFAC series) to shed light on these relationships. It is found that changing θ via the intramolecular locking strategy can greatly influence values of the first hyperpolarizability (β) and singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔEST), further leading to better/worse performances of NLO/TADF materials, respectively. Intriguingly, a more detailed analysis indicates that the variation trends between θ and β/ΔESTare changeable in low θ regions, exhibiting volcano-like relationships. The large coefficients of determination (R2, ranging from 0.76 to 0.93) suggest that this experimentally measurable parameter (θ) can be used as a promising descriptor to evaluate the performances of related materials. Following the revealed θ–β/θ–ΔESTcorrelations, the optimal/worst torsion angles for different materials are identified. These findings highlight the importance of the intrinsic structure–performance relationships, thus providing novel design strategies for high-performance NLO/TADF materials.

In modern society, visual symbols such as logos, icons, and letters have become essential for communication and cognition, playing a crucial role in daily life. This study focuses on app icons, a frequently encountered type of symbol, and aims to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in their recognition. Specifically, our objective is to identify the timing and location of brain activity associated with this process. We presented participants with familiar and unfamiliar app icons and asked them to perform a repetition detection task while recording the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by these stimuli. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in the ERPs between familiar and unfamiliar icons, occurring around 220 ms in the parietooccipital scalp region. The source analysis indicated that this ERP difference originated in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, specifically the fusiform gyrus. These findings suggest that the recognition of familiar app icons results in the activation of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex approximately 220 ms after exposure. Additionally, our findings, in conjunction with previous research on visual word recognition, suggest that the lexical orthographic processing of visual words is dependent on general visual processing mechanisms that are also involved in the recognition of familiar app icons. In essence, the ventral occipitotemporal cortex likely plays a crucial role in memorizing and recognizing visual symbols and objects, including familiar visual words.

Despite streamers having earned widespread attention, no studies have explored the relationship between streamers and customer engagement from a vocal–visual perspective in the livestreaming commerce context. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model, we examine how streamers’ speech rate and facial attractiveness influence customer engagement using 434 pieces of unstructured livestreaming video data extracted from Taobao. The findings show that speech rate is positively related to customer engagement behaviors. Facial attractiveness has a significant positive effect on the number of comments and viewers obtained, but it has no impact on the number of likes received in a livestream. Speech rate and facial attractiveness demonstrate a significant interaction effect, increasing customer engagement behaviors. Additionally, the numbers of comments and viewers obtained are positively related to sales performance. These results offer new insights into the vital role of streamers and provide practical implications for improving customer engagement in livestreaming commerce.

Meteorus pulchricornisis a preponderant parasitic wasp of various lepidopteran pests. The extensive application of broad-spectrum insecticides usually causes serious threats to the olfactory recognition of nontarget insects such as parasitoid wasps. However, the binding mechanism of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) to insecticides in parasitoid wasps remains unknown. Herein, we find that the MpulOBP6 protein had a strong binding affinity to three insecticides (phoxim, chlorpyrifos, and chlorfenapyr). Results of computational simulations revealed that the hydrophobic interaction contributed by a mass of nonpolar amino acid residues was the primary driving force in the formation and stabilization of MpulOBP6–insecticide complexes. Among them, four residues (Met75, Val84, Phe121, and Pro122) and two residues (Val84 and Phe111) play an essential role in the binding of MpulOBP6 to phoxim and chlorfenapyr, respectively. Our findings could be instrumental to elucidate the effects of insecticide application toward the olfactory recognition of nontarget insects in the processes of agricultural production.

Lacking high‐performance nonlinear optical (NLO) materials limits the applications to opto‐electronic devices. In this work, a strategy of self‐assembling driven by π‐π stacking is proposed to design high‐performance NLO materials. Here, the third‐order NLO responses of two carbon‐based fuller‐rylenes dimers (Fuller‐PMIand Fuller‐PDI) are theoretically studied. The results mainly highlight the following points: (1) these two dimers are in good thermodynamic and kinetic stability, and the interaction energies of Fuller‐PMIand Fuller‐PDIdimers have reached to −63.50 kcal/mol and −68.18 kcal/mol, respectively; (2) the ratios of the static second order hyperpolarizability (γiiiiFF, i∈{x, y, z}) between the dimer and the monomer are γxxxxFFdimerγxxxxFFmonomer= 5.5, γyyyyFFdimerγyyyyFFmonomer= 1.2 and γzzzzFFdimerγzzzzFFmonomer= 1.2 for Fuller‐PMI, γxxxxFFdimerγxxxxFFmonomer= 1.1, γyyyyFFdimerγyyyyFFmonomer=1.4 and γzzzzFFdimerγzzzzFFmonomer= 4.2 for Fuller‐PDI. These results demonstrate that the self‐assembling driven by π‐π stacking is an effective strategy for designing high‐performance NLO materials. The self‐assembling strategy induced by π‐π stacking is utilized to design nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Results suggest that this strategy is a very effective for designing high performance NLO materials. In this work, self‐assembly driven by π‐π stacking designs NLO materials with the remarkable second hyperpolarizability.

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) is the most severe form of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. Currently, there is no effective treatment for RP. In the present study, we recruited a XLRP family and identified a 4 bp deletion mutation (c. 2234_2237del) in RPGRORF15 with Sanger sequencing, which was located in the exact same region as the missing XES (X chromosome exome sequencing) coverage. Then, we generated cell lines harboring the identified mutation and corrected it via enhanced prime editing system (ePE). Collectively, Sanger sequencing identified a pathogenic mutation in RPGRORF15 for XLRP which was corrected with ePE. This study provides a valuable insight for genetic counseling of the afflicted family members and prenatal diagnosis, also paves a way for applying prime editing based gene therapy in those patients.

Graphitic electrode is commonly used in electrochemical reactions owing to its excellent in-plane conductivity, structural robustness and cost efficiency1,2. It serves as prime electrocatalyst support as well as a layered intercalation matrix2,3, with wide applications in energy conversion and storage1,4. Being the two-dimensional building block of graphite, graphene shares similar chemical properties with graphite1,2, and its unique physical and chemical properties offer more varieties and tunability for developing state-of-the-art graphitic devices5–7. Hence it serves as an ideal platform to investigate the microscopic structure and reaction kinetics at the graphitic-electrode interfaces. Unfortunately, graphene is susceptible to various extrinsic factors, such as substrate effect8–10, causing much confusion and controversy7,8,10,11. Hereby we have obtained centimetre-sized substrate-free monolayer graphene suspended on aqueous electrolyte surface with gate tunability. Using sum-frequency spectroscopy, here we show the structural evolution versus the gate voltage at the graphene–water interface. The hydrogen-bond network of water in the Stern layer is barely changed within the water-electrolysis window but undergoes notable change when switching on the electrochemical reactions. The dangling O–H bond protruding at the graphene–water interface disappears at the onset of the hydrogen evolution reaction, signifying a marked structural change on the topmost layer owing to excess intermediate species next to the electrode. The large-size suspended pristine graphene offers a new platform to unravel the microscopic processes at the graphitic-electrode interfaces.

Self-supervised learning (SSL) has gained wide-spread attention in the remote sensing (RS) and Earth observation (EO) communities owing to its ability to learn task-agnostic representations without human-annotated labels. Nevertheless, most existing RS SSL methods are limited to learning either global semantic separable or local spatial perceptible representations. We argue that this learning strategy is suboptimal in the realm of RS since the required representations for different RS downstream tasks are often varied and complex. In this study, we proposed a unified SSL framework that is better suited for RS image representation learning. The proposed SSL framework, contrastive mask image distillation (CMID), is capable of learning representations with both global semantic separability and local spatial perceptibility by combining contrastive learning (CL) with masked image modeling (MIM) in a self-distillation way. Furthermore, our CMID learning framework is architecture-agnostic, which is compatible with both convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and vision transformers (ViTs), allowing CMID to be easily adapted to a variety of deep learning (DL) applications for RS understanding. Comprehensive experiments have been carried out on four downstream tasks (i.e., scene classification, semantic segmentation, object detection, and change detection) and the results show that models pretrained using CMID achieve a better performance than other state-of-the-art SSL methods on multiple downstream tasks. The code and pretrained models will be made available at https://github.com/NJU-LHRS/official-CMIDhttps://github.com/NJU-LHRS/official-CMID to facilitate SSL research and speed up the development of RS images DL applications.

Adenine base editors (ABEs) are novel genome-editing tools, and their activity has been greatly enhanced by eight additional mutations, thus named ABE8e. However, elevated catalytic activity was concomitant with frequent generation of bystander mutations. This bystander effect precludes its safe applications required in human gene therapy. To develop next-generation ABEs that are both catalytically efficient and positionally precise, we performed combinatorial engineering of NG-ABE8e. We identify a novel variant (NG-ABE9e), which harbors nine mutations. NG-ABE9e exhibits robust and precise base-editing activity in human cells, with more than 7-fold bystander editing reduction at some sites, compared with NG-ABE8e. To demonstrate its practical utility, we used NG-ABE9e to correct the frequent T17M mutation in Rhodopsinfor autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. It reduces bystander editing by ∼4-fold while maintaining comparable efficiency. NG-ABE9e possesses substantially higher activity than NG-ABEmax and significantly lower bystander editing than NG-ABE8e in rice. Therefore, this study provides a versatile and improved adenine base editor for genome editing.

CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated endonuclease Cas9) nucleases have been widely applied for genome engineering. Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9) is compact, which can be packaged in AAV (adeno-associated virus) vector for in vivo gene editing. While, wild-type SaCas9 can induce unwanted off-target mutations and substantially limits the applications. So far, there are two reported SaCas9 variants with high-fidelity, including efSaCas9 from our previous study and SaCas9-HF. However, it remains unknown which one possessing the better fidelity and higher activity. Here, we performed a parallel comparison of efSaCas9 and SaCas9-HF in human cells through fluorescent reporter system and target deep sequencing, respectively. The results demonstrated that efSaCas9 possesses higher cleavage activity and fidelity than SaCas9-HF at the most endogenous sites in human cells. Collectively, our study provides insights for the rational selection of suitable SaCas9 for human genome editing.

Penicilliumand Bactrocera dorsalis(oriental fruit fly, Hendel) are major pathogens and pests of citrus fruits, as both of them can cause detrimental losses in citrus production. However, their interaction in the cohabitation of citrus fruits remains elusive. In this study, we revealed a mutualistic relationship between Penicilliumand B. dorsalis. We found that insect behaviors can facilitate the entry of fungal pathogens into fruits, and fungal pathogens promote the fitness of insects in return. More specifically, Penicilliumcould take advantage of the openings left by ovipositors of flies, and adult flies contaminated with Penicilliumcould spread the fungus to new sites. Moreover, the volatile emissions from fungi could attract gravid flies to the infected site for egg laying. The fungus and B. dorsaliswere able to establish mutual interaction, as revealed by the presence of PenicilliumDNA in intestinal tracts of flies throughout all larval stages. The fungal partner seemed to promote the emergence rate and shorten the emergence duration of the flies by providing pyridoxine, one of the B group vitamins. Different from previously reported scenarios of strong avoidance of Drosophilaand attraction of Aedes aegyptitoward Penicillium, our findings unveil a hitherto new paradigm of the mutualism between Penicilliumand B. dorsalis, by which both insect and fungus earn benefits to facilitate their propagation.

The application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) can be limited due to a lack of compatible protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequences in the DNA regions of interest. Recently, SpRY, a variant of Streptococcus pyogenesCas9 (SpCas9), was reported, which nearly completely fulfils the PAM requirement. Meanwhile, PAMs for SpRY have not been well addressed. In our previous study, we developed the PAM Definition by Observable Sequence Excision (PAM-DOSE) and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-reporter systems to study PAMs in human cells. Herein, we endeavored to identify the PAMs of SpRY with these two methods. The results indicated that 5′-NRN-3′, 5′-NTA-3′, and 5′-NCK-3′ could be considered as canonical PAMs. 5′-NCA-3′ and 5′-NTK-3′ may serve as non-priority PAMs. At the same time, PAM of 5′-NYC-3′ is not recommended for human cells. These findings provide further insights into the application of SpRY for human genome editing.

A morphing aircraft can adapt its configuration to suit different types of tasks, which is also an important requirement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The successful development of an unmanned morphing aircraft involves three steps that determine its ability and intelligent: configuration design, dynamic modeling and flight control. This study conducts a comprehensive survey of morphing aircraft. First, the methods to design the configuration of a morphing aircraft are presented and analyzed. Then, the nonlinear dynamic characteristics and aerodynamic interference caused by a morphing wing are described. Subsequently, the dynamic modeling and flight control methods for solving the flight control problems are summarized with respect to these features. Finally, the general as well as special challenges ahead of the development of intelligent morphing aircraft are discussed. The findings can provide a theoretical and technical reference for designing future morphing aircraft or morphing-wing UAVs.

SYNOPSIS: The rise of intangible assets in size and contribution to corporate growth over the past quarter century was accompanied by a steep increase in the rate and scope of [...]

Retinoschisin (RS1) is a secretory protein specifically localized to the extracellular domains in both the lateral retina and the pineal gland (PG). However, the functions of RS1 in the pineal body are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, in this study, we undertook histochemical, ultrastructural, and Western blotting analyses of the PG in rats and RS1-knock-in transgenic. We found that RS1 plays a key role in pineal gland calcification (PGC) in mice through both extracellular and intracellular pathways. RS1 was clustered around the cell membrane or intracellularly in pinealocytes, actively participating in the exchange of calcium and thereby mediating PGC. Additionally, RS1 deposition is essential for maintaining PGC architecture in the intercellular space of the adult PG. In RS1-knock-in mice with a nonsense mutation (p.Y65X) in the Rs1-domain of RS1, the Rs1-domain is chaotically dispersed in pinealocytes and the intercellular region of the PG. This prevents RS1 from binding calcified spots and forming calcified nodules, ultimately leading to the accumulation of calcareous lamellae in microvesicles. Additionally, RS1 was observed to colocalize with connexin-36, thereby modulating intercellular communication in the PG of both rats and mice. Our study revealed for the first time that RS1 is essential for maintaining PGC architecture and that it colocalizes with connexin 36 to modulate intercellular communication in the PG. These findings provide novel insights into the function of the RS1gene in the PG.

Developing high-performance non-noble metal bifunctional oxygen reduction and evolution reaction electrocatalysts is a critical factor for the commercialization of rechargeable Zn–air batteries. Herein, Co/Co–N/Co–O rooted on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hybrid boron and nitrogen codoped carbon (BCN) nanotube arrays (BCN/rGO-Co) is prepared by facile low-temperature precross-linking and high-temperature pyrolysis treatment. Benefit from the synergistic effect of its B/N codoping, Co/Co–N/Co–O bifunctional active sites, 3D hybrid porous structure of BCN nanotubes, and highly conductive rGO sheets. The obtained BCN/rGO-Co exhibits superior bifunctional oxygen catalytic activity with a positive ORR half-wave potential (0.85 V) and a low OER potential (1.61 V) at 10 mA cm–2. Additionally, the BCN/rGO-Co-based liquid Zn–air batteries displays a large peak power density of 157 mW cm–2, and a long charge/discharge cycle stability of 200 h, outdoing the commercial Pt/C+Ru/C catalyst.

• Novel heterogenous MoS 2 /C hollow spheres as a sulfur host material are constructed. • The composite allows both physical confinement and chemical adsorption for LiPSs. • The hollow structure enables fast ion transport and a high sulfur loading. • The MoS 2 /C-based sulfur cathode exhibits superior comprehensive performance. Rational design of advanced polar hosts with high sulfur loading, facilitated ionic/electronic transport and effectively suppressed shuttling effect has great potential for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries, yet it remains challenging. Here we propose a novel templated spherical coassembly strategy to fabricate the MoS 2 /C hollow spheres as an efficient sulfur host material. The unique hollow structure provides enough interior space for accommodating a substantial amount of sulfur, and effectively suppresses the diffusion of dissolved polysulfides by both physical confinement and chemical adsorption. Moreover, the ionic transport as well as the ability to mitigate volume variation upon cycling is also improved, thereby maximizing the utilization of sulfur. Owing to these merits, when evaluated as a sulfur host for lithium-sulfur batteries, the MoS 2 /C hollow spheres exhibit appealing electrochemical performance with an impressive specific capacity of 1082 mA h g−1 at 0.1 C, excellent rate capability and superior cycling stability with a low fading rate of 0.04% per cycle. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intraocular lens (IOL) implantation surgery is quite effective in the treatment of blindness caused by cataracts. However, in clinical applications, IOLs readily form glistening. This phenomenon usually occurs for a period after IOL implantation ranging from a few months to several years. The molecular mechanism of the formation of glistening in IOLs is still inconclusive. Failure to understand and explain the molecular mechanism of glistening formation greatly hinders the design and application of new glistening-free IOL materials. Here, in this study, we use molecular dynamics simulation methods to conduct in-depth research on the molecular mechanism of the glistening formation of IOLs, aiming to provide a possible molecular mechanism of glistening. Furthermore, based on this molecular mechanism, we propose a novel strategy of a glistening-free material based on a composite design method to reasonably copolymerize several types of molecules or functional groups, so that the glistening phenomenon can be effectively eliminated. The possible molecular mechanism of glistening formation proposed in this research can offer a solid theoretical basis and guidance for the subsequent construction of glistening-free IOL materials.

A new method of how to use high concentrations of UV–Vis absorbable components in mobile phases for ion chromatographic separation of anions with indirect photometric detection (IPD) was developed. The UV–Vis absorption curves, the signal strengths at selected wavelengths, and the response ranges at different wavelengths of three organic salts, sodium benzoate, sodium 4-nitrobenzoate and sodium 3,5-dinitrobenzoate were detected using a photodiode array detector. Mobile phases containing these three organic salts at concentrations as high as 20 mM were used for ion chromatographic separations of inorganic anions, such as F−, Cl−, NO2−, Br−, NO3−, and SO42−. Separation characteristics detected at different wavelengths such as, the baseline stability, signal to noise levels shown as detection limits, linearity, etc., were investigated. It is found that the best wavelength used for IPD may not be the maximum or near the maximum absorption wavelength, but definitely not the non-absorptive wavelength of the eluent. Therefore, the best wavelength should be optimized. With the optimized wavelength at 385 nm, anions of sub-nanomoles were able to be quantitatively detected, and a good linear relationship with a correlation coefficients, (r > 0.9998), within the sample ranges from 0.5 to 200 ng was available. By using the optimized wavelength, the threshold of the detector will no longer be a strict restriction factor of using high concentrations of UV–Vis absorbable components. Consequently, columns with different ion exchange capacities can be used for separations with IPD. Furthermore, because the separation system can be fast re-equilibrated after sample injection using high concentrations of monovalent ion eluent, the separation efficiency can be highly improved. This method is promising for developing mobile phases for other chromatographic separations with IPD.

Genetic manipulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could be harnessed for deciphering the gene function of mitochondria; it also acts as a promising approach for the therapeutic correction of pathogenic mutation in mtDNA. However, there is still a lack of direct evidence showing the edited mutagenesis within human mtDNA by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9). Here, using engineered CRISPR/Cas9, we observed numerous insertion/deletion (InDel) events at several mtDNA microhomologous regions, which were triggered specifically by double-strand break (DSB) lesions within mtDNA. InDel mutagenesis was significantly improved by sgRNA multiplexing and a DSB repair inhibitor, iniparib, demonstrating the evidence of rewiring DSB repair status to manipulate mtDNA using CRISPR/Cas9. These findings would provide novel insights into mtDNA mutagenesis and mitochondrial gene therapy for diseases involving pathogenic mtDNA.

Evidence shows that cognitive remediation therapy improves cognition in individuals with schizophrenia. However, its broader impact on patients’ lives remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the motivational factors influencing treatment engagement. This quantitative and qualitative case series study identified factors that influence patients’ experiences while receiving cognitive enhancement therapy (CET). Nine individuals with schizophrenia who received CET completed two questionnaires and participated in semi-structured focus groups or in an individual interview about their experience with CET. Four deductive themes were assessed when analyzing responses: (1) perceived impact, (2) motivational facilitators, (3) motivational barriers, and (4) suggestions to improve CET. All participants reported that CET was helpful, and the majority enjoyed participating in CET. Most participants reported high satisfaction with their work and school, but lower satisfaction with their social life. Results also indicated perceived improvements in negative symptoms, neurocognition, and confidence following CET. Participants identified extrinsic, intrinsic, and program-specific facilitators and barriers motivating their participation in the program. Suggestions to improve CET included changes to treatment design and content. Altogether, these results indicate that the perspective of CET end users can provide useful information on the factors influencing treatment engagement, satisfaction, and perceived impact.

Purpose:: Pelvic bone segmentation in CT has always been an essential step in clinical diagnosis and surgery planning of pelvic bone diseases. Existing methods for pelvic bone segmentation are either hand-crafted or semi-automatic and achieve limited accuracy when dealing with image appearance variations due to the multi-site domain shift, the presence of contrasted vessels, coprolith and chyme, bone fractures, low dose, metal artifacts, etc. Due to the lack of a large-scale pelvic CT dataset with annotations, deep learning methods are not fully explored. Methods:: In this paper, we aim to bridge the data gap by curating a large pelvic CT dataset pooled from multiple sources, including 1184 CT volumes with a variety of appearance variations. Then, we propose for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to learn a deep multi-class network for segmenting lumbar spine, sacrum, left hip, and right hip, from multiple-domain images simultaneously to obtain more effective and robust feature representations. Finally, we introduce a post-processor based on the signed distance function (SDF). Results:: Extensive experiments on our dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our automatic method, achieving an average Dice of 0.987 for a metal-free volume. SDF post-processor yields a decrease of 15.1% in Hausdorff distance compared with traditional post-processor. Conclusion:: We believe this large-scale dataset will promote the development of the whole community and open source the images, annotations, codes, and trained baseline models at https://github.com/ICT-MIRACLE-lab/CTPelvic1K.

Background and objectives Metformin, an oral hypoglycemic drug, has been suggested to possess antitumour activity in several types of cancers. Additionally, interleukin-8 (IL-8) has been reported to be involved in the development and metastasis of many cancers. However, the effect of metformin on IL-8 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether metformin could inhibit IL-8 expression to exert an inhibitory effect on HCC progression.Materials and methods The IL-8 levels were measured in the plasma of 159 HCC patients (86 men, 73 women; average age 56 years) and in the culture supernatant of HCC cells (Hep3B and HuH7) using flow cytometry. In addition, the protein expression levels of IL-8 were also validated by the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. The prognostic value of IL-8 was evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier Plotter database. The association between IL-8 expression and immune checkpoints was estimated using the TIMER and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. What’s more, bioinformatics analysis, western blotting, and transwell assays were conducted to illustrate the molecular mechanism of metformin (≤1 mM) on IL-8 in HCC.Results IL-8 expression was found to be increased in the plasma of HCC patients, which is consistent with the expression of IL-8 in HCC cells and tissues. High expression of IL-8 was significantly related to poor prognosis. In addition, IL-8 was positively correlated with immune checkpoints in HCC. Notably, we found that low-dose metformin could inhibit the secretion of IL-8 by HCC cells and the migration of HCC cells. Mechanistically, low-dose metformin significantly suppresses HCC metastasis mainly through the AMPK/JNK/IL-8/MMP9 pathway.Conclusion The results indicate that low-dose metformin can inhibit HCC metastasis by suppressing IL-8 expression. Targeting the AMPK/JNK/IL-8 axis may be a promising treatment strategy for patients with HCC metastasis.

Sparse signal recovery via ℓ1-αℓ2minimization method with α∈[0,1]was analyzed in Li et al. (Inverse Probl 36(5):055009, 2020). In this paper, we develop ℓp-αℓqminimization method with adjustable p∈(0,1]and q∈[1,2]. By means of this new method, we investigate sparse signal recovery in noise setting. New high-order RIP condition is established to guarantee the stable recovery of approximately k-sparse signals in ℓ2-bounded noise setting. The obtained results substantially generalize and improve the state-of-the-art ones. Furthermore, we propose an effective algorithm based on DCA to solve the ℓp-αℓqminimization. Numerical experiments illustrate that the new method outperforms the existing ones.

Anthracyclines are a class of conventional and commonly used frontline chemotherapy drugs to treat breast cancer. However, the anthracycline-based regimens can only reduce breast cancer mortality by 20–30%. Furthermore, there is no appropriate biomarker for predicting responses to this kind of chemotherapy currently. Here we report our findings that may fill this gap by showing the AQP1 (Aquaporin1) protein as a potential response predictor in the anthracycline chemotherapy. We showed that breast cancer patients with a high level of AQP1 expression who underwent the anthracycline treatment had a better clinical outcome relative to those with a low level of AQP1 expression. In the exploration of the underlying mechanisms, we found that the AQP1 and glycogen synthase kinase-3ß (GSK3ß) competitively interacted with the 12 armadillo repeats of ß-catenin, followed by the inhibition of the ß-catenin degradation that led to ß-catenin’s accumulation in the cytoplasm and nuclear translocation. The nuclear ß-catenin interacted with TopoIIa and enhanced TopoIIa’s activity, which resulted in a high sensitivity of breast cancer cells to anthracyclines. We also found, the miR-320a-3p can attenuate the anthracycline’s chemosensitivity by inhibiting the AQP1 expression. Taken together, our findings suggest the efficacy of AQP1 as a response predictor in the anthracycline chemotherapy. The application of our study includes, but is not limited to, facilitating screening of the most appropriate breast cancer patients (who have a high AQP1 expression) for better anthracycline chemotherapy and improved prognosis purposes.

In this work, poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride)-capped CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) aminolyzed with ethanolamine are proposed as fluorescent probes for the detection of Cu2+and Hg2+, and two different quenching mechanisms are discussed in detail. The coordination abilities of the surface polymer of CdSe/ZnS QDs and two metal ions are calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The photoinduced electron transfer from excited QDs to Cu2+unoccupied orbitals is enhanced due to the coordination between Cu2+and the surface polymer of QDs. The electron transfer consumes non-radiative energy and performs fluorescence quenching. For Hg2+, the formation of HgS and the slight aggregation of polymer-coated CdSe/ZnS QDs lead to fluorescence quenching. The probe is sensitive to both Cu2+and Hg2+, and the response can be detected within 1 min without adjusting the pH. With the addition of a masking agent, Cu2+and Hg2+can be exclusively detected in coexistence with another ion. For Cu2+, a linear relation in the concentration ranging from 0.02 to 0.7 μM was found between the relative fluorescence intensity (F0/F) and the concentration of Cu2+; the limit of detection (S/N = 3) is 6.94 nM. For Hg2+, a linear relation ranging from 0.1 to 1.4 μM was found between ln(F0/F) and the concentration of Hg2+; the limit of detection is 20.58 nM.

The thermal stability of sprayable fast-responding Pressure-Sensitive Paint (fast PSP) was investigated to explore the possibility for application in turbomachinery and hypersonic research with temperature above 100 °C. The first part of the study focused on a widely-used Polymer Ceramic PSP (PC-PSP). The effects of thermal degradation on its key sensing properties, including luminescent intensity, pressure sensitivity and response time, were examined for a temperature range from 60 to 100 °C. Severe degradation in intensity and pressure sensitivity was found as temperature reached 70 °C or higher, which would cause failure of PSP application in these conditions. Subsequently, a fast-responding Mesoporous-Particle PSP (MP-PSP) was developed which did not show degradation effects until 140 °C. The greatly improved thermal stability of MP-PSP was attributed to: selection of polymer with higher glass transition temperature (polystyrene) to delay the saturation effect of oxygen quenching as temperature increased; porous and hollow structure of particles for luminophore deposition that minimizes polymer–luminophore interaction. This new paint formulation has significantly raised the upper temperature limit of fast PSP and offers more opportunities for applications in harsh environment.

Shigellosis is a highly infectious disease that is mainly transmitted via fecal-oral contact of the bacteria Shigella. Four species have been identified in Shigellagenus, among which Shigella flexneriis used to be the most prevalent species globally and commonly isolated from developing countries. However, it is being replaced by Shigella sonneithat is currently the main causative agent for dysentery pandemic in many emerging industrialized countries such as Asia and the Middle East. For a better understanding of S. sonneivirulence and antibiotic resistance, we sequenced 12 clinical S. sonneistrains with varied antibiotic-resistance profiles collected from four cities in Jiangsu Province, China. Phylogenomic analysis clustered antibiotic-sensitive and resistant S. sonneiinto two distinct groups while pan-genome analysis reveals the presence and absence of unique genes in each group. Screening of 31 classes of virulence factors found out that type 2 secretion system is doubled in resistant strains. Further principle component analysis based on the interactions between virulence and resistance indicated that abundant virulence factors are associated with higher levels of antibiotic resistance. The result present here is based on statistical analysis of a small sample size and serves basically as a guidance for further experimental and theoretical studies.

The mechanism of the Cu(i)-catalyzed domino reaction furnishing 1-aryl-1,2,3-triazole assisted by CuI and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) is explored with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The overall mechanism for this domino reaction comprises four consecutive reactions: (i) deprotonation of terminal alkyne by DBU; (ii) cycloaddition of copper acetylide and N3−; (iii) C–N bond coupling of the cuprate–triazole anion and aryl bromide; and (iv) protodecupration. Our theoretical calculations indicate that the Cu-catalyzed azidation of the electron-rich aryl bromides with N3−, which would generate the aryl azide for subsequent Cu(i)-catalyzed alkyne–azide cycloaddition, is not the dominant reaction because of its high free energy barrier. In addition, the cycloaddition process can assist C(aryl)–N bond formation. Activation strain analyses suggest that oxidative addition of aryl bromide onto the cuprate–triazole anion is more facile mainly due to enhanced dCu–orbital interaction. A close attraction between copper and aryl bromide during oxidative addition is critical to the lower barrier.

Pasireotide, a multireceptor-targeted somatostatin analog with highest affinity for somatostatin receptor subtype (SST) 5, has demonstrated superior efficacy over the SST2-preferential somatostatin analogs octreotide and lanreotide. The safety profile is similar to those of octreotide and lanreotide, except for a higher frequency and degree of hyperglycemia. This analysis investigated baseline characteristics and occurrence and management of hyperglycemia during pasireotide treatment in patients with acromegaly treated in two prospective clinical studies, SOM230C2305 (C2305) and SOM230C2402 (C2402; PAOLA). One hundred and seventy-eight patients naïve to medical therapy at baseline (C2305) and 125 uncontrolled on first-generation somatostatin analogs at baseline (C2402) received long-acting pasireotide in these studies. Of patients treated with pasireotide in studies C2305 and C2402, respectively, 75.3 (134/178) and 65.6% (82/125) developed hyperglycemia or experienced worsening of existing hyperglycemia. Occurrence of hyperglycemia during pasireotide treatment was less frequent in patients with lower age (<40 years, C2402; <30 years, C2305), normal glucose tolerance, and no history of hypertension or dyslipidemia at baseline. Thirteen (4%) patients discontinued pasireotide because of hyperglycemia-related adverse events. Metformin alone or in combination with other oral antidiabetic medications controlled elevations in glucose levels in most pasireotide-treated patients; 78% of C2305 patients and 73 (pasireotide 40 mg) and 60% (pasireotide 60 mg) of C2402 patients achieved the ADA/EASD goal of HbA1c<7% (<53 mmol/mol) at the end of the core phase. Not all patients develop hyperglycemia, and it is reversible upon pasireotide withdrawal. Close monitoring, patient education and prompt action remain key elements in addressing hyperglycemia during pasireotide treatment.

Cushing's disease is a rare endocrine disorder characterised by cortisol overproduction with severe complications. Therapies for cortisol reduction are often necessary. Here we report the outcomes from the pivotal phase III study of osilodrostat (a potent oral inhibitor of cytochrome P450 11B1, mitochondrial [11β-hydroxylase]; Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland) in patients with Cushing's disease.

With a rapid charge/discharge feature, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRBs) are green, large-scale energy storage devices useful for power smoothing in unstable renewable power generation facilities, such as those involving solar and wind energy. This study developed a VRB model to establish a relationship between electrolyte concentration, equilibrium potential, and state of charge (SOC), to simulate the dynamic responses in charge/discharge cycles of the electrolyte concentration, terminal voltage, and SOC, and to evaluate the internal loss and battery efficiency. The proposed model not only serves as the basis of a dynamic analysis tool for future studies for designing a large-scale VRB but also reveals the time-varying electrolyte status for a long-term VRB operation.

Synthesizing polymers with tailor-made molecular weight distribution (MWD) is an essential step toward better control and design of functional polymer materials. We propose a novel one-pot reaction strategy that can facilitate the inverse design of the shape, breadth, and skew of the MWD in a controlled polymerization. By a multistep initiator addition scheme that involves a sequence of addition operations with determined amounts of initiators and addition times, the polymers with target MWD can be possibly synthesized. This strategy is in principle suitable to reproduce most target MWDs, even with a multimodal profile or with large breadth and/or skew. As compared to previous relevant methods by blending polymers with determined molar masses and ratios, this one-pot reaction strategy avoids most of the tedious intermediate steps for controlling precision in blending and would be more convenient and timesaving. Our study supplies the inspiration of better control of synthesizing polymers with designated MWD in controlled polymerization.

The stereospecific design of the interface effects can optimize the electron/Li-ion migration kinetics for energy-storage materials. In this study, an electric field was introduced to silicon-based materials (C-SiOx@Si/rGO) through the rational construction of multi-heterostructures. This was achieved by manipulating the physicochemical properties at the atomic level of advanced Li-ion batteries (LIBs). The experimental and density functional theory calculations showed that the unbalanced charge distribution generated a large potential difference, which in turn induced a large-scale electric-field response with a boosted interfacial charge transfer in the composite. The as-prepared C-SiOx@Si/rGO anode showed advanced rate capability (i.e., 1579.0 and 906.5 mAh g–1at 1000 and 8000 mA g–1, respectively) when the migration paths of the Li-ion/electrons hierarchically optimized the large electric field. Furthermore, the C-SiOx@Si/rGO composite with a high SiOx@Si mass ratio (73.5 wt %) demonstrated a significantly enhanced structural stability with a 40% volume expansion. Additionally, when coupled with the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2(NCM) cathode, the NCM//C-SiOx@Si/rGO full cell delivers superior Li-ion storage properties with high reversible capacities of 157.6 and 101.4 mAh g–1at 500 and 4000 mA g–1, respectively. Therefore, the electric-field introduction using optimized electrochemical reaction kinetics can assist in the construction of other high-performance LIB materials.

The development of active electrocatalysts for enhancing Li2O2decomposition kinetics plays an important role in reducing the overpotential of Li–O2batteries. However, a catalytic descriptor is not established due to the difficult characterization of the charge transfer between Li2O2and the catalyst. Here, we employ first-principles thermodynamic calculations to study the electrocatalytic mechanism of 4d transition metals. We found that charge acceptation and donation capacities of catalysts, defined as surface electron affinity (VSEA) and surface ionic potential (VSIP), take cooperative responsibilities for the activation of Li–O2bonds and the reduction of desorption barriers of Li+and O2, respectively. Therefore, we define surface electronegativity VSE(VSE= (VSEA+ VSIP)/2), which exhibits a volcano curve with a reduced charge overpotential, as the catalytic descriptor. We identified those catalysts with surface electronegativities of 1.7–2.2 V to have highly catalytic activities in the reduction of the charge overpotential, which are well verified by previous experimental data. The present study opens a wide avenue in the development of high-activity catalysts for interfacial electrocatalysts by an effective descriptor.

Exploring Si-based anode materials with high electrical conductivity and electrode stability is crucial for high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, we propose the fabrication of a Si-based composite where Si porous nanospheres (Si p-NSs) are tightly wrapped by Ti3C2Tx(Txstands for the surface groups such as −OH, −F) MXene nanosheets (TNSs) through an interfacial assembly strategy. The TNSs as a conductive and robust tight of the Si p-NSs can effectively improve electron transport and electrode stability, as revealed by substantial characterizations and mechanical simulations. Moreover, the TNSs with rich surface groups enable strong interfacial interactions with the Si p-NS component and a pseudocapacitive behavior, beneficial for fast and stable lithium storage. Consequently, the Si p-NS@TNSs electrode with a high Si content of 85.6% exhibits significantly enhanced battery performance compared with the Si p-NSs electrode such as high reversible capacity (1154 mAh g–1at 0.2 A g–1), long cycling stability (up to 2000 cycles with a 0.026% capacity decay rate per cycle), and excellent rate performances. Notably, the Si p-NS@TNSs electrode-based LIB full cell delivers a high energy uptake of 405 Wh kg–1, many-times higher than that of the Si p-NSs full cell. This work offers a strategy to develop advanced Si-based anode materials with desirable properties for high-performance LIBs.

ABSTRACTThe compact polarimetry (CP) mode of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its lower energy budget, reduced data volume and larger swath width. In this paper, the possibility and practicability of a fully convolutional network (FCN) for quad-pol reconstruction from CP SAR data are explored. A 5-Dimension normalized input vector is designed to fully represent the CP covariance matrix. The proposed FCN consists of 11 feature extraction layers and one regression layer. Among them, 11 feature extraction layers have increased receptive fields for extracting spatial features and one regression layer for outputting reconstructed values. By introducing the residual connection and the batch normalization algorithm, the structure is deepened and the training speed is accelerated. The experiments are carried out on six Chinese Gaofen-3 quad-polarimetric SAR datasets, and the results show that the proposed method has higher accuracy than the existing reconstruction algorithms with good generalization ability.

Ethanamizuril(N-{4-[4-(3,5-dioxo-4,5-dihydro-3H-[1,2,4]triazin-2-yl)-2-methyl-phenoxy]-phenyl}-acetamide, EZL) is a new anticoccidiosis compound and belongs to the class of triazines. In this study, the metabolism, distribution, and excretion of EZL were evaluated in chickens after administration of EZL at a single dosage. According to the relevant drug biotransformation rules, the exact molecular mass detection, the fragmentation characteristics, and the retention times, a total of five metabolites were identified in vivo in chickens, including two phase I metabolites and three phase II conjugated metabolites. The major metabolic pathways of EZL in chickens were deacetylation, hydroxylation, and glucuronidation. Regarding 14C-tissue residues after administration, kidney was considered to be the target tissue, as 14C-tissue residues could be detected at 240 h postdose. DeacetylEZL (M3) was the main metabolite, accounting for 68.65% and 25.62% of 14C in kidney at 6 and 24 h, respectively. In heart, muscle, skin+fat, and lung tissues, EZL was the main radioactive substance accounting for 94.88%, 97.32%, 96.23%, and 91.3% of 14C, respectively. In the liver, EZL and M3 were 20.76% and 54.65% of 14C, respectively. In chicken tissues the ratio of M5 was too low to be quantitated and it was mainly detected in chicken fecal and bile samples. In chicken excreta, EZL, M3, and glucuronidation of EZL (M5) accounted for 7.02%, 12.33%, and 10.32% of the dose, respectively and were eliminated primarily. This study presents the first detection of EZL metabolites, which is helpful for further understanding of the metabolic mechanism and in vivo intermediate processes of EZL. The results of this study will be good bases for better understanding EZL’s anticoccidiosis mechanism and will serve as a helpful reference for assessing the risks to animals and humans.

Materials with outstanding nonlinear optical (NLO) response exhibit excellent prospects in electrooptic devices. Thus, it is essential to find a high-performance NLO material to meet the growing demand for high-speed data transmission. In this study, theoretical investigations on the second order NLO properties of the novel expanded mislinked thia-norhexaphyrin, sulfur-free pentaphyrin, and their substituted derivatives were performed using density functional theory. Theoretical calculations display that the approximate planar structures of sulfur-free pentaphyrin embedded with two five-membered rings exhibits a remarkable NLO response and holds large dipolar contribution (ΦJ=1= 63.5%) to the first hyperpolarizability among four parent expanded mislinked porphyrins. The static first hyperpolarizability values of these expanded porphyrins were found to range from 3490 to 14 229 au. In addition, the second order NLO response of these porphyrins has greatly improved except for minority electron-releasing- and electron-withdrawing-group substituted cases, and the static first hyperpolarizability value has increased to 47 950 au after installing the donor and acceptor groups. Unambiguous evidence reveals that expanded mislinked porphyrin can serve as a potential candidate for NLO materials.

The time-dependent coupled perturbed Hartree–Fock/density-functional-theory (TDHF/TDDFT) approach has been reformulated based on nonorthogonal localized molecular orbitals (NOLMOs). Based on the NOLMO Fock equation, we have derived the corresponding NOLMO-TDHF/TDDFT equations up to the third order, and the formula for the frequency-dependent (hyper)polarizabilities has been given. Our approach has been applied to calculate both static and dynamic (hyper)polarizabilities of molecules varying from small molecules to large molecules. The NOLMO-TDHF/TDDFT approach can reproduce the reference canonical molecular orbital (CMO) results for all of our testing calculations. With the help of ongoing development of optimized local virtual molecular orbitals, the NOLMO-TDHF/TDDFT approach would be a very efficient method for large system calculations and tp achieve linear scaling.