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On Cu(111) surface and in interaction with a single hexa-tert-butylphenylbenzene molecule-gear, the rotation of a graphene nanodisk was studied using the large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator molecular dynamics simulator. To ensure a transmission of rotation to the molecule-gear, the graphene nanodisk is functionalized on its circumference by tert -butylphenyl chemical groups. The rotational motion can be categorized underdriving, driving and overdriving regimes calculating the locking coefficient of this mechanical machinery as a function of external torque applied to the nanodisk. The rotational friction with the surface of both the phononic and electronic contributions is investigated. For small size graphene nanodisks, the phononic friction is the main contribution. Electronic friction dominates for the larger disks putting constrains on the experimental way of achieving the transfer of rotation from a graphene nanodisk to a single molecule-gear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phosphors Ca3(PO4)2:Tm3+ by co-doping Ce3+ have been synthesized by conventional high-temperature solid-state reaction method. Their spectroscopic properties in the UV-VIS-NIR range have been investigated. The first 5d crystal field level location and stokes shift have been determined from the UV excitation and emission spectra of Ca3(PO4)2:Ce3+. The three-photon NIR quantum-cutting luminescence of Tm3+ assigned to the electronic transitions of 1G4→3H4, 3H4→3F4 and 3F4→3H6 is observed, whether in Ca3(PO4)2:Tm3+ or Ca3(PO4)2:Tm3+,Ce3+. The energy transfer from Ce3+ to Tm3+ takes place with energy-transfer efficiency up to 34.5% for the Ca3(PO4)2:Tm3+,Ce3+. A cross relaxation scheme using the 5d states of Ce3+ and f-f transition of Tm3+ is proposed. The mechanism is revealed from energy level and decay measurements. The results show that the broadband absorption of Ce3+ sensitizer not only extends the spectrum conversion in UV region but also greatly enhances the photoluminescence intensities of the three-photon quantum cutting luminescence of Tm3+ doped Ca3(PO4)2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High device density and high power density intensify the self-heating effect in scaled FinFET circuits to degrade both device and back-end-of-line (BEOL) reliability. The boundary scattering in nanostructure, alloy scattering in SiGe, and interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) between different materials even worsen the self-heating. A modularized FinFET SPICE model consisting of distributed ${R} _{\textsf {th}}$ – ${C} _{\textsf {th}}$ network is used to provide a transient thermal response. A two-step pseudo isothermal plane model is proposed to characterize the thermal behavior of BEOL. Both BEOL and FinFET SPICE model are verified by TCAD simulation with dc and ac inputs. The ITR significantly raises the junction temperature of the FinFETs ($\Delta {T}_{\textsf {j}}\sim \textsf {42}~^{\circ }\text{C}$). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The murine maternal immune activation (MIA) offspring model enables longitudinal studies to explore aberrant social behaviors similar to those observed in humans. High levels of cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion molecules (CAM) have been found in the plasma and/or brains of psychiatric patients. We hypothesized that upregulation of the systemic or brain immune response has an augmenting effect by potentially increasing the interplay between the neuronal and immune systems during the growth of the MIA offspring. In this study, a C57BL/6j MIA female offspring model exhibiting social deficits was established. The expression of fetal interferon (IFN)‐stimulated (gbp3, irgm1, ifi44), adolescent immunodevelopmental transcription factor (eg, r2, tfap2b), hormone (pomc, hcrt), adult selectin (sell, selp) and neuroligin (nlgn2) genes was altered. Systemic upregulation of endogenous IL‐10 occurred at the adult stage, while both IL‐1β and IL‐6 were increased and persisted in the sera throughout the growth of the MIA offspring. The cerebral IL‐6 levels were endogenously upregulated, but both MCP‐1 (macrophage inflammatory protein‐1) and L‐selectin levels were downregulated at the adolescent and/or adult stages. However, the MIA offspring were susceptible to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. After reinjecting the MIA offspring with LPS in adulthood, a variety of sera and cerebral cytokines, chemokines and CAMs were increased. Particularly, both MCP‐1 and L‐selectin showed relatively high expression in the brain compared with the expression levels in phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS)‐treated offspring injected with LPS. Potentially, MCP‐1 was attracted to the L‐selectin‐mediated immune cells due to augmentation of the immune response following stimulation in MIA female offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 79 year old man with chronic hepatitis C related cirrhosis found to have multiple ill-defined liver lesions on abdominal ultrasound. In contrast to normal liver parenchyma, biliary hamartoma is usually presented as diffuse tiny or small cystic lesions in the liver without enhancement. [Extracted from the article]

Compact radio sources exhibit scintillation, an interference pattern arising from propagation through inhomogeneous plasma, where scintillation patterns encode the relative distances and velocities of the source, scattering material, and Earth. In previous work, we showed that the scintillation velocity of the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) FRB20201124A could be measured by correlating burst spectrum pairs, with low values of the scintillation velocity and scattering time-scale suggesting scattering nearby the Earth at $\sim$ 0.4 kpc. In this work, we have measured the scintillation velocity at 10 epochs spanning 1 yr, observing an annual variation that strongly implies the screen is within the Milky Way. Modelling the annual variation with a 1D anisotropic or 2D isotropic screen results in a screen distance $d_{\mathrm{ l}} = 0.40\pm 0.04$ or $0.46\pm 0.06\,$ pc from the Earth, respectively, possibly associated with material outside of the Local Bubble or the edge of the Orion–Eridanus superbubble. Additional measurements particularly at times of low effective velocity will help probe changes in screen properties, and distinguish between screen models. Where scintillation of an FRB originates in its host galaxy or local environment, these techniques could be used to detect orbital motion, and probe the FRB's local ionized environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the observations of the highly active FRB20201124A with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) at 550–750 MHz. These observations in the incoherent array mode simultaneously provided an arcsecond localization of bursts from FRB20201124A, the discovery of persistent radio emission associated with the host galaxy, and the detection of 48 bursts. Using the brightest burst in the sample (F  = 108 Jy ms), we find a structure-maximizing dispersion measure of 410.8 ± 0.5 pc cm−3. We find that our observations are complete down to a fluence level of 10 Jy ms, above which the cumulative burst rate scales as a power law |$R(\gt \!F) = 10~{\rm h}^{-1} \left(F/10\mathrm{\, Jy\, ms}\right)^{\gamma }$|⁠ , with γ  = −1.2 ± 0.2. We find that the bursts are, on average, wider than those reported for other repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). We find that the waiting time between bursts is well approximated by an exponential distribution with a mean of ∼2.9 min during our observations. We searched for periodicities using both a standard Fourier domain method and the fast folding algorithm, but found no significant candidates. We measure bulk spectro-temporal drift rates between −0.75 and −20 MHz ms−1. Finally, we use the brightest burst to set an upper limit to the scattering time of 11.1 ms at 550 MHz. The localization of FRB20201124A adds strength to the proof-of-concept method described in our earlier work and serves as a potential model for future localizations and follow-up of repeating FRBs with the uGMRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/article-withdrawal). < This article has been retracted at the request of the Co-Editor-in-Chief after a complaint was registered on the PubPeer webpage (https://pubpeer.com/publications/2460573E8B5707B48D70D73FF31E54). The article duplicates images from a figure, with a 90o rotation, from a paper that had already appeared in PLoS ONE (2015), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143438 , also two panels in Fig 4C seem to be the same image. Several requests to the authors to resolve this went unanswered. One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that the paper has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Re-use of any data should be appropriately cited. As such this article represents a misuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process.> [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate whether the sky rate of fast radio bursts (FRBs) depends on Galactic latitude using the first catalog of FRBs detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) Project. We first select CHIME/FRB events above a specified sensitivity threshold in consideration of the radiometer equation, and then we compare these detections with the expected cumulative time-weighted exposure using Andersonâ€"Darling and Kolmogorovâ€"Smirnov tests. These tests are consistent with the null hypothesis that FRBs are distributed without Galactic latitude dependence (p -values distributed from 0.05 to 0.99, depending on completeness threshold). Additionally, we compare rates in intermediate latitudes (∣ b ∣ < 15°) with high latitudes using a Bayesian framework, treating the question as a biased coin-flipping experimentâ€"again for a range of completeness thresholds. In these tests the isotropic model is significantly favored (Bayes factors ranging from 3.3 to 14.2). Our results are consistent with FRBs originating from an isotropic population of extragalactic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study compared the catechin composition of different tea byproducts and investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with green tea byproducts on the accumulation of abdominal fat, the modulation of lipid metabolism, and the inflammatory response in red feather native chickens. Methods: Bioactive compounds were detected, and in vitro antiobesity capacity analyzed via 3T3L1 preadipocytes. In animal experiments, 320 onedayold red feather native chickens were divided into 4 treatment groups: control, basal diet supplemented with 0.5% Jinxuan byproduct (JBP), basal diet supplemented with 1% JBP, or basal diet supplemented with 5x106 colonyforming unit (CFU)/kg Bacillus amyloliquefaciens+5x106 CFU/kg Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BA+SC). Growth performance, serum characteristics, carcass characteristics, and the mRNA expression of selected genes were measured. Results: This study compared several cultivars of tea, but Jinxuan showed the highest levels of the antiobesity compound epigallocatechin gallate. 3T3L1 preadipocytes treated with Jinxuan extract significantly reduced lipid accumulation. There were no significant differences in growth performance, serum characteristics, or carcass characteristics among the groups. However, in the 0.5% JBP group, mRNA expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and acetylCoA carboxylase (ACC) were significantly decreased. In the 1% JBP group, FAS, ACC and peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor γ levels were significantly decreased. Moreover, inflammationrelated mRNA expression levels were decreased by the addition of JBP. Conclusion: JBP contained abundant catechins and related bioactive compounds, which reduced lipid accumulation in 3T3L1 preadipocytes, however there was no significant reduction in abdominal fat. This may be due to a lack of active antiobesity compounds or because the major changes in fat metabolism were not in the abdomen. Nonetheless, lipogenesisrelated and inflammationrelated mRNA expression were reduced in the 1% JBP group. In addition, dietary supplementation with tea byproducts could reduce the massive amount of byproducts created during tea production and modulate lipid metabolism and the inflammatory response in chickens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the findings of an upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) observing campaign for FRB 180916.J0158+65, which was recently found to show a 16.35-d periodicity of its active cycle. We observed the source at 550–750 MHz for ∼2 h during each of three successive cycles at the peak of its expected active period. We find 0, 12 and 3 bursts, respectively, implying a highly variable bursting rate even within the active phase. We consistently detect faint bursts with spectral energies only an order of magnitude higher than the Galactic burst source SGR 1935+2154. The times of arrival of the detected bursts rule out many possible aliased solutions, strengthening the findings of the 16.35-d periodicity. A periodicity search over a short time-scale returned no highly significant candidates. Two of the beamformer-detected bursts were bright enough to be clearly detected in the imaging data, achieving subarcsec localization, and proving to be a proof-of-concept for FRB imaging with the GMRT. We provide a 3σ upper limit of the persistent radio flux density at 650 MHz of 66 μJy, which, combined with the European VLBI Network and Very Large Array limits at 1.6 GHz, further constrains any potential radio counterpart. These results demonstrate the power of the uGMRT for providing targeted observations to detect and localize known repeating FRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature indicates that both light and photoreceptors may play key roles in host susceptibility to viruses. Studies have already suggested that phytochrome B is essential for the defence strategies of Nicotiana tabacum against Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). Here, further investigations are made into the roles of phytochromes in N. tabacum against CMV. The recombinant vector pRNAi‐LIC‐PHYA/PHYB was used to produce tobacco phyA, phyB and phyAphyB mutants via the Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation method. The results suggest that both phyA and phyB deficiency increase the susceptibility of N. tabacum to CMV infection. Mutant plants showed more obvious CMV‐induced symptoms and higher transcriptional levels of the CMV coat protein gene than wild type plants, and the effect was clearly synergistic in the phyAphyB double mutant. Furthermore, the data show that mutations in phyA/phyB up‐regulate the sensitivity of N. tabacum to CMV by repressing the salicylic acid (SA)‐mediated defence pathway in tobacco plants. Additionally, the results indicate that phytochrome signalling strongly modulates the response of N. tabacum to endogenous SA but not to endogenous jasmonic acid. Taken together, these results reinforce the idea that intact phytochrome signalling plays a positive role in the ability of N. tabacum to resist CMV and is required for the induction and development of SA‐mediated defence responses in CMV‐inoculated N. tabacum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Q fever (QF) is a worldwide zoonosis associated with outbreaks. Only a few nationwide studies regarding the surveillance and epidemiology of human QF have been reported. Although QF is endemic in Taiwan, a nationwide database investigation of the epidemiology and characteristics of QF and its associations with scrub typhus (ST), murine typhus (MT) and leptospirosis (LS) has never been reported. We analysed nationwide databases of suspected QF, ST, MT and LS cases from October 2007 to December 2014 obtained from the Centers for Disease Control, Taiwan. A total of 468 (4.2%) QF cases were identified among 11 109 suspected QF cases. QF cases were mainly distributed in the southern and Kaohsiung-Pingtung regions but rarely in the eastern region. Compared to non-QF cases, QF cases had significantly higher percentages of males (88.7 versus 66.2%) and high-risk occupations (farming, animal husbandry or veterinary medicine) (16.2 versus 10.5%). But the percentages of specific animal contact, including cattle (0.6 versus 0.8%) and goats (0.9 versus 1.0%), were low in both. The majority of suspected QF cases (89.4%) were simultaneously suspected with ST, MT or LS, and the combinations of suspected diseases differed between regions. The number of suspected QF cases from the eastern region decreased since 2009, which was not observed in other regions. A total of 1420 (12.8%) cases had confirmed diseases, including QF (453, 4.1%), QF+ST (7, 0.06%), QF+MT (4, 0.04%), QF+LS (4, 0.04%), MT (186, 1.7%), ST (545, 4.9%), ST+LS (11, 0.1%) and LS (210, 1.9%). Compared to cases of unknown disease, QF cases had larger percentages of high-risk occupations (16.2 versus 9.6%) but similar histories of animal contact (29.8 versus 25.1%). QF is an endemic disease in southern Taiwan. It is difficult to differentiate QF from ST, MT or LS only by high-risk occupations and history of animal contact, and co-infection of QF with these diseases should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antiviral drug resistance hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants ( HBV- DR) occur spontaneously in chronic hepatitis B ( CHB) patients and after exposure to nucleos(t)ide analogues ( NUCs). We determined the prevalence of HBV- DR variants among participants of the Hepatitis B Research Network ( HBRN) Cohort Study conducted at 21 sites in the United States ( US) and Canada. Samples obtained from 1342 CHB participants aged ≥18 years, and who were currently not receiving NUCs, were tested for HBV- DR variants by Sanger sequencing. In addition, next generation sequencing ( NGS) was used to characterize HBV- DR variants from 66 participants with and 66 participants with no prior NUC exposure matched for HBV genotype and HBV DNA level. Half the participants were men, 75% Asian, 26% HBeAg positive. Primary HBV- DR variants were detected by Sanger sequencing in 16 (1.2%) participants: 2/142 (1.4%) with and 14/1200 (1.2%) without prior NUC exposure; only 1 of these 16 had a secondary variant. In total, 23 (1.7%) participants had secondary variants, including 1 with prior NUC experience. In the subset of 132 participants, NGS detected HBV- DR variants in a higher proportion of participants: primary variants in 18 (13.6%) (8 [12.1%] with, and 10 [15.2%] without prior NUC therapy) and secondary variants in 10 (7.6%) participants. Based on Sanger sequencing, prevalence of primary HBV- DR variants is low (1.2%) among adults with CHB in US/Canada. The similar low prevalence of HBV- DR variants in participants with and without NUC treatment suggests transmission of these variants is uncommon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study evaluated customer attitudes, perceptions, and utilisation of a traffic-light food labelling (TFL) programme before and after the TFL was implemented in a worksite canteen in Taiwan. Study design A one-arm intervention was implemented in the canteen and buffet of a research park in Taiwan. Phase 1 consisted of dissemination of information regarding the TFL, targeting the customers (June–July, 2014); phase 2 consisted of implementation of the TFL in the buffet starting in August 2014. The TFL included red, yellow and green labels, indicating ‘unhealthy/stop’, ‘moderately unhealthy/wait’ and ‘healthy/go’, respectively. Methods The evaluation was based on two independent anonymous surveys in July 2014 (in phase 1) and April 2015 (in phase 2). Customers were invited to take a survey regarding the TFL programme, the food environment in the canteen, and their lunch choices. Logistic regression models examined the changes in customers' attention and attitudes towards the labelling and their food choices between the two surveys. Results The customers reported positive attitudes towards the TFL. The proportion of customers who reported choosing foods based on the recommendations increased from 38% to 50% (P < 0.01). The proportion of the buffet customers who chose green-light entrées and red-light entrées changed from 13% and 63% to 36% and 21%, respectively (P < 0.001). The availability of green-light entrées in the buffet increased as well. Conclusions This first report of a TFL intervention in an Asian worksite suggests that TFL is acceptable and well understood by this population and may assist customers in choosing healthier items when healthier choices are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are the main products of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in many plants. However, their biological function during environmental stresses in plants is rarely reported. In the present study, the effects of pretreatment with PAs on the response of cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings to high irradiance (HI), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and cold stress were investigated. The PAs pretreament alleviated stress-induced oxidative damage in plant cells and increased the activity of alternative oxidase (AOX) and content of abscisic acid (ABA). Furthermore, PAs-pretreated seedlings suffered less damage by the stress conditions, maintained higher content of chlorophyll a+ b and AOX proteins in comparison with the control. Therefore, our findings suggest that PAs might contribute to plant tolerance to environmental stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor vessels are known to be abnormal, with typically aberrant, leaky and disordered vessels. Here, we investigated whether polarized macrophage phenotypes are involved in tumor abnormal angiogenesis and what is its mechanism. We found that there was no difference in chemotaxis of polarized M1 and M2 macrophages to lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells and that either M1 or M2 macrophage-conditioned media had no effect on LLC cell proliferation. Unexpectedly, the M2 but not M1 macrophage-conditioned media promoted the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and simultaneously increased endothelial cell permeability in vitro and angiogenic index in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). The treatment with M2 but not M1 macrophage-conditioned media increased autophagosomes as well as microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3-B) expression (a robust marker of autophagosomes) but decreased p62 protein expression (a selective autophagy substrate) in HUVECs, the treatment with chloroquine that blocked autophagy abrogated the abnormal angiogenic efficacy of M2 macrophage-conditioned media. These results were confirmed in urethane-induced lung carcinogenic progression. Urethane-induced lung carcinogenesis led to more M2 macrophage phenotype and increased abnormal angiogenesis concomitant with the upregulation of LC3-B and the downregulation of p62. Clodronate liposome-induced macrophage depletion, chloroquine-induced autophagic prevention or salvianolic acid B-induced vascular protection decreased abnormal angiogenesis and lung carcinogenesis. In addition, we found that the tendency of age-related M2 macrophage polarization also promoted vascular permeability and carcinogenesis in urethane carcinogenic progression. These findings indicate that the M2 macrophages induce autophagic vascular disorder to promote lung cancer progression, and the autophagy improvement represents an efficacious strategy for abnormal angiogenesis and cancer prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resistance mutations A2058G and A2059G, within the 23S rRNA gene of Treponema pallidum, have been reported to cause treatment failures in patients receiving azithromycin for syphilis. Genotyping of T. pallidum strains sequentially isolated from patients with recurrent syphilis is rarely performed. From September 2009 to August 2013, we collected 658 clinical specimens from 375 patients who presented with syphilis for genotyping to examine the number of 60-bp repeats in the acidic repeat protein ( arp) gene, T. pallidum repeat ( tpr) polymorphism, and tp0548 gene, and to detect A2058G and A2059G point mutations by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Treponemal DNA was identified in 45.2% ( n = 298) of the specimens that were collected from 216 (57.6%) patients; 268 (40.7%) specimens tested positive for the 23S rRNA gene, and were examined for macrolide resistance. Two isolates (0.7%) harboured the A2058G mutation, and no A2059G mutation was identified. A total of 14 strains of T. pallidum were identified, with 14f/f (57.5%) and 14b/c (10.0%) being the two predominant strains. Forty patients who presented with recurrent episodes of syphilis had T. pallidum DNA identified from the initial and subsequent episodes, with five cases showing strain discrepancies. One patient had two strains identified from different clinical specimens collected in the same episode. Our findings show that 14f/f is the most common T. pallidum strain in Taiwan, where the prevalence of T. pallidum strains that show A2058G or A2059G mutation remains low. Different genotypes of T. pallidum can be identified in patients with recurrent episodes of syphilis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linked Content This article is linked to Londoño et al paper. To view this article visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.13985. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]