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Due to their numerous properties as an advanced or specialized material, ionic liquids (ILs) have found an increasingly wide utilization in many fields. Moreover, mixtures of ILs can further improve their correlative properties. Therefore, it is significant that the thermal stability and exothermic behaviour of IL binary mixtures were studied. In this work, two typical representative imidazole ILs ([BMIM]BF4 and BMIM[NO3]) were selected, and their binary mixture thermal stability and thermal decomposition process of visualization were investigated by simultaneous thermogravimetric analyser (STA). Furthermore, their binary mixture exothermic behaviour and decomposition products were obtained by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR), respectively. The compound mode of imidazolium-based IL binary mixtures was divided into three categories: the molar fraction (7:3, 1:1, and 3:7) of parent pure ILs. We found that TG curves trend of IL binary mixtures was consistent with their parent pure ILs. Compared with TG curves, DSC curves of IL mixtures demonstrated that the behaviours of heat absorption and heat release at greater than 700.0 K in mixtures were different from their parent pure ILs. According to the infrared spectrum of gas products, the oxygen-containing functional group in BMIM[NO3] is likely to have some influence on the second-stage decomposition of sample 1#. Systematic thermal analysis results provided a significant reference for the exothermic behaviours and thermal degradation process of imidazolium-based ionic liquid binary mixture and a feasible research route for further investigations into the thermal decomposition characteristics of IL mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing drought tolerance in crops and understanding the underlying mechanisms have been subject of intense research. The precise function and molecular mechanisms of B-box zinc finger proteins (BBX) remain elusive. Here, we report a natural allele of BBX18 (BBX18TT) that encodes a C-terminal truncated protein. While most wild tomato germplasms contain the BBX18CC allele and show more drought tolerant, modern cultivated tomatoes mostly carry BBX18TT allele and are more drought sensitive. Knockout of BBX18 leads to improved drought tolerance in transgenic plants of cultivated tomato. Ascorbate peroxidase 1 (APX1) is identified as a BBX18-interacting protein that acts as a positive regulator of drought resistance in tomato. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing analyses reveal that BBX18 binds to a unique cis-acting element of the APX1 promoter and represses its gene expression. This study provides insights into the molecular mechanism underlying drought resistance mediated by the BBX18-APX1 module in plants. Elucidation of drought tolerance mechanism would help to develop tolerant crops. Here, the authors reveal the interaction between BBX18, a zinc finger transcription factor, and ascorbate peroxidase (APX1) to mediate drought stress resistance in tomato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurodevelopmental disorders are currently one of the major complications faced by patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Chronic hypoxia in the prenatal and postnatal preoperative brain may be associated with neurological damage and impaired long-term cognitive function, but the exact mechanisms are unknown. In this study, we find that delayed neuronal migration and impaired synaptic development are attributed to altered Atoh1 under chronic hypoxia. This is due to the fact that excessive Atoh1 facilitates expression of Kif21b, which causes excess in free-state α-tubulin, leading to disrupted microtubule dynamic stability. Furthermore, the delay in neonatal brain maturation induces cognitive disabilities in adult mice. Then, by down-regulating Atoh1 we alleviate the impairment of cell migration and synaptic development, improving the cognitive behavior of mice to some extent. Taken together, our work unveil that Atoh1 may be one of the targets to ameliorate hypoxia-induced neurodevelopmental disabilities and cognitive impairment in CHD. Atoh1 hinders neuronal dendritic branching, cell migration and long-term cognitive functions by modulating Kif21b to disrupt microtubule's dynamic stability under perinatal chronic hypoxia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron-based Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) catalyst is widely used for syngas conversion, but its iron carbide active phase is easily oxidized into Fe3O4 by the water produced during reaction, leading to the deterioration of catalytic performance. Here, we show an efficient strategy for protecting the iron carbide active phase of FTS catalyst by surface hydrophobization. The hydrophobic surface can reduce the water concentration in the core vicinity of catalyst during syngas conversion, and thus inhibit the oxidation of iron species by water, which enhances the C − C coupling ability of catalyst and promotes the formation of long-chain olefins. More significantly, it is unraveled that appropriate shell thickness plays a crucial role in stabilizing the iron carbide active phase without Fe3O4 formation and achieving good catalytic performance. The iron carbide active phase is easily oxidized by the water produced during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which leads to a deterioration in catalytic performance. Here, the authors present a strategy to protect iron carbide by applying surface hydrophobization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A body area network involving wearable sensors distributed around the human body can continuously monitor physiological signals, finding applications in personal healthcare and athletic evaluation. Existing solutions for near-field body area networks, while facilitating reliable and secure interconnection among battery-free sensors, face challenges including limited spectral stability against external interference. Here we demonstrate a textile metamaterial featuring a coaxially-shielded internal structure designed to mitigate interference from extraneous loadings. The metamaterial can be patterned onto clothing to form a scalable, customizable network, enabling communication between near-field reading devices and battery-free sensing nodes placed within the network. Proof of concept demonstration shows the metamaterial's robustness against mechanical deformation and exposure to lossy, conductive saline solutions, underscoring its potential applications in wet environments, particularly in athletic activities involving water or significant perspiration, offering insights for the future development of radio frequency components for a robust body area network at a system level. Near-field body area wearable sensing networks are limited in application due to the low spectral stability against external interference. Here, the authors demonstrate a robust metamaterial-enabled near-field body area network that maintains spectral stability even under lossy and conductive loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suction foundations are widely used in the construction of offshore platforms. Their uplift resistance in sandy soil strata is crucial for evaluating the stability of offshore platforms. A scaled-down experimental device was developed to investigate the pull-out performance of suction-type foundations in sandy soil. The relationship between the pull-out performance of suction-type foundations under the influence of different factors (e.g. different uplift directions) and the uplift speed was discussed. The ABAQUS finite element explicit dynamic analysis method was used to study the influence of different drainage conditions, loading speeds, loading angles, and loading methods on the stress change, deformation, and bearing performance of the surrounding soil during the design stage of the suction foundation. The comprehensive testing and numerical analysis results revealed the pull-out performance of suction foundations in sandy soils. The results showed that the uplift performance of the suction foundation is affected by the uplift angle and speed. At low uplift angles, increasing the uplift speed can improve the ultimate bearing capacity of the suction foundation, while at high uplift angles, a lower uplift speed can help improve its uplift resistance. At the same time, the ultimate bearing capacity of the complete drainage simulation is generally higher, which can provide a more conservative safety estimate for engineering design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive and prevalent brain tumor that poses significant challenges in treatment. SRSF9, an RNA-binding protein, is essential for cellular processes and implicated in cancer progression. Yet, its function and mechanism in GBM need clarification. Methods: Bioinformatics analysis was performed to explore differential expression of SRSF9 in GBM and its prognostic relevance to glioma patients. SRSF9 and CDK1 expression in GBM cell lines and patients’ tissues were quantified by RT-qPCR, Western blot or immunofluorescence assay. The role of SRSF9 in GBM cell proliferation and migration was assessed by MTT, Transwell and colony formation assays. Additionally, transcriptional regulation of CDK1 by SRSF9 was investigated using ChIP-PCR and dual-luciferase assays. Results: The elevated SRSF9 expression correlates to GBM stages and poor survival of glioma patients. Through gain-of-function and loss-of-function strategies, SRSF9 was demonstrated to promote proliferation and migration of GBM cells. Bioinformatics analysis showed that SRSF9 has an impact on cell growth pathways including cell cycle checkpoints and E2F targets. Mechanistically, SRSF9 appears to bind to the promoter of CDK1 gene and increase its transcription level, thus promoting GBM cell proliferation. Conclusions: These findings uncover the cellular function of SRSF9 in GBM and highlight its therapeutic potential for GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning-based methods are widely applied to fault diagnostics, which depend on adequate samples. However, fault samples are often limited and even not available in industrial applications. To solve this problem, an optimal transport strategy-based meta-attention network (OTS-MAN) is proposed for the fault diagnosis by exploiting the fault knowledge learned from few source domains to diagnose the target domain with zero sample. Firstly, a new meta-attention network is built to mine discriminative features of each class from the source domain. Then, an optimal transport strategy is designed to align the feature distribution of each category between known fault in the source domain and unknown fault in the target domain. Finally, the similarity scores are obtained to assess the health status of the target domain. The proposed OTS-MAN is trained only with known source domain data and can diagnose unknown faults without previous access to target domain data. The validity of the proposed method is implemented through using two cases. The results indicate that the OTS-MAN has a better fault diagnosis accuracy than existing methods, and its noise immunity is also improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Type 2 diabetic osteoporosis (T2DOP) has received increasing attention from researchers. In this study, a total of 453 publications related to T2DOP from 2013 to 2022 were analyzed using bibliometric and visual analysis to identify the research trends and research hotspots in the field of T2DOP. Purpose: The objective of this study was to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of T2DOP-related publications from 2013 to 2022 to determine global research trends in T2DOP in terms of number of publications, countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals, funding agencies, and keywords. Methods: All data were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). All original research publications regarding T2DOP from 2013 to 2022 were retrieved. VOSviewer and Microsoft Office Excel were used to conduct the bibliometric and visual analysis. Results: From 2013 to 2022, 515 relevant publications were published, with a peak in 2022 in the annual number of publications. The countries leading the research were USA and China. Sugimoto was the most influential authors. Capital Medical University and Nanjing Medical University were the most prolific institutions. Osteoporosis International was the most productive journal concerning T2DOP research. National Natural Science Foundation of China was the primary funding source for this research area. "Bone-mineral density", "fracture risk", and "postmenopausal women" were the most high-frequency keywords over the past 10 years. Conclusion: This was the first bibliometric study of diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis to exclusively examine type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our findings would provide guidance to understand the research frontiers and hot directions in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The death of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is primarily due to from critically ill patients, especially from ARDS complications caused by SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, it is essential to contribute an in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease and to identify biomarkers for predicting critically ill patients at the molecular level. Immunogenic cell death (ICD), as a specific variant of regulatory cell death driven by stress, can induce adaptive immune responses against cell death antigens in the host. Studies have confirmed that both innate and adaptive immune pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the role of ICD in the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 has rarely been explored. In this study, we systematically evaluated the role of ICD-related genes in COVID-19. We conducted consensus clustering, immune infiltration analysis, and functional enrichment analysis based on ICD differentially expressed genes. The results showed that immune infiltration characteristics were altered in severe and non-severe COVID-19. In addition, we used multiple machine learning methods to screen for five risk genes (KLF5, NSUN7, APH1B, GRB10 and CD4), which are used to predict COVID-19 severity. Finally, we constructed a nomogram to predict the risk of severe COVID-19 based on the classification and recognition model, and validated the model with external data sets. This study provides a valuable direction for the exploration of the pathogenesis and progress of COVID-19, and helps in the early identification of severe cases of COVID-19 to reduce mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for about 2% of cancer diagnoses and deaths worldwide. Recent studies emphasized the critical involvement of microbial populations in RCC from oncogenesis, tumor growth, and response to anticancer therapy. Microorganisms have been shown to be involved in various renal physiological and pathological processes by influencing the immune system function, metabolism of the host and pharmaceutical reactions. These findings have extended our understanding and provided more possibilities for the diagnostic or therapeutic development of microbiota, which could function as screening, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers, or be manipulated to prevent RCC progression, boost anticancer drug efficacy and lessen the side effects of therapy. This review aims to present an overview of the roles of microbiota in RCC, including pertinent mechanisms in microbiota-related carcinogenesis, the potential use of the microbiota as RCC biomarkers, and the possibility of modifying the microbiota for RCC prevention or treatment. According to these scientific findings, the clinical translation of microbiota is expected to improve the diagnosis and treatment of RCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In endoscopic surgeries, the smoke and haze generated by temperature difference and electrosurgical knife usage degrades the surgical view. While many researches on natural single image haze removal being proposed, few works are done for video haze removal of endoscopy view. In this paper, we proposed a synthetical method for endoscopy haze removal combining a Refined Dark Channel Prior (RDCP), Spatial-Temporal Markov Random Field (STMRF), Color Attenuation Prior (CAP) and parameter self-adaption. Qualitative and quantitative experiment results outperformed some traditional and deep learning based methods. Our proposed method is an effective and practical one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of ultrasound and microreactors for the synthesis of nanomaterials is becoming increasingly popular, but effectively altering the ultrasonic field at the microscale to control the crystallization process remains a challenge. Herein, we investigated numerically and experimentally the effects of the ultrasonic field on the synthesis of boron-doped carbon nitride supported silver nanoparticles based on our homemade ultrasound-assisted coiled flow inverter microreactor (UCFIR). Specifically, the ultrasound promotes the radial mixing in the coiled flow inverter microreactor, even under low Reynolds number 10, resulting in better control over the crystallization process. The effects of key parameters, such as ultrasonic field distribution and ultrasonic power, on the particle size and size distribution of Ag/B-g-C3N4 have been demonstrated. The results show that when the ultrasound transducer is positioned on the 'abc' sides, the Ag/B-g-C3N4 with small and uniform Ag particles (4.12 ± 1.12 nm) can be obtained. As ultrasound power increased (0–176 W) and residence time decreased (17.5–140 s), the size of silver nanoparticles decreased, and their distribution narrowed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we generalize the index of impulsive periodic orbits defined in planar systems to n-dimensional impulsive switched systems. The moving Poincaré section is applied, which extends the classical Poincaré section and makes it possible to always preserve the transversal property at the corresponding time t with the help of reparametrization. Further, we combine it with the implicit function theorem and linear approximation to rewrite the original n-dimensional differential equation, which contributes to the definitions of indexes of impulsive periodic orbits of arbitrary finite order m. Based on these indexes, we further obtain sufficient conditions to judge the Zhukovskiǐ quasi-stability, which permits a time lag and focuses on the study of approximate synchronization between orbits with the existence of impulsive switchings. At last, an example of harvesting fishery model with mutual impacts of infection and abrupt harvesting firstly is presented and some sufficient criteria based on model parameters are obtained to illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a two-tensor model with order-3 and present its W-representation. Moreover we derive the compact expressions of correlators from the W-representation and analyze the free energy in large N limit. In addition, we establish the correspondence between two colored Dyck walks in the Fredkin spin chain and tree operators in the ring. Based on the classification Dyck walks, we give the number of tree operators with the given level. Furthermore, we show the entanglement scaling of Fredkin spin chain beyond logarithmic scaling in the ordinary critical systems from the viewpoint of tensor model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of Huangqin Decoction (HQD) on nuclear factor erythroid 2 related-factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase (HO-1) signaling pathway by inducing the colitis-associated carcinogenesis (CAC) model mice with azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). Methods: The chemical components of HQD were analyzed by liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) to determine the molecular constituents of HQD. Totally 48 C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into 6 groups by a random number table, including control, model (AOM/DSS), mesalazine (MS), low-, medium-, and high-dose HQD (HQD-L, HQD-M, and HQD-H) groups, 8 mice in each group. Except for the control group, the mice in the other groups were intraperitoneally injected with AOM (10 mg/kg) and administrated with 2.5% DSS orally for 1 week every two weeks (totally 3 rounds of DSS) to construct a colitis-associated carcinogenesis mouse model. The mice in the HQD-L, HQD-M and HQD-H groups were given HQD by gavage at doses of 2.925, 5.85, and 11.7 g/kg, respectively; the mice in the MS group was given a suspension of MS at a dose of 0.043 g/kg (totally 11 weeks). The serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The mRNA and protein expression levels of Nrf2, HO-1, and inhibitory KELCH like ECH-related protein 1 (Keap1) in colon tissue were detected by quantitative real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot, respectively. Results: LC-Q-TOF-MS/MS analysis revealed that the chemical constituents of HQD include baicalin, paeoniflorin, and glycyrrhizic acid. Compared to the control group, significantly higher MDA levels and lower SOD levels were observed in the model group (P<0.05), whereas the expressions of Nrf2 and HO-1 were significantly decreased, and the expression of Keap1 increased (P<0.01). Compared with the model group, serum MDA level was decreased and SOD level was increased in the HQD-M, HQD-H and MS groups (P<0.05). Higher expressions of Nrf2 and HO-1 were observed in the HQD groups. Conclusion: HQD may regulate the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 in colon tissue, reduce the expression of MDA and increase the expression of SOD in serum, thus delaying the progress of CAC in AOM/DSS mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic pollution poses a significant threat to drinking water sources worldwide. Previous studies have focused on the occurrence of pollutants in drinking water sources, but the impact of human activities on different types of pollutants in drinking water sources is still unclear. In this study, we chose the upper reaches of the Dongjiang River (URDR) as a case study to investigate the distribution characteristics of conventional pollutants, pesticides, and antibiotics along the gradient of human intervention. Our findings reveal that human activities can effect both conventional pollutants and emerging pollutants in the URDR to varying degrees. The escalation of human activities correlates with a rising trend in conventional pollutants, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Notably, only C1 (terrestrial humus) in dissolved organic matter (DOM) exhibits this increasing pattern. Pesticide and antibiotic concentrations are highest in areas with moderate and high levels of human activity, respectively, and the degree of eutrophication of drinking water closely follows the gradient of human activity. Our results also indicate that most pesticides pose a significant risk in the URDR, particularly pyrethroid pesticides (PYRs). Out of all antibiotics, only Norfloxacin (NFX) and Penicillin G (PENG) are classified as high-risk, with NFX exhibiting significant variation across different degrees of human activity. C1 and TP were the most important factors affecting the distribution of organophosphorus (OPPs) and PYRs, respectively. In conclusion, varying degrees of human activity exert differentiated influences on conventional and emerging pollutants in drinking water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branched flows occur ubiquitously in various wave systems, when the propagating waves encounter weak correlated scattering potentials. Here we report the experimental realization of electrical tuning of the branched flow of light using a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) system. We create the physical realization of the weakly correlated disordered potentials of light via the inhomogeneous orientations of the NLC. We demonstrate that the branched flow of light can be switched on and off as well as tuned continuously through the electro-optical properties of NLC film. We further show that the branched flow can be manipulated by the polarization of the incident light due to the optical anisotropy of the NLC film. The nature of the branched flow of light is revealed via the unconventional intensity statistics and the rapid fidelity decay along the light propagation. Our study unveils an excellent platform for the tuning of the branched flow of light which creates a testbed for fundamental physics and offers a new way for steering light. Here the authors experimentally realize the electrical tuning of branched flow of light in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties and the polarization effect of the branched flow of light in the film are systematically studied adding fundamental insights on branched flow of light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central nervous system regulates all aspects of physiology to some extent. Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) lead to the progressive loss and dysfunction of neurons, which are particularly evident in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and many other conditions. NDDs are multifactorial diseases with complex pathogeneses, and there has been a rapid increase in the prevalence of NDDs. However, none of these diseases can be cured, making the development of novel treatment strategies an urgent necessity. Numerous studies have indicated how pyroptosis induces inflammation and affects many aspects of NDD. Therefore, components related to pyroptosis are potential therapeutic candidates and are attracting increasing attention. Here, we review the role of pyroptosis in the pathogenesis of NDDs and potential treatment options. Additionally, several of the current drugs and relevant inhibitors are discussed. Through this article, we provide theoretical support for exploring new therapeutic targets and updating clinical treatment strategies for NDDs. Notably, pyroptosis, a recently widely studied mode of cell death, is still under-researched compared to other traditional forms of cell death. Moreover, the focus of research has been on the onset and progression of NDDs, and the lack of organ-specific target discovery and drug development is a common problem for many basic studies. This urgent problem requires scientists and companies worldwide to collaborate in order to develop more effective drugs against NDDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, initiatives and the resulting application of precision education have been applied with increasing frequency in Taiwan; the accompanying discourse has focused on identifying potential applications for artificial intelligence and how to use learning analytics to improve teaching quality and learning outcomes. This study used the established dropout risk prediction model to improve student learning effectiveness. The model was based on the academic portfolios of past students and built with statistical learning and deep learning methods. This study used this model to predict the dropout risk of 2205 freshmen enrolled in the fall semester of 2018 (graduated in June 2022) in the field of sustainable education. A total of 176 students with a dropout risk of more than 20% were considered high-risk students. After tracking and the appropriate guidance, the dropout risk of 91 students fell from > 20% to < 20%. To discuss the results from the perspective of gender and financial disadvantages, the improvement rate of the dropout risk for male students was 10.2% better than that of female students at 2.9%. The improvement rate in dropout risk for students with disadvantageous financial situations was as high as 12.0%, surpassing the 5.9% rate among general students. Overall, the dropout rate in the second year of the 2018 freshman cohort was lower than that of the 2016 and 2017 freshman cohorts. A predictive model established by statistical learning and deep learning methods was used as a tool to promote precision education, accurately and efficiently identifying students who are having difficulty learning, as well as leading to a better understanding of AI (artificial intelligence) in smart learning for sustainable education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile and short rod strains, designated 4D117T and ZD32-2T, were isolated from the forest soils. Strains 4D117T and ZD32-2T grew optimally at pH 4.0–6.5, 20–33 °C and pH 4.5–7.0, 33 °C, respectively, and both at 0.5% (w/v) NaCl concentration. Strains 4D117T and ZD32-2T shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with P. acidiphila 7Q-K02T (99.1%) and P. ferrariae NBRC 106233T (98.7%), respectively. The genome size and G + C contents of strains 4D117T and ZD32-2T were 9,002,095 bp, 62.9% and 6,974,420 bp, 61.7%, respectively. The dDDH and ANI values between strains 4D117T, ZD32-2T and closely related Paraburkholderia species were in the ranges of 21.9–51.6% and 82.9–94.4%, and 81.7% and 25.4% between themself, respectively. Functional genomic analysis showed both strains were capable of degrading contaminants, such as benzoate, anthranilic acid and catechol for 4D117T, and benzene and catechol for ZD32-2T, indicating that they may have potentials for soil pollutant treatment. The main polar lipids of strains 4D117T and ZD32-2T were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol. Strain 4D117T contained C16:0, C19:0 cyclo ω8c and C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c, while strain ZD32-2T had C16:0 and C17:0 cyclo as their major cellular fatty acids (> 10%). Based on the phenotypic characters and genomic data, strains 4D117T and ZD32-2T represent two novel species of genus Paraburkholderia, for which the names Paraburkholderia flagellata sp. nov. (type strain 4D117T = GDMCC 1.2617T = NBRC 115278T) and Paraburkholderia adhaesiva sp. nov. (type strain ZD32-2T = GDMCC 1.2622T = NBRC 115282T) are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social networks, bursts of activity often result from the imitative behavior between interacting agents. The Ising model, along with its variants in the social sciences, serves as a foundational framework to explain these phenomena through its critical properties. We propose an alternative generic mechanism for the emergence of collective exuberance within a broad class of agent-based models. We show that our model does not require the fine-tuning to a critical point, as is commonly done to explain bursts of activity using the Ising model and its variants. Instead, our approach hinges on the intrinsic non-symmetric and hierarchical organization of socio-economic networks. These non-normal networks exhibit transient and unsustainable surges in herd behavior across a wide range of control parameters even in the subcritical regime, thereby eliminating the need for the - arguably artificial - fine-tuning proximity to a critical point. To empirically validate our framework, we examine the behavior of meme stocks and establish a direct linkage between the size of financial bubbles and the degree of non-normality in the network, as quantified by the Kreiss constant. Our proposed mechanism presents an alternative that is more general than prevailing conceptions of instabilities in diverse social systems. Social networks often show sudden bursts of activity. By analysing meme stocks, the authors provide a proof-of concept for a generic endogenous mechanism that explains the emergence of financial bubbles. The theory correlates their size with the structure of social networks, emphasizing how influential individuals tend to impact others in a top-down manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional batch synthesis of hexafluoroacetone (HFA), an important pharmaceutical intermediate, suffers from complex catalyst preparation, harsh reaction conditions (up to 200 °C), and low selectivity. In this study, we developed a continuous flow system that employs a micro packed-bed reactor (MPBR) filled with Lewis acid catalysts. After an initial screening of reaction conditions and catalysts in the batch reactor, a Bayesian Optimization model and the multi-objective optimization algorithm qNEHVI were used to find a compromise between conversion and energy efficiency for the reaction in the continuous flow system. After 14 rounds of experiments, BO found the best results with conversion of 98.6%, selectivity of 99.9%, and an energy cost of 0.121 kWh per kg of product at 25.1 °C, atmospheric pressure, and a GHSV of 931.5 h− 1 reaction conditions. The study demonstrates that BO can be used as an efficient tool for multi-objective optimization of heterogeneous catalysis in continuous flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of green credit on digital technology innovation in China, focusing on the influence of financialization and regional heterogeneity. Existing research primarily explores factors like government subsidies, economic growth, and environmental regulations, and there is a lack of critical analysis on the influence of green credit on digital technology innovations. To examine the internal mechanisms linking green credit to digital technology innovation, this study uses panel data from 271 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2000 to 2020. Our findings suggest that the availability of green credit and the level of financialization have a significant positive effect on technology innovation, particularly in regions with higher economic development. However, we also find that the impact of green credit and financialization on technology innovation varies across different regions of China. Study findings reveal that green credit bolsters both the quantity and quality of digital technology innovation, emerging as a significant driver for green innovations in China. This conclusion holds even after endogeneity tests. The heterogeneous analysis highlights that various aspects of green credit, such as coverage scope, usage intensity, and digitization level, can enhance digital technology innovations. Western cities demonstrate the most considerable positive effects, followed by central cities, while the weakest impact occurs in eastern cities. Green credit primarily promotes digital technology innovation indirectly by alleviating financing constraints. These empirical findings provide valuable policy insights for fostering a harmonious relationship between China's urban green credit facilities and green financial growth, thereby addressing the funding limitations green credit enterprises face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation of chemically recyclable polyesters by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) has made a considerable progress over the past few years. However, this method involves cumbersome synthesis and minimal functional diversity of cyclic monomers. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop novel polymerization methods for direct polymerization of commercially available monomers to prepare recyclable polyesters with versatile functionalities. In present work, we report dehydrogenative copolymerization of commercial α,ω-diols to afford high molecular weight chemically recyclable aliphatic copolyesters (65.7 kg·mol−1) by using commercially available Milstein catalyst precursor. The thermal properties of the obtained copolymers could be finely tuned by simply adjusting the feeding ratio of two monomers. The incorporation of aliphatic or aromatic rings into polyester mainchain via copolymerization of 1,10-decanediol with 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol and 1,4-benzenedimethanol could significantly improve the thermal properties of the resulting copolymers. More importantly, the obtained copolyesters were able to completely depolymerize back to original diols via hydrogenation by the same catalyst in solvent-free and mild conditions, thus offering a green and cost-effective route toward the preparation of widely used polyesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning has great potential in predicting chemical information with greater precision than traditional methods. Graph neural networks (GNNs) have become increasingly popular in recent years, as they can automatically learn the features of the molecule from the graph, significantly reducing the time needed to find and build molecular descriptors. However, the application of machine learning to energetic materials property prediction is still in the initial stage due to insufficient data. In this work, we first curated a dataset of 12,072 compounds containing CHON elements, which are traditionally regarded as main composition elements of energetic materials, from the Cambridge Structural Database, then we implemented a refinement to our force field-inspired neural network (FFiNet), through the adoption of a Transformer encoder, resulting in force field-inspired Transformer network (FFiTrNet). After the improvement, our model outperforms other machine learning-based and GNNs-based models and shows its powerful predictive capabilities especially for high-density materials. Our model also shows its capability in predicting the crystal density of potential energetic materials dataset (i.e. Huang & Massa dataset), which will be helpful in practical high-throughput screening of energetic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study symmetry and monotonicity properties of nonnegative solutions of semilinear elliptic equations with mixed boundary conditions in a half cylinder. We will prove that under suitable conditions, every bounded nonnegative solution of the equation has one-dimensional symmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present higher Chern-Simons theories based on (2-)crossed modules. We start from the generalized differential forms in Generalized Differential Calculus and define the corresponding generalized connections which consist of higher connections. Then we establish the generalized Chern-Simons forms to get the higher Chern-Simons actions. Finally, we develop the higher second Chern forms and Chern-Weil theorems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic peroxides combined with ionic liquids had a high application value in the desulfurization process. However, thermal stability between organic peroxides and ionic liquids displayed a significant difference. Moreover, it was of great significance to investigate the thermal hazard of organic peroxides due to the influence of ionic liquids. In this study, a common organic peroxide cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) and two imidazole ionic liquids, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ([Bmim]BF4 and Bmim[NTf2]), with good desulfurization performance were selected for experiments. The thermal stability of [Bmim]BF4 and Bmim[NTf2], respectively, mixed with cumene hydroperoxide in air and nitrogen conditions was studied by thermogravimetry (TG) analysis. The kinetic data of CHP which was mixed with two ionic liquids were evaluated using two different isoconversional methods: Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS). Furthermore, their gas decomposition products were investigated by thermogravimetry coupled with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) analysis. The experimental and calculated results demonstrated that the apparent activation energy was decreased after CHP was mixed with the two ionic liquids. The main decomposition stage ranged from 350.0 to 480.0 K with a mass loss of CHP under air and nitrogen conditions. The thermal decomposition behavior of the CHP under air conditions displayed higher apparent activation energy compared with that in nitrogen atmosphere. The experimental results provide an important reference for organic peroxides combined with ionic liquids applicated in the desulfurization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) has been endangering the safety of the coal industry. Spontaneous combustion of coal may lead to coal seam combustion and gas explosions in coal mines, causing a lot of damage. At the same time, CSC will produce a large amount of carbon dioxide, which seriously endangers the ecological environment. Therefore, what reduces the spontaneous combustion of coal is necessary. Ionic liquid (IL) is a new kind of green organic solvent. It has the characteristics of good stability and can be used as a flame retardant for CSC. In this study, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (Bmim[Ntf2]) was selected as the flame retardant of bituminous coal spontaneous combustion, where thermal stability of bituminous coal treated by Bmim[Ntf2] and raw bituminous coal was studied by the simultaneous thermogravimetric analyzer. The apparent activation energy was calculated by the FWO method. The decomposition gas products of bituminous coal and bituminous coal treated with Bmim[Ntf2] were analyzed by Fourier-transformed infrared spectrometer to investigate the effect of intramolecular hydrogen bond on bituminous coal spontaneous combustion. The results show that Bmim[Ntf2] inhibits the spontaneous combustion of bituminous coal. The addition of Bmim[Ntf2] increases the decomposition temperature of bituminous coal, where the apparent activation energy is increased. The results of Fourier-transformed infrared spectrometry show that the reduction in hydrogen bonds reduces the risk of spontaneous combustion of bituminous coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their low volatility, ionic liquids (ILs) are widely used in many industries. However, some ILs are reported to be explosive under unstable conditions in the literature, and therefore a comprehensive assessment of the fire safety risks should be conducted before industrial applications. This study aims to investigate the thermal stability of two environmentally friendly used ILs (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate ([C4mim]NO3) and 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium nitrate ([C4mmim]NO3) using simultaneous thermogravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimetry, accelerating rate calorimeter, and thermogravimetry coupled to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Based on the results of dynamic and isothermal thermogravimetric experiments, [C4mmim]NO3 shows higher thermal stability compared with [C4mim]NO3, indicating that the methyl substitution at the imidazolium C2 has a positive effect on the thermal stability of imidazolium nitrate. Additionally, the increased methyl substitution leads to more significant thermal decomposition of [C4mmim]NO3 and enhanced gas production under adiabatic conditions, which means that the potential thermal hazards are increased. Furthermore, [C4mim]NO3 and [C4mmim]NO3 may have different thermal decomposition pathways because the possible thermal decomposition products are not identical. The produced flammable gases also indicate that the operating temperatures of [C4mim]NO3 and [C4mmim]NO3 must be strictly controlled to prevent the occurrence of accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In this paper, we consider 3D Young diagrams with at most N layers in z-axis direction, which can be constructed by N 2D Young diagrams on slice z = j, j = 1, 2, · · · , N from the Yang-Baxter equation. Using 2D Bosons {aj,m, m ∈ ℤ} associated to 2D Young diagrams on the slice z = j, we constructed 3D Bosons. Then we show the 3D Boson representation of W1+∞ algebra, and give the method to calculate the Littlewood-Richardson rule for 3-Jack polynomials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Digestive tract reconstruction is required after the surgical resection of a colorectal malignant tumor. Some patients may have concomitant anastomotic complications, such as anastomotic stenosis with fistula (ASF), postoperatively. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of endoscopic fully covered self-expandable metal stent and homemade vacuum sponge-assisted drainage (FSEM-HVSD) for the treatment of ASF following the radical resection of colorectal cancer. Methods: Patients treated with FESM-HVSD were prospectively analyzed and followed up for ASF following colorectal cancer treatment in our medical center from 2017 to 2021 for the observation and evaluation of its safety and efficacy. Results: Fifteen patients with a mean age of 55.80 ± 11.08 years were included. Nine patients (60%) underwent protective ileostomy. All 15 patients were treated with endoscopic FSEM-HVSD. The median time from the index operation to the initiation of FSEM-HVSD was 80 ± 20.34 days in patients who underwent protective ileostomy versus 11.4 ± 4.4 days in those who did not. The average number of endoscopic treatments per patient was 5.70 ± 1.25 times. The mean length of hospital stay was 27.60 ± 4.43 days. FSEM-HVSD treatment was successful in 13 patients, and no patients had any complications. The follow-up time was 1 year. Twelve of 15 (80%) patients achieved prolonged clinical success after FSEM-HVSD treatment, 1 experienced anastomotic tumor recurrence and underwent surgery again, and 1 patient required balloon dilation for anastomotic stenosis recurrence. Conclusions: FSEM-HVSD is an effective, safe, and minimally invasive treatment for ASF following colorectal cancer treatment. This technique could be the preferred treatment strategy for patients with ASF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D (3 dimensional) Young diagrams are a generalization of 2D Young diagrams. In this paper, We consider 3D Bosons and 3-Jack polynomials. We associate three parameters h1, h2, h3 to y, x, z-axis respectively. 3-Jack polynomials are polynomials of Pn,j, n ≥ j with coefficients in ℂ(h1, h2, h3), which are the generalization of Schur functions and Jack polynomials to 3D case. Similar to Schur functions, 3-Jack polynomials can also be determined by the vertex operators and the Pieri formulas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), is a pest of significant importance to global citrus production, particularly as the vector of a phloem-limited bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) that causes the fatal citrus disease Huanglongbing or citrus greening. CLas is acquired as the psyllid feeds, replicates in ACP tissues, and persists throughout the life of the insect. The study of CLas has been hampered by the lack of a tractable in vitro culture system. As CLas replicates within psyllid tissues, we hypothesize that this bacterium also replicates in cultured ACP cells. In the current study, we evaluated a range of insect cell culture media, media combinations, and supplements for their ability to support the in vitro growth of ACP embryo-derived cells. Ninety-six primary cell cultures were initiated using approximately 12,000 dissected ACP eggs over a 12-month period. Of 19 media tested, 17 supported cell attachment, but only two media supported the long-term survival and growth of ACP embryonic cells over a period of more than 11 months. Delineation of the optimal protocols and conditions for the maintenance of ACP primary cultures as described here provides a foundation for both establishment of continuous cell lines and testing for the replication of ACP-associated pathogens including CLas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scale-up and transfer of lyophilization processes remain very challenging tasks considering the technical challenges and the high cost of the process itself. The challenges in scale-up and transfer were discussed in the first part of this paper and include vial breakage during freezing at commercial scale, cake resistance differences between scales, impact of differences in refrigeration capacities, and geometry on the performance of dryers. The second part of this work discusses successful and unsuccessful practices in scale-up and transfer based on the experience of the authors. Regulatory aspects of scale-up and transfer of lyophilization processes were also outlined including a topic on the equivalency of dryers. Based on an analysis of challenges and a summary of best practices, recommendations on scale-up and transfer of lyophilization processes are given including projections on future directions in this area of the freeze drying field. Recommendations on the choice of residual vacuum in the vials were also provided for a wide range of vial capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular representation learning is a crucial task to accelerate drug discovery and materials design. Graph neural networks (GNNs) have emerged as a promising approach to tackle this task. However, most of them do not fully consider the intramolecular interactions, i.e. bond stretching, angle bending, torsion, and nonbonded interactions, which are critical for determining molecular property. Recently, a growing number of 3D-aware GNNs have been proposed to cope with the issue, while these models usually need large datasets and accurate spatial information. In this work, we aim to design a GNN which is less dependent on the quantity and quality of datasets. To this end, we propose a force field-inspired neural network (FFiNet), which can include all the interactions by incorporating the functional form of the potential energy of molecules. Experiments show that FFiNet achieves state-of-the-art performance on various molecular property datasets including both small molecules and large protein–ligand complexes, even on those datasets which are relatively small and without accurate spatial information. Moreover, the visualization for FFiNet indicates that it automatically learns the relationship between property and structure, which can promote an in-depth understanding of molecular structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problems of robust H∞ and guaranteed cost filtering for discrete-time uncertain Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems with multipath quantizations. The "multipath quantizations" mean that both the measurement output and estimated output of the uncertain T-S fuzzy systems are quantized by two different dynamic quantizers before they are transmitted. The unknown uncertain parameters are assumed to be norm bounded. Through applying the S-procedure and introducing some slack matrix variables, new sufficient conditions about the robust asymptotical stability with specific performance measures for quantized filtering error system have been developed via the fuzzy-basis-dependent Lyapunov function approach. The desired robust H∞ filter, robust guaranteed cost filter and dynamic quantizer parameters can be easily obtained by means of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, a practical example about the mass-spring-damper mechanical system is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy of the digestive system with high morbidity and high mortality worldwide. Currently, surgical resection is considered the most effective treatment for HCC. Laparoscopic surgery is a major trend in contemporary minimally invasive surgery. However, is laparoscopic resection suitable for HCC patients with diaphragmatic involvement? If so, then what is the preferred resection method, and how safe and effective is this treatment? Are there any factors that require special attention? Methods: Clinical data of 17 patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery in the Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University) from January 2018 to February 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The mean age was 48.9 ± 14.0 years; mean operation time, 186.00 ± 18.3 min; median blood loss, 170.0 ml (140.8–207.5 ml); and median length of hospital stay, 8.0 days (7.0–9.5 days). There was no case of open conversion. Pathologic findings revealed all cases of HCC. Intraoperative frozen pathology and postoperative pathology showed free surgical margins. Six patients had pathologically confirmed diaphragmatic invasion (DI), and eleven was confirmed as having diaphragmatic fibrous adhesion (DFA) only. Post-operative complications included liver section effusion, pleural effusion, pneumonia and bile leak. All the complications responded well to conservative treatment. No other abnormality was noted during outpatient follow-up examination. Sixteen patients survived tumor-free; one patient with HCC developed intrahepatic metastasis 1 year after surgery, and this patient survived with tumor after treatment. Conclusions: Our experience initially provides valuable support for the laparoscopic surgical treatment of HCC patients with diaphragmatic involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freeze-drying process scale-up and transfer remain a complicated and non-uniform practice. We summarized inefficient and good practices in these papers and provided some practical advice. It was demonstrated that using the same process set points/times in laboratory and commercial scale dryers may lead to loss of product quality (collapse or vial breakage). The emerging modeling approach demonstrated practical advantages. However, the upfront generation of some input parameters (vial heat transfer coefficient, minimum controllable pressure, and maximum sublimation rate) is essential for model utilization. While the primary drying step can be transferred with a high degree of confidence (e.g., using modeling), and secondary drying is usually fairly straightforward, predicting potential changes in product behavior during freezing remains challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two anaerobic, mesophilic bacteria SF3T and ASD5510 were isolated from human feces in two different countries. Strain SF3T shared 99.9% of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with strain ASD5510, and 92.8% similarity with the most similar strain Aminipila butyrica DSM 103574T. Strain SF3T was an anaerobic, Gram-stain-positive bacterium. Cells of strain SF3T were short rods with 0.3–0.4 µm in width × 2.0–2.4 µm in length and occurred mostly in pairs or short chains. Spore formation was not observed. The strain grew optimally at 35 °C (range from 20 to 45 °C), pH 7.5 (pH 6.0–8.5) and without NaCl addition (range from 0 to 20 g l−1 NaCl). Yeast extract was an essential growth factor for strain SF3T, l-arginine and γ-aminobutyrate were utilized as substrates for growth. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15:0 and C16:0 DMA. The main polar lipids were aminophospholipid (APL), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). The G + C content of the genomic DNA of the strain SF3T was 47.38 mol %. The paired genomic average amino acid identity (AAI) and percentage of conserved proteins (POCP) values showed relatedness of less than 61.0 and 39.4% with type strains of order Eubacteriales. On the basis of phenotypic, phylogenetic and phylogenomic evidence strain SF3T constitutes a novel species in a novel genus, for which the name Hominibacterium faecale gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SF3T (= CCAM 730T = JCM 34755T = KCTC 25324T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene-based microwave devices have enabled reconfigurability, thus paving the way to the realization of flexible wireless terahertz systems with featured performances. Despite great progress in the development of graphene-based terahertz devices in the literature, high insertion loss and wide tunable range are still significant challenges at such high frequencies. In this work, we introduce the use of graphene to implement a reconfigurable printed ridge gap waveguide (RPRGW) structure over the terahertz frequency range for the first time. This guiding structure is suitable for both millimeter and terahertz wave applications due to its supporting quasi-TEM mode, which exhibits low dispersion compared to other traditional guiding structures. The presented solution is featured with low loss as the signal propagates in a lossless air gap, which is separated from the lossy graphene elements responsible for the reconfigurable behavior. In addition, this guiding structure is deployed to implement a tunable RPPGW power divider as an application example for the proposed structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To investigate the overall and sex–age-specific absolute and relative risks of motorcycle collisions at road traffic accidents among patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A cohort study in Taiwan was conducted by following 989,495 patients with type 2 diabetes and the same number of matched controls recruited between 2010 and 2012 to the end of 2016. Collision events by motorcycle driver victims were identified from the Police-reported Traffic Accident Registry. Overall and sex–age-specific incidence rates of collision involving motorcycle driver victims were estimated under Poisson assumption. The Cox proportional hazard regression models were performed to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of collision in association with type 2 diabetes. Results: Over an up to 7 years of follow-up, patients with type 2 diabetes had a higher incidence rate of motorcycle collision than controls at 1.16 and 0.89 per 100 person-years, respectively, which represented a significantly elevated HR of 1.28 (95% CI 1.27–1.30) after adjusting for potential confounders including various diabetic complications. The elevated HR was similarly seen in both men and women patients, and was significantly decreasing with increasing age regardless of sex. Little evidence supported the dose–response relationship between duration of type 2 diabetes and motorcycle collision risk. Conclusions: After adjustment for common diabetic complications and comorbidities that could impair driving performance, patients with type 2 diabetes still suffered from increased risk of motorcycle collisions, regardless of sex, but was more evident in younger than in older patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intracellular Ca2+ dysregulation is a key marker in septic cardiac dysfunction; however, regulation of the classic Ca2+ regulatory modules cannot successfully abolish this symptom. Here we show that the knockout of transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channel isoforms TRPC1 and TRPC6 can ameliorate LPS-challenged heart failure and prolong survival in mice. The LPS-triggered Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum both in cardiomyocytes and macrophages is significantly inhibited by Trpc1 or Trpc6 knockout. Meanwhile, TRPC's molecular partner — calmodulin — is uncoupled during Trpc1 or Trpc6 deficiency and binds to TLR4's Pococurante site and atypical isoleucine-glutamine-like motif to block the inflammation cascade. Blocking the C-terminal CaM/IP3R binding domain in TRPC with chemical inhibitor could obstruct the Ca2+ leak and TLR4-mediated inflammation burst, demonstrating a cardioprotective effect in endotoxemia and polymicrobial sepsis. Our findings provide insight into the pathogenesis of endotoxemic cardiac dysfunction and suggest a novel approach for its treatment. TRPCs, nonselective cation channels, are involved in cardiac contraction and conduction. Here, the authors show that Trpc1/6 deficiency or pharmacological inhibition improves endotoxemic cardiac dysfunction and prolongs survival by prominently suppressing cardiac inflammation and ER Ca2+ release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) is a potential carcinogen and can easily trigger human renal and hepatic dysfunction. Ingestion of Cd-contaminated food is considered the principal way of human exposure to Cd. Bioavailability evaluation has been utilized to assess human health risk, while the correlation of the in cellulo and in vivo Cd bioavailability in foods is not clear. In this study, the bioavailability of Cd in food samples (pork kidney, indica, and lettuce) were primarily evaluated and compared in vitro, in cellulo, and in vivo mouse models. The linear regression analysis demonstrated the bioavailability of Cd in cellulo Caco2 cells model, and the in vivo mouse model exhibited a strong correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.95). In contrast, the simplified in vitro bioaccessibility evaluation displays a poor prediction to simulate the digestion process of Cd in cellulo (R2 = 0.65) or in vivo (R2 = 0.74), as it neglects the effects of food matrices (moisture, starch, and fat) on the transportation rate of gastrointestinal. These findings suggested that simplified in vitro bioaccessibility evaluation is not considered suitable to precisely predict the bioavailability of Cd, while the Caco2 cells model might be a promising Cd bioavailability assessment model to predict human exposure to Cd from food intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]