Search

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]

Asphalt blended with flame retardant undergoes thermal aging during utilization, which significantly impacts its physical and chemical characteristics concurrently. This study focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of aluminum hydroxide/zinc borate (ATH/ZB) flame retardant on varying the combustion performance of asphalt, particularly after undergoing thermal aging (85 min and 270 min aging simulations were performed, corresponding to short-term and long-term thermal aging, respectively). The results showed that ATH/ZB flame-retardant can increase the softening point of asphalt before and after aging. ATH/ZB flame-retardant asphalt (FRA) after aging had fewer carbonyl and sulfoxide groups than base asphalt (BA), demonstrating the superior anti-oxidation capability of FRA. ATH/ZB delays the peak heat release rate (PHRR) commencement by over 200 s, decreases the PHRR intensity by more than 170 kW/m2, and decreases the asphalt’s combustion activation energy, which was owing to the fact that the sacrifice of the thermolabile flame retardant protects the asphalt from being aggressively combusted. Whereas, thermal aging enhances the PHRR intensity of FRA by 83 kW/m2, which is owing to the reduction of ATH/ZB content in FRA after aging. Aging deteriorates the flame retardant’s capability on anti-combustion.Graphical Abstract: Asphalt blended with flame retardant undergoes thermal aging during utilization, which significantly impacts its physical and chemical characteristics concurrently. This study focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of aluminum hydroxide/zinc borate (ATH/ZB) flame retardant on varying the combustion performance of asphalt, particularly after undergoing thermal aging (85 min and 270 min aging simulations were performed, corresponding to short-term and long-term thermal aging, respectively). The results showed that ATH/ZB flame-retardant can increase the softening point of asphalt before and after aging. ATH/ZB flame-retardant asphalt (FRA) after aging had fewer carbonyl and sulfoxide groups than base asphalt (BA), demonstrating the superior anti-oxidation capability of FRA. ATH/ZB delays the peak heat release rate (PHRR) commencement by over 200 s, decreases the PHRR intensity by more than 170 kW/m2, and decreases the asphalt’s combustion activation energy, which was owing to the fact that the sacrifice of the thermolabile flame retardant protects the asphalt from being aggressively combusted. Whereas, thermal aging enhances the PHRR intensity of FRA by 83 kW/m2, which is owing to the reduction of ATH/ZB content in FRA after aging. Aging deteriorates the flame retardant’s capability on anti-combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]