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Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), a malignancy of the digestive system, is highly prevalent and the primary cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide due to the lack of early diagnostic biomarkers and effective therapeutic targets. Dysregulated ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) expression has been confirmed to be causally linked to tumorigenesis. This study demonstrated that ribonucleotide reductase small subunit M2 (RRM2) is significantly upregulated in ESCC tissue and that its expression is negatively correlated with clinical outcomes. Mechanistically, HuR promotes RRM2 mRNA stabilization by binding to the adenine/uridine (AU)-rich elements (AREs) within the 3′UTR, resulting in persistent overexpression of RRM2. Furthermore, bifonazole is identified as an inhibitor of HuR via computational screening and molecular docking analysis. Bifonazole disrupts HuR-ARE interactions by competitively binding to HuR at F65, R97, I103, and R153 residues, resulting in reduced RRM2 expression. Furthermore, bifonazole exhibited antitumor effects on ESCC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models by decreasing RRM2 expression and the dNTP pool. In summary, this study reveals the interaction network among HuR, RRM2, and bifonazole and demonstrated that bifonazole is a potential therapeutic compound for ESCC through inhibition of the HuR/RRM2 axis.

The shear strength deterioration of bedding planes between different rock types induced by cyclic loading is vital to reasonably evaluate the stability of soft and hard interbedded bedding rock slopes under earthquake; however, rare work has been devoted to this subject due to lack of attention. In this study, experimental investigations on shear strength weakening of discontinuities with different joint wall material (DDJM) under cyclic loading were conducted by taking the interface between siltstone and mudstone in the Shaba slope of Yunnan Province, China as research objects. A total of 99 pairs of similar material samples of DDJM (81 pairs) and discontinuities with identical joint wall material (DIJM) (18 pairs) were fabricated by inserting plates, engraved with typical surface morphology obtained by performing three-dimensional laser scanning on natural DDJMs sampled from field, into mold boxes. Cyclic shear tests were conducted on these samples to study their shear strength changes with the cyclic number considering the effects of normal stress, joint surface morphology, shear displacement amplitude and shear rate. The results indicate that the shear stress vs. shear displacement curves under each shear cycle and the peak shear strength vs. cyclic number curves of the studied DDJMs are between those of DIJMs with siltstone and mudstone, while closer to those of DIJMs with mudstone. The peak shear strengths of DDJMs exhibit an initial rapid decline followed by a gradual decrease with the cyclic number and the decrease rate varies from 6% to 55.9% for samples with varied surface morphology under different testing conditions. The normal stress, joint surface morphology, shear displacement amplitude and shear rate collectively influence the shear strength deterioration of DDJM under cyclic shear loading, with the degree of influence being greater for larger normal stress, rougher surface morphology, larger shear displacement amplitude and faster shear rate.

With over 9 million fatalities per year expected by 2030, infectious diseases will remain a significant burden on the world economy and cause high mortality rates. An excellent method to increase the bioactivity of levofloxacin (LEV) in pediatric abdominal wound repair is the finding of a stimuli-based drug delivery system (DDS). We designed and developed an LEV incorporated with zeolite imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) as a promising nanocarrier for wound healing applications. The spectral analysis and morphological analysis confirm the formation of our newly fabricated composites. Mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH3T3 cells, the cytotoxicity, cytocompatibility, and cell proliferation characteristics of LEV@ZIF-8 were evaluated in vitro. LEV@ZIF-8 composite considerably improved the biocompatibility against NIH3T3 cells after 72-h of exposure, according to in vitro experiments. Under acidic circumstances, the pH-responsive drug release studies exhibit superior LEV release, and in physiological circumstances, there is no unintended drug release. The LEV@ZIF-8 composite-treated cells demonstrate the most remarkable cell growth and migration method in a very short time, according to the results of the wound scratch experiment. The composite exposure concentration depended on inhibition against various microorganisms in the antibacterial activity testing. According to the study, LEV@ZIF-8 are appropriate and effective DDS for stimuli-based pediatric abdominal wound repair.

ABSTRACT: Egg production is an important economic trait in layer ducks and understanding the genetics basis is important for their breeding. In this study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for egg production traits in 303 female Longyan Shan-ma ducks was performed based on a genotyping-by-sequencing strategy. Sixty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with egg weight traits were identified (P < 9.48 × 10-5), including 8 SNPs at 5% linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based Bonferroni-corrected genome-wide significance level (P < 4.74 × 10-6). One hundred and nineteen SNPs were associated with egg number traits (P < 9.48 × 10-5), including 13 SNPs with 5% LD-based Bonferroni-corrected genome-wide significance (P < 4.74 × 10-6). These SNPs annotated 146 target genes which contained known candidate genes for egg production traits, such as prolactin and prolactin releasing hormone receptor. This study identified that these associated genes were significantly enriched in egg production-related pathways (P < 0.05), such as the oxytocin signaling, MAPK signaling, and calcium signaling pathways. It was notable that 18 genes were differentially expressed in ovarian tissues between higher and lower egg production in Shan-ma ducks. The identified potential candidate genes and pathways provide insight into the genetic basis underlying the egg production trait of layer ducks.

ABSTRACT: In the spring of 2023, 10 to 21-day-old chicks in a broiler duck farm in Shandong Province, China, developed swelling of the head and neck, moist eyes with mucous discharge, difficulty in walking, shrinking of the neck, and loose and disorganized coat. Anatomical observation revealed hemorrhages in the esophageal mucosa, myocardium, and liver, and severe hemorrhages in the trachea with copious inflammatory secretions. Soon after, similar symptoms appeared in a large number of ducks in the flock, which eventually led to the elimination of all the 20,000-odd newly introduced ducklings on the farm, resulting in huge economic losses. We detected duck plague virus in the tissues of liver, spleen and lungs of diseased and dead ducks, and successfully isolated the pathogenic strain, named SD423, by inoculating duck embryos and inoculating duck embryo fibroblasts. We successfully conducted animal regression experiments with the isolated strain, and the experimental animals in the 1 d of age group showed symptoms of swollen eyes and tearing, shrinking of the neck, crouching, and hemorrhage in organs such as the liver and intestines successively from the 3rd d. We sequenced the whole genome of the isolated duck plague strain, and by comparing the homology with the published duck plague virus whole sequences in Genbank, the virus strain obtained in this study had the highest homology with the Chinese virulent strain SD (MN518864.1), with nucleotide (nt) homology of about 99.90% and amino acid (aa) homology of about 99.75%, which indicated that the isolate is a virulent strain. Previously, it was reported that the natural infection of duck plague virus mainly occurs above 30 d of age, but the duck plague virus found in this study can naturally infect ducklings up to 20 d of age, and the mortality rate is as high as 100%. In this study, the pathogenicity test and whole genome sequence analysis of this isolate provided data support and theoretical basis for further research on pathogenicity and virulence-related gene analysis of duck plague virus.

Egg quality traits are economically important in the poultry industry. To explore the genetic architecture and identify potential candidate genes, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for 13 egg quality traits using data from whole-genome sequencing of 299 Longyan Shan-ma female ducks, including 12 quantitative traits and one qualitative trait, eggshell color (ESC; white, light green, green). From estimation of pedigree genetic parameters, heritability (h2) ranged from 0.022 to 0.996 for the 12 quantitative traits, with the highest h2 (0.996) for eggshell color a* value (ESCA) and the lowest h2 (0.022) for egg yolk percentage relative to EW. A total of 8,874 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based significant associations (1.0 × 10−6) and 247 insertion-deletion (indel)-based significant associations (1.00 × 10−5) were identified, including 5,980 SNPs and 159 indel markers. From 5,924 SNPs and 143 indels associated with ESC traits, 181 potential candidate genes were identified, and most significant SNPs and indels (P < 1.0 × 10−20) were located at 1.86 Mb (44.29−46.15 Mb) on chromosome 4. The top SNP (chr4:45325309:C>A; P = 7.97 × 10−43) and the top indel (chr4:45299595:delTTCCACTCCAC; P = 4.20 × 10−36) for the ESC a* value were within two known ESC candidate genes; ATP-binding cassette subfamily G member 2 (ABCG2) and protein kinase cGMP-dependent 2 (PRKG2). Of 56 SNPs and 16 indels associated with other egg quality traits, 46 potential candidate genes were identified including synapse differentiation-inducing 1-like (SYNDIG1L) for EW, and core histone macro-H2A.1 (LOC101795967) and neurogenin 1 (NEUROG1) for egg shape index; and four genes including collagen type VI alpha 3 chain (COL6A3), lysine demethylase 7A (KDM7A), LOC101802169, and sperm-associated antigen 16 (SPAG16) for egg yolk weight and the percentage of yolk to total egg weight. Of the 46 genes, the molecular functions of 22 are related to protein binding, indicating important roles in the formation of egg quality traits. Our findings provide new insight into the genetic basis of egg quality traits in ducks.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a significant global concern, ranking as the fifth most prevalent cancer. Unfortunately, the five-year survival rate is less than 30 %. Additionally, approximately 50 % of patients experience a recurrence or metastasis. As a result, finding new drugs to prevent relapse is of utmost importance. Methods: The inhibitory effect of Dronedarone hydrochloride (DH) on gastric cancer cells was examined using proliferation assays and anchorage-dependent assays. The binding of DH with SRC was detected by molecular docking, pull-down assays, and cellular thermal shift assays (CETSA). DH's inhibition of Src kinase activity was confirmed through in vitro kinase assays. The SRC knockout cells, established using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, were used to verify Src's role in GC cell proliferation. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models were employed to elucidate that DH suppressed tumor growth in vivo. Results: Our research discovered DH inhibited GC cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. DH bound to the SRC protein to inhibit the SRC/AKT1 signaling pathway in gastric cancer. Additionally, we observed a decrease in the sensitivity of gastric cancer cells to DH upon down-regulation of SRC. Notably, we demonstrated DH's anti-tumor effects were similar to those of Dasatinib, a well-known SRC inhibitor, in GC patient-derived xenograft models. Conclusion: Our research has revealed that Dronedarone hydrochloride, an FDA-approved drug, is an SRC inhibitor that can suppress the growth of GC cells by blocking the SRC/AKT1 signaling pathway. It provides a scientific basis for use in the clinical treatment of GC.

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection leads to multi-system inflammation in pigs, and this effect can be achieved by upregulating host miR-21. The underlying mechanism of miR-21 regulates PCV2-induced inflammation is already known, however, how PCV2 regulates miR-21 levels and function using both autonomic and host factors remains to be further revealed. Here we present the first evidence that PCV2 ORF5 induces an inflammatory response by up-regulating miR-21 level through targeting nuclear miR-30d. In this study, we found that overexpression of ORF5 significantly increased miR-21 level and promoted the expression of inflammatory cytokines and activation of the NF-κB pathway, while ORF5 mutation had the opposite effect. Moreover, the differential expression of miR-21 could significantly change the pro-inflammatory effect of ORF5, indicating that ORF5 promotes inflammatory response by up-regulating miR-21. Bioinformatics analysis and clinical detection found that nuclear miR-30d was significantly down-regulated after ORF5 overexpression and PCV2 infection, and targeted pri-miR-21 and PCV2 ORF5. Functionally, we found that miR-30d inhibited the levels of miR-21 and inflammatory cytokines in cells. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that ORF5 inhibits miR-30d expression levels through direct binding but not via the circRNA pathway, and miR-30d inhibits miR-21 levels by targeting pri-miR-21. In summary, the present study revealed the molecular mechanism of ORF5 upregulation of miR-21, further refined the molecular chain of PCV2-induced inflammatory response and elucidated the role of miRNAs in it.

There is an effective way to enhance the spatial resolution of hyperspectral remote sensing images by fusing them with multispectral remote sensing images. However, most of the existing deep fusion techniques adopt discretized explicit models to approximate the complex continuous nonlinear mapping in the fusion process, leading to limitations in enhancing the fidelity of spatial details. Additionally, existing algorithms commonly utilize discrete methods such as bilinear or bicubic interpolation during the hyperspectral upsampling process, leading to the loss of crucial spatial-spectral features. To this end, this study proposes a novel Implicit Transformer Fusion Generative Adversarial Network (ITF-GAN), which incorporates the continuity perception mechanism of implicit neural representation with the powerful self-attention mechanism of the Transformer architecture, which uses point-to-point implicit functions aiming to efficiently process information in both spatial and spectral dimensions. Besides, a guided implicit neural sampling module is introduced in the hyperspectral image up-sampling process to enhance the coordinated expression of features in the spatial and spectral domains, which improves the spatial resolution and spectral fidelity of the fused image during the upsampling process. A series of fusion experiments including 4x, 8x, and 16x scale factors have shown that ITF-GAN has significant advantages over current popular fusion algorithms in both objective evaluation indicators and subjective visual evaluation.

Rebar lap splicing is a widely used method of reinforcement connection in precast concrete structures, and the lap-slip model serves as an important prerequisite for conducting detailed mechanical calculations of reinforced concrete lap splice members. Most traditional bond-slip mechanical models are semi-empirical and semi-theoretical formulas derived from experimental data; they do not consider the effect of reinforcement lap spacing, which prevents them from accurately reflecting the force transfer characteristics of lap reinforcement in concrete. In this paper, a Back Propagation (BP) neural network based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to establish a lap-slip model of reinforced concrete considering rebar spacing, which improves on the current bond-slip mechanical model. Several sets of rebar lap tests based on RC/ECC/UHPC were designed, and full-sample parameter sensitivity analyses were carried out using the lap length, the thickness of the concrete cover, the rebar spacing and the stirrup ratio as test parameters. The results showed that rebar lap spacing was an important influencing factor in the proposed lap-slip model, with a sensitivity coefficient reaching 0.471. The lap-slip model, based on the GA-BP neural network, was developed and compared with existing models; the predictive ability of the model was verified by the ten-fold crossover method. The generalizability of the GA-BP model was verified by randomly selecting non-training test data as well as lap test data of rebar in different types of concrete. The results indicated that the model exhibits high predictive and generalization abilities, with most correlation coefficients exceeding 0.95. The proposed model was compared with a mechanical model established using the traditional fitting formula method, and the results showed that the prediction accuracy of the lap-slip model established based on the GA-BP neural network is slightly lower than that of the mechanical model obtained using the fitting formula method, but it still offers high prediction accuracy, and the prediction results are more objective and realistic, which is of guiding significance for practical applications and related research.

Hundreds of green tea products are available on the tea market and exhibit different characteristics. In the present study, seven types of green tea were processed, and their nonvolatile profiles were analyzed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Non-spreading green tea contained higher concentrations of catechins and flavonoid glycosides, but lower concentrations of amino acids, caffeine, and theaflavins. Non-rolling green teas with a straight appearance contained higher concentrations of flavonoid glycosides and theaflavins. In contrast, leaf-rolling green teas contained much lower concentrations of flavonoid glycosides and catechins. These seven green tea qualities all decreased following prolonged storage, concurrent with increasing concentrations of proanthocyanidins, catechins dimers, theaflavins, and organic acids. The leaf-rolling green teas exhibited reduced levels of deterioration during storage in terms of their nonvolatile profile and sensory quality. Findings show that moderate destruction on tea leaves during green tea processing is beneficial to both tea flavor and quality maintenance during storage.

Exposure to ambient PM2.5 is associated with neurodegenerative disorders, in which microglia activation plays a critical role. Thus far, the underlying mechanisms for PM2.5-induced microglia activation have not been well elucidated. In this study, a human microglial cell line (HMC3) was used as the in vitro model to examine the inflammatory effect (hall marker of microglia activation) of PM2.5 and regulatory pathways. The expression of inflammatory mediators including interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) as well as the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were determined by ELISA and/or real-time PCR, respectively. Flow cytometry was used to measure the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Western blot was used to measure protein levels of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), NF-κB inhibitor α (IκBα) and COX-2. It was shown that PM2.5 stimulation increased IL-6 and COX-2 expression but decreased BDNF expression in a dose-dependent manner. Further studies showed that PM2.5 triggered the formation of ROS and pre-treatment with the ROS scavenger acetylcysteine (NAC) significantly suppressed PM2.5-induced IL-6 and COX-2 expression. Moreover, the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) inhibitor BAY11–7085 or the TLR4 neutralizing antibody markedly blocked PM2.5-induced IL-6 and COX-2 expression. However, NAC or BAY11–7085 exhibited minimal effect on PM2.5-induced BDNF down-regulation. In addition, pre-treatment with BAY11–7085 or TLR4 neutralizing antibody reduced ROS production induced by PM2.5, and NAC pre-treatment inhibited TLR4 expression and NF-κB activation induced by PM2.5. Collectively, PM2.5 treatment induced IL-6 and COX-2 but suppressed BDNF expression. PM2.5-induced IL-6 and COX-2 expression was mediated by interactive oxidative stress and TLR4/NF-κB pathway.

New energy vehicles (NEVs) are crucial way to solving environmental and energy dilemmas. However, the transition from traditional energy vehicles (TEVs) to NEVs is extremely intricate. If the process for TEVs switching to NEVs falls into out order, the automobile industry will be shaken. This paper takes electric vehicles (EVs), representing NEVs, and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), representing TEVs, as research objects, and constructs a dynamic Gounod duopoly model for the production decisions of two oligopolistic automakers under the dual credit policy. Combining the nonlinear dynamic theory and Cournot game, the influence of policy, market, technology, and cost on the stability of duopoly automakers’ dynamic production game equilibrium and the nonlinear evolution characteristics of Cournot-Nash equilibrium are analyzed systematically. Results show that: (1) In the transition from ICEVs to EVs, if the speed of production adjustment is too fast, the automobile system would trap into chaos and shakeouts, and the social welfare would show volatility. (2) The revised dual credit policy increases the credit ratio and decreases the credit coefficient which enhances the stability of automobile system. This revision may accelerate the transformation from ICEVs to EVs in the automobile industry. Especially, the credit coefficient plays a more significant role. (3) The consumer acceptance for vehicle prices and the range of EV are positively correlated with the production of EVs and the social welfare, and negatively correlated with the production of ICEVs. Nevertheless, the cost of the two types of vehicle had the opposite effect compared price acceptance and range of EVs.

In this study, considering the characteristics of multi-energy coupling and multi-level interconnection, a bi-level steady-state physical model is developed. Both decomposed and unified solution methods are employed for the energy flow calculation under the bi-level and multi-energy coupling structure. A numerical study is executed to examine the validity of the algorithms. In addition, the load change within the microgrid and the system operation state under both on-grid and off-grid modes are examined. According to the simulation results, compared with the unified solution method, the decomposed method has faster solution speed and higher data privacy protection, and is more adaptive to the further expansion of the scale of the interconnected microgrids. The microgrids can realize energy interaction and energy mutual aid through grid-connecting operation or inter-network interconnection.

With the development of integrated energy system, energy flow analysis of coupling energy network has attracted much attention. In this study, based on the unified energy path theory, energy flow analysis of electricity-heating coupled energy system is implemented considering different time characteristic of each system. Considering the instantaneous change process of heat transfer in the heating system, the dynamic model of heat network is constructed based on unified energy path theory. On this basis, the dynamic models of electric and heating systems are coupled, and the dynamic energy flow calculation method of the coupling system is proposed. Through a case study, the feasibility of the proposed model and calculation method are verified. In addition, the effect of heat source on the dynamic process of heat transfer in the heating system is analyzed.

Considering the volatility and randomness of renewable energy, the integrated demand response (IDR) has proved to be an efficient way to solve the imbalance problem between the supply and demand sides. To manage the flexible loads of customers, as an intermediate participant, the residential load aggregator (RLA) is introduced, which can provide a motivational measure to attract customers to participate in electric and heating IDR. In this study, an incentive-based reward mechanism (RM) is proposed for a RLA based on classified residential customers, to obtain the best bidding contracts in the load market. A novel multi-objective optimization model is developed and calculated by an NSGA-II artificial algorithm maximizing profits of the RLA and customers simultaneously. The customers’ profit is described as the monetization of dissatisfaction degree considering both psychology and comfort aspects. Furthermore, to demonstrate the practicality and advantage of the RM, the price-based IDR mechanism is also included in the numerical study for comparison. According to the simulation results, although both RM-based and price-based responses have their own advantages and disadvantages on various performances, the RM performs better since it can reduce more energy demand and save more costs for end-users.

Background: SQSTM1/p62 is an autophagy-related receptor protein that participates in regulating tumorigenesis and multiple signaling pathways. Gastric cancer (GC) is a common tumor in the digestive tract and continues to pose a significant threat to human health. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of p62 on gastric cancer. Methods: Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting were employed to assess the expression level of the p62 protein in gastric cancer tissues and its correlation with prognosis. Subsequently, in vitro cell experiments were conducted to determine the role of p62 in gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration, and metastasis. Result: The expression of p62 in gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than in normal tissues. The expression of p62 was positively correlated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients. In vitro cell experiments indicated that p62 promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation and migration. Mechanistically, elevated p62 expression induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), leading to upregulation of E-cadherin and downregulation of N-cadherin and vimentin. Conclusion: This study provides novel and robust evidence for the mechanism by which elevated p62 expression promotes the progression of gastric cancer. It offers promising therapeutic targets for anti-tumor treatment strategies in gastric cancer patients.

ABSTRACT: Ducks infected with duck circovirus (DuCV) show symptoms such as feather loss, growth retardation and low body weight in the flock. The virus induces immunosuppression and increases the prevalence of infection with other pathogens. However, most studies on duck circovirus were focused on coinfection, and fewer studies had been conducted on the pathogenicity of duck circovirus alone. The aim of the present study was to investigate the pathogenesis of DuCV-1 in experimentally infected specific pathogen-free ducks. In this study, we sequenced the whole genome of a strain of duck circovirus and identified the virus genotype as DuCV-1b. This strain of duck circovirus was named SDLH(OR567883). Animal pathogenicity experiments were then conducted, wherein specific pathogen-free ducks were infected by mucosal injection and abdominal injection. Infected ducks were sampled for 4 consecutive weeks after infection and showed symptoms of dwarfism. We further examined the replication of DuCV-1 in the ducks. The highest virus titers in the 2 infection groups were found in the liver and spleen, with different results for the different routes of infection. Pathological sections of duck organs were made and it was found that organs such as the liver and spleen were damaged by DuCV-1. In conclusion, our experimental results indicate that DuCV-1 can infect ducks individually and cause widespread organ damage in infected ducks.

Cadmium (Cd) is a dangerous heavy metal with high toxicity that is known to impair development. Astilbin (ASB) is a protective flavonoid compound. We aimed to explore whether ASB can antagonize the myocardial developmental toxicity of Cd exposure. Cd (2 µg) and/or ASB (0.002 µg) were injected into embryonized eggs that were 1 day old. Histological examinations revealed Cd-induced ventricular dilation, reduced wall thickness, and disrupted myocardial fiber connections, while co-administration of ASB mitigated these effects. Electron microscopy confirmed ASB's ability to counteract Cd-induced myocardial cell myofibril damage. Real-time quantitative PCR (QRT-PCR) and western blot (WB) molecular investigations revealed that Cd increased endoplasmic reticulum stress in myocardial tissue and primary cardiomyocytes, as shown by raised expression of stress-related genes (GRP78, XBP1, GRP94, ATF4, ATF6, IRE1, and CHOP). Moreover, Cd disrupted calcium homeostasis, affecting important genes linked to Ca2+ channels and causing an excess of Ca2+ in the cytoplasm. In addition, we detected genes related to development and differentiation-related genes in myocardial tissue and primary cardiomyocytes. The results showed that the downregulation of transcription factors in the IrxA cluster, Mefs, and Tbxs families after Cd exposure indicated that cardiac transcription was hindered and cardiac markers (TnnT2, TnnC1, Gata4, Gata6, and Nkx2–5) were abnormally expressed. ASB successfully mitigated these disturbances. During the cell cycle, primary cardiomyocytes undergo growth arrest in flow cytometry. These results suggest that the maturation and differentiation of cardiomyocytes are inhibited after Cd exposure, and ASB has an antagonistic effect on Cd. The present study indicated that Cd could trigger developmental cardiotoxicity in chicken embryos and primary cardiomyocytes by endoplasmic reticulum stress and Ca2+ overload, respectively, while ASB has an antagonistic effect.

Since the testing of convex mirrors often requires a compensator with a larger aperture than the mirror under test, this is undoubtedly a trade-off not worth pursuing. Moreover, for surfaces with higher levels of asphericity, it further escalates the challenges in testing. In this study, high-accuracy testing of large convex aspheric surfaces with rotary symmetry was achieved via a method that combines sub-aperture stitching and Computer-Generated Holograms (CGH) compensation testing. Applying the methodology outlined in this study, practical testing was conducted on a large-aperture convex aspheric mirror with a diameter of 538 mm. The outcomes demonstrated that the center testing data and the outer ring testing data were stitched by the stitching algorithm to obtain the surface error of the full-aperture. The results were compared to those of Luphoscan and compensation testing, with a residual Root Mean Square (RMS) less than λ/20 (λ = 632.8 nm). Finally, the error analysis of the entire testing process showed that the accuracy was better than λ/50. The results demonstrate that the method can achieve highly accurate test of large convex aspheric surfaces.

Hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing image fusion (HMIF) can effectively enhance image spatial-spectral information representation. However, existing deep learning algorithms usually use neighboring pixels for interpolation in the sampling process, which ignores the correlation of different receptive field pixels. To solve the above problem, this study proposes an adaptive multi-perceptual field implicit guided sampling generative adversarial network (AMGSGAN) to enhance the long-range perception of the sampling process. The generator consists of precoding, multi-perceptual field feature extraction, and adaptive guided implicit sampling modules. The precoding module encodes the features of the images to enhance the feature expression capability, the multi-perceptual field feature extraction module is used to extract the multi-perceptual field features of the images by setting different convolutional dilation rates, and the adaptive guided implicit sampling module utilizes pixels with different distances to interpolate the features of the pixels to be sampled and fuses the interpolation results adaptively to generate the fusion image. The discriminator incorporates the pure CNN architecture and employs techniques such as batch normalization layer and adaptive average pooling layer to ensure the stability and convergence speed of the network. Comparison experiments on several datasets show that the fusion performance of AMGSGAN is significantly better than the compared algorithms at 4x, 8x and 16x resolutions, which demonstrates the effectiveness of AMGSGAN. The code can be found at https://github.com/chunyuzhu/AMGSGAN.

Aerogels have an impressive thermal insulation performance at room temperature. However, with high infrared transmittance, pure aerogels have no advantages in thermal insulation at high temperature. Opacifiers can reduce infrared transmittance to make a low thermal conductivity with sacrifice of that at room temperature. Herein, VO2 powders undergoing reversible insulator to metal transition at 67.8 °C as opacifier with temperature-switch were introduced into silica aerogel composites to prepare aerogel reinforced by VO2@SiO2 fibers paper (AVSP). At 25 °C, insulator VO2 made little contribution to thermal conductivity (0.025 W/(m·K)) so that it was close to aerogel reinforced by pure SiO2 fibers papers without opacifier (0.023 W/(m·K)). When temperature rose to 500 °C, metal VO2 made thermal conductivity of AVSP (0.051 W/(m·K)) much lower than that of aerogel reinforced by pure SiO2 fibers papers without opacifier (0.076 W/(m·K)). Meanwhile, SiO2 fibers papers with three-dimensional network structure improved flexibility of aerogel. The tensile strength of AVSP was 2.1 MPa with density of 0.186 g/cm3. With 152° contact angle and flame resistance, AVSP showed a great potential in high temperature thermal insulation in a nonplanar condition. Thereby, this work provides a novel strategy to improve thermal insulation property at high temperature with little contribution to that at room temperature.

To promote the energy-saving transformation of industrial enterprises effectively, it is important to accurately grasp the energy consumption behavior of enterprises. In this study, the multi-type industrial enterprises in an industrial park located in Shanghai are selected for analysis. Based on the collection and processing of the measured heating (steam) data, by employing the big data analysis method, the cluster analysis is carried out from different dimensions including user difference, load fluctuation and typical daily characteristics. Following which, the multi-type load characteristic curve is obtained, and the energy consumption characteristics of the whole industrial park and different types of industrial enterprises are discussed. On this basis, the energy load forecasting model of industrial enterprises is developed based on the LSTM neural network, and the effect of introducing meteorological data on the accuracy of load forecasting is analyzed.

A co-benefits assessment index system is developed for the introduction of a regional integrated energy system (RIES). Following which, by analyzing the interest demands of each stakeholder and determining the beneficiaries of each unit benefit, the initial benefit distribution model based on attribution relationship is established. According to the networked relationship of stakeholders, a fair and reasonable cost sharing mechanism for RIES is established. On this basis, the benefit–cost (B/C) analysis is carried out from various stakeholders to evaluate the commercial feasibility. According to the simulation results of a numerical study, the project as a whole and all stakeholders have B/C values greater than 1 to coordinate and balance related issues such as system income distribution according to the designed benefit distribution mechanism. In this way, the win-win situation of overall interests and individual interests can be realized.

To date, most of the reported piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) use lead-based Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) piezoceramic family, which is obviously harmful to the environment. In recent years, the PEHs constructed with lead-free piezoceramics have been developed rapidly. However, their force-to-electric (F–E) output performances are still unsatisfactory. To address this issue, here we present a PEH assembled with lead-free potassium sodium niobate (KNN) based co-fired multilayered piezoceramics (MLPCs), which show a high output current and power. First, high-quality KNN-based MLPCs are prepared by tape-casting process. Each MLPC contains 11 piezoceramic layers, and the cross-section SEM image of the MLPC indicates that the ceramic layers are well connected with the Ag/Pd inner electrode layers. The d33 of a single MLPC reaches up to 4675 pC/N. The F–E output performance of KNN-MLPC based PEH is then tested. The inherent advantages of multilayered ceramics enable the PEH to achieve a peak-to-peak output current of up to 1.48 mA and a peak-to-peak output power of 2.19 mW under a harmonic force load of 6 kN at 14 Hz. Finally, the PEH is tested to validate its practical application in real road environments, demonstrating its promising for the use of self-powered monitoring sensors for collecting traffic data.

Summary: Although single-cell multi-omics technologies are undergoing rapid development, simultaneous transcriptome and proteome analysis of a single-cell individual still faces great challenges. Here, we developed a single-cell simultaneous transcriptome and proteome (scSTAP) analysis platform based on microfluidics, high-throughput sequencing, and mass spectrometry technology to achieve deep and joint quantitative analysis of transcriptome and proteome at the single-cell level, providing an important resource for understanding the relationship between transcription and translation in cells. This platform was applied to analyze single mouse oocytes at different meiotic maturation stages, reaching an average quantification depth of 19,948 genes and 2,663 protein groups in single mouse oocytes. In particular, we analyzed the correlation of individual RNA and protein pairs, as well as the meiosis regulatory network with unprecedented depth, and identified 30 transcript-protein pairs as specific oocyte maturational signatures, which could be productive for exploring transcriptional and translational regulatory features during oocyte meiosis.

Summary: Background: Pegmolesatide, a synthetic peptide-based erythropoietin (EPO) receptor agonist, is being evaluated as an alternative to epoetin alfa for treating anemia of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Chinese dialysis patients. There is a critical need for a long-acting, cost-effective erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that does not produce EPO antibodies. Methods: A randomized, open-label, active-comparator, non-inferiority phase three trial was conducted at 43 dialysis centers in China between May 17th, 2019, and March 28th, 2022. Eligible patients aged 18–70 years were randomly assigned (2:1) to receive pegmolesatide once every four weeks or epoetin alfa one to three times per week, with doses adjusted to maintain a hemoglobin level between 10.0 and 12.0 g/dL. The primary efficacy endpoint was the mean change in hemoglobin level from baseline to the efficacy evaluation period in the per-protocol set (PPS) population. Non-inferiority of pegmolesatide to epoetin alfa was established if the lower limit of the two-sided 95% confidence interval for the between-group difference was ≥ −1.0 g/dL. Safety assessment included adverse events and potential anaphylaxis reactions. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03902691. Findings: Three hundreds and seventy-two patients were randomly assigned to the pegmolesatide group (248 patients) or the epoetin alfa group (124 patients). A total of 347 patients (233 in the pegmolesatide group and 114 in the epoetin alfa group) were included in the PPS population. In the PPS, the mean change (standard deviation, SD) in hemoglobin level from baseline to the efficacy evaluation period was 0.07 (0.92) g/dL in the pegmolesatide group and −0.22 (0.97) g/dL in the epoetin alfa group. The between-group difference was 0.29 g/dL (95% confidence interval: 0.11–0.47), verifying non-inferiority of pegmolesatide to epoetin alfa. Adverse events occurred in 231 (94%) participants in the pegmolesatide group and in 110 (89%) in the epoetin alfa group. Hypertension was the most common treatment-related adverse event. No fatal cases of anaphylaxis or hypotension were reported. Interpretation: Monthly subcutaneously injection of pegmolesatide was as effective and safe as conventional epoetin alfa administrated one to three times a week in treating anemia in Chinese dialysis patients. Funding: The study was supported by Hansoh Medical Development Group.

A novel Hydrodynamic Cavitation-Assisted Oxygen Plasma (HCAOP) process, which employs a venturi tube and oxygen injection, has been developed for enhancing the production and utilization of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) in the degradation of organic pollutants. This study has systematically investigated the fluid characteristics and discharge properties of the gas–liquid two-phase body in the venturi tube. The hydraulic cavitation two-phase body discharge is initiated by the bridging of the cavitation cloud between the electrodes. The discharge mode transitions from diffuse to spark to corona as the oxygen flow rate increases. The spark discharge has the highest current and discharge energy. Excessive oxygen results in the change of the flow from bubbly to annular and a subsequent decrease in discharge energy. The effects of cavitation intensity, oxygen flow rate, and power polarity on discharge characteristics and ·OH production were evaluated using terephthalic acid as a fluorescent probe. It was found that injecting 3 standard liter per minute (SLPM) of oxygen increased the ·OH yield by 6 times with only 1.2 times increase in power, whereas

This study aimed to extract tiger nut polysaccharides (TNPs) by the cellulase method which were graded using the DEAE-cellulose ion exchange method to obtain neutral (TNP-N) and acidic (TNP-A) polysaccharide classes. Analysis of the physical structures and monosaccharide compositions of TNP-A (3.458 KDa) and TNP-N (10.640 KDa) revealed lamellar and dense flocculent structures, with both primarily containing the monosaccharides glucose, galactose, and arabinose (Glc, Gal, and Ara). Single-factor and orthogonal tests were used to select three hydrocolloids, and the optimal ratio of the composite hydrocolloids was determined. Peanut protein drinks with a centrifugal sedimentation rate of 9.71% and a stability factor of 69.28% were obtained by adding 2.78% polysaccharide extract, 0.1% monoglyceride, and peanut pulp at a ratio of 1:15.5 g/mL. Polysaccharide protein drinks are more stable than commercially available protein drinks, with nutritional parameters either comparable to or better than those of the non-polysaccharide protein drinks.

As environmental pollutants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) can have toxic effects on living organisms and has a bioaccumulative effect. Low doses of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) can exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-toxin functions on the organism. This experiment evaluated SeNPs' ability to prevent chicken’s intestinal damage from decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) exposure. Sixty layer chickens were separated into four groups at randomly and equally: Control group, SeNPs group (1 mg/kg SeNPs), BDE-209 group (400 mg/kg BDE-209), and BDE-209 +SeNPs group (400 mg/kg BDE-209 and 1 mg/kg SeNPs), for 42 days. The results showed that BDE-209 increased MDA content, decreased the activities of T-SOD, T-AOC, GSH and iNOS, up-regulated the expression of TNF-α, RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL, promoted the production of inflammatory factors, reduced the levels of tight junction proteins (Claudin-1, Occludin, ZO-1). SeNPs attenuated intestinal oxidative stress, necroptosis, inflammation and intestinal barrier damage caused by BDE-209. This protective effect is associated with the MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway. Moreover, SeNPs restores flora alpha and beta diversity, improves intestinal flora composition and its abundance. It shifts the dysbiosis of intestinal flora caused by BDE-209 to normal. Overall, SeNPs can alleviate BDE-209-induced intestinal barrier damage and intestinal flora disorders, which are associated with intestinal oxidative stress, necroptosis and inflammation.

We established an iPSC line (TSHSUi001-A) from a patient with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, carrying heterozygous c.290 + 1G > A mutation in STK11 gene. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were reprogrammed using non-integrating delivery of OCT4, SOX2, KFL4, BCL-XL and c-MYC. The iPSC line expressed pluripotency markers, could differentiate into cells of three germ layers in vitro, and displayed a normal karyotype.

In this study, a multi-energy loads forecasting model based on the artificial intelligence method is proposed. Firstly, based on Copula theory, the nonlinear relationship among different load types themselves, as well as other influence factors affecting the load demand such as ambient temperature etc. are analyzed. Following which, the input factors for load forecasting are selected according to the influence degree. Secondly, based on LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) neural network model and its improved forms (Stack LSTM and Bidirectional LSTM), the multi-type load forecasting model is developed. A university campus is selected to verify the feasibility and validity of the model compared with the actual data. According to the simulation results, the Stack LSTM illustrates better prediction performance and generalization ability compared with other methods. In addition, the prediction accuracy of cooling and heating demands can be highly improved when considering the affection of electrical load. Moreover, the reduction of load time-scale may obviously increase the prediction accuracy.

Based on the economic and social development, as well as the resource factor endowment in the Lin-gang Special Area, the LEAP model is employed as the research tool to analyze the energy consumption and carbon emissions from 2021 to 2060 under different scenarios. The results show that under the baseline scenario, the carbon emission in the special area basically enters the platform period after 2035; Under the low-carbon scenario, the carbon peak can be achieved in 2035, but the subsequent decline is relatively slow; Under the enhanced low-carbon scenario, the special area can reach the peak synchronously with the national goal in 2030 and basically achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. In addition, the contribution analysis of emission reduction for different policy measures shows that the contribution of clean energy substitution is the largest, followed by energy efficiency improvement and electrification.

Trigeminal neuropathic pain (TNP) arises due to peripheral nerve injury, the mechanisms underlying which are little known. The altered gene expression profile in sensory ganglia is critical for neuropathic pain generation and maintenance. We, therefore, assessed the transcriptome of the trigeminal ganglion (TG) from mice at different periods of pain progression. Trigeminal neuropathic pain was established by partial infraorbital nerve transection (pIONT). High-throughput RNA sequencing was applied to detect the mRNA profiles of TG collected at 3 and 10 days after modeling. Injured TG displayed dramatically altered mRNA expression profiles compared to Sham. Different gene expression profiles were obtained at 3 and 10 days after pIONT. Moreover, 314 genes were significantly upregulated, and 81 were significantly downregulated at both 3 and 10 days post-pIONT. Meanwhile, enrichment analysis of these persistent differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed that the MAPK pathway was the most significantly enriched pathway for upregulated DEGs, validated by immunostaining. In addition, TG cell populations defined by single-nuclei RNA sequencing displayed cellular localization of DEGs at a single-cell resolution. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) and sub-PPI network analyses constructed networks and identified the top 10 hub genes for DEGs at different time points. The present data provide novel information on the gene expression signatures of TG during the development and maintenance phases of TNP, and the identified hub genes and pathways may serve as potential targets for treatment.

NCAPG2 has been reported to be associated with tumorigenesis in various types of cancer. However, data on the pathological mechanisms of NCAPG2 in pan-cancers remain lacking. Therefore, the study aimed to comprehensively elucidate the immune characteristics and prognostic of NCAPG2 in tumor microenvironments (TMEs). NCAPG2 was overexpressed in many tumor types, and this overexpression is related to poor clinical stages and prognosis. Furthermore, elevated NCAPG2 expression was strongly associated with TMEs. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis was performed to investigate the pathways associated with NCAPG2, revealing its involvement in several immune-related pathways. Finally, we predicted the immunotherapeutic value and sensitivity to drugs based on NCAPG2 expression. Our study revealed that NCAPG2 could be utilized as an immune-related biomarker for both diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of multiple cancer types. Therefore, our findings suggest that targeting NCAPG2 in TMEs could be a promising therapeutic strategy.

Parkinson disease (PD) is a multifactorial disease without aging, which is considered to be the main cause of PD apart from genetic, life-style, and environmental patterns. Phytochemicals play an immense role in treating various neurological diseases, and they possess immense antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In the current work, the neuroprotective effect of ruscogenin in an in vitro and in vivo mouse model was examined. The mouse microglial BV-2 cell line was stimulated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and used to assess the cytotoxicity, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities of ruscogenin. In the in vivo model, the PD was induced with MPTP and treated with 10 and 20 mg/kg of ruscogenin. The mice were then subjected to motor function analysis with the foot print test, grip strength test, and rota rod test. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective activities of ruscogenin on PD-induced mice were assessed with biochemical analysis. To confirm the neuroprotective activity of ruscogenin, histopathological analysis of substantia nigra tissue was done. Our in vitro results confirm that ruscogenin did not disturb the viability of BV-2 cells. Ruscogenin decreased the oxidative stress and inflammatory marker levels in BV-2 cells. Ruscogenin treatment persuasively improved motor activities in PD-induced mice. The levels of inflammatory cytokines were considerably reduced by the ruscogenin treatment. Histopathological analysis revealed that ruscogenin has neuroprotective properties. In summary, ruscogenin is a potent neuroprotective agent that can be utilized to treat PD in the future. Furthermore, our study lacks the in-depth molecular analysis needed to understand the mode of action of ruscogenin on the PD, and hence we strongly recommend further molecular studies in the future.

The stress relief processes, such as thermal stress relief (TSR) and vibratory stress relief (VSR), are generally applied to decrease and control the residual stress in the manufacturing process. Thermal-vibratory stress relief (TVSR) is a novel stress relief method developed in recent years, which has significant advantages over traditional methods. The stress relief mechanism of TVSR and stress evolution under the coupling effect of heat and vibration still need further investigation. In this study, TSR, VSR and TVSR with different process parameters are compared to study their stress relief effect on Ti6Al4V, and corresponding FEM simulations are performed to calculate the stress evolution. The residual stress is measured using X-ray diffraction method. EBSD and TEM characterizations are carried out to investigate the influences on the phase, crystal grain and dislocation. Results show that both TVSR and TSR can eliminate over 90% of residual stress of Ti6Al4V, but the efficiency of TVSR is 4.2 times as that of TSR. The stress relief rate of TVSR is 45.04% higher than that of VSR with the same dynamic stress. Finally, the quantitative relationship between TVSR parameters and residual stress is established, and the stress relief mechanism and effective parameter region of TVSR are analyzed.

With the continuous deepening of power market reforms, studying the interaction of multi-stakeholder in multi-microgrid (MMG) energy trading is of great significance to improve the economic performance of the distribution network. In order to analyze the economic optimization method of multiple stakeholders in the distributed energy system, this paper proposes a multi-stakeholder benefit optimization method based on Stackelberg game theory (SGT), and establishes a local market energy transaction model. The model is composed of external distribution network, leader-intermediary agent (IA) and follower-microgrids (MGs), and uses the master–slave game method to solve the optimization strategy. Under this mode, the profit of each stakeholder in MMG increased by 2.64%, 4.24%, 1.38% respectively. The case results show that based on the method in this paper, multi-stakeholder in MMG can improve economic performance and can increase the level of energy autonomy of MMG.

This study break through the idealized demand-side distribution and build an optimization model of regional distributed energy systems under discrete conditions. Aiming at minimizing the system comprehensive cost, which includes the annual conversion cost of the initial investment and the annual operation and maintenance cost, the optimization model can determine the number, site, capacity of the energy station and the optimal pipe network layout path from the energy station to the load center, and make a comparative analysis of the annual costs in different situations. The main impact of the energy station site is the cost difference caused by the pipe network layout.

Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) technology has great application potential in the aerospace, medical and energy fields with its high material utilization efficiency to achieve the manufacturing of metal parts of any shape. However, the extreme thermal, mechanical, and metallurgical coupling in MAM process leads to large residual stresses in the manufactured samples. Residual stress has a significant effect on the dimensional stability, corrosion resistance, crack growth resistance and mechanical properties of MAM samples. As a result, residual stress can be regarded as a key factor in controlling costs, enhancing product efficiency and quality. To help researchers and engineers attain up-to-date information and knowledge about residual stress in MAM, the current paper provides a comprehensive review in this field, especially the formation mechanisms, the influence of process parameters, prediction and control methods.

ABSTRACT: In recent years, the utilization of antibiotics in animal feed has been restricted, probiotics have been increasingly used to replace antibiotics in maintaining animal health. The aim of this study was to screen and evaluate probiotics with excellent probiotic potential from the gut of healthy goslings for clinical application. Thirteen strains of Bacillus (named AH-G201 to AH-G2013), including 2 strains of Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), 6 strains of Bacillus licheniformis (B. licheniformis) and 5 strains of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (B. amyloliquefaciens), were isolated and identified. Then, acid and bile salts tolerance tests were performed to screen probiotics strains that could survive under different environments. The effects of screened probiotics on the growth of pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella were assessed. Furthermore, we performed the drug resistance tests and safety tests in animals. The results showed that B. Subtilis AH-G201, B. licheniformis AH-G202 and AH-G204 exhibited higher gastrointestinal resistance under in vitro conditions, and showed a moderate level of resistance to the tested antibiotics. Importantly, AH-G201 and AH-G202 showed 24 to 60% inhibition rate against pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella. Moreover, the safety analysis of AH-G201 and AH-G202 suggested that the 2 probiotics strains have no adverse effects on body weight gain and feed intake in the broilers, and in addition, they have significantly improved growth performance. Finally, we analyzed effects of B. Subtilis AH-G201and B. licheniformis AH-G202 on growth performance, immune organ index and the feces microbes of broilers. The results showed that broilers fed with high doses (5 × 109 CFU/mL, for single strain) of a mixture of AH-G201 and AH-G202 exhibited good growth performance, and exhibited the greatest gain in spleen weight and the highest lactic acid bacteria counts. These findings indicate that the combined addition of B. Subtilis AH-G201 and B. licheniformis AH-G202 has the potential to replace antibiotics and to improve the growth performance of broilers.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a brain-related disease condition, globally it is the second most common neurodegenerative disease that mostly disturbs the brain motor control and action of the aged populations. It involves a tiny, dark portion of the brain denoted as substantia nigra. Dopamine is produced in the substantia nigra for the usage of the brain. This dopamine communicates messages among nerves and controls muscle movements. Coronarin D is a diterpenoid with exclusive pharmacological possessions and its effectiveness over a few neurogenerative diseases exposed to some intense properties. The present study was intended to exhibit the neuroprotective efficacy of Coronarin D over MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) induced animals. Oral management of Coronarin D (10 and 20 mg/kg body wt.) protects the MPTP-induced nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) depletion and its intermediate substances. Behavioral studies like narrow beam walk test, open field test and hang test were conducted to study the movement and actions of Coronarin D treated MPTP induced experimental animals, in which Coronarin D treated group III & IV animals showed better behavioral alterations. Our compound as well attenuated MPTP persuaded oxidative pressure in experimental animals. Apoptotic marker studies displayed that management with Coronarin D upturned MPTP induced programmed cell death, which might be its anti-apoptotic properties. Ultimately to conclude, Coronarin D recovered oxidative pressure, neurochemical alterations, apoptosis, and functional irregularities in investigational mice and propose a potential approach to disease management of neurodegenerative and its related disease.

The three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of sustainable and biodegradable protein foam absorbents is correlated to their liquid absorption characteristics using X-ray microtomography. The physicochemical relationships between the protein material pore size and liquid penetration and distribution allow for understanding how the pores' interconnectivity impacts the absorption, particularly considering capillary-driven transport phenomena within the thin nano cell walls. The foams were made via lyophilization of protein solutions containing cellulose nanofibers to emphasize the impact of the processing on the foam microstructure. The results show gaseous and solid phases of the foams covering ca. 1000 pores, providing information that cannot be obtained using traditional 2D analysis (SEM). A correlation with the channel tortuosity was established based on the statistical accuracy of the diameter and number of pores per mm3. The relationship between absorption kinetics and physical parameters enables the designing of biofoams with functionality also resembling commercial synthetic products that currently generate a high amount of nondegradable waste in our society.

The traditional fixing method for coverage gap in wireless sensor network (WSN) mainly targets the homogenous networks, in which all nodes have the same detection radius. By this method, the gaps in the network are covered randomly by mobile nodes, leading to low coverage and resource waste. Considering the different detection radii of actual WSN nodes, this paper explores the gap fixing in heterogenous WSNs, and proposes an improved gap fixing method based on fixing priority. Specifically, the gap fixing points were determined and prioritized with the aid of Voronoi polygons, and then fixed by mobile nodes. After that, the nodes with overlapping sensing ranges were removed to reduce the redundancy. Simulation results show that the improved method can effectively enhance the coverage of the entire network.

Background/Objective: We seek to figure out the effect of stable and powerful mechanical microenvironment provided by Ti alloy as a part of subchondral bone scaffold on long-term cartilage regeneration.Methods: we developed a bilayered osteochondral scaffold based on the assumption that a stiff subchondral bony compartment would provide stable mechanical support for cartilage regeneration and enhance subchondral bone regeneration. The subchondral bony compartment was prepared from 3D printed Ti alloy, and the cartilage compartment was created from a freeze-dried collagen sponge, which was reinforced by poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA). Results: In vitro evaluations confirmed the biocompatibility of the scaffold materials, while in vivo evaluations demonstrated that the mechanical support provided by 3D printed Ti alloy layer plays an important role in the long-term regeneration of cartilage by accelerating osteochondral formation and its integration with the adjacent host tissue in osteochondral defect model at rabbit femoral trochlea after 24 weeks. Conclusion: Mechanical support provided by 3D printing Ti alloy promotes cartilage regeneration by promoting subchondral bone regeneration and providing mechanical support platform for cartilage synergistically. Translational potential statement: The raw materials used in our double-layer osteochondral scaffolds are all FDA approved materials for clinical use. 3D printed titanium alloy scaffolds can promote bone regeneration and provide mechanical support for cartilage regeneration, which is very suitable for clinical scenes of osteochondral defects. In fact, we are conducting clinical trials based on our scaffolds. We believe that in the near future, the scaffold we designed and developed can be formally applied in clinical practice.

To investigate the hydraulic fracturing in sulfate-attacked cement-based materials with tensile stress, splitting tensile strength test, hydraulic fracturing test under splitting load, and scanning electron microscopy test are conducted on cement mortar specimens immersed in Na2SO4 solution. The results reveal that the critical water pressure first increases and then decreases with the increase in immersion time, which is consistent with the tensile strength evolution. The tensile stress promotes the occurrence of hydraulic fracturing. Next, a critical water pressure model is proposed, in which the critical water pressure is expressed as a linear function of tensile strength and nominal tensile stress. Moreover, a theoretical formula is established to reveal the critical water pressure evolution mechanism of cement mortar exposed to sulfate attack. The evolution of critical water pressure depends on the porosity, matrix tensile strength, and expansion stress. Furthermore, a semi-empirical function is proposed to predict the critical water pressure evolution, which exhibits good accuracy. To avoid hydraulic fracturing, decreasing the porosity and tensile stress, increasing the matrix tensile strength, and releasing the expansion stress are effective strategies.

Objective: Because of interference from dynamic objects, the traditional simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) framework execute poorly while operational in a dynamic environment. The Dynamic-SLAM model is introduced by considering the merits of deep learning in object discovery. At the semantic level, the dynamic objects in the new detection are detected to construct the prior knowledge with an SSD object detector. Among the radar and the LiDAR, the synchronization and conversion calibration makes the multi-sensor fusion. Localizing using a camera in a dynamic environment is more challenging because the localization process takes place in moving segments. This further results in unstable pose estimation. A large amount of information of the visual point cloud and high precision of the laser radar information enhances the accuracy of real-time positioning thereby attaining grid map and 3-D point cloud map. Methods: Here, we have proposed Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) with Aquila Optimizer for moving object detection. The LiDAR measurements check the Radar outcomes. The targeted moving objects are determined via Doppler velocity from the radar and their exact location and mass can be estimated with LiDAR and the proposed GAN-AO approach. Hence the GAN-based AO approach is used to segment the objects inside the point clouds. The arrangements of point clouds are made in a particular range to multiply the vertical points with the laser channel number. If the same objects are identified then the angles are analyzed among the image vectors and then labeled identically for the same points of the object. In addition to this, Velocity compensation is made to estimate the actual moving target from the world frame. This is due to the fact that the estimated velocity of the mmW-radar is in the radial direction with respect to the touching sensors. Results: The investigation is conducted between different state-of-art methods like Deep Learning (DL), Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), artificial neural network (ANN), Deep neural network (DNN) and propose methods. From this analysis, the proposed method provided 93.8% detection accuracy than other existing methods like DL, ANN, GAN and DNN respectively. Conclusions: While comparing to the state-of-art techniques, the proposed method demonstrated superior performance results in terms of tracking, detection, root mean square error (RMSE) and accuracy.

This experiment explored the effects of single application of seven types of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers on rice yield and various population characteristics. Based on a study of the nitrogen (N) release characteristics of these fertilizers, pot experiments were conducted in 2018 and 2019 with split fertilization (CK, urea applied split equally at basal and panicle initiation stages, respectively) as control, which assessed the effects on SPAD value, yield and yield components, dynamic changes of rice tillers and dry matter accumulation. The results showed that the N release characteristics of different types of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers were significantly different. Polymer-coated urea (PCU) showed a controlled-release mode and provided sustained release throughout the whole growth stages. Sulfur-coated urea (SCU) exhibited a slow-release mode, providing insufficient release at the middle and late stages. Urease inhibitor urea (AHA) and urea-formaldehyde (UF) yielded a rapid-release mode, with an explosive N release at the early stage and no release at the middle and late stages. These results showed that PCU delayed the peak seedling stage. Compared with CK, dry matter accumulation and SPAD showed no significant differences, and due to the continuous release of N throughout the growth stages, rice yield, spikelets per panicle, seed setting rate, and 1 000-grain weight were all increased. Owing to the lack of N supply at the late stage and the low number of spikelets, SCU led to a reduction of rice yield, which is nevertheless not statistically significant. AHA and UF were susceptible to environmental factors and had varying effects on rice yield. The results of this experiment indicated that given a fixed amount of N applied in a pot, the stronger the N supply capacity and the longer the effective duration time of the fertilizer, the higher the dry matter accumulation at the late growth stage, and the higher the rice yield.

The present study explored activities of orally administrated Houttuynia cordata polysaccharide (HCP) on vascular chronic inflammation which was established by a tail-vein injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) once weekly for 6 weeks in rats. Results showed that administration of HCP significantly alleviated chronic inflammation by reducing white blood cell and monocyte counts, together with repairing histological impairment of vascular tissue. Furthermore, vascular protections of HCP were in association with decrease of MDA content, pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and enhancement of the activities of antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase activities. Moreover, HCP exhibited anti-inflammatory responses evidenced by reducing the expressions of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and NF-kB P65. Meanwhile, the combination of HCP and LPS reduced calcium concentration and CaSR mRNA expression in the vascular tissue. Collectively, these results indicated that HCP suppressed LPS-induced chronic vascular inflammation via calcium-sensing receptor and TLR4/NF-kB pathways in rats.