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Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been shown to inhibit pancreatic cancer (PC) cell growth in vitro and to promote the inhibitory effects of gemcitabine (Gem) on PC in vivo . However, the high toxicity of ATO associated with the required high doses and indiscriminate targeting has limited its clinical application. This study aimed to determine whether coupling arsenic to a tumor homing peptide would increase the inhibitory potency against PC cells. The effects of this peptide-linked arsenic compound (PhAs-LHP), the analogous non-targeting arsenic compound (phenylarsine oxide, PAO), and marketed ATO on PC growth were tested in vitro and in a mouse model. The data demonstrated that PhAs-LHP inhibited PC cell growth in vitro more potently, with IC 50 values 10 times lower than ATO. Like ATO, PhAs-LHP induced cell death and cell cycle arrest. This cytotoxic effect of PhAs-LHP was mediated via a macropinocytosis-linked uptake pathway as amiloride (a macropinocytosis inhibitor) reduced the inhibitory effect of PhAs-LHP. More importantly, PhAs-LHP inhibited PC growth in mice and enhanced the inhibitory effect of Gem on PC growth at 2 times lower molar concentration than PAO. These results indicate that PhAs-LHP inhibited PC more potently than ATO/PAO and suggest a potential clinical use for the combination of Gem with the peptide-linked arsenic compound for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene (CF/PP) thermoplastics integrate the superior formability of fabrics with the recoverable characteristics of polypropylene, making them a pivotal solution for achieving lightweight designs in new energy vehicles. However, the prevailing methodologies for designing the structural performance of CF/PP vehicular components often omit the constraints imposed by the manufacturing process, thereby compromising product quality and reliability. This research presents a novel approach for developing a stamping-bending coupled finite element model (FEM) utilizing ABAQUS/Explicit. Initially, the hot stamping simulation is implemented, followed by the transmission of stamping information, including fiber yarn orientation and fiber yarn angle, to the follow-up step for updating the material properties of the cured specimen. Then, the structural performance analysis is conducted, accounting for the stamping effects. Furthermore, the parametric study reveals that the shape and length of the blank holding ring exerted minimal influence on the maximum fiber angle characteristic. However, it is noted that the energy absorption and crushing force efficiency metrics of the CF/PP specimens can be enhanced by increasing the length of the blank holding ring. Finally, a discrete optimization design is implemented to enhance the bending performance of the CF/PP specimen, accounting for the constraint of the maximum shear angle resulting from the stamping process. The optimized design resulted in a mass reduction of 14.3% and an improvement in specific energy absorption ( SEA ) by 17.5% compared to the baseline sample.

With the rapid development in sensor network technology, the complexity and diversity of application scenarios have put forward more and more new requirements for inductor-capacitor ( LC ) sensors, for instance, multi-parameter simultaneous monitoring. Here, the parity-time (PT) symmetry concept in quantum mechanics is applied to LC passive wireless sensing. Two or even three parameters can be monitored simultaneously by observing the frequency response of the reflection coefficient at the end of the readout circuit. In particular, for three-parameter detection, a novel detection method is studied to extract the three resonant frequencies of the system through the phase-frequency characteristics of the reflection coefficient, which has never appeared in the previous literature on PT symmetry. The changes in three resonant frequencies are in response to changes in the three parameters in the environment. We show theoretically and demonstrate experimentally that the PT-symmetric LC sensor can realize multi-parameter measurement using a series LCR circuit as the sensor and a symmetric adjustable LCR circuit as the readout circuit. Our work paves the way for applying PT symmetry in multi-parameter detection.

Helical growth of the root tip (circumnutation) that permits surface exploration facilitates root penetration into soil. Here, we reveal that rice actin-binding protein RMD aids in root circumnutation, manifested by wavy roots as well as compromised ability to efficiently explore and avoid obstacles in rmd mutants. We demonstrate that root circumnutation defects in rmd depend on brassinosteroid (BR) signaling, which is elevated in mutant roots. Suppressing BR signaling via pharmacological (BR inhibitor) or genetic (knockout of BR biosynthetic or signaling components) manipulation rescues root defects in rmd . We further reveal that mutations in MAPK6 suppress BR signaling and restore normal root circumnutation in rmd , which may be mediated by the interaction between MAPK6, MAPKK4 and BR signaling factor BIM2. Our study thus demonstrates that RMD and MAPK6 control root circumnutation by modulating BR signaling to facilitate early root growth.

High-precision simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in dynamic real-world environments plays a crucial role in autonomous robot navigation, self-driving cars, and drone control. To address this dynamic localization issue, in this paper, a dynamic odometry method is proposed based on FAST-LIVO, a fast LiDAR (light detection and ranging)-inertial-visual odometry system, integrating neural networks with laser, camera, and inertial measurement unit modalities. The method first constructs visual-inertial and LiDAR-inertial odometry subsystems. Then, a lightweight neural network is used to remove dynamic elements from the visual part, and dynamic clustering is applied to the LiDAR part to eliminate dynamic environments, ensuring the reliability of the remaining environmental data. Validation of the datasets shows that the proposed multi-sensor fusion dynamic odometry can achieve high-precision pose estimation in complex dynamic environments with high continuity, reliability, and dynamic robustness.

Flavonoids are pharmacologically active compounds in flowers of Chrysanthemum morifolium ' Boju ' ( C. morifolium ); however, the molecular regulatory network governing flower development remains largely elusive. Flower samples were collected at four stages, namely budding (BD), bud breaking (BB), early blooming (EB), and full blooming (FB), for omics analysis. We revealed distinct transcriptional regulation patterns at these four stages of the flower from the perspective of differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs). There are 152 DEGs shared among the three comparative groups (BD vs. BB, BB vs EB, EB vs FB), wherein the expression of 44 DEGs (including AtADT6, MDL3, and ROMT) continues to be upregulated, and 85 DEGs (including CYP81E, TPS-Cin-1, and TPS-Cin-2) showed persistent downregulation with flower development. Flavonoid-targeted metabolomics identified 118 differentially abundant metabolites (DAMs) in the FB group compared to the BD stage; the top three upregulated and downregulated metabolites are Cyanidin-3-O-(6″-O-malonyl)glucoside-5-O-glucoside, Luteolin-7-O-(6″-caffeoyl)rhamnoside, Kaempferol-3-O-(6″-p-coumaroyl)glucoside and Chrysoeriol-6,8-di-C-glucoside-7-O-glucoside, Kaempferol, Kaempferol-3,7-O-dirhamnoside, respectively. These DAMs were predominantly enriched in "flavonoid biosynthesis", "isoflavonoid biosynthesis", and "flavone and flavonol biosynthesis" pathways. AtADT6, MDL3, ROMT, CYP81E, TPS-Cin-1, and TPS-Cin-2 were correlated with kaempferol. Our findings provide a new idea for interfering with flavonoid production, especially kaempferol, in flowers.

Epsilon toxin (ETX), a potential agent of biological and toxic warfare, causes the death of many ruminants and threatens human health. It is crucial to understand the toxic mechanism of such a highly lethal and rapid course toxin. In this study, we detected the effects of ETX on the proteome and phosphoproteome of MDCK cells after 10 min and 30 min. A total of 44 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) and 588 differentially phosphorylated proteins (DPPs) were screened in the 10 min group, while 73 DEPs and 489 DPPs were screened in the 30 min group. ETX-induced proteins and phosphorylated proteins were mainly located in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and mitochondria, and their enrichment pathways were related to transcription and translation, virus infection, and intercellular junction. Meanwhile, the protein-protein interaction network screened out several hub proteins, including SRSF1/2/6/7/11, SF3B1/2, NOP14/56, ANLN, GTPBP4, THOC2, and RRP1B. Almost all of these proteins were present in the spliceosome pathway, indicating that the spliceosome pathway is involved in ETX-induced cell death. Next, we used RNAi lentiviruses and inhibitors of several key proteins to verify whether these proteins play a critical role. The results confirmed that SRSF1, SF3B2, and THOC2 were the key proteins involved in the cytotoxic effect of ETX. In addition, we found that the common upstream kinase of these key proteins was SRPK1, and a reduction in the level of SRPK1 could also reduce ETX-induced cell death. This result was consistent with the phosphorylated proteomics analysis. In summary, our study demonstrated that ETX induces phosphorylation of SRSF1, SF3B2, THOC2, and SRPK1 proteins on the spliceosome pathway, which inhibits normal splicing of mRNA and leads to cell death.

Tsallis entropy has been widely used in image thresholding because of its non-extensive properties. The non-extensive parameter q contained in this entropy plays an important role in various adaptive algorithms and has been successfully applied in bi-level image thresholding. In this paper, the relationships between parameter q and pixels' long-range correlations have been further studied within multi-threshold image segmentation. It is found that the pixels' correlations are remarkable and stable for images generated by a known physical principle, such as infrared images, medical CT images, and color satellite remote sensing images. The corresponding non-extensive parameter q can be evaluated by using the self-adaptive Tsallis entropy algorithm. The results of this algorithm are compared with those of the Shannon entropy algorithm and the original Tsallis entropy algorithm in terms of quantitative image quality evaluation metrics PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) and SSIM (Structural Similarity). Furthermore, we observed that for image series with the same background, the q values determined by the adaptive algorithm are consistently kept in a narrow range. Therefore, similar or identical scenes during imaging would produce similar strength of long-range correlations, which provides potential applications for unsupervised image processing.

This study delves into the role of gibberellin (GA) in governing plant branch development, a process that remains incompletely understood. Through a combination of exogenous hormone treatment, gene expression analysis, and transgenic phenotype investigations, the impact of GA on petunia's branch development was explored. The results showed that GA 3 alone did not directly induce axillary bud germination. However, paclobutrazol (PAC), an inhibitor of GA synthesis, effectively inhibited bud growth. Interestingly, the simultaneous application of GA 3 and 6-BA significantly promoted bud growth in both intact and decapitated plants compared to using 6-BA alone. Moreover, this study observed a significant downregulation of GA synthesis genes, including GA20ox1 , GA20ox2 , GA20ox3, GA3ox1 , and CPS1 , alongside an upregulation of GA degradation genes such as GA2ox2 , GA2ox4 , and GA2ox8 . The expression of GA signal transduction gene GID1 and GA response factor RGA was found to be upregulated. Notably, the PhGID1 gene, spanning 1029 bp and encoding 342 amino acids, exhibited higher expression in buds and the lowest expression in leaves. The overexpression of PhGID1 in Arabidopsis resulted in a noteworthy rise in the number of branches. This study highlights the crucial role of GA in bud germination and growth and the positive regulatory function of GA signaling in shoot branching processes.

Due to the inherent temperature drift and lack of static stability in traditional pressure sensors, which make it difficult for them to meet the increasing demands of various industries, this paper designs a new system. The proposed system integrates temperature measurement and regulation circuits, signal processing, and communication circuits to accurately acquire and transmit pressure sensor data. The system designs a filtering algorithm to filter the original data and develops a data-fitting operation to achieve error compensation of the static characteristics. In order to eliminate the temperature drift problem of the sensor system, the system also adopts an improved PID thermostatic control algorithm to compensate for the temperature drift. Finally, it can also transmit the processed pressure data remotely. The experimental results show that the nonlinear error at 50 °C is reduced from the initial 1.82% to 0.24%; the hysteresis error is significantly reduced from 1.23% to 0.046%; and the repeatability error control is reduced from 3.79% to 0.89%. By compensating for thermal drift, the system's thermal sensitivity drift coefficient is reduced by 74.67%, the thermal zero drift coefficient is reduced by 66.24%, and the wireless communication range is up to 1km. The above significant optimization results fully validate the high accuracy and stability of the system, which is perfectly suited for demanding pressure measurement applications.

In this study, corncob was explored as a low-cost and abundant precursor for the preparation of activated carbon via carbonization and the KOH activation method. The alkaline/biochar ratios varied from 3:1 to 5:1, and the activation temperatures ranged from 700 to 900 °C. The characterized results reveal that the alkaline/biochar ratios and activation temperatures had a remarkable influence on the morphology and microstructure of as-prepared activated carbon (CAC T-R ). The CAC T-R presented a porous structure with a large number of micropores and a small number of mesopores. The reasonable distribution of micropores and mesopores endows the ideal structure for ion transfer and charge storage. The optimal sample CAC 700-4 exhibited the best capacitive performance with a specific capacitance of 260 F/g at 1 A/g. Moreover, the assembled CAC 700-4 //CAC 700-4 symmetric supercapacitor showed a high energy density of 14.3 Wh/kg at a power density of 250 W/kg in 6 M KOH electrolyte. It also has a capacitance retention of 95.5% after 10,000 cycles, indicating its excellent cycle stability. These results indicate that corncob-derived activated carbon provides the possible application of biomass waste in high-performance supercapacitors.

Clinical annotations for the actionable pharmacogenetic variants affecting the efficacy of cardiovascular drugs have been collected, yet their impacts on elderly patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing polypharmacy remain uncertain. We consecutively enrolled 892 elderly patients (mean age 80.7 ± 5.2) with CAD and polypharmacy. All the included patients underwent genotyping for 13 variants in 10 pharmacogenes ( CYP2C19 , CYP2C9 , CYP4F2 , CYP2D6 , VKORC1 , SLCO1B1 , APOE , ACE , ADRB1 , and MTHFR ), which have the clinical annotations for 12 drugs that are commonly prescribed for patients with CAD. We found that 80.3% of the elderly CAD patients had at least one drug-gene pair associated with a therapeutical drug change. After adjusting for covariates, the number of drug-gene pairs was independently associated with a decreased risk of both major cardiovascular events (MACEs) (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.803, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.683-0.945, p = 0.008) and all-cause mortality (adjusted HR: 0.848, 95% CI: 0.722-0.996, p = 0.045), but also with an increased risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) (adjusted HR: 1.170, 95% CI: 1.030-1.329, p = 0.016). The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that compared to patients without a drug-gene pair, a significantly lower risk of MACEs could be observed in patients with a drug-gene pair during a 4-year follow-up (HR: 0.556, 95% CI: 0.325-0.951, p = 0.013). In conclusion, the carrier status of the actionable drug-gene pair is predictive for the clinical outcomes in elderly patients with CAD and polypharmacy. Implementing early or preemptive pharmacogenetic panel-guided polypharmacy holds the potential to enhance clinical outcomes for these patients.

Agrocybe cylindracea dietary fiber (ADF) contains 95% water-insoluble dietary fiber, resulting in poor application performance. To address this issue, ADF was modified by four methods (cellulase, sodium hydroxide, high-temperature, and Lactobacillus fermentation) in this paper. By comparing the physicochemical properties, microstructures, monosaccharide compositions, and functional characteristics (antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities in vitro) of all modified ADF samples, the optimal modification method was selected. Results showed that sodium hydroxide treatment was deemed the most effective modification method for ADF, as alkali-treated ADF (ADF-A) revealed a higher oil-holding capacity (2.02 g/g), swelling capacity (8.38 mL/g), cholesterol adsorption (6.79 mg/g), and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity (more than 70% at 0.4-0.6 mg/mL) than the other modified samples. The looser microstructure in ADF-A might be attributed to molecular rearrangement and spatial structure disruption, which resulted in smaller molecular sizes and decreased viscosity, hence improving ADF's physicochemical and functional qualities. All these findings indicate the greater application potential of modified ADF products in food and weight-loss industries, providing a comprehensive reference for the industrial application of ADF.

Protection suits are vital for firefighters' safety. Traditional protection suits physically protect firemen from burns, but cannot locate the position of bodily injuries caused by impact debris. Herein, we present a wearable impact debris positioning system for firefighter protection suits based on an accelerometer array. Wearable piezoelectric accelerometers are distributed regularly on the suit to detect the vibration on different body parts, which is conducive to determining the position of injured body parts. In addition, the injured parts can be displayed on a dummy body model on the upper computer with a higher localization accuracy of 4 cm. The positioning alarm system has a rapid response time of 0.11 ms, attributed to the smart signal processing method. This work provides a reliable and smart method for locating and assessing the position of bodily injuries caused by impact debris, which is significant because it enables fire commanders to rescue injured firefighters in time.

This study focuses on the efficient removal of Ni(II) from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to support environmental conservation and sustainable resource management. A composite material, known as molecular sieve (MS)-based metal-organic framework (MOF) composites (MMCs), consisting of a synthesized MS matrix with integrated MOFs, was developed for the adsorption of Ni(II). The structural and performance characteristics of the MMCs were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms (BET). Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to assess the Ni(II) adsorption performance of the MMCs. The results revealed that, under conditions of pH 8 and a temperature of 298 K, the MMCs achieved near-equilibrium Ni(II) adsorption within 6 h, with a maximum theoretical adsorption capacity of 204.1 mg/g. Further analysis of the adsorption data confirmed that the adsorption process followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, indicating a spontaneous, endothermic chemical adsorption mechanism. Importantly, the MMCs exhibited superior Ni(II) adsorption compared to the MS. This study provides valuable insights into the effective recovery and recycling of Ni(II) from spent LIBs, emphasizing its significance for environmental sustainability and resource circularity.

Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons (AsHCs) are common in marine organisms. However, there is little research on their effects on the central nervous system's advanced activities, such as cognition. Bidirectional synaptic plasticity dynamically regulates cognition through the balance of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). However, the effects of AsHCs on bidirectional synaptic plasticity and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unexplored. This study provides the first evidence that 15 μg As L -1 AsHC 360 enhances bidirectional synaptic plasticity, occurring during the maintenance phase rather than the baseline phase. Further calcium gradient experiments hypothesize that AsHC 360 may enhance bidirectional synaptic plasticity by affecting calcium ion levels. The enhancement of bidirectional synaptic plasticity by 15 μg As L -1 AsHC 360 holds significant implications in improving cognitive function, treating neuro-psychiatric disorders, promoting neural recovery, and enhancing brain adaptability.

The selective oxidation of toluene to yield value-added oxygenates, such as benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and benzoic acid, via dioxygen presents a chlorine-free approach under benign conditions. Metal-free catalytic processes are preferred to avoid metal ion contamination. In this study, we employed N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) as a catalyst for the aerobic oxidation of toluene to its oxygenated derivatives. The choice of solvent exerted a significant impact on the catalytic activity and selectivity of the catalyst NHPI at reaction temperatures exceeding 70 °C. Notably, hexafluoroisopropanol substantially enhanced the selective production of benzaldehyde. Furthermore, we identified didecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide, featuring two symmetrical long hydrophobic chains, as a potent enhancer of NHPI for the solvent-free aerobic oxidation of toluene. This effect is ascribed to its unique symmetrical structure, extraction capabilities, and resistance to thermal and acid/base conditions. Based on the product distribution and control experiments, we proposed a plausible reaction mechanism. These findings may inform the industrial synthesis of oxygenated derivatives from toluene.

Unveiling the mechanical properties and damage mechanism of the complex composite structure, comprising backfill and surrounding rock, is crucial for ensuring the safe development of the downward-approach backfill mining method. This work conducts biaxial compression tests on backfill-rock under various loading conditions. The damage process is analyzed using DIC and acoustic emission (AE) techniques, while the distribution of AE events at different loading stages is explored. Additionally, the dominant failure forms of specimens are studied through multifractal analysis. The damage evolution law of backfill-rock combinations is elucidated. The results indicate that DIC and AE provide consistent descriptions of specimen damage, and the damage evolution of backfill-rock composite specimens varies notably under different loading conditions, offering valuable insights for engineering site safety protection.

Zinc-ion batteries are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage. The side reactions of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and zinc dendrite growth are major challenges for developing high-performance zinc-ion batteries. In this paper, a supramolecular gel electrolyte (BLO-ILZE) was self-assembled in an ionic liquid (EMIMBF 4 ) with zinc tetrafluoroborate (Zn(BF 4 ) 2 ) on the separator in situ to obtain a gel electrolyte used in zinc-ion batteries. BLO-ILZE is demonstrated to significantly enhance conductivity over a broad temperature range between -70 and 100 °C. Interestingly, through testing and fitting, it is found that the supramolecular gel electrolyte satisfies the liquid state law over a wide temperature range, and even achieves high conductivity (2.12 mS cm -1 ) at -40 °C. It is equivalent to the conductivity of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZnSO 4 /H 2 O) at -10 °C, which is 2.33 mS cm -1 . Moreover, the supramolecular gel electrolyte can effectively inhibit the HER, thus exhibiting a longer lifetime in Zn/Zn cells for 3470 h at 1 mA cm -2 compared to the aqueous zinc-ion batteries with the Zn(BF 4 ) 2 aqueous electrolyte (400 h at 1 mA cm -2 ). The assembled V 2 O 5 /BLO-ILZE/Zn full cells also showed cycling performance, with 5000 cycles at 0.5 mA g -1 at room temperature, a capacity of 98%, and a coulombic efficiency of about 100%.

Tetraploid oysters are artificially produced oysters that do not exist in nature. The successful breeding of 100% triploid oysters resolved the difficulties of traditional drug-induced triploids, such as the presence of drug residues and a low triploid induction rate. However, little is known concerning the biochemical composition and nutrient contents of such tetraploids. Therefore, we investigated compositional differences among diploid, triploid, and tetraploid Crassostrea gigas as well as between males and females of diploids and tetraploids. The findings indicated that glycogen, EPA, ∑PUFA, and omega-3 contents were significantly higher in triploid oysters than in diploids or tetraploids; tetraploid oysters had a significantly higher protein content, C14:0, essential amino acid, and flavor-presenting amino acid contents than diploids or triploids. For both diploid and tetraploids, females had significantly higher levels of glutamate, methionine, and phenylalanine than males but lower levels of glycine and alanine. In addition, female oysters had significantly more EPA, DHA, omega-3, and total fatty acids, a result that may be due to the fact that gonadal development in male oysters requires more energy to sustain growth, consumes greater amounts of nutrients, and accumulates more proteins. With these results, important information is provided on the production of C. gigas , as well as on the basis and backing for the genetic breeding of oysters.

Sample pretreatment is a key step for qualitative and quantitative analysis of trace substances in complex samples. Cis-dihydroxyl (cis-diol) group-containing substances exist widely in biological samples and can be selectively bound by boronate affinity adsorbents. Based on this, in this article, we proposed a simple method for the preparation of novel spherical three-dimensionally ordered macropore (3DOM) materials based on a combination of the boronate affinity technique and colloidal crystal template method. The prepared 3DOM materials were characterized using Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermo-gravimetric analysis, and results showed that they possessed the characteristics of a high specific surface area, high porosity, and more boronic acid recognition sites. The adsorption performance evaluation results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of the boron affinity 3DOMs on ovalbumin (OVA) could reach to 438.79 mg/g. Kinetic and isothermal adsorption experiments indicated that the boronate affinity 3DOM material exhibited a high affinity and selectivity towards OVA and adenosine. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of the proteins in egg whites was conducted and proved that the glycoprotein in the egg whites could be separated and enriched with a good performance. Therefore, a novel boronate affinity 3DOM material a with highly ordered and interconnected pore structure was prepared and could be applied in the separation and enrichment of molecules with cis-diol groups from complex samples with a good selectivity, efficiency, and high throughput.

In order to achieve the remote application of inverse synthetic aperture laser radar for high resolution spatial situational awareness, it is essential to analyze the main factors that restrict its remote application. This study combines the range equation of inverse synthetic aperture lidar with the stimulated Brillouin threshold power equation to investigate the variation of laser transmitting power with distance. Additionally, by utilizing the excited Brillouin threshold power equation, laser linewidth formula, and pulse width characteristics of pulse signal, we examine the variation law of laser coherence that meets corresponding power requirements at different distances. The results indicate that a detection distance of 22 km and below can be achieved using continuous fiber lasers without compensation. Coherence compensation is necessary for distances between 22 km and 57 km. For distances ranging from 57 km to 3000 km, pulsed solid-state lasers are used to analyze coherence and conclude that imaging non-cooperative targets within this range is feasible. It is observed that coherence compensation is required from 57 km to 2179 km, becoming more challenging after 2000 km. Furthermore, pulsed solid-state lasers can still be utilized for imaging cooperative targets within a range of 2179-3273 km; however, coherence compensation remains necessary and becomes increasingly difficult. Finally, several coherent length compensation schemes are proposed in order to extend the imaging range of inverse synthetic aperture LiDAR to approximately 3000 km.

Partial discharge (PD) is the dominant insulating defect in Gas-Insulated Switchgear (GIS). The existing detection methods are mainly divided into built-in wire-connected disk antennas with destructive drilling and external ultra-high frequency antennas with poor anti-interference ability. This research introduces a passive wireless PD sensor implanted inside GIS on the observation window. The sensor is implemented by a sheeting branch-inductor with multiple resonances which is able to enhance detection sensitivity. A coaxially aligned readout circuit, positioned outside the GIS, interrogates the PD sensor to wirelessly obtain the PD signal. The proposed sensing scheme improves signal-to-noise ratio and ensures minimal disruption to the electric field distribution inside GIS. An experimental setup was established in a controlled laboratory environment to benchmark the multi-resonant sensor against the commercial UHF sensor. A 2.5-times enhancement of signal strength was observed. Since our sensor was implanted inside the GIS, a high signal-to-noise ratio (68.82 dB) was obtained. Moreover, we constructed a wireless calibration test to investigate the accuracy of the proposed sensor. The precision of the signal test was as high as 0.72 pC. The pulse phase distribution information was collected to demonstrate a phase-resolved partial discharge (PRPD) pattern. The experiment results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and demonstrate excellent performance in PD detection.

Cotton Verticillium wilt is mainly caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae , which threatens the production of cotton. Its pathogen can survive in the soil for several years in the form of microsclerotia, making it a destructive soil-borne disease. The accurate, sensitive, and rapid detection of V. dahliae from complex soil samples is of great significance for the early warning and management of cotton Verticillium wilt. In this study, we combined the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) with CRISPR/Cas12a technology to develop an accurate, sensitive, and rapid detection method for V. dahliae . Initially, LAMP primers and CRISPR RNA (crRNA) were designed based on a specific DNA sequence of V. dahliae , which was validated using several closely related Verticillium spp. The lower detection limit of the LAMP-CRISPR/Cas12a combined with the fluorescent visualization detection system is approximately ~10 fg/μL genomic DNA per reaction. When combined with crude DNA-extraction methods, it is possible to detect as few as two microsclerotia per gram of soil, with the total detection process taking less than 90 min. Furthermore, to improve the method's user and field friendliness, the field detection results were visualized using lateral flow strips (LFS). The LAMP-CRISPR/Cas12a-LFS system has a lower detection limit of ~1 fg/μL genomic DNA of the V. dahliae , and when combined with the field crude DNA-extraction method, it can detect as few as six microsclerotia per gram of soil, with the total detection process taking less than 2 h. In summary, this study expands the application of LAMP-CRISPR/Cas12a nucleic acid detection in V. dahliae and will contribute to the development of field-deployable diagnostic productions.

It is widely known that all-female fish production holds economic value for aquaculture. Sebastes schlegelii , a preeminent economic species, exhibits a sex dimorphism, with females surpassing males in growth. In this regard, achieving all-female black rockfish production could significantly enhance breeding profitability. In this study, we utilized the widely used male sex-regulating hormone, 17α-methyltestosterone (MT) at three different concentrations (20, 40, and 60 ppm), to produce pseudomales of S. schlegelii for subsequent all-female offspring breeding. Long-term MT administration severely inhibits the growth of S. schlegelii , while short term had no significant impact. Histological analysis confirmed sex reversal at all MT concentrations; however, both medium and higher MT concentrations impaired testis development. MT also influenced sex steroid hormone levels in pseudomales, suppressing E2 while increasing T and 11-KT levels. In addition, a transcriptome analysis revealed that MT down-regulated ovarian-related genes ( cyp19a1a and foxl2 ) while up-regulating male-related genes ( amh ) in pseudomales. Furthermore, MT modulated the TGF-β signaling and steroid hormone biosynthesis pathways, indicating its crucial role in S. schlegelii sex differentiation. Therefore, the current study provides a method for achieving sexual reversal using MT in S. schlegelii and offers an initial insight into the underlying mechanism of sexual reversal in this species.

Pedunculoside, a triterpene saponin derived from various Ilex species, holds potential as a treatment for cardiovascular diseases. However, its clinical application is hindered by poor bioavailability, rapid elimination, and extensive intestinal metabolism to rotundic acid. To address these issues, a water-soluble inclusion complex of pedunculoside, namely, the beta-CD polymer inclusion complex of pedunculoside (pedunculoside-βCDP), was prepared in this study, and a comparative in vitro stability and pharmacokinetic behavior study was performed between pedunculoside and pedunculoside-βCDP. Both pedunculoside and pedunculoside-βCDP exhibited the highest stability in simulated gastric fluid and simulated intestinal fluid but were readily metabolized when co-incubated with Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Bifidobacterium breve . An LC-MS/MS analytical method for the simultaneous determination of pedunculoside and rotundic acid in rat plasma was successfully established, validated, and applied to investigate the pharmacokinetic behavior after rats were intravenously administered with pedunculoside or pedunculoside-βCDP. The results indicated that pedunculoside-βCDP could significantly improve the pharmacokinetic profile of pedunculoside by increasing plasma exposure, retarding elimination, and reducing intestinal metabolism. This study enhances our understanding of pedunculoside-βCDP's metabolic fate and pharmacokinetic properties and potentially advances its further research, development, and clinical application.

The past five decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in the field of inhaled medicines targeting the lungs for respiratory disease treatment. As a non-invasive drug delivery route, inhalation therapy offers numerous benefits to respiratory patients, including rapid and targeted exposure at specific sites, quick onset of action, bypassing first-pass metabolism, and beyond. Understanding the characteristics of pulmonary drug transporters and metabolizing enzymes is crucial for comprehending efficient drug exposure and clearance processes within the lungs. These processes are intricately linked to both local and systemic pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on lung transporters and metabolizing enzymes while exploring their roles in exogenous and endogenous substance disposition. Additionally, we identify and discuss the principal challenges in this area of research, providing a foundation for future investigations aimed at optimizing inhaled drug administration. Moving forward, it is imperative that future research endeavors to focus on refining and validating in vitro and ex vivo models to more accurately mimic the human respiratory system. Such advancements will enhance our understanding of drug processing in different pathological states and facilitate the discovery of novel approaches for investigating lung-specific drug transporters and metabolizing enzymes. This deeper insight will be crucial in developing more effective and targeted therapies for respiratory diseases, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

In this paper, a novel transistor based on a hybrid conduction mechanism of band-to-band tunneling and drift-diffusion is proposed and investigated with the aid of TCAD tools. Besides the on and off states, the proposed device presents an additional intermediate state between the on and off states. Based on the tri-state behavior of the proposed TDFET (tunneling and drift-diffusion field-effect transistor), a ternary inverter is designed and its operation principle is studied in detail. It was found that this device achieves ternary logic with only two components, and its structure is simple. In addition, the influence of the supply voltage and the key device parameters are also investigated.

The critical structural parameters are optimized and studied using the numerical simulation method to improve the resolution and stability of the Micro-Thrust Measurement Platform (MTMP). Under two different ground random vibration environments, the parameters, such as pivot thickness, pendulum rod length, and pivot structure, are focused on analyzing the influence of the system's resolution and stability. The results show that when the thickness of the pivot is 0.04 mm or 0.2 mm, and the pendulum rod length is 2 m, the effect of ground random vibration on the MTMP is minimized. At 0.1 mHz, it can reach 0.0057 μN/Hz. In the series double-pivot structure, an appropriate increase in the distance between the sheets can further optimize the above conclusions. The results and analysis within this study can provide support for the engineering design of the MTMP.

The process of extracting polyphyllin II and polyphyllin VII by water-assisted extraction was established and optimized in this study. Response surface methodology was used to establish a prediction model to optimize the extraction conditions. Based on the one-way test, the Box-Behnken design with three factors and three levels was used for the experimental program, and the composition analysis was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The optimal extraction conditions for polyphyllin II and polyphyllin VII were as follows: extraction time of 57 and 21 min, extraction temperature of 36 and 32 °C, solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:10 and 1:5 g/mL, respectively, and the yields of polyphyllin II and polyphyllin VII were 1.895 and 5.010%, which was similar to the predicted value of 1.835 and 4.979%. The results of the ANOVA showed that the model fit was good, and the Box-Behnken response surface method could optimize the water-assisted extraction of saponins from the leaves of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis . This study provides a theoretical basis for the application of polyphyllin II and polyphyllin VII in pharmaceutical production.

With the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), massive terminal devices are connected to the network, generating a large amount of IoT data. The reliable sharing of IoT data is crucial for fields such as smart home and healthcare, as it promotes the intelligence of the IoT and provides faster problem solutions. Traditional data sharing schemes usually rely on a trusted centralized server to achieve each attempted access from users to data, which faces serious challenges of a single point of failure, low reliability, and an opaque access process in current IoT environments. To address these disadvantages, we propose a secure and dynamic access control scheme for the IoT, named SDACS, which enables data owners to achieve decentralized and fine-grained access control in an auditable and reliable way. For access control, attribute-based control (ABAC), Hyperledger Fabric, and interplanetary file system (IPFS) were used, with four kinds of access control contracts deployed on blockchain to coordinate and implement access policies. Additionally, a lightweight, certificateless authentication protocol was proposed to minimize the disclosure of identity information and ensure the double-layer protection of data through secure off-chain identity authentication and message transmission. The experimental and theoretical analysis demonstrated that our scheme can maintain high throughput while achieving high security and stability in IoT data security sharing scenarios.

High-entropy oxides (HEOs), as a new type of single-phase solid solution with a multi-component design, have shown great potential when they are used as anodes in lithium-ion batteries due to four kinds of effects (thermodynamic high-entropy effect, the structural lattice distortion effect, the kinetic slow diffusion effect, and the electrochemical "cocktail effect"), leading to excellent cycling stability. Although the number of articles on the study of HEO materials has increased significantly, the latest research progress in porous HEO materials in the lithium-ion battery field has not been systematically summarized. This review outlines the progress made in recent years in the design, synthesis, and characterization of porous HEOs and focuses on phase transitions during the cycling process, the role of individual elements, and the lithium storage mechanisms disclosed through some advanced characterization techniques. Finally, the future outlook of HEOs in the energy storage field is presented, providing some guidance for researchers to further improve the design of porous HEOs.

Nardostachys jatamansi is widely used as a traditional medicine in Asian countries. Numerous recent studies have reported the biological activities of its secondary metabolites and extracts. In this study, a total of 14 components were isolated, including cycloolivil and 2-(3'-hydroxy-5'-ethoxyphenyl)-3-hydroxylmethyl-7-methoxy-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran-5-carboxylic acid, which were first discovered in N. jatamansi . The isolated compounds were investigated for their anti-inflammatory effects on HaCaT keratinocytes and their potential to alleviate skin inflammation. The results of the screening revealed that cycloolivil and 4β-hydroxy-8β-methoxy-10-methylene-2,9-dioxatricyclo[4.3.1.0 3,7 ]decane reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines induced by TNF-α/IFN-γ, such as IL-6, IL-8, and RANTES, in keratinocytes. This study focused on exploring the biological effects of cycloolivil, and the results suggested that cycloolivil inhibits the expression of COX-2 proteins. Further mechanistic evaluations confirmed that the anti-inflammatory effects of cycloolivil were mediated by blockage of the NF-κB and JAK/STAT signaling pathways. These results suggest that cycloolivil isolated from N. jatamansi could be used to treat skin inflammatory diseases.

To address traffic flow fluctuations caused by changes in traffic signal control schemes on tidal lanes and maintain smooth traffic operations, this paper proposes a method for controlling traffic signal transitions on tidal lanes. Firstly, the proposed method includes designing an intersection overlap phase scheme based on the traffic flow conflict matrix in the tidal lane scenario and a fast and smooth transition method for key intersections based on the flow ratio. The aim of the control is to equalize average queue lengths and minimize average vehicle delays for different flow directions at the intersection. This study also analyses various tidal lane scenarios based on the different opening states of the tidal lanes at related intersections. The transitions of phase offsets are emphasized after a comprehensive analysis of transition time and smoothing characteristics. In addition, this paper proposes a coordinated method for tidal lanes to optimize the phase offset at arterial intersections for smooth and rapid transitions. The method uses Deep Q-Learning, a reinforcement learning algorithm for optimal action selection (OSA), to develop an adaptive traffic signal transition control and enhance its efficiency. Finally, a simulation experiment using a traffic control interface is presented to validate the proposed approach. This study shows that this method leads to smoother and faster traffic signal transitions across different tidal lane scenarios compared to the conventional method. Implementing this solution can benefit intersection groups by reducing traffic delays, improving traffic efficiency, and decreasing air pollution caused by congestion.

There is an urgent need to develop novel and high-performance catalysts for chlorinated volatile organic compound oxidation as a co-benefit of NO x . In this work, HSiW/CeO 2 was used for chlorobenzene (CB) oxidation as a co-benefit of NO x reduction and the inhibition mechanism of NH 3 was explored. CB oxidation over HSiW/CeO 2 primarily followed the Mars-van-Krevelen mechanism and the Eley-Rideal mechanism, and the CB oxidation rate was influenced by the concentrations of surface adsorbed CB, Ce 4+ ions, lattice oxygen species, gaseous CB, and surface adsorbed oxygen species. NH 3 not only strongly inhibited CB adsorption onto HSiW/CeO 2 , but also noticeably decreased the amount of lattice oxygen species; hence, NH 3 had a detrimental effect on the Mars-van-Krevelen mechanism. Meanwhile, NH 3 caused a decrease in the amount of oxygen species adsorbed on HSiW/CeO 2 , which hindered the Eley-Rideal mechanism of CB oxidation. Hence, NH 3 significantly hindered CB oxidation over HSiW/CeO 2 . This suggests that the removal of NO x and CB over this catalyst operated more like a two-stage process rather than a synergistic one. Therefore, to achieve simultaneous NO x and CB removal, it would be more meaningful to focus on improving the performances of HSiW/CeO 2 for NO x reduction and CB oxidation separately.

Lead (Pb) pollution, especially from the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW), poses a significant threat to the environment. Among all the effective methods, activated carbon (AC) injection serves as an effective approach for lead removal from flue gas, while the modification of ACs emerges as a crucial pathway for enhancing Pb adsorption capacities. Density functional theory (DFT) is employed in this study to investigate the mechanisms underlying the enhanced adsorption of Pb species (Pb 0 , PbO, and PbCl 2 ) on nitrogen-functionalized carbonaceous surfaces. The results show that nitrogen-containing groups substantially enhance lead adsorption capacity, with adsorption energies ranging from -526.18 to -288.31 kJ/mol on nitrogen-decorated carbonaceous surfaces, much higher than those on unmodified surfaces (-310.35 to -260.96 kJ/mol). Additionally, electrostatic potential and density-of-states analyses evidence that pyridinic nitrogen atoms remarkably expand charge distribution and strengthen orbital hybridization, thereby augmenting lead capture. This research elucidates the role of nitrogen-containing functional groups in lead adsorption, offering valuable insights for the development of highly efficient biomass-derived activated carbon sorbents for lead removal.

Permeable concrete is an innovative type of concrete that provides a sustainable solution for stormwater management by allowing water to seep through and be filtered naturally. This study focuses on the preparation and performance investigation of an epoxy resin-based permeable concrete containing ceramsite. In this study, ceramsite, a lightweight aggregate, is used as a substitute for conventional aggregates in the concrete mixture. The epoxy resin is then added to improve the strength and durability of the concrete. A series of tests, including compressive strength, water permeability, and freeze-thaw resistance tests, are conducted to evaluate the performance of the epoxy resin-based permeable concrete. The results show that with an increasing epoxy resin binder-aggregate ratio, the compressive strength of the epoxy resin-based permeable concrete significantly increases while the permeability coefficient decreases. Different types of aggregates have varying effects on the compressive strength and permeability coefficient of epoxy resin-based permeable concrete, with high-strength clay ceramsite providing the highest compressive strength and lightweight ceramsite having the highest permeability coefficient. In addition, the discrete element simulation method effectively and feasibly determines the ultimate load and accurately simulates the compressive strength of the permeable cement-based mixture, consistent with the measured compressive strength. A quadratic polynomial regression analysis yielded an R 2 value of around 0.93, showing a strong relationship between durability and freeze-thaw cycles. The findings contribute to the development of sustainable construction materials for stormwater management and offer potential applications in various infrastructure projects.

Currently, the development of nonmetallic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts based on heteroatomic-doped carbon materials is receiving increaseing attention in the field of fuel cells. Here, we used enzymolytic lignin (EL), melamine, and thiourea as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur sources and NH 4 Cl as an activator to prepare N- and S-codoped lignin-based polyporous carbon (ELC) by one-step pyrolysis. The prepared lignin-derived biocarbon material (ELC-1-900) possessed a high specific surface area (844 m 2 g -1 ), abundant mesoporous structure, and a large pore volume (0.587 cm 3 g -1 ). The XPS results showed that ELC-1-900 was successfully doped with N and S. ELC-1-900 exhibited extremely high activity and stability in alkaline media for the ORR, with a half-wave potential (E 1/2 = 0.88 V) and starting potential (E onset = 0.98 V) superior to those of Pt/C catalysts and most non-noble-metal catalysts reported in recent studies. In addition, ELC-1-900 showed better ORR stability and methanol tolerance in alkaline media than commercial Pt/C catalysts.

Concrete, as an engineering material with extremely wide applications, is widely used in various infrastructure projects such as bridges, highways, and large buildings. However, structures such as highways and bridges often need to be situated in variable and harsh service environments for long periods. They not only face cyclic reciprocating vehicle loads but also have to contend with the effects of temperature cycling. Therefore, studying the impact and mechanism of temperature differential cycling on the compressive strength and fatigue life of cement concrete has certain theoretical significance and practical value. This study employed a comprehensive experimental design to investigate cement concrete specimens subjected to typical temperature variations (20-60 °C) and different numbers of temperature differential cycling (0, 60, 120, 180, 240, 300). Axial compressive strength tests, ultrasonic tests, and compressive fatigue tests were conducted. The axial compressive strength test measured the compressive strength of the cement concrete. It was found that with an increase in the number of temperature differential cycling, the compressive strength exhibited a trend of an initial increase followed by a decrease: at 60 cycles, the strength increased by 10.8%, gradually declined; returned to near-initial strength at 120 cycles, and continued decreasing, reaching a decline of 19.4% at 300 cycles. The ultrasonic test measured the ultrasound velocity of the concrete specimens after different temperature differential cycling. It revealed a decreasing trend in ultrasound velocity with an increase in times of temperature differential cycling, showing a strong linear relationship between the ultrasound velocity loss and strength loss, confirming the correlation between the degree of concrete strength degradation and internal damage. The compressive fatigue test analyzed the fatigue life variation in cement concrete under different times of temperature differential cycling and stress levels, showing good adherence to the Weibull distribution pattern. Based on the approximation assumptions of log-normal distribution and the Weibull distribution, the Weibull distribution parameters for the compressive fatigue life of cement concrete under temperature differential cycling were obtained.

Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons (AsHCs) are typical arsenolipids found in various marine organisms. They can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, specifically affecting synaptic plasticity and the learning and memory ability of hippocampal neurons. Temporal lobe epilepsy often occurs in the hippocampus. Thus, the possible influence of AsHCs exposure to temporal lobe epilepsy garnered attention. The present study investigated the effects of epileptiform discharges (EDs) signals introduced by low-magnesium ACSF in the hippocampus of infantile male rats in vitro, using electrophysiological techniques with multi-electrode arrays under AsHC 360 exposure. In our study of the effects of AsHC 360 on EDs signals, we found that inter-ictal discharges (IIDs) were not significantly impacted. When AsHC 360 was removed, any minor effects observed were reversed. However, when we examined the impact of AsHC 360 on ictal discharges (IDs), distinct patterns emerged based on the concentration levels. For low-concentration groups (5, 20, 60 μg As L -1 ), both the frequency and duration effects on IDs returned to normal post-elimination of AsHC 360. However, this recovery was not evident for concentrations of 100 μg As L -1 or higher. IDs were only observed in EDs signals during exposures to AsHC 360 concentrations up to 60 μg As L -1 . In these conditions, ID frequencies significantly enhanced with the increased of AsHC 360 concentration. At high concentrations of AsHC 360 (≥100 μg As L -1 ), the transition from IIDs or pre-ictal discharges (PIDs) to IDs was notably inhibited. Additional study on co-exposure of AsHC 360 (100 μg As L -1 ) and agonist (10 nM (S)-(-)-Bay-K-8644) indicated that the regulation of EDs signals under AsHC 360 exposure could be due to directly interference with the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid receptor (AMPAR) expression which influences the binding of excitatory glutamate neurotransmitter to AMPAR. The results suggest that EDs activities in the hippocampus of infantile Sprague Dawley rats are concentration-dependent on AsHC 360 exposure. Thus, it provides a basis for the seafood intake with AsHCs for epileptic patients and those with potential seizures.

Steam flooding is an effective development method for heavy oil reservoirs, and the steam flooding assisted by the profile control system can plug the dominant channels and further improve the recovery factor. High-temperature-resistant foam as a profile control system is a hot research topic, and the key lies in the optimal design of the foam system. In this paper, lignin was modified by sulfonation to obtain a high-temperature-resistant modified lignin named CRF; the foaming agent CX-5 was confirmed to have good high-temperature foaming ability by reducing the surface tension; the formula of the profile control system (A compound system of CRF and CX-5, abbreviated as PCS) and the best application parameters were optimized by the foam resistance factor. Finally, the effect of PCS-assisted steam flooding in enhanced oil recovery was evaluated by single sand packing tube flooding, three parallel tube flooding, and large-scale sand packing model flooding experiments. The results show that CX-5 has a good high-temperature foaming performance; the foam volume can reach more than 180 mL at 300 °C, and the half-life is more than 300 s. The optimal PCS formulation is 0.3 wt% CRF as an oil displacement agent + 0.5 wt% CX-5 as a foaming agent. The optimal gas-liquid ratio range is 1:2 to 2:1, and the high pressure and permeability are more conducive to the generation and stability of the foam. Compared with steam flooding, PCS-assisted steam flooding can improve oil recovery by 9% and 7.9% at 200 °C and 270 °C, respectively. PCS can effectively improve the heterogeneity of the reservoir, and increase the oil recovery of the three-parallel tube flooding experiment by 28.7%. Finally, the displacement results of the sand-packing model with large dimensions show that PCS can also expand the swept volume of the homogeneous model, but the effect is 9.46% worse than that of the heterogeneous model.

In this study, we address the class-agnostic counting (CAC) challenge, aiming to count instances in a query image, using just a few exemplars. Recent research has shifted towards few-shot counting (FSC), which involves counting previously unseen object classes. We present ACECount, an FSC framework that combines attention mechanisms and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). ACECount identifies query image-exemplar similarities, using cross-attention mechanisms, enhances feature representations with a feature attention module, and employs a multi-scale regression head, to handle scale variations in CAC. ACECount's experiments on theFSC-147 dataset exhibited the expected performance. ACECount achieved a reduction of 0.3 in the mean absolute error (MAE) on the validation set and a reduction of 0.26 on the test set of FSC-147, compared to previous methods. Notably, ACECount also demonstrated convincing performance in class-specific counting (CSC) tasks. Evaluation on crowd and vehicle counting datasets revealed that ACECount surpasses FSC algorithms like GMN, FamNet, SAFECount, LOCA, and SPDCN, in terms of performance. These results highlight the robust dataset generalization capabilities of our proposed algorithm.

Neuroinflammation activated by microglia affects inflammatory pain development. This study aimed to explore the anti-inflammatory properties and mechanisms of 1,6,7-trihydroxy-2-(1,1-dimethyl-2-propenyl)-3-methoxyxanthone (THMX) from Cudrania tricuspidata in microglia activation-mediated inflammatory pain. In RAW 264.7 and BV2 cells, THMX has been shown to reduce lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and pro-inflammatory mediators and cytokines, including nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin (PG) E2, interleukin (IL)-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). THMX also decreased LPS-induced phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and the activation of p65 nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). Interestingly, THMX also activated heme oxygenase (HO)-1 expression. These findings suggest that THMX is a promising biologically active compound against inflammation through preventing MAPKs and NF-ĸB and activating HO-1 signaling pathways.

Cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a diploid legume crop used for human consumption, feed for livestock, and cover crops. Earlier reports have shown that salinity has been a growing threat to cowpea cultivation. The objectives of this study were to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify SNP markers and to investigate candidate genes for salt tolerance in cowpea. A total of 331 cowpea genotypes were evaluated for salt tolerance by supplying a solution of 200 mM NaCl in our previous work. The cowpea panel was genotyped using a whole genome resequencing approach, generating 14,465,516 SNPs. Moreover, 5,884,299 SNPs were used after SNP filtering. GWAS was conducted on a total of 296 cowpea genotypes that have high-quality SNPs. BLINK was used for conducting GWAS. Results showed (1) a strong GWAS peak on an 890-bk region of chromosome 2 for leaf SPAD chlorophyll under salt stress in cowpea and harboring a significant cluster of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) dependent epimerase/dehydratase genes such as Vigun02g128900.1 , Vigun02g129000.1 , Vigun02g129100.1 , Vigun02g129200.1 , and Vigun02g129500.1 ; (2) two GWAS peaks associated with relative tolerance index for chlorophyll were identified on chromosomes 1 and 2. The peak on chromosome 1 was defined by a cluster of 10 significant SNPs mapped on a 5 kb region and was located in the vicinity of Vigun01g086000.1 , encoding for a GATA transcription factor. The GWAS peak on chromosome 2 was defined by a cluster of 53 significant SNPs and mapped on a 68 bk region of chromosome 2, and (3) the highest GWAS peak was identified on chromosome 3, and this locus was associated with leaf score injury. This peak was within the structure of a potassium channel gene ( Vigun03g144700.1 ). To the best of our knowledge, this is one the earliest reports on the salt tolerance study of cowpea using whole genome resequencing data.

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins play important roles in regulating plant growth and responses to various abiotic stresses. In this research, a genome-wide survey was conducted to recognize the LEA genes in Glycine max . A total of 74 GmLEA was identified and classified into nine subfamilies based on their conserved domains and the phylogenetic analysis. Subcellular localization, the duplication of genes, gene structure, the conserved motif, and the prediction of cis-regulatory elements and tissue expression pattern were then conducted to characterize GmLEAs. The expression profile analysis indicated that the expression of several GmLEAs was a response to drought and salt stress. The co-expression-based gene network analysis suggested that soybean LEA proteins may exert regulatory effects through the metabolic pathways. We further explored GnLEA4_19 function in Arabidopsis and the results suggests that overexpressed GmLEA4_19 in Arabidopsis increased plant height under mild or serious drought stress. Moreover, the overexpressed GmLEA4_19 soybean also showed a drought tolerance phenotype. These results indicated that GmLEA4_19 plays an important role in the tolerance to drought and will contribute to the development of the soybean transgenic with enhanced drought tolerance and better yield. Taken together, this study provided insight for better understanding the biological roles of LEA genes in soybean.

In this study, diploid, triploid, and tetraploid Crassostrea gigas samples were subjected to gas chromatography and ion mobility (GC-IMS) to identify and analyze volatile compounds and flavor fingerprints under conditions of high-temperature incubation. The GC-IMS technology identified a total of 54 volatile components in C. gigas . The contents of 1-octen-3-ol, butyl pentanoate, p-methyl anisole, and 2-methyl-2-hepten-6-one in male oysters were significantly higher than in females, while the contents of phenylacetaldehyde, benzaldehyde, 2-ethyl-3-methylpyrazine, 2-ethylfuran, and 2,4-hexadienal in female oysters were significantly higher than in males. The contents of non-3-en-2-one-M and 1-pentanol in diploids were significantly higher than in triploids and tetraploids, while the content of 2,4-hexadienal in tetraploids was significantly higher than in diploids and tetraploids. The contents of ethyl acetate, ethyl-2-butenoate, and butanal in tetraploids were significantly higher than those in diploids and triploids. The results of a principal components analysis showed that different samples were relatively independently clustered, allowing the ability to distinguish different oyster samples. The chemical fingerprints of volatile compounds of C. gigas with different ploidy and gender under high-temperature incubation were established, and the volatile substance contours of C. gigas were visualized. The results provide a reference for distinguishing the ploidy and gender of C. gigas under conditions of high-temperature incubation.

Three groups of spherical WB-reinforced Co-based coatings (Co coating, Co + 15%WB coating, Co + 45%WB coating) were fabricated by laser-cladded technology. The microstructure and constituent phase of spherical WB-reinforced Co-based coatings were examined through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The low-temperature tribological properties were analyzed by coefficient of friction, 2D and 3D profiles across the wear track, and wear surface morphology, respectively. The results showed that the phases in the WB-reinforced Co-based coatings are mainly γ-Co, carbides Cr 23 C 6 and Cr 7 C 3 , WB, and WO 3 . Under dry sliding friction at -20 °C, the more spherical WB, the lower the friction coefficient. The wear rate of Co + 45%WB coating was as low as 3.567 × 10 -4 mm 3 /N·m -1 , indicating the outstanding wear resistance. Abrasive wear was observed on the rough surface of the WB-added coatings. Compared with dry sliding, due to the plastic deformation of micro-convexes and lubrication function in the 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution, the wear tracks on the surfaces of the three tested coatings were shallower, exhibiting distinct elongated plough grooves.

Sheet metals usually experience various loading paths such as uniaxial tension, uniaxial compression, biaxial tension, and simple shear during the forming process. However, the existing constitutive models cannot always accurately describe blanks' anisotropic yield and plastic flow behavior of blanks under all typical stress states. Given this, this paper improves the Eyld2000-2d yield criterion by introducing hydrostatic pressure to the A-Eyld2000-2d yield criterion that can describe the strength differential effect of materials. Meanwhile, to control the curvature of the yield surface more effectively, the near-plane strain yield stresses were added in the parameter identification process to calibrate the exponent m , so that the exponent is no longer considered as a constant value. Taking the widely used AA6016-T4, AA5754-O, DP980, and QP980 blanks in the automotive stamping industry as an example, the effectiveness of the new model and different parameter identification methods was verified by predicting experimental data under various simple and complex loading paths. Subsequently, the new model employing the optimal parameter identification strategy was compared with four widely used asymmetric yield criteria under associated and non-associated flow rules, including CPB06, LHY2013, S-Y2004, and Hu & Yoon2021, to further verify the accuracy of the proposed constitutive model. The results indicate that parameter identification strategy with variable exponent can significantly improve the flexibility of the yield criterion in describing the plastic anisotropy of blanks. Compared to the other yield criteria examined in this work, the new model provides the best prediction accuracy for the yield stresses and plastic flows of all blanks, especially in the near-plane strain and simple shear stress states. Modeling under the concept of anisotropic hardening can more accurately capture the evolving plastic behavior of blanks than isotropic hardening.

Crowd counting, as a basic computer vision task, plays an important role in many fields such as video surveillance, accident prediction, public security, and intelligent transportation. At present, crowd counting tasks face various challenges. Firstly, due to the diversity of crowd distribution and increasing population density, there is a phenomenon of large-scale crowd aggregation in public places, sports stadiums, and stations, resulting in very serious occlusion. Secondly, when annotating large-scale datasets, positioning errors can also easily affect training results. In addition, the size of human head targets in dense images is not consistent, making it difficult to identify both near and far targets using only one network simultaneously. The existing crowd counting methods mainly use density plot regression methods. However, this framework does not distinguish the features between distant and near targets and cannot adaptively respond to scale changes. Therefore, the detection performance in areas with sparse population distribution is not good. To solve such problems, we propose an adaptive multi-scale far and near distance network based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for counting dense populations and achieving a good balance between accuracy, inference speed, and performance. However, on the feature level, in order to enable the model to distinguish the differences between near and far features, we use stacked convolution layers to deepen the depth of the network, allocate different receptive fields according to the distance between the target and the camera, and fuse the features between nearby targets to enhance the feature extraction ability of pedestrians under nearby targets. Secondly, depth information is used to distinguish distant and near targets of different scales and the original image is cut into four different patches to perform pixel-level adaptive modeling on the population. In addition, we add density normalized average precision (nAP) indicators to analyze the accuracy of our method in spatial positioning. This paper validates the effectiveness of NF-Net on three challenging benchmarks in Shanghai Tech Part A and B, UCF_ CC_50, and UCF-QNRF datasets. Compared with SOTA, it has more significant performance in various scenarios. In the UCF-QNRF dataset, it is further validated that our method effectively solves the interference of complex backgrounds.