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Simple Summary: Carbohydrate utilization is closely associated with level, chemical structure or processing method. Selecting an optimal carbohydrate source needs to take into consideration all these factors. This study investigated the effects of different carbohydrate sources, including monosaccharide and gelatinized or ungelatinized polysaccharide starch, on growth performance, hepatic glucose metabolism, antioxidant capacity, and immunity in juvenile largemouth bass. The results showed that dietary starch exhibited better growth performance independent of gelatinization. Ungelatinized potato starch was proved to be the more effective carbohydrate source for increasing hepatic glycolysis and ungelatinized tapioca starch better improved antioxidant and immune capacities. This study provides new information for selecting carbohydrate sources in artificial feed and helps improve fish health in farmed largemouth bass. This study investigated the effects of glucose (GLU), tapioca starch (TS), gelatinized tapioca starch (GTS), potato starch (PS) and gelatinized potato starch (GPS) on growth and physiological responses in juvenile largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. After 8 weeks, fish fed with starch diets had better weight gain and growth rates. Counts of red blood cells and monocytes were increased in the PS and GPS groups, compared to GLU group. Contents of serum triglyceride and total cholesterol were markedly elevated in the TS, PS and GPS groups. There were lower levels of serum glucose, insulin and cholecystokinin, and higher agouti-related peptide contents in the PS group compared to GLU group. PS and GPS could enhance glycolysis and TCA cycle by increasing their enzyme activities and transcriptional levels. Additionally, starch sources markedly heightened mRNA levels of key genes involved in the respiratory electron transport chain. Additionally, elevated mRNA levels of key antioxidant genes were shown in the TS and GTS groups. Moreover, TS and PS could promote immunity by upregulating transcriptional levels of the complement system, lysozyme and hepcidin. Taken together, starch exhibited better growth via increasing glycolysis and TCA cycle compared with GLU, and PS could improve antioxidant and immune capacities in largemouth bass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pursuit of enhancing the mechanical properties, especially the tensile strength, of 4D-printable consumables derived from waste cooking oil (WCO), we initiated the production of acrylate-modified WCO, which encompasses epoxy waste oil methacrylate (EWOMA) and epoxy waste oil acrylate (EWOA). Subsequently, a series of WCO-based 4D-printable photocurable resins were obtained by introducing a suitable diacrylate molecule as the second monomer, coupled with a composite photoinitiator system comprising Irgacure 819 and p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMAB). These materials were amenable to molding using an LCD light-curing 3D printer. Our findings underscored the pivotal role of triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) among the array of diacrylate molecules in enhancing the mechanical properties of WCO-based 4D-printable resins. Notably, the 4D-printable material, composed of EWOA and TEGDMA in an equal mass ratio, exhibited nice mechanical strength comparable to that of mainstream petroleum-based 4D-printable materials, boasting a tensile strength of 9.17 MPa and an elongation at break of 15.39%. These figures significantly outperformed the mechanical characteristics of pure EWOA or TEGDMA resins. Furthermore, the EWOA-TEGDMA resin demonstrated impressive thermally induced shape memory performance, enabling deformation and recovery at room temperature and retaining its shape at −60 °C. This resin also demonstrated favorable biodegradability, with an 8.34% weight loss after 45 days of soil degradation. As a result, this 4D-printable photocurable resin derived from WCO holds immense potential for the creation of a wide spectrum of high-performance intelligent devices, brackets, mold, folding structures, and personalized products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Essential macronutrient nitrogen (N) is crucial for plant growth and yield, but excessive chemical N fertilizer not only increases unnecessary production costs but also causes environmental pollution. Therefore, reducing N fertilizer use by increasing organic fertilizer use is crucial for sustainable agriculture. In this study, we investigated the effects of three nitrogen levels—the recommended rate (N), a 20.0% reduced rate (0.8N), and a 40.0% reduced rate (0.6N)—and two levels of organic fertilizer—a normal dose (M) and a four-times the normal dose (4M)—combined with root application of the beneficial element silicon (Si) on the photosynthetic characteristics, yield, and fruit quality of the tomato cultivar 'Tianxi No. 5'. Compared with M + N treatment, the longitudinal diameter, transverse diameter, fruit weight, and fruit yield of tomato fruit in 4M + 0.6N treatment significantly increased by 12.4%, 14.6%, 14.5%, and 12.8%, respectively, while the yield was further improved with Si application. In addition, a reduction in N fertilizer and an increase in organic fertilizer, combined with Si application, improved fruit quality parameters such as concentrations of vitamin C, lycopene, phenols, flavonoids, sucrose, fructose, etc., and promoted sugar metabolism-related enzyme activity (sucrose synthase, invertase, and sucrose phosphate synthase) and the accumulation of N in the fruit. The principal component analysis and three-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the fruit quality and yield indices showed that nitrogen fertilizer, organic fertilizer, silicon fertilizer, and the interaction of the three had significant effects on the quality and yield of tomato fruits, and that the 4M + 0.6N + Si treatment had the best combined effect on the yield and quality of the tomatoes. Thus, a moderate reduction in chemical N fertilizer, combined with increased organic fertilizer and Si, could be an effective agronomic practice for improving the yield and quality of tomatoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The balance between ubiquitination and deubiquitination is instrumental in the regulation of protein stability and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. The deubiquitinating enzyme, ubiquitin-specific protease 36 (USP36), a member of the USP family, plays a crucial role in this dynamic equilibrium by hydrolyzing and removing ubiquitin chains from target proteins and facilitating their proteasome-dependent degradation. The multifaceted functions of USP36 have been implicated in various disease processes, including cancer, infections, and inflammation, via the modulation of numerous cellular events, including gene transcription regulation, cell cycle regulation, immune responses, signal transduction, tumor growth, and inflammatory processes. The objective of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of the current state of research on the roles of USP36 in different pathological conditions. By synthesizing the findings from previous studies, we have aimed to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these diseases and identify potential therapeutic targets for their treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an application of the dandelion optimization (DO) algorithm in antenna arrays. This is the first time that the DO algorithm has been used for optimizing antenna arrays. For antenna array optimization, sidelobe level (SLL) and deep nulls are key technical indicators. A lower SLL can improve the signal-to-noise ratio and reduce the impact of clutter signals outside the main beam. Deep nulls need to be aligned with the direction of interference to eliminate the influence of interference sources. The combination of the two can effectively improve the anti-interference ability of the entire system. Therefore, antenna arrays with ultra-low sidelobes and ultra-deep nulls are currently hot in the field of antenna array design and are also some of the key technologies needed to achieve modern high-performance radar systems. As a new type of evolutionary algorithm inspired by nature, the DO algorithm is inspired by the wind propagation behavior of dandelions in nature. This algorithm iteratively updates the population from three stages of ascent, descent, and landing, ultimately finding the optimal position. It has good optimization ability in solving complex problems such as those involving nonlinearity, discreteness, and non-convexity, and the antenna array pattern synthesis optimization problem belongs to multivariate nonlinear problems. Therefore, the DO algorithm can be effectively applied in the field of antenna array optimization. In this work, we use the following method to obtain an optimized pattern of a linear array with the lowest sidelobe level (SLL), null placement in particular directions, and a lower notch in particular directions: by controlling the antenna array's element spacing and leaving the phase unchanged to optimize the current amplitudes and by controlling the excitation current and phase fixation of the antenna array and changing the element spacing. In the first and second examples, different algorithms are used to reduce the SLL of the antenna. In the first example, the DO algorithm reduces the SLL to −33.37 dB, which is 2.67 dB, 2.67 dB, 3.77 dB, 2.74 dB, and 2.52 dB lower than five other algorithms. In the second example, the SLL optimized by the DO algorithm is −42.56 dB, which is 5.04 dB and 1.48 dB lower than two other algorithms. In both examples, the DO algorithm reduces the SLL lower than other algorithms when the main lobe of the antenna is not significantly widened. Examples 3, 4, and 5 use the DO algorithm to optimize the amplitude of the current, generating deep nulls and deep notches in specific directions. In Example 3, the DO algorithm obtains a depth of nulls equal to −187.6 dB, which is 66.7 dB and 44.3 dB lower than that of the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) and the chaotic colony predation algorithm (CCPA), respectively. In Example 4, the deep null obtained by the DO algorithm is as low as −98.69 dB, which is 6.67 dB lower than the deep null obtained by the grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm. In Example 5, the deep notch obtained by the DO algorithm is as low as −63.1 dB, which is 6.4 dB and 1.9 dB lower than the spider monkey optimization (SMO) algorithm and the grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA), respectively. The data prove that the DO algorithm produces deeper nulls and notches than other algorithms. The last two examples involve reducing sidelobe levels and generating deep nulls by optimizing the spacing between elements. In Example 5, the SLL obtained using the DO algorithm is −22.8766 dB, which is 0.1998 dB lower than the lowest SLL of −22.6768 dB among other algorithms. In Example 6, the SLL obtained using the DO algorithm is −20.1012 dB, and the null depth is −125.1 dB, which is 1.592 dB lower than the SLL obtained by the cat swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm and 19.1 dB lower than the deep null obtained by the GWO algorithm, respectively. In summary, the results of six simulation experiments indicate that the DO algorithm has better optimization ability in linear array optimization than other evolutionary algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other technological advancements, digital twin (DT) technology is increasingly being applied to the field of bridge structural health monitoring. Achieving the precise implementation of DT relies significantly on a dual-drive approach, combining the influence of both physical model-driven and data-driven methodologies. In this paper, two methods are proposed to predict the displacement and dynamic response of structures under strong winds, namely, a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) model based on Bayesian inference and a finite element model (FEM) method modified based on genetic algorithms (GAs) and multi-objective optimization (MOO) using response surface methodology (RSM). The characteristics of these approaches in predicting the dynamic response of large-span bridges are explored, and a comparative analysis is conducted to evaluate their differences in computational accuracy, efficiency, model complexity, interpretability, and comprehensiveness. The characteristics of the two methods were evaluated using data collected on the Forth Road Bridge (FRB) as an example under unusual weather conditions with strong wind action. This work proposes a dual-driven approach, integrating machine learning and FEM with GNSS and Earth Observation for Structural Health Monitoring (GeoSHM), to bridge the gap in the limited application of dual-driven methods primarily applied for small- and medium-sized bridges to large-span bridge structures. The research results show that the BNN model achieved higher R 2 values for predicting the Y and Z displacements (0.9073 and 0.7969, respectively) compared to the FEM model (0.6167 and 0.6283). The BNN model exhibited significantly faster computation, taking only 20 s, while the FEM model required 5 h. However, the physical model provided higher interpretability and the ability to predict the dynamic response of the entire structure. These findings help to promote the further integration of these two approaches to obtain an accurate and comprehensive dual-driven approach for predicting the structural dynamic response of large-span bridge structures affected by strong wind loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rust fungi cause significant damage to wheat production worldwide. In order to mitigate disease impact and improve food security via durable resistance, it is important to understand the molecular basis of host–pathogen interactions. Despite a long history of research and high agricultural importance, still little is known about the interactions between the stripe rust fungus and wheat host on the gene expression level. Here, we present analysis of the molecular interactions between a major wheat pathogen—Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst)—in resistant and susceptible host backgrounds. Using plants with durable nonrace-specific resistance along with fully susceptible ones allowed us to show how gene expression patterns shift in compatible versus incompatible interactions. The pathogen showed significantly greater number and fold changes of overexpressed genes on the resistant host than the susceptible host. Stress-related pathways including MAPK, oxidation–reduction, osmotic stress, and stress granule formation were, almost exclusively, upregulated in the resistant host background, suggesting the requirement of the resistance-countermeasure mechanism facilitated by Pst. In contrast, the susceptible host background allowed for broad overrepresentation of the nutrient uptake pathways. This is the first study focused on the stripe rust pathogen–wheat interactions, on the whole transcriptome level, from the pathogen side. It lays a foundation for the better understanding of the resistant/susceptible hosts versus pathogenic fungus interaction in a broader sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species number of bryophytes is the second highest among land plants. Alpine grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) are the largest among global alpine biomes. However, bryophyte flora in alpine grasslands on the QTP remains poorly explored relative to its large geographic extent. A total of 347 plots were surveyed across the QTP, and 149 bryophyte taxa in 24 families and 49 genera were recorded in alpine grasslands. The largest family was Pottiaceae, followed by Bryaceae and Brachytheciaceae. The most species-rich genus was Bryum, followed by Didymodon and Brachythecium. The dominant species were Didymodon tectorus, Didymodon fallax, Bryum caespiticium, Didymodon constrictus, and Didymodon ditrichoides. The Jaccard similarity indexes of bryophyte compositions between alpine meadow and alpine steppe at the family, genus, and species levels were 0.375, 0.367, and 0.282, respectively. Turf was the most common life-form (75.2%), followed by weft (16.1%) and cushion (5.4%). Endemic species to China accounted for 8.05% of the total taxa. Bryophyte diversity in alpine grasslands on the QTP is exceptional and irreplaceable. The changes in species composition and life-forms between different grassland types reflect the adaptations of bryophytes to harsh environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly transparent Ho:Y2O3 ceramics for laser diode lighting were prepared using the vacuum sintering method with 0.3 at.% Nb2O5 as a sintering additive. The microstructures, transmittance, and luminescence properties of the Ho:Y2O3 ceramic samples were investigated in detail. The transmittance levels of all samples with various Ho3+ concentrations reached ~81.5% (2 mm thick) at 1100 nm. Under the excitation of 363 nm (ultraviolet) or 448 nm (blue) light, Ho:Y2O3 transparent ceramic samples showed that green emission peaked at 550 nm. The emission intensity was strongly affected by the concentration of Ho3+ ions, reaching its highest level in the sample doped with 1 at.% Ho3+. The CIE coordinates of the luminescence were in the green region (i.e., the CIE coordinates of the sample doped with 1 at.% Ho3+ were [0.27, 0.53] and [0.30, 0.69], under the excitation of 363 nm and 448 nm light, respectively). The possibility of its application as laser diode lighting was reported. Under the excitation of 450 nm blue laser, the sample doped with 0.5 at.% Ho3+ had the best performance: the saturated luminous flux, lumen efficiency, and the luminescence saturation power densities were 800 lm, 57.7 lm/W, and 17.6 W/mm2, respectively. Furthermore, the materials have high thermal conductivity and mechanical strength due to their host of rare-earth sesquioxide. Thus, Ho:Y2O3 transparent ceramics are expected to be a promising candidate for green-light-emitting devices for solid-state lighting, such as laser diode lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diapause, an adaptative strategy for survival under harsh conditions, is a dynamic multi-stage process. Bombus terrestris, an important agricultural pollinator, is declining in the wild, but artificial breeding is possible by imitating natural conditions. Mated queen bees enter reproductive diapause in winter and recover in spring, but the regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, we conducted a comparative 4D label-free proteomic analysis of queen bees during artificial breeding at seven timepoints, including pre-diapause, diapause, and post-diapause stages. Through bioinformatics analysis of proteomic and detection of substance content changes, our results found that, during pre-diapause stages, queen bees had active mitochondria with high levels of oxidative phosphorylation, high body weight, and glycogen and TAG content, all of which support energy consumption during subsequent diapause. During diapause stages, body weight and water content were decreased but glycerol increased, contributing to cold resistance. Dopamine content, immune defense, and protein phosphorylation were elevated, while fat metabolism, protein export, cell communication, signal transduction, and hydrolase activity decreased. Following diapause termination, JH titer, water, fatty acid, and pyruvate levels increased, catabolism, synaptic transmission, and insulin signaling were stimulated, ribosome and cell cycle proteins were upregulated, and cell proliferation was accelerated. Meanwhile, TAG and glycogen content decreased, and ovaries gradually developed. These findings illuminate changes occurring in queen bees at different diapause stages during commercial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the pressure vessel industry, high-energy wire welding has a great future. However, this means higher demands on the weldability of pressure vessel steels. Controlling inclusions via oxidative metallurgy is a reliable method of improving the weldability of pressure vessel steels. Hence, in this paper, experimental steels with different Mg element mass fractions were prepared using vacuum metallurgy. Simulated welding for high-heat input welding was carried out using the Gleeble-2000 welding thermal simulation test machine. The inclusions in the welding heat-affected zone (HAZ) in the experimental steels were observed using an optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The compositions of the inclusions were analyzed using an energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The research results indicated that the addition of Mg could increase the number density of the inclusions in the welding HAZ. With the addition of Mg from 0 to 5 wt.%, the total number density of the inclusions increased from 133 to 687 pieces/mm2, and the number density of the inclusions with a size of 0–5 μm2 increased from 122 to 579 pieces/mm2. The inclusions in the experimental steel welding HAZ with Mg elements were mainly elliptical composite inclusions composed of (Mg-Zr-O) + MnS. Moreover, MnS precipitated on the surface of the Mg-containing inclusions in the welding HAZ. Intragranular acicular ferrite (IAF) nucleation was primarily induced via the minimum lattice mismatch mechanism, supplemented with stress-strain energy and inert interface energy mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has underscored the critical need for rapid and precise viral detection technologies. Point-of-care (POC) technologies, which offer immediate and accurate testing at or near the site of patient care, have become a cornerstone of modern medicine. Prokaryotic Argonaute proteins (pAgo), proficient in recognizing target RNA or DNA with complementary sequences, have emerged as potential game-changers. pAgo present several advantages over the currently popular CRISPR/Cas systems-based POC diagnostics, including the absence of a PAM sequence requirement, the use of shorter nucleic acid molecules as guides, and a smaller protein size. This review provides a comprehensive overview of pAgo protein detection platforms and critically assesses their potential in the field of viral POC diagnostics. The objective is to catalyze further research and innovation in pAgo nucleic acid detection and diagnostics, ultimately facilitating the creation of enhanced diagnostic tools for clinic viral infections in POC settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the temperature variation and flow characteristics in the twin-screw reactive extrusion process of synthetizing glycidyl azide polymer-based energetic thermoplastic elastomer (GAP-ETPE), a non-isothermal simulation and a safety analysis were carried out. Firstly, based on the synthesis principle of GAP-ETPE, a mechanical sensitivity test, viscosity test and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of GAP-ETPE were carried out. Secondly, a three-dimensional physical model of the intermeshing co-rotating conveying element was established by Gambit. A three-dimensional non-isothermal numerical simulation of the conveying and kneading elements was carried out using FLUENT 19.0 software. The temperature, pressure and shear stress field of conveying and kneading elements with different staggered angles were analyzed and compared. The results show that the maximum temperature of the kneading element is always slightly higher than that of the conveying element at the same rotational speed, but the average temperature in the flow channel is always slightly higher than that of the kneading element. The inlet and outlet pressure difference of the kneading elements with a 90° offset angle is the smallest and the safety is the highest. The shear stress in the flow channel of the conveying element is higher than that of the kneading element as a whole, but the shear stress near the outlet of the 90° kneading element is higher than that in the flow channel of the conveying element. Among the kneading elements, the 90° kneading element has the strongest dispersing and mixing ability, followed by the 60° and 45° kneading elements. According to the thermal and physical parameters of the material, the ignition response time is approximately 6 s, which provides a theoretical guide for the safety design of the GAP-ETPE twin-screw extruder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coumarin and its derivatives are plant-derived compounds that exhibit potent insecticidal properties. In this study, we found that natural coumarin significantly inhibited the growth and development of Spodoptera litura larvae through toxicological assay. By transcriptomic sequencing, 80 and 45 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to detoxification were identified from 0 to 24 h and 24 to 48 h in S. litura after coumarin treatment, respectively. Enzyme activity analysis showed that CYP450 and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities significantly decreased at 48 h after coumarin treatment, while glutathione S-transferases (GST) activity increased at 24 h. Silencing of SlCYP324A16 gene by RNA interference significantly increased S. litura larval mortality and decreased individual weight after treatment with coumarin. Additionally, the expression levels of DEGs involved in glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle were inhibited at 24 h after coumarin treatment, while their expression levels were upregulated at 48 h. Furthermore, metabonomics analysis identified 391 differential metabolites involved in purine metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and TCA cycle from 0 to 24 h after treated with coumarin and 352 differential metabolites associated with ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and amino acid metabolism. These results provide an in-depth understanding of the toxicological mechanism of coumarin on S. litura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous progress and application of robotics technology, the importance of mobile robots capable of adapting to specialized work environments is gaining prominence. Among them, achieving precise and stable control of AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) stands as a paramount task propelling the advancement of mobile robotics. Consequently, this study devises a control system that enables AGVs to attain stable and accurate motion through equipment connection and debugging, kinematic modeling of the four-wheel steering AGV, and a selection and comparative analysis of motion control algorithms. The effectiveness of the Stanley-PID control algorithm in guiding the motion of a four-wheel steering AGV is validated through MATLAB 2021a simulation software. The simulation results illustrate the outstanding stability and precise control capabilities of the Stanley-PID algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the quality and current performance of computed tomography (CT) radiomics-based models in predicting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status in patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Two medical literature databases were systematically searched, and articles presenting original studies on CT radiomics-based models for predicting EGFR mutation status were retrieved. Forest plots and related statistical tests were performed to summarize the model performance and inter-study heterogeneity. The methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed via the Radiomics Quality Score (RQS). The performance of the models was evaluated using the area under the curve (ROC AUC). The range of the Risk RQS across the selected articles varied from 11 to 24, indicating a notable heterogeneity in the quality and methodology of the included studies. The average score was 15.25, which accounted for 42.34% of the maximum possible score. The pooled Area Under the Curve (AUC) value was 0.801, indicating the accuracy of CT radiomics-based models in predicting the EGFR mutation status. CT radiomics-based models show promising results as non-invasive alternatives for predicting EGFR mutation status in NSCLC patients. However, the quality of the studies using CT radiomics-based models varies widely, and further harmonization and prospective validation are needed before the generalization of these models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axially moving wing aircraft can better adapt to the flight environment, improve flight performance, reduce flight resistance, and improve flight distance. This paper simplifies the fully unfolded axially moving wing into a stepped cantilever plate model, analyzes the structural nonlinearity of the system, and studies the influence of aerodynamic nonlinearity on system vibration. The model is affected by aerodynamic forces, piezoelectric excitation, and in-plane excitation. Due to Hamilton's principle of least action, the mathematical model is established based on Reddy's higher-order shear deformation theory, and using Galerkin's method, the governing dimensionless partial differential equations of the system are simplified to two nonlinear ordinary differential equations, and then a study of the influence of the various engineering parameters on the nonlinear oscillations and frequency responses of this model is conducted by the method of multiple scales. It was found that the different values of a 5 , a 6 , b 6 and b 8 can change the shape of the amplitude–frequency response curve and size of the plate, while different symbols a 7 and b 7 can change the rigidity of the model. The excitations greatly impact the nonlinear dynamic responses of the plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly transparent Er:Y2O3 ceramics (1–9 at.% Er) were fabricated by hot pressing sintering with ZrO2 as the sintering additive. The microstructures, transmittance, luminescent properties, thermal conductivity, and mechanical properties of the Er:Y2O3 ceramic samples were investigated in detail. The samples all exhibited dense and fine grain microstructures; the average grain sizes were about 0.8 μm. The transmittance levels of the samples with various Er concentrations (2 mm thick) at the wavelengths of 600 and 2700 nm were ~74 and ~83%, respectively. As the Er doping concentration increased from 1 to 9 at.%, the up-conversion luminescence of the samples gradually changed from green to red, with the intensity ratio of red/green light increasing from 0.28 to 2.01. Meanwhile, the down-conversion luminescence properties of the specimens were also studied. When the samples were under 980 nm excitation, the emission bands were detected at 1552, 1573, 1639, and 1661 nm. The thermal conductivity of the samples was found to decrease from 8.72 to 5.81 W/(m·K) with an increase of the Er concentration from 1 to 9 at.%. Moreover, the microhardness and fracture toughness of the samples with 1 at.% Er concentration were ~8.51 GPa and ~1.03 MPa·m1/2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is one of the essential approaches to achieving permanent CO2 emission reduction. A new idea of absorbing and mineralizing CO2 with industrial wastewater and converting activated calcium into micron CaCO3 powder is proposed in this paper, which synchronizes water softening and CO2 fixation. Therefore, this paper investigated the characteristics of circulating water quality in the iron and steel industry and the transformation behaviors of CO2 capture by activated calcium to CaCO3 powder in the mild aqueous environment under different process parameters. The phase composition, morphology, and particle size distribution (PSD) of CaCO3 powder were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and (laser particle size analyzer) LPSA, respectively. In addition, a green integrated cycle system for industrial water capture of mineralized CO2 was preliminarily constructed, which provides a reference method for carbon reduction and economic utilization of carbon sources in an industrial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterborne polyurethane (WPU) is a waterborne coating with excellent physicochemical properties. Its deficiencies of water resistance, chemical resistance, staining, and hardness have limited the wide application of polyurethane in the wood lacquer market. In this study, polycarbonate diols (PCDL) were used as soft segments and WPCU was modified by cross-linking using Trimethylolpropane (TMP) to prepare polycarbonate type WPU (WPCU) with cross-linked network structure. The new wood lacquer was prepared by adding various additives and tested by applying it on wood board. The successful synthesis of WPCU was determined by FTIR testing, and the cross-linking degree of WPCU was probed by low-field NMR. The viscosity of the cross-linked WPCU emulsion showed a decreasing trend compared to the uncross-linked WPCU emulsion, and WPCU-2 had the smallest particle size. Compared with the uncrosslinked WPCU film, the crosslinked WPCU film had lower water absorption (2.2%), higher water contact angle (72.7°), excellent tensile strength (44.02 MPa), higher thermomechanical, and better water and alcohol resistance. The effect of crosslinker content on the microphase separation of WPCU chain segments on the surface roughness of the film was investigated by SEM. The wood paint prepared by WPCU emulsion has good dry heat resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion, and the hardness of the wood paint when the TMP content is 3% reaches H. It also has good resistance to sticky stains, which can be used to develop new wood lacquer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth of the world's population, limited healthcare resources cannot provide adequate nursing services for all people in need. The wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (WMRA) with interactive technology could help to improve users' self-care ability and relieve nursing stress. However, the users struggle to control the WMRA due to complex operations. To use the WMRA with less burden, this paper proposes an object affordance-based implicit interaction technology using a laser pointer. Firstly, a laser semantic identification algorithm combined with the YOLOv4 and the support vector machine (SVM) is designed to identify laser semantics. Then, an implicit action intention reasoning algorithm, based on the concept of object affordance, is explored to infer users' intentions and learn their preferences. For the purpose of performing the actions about task intention in the scene, the dynamic movement primitives (DMP) and the finite state mechanism (FSM) are respectively used to generalize the trajectories of actions and reorder the sequence of actions in the template library. In the end, we verified the feasibility of the proposed technology on a WMRA platform. Compared with the previous method, the proposed technology can output the desired intention faster and significantly reduce the user's limb involvement time (about 85%) in operating the WMRA under the same task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slag mineral phase is reconstructed by adding CaO to the molten vanadium slag to obtain a slag with high metallurgical characteristics. In this paper, the effects of the CaO/V2O5 ratio on the microstructure of molten vanadium slag, the phase composition of vanadium slag, and the non-salt roasting-(NH4)2CO3 leaching performance of modified vanadium slag were comprehensively investigated. Molecular dynamics simulation was used to examine the microstructure of the simplified vanadium slag system (FeO-V2Ox-SiO2-CaO) at varied CaO/V2O5 ratios. The results show that V (3+, 4+, and 5+) in the molten vanadium slag is similar to the network former. The V-O structure is dominated by four-fold coordination, and V3+ and V5+ show rich coordination configurations. With the increased CaO content, the overall diffusivity of the system increases, and the network structure is destroyed by CaO. The addition of CaO realizes the mineral phase reconstruction of vanadium slag, and vanadium slag with a more concentrated vanadium distribution and a wider Ca distribution is obtained. The concentration of vanadium in vanadium spinel increases from 17% to 29.4%. A suitable CaO/V2O5 ratio reduces the dependence of the vanadium leaching recovery on the vanadium slag's roasting temperature and duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Label-specific feature learning has become a hot topic as it induces classification models by accounting for the underlying features of each label. Compared with single-label annotations, multi-label annotations can describe samples from more comprehensive perspectives. It is generally believed that the compelling classification features of a data set often exist in the aggregation of label distribution. In this in-depth study of a multi-label data set, we find that the distance between all samples and the sample center is a Gaussian distribution, which means that the label distribution has the tendency to cluster from the center and spread to the surroundings. Accordingly, the double annulus field based on this distribution trend, named DEPT for double annulusfield and label-specific features for multi-label classification, is proposed in this paper. The double annulus field emphasizes that samples of a specific size can reflect some unique features of the data set. Through intra-annulus clustering for each layer of annuluses, the distinctive feature space of these labels is captured and formed. Then, the final classification model is obtained by training the feature space. Contrastive experiments on 10 benchmark multi-label data sets verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic heat stress (CHS) compromised the immunity and spleen immunological function of pigs, which may associate with antioxidant suppression and splenocyte apoptosis and splenic inflammation. Selenium (Se) exhibited antioxidant function and immunomodulatory through selenoprotein. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the protective effect of dietary hydroxy-selenomethionine (Selisso®, SeO) on chronic heat stress (CHS)-induced porcine splenic oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation. Growing pigs were raised in the thermoneutral environment (22 ± 2 °C) with the basal diet (BD), or raised in hyperthermal conditions (33 ± 2 °C) with BD supplied with 0.0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 mg Se/kg SeO for 28 d, respectively. The results showed that dietary SeO supplementation recovered the spleen mass and enhanced the splenic antioxidant capacity of CHS growing pigs. Meanwhile, SeO activated the Nrf2/Keap1 signal, downregulated p38, caspase 3 and Bax, inhibited the activation of NFκb and STAT3, and enhanced the protein expression level of GPX1, GPX3, GPX4, SELENOS and SELENOF. In summary, SeO supplementation mitigates the CHS-induced splenic oxidative damages, apoptosis and inflammation in pigs, and the processes are associated with the activation of Nrf2/Keap1 signal and the suppression of NFκb, p38(MAPK) and STAT signal. It seems that the antioxidant-related selenoproteins (GPXs) and functional selenoproteins (SELENOS and SELENOF) play important roles in the alleviation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer neuroscience is a new paradigm for studying consumer behavior, focusing on neuroscientific tools to explore the underlying neural processes and behavioral implications of consumption. Based on the bibliometric analysis tools, this paper provides a review of progress in research on consumer neuroscience during 2000–2021. In this paper, we identify research hotspots and frontiers in the field through a statistical analysis of bibliometric indicators, including the number of publications, countries, institutions, and keywords. Aiming at facilitating carbon neutrality via sustainable consumption, this paper discusses the prospects of applying neuroscience to sustainable consumption. The results show 364 publications in the field during 2000–2021, showing a rapid upward trend, indicating that consumer neuroscience research is gaining ground. The majority of these consumer neuroscience studies chose to use electroencephalogram tools, accounting for 63.8% of the total publications; the cutting-edge research mainly involved event-related potential (ERP) studies of various marketing stimuli interventions, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-based studies of consumer decision-making and emotion-specific brain regions, and machine-learning-based studies of consumer decision-making optimization models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the application potential of a recombinant fungal immunomodulatory protein from Ganoderma lucidum (rFIP-glu). First, a recombinant plasmid pPIC9K::FIP-glu-His was transferred into Pichia pastoris for the production of protein. The protein was then to assess its free radical scavenging abilities and the effect on the viability of both human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) and mouse B16-F10 melanoma cells (B16 cells) in vitro, followed by the effect on the melanin synthesis of B16 cells. The results of SDS-PAGE and western blot showed that rFIP-glu was successfully expressed. Furtherly, a bioactivity assay in vitro indicated that the scavenging rate of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals reached 84.5% at 6.0 mg/mL (p ≤ 0.0001) of rFIP-glu, showing strong antioxidant activity. Subsequently, a safety evaluation demonstrated that rFIP-glu promoted the proliferation of HaCaT cells, with the cell viability reaching 124.3% at 48 μg/mL (p ≤ 0.01), regarding the cell viability of B16 cells after exposure to rFIP-glu (48 μg/mL) significantly inhibited, to 80.7% (p ≤ 0.01). Besides, rFIP-glu inhibited the melanin synthesis of B16 cells in a dose-dependent manner from 100–1000 μg/mL, and rFIP-glu at 500 μg/mL (p ≤ 0.01) exhibited the highest intracellular melanin amount reduction of 16.8%. Furthermore, a mechanism analysis showed that rFIP-glu inhibited tyrosinase (TYR) activity by up-regulating the expression of the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) and down-regulating the gene expression of TYR and tyrosinase-related protein-1 (TYRP-1), thus inhibiting melanin synthesis. The data implied that rFIP-glu had significant antioxidant activity and whitening potency. It should be used as raw materials for cosmeceutical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scaffolding protein Axin is an important regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway, and its dysfunction is closely related to carcinogenesis. Axin could affect the assembly and dissociation of the β-catenin destruction complex. It can be regulated by phosphorylation, poly-ADP-ribosylation, and ubiquitination. The E3 ubiquitin ligase SIAH1 participates in the Wnt pathway by targeting various components for degradation. SIAH1 is also implicated in the regulation of Axin2 degradation, but the specific mechanism remains unclear. Here, we verified that the Axin2-GSK3 binding domain (GBD) was sufficient for SIAH1 binding by the GST pull-down assay. Our crystal structure of the Axin2/SIAH1 complex at 2.53 Å resolution reveals that one Axin2 molecule binds to one SIAH1 molecule via its GBD. These interactions critically depend on a highly conserved peptide 361EMTPVEPA368 within the Axin2-GBD, which forms a loop and binds to a deep groove formed by β1, β2, and β3 of SIAH1 by the N-terminal hydrophilic amino acids Arg361 and Thr363 and the C-terminal VxP motif. The novel binding mode indicates a promising drug-binding site for regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, it has been established that atherosclerosis is an autoimmune disease. However, little is currently known about the role of FcγRIIA in atherosclerosis. Herein, we sought to investigate the relationship between FcγRIIA genotypes and the effectiveness of different IgG subclasses in treating atherosclerosis. We constructed and produced different subtypes of IgG and Fc-engineered antibodies. In vitro, we observed the effect of different subtypes of IgG and Fc-engineered antibodies on the differentiation of CD14+ monocytes from patients or healthy individuals. In vivo, Apoe−/− mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 20 weeks and administered injections of different CVI-IgG subclasses or Fc-engineered antibodies. Flow cytometry was used to assess the polarization of monocytes and macrophages. Although CVI-IgG4 reduced the release of MCP-1 compared to the other subtypes, IgG4 did not yield an anti-inflammatory effect by induction of human monocyte and macrophage differentiation in vitro. Furthermore, genetic polymorphisms of FcγRIIA were not associated with different CVI-IgG subclasses during the treatment of atherosclerosis. In vivo, CVI-IgG1 decreased Ly6Chigh monocyte differentiation and promoted M2 macrophage polarization. We also found that the secretion of IL-10 was upregulated in the CVI-IgG1-treated group, whereas V11 and GAALIE exerted no significant effect. These findings highlight that IgG1 is the optimal subtype for treating atherosclerosis, and CVI-IgG1 can induce monocyte/macrophage polarization. Overall, these results have important implications for the development of therapeutic antibodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adiponectin, a key metabolic hormone, is secreted into the circulation by fat cells where it enhances insulin sensitivity and stimulates glucose and fatty acid metabolism. Adiponectin receptors are highly expressed in the taste system; however, their effects and mechanisms of action in the modulation of gustatory function remain unclear. We utilized an immortalized human fungiform taste cell line (HuFF) to investigate the effect of AdipoRon, an adiponectin receptor agonist, on fatty acid-induced calcium responses. We showed that the fat taste receptors (CD36 and GPR120) and taste signaling molecules (Gα-gust, PLCβ2, and TRPM5) were expressed in HuFF cells. Calcium imaging studies showed that linoleic acid induced a dose-dependent calcium response in HuFF cells, and it was significantly reduced by the antagonists of CD36, GPR120, PLCβ2, and TRPM5. AdipoRon administration enhanced HuFF cell responses to fatty acids but not to a mixture of sweet, bitter, and umami tastants. This enhancement was inhibited by an irreversible CD36 antagonist and by an AMPK inhibitor but was not affected by a GPR120 antagonist. AdipoRon increased the phosphorylation of AMPK and the translocation of CD36 to the cell surface, which was eliminated by blocking AMPK. These results indicate that AdipoRon acts to increase cell surface CD36 in HuFF cells to selectively enhance their responses to fatty acids. This, in turn, is consistent with the ability of adiponectin receptor activity to alter taste cues associated with dietary fat intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: This paper investigates the incidence and risk factors of retinal manifestations in patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS) in a Chinese cohort. (2) Methods: This is a population-based cross-sectional study. In total, 344 eyes (172 MFS participants) were enrolled, each of whom underwent a detailed ocular examination. B-scan ultrasonography, ultra-wide-angle fundus images and optical coherence tomography images were conducted to assess posterior staphyloma, types of retinal damages and maculopathy. (3) Results: MFS patients have a high proportion (32.5%) of maculopathy, among which atrophy is the most common type (27.6%). Compared with participants without maculopathy, participants with maculopathy had a longer axial length (AL), higher incidence of posterior staphyloma, macular split and retinal detachment (RD) (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p = 0.001). Moreover, the stage of RD has a significant correlation with longer AL and shallower anterior chamber depth (ACD) (p = 0.001 and p = 0.034, respectively). (4) Conclusions: A higher incidence and earlier onset of fundus lesions were found in MFS patients. Yearly systematic examination is recommended for MFS children with fundus manifestation until the cardiovascular and skeletal development is complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: To date there is no specific analysis providing comprehensive available evidence that can guide clinical treatment options for patients with hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (HR+/HER2−) breast cancer (BC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). We conducted a retrospective study with 3070 consecutive HR+/HER2− BC patients after NAC and indicated that progesterone receptor (PR) negativity BC has a higher complete pathological response (pCR) and lower survival than PR positivity BC. PR may be used as an independent predictor for pCR and a prognosis of HR+/HER2− BC in the NAC setting. HER2-low tumors are not significantly associated with pCR or disease-free survival (DFS), but these patients have significantly lower overall survival (OS) than those with HER-0 tumors. Our research confirms the significance of PR and HER2 status associated with pCR and prognosis. Purpose: To evaluate the clinical characteristics, pathological response, and prognostic significance of hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2−) breast cancer (BC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Methods: A survival analysis was performed to detect the factors related to recurrence and death in 3070 consecutive patients with HR+/HER2− BC who received NAC from 2011 to 2022. All patients received current "standard of care" following neoadjuvant therapy based on guidelines, including surgery and adjuvant endocrine therapy. HER2-low was defined as immunohistochemistry (IHC) 1+ or IHC 2+ and fluorescence in-situ hybridization-negative. Results: The complete pathological response (pCR) (ypT0/is ypN0) rate was 14.5%. The clinical tumor size (cT), ER scores, PR status, and Ki67 levels were related to pCR. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 82.6% and 90.4%, respectively. PR, Ki67 levels, and postmastectomy radiotherapy were independent factors for DFS and OS, and the extranodal extension (ENE) correlated with DFS. However, pCR and HER2 status were related to OS. The pCR rate in PR negativity BC was significantly higher than that in PR positivity BC (21.1% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.000), but PR negativity BC had a poorer prognosis than PR positivity BC. HER2-low BC showed high ER scores (over 50%), PR positivity, large ypT, ENE, and lymphovascular invasion but a lower pCR rate than HER2-zero BC. Patients with HER2-low BC had shorter OS than those with HER2-zero BC (p = 0.037). However, there was no difference in DFS. Conclusions: Depending on PR status and HER2 status, patients with ER positivity and HER2 negativity exhibit different pathologic complete response rates to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and long-term outcomes, especially patients with PR negativity or HER2-low status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community transmission events occasionally happened in the long-term pandemic, which led to repeated outbreaks of COVID-19. In addition to potential physical threats, the outbreaks could also lead to psychological stress and influence their health behaviors, especially for vulnerable people. It poses a great challenge to both physical and mental health management. However, little is known about the impacts of discrete outbreak events of COVID-19 on people's reactions to health concerns in the long-term pandemic period. In the current study, we discussed the impact of discrete outbreak events of COVID-19 on health information search for specific symptoms in China from a perceptive of susceptibility. The empirical study was conducted after the first wave of outbreak events ended in China from June to October 2020. Three typical outbreak events happened during this period, and a total of 1800 search index data for 60 cities in China crawled from Baidu search engine were included in the data set. Using the real-world searching data, we conducted a panel data analysis to examine the psychological effect of discrete outbreak events on the symptom search and the moderation effect of the geographical distance. It was found that discrete outbreak events significantly increased the symptom search, and its impacts were various in different regions. More health information search caused by discrete outbreak events was found in cities which were closer to the outbreak area. Implications for healthcare were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term survival and functional outcomes of patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC) 1–8 years after brain injuries. Methods: Retrospective study to assess the long-term survival and functional outcomes of patients with pDoC was conducted. We performed Cox regression and multivariate logistic regression to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) for the outcome of survival and to identify risk factors of the functional outcome. Results: We recruited 154 patients with pDoC. The duration of follow-up from disease onset was 1–8 years. The median age was 46 years (IQR, 32–59), and 65.6% (n = 101) of them were men. During the follow-up period, one hundred and ten patients (71.4%) survived; among them, 52 patients had a good outcome. From the overall survival curve, the 1-, 3-, and 8-year survival rates of patients were about 80.5%, 72.0%, and 69.7%, respectively. Cox regression analysis revealed a significant association between the lower APACHE II score (p = 0.005) (cut-off score ≥ 18) and the presence of sleep spindles (p = 0.001) with survival. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a higher CRS-R score (cut-off score ≥ 7), and presence of sleep spindles were related to a favorable outcome among patients with pDoC. Conclusions: Sleep spindles are correlated with both long-term survival and long-term functional outcome in pDoC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) are heterogenous lymphoproliferative disorders that develop in immunosuppressed transplant recipients. We performed a retrospective review of PTLD occurring in pediatric heart transplant recipients and sought to determine the correlation of PTLD subtypes with different characteristics. Our single institution retrospective study found that compared to older children, infant heart transplant recipients were less likely to develop PTLD. Infant heart transplant recipients who developed PTLD were diagnosed later than older children and had a lower rate of more aggressive PTLD. The overall survival of patients with more aggressive PTLD was significantly lower than patients with low-grade PTLD. Proper classification of the type of PTLD is important, as the subtypes of PTLD showed a significant correlation with the outcome. Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) are heterogenous lymphoproliferative disorders that develop as a consequence of immunosuppression in transplant recipients. We sought to determine if subtypes of PTLD correlated with different outcomes. We performed a retrospective review of PTLD occurring in pediatric heart transplant recipients. A total of 558 children and infants underwent cardiac transplantation at our institution between 1985 and 2019 and were followed until March 2021. Forty-nine of 558 patients developed PTLD (8.8%). As compared to older children (>one year of age), infant recipients (

Simple Summary: The poor prognosis of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) warrants a personalized approach. Our objective was to assess the value of imaging phenomics for risk stratification and prognostication of HCC. We performed a meta-analysis of manuscripts published to January 2023 on MEDLINE and showed that imaging phenomics is an effective solution to predict prognosis or treatment response in patients with HCC. Background: Primary liver cancer is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death. Advances in phenomenal imaging are paving the way for application in diagnosis and research. The poor prognosis of advanced HCC warrants a personalized approach. The objective was to assess the value of imaging phenomics for risk stratification and prognostication of HCC. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of manuscripts published to January 2023 on MEDLINE addressing the value of imaging phenomics for HCC risk stratification and prognostication. Publication information for each were collected using a standardized data extraction form. Results: Twenty-seven articles were analyzed. Our study shows the importance of imaging phenomics in HCC MVI prediction. When the training and validation datasets were analyzed separately by the random-effects model, in the training datasets, radiomics had good MVI prediction (AUC of 0.81 (95% CI 0.76–0.86)). Similar results were found in the validation datasets (AUC of 0.79 (95% CI 0.72–0.85)). Using the fixed effects model, the mean AUC of all datasets was 0.80 (95% CI 0.76–0.84). Conclusions: Imaging phenomics is an effective solution to predict microvascular invasion risk, prognosis, and treatment response in patients with HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human radial artery pulse carries a rich array of biomedical information. Accurate detection of pulse signal waveform and the identification of the corresponding pulse condition are helpful in understanding the health status of the human body. In the process of pulse detection, there are some problems, such as inaccurate location of radial artery key points, poor signal noise reduction effect and low accuracy of pulse recognition. In this system, the pulse signal waveform is collected by the main control circuit and the new piezoelectric sensor array combined with the wearable wristband, creating the hardware circuit. The key points of radial artery are located by an adaptive pulse finding algorithm. The pulse signal is denoised by wavelet transform, iterative sliding window and prediction reconstruction algorithm. The slippery pulse and the normal pulse are recognized by feature extraction and classification algorithm, so as to analyze the health status of the human body. The system has accurate pulse positioning, good noise reduction effect, and the accuracy of intelligent analysis is up to 98.4%, which can meet the needs of family health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning has drawn great attention in the financial field due to its powerful ability in nonlinear fitting, especially in the studies of asset pricing. In this paper, we proposed a long short-term memory option pricing model with realized skewness by fully considering the asymmetry of asset return in emerging markets. It was applied to price the ETF50 options of China. In order to emphasize the improvement of this model, a comparison with a parametric method, such as Black-Scholes (BS), and machine learning methods, such as support vector machine (SVM), random forests and recurrent neural network (RNN), was conducted. Moreover, we also took the characteristic of heavy tail into consideration and studied the effect of realized kurtosis on pricing to prove the robustness of the skewness. The empirical results indicate that realized skewness significantly improves the pricing performance of LSTM among moneyness states except for in-the-money call options. Specifically, the LSTM model with realized skewness outperforms the classical method and other machine learning methods in all metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media with partisan tendencies publish news articles to support their preferred political parties to guide the direction of public opinion. Therefore, discovering political bias in news texts has important practical significance for national election prediction and public opinion management. Some biased news often has obscure expressions and ambiguous writing styles. By bypassing the language model, the accuracy of methods that rely on news semantic information for position discrimination is low. This manuscript proposes a news standpoint discrimination method based on social background information fusion heterogeneous network. This method expands the judgment ability of creators and topics on news standpoints from external information and fine-grained topics based on news semantics. Multi-attribute features of nodes enrich the feature representation of nodes, and joint representation of heterogeneous networks can reduce the dependence of position discrimination on the news semantic information. To effectively deal with the position discrimination of new news, the design of a multi-attribute fusion heterogeneous network is extended to inductive learning, avoiding the cost of model training caused by recomposition. Based on the Allsides dataset, this manuscript expands the information of its creator's social background and compares the model for discriminating political positions based on news content. In the experiment, the best transductive attribute fusion heterogeneous network achieved an accuracy of 92.24% and a macro F1 value of 92.05%. The effect is improved based purely on semantic information for position discrimination, which proves the effectiveness of the model design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the high-temperature mechanical properties of potassium magnesium phosphate cement mortar and the high-temperature resistance of its laminates. Potassium magnesium phosphate cement (MKPC) was prepared by using heavy-burning magnesium oxide and potassium dihydrogen phosphate as the main raw materials, borax as the retarder, and compounded with a certain amount of fly ash and silica fume. The effect of the mass ratio of magnesium to phosphorus (M:P), compounded fly ash and silica fume on the setting time and mechanical properties of MKPC was investigated. Furthermore, based on the better M:P, the compressive strength of MKPC mortar was studied after 3 h of constant temperature at 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C, and the effect of fly ash and silica fume on the high-temperature resistance of MKPC was analyzed. The high-temperature resistance of MKPC was further evaluated by analyzing the temperature variation of potassium magnesium phosphate cement laminate during a constant temperature of 650 °C for 3 h. The results showed that the mechanical properties of potassium magnesium phosphate cement were influenced by different raw material ratios, and the mechanical properties of potassium magnesium phosphate cement were optimal when M:P was 2:1, fly ash was 5% and silica fume was 15%. The internal temperature of MKPC laminate increased slowly with time, and its high-temperature resistance was better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of the solvent to use in the Soxhlet extraction process dramatically affects the extraction yield. In this work, ten hydrocarbon source rocks were extracted using different solvents, and the chemical compositions of their products were analyzed to assess the extraction efficiency and the differences between fractions. The results indicated that using a mixed dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) reagent instead of the traditional chloroform (TCM) reagent can improve extraction efficiency for all rock types except for coal. The improvement in extraction efficiency was attributed to the contributions of non-hydrocarbon compounds (NOSs). A comparative study of the biomarkers of the fractions extracted using different reagents showed no significant differences in geochemical parameters, such as ∑C22−/∑C23+, Pr/Ph, Pr/nC17, Ph/nC18, OEP1, OEP2, CPI, and hopane distribution. Additionally, the carbon isotopic compositions of the fractions varied by less than 1‰, indicating that the TCM and DCM: MeOH regents did not significantly affect the results of the oil–source correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leading cause of many respiratory diseases is an ongoing and progressive inflammatory response. Traditionally, inflammatory lung diseases were studied primarily through animal models, cell cultures, and organoids. These technologies have certain limitations, despite their great contributions to the study of respiratory diseases. Precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) are thin, uniform tissue slices made from human or animal lung tissue and are widely used extensively both nationally and internationally as an in vitro organotypic model. Human lung slices bridge the gap between in vivo and in vitro models, and they can replicate the living lung environment well while preserving the lungs' basic structures, such as their primitive cells and trachea. However, there is no perfect model that can completely replace the structure of the human lung, and there is still a long way to go in the research of lung slice technology. This review details and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of precision lung slices as an in vitro model for exploring respiratory diseases associated with inflammation, as well as recent advances in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buffer material has been shown to be effective over the long term for radionuclide diffusion retardation and is used as the final artificial barrier of the multi-barrier system in the high-level waste disposal repository. The method of disposal raises the possibility of radionuclides escaping and returning to the biosphere when ground water enters the natural geological barrier, risking the repository's long-term stability and safety. Bentonite was chosen as the basic material in the integrated buffer material due to its low permeability, high swelling, and self-healing ability. Meanwhile, attapulgite served as an auxiliary, and pyrite served as a mineral additive. The buffer material B7AP was created by combining three materials, namely bentonite, attapulgite, and pyrite, with a mass ratio of 63:27:10. The diffusion of uranium in samples with a dry density of 1.70 g/cm3 was studied using a constant source diffusion experiment. The results showed that the B7AP buffer material had a good uranium retardation effect, with an apparent diffusion coefficient of 4.07 × 10−12 m2/s. In addition, using the theory of porous media contaminant migration, a simplified convection-dispersion-adsorption equation for uranium migration on integrated buffer material B7AP was established. MATLAB software was used to simulate time scales, seepage velocity, apparent diffusion coefficient, and retardation factor. The current study provides scientific evidence for improving retardation performance, screening, and optimizing the formula design of radioactive waste repository buffer materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to construct a pH-responsive nanocrystalline hydrogel drug delivery system for topical delivery of insoluble drugs based on the self-assembly behavior of carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) and oxidized hyaluronic acid (OHA). The tanshinone nanocrystal (TNCs) extract was prepared by dielectric milling method, the type and ratio of stabilizer of the drug were investigated to optimize the prescription, and the effector surface method was used to optimize the preparation process. OHA was prepared by the sodium periodate oxidation method, and the concentration of CMC and OHA was optimized using gel formation time as an indicator. OHA was dissolved in TNCs and self-assembled with CMC solution to form tanshinone extract nanocrystal hydrogels (CMC-OHA/TNCs), of which the physicochemical properties and in vitro antibacterial activity were evaluated. Results showed that the optimized prescription and process could produce tanshinone extract nanocrystals with a particle size of (223.67 ± 4.03) nm and a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.2173 ± 0.0008. According to SEM and XRD results, TNCs were completely wrapped in the hydrogel as nanoparticles, and the crystallinity of TNCs was reduced and the diffraction peaks in CMC-OHA/TNCs almost disappeared. In vitro, transdermal test results showed that CMC-OHA/TNCs could release the drug continuously at the acne lesions. The cell-counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay confirmed that the CMC-OHA/TNCs had no obvious cytotoxicity. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of CMC-OHA/TNCs against Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus aureus were significantly lower and the diameter of the inhibition circle was obviously higher than that of TNCs and tanshinone extract crude suspension. This study demonstrated that CMC-OHA/TNCs was a promising delivery system for topical delivery of insoluble drugs, which could improve the solubility of tanshinone extract and enhance its in vitro bacterial inhibitory activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal fluoride (TMF) conversion cathodes, with high energy density, are recognized as promising candidates for next-generation high-energy Li/Na-ion batteries (LIBs/SIBs). Unfortunately, the poor electronic conductivity and detrimental active material dissolution of TMFs seriously limit the performance of TMF-LIBs/SIBs. A variety of FeF3-based composites are designed to improve their electrochemical characteristics. However, the storage mechanism of the conversion-type cathode for Li+ and Na+ co-storage is still unclear. Here, the storage mechanism of honeycomb iron (III) fluoride and carbon (FeF3@C) as a general cathode for LIBs/SIBs is analyzed by kinetics. In addition, the FeF3@C cathode shows high electrochemical performance in a full-cell system. The results show that the honeycomb FeF3@C shows excellent long-term cycle stability in LIBs (208.3 mA h g−1 at 1.0 C after 100 cycles with a capacity retention of 98.1%). As a cathode of SIBs, the rate performance is unexpectedly stable. The kinetic analysis reveals that the FeF3@C cathode exhibit distinct ion-dependent charge storage mechanisms and exceptional long-durability cyclic performance in the storage of Li+/Na+, benefiting from the synergistic contribution of pseudocapacitive and reversible redox behavior. The work deepens the understanding of the conversion-type cathode in Li+/Na+ storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent pyroptosis has been implicated in liver fibrosis progression. However, the definite intrahepatic cell types that undergo pyroptosis and the underlying mechanism as well as the clinical importance remain unclear. Here, augmented levels of pyroptosis-related indicators GSDMD, IL-1β, and IL-18 were verified in both liver fibrosis patients and CCl4-induced fibrotic mouse model. Confocal imaging of NLRP3 with albumin, F4/80 or α-SMA revealed that enhanced NLRP3 was mainly localized to kupffer cells (KCs), indicating that KCs are major cell types that undergo pyroptosis. Targeting pyroptosis by inhibitor MCC950 attenuated the severity and ameliorated liver function in fibrosis models. In addition, elevated S100A8 in liver fibrosis patients was correlated with pyroptosis-related indicators. S100A8 stimulated pyroptotic death of macrophages, which resulted in activation of human hepatic stellate cell line LX-2 cells and increased collagen deposition. Mechanistically, S100A8 activated TLR4/NF-κB signaling and upregulated its target genes NLRP3, pro-IL-1β, and pro-IL-18 expression, and induced reactive oxygen (ROS) abundance to activate NLRP3 inflammasome, finally leading to pyroptotic cell death in macrophages. More importantly, circulating GSDMD had the optimal predicting value for liver fibrosis progression. In conclusion, S100A8-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent pyroptosis by TLR4/NF-κB activation and ROS production in macrophages facilitates liver fibrosis progression. The identified GSDMD has the potential to be a biomarker for liver fibrosis evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a strategy to fabricate nitrogen-doped porous core-sheath graphene fibers with the incorporation of polypyrrole-induced nitrogen doping and graphene oxide for porous architecture in sheath is reported. Polypyrrole/graphene oxide were introduced onto wet-spun graphene oxide fibers by dip-coating. Nitrogen-doped core-sheath graphene-based fibers (NSG@GFs) were obtained with subsequently thermally carbonized polypyrrole/small-sized graphene oxide and graphene oxide fiber slurry (PPY/SGO@GOF). Both nitrogen doping and small-sized graphene sheets can improve the utilization of graphene layers in graphene-based fiber electrode by preventing stacking of the graphene sheets. Enhanced electrochemical performance is achieved due to the introduced pseudo-capacitance and enhanced electrical double-layered capacitance. The specific capacitance (38.3 mF cm−2) of NSG@GF is 2.6 times of that of pure graphene fiber. The energy density of NSG@GF reaches 3.40 μWh cm−2 after nitrogen doping, which is 2.59 times of that of as-prepared one. Moreover, Nitrogen-doped graphene fiber-based supercapacitor (NSG@GF FSSC) exhibits good conductivity (155 S cm−1) and cycle stability (98.2% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 0.1 mA cm−2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground-based multi-channel microwave radiometers (MWRs) can continuously detect atmospheric profiles in the tropospheric atmosphere. This makes MWR an ideal tool to supplement radiosonde and satellite observations in monitoring the thermodynamic evolution of the atmosphere and improving numerical weather prediction (NWP) through data assimilation. The analysis of product characteristics of MWR is the basis for applying its data to real-time monitoring and assimilation. In this paper, observations from the latest generation of ground-based multi-channel MWR RPG-HATPRO-G5 installed in Shanghai, China, are compared with the radiosonde observations (RAOB) observed in the same location. The detection performance, characteristics of various channels, and the accuracy of the retrieval profile products of the MWR RPG are comprehensively evaluated during various weather conditions. The results show that the brightness temperatures (BTs) observed by the ground-based MWR RPG during precipitation conditions were high, which affected its detection performance. The bias and the standard deviation (SD) between the BT observed by MWR RPG and the simulated BT during clear and cloudy sky conditions were slight and large, respectively, and the coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) was high and low, respectively. However, when the cloud liquid water (CLW) information was added when simulating BT, the bias and the SD of the observed BT and the simulated BT during cloudy days were reduced and the R 2 value improved, which indicated that CLW information should be taken into account when simulating BT during cloudy conditions. The temperature profiles of the MWR retrieval had the same accuracy of RMSEs (root-mean-square error) with heights during both clear-sky and cloudy sky conditions, where the RMSEs were below 2 K when the heights were below 4 km. In addition, the MWR RPG has the potential ability to retrieve the temperature inversion in the boundary layer, which has important application value for fog and air pollution monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Cordyceps is a valuable source of natural products with various therapeutic effects. It is rich in various active components, of which adenosine, cordycepin and polysaccharides have been confirmed with significant immunomodulatory and antitumor functions. However, the underlying antitumor mechanism remains poorly understood. In this review, we summarized and analyzed the chemical characteristics of the main components and their pharmacological effects and mechanism on immunomodulatory and antitumor functions. The analysis revealed that Chinese Cordyceps promotes immune cells' antitumor function by via upregulating immune responses and downregulating immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment and resetting the immune cells' phenotype. Moreover, Chinese Cordyceps can inhibit the growth and metastasis of tumor cells by death (including apoptosis and autophagy) induction, cell-cycle arrest, and angiogenesis inhibition. Recent evidence has revealed that the signal pathways of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB), cysteine–aspartic proteases (caspases) and serine/threonine kinase Akt were involved in the antitumor mechanisms. In conclusion, Chinese Cordyceps, one type of magic mushroom, can be potentially developed as immunomodulator and anticancer therapeutic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalized modus ponens (GMP) is a basic model of approximate reasoning. GMP in fuzzy propositions is called fuzzy modus ponen (FMP) and it is called intuitionistic fuzzy modus ponens (IFMP) when fuzzy propositions are generalized to intuitionistic fuzzy propositions. In this paper, we aim to investigate fuzzy reasoning methods for GMP with mixture of fuzzy/intuitionistic fuzzy information. For mixed types of GMP, we present two basic methods to solve GMP problems based on the triple I method (TIM). One is to transform the GMP problem into two FMP problems by decomposition and aggregate the solutions of TIM for FMP problems to obtain the solution for GMP problem. The other is to transform the GMP problem into the IFMP problem by expansion and aggregate the solutions of TIM for the IFMP problem to obtain the solution for the GMP problem. These two methods are called the decomposition triple I method (DTIM) and expansion triple I method (ETIM), respectively. We analyze the relationship between DTIM and ETIM. Furthermore, we discuss the reversibility of DTIM and ETIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Bombus terrestris is one of the most ideal pollinators in the world and brings great economic benefits through the pollination of fruits and vegetables. The huge demand for pollinators, combined with habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use over the past decades, has resulted in a dramatic decline in wild bumblebee populations and distribution. Hence, the artificial breeding of bumblebees is of great significance and has a broad market prospect. Diapause is an important process in artificial breeding. Although some studies have been carried out on the diapause-related genes of bumblebees, the precise mechanisms affecting the phosphorylation level remain unclear. Here, we performed a new comparison of three diapause-stage expression profiles using isobaric tandem mass tag (TMT)-labeled proteomics and phosphoproteomics. The results provided abundant resources and contributed to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of reproductive diapause in eusocial insects. Reproductive diapause is an overwintering strategy for Bombus terrestris, which is an important pollinator for agricultural production. However, the precise mechanisms underlying reproductive diapause in bumblebees remain largely unclear. Here, a combination analysis of proteomics and phosphoproteomics was used to reveal the mechanisms that occur during and after diapause in three different phases: diapause (D), postdiapause (PD), and founder postdiapause (FPD). In total, 4655 proteins and 10,600 phosphorylation sites of 3339 proteins were identified. Diapause termination and reactivation from D to the PD stage were characterized by the upregulation of proteins associated with ribosome assembly and biogenesis, transcription, and translation regulation in combination with the upregulation of phosphoproteins related to neural signal transmission, hormone biosynthesis and secretion, and energy-related metabolism. Moreover, the reproductive program was fully activated from PD to the FPD stage, as indicated by the upregulation of proteins related to fat digestion and absorption, the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, fatty acid elongation, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and the upregulation of energy-related metabolism at the phosphoproteome level. We also predicted a kinase–substrate interaction network and constructed protein–protein networks of proteomic and phosphoproteomic data. These results will help to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the regulation of diapause in B. terrestris for year-round mass breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]