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Bioremediation has drawn widespread concern in passivating heavy metals, but the intense toxicity of heavy metals to biological cells limits the application of functional strains. Herein, goethite-modified biochar (GMB) was chosen as the carrier to immobilize phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) of strain L1 for lead and cadmium remediation. Batch experiments showed that the GMB-L1 possessed excellent adsorption performance with a maximum adsorption of 496.54 and 178.18 mg/g for Pb and Cd, respectively. Moreover, adding GMB-L1 in contaminated soil converted heavy metals (Pb and Cd) into more stable fractions and reduced TCLP-extracted heavy metal concentrations (73.24% of Pb and 57.25% of Cd). The GMB-L1 was proved to accomplish Pb and Cd remediation via the process of chemical precipitation, surface complexation, electrostatic attraction, and biomineralization, which was accompanied by the transformation of heavy metals into a more stable crystal structure, such as Pb5(PO4)3OH and Cd5(PO4)3OH. Therefore, the co-system of GMB and strain L1 could be regarded as a prospective option for efficiently remedying environmental heavy metal pollution.

Endodontic infections arise from the interactive activities of microbial communities colonizing in the intricate root canal system. The present study aims to update the latest knowledge of nanomaterials, their antimicrobial mechanisms, and their applications in endodontics. A detailed literature review of the current knowledge of nanomaterials used in endodontic applications was performed using the PubMed database. Antimicrobial nanomaterials with a small size, large specific surface area, and high chemical activity are introduced to act as irrigants, photosensitizer delivery systems, and medicaments, or to modify sealers. The application of nanomaterials in the endodontic field could enhance antimicrobial efficiency, increase dentin tubule penetration, and improve treatment outcomes. This study supports the potential of nanomaterials as a promising strategy in treating endodontic infections.

In the clutter environment, the measurement of a set of multiple extended targets, with an unknown number of targets, poses challenges in partitioning, and the computational cost is high. In particular, the multiple extended target tracking method, based on distance partition, has obvious potential estimation errors when the extended targets intersect. This paper proposes a partition algorithm, based on spatio-temporal correlation, which considers the correlation between adjacent moments of the extended target and uses this prior information to divide the measurement set into a survival target measurement set and a born target measurement set for the first time. Then, the survival target measurement set is clustered by the K-means++ algorithm, and the extended target tracking is transformed into point target tracking. The born target measurement undergoes preprocessing by the DBSCAN clustering algorithm, and then uses the directed graph with shared nearest neighbors (SNN) dividing the measurement set. The method proposed in this paper significantly reduces the number of partitions and the computational time. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated through experimental simulations.

Phytosulfokine (PSK) is a disulfated pentapeptide that acts as a growth regulator to control plant growth and development as well as adaptability to biotic and abiotic stress. In the last three decades, PSK has drawn increasing attention due to its various functions. Preproproteins that have been tyrosine sulfonylated and then cleaved by specific enzymes contribute to mature PSK. To transfer a signal from the apoplast to the inner cells, the PSK peptide must bind to the PSK receptors (PSKR1 and PSKR2) at the cell surface. The precise mechanism of PSK signal transduction is still unknown, given that PSKR combines receptor and kinase activity with a capacity to bind calmodulin (CaM). The binding of PSK and PSKR stimulates an abundance of cGMP downstream from PSKR, further activating a cation-translocating unit composed of cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 17 (CNGC17), H+-ATPases AHA1 and AHA2, and BRI-associated receptor kinase 1 (BAK1). Recently, it has been revealed that posttranslational ubiquitination is closely related to the control of PSK and PSKR binding. To date, the majority of studies related to PSK have used Arabidopsis. Given that rapeseed and Arabidopsis share a close genetic relationship, the relevant knowledge obtained from Arabidopsis can be further applied to rapeseed.

Extreme drought has negative impacts on the health of vegetation and the stability of ecosystems. In this study, the CASA model was employed to estimate the net primary productivity of vegetation over the Yunnan Plateau. The time-lag effects on vegetation were observed within a 0–6 month period of extreme droughts using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The resistance of vegetation during extreme droughts was quantified, and the recovery capability of vegetation following these events was analyzed using the ARIMA model. Moreover, the study investigated the response of vegetation to extreme droughts across diverse altitudinal gradients. The results showed that: (1) This round of extreme drought led to a decrease in the NPP of vegetation in the Yunnan Plateau. (2) Vegetation exhibits a 1–3-month lag period in response to extreme drought, with forests showing slower responses than grasslands and shrubs and higher resistance to the drought. Except for agricultural vegetation, most other vegetation types are able to recover their productivity within a year. (3) Vegetation above 3000 m is less susceptible to the impacts of extreme drought. With increasing elevation, forests exhibit an earlier lag period in response to extreme drought and an increase in resistance, but lower elevation vegetation demonstrates better recovery from extreme drought events. Shrub vegetation shows the highest resistance at elevations between 3000–4000 m, and shrubs at middle to high elevations have better recovery capacity than those at low elevations. Grassland vegetation exhibits increased resistance to extreme drought with higher elevation and shows better recovery. Agricultural vegetation demonstrates higher resistance at middle to high elevations, with no significant elevation differences in recovery capacity. Extreme drought events not only have a lag effect on the vegetation ecosystem, but also affect its stability and resilience to future drought events. To adapt to climate change, future research should emphasize the role of small-scale climate in vegetation’s response to drought.

Laser plasma acceleration has made remarkable progress in the last few decades, but it also faces many challenges. Although the high gradient is a great potential advantage, the beam quality of the laser accelerator has a certain gap, or it is different from that of traditional accelerators. Therefore, it is important to explore and utilize its own features. In this article, some recent research progress on laser proton acceleration and its irradiation application, which was carried out on the compact laser plasma accelerator (CLAPA) platform at Peking University, have been introduced. By combining a TW laser accelerator and a monoenergetic beamline, proton beams with energies of less than 10 MeV, an energy spread of less than 1%, and with several to tens of pC charge, have been stably produced and transported in CLAPA. The beamline is an object–image point analyzing system, which ensures the transmission efficiency and the energy selection accuracy for proton beams with large initial divergence angle and energy spread. A spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) is produced with high precision beam control, which preliminarily proved the feasibility of the laser accelerator for radiotherapy. Some application experiments based on laser-accelerated proton beams have also been carried out, such as proton radiograph, preparation of graphene on SiC, ultra-high dose FLASH radiation of cancer cells, and ion-beam trace probes for plasma diagnosis. The above applications take advantage of the unique characteristics of laser-driven protons, such as a micron scale point source, an ultra-short pulse duration, a wide energy spectrum, etc. A new laser-driven proton therapy facility (CLAPA II) is being designed and is under construction at Peking University. The 100 MeV proton beams will be produced via laser–plasma interaction by using a 2-PW laser, which may promote the real-world applications of laser accelerators in malignant tumor treatment soon.

Over 80% proteins consumed by the local people in Nujiang Prefecture of Southwest China, a remote and mountainous area in the Eastern Himalayas, are from pork, or Gaoligongshan pig (a landrace of Sus scrofa domestica Brisson). Previous research on the Gaoligongshan pig has focused on nutritional composition, production performance, and genetic resource characteristics, but neglected the reasons behind the local people’s practice. From 2019 to 2022, we have used ethnobiological research methods to comprehensively document the traditional rearing and management patterns and the traditional culture associated with Gaoligongshan pigs. The results show that Gaoligongshan pigs graze in mixed herds with cattle and sheep during the day and prefer to eat 23 wild plant species, in which 17 species have medicinal values. At night, the pigs are artificially fed and rest in the pigsty. The local Bai and Lisu people have developed a creative food culture, rituals, and festivals culture associated with Gaoligongshan pigs. Overall, the biocultural diversity of Gaoligongshan pig contributes to the in situ conservation of genetic diversity of this important hog landrace, and supports rural development in this remote area.

An extrahepatic manifestation of nephropathies can be a feature of the chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Albuminuria is a major risk factor for nephropathies and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The correlation between HCV genotypes and albuminuria is still unclear. In this study, investigations have been done for the biomedical tools and methodologies used in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) public database. We searched the 2007–2016 NHANES public database to retrieve data regarding the different HCV genotypes and clinical scenarios. This study attempted to investigate the impacts of HCV genetic diversity, associated comorbidities, and racial differences on albuminuria. The urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) was the primary endpoint. Among 40,856 participants, 336 participants with positive and 237 with negative HCV RNA tests were analyzed, excluding 14,454 participants with negative HCV antibodies and 25,828 which were missed. After controlling for sex, race, education level, smoking, diabetes mellitus, hepatitis B, alcohol use, and body mass index (BMI) with a generalized linear equation, HCV genotype 2 was more likely than any other genotype to cause albuminuria based on the urine ACR (p < 0.001). The generalized linear equation also demonstrated a significantly higher urine ACR, including hepatitis B (p < 0.001), diabetes mellitus (p < 0.001), and smoking (p = 0.026). In summary, the patients with HCV genotype 2 presented with increased albuminuria in comparison with other HCV genotypes in this 10-year retrospective analysis. HCV infection could be a risk factor of CKD; early diagnosis and appropriate treatment may improve clinical outcomes.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is largely underdiagnosed. Previous studies using deep neural networks with large datasets have shown that screening AF with a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) during sinus rhythm (SR) is possible. However, the poor availability of these trained models and the small size of the retrievable datasets limit its reproducibility. This study proposes an approach to generate explainable features for detecting AF during SR with limited data. We collected 94,224 12-lead ECGs from 64,196 patients from Taipei Medical University Hospital. We selected ECGs during SR from 213 patients before AF diagnosis and randomly selected 247 age-matched participants without AF records as the controls. We developed a signal-processing technique, MA-UPEMD, to isolate P waves, and quantified the spatial and temporal features using principal component analysis and inter-lead relationships. By combining these features, the machine learning models yielded AUC of 0.64. We showed that, even with this limited dataset, the P wave, representing atrial electrical activity, is depicted by our proposed approach. The extracted features performed better than the bandpass filter-extracted P waves and deep neural network model. We provided a physiologically explainable and reproducible approach for classifying patients with AF during SR.

Flooding is constantly threatening the growth and yield of crops worldwide. When flooding kicks in, the soil becomes water-saturated and, therefore, the roots are the first organs to be exposed to excess water. Soon after flooding, the soil turns anoxic and the roots can no longer obtain molecular oxygen for respiration from the rhizosphere, rendering the roots dysfunctional. Rice, however, is a semi-aquatic plant and therefore relatively tolerant to flooding due to adaptive traits developed during evolution. In the present review, we have identified three key root traits, viz. cortical aerenchyma formation, a barrier to radial oxygen loss and adventitious root growth. The understanding of the physiological function, the molecular mechanisms, and the genetic regulation of these three traits has grown substantially and therefore forms the backbone of this review. Our synthesis of the recent literature shows each of the three key root traits contributes to flood tolerance in rice. One trait, however, is generally insufficient to enhance plant tolerance to flooding. Consequently, we suggest comprehensive use of all three adaptive traits in a pyramiding approach in order to improve tolerance to flooding in our major crops, in general, and in rice, in particular.

Prefabricated composite shear walls (PCSW) consisting of steel plate clapped by single-sided or double-sided prefabricated reinforced concrete (RC) panels have enormous advantages for application as lateral-resisting structures in prefabricated high-rising residential buildings. In this paper, three 1/3-scaled PCSW were manufactured and tested to investigate the seismic performance of PCSW with single-sided or double-sided prefabricated RC panels. The experimental results, including hysteretic and skeleton curves, stiffness and strength degradation, ductility, energy dissipation capability and steel frame effects, were interpreted, compared and summarized. In spite of the RC panels being the same thickness, PCSW with double-sided RC panels had the most outstanding lateral-resisting properties: the highest yield strength and bearing capacity, adequate ductility, plumper and stable hysteresis loop and excellent energy absorption capacity. Finally, a simple predicting equation with a modification coefficient to calculate the effects of boundary steel frame was summarized and proposed to calculate the lateral yield load of the PCSW. All efforts were made to give reliable technical references for the design and construction of the PCSW.

Surgery combined with chemotherapy and precision medicine is the only potential treatment for patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM). The use of modern molecular biotechnology to identify suitable biomarkers is of great significance for predicting prognosis and formulating individualized treatment plans for these patients. BRAF mutations, particularly V600E, are widely believed to be associated with poor prognosis in patients with metastatic CRC (mCRC). However, it is unclear which specific factors affect the prognosis of CRLM patients with BRAF mutations. It is also unknown whether patients with resectable CRLM and BRAF mutations should undergo surgical treatment since there is an increased recurrence rate after surgery in these patients. In this review, we combined the molecular mechanism and clinical characteristics of BRAF mutations to explore the prognostic significance and potential targeted therapy strategies for patients with BRAF-mutated CRLM.

Propofol and fentanyl are commonly used agents for the induction of anesthesia, and are often associated with hemodynamic disturbances. Understanding pharmacodynamic impacts is vital for parasympathetic and sympathetic tones during the anesthesia induction period. Inspired by the thermodynamic interaction between drug concentrations and effects, we established a machine-learning-based response surface model (MLRSM) to address this predicament. Then, we investigated and modeled the biomedical phenomena in the autonomic nervous system. Our study prospectively enrolled 60 patients, and the participants were assigned to two groups randomly and equally. Group 1 received propofol first, followed by fentanyl, and the drug sequence followed an inverse procedure in Group 2. Then, we extracted and analyzed the spectrograms of electrocardiography (ECG) and pulse photoplethysmography (PPG) signals after induction of propofol and fentanyl. Eventually, we utilized the proposed MLRSM to evaluate the relationship between anesthetics and the integrity/balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity by employing the power of high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) bands and PPG amplitude (PPGA). It is worth emphasizing that the proposed MLRSM exhibits a similar mathematical form to the conventional Greco model, but with better computational performance. Furthermore, the MLRSM has a theoretical foundation and flexibility for arbitrary numbers of drug combinations. The modeling results are consistent with the previous literature. We employed the bootstrap algorithm to inspect the results’ consistency and measure the various statistical fluctuations. Then, the comparison between the modeling and the bootstrapping results was used to validate the statistical stability and the feasibility of the proposed MLRSM.

Harvested water bamboo shoots can be stored for only a few days before they lose weight and become soft. Nitrogen oxide (NO) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) have previously been used to prolong horticultural crop storage. In the present study, we analyzed the joint effect of these two methods on extending the postharvest quality of water bamboo shoots. Water bamboo shoots were treated with (1) 30 μL L−1 NO, (2) MAP, and (3) a combination of NO and MAP. The NO treatment delayed the softness and weight loss through maintaining the integrity of the mitochondrial ultrastructure and enhancing the ATP level by activating the expressions and activities of succinic dehydrogenase, malic acid dehydrogenase, and cytochrome oxidase. MAP improved the effect of NO on the mitochondrial energy metabolism. These results indicate that NO and MAP treatments are effective at suppressing the quality deterioration of water bamboo shoots, MAP improves the effect of NO in extending postharvest life, and NO may be the main effective factor in the combination of NO and MAP.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum causes devastating diseases in many agriculturally important crops, including oilseed rape and sunflower. However, the mechanisms of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum pathogenesis remain poorly understood. In this study, we characterized a YML079-like cupin protein (SsYCP1) from Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. We showed that SsYCP1 is strongly expressed and secreted during Sclerotinia sclerotiorum infection. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum infection was promoted by SsYCP1 overexpression and inhibited by silencing this gene with synthetic double-stranded RNA. These results collectively indicate SsYCP1 as a putative effector protein that contributes to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum pathogenicity. These findings extend our understanding of effector-mediated Sclerotinia sclerotiorum pathogenesis and suggest a novel role for YML079-like cupin proteins in plant–pathogen interactions.

Chilling stress greatly inhibited the seed germination, plant growth, development and productivity in this study. The current research aimed to study the effects of different polyamine (PA) inhibitor combinations (Co), e.g., D-arginine (D-Arg), difluoromethylormithine (DFMO), aminoguanidine (Ag) and methylglyoxyl–bis-(guanyhydrazone) (MGBG) at different doses, i.e., 10 µM Co, 100 µM Co, 500 µM Co, 1000 µM Co and 1000 µM Co + 1 mM Spd (Spermidine) in two inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.), i.e., Mo17 and Huang C, a sensitive and tolerant chilling stress, respectively. The combination treatments of PA inhibitors reduced the biosynthesis of putrescine (Put) in the tissues of both studied inbred lines. Application with 500 µM Co and 1000 µM Co did not result in a significant difference in Put concentrations, except in the coleoptile of Mo17. However, combining Spd to 1000 μM of PA inhibitors enhanced the Put, Spd, spermine (Spm) and total PAs in the roots, coleoptile and mesocotyls. Put and total PAs were increased by 39.7% and 30.54%, respectively, when Spd + 1000 µM Co were applied relative to their controls. Chilling stress and PA inhibitors treatments affected both inbred lines and resulted in differences in the PA contents. Results showed that enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of PAs (ornithine decarboxylase as ODC and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase as SAMDC) were significantly downregulated by 1000 µM Co in the tissues of both inbred lines. In contrast, the activity of PAO, a Pas degradation enzyme, was significantly improved by 1000 µM Co under chilling stress. However, Spd + 1000 µM Co significantly improved the activities of ODC and SAMDC and their transcript levels (ODC and SAMDC2). While it significantly downregulated the PAO activity and their relative genes (PAO1, PAO2 and PAO3) under chilling stress. Overall, this study elucidates the specific roles of Spd on the pathway of PA inhibitors and PA biosynthesis metabolism in maize seed development in response to chilling stress. Moreover, the Huang C inbred line was more tolerant than Mo17, which was reflected by higher activities of PA biosynthesis-related enzymes and lower activities of PAs’ degradative-related enzymes in Huang C.

To verify the positioning performance and reliability of multi-system combination Precise Point Positioning in landslide monitoring, we carried out a multi-system combination Precise Point Positioning calculation experiment on the monitoring data of a single landslide disaster area in Fujian Province. The coordinates of the monitoring points obtained by a continuously operating reference station and the monitoring station for static relative positioning were used as reference values. The GPS system was used as the standard system and the combined PPP solution mode of G/R/C, G/R/E and G/R/E/C was used to obtain the surface displacement of the landslide area. The research showed that multi-system combination PPP converges to the centimeter level in about 30 min. The average value of internal accordant precision was more than 1 mm after convergence, and that of the external accordant precision was more than 5 cm, which meets the centimeter-level accuracy requirements in rapid landslide deformation monitoring.

Liquid biopsy with circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) profiling by next-generation sequencing holds great promise to revolutionize clinical oncology. It relies on the basis that ctDNA represents the real-time status of the tumor genome which contains information of genetic alterations. Compared to tissue biopsy, liquid biopsy possesses great advantages such as a less demanding procedure, minimal invasion, ease of frequent sampling, and less sampling bias. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods have come to a point that both the cost and performance are suitable for clinical diagnosis. Thus, profiling ctDNA by NGS technologies is becoming more and more popular since it can be applied in the whole process of cancer diagnosis and management. Further developments of liquid biopsy ctDNA testing will be beneficial for cancer patients, paving the way for precision medicine. In conclusion, profiling ctDNA with NGS for cancer diagnosis is both biologically sound and technically convenient.

The effectiveness of weight loss treatment displays dramatic inter-individual variabilities, even with well-controlled energy intake/expenditure. This study aimed to determine the association between daily rhythms of cardiac autonomic control and weight loss efficiency and to explore the potential relevance to weight loss resistance in humans carrying the genetic variant C at CLOCK 3111T/C. A total of 39 overweight/obese Caucasian women (20 CLOCK 3111C carriers and 19 non-carriers) completed a behaviour–dietary obesity treatment of ~20 weeks, during which body weight was assessed weekly. Ambulatory electrocardiographic data were continuously collected for up to 3.5 days and used to quantify the daily rhythm of fractal cardiac dynamics (FCD), a non-linear measure of autonomic function. FCD showed a 24 h rhythm (p < 0.001). Independent of energy intake and physical activity level, faster weight loss was observed in individuals with the phase (peak) of the rhythm between ~2–8 p.m. and with a larger amplitude. Interestingly, the phase effect was significant only in C carriers (p = 0.008), while the amplitude effect was only significant in TT carriers (p < 0.0001). The daily rhythm of FCD and CLOCK 3111T/C genotype is linked to weight loss response interactively, suggesting complex interactions between the genetics of the circadian clock, the daily rhythm of autonomic control, and energy balance control.

Conventionally, Cu is preferred over Al to fabricate integrated inductors with higher quality factors on either silicon or sapphire substrates, profiting from its lower resistivity. However, after investigating and comparing these two kinds of metal multilayers in terms of fabrication process, electrical conductivity, in-depth profile analysis and performance of actual inductors, the Al-based metal multilayer exhibits competitive ability in fabricating thin-film inductors on sapphire compared to Cu-based multilayers. This is attributed to the degradation in electrical conductivity out of oxidation of Cu-based metal sublayers or forming alloys between them. Furthermore, in order to avoid complicated de-embedding procedures in the characterization of the on-chip inductors, a six-element equivalent physical model, which takes the parasitic effect of radio-frequency (RF) test structures into account, is proposed and validated by matching well with embedded measurement results.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a fatal disease—even with state-of-the-art medical treatment. Non-invasive clinical tools for risk stratification are still lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical utility of heart rhythm complexity in risk stratification for PH patients. We prospectively enrolled 54 PH patients, including 20 high-risk patients (group A; defined as WHO functional class IV or class III with severely compromised hemodynamics), and 34 low-risk patients (group B). Both linear and non-linear heart rate variability (HRV) variables, including detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and multiscale entropy (MSE), were analyzed. In linear and non-linear HRV analysis, low frequency and high frequency ratio, DFAα1, MSE slope 5, scale 5, and area 6–20 were significantly lower in group A. Among all HRV variables, MSE scale 5 (AUC: 0.758) had the best predictive power to discriminate the two groups. In multivariable analysis, MSE scale 5 (p = 0.010) was the only significantly predictor of severe PH in all HRV variables. In conclusion, the patients with severe PH had worse heart rhythm complexity. MSE parameters, especially scale 5, can help to identify high-risk PH patients.

Periodontitis, an infectious disease originating from dental biofilms that causes the irreversible loss of alveolar bone, is accompanied by gradual biofilm formation and the continuous progression of inflammation. A small peptide derived from penetratin, Arg-Gln-Ile-Arg-Arg-Trp-Trp-Gln-Arg-NH2 (RR9), appears to have antibacterial properties against selected strains associated with periodontitis. The purpose of this research is to assess the antibacterial activity and mechanism of RR9 against the initial oral colonizers Streptococci oralis, Streptococci gordonii, and Streptococci sanguinis and to investigate the cytotoxicity of RR9 on human gingival fibroblasts in vitro. The effects of RR9 on the initial oral settlers of planktonic and biofilm states were evaluated by measuring the MIC, MBC, bactericidal kinetics, and antibiofilm activity. Visual evidence and antibacterial mechanisms were identified, and the anti-inflammatory activity and cytotoxicity were measured. The results demonstrated that RR9 can inhibit the growth of streptococci in the planktonic state and during biofilm formation in vitro while keeping a low toxicity against eukaryotic cells. The antibacterial mechanism was proven to be related to the lower expression of sspA in streptococci. RR9 may be used as a potential antimicrobial and anti-infective agent for periodontal disease.

The inter-satellite relative navigation method—based on radio frequency (RF) range and angle measurements—offers good autonomy and high precision, and has been successfully applied to two-satellite formation missions. However, two main challenges occur when this method is applied to multi-microsatellite formations: (i) the implementation difficulty of the inter-satellite RF angle measurement increases significantly as the number of satellites increases; and (ii) there is no high-precision, scalable RF measurement scheme or corresponding multi-satellite relative navigation algorithm that supports multi-satellite formations. Thus, a novel multi-satellite relative navigation scheme based on inter-satellite RF range and angle measurements is proposed. The measurement layer requires only a small number of chief satellites, and a novel distributed multi-satellite range measurement scheme is adopted to meet the scalability requirement. An inter-satellite relative navigation algorithm for multi-satellite formations is also proposed. This algorithm achieves high-precision relative navigation by fusing the algorithm and measurement layers. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme requires only three chief satellites to perform inter-satellite angle measurements. Moreover, with the typical inter-satellite measurement accuracy and an inter-satellite distance of around 1 km, the proposed scheme achieves a multi-satellite relative navigation accuracy of ~30 cm, which is about the same as the relative navigation accuracy of two-satellite formations. Furthermore, decreasing the number of chief satellites only slightly degrades accuracy, thereby significantly reducing the implementation difficulty of multi-satellite RF angle measurements.

Antimicrobial peptides from amphibian skin secretion display remarkable broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and are thus promising for the discovery of new antibiotics. In this study, we report a novel peptide belonging to the phylloseptin family of antimicrobial peptides, from the skin secretion of the purple-sided leaf frog, Phyllomedusa baltea, which was named Phylloseptin-PBa. Degenerate primers complementary to putative signal peptide sites of frog skin peptide precursor-encoding cDNAs were designed to interrogate a skin secretion-derived cDNA library from this frog. Subsequently, the peptide was isolated and identified using reverse phase HPLC and MS/MS fragmentation. The synthetic replicate was demonstrated to have activity against S. aureus, E. coli and C. albicans at concentrations of 8, 128 and 8 mg/L, respectively. In addition, it exhibited anti-proliferative activity against the human cancer cell lines, H460, PC3 and U251MG, but was less active against a normal human cell line (HMEC). Furthermore, a haemolysis assay was performed to assess mammalian cell cytotoxicity of Phylloseptin-PBa. This peptide contained a large proportion of α-helical domain, which may explain its antimicrobial and anticancer activities.

The dynamics of human electroencephalography (EEG) have been proved to be related to cognitive activities. This study separately assessed the two EEG components, amplitude and rhythm, aiming to capture their individual contributions to cognitive functions. We extracted the local peaks of EEGs under rest or photic stimulation and calculated the symbolic dynamics of their voltages (amplitude) and interpeak intervals (instantaneous frequency), individually. The sample consisted of 89 geriatric outpatients in three patient groups: 38 fresh cases of vascular dementia (VD), 22 fresh cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 29 controls. Both sample entropy and number of forbidden words revealed significantly less regular symbolic dynamics in the whole EEG tracings of the VD than the AD and control groups. We found consistent results between groups with the symbolic dynamics in the local-peak voltage sequence rather than the interpeak interval sequence. Photic stimulation amplified the differences between groups. These results suggest that the EEG dynamics which relates to either cognitive functions or the underlying pathologies of dementia are embedded within the dynamics of the amount of but not the interval between each synchronized firing of adjacent cerebral neurons.

Aquatic vegetation plays an important role in maintaining the balance of lake ecosystems. Thus, classifying and mapping aquatic vegetation is a priority for lake management. Classification tree (CT) approaches have been used successfully to map aquatic vegetation from spectral indices obtained from remotely sensed images. However, due to the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, applying a CT model developed for imagery from one date to imagery from another date or a different dataset likely would reduce the classification accuracy. In this study, three spectral features (SFs) were selected to develop a CT model for identifying aquatic vegetation in Taihu Lake. Three traditional CT models with three SFs were developed using CT analysis based on satellite images acquired on 11 July, 16 August and 26 September 2013, and corresponding ground-truth samples, from the Huangjing-1A/B Charge-Coupled Device (HJ-CCD) images, environment and disaster reduction small satellites that were launched by China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA). The overall accuracies of traditional CT models were 82%, 80% and 84%. We then tested two methods to modify CT model thresholds to adjust the traditional CT models based on image date to determine if the results would enable us to map and classify aquatic vegetation for periods when no ground-based data were available. We assessed the results with ground-truth samples and area agreement with traditional CT models. Results showed that CT models modified from a linear adjustment based on the relationship between ranked values of SFs between two image dates produced map accuracies comparable with those obtained from the traditional CT models and suggest that the method we proposed is feasible for mapping aquatic vegetation types in lakes when ground data are not available.

Phosphorus (P) is an important substance for the growth of phytoplankton and an efficient index to assess the water quality. However, estimation of the TP concentration in waters by remote sensing must be associated with optical substances such as the chlorophyll-a (Chla) and the suspended particulate matter (SPM). Based on the good correlation between the suspended inorganic matter (SPIM) and P in Lake Hongze, we used the direct and indirect derivation methods to develop algorithms for the total phosphorus (TP) estimation with the MODIS/Aqua data. Results demonstrate that the direct derivation algorithm based on 645 nm and 1240 nm of the MODIS/Aqua performs a satisfied accuracy (R2 = 0.75, RMSE = 0.029mg/L, MRE = 39% for the training dataset, R2 = 0.68, RMSE = 0.033mg/L, MRE = 47% for the validate dataset), which is better than that of the indirect derivation algorithm. The 645 nm and 1240 nm of MODIS are the main characteristic band of the SPM, so that algorithm can effectively reflect the P variations in Lake Hongze. Additionally, the ratio of the TP to the SPM is positively correlated with the accuracy of the algorithm as well. The proportion of the SPIM in the SPM has a complex effect on the accuracy of the algorithm. When the SPIM accounts for 78%, the algorithm achieves the highest accuracy. Furthermore, the performance of this direct derivation algorithm was examined in two inland lakes in China (Lake Nanyi and Lake Chaohu), it derived the expected P distribution in Lake Nanyi whereas the algorithm failed in Lake Chaohu. Different water properties influence significantly the accuracy of this direct derivation algorithm, while the TP, Chla, and suspended particular inorganic matter (SPOM) of Lake Chaohu are much higher than those of the other two lakes, thus it is difficult to estimate the TP concentration by a simple band combination in Lake Chaohu. Although the algorithm depends on the dataset used in the development, it usually presents a good estimation for those waters where the SPIM dominated, especially when the SPIM accounts for 60% to 80% of the SPM. This research proposed a direct derivation algorithm for the TP estimation for the turbid lake and will provide a theoretical and practical reference for extending the optical remote sensing application and the TP empirical algorithm of Lake Hongze’s help for the local government management water quality.

The dermaseptin peptides, mainly derived from the skin secretions of Hylidae frogs, belong to a superfamily of antimicrobial peptides and exhibit diverse antimicrobial and anticancer activities with low cytotoxicity. Here, we reported a novel dermaseptin peptide, from the South American orange-legged leaf frogs, Pithecopus (Phyllomedusa) hypochondrialis, processing the shortest peptide length, namely Dermaseptin-PH. The complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding biosynthetic precursor of Dermaseptin-PH was initially identified by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends PCR (RACE-PCR) technique from the skin secretion. The predicted primary structure was confirmed by a combination of reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and MS/MS fragmentation from the skin secretion. Chemically-synthetic Dermaseptin-PH was investigated using a range of bioactivity assessment assays to evaluate the biological activities and cytotoxicity of Dermaseptin-PH. Dermaseptin-PH inhibited the growth of Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, and pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. In addition, Dermaseptin-PH showed a broad-spectrum of anticancer activities against several cancer cell lines including MCF-7, H157, U251MG, MDA-MB-435S, and PC-3. The potent antimicrobial and anticancer activities of Dermaseptin-PH make it a promising candidate in the discovery of new drugs for clinical applications, and the relatively short sequence of Dermaseptin-PH can provide new insight for the research and structural modification of new peptide drugs.

Stress development is one of the significant factors leading to the failure of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. In this work, stress development in the two phase mixed zone named phase transition layer (PTL), which grows between the thermally grown oxide (TGO) and the bond coat (BC), is investigated by using two different homogenization models. A constitutive equation of the PTL based on the Reuss model is proposed to study the stresses in the PTL. The stresses computed with the proposed constitutive equation are compared with those obtained with Voigt model-based equation in detail. The stresses based on the Voigt model are slightly higher than those based on the Reuss model. Finally, a further study is carried out to explore the influence of phase transition proportions on the stress difference caused by homogenization models. Results show that the stress difference becomes more evident with the increase of the PTL thickness ratio in the TGO.