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The combination of the dark fiber in existing Optical Fiber Composite Overhead Ground Wire (OPGW) with Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing (DOFS) technology can be used to enable online monitoring and provide early warnings of anomalies in high-voltage transmission lines. Accurate mapping of the optical cable length to the geographic coordinates of actual towers is a key factor in achieving this goal. This paper discusses the principle of using a DOFS system for transmission line tower positioning and presents four available positioning features. To overcome the limitations of single physical parameter positioning, this paper presents a self-developed hybrid DOFS that simultaneously captures Rayleigh backscattering and Brillouin scattering signals. Several physical parameters, including temperature, strain, and vibration, are acquired synchronously. Through hybrid multi-parameter analysis, the rapid and accurate positioning of OPGW line towers is achieved. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method, based on the hybrid DOFS system, can locate up to 82 towers, while the traditional method could only identify 12. The hybrid system was able to complete 80% of the tension towers in 40 h. This paper presents a novel multi-parameter localization method that has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of grid operation and maintenance.

Submerged tensioned anchor cables (STACs) are pivotal components utilized extensively for anchoring and supporting offshore floating structures. Unlike tensioned cables in air, STACs exhibit distinctive nonlinear damping characteristics. Although existing studies on the free vibration response and tension identification of STACs often employ conventional Galerkin and average methods, the effect of the quadratic damping coefficient (QDC) on the vibration frequency remains unquantified. This paper re-examines the effect of bending stiffness on the static equilibrium configuration of STACs, and establishes the in-plane transverse free motion equations considering bending stiffness, sag, and hydrodynamic force. By introducing the bending stiffness influence coefficient and the Irvine parameter, the exact analytical solutions of symmetric and antisymmetric frequencies and modal shapes of STACs are derived. An improved Galerkin method is proposed to discretize the nonlinear free motion equations ensuring the accuracy and applicability of the analytical results. Additionally, this paper presents an analytical solution for the nonlinear free vibration response of the STACs using the improved averaging method, along with improved frequency formulas and tension identification methods considering the QDC. Through a case study, it is demonstrated that the improved methods introduced in this paper offer higher accuracy and wider applicability compared to the conventional approaches. These findings provide theoretical guidance and reference for the precise dynamic analysis, monitoring, and evaluation of marine anchor cable structures.

Thermoinhibition refers to the inability of seeds to germinate when inhibited by high temperatures, but when environmental conditions return to normal, the seeds are able to germinate rapidly again, which is different from thermodormancy. Meanwhile, with global warming, the effect of the thermoinhibition phenomenon on the yield and quality of crops in agricultural production is becoming common. Lettuce, as a horticultural crop sensitive to high temperature, is particularly susceptible to the effects of thermoinhibition, resulting in yield reduction. Therefore, it is crucial to elucidate the intrinsic mechanism of action of thermoinhibition in lettuce seeds. This review mainly outlines several factors affecting thermoinhibition of lettuce seed germination, including endosperm hardening, alteration of endogenous or exogenous phytohormone concentrations, action of photosensitizing pigments, production and inhibition of metabolites, maternal effects, genetic expression, and other physical and chemical factors. Finally, we also discuss the challenges and potential of lettuce seed germination thermoinhibition research. The purpose of this study is to provide theoretical support for future research on lettuce seed germination thermoinhibition, and with the aim of revealing the mechanisms and effects behind lettuce seed thermoinhibition. This will enable the identification of more methods to alleviate seed thermoinhibition or the development of superior heat-tolerant lettuce seeds.

Spin-gapless semiconductor (SGS), a class of zero-gap materials with fully spin-polarized electrons and holes, offers significant potential for high-speed, low-energy consumption applications in spintronics, electronics, and optoelectronics. Our first-principles calculations revealed that the Pca21 C4N3 monolayer exhibits a ferromagnetic ground state. Its band structure displays SGS-like characteristics, with the energy gap between the valence and conduction bands near the Fermi level in the spin-down channel much smaller than the one in the other spin channel. To enhance its SGS properties, we introduced electrons into the Pca21 C4N3 monolayer by adsorbing the CO gas molecule on its surface. Stable gas adsorption (CO@C4N3) effectively narrowed the band gap in the spin-down channel without changing the band gap in the spin-up channel obviously. Moreover, injecting holes into the CO@C4N3 system could increase the net magnetic moments and induce an SGS-to-metallic phase transition, while injecting electrons into the CO@C4N3 system is able to lower the net magnetic moments and cause an SGS-to-half-metallic phase transition. Our findings not only underscore a new promising material for practical metal-free spintronics applications but also illustrate a viable pathway for designing SGSs.

Cyclophilin A (CypA), the cellular receptor of the immunosuppressant cyclosporin A (CsA), is an abundant cytosolic protein and is involved in a variety of diseases. For example, CypA supports cancer proliferation and mediates viral infections, such as the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). Here, we present the design of PROTAC (proteolysis targeting chimera) compounds against CypA to induce its intracellular proteolysis and to investigate their effect on immune cells. Interestingly, upon connecting to E3 ligase ligands, both peptide-based low-affinity binders and CsA-based high-affinity binders can degrade CypA at nM concentration in HeLa cells and fibroblast cells. As the immunosuppressive effect of CsA is not directly associated with the binding of CsA to CypA but the inhibition of phosphatase calcineurin by the CypA:CsA complex, we investigated whether a CsA-based PROTAC compound could induce CypA degradation without affecting the activation of immune cells. P3, the most efficient PROTAC compound discovered from this study, could deplete CypA in lymphocytes without affecting cell proliferation and cytokine production. This work demonstrates the feasibility of the PROTAC approach in depleting the abundant cellular protein CypA at low drug dosage without affecting immune cells, allowing us to investigate the potential therapeutic effects associated with the endogenous protein in the future.

Caspase-8, a member of the caspase family, is an initiating caspase and plays a crucial role in apoptosis. In this study, the full-length cDNA of caspase8-like (CASP8-like) was isolated from Crassostrea hongkongensis (C. hongkongensis) by RACE-PCR. ChCASP8-like contained a 1599-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 533 amino acids with two conserved death effector domains (DEDs) and a cysteine aspartase cysteine structural domain (CASc). Amino acid sequence comparison showed that ChCASP8-like shared the highest identity (85.4%) with CASP8-like of C. angulata. The tissue expression profile showed that ChCASP8-like was constitutively expressed in gills, hepatopancreas, mantle, adductor muscle, hemocytes and gonads, and was significantly upregulated in hemocytes, hepatopancreas and gills under hyper-salinity stress. The apoptosis-related genes, including ATR, CHK1, BCL-XL, CASP8-like, CASP9 and CASP3, were significantly activated by hyper-salinity stress, but were remarkably inhibited by ChCASP8-like silencing. The caspase 8 activity was increased by 1.7-fold after hyper-salinity stress, and was inhibited by 9.4% by ChCASP8-like silencing. Moreover, ChCASP8-like silencing clearly alleviated the apoptosis resulting from hyper-salinity stress. These results collectively demonstrated that ChCASP8-like played a crucial role in inducing apoptosis against hyper-salinity stress.

People with upper limb disabilities or high quadriplegia have extremely high requirements for the maneuverability and functionality of power wheelchairs. Normal wheelchairs cannot meet travel tasks, while smart customized wheelchairs are expensive and cannot be popularized. Therefore, a novel extension control instrument for power wheelchairs with low cost, strong scalability, and convenient usage is proposed, which can realize the control of the wheelchair by sensing a change of head posture. The device is divided into a head motion sensing unit (HMSU) and a wheelchair assistance control unit (WACU). The mapping relationship between the head attitude and the subject’s motion intention is established. The inertial measurement module in the HMSU collects the head attitude data and uses the Kalman filtering method to obtain the accurate Euler angle. The WACU is fixed on the original controller of the wheelchair. The joystick is inserted into the extended control mechanism and controlled, instead of the hand, through a 2-degree-of-freedom servo system combined with the pinion and rack push rod structure, thus controlling the movement of the wheelchair. In proceeding, the system can also detect the distance of objects in the environment in real time through the three-direction (front, left, right) ultrasonic ranging sensors installed on the WACU, with a certain obstacle avoidance function. The prototype experiments prove that the extension control instrument developed in this paper based on the Kalman filter can quickly and accurately identify head motion and accurately control the movement of the wheelchair. It is easy to operate and has strong universality, which presents a new low-cost solution for the travel of patients with disabilities.

As the main organic materials, straw and manure play a critical role in soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and crop yield in China. This meta-analysis evaluated the impact of straw and manure amendments, both individually and combined, on crop yield, SOC, and soil nutrients in China by collecting 173 studies. The findings of this study revealed that straw return and manure application increased crop yields by 14.4% and 70.4%, respectively, overall. Combined straw and manure application gained a better improvement effect than straw alone but was less effective than manure alone. Regarding the straw return results, rice straw and a 3000–6000 kg ha−1 returning quantity improved crop yield, SOC, available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and total nitrogen (TN) the most; regarding the straw return form, straw incorporated into soil and biochar increased crop yield and SOC more, respectively; and

CeO2 is an outstanding support commonly used for the CuO-based CO oxidation catalysts due to its excellent redox property and oxygen storage–release property. However, the inherently small specific surface area of CeO2 support restricts the further enhancement of its catalytic performance. In this work, the novel mesoporous CeO2 nanosphere with a large specific surface area (~190.4 m2/g) was facilely synthesized by the improved hydrothermal method. The large specific surface area of mesoporous CeO2 nanosphere could be successfully maintained even at high temperatures up to 500 °C, exhibiting excellent thermal stability. Then, a series of CuO-based CO oxidation catalysts were prepared with the mesoporous CeO2 nanosphere as the support. The large surface area of the mesoporous CeO2 nanosphere support could greatly promote the dispersion of CuO active sites. The effects of the CuO loading amount, the calcination temperature, mesostructure, and redox property on the performances of CO oxidation were systematically investigated. It was found that high Cu+ concentration and lattice oxygen content in mesoporous CuO/CeO2 nanosphere catalysts greatly contributed to enhancing the performances of CO oxidation. Therefore, the present mesoporous CeO2 nanosphere with its large specific surface area was considered a promising support for advanced CO oxidation and even other industrial catalysts.

In this work, to promote the separation of photogenerated carriers, prevent the catalyst from photo-corrosion, and improve the photo-Fenton synergistic degradation of organic pollutants, the coating structure of FeOOH/BiO2−x rich in oxygen vacancies was successfully synthesized by a facile and environmentally friendly two-step process of hydrothermal and chemical deposition. Through a series of degradation activity tests of synthesized materials under different conditions, it was found that FeOOH/BiO2−x demonstrated outstanding organic pollutant degradation activity under visible and near-infrared light when hydrogen peroxide was added. After 90 min of reaction under photo-Fenton conditions, the degradation rate of Methylene Blue by FeOOH/BiO2−x was 87.4%, significantly higher than the degradation efficiency under photocatalysis (60.3%) and Fenton (49.0%) conditions. The apparent rate constants of FeOOH/BiO2−x under photo-Fenton conditions were 2.33 times and 3.32 times higher than photocatalysis and Fenton catalysis, respectively. The amorphous FeOOH was tightly coated on the layered BiO2−x, which significantly increased the specific surface area and the number of active sites of the composites, and facilitated the improvement of the separation efficiency of the photogenerated carriers and the prevention of photo-corrosion of BiO2−x. The analysis of the mechanism of photo-Fenton synergistic degradation clarified that ·OH, h+, and ·O2− are the main active substances involved in the degradation of pollutants. The optimal degradation conditions were the addition of the FeOOH/BiO2−x composite catalyst loaded with 20% Fe at a concentration of 0.5 g/L, the addition of hydrogen peroxide at a concentration of 8 mM, and an initial pH of 4. This outstanding catalytic system offers a fresh approach to the creation and processing of iron-based photo-Fenton catalysts by quickly and efficiently degrading various organic contaminants.

Safety barriers (SBs) are important means of reducing failure risks of process systems. As barriers vary in type and function, their effectiveness needs to be evaluated in order to find a more reasonable configuration strategy. However, in practice, there is often a lack of accurate and complete data relating to SBs, which poses a significant challenge in quantitatively assessing their effectiveness. To address this issue, in this study, we propose a semi-quantitative approach for evaluating the effectiveness of both preventive and protective barriers in process systems by integrating expert elicitation, interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IVIFNs), and a bow-tie model. In this approach, the bow-tie model is first applied to describe the system failure scenarios and the action phases of the barriers, and then IVIFNs with expert judgment are introduced to obtain the failure probabilities of basic events and the effects of SBs. Subsequently, the effectiveness of each barrier is measured by comparing the relative change in failure risk due to the addition of the barrier. To verify the feasibility of this approach, a natural gas storage tank with some barriers was analyzed. The results show that the regular inspection of the deformation or damage of the storage tank has the highest effectiveness, followed by the installation and regular maintenance of safety electrical equipment. Furthermore, compared to a single barrier, multiple barriers can significantly reduce the system risk.

The Hulan River Basin is located in the black soil region of northeast China. This region is an important food-producing area and the susceptibility of black soil to erosion increases the risk of soil erosion, which is a serious environmental problem that affects agricultural productivity, water supply, and other important aspects of the region. In this paper, the changes in LULC (land use and land cover) in the basin between 2001 and 2020 were thoroughly analysed using GIS (geographic information system) and USLE (universal soil loss equation) models. The soil erosion risk in the Hulan River Basin between 2001 and 2020 was also studied and soil erosion hot spots were identified to target those that remained significant even under the implementation of soil conservation measures. Precipitation data were used to obtain the R factor distribution, LULC classification was adopted to assess the C factor distribution, soil data were employed to estimate the K factor distribution, DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data were used to generate an LS factor map, and slope and LULC data were considered to produce a P factor distribution map. These factors were based on the model parameters of the USLE. The findings of LULC change analysis over the last 20 years indicated that, while there have been nonobvious changes, agricultural land has continued to occupy the bulk of the area in the Hulan River Basin. The increase in areas used for human activities was the most notable trend. In 2001, the model-predicted soil erosion rate varied between 0 and 120 t/ha/yr, with an average of 4.63 t/ha/yr. By 2020, the estimated soil erosion rate varied between 0 and 193 t/ha/yr, with an average of 7.34 t/ha/yr. The Hulan River Basin was classified into five soil erosion risk categories. Most categories encompassed extremely low-risk levels and, over the past 20 years, the northeastern hilly regions of the basin have experienced the highest concentration of risk change areas. The northeastern hilly and mountainous regions comprised the risk change area and the regions that are most susceptible to erosion exhibited a high concentration of human production activities. In fact, the combined use of GIS and USLE modelling yielded erosion risk areas for mapping risk classes; these results could further assist local governments in improving soil conservation efforts.

This study investigated the influence of instability on the interaction between sub-millimeter liquid droplets and shock waves. Experiments were conducted using 0.42 mm diameter droplets with varying shock wave Mach numbers. The investigation quantified the effects of Weber numbers and initial diameters on the development of Rayleigh–Taylor and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities at the shock wave–sub-millimeter liquid droplet interface. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed to investigate the deformation and breakup behaviors of sub-millimeter liquid droplets under the impact of a shock wave with a Mach number of 2.12. The post-shock gas flow environment in this condition was in a supersonic state. The simulations utilized the volume-of-fluid method to model the gas–liquid interface, employed unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes methods to simulate turbulence, and incorporated grid gradient adaptive technology to enhance computational efficiency. The results revealed that by increasing the Weber number or decreasing the initial diameter, both the growth rate and the wavenumber extremum of the Rayleigh–Taylor and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability waves increased. The variation in the K–H instability’s growth rate extremum increasing Weber number surpassed that of the R–T’s instability. This indicated that both the R–T and K–H waves on sub-millimeter liquid droplets tended to exhibit increased growth rates and reduced scales. Moreover, as the Weber number increased, the K–H instability became dominant in the aerodynamic fragmentation. The numerical simulations showed good qualitative agreement with the experimental data, affirming the viability of numerical methods for addressing such challenges. The evolution of the sub-millimeter liquid droplets was marked by two primary stages, flattening and shear stripping, signifying that the K–H instability-driven SIE mechanism governed the aerodynamic breakup in the supersonic post-shock airflow.

Since their birth in the 1990s, social enterprises, as a kind of third-party organization with the attributes of both a not-for-profit entity and a profit-making enterprise, have played a significant role in the socio-economic development of cities, in particular those facing the challenge of shrinking. But why are social enterprises so deeply embedded in the regeneration process of shrinking cities, and how do they promote their multi-dimensional revitalization? In order to answer these questions, this paper presents a case study on Shimizusawa in Japan based on a literature review and field research. In line with the embeddedness and institution–function–instrument theories, it reviews the revitalization of Shimizusawa by involving a social enterprise in the adaptive reuse of industrial heritage sites and the development of industrial tourism, analyzes the establishment process and organizational characteristics of this social enterprise, and summarizes the four major experiences of its practice—that is, the governance structure of two types of institutions and two types of functions, the planning for both profitable and non-profitable activities, the operation of both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, and the fund management of leveraging multiple parties to raise funds and reinvesting the profits locally. The extensive support provided by the Shimizusawa Social Enterprise that creates not only economic value but also social value justifies the significant role of social enterprises in the revitalization of shrinking industrial areas. This case study, together with its analytical framework, may serve as a meaningful reference for the revitalization of shrinking industrial areas in other parts of the world.

Although repolarization has been suggested to propagate in cardiac tissue both theoretically and experimentally, it has been challenging to estimate how and to what extent the propagation of repolarization contributes to relaxation because repolarization only occurs in the course of membrane excitation in normal hearts. We established a mathematical model of a 1D strand of 600 myocytes stabilized at an equilibrium potential near the plateau potential level by introducing a sustained component of the late sodium current (INaL). By applying a hyperpolarizing stimulus to a small part of the strand, we succeeded in inducing repolarization which propagated along the strand at a velocity of 1~2 cm/s. The ionic mechanisms responsible for repolarization at the myocyte level, i.e., the deactivation of both the INaL and the L-type calcium current (ICaL), and the activation of the rapid component of delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) and the inward rectifier potassium channel (IK1), were found to be important for the propagation of repolarization in the myocyte strand. Using an analogy with progressive activation of the sodium current (INa) in the propagation of excitation, regenerative activation of the predominant magnitude of IK1 makes the myocytes at the wave front start repolarization in succession through the electrical coupling via gap junction channels.

Distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFSs) are a promising technology for their unique advantage of long-distance distributed measurements in industrial applications. In recent years, modern industrial monitoring has called for comprehensive multi-parameter measurements to accurately identify fault events. The hybrid DOFS technology, which combines the Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman scattering mechanisms and integrates multiple DOFS systems in a single configuration, has attracted growing attention and has been developed rapidly. Compared to a single DOFS system, the multi-parameter measurements based on hybrid DOFS offer multidimensional valuable information to prevent misjudgments and false alarms. The highly integrated sensing structure enables more efficient and cost-effective monitoring in engineering. This review highlights the latest progress of the hybrid DOFS technology for multi-parameter measurements. The basic principles of the light-scattering-based DOFSs are initially introduced, and then the methods and sensing performances of various techniques are successively described. The challenges and prospects of the hybrid DOFS technology are discussed in the end, aiming to pave the way for a vaster range of applications.

Network traffic between data centers has grown rapidly in recent years. Therefore, an optical modulation format with high spectral efficiency is desired in inter-data center links at data rates of more than 400 Gb/s in each wavelength. In order to further improve the transmission performance in single-span inter-data center links, a nonlinearity-tolerant probabilistically-shaped 4D modulation format with a spectral efficiency of 9 bits/4D symbol is proposed. The proposed modulation format fills the gap between polarization-multiplexed 16- and 32-ary quadrature-amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM and PM-32QAM). In numerical simulations, we compare our proposed modulation format with probability-amplitude-shaped 64QAM (PAS-64QAM) and 512-set-partitioned 32QAM (512SP-32QAM) at a spectral efficiency of 9 bits/4D symbol in a single-span transmission link. The simulation results indicate that the proposed modulation format shows better linear and nonlinear performances than a 512SP-32QAM format. Compared with PAS-64QAM format, the proposed modulation format can provide similar transmission performance with improved fiber nonlinear tolerance.

The cadmium hyperaccumulator Sedum plumbizincicola has remarkable abilities for cadmium (Cd) transport, accumulation and detoxification, but the transcriptional regulation mechanisms responsible for its Cd hyperaccumulation remain unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a comparative transcriptome study between S. plumbizincicola and the non-hyperaccumulating ecotype (NHE) of Sedum alfredii with or without Cd treatment. Our results revealed many differentially expressed genes involved in heavy metal transport and detoxification that were abundantly expressed in S. plumbizincicola. Additionally, we identified a large number of differentially expressed transcription factor genes, highlighting the complexity of transcriptional regulatory networks. We further screened four transcription factor genes that were highly expressed in the roots of S. plumbizincicola as candidate genes for creating CRISPR/Cas9 knockout mutations. Among these, the SpARR11 and SpMYB84 mutant lines exhibited decreased Cd accumulation in their aboveground parts, suggesting that these two transcription factors may play a role in the regulation of the Cd hyperaccumulation in S. plumbizincicola. Although further research will be required to determine the precise targeted genes of these transcription factors, combined transcriptome analysis and CRISPR/Cas9 technology provides unprecedented opportunities for identifying transcription factors related to Cd hyperaccumulation and contributes to the understanding of the transcriptional regulation mechanism of hyperaccumulation in S. plumbizincicola.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Hu and W. C. Cheng, as the only surviving relict species of the Taxodiaceae Metasequoia genus, is a critically endangered and protected species in China. There is a risk of extinction due to the low vigor of M. glyptostroboides seeds, and the physiological mechanism of seed aging in M. glyptostroboides is not yet clear. In order to investigate the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying the aging process of M. glyptostroboides seeds, we analyzed the antioxidant system and transcriptome at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 days after artificial accelerated aging treatment at 40 °C and 100% relative humidity. It was found that the germination percentage of fresh dried M. glyptostroboides seeds was 54 ± 5.29%, and significantly declined to 9.33 ± 1.88% after 6 days of aging, and then gradually decreased until the seed died on day 8. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, ascorbic acid (AsA), glutathione (GSH) content and superoxide anion (O2·−) content and production rate significantly decreased, while malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase (CAT) activity gradually increased during the aging process. A total of 42,189 unigenes were identified in the whole transcriptome, and 40,446 (95.86%) unigenes were annotated in at least one protein database. A total of 15,376 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained; KEGG enrichment analysis results revealed that seed aging may be mainly involved in the protein-processing pathways in endoplasmic reticulum, oxidative phosphorylation, and ascorbate and aldarate metabolism. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that the dark magenta, orange, and medium purple modules were highly correlated with physiological indicators such as SOD, CAT, and GSH and further identified 40 hub genes such as Rboh, ACO, HSF, and CML as playing important roles in the antioxidant network of M. glyptostroboides seeds. These findings provide a broader perspective for studying the regulatory mechanism of seed aging and a large number of potential target genes for the breeding of other endangered gymnosperms.

Hypertension is the main risk factor of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In this paper, a novel compound known as 221s (2,9), which includes tanshinol, borneol and a mother nucleus of ACEI, was synthesized by condensation esterification, deprotection, amidation, deprotection, and amidation, with borneol as the initial raw material, using the strategy of combinatorial molecular chemistry. The structure of the compound was confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and high-resolution mass spectrometry, with a purity of more than 99.5%. The compound 221s (2,9) can significantly reduce the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of SHR rats by about 50 mmHg and 35 mmHg after 4 weeks of administration. The antihypertensive effect of 221s (2,9) is equivalent to that of captopril. The use of 221s (2,9) can reduce the content of Ren, Ang II and ACE in the serum of SHR rats, inhibit the RAAS and enhance the vascular endothelial function by upregulating the level of NO. Pathological studies in this area have shown that high dosage of 221s (2,9) can notably protect myocardial fibrosis in rats and reduce the degeneration and necrosis of myocardial fibers, inflammatory cell infiltration, and proliferation of fibrous tissue in the heart of rat. Therefore, the existing work provided a foundation for preclinical research and follow-up clinical research of 221s (2,9) as a new drug.

Near-surface structure investigation plays an important role in studying shallow active faults and has various engineering applications. Therefore, we developed a near-surface structure investigation method using ambient noise in a water environment. This newly developed seismic acquisition technology, fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), was used to acquire ambient noise from the Yangtze River. The recorded data were processed to reconstruct surface waves based on the theory of seismic interferometry. The fundamental-mode dispersion curves were extracted and inverted to obtain a shear-wave velocity model below the DAS line. We compared the inverted velocity model with the subsurface geological information from near the study area. The results from the inverted model were consistent with the prior geological information. Therefore, ambient noise in the water environment can be combined with DAS technology to effectively investigate near-surface structures.

Ultra-weak fiber Bragg grating (UWFBG) array-based phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) utilizes the interference interaction between the reference light and the reflected light from the broadband gratings for sensing. It significantly improves the performance of the distributed acoustic sensing system (DAS) because the intensity of the reflected signal is much higher than that of the Rayleigh backscattering. This paper shows that Rayleigh backscattering (RBS) has become one of the primary noise sources in the UWFBG array-based Φ-OTDR system. We reveal the impact of the Rayleigh backscattering signal on the intensity of the reflective signal and the precision of the demodulated signal, and we suggest reducing the pulse duration to improve the demodulation accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that using light with a 100 ns pulse duration can improve the measurement precision by three times compared with the use of a 300 ns pulse duration.

The aim of this research is to find out the effects of different degrees of drought stress on the growth index and yield of semi-late rice. In this experiment, a pot experiment was conducted with hybrid Tian-you-hua-zhan rice as material. Intermittent irrigation was used as control (CK) at the tillering stage, booting stage, heading stage, and milk stage. Three water stress gradients of light drought (70% saturated moisture content), medium drought (60% saturated moisture content), and severe drought (50% saturated moisture content) were set to monitor the soil moisture content. The plant height, number of tillers, leaf area, and chlorophyll content under different water gradients at different growth stages were measured, and the effects of different water stress treatments at different growth stages on rice growth index, yield, and its components were analyzed. The results showed that the inhibition of the plant height at the jointing and booting stages was the most significant; moreover, the number of tillers and leaf area decreased most significantly at the tillering stage, and the heading and flowering stages had the greatest effect on chlorophyll synthesis. As far as yield is concerned, the most sensitive stages are the heading and flowering stages. Different stress treatments reduced the effective panicle number, 1000-grain weight, and seed setting rate of rice, and reduced the yield by 27.57%, 44.23%, and 46.32% respectively, compared with the normal control. The correlation analysis showed that the correlation degree of affecting yield from large to small was 1000-grain weight, seed setting rate, and effective panicle. Therefore, ensuring water supply at the heading and flowering stage can effectively improve the 1000-grain weight, effective panicle, and seed setting rate, and increase the rice yield and water use efficiency.

This study examines the process of a 240 µm droplet breakup under a shock wave through experiments using a double-pulse laser holographic test technique on a shock tube. The technique allowed for high-resolution data to be obtained at the micron-nanosecond level, including the Weber number distribution of deformation and breakup modes for droplets of different sizes and loads. Results were compared with larger droplets at the same Weber number, revealing that higher Weber numbers result in more difficulty in droplet breakup, longer deformation times, and increased deformation behavior. At low Weber numbers within the critical range, changes in droplet diameter affect the Rayleigh–Taylor waves and alter the droplet’s characteristics. The study also investigates the laws and reasons behind windward displacement variation for hundred-micron droplets at different Weber numbers over time.

Sophora tonkinensi is a shrub of the genus Sophora in the family Fabaceae with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects. While the cultivation, chemical makeup, and medicinal properties of S. tonkinensis have been reported, the physiological mechanisms governing its dehydration and cryopreservation tolerance of seeds remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and protein expression characteristics of S. tonkinensis seeds subjected to dehydration and cryopreservation techniques via the observation of cell microstructure, determination of antioxidant enzyme activity, and iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis, respectively. The results of the study demonstrated that the seeds possessed a certain level of tolerance to dehydration. The highest germination percentage of 83.0% was observed after 2 h of dehydration (10.1% water content), which was identified as the optimal time point for cryopreservation. However, the germination percentage was reduced to only 30.5% when the water content reached 5.4%, indicating that S. tonkinensis seeds exhibit intermediate storage behavior. Further investigation revealed that during seed dehydration and cryopreservation treatment, liposomes were gradually and highly fused, whereas the activities of ROS scavenging and stress defense were significantly enhanced. During dehydration, the seed tissues formed a protective mechanism of stress resistance based on protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum and antioxidant system, which was related to the dehydration tolerance. Moreover, only three differentially expressed LEA proteins were identified, and it is speculated that the strengthening of intracellular metabolism and the absence of specific LEA and dehydrins could be crucial factors for the reduced germination percentage after excessive dehydration and cryopreservation.

The NO reduction reaction (NORR) toward NH3 is simultaneously emerging for both detrimental NO elimination and valuable NH3 synthesis. An efficient NORR generally requires a high degree of activation of the NO gas molecule from the catalyst, which calls for a powerful chemisorption. In this work, by means of first-principles calculations, we discovered that the NO gas molecule over the Janus WSSe monolayer might undergo a physical-to-chemical adsorption transition when Se vacancy is introduced. If the Se vacancy is able to work as the optimum adsorption site, then the interface’s transferred electron amounts are considerably increased, resulting in a clear electronic orbital hybridization between the adsorbate and substrate, promising excellent activity and selectivity for NORR. Additionally, the NN bond coupling and *N diffusion of NO molecules can be effectively suppressed by the confined space of Se vacancy defects, which enables the active site to have the superior NORR selectivity in the NH3 synthesis. Moreover, the photocatalytic NO-to-NH3 reaction is able to occur spontaneously under the potentials solely supplied by the photo-generated electrons. Our findings uncover a promising approach to derive high-efficiency photocatalysts for NO-to-NH3 conversion.

As a toxic pollutant, carbon monoxide (CO) usually causes harmful effects on human health. Therefore, the thermally catalytic oxidation of CO has received extensive attention in recent years. The CuO-based catalysts have been widely investigated due to their availability. In this study, a series of transition metal oxides (Fe2O3, Co3O4 and NiO) promoted CuO-based catalysts supported on the α-MnO2 nanowire catalysts were prepared by the deposition precipitation method for catalytic CO oxidation reactions. The effects of the loaded transition metal type, the loading amount, and the calcination temperature on the catalytic performances were systematically investigated. Further catalyst characterization showed that the CuO/α-MnO2 catalyst modified with 3 wt% Co3O4 and calcined at 400 °C performed the highest CO catalytic activity (T90 = 75 °C) among the investigated catalysts. It was supposed that the loading of the Co3O4 dopant not only increased the content of oxygen vacancies in the catalyst but also increased the specific surface area and pore volume of the CuO/α-MnO2 nanowire catalyst, which would further enhance the catalytic activity. The CuO/α-MnO2 catalyst modified with 3 wt% NiO and calcined at 400 °C exhibited the highest surface adsorbed oxygen content and the best normalized reaction rate, but the specific surface area limited its activity. Therefore, the appropriate loading of the Co3O4 modifier could greatly enhance the activity of CuO/α-MnO2. This research could provide a reference method for constructing efficient low-temperature CO oxidation catalysts.

Polar-functionalized polyolefins are high-value materials with improved properties. However, their feedstocks generally come from non-renewable fossil products; thus, it requires the development of renewable bio-based monomers to produce functionalized polyolefins. In this contribution, via the Pd-catalyzed telomerization of 1,3-butadiene and three types of bio-based alcohols (furfuryl alcohol, tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol, and solketal), 2,7-octadienyl ether monomers including OC8-FUR, OC8-THF, and OC8-SOL were synthesized and characterized, respectively. The copolymerization of these monomers with ethylene catalyzed by phosphine–sulfonate palladium catalysts was further investigated. Microstructures of the resultant copolymers were analyzed by NMR and ATR-IR spectroscopy, revealing linear structures with incorporations of difunctionalized side chains bearing both allyl ether units and polar cyclic groups. Mechanical property studies exhibited better strain-at-break of these copolymers compared to the non-polar polyethylene, among which the copolymer E-FUR with the incorporation of 0.3 mol% displayed the highest strain-at-break and stress-at-break values of 940% and 35.9 MPa, respectively.

Polarization detection is an important part of many polarization applications such as polarization imaging, wireless communication, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. In this paper, two polarization-dependent terahertz wave absorption and transmission metasurface for linearly and circularly polarized light are proposed and proved by numerical simulations. Polarization filtering and polarization absorption are integrated on a single cell, and the orthogonal polarization component is transmitted and absorbed, respectively. The linearly polarization-dependent transmission and absorption structure can obtain a transmission extinction ratio of 11.5 dB and an absorption extinction ratio of over 270 dB at 3 THz. Moreover, the circularly polarization-dependent structure can obtain a transmission extinction ratio of 8.1 dB and an absorption extinction ratio of 4.66 dB at 2.8 THz. Our design facilitates the acquisition of full Stokes parameters and the high-resolution imaging.

Synergistic drug combinations have demonstrated effective therapeutic effects in cancer treatment. Deep learning methods accelerate identification of novel drug combinations by reducing the search space. However, potential adverse drug–drug interactions (DDIs), which may increase the risks for combination therapy, cannot be detected by existing computational synergy prediction methods. We propose DEML, an ensemble-based multi-task neural network, for the simultaneous optimization of five synergy regression prediction tasks, synergy classification, and DDI classification tasks. DEML uses chemical and transcriptomics information as inputs. DEML adapts the novel hybrid ensemble layer structure to construct higher order representation using different perspectives. The task-specific fusion layer of DEML joins representations for each task using a gating mechanism. For the Loewe synergy prediction task, DEML overperforms the state-of-the-art synergy prediction method with an improvement of 7.8% and 13.2% for the root mean squared error and the R2 correlation coefficient. Owing to soft parameter sharing and ensemble learning, DEML alleviates the multi-task learning ‘seesaw effect’ problem and shows no performance loss on other tasks. DEML has a superior ability to predict drug pairs with high confidence and less adverse DDIs. DEML provides a promising way to guideline novel combination therapy strategies for cancer treatment.

Prenylated flavonol glycosides in Epimedium plants, as key medicinal components, are known to have great pharmaceutical activities for human health. Among the main prenylated flavonol glycosides, the modification mechanism of different sugar moieties is still not well understood. In the current study, a novel prenylated flavonol rhamnoside xylosyltransferase gene (EpF3R2″XylT) was cloned from E. pubescens, and the enzymatic activity of its decoding proteins was examined in vitro with different prenylated flavonol rhamnoside substrates and different 3-O-monosaccharide moieties. Furthermore, the functional and structural domains of EpF3R2″XylT were analyzed by bioinformatic approaches and 3-D protein structure remodeling. In summary, EpF3R2″XylT was shown to cluster with GGT (glycosyltransferase that glycosylates sugar moieties of glycosides) through phylogenetic analysis. In enzymatic analysis, EpF3R2″XylT was proven to transfer xylose moiety from UDP-xylose to prenylated flavonol rhamnoside at the 2″-OH position of rhamnose. The analysis of enzymatic kinetics showed that EpF3R2″XylT had the highest substrate affinity toward icariin with the lowest Km value of 75.96 ± 11.91 mM. Transient expression of EpF3R2″XylT in tobacco leaf showed functional production of EpF3R2″XylT proteins in planta. EpF3R2″XylT was preferably expressed in the leaves of E. pubescens, which is consistent with the accumulation levels of major prenylflavonol 3-O-triglycoside. The discovery of EpF3R2″XylT will provide an economical and efficient alternative way to produce prenylated flavonol trisaccharides through the biosynthetic approach.

The model of information capacity for underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) links with pointing errors and the carrier of perfect Laguerre–Gaussian (PLG) beam in absorbed and weakly turbulent seawater is modeled. Using this model, the influence of channel parameters on the propagation of PLG beams is numerically analyzed. We show that the pointing error significantly reduces the performance of the optical transmission system. Large topological charge and radial orders are not conducive to high information capacity transmission. Additionally, the information capacity decreases with the increase in the spectral absorption coefficient of seawater. With higher transmission power, the transmission of an optical transmission system with high average capacity can be realized. The information capacity is affected by both signal wavelength and seawater absorption coefficient. That is, in the case of small seawater absorption and short message channel, the channel capacity loss of the link with long signal wavelength is smaller. In the case of long channels and strong seawater absorption, the influence of signal wavelength on the average capacity can be ignored. The information capacity of the communication link is the highest, which is composed of the carrier with the OAM topological charge, and the radial orders are both 1, and the wavelength is 410 nm.

Among various catalyst design strategies used in the α-diimine nickel(II) and palladium(II) catalyst systems, the unsymmetrical strategy is an effective and widely utilized method. In this contribution, unsymmetrical nickel and palladium α-diimine catalysts (Ipty/iPr-Ni and Ipty/iPr-Pd) derived from the dibenzobarrelene backbone were constructed via the combination of pentiptycenyl and diisopropylphenyl substituents, and investigated toward ethylene (co)polymerization. Both of these catalysts were capable of polymerizing ethylene in a broad temperature range of 0–120 °C, in which Ipty/iPr-Ni could maintain activity in the level of 106 g mol−1 h−1 even at 120 °C. The branching densities of polyethylenes generated by both nickel and palladium catalysts could be modulated by the reaction temperature. Compared with symmetrical Ipty-Ni and iPr-Ni, Ipty/iPr-Ni exhibited the highest activity, the highest polymer molecular weight, and the lowest branching density. In addition, Ipty/iPr-Pd could produce copolymers of ethylene and methyl acrylate, with the polar monomer incorporating both on the main chain and the terminal of branches. Remarkably, the ratio of the in-chain and end-chain polar monomer incorporations could be modulated by varying the temperature.

Inflammation is closely associated with progression of vascular remodeling. The NLRP3 inflammasome is the key molecule that promotes vascular remodeling via activation of vascular adventitia fibroblast (VAF) proliferation and differentiation. VAFs have a vital effect on vascular remodeling that could be improved using hydroxysafflower yellow A (HSYA). However, whether HSYA ameliorates vascular remodeling through inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation has not been explored in detail. Here, we cultured primary VAFs and analyzed the migration of VAFs induced by angiotensin II (ANG II) to determine the potential effects and mechanism of HSYA on VAF migration. The results thereof showed that HSYA remarkably inhibited ANG II-induced VAF migration, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, it is worth noting that LPS promoted ANG II-induced VAF migration and NLRP3 inflammasome assembly, which could be significantly reversed using HSYA. Moreover, HSYA could be used to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation by promoting autophagy. In conclusion, HSYA could inhibit ANG II-induced VAF migration through autophagy activation and inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation through the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.

To overcome various factors that limit crop production and to meet the growing demand for food by the increasing world population. Seed priming technology has been proposed, and it is considered to be a promising strategy for agricultural sciences and food technology. This technology helps to curtail the germination time, increase the seed vigor, improve the seedling establishment, and enhance the stress tolerance, all of which are conducive to improving the crop yield. Meanwhile, it can be used to reduce seed infection for better physiological or phytosanitary quality. Compared to conventional methods, such as the use of water or chemical-based agents, X-rays, gamma rays, electron beams, proton beams, and heavy ion beams have emerged as promising physics strategies for seed priming as they are time-saving, more effective, environmentally friendly, and there is a greater certainty for yield improvement. Ionizing radiation (IR) has certain biological advantages over other seed priming methods since it generates charged ions while penetrating through the target organisms, and it has enough energy to cause biological effects. However, before the wide utilization of ionizing priming methods in agriculture, extensive research is needed to explore their effects on seed priming and to focus on the underlying mechanism of them. Overall, this review aims to highlight the current understanding of ionizing priming methods and their applicability for promoting agroecological resilience and meeting the challenges of food crises nowadays.

Many lncRNAs have been shown to play a vital role in aging processes. However, how lncRNAs regulate seed aging remains unknown. In this study, we performed whole transcriptome strand-specific RNA sequencing of samples from rice embryos, analyzed the differences in expression of rice seed lncRNAs before and after artificial aging treatment (AAT), and systematically screened 6002 rice lncRNAs. During the AAT period, the expression levels of most lncRNAs (454) were downregulated and only four were upregulated among the 458 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs). Cis- or trans-regulated target genes of the four upregulated lncRNAs were mainly related to base repair, while 454 downregulated lncRNAs were related to plant–pathogen interaction, plant hormones, energy metabolism, and secondary metabolism. The pathways of DEL target genes were similar with those of differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs). A competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network composed of 34 lncRNAs, 24 microRNAs (miRNA), and 161 mRNAs was obtained. The cDNA sequence of lncRNA LNC_037529 was obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) cloning with a total length of 1325 bp, a conserved 5′ end, and a non-conserved 3′ end. Together, our findings indicate that genome-wide selection for lncRNA downregulation was an important mechanism for rice seed aging. LncRNAs can be used as markers of seed aging in rice. These findings provide a future path to decipher the underlying mechanism associated with lncRNAs in seed aging.

Wound healing is a dynamic physiological process, including three stages: inflammation, tissue formation, and remodeling. The quality of wound healing is affected by many topical and systemic factors, while any small factor may affect the process. Therefore, improving the quality of wound healing is a complex and arduous challenge. Photo-crosslinking reaction using visible light irradiation is a novel method for hydrogel preparation. Photo-crosslinking hydrogels can be controlled in time and space, and are not interfered by temperature conditions, which have been widely used in the fields of medicine and engineering. This review aims to summarize the application of photo-crosslinking hydrogels in improving the quality of wound healing, mainly including the material design, application mechanism, and effect of photo-crosslinking hydrogels applied in wound healing, followed by the applicable animal models for experimental research. Finally, this review analyzes the clinical application prospects of photo-crosslinking hydrogels in the field of wound healing.

The seeds of Metasequia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng, an endangered species, are susceptible to aging, making natural population renewal difficult and increasing the risk of extinction. LncRNAs play important roles in plant growth and development and biotic and abiotic stress responses, but the functions of lncRNAs in the aging process of M. glyptostroboides seeds are still unclear. In this study, we used single molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology in combination with Illumina RNA-seq to analyze lncRNA changes during M. glyptostroboides seed aging. We identified 403 intergenic lncRNAs (lincRNAs), 29 intronic lncRNAs, and 25 antisense lncRNAs; screened 9000 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs) and 128 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs); and predicted 844 cis-target genes and 8098 trans-target genes. GO and KEGG functional annotation of target genes revealed that the regulation of the reactive oxygen species metabolic process, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and the MAPK signaling pathway and other pathways were significantly enriched, showing a high correlation with the mRNA enrichment results. In addition, we constructed a ceRNA network consisting of 18 lncRNAs, 38 miRNAs, and 69 mRNAs, in which some miRNAs and mRNAs related to seed aging were found. Among them, miR167(a,b,c,d) may compete with lncRNA_00185, which is related to plant aging, to regulate the expression of the RCD1(Radical-induced Cell Death1) gene, thus promoting the balance of seed reactive oxygen species and enhancing seed-aging resistance. These results will have significant reference value in elucidating the molecular mechanism of the seed aging of M. glyptostroboides sequoia, improving the storage capacity for crop seeds, and protecting rare germplasm resources.

The incidence of hospital-acquired infections caused by Chryseobacterium indologenes (C. indologenes) is increasing. This study investigated the epidemiological and clinical features of C. indologenes intra-abdominal infections in patients who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). In this retrospective study, 53 consecutive non-replicate clinical isolates of C. indologenes were collected and identified from the OLT patients at a tertiary care university hospital in Shanghai in 2017. Genetic relatedness of the isolates was determined by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction DNA fingerprinting. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates was measured using the microdilution broth method. Nosocomial clonal transmission of C. indologenes was confirmed by bacterial homology analysis. All C. indologenes isolates were resistant to β-lactams, carbapenems, quinolones, and aminoglycosides, and showed susceptibility to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and minocycline. Multivariate risk modelling revealed that ≥2 bed transfers and an operation time of ≥8 h were independent risk factors for C. indologenes intra-abdominal infection after OLT. A nomogram was constructed based on the screened risk factors, which showed good concordance and accuracy. Clonal dissemination of C. indologenes in OLT patients was demonstrated and several risk factors for intra-abdominal infections were identified. Epidemiological surveillance of this organism and extensive surveillance programs are imperative worldwide.

In this paper, the optimization of perfect optical vortex (POV) parameter for underwater wireless optical communication link under M-QAM by average bit-error rate (ABER) and the effect of seawtaer turbulence on link information capacity are investigated. The link is absorbent, weakly turbulent, and bandwidth-limited. In investigating, we use the spectral absorption coefficient to describe the wavelength effect of seawater absorption. Specifically, under the paraxial approximation and Rytov approximation conditions, we define the average signal-to-noise-crosstalk ratio including the system bandwidth factor and derive the bandwidth-limited ABER of the OAM carrier link. Capitalizing on the defined average signal-to-noise crosstalk ratio and the derived bandwidth-limited ABER of link, the novel closed-form expression for the average information capacity of the perfect optical vortex link under M-QAM modulation is proposed. Through the numerical analysis of the ABER and the average information capacity, the POV optimization parameters in specific communication links are obtained and new conclusions are drawn that the average information capacity is restricted by both signal wavelength and the seawater absorption coefficient.

In this study, we examined the protective effects of curcumin against the AFB1-induced immune response of and pathological changes in broilers. Histopathology examinations showed that at day 28, AFB1 (5 mg/kg) exposure leads to severe histological changes in the spleen, thymus and bursa of Fabricius with a decrease in the number and karyoplasmic area ratio of plasma cells. Curcumin alleviated the AFB1-induced immune organs’ damage as well as the changes in plasma cells in a dose-dependent manner. RT-PCR data showed that AFB1 significantly downregulated the IL-2 and IFN-γ mRNA expression levels in the thymus, spleen and bursa of Fabricius. However, curcumin supplementation improved the AFB1-induced immune organs’ damage via upregulated cytokines’ expression. Intriguingly, similar trends were noticed in abnormal morphological changes and the immune response at day 35 after the withdrawal of AFB1 and curcumin from the diet, suggesting the protective effects and immunomodulatory function against AFB1 in broilers. The current study provides a scientific experimental basis for the application of curcumin as a therapeutic drug or additive in animal husbandry productive practice.

With the explosive developments of deep learning, learning–based computer–generated holography (CGH) has become an effective way to achieve real–time and high–quality holographic displays. Plentiful learning–based methods with various deep neural networks (DNNs) have been proposed. In this paper, we focus on the rapid progress of learning–based CGH in recent years. The generation principles and algorithms of CGH are introduced. The DNN structures frequently used in CGH are compared, including U–Net, ResNet, and GAN. We review the developments and discuss the outlook of the learning–based CGH.

With the fast pace of global urbanization, anthropogenic disturbances not only lead to frequent disasters, but also cause direct and indirect ecological and economic losses. To reduce the adverse effects of anthropogenic disturbances as part of sustainable ecosystem management, assessments of habitat quality and ecological risk are necessary. The objectives of this study are to analyze environmental conditions of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Suzhou section) for evaluating habitat quality and habitat degradation, and to conduct ecological-risk early warning assessment in this section. The Grand Canal is the longest and first canal in the world to be artificially excavated from natural rivers and lakes. By evaluating habitat quality using the InVEST suite of open-source software models for mapping and valuing the ecosystem, it was found that the natural lands with high habitat quality such as wetlands, forests and lakes along the Suzhou section of the Grand Canal have gradually decreased, while construction lands such as roads and buildings have gradually increased; there is a clear trend of decreasing areas with high habitat quality and increasing areas with low habitat quality, which is likely the result of urbanization. It was also found that the region has a high habitat degradation index, meaning that areas located at the junction of different land types are vulnerable to the surrounding environment due to narrow buffer zones that allow areas with high habitat quality to be easily affected by areas with low habitat quality. In terms of ecological risks, it was found that the natural land area with high habitat quality in the downstream locations was declining, thereby increasing the risks of pollution and flooding events while reducing the ecosystem’s resilience. The valuation model used in this study can be used as an effective decision-support tool to prioritize important ecological areas for conservation in the Grand Canal, and can also be adapted for use in the ecosystem management of other regions.

Tic disorders are neurological disorders that are prone to fluctuation and recurrence. It is important to study the factors related to disease recurrence and to subsequently provide suggestions for clinical treatment. A retrospective study was conducted to assess patients with recurrent and non-recurring tic disorders diagnosed in the Pediatric Tic Disorder Clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China, and to extract various factors—such as fetal status; medication, allergy, and family history; social and psychological factors; blood lead content; electroencephalogram (EEG); disease duration; type of tics; and disease severity—and identify factors associated with recurrence. The recurrence rate of tic disorders was approximately 45.10% in this study. The childbirth conditions, surgery/trauma, respiratory tract infection, allergy, stress, consumption of tiapride, and severity of tic disorders were factors related to and affected disease recurrence.

Due to the light scattered by atmospheric aerosols, the amplitude image contrast is degraded and the depth measurement is greatly distorted for time-of-flight (ToF) imaging in fog. The problem limits ToF imaging to be applied in outdoor settings, such as autonomous driving. To improve the quality of the images captured by ToF cameras, we propose a polarization phasor imaging method for image recovery in foggy scenes. In this paper, optical polarimetric defogging is introduced into ToF phasor imaging, and the degree of polarization phasor is proposed to estimate the scattering component. A polarization phasor imaging model is established, aiming at separating the target component from the signal received by ToF cameras to recover the amplitude and depth information. The effectiveness of this method is confirmed by several experiments with artificial fog, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the image quality, with robustness in different thicknesses of fog.

As sessile organisms, plants constantly face challenges from the external environment. In order to meet these challenges and survive, plants have evolved a set of sophisticated adaptation strategies, including changes in leaf morphology and epidermal cell development. These developmental patterns are regulated by both light and hormonal signaling pathways. However, our mechanistic understanding of the role of these signaling pathways in regulating plant response to environmental stress is still very limited. By applying single-cell RNA-Seq, we determined the expression pattern of PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF) 1, PIF3, PIF4, and PIF5 genes in leaf epidermal pavement cells (PCs) and guard cells (GCs). PCs and GCs are very sensitive to environmental stress, and our previous research suggests that these PIFs may be involved in regulating the development of PCs, GCs, and leaf morphology under environmental stress. Growth analysis showed that pif1/3/4/5 quadruple mutant maintained tolerance to drought and salt stress, and the length to width ratio of leaves and petiole length under normal growth conditions were similar to those of wild-type (WT) plants under drought and salt treatment. Analysis of the developmental patterns of PCs and GCs, and whole leaf morphology, further confirmed that these PIFs may be involved in mediating the development of epidermal cells under drought and salt stress, likely by regulating the expression of MUTE and TOO MANY MOUTHS (TMM) genes. These results provide new insights into the molecular mechanism of plant adaptation to adverse growth environments.

An increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and high expression levels of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) in wound tissue are two major problems for wound repair and scar inhibition. Modulation of the wound microenvironment is considered to be able to overcome these issues. Two possible solutions include the use of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2) as an enzyme-like ROS scavenger and pirfenidone (PFD) as an anti-fibrotic drug to inhibit the expression of TGF-β. However, CeO2 is easily adsorbed by biological macromolecules and loses its enzyme-like activity. Furthermore, the intracellular delivery of PFD is difficult. Herein, the layer-by-layer method was used to prepare nanocapsules (NCs) with a sophisticated structure featuring PFD at their core and CeO2 in their shell; these NCs were referred to as PFD/CeO2 NCs. PFD/CeO2 NCs were supposed to efficiently achieve intracellular delivery of PFD and successfully scavenged ROS from the microenvironment. Cellular experiments verified that PFD/CeO2 NCs had good biocompatibility, satisfactory cellular uptake, and favorable ROS-scavenging capacity. To be applied directly to the wound, PFD/CeO2 NCs were then adhered to plasma-etched polylactic acid (PLA) fiber membranes to prepare a new wound dressing. Animal experiments further demonstrated that the dressing accelerated the epithelialization of the wound, reduced the levels of ROS and TGF-β, improved the arrangement and proportion of collagen fibers, and finally, achieved satisfactory wound-repairing and anti-scarring effects. These results provide a new concept for promoting wound repair and preventing scar formation.

Availability of feedstock is one of the uncertainties impeding cellulosic biofuel production, and conservation of whole crop biomass as silage is a promising method to ensure year-round feedstock availability for biofuel production. This study investigated lignocellulose degradation and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of a 90-d sorghum silage incorporated with soybean and inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum A1 in a three (0, 25, and 50%; soybean inclusions) by two (uninoculated and inoculated) factorial experiment. The results revealed that L. plantarum A1 inoculated silages had improved fermentation characteristics. The silages’ total N and non-fiber carbohydrate increased with L. plantarum A1 and soybean inclusion (p < 0.05). Inoculation also increased the residual water-soluble carbohydrate by 33.9% (p < 0.05). Inoculation and soybean inclusion significantly hydrolyzed the biomass’ lignocellulose, altered its morphology and microstructural matrix, increased production of ferulic acid and reduced the biomass crystallinity by 15.60% (p < 0.05). L. plantarum A1 inoculation × soybean inclusion improved glucose yield and cellulose conversion during enzymatic saccharification compared to uninoculated treatments. Therefore, incorporating soybean into sorghum silage with L. plantarum A1 inoculation enhanced fermentation quality, lignocellulose degradation and enzymatic saccharification which could serve as a sure way for sustainable year-round feedstock supply for enhanced biofuel production.

As sessile organisms, plants are constantly challenged by several environmental stresses. Different kinds of stress often occur simultaneously, leading to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by respiratory burst oxidase homolog (RBOHD) and calcium fluctuation in cells. Extensive studies have revealed that flagellin sensitive 2 (FLS2) can sense the infection by pathogenic microorganisms and activate cellular immune response by regulating intracellular ROS and calcium signals, which can also be activated during plant response to abiotic stress. However, little is known about the roles of FLS2 and RBOHD in regulating abiotic stress. In this study, we found that although the fls2 mutant showed tolerance, the double mutant rbohd rbohf displayed hypersensitivity to abiotic stress, similar to its performance in response to immune stress. An analysis of the transcriptome of the fls2 mutant and rbohd rbohf double mutant revealed that phytochrome interacting factor 4 (PIF4) acted downstream of FLS2 and RBOHD to respond to the abiotic stress. Further analysis showed that both FLS2 and RBOHD regulated the response of plants to drought and salt stress by regulating the expression of PIF4. These findings revealed an FLS2–RBOHD–PIF4 module in regulating plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Cerasus humilis is a unique dwarf shrub and fruit color is an important trait in the species. In this study, we evaluated the transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles of the plant at different developmental stages to elucidate the mechanism underlying color formation. In a metabolomics analysis, 16 anthocyanin components were identified at four developmental stages, and high levels of cyanidin O-syringic acid and pelargonidin 3-O-beta-d-glucoside (callitephin chloride) were correlated with the reddening of the fruit peel. A co-expression analysis revealed that ANS and UFGT play key roles in pigmentation (PCC > 0.82). Additionally, transcriptome data showed that most anthocyanin biosynthetic genes and two MYB transcription factors were significantly up-regulated. QRT-PCR results for these differentially expressed genes were generally consistent with the high-throughput sequencing. Moreover, the overexpression of ChMYB1 (TRINITY_DN21536_c0_g1) in apple calli could contribute to the accumulation of anthocyanin. It was also found that UFGT (TRINITY_DN19893_c1_g5) and ChMYB1 (TRINITY_DN21536_c0_g1) have similar expression patterns. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms underlying anthocyanin accumulation and coloration during fruit peel development, providing a basis for the breeding of anthocyanin-rich C. humilis cultivars.