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The development and design of high-performance catalysts for selective hydrogenation of phenol to high value-added cyclohexanol is challenging. A series of hollow carbon coated Ni nanoreactor catalysts (Ni@HCS-T) were synthesized, adjusting carbonization temperature to investigate the effect of chemical microenvironment on the performance of selective hydrogenation of phenol. The results confirmed the carbonization temperature can regulate the degree of carbon skeleton defects and hydroxyl functional group content on the catalysts. The optimum catalyst (Ni@HCS-800) catalyzed phenol conversion of 99.54% and cyclohexanol selectivity of 98.53% at 120 ℃, 2 h and 1 MPa H2 under the carbonization at 800 ℃. The Ni@HCS-800 catalyst is rich in defective structures which, together with neighbouring hydroxyl groups, significantly enhance substrate adsorption. Meanwhile, the abundant defects reasonably modulate the interfacial charge transfer behavior, resulting in a significantly enhanced degree of electron transfer between the metal Ni and carrier, enhancing the interaction between carbon carrier and metal. The Ni@HCS-800 catalyst showed the activation energy Ea of 46.05 kJ⋅mol−1 and remained stable performance after five cycles. In addition, the catalyst could effectively catalyze the conversion of a variety of lignin derivatives, showing wide applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) (Akada et al. Self-supervised learning of domain invariant features for depth estimation, in: 2022 IEEE/CVF winter conference on applications of computer vision (WACV), pp 3377–3387 (2022). ) depth estimation task, a new adaptive approach is to use the bidirectional transformation network to transfer the style between the target and source domain inputs, and then train the depth estimation network in their respective domains. However, the domain adaptation process and the style transfer may result in defects and biases, often leading to depth holes and instance edge depth missing in the target domain’s depth output. To address these issues, We propose a training network that has been improved in terms of model structure and supervision constraints. First, we introduce a edge-guided self-attention mechanism in the task network of each domain to enhance the network’s attention to high-frequency edge features, maintain clear boundaries and fill in missing areas of depth. Furthermore, we utilize an edge detection algorithm to extract edge features from the input of the target domain. Then we establish edge consistency constraints between inter-domain entities in order to narrow the gap between domains and make domain-to-domain transfers easier. Our experimental demonstrate that our proposed method effectively solve the aforementioned problem, resulting in a higher quality depth map and outperforming existing state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It has been suggested that gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) alters the growth trajectory of a fetus and increases the risk of abnormal birth weight. In spite of this, there is still a significant debate regarding the mode and optimal timing of diagnosing this condition. Our aim was to determine fetal growth velocity and birth biometry in pregnant women with GDM at varying risk levels. Methods: We conducted a cohort study involving 1023 pregnant women at a maternity hospital in Ma'anshan, China. All women completed an oral glucose tolerance test at 24–28 weeks' gestation. We measured fetal head circumference (HC), femoral length (FL), abdominal circumference (AC), biparietal diameter (BPD), and estimate fetal weight (EFW) by ultrasound at 17, 24, 31, and 35 weeks' gestation, respectively. Results: Overall, 5115 ultrasound scans were performed. Among both low-risk and medium–high-risk pregnant women at 17–24 weeks' gestation, GDM exposure was associated with an increase in fetal growth velocity. Neonates born to women with GDM at medium–high risk had significantly larger birth weights than those born to women without GDM, while this was not observed in women at low risk. Conclusion: In medium–high-risk pregnant women, exposure to GDM has a greater effect on the fetus, leading to abnormal fetal growth velocity that lasts beyond week 24. It is evident from our results that the effects of GDM on fetal growth differ between medium–high-risk pregnant women and low-risk pregnant women, and therefore a different screening program based on the risk factor for GDM is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The roles of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways in cerebral ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury are well established. The translocation of β-catenin into the nucleus is critical for regulating neuronal apoptosis, repair, and neurogenesis within the ischemic brain. It has been reported that the scaffold domain of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) (residues 95–98) interacts with β-catenin (residues 330–337). However, the specific contribution of the Cav-1/β-catenin complex to I/R injury remains unknown. Methods and results: To investigate the mechanism underlying the involvement of the Cav-1/β-catenin complex in the subcellular translocation of β-catenin and its subsequent effects on cerebral I/R injury, we treated ischemic brains with ASON (Cav-1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides) or FTVT (a competitive peptide antagonist of the Cav-1 and β-catenin interaction). Our study demonstrated that the binding of Cav-1 to β-catenin following I/R injury prevented the nuclear accumulation of β-catenin. Treatment with ASON or FTVT after I/R injury significantly increased the levels of nuclear β-catenin. Furthermore, ASON reduced the phosphorylation of β-catenin at Ser33, Ser37, and Thr41, which contributes to its proteasomal degradation, while FTVT increased phosphorylation at Tyr333, which is associated with its nuclear translocation. Conclusions: The above results indicate that the formation of the Cav-1/β-catenin complex anchors β-catenin in the cytoplasm following I/R injury. Additionally, both ASON and FTVT treatments attenuated neuronal death in ischemic brains. Our study suggests that targeting the interaction between Cav-1 and β-catenin serve as a novel therapeutic strategy to protect against neuronal damage during cerebral injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common and deadliest extracranial solid tumor in children. Targeting tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) is a strategy for attenuating tumor-promoting states. The crosstalk between cancer cells and TAMs plays a pivotal role in mediating tumor progression in NB. The overexpression of Hexokinase-3 (HK3), a pivotal enzyme in glucose metabolism, has been associated with poor prognosis in NB patients. Furthermore, it correlates with the infiltration of M2-like macrophages within NB tumors, indicating its significant involvement in tumor progression. Therefore, HK3 not only directly regulates the malignant biological behaviors of tumor cells, such as proliferation, migration, and invasion, but also recruits and polarizes M2-like macrophages through the PI3K/AKT-CXCL14 axis in neuroblastoma. The secretion of lactate and histone lactylation alterations within tumor cells accompanies this interaction. Additionally, elevated expression of HK3 in M2-TAMs was found at the same time. Modulating HK3 within M2-TAMs alters the biological behavior of tumor cells, as demonstrated by our in vitro studies. This study highlights the pivotal role of HK3 in the progression of NB malignancy and its intricate regulatory network with M2-TAMs. It establishes HK3 as a promising dual-functional biomarker and therapeutic target in combating neuroblastoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer among men in the United States and the leading cause of cancer-related death. The Solute Carrier Family 14 Member 1 (SLC14A1) is a member of urea transporters which are important for the regulation of urine concentration. However, the physiological significance of SLC14A1 in PCa still remains unclear. In the present study, via bioinformatics analysis and experiments, we found that expression of SLC14A1 is significantly decreased in PCa progression, which could be attributed to hypermethylation on SLC14A1 promoter region. Moreover, its low expression and hypermethylation on SLC14A1 promoter are closely related to the poor prognosis of PCa patients. On the other hand, overexpression of SLC14A1 inhibited cell proliferation and metastasis while its overexpression also suppressed CDK1/CCNB1 pathway and mTOR/MMP-9 signaling pathway. Additionally, SLC14A1 expression is enriched in prostate basal-type cells. In summary, our study indicates that its low expression level and promoter hypermethylation of SLC14A1 may represent novel indicators for PCa progression and prognosis, and SLC14A1 could inhibit the progression of PCa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate cropland map serves as the cornerstone of effective agricultural monitoring. Despite the continuous enrichment of remotely sensed cropland maps, pervasive inconsistencies have impeded their further application. This issue is particularly evident in areas with limited valid observations, such as southwestern China, which is characterized by its complex topography and fragmented parcels. In this study, we constructed multi-sourced samples independent of the data producers, taking advantage of open-source validation datasets and sampling to rectify the accuracy of ten contemporary cropland maps in southwestern China, decoded their inconsistencies, and generated a refined cropland map (CroplandSyn) by leveraging ten state-of-the-art remotely sensed cropland maps released from 2021 onwards using the self-adaptive threshold method. Validations, conducted at both prefecture and county scales, underscored the superiority of the refined cropland map, aligning more closely with national land survey data. The refined cropland map and samples are publicly available to users. Our study offers valuable insights for improving agricultural practices and land management in under-monitored areas by providing high-quality cropland maps and validation datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Zhejiang University: Science B is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: We conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy of total hysterectomy versus radical hysterectomy in the treatment of neuroendocrine cervical cancer (NECC). Methods: Eligible NECC patients were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Demographic characteristics, clinical treatment and survival of the patients were collected. The overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were estimated by Kaplan–Meier analysis with log-rank test. Results: A total of 286 patients were included, with 104 patients undergoing total hysterectomy and 182 patients undergoing radical hysterectomy. The 5-year OS were 50.8% in the total hysterectomy group and 47.5% in the radical hysterectomy group (p = 0.450); and the corresponding 5-year CSS were 51.6% and 49.1% (p = 0.494), respectively. Along with surgery, radiotherapy was given to 49.0% of patients in the total hysterectomy group and 50.5% in the radical hysterectomy group; and chemotherapy was administered to 77.9% of patients in the total hysterectomy group and 85.7% in the radical hysterectomy group. Unexpectedly, in patients who received adjuvant radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy, the OS was superior in the total hysterectomy group compared with the radical hysterectomy group (p = 0.034). While in patients who received chemotherapy alone and those who received neither radiotherapy nor chemotherapy, the OS still remained comparable between the total hysterectomy and radical hysterectomy group. Conclusion: Compared with radical hysterectomy, total hysterectomy was not associated with compromised survival prognosis in patients with NECC. Total hysterectomy has the potential to be a surgical alternative in the multimodal management of NECC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corrosion failure of amorphous carbon (a-C) coatings is commonly ascribed to the existence of growth microdefects, which serve as pathways for corrosive fluids to permeate the substrate. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is renowned for its ability to augment the corrosion resistance of metallic materials. Graphite-like carbon (GLC) is one of the amorphous carbon materials dominated by hybridized sp2-C bonds. In this study, an ALD-deposited Al2O3 layer is specially introduced on the Cr/GLC multilayer coating to solve the aforementioned corrosion risk of a-C by taking the sealing conception for defects. Compared to the as-deposited Cr/GLC coating, the coating encapsulated with Al2O3 layer depicts the reduction of corrosion current density over two orders of magnitude under a wide pressure range of 0.1 ~ 15 MPa. Particularly, the presence of released Crn+ and Fen+ in the corrosion solution is significantly diminished, accompanying with a small quantity of Aln+ generated in sealed coating during corrosion. Microstructural analysis and electrochemical results identified that both the dense Al2O3 layer offered strong safeguard for Cr elements released from multilayers, whilst amorphous carbon network inhibited the likelihood chloride penetration induced by partially infiltrated Al2O3, which made the synergistic contributions to the enhancement of corrosion resistance for Cr/GLC coating for deep-sea applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3,4-Dihydroisoquinoline (DHIQ) is an important precursor used in the production of drugs for treating cancer, HIV, Alzheimer's disease, etc. Major studies on DHIQ synthesis show low catalytic selectivity due to the susceptible over-oxidation feedstock of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ), which often requires alkali co-catalysts. Therefore, it is desirable yet challenging to explore a highly selective and efficient oxydehydrogenation capacity for DHIQ synthesis under eco-friendly reaction conditions. Herein, a novel framework 1 was synthesized, exhibiting 1D channels with the size of 4.6 Å × 9.6 Å and high solvent/pH/thermal stability. A stable framework allows it to encapsulate Cu nanoparticles (NPs) to form Cu NPs@1-x (x = 1, 2, 3, and 4) with varying loading amounts of Cu NPs at 2.0 wt%, 3.0 wt%, 4.0 wt%, and 6.0 wt%, respectively. Cu NPs@1–3 could selectively catalyze the reaction from THIQ to DHIQ with a high selectivity of 98% and a recorded turnover frequency (TOF) of 22.1 h−1 under eco-friendly mild conditions. The corresponding catalytic activity can maintain at least five recyclings and can be further applied to gram-scale experiments. Additionally, the efficient preparation of DHIQ catalyzed by Cu NPs@1–3 could be realized even under air conditions. Importantly, the anticancer molecule precursor synthesis of 6,7-dimethoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline was also selectively catalyzed by Cu NPs@1–3. Mechanism investigations revealed that high catalytic performance can be attributed to the stable framework and the synergistic catalytic effect of the loaded Cu NPs and Co metal centers. More importantly, this work represents the first example of MOF catalysts for selectively thermo-catalytic DHIQ synthesis and demonstrates a simple approach to obtain efficient catalysts for selective oxydehydrogenation in the production of unsaturated compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to enhance the ionic conductivity of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) and their structural rigidity against lithium dendrite during lithium-ion battery (LIB) cycling, we propose porous garnet Li6.4La3Zr2Al0.2O12 (LLZO), as the filler to SPEs. The porous LLZO with interlinked grains was synthesized via a resol-assisted cationic coordinative co-assembly approach. The porous structure of LLZO with high specific surface area facilitates the interaction between polymer and filler and provides sufficient entrance for Li+ migration into the LLZO phase. Furthermore, the interconnection of LLZO grains forms continuous inorganic pathways for fast Li+ migration, which avoid the multiple diffusion for Li+ in interface. As a result, the SPEs with porous LLZO (SPE-PL) show a high ionic conductive of 0.73 mS·cm−1 at 30 °C and lithium-ion transference number of 0.40. The porous LLZO with uniformly dispersed pores also acts as an ion distributor to regulate ionic flux. The lithium-symmetrical batteries assembled with SPE-PL show a highly stable Li plating/stripping cycling for nearly 3000 h at 0.1 mA·cm−2. The corresponding Li/LiFePO4 batteries also exhibit excellent cyclic performance with capacity retention of 75% after nearly 500 cycles. This work brings new insights into the design of conductive fillers and the optimization of SPEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate clinical features, influencing factors and neurobiochemical mechanisms of olfactory dysfunction (OD) in Parkinson disease (PD). Total 39 patients were divided into the PD with OD (PD–OD) and PD with no OD (PD–nOD) groups according to overall olfactory function, including threshold, discrimination and identification, assessed by Sniffin' Sticks test. Motor function and non-motor symptoms were rated by multiple scales. Dopamine, acetylcholine, norepinephrine and 5-hydroxytryptamine levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured. We found that the PD–OD group showed significantly lower score of Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale, higher scores of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) Screening Questionnaire and Epworth Sleepiness Scale than the PD–nOD group (p < 0.05). RBD Screening Questionnaire score was independently associated with the scores of overall olfactory function and discrimination (p < 0.05). Dopamine and acetylcholine levels in CSF from the PD–OD group was significantly lower than that from the PD–nOD group (p < 0.05). Dopamine and acetylcholine levels in CSF were significantly and positively correlated with the scores of overall olfactory function, threshold, discrimination and identification in PD patients (p < 0.05). RBD Screening Questionnaire score was significantly and negatively correlated with acetylcholine level in CSF in PD patients with poor olfactory detection (p < 0.05). This investigation reveals that PD–OD is associated with cognitive impairment, probable RBD and excessive daytime sleepiness. PD–OD is correlated with the decreased levels of dopamine and acetylcholine in CSF. RBD is an independent influencing factor of overall olfactory function and discrimination, and the decreased acetylcholine level in CSF may be the common neurobiochemical basis of RBD and OD in PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge in structural reliability is that computational accuracy and efficiency are hard to balance, especially the time-variant hybrid reliability problem. To improve the reliability analysis efficiency under the condition that the accuracy is assured, this paper develops a new learning function named Regional Learning with Weighted Simulation (RLWS) to estimate the failure probability. The Kriging model is first employed as a response surface to fit the response of limit state function. An adaptive regional learning model as the core of the most probable point is then proposed to update the Kriging model, where the boundary of the updated region is determined by an attenuation function. Furthermore, based on the RLWS model, this paper develops a continuous maximin salp swarm algorithm to calculate the upper bound of the response value for time-variant hybrid performance function. Meanwhile, the Salp Swarm Algorithm is employed to calculate the lower bound of the response value. The Monte Carlo simulation can thus facilitate evaluation based on the final generated Kriging response surface. Several case studies are performed to test and validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its applicability to practical engineering problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper studies the low-frequency vibration control mechanism of a finite locally resonant beam with elastic supports. Methods: A theoretical model of the finite locally resonant beam consisting of periodic resonators attached to a beam with elastic support boundaries is established, and the power flow of the elastic supported beam is calculated by the modal superposition and harmonic-balance methods. In addition, the study investigates the influence of the periodic number of resonators on the isolation performance of the elastic supported beam, and the difference between local resonance and anti-resonance is determined. Finally, the equivalent Young's modulus of the locally resonant beam is obtained using the parameter inversion method. Results: The periodic number of resonators can affect the bandgap characteristics, and the anti-resonance of the resonators dominates the attenuation performance when the number of resonators is not sufficient to form a locally resonant bandgap. The bandgap created by the local resonance has a wider frequency range than the anti-resonance, and the periodic resonators will change the equivalent Young's modulus of the beam in a pattern consistent with the bandgap. Conclusion: It is shown that the periodicity of the resonators has a significant effect on the low-frequency bandgap characteristics and equivalent parameters of the elastic supported beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-angle grain boundary and twin significantly affect precipitation behavior. Twins were introduced into AZ91 magnesium alloys by pre-rolling. And then, aging treatment was carried out in pre-rolled AZ91 magnesium alloys to investigate the precipitation behavior. The results show that the low-angle grain boundary and the extension twin provide the nucleation position for second phase, while double twin with low-elastic strain energy is not favored for the segregation of Al atom, causing that the precipitate hardly nucleates. Second phase firstly precipitates in the low-angle grain boundary and the twin boundary, followed by precipitating inside the twin. The low-angle grain boundary-induced lath-shaped second phase is attributed to dislocation, while the twin-induced precipitate is mainly affected by dislocation and stacking fault. From thermodynamic perspective, the morphology of twin-induced precipitate firstly displays spherical shape and then grows into lath-like shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biomechanical characteristics of runs in firefighters with different rescue tasks are unclear. This study aimed to explore the biomechanical characteristics of firefighters running in different rescue tasks and provide theoretical and practical references for firefighter training and occupational injury prevention. Eighteen professional healthy male firefighters were randomly selected as participants and tested running on different rescue tasks: wearing firefighting protective clothing (FPC), FPC+carrying a gas can (20 kg, FPC+ C), and FPC+carrying a mannequin (60 kg, FPC+M). Eight Qualisys infrared cameras and an AMTI 3D force measurement platform were used for the participant's acquisition of lower limb kinematic/kinetic data. The results showed that gait velocity and stride length of the FPC+GC and FPC+ M rescue tasks were significantly decreased compared to the FPC rescue task, while the support time was significantly increased. Compared to the FPC rescue task, the FPC+GC rescue task showed significant decreases in vertical ground reaction force (vGRF), minimum ankle dorsiflexion angle, and the maximum ankle plantarflexion power. In contrast, the FPC+M rescue task demonstrated significant increases in ankle range of motion, maximum hip extension angle, minimum knee flexion angle, maximum ankle dorsiflexion angle, maximum hip extension moment, maximum knee flexion moment, maximum hip flexion power, and hip and knee stiffness while exhibiting significant decreases in minimum ankle dorsiflexion angle. Compared to the FPC+ GC rescue task, the FPC+M rescue task exhibited significant increases in the maximum hip extension angle, minimum knee flexion angle, maximum ankle dorsiflexion angle, maximum hip flexion moment, maximum hip extension moment, maximum knee flexion moment, maximum ankle plantarflexion moment, maximum hip flexion power, maximum ankle dorsiflexion power, hip stiffness, and vGRF. Conversely, it showed significant decreases in the maximum knee flexion power. In conclusion, compared to the FPC rescue task, the FPC+GC and FPC+M rescue tasks altered the firefighter's gait performance, as evidenced by decreased gait velocity and stride length and increased support time. FPC+M rescue task would increase firefighter's risk of hip and knee injuries. Therefore, we suggest firefighters increase their strength training of the trunk, hip, and knee joint muscles as part of their daily training programs under large weight load status (60 kg and above) to reduce injury risk during rescue tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)-associated athanogene (BAG) family genes play prominent roles in regulating plant growth, development, and stress response. Although the molecular mechanism underlying BAG's response to abiotic stress has been studied in Arabidopsis, the function of OsBAG underlying saline-alkaline stress tolerance in rice remains unclear. In this study, OsBAG6, a chaperone regulator localized to mitochondria, was identified as a novel negative regulator of saline-alkaline stress tolerance in rice. The expression level of OsBAG6 was induced by high concentration of salt, high pH, heat and abscisic acid treatments. Overexpression of OsBAG6 in rice resulted in significantly reduced plant heights, grain size, grain weight, as well as higher sensitivity to saline-alkaline stress. By contrast, the osbag6 loss-of-function mutants exhibited decreased sensitivity to saline-alkaline stress. The transcriptomic analysis uncovered differentially expressed genes related to the function of "response to oxidative stress", "defense response", and "secondary metabolite biosynthetic process" in the shoots and roots of OsBAG6-overexpressing transgenic lines. Furthermore, cytoplasmic levels of Ca2+ increase rapidly in plants exposed to saline-alkaline stress. OsBAG6 bound to calcium sensor OsCaM1-1 under normal conditions, which was identified by comparative interactomics, but not in the presence of elevated Ca2+. Released OsCaM1-1 saturated with Ca2+ is then able to regulate downstream stress-responsive genes as part of the response to saline-alkaline stress. OsBAG6 also interacted with energy biosynthesis and metabolic pathway proteins that are involved in plant growth and saline-alkaline stress response mechanisms. This study reveals a novel function for mitochondrial localized OsBAG6 proteins in the saline-alkaline stress response alongside OsCaM1-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic overall water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is desirable for long-term renewable, sustainable and clean fuel production on earth. Metal sulfides are considered as ideal hydrogen-evolved photocatalysts, but their component homogeneity and typical sulfur instability cause an inert oxygen production, which remains a huge obstacle to overall water-splitting. Here, a distortion-evoked cation-site oxygen doping of ZnIn2S4 (D-O-ZIS) creates significant electronegativity differences between adjacent atomic sites, with S1 sites being electron-rich and S2 sites being electron-deficient in the local structure of S1–S2–O sites. The strong charge redistribution character activates stable oxygen reactions at S2 sites and avoids the common issue of sulfur instability in metal sulfide photocatalysis, while S1 sites favor the adsorption/desorption of hydrogen. Consequently, an overall water-splitting reaction has been realized in D-O-ZIS with a remarkable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 0.57%, accompanying a ~ 91% retention rate after 120 h photocatalytic test. In this work, we inspire an universal design from electronegativity differences perspective to activate and stabilize metal sulfide photocatalysts for efficient overall water-splitting. Solving component homogeneity and sulfur instability of metal sulfides is crucial for photocatalytic overall water splitting. Here, the authors develop a distortion evoked cation site oxygen doping to create electronegativity differences between adjacent atom and enhance photocatalytic activity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: A novel function of plasma membrane-localized H+-ATPase, OsAHA3, was identified in rice, which is involved in saline–alkaline tolerance and specifically responds to high pH during saline–alkaline stress. Saline–alkaline stress causes serious damage to crop production on irrigated land. Plants suffer more severe damage under saline–alkaline stress than under salinity stress alone. Plasma membrane-localized proton (H+) pump (H+-ATPase) is an important enzyme that controls plant growth and development by catalyzing H+ efflux and enabling effective charge balance. Many studies about the role of plasma membrane H+-ATPases in saline–alkaline stress tolerance have been reported in Arabidopsis, especially on the AtAHA2 (Arabidopsis thaliana H+-ATPase 2) gene; however, whether and how plasma membrane H+-ATPases play a role in saline–alkaline stress tolerance in rice remain unknown. Here, using the activation-tagged rice mutant pool, we found that the plasma membrane-localized H+-ATPase OsAHA3 (Oryza sativa autoinhibited H+-ATPase 3) is involved in saline–alkaline stress tolerance. Activation-tagged line 29 (AC29) was identified as a loss-of-function mutant of OsAHA3 and showed more severe growth retardation under saline–alkaline stress with high pH than under salinity stress. Moreover, osaha3 loss-of-function mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9 system exhibited saline–alkaline stress sensitive phenotypes; staining of leaves with nitrotetrazolium blue chloride (NBT) and diaminobenzidine (DAB) revealed more reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in osaha3 mutants. OsAHA3-overexpressing plants showed increased saline–alkaline stress tolerance than wild-type plants. Tissue-specific expression analysis revealed high expression level of OsAHA3 in leaf, sheath, glume, and panicle. Overall, our results revealed a novel function of plasma membrane-localized H+-ATPase, OsAHA3, which is involved in saline–alkaline stress tolerance and specifically responds to high pH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A recurrence-free survival (RFS) prediction model was developed and validated for patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) in combination with surgery. Patients and Methods: We included 282 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) combined with surgery, constructed three models incorporating pathological factors, investigated the discrimination and calibration of each model, and compared the clinical utility of each model using the net reclassification index (NRI) and the integrated discrimination index (IDI). Results: Multivariable analysis showed that pathologic complete response (pCR) and lymph node tumor regression grading (LN–TRG) (p < 0.05) were independent prognostic factors for RFS. LASSO regression screened six correlates of LN-TRG, vascular invasion, nerve invasion, degree of differentiation, platelet grade, and a total diameter of residual cancer in lymph nodes to build model three, which was consistent in terms of efficacy in the training set and validation set. Kaplan–Meier (K–M) curves showed that all three models were able to distinguish well between high- and low-risk groups (p < 0.01). The NRI and IDI showed that the clinical utility of model 2 was slightly better than that of model 1 (p > 0.05), and model 3 was significantly better than that of model 2 (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Clinical prediction models incorporating LN-TRG factors have high predictive efficacy, can help identify patients at high risk of recurrence after neoadjuvant therapy, and can be used as a supplement to the AJCC/TNM staging system while offering a scientific rationale for early postoperative intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereo matching is a fundamental technique for many vision and robotics applications. State-of-the-art methods either employ convolutional neural networks with spatially-shared kernels or utilize content-dependent interactions (e.g., local or global attention) to augment convolution operations. Despite of great improvements being made, existing methods could either suffer from a high computational cost arising from global attention operations or a suboptimal performance at edge regions due to spatially-shared convolutions. In this paper, we propose a CoAtRS stereo matching method to exert the complementary advantages of convolution and attention to the full via region separation. Our method can adaptively adopt the most suitable feature extraction and aggregation patterns for smooth and edge regions with less computational cost. In addition, we propose D-global attention which performs global filtering on the disparity dimension to better fuse cost volumes of different regions and alleviate the locality defects of convolutions. Our CoAtRS stereo matching method can also be embedded conveniently in various existing 3D CNN stereo networks. The resulting networks can achieve significant improvements in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, we design an accurate network (named CoAtRSNet) which achieves the state-of-the-art results on five public datasets. At the time of writing, CoAtRSNet ranks 1st–3rd on all the metrics published on the ETH3D website, ranks 2nd on Scene Flow, and ranks 1st for the Root-Mean-Square metric, 2nd for the average error metric and 3rd for the bad 0.5 metric on the Middlebury benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Autophagy receptor OsNBR1 modulates salt stress tolerance by affecting ROS accumulation in rice. The NBR1 (next to BRCA1 gene 1), as important selective receptors, whose functions have been reported in animals and plants. Although the function of NBR1 responses to abiotic stress has mostly been investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana, the role of NBR1 under salt stress conditions remains unclear in rice (Oryza sativa). In this study, by screening the previously generated activation-tagged line, we identified a mutant, activation tagging 10 (AC10), which exhibited salt stress-sensitive phenotypes. TAIL-PCR (thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR) showed that the AC10 line carried a loss-of-function mutation in the OsNBR1 gene. OsNBR1 was found to be a positive regulator of salt stress tolerance and was localized in aggregates. A loss-of-function mutation in OsNBR1 increased salt stress sensitivity, whereas overexpression of OsNBR1 enhanced salt stress resistance. The osnbr1 mutants showed higher ROS (reactive oxygen species) production, whereas the OsNBR1 overexpression (OsNBR1OE) lines showed lower ROS production, than Kitaake plants under normal and salt stress conditions. Furthermore, RNA-seq analysis revealed that expression of OsRBOH9 (respiratory burst oxidase homologue) was increased in osnbr1 mutants, resulting in increased ROS accumulation in osnbr1 mutants. Together our results established that OsNBR1 responds to salt stress by influencing accumulation of ROS rather than by regulating transport of Na+ and K+ in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many projects have demonstrated that excessive nitrogen (N) addition changed soil microbial biomass; however, the extent varies at different sites around the world. Here, meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of sample site characteristics on the responses of soil microbial biomass to N addition based on 1,642 data from 181 field experiments. Our results showed that soil microbes were more sensitive to N addition in sample sites with mild environmental and soil conditions, such as medium mean annual temperature (1–15 °C), mean annual precipitation (350–600 mm), humidity (30–35), soil carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio (9–20), soil pH (5.0–7.5), or lower ambient N deposition rate (< 25 kg N ha−1 y−1). Under extreme conditions, however, the soil microbial biomass showed less or even insignificant responses to N addition. Contrarily, the ambient soil microbial characteristics, such as total microbial biomass, the ratios of fungi-to-bacteria (F:B), and gram-positive to gram-negative bacteria, were linearly correlated with the microbial responses (P < 0.05). Furthermore, these microbial characteristics are comprehensively structured by the environmental conditions and soil properties. For soil microbiota, fungal biomass decreased the most after N addition, especially arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Saprophytic fungal biomass changed insignificantly and actinomycete biomass even increased. These results indicate that when accurately predicting the effect of N deposition on soil microbial biomass, the characteristics of sample sites should be synthetically considered, especially soil F:B and C:N. Furthermore, more field experiments in Southern hemisphere countries should be executed in the future, as less data are available in these regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic sensitivity of ultra-high-resolution computed tomography (U-HRCT) and HRCT in isolated fenestral otosclerosis (IFO). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 85 patients (85 ears) diagnosed with IFO between October 2020 and November 2022. U-HRCT (0.1 mm thickness) was performed for 20 ears, HRCT (0.67 mm thickness) for 45 ears, and both for 20 ears. The images were evaluated by general radiologists and neuroradiologists who were blinded to the diagnosis and surgical information. The diagnostic sensitivity of U-HRCT and HRCT for detecting IFO was compared between the two groups. Results: Excellent inter-observer agreement existed between the two neuroradiologists (Cohen's κ coefficient 0.806, 95% CI 0.692–0.920), with good agreement between the general radiologists (Cohen's κ coefficient 0.680, 95% CI 0.417–0.943). U-HRCT had a sensitivity of 100% (40/40 ears) for neuroradiologists and 87.5% (35/40 ears) for general radiologists, significantly higher than HRCT (89.2% [58/65 ears] for neuroradiologists; 41.5% [27/65 ears] for general radiologists) (p = 0.042, p′ < 0.000). General radiologists' sensitivity with HRCT was significantly lower compared to neuroradiologists (p < 0.000), but no significant difference was observed when general radiologists switched to U-HRCT (p = 0.152). Among the 20 ears that underwent both examinations, U-HRCT detected lesions smaller than 1 mm in 5 ears, whereas HRCT's sensitivity for neuroradiologists was 40% (2/5 ears), significantly lower than for lesions larger than 1 mm (93.3%, 14/15 ears, p = 0.032). Conclusion: U-HRCT exhibits higher sensitivity than HRCT in diagnosing IFO, suggesting its potential as a screening tool for suspected otosclerosis patients. Critical relevance statement: Ultra-high-resolution computed tomography has the potential to become a screening tool in patients with suspected otosclerosis and to bridge the diagnostic accuracy gap between general radiologists and neuroradiologists. Key points: • U-HRCT exhibits higher sensitivity than HRCT in the diagnosis of IFO. • U-HRCT has a significant advantage in the detection of less than 1 mm IFO. • U-HRCT has the potential to be used for screening of patients with suspected otosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because China produces the most crayfish in the world, safe solutions must be improved to mitigate the risks of ongoing heavy metal stressors accumulation. This study aimed to use Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a bioremediation agent to counteract the harmful effect of cadmium (Cd) on crayfish (Procambarus clarkia). Our study used three concentrations of S. cerevisiae on crayfish feed to assess their Cd toxicity remediation effect by measuring total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and the biomarkers related to oxidative stress like malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl derivates (PCO), and DNA–protein crosslink (DPC). A graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy device was used to determine Cd contents in crayfish. Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of lysozyme (LSZ), metallothionein (MT), and prophenoloxidase (proPO) were evaluated before and following the addition of S. cerevisiae. The results indicated that S. cerevisae at 5% supplemented in fundamental feed exhibited the best removal effect, and Cd removal rates at days 4th, 8th, 12th, and 21st were 12, 19, 29.7, and 66.45%, respectively, which were significantly higher than the basal diet of crayfish. The addition of S. cerevisiae increased TAC levels. On the other hand, it decreased MDA, PCO, and DPC, which had risen due to Cd exposure. Furthermore, it increased the expression of proPO, which was reduced by Cd exposure, and decreased the expression of LSZ and MT, acting in the opposite direction of Cd exposure alone. These findings demonstrated that feeding S. cerevisiae effectively reduces the Cd from crayfish and could be used to develop Cd-free crayfish-based foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been many analytical methods for natural estrogens in commercial dairy milk samples, but in most of which, only four major estrogens (estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and 17α-estradiol (αE2)) were included. This work developed an effective GC–MS analytical method for simultaneous analysis of twelve natural estrogens in commercial dairy milk sample, in which eight far-less well-known natural estrogens (2-hydroxyestone (2OHE1), 4-hydroxyestrone (4OHE1), 2-hydroxyestradiol (2OHE2), 4-hydroxyestradiol (4OHE2), 16-epiestriol (16epiE3), 16α-hydroxyestrone (16αOHE1), 16-ketoestradiol (16ketoE2) and 17epiestriol (17epiE3)) were included besides the four major natural estrogens. With liquid–liquid extraction and solid phase extraction, twelve natural estrogens in commercial dairy milk could be effectively extracted. The established method showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9991), low limits of detections (LODs, 0.02–0.11 ng/g), as well as excellent recoveries (64–117%) with satisfactory low relative standard deviations (RSDs, 0.8–14.7%). This established method was applied to seven commercial dairy milk samples, and all the twelve natural estrogens were frequently detected except for 4OHE2 without detection in any sample. Our results showed that the concentration contribution ratios of the eight far-less well-known natural estrogens in commercial dairy milk samples contributed to 32–83%, while the corresponding contribution ratios based on estrogen equivalence (EEQ) were 21–62%. This work highlighted the high abundance of the eight far-less well-known natural estrogens in commercial dairy milk based on both concentration and EEQ, which has been neglected for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shale oil and gas economic exploitation depends closely on effective hydraulic fracturing stimulations. However, due to the reservoir heterogeneity and in-situ stress variation, the hydraulic fracturing through multiple perforations in shale is confronted with imbalanced fracture growth. To investigate, we reported a new laboratory study that simulates hydraulic fracturing through multiple perforations in shale blocks. The effect of horizontal in-situ stress difference on simultaneous and asynchronous fracture growth from spiral perforations was analyzed. The results show that the in-situ stress difference significantly influences hydraulic fracture initiation and growth, fluid pressure behavior, and fracture orientation. Under a high value of horizontal in-situ stress difference, parallel transverse fractures are initiated simultaneously and growing independently along the direction of σH. Higher injection pressure is required to promote hydraulic fracture propagation with the decrease of horizontal in-situ stress difference. The induced fractures grow asynchronously from two adjacent perforations and later merge into a large tortuous fracture. Besides, the azimuth angle of hydraulic fracture deflects from the direction of σH, and the inclination angle gradually decreases. When the value of σh is close to σH, an inclined longitudinal fracture and multiple mini-transverse fractures are created from spiral perforations, resulting in a prolonged fracturing process and a significant near-wellbore fracture complexity. Highlights: A novel test configuration was developed to investigate multiple hydraulic fractures initiation and propagation from spiral perforations in shale Hydraulic fracture geometry, orientation, perforation breakdown, and fluid pressure behavior showed a clear dependence on stress difference The simultaneous and asynchronous fractures growth from multiple perforations was characterized based on the acoustic emission source location [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Owing to the lack of visible scars, the transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA) offers superior aesthetic outcomes compared to conventional thyroidectomy. Carcinoma showing thymus-like differentiation (CASTLE) represents a rare thyroid gland neoplasm. This study aimed to explore the TOETVA learning curve and present a case report of CASTLE. Methods: A study with precise 1:1 matching was conducted to assess the procedure safety and cancer control outcomes of TOETVA in comparison to conventional surgery between May 2020 and May 2023. Cumulative sum analysis was employed to optimally fit the learning curve. Subsequently, a case report of CASTLE treated with TOETVA surgery was presented. Results: The mean operative time was longer in the TOETVA group than in the open group. The TOETVA group had a higher incidence of skin numbness and excellent cosmetic outcomes compared to the open group. The learning curves for work area preparation, unilateral thyroid lobectomy, and the entire surgical process were 59, 28, and 50 cases, respectively. There were no differences between the learning and proficient groups, except for operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and drainage volume on the first postoperative day. Conclusions: A comprehensive analysis of the TOETVA learning curve utilizing cumulative and analytical methods demonstrated the feasibility of TOETVA with regards to surgical integrity, safety, and oncological safety. This study's findings suggest that a surgeon's cumulative number of TOETVA cases exceeding 50 can reach the mastery stage. Moreover, diagnosing CASTLE is challenging and necessitates immunohistochemical detection of relatively specific markers associated with thymic epithelial tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal sulfides are commonly studied as photocatalysts for water splitting in solar-to-fuel conversion. However, the effectiveness of these photocatalysts is limited by the recombination and restricted light absorption capacity of carriers. In this paper, a broad spectrum responsive In2S3/Bi2S3 heterojunction is constructed by in-situ integrating Bi2S3 with the In2S3, derived from an In-MOF precursor, via the high-temperature sulfidation and solvothermal methods. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of wide-spectrum response, effective charge separation and transfer, and strong heterogeneous interfacial contacts, the In2S3/Bi2S3 heterojunction demonstrates a rate of 0.71 mmol/(g·h), which is 2.2 and 1.7 times as much as those of In2S3 (0.32 mmol/(g·h) and Bi2S3 (0.41 mmol/(g·h)), respectively. This paper provides a novel idea for rationally designing innovative heterojunction photocatalysts of transition metal sulfides for photocatalytic hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiencing urban green and blue spaces (GBSs) can be a nature-based solution to improve mental well-being and cope with negative moods for people exposed to PM2.5 pollution. In this study, a total of 1257 photos were collected to recognize their posted emotions of Sina Weibo users from 38 parks in 22 cities in Northeast China in 2021, when atmospheric PM2.5 and landscape metrics were evaluated for GBSs of each park. Autumn and winter had heavy atmospheric PM2.5 pollutions in resource-dependent cities of Liaoning. Net positive emotions (happy minus sad scores) decreased in larger green spaces. The perception of blue space countered the presentation of sadness only for a limited period over four seasons. High elevation decreased the level of happiness presented in winter. Overall, this study confirms that visiting large urban green spaces at low elevations can benefit the perception of positive sentiments for people exposed to PM2.5 in autumn. For planning urban forests in Northeast China, more green spaces should be constructed in cities in southern Jilin province to alleviate air PM2.5 pollution and gain better well-being of local people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a highly lethal adenocarcinoma of the hepatobiliary system, outcomes for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) patients remain prominently poor with a 5-year survival of <10% due to the lack of effective treatment modalities. Targeted therapeutics for CCA are limited and surgical resection of CCA frequently suffers from a high recurrence rate. Here we report two effective targeted therapeutics in this preclinical study for CCA. We first performed a quantitative and unbiased screening of cancer-related antigens using comparative flow cytometry in a panel of human CCA cell lines, and identified intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1) as a therapeutic target for CCA. After determining that ICAM1 has the ability to efficiently mediate antibody internalization, we constructed two ICAM1 antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) by conjugating ICAM1 antibodies to different cytotoxic payloads through cleavable chemical linkers. The efficacies of two ICAM1 ADCs have been evaluated in comparison with the first-line chemodrug Gemcitabine in vitro and in vivo, and ICAM1 antibodies coupled with warhead DX-8951 derivative (DXd) or monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) elicit a potent and consistent tumor attenuation. In summary, this study paves the road for developing a promising targeted therapeutic candidate for clinical treatment of CCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural–slip rockburst induced by structural plane slip are more strongly destructive than strain rockburst and pose a significant threat to the construction safety of deeply buried tunnels traversing faulted sections. In this paper, the three dimensional discrete element method and virtual joint technology are used to systematically study the structural–slip rockburst development process when the tunnel approaches and crosses a large structural plane. The visualization of energy and rockburst proneness is realized, and revealing the evolution law of multi-information such as displacement field, stress field, and rockburst proneness during the structural–slip rockburst. The results indicate that: the displacement of the surrounding rock near the tunnel profile gradually increases before and during the tunnel crossing large structural plane, and remains unchanged after the crossing process; the ejection of relatively large rock masses appears at the tunnel vault when the structural plane is being approached, and in the process of exposing the structural plane, many fissures and ejections of rock masses mixed with debris appear at the side walls first, followed by the surrounding rock slab at the spandrel cracked to form a thin rock slab and fell, in away from the structural plane, the arch bottom and side walls appear relatively more rock block ejection; before the tunnel reaches the structural plane the surrounding rock rockburst proneness gradually increased, during crossing the structural plane the rockburst proneness reached maximum, while away from the structural plane the rockburst proneness gradually decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flag leaf senescence is a critical factor affecting the yield and quality of wheat. The aim of this study was to identify QTLs associated with flag leaf senescence in an F10 recombinant inbred line population derived from durum wheats UC1113 and Kofa. Bulked segregant analysis using the wheat 660K SNP array identified 3225 SNPs between extreme-phenotype bulks, and the differential SNPs were mainly clustered on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 3B, 5A, 5B, and 7A. BSR-Seq indicated that the significant SNPs were mainly located in two intervals of 354.0–389.0 Mb and 8.0–15.0 Mb on 1B and 3B, respectively. Based on the distribution of significant SNPs on chromosomes 1B and 3B, a total of 109 insertion/deletion (InDel) markers were developed, and 8 of them were finally used to map QTL in UC1113/Kofa population for flag leaf senescence. Inclusive composite interval mapping identified two major QTL in marker intervals Mar2005–Mar2116 and Mar207–Mar289, explaining 14.2–15.4% and 31.4–68.6% of the phenotypic variances across environments, respectively. Using BSR-Seq, gene expression and sequence analysis, the TraesCS1B02G211600 and TraesCS3B02G023000 were identified as candidate senescence-associated genes. This study has potential to be used in cloning key genes for flag leaf senescence and provides available molecular markers for genotyping and marker-assisted selection breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separating deuterium from hydrogen isotope mixtures is of vital importance to develop nuclear energy industry, as well as other isotope-related advanced technologies. As one of the most promising alternatives to conventional techniques for deuterium purification, kinetic quantum sieving using porous materials has shown a great potential to address this challenging objective. From the knowledge gained in this field; it becomes clear that a quantum sieve encompassing a wide range of practical features in addition to its separation performance is highly demanded to approach the industrial level. Here, the rational design of an ultra-microporous squarate pillared titanium oxide hybrid framework has been achieved, of which we report the comprehensive assessment towards practical deuterium separation. The material not only displays a good performance combining high selectivity and volumetric uptake, reversible adsorption-desorption cycles, and facile regeneration in adsorptive sieving of deuterium, but also features a cost-effective green scalable synthesis using chemical feedstock, and a good stability (thermal, chemical, mechanical and radiolytic) under various working conditions. Our findings provide an overall assessment of the material for hydrogen isotope purification and the results represent a step forward towards next generation practical materials for quantum sieving of important gas isotopes. Hydrogen isotope separation is key for developing technologies. Here authors present a squarate-pillared titanium oxide quantum sieve for deuterium separation, displaying impressive separation performance, cost-effective green scalable synthesis, and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats are reservoir hosts for many zoonotic viruses. Despite this, relatively little is known about the diversity and abundance of viruses within individual bats, and hence the frequency of virus co-infection and spillover among them. We characterize the mammal-associated viruses in 149 individual bats sampled from Yunnan province, China, using an unbiased meta-transcriptomics approach. This reveals a high frequency of virus co-infection (simultaneous infection of bat individuals by multiple viral species) and spillover among the animals studied, which may in turn facilitate virus recombination and reassortment. Of note, we identify five viral species that are likely to be pathogenic to humans or livestock, based on phylogenetic relatedness to known pathogens or in vitro receptor binding assays. This includes a novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely related to both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. In vitro assays indicate that this recombinant virus can utilize the human ACE2 receptor such that it is likely to be of increased emergence risk. Our study highlights the common occurrence of co-infection and spillover of bat viruses and their implications for virus emergence. Viral diversity and abundance in bats are incompletely understood. Here, analyzing individual bat viromes, the authors observe a high frequency of co-infection and spillover among the animals and identify viruses with the potential to infect humans or livestock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remaining useful life (RUL) prediction is critical for industrial equipment status detection, and the accurate prediction results provide decision-makers with actionable information. Preventive maintenance can be carried out to prevent the sudden failure of the equipment effectively based on the predicted results. However, as Industry 4.0 technologies develop, the amount of data collected by sensors is also rapidly increasing. The existing RUL prediction methods are gradually unable to cope with complex industrial equipment data, and deep learning methods gradually come to the fore. In this background, this paper proposes a transformer-based model with a multi-layer encoder–decoder structure to extract domain-invariant features. The decoder in the traditional transformer structure only obtains a single piece of information from the last layer of the encoder, and this paper uses an integrated layer-cross decoding strategy to compensate. Based on the encoder–decoder cross-connection, each decoder layer is provided with global view information from the final encoder layer simultaneously, improving the model's performance. The validity and superiorities of the proposed method are evaluated through several experiments on the publicly available C-MAPSS dataset provided by NASA. As can be seen from the results, the proposed method gets higher prediction accuracy than other network architectures and state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion: OsTST1 affects yield and development and mediates sugar transportation of plants from source to sink in rice, which influences the accumulation of intermediate metabolites from tricarboxylic acid cycle indirectly. Tonoplast sugar transporters (TSTs) are essential for vacuolar sugar accumulation in plants. Carbohydrate transport across tonoplasts maintains the metabolic balance in plant cells, and carbohydrate distribution is crucial to plant growth and productivity. Large plant vacuoles store high concentrations of sugars to meet plant requirements for energy and other biological processes. The abundance of sugar transporter affects crop biomass and reproductive growth. However, it remains unclear whether the rice (Oryza sativa L.) sugar transport protein OsTST1 affects yield and development. In this study, we found that OsTST1 knockout mutants generated via CRISPR/Cas9 exhibited slower development, smaller seeds, and lower yield than wild type (WT) rice plants. Notably, plants overexpressing OsTST1 showed the opposite effects. Changes in rice leaves at 14 days after germination (DAG) and at 10 days after flowering (DAF) suggested that OsTST1 affected the accumulation of intermediate metabolites from the glycolytic pathway and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. The modification of the sugar transport between cytosol and vacuole mediated by OsTST1 induces deregulation of several genes including transcription factors (TFs). In summary, no matter the location of sucrose and sink is, these preliminary results revealed that OsTST1 was important for sugar transport from source to sink tissues, thus affecting plant growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation performance of α-Fe2O3 photoanode can be improved by constructing proper heterojunction to promote photo-induced carrier separation and interfacial charge transfer. Here, an optimized MoOx layer with abundant oxygen vacancies was modified on Sn doped α-Fe2O3 film by simple spin coating and thermal reduction method to form a heterojunction with enhanced PEC performance. XPS results suggest that increased oxygen vacancy concentration in MoOx layers can be achieved by post annealing the samples in N2. PEC tests of the prepared photoanodes revealed that the optimal N2-annealed MoOx/Sn-Fe2O3 photoanode with abundant oxygen vacancies possesses the best photocurrent density (1.88 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs RHE), which is up to 1.84 and 8.17 times compared with Sn-Fe2O3 and pristine Fe2O3, respectively. The improved PEC performance can be attributed to the enhanced band bending and built-in electric field after increasing the oxygen vacancy concentration in MoOx, which promoted the carrier separation and transfer. This work demonstrates that constructing heterojunction using a MoOx layer with abundant oxygen vacancies is an effective approach to enhance the PEC performance of α-Fe2O3 photoanode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-dimensional Quantum Hall effect with no external magnetic field is called the Quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect. So far, experimentally realized QAH insulators all exhibit ferromagnetic order and the QAH effect only occurs at very low temperatures. On the other hand, up to now the QAH effect in collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials has never been reported and the corresponding mechanism has never been proposed. In this work, we realize the QAH effect by proposing a four-band lattice model with static AFM order, which indicates that the QAH effect can be found in AFM materials. Then, as a prototype, we demonstrate that a monolayer CrO can be switched from an AFM Weyl semimetal to an AFM QAH insulator by applying strain, based on symmetry analysis and the first-principles electronic structure calculations. Our work not only proposes a scenario to search for QAH insulators in materials, but also reveals a way to considerably increase the critical temperature of the QAH phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging is widely thought to be associated with oxidative stress. Momordica charantia (MC) is a classic vegetable and traditional herbal medicine widely consumed in Asia, and M. charantia polysaccharide (MCP) is the main bioactive ingredient of MC. We previously reported an antioxidative and neuroprotective effect of MCP in models of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and hemorrhage injury. However, the role played by MCP in neurodegenerative diseases, especially during aging, remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of MCP against oxidative stress and brain damage in a D-galactose-induced aging model (DGAM). The Morris water maze test was performed to evaluate the spatial memory function of model rats. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured and telomerase activity was determined. The results showed that MCP treatment attenuated spatial memory dysfunction induced by D-galactose. In addition, MCP increased antioxidant capacity by decreasing MDA and increasing SOD and GSH levels. MCP treatment also improved telomerase activity in aging rats. Mechanistically, MCP promoted the entry of both Nrf2 and β-Catenin into the nucleus, which is the hallmark of antioxidation signaling pathway activation. This study highlights a role played by MCP in ameliorating aging-induced oxidative stress injury and reversing the decline in learning and memory capacity. Our work provides evidence that MCP administration might be a potential antiaging strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal medical image is an effective method to solve a series of clinical problems, such as clinical diagnosis and postoperative treatment. In this study, a medical image fusion method based on convolutional sparse representation (CSR) and mutual information correlation is proposed. In this method, the source image is decomposed into one high-frequency and one low-frequency sub-band by non-subsampled shearlet transform. For the high-frequency sub-band, CSR is used for high-frequency coefficient fusion. For the low-frequency sub-band, different fusion strategies are used for different regions by mutual information correlation analysis. Analysis of two kinds of medical image fusion problems, namely, CT–MRI and MRI–SPECT, reveals that the performance of this method is robust in terms of five common objective metrics. Compared with the other six advanced medical image fusion methods, the experimental results show that the proposed method achieves better results in subjective vision and objective evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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