Search

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a noninvasive neuroregulatory technique used to treat neurodegenerative diseases, holds promise for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) treatment, although its efficacy and mechanisms remain unclear. This study aims to observe the short-term impact of cerebellar rTMS on motor function in SCA3 patients and utilize resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) to assess potential therapeutic mechanisms. Twenty-two SCA3 patients were randomly assigned to receive actual rTMS (AC group, n = 11, three men and eight women; age 32–55 years) or sham rTMS (SH group, n = 11, three men and eight women; age 26–58 years). Both groups underwent cerebellar rTMS or sham rTMS daily for 15 days. The primary outcome measured was the ICARS scores and parameters for regional brain activity. Compared to baseline, ICARS scores decreased more significantly in the AC group than in the SH group after the 15-day intervention. Imaging indicators revealed increased Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF) values in the posterior cerebellar lobe and cerebellar tonsil following AC stimulation. This study suggests that rTMS enhances motor functions in SCA3 patients by modulating the excitability of specific brain regions and associated pathways, reinforcing the potential clinical utility of rTMS in SCA3 treatment. The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry identifier is ChiCTR1800020133. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The information about mercury (Hg) fractions obtained by simple thermodesorption screening techniques has not been compared with that from chemical extraction methods. Here, we examined Hg fractions in the surface sediments by a simple thermodesorption method and by a sequential selective extraction method to better understand the biogeochemical reactivity and mobility of Hg in the Changjiang Estuary wetlands. Materials and methods: The concentrations of Hg fractions in sediments were analyzed by DMA-80 at different heating temperatures of 175, 225, 325 and 750 °C. Hg compounds in selected sediments were determined by sequential chemical extractions with 0.5 M HCl followed by 1 M KOH. Results and discussion: The results showed that the proportions of labile Hg fractions released at 175 ℃ were less than 5% of the total Hg, which could correlate with highly reactive and poorly crystalline iron oxides that have high biogeochemical reactivity in sediments. Furthermore, more than 74% (of the total, on average) of Hg in the sediments was released at temperatures between 175 and 325 ℃, which corresponded well to the amount of organic-chelated Hg in the sediments as determined by extraction with 1 M KOH. These results suggested that Hg bound to humic substances or to organomineral complexes could play a key role in controlling the thermal release of different Hg species from the sediments. Conclusions: The thermal decomposition method could serve as a fast and reliable screening method for the identification of different Hg compounds to help assess Hg mobility and bioavailability in aqueous (e.g., estuarine wetlands) sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miniature camera modules are widely used in mobile electronic devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants or tablet computers. The introduction of freeform surface in imaging systems provides numerous opportunities for enhanced performance, compactness and lightweight packaging. In this paper, we proposed a wide-angle, low-distortion and large-aperture optical system with freeform lens. A 110°full field of view, 1/1.8″ sensor size, 1.8 F number, 6.35 mm total track length (TTL) wide-angle high-resolution miniature camera lens was developed. The prototype exhibits a novel solution for wide-angle, ultra-short TTL lens in the application such as mobile phone cameras, wearable imaging systems and endoscopic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bacterial type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) system is a rich genetic element that participates in various physiological processes. Aeromonas veronii is the main bacterial pathogen threatening the freshwater aquaculture industry. However, the distribution of type II TA system in A. veronii was seldom documented and its roles in the life activities of A. veronii were still unexplored. In this study, a novel type II TA system AvtA-AvtT was predicted in a fish pathogen Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria with multi-drug resistance using TADB 2.0. Through an Escherichia coli host killing and rescue assay, we demonstrated that AvtA and AvtT worked as a genuine TA system, and the predicted toxin AvtT actually functioned as an antitoxin while the predicted antitoxin AvtA actually functioned as a toxin. The binding ability of AvtA with AvtT proteins were confirmed by dot blotting analysis and co-immunoprecipitation assay. Furthermore, we found that the toxin and antitoxin labelled with fluorescent proteins were co-localized. In addition, it was found that the transcription of AvtAT bicistronic operon was repressed by the AvtAT protein complex. Deletion of avtA gene and avtT gene had no obvious effect on the drug susceptibility. This study provides first characterization of type II TA system AvtA-AvtT in aquatic pathogen A. veronii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solvolysis of ammonia borane (AB) and the hydrogenation of nitroarenes represent significant reactions for hydrogen generation and value-added chemical synthesis. The strategic engineering of the catalysts is imperative for surmounting obstacles associated with their stability and catalytic efficiency. In this work, subnanometric bimetallic Pt–Pd clusters were encapsulated within silicalite-1 (S-1) zeolites through a ligand-protected in-situ hydrothermal synthesis method. The synergetic effect of bimetallic composition and zeolite confinement markedly enhances the catalytic performance of representative Pt0.5 Pd0.5@S-1-H catalyst, affording exceptional turnover frequency (TOF) values of 1,043 and 573 molH2 molmetal−1 min−1 for AB hydrolysis and methanolysis at ambient conditions, respectively, surpassing most of the state-of-the-art Pt-based catalysts. Kinetic and isotopic experiments reveal that the bimetallic catalytic system remarkably boosts the O–H cleavage of water, thereby facilitating the H2 production from AB hydrolysis. Remarkably, a conspicuous synergistic effect is demonstrated in the shape-selective tandem hydrogenation of nitroarenes, with the bimetallic catalyst facilitating both AB hydrolysis and nitroarene hydrogenation, giving a high TOF value of 1,260 h−1 under atmospheric pressure. This study not only demonstrates the effectiveness of bimetallic nanocatalysts encapsulated in zeolites for hydrogen production from chemical hydrogen storage materials, but also paves the way for the design of catalysts with multifunctional active sites capable of synergistically promoting tandem catalytic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field-effect transistors (FETs) based on two-dimensional materials (2DMs) with atomically thin channels have emerged as a promising platform for beyond-silicon electronics. However, low carrier mobility in 2DM transistors driven by phonon scattering remains a critical challenge. To address this issue, we propose the controlled introduction of localized tensile strain as an effective means to inhibit electron-phonon scattering in 2DM. Strain is achieved by conformally adhering the 2DM via van der Waals forces to a dielectric layer previously nanoengineered with a gray-tone topography. Our results show that monolayer MoS2 FETs under tensile strain achieve an 8-fold increase in on-state current, reaching mobilities of 185 cm²/Vs at room temperature, in good agreement with theoretical calculations. The present work on nanotopographic grayscale surface engineering and the use of high-quality dielectric materials has the potential to find application in the nanofabrication of photonic and nanoelectronic devices. Improving the performance of 2D transistors is essential to enable their future application for beyond-silicon electronics. Here, the authors report a method to induce localized tensile strain in monolayer MoS2 transistors, leading to enhanced electron mobilities up to 185 cm2/Vs and an 8-fold increase of the on-state current densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microorganisms consume and transform dissolved organic matter (DOM) into various forms. However, it remains unclear whether the ecological patterns and drivers of DOM chemodiversity are analogous to those of microbial communities. Here, a large-scale investigation is conducted along the Chinese coasts to resolve the intrinsic linkages among the complex intertidal DOM pools, microbial communities and environmental heterogeneity. The abundance of DOM molecular formulae best fits log-normal distribution and follows Taylor's Law. Distance-decay relationships are observed for labile molecular formulae, while latitudinal diversity gradients are noted for recalcitrant molecular formulae. Latitudinal patterns are also observed for DOM molecular features. Negative cohesion, bacterial diversity, and molecular traits are the main drivers of DOM chemodiversity. Stochasticity analyses demonstrate that determinism dominantly shapes the DOM compositional variations. This study unveils the intrinsic mechanisms underlying the intertidal DOM chemodiversity and microbial communities from ecological perspectives, deepening our understanding of microbially driven chemical ecology. Intertidal DOM follows similar ecological patterns and underlying mechanisms to microbes, suggesting that there may exist universal ecological models explaining the patterns of both living and non-living biological entities in the Earth's biosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ataxia-ocular apraxia 2 (AOA2) is a rare neurodegenerative autosomal recessive disorder with no effective treatment. In this study, we present the case of a patient diagnosed with AOA2, who experienced walking instability and uncoordinated movement. The patient underwent transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) treatment for 4 weeks with follow-up after 1 month. The effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated using the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS), the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA), the 9-Hole Peg Test (9HPT), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Following treatment, the patient's ataxia symptoms showed significant improvement and continued to be alleviated during the follow-up period, suggesting a lasting effect of tACS treatment. Our findings from this case study provide compelling evidence for the potential of tACS as a treatment option for AOA2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that language acquisition influences both the structure and function of the brain. However, whether the acquisition of a second language at different periods of life alters functional network organization in different ways remains unclear. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 27 English-speaking monolingual controls and 52 Spanish–English bilingual individuals, including 22 early bilinguals who began learning a second language before the age of ten and 30 late bilinguals who started learning a second language at age fourteen or later, were collected from the OpenNeuro database. Topological metrics of resting-state functional networks, including small-world attributes, network efficiency, and rich- and diverse-club regions, that characterize functional integration and segregation of the networks were computed via a graph theoretical approach. The results showed obvious increases in network efficiency in early bilinguals and late bilinguals relative to the monolingual controls; for example, the global efficiency of late bilinguals and early bilinguals was improved relative to that of monolingual controls, and the local efficiency of early bilinguals occupied an intermediate position between that of late bilinguals and monolingual controls. Obvious increases in rich-club and diverse-club functional connectivity were observed in the bilinguals relative to the monolingual controls. Three network metrics were positively correlated with Spanish proficiency test scores. These findings demonstrated that early and late acquisition of a second language had different impacts on the functional networks of the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing burdens of electronic waste (E-waste) leachate while achieving sustainable and selective recovery of noble metals, such as gold, is highly demanded due to its limited supply and escalating prices. Here we demonstrate an environmentally-benign and practical approach for gold recovery from E-waste leachate using alginate-derived pyrocarbon sorbent. The sorbent demonstrates potent gold recovery performance compared to most previously reported advanced sorbents, showcasing high recovery capacity of 2829.7 mg g−1, high efficiency (>99.5%), remarkable selectivity (Kd ~ 3.1 × 108 mL g−1), and robust anti-interference capabilities within environmentally relevant contexts. The aromatic structures of pyrocarbon serve as crucial electrons sources, enabling a hydroxylation process that simultaneously generates electrons and phenolic hydroxyls for the reduction of gold ions. Our investigations further uncover a "stepwise" nucleation mechanism, in which gold ions are reduced as intermediate gold-chlorine clusters, facilitating rapid reduction process by lowering energy barriers from 1.08 to −21.84 eV. Technoeconomic analysis demonstrates its economic viability with an input-output ratio as high as 1370%. Our protocol obviates the necessity for organic reagents whilst obtaining 23.96 karats gold product from real-world central processing units (CPUs) leachates. This work introduces a green sorption technique for gold recovery, emphasizing its role in promoting a circular economy and environmental sustainability. The demand for gold recovery from E-Waste is significant due to its high value. Here, authors present a practical method for extracting gold from an actual E-waste leachate using alginate-derived pyrocarbon. This approach yields a 23.96 karat gold product and demonstrates strong economic viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis employing non-precious metal electrocatalysts is a promising strategy for achieving sustainable hydrogen production. However, it still suffers from many challenges, including sluggish alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics, insufficient activity and limited lifetime of non-precious metal electrocatalysts for ampere-level-current-density alkaline HER. Here, we report an efficient alkaline HER strategy at industrial-level current density wherein a flexible WS2 superstructure is designed to serve as the cathode catalyst for AEM water electrolysis. The superstructure features bond-free van der Waals interaction among the low Young's modulus nanosheets to ensure excellent mechanical flexibility, as well as a stepped edge defect structure of nanosheets to realize high catalytic activity and a favorable reaction interface micro-environment. The unique flexible WS2 superstructure can effectively withstand the impact of high-density gas-liquid exchanges and facilitate mass transfer, endowing excellent long-term durability under industrial-scale current density. An AEM electrolyser containing this catalyst at the cathode exhibits a cell voltage of 1.70 V to deliver a constant catalytic current density of 1 A cm−2 over 1000 h with a negligible decay rate of 9.67 μV h−1. Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis is a promising strategy for achieving sustainable hydrogen production. Herein, the authors report a flexible WS2 superstructure as hydrogen evolution catalyst for alkaline water electrolysis which could maintain stable electrolysis for 1000 h at 1 A cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, nickel chloride was selected as metal ions and 2,2′-bipyridine (bipy) and benzoic acid (ba) as ligands to synthesize Ni-bipy-ba ternary complex. Its corrosion inhibition effects on the corrosion of P110 carbon steel in 0.5 M HCl were evaluated by weight loss test, electrochemical measurements, surface analyses, and theoretical calculations. The results show that the Ni-bipy-ba ternary complex exhibits excellent corrosion inhibition properties compared with the two ligands, especially at high temperatures, which is supported by the calculation of thermodynamic parameters. Surface analyses indicate that Ni-bipy-ba ternary complex can inhibit corrosion by forming adsorption film on the metal surface. Theoretical calculations show a good correlation with the experimental results. The best corrosion inhibition efficiency of Ni-bipy-ba ternary complex could be ascribed to the synergistic effect of metal ligands and the complex structure with larger dimension and molecular mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing controllable thermal conduction networks is the key to efficiently improve thermal conductivities of polymer composites. In this work, graphite oxide (GO) and functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs) are combined to prepare "Line-Plane"-like hetero-structured thermally conductive GO@f-CNTs fillers, which are then performed to construct controllable 3D GO@f-CNTs thermal conduction networks via self-sacrificing template method based on oxalic acid. Subsequently, thermally conductive GO@f-CNTs/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites are fabricated via casting method. When the size of oxalic acid is 0.24 mm and the volume fraction of GO@f-CNTs is 60 vol%, GO@f-CNTs/PDMS composites present the optimal thermal conductivity coefficient (λ, 4.00 W·m−1·K−1), about 20 times that of the λ of neat PDMS (0.20 W·m−1·K−1), also much higher than the λ (2.44 W·m−1·K−1) of GO/f-CNTs/PDMS composites with the same amount of randomly dispersed fillers. Meanwhile, the obtained GO@f-CNTs/PDMS composites have excellent thermal stability, whose λ deviation is only about 3% after 500 thermal cycles (20–200 °C). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pit lakes are currently being investigated as a way to store and reclaim waste materials in the Alberta Oil Sands (AOS) region, Canada. Lake Miwasin (LM) is a pilot-scale pit lake consisting of treated fine tailings overlayed with oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) blended with fresh surface water. In October 2021, the surface water contained a mean concentration of 1.33 ± 0.04 µg/L dissolved selenium (Se), slightly above the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment water quality guideline for long-term protection of aquatic life (1 µg Se/L). This study assessed the bioaccumulation of Se by the cladoceran Daphnia pulex under laboratory conditions through both aqueous and dietary exposure routes for comparison to field-collected specimens. In 12-day semi-static tests, lab-cultured D.pulex were exposed to water, and algae grown in media spiked with selenate. Results showed that Se bioaccumulation by lab-cultured D. pulex increased in all exposure treatments from days 5 to 12, with maximum Se concentrations of 3.08–3.47 µg/g dry weight (dw) observed within the exposure range tested. Interestingly, lower Se bioaccumulation concentrations (1.26–1.58 µg/g dw) were observed in the highest dissolved Se and dietary Se treatments, suggesting potential internal regulatory mechanisms. In addition, native D. pulex (LM) collected from Lake Miwasin and cultured in-house were exposed in 8-day semi-static tests to Lake Miwasin surface water and algae cultured in Lake Miwasin surface water. Selenium bioaccumulation in native D. pulex (LM) ranged from 2.00 to 2.04 µg/g dw at day 8 and was not significantly different (p > 0.05) compared to Se concentrations in D. pulex collected from Lake Miwasin (2.15 ± 0.28 µg/g) in summer 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the unconditionally optimal and superconvergent error estimates of a mass- and energy-conserved finite element method for the Schrödinger–Poisson equation. Firstly, a priori error bound of the numerical solutions in H 1 -norm is obtained by the conserved property. Secondly, the unconditionally optimal error estimates in L 2 -norm are derived without any timestep restriction in terms of the bound of the numerical solution. Thirdly, the unconditionally superclose error estimates in H 1 -norm are got by treating the coupled nonlinear term rigorously and skillfully. Furthermore, the unconditionally superconvergent error estimates in H 1 -norm are acquired by the interpolation post-processing approach. Finally, some numerical results are provided to verify the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To systematically review the impact of propranolol combined with oxytocin on the process and outcomes of labor. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed across multiple databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP, Wanfang, China Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. All publicly published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of propranolol combined with oxytocin compared to the use of oxytocin alone in labor were collected. After screening the literature and extracting data, the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions 5.1.0 recommended bias risk assessment tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to rate the quality of evidence for outcome measures. Results: Meta-analysis results showed that the group receiving propranolol combined with oxytocin was more capable of reducing the cesarean section rate (eight studies, 815 women, RR = 0.67, 95% CI (0.53, 0.86), P = 0.001) and shortening the duration of the latent phase (two studies, 206 women, MD = − 1.20, 95% CI (− 1.97, − 0.43), P = 0.002) and the duration of the active phase on day 1 (two studies, 296 women, MD = − 0.69, 95% CI (− 0.83, − 0.54), P < 0.00001), compared to the oxytocin monotherapy group. No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the 5-min Apgar score (five studies, 609 women, MD = − 0.05, 95% CI (− 0.14, 0.04), P = 0.32) and the rate of admissions to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) (three studies, 359 women, RR = 0.82, 95% CI (0.38, 1.79), P = 0.62). Conclusion: The combined use of propranolol and oxytocin can significantly reduce the cesarean section rate, shorten the duration of the latent phase and the duration of the active phase on day 1, and is safe. However, due to the limitations, the conclusions of this article still need to be verified by large-sample, multicenter, rigorously designed high-quality clinical RCTs. Trial registration: Registration number is INPLASY202390107. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing runoff changes is of great importance especially its responses to the projected future climate change on local scale basins because such analyses are generally done on global and regional scales which may lead to generalized conclusions rather than specific ones. Climate change affected the runoff variation in the past in the upper Daqinghe Basin, however, the climate was mainly considered uncertain and still needs further studies, especially its future impacts on runoff for better water resources management and planning. Integrated with a set of climate simulations, a daily conceptual hydrological model (MIKE11-NAM) was applied to assess the impact of climate change on runoff conditions in the Daomaguan, Fuping and Zijingguan basins in the upper Daqinghe Basin. Historical hydrological data (2008–2017) were used to evaluate the applicability of the MIKE11-NAM model. After bias correction, future projected climate change and its impacts on runoff (2025–2054) were analysed and compared to the baseline period (1985–2014) under three shared social economic pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5) scenarios from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) simulations. The MIKE-11 NAM model was applicable in all three Basins, with both R2 and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency coefficients greater than 0.6 at daily scale for both calibration (2009–2011) and validation (2012–2017) periods, respectively. Although uncertainties remain, temperature and precipitation are projected to increase compared to the baseline where higher increases in precipitation and temperature are projected to occur under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, respectively in all the basins. Precipitation changes will range between 12%–19% whereas temperature change will be 2.0°C–2.5°C under the SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, respectively. In addition, higher warming is projected to occur in colder months than in warmer months. Overall, the runoff of these three basins is projected to respond to projected climate changes differently because runoff is projected to only increase in the Fuping basin under SSP2-4.5 whereas decreases in both Daomaguan and Zijingguan Basins under all scenarios. This study's findings could be important when setting mitigation strategies for climate change and water resources management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental fluorosis is a common chemical disease. It is currently unclear how fluorosis occurs at the molecular level. We used miRNA-seq to look at the differences between miRNAs in the cell line of ameloblasts LS8 that had been treated with 3.2 mmol/L NaF. We also performed gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. miR-1a-3p levels were significantly lower in mouse LS8 cells treated with 3.2 mmol/L NaF, and miR-1a-3p-targeted genes were significantly enriched in the MAPK pathway. LS8 cells were divided into four groups: control, NaF, NaF+miR-1a-3p mimics, and NaF+miR-1a-3p mimics normal control groups. Cellular morphology was observed by an inverted microscope, and the proliferation activity of LS8 cells was assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). Using the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), transcription levels of miR-1a-3p and Map3k1 were detected. The expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, Map3k1, p38MAPK, ERK1/2, p-p38MAPK, and p-ERK1/2 were measured by Western blot. After bioinformatics analysis, we used a luciferase reporter assay (LRA) to validate the target of miR-1a-3p, showing that miR-1a-3p could inhibit apoptosis while increasing proliferation in fluoride-exposed LS8 cells. Generally, miR-1a-3p might directly inhibit Map3k1, reduce MAPK signal pathway activation, and promote phosphorylation. Thus, our findings revealed that the interaction of miR-1a-3p with its target gene Map3k1 and MAPK signal pathway might decrease the apoptosis of LS8 cells treated with 3.2 mmol/L NaF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up in 1978, the Dasi River Basin within Jinan's startup area from replacing old growth drivers with new ones (startup area) has experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization, and the landscape pattern has changed significantly, resulting in a series of eco-environmental problems. In order to more accurately identify the vulnerable areas of landscape pattern, understand their cause mechanism and changing laws, and provide a theoretical basis for the implementation of sustainable landscape pattern planning and management in the region. Four Landsat images of 2002, 2009, 2015 and 2020 were taken as data sources, and the optimal granularity of landscape pattern analysis was determined from the perspective of landscape level and class level by using the coefficient of variation method, granularity effect curve and information loss model, and the optimal amplitude was determined by using the grid method and semi-variance function. Then, the landscape vulnerability assessment model was constructed based on the optimal scale, and its spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and spatial autocorrelation were analyzed. The result showed that: (1) The optimal granularity of landscape pattern analysis in this study area was 80 m, and the optimal amplitude was 350 × 350 m. (2) During 2002–2020, the overall vulnerability of landscape pattern in the southern part of the study area showed an increasing trend, while that in the middle and northern parts showed a decreasing trend. (3) The mean values of the vulnerability index of the overall landscape pattern in 2002, 2009, 2015 and 2020 were 0.1479, 0.1483, 0.1562 and 0.1625, respectively, showing an increasing trend year by year. In terms of land use, during 2002–2020, the average vulnerability indices of forestland and built up land increased by 23.18% and 21.43%, respectively, followed by water body and bare land, increased by 12.18% and 9.52%, respectively, while the changes of cropland and grassland were relatively small, increasing by 5.36% and 5.65%, respectively. (4) During 2002–2020, the landscape pattern vulnerability showed a significant spatial positive correlation in terms of spatial distribution. The Low-Low areas were generally transferred from the southeastern and midwestern to the middle and northern, and the High–High areas were mainly transferred from the middle to the southern. Overall, the degree of the spatial agglomeration of the landscape pattern vulnerability showed an increasing trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of the digital economy, the acceleration of life pace has induced to a continuous increase in people's sense of time scarcity. In order to satisfy consumers' lifestyle changes and immediate needs, life service enterprises have carried out lots of business model innovation activities guided by value of time. However, it is still unclear what the time-value-oriented business model innovation path is and whether it can improve the perceived value of customers. Under such background, this paper aims to construct a time-value-oriented business model innovation path in life services enterprises and to discuss its relationship with customer perceived value. The study indicates that: Firstly, specific innovation paths of enterprises include putting forward the purpose of value of time proposition, designing standardized process based on time-oriented, constantly forming unique core resources such as big data, brand and supply chain, and updating the transaction method combining online and offline, and so on. Secondly, the questionnaire results indicate that time-value oriented business model innovation in four aspects – value proposition, key processes, core resources, and transaction methods – can effectively enhance customer perceived value. Thirdly, there are differences in the matching degree between time-value-oriented business model innovation and customer value perception among different types of enterprises in the life services industry. Among them, the express delivery industry has the highest enhancing degree and customer satisfaction. This is related to the heterogeneous characteristics of industries such as express delivery, transportation, catering, and retail. Overall, this study offers a comprehensive and practical perspective for enterprises to meet customer perceived value demands by presenting business model innovation paths and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to stabilize underactuated robotic systems with external disturbances, an adaptive hierarchical sliding mode control strategy based on extended state observer is proposed. The extended state observer is designed to estimate the joint states and lumped disturbance composed of matched and unmatched disturbances. The underactuated robotic system is divided into two subsystems. For each subsystem, a sub-sliding mode surface is constructed to obtain the first layer sliding mode surface and the second layer sliding mode surface is derived from the first layer sliding mode surface. Then the hierarchical sliding mode controller is designed with the estimated state obtained from the observer to compensate the lumped disturbance and an adaptive law is designed to adjust the switching gain. The stability of the system is proved by Lyapunov theory and the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by comparative simulations. With the proposed control, the tracking performance of the underactuated robotic system is effectively improved and the convergence time of the system is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manifestations of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in humans include epilepsy, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability. Previous studies suggested the linkage of TSC to altered cerebral blood flow and metabolic dysfunction. We previously reported a significant elevation in cerebral blood flow in an animal model of TSC and autism of young Eker rats. Inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) by rapamycin could restore normal oxygen consumption and cerebral blood flow. In this study, we investigated whether inhibiting a component of the mTOR signaling pathway, p70 ribosomal S6 kinase (S6K1), would yield comparable effects. Control Long Evans and Eker rats were divided into vehicle and PF-4708671 (S6K1 inhibitor, 75 mg/kg for 1 h) treated groups. Cerebral regional blood flow (14C-iodoantipyrine) was determined in isoflurane anesthetized rats. We found significantly increased basal cortical (+ 32%) and hippocampal (+ 15%) blood flow in the Eker rats. PF-4708671 significantly lowered regional blood flow in the cortex and hippocampus of the Eker rats. PF-4708671 did not significantly lower blood flow in these regions in the control Long Evans rats. Phosphorylation of S6-Ser240/244 and Akt-Ser473 was moderately decreased in Eker rats but only the latter reached statistical significance upon PF-4708671 treatment. Our findings suggest that moderate inhibition of S6K1 with PF-4708671 helps to restore normal cortical blood flow in Eker rats and that this information might have therapeutic potential in tuberous sclerosis complex and autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural product Honokiol exhibits robust antitumor activity against a range of cancers, and it has also received approval to undergo phase I clinical trial testing. We confrmed that honokiol can promote the apoptotic death of tumor cells through cell experiments. Then siRNA constructs specific for PIAS3, PIAS3 overexpression plasmid and the mutation of the STAT3 Tyr705 residue were used to confirm the mechanism of Honokiol-induced apoptosis. Finally, we confrmed that honokiol can promote PIAS3 upregulation, in turn suppressing STAT3 Tyr705 phosphorylation through the in vivo and in vitro experiments. Honokiol was ultimately found to reduce tumor cell viability by promoting apoptosis through a mechanism dependent on the ability of Honokiol to promote PIAS3 upregulation and the selective inhibition of p-STAT3 (Tyr705) without affecting p-STAT3 (Ser727) or p-STAT1 (Tyr701) levels. PIAS3 knockdown and overexpression in tumor cells altered STAT3 activation and associated DNA binding activity through the control of Tyr705 phosphorylation via PIAS3-STAT3 complex formation, ultimately shaping Honokiol-induced tumor cell apoptosis. Honokiol was also confirmed to significantly prolong the survival of mice bearing xenograft tumors in a PIAS3-dependent fashion. Together, these findings highlight a novel pathway through which Honokiol can promote PIAS3 upregulation, in turn suppressing STAT3 Tyr705 phosphorylation and promoting the apoptotic death of tumor cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of drilling and blasting construction of large-cross-section tunnels, the layout of wedge-shaped cutting holes has a great influence on the effect of blasting. In this study, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation were used to assess the effect of different forms of cutting hole placement on blasting effectiveness. First, the fissure-inducing angle was proposed, a three-dimensional model of wedge-shaped cutting considering the effect of shear-tensile resistance was established, and theoretical analyses of cutting holes with different cutting angles and fissure-inducing angles were carried out. Second, the parameters of the Riedel–Hiermaier–Thoma model were determined based on the experimental data, and verified. Third, three-dimensional numerical models were established, and analyze the influence of different forms of hole deployment on the blasting effect from the perspective of stress wave propagation and dynamic damage to the surrounding rock. Finally, based on the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation results, the wedge-shaped hollowing holes were re-designed, and 20 tunnel blasting tests were carried out using this deployment method for large-section tunnel blasting, which verified the feasibility of this deployment method. The results of the study show that for level III surrounding rock, the angle of wedge-shaped cutting holes should meet 68° ≤ θ ≤ 70° and 70° ≤ β ≤ 72°. This study provides a kind of refined and efficient blasting for the drilling and blasting excavation process of large section tunnels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grayscale structured surfaces with nanometer-scale features are used in a growing number of applications in optics and fluidics. Thermal scanning probe lithography achieves a lateral resolution below 10 nm and a vertical resolution below 1 nm, but its maximum depth in polymers is limited. Here, we present an innovative combination of nanowriting in thermal resist and plasma dry etching with substrate cooling, which achieves up to 10-fold amplification of polymer nanopatterns into SiO2 without proportionally increasing surface roughness. Sinusoidal nanopatterns in SiO2 with 400 nm pitch and 150 nm depth are fabricated free of shape distortion after dry etching. To exemplify the possible applications of the proposed method, grayscale dielectric nanostructures are used for scalable manufacturing through nanoimprint lithography and for strain nanoengineering of 2D materials. Such a method for aspect ratio amplification and smooth grayscale nanopatterning has the potential to find application in the fabrication of photonic and nanoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemotherapy resistance is the main reason for the poor prognosis of ovarian cancer (OC). FHL1 is an important tumour regulator, but its relationship with the prognosis, drug resistance, and tumour microenvironment of OC is unknown. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine FHL1 expression in OC. Kaplan‒Meier plotter was used for survival analysis. The value of gene expression in predicting drug resistance was estimated using the area under the curve (AUC). Bivariate correlation was used to determine the coexpression of two genes. Functional cluster and pathway enrichment were used to uncover hidden signalling pathways. The relationship between gene levels and the tumour microenvironment was visualised through the ggstatsplot and pheatmap packages. The mRNA and protein levels of FHL1 were downregulated in 426 and 100 OC tissues, respectively. Low FHL1 expression was correlated with good progression-free survival (PFS), postprogression survival, and overall survival (OS) in 1815 OC patients, and was further confirmed to be associated with good OS by immunohistochemistry in 152 OC tissues. Furthermore, FHL1 was downregulated in drug-sensitive tissues, while its high expression predicted drug resistance (AUC > 0.65). Mechanistically, FHL1 was coexpressed with FLNC, CAV1, PPP1R12B, and FLNA at the mRNA and protein levels in 558 and 174 OC tissues, respectively, and their expression was downregulated in OC. Additionally, very strong coexpression of FHL1 with the four genes was identified in at least 23 different tumours. Low expression of the four genes was associated with good PFS, and the combination of FHL1 with the four genes provided better prognostic power. Meanwhile, the expression of all five genes was strongly and positively associated with the abundance of macrophages. Low FHL1 expression acts as a favourable factor in OC, probably via positive coexpression with FLNC, CAV1, PPP1R12B, and FLNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs an interval partition linearization algorithm for solving minimax linear fractional programming (MLFP) problem. In this algorithm, MLFP is converted and decomposed into a series of linear programs by dividing the outer 1-dimensional space of the equivalent problem (EP) into polynomially countable intervals. To improve the computational efficiency of the algorithm, two new acceleration techniques are introduced, in which the regions in outer space where the optimal solution of EP does not exist are largely deleted. In addition, the global convergence of the proposed algorithm is summarized, and its computational complexity is illustrated to reveal that it is a fully polynomial time approximation scheme. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has implemented a series of ecological engineering projects to help achieve the 2060 carbon neutrality target. However, the lack of quantitative research on ecological engineering and the contribution of climate change to terrestrial carbon sinks limits this goal. This study uses robust statistical models combined with multiple terrestrial biosphere models to quantify the impact of China's ecological engineering on terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink trends and their differences according to the difference between reality and nonpractice assumptions. The main conclusions include the following: (1) since 1901, 84% of terrestrial ecosystem carbon sinks in China have shown an increasing trend, and approximately 45% of regional carbon sinks have increased by more than 0.1 g C/m2 every 10 years. (2) Considering the impact of human activities and the implementation of ecological engineering in China, approximately 56% of carbon sinks have improved, and approximately 10% of the regions whose carbon sink growth exceeds 50 g C m−2 yr−1 are mainly in the southeast coastal of China. (3) The carbon sequestration potential and effect of the Sanjiangyuan ecological protection and construction project are better than others, at 1.26 g C m−2 yr−1 and 14.13%, respectively. The Beijing–Tianjin sandstorm source comprehensive control project helps alleviate the reduction in carbon sinks, while the southwest karst rocky desertification comprehensive control project may aggravate the reduction in carbon sinks. This study clarifies the potential of China's different ecological engineering to increase carbon sink potential, and distinguishes and quantifies the contribution of climate and human activity factors to it, which is of great significance to the system management optimization scheme of terrestrial ecosystems and can effectively serve the national carbon neutral strategy. Highlights: • Reality and nonpractice assumptions are used to evaluate the impact of ecological engineering on terrestrial ecosystems. • Multiple terrestrial biosphere models show 45% of China's carbon sinks increase by more than 0.1 g C m-2 every 10 years. • SEPCP is more helpful in improving terrestrial carbon sinks compared to the other two ecological projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Acupuncture & Tuina Science 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.)

A sudden rise in intra-abdominal pressure that causes the pressure in the bladder to rise during physical movement and/or activity, such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, running, or weightlifting, is known as stress urinary incontinence. This condition causes an uncontrollable overflow of urine. The study's goal was to determine whether effector molecules, specifically ADP ribosylation factor GTPase activated protein 3, might play a part in the female pelvic floor muscle's ability to heal after suffering damage during vaginal delivery. Pelvic floor muscle samples were taken from women who had at least one vaginal delivery and were enrolled in either the IU group (n = 45; issue of stress urinary incontinence) or the NL group (n = 85; no issue of stress urinary incontinence) depending on whether they had a problem with stress urinary incontinence. Vesicle transport-related genes in female pelvic floor muscle injury repair were discovered using Gene Expression Omnibus. For gene analysis and screening, RT-qPCR was employed. On the first day following injury, the expression level of ARFGAP3 mRNA increased by 2.8 times (p 0.05) and by 5 times (p 0.01) on the third day. On the first day following damage, STMN1 mRNA expression rose by 0.3 times (p 0.05). On the first day following injury, the expression level of THBS2 mRNA increased by 1.6 times (p 0.01). On the third day following the injury, the expression level of PLXNB2 mRNA increased by 1.2 times (p 0. 01), and on the fifth day following the injury, it increased by 2.5 times (p 0. 01). After pelvic floor muscle damage, the mRNA expression levels of the CSF1R, ANXA4, and EMR1 genes dropped. Between those with and without pelvic floor muscle damage, there was no statistically significant difference in the expression levels of LGARLS3, KDELR3, and KIF20A mRNA (p > 0. 05 for all). The differential expression of genes after pelvic floor muscle injury can identify the target in the process of pelvic floor muscle injury repair and regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the network congestion and packet loss in the networked systems, a recursive quantization-based event triggered observer (RQETO) is proposed in this paper. The RQETO is composed of the local observer and the remote observer. The local observer reduces the amount of transmitted measured output by incorporating the event triggered strategy with the improved quantization mechanism. The improved quantization mechanism is based on the recursive algorithm, which can constrain the quantization error within the maximum allowable quantization error. The remote observer compensates the impact of packet loss by Bernoulli distribution model and hold-input strategy after receiving the data transmitted by the local observer. Through the local observer and the remote observer, network congestion is adequately alleviated, and the impact of packet loss is compensated while obtaining the accurate state estimation. The stability of the RQETO is proved by Lyapunov method, and the effectiveness of the RQETO is demonstrated on brushless direct current motor and Net-Con PC104 experimental platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integral imaging (II) display, one of the most critical true-3D display technologies, has received increasing research recently. Significantly, an achromatic metalens array has realized a broadband metalens-array-based II (meta-II). However, the past micro-scale metalens arrays were incompatible with commercial micro-displays; furthermore, the elemental image array (EIA) rendering is always slow. The two hinders in device and algorithm prevent meta-II from being used for practical video-rate near-eye displays (NEDs). This research demonstrates a meta-II NED combining a commercial micro-display and a metalens array. The large-area nanoimprint technology fabricates the metalens array, and a novel real-time rendering algorithm is proposed to generate the EIA. The hardware and software efforts solve the bottlenecks of video-rate meta-II displays. We also build a see-through prototype based on our meta-II NED, demonstrating the feasibility of augmented reality. Our work explores the potential of video-rate meta-II displays, which we expect can be valuable for future virtual and augmented reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze the relationship between macro and meso parameters of the gas hydrate bearing coal (GHBC) and to calibrate the meso-parameters, the numerical tests were conducted to simulate the laboratory triaxial compression tests by PFC3D, with the parallel bond model employed as the particle contact constitutive model. First, twenty simulation tests were conducted to quantify the relationship between the macro–meso parameters. Then, nine orthogonal simulation tests were performed using four meso-mechanical parameters in a three-level to evaluate the sensitivity of the meso-mechanical parameters. Furthermore, the calibration method of the meso-parameters were then proposed. Finally, the contact force chain, the contact force and the contact number were examined to investigate the saturation effect on the meso-mechanical behavior of GHBC. The results show that: (1) The elastic modulus linearly increases with the bonding stiffness ratio and the friction coefficient while exponentially increasing with the normal bonding strength and the bonding radius coefficient. The failure strength increases exponentially with the increase of the friction coefficient, the normal bonding strength and the bonding radius coefficient, and remains constant with the increase of bond stiffness ratio; (2) The friction coefficient and the bond radius coefficient are most sensitive to the elastic modulus and the failure strength; (3) The number of the force chains, the contact force, and the bond strength between particles will increase with the increase of the hydrate saturation, which leads to the larger failure strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The 18F/19F-isotope exchange method employing P(V)-centered prosthetic groups demonstrates advantages in addressing mild one-step aqueous 18F-labeling of peptides and proteins. However, the molar activity (Am) achieved through isotope exchange remains relatively low, unless employing a high initial activity of [18F]F−. To overcome this drawback, our work introduces a novel approach through a Cu-mediated direct 18F-dehydrofluorination of phosphine oxides. This method leverages the straightforward separation of the 18F-labeled product from the phosphine oxide precursors, aiming to primarily increase Am. Results: Through a 19F-dehydrofluorination efficiency test, Cu(OAc)2 was identified as the optimal oxidative metal salt, exhibiting a remarkable 100% conversion within one hour. Leveraging the straightforward separation of phosphine oxide precursors and phosphinic fluoride products, the Am of an activated ester, [18F]4, sees an impressive nearly 15-fold increase compared to the 18F/19F-isotope exchange, with the same initial activity of [18F]F−. Furthermore, this Cu(II)-mediated 18F-dehydrofluorination approach demonstrates tolerance up to 20% solvent water content, which enables the practical radiosynthesis of 18F-labeled water-soluble molecules under non-drying conditions. Conclusions: The direct 18F-dehydrofluorination of phosphine oxide prosthetic groups has been successfully accomplished, achieving a high Am via Cu(II)-mediated oxidative addition and reductive elimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A falling film flow test facility is designed and constructed to investigate the effect of tube spacing and tube material on the falling film transition mode. In the experiment, water is used as the falling film working liquid, copper and fluoroplastic are used as the tube materials, the tube spacing is set to 14 mm and 20 mm, and the diameter of the test tube is 20 mm. The analysis of the four observed transition modes and Reynolds number (Re) shows that the column modes in droplet to droplet-column and droplet-column to column transition modes are stretched, and the sheet modes in the column to column-sheet transition modes have gaps after the tube spacing increases. The Re of the two tube spacings is similar for droplet to droplet-column (D-DC) and droplet-column to column (DC-C) transition modes. For column to column-sheet (C-CS) and column-sheet to sheet (CS-S) modes, the Re of the tube spacing of 20 mm is higher than that of the tube spacing of 14 mm. After the copper tube is replaced with a fluoroplastic tube, the falling film flow rate distribution is uneven, and the columnar mode in the column to column-sheet (C-CS) transition mode and the partial sheet mode in the column-sheet to sheet (CS-S) transition mode deviated from one side of the fluoroplastic tube surface. For D-DC and DC-C transition modes, the Re of copper tube and fluoroplastic tube is similar. For C-CS and CS-S transition modes, the Re of fluoroplastic tube is higher than that of the copper tube. In order to facilitate the subsequent study of tube spacing and tube materials, a new prediction model of transition mode is established, and the literature data is considered to introduce the prediction model to enhance the application range. The Re prediction deviations of the model for the four transition modes are within ± 20%. This work provides a new research idea for the subsequent study of falling film flow with different tube materials and tube spacing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effects of asperuloside on cervical cancer based on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and mitochondrial pathway. Methods: Different doses (12.5–800 µg/mL) of asperuloside were used to treat cervical cancer cell lines Hela and CaSki to calculate the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of asperuloside. The cell proliferation was analyzed by clone formation assay. Cell apoptosis, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial membrane potential were determined by flow cytometry. The protein expressions of cleaved-caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bax, Cyt-c, cleaved-caspase-4 and glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) were analyzed by Western blot. And the inhibitor of ER stress, 4-phenyl butyric acid (4-PBA) was used to treat cervical cancer cells to further verify the role of ER stress in the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells induced by asperuloside. Results: Asperuloside of 325, 650, and 1300 µg/mL significantly inhibited the proliferation and promoted apoptosis of Hela and CaSki cells (P<0.01). All doses of asperuloside significantly increased intracellular ROS levels, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, significantly reduced Bcl-2 protein expression level, and increased Bax, Cyt-c, GRP78 and cleaved-caspase-4 expressions (P<0.01). In addition, 10 mmol/L 4-PBA treatment significantly promoted cell proliferation and reduced apoptosis (P<0.05), and 650 µg/mL asperuloside could reverse 4-PBA-induced increased cell proliferation, decreased apoptosis and cleaved-caspase-3, -4 and GRP78 protein expressions (P<0.05). Conclusion: Our study revealed the role of asperuloside in cervical cancer, suggesting that asperuloside promotes apoptosis of cervical cancer cells through ER stress-mitochondrial pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A position and force tracking control based on force estimation is proposed for bilateral teleoperation systems with time-varying delays. A time-delay state observer is employed to estimate the system state variables affected by the delays. To estimate the interaction forces effectively, a force estimation algorithm with adaptive law is designed. Based on the estimated states and forces, a P+D controller is designed to simultaneously guarantee the position and force tracking of the system. The stability and tracking performance of the closed-loop system are proved via Lyapunov functions, and the feasibility of the proposed control is verified by both simulations and experiments. The proposed control can improve the position and force tracking performance of bilateral teleoperation systems under time-varying delays. Meanwhile, it neither requires force measurement nor the bound of the derivative of the time-varying delays to be within one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) is a popular choice for cryptosystems due to its high level of security. However, with the advent of the extended Shor's algorithm, there is concern that ECDLP may soon be vulnerable. While the algorithm does offer hope in solving ECDLP, it is still uncertain whether it can pose a real threat in practice. From the perspective of the quantum circuits of the algorithm, this paper analyzes the feasibility of cracking ECDLP using an ion trap quantum computer with improved quantum circuits for the extended Shor's algorithm. We give precise quantum circuits for extended Shor's algorithm to calculate discrete logarithms on elliptic curves over prime fields, including modular subtraction, three different modular multiplication, and modular inverse. Additionally, we incorporate and improve upon windowed arithmetic in the circuits to reduce the CNOT-counts. Whereas previous studies mostly focused on minimizing the number of qubits or the depth of the circuit, we focus on minimizing the number of CNOT gates in the circuit, which greatly affects the running time of the algorithm on an ion trap quantum computer. Specifically, we begin by presenting implementations of basic arithmetic operations with the lowest known CNOT-counts, along with improved constructions for modular inverse, point addition, and windowed arithmetic. Next, we precisely estimate that, to execute the extended Shor's algorithm with the improved circuits to factor an n-bit integer, the CNOT-count required is 1237 n 3 / log n + 2 n 2 + n . Finally, we analyze the running time and feasibility of the extended Shor's algorithm on an ion trap quantum computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic ecosystems occasionally show ecological thresholds, defined as the point at which there is a sudden shift in production, trait or biomass or where changes in an environmental driver create nonlinear responses at the ecosystem level. Previous studies of lakes have mainly focused on how reduction in particularly phosphorus (P) concentrations helps to create a shift in lakes from a turbid to a clear state (re-oligotrophication), whereas the effect of nitrogen (N) reduction is less well studied. Here, by analysing a 28-year monthly monitoring dataset (from December 1991 to November 2019) from the subtropical, large eutrophic Lake Taihu, China, we identified a sudden shift in phytoplankton biomass and composition that coincided with a pronounced change in ecosystem functions, for example, resource use efficiency (RUE), during a period with reduction of the external nutrient loading. The changes were particularly strong in winter–spring where a sudden decrease in N concentrations was accompanied by a sudden increase in diatom biomass and phytoplankton RUE and a shift from green algae and flagellate co-dominance to dominance of diatoms. Structural equation modelling further indicated that ammonium reduction led directly to increases in winter–spring phytoplankton RUE and diatom biomass. Repeated fish stocking likely also contributed to the changes in biomass and RUE. Our study provides new insight into the ecological responses to N loading reduction and contributes to the understanding of lake responses to early re-oligotrophication, which was pronounced mainly in the colder seasons in subtropical Lake Taihu, similar to findings in the early phase of re-oligotrophication in numerous temperate lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress damage are involved in the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury (CIRI). Ferroptosis emerged as a new player in the regulation of lipid peroxidation processes. This study aimed at exploring the potential involvement of ciprofol on ferroptosis-associated CIRI and subsequent neurological deficits in the mouse model of transient cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. Cerebral ischemia was built in male C57BL/6 J wild-type (WT) and Nrf2-knockout (Nrf2 KO) mice in the manner of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by reperfusion. Ciprofol improved autonomic behavior, alleviated reactive oxygen species output and ferroptosis-induced neuronal death by nucleus transportation of NFE2 like BZIP transcription factor 2 (Nrf2) and the promotion of heme oxygenase 1 (Ho-1), solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11/xCT), and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Additionally, ciprofol improved neurological scores and reduced infarct volume, brain water content, and necrotic neurons. Cerebral blood flow in MCAO-treated mice was also improved. Furthermore, absence of Nrf2 abrogated the neuroprotective actions of ciprofol on antioxidant capacity and sensitized neurons to oxidative stress damage. In vitro, the primary-cultured cortical neurons from mice were pre-treated with oxygen–glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R), followed by ciprofol administration. Ciprofol effectively reversed OGD/R-induced ferroptosis and accelerated transcription of GPX4 and xCT. In conclusion, we investigated the ciprofol-induced inhibition effect of ferroptosis-sheltered neurons from lipid preoxidation in the pathogenesis of CIRI via Nrf2-xCT-GPX4 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staphylococcus aureus, a major opportunistic pathogen in aerobic vaginitis (AV), can potentially invade the host and occasionally cause infections. Estrogen is associated with an altered immune response of vaginal epithelial cells and prevention of certain vaginal infectious diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms involving estrogen and S. aureus adhesion to vaginal epithelial cells remain unclear. Thus, here, VK2/E6E7 vaginal epithelial cells were infected with S. aureus, and the role of the estrogen receptor α-associated signaling pathway (ERα/FAK/Src/iNOS axis) in S. aureus adhesion was evaluated. The estrogen-associated phosphorylation status of ERα, FAK, and Src and the protein level of iNOS were assessed by western blotting. We used a specific ERα inhibitor to validate the involvement of the ERα-associated signaling pathway. The results showed that with exposure to 1 nM estrogen for 24 h, transient ERα-associated pathway activation was observed, and the protein expression upregulation was accompanied by a dose-dependent increase in 17-β-estradiol (E2) content and increased S. aureus adherence to vaginal epithelial cells. Estrogen-induced activation of the ERα/FAK/Src/iNOS axis was notably inhibited by the specific ERα inhibitor (ICI 182780). Simultaneously, a significant decrease in the number of adherent S. aureus was observed. However, this inhibitory effect diminished after inhibitor treatment for 24 h. Our findings suggested that the ERα-associated signaling pathway might be involved in S. aureus adherence to vaginal epithelial cells, which appeared to be linked to enhanced cell adhesion leading to AV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polylactic acid (PLA) surgical suture is considered to be one of the most ideal materials for tissue closure due to its rich raw materials and excellent biological properties. However, surgical sutures face great challenges due to problems such as wound infection and tissue reaction in practical applications. In order to improve the clinical applicability of surgical sutures, we constructed a new drug-loading system for core-spun surgical sutures. The shell was composed of nanofibrous membranes composed of polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibacterial drugs, and the core layer adopts PLA filament. By adjusting the composition ratio of PGA and PCL in the shell, a new mode of regulating the release rate and release cycle of the suture was constructed. According to different wound healing time, different drug release cycles of surgical suture were selected. In the study, the structure of the core-spun yarn can be clearly observed by scanning electron microscope, the higher the shell PGA content and drug loading, the faster the drug release rate. When the carrier ratio PGA/PCL was 80/20 and the drug loading was 3%, the drug release rate was the fastest and the drug release was high; finally, antibacterial experiments showed that the suture had excellent antibacterial effect and could effectively kill Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The successful preparation of core-spun yarn surgical suture provides a new idea for the study of new antibacterial surgical suture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive image segmentation (IIS) is an important technique for obtaining pixel-level annotations. In many cases, target objects share similar semantics. However, IIS methods neglect this connection and in particular the cues provided by representations of previously segmented objects, previous user interaction, and previous prediction masks, which can all provide suitable priors for the current annotation. In this paper, we formulate a sequential interactive image segmentation (SIIS) task for minimizing user interaction when segmenting sequences of related images, and we provide a practical approach to this task using two pertinent designs. The first is a novel interaction mode. When annotating a new sample, our method can automatically propose an initial click proposal based on previous annotation. This dramatically helps to reduce the interaction burden on the user. The second is an online optimization strategy, with the goal of providing semantic information when annotating specific targets, optimizing the model with dense supervision from previously labeled samples. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of regarding SIIS as a particular task, and our methods for addressing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the "sensitive area" of climate change, and also the "driver" and "amplifier" of global change. The response and feedback of its carbon dynamics to climate change will significantly affect the content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, due to the unique geographical environment characteristics of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there is still much controversy about its carbon source and sink estimation results. This study designed a new algorithm based on machine learning to improve the accuracy of carbon source and sink estimation by integrating multiple scale carbon input (net primary productivity, NPP) and output (soil heterotrophic respiration, Rh) information from remote sensing and ground observations. Then, we compared spatial patterns of NPP and Rh derived from the fusion of multiple scale data with other widely used products and tried to quantify the differences and uncertainties of carbon sink simulation at a regional scale. Results: Our results indicate that although global warming has potentially increased the Rh of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it will also increase its NPP, and its current performance is a net carbon sink area (carbon sink amount is 22.3 Tg C/year). Comparative analysis with other data products shows that CASA, GLOPEM, and MODIS products based on remote sensing underestimate the carbon input of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (30–70%), which is the main reason for the severe underestimation of the carbon sink level of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (even considered as a carbon source). Conclusions: The estimation of the carbon sink in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is of great significance for ensuring its ecological barrier function. It can deepen the community's understanding of the response to climate change in sensitive areas of the plateau. This study can provide an essential basis for assessing the uncertainty of carbon sources and sinks in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and also provide a scientific reference for helping China achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2060. Highlights: This study designed a carbon sink estimation method for Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by integrating machine learning and multiple scale ground- and remote sensed-based data. The estimated total carbon sink of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is 22.3 Tg C/year, accounting for about 10% of China's total carbon sink. The carbon sink of former estimation maybe greatly underestimated due to the underestimation of carbon input in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulation of prodigiosin biosynthesis is received wide attention due to the antimicrobial, immunosuppressive and anticancer activities of prodigiosin. Here, we constructed a transposon mutant library in S. marcescens FS14 to identify genes involved in the regulation of prodigiosin biosynthesis. 62 strains with apparently different colors were obtained. Identification of the transposon insertion sites revealed that they are classified into three groups: the coding region of cyaA and two component system eepS/R and the promoter region of rpoH. Since the effect of cyaA and eepS/R genes on prodigiosin was extensively investigated in Serratia marcescens, we chose the mutant of rpoH for further investigation. Further deletion mutation of rpoH gene showed no effect on prodigiosin production suggesting that the effect on prodigiosin production caused by transposon insertion is not due to the deletion of RpoH. We further demonstrated that multicopy expression of RpoH reduced prodigiosin biosynthesis indicating that transposon insertion caused RpoH enhanced expression. Previous results indicate that RpoS is the sigma factor for transcription of pig gene cluster in FS14, to test whether the enhanced expression of RpoH prevents prodigiosin by competing with RpoS, we found that multicopy expression of RpoS could alleviate the prodigiosin production inhibition by enhanced RpoH. We proposed that multicopy expressed RpoH competes with RpoS for core RNA polymerase (RNAP) resulting in decreased transcription of pig gene cluster and prodigiosin production reduction. We also demonstrated that RpoH is not directly involved in prodigiosin biosynthesis. Our results suggest that manipulating the transcription level of sigma factors may be applied to regulate the production of secondary metabolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has caused changes in the area and thickness of permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and prompted the transition from permafrost to seasonally frozen soil, which has affected the soil moisture, soil temperature, and distribution of plant roots. This, in turn, affects grassland vegetation productivity and aboveground/belowground biomass. In this study, we took Qinghai Province in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as the research area to model the spatial pattern of grassland biomass and then evaluated the potential influence of frozen soil type information on aboveground and belowground biomass. Our research shows that there are significantly more biomass observations in seasonally frozen soil regions than in permafrost regions. However, when we ignore the type of frozen soil, the model does not show more accurate simulation in seasonally frozen soil regions, mainly because the stronger correlation between permafrost biomass and environmental factors, such as precipitation, compensates for the lack of observational data. In addition, we found that the biomass estimation error can be reduced significantly by building different models for each type of frozen soil, which implies that the type of frozen soil has an important impact on grassland biomass. Therefore, in considering the effects of future climate warming, more attention should be given to the impact of changes in frozen soil type on regional vegetation productivity. In addition, our investigation contributes a benchmark dataset of above- and belowground vegetation carbon storage in different frozen soil types, which provides the research community with useful information for optimizing process-based carbon cycle models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]