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A series of the calcium-nickel carbonate solid solutions [(Ca1−xNix)CO3] were synthesized and their dissolution in N2-degassed water (NDW) and CO2-saturated water (CSW) at 25 °C was experimentally investigated. During dissolution of the synthetic solids (Ni-bearing calcite, amorphous Ca-bearing NiCO3 and their mixtures), the Ni-calcite and the Ca-NiCO3 dissolved first followed by the formation of the Ni-bearing aragonite-structure phases. After 240–300 days of dissolution in NDW, the water solutions achieved the stable Ca and Ni concentrations of 0.592–0.665 and 0.073–0.290 mmol/L for the solids with lower Ni/(Ca + Ni) mol ratios (XNi), or 0.608–0.721 and 0.273–0.430 mmol/L for the solids with higher XNi, respectively. After 240–300 days of dissolution in CSW, the water solutions achieved the stable Ca and Ni concentrations of 1.094–3.738 and 0.831–4.300 mmol/L, respectively. For dissolution in NDW and CSW, the mean values of log IAP (Ion activity products) in the final stable state (≈ log Ksp, Solubility product constants) were determined to be − 8.65 ± 0.04 and − 8.16 ± 0.11 for calcite [CaCO3], respectively; − 8.50 ± 0.02 and − 7.69 ± 0.03 for the synthetical nickel carbonates [NiCO3], respectively. In respect to the bulk composition of the (Ca1−xNix)CO3 solid solutions, the final log IAP showed the highest value when XNi = 0.10–0.30. Mostly, the mean values of log IAP increased with the increasing XNi in respect to the Ni-calcite, the Ni-aragonite and the amorphous Ca-Ni carbonate. The plotting of the experimental data on the Lippmann diagram for the (Ca1−xNix)CO3 solid solution using the predicted Guggenheim parameters of a0 = 2.14 and a1 = − 0.128 from a miscibility gap of XNi = 0.238 to 0.690 indicated that the solids dissolved incongruently and the final Ca and Ni concentrations in the water solutions were simultaneously limited by the minimum stoichiometric saturation curves for the Ni-calcite, Ni-aragonite and the amorphous Ca-Ni carbonate. During dissolution in NDW, the Ni2+ preferred to dissolve into the water solution and Ca2+ preferred to remain in the solid, while during dissolution in CSW for the solids with higher XNi, the Ca2+ preferred to dissolve into the water solution and Ni2+ preferred to remain in the solid. These findings provide valuable insights into understanding the mechanisms governing Ni geochemical cycle in natural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiomyocytes (CMs) lost during ischemic cardiac injury cannot be replaced due to their limited proliferative capacity. Calcium is an important signal transducer that regulates key cellular processes, but its role in regulating CM proliferation is incompletely understood. Here we show a robust pathway for new calcium signaling-based cardiac regenerative strategies. A drug screen targeting proteins involved in CM calcium cycling in human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac organoids (hCOs) revealed that only the inhibition of L-Type Calcium Channel (LTCC) induced the CM cell cycle. Furthermore, overexpression of Ras-related associated with Diabetes (RRAD), an endogenous inhibitor of LTCC, induced CM cell cycle activity in vitro, in human cardiac slices, and in vivo. Mechanistically, LTCC inhibition by RRAD or nifedipine induced CM cell cycle by modulating calcineurin activity. Moreover, ectopic expression of RRAD/CDK4/CCND in combination induced CM proliferation in vitro and in vivo, improved cardiac function and reduced scar size post-myocardial infarction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elastomers are widely used in various fields owing to their excellent tensile properties. Recyclable and self-healing properties are key to extending the service life of elastomers. Accumulating evidence indicates that dynamic covalent chemistry has emerged as a powerful tool for constructing recyclable and self-healing materials. In this work, we demonstrate the preparation of a recyclable and self-healable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer based on the Knoevenagel condensation (KC) reaction. This PDMS elastomer was prepared by the KC reaction catalyzed by 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP). The obtained PDMS elastomer exhibited an elongation at break of 266%, a tensile strength of 0.57 MPa, and a good thermal stability (Td=357 °C). In addition, because of the presence of dynamic C = C bonds formed by the KC reaction and low glass transition temperature (Tg=−117 °C). This PDMS exhibited good self-healing and recycling properties at room temperature and could be reprocessed by hot pressing. In addition, the PDMS elastomer exhibits good application prospects in the fields of adhesives and flexible electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is capable of enhancing the infiltration of immune cells into the tumour. However the temporal dynamics of immune cell patterns in patients receiving BCG instillation remains unclear. Methods: Ninety-six patients who underwent intravesical BCG therapy, comprising 46 responders and 50 non-responders, were retrospectively enroled to explore the evolving immune landscape. This study involved a detailed examination of sequential samples collected before, during, and after BCG treatment to assess BCG's influence on the immune microenvironment, employing techniques such as immunohistochemistry, fluorescent multiplex immunohistochemistry, and mass spectrometry techniques. Results: Our study found that initial BCG instillation leads to enhanced immune cell infiltration, correlating with treatment efficacy, with responders exhibiting more pronounced increases. Non-responders experience a rise in immune cell infiltration and PD-L1 expression during the first instillation, which returns to baseline after treatment. In non-responders, BCG re-challenge fail to further increase immune cell infiltration into the tumour or improve patient outcomes. Strikingly, proteomics data revealed that GBP1 expression was induced by BCG treatment in non-responders. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated the induction of tumour PD-L1 expression by BCG in non-responders, and therefore provide insights for the combination of BCG and anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1 therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many casinos diffuse a pleasant ambient scent into their facilities as a customer experience management practice, but the ethics of this scenting process is questionable. Although the effect of a pleasant scent on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses has been well-documented, its effect on attention during gambling has yet to be explored. Grounded in the tenets of the top-down control of attention and cross-modal correspondence between vision and olfaction, we conduct two eye-tracking experiments that involve different electronic casino games including video slots and live Cussec. The findings consistently show that pleasant ambient scent prolongs attention and induces more frequent attention to the win/loss areas on the video screen. The findings add to the implications related to responsible gambling by inspiring the stakeholders to consider the use of ambient scent in the gambling environment. Theoretically, the findings offer insights into scent as the catalyst that directs attention to goal-related information, while scent and goal do not need to be congruent in traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is the most common type of pulmonary cancer, one of the deadliest malignant tumors worldwide. Given the increased emphasis on the precise management of lung cancer, identifying various subtypes of NSCLC has become pivotal for enhancing diagnostic standards and patient prognosis. In response to the challenges presented by traditional clinical diagnostic methods for NSCLC pathology subtypes, which are invasive, rely on physician experience, and consume medical resources, we explore the potential of radiomics and deep learning to automatically and non-invasively identify NSCLC subtypes from computed tomography (CT) images. An integrated model is proposed that investigates both radiomic features and deep learning features and makes comprehensive decisions based on the combination of these two features. To extract deep features, a three-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D CNN) is proposed to fully utilize the 3D nature of CT images while radiomic features are extracted by radiomics. These two types of features are combined and classified with multi-head attention (MHA) in our proposed model. To our knowledge, this is the first work that integrates different learning methods and features from varied sources in histological subtype classification of lung cancer. Experiments are organized on a mixed dataset comprising NSCLC Radiomics and Radiogenomics. The results show that our proposed model achieves 0.88 in accuracy and 0.89 in the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) when distinguishing lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC), indicating the potential of being a non-invasive way for predicting histological subtypes of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the preparation of absorbing materials that combine light weight, ultra-wideband absorption and good thermal insulation performance is still an insurmountable gap. Here, we constructed a three-dimensional porous structure in the hope of obtaining excellent microwave absorption and heat insulation properties. In this paper, a unique three-dimensional porous SiCNWs/Ti3C2Tx/RGO (STR) aerogel was prepared by hydrothermal treatment. When the mass ratio of SiCNWs, Ti3C2Tx and GO is 2:1:1, the effective absorption bandwidth of STR aerogel reaches 8.10 GHz (9.90–18.00 GHz). Moreover, the porous structure can effectively reduce the heat radiation transfer. After heating at 300 ℃ for 1 h, STR aerogel can effectively isolate the temperature of about 160 ℃, which proves that STR has good thermal insulation performance. In addition, the formation mechanism of the STR aerogels and the mechanism of thermal insulation and electromagnetic wave absorption of aerogels are also discussed, which will contribute to the development and application of new lightweight stealth material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the budget-constrained profit maximization problem with expensive seed endorsement, a derivation of the well-studied influence maximization and profit maximization in social networks. While existing research requires the non-negativity of the objective profit function, this paper considers real-world scenarios where costs may surpass revenue. Specifically, our problem can be regarded as maximizing the difference between a non-negative submodular function and a non-negative modular function under a knapsack constraint, allowing for negative differences. To tackle this challenge, we propose two algorithms. Firstly, we employ a twin greedy and enumeration technique to design a polynomial-time algorithm with a quarter weak approximation ratio, providing a balance between computational efficiency and solution quality. Then, we incorporate a threshold decreasing technique to enhance the time complexity of the first algorithm, yielding an improved computational efficiency while maintaining a reasonable level of solution accuracy. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to study the profit maximization beyond non-negativity and to propose polynomial-time algorithms with a constant bicriteria approximation ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the rhizosphere soil with different generations of the hybridized progeny of wild Erianthus arundinaceus and sugarcane. Rhizosphere soils were collected from E. arundinaceus (P), and the F1, F3, and F5 progeny of its hybrid with sugarcane, and community of AMF in the rhizosphere soil was analyzed using Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that a total of 159 AMF fungal OTUs were obtained from the sequencing analysis, belonging to 1 phylum, 4 classes, 6 orders, 11 families, 14 genera, and 42 species. Alpha diversity analysis showed that the Chao1 and ACE indices decreased with increasing of the generations, that is, the highest species abundance was in parent P, and significant differences were observed between P and F1, F3, and F5 (P < 0.05). The Shannon index in P was the highest, with significant differences between P and F3, and F5. The dominant genus in P was Acaulospora, while that in F1 was Glomus, that in F3 was Claroideoglomus, and that in F5 was Glomus. Diversispora and Dentiscutata were the dominant genera unique to P. Glomus, Claroideoglomus, Acaulospora, Rhizophagus, and Gigaspora were present in the rhizosphere soil of different generations. PCoA analysis showed significant differences in the distribution of AMF communities in the rhizosphere soils of different generations. Significant differences were observed between the inter-group comparisons of the AMF community at the genus level, with significant differences in the relative abundance of Glomus and Acaulospora in different generations on the levels P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively. These findings indicate that the community of AMF in the rhizosphere soils with different generations of the hybridized progeny of E. arundinaceus with sugarcane is different, but some AMF groups do not change with addition of the generations. Further research is needed to determine whether these characteristics are related to the agronomic traits of the crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock-like materials are often used in physical simulation tests to study deep dynamic disasters, such as rock bursts. In this study, a uniaxial compression failure test was conducted to investigate the impact tendency and damage characteristics of rock-like materials, and the evolution law of the acoustic emission and infrared thermal imaging during compression failure was revealed. First, the impact tendencies of rock-like materials and their acoustic emission and thermal imaging response characteristics during compression failure were analyzed. At the initial stage of loading, the acoustic emission intensity was low, and the average infrared radiation temperature exhibited a downward trend. With the gradual stress loading, the acoustic emission count and average infrared radiation temperature began to increase slowly but remained in a low frequency and low energy range. When the stress was close to the peak, the acoustic emission count and average infrared radiation temperature increased significantly with more evident low-frequency and high-energy signals. Second, the damage variable was defined based on the acoustic emission and infrared radiation temperature. An average infrared radiation cumulative temperature damage variable was proposed. The damage process of rock-like materials was divided into initial, stable, and accelerated stages. Finally, by comparing the damage variables defined by the different parameters and the damage constitutive model of rock-like materials, the rationality of the damage variables was verified. Considering that the Lemaitre constitutive equation ignored the compaction effect of rock-like materials, a correction coefficient K was introduced to reduce the deviation between the theoretical stress curve and the experimental curve. The results of this study provide theoretical support for studying the impact tendencies and damage characteristics of rock-like materials. Highlights: The impact tendency of rock-like materials is analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The average infrared radiation cumulative temperature damage variable is proposed. The rationality of the new damage variables is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uneven burden of climate-related losses and damages and its implications for equity and social justice are receiving growing attention in science and policy. Smallholder farmers, indigenous groups, and ethnic minorities are often identified as particularly vulnerable and likely to experience a greater burden of climate-related loss and damage. However, limited attention has been paid to experiences of climate-related loss and damage in contexts of agrarian change and related struggles, especially around land. In this paper, we analyse experiences of climate-related loss amongst smallholder farmers in Ratanakiri province, northeast Cambodia. We derive an analytical framework from political economy of vulnerability and sociology of loss to explain farmers’ sense of loss from climate change and foreground intangible dimensions of climate-related loss. We use a mixed-methods approach with a hierarchical regression analysis of a household survey (n = 295), individual interviews, and focus group discussions across eleven villages. We find that a higher number of livelihood activities, greater values related to land, types of negative impacts experienced, and stronger perception of changes in extreme weather events are associated with a greater sense of loss. Meanwhile, a higher ability to repay loans and secure land tenure is associated with a lower sense of loss. Our results demonstrate how experiential, relational, and normative dimensions of climate-related loss are co-produced through processes of agrarian change such as financialization and histories of land struggles (i.e. through debt failure and fear of loss of access to land). This study contributes a deeper understanding of people’s lived experiences of loss arising from climate change impacts in agrarian contexts and their implications for climate justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To assess the distribution characteristics of immune infiltration and lymphovascular invasion in breast cancer skin recurrence patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological data of patients who underwent radical surgery for primary breast cancer and experienced skin recurrence between January 2001 and April 2019. Immune and lymphovascular biomarkers were quantified in primary breast cancers, skin lesions and visceral metastatic lesions. Differences in biomarkers distribution between matched tissues were statistically analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA. Results: A total of 71 female breast cancer patients were reviewed in this study. Our study found that the expression levels of various lymphocyte immune markers in primary tumor specimens were higher than those in skin recurrences. The expression of CD8, CD57 and CD31 in primary breast cancer was higher than those in the skin. Compared to visceral metastatic lesions, D2-40 was highly expressed in the skin, while CD8 tended to decrease. In the skin specimens, the expression of CD8 (P < 0.001), FOXP3 (P = 0.006) and CD68 (P < 0.001) in the intratumoral area was higher, while the expression of CD57 (P < 0.001) was higher in the peritumoral area. Analyzing specimens from the same patient at different time points of skin progression, it was found that the expression of peritumoral CD4 decreased (P = 0.044) as the disease progressed. The low expression of D2-40 and CD163 in the skin lesions suggested a decrease in DFS. Conclusion: The immune microenvironment of breast cancer skin recurrence may be in a state of suppression, and this suppression may intensify with disease progression. The pattern of skin recurrence may be more inclined toward lymphatic invasion. Our study provides new insights into the biological behaviors of this disease and its response to immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal knowledge graphs (TKGs) are a form of knowledge representation constructed based on the evolution of events at different time points. It provides an additional perspective by extending the temporal dimension for a range of downstream tasks. Given the evolving nature of events, it is essential for TKGs to reason about non-existent or future events. Most of the existing models divide the graph into multiple time snapshots and predict future events by modeling information within and between snapshots. However, since the knowledge graph inherently suffers from missing data and uneven data distribution, this time-based division leads to a drastic reduction in available data within each snapshot, which makes it difficult to learn high-quality representations of entities and relationships. In addition, the contribution of historical information changes over time, distinguishing its importance to the final results when capturing information that evolves over time. In this paper, we introduce CH-TKG (Contrastive Learning and Historical Information Learning for TKG Reasoning) to addresses issues related to data sparseness and the ambiguity of historical information weights. Firstly, we obtain embedding representations of entities and relationships with evolutionary dependencies by R-GCN and GRU. On this foundation, we introduce a novel contrastive learning method to optimize the representation of entities and relationships within individual snapshots of sparse data. Then we utilize self-attention and copy mechanisms to learn the effects of different historical data on the final inference results. We conduct extensive experiments on four datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model with sparse data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) stand out among various metal-ion batteries as promising new energy storage devices due to their excellent safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. However, the booming development of portable electronic devices and new-energy electric vehicles demands higher energy and power densities from LIBs, while the current commercial cathode materials are difficult to meet the new requirements for battery performance in emerging markets owing to their low theoretical capacities. Vanadium oxides, for their abundant reserves, low cost, and high capacity, are considered to be strong candidates for anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we firstly briefly summarize the research progress of traditional cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, followed by an overview of vanadium oxides as potential cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, and we distill, categorize, and summarize the efforts that have been carried out on vanadium oxides in recent years. In the end, based on the advantages and disadvantages of vanadium oxide materials, several reasonable outlooks on their future research directions, challenges, and modification methods are proposed according to the current research status to satisfy the needs of both basic research and practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the rise of AI-related research in the management field, existing research has predominately focused on the impacts of employees being exposed to AI and the AI symbolization behavior by leaders. However, no research has examined how employees react to AI symbolization from their coworkers. Drawing upon the appraisal theory of emotion, we explore employees' emotional and behavioral reactions to coworker's AI symbolization. This study involved a two-wave study with a two-week interval, conducted with 345 Chinese full-time employees, to validate the theoretical model. The results showed that coworker's AI symbolization was positively related to employee admiration, which, in turn, promoted employee AI usage behavior. Furthermore, employee positive attitude towards AI moderated both the relationship between coworker's AI symbolization and employee admiration and the indirect effect of coworker's AI symbolization on employee AI usage behavior via admiration. This study contributes to the growing body of research on AI symbolization, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. Theoretical implications, practical implications, and future research directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of science and technology, the number of smartphones has increased dramatically. This also exposes Android-based smartphones to an increasing number of malware attacks. Currently, feature extraction schemes based on sensitive API calls have become mainstream in malware detection. However, such an approach can only capture the behavior of malware when the API is called, but it cannot detect malicious behavior implemented through other means. In the real world, attackers often use the Inter-Component Communication (ICC) mechanism to hide and conceal their malicious intent. In this paper, we propose a novel malware detection framework (named ADACapsNet). This framework first employs an entropy-based approach to extract sensitive API features to reflect the behavior patterns of malware and then captures the information flow across components by monitoring the ICC interactions in the Android systems. We transform sensitive API calls and ICC features into vector representations that are used as inputs to the learning model. Moreover, we propose an adaptive capsule network to mine deep program semantics, which uses an adaptive factor to dynamically assign weights for features, enhancing the model's ability to focus on relevant features and capture complex spatial relationships. We conducted a number of experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed ADACapsNet in detecting malware. Experimental results show that the proposed method is robust against malware attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic patients are at high risk of developing lacrimal gland dysfunction, and the antimalarial drug artesunate (ART) was recently used to induce experimental-induced diabetes mellitus. This study's objective is to investigate the lacrimal gland alteration and the effect of ART on experimentally induced diabetes rat models and its related mechanisms. Forty rats were divided into five groups (8 rats/group): healthy control group (HC), diabetic group (DM), 50 mg/kg ART intervention diabetic group [DM + ART (50 mg/kg)], 100 mg/kg ART intervention diabetic group [DM + ART (100 mg/kg)] and 6 U/kg Insulin intervention diabetic group (DM + INS). The morphology of the eyeball and lacrimal gland tissues was determined using hematoxylin and eosin staining. In addition, external lacrimal glands were harvested for electronic microscopic examination, NFκB1, and TNF-α protein expression evaluation by immunohistochemistry and mRNA expression analysis by RT-PCR. Histopathological and ultrastructural changes suggest ART intervention has an improved structural effect. Protein expression of NFκB1 in the DM + ART (100 mg/kg) group was decreased. TNF-α significantly decreased in the DM + ART (50 mg/kg) and insulin groups. We concluded that ART improves structural changes in a lacrimal gland in diabetic rats. The present study provides further evidence of the therapeutic effect of ART on the lacrimal gland of diabetic rats by decreasing the expression of NFκB1 and TNF-α. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most common type of non-small cell lung cancer is lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which is characterized by high morbidity and poor survival. Up-regulation of SASS6 expression can lead to the progression of various malignant tumors. However, there are no relevant studies on the role of SASS6 in LUAD. SASS6 was highly expressed in most tumors, reflecting a good diagnostic value, and its overexpression in LUAD indicated discouraging overall prognosis. Functional enrichment analysis suggested that SASS6 was associated with cell cycle in LUAD. In addition, patients with high SASS6 expression had worse immune infiltration, but higher TMB and immune checkpoint, and higher sensitivity to multiple targeted drugs such as osimertinib. Cell experiments confirmed that knockdown of SASS6 could inhibit the viability of tumor cells.SASS6 has important value in the diagnosis of cancer. In particular, SASS6 is a crucial factor in the progression of LUAD, and has important clinical value, especially in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Danjiangkou Reservoir (DJKR), the source of the world's longest inter-basin water diversion, the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (MRSNWDPC), has attracted global attention for its water quality. This study collected water samples monthly from 31 monitoring sites between January 2017 and December 2022, assessing 18 water quality parameters. Multivariate statistical methods and five water quality index (WQI) models were employed to comprehensively evaluate water quality, optimizing critical parameter identification and enhancing the predictive reliability of water quality changes. Compared to traditional WQI approaches, our method offers improved accuracy in assessing water quality variations and risks. The findings reveal that the tributary river systems were classified by pollution degree, while reservoirs were categorized based on adjacent geographical locations. WQI values in the Danjiangkou Reservoir basin ranged from 82.70 to 91.24, indicating that the water quality was consistently "good" to "excellent". Key water quality indicators, i.e., ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), permanganate index (CODMn), dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN), and heavy metals, i.e., selenium (Se), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and cadmium (Cd), were used to construct WQImin models for different clusters. These models demonstrated explanatory solid power for evaluating water quality (R2 > 0.9). Four weighting methods—equal weight, rank sum, rank reciprocal, and rank order centroid—were applied to determine the WQImin and WQI models. The results identified equal weight as the optimal WQImin model construction method. The carcinogenic risks of chromium (Cr) and arsenic (As) ranged from 4.03 × 10–5 to 4.66 × 10–5, within the acceptable level of 1 × 10–4 to 1 × 10–6. The hazard quotients for all heavy metals were below "1", and non-carcinogenic risks were higher for children than for adults. Overall, the heavy metals in DJKR presented no significant human health risks. After the MRSNWDPC became fully operational, the DJKR maintained excellent water quality, with the reservoir's water deemed safe for drinking and other uses. This study provides a scientific basis for managing water quality in DJKR and other large-scale hydroengineering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the role of internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) in the identification of Spatholobus suberectus and explore the genetic diversity of S. suberectus. A total of 292 ITS2s from S. suberectus and 17 other plant species were analysed. S. suberectus was clustered separately in the phylogenetic tree. The genetic distance between species was greater than that within S. suberectus. Synonymous substitution rate (Ks) analysis revealed that ITS2 diverged the most recently within S. suberectus (Ks = 0.0022). These findings suggested that ITS2 is suitable for the identification of S. suberectus. The ITS2s were divided into 8 haplotypes and 4 evolutionary branches on the basis of secondary structure, indicating that there was variation within S. suberectus. Evolutionary analysis revealed that the GC content of paired regions (pGC) was greater than that of unpaired regions (upGC), and the pGC showed a decreasing trend, whereas the upGC remained unchanged. Single-base mutation was the main cause of base pair substitution. In both the initial state and the equilibrium state, the substitution rate of GC was higher than that of AU. The increase in the GC content was partly attributed to GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC). High GC content reflected the high recombination and mutation rates of ITS2, which is the basis for species identification and genetic diversity. We characterized the sequence and structural characteristics of S. suberectus ITS2 in detail, providing a reference and basis for the identification of S. suberectus and its products, as well as the protection and utilization of wild resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two peptides with dual functionality, namely LLPSY and NAPALVY, exhibit inhibitory effects on both angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) and dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV), were successfully identified from the hydrolysates of Chinese chive seed (Allium tuberosum Rottl.). Peptide isolation involved reversed-phase chromatography, and peptide sequences were characterized through liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis and de novo sequencing. Notably, the Lineweaver-Burk plot analysis revealed that LLPSY (IC50: 15.66 ± 1.11 µM) acted in a non-competitive manner, whereas NAPALVY (IC50: 3.42 ± 0.79 µM) exhibited competitive inhibition, potently inhibiting ACE. Their stability tests against ACE further revealed that LLPSY acted as a real substrate, while NAPALVY functioned as a true inhibitor of ACE. In terms of DPP-IV inhibition, LLPSY (IC50: 2.48 ± 0.10 mM) was identified as a competitive inhibitor, whereas NAPALVY (IC50: 7.63 ± 0.52 mM) displayed noncompetitive inhibition. Both peptides exhibited true inhibitory effects on DPP-IV. Docking simulations provided insights into peptide-enzyme interactions. These novel Allium tuberosum Rottl.-derived peptides hold promise for controlling blood pressure and blood glucose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plantarflexors provide propulsion during walking and receive input from both corticospinal and corticoreticulospinal tracts, which exhibit some frequency-specificity that allows potential differentiation of each tract's descending drive. Given that stroke may differentially affect each tract and impair the function of plantarflexors during walking; here, we examined this frequency-specificity and its relation to walking-specific measures during post-stroke walking. Fourteen individuals with chronic stroke walked on an instrumented treadmill at self-selected and fast walking speed (SSWS and FWS, respectively) while surface electromyography (sEMG) from soleus (SOL), lateral gastrocnemius (LG), and medial gastrocnemius (MG) and ground reaction forces (GRF) were collected. We calculated the intermuscular coherences (IMC; alpha, beta, and low-gamma bands between SOL–LG, SOL–MG, LG–MG) and propulsive impulse using sEMG and GRF, respectively. We examined the interlimb and intralimb IMC comparisons and their relationships with propulsive impulse and walking speed. Interlimb IMC comparisons revealed that beta LG–MG (SSWS) and low-gamma SOL–LG (FWS) IMCs were degraded on the paretic side. Intralimb IMC comparisons revealed that only alpha IMCs (both speeds) exhibited a statistically significant difference to random coherence. Further, alpha LG–MG IMC was positively correlated with propulsive impulse in the paretic limb (SSWS). Alpha and beta/low-gamma bands may have a differential functional role, which may be related to the frequency-specificity of the underlying descending drives. The persistence of alpha band in plantarflexors and its strong positive relationship with propulsive impulse suggests relative alteration of corticoreticulospinal tract after stroke. These findings imply the presence of frequency-specific descending drives to walking-specific muscles in chronic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic/inorganic nanocomposites uniquely combine the dual advantages of inorganic nanomaterials and organic polymers. However, poor compatibility between inorganic nanoparticles and polymer matrices always arises as a huge obstacle to be addressed while designing and preparing high performance organic/inorganic nanocomposites. In situ surface grafting of ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) onto nanosilica and partial cross-linking of EVA via dynamic Si–O–C bonds with nanosilica as the core were simultaneously achieved via the transesterification reactions between the inherent Si–OH groups on the surface of nanosilica and the ester groups in EVA. The reactions were conducted thorough a one-step, simple and scalable reactive blending approach. The cross-linking reaction of EVA was evidenced by torque curves, FT-IR spectra and gel fraction testing. Uniform dispersion of silica particles in EVA matrix was observed for resulting EVA/silica nanocomposites due to surface modification of silica. Consequently, tremendous enhancement in mechanical properties of resultant EVA/silica nanocomposites were detected. Compared to the original EVA, the tensile strengths and tensile modulus of the EVA/silica nanocomposites increased by 72.5% and 37.8%, respectively, while the elongation at breaks of the EVA/silica nanocomposites remained as high as that of the original EVA. Additionally, the dynamic nature of Si–O–C cross-linkages enabled partially cross-linked EVA/silica nanocomposites to demonstrate exceptional reprocess ability and recyclability. This was evidenced by the sustained mechanical properties of the EVA/silica nanocomposites, which were still maintained even after undergoing three rounds of reprocessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the positional behaviors of primates is essential for understanding the mechanisms of environmental adaptation. From October 2021 to September 2022, we collected data on positional behaviors of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) at Guangxi Nonggang National Nature Reserve, China, using instantaneous scan sampling method. Our results showed that quadrupedal walking (34.99% ± 6.05%) was adopted as their most frequent locomotor mode, followed by leaping (31.54% ± 10.50%), climbing (25.55% ± 11.33%), quadrupedal running (6.55% ± 2.65%) and bridging (1.37% ± 1.19%). The ground (36.83% ± 21.18%) was the most frequently used stratum during moving. Most arboreal locomotion occurred on small (44.06% ± 11.36%) and medium (34.90% ± 11.09%) sized substrates. Sitting (81.19% ± 10.47%) was used as their most common postures, followed by holding (6.38% ± 9.97%), quadrupedal standing (3.70% ± 3.03%), bipedal standing (3.54% ± 1.84%), sprawling (3.17% ± 6.45%), suspending (1.88% ± 1.19%) and lying (0.14% ± 0.21%). Positional behaviors seasonally vary with habitat structure, and distribution of food resources. The macaques used climbing more frequently in the fruit-lean season (dry season) than in the fruit-rich season (rainy season), which could be related to reducing energy expenditure in the dry season. In addition, they adopted holding and lying together to conserve energy and stabilize intergroup relationships. In conclusion, Assamese macaques adapt to limestone forests with positional behavior flexibility in response to seasonality. Our findings highlight the necessity to understand the effects of ecological factors on the behavioral ecology and adaptations of Assamese macaques in their unique limestone forest habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the efficiency of topology optimization for piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs), this paper proposes a discrete level set method enhanced by conformal mapping. By mapping the PEH onto a 2D regular domain, the original 3D topology optimization problem is simplified as a 2D problem by using a scalar function. Then re-meshing and barycentric interpolation theory are used to simplify the solution of the driving equation and resolve the issue of inconsistent discretization between the level set function and the finite element model. Moreover, based on the proposed method, the finite element expression of the piezoelectric shell element is derived, taking into account the piezoelectric material coupling effect and polarization direction. This leads to an accurate numerical solution for the optimization process. Resultantly, numerical examples demonstrate that proposed method enables the optimization using a simple discretization, while effectively preserving surface characteristics of PEHs. Hence, this method offers a new approach for the structural optimization of PEHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the risks of planktonic algal proliferation and its environmental causes is crucial for protecting water quality and controlling ecological risks. Reservoirs, due to the characteristics of slow flow rates and long hydraulic retention times, are more prone to eutrophication and algal proliferation. Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) serves as an indicator of planktonic algal biomass. Exploring the intricate interactions and driving mechanisms between Chl-a and the water environment, and the potential risks of algal blooms, is crucial for ensuring the ecological safety of reservoirs and the health of water users. This study focused on the Danjiangkou Reservoir (DJKR), the core water source of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project of China (MRSNWDPC). The multivariate statistical methods and structural equation modeling were used to explore the relationships between chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) contents and water quality factors and understand the driving mechanisms affecting Chl-a variations. The Copula function and Bayesian theory were combined to analyze the risk of changes in Chl-a concentrations at Taocha (TC) station, which is the core water source intake point of the MRSNWDPC. The results showed that the factors driving planktonic algal proliferation were spatially heterogeneous. The main factors affecting Chl-a concentrations in Dan Reservoir (DR) were water physicochemical factors (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH value, and turbidity) with a total contribution rate of 60.18%, whereas those in Han Reservoir (HR) were nutrient factors (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and ammonia nitrogen) with a total contribution rate of 73.58%. In TC, the main factors were water physicochemical factors (turbidity, pH, and water temperature) and nutrient factors (total phosphorus) with total contribution rates of 39.76% and 45.78%, respectively. When Chl-a concentrations in other areas of the DJKR ranged from the minimum to the uppermost quartile, the probabilities that Chl-a concentrations at the TC station exceeded 3.4 μg/L (the benchmark value of Chl-a for lakes in the central-eastern lake area of China) owing to the influence of these areas were all less than 10%. Thus, the risk of planktonic algal proliferation at the MRSNWDPC intake point is low. This study developed an integrated framework to investigate spatiotemporal changes in algal proliferation and their driving factors in reservoirs, which can be used to support water quality management in mega hydro projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are crucial immune cells for tissue repair and regeneration. However, their potential as a cell-based regenerative therapy is not yet fully understood. Here, we show that local delivery of exogenous Tregs into injured mouse bone, muscle, and skin greatly enhances tissue healing. Mechanistically, exogenous Tregs rapidly adopt an injury-specific phenotype in response to the damaged tissue microenvironment, upregulating genes involved in immunomodulation and tissue healing. We demonstrate that exogenous Tregs exert their regenerative effect by directly and indirectly modulating monocytes/macrophages (Mo/MΦ) in injured tissues, promoting their switch to an anti-inflammatory and pro-healing state via factors such as interleukin (IL)-10. Validating the key role of IL-10 in exogenous Treg-mediated repair and regeneration, the pro-healing capacity of these cells is lost when Il10 is knocked out. Additionally, exogenous Tregs reduce neutrophil and cytotoxic T cell accumulation and IFN-γ production in damaged tissues, further dampening the pro-inflammatory Mo/MΦ phenotype. Highlighting the potential of this approach, we demonstrate that allogeneic and human Tregs also promote tissue healing. Together, this study establishes exogenous Tregs as a possible universal cell-based therapy for regenerative medicine and provides key mechanistic insights that could be harnessed to develop immune cell-based therapies to enhance tissue healing. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are known for suppressing inflammatory processes, but their full capacity for tissue regeneration is yet to be harnessed. Here, the authors demonstrate the efficiency of Tregs in facilitating tissue healing in mouse models of bone, muscle, and skin injury, with monocytes/macrophages and interleukin-10 playing a key mechanistic role in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in modern medicine have extended human life expectancy, leading to a world with a gradually aging society. Aging refers to a natural decline in the physiological functions of a species over time, such as reduced pain sensitivity and reaction speed. Healthy-level physiological pain serves as a warning signal to the body, helping to avoid noxious stimuli. Physiological pain sensitivity gradually decreases in the elderly, increasing the risk of injury. Therefore, geriatric health care receives growing attention, potentially improving the health status and life quality of the elderly, further reducing medical burden. Health food is a geriatric healthcare choice for the elderly with Ganoderma tsuage (GT), a Reishi type, as the main product in the market. GT contains polysaccharides, triterpenoids, adenosine, immunoregulatory proteins, and other components, including anticancer, blood sugar regulating, antioxidation, antibacterial, antivirus, and liver and stomach damage protective agents. However, its pain perception-related effects remain elusive. This study thus aimed at addressing whether GT could prevent pain sensitivity reduction in the elderly. We used a galactose-induced animal model for aging to evaluate whether GT could maintain pain sensitivity in aging mice undergoing formalin pain test, hot water test, and tail flexes. Our results demonstrated that GT significantly improved the sensitivity and reaction speed to pain in the hot water, hot plate, and formalin tests compared with the control. Therefore, our animal study positions GT as a promising compound for pain sensitivity maintenance during aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index and obesity are significantly closely related to the incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study aimed to investigate the relationship among the TyG index and its related parameters [TyG-waist circumference (WC) and TyG-body mass index (BMI)] with NAFLD. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 8401 subjects who underwent a health examination in Karamay, Xinjiang Province, China. TyG, TyG-WC, TyG-BMI were calculated with the established formula. NAFLD was diagnosed and classified by ultrasonography. Results: The prevalence of NAFLD was markedly increased with increasing levels of TyG, TyG-WC and TyG-BMI. Logistic regression analysis suggested that WC, BMI, TyG, TyG-WC and TyG-BMI were independent risk factors for NAFLD. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, TyG-BMI showed the largest area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the detection of NAFLD (0.856, 95% confidence interval: 0.848 ~ 0.865), and the results of sex analysis were consistent. TyG-BMI values of 176.69 (sensitivity: 86.9%, specificity: 68.1%), 193.02 (sensitivity: 73.8%, specificity: 73.6%) and 167.73 (sensitivity: 86.3%, specificity: 74.4%) were the optimal cutoff points to predict NAFLD in all participants, males and females, respectively. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that TyG and its related parameters are significantly correlated with NAFLD. TyG-BMI is an effective predictor or clinical marker for identifying NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among various cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), V2O5 stands out due to the unique layered structure, wide ion diffusion channels and higher theoretical specific capacity. However, the inherent low conductivity and poor structure stability of V2O5 lead to the inferior electrochemical properties. In this work, V2O5 nanofibers with high porosity were prepared via electrostatic spinning method combined with subsequent calcination. The obtained V2O5 nanofibers deliver a short ion diffusion path and provide a higher specific surface area. On the basis of the above advantages, the V2O5 nanofibers cathode exhibits impressive performance metrics: 311.6 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g and 223.0 mAh/g at 1 A/g with 99.0% capacity retention after 150 cycles. The above results reveal that the electrodes prepared using the electrostatic spinning technique combined with the heat treatment method display excellent electrochemical properties. Therefore, the V2O5 nanofiber electrode material has a broad application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leniency, the act of lessening or removing a negative consequence for misconduct, is a means of addressing workplace misconduct. Although existing research has highlighted that the lenient reaction generally brings benefits, scholars have recently challenged this positive view of leniency by noting its negative outcomes. Drawing upon the attribution theory, we propose that the effects of leader leniency depend on subordinates' relational attributions of such lenient behavior. We conducted an experiment (Study 1, N = 229) and a multi-source and multi-wave survey (Study 2, N = 268). Study 1 used ANOVA analysis and Study 2 used path analysis and bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the model. Results showed that when the subordinate relational attribution is low, leader leniency will trigger subordinate gratitude and increase organizational citizenship behavior. Conversely, when the subordinate relational attribution is high, leader leniency will induce subordinate psychological entitlement, fueling workplace deviance. Our research provides new insight into understanding the losses and gains of leader leniency and identifies the role of relational attribution in the effects of leader leniency. Finally, we discuss our theoretical contributions and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lobed leaves are vital in the high-density cultivation and breeding of wax gourd (Benincasa hispida). Thus, determining the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of lobed leaves is important. To this end, this study aimed to resequence 105 recombinant inbred lines, constructed using the parental lines, GX-7 and my-1, to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying leaf development in wax gourd. Genes associated with lobed leaves in wax gourds were first evaluated via quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping. Next, the F2 population was expanded to 2000 plants for fine mapping and candidate gene analysis. Thus, the candidate area was reduced to 1.129 Mb, located between markers InDel980 and InDel853. Functional analyses of candidate genes were performed using gene functional annotation, coding sequence analyses, and expression analyses. Among 48 genes in the candidate region, only Bch04G012650 (termed BhDDL4.1) showed differences in expression between the two parents. Using sequence differences of previously screened candidate genes, an InDel marker (InDel623) was developed in BhDDL4.1 for molecular marker–assisted breeding of wax gourd; the accuracy rate was 74.03%. Our results indicate that BhDDL4.1 may play a key role in the regulation of the lobed leaf trait; thereby, we provide a theoretical basis for further exploration of the molecular mechanisms underlying the lobed leaf trait in wax gourd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Acetabular reconstruction in situ after extensive pelvic resection is technically challenging. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of positioning guiders for acetabular reconstruction following pelvic tumor resection and the clinical benefit brought by the approach. Methods: The study included patients who underwent acetabular reconstruction following periacetabular tumor resection using a modular hemipelvic prosthesis. In the guider-assisted group (n = 14), guiders were designed and applied to assist acetabular reconstruction. In the traditional operation group (n = 18), the patients underwent the same surgery but without the guiders. The displacement of the hip rotation center before and after surgery was calculated. The complications and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society—93 scores were documented. Results: The overall displacement of the hip rotation center was significantly reduced in the guider-assisted group compared with the traditional operation group (13.83 ± 4.06 vs. 22.95 ± 9.18 mm in P = 0.000, 95%CI 3.90–12.96), especially in the anteroposterior axis (3.77 ± 3.03 versus 13.51 ± 9.43 mm in P = 0.000, 95%CI 3.45–13.09). Guider-assisted acetabular reconstruction reduced the risk of prosthesis dislocation compared with the traditional operation (dislocation risks: 1/14, 7.1% vs. 4/18, 22.2%). Conclusion: Positioning guiders can effectively and conveniently help place the modular hemipelvic prosthesis at the native position, which might potentially reduce the risk of prosthesis dislocation. Level of evidence: Therapeutic level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolonged disorder of consciousness (DoC) is a rising challenge. Pediatric data on diagnosis and prognosis of prolonged DoC were too limited and heterogeneous, making it difficult to define the natural course and evaluate the prognosis. The present study explored the emergence from the Minimally Conscious State (eMCS) incidence at different months postinjury drawing the natural course, and detected the predictors of the incidence in children with prolonged DoC. A hospital-based prospective cohort study was conducted. Kaplan–Meier curves, as well as univariate and multivariate COX regression analysis, were performed. The study enrolled 383 pediatric DoC individuals, including 220 males (57.4%), with an average age of 3.9 (1.9–7.3) years. The median duration between onset and rehabilitation is 30.0 (21.0–46.0) days. At enrollment, the ratio of vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (VS/WUS) to MCS is 78.9%–21.1%. Traumatic brain injury and infection are the major etiologies (36.8% and 37.1%, respectively), followed by hypoxia cerebral injury (12.3%). For children with prolonged DoC, the cumulative incidence of eMCS at months 3, 6, 12, and 24 was 0.510, 0.652, 0.731, 0.784 VS 0.290, 0.418, 0.539, 0.603 in the traumatic VS non-traumatic subgroup, respectively. For children in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), the cumulative incidence of emergence at months in 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 was testified as 0.439, 0.591, 0.683, 0.724, 0.743 and 0.743 in the traumatic subgroup, and 0.204, 0.349, 0.469, 0.534, 0.589 and 0.620 in the non-traumatic subgroup. Participants who exhibit any of the following four demographical and/or clinical characteristics—namely, older than 4 years at onset, accepted rehabilitation within 28 days of onset, remained MCS at enrollment, or with etiology of traumatic brain injuries—had a significantly positive outcome of consciousness recovery (eMCS). Moreover, both prolongation of the central somatosensory conductive time (CCT) (level 2) and absence of N20 (level 3) independently predict a negative outcome. In children with prolonged DoC, we found that 12 months postinjury was critical to eMCS, and a preferred timepoint to define chronic vegetative state (VS). The characteristics including age, etiology, time before rehabilitation, consciousness state, and SEP results were useful predictors of conscious recovery. Trial registration Registered 06/11/2018, the registration number is chiCTR1800019330 (chictr.org.cn). Registered prospectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), vanadium oxides have received extensive attention from researchers due to their abundant reserves and high theoretical specific capacity. Nevertheless, its low electronic conductivity and poor structural stability lead to its poor electrochemical performance. Herein, the V2O5 layered nanofibers prepared by electrostatic spinning technique combined with annealing processes. When the calcination temperature was set to 450 °C, the obtained V2O5 layered nanofiber material (AM450-V2O5) had a uniformly dispersed morphology, which conferred more lithium ion insertion sites and thus accelerated lithium ion insertion/(de)insertion. Based on this, the AM450-V2O5 electrode exhibits a high initial discharge specific capacity (250.7 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g) and excellent cycling stability (82% cycle retention at 1 A/g after 150 cycles). These results indicate that the V2O5 layered nanofibers are highly promising as long-life, high-rate cathode materials for next-generation LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anisotropic compatibility of grain boundaries (GBs) is found in a directionally solidified superalloy, when loading is aligned with (L sample) or transverse (T sample) to the grain growth direction. The greater compatibility of GBs is shown in the L sample by calculating the parameter m′ of the GBs using two developed models. The first model considers the theoretical scenario that grains grow along the perfect [001] orientation, and the compatibility between the neighbouring grains with all kinds of orientation difference is calculated. The second model, termed as Schmid-factor-tolerance model, considers the effects of asymmetrical slip systems caused by the deviation of grain growth direction from the [001] orientation in a real microstructure. Validation of the model is achieved through fatigue tests, demonstrating its capability to interpret and predict the crack initiation behaviours at grain boundaries. Combined with the fatigue tests to illustrate the anisotropic fracture behaviours of the L and T specimens, it shows that the intergranular cracks are more likely to occur in the T specimen with poor compatibility, which proves the capability of predicting the intergranular cracks for the Schmid-factor-tolerance model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Dual Carbon" initiative is a two-stage carbon reduction goal proposed by China, with significant implications for global climate change mitigation. This article examines the impact of the "Dual Carbon" strategy on China's forestry development and explores how to leverage this strategy to facilitate the transformation and advancement of the forestry sector. Current review indicated that forestry has the advantage of achieving higher emission reduction targets at a low cost. Starting with an overview of the "Dual Carbon" strategy, this paper analyzes the carbon sequestration potential of plants and soil, and the challenges and opportunities faced by forestry development under this framework. Furthermore, we outline implementation pathways for forestry development, aiming to provide insights for the progress of China's forestry sector. Overall, it should be noted that the priority is to vigorously develop timber resources, and we also need to vigorously develop and protect forestry talent with the support of China's policies. By trapping into the carbon storage capabilities and leveraging carbon trading mechanisms of forests, a favorable ecological environment can be created, thus achieving the goal of carbon neutrality. Highlights: • Forest development and its carbon sinks, attributed to plant and soil have the potential in carbon sequestration process, thus helping China achieve carbon neutrality. • The supply of forest products and the balance of economic growth and environmental protection are the key difficulties under the "Dual Carbon" strategy. • Trading forest carbon sinks can boost China's sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjuvant oxaliplatin plus S-1 (SOX) chemotherapy for gastric cancer (GC) after D2 gastrectomy has been proven effective. There has yet to be a study that evaluates adjuvant nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) plus S-1. In this single-center, retrospective study, GC patients after D2 gastrectomy received either nab-paclitaxel plus S-1 (AS group) or SOX group were recruited between January 2018 and December 2020 in The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. Intravenous nab-paclitaxel 120 mg/m2 or 260 mg/m2 and oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 were administered as eight 3 week cycle, especially in the AS and SOX group. Patients received S-1 twice daily with a dose of 40 mg/m2 in the two groups on days 1–14 of each cycle. The end points were disease-free survival (DFS) rate at 3 years and adverse events (AEs). There were 56 eligible patients, 28 in the AS group and 35 in the SOX group. The 3 year DFS rate was 78.0% in AS group versus 70.7% in SOX group (p = 0.46). Subgroup analysis showed that the patients with signet-ring positive in the AS group had a prolonged DFS compared with the SOX group (40.0 vs. 13.8 m, p = 0.02). The diffuse-type GC or low differentiation in the AS group was associated with numerically prolonged DFS compared with the SOX group, but the association was not statistically significant (p = 0.27 and p = 0.15 especially). Leukopenia (14.3%) were the most prevalent AEs in the AS group, while thrombocytopenia (28.5%) in the SOX group. Neutropenia (7.1% in AS group) and thrombocytopenia (22.8% in SOX group) were the most common grade 3 or 4 AEs. In this study analyzing past data, a tendency towards a greater 3 year DFS was observed when using AS regimen in signet-ring positive patients. AS group had fewer thrombocytopenia compared to SOX group. More studies should be conducted with larger sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) on testicular spermatogenesis in aluminum chloride (AlCl3)-exposed rats and to elucidate the potential underlying mechanism. The results indicated that AlCl3-induced testicular damage, leading to reduced sperm quality, increased apoptosis, decreased cell proliferation, and impaired Sertoli cell function in rats. Additionally, glycolytic metabolism was observed to be hindered. However, after NMN treatment, there was a noticeable improvement in testicular damage among the rats, marked by increased sperm quality, reduced apoptosis, enhanced cell proliferation, improved Sertoli cell function, and an activated glycolytic metabolism. The findings of this study suggest that NMN alleviates testicular spermatogenesis impairment induced by AlCl3 exposure through the inhibition of spermatogenic cell apoptosis, promotion of spermatogenic cell proliferation, and activation of glycolytic pathways. The study contributes an experimental foundation for potential future clinical applications of NMN in cases of AlCl3-exposed spermatogenic dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in understanding and predicting the weather using weather station data with Spatial-Temporal Graph Neural Networks (STGNN). However, it has large prediction errors as a result of the inherent non-linearities and the influence of dynamic spatio-temporal auto-correlation. Using a continuously-varying graph topology chronologically, while embedding domain knowledge to enforce validity, can effectively resolve the issue, but the implementation of such concept constitutes an interdisciplinary challenge for researchers. A Dynamic Graph Former (DGFormer) model is proposed to address this challenge. It combines a topology learner through a deep generative layer with domain knowledge enhancement inserted into the STGNN structure, where the derived physics-guided method allows for an efficient integration with the earth system. For capture of the optimal topology, we merge a node-embedding-based similarity metric learning and the superposition principle as physical assistants into the dynamic graph module. We evaluate our model with a real-world weather dataset on short-term (12 hours) and medium-range (360 hours) prediction tasks. DGFormer achieves outstanding performance with obvious improvements by up to 34.84% at short-term prediction and by up to 23.25% at medium-range prediction compared with the state-of-the-art methods. We also conducted detailed analyses for cities in three regions and visualized the dynamic graph, revealing the characteristics, advantages, and graph visualization of our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to further explore the role of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) related Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in blood brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction caused by NMDAR activation. Methods: The cell localization of NMDAR GluN1 subunit and Cav-1 was observed on human brain microvascular HBEC-5i cells after immunofluorescence double staining. The transendothelial resistance (TEER) of BBB in vitro was measured by Millicell-ERS cell resistance meter. Sodium fluorescein (SF) was used to measure the permeability of BBB in vitro. A stable Cav-1-silenced HBEC-5i cell line was established by infecting the cells with a lentivirus encoding Cav-1 shRNA. The changes of the protein and mRNA of MMP9 and Occludin induced by NMDA were detected by Western blot (WB) and real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), respectively. The phosphorylated proteins of Cav-1, Akt, and mTOR were detected by WB. Results: NMDAR GluN1 was expressed in the cytoplasm and part of the cell membrane of the HBEC-5i cell line. NMDAR activation decreased TEER and increased the SF of BBB in vitro. HBEC-5i cells incubated with NMDA enhanced the phosphorylation of Cav-1, Akt, and mTOR, also promoting the expression of MMP9 along with the degradation of Occludin. These effects could be reversed by pretreatment with NMDAR antagonist (MK801) or Cav-1 antagonist (Daidzein), or Akt antagonist (LY294002), respectively. Further silencing Cav-1 with LV-Cav-1-RNAi also played a similar protective effect. Conclusion: Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) related Akt/mTOR signaling probably contributes to BBB dysfunction by activating NMDAR on human brain microvascular cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The optimal number of lymph nodes to be resected in patients with rectal cancer who undergo radical surgery after neoadjuvant therapy remains controversial. This study evaluated the prognostic variances between elderly and non-elderly patients and determined the ideal number of lymph nodes to be removed in these patients. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) datasets were used to gather information on 7894 patients diagnosed with stage T3-4/N+ rectal cancer who underwent neoadjuvant therapy from 2010 to 2019. Of these patients, 2787 were elderly and 5107 were non-elderly. A total of 152 patients from the Longyan First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University were used for external validation. Overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were evaluated to determine the optimal quantity of lymph nodes for surgical resection. Results: The study found significant differences in OS and CSS between elderly and non-elderly patients, both before and after adjustment for confounders (P < 0.001). The removal of 14 lymph nodes may be considered a benchmark for patients with stage T3-4/N+ rectal cancer who undergo radical surgery following neoadjuvant therapy, as this number provides a more accurate foundation for the personalized treatment of rectal cancer. External data validated the differences in OS and CSS and supported the 14 lymph nodes as a new benchmark in these patients. Conclusion: For patients with T3-4/N+ stage rectal cancer who undergo radical surgery following neoadjuvant therapy, the removal of 14 lymph nodes serves as a cutoff point that distinctly separates patients with a favorable prognosis from those with an unfavorable one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Most current treatment strategies and investigations on cryptococcal meningitis (CM) focus primarily on the central nervous system (CNS), often overlooking the complex interplay between the CNS and the peripheral system. This study aims to explore the characteristics of central and peripheral metabolism in patients with CM. Methods: Patients diagnosed with CM as per the hospital records of the Fourth People's Hospital of Nanning were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups, non-structural damage of the brain (NSDB) and structural damage of the brain (SDB), according to the presence of brain lesions as detected with imaging. Based on the presence of enlarged cerebral ventricles, the cases in the SDB group were classified into non-ventriculomegaly (NVM) and ventriculomegaly (VM). Various parameters of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood (PB) were analyzed. Results: A significant correlation was detected between CSF and PB parameters. The levels of CSF-adenosine dehydrogenase (ADA), CSF-protein, CSF-glucose, and CSF-chloride ions were significantly correlated with the levels of PB-aminotransferase, PB-bilirubin, PB-creatinine (Cr), PB-urea nitrogen, PB-electrolyte, PB-protein, and PB-lipid. Compared with NSDB, the levels of CSF-glucose were significantly decreased in the SDB group, while the levels of CSF-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and CSF-protein were significantly increased in the SDB group. In the SDB group, the levels of PB-potassium, PB-hemoglobin(Hb), and PB-albumin were significantly decreased in the patients with VM, while the level of PB-urea nitrogen was significantly increased in these patients. Conclusion: Metabolic and structural alterations in the brain may be associated with peripheral metabolic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of a global paper resource shortage, there is a growing need to identify fast-growing tree species capable of producing long-lasting paper. Three plant species namely Broussonetia kazinoki, Broussonetia papyrifera and hybrid paper mulberry, belong to the Broussonetia genus, were collected from China to study their white bark suitability for pulp and papermaking. Their chemical composition revealed that the holocellulose content in Broussonetia kazinoki and Broussonetia papyrifera was more than 80%. The molecular weight distribution of several holocellulose/α-cellulose is observed by GPC, which allows us to better observe the changes of various components on the molecular weight. The yield, lignin, whiteness, and molecular weight of the pulps obtained by NaOH treatment were determined. Optical microscope was used to characterize the fiber length-width ratio and rigidity. Finally, the improvement of the fiber rigidity method based on the Kratky-Porod chain model makes it more theoretical and further reveals the influencing factors of fiber rigidity. This study demonstrates the high potentiality of these three species for papermaking applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, deep learning models have been successfully applied to large-scale data analysis, including image classification, video caption, natural language processing, etc. Large-scale data analyses take advantage of parallel computing to accelerate the speed of model training, in which data parallelism has become the dominant method for deep learning model training due to its high throughput rate. Synchronous stochastic gradient descent optimization becomes a well-recognized optimization method to ensure model convergence, but the overhead of gradients synchronization increases linearly as the number of workers increases, causing a huge waste of time. Although some efficiency-first asynchronous methods have been proposed, these methods cannot guarantee their convergence in large-scale distributed training. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient pseudo-synchronous approach that updates the network with the previous gradient, performing the synchronization of a new gradient to overlap computation and synchronization. This idea will obviously affect the normal convergence of the model, so we propose a novel adaptive exponential smoothing predicted gradient algorithm for model optimization, which can adaptively adjust the confidence coefficient of the history gradient to ensure the normal convergence of the training process. Experiments prove that our method can speed up the training process and achieve a comparable accuracy rate with standard synchronous SGD. Besides, our method has more efficient weak scalability compared to the traditional synchronous SGD and those in previous related work. We apply our methods to image recognition and video caption applications at most 12288 cores with strong scalability on Tianhe II. Evaluations show that, when configured appropriately, our method attains near-linear scalability using 128 nodes. We get 93.4% weak scaling efficiency on 64 nodes, 90.5% on 128 nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]