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The growth of Li dendrites poses potential safety hazard to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and eliminating Li dendrites thoroughly stills face tough difficulties ahead. Thus, regulating Li-plating is a critical optimization-direction to address the issue. Herein, a "graphite-Li hybrid" anode with high reversibility is realized under the constant-capacity lithiation (CCL). Within CCL, the uniform distribution of Li-plating on the graphite surface is successfully achieved. The evolution in different states of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is investigated in detail to study the interaction between the potentials and impedance during the process of Li-intercalation and Li-deintercalation. Under the potential below 0 V and the state of charge (SOC) of 110% relative to the theoretical capacity, the F-rich SEI with high stability is constructed to hinder the emergency of Li dendrites and maintain the intact structure of graphite anode under long cycling. The cell presents more than 100% Coulombic efficiency (CE) with the 900 cycles, demonstrating the reversible Li-plating and the utilization of defects. And the CCL half-cell provides a good cycling performance and specific capacity of 900 cycles at 0.5 C, it is attributed to the synergy effect of stable inorganic-rich SEI and regulated active Li-plating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ), neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration in the brain. In recent years, considering the unsatisfied benefits of pharmacological therapies, non-pharmacological therapy has become a research hotspot for AD intervention. Terahertz (THz) waves with a range between microwave and infrared regions in the electromagnetic spectrum and high permeability to a wide range of materials have great potential in the bioengineering field. However, its biological impacts on the central nervous system, under either physiological or pathological conditions, are poorly investigated. In this study, we first measured the 0.14 THz waves penetration across the skull of a C57BL/6 mouse and found the percentage of THz penetration to be ~70%, guaranteeing that THz waves can reach the relevant brain regions. We then exposed the APPSWE/PS1DE9 mouse model of AD to repeated low-frequency THz waves on the head. We demonstrated that THz waves treatment significantly improved the cognitive impairment and alleviated AD neuropathology including Aβ deposition and tau hyperphosphorylation in the AD mice. Moreover, THz waves treatment effectively attenuated mitochondrial impairment, neuroinflammation, and neuronal loss in the AD mouse brain. Our findings reveal previously unappreciated beneficial effects of THz waves treatment in AD and suggest that THz waves may have the potential to be used as a novel therapeutic intervention for this devastating disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comprehension of sediment grain size parameters and the corresponding sedimentary environment holds paramount importance in elucidating the engineering geological attributes of the subaqueous seabed. This study delineated the sedimentary environment zoning in the northern sea area of Qingdao through cluster analysis of grain size parameters derived from 123 surface sediment samples. The study analyzed the correlation between sediment geotechnical indices and grain size parameters across diverse sedimentary environments. A correlation equation was established for samples exhibiting a strong correlation. The study found four distinct sedimentary environments in the study area: coastal, transitional, shallow sea, and residual. Within the same sedimentary environment, the average grain size and sorting coefficient exhibit significant correlations with geotechnical indices such as water content, density, shear strength, plastic limit, liquid limit, and plastic index. However, notable disparities in the correlation between grain size parameters and geotechnical indices emerge across different sedimentary environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, long non‑coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in several human diseases, including arthritis. However, the role of lncRNAs in regulating the Th17/Treg ratio during the progression of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) is poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of the lncRNA ENSMUST00000197208 and the P2X7R-NLRP3 inflammasome axis in changes in the Th17/Treg ratio in CIA. To achieve this, the distribution of T cell subgroups in the spleen cells of a CIA mouse model and control mice was examined. Additionally, we examined the expression profile of ENSMUST00000197208 in a CIA mouse model and healthy mice. The results showed that ENSMUST00000197208 expression was significantly upregulated in the CIA models compared with the control group. Additionally, the P2X7R-NLRP3 inflammasome axis participated in the pathogenesis of CIA and knockdown of ENSMUST00000197208 inhibited CD4+ T cell differentiation into Th17 cells. Compared with the control group, joint inflammation was less visible in NLRP3 knockout mice. Additionally, the P2X7R-NLRP3 inflammasome axis, which is downstream of ENSMUST00000197208, can be positively targeted and regulated by ENSMUST00000197208 through miR-107. Overall, the findings of this study showed that the "lncRNA ENSMUST00000197208-miR 107-P2X7R/NLRP3" axis plays an important role in CIA and knocking down ENSMUST00000197208 can efficiently inhibit Th17 differentiation by suppressing the P2X7R-NLRP3 inflammasome axis. Therefore, targeting this axis may represent a novel strategy for arthritis treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have related single essential metal elements (EMEs) to sleep quality among older adults, however, the association of the EME mixture with sleep quality remained poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between single EMEs and the EME mixture and sleep quality in older adults living in Chinese communities. This study consisted of 3957 older adults aged 60 years or over. Urinary concentrations of cobalt (Co), vanadium (V), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), strontium (Sr), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) were detected using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Sleep quality was evaluated using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The associations of single EMEs and EME mixture with sleep quality were assessed using logistic regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models, respectively. Adjusted single-element logistic regression models showed that Mo (OR = 0.927, 95%CI:0.867–0.990), Sr (OR = 0.927, 95%CI:0.864–0.994), and Mg (OR = 0.934, 95%CI:0.873–0.997) were negatively related to poor sleep quality. BKMR models exhibited similar results. Also, higher levels of the EME mixture in urine were inversely related to the odds of poor sleep quality after adjustment for covariates, and Mo had the largest conditional posterior inclusion probability (condPIP) value in the mixture. Mo, Sr, and Mg were negatively related to poor sleep quality, separately and as the mixture. The EME mixture in urine was associated with decreased odds of poor sleep quality in older adults, and Mo was the greatest contributor within the mixture. Additional cohort research is warranted to clarify the relationship of multiple EMEs with sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a holoparasitic weed, broomrape has seriously threatened the production of economically important crops, such as melon, watermelon, processed tomato, and sunflower, in Xinjiang in recent years. However, the distribution and genetic diversity of broomrape populations in Xinjiang are not clear at present, which hinders their prevention and control. The purpose of this study was to identify the main species and the genetic differentiation structure of the broomrape population in Xinjiang. Methods and results: In the present study, 93 samples from different geographic regions of Xinjiang were collected to identify the species based on ITS and plastid rps2 regions, and the samples were also used to analyze the genetic diversity based on ISSR markers. The results showed that broomrape is not monophyletic in Xinjiang and consists of two major clades (Orobanche cf. aegyptiaca and O. cernua) and three subclades (O. cf. aegyptiaca var. tch, O. cf. aegyptiaca var. klz, and O. cernua.var. alt) based on phylogenetic analysis. Furthermore, the results of the genetic diversity analysis indicated that the average polymorphic information content and marker index were high values of 0.58 and 7.38, respectively, showing the efficiency of the ISSR markers in detecting polymorphism among the broomrape population studied. Additionally, the 11 selected primers produced 154 repeatable polymorphic bands, of which 150 were polymorphic. The genetic diversity of the samples was 37.19% within populations and 62.81% among the populations, indicating that the main genetic differentiation occurred among the populations. There was less gene exchange between populations, with a gene flow index (Nm) of 0.2961 (< 1). The UPGMA dendrogram indicated that most populations with similar geographical conditions and hosts were clustered first, and then all samples were separated into two major groups and seven subclusters. Conclusion: The broomrapes are mainly O. cf. aegyptiaca and O. cernua in Xinjiang, which were separated into two major groups and seven subclusters based on ISSR markers. Our results provide a theoretical basis for breeding broomrape-resistant varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a novel Taguchi-STIRPAT input–output (TSIO) model for exploring pathways to reduce carbon emission from the perspective of household consumption, through incorporating input–output model (IOM), Taguchi design (TD), and STIRPAT model. TSIO can not only identify the main factors (carbon emission intensity, consumption structure, per capita consumption, and population) and evaluate their effects on indirect household carbon emissions (IHC), but also predict IHC from a long-term perspective to achieve the dual-carbon target. TSIO is then applied to Fujian province (China), where multiple scenarios related to multiple factors with multiple levels are examined. Results reveal that (i) among all sectors, the highest contributors to IHC are residence (RES), followed by food, cigarettes, and drinks (FCD), and transport and communication (TC); it is suggested that the government can consider market mechanism to control these high-carbon emission consumption behaviors; (ii) the decline in the share of RES consumption has the largest effect on rural and urban IHC; the share of RES consumption is considered to be a key factor in predicting carbon emissions; (iii) under the optimal scenario, IHC would peak in 2025 and decrease to 10.07 × 106 ton in 2060; this scenario can effectively mitigate household carbon emissions by reducing carbon emission intensity and the share of RES consumption; at the same time, it can ensure a sustained increase in per capita consumption. The results unveil the pathways of household carbon reduction under the dual-carbon target in Fujian province and suggest the local government should adopt policies (such as taxation and financial incentives) to limit residential consumptions with high carbon emission intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the destruction of tooth-supporting tissues. The gingival epithelium is the first barrier of periodontal tissue against oral pathogens and harmful substances. The structure and function of epithelial lining are essential for maintaining the integrity of the epithelial barrier. Abnormal apoptosis can lead to the decrease of functional keratinocytes and break homeostasis in gingival epithelium. Interleukin-22 is a cytokine that plays an important role in epithelial homeostasis in intestinal epithelium, inducing proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis, but its role in gingival epithelium is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of interleukin-22 on apoptosis of gingival epithelial cells during periodontitis. Interleukin-22 topical injection and Il22 gene knockout were performed in experimental periodontitis mice. Human gingival epithelial cells were co-cultured with Porphyromonas gingivalis with interleukin-22 treatment. We found that interleukin-22 inhibited apoptosis of gingival epithelial cells during periodontitis in vivo and in vitro, decreasing Bax expression and increasing Bcl-xL expression. As for the underlying mechanisms, we found that interleukin-22 reduced the expression of TGF-β receptor type II and inhibited the phosphorylation of Smad2 in gingival epithelial cells during periodontitis. Blockage of TGF-β receptors attenuated apoptosis induced by Porphyromonas gingivalis and increased Bcl-xL expression stimulated by interleukin-22. These results confirmed the inhibitory effect of interleukin-22 on apoptosis of gingival epithelial cells and revealed the involvement of TGF-β signaling pathway in gingival epithelial cell apoptosis during periodontitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating studies have demonstrated the important role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the progression of different human tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The purpose of this study was to deeply study the function and mechanism of circ_0017956 in NSCLC. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was applied to detect the expression of circ_0017956, microRNA-758-3p (miR-758-3p), and Forkhead Box P4 (FOXP4). Western blot was performed to determine the protein levels. Cell proliferation was examined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate the apoptosis of NSCLC cells. Transwell assay was applied to detect cell migratory and invasive capacities. The angiogenesis ability was evaluated by tube formation experiment. The target relationship between miR-758-3p and circ_0017956 or FOXP4 was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Animal experiment was conducted to assess the effect of circ_0017956 in vivo. Circ_0017956 and FOXP4 were upregulated, while miR-758-3p was downregulated in NSCLC tissues and cells. Silencing of circ_0017956 significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis, but promoted cell apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Mechanically, circ_0017956 functioned as a sponge for miR-758-3p and miR-758-3p could directly interact with FOXP4. Moreover, silencing of miR-758-3p or overexpression of FOXP4 could overturn the anticancer influence of circ_0017956 interference on NSCLC cells. Besides that, circ_0017956 knockdown hindered tumor growth in vivo. Altogether, circ_0017956 promoted the progression of NSCLC by regulating FOXP4 through sponging miR-758-3p. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limitation of the small-scale expression samples generally causes the performance degradation for facial expression recognition-based methods. Also, the correlation between different expression is always ignored when performing feature extraction process. Given above, we propose a novel approach that develops multi-class differentiation feature representation guided joint dictionary learning for FER. The proposed approach mainly includes two steps: firstly, we construct multi-class differentiation feature dictionaries corresponding to different expressions of training samples, aiming to enlarge inter-expression distance to mitigate the problem of nonlinear distribution in training samples. Secondly, we joint learn the multiple feature dictionaries by optimizing the resolutions of each feature dictionary, aiming to establish the strong relationship and enhance the representation ability among multiple feature dictionaries. To sum up, the proposed approach has more discriminative ability from the representation perspective. Comprehensive experiments carried out using three public datasets, including JAFFE, CK+ , and KDEF datasets, demonstrate that the proposed approach has strong performance for small-scale samples compared to several state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graph is called supereulerian if it has a spanning eulerian subgraph. A connected even [2, 2s]-factor of a graph G is a connected factor with all vertices of even degree i (i ∈ { 2 , 4 , … , 2 s }) , where s ≥ 1 is an integer. Let W s , t be the graph obtained from vertex-disjoint s K 2 and (t + 1) K 1 by adding all possible edges between exactly one K 1 and the remaining graphs s K 2 and t K 1 . When s = t = 1 , W 1 , 1 is Z 1 . In this paper, we show that for any positive integer k ≤ 4 and 2 ≤ i ≤ k + 1 , every connected supereulerian H -free graph of order at least 6 contains a connected even [2, 2k]-factor if and only if H satisfies the following condition. H ≼ { { K 1 , 2 k + 2 , Z 1 } , { K 1 , k + i , W k + 3 - i , 0 } , { K 1 , k + i , W k + 2 - i , i - 1 } }. And when k = 5 , 6 , we give some relevant results. We also show that for positive integers k, 2 ≤ i ≤ k + 1 and H ≼ { { K 1 , 2 k + 2 , Z 1 } , { K 1 , k + i , W k + 3 - i , 0 } } , if G is supereulerian H -free graph of order at least 6, then G contains a connected even [2, 2k]-factor. Our results extend the result of Yang et al. (Discrete Appl Math 288:192–200, 2021) and Duan et al. (Ars Comb 115:385–389, 2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleansing coincidental correctness test cases has been proven to be useful in software fault localization. However, k-means clustering-based coincidental correctness test cases identification has not been studied yet. k-means clustering is hard classification and each sample point belongs to the cluster with the highest similarity, which leads to the inaccuracy of the cluster-based coincidental correctness. To address this issue, we propose an effective Coincidental Correctness test cases identification framework based on Fuzzy C-Means clustering (CC-FCM). The elements of coincidental correctness were first identified by probability function we designed, and the feature elements of the coincidental correctness were selected. Secondly, fuzzy c-means clustering was first introduced into identifying coincidental correctness test case after the dimensions of program execution traces were reduced. Finally, the results after coincidental correctness cleansing were used for the fault localization. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed CC-FCM, experiments were conducted by four fault localization methods, including Tarantula, Ochiai, Naish2 and Russel &Rao on 10 real-world subject programs. The experimental results showed that our proposed CC-FCM has a significant improvement over the compared methods, and that our approach has a lower false-positive rate and false-negative rate in coincidental correctness test case identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PD-1 has become a common target for cancer treatment. However, the molecular regulation of PD-1 expression homeostasis remains unclear. Here we report the PD-1 3' UTR can dramatically repress gene expression via promoting mRNA decay. Deletion of the PD-1 3' UTR inhibits T cell activity and promotes T-ALL cell proliferation. Interestingly, the robust repression is attributable to cumulative effects of many weak regulatory regions, which we show together are better able to maintain PD-1 expression homeostasis. We further identify several RNA binding proteins (RBPs) that modulate PD-1 expression via the 3' UTR, including IGF2BP2, RBM38, SRSF7, and SRSF4. Moreover, despite rapid evolution, PD-1 3' UTRs are functionally conserved and strongly repress gene expression through many common RBP binding sites. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of maintaining PD-1 expression homeostasis and might represent a general model for how small regulatory effects play big roles in regulation of gene expression and biology. Demonstration that the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) 3' UTR plays a crucial role regulating gene expression by promoting mRNA decay and various RNA binding proteins, including IGF2BP2, RBM38, SRSF7, and SRSF4, regulate PD-1 expression via the 3' UTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) can damage tissues by inducing oxidative stress, lymphocyte infiltration, and inflammation in these sites. Meanwhile, astilbin (Ast) is an antioxidant agent. At present, only a few mechanisms of Cd-induced adipose tissue damage have been described. Herein, we assessed the potential protective effects and the molecular mechanism underlying the antioxidant properly of Ast after Cd intake in chicken adipose tissue. In this study, a total of 160 7-day-old roosters were randomly divided into four groups. Roosters were fed with a basic diet (C group), Ast 40 mg/kg (Ast group), CdCl2 150 mg/kg + Ast 40 mg/kg (Cd/Ast group), and CdCl2 150 mg/kg (Cd group) for 60 days. We found that Cd intake changed the morphology and structure of adipose tissues and decreased the expression of several antioxidants, including total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), but increased those of oxidative stress markers including malondialdehyde (MDA), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), NO, and H2O2. Cd further activated the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway and increased the expression of the inflammation-related mediators, interleukin 1beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 8 (IL-8), interleukin 10 (IL-10), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), iNOS, prostaglandin E synthase (PTGES), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). Cd-induced oxidative stress upregulated the expression of three heat shock proteins (HSPs), including HSP27, HSP70, and HSP90. Summarily, Cd causes oxidative stress-mediated tissue damage by activating the NF-κB pathway, promoting inflammation and upregulating the expression of HSPs. However, Ast supplementation modulates oxidative stress in adipose tissue by inhibiting inflammation mediated by the NF-κB pathway and regulating the expression of HSPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, new high-entropy RE2(Ce0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Sn0.2Ti0.2)2O7 (RE2HE2O7, RE = La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy) ceramics were successfully prepared. RE2HE2O7 ceramics exhibited a pyrochlore–fluorite dual-phase structure. For Sm2HE2O7 ceramic, Ce4+ with larger ionic radius was enriched in the fluorite phase, Sn4+ and Ti4+ with smaller ionic radii were enriched in the pyrochlore phase, while Zr4+ and Hf4+ with medium ionic radii existed in both phases. Compared with YSZ materials, RE2HE2O7 ceramics exhibited a much lower glass-like thermal conductivity (1.19–1.68 W m−1 K−1, 100–900 °C) and comparable thermal expansion coefficients (8.67–10.85 × 10−6 K−1, 1200 °C). Furthermore, due to grain refinement caused by the competition of two phases, the Vickers hardness (10.29–13.85 GPa) of RE2HE2O7 ceramics is improved. The results indicate that dual-phase high-entropy RE2HE2O7 ceramics are promising candidate materials for the next generation of thermal barrier coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) can cause endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and apoptosis in animals. The kidney is an organ seriously affected by Cd because it can accumulate metal ions. Astilbin (ASB) is a dihydroflavonol rhamnoside, which has an anti-renal injury effect. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of ASB on Cd-induced ERS and apoptosis in the chicken kidney. In this study, a total of 120 1-day-old chickens were randomly divided into 4 groups. Chickens were fed with a basic diet (Con group), ASB 40 mg/kg (ASB group), CdCl2 150 mg/kg + ASB 40 mg/kg (ASB/Cd group), and CdCl2 150 mg/kg (Cd group) for 90 days. The results showed that Cd exposure induced pathological and ultrastructural damages and apoptosis in chicken kidneys. Compared with the Con group, metallothionein (MT1/MT2) level, nitric oxide (NO) content, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity, ERS-related genes 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (Grp78), protein kinase PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (Perk), activating transcription factor 4 (Atf4) and CAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) homologous protein (Chop), and pro-apoptotic gene B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)-associated X (Bax), caspase-12, caspase-9, caspase-3 expression levels, and apoptotic rate were significantly increased in the Cd group. The expression level of Bcl-2 was significantly decreased in the Cd group. ASB/Cd combined treatment significantly improves the damage of chicken kidneys by ameliorating Cd-induced kidney ERS and apoptosis. Cd can cause the disorder of the GRP78 signal axis, activate the PERK-ATF4-CHOP pathway, aggravate the structural damage and dysfunction of ER, and promote the apoptosis of chicken kidneys, while the above changes were significantly alleviated in the ASB/Cd group. The results showed that ASB antagonizes the negative effects of Cd and against Cd-induced apoptosis in chicken kidneys via ERS signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limited wide applicability of commercial Mg alloys is mainly attributed to the poor corrosion resistance. Addition of alloying elements is the simplest and effective method to improve the corrosion properties. Based on the low-cost alloy composition design, the corrosion behavior of commercial Mg-3Al-1Zn (AZ31) alloy bearing minor Ca or Sn element was characterized by scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy, hydrogen evolution, electrochemical measurements, and corrosion morphology analysis. Results revealed that the potential difference of Al2Ca/α-Mg and Mg2Sn/α-Mg was (230 ± 19) mV and (80 ± 6) mV, respectively, much lower than that of Al8Mn5/α-Mg (430 ± 31) mV in AZ31 alloy, which illustrated that AZ31-0.2Sn alloy performed the best corrosion resistance, followed by AZ31-0.2Ca, while AZ31 alloy exhibited the worst corrosion resistance. Moreover, Sn dissolved into matrix obviously increased the potential of α-Mg and participated in the formation of dense SnO2 film at the interface of matrix, while Ca element was enriched in the corrosion product layer, resulting in the corrosion product layer of AZ31-0.2Ca/Sn alloys more compact, stable, and protective than AZ31 alloy. Therefore, AZ31 alloy bearing 0.2wt% Ca or Sn element exhibited excellent balanced properties, which is potential to be applied in commercial more comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kvass is a popular low-alcohol beverage produced by the natural fermentation of dark rye bread or malt with complex microbial flora. However, few pieces of research focus on the microflora of traditional bread kvass, and the industrial kvass based on malt concentrate has some disadvantages, including the lack of viable probiotics and containing multiple artificial additives. Therefore, in the present study, based on the different homemade traditional bread kvass, the predominant species including Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Acetobacter pasteurianus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were screened and identified. In addition, barley malt was used instead of bread for kvass production, and the co-fermentation conditions with three different strains were optimized as wort concentration of 7.4°Brix, cell ratio of 2/2/1 (S. cerevisiae/L. paracasei/A. pasteurianus), inoculum amount of 8%, fermentation temperature of 29.5 °C and fermentation time of 24.6 h. Moreover, the physicochemical (pH, total soluble solids, color, and alcohol content) and probiotic (microorganisms counting and antioxidant activity) properties of the barley malt kvass prepared at optimal conditions were symmetrically evaluated. Besides, compared with the commercial kvass products, the produced barley malt kvass exhibited better taste and more desirable antioxidant activity, and also maintained around 6–7 log CFU/mL of viable probiotic microorganisms during a week of storage. The present study not only enriched the biological resource of the traditional kvass, but also promoted the development of the kvass as a live-bacteria beverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow stress behavior of GH4033 superalloy was determined by the hot compression tests at the temperatures of 1 223–1 473 K and the total strains of 0.6 with the strain rates of 0.001–30.0 s−1 by using cylindrical samples. The processing maps based on the dynamic material model (DMM) combined with the corresponding microstructure observations indicate the reasonable processing domain locating at the strain rates of 0.1–1.0 s−1 and the deformation temperature of 1 273–1 423 K. Meanwhile, the numerical simulation based on finite element model (FEM) described the variation of the effective strain, effective strain rate and the temperature for the core node, and unveiled the influence of the hot rolling parameters considering the initial temperature (T0) range of 1 223–1 473 K and the first-stand biting velocity (v0) range of 0.15–0.35 m·s−1. Furthermore, the deformation stability of GH4033 superalloy in the round rod hot continuous rolling (HCR) process is described and analyzed by coupling the three-dimensional (3-D) processing map, and the spatial trajectory lines were determined by the numerically simulated temperatures, the strains and the strain rates. Finally, the results show that the hot deformation stability of GH4033 can be achieved by the rolling process parameters located at T0=1 423 K and v0=0.25 m·s−1. Additionally, the practical HCR processes as T0=1 423 K and v0=0.15, 0.25, 0.35 m·s−1 were operated to verify the influence of the hot rolling parameters on the hot deformation stability by the microstructure observation of the final products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, enterprises and industries associated with intense pollution have been relocated in China, leaving behind abandoned polluted sites. Consequently, stabilization has attracted unprecedented attention and rapid development. However, too much focus has been placed on practicality and short-term effectiveness, whereas long-term effectiveness and sustainability concerns have been overlooked. The present study reports the findings of a national survey administered to stakeholders involved in soil stabilization projects over a decade to determine the pollution characteristics of industrial sites and current utilization status of stabilization technologies in China. One-hundred and fifty soil stabilization projects surveyed revealed that among 29% of chemical industry remained sites, 96.7% of the sites were heavily polluted with heavy metals and metalloids, mainly in the forms of lead, arsenic, and chromium. Our analyses of soil reuse methods revealed that landfilling was the primary strategy of soil disposal following stabilization and remediation. In addition, the reuse of treated soils is preferred to landfill waste treatment. Therefore, from the perspective of economy and reducing landfill loads, environmental management measures should be adopted based on the development objectives of different regions to avoid the failure of stabilization treatments and reapplication and over-repair problems, with the aim of establishing an evaluation method of "site-specific, analysis-specific" evaluation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-iodine (Li-I2) battery exhibits high potential to match with high-rate property and large energy density. However, problems of the system, such as evident sublimation of iodine elements, dissolution of iodine species in electrolyte, and lithium anode corrosion, prevent the practical use of rechargeable Li-I2 batteries. In this work, a molten Li-I2 typical cell design which has distinct advantages based on the solid-state garnet electrolyte with the eutectic iodate cathode is firstly developed. The U-shaped ceramic electrolyte tube can separate Li anode from the eutectic iodate cathode, so as to better tackle the above-mentioned inherent challenges for the liquid electrolyte systems. Without self-discharging and lithium anode corrosion, this solid-state battery system demonstrates high safety margin and excellent electrochemical performance. Also, the simple battery structure also indicates the easy assembly process and recycling of electrode materials. With the cathode loading of 593 mg in a single cell, an energy density of ∼ 506.7 Wh·kg−1 was achieved at 1 C and a long-term cycling life for 2,000 cycles also displays negligible capacity decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short tandem repeat (STR) loci are commonly used in forensic casework, such as personal identification and paternity testing. In recent years, STR has also been widely used for rapid, accurate and automated prenatal diagnosis, known as quantitative fluorescent PCR (QF-PCR). Despite their usefulness, the current systems often lack the power to detect mosaicism for Turner syndrome. In this study, we developed a novel 26-plex system that combined the 22 STRs in chromosome 21/18/13/X, 3 sex loci and 1 quality control marker (TAF9L). The system was generated to achieve greater diagnostic power of trisomy 21/18/13 and sex chromosome abnormalities. Studies of the sensitivity, specificity, stability and accuracy were performed according to the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) guidelines. Compared with the results of the chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA)/copy number variation sequencing (CNV-seq), the detection ratio of non-mosaic chromosome abnormalities of this system in the identification of chromosome 21/18/13/X/Y aneuploidies reached 100%, and the rate of negative results was consistently 100% based on 203 prenatal diagnosis sample analyses. In addition, our results suggested that this panel was a useful tool for mosaicism for Turner syndrome cases. Interestingly, we found one case with large segment loss of chromosome X, which indicated that we should be alert to this situation when the STR genotype of the parent–child is inconsistent in forensic genetics. In summary, this study demonstrated that our system is an accurate, cost-effective and rapid approach for the detection of chromosome numerical abnormalities in prenatal diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth's natural pulse electromagnetic field (ENPEMF) signal, is generally considered to be a nonlinear or nonstationary signal received from our instrument, placed on the surface near the source area. To obtain latent information on the ENPEMF signal, this paper employs the time–frequency analysis (TFA) method to get the instantaneous frequency (IF) of the signal. The traditional Data-driven time–frequency analysis (DDTFA) requires to know the initial phase function (IPF) set of the signal, to accomplish the signal decomposition and its IFA. However, it's difficult to observe directly the IPF set of the ENPEMF signal. To acquire accurate time–frequency distribution, an improved DDTFA method was proposed, which adopts differential evolution (DE) to calculate multiple IPF of multi-component non-stationary signals. In this paper, the ENPEMF signal received from the Lushan M w 6.6 earthquake on April 20, 2013, was taken as an example, and the improved method, DE-DDTFA, was used to decompose the signal into multiple intrinsic mode function (IMF) components, and obtained the IF of each IMF. It is demonstrated by the experimental that the number of IMF is 200% more than usual time, and the energy of the signal had grown by approximately 10–20 times, or even more compared with usual in just one week before the earthquake. The experimental result illustrates that the amount of IMF and the energy of the ENPEMF signal show an overall upward trend, which is a distinct trait before the earthquake, and DDTFA is a good reference for studying the time–frequency distribution and energy spectrum variation characteristics of electromagnetic signals before earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Gut microbiota has been reported to contribute to either prevent or promote colorectal cancer (CRC), and treatment with probiotics might be a promising intervention method. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential anti-CRC effects of Lactobacillus coryniformis MXJ32 on a colitis-associated (CA)-CRC mouse model. Methods: The CA-CRC mouse model was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg azoxymethane and followed by three 7-day cycles of 2% dextran sulfate sodium in drinking water with a 14-day recovery period. Mice were supplemented with L. coryniformis MXJ32 by oral gavage (1 × 109 CFU/day/mouse). The CA-CRC attenuating effects of this probiotic were assessed via intestinal barrier integrity, inflammation, and gut microenvironment. Results: Treatment with L. coryniformis MXJ32 could significantly inhibit the total number of tumors and the average tumor diameter. This probiotic administration prevented the damage of intestinal barrier function by enhancing the expression of tight junction proteins (Occludin, Claudin-1, and ZO-1) and recovering the loss of goblet cells. Moreover, L. coryniformis MXJ32 alleviated intestinal inflammation via down-regulating the expression of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-γ, and IL-17a) and chemokines (Cxcl1, Cxcl2, Cxcl3, Cxcl5, and Ccl7). In addition, L. coryniformis MXJ32 supplementation increased the abundance of some beneficial bacteria (such as SCFAs-producing bacteria, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia, and Faecalibaculum) and decreased the abundance of some harmful bacteria (such as pro-inflammatory bacteria, Desulfovibrio and Helicobacter), which in turn attenuated the overexpression of inflammation. Conclusion: Lactobacillus coryniformis MXJ32 could effectively ameliorate CA-CRC via regulating intestinal microenvironment, alleviating inflammation, and intestinal barrier damage, which further suggested that L. coryniformis MXJ32 could be considered as a functional food ingredient for the alleviation of CA-CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, multivalent metal-ion batteries have attracted considerable interests on the merits of their natural abundance and multi-electron redox property. However, the development of Ca-ion battery is still in their preliminary stage because of the lack of suitable electrode material. The Ca-storage performance of the existing materials is still unsatisfactory with low capacity, poor cyclic stability, as well as sloping discharge profiles, which cannot provide stable energy output. In this work, transition metal oxide Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) has been explored as the aqueous Ca-ion battery anode, which could deliver a high discharge capacity of 71.2 mAh·g−1 with an ultra-flat discharge voltage plateau. The Ca storage mechanism was revealed to be reversible conversion reaction based on ex-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations. A flexible aqueous Ca-ion battery was subsequently assembled with zinc hexacyanoferrate (ZnHCF) cathode and ITO anode sandwiched by hydrogel electrolyte, which could deliver a high specific capacity of 75.3 mAh·g−1 at 0.4 A·g−1 with a flat output voltage plateau at around 0.8 V. The bendable and flexible Ca-ion battery with decent voltage output will pave the way for the energy storage devices towards practical applications in flexible and wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe and long lifespan batteries facilitate the development of portable electronics and electric vehicles. Owing to the low-cost, naturally abundance, and trivalent charge carrier of aluminum with the highest theoretical volumetric capacity, rechargeable aqueous aluminum-ion-based batteries are considered as promising next-generation secondary batteries. However, traditional electrolytes and frequent collapse of the host structure of electrode materials greatly jeopardize the cycle stability of the batteries. Here, we develop a novel hydrogel-based electrolyte coupled with stable layered intercalation electrodes for the first time to fabricate a highly safe and flexible rechargeable hybrid Al3+/H+ battery. The as-fabricated hybrid-ion battery (HIB) delivers a high specific capacity of 125 mAh·g−1 at 0.1 A·g−1 and exhibits an unprecedented super long-term cycling stability with no capacity fading over 10,000 cycles at 2 A·g−1. In addition, the hydrogel-based electrolyte possesses smart function of thermoresponsive switching, which can effectively prevent thermal runaway for the batteries. The unprecedented long cycle stability, highly intrinsic safety as well as low-cost indicate that the flexible aqueous HIBs are promising for applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postsurgical gastroparesis is recognized as a gastrointestinal dysfunction syndrome following foregut surgery. Gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy (G-POEM) is suggested as a minimally invasive therapy for gastroparesis. But the long-term efficacy and safety of G-POEM in treating postsurgical gastroparesis are rarely explored. Methods: The primary outcomes included the symptomatic improvement based on gastroparesis cardinal symptoms index (GCSI) and the improvement of gastric emptying. The secondary outcomes included the improvement of gastroesophageal reflux symptoms and complications of G-POEM. Results: The severity of postsurgical gastroparesis was not associated with the onset time and the course of the disease. G-POEM significantly reduced GCSI throughout the follow-up period (p < 0.0001). For different anastomotic site, a significant improvement of GCSI was found at 6 month post-G-POEM (F4,165 = 74.18, p < 0.0001). Subscale analysis of GCSI showed that nausea/vomiting, post-prandial fullness/early satiety, and bloating were improved significantly at 6-month post-G-POEM (p < 0.0001, respectively). Half-emptying and whole-emptying time were significantly shortened in patients with different anastomotic site post-G-POEM (half-emptying time: F3,174 = 65.44, p < 0.0001; whole-emptying time: F3,174 = 54.85, p < 0.0001). The emptying of ioversol was obviously accelerated after G-POEM. GCSI wasn't related to pyloric length, pyloric diameter, and thickness of pyloric wall. GERDQ was also used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of G-POEM. For each time points, GERDQ didn't differ significantly in patients with different anastomotic site (F4,104 = 0.8075, p = 0.5231). For patients with different anastomotic site, GERDQ was improved significantly at different time points (F4,104 = 59.11, p < 0.0001). The higher the esophageal anastomotic site was, the faster G-POEM improved the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux. No one required re-hospitalization for any complication. Conclusion: G-POEM is a minimally invasive therapy with long-term effectiveness and safety in treating postsurgical gastroparesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harary index of a connected (molecular) graph is defined as the sum of reciprocals of distances between all its pairs of vertices. In this paper, we characterize the extremal Eulerian graphs (with a fixed number of vertices) with greatest and smallest Harary indices and characterize the Harary indices of two special type of Eulerian graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objectives are to explore the prevalence of DNR orders, the factors influencing them, and the association between DNR signing and health care utilization among advanced cancer patients.Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study. Data from cancer decedents in three hospitals in China from January 2016 to December 2017 during their last hospitalization before death were obtained from the electronic medical records system.Results: In total, 427 cancer patients were included; 59.0% had a DNR order. Patients who had solid tumors, lived in urban areas, had more than one comorbidity, and had more than five symptoms were more likely to have DNR orders. The cut-off of the timing of obtaining a DNR order was 3 days, as determined by the median number of days from the signing of a DNR order to patient death. Patients with early DNR orders (more than 3 days before death) were less likely to be transferred to the intensive care unit and undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation, tracheal intubation, and ventilation, while they were more likely to be given morphine and psychological support compared with those with late (within 3 days before death) and no orders.Conclusions: Advanced cancer patients with solid tumors living in urban areas with more symptoms and comorbidities are relatively more likely to have DNR orders. Early DNR orders are associated with less aggressive procedures and more comfort measures. However, these orders are always signed late. Future studies are needed to better understand the timing of DNR orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the role of LINC00665, miR-4458 and DOCK1 and their interactions in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The relative expression of LINC00665, miR-4458 and DOCK1 in AML samples was measured using qRT-PCR, and the protein level of DOCK1 in AML cell lines was examined using western blot. CCK8, BrdU, transwell, cell adhesion, and caspase-3 activity assays were carried out to evaluate the viability, proliferation, migration, adhesion, and apoptosis of AML cells, respectively. Luciferase reporter, RIP, and RNA pull-down assays were also performed to confirm the target relationship among LINC00665, miR-4458 and DOCK1. Findings revealed that LINC00665 and DOCK1 were aberrantly overexpressed in AML tissues and that the expression of miR-4458 was low in AML tissues. Silencing LINC00665 or DOCK1 presented significant restriction to the proliferation, migration and adhesion of AML cells. Apart from that, it was found that inhibiting miR-4458 could enhance the proliferation, migration and adhesion of AML cells but suppress the apoptosis of AML cells. Experimental results also indicated that LINC00665 exerted its positive function on AML cells by sponging miR-4458 and that miR-4458 influenced the progression of AML cells by targeting DOCK1 directly. Overall, this finding not only provided a novel molecular pathway for the diagnosis and treatment of AML but also showed that LINC00665 could enhance the progression of AML by regulating the miR-4458/DOCK1 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA barcodes are frequently corrupted due to insertion, deletion, and substitution errors during DNA synthesis, amplification and sequencing, resulting in index hopping. In this paper, we propose a new DNA barcode construction scheme that combines a cyclic block code with a predetermined pseudo-random sequence bit by bit to form bit pairs, and then converts the bit pairs to bases, i.e., the DNA barcodes. Then, we present a barcode identification scheme for noisy sequencing reads, which uses a combination of cyclic shifting and traditional dynamic programming to mark the insertion and deletion positions, and then performs erasure-and-error-correction decoding on the corrupted codewords. Furthermore, we verify the identification error rate of barcodes for multiple errors and evaluate the reliability of the barcodes in DNA context. This method can be easily generalized for constructing long barcodes, which may be used in scenarios with serious errors. Simulation results show that the bit error rate after identifying insertions/deletions is greatly reduced using the combination of cyclic shift and dynamic programming compared to using dynamic programming only. It indicates that the proposed method can effectively improve the accuracy for estimating insertion/deletion errors. And the overall identification error rate of the proposed method is lower than 10 - 5 when the probability of each base mutation is less than 0.1, which is the typical scenario in third-generation sequencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunoglobulin A vasculitis (IgAV), also known as Henoch-Schönlein Purpura, is one of the most common kind of systemic vasculitis in children, and due to the involvement of small blood vessels throughout the body, this disease can cause a variety of symptoms in different organs. Our aim was to review the data on various systemic manifestations of IgAV. A research of the literature was performed in PubMed database, utilizing the MeSH terms "IgA vasculitis" and "Henoch Schönlein Purpura". According to the predetermined structure of the manuscript, we extracted and sorted out the relevant data. Clinically, almost all the patients will present with palpable skin purpura, together with arthritis, gastrointestinal tract involvement, or kidney damage. Other rare systemic manifestations include neurological symptoms, scrotal involvement, and cardiopulmonary disease. When uncommon complications occur, patients may be misdiagnosed as other diseases, thus delaying treatment. Although the course of IgAV is mostly self-limited, misdiagnosis can also lead to a poor prognosis. A comprehensive awareness to the clinical manifestations of IgAV is the necessary prerequisite for its timely diagnosis. Prompt diagnosis and adequate treatment are essential for optimal results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many existing studies for the mapping of function brain networks impose an implicit assumption that the networks' spatial distributions are constant over time. However, the latest research reports reveal that functional brain networks are dynamical and have time-varying spatial patterns. Furthermore, how these functional networks evolve over time has not been elaborated and explained in sufficient details yet. In this paper, we aim to discover and characterize the dynamics of functional brain networks via a windowed group-wise dictionary learning and sparse coding approach. First, we aggregated the sampled subjects' fMRI signals into one big data matrix, and learned a common dictionary for all individuals via a group-wise dictionary learning step. Second, we obtained the dynamic time-varying functional networks by using the windowed time-varying sparse coding approach. Experimental results demonstrated that our windowed group-wise dictionary learning and sparse coding method can effectively detect the task-evoked networks and also characterize how these networks evolve over time. This work sheds novel insights on the dynamics mechanism of functional brain networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a central nervous system disease and type 2 diabetes MELLITUS (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder, an increasing number of genetic epidemiological studies show clear link between AD and T2DM. The current approach to uncovering the shared pathways between AD and T2DM involves association analysis; however such analyses lack power to discover the mechanisms of the diseases. As an alternative, we developed novel causal inference methods for genetic studies of AD and T2DM and pipelines for systematic multi-omic casual analysis to infer multilevel omics causal networks for the discovery of common paths from genetic variants to AD and T2DM. The proposed pipelines were applied to 448 individuals from the ROSMAP Project. We identified 13 shared causal genes, 16 shared causal pathways between AD and T2DM, and 754 gene expression and 101 gene methylation nodes that were connected to both AD and T2DM in multi-omics causal networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery of scandium from bauxite residue was studied by selective sulfation roasting and water leaching. The sulfation roasting process of bauxite residue with concentrated sulfuric acid was investigated by XRD, SEM and TG-DSC techniques. The results showed that metal oxides in bauxite residue were firstly transformed into their respective sulfates during the sulfation roasting process, while Si was in the form of macromolecular silicic acid. The sulfates of the titanium, iron (III) and aluminum started to decompose to their respective oxides when the roasting temperature was 544°C, 683°C and 716.6°C, respectively. The scandium sulfate was stable when the roasting temperature was below 850°C. About 90% of the scandium can be recovered under the optimum conditions: roasting temperature of 850°C, roasting time of 60 min, concentrated sulfuric acid to bauxite residue rate of 1 ml/g, leaching temperature of 60°C, leaching time of 40 min and liquid to initial bauxite residue ratio of 8:1 ml/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: A 2.4 V high-voltage flexible aqueous ZIB was fabricated, and superiors performances were achieved: extremely flat charging/discharging voltage plateaus (1.9/1.8 V), the smallest plateau voltage gap of 0.1 V, high energy density of 120 Wh kg−1, high power density of 3700 W kg−1, and excellent rate capability of 25 C. The battery posed application potential in wearable electronics with extreme safety against tough destructions including hammering, sewing, punching, and soaking.Flexible rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted extensive attentions in the energy storage field due to their high safety, environmental friendliness, and outstanding electrochemical performance while the exploration of high-voltage aqueous ZIBs with excellent rate capability is still a great challenge for the further application them in flexible and wearable electronics. Herein, we fabricated a 2.4 V high-voltage flexible aqueous ZIB, being among the highest voltage reported in aqueous ZIBs. Moreover, it exhibits extremely flat charging/discharging voltage platforms and the dropout voltage is only 0.1 V, which is the smallest gap in all aqueous batteries to our best knowledge. Furthermore, the prepared ZIB performs high rate capability of 25 C and energy density of 120 Wh kg−1 and exhibits excellent safety under various destructive conditions including hammering, sewing, punching, and soaking. These extraordinary results indicate the great application potential of our high-voltage flexible aqueous ZIB in wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-contamination with heavy metals and pesticides is a severe environmental problem, but little information is available regarding the simultaneous removal of these pollutants. In this study, we showed that Aspergillus sydowii strain PA F-2 isolated from soil contaminated with heavy metal and pesticides can simultaneously degrade trichlorfon (TCF) and adsorb Cd(II) from mineral salt medium. The maximum removal rates for TCF and Cd(II) were 55.52% and 57.90%, respectively, in the treatment containing 100 mg L−1 TCF and 2 mg L−1 Cd(II). As the initial Cd(II) concentration increased (2, 5, and 10 mg L−1), the PA F-2 biomass, TCF degradation rate, and Cd(II) adsorption efficiency decreased, whereas the Cd(II) adsorption capacity by PA F-2 increased. The addition of exogenous glucose and sucrose significantly increased the PA F-2 biomass as well as the removal of TCF and Cd(II). Moreover, the TCF degradation pathway and Cd(II) adsorption mechanism were investigated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. These results suggest that PA F-2 has potential applications in the bioremediation of TCF and Cd(II) co-contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment analysis aims to capture the diverse sentiment information expressed by authors in given natural language texts, and it has been a core research topic in many artificial intelligence areas. The existing machine-learning-based sentiment analysis approaches generally focus on employing popular textual feature representation methods, e.g., term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf), n-gram features, and word embeddings, to construct vector representations of documents. These approaches can model rich syntactic and semantic information, but they largely fail to capture the sentiment information that is central to sentiment analysis. To address this issue, we propose a quantum-inspired sentiment representation (QSR) model. This model can not only represent the semantic content of documents but also capture the sentiment information. Specifically, since adjectives and adverbs are good indicators of subjective expression, this model first extracts sentiment phrases that match the designed sentiment patterns based on adjectives and adverbs. Then, both single words and sentiment phrases in the documents are modeled as a collection of projectors, which are finally encapsulated in density matrices through maximum likelihood estimation. These density matrices successfully integrate the sentiment information into the representations of documents. Extensive experiments are conducted on two widely used Twitter datasets, which are the Obama-McCain Debate (OMD) dataset and the Sentiment140 Twitter dataset. The experimental results show that our model significantly outperforms a number of state-of-the-art baselines and demonstrate the effectiveness of the QSR model for sentiment analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive unofficial planting of Bt cotton expressing Cry1Ac toxin has occured for the past two decades in northwestern China, and no mandatory refuge policy has been adopted. The status of Cry1Ac susceptibility of Helicoverpa armigera in this region has not been routinely monitored, nor has the susceptibility to Cry2Ab cotton which has not been released in China. The susceptibility of H. armigera populations to both toxins was assessed in 2014 and 2015 in two contrasting cotton farming systems across the region. Over the 2 years, the response to Cry1Ac of the nine H. armigera field populations sampled ranged from 3.16 to 16.94 μg ml−1 for LC50 and 0.013 to 0.741 μg ml−1 for IC50, and the baseline susceptibility of these strains to Cry2Ab ranged from 3.43 to 19.05 μg ml−1 for LC50 and 0.16 to 3.81 μg ml−1 for IC50. There was no significant difference in susceptibility to either Cry1Ac or Cry2Ab between small-holder and broad-acre farming. The susceptibility to Cry1Ac toxin in northwestern China is higher than that in northern China, while there was no difference for Cry2Ab between northwestern China and northern China. With high levels of adoption of Bt cotton and relatively limited natural refuge for H. armigera, it is important to consider resistance management measures for Bt cotton in northwestern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing and fluctuations of channel gains are inevitable in wireless communication. In this paper, a robust power control scheme for cognitive radio networks is proposed with consideration of uncertain channel gains. With the uncertainty, an optimal power control problem is formulated, which keeps the outage probability both of cognitive and primary users below the given threshold and maximizes the sum-utility of cognitive users. The chance-constraint robust approach is applied to transform the uncertain parameters into the determining setting, which is convexity of the outage probability constraints. In order to make the optimization problem solve facilely, the optimization problem is transformed to a convex problem by a suitable relaxation and the exponential transformations. The distributed power control algorithm based on Lagrange dual decomposition is proposed further. Numerical results show the convergence and effectiveness of the proposed chance-constraint robust power control algorithm. The sum of utility is improved and the energy consumption is reduced compared with some existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting and analyzing the future possible scenario of the sudden water pollution accident can help emergency managers to get know the possible future of the accident and make response. In this paper, the Bayesian Network (BN) is extended to support emergency decision for sudden water pollution accidents. Three types of node variables for BN are built according to the characteristics of sudden water pollution accident. Then, the directed acyclic graph (DAG) is constructed to connect the variables. Through Estimating of the conditional probability of BN, the possible scenario of sudden water pollution accident can be formed based DAG and BN. Finally, the Longjiang River cadmium pollution in Guangxi Province is given to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed method. The results show that the BN can give the possible scenario of the sudden pollution accident and can help emergency managers to make detailed alternatives further to minimize the losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were deposited directly onto the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film-coated glass by electrochemical method. It was used as a photoanode in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell for sensitive detection of hydroquinone (HQ) at an applied bias potential of 0.15 V vs. saturated calomel electrode. This heterostructure showed dramatically enhanced PEC properties due to the introduction of the Au/ITO interface. Under the irradiation, the marked photocurrent response was observed at the GNPs/ITO photoelectrode compared with bare ITO electrode. The anodic photocurrent could be further largely enhanced by HQ. A new PEC strategy for sensitive detection of HQ at a relative low potential was developed. The linear range for HQ determination was 0.25 to 150 μM, with a detection limit of 0.1 μM. The sensitivity on the GNPs/ITO electrode at the irradiation was ~ 3.3 times higher than that in dark. These results demonstrate that the simple GNPs/ITO electrodes have great potential for PEC analysis application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foaming problem and cost of substrate limit the commercial application of rhamnolipids, a potential biosurfactant produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We explored the production of rhamnolipids by a semi-solid-state (SSS) fermentation strategy with glycerol as carbon source and rapeseed/wheat bran as matrix, along with the capacity of the produced rhamnolipids to solubilize lead and cadmium in aqueous solution. Structural analysis by MALDI-TOF MS indicated the increased proportion of mono-rhamnolipids from SSS fermentation. E24 results showed the stronger emulsification capacity and reduced water tension of the SSS fermentation product. Rhamnolipids from SSS fermentation can desorb lead/cadmium from contaminated soil effectively and heavy metals in exchangeable and carbonate forms were easily removed. Our findings suggest that SSS fermentation is an alternative for the economical production of rhamnolipids and the product can be used to solubilize heavy metals from soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the synthesis of water dispersible carbon quantum dots (CDs) by a one-step hydrothermal method using polyamidoamine (PAMAM) and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) as a platform and passivant. The resulting CDs are highly uniform and finely dispersed. The synergistic effect between PAMAM and APTES on the surface of the CDs results in a fluorescence that is much brighter than that of CDs modified with either APTES or PAMAM only. The fluorescence of the co-modified CDs is quenched by Hg(II) ions at fairly low concentrations. Under the optimum conditions, the intensity of quenched fluorescence drops with Hg(II) concentration in the range from 0.2 nM to 10 μM, and the detection limit is 87 fM. The effect of potentially interfering cations on the fluorescence revealed a high selectivity for Hg. The fluorescent probe was applied to the determination of Hg(II) in (spiked) waters and milk and gave recoveries between 95.6 and 107 %, with relative standard deviation between 4.4 and 6.0 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium butyrate (NaBu) is a by-product of microbial fermentation of dietary fiber in the gastrointestinal tract and has been shown to increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase or heme oxidase-1, in vivo. However, the mechanism of this effect is still unclear. This study investigated the antioxidant effect of NaBu on HepG2 cells under HO-induced oxidative stress. NaBu (0.3 mM) attenuated cell death and accumulation of reactive oxygen species and improved multiple antioxidant parameters in HO-injured HepG2 cells. NaBu inhibited glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β) by increasing the p-GSK-3β (Ser9) level and promoted nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which increased the expression of downstream antioxidant enzymes. Together with promotion of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha and mitochondrial DNA copy number, NaBu modulated energy metabolism and mitochondrial function, decreasing glycolysis, increasing β-oxidation, and enhancing the tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. NaBu increased mitochondrial manganese-superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activity. In conclusion, NaBu protected HepG2 cells against oxidative stress by modulating Nrf2 pathway activity and mitochondrial function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]