Search

Background: To determine the utility of contrast-enhanced voiding urography (CeVUS) in the treatment of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) through ureterovesical reimplantation in children. Methods: A total of 159 children with recurrent urinary tract infections were selected for CeVUS and voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) from December 2018 to December 2020, among whom 78 patients were eventually diagnosed with VUR. Overall, 60 pyelo-ureteric units (PUUs) were operated according to surgical indications. Accordingly, we determined the general clinical characteristics of all children, obtained two-dimensional ultrasound images, assessed the reflux status of children using the contrast-enhanced technique, and compared the obtained results via CeVUS and VCUG. Both imaging modalities were reperformed at 6, 12, and 18 months after surgery to evaluate postoperative outcomes. In particular, we assessed the consistency of the evaluation and calculated the diagnostic efficacy of CeVUS for different levels of reflux at different time points. Results: CeVUS showed considerable efficacy in the diagnosis of children with VUR. Notably, the diagnostic results of both CeVUS and VCUG achieved high agreement, with a kappa value of 0.966 (P < 0.001). The results of our follow-up at different stages and evaluation of postoperative efficacy revealed that CeVUS possessed substantial diagnostic efficacy and good consistency with VCUG. Conclusion: CeVUS is an accurate and safe examination, with considerable clinical significance for diagnosing VUR in children, determining the treatment approach, conducting follow-up during treatment, and evaluating subsequent treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fly ash (FA), a byproduct of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI), poses significant hazards to urban development, necessitating its sustainable treatment. This study proposes a systematic decision support tool to identify the most sustainable MSWI FA treatment technology among various options, considering diverse criteria. The research introduces a hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework integrating the Grey Relational Coefficient (GRC) into the Analytical Network Process (ANP) for objective criterion weighting. Additionally, a Projection-based Programming (PbP) approach enhances the reliability of ranking MSWI FA treatment alternatives by reconciling disparate sequences from different MCDM techniques. This work pioneers the early application of MCDM methods in prioritizing sustainable MSWI FA treatment, offering two crucial mathematical contributions. Firstly, the GRC-ANP method objectively assigns weights by capturing statistical relationships among criteria. Secondly, the PbP approach consolidates varied MCDM outcomes to provide a reliable ranking. Testing five technologies against eight sustainability criteria validates the robustness and effectiveness of the framework, affirming its potential in aiding decision-making for sustainable MSWI FA treatment solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aimed at the current problems of low strength and poor toughness in alginate fibers, which limits its large-scale application in the textile field, nano-montmorillonite (MMT) suspension was added into sodium alginate spinning solution during the wet spinning process with CaCl2 solution as the coagulation and the modified alginate fibers were obtained. The structure of the fibers was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and TGA. The mechanical properties and water regain rate of the fibers were tested, and the mechanism of intermolecular interaction between sodium alginate and MMT was analyzed. The results indicate that the mechanical properties of MMT-modified alginate fibers were significantly improved. The fracture strength of the modified alginate fibers was increased from 1.32 cN/dtex to 3.01 cN/dtex. The elongation at break increased from 9.11% to 16.05%. The preparation of alginate/MMT fibers provides a feasible reinforcement and toughening strategy for alginate fibers, which improves toughness while achieving an increase in fracture strength. The preparation of alginate fibers with high strength and good toughness is beneficial for expanding the application of textiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitaev chains in quantum dot-superconductor arrays are a promising platform for the realization of topological superconductivity. As recently demonstrated, even a two-site chain can host Majorana zero modes known as "poor man's Majorana". Harnessing the potential of these states for quantum information processing, however, requires increasing their robustness to external perturbations. Here, we form a two-site Kitaev chain using Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in proximitized quantum dots. By deterministically tuning the hybridization between the quantum dots and the superconductor, we observe poor man's Majorana states with a gap larger than 70 μeV. The sensitivity to charge fluctuations is also greatly reduced compared to Kitaev chains made with non-proximitized dots. The systematic control and improved energy scales of poor man's Majorana states realized with Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states will benefit the realization of longer Kitaev chains, parity qubits, and the demonstration of non-Abelian physics. A Kitaev chain formed by two quantum dots coupled via a superconductor support the so-called poor man's Majorana bound states. Here, the authors form a minimal Kitaev chain using Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states and show that the resulting bound states are more robust than in the case of unproximitized quantum dots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spring 2020, colleges across the nation swiftly transitioned their operations—including both classes and student support services—to remote delivery on an emergency basis in response to the crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has documented that the transition was associated with decrements in student outcomes, there remains limited understanding of the organizational factors that might have mitigated these negative associations during the pandemic. Drawing on administrative data from the California Community College system, along with a novel survey conducted among distance education leaders, our study reveals that the degree of declines in course completion and course passing rates varied based on pre-COVID online education resources (such as the ratio of distance education personnel to students and the availability of pre-COVID professional development programs in online learning): Colleges with greater pre-COVID online resources experienced more modest declines in student performance. To a lesser extent, we also found that declines in student performance during the onset of the pandemic varied depending on the responses implemented in reaction to the pandemic, such as the extent of technology delivery to students. The implications of our findings extend to the realm of planning for the continuity of operations in potential future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cucurbitacin B (CuB) is a natural triterpenoid with diverse pharmacological effects including potent anticancer activity. However, its oral bioavailability is hampered by limited metabolism in vivo. We characterized CuB's in vivo metabolism in rats to uncover bioactive metabolites retaining therapeutic potential, using a robust UHPLC-Q-TOF–MS/MS workflow. This workflow combined molecular networking, fragmentation filtering, and mass defect filtering to identify CuB metabolites in rat urine, plasma, and feces following oral administration. Thirteen metabolites were identified and seven were confirmed. Major phase I transformations involved hydrolysis, reduction, epoxidation, and amination. Phase II conjugation included cysteine, glutathione, glucuronide, and gluconic acid conjugates. Notably, one of the main metabolites formed was the cysteine conjugate CuB-Cys. CuB-Cys maintained similar in vitro antiproliferative activity to CuB on HepG2, MCF-7, and PANC-1 cancer cell lines. However, it demonstrated lower cytotoxicity towards non-cancerous L02 cells, highlighting improved therapeutic selectivity. Mechanistically, CuB-Cys induced greater apoptotic signaling in HepG2 cells than CuB via enhanced caspase activation and disrupted BAX-Bcl-2 balance. This represents the first systematic characterization of CuB's in vivo metabolic pathway. The identification and confirmation of CuB-Cys provide insight for drug development efforts aiming to maintain therapeutic efficacy while reducing toxicity, via metabolite-based approaches. Our findings shed light on strategies for improving CuB's clinical potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating epidemiological evidence underscores the association between pervasive environmental factors and an increased risk of metabolic diseases. Environmental chemicals, recognized disruptors of endocrine and metabolic processes, may contribute to the global prevalence of metabolic disorders, including obesity. Acetyl tributyl citrate (ATHC), categorized as a citric acid ester plasticizer, serves as a substitute for di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in various everyday products. Despite its widespread use and the increasing risk of exposure in humans and animals due to its high leakage rates, information regarding the safety of exposure to environmentally relevant doses of ATHC remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the potential impact of ATHC exposure on metabolic homeostasis. Both in vivo and in vitro exposure models were used to characterize the effects induced by ATHC exposure. C57BL/6 J male mice were subjected to a diet containing ATHC for 12 weeks, and metabolism-related parameters were monitored and analyzed throughout and after the exposure period. Results indicated that sub-chronic dietary exposure to ATHC induced an increase in body fat percentage, elevated serum lipid levels, and increased lipid content in the liver tissue of mice. Furthermore, the effect of ATHC exposure on murine hepatocytes were examined and results indicated that ATHC significantly augmented lipid levels in AML12 hepatocytes, disrupting energy homeostasis and altering the expression of genes associated with fatty acid synthesis, uptake, oxidation, and secretion pathways. Conclusively, both in vivo and in vitro results suggest that exposure to low levels of ATHC may be linked to an elevated risk of obesity and fatty liver in mice. The potential implications of ATHC on human health warrant comprehensive evaluation in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic stroke is the most important cause of disability and death worldwide, but current treatments remain limited. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) including the herb pair of Zhiqiao-Danggui (ZD) offers a multifaceted treatment approach through promoting blood circulation, yet its specific anti-ischemic mechanism remains unclear. This study used the photochemically induced thrombosis (PIT) mouse model and the oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) cell model to explore the therapeutic effect of ZD on ischemic stroke. Mice were treated with high and low doses of ZD extract or positive control. Behavior was assessed using the grid test. The brain tissue was then subjected to infarct volume assessment, histopathology, oxidative stress marker detection, LC/MS metabolomic analysis and qRT-PCR validation. The therapeutic effect of ZD-medicated serum on OGD/R model was tested on cells. Experimental results show that ZD can improve motor function, reduce infarct size, neuronal damage and apoptosis as well as alleviate oxidative stress in mice. ZD-medicated serum promotes endothelial cell proliferation, improves cell survival against OGD/R-induced injury, reduces oxidative damage and protects mitochondrial function. Metabolomics reveals ZD regulation of metabolites in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, TCA cycle, and angiogenesis signaling pathways. qRT-PCR results also showed that ZD could attenuate abnormal conduction of angiogenic signals and enhance vessel stability. This study confirmed the neuroprotective and vasoprotective effects of ZD, highlighted its potential in treating ischemic stroke, and provided a scientific basis for the traditional use of ZD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental migration has been found to affect left-behind children (LBC) more negatively than positively on their mental health, leaving them with higher levels of loneliness. Previous studies also found that individuals' resilience and emotional flexibility would shelter them from such adversities and foster adaptations. The present study conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by LBC, as well as the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships among their loneliness, emotional flexibility and resilience. In total, 516 LBC (Mean age = 13.24 years, SD = 1.48 years, and 51.87% boys), living in Jiangsu Province of China, completed a survey, including the Chinese version of Children's Loneliness Scale (CLS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Emotional Flexibility Scale and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that LBC's emotional flexibility and resilience were not the predictor of loneliness at the subsequent time point. LBC's loneliness was a negative and stable predictor of resilience at the subsequent time point, and emotional flexibility was a positive and stable predictor. Moreover, T1 resilience was a positive predictor of T2 emotional flexibility. Overall, this study suggested that interventions in promoting resilience should prioritize enhancing their emotional flexibility, which would help relieve their loneliness and protect their mental health. Highlights: Left-behind children's loneliness longitudinally and negatively predict their resilience, while resilience could not predict loneliness conversely. Left-behind children's emotional flexibility longitudinally and positively predict their resilience, and resilience at T1 positively predict emotional flexibility at T2. The impact of being left behind on children does not only cause feelings of loneliness, but also affects their resilience in facing future challenges. To protect long-term health and development, it is essential to enhance their emotional flexibility in order to reduce negative psychological effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-wave sensitive (LWS) is a G protein-coupled receptor expressed in the retina, and zebrafish is a better model organism for studying vision, but the role of LWS1 in vision-guided behavior of larvae fish has rarely been reported. In this study, we found that zebrafish lws1 and lws2 are tandemly replicated genes, both with six exons, with lws1 being more evolutionarily conserved. The presence of Y277F in the amino acid sequence of lws2 may have contributed to the shift of λmax to green light. We established a lws1 knockout zebrafish model using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Lws1−/− larvae showed significantly higher levels of feeding and appetite gene (agrp) expression than WT, and significantly lower levels of anorexia gene (pomc, cart) expression. In addition, green light gene compensation was observed in lws1−/− larvae with significantly increased expression levels of rh2-1. The light-dark movement test showed that lws1−/− larvae were more active under light-dark transitions or vibrational stimuli, and the expression of phototransduction-related genes was significantly up-regulated. This study reveals the important role of lws1 gene in the regulation of vision-guided behavior in larvae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arachnoid barrier delineates the border between the central nervous system and dura mater. Although the arachnoid barrier creates a partition, communication between the central nervous system and the dura mater is crucial for waste clearance and immune surveillance1,2. How the arachnoid barrier balances separation and communication is poorly understood. Here, using transcriptomic data, we developed transgenic mice to examine specific anatomical structures that function as routes across the arachnoid barrier. Bridging veins create discontinuities where they cross the arachnoid barrier, forming structures that we termed arachnoid cuff exit (ACE) points. The openings that ACE points create allow the exchange of fluids and molecules between the subarachnoid space and the dura, enabling the drainage of cerebrospinal fluid and limited entry of molecules from the dura to the subarachnoid space. In healthy human volunteers, magnetic resonance imaging tracers transit along bridging veins in a similar manner to access the subarachnoid space. Notably, in neuroinflammatory conditions such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, ACE points also enable cellular trafficking, representing a route for immune cells to directly enter the subarachnoid space from the dura mater. Collectively, our results indicate that ACE points are a critical part of the anatomy of neuroimmune communication in both mice and humans that link the central nervous system with the dura and its immunological diversity and waste clearance systems.Arachnoid cuff exit points create openings in the arachnoid barrier enabling the drainage of cerebrospinal fluid and exchange of molecules and cells between the dura and the subarachnoid space, therefore physically connecting the brain and the dura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer is correlated with poor prognosis, the current treatment of which is still based on surgery and adjuvant targeted therapy with monoclonal antibody. Problems of drug resistance hinder the use of monoclonal antibodies. Subsequently, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been noticed, TKIs have the advantages of multi-targets and reduced drug resistance. However, TKIs that target HER family proteins often cause adverse effects such as liver damage and diarrhea. Thus, TKIs with high selectivity are being developed. TH-4000, a prodrug that generated an active form TH-4000Effector (TH-4000E) under hypoxic condition, was evaluated in this research. We found that TH-4000E ([(E)-4-[[4-(3-bromo-4-chloroanilino)pyrido[3,4-d]pyrimidin-6-yl]amino]-4-oxobut-2-enyl]-dimethyl-[(3-methyl-5-nitroimidazol-4-yl)methyl]azanium) (1–1000 nM) had potent and highly selective toxic effects on HER2+ breast cancer cells and inhibited the phosphorylation of HER family kinases at lower doses than that of Lapatinib and Tucatinib. TH-4000E activated Caspase-3 and induced apoptosis through a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent pathway. The prodrug TH-4000 ([(E)-4-[[4-(3-bromo-4-chloroanilino)pyrido[3,4-d]pyrimidin-6-yl]amino]-4-oxobut-2-enyl]-dimethyl-[(3-methyl-5-nitroimidazol-4-yl)methyl]azanium;bromide) (50 mg/kg) effectively suppressed the tumor growth with less liver damage in mouse tumor models. This hypoxia-targeted strategy has possessed advantage in avoiding drug-induced liver damage, TH-4000 could be a promising drug candidate for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micron-sized Si anode promises a much higher theoretical capacity than the traditional graphite anode and more attractive application prospect compared to its nanoscale counterpart. However, its severe volume expansion during lithiation requires solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with reinforced mechanical stability. Here, we propose a solvent-induced selective dissolution strategy to in situ regulate the mechanical properties of SEI. By introducing a high-donor-number solvent, gamma-butyrolactone, into conventional electrolytes, low-modulus components of the SEI, such as Li alkyl carbonates, can be selectively dissolved upon cycling, leaving a robust SEI mainly consisting of lithium fluoride and polycarbonates. With this strategy, raw micron-sized Si anode retains 87.5% capacity after 100 cycles at 0.5 C (1500 mA g−1, 25°C), which can be improved to >300 cycles with carbon-coated micron-sized Si anode. Furthermore, the Si||LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 battery using the raw micron-sized Si anode with the selectively dissolved SEI retains 83.7% capacity after 150 cycles at 0.5 C (90 mA g−1). The selective dissolution effect for tailoring the SEI, as well as the corresponding cycling life of the Si anodes, is positively related to the donor number of the solvents, which highlights designing high-donor-number electrolytes as a guideline to tailor the SEI for stabilizing volume-changing alloying-type anodes in high-energy rechargeable batteries. The severe volume expansion during the lithiation of micron-sized Si in Li-ion batteries requires a solid electrolyte interphase with reinforced mechanical stability. Here, the authors propose a solvent-induced selective dissolution strategy to regulate the mechanical properties of the interphase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconductor nanowires coupled to superconductors can host Andreev bound states with distinct spin and parity, including a spin-zero state with an even number of electrons and a spin-1/2 state with odd-parity. Considering the difference in spin of the even and odd states, spin-filtered measurements can reveal the underlying ground state. To directly measure the spin of single-electron excitations, we probe an Andreev bound state using a spin-polarized quantum dot that acts as a bipolar spin filter, in combination with a non-polarized tunnel junction in a three-terminal circuit. We observe a spin-polarized excitation spectrum of the Andreev bound state, which can be fully spin-polarized, despite strong spin-orbit interaction in the InSb nanowires. Decoupling the hybrid from the normal lead causes a current blockade, by trapping the Andreev bound state in an excited state. Spin-polarized spectroscopy of hybrid nanowire devices, as demonstrated here, is proposed as an experimental tool to support the observation of topological superconductivity. Andreev bound states can form in hybrid semiconducting-superconducting devices and can mirror the experimental signatures of the much sought topologically non-trivial Majorana bound states. Here, van Driel, Wang and coauthors present a method of directly measuring the spin-polarized excitation spectrum of Andreev bound states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel and portable detection platform for procymidone (PRM) was developed by combining simple sample pretreatment, lateral flow test strips based on multi-branched gold nanoparticle (LFTS-MBGNP), and a smartphone. Based on the large surface area of MBGNPs, rapid detection of PRM was realized by simple naked eye observation. By utilizing a smartphone as a portable signal analyzer, ultrasensitive quantitative detection of PRM in red wine was realized with the limits of detection (LOD) of 1.60 ng/mL, which was 3000 times lower than the US limit (5 ppm). Moreover, rapid detection of four kinds of fruits and vegetables was achieved within 10 min, with LODs of 4.34 ng/g, 6.93 ng/g, 8.99 ng/g, and 5.03 ng/g, respectively, which could meet the PRM limit of the European Union (10 ng/g). Integrating the optimized QuEChERS pretreatment method, the developed platform realized a simple and sensitive on-site detection of PRM pesticide in foods and red wine within 45 min. This platform provides a useful tool and new idea for rapid screening and detection of pesticide residues in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertension is a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Thallium is a highly toxic metal that exists in all aspects of our lives and can cause damage to human health. The aim of this study was to identify the potential correlation between urinary thallium (U-Tl) and hypertension in American youth aged 8–17 years. The National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) database was mined for cross-sectional information on 2295 American children and adolescents aged 8–17 years. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was utilized to measure U-Tl levels, and the results were categorized into four quartiles (Q1–Q4). Logistic generalized linear models and unweighted restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression were used to investigate the relationship between U-Tl and hypertension. After adjusting for covariates, the odds ratios (ORs) at 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for hypertension prevalence in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quartiles were 0.43 (0.22–0.81), 0.54 (0.29–0.99), and 0.43 (0.22–0.81), when compared to the lowest quartile (P for trend = 0.024). RCS plot showed a negative linear correlation between log2-transformed U-Tl levels and hypertension (P for non-linearity = 0.869). Subgroup analysis based on sex indicated a statistically significant link between U-Tl and hypertension in male (P < 0.05). There is a negative linear relationship between U-Tl and hypertension in American children and adolescents aged 8–17 years with low thallium exposure. Due to the nature of cross-sectional studies, further studies are necessary to validate our conclusions and elucidate possible mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a powerful and sensitive method to measure expression of targeted gene but it highly relies on the use of suitable reference genes for data normalization. We evaluated the expressions of 8 housekeeping genes: 18S ribosomal rDNA (18S rDNA), 28S ribosomal rDNA (28S rDNA),rubisco large subunit (rbc-L), β-actin (ACT), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), elongation factor 1 (EF1), β-tubulin (TubB), and P-phycoerythrin B (PEB), to select the suitable reference genes for different life-history stages (tetrasporophyte, carposporophyte, and male/female gametophyte) of Gracilaria vermiculophylla by absolute quantitative method. Softwares geNorm and BestKeeper were used to verify the results acquired from copy number analysis. Results show that the expression of identified reference genes varied in comparing groups composed of different type of life stages. It is suggested that 18S rDNA and TubB could be used for highly complex samples composed of mixed ploidy and phases. 18S rDNA and 28S rDNA were also preferred for using among the matured isomorphic samples. But for samples with different maturities, TubB and ACT were recommended for tetrasporophytes and gametophytes respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalysis has attracted much attention because it can decompose water to produce hydrogen or reduce carbon dioxide to CH3OH, CH4 or other chemical materials. In this study, the MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 composite was fabricated by the co-precipitation method. Various techniques were used to characterize the MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 composite, including, FT-IR, Raman, XRD, SEM, EDS, and UV–Vis. Under UV light, the catalytic performance of MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 was tested by decomposing rhodamine B (Rh B). According to the findings, the catalyst is a typical spinel structure material with an excellent light response in 250–800 nm wavelength. The MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 composite catalyst can degrade over 82% of Rh B in 150 min. Cyclic experiments show that MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 has long-term stability for Rh B. Because of its heterojunction structure, photogenerated electrons from g-C3N4 surfaces may easily move to MnFe2O4, which can substantially increase photoelectron-hole pair separation. The use of the MnFe2O4/g-C3N4 compound as photocatalysts for the degradation of Rh B is evidenced by these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are main public health concerns highly prevalent in industrialized societies where human health is threatened by a series of environmental pollutants, particularly heavy metal contaminants. We aimed to find out if blood heavy metals are associated with the 10-year risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in a nationally representative sample of US adults. We analyzed the cross-sectional data on blood heavy metals of 3268 non-Hispanic white participants aged 40–79 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2018. We introduced a risk estimation algorithm, namely the 2013 Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE), to assess the risk for ASCVD over a 10-year period. The 10-year risk for ASCVD was categorized as either reduced risk (< 7.5% risk) or elevated risk (≥ 7.5% risk). Blood lead, cadmium, and mercury were distributed into four quartiles. We used weighted multivariate logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression to detect the association of blood heavy metal exposure with 10-year ASCVD risk. Following the adjustment of covariates, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for elevated 10-year ASCVD risk for participants from the highest quartiles were 4.50 (2.88–7.02), 2.59 (1.68–4.00), and 1.06 (0.66–1.71) for blood cadmium, lead, and mercury compared to the lowest quartiles, respectively. The RCS plot demonstrated that blood cadmium was linearly and positively associated with 10-year ASCVD risk (P for nonlinearity = 0.112). According to our findings, non-Hispanic whites aged 40–79 years had a greater 10-year ASCVD risk as their blood lead and cadmium levels increased. Consequently, when establishing approaches for ASCVD prevention, blood heavy metals should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The anti-aging protein Klotho has been associated with cardiovascular health protection. Nevertheless, the protective mechanism remains unknown. The present study is aimed at exploring the effect of Klotho on cardiac remodeling and its potential mechanism in mice with myocardial infarction (MI). We used left anterior coronary artery descending ligation to develop an MI model for in vivo analyses. In contrast, H9C2 cells and cardiac fibroblasts were used to establish the oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD) model in in vitro analyses. In vivo and in vitro models were treated with Klotho. Compound C, an AMPK signaling inhibitor, was used to determine whether Klotho's effects are mediated through the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. Echocardiography, Masson trichrome staining, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and western blot were used to detect the related indicators. The findings of the in vivo model indicate that Klotho treatment improved the mice's cardiac function, reduced cardiac fibrosis, and attenuated myocardial inflammatory factors, ferroptosis, and oxidative stress. The results of the in vitro model were in line with the findings of in vivo modeling. An AMPK inhibitor, Compound C, reversed all these effects. In conclusion, Klotho potentially improves cardiac remodeling in MI mice by regulating AMPK/mTOR signaling, demonstrating Klotho as an effective MI therapeutic agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been well recognized as an effective approach to reducing CO2 emissions, but the emergence of various CCS technologies has resulted in the challenge of selecting the most sustainable alternative. This study aims to develop a mathematical framework to evaluate the sustainability of different CCS technologies determe the best-performing one and identify the key affecting criteria. Methods: The mathematical framework was developed by combining the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach with the life cycle assessment (LCA), which can overcome the difficulty to obtain the criteria data, especially for the environmental aspect. A novel weighting method of grey correlation weighting (GCW), which is more applicable to the criteria data obtained by LCA, is presented for objectively weighting the criteria and identifying key criteria with the consideration of criteria interaction. The sustainability of different CCS technologies is ranked by using the method of similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). The effectiveness of the developed mathematical framework is verified by a case study with 9 different CCS technologies. Results: The results show that the CCS process with the pre-combustion capture technology by using CaO as the absorbent is the most sustainable one. For both pre-combustion and post-combustion capture technologies, it is critical to improve their environmental performance for enhancing their sustainability, while for increasing the sustainability of the oxyfuel combustion technology, the key is to reduce the "capital cost". The validity of the developed framework was demonstrated through sensitivity analysis and comparison with conventional MCDM methods. Conclusions: The developed LCA-MCDM methodology is effective to assess the sustainability of various CCS technologies. The results of the sustainability evaluation using the methodology demonstrated that the environmental performance of the CCS technologies has the largest impact on sustainability, while if the cost of the air separation process can be addressed, the sustainability of oxyfuel combustion technologies can be greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transcriptomes of three different parts of the fertile tetrasporophyte of Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis, including tip (T), middle (M), and subjacent (S) parts, with a gradual tetrasporangium maturity were analyzed and compared to identify the genes involved in the process of tetrasporogenesis. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for the Gple-S versus Gple-T comparison was 10296, and the numbers of DEGs for the Gple-S versus Gple-M and Gple-T versus Gple-M comparisons were 7435 and 1337, respectively. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed, and the results showed the enrichment of 132 KEGG pathways (corrected P <0.05). A total of 58 DEGs related to meiosis were screened and blasted against 18 meiosis-related genes (dmc1, mlh1, mnd1, msh4, msh2, msh6, mre11, pds5, pms1, rad21, rad50, rad51, smc1, smc2, smc4, smc5, smc6, and spo11), including four meiosis-specific genes. The transcriptome comparison indicated that in the T part, the meiosis, ribosome, and RNA transport-related genes were mostly up-regulated compared with those in the other two groups. In the M part, the genes related to ribosomes and the endoplasmic reticulum were also up-regulated compared with those in the lower part. Finally, in the S part, the genes associated with photosynthesis were mostly up-regulated, which might be helpful to the recovery from spore formation and release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Non-structural carbohydrates are distributed and stored in various organs, enabling plants to make a trade-off between "growth" and "resistance", with temperature variation as the main driver. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are important physiological indicators of carbon balance in plants and play a crucial ecological function in determining how plants respond to environmental changes. However, less is known about the mechanisms by which NSC change along the montane vertical climate belt gradient. In order to address this question, we investigated changes in NSC of 12 major tree species along the elevational gradients in the Sygera Mountains, southern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. During the growing period (July–August) and dormant period (November–December) of the same phenological period, 64 woody plants were sampled for leaves, branches, trunks, and root organs. The contents of NSC, C, N, P, and K, and the main climatic factors were measured to detect the spatial and temporal characteristics of NSC content in woody plants in different elevations as well as their linkages. The results were as follows. (1) Plants seasonally allocate soluble sugars and starch. During the growing period, plants tend to store fewer non-structural carbohydrates to meet other carbon-demanding processes, such as growth or fruiting. During the dormant period, plants are committed to resisting stress and surviving winter through cooperative relationships (conversion of starch to soluble sugars). The physiological process of starch conversion to sugar may depend on whether starch concentration exceeds 5%. (2) The increasing NSC content of numerous tree species from the montane warm temperate belt to the alpine belt supports the "growth limitation" hypothesis, while the roots and leaf organs of woody plants have the most abundant carbon storage. (3) Plant nutrients (N, P, and K) promote the synthesis of NSC and regulate the quantity of soluble sugars and starch to establish a dynamic carbon balance in plants. (4) Plants accumulate NSC carbon pools in response to environmental stress (drought or low temperatures). "Low-temperature" stress is the primary factor limiting the growth of woody plants. Thus, temperature drives changes of NSC in woody plants across different elevations, while the physiological process of converting starch into soluble sugars (when starch content exceeds 5%, starch can be converted into soluble sugars) is an important mechanism that increases the tolerance of plants to abiotic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single feature cannot show the operational state of a bearing during its entire life cycle. Therefore, a rolling bearing performance deterioration prediction method based on an SAE and the TCN-attention model is proposed. The SAE method is used to fuse the time-domain indicator and the frequency-domain indicator to construct the performance degradation characteristic indicator. The evaluation indices are used to comprehensively evaluate multiple performance degradation indices, and the fused feature indices together, to filter out the features that have a good overall performance. Attention is added to the TCN model, and the output state weight of the TCN model is calculated through a scoring function to increase the important information weight and the prediction accuracy. The appropriate network structure and parameter configuration are determined, and the rolling bearing performance degradation prediction model is established. A validation is performed using publicly available datasets from the University of Cincinnati and XJTU-SY. The results show that the method is more sensitive to the critical information part of the long time series than the other models. At the same time, the average absolute error and the root mean square error are minimized, the accuracy of the rolling bearing performance degradation prediction is high, and the model has a strong robustness and generalization abilities. Additionally, the model has practical engineering value for predicting the health status of equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) is a molecular and functional imaging modality with better restaging accuracy over conventional imaging for detecting prostate cancer in men suspected of lymph node (LN) progression after definitive therapy. However, the availability of PSMA PET/CT is limited in both low-resource settings and for repeating imaging surveillance. In contrast, CT is widely available, cost-effective, and routinely performed as part of patient follow-up or radiotherapy workflow. Compared with the molecular activities, the morphological and texture changes of subclinical LNs in CT are subtle, making manual detection of positive LNs infeasible. Instead, we harness the power of artificial intelligence for automated LN detection on CT. We examined 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT images from 88 patients (including 739 PSMA PET/CT-positive pelvic LNs) who experienced a biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy and presented for salvage radiotherapy with prostate-specific antigen < 1 ng/mL. Scans were divided into a training set (nPatient = 52, nNode = 400), a validation set (nPatient = 18, nNode = 143), and a test set (nPatient = 18, nNodes = 196). Using PSMA PET/CT as the ground truth and consensus pelvic LN clinical target volumes as search regions, a 2.5-dimensional (2.5D) Mask R-CNN based object detection framework was trained. The entire framework contained whole slice imaging pretraining, masked-out region fine-tuning, prediction post-processing, and "window bagging". Following an additional preprocessing step—pelvic LN clinical target volume extraction, our pipeline located positive pelvic LNs solely based on CT scans. Our pipeline could achieve a sensitivity of 83.351%, specificity of 58.621% out of 196 positive pelvic LNs from 18 patients in the test set, of which most of the false positives can be post-removable by radiologists. Our tool may aid CT-based detection of pelvic LN metastasis and triage patients most unlikely to benefit from the PSMA PET/CT scan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In applications of augmented reality or mixed reality, rendering virtual objects in real scenes with consistent illumination is crucial for realistic visualization experiences. Prior learning-based methods reported in the literature usually attempt to reconstruct complicated high dynamic range environment maps from limited input, and rely on a separate rendering pipeline to light up the virtual object. In this paper, an object-based illumination transferring and rendering algorithm is proposed to tackle this problem within a unified framework. Given a single low dynamic range image, instead of recovering lighting environment of the entire scene, the proposed algorithm directly infers the relit virtual object. It is achieved by transferring implicit illumination features which are extracted from its nearby planar surfaces. A generative adversarial network is adopted in the proposed algorithm for implicit illumination features extraction and transferring. Compared to previous works in the literature, the proposed algorithm is more robust, as it is able to efficiently recover spatially varying illumination in both indoor and outdoor scene environments. Experiments have been conducted. It is observed that notable experiment results and comparison outcomes have been obtained quantitatively and qualitatively by the proposed algorithm in different environments. It shows the effectiveness and robustness for realistic virtual object insertion and improved realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Dynamics of wetland tourism in China: studying wetland tourism park service quality with post-trip tourist intention and tourism value co-creation" has been retracted by the Publisher in agreement with the Editor-in-Chief due to concerns about a compromised peer review process, inappropriate references, and citation behavior. The investigation found multiple issues with this article and others, leading to a loss of confidence in the results and conclusions. The authors did not respond to inquiries about the retraction. [Extracted from the article]

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

Dapagliflozin (DAPA) exerts cardioprotective effects in non-diabetic patients. Nonetheless, the protective mechanism remains unknown. This study aims to evaluate the performance of DAPA on cardiac function and remodeling as well as its potential mechanism in mice with myocardial infarction (MI). Here, a MI mice model was established. One week after MI, mice were treated with saline or DAPA (1.5 mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks. At the end of this study, echocardiography was performed to assess cardiac structure and function. Myocardial apoptosis was analyzed by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Inflammatory cytokines and cardiac fibrosis were analyzed by real-time PCR and Masson's trichrome stain, respectively. Results showed that DAPA improved cardiac structure and function, attenuated cardiac fibrosis, and inhibited inflammatory cytokines and myocardial apoptosis. Moreover, the inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway might be related to the cardioprotective role of DAPA. These findings reveal that dapagliflozin is a potential therapeutic agent for MI patients without diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities are increasingly using learning communities (LCs) to promote the academic and social integration of entering students, especially within STEM majors. Examining the causal effect of LCs on student networks is necessary to understand the nature and scope of their impact. This study combines a regression discontinuity design with social network analysis to estimate the effect of a simple LC design on the size, strength, structure, and composition of friendship networks among students within the same biological sciences freshman cohort. Results of the quasi-experimental analysis indicate that LC participants acquired one additional friend in the major and increased their share of friends in the LC by 54 percentage-points. Exponential random-graph models that test mediation and alternative friendship mechanisms provide support for the theoretical argument that the LC promoted friendship development by structuring opportunities for interaction through block-registration into courses. Thus, this study shows that even simple LCs can shape the development of friendships through relatively low-cost administrative means. The increased access to resources and support facilitated by the LC is likely beneficial for participating students. However, there is a potential downside when eligibility for participation is determined using academic metrics that separate the student population into distinct classroom environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The study aimed to investigate left ventricular (LV) motion pattern in patients with LBBB patterns including patients with pacemaker rhythm (PM), type B Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (B-WPW), premature ventricular complexes originating from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT-PVC), and complete left bundle branch block (CLBBB). Two-dimensional speckle tracking was used to evaluate peak value and time to peak value of the LV twist, LV apex rotation, and LV base rotation in patients with PM, B-WPW, RVOT-PVC, and CLBBB with normal LV ejection fraction, and in age-matched control subjects. The LV motion patterns were altered in all patients compared to the control groups. Patients with PM and CLBBB had a similar LV motion pattern with a reduced peak value of LV apex rotation and LV twist. Patients with B-WPW demonstrated the opposite trend in the reduction of LV rotation peak value, which was more dominant in the basal layer. The most impairment in the LV twist/rotation peak value was identified in patients with RVOT-PVC. Compared to the control group, the apical-basal rotation delay was prolonged in patients with CLBBB, followed by those with B-WPW, PM, and RVOT-PVC. The LV motion patterns were different among patients with different patterns of LBBB. CLBBB and PM demonstrated a reduction in LV twist/rotation that was pronounced in the apical layer, B-WPW showed a reduction in the basal layer, and RVOT-PVC in both layers. CLBBB had the most pronounced LV apical-basal rotation dyssynchrony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine-learning and big data are among the latest approaches in corrosion research. The biggest challenge in corrosion research is to accurately predict how materials will degrade in a given environment. Corrosion big data is the application of mathematical methods to huge amounts of data to find correlations and infer probabilities. It is possible to use corrosion big data method to distinguish the influence of the minimal changes of alloying elements and small differences in microstructure on corrosion resistance of low alloy steels. In this research, corrosion big data evaluation methods and machine learning were used to study the effect of Sb and Sn, as well as environmental factors on the corrosion behavior of low alloy steels. Results depict corrosion big data method can accurately identify the influence of various factors on corrosion resistance of low alloy and is an effective and promising way in corrosion research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanomaterials are threatening the environment and human health, but there has been little discussion about the stability and mobility of nanoparticles (NPs) in saturated porous media at environmentally relevant concentrations of surfactants, which is a knowledge gap in exploring the fate of engineered NPs in groundwater. Therefore, the influences of the anionic surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, SDBS), the cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB), and the nonionic surfactant (Tween-80) with environmentally relevant concentrations of 0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/L on nano-TiO2 (nTiO2, negatively charged) and nano-CeO2 (nCeO2, positively charged) transport through saturated porous media were examined by column experiments. On the whole, with increasing SDBS concentration from 0 to 20 mg/L, the concentration peak of nTiO2 and nCeO2 in effluents increased by approximately 0.2 and 0.3 (dimensionless concentration, C/C0), respectively, because of enhanced stability and reduced aggregate size resulting from enhanced electrostatic and steric repulsions. By contrast, the transportability of NPs significantly decreased with increasing CTAB concentration due to the attachment of positive charges, which was opposite to the charge on the medium surface and facilitated the NP deposition. On the other hand, the addition of Tween-80 had no significant influence on the stability and mobility of nTiO2 and nCeO2. The results were also demonstrated by the colloid filtration theory (CFT) modeling and the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) interaction calculations; it might promote the assessment and remediation of NP pollution in subsurface environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to evaluate the effect of Bachmann bundle (BB) impairment on electrical and mechanical function of the left atrium (LA), as well as the long-term clinical impact of such impairment. We measured activation time in the five LA walls in 56 patients with atrial fibrillation. LA reservoir, conduit, and contractile function were also evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups based on ablation strategy: the circumferential pulmonary vein isolation (CPVI) group and CPVI with LA anterior wall linear ablation (LAAW) group. Patients in the CPVI + LAAW group were divided into two sub-groups based on ECG differences following ablation: the BB impairment group and intact BB group. LA activation time and function were then compared between the ablation strategy groups and the CPVI + LAAW subgroups. Patients in the CPVI + LAAW group exhibited longer activation times in the anterior and lateral walls of the LA, poorer LA synchrony, and reduced LA contractile and reservoir function when compared with those in the CPVI group. In the BB impairment subgroup, we observed a discrepancy between electrical/mechanical remodeling. Among five walls, activation time was longest in this region. BB impairment was also associated with reduced LA function. Significant changes in LA function and conductibility were observed in patients with anterior wall ablation, especially those with iatrogenic BB impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple negative (TN) breast cancer is a subtype of breast cancer which is difficult for early detection and the prognosis is poor. In this paper, 910 benign and 934 malignant (110 TN and 824 NTN) B-mode breast ultrasound images were collected. A Resnet50 deep convolutional neural network was fine-tuned. The results showed that the averaged area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of discriminating malignant from benign ones were 0.9789 (benign vs. TN), 0.9689 (benign vs. NTN). To discriminate TN from NTN breast cancer, the AUC was 0.9000, the accuracy was 88.89%, the sensitivity was 87.5%, and the specificity was 90.00%. It showed that the computer-aided system based on DCNN is expected to be a promising noninvasive clinical tool for ultrasound diagnosis of TN breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a common inflammatory dermatology disease. Strongly expressed serum amyloid A (SAA) promotes psoriasis exacerbation through inducing IL-17 secretion. What's more, SAA can stimulate the release of cathepsin B. The current work was performed to demonstrate the specific effects of cathepsin B silencing on inflammatory response, proliferation, and differentiation of IL-17A and SAA-induced keratinocytes and to report the precise role of cathepsin B in psoriasis-like lesion. HaCaT keratinocytes received treatment with IL-17A (0, 10, 50, 100 ng/ml) or SAA (0, 1, 5, 10, 20 μg/ml) for 24 h to establish psoriasis-like keratinocytes model. HaCaT keratinocytes were transfected with small interfering RNA (siRNA)-cathepsin B for the functional experiments. Cathepsin B mRNA and protein levels were separately assessed by performing RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis. Then, CCK-8 for detection of cell proliferative capacity and Western blot assay for detection of Ki67 and PCNA expression were adopted to evaluate the influence of silenced cathepsin B on proliferation of IL-17A/SAA-induced HaCaT keratinocytes. Furthermore, IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, and p-NF-κB p65 were detected to assess the effects of cathepsin B knockdown on inflammatory response in IL-17A/SAA-induced HaCaT keratinocytes. In addition, assessment of KRT10, FLG, and LOR levels were applied to analyze the function of cathepsin B silencing on differentiation of IL-17A/SAA-induced HaCaT keratinocytes. Cathepsin B expression is distinctly elevated in IL-17A/SAA-induced HaCaT keratinocytes. IL-17A or SAA treatment enhanced proliferation, promoted the release of inflammatory factors, and arrested differentiation in HaCaT keratinocytes. Furthermore, downregulation of cathepsin B reduced proliferation, suppressed inflammatory response, and boosted differentiation in IL-17A/SAA-induced HaCaT keratinocytes. To sum up, cathepsin B silencing rescued excessive proliferation and inflammatory response and scarce differentiation in HaCaT keratinocytes induced by IL-17A and SAA. These findings prompted that cathepsin B might be a promising therapeutic target for psoriasis-like lesion, which helps to develop an anti-psoriatic agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Compare the intraventricular hemodynamics of 60 females with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 61 healthy female controls, and determine cardiac function changes using vector flow mapping (VFM). Methods: To determine the effect of pulmonary artery pressure changes on left ventricular function, SLE patients were divided into a normal pulmonary artery pressure group (S1, n=24) and an elevated pulmonary artery pressure group (S2, n=36). The energy loss (EL) at each segment of the left ventricular chamber (total, basal, middle, and apical segments) during each period of the cardiac cycle (isovolumic contraction, rapid ejection, rapid filling, reduced filling, atrial contraction) was determined. Results: The S1 group had significantly more vortices than the control group during the rapid ejection, rapid filling, and atrial contraction periods (p<0.01), and the maximum vortex areas in the S1 and S2 groups were smaller than in the control group during rapid filling and atrial contraction periods (p<0.05). Compared with the control group, the S2 group had greater EL during the systole and diastole periods (p<0.01). EL in the S1 group was significantly greater than in the control group during systole (p<0.01). During the rapid filling period, the EL was positively correlated with septal E′ (r=0.784, p<0.01), and during the atrial contraction period, EL was positively correlated with septal E/e′ (r=0.812, p<0.01) and A (r=0.715, p<0.01). Conclusion: VFM of patients with SLE can comprehensively, rapidly, and efficiently evaluate changes of myocardial mechanics and intracardiac hemodynamics and provide quantitative analysis of complex intracardiac blood flow. Key points • Vector flow mapping (VFM) is a new non-invasive ultrasound technique that evaluates changes of myocardial mechanics and intracardiac hemodynamics, and provides quantitative analysis of complex intracardiac blood flow. • This study showed that vortex and energy loss may provide more sensitive detection of cardiac dysfunction than conventional echocardiographic indexes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive volumes of high-dimensional data that evolve over time are continuously collected by contemporary information processing systems, which bring up the problem of organizing these data into clusters, i.e. achieving the purpose of dimensional reduction, and meanwhile learning their temporal evolution patterns. In this paper, a framework for evolutionary subspace clustering, referred to as LSTM–ESCM, is introduced, which aims at clustering a set of evolving high-dimensional data points that lie in a union of low-dimensional evolving subspaces. In order to obtain the parsimonious data representation at each time step, we propose to exploit the so-called self-expressive trait of the data at each time point. At the same time, LSTM networks are implemented to extract the inherited temporal patterns behind data in the overall time frame. An efficient algorithm has been proposed. Numerous experiments are carried out on real-world datasets to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach. The results show that the suggested algorithm dramatically outperforms other known similar approaches in terms of both run time and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short-faced moles (Scaptochirus moschata) are unique Chinese mammal that live in burrows for life. They have complex ecological adaptation mechanisms to adapt to perennial underground life. Intestinal microbes play an important role in the ecological adaptation of wild animals. The gut microbiota diversity and its function in short-faced moles' ecological adaptation is a scientific issue worth exploring. In this study, the Illumina HiSeq sequencing platform was used to sequence the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA genes of 22 short-faced moles' intestinal samples to study the composition and functional structure of their intestinal microbiota. The results showed that in the short-faced moles' intestine, there are four main phyla, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidete. At the family level, Peptostreptococcaceae and Enterobacteriaceae have the highest abundance. At the genus level, Romboutsia is the genus with the highest microbial abundance. According to the KEGG database, the main functions of short-faced mole gut microbes are metabolism, genetic information processing, environmental information processing, and cellular processes. The function of short-faced mole intestinal microbiota is suitable for its long-term burrowing life. No gender difference is found in the composition and function of the short-faced mole intestinal microbiota. There are significant differences in the composition and functional structure of the short-faced mole gut microbiota between samples collected from different habitats. We conferred that this is related to the different environment factors in which they live, especially to the edaphic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile and green approach to the preparation of peroxidase-like nanozymes by reducing and functionalizing graphene oxide (rGO) with Ganoderma polysaccharide (GP) has been achieved in this work. Our results showed that the as-fabricated nanozyme, namely rGO-GP, possessed the excellent property of simulating peroxidase with higher catalytic activity compared with GO or rGO obtained by using chitosan, which may be due to the better dispersion of rGO-GP in the solution. Steady-state kinetics studies further showed that the catalytic process conformed to Michaelis-Menten equation and ping-pong mechanism. Benefiting from the excellent peroxidase property of rGO-GP, we have also successfully established a highly sensitive and selective colorimetric detection approach to trace detection of l-cysteine (l-Cys). The limit of detection (LOD) of l-cysteine is 0.1 μM and the linear detection range is 2–30 μM. Furthermore, the nanozyme was successfully applied for detecting l-cysteine in serum. This work therefore demonstrates the advantages of rGO-GP as an effective nanozyme in both its green synthesis and detecting application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TcpC is a multifunctional virulence factor of uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). Neutrophil extracellular trap formation (NETosis) is a crucial anti-infection mechanism of neutrophils. Here we show the influence of TcpC on NETosis and related mechanisms. We show NETosis in the context of a pyelonephritis mouse model induced by TcpC-secreting wild-type E. coli CFT073 (CFT073wt) and LPS-induced in vitro NETosis with CFT073wt or recombinant TcpC (rTcpC)-treated neutrophils are inhibited. rTcpC enters neutrophils through caveolin-mediated endocytosis and inhibits LPS-induced production of ROS, proinflammatory cytokines and protein but not mRNA levels of peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4). rTcpC treatment enhances PAD4 ubiquitination and accumulation in proteasomes. Moreover, in vitro ubiquitination kit analyses show that TcpC is a PAD4-targetd E3 ubiquitin-ligase. These data suggest that TcpC inhibits NETosis primarily by serving as an E3 ligase that promotes degradation of PAD4. Our findings provide a novel mechanism underlying TcpC-mediated innate immune evasion. TcpC is a well characterised multifunctional virulence factor expressed by uropathogenic Eschericia coli. Here the authors show that TcpC also targets neutrophil NETosis via its E3 ligase functionality promoting the degradation of PAD4, and represents an additional immune evasion function of this bacterially derived virulence factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis strains, including wild type and high-temperature-resistant cultivars 981 and 2007, were studied with the changes in their photosynthetic pigment contents and related gene transcription levels under different light intensities (10, 60, 100, and 200 µmol m−2 s−1). The three G. lemaneiformis strains had the following photosynthetic pigments with high-to-low contents: phycoerythrin (PE), phycocyanin (PC), allophycocyanin (APC), and chlorophyll a (Chl a). Among the three strains, cultivar 981 had the highest PE content, followed by cultivar 2007. The PC and APC contents were similar among the three strains, but they were higher in cultivars 981 and 2007 than in the wild type. The Chl a contents in the three G. lemaneiformis strains were equal. A low light intensity (10 µmol m−2 s−1) promoted photosynthetic pigment accumulation in G. lemaneiformis and improved the relative PE gene transcription (peA and peB) in a short period (≤ 6 d). A high light intensity decreased the PE content. PebA and PebB, which catalyzed phycoerythrobilin synthesis, showed no compensatory upregulation at a low light intensity among the strains except for the wild type. At a high light intensity, transcription levels of pebA and pebB in the three strains were upregulated. This study provided an experimental basis for elucidating the photosynthesis of G. lemaneiformis. As key genes of algal growth, photosynthesis-related genes served as useful gene markers for screening elite varieties with good traits in breeding. Cultivar 2007 was superior to cultivar 981 in terms of maintaining high pigment levels in a wide range of light intensities, which is the most suitable for aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of agricultural development, climate change in different regions will have different degrees of impact on the allocation and use of agricultural resources. In most cases, climate change will affect the use of agricultural production technology. The energy and material needed in the process of crop growth are also provided by climate change. People must pay attention to climate change if they want to carry out agricultural production. Through people's long-term practice, it can be seen that the development of agriculture is greatly affected by climate. Once the climate change is unfavorable to the development of agriculture, the total grain reserve in China will be affected, and there will be some problems in the food supply of the whole country. In order to effectively reduce the negative impact of climate change, this paper analyzes the climate problems in the process of agricultural production by using geographic information technology, discusses the ability of agricultural resources to cope with sudden disasters, and puts forward reasonable resource allocation suggestions to improve the utilization efficiency of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposed a novel mathematical framework for the sustainability assessment of sewage sludge to energy (SStE) scenarios, by resorting to fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCMD) methods. In which, an evaluation system including twelve criteria from four dimensions was introduced, while the fuzzy triangular number (TFN) was used to address the hybrid-data issue in the decision-making. More importantly, four fuzzy MCDM methods were used to make the following methodological contributions: (1) the fuzzy full consistency method (FUCOM) was extended into uncertain conditions to determine the weights easily and reliably, which preserves the consistency in ambiguous, subjective judgments; (2) a novel TFN-based fusion ranking model was developed by aggregating three fuzzy MCDM approaches, which not only takes the hybrid data as input information for decision-making (by combining the TFN) but also promotes the confidence in final prioritization (by reconciling different sequences). Four illustrative SStE scenarios were studied to test the feasibility of the model. Besides, the effectiveness and advantages of the model were verified by results comparison and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a bilateral supply chain with a downstream manufacturer and an upstream farmer. The manufacturer makes two sourcing decisions: Whether to join the fair trade movement and whether to use organic or conventional (non-organic) cotton in her product. The manufacturer's sourcing strategy affects the determination of the wholesale price, the farmer's production cost, and consumers' purchasing decisions. We characterize the supply chain parties' subgame perfect Nash equilibrium decisions, finding that the manufacturer participates in fair trade or uses organic cotton only when the non-organic cotton commodity price is sufficiently high. Moreover, increases in the cotton commodity price may not necessarily benefit the farmer. Finally, the manufacturer's participation in fair trade can yield the highest profit for both supply chain parties. Such a win–win outcome always occurs when the fair trade manufacturer also chooses organic cotton but never occurs if the manufacturer does not participate in fair trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this paper analyzes students' baccalaureate attainment and early labor market performance, comparing 2-year college and 4-year institution entrants and exploring the potential heterogeneous treatment effects of initiating one's college experience in a 2-year college by individual pre-college academic preparation. Utilizing propensity score matching on a rich set of student demographic characteristics, academic and high school attributes, we find that 2-year college entry sharply reduces baccalaureate aspirants' likelihood of earning a baccalaureate, and such negative effects are particularly pronounced for students in the highest quartile of pre-college math ability. In terms of labor market outcomes, female 2-year college entrants are less likely to gain full-time employment, as compared to their female 4-year institution counterparts. We also examine various mechanisms that may hinder 2-year college entrants' baccalaureate completion, including the impact of 2-year college attendance on early academic progress, challenges of the transfer process, loss of credits at the point of transfer, and post-transfer academic shock. Our results provide suggestive evidence in support of all four mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]