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In this work, PCN-224(Fe) porphyrin-based metal–organic frameworks and a Poly(ionic liquids) (PILs) were used to prepare PCN-224(Fe)@PIL(Cl−) composite films by UV polymerisation. The structure, morphology, chemical composition, and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared composite film were investigated. PCN-224(Fe) was coated with a kind of P(1-vinylpyridinium chloride as monomer) on the outside to improve the electron transfer efficiency, while an electrochemical system was employed to catalysis the persulfate (PS) decomposition for the efficient degradation of tetracycline (TC). Because of the cathodic reduction reaction, the continuous redox cycle between Fe3+/Fe2+ was facilitated, which enhanced the degradation activity of persulfate on tetracycline. The PCN-224(Fe)@PIL(Cl−) composite demonstrated a superior electrocatalytic degradation efficiency of 95.8% in just 40 min for the TC model pollutant, surpassing the 63.3% efficiency of pure PCN-224(Fe) within 60 min. This work shows a successful example of using PILs to enhance catalytic degradation activity and points out a direction of preparation of catalysts for activating persulfate (PS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beige fat activation involves a fuel switch to fatty acid oxidation following chronic cold adaptation. Mitochondrial acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 1 (ACSL1) localizes in the mitochondria and plays a key role in fatty acid oxidation; however, the regulatory mechanism of the subcellular localization remains poorly understood. Here, we identify an endosomal trafficking component sortilin (encoded by Sort1) in adipose tissues that shows dynamic expression during beige fat activation and facilitates the translocation of ACSL1 from the mitochondria to the endolysosomal pathway for degradation. Depletion of sortilin in adipocytes results in an increase of mitochondrial ACSL1 and the activation of AMPK/PGC1α signaling, thereby activating beige fat and preventing high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Collectively, our findings indicate that sortilin controls adipose tissue fatty acid oxidation by substrate fuel selection during beige fat activation and provides a potential targeted approach for the treatment of metabolic diseases. Beige fat activation involves a fuel switch to fatty acid oxidation following chronic cold adaptation. Here, the authors show that Sortilin in adipose tissues facilitates the translocation of ACSL1 from the mitochondria to the endolysosomal pathway for degradation, which controls adipose tissue fatty acid oxidation and substrate fuel selection during beige fat activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two different Mn contents of Al-Mg-Mn alloy wires were employed for preparing wire arc addition manufacturing (WAAM) samples. The compositions of the as-deposited samples were Al-8.55Mg-0.39Mn and Al-8.67Mg-1.26Mn. During the wire additive manufacturing process, both Mg and Mn elements underwent significant volatilization. With the addition of Mn, the primary phases present included Al8(FeMn)5, Al9(FeMn)4, Al11(FeMn)4, and Mn atoms dissolved in the matrix. The addition of Mn significantly inhibited pore formation during the additive manufacturing process and refined the grain structure of the alloy. With an increase in Mn content, the average grain size in the deposited intermediate zone decreased from 72 μm to 37 μm. This grain refinement occurred through the process of repetitive melting and deposition in additive manufacturing. In the initial stages of solidification, the Al8(FeMn)5 phase preferentially precipitated from the liquid phase, forming irregular clustered structures but not serving as nucleation sites. The initially coarse columnar grains in the topmost layer after a single deposition transformed into fine equiaxed grain structures after multiple overlays. Additionally, the addition of Mn significantly improved the mechanical properties of the aged structure. The optimum mechanical properties were achieved after aging treatment at 470 °C for 6 h, with tensile strength, yield strength, and fracture elongation of 377 MPa, 202 MPa, and 29.2%, respectively. The improvement in mechanical properties after aging treatment primarily resulted from the precipitation strengthening effect of the Al6Mn precipitate phase and the elimination of the intergranular Al3Mg2 segregation phase. The sizes of the Al8(FeMn)5, Al9(FeMn)4, and Al11(FeMn)4 phases did not undergo significant changes during the aging process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yaks live in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for a long time where oxygen is scarce, but can ensure the smooth development of testis and spermatogenesis. The key lies in the functional regulation of the Sertoli cells under hypoxia. In this study, we sequenced yak Sertoli cells cultured in normal oxygen concentration (Normoxia) and treated with low oxygen concentration (Hypoxia) by whole transcriptomics, and screened out 194 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), 934 differentially expressed LncRNAs (DELncRNAs) and 129 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs). GO and KEGG analysis showed that these differential genes were mainly concentrated in PI3K-AKT, MAPK, RAS, and other signaling pathways, and were associated with glucose metabolism, tight junction, steroid hormone synthesis, cell fusion, and immunity of yak Sertoli cells. We constructed the gene interaction network of yak Sertoli cells in hypoxia and screened out the relationship pairs related to glucose metabolism and tight junction. The results suggested that the changes in energy metabolism, tight junction, and immune regulation of yak Sertoli cells under hypoxia might provide favorable conditions for spermatogenesis. This study provides data for further study on the role of non-coding RNA in testis development and spermatogenesis of yak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of large-scale high-quality datasets has stimulated the rapid development of deep learning in recent years. However, most computer vision tasks focus on the visual modality only, resulting in a huge imbalance in the number of annotated data for other modalities. While several multi-modal datasets have been made available, the majority of them are confined to only two modalities, serving a single specific computer vision task. To redress the data deficiency for multi-modal learning and applications, a new dataset named UniMod1K is presented in this work. UniMod1K involves three data modalities: vision, depth, and language. For the vision and depth modalities, the UniMod1K dataset contains 1050 RGB-D sequences, comprising a total of some 2.5 million frames. Regarding the language modality, the proposed dataset includes 1050 sentences describing the target object in each video. To demonstrate the advantages of training on a larger multi-modal dataset, such as UniMod1K, and to stimulate research enabled by the dataset, we address several multi-modal tasks, namely multi-modal object tracking and monocular depth estimation. To establish a performance baseline, we propose novel baseline methods for RGB-D object tracking, vision-language tracking and vision-depth-language tracking. Additionally, we conduct comprehensive experiments for each of these tasks. The results highlight the potential of the UniMod1K dataset to improve the performance of multi-modal approaches. The dataset and codes can be accessed at https://github.com/xuefeng-zhu5/UniMod1K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed the transformative impact from the integration of artificial intelligence with organic and polymer synthesis. This synergy offers innovative and intelligent solutions to a range of classic problems in synthetic chemistry. These exciting advancements include the prediction of molecular property, multi-step retrosynthetic pathway planning, elucidation of the structure-performance relationship of single-step transformation, establishment of the quantitative linkage between polymer structures and their functions, design and optimization of polymerization process, prediction of the structure and sequence of biological macromolecules, as well as automated and intelligent synthesis platforms. Chemists can now explore synthetic chemistry with unprecedented precision and efficiency, creating novel reactions, catalysts, and polymer materials under the data-driven paradigm. Despite these thrilling developments, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) synthetic chemistry is still in its infancy, facing challenges and limitations in terms of data openness, model interpretability, as well as software and hardware support. This review aims to provide an overview of the current progress, key challenges, and future development suggestions in the interdisciplinary field between AI and synthetic chemistry. It is hoped that this overview will offer readers a comprehensive understanding of this emerging field, inspiring and promoting further scientific research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The In2.77S4/In-MOFs Z-scheme heterojunction composite photocatalysts were successfully synthesized via an insitu hydrothermal growth method. The chemical structure, morphology, optical properties, and photogenerated carriers transfer behavior of the as-prepared In2.77S4/In-MOFs composites were characterized in details. The In2.77S4/In-MOFs (10 wt%) composite showed the optimal photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 95.9% in 90 min for the tetracycline (TC) model pollutant, which was significantly higher than that of pure In2.77S4 (75.1%) and In-MOFs (9.7%). The X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), photoelectrochemical, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique were carried out to illuminate the photocatalytic degradation mechanism of In2.77S4/In-MOFs (10 wt%) for TC, which showed that the Z-scheme heterojunction structure of In2.77S4/In-MOFs (10 wt%) could reinforced the light harvesting capacity and promote the photogenerated carrier migration under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the photogenerated holes play a major role during the photocatalytic degradation reaction. Finally, this work maybe offers an effective method for the designing In2.77S4-based Z-scheme heterojunctions to facilitate the charge carrier transfer in heterogeneous catalysts. [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.)

Conventional macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B-ketolide (MLSBK) antibiotics are unable to counter the growing challenge of antibiotic resistance that is conferred by the constitutive methylation of rRNA base A2058 or its G2058 mutation, while the presence of unmodified A2058 is crucial for high selectivity of traditional MLSBK in targeting pathogens over human cells. The absence of effective modes of action reinforces the prevailing belief that constitutively antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus remains impervious to existing macrolides including telithromycin. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a novel series of macrolides, featuring the strategic fusion of ketolide and quinolone moieties. Our effort led to the discovery of two potent compounds, MCX-219 and MCX-190, demonstrating enhanced antibacterial efficacy against a broad spectrum of formidable pathogens, including A2058-methylated Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, and notably, the clinical Mycoplasma pneumoniae isolates harboring A2058G mutations which are implicated in the recent pneumonia outbreak in China. Mechanistic studies reveal that the modified quinolone moiety of MCX-190 establishes a distinctive secondary binding site within the nascent peptide exit tunnel. Structure-activity relationship analysis underscores the importance of this secondary binding, maintained by a sandwich-like π–π stacking interaction and a water–magnesium bridge, for effective engagement with A2058-methylated ribosomes rather than topoisomerases targeted by quinolone antibiotics. Our findings not only highlight MCX-219 and MCX-190 as promising candidates for next-generation MLSBK antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance, but also pave the way for the future rational design of the class of MLSBK antibiotics, offering a strategic framework to overcome the challenges posed by escalating antibiotic resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Essential thrombocythemia (ET) and prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis (pre-PMF) are Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms. These conditions share overlapping clinical presentations; however, their prognoses differ significantly. Current morphological diagnostic methods lack reliability in subtype differentiation, underlining the need for improved diagnostics. The aim of this study was to investigate the multi-omics alterations in bone marrow biopsies of patients with ET and pre-PMF to improve our understanding of the nuanced diagnostic characteristics of both diseases. We performed proteomic analysis with 4D direct data-independent acquisition and microbiome analysis with 2bRAD-M sequencing technology to identify differential protein and microbe levels between untreated patients with ET and pre-PMF. Laboratory and multi-omics differences were observed between ET and pre-PMF, encompassing diverse pathways, such as lipid metabolism and immune response. The pre-PMF group showed an increased neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and decreased high-density lipoprotein and cholesterol levels. Protein analysis revealed significantly higher CXCR2, CXCR4, and MX1 levels in pre-PMF, while APOC3, APOA4, FABP4, C5, and CFB levels were elevated in ET, with diagnostic accuracy indicated by AUC values ranging from 0.786 to 0.881. Microbiome assessment identified increased levels of Mycobacterium, Xanthobacter, and L1I39 in pre-PMF, whereas Sphingomonas, Brevibacillus, and Pseudomonas_E were significantly decreased, with AUCs for these genera ranging from 0.833 to 0.929. Our study provides preliminary insights into the proteomic and microbiome variations in the bone marrow of patients with ET and pre-PMF, identifying specific proteins and bacterial genera that warrant further investigation as potential diagnostic indicators. These observations contribute to our evolving understanding of the multi-omics variations and possible mechanisms underlying ET and pre-PMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to reasonably distribute the final payoffs to each enterprise alliance participating in cooperation is one of the hottest issues in cooperative game problems. Notably, existing scholarly investigations addressing such problems often overlook the disparate contributions made by individual players to the alliance, opting instead to assign same distribution weights to all participants. Obviously, it is inconsistent with the realistic cooperative game scenario and may cause inequitable payoffs distribution in the cooperative game. In this paper, we proposed a novel combination approach aimed at obtaining the value of payoffs distribution that aligns more closely with actual circumstances. Firstly, we obtain the initial Shapley values of cooperative game alliances and construct the weighted normalized aggregated q-rung interval-valued orthopair fuzzy decision matrix. Subsequently, the Borda-MULTIMOORA method is employed to calculate correction coefficients that can reflect the enterprises' contributions to the alliance within the cooperative game, thereby enhancing the fairness of the allocation process. Ultimately, the availability and superiority of proposed payoffs distribution model is verified by a numerical example of three new energy sharing electric vehicle companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate (NO 3 −) and nitride (NO 2 −) to ammonia (NH3) is of wide interest as a promising alternative to the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch route for mitigating the vast energy consumption and the accompanied carbon dioxide emission, as well as benefiting for the relevant sewage treatment. However, exploring an efficient and low-cost catalyst with high atomic utilization that can effectively facilitate the slow multi-electron transfer process remains a grand challenge. Herein, we present an efficient hydrogenation of NO 3 − / NO 2 − species to NH3 in both alkaline and neutral environments over the Fe2(MoO4)3 derived hybrid electrocatalyst with the metallic Fe site on FeMoO4 (Fe/FeMoO4). The Mo ingredient can play a synergistically positive role in further promoting the NH3 production on Fe. As a result, Fe/FeMoO4 behaves well in the electrochemical NH3 generation from NO 2 − with a maximum NH3 Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 96.53% and 87.68% in alkaline and neutral electrolyte, corresponding to the NH3 yield rate of 640.68 and 302.56 mg ⋅ h − 1 ⋅ mg cat. − 1 , respectively, which outperforms the Fe and Mo counterpart and other similar catalyst, showing the robust catalytic capacity of each active site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycosyltransferases (GTs) are a diverse group of enzymes widely distributed in nature that catalyze the transfer of glycosyl moieties from activated sugar donors to a diverse range of acceptor molecules. GTs play important roles in various biological processes, such as cellular signal transduction, cell–cell interactions, immune response and disease. In addition, the utilization of glycosyltransferases to synthesize glycosides has become a major area of pharmaceutical research. The construction of a rapid and efficient screening method for glycosyltransferases is the key to the successful discovery, identification, and modification of new enzymes. In the past few decades, a series of screening methods have been developed to assess GT activity. This review focuses on various methods for rapid screening of GTs, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The possibility of using a color contrast method to evaluate blood loss during liposuction was assessed. A color chart of blood–lipid content associated with different blood volumes was developed. Methods: Three color cards with different concentrations of blood were developed based on clinical parameters. The color cards were used to evaluate the volume of blood present in liposuction solutions obtained from 60 clinical liposuction patients. The red blood cell count also was evaluated for each patient. The data obtained using each evaluation method were compared and statistically analyzed to determine the most accurate calculation formula. Results: The red blood cell counts were compared to the color card results. The paired t test results for the calculated values for the 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1 color cards and the red blood cell count values were comparable (44.3 ± 22.1 ml vs. 53.6 ± 25.0 ml, t = 10.5; 45.4 ± 19.0 ml vs. 55.2 ± 20.7 ml, t = 18.1; 41.9 ± 25.6 ml vs. 52.8 ± 28.3 ml, t = 14.0). The P values were < 0.05, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant. The average standard error of the mean was 0.90, 0.54, and 0.77, respectively. Sixty samples were evaluated in a scatter diagram using the two detection methods. Trend analysis revealed that the two results demonstrated a linear increase (y = 5.6 + 1.1x), R2 = 0.989, indicating that the two inspection methods were highly correlated with only small errors. Conclusion: The colorimetric card protocol developed in this study could quickly, accurately, and conveniently calculate blood volumes in liposuction fluids, which has considerable clinical significance. No Level Assigned: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each submission to which Evidence-Based Medicine rankings are applicable. This excludes Review Articles, Book Reviews, and manuscripts that concern Basic Science, Animal Studies, Cadaver Studies, and Experimental Studies. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors http://www.springer.com/00266. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Minimally invasive esophagectomy is the first-line approach for esophageal cancer; however, there has recently been a paradigm shift toward robotic esophagectomy (RE). We investigated the clinical outcomes of patients who underwent RE compared with those of patients who underwent conventional minimally invasive thoracoscopic esophagectomy (TE) for locally advanced cT3 or cT4 esophageal cancer using a propensity-matched analysis. Methods: Overall, 342 patients with locally advanced cT3 or cT4 esophageal cancer underwent transthoracic esophagectomy with total mediastinal lymph node dissection between 2018 and 2022. The propensity-matched analysis was performed to assign the patients to either RE or TE by covariates of histological type, tumor location, and clinical N factor. Results: Overall, 87 patients were recruited in each of the RE and TE groups according to the propensity-matched analysis. The total complication rate and the rates of the three major complications (recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, anastomotic leakage, and pneumonia) were not significantly different between the RE and TE groups. However, the peak C-reactive protein concentration on postoperative day 3, rate of surgical site infection, and intensive care unit length of stay after surgery were significantly shorter in the RE group than in the TE group. No significant differences were observed in the harvested total and mediastinal lymph nodes. The total operation time was significantly longer in the RE group, while the thoracic operation time was shorter in the RE group than in the TE group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the recurrence rate of oncological outcomes after surgery. Conclusion: RE may facilitate early recovery after esophagectomy with total mediastinal lymph node dissection and has the same technical feasibility and oncological outcomes as TE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebrovascular diseases have extreme high mortality and disability rate worldwide, and endothelial cells injury-induced atherosclerosis acts as the main cause of cerebrovascular disease. Ferroptosis is a novel type of programmed cell death depending on iron-lipid peroxidation. Recent studies have revealed that ferroptosis might promote the progression of atherosclerosis (AS). Here, this research aimed to investigate the function and its profound mechanism on vascular endothelial cells in atherosclerosis. Research results revealed that YTHDF2 expression up-regulated in ox-LDL treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Gain/loss functional assays indicated that YTHDF2 overexpression inhibited HUVECs' proliferation and accelerated the ferroptosis in ox-LDL-administered HUVECs. Meanwhile, YTHDF2 silencing promoted cell proliferation and reduced the ferroptosis in ox-LDL-administered HUVECs. Mechanistically, in silico analysis suggested that there were potential m6A-modified sites on SLC7A11 mRNA, and YTHDF2 could bind with SLC7A11 mRNA via m6A-dependent manner. YTHDF2 promoted the degradation of SLC7A11 mRNA, thereby reducing its mRNA stability. Taken together, these findings suggest that YTHDF2 accelerates endothelial cells ferroptosis in cerebrovascular atherosclerosis, helping us enhance our comprehension on cerebrovascular disease pathological physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses have been increasingly identified in pangolins, showing a potential threat to humans. Here we report the infectivity and pathogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2-related virus, PCoV-GX/P2V, which was isolated from a Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica). PCoV-GX/P2V could grow in human hepatoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma cells, and human primary nasal epithelial cells. It replicated more efficiently in cells expressing human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) as SARS-CoV-2 did. After intranasal inoculation to the hACE2-transgenic mice, PCoV-GX/P2V not only replicated in nasal turbinate and lungs, but also caused interstitial pneumonia, characterized by infiltration of mixed inflammatory cells and multifocal alveolar hemorrhage. Existing population immunity established by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination may not protect people from PCoV-GX/P2V infection. These findings further verify the hACE2 utility of PCoV-GX/P2V by in vivo experiments using authentic viruses and highlight the importance for intensive surveillance to prevent possible cross-species transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the associations between use of statins and risks of various ovarian, uterine, and cervical diseases, including ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cyst, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial polyp, and cervical polyp. Methods: We conducted a cohort study among female participants in the UK Biobank. Information on the use of statins was collected through verbal interview. Outcome information was obtained by linking to national cancer registry data and hospital inpatient data. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to examine the associations. Results: A total of 180,855 female participants (18,403 statin users and 162,452 non-users) were included. Use of statins was significantly associated with increased risks of cervical cancer (adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 1.55; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.05–2.30) and polycystic ovarian syndrome (adjusted HR, 4.39; 95% CI, 1.68–11.49). However, we observed no significant association between use of statins and risk of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cyst, endometriosis, endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial polyp, or cervical polyp. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that use of statins is associated with increased risks of cervical cancer and polycystic ovarian syndrome, but is not associated with increased or decreased risk of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cyst, endometriosis, endometrial polyp, or cervical polyp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteriophage are sophisticated cellular parasites that can not only parasitize bacteria but are increasingly recognized for their direct interactions with mammalian hosts. Phage adherence to mucus is known to mediate enhanced antimicrobial effects in vitro. However, little is known about the therapeutic efficacy of mucus-adherent phages in vivo. Here, using a combination of in vitro gastrointestinal cell lines, a gut-on-a-chip microfluidic model, and an in vivo murine gut model, we demonstrated that a E. coli phage, øPNJ-6, provided enhanced gastrointestinal persistence and antimicrobial effects. øPNJ-6 bound fucose residues, of the gut secreted glycoprotein MUC2, through domain 1 of its Hoc protein, which led to increased intestinal mucus production that was suggestive of a positive feedback loop mediated by the mucus-adherent phage. These findings extend the Bacteriophage Adherence to Mucus model into phage therapy, demonstrating that øPNJ-6 displays enhanced persistence within the murine gut, leading to targeted depletion of intestinal pathogenic bacteria. Authors profile the antimicrobial activity of an Escherichia coli bacteriophage (in vivo and in vitro), isolated from chicken faeces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the catalytic activity of non-noble metal single atom catalysts (SACs) has attracted considerable attention in materials science. Although optimizing the local electronic structure of single atom can greatly improve their catalytic activity, it often involves in-plane modulation and requires high temperatures. Herein, we report a novel strategy to manipulate the local electronic structure of SACs via the modulation of axial Co–S bond anchored onto graphitic carbon nitride (C3N4) at room temperature (RT). Each Co atom is bonded to four N atoms and one S atom (Co-(N, S)/C3N4). Owing to the greater electronegativity of S in the Co–S bond, the local electronic structure of the Co atoms is available to be controlled at a relatively moderate level. Consequently, when employed for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction, the adsorption energy of intermediate hydrogen (H*) on the Co atoms is remarkably low. In the presence of the Co-(N, S)/C3N4 SACs, the hydrogen evolution rates reach up to 10 mmol/(gh), which is nearly 10 and 2.5 times greater than the rates in the presence of previously reported transition metal/C3N4 and noble platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs)/C3N4 catalysts, respectively. Attributed to the tailorable axial Co-S bond in the SAC, the local electronic structure of the Co atoms can be further optimized for other photocatalytic reactions. This axial coordination engineering strategy is universal in catalyst designing and can be used for a variety of photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrow bandwidths are a general bottleneck for applications relying on passive, linear, subwavelength resonators. In the past decades, several efforts have been devoted to overcoming this challenge, broadening the bandwidth of small resonators by the means of analog non-Foster matching networks for radiators, antennas and metamaterials. However, most non-Foster approaches present challenges in terms of tunability, stability and power limitations. Here, by tuning a subwavelength acoustic transducer with digital non-Foster-inspired electronics, we demonstrate five-fold bandwidth enhancement compared to conventional analog non-Foster matching. Long-distance transmission over airborne acoustic channels, with approximately three orders of magnitude increase in power level, validates the performance of the proposed approach. We also demonstrate convenient reconfigurability of our non-Foster-inspired electronics. This implementation provides a viable solution to enhance the bandwidth of sub-wavelength resonance-based systems, extendable to the electromagnetic domain, and enables the practical implementation of airborne and underwater acoustic radiators. Resonance-based systems such as electroacoustic transducers are often limited by narrow bandwidth. Here, authors report a digital non-Foster inspired circuit demonstrating significant bandwidth and power level enhancement with greater reconfigurability than conventional analog non-Foster approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the utilization of coalbed methane resources in the Guizhou region faces challenges such as complex reservoir structure, high gas content, and microporous development. Based on these, the pore structure and adsorption capacity of Guizhou tectonic deformed coals (TDCs) were evaluated using a suite of integrated diagnostic techniques including low-temperature nitrogen adsorption (LT-N2A), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), methane isothermal adsorption. Through the above methods, the pore structure and adsorption characteristics of the samples were characterized; The samples were divided into the range of joint pores by combining the results of MIP and LT-N2A; Using the molecular simulation software, the 2 nm, 4 nm, 10 nm pores affecting the methane endowment state were investigated respectively, and from the perspective of the heat of adsorption and energy, the concept of the three-phase transition of methane was proposed, and explore the change of the pore spacing affecting the endowment state of methane from the solid state pore to the gas state pore. The results provide new ideas for the in-depth study of gas storage in tectonic coal reservoirs in Guizhou Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, the influence of the simulated physiological flow field on the in vitro corrosion behavior of biodegradable WE43 (Mg-4.05 wt% Y-3.64 wt% RE-0.52 wt% Zr) magnesium alloy has been studied, using Hanks' balanced salt solution (HBSS) as the corrosion medium. The results indicate that the corrosion rate of WE43 alloy is time-dependent under each condition. After immersion for 168 h, the corrosion rate of WE43 alloy with a flow rate of 5.33 cm/s is about 3.49 mm/year, which is 1.7 times higher than that under static condition. The contradictory between the dynamic dissolution and re-deposition of the corrosion products is strongly related to the flow velocity. Initially, an accelerated mass transfer at a low flow rate would promote the corrosion layer generation of WE43 alloy, dominating the integrity of the corrosion layer, while continually high shear stress induced by a high flow rate field would destroy the integrity of the corrosion layer, primarily mitigate the thickness of the Ca-P layer. Owing to the corrosion product evolution and the influences of Cl−, the corrosion mode of the WE43 alloy herein transforms from localized corrosion to relatively uniform corrosion with the increase in flow rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Road dust samples in Baoshan District, Shanghai, were collected to explore magnetic and chemical properties of atmospheric dustfall in urban areas, intensively impacted by anthropogenic activities. Magnetic particles in road dusts were separated and analyzed to track their sources and then to discuss the influences of industrial and traffic emissions on the urban environment. Materials and methods: One hundred twenty-two road dust samples in the industrial, traffic, residential, and agricultural areas of Baoshan District, Shanghai, were collected. Magnetic susceptibility (χlf) and heavy metal content of the samples were determined. Micromorphological and microchemical features of magnetic particles separated from the road dusts were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy spectrum. Results and discussion: The road dusts are usually alkaline and strong in magnetic signal, of which, magnetic susceptibility (χlf), 838.7 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 on average, is much higher than the nearby topsoils. Moreover, χlf of the industrial and traffic road dusts, 1363.0 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 and 775.9 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 on average, respectively, is significantly higher than that of the others. Magnetic spherules, mainly composed of Fe oxides, were commonly observed in the road dusts, which are mostly formed during industrial high-temperature processes. A high number of flake-like, rod-like, and other irregular-shaped magnetic particles were also found in the road dusts, which may come from metal processing or vehicular wearing. The road dusts in the study areas are heavily polluted by Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cr. The principal component analyses (PCA) indicate that χlf and Zn, Mn, and Fe contents in the road dusts belong to the same principal component. Conclusions: Magnetic dustfall commonly occurs in urban areas due to industrial or vehicular emissions, which leads to the enhancement of magnetic signal and heavy metal content in urban road dusts simultaneously. χlf can indicate the accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the road dusts effectively. This also highlights a fact that the urban environment is continuously and significantly affected by the deposition of artificial atmospheric magnetic particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastrodin is an important plant-derived medicinal ingredient that has been used to treat various diseases. Biosynthesis is an effective strategy for gastrodin production, but the expression and activity of natural glycosyltransferases (GTs) is generally a limiting factor. To identify highly efficient GTs, four plant-derived enzymes were identified by homologous sequence analysis and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). A GT from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtUGT) displayed the highest activity of 0.45 U/mg, with an optimal pH of 9.0 and high thermostability. Under optimized conditions, 10 mM p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol and uridine diphosphate glucose were converted into 2.67 g/L gastrodin, corresponding to a conversion rate of 94.34% in 12 h. Furthermore, molecular docking simulations were performed between AtUGT and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, revealing the catalytic mechanism of AtUGT. This study provides a novel and effective biocatalyst for the synthesis of gastrodin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Surgery for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is characterized by a poor prognosis and high complication rate, resulting in a heavy symptom burden and poor health-related quality of life (QOL). We evaluated longitudinal patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to analyze the correlations between symptoms and QOL and their changing characteristics during postoperative rehabilitation. Methods: We investigated patients with ESCC who underwent minimally invasive McKeown esophagectomy at Sichuan Cancer Hospital between April 2019 and December 2019. Longitudinal data of the clinical characteristics and PROs were collected. The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QOL questionnaires were used to assess symptoms and QOL and compare the trajectories of PROs during the investigation. Results: A total of 244 patients with ESCC were enrolled in this study. Regarding QOL, role and emotional functions returned to baseline at 1 month after surgery, and cognitive and social functions returned to baseline at 3 months after surgery. However, physical function and global QOL did not return to baseline at 1 year after surgery. At 7 days and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery, the main symptoms of the patients were negatively correlated with physical, role, emotional, cognitive, and social functions and the overall health status (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Patients with ESCC experience reduced health-related QOL and persisting symptoms after minimally invasive McKeown esophagectomy, but a recovery trend was observed within 1 month. The long-term QOL after esophagectomy is acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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.)

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most important pathogens causing respiratory tract infection in humans, especially in infants and the elderly. The identification and structural resolution of the potent neutralizing epitopes on RSV fusion (F) protein enable an "epitope-focused" vaccine design. However, the display of RSV F epitope II on the surface of the widely-used human hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg) has failed to induce neutralizing antibody response in mice. Here, we used the hepadnavirus core protein (HcAg) from different mammalian hosts as scaffolds to construct chimeric virus-like particles (VLPs) presenting the RSV F epitope II. Mouse immunization showed that different HcAg-based chimeric VLPs elicited significantly different neutralizing antibody responses, among which the HcAg derived from roundleaf bat (RBHcAg) is the most immunogenic. Furthermore, RBHcAg was used as the scaffold platform to present multiple RSV F epitopes, and the immunogenicity was further improved in comparison to that displaying a single epitope II. The designed RBHcAg-based multiple-epitope-presenting VLP formulated with MF59-like adjuvant elicited a potent and balanced Th1/Th2 immune response, and offered substantial protection in mice against the challenge of live RSV A2 virus. The designed chimeric VLPs may serve as the potential starting point for developing epitope-focused vaccines against RSV. Our study also demonstrated that RBHcAg is an effective VLP carrier for presenting foreign epitopes, providing a promising platform for epitope-focused vaccine design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study published in the Blood Cancer Journal examines the connection between telomere length, epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), and the risk of various hematologic diseases. Using genetic data from the UK Biobank, the researchers conducted statistical analyses to investigate this relationship. The findings indicate that genetically longer telomere length is associated with a higher risk of certain hematologic malignancies, such as lymphoid leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma. However, there is no evidence of a causal relationship between EAA and the risk of these diseases. The study emphasizes the significance of telomere length in the development of hematologic cancers and suggests potential clinical implications. [Extracted from the article]

Metal-halide perovskite thin monocrystals featuring efficient carrier collection and transport capabilities are well suited for radiation detectors, yet their growth in a generic, well-controlled manner remains challenging. Here, we reveal that mass transfer is one major limiting factor during solution growth of perovskite thin monocrystals. A general approach is developed to overcome synthetic limitation by using a high solute flux system, in which mass diffusion coefficient is improved from 1.7×10–10 to 5.4×10–10 m2 s–1 by suppressing monomer aggregation. The generality of this approach is validated by the synthesis of 29 types of perovskite thin monocrystals at 40–90 °C with the growth velocity up to 27.2 μm min–1. The as-grown perovskite monocrystals deliver a high X-ray sensitivity of 1.74×105 µC Gy−1 cm−2 without applied bias. The findings regarding limited mass transfer and high-flux crystallization are crucial towards advancing the preparation and application of perovskite thin monocrystals. Liu et al. report a universal solution growth method for perovskite thin monocrystals by improving the mass transfer in the high solute flux system. The approach is applied to 29 types of perovskites with growth velocity up to 27.2 µm min-1 and enables efficient self-driven X-ray detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe-based MOFs (Fe-MOFs) are excellent photocatalysts and have synergy well with Fenton reagents relative to other MOFs. In this work, a series of uniformly covered NH2-Fe-MIL-88B@TpPa-1-COF composites were synthesized using an in-situ anchoring growth strategy, which used F127 as functional molecule to decorate NH2-Fe-MIL-88B nanoparticles to eliminate their surface electrostatic repulsion with Tp molecules during the subsequent coating procedure. Meanwhile, the -NH2 groups in the skeleton of NH2-Fe-MIL-88B could also be used as anchors to covalently connect TpPa-1-COF shell and migration channels for effective charge transfer. This uniformly covered core–shell structure would endow these composites with much more contact area and imine bond linkage between the Fe-MOFs core and COFs shell. Compared with the random packing structure, the uniformly covered Fe-MOF@COF-3 composite possessed a higher proportion of Fe2+ to Fe3+. As a result, the optimized Fe-MOF@COF-3 catalyst could achieve the highest photo-Fenton degradation efficiency of 93.9% for tetracycline hydrochloride (TC⋅HCl), which was much higher than 54.8% of pure NH2-Fe-MIL-88B. In addition, the uniform TpPa-1-COF shell could further effectively enhance the stability of NH2-Fe-MIL-88B by protecting Fe ions from leaching, and the toxicity of the water samples treated with our photo-Fenton degradation process declined obviously. All these merits will endow Fe-MOF@COF-3 photo-Fenton catalyst great potential application value as in the field of environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual obstacle discovery is a key step towards autonomous navigation of indoor mobile robots. Successful solutions have many applications in multiple scenes. One of the exceptions is the reflective ground. In this case, the reflections on the floor resemble the true world, which confuses the obstacle discovery and leaves navigation unsuccessful. We argue that the key to this problem lies in obtaining discriminative features for reflections and obstacles. Note that obstacle and reflection can be separated by the ground plane in 3D space. With this observation, we firstly introduce a pre-calibration based ground detection scheme that uses robot motion to predict the ground plane. Due to the immunity of robot motion to reflection, this scheme avoids failed ground detection caused by reflection. Given the detected ground, we design a ground-pixel parallax to describe the location of a pixel relative to the ground. Based on this, a unified appearance-geometry feature representation is proposed to describe objects inside rectangular boxes. Eventually, based on segmenting by detection framework, an appearance-geometry fusion regressor is designed to utilize the proposed feature to discover the obstacles. It also prevents our model from concentrating too much on parts of obstacles instead of whole obstacles. For evaluation, we introduce a new dataset for Obstacle on Reflective Ground (ORG), which comprises 15 scenes with various ground reflections, a total of more than 200 image sequences and 3400 RGB images. The pixel-wise annotations of ground and obstacle provide a comparison to our method and other methods. By reducing the misdetection of the reflection, the proposed approach outperforms others. The source code and the dataset will be available at https://github.com/xuefeng-cvr/IndoorObstacleDiscovery-RG [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High performance X-ray detector with ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution are crucial for biomedical imaging. This study reports a dynamic direct-conversion CMOS X-ray detector assembled with screen-printed CsPbBr3, whose mobility-lifetime product is 5.2 × 10−4 cm2 V–1 and X-ray sensitivity is 1.6 × 104 µC Gyair–1 cm–2. Samples larger than 5 cm × 10 cm can be rapidly imaged by scanning this detector at a speed of 300 frames per second along the vertical and horizontal directions. In comparison to traditional indirect-conversion CMOS X-ray detector, this perovskite CMOS detector offers high spatial resolution (5.0 lp mm−1) X-ray radiographic imaging capability at low radiation dose (260 nGy). Moreover, 3D tomographic images of a biological specimen are also successfully reconstructed. These results highlight the perovskite CMOS detector's potential in high-resolution, large-area, low-dose dynamic biomedical X-ray and CT imaging, as well as in non-destructive X-ray testing and security scanning. Biomedical X-ray imaging requires high spatial and temporal resolution of the detectors. Liu et al. report a screen-printed perovskite direct-conversion X-ray CMOS imager with a spatial resolution of 5 lp mm−1 and a speed of 300 fps for low-dose 2D radiography and 3D computed tomography imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For classical waves, phase matching is vital for enabling efficient energy transfer in many scenarios, such as waveguide coupling and nonlinear optical frequency conversion. Here, we propose a temporal quasi-phase matching method and realize robust and complete acoustical energy transfer between arbitrarily detuned cavities. In a set of three cavities, A, B, and C, the time-varying coupling is established between adjacent elements. Analogy to the concept of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage, amplitudes of the two couplings are modulated as time-delayed Gaussian functions, and the couplings' signs are periodically flipped to eliminate temporal phase mismatching. As a result, robust and complete acoustic energy transfer from A to C is achieved. The non-reciprocal frequency conversion properties of our design are demonstrated. Our research takes a pivotal step towards expanding wave steering through time-dependent modulations and is promising to extend the frequency conversion based on state evolution in various linear Hermitian systems to nonlinear and non-Hermitian regimes. Phase matching is pivotal for realizing complete energy transfer for classical waves. Here, authors propose temporal quasi-phase matching method and realize robust and complete energy transfer between arbitrarily detuned acoustic cavities by combing the concept of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipreading refers to translating the lip motion regarding a video speaker into the corresponding texts. Existing lipreading methods typically describe the lip motion using visual appearance variations. However, merely using the lip visual variations is prone to associating with inaccurate texts due to the similar lip shapes for different words. Also, visual features are hard to generalize to unseen speakers, especially when the training data is limited. In this paper, we leverage both lip visual motion and facial landmarks and propose an effective sentence-level end-to-end approach for lipreading. The facial landmarks are introduced to eliminate the irrelevant visual features which are sensitive to specific lip appearance of individual speakers. This enables the model to adapt to different lip shapes of speakers and generalize to unseen speakers. In specific, the proposed framework consists of two branches corresponding to the visual features and facial landmarks. The visual branch extracts high-level visual features from the lip movement, and the landmark branch learns to extract both spatial and temporal patterns described by the landmarks. The feature embeddings from two streams for each frame are fused to form its latent vector which can be decoded into texts. We employ a sequence-to-sequence model to operate the feature embeddings of all frames as input, and decode them to generate the texts. The proposed method is demonstrated to well generalize to unseen speakers on benchmark data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoic acid (RA) is widely used in cosmetics and medicine. However, high concentrations of RA may cause adverse effects, and carcinogenic substances can be generated by light degradation. Herein, a convenient and eco-friendly method was developed to achieve the sustained release of RA by TiO2 nanocapsules. The surface morphologies, crystalline properties, and chemical structures were studied by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, NMR. The particle size is ~ 200 nm. The synthesis conditions, photostability and biological properties were also investigated. The XRD results indicated that the low crystallinity of anatase TiO2 shell contributed to the sustained release of inner RA. The sustained release properties were investigated by the elution process. It confirmed that the RA was encapsulated in the TiO2 shell with loose structures. Light irradiation experiments showed that the irradiation time was extended from ~ 30 s to ~ 120 s when the concentration of residual RA was reduced to half under the same conditions. This showed that inner RA was well protected and continuously released. The RA-TiO2 nanocapsules showed good dispersion in water and oil phases, sustained release properties, extended effect time, long-acting antibacterial properties and photostability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological suitability prediction and analysis of specific taxonomic groups at finer geographic scales provide vital references for identifying and prioritizing biodiversity hotspots, especially for uneven species richness. Yet, in predicting suitability for multi-species or groups by species distribution models (SDMs) under highly heterogeneous environments, species bias may occur cause of the unequal protection status and the spatial autocorrelation processing of occurrences. For this, diversity, and protection hotspots were mapped in the south of the Hengduan Mountains, a significant site for global biodiversity. Specifically, it involved creating a network of 1 km2 grid cells spanning the region, counting the orchid species, quantifying the protection value, and classifying attributes by the Jenks Natural Breaks Classification in ArcGIS. Each grid has a 5 and 10 km buffer zone that contains attributes composing the diversity and protection hotspot layers, which were compared to the orchid suitability map modeled by SDMs. Results showed that even though there were extensively suitable habitats for orchids, the model results cannot completely cover the whole diversity and protection hotspots at any scale. Based on the map attributes, multi-scenario conservation planning was proposed, respectively the strict conservation scenario (SS), the economical conservation scenario (ES), and the positive conservation scenario (PS), representing different conservation objectives and efforts. This study identifies the critical areas of ecological suitability, diversity, and protection of orchids that facilitate to display of the fundamental biogeographical patterns in this region, which provides meaningful references for regional or global biodiversity conservation and transferable methods for similar studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fully supervised medical image segmentation methods use pixel-level labels to achieve good results, but obtaining such large-scale, high-quality labels is cumbersome and time consuming. This study aimed to develop a weakly supervised model that only used image-level labels to achieve automatic segmentation of four types of uterine lesions and three types of normal tissues on magnetic resonance images. The MRI data of the patients were retrospectively collected from the database of our institution, and the T2-weighted sequence images were selected and only image-level annotations were made. The proposed two-stage model can be divided into four sequential parts: the pixel correlation module, the class re-activation map module, the inter-pixel relation network module, and the Deeplab v3 + module. The dice similarity coefficient (DSC), the Hausdorff distance (HD), and the average symmetric surface distance (ASSD) were employed to evaluate the performance of the model. The original dataset consisted of 85,730 images from 316 patients with four different types of lesions (i.e., endometrial cancer, uterine leiomyoma, endometrial polyps, and atypical hyperplasia of endometrium). A total number of 196, 57, and 63 patients were randomly selected for model training, validation, and testing. After being trained from scratch, the proposed model showed a good segmentation performance with an average DSC of 83.5%, HD of 29.3 mm, and ASSD of 8.83 mm, respectively. As far as the weakly supervised methods using only image-level labels are concerned, the performance of the proposed model is equivalent to the state-of-the-art weakly supervised methods. [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.)

Fe3Al combines with steel to form bimetallic metal can benefit from steel's mechanical strength and make full use of Fe3Al's excellent performance under high temperatures. However, due to the poor fluidity and wettability of liquid Fe3Al to steel, the cladding prepared by traditional linear welding is not available to industrial sector. Hence, to optimize preparation, an arc deposition procedure based on a weaving path is proposed. Fe3Al cladding was prepared on the steel with weaving and linear paths by arc deposition technology, respectively, and the characteristics of the cladding were compared in terms of formability, surface feature and microstructure. The results demonstrated that the cladding prepared by weave arc deposition had better formability, lower dilution rates and fewer defects than that by the line one. Compared with the image captured by high-speed camera, the substantial difference was attributed to the higher molten pool velocities, which led to a smaller volume of molten pool in weave process. Under this circumstance, the arc force was conducive to the spread of liquid metal, forming a relatively small contact angle (< 45°). The finite element analysis revealed that the temperature distribution and thermal cycles resulted in finer grains in the weave process; furthermore, the weave process produced less residual stress, causing an increment of 153% in bonding strength between the cladding and the steel, compared to linear sample. Overall, the weave arc deposition technology is capable of molding Fe3Al layers efficiently and offers a good prospect for applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]