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This study aimed to utilize the nonnegative matrix factorization (NNMF) algorithm for muscle synergy analysis, extracting synergy structures and muscle weightings and mining biomarkers reflecting changes in muscle fatigue from these synergy structures. A leg press exercise to induce fatigue was performed by 11 participants. Surface electromyography (sEMG) data from seven muscles, electrocardiography (ECG) data, Borg CR-10 scale scores, and the z-axis acceleration of the weight block were simultaneously collected. Three indices were derived from the synergy structures: activation phase difference, coactivation area, and coactivation time. The indicators were further validated for single-leg landing. Differences in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were observed across different fatigue levels, with varying degrees of disparity. The median frequency (MDF) exhibited a consistent decline in the primary working muscle groups. Significant differences were noted in activation phase difference, coactivation area, and coactivation time before and after fatigue onset. Moreover, a significant correlation was found between the activation phase difference and the coactivation area with fatigue intensity. The further application of single-leg landing demonstrated the effectiveness of the coactivation area. These indices can serve as biomarkers reflecting simultaneous alterations in the central nervous system and muscle activity post-exertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is one of the critical brain areas for processing noxious information. Previous studies showed that peripheral nerve injury induced broad changes in the ACC, contributing to pain hypersensitivity. The neurons in layer 3 (L3) of the ACC receive the inputs from the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) and form the feedforward inhibition (FFI) microcircuits. The effects of peripheral nerve injury on the MD-driven FFI in L3 of ACC are unknown. In our study, we record the enhanced excitatory synaptic transmissions from the MD to L3 of the ACC in mice with common peroneal nerve ligation, affecting FFI. Chemogenetically activating the MD-to-ACC projections induces pain sensitivity and place aversion in naive mice. Furthermore, chemogenetically inactivating MD-to-ACC projections decreases pain sensitivity and promotes place preference in nerve-injured mice. Our results indicate that the peripheral nerve injury changes the MD-to-ACC projections, contributing to pain hypersensitivity and aversion. Injury-induced changes in MD-to-L3 projections, leading to increased feed forward inhibition, contribute to both pain aversion and altered pain thresholds. Manipulating these inputs affects pain-related behaviors, highlighting their role in pathological pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has a cardiovascular protective effect by preventing abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) formation. However, it is unclear at what point the agent should be administered to achieve the optimal effect. In this study, we aimed to determine whether administering the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide during the earlier stages would more efficiently inhibit AAA progression in mice. Methods: Depending on the group, mice were given a daily dose of 300 μg/kg liraglutide for 28 days at 7, 14, and 28 days after aneurysm induction. The morphology of the abdominal aorta was monitored using 7.0 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during the administration of liraglutide. After 28 days of administration, the AAA dilatation ratio was calculated, and histopathological examination was performed. Oxidative stress levels were evaluated by the expression of malondialdehyde (MDA) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The inflammatory response was also evaluated. Results: Liraglutide treatment led to a decrease in AAA formation, including a reduction in abdominal aorta expansion, elastin degradation in the elastic laminae, and vascular inflammation caused by leukocyte infiltration. The expression of MDA and the activity of MMPs (MMP-2, MMP-9) also decreased. Notably, administering liraglutide during the early stages resulted in a significant reduction in the dilatation rate of the aortic wall, as well as in MDA expression, leukocyte infiltration, and MMP activity in the vascular wall. Conclusions: The GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide was found to inhibit AAA progression in mice by exerting anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, particularly during the early stages of AAA formation. Therefore, liraglutide may represent a potential pharmacological target for the treatment of AAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MiR-1271-5p and coagulation factor XIII A (F13A1) are reported to be associated with the malignant progression of various types of cancers. The aim of this present research study was to delineate miR-1271-5p and F13A1 functional significance on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) progression. Methods: MiR-1271-5p and F13A1 expression levels were determined via RT-qPCR and western blot, their overexpression or knockdown effects on OSCC cells were assessed through various in vitro assays, including colony formation, wound healing, transwell and flow cytometry, and their mutual relationship were investigated using an online software and validated confirmed by additional in vitro experiments. Further, mechanistic assays were performed to determine their influence on the PI3K/AKT pathway. Results: Our results indicated downregulation of miR-1271-5p and upregulation of F13A1 in the investigated OSCC cell lines. In addition, upon overexpressing miR-1271-5p or knocking down F13A1, the cell proliferation, migration and invasion were suppressed and apoptotic rate was enhanced. Further investigations showed that the growth and invasive capabilities of OSCC cells were limited by miR-1271-5p through the downregulation of F13A1 mediated PI3K/AKT pathway. Conclusion: MiR-1271-5p could suppress OSCC progression by influencing F13A1 expression to inhibit the PI3K/AKT signaling, indicating the promising potential of targeting miR-1271-5p as a novel approach for treating OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today’s deep learning models face an increasing demand to handle dynamic shape tensors and computation whose shape information remains unknown at compile time and varies in a nearly infinite range at runtime. This shape dynamism brings tremendous challenges for existing compilation pipelines designed for static models which optimize tensor programs relying on exact shape values. This paper presents TSCompiler, an end-to-end compilation framework for dynamic shape models. TSCompiler first proposes a symbolic shape propagation algorithm to recover symbolic shape information at compile time to enable subsequent optimizations. TSCompiler then partitions the shape-annotated computation graph into multiple subgraphs and fine-tunes the backbone operators from the subgraph within a hardware-aligned search space to find a collection of high-performance schedules. TSCompiler can propagate the explored backbone schedule to other fusion groups within the same subgraph to generate a set of parameterized tensor programs for fused cases based on dependence analysis. At runtime, TSCompiler utilizes an occupancy-targeted cost model to select from pre-compiled tensor programs for varied tensor shapes. Extensive evaluations show that TSCompiler can achieve state-of-the-art speedups for dynamic shape models. For example, we can improve kernel efficiency by up to 3.97× on NVIDIA RTX3090, and 10.30 × on NVIDIA A100 and achieve up to five orders of magnitude speedups on end-to-end latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the pathway from childhood trauma to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and to examine the chain-mediating role of psychological resilience and depressive symptoms in this pathway. A total of 391 adolescents with MDD were recruited in the present study. The Chinese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Chinese version of the Symptoms Check List-90 (SCL-90), the Chinese version of the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory Chinese Revised Edition (OSIC) were used to evaluate childhood trauma, depressive symptoms, psychological resilience and NSSI, respectively. Our results showed that 60.87% of adolescents with MDD had NSSI in the past month. Childhood trauma frequency was negatively correlated with psychological resilience but positively correlated with depressive symptoms and NSSI severity in adolescents with MDD. The stepwise logistic regression analysis identified that age, childhood trauma and depressive symptoms could independently predict the occurrence of NSSI, and the three-step hierarchical regression showed that childhood trauma, psychological resilience and depressive symptoms were all significantly associated with NSSI frequency in adolescents with MDD. Furthermore, the chain-mediation analysis revealed that psychological resilience and depression serially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and NSSI in adolescents with MDD. Interventions targeted at improving resilience and depression may mitigate the impact of childhood trauma severity on NSSI risk in adolescents with MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endometriosis (EM) is a common gynecologic condition that often leads to infertility in women of reproductive age. Cell adhesion molecule 2 (CADM2) is involved in maintaining cell adhesion and polarity, as well as suppressing tumors. However, the role and mechanism of CADM2 in endometriosis is unclear. Therefore, this study evaluated the expression levels of CADM2 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related marker proteins (E-cadherin, α-SMA, and N-cadherin). Compared to normal endometrial tissue, CADM2 was expressed at low levels in ectopic endometrial tissue from patients with EM. We performed clone formation assays, wound healing assays, and Transwell cell invasion assays to investigate the effects of CADM2 on the biological behavior of endometriosis epithelial cells (11Z) and ectopic endometrial stromal cells (EESCs). The growth, migration, and invasion abilities of these cells were significantly inhibited by overexpression of CADM2. The results were reversed after the knockdown of CADM2. Finally, western blotting (WB) was utilized to detect the effect of CADM2 on EMT in endometriosis cells. CADM2 inhibited EMT in endometriosis cells. In conclusion, our study suggests that CADM2 is a negative regulator of endometriosis development and may inhibit endometriosis development by suppressing EMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of 3D scanning technologies and deep learning theories, point cloud-based deep learning networks have gained considerable attention in the fields of 3D vision and computer graphics. Leveraging the rich geometric information present in 3D point clouds, these networks facilitate more accurate feature learning tasks. However, existing networks often suffer from generalization defects caused by variations in pose and inconsistent representations of training data. In this paper, we propose a novel data augmentation framework to overcome these limitations. Our approach utilizes principal component analysis (PCA) to generate four aligned copies of a point cloud. These copies are then input into a multi-channel structure, which is compatible with popular backbones of point cloud-based deep networks. Finally, the outputs of the multi-channel structure are merged to generate rotation-invariant feature learning results. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the efficacy of our framework, showcasing significant improvements in various existing point cloud-based deep learning methods. Notably, our method exhibits enhanced robustness in classification tasks, particularly when dealing with point clouds containing random pose variations and non-uniform densities. Project link: https://github.com/LAB123-tech/PCAlign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding and preserving the deep sea ecosystems is paramount for marine conservation efforts. Automated object (deep-sea biota) classification can enable the creation of detailed habitat maps that not only aid in biodiversity assessments but also provide essential data to evaluate ecosystem health and resilience. Having a significant source of labelled data helps prevent overfitting and enables training deep learning models with numerous parameters. In this paper, we contribute to the establishment of a significant deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) image classification dataset with 3994 images featuring deep-sea biota belonging to 33 classes. We manually label the images through rigorous quality control with human-in-the-loop image labelling. Leveraging data from ROV equipped with advanced imaging systems, our study provides results using novel deep-learning models for image classification. We use deep learning models including ResNet, DenseNet, Inception, and Inception-ResNet to benchmark the dataset that features class imbalance with many classes. Our results show that the Inception-ResNet model provides a mean classification accuracy of 65%, with AUC scores exceeding 0.8 for each class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent boom in crowdsourcing has opened up a new avenue for utilizing human intelligence in the realm of data analysis. This innovative approach provides a powerful means for connecting online workers to tasks that cannot effectively be done solely by machines or conducted by professional experts due to cost constraints. Within the field of social science, four elements are required to construct a sound crowd—Diversity of Opinion, Independence, Decentralization and Aggregation. However, while the other three components have already been investigated and implemented in existing crowdsourcing platforms, 'Diversity of Opinion' has not been functionally enabled yet. From a computational point of view, constructing a wise crowd necessitates quantitatively modeling and taking diversity into account. There are usually two paradigms in a crowdsourcing marketplace for worker selection: building a crowd to wait for tasks to come and selecting workers for a given task. We propose similarity-driven and task-driven models for both paradigms. Also, we develop efficient and effective algorithms for recruiting a limited number of workers with optimal diversity in both models. To validate our solutions, we conduct extensive experiments using both synthetic datasets and real data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To repair and extend the service life of mobile-contact parts, laser cladding technology was applied to prepare CrB2/Cu coating on Cu–Cr alloy substrate, which was simulated as actual servicing parts, and the current-carrying friction property, including that friction coefficient, wear rate as well as current-carrying efficiency were studied. Results show that most of the CrB2 particles retain while some decompose into CrBx phases during the laser cladding process. With the increase of electric current, the average friction coefficient of CrB2/Cu coating grows first followed by going down. In comparison to the CrB2/Cu coating, the wear rate and average friction coefficient of QCr0.5 substrate always grow with increasing electric current values. When the current is 20A, the COF and wear rate of composite coating are about 0.737 and 1.37 × 10–4 mm3/N•m, which are about 21% and 79% of that of QCr0.5 alloy, respectively, and the major wear mechanism of CrB2/Cu coating is the adhesive wear. Moreover, the CrB2/Cu composite coating has low friction coefficient, low wear rate and high current-carrying efficiency under high electric currents, as a consequence, the CrB2/Cu coating has better current-carrying friction and wear performance under high current conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma, especially glioblastoma patients, present highly heterogeneous and immunosuppressive microenvironment, leading to their poor response to treatment and survival. Targeting the tumor microenvironment is considered a promising therapeutic strategy. M2 macrophages are highly infiltrated in glioma tissue, even up to 50% of the total number of bulk tissue cells. Here, we identified GPR65 as the hub gene of the M2 macrophage-related module in glioma through WGCNA analysis. The expression and prognosis analysis suggested that GPR65 was positively correlated with the malignancy and poor prognosis of glioma, and the heterogeneity analysis found that GPR65 was highly expressed in the vascular proliferation area of glioma, which matched the spatial expression characteristics of M2 macrophages. We further verified that GPR65 was highly expressed in macrophages but not tumor cells in the glioma microenvironment by single-cell data analysis and immunofluorescence. Most importantly, we found that inhibition of GPR65 was sufficient to reduce macrophages' polarization response to glioma cell and break the malignant cooperation with glioma cells. Our study reports the expression characteristics and malignant behavior of GPR65 in the glioma microenvironment, which provides a new alternative target of treatment to glioma microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop inflorescences are directly related to yield. The wild tomato species Solanum pimpinellifolium displays rich genetic diversity. However, limited information is available regarding the inflorescence of this wild population. Here, 300 Solanum pimpinellifolium accessions were investigated to uncover the genetics of inflorescence length (IFL) over two seasons. The results revealed significant genetic variation in IFL among S. pimpinellifolium accessions, with a continuous distribution ranging from 3.68 to 38.13 cm. Few accessions exhibited long inflorescences. The IFL was greatly influenced by environmental factors and the 3rd, 4th and 5th IFL performed relatively stable. The broad-sense heritability ranged from 53.40 to 80.51%. One accession LA1256 showed the longest IFL and most stable across two seasons. Six-generation populations were constructed by crossing LA1256 with the cultivar Moneymaker, possessing very short IFL to understand the genetic mechanism. F1 progeny clearly indicated that long inflorescence was a recessive trait. The further genetic analysis indicated that IFL fitted the E-0 genetic model and the heritability estimates ranged from 50.40 to 65.38% in B1, B2 and F2 populations. The IFL was mainly controlled by major genes and modified by the polygene. These findings obtained in this study would pave the way for a detailed understanding of the inflorescence of wild species S. pimpinellifolium and provide the strategy for the manipulation of tomato improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a class of strongly nonlinear Duffing systems with fractional-order terms as the research object, studying their main resonance and conditions for chaos under single-frequency excitation. The approximate analytical solution of the main resonance of the system under single-frequency excitation is obtained by the multi-scale method. The approximate analytical solution is utilized to construct the steady-state motion's amplitude–frequency response equation, and Lyapunov's first method is used to determine the constant solution's stability condition, which is then used to analyze the steady-state motion's stability. The system is examined by using the Melnikov method to identify the circumstances that would appear to result in a transverse intersection of heterodox orbits and the onset of chaos in the system. The amplitude–frequency characteristics of the total response of the system at various excitation frequencies are investigated in numerical simulations using analytical and simulation methods, respectively, and the system makes a comparison of amplitude–frequency curves, confirming that the numerical results and results achieve a consistent trend. The effects of nonlinear stiffness coefficients, excitation amplitude, fractional-order differential term order and fractional-order differential term coefficients on the system's amplitude–frequency response are each examined in turn. A numerical investigation of the effects of system parameters on chaotic motion is then conducted using many kinds of diagrams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic land use has caused a major crisis to the biodiversity of stream fishes in recent decades, especially with regard to biotic homogenisation. Understanding the response of stream fishes to anthropogenic land use will help to promptly implement effective conservation measures. In this study, we investigated the effects of agriculture on fish diversity in streams in the Wannan Mountains, China. We predicted that agriculture would influence fish diversity by affecting local habitat conditions. The results showed that habitat conditions (e.g. water temperature, water width, water depth) differed significantly between disturbed and reference sites. The disturbed sites had high species richness due to the addition of translocated species outpacing the loss of endemic species. Moreover, fish assemblages showed taxonomic differentiation accompanied by functional homogenisation, which mainly resulted from the addition of translocated species with redundant functional traits. However, the emergence of homogenisation shows a time delay. The biotic differentiation of fish assemblages in agroecosystems is temporary in the Wannan Mountains, and homogenisation may eventually develop as stress intensifies. Thus, it is urgent and necessary to take effective conservation measures to delay or prevent fish assemblages from worsening in agroecosystems before homogenisation develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the link between Apo-E, brain white matter, and suicide in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) to investigate the potential neuroimmune mechanisms of Apo-E that may lead to suicide. Thirty-nine patients with MDD (22 patients with suicidality) and 57 age, gender, and education-matched healthy controls participated in this study, provided plasma Apo-E samples, and underwent diffusion tensor imaging scans. Plasma Apo-E levels and white matter microstructure were analyzed among the MDD with suicidality, MDD without suicidality, and HC groups using analysis of variance with post hoc Bonferroni correction and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) with threshold-free cluster enhancement correction. Mediation analysis investigated the relationship between Apo-E, brain white matter, and suicidality in MDD. The MDD with suicidality subgroup had higher depressive and suicide scores, longer disease course, and lower plasma Apo-E levels than MDD without suicidality. TBSS revealed that the MDD non-suicide subgroup showed significantly increased mean diffusivity in the left corticospinal tract and body of the left corpus callosum, as well as increased axial diffusivity in the left anterior corona radiata and the right posterior thalamic radiation compared to the suicidal MDD group. The main finding was that the increased MD of the left corticospinal tract contributed to the elevated suicide score, with Apo-E mediating the effect. Preliminary result that Apo-E's mediating role between the left corticospinal tract and the suicide factor suggests the neuroimmune mechanism of suicide in MDD. The study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03790085). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telemedicine and video-based diagnosis have raised significant concerns regarding the protection of facial privacy. Effective de-identification methods require the preservation of diagnostic information related to normal and pathological facial movements, which play a crucial role in the diagnosis of various movement, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. In this work, we have developed FaceMotionPreserve , a deep generative model-based approach that transforms patients' facial identities while preserving facial dynamics with a novel face dynamic similarity module to enhance facial landmark consistency. We collected test videos from patients with Parkinson's disease recruited via telemedicine for evaluation of model performance and clinical applicability. The performance of FaceMotionPreserve was quantitatively evaluated based on neurologist diagnostic consistency, critical facial behavior fidelity, and correlation of general facial dynamics. In addition, we further validated the robustness and advancements of our model in preserving medical information with clinical examination videos from a different cohort of patients. FaceMotionPreserve is applicable to real-time integration, safeguarding facial privacy while retaining crucial medical information associated with facial movements to address concerns in telemedicine, and facilitating safer and more collaborative medical data sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programmed cell death ligand 2 (PD-L2), a ligand for the receptor programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), has an identity of 34% with its twin ligand PD-L1 and exhibits higher binding affinity with PD-1 than PD-L1. However, the role of PD-L2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) progression, especially tobacco-induced cancer progression, has not been fully understood. Here, we found that PD-L2 promoted tumor growth in murine models with recruitment of regulatory T cells (Tregs). In patients with NSCLC, PD-L2 expression level in tumor samples was higher than in counterpart normal controls and was positively associated with patients' response to anti-PD-1 treatment. Mechanismly, PD-L2 bound its receptor Repulsive guidance molecule B (RGMB) on cancer cells and activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) and nuclear factor κB (NFκB), leading to increased production of chemokine CCL20, which recruited Tregs and contributed to NSCLC progression. Consistently, knockdown of RGMB or NFκB p65 inhibited PD-L2-induced CCL20 production, and silencing of PD-L2 repressed Treg recruitment by NSCLC cells. Furthermore, cigarette smoke and carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) upregulated PD-L2 in lung epithelial cells via aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-mediated transcription activation, whose deficiency markedly suppressed BaP-induced PD-L2 upregulation. These results suggest that PD-L2 mediates tobacco-induced recruitment of Tregs via the RGMB/NFκB/CCL20 cascade, and targeting this pathway might have therapeutic potentials in NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) utilizes adeno-associated virus (AAV) to deliver micro-dystrophin (µDys), which does not provide full protection for striated muscles as it lacks many important functional domains of full-length (FL) dystrophin. Here we develop a triple vector system to deliver FL-dystrophin into skeletal and cardiac muscles. We split FL-dystrophin into three fragments linked to two orthogonal pairs of split intein, allowing efficient assembly of FL-dystrophin. The three fragments packaged in myotropic AAV (MyoAAV4A) restore FL-dystrophin expression in both skeletal and cardiac muscles in male mdx4cv mice. Dystrophin-glycoprotein complex components are also restored at the sarcolemma of dystrophic muscles. MyoAAV4A-delivered FL-dystrophin significantly improves muscle histopathology, contractility, and overall strength comparable to µDys, but unlike µDys, it also restores defective cavin 4 localization and associated signaling in mdx4cv heart. Therefore, our data support the feasibility of a mutation-independent FL-dystrophin gene therapy for DMD, warranting further clinical development. Current gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy utilizes adeno-associated virus to deliver a partially functional copy of truncated dystrophin. Here, Zhou et al. present a split intein strategy to systemically deliver full-length dystrophin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotifer structure may serve as predictor of environmental features, including temperate subclimates between water bodies. The difference in latitude between two temperate regions (Poland vs. Croatia) affects the identification of particular environmental factors that subsequently influence the taxon-related indices of rotifers. A study on 10 water bodies found that taxon-trait indices were sensitive in identifying latitude differences, even though extreme weather conditions were not considered, and only two seasons (spring and autumn) were examined. A variable rotifer community, with a high share of rare species, was obtained. We found a distinctiveness of abiotic factors between both countries, indicating a higher trophic state in Poland. Although habitat conditions were more similar in spring compared to the autumn, the percentage of rotifer common taxa was alike in both seasons but variation in distinct species community was clear. Trophic state increase in Poland was reflected in the structure of dominant and distinct species, with a wide range of eutrophy indicators. Comparing how rotifer species respond to environmental conditions is important for developing methods to assess trophic state changes due to climate change. Single species, distinct or rare species, are often the first sign of changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiently fabricating a cavity that can achieve strong interactions between terahertz waves and matter would allow researchers to exploit the intrinsic properties due to the long wavelength in the terahertz waveband. Here we show a terahertz detector embedded in a Tamm cavity with a record Q value of 1017 and a bandwidth of only 469 MHz for direct detection. The Tamm-cavity detector is formed by embedding a substrate with an Nb5N6 microbolometer detector between an Si/air distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a metal reflector. The resonant frequency can be controlled by adjusting the thickness of the substrate layer. The detector and DBR are fabricated separately, and a large pixel-array detector can be realized by a very simple assembly process. This versatile cavity structure can be used as a platform for preparing high-performance terahertz devices and opening up the study of the strong interactions between terahertz waves and matter. Here the authors report a terahertz detector with a Q value of 1017, embedded in a Tamm cavity and offers a 469 MHz bandwidth. It features an Nb5N6 microbolometer in an Si/air DBR and metal reflector, with tunable resonant frequency via substrate layer thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, via a family of convolution operators { ϕ t } t > 0 , we characterize the extensions of a class of Q type spaces Q K , λ p , q (R n) related with weights K (·) . Unlike the classical Q type spaces which are related with power functions, a general weight function K (·) is short of homogeneity of the dilation, and is not variable-separable. Under several assumptions on the integrability of K (·) , we establish a Carleson type characterization of Q K , λ p , q (R n) . We provide several applications. For the spatial dimension n = 1 , such an extension result indicates a boundary characterization of a class of analytic functions on R + 2 . For the case n ≥ 2 , the family { ϕ t } t > 0 can be seen as a generalization of the fundamental solutions to fractional heat equations, Caffarelli–Silvestre extensions and time-space fractional equations, respectively. Moreover, the boundedness of convolution operators on Q K , λ p , q (R n) is also obtained, including convolution singular integral operators and fractional integral operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Installing a pressure regulator for lateral (PRL) on a cost-effective non-pressure compensating drip tape inlet can greatly reduce system investment while ensuring system uniformity and safety. This approach plays a critical role in achieving low-cost, scalable precision irrigation systems in developing countries. Once the PRL is installed, it alters the hydraulic characteristics of the system. The lack of comprehensive evaluation standards for PRL that consider both irrigation uniformity requirements and PRL characteristics is impeding the widespread adoption and application of this technology. In this article, a comprehensive evaluation system for the PRL is established through a combination of theoretical deduction and field measurements. The main conclusions are presented as follows: (1) A comprehensive evaluation index is proposed for the hydraulic performance of the PRL, which considers both single-factor influences and multifactor influences such as manufacturing deviation, inlet pressure, and flow rate. (2) A statistical relationship was established between the comprehensive evaluation indices for PRL (CV) and irrigation uniformity (CU). The CV should be less than 10% for a CU above 90% and less than 17% for a CU above 85%. (3) Classification evaluations of PRL products were conducted based on their usage conditions, and a design selection chart for PRL products was provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma is an intracranial tumor characterized by high mortality and recurrence rates. In the present study, the association of TRPM8 channel-associated factor 2 (TCAF2) in glioma was investigated using bioinformatics, showing significant relationships with age, WHO grade, IDH, and 1p/19q status, as well as being an independent predictor of prognosis. Immunohistochemistry of a glioma sample microarray showed markedly increased TCAF2 expression in glioblastoma relative to lower-grade glioma, with elevated expression predominating in the tumor center. Raised TCAF2 levels promote glioma cell migratory/invasion properties through the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition-like (EMT-like) process, shown by Transwell and scratch assays and western blotting. It was further found that the effects of TCAF2 were mediated by the activation of STAT3. These results suggest that TCAF2 promotes glioma cell migration and invasion, rendering it a potential drug target in glioma therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of Feline sarcoma-related protein (Fer) in various cancers has been extensively studied, but its specific involvement and underlying mechanisms in the progression of endometrial carcinoma (EC) are yet to be fully understood. Methods: The expression levels of Fer were assessed in EC tissues and cell lines using real-time quantitative PCR and western blot analysis. CCK-8 assay, Edu staining, transwell assays, and flow cytometry, were conducted to evaluate the impact of Fer on EC cells. Furthermore, a mice xenograft model and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining were utilized for in vivo analysis. The levels of Ras, pMek1/2, and pErk1/2 were determined by western blot assay. Ras-MAPK signaling pathway inhibitor was utilized to study the regulatory role of Fer on EC cells. Results: Our findings revealed that Fer exhibited upregulation in both EC tissues and cell lines, concomitant with the activation of the Ras-MAPK signaling pathway. Silencing of Fer resulted in the suppression of cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and Ras-MAPK signaling pathway, while promoted hypoxia-induced apoptosis in RL95-2 and KLE cells. Fer overexpression stimulated cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and Ras-MAPK signaling pathway in Ishikawa and AN3-CA cells, which were reversed after treatment with either Ras or MAPK inhibitor. Moreover, silencing of Fer suppressed tumor growth and downregulated the expression of Ki-67, Ras, pMek1/2, and pErk1/2, but had no significant effect on Mek1/2 and Erk1/2, while upregulated caspase-3 expression in vivo. Conclusion: In summary, the upregulation of Fer in EC cells resulted in the enhancement of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion through the activation of the Ras-MAPK signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is a debilitating disorder frequently accompanied by mood complications such as depression and anxiety. The current study sought to elucidate the molecular underpinnings that contribute to the pathogenesis of TN and its associated anxiety. Employing a partial transection of the infraorbital nerve (pT-ION) in a murine model, we successfully induced sustained primary and secondary orofacial allodynia alongside anxiety-like behavioral manifestations. Transcriptome-wide gene microarray analyses revealed a marked upregulation of Foxg1 subsequent to pT-ION. Targeted knockdown of Foxg1, achieved through bilateral microinjection of adeno-associated virus harboring Foxg1-specific shRNA into the lateral habenula (LHb), resulted in a significant attenuation of both orofacial pain and anxiety-like behaviors. Subsequent RNA sequencing implicated Prkcd as a downstream effector gene modulated by Foxg1. Pharmacological inhibition of protein kinase C delta, encoded by Prkcd, within the LHb markedly ameliorated pT-ION-induced symptomatology. The dual luciferase assay revealed that Foxg1 substantially enhances the transcriptional activity of the Prkcd gene. Collectively, these findings indicate that trigeminal nerve injury leads to Foxg1 upregulation in the LHb, which in turn elevates the expression of Prkcd, culminating in the manifestation of orofacial pain and anxiety-like behaviors. This work offers promising therapeutic targets and a conceptual framework for the clinical management of TN and its psychological comorbidities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfire is one of the primary natural disturbance agents in the forests of China. The forecast of fire danger is critically important to assist stakeholders to avoid and mitigate wildfire-induced hazards and losses to both human society and natural ecosystems. Currently, fire danger rating methods often focus on fire weather classification based on fixed thresholds, which has shortcomings in generalizability and robustness. Based on historical fire occurrence data and meteorological data of Northeastern China from 2004 to 2015, we proposed a forest fire danger rating classification and forecasting model by combining the advantages of the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) system and two machine learning models such as the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network and Random Forest (RF) model. The method is divided into two stages. The first stage is the LSTM-based FWI system indexes prediction. In the first stage, the future FWI system indexes are obtained through the LSTM-based prediction model, and the RMSE and MAE of the prediction results are calculated to verify the prediction performance of the model. The second stage is random forest-based fire danger rating prediction method. In the second stage, we use the random forest method to get the fire danger occurrence probability and present the fire danger rating classification scheme. Then we verify the reliability of the fire danger rating classification scheme by using the forest fire danger data in Qipan Mountain. Our method predicts two randomly selected future intervals, and the prediction accuracy is 87.5%. The experimental results show that our machine learning-based forest fire danger rating classification method can provide a new idea for forest fire danger warnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermosensation is vital for the survival, propagation, and adaption of all organisms, but its mechanism is not fully understood yet. Here, we find that TMC6, a membrane protein of unknown function, is highly expressed in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and functions as a Gαq-coupled G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-like receptor to sense noxious heat. TMC6-deficient mice display a substantial impairment in noxious heat sensation while maintaining normal perception of cold, warmth, touch, and mechanical pain. Further studies show that TMC6 interacts with Gαq via its intracellular C-terminal region spanning Ser780 to Pro810. Specifically disrupting such interaction using polypeptide in DRG neurons, genetically ablating Gαq, or pharmacologically blocking Gαq-coupled GPCR signaling can replicate the phenotype of TMC6 deficient mice regarding noxious heat sensation. Noxious heat stimulation triggers intracellular calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of TMC6- but not control vector-transfected HEK293T cell, which can be significantly inhibited by blocking PLC or IP3R. Consistently, noxious heat-induced intracellular Ca2+ release from ER and action potentials of DRG neurons largely reduced when ablating TMC6 or blocking Gαq/PLC/IP3R signaling pathway as well. In summary, our findings indicate that TMC6 can directly function as a Gαq-coupled GPCR-like receptor sensing noxious heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics in discriminating H3 K27M-mutant gliomas from wildtype gliomas in the spinal cord. Materials and methods: Fifty-eight patients with spinal cord gliomas were enrolled in this study. The H3 K27 gene status was identified by Sanger sequencing or immunohistochemistry test of resection tumor specimens. The MR imaging characteristics were evaluated and compared between H3 K27M-mutant and wildtype gliomas using the χ2 test and the Mann–Whitney U test. Results: Of 58 recruited patients, 23 (39.7%) were diagnosed with H3 K27M-mutant glioma. The H3 K27M-mutant gliomas were found to more likely occur in men compared with wildtype gliomas (87.0% vs. 42.9%, p = 0.001). On T2-weighted MR images, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of H3 K27M-mutant gliomas was significantly lower than that of wildtype gliomas (103.9 ± 72.0 vs. 168.9 ± 86.8, p < 0.001). Of 35 wildtype tumors, 60% showed well-defined margin but this feature was not found in all mutant tumors (p < 0.001). The SNR of tumors on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images of the H3 K27M-mutant gliomas was significantly lower than that of wildtype gliomas (187.7 ± 160.4 vs. 295.1 ± 207.8, p = 0.006). Receiver operating-characteristic analysis revealed that area under curve (AUC) of combination of 1/SNR on T2-weighted images, 1/SNR on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images, ill-defined margin, and sex reached 0.937 (95% CI, 0.873–1.000) in discriminating H3 K27M-mutant gliomas. Conclusions: The MR imaging characteristics are valuable in discriminating H3 K27M-mutant from wildtype gliomas in the spinal cord and the combination of these imaging features with sex had a high strength in this discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor with extremely high mortality. The tumor microenvironment is the "soil" of its occurrence and development, and the inflammatory microenvironment is an important part of the "soil". Bile acid is closely related to the occurrence of HCC. Bile acid metabolism disorder is not only directly involved in the occurrence and development of HCC but also affects the inflammatory microenvironment of HCC. Yinchenhao decoction, a traditional Chinese medicine formula, can regulate bile acid metabolism and may affect the inflammatory microenvironment of HCC. To determine the effect of Yinchenhao decoction on bile acid metabolism in mice with HCC and to explore the possible mechanism by which Yinchenhao decoction improves the inflammatory microenvironment of HCC by regulating bile acid metabolism, we established mice model of orthotopic transplantation of hepatocellular carcinoma. These mice were treated with three doses of Yinchenhao decoction, then liver samples were collected and tested. Yinchenhao decoction can regulate the disorder of bile acid metabolism in liver cancer mice. Besides, it can improve inflammatory reactions, reduce hepatocyte degeneration and necrosis, and even reduce liver weight and the liver index. Taurochenodeoxycholic acid, hyodeoxycholic acid, and taurohyodeoxycholic acid are important molecules in the regulation of the liver inflammatory microenvironment, laying a foundation for the regulation of the liver tumor inflammatory microenvironment based on bile acids. Yinchenhao decoction may improve the inflammatory microenvironment of mice with HCC by ameliorating hepatic bile acid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the frequency restoration problem of islanded microgrids when subjected to malicious data injection. A distributed event-triggered resilient control method based on hidden layer is proposed to mitigate the impact of false data injection (FDI) attacks on microgrids. Unlike traditional estimation-based or compensation-based approaches, the proposed method does not interfere the system during normal operations. Furthermore, this method does not rely on attack detection technology, reducing the complexity of the system. In addition, a dynamic threshold is introduced to dynamically adjust the event-triggered mechanism (ETM) over time, further reducing the number of triggers. The stability of islanded microgrids is analyzed using Lyapunov theory, and the Zeno behavior is avoided. The effectiveness and superiority of this control scheme are verified by simulation examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Erlian Basin is a Mesozoic–Cenozoic rift basin with a large thick Pliocene sandstones deposit, which has important oil, gas, and uranium resources exploration potential. The paleo-sedimentary environment plays an important role in controlling the development of mineral resource. However, provenance and depositional environment of the Pliocene sandstones remain enigmatic. To address it, this study reports the whole rock geochemical compositions of sandstones from the Youqi and Siziwangqi regions to reflect the paleo-sedimentary environment. The Youqi sandstones are classified as litharenite-arkose, whereas the Siziwangqi sandstones exhibit a graywacke affinity. Furthermore, both the Youqi and Siziwangqi sandstones exhibit low CIA, PIA, ICV, and Th/U values, suggesting that their source rocks were of great maturation and experienced low to moderate chemical weathering processes. The Ni/Co, U/Th, and Ce/Ce* values in these sandstones range from 0.4 to 5.9, 0.20 to 0.37, and 0.80 to 1.09, respectively, indicating that these sandstones were formed in an oxygen-rich depositional environment. Additionally, interelement ratios such as Sr/Cu, SiO2/Al2O3, and Rb/Sr suggest a hot and arid paleoclimate during the deposition of these sandstones. Tectonic discrimination diagrams reveal a continental arc environment for the studied sandstones, Combining regional structural background, implying that the Erlian Basin was influenced by both Himalayan and the Pacific-Ocean-surrounding tectonism during the Pliocene period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown significant advantages in improving the performance of single image super-resolution (SISR). To build an efficient network, multi-scale convolution is commonly incorporated into CNN-based SISR methods via scale features with different perceptive fields. However, the feature correlations of the same sample are not fully utilized by the existing multi-scale SISR approaches, impeding the further improvement of reconstruction performance. In addition, the correlations between different samples are still left unexplored. To address these problems, this paper proposes a deep-connected multi-scale residual attention network (DMRAN) by virtue of the feature correlations of the same sample and the correlations between different samples. Specifically, we propose a deep-connected multi-scale residual attention block (DMRAB) to take fully advantage of the multi-scale and hierarchical features, which can effectively learn the local interdependencies between channels by adjusting the channel features adaptively. Meanwhile, a global aware external attention (GAEA) is introduced to boost the performance of SISR by learning the correlations between all the samples. Furthermore, we develop a deep feature extraction structure (DFES), which seamlessly combines the stacked deep-connected multi-scale residual attention groups (DMRAG) with GAEA to learn deep feature representations incrementally. Extensive experimental results on the public benchmark datasets show the superiority of our DMRAN to the state-of-the-art SISR methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serverless computing lifts the burden of infrastructure maintenance from application developers and also reduces the usage cost of cloud/edge computing platforms. However, the pay-as-you-go pricing model offered by serverless computing complicates the task dispatching problem in serverless computing systems. Specifically, when the pay-as-you-go pricing model is adopted, the task response latency is not simply the task execution latency, but the cold-start latency and the container image downloading latency should also be considered as part of the task response latency. In this paper, we focus on the joint task dispatching and bandwidth allocation problem with hard deadlines in distributed serverless edge computing systems. To maximize the overall profit, a new algorithm called PN-GRD is presented. PN-GRD first uses a Pointer Network model that is well trained offline to inference a task permutation, which is used to determine the task priority. Then, multiple edge node selection steps are carried out to select an edge node for each task according to the task priority. The final task dispatching and bandwidth allocation is obtained once the best edge node for every task is chosen or none of the edge nodes is suitable to run a task. We validate the performance of PN-GRD through simulations. The results show that PN-GRD outperforms practical baselines in terms of the average overall profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hippocampus is essential for learning and memory, but it also plays an important role in regulating emotional behavior, as hippocampal excitability and plasticity affect anxiety and fear. Brain synaptic plasticity may be regulated by tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP1), a known protein inhibitor of extracellular matrix (ECM), and the expression of TIMP1 in the hippocampus can be induced by neuronal excitation and various stimuli. However, the involvement of Timp1 in fear learning, anxiety, and hippocampal synaptic function remains to be established. Our study of Timp1 function in vivo revealed that Timp1 knockout mice exhibit anxiety-like behavior but normal fear learning. Electrophysiological results suggested that Timp1 knockout mice showed hyperactivity in the ventral CA1 region, but the basic synaptic transmission and plasticity were normal in the Schaffer collateral pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that deletion of Timp1 in vivo leads to the occurrence of anxiety behaviors, but that Timp1 is not crucial for fear learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the inverse problem for identifying the source term and initial value for time-fractional diffusion equation on spherically symmetric domain with Caputo–Hadamard fractional derivative. By solving the direct problem, the exact solutions of the problem can be calculated, and based on the expressions of the exact solutions, it can be analyzed that this problem is ill-posed. To address this, we employ the fractional Landweber iterative regularization method to restore the stability of the solutions. Furthermore, the error estimates under the priori regularization parameter choice rules and the posteriori regularization parameter choice rules are given, respectively. Finally, different numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in the osteogenic differentiation of human bone mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs), but the mechanism by which miRNAs indirectly modulate osteogenesis remains unclear. Here, we explored the mechanism by which miRNAs indirectly modulate gene expression through histone demethylases to promote bone regeneration. Methods and results: Bioinformatics analysis was performed on hBMSCs after 7 days of osteogenic induction. The differentially expressed miRNAs were screened, and potential target mRNAs were identified. To determine the bioactivity and stemness of hBMSCs and their potential for bone repair, we performed wound healing, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‒qPCR), alkaline phosphatase activity, alizarin red S (ARS) staining and radiological and histological analyses on SD rats with calvarial bone defects. Additionally, a dual-luciferase reporter assay was utilized to investigate the interaction between miR-26b-5p and ten-eleven translocation 3 (TET3) in human embryonic kidney 293T cells. The in vitro and in vivo results suggested that miR-26b-5p effectively promoted the migration, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs, as well as the bone reconstruction of calvarial defects in SD rats. Mechanistically, miR-26b-5p bound to the 3' untranslated region of TET3 mRNA to mediate gene silencing. Conclusions: MiR-26b-5p downregulated the expression of TET3 to increase the osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs and bone repair in rat calvarial defects. MiR-26b-5p/TET3 crosstalk might be useful in large-scale critical bone defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problem of low indoor positioning accuracy in time-of-arrival systems in the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, we proposed an optimized positioning algorithm based on semidefinite programming (SDP). This algorithm reduces the NLOS error through a novelty method. Compared with the original SDP algorithm, we optimized the algorithm's objective function by avoiding its dependence on the prior information, thereby decreasing infeasibility problems. The experiment showed that the proposed algorithm's accuracy is superior to that of the traditional SDP algorithm in the same indoor environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic link between carbon disclosure and firm value deserves in-depth study in light of the global proposal for "carbon neutrality" and the concurrent advancement of both declarative and interactive carbon disclosure practices. Extant research on separate value effects of declarative and interactive carbon disclosure is inconsistent with their simultaneous development. This paper reveals the heterogeneous value effects of declarative and interactive carbon disclosure in terms of information asymmetry and reputation and explores their intertwined value effects according to their characteristics and efficient market hypothesis, which is the first to consider both declarative and interactive carbon disclosure when examining the impact of carbon disclosure on firm value. In terms of methodology, a metric for assessing the quality of interactive carbon disclosure has been created. Using data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2015 to 2021, we find that declarative carbon disclosure promotes firm value by alleviating information asymmetry and improving the firm reputation. Poor interactive carbon disclosure exacerbates information asymmetry, damages the firm reputation, and thus declines firm value, while high-quality one can alleviate information asymmetry and help firms gain word-of-mouth, thus enhancing firm value. Declarative and interactive carbon disclosure are substitutes for improving firm value. Heterogeneity analysis finds that high-quality interactive carbon disclosure containing positive carbon information and firms' business layouts can improve firm value. The results are beneficial to firms to synergize the use of multiple carbon disclosure methods to enhance firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a vital channel for enterprises to convey corporate environmental responsibility, the information validity and textual features of environmental disclosure are increasingly concerned. From a new perspective of textual tone, we explore the impact of environmental information disclosure tone on corporate green innovation based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2010 to 2020 and future analyze the different functions of regulative, normative, and cognitive institutional factors. Applying text mining and Poisson regression models, we find that the net positive tone of environmental information and its degree of dispersion can enhance information transparency, improve stakeholders' positive expectations, and have positive information and resource effects on corporate green innovation. And the concentrated negative tone could alleviate negative reactions. Furthermore, the results indicate that under external pressures of the regulative institution of government supervision and the normative institution of media attention, the signaling role of information tone is enhanced, while the cognitive institution of executive environmental cognition exerts an inhibitory effect. Additional analyses suggest that the effect of environmental disclosure tone on green innovation is more pronounced in enterprises that are non-state-owned, lightly polluted, and located in economically developed areas. Information readability also plays a reinforcing role. This paper substantiates the signal function of environmental information intonation, which enriches the study of the language features of non-financial information and has implications for the perfection of environmental institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing copper matrix composite coating on Cu substrate by laser cladding method is difficult since high thermal conductivity and low absorption rate of Cu to infrared wavelength along with the complex influence of multi-processing parameters. In this work, laser beam power, defocus distance, and scanning speed are considered as the key factors influencing the coating quality, and output response includes the dilution ratio, clad height as well as clad width. By establishing a regression model between processing parameters and output response, an optimized craft to prepare high-quality copper matrix composite coating on the copper substrate was finally provided. Results indicate that the clad height and width increase with enhancing laser beam power but decrease with growing scanning speed. In addition, the dilution ratio increases with enhancing scanning speed and decreasing defocus distance. The mathematical model based on response surface methodology is credible to predict the key laser cladding parameters on dilution ratio, clad height and clad width within the error of 20%. By carrying out optimization via the desirability function, the optimum parameters achieved are laser beam power 1780 W, defocus distance 8.3 mm and scanning speed 789 mm/min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foam lightweight soil (LS) is a cement composite with excellent lightness, but the excessive use of cement causes some negative impacts on the surrounding environment. This study aims to develop a sustainable cement composite by utilizing fly ash and waste soil in LS, providing a practical reference for green construction of road engineering. The physico-mechanical properties of cement composites with different mixing ratios were comparatively evaluated using geotechnical tests, and the micro-mechanisms were investigated using microscopic tests. The testing results showed that the utilization of fly ash and waste soil was unfavorable to improve the mechanical strength and the damage resistance of LS, but significantly decreased the use of cement. The comprehensive performance of cement composite reached the optimum when the replacement rates of fly ash and waste soil were 10% and 20%. Fly ash reacted with the hydration products of cement producing more cementitious gels to make the internal structure of cement composite denser, while waste soil not involved in its chemical reaction. The life cycle assessment indicated that the potential environmental impact of LS was improved after utilizing fly ash and waste soil, and the proposed sustainable cement composite had good feasibility in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on results of the on-ground X-ray calibration of the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy (LEIA), an experimental space wide-field (18.6 × 18.6 square degrees) X-ray telescope built from novel lobster eye micro-pore optics. LEIA was successfully launched on July 27, 2022 onboard the SATech-01 satellite. To achieve full characterisation of its performance before launch, a series of tests and calibrations have been carried out at different levels of devices, assemblies and the complete module. In this paper, we present the results of the end-to-end calibration campaign of the complete module carried out at the 100-m X-ray Test Facility at the Institute of High-energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The Point Spread Function (PSF), effective area and energy response of the detectors were measured in a wide range of incident directions at several characteristic X-ray line energies. Specifically, the distributions of the PSF and effective areas are roughly uniform across the FoV, in large agreement with the prediction of lobster-eye optics. The mild variations and deviations from the prediction of idealized, perfect lobster-eye optics can be understood to be caused by the imperfect shapes and alignment of the micro-pores as well as the obscuration of incident photons by the supporting frames, which can be well reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations. The spatial resolution of LEIA defined by the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the focal spot ranges from 4 to 8 arc minutes with a median of 5.7 arcmin. The measured effective areas are in range of 2 - 3 cm 2 at ∼ 1.25 keV across the entire FoV, and its dependence on photon energy is also in large agreement with simulations. The gains of the four complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors are in range of 6.5 - 6.9 eV / DN , and the energy resolutions in the range of ∼ 120 - 140 eV at 1.25 keV and ∼ 170 - 190 eV at 4.5 keV. These calibration results have been ingested into the first version of calibration database (CALDB) and applied to the analysis of the scientific data acquired by LEIA. This work paves the way for the calibration of the Wide-field X-Ray Telescope (WXT) flight model modules of the Einstein Probe (EP) mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of depression; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Apart from the disordered circadian rhythm in animal models and patients with depression, dysfunction of clock genes has been reported to be involved with the progress of inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the role of circadian clock genes, especially brain and muscle ARNT-like 1 (Bmal1), in the linkage between inflammation and depression. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged rats and BV2 cells were used in the present study. Four intraperitoneal LPS injections of 0.5 mg/kg were administered once every other day to the rats, and BV2 cells were challenged with LPS for 24 h at the working concentration of 1 mg/L, with or without the suppression of Bmal1 via small interfering RNA. The results showed that LPS could successfully induce depression-like behaviors and an “inflammatory storm” in rats, as indicated by the increased immobility time in the forced swimming test and the decreased saccharin preference index in the saccharin preference test, together with hyperactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, hyperactivation of astrocyte and microglia, and increased peripheral and central abundance of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin 6, and C-reactive protein. Moreover, the protein expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1, Copine6, and Synaptotagmin1 (Syt-1) decreased in the hippocampus and hypothalamus, whereas the expression of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 increased. Interestingly, the fluctuation of temperature and serum concentration of melatonin and corticosterone was significantly different between the groups. Furthermore, protein expression levels of the circadian locomotor output cycles kaput, cryptochrome 2, and period 2 was significantly reduced in the hippocampus of LPS-challenged rats, whereas Bmal1 expression was significantly increased in the hippocampus but decreased in the hypothalamus, where it was co-located with neurons, microglia, and astrocytes. Consistently, apart from the reduced cell viability and increased phagocytic ability, LPS-challenged BV2 cells presented a similar trend with the changed protein expression in the hippocampus of the LPS model rats. However, the pathological changes in BV2 cells induced by LPS were reversed after the suppression of Bmal1. These results indicated that LPS could induce depression-like pathological changes, and the underlying mechanism might be partly associated with the imbalanced expression of Bmal1 and its regulated dysfunction of the circadian rhythm. Conclusions In conclusion, our results indicated that LPS could induce depression-like behaviors and an “inflammatory storm” in vivo, activate microglia in vitro, together with a disruption of synaptic plasticity and circadian rhythm. This mechanism may be involved in the imbalanced expression of Bmal1. Our results can help uncover a novel clock-immunological mechanism of neuroinflammation-induced depression and shed light on the development of new effective pharmacotherapies for depression [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, driven by the increasing concern on 3D techniques, resulting in the large-scale 3D data, 3D model classification has attracted enormous attention from both research and industry communities. Most of the current methods highly depend on sufficient labeled 3D models, which substantially restricts their scalability to novel classes with few annotated training data since it can increase the chance of overfitting. Besides, they only leverage single-modal information (either point cloud or multi-view information), and few works integrate these complementary information for 3D model representation. To overcome these problems, we propose a multi-modal meta-transfer fusion network (M 3 TF), the key of which is to perform few-shot multi-modal representation for 3D model classification. Specifically, we first convert the original 3D data into both multi-view and point cloud modalities, and pre-train individual encoding networks on a large-scale dataset to obtain the optimal initial parameters, which is beneficial to few-shot learning tasks. Then, to enable the network to adjust to few-shot learning tasks, we update the parameters in Scaling and Shifting operation (SS), multi-modal representation fusion (MMRF) and the 3D model classifier to obtain optimal initialization parameters. Since the large-scale training parameters in feature extractors will increase the chance of overfitting, we freeze the feature extractor and introduce a SS operation to adjust its weights. Specifically, SS can reduce the number of training parameters up to 20%, which can effectively avoid overfitting. MMRF can adaptively integrate the multi-modal information based on their significance to the 3D model for a more robust 3D representation. Since there is no available dataset for evaluation, we build three 3D CAD datasets, Meta-ModalNet, Meta-ShapeNet and Meta-RGBD, for this new task and implement the representative methods for fair comparisons. Extensive experimental results can demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]