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Climate warming disproportionately impacts countries in the Global South by increasing extreme heat exposure. However, geographic disparities in adaptation capacity are unclear. Here, we assess global inequality in green spaces, which urban residents critically rely on to mitigate outdoor heat stress. We use remote sensing data to quantify daytime cooling by urban greenery in the warm seasons across the ~500 largest cities globally. We show a striking contrast, with Global South cities having ~70% of the cooling capacity of cities in the Global North (2.5 ± 1.0 °C vs. 3.6 ± 1.7 °C). A similar gap occurs for the cooling adaptation benefits received by an average resident in these cities (2.2 ± 0.9 °C vs. 3.4 ± 1.7 °C). This cooling adaptation inequality is due to discrepancies in green space quantity and quality between cities in the Global North and South, shaped by socioeconomic and natural factors. Our analyses further suggest a vast potential for enhancing cooling adaptation while reducing global inequality. A 1.5-fold gap exists in green space cooling adaptation between cities in the Global South and North. Enhancing urban green space quality and quantity offers vast potential for improving outdoor cooling adaptation and reducing its global inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the impacts of zinc oxide (ZnO) loading on the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) performance of the cerium oxide-molybdenum oxide (CeOx–MoO3) catalyst were systematically investigated. With the introduction of ZnO, the catalyst's nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduction activity presented a downward trend. At 300 °C, the NOx conversion efficiency of the sample with 4 wt% ZnO loaded dropped below 70%, ~ 22% lower than that of the fresh sample. This decrease was attributed to the neutralization of the catalysts' acid sites by the added ZnO, which inhibited the adsorption of ammonia as the reductant. Furthermore, the introduction of ZnO resulted in a decrease in the relative content of Ce3+, which interfered with the formation of oxygen vacancies and the activation of oxygen. This weakened oxidative ability slowed down the activation of the reactants. Even though the specific surface area of the CeOx–MoO3 catalyst was enhanced due to ZnO, this promotional effect was insufficient to completely overcome the aforementioned negative impacts. Consequently, the efficiency of the NOx elimination process over the ZnO-loaded catalysts was adversely affected. Despite the addition of ZnO, the Eley–Rideal reaction pathway continued to dominate in the deNOx process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: CD93 was recently identified as a promising therapeutic target for angiogenesis blockade in various tumors. Herein, we aimed to investigate the expression and clinicopathological significance of CD93 in gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods: The gene expression of CD93 gastric adenocarcinoma was assessed using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. We then analyzed CD93 expression in 404 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma using immunohistochemistry. Clinicopathological associations and prognostic implications of CD93 expression were further investigated. Results: Using the TCGA dataset, we observed a significantly elevated CD93 gene expression in gastric adenocarcinoma compared to normal gastric tissues. The immunohistochemistry assay revealed a highly variable CD93 expression among patients with gastric adenocarcinoma, consistently demonstrating higher intratumor expression than in adjacent normal tissues. Notably, CD93 was predominantly expressed on the membrane of CD31+ vascular endothelial cells. Furthermore, patients with higher CD93 expression demonstrated significantly poorer overall survival. Accordingly, higher CD93 expression was associated with deeper invasion and a higher possibility of lymph node metastasis and developing tumor thrombus. Cox proportional hazards regression suggested CD93 expression was an independent predictor for the prognosis of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: Our study revealed a significantly higher CD93 expression in gastric adenocarcinoma when compared with adjacent normal gastric tissues, and demonstrated its predominant expression on vascular endothelial cells. Our findings also highlighted the clinicopathological significance of CD93 in gastric adenocarcinoma, shedding light on a potential therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have garnered significant interest in energy storage due to their similar working mechanism to lithium ion batteries and abundant reserves of sodium resource. Exploring facile synthesis of a carbon-based anode materials with capable electrochemical performance is key to promoting the practical application of SIBs. In this work, a combination of petroleum pitch and recyclable sodium chloride is selected as the carbon source and template to obtain hard carbon (HC) anode for SIBs. Carbonization times and temperatures are optimized by assessing the sodium ion storage behavior of different HC materials. The optimized HC exhibits a remarkable capacity of over 430 mA·hg−1 after undergoing full activation through 500 cycles at a density of current of 0.1 A·g−1. Furthermore, it demonstrates an initial discharge capacity of 276 mAh·g−1 at a density of current of 0.5 A·g−1. Meanwhile, the optimized HC shows a good capacity retention (170 mAh·g−1 after 750 cycles) and a remarkable rate ability (166 mAh·g−1 at 2 A·g−1). The enhanced capacity is attributed to the suitable degree of graphitization and surface area, which improve the sodium ion transport and storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the stress state in a circular ring has been a classical topic in the stress analysis literature. Based on the principle of superposition, the results may be obtained by adding known solutions to an associated ring problem, where the boundary stresses on the inner and outer walls of the ring are represented in Fourier series. In this work, the coefficients of the Fourier series are generated through an algorithm based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT). In the case of concentrated loading, the required additional fundamental solutions are derived in closed-form. The presented numerical method allows for accurate and efficient computations of the stress distributions in a circular ring in static equilibrium under arbitrary in-plane loading; and generally, the FFT-based algorithm provides a convenient and versatile tool for handing some two-dimensional problems involving circular boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For any two real-valued continuous-path martingales X = {Xt}t≥0 and Y = {Yt}t≥0, with X and Y being orthogonal and Y being differentially subordinate to X, we obtain sharp Lp inequalities for martingales of the form aX + bY with a, b real numbers. The best Lp constant is equal to the norm of the operator aI + bH from Lp to Lp, where H is the Hilbert transform on the circle or real line. The values of these norms were found by Hollenbeck, Kalton and Verbitsky [Studia Math., 2003, 157(3): 237–278]. We also give applications of our martingale inequalities to Riesz transforms and some discrete operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) detection modes mainly rely on chromogenic, fluorogenic, ionizable, or redox properties of analytes, greatly limiting the scope of analysis. Therefore, the development of a universal HPCE detection system has raised great attention. Herein, by tandem connection of different diameter capillaries (TCDDC), a novel and universal HPCE detection system called interface-induced current detector (IICRD) was constructed. The current signal peaks of analytes in the current-electrophoretograms (CR-EGs) can be observed for the first time. The results of detector performance tests showed good repeatability and high sensitivity. The theoretical deduction and experimental verification were further carried out. To prove the detection ability, several substances with or without special responsive groups were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Firstly, cations and anions in inorganic electrolytes (inorganic salts, acids and alkalis) can be simultaneously separated and analyzed. Furthermore, several small molecular weight organic compounds, monosaccharides and disaccharides were also analyzed. The current signal peaks in CR-EGs were identified and discussed. For quantitative analysis, system suitability tests were evaluated, the results of quantitative analysis methodology validation showed that the new method was qualified for quantitative analysis. The linear relationship between the values of current intensity and the concentrations of analytes can be obtained over the investigated concentration ranges. In summary, the HPCE-DAD-IICRD system showed lower baseline noise, higher sensitivity and higher S/N especially for samples without special responsive groups, showing complementary advantages when combined with other detectors. It is expected to be a novel HPCE detection system for extensive applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite substantial progress in clinical trials of osteoarthritis (OA) gene therapy, the prevalence of OA is still on the rise. MiRNAs have a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for OA. OA cartilage and chondrosarcoma cells were studied to determine the role of miR-29a-3p and PTEN. OA cartilage and human chondrosarcoma cells (SW1353) were obtained. miR-29a-3p and PTEN signature expression was determined by RT-qPCR. The binding relationship between miR-29a-3p and PTEN was investigated by dual-luciferase reporter gene and western blot assay. TUNEL, immunohistochemistry, CCK-8, and flow cytometry were utilized to determine the proliferation and apoptosis of SW1353 cells. This study indicated downregulation of miR-29a-3p expression and upregulation of PTEN expression in human OA primary chondrocytes or OA tissue samples, compared with the normal cartilage cells or tissues. PTEN expression was negatively correlated with miR-29a-3p expression, and miR-29a-3p targeted PTEN mechanistically. miR-29a-3p reduced SW1353 cell activity and proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis. However, the aforementioned effects could be reversed by downregulating PTEN. miR-29a-3p can stimulate chondrocyte proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by inhibiting PTEN expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a visible-light response semiconductor materials, bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is extensively applied in photodegradation organic dye field. In this study, we synthesized C3N5 nanosheets and coupled with decahedral BiVO4 to construct a Z-scheme C3N5/BiVO4 heterostructure with close interface contact. By introducing C3N5 into BiVO4, the built Z-scheme transfer pathway provides silky channel for charge carrier migration between different moieties and enables photoexcited electrons and holes accumulated on the surface of BiVO4 and C3N5. The accelerated separation of charge carriers ensures C3N5/BiVO4 heterostructures with a powerful oxidation capacity compared with pure BiVO4. Due to the synergistic effect in Z-scheme heterostructure, the C3N5/BiVO4 demonstrated an improved photodegradation ability of rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) that of bare BiVO4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weakly supervised object localization and semantic segmentation aim to localize objects using only image-level labels. Recently, a new paradigm has emerged by generating a foreground prediction map (FPM) to achieve pixel-level localization. While existing FPM-based methods use cross-entropy to evaluate the foreground prediction map and to guide the learning of the generator, this paper presents two astonishing experimental observations on the object localization learning process: For a trained network, as the foreground mask expands, (1) the cross-entropy converges to zero when the foreground mask covers only part of the object region. (2) The activation value continuously increases until the foreground mask expands to the object boundary. Therefore, to achieve a more effective localization performance, we argue for the usage of activation value to learn more object regions. In this paper, we propose a background activation suppression (BAS) method. Specifically, an activation map constraint module is designed to facilitate the learning of generator by suppressing the background activation value. Meanwhile, by using foreground region guidance and area constraint, BAS can learn the whole region of the object. In the inference phase, we consider the prediction maps of different categories together to obtain the final localization results. Extensive experiments show that BAS achieves significant and consistent improvement over the baseline methods on the CUB-200-2011 and ILSVRC datasets. In addition, our method also achieves state-of-the-art weakly supervised semantic segmentation performance on the PASCAL VOC 2012 and MS COCO 2014 datasets. Code and models are available at https://github.com/wpy1999/BAS-Extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic can cause immune inflammation, which is the basis of arsenic-induced damage to multiple organs and systems. Forkhead box P3 (Foxp3)-labelled CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an essential role in maintaining immune homeostasis. Nuclear factor-κb (NF-κB) and Interleukin-2 (IL-2) are critical regulators of Foxp3. Rosa roxburghii Tratt (RRT) is an edible medicinal plant with anti-inflammation effects. In this study, a control group (n = 41) and an arseniasis group (n = 209) were recruited, and screened subjects from the arseniasis patients for RRTJ (n = 46) or placebo (n = 43) to explore the possible mechanism by which RRT alleviates immune inflammation. The results indicated that RRTJ can inhibits NF-κB and increases IL-2, and alleviates the Foxp3-mediated Tregs imbalance in the peripheral blood of arseniasis patients. In summary, these findings suggest a novel intervention or therapeutic target for immune inflammation in arseniasis patients and provide new evidence that RRTJ inhibits immune inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence suggests that key cancer-causing driver genes continue to exert a sustained influence on the tumor microenvironment (TME), highlighting the importance of immunotherapeutic targeting of gene mutations in governing tumor progression. TP53 is a prominent tumor suppressor that encodes the p53 protein, which controls the initiation and progression of different tumor types. Wild-type p53 maintains cell homeostasis and genomic instability through complex pathways, and mutant p53 (Mut p53) promotes tumor occurrence and development by regulating the TME. To date, it has been wildly considered that TP53 is able to mediate tumor immune escape. Herein, we summarized the relationship between TP53 gene and tumors, discussed the mechanism of Mut p53 mediated tumor immune escape, and summarized the progress of applying p53 protein in immunotherapy. This study will provide a basic basis for further exploration of therapeutic strategies targeting p53 protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) represent a promising low-cost thin-film photovoltaic technology, with unprecedented power conversion efficiencies obtained for both single-junction and tandem applications1–8. To push PSCs towards commercialization, it is critical, albeit challenging, to understand device reliability under real-world outdoor conditions where multiple stress factors (for example, light, heat and humidity) coexist, generating complicated degradation behaviours9–13. To quickly guide PSC development, it is necessary to identify accelerated indoor testing protocols that can correlate specific stressors with observed degradation modes in fielded devices. Here we use a state-of-the-art positive-intrinsic-negative (p–i–n) PSC stack (with power conversion efficiencies of up to approximately 25.5%) to show that indoor accelerated stability tests can predict our six-month outdoor ageing tests. Device degradation rates under illumination and at elevated temperatures are most instructive for understanding outdoor device reliability. We also find that the indium tin oxide/self-assembled monolayer-based hole transport layer/perovskite interface most strongly affects our device operation stability. Improving the ion-blocking properties of the self-assembled monolayer hole transport layer increases averaged device operational stability at 50 °C–85 °C by a factor of about 2.8, reaching over 1,000 h at 85 °C and to near 8,200 h at 50 °C, with a projected 20% degradation, which is among the best to date for high-efficiency p–i–n PSCs14–17.We correlate lab test and field test results to better predict the performance of perovskite photovoltaics as a step towards real-world implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is one of the most widely used essential chemicals worldwide, and it is also employed in the production of many other chemicals, especially carbon-free energy fuels produced via photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. At present, gallium arsenide represents the most efficient photoanode material for PEC water oxidation, but it is known to either be anodically photocorroded or photopassivated by native metal oxides in the competitive reaction, limiting efficiency and stability. Here, we report chemically etched GaAs that is decorated with thin titanium dioxide (~30 nm-thick, crystalline) surface passivation layer along with nickel-phosphate (Ni-Pi) cocatalyst as a surface hole-sink layer. The integration of Ni-Pi bifunctional co-catalyst results in a highly efficient GaAs electrode with a ~ 100 mV cathodic shift of the onset potential. In this work, the electrode also has enhanced photostability under 110 h testing for PEC water oxidation at a steady current density Jph > 25 mA·cm−2. The Et-GaAs/TiO2/Ni-Pi║Ni-Pi tandem configuration results in the best unassisted bias-free water splitting device with the highest Jph (~7.6 mA·cm−2) and a stable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 9.5%. Photocorrosion limits the efficiency and stability of gallium arsenide photoanodes. Here the authors report crystalline TiO2 passivation with Ni-phosphate hole-sink layer which enables rapid charge transport for enhanced photostability of 110 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An aqueous dispersion of carbon black is crucial in industrial coatings. In this manuscript, a hyperdispersant IBOMA-MPEGA-DMAM (IMD) has been synthesized using isobornyl methacrylate (IBOMA), polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether acrylate (MPEGA), and N, N-dimethyl acrylamide (DMAM) as monomers via a free radical polymerization method, which is used to improve the dispersibility of an aqueous dispersion system of carbon black. The molecular structure and performance stability of IMD were investigated through comprehensive characterizations of FTIR, GPC, particle size distribution and TEM. When the molar ratio of the monomers IBOMA:MEPGA:DMAM is 5.5:8.3:9.7, the obtained hyperdispersant shows good dispersibility. When the optimal dosage of dispersant IMD was 8%, the viscosity of carbon black slurry was as low as 18.6 mPa·s and the average particle size of carbon black was 275 nm. Furthermore, the stability of the prepared carbon black slurry was better than that of the two commercial dispersants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Compared with people without diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are at higher risk of both subnormal vitamin C status and increased oxidative stress. We aimed to investigate the associations of serum vitamin C concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among adults with and without T2D. Methods: The current analysis included 20,045 adults (2691 people with T2D and 17,354 without T2D) from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES 2003–2006. Cox proportional hazards regression models were applied to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Restricted cubic spline analyses were used to examine the dose–response relationship. Results: After a median follow-up of 17.3 years, 5211 deaths were documented. Individuals with T2D had a lower level of serum vitamin C concentrations compared with those without T2D (the median value: 40.1 vs. 44.9 μmol/L). Furthermore, the dose–response relationship between serum vitamin C and mortality showed different patterns between participants with and without T2D. In individuals without T2D, there was a nonlinear association of serum vitamin C concentrations with all-cause, cancer, and CVD mortality, with the lowest risk around a serum vitamin C concentration of 48.0 μmol/L (all Poverall < 0.05, Pnonlinearity < 0.05). In contrast, among those with T2D in the similar concentration range, higher serum vitamin C levels (ranged from 0.46 to 116.26 μmol/L) were linearly associated with lower all-cause and cancer mortality (both Poverall < 0.05, Pnonlinearity > 0.05). Significant additive interaction was observed between diabetes status and serum vitamin C levels with regard to all-cause and cancer mortality (P < 0.001). In addition, C-reactive protein, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, and HbA1c explained 14.08, 8.96, and 5.60% of the association between serum vitamin C and all-cause mortality among individuals with T2D, respectively. Conclusions: Higher serum vitamin C concentrations were significantly associated with lower risk of mortality in participants with T2D in a linear dose–response manner, while a nonlinear association was observed in participants without T2D, with an apparent threshold around 48.0 μmol/L. These findings suggest that the optimal vitamin C requirement may differ in individuals with and without T2D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterizing airborne pollen concentrations is crucial for supporting allergy and asthma management; however, pollen monitoring is labor intensive and, in the USA, geographically limited. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) engages thousands of volunteer observers in regularly documenting the developmental and reproductive status of plants. The reports of flower and pollen cone status contributed to the USA-NPN's platform, Nature's Notebook, have the potential to help address gaps in pollen monitoring by providing real-time, spatially explicit information from across the country. In this study, we assessed whether observations of flower and pollen cone status contributed to Nature's Notebook can serve as effective proxies for airborne pollen concentrations. We compared daily pollen concentrations from 36 National Allergy Bureau (NAB) stations in the USA with flowering and pollen cone status observations collected within 200 km of each NAB station in each year, 2009–2021, for 15 common tree taxa using Spearman's correlations. Of 350 comparisons, 58% of correlations were significant (p < 0.05). Comparisons could be made at the largest numbers of sites for Acer and Quercus. Quercus demonstrated a comparatively high proportion of tests with significant agreement (median ρ = 0.49). Juglans demonstrated the strongest overall coherence between the two datasets (median ρ = 0.79), though comparisons were made at only a small number of sites. For particular taxa, volunteer-contributed flowering status observations demonstrate promise to indicate seasonal patterns in airborne pollen concentrations. The quantity of observations, and therefore, their utility for supporting pollen alerts, could be substantially increased through a formal observation campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore an optimal machine learning (ML) model trained on MRI-based radiomic features to differentiate benign from malignant indistinguishable vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). Methods: This retrospective study included patients within 6 weeks of back pain (non-traumatic) who underwent MRI and were diagnosed with benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs. The two cohorts were retrospectively recruited from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University (QUH) and Qinghai Red Cross Hospital (QRCH). Three hundred seventy-six participants from QUH were divided into the training (n = 263) and validation (n = 113) cohort based on the date of MRI examination. One hundred three participants from QRCH were used to evaluate the external generalizability of our prediction models. A total of 1045 radiomic features were extracted from each region of interest (ROI) and used to establish the models. The prediction models were established based on 7 different classifiers. Results: These models showed favorable efficacy in differentiating benign from malignant indistinguishable VCFs. However, our Gaussian naïve Bayes (GNB) model attained higher AUC and accuracy (0.86, 87.61%) than the other classifiers in validation cohort. It also remains the high accuracy and sensitivity for the external test cohort. Conclusions: Our GNB model performed better than the other models in the present study, suggesting that it may be more useful for differentiating indistinguishable benign form malignant VCFs. Key Points: • The differential diagnosis of benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs based on MRI is rather difficult for spine surgeons or radiologists. • Our ML models facilitate the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant indistinguishable VCFs with improved diagnostic efficacy. • Our GNB model had the high accuracy and sensitivity for clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites have revolutionized solar cell research owing to their excellent material properties. Most previous research has been done on Pb-based perovskites. Recently, efforts to discover a Pb-free or Pb-less perovskite material with an ideal bandgap ranging 1.1–1.3 eV have led researchers to investigate Sn–Pb mixed perovskites. Sn–Pb mixed perovskites have a bandgap of ~ 1.25 eV, which is suitable for high-efficiency single-junction and perovskite/perovskite tandem solar cells. Moreover, the Pb content of Sn–Pb mixed perovskites is 50–60% lower than that of Pb-based perovskites, partially mitigating the Pb toxicity issue. However, incorporating Sn2+ into the crystal structure also causes various drawbacks, such as inhomogeneous thin film morphologies, easy oxidation of Sn2+, and more vulnerable surface properties. Researchers have made substantial progress in addressing these challenges through improvements in compositional design, structural optimization, precursor design, and surface treatments. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the progress in Sn–Pb mixed perovskite solar cells. Furthermore, we analyze the key variables and trends as well as provide an outlook for future directions in the research on Sn–Pb mixed perovskites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cephalopods are well-documented for voracious and opportunistic feeding behaviors, but knowledge about individual niche partitioning in energy acquisition is still scarce. Here, we applied the stable isotope analysis to evaluate the individual diet specialization of female jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas), which is an important pelagic commercial cephalopod and also acts as a vector of energy and nutrient transfer in the marine ecosystem. We detected the δ15N and δ13C values of each squid's paired tissues; the digestive gland and mantle tissue were sampled from three regions (the Equatorial waters, waters off north and south Peruvian Exclusive Economic Zone) in the southeast Pacific. We found that the squid spanned more than one trophic level variation in the ranges of δ15N and δ13C values and consistently increased isotopic niche as they grew in each sampling region. Conversely, the variations between the paired tissues for each individual typically averaged from 0.82‰ to 1.92‰ for the δ15N values, and for the δ13C values, averaged from 1.18‰ to 1.65‰; the isotopic individuality index was close to 0. The inter-individual difference metrics (isotopic evenness and isotopic uniqueness) showed a variability of 1.1–1.7 factor when using the gonadosomatic index as a weight factor, and negligible change when weighed by mantle length, compared to the metrics without a weight factor added. The results indicate that the female jumbo squid is a diet generalist that is composed of individual specialization and that the individual diet specialization may be linked to energy acquisition for reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the clinical value of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols for children with neuroblastoma (NB). Methods: This retrospective review was conducted by using the electronic medical records of 48 children with retroperitoneal localized NB who underwent tumor resection (surgery for treatment, not diagnosis) between October 2016 and September 2021. The ERAS protocols for NB excision were implemented in 28 children (ERAS group), while 20 children received traditional care (TRAD group). The same group of pediatric surgeons performed all the tumor resections. Intraoperative fluid infusion, the extent of NB resection, time of early ambulation and time of first flatus, time to total enteral nutrition (TEN) after surgery, abdominal drainages, nasogastric tubes and urinary catheters used and duration, the Face/Legs/Activity/Cry/Consolability (FLACC) quantitative table on a postoperative day 1 (POD1), 3, 5, length of stay after surgery (LOS), hospitalization expense, postoperative complications, parental satisfaction rate and readmission rate of surgical wards within 30 days after operation were analyzed. Results: The median postoperative period of early mobilization, first flatus, TEN, LOS and total cost during hospitalization were 1.0 days, 2.0 days, 5.5 days, 9.0 days and 33,397.3 yuan in the ERAS group and 3.0 days, 3.0 days, 7.0 days, 11.0 days and 38,120.3 Yuan in the TRAD group, respectively (all p < 0.05). Median intraoperative fluid volume was 5.0 mL/kg/h compared to 8.0 mL/kg/h and the magnitude of decrease in FLACC scores from POD1 to POD5 was greater in the ERAS group (all p < 0.05). Abdominal drainages, urinary catheters and nasogastric tubes were removed earlier in the ERAS group (p < 0.05). The satisfaction of parents in the ERAS group was slightly higher, but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.762). There were no marked differences between the two groups in aspects of the extent of NB resection, operation-related complications and 30-day readmissions (all P = 1.000). Conclusions: Application of ERAS protocols in localized retroperitoneal NBs resection in children is feasible and safe. However, applying ERAS protocols in the surgical resection of solid tumors in children still requires much more research, especially randomized prospective research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites exhibiting exceptional photovoltaic and optoelectronic properties are of fundamental and practical interest, owing to their tunability and low manufacturing cost. For practical applications, however, challenges such as material instability and the photocurrent hysteresis occurring in perovskite solar cells under light exposure need to be understood and addressed. While extensive investigations have suggested that ion migration is a plausible origin of these detrimental effects, detailed understanding of the ion migration pathways remains elusive. Here, we report the characterization of photo-induced ion migration in perovskites using in situ laser illumination inside a scanning electron microscope, coupled with secondary electron imaging, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence with varying primary electron energies. Using methylammonium lead iodide and formamidinium lead iodide as model systems, we observed photo-induced long-range migration of halide ions over hundreds of micrometers and elucidated the transport pathways of various ions both near the surface and inside the bulk of the samples, including a surprising finding of the vertical migration of lead ions. Our study provides insights into ion migration processes in perovskites that can aid perovskite material design and processing in future applications. Ion migration is a plausible origin of material instability and photocurrent hysteresis in perovskite solar cells. Here, authors characterize photo-induced ion migration in perovskites by in situ laser illumination inside scanning electron microscope and observe long-range migration of halide ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aster leafhopper Macrosteles fascifrons is a common insect pest that feeds on rice and other plants and may serve as a vector to transmit various viruses. Here, we discovered a novel virus from M. fascifrons using metagenomic sequencing. We obtained its complete genome sequence by contig assembly and rapid amplification of cDNA ends, and verified the genome sequence by Sanger sequencing of overlapping segments. Based on homology search and phylogenetic analysis, the new virus belongs to the family Iflaviridae and it is tentatively named "Macrosteles fascifrons iflavirus 1" (MfIV1). Excluding the poly(A) tail, the MfIV1 genome is 10,581 nucleotides in length and it is predicted to encode a polyprotein of 3119 amino acids long, which is likely further processed to several polypeptides with conserved domains, including two rhinovirus like (rhv-like) capsid domains, a cricket paralysis virus (CRPV) capsid domain, a helicase domain, and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domain. BLAST searches show that the highest amino acid sequence identity between the capsid proteins of MfIV1 and those of other reported iflaviruses is 60.22%, indicating that MfIV1 is a new member in the family Iflaviridae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the associations of healthy dietary patterns with cardiometabolic biomarkers and all-cause mortality among individuals with prediabetes. Methods: This cohort study included 8363 adults with prediabetes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2014. Healthy dietary patterns including Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), Alternate Mediterranean Diet score (AMED), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score (DASH), and Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) were calculated based on 24-h dietary recall data. Mortality status was obtained by linkage to National Death Index records. Cardiometabolic biomarkers, including blood glucose, insulin, HbA1c, C-reactive protein (CRP), and lipids, were measured at recruitment. Results: During 61,991 person-years of follow-up, 991 deaths occurred. Comparing the extreme quartiles, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause mortality were 0.65 (0.49, 0.85) for AHEI-2010 (P-trend = 0.002), 0.68 (0.50, 0.92) for AMED (P-trend = 0.004), 0.72 (0.53, 0.98) for DASH (P-trend = 0.03), and 0.78 (0.58, 1.05) for HEI-2015 (P-trend = 0.08). Besides, the HRs (95% CIs) for all-cause mortality per 20-percentile increment in scores were 0.78 (0.67, 0.90) for AHEI-2010 (P = 0.001), 0.73 (0.62, 0.86) for AMED (P < 0.001), 0.84 (0.69, 1.02) for DASH (P = 0.08), and 0.86 (0.74, 1.00) for HEI-2015 (P = 0.04). In addition, higher dietary scores were associated with favorable blood glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, blood lipids, and CRP (all P-trend < 0.05). The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and CRP explained 1.53–9.21% of the associations between dietary patterns and all-cause mortality (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Diets with higher AHEI-2010, AMED, DASH, and HEI-2015 were associated with improved cardiometabolic factors and lower all-cause mortality among individuals with prediabetes. These findings suggest that multiple healthy dietary patterns instead of a one-size-fits-all diet plan might be beneficial and acceptable for individuals with prediabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency concomitant with long-term durability using low-cost, scalable photo-absorbers is a long-standing challenge. Here we report the design and fabrication of a conductive adhesive-barrier (CAB) that translates >99% of photoelectric power to chemical reactions. The CAB enables halide perovskite-based photoelectrochemical cells with two different architectures that exhibit record STH efficiencies. The first, a co-planar photocathode-photoanode architecture, achieved an STH efficiency of 13.4% and 16.3 h to t60, solely limited by the hygroscopic hole transport layer in the n-i-p device. The second was formed using a monolithic stacked silicon-perovskite tandem, with a peak STH efficiency of 20.8% and 102 h of continuous operation before t60 under AM 1.5G illumination. These advances will lead to efficient, durable, and low-cost solar-driven water-splitting technology with multifunctional barriers. High-efficiency photoelectrodes, which integrate light absorption with catalysis, have been limited to costly materials. Here, the authors develop an anticorrosion barrier that enables low-cost semiconductors for integrated solar fuel devices with 20.8% solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) hosts the largest volunteer-contributed collection of plant phenology observations in the USA. The potential contributions of these spatially and temporally explicit observations of flowers and pollen cones to the field of aerobiology remain largely unexplored. Here, we introduce this freely available dataset and demonstrate its prospective applications for modeling airborne pollen in a case study. Specifically, we compare the timing of 4265 observations of flowering for oak (Quercus) trees in the eastern USA to winter–spring temperatures. We then use this relationship to predict the day of peak flowering at 15 pollen monitoring stations in 15 years and compare the predicted day of peak flowering to the peak day of measured pollen (n = 111 station-years). There was a strong association between winter–spring temperature and the presence of open flowers (r2 = 0.66, p < 0.0001) and the predicted peak flowering was strongly correlated with peak airborne pollen concentrations (r2 = 0.81, p < 0.0001). These results demonstrate the potential for the USA-NPN's phenological observations to underpin source-based models of airborne pollen. We also highlight opportunities for leveraging and enhancing this near real-time dataset for aerobiological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Climate change is driving phenological shifts across landscapes, but uncoordinated shifts might cause a potential "phenological mismatch." There has been little consensus on the existence and magnitude of such a mismatch. The lack of agreement among studies can be attributed to the wide variety of definitions for the term "phenological mismatch," as well as the methods used to measure it. The lack of comparability among measures of phenological mismatch creates a challenge for conservation. Objectives: We proposed a novel theoretical framework to generalize existing measures of phenological mismatch and an approach to quantify the decoupling between phenology and the environment using the loss in predictive skill over time. We aimed to estimate the magnitude of phenological mismatch on large spatial scales and test the proposed predictive approach's ability to detect multiple types of phenological mismatch. Methods: We modeled historical climate-phenology coupling and quantified phenological mismatch as the deviation between observed and predicted phenology under climate change. First, we used two large empirical spatiotemporal datasets to estimate phenological mismatch in plant flowering phenology in the eastern United States and bird reproductive phenology in Finland. Historical climate-phenology coupling was modeled with spatial linear regression. Second, we conducted four simulation experiments representing different types of mismatch during climate change. We recovered simulated phenological mismatch by fitting a data-driven nonlinear model (Gaussian Process Empirical Dynamic Modeling) and predicting phenology. Results: In the eastern US, we found that advancing plant flowering phenology generally matched spring warming from 1895 to 2015, with seven out of the 19 species studied having significant phenological mismatches, with observed flowering time earlier than predictions even considering warming. A similar phenological mismatch was found in birds in Finland from 1975 to 2017, with the bird breeding season advancing more than expected in 21 out of the 36 species studied. In four simulation experiments, we were able to accurately recover the simulated phenological mismatches in the timing of events, pace of development, and intensity of activities, although with greater challenges in quantifying a mismatch in life history. Conclusions: Overall, these case studies show that our prediction-based measure effectively quantifies multiple types of phenological mismatch, providing a more generalizable and comparable measure of phenological mismatch across study systems and scales. This study will enable the investigation of phenological mismatch at large scales, improving understanding of the patterns and consequences of climate-change-induced phenological changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) has now been established as a safe and minimally invasive technique that is deemed feasible for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). However, the role of LLR in treating combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC) patients has been rarely reported. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of LLR when compared with open liver resection (OLR) procedure for patients with cHCC-CC. Methods: A total of 229 cHCC-CC patients who underwent hepatic resection (34 LLR and 195 OLR patients) from January 2014 to December 2018 in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University were enrolled and underwent a 1:2 propensity score matching (PSM) analysis between the LLR and OLR groups to compare perioperative and oncologic outcomes. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) parameters were assessed by the log-rank test and the sensitivity analysis. Results: A total of 34 LLR and 68 OLR patients were included after PSM analysis. The LLR group displayed a shorter postoperative hospital stay (6.61 vs. 8.26 days; p value < 0.001) when compared with the OLR group. No significant differences were observed in the postoperative complications' incidence or a negative surgical margin rate between the two groups (p value = 0.409 and p value = 1.000, respectively). The aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and inflammatory indicators in the LLR group were significantly lower than those in the OLR group on the first and third postoperative days. Additionally, OS and RFS were comparable in both the LLR and OLR groups (p value = 0.700 and p value = 0.780, respectively), and similar results were obtained by conducting a sensitivity analysis. Conclusion: LLR can impart less liver function damage, better inflammatory response attenuation contributing to a faster recovery, and parallel oncologic outcomes when compared with OLR. Therefore, LLR can be recommended as a safe and effective therapeutic modality for treating selected cHCC-CC patients, especially for those with small tumors in favorable location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Financial toxicity has become a global public health issue. The purpose of the study is to investigate and analyze the influencing factors of financial toxicity in patients with non-metastatic colorectal cancer. Methods: A convenient sample of 250 patients with stage I-III colorectal cancer was investigated in the study. They completed a set of questionnaires, including the Comprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity questionnaire, the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Univariate and multivariate linear regression were performed to investigate the influencing factors of financial toxicity. Results: Over half (52.8%, n = 132) of the colorectal cancer survivors experienced financial toxicity. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the factors associated with financial toxicity were young age, unemployment, low annual household income, chemotherapy, and the lack of sufficient social support (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Financial toxicity is common among non-metastatic colorectal cancer survivors. Young age, lower annual household income, unemployment, chemotherapy, and insufficient social support were associated with financial toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucose detection in complex matrix such as physiological fluids and drinks can provide useful information guide for people. However, traditional detection methods toward complex matrix suffer from the impurity interference or complex pretreatments. So, it is important to exploit a universal and sensitive glucose detection strategy in complex matrix. In this work, a cascade catalytic scheme based on peroxidase-like MBs@MIL-100(Fe)@Ag (MMA) is developed for sensitive glucose detection in complex solution. Using 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as an indicator, MMA can trigger catalytic cascade reactions for specific glucose sensing. In particular, the peroxidase-like MIL-100(Fe) serves as both the catalysis unit and enrichment unit. Oxidation state of TMB (oxTMB) can be effectively and specifically enriched by MIL-100(Fe) to exclude the interference of undesired impurities and macromolecules, which is suitable for complex sample matrix including colored soda and saliva. In addition, utilizing the peroxidase-like activity of MIL-100(Fe) for self-clean, the residual indicator molecules can be degraded, resulting in the recyclable use of MMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiotherapy (RT) mediated tumor immunogenicity offers an opportunity for simultaneous RT and immunotherapy via immunogenic cell death (ICD), which releases damaged-associated molecular patterns and generates "eat me" signals for the innate immune system to modulate the immunogenicity. However, tumor hypoxia significantly reduces the therapeutic efficacy of RT and hampers its mediation of ICD induction. Herein, Au@Bi2Te3-polyethylene glycol (PEG) was rationally constructed as theranostic nanozymes for mild photothermal therapy, tumor hypoxia modulation, and RT adjuvant cancer immunotherapy. The tumor-specific production of oxygen could not only augment the effects of RT by enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, but also reduce hypoxia-related cytokines and downregulate programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) to unleash immune-enhancing T cells. Moreover, Au@Bi2Te3-PEG could act as an immune-blocking inhibitor by efficient ICD induction with the combination of mild-photothermal therapy + RT to inhibit the tumor immune escape and improve antitumor immune response. Increased amounts of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and elevated levels of cytokines could be observed that eventually led to effective post-medication inhibition of primary and abscopal tumors. Spectral computed tomography/photoacoustic imaging allowed noninvasive and real-time tracking of nanoparticle (NP) accumulation and oxygenation status at tumor sites. Collectively, Au@Bi2Te3-PEG NPs could serve as effective theranostic nanoregulators with remarkable synergistic mild-photothermal/RT/immunotherapy effects that helped reshape the immune microenvironment and had remarkable molecular imaging properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) is extremely poisonous and can be absorbed through touch, inhalation, or consumption. In the living environment, Hg in contaminated sediment can be transferred into grass by the direct absorption through the roots or shoots. The intake of Hg due to Hg emissions may pose a threat to living bodies especially to human beings. The present study aims to provide a novel insight about total mercury (THg) and methyl mercury (MeHg) in a riparian grass (Cynodon dactylon (L).Pers) and sediments during the discharging phase (summertime at 145 m water level) in Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR-China); where C. dactylon is a dominant perennial herb in the riparian zone. Yet, the potential risk of Hg contamination in the riparian ecosystem is not thoroughly assessed in the dam regulated reservoir. This study was conducted in the riparian zones of the reservoir formed by a mega dam (Three Gorge Dam) which regulates the water levels during the summer and winter period in the TGR. Our results showed that riparian sediments were acting as a sink for THg and MeHg. Insignificant correlation of THg and MeHg was found between the amphiphyte C. dactylon and its surrounding sediments in the TGR. Bioconcentration factors values for MeHg were found higher than 1 in all study locations in the riparian zones in TGR, which could be due to action of certain bacteria/purely chemical-based methylation on inorganic form of Hg. Additionally, translocation factor indices also highlighted that the amphiphyte C. dactylon was MeHg accumulator in riparian zones. These results suggested that since riparian sediment was found acting as the sink for THg and MeHg during discharging phase, MeHg contamination in the amphiphyte C. dactylon in riparian zones was not caused by the riparian sediments but by other factors, for instance, the anthropogenic activities in the TGR. Finally, this study leads to conclude that amphiphyte C. dactylon can be used as biomonitoring agent for Hg pollution in the TGR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Postoperative urinary retention (POUR) is a common complication following colorectal surgery. The incidence of POUR among colorectal surgery patients varies widely, and the risk factors and outcomes of POUR are also debatable. This meta-analysis aims to systematically evaluate the risk factors for POUR in patients after colorectal surgery. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, and Chinese databases (CBM, CNKI, and WanFang Databases) were searched to identify relevant cohort studies (from inception to August 2022). Two researchers independently conducted literature quality evaluation and data extraction. All data were analyzed by using the Review Manager 5.4 software. Results: Nineteen studies with 101,025 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The risk factors for POUR in colorectal surgery patients were male sex, older age, diabetes mellitus, urological diseases, tumor location in the lower rectum, APR, laparoscopic surgery, operation time ≥ 4 h, postoperative date of urinary catheter removal, excessive intraoperative intravenous fluid volume, and postoperative ileus. The postoperative anastomotic leak, on the other hand, was not a risk factor for POUR. Conclusions: Multiple risk factors influence the incidence of POUR in patients undergoing colorectal surgery. To reduce the incidence of POUR in colorectal surgery patients, medical staff should identify risk factors early and enforce interventions to prevent them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with an inverted structure (often referred to as the p–i–n architecture) are attractive for future commercialization owing to their easily scalable fabrication, reliable operation and compatibility with a wide range of perovskite-based tandem device architectures1,2. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of p–i–n PSCs falls behind that of n–i–p (or normal) structure counterparts3–6. This large performance gap could undermine efforts to adopt p–i–n architectures, despite their other advantages. Given the remarkable advances in perovskite bulk materials optimization over the past decade, interface engineering has become the most important strategy to push PSC performance to its limit7,8. Here we report a reactive surface engineering approach based on a simple post-growth treatment of 3-(aminomethyl)pyridine (3-APy) on top of a perovskite thin film. First, the 3-APy molecule selectively reacts with surface formamidinium ions, reducing perovskite surface roughness and surface potential fluctuations associated with surface steps and terraces. Second, the reaction product on the perovskite surface decreases the formation energy of charged iodine vacancies, leading to effective n-type doping with a reduced work function in the surface region. With this reactive surface engineering, the resulting p–i–n PSCs obtained a PCE of over 25 per cent, along with retaining 87 per cent of the initial PCE after over 2,400 hours of 1-sun operation at about 55 degrees Celsius in air.A reactive surface engineering approach is used to produce an inverted perovskite solar cell that reaches a power conversion efficiency of 25% and has good operational stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the associations of lead and cadmium exposure with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The prospective cohort study included participants with T2D (n = 7420 for blood lead; n = 5113 for blood cadmium) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and NHANES 1999–2014. Death outcomes were ascertained through linkage with the National Death Index records. The geometric mean (interquartile range) concentrations of blood lead and cadmium were 19.6 (11.8, 35.0) μg/L and 0.39 (0.21, 0.60) μg/L, respectively. During 72,279 and 37,017 person-years of followup, 2818 all-cause deaths (including 832 CVD deaths) for blood lead and 1237 all-cause deaths (including 319 CVD deaths) for blood cadmium were documented, respectively. Comparing extreme quartiles, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of all-cause mortality were 1.51 (1.25, 1.82) for blood lead (Ptrend < 0.001) and 1.58 (1.22, 2.03) for blood cadmium (Ptrend < 0.001); and the HRs (95% CIs) of CVD mortality were 2.27 (1.54, 3.34) for blood lead (Ptrend < 0.001) and 1.78 (1.04, 3.03) for blood cadmium (Ptrend = 0.07). In the joint analysis, compared with participants in the lowest tertiles of blood lead and cadmium, participants in the highest tertiles had a HR (95% CI) of 2.09 (1.35, 3.24) for all-cause mortality. Exposure to lead and cadmium alone or in combination was significantly associated with higher risk of mortality among patients with T2D. These findings imply that minimizing exposure to lead and cadmium may aid in the prevention of premature death among individuals with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Gouty arthritis (GA) is an inflammatory disease, and renal impairment may occur to varying degrees with the progress of disease. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is an inflammatory marker. In this study, we aimed to explore the association between NLR and renal impairment in GA. Materials and methods: The subjects comprised 499 patients with gouty arthritis (GA) (473 men, 26 women; age range, 39–61 years old) from our hospital. They were divided into a chronic kidney disease (CKD) group (n = 206) and non-CKD group (n = 293) according to the glomerular filtration rate. Blood samples were collected during the gout flares. The differences in NLR, general data, and laboratory indexes of patients with GA between the two groups were compared, such as serum uric acid (SUA), serum creatinine (SCREA), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Results: NLR (3.38 vs. 2.38 (p < 0.001)) was higher in the CKD group, compared to the non-CKD group. Similarly, both SUA (527 vs. 507 (p < 0.05)) and SCREA (122 vs. 87 (p < 0.001)) were higher in the CKD group than in the non-CKD group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that NLR (OR = 1.122, p < 0.05), age, hypertension, and SUA were risk factors for CKD in patients with GA, although HDL and HGB were protective factors. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve of NLR for predicting CKD in patients with GA was 0.646 (95% CI 0.597–0.694). Conclusion: Our data showed that NLR might be an important potential factor for evaluating renal impairment in GA during flares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asphalt blended with flame retardant undergoes thermal aging during utilization, which significantly impacts its physical and chemical characteristics concurrently. This study focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of aluminum hydroxide/zinc borate (ATH/ZB) flame retardant on varying the combustion performance of asphalt, particularly after undergoing thermal aging (85 min and 270 min aging simulations were performed, corresponding to short-term and long-term thermal aging, respectively). The results showed that ATH/ZB flame-retardant can increase the softening point of asphalt before and after aging. ATH/ZB flame-retardant asphalt (FRA) after aging had fewer carbonyl and sulfoxide groups than base asphalt (BA), demonstrating the superior anti-oxidation capability of FRA. ATH/ZB delays the peak heat release rate (PHRR) commencement by over 200 s, decreases the PHRR intensity by more than 170 kW/m2, and decreases the asphalt’s combustion activation energy, which was owing to the fact that the sacrifice of the thermolabile flame retardant protects the asphalt from being aggressively combusted. Whereas, thermal aging enhances the PHRR intensity of FRA by 83 kW/m2, which is owing to the reduction of ATH/ZB content in FRA after aging. Aging deteriorates the flame retardant’s capability on anti-combustion.Graphical Abstract: Asphalt blended with flame retardant undergoes thermal aging during utilization, which significantly impacts its physical and chemical characteristics concurrently. This study focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of aluminum hydroxide/zinc borate (ATH/ZB) flame retardant on varying the combustion performance of asphalt, particularly after undergoing thermal aging (85 min and 270 min aging simulations were performed, corresponding to short-term and long-term thermal aging, respectively). The results showed that ATH/ZB flame-retardant can increase the softening point of asphalt before and after aging. ATH/ZB flame-retardant asphalt (FRA) after aging had fewer carbonyl and sulfoxide groups than base asphalt (BA), demonstrating the superior anti-oxidation capability of FRA. ATH/ZB delays the peak heat release rate (PHRR) commencement by over 200 s, decreases the PHRR intensity by more than 170 kW/m2, and decreases the asphalt’s combustion activation energy, which was owing to the fact that the sacrifice of the thermolabile flame retardant protects the asphalt from being aggressively combusted. Whereas, thermal aging enhances the PHRR intensity of FRA by 83 kW/m2, which is owing to the reduction of ATH/ZB content in FRA after aging. Aging deteriorates the flame retardant’s capability on anti-combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Discovery of noninvasive urinary biomarkers for the early diagnosis of esophageal squamous carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: We conducted proteomic analyses of 499 human urine samples obtained from healthy individuals (n = 321) and ESCC (n = 83), bladder cancer (n = 17), breast cancer (n = 12), colorectal cancer (n = 16), lung cancer (n = 33) and thyroid cancer (n = 17) patients from multiple medical centers. Those samples were divided into a discovery set (n = 247) and an independent validation set (n = 157). Results: Among urinary proteins identified in the comprehensive quantitative proteomics analysis, we selected a panel of three urinary biomarkers (ANXA1, S100A8, TMEM256), and established a logistic regression model in the discovery set that can correctly classify the majority of ESCC cases in the validation sets with the area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.825. This urinary biomarker panel not only discriminates ESCC patients from healthy individuals but also differentiates ESCC from other common tumors. Notably, the panel distinguishes stage I ESCC patients from healthy individuals with AUC values of 0.886. On the analysis of stage-specific biomarkers, another combination panel of protein (ANXA1, S100A8, SOD3, TMEM256) demonstrated a good AUC value of 0.792 for stage I ESCC. Conclusions: Urinary biomarker panel represents a promising auxiliary diagnostic tool for ESCC, including early-stage ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Anesthesia was reported to be associated with lowered postoperative sleep quality in adults, but its effect on teenager was less understood. This study was conducted to explore the association between postoperative sleep quality and general anesthesia in teenagers. Methods: A prospective study was conducted. Teenagers aged from 12 to 16 years who were treated with general anesthesia and under urologic or otolaryngologic surgery were recruited. Healthy teenagers matched by sex and age (± 3 years) with the specific case were recruited as the controls. The Sleep Habits Questionnaire was applied to assess the sleep quality of the teenagers. We applied a logistic regression analysis to evaluate the association between general anesthesia in teenagers under elective surgery and poor sleep quality. Risk ratio (RR) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed. Results: A total of 212 teenagers were included comprising 106 patients with general anesthesia who underwent urologic or otolaryngologic surgery and 106 healthy controls. The male participants were accounting for 47.2% (100/212). Anesthesia duration and surgery duration in the patients were 103.7 ± 14.4 min and 162.1 ± 17.0 min, respectively. Positive associations between general anesthesia and poor sleep quality in the 1st, 3rd, and 7th postoperative days were found, and RRs and their corresponding 95%CIs were 4.87 (1.72–13.79), 3.33 (1.22–9.1), and 3.26 (1.07–9.93), respectively. However, there was a lack of statistical associations before surgery and after 14 postoperative days. Conclusions: Teenagers who were treated with general anesthesia and under urologic or otolaryngologic surgery might have poor sleep quality within 7 postoperative days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study design: Clinical retrospective cohort study. Objectives: To explore the application of the electromagnetic navigation system in Endo-TLIF. Materials and methods: From May 2019 to March 2020, 76 patients with single-segment lumbar spondylolisthesis treated by electromagnetic navigation-assisted Endo-TLIF (NE group) and conventional Endo-TLIF (CE group) were enrolled in the study. Time of pedicle screw implantation, entire operation time, the number of intraoperative X-ray fluoroscopy exposures, total blood loss, incision length, ambulation time, accuracy of pedicle screws, complications, visual analog scale for back and leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index, Japanese Orthopedic Association score and postoperative fusion rates were recorded, respectively. Results: There were no significant differences in preoperative demographics between the NE and CE groups (P > 0.05). The mean number of intraoperative X-ray fluoroscopy exposures, guidewires insertion, entire operation time, total blood loss and adjustment rate of screws in the NE group were significantly less compared with the CE group (P < 0.05, respectively). There were no significant differences in clinical parameters between the two groups at different time points in the follow-up period (P > 0.05). There was no statistical difference in fusion rates between the two groups. In addition, one case of cage subsidence was observed after surgery in the CE group. Conclusion: Electromagnetic navigation systems could be applied throughout the entire surgical course and ameliorate the shortcomings of the conventional Endo-TLIF technique to reduce radiation exposure, improve accuracy, avoid repetitive operations and shorten surgery time and the required learning curve of the procedure. Level of evidence I: Diagnostic: individual cross-sectional studies with consistently applied reference standard and blinding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the iron coke application in hydrogen-rich blast furnace, which is an effective method to achieve the purpose of low carbon emissions, the initial gasification temperature of iron coke in CO2 and H2O atmosphere and its cogasification reaction mechanism with coke were systematically studied. Iron coke was prepared under laboratory conditions, with a 0–7wt% iron ore powder addition. The properties of iron cokes were tested by coke reactivity index (CRI) and coke strength after reaction (CSR), and their phases and morphology were evolution discussed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results indicated that the initial gasification temperature of iron coke decreased with the increase in the iron ore powder content under the CO2 and H2O(g) atmosphere. In the 40vol% H2O + 60vol% CO2 atmosphere, CRI of iron coke with the addition of 3wt% iron ore powder reached 58.7%, and its CSR reached 56.5%. Because of the catalytic action of iron, the reaction capacity of iron coke was greater than that of coke. As iron coke was preferentially gasified, the CRI and CSR of coke were reduced and increased, respectively, when iron coke and coke were cogasified. The results showed that the skeleton function of the coke can be protected by iron coke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the treatment of liquid radioactive waste, there is a certain amount of Cs in the waste resin, and these Cs-doped resins are prone to volatilize during the thermal treatment process and cause radionuclide leakage. The molten salt oxidation (MSO) can effectively prevent the volatilization of toxic metal, especially the volatilization of Cs. Under nitrogen and air conditions, it is found that the oxidation behavior between Cs-doped and clean cation exchange resins (CERs) is quite different. In the presence of oxygen and molten carbonate salt, Cs2CO3 is generated by the destruction of functional groups in Cs-doped CERs. The Cs2CO3 in Na2CO3-K2CO3-Li2CO3 reacts with oxygen to form Li2O2, which reduces the content of S in residue from 26.33 to 13.38% in air conditions at 400 °C and promotes the generation of sulfate in the molten carbonate salt. The elements Cs and S in the Cs doped CERs spontaneously form thermally stable Cs2SO4 in the molten carbonate salt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KRAS has long been referred to as an 'undruggable' target due to its high affinity for its cognate ligands (GDP and GTP) and its lack of readily exploited allosteric binding pockets. Recent progress in the development of covalent inhibitors of KRASG12C has revealed that occupancy of an allosteric binding site located between the α3-helix and switch-II loop of KRASG12C—sometimes referred to as the 'switch-II pocket'—holds great potential in the design of direct inhibitors of KRASG12C. In studying diverse switch-II pocket binders during the development of sotorasib (AMG 510), the first FDA-approved inhibitor of KRASG12C, we found the dramatic conformational flexibility of the switch-II pocket posing significant challenges toward the structure-based design of inhibitors. Here, we present our computational approaches for dealing with receptor flexibility in the prediction of ligand binding pose and binding affinity. For binding pose prediction, we modified the covalent docking program CovDock to allow for protein conformational mobility. This new docking approach, termed as FlexCovDock, improves success rates from 55 to 89% for binding pose prediction on a dataset of 10 cross-docking cases and has been prospectively validated across diverse ligand chemotypes. For binding affinity prediction, we found standard free energy perturbation (FEP) methods could not adequately handle the significant conformational change of the switch-II loop. We developed a new computational strategy to accelerate conformational transitions through the use of targeted protein mutations. Using this methodology, the mean unsigned error (MUE) of binding affinity prediction were reduced from 1.44 to 0.89 kcal/mol on a set of 14 compounds. These approaches were of significant use in facilitating the structure-based design of KRASG12C inhibitors and are anticipated to be of further use in the design of covalent (and noncovalent) inhibitors of other conformationally labile protein targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study is to investigate role of Visfatin, one of the pro-inflammatory adipokines, in sepsis-induced intestinal injury and to clarify the potential mechanism. Methods: C57BL/6 mice underwent cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) surgery to establish sepsis model in vivo. Intestinal epithelial cells were stimulated with LPS to mimic sepsis-induced intestinal injury in vitro. FK866 (the inhibitor of Visfatin) with or without XMU-MP-1 (the inhibitor of Hippo signaling) was applied for treatment. The expression levels of Visfatin, NF-κB and Hippo signaling pathways-related proteins were detected by western blot or immunohistochemistry. The intestinal cell apoptosis and intestinal injury were investigated by TUNEL staining and H&E staining, respectively. ELISA was used to determine the production of inflammatory cytokines. Results: The expression of Visfatin increased in CLP mice. FK866 reduced intestinal pathological injury, inflammatory cytokines production, and intestinal cell apoptosis in sepsis mice. Meanwhile, FK866 affected NF-κB and Hippo signaling pathways. Additionally, the effects of FK866 on inflammatory response, apoptosis, Hippo signaling and NF-κB signaling were partly abolished by XMU-MP-1, the inhibitor of Hippo signaling. In vitro experiments also revealed that FK866 exhibited a protective role against LPS-induced inflammatory response and apoptosis in intestinal cells, as well as regulating NF-κB and Hippo signaling, whereas addition of XMU-MP-1 weakened the protective effects of FK866. Conclusion: In short, this study demonstrated that inhibition of Visfatin might alleviate sepsis-induced intestinal injury through Hippo signaling pathway, supporting a further research on Visfatin as a therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]