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This article explores the role of a circular RNA called circLIPH in the progression of pancreatic cancer. The study reveals that circLIPH is increased in pancreatic tumor tissue and is associated with tumor size and stage. It also demonstrates that circLIPH promotes the growth, migration, and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells. The researchers identify miR-769-3p as a target of circLIPH and show that circLIPH increases the expression of GOLM1, a gene involved in cancer progression. These findings suggest that circLIPH could potentially be used as a biomarker and therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer. The study further investigates the role of circLIPH in pancreatic cancer progression and finds that overexpression of miR-769-3p inhibits the growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells. Conversely, treatment with a miR-769-3p inhibitor has the opposite effects. The target genes of miR-769-3p are enriched in the mTOR signaling pathway. Additionally, circLIPH is found to promote pancreatic cancer progression by enhancing glycolysis in cancer cells. In vivo experiments demonstrate that si-circLIPH effectively reduces circLIPH expression and suppresses tumor growth. These findings suggest that circLIPH may activate the miR-769-3p/GOLM1/PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis to promote pancreatic cancer progression. [Extracted from the article]

Aberrant activation of dermal fibroblasts during wound healing often leads to debilitating fibrotic changes in the skin, such as scleroderma and keloids. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we established a wound‐induced skin fibrosis (WISF) mouse model in mature adult mice, characterised by excessive deposition of collagen bundles, loss of dermal adipocytes, and enrichment of DPP4+Ly6A+THY1+ hypodermal interstitial adipocyte progenitors (HI‐APs) and pericytes, resembling human fibrotic skin diseases. This WISF model exhibited an age‐dependent gain of fibrotic characteristics, contrasting with the wound‐induced hair neogenesis observed in younger mice. Through comprehensive analyses of the WISF, we delineated a trajectory of fibroblast differentiation that originates from HI‐APs. These progenitors highly expressed several extracellular matrix (ECM) genes and exhibited a TGFβ pathway signature. TGFβ was identified as the key signal to inhibit the adipogenic potential and maintain the fibrogenic potential of dermal APs. Additionally, administering a TGFβ receptor inhibitor to wound scar reduced the abundance of ECM‐producing APs. Finally, analysis of human scleroderma skin tissues revealed a negative correlation between the expression of AP‐, ECM‐, and TGFβ pathway‐related genes and PPARG. Overall, this study establishes a wound‐induced skin fibrosis mouse model and demonstrates that TGFβ‐mediated blockage of HI‐AP differentiation is crucial for driving fibrotic pathology. Targeting HI‐APs and adipogenesis may provide novel avenues for developing disease‐modifying therapies for fibrotic skin diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation accuracy of bridge crack images is influenced by high‐frequency light, complex scenes, and tiny cracks. Therefore, an integration–competition network (complex crack segmentation network [CCSNet]) is proposed to address these problems. First, a grayscale‐oriented adjustment algorithm is proposed to solve the high‐frequency light problem. Second, an integration–competition mechanism is proposed to detach complex backgrounds and grayscale features of cracks. Finally, a tiny attention mechanism is proposed to extract the shallow features of tiny cracks. CCSNet outperforms seven state‐of‐the‐art crack segmentation methods in both generalization and comparison experiments on self‐built dataset and four public datasets. It also achieved excellent performance in practical bridge crack tests. Therefore, CCSNet is an effective auxiliary method for lowering the cost of bridge safety detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical porous zinc oxide (ZnO)/silver (Ag) microspheres were prepared by two‐step method. The porous ZnO microspheres were prepared firstly, and then Ag nanoparticles were evenly anchored on the surface of ZnO microspheres by Sn2+ activation method. The results show that ZnO is wurtzite phase, and Ag particles are only coated on the surface of ZnO microspheres. Compared with pure ZnO, there are two obvious absorption peaks of Ag‐doped ZnO, which corresponds to the ultraviolet absorption peak of ZnO and the plasma resonance absorption peak of Ag, respectively. The intensities of photoluminescence peak of ZnO/Ag microspheres are significantly lower than that of pure ZnO. Moreover, ZnO/Ag microspheres show higher photocatalytic activity than ZnO, which may be attributed to the existence of highly dispersed Ag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to correctly simulate the simultaneous switching of power electronics circuits and to solve the problems of virtual power loss existing in the traditional interpolation algorithm, this article proposes interpolation algorithm considering simultaneous solution and instantaneous solution. After each integration, it searches for the switching events and determines the simultaneous switching. The simultaneous switching events are solved simultaneously. Instantaneous solution is carried out at forced commutation switching instant. The historical terms calculation method in instantaneous solution under different conditions is given, and the exact power loss of forced commutation switch is obtained. After processing all switching events during one time-step, the half-step interpolation is performed to eliminate numerical oscillations. The proposed algorithm is applied to the electromagnetic transient programme of advanced digital power system simulator (ADPSS), and the correctness and effectiveness of the algorithm are verified by simulation tests for typical power electronics circuits. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has high simulation accuracy and can satisfy requirements of power electronics simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxymandelate synthase is one type of alpha-keto acid-dependent oxygenases and plays an important role in the biosynthesis of hydroxyphenyl-pyruvate. The ferrous and ferryl intermediates in the reaction were considered to be very important in the DNA repair process. The mechanism of hydroxymandelate synthase was investigated by a theoretical method based on B3LYP/ LACVP*. The data indicated that each decarboxylation went through a process of direct dioxygen insertion. The first oxidative decarboxylation experienced only one transition state, while there were two potential pathways for the second decarboxylation process. The calculation data showed that the stepwise one was favored to the concerted one due to the lower energy barrier. The process to form the iron-superoxide was the rate-limiting step. After two consecutive decarboxylations, a proton transfer reaction was needed to obtain the target products. Two possible transition states were found out to achieve this step. The one with a six-membered ring structure was preferred because of the lower activation energy. In addition, several ferryl species with high spins were captured in the whole process, which could be supplied as requisite substrates for DNA repair reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the structures and properties of the ClO/ClO− system obtained at the density functional theory (DFT) (UB3LYP) level, employing the 6‐311+G(3df) standard basis set, the electron transfer reactivity of this system is investigated. The results indicate that there are five possible stable coupling complexes that correspond to the generous minima on the global potential energy surfaces (PES). The most stable coupling complex is planar EC4, in which there is a O—O linkage with two trans‐Cl atoms. Their stabilization energies are calculated to be 20.57 (EC1: C1), 20.54 (EC2: C2, 2B), 20.69 (EC3: C1), 20.70 (EC4: Cs, 2A′), and 20.69 (EC.5: C2h, 2Bu) kcal/mol at the B3LYP/6‐311+G(3df) level; with the correction of the basis set superposition error (BSSE), the stability order of these encounter complexes is EC4 > EC.5 > EC3 > EC1 > EC2. Based on the five encounter complexes, five coupling modes are designed for the study of the electron transfer reactivity of this system. The dissociation energy curves at the activated states and the corresponding activation energies of these five coupling modes are obtained and are compared at the B3LYP/6‐311+G(3df) and MP2/6‐311+G* levels. The inapplicability of DFT methods has also been discussed in this article in predicting the energy curves, especially with a long contact distance, in which DFT methods give the abnormal behavior for the dissociations of the complexes caused by the “inverse symmetry breaking” problem. On the basis of the golden rule of the time‐dependent perturbation theory, the electron transfer reactivity and the contact distance dependence of the various electron transfer kinetics parameters (e.g., activation energy, coupling matrix element) have been analyzed at the UMP2(full)/6‐311+G* level. The electron transfer can take place over a range of contact distances, but the most effective coupling distance corresponds to only a small range. The coupling orientation analyses also indicate that the most favorable coupling mode to the electron transfer does not always correspond to the most stable encounter complex mechanism. Some highly energetic coupling modes are more favorable for the electron transfer. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The use of deep learning techniques to identify grape leaf diseases relies on large, high‐quality datasets. However, a large number of images occupy more computing resources and are prone to pattern collapse during training. In this paper, a depth‐separable multifeature generative adversarial network (DMFGAN) was proposed to enhance grape leaf disease data. First, a multifeature extraction block (MFEB) based on the four‐channel feature fusion strategy is designed to improve the quality of the generated image and avoid the problem of poor feature learning ability of the adversarial generation network caused by the single‐channel feature extraction method. Second, a depth‐based D‐discriminator is designed to improve the discriminator capability and reduce the number of model parameters. Third, SeLU activation function was substituted for DCGAN activation function to overcome the problem that DCGAN activation function was not enough to fit grape leaf disease image data. Finally, an MFLoss function with a gradient penalty term is proposed to reduce the mode collapse during the training of generative adversarial networks. By comparing the visual indicators and evaluation indicators of the images generated by different models, and using the recognition network to verify the enhanced grape disease data, the results show that the method is effective in enhancing grape leaf disease data. Under the same experimental conditions, DMFGAN generates higher quality and more diverse images with fewer parameters than other generative adversarial networks. The mode breakdown times of generative adversarial networks in training process are reduced, which is more effective in practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]