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Liver fibrosis is a chronic pathological condition lacking specific clinical treatments. Stem cells, with notable potential in regenerative medicine, offer promise in treating liver fibrosis. However, stem cell therapy is hindered by potential immunological rejection, carcinogenesis risk, efficacy variation, and high cost. Stem cell secretome‐based cell‐free therapy offers potential solutions to address these challenges, but it is limited by low delivery efficiency and rapid clearance. Herein, an innovative approach for in situ implantation of smart microneedle (MN) arrays enabling precisely controlled delivery of multiple therapeutic agents directly into fibrotic liver tissues is developed. By integrating cell‐free and platinum‐based nanocatalytic combination therapy, the MN arrays can deactivate hepatic stellate cells. Moreover, they promote excessive extracellular matrix degradation by more than 75%, approaching normal levels. Additionally, the smart MN arrays can provide hepatocyte protection while reducing inflammation levels by ≈70–90%. They can also exhibit remarkable capability in scavenging almost 100% of reactive oxygen species and alleviating hypoxia. Ultimately, this treatment strategy can effectively restrain fibrosis progression. The comprehensive in vitro and in vivo experiments, supplemented by proteome and transcriptome analyses, substantiate the effectiveness of the approach in treating liver fibrosis, holding immense promise for clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Escherichia coli is known to easily contaminate noodles and form biofilms during noodle processing. Sheeting was a key step in the processing. The objective of our study was to investigate the influence of sheeting pressure on the viability of E. coli. Our findings revealed a significant reduction in the E. coli count (by 1.46 log CFU g−1), as well as their swimming diameter (by 46.7%) and biofilm formation (by 25.7%) following an additional 20 sheeting treatments. The expression of genes (flhC, flhD, rpoS, csgD and adrA) validated the weakening of E. coli survival due to sheeting pressure. Moreover, the alterations in dough texture properties had adverse effects on the survival of E. coli. These results highlight that sheeting pressure can effectively reduce E. coli viability in dough. The implications of our findings provide valuable insights for minimising microbial contamination in noodle production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The accuracy of artificial intelligence (AI) and experts in diagnosing early esophageal cancer (EC) and its infiltration depth was summarized and analyzed, thus identifying the advantages of AI over traditional manual diagnosis, with a view to more accurately assisting doctors in evaluating the patients' conditions and improving their cure and survival rates. Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, Google, and CNKI databases were searched for relevant literature related to AI diagnosis of early EC and its invasion depth published before August 2023. Summary analysis of pooled sensitivity, specificity, summary receiver operating characteristics (SROC) and area under the curve (AUC) of AI in diagnosing early EC were performed, and Review Manager and Stata were adopted for data analysis. Results: A total of 19 studies were enrolled with a low to moderate total risk of bias. The pooled sensitivity of AI for diagnosing early EC was markedly higher than that of novices and comparable to that of endoscopists. Moreover, AI predicted early EC with markedly higher AUCs than novices and experts (0.93 vs. 0.74 vs. 0.89). In addition, pooled sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of invasion depth in early EC were higher than that of experts, with AUCs of 0.97 and 0.92, respectively. Conclusion: AI‐assistance can diagnose early EC and its infiltration depth more accurately, which can help in its early intervention and the customization of personalized treatment plans. Therefore, AI systems have great potential in the early diagnosis of EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Flavor is considered as a key quality attribute of fruit juice affecting consumer acceptance. During processing, the flavor loss of cloudy juice always occurs due to the variations of juice cloud particles. Pectin, a major component of cloud particles, plays an important role in cloud stability. In this work, we focused on the effects of variation of three pectin fractions caused by gentle centrifugation and clarification on the physicochemical properties, volatile content and sensory profile of heat‐sterilized muskmelon cloudy juice. Results: Centrifugation treatment reduced the total soluble solids and viscosity of cloudy juice and increased cloud stability. With centrifugation increased, the contents of most monosaccharides in the three pectin fractions were reduced. Most aroma‐active aldehydes and alcohols, such as (2E,6Z)‐nonadienal, 1‐octen‐3‐ol and (E)‐non‐2‐enal, after gentle centrifugation and clarification, were maintained, but most esters were decreased. The volatile compositions were highly related to the three pectin fractions. The addition of chelator‐soluble pectin and sodium carbonate‐soluble pectin could decrease the formation of dimethyl trisulfide and dimethyl disulfide in clarified juice, thereby improving the sensory profile. Conclusion: The results suggested that endogenous chelator‐soluble pectin and sodium carbonate‐soluble pectin can be used in heat‐sterilized fruit juice to improve flavor quality, with an emphasis on a significant reduction in volatile sulfur compounds. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thyroid hormones are essential for neurodevelopment. Few studies have considered associations with quantitatively measured autism spectrum disorder (ASD)‐related traits, which may help elucidate associations for a broader population. Participants were drawn from two prospective pregnancy cohorts: the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI), enrolling pregnant women who already had a child with ASD, and the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, following pregnant women from the greater Cincinnati, OH area. Gestational thyroid‐stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) were measured in mid‐pregnancy 16 (±3) weeks gestation serum samples. ASD‐related traits were measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) at ages 3–8 years. The association was examined using quantile regression, adjusting for maternal and sociodemographic factors. 278 participants (132 from EARLI, 146 from HOME) were included. TSH distributions were similar across cohorts, while FT4 levels were higher in EARLI compared to HOME. In pooled analyses, particularly for those in the highest SRS quantile (95th percentile), higher FT4 levels were associated with increasing SRS scores (β = 5.21, 95% CI = 0.93, 9.48), and higher TSH levels were associated with decreasing SRS scores (β = −6.94, 95% CI = −11.04, −2.83). The association between TSH and SRS remained significant in HOME for the 95% percentile of SRS scores (β = −6.48, 95% CI = −12.16, −0.80), but not EARLI. Results for FT4 were attenuated when examined in the individual cohorts. Our results add to evidence that gestational thyroid hormones may be associated with ASD‐related outcomes by suggesting that relationships may differ across the distribution of ASD‐related traits and by familial likelihood of ASD. Lay Summary: The study examined the association between gestational thyroid hormone levels and ASD‐related traits in two pregnancy cohorts. Our results suggested higher levels of gestational free thyroxine levels and lower levels of thyroid‐stimulating hormone were associated with more ASD‐related traits in children, with variations depending on the degree of clinical impairment and the familial likelihood of ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A burgeoning literature supports the effect of media coverage on public inflation expectations but ignores televised reports, particularly official TV news. Using bootstrap Granger non‐causality tests, this study demonstrates time‐varying causalities from the Chinese national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reports to households' inflation expectations during 2014Q1–2015Q4 and 2017Q1–2018Q4 with positive effects. This indicates that official TV news leads inflation expectations. Furthermore, positive causalities from CCTV reports to the expectation heterogeneity also exist, thus meaning that more official reports may exacerbate the disagreement among households' expectations, thereby contributing to the macroeconomic instability. The content conflict is a possible reason for the positive effect of CCTV reports on the inflation expectation disagreement of households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reveal the change laws of microstructure in apple slices during hot air‐explosion puffing drying, the microstructure images and parameters of apple slices under different drying conditions were obtained by using paraffin sectioning, microscopic observation, and image processing techniques with apples as raw material and CO2 as drying medium. Subsequently, the changes in internal cell and pore structure of dried apple slices were analyzed, as well as the relationship between micro‐parameters of apple slices and macro‐measurement indicators was further obtained. Results indicated that the overall cross‐sectional area, cross‐sectional perimeter, equivalent diameter, and porosity of cells increased by explosion puffing drying, while the cell roundness and wall roughness factors changed relatively little. Meanwhile, macro–micro parameters of expanded apples were fitted and analyzed. Then, the obtained mathematical model showed a nonlinear correlation as experimental and predicted results exhibited good agreement, with determination coefficients R2 more significant than 0.8, which could better expect the macro–microparameters to change in the drying process. The results of this research could provide an essential reference for exploring the change laws of tissue microstructure parameters in apples dried by hot air‐explosion puffing drying, with expansion and rehydration ratios under different experimental conditions, as well as optimizing the puffing drying process and designing corresponding drying equipment. Practical Applications: Fresh apples have high moisture content and are not easy to store, so drying is usually used to reduce the moisture content to extend shelf time and increase economic benefits. For the drying process of fruit and vegetable products, scholars mainly focused on the influence of microstructure parameters on moisture migration, drying rate, heat and mass transfer and other factors, but did not give a quantitative description of how microstructure parameters affect macroscopic parameters. In this article, the relationship between microstructural changes and macroscopic indicators was investigated by taking puffed apple slices as an example. Research could provide an essential reference for exploring the change laws of tissue microstructure parameters in apples dried by hot air‐explosion puffing drying, with expansion and rehydration ratios under different experimental conditions, as well as optimizing the puffing drying process and designing corresponding drying equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salinization and alkalization are global environmental issues, and a growing area of saline‐alkali land has been developed as paddy fields. However, the information on the characteristics and driving mechanisms of greenhouse gas (i.e., methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O)) and ammonia (NH3) emissions from paddy fields with different saline‐alkali levels is limited. We conducted a 137‐day mesocosm experiment to investigate these issues using light (L), moderate (M), and heavy (H) saline‐alkali soils with a history of reclamation of 20, 4 and 2 years, respectively. The results demonstrated that both the cumulative CH4 and NH3 fluxes in H treatment were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than L. While, the increasing saline‐alkali levels reduced the cumulative CO2 and N2O fluxes, respectively. With the increasing saline‐alkali levels, the species richness and diversity of microbial communities decreased. High saline‐alkali level inhibited the growth of ammonia‐oxidizing archaea, resulting in less N2O produced by nitrification, thus reducing N2O emission. Cumulative CH4 flux and the mcrA gene copy numbers showed a significant (p < 0.05) negative correlation. The gene copy number in H treatment was lower than M and L, respectively. The highest global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity were observed in H treatment. Overall, recently reclaimed saline‐alkali paddy field with an initial heavy saline‐alkali level may be a hotspot of farmland CH4 and NH3 emissions, highlighting the necessity of optimizing water and fertilizer management for controlling these gas emissions at the initial stage of developing saline‐alkali lands into paddy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization has reshaped the way of value co‐creation among innovation subjects, expanded the existing innovation ecosystem theories, and triggered the thinking about the digital innovation ecosystem. How to continuously promote value co‐creation between focal companies and non‐focal subjects within the digital innovation ecosystem to elevate the sustainable development of the system is an urgent issue to be solved. In this paper, we built a model of value co‐creation behavior evolution of focal companies and non‐focal subjects in the digital innovation ecosystem based on the complex network evolutionary game theory. The dynamic decision‐making process and critical factors of value co‐creation behavior of focal companies and non‐focal subjects were explored, and the emergence mechanism from micro‐behavior of value co‐creation to macro‐evolution was studied. The results showed that (1) increasing the variability of digital resources shared by focal companies and non‐focal subjects and the level of digital innovation benefits could promote value co‐creation in the system, but digital innovation ecosystems of different scales have various sensitivities to the variability of digital resources and the level of digital innovation benefits; (2) during the initial construction period of digital innovation ecosystems, the distribution of digital innovation benefits should be dominated by focal companies. With the expansion of the ecosystem, the focus of benefit distribution should gradually shift to non‐focal subjects. (3) In the evolution of the digital innovation ecosystem, focal companies should bear relatively more coordination costs of value co‐creation to promote the stable development of the system. (4) It is necessary to establish a punishment mechanism for opportunistic behavior, and the punishment should be gradually increased as the scale of digital innovation ecosystem expands. This study characterizes the digital innovation ecosystem with scale‐free networks in complex networks and constructs a complex network evolutionary game model to study the dynamic decision‐making process of value co‐creation behavior in the system, which makes up for the limitations of traditional evolutionary game research in which game subjects interact in a uniformly mixed manner and highlights the macroscopic phenomena emerging from the dynamic decision‐making of value co‐creation behavior of micro subjects. The research findings have important implications for the co‐creation of value by focal companies and non‐focal subjects in the digital innovation ecosystem and the sustainable development of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the combined effects of tillage and straw incorporation on grain yield and nitrogen (N) fertilizer utilization is vital for sustainable agriculture in northeastern China. How various tillage patterns with straw incorporation affect soil N balance and optimal N rate for crop production remains largely unknown. A four‐year (2015–2018) field experiment was conducted to assess the impact of rotary tillage with maize straw incorporation (RTS) and plough tillage with straw incorporation (PTS) combined with different N fertilizer rates (0, 112, 187, 262, and 337 kg N ha−1) on maize yield, N uptake, soil N balance, nitrogen use efficiency, and optimal N rate. In general, higher straw N uptake and lower N partial factor productivity, N use efficiency, and recovery of applied N in grains were obtained under PTS than under RTS. Moreover, grain yield and both straw and grain N uptake increased with the N application rate. However, no further increase in grain yield was observed when the applied N exceeded 187 kg N ha−1. PTS resulted in a higher level of unaccounted N from applied N fertilizer (38–81 kg N ha−1) than RTS. A high N fertilizer input (>262 kg N ha−1) combined with straw incorporation resulted in a high soil mineral N profit and substantially increased unaccounted N (614–715 kg N ha−1) over the four‐year field trial period. The optimal N input required for the highest maize yield could be reduced by 35.0%–44.6% using tillage with straw return. Nevertheless, PTS was more effective than RTS at lowering the optimal N application rate. Overall, the results of this short‐term maize field study conducted in northeastern China suggest that the amount of N fertilizer input required for maize production could be reduced by using tillage with continuous straw incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio cholerae (Vc) causes cholera disease. Vc contamination is widely found in water and aquatic products, and therefore is a serious food safety concern, especially for the seafood industry. In this paper, we attempted the rapid detection of V. cholerae. Nine rounds of in vitro selection using an unmodified DNA library were successfully performed to find specific DNAzymes of Vc. Their activity was evaluated based on a fluorescence assay and gel electrophoresis. Finally, a DNAzyme (named DVc1) with good activity and specificity with a detection limit of 7.2 × 103 CFU/mL of Vc was selected. A simple biosensor was constructed by immobilizing DVc1 and its substrate in shallow circular wells of a 96‐well plate using pullulan polysaccharide and trehalose. When the crude extracellular mixture of Vc was added to the detection wells, the fluorescent signal was observed within 20 min. The sensor effectively detected Vc in aquatic products indicating its simplicity and efficiency. This sensitive DNAzyme sensor can be a rapid onsite Vc detection tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a proof‐of‐concept designer‐in‐the‐loop schematic map drawing tool, based on the marriage of two approaches—manual and automated, which provides the technical interactivity of drawing tools between the user and the computer. We focus on concentric circle maps as opposed to the commonly used orthogonal mode representation, which is suggested by previous studies that it could promote better network learning. In comparison with existing methods, the proposed method is more compatible with the framework of effective map design from psychological and aesthetic perspectives, and a range of options can be provided in conjunction with users' preferences. We evaluated our approach on a set of iterations with case studies of Hong Kong metro with a group of three co‐authors from the fields of geography, transport engineering, and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 3D visualization based on tissue clearing technology allows us to have a deeper understanding of the 3D spatial information of deep molecules in the tissue. Tissue clearing and bacterial labeling methods have been used for in situ 3D microbiota imaging, and we have developed a pipeline for 3D visualization of in situ microbiota in human gliomas. Anti‐LPS antibodies are appropriate to label and characterize bacteria in situ within tumors. However, autofluorescence (AF) is common in biological tissues, especially in brain tissues filled with lipofuscin‐like (LF) substances. This natural fluorescent signal is usually considered to be a problem because it affects the 3D visualization of fluorescent signals in bacterial LPS staining. Here, we used Sudan Black B (SBB) to mask the AF of human glioma tissue and explored in detail the optimal quencher concentration, which allows 3D visualization of intratumoral bacteria to reduce AF and maintain the intensity of intratumoral bacteria‐specific LPS fluorescent signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional luminol chemiluminescence (CL) is widely used in imaging and analytical assays. As far as we can search, there are no studies on the use of CL for information encryption and protection. Here, a novel CL hydrogel is developed. A rapid color visualization of sarcosine in urine using a mobile phone camera is achieved based on CL energy resonance transfer. Four different colors of CL hydrogels are prepared by adding different ratios of rhodamine B or fluorescein. In the multicolor CL hydrogels, activated CL can generate conventional multicolor code shift and original white light. The luminescence duration and the cause of the white light are analyzed using CL spectroscopy. Sarcosine oxidase is replaced with sarcosine in the multicolor CL hydrogels to obtain the translation of editable code, which facilitates the secondary information encryption and code transmissions. The effective luminescence time of these hydrogels are short (13–50 min), and code can be deleted naturally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and magnitude of nocebo responses in primary headache disorders are still unknown. To assess the distribution and possible predictors of nocebo responses in primary headache treatments, databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were searched from 1988 to December 31, 2020, for parallel‐group, double‐blind, randomized placebo‐controlled trials of pharmacologic treatments of primary headaches. The nocebo responses were calculated using a random effects meta‐analysis model. Subgroup and metaregression analyses were performed to determine the associations of study design and demographic characteristics with nocebo responses. A total of 178 randomized controlled trials that satisfied the inclusion criteria were included. Prophylactic treatments elicited stronger nocebo responses than acute treatments. The majority of nocebo adverse events were mild to moderate in severity, with the nervous and digestive systems being the most commonly affected. There was a strong correlation between the active medication and control groups in terms of adverse events, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Long treatment duration, a high proportion of subjects receiving active medications, multicenter design, North America, high body mass index, women, previous treatment experiences, and a high proportion of patients with migraine headache with aura were all found to be significant positive predictors of nocebo responses, whereas the year of publication was found to be inversely related to them. Nocebo effects should be noticed for their contribution to discontinuation of or lack of adherence to active treatments. Clarifying these nocebo‐related risk factors can aid in their clinical prevention and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese phosphate‐based materials show great potential in the electrochemical energy field due to the structurally flexible phosphate framework stabilizing active sites. However, the insufficient number of active sites causes unsatisfactory activity. Herein, we prepare Mn3(PO4)2 ⋅ 3H2O nanosheets via simple liquid‐phase precipitation with hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant, which conduces to expose more Mn3+ active sites, thereby accelerating the four‐electron transfer pathway during oxygen reduction reaction. Accordingly, the optimal catalyst (MnPi‐1.0) possesses excellent catalytic performance with a half‐wave potential of 0.81 V and a diffusion‐limited current density of 5.38 mA cm−2 in contrast to the 0.73 V and 5.07 mA cm−2 of the pristine one, respectively. Furthermore, the zinc‐air battery based on MnPi‐1.0 delivers a high peak power density (132 mW cm−2) and outstanding spcific capacity(797 mAh gZn−1). This work provides a facile and feasible solution to tune the density of active sites of manganese phosphate‐based materials for favorable electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerogels have demonstrated tremendous potentials for various applications, including thermal insulation, environmental protection, and separation. However, aerogels as porous frameworks to host functional liquids (such as phase change fluids, PCFs) is a more promising application, attributing to their large specific surface area, high porosity, and strong capillary force. Herein, the original aramid nanofiber (OANF, i.e., Kevlar) aerogel film and the densified ANF (DANF) aerogel film are fabricated and thereafter applied to confine phase change fluids, poly (N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) solution and molten eicosane (C20), respectively, to make super‐flexible OANF‐PNIPAM and DANF‐C20 films accordingly. These two films exhibit reversely temperature‐dependent thermal conductivity with close phase change temperature to each other. Therefore, flexible thermal diodes operating with terminals of OANF‐PNIPAM film and DANF‐C20 film are proposed and fabricated, showing excellent flexibility (420 µm in curvature radius) and robustness (≥7.2 MPa in tensile strength) as well as the maximum thermal rectification ratio of 2.0. This work paves a way for expanding the applications of Kevlar aerogel confined phase change fluids, as well as provides a promising strategy for designing more practical thermal diodes and thermal devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroeconomic factors and sentiments affect investors' decisions and thus stock returns. However, do sentiments on macro‐economic news explain stock returns? This article proposes a theoretical model to explain the relationship between stock returns and the market misperception which is driven by investors' sentiments. Then, microblogs regarding the macro‐economy posted on Sina Weibo, a mainstream Chinese Social Network Site, are extracted to measure investors' macroeconomic sentiments (IMSs) through machine learning approaches. A preliminary event study suggests that IMSs capture the development of influential macroeconomic events. Empirical results demonstrate that orthogonalized IMSs including anger, disgust, fear, joy and sadness exert heterogeneously significant effects on the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCI), and no reverse effect is found. Thus, the IMS contains additional information related to the macro‐economy; but cannot be explained by macroeconomic factors. IMSs improve the in‐ and out‐of‐sample predictabilities of SHCI returns. Thereby, investors' sentiment can be an important channel through which the macro‐economy affects the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mounting evidence suggests that distinct microbial communities reside in tumors and play important roles in tumor physiology. Recently, a previous study profiled the composition and localization of intratumoral bacteria using 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing and histological visualization methods across seven tumor types, including human glioblastoma. However, their results based on traditional histological examinations should be further validated considering potential sources of contamination originating from sample collection and processing. Here, we aim to propose a three‐dimensional (3D) in situ intratumoral microbiota visualization and quantification protocol avoiding surface contamination and provide a comprehensive histological investigation on local bacteria within human glioma samples. We develop a 3D quantitative in situ intratumoral microbiota imaging strategy, combining tissue clearing, immunofluorescent labeling, optical sectioning microscopy, and image processing, to visualize bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) within gliomas in a direct, contaminant‐free, and unambiguous manner. Through an automated statistical algorithm, reliable signals can be distinguished for further analysis of their sizes, distribution, and fluorescence intensities. In tandem, we also combined 2D images obtained from thin‐section histological methods, including immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization, to provide comprehensive histological imaging for local bacterial components within human glioma samples. We have, for the first time, achieved 3D quantitative imaging of bacterial LPS colonized in gliomas in a contamination‐free manner within human glioma samples. We also built the multiple histological evidence chain demonstrating the irregular shapes and sparse distribution of bacterial components within human glioma samples, mostly localized near nuclear membranes or in the intercellular space. This study provides favorable evidence for the presence of microbiota in human gliomas and provides information on the feature and distribution of bacterial components. The results, along with the integrated 3D quantitative intratumoral microbiota imaging method, are promising to provide insightful information into the direct interactions between the microbial community and the host in the tumor microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares Generalized Autoregressive Score (GAS) models and GARCH‐type models on their forecasting abilities for crude oil and natural gas spot and futures returns from developing and developed markets over multiple horizons. The out‐of‐sample forecasting results based on two loss functions and the Diebold–Mariano predictive accuracy test for multiple models show that the GAS framework outperforms GARCH and EGARCH models, particularly for crude oil assets. For natural gas, no specific model retains an advantage over the other two models as the predictive accuracy changes over forecasting horizons and varies across markets. Meanwhile, the GAS model performs well in both developed and developing markets. The cumulated sum of squared forecast error differential (CSSFED) graphically monitors the evolution of the relative forecasting performance of different models and shows that the superiority of GARCH is vulnerable to extraordinary event shocks. Over the short‐term forecasting (less than or equal to 1 month ahead), the GAS framework shows a prominent advantage over GARCH and EGARCH models for crude oil assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) usually adopts a modular technique to facilitate manufacture and maintenance. The rated power of large mechanical equipment is selected according to the limit capacity, and the motor efficiency is low at a low load. A kind of unwinding stator module combined permanent magnet synchronous machine (SMCPMSM) is proposed. Each module is mechanically and electrically decoupled. It can operate independently. The number of input modules can be flexibly selected according to the torque requirements in direct drive SMCPMSM to realise the optimum efficiency control of the ball mill. The work presents the loss model of the SMCPMSM and analyzes the torque distribution ratio of the modules. The mathematical model of torque distribution with optimum efficiency is established by using the genetic algorithm. The optimum efficiency control under different loads is determined. The motor performance of four operation modes is simulated by the finite element. An 80 kW prototype is developed, and its experiments are carried out. The experimental results verify the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the large‐scale development of the ball mill, the direct‐drive gearless ball mill has emerged, eliminating the limitation of the transmission torque of large gear. However, it is difficult to process, transport, install and maintain the gearless ball mill because of its vast volume, and the coils cannot be decoupled freely. Therefore, this work proposes a module combined permanent magnet motor with wrapped type for mine ball mill (MBMWT‐MCPMM). Based on the principle of removing coils, the stator is modularized. Each module can be regarded as a small rotary motor, which improves the reliability and fault tolerance of the motor. In this work, the structure and general design process of the MBMWT‐MCPMM are described, and the electromagnetic performance is simulated and analysed. The influence of different factors on the cooling effect of the motor and the temperature rise of different modules during fault‐tolerant operation are analysed. An 80 kW prototype is developed, and its experiments are carried out. The experimental results verify the validity of the related design and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycine cleavage system (GCS) plays a central role in one‐carbon (C1) metabolism and receives increasing interest as a core part of the recently proposed reductive glycine pathway (rGlyP) for assimilation of CO2 and formate. Despite decades of research, GCS has not yet been well understood and kinetic data are barely available. This is to a large degree because of the complexity of GCS, which is composed of four proteins (H, T, P, and L) and catalyzes reactions involving different substrates and cofactors. In vitro kinetics of reconstructed microbial multi‐enzyme glycine cleavage/synthase system is desired to better implement rGlyP in microorganisms like Escherichia coli for the use of C1 resources. Here, we examined in vitro several factors that may affect the rate of glycine synthesis via the reverse GCS reaction. We found that the ratio of GCS component proteins has a direct influence on the rate of glycine synthesis, namely higher ratios of P protein and especially H protein to T and L proteins are favorable, and the carboxylation reaction catalyzed by P protein is a key step determining the glycine synthesis rate, whereas increasing the ratio of L protein to other GCS proteins does not have significant effect and the ratio of T protein to other GCS proteins should be kept low. The effect of substrate concentrations on glycine synthesis is quite complex, showing interdependence with the ratios of GCS component proteins. Furthermore, adding the reducing agent dithiothreitol to the reaction mixture not only results in great tolerance to high concentration of formaldehyde, but also increases the rate of glycine synthesis, probably due to its functions in activating P protein and taking up the role of L protein in the non‐enzymatic reduction of Hox to Hred. Moreover, the presence of some monovalent and divalent metal ions can have either positive or negative effect on the rate of glycine synthesis, depending on their type and their concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Liver tumor segmentation is a crucial prerequisite for computer‐aided diagnosis of liver tumors. In the clinical diagnosis of liver tumors, radiologists usually examine multiphase CT images as these images provide abundant and complementary information of tumors. However, most known automatic segmentation methods extract tumor features from CT images merely of a single phase, in which valuable multiphase information is ignored. Therefore, it is highly demanded to develop a method effectively incorporating multiphase information for automatic and accurate liver tumor segmentation. Methods: In this paper, we propose a phase attention residual network (PA‐ResSeg) to model multiphase features for accurate liver tumor segmentation. A phase attention (PA) is newly proposed to additionally exploit the images of arterial (ART) phase to facilitate the segmentation of portal venous (PV) phase. The PA block consists of an intraphase attention (intra‐PA) module and an interphase attention (inter‐PA) module to capture channel‐wise self‐dependencies and cross‐phase interdependencies, respectively. Thus, it enables the network to learn more representative multiphase features by refining the PV features according to the channel dependencies and recalibrating the ART features based on the learned interdependencies between phases. We propose a PA‐based multiscale fusion (MSF) architecture to embed the PA blocks in the network at multiple levels along the encoding path to fuse multiscale features from multiphase images. Moreover, a 3D boundary‐enhanced loss (BE‐loss) is proposed for training to make the network more sensitive to boundaries. Results: To evaluate the performance of our proposed PA‐ResSeg, we conducted experiments on a multiphase CT dataset of focal liver lesions (MPCT‐FLLs). Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method by achieving a dice per case (DPC) of 0.7787, a dice global (DG) of 0.8682, a volumetric overlap error (VOE) of 0.3328, and a relative volume difference (RVD) of 0.0443 on the MPCT‐FLLs. Furthermore, to validate the effectiveness and robustness of PA‐ResSeg, we conducted extra experiments on another multiphase liver tumor dataset and obtained a DPC of 0.8290, a DG of 0.9132, a VOE of 0.2637, and a RVD of 0.0163. The proposed method shows its robustness and generalization capability in different datasets and different backbones. Conclusions: The study demonstrates that our method can effectively model information from multiphase CT images to segment liver tumors and outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art methods. The PA‐based MSF method can learn more representative multiphase features at multiple scales and thereby improve the segmentation performance. Besides, the proposed 3D BE‐loss is conducive to tumor boundary segmentation by enforcing the network focus on boundary regions and marginal slices. Experimental results evaluated by quantitative metrics demonstrate the superiority of our PA‐ResSeg over the best‐known methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bladder cancer (BLCA) remains the leading cause of cancer‐related mortality among genitourinary malignancies worldwide. BLCA metastasis represents the primary reason for its poor prognosis. In this study, we report that decreased expression of partitioning defective 3 (Par3), a polarity protein (encoded by PARD3), is associated with tumor aggressive phenotypes and poor prognosis in BLCA patients. Consistently, ablation of Par3 promotes the metastasis and invasion of BLCA cells in vitro and in vivo. Further studies reveal that zinc finger protein Snail represses the expression of Par3 by binding to E2‐box (CAGGTG) of PARD3 promoter‐proximal. Inhibition of GSK‐3β promotes the expression and nuclear localization of Snail and then reduces the expression of Par3, resulting in the metastasis and invasion of BLCA cells. Moreover, we detected the interaction between Par3 (936‐1356 aa) and ZO‐1 (1372‐1748 aa), which is involved in the maintenance of tight junction. Together, our results demonstrate that the GSK‐3β/Snail/Par3/ZO‐1 axis regulates BLCA metastasis, and Snail is a major regulator for Par3 protein expression in BLCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing non‐cationic gene carriers and achieving efficient endo/lysosome escape of functional nucleic acids in cytosol are two major challenges faced by the field of gene delivery. Herein, we demonstrate the concept of self‐escape spherical nucleic acid (SNA) to achieve light controlled non‐cationic gene delivery with sufficient endo/lysosome escape capacity. In this system, Bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotides (OSAs) were conjugated onto the surface of aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) photosensitizer (PS) nanoparticles to form core–shell SNA. Once the SNAs were taken up by tumor cells, and upon light irradiation, the accumulative 1O2 produced by the AIE PSs ruptured the lysosome structure to promote OSA escape. Prominent in vitro and in vivo results revealed that the AIE‐based core–shell SNA could downregulate the anti‐apoptosis protein (Bcl‐2) and induce tumor cell apoptosis without any transfection reagent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: Although sleep duration is a risk factor for obesity in young children, less is known about other aspects of sleep health, including bedtime, on obesity risk. Objective: To determine whether bedtime is associated with body mass index (BMI) z‐score or obesity risk in children ages 2 to 5 years, and to determine if associations are independent of sleep duration. Methods: Cohort analyses were undertaken using three early life obesity prevention trials (POI, INSIGHT, Healthy Beginnings) and a longitudinal cohort study (HOME). Bedtime was assessed by questionnaire and BMI through clinical measurement between 2 and 5 years in 1642 children. Adjusted regression models examined whether BMI z‐score and obesity (BMI z‐score ≥ 2) were associated with bedtime, nocturnal sleep time and 24‐hour sleep time. A discrete mixture model categorized children into bedtime trajectory groups across time points. Results: Bedtime was inconsistently associated with BMI z‐score. Although each hour later of bedtime was associated with greater odds of obesity at ages 3 (OR; 95% CI: 1.05; 1.003, 1.10) and 5 (1.35; 1.08, 1.69) years, odds were attenuated after adjustment for nocturnal or 24‐hour sleep time. Longer nocturnal sleep duration at 2 years was associated with lower odds of obesity (OR 0.90; 0.86, 0.94), as was longer 24‐hour sleep duration at 3 years in girls (0.70; 0.62, 0.78). BMI z‐score and odds of obesity were not significantly different between 'early to bed' and 'late to bed' trajectory groups. Conclusions: Timing of bedtime appears inconsistently related to obesity in young children, possibly via influencing overall sleep duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfoxonium ylides as safe carbene precursors are described for iridium‐catalyzed carbene insertions and annulation, providing a facile and green approach to access a variety of quinoxaline derivatives in water. This water‐mediated method also allows the preparation of β‐keto thioethers under mild condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pyrotinib was well tolerated but its efficacy was unsatisfactory in patients with HER2‐positive gastric cancer (GC) (NCT02378389). This study was to optimize the efficacy of pyrotinib. Methods: Human GC cell lines and AVATAR mice were used to explore the refractory mechanisms of pyrotinib. A pyrotinib‐combined strategy was proposed, which was validated in preclinical AVATAR mouse and in clinical patients enrolled in a phase I clinical trial (NCT03480256). Results: Dysregulation of CCND1‐CDK4/6‐Rb axis might be the key to pyrotinib refractory. The strategy of pyrotinib combined with a CDK4/6 inhibitor SHR6390 was proposed and validated in preclinical AVATAR mouse, which was successfully verified in clinical patients. For five patients treated with pyrotinib plus SHR6390 who had available response evaluation, the best response was partial response in three patients, stable disease in one patient, and progressive disease in one patient. The progression‐free survival times were 120, 200, 532, 109, and 57 days, respectively. Conclusions: This translational study suggests that pyrotinib combined with SHR6390 may serve as a promising strategy for patients with HER2‐positive GC. Trial registration: The ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers are NCT02378389 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT02378389, registered in 11 February 2015) and NCT03480256 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT03480256, registered in 8 March 2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies generalized autoregressive score‐driven (GAS) models to futures hedging of crude oil and natural gas. For both commodities, the GAS framework captures the marginal distributions of spot and futures returns and corresponding dynamic copula correlations. We compare within‐sample and out‐of‐sample hedging effectiveness of GAS models against constant ordinary least square (OLS) strategy and time‐varying copula‐based GARCH models in terms of volatility reduction and Value at Risk reduction. We show that the constant OLS hedge ratio is not inherently inferior to the time‐varying alternatives. Nonetheless, GAS models tend to exhibit better hedging effectiveness than other strategies, particularly for natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Following the sufficient studies of the effects of skin barrier impairment and heightened neural reaction on sensitive skin (SS), many scholars have paid great attention to the roles of superficial microvasculature in SS. Methods: By questionnaire survey, lactic acid sting test, and capsaicin test, eligible subjects were classified as normal skin, only lactic acid sting test positive (LASTP), only capsaicin test positive (CATP), and both positive (both LASTP and CATP). D‐OCT was used to photograph images for evaluating the cutaneous vessels features each group. Results: Totally 137 subjects completed the study. Compared with LASTN group, the vascular vessels were closer to epidermis in LASTP group. Mesh and branching vessels were more popular in SS than normal skin. High blood vessel density was more prevalent in SS, while low density frequently presented in normal skin. The vascular depth had a closely negative correlation with face flushing and SSS, and vascular shapes had a good positive correlation with face flushing and SSB. Conclusions: Our study indicates that there is a significant difference in vascular depth, shape, and density between SS and normal skin which is valuable to explore SS pathologic mechanism and to further investigate cutaneous microvasculature functions in SS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Maternal thyroid function during pregnancy may influence offspring thyroid function, though relations between maternal and child thyroid function are incompletely understood. We sought to characterize relations between maternal, cord and child thyroid hormone concentrations in a population of mother‐child pairs with largely normal thyroid function. Methods: In a prospective birth cohort, we measured thyroid hormone concentrations in 203 mothers at 16 gestational weeks, 273 newborns and 159 children at 3 years among participants in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study. We used multivariable linear regression to estimate associations of maternal thyroid hormones during pregnancy with cord serum thyroid hormones and also estimated associations of maternal and cord thyroid hormones with child thyroid‐stimulating hormone (TSH). Results: Each doubling of maternal TSH was associated with a 16.4% increase of newborn TSH (95% CI: 3.9%, 30.5%), and each doubling of newborn TSH concentrations was associated with a 10.4% increase in child TSH concentrations at 3 years (95% CI: 0.1%, 21.7%). An interquartile range increase in cord FT4 concentrations was associated with an 11.7% decrease in child TSH concentrations at 3 years (95% CI: −20.2%, −2.3%). Conclusions: We observed relationships between maternal, newborn and child thyroid hormone concentrations in the HOME Study. Our study contributes to understandings of interindividual variability in thyroid function among mother‐child pairs, which may inform future efforts to identify risk factors for thyroid disorders or thyroid‐related health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether the expected inflation effect hypothesis adequately explains the causal relationship between inflation expectations and gold returns. A bootstrap full‐sample Granger causality test shows that gold returns cause inflation expectations rather than the reverse. To account for possible structural changes, we apply bootstrap subsample Granger causality tests with 60‐month windows. The results suggest that both professional forecasters' and consumers' inflation expectations have negative effects on gold returns in some but not all sample periods, contradicting the expected inflation effect hypothesis. No causality is found in other periods, consistent with the carrying cost hypothesis that the expected gain from gold due to higher inflation is offset by its carrying cost. Holding gold will not necessarily hedge against inflation because gold returns do not necessarily correlate with inflation expectation. Therefore, the carrying cost hypothesis more accurately explains the relationship between gold returns and inflation expectation than the expected inflation effect hypothesis does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Freestanding emergency departments (FrEDs) could reduce wait times in overcrowded emergency departments (EDs), but they might also increase usage and overall spending for emergency care. We investigate the relationship between the number of FrEDs entering a local market and overall spending on emergency care. Methods: We accessed data from Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas in Blue Cross Blue Shield Axis; a limited data set of deidentified insurance data claims that we linked to Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) data from the American Community Survey; and lists of licensed FrEDs from state agencies. Regression analysis was used to estimate the association between changes in the number of FrEDs in 495 PUMAs and total spending on emergency care, out‐of‐pocket spending, utilization, and price per visit from January 2013 to December 2017. Final estimates came from a PUMA‐level fixed‐effects model, with controls for state, quarter, and PUMA‐level demographics. Results: Entry of an additional FrED in a PUMA was associated with a 3.6 percentage point (pp; CI = 2.4 to 4.9) increase in emergency provider reimbursement per insured beneficiary in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. There was no change in spending (2.5 pp; CI = −8.2 to 3.1) associated with a FrED's entry in Arizona. Entry of an additional FrED was associated with a 0.18 (CI = 0.12 to 0.23) increase in the number of emergency care visits per 100 enrollees in Texas, Florida, and Arizona. In contrast, entry of another FrED was not associated with a change in utilization (−0.03; CI =  −0.09 to 0.02) in North Carolina. Estimated out‐of‐pocket payments for emergency care increased 3.6 pp (CI = 2.5 to 4.8) with the entry of a FrED in Texas, Florida, and Arizona, but declined by 15.3 pp (CI = −26.8 to −3.7) in North Carolina. Conclusions: Rather than functioning as substitutes for hospital‐based EDs, FrEDs have increased local market spending on emergency care in three of four states' markets where they have entered. State policy makers and researchers should carefully track spending and utilization of emergency care as FrEDs disseminate to better understand their potential health benefits and cost implications for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interface strain significantly affects the band structure and electronic states of metal‐nanocrystal‐2D‐semiconductor heterostructures, impacting system performance. While transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool for studying interface strain, its accuracy may be compromised by sample overlap in high‐resolution images due to the unique nature of the metal‐nanocrystals‐2D‐semiconductors heterostructure. Utilizing digital dark‐field technology, the substrate influence on metal atomic column contrasts is eliminated, improving the accuracy of quantitative analysis in high‐resolution TEM images. Applying this method to investigate Pt on MoS2 surfaces reveals that the heterostructure introduces a tensile strain of ≈3% in Pt nanocrystal. The x‐directional linear strain in Pt nanocrystals has a periodic distribution that matches the semi‐coherent interface between Pt nanocrystals and MoS2, while the remaining strain components localize mainly on edge atomic steps. These results demonstrate an accurate and efficient method for studying interface strain and provide a theoretical foundation for precise heterostructure fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐free photochemical carbene‐transfer reactions of tosylhydrazones were developed under blue light irradiation at room temperature. This reaction constructs C−X (X=C, N, O, S) bonds and cyclopropanes from readily available and stable starting materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer (BC) is an aggressive malignant disease in women worldwide with a high tendency to metastasize. However, important biomarkers for BC metastasis remain largely undefined. In the present study, we identified that long non‐coding RNA‐CTD‐2108O9.1 is downregulated in BC tissues and cells and acts as a metastatic inhibitor of BC. Mechanistic investigation determined that lncRNA‐CTD‐2108O9.1 represses metastasis by targeting leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR), which is designated as a metastasis suppressor in BC. Our study characterizes a significant tumor suppressor active in BC metastasis repression through the known metastasis inhibitor LIFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A highly stable and intensely fluorescent composite was assembled by incorporating ruthenium functional unit (Ru unit) into layered double hydroxide matrices. This composite inherits the photoluminescence property of Ru unit but exhibits enhanced photoluminescence with a long lifetime. Importantly, it acts as an excellent chemosensor for sensitive detection on Cr2O72−. Such detection resulted in visible photoluminecence quenching. Furthermore, the composite is remarkably stable in the detection conditions without Ru unit leaking out. Therefore, these results provide us a simple, sensitive, and effective approach to detect Cr2O72−. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of a variety of cellular processes, including cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis and carcinogenesis. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which miR-148b acts as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer. The expression of miR-148b was significantly downregulated in 96 pairs of human colorectal cancer tissues ( p < 0.0001) and three cell lines ( p < 0.01) compared with non-tumor adjacent tissues by quantitative real-time PCR. The results of in situ hybridization highlighted that miR-148b was important in the cancer transformation process. Using statistical analysis, we found that the expression level of miR-148b was associated with tumor size ( p = 0.033) in colorectal cancer patients. Moreover, overexpression of miR-148b in HCT-116 and HT-29 cells could inhibit cell proliferation in vitro and suppress tumorigenicity in vivo. Importantly, the result of luciferase activity assay and western blot showed that the cholecystokinin-2 receptor gene (CCK2R) was a target of miR-148b and was downregulated by miR-148b at the translational level. Then, we used siRNA, radioimmunoassay and ELISA to demonstrate that miR-148b might have an effect on cell proliferation by regulating the expression of CCK2R which functioned depending on the gastrin in colorectal cancer. Taken together, our data provides the first evidences that miR-148b acts as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer and should be further evaluated as a biomarker and therapeutic tool against colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sucharew H, Khoury JC, Xu Y, Succop P, Yolton K. NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale profiles predict developmental outcomes in a low-risk sample. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2012; ••: ••-••. Background: Latent profile analysis (LPA) has been used previously to classify neurobehavioral responses of infants prenatally exposed to cocaine and other drugs of abuse. The objective of this study was to define NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) profile response patterns in a cohort of infants with no known cocaine exposure or other risks for neurobehavior deficits, and determine whether these profiles predict neurobehavioral outcomes in these low-risk infants. Methods: NNNS exams were performed on 355 low-risk infants at approximately 5 weeks after birth. LPA was used to define discrete profiles based on the standard NNNS summary scales. Associations between the infant profiles and neurobehavioral outcomes at one to three years of age were examined. Results: Twelve of the 13 summary scales were used and three discrete NNNS profiles identified: social/easy going infants (44%), hypotonic infants (24%), and high arousal/difficult infants (32%). Statistically significant associations between NNNS profiles and later neurobehavioral outcomes were found for psychomotor development and externalizing behaviors. Hypotonic infants had both lower psychomotor development and lower externalizing scores compared to the other two profiles. Conclusions: Three distinct profiles of the NNNS summary scores were identifiable using LPA among infants with no known cocaine exposure. These profile patterns were associated with early childhood neurobehavioral outcome, similar to findings reported in a study of infants with substantial cocaine exposure, demonstrating the utility of this profiling technique in both exposed and unexposed populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study reported that the ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b was up-regulated during anthracycline-induced apoptosis in two cell lines, RBL-2H3 leukemia cells and MGC803 gastric cancer cells. Overexpression of Cbl-b strongly promoted the cytotoxic and apoptosis-inducing effects of anthracyclines, while a dominant negative (DN) Cbl-b mutation abolished these effects in both cell lines. Further investigation revealed that mitochondrial depolarization was enhanced by Cbl-b and decreased by Cbl-b (DN) in RBL-2H3 cells. Moreover, overexpression of Cbl-b significantly suppressed ERK activation, and Cbl-b (DN) strongly enhanced both ERK and Akt activation. Altogether, these results indicate that Cbl-b sensitized both leukemia and gastric cancer cells to anthracyclines by activating the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and modulating the ERK and Akt survival pathways. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]