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Ultrasonic rolling is an effective technique for enhancing surface integrity, and surface integrity is closely related to fatigue performance. The process parameters of ultrasonic rolling critically affect the improvement of surface integrity. This study proposes an optimization method for process parameters by combining machine learning (ML) with the NSGA-II. Five ML models were trained to establish relationships between process parameters and surface residual stress, hardness, and surface roughness by incorporating feature augmentation and physical information. The best-performing model was selected and integrated with NSGA-II for multi-objective optimization. Ultrasonic rolling tests based on a uniform design were performed, and a dataset was established. The objective was to maximize surface residual stress and hardness while minimizing surface roughness. For test specimens with an initial surface roughness of 0.54 µm, the optimized process parameters were a static pressure of 900 N, a spindle speed of 75 rpm, a feed rate of 0.19 mm/r, and rolling once. Using optimized parameters, the surface residual stress reached −920.60 MPa, surface hardness achieved 958.23 HV, surface roughness reduced to 0.32 µm, and contact fatigue life extended to 3.02 × 107 cycles, representing a 52.5% improvement compared to untreated specimens and an even more significant improvement over without parameter optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium phosphate bone cement (MPBC) is a bone repair material that has been extensively studied. For better availability of clinical medicine, its degradation rate needs to be effectively controlled. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) has often been used as a drug carrier for controlled drug release. This property was utilized to influence the release kinetics of MPBC. This work investigated the degradation mechanism of MPBC controlled by HPMC. It was found that MPBC samples with 3 wt. % HPMC had the optimal properties. In this case, the setting time was 11 min and the maximum strength was 63.9 ± 2.5 MPa. The study found HPMC primarily controlled the degradation of MPBC hydration products via the combined actions of gradual diffusion, and release of MPBC hydration products, which subsequently caused the swelling, corrosion, and dissolution of the HPMC skeleton. Besides, the results showed that HPMC‐modified MPBC has good bioactivity, which is beneficial to bone repair. This bioactive HPMC‐modified MPBC showed a controllable degradation rate and proper mechanic properties, which may be applied to bone repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring and extracting abrasive grains on the entire surface of monolayer brazing grinding wheels to analyze the distribution of abrasive grains are of great significance to grinding research and grinding wheel manufacture. It is not easy to carry out the work with traditional methods. In this paper, a linear CCD is used to acquire the entire grinding wheel surface image, and an improved encoder–decoder network based on Efficientnet, ASPP, and Skip Connections is designed to promote the accuracy and speed of abrasive grains prediction. Based on dataset creation, transfer learning, and hyper-parameter testing, 91.21% abrasive grain semantic segmentation accuracy was finally obtained. If we focus on whether the abrasive grains are recognized without considering semantic errors, an accuracy rate of 99.6% is obtained. The method can provide basic data for grinding mechanism research and abrasive tool manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grinding grooves of material removal machining and the residues of a machining tool on the key component surface cause surface stress concentration. Thus, it is critical to carry out precise measurements on the key component surface to evaluate the stress concentration. Based on white-light interferometry (WLI), we studied the measurement distortion caused by the reflected light from the steep side of the grinding groove being unable to return to the optical system for imaging. A threshold value was set to eliminate the distorted measurement points, and the cubic spline algorithm was used to interpolate the eliminated points for compensation. The compensation result agrees well with the atomic force microscope (AFM) measurement result. However, for residues on the surface, a practical method was established to obtain a microscopic 3D micro-topography point cloud and a super-depth-of-field fusion image simultaneously. Afterward, the semantic segmentation network U-net was adopted to identify the residues in the super-depth-of-field fusion image and achieved a recognition accuracy of 91.06% for residual identification. Residual feature information, including height, position, and size, was obtained by integrating the information from point clouds and super-depth-of-field fusion images. This work can provide foundational data to study surface stress concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, more and more metal or non-metal materials have been used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, but the vascular complications after transplantation are still the main factors restricting the clinical application of most grafts, such as acute thrombosis and graft restenosis. Implant materials have been extensively designed and surface optimized by researchers, but it is still too difficult to avoid complications. Natural vascular endodermis has excellent function, anti-coagulant and anti-intimal hyperplasia, and it is also the key to maintaining the homeostasis of normal vascular microenvironment. Therefore, how to promote the adhesion of endothelial cells (ECs) on the surface of cardiovascular materials to achieve endothelialization of the surface is the key to overcoming the complications after implant materialization. At present, the surface endothelialization design of materials based on materials surface science, bioactive molecules, and biological function intervention and feedback has attracted much attention. In this review, we summarize the related research on the surface modification of materials by endothelialization in recent years, and analyze the advantages and challenges of current endothelialization design ideas, explain the relationship between materials, cells, and vascular remodeling in order to find a more ideal endothelialization surface modification strategy for future researchers to meet the requirements of clinical biocompatibility of cardiovascular materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional fire protection plan is an important part of the city's overall plan, which represents the deepening of the regional fire protection plan and the specific content of the city's economic regional fire protection plan. Fire protection is an important part of national economic and social development, and it is also one of the indicators to measure the level of modern culture. Effective and practical fire protection planning can effectively prevent and reduce fire risks and protect the lives and property of the people, which is very important for social development. In order to optimize the regional fire model, this study uses a very objective fuzzy theory to analyze and discuss the research objects. In view of the large amount of fuzzy information in fuzzy optimization, fuzzy criterion recognition, and fuzzy grouping, based on the generalized fuzzy distance and fuzzy number, this paper proposes a multiobjective fuzzy theory-based comprehensive evaluation and optimization model of fire planning for major hazard sources. The results show that hotel fire risks tend to be higher, which is the focus of people's attention. Among the fire hazards, wholesale, retail, and catering industries are the hardest hit areas, accounting for 66.3%, and some other industries are also disaster areas that need to be dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this work is to design high-resolution, high-contrast and robust MV adaptive beamforming algorithms, which are also implemented in real-time frame rate. Multi-operator optimization is introduced into MV adaptive beamforming in this work to propose a multi-operator MV adaptive beamforming algorithmic optimization framework. Based on the proposed algorithmic optimization framework, the algorithm optimization can be either conducted by activating a single optimization operator, or conducted by activating multiple optimization operators. The multi-operator MV (MOMV) adaptive beamforming algorithms are then derived from this framework. Moreover, in order to promote the real-time imaging capability of MOMV beamforming, a GPU-based parallel acceleration framework is proposed along with the algorithmic optimization framework by exploring the image-level coarse-grained parallelization and pixel-level fine-grained parallelization. GPU computing resource allocation strategy and memory access strategy are both explored to better design the acceleration framework. Comprehensive quantitative simulation evaluations and qualitative in vivo experiments of imaging performance are studied, and the results demonstrate that the proposed MOMV adaptive beamforming algorithms significantly improve the imaging performance as compared with other MV beamforming algorithms, which have high resolution, high contrast, good robustness, and real-time imaging capability with thousands of acceleration speedup. Furthermore, the MOMV beamforming algorithm without eigen-decomposition and projection optimization operator achieves much higher beamforming frame rate with little downgrade of image quality as compared with the MOMV beamforming algorithm with all optimization operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grain geometrical features of grinding wheels are critically important to evaluate their quality and grinding performance. Therefore, grain geometrical features should be comprehensively and systematically characterized. Such characterization parameters were defined from the geometric features of individual grains (for each grain) to the distribution features of grains (for a group of grains on a given wheel surface) on the basis of grain cross-sections. For each grain, characterization parameters included cross-section area, equivalent diameter, volume, and sharpness ratio of the grain. For a group of grains, the characterization parameters were distribution density, cross-section area, cross-section area-supporting rate, and volume proportion of the grains on a sectioning depth. The cross-sections of grains were extracted from the section-scanning images captured by an optical measurement system. A system based on optical vertical scanning using a narrow depth of field microscope was adopted to obtain the optical sectioning images, and the grain cross-section boundaries on each image were extracted through an image-processing program. The defined characterization parameters, vertical sectioning step, and sectioning numbers were calculated efficiently. A monolayer brazed grinding wheel with a grain size of 425–500 μm was selected for an experiment. The individual and group parameters, such as sharpness or strength, active volume, or area-supporting ratio, of grains were used for performance analysis. Experimental results indicated that the proposed parameters based on grain cross-sections are not only efficient to calculate but also effective to characterize the geometric features of grains for monolayer brazed grinding wheels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Yolk-shelled Co-CeO 2 -H 2 octahedrons with rich vacancy defects are prepared by sequential calcinating the Co-incorporated Ce-UiO-66 precursor. • Defect engineering on the catalyst surface promotes efficient carrier separation and transfer and reduces the energy barrier for CO 2 activation and transformation. • Co-incorporation with CeO 2 is responsible for extended light absorption. • 1%–Co-CeO 2 -H 2 exhibits significantly enhanced photocatalytic CO 2 reduction activity. Solar-driven photocatalytic CO 2 conversion is considered as the most promising approach to eliminating atmospheric CO 2 emissions. However, great challenges lie in the utilization of visible-infrared light and the activation of the inert CO 2 molecule. Herein, we report the preparation of a yolk-shell Co-CeO 2 octahedron and the strategy for surface defect engineering to optimize the photocatalyst by two-step calcination of a Ce-based metal–organic framework (Ce-UiO-66). As a result of the synergistic effect of incorporating the Co atom and rich oxygen vacancies, the energy barrier of activating and transforming the adsorbed CO 2 to *COOH is significantly reduced. Benefiting from the structure with high surface area, cavity, and abundant defects, the optimized Co-CeO 2 photocatalyst not only provides more exposed active sites and enhanced photoabsorption but also improves charge separation and transfer. Accordingly, 1%–Co-CeO 2 -H 2 exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity in CO 2 reduction under visible light irradiation with a CO generation rate of 46.9 μmol/h, which is 4.6 times than that of less defective 1%–Co-CeO 2 , and far more than that of pure CeO 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HPV-16 long control region (LCR) has been shown to be the most variable region of the HPV-16 genome and may play important roles in viral persistence and the development of cervical cancer. This study aimed to assess the risk of HPV-16 LCR variants for cervical cancer in women of Southwest China. 2146 cervical scrapings of volunteer outpatients and 74 cervical cancer tissues were screened.14 entire HPV-16 LCRs from asymptomatic carriers and 34 entire HPV-16 LCRs from cervical cancer patients were successfully amplified and sequenced to align to others described. 58 different point mutations were detected in 54 nucleotide sites of HPV-16 LCR. G7193T and G7521A variants, accounting for 100% of the infections, were predicted to locate at the binding site for FOXA1 and SOX9, respectively. A7730C variant which showed a high mutation frequency in cervical cancer was predicted to be a binding site for the cellular transcription factor PHOX2A. In addition, phylogenetic analysis displayed a high prevalence of A lineage in HPV-16 LCR in this Southwest China population. This study may help understanding of the intrinsic geographical relatedness and the correlations between LCR mutations and the development of carcinogenic lesions in Southwest China population. And it provides useful data for the further study of the biological function of HPV-16 LCR variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Four MIL-101-X with ligand functionalization were synthesized. • MIL-101-OH exhibited efficient degradation abilities but poor recycling capacity. • Efficient Fenton degradation of multiple antibiotics is universal for MIL-101-NH 2. • The regulation of organic ligands can induce the different crystal configurations. Iron-based MOFs with tunable structure, large surface area along with attractive diversity have been often used in heterogeneous Fenton-like reactions to generate hydroxyl groups for the degradation of new pollutants. It is unclear how linker substituents of MIL-101 with MTN-typed topology influence the heterogeneous Fenton. Solvothermal methods were used to successfully synthesize a series of MIL-101-X(Fe) with various substituents (X = -H, –NH 2 , –OH and –OCH 3) in the side chains of organic ligands. Their physicochemical properties are fully investigated by various characterizations, which confirmed that changes in the substituents affected crystal morphology and thus catalytic efficiency. In the Fenton system, MIL-101-X showed significant differences in antibiotics removal. Particularly, the MIL-101-NH 2 exhibited 100 % removal of SMX within 70 mins, with a rate of 30.06 times faster than MIL-101-H. This was related to the change in the active surface, following ligand functionalization, which greatly facilitates the dissociation of H 2 O 2 and accelerates the iron cycling process. Therefore, this study provides the first mechanistic foresight on the regulation of Fenton-like reactions through modifying the substituents in the side chain of MOFs to alter their particle morphology and active surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gliomas are highly refractory intracranial cancers characterized by genetic and transcriptional heterogeneity. However, therapeutic options are limited. In the last years, copper‐induced cell death is becoming a prospective treatment strategy for gliomas and other solid tumors, but copper metabolism‐related genes associated with cancer development remain unclear. Methods: We first collected gene expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify significantly differentially expressed copper metabolism‐related genes in gliomas. Using these genes, we performed COX regression and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression to construct the prognostic model. The prognostic value of the model was further validated by CGGA testing set. Subsequently, functional analyses were carried out, including gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), immune infiltration analysis, and mutation analysis. Finally, the expression levels of these genes were verified by immunohistochemical analysis. Results: The prognostic model consisted of 7 genes: CDK1, LOXL2, LOXL3, NFE2L2, SLC31A1, SUMF1 and FDX1. According to this prognosis model, glioma patients could be split into the high‐risk group or low‐risk group, and the low‐risk group showed significantly better prognostic survival (p < 0.001). Moreover, the high‐risk group had higher levels of immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes expression, and higher tumor mutational burden (TMB), which indicates that they might benefit more from immunotherapy. Finally, we confirmed the expression level of FDX1, SUMF1, and SLC31A1 protein as significantly different in glioblastoma, lower‐grade glioma, and non‐tumor brain tissues by immunohistochemical analysis, and the high expression of FDX1 and SLC31A1 protein was related to poor survival in glioma patients. Conclusions: Our study could contribute to the prognosis prediction and decision‐making in patients with gliomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, in the current work, a dynamic stability analysis of a tilted curved pipe in a supersonic airflow under thermal loading is presented. The heat-transfer continuum problem is used for simulating the thermal environment conditions. The tilted pipe is reinforced by carbon nanotube agglomerations (CNTAs). For simulating the displacement fields of the current structure, Quasi-2D refined high order shear deformation theory is studied. The verification segment is divided into two parts. In the first and second sections, the credibility of the results of this study are confirmed by the results extracted using COMSOL multiphysics software and published articles in the literature, respectively. The results show that Mach number, hydrodynamic pressure, temperature change, yaw angle, and geometry properties of the current structure have a significant impact on the frequency information of the tilted curved pipe reinforced by CNTAs in supersonic airflow. One of the presented results is that the effects from volume fraction of clusters in the representative value element, amount of CNTs located outside the clusters, and the highest value related to the volume fraction of the CNT, parameters on the supersonic airflow characteristics of the system are more considerable at the higher value of the length to radius ratio of the pipe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. We wished to evaluate the clinical remission rate and long-term efficacy of tonsillectomy for patients with IgA nephropathy.Methods. We searched a number of databases, including PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang and others, for clinical case–control studies of tonsillectomy in patients with IgA nephropathy. We then performed a meta-analysis of these studies. After evaluating total clinical remission rates, we compared the remission rates for specific treatments: tonsillectomy plus steroid pulse, tonsillectomy plus normal-dose steroid, and general treatment using neither tonsillectomy nor steroids. We also compared the rates of end-stage renal failure (ESRF) at last follow-up to estimate the long-term renal survival rate associated with each treatment.Results. Seven retrospective studies met the inclusion criteria and were included. These included a total of 858 patients, in which 534 underwent tonsillectomy and 324 did not. The total clinical remission rate was higher in the operative group, while the ESRF rate was higher in the non-operative group. The clinical remission rate in patients who underwent tonsillectomy remained higher than in the non-operative group at both 5- and 10-year follow-up. The clinical remission rate in patients who underwent tonsillectomy plus steroid pulse was higher than in those treated with steroid pulse alone, normal-dose steroids or general treatment alone (P < 0.05). However, the clinical remission rate of simple tonsillectomy was not higher than that of general treatment (P > 0.05).Conclusions. Whereas neither tonsillectomy nor steroid treatment alone increased remission rates in patients with IgA nephropathy, tonsillectomy combined with either normal steroid or steroid pulse treatment resulted in higher remission rates with favourable long-term efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors with no available satisfactory treatment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-tumor effect of an irradiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) whole-cell vaccine and its underlying mechanisms. Hepa1-6 and H22 HCC cell lines were irradiated in preparation for whole-cell vaccine production. Subsequently, two HCC tumor-bearing mouse models were created by injecting these Hepa1-6 and H22 cells into the abdominal skin of C57BL/6 and ICR mice, respectively. The mice were immunized with the corresponding whole-cell vaccine the next day, and then once a week until the end of the experimental period. Tumor growth, blood T helper (Th)9 cells and plasma interleukin (IL)-9 levels were monitored during the immunization period. Th9 cells were also induced by in vitro co-culture of the whole-cell vaccine with lymphocytes from the spleen and lymph nodes of the corresponding mice. Alterations of gene expression in transcription factor (TF) were determined by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, and Th9 cells were detected using flow cytometry. The whole-cell vaccine effectively suppressed HCC tumor growth, as indicated by slower tumor growth and a smaller tumor size in the immunized group compared with the control. The percentage of blood Th9 cells and the concentration of plasma IL-9 were significantly increased in the immunized group. The whole-cell vaccine also induced Th9 cell differentiation and upregulated the expression of TFs PU.1, interferon regulatory factor 4 and basic leucine zipper transcriptional factor ATF-like. These results suggest that the irradiated HCC whole-cell vaccine inhibited tumor growth by increasing Th9 cell numbers in HCC mice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental pollution has become more and more serious, in order to alleviate environmental and energy problems, people have begun to find new ways of governance in environmental management. Many countries have proposed to incorporate environmental performance into corporate performance for assessment. Under the historical background that the construction of ecological civilization has risen to a national strategy, the research on corporate environmental performance has attracted more and more attention. This paper constructs an environmental performance evaluation index system, evaluates the environmental performance of the enterprise, finds out the problems in the environmental performance of the enterprise, and proposes improvement suggestions. This is conducive to the change of the environmental policy of the enterprise, the improvement of the environmental performance level of the enterprise, and the protection of the ecological environment. This article introduces the mobile communication network, constructs the LMS model of the satellite mobile communication system, and analyzes the structure and main functions of the model. The article explains the role of corporate environmental governance, builds an environmental performance indicator system, selects several companies to evaluate the environmental governance performance of the past two years, and obtains the comprehensive performance index, stress index, state improvement index, and response index of the four companies in 2020. The four indexes of company A are 1.28, 1.3, 12, and 1.45, and the four indexes of company B are 2.96, 3.1, 8, and 2.9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sensetivity of SIF to soil salt varies globally with land uses. • SIF has limitations on herbaceous cover and sparse vegetation. • Globally, 54.98 Mha salt-affected soils were observed during 2000～ 2020. • The United States and China are the two countries most affected by soil salinity. The accumulation of soil salt becomes a worldwide widespread phenomenon, being a major threat to global production. As an environmental stress, soil salinity can reduce the vegetation photosynthetic activity. Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is an electromagnetic signal actively released by vegetation during photosynthesis. SIF not only can capture lower vegetation photosynthetic activity due to environmental stress promptly, but also is less affected by atmosphere and soil background. However, the ability of SIF observation to detect soil salinity remains unclear. Here, we use standardized solar-induced chlorophyll iluorescence index (SIFI) from SIF observation time series (2000 ∼ 2020) of global OCO-2 based SIF product (GOSIF) to develop soil salinity model. The results show that: SIF observation can identify salt affected soil (EC ≥ 2 ∼ 4 dS m−1) and salinity class a global scale. The SIFI calculated from SIF observation at May ∼ August (hereafter SIFI 5-8) is the optimal sensitivity indices for rainfed cropland, herbaceous cover, irrigated cropland, shrubland, grassland. SIFI 10-11 is the optimal sensitivity indices for forest and sparse vegetation; (2) By comparison, the ovrerall classification accuracy of predicted salinity class is above 70 %. The order of classification accuracy is rainfed cropland > irrigated cropland > bare area > forest > grassland > shrubland > herbaceous cover > sparse vegetation; (3) During at least three-quarters of the period from 2000 to 2020, the area of salt affected soil (EC ≥ 2 ∼ 4 dS m−1) was 4.9 Mkm2; (4) The annual change rate of global soil salt content is generally between −0.05 and 0.05 dS m−1 yr−1. Soil salinity in South Africa and West Asia increased greatly with an annual change rate of 0.02 ∼ 0.03 dS m−1 yr−1. These results demonstrate the ability of SIF observation to estimate soil salinity, providing a new perspective for explaining and evaluating soil salinity variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because preparation circumstances are limited, the relationship between spherical porous zinc sulfide (ZnS) and cells is rarely investigated. Thus, using the hydrothermal approach, four different types of ZnS spheres with consistent size, high dispersion, and stability were created in this research by varying the temperature, duration, solvent ratio, and pH level of the hydrothermal process. Three structures are present in the generated particle spheres: solid, hollow, and mesoporous structures. In addition to causing a significant variation in the particle spheres' specific surface area, porosity, and surface roughness, the distinct architectures also have an impact on ZnS particle spheres' capacity to produce hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) gas in an acidic environment. Experiments on hemolysis and cytotoxicity demonstrated that ZnS particle spheres with varying concentrations and shapes exhibited no cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility. According to cellular uptake trials, ZnS particle spheres with a rougher surface structure and a bigger specific surface area are more likely to be absorbed by macrophages and release more H 2 S gas. This activity of releasing H 2 S gas by H+ action and MA phagocytosis by employing ZnS as a donor lays the groundwork for later particles to load medicines and carry out biological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 30 years of development, 3D printing technology (3DPT) is becoming increasingly popular in civil engineering field. However, weak interlayer performance and lack of reinforcement significantly limit its application. Nowadays, structural-functional integrated energy-efficient building materials, theoretically requiring a balance of mechanical properties and thermal resistance, are an emerging interdisciplinary research area in civil engineering field. This work proposed a novel digital cement-based manufacture technology by integrating 3D printing technology with casting technology. By incorporating tension-resistant polymeric truss network (PTN), a category of 3D face-centered cubic-inspired cement-based hybrid composites (FCHCs) is proposed. Results show the printed PTN can effectively improve the tension-resistant capacity of cement mortar. The FCHCs not only exhibit a multiple cracking damage characteristic but also a low thermal conductivity compared to traditional cement-based materials. A building energy simulation program was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of FCHCs on the energy savings. It is found that 34% heating energy could be saved for FCHCs building. Unlabelled Image • A novel technology combining 3D printing technology with casting technology • 3D face-centered-cubic cement-based hybrid composites • Integration of tension resistant polymeric truss network • Relatively high strength of composites compared to autoclaved aerated concrete • Relatively low thermal conductivity of composites compared to solid bulk concrete [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dengue virus infection mainly causes dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and/or dengue shock syndrome (DSS). However, ADE (antibody-dependent enhancement) is one of the main pathogenic factors, and its pathogenic mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Recently, with the development of high-throughput sequencing, an increased number of RNAs have been confirmed to play a vital regulatory role in the process of virus infection. However, there is a lack of research on dengue virus infection and ADE. In this study, we used RNA-Seq to detect differentially expressed RNAs (DE RNAs) profiles in mock-infected, DENV-3-infected, and ADE-infected THP-1 cells. Firstly, we found 69 circRNAs, 259 miRNAs, and 18 mRNAs were differentially expressed in THP-1 vs DENV-3. In THP-1 vs ADE, 94 circRNAs, 263 miRNAs, and 111 mRNAs were differentially expressed. In DENV-3 vs ADE, 68 circRNAs, 105 miRNAs, and 94 mRNAs were differentially expressed. Functional enrichment analysis of these DE RNAs mainly focused on immune system, viral infectious diseases, cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions, and NOD/RIG-I-like receptor signaling pathways. In DENV-3 vs ADE, notably, the expression of HBB was up-regulated, which was a Fcγ Receptor-mediated phagocytosis protein. Additionally, we predicted the encoding ability of DE circRNAs, and it was found that a small peptide was encoded by novel_circ_001562 and that its amino acid sequence was consistent with that of DDX60L, which is a class of interferon-stimulated genes. Finally, we constructed the ceRNA regulatory network pathway. Therefore, our study provides a new strategy for further investigation on DENV-host interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As classical therapy method of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not effective enough, HCC immunotherapy is a hot spot for research in recent years. Although in recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors are focused in cancer therapy, vaccines and adoptive cell therapy (ACT), as traditional immunotherapy methods for HCC are still promising. We found that δ-Catenin might be a new tumor-associated antigen for HCC, for it could be upregulated as a stress associated protein under hypoxia and irradiation treatment. δ-Catenin peptide vaccines could inhibit the growth of subcutaneous hepatocellular tumors in vivo. According to our work, δ-Catenin peptide vaccines could stimulate the activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and enhance the infiltration of CD8+ T cells into tumors. Moreover, δ-Catenin peptide vaccines could enhance the secretion of IFN-γ and the killing of tumor cells by T cells. Mechanistically, δ-Catenin peptide vaccines, presented by antigen-presenting cells to T cells, could enhance the activation of T cells via MAPK/ERK signaling and the transcriptional factors Eomes and T-bet. Our research results indicate new potential peptide vaccines, which can be applied in clinical HCC therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgroud: Variations in HPV LCR/E6/E7 have been shown to be associated with the viral persistence and cervical cancer development. So far, there are few reports about the polymorphisms of the HPV-58 LCR/E6/E7 sequences in Southwest China. This study aims to characterize the gene polymorphisms of the HPV-58 LCR/E6/E7 sequences in women of Southwest China, and assess the effects of variations on the immune recognition of viral E6 and E7 antigens. Methods: Twelve LCR/E6/E7 of the HPV-58 isolates were amplified and sequenced. A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA 7.0, followed by the secondary structure prediction of the related proteins using PSIPRED v3.3. The selection pressure acting on the HPV-58 E6 and E7 coding regions was estimated by Bayes empirical Bayes analysis of PAML 4.8. Meanwhile, the MHC class-I and II binding peptides were predicted by the ProPred-I server and ProPred server. The transcription factor binding sites in the HPV-58 LCR were analyzed using the JASPAR database. Results: Twenty nine SNPs (20 in the LCR, 3 in the E6, 6 in the E7) were identified at 27 nucleotide sites across the HPV-58 LCR/E6/E7. From the most variable to the least variable, the nucleotide variations were LCR > E7 > E6. The combinations of all the SNPs resulted in 11 unique sequences, which were clustered into the A lineage (7 belong to A1, 2 belong to A2, and 2 belong to A3). An insertion (TGTCAGTTTCCT) was found between the nucleotide sites 7280 and 7281 in 2 variants, and a deletion (TTTAT) was found between 7429 and 7433 in 1 variant. The most common non-synonymous substitution V77A in the E7 was observed in the sequences encoding the α-helix. 63G in the E7 was determined to be the only one positively selected site in the HPV-58 E6/E7 sequences. Six non-synonymous amino acid substitutions (including S71F and K93 N in the E6, and T20I, G41R, G63S/D, and V77A in the E7) were affecting multiple putative epitopes for both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. In the LCR, C7265G and C7266T were the most variable sites and were the potential binding sites for the transcription factor SOX10. Conclusion: These results provide an insight into the intrinsic geographical relatedness and biological differences of the HPV-58 variants, and contribute to further research on the HPV-58 epidemiology, carcinogenesis, and therapeutic vaccine development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protective coatings for bronze relics should adhere to the basic principles of cultural relic preservation, such as not altering the color and appearance of the artifacts, and being moderately combined with the artifacts to resist erosion due to external environments (such as water and gas). This paper presents the development of a physically crosslinked supramolecular hydrogel produced from guanidinium-based chitosan (GC). The hydrogel exhibits the excellent adsorption protection of bronze, and the addition of clay enhances the water barrier properties of the chitosan film. The supramolecular interaction between sodium polyacrylate/GC/clay confers corrosion buffering capability to the hydrogel coating in corrosive environments, and the gel coating can be self-healing at room temperature for 24 h. The fabricated nanocomposites were comprehensively characterized using various methods (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, etc.). The electrochemical properties of coated specimens were evaluated, and the impedance spectrum revealed a large impedance arc indicating high charge resistance, which has a corrosion resistance effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium phosphate cement has good biological activity and degradation performance. However, it still has the defects of poor strength and water resistance. N-acetyl- l -cysteine has good osteogenic properties. The nano-hydroxyapatite/magnesium phosphate cement was modified by N-acetyl- l -cysteine, and the effects of N-acetyl- l -cysteine on the strength, degradation and biological activity of nano-hydroxyapatite/magnesium phosphate cement were studied. The results showed that the compressive strength of 0.5 wt% N-acetyl- l -cysteine modified nano-hydroxyapatite/magnesium phosphate cement could reach 76.1 ± 1.4 MPa after soaking in simulated body fluid for 28 days, which was 6.3% higher than that of the control group (the content of N-acetyl- l -cysteine was 0 wt%), and the softening coefficient of each age was higher than that of the control group. Cell experiments proved that N-acetyl- l -cysteine could effectively promote cell proliferation and improve the expression of osteogenic related genes and proteins. After implanting the composite bone cement into rats' femurs for 12 weeks, the materials were gradually wrapped and absorbed, and the new bone tissue grew from outside to inside, indicating that N-acetyl- l -cysteine bone cement had an good ability to promote bone formation. Therefore, the composite bone cement of this study has potential application prospects in clinical bone repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore efficient non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), herein we developed a facile bottom-up approach for the fabrication of a hollow porous carbon sphere codoped with ultra-small Co nanoparticles and uniform nitrogen distribution (Co-HNCS) via one-step pyrolysis of a core-shell type precursor composing of polystyrene (PS) core and bimetallic ZIF (zeolite imidazolate framework) shell. The bimetallic Co-Zn-ZIFs (BMZIFs) was selected as the sacrifice template due to not only its high nitrogen content and regular porosity but also the superiority that Zn species in BMZIFs can both spatially separate Co species to suppress the aggregation of ultra-small Co NPs and be evaporated to afford extra pores during high-temperature pyrolysis. As expected, by adjusting the starting molar ratio of Zn to Co, we were able to prepare Co-HNCS- x ( x represent the molar ratio of Co to total starting metal feeding) that exhibited unique hollow structure with large surface areas, enhanced mass transport, high porosities, tunable particle sizes and graphitization degrees, abundant highly active CoN x sites, and thus significantly improved ORR performance. Particularly, the optimal Co-HNCS-0.2 exhibited the remarkable ORR activity (the onset and half-wave potentials were 0.94 and 0.82 V vs. RHE, respectively) via an efficient four-electron-dominant ORR process in alkaline medium, which outperformed that of commercial Pt/C (20 wt%, the onset and half-wave potentials were 0.93 and 0.80 V vs. RHE, respectively) and most of previously reported Co-based catalysts. Moreover, it also displayed much superior stability and tolerance to methanol as compared to Pt/C, further highlighting the merit of this facile synthesis approach. Our findings might inspire new thoughts on the development of precious-metal-free, highly-efficient and cost-effective ORR electrocatalysts derived from MOF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selective hydrogenation of phenol is an attractive routine to produce cyclohexanol that is an important basic chemical raw in chemical industry, but the design of cost-efficient and highly selective catalysts remains a great challenge. Herein, we report the first example of non-noble bimetallic nanocatalysts for the selective hydrogenation of phenol with cyclohexanol as the sole product. These catalysts consisting of bimetallic Ni-Co alloy nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in N-doped carbon matrix were simply synthesized by using our previously developed MOF-templated strategy (Long et al., 2016). The sum of characterization results revealed that the Co and Ni elements were successfully alloyed in every individual NPs that were confined by N-doped carbon layers. Detailed catalytic test results suggested that both the pyrolysis temperature and the composition of these alloy NPs played the key roles in guiding their catalytic performance in the selective hydrogenation of phenol. It has been shown that Co-Ni@NC system was much more effective for hydrogenation of phenol than Cu@NC, Co-Cu@NC and Ni-Cu@NC systems. The optimal 1Co-1Ni@NC could completely catalyze the hydrogenation of phenol to >99.9% cyclohexanol with a TOF of 0.21 h −1 , which was approximately 2.8- and 4.3-fold higher than that of the Co@NC and Ni@NC respectively, underscoring a strong positive synergistic effect between Ni and Co for this reaction. The mechanism study revealed the cyclohexanol was formed directly by the one-step hydrogenation of phenol in our catalyst system. This one-step pathway could avoid the formation of other hydrogenated intermediate product thereby leading to >99.9% selectivity of cyclohexanol. Furthermore, this catalyst also showed good recyclability, magnetically reusability and general applicability for a wide range of phenol substrates, which together with the superior activity and selectivity make it a good potential for the industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Succinic acid (SA) is an intermediate product of the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) and is one of the most significant platform chemicals for the production of various derivatives with high added value. Due to the depletion of fossil raw materials and the demand for eco-friendly energy sources, SA biosynthesis from renewable energy sources is gaining attention for its environmental friendliness. This review comprehensively analyzes strategies for the bioconversion of lignocellulose to SA based on the lignocellulose pretreatment processes and cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation principles and highlights the research progress on acid production and SA utilization under different microbial culture conditions. In addition, the fermentation efficiency of different microbial strains for the production of SA and the main challenges were analyzed. The future application directions of SA derivatives were pointed out. It is expected that this research will provide a reference for the optimization of SA production from lignocellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new surface treatment technology, laser shock peening (LSP) is a multi-point overlay process of single-point laser shock. In this study, the finite element method (FEM) was used to build a model of single-point laser shock, and the model was verified by experiments. The difference in residual stresses between the experimental and simulated results was less than 20%. Then, the effects of the stress field and deformation of 20CrMnTi with different laser shock parameters were simulated and analyzed. According to the mechanical response of 20CrMnTi to different laser shock parameters, the optimal shocking process parameters for single-point shocking via LSP were determined to be a shock energy of 5 J, a laser pulse width of 20 ns, and an impact number of 5. Lastly, a simulation of multi-point laser shock was performed with the optimal parameters, and the residual compressive stress values of multi-point impacts are close to those of single-point impacts under the same process conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical ultrasound imaging stands out from other modalities in providing real-time diagnostic capability at an affordable price while being physically portable. This article explores the suitability of using GPUs as the primary signal and image processors for future medical ultrasound imaging systems. A case study on synthetic aperture (SA) imaging illustrates the promise of using high-performance GPUs in such systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Accurate, timely, and continuous soil moisture information is helpful for crop stress diagnosis and irrigation management decision. OPtical TRApezoid Model (OPTRAM) based on optical satellite data has been proven to be an effective method for assessing soil moisture status. However, the applicability of OPTRAM to small-scale field soil moisture assessment remains to be explored. In this study, we propose a strategy for the genetically parameterized OPTRAM and evaluate its applicability on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) high-resolution hyspectral data. The results showed that: (1) When OPTRAM was used to genetically parameterized with PROSAIL generated dataset, 46 characteristic narrowband bands (|R|= 0.52–0.78) were determined in the spectral region of near infrared (NIR) (750–850 nm) and SWIR (1060–1080 and 1450–1500 nm); (2) By fine-tuned soil moisture estimation model using transfer learning strategy, the reliable soil moisture estimation was achieved in three crops (R2=0.57–0.64; RMSE=0.008–0.022 m3m−3);(3) Compared to soil moisture estimation model using a single spectral region (NIR or SWIR), the DSWC model that combine NIR and SWIR was more effective for tracking soil moisture; (4) The scale effect was observed when the fine-tuned soil moisture estimation model was applied on the high-resolution UAV images. The model performance was stable in pixel size of 1–7 cm and began to drop at pixel size of 11 cm. The above results advance the application of OPTRAM on small farmland soil moisture assessment and demonstrate the application potential of OPTRAM on narrow-band hyperspectral data. This study provides a new candidate for the use of hyperspectral data to estimate soil moisture, and scientific support for precision agriculture and irrigation scheduling. • OPtical TRApezoid Model was genetically parameterized by PROSAIL. • Estimation model effectively integrates deep network with OPtical TRApezoid Model. • Transfer learning presents opportunity for cross-species soil moisture estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular stent service involves complex service environments and performance requirements, among which the histocompatibility of the stent could seriously affect the therapeutic effect. In the pathology of vascular disease, the thin fiber cap is easily ruptured, exposing the necrotic core below, and triggering a series of dangerous biochemical reactions. In contrast, the thin neointima, considered an essential structure growing on the stent, may evolve into vulnerable plaque structures due to lesions induced by the stent. Therefore, the reduction of necrosis around the stent below the thin neointima is indispensable. In this work, different cell model experiments suggested that the content of endogenous labile Zn positively correlated with cell injury. Zinquin-Zn fluorescence experiments and zinc ion channels research suggested that the change in the content of endogenous labile Zn in smooth muscle cells is affected by different stent coatings. The content of endogenous labile Zn in cells negatively correlated with cell viability. Animal experiments indirectly verified the increase in endogenous labile Zn by detecting the expression of Zn regulatory protein (metallothionein) in the necrotic tissues. Reducing the content of endogenous labile Zn may favor a reduction in smooth muscle cell injury and necrosis. This biochemical mechanism is effective in improving the therapeutic effect of vascular stents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One key reason for T cell exhaustion is continuous antigen exposure. Early exhausted T cells can reverse exhaustion and differentiate into fully functional memory T cells if removed from persisting antigen stimulation. Therefore, this study viewed T cell exhaustion as an over-activation status induced by chronic antigen stimuli. This study hypothesized that blocking TCR signal intermittently to terminate over-activation signal can defer the developmental process of T cell exhaustion. In this study, melanoma-bearing mice were treated with tacrolimus (FK506) every 5 days. The tumor size and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were analyzed. We found that intermittent administration of tacrolimus significantly inhibited tumor growth, and this effect was mediated by CD8+T cells. Intermittent tacrolimus treatment facilitated the infiltration of CD8+TILs. RNA-seq and quantitative RT-PCR of sorted CD8+TILs showed the expression of Nr4a1 (an exhaustion-related transcription factor) and Ctla4 (a T cell inhibitory receptor) was remarkably downregulated. These results indicated that intermittently blocking TCR signal by tacrolimus can promote anti-tumor immunity and inhibit the tumor growth in melanoma-bearing mice, inhibiting the transcription of several exhaustion-related genes, such as Nr4a1 and Ctla4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that are critical regulators of various diseases. MicroRNA-20a (miR-20a) has previously significantly altered in a range of cancers. In this study, we detected the relationship between miR-20a and the development of cervical cancer by qRT-PCR, we found that the expression level of miR-20a was significantly higher in cervical cancer patients than in normal controls, the aberrant expression of miR-20a was correlated with lymph node metastasis, histological grade and tumor diameter. Then we successfully established the stable anti-miR-20a cervical cancer cell lines by lentivirus. Inhibited miR-20a prevented tumor progression by modulating cell cycle, apoptosis, and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. TIMP2 and ATG7 were proved to be direct targets of miR-20a, using luciferase assay and western blot. These results indicate that miR-20a suppresses the proliferation, migration and invasion of cervical cancer cell through targeting ATG7 and TIMP2. Our results support the involvement of miR-20a in cervical tumorigenesis, especially lymph node metastasis. We propose that miRNAs might be used as therapeutic agent for cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of vascular wall, is a progressive pathophysiological process with lipids oxidation/depositing initiation and innate/adaptive immune responses. The coordination of multi systems covering oxidative stress, dysfunctional endothelium, diseased lipid uptake, cell apoptosis, thrombotic and pro-inflammatory responding as well as switched SMCs contributes to plaque growth. In this circumstance, inevitably, targeting these processes is considered to be effective for treating atherosclerosis. Arriving, retention and working of payload candidates mediated by targets in lesion direct ultimate therapeutic outcomes. Accumulating a series of scientific studies and clinical practice in the past decades, lesion homing delivery strategies including stent/balloon/nanoparticle-based transportation worked as the potent promotor to ensure a therapeutic effect. The objective of this review is to achieve a very brief summary about the effective therapeutic methods cooperating specifical targets and positioning-delivery strategies in atherosclerosis for better outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the effects of recombinant serine protease treatment on the development of post-harvest loquat diseases, fruit quality, and disease resistance enzyme activities. It also sought to analyze differential genes expression using RNA-seq technology. Transcriptomics analysis revealed 708 and 398 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in loquat fruits treated with serine protease for 24 and 48 h. Furthermore, 2198 DEGs were obtained between 24 and 48 h after treatment. The genes encoding JAZ, MYC2 and ERF in the plant signal transduction pathway were significantly up-regulated. The resistance-related genes, such as PPO, PAL, TLP, WRKY, and transcription factors were also significantly up-regulated. These results indicated that the recombinant serine protease can induce plant signal transduction pathway in loquat fruit. The expression of some resistance-related genes enhanced the disease resistance of loquat fruit and revealed the molecular mechanism of loquat fruit resistance induced by recombinant serine protease. • Recombinant serine protease prolonged the shelf life of loquat fruit. • Recombinant serine protease increased the resistance enzyme activity. • Recombinant serine protease improved the loquat disease resistance though plant hormone signal transduction pathway. • DEGs related to resistance enzyme were up-regulated after recombinant serine protease treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An unexpected dengue outbreak occurred in Hunan Province in 2018. This was the first dengue outbreak in this area of inland China, and 172 cases were reported.Methods: To verify the causative agent of this outbreak and characterise the viral genes, the genes encoding the structural proteins C/prM/E of viruses isolated from local residents were sequenced followed by mutation and phylogenetic analysis. Recombination, selection pressure, potential secondary structure and three-dimensional structure analyses were also performed.Results: Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all epidemic strains were of the cosmopolitan DENV-2 genotype and were most closely related to the Zhejiang strain (MH010629, 2017) and then the Malaysia strain (KJ806803, 2013). Compared with the sequence of DENV-2SS, 151 base substitutions were found in the sequences of 89 isolates; these substitutions resulted in 20 non-synonymous mutations, of which 17 mutations existed in all samples (two in the capsid protein, six in the prM/M proteins, and nine in the envelope proteins). Moreover, amino acid substitutions at the 602nd (E322:Q → H) and 670th (E390: N → S) amino acids may have enhanced the virulence of the epidemic strains. One new DNA binding site and five new protein binding sites were observed. Two polynucleotide binding sites and seven protein binding sites were lost in the epidemic strains compared with DENV-2SS. Meanwhile, five changes were found in helical regions. Minor changes were observed in helical transmembrane and disordered regions. The 429th amino acid of the E protein switched from a histamine (positively charged) to an asparagine (neutral) in all 89 isolated strains. No recombination events or positive selection pressure sites were observed. To our knowledge, this study is the first to analyse the genetic characteristics of epidemic strains in the first dengue outbreak in Hunan Province in inland China.Conclusions: The causative agent is likely to come from Zhejiang Province, a neighbouring province where dengue fever broke out in 2017. This study may help clarify the intrinsic geographical relatedness of DENV-2 and contribute to further research on pathogenicity and vaccine development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infiltration irrigation with saline water is a more effective method than drip irrigation to alleviate water scarcity worldwide, but so far, no report has discussed the clogging rules of ceramic emitters, a major component of infiltration irrigation system. To explore the clogging mechanism of ceramic emitter in saline water infiltration irrigation system, we used four kinds of saline water sources with electrical conductivity (EC) of 0.18, 1.74, 3.78, and 7.74 ds/m, respectively. In addition, we specifically investigated the law of discharge ratio variation (Dra) of ceramic emitters, as well as the composition and growth process of clogging substance. The results indicated that the Dra of ceramic emitters decreased in the process of saline water irrigation, and the higher the EC, the more obvious the decrease. The calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was the main component of the clogging substance in the inner wall of ceramic emitters. The clogging part was a layer on the inner wall of the emitters rather than the pores in the walls, and the clogging did not occur suddenly. Instead, it was caused by the long–term accumulation of the clogging substance. Moreover, with the increase of EC, the flocculation between the clogging particles in the water was enhanced and thus promoted the formation of stable and compact aggregates, which fundamentally led to the clogging acceleration of ceramic emitters. This clogging mechanism of ceramic emitters can provide some theoretical reference for the establishment of anti-clogging strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A large-scale dengue fever outbreak occurred in the China, Myanmar, and Laos border area in 2019. • Three dengue virus (DENV) serotypes were found to be co-circulating, which is very rare in this area. • DENV-1 and DENV-2 were the main pathogenic agents of this outbreak. • The co-circulation may have led to more serious clinical symptoms and a larger scale epidemic. Dengue fever was included in the top 10 global health threats announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in early 2019. In some southern provinces of China, autochthonous outbreaks have also been reported over the last decade. An unexpected large outbreak of dengue fever was reported in Xishuangbanna, a border area of China, Myanmar, and Laos, in 2019. Among the 226 hospitalized cases, 90 were diagnosed as severe dengue according to the 2009 WHO guidelines. Serotyping and phylogenetic analyses of envelope gene sequences from 246 randomly selected samples showed that three serotypes of dengue virus were co-circulating in this outbreak, which is very rare in this area. Dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1, genotype I) and serotype 2 (DENV-2, Cosmopolitan genotype and Asian genotype) were the main pathogenic agents of this outbreak. Dengue virus serotype 3 (DENV-3) epidemic strains were classified as genotype III and formed a close cluster with the Thailand 2015 epidemic strain. The co-circulation may have led to more serious clinical symptoms and a larger scale epidemic. This finding is of great importance in understanding the circulation of DENV and to strengthen the detection and management of dengue fever in border areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation water management and real-time monitoring of crop water stress status can enhance agricultural water use efficiency, crop yield, and crop quality. The aim of this study was to simplify the calculation of the crop water stress index (CWSI) and improve its diagnostic accuracy. Simplified CWSI (CWSIsi) was used to diagnose water stress for cotton that has received four different irrigation treatments (no stress, mild stress, moderate stress, and severe stress) at the flowering and boll stage. High resolution thermal infrared and multispectral images were taken using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle remote sensing platform at midday (local time 13:00), and stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (tr), and cotton root zone soil volumetric water content (θ) were concurrently measured. The soil background pixels of thermal images were eliminated using the Canny edge detection to obtain a unimodal histogram of pure canopy temperatures. Then the wet reference temperature (Twet), dry reference temperature (Tdry), and mean canopy temperature (Tl) were obtained from the canopy temperature histogram to calculate CWSIsi. The other two methods of CWSI evaluation were empirical CWSI (CWSIe), in which the temperature parameters were determined by measuring natural reference cotton leaves, and statistical CWSI (CWSIs), in which Twet was the mean of the lowest 5% of canopy temperatures and Tdry was the air temperature (Tair) + 5 °C. Compared with CWSIe, CWSIs and spectral indices (NDVI, TCARI, OSAVI, TCARI/OSAVI), CWSIsi has higher correlation with gs (R2 = 0.660) and tr (R2 = 0.592). The correlation coefficient (R) for θ (0–45 cm) and CWSIsi is also high (0.812). The plotted high-resolution map of CWSIsi shows the different distribution of cotton water stress in different irrigation treatments. These findings demonstrate that CWSIsi, which only requires parameters from a canopy temperature histogram, may potentially be applied to precision irrigation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The first DENV-1 outbreak occurred in Xishuangbanna, a border area of China, Burma and Laos in 2017. • Dengue isolated strains show diversification between Burma and China. • Dengue fever has become a disease circulating in the interior of China. • Amino acid substitution (I440T) may lead to weakened virulence of the epidemic strains. • The diversity of global DENV-1 highly increased in 1972 and then slightly decreased after that until 2017. Abstract Background Xishuangbanna, a border area of China, Burma and Laos, had its first major DENV-1 outbreak in 2017. This study aims to explore the genetic characterization, potential source and evolution of the viruses in outbreak. Methods The structural protein C/prM/E genes of viruses isolated from local residents or Burmese travelers were sequenced followed by mutation, phylogenetic, homologous recombination, molecular clock and demographic reconstruction analysis. Results Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all of the strains were classified as three cluster of DENV-1. Cluster 1, 2 and 3 were most similar to China Guangzhou 2011, China Hubei 2014 and Laos 2008 strain, respectively. Among 236 base mutations, 31 caused nonsynonymous mutations when compared with the DENV-1SS. No homologous recombination signal was discovered. The structural protein of these strains had similar three-dimensional structure. Only site 434 showed differences among five predicted protein binding sites. Molecular clock phylogenetic and demographic reconstruction analysis showed that DENV-1 became highly diversified in 1972 followed by a slightly decreased period until 2017. Conclusions Dengue isolated strains show diversification between Burma and China. Amino acid substitution (I440T) may lead to weakened virulence of the epidemic strains. DENV-1 became highly diversified in 1972 followed by a slightly decreased period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract The adhering and spreading of endothelia cells (ECs) and macrophages (MAs) to SEMA4D/Heparin modified surface. Highlights • Monitoring the EC/MA interactions with biomaterials under dynamic circumstances. • Surfaces with high heparin promoted EC adhesion and spreading. • Surfaces with high SEMA4D enhanced both MA adhesion and spreading. • Specific igand-receptor interactions promote adhesion and spreading for either EC or MA. Abstract In vitro evaluation techniques that address cellular interactions under dynamic circumstances are required for the development of advanced biomaterials. In this study, quartz crystal microbalance and dissipation (QCM-D) provided a surface sensitive technique that enabled real-time monitoring of the adhesion and spreading response of endothelial cells (ECs) and macrophages (MAs) to soluble-semaphoring 4D (SEMA4D)/heparin modified substratum. The high heparin and low SEMA4D of substratum promoted ECs adhering and spreading. However, surfaces with high SEMA4D and low heparin enhanced MA adhering and spreading. Furthermore, DF plots of QCM-D indicated that the adhering and spreading of MAs were mainly mediated via the ligand-receptor interaction of SEMA4D-CD72, while both adhering and spreading of ECs were mainly mediated via heparin-induced integrin binding. This study suggests that QCM-D combined with other appropriate methods can be utilized to explore the mechanisms for cellular interaction with biomaterial surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steady-state diagnostic and prognostic simulation for the Xiao Dongkemadi glacier (XD) of the Tibetan Plateau was performed with the thermo-mechanically-coupled-with-Full-Stokes code Elmer (http://www.csc.fi/elmer/). In this paper, some changes of glacial thermodynamic parameters caused by ice thickness and atmospheric temperature variation were simulated in view of different thickness. The purpose of this study was to fill the gap in analyzing the ice dynamic characteristic of a polar continental glacier. The diagnostic simulation revealed the following conclusions: (1) when the thickness change was small, surface velocity, ice temperature, and deviation stress variation in the bedrock showed a tendency to change with thickness, and when the terrain was gentle, the thickness variation dominated the ice velocity. (2) The ice temperature of the bedrock was high in the whole profile and reached the pressure melting point in the terminus, and it was easy to slide at the bottom, which was consistent with the measured ground penetrating radar data near the terminus. (3) The static friction forces decrease with thickness, and they showed a complex nonlinear relationship, which revealed that the deviation stress in the bottom was influenced by thickness and ice temperature at the bedrock. The prognostic simulating from 2007 to 2047 presented: (1) The simulation forecasted a shrinkage of nearly 600 m in the terminus and the longitudinal section, and wound up diminished by nearly 25% by the end of 2047; (2) the change of thickness was small at the region between 5650 and 5700 m.a.s.l, which might be related to lower atmospheric temperature; (3) thickness dominated the deviation stress (σxx and σxz) in the bottom, and the impact of the terrain was little higher compared to deviation stress (σxx). In other words, the glacial thickness dominated the glacial force and movement to a great extent and the low temperature at high altitude reduced the XD’s sensitivity facing future climate warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of the Chinese herbal medicine Yin Zhi Huang soup (YZS) in an experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP) rat model. In total, 48 rats were randomly divided into the following four groups (n=12/group): saline group, pathological model group, Qianlietai group, and YZS group. We determined the average wet weight of the prostate tissue, the ratio of the wet weight of the prostate tissue to body weight, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels in the blood serum, the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the rats’ prostate tissues, and the pathological changes in the prostate tissue using light microscopy. YZS reduced the rats’ prostate wet weight, the ratio of the prostate wet weight to body weight, and TNF-α levels in the blood serum and inhibited the expression of iNOS in the rats’ prostate tissues (P<0.05). Following YZS treatment, the pathological changes in the rats’ prostates were improved compared with those in the model group (P<0.05). Furthermore, YZS treatment reduced inflammatory changes in the prostate tissue. It also significantly suppressed proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, and chemokines, such as iNOS, in the rat model of EAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • First preparation of Bi 2 S 3 quantum dots (QDs) decorated-MIL-53 (Fe) composites (BM) by an easy chemical synthesis strategy. • The BM/persulfate/Visible light system was designed to effectively degrade ciprofloxacin in water. • The BM can facilitate the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. • Electron transfer between QDs and MIL-53(Fe) contributes to the formation of oxygen vacancies. • Bi 2 S 3 QDs decorated with MIL-53 (Fe) for excellent repeatability and stability. In recent years, concurrent photocatalysis-persulfate activation (CPPA) has emerged as a potential method for antibiotic removal. A highly active and stable catalyst is the prerequisites for the development of CPPA technology. Herein, Bi 2 S 3 quantum dots (QDs) decorated MIL-53 (Fe) hybrids were synthesized for the first time by a simple chemical synthesis strategy and used for antibiotic degradation in the CPPA system. The energy band structure and optical properties show that BM has a narrower forbidden bandwidth, higher carrier separation, and transport efficiency compared to the original MIL-53(Fe). It also promotes the O 2 transfer and makes the BM rich in oxygen vacancy (Ov), which becomes a bridge to connect photocatalysis and SR-AOPs. The BM-5/PS/vis system degraded over 97.4 % of the ciprofloxacin in 15 min and remained effective in the presence of common interfering substances or over a wide pH range. The quenching and trapping experiments indicate the dominance of superoxide radicals and singlet oxygen in the degradation process. The simultaneous activity of free radical and non-free routes could be responsible for the improved antibiotic degradation efficiency. This work provides a facile strategy in surface modification to improve the physicochemical properties of MIL-53(Fe) and demonstrates the catalytic role of BM in the CPPA system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human enteroviruses (EVs) are the major causative agents of aseptic meningitis. In this study, a total of 524 children were admitted to the children Kunming hospital (continental China) for aseptic meningitis manifestations in 2009 and 2010. An EV infection was diagnosed in 85/524 children (16.2 %) and the viruses detected were assigned to 16 serotypes. Most serotypes belonged to the enterovirus B species. Echovirus 9 was predominant (24.7 %), followed by coxsackievirus B5 (23.5 %) and then echovirus 30 (16.5 %). Echovirus 9 was firstly identified as the predominant serotype in sporadic aseptic meningitis which occurred in Yunnan, Southwest China. This work indicates the need to perform large-scale surveillance to gain a better insight into the epidemiology of enteroviruses associated with aseptic meningitis in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cigarette smoking is reported to decrease survival and induce chemotherapy resistance in patients with various cancers. However, the impact of cigarette smoking on patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unknown. Methods: A total of 1,084 ESCC patients were retrospectively enrolled from a southern Chinese institution. Patients were divided into two groups according to their treatment modalities: the SC group (surgery with chemotherapy) (n = 306) and the S group (surgery without chemotherapy) (n = 778). Smoking status was quantified as smoking history (non-smoker, ex-smoker, and current smoker) and cumulative smoking (0, between 0 and 20, and greater than 20 pack-years). The association between cigarette smoking and overall survival (OS) was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and univariate/multivariate regression analysis. Results: Among 1,084 patients, 702 (64.8%) reported a cigarette smoking history, and the 5-year OS for non-smokers and smokers was 45.8% and 37.3%, respectively. In the SC group, compared with non-smoker, the adjusted HRs of ex-smoker and current smoker were 1.540 (95% CI, 1.1–2.2) and 2.110 (95% CI, 1.4–3.1), respectively; there is a correlative trend of decreased OS with increased cigarette smoking (Ptrend = 0.001). These associations were insignificant in the S group. In subgroup analysis of the SC group, the lower OS conferred by smoking was not significantly modified by age, gender, body mass index, alcohol drinking, or chemotherapy method (chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy). Conclusion: Our results suggest that smoking may affect treatment outcome in patients with resected ESCC who received chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) capture stent has drawn increasing attentions and become one of the most promising concepts for the next generation vascular stent. In this regard, it is of great significance to immobilize a molecule with the ability to bind EPC for rapid in vivo endothelialization with high specificity. In this work, a facile two-step method aimed at constructing a coating with specific EPC capturing aptamers is reported. The processes involves as the first-step deposition of plasma polymerized allylamine (PPAam) on a substrate to introduce amine groups, followed by the electrostatic adsorption of a 34 bases single strand DNA sequence to the PPAam surface as a second step (PPAam-DNA). Grazing incidence attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (GATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the successful immobilization of the aptamers. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) real time monitoring result shows that about 175 ng/cm 2 aptamers were conjugated onto the PPAam surface. The interactions between the modified surfaces and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (ECs), smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and murine induced EPCs derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were also investigated. It was demonstrated that PPAam-DNA samples could capture more EPCs, and present a cellular friendly surface for the proliferation of both EPCs and ECs but no effect on the hyperplasia of SMCs. Also, the co-culture results of 3 types of cells confirmed that the aptamer could specifically bond EPCs rather than ECs and SMCs, suggesting the competitive adhesion advantage of EPCs to ECs and SMCs. These data demonstrate that the EPC aptamer has large potential for designing an EPC captured stent and other vascular grafts with targeted in situ endothelialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]