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Abstract The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a crucial role in inflammatory responses, particularly in alcohol-related liver disease (ALD). Given that NLRP3 has emerged as a potential therapeutic target for ALD, the development of effective inhibitors is of great importance. In this study, we trained 11 regression models, and the results showed that LightGBM, Random Forest, and XGBoost performed the best, achieving R² values of 0.774, 0.755, and 0.719, respectively. Using machine learning models and physical methods, we screened more than 11.5 million compounds from Asinex, Princeton, UkrOrgSynthesis, Chemdiv, Chembridge, Alinda, Enamine, and Lifechemicals, which led to the identification of 26 potential NLRP3 inhibitors. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations and MMGBSA binding energy calculations confirmed the stability of the interactions between NLRP3 and three key molecules: 19,655,631 (source Chembridge), 38,214,692 (source Chembridge), and Z1180203703 (source Enamine). Additionally, ADMET analysis revealed their favorable pharmacokinetic properties. This study provides insights and candidate molecules for discovering NLRP3 inhibitors, potentially applicable in treating related diseases.

Abstract The large superfamily of labdane-related diterpenoids is defined by the cyclization of linear geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP), catalyzed by copalyl diphosphate synthases (CPSs) to form the basic decalin core, the copalyl diphosphates (CPPs). Three stereochemically distinct CPPs have been found in plants, namely (+)-CPP, ent-CPP and syn-CPP. Here, we used X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM methods to describe different oligomeric structures of a syn-copalyl diphosphate synthase from Oryza sativa (OsCyc1), and provided a cryo-EM structure of OsCyc1D367A mutant in complex with the substrate GGPP. Further analysis showed that tetramers are the dominant form of OsCyc1 in solution and are not necessary for enzyme activity in vitro. Through rational design, we identified an OsCyc1 mutant that can generate ent-CPP in addition to syn-CPP. Our work provides a structural and mechanistic basis for comparing different CPSs and paves the way for further enzyme design to obtain diterpene derivatives with specific chirality.

The Daguangbao (DGB) landslide was the largest landslide that was triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with a magnitude of Ms8.0. The sliding surface of this landslide was constrained on a bedding fault 400 m below the ground surface. Seismic records show that the landslide suffered not only from strong horizontal but also vertical ground shaking that was almost equal to the horizontal component. In this study, to reveal the landslide triggering mechanism of the DGB landslide, this study ignores the steep dipping tension fracture section and the leading edge-locking section of the trailing edge of the DGB landslide, and the geological model of the large optical package landslide is generalized into a block model with the bottom controlled slip soft zone as the interface. Based on the improved Newmark method that considers vertical ground motion, the three-way seismic acceleration data and the shear strength parameter of the sliding surface being taken as a variable are used to calculate the cumulative permanent displacement of the slider. Then, by considering the cumulative permanent displacement ratio of vertical seismic acceleration or not and the cumulative permanent displacement ratio value considering the inertial force as the index, the response characteristics of the cumulative permanent displacement of the block-to-vertical ground motion and inertial forces were analyzed. The results show that both the horizontal inertial force and the vertical acceleration significantly increased the permanent displacement. The permanent displacement is 4.9 cm when considering the vertical acceleration, whereas it is only 2.0 cm without taking this into account. The contribution of vertical acceleration is significantly enlarged (87.8–90.7%) by the decreasing of the internal friction angle of the slide surface, while it is less influenced (5–27.4%) by the cohesion. Compared with the lower shear strength parameter of the sliding surface, the contributions of vertical acceleration and inertial force to the permanent displacement are more obvious when the shear strength parameter of the sliding surface is higher. When ϕ > 18°, the D/D* is greater than 1, and the maximum D/D* reaches 7. The fast accumulation event of permanent displacement is triggered in the concentration stage of the seismic energy release. In the DGB landslide area, 50% of the energy is released within 30–50 s, as indicated by the acceleration peaks recorded at the nearest seismic station, Qingping station. It is assumed that the DGB landslide may be triggered at 30–50 s due to half of the seismic energy being released during that time span.

Bones serve mechanical and defensive functions, as well as regulating the balance of calcium ions and housing bone marrow.. The qualities of bones do not remain constant. Instead, they fluctuate throughout life, with functions increasing in some situations while deteriorating in others. The synchronization of osteoblast-mediated bone formation and osteoclast-mediated bone resorption is critical for maintaining bone mass and microstructure integrity in a steady state. This equilibrium, however, can be disrupted by a variety of bone pathologies. Excessive osteoclast differentiation can result in osteoporosis, Paget’s disease, osteolytic bone metastases, and rheumatoid arthritis, all of which can adversely affect people’s health. Osteoclast differentiation is regulated by transcription factors NFATc1, MITF, C/EBPα, PU.1, NF-κB, and c-Fos. The transcriptional activity of osteoclasts is largely influenced by developmental and environmental signals with the involvement of co-factors, RNAs, epigenetics, systemic factors, and the microenvironment. In this paper, we review these themes in regard to transcriptional regulation in osteoclastogenesis.

Nanozymes and cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) signaling pathway, as powerful organons, can remodel the tumor microenvironment (TME) to increase efficacy and overcome drug resistance in cancer immunotherapy. Nanozymes have the potential to manipulate the TME by producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), which lead to positive oxidative stress in tumor cells. Cyclic dinucleotide (2′,3′-cGAMP), as a second messenger, exists in the TME and can regulate it to achieve antitumor activity. In this work, Co,N-doped carbon dots (CoNCDs) were used as a model nanozyme to evaluate the properties of the anti-tumor mechanism, and effective inhibition of S180 tumor was achieved. Based on CoNCDs’ good biocompatibility and therapeutic effect on the tumor, we then introduced the cGAS–STING agonist, and the combination of the CoNCDs and STING agonist significantly inhibited tumor growth, and no significant systemic toxicity was observed. The combined system achieved the enhanced tumor synergistic immunotherapy through TME reprogramming via the peroxidase-like activity of the CoNCDs and cGAS–STING signaling pathway agonist synergistically. Our work provides not only a new effective way to reprogram TME in vivo, but also a promising synergic antitumor therapy strategy.

Previous studies have shown that downregulation of ubiquitin-specific protease 1 (USP1) can inhibit cell proliferation and promote apoptosis, indicating that targeting USP1 with drugs is a potential treatment for cancer, especially breast and ovarian cancer. In this study, we performed virtual screening on a database containing about 1.37 million molecules using the pharmacophore model, multiple precision molecular docking algorithms, molecular mechanics/generalized born surface area (MM/GBSA), strain energy, and ADMET screening methods. We found that Z28551960, Z423064076, Z1037335610, and Z1129923146 compounds showed excellent performance in terms of binding energy with USP1, ADMET property evaluation, and binding dynamics with USP1, had high potential as USP1 inhibitors, and were identified as hits in virtual screening. In addition, we demonstrated for the first time through molecular dynamics simulations that those molecules can enhance the structural flexibility of the USP1 protein and reduce its structural compactness, providing a basis for protein conformational changes. In summary, our discovery of potential USP1 inhibitors with novel scaffolds provides a theoretical basis for further development of USP1 inhibitors.

Rare earth elements (REEs) have been widely applied in modern industry and material science due to their special chemical properties and luminescence properties, but their environment pollution problem has also attracted attention. How to trace and control impact of REEs on environment and develop highly sensitive methods for REEs analysis have practical significance. Microwave plasma torch (MPT) is a kind of simple, low power consumption (∼200 W) and easily operated plasma generators. When it was coupled with varied mass spectrometers as ion source of mass spectrometry (MS), i.e. MPT-MS can use for the analysis of metal elements in aqueous with the remarkable advantage of only minimal or even no simple pretreatment, and can meet comprehensive requirements of environmental control and water quality monitoring. MPT-MS have also an ability to carry out online real-time monitoring and analysis of water environment. Compared with the traditional ICP-MS, it can obtain more effective information and has higher sensitivity (the detection limit is at sub-ppb level). This paper reviews common methods and research progress of REEs analysis in recent years. Practical applications and advantages of MPT in the analysis of REEs are briefly summarized. Specifically, this paper introduces some work recently done in our group on analysis of REEs by the MPT, including analysis of metal elements distribution in water samples in local Poyang Lake, and general rules of formation and behavior of complex metal ions in the MPT plasma are also proposed afterwards. Through the practically dealing with the Poyang Lake case by the MPT, hopefully this would interest more academia into this area so as to speed up development of the MPT itself.

Metal-coordination-directed macrocyclic complexes, in which macrocyclic architectures are formed by metal-ligand coordination interactions, have emerged as attractive supramolecular scaffolds for the creation of materials for applications in biosensing and therapeutics. Despite recent progress, uncontrolled multicyclic cages and linear oligomers/polymers is the most likely outcome from metal-ligands assembly, representing a challenge to current synthetic methods. Herein we outlined the state-of-art synthetic approaches to the metal-coordination-directed macrocyclic complexes by using foldable ligands or through assembly of amphiphilic ligands. This mini-review offers a guideline for the efficient preparation of metal-coordination-directed macrocyclic complexes with predictable and controllable structures, which may find applications in many biology-related areas.

Herein, a series of novel long afterglow nanophosphors BaYAl3O7:Eu2+, Nd3+ was synthesized by the combustion method. The investigation encompassed the characterization of X-ray diffraction, morphology, chemical valence, elemental composition, and photoluminescence behavior of BaYAl3O7:Eu2+ and BaYAl3O7:Eu2+, Nd3+ nanoparticles. Under 365 nm excitation, BaYAl3O7:Eu2+ and BaYAl3O7:Eu2+, Nd3+ show emission bands centered at 497 nm and 492 nm, which are attributed to the 4f65d→4f7 transition of Eu2+ ions. The optimal samples of BaYAl3O7:0.03Eu2+ and BaYAl3O7:0.03Eu2+, 0.02Nd3+ have average fluorescence lifetimes of 850 ns and 1149 ns, respectively. The co-doping of Nd3+ ions as the trap centers produced long afterglow luminescence properties, and the afterglow time could reach up to 8 min. Furthermore, the fluorescent powder can be mixed with polyacrylic acid to prepare anti-counterfeiting inks; a clover pattern and snowflake pattern have been successfully printed using screen printing technology, proving its potential application in the field of anti-counterfeiting.

Deep learning has been widely used in various tasks such as computer vision, natural language processing, predictive analysis, and recommendation systems in the past decade. However, practical scenarios often lack labeled data, posing challenges for traditional supervised methods. Semi-supervised classification methods address this by leveraging both labeled and unlabeled data to enhance model performance, but they face challenges in effectively utilizing unlabeled data and distinguishing reliable information from unreliable sources. This paper introduced ReliaMatch, a semi-supervised classification method that addresses these challenges by using a confidence threshold. It incorporates a curriculum learning stage, feature filtering, and pseudo-label filtering to improve classification accuracy and reliability. The feature filtering module eliminates ambiguous semantic features by comparing labeled and unlabeled data in the feature space. The pseudo-label filtering module removes unreliable pseudo-labels with low confidence, enhancing algorithm reliability. ReliaMatch employs a curriculum learning training mode, gradually increasing training dataset difficulty by combining selected samples and pseudo-labels with labeled data. This supervised approach enhances classification performance. Experimental results show that ReliaMatch effectively overcomes challenges associated with the underutilization of unlabeled data and the introduction of error information, outperforming the pseudo-label strategy in semi-supervised classification.

A series of long-afterglow luminescent materials (SrAl2O4: Eu2+ (SAOE), SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ (SAOED) and SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+, Gd3+ (SAOEDG)) was synthesized via the combustion method. Temperature and concentration control experiments were conducted on these materials to determine the optimal reaction temperature and ion doping concentration for each sample. The crystal structure and luminescent properties were analyzed via X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and afterglow attenuation curves. The outcomes demonstrate that the kind of crystal structure and the location of the emission peak were unaffected by the addition of ions. The addition of Eu2+ to the matrix’s lattice caused a broad green emission with a central wavelength of 508 nm, which was attributed to the characteristic 4f65d1 to 4f7 electronic dipole, which allowed the transition of Eu2+ ions. While acting as sensitizers, Dy3+ and Gd3+ could produce holes to create a trap energy level, which served as an electron trap center to catch some of the electrons produced by the excitation of Eu2+ but did not itself emit light. After excitation ceased, this allowed them to gently transition to the ground state to produce long-afterglow luminescence. It was observed that with the addition of sensitizer ions, the luminous intensity of the sample increased, and the afterglow duration lengthened. The elemental structure and valence states of the doped ions were determined with an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to characterize the samples. The results show that the sample was synthesized successfully, and the type and content of ions in the fluorescent powder could be determined. The fluorescence lifetime, quantum yield, bandgap value, afterglow decay time, and coordinate position in the coherent infrared energy (CIE) diagram of the three best sample groups were then analyzed and compared. Combining the prepared phosphor with ink provides a new idea and method for the field of anti-counterfeiting through screen printing.

This study investigates the utilization of complex operations to perform multichannel speech enhancement in the time domain using a neural network. Previous studies have demonstrated the advantages of incorporating complex operations when designing neural networks; however, they have solely focused on frequency-domain enhancement techniques. In contrast, our research study presents an end-to-end approach to perform speech enhancement in the time domain. We used the Hilbert transform to intelligently generate complex time-domain waveforms as inputs to the network. This allowed us to create an end-to-end approach that explores spatial information. To handle the complexity of the inputs, we developed a complex neural adaptive beamformer (CNAB). We utilized complex shared long short-term memory (LSTM), split-LSTM, and complex convolutions to generate the beamforming output. Following this, we developed a complex full convolutional network (CFCN) to enhance the beamforming output. We leveraged complex dilated convolutions to model the long-term temporal dependencies of speech. By cascading the CNAB and CFCN, we created the final end-to-end time-domain enhancement network, named CNABCFCN. We trained and tested CNABCFCN using the deep noise suppression (DNS) challenge dataset. Our results demonstrate the advantages of using complex operations over the baseline model. Furthermore, the proposed CNABCFCN performed better in terms of both objective and subjective measures compared with other networks.

The Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of the transcription 3 (JAK/STAT3) signaling pathway controls multiple biological processes, including cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. Abnormally activated STAT3 signaling promotes tumor cell growth, proliferation, and survival, as well as tumor invasion, angiogenesis, and immunosuppression. Hence, JAK/STAT3 signaling has been considered a promising target for antitumor therapy. In this study, a number of ageladine A derivative compounds were synthesized. The most effective of these was found to be compound 25. Our results indicated that compound 25 had the greatest inhibitory effect on the STAT3 luciferase gene reporter. Molecular docking results showed that compound 25 could dock into the STAT3 SH2 structural domain. Western blot assays demonstrated that compound 25 selectively inhibited the phosphorylation of STAT3 on the Tyr705 residue, thereby reducing STAT3 downstream gene expression without affecting the expression of the upstream proteins, p-STAT1 and p-STAT5. Compound 25 also suppressed the proliferation and migration of A549 and DU145 cells. Finally, in vivo research revealed that 10 mg/kg of compound 25 effectively inhibited the growth of A549 xenograft tumors with persistent STAT3 activation without causing significant weight loss. These results clearly indicate that compound 25 could be a potential antitumor agent by inhibiting STAT3 activation.

Zinc ferrite can be found in zinc-bearing dust in ironmaking and steelmaking. It is difficult to be recovered due to its stable properties. The magnetization roasting and ammonia leaching method were used to separate iron and zinc from zinc ferrite in this study. Thermodynamic analysis showed that the key to the selective reduction of zinc ferrite to zinc oxide and ferric oxide is to control the appropriate temperature and atmosphere. The influences of the selective reduction roasting process of zinc ferrite on the conversion rate, phase change, and microevolution behavior were investigated. The microstructure analysis showed that the distribution area of iron was mainly gray, and the distribution area of zinc was mainly white grid lines. The zinc content in the white area was higher than that in the gray area. With the increase in temperature and PCO, the white area expanded and the migration of zinc and iron was accelerated, but the iron in the white area still existed. The ammonia leaching of the magnetization-roasted product showed that a zinc leaching rate of 78.12% was achieved under the following conditions: the roasting atmosphere of PCO/P(CO+CO2) = 25%, the roasting temperature of 750 °C, roasting duration for 45 min, n(NH3-H2O):n(NH4Cl) = 1:1, the solid–liquid ratio of 40 g/L, leachate concentration of 6 mol/L, leaching duration of 90 min, the leaching temperature of 50 °C, and the stirring rate of 200 rpm.

This study focuses on a novel humidity sensor composed of graphene-oxide (GO)-supported MoTe2 nanosheets. Conductive Ag electrodes were formed on PET substrates by inkjet printing. A thin film of GO-MoTe2 was deposited on the Ag electrode used for adsorbing humidity. The experiment’s results demonstrate that MoTe2 are attached to GO nanosheets uniformly and tightly. The capacitive output of the sensors with various ratios of GO/MoTe2 has been tested for different levels of humidity (11.3–97.3%RH) at room temperature (25 °C). As a consequence, the obtained hybrid film exhibits superior sensitivity (94.12 pF/%RH). The structural integrity and interaction of different components were discussed to afford the prominent humidity sensitivity performance. Under the bending condition, the output curve of the sensor has no obvious fluctuation. This work provides a low-cost way to build flexible humidity sensors with high-performance in environmental monitoring and healthcare.

A powerful analytical method based on microwave plasma torch/mass spectrometry (MPT-MS) was developed to rapidly detect mental elements in environmental water from Poyang lake in China. With minimum or uncomplicated sample manipulation, raw water samples were ionized by MPT for subsequent LTQ-MS analysis under negative ion mode. Typical potential contamination sources such (e.g., iron, cobalt, and nickel) were detected and identified by collision-induced dissociated (CID) experiment. It was found that the three metallic elements were formed as [M(NOx)mOn]−, which was universal; thus, they could be target ions. For the given elements, their limits of detection (LOD) were assessed as 0.09 μg•L−1 for iron ion, 0.03 μg•L−1 for cobalt ion, and 0.33 μg.L−1 for nickel ion under the optimized conditions; good determination coefficient (R2 ≥ 0.99) and the relative standard deviation (RSD, 2.0–11%, n = 11) were obtained. For current actual samples under testing, short analysis time for a single sample (less than 1 min), the average levels for iron, cobalt, and nickel, reached allowable concentrations of national standards, which also suggested this method is practically effective and usable. Moreover, possible ionization mechanism of metallic elements in MPT source was also discussed in this work, which may provide insight and useful information for the metal organics derived from water environment or metabonomics by MPT-MS. On the whole, this study lays a solid basis for the in-site mass spectrometry analysis of aqueous samples in relevant fields.

The oily oligomers with low-molecular-weight, medium kinematic viscosity and high viscosity index are yielded through oligomerizations of higher α-olefins (1-hexene, 1-octene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene and 1-tetradecene) and co-oligomerization of 1-decene with 1-butene in the presence of the silicon-bridged Ph2Si(Cp)(9-Flu)ZrCl2 catalyst and the methylaluminoxane co-catalyst. The oligomerization activity is affected by the bulkiness and lateral size of monomer, and the viscosity of oligomer obtained. Through adding of 1-butene to 1-decene, the oligomerization activity is decreased, but viscosity index of oligomer obviously is increased. The highest co-oligomerization activity of 1-decene with 1-butene is presented at the temperature of 60 °C and Al/Zr molar ratio of 300. 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy reveal that four types of vinylidene are existed in oligomers and the major olefinic bonds are internal disubstituted vinylidene, which are produced through 2,1-misinsertion and β-hydride elimination, or 2,1-misinsertion and rearrangement followed by β-hydride elimination. The chain termination of oligomerization of α-olefins favors chain transfer to the co-catalyst to produce saturated end group. The oligomerization pathways are summarized. Keywords: Poly-α-olefin, Zirconocene, Lubricant basestock, Oligomerization, PAO

The Jurassic shale in the northeastern Sichuan Basin is one of the main target intervals for continental shale gas exploitation. Research on the pore structure and gas-bearing properties of shales is the key issue in target interval optimization. Through core observation, geochemistry, bulk minerals, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption, and isothermal adsorption experiments, various lithofacies with different pore structure characteristics were clarified. In addition, the factors that control gas-bearing properties were discussed, and a continental shale gas enrichment model was finally established. The results show that the Jurassic continental shale in the northeastern Sichuan Basin can be classified into six lithofacies. Organic pores, intergranular pores, interlayer pores in clay minerals, intercrystalline pores in pyrite framboids, and dissolution pores can be observed in shale samples. Pore structures varied in different shale lithofacies. The contact angle of shales is commonly less than 45°, leading to complex wettability of pores in the shales. Free gas content is mainly controlled by the organic matter (OM) content and the brittleness in the Jurassic shale. The adsorbed gas content is mainly controlled by the OM content, clay mineral type, and water saturation of the shales. The enrichment mode of the Lower Jurassic continental shale gas in the northeastern Sichuan Basin is established. Paleoenvironments control the formation of organic-rich shales in the center part of lakes. The “baffle” layer helps the confinement and high pressure, and the complex syncline controls the preservation, forming the enrichment pattern of the complex syncline-central baffle layer.

Most butterflies feed on nectar, while some saprophagous butterflies forage on various non-nectar foods. To date, little is known about the genomic and molecular shifts associated with the evolution of the saprophagous feeding strategy. Here, we assembled the high-quality chromosome-level genome of Hestina assimilis to explore its saprophagous molecular and genetic mechanisms. This chromosome-level genome of H. assimilis is 412.82 Mb, with a scaffold N50 of 15.70 Mb. In total, 98.11% of contigs were anchored to 30 chromosomes. Compared with H. assimilis and other Nymphalidae butterflies, the genes of metabolism and detoxification experienced expansions. We annotated 80 cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes in the H. assimilis genome, among which genes belonging to the CYP4 subfamily were significantly expanded (p < 0.01). These P450 genes were unevenly distributed and mainly concentrated on chromosomes 6–9. We identified 33 olfactory receptor (OR), 20 odorant-binding protein (OBP), and six gustatory receptor (GR) genes in the H. assimilis genome, which were fewer than in the nectarivorous Danaus plexippus. A decreased number of OBP, OR, and GR genes implied that H. assimilis should resort less to olfaction and gustation than their nectarivorous counterparts, which need highly specialized olfactory and gustatory functions. Moreover, we found one site under positive selection occurred in residue 996 (phenylalanine) of GR genes exclusive to H. assimilis, which is conservative in most lineages. Our study provides support for the adaptive evolution of feeding habits in butterflies.

Energy level interaction and electron concentration are crucial aspects that affect the response performance of quantum cascade detectors (QCDs). In this work, two different-structured array QCDs are prepared, and the detectivity reaches 109 cm·Hz1/2/W at room temperature. The overlap integral (OI) and oscillator strength (OS) between different energy levels under a series of applied biases are fitted and reveal the influence of energy level interaction on the response performance. The redistribution of electrons in the cascade structure at room temperatures is established. The coupled doped-well structure shows a higher electron concentration at room temperature, which represents a high absorption efficiency in the active region. Even better responsivity and detectivity are exhibited in the coupled doped-well QCD. These results offer a novel strategy to understand the mechanisms that affect response performance and expand the application range of QCDs for long-wave infrared (LWIR) detection.

NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) is a key factor affecting vehicle comfort. Compared with traditional sound absorption and isolation methods, active noise control (ANC) offers a significant advantage in solving the problem of low- and medium-frequency noise from road surfaces. However, the classic filtered-x least mean squares (FxLMS) algorithm is ineffective in terms of adapting to different road noises to ensure a stable noise reduction effect when facing the complex and changeable noise environment of moving vehicles. Therefore, an adaptive step size algorithm (ASSFxLMS) is proposed in this paper, which can adjust the step size according to the size of the reference signal to ensure the stability of the adaptive process. In order to improve the performance of the algorithm, a particle swarm optimization algorithm is also used to automatically adjust the parameters, so that the step size of the adaptive algorithm always maintains a relatively ideal size. The simulated pulse noise of standard SαS distribution was used as the reference signal for the simulation. The simulation results show that compared with other algorithms, the proposed algorithm under different degrees of pulse noise conditions, noise reduction stability, and noise reduction amplitude are improved. In order to further verify the feasibility of the algorithm in vehicle road noise reduction, this paper also conducted a hardware-in-the-loop noise reduction experiment in the laboratory, employing the road noise data collected by the real vehicle. Under different interior noise conditions, the proposed active noise-control system has a maximum noise reduction effect of 12 dB for low-frequency noise below 100 Hz.

Gene arrangement (relative location of genes) is another evolutionary marker of the mitogenome that can provide extensive information on the evolutionary mechanism. To explore the evolution of gene arrangements in the mitogenome of diversified Ensifera, we sequenced the mitogenome of the unique dune cricket species found in China and used it for phylogenetic analysis, in combination with 84 known Ensiferan mitogenomes. The mitogenome of Schizodactylus jimo is a 16,428-bp circular molecule that contains 37 genes. We identified eight types of gene arrangement in the 85 ensiferan mitogenomes. The gene location changes (i.e., gene translocation and duplication) were in three gene blocks: I-Q-M-ND2, rrnl-rns-V, and ND3-A-R-N-S-E-F. From the phylogenetic tree, we found that Schizodactylus jimo and most other species share a typical and ancient gene arrangement type (Type I), while Grylloidea has two types (Types II and III), and the other five types are rare and scattered in the phylogenetic tree. We deduced that the tandem replication–random loss model is the evolutionary mechanism of gene arrangements in Ensifera. Selection pressure analysis revealed that purifying selection dominated the evolution of the ensiferan mitochondrial genome. This study suggests that most gene rearrangements in the ensiferan mitogenome are rare accidental events.

Immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), is a validated strategy for treating lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. One of the main challenges in ICIs treatment is the lack of efficient biomarkers for predicting response or resistance. Metabolic reprogramming has been proven to remodel the tumor microenvironment, altering the response to ICIs. We constructed a prognostic model as metabolism-related gene (MRG) of four genes by using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), the nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), and Cox regression analysis of a LUAD dataset (n = 500) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), which was validated with three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (n = 442, n = 226 and n = 127). The MRG was constructed based on BIRC5, PLK1, CDKN3, and CYP4B1 genes. MRG-high patients had a worse survival probability than MRG-low patients. Furthermore, the MRG-high subgroup was more associated with cell cycle-related pathways; high infiltration of activated memory CD4+T cells, M0 macrophages, and neutrophils; and showed better response to ICIs. Contrarily, the MRG-low subgroup was associated with fatty acid metabolism, high infiltration of dendric cells, and resting mast cells, and showed poor response to ICIs. MRG is a promising prognostic index for predicting survival and response to ICIs and other therapeutic agents in LUAD, which might provide insights on strategies with ICIs alone or combined with other agents.

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. is an important perennial aquatic herb that has high ornamental, edible, medicinal, and economic value, being widely distributed and used in China. The NAC superfamily (NAM, ATAF1/2, CUC2) plays critical roles in plant growth, development, and response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Though there have been a few reports about NAC genes in lotus, systematic analysis is still relatively lacking. The present study aimed to characterize all the NAC genes in the lotus and obtain better insights on the NnNACs in response to salt stress by depending on ABA signaling. Here, 97 NAC genes were identified by searching the whole lotus genome based on the raw HMM models of the conserved NAM domain and NAC domain. They were characterized by bioinformatics analysis and divided into 18 subgroups based on the phylogenetic tree. Cis-element analysis demonstrated that NAC genes are responsive to biotic and abiotic stresses, light, low temperature, and plant hormones. Meanwhile, NAC genes had tissue expression specificity. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that NAC genes could be upregulated or downregulated by NaCl treatment, ABA, and fluoridone. In addition, NAC016, NAC025, and NAC070, whose encoding genes were significantly induced by NaCl and ABA, were located in the nucleus. Further analysis showed the three NAC proteins had transcriptional activation capabilities. The co-expression network analysis reflected that NAC proteins may form complexes with other proteins to play a role together. Our study provides a theoretical basis for further research to be conducted on the regulatory mechanisms of salinity resistance in the lotus.

This paper proposes a novel Squeeze-and-excitation-based Mask Region Convolutional Neural Network (SEM-RCNN) for Environmental Microorganisms (EM) detection tasks. Mask RCNN, one of the most applied object detection models, uses ResNet for feature extraction. However, ResNet cannot combine the features of different image channels. To further optimize the feature extraction ability of the network, SEM-RCNN is proposed to combine the different features extracted by SENet and ResNet. The addition of SENet can allocate weight information when extracting features and increase the proportion of useful information. SEM-RCNN achieves a mean average precision (mAP) of 0.511 on EMDS-6. We further apply SEM-RCNN for blood-cell detection tasks on an open source database (more than 17,000 microscopic images of blood cells) to verify the robustness and transferability of the proposed model. By comparing with other detectors based on deep learning, we demonstrate the superiority of SEM-RCNN in EM detection tasks. All experimental results show that the proposed SEM-RCNN exhibits excellent performances in EM detection.

Currently, the field of transparent image analysis has gradually become a hot topic. However, traditional analysis methods are accompanied by large amounts of carbon emissions, and consumes significant manpower and material resources. The continuous development of computer vision enables the use of computers to analyze images. However, the low contrast between the foreground and background of transparent images makes their segmentation difficult for computers. To address this problem, we first analyzed them with pixel patches, and then classified the patches as foreground and background. Finally, the segmentation of the transparent images was completed through the reconstruction of pixel patches. To understand the performance of different deep learning networks in transparent image segmentation, we conducted a series of comparative experiments using patch-level and pixel-level methods. In two sets of experiments, we compared the segmentation performance of four convolutional neural network (CNN) models and a visual transformer (ViT) model on the transparent environmental microorganism dataset fifth version. The results demonstrated that U-Net++ had the highest accuracy rate of 95.32% in the pixel-level segmentation experiment followed by ViT with an accuracy rate of 95.31%. However, ResNet50 had the highest accuracy rate of 90.00% and ViT had the lowest accuracy of 89.25% in the patch-level segmentation experiments. Hence, we concluded that ViT performed the lowest in patch-level segmentation experiments, but outperformed most CNNs in pixel-level segmentation. Further, we combined patch-level and pixel-level segmentation results to reduce the loss of segmentation details in the EM images. This conclusion was also verified by the environmental microorganism dataset sixth version dataset (EMDS-6).

Nickel (II) complexes stabilized by PNP(NR2)2 (L1: R = Methyl, L2: R = ethyl, L3: R = isopropyl) ligands were synthesized and characterized. A narrow range of products was observed for catalytic systems containing nickel complexes and ethyl aluminum dichloride (EADC). All exhibit considerable activity in the ethylene dimerization to produce 1-butene. Precatalyst 1 is the most conducive for ethylene dimerization, producing 83.4% C4 (1-C4 36.8%) and 103.0 × 105 g/(molNi·h) in terms of its activity under the appropriate conditions. By adjusting the conditions of the catalytic system for precatalyst 2, high C4 selectivity (88.1%) with reasonable activity (76.9 × 105 g/(molNi·h)) can be obtained. The X-ray single-crystal analysis of complexes presents mononuclear bidentate coordination at the Ni center, and the relationship between certain bite angles may also imply catalytic performance.

Abstract Backgrounds In recent decades, incorporating polypropylene (PP) within flame retardants has proved to be an effective method of improving the thermal stabilities of PP, but too much adversely affects the mechanical properties of this polymer materials. Herein we report a novel multifunctional flame retardant, (styrene acrylonitrile)–(titanate-modified ammonium polyphosphate) (SAN–TAPP), to simultaneously improve the mechanical properties and thermal stability of PP composites. Methods SAN–TAPP was synthesized by encapsulating SAN resins with functional titanate-modified APP (TAPP) and subsequently was incorporated into PP by a melt-blending process. The phase characteristics and morphology of SAN–TAPP were investigated, and the mechanical properties and thermal stability of different content of PP/SAN–TAPP composites were studied. Results The results showed that the TAPP was almost entirely wrapped in the SAN resins and PP/SAN–TAPP composites exhibited the sea-island morphology. For the mechanical properties, the impact strength of PP/SAN–TAPP composite was significantly improved, especially 15 wt% SAN–TAPP filled PP/SAN–TAPP composite exhibiting 2.17 times higher than that of pure PP. And the tensile strength and modulus also increased by addition of SAN–TAPP. For the thermal stabilities, melting temperatures (Tm) and residual char yield were improved. Furthermore, the LOI value of PP/SAN–TAPP composites increased from 19.8 to 27.5%; The 15 and 20 wt% SAN–TAPP filled in PP/SAN–TAPP composites passed the V-2 test of UL-94, and exerted the similar effect on the flame retardancy to TAPP with the same loading. Conclusions These results revealed that a novel PP/SAN–TAPP composites with synthetically enhancement on the mechanical properties, thermal stabilities and flame retardancy, suggesting a strong correlation between the phase structure, mechanical and thermal properties.

The in situ formation and activation of Cr(III) catalysts based on unsymmetrical PNP ligands yield efficient catalytic systems for selective ethylene tri-/tetramerization. The electronic nature (electron-withdrawing or electron-donating) and position (para or meta) of the substituents over the phenyl rings of the PNP, the nature of cocatalyst (DMAO/AlEt3 and MMAO-3A), and reaction conditions have been observed to have a marked impact on catalytic performance, particularly catalytic activity. Ligand L2, bearing 4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl substituents, yielded 33.6 kg(product).g(Cr)−1·h−1 catalytic activity with 57.7% C8 selectivity under optimal conditions. Ligand L4, having para-tolyl substituents, yielded 43.3 kg(product).g(Cr)−1·h−1 with 59.0% C8 selectivity under optimum conditions. Changing the positions of both the electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituents from para to meta over the phenyls of the PNP may lead to both catalytic systems exhibiting poor performance.

The discrete element method (DEM) is an effective technical tool for simulating the dynamic behavior of granular materials in agricultural engineering. However, most of the agricultural materials, such as rape stems, are flexible bodies, and it is difficult to simulate their elastic-plastic characteristics such as bending and failure using the rigid discrete element model. In this research, a flexible DEM model for rape stems was developed and the related parameters were calibrated. The proposed model consists of sequentially arranged rigid units, which were bonded together by the Hertz–Mindlin bonding contact model in the EDEM. The range of the contact parameters of a rape stem was first determined by bench test. The rape stem repose angle test was carried out as an evaluation indicator for the calibration of the DEM contact parameters. The significant factors affecting the repose angle in the contact parameters were discovered using the Plackett–Burman simulation test, and the optimal combination of these parameters was determined based on the response surface simulation test. The rape stem repose angle simulation result was 26.55° with a relative error of 2.2% for the physical tests. The rape-stem flexible DEM model’s bonding parameters were calibrated based on a three-point bending physical test and a Box–Behnken simulation test. The test results show that a rape stem’s maximum damage force obtained from the constructed model was 16.76 N, and the relative error of the measured values from the physical tests was 3.5%. The flexible DEM model could demonstrate the deformation and fracture of rape stems under an external force and can be used for the simulation of harvesting processes such as cutting, conveying, and threshing.

This paper proposes a novel pixel interval down-sampling network (PID-Net) for dense tiny object (yeast cells) counting tasks with higher accuracy. The PID-Net is an end-to-end convolutional neural network (CNN) model with an encoder–decoder architecture. The pixel interval down-sampling operations are concatenated with max-pooling operations to combine the sparse and dense features. This addresses the limitation of contour conglutination of dense objects while counting. The evaluation was conducted using classical segmentation metrics (the Dice, Jaccard and Hausdorff distance) as well as counting metrics. The experimental results show that the proposed PID-Net had the best performance and potential for dense tiny object counting tasks, which achieved 96.97% counting accuracy on the dataset with 2448 yeast cell images. By comparing with the state-of-the-art approaches, such as Attention U-Net, Swin U-Net and Trans U-Net, the proposed PID-Net can segment dense tiny objects with clearer boundaries and fewer incorrect debris, which shows the great potential of PID-Net in the task of accurate counting.

High-power, incoherent THz array sources are widely desired in some applications due to their low energy, unique terahertz fingerprint, and image. In this work, a dual ridge terahertz quantum cascade laser lasing at 3.1 THz is presented, and the device’s performance is analyzed in detail. The maximum output power can reach 512 mW when the two ridges work simultaneously in continuous-wave mode, with a threshold current density of 281 A/cm2 at 15 K. While the peak power is approximately 704 mW in pulse-wave mode at 15 K, the lasing still could be observed approximately 7 mW at 125 K. The far-field pattern of the dual ridge THz QCL is detected by a THz camera; two light spots typically show a single-lobe Gaussian distribution. The experimental results provide a reference for realizing high-power THz quantum cascade lasers, and they will provide some guidance for the structural design of multiple ridges or laser arrays.

The soft robot has many degrees of freedom, strong environmental adaptability, and good human–computer interaction ability. As the end-effector of the soft robot, the soft gripper can grasp objects of different shapes without destructivity. Based on the theoretical analysis of the soft robot, the kinematics model of the flexible gripper and the theoretical model of the bending deformation of the air cavity were established. Accordingly, the relationship between the bending angle of the soft gripper and the air pressure was determined. Through the application of finite element software, the bending degree of the pneumatic network multi-cavity soft gripper was simulated, and the influence of structural parameters of soft actuator on bending deformation was determined. In addition, the 3D technology conducts the printing of soft gripper fixtures and molds, the injection molds the actuator, and the human–computer interaction interface controls the movement of the gripper. This paper proposes the control and monitoring of the soft gripper are realized through the electrical control module, the air circuit control module, and the sensor group module, and the size of the airflow velocity can be controlled by PWM DC speed regulation. The adaptability of the soft gripper in grasping objects was verified. The results shows that the software gripper possesses good flexibility and can better grasp objects of different shapes.

The impact of COVID-19 has rendered medical technology an important factor to maintain social stability and economic increase, where biomedicine has experienced rapid development and played a crucial part in fighting off the pandemic. Conductive hydrogels (CHs) are three-dimensional (3D) structured gels with excellent electrical conductivity and biocompatibility, which are very suitable for biomedical applications. CHs can mimic innate tissue’s physical, chemical, and biological properties, which allows them to provide environmental conditions and structural stability for cell growth and serve as efficient delivery substrates for bioactive molecules. The customizability of CHs also allows additional functionality to be designed for different requirements in biomedical applications. This review introduces the basic functional characteristics and materials for preparing CHs and elaborates on their synthetic techniques. The development and applications of CHs in the field of biomedicine are highlighted, including regenerative medicine, artificial organs, biosensors, drug delivery systems, and some other application scenarios. Finally, this review discusses the future applications of CHs in the field of biomedicine. In summary, the current design and development of CHs extend their prospects for functioning as an intelligent and complex system in diverse biomedical applications.

Hyperactivation of Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling is an attractive therapeutic target for tumor therapy. Herein, forty-eight novel meridianin derivatives were designed and synthesized, and their antitumor activity was evaluated in vitro both for activity optimization and structure–activity relationship (SAR) study. The results indicated that most derivatives exhibited significantly improved antitumor activity, especially for compound 6e. The compound 6e contains an isothiouronium linked by an alkyl chain consisting of six carbon atoms with IC50 ranging from 1.11 to 2.80 μM on various cancer cell lines. Consistently, the 6e dose dependently induced the apoptosis of A549 and DU145 cells, in which STAT3 is constitutively active. Western blotting assays indicated that the phosphorylation levels of JAK1, JAK2 and STAT3 were inhibited by 6e at 5 μM without significant change in the total STAT3 level. Moreover, 6e also suppressed the expression of STAT3 downstream genes, including c-Myc, Cyclin D1 and Bcl-XL at 10 μM. An additional in vivo study revealed that 6e at the dose of 10 mg/kg could potently inhibit the DU145 xenograft tumor without obvious body weight loss. These results clearly indicate that 6e could be a potential antitumor agent by targeting the JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Abstract Dioscorea nipponica Makino is a perennial twining herbs belonging to the family Dioscoreaceae, which is mainly distributed in the northeastern, northern, eastern and central regions of China. Traditionally, the rhizome of this herb has been commonly used by Miao and Meng ethnic groups of China to treat rheumatoid arthritis, pain in the legs and lumbar area, Kashin Beck disease, bruises, sprains, chronic bronchitis, cough and asthma. Modern pharmacological studies have discovered that this herb possesses anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-diuretic, analgesic, anti-tussive, panting-calming and phlegm-dispelling activities, along with enhancing immune function and improving cardiovascular health. In recent years, both fat-soluble and water-soluble steroidal saponins were isolated from the rhizomes of D. nipponica using silica gel column chromatography, thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography methods. Saponin and sapogenins are mainly responsible for most of the pharmacological effects of this plant. Further, the chemical components of the aboveground parts contain more than 10 kinds of phenanthrene derivatives. The present review summarizes the knowledge concerning the geographical distribution, chemical composition, pharmacological effects, toxicology studies and clinical applications of D. nipponica.

The mass production of graphene oxide (GO) unavoidably elevates the chance of human exposure, as well as the possibility of release into the environment with high stability, raising public concern as to its potential toxicological risks and the implications for humans and ecosystems. Therefore, a thorough assessment of GO toxicity, including its potential reliance on key physicochemical factors, which is lacking in the literature, is of high significance and importance. In this study, GO toxicity, and its dependence on oxidation level, elemental composition, and size, were comprehensively assessed. A newly established quantitative toxicogenomic-based toxicity testing approach, combined with conventional phenotypic bioassays, were employed. The toxicogenomic assay utilized a GFP-fused yeast reporter library covering key cellular toxicity pathways. The results reveal that, indeed, the elemental composition and size do exert impacts on GO toxicity, while the oxidation level exhibits no significant effects. The UV-treated GO, with significantly higher carbon-carbon groups and carboxyl groups, showed a higher toxicity level, especially in the protein and chemical stress categories. With the decrease in size, the toxicity level of the sonicated GOs tended to increase. It is proposed that the covering and subsequent internalization of GO sheets might be the main mode of action in yeast cells.

Rare Earth Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are a type of material that emits high-energy photons by absorbing two or more low-energy photons caused by the anti-stokes process. It can emit ultraviolet (UV) visible light or near-infrared (NIR) luminescence upon NIR light excitation. Due to its excellent physical and chemical properties, including exceptional optical stability, narrow emission band, enormous Anti-Stokes spectral shift, high light penetration in biological tissues, long luminescent lifetime, and a high signal-to-noise ratio, it shows a prodigious application potential for bio-imaging and photodynamic therapy. This paper will briefly introduce the physical mechanism of upconversion luminescence (UCL) and focus on their research progress and achievements in bio-imaging, bio-detection, and photodynamic therapy.

This article describes a MgCl2-supported Ziegler-Natta catalyst for propylene polymerization prepared via an in situ emulsion technique with new surfactants. The effect of preparation conditions such as the TiCl4/toluene molar ratio, TiCl4-contacting temperature, amount of phthaloyl dichloride, stirring rate, mixing time of TiCl4/toluene with the Mg complex, and the n-butyl chloride loading was investigated in detail. Scanning electron microscopy and laser particle size analyzer measurements showed that the catalyst particles exhibit a perfectly spherical shape, narrow particle size distribution, and low fine powder content. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry indicated that the Ti, Mg, and Cl elements were evenly distributed throughout the particles. Powder X-ray diffraction measurements indicated the presence of δ-MgCl2 in the catalyst, and FTIR and GC-MS studies confirmed the presence of in situ formed di(ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP). Bulk polymerization of propylene using the catalyst was studied, and it was found that the catalyst displayed high activity, high bulk density with high stereospecificity, and excellent hydrogen sensitivity. The polymer produced by the catalyst has a narrow particle size distribution with a low fine powder content.

A novel camptothecin analogue, (20S)-10,11-methylenedioxy-camptothecin (FL118), has been proven to show significant antitumor efficacy for a wide variety of solid tumors. However, the further development of FL118 is severely hindered due to its extremely poor water solubility and adverse side effects. Here, two series of novel 20-substituted (20S)-10,11-methylenedioxy-camptothecin coupled with 5-substituted uracils and other heterocyclic rings through glycine were synthesized. All the derivatives showed superior cytotoxic activities in vitro with IC50 values in the nanomolar range. Among them, 12e displayed higher cytotoxic activities in several cancer cell lines with better water solubility than FL118. Our results further showed that, like FL118, 12e inhibited cell proliferation resulting from cell cycle arrest and apoptosis by blocking the anti-apoptotic gene transcription of survivin, Mcl-1, Bcl-2, and XIAP in both A549 cells and NCI-H446 cells. Furthermore, 12e did not show any inhibitory activity on Topo I, which is involved in hematopoietic toxicity. In vivo, 12e showed similar antitumor efficacy to FL118 but lower toxicity. Our findings indicate that 12e is a promising therapeutic agent for cancer treatment, and the core structure of FL118 represents a promising platform to generate novel FL118-based antitumor drugs.

Optical remote sensing is an effective means of water depth measurement, but the current approach of mainstream bathymetric retrieval requires a large amount of onsite measurement data. Such data are hard to obtain from places where underwater terrains are complicated and unsteady, and from sea areas affected by issues with rights and conflicts of interest. In recent years, the emergence of airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provided a new technical means for field bathymetric survey. In this study, water depth inversion was carried out around an island far from the mainland by using remote sensing images and real LiDAR waveform data. Multi-Gaussian function fitting was proposed to extract water depth data from waveform data, and bathymetric values were used as control and validation data of the active and passive combination of water depth inversion. Results show that the relative error was 5.6% for the bathymetric retrieval from LiDAR waveform data, and the accuracy meets the requirements of ocean bathymetry. The average relative error of water depth inversion based on active and passive remote sensing was less than 9%. The method used in this study can also reduce the use of LiDAR data and the cost, thus providing a new idea for future coastal engineering application and construction.