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Stephanandra incisa is a typical discontinuous distribution species in the eastern part of the subspecies with a high economic and ecological value. In this study, we have obtained the complete chloroplast genome of S. incisa using high-throughput sequencing. The chloroplast genome length was 159,583 bp, the AT content was 63.7%, while the large single copy and a small single copy area were 88,018 bp and 18,817 bp, respectively. It contains 131 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA genes, and eight ribosomal RNA genes. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree supported the fact that S. incisa is closely related to Pyracantha fortuneana and Amelanchier sinica, which is consistent with the taxonomic view.

Background: P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis, as a near-threatened and ethnic medicine in China, used to be a key ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of traumatic injuries, sore throat, snakebites, and convulsions for thousands of years. However, there were no reports on the inverse relationship between the contents of heavy metals and saponins and its anti-breast cancer pharmacological activity in P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis. Methods: The present study aimed to reveal the characteristics of heavy metal contents and saponins and its anti-breast cancer pharmacological activity and their interrelationships in P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis from different production areas. The contents of heavy metal and steroidal saponins in P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and the high-performance liquid chromatography technique, respectively. The Pearson correlation was used to study the correlation between saponins and heavy metals. 4T1 mouse mammary tumor cells were selected and cultivated for antitumor studies in vitro. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, Hoechst staining, and flow cytometry analysis were used for the examination of the proliferation and apoptosis of 4T1 tumor cells. Mouse breast cancer 4T1 cells were subcutaneously injected into BALB/c mice to construct a tumor model to explore the in vivo inhibitory effect on breast cancer. TUNEL assay and immunohistochemistry were used for the examination of the effect of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis from different origins on cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis induction in 4T1 tumor mice. Results: Heavy metal contents were highly correlated with the content of steroidal saponins. The overall content of 10 metals in the three producing origins was of the order C3 >C2 >C1. The total content of eight steroidal saponins in the extracts of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis from three different origins was C1 >C2 >C3. The Pearson correlation study showed that in all of the heavy metals, the contents of Cd and Ba were positively correlated with the main steroidal saponins in P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis, while Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Zn, As, Hg, and Pb showed a negative correlation. In vitro experiments showed that the extracts of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis from three origins could inhibit the proliferation and induce cell apoptosis of 4T1 cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, especially in the C1 origin. In vivo experiments showed that the extract of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis from the three origins could inhibit the growth of tumors and induce the apoptosis of tumor cells. In the three origins, C1 origin had the lowest total heavy metal level but the highest total steroidal saponin level. Therefore, it showed a better effect in reducing the expression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and Kiel 67 (Ki67) and increasing the expression of p53 in tumor tissues compared to the other origins. In conclusion, in the three origins, C1 origin exhibits antitumor pharmacological effects in vivo and in vitro which are better than those in the other origins. Conclusion: In this study, we found that with the increase of the heavy metal content, the content of steroid saponins and anti-breast cancer activity decreased. The results showed that the high content of the total heavy metals may not be conducive to the accumulation of steroidal saponins in P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis and lead to the low anti-breast cancer activity. The results of this study suggest that the content of heavy metals should be controlled in the artificial cultivation process of P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expectations can profoundly modulate pain experience, during which the periaqueductal gray (PAG) plays a pivotal role. In this article, we focus on motivationally evoked neural activations in cortical and brainstem regions both before and during stimulus administration, as has been demonstrated by experimental studies on pain-modulatory effects of expectations, in the hope of unraveling how the PAG is involved in descending and ascending nociceptive processes. This motivational perspective on expectancy effects on the perception of noxious stimuli sheds new light on psychological and neuronal substrates of pain and its modulation, thus having important research and clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All-solid-state lithium batteries without any liquid organic electrolytes can realize high energy density while eliminating flammability issues. Active materials with high specific capacity and favorable interfacial contact within the cathode layer are crucial to the realization of good electrochemical performance. Herein, we report a high-capacity polysulfide cathode material, MoS6@15%Li7P3S11, with a particle size of 1–4 μm. The MoS6 exhibited an impressive initial specific capacity of 913.9 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1. When coupled with the Li7P3S11 electrolyte coating layer, the resultant MoS6@15%Li7P3S11 composite showed improved interfacial contact and an optimized ionic diffusivity range from 10−12–10−11 cm2 s−1 to 10−11–10−10 cm2 s−1. The Li/Li6PS5Cl/MoS6@15%Li7P3S11 all-solid-state lithium battery delivered ultra-high initial and reversible specific capacities of 1083.8 mAh g−1 and 851.5 mAh g−1, respectively, at a current density of 0.1 A g−1 within 1.0–3.0 V. Even under 1 A g−1, the battery maintained a reversible specific capacity of 400 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles. This work outlines a promising cathode material with intimate interfacial contact and superior ionic transport kinetics within the cathode layer as well as high specific capacity for use in all-solid-state lithium batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The active components of Cortex Periplocae (CP) exert antitumor properties in many cancers. However, little is known about their effects on glioma or the related underlying mechanisms. Objectives. The study investigated the underlying mechanism of CP in treating glioma. Materials and methods. The U251 and TG905 cells were treated with an ethanol extract from CP. Cell proliferation was detected using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and a colony formation assay. The flow cytometric analysis was applied to explore the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. The expression levels of cell cycle- and apoptosis-associated proteins were measured with western blot. A network pharmacology method was performed to predict the potential mechanism underlying the effects of the active components of CP on glioma. Then, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based quantitative proteomics analysis was used to verify the differentially expressed proteins and pathways in order to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, to determine the iTRAQ results, 6 candidate proteins were chosen for quantification using parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). Results. The CP extract inhibited the proliferation of U251 and TG905 cells and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. There are 16 active compounds of CP. The antitumor mechanism of CP may be related to the apoptosis pathway, p53 signaling pathway, PI3K-AKT pathway, or transcriptional misregulation in cancer pathway. Six proteins (HSP90AB1, TOP2A, ATP1A1, TGFß1, ATP1B1, and TYMS) were determined to be key factors involved in regulating CP in glioma. Conclusions. Our research revealed the underlying mechanism of CP in treating glioma using integrated network pharmacology and iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Susceptibility to domain changes for image classification hinders the application and development of deep neural networks. Domain adaptation (DA) makes use of domain-invariant characteristics to improve the performance of a model trained on labeled data from one domain (source domain) on an unlabeled domain (target) with a different data distribution. But existing DA methods simply use pretrained models (e.g., AlexNet, ResNet) for feature extraction, which are convolutional models that are trapped in localized features and fail to acquire long-distance dependencies. Furthermore, many approaches depend too much on pseudo-labels, which can impair adaptation efficiency and lead to unstable and inconsistent results. In this research, we present S2AC, a novel approach for unsupervised deep domain adaptation, that makes use of a stacked attention architecture as a feature map extractor. Our method can fuse domain discrepancy with minimizing a linear transformation of the second statistics (covariances) extended by the p-norm, while simultaneously designing pretext tasks on heuristics to improve the generality of the learning representation. In addition, we have developed a new trainable relative position embedding that not only reduces the model parameters but also enhances model accuracy and expedites the training process. To illustrate our method's efficacy and controllability, we designed extensive experiments based on the Office31, Office_Caltech_10, and OfficeHome datasets. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed method is the first attempt at incorporating attention-based networks and self-supervised learning for image domain adaptation, and has shown promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assembly of cluster-based π-stacked porous supramolecular frameworks presents daunting challenges, including the design of suitable cluster building units, control of the sufficient C-H···π interactions, trade-off between structural dynamics and stability as well as understanding the resulting collective properties. Herein, we report a cluster-based C-H···π interaction-stacked porous supramolecular framework, namely, Cu12a-π, consisting of Cu12 nanocluster as a 6-connected node, which is further propagated to a dynamic porous supramolecular frameworks via dense intralayer C-H···π interactions, yielding permanent porosity. In addition, Cu12a-π can be transformed into cluster-based nonporous adaptive crystals (Cu12b-NACs) via ligand-exchange following a dissociation-reassembly mechanism. Moreover, Cu12a-π can efficiently remove 97.2% of iodine from saturated iodine aqueous solutions with a high uptake capacity of 2.96 g·g−1. These prospective results positioned at cluster-based porous supramolecular framework and enlighten follow-up researchers to design and synthesize such materials with better performance. The assembly of cluster-based π-stacked porous supramolecular frameworks presents daunting challenges. Here, the authors report a dynamic and transformable supramolecular framework based on Cu12 cluster and C-H···π-stacking with permanent porosity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To upgrading the caking property of Shenhua long-flame coal (SH), imidazole ionic liquids (IILs) were used. SH and the treated samples were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy to reveal the upgrading mechanism. The results showed that IILs treatment could improve the caking property of SH. When exploring the effects of IILs with different chain lengths on the caking property of SH, it was found that the caking index of the treated samples first increased and then decreased with increasing chain length, and [C5MIM]Cl treatment exhibited the best modification effect among all IILs used. Additionally, an upgrading mechanism of caking property of SH using IILs is proposed. IILs treatment could increase the content of small aromatics with 3–5 rings and decreased the length of side chain alkanes and oxygen content, which could increase the caking property of SH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous cohort studies have found an association between Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) administration and incident dementia. In the systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to summarize the current evidence of the effect of BCG use on the risk of developing dementia. Methods: We searched six databases until 20 May 2023 for studies investigating the risk of dementia and BCG administration. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were pooled in themeta-analysis. Meta-regression, subgroup, and sensitivity analysis were conducted as well. Results: Of the 4,043 records initially evaluated, five articles were included for final analysis, with a total of 45,407 bladder cancer (BC) patients. All five studies were evaluated and rated as with high quality, and a low possibility of publication bias was indicated. A significant association between BCG and the incidence of dementia in BC patients was found in all five studies. Although a high heterogeneity (I² = 84.5%, p < 0.001) was observed, the pooled HR was 0.55 (0.42-0.73), indicating that BCG exposure or treatment reduced the risk of incident dementia by 45%. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis showed good robustness of the overall effect with no serious publication bias. Conclusion: BCG administration is associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia. However, an epidemiological cohort is needed to establish a relationship between BCG use and incident dementia in the normal population. Once the relationship is confirmed, more peoplemay benefit fromthe association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported an experimental and theoretical study on the promotion role of F doping in the improved catalytic performance of fluorinated graphene(F-GO) for ammonium perchlorate (AP) pyrolysis. F-GO was prepared by using graphite oxide (GO) as carbon sources and CF3COOH as fluorinating agent. Compared with other samples, the F-GO-180 with the highest F doping amounts, more C-F semi-ionic and C-F covalent bond amounts exhibit superior catalytic performance, as 10 wt% of catalyst added in AP, the exothermic peak temperature proceeded in just one step was even lower than the HTD peak temperature for pure AP and the released apparent specific heat of the thermal decomposition of AP catalyzed by F-GO-180 is 4261.2 J/g, which is almost sevenfold of that of pure AP (603.5 J/g). The doping of F atoms in graphene increased surface defects and the content of C-F semi-ionic and C-F covalent bond amounts of F-GO, which provided more active sites during the thermal decomposition of AP. The molecular simulation calculation results further confirmed that the F doping could react with the defect structure of graphene to form more C-F semi-ionic and C-F covalent bond, which could act as catalytic active sites and facilitate the electron transfer ability of the graphene to promote the formation of free radicals in the reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]