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Photobleaching resistance, high quantum yield and deep tissue imaging of Nd-doped nanocrystals with fluorescence in the second near infrared region (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) occupied an indispensable position for precisely navigating tumor resection. However, these NIR-II nanoprobes often encounter high passive accumulation in reticuloendothelial system (RES) organs that attenuates signal to background ratio (SBR), resulting in the impediment of their application for accurate tumor outline delineation. Herein, a hollow-structured CaCO3 and polydopamine co-packed shell has been co-cladded on the Nd-doped down-shifting nanocrystals (DSNCs@hPCa). After conjugating folic acid molecules on the hollowed surface (DSNCs@hPCa-FA), this fascinating NIR-II contrast nanoagent can further specifically enhance tumor targeting capacity and gratifyingly restrain the NIR-II fluorescence in the “OFF” state. It sensitively responds to the weak acid tumor microenvironment, consequently, the hybrid nanoshell is degraded and the NIR-II fluorescence is efficiently turn “ON”. Robust fluorescent imaging with the augmented SBR has been demonstrated to accurately identify tumor borderlines from normal tissue. Tumors were thoroughly removed under the navigation of this novel pH stimuli-responsive NIR-II fluorescence imaging with ignorable in situ recurrence or metastases after 28 days post-surgery. This strategy indicates the preclinical potential of tumor microenvironment activated nanoprobes for assisting the accurate delineation of tumor margins.

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the most commonly used treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but still lacks accurate real‐time biomarkers for monitoring its therapeutic efficacy. Here, we explored whether copy number profiling of circulating free DNA (cfDNA) could be utilized to predict responses and prognosis in HCC patients with TACE treatment. In total, 266 plasma cfDNA samples were collected from 64 HCC patients, 57 liver cirrhosis (LC) patients and 32 healthy volunteers. We performed low‐depth whole‐genome sequencing (LD‐WGS) on cfDNA samples to conduct copy number variant (CNV) analysis and tumour fraction (TFx) quantification. Then, the correlation between TFx/CNVs and therapeutic efficacy, treatment outcomes and lipiodol deposition were explored. The change in TFx during TACE treatment was associated with patients' tumour burden, and could accurately and earlier predict treatment response and prognosis, providing an alternative strategy other than mRECIST. Meanwhile, the chromosomal 16q/NQO1 amplification indicated worse therapeutic response; in patients who underwent multiple TACE sessions, TFx change during their first TACE treatment reflected the long‐term survival; additionally, the copy number amplification of chromosome 1q, 3p, 6p, 8q, 10p, 12q, 18p or 18q affected lipiodol deposition. Overall, we have provided a new liquid biopsy approach for future TACE management of HCC patients.

Different deubiquitinases are associated to cancer development. Here, the authors show that PPARgamma is stabilized by USP22-mediated deubiquitination leading to lipid accumulation and promoting hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract Midkine (MDK), a secreted growth factor, regulates signal transduction and cancer progression by interacting with receptors, and it can be internalized into the cytoplasm by endocytosis. However, its intracellular function and signaling regulation remain unclear. Here, we show that intracellular MDK interacts with LKB1 and STRAD to disrupt the LKB1-STRAD-Mo25 complex. Consequently, MDK decreases the activity of LKB1 to dampen both the basal and stress-induced activation of AMPK by glucose starvation or treatment of 2-DG. We also found that MDK accelerates cancer cell proliferation by inhibiting the activation of the LKB1-AMPK axis. In human cancers, compared to other well-known growth factors, MDK expression is most significantly upregulated in cancers, especially in liver, kidney and breast cancers, correlating with clinical outcomes and inversely correlating with phosphorylated AMPK levels. Our study elucidates an inhibitory mechanism for AMPK activation, which is mediated by the intracellular MDK through disrupting the LKB1-STRAD-Mo25 complex.

Saline–alkaline (SA) stress is characterized by high salinity and high alkalinity (high pH), which severely inhibit plant growth and cause huge losses in crop yields worldwide. Here we show that a moderate elevation of endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) levels by RNAi-mediated suppression of OsABA8ox1 (OsABA8ox1-kd), a key ABA catabolic gene, significantly increased tolerance to SA stress in rice plants. We produced OsABA8ox1-kd lines in two different japonica cultivars, Dongdao 4 and Nipponbare. Compared with non-transgenic control plants (WT), the OsABA8ox1-kd seedlings accumulated 25.9%–55.7% higher levels of endogenous ABA and exhibited reduced plasmalemma injury, ROS accumulation and Na+/K+ ratio, and higher survival rates, under hydroponic alkaline conditions simulated by 10, 15, and 20 mmol L−1 of Na2CO3. In pot trials using SA field soils of different alkali levels (pH 7.59, 8.86, and 9.29), OsABA8ox1–kd plants showed markedly higher seedling survival rates and more vigorous plant growth, resulting in significantly higher yield components including panicle number (85.7%–128.6%), spikelets per panicle (36.9%–61.9%), branches (153.9%–236.7%), 1000–kernel weight (20.0%–28.6%), and percentage of filled spikelets (96.6%–1340.8%) at harvest time. Under severe SA soil conditions (pH = 9.29, EC = 834.4 μS cm−1), OsABA8ox1-kd lines showed an 194.5%–1090.8% increase in grain yield per plant relative to WT plants. These results suggest that suppression of OsABA8ox1 to increase endogenous ABA levels provides a new molecular approach for improving rice yield in SA paddies.

Abstract Severe rail roughness leads to a series of problems in metro systems, particularly the vehicle noise problem. To ensure a better acoustic environment, rail roughness control is therefore one of the main concerns for the metro operators. But the existing roughness acceptance criteria are not suitable for metro interior noise control. It is an appropriate method to determine the rail roughness limit based on interior noise. A rail roughness acceptance criterion based on metro interior noise is accordingly proposed in this paper. The relationship between rail roughness and interior noise can be derived with wheel-rail noise as link. With this objective, a combined test and simulation method is adopted. A validated wheel-rfigil noise prediction model is thus established to determine the relationship between rail roughness and wheel-rail noise. Moreover, the transfer function of wheel-rail noise to interior noise is developed based on extensive field test. Using this method, the noise sensitivity to roughness wavelength and acceptance criteria at different speeds and track structures are investigated. Finally, an eclectic rail corrugation acceptance criterion on curved track is suggested in consideration of practical application.

It is well established that natural killer (NK) cells can be used as an alternative candidate of T cells for adoptive cell therapy (ACT) due to its high killing capacity, off-the-shelf utility, and low toxicity. Though NK cells provide rapid and potent immune effects, they still suffer from insufficient infiltration and tumor immunosuppression environment, which result in unsatisfactory therapeutic efficiency. Herein, a highly stable CD16/PD-L1 bi-specific aptamer (defined as CP-bi-apt) with high affinity and selectivity was introduced to overcome these obstacles. This CP-bi-apt can mediate a significant antitumor immunity by recruiting CD16-positive NK cells to directly contact with PD-L1 high-expressed tumor cells. In addition, the induced up-regulation of PD-L1 on tumor cells can inevitably occur as an adaptive response to most of the immunotherapeutic strategies. The prepared CP-bi-apt can be further used as an immune checkpoint inhibitor to specifically bind to PD-L1, thus reducing the negative impact of PD-L1 over-expression on the therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, this CP-bi-apt-based immunotherapy is simple, highly efficient, and has low side effects, showing a promising potential for clinical translation.

Abstract With the incorporation of noble metal materials, photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) could be performed as an effective platform for refractive index sensing of the filling analytes. Furthermore, by coating functional dielectric layers upon the metal surfaces, the resonance energy transfer is modulated from the core mode of the PCFs towards the surface plasmon resonance mode of the metals, and the sensing performance could be boosted. Here, considering that the exciton-plasmon coupling is efficient between perovskite quantum dots (QDs) and gold, a kind of CsPbBr3 QDs/Au bilayer coated triangular-lattice PCFs has been simulated numerically as the refractive index sensors. With the optimization of the QDs and gold layer thicknesses, together with the variation of the central hole size of the PCFs, in the refractive index (RI) region of 1.26 to 1.34, a rather narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the loss spectra was achieved as 13.74nm when the central hole size was 1.28 µm and the highest figure of merit was 63.79RIU (the central hole size was 1.53 µm). This work demonstrates that the analyte identification accuracy was enhanced by FWHM narrowing of the loss spectra; in addition, taking the abundance of the material choice of perovskite QDs into consideration, more analytes could be detected effectively. Moreover, by adopting asymmetric structures, the sensitivity of the PCFs based refractive index sensors could be further improved.

Quartz deposits are widely dispersed in nature, but the presence of ore bodies capable of yielding high-purity quartz is exceedingly rare. As a result, the effective purification and processing of high-purity quartz from natural siliceous materials has emerged as a prominent area of research within the non-metallic mineral processing field. This article offers an overview of the current state of research and its limitations in quartz purification and processing technology in China, including the characteristics of quartz mineral resources, the geological origins of ore deposits, impurity forms in ores, and purification techniques. Drawing from examples of five distinct types of quartz ores—vein quartz, powder quartz, quartzite, granitic pegmatite, and pegmatitic granite—we delve into the inherent properties of quartz deposits, ores, and minerals from a mineralogical perspective, establishing their link to purification and processing methodologies. A fundamental challenge restraining the advancement of the high-purity quartz industry is the absence of criteria for evaluating and selecting high-purity quartz raw materials. Existing purification technologies grapple with issues such as intricate single mineral liberation, substantial acid consumption, high energy requirements, and protracted processing procedures. The lack of mineralogically based deep purification techniques presents a hurdle to the development of the high-purity quartz industry. Given the diversity of ore types, the pursuit of knowledge-driven design and the development of economically efficient, environmentally friendly, and streamlined new technologies for tackling the complexities of the purification process may constitute the future direction of our endeavors.

The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates the plant response to environmental stress; therefore, ABA priming is an effective strategy for enhancing stress tolerance in rice. In this study, we investigated the priming effects of 1 and 5 µM ABA on the biochemical and physiological traits associated with seedling growth performance in two rice cultivars exposed to saline (100 mM NaCl) and alkaline (15 mM Na2CO3) stress via root drenching. ABA pretreatment effectively reduced damage in rice seedlings by mitigating the increases in Na+/K+ ratio, membrane injury, contents of Na+, malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide anion radical, and prevented reductions in K+ and total chlorophyll contents, and ROS-related enzyme activities in both cultivars under saline and alkaline stresses. Rice seedlings with ABA pretreatment under alkaline stress had a stronger ability to maintain ion homeostasis, eliminate ROS, and induce changes in endogenous ABA levels via the upregulation of OsHKT1;5, OsSOS1, OsNHX5, OsPOX1, OsCATA, OsNCED3, OsSalT, and OsWsi18 and downregulation of OsRbohA than under saline stress. The saline–alkaline (SA)-sensitive cultivar demonstrated greater sensitivity to the priming effect of ABA than that of the SA-tolerant cultivar under both stress conditions. These findings have implications for rice adaptation to SA soils.

Smartphone Addiction is a social issue caused by excessive smartphone use, affecting decision-making processes. Current research on the risky decision-making abilities of smartphone addicts is limited. This study used the functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) brain imaging technique and a Sequential Risk-Taking Task experimental paradigm to investigate the decision-making behavior and brain activity of smartphone addicts under varying risk levels. Using a mixed experimental design, the research assessed decision-making ability and brain activation levels as dependent variables across two groups (addiction and control), two risk amounts (high and low), and two outcomes (gain and loss). The study included 42 participants, with 25 in the addiction group and 17 in the control group. Results indicated that risk level significantly impacted the decision-making ability of smartphone addicts, with high-risk levels leading to weaker decision-making ability and increased risk-taking. However, at low-risk levels, decision-making abilities between addicts and healthy individuals showed no significant difference. Furthermore, brain imaging results using fNIRS revealed stronger brain activation in the dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC) region for smartphone addicts under loss outcome conditions, with no significant differences between the two groups in terms of brain activation at varying risk volumes. These findings are critical in promoting healthy smartphone use, guiding clinical treatment, and advancing brain mechanism research.

The increasing popularity of portable smart devices has led to the emergence of vehicular crowdsensing as a novel approach for real-time sensing and environmental data collection, garnering significant attention across various domains. Within vehicular crowdsensing, task assignment stands as a fundamental research challenge. As the number of vehicle users and perceived tasks grows, the design of efficient task assignment schemes becomes crucial. However, existing research solely focuses on task deadlines, neglecting the importance of task duration. Additionally, the majority of privacy protection mechanisms in the current task assignment process emphasize safeguarding user location information but overlook the protection of user-perceived duration. This lack of protection exposes users to potential time-aware inference attacks, enabling attackers to deduce user schedules and device information. To address these issues in opportunistic task assignment for vehicular crowdsensing, this paper presents the minimum number of participants required under the constraint of probability coverage and proposes the User-Based Task Assignment (UBTA) mechanism, which selects the smallest set of participants to minimize the payment cost while measuring the probability of accomplishing perceived tasks by user combinations. To ensure privacy protection during opportunistic task assignment, a privacy protection method based on differential privacy is introduced. This method fuzzifies the sensing duration of vehicle users and calculates the probability of vehicle users completing sensing tasks, thus avoiding the exposure of users’ sensitive data while effectively assigning tasks. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through theoretical analysis and a comprehensive set of simulation experiments.

Abstract Red blood cells (RBCs) have recently emerged as promosing candidates for cancer treatment in terms of relieving tumor hypoxia and inducing oxidative damage against cancer cells, but they are still far from satisfactory due to their limited oxygen transport and reactive oxygen species generation rate in tumor tissue. Herein, artificial RBCs (designated FTP@RBCM) with radical storm production ability were developed for oncotherapy through multidimensional reactivity pathways of Fe-protoporphyrin-based hybrid metal–organic frameworks (FTPs, as the core), including photodynamic/chemodynamic-like, catalase-like and glutathione peroxidase-like activities. Meanwhile, owing to the advantages of long circulation abilities of RBCs provided by their cell membranes (RBCMs), FTP with a surface coated with RBCMs (FTP@RBCM) could enormously accumulate at tumor site to achieve remarkably enhanced therapeutic efficiency. Intriguingly, this ROS-mediated dynamic therapy was demonstrated to induce acute local inflammation and high immunogenic cancer death, which evoked a systemic antitumor immune response when combined with the newly identified T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-containing molecule 3 (Tim-3) checkpoint blockade, leading to not only effective elimination of primary tumors but also an abscopal effect of growth suppression of distant tumors. Therefore, such RBC-mimic nanocatalysts with multidimensional catalytic capacities might provide a promising new insight into synergistic cancer treatment.

Abstract Highly infectious illnesses caused by pathogens constitute severe threats to public health and lead to global economic loss. The use of robust and programmable clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR-Cas) systems, repurposed from genome-engineering applications has markedly improved traditional nucleic acid detection for precise identification, independently enabling rapid diagnostics of multiplex biomarker with genetic and mutation related to tumors, and microbial pathogens. In this review, we delineate the utility of the current CRISPR-Cas enzyme as biosensors by which these effector toolkits achieve recognition, signaling amplification, and finally, accurate detection. Additionally, we discuss the details of the dominance and hurdles related to expanding this revolutionary technology into an effective and convenient contraption crucial for improving the rational redesign to CRISPR/Cas biosensing. Overall, this review provides an insight into the current status of rapid and POC diagnostic systems by CRISPR/Cas tools.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is emerging as a promising therapeutic approach for clinical treatment against various cancers. However, ICB based monotherapies still suffer from low immune response rate due to the limited and exhausted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes as well as tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment. In this work, the cell membrane with surface displaying PD-1 proteins (PD1-CM) was prepared for immune checkpoint blockade, which was further combined with multifunctional and biodegradable MnO2 for systematic and robust antitumor therapy. The MnO2-based gene-engineered nanocomposites can catalyze the decomposition of abundant H2O2 in TME to generate O2, which can promote the intratumoral infiltration of T cells, and thus improve the effect of immune checkpoint blockade by PD-1 proteins on PD1-CM. Furthermore, MnO2 in the nanocomposites can be completely degraded into Mn2+, which can catalyze the generation of highly toxic hydroxyl radicals for chemodynamic therapy, thereby further enhancing the therapeutic effect. In addition, the prepared nanocomposites possess the advantages of low cost, easy preparation and good biocompatibility, which are expected to become promising agents for combination immunotherapy.

Abstract Background Clinically, prophylactic anti-recurrence treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after radical surgery are extremely limited. Neoantigen based vaccine can generate robust anti-tumor immune response in several solid tumors but whether it could induce anti-tumor immune response in HCC and serve as a safe and effective prophylactic strategy for preventing postoperative HCC recurrence still remain largely unclear. Methods Personalized neoantigen vaccine was designed and immunized for 10 HCC patients with high risk of postoperative recurrence in a prime-boost schedule. The safety and immune response were assessed through adverse events, tissue sequencing, ELISpot, TCR sequencing. The clinical response was evaluated by recurrence-free survival (RFS) and personalized circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) sequencing. Results In the 10 enrolled patients, no obvious adverse events were observed during neoantigen vaccinations. Until the deadline of clinical trial, 8 of 10 patients were confirmed with clinical relapse by imaging, the other 2 patients remained relapse-free. From receiving first neoantigen vaccination, the median RFS of 10 patients were 7.4 months. Among 7 patients received all planned neoantigen vaccinations, 5 of them demonstrated neoantigen-induced T cell responses and have significantly longer RFS after radical surgery than other 5 patients without responsive neoantigens or only with prime vaccination and propensity scores matching control patients (p = 0.035). Moreover, tracking personalized neoantigen mutations in ctDNA could provide real-time evaluation of clinical response in HCC patients during neoantigen vaccination and follow up. Conclusion Personalized neoantigen vaccine is proved as a safe, feasible and effective strategy for HCC anti-recurrence, and its progression could be sensitively monitored by corresponding neoantigen mutations in ctDNA, and thus provided solid information for individualized medicine in HCC. Trial registration This study was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry; Registration number: ChiCTR1900020990 .

Background: The redirected jumping (RDJ) technique is a new locomotion method that saves physical tracking area and enhances the body movement experience of users in virtual reality. In a previous study, the range of imperceptible manipulation gains in RDJ was discussed in an empty virtual environment (VE). Methods: In this study, we conducted three tasks to investigate the influence of alley width on the detection threshold of jump redirection in a VE. Results: The results demonstrated that the imperceptible distance gain range in RDJ was not associated with the width of the alleys. The imperceptible height and rotation gain ranges in RDJ are related to the width of the alleys. Conclusions: We preliminarily summarized the relationship between the occlusion distance and manipulation range of the three gains in a complex environment. Simultaneously, the guiding principle for choosing three gains in RDJ according to the occlusion distance in a complex environment is provided.

Diabetes is a disease that requires long-term monitoring, and noninvasive glucose detection effectively reduces patient self-monitor resistance. Traditional noninvasive blood glucose methods are limited by many aspects, such as equipment, environment, and safety, which are not suitable for practical use. Aiming at this problem, propose a lightweight network called Group Asymmetric Convolution Shuffle Network (GACSNet) for noninvasive blood glucose detection: use infrared imaging to acquire human metabolic heat and construct a dataset, combine asymmetric convolution with channel shuffle unit, the novel convolution neural network is designed, and extract metabolic heat and cool-heat deviation features in thermal imaging. The test set was analyzed and compared using Clarke’s error grid. The current neural network showed an mean absolute percentage error of 9.17%, with a training time of 2 min 54 s and a inference time of 1.35 ms, which was superior to several traditional convolution neural networks’ accuracy, training cost, and real-time performance in the blood glucose region 3.9–9 mmol/L, and provided new insights into noninvasive blood glucose detection.

Objective To report how the Chinese mainland battled its first omicron wave, which happened in Tianjin, a metropolis with 14 million residents. We also sought to better understand how clinical features affected the timing of viral clearance.Design A retrospective study of the omicron wave in Tianjin between 8 January 2022 and 3 March 2022.Setting Except for the first cases on 8 January, all the omicron cases were identified through PCR mass testing in the residential communities. Residential quarantine and serial PCR mass testing were dynamically adjusted according to the trends of new cases.Participants All the 417 consecutive PCR-positive cases identified through mass screening of the entire city’s 14 million residents. 45.3% of the cases were male, and the median age was 37 (range 0.3–90). 389 (93%) cases had complete data for analysing the correlation between clinical features and the timing of viral clearance.Main outcome and measure Time to viral clearance.Results Tianjin initiated the ‘dynamic zero-COVID’ policy very early, that is, when daily new case number was ≈0.4 cases per 1 000 000 residents. Daily new cases dropped to

IntroductionThe alpine meadows are distributed widely and play a vital role in ecosystem service functions on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Under the combined effect of climate change and overgrazing, shrubs display an apparent expansion trend, leading to the shrinking of alpine meadows, and directly affecting the structure and function of grassland ecosystems. However, the effects of shrub encroachment on the plant community and soil nutrients of alpine grassland ecosystems still need to be clarified.MethodWe aimed to determine differences in vegetation characteristics and nutrient distribution along the soil profile between shrub patches and their adjacent grassland at three sites, which were three typical types of shrub-encroached grassland, including Spiraea alpina Pall. (SA), Lonicera tubuliflora Rehd. (LT), and Salix cupularis Rehd. (ST).ResultsThe results showed that shrub invasion changed the plant community structure of alpine grassland ecosystems, and shrub type was the critical factor driving this alteration. The expansion of the three shrubs reduced grassland species diversity. Shrub encroachment in SA positively impacted vegetation biomass but significantly decreased the soil organic content (SOC) and total nutrients. Shrub invasion in the ST had the most substantial impact on vegetation and soil, resulting in significantly lower nutrient content in shrubs than in grassland patches. The effect of LT was a significant reduction in vegetation biomass but no significant changes in biodiversity or soil nutrients. Grassland patches were more strongly correlated than shrub patches for SA and LT, while the opposite was true for ST. Vegetation characteristics were correlated least with soil nutrients for SA, while ST was most correlated, and LT was between them. Soil nutrients show more positive correlations with vegetation, enzyme activity, and microbial biomass in deeper soils (20–100 cm) than in shallow soils (0–20 cm). The deeper the soil layer is, the more significant the positive correlations in the shrub patches. Our findings indicated that shrubs play critical roles in the dynamics of vegetation patterns and soil environments for managing and sustainable utilization of shrubby alpine grasslands.

In vivo fluorescent imaging by using the new contrast agents emitted at short-wavelength infrared region (NIR II, 1000–1700 ​nm) presents an unprecedent advantages in imaging sensitivity and spatial resolution over traditional near-infrared (NIR) light. Recently, Nd-based rare-earth nanocrystals have attracted considerable attention due to the high quantum yield (∼40%) of their emission at NIR II. However, undesirable capture by reticuloendothelial system to bring strong background signal is unsatisfying for tumor discrimination. Here, GSH-sensitive tetrasulfide bond incorporated mesoporous silica shell has entrusted onto Nd-based down-conversion nanocrystals (DCNPs) surface to totally quench the fluorescence of DCNPs. After RGD conjugation on the silica surface, the NIR II contrast agents could actively target to liver tumors. Then tetrasulfide bonds can be broken during the silica framework decomposing in cytoplasm under high GSH concentration to result in NIR II fluorescence explosive recover. Benefiting from this specific response under tumor microenvironment, the NIR II signal in other organs was markedly reduced, while the signal-to-background ratio is prominently enhanced in tumors. Then, solid liver tumors were successfully resected under the guidance of our GSH responsive NIR II fluorescent imaging with no recurrence after 20-day of surgery. Meanwhile, by combining with the ignorable side effects, the Nd-based nanoprobes vastly improved the imaging resolution of tumor margin, opening a paradigm of NIR II fluorescent imaging-guided surgery.

Abstract Background Preoperative serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) levels is significantly related to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its clinical value in the management of postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) has rarely been explored. This study aimed to investigate whether γ-GT levels could be taken as a biomarker to guide the management of PA-TACE in resectable HCC. Methods HCC patients receiving radical resection were identified through the primary liver cancer big data (PLCBD) from December 2012 to December 2015. Prognostic factors of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were identified by univariate and multivariate cox analyses, and subgroup analysis was conducted between PA-TACE group and non-TACE stratified by γ-GT levels before and after 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM). Results γ-GT level was found to be an independent risk factor of OS and DFS in 1847 HCC patients receiving radical resection (both P 54.0 U/L) have a shortened median OS and DFS, compared with those with normal γ-GT (both P 0.05), and PA-TACE was not a significant prognostic factor of both OS and DFS before and after PSM (all P > 0.05). In the subgroup of patients with elevated γ-GT, significant differences were found between groups of PA-TACE and non-TACE in terms of median OS and DFS before and after PSM (all P

The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect provides opportunities for the rapid development of fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic therapy (PDT). In this work, a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based photosensitizer (ET-BDP-O) with AIE characteristics was developed, in which the two linear arms of BODIPY group were linked with triphenylamine to form an electron Donor–Acceptor–Donor (D–A–D) architecture while side chain was equipped with triethylene glycol group. ET-BDP-O was able to directly self-assemble into nanoparticles (NPs) without supplement of any other matrices or stabilizers due to its amphiphilic property. The as-prepared ET-BDP-O NPs had an excellent colloid stability with the size of 125 nm. Benefiting from the AIE property, ET-BDP-O NPs could generate strong fluorescence and reactive oxygen species under light-emitting diode light irradiation (60[Formula: see text]mW/cm[Formula: see text]. After internalized in cancer cells, ET-BDP-O NPs were able to emit bright red fluorescence signal for bioimaging. In addition, the cell viability assay demonstrated that the ET-BDP-O NPs exhibited excellent photo-cytotoxicity against cancer cells, while negligible cytotoxicity under dark environment. Thus, ET-BDP-O NPs might be regarded as a promising photosensitizer for fluorescence imaging-guided PDT in future.

Two-dimension (2D) nano materials are diffusely employed as lubricant additives. In this paper, three kinds of ultrathin 2D metal-organic framework (MOF) nanosheets with different metal ions (Ni2+, Zn2+, and Cu2+) were successfully synthesized by ultrasonic assisted self-assembly under appropriate solvent ratio. Ni-MOF nanosheets as a new additive in 500 N system exhibit the best dispersion stability and lubrication performance, which is related to its maximum absolute value of Zeta potential. Compared with pure 500 N, the best tribological properties were obtained with the addition of 0.1 wt% Ni-MOF nanosheets, reducing friction by 33.2 ± 12.4 % and wear by 98.7 ± 0.14 %. The excellent performance originates from interlayer sliding effect, polishing effect, and tribofilm with concrete structure. The iron oxide particles embedded in the tribofilm play a supporting structrue for the whole tribofilm. The carbonaceous and nitrogenous compounds are filled around the iron oxide particles, which makes tribofilm denser and more smooth. The further friction tests under higher sliding velocity and longer term reveal the potential industrial use of Ni-MOF nanosheets.

Abstract Due to an intensification of anthropogenic activities and climate change in recent decades, the hydrological connections and relationships between rivers and lakes have been significantly modified globally. Poyang Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes globally and is one of the few that remain naturally connected to the Yangtze River. To investigate the full hydrological conditions (extreme high and low discharge) of Poyang Lake outflow under current bathymetric conditions, a large‐scale 1D‐ and 2D‐coupled high‐resolution hydrodynamic model of the Poyang Lake basin–Yangtze River system was developed. We simulated the outflow and water levels of Poyang Lake under nine different extreme hydrological scenarios with high precision and computational efficiency. We propose (1) a novel partition calibration method to characterize the roughness coefficient of large water bodies in complicated geographical terrain both for wet and dry seasons; (2) a new method for setting initial conditions for hydrodynamic simulation of large water bodies subject to strong hydrological regulation. Results indicated that (1) maximum outflow and water levels will reach 37,200 m3/s and 22.28 m when Poyang Lake basin floodwater coincides with flooding on the Yangtze River; (2) precipitation over the lake has increased outflow but this has had very limited influence on its changing hydrological pattern; (3) the effect of hydrological conditions within the system differs for both the lake outflow and water level. The research provides important reference conditions for the application of the InfoWorks ICM model in future applications and studies of large river–lake systems.

Background Personalized neoantigen vaccine could induce a robust antitumor immune response in multiple cancers, whose efficacy could be further enhanced by combining with programmed cell death 1 blockade (α-PD-1). However, the corresponding immune response and synergistic mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, we aimed to develop clinically available combinational therapeutic strategy and further explore its potential antitumor mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods Neoantigen peptide vaccine (NeoVAC) for murine HCC cell line Hepa1-6 was developed and optimized by neoantigen screening and adjuvant optimization. Then the synergistic efficacy and related molecular mechanisms of NeoVAC combined with α-PD-1 in HCC were evaluated by orthotopic HCC mouse model, single-cell RNA sequencing, tetramer flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, etc. The tumor-killing capacity of CD8+ tissue-resident memory T cells (CD8+ TRMs) was assessed by orthotopic HCC mouse model, and autologous patient-derived cells.Results NeoVAC, which consisted of seven high immunogenic neoantigen peptides and clinical-grade Poly(I:C), could generate a strong antitumor immune response in HCC mouse models. Significantly, its efficacy could be further improved by combining with α-PD-1, with 80% of durable tumor regression and long-term immune memory in orthotopic HCC models. Moreover, in-depth analysis of the tumor immune microenvironment showed that the percentage of CD8+ TRMs was remarkedly increased in NeoVAC plus α-PD-1 treatment group, and positively associated with the antitumor efficacy. In vitro and in vivo T-cell cytotoxicity assay further confirmed the strong tumor-killing capacity of CD8+ TRMs sorting from orthotopic mouse HCC or patient’s HCC tissue.Conclusions This study showed that NeoVAC plus α-PD-1 could induce a strong antitumor response and long-term tumor-specific immune memory in HCC by increasing CD8+ TRMs infiltration, which might serve as a potential immune-therapeutic target for HCC.

ObjectivesTo evaluate foot blood volume and hemodynamics and explore whether quantitative techniques can guide revascularization.Materials and methodsA prospective single-center cohort study included thirty-three patients with infrapopliteal artery occlusion who underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) between November 2016 and May 2020. The time-to-peak (TTP) from color-coded quantitative digital subtraction angiography (CCQ-DSA) and parenchymal blood volume (PBV) were used to evaluate the blood volume and hemodynamic changes in different regions of the foot before and after the operation.ResultsAfter the intervention procedure, the overall blood volume significantly increased from 25.15 ± 21.1 ml/1,000 ml to 72.33 ± 29.3 ml/1,000 ml (p

In response to the problem of no supporting equipment for the cultivation of Codonopsis in the hilly and mountainous areas of northwest China, a combined machine for transplanting outcrop of Codonopsis with micro ridges covered with film is designed. The key components of the prototype are analyzed and designed, and the structures and working parameters of the seedbed preparation device, seedling-casting device, rotary tillage soil-covering device, film-covering device, seedling head burial, and film edge soil-covering device are determined. The transmission system scheme is established, and the working mechanism of the core components is analyzed. Field experiments show that when the target seedling spacing is 4.4 cm and the machine moves forward at a speed of 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 m/s, the variation coefficient of planting spacing and the qualification rate of planting depth meet the standard requirements. The qualified rate of planting posture and film side outcrop are greatly affected by the operating speed of the machine and decrease with the increase in operating speed. When the operating speed reaches 0.1 m/s, the average variation coefficient of planting spacing is 0.08% and the average qualified rate of planting depth, planting posture and film side outcrop is 95.83%, 94.17%, and 93.33%, respectively, which shows that the operating performance is better than that of the operating speeds of 0.15 m/s and 0.2 m/s. This study provides a new reference for the theoretical research and design of mechanized and automated transplanting machinery for Codonopsis seedlings.

Abstract Background Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) have shown superiority in the endovascular treatment of short femoropopliteal artery disease. Few studies have focused on outcomes in long lesions. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Orchid® DCBs in long lesions over 1 year of follow-up. Methods This study is a multicentre cohort and real-world study. The patients had lesions longer than or equal to 150 mm of the femoropopliteal artery and were revascularized with DCBs. The primary endpoints were primary patency, freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (TLR) at 12 months and major adverse events (all-cause death and major target limb amputation). The secondary endpoints were the changes in Rutherford classification and the ankle brachial index (ABI). Results One hundred fifteen lesions in 109 patients (mean age 67 ± 11 years, male proportion 71.6%) were included in this study. The mean lesion length was 252.3 ± 55.4 mm, and 78.3% of the lesions were chronic total occlusion (CTO). Primary patency by Kaplan–Meier estimation was 98.1% at 6 months and 82.1% at 12 months. The rate of freedom from TLR by Kaplan–Meier estimation was 88.4% through 12 months. There were no procedure- or device-related deaths through 12 months. The rate of all-cause death was 2.8%. Cox regression analysis suggested that renal failure and critical limb ischaemia (CLI) were statistically significant predictors of the primary patency endpoint. Conclusion In our real-world study, DCBs were safe and effective when used in long femoropopliteal lesions, and the primary patency rate at 12 months by Kaplan–Meier estimation was 82.1%.

Abstract Background Y‐box binding protein 1 (YB1 or YBX1) plays a critical role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, whether YB1 affects malignant transformation by modulating non‐coding RNAs remains largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between YB1 and microRNAs and reveal the underlying mechanism by which YB1 impacts on tumor malignancy via miRNAs‐mediated regulatory network. Methods The biological functions of YB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells were investigated by cell proliferation, wound healing, and transwell invasion assays. The miRNAs dysregulated by YB1 were screened by microarray analysis in HCC cell lines. The regulation of YB1 on miR‐205 and miR‐200b was determined by quantitative real‐time PCR, dual‐luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation, and pull‐down assay. The relationships of YB1, DGCR8, Dicer, TUT4, and TUT1 were identified by pull‐down and coimmunoprecipitation experiments. The cellular co‐localization of YB1, DGCR8, and Dicer were detected by immunofluorescent staining. The in vivo effect of YB1 on tumor metastasis was determined by injecting MHCC97H cells transduced with YB1 shRNA or shControl via the tail vein in nude BALB/c mice. The expression levels of epithelial to mesenchymal transition markers were detected by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry assays. Results YB1 promoted HCC cell migration and tumor metastasis by regulating miR‐205/200b‒ZEB1 axis partially in a Snail‐independent manner. YB1 suppressed miR‐205 and miR‐200b maturation by interacting with the microprocessors DGCR8 and Dicer as well as TUT4 and TUT1 via the conserved cold shock domain. Subsequently, the downregulation of miR‐205 and miR‐200b enhanced ZEB1 expression, thus leading to increased cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, statistical analyses on gene expression data from HCC and normal liver tissues showed that YB1 expression was positively associated with ZEB1 expression and remarkably correlated with clinical prognosis. Conclusion This study reveals a previously undescribed mechanism by which YB1 promotes cancer progression by regulating the miR‐205/200b‒ZEB1 axis in HCC cells. Furthermore, these results highlight that YB1 may play biological functions via miRNAs‐mediated gene regulation, and it can serve as a potential therapeutic target in human cancers.

Abstract Alternative splicing (AS) is an important event that contributes to posttranscriptional gene regulation. This process leads to several mature transcript variants with diverse physiological functions. Indeed, disruption of various aspects of this multistep process, such as cis- or trans- factor alteration, promotes the progression of colorectal cancer. Therefore, targeting some specific processes of AS may be an effective therapeutic strategy for treating cancer. Here, we provide an overview of the AS events related to colorectal cancer based on research done in the past 5 years. We focus on the mechanisms and functions of variant products of AS that are relevant to malignant hallmarks, with an emphasis on variants with clinical significance. In addition, novel strategies for exploiting the therapeutic value of AS events are discussed.

Abstract Background Photodynamic therapy (PDT), a typical reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent treatment with high controllability, has emerged as an alternative cancer therapy modality but its therapeutic efficacy is still unsatisfactory due to the limited light penetration and constant oxygen consumption. With the development of another ROS-dependent paradigm ferroptosis, several efforts have been made to conquer the poor efficacy by combining these two approaches; however the biocompatibility, tumor-targeting capacity and clinical translation prospect of current studies still exist great concerns. Herein, a novel hypoxia-responsive nanoreactor BCFe@SRF with sorafenib (SRF) loaded inside, constructed by covalently connecting chlorin e6 conjugated bovine serum albumin (BSA-Ce6) and ferritin through azobenzene (Azo) linker, were prepared to offer unmatched opportunities for high-efficient PDT and ferroptosis synergistic therapy. Results The designed BCFe@SRF exhibited appropriate size distribution, stable dispersity, excellent ROS generation property, controllable drug release capacity, tumor accumulation ability, and outstanding biocompatibility. Importantly, the BCFe@SRF could be degraded under hypoxia environment to release BSA-Ce6 for laser-triggered PDT, ferritin for iron-catalyzed Fenton reaction and SRF for tumor antioxidative defense disruption. Meanwhile, besides PDT effects, it was found that BCFe@SRF mediated treatment upon laser irradiation in hypoxic environment not only could accelerate lipid peroxidation (LPO) generation but also could deplete intracellular glutathione (GSH) and decrease glutathione peroxidase (GPX4) expression, which was believed as three symbolic events during ferroptosis. All in all, the BCFe@SRF nanoreactor, employing multiple cascaded pathways to promote intracellular ROS accumulation, presented remarkably outstanding antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion BCFe@SRF could serve as a promising candidate for synergistic PDT and ferroptosis therapy, which is applicable to boost oxidative damage within tumor site and will be informative to future design of ROS-dependent therapeutic nanoplatforms. Graphic abstract

As a result of the fast growth of remote sensing and data assimilation technology, many global land use land cover (LULC) and climate reanalysis data sets have been used to advance our understanding of climate and environmental change. This paper investigates the precipitation variations of the Yangtze Delta Megalopolis by using precipitation reanalysis data under conditions of dynamic urban sprawl. Compared with current precipitation characteristic analyses, which are often based on a limited number of ground rainfall stations, the approach followed in this study comprises a grid-based statistical method using large sets of samples with a uniform distribution and a same representative grid area. This novel approach of dynamic sampling is applied in this study to overcome the temporal and spatial inconsistency of stationary sampling. This approach allows to examine the impact of urbanization on regional precipitation characteristics. The Yangtze Delta Megalopolis (YDM) region, one of the most developed regions in China, was selected as a case study to evaluate the impact of urbanization on subsequent precipitation features. The results reveal that the annual total precipitation (TP) and the maximum daily precipitation (MDP) in both urban and non-urban areas of the YDM region generally have increased during the past 30 years. Hence, the region has become increasingly humid. Extrema of annual MDP and TP show obvious spatial characteristics, in which most maxima are located in the southern part of YDM while minima are more concentrated in the northern part. This newly developed approach has potentials for application in studies where underlying surface features exhibit rapid alterations. The findings of this case study provide relevant information for planning and design of regional water resources management, flood risk management, and planning of the urban drainage system of the YDM region.

SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent for the global COVID-19 pandemic; however, the interaction between virus and host is not well characterized. Natural killer cells play a key role in the early phase of the antiviral response, and their primary functions are dependent on signaling through the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR). This study measured the association between KIR/HLA class I ligand pairings and the occurrence and development of COVID-19. DNA of blood samples from 257 COVID-19 patients were extracted and used to detect KIR and HLA-C gene frequencies using single strain sequence-specific primer (SSP) PCR. The frequency of these genes was compared among 158 individuals with mild COVID-19, 99 with severe disease, and 98 healthy controls. The frequencies of KIR2DL2 (P=0.04, OR=1.707), KIR2DS3 (P=0.047, OR=1.679), HLA-C1C1 (P

The field of magnetic robotics aims to obviate physical connections between the actuators and end‐effectors. Such tetherless control may enable new ultraminimally invasive surgical manipulations in clinical settings. While wireless actuation offers advantages in medical applications, the challenge of providing sufficient force to magnetic needles for tissue penetration remains a barrier to practical application. Applying sufficient force for tissue penetration is required for tasks such as biopsy, suturing, cutting, drug delivery, and accessing deep‐seated regions of complex structures in organs such as the eye. To expand the force landscape for such magnetic surgical tools, an impact force‐based suture needle capable of penetrating in vitro and ex vivo samples with 3‐degrees‐of‐freedom (DOF) planar motion is proposed. Using custom‐built 14 and 25 G needles, generation of 410 mN penetration force is demonstrated, a 22.7‐fold force increase with more than 20 times smaller volume compared with similar magnetically guided needles. With the Magnetic Pulse Actuated Collisions for Tissue‐penetrating (MPACT)‐Needle, gauze mesh suturing onto an agar gel is demonstrated. In addition, the tip size is reduced to 25 G, a typical needle size for eye interventions, to demonstrate ex vivo penetration in a rabbit eye towards corneal injections and transscleral drug delivery.

Many species, particularly marine organisms, are becoming more vulnerable to marine heatwaves due to climate change. Marine species anticipate perishing during marine heatwaves, but there is a growing interest in learning why some can resist. Using Pinctada maxima as a model species, we were able to clone a full-length cDNA encoding HSP90 with a calculated open reading frame of 2031 residues of amino acids and a molecular mass estimate of 78.08 kD to understand better the effects of marine heatwaves on the HSP90 gene expression in pearl oysters. The sequence of amino acids in P. maxima HSP90 was quite similar to the HSP90 families of Pinctada fucata martensii. At 32°C and 36°C, the expression of PmHSP90 significantly expressed and reached its highest level at 6 h, implying that in pearl oysters’ response to acute marine heatwaves, HSP90 expression rapidly increased. Pearl oysters’ temperature response was relieved, as best demonstrated by the dramatically reduced expression levels of PmHSP90 in the frequently reoccurring marine heatwaves event. Using these findings, it is possible to predict acute and repeated marine heatwaves in pearl oysters using P. maxima HSP90 as a molecular biomarker.

Over-exploitation of coal mines leads to surface subsidence, surface cracks, collapses, landslides, and other geological disasters. Taking a mining area in Nalintaohai Town, Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as an example, Sentinel-1A data from January 2018 to October 2019 were used as the data source in this study. Based on the high interference coherence of the permanent scatterer (PS) over a long period of time, the problem of the manual selection of ground control points (GCPs) affecting the monitoring results during refinement and re-flattening is solved. A DInSAR-PS-Stacking method combining the PS three-threshold method (the coherence coefficient threshold, amplitude dispersion index threshold, and deformation velocity interval) is proposed as a means to select ground control points for refinement and re-flattening, as well as a means to obtain time-series deformation by weighted stacking processing. A SBAS-PS-InSAR method combining the PS three-threshold method to select PS points as GCPs for refinement and re-flattening is also proposed. The surface deformation results monitored by the DInSAR-PS-Stacking and SBAS-PS-InSAR methods are analyzed and verified. The results show that the subsidence location, range, distribution, and space–time subsidence law of surface deformation results obtained by DInSAR-PS-Stacking, SBAS-PS-InSAR, and GPS methods are basically the same. The deformation results obtained by these two InSAR methods have a good correlation with the GPS monitoring results, and the MAE and RMSE are within the acceptable range. The error showed that the edge of the subsidence basin was small and that the center was large. Both methods were found to be able to effectively monitor the coal mine, but there were also shortcomings. DInSAR-PS-Stacking has a strong ability to monitor the settlement center. SBAS-PS-InSAR performed well in monitoring slow and small deformations, but its monitoring of the settlement center was insufficient. Considering the advantages of these two InSAR methods, we proposed fusing the time-series deformation results obtained using these two InSAR methods to allow for more reliable deformation results and to carry out settlement analysis. The results showed that the automatic two-threshold (deformation threshold and average coherence threshold) fusion was effective for monitoring and analysis, and the deformation monitoring results are in good agreement with the actual situation. The deformation information obtained by the comparison, and fusion of multiple methods can allow for better monitoring and analysis of the mining area surface deformation, and can also provide a scientific reference for mining subsidence control and early disaster warning.

Lung cancer is the most prevalent severe illness in both sexes and all ages and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. Late-stage diagnosis is the primary cause of its high mortality rate. Therefore, the management of lung cancer needs early-stage screening. Breath analysis is a non-invasive, low-cost, and user-friendly approach to diagnosing lung cancer. Among the various types of breath sensors, MOS gas sensors are preferred due to their high gas responses, fast response times, robustness, and lower price. This review focuses on the critical role of MOS gas sensors in detecting VOCs in lung cancer patients’ exhaled breath. It introduces the basic working mechanism of MOS gas-sensitive materials, summarizes some high-performance MOS materials suitable for detecting potential lung cancer biomarkers and provides performance enhancement strategies. The review also briefly introduces the sensor array and its pattern recognition algorithm. Finally, we discuss the challenges in developing MOS gas sensors for lung cancer screening and present the prospect of using the e-nose for large-scale early lung cancer screening.

A self-propelled machine for combined potato harvesting and residual plastic film retrieval is presented in this paper. The machine was designed collaboratively and built at the College of Mechano-Electronic Engineering of Gansu Agricultural University. It is intended for slow slope and horizontal terraces in hilly and mountainous areas of Northwest China, where regular-size harvesters cannot operate. The machine can realize the combined operations of potato digging, potato separation from soil and plastic film, potato collection and bagging, and residual plastic film retrieval. Through engineering analyses, the main systems of the machine were calculated, and their operating parameters were estimated. These include the digging and lifting device, the potato–plastic-film separation device, and the residual plastic film retrieval device. Field tests were performed at a 0.5 m/s driving speed of the machine, while the linear speed of the lifting chain of the digging and lifting device was 1.5 m/s, the tilting angle of the conveying chain of the potato and plastic film separation device was 50°, its linear speed was 0.6 m/s, and the linear speed of the lifting screen of the circulating lifting device was 0.7 m/s. With these settings, the average productivity of the machine was 0.12 ha/h. The loss rate, damage rate, and potato bruising rate were 1.8%, 1.4%, and 2.8%, respectively; the potato impurity rate was 3.6%; and the residual plastic film retrieval rate was 83%—all above industry standards. This research provides a solution to the problem of mechanized potato harvesting and plastic mulch retrieval on small, slopped plots of land in Northwest China and in other parts of the world where similar conditions exist.

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (ASSLIBs), with their exceptional attributes, have captured the attention of researchers. They offer a viable solution to the inherent flaws of traditional lithium-ion batteries. The crux of an ASSLB lies in its solid-state electrolyte (SSE) which shows higher stability and safety compared to liquid electrolyte. Additionally, it holds the promise of being compatible with Li metal anode, thereby realizing higher capacity. Inorganic SSEs have undergone tremendous developments in the last few decades; however, their practical applications still face difficulties such as the electrode–electrolyte interface, air stability, and so on. The structural composition of inorganic electrolytes is inherently linked to the advantages and difficulties they present. This article provides a comprehensive explanation of the development, structure, and Li-ion transport mechanism of representative inorganic SSEs. Moreover, corresponding difficulties such as interface issues and air stability as well as possible solutions are also discussed.

The inherent cross-sensitivity of semiconductor gas sensors makes them extremely challenging to accurately detect mixed gases. In order to solve this problem, this paper designed an electronic nose (E-nose) with seven gas sensors and proposed a rapid method for identifying CH4, CO, and their mixtures. Most reported methods for E-nose were based on analyzing the entire response process and employing complex algorithms, such as neural network, which result in long time-consuming processes for gas detection and identification. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper firstly proposes a way to shorten the gas detection time by analyzing only the start stage of the E-nose response instead of the entire response process. Subsequently, two polynomial fitting methods for extracting gas features are designed according to the characteristics of the E-nose response curves. Finally, in order to shorten the time consumption of calculation and reduce the complexity of the identification model, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is introduced to reduce the dimensionality of the extracted feature datasets, and an XGBoost-based gas identification model is trained using the LDA optimized feature datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed method can shorten the gas detection time, obtain sufficient gas features, and achieve nearly 100% identification accuracy for CH4, CO, and their mixed gases.

Aiming at the low detection rate of the existing classroom attendance system and the inconvenience of data query, a non-perceptual classroom attendance system based on face recognition is proposed and designed. Using the Android development platform, the image collected by the front-end was first transferred to the server through OkHttp3 technology. Then the information of the class in the database MySQL was retrieved. Then the face image of each student was filtered through the improved Fust face detection algorithm, and the similarity value within the class and similarity value between the class generated VIPLFaceNet face recognition threshold, which recognized the screened face images and obtained the attendance result. Finally, the attendance result was sent to the front end, the administrator could access the server to query attendance data. The experimental results showed that the recall rate of the improved Fust face detection algorithm and the recognition rate of the VIPLFaceNet face recognition algorithm could reach 90.18% and 98.79% respectively.

Dependence on glutamine and acceleration of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) are both metabolic characteristics of triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC). With the rapid growth of tumors, accelerated glutamine catabolism depletes local glutamine, resulting in glutamine deficiency. Studies have shown that the use of alternative energy sources, such as fatty acids, enables tumor cells to continue to proliferate rapidly in a glutamine‐deficient microenvironment. However, the detailed mechanisms behind this metabolic change are still unclear. Herein, we identified HRD1 as a regulatory protein for FAO that specifically inhibits TNBC cell proliferation under glutamine‐deficient conditions. Furthermore, we observed that HRD1 expression is significantly downregulated under glutamine deprivation and HRD1 directly ubiquitinates and stabilizes CPT2 through K48‐linked ubiquitination. In addition, the inhibition of CPT2 expression dramatically suppresses TNBC cell proliferation mediated by HRD1 knockdown in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we found that the glutaminase inhibitor CB839 significantly inhibited TNBC cell tumor growth, but not in the HRD1 knock‐downed TNBC cells. These findings provide an invaluable insight into HRD1 as a regulator of lipid metabolism and have important implications for TNBC therapeutic targeting.

Gravitational decollement is a structural pattern commonly developed in passive continental marginal basins on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.Two different types of gravity decollement structures with transitional salt and marine mudstone as decollement layers are developed.Based on the stress mechanism, it can be divided into extensional zone, transitional zone and compressional zone successively from the continent to the ocean.In order to clarify the difference between those two types of gravitational decollement structures and their influence on oil and gas accumulation, this paper makes a comparative analysis of two representative basins, the Lower Congo-Congo Fan Basin and the Niger Delta Basin.Through comparing, the differences of structure patterns, sedimentary reservoir distribution characteristics and hydrocarbon accumulation were clarified in the same zone.On the whole, salt gravitational decollement in extensional zone shows that the salt structures are highly active, the oil-gas accumulation conditions are superior, and there are many oil-gas discoveries in this zone.In transitional zone, the intensity of salt activity is moderate and the degree of oil-gas enrichment is the highest.In compressional zone, the salt activity is strong with a large scale salt accumulation, poor source rock and reservoir, and rare oil-gas discoveries.The extensional zone of marine mudstone gravitational decollement is the main oil-gas accumulation area with relatively weak structure activity and good match between the reservoir and source rock.In transitional zone, it has strong extrusion stress, and large amount of mudstone has been accumulated there.The mud diapir is magnificent, and deep-slow diapir structure is the favorable oil-gas accumulation area.The compressional zone is dominated by typical thrust imbricate structure with good match of source rock, reservoir and oil source faults.The oil-gas enrichment in this zone is relatively high.Based on the analysis of those two types of gravitational decollement in source rock, reservoir and hydrocarbon accumulation, this paper have provided some references for the research related to gravitational decollement.

In power systems, various types of disturbances can randomly affect the active power balance, which can result in unexpected frequency changes. A battery energy storage system (BESS) is an effective technique to assist power system primary frequency control. In this work, a comprehensive self-adaptive strategy considering load disturbance types is proposed that enables BESS participation in the primary frequency control of power grids. First, the different types of load disturbances in the power system are divided into two categories, namely, step disturbance and continuous small disturbance. Then, the advantages of virtual inertia control and virtual droop control are taken into full consideration. Model A and Model B are proposed to match the two load disturbance types. Model A is used to rapidly prevent sudden changes in frequency under step disturbance conditions without restricting the state of charge (SOC) of the BESS. Under the conditions of continuous small disturbances, we further propose Model B in which primary frequency control is realized while considering SOC recovery. Compared with the previous primary frequency control methods, the presented approach significantly improves the stability of complicated and changeable power systems. Meanwhile, it fulfills the frequency control requirements with superior frequency control performance.

In coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, interleukin (IL)-6 is one of the leading factors causing death through cytokine release syndrome. Hence, identification of IL-6 downstream from clinical patients’ transcriptome is very valid for analyses of its mechanism. However, clinical study is conditional and time consuming to collect optional size of samples, as patients have the clinical heterogeneity. A possible solution is to deeply mine the relative existing data. Several transcriptome-based studies on other diseases or treatments have revealed different genes to be regulated by IL-6. Through our meta-analysis of these transcriptome datasets, 352 genes were suggested to be regulated by IL-6 in different biological conditions, some of which were related to virus infection and cardiovascular disease. Among them, 232 genes were not identified by current transcriptome studies from clinical research. ICAM1 and PFKFB3 were the most significantly upregulated genes in our meta-analysis and could be employed as biomarkers in patients with severe COVID-19. In general, a meta-analysis of transcriptome datasets could be an alternative way to analyze the immune response and complications of patients suffering from severe COVID-19 and other emergency diseases.

Insertion of new material into the Escherichia coli peptidoglycan (PG) sacculus between the cytoplasmic membrane and the outer membrane requires a well-organized balance between synthetic and hydrolytic activities to maintain cell shape and avoid lysis. Since most bacteria carry multiple enzymes carrying the same type of PG hydrolytic activity, we know little about the specific function of given enzymes. Here we show that the DD-carboxy/endopeptidase PBP4 localizes in a PBP1A/LpoA and FtsEX dependent fashion at midcell during septal PG synthesis. Midcell localization of PBP4 requires its non-catalytic domain 3 of unknown function, but not the activity of PBP4 or FtsE. Microscale thermophoresis with isolated proteins shows that PBP4 interacts with NlpI and the FtsEX-interacting protein EnvC, an activator of amidases AmiA and AmiB, which are needed to generate denuded glycan strands to recruit the initiator of septal PG synthesis, FtsN. The domain 3 of PBP4 is needed for the interaction with NlpI and EnvC, but not PBP1A or LpoA. In vivo crosslinking experiments confirm the interaction of PBP4 with PBP1A and LpoA. We propose that the interaction of PBP4 with EnvC, whilst not absolutely necessary for mid-cell recruitment of either protein, coordinates the activities of PBP4 and the amidases, which affects the formation of denuded glycan strands that attract FtsN. Consistent with this model, we found that the divisome assembly at midcell was premature in cells lacking PBP4, illustrating how the complexity of interactions affect the timing of cell division initiation.