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As one of the most important energy storage systems, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) attract much attention recently. Materials composed of beryllium or boron, due to the lighter molar weight, offer natural advantages for high energy density anode of LIBs. Here, we propose a two-dimensional tetragonal Be2B (T-Be2B) and investigate the performance as a potential anode for LIBs. Through first-principles calculations, T-Be2B exhibits excellent thermal, dynamic, and mechanical stability. As a semiconductor material with the bandgap of 0.303 eV, T-Be2B shows a strong capability to adsorb Li atoms. Furthermore, T-Be2B monolayer demonstrates a low diffusion barrier of 0.26 eV, a moderate theoretical capacity of 929 mA h g−1, and an average open-circuit voltage of 0.88 V. Additionally, the presence of vacancy defects weakens the adsorption ability and migration behavior of Li on T-Be2B, which should be carefully handled in the experimental preparation process of T-Be2B monolayer. Based on these properties, the T-Be2B monolayer has significant potential as an anode material for LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual development of renewable energy, search for high-performance energy storage materials as anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has become urgent. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are considered as candidates for anode materials due to their unique structure and physicochemical properties. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a 2D material, BC12 monolayer, as an excellent anode for LIBs. BC12 exhibits outstanding dynamic, mechanical, and thermal stability. In addition, BC12 monolayers show not only remarkably high storage capacity (2767.57 mA h g−1) but also low diffusion barrier energy (0.175 eV) and appropriate open circuit voltage (0.3 V). A small volume expansion (0.38%) is also observed during the lithiation process. Furthermore, we undertake a comprehensive analysis on the impact of carbon vacancy in BC12. The presence of carbon vacancy makes the adsorption and diffusion of Li relatively weak, which should be carefully handled in the experimental synthesis process. The above-mentioned investigation offers valuable insights and guidance for the future development and application of 2D anode materials in metal-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated fasting hypertriglyceridemia as predictors of all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular mortality in an elderly male Chinese population, while accounting for various conventional cardiovascular risk factors. Our participants were elderly men recruited from residents living in a suburban town of Shanghai (≥60 years of age, n = 1583). Hypertriglyceridemia was defined as a fasting serum triglycerides concentration ≥1.70 mmol/L. Subgroup analyses were performed according to current smoking (yes vs. no), alcohol intake (yes vs. no), and the presence and absence of hypertension and hyperglycemia. During a median of 7.9 years follow‐up, all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular deaths occurred in 279, 112, and 167 participants, respectively. After adjustment for confounding factors, fasting hypertriglyceridemia was not significantly (p ≥ .33) associated with the risk of all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular mortality. However, there was significant (p = .03) interaction between hypertriglyceridemia and the presence and absence of hypertension in relation to all‐cause mortality. In normotensive, but not hypertensive individuals, hypertriglyceridemia was significantly associated with a higher risk of all‐cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.57, 95% confidence interval 1.06–2.31). In further non‐parametric analyses in normotensive individuals, the age‐standardized rate for all‐cause mortality increased from 18.9 in quartile 1 to 20.0, to 24.7, and to 39.9 per 1000 person‐years in quartiles 2, 3, and 4 of serum triglycerides concentration, respectively (ptrend = .0004). Similar results were observed for cardiovascular mortality. Our study in elderly male Chinese showed that fasting hypertriglyceridemia was associated with a higher risk of all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with normotension but not those with hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As wearable and flexible electronic devices continue to miniaturize and operate at higher frequencies, there is an urgent demand for polymer films that offer a high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding efficiency and effective thermal management capabilities, particularly under extreme environmental conditions. Conductive inks are extensively utilized in polymeric electromagnetic interference shielding coatings. However, the extensive utilization of organic solvents can lead to environmental pollution. Herein, we proposed a multifunctional conductive composite ink comprising waterborne polyurethane (WPU), silver nanosheets (AgNS) and heat-treated MXene, using deionized water as solvent. Inspired by the advantage of the unique "brick-mortar" layered structure, we fabricated a multifunctional flexible composite film with large size, high electrical conductivity, and good mechanical flexibility by blade coating, which has scalable manufacturing prospects for industrialization. The resultant films achieve a remarkable EMI SE of 87.3 dB at only 78 μm thickness and impressive mechanical fastness and chemical durability to various organic solvents. Meanwhile, the resultant composites also present a desirable Joule heating temperature (117 °C) and anisotropic thermal conductivity due to the compact and highly aligned morphology. In summary, our simple preparation technology and excellent comprehensive performance of composite inks have great potential in advanced thermal management and wearable electromagnetic protection devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Co-infection of RNA viruses may contribute to their recombination and cause severe clinical symptoms. However, the tracking and identification of SARS-CoV-2 co-infection persist as challenges. Due to the lack of methods for detecting co-infected samples in a large amount of deep sequencing data, the lineage composition, spatial–temporal distribution, and frequency of SARS-CoV-2 co-infection events in the population remains unclear. Here, we propose a hypergeometric distribution–based method named Cov2Coinfect with the ability to decode the lineage composition from 50,809 deep sequencing data. By resolving the mutational patterns in each sample, Cov2Coinfect can precisely determine the co-infected SARS-CoV-2 variants from deep sequencing data. Results from two independent and parallel projects in the United States achieved a similar co-infection rate of 0.3–0.5 % in SARS-CoV-2 positive samples. Notably, all co-infected variants were highly consistent with the co-circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages in the regional epidemiology, demonstrating that the co-circulation of different variants is an essential prerequisite for co-infection. Overall, our study not only provides a robust method to identify the co-infected SARS-CoV-2 variants from sequencing samples, but also highlights the urgent need to pay more attention to co-infected patients for better disease prevention and control.

Background & Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality whereas the pathogenic mechanism remains largely elusive. DNA N6-methyladenosine (6mA) modification is a recently identified epigenetic mark indicative of transcription in eukaryotic genomes. Here, we aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of DNA 6mA modification in NAFLD progression. Methods: Dot blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect DNA 6mA levels. Liver-specific AlkB homolog 1 (ALKBH1)-knockout mice and mice with ALKBH1 overexpression in liver were subjected to a high-fat diet or methionine choline-deficient diet to evaluate the critical role of ALKBH1-demethylated DNA 6mA modification in the pathogenesis of hepatic steatosis during NAFLD. RNA sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing were performed to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying this process. Results: The DNA 6mA level was increased significantly with hepatic steatosis, while ALKBH1 expression was down-regulated markedly in both mouse and human fatty liver. Deletion of ALKBH1 in hepatocytes increased genomic 6mA levels and accelerated diet-induced hepatic steatosis and metabolic dysfunction. Comprehensive analyses of transcriptome and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data indicated that ALKBH1 directly bound to and exclusively demethylated 6mA levels of genes involved in fatty acid uptake and lipogenesis, leading to reduced hepatic lipid accumulation. Importantly, ALKBH1 overexpression was sufficient to suppress lipid uptake and synthesis, and alleviated diet-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance. Conclusions: Our findings show an indispensable role of ALKBH1 as an epigenetic suppressor of DNA 6mA in hepatic fatty acid metabolism and offer a potential therapeutic target for NAFLD treatment.

Type 1 diabetes and neurodevelopmental disorders are common chronic conditions in childhood and adolescence, and having one may lead to an increased chance of developing the other. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is mainly manifested by elevated blood glucose, while neurodevelopmental diseases are composed of a variety of diseases, which are relatively complex. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to find out the prevalence of type 1 diabetes-related neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents and to explore the potential association between neurodevelopmental disorders and type 1 diabetes. PubMed, Embase and Web of science databases were searched from the inception to May 22, 2022 to identify relevant studies, Finally, 24 original studies were included in the meta-analysis. Prevalence estimates for neurodevelopmental disorders in the type 1 diabetes adolescent and their 95% confidence intervals were pooled using random effects models. The pooled estimates for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the type 1 diabetes population were 1.2 and 5.3%, respectively, both of which are higher than the 2019 global prevalence of ASD and ADHD in the general population. The results of the subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of ASD and ADHD in the T1DM population tended to increase with age. In conclusion, there may be a potential link between the occurrence of type 1 diabetes mellitus and the development of neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents, but more relevant studies are needed to understand the link between the underlying pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and neurodevelopmental disorders.Systematic review registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], identifier [CDR42022333443].

Crowdsourced data from distributed sources are routinely collected and analyzed to produce effective data-mining mo-dels in crowdsensing systems.Data usually contains personal information,which leads to possible privacy leakage in data collection and analysis.The local differential privacy (LDP) has been deemed as the de facto measure for trade-off between privacy guarantee and data utility.Currently,the key-value data is a kind of heterogeneous data types in which the key is categorical data and the value is numerical data.Achieving LDP for key-value data is challenging.This paper focuses on key-value data publishing and correlation analysis under the framework of LDP.Firstly,the frequency correlation and mean correlation in key-value data are defined.Then the indexing one-hot perturbation mechanism is proposed to provide LDP guarantees.At last,the correlation results can be estimated in the perturbed space.Theoretical analysis and experimental results on both real-word and synthetic dataset va-lidate the effectiveness of proposed mechanism.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), hallmarked by liver steatosis, is becoming a global concern, but effective and safe drugs for NAFLD are still lacking at present. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), the only FDA-approved anabolic treatment for osteoporosis, is important in calcium-phosphate homeostasis. However, little is known about its potential therapeutic effects on other diseases. Here, we report that intermittent administration of PTH ameliorated non-alcoholic liver steatosis in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice and db/db mice, as well as fasting-induced hepatic steatosis. In vitro, PTH inhibits palmitic acid-induced intracellular lipid accumulation in a parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (PTH1R)-dependent manner. Mechanistically, PTH upregulates the expression of genes involved in lipid β-oxidation and suppresses the expression of genes related to lipid uptake and de novo lipogenesis by activating the cAMP/PKA/CREB pathway. Taken together, our current finding proposes a new therapeutic role of PTH on NAFLD.

Activated carbon (AC) is a porous carbon-rich material that is widely used to remove pollutants, such as synthetic dyes, from contaminated water. Although quite efficient, the use of this technology is limited to the ability of the AC to be regenerated and/or reused. Conventional regeneration procedures are inefficient, requiring the development and/or implementation of new approaches. Advanced Oxidative Processes (AOP) have unique properties that result in high efficiency in wastewater treatment. The use of these technologies in the regeneration of AC has gained considerable prominence due to the ability to remove organic pollutants concentrated in the AC. During this process, the oxidizing species produced interact with the substrates adsorbed on the AC, in a non-selective way, mineralizing them and/or reducing their recalcitrance. Although widely used in wastewater treatment, few reviews focus on the use of AOP as AC regeneration technology, causing an insufficient exchange of information and ideas for strategic development in this area. Therefore, in this review, the authors present an overview of the use of some AOP (Photolysis, Peroxidation, Fenton reaction and Advanced electrochemical oxidative processes) when applied in regeneration of dye-saturated AC, including the mechanisms involved in the different processes, the general aspects that affect individual processes and the different methods established to quantify the effectiveness of regeneration.

Abstracts Bone mainly functions as a supportive framework for the whole body and is the major regulator of calcium homeostasis and hematopoietic function. Recently, an increasing number of studies have characterized the significance of bone as an endocrine organ, suggesting that bone-derived factors regulate local bone metabolism and metabolic functions. In addition, these factors can regulate global energy homeostasis by altering insulin sensitivity, feeding behavior, and adipocyte commitment. These findings may provide a new pathological mechanism for related metabolic diseases or be used in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of metabolic diseases such as osteoporosis, obesity, and diabetes mellitus. In this review, we summarize the regulatory effect of bone and bone-derived factors on energy metabolism and discuss directions for future research.

Excessive vibration of stay cables in strong winds has been a concern for bridge operators, which impairs the durability of both the cables and the bridge structure. This paper develops a data-driven approach to predict the amplitude of the cable vibration using an ensemble learning model. The model aims to predict cable vibrations in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions, with the wind speed, wind direction, turbulence intensity, and deck acceleration as input variables. Especially, the deck acceleration is included considering the deck-cable interaction and vehicle effects, which significantly improved the accuracy of the prediction. Furthermore, the model is interpreted with local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) and partial dependence plot (PDP) methods. The former demonstrates the relative importance of input variables on a global scale, and the latter indicates the correlation between individual input variables with the prediction target. The investigation is validated using the data harnessed from structural health monitoring (SHM) of a 1088-m cable-stayed bridge during three typhoon events. The adopted Gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT) model demonstrated better performance than other state-of-the-art machine learning models. The developed approach can provide guidance on preventive maintenance of stay cables to avoid damage due to excessive vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Long noncoding RNA Gm31629 can regulate hypothalamic neural stem cells (htNSCs) senescence and the aging process. However, the effect of Gm31629 on the senescence of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and bone regeneration is unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effects of Gm31629 on the senescence of BMSCs and bone regeneration. Methods Gm31629 knockout (Gm31629-KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were used to establish a bone regeneration model. The Brdu labelling, CCK8 assay, wound healing assay, β-gal staining and osteogenic differentiation assay were used to assess the effects of Gm31629 on the functions of BMSCs. Micro-computed tomography (CT), histochemical and immunohistochemical staining were used to evaluate the ability of bone regeneration. The mimic of Gm31629, theaflavin 3-gallate, was used to investigate its role on the senescence of BMSCs and bone regeneration. Results The expression of Gm31629 reduced in BMSCs of middle-aged mice was compared with that of young mice. The deletion of Gm31629 was sufficient to drive the senescence of BMSCs, resulting in impaired bone regeneration in mice. Mechanistically, Gm31629 could interact with Y-box protein 1(YB-1) and delay its degradation, decreasing the transcription of p16INK4A of BMSCs. We also found that theaflavin 3-gallate could alleviate the senescence of BMSCs and promote bone regeneration in middle-aged mice. Conclusion These results indicated that Gm31629 played an important role on BMSCs senescence and bone regeneration and provided a therapeutic target to promote bone regeneration.

Abstract We systematically study the mass spectrum and strong decays of the S-wave $${\bar{c}}{\bar{s}} q q$$ c ¯ s ¯ q q states in the compact tetraquark scenario with the quark model. The key ingredients of the model are the Coulomb, the linear confinement, and the hyperfine interactions. The hyperfine potential leads to the mixing between different color configurations, and to the large mass splitting between the two ground states with $$I(J^P)=0(0^+)$$ I ( J P ) = 0 ( 0 + ) and $$I(J^P)=1(0^+)$$ I ( J P ) = 1 ( 0 + ) . We calculate their strong decay amplitudes into the $${\bar{D}}^{(*)}K^{(*)}$$ D ¯ ( ∗ ) K ( ∗ ) channels with the wave functions from the mass spectrum calculation and the quark-interchange method. We examine the interpretation of the recently observed $$X_0(2900)$$ X 0 ( 2900 ) as a tetraquark state. The mass and decay width of the $$I(J^P)=1(0^+)$$ I ( J P ) = 1 ( 0 + ) state are $$M=2941$$ M = 2941 MeV and $$\Gamma _X=26.6$$ Γ X = 26.6 MeV, respectively, which indicates that it might be a good candidate for $$X_0(2900)$$ X 0 ( 2900 ) . Meanwhile, we also obtain an isospin partner state $$I(J^P)=0(0^+)$$ I ( J P ) = 0 ( 0 + ) with $$M=2649$$ M = 2649 MeV and $$\Gamma _{X\rightarrow {\bar{D}} K}=48.1$$ Γ X → D ¯ K = 48.1 MeV, respectively. Future experimental search for X(2649) will be very helpful.