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In this letter, the W 18 O 49 @Carbon Clothes (W 18 O 49 @CC) were synthesis via a simple microwave-assistant solvothermal method for the first time. The W 18 O 49 nanowires were in-suit grown on the surface of CC and wrapped closely, exhibiting high photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation than that of pure W 18 O 49 . The enhanced photocatalytic performance of W 18 O 49 @CC can be ascribed to the unique structure which was the main enhanced mechanism in photodegradation process. Due to the lightweight flexible CC substrate, the photocatalysts will be floating on the surface of the water, which can increase not only the contact area with the solar radiation in the practical application but also easy-recycle to avoid secondary pollution. This work gives evidence of the W 18 O 49 @CC holds a great potential in photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One or more members of the HIT (histidine triad) family of proteins is encoded in the genomes of diverse species, ranging from prokaryotes to humans. However, the precise cellular and biochemical functions of many of these proteins are largely enigmatic . Therefore, the paper by Lee et al. in this issue of Immunity that ascribes a role for the histidine triad protein HINT (also designated HINT1) in regulating the activity of the microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF) is of great interest. Furthermore, this study implicates a role for an exotic endogenous nucleotide Ap4A in this process. This naturally occurring compound consists of two adenosines linked by four phosphate residues, and has been proposed as an intracellular and extracellular signaling molecule . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we consider a fast inertial primal–dual algorithm (FIPD) for finding minimization problems of the sum of a smooth function with Lipschitzian gradient, a non-smooth proximable function, and linear composite functions. We not only prove the convergence of the proposed algorithm, but also prove that the new algorithm can achieve the worst-case o (1 / k 2) optimal convergence rate in terms of objective function value. This work brings together and notably extends several classical splitting schemes, like the primal–dual splitting method (PDS) proposed by Condat, the algorithm which is presented by Chambolle and Pock, as well as the recent modified fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated on image denoising and image deblurring. Numerical results show that our iterative algorithm (FIPD) performs better than the original one (PDS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reports on the proteomic studies of ameloblastoma and other common odontogenic lesions are limited. We thus explored the differential proteins among ameloblastoma, odontogenic keratocyst, dentigerous cyst, and normal gingival tissue using proteomics and identified hub proteins involved in the local aggressiveness and recurrence of ameloblastoma. Methods: Samples were obtained from 14 patients with ameloblastoma, 6 with odontogenic keratocyst, 9 with a dentigerous cyst, and 5 with normal gingival tissue. Proteins were then extracted, purified, quantified, and analysed using Easy‐nLC chromatography and mass spectrometry. Further functional annotation and enrichment analyses were performed using Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes on the target protein collection. Protein clustering and protein–protein interaction network analyses were used to screen the hub proteins. Proteins with significant interactions were screened according to their degree index. These results were verified by immunohistochemical staining. Proteins meeting the screening criteria of expression difference ploidy >1.2‐fold (upregulation and downregulation) and p < 0.05 were considered differential proteins. Results: In ameloblastoma, 808 differential proteins were upregulated and 505 were downregulated compared with those in odontogenic keratocyst; 309 were upregulated and 453 were downregulated compared with those in dentigerous cyst; and 2210 were upregulated and 829 were downregulated compared with those in normal gingival tissue. The three groups of differential proteins were associated with cellular exosomes, antigen binding, complement activation, human papillomavirus infection, focal adhesion, cell adhesion molecules, and metabolic pathways. Conclusion: CDH3 is associated with the local aggressiveness and recurrence of ameloblastoma and is a potential therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the changes in the gut microbiome of patients with cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy (HE), as well as quantify the variations in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and tryptophan metabolite levels in serum and faeces. Methods: Fresh faeces and serum were collected from 20 healthy volunteers (NC group), 30 cirrhosis patients (Cir group), and 30 HE patients (HE group). Then, 16S rRNA sequencing and metabolite measurements were performed using the faeces. Gas chromatography‒mass spectrometry and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry were used to measure SCFA and tryptophan levels, respectively. The results were analysed by SIMCA16.0.2 software. Differences in species were identified using MetaStat and t tests. The correlations among the levels of gut microbes and metabolites and clinical parameters were determined using Spearman correlation analysis. Results: Patients with cirrhosis and HE had lower microbial species richness and diversity in faeces than healthy volunteers; these patients also had altered β-diversity. Serum valeric acid levels were significantly higher in the HE group than in the Cir group. Serum SCFA levels did not differ between the Cir and NC groups. Serum melatonin and 5-HTOL levels were significantly higher in the HE group than in the Cir group. The Cir and NC groups had significant differences in the levels of eight serum tryptophan metabolites. Furthermore, the levels of faecal SCFAs did not differ between the HE and Cir groups. Faecal IAA-Ala levels were significantly lower in the HE group than in the Cir group. There were significant differences in the levels of 6 faecal SCFAs and 7 faecal tryptophan metabolites between the Cir and NC groups. Certain gut microbes were associated with serum and faecal metabolites, and some metabolites were associated with certain clinical parameters. Conclusion: Reduced microbial species richness and diversity were observed in patients with HE and cirrhosis. In both serum and faeces, the levels of different SCFAs and tryptophan metabolites showed varying patterns of change. In HE patients, the levels of some serum tryptophan metabolites, and not SCFAs, were correlated with liver function and systemic inflammation. Systemic inflammation in patients with cirrhosis was correlated with faecal acetic acid levels. In summary, this study identified metabolites important for HE and cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could the microbial contamination rate of oocytes and embryos in conventional IVF cycles be further reduced by modifying the handling procedures of cumulus–oocyte complexes (COC)? Two modifications were applied to COC handling procedures. First, a mark was made on the outer wall of the 10-cm Petri dish to indicate the site from which the follicular fluid was poured out during the oocyte retrieval process (modified handling 1) since May 2018. Second, a modified way of pipetting during denuding (modified handling 2) has been adopted since June 2019. The microbial contamination rates before and after each modification were compared. The clinic outcomes of patients with a history or at a high risk of microbial contamination were reported after incorporating the two modifications of COC handling. After the first modification was implemented, the contamination rate was remarkably reduced from 0.37% (9/2436) to 0.18% (2/1089). After adding the second modification, no new contamination occurred in the subsequent 3178 conventional IVF cycles (P = 0.001). Moreover, no contamination was noted in patients with a history of microbial contamination or persistent candidal vaginitis during conventional IVF after modifications of COC handling. Modifying the handling procedures of COC can minimize the microbial contamination rate in conventional IVF cycles. Contamination risk directly derived from the urogenital tracts might be less likely than what we thought to be with current IVF techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gate-voltage-modulated strategy was proposed to improve the detection performance of telomerase. We comprehensively investigated the mechanism for the gate-voltage-modulated detection performance by modulating the electrostatic interaction between charges of a single-stranded DNA probe and electrons of the In2O3 channel. This gate-voltage-modulated interaction between the probe and the channel can potentially serve as a universal strategy for high-performance FET biosensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Findings: What is the central question of this study?Hypoxaemia can lead to increased postoperative mortality in patients: what are the independent risk factors for severe hypoxaemia after acute Stanford type A aortic dissection?What is the main finding and its importance?Severe postoperative hypoxaemia was found in 36.4% of patients, and it was determined that high preoperative bradykinin levels and increased BMI were independent predictors of severe postoperative hypoxaemia in patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection. For obese patients with high preoperative bradykinin levels, more attention should be paid to preventing severe postoperative hypoxaemia. Severe hypoxaemia after cardiac surgery is associated with serious complications and a high risk of mortality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the independent risk factors of severe postoperative hypoxaemia in patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection. We collected 77 patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection who underwent surgical treatment. The primary outcome was severe postoperative hypoxaemia (PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 100 mmHg), and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the independent predictors of risk for this. A mixed‐effects analysis of variance model and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were generated to evaluate the predictive probabilities of risk factors for severe postoperative hypoxaemia. A total of 36.4% of patients developed severe postoperative hypoxaemia. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified high preoperative bradykinin level (odds ratio (OR) = 55.918, P < 0.001) and increased body mass index (BMI; OR = 1.292, P = 0.032) as independent predictors of severe postoperative hypoxaemia in patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection. The mixed‐effect analysis of variance model and ROC curve indicated that high preoperative bradykinin level and BMI were significant predictors of severe postoperative hypoxaemia (area under the ROC curve = 0.834 and 0.764, respectively). High preoperative bradykinin levels and obesity were independent risk factors for severe postoperative hypoxaemia in patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection. For obese patients with high levels of bradykinin before surgery, clinicians should actively take measures to block bradykinin‐mediated inflammatory reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean is one of the most versatile crops for oil production, human diets, and feedstocks. The vegetative biomass of soybean is an important determinant of seed yield and is crucial for the forage usages. However, the genetic control of soybean biomass is not well explained. In this work, we used a soybean germplasm population, including 231 improved cultivars, 207 landraces, and 121 wild soybeans, to investigate the genetic basis of biomass accumulation of soybean plants at the V6 stage. We found that biomass-related traits, including NDW (nodule dry weight), RDW (root dry weight), SDW (shoot dry weight), and TDW (total dry weight), were domesticated during soybean evolution. In total, 10 loci, encompassing 47 putative candidate genes, were detected for all biomass-related traits by a genome-wide association study. Among these loci, seven domestication sweeps and six improvement sweeps were identified. Glyma.05G047900, a purple acid phosphatase, was a strong candidate gene to improve biomass for future soybean breeding. This study provided new insights into the genetic basis of biomass accumulation during soybean evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affine matrix rank minimization problem is a fundamental problem in many important applications. It is well known that this problem is combinatorial and NP-hard in general. In this paper, a continuous promoting low rank non-convex fraction function is studied to replace the rank function in this NP-hard problem. An iterative singular value thresholding algorithm is proposed to solve the regularization transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. With the change of the parameter in non-convex fraction function, we could get some much better results, which is one of the advantages for the iterative singular value thresholding algorithm compared with some state-of-art methods. Some convergence results are established. Moreover, we proved that the value of the regularization parameter λ > 0 cannot be chosen too large. Indeed, there exists λ ̄ > 0 such that the optimal solution of the regularization transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem is equal to zero for any λ > λ ̄ . Numerical experiments on matrix completion problems and image inpainting problems show that our method performs effective in finding a low-rank matrix compared with some state-of-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical synthesis is a low-cost industrial-compatible technique to fabricate chalcogenide glasses. In this paper, the mechanical synthesis of the ionic conductive GeS 2 -Ga 2 S 3 -Li 2 S-LiI glass powders by ball milling is studied. The structure, glass-forming ability, and ionic conductivity are compared with the reported GeS 2 -Ga 2 S 3 -Li 2 S-LiI glasses prepared by the melt-quench process. The similarity of the glass network fabricated by these two techniques is revealed by Raman spectroscopy. As for the conductivity, about 1/3–1/2 of the conductivity of the bulk glass can be achieved by simply cold-pressing the as-milled glass powders into pellets. Evident “room-temperature sintering” is observed in the Li-rich samples, which plays a key role in achieving high ionic conductivity in the cold-pressed pellets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ion gate is a key buildup for drift tube ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and its combination with mass spectrometry. Bradbury-Nielsen gate, as the most commonly used ion gate in IMS, possesses a distinct ion mobility discrimination effect due to its depletion features. This impedes the scaling of the ion gate opening time to improve the separation capability of IMS while keeping its sensitivity for multiple ion species. In this work, a Tyndall-Powell gate (TPG) simply composed of two identical wire grids was used to develop an ion gate with nearly no ion mobility discrimination for IMS. Experimental results showed that the TPG features a gate region where the electric field for opening the gate could be enhanced to effectively solve the ion mobility discrimination problem related to it. Meanwhile, enhancing that electric field enabled the TPG-IMS to keep a resolving power over 106 at 100 °C for ion peak with a signal-to-noise ratio up to 800. With that TPG-IMS, baseline separation of two ion peaks, the hydronium and the acetone monomer peaks with a reduced mobility difference of only 0.04 cm2 V-1 s-1, was achieved with no sensitivity loss for the least mobile acetone dimer ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CdZnS based quantum dots are emerging as promising light sources for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Although current CdZnS/ZnS quantum dots exhibit good performances in ultraviolet (UV) or blue light, it is hard to achieve efficient red or green emission owing to the intrinsic limitation of the core-shell system, in which ZnS shell only serves as passivation layer to enhance the luminescence. Instead, we introduce a versatile ZnSe shell with a moderate band gap onto the CdZnS core. Evidences show that ZnSe, on one hand, can passivate the core surface which leads to bright emissions. On the other hand, ZnSe shell is essential in tuning the emission to the visible region. The as-prepared CdZnS/ZnSe quantum dots show good color tunability, which is ranging from deep-blue to red. Bright white LEDs are fabricated by appropriately integrating a mixture of red, yellow and green emissive CdZnS/ZnSe quantum dots on the blue-emitting GaN LED chip. The fabricated white quantum dot-based LED demonstrates good luminescent and visual performance with a color rendering index of 85.2 and a correlated color temperature of 4072 K. These results suggest that CdZnS/ZnSe quantum dots hold great promise for the next-generation white light source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-N Mn18Cr18 alloy is mainly used as drill collar (DC) and retaining rings due to its non-magnetism and outstanding corrosion resistance. This work focuses on studying the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior and thermal mechanical properties of high-N Mn18Cr18 alloy through isothermal single-pass compression tests on Gleeble-3500 simulator at the temperatures from 900-1200 °C and strain rates from 0.001-1 s−1. Flow stress curves combined with metallographic analysis indicate that DRX tends to occur at high deformation temperatures and low strain rates. The deformation activation energy of high-N Mn18Cr18 alloy is 331.775 kJ mol−1. Besides, fifth order polynomial fitting for determining critical strain and nonlinear curve fitting for extrapolating work hardening stress are presented. Based on kinetics equations of DRX and the dislocation density model, constitutive model is been set up to predict the flow stress behavior. Comparisons between the experimental and the predicted flow stress values indicate good forecast precision of the established model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convenient procedure for designing the direct transfer trajectory from lunar L2 point (LL2) halo orbit to a low lunar orbit (LLO) is presented in this paper. The trajectory characteristics are analyzed to support the manned lunar missions design aimed at lunar surface global access. The concise procedure is established based on the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) model. An analytical algorithm is employed to estimate an initial maneuver vector for approaching the Moon in its close vicinity. An iteration process is adopted to generate favorable trajectory that satisfies the constraints at perilune. By introducing a number of intermediate coordinate frames, an algorithm to compute the arriving LLO inclination and right ascension of ascending node (RAAN) is proposed. The orbital inclination and RAAN in this paper are defined and established in the J2000 frame rather than in the synodical frame. Numerical results show that, regardless of value of out-of-plane amplitude ( $Az$ ) of the halo orbit, the overall maneuver cost of the trajectory largely depends on departure position, and it has two minima around 0.65 km/s. Further study shows that the values of the arriving LLO inclination and RAAN largely depend on the choices of the departure time and the value of $Az$ . The periodicity, due to the natural motion of the Moon, is discovered to play a role in this time dependency. It is concluded that the fuel optimal trajectory permits access to almost any final lunar orbit, including a polar orbit, by means of varying the departure time and $Az$ value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Flowering time is one of important agronomic traits determining the crop yield and affected by high temperature. When facing high ambient temperature, plants often initiate early flowering as an adaptive strategy to escape the stress and ensure successful reproduction. However, here we find opposing ways in the short‐day crop soybean to respond to different levels of high temperatures, in which flowering accelerates when temperature changes from 25 to 30 °C, but delays when temperature reaches 35 °C under short day. phyA‐E1, possibly photoperiodic pathway, is crucial for 35 °C‐mediated late flowering, however, does not contribute to promoting flowering at 30 °C. 30 °C‐induced up‐regulation of FT2a and FT5a leads to early flowering, independent of E1. Therefore, distinct responsive mechanisms are adopted by soybean when facing different levels of high temperatures for successful flowering and reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nobiletin (NOB) is a naturally occurring compound, commonly found in citrus peel, that shows hepatoprotective and lipid-reducing effects. However, the lipid biomarkers and the potential improvement mechanisms have not been adequately explored. Therefore, we investigated the ameliorative effect and the molecular mechanism of NOB on NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet in mice. The results showed that supplementation with NOB over 12 weeks markedly improved glucose tolerance, serum lipid profiles, inflammatory factors, hepatic steatosis, and oxidative stress. These beneficial effects were mainly related to reduced levels of potential lipid biomarkers including free fatty acids, diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, and cholesteryl esters according to hepatic lipidomic analysis. Twenty lipids, including DGs and phosphatidylcholines, were identified as potential lipid biomarkers. Furthermore, RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis indicated that NOB inhibited the expression of lipogenesis-related factors such as SREBP-1c, SCD-1, and FAS, and upregulated the expression of lipid oxidation (PPARα) and cholesterol conversion (LXRα, CYP7A1, and CYP27A1) genes as well as antioxidation-related factors (Nucl-Nrf2, NQO1, HO-1, and GCLC), indicating that NOB intake may reduce lipid biosynthesis and increase lipid consumption to improve hepatic steatosis and oxidative stress. This study is beneficial for understanding the ameliorative effects of NOB on NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Drought stress affects crop growth and productivity by causing morphological, physiological, and molecular changes. Pseudomonas koreensis is a plant-growth-promoting rhizobacterium that has potential for inducing stress tolerance in crops; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, this study verified the effects of P. koreensis on drought stress in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill.) and explored the associated mechanisms. Methods: Tomato seedlings that were exposed to the cell-free culture filtrate of P. koreensis GS or not were grown under non-stressed and drought-stressed conditions. Plant and leaf samples subjected to integrated physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic analyses. Results: Under drought stress, treatment with cell-free culture filtrate prominently increased plant height (7.7%), root length (17.2%), dry biomass (19.8%), relative water content (19.2%), leaf chlorophyll content (13.6%), and net photosynthesis rate (56.5%) in tomato. The culture filtrate treatment also enhanced catalase and peroxidase activity but decreased malondialdehyde content in drought-stressed leaves. Many differentially expressed genes and accumulated metabolites associated with antioxidant defense were enriched in flavonoid biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism, photosynthesis, and fructose and mannose metabolism, which jointly contributed to the alleviation of drought stress. Conclusions: The enhancement of plant antioxidant capacity is the key factor for P. koreensis GS cell-free culture filtrate in alleviating drought stress in tomato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are central to determine immune response, thus targeting Tregs for immunotherapy is a promising strategy against tumor development and metastasis. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify genes for targeting Tregs to improve the outcome of HCC. METHODS: We integrated expression data from different samples to remove batch effects and further applied embedding function in Scanpy to conduct sub-clustering of CD4 + T cells in HCC for each of two independent scRNA-seq data. The activity of transcription factors (TFs) was inferred by DoRothEA. Gene expression network analysis was performed in WGCNA R package. We finally used R packages (survminer and survival) to conduct survival analysis. Multiplex immunofluorescence analysis was performed to validate the result from bioinformatic analyses. RESULTS: We found that regulator of G protein signaling 1 (RGS1) expression was significantly elevated in Tregs compared to other CD4 + T cells in two independent public scRNA-seq datasets, and increased RGS1 predicted inferior clinical outcome of HCC patients. Multiplex immunofluorescence analysis supported that the higher expression of RGS1 in HCC Tregs in tumor tissue compared to it in adjacent tissue. Moreover, RGS1 expression in Tregs was positively correlated with the expression of marker genes of Tregs, C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), and three CXCR4-dependent genes in both scRNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq data. We further identified that these three genes were selectively expressed in Tregs as compared to other CD4 + T cells. The activities of two transcription factors, recombination signal binding protein for immunoglobulin kappa J region (RBPJ) and yin yang 1 (YY1), were significantly different in HCC Tregs with RGS1 high and RGS1 low. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that RGS1 may regulate Treg function possibly through CXCR4 signaling and RGS1 could be a potential target to improve responses for immunotherapy in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral imidodiphosphates (IDPs) have emerged as strong Brønsted acid catalysts for many enantioselective processes. However, the dynamic transformation between O,O‐syn and O,O‐anti conformers typically results in low enantioselectivity. Here we demonstrate that topologies of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) can be exploited to control IDP conformations and local chiral microenvironments for enantioselective catalysis. Two porous Dy‐MOFs with different topologies are obtained from an enantiopure 1,1′‐biphenol IDP‐based tetracarboxylate ligand. While the ligand adopts a 4‐ or 3‐connected (c) binding mode, all IDPs are rigidified to get only a single O,O‐syn conformation and display greatly enhanced Brønsted acidity relative to the free IDP. The MOF with the 4‐c IDP that has a relatively less compact shape than the 3‐c IDP can be an efficient and recyclable heterogeneous Brønsted acid catalysing the challenging asymmetric O,O‐acetalization reaction with up to 96 % enantiomeric excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral imidodiphosphates (IDPs) have emerged as strong Brønsted acid catalysts for many enantioselective processes. However, the dynamic transformation between O,O‐syn and O,O‐anti conformers typically results in low enantioselectivity. Here we demonstrate that topologies of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) can be exploited to control IDP conformations and local chiral microenvironments for enantioselective catalysis. Two porous Dy‐MOFs with different topologies are obtained from an enantiopure 1,1′‐biphenol IDP‐based tetracarboxylate ligand. While the ligand adopts a 4‐ or 3‐connected (c) binding mode, all IDPs are rigidified to get only a single O,O‐syn conformation and display greatly enhanced Brønsted acidity relative to the free IDP. The MOF with the 4‐c IDP that has a relatively less compact shape than the 3‐c IDP can be an efficient and recyclable heterogeneous Brønsted acid catalysing the challenging asymmetric O,O‐acetalization reaction with up to 96 % enantiomeric excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Schwarzschild microscope is suitable for sample navigation in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) because of its advantages of a simple structure, large working distance, and good coordination with the ion extraction system. The high numerical aperture (NA) of the microscope significantly reduces diffraction effects, but the resulting high-order geometric aberrations seriously affect the imaging quality. In this paper, a novel design method of the Schwarzschild microscope with a high NA (0.47) was proposed. The aberration distributions and compensation methods were investigated through tolerance analysis. The results showed that the tilt and decenter tolerances become the dominant factors limiting the spatial resolution, which could only be improved by ensuring the alignment accuracy of mirrors. Finally, the spatial resolution of the microscope in the home-built SIMS reached 2.19 µm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the methods and results from Tsinghua University and Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering for the 11th Global Trajectory Optimization Competition (GTOC11) are presented. To deal with the complicated "Dyson Sphere" building problem, a three-stage procedure is conducted. First, the pre-analysis is performed to reduce search space. It is found that two-impulse maneuvers between asteroid flybys are near-optimal, the semi-major axis of the "Dyson Ring" should be better at 1.0–1.5 AU, and the larger arrival mass asteroids tend to be selected. Second, the globally optimal trajectory design problem is further divided into two sub-problems, the mothership trajectory design and the asteroid assignment to the "Dyson Ring" power stations. For the first problem, beam search is used to obtain numerous single mothership trajectories based on a pre-constructed flyby trajectory database of 3–8 asteroids. The overall trajectories and asteroids visited are obtained by selecting 10 mothership trajectories with a genetic algorithm. For the second problem, we build a database of optimal rendezvous times for all the 83,453 asteroids at different phase angles to reach power stations of different radii and phase angles, then a greedy algorithm is proposed to obtain the asteroid arrival schedule based on all the asteroids visited by motherships. Finally, local optimization of asteroid sequence and flyby epochs is conducted. The activation time adjustment in combination with indirect continuous-thrust trajectory optimization is used based on the global optimization result. In the final submission, motherships fly by 388 asteroids, and the minimum mass of twelve power stations reaches 94% of the theoretical upper bound, which is defined using the minimum-time orbital transfers with free initial and target phases. • The winning result submitted for GTOC 11 is discussed. • Solving the flyby by the rendezvous in combination with geometric corrections. • Optimizing the flyby times in asteroid chains to solve the time-dependent problems. • An exponential form of the heuristic function is used in beam search. • A low-thrust solution database is constructed to obtain accurate flight time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The efficacy of off-pump coronary endarterectomy (CE) has been proven in patients with diffuse coronary artery disease (DCAD). However, the clinical benefits of of-pump CE stratified by different target vessels remain controversial. This retrospective study assessed the effect of the territory and number of CE on short- and long-term outcomes of DCAD. Methods: From January 2012 to December 2014, 246 patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG) + CE were included. The patients were grouped by the territory and number of CE. The primary endpoints were postoperative acute myocardial infarction (PMI) and long-term major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Results: Sixty-five patients (26.42%) were in the left anterior descending branch (LAD) group (CE on LAD), 134(54.47%) in the right coronary artery (RCA) group (CE on RCA), and 47(19.10%) in the multi-vessels group. PMI in the LAD group, RCA group, and multi-vessels group were 3.08%, 6.72%, and 14.89%, respectively (P = 0.08). Multi-vessels CE (OR = 9.042, 95%CI 2.198–37.193, P = 0.002), CE-plaque length ≥ 3 cm (OR = 6.247, 95%CI 2.162–18.052, P < 0.001), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (2DM) (OR = 4.072, 95%CI 1.598–10.374, P = 0.003) were independent risk factors of PMI. The long-term (mean 76 months) MACCE in the LAD group, RCA group, and multi-vessels group were 13.85%, 17.91%, and 10.64%, respectively (P = 0.552). Cox analysis indicated that PMI (HR = 7.113, 95%CI 3.129–16.171, P < 0.001) and Age ≥ 65 years (HR = 2.488, 95%CI 1.214–5.099, P = 0.013) increased the risk of long-term MACCE. Conclusions: Multi-vessel CE and CE-plaque length ≥ 3 cm significantly increased risk of PMI after OPCABG + CE, but the territory and number of CE did not affect long-term MACCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The key pathophysiological changes in androgenetic alopecia (AGA) are limited to hair follicles (HFs) in frontal and vertex regions, sparing the occipital region. Objectives: To identify biological differences among HF subpopulations. Methods: Paired vertex and occipital HFs from 10 male donors with AGA were collected for RNA sequencing assay. Furthermore, HF and cell experiments were conducted on the identified key genes to reveal their roles in AGA. Results: Transcriptome profiles revealed that 506 mRNAs, 55 microRNAs and 127 long noncoding RNAs were differentially expressed in the AGA vertex HFs. Pathway analysis of mRNAs and microRNAs revealed involvement of the hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF)‐1, Wnt/β‐catenin, and focal adhesion pathways. Differential expression of HIF‐1 prolyl hydroxylase enzymes (EGLN1, EGLN3) and Wnt/β‐catenin pathway inhibitors (SERPINF1, SFRP2) was experimentally validated. In vitro studies revealed that reduction of EGLN1, EGLN3, SERPINF1 and SFRP2 stimulated proliferation of dermal papilla cells. Ex vivo HF studies showed that downregulation of EGLN1, EGLN3 and SERPINF1 promoted HF growth, postponed HF catagen transition, and prolonged the anagen stage, suggesting that these genes may be potentially utilized as therapeutic targets for AGA. Conclusions: We characterized key transcriptome changes in male AGA HFs, and found that HIF‐1 pathway‐related genes (EGLN1, EGLN3) and Wnt pathway inhibitors (SERPINF1, SFRP2) may play important roles in AGA. What is already known about this topic?Multiple differentially expressed genes and signalling pathways have been found between hair follicles (HFs) in the balding area (frontal and vertex regions) and nonbalding area (occipital region) of individuals with androgenetic alopecia (AGA).A whole‐transcriptome atlas of the vertex and occipital region is lacking. What does this study add?We identified a number of differentially expressed genes and pathways between balding vertex and nonbalding occipital AGA HFs by using whole‐transcriptome analyses.We identified pathways not previously reported in AGA, such as the hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF)‐1 signalling pathway.We verified that HIF‐1 pathway‐related genes (EGLN1, EGLN3) and Wnt pathway inhibitors (PEDF, SFRP2) played important roles in dermal papilla cell activity, hair growth and the hair cycle. What is the translational message?The EGLN1, EGLN3, SERPINF1 and SFRP2 genes may be potentially utilized as therapeutic targets for AGA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) coordinate time series is affected by the environmental loading. This study mainly selects the three agencies, namely, the School and Observatory of Earth Sciences (EOST) in France, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) in Germany, and the International Mass Loading Service (IMLS) in the United States, including 5 types of atmospheric loading (ATML) models, 7 types of hydrological loading (HYDL) models and 5 types of non-tidal oceanic loading (NTOL) models. The classification of these 17 environmental loading models was discussed, and the root mean square (RMS) reduction ratio of the GNSS coordinate time series after environmental loading corrections (ELCs) was used to evaluate the performance differences of various models. In order to correct the nonlinear deformation of the GNSS stations to the greatest extent, based on the above analysis, this study selects the optimal model combination of three environmental loadings as ECMWF_IB + MERRA2 + ECCO1, and then explores its influence on the periodic signals in the GNSS coordinate time series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dear Editor, Fibrosis is characterized by fibroblast dysfunction and excessive deposition of cell-matrix that affect the normal functioning of the original tissue or organ.[1] The pathogenesis of keloids is complex and remains elusive. Fibroblasts interacted with endothelial cells via I ACKR1 i , while multiple chemokines ( I CXCL2 i , I CCL3L3 i ) secreted by myeloid cells interacted with I DPP4 i in fibroblasts (Figure 4D). (F) Interaction of macrophages and fibroblasts based on molecular patterns indicated that macrophages interact with fibroblasts via SPP1. CTHRC1+ fibroblasts are stimulated by macrophage-secreted SPP1 to induce excessive collagen deposition in keloids. [Extracted from the article]

The relationship between arteriolar hyalinosis and renal progression in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is not fully understood. We aimed to investigate the clinicopathological features and outcomes of IgAN with or without arteriolar hyalinosis. A total of 762 diagnosed with IgAN patients were retrospectively analyzed. We classified IgAN patients into two groups with or without arteriolar hyalinosis. Then, the clinicopathological characteristics of the two groups were compared. We used Kaplan–Meier survival analysis to compare the composite kidney outcome of the two groups and applied multivariate Cox regression analyses to test the association between arteriolar hyalinosis and composite kidney outcome. Overall, 412 (54.1%) patients had arteriolar hyalinosis, including 173 patients diagnosed with hypertension. IgAN patients with arteriolar hyalinosis were older and had higher proteinuria, urea, uric acid, and blood pressure, while lower eGFR than those without arteriolar hyalinosis. Subgroup analysis showed similar results in IgAN patients with hypertension. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that IgAN patients with arteriolar hyalinosis had worse composite kidney outcome than those without arteriolar hyalinosis. In addition, subgroup analysis revealed that patients with hypertension have worse composite kidney outcome than those without hypertension. Multivariate Cox regression analyses confirm that arteriolar hyalinosis (HR 2.57; 95% CI 1.41–4.69; p = 0.002) is an independent risk factor for renal prognosis in IgAN patients. Our study demonstrated that arteriolar hyalinosis is a common vascular lesion in IgAN patients. Arteriolar hyalinosis connects closely with hypertension, and arteriolar hyalinosis is an independent risk factor for renal prognosis in patients with IgAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a relaxed variable metric primal-dual fixed-point algorithm is proposed for solving the convex optimization problem involving the sum of two convex functions where one is differentiable with the Lipschitz continuous gradient while the other is composed of a linear operator. Based on the preconditioned forward–backward splitting algorithm, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is proved. At the same time, we show that some existing algorithms are special cases of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the ergodic convergence and linear convergence rates of the proposed algorithm are established under relaxed parameters. Numerical experiments on the image deblurring problems demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms some existing algorithms in terms of the number of iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flowering time and active accumulated temperature (AAT) are two key factors that limit the expanded production especially for soybean across different regions. Wild soybean provides an important germplasm for functional genomics study in cultivar soybean. However, the studies on genetic basis underlying flowering time in response to AAT especially in wild soybean were rarely reported. In this study, we used 294 wild soybean accessions derived from major soybean production region characterized by different AAT in Northeast of China. Based on genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identified 96 SNPs corresponded to 342 candidate genes that significantly associated with flowering time recorded in two-year experiments. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis suggests that the pathways of photosynthesis light reaction and actin filament binding were significantly enriched. We found three lead SNPs with -log10(p-value) > 32 across the two-year experiments, i.e., Chr02:9490318, Chr04:8545910 and Chr09:49553555. Linkage disequilibrium block analysis shows 28 candidate genes within the genomic region centered on the lead SNPs. Among them, expression levels of three genes (aspartic peptidase 1, serine/threonine-protein kinase and protein SCAR2-like) were significantly differed between two subgroups possessing contrasting flowering time distributed at chromosome 2, 4 and 9, respectively. There are 6, 7 and 3 haplotypes classified on the coding regions of the three genes, respectively. Collectively, accessions with late flowering time phenotype are typically derived from AAT zone 1, which is associated with the haplotypic distribution and expression levels of the three genes. This study provides an insight into a potential mechanism responsible for flowering time in response to AAT in wild soybean, which could promote the understanding of genetic basis for other major crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flowering time and active accumulated temperature (AAT) are two key factors that limit the expanded production especially for soybean across different regions. Wild soybean provides an important germplasm for functional genomics study in cultivar soybean. However, the studies on genetic basis underlying flowering time in response to AAT especially in wild soybean were rarely reported. In this study, we used 294 wild soybean accessions derived from major soybean production region characterized by different AAT in Northeast of China. Based on genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identified 96 SNPs corresponded to 342 candidate genes that significantly associated with flowering time recorded in two-year experiments. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis suggests that the pathways of photosynthesis light reaction and actin filament binding were significantly enriched. We found three lead SNPs with -log10(p-value) > 32 across the two-year experiments, i.e., Chr02:9490318, Chr04:8545910 and Chr09:49553555. Linkage disequilibrium block analysis shows 28 candidate genes within the genomic region centered on the lead SNPs. Among them, expression levels of three genes (aspartic peptidase 1, serine/threonine-protein kinase and protein SCAR2-like) were significantly differed between two subgroups possessing contrasting flowering time distributed at chromosome 2, 4 and 9, respectively. There are 6, 7 and 3 haplotypes classified on the coding regions of the three genes, respectively. Collectively, accessions with late flowering time phenotype are typically derived from AAT zone 1, which is associated with the haplotypic distribution and expression levels of the three genes. This study provides an insight into a potential mechanism responsible for flowering time in response to AAT in wild soybean, which could promote the understanding of genetic basis for other major crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work investigates the effect of internal flow on the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) characteristics of a marine riser under different boundary conditions. A numerical model of the riser structure is established by considering the complex flow fields. The developed model is solved by the finite element theory and Newmark method, and it is verified by the experimental data. The effects of internal flow velocity and density on the vortex-induced dynamic responses with different support methods are studied. The results demonstrate that among different support methods, internal flow effect (IFE) has the greatest influence on the vortex-induced response of the riser with hinged-cantilevered support. In the case of hinged-cantilevered support method, the increment of the internal flow velocity and internal flow density has a negative influence on the vortex-induced vibration of the riser. In the case of fixed at both ends support method, the vibration amplitude and mode of riser decrease with the increment of flow density in riser. For the hinged-hinged support condition, the increment of the internal flow velocity slightly increases the amplitude of the riser and the vibration amplitude of riser decreases with the increase of density. This research may provide an efficient method for the VIV prediction, optimization design and operation control of the marine risers in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadrupole devices are widely used as ion analyzers and ion guides, which are usually driven by a sinusoidal waveform. Recently, these devices driven by a digital waveform have attracted much attention. Driven by different rf waveforms, the pseudopotential well depth of quadrupole devices is significantly different, which will affect their performance. However, there is a lack of comprehensive view on the performance differences of quadrupole devices or hybrid instrument driven by different rf waveforms. In this paper, the differences in mass range, resolution, sensitivity, and ion fragmentation of LIT/TOFMS driven by square and sinusoidal waveforms were investigated. Compared with the sinusoidal mode, the square mode had a wider mass range and better mass resolution. Toluene was used to study the difference in sensitivity and ion fragmentation between the two modes. The results showed that the sensitivity of the square mode was 1.7–2.5 times that of the sinusoidal mode at different ion densities. According to the sensitivity differences, it was inferred that the ion-trapping efficiency and ion capacity of LIT in the square mode were 2.0 times and 1.7 times those in sinusoidal mode. It was found that the square mode behaved "softer" and presented less fragmentation, and the proportion of fragment ions in the sinusoidal mode can reach 3.2 times that in the square mode at high ion density. Therefore, LIT/TOFMS driven by a square waveform shows greater potential in the application of the complex matrix system with a wide mass range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Traditional Chinese medicine decoction (TCMD) is an oral liquid made by decocting crude medicinal compounds with water. It has complex compositions and diverse odor and taste, most of which have an unacceptable level of bitterness which seriously affects patients' medication compliance. To solve this problem, a variety of taste-masking pathways and different types of taste-masking excipients were combined, using the application of coffee-mate to mask the bitterness of coffee as an existing example. Three composite taste-masking adjuvants were developed to improve the taste of TCMD, referred to as the Chinese Medicine Decoction-Mate (CMD-M). However, whether CMD-M has a good taste-masking effect and whether it affects the chemical compositions and pharmacological effects of the medicine remain unclear. Method. The commonly used pediatric medicine Qingre Huazhi Decoction (QRHZD) and the personalized decoctions used in clinical practices were used as the masking research carriers. The taste-masking effect of CMD-M on QRHZD was evaluated by both healthy volunteers and an electronic tongue, and the personalized decoctions were evaluated by clinical subjects. The changes of chemical components of QRHZD before and after taste-masking were evaluated by HPLC. The changes in anti-inflammatory effects were evaluated by establishing mice as an acute inflammatory model. Results. The taste-masking effect evaluation results showed that the bitterness of QRHZD was significantly reduced after adding CMD-M. There was no significant difference in the relative peak areas change rate and total peak areas ratio of common peaks of QRHZD before and after taste-masking (P > 0.05), shown by HPLC analysis. The inhibitory rates of QRHZD on ear swelling in mice before and after taste-masking also showed no significant difference (P > 0.05). Conclusions. CMD-M can effectively mask the bitterness of decoctions while bringing no significant difference overall in chemical compositions and pharmacological effects before and after QRHZD masking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Altered lipid profiles are frequently present in cancer, and it is necessary to elucidate the role of changed lipid profiles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We conducted this study to investigate the changed lipid profile in HCC tissues and discover some remarkably changed lipid components, and to explore the function of changed lipid components in HCC development. Methods: Gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS analysis) was employed to measure the abundance of fatty acids between HCC tissues and adjacent noncancerous tissues. The proliferative ability of HCC cells was determined by Cell Counting Kit-8 and EdU assays. Transwell and wound healing assays were employed to determine the migratory ability of HCC cells. Protein expression was assessed by western blot assay. Results: GC/MS analysis revealed that alpha-linolenic acid was present at lower levels in HCC tissues than that in the adjacent noncancerous tissues. Alpha-linolenic acid inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro. Western blotting showed that alpha-linolenic acid treatment increased Farnesoid X receptor expression and decreased β-catenin and cyclinD1 expression. Conclusions: Alpha-linolenic acid suppresses HCC progression through the FXR/Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Rational use of alpha-linolenic acid may prevent the occurrence of liver cancer in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common gastrointestinal tumor with a poor prognosis, which is associated with poor differentiation of tumor cells. However, the potential value of cell differentiation-related molecules in predicting the benefit and prognosis of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) therapy remains unknown. Herein, to investigate the differentiation trajectory of HCC cells and their clinical significance, a differentiation-related gene prognostic index (DRGPI) based on HCC differentiation-related genes (HDRGs) was constructed to elucidate the immune characteristics and therapeutic benefits of ICI in the HCC subgroup defined by DRGPI. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and bulk RNA-seq data from four HCC samples were integrated for bioinformatics analysis. Then, PON1, ADH4, SQSTM1, HSP90AA1, and STMN1 were screened out to construct a DRGPI. More intriguingly, RT-qPCR validation of the expression of these genes yielded consistent results with the TCGA database. Next, the risk scoring (RS) constructed based on DRGPI suggested that the overall survival (OS) of the DRGPI-high patients was significantly worse than that of the DRGPI-low patients. A nomogram was constructed based on DRGPI-RS and clinical characteristics, which showed strong predictive performance and high accuracy. The comprehensive results indicated that a low DRGPI score was associated with low TP53 mutation rates, high CD8 T cell infiltration, and more benefit from ICI therapy. Homoplastically, the high DRGPI score reflected the opposite results. Taken together, our study highlights the significance of HCC cell differentiation in predicting prognosis, indicating immune characteristics, and understanding the therapeutic benefits of ICI, and suggests that DRGPI is a valuable prognostic biomarker for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Renal fibrosis is a serious condition that results in the development of chronic kidney diseases. The MEN1 gene is an epigenetic regulator that encodes the menin protein and its role in kidney tissue remains unclear. Methods: Kidney histology was examined on paraffin sections stained with hematoxylin‐eosin staining. Masson's trichrome staining and Sirius red staining were used to analyze renal fibrosis. Gene and protein expression were determined by quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR) and Western blot, respectively. Immunohistochemistry staining in the kidney tissues from mice or patients was used to evaluate protein levels. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the cell cycle distributions and apoptosis. RNA‐sequencing was performed for differential expression genes in the kidney tissues of the Men1f/f and Men1∆/∆ mice. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP‐seq) was carried out for identification of menin‐ and H3K4me3‐enriched regions within the whole genome in the mouse kidney tissue. ChIP‐qPCR assays were performed for occupancy of menin and H3K4me3 at the gene promoter regions. Luciferase reporter assay was used to detect the promoter activity. The exacerbated unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) models in the Men1f/f and Men1∆/∆ mice were used to assess the pharmacological effects of rh‐HGF on renal fibrosis. Results: The expression of MEN1 is reduce in kidney tissues of fibrotic mouse and human diabetic patients and treatment with fibrotic factor results in the downregulation of MEN1 expression in renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs). Disruption of MEN1 in RTECs leads to high expression of α‐SMA and Collagen 1, whereas MEN1 overexpression restrains epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by TGF‐β treatment. Conditional knockout of MEN1 resulted in chronic renal fibrosis and UUO‐induced tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF), which is associated with an increased induction of EMT, G2/M arrest and JNK signaling. Mechanistically, menin recruits and increases H3K4me3 at the promoter regions of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 5 (Adamts5) genes and enhances their transcriptional activation. In the UUO mice model, exogenous HGF restored the expression of Adamts5 and ameliorated renal fibrosis induced by Men1 deficiency. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that MEN1 is an essential antifibrotic factor in renal fibrogenesis and could be a potential target for antifibrotic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to use the ovine model to evaluate the hemocompatibility and end-organ effects of a newly developed magnetic suspension centrifugal left ventricular assist device (LVAD) by CH Biomedical Inc., Jiangsu, China. The LVADs were implanted in 6 healthy sheep, where inflow was inserted into the left ventricular apex and outflow was anastomosed to the descending aorta. All sheep received anticoagulation and antiaggregation therapy during the study. Hematologic and biochemical tests were performed to evaluate anemia, hepatorenal function, and the extent of hemolysis. The experiments lasted for up to 30 days on the beating hearts. All sheep were humanely killed at the termination of the experiments, and the end-organs were examined macroscopically and histopathologically. Autopsy was performed in all animals and there was no thrombus formation observed inside the pump. The pump’s inflow and outflow conduits were also free of thrombus. Hematologic and biochemical test results were within normal limits during the study period. Postmortem examination of the explanted organs revealed no evidence of ischemia or infarction. Based on the in vivo study, this LVAD is suitable for implantation and can provide efficient support with good biocompatibility. The encouraging results in this study suggest that it is feasible to evaluate the device’s long-term durability and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the crucial role of cement-styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) composites in the application of damping structural materials, their long-term damping performance needs to incorporate a focused examination of organic phase aging. This study investigated the changes in the dynamic mechanical properties of these composites subjected to thermo-oxidative and ultraviolet aging, and explored the damping degradation mechanisms specific to SBR. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in the damping capability of the composites under aging, exceeding 19.5 %, 33.9 %, and 46.0 % after 1, 2, and 4 years of service, respectively. The decrease is attributed to the alteration in the molecular structure of SBR, which includes the oxidation of the α-H double bond to a hydroxyl group, followed by a dehydrogenation reaction leading to the formation of aldehyde. Furthermore, the study utilized a three-element standard solid model to elucidate the frequency-dependent dynamic mechanical properties of the cement-SBR composites. • The dynamic mechanical properties of cement-SBR composites were monitored under aging processes. • The aging mechanism of SBR polymer was investigated under aging processes. • A three-element standard solid model was proposed to elucidate the dynamic mechanical properties of the cement-SBR composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerium oxide catalysts with localized Ce 2 O 3 phase transition were prepared by controlling the calcination temperature. The effects of O act at the heterogeneous interfaces of CeO x catalysts and catalytic mechanism were investigated. The oxidation of toluene experienced intermediates of benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, benzoate, maleic acid and carbonates. Among them, benzoic acid was the decisive step in the toluene oxidation pathway. [Display omitted] • Simple preparation of CeO 2 catalysts with localised Ce 2 O 3 phase transition. • Influence of heterogeneous interfaces on catalyst properties. • Oxygen species located at the CeO 2 -Ce 2 O 3 heterogeneous interfaces were active sites. • The possible reaction mechanism of toluene was proposed by DRIFT analysis. Cerium oxide was a potential replacement for precious metals as a catalyst for VOCs. Here, we prepared CeO x -350, CeO x -450, CeO x -550 and CeO x -650 catalysts by controlling the calcination temperature, the occurrence of Ce 2 O 3 localized phase transitions at CeO x -350 and CeO x -550 was confirmed by XRD, HRTEM and TGA. This localized phase transition caused the change in specific surface area and crystallinity, and prolonged the Ce-O-Ce bond lengths at the heterogeneous interfaces, enhancing the redox capacity and activity of oxygen species. CeO x -550 exhibited the optimal low-temperature activity towards toluene due to the highest Ce3+ content, oxygen vacancy content and the best activity of reactive oxygen species. The oxidation of toluene experienced intermediates of benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, benzoate, maleic acid and carbonates. Among them, benzoic acid was the decisive step in the toluene oxidation pathway. Combined with the reaction pathway of toluene, the reaction stages of different oxygen species were determined. The active oxygen species located at the heterogeneous interface would serve as an adsorption site for toluene. The Ce 2 O 3 phase would participate in the deep oxidation of toluene as an active site, which was equivalent to the oxygen vacancies. This study was conducted to explore the effect of local phase transition on catalytic activity, which provided a new strategy for the synthesis of highly active cerium oxide catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metric learning is a branch of machine learning that aims to learn from the given training data a valid distance metric, with which the similarity between samples can be more effectively evaluated for classification. Metric learning has attracted significant attention, and a large number of models have been proposed in the past few years. However, the traditional methods adopt hinge loss which easily leads to noise sensitivity and instability. In this paper, to improve the robustness performance, we develop a mixture correntropy criterion where two Laplacian kernel functions are combined as the kernel function and induce a more general nonconvex robust loss function by the mixture correntropy. The properties related to the loss function are analysed and presented. The induced loss amalgamates the superiors of the state-of-the-art robust loss functions and is more effective. With this induced loss, we establish a robust metric learning model (called MCML) and design an effective iterative algorithm to optimize the nonconvex challenging problem. The computational complexity and convergence of algorithm are discussed in theory. Furthermore, a boosting version of MCML (BMCML) is derived, where the low-rank basis learning is jointly optimized with the metric to better uncover the data structure. Finally, extensive experiments are conducted on artificial datasets, UCI benchmark datasets and image datasets. The experimental results verify the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MOF templating method modulates the Cu-Co interactions. • Coupling of different crystal planes enhances the interaction between CuO and Co 3 O 4. • Strong interaction between CuO and Co 3 O 4 increased the Co3+ and O latt species. • The reaction pathway was optimized by strong interaction between metals. Incorporating a secondary metal into individual cobalt oxides has been viewed as an efficacious approach in creating intermetallic interactions. Nonetheless, the processes involved in the construction of intermetallic interactions, as well as the underlying mechanisms that contribute to catalytic activity, remain largely elusive in current scientific understanding. In this work, a range of Cu-Co bimetallic oxides were synthesized through various preparation methods, employing MOFs as templates. Notably, the hydrothermally-synthesized Cu/Co-HT catalyst exhibited impressive catalytic qualities for toluene combustion, with T 50 = 229 °C and T 90 = 239 °C, alongside exceptional stability and moisture resistance (under 10 vol. % of water) for at least 100 h. The optimal catalyst Cu/Co-HT is attributed to the stronger Cu-Co interaction, which leading to larger specific surface area and weaker Co-O bond strength. And it also affects the chemical properties, such as get more Co3+ and lattice oxygen species by a redox (Co2++Cu2+→Co3++Cu+), better electron transfer performance and low-temperature reducibility. In addition, the reaction mechanism of toluene over the surface of Cu/Co-HT was also revealed by in-situ DRIFTS. It was observed that the bimetallic catalyst, characterized by robust Cu-Co interactions, optimized the reaction pathway for toluene oxidation compared to pure Co 3 O 4. This facilitation led to the direct conversion of benzyl alcohol into benzoate and carboxylate, thereby bypassing the intermediate step involving benzaldehyde, which enhancing the reaction speed, yielding a long-term stable and efficient operational performance. This study reveals that optimize the physicochemical properties of catalytic by enhancing bimetallic interactions is an effective strategy for improving catalytic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Propose a design route for novel iron-based catalysts to overcome the macroscopic pH limitation of AOPs. • Construction of acidic microenvironments at catalyst heterogeneous interfaces guided the activation of PMS and degradation of pollutants. • The mechanism of the macro-chemical environment influences reactive oxygen components in the process of AOPs. Iron-based catalysts are considered one of the most promising catalysts for AOPs. However, the dependence on an acidic working environment is a bottleneck for its development and widespread application. Meanwhile, the strong acidity of persulfate makes the mechanism of pH influence on the process of AOPs ambiguous. In this study, we report a co-catalyzed non-homogeneous phase-like Fenton-like system to achieve sustained degradation of organic pollutants such as sulfamethoxazole in neutral or alkaline buffer solutions. It exploits the proton trapping property of active sulfur in MoS 2 to construct an acidic microenvironment at the heterogeneous interface of the catalyst, which ensures the stable cycling of iron ions on the catalyst's surface and effectively inhibits the generation of iron sludge. Meanwhile, the influence of the chemical environment on ROS during PMS activation was explored using a buffer solution system, which provided new insights into the transformation mechanism of ROS during AOPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breath exhaled hydrogen cyanide (HCN) has been identified to be associated with several respiratory diseases. Accurately distinguishing the concentration and release rate of different HCN sources is of great value in clinical research. However, there are still significant challenges due to the high adsorption and low concentration characteristics of exhaled HCN. In this study, a two-compartment kinetic model method based on negative photoionization mass spectrometry was developed to simultaneously determine the kinetic parameters including concentrations and release rates in the airways and alveoli. The influences of the sampling line diameter, length, and temperature on the response time of the sampling system were studied and optimized, achieving a response time of 0.2 s. The negative influence of oral cavity-released HCN was reduced by employing a strategy based on anatomical lung volume calculation. The calibration for HCN in the dynamic range of 0.5–100 ppbv and limit of detection (LOD) at 0.3 ppbv were achieved. Subsequently, the experiments of smoking, short-term passive smoking, and intake of bitter almonds were performed to examine the influences of endogenous and exogenous factors on the dynamic parameters of the model method. The results indicate that compared with steady-state concentration measurements, the kinetic parameters obtained using this model method can accurately and significantly reflect the changes in different HCN sources, highlighting its potential for HCN-related disease research. [Display omitted] • Exhaled HCN profiling with a LOD of 300 pptv and a response time of 0.2 s. • Two-compartment model (2CM) parameters of airway and alveoli are determined. • Influence of smoking and food intake on 2CM parameters has been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose to introduce zigzag-structure interfaces into the bi-segment thermal rectifier, which can improve the thermal rectification ratio by more than 36% compared a bi-segment thermal rectifier with a flat interface. • The enhancement in the thermal rectification ratio is explained based on the theory of the transformation thermotics. The thermal rectification effect refers to a phenomenon by which heat can be asymmetrically transferred through a system. For bulk materials, the thermal rectification effect can be achieved in a bi-segment thermal rectifier using materials which have thermal conductivities with different temperature dependency. However, the thermal rectification ratio is usually limited by using existing bulk materials. In the present paper, we propose to introduce zigzag-structure interfaces into the bi-segment thermal rectifier. The finite element method is employed to conduct the numerical calculations and the heat flux through the system is calculated based on the Fourier's law. It is found that the zigzag interface can improve the thermal rectification ratio by more than 36% compared a bi-segment thermal rectifier with a flat interface. The enhancement in the thermal rectification ratio is explained based on the theory of the transformation thermotics. The present paper provides a novel approach and analytical tool to design thermal rectifier with meta-materials and enhance the thermal rectification effect in bulk materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women and the leading cause of cancer death in women. About 30% of breast cancer patients have metastasis every year, which greatly increases the mortality rate of breast cancer. The main target organs for metastasis are bone, brain, liver and lung. The breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM) mechanism is not fully clarified. This is a complex process involving multiple factors, which is not only related to the microenvironment of the primary tumor and liver, but also regulated by a variety of signaling pathways. Clarifying these mechanisms is of great help to guide clinical treatment. With the in-depth study of BCLM, a variety of new treatment schemes such as targeted therapy and endocrine therapy provide new ideas for the cure of BCLM. In this review, we will summarize the molecular mechanism and treatment of BCLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sparse regularization (SReg) model is widely used for structural damage identification by employing the sparsity peculiarity of the structural damage. The conventional SReg model often separately conducts damage identification on each measurement, while ignores the utilization of the similarity information among different measurements. In this paper, we propose a novel joint sparse regularization model for structural damage identification. In detail, combined with the sparsity of the structural damage by the conventional SReg model, our model employs the similarity of different measurements to further improve the damage identification performance, which is realized by the generalized fused lasso penalty. Numerical simulations on the six-bay planar truss structure and experimental studies on the cantilever beam structure illustrate that the damage identification accuracy of our model is promoted 3.59% and 20.75% than the conventional SReg one, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) plays a key role in lipid metabolism, but investigations of GR activation as a potential therapeutic approach have been hampered by a lack of selective agonists. Ginsenoside compound K (CK) is natural small molecule with a steroid-like structure that offers a variety of therapeutic benefits. Our study validates CK as a novel GR agonist for the treatment of obesity. (2) Methods: By using pulldown and RNA interference, we determined that CK binds to GR. The anti-obesity potential effects of CK were investigated in obese mice, including through whole-body energy homeostasis, glucose and insulin tolerance, and biochemical and proteomic analysis. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we identified GR binding sites upstream of lipase ATGL. (3) Results: We demonstrated that CK reduced the weight and blood lipids of mice more significantly than the drug Orlistat. Proteomics data showed that CK up-regulated autophagy regulatory proteins, enhanced fatty acid oxidation proteins, and decreased fatty acid synthesis proteins. CK induced lipophagy with the initial formation of the phagophore via AMPK/ULK1 activation. However, a blockade of autophagy did not disturb the increase in CK on lipase expression, suggesting that autophagy and lipase are independent pathways in the function of CK. The pulldown and siRNA experiments showed that GR is the critical target. After binding to GR, CK not only activated lipophagy, but also promoted the binding of GR to the ATGL promoter. (4) Conclusions: Our findings indicate that CK is a natural food candidate for reducing fat content and weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Few proteomic studies have focused on the plant- Phytophthora interactions, our study provides important information regarding the use of proteomic methods for investigation of the basic mechanisms of plant- Phytophthora interactions. Abstract: Phytophthora sojae is a fast-spreading and devastating pathogen that is responsible for root and stem rot in soybean crops worldwide. To better understand the response of soybean seedlings to the stress of infection by virulent and avirulent pathogens at the proteomic level, proteins extracted from the hypocotyls of soybean reference cultivar Williams 82 infected by P. sojae P6497 (race 2) and P7076 (race 19), respectively, were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. 95 protein spots were differently expressed, with 83 being successfully identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and subjected to further analysis. Based on the majority of the 83 defense-responsive proteins, and defense-related pathway genes supplemented by a quantitative reverse transcription PCR assay, a defense-related network for soybean infected by virulent and avirulent pathogens was proposed. We found reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst, the expression levels of salicylic acid (SA) signal pathway and biosynthesis of isoflavones were significantly up-regulated in the resistant soybean. Our results imply that following the P. sojae infection, ROS and SA signal pathway in soybean play the major roles in defense against P. sojae. This research will facilitate further investigation of the molecular regulatory mechanism of the defense response in soybean following infection by P. sojae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]