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Syphilis remains a growing and resurging infectious disease in China. However, exploring the influence of environmental factors on the spatiotemporal distribution of syphilis remains under explore. This study aims to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of syphilis in Ningxia, Northwest China, and its potential environmental influencing factors. Based on the standardized incidence ratio of syphilis for 22 administrative areas in Ningxia from 2004 to 2017, spatiotemporal autocorrelation and scan analyses were employed to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of syphilis incidence, while a fixed-effect spatial panel regression model identified the potential factors affecting syphilis incidence. Syphilis incidence increased from 3.78/100,000 in 2004 to 54.69/100,000 in 2017 with significant spatial clustering in 2007 and 2009–2013. The “high–high” and “low–low” clusters were mainly distributed in northern and southern Ningxia, respectively. The spatial error panel model demonstrated that the syphilis incidence may be positively correlated with the per capita GDP and tertiary industry GDP and negatively correlated with the number of health facilities and healthcare personnel. Sex ratio and meteorological factors were not significantly associated with syphilis incidence. These results show that the syphilis incidence in Ningxia is still increasing and has significant spatial distribution differences and clustering. Socio-economic and health-resource factors could affect the incidence; therefore, strengthening syphilis surveillance of migrants in the economically developed region and allocating health resources to economically underdeveloped areas may effectively help prevent and control syphilis outbreaks in high-risk cluster areas of Ningxia.

A variety of physical, chemical, and biological processes within the lakes relies on the surface water temperature while the spatial pattern of large lakes of different warming trends and their connections with climate change remain unclear. Using correlation analysis, regression tree analysis (RTA), and general linear models (GLMs), we have estimated the warming trends of 192 lakes since 2000 in the populated Yangtze River Basin, China, to identify dominant climate drivers and quantify their contributions. The results show that surface water temperature has increased substantially in the majority of the investigated lakes (179 from a total of 192 lakes) at a rate of 0.29 (- 0.12 to 0.62) °C/decade (median and 95% confidence interval). The shallower lakes ( 13.1 m in depth) usually have the faster median warming rates than the deeper lakes (i.e., 0.37 °C/decade versus 0.16 °C/decade). We find that in the shallow lakes, rising air temperatures and declining wind speeds can explain the majority of variation in surface water temperature (i.e., 31.4‒80.3% and 13.0‒21.0%, respectively). In contrast, in deeper lakes, change of air temperatures plays a dominant role in water warming (75.4‒91.2%). This study has emphasized the importance of declining wind speed in water warming in large and shallow lakes and illustrated a difference of dominant climatic drivers in water warming between the shallow and deep lakes.

Compost is an important source of airborne fungi that can adversely affect occupational health. However, the aerosol behavior of fungi and their underlying factors in composting facilities are poorly understood. We collected samples from compost piles and the surrounding air during the composting of animal manure and analyzed the aerosolization behavior of fungi and its potential health effects based on the fungal composition and abundance in two media using high-throughput sequencing and ddPCR. There were differences in fungal diversity and richness between the air and composting piles. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the two primary fungal phyla in both media. The dominant fungal genera in composting piles were Aspergillus, Thermomyces, and Alternaria, while the dominant airborne fungal genes were Alternaria, Cladosporium, and Sporobolomyces. Although the communities of total fungal genera and pathogenic/allergenic genera were different in the two media, fungal abundance in composting piles was significantly correlated with abundance in air. According to the analysis on fungal composition, a total of 69.10% of the fungal genera and 91.30% of pathogenic/allergenic genera might escape from composting pile into the air. A total of 77 (26.64%) of the fungal genera and six (20%) of pathogenic/allergenic genera were likely to aerosolize. The influence of physicochemical parameters and heavy metals on the aerosol behavior of fungal genera, including pathogenic/allergenic genera, varied among the fungal genera. These results increase our understanding of fungal escape during composting and highlight the importance of aerosolization behavior for predicting the airborne fungal composition and corresponding human health risks in compost facilities.

Noble metal Pt as an efficient cocatalyst is widely utilized in the photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution field while its application is restricted by high price and scarcity. Herein, a feasible strategy for depositing a non-noble bimetallic cocatalyst on a ZnIn2S4 surface has been put forward. The low-cost and earth-abundant CuNi bimetal cocatalyst was deposited via a simple one-step photoreduction method. In this novel photocatalytic system, CuNi bimetal served as dual active sites which can inhibit the recombination of charge carriers on ZnIn2S4. Compared with single Cu or Ni deposited ZnIn2S4 samples, CuNi bimetal decorated samples showed a significant enhancement in hydrogen evolution activity. Meanwhile, 12% Cu2Ni1–ZIS realized the highest hydrogen generation rate (7825 μmol h−1 g−1, AQE = 30.19%, λ > 420 nm). The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the spillover effect of H atoms from Ni to Cu and the synergistic effect between the metals. This work provides a novel strategy for optimizing the H2 evolution performance of a ZnIn2S4-based photocatalyst by utilizing a non-noble bimetallic cocatalyst as dual active sites.

Generally, a few-shot distribution shift will lead to a poor generalization. Furthermore, while the number of instances of each class in the real world may significantly different, the existing few-shot classification methods are based on the assumption that the number of samples in each class is equal, which causes the trained classifier invalid. Moreover, through ResNet and WRN (Wide Residual Network) have achieved great success in the image processing field, the depth and width of CNNs constrain the conventional convolution layer performance. Thus, to overcome the above problems, the model of this paper proposes a novel few-shot classification model that uses learning balance variables to decide how much to learn from the imbalance dataset, which dynamically generates the convolution kernel based on each input. In our model, to extend the decision boundaries and enhance the class representations, this paper uses embedding propagation as a regularizer for manifold smoothing. Manifold smoothing can effectively solve the above problems of transductive learning. The interpolations between neural network features based on similarity graphs are used by embedding propagation. Experiments show that embedding propagation can produce a better embedding manifold and our model in standard few-shot datasets, such as miniImagenet, tieredImagenet, CUB has state-of-the-art results. It significantly outperforms the existing few-shot approaches, which consistently improves the accuracy of the models by about 11%.

Radiation therapy is widely used to treat a variety of malignant tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, ionizing radiation (IR) paradoxically promotes radioresistance, metastasis and recurrence by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer stem cells (CSCs). Here, we developed two NSCLC radioresistant (RR) cell lines (A549-RR and H1299-RR) and characterized their motility, cell cycle distribution, DNA damage, and CSC production using migration/invasion assays, flow cytometry, comet assays, and sphere formation, respectively. We also evaluated their tumorigenicity in vivo using a mouse xenograft model. We found that invasion and spheroid formation by A549-RR and H1299-RR cells were increased as compared to their parental cells. Furthermore, as compared to radiation alone, the combination of β-elemene administration with radiation increased the radiosensitivity of A549 cells and reduced expression of EMT/CSC markers while inhibiting the Prx-1/NF-kB /iNOS signaling pathway. Our findings suggest that NSCLC radioresistance is associated with EMT, enhanced CSC phenotypes, and activation of the Prx-1/NF-kB/iNOS signaling pathway. They also suggest that combining β-elemene with radiation may be an effective means of overcoming radioresistance in NSCLC.

Highlights • The detection rate of hock-a-loogie saliva was higher than nasopharyngeal swabs. • Hock-a-loogie saliva sample had a higher viral load than throat swab. • Hock-a-loogie saliva sampling for SARS-CoV-2 detection is reliable., To clarify the effect of different respiratory sample types on SARS-CoV-2 detection, we collected throat swabs, nasal swabs and hock-a-loogie saliva or sputum, and compared their detection rates and viral loads. The detection rates of sputum (95.65%, 22/23) and hock-a-loogie saliva (88.09%, 37/42) were significantly higher than those in throat swabs (41.54%, 27/65) and nasal swabs (72.31%, 47/65) (P

Iron and oxygen co-doped graphite phase carbon nitride (Fe@O CN) is synthesized via a simple one-pot in-situ pyrolysis method. It is used in a favorable peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation oxidation system to enhance Orange I (OI) degradation. The effects of dopant contents, different water conditions and the reusability are conducted to evaluate the removal efficacy of PMS catalytic over Fe@O CN in water. Moreover, OI degradation is almost stable under several typical anions (H2PO4−, Cl− and HCO3−) and humic acid existence. Theoretical calculation results reveal that effective-directional transfer of electrons is obtained by Fe@O CN, building the formation of high electron density areas around Fe and O. The quenching tests display that O2•− and 1O2 are responsible for OI removal, and SO4•− and •OH only donate a very small contribution. The electron transfer between electron-rich Fe, O element and HSO5− cycles facilitate HSO5− activation to generate reactive oxygen species. After co-doping, DFT calculations confirm the stronger binding energy, greater charge transferability and longer O O bond length for PMS activation in Fe@O CN/PMS system. Our findings provide a valuable insight for the development of efficient catalysts for PMS activation via metal and nonmetal co-doping, which display a promising application for polluted aquatic environment.

Here, we report a nanocomposite with excellent photothermal performance promising for photothermal treatment. This nanocomposite is prepared by linking Au nanorods (NRs) to NaGdF4:18% Yb3+, 2%Er3+@...

Drospirenone (DE) is a fourth-generation progesterone that has been widely used in oral contraceptives for women because of its safety and few side effects in terms of pharmacological activity. A new solvatomorph (crystal form C) of DE with dimethyl sulfoxide was identified and characterized for the first time through a thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry (TG-MS) coupling system. The thermodynamic property of the new solvatomorph of DE was different from those of most pharmaceutical solvatomorphs, and it was revealed via the skimmer-type interfaced TG-MS system and differential scanning calorimetry. This new solvatomorph and a polymorph of DE obtained without solvent (crystal form A) were well characterized by X-ray crystallography and vibrational spectroscopic analysis. Computational studies based on their single-crystal structures, such as Hirshfeld surface analyses, were used to determine the intermolecular interactions in the crystal network. The single-crystal structure of crystal form C of DE was determined and reported for the first time.

Objective To investigate the application of oncoplastic surgery in breast-conserving surgery. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 103 breast cancer patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University. All the patients were female whose tumor volume-to-breast volume ratio was greater than 20%. Fifty-two patients were treated with oncoplastic breast-conversing surgery (observation group), and 51 patients were treated with traditional breast-conserving surgery (control group). The volume of resected tissue, subjective satisfaction with breast shape, objective score of breast shape, and follow-up were compared between the two groups. Results In the observation group, the weight of resected breast tissue was 64.2–172.1 g, with a median of 98.7 g. In the control group, the weight of resected breast tissue was 67.5–175.7 g, with a median of 102.3 g. After 12 months of follow-up, the subjective satisfaction rate and objective score of breast shape in the observation group were significantly better than those in the traditional breast-conserving surgery group (P 0.05). Conclusion Oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery leads to better cosmetic results and a more satisfactory clinical results.

The electrodeposition of Cu–Zn–Sn ternary alloys on stainless steel from a cyanide-free alkaline electrolyte containing hydroxyethylidene diphosphonic acid (HEDP) was investigated. Four hydroxyl-containing additives, namely methanol (MET), ethylene glycol (EG), glycerol (GLY), and mannitol (MAN), were added to an HEDP bath, and the effects of the number of hydroxyl groups on the codeposition of Cu–Zn–Sn ternary alloys were compared. Cu–Zn–Sn codeposition occurred at − 0.53 Vvs.Hg|HgO. The hydroxyl-containing additives were beneficial to promote the codeposition of Cu–Zn–Sn, since they can complex with metal ions and act as auxiliary complexing agents. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the smallest grain size of 0.1 μm was obtained from the bath containing MAN. In addition to being smaller than the others, these coatings had uniform particle sizes. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis indicated that the composition of the Cu–Zn–Sn coatings obtained from the bath containing MAN was 73.293 wt% Cu, 26.079 wt% Zn, and 0.629 wt% Sn, and these coatings were golden in color. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the Cu–Zn–Sn coatings were crystalline and were composed of a mixture of Cu, Zn, Cu5Zn8, Cu20Sn6, and Cu39Sn11 phases, indicating the formation of Cu–Zn–Sn ternary alloys. These results may provide theoretical guidance for an electrodeposition technology of Cu–Zn–Sn ternary alloys from a new cyanide-free alkaline electrolyte.

In order to improve the ability of residential disaster prevention, control, and governance, it is important to objectively measure how nearby residents’ needs match the public resources of the residential area, and to understand the factors affecting the satisfaction of residents’ needs at the time of lockdowns. Taking Changchun City as an example, this paper used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-logit and Importance–Satisfaction (I–S) evaluation methods to discuss the impact mechanism and improvement strategies of residential public resource elements on the satisfaction of residents’ needs during the lockdown period. The results showed the influencing factors and the degree of importance of the satisfaction of residents’ needs under different types of settlements have obvious differentiation characteristics. The level of resource management can better affect the overall evaluation of residents in newly built settlements, and the quality of the conditions of the space environment is more important for the old residential communities. The satisfaction of residents in settlements has a more significant impact. Finally, the study explained the renovation proposals and their priority levels that meet the needs of residents to provide beneficial support for the resilience of urban settlements.

Background: Despite the fact that the initial hypertrophic response to ventricular pressure overload is thought to be compensatory, prolonged stress often leads to heart failure. Previous studies have shown that the Fufang-Zhenzhu-Tiaozhi (FTZ) formula is beneficial for the treatment of dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. However, the effects of FTZ on cardiac hypertrophy remain unclear. Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the protective effects of FTZ on cardiac hypertrophy and determine the underlying mechanisms. Methods: TAC was utilized to establish a cardiac hypertrophy animal model, and FTZ was given via gavage for four weeks. Next, echocardiographic measurements were made. The morphology of mouse cardiomyocytes was examined using H&E and WGA staining. In vitro, the neonatal cardiomyocytes were stimulated with angiotensin Ⅱ (Ang Ⅱ). In addition to measuring the size of cardiomyocytes, qRT-PCR and western blotting were conducted to measure cardiac stress markers and pathway. Results: According to our findings, FTZ alleviated cardiac hypertrophy in mice and cell models. Furthermore, expression of miR-214 was down-regulated following FTZ, whereas the effect of FTZ therapy was reversed using miR-214 transfection. Furthermore, the expression of Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) was decreased in Ang Ⅱ-induced oxidative damage, which was associated with a reduction in SOD-1, GPX1, and HO-1 and an increase in MDA, while SIRT3 expression was restored following FTZ treatment. Conclusions: Collectively, these findings indicate that FTZ is a protective factor for cardiac hypertrophy due to its regulation of the miR-214-SIRT3 axis, which suggests that FTZ may be a therapeutic target for cardiac hypertrophy.

The applications being developed within the U.S. Exascale Computing Project (ECP) to run on imminent Exascale computers will generate scientific results with unprecedented fidelity and record turn-around time. Many of these codes are based on particle-mesh methods and use advanced algorithms, especially dynamic load-balancing and mesh-refinement, to achieve high performance on Exascale machines. Yet, as such algorithms improve parallel application efficiency, they raise new challenges for I/O logic due to their irregular and dynamic data distributions. Thus, while the enormous data rates of Exascale simulations already challenge existing file system write strategies, the need for efficient read and processing of generated data introduces additional constraints on the data layout strategies that can be used when writing data to secondary storage. We review these I/O challenges and introduce two online data layout reorganization approaches for achieving good tradeoffs between read and write performance. We demonstrate the benefits of using these two approaches for the ECP particle-in-cell simulation WarpX, which serves as a motif for a large class of important Exascale applications. We show that by understanding application I/O patterns and carefully designing data layouts we can increase read performance by more than 80%., 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems

Objective: To identify the predictors of prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) less than 3 months. Methods: From June 2017 to May 2020, a total of 165 infants less than 3 months old with CHD admitted to the Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University for CPB were enrolled in this study. The following data were collected including gender, age, weight, Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 (RACHS-1) score, preoperative levels of thyroid hormones, CPB time, aortic cross-clamping (ACC) time, mechanical ventilation time, ICU mortality and infection. The PMV was defined as the ventilator assisted time > 72h. PMV prediction was assessed by multivariate binary logistic regression analysis. Results: Compared with non-PMV group, PMV group was younger (44.74 ± 25.27 days vs. 35.44 ± 26.91 days, P= 0.001), and most were newborns (41/93 vs. 10/57, P=0.000), with a higher proportion of RACHS-1 (29/93 vs.6/57, P=0.000) and more cases of infection (47/93 vs. 17/57,P= 0.004).PMV group had significantly lower weight than non-PMV group (3.79 ± 0.83Kg vs. 4.28 ± 1.01Kg, P=0.001). In PMV group, CPB (133.74 ± 89.65 vs. 72.30 ± 44.82, P =0.000) and ACC time (52.02 ± 24.80 vs. 36.98 ± 16.63, P =0.000) were both longer. FT4 and TT4 were higher while FT3, TT3 and TSH were lower in PMV group, but only FT3 (4.99 ± 1.67 vs. 5.29 ± 1.23, P =0.017) and TT3 (1.91 ± 0.59 vs. 1.96 ± 0.49, P =0.050) showed significant differences between PMV group and non-PMV group. Conclusion: Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that weight, infection, FT3 and CPB time were independent predictors of PMV after CPB in infants with CHD.

Agricultural nitrogen sources (ANS) have played an increasingly important role in the air quality since ANS emission controls are much weaker than those for fossil fuel combustion sources due to the increasing food demand. However, ANS emissions are highly uncertain due to stochastic agricultural management activities and limited field measurements, and impacts of ANS on the air quality remain elusive. In the study, the WRF-Chem model has been used to investigate ANS shares in near surface air pollutant concentrations during a growing season in the North China Plain (NCP), with ANS emissions constrained by satellite retrievals. Soil NO

Atmospheric humidity has been shown to promote haze formation, but it remains unclear why the air is humid during heavy haze days in winter. Here we combine water vapor isotope measurements with WRF-Chem simulations to elucidate increasing humidity with aggravation of haze during wintertime in urban Beijing. The vapor isotopic analysis in Beijing shows that the combustion-derived water (CDW) constitutes 11.0± 6.2 % of the atmospheric moisture and its fraction in total moisture increases with aggravation of haze. Modeling results reveal that, in addition to the water vapor transported from south or east to Beijing with occurrence of haze, CDW has a considerable impact on the increasing humidity when haze becomes heavy or severe. Aerosol-radiation interactions generally decrease the water vapor content and only increase humidity with occurrence of severe haze with hourly PM

Iron (Fe) disorder is a pivotal factor that limits rice yields in many parts of the world. Extensive research has been devoted to studying how rice molecularly copes with the stresses of Fe deficiency or excess. However, a comprehensive dissection of the whole Fe-responsive atlas at the protein level is still lacking. Here, different concentrations of Fe (0, 40, 350, and 500 μM) were supplied to rice to demonstrate its response differences to Fe deficiency and excess via physiological and proteomic analysis. Results showed that compared with the normal condition, the seedling growth and contents of Fe and manganese were significantly disturbed under either Fe stress. Proteomic analysis revealed that differentially accumulated proteins under Fe deficiency and Fe excess were commonly enriched in localization, carbon metabolism, biosynthesis of amino acids, and antioxidant system. Notably, proteins with abundance retuned by Fe starvation were individually associated with phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, cysteine and methionine metabolism, while ribosome- and endocytosis-related proteins were specifically enriched in treatment of Fe overdose of 500 μM. Moreover, several novel proteins which may play potential roles in rice Fe homeostasis were predicted. These findings expand the understanding of rice Fe nutrition mechanisms, and provide efficient guidance for genetic breeding work. SIGNIFICANCE: Both iron (Fe) deficiency and excess significantly inhibited the growth of rice seedlings. Fe deficiency and excess disturbed processes of localization and cellular oxidant detoxification, metabolisms of carbohydrates and amino acids in different ways. The Fe-deficiency and Fe-excess-responsive proteins identified by the proteome were somewhat different from the reported transcriptional profiles, providing complementary information to the transcriptomic data.

Purpose: To investigate the characteristics of macular outward scleral height (MOSH) in different grades of myopic tractional maculopathy (MTM) and explore the risk factors for MTM. Methods: A total of 188 eyes (188 participants) with high myopia were divided into the no MTM (nMTM) group and the MTM group, which was further graded into foveoschisis, foveal detachment, full-thickness macular hole, and macular hole with retinal detachment. Swept-source optical coherence tomography was used to measure the MOSH. Results: No significant differences were found in axial length between the nMTM and MTM groups (p = 0.295). The MOSH was significantly higher in the MTM group (p < 0.001), which was identified as a risk factor for MTM (OR = 1.108, p < 0.001). The proportion of eyes with severe atrophic myopic maculopathy (AMM) was higher in the MTM group (28.48%) (p = 0.003). The macular hole with foveoschisis (MH/FS+) subgroup presented a higher average MOSH (p = 0.012) and more severe AMM (p = 0.009) than the macular hole without foveoschisis (MH/FS−) subgroup. Conclusion: MOSH would be more suitable for estimating MTM occurrence than axial length. The grading of AMM helps to evaluate the severity of MTM. The categorization of MH/FS− as a distinct grade from MH/FS+ might be preferable.

The value of plasma threonine, cysteine, and piperonamide as diagnostic biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been rarely explored. The lack of a validation set containing confounders is common to most previous metabolomics studies. The purpose of this study was to explore and validate the value of plasma amino acids and piperonamide as diagnostic biomarkers for NSCLC using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).A total of 250 participants were included in this study, including 167 patients with pathologically confirmed NSCLC and 83 healthy controls (HCs). These participants were divided into training set, validation set 1, and validation set 2 in chronological order and in a certain proportion. The plasma levels of 22 amino acids and 1 piperonamide in these pre-treatment NSCLC patients and HCs were measured by LC-MS/MS. Metabolic biomarkers were identified after multivariate analysis, univariate analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Furthermore, these biomarkers and transcriptomic data were subjected to joint pathway analysis.The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values for threonine, piperonamide, arginine, alanine, cysteine, methionine, and histidine in the integrated data set were 0.911, 0.848, 0.909, 0.869, 0.786, 0.597 and 0.637, respectively. This panel composed of these 7 metabolites showed good diagnostic capability for NSCLC (the AUC of this diagnostic panel in each data set was greater than 0.9). The specificity of this diagnostic panel in validation set 2, which included confounders, was 0.970, similar to that of the other datasets. The presence of confounding factors had little effect on the diagnostic accuracy of this panel. The ROC analysis of this diagnostic panel between all stage I NSCLC patients and HCs showed AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of 1.000, 1.000, and 0.988, respectively. Moreover,Plasma amino acids and piperonamide have potential as diagnostic biomarkers in NSCLC. This metabolic biomarker panel appears useful for the diagnosis and screening of NSCLC. In addition, metabolomic and transcriptomic integration pathway analysis may help elucidate the mechanism of NSCLC occurrence and development and even reveal new treatment vulnerabilities.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB)-crossing ability of drugs is of paramount importance for the treatments of central nervous system diseases. However, the known methods for drug transport across the BBB are generally complicated and inefficient, and exhibit serious side effects in some cases. Herein, we report an exciting finding that fluorination and betaine modification can significantly augment the BBB-crossing ability of cylindrical polymer brushes (CPBs), which was demonstrated by the comparison with the CPBs modified with alkyl and poly(ethylene glycol) chains, respectively. We surmise that fluorination enhances the BBB penetration of the CPBs by increasing the hydrophobicity and reducing the surface energy, and betaine medication achieves this function via a betaine transporter BGT1 expressed on brain capillaries. By means of an in vitro BBB model, we demonstrated that the CPBs penetrated the BBB through transendothelial transport. This work provides a novel strategy for enhancing the BBB-crossing ability of nanomaterials.

C14H18N4O4S, triclinic, P 1 ‾ $P\bar{1}$ (no. 2), a = 9.027(1) Å, b = 10.658(1) Å, c = 16.358(1) Å, α = 90.083(6)°, β = 92.278(6)°, γ = 103.085(6)°, V = 1531.66(19) Å3, Z = 4, R gt (F) = 0.0419, wR ref (F 2) = 0.1175, T = 110.9(3) K.

The development of chip-level near-infrared laser sources using two-dimensional semiconductors is imperative to maintain the architecture of van der Waals integrated optical interconnections. However, the established two-dimensional semiconductor lasers may have either the disadvantages of poor controllability of monolayered gain media, large optical losses on silicon, or complicated fabrication of external optical microcavities. This study demonstrates room-temperature near-infrared lasing from mechanically exfoliated γ-phase indium selenide (InSe) microflakes free from external optical microcavities at a center wavelength of ∼1030 nm. The lasing action occurs at the sub-Mott density level and is generated by exciton-exciton scattering with a high net modal optical gain of ∼1029 cm

Summertime ozone (O

Timely lysosome escape is of paramount importance for endocytosed nanomedicines to avoid premature degradation under the acidic and hydrolytic conditions in lysosomes. Herein, we report an exciting finding that phenylboronic acid (PBA) modification can greatly facilitate the lysosome escape of cylindrical polymer brushes (CPBs). On the basis of our experimental results, we speculate that the mechanism is associated with the specific interactions of the PBA groups with lysosomal membrane proteins and hot shock proteins. The featured advantage of the PBA modification over the known lysosome escape strategies is that it does not cause significant adverse effects on the properties of the CPBs; on the contrary, it enhances remarkably their tumor accumulation and penetration. Furthermore, doxorubicin was conjugated to the PBA-modified CPBs with a drug loading content larger than 20%. This CPBs-based prodrug could eradicate the tumors established in mice by multiple intravenous administrations. This work provides a novel strategy for facilitating the lysosome escape of nanomaterials and demonstrates that PBA modification is an effective way to improve the overall properties of nanomedicines including the tumor therapeutic efficacy.

Nationwide restrictions on human activities (lockdown) in China since 23 January 2020, to control the 2019 novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19), has provided an opportunity to evaluate the effect of emission mitigation on particulate matter (PM) pollution. The WRF-Chem simulations of persistent heavy PM pollution episodes from 20 January to 14 February 2020, in the Guanzhong Basin (GZB), northwest China, reveal that large-scale emission reduction of primary pollutants has not substantially improved the air quality during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Simultaneous reduction of primary precursors during the lockdown period only decreases the near-surface PM

We experimentally demonstrate to drive domain growth in lithium niobate crystal by using a focused infrared femtosecond laser without relative displacement or any additional treatment. The physical process has four stages: modified domain generation; thermoelectric field formation; domain inversion; and domain growth. The length of domain growth depends on drive energy (pulse energy) and drive time (number of pulses), up to 155 µm. We use this approach to rapidly fabricate two-dimensional period-inverted domain structures and perform frequency-doubling conversion based on quasi-phase-matching. Laser-driven domain growth delivers an efficient manufacturing route for tailored functional materials.

The Jinchang Cohort was an ongoing 20-year ambispective cohort with unique metal exposures of an occupational population. Until now, the Jinchang Cohort has completed three phases of follow-up from January 2014 to December 2019. The baseline cohort was completed from June 2011 to December 2013, and a total of 48 001 people were included. Three phases of follow-ups included 46 713, 41 888 and 40 530 participants, respectively. The death data was collected from 2001 to 2020. The epidemiological, physical examination, physiological and biochemical data of the cohort were collected by using the methods of cross-section and prospective cohort study. Biological specimens were collected on baseline to establish a biological specimen bank. The concentrations of metals in urine and serum were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The new areas of research aim to study the all-cases mortality, the burden of diseases, heavy metals and diseases, and course of the chain from disease to high-risk outcomes using a combination of macro and micro means, which provided scientific basic to explore pathogenesis of multi-etiology and multi-disease, and to evaluate the effects of the intervention measures in the population.

The Jinchang Cohort was an ongoing 20-year ambispective cohort with unique metal exposures to an occupational population. From January 2014 to December 2019, the Jinchang Cohort has completed three phases of follow-up. The baseline cohort was completed from June 2011 to December 2013, and a total of 48 001 people were included. Three phases of follow-ups included 46 713, 41 888, and 40 530 participants, respectively. The death data were collected from 2001 to 2020. The epidemiological, physical examination, physiological, and biochemical data of the cohort were collected at baseline and during follow-up. Biological specimens were collected on the baseline to establish a biological specimen bank. The concentrations of metals in urine and serum were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The new areas of research aim to study the all-cases mortality, the burden of diseases, heavy metals and diseases, and the course of the chain from disease to high-risk outcomes using a combination of macro and micro means, which provided a scientific basis to explore the pathogenesis of multi-etiology and multi-disease and to evaluate the effects of the intervention measures in the population.

Exploiting highly-efficient and metal-free photocatalyst for CO

Since the ratio of glazing and opaque areas on building facade has significant impact on the indoor visual and thermal comforts as well as energy consumption, the optimal Window-to-Wall Ratio is necessary to be explored for the rural residences with a large quantity in China. Due to the traditional dwellings has been representative of housing samples among rural residences, Sizhai traditional dwellings situated in Zhejiang Province were chosen as the study buildings in this paper. The building model is rotated to 20° increments clockwise to create 18 building orientation intervals. Furthermore, the Window-to-Wall Ratio of front facade for the building model was divided into 8 intervals at increments of 0.1, from [0.1–0.2] to [0.8–0.9]. Through indoor environment simulation, the daylight factor, air temperature and air velocity were computed for the test scenarios with different building orientation and Window-to-Wall Ratio combinations. Three optimal intervals of Window-to-Wall Ratios at a series of building orientations corresponding to the daylight factor, mean maximum indoor temperature and mean indoor air velocity are determined respectively, based on the criteria of national codes and thermal comfort ranges. The intersection interval of the three subsets is the optimal interval of Window-to-Wall Ratio for the study building. In addition, for verifying the accuracy of research results, two validation techniques (i.e., comparison of experimental measurement data, and comparison of computational results from other simulation tools) were adopted in this paper.

This study aimed to gain insight into cocrystal interactions through solid-state characterization and theoretical computation. We formulated four novel cocrystalline phases of antipyrine (AN) and a...