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Subcellular organelle targeted imaging and therapy are of enormous interest in cancer theranostics. However, the lack of tumor-selective organelle targeting has compromised their efficacy and safety. In this work, we found that the near-infrared (NIR) fluorophore hemicyanine (CyNH2) can selectively target mitochondria with strong cytotoxicity through decreasing the mitochondrial membrane potential and increasing the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. A macrotheranostic probe (denoted as PLCy) based on conjugating CyNH2 with an acetylated lysine group was developed with masked fluorescence and cytotoxicity, which could both be unmasked through sequential activation by cancer cells overexpressing histone deacetylases (HDACs) and cathepsin L (CTSL) enzymes for selective cancer cell mitochondria-targeted imaging and therapy. In vitro and in vivo studies confirmed that the specific fluorescence turn-on and toxicity were restored in cancer cells and efficiently inhibited tumor growth. This macrotheranostic probe with sequential enzyme activation and mitochondrial targeting is expected to have promising applications in imaging-guided cancer therapy with high specificity and efficiency. Statement of significance To improve the targeting efficiency and enhance the anti-cancer activities of macrotheranostic probe. We designed macrotheranostic probe PLCy that can be activated via sequential enzymes for selective tumor mitochondria targeting. More importantly, the activated CyNH2 can decrease the mitochondrial membrane potential and elevate the reactive oxygen species level in cancer cells without light irradiation, which can further induce apoptosis of tumor cells for chemotherapy. Therefore, the use of sequential enzyme activation and mitochondria targeting strategies in the context of enzymatic activation may provide a general strategy for organelle-targeted imaging and therapy with high specificity and efficiency.

Increasing evidence indicates that inflammatory cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). A wide range of over ten cytokines in peripheral blood of RAS patients have been investigated in different studies. Yet, which of the ones are the most prominent indicators contributed for the process of RAS are uncertain. Herein, a total of 16 eligible case–control studies including 1051 cases of RAS and 616 health controls were summarized. The bubble chart analysis showed that the most prominent cytokines for RAS were interleukin (IL)-6 (646 cases, 308 controls), TNF-α (498 cases, 298 controls), and IL-2 (371 cases, 264 controls). On the other hand, 9 studies on cytokines as therapeutic indicators of RAS were identified. The effect of levamisole and thalidomide on cytokines mainly were IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-8. Collectively, an optimum panel of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-2 maybe serve as the potential significant indicators for RAS investigations.

Existing knowledge distillation (KD) method normally fixes the weight of the teacher network, and uses the knowledge from the teacher network to guide the training of the student network no-ninteractively, thus it is called static knowledge distillation (SKD). SKD is widely used in model compression on the homologous data and knowledge transfer on the heterogeneous data. However, the teacher network that with fixed-weight constrains the student network to learn knowledge from it. It is worth expecting that the teacher network itself can be continuously optimized to promote the learning ability of the student network dynamically. To overcome this limitation, we propose a novel dynamic knowledge distillation (DKD) method, in which the teacher network and the student network can learn from each other interactively. Importantly, we analyzed the effectiveness of DKD mathematically (see Eq. 4), and addressed one crucial issue caused by the continuous change of the teacher network in the dynamic distillation process via designing a valid loss function. We verified the practicality of our DKD by extensive experiments on various visual tasks, e.g. for model compression, we conducted experiments on image classification and object detection. For knowledge transfer, video-based human action recognition is chosen for analysis. The experimental results on benchmark datasets (i.e. ILSVRC2012, COCO2017, HMDB51, UCF101) demonstrated that the proposed DKD is valid to improve the performance of these visual tasks for a large margin. The source code is publicly available online at

Traditional capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF), liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) still suffered from low resolution for hemoglobinopathy screening. Herein, a 30-mm pH 5.2-7.8 microcolumn IEF (mIEF) array chip was developed for hemoglobinopathy screening. As a proof of concept, adult beta-thalassemia was chosen as a model disease. In the method, blood samples were hemolyzed via hemolysin solution and loaded into the microcolumn. The experiments showed that (i) the species of Hb A, F, A

Protein ubiquitylation is an important post-translational modification (PTM), which is considered to be one of the most important processes regulating cell function and various diseases. Therefore, accurate prediction of ubiquitylation proteins and their PTM sites is of great significance for the study of basic biological processes and the development of related drugs. Researchers have developed some large-scale computational methods to predict ubiquitylation sites, but there is still much room for improvement. Much of the research related to ubiquitylation is cross-species while the life pattern is diversified, and the prediction method always shows its specificity in practical application. This study just aims to the issue of plants, and has constructed computational methods for identifying ubiquitylation protein and ubiquitylation sites. To better reflect the protein sequence information and obtain better prediction, the KNN scoring matrix model based on functional domain GO annotation and word embedding model (CBOW and Skip-Gram) are used to extract the features, and the light gradient boosting machine (LGBM) is selected as the ubiquitylation proteins prediction engine. As results, accuracy (ACC), precision (precision), recall (recall), F1_score and AUC are respectively 85.12%, 80.96%, 72.80%, 0.7637 and 0.9193 in the 10-fold cross-validations on independent data set. In the ubiquitylation sites prediction model, Skip-Gram, CBOW and EAAC feature extraction codes were used to extract protein sequence fragment features, and the predicted results on training and independent test data have also achieved good performance. In a word, the comparison results demonstrate that our models have a decided advantage in predicting ubiquitylation proteins and sites, and it may provide useful insights for studying the mechanisms and modulation of ubiquitination pathways. The datasets and source codes used in this study are available at: https://github.com/gmywqk/Ub-PS-Fuse.

Sluggish water dissociation on Pt electrocatalysts results in poor performance for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and thus greatly limits their practical application in industrial water electrolysis. Herein, ultrafine Pt nanoparticles have been confined into N-doped carbon by an in situ galvanic replacement reaction, and the pyridinic N-enhanced heavy d−π interaction is found to significantly enhance the water dissociation catalytic activity of Pt. The electron-deficient Pt generated by this enhanced heavy d−π effect exhibits an ultralow overpotential for hydrogen evolution of 10 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm–2 and an ultrahigh mass current density of 7.74 mA μgPt–1 at an overpotential of 70 mV (7.9-fold higher than that of commercial Pt/C). Theoretical calculations reveal that the pyridinic N-enhanced heavy d−π effect can largely reduce the water dissociation energy barrier on Pt, thus greatly enhancing Pt’s performance for the alkaline HER.

A solvothermal method to prepare PtNi alloys that have differing morphologies is described. By adjusting the feed ratio of Pt and Ni precursors in this process, PtNi alloys with different compositions (Pt : Ni atomic ratio from 1 : 3 to 3 : 1) and morphologies (evolution from nanobranches to nanoparticles) are generated. The prepared Pt

(Ti, V, W, Mo)C-based cermets were synthesized by varying the amount of WC and Mo. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction detection, Vickers hardness, and transverse rupture strength tests were used to examine the microstructure and mechanical properties. The results demonstrate that comprehensive mechanical properties were improved with dispersed white particles in the binder, and the crack propagated with deflection and bridging. In the fracture morphology, more dimples were formed. However, when the WC and Mo content was increased to 20 wt.%, the in-situ precipitated white particles agglomerated, and was difficult for the binder to release stress via deformation, resulting in a decrease in the toughness.

The current work aims to study the effects of stirring pin morphology on the FSWed lap joints defects and mechanical properties. The 2A12 aluminum alloy friction stir welding lap joints were obtained using two shapes and three thread lengths of stirring pins by experiments. Besides the interface defects forming mechanism were studied by joints plastic metal flow numerical simulation. The results show that the conical pin can lead to uniform and continuous plastic metal velocity field which forms a Hook defect with sharp end, smaller deflection angle (minimum 8°) and larger size (maximum 0.18mm). It also will lead to a larger failure load (maximum is 9.5kN), and the fracture position easily occurs at the Advancing side (AS) of lower plate. The three section pin has a periodic shearing effect causing velocity difference between the arc edge and cutting section of the pin which forms a Hook defect with thicker end, larger deflection angle (maximum 42°) and smaller size (minimum 0.06mm). It also causes discontinuous wavy debris forms in the AS. The three section pin leads to a lower failure load (maximum is just 7.6kN), and the fracture position turns to occur at the lap interface. The increase of the thread length can promote the exchange of plastic metal in the thickness direction and interface materials flow velocity. So the angle (from 20°to 150°) and size (from 0.1mm to 0.6mm) of Hook increases but the height of Cold Lap reduces (increasing the effective sheet thickness of retreating side from 0.69mm to 0.95mm). In addition, the increase of the thread length can make the periodic shear effect of three section pin gradually weak. It is also found that the fracture position is closely related to the shape and the thread length of pins. When using conical pin, the fracture occurs at AS of lower plate or Retreating Side of Nugget Zone (NZ-RS) of upper plate; When using three section pin, the fracture occurs at the bonding interface. And with the increase of the thread length, the fracture position changes from the bonding interface to the NZ-RS of upper plate, and finally to the AS of lower plate.

Graphical abstract, Highlights • An computational method was developed to identify G-protein coupled receptors. • Three word-embedding models and a bag-of-words model are used to extract original features. • A high accuracy was achieved by using fusion information. • A powerful tool was established., G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) are one of the largest membrane protein receptor family in human, which are also important targets for many drugs. Thence, it’s of great significance to judge whether a protein is a GPCR or not. However, identifying GPCRs by experimental methods is very expensive and time-consuming. As more and more GPCR primary sequences are accumulated, it’s feasible to develop a computational model to predict GPCRs precisely and quickly. In this paper, a novel method called EMCBOW-GPCR has been proposed to improve the accuracy of identifying GPCRs based on natural language processing (NLP). For representing GPCRs, three word-embedding models and a bag-of-words model are used to extract original features. Then, the original features are thrown into a Deep-learning algorithm to extract features further and reduce the dimension. Finally, the obtained features are fed into Extreme Gradient Boosting. As shown with the results comparison, the overall prediction metrics of EMCBOW-GPCR are higher than the state of the arts. In order to be convenient for more researchers to use EMCBOW-GPCR, the method and source code have been opened in github, which are available at https://github.com/454170054/EMCBOW-GPCR, and a user-friendly web-server for EMCBOW-GPCR has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/emcbowgpcr.

The observation of γ-ray sources above 100 TeV is one of the most intriguing fields in the investigation of the origin of cosmic rays. The YangBaJing Hybrid Array (YBJ-HA) experiment consist of scintillation detectors and underground muon detectors, the main objective is to measure gamma rays >10 TeV. In this study, we investigated an energy estimation method based on particle density and fixed distance from the shower axis by conducting a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of an extensive air shower using the YBJ-HA in Tibet. By comparing the results of the new method with those of other previously used estimators, we found that the new method can effectively improve the energy resolution of gamma rays. At an energy of 100 TeV for a zenith angle θ

Purpose: To retrospectively investigate changes of aqueous humor inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic biomarkers levels in response to intravitreal injection of Conbercept (IVC) treatment for the management of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).Methods: Thirty eyes of 30 PCV patients were enrolled and were received with three consecutive monthly injections of Conbercept. Aqueous humour was collected before the first and third injections. The concentrations of 4 inflammatory cytokines (interleukin (IL)-2, IL-6, IL-10, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1) and 4 angiogenic biomarkers (vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin 2, endothelin 1, IL-8) in the aqueous humor samples of both groups were measured.Results: Concentrations of 2 inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, MCP-1) and 4 angiogenic biomarkers (VEGF, angiopoietin 2, endothelin 1, IL-8) in aqueous humors were significantly higher in eyes of PCV compared with control eyes (all pp>0.05). After IVC treatment, concentrations of 4 cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1) and VEGF in aqueous humors were significantly decreased in eyes of PCV compared with baseline (all pConclusions: PCV has remarkably distinct inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic biomarkers levels in the aqueous humor. After consecutive Conbercept injection for two monthly, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, MCP-1 and VEGF levels in aqueous humors from eyes of PCV were strongly inhibited. Our findings suggest that some key inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic biomarkers may be paticipated in the pathogenesis of PCV.

An electrocatalyst composed of RuO

As a unique organofluorine fragment, gem-difluoromethylated motifs have received widespread attention. Here, a convenient and efficient synthesis of aryldifluoromethyl aryl ethers (ArCF2OAr’) was established via Nickel-catalyzed aryloxydifluoromethylation with arylboronic acids. This approach features easily accessible starting materials, good tolerance of functionalities, and mild reaction conditions. Diverse late-stage difluoromethylation of many pharmaceuticals and natural products were readily realized. Notably, a new difluoromethylated PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor was conveniently synthesized and showed both improved metabolic stability and enhanced antitumor efficacy. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggested the involvement of a Ni(I/III) catalytic cycle.

The use of polyprodrugs, which bind drugs to polymer chains through responsive linkers, is a potential technique for cancer therapy; however, a lack of endogenous triggering factors limits drug activation in tumor tissue. Herein, we rationally created a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-sensitive polyprodrug (TS

The study aimed to characterize phenolic compounds of the Inonotus sanghuang’s ethyl-acetate fraction (EAF) and assess the neuroprotective effect of EAF using the H(2)O(2)-treated primary cortical neuronal cells (PCNC) model. Using HPLC-ECD, 5 phenolics were identified and quantified from EAF. H(2)O(2)-treated PCNC experiments in vitro showed that pretreatment with EAF increased the GSH-PX and SOD activities and reduced the NO, MDA, and Aβ contents. Furthermore, EAF suppressed the production of IL-1β, IFN-γ, IL-6, and TNF-α in H(2)O(2)-treated PCNC. Other mechanisms found that EAF reduced Bax, caspase 9, and caspase 3 expressions at the mRNA and protein levels while increasing Bcl-2 expression at the mRNA and protein levels. These results showed that EAF could serve as potential agents for anti-NDD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-022-01107-x.

Determination of whether multidrug nanocarriers can deliver and release loaded drugs at a predefined synergistic ratio to target cancer cells is crucial. Although there are many successful applications for delivery of multiple drugs, most current carriers are unable to achieve coordinated loading and release, leading to a drug release ratio that disagrees with the predefined loading ratio. In this work, a simple dual-drug delivery system with a flexible and controllable drug release ratio was constructed to deliver two anticancer drugs, doxorubicin (DOX) and curcumin (CUR). The drug ratio of DOX and CUR can be easily tuned for an enhanced synergistic effect, and the drugs can be released at predesigned ratios due to synchronous drug activation and nanoparticle collapse. Drug release at predefined ratios for synergistic anticancer therapy was demonstrated via in vitro and in vivo experiments. Therefore, the dual drug delivery system developed here provides a simple and efficient strategy for combination chemotherapy.

In this work, the combustion method was adopted to compound Ca3Sr3(VO4)4: xDy3+ samples at 900 °C, and Eu3+ was co-doped into Ca3Sr3(VO4)4: Dy3+ samples to obtain better luminescent properties such as low correlation color temperature (CCT). The microstructure and photoluminescence characteristics of the prepared phosphors were explored with X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, respectively. The rhombohedral crystal structure was demonstrated by the results of XRD analysis, which were in agreement with the standard Ca3Sr3(VO4)4 phase. Under near-ultraviolet (NUV) excitation at 387 nm, the emission spectra of Ca3Sr3(VO4)4: xDy3+ samples consist of two characteristic emission peaks centered at 484 nm and 575 nm, corresponding to the magnetic dipole transition 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 (blue emission) and electron dipole transition 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 (yellow emission) of Dy3+ ions, respectively. In particular, the CCT values were lowered by the addition of Eu3+ ions. The above-mentioned conclusions demonstrate that Ca3Sr3(VO4)4: Dy3+, Eu3+ sample possesses a promising prospect for warm white light-emitting diodes (white LEDs) under NUV excitation.

The codelivery of drugs at specific optimal ratios to cancer cells is vital for combination chemotherapy. However, most of the current strategies are unable to coordinate the loading and release of drug combinations to acquire precise and controllable synergistic ratios. In this work, we designed an innovative dual-drug backboned and reduction-sensitive polyprodrug PEG-P(MTO-ss-CUR) containing the anticancer drugs mitoxantrone (MTO) and curcumin (CUR) at an optimal synergistic ratio to reverse drug resistance. Due to synchronous drug activation and polymer backbone degradation, drug release at the predefined ratio with a synergistic anticancer effect was demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experiments. Therefore, the dual-drug delivery system developed in this work provides a novel and efficient strategy for combination chemotherapy.

Background To understand the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Shenzhen and to analyze the risk factors for the occurrence and development of DR. Based on the comprehensive information system for diabetes prevention and control in the communities of Shenzhen in 2019, six community health service centers in Shenzhen were used as research sites to carry out multicenter, cross-sectional screening studies. Methods Cluster random sampling was used to collect data from 904 patients with diabetes in Shenzhen. The occurrence of DR and vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) was analyzed, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to analyze the risk factors for DR and VTDR. EpiData version 3.1 (EpiData Association, Odense, Denmark) statistical software was used to build a database, and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., USA) was used to sort up and analyze the data. Results The prevalence of DR among diabetic patients in Shenzhen was 18.58% [95% confidence interval (CI): 16.13-21.3%], and the prevalence of VTDR was 2.43% (95% CI: 1.57-1.2%). The prevalence of DR and VTDR was higher in males than in females. Logistic regression analysis showed that age, disease duration, medication mode, and the occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) were associated with the incidence of DR in diabetic patients, and that disease duration, the occurrence of DPN, and diabetic nephropathy were associated with the occurrence of VTDR. Conclusions The prevalence of DR in the communities of Shenzhen is high. Age, disease duration, medications, and DPN are the major risk factors for the occurrence of DR.

In this study, dissimilar butt joints of 1.0 mm thick 6061-T6 aluminum alloy and T2 pure copper ultra-thin sheets were fabricated using micro friction stir welding under various tool traverse speeds while the rotational speed was 3000 rpm. The results indicated that the reliable metallurgical bonding was achieved at Al/Cu interface, which can be attributed to the formation of continuous Al2Cu-AlCu-Al4Cu9 intermetallic compounds (IMCs) layer. A large portion of Cu particles consisting of pure Cu and Al/Cu IMCs were dispersed in the Al matrix and promoted the formation of the composite-like structure. Furthermore, lamellar structure was produced adjacent to the Al/Cu interface. The higher hardness was measured in the nugget zone where a few IMCs were fabricated. The thickness of the interfacial IMCs layer played a significantly role in determining the weld tensile strengths, and the maximum tensile strength of 236.2 MPa (equivalent to 82.9 % of Cu base metal) was obtained, which fractured in the heat affected zone on the aluminum side.

Schr\"odinger equation belongs to the most fundamental differential equations in quantum physics. However, the exact solutions are extremely rare, and many analytical methods are applicable only to the cases with small perturbations or weak correlations. Solving the many-body Schr\"odinger equation in the continuous spaces with the presence of strong correlations is an extremely important and challenging issue. In this work, we propose the functional tensor network (FTN) approach to solve the many-body Schr\"odinger equation. Provided the orthonormal functional bases, we represent the coefficients of the many-body wave-function as tensor network. The observables, such as energy, can be calculated simply by tensor contractions. Simulating the ground state becomes solving a minimization problem defined by the tensor network. An efficient gradient-decent algorithm based on the automatically differentiable tensors is proposed. We here take matrix product state (MPS) as an example, whose complexity scales only linearly with the system size. We apply our approach to solve the ground state of coupled harmonic oscillators, and achieve high accuracy by comparing with the exact solutions. Reliable results are also given with the presence of three-body interactions, where the system cannot be decoupled to isolated oscillators. Our approach is simple and with well-controlled error, superior to the highly-nonlinear neural-network solvers. Our work extends the applications of tensor network from quantum lattice models to the systems in the continuous space. FTN can be used as a general solver of the differential equations with many variables. The MPS exemplified here can be generalized to, e.g., the fermionic tensor networks, to solve the electronic Schr\"odinger equation., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

DNA methylation is an important epigenetics, which occurs in the early stages of tumor formation. And it also is of great significance to find the relationship between DNA methylation and cancer. This paper proposes a novel model, iCancer-Pred, to identify cancer and classify its types further. The datasets of DNA methylation information of 7 cancer types have been collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The coefficient of variation firstly is used to reduce the number of features, and then the elastic network is applied to select important features. Finally, a fully connected neural network is constructed with these selected features. In predicting seven types of cancers, iCancer-Pred has achieved an overall accuracy of over 97% accuracy with 5-fold cross-validation. For the convenience of the application, a user-friendly web server: http://bioinfo.jcu.edu.cn/cancer or http://121.36.221.79/cancer/ is available. And the source codes are freely available for download at https://github.com/Huerhu/iCancer-Pred.

MIL-101(Cr)是最重要的金属有机框架(MOFs)材料之一, 稳定的框架结构和超高的比表面积使其在众多科学领域得到了广泛研究和应用. 但是MIL-101(Cr)的合成条件比较苛刻, 且稳定性较强, 因此, 有关于其分级结构的研究报道仍比较少. 本文提出了一种简单制备分级纳米孔结构MIL-101(Cr)的方法, 即以乙酸作为调节剂, 采用水热合成的方法, 一步得到具有微孔-介孔-大孔分级结构的MIL-101(Cr)材料. 实验结果表明, 该分级结构的MIL-101(Cr)与无分级结构的MIL-101(Cr)相比, 其大分子染料吸附能力和催化能力均有显著提高. 而且分级结构MIL-101(Cr)负载了磷钨酸催化剂之后, 表现出了与均相催化剂(纯磷钨酸)相当的催化能力. 进一步研究发现, 使用其他短碳链的一元羧酸作为调节剂, 如丙酸、丁酸等, 也可获得类似分级纳米结构MIL-101(Cr).

In this letter, a power allocation problem at secondary users (SUs) to maximize the overall system throughput is addressed in a non-orthogonal amplify-and-forward (NAF) cooperation assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network. Due to the nonlinearity of optimization problem, a cooperative multi-agent Q-Learning based power allocation algorithm (CQPA) is proposed under both sum and individual power constraints of SUs with relay function. To further reduce the computational complexity, a neighboring strategy searching based power allocation algorithm (NSPA) is additionally proposed. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of proposed algorithms, where a valuable trade-off between throughput and computational complexity can be achieved by the NSPA.

Orthomnion elimbatum (Mniaceae) is herein reported new to China and Vietnam, representing the first record of the species northwards outside the Malesian and Australian regions. The species differs from the closely related species O. dilatatum by having undulate leaf margin, almost isodiametric laminal cells, and unbordered apical leaf margins. Confirmation of the species identity is validated by a molecular analysis based on rps4 and trnL-F sequences.

Response time of optical microfiber temperature sensor is investigated based on the microfiber modal interferometer (MMI). Sensitivity of -406pm/°C is obtained in temperature sensing, which is one order higher than those of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and microfiber resonators, and response time of 13.1ms is measured, which is twice as fast as FBGs. Based on the theoretical expression of time constant in temperature sensing, dependences of response time on many factors, such as heat transfer coefficient, fiber diameter and ambient temperature are investigated, respectively. In addition, relationship of time constant and response time, dependence of response time on detection device or fiber length, and repeatability of sensor are also discussed. Results demonstrated here may afford some useful references for optical sensors used in obtaining temperature profile and transient process in seawater or analyzing temporal response of temperature sensors in other liquid surroundings.

This study was conducted to assess the effect of CO2 curing on the compressive strength of high strength pervious concrete. The factors studied to evaluate compressive strength of concrete on CO2 curing pressure, curing time, and age of specimen at testing. Three Aggregate sizes, three CO2 curing pressures, three CO2 curing time, and three testing ages were used in this investigation. The research tried to produce a high strength pervious concrete and use carbon dioxide for curing to find out whether it could enhance the compressive strength. The results show that the compressive strength of the control group increases rapidly and its 90-day compressive strength closed to 60 MPa. The 1-day compressive strength has a major impact after CO2 curing and their strength decreased by about 0% to 50% as compared to the control group. However, it is observed that there is only slight difference in relationship between modulus of elasticity and compressive strength obtained from 100 by 200mm cylinders with CO2 curing.

The Na+ co-doped CaTiO3:Eu3+ powders were produced through the solution combustion method. The phase structure and optical properties of the synthesized samples were adequately characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectra, ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) diffuse reflection spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD patterns revealed that a low level of Eu3+ doping could not cause lattice distortion of CaTiO3. Photoluminescence (PL) displayed the CaTiO3:0.5% Eu3+ sample synthesized at 900 °C has the weakest PL emission and the low electrons and holes recombination rate. The morphology of the sample was small nanoscale spherical particles. The UV–vis diffuse reflection spectra proved that doping Na+ and Eu3+ enlarged the absorption region and reduced band energy of pure CaTiO3. The photocatalytic properties of Na+ co-doped CaTiO3:Eu3+ samples were investigated via degrading methylene blue (MB) under ultraviolet light irradiation. The CaTiO3:0.5% Eu3+, 0.5% Na+ sample, by contrast, exhibited the greatest photocatalytic property and the degradation rate was as high as 96.62%, which makes it a promising multi-functional material (photocatalytic material and red phosphor) for decreasing organic pollution in water.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most prevalent microvascular complications of diabetes, and a common cause of blindness in working‑age individuals. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation has been considered a promising intervention therapy for DR, wherein the differentiation of MSCs into nerve cells plays an essential role. However, research into the role of MSCs in DR treatment remains incomplete, and the mechanisms of retinal repair at the molecular level have yet to be clarified. In the present study, all‑trans retinoic acid (ATRA) was used to promote the proliferation of rat umbilical cord (UC)‑derived MSCs and their differentiation into nerve cells. Furthermore, the effects and mechanisms of UC‑MSCs with or without ATRA treatment were investigated in rats subjected to streptozocin (STZ)‑induced DR. The results demonstrated that the transplantation of UC‑MSCs treated with or without ATRA attenuated DR in rats, and alleviated retinal tissue damage and apoptosis. In addition, the transplantation of UC‑MSCs treated with or without ATRA attenuated angiogenesis and inflammation in the retina by regulating the levels of relevant cytokines. UC‑MSCs treated with ATRA exerted a more prominent therapeutic effect than the untreated UC‑MSCs. On the whole, these findings indicate that UC‑MSCs alleviate STZ‑induced DR in rats by regulating angiogenesis and the inflammatory response at the molecular level. Thus, the findings of the present study may provide a theoretical basis for the application of MSCs in the treatment of DR.

A molecular study of a rare moss, Tayloria rudolphiana has revealed a first new occurrence of this species in Central China after its first collecting more than 100 years ago from southwestern Yunnan Province. The phylogenetic analyses based on rps4 and trnL-F sequences along with its morphological features affirm the taxonomic identity of this new population, representing the latest evidence of European-Asiatic connections of this species. Photographic images detailing key morphological characters and a full description of the species are provided. The taxonomic problems of this species within China are discussed.

Background: The information of quaternary structure attributes of proteins is very important because it is closely related to the biological functions of proteins. With the rapid development of new generation sequencing technology, we are facing a challenge: how to automatically identify the four-level attributes of new polypeptide chains according to their sequence information (i.e., whether they are formed as just as a monomer, or as a hetero-oligomer, or a homo-oligomer). Objective: In this article, our goal is to find a new way to represent protein sequences, thereby improving the prediction rate of protein quaternary structure. Methods: In this article, we developed a prediction system for protein quaternary structural type in which a protein sequence was expressed by combining the Pfam functional-domain and gene ontology. turn protein features into digital sequences, and complete the prediction of quaternary structure through specific machine learning algorithms and verification algorithm. Results: Our data set contains 5495 protein samples. Through the method provided in this paper, we classify proteins into monomer, or as a hetero-oligomer, or a homo-oligomer, and the prediction rate is 74.38%, which is 3.24% higher than that of previous studies. Through this new feature extraction method, we can further classify the four-level structure of proteins, and the results are also correspondingly improved. Conclusion: After the applying the new prediction system, compared with the previous results, we have successfully improved the prediction rate. We have reason to believe that the feature extraction method in this paper has better practicability and can be used as a reference for other protein classification problems.

A large number of efficient cyanation methods have been developed because of the wide range of applications of nitriles, but conventional methods usually suffer from the need for a toxic cyanation reagent. Although difluorocarbene chemistry has received increasing attention, the use of difluorocarbene as a sources of the nitrile carbon for nitrile groups remains largely unexplored. We describe a difluorocarbene-based cyanation of aryl iodides promoted by a cheap copper source, Cu(NO3)2·2.5H2O, under an air atmosphere. Ph3P+CF2CO2 –, an easily available and shelf-stable difluorocarbene reagent, and NaNH2 are used as the carbon source and the nitrogen source for the nitrile group, respectively. The cyanation protocol is attractive because no toxic reagent is used and performing the reactions under an air atmosphere is operationally convenient.