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In this paper, we present an application of the renormalization group method developed by Chen, Goldenfeld and Oono for a stochastic differential equation in a space of Hilbert space-valued generalized random variables with multiplicative noise. The driving process is a real-valued fractional white noise with a Hurst parameter greater than 1 / 2 . The stochastic integration is understood in the Wick–Itô–Skorohod sense. This article is a generalization of results of Glatt-Holtz and Ziane, which were for the systems with white noise. We firstly demonstrate the process of formulating the renormalization group equation and the asymptotic solution. Then, we give rigorous proof of the consistency of the approximate solution. In addition, some numerical comparisons are given to illustrate the validity of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common type of biliary tract cancer. The GBC is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, which limits surgical intervention due to its aggressive nature, and as a consequence of its insensitivity to chemotherapy, more effective treatments are required. In GBC, the efficacy of chemotherapy combined with anti-PD-L1/VEGF inhibition remains to be clarified. The present case report describes successful treatment by toripalimab in combination with bevacizumab and gemcitabine in a patient with metastatic GBC and PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) =30. After six courses of therapy, a partial response was observed in the patient's clinical condition. So far, her PFS has exceeded 15 months. To the best of our knowledge, there was no other case where toripalimab plus bevacizumab were used in combination with gemcitabine as an effective treatment strategy for GBC. The remarkable response is likely to be related to the positive expression of PD-L1. Further, VEGF inhibition in combination with chemotherapy may result in improved clinical outcomes due to increased antitumor immunity. Chemotherapy regimens combined with anti-PD-L1/VEGF inhibition are promising therapies for GBC. Further well-designed prospective clinical trials are needed in order to confirm the efficacy and safety of the three-drug regimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking Chinese startups backed by venture capital (VC) in 1997–2017 as the sample, this study investigates the impact of VC background on chief executive officer (CEO) replacement in portfolio companies. The results show that (1) compared to foreign VC, domestic VC is more likely to replace the CEO of the portfolio companies. (2) Syndicate with domestic VC can overcome the disadvantage of foreign VC geographically distant from the portfolio companies, and domestic VC as coinvestors can effectively monitor portfolio companies, increasing the possibility of CEO replacement. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of VC background on CEO replacement exists in the subgroup of VC geographically proximate to the portfolio companies, indicating that geographic proximity to the portfolio companies helps VC more easily grasp the development of the portfolio companies and more likely to replace CEO. This paper reveals the differences in the behavior of VC in replacing CEO during the postinvestment management process, highlights the critical role of geographical proximity, and provides important management insights for VC and entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the renormalization group (RG) emerged from the renormalization of quantum field variables, which is typically used to deal with the issue of divergences to infinity in quantum field theory. Meanwhile, in the study of phase transitions and critical phenomena, it was found that the self–similarity of systems near critical points can be described using RG methods. Furthermore, since self–similarity is often a defining feature of a complex system, the RG method is also devoted to characterizing complexity. In addition, the RG approach has also proven to be a useful tool to analyze the asymptotic behavior of solutions in the singular perturbation theory. In this review paper, we discuss the origin, development, and application of the RG method in a variety of fields from the physical, social and life sciences, in singular perturbation theory, and reveal the need to connect the RG and the fractional calculus (FC). The FC is another basic mathematical approach for describing complexity. RG and FC entail a potentially new world view, which we present as a way of thinking that differs from the classical Newtonian view. In this new framework, we discuss the essential properties of complex systems from different points of view, as well as, presenting recommendations for future research based on this new way of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The active oxygen on Pd/Sn 1−x Ce x O 2 (Ce-rich) is mainly lattice oxygen. • The active oxygen on Pd/Sn 1−x Ce x O 2 (Sn-rich) is mainly chemisorbed oxygen. • The active oxygen on Sn-rich oxide has better mobility than that on Ce-rich oxide. The properties of Sn-Ce solid solution have a significant effect on the CO oxidation performance of the Pd/Sn 1-x Ce x O 2 catalyst. Herein, we compared the effects of Sn-rich and Ce-rich supports on the catalytic performance of the Pd/Sn 1-x Ce x O 2 catalysts. Our results show that the active oxygen species on the Ce-rich and Sn-rich supports are mainly the lattice oxygen species and the chemisorbed oxygen species, respectively. Although the active oxygen species on the Ce-rich supports have higher intrinsic activity, the active oxygen species on the Sn-rich supports have better mobility. It leads to an interesting phenomenon that the change trend of the activity of the Pd/Sn 1-x Ce x O 2 catalysts with temperature is consistent with that of their supports. Compared with the Ce-rich supports and the corresponding supported Pd catalysts, the catalytic activity of the Sn-rich supports and the corresponding supported Pd catalysts increased faster with the increase of temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient conversion of low-grade acidic oils to biodiesel is still a great challenge due primarily to the presented free fatty acids (FFAs) and moisture that significantly activate the used catalysts. In this premise, the acidic aluminosilicates (AAS) were employed as catalyst supports for loading of molybdenum and zirconium metals to synthesize the solid acid catalysts of molybdenum and zirconium doped aluminosilicates (ZrMo-AAS). The so-synthesized composite catalysts were characterized by various physicochemical techniques, and their catalytic activities were evaluated for the efficient biodiesel production by using acidic soybean oils as feedstocks. Results revealed that the targeted solid catalysts featured dual Bronsted-Lewis acidic sites and mesoporous structure with the acidity of 719 μmol/g and surface area of 459.7 m2/g, displaying high catalytic performances for the concurrent transesterification of triglycerides and esterification of FFAs with 92.3% of oil conversion and full FFA conversion to biodiesel at a reaction temperature of 130 °C for 12 h with a methanol/oil molar ratio of 30. This solid catalyst had good water and FFA-resistance capacity even with water content to 1% and FFA content of 40%, and moreover could be easily recovered by filtration with a steady reusability with a slight attenuation in the activity after five time reuses, rendering it to have the potential of cost-effective production of biodiesel from the low-grade oils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a validated molecular target in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the clinical benefits of ALK inhibitors are almost universally limited by the emergence of drug resistance. Methods: We monitored the plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) using captured-based ultra-deep sequencing analysis of one patient with metastatic ALK-positive NSCLC who had received therapies including first-, second- and third-generation ALK inhibitors. Functional in vitro studies were further undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of resistance. Results: ALK T1151Sins mutation was detected when the patient developed resistance to ceritinib, and undetectable when she responded to lorlatinib. MET amplification was present when the tumor developed resistance to lorlatinib, and reduced when the patient received combination therapy of lorlatinib with crizotinib, which corresponded to clinical radiologic responses. In addition, further functional in vitro studies demonstrated that ALK harboring the T1151Sins mutation, while conferring resistance to ceritinib, was inhibited by lorlatinib. Conclusions: Clinical evidence and in vitro validation revealed the clinical usefulness of captured-base ultra-deep sequencing on longitudinal plasma ctDNA in revealing the underlying resistance mechanism and guiding the precise administration of ALK inhibitors in patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adhesin-mediated bacterial interspecies interactions are important elements in oral biofilm formation. They often occur on a species-specific level, which could determine health or disease association of a biofilm community. Among the key players involved in these processes are the ubiquitous fusobacteria that have been recognized for their ability to interact with numerous different binding partners. Fusobacterial interactions with Streptococcus mutans, an important oral cariogenic pathogen, have previously been described but most studies focused on binding to non-mutans streptococci and specific cognate adhesin pairs remain to be identified. Here, we demonstrated differential binding of oral fusobacteria to S. mutans. Screening of existing mutant derivatives indicated SpaP as the major S. mutans adhesin specific for binding to Fusobacterium nucleatum ssp. polymorphum but none of the other oral fusobacteria tested. We inactivated RadD, a known adhesin of F. nucleatum ssp. nucleatum for interaction with a number of gram-positive species, in F. nucleatum ssp. polymorphum and used a Lactococcus lactis heterologous SpaP expression system to demonstrate SpaP interaction with RadD of F. nucleatum ssp. polymorphum. This is a novel function for SpaP, which has mainly been characterized as an adhesin for binding to host proteins including salivary glycoproteins. In conclusion, we describe an additional role for SpaP as adhesin in interspecies adherence with RadD-SpaP as the interacting adhesin pair for binding between S. mutans and F. nucleatum ssp. polymorphum. Furthermore, S. mutans attachment to oral fusobacteria appears to involve species- and subspecies-dependent adhesin interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve exact recognition ratios for aerial targets, this paper presents a novel algorithm for target recognition based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets with grey correlation. Drawbacks of some previously proposed methods are analyzed, and then a novel algorithm is presented. Recognition matrix of an aerial target is established first. Every entry associated with the matrix is an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy number, which is composed of interval-valued membership and nonmembership, representing the relation of the target to one category in terms of one characteristic parameter. Then grey correlation theory is used to analyze the recognition matrix to obtain the grey correlation degree of this unknown target to every category. 200 sets of target recognition data are used to compare the proposed algorithm with traditional methods. Experimental results verify that the correct recognition ratio can be up to 99.5% that satisfies the expectations, which shows the proposed algorithm can solve the target recognition problems better. The proposed algorithm can be used to solve the uncertain inference problems, such as target recognition, threat assessment, and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • 35% H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 /AC-Ag catalyst was prepared. • A high oil conversion of 91.3% was achieved over the solid catalyst. • The catalyst has good recyclability and high resistance of acid and water. • Transesterification and esterification reactions can be achieved simultaneously. The heterogenization of Keggin-structure heteropoly acids (HPAs) has been proposed as a strategy to improve their application in biodiesel production in an attempt to comply the green and clean production demand. Herein, the commercial activated carbon (AC) was firstly modified with different metal ions (Cs+, K+ and Ag+), and then the H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 acid was incorporated into as-modified AC supports, so as to prepare HPAs-based solid catalysts. By screening tests, the 35%H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 /AC-Ag hybrid solid catalyst showed highly catalytic performance for transesterification of soybean oil. The best oil conversion of 91.3% was achieved under optimized conditions: methanol/oil molar ratio of 30:1, reaction time of 10 h, reaction temperature of 140 °C and catalyst dosage of 8 wt.%. Characterization results of XRD, IR, ICP and TG indicated that H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 was highly dispersed on the AC-Ag support as the loading was less than 35%. Proton exchange with Ag may contribute to the highly dispersion of H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 on the support and thus enhance the interaction of the heteropoly acids with the support, thereof leading to the increased catalytic stability. The as-prepared 35%H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 /AC-Ag catalyst was easily recycled and had good resistance to free fatty acid (FFA) and water, which were usually included in the low-quality oils. Moreover, as a bifunctional catalyst, the solid acid catalyst could simultaneously catalyze the transesterification of soybean oil and esterification of FFAs, and a probable mechanism of the catalytic process was also proposed. All the features of this novel solid catalyst are more advantageous than the homogenous H 6 PV 3 MoW 8 O 40 catalyst, successfully creating an efficient and sustainable approach of biodiesel production especially from the low-quality oils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study presents an improved krill herd (IKH) approach to solve global optimization problems. The main improvement pertains to the exchange of information between top krill during motion calculation process to generate better candidate solutions. Furthermore, the proposed IKH method uses a new Lévy flight distribution and elitism scheme to update the KH motion calculation. This novel meta-heuristic approach can accelerate the global convergence speed while preserving the robustness of the basic KH algorithm. Besides, the detailed implementation procedure for the IKH method is described. Several standard benchmark functions are used to verify the efficiency of IKH. Based on the results, the performance of IKH is superior to or highly competitive with the standard KH and other robust population-based optimization methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this text, the new crystal forms of geffitinib were explored through evaporation solution crystallization experiment. The formation of salts was confirmed by the single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, Raman spectroscopy, hot-stage microscopy and Hirshfeld surface analysis. Furthermore, Hirshfeld surface analysis confirmed that the driving force and supporting force for the formation of crystals were C-C, C-H, N-H, H-H, O-H and Cl-H interactions. The dissolution rate of the new salts of gefitinib in phosphate buffer of pH 6.8 was evaluated, and the results showed a significant increase in solubility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Gandomi and Alavi proposed a robust meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, called Krill Herd (KH), for global optimization. To improve the performance of the KH algorithm, harmony search (HS) is applied to mutate between krill during the process of krill updating instead of physical diffusion used in KH. A novel hybrid meta-heuristic optimization approach HS/KH is proposed to solve global numerical optimization problem. HS/KH combines the exploration of harmony search (HS) with the exploitation of KH effectively, and hence, it can generate the promising candidate solutions. The detailed implementation procedure for this improved meta-heuristic method is also described. Fourteen standard benchmark functions are applied to verify the effects of these improvements, and it is demonstrated that, in most cases, the performance of this hybrid meta-heuristic method (HS/KH) is superior to, or at least highly competitive with, the standard KH and other population-based optimization methods, such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GA, HS, KH, PSO, and SGA. The effect of the HS/FA parameters is also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: When eXtensible Markup Language (XML) becomes a widespread data representation and exchange format for Web applications, safeguarding the privacy of data represented in XML documents can be indispensable. In this paper, we propose an XML privacy protection model by separating the structure and content, and with cloud storage to save content information and Trusted Third Party (TTP) to help manage structure information. To protect data privacy more effectively, we will create different Document Type Definition (DTD) views for different users according to users' privacy practice and the provider's privacy preferences. To further speed up the process of gaining access to data we will adopt the start–end region encoding scheme to encode the nodes in XML document and DTD views. The experiment result shows that this mechanism has a good performance in space and time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Objective] Heat shock factors (HSFs) are the major transcription factors of eukaryotic heat shock responses. This study aims to investigate the adversity stress tolerance functions of Arabidopsis heat shock factor AtHsfA1a, which has important significance for in-depth understanding of adversity stress tolerance mechanisms of plants and further utilization of heat shock factor genes. [Method] Genomic DNA of Arabidopsis was extracted with CTAB method and purified to obtain Arabidopsis DNA samples for in vitro site-specific recombination cloning (Gateway cloning) to construct plant expression vector of heat shock factor AtHsfA1a. Firstly, donor vector pDONR 201/AtHsfA1a was constructed based on attB and attP site-specific recombination method (BP reaction), to identify E. coli transformants harboring correct sequence of AtHsfA1a by sequencing; secondly, plant expression vector pB7WG2/AtHsfA1a overexpressing Arabidopsis heat shock factor AtHsfAla was constructed based on attL and attH site-specific recombination method (LR reaction), to screen E. coli transformants harboring target plas-mid. [Result] Plant expression vector of Arabidopsis heat shock factor gene AtHsfAla was constructed successfully. [Conclusion] This study not only provided experimental materials for acquiring transgenic plants overexpressing heat shock transcription factor AtHsfA1a, but also laid the foundation for further investigation of the diversity of adversity stress tolerance functions regulated by HSFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acidogenicity and aciduricity are the main virulence factors of the cavity-causing bacterium Streptococcus mutans. Monitoring at the individual cell level the temporal and spatial distribution of acid produced by this important oral pathogen is central for our understanding of these key virulence factors especially when S. mutans resides in multi-species microbial communities. In this study, we explored the application of pH-sensitive green fluorescent proteins (pHluorins) to investigate these important features. Ecliptic pHluorin was functionally displayed on the cell surface of S. mutans as a fusion protein with SpaP. The resulting strain (O87) was used to monitor temporal and spatial pH changes in the microenvironment of S. mutans cells under both planktonic and biofilm conditions. Using strain O87, we revealed a rapid pH drop in the microenviroment of S. mutans microcolonies prior to the decrease in the macro-environment pH following sucrose fermentation. Meanwhile, a non-uniform pH distribution was observed within S. mutans biofilms, reflecting differences in microbial metabolic activity. Furthermore, strain O87 was successfully used to monitor the S. mutans acid production profiles within dual- and multispecies oral biofilms. Based on these findings, the ecliptic pHluorin allows us to investigate in vivo and in situ acid production and distribution by the cariogenic species S. mutans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A series of Li-based lean-burn NO x trap (LNT) catalysts Pt/Li/TiO2–MO x (M=Al, Zr, Si, Sn) were prepared by sequential impregnation with the supports TiO2–MO x synthesized by co-precipitation. The support effect on the NO x storage and sulfur-resisting performance of Pt/Li/TiO2–MO x catalysts was investigated carefully. The NO x storage capacity of fresh Pt/Li/TiO2 is greatly improved by doping with Al2O3 or ZrO2 due to the remarkably increased specific surface area and the oxidation ability of the catalysts. HR-TEM and H2-chemisorption results reveal that the oxidation ability of Pt/Li/TiO2–MO x is mainly determined by Pt crystallite size. Larger Pt crystallites correspond to stronger oxidation ability. The regeneration of sulfated Pt/Li/TiO2–MO x strongly depends on the total acidity of the supports, including Brønsted and Lewis acid; the supports with larger acidity possess higher ability of sulfur-resistance and regeneration. The results of in situ DRIFTS show that over Pt/Li/TiO2–MO x (M=Al, Zr, Si, Sn) NO x is mainly stored as ionic nitrate species at 350°C. Taking the NSC and regeneration ability into account, the catalyst Pt/Li/TiO2–Al2O3 is the most promising one for practical application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The change trend of the local environment of Cys34 domain in bovine serum albumin has been studied as a function of pH value by using thiol-specific and polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe 3-(4-chloro-6-p-maleimidylphenoxyl-1,3,5-triazinylamino)-7-dimethylamino-2-methyl-phenazine. The local polarity of the Cys34 domain is found to rise with the increase of pH values, and the corresponding dielectric constant is raised from 12.8 at pH 6.0 to 23.3 at pH 9.1. The result shows that the environment of the Cys34 domain is rather hydrophobic in normal state at pH 6.0 and becomes a little hydrophilic in the course of N→B transition, which may be attributed to the slight unfolding of the protein and thus the increasing of exposure of the previously relatively buried Cys34. In addition, the increased dielectric constant (23.3) is much lower than that (80.1) of water, suggesting that the unfolding of bovine serum albumin does not cause the full exposure of the Cys34 to the aqueous media during the transition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We propose a novel segmentation framework based on surface evolution for dealing with 3D image segmentation problems, which is motivated by the classical snakes model to predict the boundary of an object rather than every pixel inside it. • We develop a surface initialization method by selecting equidistance points from a rough segmented volume to possess similar topological shape as the desired surface, which can guarantee a fast convergence in the surface evolution stage. • Based on a two-stage surface initialization and evolution formulation, our learned snakes model can realize the 3D segmentation efficiently through 2D deep networks, which can incorporate rich spatial information by consuming much less memories than 3D convolutional neural networks. Snakes or active contour models are classical methods for boundary detection and segmentation, which deform an initial contour (for 2D image) or a surface (for 3D image) towards the boundary of the desired object. Such snakes models are ideal choices for handling medical image segmentation problems since they are very efficient and require fewer memories by solely tracking the explicit curves or surfaces. However, traditional snakes models solved by the level set method suffer from numerical instabilities and are usually difficult to deal with topological changes. In this paper, we propose a learned snakes model for 3D medical image segmentation, where both the initial and final surfaces are estimated using deep neural networks in end-to-end regimes. The merit of our learned snakes model is that we can realize 3D segmentation by finding a 2D surface based on 2D convolutional neural networks rather than using 3D networks or cutting the volume into 2D slices. Experiments on the Medical Segmentation Decathlon spleen dataset against both 2D- and 3D-based networks demonstrate our model achieving the state-of-the-art accuracy and efficiency, which not only enjoys a 1% higher DSC but also saves more than 90% computational time compared to the well-established elastic boundary projection model Ni et al. [1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of exogenous icariin (0.005% and 0.01%) on mango cultivar 'Zill' fruit during 25°C storage was investigated in this study. The results showed 0.005% icariin treatment could delay the decline of fruit firmness and yellowing process of flesh tissues, inhibit the conversion of soluble sugar, synthesis of carotenoids and degradation of vitamin C, and reduce the disease spots, and to maintain the appearance and nutrient quality. Moreover, the treatment could improve the disease resistance of fruit by inhibiting catalase (CAT) activity in the early stage of storage, but promoting peroxidase (POD) activity in the later stage. Furthermore, icariin treatment reduced the activities of polygalacturonase (PG) and pectate lyase (PL), thus attenuated the degradation of cell wall and decelerated the softening process. The above results indicate 0.005% icariin treatment could extend the shelf life of postharvest mango and present application value for fruits preservation. Practical applications: Mango is a highly perishable fruit and undergoes a rapid ripening process after harvest. Icariin is the main active ingredient of Chinese herbal medicine Herba epimedin 'Yinyanghuo'. The efficacy of icariin in mammals has been widely studied, while its' preservation functions in food were rarely reported. Our results suggested that icariin treatment could delay the ripening and senescence, and enhance disease resistance of postharvest mango, which is expected to be a promising approach for fruit preservation in further industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the reactant mass transfer on the catalyst surface is a feasible approach to fabricate a robust solid catalyst for efficiently promoting the biomass macromolecules-involving reactions, specifically for biodiesel production by using non-edible acidic oils as feedstocks. In this premise, to reduce the mass transfer resistance, the hierarchical porous SOM-ZIF-8 was firstly synthesized using polystyrene spheres (PS) as templates and then employed as catalyst supports for loading of Keplerate-type polyoxomolybdates {Mo 132 } to prepare a novel {Mo 132 }@SOM-ZIF-8 solid acid catalyst. The catalyst characterization results revealed that the active species of {Mo 132 } clusters were well-dispersed on the SOM-ZIF-8 support and the primary framework of the SOM-ZIF-8 support remained nearly unaltered after the preparation processes. This prepared catalyst featured three-dimensional ordered hierarchical porous structure and dual Bronsted-Lewis acid sites, with a large surface area of 736.26 m2/g and high acidity of 903 μmol/g, presenting high activities for concurrent triglyceride transesterification and free fatty acids (FFAs) esterification. With the acidic soybean oils as feedstocks, 93.9 % of oil conversion and full FFA conversion to biodiesel were achieved over this solid catalyst at 130 °C for 8 h with a catalyst loading of 2 wt%, thus imparting the great potential for a one-pot efficient biodiesel manufacture from the acidic oils to comply with the demand of green and clean production. The synergy between the hierarchical porous structure and the strong acidity emerged, thus boosting the catalytic performance of this solid catalyst for the heterogeneous biodiesel production. The good FFA and moisture-resistance capacity was shown for this catalyst even in the case of moisture content of 3 % and FFA content of 25 %. Further, this catalyst showed excellent reusability without significantly losing its catalytic performance even after five runs, providing a deeper insight into constructing efficient solid catalysts with hierarchical porous structure that are utilized for cost-effective production of biodiesel from the non-edible acidic oils. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the cell-cell interactions of intergeneric bacterial species, the study detected the survival of Enterococcus faecalis (Ef) under monospecies or coaggregation state with Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. polymorphum (Fnp) in environmental stress. Ef and Fnp infected the human macrophages with different forms (Ef and Fnp monospecies, Ef-Fnp coaggregates, Ef + Fnp cocultures) for exploring the immunoregulatory effects and the relevant molecular mechanisms. Meanwhile, the transcriptomic profiles of coaggregated Ef and Fnp were analyzed. Ef was shown to coaggregate with Fnp strongly in CAB within 90 min by forming multiplexes clumps. Coaggregation with Fnp reinforced Ef resistance against unfavorable conditions including alkaline, hypertonic, nutrient-starvation, and antibiotic challenges. Compared with monospecies and coculture species, the coaggregation of Ef and Fnp significantly facilitates both species to invade dTHP-1 cells and aid Ef to survive within the cells. Compared with coculture species, dual-species interaction of Ef and Fnp significantly decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, and chemokines MCP-1 secreted by dTHP-1 cells and lessened the phosphorylation of p38, JNK, and p65 signaling pathways. The transcriptome sequencing results showed that 111 genes were differentially expressed or Ef-Fnp coaggregated species compared to Ef monospecies; 651 genes were differentially expressed for Fnp when coaggregation with Ef. The analysis of KEGG pathway showed that Ef differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in quorum sensing and arginine biosynthesis pathway; Fnp DEGs were differentially concentrated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis, biofilm formation, and lysine degradation pathway compared to monospecies. Key points: • Coaggregated with Fnp aids Ef's survival in environmental stress, especially in root canals after endodontic treatment. • The coaggregation of Ef and Fnp may weaken the pro-inflammatory response and facilitate Ef to evade killed by macrophages. • The coaggregation between Ef and Fnp altered interspecies transcriptional profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the physico-chemical properties of the La 1-x Sr x Co 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3 (x = 0, 0.3，0.4，0.5，0.6) catalysts were systematically studied as well as their catalytic activity for NO oxidation. When Sr2+ substituted at La3+ site, [CoO 6 octahedral distortion is amended and the crystal structure transited from rhombohedral to cubic. Co(III) electronic configuration turned from high/intermediate spin state to low spin sate with empty e g filling. Imbalanced positive charge induced by Sr2+ was compensated by tetravalent Co(IV) ions and oxygen deficiencies together. All these factors resulted in better reducibility of Co, increasing oxygen deficiencies and more mobile oxygen species. Thus, NO conversion of 67–69% was attained over the Sr-doped catalysts at 300 °C, much higher than the undoped catalysts (NO conversion of 24.3%). A significant decrease of the apparent activation energy (E a), from 68 kJ/mol down to ~52 kJ/mol, was observed as well. Based on the kinetics results, NO oxidation over the perovskite catalysts is a typical superficial process determined by adsorbed NO and surface oxygen species. Image 1 • Sr doping amended the [CoO 6 octahedral distortion in the LaCo 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3 structure. • Sr doping decreased e g filling of Co and prolonged Co–O distance, which was favorable for NO adsorption. • Sr doping produced more oxygen deficiencies, which was favorable for O 2 adsorption. • The La(Sr)Co(Fe)O 3 perovskites exhibited much higher NO oxidation activity and lower Ea than the LaCo(Fe)O 3 perovskites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent detection and recognition of ships from high-resolution remote sensing images is an extraordinarily useful task in civil and military reconnaissance. It is difficult to detect ships with high precision because various disturbances are present in the sea such as clouds, mist, islands, coastlines, ripples, and so on. To solve this problem, we propose a novel ship detection network based on multi-layer convolutional feature fusion (CFF-SDN). Our ship detection network consists of three parts. Firstly, the convolutional feature extraction network is used to extract ship features of different levels. Residual connection is introduced so that the model can be designed very deeply, and it is easy to train and converge. Secondly, the proposed network fuses fine-grained features from shallow layers with semantic features from deep layers, which is beneficial for detecting ship targets with different sizes. At the same time, it is helpful to improve the localization accuracy and detection accuracy of small objects. Finally, multiple fused feature maps are used for classification and regression, which can adapt to ships of multiple scales. Since the CFF-SDN model uses a pruning strategy, the detection speed is greatly improved. In the experiment, we create a dataset for ship detection in remote sensing images (DSDR), including actual satellite images from Google Earth and aerial images from electro-optical pod. The DSDR dataset contains not only visible light images, but also infrared images. To improve the robustness to various sea scenes, images under different scales, perspectives and illumination are obtained through data augmentation or affine transformation methods. To reduce the influence of atmospheric absorption and scattering, a dark channel prior is adopted to solve atmospheric correction on the sea scenes. Moreover, soft non-maximum suppression (NMS) is introduced to increase the recall rate for densely arranged ships. In addition, better detection performance is observed in comparison with the existing models in terms of precision rate and recall rate. The experimental results show that the proposed detection model can achieve the superior performance of ship detection in optical remote sensing image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of feasible ecofriendly processes for biodiesel production is highly desirable to meet the requirement of green chemistry and sustainable development. To reach this goal, the molybdenum and zirconium oxides were incorporated into commercial available KIT-6, mesoporous silica nanoparticle, by a solvothermal method, to form MoO 3 /ZrO 2 /KIT-6 catalyst. The targeted solid composite catalysts were structurally characterized using XRD, TEM, SEM, XPS, EDS, TG, and nitrogen porosimetry measurement. The characterization results showed that the ordered porous structure of the support was well persevered with high surface area, and the molybdenum and zirconium oxides could be highly dispersed on the mesoporous support. The acidic nature of the solid catalyst was evaluated in detail by means of NH 3 -TPD and infrared spectra of adsorbed pyridine techniques. It was indicated that the acidities of the solid catalysts, with both Brønsted and Lewis acid sites, could greatly affected their catalytic activity. This catalyst displayed high activities to the transesterification of triglycerides and esterification of free fatty acids (FFAs) simultaneously owing to the synergistic effect of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites, thus achieving one-pot heterogeneous production of biodiesel as the low-quality oil was used as feedstocks. The influence of reaction parameters and the catalyst reusability were also investigated, and the best oil conversion of 92.7% was obtained under the optimized reaction conditions. The targeted catalyst exhibited a better FFAs and water tolerant for the reaction, advantageously with no noticeable decline in the catalytic performance even after five reaction cycles. [Display omitted] • MoO3/ZrO2/KIT-6 catalysts with both Brönsted and Lewis acid site were prepared. • The catalyst was effective for one-pot biodiesel production from low-quality oils. • The solid acid catalysts were characterized by various techniques. • Transesterification and esterification reactions can be achieved simultaneously. • The catalyst has good recyclability and high resistance to acid and water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the influence of high temperature on the expression of heat shock transcription factor AtHsfAla in different genotypes of Arabidopsis. [Method] Arabidopsis plants overexpressing heat shock transcription factor AtHsfAla were used as experimental materials and treated under high temperature at 39 °C for 1 min and 5 min; total RNA of AtHsfAla was extracted, and the reverse transcription and amplification were conducted using RT-PCR technology, the amplification products were detected by electrophoresis. [Result] The expression levels of AtHsfAla in Arabidopsis plants overexpressing heat shock transcription factor AtHsfAl a at high temperature and room temperature were higher than wild-type Arabidopsis; the expression levels of AtHsfAla in both wild-type Arabidopsis and transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing heat shock transcription factor AtHsfAl a at high temperature of 39 °C were higher than that at room temperature of 25 °C, but the expression levels of AtHsfAla in wild-type Arabidopsis and transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing heat shock transcription factor AtHsfAla varied little after high temperature treatment at 39 °C for 1 min or 5 min. [Conclusion] The expression of AtHsfAla is induced rapidly by high temperature, thus regulating the expression of early adversity-resistant genes. This study will lay the foundation demonstrating the mechanism of Arabidopsis heat shock transcription factor AtHsfA1a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration of efficient and recyclable catalysts is highly desirable for catalytic biodiesel manufacture from low-grade acidic oils, in response to the demand of clean production and environmental concerns. For this aim, phosphotungstic acid (HPW) was firstly modified by tin metal, and then embedded on ZIF-8 metal-organic formworks (MOFs) to synthesize the SnPW@ZIF-8 catalyst. Catalyst characterization results revealed that the active species of Sn-doped HPW with Keggin-type anion structure were well-dispersed on the ZIF-8 support, and this catalyst featured high surface area with dual Brönsted-Lewis acid sites, posing enhanced catalytic performances to the oil transesterification and esterification of free fatty acids (FFAs) presented in oils. By applying this catalyst, 92.8 % of oil conversion and 97.4 % of FFAs conversion were concurrently achieved under the optimized conditions, rendering one-pot conversion of low-grade acidic oils to biodiesel and minimizing the complex and tedious separation processes. Moreover, the higher water and FFA-resistance capacity was shown for this catalyst, imparting its more suitable for the efficient biodiesel production particularly with the acidic oils as feedstocks. Further, this catalyst could still remained high catalytic efficiency after five cycle reuses due to the strong interactions of the SnPW with the imidazole groups in the ZIF-8, making it to have the potential of cost-effective and efficient production of biodiesel from the low-grade acidic oils. [Display omitted] • SnPW@ZIF-8 solid catalyst with duai Brönsted-Lewis acid site were prepared. • This catalyst was effective for one-pot biodiesel production from low-grade oils. • Oil transesterification and FFA esterification can be achieved simultaneously. • This catalyst has good recyclability and high resistance to acid and moisture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing covalent organic framework (COF) as a hypotoxic and porous scaffold to encapsulate enzyme (enzyme@COF) has inspired numerous interests at the intersection of chemistry, materials, and biological science. In this study, we report a convenient scheme for one‐step, aqueous‐phase synthesis of highly crystalline enzyme@COF biocatalysts. This facile approach relies on an ionic liquid (2 μL of imidazolium ionic liquid)‐mediated dynamic polymerization mechanism, which can facilitate the in situ assembly of enzyme@COF under mild conditions. This green strategy is adaptive to synthesize different biocatalysts with highly crystalline COF "exoskeleton", as well evidenced by the low‐dose cryo‐EM and other characterizations. Attributing to the rigorous sieving effect of crystalline COF pore, the hosted lipase shows non‐native selectivity for aliphatic acid hydrolysis. In addition, the highly crystalline linkage affords COF "exoskeleton" with higher photocatalytic activity for in situ production of H2O2, enabling us to construct a self‐cascading photo‐enzyme coupled reactor for pollutants degradation, with a 2.63‐fold degradation rate as the poorly crystalline photo‐enzyme reactor. This work showcases the great potentials of employing green and trace amounts of ionic liquid for one‐step synthesis of crystalline enzyme@COF biocatalysts, and emphasizes the feasibility of diversifying enzyme functions by integrating the reticular chemistry of a COF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing covalent organic framework (COF) as a hypotoxic and porous scaffold to encapsulate enzyme (enzyme@COF) has inspired numerous interests at the intersection of chemistry, materials, and biological science. In this study, we report a convenient scheme for one‐step, aqueous‐phase synthesis of highly crystalline enzyme@COF biocatalysts. This facile approach relies on an ionic liquid (2 μL of imidazolium ionic liquid)‐mediated dynamic polymerization mechanism, which can facilitate the in situ assembly of enzyme@COF under mild conditions. This green strategy is adaptive to synthesize different biocatalysts with highly crystalline COF "exoskeleton", as well evidenced by the low‐dose cryo‐EM and other characterizations. Attributing to the rigorous sieving effect of crystalline COF pore, the hosted lipase shows non‐native selectivity for aliphatic acid hydrolysis. In addition, the highly crystalline linkage affords COF "exoskeleton" with higher photocatalytic activity for in situ production of H2O2, enabling us to construct a self‐cascading photo‐enzyme coupled reactor for pollutants degradation, with a 2.63‐fold degradation rate as the poorly crystalline photo‐enzyme reactor. This work showcases the great potentials of employing green and trace amounts of ionic liquid for one‐step synthesis of crystalline enzyme@COF biocatalysts, and emphasizes the feasibility of diversifying enzyme functions by integrating the reticular chemistry of a COF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two new Rivaroxaban crystalline forms are reported and characterized by the single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction (SXRD), powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC), which are synthesized with formic acid and acetic acid, named as forms F and G, respectively. The intermolecular forces for forms F and G are analyzed by Hirshfeld surface analysis method, showing that the force of O···H is significantly stronger than that of H···H. Furthermore, the stability, solubility, and bioavailability of the two crystal forms are also studied. The clinical experiments show that form F is more effective than other reported crystal forms in inhibiting the activity of thrombin and thrombosis, which is expected to replace the marketed crystalline forms in clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the behavior of elephants in nature, elephant herd optimization (EHO) was proposed recently for global optimization. Like most other metaheuristic algorithms, EHO does not use the previous individuals in the later updating process. If the useful information in the previous individuals were fully exploited and used in the later optimization process, the quality of solutions may be improved significantly. In this paper, we propose several new updating strategies for EHO, in which one, two, or three individuals are selected from the previous iterations, and their useful information is incorporated into the updating process. Accordingly, the final individual at this iteration is generated according to the elephant generated by the basic EHO, and the selected previous elephants through a weighted sum. The weights are determined by a random number and the fitness of the elephant individuals at the previous iteration. We incorporated each of the six individual updating strategies individually into the basic EHO, creating six improved variants of EHO. We benchmarked these proposed methods using sixteen test functions. Our experimental results demonstrated that the proposed improved methods significantly outperformed the basic EHO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we reduced the ZnO-modified copper phyllosilicate to synthesize a series of Cu/ZnO/SiO 2 catalysts ( x CuZn/SiO 2 ) which were mixed with γ-Al 2 O 3 for dimethyl ether steam reforming (DME SR). The structure and the formation of copper phyllosilicate were systematically characterized by nitrogen adsorption, XRD and IR. The novel synthetic route led to the remarkably high dispersion of copper species and adjustable Cu 0 /Cu + ratio on the catalyst surface, resulting in the superior catalytic performance for DME SR. The amount of Cu 0 and Cu + sites on the catalyst surface was dramatically affected by ZnO loading, and the turnover frequency results indicated that the 4CuZn/SiO 2 catalyst (Cu/Zn = 4) with the Cu 0 /Cu + ratio of 1 showed the highest catalytic performance. The XPS, H 2 -TPR and TEM results revealed the existence of strong interaction between Cu species and ZnO on the reduced 4CuZn/SiO 2 catalyst, which suppressed the reverse water-gas reaction and prevented the sintering of copper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart failure is associated with histone deacetylase (HDAC) regulation of gene expression, the inhibition of which is thought to be beneficial for heart failure therapy. Here, we explored the cardioprotective effects and underlying mechanism of a novel selenium-containing HDAC inhibitor, Se-SAHA, on isoproterenol (ISO)-induced heart failure. We found that pretreatment with Se-SAHA attenuated ISO-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs). Se-SAHA significantly attenuated the generation of ISO-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and restored the expression levels of superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in vitro. Furthermore, Se-SAHA pretreatment prevented the accumulation of autophagosomes. Se-SAHA reversed the high expression of HDAC1 and HDAC6 induced by ISO incubation. However, after the addition of the HDAC agonist, the effect of Se-SAHA on blocking autophagy was inhibited. Using ISO-induced mouse models, cardiac ventricular contractile dysfunction, hypertrophy, and fibrosis was reduced treated by Se-SAHA. In addition, Se-SAHA inhibited HDAC1 and HDAC6 overexpression in ISO-treated mice. Se-SAHA treatment significantly increased the activity of SOD2 and improved the ability to eliminate free radicals. Se-SAHA hindered the excessive levels of the microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3)-II and Beclin-1 in heart failure mice. Collectively, our results indicate that Se-SAHA exerts cardio-protection against ISO-induced heart failure via antioxidative stress and autophagy inhibition. [Display omitted] • Se-SAHA attenuated ISO-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. • Se-SAHA reversed the high expression of HDAC1 and 6 induced by ISO incubation. • Se-SAHA attenuated the increase of ROS and restored the levels of SOD2 and HO-1. • Se-SAHA hindered the excessive levels of LC3-II induced by ISO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a novel two-stage aware training framework for siamese networks, in which position-aware and appearance-aware training schemes are presented to optimize the shallow and the deep network layers, respectively. This contribution helps siamese tracker to achieve precise and robust visual tracking. • An effective feature selection module is presented to solve the online adaptation problem of Siamese tracker. By analyzing the changing principle of feature distribution, the module combines diverse attention networks in a unique way to explore the real discriminative features for the current object. • The proposed tracker is evaluated on four popular benchmark datasets extensively. The results demonstrate that the tracker performs better than other state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy and robustness. Siamese networks have achieved great success in visual tracking with the advantages of speed and accuracy. However, how to track an object precisely and robustly still remains challenging. One reason is that multiple types of features are required to achieve good precision and robustness, which are unattainable by a single training phase. Moreover, Siamese networks usually struggle with online adaption problem. In this paper, we present a novel two-stage aware attentional Siamese network for tracking (Ta-ASiam). Concretely, we first propose a position-aware and an appearance-aware training strategy to optimize different layers of Siamese network. By introducing diverse training patterns, two types of required features can be captured simultaneously. Then, following the rule of feature distribution, an effective feature selection module is constructed by combining both channel and spatial attention networks to adapt to rapid appearance changes of the object. Extensive experiments on various latest benchmarks have well demonstrated the effectiveness of our method, which significantly outperforms state-of-the-art trackers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that host-associated microbial communities can interfere with the colonization and establishment of microbes of foreign origins, a phenomenon often referred to as bacterial interference or colonization resistance. However, due to the complexity of the indigenous microbiota, it has been extremely difficult to elucidate the community colonization resistance mechanisms and identify the bacterial species involved. In a recent study, we have established an in vitro mice oral microbial community (O-mix) and demonstrated its colonization resistance against an Escherichia coli strain of mice gut origin. In this study, we further analyzed the community structure of the O-mix by using a dilution/regrowth approach and identified the bacterial species involved in colonization resistance against E. coli. Our results revealed that, within the O-mix there were three different types of bacterial species forming unique social structure. They act as 'Sensor', 'Mediator' and 'Killer', respectively, and have coordinated roles in initiating the antagonistic action and preventing the integration of E. coli. The functional role of each identified bacterial species was further confirmed by E. coli-specific responsiveness of the synthetic communities composed of different combination of the identified players. The study reveals for the first time the sophisticated structural and functional organization of a colonization resistance pathway within a microbial community. Furthermore, our results emphasize the importance of 'Facilitation' or positive interactions in the development of community-level functions, such as colonization resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO 2 capture is currently the most effective way to reduce global carbon emissions, which leads to the emergence of novel gas hydrate method. In this work, the significant role of graphene oxide (GO) in enhancing the dynamic behaviors of post-combustion CO 2 capture via the hydrate formation was investigated. Firstly, at the gas-liquid interface, the induction of GO increased the amount of gas transfer, and shortened the induction time for the hydrate nucleation at the heterogeneous nucleation sites provided by GO, which attracted CO 2 molecules assembling on the GO layer to participate in the hydrate nucleation based on the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. More importantly, the hydrate growth rate was nearly doubled in 0.05 wt% GO and 4 mol% tetrahydrofuran (THF) mixed accelerators than that in pure THF and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) mixed systems, which greatly boosted the gas storage capacity of CO 2 in the form of compact solid hydrates. Consequently, CO 2 separation efficiency achieved up to 76 % in the GO based accelerators, enhanced by 23.2 % compared to that in pure THF and the SDS mixed systems. The present study could provide insights into the development of new type of nanomaterial accelerators for CO 2 capture via the gas hydrate method. [Display omitted] • GO promoted the interfacial gas transfer and shortened the induction time for the hydrate nucleation. • The hydrate growth rate and gas storage capacity of CO 2 were greatly boosted by GO based accelerators. • The enhanced kinetic behavior resulted in the superior CO 2 separation efficiency of 76% for the flue gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinnamomum zelanicum is one of the popular medicinal plants. The plant has many pharmaceutical uses in traditional medicine. In this study, copper nanoparticles were synthesized using the aqueous extract of Cinnamomum zelanicum. The CuNPs were characterized using different techniques such as EDX, FE-SEM, XRD, and FT-IR. The FE-SEM results confirm spherical morphology for the nanoparticles with size of 19.55 to 69.70 nm. For investigating the antioxidant property of CuNPs, the DPPH test was used in the presence of butylated hydroxytoluene as the positive control. To survey the cytotoxicity and anti-human lung carcinoma effects of CuNPs, MTT assay was used on the NCI-H2126, NCI-H1437, NCI-H1573, and NCI-H661 cell lines. DPPH test revealed similar antioxidant potentials for Cinnamomum zelanicum aqueous extract, CuNPs, and butylated hydroxytoluene. Copper nanoparticles had very low cell viability and anti-lung carcinoma properties dose-dependently against NCI-H2126, NCI-H1437, NCI-H1573, and NCI-H66 cell lines without any cytotoxicity on the normal cell line. The best result of anti-lung carcinoma properties of CuNPs against the above cell lines was seen in the case of the NCI-H2126 cell line. According to the above findings, the copper nanoparticles containing Cinnamomum zelanicum can be administrated in humans for the treatment of several types of lung carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well-recognized fact that the composition of human salivary microbial community is greatly affected by its nutritional environment. However, most studies are currently focused on major carbon or nitrogen sources with limited attention to trace elements like essential mineral ions. In this study, we examined the effect of iron availability on the bacterial profiles of an in vitro human salivary microbial community as iron is an essential trace element for the survival and proliferation of virtually all microorganisms. Analysis via a combination of PCR with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis demonstrated a drastic change in species composition of an in vitro human salivary microbiota when iron was scavenged from the culture medium by addition of the iron chelator 2,2′-bipyridyl. This shift in community profile was prevented by the presence of excessive ferrous iron (Fe). Most interestingly, under iron deficiency, the in vitro grown salivary microbial community became dominated by several hemolytic bacterial species, including Streptococcus spp., Gemella spp., and Granulicatella spp. all of which have been implicated in infective endocarditis. These data provide evidence that iron availability can modulate host-associated oral microbial communities, resulting in a microbiota with potential clinical impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the increasing demand for efficient and durable catalysts for exhaust aftertreatment system, a mesoporous SiO2‐encapsulated nano‐Co3O4 catalyst was synthesized, which possesses a unique pitaya‐like structure with high CO oxidation activity and thermal stability. Though the silica matrix is inert, the encapsulated Co3O4 exhibits increased oxygen storage capacity, enhanced CO2 desorption behavior and high lattice oxygen reactivity. Additionally, the SiO2‐encapsulated Co3O4 catalyst can be effectively regenerated rather than the supported Co3O4/SiO2 and pure Co3O4. The kinetic results demonstrate that the L−H mechanism is followed over the pure Co3O4 nanoparticles catalyst, while the CO oxidation over the silica‐supported Co3O4 catalysts obey to both L−H and MVK mechanism. The encapsulation structure of the as‐prepared catalyst can effectively restrain the aggregation of Co3O4 during high temperature operations and improves the utilization efficiency of cobalt resources, as well, which would be suitable for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of fabricating an efficient solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production from low-grade acidic oils, bimetallic silica mesoporous composites with different Zr/Al molar ratios were initially synthesized via a facile one-step hydrothermal method, and then sulfated with sulfuric acid at different concentrations to get a series of sulfated Zr x -Al y -KIT-6 catalysts (denoted as SZA-K, where x/y represents the molar ratio of Zr to Al). The sulfated bimetallic solid catalysts were fully characterized by using XRD, FT-IR, TEM, SEM, EDS, NH 3 -TPD, and nitrogen porosimetry measurements. Results showed that the remarkable amount of acidic sites in the catalysts was derived from the Zr and Al incorporation and further sulfation, and specifically, the Zr4+ and Al3+ could afford abundant weak acid sites while the inductive effect of SO 4 2− species greatly influences the acidic strength of this solid catalyst. In combination with the enhancement in mass transfer resulting from the inherent interconnected mesoporous structure, the SZA-K catalyst could facilitate the transesterification reaction to take place efficiently. The sulfated Zr 5 –Al 1 -KIT-6 catalyst (Zr/Al molar ratio of 5/1, treated using 0.75 mol/L sulfuric acid for 12 h) exhibited enhanced acid strength with larger number of acidic sites (7.81 mmol/g), resulting in a high catalytic performance to the oil transesterification reaction. An oil conversion of 96.3% was attained for the transesterification reaction performed at 120 °C for 7 h by using a methanol/oil molar ratio of 20:1 and a catalyst dosage of 6 wt%. Further, this solid catalyst exhibited better acid and water-resistance capacity with above 80% of oil conversion even with 10% of free fatty acid (FFA) and 2% of moisture present in the low-grade acidic oils. Meanwhile, the good reusability was shown for this catalyst with 80.1% conversion even after reusing for three cycles. The good stability of the solid catalyst was resulted from the strong interactions between the acidic species and the bimetallic composite support. Bimetallic Zr x -Al y -KIT-6 modified with sulfate as acidic catalyst for biodiesel production from low-grade acidic oils. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial membrane vesicles (MVs) are used as a tool for intercellular communication and seem essential for bacterial survival. However, few data are available on MVs generated by Streptococcus mutans, which is the main aetiological agent of dental caries. The present study presents an integrated proteomics and metabolomics analysis of MVs isolated from S. mutans at initial pH values of 7.5 and 5.5 and explores their function. The results showed that S. mutans releases more MVs with smaller diameters under acidic conditions than under neutral conditions. Proteomic analysis showed 344 common vesicular proteins, including various virulence factors. The expressions of 140 individual proteins and 37 metabolites were altered as a result of culturing S. mutans at different pH values. Co-analyses of proteomic and metabolomics data indicated that ABC transporters underwent significant changes under acid pressure. We concluded that S. mutans produced MVs at different pH values to carry proteins associated with cariogenesis. Moreover, the alterations of S. mutans MVs under acid pressure were associated with ABC transporters. These results increase our knowledge of S. mutans MVs and imply that S. mutans MVs may play a functional role in carious infection. Key points: • S. mutans MVs contained virulence factor-related proteins, even at low pH values. • Integrated proteomics and metabolomics analysis showed that S. mutans MVs alterations under acidic conditions were associated with ABC transporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct exposure to Ultraviolet (UV) radiation causes progressive damages in retinal cells, which is one of the hypothetical mechanisms underlying age-related retinopathy or macular degeneration. The protective effects of Apocynin against UV damages were firstly tested in retinal pigment epithelium cells (RPEs) and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Subsequently the beneficial effect of Apocynin on mouse retinas against light damage were examined. Next, microarray profiling was used to identify the genes regulated by Apocynin in both RPEs and RGCs. A candidate gene was isolated for functional characterisation by knock-down study. Apocynin was shown to inhibit cell death, reduce oxidative stress and deoxyribonucleic acid damages in both RPEs and RGCs challenged with UV. Intravitreal application of Apocynin also improved retinal dysfunction caused by light damage. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) was identified as induced by Apocynin by microarray study. The induction was confirmed by realtime-PCR and western blotting. Knocking down SIRT1 antagonised the protective effect of Apocynin against UV damages in both RPEs and RGCs. Apocynin is a novel agent that shows both in vitro and in vivo efficacies against UV radiation induced retina damages. SIRT1 pathway is implicated in UV radiation protection of Apocynin in retinal cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The hot-water pretreatment can generate new Brønsted acid sites. • The hot-water pretreated H-MOR shows high activity for DME carbonylation. • The hot-water pretreated H-MOR accelerates the formation of methoxy groups. • The residue water molecules will inhibit DME carbonylation. Herein, we report the effect of the hot-water pretreatment on the catalytic activity of the H-mordenite (H-MOR) zeolite for DME carbonylation. The structure and acidity of the H-MOR catalysts pretreated by hot water were systematically characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption, SEM, H 2 O-TPD, NH 3 -TPD, 1H NMR and NH 3 -DRIFTS technologies. With the increase of the duration of the hot-water pretreatment, the catalytic activity shows a volcano-type variation. The H-MOR catalyst pretreated by hot water for 10 min at 573 K displays the highest catalytic activity among all of the catalysts. The appropriate duration of the hot-water pretreatment can generate new medium strong and strong Brønsted acid sites, which changes the microenvironment in the pores of H-MOR. Additionally, the newly generated Brønsted acid sites will accelerate the first step of DME carbonylation, that is, DME reacts with the Brønsted acid sites of the zeolite forming surface methoxy groups and methanol, improving the catalytic activity of the catalysts. However, too long duration of the hot-water pretreatment will remain water molecules in H-MOR, which inhibits DME carbonylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dielectric barrier discharge plasma needle was realized at atmospheric pressure with a funnel-shaped nozzle. The preliminary characteristics of the plasma plume and its applications in the inactivation of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), the most important microorganism causing dental caries, were presented in this paper. The temperature of the plasma plume does not reach higher than 315 K when the power is below 28 W. Oxygen was injected downstream in the plasma afterglow region through the powered steel tube. Its effect was studied via optical-emission spectroscopy, both in air and in agar. Results show that addition of 26 SCCM O2 does not affect the plume length significantly (SCCM denotes cubic centimeter per minute at STP). The inactivation of S. mutans is primarily attributed to ultraviolet light emission, O, OH, and He radicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autofluorescence is a major challenge in complex tissue imaging when molecules present in the biological tissue compete with the fluorophore. This issue may be resolved by designing organic molecules with long fluorescence lifetimes. The present work reports the two-photon absorption (TPA) properties of a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecule with carbazole as the electron donor and dicyanobenzene as the electron acceptor (i.e., 4CzIPN). The results indicate that 4CzIPN exhibits a moderate TPA cross-section (∼9 × 10−50 cm4 s photon−1), high fluorescence quantum yield, and a long fluorescence lifetime (∼1.47 μs). 4CzIPN was compactly encapsulated into an amphiphilic copolymer via nanoprecipitation to achieve water-soluble organic dots. Interestingly, 4CzIPN organic dots have been utilized in applications involving two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM). Our work aptly demonstrates that TADF molecules are promising candidates of nonlinear optical probes for developing next-generation multiphoton FLIM applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a controller design approach based on LMI optimization method is proposed for the two-axis gimbal platform in finite time application. This method is based on the linear parameter varying (LPV) model of the two-axis gimbal platform, considering the cross-coupling problem between the pitch and yaw channel. Firstly, the dynamic equation of the two-axis gimbal platform is analyzed and its LPV model is obtained. Then, the sufficient conditions which can ensure the LPV system is finite time bounded(FTB) are introduced, and the controller is designed accordingly. Finally, the performance of the platform with finite time controller and PI controller is analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the proposed controller can guarantee the tracking accuracy in finite time and effectively suppress the coupling interference between the pitch and yaw channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]