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Abstract Polymer nanocomposites with tuning functions are exciting candidates for various applications, and most current research has focused on static mechanical reinforcement. Actually, under service conditions of complex dynamic interference, stable dynamic mechanical properties with high energy dissipation become more critical. However, nanocomposites often exhibit a trade-off between static and dynamic mechanics, because of their contradictory underlying physics between chain crosslinking and chain relaxation. Here, we report a general strategy for constructing ultra-stable dynamic mechanical complex fluid nanocomposites with high energy dissipation by infusing complex fluids into the nanoconfined space. The key is to tailor full-scale polymer dynamics across an exceptionally broad timescale by single-chain confinement. These materials exhibit stable storage modulus (100 ~ 102 MPa) with high energy dissipation (loss factor > 0.4) over a broad frequency range (10−1 ~ 107 Hz)/temperature range (−35 ~ 85°C). In the loss factor > 0.4 region, their dynamic mechanical stability (rate of modulus change versus temperature (k)) is 10 times higher than that of conventional polymer nanocomposites.

Abstract Cancer treatment continues to shift from utilizing traditional therapies to targeted ones, such as protein kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy. Mobilizing dendritic cells (DC) and other myeloid cells with antigen presenting and cancer cell killing capacities is an attractive but not fully exploited approach. Here, we show that PIKFYVE is a shared gene target of clinically relevant protein kinase inhibitors and high expression of this gene in DCs is associated with poor patient response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Genetic and pharmacological studies demonstrate that PIKfyve ablation enhances the function of CD11c+ cells (predominantly dendritic cells) via selectively altering the non-canonical NF-κB pathway. Both loss of Pikfyve in CD11c+ cells and treatment with apilimod, a potent and specific PIKfyve inhibitor, restrained tumor growth, enhanced DC-dependent T cell immunity, and potentiated ICB efficacy in tumor-bearing mouse models. Furthermore, the combination of a vaccine adjuvant and apilimod reduced tumor progression in vivo. Thus, PIKfyve negatively regulates the function of CD11c+ cells, and PIKfyve inhibition has promise for cancer immunotherapy and vaccine treatment strategies.

The lack of accurate and reliable in vitro brain models hinders the development of brain science and research on brain diseases. Owing to the complex structure of the brain tissue and its highly nonlinear characteristics, the construction of brain-like in vitro tissue models remains one of the most challenging research fields in the construction of living tissues. This study proposes a multi-scale design of a brain-like model with a biomimetic cortical structure, which includes the macroscopic structural features of six layers of different cellular components, as well as micrometer-scale continuous fiber structures running through all layers vertically. To achieve integrated biomanufacturing of such a complex multi-scale brain-like model, a multi-material composite printing/culturing integrated bioprinting platform was developed in-house by integrating cell-laden hydrogel ink direct writing printing and electrohydrodynamic fiber 3D printing technologies. Through integrated bioprinting, multi-scale models with different cellular components and fiber structural parameters were prepared to study the effects of macroscopic and microscopic structural features on the directionality of neural cells, as well as the interaction between glial cells and neurons within the tissue model in a three-dimensional manner. The results revealed that the manufactured in vitro biomimetic cortical model achieved morphological connections between the layers of neurons, reflecting the structure and cellular morphology of the natural cortex. Micrometer-scale (10 μm) cross-layer fibers effectively guided and controlled the extension length and direction of the neurites of surrounding neural cells but had no significant effect on the migration of neurons. In contrast, glial cells significantly promoted the migration of surrounding PC12 cells towards the glial layer but did not contribute to the extension of neurites. This study provides a basis for the design and manufacture of accurate brain-like models for the functionalization of neuronal tissues.

Intelligent inspection has become an important trend in the development of substation operation and maintenance technology, and fast and accurate point cloud segmentation of the large amount of point cloud data collected in the process of intelligent inspection is an important basis for effective fault localization and risk early warning of electricity equipment. However, the existing point cloud segmentation methods have problems such as messy spatial information, low classification accuracy and unstable model. Therefore, a new point cloud component segmentation method is proposed by combining the local and global information characteristics of the point cloud and applied to the diagnosis of electricity equipment. Firstly, apply dynamic-k neighbor retrieval for each point to facilitate subsequent local feature extraction. Then, the input point cloud data is processed by graph convolution to capture the local characteristics of the data; then, the global information is extracted by cyclic use of a set abstraction layer, and the two information features are fused and the model is trained to obtain a more powerful and efficient point cloud component segmentation model. Finally, experimental validation was carried out using point cloud data of lightning arrester devices in electricity equipment. The experimental results show that the accuracy and average mIoU of the part segmentation results of this method reaches more than 90%. With 2%-4% improvement and 4-10 times stability improvement compared to traditional point cloud processing methods, this method has better stability and accuracy in point cloud part segmentation tasks. This method not only provides an effective method for the segmentation of 3D point cloud data, but also provides strong technical support for the subsequent fault diagnosis and detection work.

Abstract Nanoscale optoelectrodes hold the potential to stimulate optically individual neurons and intracellular organelles, a challenge that demands both a high-density of photoelectron storage and significant charge injection. Here, we report that zinc porphyrin, commonly used in dye-sensitized solar cells, can be self-assembled into nanorods and then coated by TiO2. The J-aggregated zinc porphyrin array enables long-range exciton diffusion and allows for fast electron transfer into TiO2. The formation of TiO2(e−) attracts positive charges around the neuron membrane, contributing to the induction of action potentials. Far-field cranial irradiation of the motor cortex using a 670 nm laser or an 850 nm femtosecond laser can modulate local neuronal firing and trigger motor responses in the hind limb of mice. The pulsed photoelectrical stimulation of neurons in the subthalamic nucleus alleviates parkinsonian symptoms in mice, improving abnormal stepping and enhancing the activity of dopaminergic neurons. Our results suggest injectable nanoscopic optoelectrodes for optical neuromodulation with high efficiency and negligible side effects.

The broken and soft coal seam has high gas content and poor permeability. The single hole drainage radius is small when the conventional through-bed drilling is used for gas drainage, and the drilling engineering volume is large. To this end, a gas extraction technology of crushed soft coal is proposed by radial punching and burrowing. The idea of gas drainage technology by punching holes with multi-direction and minimum radius through-bed drilling is proposed, a punching drilling tool capable of bending in a fixed direction with a minimum radius is designed, through the push of the orifice drilling tool and the resistance exerted on the jet nozzle from the bottom of the hole, the fixed direction bending punching of the drilling tool is realized, and the bending direction is controlled by rotating and fixing the drilling tool held by the power head. In this way, multi-azimuth and multi-branch hole with minimum radius can be formed. The relationship between bending angle, length and radius of curvature of drill tool is analyzed, which provides theoretical support for tool design; the tensile strength and pressure resistance parameters of the tool are obtained through testing; the feasibility of multi-direction punching is theoretically analyzed, and the technological process is designed; the simulation test was conducted on the ground with the trial produced drilling tools, the test results show that the one-way bending drilling tool combined with the hydraulic oscillating impactor can realize the punching of four branch holes in one main hole, the hole depth of the branch hole is 6-8 m. The experiment proves the feasibility of the technical assumption and the rationality of the drilling tool structure design.

Abstract Skeletal disorders are commonly diagnosed by X-ray imaging, but the radiation limits its use. Optical imaging through the near-infrared-II window (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) can penetrate deep tissues without radiation risk, but the targeting of contrast agent is non-specific. Here, we report that lanthanide-doped nanocrystals can passively target the bone marrow, which can be effective for over two months. We therefore develop the high-resolution NIR-II imaging method for bone disease diagnosis, including the 3D bone imaging instrumentation to show the intravital bone morphology. We demonstrate the monitoring of 1 mm bone defects with spatial resolution comparable to the X-ray imaging result. Moreover, NIR-II imaging can reveal the early onset inflammation as the synovitis in the early stage of rheumatoid arthritis, comparable to micro computed tomography (μCT) in diagnosis of osteoarthritis, including the symptoms of osteophyte and hyperostosis in the knee joint.

Abstract Dispersion of colloidal particles in water or oil is extensively desired for industrial and environmental applications. However, it often strongly depends on indispensable assistance of chemical surfactants or introduction of nanoprotrusions onto the particle surface. Here we demonstrate the omnidispersity of hydrophilic-hydrophobic heterostructure particles (HL-HBPs), synthesized by a surface heterogeneous nanostructuring strategy. Photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM) and adhesion force images both indicate the heterogeneous distribution of hydrophilic domains and hydrophobic domains on the particle surface. These alternating domains allow HL-HBPs to be dispersed in various solvents with different polarity and boiling point. The HL-HBPs can efficiently adsorb organic dyes from water and release them into organic solvents within several seconds. The surface heterogeneous nanostructuring strategy provides an unconventional approach to achieve omnidispersion of colloidal particles beyond surface modification, and the omnidispersible HL-HBPs demonstrate superior capability for dye recycle merely by solvent exchange. These omnidispersible HL-HBPs show great potentials in industrial process and environmental protection.

More and more underwater robots are deployed to investigate marine biodiversity autonomously, and tools are needed by underwater robots to discover and acknowledge marine life. This paper has proposed a convolutional neural network-based method for intelligent fish detection and recognition with a dataset used for training and testing generated and augmented from an open-source Fish Database regarding 6 different types. Firstly, to improve image quality, a hybrid image enhancement algorithm is used to preprocess underwater images with a weighted fusion strategy of multiple traditional methodologies and comparisons have been made to prove the effectiveness according to various indexes. Secondly, to increase detection and recognition accuracy, different attention modules are integrated into the YOLOv5m network structure and the convolutional block attention module(CBAM) has outperformed other modules in recall rate and mAP while maintaining the capability of real-time processing. Lastly, to meet real-time requirements, lightweight adjustments have been made to CBAM-YOLOv5m with the GSConv module and C3Ghost module and a nearly 25% reduction in network parameters and a 20% reduction in computational consumption are obtained. Besides, the lightweight network has realized better accuracy than YOLOv5m. In conclusion, the method proposed in this paper is effective in real-time fish detection and recognition with practical application prospects.

Background: Several COVID-19 vaccines were developed and approved in China. Of these, the BIBB-CorV and CoronaVac inactivated whole-virion vaccines were widely distributed in China and developing countries. However, the performance of the two vaccines in the real world has not been summarized. Methods: A living systematic review based on findings from ongoing post-licensure studies was conducted, applying standardized algorithms. Articles published between 1 May 2020 and 31 May 2022 in English and Chinese were searched for in Medline, Embase, WanFang Data, medRxiv, bioRxiv, arXiv, SSRN, and Research Square, using SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, and vaccine as the MeSH terms. Studies with estimates of safety, immunogenicity, and effectiveness from receiving the BIBB-CorV or CoronaVac vaccine that met the predefined screening criteria underwent a full-text review. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s Critical Appraisal Checklist and the Cochrane risk of bias were used for assessment of the quality. A random-effects meta-regression model was applied to identify the potential impact factors on the vaccines’ effectiveness. Results: In total, 32578 articles were identified, of these, 770 studies underwent a full-text review. Eventually, 213 studies were included. The pooled occurrence of solicited and unsolicited adverse events after any dose of either vaccine varied between 10% and 40%. The top five commonly reported rare adverse events were immunization stress-related responses (211 cases, 50.0%), cutaneous responses (43 cases, 10.2%), acute neurological syndrome (39 cases, 9.2%), anaphylaxis (17 cases, 4.0%), and acute stroke (16 cases, 3.8%). The majority (83.3%) recovered or were relieved within several days. The peak neutralization titers against the ancestral strain was found within 1 month after the completion of the primary series of either vaccine, with a GMT (geometric mean titer) of 43.7 (95% CI: 23.2–82.4), followed by a dramatic decrease within 3 months. At Month 12, the GMT was 4.1 (95% CI: 3.8–4.4). Homologous boosting could restore humoral immunity, while heterologous boosting elicited around sixfold higher neutralization titers in comparison with homologous boosting. The effectiveness of receiving either vaccine against death and severe disease was around 85% for both shortly after the primary series. At Month 12, the protection against death did not decline, while the protection against severe disease decreased to ~75%. Conclusions: Both the BIBP-CorV and CoronaVac inactivated vaccines are safe. Sustained vaccine effectiveness against death was determined 12 months after the primary series, although protection against severe disease decreased slightly over time. A booster dose could strengthen the waning effectiveness; however, the duration of the incremental effectiveness and the additional benefit provided by a heterologous booster need to be studied.

Background Music therapy is a promising complementary intervention for addressing various mental health conditions. Despite evidence of the beneficial effects of music, the acoustic features that make music effective in therapeutic contexts remain elusive.Aims This study aimed to identify and validate distinctive acoustic features of healing music.Methods We constructed a healing music dataset (HMD) based on nominations from related professionals and extracted 370 acoustic features. Healing-distinctive acoustic features were identified as those that were (1) independent from genre within the HMD, (2) significantly different from music pieces in a classical music dataset (CMD) and (3) similar to pieces in a five-element music dataset (FEMD). We validated the identified features by comparing jazz pieces in the HMD with a jazz music dataset (JMD). We also examined the emotional properties of the features in a Chinese affective music system (CAMS).Results The HMD comprised 165 pieces. Among all the acoustic features, 74.59% shared commonalities across genres, and 26.22% significantly differed between the HMD classical pieces and the CMD. The equivalence test showed that the HMD and FEMD did not differ significantly in 9.46% of the features. The potential healing-distinctive acoustic features were identified as the standard deviation of the roughness, mean and period entropy of the third coefficient of the mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. In a three-dimensional space defined by these features, HMD’s jazz pieces could be distinguished from those of the JMD. These three features could significantly predict both subjective valence and arousal ratings in the CAMS.Conclusions The distinctive acoustic features of healing music that have been identified and validated in this study have implications for the development of artificial intelligence models for identifying therapeutic music, particularly in contexts where access to professional expertise may be limited. This study contributes to the growing body of research exploring the potential of digital technologies for healthcare interventions.

Fluorescence imaging through the second near-infrared window (NIR-II,1000–1700 nm) allows in-depth imaging. However, current imaging systems use wide-field illumination and can only provide low-contrast 2D information, without depth resolution. Here, we systematically apply a light-sheet illumination, a time-gated detection, and a deep-learning algorithm to yield high-contrast high-resolution volumetric images. To achieve a large FoV (field of view) and minimize the scattering effect, we generate a light sheet as thin as 100.5 μm with a Rayleigh length of 8 mm to yield an axial resolution of 220 µm. To further suppress the background, we time-gate to only detect long lifetime luminescence achieving a high contrast of up to 0.45 Ιcontrast. To enhance the resolution, we develop an algorithm based on profile protrusions detection and a deep neural network and distinguish vasculature from a low-contrast area of 0.07 Ιcontrast to resolve the 100 μm small vessels. The system can rapidly scan a volume of view of 75 × 55 × 20 mm3 and collect 750 images within 6 mins. By adding a scattering-based modality to acquire the 3D surface profile of the mice skin, we reveal the whole volumetric vasculature network with clear depth resolution within more than 1 mm from the skin. High-contrast large-scale 3D animal imaging helps us expand a new dimension in NIR-II imaging.

The development of flexible electronics and soft robotics demands materials with wide-range switchable stiffness. Here, the authors report a polymer network that can isochorically and reversibly switch between a soft ionogel and a rigid plastic accompanied by a large stiffness change.

This paper focuses on the formation tracking issue of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) subject to multiple constraints in three-dimensional space. We developed a novel distributed Lyapunov-based model predictive controller (DLMPC) with a fast finite-time extended state observer (FFTESO). Initially, the external disturbances and internal uncertainties of each AUV were precisely compensated using the designed FFTESO. Subsequently, we proposed DLMPC-based position tracking and velocity tracking controllers, which solved an online optimization problem to determine optimal velocities and control forces. This hierarchical framework effectively managed system constraints, such as state constraints and actuator saturation. Additionally, the Lyapunov-based backstepping control law was applied to construct stability constraints in the distributed optimization problem, ensuring the recursive feasibility and closed-loop system stability of the proposed scheme. Sufficient conditions and attraction regions to ensure stability were explicitly provided. Finally, the simulation results demonstrated that the proposed method improved both the convergence speed and tracking accuracy by at least 30% compared to other methods.

This paper focuses on the collision-free formation tracking of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with compound disturbances in complex ocean environments. We propose a novel finite-time extended state observer (FTESO)-based distributed dual closed-loop model predictive control scheme. Initially, a fast FTESO is designed to accurately estimate both model uncertainties and external disturbances for each subsystem. Subsequently, the outer-loop and inner-loop formation controllers are developed by integrating disturbance compensation with distributed model predictive control (DMPC) theory. With full consideration of the input and state constraints, we resolve the local information-based DMPC optimization problem to obtain the control inputs for each AUV, thereby preventing actuator saturation and collisions among AUVs. Moreover, to mitigate the increased computation caused by the control structure, the Laguerre orthogonal function is applied to alleviate the computational burden in time intervals. We also demonstrate the stability of the closed-loop system by applying the terminal state constraint. Finally, based on a connected directed topology, comparative simulations are performed under various control schemes to verify the robustness and superior performance of the proposed scheme.

In this paper, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) controlled release packaging paper was prepared by mixing 1-methylcyclopropene with different proportions of ethyl cellulose ether (EC) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) and then coating it on the paper base. The release mechanism was studied. Saimaiti apricot fruits stored at 2 ℃ were treated with 1-MCP controlled release packaging paper. The effects of 1-MCP controllable slow-release packaging paper on respiratory intensity, hardness, titratable acid, soluble solids, peel color and commodity rate of apricot fruit during storage were studied in order to obtain a kind of fresh-keeping paper which could effectively prolong the storage period of apricot fruit. The results showed that under the conditions of 95% RH, 2 ℃ and 80% polyacrylic acid (PAA), the particle collapse of 1-MCP powder made the gas release slowly, and the release mechanism parameter was 0.49, and the release rate increased with PAA content. Controlled release 1-MCP-coated paper could inhibit the arrival of the peak of respiration intensity of apricot fruit, delay the decrease of hardness, titratable acid and soluble solid content, and maintain the color of peel. The results showed that controlled release 1-MCP-coated paper could effectively maintain the quality of apricot fruits stored in low temperature environment, and would provide some reference for the application of controlled release 1-MCP-coated paper to the storage of other fruits and vegetables.

An increasing number of studies have reported that microbiome can affect drug response by altering pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of formation of toxic metabolites. With the development of metagenomic sequencing, gut microbial composition as well as the metabolic function are drawing more and more attention for the patient stratification. The established microbiota databases provide useful information about the gut microbe-drug interactions. However, these databases generally lacked the detailed effects on substance and the metabolites, which are helpful in elucidating the mechanisms underlying drug biotransformation and personalized medicine. To address these issues, in this study, we developed Metabolic action of gut Microbiota to Drugs (MagMD), a database and a web-service covering 32, 678 records of interactions between 2,146 gut microbes, 36 enzymes and 219 substrates (mainly drugs). The detailed annotations for each entry, including the taxonomic level of microbes, the molecular form and PubChem ID of drugs from PubChem Compound Database, types of microbial secreted enzymes and the original reference links can also be accessed from the web service. Availability and implementation: MagMD is a publicly available resource, constantly updated. It has an intuitive web interface and can be freely accessed at http://www.unimd.org/magmd.

Labrune syndrome (LS) is caused by SNORD118 gene mutations with a particular neuroimaging of white matter disease, intracranial calcification, and cysts. There was no effective treatment until now. An 18-year-old man with infancy-onset LS was first treated with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor Bevacizumab for 1 year, resulting in significant clinical and radiological improvements. We adopted a similar regimen in a patient with late-onset LS and demonstrated moderate cognitive improvements but without changes in imaging. As such, Bevacizumab could potentially be clinically effective in adult-onset LS with great safety.

In recent years, underwater image processing has played an essential role in ocean exploration. The complexity of seawater leads to the phenomena of light absorption and scattering, which in turn cause serious image degradation problems, making it difficult to capture high-quality underwater images. A novel underwater image enhancement model based on Hybrid Enhanced Generative Adversarial Network (HEGAN) is proposed in this paper. By designing a Hybrid Underwater Image Synthesis Model (HUISM) based on a physical model and a deep learning method, many richly varied paired underwater images are acquired to compensate for the missing problem of underwater image enhancement dataset training. Meanwhile, the Detection Perception Enhancement Model (DPEM) with Perceptual Loss is designed to transfer the coding knowledge in the form of the gradient to the enhancement model through the perceptual loss, which leads to the generation of visually better and detection-friendly underwater images. Then, the synthesized and enhanced models are integrated into an adversarial network to generate high-quality underwater clear images through game learning. Experiments show that the proposed method significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art methods both qualitatively and quantitatively. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that the method can improve target detection performance in underwater environments, which has specific application value for subsequent image processing.

This paper considers the formation trajectory tracking problem of discrete-time distributed multi-AUVs (multiple autonomous underwater vehicles) with control input in a nonconvex set and weak communication. Firstly, a linear model of a single AUV is obtained by the feedback linearization of a single AUV model using the Lie derivative theory. Then, a linear equation of multi-AUV formation is obtained, and the formation coordinated control system of multi-AUVs based on the feedback linearization model is given. Secondly, the formation trajectory tracking problem of multi-AUVs is transformed into the coordination control problem of leader–followers formation. The coordination controller of the leader–followers formation under a weak communication environment is designed, and the controller satisfies the nonconvex constraints. Next, the coordination control problem of leader–followers formation is transformed into the stability of the error of leader and followers at zero by coordinate transformation. By establishing an appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii function, the corresponding linear matrix inequalities are obtained, and the condition of zero stability is obtained by solving the linear matrix inequalities of the leader–followers formation. Under this condition, stable trajectory tracking can be achieved in the multi-AUV formation. Finally, the stability of the designed coordination controller is verified by simulation experiments.

In most cases the frequency range of a damping material is adapted to a specific application. Huang et al. design a gel filled with a polymeric fluid that bypasses this problem and offers an unusually broad window over which vibrational energy is effectively dissipated.

Abstract Background Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) is the most common cause of death worldwide. The NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays an important role in the inflammatory response to MIRI. Dexmedetomidine (DEX), a specific agonist of α2-adrenergic receptor, is commonly used for sedation and analgesia in anesthesia and critically ill patients. Several studies have shown that dexmedetomidine has a strong anti-inflammatory effect in many diseases. Here, we investigated whether dexmedetomidine protects against MIRI by inhibiting the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in vitro. Methods We established an MIRI model in cardiomyocytes (CMs) alone and in coculture with cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) by hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) in vitro. The cells were treated with dexmedetomidine with or without MCC950 (a potent selective NLRP3 inhibitor). The beating rate and cell viability of cardiomyocytes, NLRP3 localization, the expression of inflammatory cytokines and NLRP3 inflammasome-related proteins, and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins, including Bcl2 and BAX, were determined. Results Dexmedetomidine treatment increased the beating rates and viability of cardiomyocytes cocultured with cardiac fibroblasts. The expression of the NLRP3 protein was significantly upregulated in cardiac fibroblasts but not in cardiomyocytes after H/R and was significantly attenuated by dexmedetomidine treatment. Expression of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-18 and TNF-α was significantly increased in cardiac fibroblasts after H/R and was attenuated by dexmedetomidine treatment. NLRP3 inflammasome activation induced the increased expression of cleaved caspase1, mature IL-1β and IL-18, while dexmedetomidine suppressed H/R-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in cardiac fibroblasts. In addition, dexmedetomidine reduced the expression of Bcl2 and BAX in cocultured cardiomyocytes by suppressing H/R-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in cardiac fibroblasts. Conclusion Dexmedetomidine treatment can suppress H/R-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in cardiac fibroblasts, thereby alleviating MIRI by inhibiting the inflammatory response.

Abstract Background Oxidative stress is a common cause of neurodegeneration and plays a central role in retinal degenerative diseases. Heme oxygenase-1 (HMOX1) is a redox-regulated enzyme that is induced in neurodegenerative diseases and acts against oxidative stress but can also promote cell death, a phenomenon that is still unexplained in molecular terms. Here, we test whether HMOX1 has opposing effects during retinal degeneration and investigate the molecular mechanisms behind its pro-apoptotic role. Methods Basal and induced levels of HMOX1 in retinas are examined during light-induced retinal degeneration in mice. Light damage-independent HMOX1 induction at two different expression levels is achieved by intraocular injection of different doses of an adeno-associated virus vector expressing HMOX1. Activation of Müller glial cells, retinal morphology and photoreceptor cell death are examined using hematoxylin-eosin staining, TUNEL assays, immunostaining and retinal function are evaluated with electroretinograms. Downstream gene expression of HMOX1 is analyzed by RNA-seq, qPCR examination and western blotting. The role of one of these genes, the pro-apoptotic DNA damage inducible transcript 3 (Ddit3), is analyzed in a line of knockout mice. Results Light-induced retinal degeneration leads to photoreceptor degeneration and concomitant HMOX1 induction. HMOX1 expression at low levels before light exposure prevents photoreceptor degeneration but expression at high levels directly induces photoreceptor degeneration even without light stress. Photoreceptor degeneration following high level expression of HMOX1 is associated with a mislocalization of rhodopsin in photoreceptors and an increase in the expression of DDIT3. Genetic deletion of Ddit3 in knockout mice prevents photoreceptor cell degeneration normally resulting from high level HMOX1 expression. Conclusion The results reveal that the expression levels determine whether HMOX1 is protective or deleterious in the retina. Furthermore, in contrast to the protective low dose of HMOX1, the deleterious high dose is associated with induction of DDIT3 and endoplasmic reticulum stress as manifested, for instance, in rhodopsin mislocalization. Hence, future applications of HMOX1 or its regulated targets in gene therapy approaches should carefully consider expression levels in order to avoid potentially devastating effects.

In this paper, we aim to design a lightweight underwater image enhancement algorithm that can effectively solve the problem of color distortion and low contrast in underwater images. Recently, enhancement methods typically optimize a perceptual loss function, using high-level features extracted from pre-trained networks to train a feed-forward network for image enhancement tasks. This loss function measures the perceptual and semantic differences between images, but it is applied globally across the entire image and does not consider semantic information within the image, which limits the effectiveness of the perceptual loss. Therefore, we propose an area contrast distribution loss (ACDL), which trains a flow model to achieve real-time optimization of the difference between output and reference in training. Additionally, we propose a novel lightweight neural network. Because underwater image acquisition is difficult, our experiments have shown that our model training can use only half the amount of data and half the image size compared to Shallow-UWnet. The RepNet network reduces the parameter size by at least 48% compared to previous algorithms, and the inference time is 5 times faster than before. After incorporating ACDL, SSIM increased by 2.70% and PSNR increased by 9.72%.

Cross-relaxation between neighbouring emitters usually limits the brightness of luminescence due to self-quenching. Here, the authors present single upconversion nanoparticle lasing where the cross relaxation modulates the brightness and ultra-low threshold lasing is achieved.

Development of functional nanostructures can enable a range of applications in imaging and nanoscale science. Here, the authors fabricate and characterize complex heterogeneous nanorods with diverse, tunable sub-wavelength structures.

Reliably controlling the morphology in organic solar cells is desired for up-scaling. Here Weng et al. combine the advantages of the fibril network donor and the state of the art Y6 acceptor in a two-step approach to deliver a high efficiency of 16% without batch-to-batch variation.

Abstract Background Systemic drug therapy is generally recommended for infant huge vascular anomalies associated with thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy, but some patients are not suitable due to drug unresponsiveness or life threatening conditions before the drug works, who will need to receive surgical treatment. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical features, imaging features, and surgical outcomes of these patients. Methods The clinical data of 4 infants with huge vascular anomalies (2 vein malformations (VMs) and 2 kaposiform hemangioendothelioma (KHE)) associated with thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy treated from June 2016 to December 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received glucocorticoids, propranolol, vincristine or sirolimus treatment before admission, but the treatment was ineffective. Skin petechia, thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy were present at the time of admission. CT scanning was performed before operation. The patient’s general clinical data, hematological examination results, operation time, surgical bleeding volume, blood transfusion volume and surgical complications were collected for analysis. The patients were followed up for 10–26 months. Results CT scanning results of 2 patients showed special CT features without detectable enhancement within the lesion after CT enhanced scanning and multiple phleboliths formation. Four patients underwent surgical treatment successfully. Two patients underwent complete resection of the lesion, and 2 underwent cytoreductive surgery. Preoperative clinical symptoms such as skin petechia, thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy were normal at 1 week after surgery. Postoperative pathological results showed 2 cases of KHE and 2 cases of VMs. All patients were discharged from hospital without physical dysfunction, recurrence, or death. Conclusions Timely and appropriate surgical intervention can achieve satisfactory results for infants with huge VMs and KHE who were unresponsive to drug therapy or suffering from life-threatening occasion before the drug become effective.

In this paper, the formation coordination control of discrete-time distributed leaderless multiple autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) system with double independent position–velocity communication topology and control inputs on a nonconvex set is studied. Firstly, the problem of formation coordination control of multi-AUV system is transformed into the problem of formation consensus of multi-AUV system, and the consistent state of leaderless multi-AUV system formation was defined. Secondly, considering the existence of bounded communication delay and nonconvex control input constraints for multi-AUV system formation under weak communication conditions, a formation consistent constraint controller algorithm for discrete-time leaderless multi-AUV system with double independent communication topology is proposed by introducing constraint operators. By using the properties of graph theory, random matrix and SIA matrix, and selecting appropriate controller parameters, the multi-AUV system formation can reach the defined consensus state. Furthermore, the unbounded communication delay of multi-AUV system formation is studied. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed controller constraint algorithm is effective.

Formation control, which is a core problem in multi-autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems, plays an important role in realizing safe and accurate cooperation of multi-AUV systems. This paper provides a study on fault-tolerant formation control for multiple stochastic AUV systems under Markovian switching topologies. Considering the effect of noise and Markovian switching communication topology, a novel leader-following group formation control protocol with an actuator fault for a multi-AUV system is developed under the influence of the two independent stochastic processes. The designed controller is proved by an infinitesimal generator with Lyapunov stability theory and can guarantee that the follower AUVs’ states will eventually converge to the leader’s state in each subgroup while forming the desired sub-formation. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis is verified by a simulation experiment.

Considering the actual situation of time-varying interference in the underwater environment, a trajectory tracking control method for an underactuated Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) underwater exploration based on backstepping sliding mode with fuzzy switching gain is designed in this paper. Firstly, the motion equations of UUV in diving plane are given. Secondly, the virtual control variable is designed to replace the pitch angle to avoid the singular value phenomenon. Combining with the backstepping technique, the fuzzy switching sliding mode controller is proposed. Thirdly, in order to decrease the chattering phenomenon of sliding mode control, the fuzzy rule of sliding mode gain is designed. Fourthly, based on Lyapunov theory and comparison principle, the global asymptotic stability of UUV closed-loop tracking error system is proved. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller.

This paper studies the trajectory tracking problem of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) under the uncertainty of model parameters and input delay. Different from previous algorithms, a novel control algorithm is proposed which is a combination of RBF neural network algorithm and state prediction using backstepping sliding mode control method. The RBF neural network algorithm is used to estimate the composite interferences of model parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. Meanwhile, an appropriate virtual control law is designed for the horizontal trajectory tracking of the underactuated AUV by backstepping technique. Further, the longitudinal and heading control laws are proposed using the nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode method. Then, it is proved that the AUV velocity tracking error can converge to zero in a finite time by the Lyapunov theory. Finally, the effectiveness and robustness of the approach is illustrated by the simulation results.

Summary: Nature-inspired superamphiphilic surfaces have drawn tremendous attention owing to its extreme liquid-loving behaviors. Herein, a micro-organized nano-channel (Mo-Na) superamphiphilic anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) surface with long-lasting superamphiphilic property is prepared by a facile one-step anodization method with controllable temperature change. Analysis of dynamic wetting behaviors on superamphiphilic Mo-Na AAO surfaces for various liquids reveals that the spreading factor is in negative correlation with the surface tension and liquid polarity. Detailed observation of the three-phase contact line shows a micro-scale capillary film on superamphiphilic Mo-Na AAO surfaces, which results from the horizontal component of the capillary force. Taking advantage of the superamphiphilic property, water droplets can spread completely on these Mo-Na AAO surfaces within a short time, which can be applied for efficient heat dissipation. Moreover, the unique AAO surface with Mo-Na structures also offers an effective template for future efforts in AAO-based composite devices.

Abstract At the organic–inorganic interface of nanocrystals, electron‐phonon coupling plays an important but intricate role in determining the diverse properties of nanomaterials. Here, it is reported that highly doping of Yb3+ ions within the nanocrystal host can form an energy‐migration network. The networking state Yb3+ shows both distinct Stark splitting peak ratios and lifetime dynamics, which allows quantitative investigations of quenching and thermal activation of luminescence, as the high‐dimensional spectroscopy signatures can be correlated to the attaching and de‐attaching status of surface molecules. By in‐situ surface characterizations, it is proved that the Yb‐O coordination associated with coordinated water molecules has significantly contributed to this reversible effect. Moreover, using this approach, the prime quencher OH can be switched to CH in the wet‐chemistry annealing process, resulting in the electron‐phonon coupling probability change. This study provides the molecular level insights and dynamics of the surface dark layer of luminescent nanocrystals.

Formation control is one of the essential problems in multi-unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) coordination. In this article, a practically oriented UUV formation control structure and method are proposed for the problem of large communication in leader–follower approach. To solve the problem of large communication in multi-UUVs, local sensing means of acoustic positioning is used to provide the real relative distance and angle information for the follower UUV. So, only a small amount of state information of the leader UUV needs to be sent to the follower UUV by acoustic communication. Then, the formation control structure in absence of follower position information is proposed. In this control structure, only the relative distance and angle, as well as velocity and heading of the leader UUV, are used for the formation controller design of the follower UUV. Backstepping and Lyapunov methods are used to design the formation controller without position information of the follower UUV. Two formation configurations of rectangle and triangle with five UUVs are simulated to verify the effectiveness of the method proposed. The simulation results show that the follower UUV can successfully constitute and maintain the desired formation by controlling each real relative distance and angle.

Using the Onsager variational principle, we study the dynamic coupling between the stress and the composition in a polymer solution. In the original derivation of the two-fluid model of Doi and Onuki the polymer stress was introduced a priori; therefore, a constitutive equation is required to close the equations. Based on our previous study of viscoelastic fluids with homogeneous composition, we start with a dumbbell model for the polymer, and derive all dynamic equations using the Onsager variational principle.

Increasing exercise capacity promotes healthy aging and is strongly associated with lower mortality rates. In this study, we analyzed skeletal muscle transcriptomics coupled to exercise performance in humans and rats to dissect the inherent and response components of aerobic exercise capacity. Using rat models selected for intrinsic and acquired aerobic capacity, we determined that the high aerobic capacity muscle transcriptome is associated with pathways for tissue oxygenation and vascularization. Conversely, the low capacity muscle transcriptome indicated immune response and metabolic dysfunction. Low response to training was associated with an inflammatory signature and revealed a potential link to circadian rhythm. Next, we applied bioinformatics tools to predict potential secreted factors (myokines). The predicted secretome profile for exercise capacity highlighted circulatory factors involved in lipid metabolism and the exercise response secretome was associated with extracellular matrix remodelling. Lastly, we utilized human muscle mitochondrial respiration and transcriptomics data to explore molecular mediators of exercise capacity and response across species. Human transcriptome comparison highlighted epigenetic mechanisms linked to exercise capacity and the damage repair for response. Overall, our findings from this cross-species transcriptome analysis of exercise capacity and response establish a foundation for future studies on the mechanisms that link exercise and health.

Cooperative tracking control problem of multiple water–land amphibious robots is discussed in this article with consideration of unknown nonlinear dynamics. Firstly, the amphibious robot dynamic model is formulated as an uncoupled nonlinear one in horizontal plane through eliminating relatively small sway velocity of the platform. Then cooperative tracking control algorithm is proposed with a two-stage strategy including dynamic control stage and kinematic control stage. In dynamic control stage, adaptive consensus control algorithm is obtained with estimating nonlinear properties of amphibious robots and velocities of the leader by neural network with unreliable communication links which is always the case in underwater applications. After that, kinematic cooperative controller is presented to guarantee formation stability of multiple water–land amphibious robots system in kinematic control stage. As a result, with the implementation of graph theory and Lyapunov theory, the stability of the formation tracking of multiple water–land amphibious robots system is proved with consideration of jointly connected communication graph. At last, simulations are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

Abstract Morphological stability is crucially important for the long‐term stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs). Many high‐efficiency PSCs suffer from metastable morphology, resulting in severe device degradation. Here, a series of copolymers is developed by manipulating the content of chlorinated benzodithiophene‐4,8‐dione (T1‐Cl) via a random copolymerization approach. It is found that all the copolymers can self‐assemble into a fibril nanostructure in films. By altering the T1‐Cl content, the polymer crystallinity and fibril width can be effectively controlled. When blended with several nonfullerene acceptors, such as TTPTT‐4F, O‐INIC3, EH‐INIC3, and Y6, the optimized fibril interpenetrating morphology can not only favor charge transport, but also inhibit the unfavorable molecular diffusion and aggregation in active layers, leading to excellent morphological stability. The work demonstrates the importance of optimization of fibril network morphology in realizing high‐efficiency and ambient‐stable PSCs, and also provides new insights into the effect of chemical structure on the fibril network morphology and photovoltaic performance of PSCs.

S-glutathionylation is an important post-translational modification (PTM) process that targets protein cysteine thiols by the addition of glutathione (GSH). This modification can prevent proteolysis caused by the excessive oxidation of protein cysteine residues under oxidative or nitrosative stress conditions. Recent studies have suggested that protein S-glutathionylation plays an essential role in the control of cell-signaling pathways by affecting the protein function in bacteria and even humans. In this study, we investigated the effects of S-glutathionylation on physiological regulation within Streptococcus mutans, the primary etiological agent of human dental caries. To determine the S-glutathionylated proteins in bacteria, the Cys reactive isobaric reagent iodoacetyl Tandem Mass Tag (iodoTMT) was used to label the S-glutathionylated Cys site, and an anti-TMT antibody-conjugated resin was used to enrich the modified peptides. Proteome profiling identified a total of 357 glutathionylated cysteine residues on 239 proteins. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that these S-glutathionylated proteins were involved in diverse important biological processes, such as pyruvate metabolism and glycolysis. Furthermore, we studied a thioredoxin-like protein (Tlp) to explore the effect of S-glutathionylation on interspecies competition between oral streptococcal biofilms. Through site mutagenesis, it was proved that glutathionylation on Cys41 residue of Tlp is crucial to protect S. mutans from oxidative stress and compete with S. sanguinis and S. gordonii. An addition rat caries model showed that the loss of S-glutathionylation attenuated the cariogenicity of S. mutans. Taken together, our study provides an insight into the S-glutathionylation of bacterial proteins and the regulation of oxidative stress resistance and interspecies competition.

Trajectory tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicles in three-dimension always suffers disturbances such as input time delays and model uncertainties. Regarding this problem, an integral time-delay sliding mode control law is proposed in this article with dividing the vehicle’s input time delays model into cascade system consisting of a kinematics subsystem and a dynamics subsystem. Based on the established pose error equation and velocity error equation, a suitable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional is given to analyze and guarantee the global stability of the whole system under reasonable assumptions. At last, comparative simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Photoreceptor degeneration is a major cause of blindness and a considerable health burden during aging but effective therapeutic or preventive strategies have not so far become readily available. Here, we show in mouse models that signaling through the tyrosine kinase receptor KIT protects photoreceptor cells against both light-induced and inherited retinal degeneration. Upon light damage, photoreceptor cells upregulate Kit ligand (KITL) and activate KIT signaling, which in turn induces nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor NRF2 and stimulates the expression of the antioxidant gene Hmox1. Conversely, a viable Kit mutation promotes light-induced photoreceptor damage, which is reversed by experimental expression of Hmox1. Furthermore, overexpression of KITL from a viral AAV8 vector prevents photoreceptor cell death and partially restores retinal function after light damage or in genetic models of human retinitis pigmentosa. Hence, application of KITL may provide a novel therapeutic avenue for prevention or treatment of retinal degenerative diseases.

Deep learning-based visual odometry systems have shown promising performance compared with geometric-based visual odometry systems. In this paper, we propose a new framework of deep neural network, named Deep Siamese convolutional neural network (DSCNN), and design a DL-based monocular VO relying on DSCNN. The proposed DSCNN-VO not only considers positive order information of image sequence but also focuses on the reverse order information. It employs supervised data-driven training without relying on any modules in traditional visual odometry algorithm to make the DSCNN to learn the geometry information between consecutive images and estimate a six-DoF pose and recover trajectory using a monocular camera. After the DSCNN is trained, the output of DSCNN-VO is a relative pose. Then, trajectory is recovered by translating the relative pose to the absolute pose. Finally, compared with other DL-based VO systems, we demonstrate the proposed DSCNN-VO achieve a more accurate performance in terms of pose estimation and trajectory recovering through experiments. Meanwhile, we discuss the loss function of DSCNN and find a best scale factor to balance the translation error and rotation error.

The distance Laplacian matrix of a connected graph G is defined as ℒG=TrG−DG, where DG is the distance matrix of G and TrG is the diagonal matrix of vertex transmissions of G. The largest eigenvalue of ℒG is called the distance Laplacian spectral radius of G. In this paper, we determine the graphs with maximum and minimum distance Laplacian spectral radius among all clique trees with n vertices and k cliques. Moreover, we obtainn vertices and k cliques.

Summary: Therapeutic effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) remain largely limited because of tumor hypoxia. Herein, we report safe and versatile nanocatalysts (NCs) for endogenous oxygen generation and imaging-guided enhanced PDT. The NCs (named as PSP) are prepared by coating Prussian blue (PB) with mesoporous silica to load photosensitizer (zinc phthalocyanine, ZnPc), followed by the modification of polyethylene glycol chains. The inner PB not only acts like a catalase for hydrogen peroxide decomposition but also serves as a photothermal agent to increase the local temperature and then speed up the oxygen supply under near-infrared irradiation. The loaded ZnPc can immediately transform the formed oxygen to generate cytotoxic singlet oxygen upon the same laser irradiation due to the overlapped absorption between PB and ZnPc. Results indicate that the PSP-ZnPc (PSPZP) NCs could realize the photothermally controlled improvement of hypoxic condition in cancer cells and tumor tissues, therefore demonstrating enhanced cancer therapy by the incorporation of PDT and photothermal therapy. : Drug Delivery System; Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry; Catalysis; Biological Sciences Subject Areas: Drug Delivery System, Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Catalysis, Biological Sciences

Background: MicroRNA-122 (miR-122), a pivotal liver-specific miRNA, is frequently repressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and associated with poor prognosis. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOTAIR has been proved to function as an oncogene in multiple cancers including HCC. However, the relationship between HOTAIR and miR-122 in HCC remains largely unknown. Methods: We investigated the function of HOTAIR and miR-122 in HCC cell models and a xenograft mouse model. The regulatory network between HOTAIR and miR-122 was further detected following overexpression or knockdown of HOTAIR. DNA methylation status of miR-122 promoter region, as well as expression levels of DNMTs, EZH2 and Cyclin G1 were analyzed. Findings: In this study, we found that HOTAIR was highly expressed whereas miR-122 was suppressed in HCC, and HOTAIR negatively regulated miR-122 expression in HCC cells. Furthermore, knockdown of HOTAIR dramatically inhibited HCC cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest in vitro and suppressed tumorigenicity in vivo by upregulating miR-122 expression. Mechanistically, a CpG island was located in the miR-122 promoter region. HOTAIR epigenetically suppressed miR-122 expression via DNMTs-mediated DNA methylation. Moreover, HOTAIR upregulated DNMTs expression via EZH2. In addition, suppression of miR-122 induced by HOTAIR directly reactivated oncogene Cyclin G1 expression. Collectively, our results suggest that HOTAIR epigenetically suppresses miR-122 expression via DNA methylation, leading to activation of Cyclin G1 and promotion of tumorigenicity in HCC, which provide new insight into the mechanism of HOTAIR-mediated hepatocarcinogenesis via suppressing miR-122. Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, LncRNA HOTAIR, microRNA-122, DNA methylation, Epigenetics

Abstract Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are capable of converting near-infra-red excitation into visible and ultraviolet emission. Their unique optical properties have advanced a broad range of applications, such as fluorescent microscopy, deep-tissue bioimaging, nanomedicine, optogenetics, security labelling and volumetric display. However, the constraint of concentration quenching on upconversion luminescence has hampered the nanoscience community to develop bright UCNPs with a large number of dopants. This review surveys recent advances in developing highly doped UCNPs, highlights the strategies that bypass the concentration quenching effect, and discusses new optical properties as well as emerging applications enabled by these nanoparticles.

This paper attempts to address the motion parameter skip problem associated with three-dimensional trajectory tracking of an underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) using backstepping-based control, due to the unsmoothness of tracking trajectory. Through kinematics concepts, a three-dimensional dynamic velocity regulation controller is derived. This controller makes use of the surge and angular velocity errors with bio-inspired models and backstepping techniques. It overcomes the frequently occurring problem of parameter skip at inflection point existing in backstepping tracking control method and increases system robustness. Moreover, the proposed method can effectively avoid the singularity problem in backstepping control of virtual velocity error. The control system is proved to be uniformly ultimately bounded using Lyapunov stability theory. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the developed controller, which can realize accurate three-dimensional trajectory tracking for an underactuated AUV with constant external disturbances. Keywords: Dynamic velocity regulation, Bio-inspired model, Backstepping, Underactuated AUV, Three-dimensional trajectory tracking

Abstract Background Accurate and early diagnosis of neurocysticercosis (NCC) remains a challenge due to the heterogeneity of its clinical, immunological and imaging characteristics. The presence of cysticercus DNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of NCC patients has been previously detected via conventional PCR assays. To the best of our knowledge, the use of CSF Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) based pathogen analysis in patients with NCC infection has never been reported. Case presentation This study reports the clinical, imaging, and immunological features of a patient initially presenting with several months of headache who further developed a pure sensory stroke. NGS was used to detect the pathogen, and her CSF demonstrated the presence of Taenia solium-DNA. This finding was confirmed by a positive reaction to CSF cysticercosis antibodies. After antiparasitic treatment, secondary CSF NGS revealed the DNA index have dropped considerably compared to the initial NGS readings. Conclusions NGS is a promising tool for the early and accurate diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) infection, especially in the setting of atypical clinical manifestations. Further studies are required to evaluate the persistence of DNA in the CSF of patients.