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Abstract Background Uncertainty remains about the long-term effects of air pollutants (AP) on multiple diseases, especially subtypes of cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to assess the individual and joint associations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), along with its chemical components, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3), with risks of 32 health conditions. Methods A total of 17,566 participants in Sichuan Province, China, were included in 2018 and followed until 2022, with an average follow-up period of 4.2 years. The concentrations of AP were measured using a machine-learning approach. The Cox proportional hazards model and quantile g-computation were applied to assess the associations between AP and CVD. Results Per interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5 mass, NO2, O3, nitrate, ammonium, organic matter (OM), black carbon (BC), chloride, and sulfate were significantly associated with increased risks of various conditions, with hazard ratios (HRs) ranging from 1.06 to 2.48. Exposure to multiple air pollutants was associated with total cardiovascular disease (HR 1.75, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) 1.62–1.89), hypertensive diseases (1.49, 1.38–1.62), cardiac arrests (1.52, 1.30–1.77), arrhythmia (1.76, 1.44–2.15), cerebrovascular diseases (1.86, 1.65–2.10), stroke (1.77, 1.54–2.03), ischemic stroke (1.85, 1.61–2.12), atherosclerosis (1.77, 1.57–1.99), diseases of veins, lymphatic vessels, and lymph nodes (1.32, 1.15–1.51), pneumonia (1.37, 1.16–1.61), inflammatory bowel diseases (1.34, 1.16–1.55), liver diseases (1.59, 1.43–1.77), type 2 diabetes (1.48, 1.26–1.73), lipoprotein metabolism disorders (2.20, 1.96–2.47), purine metabolism disorders (1.61, 1.38–1.88), anemia (1.29, 1.15–1.45), sleep disorders (1.54, 1.33–1.78), renal failure (1.44, 1.21–1.72), kidney stone (1.27, 1.13–1.43), osteoarthritis (2.18, 2.00–2.39), osteoporosis (1.36, 1.14–1.61). OM had max weights for joint effects of AP on many conditions. Conclusions Long-term exposure to increased levels of multiple air pollutants was associated with risks of multiple health conditions. OM accounted for substantial weight for these increased risks, suggesting it may play an important role in these associations.

Currently spray dust reduction is one of the most widely used dust removal methods in coal mines. The wetting performance of water on coal has a direct impact on spray dust reduction, therefore, adding wetting agents such as surfactants in water can improve the wetting performance of water on coal. In order to investigate the effect of various surfactants on the wettability of bituminous coal dust, four types of surfactants, namely, Rapid Penetrant T, 1227, BS-12 and APG, were used to investigate the wettability of bituminous coal by combining molecular simulation techniques and laboratory experiments. On the one hand, the interfacial system of surfactant aqueous solution was constructed by means of molecular simulation, the hydrophilicity of surfactant itself was analyzed based on the theory of the number of hydrogen bond formation and the radial distribution function, and the surface tension experiments of 4 reagents were carried out, and it was found that the Rapid Penetrant T reagent forms the most number of hydrogen bonds being 398, and the radial distribution function curve peaks at 1.99 ×10−10 m at the earliest time, which is the easiest to be adsorbed with H2O molecules, and the experimental results also showed that the Rapid Penetrant T reagent has the strongest weakening of the surface tension of the water, i.e., the smallest surface tension, which is 24.4 mN/m. On the other hand, through the electrostatic potential calculation, combined with the constructed surfactant/water/bituminous coal ternary adsorption system interaction energy analysis, the effect of four surfactants on the wettability of bituminous coal was investigated, and the experiments on the settlement and contact angle of bituminous coal in 4 reagents were carried out respectively. The results showed that the potential difference between the site and the water molecules after the Rapid Penetrant T molecules combined with the bituminous coal molecules is the largest, being 6.8535 eV, and the interaction energy between it and the bituminous coal is also the largest, being −2705.12 kJ/mol, and the experimental results also showed that the two kinds of bituminous coal have the smallest settling time in the Rapid Penetrant T reagent being 26.3 and 10.22 s respectively, and the smallest contact angle are 25.8° and 21.7° respectively. Thus, the study shown that the molecular simulation results are in agreement with the experimental results, and all of them validate that the anionic surfactant Rapid Penetrant T has the best wettability performance on bituminous coal.

Abstract Background The role of lifestyle factors and their relative contributions to the development and mortality of cardio-renal-metabolic multimorbidity (CRMM) remains unclear. Methods A study was conducted with 357,554 UK Biobank participants. CRMM was defined as the coexistence of two or three cardio-renal-metabolic diseases (CRMDs), including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The prospective study examined the associations of individual and combined lifestyle scores (diet, alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep duration and social connection) with longitudinal progression from healthy to first cardio-renal-metabolic disease (FCRMD), then to CRMM, and ultimately to death, using a multistate model. Subsequently, quantile G-computation was employed to assess the relative contribution of each lifestyle factor. Results During a median follow-up of 13.62 years, lifestyle played crucial role in all transitions from healthy to FCRMD, then to CRMM, and ultimately to death. The hazard ratios (95% CIs) per score increase were 0.91 (0.90, 0.91) and 0.90 (0.89, 0.91) for healthy to FCRMD, and for FCRMD to CRMM, and 0.84 (0.83, 0.86), 0.87 (0.86, 0.89), and 0.90 (0.88, 0.93) for mortality risk from healthy, FCRMD, and CRMM, respectively. Among the seven factors, smoking status contributed to high proportions for the whole disease progression, accounting for 19.88–38.10%. High-risk diet contributed the largest proportion to the risk of transition from FCRMD to CRMM, with 22.53%. Less-frequent social connection contributed the largest proportion to the risk of transition from FCRMD to death, with 28.81%. When we further consider the disease-specific transitions, we find that lifestyle scores had slightly stronger associations with development to T2D than to CVD or CKD. Conclusions Our study indicates that a healthy lifestyle may have a protective effect throughout the longitudinal progression of CRMM, informing more effective management and treatment. Smoking status, diet, and social connection played pivotal roles in specific disease transitions.

Ratiometric DNA biosensors, which utilize DNA as the recognition element and integrate dual signals from diverse sensing platforms including fluorescence, electrochemistry, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), have demonstrated remarkable proficiency in detecting a wide range of targets. In this review, we showcase the significant progress achieved by ratiometric biosensors. Firstly, ratiometric biosensors have made notable advancements in analyzing real samples. These include the analysis of pH values near cancer cells, quantification of miRNA in human cell lysates, detection of human telomerase RNA in cell extracts, and performing DNA logic-gated in situ bioimaging on cell membranes. Secondly, excellent sensitivity has been attained through the utilization of effective amplification methods such as RCA, HCR, and CHA, among others. Thirdly, the construction of stable reference signals has resulted in significantly improved precision for ratiometric biosensors. This breakthrough has overcome matrix effects, enabling reliable detection in real samples with high selectivity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in strategies employed by ratiometric DNA biosensors. We present three types of biosensors based on distinct sensing platforms: fluorescent, electrochemical, and SERS biosensors. Additionally, we discuss future directions and primary challenges in the development of ratiometric DNA biosensors.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood developmental disorder. In recent years, pattern recognition methods have been increasingly applied to neuroimaging studies of ADHD. However, these methods often suffer from limited accuracy and interpretability, impeding their contribution to the identification of ADHD-related biomarkers. To address these limitations, we applied the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) results for the limbic system and cerebellar network as input data and conducted a binary hypothesis testing framework for ADHD biomarker detection. Our study on the ADHD-200 dataset at multiple sites resulted in an average classification accuracy of 93%, indicating strong discriminative power of the input brain regions between the ADHD and control groups. Moreover, our approach identified critical brain regions, including the thalamus, hippocampal gyrus, and cerebellum Crus 2, as biomarkers. Overall, this investigation uncovered potential ADHD biomarkers in the limbic system and cerebellar network through the use of ALFF realizing highly credible results, which can provide new insights for ADHD diagnosis and treatment.

Abstract Background Leaf water content (LWC) significantly affects rice growth and development. Real-time monitoring of rice leaf water status is essential to obtain high yield and water use efficiency of rice plants with precise irrigation regimes in rice fields. Hyperspectral remote sensing technology is widely used in monitoring crop water status because of its rapid, nondestructive, and real-time characteristics. Recently, multi-source data have been attempted to integrate into a monitored model of crop water status based on spectral indices. However, there are fewer studies using spectral index model coupled with multi-source data for monitoring LWC in rice plants. Therefore, 2-year field experiments were conducted with three irrigation regimes using four rice cultivars in this study. The multi-source data, including canopy ecological factors and physiological parameters, were incorporated into the vegetation index to accurately predict LWC in rice plants. Results The results presented that the model accuracy of rice LWC estimation after combining data from multiple sources improved by 6–44% compared to the accuracy of a single spectral index normalized difference index (ND). Additionally, the optimal prediction accuracy of rice LWC was produced using a machine algorithm of gradient boosted decision tree (GBDT) based on the combination of ND(1287,1673) and crop water stress index (CWSI) (R2 = 0.86, RMSE = 0.01). Conclusions The machine learning estimation model constructed based on multi-source data fully utilizes the spectral information and considers the environmental changes in the crop canopy after introducing multi-source data parameters, thus improving the performance of spectral technology for monitoring rice LWC. The findings may be helpful to the water status diagnosis and accurate irrigation management of rice plants.

BackgroundThe cGAS-STING axis-mediated type I interferon pathway is a crucial strategy for host defense against DNA virus infection. Numerous evasion strategies developed by the pseudorabies virus (PRV) counteract host antiviral immunity. To what extent PRV-encoded proteins evade the cGAS-STING signaling pathway is unknown.MethodsUsing US2 stably expressing cell lines and US2-deficient PRV model, we revealed that the PRV tegument protein US2 reduces STING protein stability and downregulates STING-mediated antiviral signaling.ResultsTo promote K48-linked ubiquitination and STING degradation, US2 interacts with the LBD structural domain of STING and recruits the E3 ligase TRIM21. TRIM21 deficiency consistently strengthens the host antiviral immune response brought on by PRV infection. Additionally, US2-deficient PRV is less harmful in mice.ConclusionsOur study implies that PRV US2 inhibits IFN signaling by a new mechanism that selectively targets STING while successfully evading the host antiviral response. As a result, the present study reveals a novel strategy by which PRV evades host defense and offers explanations for why the Bartha-K61 classical vaccine strain failed to offer effective defense against PRV variant strains in China, indicating that US2 may be a key target for developing gene-deficient PRV vaccines.

Surfactant is a substance that is soluble in water and can significantly reduce the surface tension of the solution, which can effectively solve the problem of dust hazards in the underground mining work of coal mines. In order to study the influence of multi-component surfactant compounding on the wetting effect of bituminous coal, the bituminous coal of Huainan Pansan Coal Mine is used as the research object, firstly, surface tension and settling time are taken as the investigation indicators. The anionic surfactant Rapid Panetrant T, the zwitterionic surfactant BS-12, and the nonionic surfactant APG are selected from the eight surfactants. Secondly, by comparing the surface tension and settling time, anionic surfactant Rapid Panetrant T effect is the best. At the same time, molecular simulation technology is used to investigate the electrostatic potential distribution of the three monomer reagents, and the effect of the anionic surfactant Rapid Panetrant T is the best. Finally, orthogonal experiment method was used to obtain the optimal formulations of the three reagent monomers with the concentration of 0.20%, 0.15%, 0.25%, respectively, and the surface tension is 16.95 mN/m, which is 17.81% higher than that of Rapid Panetrant T, and the settling time is 20.95 s, which is 20.34% higher than that of Rapid Panetrant T.

Abstract Background The durable oocyst wall formed from the contents of wall-forming bodies (WFBs) protects Eimeria parasites from harsh conditions and enhances parasite transmission. Comprehending the contents of WFBs and proteins involved in oocyst wall formation is pivotal to understanding the mechanism of the oocyst wall formation and the search for novel targets to disrupt parasite transmission. Methods Total proteins extracted from WFBs and the oocyst wall of Eimeria necatrix were subjected to comparative proteomic analysis using tandem mass tag in conjunction with liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry techniques. After functional clustering analysis of the identified proteins, three proteins, including E. necatrix disulfide isomerase (EnPDI), thioredoxin (EnTrx) and phosphoglycerate kinase (EnPGK), were selected for further study to confirm their potential roles in oocyst wall formation. Results A total of 3009 and 2973 proteins were identified from WFBs and the oocyst wall of E. necatrix, respectively. Among these proteins, 1102 were identified as differentially expressed proteins, of which 506 were upregulated and 596 downregulated in the oocyst wall compared to the WFBs. A total of 108 proteins, including compositional proteins of the oocyst wall, proteases, oxidoreductases, proteins involved in glycosylation, proteins involved in synthesis of the acid-fast lipid layer and proteins related to transport, were proposed to be involved in oocyst wall formation. The approximate molecular sizes of native EnPDI, EnTrx and EnPGK proteins were 55, 50 and 45 kDa, respectively. EnPDI was present in both type 1 and type 2 WFBs, EnTrx was present only in type 2 WFB2 and EnPGK was present only in type 1 WFBs, whereas all of them were localized to the outer layer of the oocyst wall, indicating that all of them participate in the formation of the oocyst wall. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the proteomes of WFBs and the oocyst wall of E. necatrix. The data obtained from this study form a basis for deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying oocyst wall formation of Eimeria parasites. They also provide valuable resources for future studies on the development of novel therapeutic agents and vaccines aimed at combating coccidian transmission. Graphical Abstract

With the widespread application of AI technology, the skills and abilities required by employees in their work are undergoing fundamental changes, redefining the roles of employees. This research aims to explore the effect of job skill demands under AI embeddedness on well-being in organizations and job performance. Based on conservation of resources theory, this research randomly selected 479 employees from 8 companies in China using a time-lag method as samples, and conducted statistical analysis with ordinary least squares (OLS). This research found that, job skill demands under AI embeddedness will both increase employees’ competency needs, promoting their well-being in organizations and job performance and decrease employees’ job embeddedness, inhibiting their well-being in organizations and job performance. Meanwhile, technological anxiety moderated the impact of job skill demands under AI embeddedness on job embeddedness.

Abstract Background and objective Although the the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) serves to be one of the reliable indicator for hyperlipidaemia, there is still uncertainty about its relationship to prognosis in the hyperlipidaemic population. In current study, the DII levels were analyzed in relation to the mortality risk among among the hyperlipidaemic individuals with the aim of determining any prospective correlation. Methods 14,460 subjects with hyperlipidaemia from the 10-year (2001–2010) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were chosen for this study. The endpoint event for follow-up was all-cause mortality, and subjects were tracked for up to December 31, 2019, or death, whichever occurred first. The tertiles of the DII levels were utilized for categorizing the study population into three groups. Survival curves, Cox proportional hazards regression models, restricted cubic spline (RCS), subgroup and interaction analyses, and sensitivity analyses were employed sequentially for the purpose of evaluating the association of the DII with mortality. Results 3170 (21.92%) all-cause deaths were recorded during an average 148-month follow-up period. Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that the survival rate of participants divided into the low DII group was substantially improved compared to that of those in the higher DII group (log-rank P

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most prevalent type of hematopoietic malignancy. Despite recent therapeutic advancements, the high relapse rate associated with extramedullary involvement remains a challenging issue. Moreover, therapeutic targets that regulate the extramedullary infiltration of AML cells are still not fully elucidated. The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR) is known to influence the progression and migration of solid tumors; however, its role in AML is largely unknown. This study explored the roles of AHR in the invasion and migration of AML cells. We found that suppressed expression of AHR target genes correlated with an elevated relapse rate in AML. Treatment with an AHR agonist on patient-derived AML cells significantly decreased genes associated with leukocyte trans-endothelial migration, cell adhesion, and regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. These results were further confirmed in THP-1 and U937 AML cell lines using AHR agonists (TCDD and FICZ) and inhibitors (SR1 and CH-223191). Treatment with AHR agonists significantly reduced Matrigel invasion, while inhibitors enhanced it, regardless of the Matrigel’s stiffness. AHR agonists significantly reduced the migration rate and chemokinesis of both cell lines, but AHR inhibitors enhanced them. Finally, we found that the activity of AHR and the expression of NMIIA are negatively correlated. These findings suggest that AHR activity regulates the invasiveness and motility of AML cells, making AHR a potential therapeutic target for preventing extramedullary infiltration in AML.

Cashmere goats produce wool from primary hair follicles (PHF)and cashmere from secondary hair follicles(SHF). Numerous genetic factors have been identified to affect HF formation, but the mechanism that controls the distinct morphogenesis of PHFs and SHFs remains unclear. To better describe goat’s hair follicle proteome, we applied iTRAQ technology to study protein expression profiling from nine skin samples of cashmere goats in three fetal periods including 45-day-old embryos (E45), 55-day-old embryos (E55), 65-day-old embryos (E65). A total of 1172 proteins identified are expressed in fetal skin. The numbers of differentially expressed proteins in E45 vs. E55, E45 vs. E65, and E55 vs. E65 were 103, 144, and 118, respectively. Sixty-three proteins were constantly increased through the whole embryonic developmental stages of placode formation. Keratin 1, 4, 5, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 75 belonging to the hair keratin family (KRTs) were identified during keratinocyte proliferation. Some proteins involved in these pathways probably have a role in the HF and might be the mediators of HF initiation in Cashmere goats. Our systematic investigation identified some signaling factors that drive the large-scale cellular rearrangements necessary for HF initiation, which provide an insight into the fundamental mechanisms of cashmere growth.

Abstract RGB cameras and LiDAR are crucial sensors for autonomous vehicles that provide complementary information for accurate detection. Recent early-level fusion-based approaches, flourishing LiDAR data with camera features, may not accomplish promising performance ascribable to the immense difference between two modalities. This paper presents a simple and effective vehicle detection method based on an early-fusion strategy, unified 2D BEV grids, and feature fusion. The proposed method first eliminates many null point clouds through cor-calibration. It augments point cloud data by color information to generate 7D colored point cloud, and unifies augmented data into 2D BEV grids. The colored BEV maps can then be fed to any 2D convolution network. A peculiar Feature Fusion (2F) detection module is utilized to extract multiple scale features from BEV images. Experiments on the KITTI public benchmark and Nuscenes dataset show that fusing RGB image with point cloud rather than raw point cloud can lead to better detection accuracy. Besides, the inference time of the proposed method reaches 0.05 s/frame thanks to its simple and compact architecture.

Abstract Background Eimeria parasite infection occurs via ingestion of oocysts. The robust, bilayer oocyst wall is formed from the contents of wall-forming bodies (WFBs), WFB1 and WFB2, located exclusively in macrogametocytes. Eimeria necatrix gametocyte proteins 22 and 59 (EnGAM22 and EnGAM59) have been found to localize to WFBs and the oocyst wall. However, the exact localization of these two proteins is not clear. Methods WFBs of E. necatrix were extracted from purified gametocytes using a cutoff filter and the extracts of purified WFBs and gametocytes were analyzed using sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblotting. Then, the localization of EnGAM22 and EnGAM59 proteins was determined using an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Finally, the development of macrogametocytes and the oocyst wall of E. necatrix was analyzed using laser confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Results Purified WFBs had the same shape and size as those observed in macrogametocytes. EnGAM22 protein localized to WFB1, whereas EnGAM59 protein localized to WFB2. Both EnGAM22 and EnGAM59 native proteins were detected in the extracts of WFBs and gametocytes. The outer layer of the oocyst wall was formed by the release of the contents of WFB1 at the surface of the macrogametocyte to form an anti-EnGAM22 positive layer. WFB2 then appeared to give rise to the inner layer, which was anti-EnGAM59 positive. Conclusions EnGAM22 and EnGAM59 proteins localized to WFB1 and WFB2 and were involved in the formation of the outer and inner layers of the oocyst wall of E. necatrix, respectively. The processes of macrogametogenesis and oocyst wall formation of E. necatrix are similar to other Eimeria parasites. The anti-EnGAM22 antibody could be used as a tool to track the transport and secretion of proteins in WFB1 during oocyst development. Graphical Abstract

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has significant potential as a treatment for cancer by targeting specific genes or molecular pathways involved in cancer development and progression. The addition of siRNA to other therapeutic strategies, like photodynamic therapy (PDT), can enhance the anticancer effects, providing synergistic benefits. Nevertheless, the effective delivery of siRNA into target cells remains an obstacle in cancer therapy. Herein, supramolecular nanoparticles were fabricated via the co-assembly of natural histone and hyaluronic acid for the co-delivery of HMGB1-siRNA and the photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) into the MCF-7 cell. The produced siRNA-Ce6 nanoparticles (siRNA-Ce6 NPs) have a spherical morphology and exhibit uniform distribution. In vitro experiments demonstrate that the siRNA-Ce6 NPs display good biocompatibility, enhanced cellular uptake, and improved cytotoxicity. These outcomes indicate that the nanoparticles constructed by the co-assembly of histone and hyaluronic acid hold enormous promise as a means of siRNA and photosensitizer co-delivery towards synergetic therapy.

The objective of this study was to identify multiple alkaloids in Coptis chinensis that demonstrate inhibitory activity against DPP-4 and systematically evaluate their activity and binding characteristics. A combined strategy that included molecular docking, a DPP-4 inhibition assay, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and a molecular dynamics simulation technique was employed. The results showed that nine alkaloids in Coptis chinensis directly inhibited DPP-4, with IC50 values of 3.44–53.73 μM. SPR-based binding studies revealed that these alkaloids display rapid binding and dissociation characteristics when interacting with DPP-4, with KD values ranging from 8.11 to 29.97 μM. A molecular dynamics analysis revealed that equilibrium was rapidly reached by nine DPP-4–ligand systems with minimal fluctuations, while binding free energy calculations showed that the ∆Gbind values for the nine test compounds ranged from −31.84 to −16.06 kcal/mol. The most important forces for the binding of these alkaloids with DPP-4 are electrostatic interactions and van der Waals forces. Various important amino acid residues, such as Arg125, His126, Phe357, Arg358, and Tyr547, were involved in the inhibition of DPP-4 by the compounds, revealing a mechanistic basis for the further optimization of these alkaloids as DPP-4 inhibitors. This study confirmed nine alkaloids as direct inhibitors of DPP-4 and characterized their binding features, thereby providing a basis for further research and development on novel DPP-4 inhibitors.

In order to solve the problem of inconsistent moisture content in particles during the drying process of tiger nuts (Cyperus esculentus) due to uneven air flow and temperature distribution in the drying chamber, an open-hole corner box was designed based on the principle of negative pressure micro-perforated air supply. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) simulation, coupled with the basic theory of interphase heat and mass transfer, a mathematical model for interphase heat and moisture coupling transfer was established. The effects of different aperture rates of corner boxes in the drying chamber, spatial location arrangement, and other related variables on the airfield distribution, temperature field distribution, tiger nut temperature, and moisture content changes were investigated. The results show that the average air velocity below the air inlet gradually increases as the opening ratio increases. When the opening rate is 0.33%, the wind field uniformity is better, and the inhomogeneity of the drying chamber wind field is improved. As the lateral distance increases, the consistency of the moisture content distribution increases and then decreases, and the flow rate of the tiger nuts gradually increases when the grain is discharged. The rate of decrease in water content decreases gradually with the increase in longitudinal distance. When the wind speed reaches 4 m/s, the drying chamber wind field is more uniform, and the water vapor diffusion efficiency at the outlet is basically the same. Therefore, the appropriate corner box has a horizontal distance of 320 mm and a longitudinal distance of 420 mm, providing a basis for the design of tiger nut drying equipment.

The discrimination and recognition of biological targets, such as proteins, cells, and bacteria, are of utmost importance in various fields of biological research and production. These include areas like biological medicine, clinical diagnosis, and microbiology analysis. In order to efficiently and cost-effectively identify a specific target from a wide range of possibilities, researchers have developed a technique called differential sensing. Unlike traditional “lock-and-key” sensors that rely on specific interactions between receptors and analytes, differential sensing makes use of cross-reactive receptors. These sensors offer less specificity but can cross-react with a wide range of analytes to produce a large amount of data. Many pattern recognition strategies have been developed and have shown promising results in identifying complex analytes. To create advanced sensor arrays for higher analysis efficiency and larger recognizing range, various nanomaterials have been utilized as sensing probes. These nanomaterials possess distinct molecular affinities, optical/electrical properties, and biological compatibility, and are conveniently functionalized. In this review, our focus is on recently reported optical sensor arrays that utilize nanomaterials to discriminate bioanalytes, including proteins, cells, and bacteria.

Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal that can have harmful effects on the environment, which has severe cytotoxicity in many animal tissues. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has antioxidant activity, reducing lead-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis, but its role in chicken cells is unknown. The current study explored the antagonistic effect of NAC on lead-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF). In this study, CEF was used as a model to measure the cytotoxic effects of lead nitrate at different concentrations, demonstrating a dose-dependent effect on CEF activity. Employing inverted microscopy, the investigation of morphological alterations in CEF cells was conducted. Fluorescence staining methodology enabled the assessment of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels within CEF cells. Moreover, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was utilized to detect the presence of oxidative damage indicators encompassing superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) within CEF cells. Furthermore, the determination of the apoptosis rate of CEF cells was accomplished through the utilization of the Hoechst 33258 staining method in combination with the Annexin V-FITC dual staining method. By using RT-qPCR for detection, lead treatment increased expression of pro-apoptotic genes, caspase-3, and caspase-9, and reduced expression of anti-apoptotic genes, Bcl-2, and BI-1. Reduced antioxidant capacity was shown by increased ROS and MDA levels in CEF cells after lead treatment. The results showed that NAC inhibited the expression of caspase-3 and caspase-9 in lead-treated CEF cells, while NAC had a certain inhibitory effect on the relative expression of Bcl-2 and BI-1 mRNA in lead-induced CEF cells. NAC significantly reduced lead-induced oxidative damage and apoptosis. Overall, our results demonstrate a novel protective effect of NAC against lead-induced injury in chicken cells, providing a theoretical basis for future investigations of drugs that are effective in preventing lead poisoning in animals.

Abstract Photocatalytic water splitting is beneficial for the effective mitigation of global energy and environmental crises. Owing to multi‐exciton generation, impressive light harvesting, and excellent photochemical properties, the quantum dot (QD)‐based catalysts reveal a considerable potential in photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) production compared with bulk competitors. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in QDs for photocatalytic H2 production by enumerating different synthetic and characterization strategies for QDs. Various QDs‐based photocatalysts are introduced and summarized in categories, and the role of different QDs in varied systems, as well as the mechanism and key factors that enhance the photocatalytic H2 generation performance, is discussed. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives in the exploration of highly efficient QDs‐based photocatalysts for innovative applications are highlighted.

The mechanics-corrosion and strength-ductility tradeoffs of magnesium (Mg) alloys have limited their applications in fields such as orthopedic implants. Herein, a fine-grain structure consisting of weak anodic nano-lamellar solute-enriched stacking faults (SESFs) with the average thickness of 8 nm and spacing of 16 nm is constructed in an as-extruded Mg96.9Y1.2Ho1.2Zn0.6Zr0.1 (at.%) alloy, obtaining a high yield strength (YS) of 370 MPa, an excellent elongation (EL) of 17%, and a low corrosion rate of 0.30 mm y−1 (close to that of high-pure Mg) in a uniform corrosion mode. Through scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM), one-dimensional nanostructured SESFs are identified as the weak anode (∼24 mV) for the first time. The excellent corrosion resistance is mainly related to the weak anodic nature of SESFs and their nano-lamellar structure, leading to the more uniform potential distribution to weaken galvanic corrosion and the release of abundant Y3+/Ho3+ from SESFs to form a more protective film with an outer Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2/Y2O3/Ho2O3 layer (thickness percentage of this layer: 72.45%). For comparison, the as-cast alloy containing block 18R long period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase and the heat-treated alloy with fine lamellar 18R-LPSO phase (thickness: 80 nm, spacing: 120 nm) are also studied, and the characteristics of SESFs and 18R-LPSO phase, such as the weak anode nature of the former and the cathode nature of the latter (37-90 mV), are distinguished under the same alloy composition. Ultimately, we put forward the idea of designing Mg alloys with high mechanical and anti-corrosion properties by constructing ''homogeneous potential strengthening microstructure'', such as the weak anode nano-lamellar SESFs structure.

Abstract In this paper, an energy-stable Crank–Nicolson fully discrete finite element scheme is proposed for the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony–Burgers equation. Firstly, the stability of energy is proved, which leads to the boundedness of the finite element solution in H 1 $H^{1}$ -norm. Secondly, combining with the above boundedness and the special property of bilinear element, the unconditional superclose and superconvergence results are derived. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the validity and efficiency of our theoretical analysis and method.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetics and steady-state serum concentrations of lenvatinib in adult and juvenile rats.Experimental study: An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) method was developed to quantify lenvatinib in the serum and liver of rats. Six juvenile and six adult rats in each group were orally administered with a single dose of 7.0 mg/kg lenvatinib suspension for pharmacokinetics. Another 12 juvenile and adult rats were subjected to oral gavage with 7.0 mg/kg lenvatinib once daily for 5 days. Biofluild samples were pre-treated by protein precipitation and sorafenib was used as the internal standard for UPLC-MS analysis. The pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by compartment and statistical model. The mRNA expression of CYP3A2 and SLC22A1 in liver of adult and juvenile rats was measured by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).Results: The UPLC-MS method met the requirements for quantitative analysis of lenvatinib in serum and liver. The pharmacokinetic results showed that the mean retention time (MRT(0-∞)) was 19.64 ± 7.64 h and 126.38 ± 130.18 h, with AUC(0-∞) values of 3.97 ± 0.73 μg‧mL-1 h and 5.95 ± 2.27 μg mL-1 h in adult and juvenile rats, respectively. When comparing adult rats (0.35 ± 0.15 μg/mL) to juvenile rats, no significant differences were observed in steady-state serum lenvatinib (0.32 ± 0.11 μg/mL), but a noteworthy decrease to one-third of steady-state liver lenvatinib was observed after multiple oral doses of lenvatinib in juvenile rats. Additional findings revealed that the mRNA expression of CYP3A2 and SLC22A1 was notably increased by 6.86 and 14.67 times, respectively, in juvenile rats compared to adult rats.Conclusion: Juvenile rats exhibit lower levels of lenvatinib in the liver’s steady-state, potentially due to the disparity in CYP3A2 mRNA expression. These results imply that the dosage of lenvatinib for pediatric patients may need to be augmented in order to attain the desired clinical outcome.

In this study, the effect and mechanism of two different types of waterproof admixtures, silica fume and their composite usage on the hydration and mechanical properties of natural hydraulic lime were evaluated. Specifically, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were utilized to investigate the phase composition, micromorphology, and chemical state in-depth. The results showed that, combination of two waterproof admixtures with cementitious matrix via forming Si-O-Si bond and calcium-containing compound weakened the contact between water and cementitious matrix, leading to retardation of hydration. However, silane impregnant more or less promoted formation of hydrated product thanks to the reaction between polycondensated silane and Ca(OH)2, and improved mechanical strength of natural hydraulic lime-based mortars. Hydration and carbonation of natural hydraulic lime was inhibited by bulk modification with silicone-acrylic latex. Partial substitution of natural hydraulic lime by silica fume promoted the hydration and hardening process of cementitious system, leading to improvement of mechanical strength. What is more important, composite modification compensated strength weakening which was the common shortcoming caused by bulk modification of cementitious system with waterproof admixtures.

During the growth stage of soybean seedlings, it is crucial to quickly and precisely identify them for emergence rate assessment and field management. Traditional manual counting methods have some limitations in scenarios with large-scale and high-efficiency requirements, such as being time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human error (such as subjective judgment and visual fatigue). To address these issues, this study proposes a rapid detection method suitable for airborne edge devices and large-scale dense soybean seedling field images. For the dense small target images captured by the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the YOLOv5s model is used as the improvement benchmark in the technical solution. GhostNetV2 is selected as the backbone feature extraction network. In the feature fusion stage, an attention mechanism—Efficient Channel Attention (ECA)—and a Bidirectional Feature Pyramid Network (BiFPN) have been introduced to ensure the model prioritizes the regions of interest. Addressing the challenge of small-scale soybean seedlings in UAV images, the model’s input size is set to 1280 × 1280 pixels. Simultaneously, Performance-aware Approximation of Global Channel Pruning for Multitask CNNs (PAGCP) pruning technology is employed to meet the requirements of mobile or embedded devices. The experimental results show that the identification accuracy of the improved YOLOv5s model reached 92.1%. Compared with the baseline model, its model size and total parameters were reduced by 76.65% and 79.55%, respectively. Beyond these quantitative evaluations, this study also conducted field experiments to verify the detection performance of the improved model in various scenarios. By introducing innovative model structures and technologies, the study aims to effectively detect dense small target features in UAV images and provide a feasible solution for assessing the number of soybean seedlings. In the future, this detection method can also be extended to similar crops.

The core challenge of speech synthesis technology is how to convert text information into an audible audio form to meet the needs of users. In recent years, the quality of speech synthesis based on end-to-end speech synthesis models has been significantly improved. However, due to the characteristics of the Mongolian language and the lack of an audio corpus, the Mongolian speech synthesis model has achieved few results, and there are still some problems with the performance and synthesis quality. First, the phoneme information of Mongolian was further improved and a Bang-based pre-training model was constructed to reduce the error rate of Mongolian phonetic synthesized words. Second, a Mongolian speech synthesis model based on Ghost and ILPCnet was proposed, named the Ghost-ILPCnet model, which was improved based on the Para-WaveNet acoustic model, replacing ordinary convolution blocks with stacked Ghost modules to generate Mongolian acoustic features in parallel and improve the speed of speech generation. At the same time, the improved vocoder ILPCnet had a high synthesis quality and low complexity compared to other vocoders. Finally, a large number of data experiments were conducted on the proposed model to verify its effectiveness. The experimental results show that the Ghost-ILPCnet model has a simple structure, fewer model generation parameters, fewer hardware requirements, and can be trained in parallel. The average subjective opinion score of its synthesized speech reached 4.48 and the real-time rate reached 0.0041. It ensures the naturalness and clarity of synthesized speech, speeds up the synthesis speed, and effectively improves the performance of the Mongolian speech synthesis model.

Abstract The determination of length of time from the last drinking is critical for cases like drunk driving, sexual assault victims, and also postmortem suspected poisoning cases. The study was aimed to established a method of estimating the time of last drinking through the pharmacokinetic study of conjugation metabolites of alcohol in blood after a single oral dose. Twenty-six volunteers (14 males) consumed alcohol with food at a fixed dose of 0.72 g/kg after fasting for 12 h. Five milliliters of blood were collected 120 h after the start of drinking, and all samples were analyzed with headspace-gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The time point of last drinking was estimated through the relationship between the concentration ratio of ethyl glucuronide to ethyl sulphate and the length of time after drinking. Pharmacokinetic parameters were analyzed by a pharmacokinetic software DAS according to the non-compartment model. A good correlation model was obtained from the relationship between concentration ratio of ethyl glucuronide to ethyl sulphate in blood and the time of alcohol use, and the margin of error was mostly lower than 10%. The time of maximum concentration, maximum concentration, and elimination half-life of ethyl glucuronide in blood were 4.12 ± 1.07 h, 0.31 ± 0.11 mg/L and 2.56 ± 0.89 h; the time of maximum concentration, maximum concentration, and elimination half-life of ethyl sulphate in blood were 3.02 ± 0.70 h, 0.17 ± 0.04 mg/L, and 2.04 ± 0.76 h. The study established a potential method to estimate the length of time after a moderate oral dose, and provided pharmacokinetic parameters of ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulphate in Chinese population.

Abstract Reliable road detection is an essential task in autonomous driving systems. Two categories of sensors are commonly used, cameras and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), each of which can provide corresponding supplements. Nevertheless, existing sensor fusion methods do not fully utilize multimodal data. Most of them are dominated by images and take point clouds as a supplement rather than making the best of them, and the correlation between modalities is ignored. This paper proposes a recurrent conditional random field (R-CRF) model to fuse images and point clouds for road detection. The R-CRF model integrates results (information) from modalities in a probabilistic way. Each modality is independently processed with its semantic segmentation network. The probability scores obtained are considered a unary term for individual pixel nodes in a random field, while RGB images and the densified LiDAR images are used as pairwise terms. The energy function is then iteratively optimized by mean-field variational inference, and the labelling results are refined by exploiting fully connected graphs of the RGB image and LiDAR images. Extensive experiments are conducted on the public KITTI-Road dataset, and the proposed method achieves competitive performance.

Abstract Background Eimeria coccidiosis is a significant intestinal parasitic disease, which can lead to weight loss, disease and even death of many animals. At present, there is no information about the prevalence of Eimeria among the world’s endangered species of Père David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify an unknown Eimeria genus in the Père David’s deer in Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve, China. Results A new Eimeria species is described from Père David’s deer. Sporulated oocysts (n = 54) are pyriform, with a rough, yellowish brown, 2-layered oocyst wall (2.5 μm thick). A numerous small granules are dispersed randomly on the wall. Oocysts measured 41.2 (39.2–42.8) μm × 29.5 (27.9–30.5) μm, oocyst length/width (L/W) ratio, 1.4. Oocyst residuum, a polar granule and a polar cap are absent. The micropyle (3.5 μm wide) is present. Sporocysts are spindle shaped, 18.2 (16.5–20.0) μm × 10.5 (9.8–11.9) μm, sporocyst L/W ratio, 1.7 (1.5–1.9). A thin convex Stieda body is present and the sporocyst residuum is composed of numerous small granules less than 2.0 μm in diameter dispersed randomly. Each sporocyst contained 2 comma-shaped sporozoites in head-to-tail arrangement. A nucleus is located immediately anterior to the posterior, strong refractive and subspherical refractile body (~ 8 μm). Molecular analysis was conducted at the 18S, ITS-1 and COI loci. Conclusion Based on the morphological and molecular data, this isolate is a new species of coccidian parasite, which is named Eimeria davidianusi after its host, the Père David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus).

Background: PD-1 blockade has been shown to have promising efficacy and acceptable safety profiles in advanced and metastatic gastric cancer; however, the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade-based immunotherapy plus chemotherapy in locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) remain uncertain. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients with LAGC who received neoadjuvant treatment followed by D2 radical resection at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from 2019 to 2021. The primary aim was to investigate the difference in pathological response rates between neoadjuvant PD-1 immunotherapy plus chemotherapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone. Multivariable models for pathological complete response (pCR) were constructed to investigate the factors that facilitate pCR. Trial registration: QYFYWZLL27406. Results: A total of 77 patients were included in the analysis, among whom 34 (44.2%) received neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade immunotherapy plus chemotherapy. A higher pCR rate was observed in the neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade immunotherapy plus chemotherapy group (8 of 34, 23.5% vs. 2 of 43, 4.7%, P=0.019). Multivariate logistic regression analysis of pCR revealed neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy regimen promoted pCR (OR 12.95, P=0.016). Regarding safety, 76.5% (26 of 34) of patients in the PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy group and 76.7% (33 of 43) of patients in the chemotherapy group experienced treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), and grade 3 or worse adverse events were 29.4% (10 of 34) and 34.9% (15 of 43), respectively. Conclusion: Neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy induced a higher pCR rate than neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and the combined therapy was tolerable in LAGC patients.

Here, the authors demonstrate high-speed imaging through multimode optical fibers by using the high intermodal dispersion to transform 2D spatial information into 1D temporal pulsed signal streams. Deep learning is used to reconstruct the images of micron-scale objects at high frame rates.

Abstract Background Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that can cause a geographically widespread zoonosis. Our previous splenocyte microRNA profile analyses of pig infected with T. gondii revealed that the coordination of a large number of miRNAs regulates the host immune response during infection. However, the functions of other miRNAs involved in the immune regulation during T. gondii infection are not yet known. Methods Clustering analysis was performed by K-means, self-organizing map (SOM), and hierarchical clustering to obtain miRNA groups with the similar expression patterns. Then, the target genes of the miRNA group in each subcluster were further analyzed for functional enrichment by Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Reactome pathway to recognize the key signaling molecules and the regulatory signatures of the innate and adaptive immune responses of the host during T. gondii infection. Results A total of 252 miRNAs were successfully divided into 22 subclusters by K-means clustering (designated as K1–K22), 29 subclusters by SOM clustering (designated as SOM1–SOM29), and six subclusters by hierarchical clustering (designated as H1–H6) based on their dynamic expression levels in the different infection stages. A total of 634, 660, and 477 GO terms, 15, 26, and 14 KEGG pathways, and 16, 15, and 7 Reactome pathways were significantly enriched by K-means, SOM, and hierarchical clustering, respectively. Of note, up to 22 miRNAs mainly showing downregulated expression at 50 days post-infection (dpi) were grouped into one subcluster (namely subcluster H3-K17-SOM1) through the three algorithms. Functional analysis revealed that a large group of immunomodulatory signaling molecules were controlled by the different miRNA groups to regulate multiple immune processes, for instance, IL-1-mediated cellular response and Th1/Th2 cell differentiation partly depending on Notch signaling transduction for subclusters K1 and K2, innate immune response involved in neutrophil degranulation and TLR4 cascade signaling for subcluster K15, B cell activation for subclusters SOM17, SOM1, and SOM25, leukocyte migration, and chemokine activity for subcluster SOM9, cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction for subcluster H2, and interleukin production, chemotaxis of immune cells, chemokine signaling pathway, and C-type lectin receptor signaling pathway for subcluster H3-K17-SOM1. Conclusions Cluster analysis of splenocyte microRNAs in the pig revealed key regulatory properties of subcluster miRNA molecules and important features in the immune regulation induced by acute and chronic T. gondii infection. These results contribute new insight into the identification of physiological immune responses and maintenance of tolerance in pig spleen tissues during T. gondii infection. Graphical Abstract

All metal sensing based on complementary H-shaped arrays (HSAs) is numerically and experimentally investigated at terahertz frequencies. The symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum (BICs) are activated by adjusting one arm's length of the H-shaped, enabling high-Q quasi-BICs. The Q-factor of quasi-BICs is modulated in terms of structural parameters and metal conductivity. With optimal structural parameters of copper HSAs, the proximity sensing performances are studied as a function of the film thickness and the refractive index. High sensitivity of 151 GHz/RIU and FOM of 18.7 are obtained, respectively, which are high compared with the previous metamaterials with planar substrates. In addition, the HSAs are even sensitive to the ultrathin graphene film. These findings indicate that such HSAs-based sensor has great potential for practical applications in chemical and biomolecular fields.

During the 13th Five-year Plan, the domestic oil and gas storage and transportation business developed rapidly, which promoted the progress of oil and gas storage and transportation technologies. In terms of engineering design and construction, a series of research results concerning high-grade steel pipeline design and mechanized construction have been achieved, and the design and construction technologies of LNG receiving terminals and storages become mature gradually. In terms of material and equipment, the key technical problems of the third generation large-capacity natural gas pipeline project were solved, the X70/X80 steel pipes were successfully developed with the key equipment such as the compressors, oil pumps and key valves localized basically. In addition, the localized SCADA software was also developed. In terms of the transportation technologies, the optimization technology of pipeline network operation with the centralized control as the core has been formed, and the transportation technology system of the high pour-point and high viscosity crude oils and product oils has been established. As for the operation and maintenance, the supporting technologies of pipeline integrity management, inspection and evaluation, geological hazard protection, monitoring and early warning, corrosion protection and emergency repairing have been developed, and many international and national standards have been prepared and published. During the 14th Five-year Plan, the oil and gas storage and transportation industry will face new opportunities and challenges in technology development, and the oil and gas storage and transportation technology will develop towards safe operation, efficient transportation and intelligent pipeline network, which will provide scientific support and guarantee for the rapid development of oil and gas storage and transportation businessess.

Accelerating mass exchange between matrix and fractures is the essence of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in tight formations after natural depletion. Low salinity water (LSW) injection has been commercially-proven in conventional reservoirs EOR, with scale projects in progress worldwide. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the EOR effect in tight formations. Therefore, in this work, we introduced LSW-EOR to a target tight formation using huff-puff mode. Spontaneous imbibition (SI) tests were firstly performed on homogenous Berea sandstone cores with decreasing salinity brine to observe the production response. The results indicated that the oil recovery of the tight rock was boosted by tuning brine salinity. Of all the used brines with salinity ranging from 0.021% to 2.1% TDS (total dissolved salinity), the 0.21% TDS brine showed a rapid increase in oil production over imbibing time, which finally led to an incremental oil recovery of 4.5% OOIP (original oil in place). Core-scale modeling was conducted by history-matching the oil recovery dynamics of the SI results through modifying capillary pressure and relative permeability. A full-scale reservoir model was constructed using micro-seismic data to model fracture geometry combing fracturing results and scaling parameters obtained from core scale history-matching. It is proven that LSW huff-n-puff stimulated the oil production after natural depletion and improved MEE (mass exchange efficiency) of the target formation, but the EOR benefit was not comparable to CO2 and surfactant-assisted water huff-puff methods.

Abstract Background Eimeria necatrix is one of the most pathogenic parasites, causing high mortality in chickens. Although its genome sequence has been published, the sequences and complete structures of its mRNA transcripts remain unclear, limiting exploration of novel biomarkers, drug targets and genetic functions in E. necatrix. Methods Second-generation merozoites (MZ-2) of E. necatrix were collected using Percoll density gradients, and high-quality RNA was extracted from them. Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing and Illumina sequencing were combined to generate the transcripts of MZ-2. Combined with the SMRT sequencing data of sporozoites (SZ) collected in our previous study, the transcriptome and transcript structures of E. necatrix were studied. Results SMRT sequencing yielded 21,923 consensus isoforms in MZ-2. A total of 17,151 novel isoforms of known genes and 3918 isoforms of novel genes were successfully identified. We also identified 2752 (SZ) and 3255 (MZ-2) alternative splicing (AS) events, 1705 (SZ) and 1874 (MZ-2) genes with alternative polyadenylation (APA) sites, 4019 (SZ) and 2588 (MZ-2) fusion transcripts, 159 (SZ) and 84 (MZ-2) putative transcription factors (TFs) and 3581 (SZ) and 2039 (MZ-2) long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). To validate fusion transcripts, reverse transcription-PCR was performed on 16 candidates, with an accuracy reaching up to 87.5%. Sanger sequencing of the PCR products further confirmed the authenticity of chimeric transcripts. Comparative analysis of transcript structures revealed a total of 3710 consensus isoforms, 815 AS events, 1139 genes with APA sites, 20 putative TFs and 352 lncRNAs in both SZ and MZ-2. Conclusions We obtained many long-read isoforms in E. necatrix SZ and MZ-2, from which a series of lncRNAs, AS events, APA events and fusion transcripts were identified. Information on TFs will improve understanding of transcriptional regulation, and fusion event data will greatly improve draft versions of gene models in E. necatrix. This information offers insights into the mechanisms governing the development of E. necatrix and will aid in the development of novel strategies for coccidiosis control. Graphical Abstract

Multimode fibers with high information capacity and ultra-thin diameter offer new possibilities for non-invasive endoscopy and remote high-speed secure communication. However, due to their sensitivity, special demands are thus raised on the light sources, which act as both lighting and information carrier. We build a single-arm multimode fiber image transmission system. The impact of five different sources on transmission quality is systematically compared and analyzed. High-quality transmission of complex grayscale patterns is achieved with inverse transmission matrix. The measured structural similarity exceeds 0.65. Experimental results indicate that random fiber laser with high time–domain stability is suitable for single-fiber imaging. This work is conducive to further study of fiber imaging and provides guidance for novel fiber communication and flexible endoscopy.

ObjectiveTo explore the prognostic value of radiological features and serum indicators in patients treated with postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) and develop a prognostic model to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with PA-TACE.MethodWe enrolled 112 patients (75 in the training cohort and 37 in the validation cohort) with HCC treated with PA-TACE after surgical resection at the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University between January 2012 and June 2015. The independent OS predictors were determined using univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Decision curve analyses and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to verify the prognostic performance of the different models; the best model was selected to establish a multi-dimensional nomogram for predicting the OS of HCC patients treated with PA-TACE.ResultMultivariate regression analyses indicated that rim-like arterial phase enhancement (IRE), peritumor capsule (PTC), and alanine aminotransferase to hemoglobin ratio (AHR) were independent predictors of OS after PA-TACE. The combination of AHR had the best clinical net benefit and we constructed a prognostic nomogram based on IRE, PTC, and AHR. The calibration curve showed good fit between the predicted nomogram’s curve and the observed curve.ConclusionOur preliminary study confirmed the prognostic value of AHR, PTC, and IRE and established a nomogram that can predict the OS after PA-TACE treatment in patients with HCC.

The utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the precise and convenient detection of litchi fruits, in order to estimate yields and perform statistical analysis, holds significant value in the complex and variable litchi orchard environment. Currently, litchi yield estimation relies predominantly on manual rough counts, which often result in discrepancies between the estimated values and the actual production figures. This study proposes a large-scene and high-density litchi fruit recognition method based on the improved You Only Look Once version 5 (YOLOv5) model. The main objective is to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of yield estimation in natural orchards. First, the PANet in the original YOLOv5 model is replaced with the improved Bi-directional Feature Pyramid Network (BiFPN) to enhance the model’s cross-scale feature fusion. Second, the P2 feature layer is fused into the BiFPN to enhance the learning capability of the model for high-resolution features. After that, the Normalized Gaussian Wasserstein Distance (NWD) metric is introduced into the regression loss function to enhance the learning ability of the model for litchi tiny targets. Finally, the Slicing Aided Hyper Inference (SAHI) is used to enhance the detection of tiny targets without increasing the model’s parameters or computational memory. The experimental results show that the overall AP value of the improved YOLOv5 model has been effectively increased by 22%, compared to the original YOLOv5 model’s AP value of 50.6%. Specifically, the APs value for detecting small targets has increased from 27.8% to 57.3%. The model size is only 3.6% larger than the original YOLOv5 model. Through ablation and comparative experiments, our method has successfully improved accuracy without compromising the model size and inference speed. Therefore, the proposed method in this paper holds practical applicability for detecting litchi fruits in orchards. It can serve as a valuable tool for providing guidance and suggestions for litchi yield estimation and subsequent harvesting processes. In future research, optimization can be continued for the small target detection problem, while it can be extended to study the small target tracking problem in dense scenarios, which is of great significance for litchi yield estimation.

To enhance the efficiency of mechanical automatic picking of cherry tomatoes in a precision agriculture environment, this study proposes an improved target detection algorithm based on YOLOv5n. The improvement steps are as follows: First, the K-means++ clustering algorithm is utilized to update the scale and aspect ratio of the anchor box, adapting it to the shape characteristics of cherry tomatoes. Secondly, the coordinate attention (CA) mechanism is introduced to expand the receptive field range and reduce interference from branches, dead leaves, and other backgrounds in the recognition of cherry tomato maturity. Next, the traditional loss function is replaced by the bounding box regression loss with dynamic focusing mechanism (WIoU) loss function. The outlier degree and dynamic nonmonotonic focusing mechanism are introduced to address the boundary box regression balance problem between high-quality and low-quality data. This research employs a self-built cherry tomato dataset to train the target detection algorithms before and after the improvements. Comparative experiments are conducted with YOLO series algorithms. The experimental results indicate that the improved model has achieved a 1.4% increase in both precision and recall compared to the previous model. It achieves an average accuracy mAP of 95.2%, an average detection time of 5.3 ms, and a weight file size of only 4.4 MB. These results demonstrate that the model fulfills the requirements for real-time detection and lightweight applications. It is highly suitable for deployment in embedded systems and mobile devices. The improved model presented in this paper enables real-time target recognition and maturity detection for cherry tomatoes. It provides rapid and accurate target recognition guidance for achieving mechanical automatic picking of cherry tomatoes.

The mechanism of maintaining myometrial contractions during labor remains unclear. Autophagy has been reported to be activated in laboring myometrium, along with the high expression of Golgi reassembly stacking protein 2 (GORASP2), a protein capable of regulating autophagy activation. This study aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of GORASP2 in uterine contractions during labor. Western blot confirmed the increased expression of GORASP2 in laboring myometrium. Furthermore, the knockdown of GORASP2 in primary human myometrial smooth muscle cells (hMSMCs) using siRNA resulted in reduced cell contractility. This phenomenon was independent of the contraction-associated protein and autophagy. Differential mRNAs were analyzed using RNA sequencing. Subsequently, KEGG pathway analysis identified that GORASP2 knockdown suppressed several energy metabolism pathways. Furthermore, reduced ATP levels and aerobic respiration impairment were observed in measuring the oxygen consumption rate (OCR). These findings suggest that GORASP2 is up-regulated in the myometrium during labor and modulates myometrial contractility mainly by maintaining ATP production.

The fast and precise detection of dense litchi fruits and the determination of their maturity is of great practical significance for yield estimation in litchi orchards and robot harvesting. Factors such as complex growth environment, dense distribution, and random occlusion by leaves, branches, and other litchi fruits easily cause the predicted output based on computer vision deviate from the actual value. This study proposed a fast and precise litchi fruit detection method and application software based on an improved You Only Look Once version 5 (YOLOv5) model, which can be used for the detection and yield estimation of litchi in orchards. First, a dataset of litchi with different maturity levels was established. Second, the YOLOv5s model was chosen as a base version of the improved model. ShuffleNet v2 was used as the improved backbone network, and then the backbone network was fine-tuned to simplify the model structure. In the feature fusion stage, the CBAM module was introduced to further refine litchi’s effective feature information. Considering the characteristics of the small size of dense litchi fruits, the 1,280 × 1,280 was used as the improved model input size while we optimized the network structure. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we performed ablation experiments and compared it with other models on the test set. The results showed that the improved model’s mean average precision (mAP) presented a 3.5% improvement and 62.77% compression in model size compared with the original model. The improved model size is 5.1 MB, and the frame per second (FPS) is 78.13 frames/s at a confidence of 0.5. The model performs well in precision and robustness in different scenarios. In addition, we developed an Android application for litchi counting and yield estimation based on the improved model. It is known from the experiment that the correlation coefficient R2 between the application test and the actual results was 0.9879. In summary, our improved method achieves high precision, lightweight, and fast detection performance at large scales. The method can provide technical means for portable yield estimation and visual recognition of litchi harvesting robots.

Polarized fluorescent polymers can be promisingly used for many applications. In this work, the polarized fluorescent poly[2-methoxy,5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene]@MOF (MEH-PPV@MOF) composites were synthesized via the direct chain-introduction method. Firstly, long-range ordered porous metal-organic framework (MOF) crystals were synthesized. Through morphology observation and X-ray diffraction measurement, the water stability, thermal stability and structural stability of synthesized MOF were analyzed, to determine the preservation treatment of the material and the process parameters of introducing polymer chains in the subsequent experiment. Then, the MEH-PPV chains were directly introduced into the MOF channels via a solution-mediated incorporation approach. The measurement results of powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the MEH-PPV chains were successfully introduced into the MOF channels. Finally, the fluorescent properties of the MEH-PPV@MOF composites were characterized via the photoluminescence spectroscopy. It was found that the accommodation of MEH-PPV chains within 1-D channels of MOF led to a strong blue-shift of the photoluminescence spectrum, due to the quantum confinement effect. Also, the polarization ratio calculated from the polarization luminescence spectra of the composites was 2.215. This indicates that the MEH-PPV@MOF composites prepared by the direct chain-introduction method with the help of the solution-mediated approach have good photoluminescence anisotropy.

The maintenance of coordinated powerful episodic contractions of the uterus is the crucial factor for normal labor. The uterine contractility is gradually enhanced with the progression of labor, which is related to the gene expression of the myometrium. Competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) can also regulate the gene expression. To better understand the role of ceRNA network in labor, transcriptome sequencing was performed on the myometrium of 17 parturients at different labor durations (0–24 h). From this, expression levels of mRNA, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), circular RNA (circRNA), and microRNA (miRNA) were correlated with labor duration. Then, targeting relationships between mRNAs, lncRNAs, circRNAs, and miRNAs were predicted, and the ceRNA regulatory network was established. The mRNA expression patterns associated with cervical dilation and postpartum bleeding were further investigated. This analysis identified 932 RNAs positively correlated with labor duration (859 mRNAs, 28 lncRNAs, and 45 circRNAs) and 153 RNAs negatively correlated with labor duration (122 mRNAs, 28 lncRNAs, and 3 miRNAs). These mRNAs were involved in protein metabolism, transport, and cytoskeleton functions. According to the targeting relationship among these ceRNAs and mRNAs, a ceRNA network consisting of 3 miRNAs, 72 mRNAs, 2 circRNAs, and 1 lncRNA was established. In addition, two mRNA expression patterns were established using time-series analysis of mRNA expression in different phases of cervical dilation. A ceRNA network analysis for blood loss was performed; postpartum bleeding was closely related to inflammatory response, angiogenesis, and hemostasis. This study identified human myometrial transcriptome and established the ceRNA regulatory network depending on labor duration and highlighted the dynamic changes that occur at ceRNAs during parturition, which need to be considered more in the future to better understand how changes in gene expression are relevant to functional changes in human myometrium at labor.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Knockdown of fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) can induce N6-methyladenosine (m 6A) ribonucleic acid (RNA) methylation. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of m 6A RNA methylation on atherosclerotic vulnerable plaque by FTO knockdown. Methods: A total of 50 New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into pure high-fat group, sham operation group, vulnerable plaque group, empty load group, and FTO knockdown group (10 rabbits/group). Results: Flow cytometry showed that helper T (Th) cells in the FTO knockdown group accounted for a significantly higher proportion of lymphocytes than in the vulnerable plaque group and empty load group (P

Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze uterine electromyography burst patterns in patients with spontaneous labor and patients with uterine inertia. Materials and methods: Uterine electromyography was recorded using 4 silver/silver chloride electrodes placed periumbilical. Thirty women in the spontaneous labor were enrolled. Uterine electromyography was also recorded from patients with uterine inertia before and after oxytocin treatment. EMG bursts were characterized by analysis of multiple variables including burst frequency, duration, root mean squared, amplitude, and total power. Results: There were significant reductions (P .05) to patients in spontaneous labor. Conclusions: Uterine electromyography can be used effectively to distinguish patients progressing with spontaneous labor from patients that develop uterine inertia. Uterine inertia is characterized by reduced EMG activity and failure of cervical dilation. Uterine electromyography is a quantitative, non-invasive assessment tool that contributes to the diagnosis, evaluation and management of patients with spontaneous labor and uterine inertia.