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Psoriasis is accepted as a chronic, inflammatory, immune-mediated skin disease triggered by complex environmental and genetic factors. For a long time, disease recurrence, drug rejection, and high treatment costs have remained enormous challenges and burdens to patients and clinicians. Natural products with effective immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities from medicinal plants have the potential to combat psoriasis and complications. Herein, an imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis model is established in mice. The model mice are treated with 1% rutaecarpine (RUT) (external use) or the oral administration of RUT at different concentrations. Furthermore, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing is applied to analyze the changes in the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota. Based on the observation of mouse dorsal skin changes, RUT can protect against inflammation to improve psoriasis-like skin damage in mice. Additionally, RUT could suppress the expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-23, IL-17A, IL-22, IL-6, and IFN-α) within skin tissue samples. Concerning gut microbiota, we find obvious variations within the composition of gut microflora between IMQ-induced psoriasis mice and RUT-treated psoriasis mice. RUT effectively mediates the recovery of gut microbiota in mice induced by IMQ application. Psoriasis is linked to the production of several inflammatory cytokines and gut microbiome alterations. This research shows that RUT might restore gut microbiota homeostasis, reduce inflammatory cytokine production, and ameliorate psoriasis symptoms. In conclusion, the gut microbiota might be a therapeutic target or biomarker for psoriasis that aids in clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Fuel-saving-oriented collaborative driving is a highly promising yet challenging endeavor that requires satisfying the driver's operational intentions while surpassing the driver's fuel-saving performance. In light of this challenge, the paper introduces an innovative collaborative driving strategy tailored to the objective of fuel conservation in the context of commercial vehicles. An enhancement to this strategy involves the development of a network prediction model for vehicle speed, leveraging insights from driver style recognition. Employing the predicted speed as a reference, a model-predictive-control-based optimal controller is designed to track the reference while optimizing fuel consumption. Furthermore, a straightforward yet effective collaborative rule is proposed to ensure alignment with the driver's intention. Subsequently, the proposed control scheme is validated through simulation and real-world driving data, revealing that the human–machine cooperative driving controller saves 4% more fuel than human drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the biaxial flexural mount is presented according to the requirements of the large aspect ratio mirror of an off-axis three-mirror anastigmatic (TMA) space-borne telescope, and the process of the optimal design of the flexural mount structure is discussed in detail. From the perspective of mechanics-based design of space-borne mirror assembly structure and integrated optical-mechanical analysis, the optimal axial mounting position, the optimal mounting angle and the optimal structural critical dimensions of the flexure hinge were determined to improve the surface shape accuracy. Finally, the mechanical vibration test further proved the rationality of the structure design and the accuracy of the simulation analysis. The flexural mount proposed in this paper is can be applied to other reflective optics with high surface figure requirements. The optimization method proposed in this paper can also be applied to the optimization of other forms of flexural mount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative splicing (AS) is a key transcriptional regulation pathway. Recent studies have shown that AS events are associated with the occurrence of complex diseases. Various computational approaches have been developed for the detection of disease-associated AS events. In this review, we first describe the metrics used for quantitative characterization of AS events. Second, we review and discuss the three types of methods for detecting disease-associated splicing events, which are differential splicing analysis, aberrant splicing detection and splicing-related network analysis. Third, to further exploit the genetic mechanism of disease-associated AS events, we describe the methods for detecting genetic variants that potentially regulate splicing. For each type of methods, we conducted experimental comparison to illustrate their performance. Finally, we discuss the limitations of these methods and point out potential ways to address them. We anticipate that this review provides a systematic understanding of computational approaches for the analysis of disease-associated splicing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a highly effective non-noble metal catalyst for the synthesis of cyclohexanols with high selectivity is very important for the value-added utilization of lignin-derived phenolic compounds. In this paper, a promising Co/NPCN (nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanotubes) catalyst with Co nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon for selective hydrogenating of phenol was prepared by introducing an appropriate amount of g-C3N4 (graphitic carbon nitride) into the preparation of ZIF-67 (Zeolite imidazolate framework). Characterization results reveal that the introduction of g-C3N4 of an appropriate amount reduces the size of Co NPs, improves the specific surface area and pore volume, and facilitates the formation of Co0. Full phenol conversion with 100% cyclohexanol selectivity could be achieved at 120 °C, 3 h and 2 MPa H2 over Co/NPCN. In addition, Co/NPCN presents great stability and scalability of the substrate in the phenol hydrogenation reaction. The DFT (density functional theory) calculations reveal that the parallel adsorption configuration of phenol is preferential, which favors the hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanol with high selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexure hinges have been widely used in space-borne telescopes for mounting reflective optics with high surface figure requirements. To realize the three-point flexural mount of a Φ750 mm primary mirror, a Cartwheel biaxial flexural hinge composed by filleted short beams is proposed and the dimensionless design graph method for the flexural hinge is presented. The finite element analysis is performed on the flexure model to validate the proposed method. We also demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method experimentally. The maximum relative error of the rotational stiffness between analysis, testing result, and design value is 5.0%. The proposed dimensionless design graph can be used as a design tool to determine the optimal geometry of a spatial flexure hinge rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]