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Cannabidiol (CBD), a natural component extracted from Cannabis sativa L. exerts neuroprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects in Alzheimer's disease (AD), a disease characterized by impaired cognition and accumulation of amyloid-B peptides (Aβ). Interactions between the gut and central nervous system (microbiota-gut-brain axis) play a critical role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorder AD. At present investigations into the mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective action of CBD in AD are not conclusive. The aim of this study was thus to examine the influence of CBD on cognition and involvement of the microbiota-gut-brain axis using a senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) model. Data demonstrated that administration of CBD to SAMP8 mice improved cognitive function as evidenced from the Morris water maze test and increased hippocampal activated microglia shift from M1 to M2. In addition, CBD elevated levels of Bacteriodetes associated with a fall in Firmicutes providing morphologically a protective intestinal barrier which subsequently reduced leakage of intestinal toxic metabolites. Further, CBD was found to reduce the levels of hippocampal and colon epithelial cells lipopolysaccharide (LPS), known to be increased in AD leading to impaired gastrointestinal motility, thereby promoting neuroinflammation and subsequent neuronal death. Our findings demonstrated that CBD may be considered a beneficial therapeutic drug to counteract AD-mediated cognitive impairment and restore gut microbial functions associated with the observed neuroprotective mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The best method for selecting embryos ploidy is preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A). However, it takes more labour, money, and experience. As such, more approachable, non- invasive techniques were still needed. Analyses driven by artificial intelligence have been presented recently to automate and objectify picture assessments. Methods: In present retrospective study, a total of 3448 biopsied blastocysts from 979 Time-lapse (TL)-PGT cycles were retrospectively analyzed. The "intelligent data analysis (iDA) Score" as a deep learning algorithm was used in TL incubators and assigned each blastocyst with a score between 1.0 and 9.9. Results: Significant differences were observed in iDAScore among blastocysts with different ploidy. Additionally, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that higher scores were significantly correlated with euploidy (p < 0.001). The Area Under the Curve (AUC) of iDAScore alone for predicting euploidy embryo is 0.612, but rose to 0.688 by adding clinical and embryonic characteristics. Conclusions: This study provided additional information to strengthen the clinical applicability of iDAScore. This may provide a non-invasive and inexpensive alternative for patients who have no available blastocyst for biopsy or who are economically disadvantaged. However, the accuracy of embryo ploidy is still dependent on the results of next-generation sequencing technology (NGS) analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The encapsulation of functional colloidal nanoparticles (100 nm) into single‐crystalline ZSM‐5 zeolites, aiming to create uniform core–shell structures, is a highly sought‐after yet formidable objective due to significant lattice mismatch and distinct crystallization properties. In this study, we demonstrate the fabrication of a core–shell structured single‐crystal zeolite encompassing an Fe3O4 colloidal core via a novel confinement stepwise crystallization methodology. By engineering a confined nanocavity, anchoring nucleation sites, and executing stepwise crystallization, we have successfully encapsulated colloidal nanoparticles (CN) within single‐crystal zeolites. These grafted sites, alongside the controlled crystallization process, compel the zeolite seed to nucleate and expand along the Fe3O4 colloidal nanoparticle surface, within a meticulously defined volume (1.5×107≤V≤1.3×108 nm3). Our strategy exhibits versatility and adaptability to an array of zeolites, including but not restricted to ZSM‐5, NaA, ZSM‐11, and TS‐1 with polycrystalline zeolite shell. We highlight the uniformly structured magnetic‐nucleus single‐crystalline zeolite, which displays pronounced superparamagnetism (14 emu/g) and robust acidity (~0.83 mmol/g). This innovative material has been effectively utilized in a magnetically stabilized bed (MSB) reactor for the dehydration of ethanol, delivering an exceptional conversion rate (98 %), supreme ethylene selectivity (98 %), and superior catalytic endurance (in excess of 100 hours). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Ribosome biogenesis is a highly dynamic and orchestrated process facilitated by hundreds of ribosomal biogenesis factors and small nucleolar RNAs. While many of the advances are derived from studies in yeast, ribosome biogenesis remains largely unknown in plants despite its importance to plant growth and development.Through characterizing the maize (Zea mays) defective kernel and embryo‐lethal mutant dek58, we show that DEK58 encodes an Rrp15p domain‐containing protein with 15.3% identity to yeast Rrp15. Over‐expression of DEK58 rescues the mutant phenotype.DEK58 is localized in the nucleolus. Ribosome profiling and RNA gel blot analyses show that the absence of DEK58 reduces ribosome assembly and impedes pre‐rRNA processing, accompanied by the accumulation of nearly all the pre‐rRNA processing intermediates and the production of an aberrant processing product P‐25S*. DEK58 interacts with ZmSSF1, a maize homolog of the yeast Ssf1 in the 60S processome. DEK58 and ZmSSF1 interact with ZmCK2α, a putative component of the yeast UTP‐C complex involved in the small ribosomal subunit processome.These results demonstrate that DEK58 is essential to seed development in maize. It functions in the early stage of pre‐rRNA processing in ribosome biogenesis, possibly through interacting with ZmSSF1 and ZmCK2α in maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) with various acyl groups play central roles in Streptomyces. But whether these acyl groups can be further modified, and the influences of these potential modifications on bacterial physiology have not been addressed. Here in Streptomyces roseosporus with rich crotonylation, a luciferase monooxygenase LimB is identified to elaborately regulate the crotonylation level, morphological development and antibiotic production by oxidation on the crotonyl groups of an acetyl-CoA synthetase Acs. This chemical modification on crotonylation leads to Acs degradation via the protease ClpP1/2 pathway and lowered intracellular crotonyl-CoA pool. Thus, we show that acyl groups after PTMs can be further modified, herein named post-PTM modification (PPM), and LimB is a PTM modifier to control the substrate protein turnover for cell development of Streptomyces. These findings expand our understanding of the complexity of chemical modifications on proteins for physiological regulation, and also suggest that PPM would be widespread. Protein crotonylation, as one of post-translational modifications (PTMs), can be further modified, herein named post-PTM (PPM) by a monooxygenase in Streptomyces to regulate substrate protein turnover and cell physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsic metabolism shapes the immune environment associated with immune suppression and tolerance in settings such as organ transplantation and cancer. However, little is known about the metabolic activities in an immunosuppressive environment. In this study, we employed metagenomic, metabolomic, and immunological approaches to profile the early effects of the immunosuppressant drug tacrolimus, antibiotics, or both in gut lumen and circulation using a murine model. Tacrolimus induced rapid and profound alterations in metabolic activities within two days of treatment, prior to alterations in gut microbiota composition and structure. The metabolic profile and gut microbiome after seven days of treatment was distinct from that after two days of treatment, indicating continuous drug effects on both gut microbial ecosystem and host metabolism. The most affected taxonomic groups are Clostriales and Verrucomicrobiae (i.e., Akkermansia muciniphila), and the most affected metabolic pathways included a group of interconnected amino acids, bile acid conjugation, glucose homeostasis, and energy production. Highly correlated metabolic changes were observed between lumen and serum metabolism, supporting their significant interactions. Despite a small sample size, this study explored the largely uncharacterized microbial and metabolic events in an immunosuppressed environment and demonstrated that early changes in metabolic activities can have significant implications that may serve as antecedent biomarkers of immune activation or quiescence. To understand the intricate relationships among gut microbiome, metabolic activities, and immune cells in an immune suppressed environment is a prerequisite for developing strategies to monitor and optimize alloimmune responses that determine transplant outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are a promising photovoltaic technology that employs organic semiconductor material as the photoactive layer, which has the unique advantages of light weight, large‐area flexible fabrication, low‐cost, and semitransparent. In recent years, the performance of OSCs has been significantly improved, and the highest power conversion efficiency has exceeded 19%. Despite the tremendous progress in OSCs, the major bottleneck in realizing the commercialization of OSCs is the device stability. Therefore, reviewing the recent research progress on the stability of high‐performance OSCs is urgent and necessary. This review discusses the factors limiting device lifetime, such as metastable morphology, air, irradiation, heat, and mechanical stresses. Additionally, this review presents the research progress over the last 5 years, focusing on enhancing device stability from the perspective of photoactive layers and other functional layers, which includes material design and device engineering, such as solid additives, device fabrication, optimizing buffer layers, using stable electrodes, and encapsulation. Lastly, this review explores current commercialization challenges and prospects, including using advanced machine learning techniques to assist experimental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is more prevalent in women, and women show a better prognosis than men; however, the factors contributing to this prognostic difference are confounding. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of the interaction between sex and age on the prognosis of PTC. Methods: A total of 108,459 patients with PTC were retrospectively analysed, and Cox‐regression models were used to assess differences in disease specific survival (DSS) by sex, with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to control for between‐group differences in prognosis by sex due to age change. Restricted cubic splines were used to analyse prognostic differences between sexes for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) and PTC. Multiple mediation analyses were used to assess the direct or indirect effect of sex on DSS. Results: The DSS was higher for women than men (98.6% vs. 95.4%, χ2 = 458.57, p <.001). After IPTW adjustment, the DSS of women was better than that of men (HR = 0.67, 0.60−0.76). In the subgroup analysis, women had an advantage in DSS across most age intervals (crude HR = 0.166 [0.082−0.337], p <.001, IPTW‐adjusted HR = 0.331 [0.161−0.681], p <.001). The difference between the two gradually narrowed with increasing age, and the prognosis of women was better than that of men in PTMC, while this advantage was not obvious in PTC. Conclusions: The overall PTC prognosis of women is better than that of men, but the prognostic advantage of women diminishes with age and tumour growth. These differences in prognosis may be due to some indirect factors caused by different sexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain chemotherapeutics can induce tumor cells’ immunogenic cell death (ICD), release tumor antigens, and thereby trigger personalized antitumor immune responses. Co-delivery of adjuvants using nanocarriers could amplify the ICD-induced tumor-specific immunity achieving a synergistic chemo-immunotherapeutic effect. However, complicated preparation, low drug loading efficiency, and potential carrier-associated toxicity are the major challenges that limited its clinical applications. Herein, a carrier-free core–shell nanoparticle (MPLA-CpG-sMMP9-DOX, MCMD NPs) was constructed by facile self-assembly of spherical nucleic acids (SNA) with two adjuvants of CpG ODN and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) as a core and doxorubicin (DOX) radially around the dual-adjuvants SNA as a shell. The results demonstrated that MCMD NPs could enhance drugs accumulation in tumors, and release DOX upon enzymatic degradation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) peptide in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which enhanced the direct-killing effect of DOX on tumor cells. The core of MPLA-CpG SNA efficiently boosted the ICD-induced antitumor immune response to further attack tumor cells. Thus, MCMD NPs achieved a synergistic therapeutic effect of chemo-immunotherapy with reduced off-target toxicity. This study provided an efficient strategy for the development of a carrier-free nano-delivery system for enhanced cancer chemo-immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beneficial effects attributed to Bifidobacterium are largely attributed to their immunomodulatory capabilities, which are likely to be species- and even strain-specific. However, their strain-specificity in direct and indirect immune modulation remain largely uncharacterized. We have shown that B. pseudolongum UMB-MBP-01, a murine isolate strain, is capable of suppressing inflammation and reducing fibrosis in vivo. To ascertain the mechanism driving this activity and to determine if it is specific to UMB-MBP-01, we compared it to a porcine tropic strain B. pseudolongum ATCC25526 using a combination of cell culture and in vivo experimentation and comparative genomics approaches. Despite many shared features, we demonstrate that these two strains possess distinct genetic repertoires in carbohydrate assimilation, differential activation signatures and cytokine responses signatures in innate immune cells, and differential effects on lymph node morphology with unique local and systemic leukocyte distribution. Importantly, the administration of each B. pseudolongum strain resulted in major divergence in the structure, composition, and function of gut microbiota. This was accompanied by markedly different changes in intestinal transcriptional activities, suggesting strain-specific modulation of the endogenous gut microbiota as a key to immune modulatory host responses. Our study demonstrated a single probiotic strain can influence local, regional, and systemic immunity through both innate and adaptive pathways in a strain-specific manner. It highlights the importance to investigate both the endogenous gut microbiome and the intestinal responses in response to probiotic supplementation, which underpins the mechanisms through which the probiotic strains drive the strain-specific effect to impact health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, three series of chitosan derivatives bearing imidazole rings, including the Schiff‐bases of chitosan, N‐substituted chitosan, and quaternized chitosan are designed and synthesized. The structures of these chitosan derivatives are verified by FT‐IR and 1H NMR, and their antioxidant, antibacterial, and antifungal activities are tested. The Schiff‐bases of chitosan and N‐substituted chitosan have similar biological properties compared with chitosan. Derivatives 2IMTMC, 4IMTMC, MIMTMC, and BIMTMC exhibit significant antioxidant ability and antifungal activity, especially derivative BIMTMC. All the quaternized chitosan remarkably inhibits Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Vibrio harvey, especially derivative BIMTMC, whose minimum inhibitory concentration values are 0.03125, 0.0625, and 0.03125 mg mL−1, respectively. The results indicated that quaternized chitosan are synergistic with imidazole groups and have the better antioxidant, antifungal, and antibacterial properties than chitosan, which can be used as drug materials for antioxididant and antimicrobial purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beneficial effects attributed to Bifidobacterium are largely attributed to their immunomodulatory capabilities, which are likely to be species- and even strain-specific. However, their strain-specificity in direct and indirect immune modulation remain largely uncharacterized. We have shown that B. pseudolongum UMB-MBP-01, a murine isolate strain, is capable of suppressing inflammation and reducing fibrosis in vivo. To ascertain the mechanism driving this activity and to determine if it is specific to UMB-MBP-01, we compared it to a porcine tropic strain B. pseudolongum ATCC25526 using a combination of cell culture and in vivo experimentation and comparative genomics approaches. Despite many shared features, we demonstrate that these two strains possess distinct genetic repertoires in carbohydrate assimilation, differential activation signatures and cytokine responses signatures in innate immune cells, and differential effects on lymph node morphology with unique local and systemic leukocyte distribution. Importantly, the administration of each B. pseudolongum strain resulted in major divergence in the structure, composition, and function of gut microbiota. This was accompanied by markedly different changes in intestinal transcriptional activities, suggesting strain-specific modulation of the endogenous gut microbiota as a key to immune modulatory host responses. Our study demonstrated a single probiotic strain can influence local, regional, and systemic immunity through both innate and adaptive pathways in a strain-specific manner. It highlights the importance to investigate both the endogenous gut microbiome and the intestinal responses in response to probiotic supplementation, which underpins the mechanisms through which the probiotic strains drive the strain-specific effect to impact health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The clinical application of combined tumor markers is still limited. We aim to explore the value of the combination of multiple tumor markers in gastric cancer (GC) prognosis. Methods. The prognostic significance was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier log-rank survival analysis and multivariable Cox regression analysis. The estimated area under the curve (AUC) was compared to evaluate the discriminatory ability of different indicators. A nomogram was constructed based on the results of multivariable cox regression, and its performance was evaluated by Harrell's concordance index and calibration curve. Results. NPTM (number of positive tumor markers) displayed independent prognostic significance whether in the whole cohort or in patients with different stages. Patients with the all-negative tumor markers had a worse prognosis after postoperative chemotherapy in all cohort (P = 0.023) or in age ≤60 subgroup (P = 0.012), while patients with positive tumor markers had a better prognosis after postoperative chemotherapy in stage III (P = 0.012). The AUC value of NPTM is higher than any individual tumor marker. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year AUC values of the CTNM (combination of NPTM and pTNM) increased by 5%, 4.8%, and 3.6%, respectively, compared with TNM staging system. The nomogram constructed including NPTM showed its high accuracy (C − index = 0.706) versus TNM staging system (C − index = 0.646) and CTNM (C − index = 0.681). Conclusions. NPTM was an independent predictor of gastric cancer prognosis, showing more accurate prognostic performance than individual tumor markers. Especially its significance in guiding postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy regimens and predicting prognosis by combination with TNM staging system may have a better clinical application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The EVEN‐plus syndrome (epiphyseal–vertebral–ear–nose dysplasia plus associated findings) is an extremely rare autosomal recessive inherited disease characterised by specific facial features and skeletal dysplasia. It has a prenatal onset due to defects in the HSPA9 gene. The syndrome has not been reported previously in China. Methods: This study reported the characteristics, examination results, diagnosis and treatment of a female case aged 3 years and 3 months. Results: The patient had global developmental delay and specific facial features, including a prominent forehead, a bilateral auricle deformity, a collapsed nose, a high palatine arch, a short neck and other appearance abnormalities. Her hip joint magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results showed bilateral femoral head epiphyseal dysplasia with a fork‐shaped malformation at the distal end, and her brain MRI showed white matter myelin dysplasia. HSPA9 compound heterozygous variants c.882_c.883delAG and c.613A>G were identified by exome sequencing. Conclusions: This finding expands the spectra of EVEN‐plus syndrome phenotype and pathogenic variants and suggests that c.882_c.883delAG may have a higher distribution frequency in East Asian populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The type of combined effect of PFOA and 4-HBP changed from additive to synergistic from 1.25 × 10−8 M to 4 × 10−7 M. • Critical role of mTORC1 in MCF-7 cell proliferation identified by multi-omics analysis. • Molecular docking validated the binding capacity of PFOA and 4-HBP to the estrogen receptor. With the discovery of evidence that many endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment influence human health, their toxic effects and mechanisms have become a hot topic of research. However, investigations into their endocrine-disrupting toxicity under combined binary exposure, especially the molecular mechanism of combined effects, have rarely been documented. In this study, two typical EDCs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and 4-hydroxybenzophenone (4-HBP), were selected to examine their combined effects and molecular mechanism on MCF-7 cell proliferation at environmentally relevant exposure concentrations. We have successfully established a model to evaluate the binary combined toxic effects of endocrine disruptors, presenting combined effects in a simple and direct way. Results indicated that the combined effect changed from additive to synergistic from 1.25 × 10−8 M to 4 × 10−7 M. Metabolomics analyses suggested that exposure to PFOA and 4-HBP caused significant alterations in purine metabolism, arginine, and proline metabolism and had superimposed influences on metabolism. Enhanced combined effects were observed in glycine, serine, and threonine metabolic pathways compared to exposure to PFOS and 4-HBP alone. Additionally, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are primarily involved in Biological Processes, especially protein targeting the endoplasmic reticulum, and significantly impact the oxidative phosphorylation and thermogenesis-related KEGG pathway. By integrating metabolome and transcriptome analyses, PFOA and 4-HBP regulate purine metabolism, the TCA cycle, and endoplasmic reticulum protein synthesis in MCF-7 cells via mTORC1, which provides genetic material, protein, and energy for cell proliferation. Furthermore, molecular docking confirmed the ability of PFOA and 4-HBP to stably bind the estrogen receptor, indicating that they have different binding pockets. Collectively, these findings will offer new insights into understanding the mechanisms by which EDCs produce combined toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel health indicator-based decentralized event-triggered optimal fault-tolerant control method is proposed for modular robot manipulators (MRMs). First, the subsystem dynamic model is established by utilizing the joint torque feedback (JTF) technique. Second, the developed global controller consists of a model-based robust compensator and a health indicator-based optimal fault-tolerant controller, to address the model uncertainties and guarantee the faulty system stable operation, respectively. Considering the actuator output capability, a health indicator-based two-level judgment condition switching threshold strategy is designed for emergency treatment of sudden failures. On the basis of the neuro-dynamic programming (NDP) algorithm, the improved value function, reflecting the unknown faults and the health status of actuator, is approximated online under the event-triggered critic-only neural network structure. By addressing the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation, the health indicator-based decentralized event-triggered optimal fault-tolerant control strategy can be obtained. Finally, the tracking error of closed-loop MRM system can be demonstrated uniformly ultimately bounded through the Lyapunov theory. Furthermore, the experimental results obtained from the MRMs platform demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method. • The motor energy efficiency estimation-based health monitor is designed. • The value function with health indicator (HI) is proposed to optimize actuator. • The HI-based switching threshold event-triggering condition is firstly developed. • The proposed ET-OFTC policy improves the stability and accuracy of MRM with fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 5 years, the time-lapse culture system (TLS) has gradually been applied to the field of assisted reproduction. However, there are few reports on the comparison between this system and the conventional culture system (CS) on the outcome of newborns. As a new model in embryo culture, we should pay attention to its neonatal outcomes. We examined 15,252 fresh transfer cycles processed between January 2016 and December 2019. After propensity score matching, embryos in two groups, TLS and CS, had similar rates of miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, and live delivery (P > 0.05). Embryos in the TLS group achieved higher clinical pregnancy and implantation rates (P < 0.05). Of the perinatal and neonatal outcomes, singletons and twins were analyzed separately. No significant differences were observed in gestational age, preterm deliveries, birth weight, and sex ratio (P > 0.05). Incidences of malformations of babies delivered from CS and TLS groups were also similar between the two groups. Embryos cultured in a TLS are as safe as CS with regard to neonatal outcomes, including congenital malformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper carries out the quasi-natural experiment on China's carbon emissions trading pilot policy to assess the impact of China's carbon emissions trading pilot policy on the export product quality of enterprises in the pilot areas by using the data of listed companies and China Customs, and employing the DDD method. Meanwhile, it analyzes the heterogeneity of the impact under different ownership attributes and energy-intensive attributes of enterprises. The empirical results are as follows. First, due to the implementation of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy, the enterprises in the included industries bear the emission reduction cost. The export product quality of the enterprises in the included industries in the pilot areas is negatively affected compared with that of nonincluded enterprises in the nonpilot areas. Second, the impact of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy on the export product quality of enterprises may be heterogeneous due to the different ownership attributes of enterprises. The carbon emissions trading pilot policy significantly reduces the export product quality of non-state-owned enterprises, but has no significant effect on state-owned enterprises. Third, the impact of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy on the export product quality of enterprises is heterogeneous due to different energy-intensive attributes of enterprises. The carbon emissions trading pilot policy significantly reduces the export product quality of enterprises in energy-intensive industries, but it does not have a significant impact on enterprises in non-energy-intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen (N) inputs to terrestrial ecosystems are increasing faster than phosphorus (P) inputs, causing N:P imbalances and substantial changes in the diversity and structure of plant, soil microbial, and fauna communities. The responses of the soil micro-food web to N:P imbalances remain unclear but are crucial to understanding the impacts on ecosystem functioning. We investigated the effect of N and P additions on plant communities, edaphic properties, and nematode species diversity and composition, and assessed shifts in soil micro-food web complexity using nematode-based indices and structural equation modeling (SEM) in a nine-year nutrient addition experiment in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. We found that N addition decreased the structure index (SI) and enrichment index (EI), indicating that N enrichment led to a simplification of the soil micro-food web. The addition of P alleviated the negative effect of N on soil micro-food web complexity but did not restore nematode community composition. The SEM supported the hypothesis that N addition simplified soil micro-food webs through increases in the N:P ratio and associated reductions in plant species richness, while P addition ameliorated the effect of N by decreasing the soil N:P ratio and increasing plant species richness. Our results highlight the positive effects of plant diversity in maintaining the complexity of the soil micro-food web. Our findings provide information that can be used to guide sustainable management and restoration of grasslands to alleviate the projected effects of future N:P imbalances on the soil micro-food web. However, efforts should be made to avoid nutrient deposition given the observed effects on both plant and nematode communities that could not be restored by alleviating the N:P imbalance through P addition. • Phosphorus alleviates soil micro-food web simplification caused by excess nitrogen. • Nematode community composition remains unrestored despite phosphorus addition. • Plant diversity is crucial for maintaining complex soil micro-food webs. • Modifying nitrogen/phosphorus ratio alone can't fully restore communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whole-cell biosensors could be helpful for in situ disease diagnosis. However, their use in analyzing biological samples has been hindered by unstable responses, low signal enhancement, and growth inhibition in complex media. Here, we offered a solution by building a visual whole-cell biosensor for urinary mercury determination. With deoxyviolacein as the preferred signal for the mercury biosensor for the first time, it enabled the quantitative detection of urinary mercury with a favorable linear range from 1.57 to 100 nM. The biosensor can accurately diagnose urine mercury levels exceeding the biological exposure index with 95.8% accuracy. Thus, our study provided a biosensing platform with great potential to serve as a stable, user-friendly, and high-throughput alternative for the daily monitoring or estimating of urinary mercury. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • FeNiMnCaO DMFs are developed via a modified sol–gel method. • Efficient integrated CO 2 capture and hydrogenation to CO have been achieved. • Fe and Ni suppress MnCaO sintering and synergistically promote the RWGS reaction. • The RWGS reaction followed the H-assisted association formate mechanism. The integrated CO 2 capture from flue gas and hydrogenation can be realized by the consecutive calcium-looping (CaL) and reverse-water–gas-shift (RWGS) reactions. However, the incompatibility between the catalysis and adsorption components aggravates the sintering and deactivation of metal particles and CaO base material during the high-temperature process. Herein, we prepared a highly efficient and stable FeNiMnCaO material via a modified sol–gel method for in situ CaL and RWGS reaction, exhibiting a CO 2 adsorption capacity of 13.2 mmol g−1 at 40 cycles with 58.0 % CO 2 conversion and 100 % CO selectivity at 700 °C. The highly-dispersed Fe and Ni species in the developed catalyst not only suppressed the sintering of MnCaO, but also synergistically benefited the RWGS reaction, where FeO x species promoted CO 2 adsorption and metallic Ni facilitated H 2 dissociation. The reaction followed the H-assisted association formate mechanism, in which adsorption of CO 2 occurred at the FeO x -CaO interface with the aid of the hydroxyl surface groups to form bidentate bicarbonates, followed by dehydration to bidentate formate and decomposition to CO and H 2 O in the presence of Ni-dissociated reactive H* species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

pH-responsive nanogels have played an increasingly momentous role in tumor treatment. The focus of this study is to design and develop pH-responsive benzimidazole-chitosan quaternary ammonium salt (BIMIXHAC) nanogels for the controlled release of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) while enhancing its hydrophilicity. BIMIXHAC is crosslinked with carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), hyaluronic acid sodium salt (HA), and sodium alginates (SA) using an ion crosslinking method. The chemical structure of chitosan derivatives was verified by 1H NMR and FT-IR techniques. Compared to hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HACC)-based nanogels, BIMIXHAC-based nanogels exhibit better drug encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity (BIMIXHAC-D-HA 91.76 %, and 32.23 %), with pH-responsive release profiles and accelerated release in vitro. The series of nanogels formed by crosslinking with three different polyanionic crosslinkers have different particle size potentials and antioxidant properties. BIMIXHAC-HA, BIMIXHAC-SA and BIMIXHAC-CMC demonstrate favorable antioxidant capability. In addition, cytotoxicity tests showed that BIMIXHAC-based nanogels have high biocompatibility. BIMIXHAC-based nanogels exhibit preferable anticancer effects on MCF-7 and A549 cells. Furthermore, the BIMIXHAC-D-HA nanogel was 2.62 times less toxic than DOX to L929 cells. These results suggest that BIMIXHAC-based nanogels can serve as pH-responsive nanoplatforms for the delivery of anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seagull optimization algorithm (SOA) has the disadvantages of low convergence accuracy, weak population diversity, and tendency to fall into local optimum, especially for high dimensional and multimodal problems. To overcome these shortcomings, initially, in this study, a shared SOA (SSOA) is proposed based on the combination of a sharing multi-leader strategy with a self-adaptive mutation operator. In addition, seven new variants of the SSOA algorithm are proposed employing the Gaussian mutation operator, Cauchy mutation operator, Lévy flights mutation operator, improved Tent chaos mutation operator, neighborhood centroid opposition-based learning mutation operator, elite opposition-based learning mutation operator, and simulated annealing algorithm combined with other mutation operators, namely, GSSOA, CSSOA, LFSSOA, ITSSOA, ESSOA, NSSOA, and CMSSOA, respectively. Then, the performance of these variants was evaluated on 23 benchmark functions, and the various performances of the best variant were evaluated on a comprehensive set of 43 benchmark problems and three real-world problems compared to other optimizers. Experimental and statistical results demonstrate that the proposed CMSSOA algorithm outperforms other variants of the SSOA algorithm and competitor approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: "Three-port" laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) has been applied as a substitution for the conventional 4- to 5-port LRP to treat prostate cancer (PCa) patients in our institution. Objective: To evaluate the learning curve of an innovative "3-port" LRP for PCa patients. Methods: 206 patients who received "3-port" LRP were retrospectively reviewed between January 2016 and December 2019 at our institution. According to the different years of operations performed, all of the patients were divided into group A (No. 1–50), group B (No. 51–107), group C (No. 108–160), and group D (No. 161–206). A learning curve was depicted by analyzing the parameters of operative time (OT), estimated blood loss (EBL), hospitalization, and drainage indwelling days. Results: All groups were comparable with regard to the preoperative characteristics (p > 0.05). The sloping learning curve for the surgeon showed that OT and EBL were strongly correlated with an accumulated experience when compared between group A and the other groups (p < 0.05), denoting that the surgical skill of the "3-port" LRP can be fully mastered after around 50 cases. Although no significant correlation with additional experience was observed in the hospitalization and drainage indwelling days among groups, a tendency towards less hospitalization and drainage indwelling days was still reflected. Conclusions: Our 4-year analysis based on a single-center experience exhibits that the innovative "3-port" LRP appears to be favorable with decreasing tendency in OT and EBL with experience accumulation. In view of its advantage of perioperative parameters with an evidently improved learning curve, it should be recommended in the clinical practice! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential role of plastid translation in embryogenesis has been established in many plants, but a retrograde signal triggered by defective plastid translation machinery that may leads to embryogenesis arrest remains unknown. In this study, we characterized an embryo defective27 (emb27) mutant in maize (Zea mays), and cloning indicates that Emb27 encodes the plastid ribosomal protein S13. The null mutant emb27-1 conditions an emb phenotype with arrested embryogenesis; however, the leaky mutant emb27-2 exhibits normal embryogenesis but an albino seedling-lethal phenotype. The emb27-1/emb27-2 trans-heterozygotes display varying phenotypes from emb to normal seeds but albino seedlings. Analysis of the Emb27 transcription levels in these mutants revealed that the Emb27 expression level in the embryo corresponds with the phenotypic expression of the emb27 mutants. In the W22 genetic background, an Emb27 transcription level higher than 6% of the wild-type level renders normal embryogenesis, whereas lower than that arrests embryogenesis. Mutation of Emb27 reduces the level of plastid 16S rRNA and the accumulation of the plastid-encoded proteins. As a secondary effect, splicing of several plastid introns was impaired in emb27-1 and 2 other plastid translation-defective mutants, emb15 and emb16, suggesting that plastome-encoded factors are required for the splicing of these introns, such as Maturase K (MatK). Our results indicate that EMB27 is essential for plastid protein translation, embryogenesis, and seedling development in maize and reveal an expression threshold of Emb27 for maize embryogenesis. Maize embryogenesis requires plastid ribosomal protein S13, highlighting the linkage between plastid translation and maize embryogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An X-band reflectarray antenna using 16 × 12 double square ring elements for satellite communications is proposed in this paper. The feed is a 4 × 3 elements microstrip patch array designed to create edge taper of approximately − 10 dB. A prototype with right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) is manufactured and tested, and the good agreements between simulations and measurements are demonstrated. The good performance is obtained with the aperture efficiency of 40.7% and the 3-dB gain bandwidth of about 10% which is beneficial to nanosatellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Echinococcosis is highly endemic in western and northern China. Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is the most serious prevalent area. Linzhi is located in southeastern part of TAR. Dogs are the primary infection source for the transmission of echinococcosis to humans. A control and prevention campaign based on dog management has been implemented in the past three years. This study aims to evaluate the effects of dog management on the infection rate of dogs. Methods: Data of dog population, registration and de-worming of seven counties/district in Linzhi between 2017 and 2019 were obtained from the annual prevention and control report. Domestic dog fecal samples were collected from each endemic town of seven counties/district in Linzhi in 2019 to determine the infection of domestic dogs using coproantigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data analysis was processed using SPSS statistics to compare dog infection rate between 2016 and 2019 by chi-square test, and maps were mapped using ArcGIS. Results: In Linzhi, domestic dog population has decreased from 17 407 in 2017 to 12 663 in 2019, while the registration rate has increased from 75.9% in 2017 to 98.6% in 2019. Similarly, stray dog population has decreased from 14 336 in 2017 to 11 837 in 2019, while sheltered rate has increased from 84.6% in 2017 to 96.6% in 2019. Dog de-worming frequency has increased from 4 times per annum in 2017 to 12 times in 2019, indicating that approximately every dog was dewormed monthly. A total of 2715 dog fecal samples were collected for coproantigen ELISA assay. The dog infection rate was 2.8% (77/2715) in 2019, which was significantly lower than 7.3% (45/618) in 2016 (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Increased dog registration, decreased dog population, and increased dog de-worming frequency contributed to significantly decrease the dog infection rate in Linzhi. Control and prevention campaign based on dog management could significantly decrease dog infection with Echinococcus spp. in echinococcosis endemic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the authors discuss their study on the factors causing the difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children in China. Among the factors are the shortage of child psychiatrists and pediatricians and the failure to fully implement early screening. Other topics include the symptoms of ASD like social anxiety disorder and intellectual disability.

The effects of thermal treatment on the pore structure and mechanical property evolution of granite were experimentally investigated to evaluate the risks of traditional and critical geothermal systems. The microstructure of thermally treated granite was studied using an optical microscope and nuclear magnetic resonance, and the mechanical properties of thermally treated granite were studied under uniaxial compression. X-ray diffraction results showed that the mineralogical phase of granite hardly changed during thermal treatment from room temperature to 800 °C, but the granite experienced first a decrease and then an increase in porosity. Although overall porosity decreased at 200 °C, the proportion of pore throat radium beyond 6.3 μm grew increasingly with the treatment temperature, facilitating advective heat transport in the geothermal system. Intergranular microcracks caused by thermal anisotropic properties started at below 400 °C, and transgranular microcracks first appeared in feldspar at around 400 °C, finally extending to quartz at around 600 °C. The granite was strengthened due to decreased porosity at around 200 °C. Then, the granite was weakened and the failure transited from brittle to ductile due to increased porosity, where a sharp reduction occurred at 400–600 °C for α-β transition of quartz. The change in strength by cyclic heating under 200 °C was unnoticeable for temperature memory effect, but the cumulative strain at peak stress increased with the number of heating cycles. The changes in the pore and mechanical properties caused by thermal treatment favour geothermal systems which are not within the tectonic zone. However, increased porosity and strength weakening destabilize nearby faults due to normal stress release and strength weakening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sarcopenia is a negative predictor for postoperative recovery. This study was performed to evaluate the short-term outcomes of laparoscopic surgery in colorectal cancer patients with sarcopenia.Methods: We conducted a study of patients who underwent curative surgeries for colorectal cancer in two centers from July 2014 to July 2018. In order to reduce selection bias, we conducted a propensity score matching analysis. Preoperative characteristics including age, gender, anemia, body mass index, hypoalbuminemia, America society of anesthesiology scores, epidural anesthesia, operative procedure, stoma, tumor location, and combined resection were incorporated in the model, and produced 58 matched pairs. The third lumbar skeletal muscle mass, handgrip strength, and 6 m usual gait speed were measured to define sarcopenia. Short-term outcomes were compared between the two groups.Results: In a total of 1136 patients, 272 had sarcopenia diagnosed, and 227 were further analyzed in this study. Among them, 108 patients underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery and 119 underwent open colorectal surgery. In the matched cohort, the clinical characteristics of the two groups were well matched. The laparoscopic group had significantly reduced overall complications (15.5% vs. 36.2%, P = 0.016) and shorter postoperative hospital stays (10.5 vs. 14, P = 0.027). Subgroup analysis of postoperative complications showed that the incidence of surgical complications (P = 0.032) was lower in the laparoscopic group. Hospitalization costs (P = 0.071) and 30-day readmissions (P = 0.215) were similar between the two groups.Conclusion: Laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer is a safe and feasible option with better short-term outcomes in patients with sarcopenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterized the composition and structure of the vaginal microbiota in a cohort of 149 women with genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection at baseline who were followed quarterly for 9 months after antibiotic treatment. At time of diagnosis, the vaginal microbiota was dominated by Lactobacillus iners or a diverse array of bacterial vaginosis–associated bacteria including Gardnerella vaginalis. Interestingly, L. iners– dominated communities were most common after azithromycin treatment (1 g monodose), consistent with the observed relative resistance of L. iners to azithromycin. Lactobacillus iners –dominated communities have been associated with increased risk of C. trachomatis infection, suggesting that the impact of antibiotic treatment on the vaginal microbiota could favor reinfections. These results provide support for the dual need to account for the potential perturbing effect(s) of antibiotic treatment on the vaginal microbiota, and to develop strategies to protect and restore optimal vaginal microbiota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an aggressive malignancy worldwide. Icariin (ICA), an active ingredient of flavonoids, has been demonstrated to possess antitumor activity in diverse cancers. Whereas, the role of ICAin OSCC is still unclear. Methods: Herein, we investigated the anti-tumor effects of ICA in vitro and in vivo. CCK-8, colony formation and trans-well assay were used to examined viability, proliferation and invasion in SCC-9 and SCC-15 cell lines, respectively. Next, we tested the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and NF-κB P65 by western blot or immunofluorescence staining. Finally, we constructed a xenograft mice model to investigate the effect of ICA in vivo. Results: In vitro, ICA decreased the human oral squamous cells viability, proliferation and invasion in a concentration-dependent manner. Besides, ICA decreased the phosphorylation level of P65 and down-regulated TLR4 protein. In vivo, compared with control, ICA significantly suppressed the tumor size and weight. In addition, ICA downregulated the levels of Ki67 and VEGF markedly. Dramatically, ICA decreased the phosphorylation level of P65 in tumor tissues. Conclusion: Taken together, ICA could act as a anticancer drug against OSCC to mitigate the growth and invasion ability, the underlying mechanism may due to the down-regulation of TLR4/NF-κB signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on social information processing theory, this research examines whether and how an employee's proactive personality influences intrinsic and extrinsic career growth. It also examines the mediating effects of two types of proactive behaviors (voice behavior and taking charge) and the moderating effect of a leader's proactive personality. A sample of 307 employee-leader dyads participated in this survey. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses, and the bootstrap procedure was used to test the indirect effects. Results show that an employee's proactive personality has significant positive effects on both intrinsic and extrinsic career growth. The mediating effect of taking charge was confirmed, while the mediating effect of voice behavior was not. Leader proactive personality weakens the relationship between employee proactive personality and the two types of proactive behaviors. Employee proactive personality is more positively related to intrinsic and extrinsic career growth via proactive behaviors when a leader's proactive personality is low. This study extends the literature on proactive personality, proactive behavior, and career development by examining the underlying determination, mediation, and moderation mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify the optimal strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) by comparing the oncological prognosis of different perioperative locoregional adjuvant treatments. Electronic database were searched for relevant studies. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were pooled by pairwise and network meta-analysis. Fourteen eligible trials with 1927 patients and covering four adjuvant treatments were included. All adjuvant therapies in combination with surgery were shown to be superior to surgery alone. Adjuvant therapy with radiotherapy had the lowest hazard ratio (HR) for both OS (HR: 0.38, 95% CrI: 0.25–0.57) and RFS (HR: 0.27, 95% CrI: 0.11–0.65) compared with other combination treatments, with estimated surface under the cumulative ranking of 93.2% and 82.7%, respectively. Perioperative locoregional adjuvant therapy provides OS benefits and reduces the risk of recurrence for patients suffering from HCC with PVTT. Radiotherapy is likely to be the most effective adjuvant regimen. • Provide a practical and objective ranking of perioperative locoregional adjuvant treatment strategies for HCC with PVTT. • Perioperative locoregional adjuvant therapy provides overall survival benefit and reduces recurrence risk for HCC with PVTT. • Radiotherapy is likely to be the most effective adjuvant regimen, followed by HAIC, PVC and TACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, imidazole acids grafted chitosan derivatives were synthesized, including HACC, HACC derivatives, TMC, TMC derivatives, amidated chitosan and amidated chitosan bearing imidazolium salts. The prepared chitosan derivatives were characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR. The tests evaluated the biological antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities of chitosan derivatives. The antioxidant capacity (DPPH radical, superoxide anion radical and hydroxyl radical) of chitosan derivatives was 2.4–8.3 times higher than that of chitosan. The antibacterial capacity against E. coli and S. aureus of cationic derivatives (HACC derivatives, TMC derivatives, and amidated chitosan bearing imidazolium salts) was more active than only imidazole-chitosan (amidated chitosan). In particular, the inhibition effect of HACC derivatives on E. coli was 15.625 μg/mL. Moreover, the series of chitosan derivatives bearing imidazole acids showed certain activity against MCF-7 and A549 cells. The present results suggest that the chitosan derivatives in this paper seem to be promising carrier materials for use in drug delivery systems. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier, is a tremendously destructive insect pest of palm trees worldwide. Although some biological agents have been used to fight against RPW larvae, the control efficiency is still dissatisfactory. This study aimed to determine the role of a peptidoglycan recognition protein (PGRP), RfPGRP-S3, in RPW immunity. RfPGRP-S3 is a secreted protein with a DF (Asp85-Phe86) motif, implying that it can discriminate Gram-positive bacteria. The abundance of RfPGRP-S3 transcripts in the hemolymph was significantly higher than that in other tissues. The expression of RfPGRP - S3 can be markedly induced by challenge with Staphylococcus aureus and Beauveria bassiana. After RfPGRP-S3 was silenced, the ability of individuals to clear the pathogenic bacteria in the body cavity and gut was significantly compromised. Furthermore, silencing RfPGRP-S3 dramatically impaired the survival rate of RPW larvae upon challenge with S. aureus. RT‒qPCR revealed that the expression levels of RfDefensin in the fat body and gut were decreased by RfPGRP - S3 silencing. Taken together, these results demonstrated that RfPGRP-S3 acts as a circulating receptor to promote the expression of the antimicrobial peptide gene upon the discrimination of pathogenic microbes. • RfPGRP-S3 is a secreted protein with a DF motif which is essential for discriminating Gram-positive bacteria. • RfPGRP-S3 represent in hemolymph with the highest transcript abundance in contrast with other tested tissues. • RfPGRP-S3 silencing dramatically impaired the immunocompetence of RPW larvae. • RfPGRP-S3 acts as a circulating PRR to activate RPW immunity during exposure to Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Agricultural monitoring is required to enhance crop production, control plant stress, and predict pests and crop infection. Apart from monitoring the external influences, the state of the plant itself must be tracked. However, the modern methods for plant analysis are expensive and require plants processing often in a destructive way. Optical spectroscopy can be used for the non-invasive monitoring requiring no consumables, and little to none sample preparation. In this context, we found that the red beet growth can be monitored by Raman spectroscopy. Our analysis shows that, as plants age, the rate of betalain content increases. This increase makes betalain dominate the whole Raman spectra over other plant components. The dominance of betalain facilitates its use as a molecular marker for plant growth. This finding has implications in the understanding of plant physiology, particularly important for greenhouse growth and the optimization of external conditions such as artificial illumination. Graphical Abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Raman spectroscopy enables the composition determination of red beet. • The spectra of the leaves and stems show the presence of carotenoids and betalain. • The pigment betalain content in red beet increases with the plant growth. • For the first time, betalain is proposed as a molecular marker for red beet senescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a one-pot method for the encapsulation of small Ni particles into a dendritic SiO2 skeleton. Such confined Ni particles are robust against metal particle sintering and preferentially grow amorphous carbon instead of graphitized carbon, which maintain high activity and stability towards methane dry reforming at 700 °C for 200 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an integrated production of bio-jet fuel, from dehydrogenation of lignin-derived cycloalkanes and deoxygenation of lipid over PtIr/γ-Al2O3 at 400 °C in the absence of hydrogen. The CO generated in situ via lipid decarbonylation is strongly adsorbed by Ir and subsequently undergoes methanation, with the remaining Pt sites catalyzing cycloalkane dehydrogenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), namely, {[Zn 2 (abtc)(bpa)(H 2 O)]·5H 2 O} n (1) , {[Cd 3 (abtc) 2 ]·2H 3 O} n (2) and [Cd 3 (H 2 abtc) 3 (bpp)(μ 2 -OH 2 ) 2 (H 2 O) 3 ] n (3) [bpa = bis(4-pyridyl)amine, bpp = 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane] have been constructed mainly from the ligand of 3,3′,5,5′-azobenzene-tetracarboxylic acid (H 4 abtc) and metal centers of Zn 2+ or Cd 2+ . Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that compounds 1 and 2 display 3D frameworks, while compound 3 displays a 2D layered structure consisting of intriguing 1D rhombic chains and bpp ligands. The solid-state luminescent properties of three products are investigated at room temperature. Furthermore, fluorescence measurements indicated that the complex 1 could sensitively sense Fe 3+ ions and nitrobenzene molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Manipulation of the CO2 hydrogenation selectivity to CO on RuSn based catalysts. • The transfer of electrons from Sn to Ru weakened the dissociation of H 2 while improving the adsorption of O on Ru. • The Ru/Sn ratio 5:0.43 balances the CO 2 activation and H 2 dissociation rates to obtain the highest CO yield. • The high stability (1000 h) was achieved with ultra-low Ru loading catalyst for the blast furnace gas hydrogenation. Selective hydrogenation of CO 2 to syngas via the reverse water–gas shift (RWGS) route provides an effective strategy to achieve low-carbon development. While CO 2 methanation to CH 4 takes place readily on Ru metal, the selective hydrogenation of CO 2 to CO in Ru-catalysts remains a challenge. In this work, we prepared a Ru-Sn/La 2 O 2 CO 3 catalytic system allowing over 99% selectivity of CO during CO 2 hydrogenation at 400 °C. Characterization revealed that the transfer of electrons from Sn to Ru weakened the dissociation ability of H 2 while improving the adsorption ability of O on Ru. The former inhibited the formation of methane, while the latter caused the C-O bond energy of CO 2 adsorbed at the Ru-Sn interface to decrease and dissociate at the Ru-side, forming Ru-CO* and Ru-O*; thus, realizing the RWGS process. An ultra-low Ru-loaded (0.01 wt%) RuSn/La 2 O 2 CO 3 catalyst with strong metal-support interactions achieved a CO 2 hydrogenation rate at 103 times higher than the best reported data. This catalyst was successfully applied to the hydrogenation of blast furnace gas (BFG) to syngas, showing a CO formation rate as high as 2.3*106 mmol CO ·g Ru −1·h−1 and remaining stable at 850 °C for 1000 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27706-0. Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27706-0, published online 19 January 2023 The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Jegan Iyyathurai which was incorrectly given as Jegan Lyyathurai. [Extracted from the article]

Two metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), namely {[Zn 3 (L) 2 (4,4′-bipy)(DMF) 2 ]·2H 2 O} n (1) and {[Cd 3 (L) 2 (4,4′-bipy)(H 2 O) 2 ].2DMF} n (2) (4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine, DMF = N , N -dimethylformamide), were solvothermally prepared based on a rigid tricarboxylic acid 3-(3,5-dicarboxylphenyl)-5-(3-carboxylphenyl)-1-H-1,2,4-triazole (H 3 L). X-ray crystallographic analysis reveals that 1 and 2 are isostructural and both emit blue light. Notably, 1 exhibits good luminescent sensing for nitro-containing compounds and Fe 3+ ions. In addition, the emission colors of 1 can be tuned from yellow to white and to blue by encapsulating different mole ratios of Eu 3+ and Tb 3+ ions and changing the excitation wavelength. A white emission with the Commission International de l’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.331, 0.337), which fall within the white-light region, emerges upon excitation at 340 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Information about epidemiology on burns is rare in China. The aim of this article is to describe the pattern of burns in East China during a 10-year time period.Method: A retrospective data analysis was performed on all hospitalized patients to the burn center at the Changhai hospital, one of major burn centers in East China, from 2005 to 2014.Results: We included 3376 patients in this study. Among them, 48.1% were from 27 provinces out of Shanghai and nearly 90% were from East China. August saw the most admissions and November saw the fewest. Spring and summer separately dominated in number of female and male patients. Children aged 2-5 and working-age adult were the most commonly treated. Home was the commonest place of injury, followed by industrial-related places, outdoors, public buildings, and vehicles or roads. Scalds remained the primary reason, followed by fire, contact burns, electricity, and chemicals. The average %TBSA of male patients was 14.2±21.3, significantly different from that of female patients (10.4±16.9). Extremities were the most vulnerable body region burned, followed by the trunk, face and hands. The average hospital length of stay in male patients was 25.4±72.4 days, significantly different from that of females' 19.9±27.6 days. The total mortality was 1.8% and the lethal area burned resulting in 50% mortality was 96.5% TBSA.Conclusion: Compared with published data, these result are encouraging, which demonstrate that burn care and treatment has made significant progress. Burn clinicians should bear not only the responsibility to treat and cure burns, but also the popularization of knowledge about burn precautions and emergency treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a new hydrothermal and basic-additive free process for synthesizing a core(single-crystalline HBEA zeolite)–echinus(nickel phyllosilicate) catalyst, which exhibits excellent reactivity and stability for hydrogenation reactions. Desilication and dealumination processes generate substantial SiO32− ions and exposed Si–OH groups to form nickel phyllosilicate on the external and internal surfaces of zeolite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of commonly used magnesium alloys, 316L stainless steel coating and 316L-SiC composite coating have been deposited directly on commercial AZ80 magnesium alloy using cold spraying technology (CS). The microstructure, hardness and bonding strength of as-sprayed coatings were studied. Their tribological properties sliding against SiN and GCr15 steel under unlubricated conditions were evaluated by a ball-on-disk tribometer. Corrosion behaviors of coated samples were also evaluated and compared to that of uncoated magnesium alloy substrate in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution by electrochemical measurements. Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the corresponding wear tracks and corroded surfaces to determine wear and corrosion mechanisms. The results showed that the as-sprayed coatings possessed higher microhardness and more excellent wear resistance than magnesium alloy substrate. Meanwhile, 316L and 316L-SiC coating also reduced the corrosion current density of magnesium alloy and the galvanic corrosion of the substrates was not observed after 200-h neutral salt spray exposure, which demonstrated that corrosion resistance of a magnesium alloy substrate could be greatly improved by cold-sprayed stainless steel-based coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicate-based cements have been developed as a class of bioactive and biodegradable bone cements owing to their good in vitro bioactivity and ability to dissolve in a simulated body fluid. Until recently, however, the in vivo evidence of their ability to support bone regeneration is still scarce. In the present study, a pilot in vivo evaluation of a silicate-based composite bone cement (CSC) was carried out in a rabbit femur defect model. The cement was composed of tricalcium silicate, 45S5 bioglass and calcium sulfate, and the self-setting properties of the material were established. The in vivo bone integration and biodegradability of CSC were investigated and compared with those of bioactive glass particulates, and a calcium phosphate cement. The results showed that CSC underwent a relatively slower in vivo degradation as compared with bioactive glass and calcium phosphate cement. Histological observation demonstrated that bone contact area at the interface between the surrounding bone and CSC gradually increased with time proceeding. CSC kept its structural integrity during implantation in vivo because of its acceptable mechanical strength. These results provide evidence of effectiveness in vivo and suggest potential clinical applications of the silicate-based composite bone cements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusion reactor first wall services on the conditions of high surface heat flux and intense neutron irradiation. For China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) with high duty time factor, it is important to analyze the irradiation effect on the creep lifetime of the main candidate structure materials for first wall, i.e. ferritic/martensitic steel, austenite steel and oxide dispersion strengthened steel. The allowable irradiation creep lifetime was evaluated with Larson-Miller Parameter (LMP) model and finite element method. The results show that the allowable irradiation creep lifetime decreases with increasing of surface heat flux, first wall thickness and inlet coolant temperature. For the current CFETR conceptual design, the lifetime is not limited by thermal creep or irradiation creep, which indicated the room for design parameters optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]