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Abstract This study presents an approach that integrates compressed sensing technology with two-dimensional hyperchaotic coupled Fourier oscillator systems (2D-HCFOS) to address the challenge of slow encryption speeds in agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The primary challenge in enhancing encryption speed lies in the limited capacity inherent in traditional chaotic-based systems and the computational complexity of their processes. The 2D-HCFOS utilizes a complex two-dimensional hybrid chaotic system, which significantly enhances the security of agricultural UAV image data. Notably, the image encryption process is performed on a personal computer connected to the drone, ensuring efficient processing. By integrating advanced Fourier series and nonlinear coupled oscillators, the model surpasses existing chaotic-based methods, improving both the pseudo-randomness and robustness of encryption. Additionally, incorporating Bonouille functions into the discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain results in a sparser measurement matrix, which is essential for efficient encryption on personal computers. The effectiveness of 2D-HCFOS in securely encrypting agricultural drone images has been rigorously validated through simulations and analytical evaluations using sophisticated row, rotation, and matrix encryption techniques. The improved security performance is further verified by comparative analysis. Compared with other models, the Lyapunov index of 2D-HCFOS is 15.1039, and the sample entropy is 2.4987, indicating that it possesses superior chaotic performance and encryption reliability.

Abstract Stereoscopic display technology plays a significant role in industries, such as film, television and autonomous driving. The accuracy of depth estimation is crucial for achieving high-quality and realistic stereoscopic display effects. In addressing the inherent challenges of applying Transformers to depth estimation, the Stereoscopic Pyramid Transformer-Depth (SPT-Depth) is introduced. This method utilizes stepwise downsampling to acquire both shallow and deep semantic information, which are subsequently fused. The training process is divided into fine and coarse convergence stages, employing distinct training strategies and hyperparameters, resulting in a substantial reduction in both training and validation losses. In the training strategy, a shift and scale-invariant mean square error function is employed to compensate for the lack of translational invariance in the Transformers. Additionally, an edge-smoothing function is applied to reduce noise in the depth map, enhancing the model's robustness. The SPT-Depth achieves a global receptive field while effectively reducing time complexity. In comparison with the baseline method, with the New York University Depth V2 (NYU Depth V2) dataset, there is a 10% reduction in Absolute Relative Error (Abs Rel) and a 36% decrease in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). When compared with the state-of-the-art methods, there is a 17% reduction in RMSE.

Abstract Monocular depth estimation has a wide range of applications in the field of autostereoscopic displays, while accuracy and robustness in complex scenes are still a challenge. In this paper, we propose a depth estimation network for autostereoscopic displays, which aims at improving the accuracy of monocular depth estimation by fusing Vision Transformer (ViT) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Our approach feeds the input image as a sequence of visual features into the ViT module and utilizes its global perception capability to extract high-level semantic features of the image. The relationship between the losses is quantified by adding a weight correction module to improve robustness of the model. Experimental evaluation results on several public datasets show that AMENet exhibits higher accuracy and robustness than existing methods in different scenarios and complex conditions. In addition, a detailed experimental analysis was conducted to verify the effectiveness and stability of our method. The accuracy improvement on the KITTI dataset compared to the baseline method is 4.4%. In summary, AMENet is a promising depth estimation method with sufficient high robustness and accuracy for monocular depth estimation tasks.

Vitamins are dietary components necessary for cellular metabolic balance, especially redox homeostasis; deficient or excessive supply may give rise to symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Exploring the nutritional and metabolic pathways of vitamins could contribute to uncovering the underlying pathogenesis of ferroptosis-associated diseases. This mini-review aims to provide insights into vitamins closely linked to the regulation of ferroptosis from the perspective of cellular reactive oxygen species biology. The mainstream reprogramming mechanisms of ferroptosis are overviewed, focusing on unique biological processes of iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, and amino acid metabolism. Moreover, recent breakthroughs in therapeutic interventions targeting ferroptosis via fully utilizing vitamin-based pharmacological tools were overviewed, covering vitamins (B, C, E, and K). Finally, mechanism insight related to vitamin-associated nutrient signaling was provided, highlighting the pharmacological benefits of metabolically reprogramming ferroptosis-associated diseases.

Food proteins and peptides are generally considered a source of dietary antioxidants. The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant activity, allergenicity, and peptide profiles of whey protein hydrolysates (WPHs) using different hydrolysis methods. The results demonstrated that the degrees of hydrolysis of the hydrolysates with one-step (O-AD) and two-step (T-AD) methods reached 16.25% and 17.64%, respectively. The size exclusion chromatography results showed that the O-AD had a higher content of >5 and

The paocai industry faces challenges related to the production of large volumes of high-salinity and acidic brine by-products. Maintaining paocai quality while reducing brine production is crucial. This study utilized high-throughput sequencing technology to analyze microbial changes throughout the fermentation process, along with the non-volatile flavor compounds and physicochemical properties, to assess the impact of hot-air and salt-pressing pre-dehydration treatments on paocai quality. The findings indicate that pre-dehydration of raw material slowed the fermentation process but enhanced the concentration of non-volatile flavor substances, including free amino acids and organic acids. Hot-air pre-dehydration effectively reduced initial salinity to levels comparable to those in high-salinity fermentation of fresh vegetables. Furthermore, pre-dehydration altered microbial community structures and simplified inter-microbial relationships during fermentation. However, the key microorganisms such as Lactobacillus, Weissella, Enterobacter, Wallemia, Aspergillus, and Kazachstania remained consistent across all groups. Additionally, this study found that biomarkers influenced non-volatile flavor formation differently depending on the treatment, but these substances had minimal impact on the biomarkers and showed no clear correlation with high-abundance microorganisms. Overall, fermenting pre-dehydrated raw materials presents an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional paocai production.

The development of efficient and environmentally friendly photocatalysts is crucial for addressing global energy and environmental challenges. Perylene diimide, an organic supramolecular material, holds great potential for applications in mineralized phenol. In this study, through the integration of different mass ratios of unmodified perylenimide (PDI-NH) into the self-assembly of amino acid-substituted perylenimide (PDI-COOH), a novel supramolecular organic heterojunction (PDICOOH/PDINH) was fabricated. The ensuing investigation focuses on its visible-light mineralized phenol properties. The results show that the optimal performance is observed with a composite mass fraction of 10%, leading to complete mineralization of 5 mg/L phenol within 5 h. The reaction exhibits one-stage kinetics with rate constants 13.80 and 1.30 times higher than those of PDI-NH and PDI-COOH, respectively. SEM and TEM reveal a heterogeneous interface between PDI-NH and PDI-COOH. Photoelectrochemical and Kelvin probe characterization confirm the generation of a built-in electric field at the interface, which is 1.73 times stronger than that of PDI-COOH. The introduction of PDI-NH promotes π-π stacking of PDI-COOH, while the built-in electric field facilitates efficient charge transfer at the interface, thereby enhancing phenol decomposition. The finding demonstrates that supramolecular heterojunctions have great potential as highly effective photocatalysts for environmental remediation applications.

Abstract Background Thyroid cancer (THCA) has become increasingly common in recent decades, and women are three to four times more likely to develop it than men. Evidence shows that estrogen has a significant impact on THCA proliferation and growth. Nevertheless, the effects of estrogen-related genes (ERGs) on THCA stages, immunological infiltration, and treatment susceptibility have not been well explored. Methods Clinicopathological and transcriptome data of patients with THCA from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were cleaned before consensus clustering. Differential expression analysis was performed on the genes expressed between THCA and paraneoplastic tissues in TCGA, and Wayne analysis was performed on the ERGs obtained from the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis MsigDB and differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Univariate Cox and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analyses were used to identify the set of estrogen-related differentially expressed genes (ERDEGs) associated with progression-free intervals (PFI) and to establish a prediction model. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted to calculate the risk scores and PFI status to validate the predictive effect of the model. Enrichment analyses and immune infiltration analyses were performed to analyze DEGs between the high- and low-risk groups, and a nomogram plot was used in the risk model to predict the PFI of THCA. Results The expression of 120 ERDEGs differed significantly between the two groups (P < 0.05). Five (CD24, CAV1, TACC1, TIPARP, and HSD17B10) of the eight ERDEGs identified using univariate Cox and LASSO regression were validated via RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry analysis of clinical tissue samples and were used for clinical staging and drug sensitivity analysis. Risk-DEGs were shown to be associated with immune modulation and tumor immune evasion, as well as defense systems, signal transduction, the tumor microenvironment, and immunoregulation. In 19 of the 28 immune cells, infiltration levels differed between the high- and low-risk groups. High-risk patients in the immunotherapy dataset had considerably shorter survival times than low-risk patients. Conclusion We identified and confirmed eight ERDEGs using a systematic analysis and screened sensitive drugs for ERDEGs. These results provide molecular evidence for the involvement of ERGs in controlling the immunological microenvironment and treatment response in THCA.

Abstract Bovine mastitis, the most prevalent and costly disease in dairy cows worldwide, decreases milk quality and quantity, and increases cow culling. However, involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in mastitis is not well characterized. The objective was to determine the role of microRNA-223 (miR-223) in regulation of the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor containing pyrin domain 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and kelch like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1)/nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) oxidative stress pathway in mastitis models induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment of immortalized bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs) and murine mammary glands. In bMECs cultured in vitro, LPS-induced inflammation downregulated bta-miR-223; the latter interacted directly with the 3’ untranslated region (3’ UTR) of NLRP3 and Keap1. Overexpression of bta-miR-223 in bMECs decreased LPS and Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP)-induced NLRP3 and its mediation of caspase 1 and IL-1β, and inhibited LPS-induced Keap1 and Nrf2 mediated oxidative stress, whereas inhibition of bta-miR-223 had opposite effects. In an in vivo murine model of LPS-induced mastitis, increased miR-223 mitigated pathology in the murine mammary gland, whereas decreased miR-223 increased inflammatory changes and oxidative stress. In conclusion, bta-miR-223 mitigated inflammation and oxidative injury by downregulating the NLRP3 inflammasome and Keap1/Nrf2 signaling pathway. This study implicated bta-miR-223 in regulation of inflammatory responses, with potential as a novel target for treating bovine mastitis and other diseases.

This study theoretically and numerically examines the differences in shear performance between tapered and prismatic girder configurations with corrugated steel webs (CSWs) and investigates the influence of the Resal effect on the shear performance of tapered girders with CSWs. The vertical components of the inclined bottom slab forces (which are zero in prismatic cases) may decrease or increase the effective shear force on the CSWs, reflecting the positive and negative influences of the Resal effect. Based on these influences, this study introduces the concepts of positive and negative Resal effects and proposes an improved shear method to predict the effective shear forces acting on tapered CSWs. The results of the theoretical and finite element (FE) analyses show that the traditional shear method, which assumes CSWs bear all the shear force, is not applicable to tapered girders. The improved shear method significantly reduced the error in predicting shear forces within the CSWs, decreasing the maximum error from 42.25% (traditional method) to 7.71% (improved method) in specific sections. Quantitative analyses of three different types of girders with CSWs indicate that the Resal effect is influenced by both the internal forces and the structural form of the box girder. In cases of a positive Resal effect, the inclined bottom slab shares a considerable portion of the shear force with CSWs, resulting in a surplus shear capacity in the CSWs; conversely, under a negative Resal effect, there is an increase in the effective shear force on the web, which could lead to an overestimation of the shear buckling strength of CSWs. These findings highlight the necessity of incorporating Resal effects for accurate shear force predictions in tapered girders. By accurately predicting shear forces, engineers can enhance the performance and reliability of these structures, avoiding both overestimation and underestimation of shear capacities.

Abstract Background There is a mutual hemodynamic and pathophysiological basis between the heart and brain. Glutamate (GLU) signaling plays an important role in the process of myocardial ischemia (MI) and ischemic stroke (IS). To further explore the common protective mechanism after cardiac and cerebral ischemic injuries, the relationship between GLU receptor-related genes and MI and IS were analyzed. Results A total of 25 crosstalk genes were identified, which were mainly enriched in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, Th17 cell differentiation, and other signaling pathways. Protein-protein interaction analysis suggested that the top six genes with the most interactions with shared genes were IL6, TLR4, IL1B, SRC, TLR2, and CCL2. Immune infiltration analysis suggested that immune cells such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells and monocytes were highly expressed in the MI and IS data. Memory B cells and Th17 cells were expressed at low levels in the MI and IS data; molecular interaction network construction suggested that genes such as JUN, FOS, and PPARA were shared genes and transcription factors; FCGR2A was a shared gene of MI and IS as well as an immune gene. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator logistic regression analysis identified nine hub genes: IL1B, FOS, JUN, FCGR2A, IL6, AKT1, DRD4, GLUD2, and SRC. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that the area under the curve of these hub genes was > 65% in MI and IS for all seven genes except IL6 and DRD4. Furthermore, clinical blood samples and cellular models showed that the expression of relevant hub genes was consistent with the bioinformatics analysis. Conclusions In this study, we found that the GLU receptor-related genes IL1B, FOS, JUN, FCGR2A, and SRC were expressed in MI and IS with the same trend, which can be used to predict the occurrence of cardiac and cerebral ischemic diseases and provide reliable biomarkers to further explore the co-protective mechanism after cardiac and cerebral ischemic injury.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been recognized as an ideal supporter owning to its abundant hydroxyl groups on the surface. In this work, Keggin-type phosphotungstic acid (H3PW12O40, PWA) is self-anchored on the three-dimensional network of BC by a simple diffusion method at room-temperature. BC fibers can protect the well-dispersed PWA with high transparency, high mechanical strength, and high stability. When PWA/BC serves as a photochromic material, the coloration time and bleaching time are only 3 min and 30 min respectively. After 6 cycles, the photochromic ability of the PWA/BC composite film almost unchanged. At the same time, we convert the coloration and bleaching degree into quantitative data including a color difference calculation of ΔE2000 and the remaining degree of color (RC%). Within the BC system, PWA exhibits a special linear relationship between RC% and bleaching time (0–30 min). The processes of PWA/BC reduction (W6+→W5+) and oxidation (W5+→W6+) are analysed by photo-electrochromic, XPS and ESR characterizations. The revealed excellent photochromic properties of soft PWA/BC films highlight their potential as the photoresponsive materials.

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is a crucial tool for studying microstructures of ceramic materials. However, the current practice heavily relies on manual efforts to extract porosity from SEM images. To address this issue, we propose PSTNet (Pyramid Segmentation Transformer Net) for grain and pore segmentation in SEM images, which merges multi-scale feature maps through operations like recombination and upsampling to predict and generate segmentation maps. These maps are used to predict the corresponding porosity at ceramic grain boundaries. To increase segmentation accuracy and minimize loss, we employ several strategies. (1) We train the micro-pore detection and segmentation model using publicly available Al2O3 and custom Y2O3 ceramic SEM images. We calculate the pixel percentage of segmented pores in SEM images to determine the surface porosity at the corresponding locations. (2) Utilizing high-temperature hot pressing sintering, we prepared and captured scanning electron microscope images of Y2O3 ceramics, with which a Y2O3 ceramic dataset was constructed through preprocessing and annotation. (3) We employed segmentation penalty cross-entropy loss, smooth L1 loss, and structural similarity (SSIM) loss as the constituent terms of a joint loss function. The segmentation penalty cross-entropy loss helps suppress segmentation loss bias, smooth L1 loss is utilized to reduce noise in images, and incorporating structural similarity into the loss function computation guides the model to better learn structural features of images, significantly improving the accuracy and robustness of semantic segmentation. (4) In the decoder stage, we utilized an improved version of the multi-head attention mechanism (MHA) for feature fusion, leading to a significant enhancement in model performance. Our model training is based on publicly available laser-sintered Al2O3 ceramic datasets and self-made high-temperature hot-pressed sintered Y2O3 ceramic datasets, and validation has been completed. Our Pix Acc score improves over the baseline by 12.2%, 86.52 vs. 76.01, and the mIoU score improves from by 25.5%, 69.10 vs. 51.49. The average relative errors on datasets Y2O3 and Al2O3 were 6.9% and 6.36%, respectively.

Fast neutron radiography technology has unique application advantages in the field of non-destructive testing. However, due to the interaction between the gamma rays and the charge-coupled device camera, a large amount of gamma white spots noise is attached to the fast neutron images, which affects the subsequent analysis. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective method to remove gamma white spots noise in fast neutron images. First, the image is down-sampled by the dilated down-sampling method to reduce the influence of noise. Then, the existence of gamma white spots noise is accurately identified by noise detection. Finally, the image is denoised using an improved median filtering method. In order to verify the performance of the proposed method, several commonly used noise reduction methods and the proposed method are used to conduct test experiments on both simulated and fast neutron images, and several image quality evaluation indices are used for quantitative assessment. The results show that the proposed method not only performs well in visual effects but also achieves satisfactory results in evaluation indices.

ABSTRACTFollowing the approval of Cervarix for the immunization of girls and women in China against high-risk human papillomavirus types 16 and 18, a non-interventional post-authorization safety study was performed. A multi-center prospective cohort study assessed safety following Cervarix vaccination of Chinese girls and women aged 9–45 years between 31 May 2018 and 3 December 2020. Adverse events following immunization (AEFIs), potential immune-mediated diseases (pIMDs), and pregnancy-related outcomes were collected up to 12 months from the third immunization or 24 months from the first immunization, whichever came first. Among 3,013 women who received 8,839 Cervarix doses, 167 (5.5%) reported ≥ 1 any AEFI, and 22 (0.7%) reported 40 serious AEFIs. During the 30 days after each dose, 147 women (4.9%) reported 211 medically attended AEFIs, including 3 serious AEFIs reported by 1 woman (0.03%). One woman reported a pIMD. Cervarix was inadvertently administered to 65 women (2.2%) within 60 days before conception or during pregnancy. Of these women, 34 (52.3%) gave birth to live infant(s) with no apparent congenital anomalies, and 1 (1.5%) woman gave birth to a live infant with a congenital anomaly. No serious AEFIs or pIMDs were considered to be related to the vaccination. In Chinese women aged 9–45 years, immunization with the Cervarix three-dose schedule was well tolerated. Overall, no safety concerns were identified, although rare adverse events may have been missed due to the study sample size.Clinical trial registration: NCT03438006.

ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the characteristics and psychological mechanism of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents with mood disorders. We examined how self-compassion and emotional regulation affected NSSI and tested the mediating role of self-compassion in the link between emotional regulation and NSSI.MethodWe recruited outpatient and inpatient adolescent patients with bipolar and related disorders or depressive disorders (DSM-5), with a focus on NSSI. We also recruited healthy controls from the community. We collected demographic and clinical data. The Adolescent Self-injury Questionnaire, Self-compassion Scale (SCS), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were used to assess the frequency and severity of NSSI, level of self-compassion, and emotional regulation.ResultsIn total, we recruited 248 adolescent patients with mood disorders (N = 196 with NSSI, and 52 without NSSI) and 212 healthy controls. NSSI was significantly associated with the female sex, lower levels of education and less use of cognitive reappraisal strategies, lower levels of self-warmth, and higher levels of self-coldness. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences in the scores of ERQ, cognitive reassessment score, and the scores of SCS among the three groups, but no statistical differences in expressive suppression score among the three groups. Self-warmth had a mediating effect between cognitive reappraisal and NSSI behavior.ConclusionNSSI is prevalent among adolescent patients with mood disorders in clinical settings, especially among girls and those with lower levels of education and less cognitive reappraisal strategies. More clinical attention is needed. Self-compassion and its factors may mediate the association between emotional regulation and NSSI. Clinical implications and future research directions were discussed.

Abstract Lignin has enormous potential as a renewable feedstock for depolymerizing to numerous high-value chemicals. However, lignin depolymerization is challenging owing to its recalcitrant, heterogenous, and limited water-soluble nature. From the standpoint of environmental friendliness and sustainability, enzymatic depolymerization of lignin is of great significance. Notably, laccases play an essential role in the enzymatic depolymerization of lignin and are considered the ultimate green catalysts. Deep eutectic solvent (DES), an efficient media in biocatalysis, are increasingly recognized as the newest and utmost green solvent that highly dissolves lignin. This review centers on a lignin depolymerization strategy by harnessing the good lignin fractionating capability of DES and the high substrate and product selectivity of laccase. Recent progress and insights into the laccase–DES interactions, protein engineering strategies for improving DES compatibility with laccase, and controlling the product selectivity of lignin degradation by laccase or in DES systems are extensively provided. Lastly, the challenges and prospects of the alliance between DES and laccase for lignin depolymerization are discussed. The collaboration of laccase and DES provides a great opportunity to develop an enzymatic route for lignin depolymerization. Graphical Abstract

Increasing number of unicorns worldwide is attracting researchers' attention to analyze their phenomena from their growth and financial flexibility interaction perspective. Unicorns as young companies have many external and internal environment development elements affecting their financial performance while going public with an IPO. Thus in the paper, we target to analyze factors revealing unicorns' growth and the relationship between financial flexibility and unicorns’ growth before and after the IPO process. The financial data of 20 unicorns from Asia with IPOs from 2009 to 2018 was collected for the research. A literature review was performed to develop the frame and variables of growth and financial flexibility for research design. OLS regression was used for the analysis. Our main findings show the significant negative impact of EBIT on the growth of unicorns before the IPO, which becomes positive after the IPO. The impact of cash or debt on the growth of unicorns is negative after the IPO. The growth of unicorns is significantly influenced by capital expenditures and current liabilities affected by their management policies. Our research fills the existing gap in the literature by analyzing the interaction between the growth and financial flexibility of the high-growth unicorns in the context of the IPO and enriches existing literature by the combination of different theories to support the research, thus further research could focus on a more in-depth analysis of these processes.

Wool is a natural biopolymer with excellent biocompatibility. This dense structure makes it difficult to recycle the millions of wool textiles discarded annually. This study reports, for the first time, the regeneration of keratin using thiourea dioxide. Disulfide bonds were cleavage from the result of Raman test. FTIR, XRD and 13C-NMR tests determined that regenerated wool keratin retained protein macromolecule backbone, though the crystallinity degree and α-helix structure content decreased slightly. SDS-PAGE results demonstrated that the process contributed to an increase of low molecular weight keratin. All the results in this study indicate that thiourea dioxide is an effective solvent for the regeneration of wool keratin. The study offers a novel approach for the regeneration and recycle of other natural protein-based material.

Background The reactivation of fetal γ-globin expression is an effective strategy for ameliorating the clinical symptoms of β-hemoglobinopathies. However, the mechanism of globin switching, especially the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in this process, remains elusive. Methods We compared the in vivo transcriptome profiles of nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) isolated from the umbilical cord blood of preterm and full-term newborns. We collected 75 umbilical cord blood samples and performed qPCR of the candidate genes. Results In this study, we identified 7,166 differentially expressed protein-coding genes, 3,243 differentially expressed lncRNAs, and 79 differentially expressed microRNAs. Our data show that the Fanconi anemia pathway and the H19/let-7/LIN28B axis may be involved in γ- to β-globin gene switching. Moreover, we constructed the hub gene network of the differentially expressed transcription factors. Based on qPCR, we found that BCL11A was differentially expressed based on biological sex. We also confirmed that H19 is differentially expressed and established the H19-related network to reveal the potential regulatory mechanisms. Conclusion We present the profiles of the in vivo transcriptome differences of NRBCs between preterm and full-term neonates for the first time, and provide novel research targets for β-hemoglobinopathies.

Even though wool has excellent fabric properties, its low absorption capacity hinders its efficient application in the textile industry and material field. Surface modification is one of the efficient ways of improving its inherent properties. However, the effect of surface modification on its absorption properties is not well understood. Herein, surface modification of wool was performed using deep eutectic solvent method. Several physical and chemical properties of the modified wool including chemical bonds, surface topography, and absorption capacity were analyzed. FTIR revealed that surface modification retained keratin molecular structure but only cleaved disulfide bonds. The second-derivatization of FTIR spectra further indicated that the secondary structure was also retained. SEM and EDS analyses revealed that scale modification etched the wool surface. Together, these changes improved the absorption capacity of wool. BET further revealed that surface modification increased the pole size of wool, a property that improves the adsorption capacity. Further analyses on diffusion coefficient, adsorption isotherm, adsorption kinetics, and thermodynamic parameters at a lower temperature revealed that surface modification followed Langmuir to Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-first-order model to pseudo-second-order model transformation. In particular, the adsorption content, rate and diffusion coefficient increased with decrease in the entropy and enthalpy of wool.

Research suggests that to eliminate undesirable effects of the scale layer, natural wool needs to be surface-modified before further application to textile manufacture, obtaining better properties of shrink-resistance, washing/felting and dyeing. However, previous methods exhibited some disadvantages, such as the adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) pollution from chloride treatment and severe fiber damage caused by enzyme treatment. Therefore, thiol-based ionic liquid was introduced onto the surface modification of wool to counter these defects. In this modification process, the surface modification was controlled on the wool surface using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with evaluation of the effects of cleavage of disulfide bonds ascertained by the X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) results. The solubility in alkali and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra further indicated that the process could prevent main body damage of the fiber, the decreased content of the α-helix structure was evaluated from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) curves. Furthermore, the hydrophilic performance of the modified wool, including wettability and the dye-ability, revealed an apparent enhancement compared to that of raw wool. In a summary, the thiol-based ionic liquid approach can efficiently improve hydrophilic properties of wool, and has the potential for large-scale production.

As a non-destructive testing technique, neutron radiography has received increasing attention in scientific research. However, the inherent limitations of neutron images, such as insufficient resolution and contrast, have been attributed to the low conversion efficiency of the neutron conversion screen and the low-light quantum efficiency of the charge-coupled device camera. This paper presents a novel neutron image enhancement method that utilizes the sparrow search algorithm to automatically optimize the gain factor coefficient of the adaptive contrast enhancement algorithm and incorporates neutron image information to achieve image enhancement. Experimental results show that compared with other enhancement methods, the proposed method can effectively improve the quality of neutron images visually and numerically and has good operational stability.

In this study, the quality indexes and sensory evaluation of Zanthoxylum armatum DC. from the main production areas in Southwest China were analyzed. Further, correlation analysis (CRA), principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to comprehensively evaluate the quality characteristics of Z. armatum. The results showed that the sensory indexes and physicochemical indexes of Z. armatum were significantly correlated. Five principal component factors were extracted from 12 indexes by PCA, and a comprehensive evaluation model of quality was established with Y = 0.2943Y1 + 0.2387Y2 + 0.1896Y3 + 0.1679Y4 + 0.1094Y5. On this basis, 21 producing areas were grouped into 4 groups and 3 groups by Q-type CA, respectively. R-type CA showed that the content of hydroxyl-sanshools, linalool content and b* value were the quality characteristic indexes of Z. armatum in Southwest China. This work provided an important theory and practice reference for Z. armatum quality evaluation and in-depth product development.

The utilisation of box girders with corrugated steel webs (CSWs) represents an innovative approach to bridge superstructure design that has garnered substantial popularity worldwide, with a notable prevalence in both Asia and Europe. Compared with traditional box girders, they avoid web cracking, improving the prestressing efficiency and bridge spanning ability. As an innovative box girder, a corrugated web can increase the cantilever length and transverse stiffness, and at the same time, it reduces the dead weight of the bridge deck. However, little research has been conducted on the mechanical properties of this novel spine-like box girder with CSWs, especially its transverse performance, although it has been used in many applications. In this paper, the effect of the web form on the behaviour of box girders is introduced. Therefore, three representative three-dimensional (3D) finite-element models (i.e., corrugated web box girder, flat web box girder, and ordinary equivalent concrete web box girder) have been established to quantitatively investigate the influence of corrugated web stiffness on transverse stress under the action of gravity and vehicle loads. Generally, significant differences in the mechanical performance of box girders with CSWs have been observed compared with conventional box girders with concrete webs. Additionally, parametric studies to investigate the influences of the corrugation dimensions (in term of the corrugation height, web thickness, panel width, web height and elastic modulus) on the transverse stiffness of such bridges are analyzed. The results show that a new stiffness formula can be put forward to consider the effect of web height, and a high-strength steel web needs to be developed urgently for box girders with CSWs in the near future. Overall, the results of this investigation can be used as a reference for transverse designing and segmental construction of similar projects.

The occurrence and development of Benggang is closely related to the decreased shear strength of collapsing walls. Plant roots can improve the soil shear resistance, and their soil reinforcing effect is restricted by soil moisture content (SMC). However, the effect and mechanism of SMC on the shear properties of rooted soil with different soil properties remain unknown. Therefore, the dominant soil erosion-resistant plant Dicranopteris linearis was selected as the research object, and shear tests were conducted to determine the shear strength response of rooted soil to SMC in the lateritic layer (LL), sandy layer (SL) and detritus layer (DL) with SMCs from 15% to 30%. The results showed that, compared with 15% SMC, the average decrease in shear strength of 30% SMC in the LL, SL and DL rooted soil were 17.37%, 21.96% and 23.36%, respectively. The rooted soil cohesion changed with increasing SMC in a binomial function, and the optimal SMC in the LL was 22.78%, which was higher than that of the SL (19.67%) and DL (18.39%). The cohesion increment of rooted soil weakened with increasing SMC, and the decrease was greatest in the SL. When the SMC increased from 15% to 30%, the internal friction angle of the rooted soil decreased by 34%, 11% and 12% in the LL, SL and DL, respectively. The Wu and Waldron’s model (WWM) correction parameters k′¯ of the LL, SL and DL were 0.59, 0.14 and 0.05, respectively. With the modified WWM, a new prediction model for the shear strength of rooted soil based on SMC was established. In short, a high SMC weakened the mechanical effect of Dicranopteris linearis-rooted soil, especially in the SL and DL of the collapsing wall, and attention should be given to drainage facilities when treating Benggang erosion.

This study determined that Zanthoxylum bungeanum leaves (ZBLs) are rich in functional components such as cellulose, protein, flavone, and polyphenols. Therefore, they were used as the main raw material, with sodium alginate as a thickener and glycerol as a plasticizer, to investigate the preparation of active films from ZBL powder through high-pressure homogenization (HPH). The physical, optical, mechanical, and antioxidant properties of the films were evaluated, and their application in preserving fresh-cut apples was examined. The results showed that the optimal concentration of ZBL powder was 1.5% under a 30 MPa HPH treatment. The resulting HPH-treated films exhibited a denser microstructure and improved water vapor barrier properties and mechanical strength. Compared to the films without HPH treatment, the tensile strength increased from 4.61 MPa to 12.13 MPa, the elongation at break increased from 21.25% to 42.86%, the water vapor permeability decreased from 9.9 × 10−9 g/m·s·Pa to 8.0 × 10−9 g/m·s·Pa, and the transparency increased from 25.36% to 38.5%. Compared to the control group, the fresh-cut apples packaged with the HPH-treated ZBL active films exhibited effective preservation of apple quality during a five-day period at 4 °C and 70% humidity, showing better preservation effects than the other groups. In conclusion, the use of HPH treatment in developing novel biopolymer active films from ZBL powders with enhanced properties holds potential for various applications.

In recent years, remote sensing analysis has gained significant attention in visual analysis applications, particularly in segmenting and recognizing remote sensing images. However, the existing research has predominantly focused on single-period RGB image analysis, thus overlooking the complexities of remote sensing image capture, especially in highly vegetated land parcels. In this paper, we provide a large-scale vegetation remote sensing (VRS) dataset and introduce the VRS-Seg task for multi-modal and multi-temporal vegetation segmentation. The VRS dataset incorporates diverse modalities and temporal variations, and its annotations are organized using the Vegetation Knowledge Graph (VKG), thereby providing detailed object attribute information. To address the VRS-Seg task, we introduce VRSFormer, a critical pipeline that integrates multi-temporal and multi-modal data fusion, geometric contour refinement, and category-level classification inference. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization capability of our approach. The availability of VRS and the VRS-Seg task paves the way for further research in multi-modal and multi-temporal vegetation segmentation in remote sensing imagery.

Background: Recently, various combination therapies for tumors have garnered popularity because of their synergistic effects in improving therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects. However, incomplete intracellular drug release and a single method of combining drugs are inadequate to achieve the desired therapeutic effect.Methods: A reactive oxygen species (ROS)-sensitive co-delivery micelle (Ce6@PTP/DP). It was a photosensitizer and a ROS-sensitive paclitaxel (PTX) prodrug for synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy. Micelles size and surface potential were measured. In vitro drug release, cytotoxicity and apoptosis were investigated.Results: Ce6@PTP/DP prodrug micelles exhibited good colloidal stability and biocompatibility, high PTX and Ce6 loading contents of 21.7% and 7.38%, respectively. Upon light irradiation, Ce6@PTP/DP micelles endocytosed by tumor cells can generate sufficient ROS, not only leading to photodynamic therapy and the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, but also triggering locoregional PTX release by cleaving the thioketal (TK) bridged bond between PTX and methoxyl poly (ethylene glycol). Furthermore, compared with single drug-loaded micelles, the light-triggered Ce6@PTP/DP micelles exhibited self-amplified drug release and significantly greater inhibition of HeLa cell growth.Conclusion: The results support that PTX and Ce6 in Ce6@PTP/DP micelles exhibited synergistic effects on cell-growth inhibition. Thus, Ce6@PTP/DP micelles represent an alternative for realizing synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy.

Seed dormancy is a mechanism that prevents seeds from germinating at times of the year when conditions are unfavorable, that is, when the chance of seed survival is low. Determining the seasonal dynamics of seed dormancy is important for exploring how plant regeneration is adapted to the environment. We studied the seed dormancy status of Taxus chinensis var. mairei, an endangered species in China, under simulated seasonal temperature regimes. The embryo length, embryo-to-seed (E : S) ratio, and percentage of seeds with a split seed coat increased when seeds were stratified at spring and autumn temperature regimes. The abscisic acid (ABA) content decreased during stratification at simulated seasonal temperatures, but no obvious pattern in the content of gibberellic acid (GA) and indole acetic acid (IAA) was observed. The GA–ABA and IAA–ABA ratios increased during stratification. These results suggest that T. chinensis var. mairei seeds have morphophysiological dormancy, and that the seasonal dynamics of seed dormancy break are controlled by endogenous hormones and their balances, which was confirmed by the results of a field experiment. Our study provides useful information for understanding the natural population regeneration and propagation of this threatened species.

Polyphenols are the largest group of phytochemicals with important biological properties. Their presence in conveniently available low-cost sources, such as agri-food by-products, has gained considerable attention in their recovery and further exploitation. Retrieving polyphenols in a green and sustainable way is crucial. Recently, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been identified as a safe and environmentally benign medium capable of extracting polyphenols efficiently. This review encompasses the current knowledge and applications of DESs and assisted technologies to extract polyphenols from agri-food by-products. Particular attention has been paid to fundamental mechanisms and potential applications in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. In this way, DESs and DESs-assisted with advanced techniques offer promising opportunities to recover polyphenols from agri-food by-products efficiently, contributing to a circular and sustainable economy.

This paper aims to reconsider prosumers’ role in the power markets in the early stages of their decentralization, accounting for rising self-supply trends, security threats, and economic and regulatory barriers. The development of prosumerism envisages finding the ratio between retail market sales under the feed-in tariff and the net billing mechanism. Within the methodology section, the indicator of prosumer efficiency for electricity generation (EUR/kWh) is proposed based on average consumption/production ratios and consumption/delivery incentives. To support household prosumers, the mentioned incentives on the renewable energy market consider the self-supply cost of electricity, the levelized cost of electricity for small-scale green energy facilities (solar photovoltaic and wind), and transaction costs. This paper evaluates prosumer efficiency under three consumption/production ratio scenarios for Ukrainian households (self-consumption of 40%, 20%, and 100% of green electricity annually generated by a household and selling the leftovers via the feed-in tariff) for 2023. The gradual movement from fixed tariffs for households toward market-based prices promotes the emergence of new related market players and their consolidation in the market. Participation in the organized power market segments is relevant for day-ahead market prices above 130 EUR/MWh, disregarding the households’ tariff rate. The low price caps inhibit the prosumer’s participation in the market, while the transition from the feed-in tariff to net billing significantly promotes their development only under high price caps.

Rapid nondestructive testing of peanut seed vigor is of great significance in current research. Before seeds are sown, effective screening of high-quality seeds for planting is crucial to improve the quality of crop yield, and seed vitality is one of the important indicators to evaluate seed quality, which can represent the potential ability of seeds to germinate quickly and whole and grow into normal seedlings or plants. Meanwhile, the advantage of nondestructive testing technology is that the seeds themselves will not be damaged. In this study, hyperspectral technology and superoxide dismutase activity were used to detect peanut seed vigor. To investigate peanut seed vigor and predict superoxide dismutase activity, spectral characteristics of peanut seeds in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm were analyzed. The spectral data are processed by a variety of hot spot algorithms. Spectral data were preprocessed with Savitzky-Golay (SG), multivariate scatter correction (MSC), and median filtering (MF), which can effectively to reduce the effects of baseline drift and tilt. CatBoost and Gradient Boosted Decision Tree were used for feature band extraction, the top five weights of the characteristic bands of peanut seed vigor classification are 425.48nm, 930.8nm, 965.32nm, 984.0nm, and 994.7nm. XGBoost, LightGBM, Support Vector Machine and Random Forest were used for modeling of seed vitality classification. XGBoost and partial least squares regression were used to establish superoxide dismutase activity value regression model. The results indicated that MF-CatBoost-LightGBM was the best model for peanut seed vigor classification, and the accuracy result was 90.83%. MSC-CatBoost-PLSR was the optimal regression model of superoxide dismutase activity value. The results show that the R2 was 0.9787 and the RMSE value was 0.0566. The results suggested that hyperspectral technology could correlate the external manifestation of effective peanut seed vigor.

This paper focuses on the seismic damage assessment mechanism of recycled aggregate concrete-filled square steel tube (RACFSST) columns via the seismic test results of 95 RACFSST column structures. Based on the dual criteria of deformation and energy, with consideration of the mechanical characteristics of RACFSST column structures, a modified Park-Ang model for seismic damage assessment of RACFSST columns was proposed by introducing the modified dissipation factor. The quantitative index of the performance-based seismic design of RACFSST columns was established, and the criteria of the damage performance level of RACFSST columns under different failure states were proposed. The results show that the modified Park-Ang damage model can reflect the seismic damage evolvement rule of RACFSST columns well. The seismic damage degrees of RACFSST columns can be divided into basically intact (D=0–0.02), slightly damaged and moderately damaged (D=0.02–0.41), severely damaged (D=0.41–0.98) and collapsed (D=0.98–1.00). Under the probabilistic reliability of 84.13%, the interlayer displacement angle limit of RACFSST columns at the corresponding five seismic performance levels were using normally (D

Abstract Background High serum Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) level and Apolipoprotein B/Apolipoprotein AΙ (ApoB/ApoA-Ι) ratio are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and kidney disease and have been found to be correlated with the prevalence and prognosis of various kidney diseases. However, it is not clear whether the serum Lp(a) level and ApoB/ApoA-Ι ratio pre-PCI are correlated with the prevalence of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). Methods A total of 931 participants undergoing emergency PCI from July 2018 to July 2020 were included. According to whether the serum creatinine concentration was higher than the baseline concentration (by ≥25% or ≥ 0.5 mg/dL) 48–72 h after contrast exposure, these participants were divided into a CI-AKI group (n = 174) and a non-CI-AKI group (n = 757). Serum Lp(a), ApoA-Ι and ApoB concentration were detected in the patients when they were admitted to hospital, and the ApoB/ApoA-Ι ratio was calculated. Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline analyses were used to explore the correlation between the Lp(a) concentration or the ApoB/ApoA-Ι ratio and the risk of CI-AKI. Results Among the 931 participants undergoing emergency PCI, 174 (18.69%) participants developed CI-AKI. Compared with the non-CI-AKI group, the Lp(a) level and ApoB/ApoA-Ι ratio pre-PCI in the CI-AKI group were significantly higher (P

Metformin is a drug that has been applied in clinical use for many years for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It achieves its function through multiple targets and modulation of multiple signaling pathways. To date, the mechanism of the action of metformin is still not fully understood. Along with glycemic control, metformin has shown good inhibitory effects on the development of many tumors. Here, we elucidated that plasma exosomal microRNA-122-5p (miR-122) is closely related to the mechanism of metformin. MiR-122 regulates glycogen-glucose metabolism in hepatocytes or hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCC) by inhibiting the phosphorylation of AMPK. Since miR-122 and metformin regulate glucose metabolism homeostasis through similar mechanisms, miR-122 can antagonize the effects of metformin. MiR-122 expression increases the sensitivity of hepatocytes or HCC to metformin. Conversely, decreased expression of miR-122 results in hepatocyte insensitivity to metformin. Therefore, significantly elevated levels of miR-122 in plasma exosomes of hepatocellular carcinoma patients could enhance their sensitivity to metformin. The results of the present study revealed a key regulatory role of plasma exosomal miR-122 on the molecular mechanism of metformin. The regulation of key molecules of related signaling pathways by miR-122 may lead to similar glycemic lowering and tumor suppression therapeutic effects as metformin. This provides new ideas for the development of new therapeutic strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma based on the mechanism of miR-122 and metformin.

Moldy peanut seeds are damaged by mold, which seriously affects the germination rate of peanut seeds. At the same time, the quality and variety purity of peanut seeds profoundly affect the final yield of peanuts and the economic benefits of farmers. In this study, hyperspectral imaging technology was used to achieve variety classification and mold detection of peanut seeds. In addition, this paper proposed to use median filtering (MF) to preprocess hyperspectral data, use four variable selection methods to obtain characteristic wavelengths, and ensemble learning models (SEL) as a stable classification model. This paper compared the model performance of SEL and extreme gradient boosting algorithm (XGBoost), light gradient boosting algorithm (LightGBM), and type boosting algorithm (CatBoost). The results showed that the MF-LightGBM-SEL model based on hyperspectral data achieves the best performance. Its prediction accuracy on the data training and data testing reach 98.63% and 98.03%, respectively, and the modeling time was only 0.37s, which proved that the potential of the model to be used in practice. The approach of SEL combined with hyperspectral imaging techniques facilitates the development of a real-time detection system. It could perform fast and non-destructive high-precision classification of peanut seed varieties and moldy peanuts, which was of great significance for improving crop yields.

As a rapid and automatic method, multiple radionuclide identification using deep learning has drawn wide interest from researchers in the field of nuclear safety and nuclear security. However, the network model in deep learning often appears in the form of a black box, which makes it difficult for people to understand its decision-making basis. It is necessary to develop an interpretable deep learning model for multiple nuclide identification. In the work on nuclide identification using deep learning, very few interpretable studies have been conducted. In this paper, channel attention weights are used for interpretable radionuclide identification for the first time. We propose a multiple radionuclide identification method using deep learning with channel attention module and visual explanation. A dataset of gamma spectra simulated by Geant4 was created, containing 256 combinations of 8 radionuclides. These gamma spectra were used to train using a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a channel attention module. The obtained accuracies on training, validation, and test sets are 97.8%, 97.6%, and 97.1%, respectively. The result of interpretation of spectral features show that based on the channel attention module, the CNN can make full use of the feature information of the photoelectric peak and Compton edge and suppress the background and noise interference. In addition, the t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) method was used to visualize the inner working process of the CNN and visually illustrate the correctness of feature extraction. This research will promote the application of artificial intelligence algorithms in nuclide identification instruments.

SMC (structural maintenance of chromosomes) complexes share conserved architectures and function in chromosome maintenance via an unknown mechanism. Here we have used single-molecule techniques to study MukBEF, the SMC complex in Escherichia coli. Real-time movies show MukB alone can compact DNA and ATP inhibits DNA compaction by MukB. We observed that DNA unidirectionally slides through MukB, potentially by a ratchet mechanism, and the sliding speed depends on the elastic energy stored in the DNA. MukE, MukF and ATP binding stabilize MukB and DNA interaction, and ATP hydrolysis regulates the loading/unloading of MukBEF from DNA. Our data suggests a new model for how MukBEF organizes the bacterial chromosome in vivo; and this model will be relevant for other SMC proteins.

Pellicle biofilm-forming bacteria Bacillus amyloliquefaciens are the major spoilage microorganisms of soy products. Due to their inherent resistance to antibiotics and disinfectants, pellicle biofilms formed are difficult to eliminate and represent a threat to food safety. Here, we assessed linalool’s ability to prevent the pellicle of two spoilage B. amyloliquefaciens strains. The minimum biofilm inhibitory concentration (MBIC) of linalool against B. amyloliquefaciens DY1a and DY1b was 4 μL/mL and 8 μL/mL, respectively. The MBIC of linalool had a considerable eradication rate of 77.15% and 83.21% on the biofilm of the two strains, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that less wrinkly and thinner pellicle biofilms formed on a medium supplemented with 1/2 MBIC and 1/4 MBIC linalool. Also, linalool inhibited cell motility and the production of extracellular polysaccharides and proteins of the biofilm matrix. Furthermore, linalool exposure reduced the cell surface hydrophobicity, zeta potential, and cell auto-aggregation of B. amyloliquefaciens. Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that linalool interacted strongly with quorum-sensing ComP receptor and biofilm matrix assembly TasA through intermolecular hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic contacts, and van der Waals forces interacting with site residues. Overall, our findings suggest that linalool may be employed as a potential antibiofilm agent to control food spoilage B. amyloliquefaciens.

Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has raised concerns in the identification of the hosts of the virus since the early stages of the outbreak. To address this problem, we proposed a deep learning method, DeepHoF, based on extracting viral genomic features automatically, to predict the host likelihood scores on five host types, including plant, germ, invertebrate, non-human vertebrate and human, for novel viruses. DeepHoF made up for the lack of an accurate tool, reaching a satisfactory AUC of 0.975 in the five-classification, and could make a reliable prediction for the novel viruses without close neighbors in phylogeny. Additionally, to fill the gap in the efficient inference of host species for SARS-CoV-2 using existing tools, we conducted a deep analysis on the host likelihood profile calculated by DeepHoF. Using the isolates sequenced in the earliest stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, we inferred that minks, bats, dogs and cats were potential hosts of SARS-CoV-2, while minks might be one of the most noteworthy hosts. Several genes of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated their significance in determining the host range. Furthermore, a large-scale genome analysis, based on DeepHoF’s computation for the later pandemic in 2020, disclosed the uniformity of host range among SARS-CoV-2 samples and the strong association of SARS-CoV-2 between humans and minks.

Abstract Klebsiella pneumoniae, an important cause of bovine mastitis worldwide, is strongly pathogenic to bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs). Our objective was to determine the role of mitochondrial damage in the pathogenicity of K. pneumoniae on bMECs, by assessing several classical indicators of mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Two K. pneumoniae strains (HLJ-D2 and HB-AF5), isolated from cows with clinical mastitis (CM), were used to infect bMECs (MAC-T line) cultured in vitro. In whole-transcriptome analysis of bMECs at 6 h post-infection (hpi), there were 3453 up-regulated and 3470 down-regulated genes for HLJ-D2, whereas for HB-AF5, there were 2891 up-regulated and 3278 down-regulated genes (P

Abstract Background The diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and discrimination between the types of IBD are clinically important. IBD is associated with marked changes in the intestinal microbiota. Advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and the improved hospital bioinformatics analysis ability motivated us to develop a diagnostic method based on the gut microbiome. Results Using a set of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 349 human gut microbiota samples with two types of IBD and healthy controls, we assembled and aligned WGS short reads to obtain feature profiles of strains and genera. The genus and strain profiles were used for the 16S-based and WGS-based diagnostic modules construction respectively. We designed a novel feature selection procedure to select those case-specific features. With these features, we built discrimination models using different machine learning algorithms. The machine learning algorithm LightGBM outperformed other algorithms in this study and thus was chosen as the core algorithm. Specially, we identified two small sets of biomarkers (strains) separately for the WGS-based health vs IBD module and ulcerative colitis vs Crohn’s disease module, which contributed to the optimization of model performance during pre-training. We released LightCUD as an IBD diagnostic program built with LightGBM. The high performance has been validated through five-fold cross-validation and using an independent test data set. LightCUD was implemented in Python and packaged free for installation with customized databases. With WGS data or 16S rRNA sequencing data of gut microbiome samples as the input, LightCUD can discriminate IBD from healthy controls with high accuracy and further identify the specific type of IBD. The executable program LightCUD was released in open source with instructions at the webpage http://cqb.pku.edu.cn/ZhuLab/LightCUD/ . The identified strain biomarkers could be used to study the critical factors for disease development and recommend treatments regarding changes in the gut microbial community. Conclusions As the first released human gut microbiome-based IBD diagnostic tool, LightCUD demonstrates a high-performance for both WGS and 16S sequencing data. The strains that either identify healthy controls from IBD patients or distinguish the specific type of IBD are expected to be clinically important to serve as biomarkers.

Paclitaxel (PTX) is a broad-spectrum chemotherapy drug employed in the treatment of a variety of tumors. However, the clinical applications of PTX are limited by its poor water solubility. Adjuvants are widely used to overcome this issue. However, these adjuvants often have side effects and poor biodistribution. The smart drug delivery system is a promising strategy for the improvement of solubility, permeability, and stability of drugs, and can promote sustained controlled release, increasing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects. Polymeric prodrugs show great advantages for drug delivery due to their high drug loading and stability. There has been some groundbreaking work in the development of PTX-based stimulus-sensitive polymeric prodrug micelles, which is summarized in this study. We consider these in terms of the four main types of stimulus (pH, reduction, enzyme, and reactive oxygen species (ROS)). The design, synthesis, and biomedical applications of stimulus-responsive polymeric prodrugs of PTX are reviewed, and the current research results and future directions of the field are summarized.

Abstract Background Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum), a halophytic warm-seasoned perennial grass, is tolerant of many environmental stresses, especially salt stress. To investigate molecular mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance in seashore paspalum, physiological characteristics and global transcription profiles of highly (Supreme) and moderately (Parish) salinity-tolerant cultivars under normal and salt stressed conditions were analyzed. Results Physiological characterization comparing highly (Supreme) and moderately (Parish) salinity-tolerant cultivars revealed that Supreme’s higher salinity tolerance is associated with higher Na+ and Ca2+ accumulation under normal conditions and further increase of Na+ under salt-treated conditions (400 mM NaCl), possibly by vacuolar sequestration. Moreover, K+ retention under salt treatment occurs in both cultivars, suggesting that it may be a conserved mechanism for prevention of Na+ toxicity. We sequenced the transcriptome of the two cultivars under both normal and salt-treated conditions (400 mM NaCl) using RNA-seq. De novo assembly of about 153 million high-quality reads and identification of Open Reading Frames (ORFs) uncovered a total of 82,608 non-redundant unigenes, of which 3250 genes were identified as transcription factors (TFs). Gene Ontology (GO) annotation revealed the presence of genes involved in diverse cellular processes in seashore paspalum’s transcriptome. Differential expression analysis identified a total of 828 and 2222 genes that are responsive to high salinity for Supreme and Parish, respectively. “Oxidation-reduction process” and “nucleic acid binding” are significantly enriched GOs among differentially expressed genes in both cultivars under salt treatment. Interestingly, compared to Parish, a number of salt stress induced transcription factors are enriched and show higher abundance in Supreme under normal conditions, possibly due to enhanced Ca2+ signaling transduction out of Na+ accumulation, which may be another contributor to Supreme’s higher salinity tolerance. Conclusion Physiological and transcriptome analyses of seashore paspalum reveal major molecular underpinnings contributing to plant response to salt stress in this halophytic warm-seasoned perennial grass. The data obtained provide valuable molecular resources for functional studies and developing strategies to engineer plant salinity tolerance.

Hydroxyl-α-sanshool is the main alkylamide produced by Zanthoxylum armatum DC., and it is responsible for numbness after consuming Z. armatum-flavored dishes or food products. The present study deals with the isolation, enrichment, and purification of hydroxyl-α-sanshool. The results indicated that the powder of Z. armatum was extracted with 70% ethanol and then filtrated; the supernatant was concentrated to get pasty residue. Petroleum ether (60–90 °C) and ethyl acetate at a 3:2 ratio, with an Rf value of 0.23, were chosen as the eluent. Petroleum ether extract (PEE) and ethyl acetate–petroleum ether extract (E-PEE) were used as the suitable enriched method. Afterward, the PEE and E-PEE were loaded onto silica gel for silica gel column chromatography. Preliminary identification was carried out by TLC and UV. The fractions containing mainly hydroxyl-α-sanshool were pooled and dried by rotary evaporation. Lastly, all of the samples were determined by HPLC. The yield and recovery rates of hydroxyl-α-sanshool in the p-E-PEE were 12.42% and 121.65%, respectively, and the purity was 98.34%. Additionally, compared with E-PEE, the purity of hydroxyl-α-sanshool in the purification of E-PEE (p-E-PEE) increased by 88.30%. In summary, this study provides a simple, rapid, economical, and effective approach to the separation of high-purity hydroxyl-α-sanshool.

To improve the seismic capacity of prestressed concrete (PC) continuous girder bridges with corrugated steel webs (CSWs), suitable damping control measures can be used to effectively reduce the seismic response of the bridge. Based on the semi-active control theory, the semi-active control system of a three-span PC continuous girder bridge with CSWs is designed, and the semi-active control system program of the three-span PC continuous girder bridge with CSWs is compiled by MATLAB. The time–history curves of damper energy consumption of active optimal control algorithm and three different semi-active control algorithms are compared and analyzed, as are the time–history curves of main girder displacement, acceleration, and pier internal force with or without semi-active control. The study shows that the rational determination of the weight matrix coefficient can make the active control achieve a better vibration absorption effect and economy. The semi-active control algorithm of Hrovat has the best vibration absorption effect, which is closest to that of the active optimal control algorithm. Under the state of semi-active control, the average vibration absorption rate of displacement and acceleration of the main girder with CSWs are 71% and 20%, respectively. The time–history curve of bending moment and shear force in the pier bottom is similar, and the average vibration absorption rate of bending moment and shear force at the bottom of pier #2 is 70%. At the same time, the average vibration absorption rate of bending moment and shear force at the bottom of pier #3 is between 42% and 48%. The semi-active control measure has a good vibration absorption effect on the overall seismic response of the PC continuous girder bridges with CSWs. This study provides a certain reference for the seismic reduction and isolation design of composite structure bridge with CSWs.

Chemotherapy is one of the commonly used therapies for the treatment of malignant tumors. Insufficient drug-loading capacity is the major challenge for polymeric micelle–based drug delivery systems of chemotherapy. Here, the redox-responsive star-shaped polymeric prodrug (PSSP) and the dimeric prodrug of paclitaxel (PTX) were prepared. Then the dimeric prodrug of PTX (diPTX, diP) was loaded into the core of the star-shaped polymeric prodrug micelles of PSSP by hydrophobic interaction forming the redox-responsive prodrug micelles of diPTX@PSSP for intracellular drug release in tumor cells. The hydrodynamic diameter of diPTX@PSSP nanoparticles was 114.3 nm ± 2.1 (PDI = 0.219 ± 0.016), and the micelles had long-term colloidal stability and the drug-loading content (DLC) of diPTX and PTX is 16.7 and 46.9%, respectively. The prepared micelles could broke under the reductive microenvironment within tumor cells, as a result, the dimeric prodrug of diP and polymeric prodrug micelles of PSSP were rapidly disassembled, leading to the rapid release of intracellular drugs. In vitro release studies showed that under the condition of reduced glutathione (GSH) (10 mM), the release of PTX was significantly accelerated with approximately 86.6% released within 21 h, and the released PTX in cytoplasm could promote the disintegration of microtubules and induce cell apoptosis. These results indicated that the new type of this reduction-sensitive nanodrug delivery system based on dimeric prodrug@polymeric prodrug micelles would be a promising technology in chemotherapy.

Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. dysgalactiae (SDSD) is one of the most prevalent pathogens causing bovine mastitis worldwide. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information regarding genetic diversity, complete profiles of virulence factors (VFs), and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes for SDSD associated with bovine mastitis in China. In this study, a total of 674 milk samples, including samples from 509 clinical and 165 subclinical mastitis cases, were collected from 17 herds in 7 provinces in China from November 2016 to June 2019. All SDSD isolates were included in phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). In addition, whole genome sequencing was performed on 12 representative SDSD isolates to screen for VFs and AMR genes and to define pan-, core and accessory genomes. The prevalence of SDSD from mastitis milk samples was 7.57% (51/674). According to phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA, 51 SDSD isolates were divided into 4 clusters, whereas based on MLST, 51 SDSD isolates were identified as 11 sequence types, including 6 registered STs and 5 novel STs (ST521, ST523, ST526, ST527, ST529) that belonged to 2 distinct clonal complexes (CCs) and 4 singletons. Based on WGS information, 108 VFs genes in 12 isolates were determined in 11 categories. In addition, 23 AMR genes were identified in 11 categories. Pan-, core and accessory genomes were composed of 2,663, 1,633 and 699 genes, respectively. These results provided a comprehensive profiles of SDSD virulence and resistance genes as well as phylogenetic relationships among mastitis associated SDSD in North China.

Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes have ubiquitous roles in compacting DNA linearly, thereby promoting chromosome organization-segregation. Interaction between the Escherichia coli SMC complex, MukBEF, and matS-bound MatP in the chromosome replication termination region, ter, results in depletion of MukBEF from ter, a process essential for efficient daughter chromosome individualization and for preferential association of MukBEF with the replication origin region. Chromosome-associated MukBEF complexes also interact with topoisomerase IV (ParC2E2), so that their chromosome distribution mirrors that of MukBEF. We demonstrate that MatP and ParC have an overlapping binding interface on the MukB hinge, leading to their mutually exclusive binding, which occurs with the same dimer to dimer stoichiometry. Furthermore, we show that matS DNA competes with the MukB hinge for MatP binding. Cells expressing MukBEF complexes that are mutated at the ParC/MatP binding interface are impaired in ParC binding and have a mild defect in MukBEF function. These data highlight competitive binding as a means of globally regulating MukBEF-topoisomerase IV activity in space and time.