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Abstract Background Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) are increasingly gaining attention due to its characteristics of low toxicity, high activity, and stability. Additionally, Bacillus licheniformis, as a probiotic, has achieved remarkable research outcomes in diverse fields such as medicine, feed processing, and pesticides, attracting widespread attention. Consequently, evaluating the activity of probiotics and SeNPs is paramount. The utilization of probiotics to synthesize SeNPs, achieving large-scale industrialization, is a current hotspot in the field of SeNPs synthesis and is currently the most promising synthetic method. To minimize production costs and maximize yield of SeNPs, this study selected agricultural by-products that are nutrient-rich, cost-effective, and readily available as culture medium components. This approach not only fulfills industrial production requirements but also mitigates the impact on downstream processes. Results The experimental findings revealed that SeNPs synthesized by B. licheniformis F1 exhibited a spherical morphology with diameters ranging from 110 to 170 nm and demonstrating high stability. Both the secondary metabolites of B. licheniformis F1 and the synthesized SeNPs possessed significant free radical scavenging ability. To provide a more robust foundation for acquiring large quantities of SeNPs via fermentation with B. licheniformis F1, key factors were identified through single-factor experiments and response surface methodology (RSM) include a 2% seed liquid inoculum, a temperature of 37 ℃, and agitation at 180 rpm. Additionally, critical factors during the optimization process were corn powder (11.18 g/L), soybean meal (10.34 g/L), and NaCl (10.68 g/L). Upon validating the optimized conditions and culture medium, B. licheniformis F1 can synthesize nearly 100.00% SeNPs from 5 mmol/L sodium selenite. Subsequently, pilot-scale verification in a 5 L fermentor using the optimized medium resulted in a shortened fermentation time, significantly reducing production costs. Conclusion In this study, the efficient production of SeNPs by the probiotic B. licheniformis F1 was successfully achieved, leading to a significant reduction in fermentation costs. The exploration of the practical applications of this strain holds significant potential and provides valuable guidance for facilitating the industrial-scale implementation of microbial synthesis of SeNPs.

In 2022, the monkeypox virus (mpox virus, MPXV) exhibited global dissemination across six continents, representing a notable challenge owing to the scarcity of targeted antiviral interventions. Passive immunotherapy, such as the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and bispecific antibodies (bsAbs), has emerged as a promising option for antiviral regimens. Here, we generated several mAbs against M1R and B6R of MPXV, and subsequently characterized the antiviral activity of these antibodies both in vitro and in vivo. Two neutralizing mAbs, M1H11 and M3B2, targeting M1R, and one B6R-specific mAb, B7C9, were identified. They exhibited varying antiviral efficacy against MPXV and vaccinia virus (VACV) in vitro and orthopoxvirus infection in vivo. A cocktail comprising M1H11 and M3B2 demonstrated a superior protective effect in vivo. A bsAb, Bis-M1M3, was engineered by conjugating the fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of the human-mouse chimeric engineered M1H11 with the single-chain fragment variable (scFv) of M3B2. In mice challenged with MPXV, Bis-M1M3 showed a notable protective effects, including the absence of mortality. Analysis of neutralization mechanism showed that these mAbs and Bis-M1M3 exerted virus-neutralizing effects before the virus infects cells. In vivo pharmacokinetic experiments showed that Bis-M1M3 has a long half-life in rhesus macaques. This study provides crucial insights for further research on -broad-spectrum antiviral drugs against MPXV and other orthopoxviruses.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a known risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, yet the precise pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understand, often obscured by group-level analysis in non-invasive neuroimaging studies. Individual-based method is critical to exploring heterogeneity in mTBI. We recruited 80 mTBI patients and 40 matched healthy controls, obtaining high-resolution structural MRI for constructing Individual Differential Structural Covariance Networks (IDSCN). Comparisons were conducted at both the individual and group levels. Connectome-based Predictive Modeling (CPM) was applied to predict cognitive performance based on whole-brain connectivity. During the acute stage of mTBI, patients exhibited significant heterogeneity in the count and direction of altered edges, obscured by group-level analysis. In the chronic stage, the number of altered edges decreased and became more consistent, aligning with clinical observations of acute cognitive impairment and gradual improvement. Subgroup analysis based on loss of consciousness/post-traumatic amnesia revealed distinct patterns of alterations. The temporal lobe, particularly regions related to the limbic system, significantly predicted cognitive function from acute to chronic stage. The use of IDSCN and CPM has provided valuable individual-level insights, reconciling discrepancies from previous studies. Additionally, the limbic system may be an appropriate target for future intervention efforts.

Many advanced super-resolution reconstruction methods have been proposed recently, but they often require high computational and memory resources, making them incompatible with low-power devices in reality. To address this problem, we propose a simple yet efficient super-resolution reconstruction method using waveform representation and multi-layer perceptron (MLP) for image processing. Firstly, we partition the original image and its down-sampled version into multiple patches and introduce WaveBlock to process these patches. WaveBlock represents patches as waveform functions with amplitude and phase and extracts representative feature representations by dynamically adjusting phase terms between tokens and fixed weights. Next, we fuse the extracted features through a feature fusion block and finally reconstruct the image using sub-pixel convolution. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that SRWave-MLP performs excellently in both quantitative evaluation metrics and visual quality while having significantly fewer parameters than state-of-the-art efficient super-resolution methods.

Patients with mild traumatic brain injury have a diverse clinical presentation, and the underlying pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Magnetic resonance imaging is a non-invasive technique that has been widely utilized to investigate neurobiological markers after mild traumatic brain injury. This approach has emerged as a promising tool for investigating the pathogenesis of mild traumatic brain injury. Graph theory is a quantitative method of analyzing complex networks that has been widely used to study changes in brain structure and function. However, most previous mild traumatic brain injury studies using graph theory have focused on specific populations, with limited exploration of simultaneous abnormalities in structural and functional connectivity. Given that mild traumatic brain injury is the most common type of traumatic brain injury encountered in clinical practice, further investigation of the patient characteristics and evolution of structural and functional connectivity is critical. In the present study, we explored whether abnormal structural and functional connectivity in the acute phase could serve as indicators of longitudinal changes in imaging data and cognitive function in patients with mild traumatic brain injury. In this longitudinal study, we enrolled 46 patients with mild traumatic brain injury who were assessed within 2 weeks of injury, as well as 36 healthy controls. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging data were acquired for graph theoretical network analysis. In the acute phase, patients with mild traumatic brain injury demonstrated reduced structural connectivity in the dorsal attention network. More than 3 months of follow-up data revealed signs of recovery in structural and functional connectivity, as well as cognitive function, in 22 out of the 46 patients. Furthermore, better cognitive function was associated with more efficient networks. Finally, our data indicated that small-worldness in the acute stage could serve as a predictor of longitudinal changes in connectivity in patients with mild traumatic brain injury. These findings highlight the importance of integrating structural and functional connectivity in understanding the occurrence and evolution of mild traumatic brain injury. Additionally, exploratory analysis based on subnetworks could serve a predictive function in the prognosis of patients with mild traumatic brain injury.

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent malignancy and there is a lack of effective biomarkers for HCC diagnosis. Living organisms are complex, and different omics molecules interact with each other to implement various biological functions. Genomics and metabolomics, which are the top and bottom of systems biology, play an important role in HCC clinical management. Fatty acid metabolism is associated with malignancy, prognosis, and immune phenotype in cancer, which is a potential hallmark in malignant tumors. In this study, the genes and metabolites related to fatty acid metabolism were thoroughly investigated by a dynamic network construction algorithm named EWS-DDA for the early diagnosis and prognosis of HCC. Three gene ratios and eight metabolite ratios were identified by EWS-DDA as potential biomarkers for HCC clinical management. Further analysis using biological analysis, statistical analysis and document validation in the discovery and validation sets suggested that the selected potential biomarkers had great clinical prognostic value and helped to achieve effective early diagnosis of HCC. Experimental results suggested that in-depth evaluation of fatty acid metabolism from different omics viewpoints can facilitate the further understanding of pathological alterations associated with HCC characteristics, improving the performance of early diagnosis and clinical prognosis.

Periodontitis drives irreversible destruction of periodontal tissue and is prone to exacerbating inflammatory disorders. Systemic immunomodulatory management continues to be an attractive approach in periodontal care, particularly within the context of ‘predictive, preventive, and personalized’ periodontics. The present study incorporated genetic proxies identified through genome-wide association studies for circulating immune cells and periodontitis into a comprehensive Mendelian randomization (MR) framework. Univariable MR, multivariable MR, subgroup analysis, reverse MR, and Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) were utilized to investigate the causal relationships. Furthermore, transcriptome-wide association study and colocalization analysis were deployed to pinpoint the underlying genes. Consequently, the MR study indicated a causal association between circulating neutrophils, natural killer T cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and an elevated risk of periodontitis. MR-BMA analysis revealed that neutrophils were the primary contributors to periodontitis. The high-confidence genes S100A9 and S100A12, located on 1q21.3, could potentially serve as immunomodulatory targets for neutrophil-mediated periodontitis. These findings hold promise for early diagnosis, risk assessment, targeted prevention, and personalized treatment of periodontitis. Considering the marginal association observed in our study, further research is required to comprehend the biological underpinnings and ascertain the clinical relevance thoroughly.

Summary: Background: Food is crucial for maintaining vital human and animal activities. Disorders in appetite control can lead to various metabolic disturbances. Alterations in the gut microbial composition can affect appetite and energy metabolism. While alterations in the gut microbiota have been observed in high-temperature and high-humidity (HTH) environments, the relationship between the gut microbiota during HTH and appetite remains unclear. Methods: We utilised an artificial climate box to mimic HTH environments, and established a faecal bacteria transplantation (FMT) mouse model. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis was used to further confirm the causal relationship between gut microbiota and appetite or appetite-related hormones. Findings: We found that, in the eighth week of exposure to HTH environments, mice showed a decrease in food intake and body weight, and there were significant changes in the intestinal microbiota compared to the control group. After FMT, we observed similar changes in food intake, body weight, and gut bacteria. Appetite-related hormones, including ghrelin, glucagon-like peptide-1, and insulin, were reduced in DH (mice exposed to HTH conditions) and DHF (FMT from mice exposed to HTH environments for 8 weeks), while the level of peptide YY initially increased and then decreased in DH and increased after FMT. Moreover, MR analysis further confirmed that these changes in the intestinal microbiota could affect appetite or appetite-related hormones. Interpretation: Together, our data suggest that the gut microbiota is closely associated with appetite suppression in HTH. These findings provide novel insights into the effects of HTH on appetite. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.

Acting as a growth regulator, Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is an important phytohormone that can be produced by several Bacillus species. However, few studies have been published on the comprehensive evaluation of the strains for practical applications and the effects of selenium species on their IAA-producing ability. The present study showed the selenite reduction strain Bacillus altitudinis LH18, which is capable of producing selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) at a high yield in a cost-effective manner. Bio-SeNPs were systematically characterized by using DLS, zeta potential, SEM, and FTIR. The results showed that these bio-SeNPs were small in particle size, homogeneously dispersed, and highly stable. Significantly, the IAA-producing ability of strain was differently affected under different selenium species. The addition of SeNPs and sodium selenite resulted in IAA contents of 221.7 µg/mL and 91.01 µg/mL, respectively, which were 3.23 and 1.33 times higher than that of the control. This study is the first to examine the influence of various selenium species on the IAA-producing capacity of Bacillus spp., providing a theoretical foundation for the enhancement of the IAA-production potential of microorganisms.

The worldwide outbreak of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) has become a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC). Severe monkeypox virus infection can be fatal, however, effective therapeutic methods are yet to be developed. Mice were immunized with A35R protein and A29L protein of MPXV, and the binding and neutralizing activities of the immune sera against poxvirus-associated antigens and viruses were identified. A29L protein and A35R protein-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were generated and their antiviral activities of these mAbs were characterized in vitro and in vivo. Immunization with the MPXV A29L protein and A35R protein induced neutralizing antibodies against the orthopoxvirus in mice. None of the mAbs screened in this study against A35R could effectively neutralize the vaccinia virus (VACV), while three mAbs against A29L protein, 9F8, 3A1 and 2D1 were confirmed to have strong broad binding and neutralizing activities against orthopoxvirus, among which 9F8 showed the best neutralizing activity. 9F8, 3A1, and 2D1 recognized different epitopes on MPXV A29L protein, showing synergistic antiviral activity in vitro against the VACV Tian Tan and WR strains; the best activity was observed when the three antibodies were combined. In the vivo antiviral prophylactic and therapeutic experiments, 9F8 showed complete protective activity, whereas 3A1 and 2D1 showed partial protective activity. Similarly, the three antibodies showed synergistic antiviral protective activity against the two VACVs. In conclusion, three mAbs recognized different epitopes on MPXV A29L protein were developed and showed synergistic effects against orthopoxvirus.

【Objective】Taking the lower reaches of Danshui River, a major regulated river in Guangdong Province, as the research object, the temporal and spatial dynamic changes of pollutants in its main tributaries were investigated.【Method】Through the method of remote sensing image interpretation combined with field investigation, monitoring points were arranged for different land use function areas in tributary basins of the lower reaches of the Danshui River in Guangdong Province, and monthly field monitoring of water quality in cross sections was carried out. Single factor evaluation method, comprehensive pollution index method and anomaly coefficient method were used to evaluate and analyze the spatio-temporal variation characteristics of water quality.【Result】In the main tributaries of the lower reaches of the Danshui River, except for Maxi River, the monitoring indexes of the catchment sections of other tributaries were significantly higher than those of the source water quality, and TN was the main pollution factor. During the study period, the NH4+-N compliance rate increased from 69.70% to 79.17%, and the COD compliance rate increased from 68.94% to 70.08%.In terms of annual variation, the fluctuation of the comprehensive pollution index of the Maxi River was the most stable, and the fluctuation of the Dali River was more severe, which was obviously higher in January, April, November and December compared with other months. The contribution rate of NH4+-N in the Dali River accounted for 15%-37%, and the TN was an important water pollutant in the Dali River. The TN pollution index in dry period was significantly higher than that in wet period, however, the TP pollution index was slightly lower than that in wet period. In general, the comprehensive pollution index of each tributary in the dry period was higher than that in the wet period. Spatially, the water quality of the west bank tributaries of the Danshui River was better than that of the east bank. Industrial zone, urban living area and rural residential area had a great impact on the TN, NH4+-N and TP flowing through the river section, respectively.【Conclusion】In the lower reaches of the Danshui River, the water quality of the Maxi River on the west bank is generally better, while that of the Dakeng River, the Shatian River and the Dali River on the east bank is relatively poor. The pollution indexes of various tributaries have no obvious change rules during the year, and the pollution indexes of the river reaches near industrial, urban and rural residential areas are higher than those of other river reaches.

Feature selection aims to select crucial features to improve classification accuracy in machine learning and data mining. In this paper, a new binary grasshopper optimization algorithm using time-varying Gaussian transfer functions (BGOA-TVG) is proposed for feature selection. Compared with the traditional S-shaped and V-shaped transfer functions, the proposed Gaussian time-varying transfer functions have the characteristics of a fast convergence speed and a strong global search capability to convert a continuous search space to a binary one. The BGOA-TVG is tested and compared to S-shaped and V-shaped binary grasshopper optimization algorithms and five state-of-the-art swarm intelligence algorithms for feature selection. The experimental results show that the BGOA-TVG has better performance in UCI, DEAP, and EPILEPSY datasets for feature selection.

High-specific-energy batteries with long-lifespan are the development aspiration for energy storage applications. Metal electrodes with high specific capacity and low reduction potential are potential candidates for next-generation high-specific-energy batteries. Nevertheless, the stability of the metal electrode batteries is constantly suffered from the unstable interface issue during the plating/stripping process, such as dendrite formation, dynamic evolution of solid electrolyte interphase, and other accompanied side reactions. To solve these challenges, numerous researches have been intensively studied based on the interfacial engineering of metal electrodes, including electrode configuration optimization, interfacial chemistry regulation and solid–solid interface construction, and the recent progress is elaborately introduced in this paper. Nevertheless, the dendrite issues cannot be entirely prohibited in solid metal electrodes, which motivate the search for potential alternatives. Liquid-metal electrodes with completely reversible structural changes and high mass transfer rate are rendered as an effective approach to solve the dendrite problem. Therefore, the development of liquid metal electrode batteries is reviewed in this paper, in which the interfacial issues are explicated and some commendable achievements are summarized. In the end, the implementation of interfacial engineering and the development roadmap of the metal electrode batteries are prospected.

Abstract Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant, nearly accounting for 30–50% of stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment. TAMs exhibit an immunosuppressive M2-like phenotype in advanced cancer, which plays a crucial role in tumor growth, invasion and migration, angiogenesis and immunosuppression. Consequently, the TAM-targeting therapies are particularly of significance in anti-cancer strategies. The application of TAMs as anti-cancer targets is expected to break through traditional tumor-associated therapies and achieves favorable clinical effect. However, the heterogeneity of TAMs makes the strategy of targeting TAMs variable and uncertain. Discovering the subset specificity of TAMs might be a future option for targeting TAMs therapy. Herein, the review focuses on highlighting the different modalities to modulate TAM’s functions, including promoting the phagocytosis of TAMs, TAMs depletion, blocking TAMs recruitment, TAMs reprogramming and suppressing immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We also discuss about several ways to improve the efficacy of TAM-targeting therapy from the perspective of combination therapy and specificity of TAMs subgroups.

Soft carbons have attracted extensive interests as competitive anodes for fast-charging sodium-ion batteries (SIBs); however, the high-rate performance is still restricted by their large ion migration barriers and sluggish reaction kinetics. Herein, we show a molecular design approach toward the fabrication of nitrogen and phosphorus codoped mesoporous soft carbon (NPSC). The key to this strategy lies in the chemical cross-linking reaction between polyphosphoric acid and p-phenylenediamine, associated with pyrolysis induced in-situ self-activation that creates mesoporous structures and rich heteroatoms within the carbon matrix. Thanks to the enlarged interlayer spacing, reduced ion diffusion length, and plentiful active sites, the obtained NPSC delivers a superb rate capacity of 215 mAh g−1 at 10 A g−1 and an ultralong cycle life of 4,700 cycles at 5 A g−1. Remarkably, the full cell shows 99% capacity retention during 100 continuous cycles, and maximum energy and power densities of 191 Wh kg−1 and 9.2 kW kg−1, respectively. We believe that such a synthetic protocol could pave a novel venue to develop soft carbons with unique properties for advanced SIBs.

Background. The pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) is complex and there is no specific drug for treatment. The aim of this study was to identify the molecular targets of OA therapy, focusing on the expression and biological functions of miR-182-5p and its target genes in OA. Methods. miR-182-5p and fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) were overexpressed or knocked down in IL-1β-induced chondrocytes. An OA knee model was performed by surgically destroying the medial meniscus. The gene expression of miR-182-5p and FGF9 was calculated. The protein FGF9 was tested by western blotting. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8), plate cloning assay, and flow cytometry were conducted to evaluate cell proliferation and apoptosis. The expression of inflammatory factors, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, and interleukin (IL)-8, was evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Dual-luciferase reporter assays validated the targeting relationship between miR-182-5p and FGF9. Hematoxylin–eosin (HE) and safranin O-fast Green (S–O) staining were utilized to access cartilage damage. Ki67 expression in cartilage was detected using immunohistochemistry (IHC). TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays were used to calculate the apoptosis rate of cartilage. Results. The expression of miR-182-5p was upregulated, and FGF9 was downregulated in the IL-1β-induced chondrocytes. OA chondrocytes proliferation ability in the miR-182-5p mimics group was decreased, and the apoptosis rate and inflammatory factor were increased. Transfection with miR-182-5p inhibitor increased the proliferative ability and decreased the apoptosis rate in the IL-1β-induced chondrocytes. Transfection with miR-182-5p inhibitor reversed IL-1β-induced inflammatory factor release in chondrocytes. Targeted binding sites existed between miR-182-5p and FGF9. After overexpression of FGF9, the miR-182-5p effect on OA chondrocytes was reversed. The hyaline cartilage thickness and proteoglycan content decreased in OA rats, and this was reversed by miR-182-5p inhibitor treatment. Conclusions. miR-182-5p expression levels were increased in OA chondrocytes and regulated chondrocyte proliferation, apoptosis, and inflammation by targeting FGF9. miR-182-5p is a potential gene for OA treatment.

Abstract Background To explore the genetic and immunophenotyping heterogeneities between patients with intrapulmonary metastasis (IPM) or multiple primary lung cancer (MPLC). Methods Whole exome sequencing (WES) and transcriptome sequencing (RNA‐seq) were performed on the tissue and blood samples of IPM and MPLC patients to comprehensively analyze the clonal evolution, molecular typing and immunophenotyping. Results There was no significant difference in genetic mutation, tumor mutational burden (TMB) value and mutant allele tumor heterogeneity (MATH) value between IPM and MPLC patients. Notably, the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) appeared in all IPM patients, while there was also no significant difference between the two groups. In addition, expression of immune checkpoint‐related genes including CTLA‐4, BTLA, TIGIT and HAVCR2 in the MPLC group was significantly higher than those in IPM group. At the same time, 86 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed between IPM and MPLC patients with transcriptome sequencing, of which 56 DEGs were upregulated and 30 were downregulated in the IPM group compared with the MPLC group. The cluster analysis revealed that the 86 DEGs could be distinguished in IPM and MPLC samples. Moreover, only the infiltration levels of CD56dim natural killer cells in the IPM group was significantly higher than that in the MPLC group, and the infiltration levels of the remaining 27 immune cell subsets were similar in both groups. Conclusions IPM and MPLC are roughly similar in genetic and immune characteristics indicating that genomics alone may not be able to effectively distinguish between IPM and MPLC, which still needs to be comprehensively evaluated with clinical manifestations, imaging, and pathological characteristics.

The accurate assessment of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and associated nutrient fluxes plays a significant role in water resources management and ecological environment protection in the coastal area. Currently, Liaodong Bay has become one of the most polluted marine areas in China. However, the nutrient fluxes carried by the SGD and its environmental effects have not yet been thoroughly reported in eastern Liaodong Bay, China. In this study, the distribution of 224Ra/223Ra activity ratio and its influencing factors under the geochemical conditions were explored. The activity of radium was affected by the water type and the geochemical factors. The radium isotopes in seawater were positively correlated with the ratios of Mg2+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ but negatively correlated with salinity and SO42−. The average apparent water age was evaluated to be 13.0 days. Furthermore, based on the radium mass balance model, the total average SGD flux was calculated to be 1.31 × 108 m3 day–1. The nutrient fluxes carried by the SGD were 7.16 × 107, 1.01 × 106, 1.61 × 107, 0.92 × 106, and 5.41 × 107 mol day−1 for DIN, DIP, NH4+, NO2−, and NO3−, respectively. The nutrient inputs through the SGD have an average DIN : DIP ratio of 70, which was able to seriously affect the ecological environment. The SGD-derived nutrient fluxes were higher than the local river input, which demonstrated that the SGD was a major source of nutrients affecting regional marine ecosystems.

Four P4-ATPase flippase genes, VdDrs2, VdNeo1, VdP4-4, and VdDnf1 were identified in Verticillium dahliae, one of the most devastating phytopathogenic fungi in the world. Knock out of VdDrs2, VdNeo1, and VdP4-4, or knock down of VdDnf1 significantly decreased the pathogenicity of the mutants in cotton. Among the mutants, the greatest decrease in pathogenicity was observed in ΔVdDrs2. VdDrs2 was localized to plasma membrane, vacuoles, and trans-Golgi network (TGN). In vivo observation showed that the infection of the cotton by ΔVdDrs2 was significantly delayed. The amount of two known Verticillium toxins, sulfacetamide, and fumonisin B1 in the fermentation broth produced by the ΔVdDrs2 strain was significantly reduced, and the toxicity of the crude Verticillium wilt toxins to cotton cells was attenuated. In addition, the defect of VdDrs2 impaired the synthesis of melanin and the formation of microsclerotia, and decreased the sporulation of V. dahliae. Our data indicate a key role of P4 ATPases-associated vesicle transport in toxin secretion of disease fungi and support the importance of mycotoxins in the pathogenicity of V. dahliae.

The distribution and evolution of C4 plants are closely related to climate change. However, with the development of agriculture, to what extent human activities affect the natural environment and play an important role in controlling C3/C4 vegetation remains unclear. In this study, the carbon isotopic composition of black carbon (BC) extracted from sediments in core CSDP-1 in the western South Yellow Sea was used to reconstruct the evolution of C3/C4 vegetation in the Yellow River Basin since ∼7 ka BP. The results show that the warm and humid climate in northern China was more suitable for C4 plant growth during the middle Holocene. The relative abundance of C4 plants in the source region, the Yellow River Basin, decreased with lower temperature and precipitation from 7 to 3 ka BP. However, after ∼3 ka BP, the inherent relationship between climate and vegetation growth decoupled, with rapid expansion of C4 plants under cooling and drying climates. We suggest that strengthened human activity (including deforestation and cultivating C4 crops) replaced climate as the main factor affecting C3/C4 vegetation during the late Holocene.

To solve object detection issues in infrared images, such as a low recognition rate and a high false alarm rate caused by long distances, weak energy, and low resolution, we propose a region-free object detector named YOLO-FIR for infrared (IR) images with YOLOv5 core by compressing channels, optimizing parameters, etc. An improved infrared image object detection network, YOLO-FIRI, is further developed. Specifically, while designing the feature extraction network, the cross-stage-partial-connections (CSP) module in the shallow layer is expanded and iterated to maximize the use of shallow features. In addition, an improved attention module is introduced in residual blocks to focus on objects and suppress background. Moreover, multiscale detection is added to improve small object detection accuracy. Experimental results on the KAIST and FLIR datasets show that YOLO-FIRI demonstrates a qualitative improvement compared with the state-of-the-art detectors. Compared with YOLOv4, the mean average precision (mAP50) of YOLO-FIRI is increased by 21% on the KAIST dataset, the speed is reduced by 62%, the parameters are decreased by 89%, the weight size is reduced by more than 94%, and the computational costs are reduced by 84%. Compared with YOLO-FIR, YOLO-FIRI has an approximately 5% to 20% improvement in AP, AR (average recall), mAP50, F1, and mAP50:75. Furthermore, due to the shortcomings of high noise and weak features, image fusion can be applied to image preprocessing as a data enhancement method by fusing visible and infrared images based on a convolutional neural network.

The all-solid-state lithium battery (ASSLIB) is one of the key points of future lithium battery technology development. Because solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) have higher safety performance than liquid electrolytes, and they can promote the application of Li-metal anodes to endow batteries with higher energy density. Glass-ceramic SSEs with excellent ionic conductivity and mechanical strength are one of the main focuses of SSE research. In this review paper, we discuss recent advances in the synthesis and characterization of glass-ceramic SSEs. Additionally, some discussions on the interface problems commonly found in glass-ceramic SSEs and their solutions are provided. At the end of this review, some drawbacks of glass-ceramic SSEs are summarized, and future development directions are prospected. We hope that this review paper can help the development of glass-ceramic solid-state electrolytes.

White matter (WM) disruption is an important determinant of cognitive impairment after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but traditional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) shows some limitations in assessing WM damage. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) show advantages over DTI in this respect. Therefore, we used these three diffusion models to investigate complex WM changes in the acute stage after mTBI. From 32 mTBI patients and 31 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls, we calculated eight diffusion metrics based on DTI (fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and mean diffusivity), DKI (mean kurtosis), and NODDI (orientation dispersion index, volume fraction of intracellular water (Vic), and volume fraction of the isotropic diffusion compartment). We used tract-based spatial statistics to identify group differences at the voxel level, and we then assessed the correlation between diffusion metrics and cognitive function. We also performed subgroup comparisons based on loss of consciousness. Patients showed WM abnormalities and cognitive deficit. And these two changes showed positive correlation. The correlation between Vic of the splenium of the corpus callosum and Digit Symbol Substitution Test scores showed the smallest p-value (p = 0.000, r = 0.481). We concluded that WM changes, especially in the splenium of the corpus callosum, correlate to cognitive deficit in this study. Furthermore, the high voxel count of NODDI results and the consistency of mean kurtosis and the volume fraction of intracellular water in previous studies and our study showed the functional complementarity of DKI and NODDI to DTI.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for crop production and a key source of nonpoint pollution in agroecosystems. In this study, we sought to analyze P levels and the factors affecting soil P availability, via P adsorption, in a typical field system that is characterized by the year-round cultivation of vegetables. A total of 190 sites were sampled from vegetable fields in Guangdong Province, South China. Within the research area, average concentrations of 124.49 mg P kg-1 and 1.55 g P kg-1 were recorded for available P (AP) and total P (TP), respectively, which are 8.53- and 1.78-fold higher, respectively, than the corresponding values recorded in 1980. The determined P adsorption maximum (Qm) averaged at 488.38 mg kg-1, which represents a reduction of 16% compared to the values obtained four decades ago. Accumulations of both TP and AP were found to be negatively correlated with the soil’s maximum adsorption buffering capacity (MBC), although no significant correlations with the soil binding energies (k) and Qm, were seen. However, soil pH was found to be significantly correlated with k and Qm. Furthermore, both free Mn oxides (Mnd) and silt concentrations in the soil were found to contribute to explaining the variations in Qm. Collectively, the findings of this study provide evidence to indicate that there has been an excessive accumulation of P in the perennial vegetable fields of Guangdong Province over the past four decades, which may have had negative effects on the P supply potential of the soil by reducing the maximum adsorption buffering capacity.

Selenium is an essential microelement required for human health. The biotransformation of selenium nanoparticles has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, little of the literature has investigated the comprehensive evaluation of the strains for practical application and the effect on the functional properties in the existence of Se. The present study showed the selenite reduction strain Bacillus subtilis T5 (up to 200 mM), which could produce high yields of selenium polysaccharides and selenium nanoparticles in an economical and feasible manner. Biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles by B. subtilis T5 were characterized systematically using UV-vis spectroscopy, FTIR, Zeta Potential, DLS, and SEM techniques. The biosynthesized SeNPs exhibited high stability with small particle sizes. B. subtilis T5 also possessed a tolerance to acidic pH and bile salts, high aggregation, negative hemolytic, and superior antioxidant activity, which showed excellent probiotic potential and can be recommended as a potential candidate for the selenium biopharmaceuticals industry. Remarkably, B. subtilis T5 showed that the activity of α-amylase was enhanced with selenite treatment to 8.12 U/mL, 2.72-fold more than the control. The genus Bacillus was first reported to produce both selenium polysaccharides with extremely high Se-content (2.302 g/kg) and significantly enhance the activity to promote α-amylase with selenium treatment. Overall, B. subtilis T5 showed potential as a bio-factory for the biosynthesized SeNPs and organ selenium (selenium polysaccharide), providing an appealing perspective for the biopharmaceutical industry.

In the military field, decision making has become the core of the new operational concept, known as the “kill web”. Although the theory of kill web has been widely recognized by many countries, the decision-making methods for the kill web are still in the early stage. Therefore, there is a need for a new decision-making method for the kill web. Firstly, different from the traditional scheme decision, the kill web is a complex system. The method of complex network provides a new perspective on complex systems, so the kill web was modeled based on complex network. Secondly, the kill web relies on artificial intelligence to provide decision-makers with operation loop solutions, and then decision-makers rely on the experience to make a final decision. However, the current decision-making methods only consider one of the intelligent and human decision-making methods, while the kill web needs to consider both. Hence, we combined intelligent decision making with human decision making through multi-objective optimization and the prospect theory. Finally, we designed a nondominated sorting ant colony genetic algorithm-II (NSACGA-II) to solve large-scale problems, since the kill web is a large-scale system. In addition, an illustrative case was used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model. The results showed that, compared with other classical multi-objective optimization algorithms, the NSACGA-II is superior to other superior algorithms in terms of the hypervolume (HV) and spacing (SP), which verifies the effectiveness of the method and greatly improves the quality of commanders’ decision-making.

Combining iron and copper ores can generate an oxygen carrier that has a synergic effect of high temperature resistance and high reactivity. In this work, typical cements available in the market were studied as binders to bind magnetite and chalcopyrite to develop a suitable oxygen carrier for chemical-looping combustion (CLC). A first selection step suggested that an aluminate cement, namely CA70, could favor the generation of oxygen carrier particles having good crushing strength, good particle yield, and high reactivity. The CA70-bonded oxygen carrier was then subjected to cyclic tests with CH4, CO, and H2 in reduction and in air oxidation at temperatures of 850, 900, and 950 °C with gas concentrations of 5, 10, 15, and 20% in a batch-fluidized bed reactor. The increase in temperature promoted the fuel conversion. At 950 °C, the conversions of CH4 and CO reached up to 80.4% and 99.2%, respectively. During more than 30 cycles, the oxygen carrier kept a similar reactivity to the fresh carrier and maintained its composition and physical properties. The oxygen transport capacity was maintained at 21–23%, and the phases were CuO, Fe2O3, Al2O3, and minor CaS. In the used sample, some grains were observed, but the morphology was not greatly changed. Agglomeration was absent during all the cycles, except for the deep reduction with H2.

Abstract Background MYB-CC transcription factors (TFs) genes have been demonstrated to be involved in the response to inorganic phosphate (Pi) starvation and regulate some Pi-starvation-inducible genes. However, their role in drought stress has not been investigated in bread wheat. In this study, the TaMYBsm3 genes, including TaMYBsm3-A, TaMYBsm3-B, and TaMYBsm3-D, encoding MYB-CC TF proteins in bread wheat, were isolated to investigate the possible molecular mechanisms related to drought-tolerance in plants. Results TaMYBsm3-A, TaMYBsm3-B, and TaMYBsm3-D were mapped on chromosomes 6A, 6B, and 6D in wheat, respectively. TaMYBsm3 genes belonged to MYB-CC TFs, containing a conserved MYB DNA-binding domain and a conserved coiled–coil domain. TaMYBsm3-D was localized in the nucleus, and the N-terminal region was a transcriptional activation domain. TaMYBsm3 genes were ubiquitously expressed in different tissues of wheat, and especially highly expressed in the stamen and pistil. Under drought stress, transgenic plants exhibited milder wilting symptoms, higher germination rates, higher proline content, and lower MDA content comparing with the wild type plants. P5CS1, DREB2A, and RD29A had significantly higher expression in transgenic plants than in wild type plants. Conclusion TaMYBsm3-A, TaMYBsm3-B, and TaMYBsm3-D were associated with enhanced drought tolerance in bread wheat. Overexpression of TaMYBsm3-D increases the drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis through up-regulating P5CS1, DREB2A, and RD29A.

The increasingly available large-scale bibliographic data that generate a heterogeneous network provide opportunities to detect, track, and predict the evolution of science. Recently, many efforts have been devoted to quantifying the impact of scientific papers within different citation time windows. However, the complex patterns of the citation network make it difficult to predict future citations on the basis of a short time window. Accordingly, we present a data-centric methodology to predict long-term scientific impact by combining numerous bibliographic features and convolutional neural network. More specifically, we first expand the input features from the annual citation records to the features of the whole heterogeneous bibliographic information network that completely represents the topology structure of academic activities. Then, a convolutional neural network model is designed to capture the complex nonlinear relationships between the early network features and the final cumulative citation count. Finally, we conduct an experiment on papers of Markov Chain from 1980 to 1985. The result shows that the prediction performance can be improved by 5% to baseline models under the same problem definition and with the same dataset. Meanwhile, the long-term scientific impacts are strongly correlated with its recognition by authoritative authors or venues in the early stage.

An Li1.3Al0.3SnxTi1.7−x(PO4)3 (LATP-xSn) ceramic solid electrolyte was prepared by Sn doping via a solid phase method. The results showed that adding an Sn dopant with a larger ionic radius in a concentration of x = 0.35 enabled one to equivalently substitute Ti sites in the LATP crystal structure to the maximum extent. The uniform Sn doping could produce a stable LATP structure with small grain size and improved relative density. The lattice distortion induced by Sn doping also modified the transport channels of Li ions, which promoted the increase of ionic conductivity from 5.05 × 10−5 to 4.71 × 10−4 S/cm at room temperature. The SPE/LATP-0.35Sn/SPE composite solid electrolyte with a sandwich structure was prepared by coating, which had a high ionic conductivity of 5.9 × 10−5 S/cm at room temperature, a wide electrochemical window of 4.66 V vs. Li/Li+, and a good lithium-ion migration number of 0.38. The Li||Li symmetric battery test results revealed that the composite solid electrolyte could stably perform for 500 h at 60 °C under the current density of 0.2 mA/cm2, indicating its good interface stability with metallic lithium. Moreover, the analysis of the all-solid-state LiFePO4||SPE/LATP-0.35Sn/SPE||Li battery showed that the composite solid electrolyte had good cycling stability and rate performance. Under the conditions of 60 °C and 0.2 C, stable accumulation up to 200 cycles was achieved at a capacity retention ratio of 90.5% and a coulombic efficiency of about 100% after cycling test.

In this paper, a dual-layer grid comprehensive resource optimizing allocation model is proposed, which considers power quality controlling and load optimization scheduling under large-scale application of distributed electric heating. The upper-layer planning aims to minimize the active power loss of the distribution network, the minimum voltage deviation, and the minimum investment cost of the power quality control device. The capacity configuration of the management device and the number and location of the commutation switch configuration were determined. The lower layer is load optimization scheduling, with the minimum number of action switches and the minimum three-phase imbalance as the planning goals, and the decision variable is the state of the commutation switch. By co-simulation through Matlab and OpenDSS, the improved particle swarm algorithm and genetic algorithm are used for multi-objective optimization and the solution. In this way, the capacity configuration of reactive power compensation and active filter, as well as the installation position and switch state of the commutation switch are optimized and managed. Finally, taking the rural low-voltage distribution network in the Tongzhou District as an example, simulations considering the variation in the distributed electric heating penetration rate in the range of 20–80% are carried out. The calculation example results show that the proposed algorithm is effective, can effectively improve the power factor, reduces the harmonic content of the distribution network and the three-phase unbalance, and significantly improves the distribution network voltage.

Our team discovered a moderate SphK1 inhibitor, SAMS10 (IC50 = 9.8 μM), which was screened by computer-assisted screening. In this study, we developed a series of novel diaryl derivatives with improved antiproliferative activities by modifying the structure of the lead compound SAMS10. A total of 50 new compounds were synthesized. Among these compounds, the most potent compound, named CHJ04022Rb, has significant anticancer activity in melanoma A375 cell line (IC50 = 2.95 μM). Further underlying mechanism studies indicated that CHJ04022R exhibited inhibition effect against PI3K/NF-κB signaling pathways, inhibited the migration of A375 cells, promoted apoptosis and exerted antiproliferative effect by inducing G2/M phase arrest in A375 cells. Furthermore, acute toxicity experiment indicated CHJ04022R exhibited good safety in vivo. Additionally, it showed a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the growth of xenograft tumor in nude mice. Therefore, CHJ04022R may be a potential candidate for the treatment of melanoma.

The water components affecting turbidity are complex and changeable, and the spectral response mechanism of each water quality parameter is different. Therefore, this study mainly aimed at the turbidity monitoring by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral technology, and establishes a set of turbidity retrieval models through the artificial control experiment, and verifies the model’s accuracy through UAV flight and water sample data in the same period. The results of this experiment can also be extended to different inland waters for turbidity retrieval. Retrieval of turbidity values of small inland water bodies can provide support for the study of the degree of water pollution. We collected the images and data of aquaculture ponds and irrigation ditches in Dawa District, Panjin City, Liaoning Province. Twenty-nine standard turbidity solutions with different concentration gradients (concentration from 0 to 360 NTU—the abbreviation of Nephelometric Turbidity Unit, which stands for scattered turbidity.) were established through manual control and we simultaneously collected hyperspectral data from the spectral values of standard solutions. The sensitive band to turbidity was obtained after analyzing the spectral information. We established four kinds of retrieval, including the single band, band ratio, normalized ratio, and the partial least squares (PLS) models. We selected the two models with the highest R2 for accuracy verification. The band ratio model and PLS model had the highest accuracy, and R2 was, respectively, 0.65 and 0.72. The hyperspectral image data obtained by UAV were combined with the PLS model, which had the highest R2 to estimate the spatial distribution of water turbidity. The turbidity of the water areas in the study area was 5–300 NTU, and most of which are 5–80 NTU. It shows that the PLS models can retrieve the turbidity with high accuracy of aquaculture ponds, irrigation canals, and reservoirs in Dawa District of Panjin City, Liaoning Province. The experimental results are consistent with the conclusions of the field investigation.

System of systems (SoS) architecting is a process to bring systems together as a network structure for specific goals with unique capabilities and the cumulative capabilities achieved from their interoperability. How the capability is delivered across the network is crucial for capability-based planning mission. To meet diverse capability needs by architecting different types of systems into a network, we formulate and analyze an SoS architecting problem with network theory as a multi-objective optimization model. More specifically, we construct a three-step capability delivery model from a local and globe perspective to describe the positive and negative consequences caused by system interactions. A three-level response model with a feasibility concept is proposed as the conversion of the capability value to meet different scale combat needs and balance the deployment of new and old weapons. And then, certain intelligent optimization algorithms incorporated with the proposed model is designed to approximate Pareto fronts of three response levels, respectively. Results from a set of numerical studies demonstrate that an efficient structure with fewer nodes performs better than a full set structure, and the deployment of a system should be a comprehensive consideration of its overall structural influence rather than single system performance. In addition, four SoS-level attributes are also defined and calculated as supplements to make the value of solution architecture more comprehensive.

Eutrophication is considered to be a significant threat to estuaries and coastal waters. Various localized studies on the world’s oceans have recognized and confirmed that the Forel-Ule Color Index (FUI) or optical measurements are proportional to several water quality variables based on the relatively clear Chl-a-based waters. However, the application potential of FUI in the turbid estuary with complex optics has not been explored. In this study, we selected the coastal waters in the northern Liaodong Bay as the study area, using the field hyperspectral reflectances (Rrs) collected in 2018 to correct the hue angle and verify the Sentinel-2 images algorithm of FUI by in situ FUI in 2019–2020. The results show that there is a good agreement (R2 = 0.81, RMSE = 1.32, MAPE = 1.25%). Trophic Level Index (TLI) was used to evaluate the eutrophication status. The relationship between the in situ FUI and TLI collected in 2018 was discussed based on the difference in the dominant components of waters, while a number of non-algae suspended solids in the estuaries and coastal waters led to the overestimation of eutrophication based on FUI. The R(560)–R(704) (when FUI is between 11 and 15) and R(665)/R(704) (when FUI is between 19 and 21) was employed to distinguish total suspended matter (TSM)-dominated systems in the FUI-based eutrophication assessment. Based on the analysis, a new approach to assessing the eutrophication of coastal waters in Liaodong Bay was developed, which proved to have good accuracy by the field data in 2019 and 2020 (accuracy is 79%). Finally, we used Sentinel-2 images from Google Earth from 2019 to 2020 and locally processed data from 2018 to analyze the FUI spatial distribution and spatial and temporal statistics of the trophic status in the northern Liaodong Bay. The results show that the northern Liaodong Bay always presented the distribution characteristics of high inshore and low outside, high in the southeast and low in the northwest. The nutrient status is the worst in spring and summer.

Abstract Background The plasmonic breathing modes of a metallic nanodisc are dark plasmonic modes and thus also have the advantage of much smaller radiation loss. These modes emerged previously in electron energy loss spectroscopy experiments and were then pursued with optical excitation methods. Results In this paper, through the finite element method type numerical simulations, we show evidence of the pure excitation of these modes under the illumination of two counter-propagating, radially-polarized optical beams. The obtained near-field spectrum of a single Au or Ag nanodisc shows the plasmonic resonant peaks at which the electric field distributions, as well as the plasmonic dispersion relationship both clearly exhibit the characteristics of the plasmonic breathing modes. Conclusion We expect that the method that we have proposed, due to operating conveniently in the manner of far field excitation, will open many possibilities in practical applications based on the interaction between a single metal nanodisc with the radially polarized optical beam or between a metal nanodisc array with the beam array.