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This study aimed to explore the curative effect of curcumin on liver fibrosis and its correlation with the gut–liver axis in animal models. Histological staining was utilized to conduct histological analysis of the liver and intestine. An automatic biochemical analyzer or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system was utilized for analyzing the biochemical indexes in mice. Western blotting was employed to examine the level of relevant proteins. Furthermore, 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing was performed to explore the impact of curcumin on intestinal microorganisms in rats with liver fibrosis. Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometry was utilized to analyze the effect of curcumin on rat feces metabolites. Our results showed that curcumin reduced the formation of collagen fibers caused by carbon tetrachloride in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, curcumin was able to restore intestinal permeability in rats with liver fibrosis. By adopting α diversity analysis (Chao 1 index, Shannon index, and Simpson index), we observed that both the diversity and the abundance of intestinal flora in rats with liver fibrosis were increased. The principal component analysis diagram demonstrated that curcumin could enhance the abundance and diversity of intestinal flora, and also restore the composition of model rat flora, which was similar to that in normal rats, thereby correcting the imbalance of flora in rats with liver fibrosis. In addition, curcumin regulated feces metabolites and their signaling pathways, including glycerophospholipid metabolism, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis. Our findings suggest that curcumin exhibits antiliver fibrosis effects, and its antiliver fibrosis effects might correlate with gut–liver axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genuine non‐double‐couple (non‐DC) components of a seismic source, defined here as the non‐DC components that are not due to summation of pure double‐couple (DC) components, provide important insight into special physical processes in non‐earthquake sources such as explosion, volcano eruption and collapse etc. Yet they remain challenging to be resolved. To address the issue and explore the physical mechanism of those special events, we develop a waveform‐polarity‐based moment tensor (WPMT) inversion method and employ it to study physical process in the 2014–2015 Bárðarbunga volcano event sequence. The WPMT method incorporates P‐wave polarity data and seismic waveforms in the source inversion, designs a source simplicity test to check possible complex rupture in the seismic source, and employs a simulated annealing algorithm to search the best source solution. The simplicity test checks consistency of the source processes in the initiation stage of the event and the major energy release process of the event, thus ensuring that the inferred non‐DC components are genuine to the seismic source. Real event and synthetic tests indicate that the WPMT method can identify and resolve genuine non‐DC components in a seismic source. The WPMT inversions of the Bárðarbunga sequence yield many genuine non‐DC source components and reveal that the eruptions are accompanied by seismic activities in depths of 1–5 km with magma migrations out of chambers, collapses of conduits, failures of normal faults, and a magma recharge at a depth of 9 km accompanied by a failure on a nearby normal fault. Plain Language Summary: Special seismic events such as explosion, collapse and volcanic eruption possess source components that are different from fault solutions used to represent a typical tectonic earthquake of simple shear. The identification and quantification of the source components of those special seismic sources thus play an important role in deciphering the physical process during those events. Yet, it remains challenging to resolve the source components of special seismic events due to the ambiguity of distinguishing them from an apparent one due to complex earthquake rupture. We develop a waveform‐polarity‐based moment‐tensor inversion to resolve the source components of a special seismic source and employ the method to study the physical process in the 2014–2015 Bárðarbunga volcano event sequence in Iceland. Real event and synthetic tests confirm method's capability of identifying and constraining the source components of special non‐earthquake events. The study of the Bárðarbunga sequence reveals that the eruptions are accompanied by seismic activities in depths of 1–5 km with magma migrations out of chambers, collapses of conduits, failures of normal faults, and a magma recharge at a depth of 9 km accompanied by a failure on a nearby normal fault. Key Points: We propose a waveform‐polarity‐based moment tensor inversion method to extract non‐double‐couple components of moderate seismic eventsReal event and synthetic tests show the method is effective in distinguishing and resolving genuine non‐double‐couple componentsMethod application reveals magma activities, conduit collapses and induced earthquakes during the 2014–2015 Bárðarbunga eruptions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of the global population and the increasing urbanization, the urban landscape in China is gradually enriched, and the scale of the landscape that plays a healing role is expanding. However, curing the problem of landscape ecological security is an important part of Homeland security, economic and social sustainable development. We must deal with the relationship between high-quality social development and ecological environment protection on the basis of scientific evaluation. To address this issue, research has provided better data support for feature extraction through image preprocessing. Then the Convolutional neural network in deep learning is trained through a large number of collected measured data. Finally, the pressure state response model is used to evaluate the ecological security of the healing landscape. The results show that the average error of the ground class in 2010 was 13.65%, and the fitting accuracy reached 86.35%, indicating that this method has high accuracy and can be effectively applied in evaluation. Meanwhile, in 2010 and 2019, the average landscape ecological security levels of City A were 7.27 and 6.65, both at a "safe" level, but the overall security level showed a downward trend. It is recommended to optimize the land use pattern in future urban planning and construction, improve the urban landscape ecological security index value, and maintain consistency with the actual situation of the city. This can provide reference for the evaluation model of urban landscape ecological security, and further provide scientific basis and guidance for the ecological civilization construction of urban agglomerations. In subsequent research, the evolution trend of urban landscape ecological security can be taken as the research goal, and finally, guidance on optimizing urban landscape ecological security can be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the optimal nonlinear approximation on the class of functions in Sobolev space in the probabilistic and average case settings. Specifically, we investigate the optimal approximation through the utilization of a set with finite pseudo-dimension, measured by the Kolmogorov probabilistic nonlinear (n , δ) -width (or say, the Kolmogorov probabilistic pseudo- (n , δ) -width). Furthermore, we provide an estimation of the exact asymptotic order of the Kolmogorov probabilistic nonlinear (n , δ) -width and p -average nonlinear n -width on the class of functions in Sobolev space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to identify whether apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) parameters are helpful in distinguishing mesorectal tumor deposits (TD) from metastatic lymph nodes (MLN) in rectal cancer (RC). Methods: Thirty patients (59 lesions, including 30 TD and 29 MLN) with RC who underwent pretreatment-MRI between February 2016 and August 2018 were enrolled. The morphological features, ADC values, and semi-quantitative parameters of DCE-MRI, including relative enhancement (RE), maximum enhancement (ME), maximum relative enhancement (MRE), time to peak (TTP), wash-in rates (WIR), wash-out rates (WOR), brevity of enhancement (BRE), and area under the curve (AUC) were measured on lesions (TD or MLN) and RC. The parameters were compared between TD and MLN, tumor with and without TD group by using Fisher's exact test, independent-samples t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test. The ratio (lesion-to-tumor) of the parameters was compared between TD and MLN. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and binary logistic regression analysis were used to assess the diagnostic ability of single and combined metrics for distinguishing TD from MLN. Results: The morphological features, including size, shape, and border, were significantly different between TD and MLN. TD exhibited significantly lower RE, MRE, RE-ratio, MRE-ratio, ADCmin-ratio, and ADCmean-ratio than MLN. RE-ratio showed the highest AUC (0.749) and accuracy (77.97%) among single parameters. The combination of DCE-MRI and DWI parameters together showed higher diagnostic efficiency (AUC = 0.825). Conclusions: Morphological features, ADC values, and DCE-MRI parameters can preoperatively help distinguish TD from MLN in RC. Key Points: • DWI and DCE-MRI can facilitate early detection and distinguishing mesorectal TD (tumor deposits) from MLN (metastatic lymph nodes) in rectal cancer preoperatively. • TD has some specific morphological features, including relatively larger size, lower short- to long-axis ratio, irregular shape, and ill-defined border on T2-weighted MR images in rectal cancer. • The combination of ADC values and semi-quantitative parameters of DCE-MRI (RE, MRE) can help to improve the diagnostic efficiency of TD in rectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to fuzzify the width problem of classical approximation theory. New concepts of fuzzy Kolmogorov n-width and fuzzy linear n-width are introduced on the basis of α -fuzzy distance which is induced by the fuzzy norm. Furthermore, the relationship between the classical widths in linear normed space and the fuzzy widths in fuzzy linear normed space is discussed. Finally, the exact asymptotic orders of the fuzzy Kolmogorov n-width and fuzzy linear n-width corresponding to a given fuzzy norm in finite-dimensional space and Sobolev space are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has found clinical applications in the evaluation of the central nervous system and has been extensively used to image peripheral neuropathy. However, few studies have focused on lumbosacral nerve root fiber damage in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). The aim of the study was to evaluate whether DTI of the lumbosacral nerve roots can be used to detect DPN. Methods: Thirty-two type 2 diabetic patients with DPN and thirty healthy controls (HCs) were investigated with a 3T MRI scanner. DTI with tractography of the L4, L5, and S1 nerve roots was performed. Anatomical fusion with the axial T2 sequences was used to provide correlating anatomical information. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were measured from tractography images and compared between groups. Diagnostic value was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to explore the correlation between DTI parameters and clinical data and the nerve conduction study (NCS) in the DPN group. Results: In the DPN group, FA was decreased (p < 0.001) and ADC was increased (p < 0.001) compared with the values of the HC group. FA displayed the best diagnostic accuracy, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.716. ADC was positively correlated with HbA1c level (r = 0.379, p = 0.024) in the DPN group. Conclusions: DTI of lumbosacral nerve roots demonstrates appreciable diagnostic accuracy in patients with DPN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impaired rest–activity circadian rhythm has been associated with increased risk for morbidity and mortality. Animals with mutations in clock genes display accelerated aging and shortened life span. Whether impaired rest–activity circadian rhythm is also associated with processes of aging in humans has not been explored. We analyzed accelerometry and physiological data from 7 539 adults participating in the 2011–2014 waves of the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. We used accelerometry data to compute rest–activity rhythm measurements. We used physiological data to compute measurements of biological aging according to 3 published algorithms: Klemera–Doubal method (KDM) Biological Age, PhenoAge, and homeostatic dysregulation (HD). In the models adjusting multiple covariates, participants with higher relative amplitude (RA) and interdaily stability (IS) and lower intradaily variability (IV) exhibited less advanced biological aging indexed by KDM and PhenoAge (effect sizes for 1-quantile increase in these rest–activity measurements ranged from 0.54 to 0.57 "years" for RA, 0.24 to 0.28 "years" for IS, and 0.24 to 0.35 "years" for IV, p s <.001). Similar finding was observed for biological aging indexed by HD, but the significance was limited to RA with 1-quantile increase in RA associated with 0.09 log units decrease in HD (p <.001). The results indicate that blunted rest–activity circadian rhythm is associated with accelerated aging in the general population, suggesting that interventions aiming at enhancing circadian rhythm may be a novel approach for the extension of a healthy life span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine whether rest-activity circadian rhythm parameters can predict all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality in a general adult population of the US. We further compared the mortality predictive performance of these parameters with that of traditional risk factors. This study included 7,252 adults from US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2011–2014, who had wrist accelerometer data obtained at baseline and follow-up status linked to the National Death Index records (2011–2019). During a median of 81 months (interquartile range, 69–94 months) of follow-up, 674 (9.3%) deaths occurred. There were inverse associations between relative amplitude (RA) and all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality with increased quartiles RA associated with lower mortality risk (all P < 0.05). The Hazard Ratios ranged from 0.61 to 0.79. Furthermore, RA outperformed all the tested traditional predictors of all-cause mortality with the exception of age. This study suggests that participants with blunted rest-activity circadian rhythms had a higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality. Future studies will be needed to test whether interventions that regulate rest-activity circadian activity rhythms will improve health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The development of efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water splitting is one of the most promising strategies to achieve the goal of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality. Herein, Ru nanoclusters decorated MoSe 2 nanosheets supported on a Crepis tectorum fluff biomass-derived hollow carbon tube (Ru-MoSe 2 /CMT) are prepared as the HER catalysts in both alkaline and acidic conditions. The Ru modification induces the transformation of MoSe 2 from 2H phase to 1T phase. Benefiting from the strong water dissociation ability of Ru, Ru-MoSe 2 /CMT exhibits a low overpotential of 70 mV with a Tafel slope of 39 mV dec-1 in 1 M KOH. Furthermore, the assembled Ru-MoSe 2 /CMT || RuO 2 system with a low cell voltage of 1.54 V at 10 mA cm−2 exhibits outstanding overall water splitting performance superior to Pt/C || RuO 2 system. The Ru-MoSe 2 /CMT || RuO 2 system also achieves the excellent stability of up to 30 h in 1 M KOH. The synergy effect between Ru and MoSe 2 , as well as the improved electron transfer kinetics provided by the biomass-derived carbon substrate together contribute to the excellent HER activity of Ru-MoSe 2 /CMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian rhythm disruption is associated with immune system disturbance and has been observed in many health problems where chronic-inflammation acts as a major contributor. We aim to examine whether rest-activity circadian rhythm is associated with chronic inflammation using white blood-cell-based inflammatory indices including white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). We analyzed the data from 8089 adults (age≥20) with at least 4 days of validated accelerometer recordings and a valid WBC count from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2014. Non-parametric rest-activity circadian rhythm parameters were derived from the accelerometer recordings. In the models adjusting multiple covariates, a one-quantile increase in relative amplitude (i.e. more robust circadian rhythm) was associated with 1 × 108 cells/L decrease in WBC number (95% CI: 5 × 107 to 1.5 × 108, P <.001), 7 × 107 cells/L decrease in neutrophils (95% CI: 3 × 107 to 1.1 × 108, P =.003) and 15.2 × 109 /L decrease in SII (95% CI: 6 × 109 /L to 20 × 109/L, P =.019). Consistent results were also observed for the association of M10 value and L5 value with these inflammatory indices. Our results indicated that blunted rest-activity circadian rhythm is associated with increased white blood-cell-based inflammatory indices in adults, suggesting interventions aiming at enhancing circadian rhythm by lifestyle programs may be a novel approach to improve the general health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional centralized cloud services face challenges, such as high communication delay, single point of failure, etc. Edge computing is one of distributed computing services in which resources are placed closer to users, and thus is more robust and can reduce communication delay. Although outsourcing data to the edge servers can bring great convenience, it also brings serious security threats. In order to provide image retrieval while ensuring users' data privacy, a privacy-preserving content-based image retrieval scheme in edge environment is proposed. Considering the distributed characteristics of edge environment and the requirement of lightweight computing, we design a secure interaction protocol completed through the collaborative cooperation of two or more edge servers. This scheme not only protects data privacy, but also has low communication overhead and delay as well as low computing complexity, therefore it is more suitable for edge computing environment. Theoretical analysis and experiments show that our scheme has high security, retrieval accuracy and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the transfer learning method of replacing acoustic features with phonetic features has become a new paradigm for end-to-end spoken language recognition. However, these larger transfer learning models always encode too much redundant information. In this paper, we propose a lightweight language recognition decoder based on a phonetic learnable dictionary encoding (PLDE) layer, which is more suitable for phonetic features and achieves better recognition performances while significantly reducing the number of parameters. The lightweight decoder consists of three main parts: (1) a phonetic learnable dictionary with ghost clusters, which improves the traditional LDE pooling layer and enhances the model's ability to model noise with ghost clusters; (2) coarse-grained chunk-level pooling, which can highlight the phone sequence and suppress noise around ghost clusters, and hence reduce their influence to the subsequent network; (3) fine-grained chunk-level projection, which enables the discriminative network to obtain more linguistic information and hence improve the model's modelling ability. These three parts simplify the language recognition decoder into a PLDE pooling layer, reducing the parameter size of the decoder by at least one order of magnitude while achieving better recognition performances. In experiments on the OLR2020 dataset, the C a v g of the proposed method exceeds that of the current state-of-the-art language recognition system, achieving 24.68% and 42.24% improvements on the cross-channel test set and unknown noise test set, respectively. Furthermore, experimental results on the OLR2021 dataset also demonstrate the effectiveness of PLDE. [Display omitted] • Design a phonetic dictionary to extract phone posterior distributions. • Propose a PLDE pooling layer to better utilize phonetic features. • Replace utterance-level projection with chunk-level projection. • Achieve competitive results on the OLR2020 and OLR2021 datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administration of recombinant tPA (rtPA, or trade name Alteplase®) is an FDA-approved therapy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), but poses the risk of hemorrhagic complications. Recombinant tPA can be rapidly inactivated by the endogenous inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1). In this work, we study a novel treatment approach that combines a PAI-1 inhibitor, PAItrap4, with a reduced dose of rtPA to address the hemorrhagic concern of rtPA. PAItrap4 is a highly specific and very potent protein-based inhibitor of PAI-1, comprising of a variant of uPA serine protease domain, human serum albumin, and a cyclic RGD peptide. PAItrap4 efficiently targets and inhibits PAI-1 on activated platelets, and also possesses a long half-life in vivo. Our results demonstrate that PAItrap4 effectively counteracts the inhibitory effects of PAI-1 on rtPA, preserving rtPA activity based on amidolytic and clot lysis assays. In an in vivo murine stroke model, PAItrap4, together with low-dose rtPA, enhances the blood perfusion in the stroke-affected areas, reduces infarct size, and promotes neurological recovery in mice. Importantly, such treatment does not increase the amount of cerebral hemorrhage, thus reducing the risk of cerebral hemorrhage. In addition, PAItrap4 does not compromise the normal blood coagulation function in mice, demonstrating its safety as a therapeutic agent. These findings highlight this combination therapy as a promising alternative for the treatment of ischemic stroke, offering improved safety and efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of free radicals is a key process in the formation and the collapse of the bubbles in water, however, the direct and dynamic observation of the radicals in this process at single bubbles has never been achieved. Here, the hydroxyl (OH.) and oxygen (O2.−) radicals at single oxygen bubbles are continuously traced using chemiluminescence (CL), in which these radicals at the bubble react with the surrounding luminol in the solution emitting the light. Varied increase trends of luminescence are observed in the generation of a bubble, floating, short parking at the water/air interface and the final explosion, revealing the complexity in the distribution of radicals at the bubble unprecedentedly. Despite more radicals are observed at the bubble generated at a deep position under the water for the stabilization, almost the same amount of radicals are included in the bubbles that is independent on the water pressure during the production of the bubble. This rich information collected from the dynamic study of bubbles illustrates the complicated generation and distribution process of radicals at the bubbles, and will facilitate the understanding of the function about the bubbles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect and mechanism of 17 β-estradiol (E2) on oxidative stress in the osteoblasts. An oxidative stress-induced damage model was established using H2O2 in MC3T3-E1 cells, and H2O2-induced cells were treated with E2. The results indicated that E2 attenuated oxidative stress in H2O2-induced MC3T3-E1 cells. In addition, H2O2 upregulated the expression of miR-320-3p and downregulated that of RUNX2, but these changes were counteracted by E2. Thereafter, we verified the interactive relationship between miR-320-3p and RUNX2. Then, H2O2-induced MC3T3-E1 cells were transfected with miR-320-3p mimics or inhibitors and treated with E2. The results indicated that miR-320-3p inhibition suppressed H2O2-induced inflammation, apoptosis, and oxidative stress and promoted the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells by regulating RUNX2, ALP, and OCN, and this effect was further strengthened by E2. In conclusion, the findings suggest that E2 alleviates oxidative damage in osteoblasts by regulating the miR-320/RUNX2 signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating thermodynamic cycles with SOFCs is an effective technology to make full use of energy, but the difficulty lies in selecting the optimum thermodynamic cycles and integration scheme. The performance of a thermodynamic cycle is directly determined by the working fluid and operating parameters, and the heat exchange network (HEN) synthesis scheme directly affects the heat coupling degree and the economic performance. Therefore, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed in this paper, where the working fluid and operating parameters of the closed cycle, as well as the HEN synthesis scheme are selected as decision variables, while the total exergy destruction (TED) and the total annual cost (TAC) are adopted as the objectives. To solve this complex problem, a solving strategy based on NSGA-II with two levels is proposed to obtain the Pareto Frontier of TED and TAC. Finally, a case is solved and three Pareto optimality are analyzed and compared. • An optimization model of the SOFC-based integrated system is established. • The closed thermodynamic cycle and the HEN synthesis are optimized simultaneously. • The total exergy destruction and the total annual cost are adopted as two objectives. • A solving strategy with two levels based on NSGA-II is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of CT‐guided microcoil localization for pulmonary nodules in the scapula‐shadowed area before video‐assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Materials and Methods: Forty‐seven patients (18 males, 19 females; mean age 57.5 years) with 48 pulmonary nodules covered by the scapulae were consecutively enrolled in this study. Successful targeting, localization, and VATS were defined as implantation of microcoil at the target site on CT image obtained immediately after the marking procedure, visualization of nodule location during VATS, and complete resection of the target nodule with adequate margin, respectively. Meanwhile, the procedure‐related complication rate was also recorded. Results: The rates of successful targeting and localization were 95.8% (46/48) and 89.6% (43/48), respectively. Of all nodules, 47 were successfully resected with VATS (30 wedge resections; 17 anatomic resections) and 1 nodule was converted to open thoracotomy for diffuse pleural adhesion, thus the successful VATS rate was 97.9% (47/48). With respect to procedure‐related complications, only minor complications (including localized pneumothorax and intrapulmonary hemorrhage) were developed and the rate of overall procedure‐related complications was 37.5% (18/48), including minor pneumothorax developed in 15 of 48 nodules (31.3%) and intrapulmonary hemorrhage in 6 of 48 nodules (12.5%). Conclusions: CT‐guided microcoil technique is a safe and effective localization method prior to VATS for the nodules in the scapula‐shadowed area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article primarily investigates the width problem within weighted band-limited function space in a uniform setting. Through an analysis of the properties of s-numbers, we establish a connection between the widths of weighted band-limited function spaces and the s-numbers of infinite-dimensional diagonal operators. Furthermore, employing the discretization method, we estimate the exact asymptotic orders of Kolmogorov n-width and linear n-width in the weighted band-limited function space, which is characterized by the weight ω = ω k = | k | r k ∈ Z 0 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of monaural speech enhancement is to separate clean speech from noisy speech. Recently, many studies have employed generative adversarial networks (GAN) to deal with monaural speech enhancement tasks. When using generative adversarial networks for this task, the output of the generator is a speech waveform or a spectrum, such as a magnitude spectrum, a mel-spectrum or a complex-valued spectrum. The spectra generated by current speech enhancement methods in the time–frequency domain usually lack details, such as consonants and harmonics with low energy. In this paper, we propose a new type of adversarial training framework for spectrum generation, named μ -law spectrum generative adversarial networks (μ -law SGAN). We introduce a trainable μ -law spectrum compression layer (USCL) into the proposed discriminator to compress the dynamic range of the spectrum. As a result, the compressed spectrum can display more detailed information. In addition, we use the spectrum transformed by USCL to regularize the generator's training, so that the generator can pay more attention to the details of the spectrum. Experimental results on the open dataset Voice Bank + DEMAND show that μ -law SGAN is an effective generative adversarial architecture for speech enhancement. Moreover, visual spectrogram analysis suggests that μ -law SGAN pays more attention to the enhancement of low energy harmonics and consonants. • Introduce the trainable USCL to D (the discriminator in GAN) to compress the dynamic range of inputs and make D focus on the details of input spectra. • Utilize the trainable USCL regularization to make G (the generator in GAN) pay more attention to the spectrum details. • Utilize SSNR regularization as the time-domain objective function, which is complementary to the objective function in the T–F domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Circular RNA (circRNA) is a key regulator of cancer, and it has been proved to be involved in the regulation of cancer progression including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Circ-PITX1 was found to be a significantly upregulated circRNA in NSCLC, and its role and potential mechanism in NSCLC progression deserve further investigation. Methods: The expression levels of circ-PITX1, microRNA (miR)-1248 and cyclin D2 (CCND2) were examined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle process, migration and invasion were determined using cell counting kit 8 (CCK8) assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry, wound healing assay and transwell assay. Xenograft models were built to explore the role of circ-PITX1 in NSCLC tumor growth in vivo. The glycolysis and glutamine metabolism of cells were assessed by detecting the consumptions of glucose and glutamine, cell extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), and the productions of lactate, α-ketoglutaric acid (α-KG) and ATP. The protein levels of hexokinase 2 (HK-2), glutaminase 1 (GLS1) and CCND2 were tested by Western blot (WB) analysis. Dual-luciferase reporter assay and RIP assay were employed to verify the interaction between miR-1248 and circ-PITX1 or CCND2. Results: Circ-PITX1 was upregulated in NSCLC and its silencing could inhibit the proliferation, migration, invasion, cell cycle process, glycolysis, glutamine metabolism, and promote the apoptosis of NSCLC cells in vitro, as well as reduced tumor growth in vivo. In the terms of mechanism, we found that circ-PITX1 could act as a sponge of miR-1248, and miR-1248 could target CCND2. In addition, miR-1248 inhibitor reversed the inhibitory effect of circ-PITX1 knockdown on NSCLC progression. Similarly, CCND2 overexpression also reversed the suppressive effect of miR-1248 on NSCLC progression. Moreover, circ-PITX1 positively regulated CCND2 expression by sponging miR-1248. Conclusion: Circ-PITX1 served as a sponge of miR-1248 to promote NSCLC progression by upregulating CCND2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of cloud computing, more and more resource constrained data owners tend to store their images in the cloud and rely on image retrieval services to get back images they want. However, this process raises huge privacy leakage risks. Privacy-preserving image retrieval (PPIR) can prevent privacy leakage during the retrieval process. Using convolutional neural networks for image feature extraction can significantly improve retrieval accuracy and has become a common trend in PPIR, but it also brings a new problem of network model parameter leakage, which is often ignored by most PPIR schemes. Besides, existing PPIR schemes often adopt centralized image retrieval service, which typically require frequent interactions between the cloud server and users during the retrieval process, resulting in excessive computational overhead for resource-limited users. Aiming to solve these problems, a distributed privacy-preserving image retrieval scheme is proposed in this paper. Three collaborative cloud servers utilize three neural network models split and outsourced by the data owner to extract features of the query image and perform subsequent retrieval tasks. A new secure Euclidean distance calculation protocol is designed for cloud servers to measure feature similarity, and secure sort pair protocol, secure sorting protocol, secure search protocol are utilized to achieve secure image retrieval. Additionally, a hierarchical index tree is employed to narrow down the search scope and improve search efficiency. This approach avoids the problem of network model parameter leakage caused by using neural networks to extract image features at the users’ side, reduces the computational burden on users, and improves the accuracy and the efficiency of the retrieval process while ensuring retrieval security. Security analysis and experimental results demonstrate the security and retrieval performance of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Triphylite-NaFePO 4 was prepared for the first time using solvothermal sodium insertion method. • Ethanol demonstrates certain reduction properties in a high-temperature alkaline environment and is innovatively employed as a reducing agent. • Triphylite-NaFePO 4 exhibits high capacity and excellent cycling stability. Triphylite-NaFePO 4 has attracted considerable attention for utilization in sodium-ion batteries on account of its highest theoretical capacity amongst polyanionic type compounds. Herein, we propose an innovative solvothermal sodium insertion method, for the first time to synthesize triphylite-NaFePO 4 , wherein ethanol is employed as a reducing agent. Triphylite-NaFePO 4 shows optimal electrochemical performance of 125.40, 109.53, 90.11, 70.97, and 54.63 mAh/g at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, and 2C, respectively. In addition, the capacity retention rate is 91.41 % following a total of 100 cycles at 0.1C. Therefore, this novel solvothermal sodium insertion method provides a reference pathway for the preparation of triphylite-NaFePO 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To summarize the experiences of CT-guided microcoil localization before video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and to investigate the risk factors associated with pleural marking failure. Methods: Totally, 249 consecutive patients with 279 pulmonary nodules who underwent CT-guided microcoil localization prior to VATS were enrolled in this study. According to intraoperative observation, all the nodules were divided into two groups. The clinical characteristics and microcoil localization procedure-related variables of the nodules were analyzed by univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis to screen the independent factors associated with procedure results. Results: Among the 279 nodules, 28 failed to observe the proximal end of the microcoil deployed on visceral pleura during VATS. The logistic regression revealed that needle-pleura angle (≤ 30°: OR = 39.022, p = 0.003), pleura-microcoil distance (≤ 10 mm: OR = 87.054, p < 0.001; 10~20 mm: OR = 10.088, p = 0.010), and presence of pleural indentation (OR = 21.623, p < 0.001) were independent risk factors for pleural marking failure. Conclusions: CT-guided microcoil localization for pulmonary nodules is a safe and effective procedure. Small needle-pleura angle (≤ 30°), pleura-microcoil distance (≤ 20 mm), and the presence of pleural indentation during the procedure are significant risk factors contributing to microcoil pleura marking failure. Key Points: • CT-guided microcoil localization for pulmonary nodules was a safe and effective procedure. • CT-guided microcoil localization for pulmonary nodules yielded low complication rates. • Small needle-pleura angle, short pleura-microcoil distance, and the presence of pleural indentation were contributing to pleura marking failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling regulating epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cultured rat peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) remains an under‐investigated topic. The current study aimed to elucidate the role of Shh signaling in the regulation of EMT in PMCs to attenuate peritoneal injury, with the view of enhancing the efficacy of peritoneal dialysis (PD). PMCs were initially extracted from male Wistar rats using pancreatic enzyme digestion. The expression of Shh and glioma‐associated oncogene homolog (Gli1) was quantitatively analyzed using the reverse‐transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR) and western blot analysis. Migration of PMCs was determined using Transwell assay. The expression of Shh, Gli1, and EMT markers including α‐smooth muscle actin (α‐SMA), fibronectin, collagen I, snail1, and E‐cadherin was examined by RT‐qPCR, western blot analysis, and immunofluorescence respectively. High glucose induction was identified to promote cell migration and increase the expression of Shh and Gli1 in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner in rat PMCs. Cyclopamine (CPN) was observed to block the Shh signaling induced by high glucose, accompanied by cell migration inhibition, decreased expression of α‐SMA, fibronectin, collagen I and snail1 as well as increased expression of E‐cadherin. Altogether, overexpression of Gli1 by transfected Gli1 plasmid promotes cell migration and upregulates α‐SMA, fibronectin, Snail1, and collagen I expression, while downregulating E‐cadherin expression. Shh/Gli1 signaling is important in mediating EMT in rat PMCs, which provides a potential novel therapeutic approach for clinical investigation on renal failure treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), essential nutrients including leucine, isoleucine, and valine, serve as a resource for energy production and the regulator of important nutrient and metabolic signals. Recent studies have suggested that dysfunction of BCAA catabolism is associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease. Platelets play an important role in cardiovascular disease, but the functions of BCAA catabolism in platelets remain unknown.Methods: The activity of human platelets from healthy subjects before and after ingestion of BCAAs was measured. Protein phosphatase 2Cm specifically dephosphorylates branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase and thereby activates BCAA catabolism. Protein phosphatase 2Cm-deficient mice were used to elucidate the impacts of BCAA catabolism on platelet activation and thrombus formation.Results: We found that ingestion of BCAAs significantly promoted human platelet activity (n=5; P<0.001) and arterial thrombosis formation in mice (n=9; P<0.05). We also found that the valine catabolite α-ketoisovaleric acid and the ultimate oxidation product propionyl-coenzyme A showed the strongest promotion effects on platelet activation, suggesting that the valine/α-ketoisovaleric acid catabolic pathway plays a major role in BCAA-facilitated platelet activation. Protein phosphatase 2Cm deficiency significantly suppresses the activity of platelets in response to agonists (n=5; P<0.05). Our results also suggested that BCAA metabolic pathways may be involved in the integrin αIIbβ3-mediated bidirectional signaling pathway that regulates platelet activation. Mass spectrometry identification and immunoblotting revealed that BCAAs enhanced propionylation of tropomodulin-3 at K255 in platelets or Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing integrin αIIbβ3. The tropomodulin-3 K255A mutation abolished propionylation and attenuated the promotion effects of BCAAs on integrin-mediated cell spreading, suggesting that K255 propionylation of tropomodulin-3 is an important mechanism underlying integrin αIIbβ3-mediated BCAA-facilitated platelet activation and thrombosis formation. In addition, the increased levels of BCAAs and the expression of positive regulators of BCAA catabolism in platelets from patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are significantly correlated with platelet hyperreactivity. Lowering dietary BCAA intake significantly reduced platelet activity in ob/ob mice (n=4; P<0.05).Conclusions: BCAA catabolism is an important regulator of platelet activation and is associated with arterial thrombosis risk. Targeting the BCAA catabolism pathway or lowering dietary BCAA intake may serve as a novel therapeutic strategy for metabolic syndrome-associated thrombophilia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to analyze and predict the consumption behavior of Chinese residents is of great significance based on the existing consumption theory research and the actual situation in China. This study studies the factors influencing the consumption of urban and rural residents in China through factor analysis and builds a model of urban and rural residents' consumption expenditure based on BP neural network. At the same time, through the data collection, the consumption data of urban and rural residents in China from 1986 to 2017 were collected. The BP neural network prediction model was used to predict the consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents, and the absolute error and relative error were obtained. In addition, this study establishes a combined forecasting model based on Lasso regression analysis and BP neural network to predict the consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents and compares its prediction results with BP neural network prediction model. The research shows that the combined prediction model based on Lasso regression analysis and BP neural network comprehensively surpasses BP neural network prediction model in prediction accuracy, and it has certain effectiveness and puts forward practical suggestions, which provides theoretical reference for subsequent related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the expression and role of ERAP1 in preeclampsia pathogenesis.Methods: ERAP1 expression of placental tissues was analyzed by Real-Time PCR and western blot. The location of ERAP1 was detected by immunohistochemistry. Cellular preeclampsia model was established by hypoxia treatment of HTR-8/SVneo cells (2% oxygen).Results: The present study revealed that ERAP1 expression were significantly elevated in placental tissues of preeclampsia, and hypoxiaincreased ERAP1 expression in trophoblast, suggesting that ERAP-1 may be involved in the development of preeclampsia.Conclusion: These finds highlight the role of ERAP1 in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of precancerous lesion of esophageal cancer is beneficial for early diagnosis and early treatment. The deletion of p53 gene is common in esophageal cancer, but its pathogenesis is still unclear. An animal model is urgently needed to study the mechanisms of esophageal cancer and p53 deficiency. KO mice (p53flox/flox.ED-L2-Cre+/−) and the corresponding control Loxp mice (p53flox/flox.ED-L2-Cre−/−) were obtained by crossing between the p53flox/flox mice and ED-L2-Cre+/− mice. Methylbenzylnitrosamine (NMBA) was injected subcutaneously to induce esophageal precancerous lesion of these two groups of mice. Hematoxylin and eosin staining analysis was performed to evaluate the number and extent of esophageal precancerous lesions in KO mice and Loxp mice at the 16th and 48th weeks. Immunohistochemistry analysis was used to detect the change of Ki67, P21, Bcl-2, and Bax proteins. The number and extent of esophageal precancerous lesions in KO mice were significantly increased compared with the control at the 16th and 48th weeks under the induction of NMBA. The Ki67, P21, Bcl-2, and Bax proteins also had cancer-related pathological characteristics. These results suggest that the esophageal precancerous lesion model was established under the combined effect of p53 gene deletion in esophageal epithelium and NMBA, which could provide a new esophageal precancerous lesion model to explore the mechanism of precancerous lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate whether MRI findings, including texture analysis, can differentiate KRAS mutation status in rectal cancer.Methods: Totally, 158 patients with pathologically proved rectal cancers and preoperative pelvic MRI examinations were enrolled. Patients were stratified into two groups: KRAS wild-type group (KRASwt group) and KRAS mutation group (KRASmt group) according to genomic DNA extraction analysis. MRI findings of rectal cancers (including texture features) and relevant clinical characteristics were statistically evaluated to identify the differences between the two groups. The independent samples t test or Mann-Whitney U test were used for continuous variables. The differences of the remaining categorical polytomous variables were analyzed using the Chi-square test or Fisher exact test. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the discriminatory power of MRI features. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) and the optimal cut-off values were calculated using histopathology diagnosis as a reference; meanwhile, sensitivity and specificity were determined.Results: Mean values of six texture parameters (Mean, Variance, Skewness, Entropy, gray-level nonuniformity, run-length nonuniformity) were significantly higher in KRASmt group compared to KRASwt group (p < 0.0001, respectively). The AUC values of texture features ranged from 0.703~0.813. In addition, higher T stage and lower ADC values were observed in the KRASmt group compared to KRASwt group (t = 7.086, p = 0.029; t = - 2.708, p = 0.008).Conclusion: The MRI findings of rectal cancer, especially texture features, showed an encouraging value for identifying KRAS status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Glycerol was converted to methyl lactate directly over binary Au/CuO and Sn-Beta catalyst. • 86% glycerol conversion and 60% methyl lactate yield can be obtained at 90 °C. • CuO precursors have great influence on the oxidative catalytic activity of Au/CuO. • Oxygen mobility of CuO prepared from copper acetate is the highest. • Au particles on CuO from copper acetate are small (2–4 nm) and uniform. Utilization of glycerol is important for the sustainable development of biodiesel industry. In this study, green conversion of glycerol to methyl lactate was realized over Au/CuO and Sn-Beta binary catalyst at low temperature in base-free methanol, 86% glycerol conversion and 60% methyl lactate yield can be obtained at 90 °C. Precursors for preparation of CuO have significant influence on the catalytic oxidative activity of Au/CuO. Oxygen mobility of CuO prepared from copper acetate (CuO-CA) is the highest compared to CuO materials prepared from copper nitrate (CuO-CN) and commercial CuO (CuO-Commercial). Meanwhile, dispersion of Au particles is significantly affected by the precursor for synthesis of CuO. Au particles on CuO-CA are small (2–4 nm) and uniform. Accordingly, Au/CuO-CA shows the best catalytic activity for the oxidation of glycerol. Synergism of oxidative active sites on Au/CuO-CA and Lewis acid sites on Sn-Beta facilitates the production of methyl lactate from glycerol. Meanwhile, the catalysts are recyclable and can be reused easily without any treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mechanism of Knorr pyrazole synthesis-thioester generation reaction was studied. • DFT calculations show that the thioester formation occurs easily. • Both hydrazone and pyrazole formation is sensitive to solution acidity. • Some steps in the reaction require protonation of oxygen atoms. • Low pH favors protonation of O atoms, thus increasing the reaction efficiency. A novel Fmoc-SPPS compatible peptide thioester generation method leveraging Knorr pyrazole synthesis was reported recently. C-terminal peptide hydrazides, pentane-2,4-dione and excess arylthiol were added in one-pot to efficiently produce peptide thioesters in acidic aqueous solution at room temperature. To elucidate the detailed mechanism of this reaction and the origin of the effect of solution acidity, a theoretical investigation on the Knorr pyrazole synthesis-thioester generation reaction was carried out. Our computational results suggest that the reaction generally proceeds through three stages: hydrazone formation, pyrazole formation and thioester formation. The rate-determining step is the C O bond cleavage step in the pyrazole formation stage. The formed pyrazole is readily converted to thioester in the presence of excess thiophenol. The effect of solution acidity originates from the need for protonation of oxygen atoms to increase the electrophilicity of carbonyl group or the leaving ability of hydroxyl group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamical impact of market wide liquidity on the volatility by using the Markov switching-regime approach on the Heterogeneous Autoregressive model of the realized range-based volatility (MS-HAR-RRV-LIQ). First, based on the simple partition of the liquidity measures by their historical means, we find the impact of the market liquidity on the realized range-based volatility (RRV) is non-linear with significantly stronger when the market is fluctuating. Second, by utilizing the method of Markov regimes switching, we find that in sample results, the impact of market liquidity on RRV is dynamics with much stronger when the market is fluctuating. In addition, the impact of liquidity on RRV are persistent for both the fluctuating state and the stable state, which indicate that the impact of liquidity on volatility would remain in its original state unless there are major economic events. Third, in order to eliminate the hidden information of volatility in liquidity measures, we further decompose the liquidity measures to obtain the volatility-adjusted liquidity, and find that the impact of liquidity driven by the component of liquidity uncorrelated with volatility on market volatility is also dynamics with much stronger when the market is fluctuating. Finally, out-of-sample results suggest that the models of HAR-RRV-LIQ and their corresponding volatility-adjusted liquidity models with regimes switching can increase the forecasting ability significantly than those without regime switching. • This paper examines the dynamical impact of market wide liquidity on volatility. • The impact of the market wide liquidity on RRV is non-linear. • The impact of market wide liquidity on RRV is dynamics. • Our proposed models can increase the forecasting ability significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rupture directivity of an earthquake provides important insights into its physical mechanisms and strong motion generation. However, it is difficult to determine the rupture directivity of small earthquakes (e.g. M L < 3.3) because of their small rupture dimension and complex path effects from source to stations. Here we develop a new method, named 'relative directivity inversion method' (or RDI method), to determine rupture direction of small earthquakes. Based on the assumption that the target earthquake ruptures unilaterally, RDI method uses an earthquake pair and uses the smaller event as reference to invert the directivity of the larger event by determining the locations of its initiation point and the centroid energy point relative to those of the reference event. The rupture direction of the target earthquake is determined as the direction from the initiation location to the centroid energy location, and the rupture length as twice the distance between the two locations. As an example of testing the method, we apply RDI method to determine the rupture directivity of a target earthquake in Japan (M L 3.2) and obtain results that are supported by the observed waveform features, synthetic test and the distribution of earthquakes in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Porous In 2 O 3 nanoplates with polycrystalline structure (pp-In 2 O 3 NPs) and single-crystalline structure (ps-In 2 O 3 NPs) were synthesized through a facile solvothermal combined with a post calcination process. The gas sensing performance of the In 2 O 3 nanoplates with different crystallinity and porosity was investigated. Compared with the pp-In 2 O 3 nanoplates, the ps-In 2 O 3 nanoplates exhibited significantly enhanced gas sensitivity and selectivity towards triethylamine (TEA). The enhancement of the gas response of the ps-In 2 O 3 NPs can be attributed to the larger pore size and single-crystalline structure. Larger pore size can facilitate the target gas to diffuse into the inner surface of the sensing materials and increase the contacting chances of target gas and surface adsorbed oxygen species, while single-crystalline structure can decrease a part of grain boundary junction barrier and enhance the conductivity of the sensing film. This work would be important for further understanding the gas sensing mechanism and developing high promising In 2 O 3 gas-sensing materials. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Porous single-crystalline and polycrystalline In 2 O 3 nanoplates were controllable prepared. • The morphology and structure of the products were analyzed thoroughly. • The ps-In 2 O 3 nanoplates exhibited enhanced gas sensing performance to triethylamine. • The porous and single-crystalline structure contributed to the sensing properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, the rigidity of hypersurfaces in Euclidean space is revisited. The Darboux equation is highlighted and two new proofs of the rigidity are given via energy method and maximal principle, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Air pollution imposes significant environmental and health risks worldwide and is expected to deteriorate in the coming decade as cities expand. Measuring population exposure to air pollution is crucial to quantifying risks to public health. In this work, we introduce a big data analytics framework to model residents' stay and commuters' travel exposure to outdoor PM 2.5 and evaluate their environmental justice, with Beijing as an example. Using mobile phone and census data, we first infer travel demand of the population to derive residents' stay activities in each analysis zone, and then focus on commuters and estimate their travel routes with a traffic assignment model. Based on air quality observations from monitoring stations and a spatial interpolation model, we estimate the outdoor PM 2.5 concentrations at a 500-m grid level and map them to road networks. We then estimate the travel exposure for each road segment by multiplying the PM 2.5 concentration and travel time spent on the road. By combining the estimated PM 2.5 exposure and housing price harnessed from online housing transaction platforms, we discover that in the winter, Beijing commuters with low wealth level are exposed to 13% more PM 2.5 per hour than those with high wealth level when staying at home, but exposed to less PM 2.5 by 5% when commuting the same distance (due to lighter traffic congestion in suburban areas). We also find that the residents from the southern suburbs of Beijing have both lower level of wealth and higher stay- and travel- exposure to PM 2.5 , especially in the winter. These findings inform more equitable environmental mitigation policies for future sustainable development in Beijing. Finally, or the first time in the literature, we compare the results of exposure estimated from passive data with subjective measures of perceived air quality (PAQ) from a survey. The PAQ data was collected via a mobile-app. The comparison confirms consistencies in results and the advantages of the big data for air pollution exposure assessments. Highlights • A data analysis framework is proposed to estimate commuter's exposure to ambient PM 2.5 using mobile phone data. • Urban scale dynamic stay exposure is estimated based on the travel demand. • Travel exposure of commuters is estimated by combining the travel time and the PM 2.5 concentration. • Environmental justice in PM 2.5 exposure is investigated by comparing the exposure with housing price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper first investigates the heterogeneous impact of liquidity on volatility by using the intraday data of the Chinese stock index futures market. Based on the quantile regression method, we obtain several noteworthy findings. First, in sample result shows that illiquidity can significantly increase volatility at the right tail, which seems to be a notable J-shaped relationship between the illiquidity and volatility in Chinese stock index futures market. Second, the effects of the illiquidity on past negative returns ("bad news") are much stronger than on past positive returns ("good news"). Third, by documenting the intraday pattern of the illiquidity, the highest impact of the illiquidity on volatility occurs in the last half-hour rather than in the first half-hour of each trading day. Highlights • First investigates the heterogeneous impact of liquidity on the volatility using the intraday data of the China. • In sample result shows that illiquidity can significantly increase volatility at the right tail. • The effects of the illiquidity on past negative returns are much stronger than on that by past positive returns. • The highest impact of the illiquidity on volatility occurs in the last half-hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three kinds of polyhedral α‐Fe2O3 nanoparticles enclosed by different facets including oblique parallel hexahedrons (op‐hexahedral NPs), cracked oblique parallel hexahedrons (cop‐hexahedral NPs), and octadecahedral nanoparticles (octadecahedral NPs), were successfully prepared by simply changing only one reaction parameter in the hydrothermal process. The structural and morphological of the products were systematically studied using various characterizations including X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), revealing that the three kinds of α‐Fe2O3 nanoparticles were enclosed by {104}, {110}/{104}, and {102}/{012}/{104} crystal planes, respectively. The exposed facets and shape of the nanocrystals were found to be affected by the adding amount of ethylene glycol in the solvent. The gas‐sensing properties and mechanism of the α‐Fe2O3 samples were studied and analyzed, which indicated that the sensitivity of the three samples followed the order of octadecahedral NPs > cop‐hexahedral NPs > op‐hexahedral NPs due to the combined effects of specific surface area and oxygen defects in the nanocrystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • An integrative multicopy vector pBCGA used for B. choshinensis was developed. • The activity of the strain I24 could keep stable under antibiotic-free condition. • The ι-carrageenase acitivity of the strain I24 reached to 182.4 U/mL within 24 h. • The recombinant ι-carrageenase hydrolyzed ι-carrageenan via a processive mechanism. Abstract In this study, a new integrative vector (pBCGA) was developed and used for the high-level expression of an optimized ι-carrageenase gene (CGIOP) in Brevibacillus choshinensis. The pBCGA vector allowed multiple copies of the gene CGIOP to be stably integrated into the genomic DNA of B. choshinensis. The recombinant strain I24 could produce an extracellular ι-carrageenase activity of 38.9 U/mL within 72 h, which remained stable after five sequential inoculations and cultivations under the antibiotic-free culture conditions. Furthermore, the strain I24 was applied to 10-L fermentation under the antibiotic-free culture condition, resulting in the highest observed ι-carrageenase activity of 182.4 U/mL within 24 h. Subsequently, recombinant ι-carrageenase (rCgiA) was purified and characterized, exhibiting an optimal pH and temperature of 8.0 and 45 °C, respectively. Notably, rCgiA showed considerable stability below 45 °C and over a relatively broad pH range of 6.0–11.0. In addtion, the activity of rCgiA was significantly stimulated by NaCl, Mg2+, and Ca2+. HILIC LC-LTQ-Orbitrap-FTMS analysis revealed that rCgiA hydrolyzed ι-carrageenan via a processive mechanism with the major product of ι-carrageenan tetrasaccharide. Thus, the strain B. choshinensis I24 had broad potential for use in the environment-friendly and large-scale production of ι-carrageenase and ι-carrageenan oligosaccharides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To evaluate the effects of plasma albumin on pharmacokinetics of esomeprazole in ICU patients. Methods. This study was performed in 32 consecutive intensive care unit (ICU) patients. They were divided into two groups according to the plasma albumin levels. Nineteen patients with low plasma albumin levels (<30 g/L; male/female, 12/7) were assigned to low plasma albumin group (LPAG). Thirteen patients with plasma albumin levels >30 g/L (male/female, 9/4) were assigned to high plasma albumin group (HPAG). All patients were received intravenous (IV) of 40 mg esomeprazole in 5 min. Blood samples were collected via basilic vein at different time points and concentrations of esomeprazole were determined by UPLC-MS/MS. Results. MRT(0-∞), t1/2, V, CL, and Cmax between two groups were significantly difference (P<0.05). Compared with HPAG, MRT(0-∞), t1/2, and V of esomeprazole in LPAG were increased by 1.42-fold, 1.49-fold, and 1.24-fold, respectively; the maximum drug concentration of esomeprazole in LPAG was decreased to 82.5%. AUC(0-∞) of LPAG was 1.23 times than that of group B. CL in LPAG was 80% of HPAG. There was no statistical difference between the two groups of AUC(0-∞) and CL. Conclusions. Some pharmacokinetic parameters of esomeprazole may be changed in ICU patients with low plasma albumin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of cloud computing technology, more and more users choose to outsource image data to clouds. To protect users' privacy and guarantee data's confidentiality, images need to be encrypted before being outsourced to CSP, but this brings new difficulties to some basic yet important data services, such as content-based image retrieval (CBIR). In this paper, a privacy-preserving image retrieval method based on an improved BoVW model is proposed. An improved BoVW method based on Hamming embedding can provide binary signatures that refine the matching based on visual words; therefore, retrieval precision is improved significantly; orthogonal transformation is utilized to implement privacy-preserving image retrieval, where image features are divided into two different fields with orthogonal decomposition, for which encryption and distance comparison are executed separately, and two kinds of operation results are fused in the final vector with orthogonal composition. As a result, cloud server can extract components from encrypted features directly and compare distance with those of query image, without violating the privacy of images and features. Any algorithm can be used to encrypt features, which enhance the practicability of the proposed method. The security analysis and experimental results prove its security and retrieval performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important driving force for virulence evolution of pathogens, however, functions of these transferred genes are still not fully investigated. Here, an HGT effector, CcCYT was reported to contribute to virulence of a mycoparasite, Calcarisporium cordycipiticola to the host Cordyceps militaris, an important mushroom. Cccyt was predicted to be horizontally transferred from Actinobacteria ancestor by phylogenetic, synteny, GC content and codon usage pattern analyses. The transcript of Cccyt was sharply up-regulated at the early stage of infecting C. militaris. This effector was localized to the cell wall and contributed to the virulence of C. cordycipiticola without affecting its morphology, mycelial growth, conidiation, and resistance to abiotic stress. CcCYT can firstly bind the septa, and finally cytoplasm of the deformed hyphal cells of C. militaris. Pull-down assay coupled mass spectrometry revealed that proteins with which CcCYT interacted were related to protein process, folding and degradation. GST-Pull down assay confirmed that C. cordycipiticola effector CcCYT can interact with host protein CmHSP90 to inhibit the immune response of host. The results provided functional evidence that HGT is an important driving force for the virulence evolution and will be helpful for revealing the interaction between mycoparasite and mushroom host. [Display omitted] • C. cordycipiticola Cccyt was originated from a cross-kingdom gene transfer event. • CcCYT is a typical effector located to the cell wall of C. cordycipiticola. • Cccyt is not necessary for growth but contributes to virulence of C. cordycipiticola. • CcCYT binds the septa of C. militaris and interacts with a host heat shock protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of sustainable polymers from biobased blocks is urgently desirable. In this work, a class of novel biobased thermoplastic polyester elastomers, namely poly(butylene terephthalate)-poly(1,4-butylene/2,3-butylene succinate) (PBT-PBBS) copolyesters, were designed and synthesized via melt oligomer polycondensation of common PBT oligomer and biobased PBBS oligomer. The obtained PBT-PBBS copolyesters exhibited desired block structure and contained a hard phase of crystallized PBT and a soft phase of amorphous PBBS. Their mechanical properties could be tailored by tuning the polycondensation time or the molar ratio of PBT to PBBS. Specifically, the tensile strength and the elongation at break of these copolyesters could be flexibly adjusted in the range of 6–13 MPa and 240–650%, respectively. Therefore, they are expected to be widely used in the fields of elastomers, hot-melt adhesives, and toughening modifiers. • Novel TPEEs from the amorphous biobased soft segment. • Polyester-type TPEEs synthesized via melt oligomer polycondensation. • Low-cost biobased TPEEs enabled by the combination of terephthalate polyesters and amorphous biobased aliphatic polyesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep variability (e.g. intra-individual variabilities in sleep duration or sleep timing, social jetlag, and catch-up sleep) is an important factor impacting health and mortality. However, limited information is available on the distribution of these sleep parameters across the human life span. We aimed to provide distribution of sleep variability related parameters across lifespan by sex and race in a national representative sample from the U.S. population. The study included 9981 participants 6 years and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2014, who had 4–7 days of valid 24-h accelerometer recording with at least one day obtained during weekend (Friday or Saturday night). Of the study participants, 43% showed ≥ 60 min sleep duration standard deviation (SD), 51% experienced ≥ 60 min catch-up sleep, 20% showed ≥ 60 min sleep midpoint SD, and 43% experienced ≥ 60 min social jetlag. American youth and young adults averaged greater sleep variability compared to other age groups. Non-Hispanic Blacks showed greater sleep variability in all parameters compared to other racial groups. There was a main effect of sex on sleep midpoint SD and social jetlag with males averaging slightly more than females. Our study provides important observations on sleep variability parameters of residents of the United States by using objectively measured sleep patterns and will provide unique insights for personalized advice on sleep hygiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic potential of DW-MRI relative parameters for differentiation of rectal cancers with different Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homologue (KRAS) mutation status.Methods: Fifty-one patients with rectal cancer underwent diffusion-weighted MR imaging with eight b values. ADCs (including Max-ADC, Min-ADC and Mean-ADC) and IVIM parameters (D, pure diffusion; f, perfusion fraction; D*, pseudodiffusion coefficient) were respectively calculated by mono- and bi-exponential analysis. Patients were stratified into two groups: KRAS wild type and mutant. The DW-MRI-derived parameters between the KRAS wild-type group and KRAS mutant group were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of discrimination between KRAS wild-type and KRAS mutant rectal cancer was performed for the DW-MRI-derived parameters.Results: Max-ADC, Mean-ADC and D values were significantly lower in the KRAS mutant group than in the KRAS wild-type group, whereas a higher D* value was demonstrated in the KRAS mutant group. According to the ROC curve, Mean-ADC and D* values showed moderate diagnostic significance with the AUC values of 0.756 and 0.710, respectively. The cut-off values for Mean-ADC and D* were 1.43 × 10-3mm2/s and 26.58 × 10-3mm2/s, respectively.Conclusion: Rectal cancers had distinctive diffusion/perfusion characteristics in different KRAS mutation statuses. The DW-MRI-derived parameters, specifically Mean-ADC and D*, show a moderate diagnostic significance for KRAS status.Key Points: • Rectal cancers with different KRAS mutation statuses demonstrated distinctive diffusion/perfusion characteristics. • Max-ADC, Mean-ADC and D values were lower in the KRAS mutant group. • A higher D* value was demonstrated in the KRAS mutant group. • IVIM-DW MRI may potentially help preoperative KRAS mutant status prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu 2 O nanocrystals/TiO 2 photonic crystal (Cu 2 O NCs/TiO 2 PC) photocatalyst was prosperously synthesized and applied to the degradation of p -nitrophenol (PNP). The composite were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV–vis DRS) techniques. The PNP photocatalysis was performed by varying Cu 2 O NCs loading amount, PNP initial concentration, and solution pH value. Under optimal experiment conditions, the kinetic constant of 0.85-Cu 2 O NCs/TiO 2 260 (where 0.85 represents the mass fraction of Cu 2 O in composite, and 260 denotes the PC structure derived from 260 nm polystyrene spheres) was 4.57-fold higher than that using pristine TiO 2 . The improvement was thanks to the enhanced light harvest by integrating Cu 2 O NCs with TiO 2 PC in which the light absorption were efficiently strengthened and the increased quantum yield owing to the p-n junction between TiO 2 and Cu 2 O. The superoxide anions originated from the one electron reduction of oxygen molecules by the conduction band electrons was responsible for PNP removal. According to the identified intermediates, aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes and carboxylic acid, the possible PNP decomposition path was put forward. We believe this research could supply valuable knowledge for PNP decomposition and impel the technical development of photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoraleae Fructus is the dry and mature fruit of leguminous plant Psoralea corylifolia L., with the activity of warming kidney and enhancing yang, warming spleen, and other effects. However, large doses can cause liver and kidney toxicity. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the toxicity of Psoraleae Fructus systematically. Although traditional biochemical indicators and pathological tests have been used to evaluate the safety of drug, these methods lack sensitivity and specificity, so a fast and sensitive analytical method is urgently needed. In this study, an ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) method was used to analyze the metabolic profiles of rat plasma. The changes of metabolites in plasma samples were detected by partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Compared with the control group, after 7 days of administration, the pathological sections showed liver and kidney toxicity, and the metabolic trend was changed. Finally, 13 potential biomarkers related to the toxicity of Psoraleae Fructus were screened. The metabolic pathways involved were glycerol phospholipids metabolism, amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, and so forth. The discovery of these biomarkers laid a foundation for better explaining the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of Psoraleae Fructus and provided a guarantee for its safety evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photo-deactivation mechanism of heteroleptic Ir(III)(C^N) 2 (LX) complexes [(dfpypy) 2 Ir(pic)](1) and [(dfppy) 2 Ir(pic)](2) [where dfpypy = 2′,6′-difluoro-2,3′-bipyridine, dfppy = 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine, pic = 2-picolinate] were elucidated by density functional theory/time-dependent density functional theory (DFT/TD-DFT) to rationalize the nature of the significant differences in luminescence efficiency between 1 and 2. Specifically, the radiative deactivation was formulated through the calculation of zero-field splitting (ZFS) and the radiative decay rate constant (k r ) based on spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Meanwhile, the non-radiative deactivation was estimated by considering the structural distortion, the SOC between the emitting state and the ground state, as well as the thermal deactivation process via metal-centered excited 3 MC state. Based on the results, 1 has much smaller SOC matrix elements between T 1 and S 0 than 2, which determines its small non-radiative decay rate constant, thus one may understand why 1 has higher phosphorescence quantum efficiency than 2. To further explore the structure-property relationship of Ir(III) complexes, four other new complexes 3–6 were designed by incorporating trimethylphenyl(R 1 ), phenyl(R 2 ), ter-butyl (R 3 ), diphenylamine(R4) to the pyridine rings of dfpypy ligand of 1, respectively. Through analyzing, complex 4 with larger radiative decay rate and smaller non-radiative decay rate may be considered as a potential candidate as robust blue-emitting material applied in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rtPA, or Alteplase) is the first approved thrombolytic drug for acute ischemic stroke, but suffers from a short half-life and poor resistance to plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), limiting its clinical use. The development of novel thrombolytic agents with improved benefit/risk balance has always been of great significance. In this study, we identified a mutant of serine protease domain of tPA (named ΔtPAA146V) capable of escaping the inhibition by endogenous PAI-1 with 66-fold increased resistance compared to the wild type tPA. Based on this mutant, we generated a triple fusion ΔtPA (TriF-ΔtPA) containing albumin and fibrin binding peptide(FBP). The fusion with albumin effectively prolonged the plasma half-life of ΔtPA in mice to 144 min, which is much longer than ΔtPA and did not affect its thrombolytic activity. Furthermore, FBP rendered fibrin specificity of the fusion protein, giving a dissociation constant of ∼ 25 ± 0.9 μM. In a novel murine carotid embolism-induced stroke (CES) model, i.v. administration of TriF-ΔtPA promoted vascular recanalization, reduced infarct volume, and mitigated neurobehavioral deficits more significantly compared to ΔtPA-HSA or Alteplase, showing little bleeding risk. Together, this long-acting PAI-1-resistant thrombolytic agent holds great potential for clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]